Week 1 Results

Good job everybody! Keep up the Good work.

The Downside of Diet Soda

I know...we live off of soda these days. It practically gets us through the day. What is the real story behind diet soda? Is it as bad or as good for us as we think? You decide:

Three Reasons to Rethink that Diet Coke You're About to Drink

The Downside of Diet Sodas

The Disadvantages of Diet Sodas

Drink More Soda, Gain More Weight?

Websites To Help You Manage Your Goals

Motivation gets us started, but it's dedication that pushes us through. Check out some of these fitness / nutrition-friendly sites to help you set and achieve your goals:

Plus Three Network:
A new spin on working out and giving back. Sign up for free at Pluss Three where you can select a sponsor and charity. Your sponsor will donate to the charity of your choice based on the amount of exercise you log into the site.

ExRx.net:
ExRx.net provides fitness assessments, a fitness libary, and acts as a general resource for your fitness needs.

FitDay.com:
Helps you with one of life's biggest hurdles--tracking your food and calorie intake.

SparkPeople.com:
This site helps you with everything from tracking your food intake to providing healthy recipes. Members can sign up for email alerts that will send you daily recipes, motivational posts, etc. One of their best features is the website's chef who transforms popular, non-heart healthy dishes into healthy (and tasty) foods.

Interval Training...A Quick Way to Burn Calories

Physical fitness doesn't necessarily mean spending hours in the gym. Check out some ways by Shape Magazine you can get your cardio / strength training in without giving up all of your free time.


Interval Training: Short Workouts That Really Pay Off

Blueberry Muffins That Won't Give You A Muffin Top

Have blueberry muffins ballooned recently? These are sneaky little treats that pack on the calories (500 calories on average) but make you think you chose a healthy option. Here's a guilt-free option that will let you satisfy your sweet tooth.

For the Muffins

1 1 /2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup plus 2 tsp sugar, divided

1/2 cup quick-cooking oats (not instant)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp low-fat buttermilk

1 large egg

2 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup fresh blueberries, washed and dried

For the Topping

1/4 cup blueberry jam

24 fresh blueberries, washed and dried

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.
2. Combine flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
3. In another bowl, whisk buttermilk, egg, oil, and vanilla.
4. Toss blueberries with flour mixture.
5. Pour wet ingredients into flour mixture and stir gently so as not to break blueberries.
6. Divide batter evenly among a 12-count muffin pan; sprinkle with remaining sugar.
7. Bake 12 - 15 minutes or until tops are just set. Remove pan from oven; top each muffin with 1 tsp blueberry jam and 2 blueberries.
8. Bake 3 - 5 minutes more or until golden.
9. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and serve.

For a zangy twist, substitute blueberry jam for lemon curd. A much more popular option!




173 calories per muffin

Welcome to the team...

This is it. The iTeam fitness challenge. You are now on the front lines of your fitness future.

While losing weight and getting in shape can feel like a war sometimes, it doesn't have to be. Getting in shape as part of a group, where you can get advice, offer helpful reminders and pose a little friendly competition can take you from being ambiguous about your fitness goals to Fitness Driven.

This challenge will give you focus. You will have a little extra motivation to finally get started and stick to whatever fitness goals you've been meaning to start. This challenge will push you to find ways to reduce your calories, increase your energy output and learn to have fun doing it. Not every method works for each individual. Everyone struggles to find a certain "rhythm" to their own weight loss at first. However if you stick with it through the tough times then the reward of watching your weight decrease, confidence expand and your energy increase will reward you every week you keep at it.

The Rules:

1. The competition will begin the 19th of July and go until September 28th. You may weigh in anytime during the competition, however keep in mind that the sooner you start the longer you'll have to lose weight. Final weigh-ins (weigh-outs) will be anytime before September 28th.

2. Everyone will sign up with a designated "weight tracker", who will weigh you with their designated scale. This same scale will also be used to weigh each participant at the end of the challenge. Using one scale to weigh everyone will help to keep a single weight standard. When weighing-in please plan to remove shoes, accessories, cowboy hat and possibly a belt/cowboy buckle. We want the each individual's weight to be as accurate at the start of the competition as it is at the finish of it.

3. At the time of weigh-in you'll be required to pay your entrance fee of $20 (cash please). This is not only to help you feel like you're committed to competing, but it will go into a pool that will be used to pay the winners at the end of the competition. All fees must be paid at the initial weigh-in. We are expecting to have a first and second place... and maybe a third place, if enough people sign up. While Lochner will not directly be sponsoring this competition they have given permission to have Lochner Teams use their team money to participate if they like. You may want to discuss it with your team managers.

4. It's up to you to find your preferred method of diet and fitness. Whether you prefer to walk, run, swim, bike or lift weights- find something that will help you lose the weight but will be enjoyable over the next couple months (and beyond?). When possible seek out working out in teams. You win as individuals but we're all on a team... the iTeam™

5. Every Thursday you'll email over your current weight, as weighed by your own personal scale. The weight tracker will then put your weight into a spread sheet that will calculate your new percentage. Then we'll post the percentage (weight of each individual will remain SUPER secret and hidden in a lock box, under a birch in my grammy's backyard, in Rupert Idaho). Everyone will be able to gauge where they are in the competition before the weekend.

It's important that everyone send in their weight each week. And it can be a pain to track down the weights. So everyone will be responsible for their own submittals. If you miss more than 3 submittals then you'll forfeit your chance at winning the challenge.

6. Final weigh-ins will decide how much of an overall percentage of weight you've lost,... and the winners.

7. Anyone who participates and gains knowledge about fitness and diet will be a winner.