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On Friday we hit the two week mark on our Four Week Fitness Challenge with Sports and Fitness in Chico. Our goal is to lose 15 pounds by the end of the challenge. After another week of constant running, push ups, sit ups, and lunges it was time again to get on that scale. Will all the hard work pay off? Did eating foods with no flavor work? Did canceling every plan I had with my friends to avoid any contact with food or alcohol work? Did pretending my roommate's dinner was just as good as mine made a difference? These were the questions running through my mind as I took off my sweater, shoes and any other article of clothing that may weigh me down while on the scale.
Let’s cut the dramatics, I hopped on the scale and I’m down three more pounds. Combined with week one I‘ve lost 8 pounds so far. I was kind of hoping to lose more than 3 pounds but hey I’ll take it or should I say lose it wherever I can.
Our trainer Roland Jesters who is also the owner of Sports and Fitness, is tough, crazy, and fun. I think most of you know we start our workouts at five in the morning. Roland is always awake and ready to go, unlike the rest of us. We always wine and complain before every workout, but none of us ever quit. There’s about twenty of us that are in the program, and every single person is dedicated. A typical workout would include jogging to warm up and then a lot of circuit training where we alternate between running, push ups, lunges, sit ups, squats, triceps dips, crunches and anything else Roland can think of to torture us. The most interesting thing about Roland’s workout is that you don’t need any equipment. We use our own body weight instead of pumping iron, and believe me it works.
My team mates are doing very well. Fellow reporter Jennifer MacDonald has lost four pounds and my News Director Trisha Coder has lost four as well. We can all see changes in our bodies and all of us will tell you our clothes are starting to fit looser.
Here’s part our of diet:
Breakfast
1 piece of toast or half a bagel or half an English Muffin or a small 6’’ corn tortilla (that’s my favorite option.)
1 egg for a woman, 2 eggs for a man.
1 or 2 cups of coffee or tea. No cream or sugar. A small amount of milk or non-dairy creamer can be used.
Lunch
Salad and fresh vegetables, (no avocado), do not cook any of the vegetables. Have at least three cups total without counting the lettuce. Do not eat to much lettuce. Use one or two teaspoons of oil but you can use as much vinegar as you would like. Try and have at least six different types of solid vegetables.
Dinner
1 or 2 cups of lettuce, cabbage or spinach, with other types of hard vegetables as desired. Quarter to one cup of cooked vegetables, limit the cooked vegetables. Four oz for women, eight oz for a man of lean steak or hamburger (less than 15% fat.) After the first week you can add other types of protein such as fish, boneless, skinless, breasts, chicken, turkey, or tofu. DO NOT EAT ANY STARCH SUCH AS BREAD, TORTILLAS, PASTA, RICE OR STARCHY VEGETABLES SUCH AS POTATO, CORN, BEANS, PEAS OR WINTER SQUASH.
Here’s the kicker:
Drink 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in 8 or 10 oz of water with each meal, and if you like it between meals also. This helps to lessen your sweet cravings, curb your appetite and provide your body with minerals.
That’s all I’m going to share with you, can’t give away all of Roland’s secrets away.
Here’s the food tip of the week: My Favorite Breakfast.
Chop up half of an onion and a jalapeno pepper. Throw that into a skillet with a teaspoon of olive oil. In a bowl crack open an egg, add a dash or Mrs. Dash and mix it well.Once the onions and peppers are slightly brown add the egg. Scramble it up and once its done add some spinach. Warm up a corn tortilla and you have a great tasting breakfast taco. Men can have two eggs.
If you have any workout or diet questions you can ask our workout Guru, Roland Jesters, and it won't cost you anything, because we want you, our viewers, to get something out of this too.
Email Roland at sportsandfitness@yahoo.com .
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When my alarm went off at 4:40 AM on Friday I didn’t have a problem getting up, because after doing it for four days you get use to it. What I had a problem with was knowing that today I have to get on a scale. With the fitness challenge that I’ve signed up for, lose 15 pounds in 4 weeks with Sports and Fitness, we’re suppose to weigh in every Friday. We’ll get to the weigh-in a moment but first, the olive oil.
