Green Machine Smoothie

Green Machine Smoothie

Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

Author: Chris Bossert

Serves: 1-2

Ingredients

• 2 cups spinach 
• 1 cup kale
• 2 cup almond milk (or milk of choice)
• 1 banana
• 4 ice cubes
• 1 tbsp peanut butter (natural)
• 1 tsp flax seed
• 1 scoop protein powder

*Notes:
Please choose all organic ingredients if possible

Boost Metabolism by 24%

by Chris Bossert

Strength and Conditioning Specialist 

HomeFront Fitness

Imagine not drinking all day at work—no coffee, no water, no diet soda. At the end of an 8-hour shift, you'd be pretty parched. Which is precisely why you should start rehydrating immediately after a full night's slumber. From now on, drink at least 16 ounces of chilled H2O as soon as you rise in the morning. German scientists recently found that doing this boosts metabolism by 24 percent for 90 minutes afterward. (A smaller amount of water had no effect.) What's more, a previous study determined that muscle cells grow faster when they're well hydrated. A general rule of thumb: Guzzle at least a gallon of water over the course of a day.

Eat Real Food

This is by far the most important rule of all. If we can't find the motivation to follow the other Four Rules, then at lest we can follow this one. It's soo important.

Researchers from Harvard estimate that 80 percent of heart disease, 70 percent of strokes, and 90 percent of type 2 diabetes could be eliminated if we all ate real foods.

What are real foods? That's easy. They look like real foods. Go the the grocery store and see for yourself. if you can figure out where something came from, it's real food. Spinach? Yep, it's real food. It came from the ground. Orange? Yep, it came from a tree. Egg? Yep, you got it. They came from a hen. Here's another hint that can help you tell the difference between real foods and fake foods.
 
Real foods go bad. They spoil. Keep them for too long, and mold starts to grow on them, they start to stink, and they turn funny colors.

Fake Food? Put a Twinkie on your windowsill and let it sit there for a few months. Anything? Nope, still looks, smells, and tastes like a Twinkie, doesn't it? That should tell you something.

7 Laws of Fat Loss

7 Laws of Fat Loss 

1.) Keep the Movements Basic and Simple
-Don't do anything new in these workouts. The goal is intensity-you can't be intense and display good control while learning a new movement.

2.) Don't Make Clients Tired, Make Clients Better (at workouts)
-Always strive to do better. It can be anything from an extra rep to a little less rep.

3.) Doing High Intensity Workout is No Excuse for Bad Form
-Intensity and CONTROL are essential

4.) Don't Combine High Intensity Cardio (Like Sprinting) in the Same Circuit as Lower Body Strength Training Intervals
-Minimize the risk of injury by separating the two

5.) Intensity (and Quality) is More Important than Duration
-20 minutes intense is better than 60 minutes less intense

6.) Active Recovery is Key 
-Don't beat up the same muscle group every day

7.) You Don't Have to Use the Same Rep and Time Frame on Every Exercise
-More difficult exercises call for a lower repetition count whereas less difficult exercises require more repetitions or longer time or both

Simplify Your Eating

I recently watched the "Fed Up Movie" on Netflix. You can read about it here (http://fedupmovie.com/#/page/home). It inspired me to write an article about a simplified diet. Here are four simple rules:

1) East Read Food: vegetables, legumes, meat, eggs, nuts and seeds, olive oil, and a limited amount of cheese.

2) Load up on vegetables and legumes: include them with every meal.

3) Drink Real Beverages: think water, coffee, and wine!

4) Limit Red Meat: consume it no more than once a week.

We can really eat our way to a longer life and improved well-being, and we can do it in a delicious and simple way. The Real Food Diet will:

   -Strengthen your bones.

   -Reduce risk for heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

   -Heighten energy.

   -Improve sleep.

   -Lift your mood.

   -Improve memory and concentration.

Perhaps most important, it will add years to your life--years that are so filled with energy, quality, and happiness that you will be ecstatic that you stole them from the Grim Reaper. How do you eart your way to a younger, healthier body: Just follow these four simple rules

1. Eat Real Food
2. Load Up On Vegetables and Legumes
3. Drink Real Beverages
4. Limit Red Meat

Easy Ways to Get Ride of Sciatic Pain

by Christian Bossert

Sciatic nerve pain can be maddening. You work hard all day. Answer hundreds of emails, and work yourself to death. At the end of the day you drive home and there is this thrusting pain from your lower back down to your knee. What the heck is going on!?

