Partner Training! Try these fun exercises!

Happy Valentine's Day! Last night we did a fun Partner Training Fitcamp. One of my favorite workouts because it's fun and it's HARD!

Push-Up/Squat Hold

Double Squat

Squat Hold/Weight pass

Push-Up High Fives

Sit-up Weight Pass

Ab Leg Throws

  Wheelbarrow Walks

Local Farmer's Markets

St. Louis Local Farmer’s Markets

 Overland Farmer's market   (Overland, MO)       

The Overland Farmer's market provides access to locally grown produce, and promote healthy eating alternatives for the citizens of Overland and the surrounding area. The Market operates from 8:00a.m. to 2p.m. May through October. It is located in the 2500 block of Woodson Road in The Overland market center.

 Webster Groves Farmers Market   (Webster Groves, MO)    

The Webster Groves Farmers Market is held every Thursday in May through October from 3-7pm. We are an open air market held in the Old Orchard business district of Webster Groves, Missouri featuring locally grown fruits and vegetables, meat, eggs, bread, cheese, and much more. While at the market, you can also enjoy live music, local chef demonstrations, and children's activities. The Webster Groves Farmers Market is located at South Old Orchard Ave, near Gazebo Park at Big Bend Blvd. 

 Warson Woods Farmers Market   (Warson Woods, MO)     

When: Tuesdays from 3-7 p.m. June-October. Where: The Warson Woods Farmers Market is located at 10001 Manchester Rd. St Louis, Mo. Right in front of the Emporium at Warson Woods. Buy Local, Buy Fresh. Knowing the source of your food is important with large commercial grocers, do you know how many times your food has changed hands? At the Warson Woods Farmers Market you get to meet the people who produced your food and buy it from them directly.

 Clayton Farmer's Market   (Clayton, MO)     

The Clayton Farmer's Market is a full sensory market open May to November every Saturday morning from 8:30 am to 12:30pm. The mission of The Market is to promote fresh, natural foods from regional growers and hand-crafted specialty foods from local artisans. We spotlight organic, unique and seasonal foods and educate about the future and heritage of natural farming in an upscale setting. Please come visit us!

 Market in the Loop   (St. Louis, MO)    

 Kirkwood Farmers' Market   (Kirkwood, MO)     

Kirkwood Farmers Market 150 East Argonne Saint Louis, MO Contact: Meghan Whitley (314) 822-0084 E-mail: info@downtownkirkwood.com OPEN-AIR/SEASONAL April-September Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Saturday, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Sunday hours vary by vendor. Our market is an open-air market that sells fresh produce, flowers and related items.

 Tower Grove Farmers' Market   (St Louis, MO)     

We are a producers' market featuring the best produce and meats in the St Louis region. The market is open every Saturday, May through October from 8:30 AM til 12:30 PM. We feature weekly music, free yoga every Saturday morning, cooking demonstrations and a sustainable living series. We also include area non-profits at the market to spread information on good works taking place in St Louis. We are located next to the Pool Pavilion in Tower Grove Park.     

 Schlafly Farmers Market   (Maplewood, MO)     

Knowing where your food comes from is more important than ever these days, so hop on over to the Schlafly Bottleworks and buy straight from the farmer every Wednesday from April until October from 4-7pm.

 Ferguson Farmers' Market   (Ferguson, MO)     

The Ferguson Farmers' Market brings you fresh fruits and vegetables all season. Our produce and fruits are picked within 24 hours of our market and brought directly to you by the friendly farmers who grow them. Enjoy live music & food booths in a fun, festive, community atmosphere.

7 Reasons to Eat from the Farmer's Market!

Why not a farmers’ market? There seemed to be no reason not to and at least seven good reasons why everyone—patients, doctors and even you—should shop, cook and eat from a farmers’ market.

1. Get Inspired

Thanks to farmers’ markets, we’ve been introduced to fruits and vegetables we didn’t know much about before.
Farmers’ markets keep us in touch with the seasons in a way —the arrival of asparagus and the first luscious strawberries in the spring, sun-ripened heirloom tomatoes and succulent fresh corn at the height of summer, a rainbow cornucopia of peppers and squash come fall, and winter’s citrus crop and savory root vegetables, which we love to roast with chunks of fennel, a recipe we discovered by hanging out at farmers’ markets.

