All posts by Kevin

In need of a break?

It’s hard to listen to your body sometimes. We are trained to push everything to the limit. If we are sore or tired, keep pushing to achieve your goals. What about if your body is exhausted and needs a break? How about a recovery day or two?

Your body and mind need rest throughout the week. It can be from exercise, computers, phones, TV. All of those mediums cause fatigue in different ways.  It is important to recognize when your body needs to reset. It can be in the form of a little more sleep, going easy instead of hard during a workout or not putting as much stress on yourself to achieve.

Our bodies are not machines that never need maintenance. We need to care for them and listen to them. Once you listen to your body more closely you might be surprised at what it has to say.

Make it the best day!

-K

Finding your zen and exploring your zone

What makes you happy and gives you the feeling of being at ease?

Today for me it was on the spin bike with the right music. I was flooded with feelings that made my Monday morning more enjoyable than I could have thought. At minute two my thoughts gravitated towards the following.

  • Being present
  • Setting an intention
  • Positive affirmations
  • Gratitude
  • Motivation
  • Clearing my head

Your happy place and space can be anywhere doing anything. Try to find it more than once a week. You will feel recharged and do things you didn’t think possible.

Make it the best day!

-K

15 Minute Dinner

This recipe is quick, easy and tasty. A little Korean flavor anytime!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes, or more to taste
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 2 green onions, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 teaspoon sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS:

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, red pepper flakes and ginger.
  2. Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add ground beef and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.
  3. Stir in soy sauce mixture and green onions until well combined, allowing to simmer until heated through, about 2 minutes.
  4. Serve immediately, garnished with green onion and sesame seeds, if desired.

Enjoy!

Make it the best day!

-K

Saturday Session

Wake up! Dance! It’s Saturday!

Celebrate the week that you had and wonderful weekend that lies ahead.

Live in the moment and celebrate what the day holds for you!

Be present with your family and friends while you live in gratitude!

Make it the best day!

-K

Look up

Many times we get find ourselves looking down or looking behind. Rarely do we look up and forward to what lies ahead. Human nature leads us to think about the past and how we could have done something better or smarter.

Try looking forward and forgetting about the past. You can’t change what happened 2 days or 2 minutes ago. We have the power to change what will happen next. So let’s focus on that.

If we continue to dwell on the past or be bummed about our current situation, nothing will change. Something happened that you are not thrilled about? Don’t dwell on it. Pick your head up, focus on the next task and give it your best effort.

Always look ahead, do the best you can and the results will follow.

Make it the best day!

-K

Lift Fast

There is a comfort in going to gym and doing the same routine. Same weights, same reps, same amount of time on the treadmill, same gains or lack there of.

Your body needs challenges and adjustments to your routine. This can be achieved in many ways from lifting heavier, increasing reps, adjusting the sets. One method of training that most people overlook is speed.

As we get older our speed slows down. We are less active in sports and we choose more leisure activities (drinking beer, sitting down…you get the idea). A key component of training is keeping those fast twitch muscle fibers active. Even if you only lift for speed once a week you will see the benefits.

Lifting with speed is easy and it’s hard. Easy because the weight is about 50% what you would consider “heavy”. It is hard because you have to control the weight while moving faster.

I would recommend starting these speed sessions on machines. They are easier to control and you can limit your chance of injury if you lose control or move too fast.

Take your weight you can normally lift for 6-8 reps and knock off about 55% of that. Then do 4 sets of 10 at fast but controlled pace. The weight should be moving less than one second in each direction. Remember it’s about speed!! Take a minute break and do it again. After you have completed 4 sets of once exercise move to the next.

Don’t overdo it off the bat. Try this with a push movement, a pull movement and an air squat (you can load the squat with dumbbells if you would like)

Remember, our bodies like change. Let’s feed the body new movements and feel great doing it!

Make it the best day!

-K

Treading water or swimming to success?

Going through this week, month or year are we treading water or are we making progress?

If we are treading water, why are we doing so?

  • Not in the game mentally?
  • Lack of personal effort?
  • Distractions?
  • Lack of motivation?
  • Not enough rest?

There are a multitude of reasons why we tread water in regards to work or personal life. Dig deep to find the ultimate reason this is happening.

How can we turn treading water into a full on swim in the direction of success?

Does it involve waking up earlier to accomplish more tasks? Turning off the TV to read or exercise? Or is it changing your mindset to focus on your ultimate desires?

If you feel like you are currently just treading water, look for an answer. Be honest with yourself about the things you feel and do. What activity is just turning the wheel everyday?

Write it down. Pledge to change it. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Make it the best day!

-K

Move!!

It’s been a long day. Sitting at your desk, in your car or on the plane.

Let’s inject a bit of energy into the current situation.

Ready?!

Ok, stop reading this and do one of the following.

Walk around the block

Dance

Sing out loud (Bonus points if you do it in public)

Stand up and shake all the good feelings around

Move the body!!

This is your afternoon shake up. Complete with energy re-boot and no caffeine crash!

Make it the best day!

-K

Don’t do tomorrow what you can do today

When is the last time you said “I’ll take care of that tomorrow”?

Chances are that statement has been said numerous times in the last few days alone. In my opinion that can be the most debilitating self talk statement there is.

Getting through your current task list is the first step in clearing your “pile” of to-dos. It may seem like that “pile” will never get taken care of. If you keep putting tasks off until tomorrow than that pile will continue to build up. How you can stay ahead of the game and keep on top of your tasks?

  • Create a to-do list. Arrange it with from most important to least
  • Use a highlighter to cross the tasks off. It will keep your list cleaner and give a little color!
  • Don’t attempt to multi-task or jump around on the list. You created the list in order of importance for a reason. Check off the list in order and you will be surprised how quickly it actually gets done
  • Allow yourself a break after completing a set number of tasks.

Be disciplined and clean your list. The sense of accomplishment will be immediate and you won’t have to worry about doing all those tasks “tomorrow”.

Make it the best day!

-K

Grilled Sausage and Peppers

A unique twist on sausage and peppers. A touch on the healthier side with chicken sausage subbed in for pork sausage. There is also spaghetti squash as a base to the dish as well. Feel free to add in anything you would like or sub in and our per your tastes!

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound of hot chicken sausage
  • 1 medium spaghetti squash
  • Yellow, Red and Green bell peppers
  • Crushed red peppers (optional)
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions:

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
  • Halve the spaghetti squash and scoop out the seeds
  • Lightly oil the flesh side
  • Place flesh side down on tinfoil on baking sheet and roast 30-45 minutes until flesh is fork tender

You can make that ahead of time and let it cool before breaking it up.

  • Have a hot grill ready and grill up the sausage
  • Lightly rub the peppers with olive oil
  • Grill the peppers until there is a char around the peppers
  • Place spaghetti squash large bowl after scooping it out of the skin
  • Add up diced peppers and sausage
  • Sprinkle with EVOO and crushed red peppers if extra heat is desired!

Make it the best day!

-K