BCS Fitness

The Cost of Dining Out by Brad Tillery

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:59:44 +0000

Everybody loves to dine out. What’s not to love about sitting down and having someone else cook for you, pick up after you, and even serve you food that you normally wouldn’t cook for yourself? I enjoy it, don’t you? However, we all have to balance the enjoyment of dining out with the price (both financially and physically) we pay to do so.

Last week, I put up a chart in the gym that showed a cost analysis of dining out. I assigned a very conservative $7 per meal average and showed what a single person and a family of 4 would spend over the course of one month, one year, and five years if they dined out once, twice, three, four, or five times per week. Here are some of the highlights of our cost analysis…

Cost of dining out 5 times per week for one month at $7 per meal per person:

Single Person Monthly: $140
Family of 4: $560
Single Person Per Year: $1680
Family of 4 Per Year: $6720
Single Person Per 5 Years: $8400
Family of 4 Per 5 Years: $ 33,600

Now for homework… sit down and decide how many times you would like to dine out based on both your budget and your fitness goals. Then, try to come up with alternatives to dining out frequently (i.e. bringing tasty left-overs to work with you, having a spouse or family member share in cooking duties, or taking a grocery store tour in order to find a few new and exciting meals that are both heathy as well as easy to prepare at home. Before you know it, you’ll see a difference in both your bottom…and your bottom line.

Thursday, August 28th: DEADLINE FOR NEXT 12 WEEK CHALLENGE

admin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:38:53 +0000

NEW! HD 12 Week Challenge: Your Body in High Definition Join us for another round of 12 Week Challenges. This is a great opportunity to enjoy the benefits of working with a personal trainer, having your own customized exercise plan, and getting to spend time with people that are fun, down to earth, and just as motivated as you are! In addition to the traditional 12 Week Challenge, we will be offering a next generation training experience “12WC HD: Your Body in High Definition.”The HD 12 Week Challenge is an indoor strength training program designed to get you in the best shape possible in the shortest amount of time possible. The revolutionary training principles utilized in the HD 12WC are sure to put your body in “high definition.”Application deadline to apply for the 12 Week Challenge or HD 12 Week Challenge is Thursday August 28th by 5:30p.m.

Waiting List for Current Challenge

admin — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:11:10 +0000

Most spots for this 12 Week Challenge are taken. If you’d like to get on the waiting list for the current session just fill out an application. The next 12 Week Challenge will begin AUGUST 2008.

Maximizing Your Metabolism

admin — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:40:57 +0000

When it comes to losing body fat and gaining lean muscle, everything can be boiled down to these three areas…

Nutrition: Most diet experts agree that your nutrition will be responsible for 70% of your success.
Exercise: Although you can’t underestimate the synergy that is created when good nutrition and hard workouts go hand in hand, exercise will only take you as far as your diet will allow it to. Exercise is recognized as contributing 20% to the overall picture of fat loss and gains in lean muscle.
Genetics: Your genetic make-up completes the puzzle at 10%.

One key factor in all three of these areas is your metabolism. A strong and speedy metabolism can help you utilize the calories you take in more effectively (nutrition,) it can help you burn more calories while you are working out (exercise,) and it can allow you to tap into fat stores while you work on the computer, sleep, or watch a movie (genetics.)

Here are just a couple of things we all can do to speed up our metabolism…

Drink Lots of Water. Start by sipping a total of 64-90 ounces of water per day and then add 8 ounces for every 10 lbs of fat you need to lose. The benefits of water include, improved kidney function, appetite supresant, better transfer of nutrients into cells, and better digestion of food.

Get Your ZZZZZ’s. Deep sleep enables our bodies to produce HGH-Human Growth Hormone. This is the hormone that works directly on cells to stimulate metabolism. This is one reason younger folks have an easier time staying slim since HGH is produced at a very high rate during earlier years in life. Getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night can help our bodies produce more HGH. Strenuous weight training has also been showed to increase HGH levels.

Increase Protein Intake. When you eat foods like chicken, fish, and other lean meats the number of chemical reactions needed to help it digest increase. Scientist refer to this as the “dynamic reaction of protein.” This reaction can raise BMI-Basal Metabolic Rate as high as 30% for a period of 3-12 hours after digestion.

We all know we can’t be 15 years old again, but we can help ourselves by doing small things everyday to insure we are maximizing our metabolic potential.

Live well and live with purpose, Brad