Visit us adrenalinusa.com or call us at 914 930-1238.  LIKE us on Facebook too!  Adrenalin Gym. 

We are also opening a CKO Kickboxing Gym!!!  Located at 8 John Walsh Boulevard, Peekskill, NY Suite 326.  We are so excited about this new venture.  Major fitness magazines list Fitness Kickboxing as the number one fat burner, with over 1,200 calories burned during a one hour class! At CKO, you will be burning fat and toning up by punching and kicking a real, hanging heavy bag. The resistance from hitting a hanging heavy bag burns more calories and tones your muscles up faster than if you were just punching and kicking the air. We keep the punches and kicks basic to focus on the fitness aspect of the workout rather than the martial art itself. Since the class is for both beginners and advanced members, it is geared for each member to go at your own pace and build up your pace each class. Unlike the fitness kickboxing classes offered at other gyms where all you hit is air, CKO uses REAL HEAVY BAGS to give you REAL RESULTS.

Visit our website CKOPEEKSKILL.COM or call us at 914 930-1919 to learn more.  LIKE us on Facebook too!!!  CKO Kickboxing Peekskill

For those of you that know me, I tend to sit and ponder conversations I have with people.  Sometimes I’ll come back to you a week after we spoke and talk with you about my lessons learned from the conversation between us!!  So JC’s conversation ran through my head all day.  What was the lesson I needed to learn? And then it hit me.  We practice what we preach and I was forgetting that.  I was hell bent on writing down our goals when honestly JC and I let our intentions guide us.  Our intention was to own our own gym and on a daily basis took steps towards living our intention and sure enough, our intention guided us towards owning a gym.  Our intention is also to live positively and honestly every day.  It is this that guides us towards our achievements with love and an open heart.

See for us, goals are wonderful and yes, we should all have goals.  But a goal is the result or achievement toward which effort is directed; and an intention is a course of action that one intends to follow. What if we all had intentions?  Could our intentions be limitless?  We believe so.  Not only do our intentions have no limits but if we fundamentally live with the intention of positivity and honesty then aren’t we making the world a better place? That’s some goal!!!!!!

For 2013, JC and I intend to help spread the knowledge of healthy living in the most loving and positive way!!

Plan ahead

You’ve heard it before, “Fail to plan, plan to fail!!” it really is that simple.  It is imperative to plan your holiday healthy eating similar to how you plan to get your holiday shopping done. Just like you have set time aside to figure out when you’ll be hitting the stores, I want you to plan your next 30 days of eating the same way. You know which parties you’ll be going to, you know about the office goodies and you know about Aunt Mary’s fruit cake!  These are no surprises!!!!! Let’s talk about mapping out your plan.

First step is to keep the plan realistic. Make weight maintenance the goal or a weight gain of no more than 2-3 pounds.

Next, sit down and map out your current workout schedule. Some of us have a strict stick to it regime and others have a fly by the seat of your pants philosophy.  Either method, it’s important to see on paper what you are currently doing in order to know what you need to do to meet your weight goals.

Next, keep a food journal for 2 week days and 1 weekend day.  Again, you’ll need to know what you’re currently eating so you’ll know where room can be made for those holiday indulgences.

Next, fill in your calendar, day planner or blackberry whatever it is you live and die by, with all of your holiday meal invites.

Next, fill in your calendar with your planned workouts.  First though look at your current workout schedule you mapped out.  Remember the following:

Adherence to your current workout schedule + current eating style + holiday indulgences = weight gain

Current workout schedule + added workout time+ modified eating style + holiday indulgences = weight maintenance

Add a time frame for each day dedicated to your workout and I want you to add 15 minutes to each workout. You must pick an actual time slot in your calendar, not just the day.  So if it is normal for you to workout at 5 am, then block off 5 until whenever for your workout.  If you are new to working out or you are one of our angels who plan their workouts by the seat of their pants (you know who you are ) then you must pick a time slot that you will make a commit to.

Next, I want you to review your calendar for the upcoming parties and events that are planned.  I want you to give some real thought and consideration to the food that will be served at the events.

