Cucumber Soup!

by Kris Pitcher

Summer time is a great time for cold soup. This is a great one to try, and you could do it as instructed sauteed, or just put it in the food processer raw. The avocado makes it creamy smooth. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 4 cups peeled, seeded and thinly sliced cucumbers, divided
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth, or reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, plus more for garnish
• 1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 1 to 4 minutes. Add lemon juice and cook for 1 minute. Add 3 3/4 cups cucumber slices, broth, salt, pepper and cayenne; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and cook at a gentle simmer until the cucumbers are soft, 6 to 8 minutes.
2. Transfer the soup to a blender. Add avocado and parsley; blend on low speed until smooth. (Use caution when pureeing hot liquids.) Pour into a serving bowl and stir in yogurt. Chop the remaining 1/4 cup cucumber slices. Serve the soup warm or refrigerate and serve it chilled. Just before serving, garnish with the chopped cucumber and more chopped parsley, if desired.

Per 1 cup serving: 173 calories; 12 g fat ( 2 g sat , 8 g mono ); 2 mg cholesterol; 15 g carbohydrates; 4 g protein; 5 g fiber; 494 mg sodium;544 mg potassium.

Road Banana

by Kris Pitcher

There are days when we are on auto pilot. I mean, complete auto pilot. Did I stop at that sign? What did my boss just say to me? Who's picking up the kids? We have kids?

Mental focus goes out the window as we become more stressed, get less rest and often aren't getting the recovery we need in spirit or body. We seem to be over-loaded, and by all means we are over stimulated. We have information at the touch of our fingers, and we are connected 24/7.

This hasn't made us more focused. It's made us more frazzled. I am highly routined. I require my schedule, a very organized schedule because my day is quite full. Those of you who know me, know that I work 10 hour days and do my training on top of that. This requires me to stick to my schedule in order for everything to get done.

Some days when I leave the house at 6:30am, I wonder...did I stop at that sign? I remind myself I need to remain present in the moment, to focus on what I'm doing right now rather than think about the hundreds of things I need to get done during the day.

This leads me to road bananas. Now, you may live in a climate where road bananas are commonplace. The Inland Northwest is not one of them. So, as I was driving to get gas early one morning and I saw a road banana I realized, we are not focusing.

Around 10:00am that morning someone would be looking for their snack. They would check all around their desk, look in their bag...no banana. It wouldn't be anywhere in sight because they'd left it on top of their car as they drove away from their house.

Sure, road coffee cups are common...but I've rarely seen a banana. This person was going to miss their fruit. If we are leaving things on our car tops, we are in a big hurry to get out of the house. We are unfocused, in a rush and off schedule.

We live on auto pilot. It just makes me think we should consider disconnecting (after you read Fitness Bliss) now and then. It makes me think we don't need every facebook notification on our phone, every email, or every tweet. Maybe not all the time.

I hope you'll slow down this weekend, even just for a little while. Be outdoors, enjoy the people in your life...and even eat a banana.

Slimmer School

by Kris Pitcher

Today's lesson is a simple one. You won't need to take notes really, and there won't be a quiz at the end. You can put your paper away and your pencils down. This is just a "sit-n-get".

Whether we're talking about making changes to our eating habits, or seeing the results of lifting weights and doing our cardio...we have to do it if we expect it to work.

(The lesson was that last part.) We have to do it if we expect it to work. We can't buy a book or video and expect healthy meals to make themselves. We need to shop the right ingredients, prep the food, prepare it, pack it, take it with us, and ultimately eat it.

We don't just need to eat it. We need to eat it in the right amounts, and at the right times of the day in order to make changes. In order for it to work, we have to do it.

Our workouts are just the same. It's not enough to just join the gym. We need to actually go to the gym and once we are there we need to exercise. Doing any old thing isn't going to cut it. We may need to enlist the help of a professional to build a plan for us to follow.

Once we have our plan we can't just do it for a month. We need to keep doing it...as long as we want it to work. Are we getting the crux of the lesson?

We spend time being frustrated that plans are not working. But if we were completely honest with ourselves we would need to admit, we're not really doing them. Or, we might be kind of doing them.

"Are you following the plan we discussed?" I might ask a frustrated client. "Yes, and I've added an extra piece of fruit and a yogurt - because I love that new Greek yogurt. That's healthy right?" They'll say.

Well perhaps, ONLY THAT'S NOT OUR PLAN! So, we have to do the plan if we want it to work. And we have to do weight management as long as we want it to work, which is pretty much forever.

Stop feeling frustrated about plans which aren't working...and analyze if you've actually been doing the plan. Chances are, you have room for improvement. We always do. Welcome to slimmer school!

Freedom From How You Feel

by Kris Pitcher

For all of our U.S. and state side readers, happy Independance Day! Today's topic will either set you free or set you off. Either way it's just something to put on the table.

We live in a society where more is better and bigger is a requirement. Our strong work ethic goes from our careers to every facet of our lives. That's not a bad thing.

One of the things I notice when I talk to people about different types of cardio is they bring up their feelings. Specifically, I talk to a lot of competitors who have a goal to burn fat. We talk about what kind of cardio they are doing which is often high intensity.

As I suggest low intensity, steady state cardio as the most effective fat burning energy system I consistently hear, "But, I don't feel like I'm doing enough."

