Fuel Your New Year’s Resolution with Protein

By Danielle Sovinski of Winners Drink Milk

Whether your New Year’s resolution is maintaining a regular exercise schedule or starting a new workout routine, protein can benefit your active lifestyle:

• Build more learn muscle. A higher protein diet along with resistance exercise can help build healthy muscles and support weight management.

• Reduce muscle loss during aging. Protein can help preserve muscle as you age.

• Enhance muscle recovery after resistance exercise or weight training.

• If you’re a regular exerciser, consuming high-quality dairy protein may help nourish your muscles after a tough workout.
• If you’re a serious athlete, consuming carbohydrates and high-quality dairy protein           together, after intense exercise, may enhance the replacement of muscle energy stores. The result is a faster recovery in preparation for your next workout.

• Consume protein immediately before exercise or within one hour after exercise for best results. As little as 10 grams of protein has been shown to stimulate muscle growth following exercise.

Consuming approximately 20-30 grams of high-quality protein at each meal can help you build and maintain muscle. Each example below will provide 20 grams of protein or more:

• Eating two, 6-ounce containers of Greek-style yogurt

• Adding 2 ounces of your favorite cheese and a chopped egg to a salad

• Combining approximately 2 ounces of cheese and ½ cup beans to a veggie burrito

• Choosing 3 to 4 ounces of lean beef, pork or poultry

Did you know? Low-fat chocolate milk is a great way to fuel up after a hard workout. A good source of high-quality protein, chocolate milk is packed with nine essential nutrients and can help replenish what the body has lost through sweat. It also has the right carb-to-protein ratio that many athletes look for post-workout. In addition to protein, dairy foods (milk, cheese and yogurt) are important sources of calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, vitamins A, D and B12 and riboflavin in the U.S. diet.

How’s your New Year’s Resolution?

By Guest Blogger: Jeannie Keating of Jeannie's Gym Journey 

Note: Scroll to the bottom of this post to see the winner of this week's giveaway.

Okay, it’s now Day 7 of 2011. How’s your New Year’s Resolution going? 

If you are on track – congrats and keep up the good work!

However, if you’ve already fallen off the New Year’s band wagon, than you are among the 25% of all resolution makers that quit after the first week. 

But why not start again? There are no rules or New Year Resolution police.

Start again.

If you are a little embarrassed that you vowed to make 2011 “the year” you lost weight and by January 3^rd you … well… ate “just a couple” of cookies that turned into fifteen.  And the witness of your misdeed, “the critic,” (Yes, we all have one) was all too happy to give you the “I told you so” look, so what?  Remember…

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

-- Theodore Roosevelt

"Citizenship in a Republic,"

Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Start again.  

The journey of weight loss is full of screw ups and you are not alone. Forgive yourself, learn and move on but don’t let “the critic” encourage you to give up.

“Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never- - in nothing, great or small, large or petty -- never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

-- Winston Churchill

  

Start again.  

Believe in yourself! And remember your Indiana’s Family of Farmers grows the meats, vegetables and fruit to provide you fresh as well as clean and lean nutrient sources of protein, carbohydrates and fats you need for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Need more nutrition ideas? Don’t diet! 

Before I go, I want you to meet someone who succeeded in this weight loss journey, my friend and client Kim Young.

She began her weight loss journey January 1, 2010.

I was privileged to help her lose 70 pounds (Yes that is not a typo) from January till September 2010 when she competed in her first Figure Competition.

I would encourage you to read Kim’s story. Her story is an inspiration to not just someone who wants to lose weight, but anyone who wants to change their life. Frankly, she has always inspired me.

Start again. 

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”

-- John Wooden

The winner of this week's giveaway is "in it to win it"...

Congrats tuttlem99! Here's to your year of change! Contact us at indianafarmers@gmail.com to claim your prize.

Weight Loss Success – Just Keep It Simple

By Indiana State Department of Agriculture's Jeannie Keating

It’s January 5. Day Five of the Weight Loss Resolution for many people. So let’s keep your January 1^st enthusiasm and success going with some fresh but simple exercise examples provided by the Sett to Win Training Team at Anytime Fitness at Indy South and Avalon Crossing. 

Squat Shoulder Press

Demonstrated by 

Jesse “The Shark” Dale

IFPA Professional Athlete                             

NASM, WITS, ISSA, ISSA Specialist in Nutrition, ACE                           

www.sett2win.com

This movement provides a cardiovascular component as well as resistance training. This targets the shoulders, quadriceps, hamstrings and gluts. Try three sets of 9-12 repetitions. If you want to try this at home, you can replace the dumbbells with cans of soup.