For the first seven days of the program we had to go through a cleansing which included drinking a cup of olive oil. So on Monday, after work, I decided to suck it up and chug down a cup of olive oil. Well, let me tell you, there’s no chugging a cup of olive oil. I had to take little sips and chase it down with lemon juice. What does it taste like? It’s like what you would imagine oil would taste like. Thick, slimming and gooey. With every slip I wanted to vomit and the worst part is you can actually feel it going down your throat and coating your body. Reliving that horrible experience makes me sick all over again. I must say though, I drank the whole cup and did not throw up but two of my team members did, Trisha Coder and Rick Carhart. So what happened after that? For the rest of the night I felt nauseous and couldn’t eat anything.
I made it through the night all right but working out Tuesday morning at 5:30 AM with that much olive oil in your system is not a carnival. With the constant running and push ups and sit ups and lunges and god knows what else, I thought I was going to projectile vomit all over the place. I kept having imagines of the possessed girl from the Exorcist, I know you know what I’m talking about. Although, at that point I wished I was possessed rather than running around with a gallon of olive oil in my body.
Moving on to Wednesday, Roland, our beloved trainer, made us run outside IN THE COLD for thirty minutes. I was only able to do half of that. The cold air was weighing me down, or it could just be the extra fat I’m carrying around, but blaming it on the cold air sounds better.
Thursday, I can’t even remember the torture we were put through.
Which brings us back to Friday morning and me freaking out about weighing in. I started feeling horrible about myself. It might had a lot to do with the fact that I was playing one of my sad Taylor Swift songs as I was getting ready.
Speaking of which, I’m really liking Taylor Swift’s new album. I didn’t think I would, I thought I was too old to listen to teeny boppers but my intern proved me wrong. She played one of her songs on our way to a story in Redding and I was hooked. Okay, alright, back to the point.
So I finally got to the gym and decided to hop on the scale the second I got there just to get it over with. Roland started pushing the little scale things around and guess what? I lost five pounds! FIVE POUNDS! I was so excited. I really didn’t think I could pull that off in a week. So right after the work out on Friday I treated myself to McDonald’s to celebrate, HELLO! I kid I joke I fool. I’m addicted to this workout and I’m going to keep up with diet because I still have a long way to go.
I will give you updates on everyone else in my team live on Wakeup soon, and in my next blog I will share what foods you can and cannot eat while on Roland’s four week program. But I will share one yummy treat I discovered this week.
Treat: Mega Mango All Fruit Smoothie from Jamba Juice. Ask for fresh squeezed orange juice and no pineapple juice. It’s all natural and good for you, makes for a great lunch on the go. I had it three times this week.
If you have any workout or diet questions you can ask our workout Guru, Roland Jesters, and it won't cost you anything, because we want you, our viewers, to get something out of this too.
Email Roland at sportsandfitness@yahoo.com .
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Our goal: Lose 15 pounds in four weeks! How do we do it? A lot of help from Sports and Fitness trainer Roland Jesters, after all he came up with the challenge.
This is actually a competition between three teams, the Action News Team, Humanity Inc., (a clothing company from Chico), and Culp & Tanner (a structural engineering firm in Chico). My teams include my News Director (my boss) Trisher Coder, and fellow reporter Jennifer MacDonald. The competition is to see which team loses the most weight together, and which participant loses the most weight individually.
DAY ONE
Not bad! We started our workout 5:30 in the morning at the Sports and Fitness club on East 20th Street in Chico. I thought waking up that early was going to be a nightmare, only because I had nightmares about waking up that early, but it wasn't. Although as I write this I'm starting to dose off, not to mention my entire body is swore.
We worked out for an hour, moving from station to station. Each station had a specific workout. We did push ups, sit-ups, tricep dips, jump rope and biceps curls. The most interesting one was moving a big tractor tire from one side of the room to the other. We just moved from one to station to another, switching every thirty seconds. At first it seemed very easy, but by the end just walking to the next station seemed like climbing Mt. Lassen.
