All Out Fitness Camp - Lose Weight & Get Fit Fast!

I wanted to share my story with you - and hopefully inspire you. I am not claiming to know everything, but the steps used below worked for me and will probably cause anyone else to have similar results. 

Training hard is a tricky balancing act. If you train hard enough and/or long enough, injuries will happen…and it happened to me! Here is my story. After years of running on hilly terrain and progressively increasing mileage, my body finally said it has enough. I recently developed tendinitis in my right Achilles tendon to the point where I couldn’t run like I wanted to anymore. After the initial panic subsided, I decided to come up with a plan so I wouldn’t lose much conditioning while healing my boo-boo.

In my mind, there were two things that I needed to adjust:
     1) My exercise routine
     2) My diet

My exercise routine - I obviously wasn’t going to heal my tendinitis by continuing to do what got me hurt in the first place (running), so I decided to cross-train. Bought a bike and got on it. Here is a list of the major benefits of cross-training:
     ▪ Maintain fitness conditioning while resting the injury
     ▪ Become a more complete athlete by working different muscles in a different way - muscle confusion.
     ▪ Work on weaknesses: sometimes, what you like doing the less is what you need the most.
     ▪ Burn more calories. Since you are new at the cross-training activity, you are less efficient and need to work harder at it. There is a reason why in the first place you choose a certain sport: you probably enjoy it more because you are good at it. Choosing an activity you are not good at yields quicker and more drastic results
     ▪ Avoid mental burn out and workout rut by trying a new and exciting sport.
     ▪ Expand your circle of friends by meting new people with a common interest

My diet - I made only 2 changes to my diet, and trust me, it wasn’t perfect to start with!
     1) Knowing that I was going to burn less calories overall (running burns the most calories as long as you can do it and have the time for it), I decided to record what I ate. JUST THAT! By journaling, it made me aware of my total daily caloric intake and how much fat, carbs and protein I was actually eating. I used a free online calorie counter and there are many to choose from out there. Patterns did emerge, which required only small tweaks to fix
     2) I watch WHEN I ate carbs (the not so good carbs, not fruits and veggies). Here is the rule I followed: There were two times I gladly ate complex carbs (rice, pasta, bread, cereals, etc…). For breakfast (early in the day) and after a hard workout. Since I exercise in the morning, dinner was the meal I needed to watch. I usually chose lean protein with veggies and fruits if I was still hungry. By eating complex carbs early during the day you ensure that you’ll use them that day for energy. After exercise, your muscles are highly receptive to carbohydrates and your body is more likely to store ingested carbs in the muscles in the form of glycogen rather than transforming them into fat. Your window of opportunity: 1 hour after you are done with your workout.

I hope that next time you have a set back; you use some of the simple tips above because I know they work!

Check this video out! Joe Branch won himself a free month of boot camp for  being able to do the Abs Wheel on his toes! Congratulation Joe! (Notice how wild the crowd went)

Hi there! Just got back from Myrtle Beach where many of the campers and myself participated in the mini marathon or the 5K race. Below are some of the pictures, but to see them all go to this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=243012&id=605897220&l=cf3b51f808
Feeling inspired?