2. Follow a Better Diet

Of course it’s hardly news that fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes are good for you—they provide fiber, vitamins and minerals. Still, the evidence for just how good they are continues to amaze me. Study after study shows that eating foods from the garden helps keep blood pressure and cholesterol from climbing and lowers the danger of developing diabetes. A nationwide study published a few years ago and coordinated by Kaiser Permanente in Oregon showed unequivocally that reducing salt intake and eating a healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products significantly reduced blood pressure.
In one of the latest and most persuasive studies, researchers from Harvard gathered data from more than 72,000 women over two decades, as part of the well-known Nurses’ Health Study. Women who followed the so-called “prudent diet,” made up of many of the foods on display at farmers’ markets—fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts and whole grains—had a 28 percent lower risk of dying of heart disease. In contrast, those who ate a “Western diet” rich in high-fat, sugary and processed foods had a 22 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease and a 16 percent higher cancer risk. For some of these women, the difference between these two ways of eating was literally a matter of life and death. I’m convinced it is for most of the rest of us as well.
Several large studies have shown that people with heart disease can dramatically improve their health by making fruits and vegetables the centerpiece of their diet and replacing saturated fats (such as those you might get from dairy and meat) with unsaturated fats (such as those in avocados and nuts). That’s very good news, of course. But our real goal should be to prevent diseases in the first place.

3. Cook for Your Health

The list of health benefits associated with a diet centered around plant-based foods goes on and on. If we could put all those together in one pill, we’d have a blockbuster drug. But it wouldn’t be as colorful or delicious as the prescription you can fill at a farmers’ market. So why do most Americans still fall woefully short on the optimal number of servings of fruits and vegetables—between 5 and 9 a day, depending on how many calories you consume?

. If you make healthy food available and visible, people will try it. It’s a little like putting a bowl of fruit front and center in the kitchen so you or your children will grab an apple or a peach for a snack—except in this case we’ve put an entire farmers’ market on the street where people come and go. And we know at least some people are eating more healthy food as a result. In 2005 we conducted a survey and found that of our repeat market customers, 71 percent said they were eating more fruits and vegetables. Sixty-three percent were eating new and different fruits and vegetables.

Encouraging people to shop at farmers’ markets also encourages them to cook, and I firmly believe that’s another key to good health. When you prepare your own meals, it’s much easier to take charge of exactly what you eat. Take the example of salt. Too much of it can raise blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Where does most of the salt in the average diet come from? Processed foods. When people cook their own food (as opposed to relying on these processed foods), they typically consume less salt without even having to think about it.

4. Support Your Community

The benefits of supporting farmers’ markets go beyond individual health to something larger: the well-being of an entire community. Prosperous farms help ensure green spaces between towns and cities and conserve land for agriculture. For many small growers, a thriving local market offers the opportunity to make a decent living from farming, pay their workers a fair wage and plan for the future. At farmers’ markets, they can sell directly to customers, earning close to 80 cents on a dollar, on average, compared to just 20 cents if they sell to food distributors who ship their produce to grocery chains.

Also, when you buy from a farm or a farmers’ market, you are helping ensure that the farm is economically viable and that local produce will be available year after year. Small farms have played a leading role in re­introducing many unusual varieties of fruits and vegetables that were virtually abandoned when large-scale agriculture came along. Among these so-called heirloom varieties are hundreds of different kinds of apples, pears and tomatoes that were in danger of being lost, fruits and vegetables you would hardly ever find at supermarkets.

And of course there’s the simple fact that these local markets are just plain fun. They are places where people can come together to shop, talk, sit on a bench and watch the world go by, listen to music and exchange recipes. Local markets are as old as the oldest human settlements, and they have always been about more than just the buying and selling of goods. They are the heart and soul of a community. With the rise of big-box stores and shopping malls, we’ve unfortunately lost that feature in many parts of the country.

5. Encourage Sustainable Agriculture

Farmers’ markets help keep not only our communities healthy but our environment too. Small farms have been leaders in adapting sustainable agricultural techniques that protect water and build healthy soils. They have revived growing techniques that don’t require as many chemical fertilizers and pesticides as some large operations do, and adapted to specific local growing conditions. Their hard work has helped prevent contamination of rivers, streams, lakes and oceans and often prevented farm workers from being exposed to chemicals that are known to pose health hazards.

