Summer Shakedown The Weight Challenge.

As you know, summer is just around the corner. It's time to get your body into beach body shape! No excuses, just results!

I'll be running a Shakedown The Weight Challenge, and I want you to be a part of it!

The Shakedown will begin May 1st, and run the entire month of May. If you're interested, here's what you need to do:

1) Order your supply of Shakeology! Comes in delicious Greenberry, and my favorite, Chocolate. Wanna know a secret? Order on Home Direct and get free shipping AND a free work out video!! And Club Members receive a 10% discount on all orders. Order online at my website: www.COACHKARI.com

2) Add yourself to my interest list! All you need to do is send me an email - it's that easy.

3) Get your friends and family on board! Studies have shown that working out with an accountability partner increases your results by 50%! Same holds true for the Summer Shakedown The Weight Challenge. Refer a friend or family member and get a free gift from me!

Are you ready to get in the best shape, and health, of your life, in 1 month? It's possible, and I'm going to help you do it! More info coming soon...stay tuned!!

In the meantime, check out this video: http://beachbodycoach.com/esuite/home/KariMoore?bctid=34934882001

For more information on Shakeology, check out my Shakeology website: http://myshakeology.com/esuite/home/karimoore

*Become a Beachbody Coach (distributor) and receive all your Beachbody orders at a 25% discount!! Email me with any questions!*

Say Yes to Yogurt!

Higher in calcium than milk, 8 ounces of nonfat yogurt contains an impressive 7 to 13 grams of protein, which can help you meet your daily needs and leaves you satisfied. What truly makes yogurt a superstar is its role as a probiotic; its active cultures promote intestinal health and boost immunity. Some animal studies have linked yogurt consumption with anticancer activity. And, many individuals who are lactose-intolerant can eat yogurt because of its low lactose content.

Confused about the current influx of Greek yogurt? This variety is simply concentrated, thicker yogurt, which ups the protein content - about 20 grams per 8 ounces. Regular yogurt, however, contains 3 times the calcium of Greek, so choose the one that best fits your nutritional needs. Either way, make sure to purchase yogurt that states it contains "live and active cultures." Refrigerate all yogurt and use it up by the expiration date on the container.

Yogurt is one cool multi-tasker when it comes to cooking:

1) You can add it to chopped fresh herbs - dill, basil, tarragon - and serve as a sauce for chicken, lamb, or fish.

2) Mix with fruit juice concentrate and pour into Popsicle molds for a fabulous frozen snack; Blend with fresh or frozen fruit for a breakfast smoothie.

3) Or, sub plain low-fat yogurt for mayo in side salads. Need we say more?

CulinArt Newsletter - Winter 2010

You sometimes gain weight when starting a new exercise program? - by Chalene Johnson

I just love this blog post by Chalene Johnson (from Turbo Jam, ChaLEAN Extreme & soon to be released Turbo Fire!). Just wanted to share it with you!

You sometimes gain weight when starting a new exercise program?
by Chalene on December 2, 2009

Probably the most common question I get when I release a new exercise program is "HELP! I'm gaining weight! Am I doing something wrong??" This is a common phenomenon with any new exercise program, Turbo Kick, Turbo Jam, Hip Hop Hustle, you name it! It's especially common (and tempoary) with intense strength training programs like ChaLEAN Extreme or Tony Horton's P90X.

The motivation to start a new exercise program is almost always to lose weight. However, what most personal trainers know, and most at-home exercisers do not, is that a new excercise program often can cause an immediate (and tempoary) increase on the scale. (Notice I didn't say weight gain! I'll explain.) This common increase in the scale is also the reason why perhaps millions of people start and then quickly quit their resolution to get fit.

The tempoary weight gain explained:
When someone starts a new exercise program, they often experience muscle soreness. The more intense and 'unfamiliar' the program, the more intense the muscle soreness. This soreness is most prevalent 24-48 hours after each workout. In the first few weeks of a new program, soreness is the body trying to "protect and defend" the effected targeted tissue. Exercise physiologists refer to this as delayed-onset muscle soreness, or DOMS.

This type of soreness is thought to be caused by tissue breakdown or microscopic tears in muscle tissue. When this happens the body protects the tissue. The muscle becomes inflamed and slightly swollen with fluid retention. This tempoary retention of fluid can result in a 3-4 pound weight gain within a few weeks of a new program. Keep in mind that muscle soreness is not necessarily a reflection of how hard you worked. In fact, some people feel no signes of muscle soreness, yet will experience the muscle protection mechanisms of water retention and slight swelling.