They would rather burn muscle glycogen doing high intensity cardio than burn fat doing low intensity cardio so that they can "feel" like they are doing the "right" amount of work. Personally, I cannot feel my body burning fat.

I doubt you can feel that either. It comes down to trusting the science over our feelings. It's a situation where more is not better. But, how much high intensity interval cardio you do seems to determine how much of a bad *ss you are.

Don't get me wrong. There are absolutely reasons to do high intensity cardio. There are reasons to incorporate sprints into your routine if you have specific goals around that. When the specific goal for a competitor however is to burn fat and retain muscle...you need to work smarter, not harder.

So, if you want to burn up your muscle glycogen rather than burning your body fat, by all means continue to do that high intensity cardio. Me? I'll keep all my hard earned muscle and do my low intensity, steady state cardio. I'll see you on stage.

Survey Says!

by Kris Pitcher

Survey says: two out of three people in the gym will secretly compete with the stranger next to them.

The race is on!

This is true. I can tell you that I am two of those three people rolled into one. And likely, you are the other one competing. In fact, that's one of the things I really like about the gym we go to - there are lots of competative people working out. It creates great energy.

I can tell you I am paying attention to what you're lifting. Ladies, there are only a few of you I'm paying attention to and you know who you are. You're super strong and we're friends, and I'm not really competing with you. It's the guys I've got my eyes on.

First of all you guys are kind of grunting, so it's drawing attention. Then when I look over and you're lifting the same as me...it's like a train wreck I can't stop looking at. And it's on. We're competing. And you don't even know it.

If you did know it, you'd put more than one plate on that Hoist lat pull down. You wouldn't be grunting either. You don't hear me making a peep when I do my lat pull downs (with good form). Anyway, I realize I'm strong - but it's nice for you to validate it for me.

It happens on the treadmill too. Only I am not the one competing there. I do my own thing. But I've seen you all running, looking around at one another. You crane your head over to see how fast the guy next to you is running and the race is on!

So, it's human nature to be competitive in the gym. The survey confirms it and you've felt it too. Your secret is out...and so is mine! *Smile!

Why Diets Don't Work

by Kris Pitcher

There's a really simple reason why diets don't work. Well, maybe that's a simplified statement. But I'll break it down. The biggest reason diets don't work is because...

You quit doing them. That's right. Diets don't work because we stop doing them. But it's not all on you. By design, they are destined to fail. First of all, we start them with a short term philosophy.

Starting a "diet" typically equates to a short term change in eating that once we reach a certain weight, we are going to stop. This is the wrong mindset. It simply doesn't make sense to eat a certain way to get a specific result only to revert to a way of eating that made you over weight in the first place.

We'll never succeed with this mindset. Changing the way we eat, especially to achieve a change in our body composition, is something we need to do long term. You know what I say...we only have to do weight management as long as we want it to work.

The second huge reason "diets" fail is because they are frought with crazy. Some ding dong writes a book about eating only ice cream, or only chick peas (I made that up) and everyone is off on the next craze.

The reason these fad diets work is because they create a caloric deficit. Regardless of what you eat, if you're only eating 500 calories per day, you will lose weight. But here's where you'll fail - you cannot sustain this crazy for very long.

A rigid eating plan doesn't account for normal life. It doesn't teach you how to eat in a social situation, how to eat when you are traveling, or how to have variety in your diet. Eventually, you are sick and tired of the fad diet and you quit.

Any time you cut entire food groups out of your eating plan, you will eventually break and eat the thing you aren't supposed to - according to Dr. Ding Dong.

These are the reasons diets don't work. This is why you will find every fad diet book on the shelves of the second hand store. Everyone has tried and failed them all. You've lost and gained the weight tens of times over.

The key is setting yourself up for success by getting your head around the concept of a lifetime approach. Weight management is something you will do for the rest of your life. Eating well is a lifestyle, not a short term approach to a result.

There's no easy answer, no magic pill, and you can't have your cake and eat it too. You can enjoy moderation, regular exercise and making great choices. You can enjoy a lifetime approach to a healthy you!

If I Were A Super Hero

by Kris Pitcher

I've given some thought to what kind of super hero I would be...if I were a super hero. Although I haven't worked out all of the details of my costume, I've got the basics figured out.

I would be a Science Super Hero! Are you disappointed? But I would be the sexy kind of super hero who wears some kind of skin tight sciency outfit. It would probably be various shades of green. With a cape.

Sure by day I would be a regular, probably geeky, person with a normal job. Then when important science calls...I would fly into action to dispell exercise myths and make the world believe in science.

Everyone would not only be in awe, they would actually believe in science. I would be able to wave my science hand across their forehead to wipe away their crazy ideas about magic bullets to make them skinny.

No one wants to be skinny anyway! My muscles would fill out my science hero outfit, and my legs would probably be longer...and I'd have vamped up features. I'd be all science-sexy!

I could swoop into grocery stores and fill carts with good choices putting smiles on faces just before I flew away. I could round up all the cardio-only's and put weights into their hands helping them increase their metabolism. As a Science Hero I could revolutionalize the world, helping people understand the science behind what they want.

So now you know my super hero dream to change the world. Now, I just need to put my outfit together!