At home parties:  Maybe you’ve waited all year for Grandma’s pumpkin pie or your sister’s famous stuffing, so make an effort to pick and choose your indulgences wisely.  If you’ve waited all year for your sister’s stuffing why fill up on store bought cookies?  Before you’re confronted with holiday eats, determine your favorite holiday foods and enjoy them modestly, forgoing the holiday eats that aren’t that appealing. Figure out your favorites, and which holiday indulgences don’t do much for you.  This is also a wise strategy to use when holiday celebrations are held over multiple days.  Pick and choose your favorites through the foods that will be served.  Love your sister’s stuffing, have it on Monday’s celebration.  Maybe you are not crazy about your aunt’s stuffing but love her mashed potatoes.  Ok-have her mashed potatoes at her event but forgo the stuffing.  But do not have stuffing and mashed potatoes at both events.  This also goes for alcoholic beverages – watch your intake or skip drinking altogether and spend the calories on once-a-year holiday foods.

Restaurant celebrations:  Go online for the menu or call ahead and ask what will be served for the specific party you’ll be attending.  This way you can put some thought into your choices and be prepared for when you get to the event. Also, never go to the event hungry.  Eating a small snack will save you hundreds of calories by eliminating bad choices and overeating due to being overly hungry. When perusing the menu put some thought into the food being served.  Is it the best Italian restaurant around?  Then think about a meal that you wouldn’t normally be able to have.  Is it the best seafood restaurant? Again, order and indulge in something that you may not get again for awhile.

Finally, I want you to make dietary adjustments on the days that the celebrations take place or on the days when you’ll be indulging in the baskets of holiday joy!!! You know what you normally eat based on the food journal I asked you to keep for the 2 weekdays and 1 weekend day, so you’ll now have a road map on what to adjust.  If you realize that you pick up a box of generally healthy cereal, pour it into a bowl and throw some milk in it then try this: Measure out an actual serving; use skim milk if you aren’t already doing so and add fresh fruit.  When it comes to lunch time simply eat less than you normally would and maybe add a piece of fruit two hours later just to curb any hunger pangs.  Simple adjustments like these add up big time!!!

General Tips:

Maintain healthy habits

Keep your fridge and pantry stocked with wholesome choices. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and low-fat dairy products should make up the basis of your regular diet. Fill up on these healthy choices so that you’ll be less likely to stuff yourself with the unhealthy foods at the events you’ll attend.

Enjoy your food

I’m very much a non-fiction reader.  I love anything related to nutrition, diet or medicine and any self help book out there-I’ve read it.  I feel like we always have something to learn so I’m interested in hearing what people have to say.  Over the last several weeks I’ve been engrossed in reading any book related to creating the life we want, positive thinking and manifesting our greatest desires.  So what have I learned?  This is what I’ve learned!!

1.  Know where you want to go but be grateful for where you’ve been.  

I hear many times about how much weight someone has lost only to regain the same weight if not more.  They talk about the disappointment they have with themselves.  We can’t change yesterday, however we can focus on where we want to go and learn from where we’ve been.  If you are in a position where you’ve lost weight only to regain it or maybe regain more, than we know two things.  We know what worked for the weight loss and we know that something caused us to regain it.  What we need to do is look at both situations and find the wrongs and rights rather than beat ourselves up.  Beating ourselves up does nothing but break down our self esteem and the value we place on ourselves.  Instead, I want you to think about what worked to help you lose the weight in the first place and then think about why you started down the path on regaining the weight.  Are you an emotional eater?  If so, start tackling the emotions.  Journal rather than eat; exercise rather than put food in your mouth; think about alternatives besides food that will help you cope with your emotions. Lift yourself up by changing your behavior!

2.  Be thankful for what you have and you will end up having more.
If we continue to focus on what we don’t have, we’ll never have enough.

