Nicole Jones

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Shakeology featured in Business Week!

The world is catching on to the goodness of Shakeology! Oprah featured a 10 page article last May in O Magazine about it. Now Business Week has a great article about Shakeology.

Here is the link:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-adventures-of-superfood-man-01262012.html?chan=magazine+channel_features

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

No Excuses!

Do you find that you make excuses to not workout? What is your excuse?

Each day there are many people out there who have every excuse in the world to not get it done, but yet they do! Be thankful you have both legs and both arms & go out and use them! I can show you a few people who would love to have yours!!! So go out there and make today count :)

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Monday, February 6, 2012

Shakeology No Bake Protein Bars!

Here is the recipe, I didn't use bee pollen or the cacoa nibs. I just used what I had on hand. I did add a dash on cinnamon and a tad bit of vanilla to mine. They turned out very tasty!

Shakeology No-Bake Protein Bars:

2 cups cooking oats
1/3 cup natural peanut butter
2 scoops Chocolate Shakeology
2 scoops whey powder (vanilla or cookies and crème work best)
2 tbs flaxseeds ground
2/3 cup water
1 tsp bee pollen
1 tsp cacoa nibs
1 tsp honey
1 tsp chopped peanuts

Mix all ingredients together. Add a dash more water if needed and place in a wax lined pan. You can also spread a thin layer of peanut butter on top and sprinkle with chia seeds. Place in freezer for 30 minutes and cut.

http://www.awesomeshakes.com/ to get your bag today!

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Saturday, January 7, 2012

How to Gain Muscle

For those of you who want to build muscle but aren't sure what to do. Here are some tips for you!

1. Get Stronger. More strength is more muscle. Get into strength training. I recommend weight training because it allows you to start light and add weight endlessly. Body-weight exercises work too. Programs like P90X, P90X2, and Les Mills Pump are great weight training programs you can do at home. Insanity and Insanity Asylum are great body-weight programs you can also do at home, no equipment needed. Learn proper technique. Add weight each workout to keep pushing your body out of comfort zone.

2. Use Free Weights. You can lift the heaviest weights using barbells. More weight is more stress, thus more muscle. Dumbbells are great for assistance exercises, but not for your main lifts. Stay away from machines.

Safe. Machines force you into fixed, unnatural movement patterns which can cause injuries. Free weights replicate natural motions.
Efficient. Free weights force you to control and balance the weight. This builds more muscle than machines, which balance the weight for you.
Functional. Strength built on machines doesn't transfer to free weights or real life. No machine balances the weight for you in real life.
Versatile. You can do hundreds of exercises with just 1 barbell. Saves a lot of money and space, especially if you want to build a home gym.

3. Do Compound Exercises. Isolation exercises are ok once you've built base strength & muscle mass. But if you're starting to build muscle, exercises that hit several muscles at the same time are better. Here are some examples: Pull-ups, Chin-ups, Barbell Rows, Bench Press, Overhead Press, Dips, Squats & Deadlifts.

4. Get Recovery.

Rest. Muscles grow when you rest, not when you workout.
Sleep. Growth hormone releases when you sleep, building muscle. Aim for 8 hours sleep. Nap post workout if your lifestyle allows.
Drink Water. Avoids dehydration and helps muscle recovery. Drink 2 cups water with each meal, and sip water during your workout.
Eat. Your training is useless if you don't eat enough calories for recovery.

5. Nutrition is Key.

Proteins. Lean meat such as chicken & fish, eggs, almond milk, etc
Carbs. Brown rice, oats, whole grain pasta, quinoa, etc
Veggies. Spinach, broccoli, tomato, salad, sweet pototo, etc
Fruits. Banana, orange, apple, grapes, strawberries, etc
Fats. Olive oil, fish oil, nuts, flax seeds, etc

You'll achieve a lower body fat, so the muscles you've built show better. And the vitamin & mineral content helps recovery. Stop eating food coming from a box. Eat whole foods 90% of the time. Each Beachbody program comes with a nutrition guide and recipes, so the guess work is taken out for you!

6. Eat More. Most people don't eat enough, you got to eat more to build muscle.

Eat Breakfast. Most important meal of the day! On the go and don't have time? Great meal on the go is Shakeology. You can add banana and peanut butter for added calories and protein.
Eat Post Workout. Get proteins and carbs post workout to help muscle recovery and replenish your energy stores. The P90X Results & Recovery drink is perfect for post workout!
Eat Every 3 Hours. This gives your muscles a steady intake of protein, speeds up muscle repair & recovery, and also boosts your metabolism.

7. Persist. Get stronger, track progress and persist until you've built the muscles you want.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Ready to blast fat?

If I told you that there was a way to burn more calories, lose more fat, and improve your cardio fitness level while spending less time doing cardio, you’d probably reach for your phone to report me to the consumer fraud hotline, right?

