Good morning and Happy Monday to you!

Man, I had a great weekend. Did my first, 2nd and 10th Karaoke songs (Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers is my money song with Since You Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson as a close 2nd, wink). Did you know YouTube has almost unlimited Karaoke songs right there? Also did a little Portuguese folk dancing in the kitchen to George Ferreira. Crazy.

Sunday was a big meal prep day for the week. Planned out 38 meals, hit the grocery store for food I didn’t have and came home and set up shop. Made 5 oatmeal/egg white/mixed berries & mixed nuts, 4-Cauliflower / Salmon soup, 4-Turkey Meatball Tomato Basil Soups, 2 deli meat/carrots & cukes/hummus snacks, 2 apple (2) & peanut butter snacks, 2 Mediterranean salad snacks (cukes, tomato, olive oil, sardines), 2 Oranges (3) & Mixed Nuts snacks and some chili & bean soups for later in the week. Every time I plan & prep I have big weeks. Just grab & go baby! 60 min meals become 15 min to eat & 45 min gained for whatever.

This week’s agenda:

• Week 3 Recap
• Nutrition Tip
• Week 4 Theme
• Cardio Minutes
• Local Guest Day
• Ab Workout for Haiti
• Questions

Week 3 Recap

You’ve completed 2 of the 3 fast week / progression week workouts. These workouts are designed to help you lose weight by moving faster and completing more reps in the same amount of time if you choose to go faster or to help you get stronger, improve performance or lose fat while maintaining muscle mass if you choose to do progressions. This of course is a mute point if you’re not practicing optimal nutrition or getting your cardio minutes in.

Some of you have commented to me after class or through email that this is the toughest phase of boot camp yet, that you don’t know if you would have signed up had boot camp been this tough when you started or that classes go so fast now, you can’t believe how much we get done.

Well, boot camp isn’t supposed to be easy. It’s a high intensity interval strength & conditioning workout. That’s why we have so many recovery periods; to let your body recovery from the high stress of training.

It’s winter time. Many people are less active outdoors. You need to get your butt kicked and have your metabolism burning at a high rate, to burn off & keep off any excess insulation.

If boot camp feels really hard, then it means that (1) your really out of shape and (2) you need to remember that the class is set to time, there are 3 levels to each exercise, so go at your own pace. If you need to rest, rest. If you need to take a minute to stretch or roll, then do it. It’s o.k. Listen to your body.

Nutrition Tip

One of your peers, Maureen Mullowney asked me for some snack / meal ideas for when she’s at work. Grab & go meals are superior and the best way to enjoy those
are by planning and preparing in advance.

Cook your meals / prep your meals in bulk.
Get personal storage containers to keep them in.
Wash & chop veggies & fruits 2x/ week & store them.
Cook proteins in bulk.
Cook starches in bulk.
Have fats (nuts), oils, nut butters, avocados handy.

Remember to have a protein / fat & carb (veggie or fruit) at each meal.

Examples:

Turkey rolled in lettuce with hummus, tomato & pepper.
Peanut butter (put a tbsp into small container) and sliced apples and/or pears.
Mixed nuts (1-1.5 tbsp) and sliced oranges, grapefruits or other citrus fruits.
Fat Free Greek Yogurt w/ mixed nuts & fresh or frozen mixed berries
Skim or part skim cheese w/ sliced zucchini, squash or colored peppers

Week 4 Theme

O.K. This week you’ll do the 30/60/90 workout 1 more time on Monday and then “fast week / progression week” will be officially over and “Challenge Week” shall begin.

Challenge Week is when I present a challenge to the class, usually a repetition goal, and the only way for the class to beat it is if everyone works to do their absolute best. It’s really hard, you’ll sweat a ton, but it has become so popular that we stretched it from 1 day to 3 days and now this phase; because it’s 5 weeks we’ll add an individual challenge day. As an FYI, if you’re diet is right on, you could get some serious body changes during challenge week. Actually, you can get serious body changes every week if your diet is right on. 

# Workout A Workout B Workout C
Week 4 Fast / Progression Challenge Challenge
Week 5 Challenge Individual Challenge Post Test

Cardio Minutes:

Time Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total
6am 20 21 22 63
9am 21 24 22 67
6:30pm 20 20 22 62

Week 4 Goals:

Rookies / Returning boot campers: males = 175 minutes, females = 250 minutes

Local Guest Day

Thank you to Pam Swift, Jackie Bunt, Angela Coppola and Jack Goldsmith for introducing Holly Tarnower, Stephen Cimino, Thomas Bellini and Leslie Williams to us. By inviting guests to experience boot camp with you, you build up your circle of support and your peers are better able to understand what you do and why you do it. Besides, it’s a lot more fun to high five someone else than simply high fiving yourself (wink).

AB Workout for Haiti

Saturday, February 6, from 8-9am will be the Ab Workout for Haiti. Plan to arrive at 8am, the workout will begin at 8:15am sharply and finish around 8:45am, allowing you time to pack up and head out. You’ll learn a do anywhere ab routine that you can add to your workout arsenal.

The workout is an open invitation, so guests are welcome (all guests must complete a waiver form and be currently pain & injury free and able to at least walk a mile).

You must rsvp if you want to participate. Cost to participate is $20. 100% of proceeds will go to American Red Cross.

More details to come.

Questions

Got questions? Post them in the ChangeYourBodyChallenge.net Forums. You’ll get answers and you’ll be helping your teammates.

Cheers and wishing you a great week of body changes!

Your coach,

Mike Alves

Newton Boot Camp

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