When you focus on what you have and appreciate it or focus on what you want, you’ll start to see that many of those desires will appear in your reality.  By being thankful and making appreciating a regular habit you can quickly change a negative situation or thought into a positive one.  One of the rituals I have is a gratitude blessing I do when I wake and when my head hits the pillow.  I take a few minutes before my feet hit the ground and before my eyes close for the evening to say a list of things and people I am grateful for.  It’s a very fulfilling event!!!

3.  Change your view of failure.

One of the big things holding us back from getting what we want is the fear of failure. Failure is actually a very helpful learning experience.  Think about my weight loss example above.  Failing at something teaches us what does and doesn’t work; it allows us the opportunity to re-evaluate a situation and see how we can do it differently next time.  So, instead of seeing failure as something big and scary, redefine it in your mind as a learning experience

4.  Give your power to your success rather than to your fears. 

When you feel fear, just acknowledge it and accept it.  Don’t fight it.  When I feel fear-really what .I’m saying is “I’m scared”.  I sit with it so I can feel what it feels like in my body. .  My breath usually gets faster, and my body feels shaky. I even named my feeling of fear.  I call him Benny.  When Benny appears, I take it in, breathe into it and the feeling usually subsides within minutes if not seconds.  Once my breathing has normalized I immediately think about what I’m grateful for.  Grateful thoughts cannot help but bring you joy and peace and therefore takes me away from the feeling of being scared.

5.  You get what you give.

What’s that saying “you get more with sugar than salt” or “you get more with sugar than vinegar”?  I live by this every day.  If you give sugar you usually get more sugar, and of course the same works for the vinegar you dish out too! I truly believe that the more negativity you throw out into this life the more you get in return.  Who does this benefit?  No one.  It actually takes a toll on our health.  The more negativity you dish out, the worse you tend to feel in your everyday life. The more problems you’ll find start popping up in your everyday reality.

6.  We are the ones responsible for creating our life! 

Everything we are is a direct result of something we do or something we don’t do.  We are in the driver’s seat of our own life!!! Rather than using your energy to complain about what has happened; or what you don’t have; or how lousy you feel, take that energy and do something about it.  No one else will and no one else can do anything about your life!! Visualize the body you want; visualize the life you want; visualize the job you want and go after it!!! Take responsibility and know that you have the power to create the life you want!!

Stay tuned for my continued journey on creating the life I want!!!!!
Thanks for always listening!!!

I’ve been calling 2012 the year of change for me! I’ve been experiencing huge changes in both my personal life and in my business. I hate to be so cliché and say when one door closes another opens, but truth be told, it’s true. In my experience with all that has been happening in my life, my choice was to surrender to the idea of when one door closes another opens, because it allowed me to see the open doors. Again, I’m certainly not saying that it wasn’t without some fears, tears and anxiety. Rather than letting any apprehensions control me, I chose to acknowledge my fears and anxiety about the changes that were happening, which meant sitting in some very uncomfortable feelings, but I definitely did not let these feelings stop me or hold me back.

What is change anyway? It’s transition from one “thing” to another-right? So how did I deal with all these transitions so as to make change a little less frightening?


I prayed. I’m happy to share with you that I have many gods, angels, spirits and the like that guide me through this crazy thing we call life!! Probably the scariest thing about change as I said above, is the unknown. We know what we know and because of that we have comfort. We don’t know where change or transition will take us. Will it be ok? Will it be safe? Will I like it there? These are just a few of the questions that would pop into my head minute to minute throughout the day. I felt comfortable turning my concerns over to something bigger that’s out there. Now, this doesn’t mean that I don’t take an active and participating role in my life, if you know me, you’ll know just how controlling I can be-lol!!! But, for me it meant that I trusted everything was going to work out. Turning these concerns over to something bigger allowed me to see the open doors when they opened!


I acknowledged my emotions. I have to give credit to this to my good friend and healer, Cathy Anesi of the Lighthouse Retreat and Wellness Center. Cathy has taught me to acknowledge and sit with my emotions, even the most uncomfortable ones. By doing this I learned not to be afraid of them. See, when I sat with them, I cried, sometimes I yelled, sometimes I felt really really bad, but I didn’t die. They didn’t kill me. I learned I’m way stronger than any emotion. I also learned that it was ok to feel sad and angry and honestly, displeased with some of the changes that were happening. Feeling all of these emotions allowed me to move forward. To move through the transitions that were taking place, and once again, see the doors that were opening.