Well, this is one of those rare times when your natural it’s-too-good-to-be-true reaction could be mistaken. If you want to take your fitness and fat loss to the next level—without spending more time in the gym or working out—then high intensity interval training (also known as HIIT) could be exactly what you're looking for.

Before getting into the details, notice that I didn’t say HIIT would be easier, just that it would take less of your time. In fact, the HIIT approach to cardio exercise is very physically demanding and isn’t for everyone. If you have any cardiovascular problems or other health concerns that limit your ability to exercise at very intense levels, or if you are relatively new to aerobic exercise or not already in good shape, HIIT is not for you—at least for now. If you have any doubts or concerns about whether it might be safe for you, check in with your medical professional before trying HIIT.

What It Is and How It Works
HIIT is a specialized form of interval training that involves short intervals of maximum intensity exercise separated by longer intervals of low to moderate intensity exercise. Because it involves briefly pushing yourself beyond the upper end of your aerobic exercise zone, it offers you several advantages that traditional steady-state exercise (where you keep your heart rate within your aerobic zone) can’t provide:

HIIT trains and conditions both your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems. You train your anaerobic system with brief, all-out efforts, like when you have to push to make it up a hill, sprint the last few hundred yards of a distance race, or run and hide from your spouse after saying the wrong thing.
HIIT increases the amount of calories you burn during your exercise session and afterward because it increases the length of time it takes your body to recover from each exercise session.
HIIT causes metabolic adaptations that enable you to use more fat as fuel under a variety of conditions. This will improve your athletic endurance as well as your fat-burning potential.
HIIT appears to limit muscle loss that can occur with weight loss, in comparison to traditional steady-state cardio exercise of longer duration.
To get the benefits HIIT, you need to push yourself past the upper end of your aerobic zone and allow your body to replenish your anaerobic energy system during the recovery intervals.

So wanna do some HIIT right in your own home? I have 2 programs I love and are so much fun! They are Shaun T's Insanity and Chalene Johnson's TurboFire. Best part? NO EQUIPMENT!!! Just you and and a tv. Take it on vacation or on your business trip and get a better workout than you would at a gym. And don't fret, you won't be doing this alone! I am here for you for motivation and support to make sure you get the results you want!! Plenty of time to get ready for spring time, don't wait!

Here is a preview for Insanity and for TurboFire.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Anyone can afford Shakeology. Let me show you!

You really can. There is really no excuse. I felt disturbed that I had left out Shakeology from my suggested meal plan, especially given the fact that many of the foods we eat today (particularly our chicken/fish/meat) are of such poor quality. It makes sense that Shakeology would make up for some of the nutrient deficient foods we consume as a society. But, the question remains: Can you afford it?

If I left it out of my meal plan, then somewhere in my mind I was saying, “No, there is little room for it in a tight budget.” However, somehow that just didn’t jive with me. Let’s do the math together and you decide.

The cost of Shakeology on autoship (you get free shipping) is $119.99. Plus tax, say around $126, for one month’s supply (1 serving a day for 30 days). Each shake comes out to about $4.20. The coach price for Shakeology on autoship is $89.99 or around $96 total. Each serving comes out to $3.20.

Too much you say? Not if you are using Shakeology as a meal replacement, which, by the way, will help you lose weight. Remember: Subjects in a 90-Day study lost an average of 10lbs when they replaced just one meal per day with Shakeology.

The cost of an average lunch at a restaurant or take-out: $6 to $9. Plus, even Subway sandwiches which are reputably low-cal average 460 to 560 calories. Shakeology has 140 calories, less than 1 gram of fat per serving, annnnnnd it is truly nutrient rich.

The cost of an average take out or restaurant dinner: $10 & up to be sure.

The cost of a home-cooked lunch or dinner: 6-8 ounces of chicken = $2.00 (and we are talking low-grade chicken), veggies= $1 (frozen veggies are really okay! hurray!) and 1 sweet potato = from .5 to $1.00. Total= about $3.4.

Conclusion: You are spending about $3-4 on a home-cooked meal, the same amount that you would spend on Shakeology.

So what is the big fuss about then? I think our resistance has to do more with our thinking than our actual ability to afford Shakeology, regardless of budget. Somehow, I’m guessing, many people see Shakeology as a luxury item. But is it really? I invite you to watch the following video **HERE** and see what real doctors have to say about this amazing product! For additional info, please go to http://www.awesomeshakes.com/
We think nothing of spending $4 on mass-produced food that doesn’t truly nourish us, yet we protest that $4 for Shakeology is too expensive. There’s something awry with our thinking, don’t you think?
Either pay the farmers now or the doctors later!

To your health and to thinking outside the box.

~Nicole