You’ve been training hard for the last 6-12 weeks. You’ve made tremendous strides with your nutrition. You see great progress, but you are starting to feel a little run down. Maybe more tired than usual, a little cranky, perhaps even caught a cold.

These are signs you need some rest. And not just sleeping in a day or two (like that’s possible!) You do need to get your nightly 7 or 8 hours, but it is more likely you need a break from training.

Next week is a scheduled restoration week for our bootcamp clients. If it’s been awhile since you took a break, maybe it’s time you considered taking a week off. It does a body good!

Here’s why:

The Maintenance Manifesto

Learn How to MAINTAIN Your Overall Health, Performance, and Body Composition During Off Weeks

Congratulations! For the last 8-12 weeks you have done a phenomenal job of improving your overall health, body composition, and performance. You have been introduced to a lifelong eating plan, and have been building healthy habits that will serve you for a lifetime.

However, your body can only be pushed so hard for so long before it needs time to recover and regenerate before unwanted chronic overuse injuries present themselves. In addition, you can only follow aggressive fat loss plans for so long before the mental and physical grind begins to wear you down and your results begin to plateau as your body enters survival mode to hold on to as much body fat as possible. This is why it is paramount that we accomplish the following things during the transition week between the various phases of Get Fit NH Boot Camps:

Moving to Maintenance Mode

Physical Rest and Regeneration

• Our bodies must rest and recover to prevent overtraining issues so that we can come back 100% healthy and energized for the next phase of the program
• Focus on maintaining and/or increasing flexibility and tissue health by stretching and foam rolling daily. 15-30 minutes is fantastic!
• Daily restorative walks are beneficial during this week. 30-60 minutes briskly walking (not jogging/running) will keep your body refreshed and active, without negating the purpose of this week. Don’t overdo it!

Physiological and Psychological Rest and Regeneration

• We must normalize key anabolic hormones, refill muscle glycogen, increase caloric intake, and prevent any diet induced catabolism (losses of lean body mass) so that we can enjoy greater fat loss for the next phase of the program
• We have taken the road less traveled by being flexible eaters with a long-term approach to success and thus we will take a break from our aggressive fat loss nutrition plans. This is not a free for all, so stay away from your “trigger foods” (junk foods and sweets) that open the door to excessive calorie intake.
• Instead plan (key word) and enjoy 1-2 controlled free meals to reward yourself for all of your hard work, but do not overdo it!

Celebrate the Fruits of Your Labor

• Take some time to reflect on how far you have come since you joined this program in terms of improving your overall health, body composition, and performance
• Enjoy your results!

Track your Progress from this Last Phase and/or the Start of the Program

Step#1 – Answer the Following Questions

• How much progress did you make this past phase?
• Did you meet your goal(s)?

Step#2  – Use Outcome-Based Decision Making

If you met or exceeded your goals:

• You are on the right track so keep doing what you are doing

If you fell short of your goals:

• Assess your compliance to our training and the nutrition program you are following. Be honest in evaluating compliance. 90% is what it takes to make realistic progress toward your goals
• If compliance was not an issue, plan to speak with Dean or Nancy so that we can monitor and adjusts your plans if need be

Step#3— Re-Assess Your Goals

• Were your goals S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Trackable)? If not, talk to one of us to re-assess your goals for the next phase of the program.
• Use outcome-based decision making to determine if you need to adjust your goals for the next phase of the program:

If you met or exceeded your goals:

• Your goals for the next phase may change based on your progress over this past phase
• If you have reached your ideal bodyweight, clothing size, or “look”, your goal may now be to maintain it, or maybe these results have motivated you to try to take it to the next level?
• If your results were better than you were expecting, maybe we should set more aggressive goals for the next phase of the program?

If you fell short of your goals:

• If your results fell short of what you were expecting, maybe we should set more conservative goals for the next phase of the program?

Take Advantage of Your Free Time

• This is a perfect time to get things done that you otherwise could not during the last phase of the program (e.g. household chores, doctor’s appointment, travel/vacations, quality time with friends and/or family, etc.)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

We would just like to take the time to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of your hard work and dedication to improving your health and fitness… keep Making It Happen!