Nearly 40% of the population will get sciatica, or irritation of the sciatic nerve. at some point in their life. Anything that puts pressure on or irritates this nerve can cause pain that shoots down that back of one buttock or thigh. Pain may be made worse by prolonged sitting, standing up, coughing, sneezing, twisting, lifting, or straining. Treatment for sciatic pain ranges from hot and cold packs and medications to exercises. Exercise is where we will focus because anyone can do these exercises at home and see remarkable results (Ratini 2012). 

Strengthening our core muscles helps ease the pain of sciatica. You will find that even the simplest exercises will help us relieve sciatic pain. Try these three strength training exercises. Hold each for 90 seconds.

1) Wall Sit

2) Plank on forearms

3) Leg lift (Legs straight, knees straight, heels directly above hips, back flat on ground

A regular routine of hamstring exercises can benefit most types of sciatica. Try to hold the hamstring stretch for at least 30 seconds. 

Here is a video with three GREAT exercises to help sciatic pain. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htgyPKNHUls

7 Simple Ways to Get Summer Body Ready

by: Christian Bossert

Losing weight, losing inches, losing fat...some make it look soo easy. In reality it is hard for most of us to get into what we deem as beach body material. 

In our highly critical social media world we are flooded with pictures of people who look amazing. This is indubitably demoralizing when were sitting on the couch watching Netflix and eating a pizza. 

We are human, The stresses of everyday life get to us and its easy to fall off the fit and healthy eating wagon. I have found numerous techniques to help in that process, which I'll share with you now. 

Feel free to use all, some or none of them. Your entitled to do whatever you want. You WILL lose inches and discover the muscle tone everybody is after if you do follow this simple list.

1. Strength Training 

If you want a hot beach body, this is non-negotiable. Fit your workout in, no excuses! Commit to a full-body strength training program two to three times per week to burn calories during the workout and boost your metabolism. You will continue to burn calories for the next 48 hours after a strength training session

TIP: Try working out in the morning. This will increase your metabolism and set the tone for a healthy and successful day. You will hit beach body status if you incorporate working out in the morning to your daily routine.

2. Walk

Every step matter. Apply thirty minutes of moderate walking to your strength training routine and watch the magic begin. Your body will become tighter. You will have more energy. Your stress level will go down. As a result of all this, binge eating and stress-related sweets indulging will vanish.   

Tip: Walk thirty minutes six days a week. Good fitting walking shoes and walking buddy are a plus!

3. Drink Plenty of Water 

I cannot stress this one enough. For one, our bodies will trick us into thinking we're hungry when we're 2-3% dehydrated. Staying hydrated will help you stay away from unwanted sweets and keep you on track to get that beach body. Drink half your  bodyweight in ounces of water daily.

TIP: Drink 16oz of chilled water as soon as you wake up. It will BOOST your metabolism for the next 90 minutes!!!

4. Make Sleep a Priority 

Everybody knows sleep is important. I would guess that 95% of working adults believe that they do not get enough sleep. Most need between 7 and 9 hours of rest each night. Get less than that and our bodies react in ways that lead even the most determined dieter straight to that tub of ice cream. 

TIP: Click here for simple tips to help you get more sleep. 

5. Get a Workout Buddy

Accountability is super important when it comes to hitting your fitness goals. Justifying taking a day off is difficult when you have someone counting on you. Leaving your pal hanging just isn't cool. Click here to learn more about the power of combining a friend with your fitness goals. 

TIP: Set yourself up for success by picking a buddy with similar goals and work ethic. An emotional connection is a plus. A workout buddy doesn't have to be your best friend, but it definitely has to be someone you trust and won't disappoint you.  

6. Keep a Food Journal

People who keep a food journal tend to eat healthier and in turn lose more weight than those who do not keep a food journal. This is a really simple step that takes less than 5 minutes a day. My clients are always amazing at how tight and toned their bodies get over time when they commit to a food journal.

TIP: Here is a simple way to document what you eat.  

7. Believe 

This is hands-down the MOST important step. Get clear on how you want to look when you reach your perfect weight. Get pictures of yourself at your perfect weight, if you have them, and look at them often. If not, get pictures of the body you would like to have and look at those often. 

You must believe that you will receive the summer body you want. You MUST imagine, pretend, act as if, that perfect body is yours. You MUST see yourself as receiving that perfect body. 

Make it a point to look for, admire, and inwardly praise people with your idea of perfect-weight bodies. Seek them out and as you admire them and feel the feelings of that-you are summoning it to you. Focus on the pleasurable experience of eating, the food is assimilated into our bodies perfectly, and the result in our bodies MUST be perfection. FOCUS on YOUR perfect weight.