Bosu Push Up

Demonstrated by
Jesse “The Shark” Dale
IFPA Professional Athlete                             
NASM, WITS, ISSA, ISSA Specialist in Nutrition, ACE                           
www.sett2win.com

This movement primarily works the chest but also the anterior (or front deltoid) and triceps. Because you are moving side-to-side, there is also a bonus cardiovascular component as well.  Try three sets of 7-9 repetitions.

Upright Row

Demonstrated by:
Donny Vogas, NASM

Anytime Fitness Personal Trainer    
www.sett2win.com

This movement hits the medial deltoids and by being done in a Smith Machine rack, provides a very safe and controlled movement. Try three sets of 7-9 repetitions.

Kettle Swing

Demonstrated by
Nick George, ACE

Anytime Fitness Personal Trainer 
www.sett2win.com

This movement targets the shoulders, quadriceps, hamstrings, gluts and core. Try three sets of 9-12 repetitions.

Keep it simple and you’ll be successful.

Oh! And remember successful weight loss also doesn’t require “dieting” or calculating every calorie. Keep your blood sugar even by enjoying a snack of your favorite protein with some kind of carbohydrate every 3-4 hours. The carbohydrates keep your energy up and the protein keep your blood sugar even so you aren’t’ suddenly “starving” and grab that that king size candy bar in the middle of the afternoon.  This is a simple and sustainable “diet” for successful weight loss.  A good protein/carb combo could be two hard boiled eggs and some grapes – it is whatever you enjoy but the combination is the key.

Protein foods such as eggs, dairy, pork, beef and chicken – are all part of a lean and clean weight loss program that are readily available and affordable for you and your family thanks to Indiana’s Family of Farmers.  

Psst... Have you entered this week's gym membership giveaway?

2011: Visualize, Set and Plan for Success

By Indiana State Department of Agriculture's Jeannie Keating

The holidays are complete. We hope that you’ve savored the season with some tasty treats such as Winter White Chili,  Indiana wines or  Honey Gingerbread Cookies made from foods grown right here in the Hoosier state by our Indiana’s Family of Farmers.   

But now it is the New Year. Have you begun your New Year’s resolution?

It is estimated that 40 to 45% of American adults make one or more resolutions each year. And statistics show that people who are explicitly committed to their resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who just make resolutions to break them.

If you have committed to weight loss for 2011 - congratulations on your first step to a new you!


This can be your year - even if you’ve had the same weight loss resolution last year and the year before that.


Weight loss is a journey. It can be a windy road full of detours and distractions but here are three things you can do to ensure a successful weight loss journey for yourself:   

• Visualize your success 
• Set your goal
• Make a solid plan (this is especially key)

The first two steps you can do completely on your own.  The third might require some assistance from professional resources, but we’ll get to that.

First, let’s visualize. For example, picture yourself in those cool spring shorts you’ve seen in all the magazines.  Go ahead …take a minute and truly picture yourself. (Seriously, do it right now.)

Can you see yourself? Bet you look great, don’t you?

Now, let’s set our goal. When do you want to wear those shorts? On spring break when you take a trip to Florida? At the annual Easter brunch you host every year in April? Or how about on your birthday for the first time in years?  Write it down: “I will wear the new shorts I’ve always wanted at the St. Patrick’s Day party in March 2011 (or whatever date suits your goal).”

Writing down your goal makes it real.

A plan makes it attainable and sustainable.

Your success is too important to be left to chance. It begins with a well-conceived plan. And “well-conceived” is not the “plan” pulled from a fashion magazine pitching a diet of just “low-fat tofu and broccoli.” Not only are such diets unrealistic and unhealthy – they set you up for failure because we all know that it will end the moment your husband walks in the house with a bag of McDonald’s fries!

You will achieve more working towards goals with a simple but disciplined plan of action. If you lack experience or confidence in developing a nutrition or exercise program because “you’ve done this before”, getting some professional help is highly recommended.

According to the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, statistics show that working out with a personal trainer will yield five times quicker results than working out on your own.

By investing your efforts in your New Year’s resolution, you give yourself a launch pad for truly creating change in the New Year.

Enter below to win a one-month free membership at the Anytime Fitness locations in Beech Grove or Avalon Crossing.  This will include a one-hour first-time workout with the Sett to Win Training Team that will go over a plan of nutrition, resistance training and cardio to send you on your way to success. They keep it simple and sustainable!

Enter today – and congratulations on taking that first step toward a new you in 2011.

To enter please leave a separate comment below for each of the following entries:

1. Follow the Indiana Family of Farmers blog through Google Friend Connect (see right column)

2. Follow @familyoffarmers on twitter

3. Become a fan of Family of Farmers on Facebook

4. Share this on Facebook

5. Share this #giveaway on Twitter and reference @familyoffarmers

Entries will be accepted until 9 pm EDT on Thursday. The winner will be chosen at random and announced on Friday morning.