You will never know how much this means to us and how much this is appreciated. It has been a total team effort from the start and though we provided you with all of the necessary programs to get the results that you were seeking, YOU DID ALL OF THE WORK! We cannot wait to get even better results during the next phase of the program!

Get Fit NH!

Dean and Nancy

To download and print a copy of the Maintenance Manifesto for reference, please click here.

Who is going to blink first? Once again Chrissy and Lisa tied with a perfect score of 72.

If they remain tied after next weeks results, it’s going to come down to the scale. There is no hiding then!

A big shout out to Robin and Evelyn this week! These ladies overcame some big adversity this week as they dealt with some injury issues. They didn’t use this as an excuse, but did what they could this week to stay on track. I can’t begin to express how impressed I am with their perseverence.

Look, life is not perfect, and you are not going to be in the perfect situation all the time. Things can happen that will knock you off track – if you let them. Life happens – it is how you respond to it that counts. Robin and Evelyn could have used their circumstances to throw them totally off track. They could have had an “all or nothing” attitude, and given up “until next week”. But they realized that just because they couldn’t train for a few days didn’t mean they couldn’t eat well, or log their food diary, or take their vitamin. Well done ladies!

I also wanted to give an extra shout out to Evelyn, who told us this week she reached a milestone she hadn’t seen in 20 years! Ask her about it!

As always, I commend everyone who continues to faithfully turn in their scoresheets every week, regardless of their points. Keep building those habits and reaping the rewards of your efforts!

Ok, here’s that recipe I promised.

This is a wonderful recipe taken from the first volume of Gourmet Nutrition. Easy to prepare, and cooks in the crock pot so it’s ready for you when you get home from work!

Peasant Stew (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

Instructions:

In a large skillet (cast iron is the bomb) brown the cubed steak and minced garlic in half the olive oil, just until the outside of the meat is brown. When the beef is browned, add the water and bouillon cube to the skillet. Bring to a boil, then pour mixture into the crock pot.

With the remaining oil, stir-fry the turnips, scallions and carrots in the skillet on medium high heat for 5 minutes, then transfer to the crock pot.

Add the remaining ingredients to the crock pot, cover and simmer on low overnight (7 or 8 hours) or on high 4 to 5 hours.

Quick, easy and delicious!

6 Pack 6 Results

Week 7 Top Ten

Overall Top Ten

Make It Happen!

The first four weeks of our “6 Pack 6″ lean body transformation contest has flown by, and I’ve got some good news and some bad news!

First the bad news: If your name is not Lisa Adams, you didn’t win our week 4 prize or our first monthly prize.

Just this week Lisa won:

• A $25.00 Check
• (1) Gourmet Nutrition Cookbook – $39.95 value
• (1) Beverly International Ultimate Muscle Protein – $47.50 retail
• (1) Beverly International EFA Gold (Essential Fatty Acids) – $24.00 retail
• (1) Beverly International Super Pak Advanced Vitamin/Mineral Package – $32.00 retail

That’s cash and prizes totaling $168.45 -Just This Week!

And Now For The Good News…There Are Still Over $1100.00 in Prizes For YOU To Win!

That’s Right – The next four weeks could put some serious swag in your pockets, but you gotta earn it!

The points have reset for month 2 – and everyone is back in it.

There is no good reason why 4 weeks from now YOU can’t be picking up a big prize package.

After all, Lisa doesn’t need two, now does she?

Now Make It Happen!

Week 4 Top Ten

Overall Top Ten

Make It Happen!

Here are a few pictures of our two June classes. We worked hard AND had a ton of fun. Make sure you take a look at the chart that show testing results from our PM class – Great Job!

Our May 2008 Get Fit NH Boot Camp Class was a tremendous success! We had men and women from ages 20-49 training together for four weeks – a total of 16 sessions. The phenomenal results are shown in the chart below.

To summarize – The Average Boot Camp Member:

Could do 18 more pushups – an increase of 115%…

Did 12 more situps – an increase of over 59%…

Got down and did 11 more squats – 32% more…

Almost doubled the amount of burpees, from 8 to 15 – a 97% increase…

And shaved 18 seconds off their 1/4 mile run…Way To Go!

Our June Classes are starting soon…

When are YOU going to join a Get Fit NH Boot Camp?