I created a ritual. Every morning before my feet hit the floor I give thanks and gratitude for everything and everyone in my life. No, I don’t name you all individually-lol!!!, but whether good or bad, circumstances and people are brought in and out of our lives for a reason. I give thanks for that every morning. Every night before I go to sleep I again give thanks and gratitude and I ask for help. This time I ask for my gods, my angels and my spirits to help me navigate through another day the best way that I can. I ask that I hear what I need to hear and I ask that I see what I need to see. These are two of my most important rituals I do every day. They calm me; they help balance me; they heal me; they also provide me with a sense of control. By making a choice twice a day to share my thankfulness and gratitude and to ask for help and guidance, I am choosing to take a proactive role in what happens in my life. Taking a proactive role in your daily life is very powerful!

Support. I am so blessed to be surrounded by friends and family that in the best way I can state it-have my back! Having a support system is crucial in getting through transition. Something interesting though I’d like to mention about my support team. My support system may not always have understood what I was experiencing or liked the choices and decisions I was making- but that’s ok. I think sometimes we think that everyone who supports us has to know what we’re going through or maybe they should have experienced something similar. It is important to have support from people who have had similar experiences, but please don’t discount your loved ones who haven’t. Sometimes the listening ear, or the hug is really what we need!!

Physical Activity and Healthy Food. You know who I am-how can this not be part of healing-right?!!! What I will tell you about healthy food choices is that throughout significant and even less than significant change, food to balance our bodies, feed our bodies, heal our bodies is critical to how we navigate through transition. By keeping my sugar levels stable, my energy constant and my overall health in great condition, it allowed me to experience transition in the best way and honestly, the fastest way possible. Change is tough on the body!! There is a huge difference feeding our bodies whole grains and lean proteins while experiencing stress than feeding it sugar and alcohol. Physical activity too. My constant through all the bumps was my food and my exercise. It allowed me to release my stress, deal with problems, deal with various situations and most important it gave me control. I was in control of my physical well being which in turn allowed me to allow for stability in my emotional well being. I cannot say enough about the importance of self care through food and exercise when it comes to changes in your life.

So there it is! As our followers, we’re blessed in the interest you take in Jen’s life and mine and I’m looking forward to outwardly sharing with you all the changes which have been taking place behind the scenes in my personal life and the changes to our business! So many doors have opened and so many more are opening-it’s been pretty amazing!!!!!

All My Love,

Mini

Ingredients

•  1 bag broccoli slaw mix
•  1/4 cup chopped sweet yellow onion
•  3 tbs. vinegar (apple cider  or seasoned rice wine or brown rice vinegar)****
•  4-5 tbs. guacamole
• 1/4 c chopped cilantro
• 1 mango, diced

Directions

1. Heat a large wok or nonstick saute pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add the onion and slaw mix and let cook 2-3 minutes; stir and cook another 2 minutes. Add the vinegar and cook an additional 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Remove slaw from the pan and place in a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and toss to combine.

**** to change it up try a flavored vinegar

APPLE SMOOTHIE

Ingredients

• 2 Scoops Protein Powder
• Non fat milk; almond milk; rice milk or water to desired consistency
• ½ apple; sliced
• ¼ cup granola
• 1 tbsp almonds
•  ½ tsp cinnamon
• Ice

Blend until desired consistency

Years of dieting causes us to lose our natural intuition about our hunger and satiety signals.  For a true insight to our natural signals just watch a baby or a toddler.  How many times have they stopped half way through the bottle or half way through their apple sauce and given you the all done signal.  When they are hungry they are quick to let us know and when they’ve had enough, they are equally as vocal.