What lies ahead for the day made the workout look like a piece of cake. Part of this challenge is also dieting. I hate diets. We are suppose to kick off the diet with a 7 day cleanse. Drink a cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the first part of the cleanse. Yes, you read that right, DRINK A CUP OF OLIVE OIL. Are we on Fear Factor?
Here's advice from our trainer:
"1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (organic if you can find it). Sucking on a lemon during this process helps relieve the taste issues. Do Not!!! Lay down for at least two hours after drinking oil."
Fortunately we only have to do this once on the first day. Oh, and you want to be near a restroom after drinking the oil.
So here's what we CAN'T eat for the next seven days.
No Sugar
No Alcohol
No Caffeine (including tea)
No Salt
No Meat
No Dairy Products
No White Flour (this includes most whole wheat bread check the labels)
Only use Extra Virgin Olive Oil for cooking.
Try to eat pesticide free products. No prepared foods or preservatives.
Options of foods to eat:
Eggs (2 eggs per serving)
Any vegetables
Any Fruit
Brown Rice
Beans
Nuts (unsalted ones)
Tofu (Not my favorite option)
Oatmeal
Spices are fine as well as herbs but not season salt or other season blends.
Make sure you eat at least three meals a day and when you are hungry in between eat nuts, fruits etc.
I'll let you know how the Olive Oil drinking thing turns out in my next blog.
But if you have any workout or diet questions you can ask our workout Guru, Roland Jesters, and it won't cost you anything, cause we want you, our viewers, to get something out of this too.
Email Roland at sportsandfitness@yahoo.com .
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In our "Fine in '09" segment on January 14th we showed you some ways you can save maximize your tax refund. This is very important. A lot forks had financial troubles in 2008, don’t be afraid, the IRS is not looking to make your life a living hell. They are willing to work with you. They seem to have gotten the message that America is in a financial crisis. Here are some ways you can get money from the government, you can also find these along with the video report in our “Fine in ‘09” section of the website. Go to the homepage and the tab should be on the right side.
First Time Home Buyer Credit:
If you bought a home after April 8, 2008 and before July 1, 2009, you maybe eligible for this refundable credit worth up to $7,500. You must not have owned a main home in the past three years preceding the purchase. You must pay the money back in 15 equal payments starting in 2010.
Refundable Child Tax Credit:
If you have earned income of at least $8,500, you may qualify for a credit of up to $1,000 for each qualifying child under 17, even without having a tax liability. If your income was not high enough to claim this credit last year, you may be able to claim it this year.
Recovery Rebate Credit:
If you missed the economic stimulus payment, or you are eligible for a higher payment based on your 2008 income, you may be eligible for a recovery rebate credit when you like your 2008 return. If you have qualifying income, such as wages, social security benefits, or VA disability benefits of at least $3,000, you may be eligible for the credit even if you aren't required to file a return. The credit can be worth up to $600 ($1,200 on join returns) or more depending on your income, taxes, and number of children.
Added Flexibility for Missed Payments:
The IRS is allowing more flexibility for individuals with existing Installment Agreements who have difficulty making payments because of a job loss or other financial hardship. Depending on the situation, the IRS may allow a skipped payment or a reduced monthly payment amount. Taxpayers in this situation should contact the IRS.
Postponement of Collection Actions:
IRS employees will have greater authority to suspend collection actions in hardship cases where taxpayers are unable to pay. I fan individual has recently encountered a job loss or other financial problem, IRS assistors may be able to suspend collection in some situations without documentation to minimize burden on the taxpayer.
File Online With No Charge:
Taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of $56,000 less can use the free computer filing program, which makes up to about 70% of all taxpayers. Taxpayers with higher incomes can also file their tax forms online the same as they would on paper.
If you have any questions email Sue Zarubin, H&R Block’s Tax Advisor, at sue.zarubin@taxinfor.hrblock.com .
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