Many small farms, whether they are certified “organic” or not, use sustainable approaches: the farmers you meet at these community markets often have only 20 or 30 acres or less and don’t have the option of moving their operations to new locations when the soil becomes unworkable. Their livelihood, and the health of the towns they live in, depends on sustainable growing techniques that preserve and replenish the fertility of their small patch of soil. Local growers protect our communities in another way. They typically plant a wide variety of crops, in contrast to some large industrial farms, which grow hundreds or thousands of acres of the same crop. Crop diversity is a good defense against the spread of damaging insects and plant pathogens. If a problem arises in one crop, it’s unlikely to spread to others. That’s not true of monocropping, where the spread of a pathogen can be catastrophic.

6. Eat by Season

By their very nature, farmers’ markets encourage us to buy seasonal produce. As every chef knows, the most beautiful, best-tasting and most economical foods are the ones that are in season. Eating with the seasons is all about anticipation and then savoring what is ripe at the moment—the first tangerines of the winter that light up the market, the season of stone-fruit, then the arrival of heirloom tomatoes, followed by the wild shapes and colors of squash in the late fall. The bounty on display at a farmers’ market at the peak of the season is the very opposite of fast food. It’s food that a farmer has spent months nurturing to the moment of perfect ripeness. It is food to be cherished and savored.

7. Change Our Food Systems

Around the country, farmers’ markets are booming. According to the latest tally, there are more than 4,600 farmers’ markets in the United States. Almost anywhere you go during the growing season, you’ll find one. Each and every one, in its own way, reflects the special character of the places they call home—from the sizzling chiles in Arizona to the tropical fruits on Maui to the wild mushrooms displayed at the Portland Farmers Market in Oregon.

More and more markets are working to make sure that people at every economic level can take advantage of fresh, locally grown produce. Several states are experimenting with wireless devices that allow people on food stamps to use their swipe cards at local markets. Many neighborhood food banks are forming partnerships with local farmers, arranging to buy up food that might otherwise go to waste in the field and serving it to those in need—a win-win arrangement for everyone. A wonderful group called Urban Farming has been converting abandoned lots in Detroit into small garden plots tended by volunteers, who turn their produce over to local food banks and other meal-assistance programs—an idea that has taken root in dozens of other cities around the country.

 from: Eating Well

Stuffed Pepper Soup!

Thank you to my client Darlene for giving me this recipe. She is on the 17 day diet. I'll share more about that later, but I LOVED this soup/stew. I did alter the recipe for what I had, so I will give you my version!

Ingredients:

1 lbs. ground turkey
1 green pepper
1 orange pepper
2 handfuls of fresh spinach
1 can diced tomatoes w/green chilies
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup chicken broth
thyme to taste
garlic powder to taste

Directions:
Brown turkey in skillet, chop peppers and saute in pot. Add in spinach and diced tomatoes, cover and simmer. Add rest of ingredients including turkey into pot and simmer 10-15 min.
YUMMY!!!

Aqua Workout Time!

Its summer and time to get a workout in the pool! I look forward to this every year. Over the last several years I've taught Aqua Fit classes two days per week. I always felt like those water workouts did things to my body that none of my other workouts ever did! I felt fit and toned only a few weeks into the summer. Its a great change from running, cycling, or circuit training.
I'm sharing my class format.....

Aqua Fit Workout!

Water offers resistance and low-impact workouts that are challenging and easy on the joints. Water workouts are very beneficial as therapy, for pregnancy, or as cross training. This is a great seasonal workout to use in place of a strength or cardio workout.

 Warm Up

·         Jog in place (knees up and heels to butt) 2 min

·         Jumping Jacks (with noodle overhead- up and down) 1 min

·         Washing Maching (noodle in front jumping and twisting upper body opposite lower body) 1 min

 Shallow Water Work

·         Water Jogging (pumping arms at side) back and forth several laps

·         Water Skipping back and forth several laps

·         Front Kicks (like a kickboxing kick) 15 each side

·         Side Kicks (kickboxing style) 15 each side

 Deep Water Work

·         Lap Swim (use different strokes) 5-6 laps

·         Tread Water (2 min at a time) 2-3 times

·         Wall Kicks (head or neck resting on wall, flutter kicks, bicycles, scissor kicks) 1 min each

 Noodle Strength Work- fat noodles work best!

·         Push-ups (hold noodle under you in plank position, press noodle up and down) 20x

·         Roman Chair (place noodle around back/under arms, pull knees to chest and press legs back out or side to side, squeeze abs each time you pull them in) 20x

·         Tricep Dips (stand or float with noodle held at low back; in dip position, bend elbows and straighten to resemble a tricep dip) 20x

Stretching

·         Don’t forget to stretch in the shallow end. Use your noodle as a stretching tool! Maybe even some water yoga!