I want to share with you some principles of intuitive eating.  These were created by two dieticians and can be found in an amazing book called Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elye Resch.  I truly recommend this as crucial read.  I am proud to use these principles in our practice and have learned greatly from these two registered dieticians.

Intuitive Eating Principles

1. Reject the Diet Mentality. Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. Get angry at the lies that have led you to feel as if you were a failure every time a new diet stopped working and you gained back all of the weight. If you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to rediscover Intuitive Eating.
2. Honor Your Hunger. Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for re-building trust with yourself and food.
3. Make Peace with Food. Call a truce, stop the food fight! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself that you can’t or shouldn’t have a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and, often, bingeing When you finally “give-in” to your forbidden food, eating will be experienced with such intensity, it usually results in Last Supper overeating, and overwhelming guilt.
4. Challenge the Food Police. Scream a loud “NO” to thoughts in your head that declare you’re “good” for eating under 1000 calories or “bad” because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The Food Police monitor the unreasonable rules that dieting has created . The police station is housed deep in your psyche, and its loud speaker shouts negative barbs, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking indictments. Chasing the Food Police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating.
5. Respect Your Fullness. Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show that you’re comfortably full. Pause in the middle of a meal or food and ask yourself how the food tastes, and what is your current fullness level?
6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor. The Japanese have the wisdom to promote pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living In our fury to be thin and healthy, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence–the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting and conducive, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content. By providing this experience for yourself, you will find that it takes much less food to decide you’ve had “enough”.
7. Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food. Find ways to comfort , nurture, distract, and resolve your issues without using food. Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, anger are emotions we all experience throughout life. Each has its own trigger, and each has its own appeasement. Food won’t fix any of these feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even numb you into a food hangover. But food won’t solve the problem. If anything, eating for an emotional hunger will only make you feel worse in the long run. You’ll ultimately have to deal with the source of the emotion, as well as the discomfort of overeating.
8. Respect Your Body. Accept your genetic blueprint. Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect to realistically squeeze into a size six, it is equally as futile (and uncomfortable) to have the same expectation with body size. But mostly, respect your body, so you can feel better about who you are. It’s hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and overly critical about your body shape.
9. Exercise–Feel the Difference. Forget militant exercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out, such as energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the snooze alarm. If when you wake up, your only goal is to lose weight, it’s usually not a motivating factor in that moment of time.
10. Honor Your Health–Gentle Nutrition. Make food choices that honor your health and tastebuds while making you feel well. Remember that you don’t have to eat a perfect diet to be healthy. You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or gain weight from one snack, one meal, or one day of eating. It’s what you eat consistently over time that matters, progress not perfection is what counts.

*A term first coined by Evelyn Tribole and Elye Resch

Then, I thought about it.  Why do I love competing so much and why do I want this Pro status?  After a lot of thought, I realized that I was going to haul my cookies across the continent to compete in a show just because I had a good chance of winning when there is a local show, in which all of my friends will be competing in and watching, that is right around the corner.  Why am I not doing this show?  It makes sense for me to do this show.  I love competing with my friends and they will all be there!  It’s one of the main reasons I compete!  Truthfully, the reason I have avoided this local show is because I have a slim chance of winning.  This show will be big.  Very BIG.  Many of my mentors will be competing in this show.  Also, I wouldn’t have as much prep time.  I can’t possibly get ready in three weeks, can I?

Let go.

Okay.  I heard it.  Now it’s time to let go.  And so I began my prep for this local show.  I am not competing in it for the win.  I am competing in it to have a blast!  I will have fun with my friends and have fun once again getting up on stage.   I am also out to prove to myself that I can actually prep for a show in 3 weeks.  It won’t be easy, but it will be a challenging goal! I know I can do this.  I feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.  I don’t have to focus on my win, I can just be.  I still ask myself, “Am I doing the right thing?  Am I sure?”  No, I’m not sure.   The only thing I know is that this show is purely for the love of my sport.

My win can wait for another show, or maybe it will never happen.  If I don’t let go now and make room in my heart, better things cannot come in.  Who knows?  Let’s see what happens now that I’ve let go.