Most people are motivated enough to put up with this tempoary muscle soreness. Yet, many, especially those who really need immediate weight loss to keep them motivated in those first couple weeks become discouraged and quit!

When I worked with a group of 70 test participants during the development stages of ChaLEAN Extreme, this happened. Who was the most upset and discouraged? You guessed it, the women! I'm happy to report absolutely for every single woman (and man) in our group, the weight increase was tempoary and never lasted more than 2 weeks before they started to see a major drop in the scale. However, these people had the advantage of working with someone who was able to explain to them why this was happening and assure them the weight would come off if they stuck to the nutrition plan and stayed true to the program.

For those of you who are following the ChaLEAN Extreme phase plan, keep in mind that when you start each phase, your body will be in "shock" again. Don't be surprised or discouraged if you experience a temporary gain on the scale the first week of each phase.

My own personal example of this is running 10K's. I don't do it very often, maybe 1 or 2x a year. Even though I run on a regular basis, when you run a race you push harder. It's natural for me to be insanely sore the next day. It's also very common for me to see the scale jump 4 pounds the next day from forcing fluids post race and the resulting DOMS. Even though I know the cause of it, it's still a bummer. We're all human and hard work should mean results. Hard work equlas results, but our bodies are amazing machines and they know how to protect us from hurting ourselves. Soreness forces you to give those muscles a break. Ultimately you will lose the weight and you will change your metabolism in the process.

The key is understanding that this is a normal and temporary and stick with the program!!

When to be concerned:
If you experience a significant weight gain (exceeding 5 pounds) which does not being to decrease rapidly after the second week, guess what it is??? I'll give you one hint: you put it in your mouth and chew it. You know it! Your food (or calorie laden beverages). Newsflash friends...exercise doesn't make you gain weight. Consuming more food than you burn makes you gain weight!

So, if after two weeks, you are not losing weight, have gained weight that's not coming off, it's time to take a close and honest look at your food intake. It's time to find out what you're burning in calories each day. Have your RMR (resting metabolic rate) or BMR (basal metabolic rate) tested. This can be done for less than $50 and the information is invaluable. It takes out the guess work. Google "hydrostatic body fat testing" and inser that name of the big city you're closest too. Companies that do HBFT also do BMR testing. Knowledge is king.

I'm gaining weight, but I'm sure it's muscle:
Possibly, but if you're following ChaLEAN Extreme correctly, you should be losing fat and gaining muscle and that fat loss should be much more substantial than the rate at which you can physically put on muscle. This is even true for the guys.

Of the 70 plus people in my test group, every single one of them lost body fat and gained muscle, and not one of them gained weight. I believe the average weight loss after 4 months was 28 pounds with many people losing 40 plus pounds. Even then men, who as you can see put on a lot of muscle, were seeing huge drops in the scale. We tested their muscle composition at the beginning and at the end and 100% of the participants maintained or gained muscle while acheiving substantial weight loss. That's the key to keeping weight off long term, i.e. muscle. Muscle burns fat. But, you've heard me say that before.

Moral of the story:
Be patient, young grass hopper. You'll be lean and mean in no time!

For more blogs by Chalene, check out www.turbokick.com

Shakeology®: A Shake Too Good toBe True?

By Dr. Mark Cheng, PhD

Lately, I've made mention about my use of the nutritional product Shakeology, and some folks have been questioning if I've abandoned the RKC ranks and gone "P90X" on them. So let me set the record straight . . . definitively . . . once and for all.

I heard about Shakeology before there WAS a Shakeology, directly from the mouth of its inventor—Isabelle Brousseau. The wife of Beachbody CEO Carl Daikeler, Ms. Brousseau is a singularly talented coach and highly educated researcher. She's spent years studying the advanced principles of elite human performance from authorities around the world, and I was honored to have the chance to share Pavel Tsatsouline's Hardstyle RKC kettlebell training method privately with her. As an adept student, she was on the fast track to preparing for her RKC instructor certification when she decided to take time off upon learning she was expecting her first child.

During the times I spent training her, Isabelle and I spoke about Chinese herbal medicine, and she mentioned she was researching ways of combining all-natural foods with the highest possible nutrient values into a meal-replacement shake designed for athletes and people-on-the-go. When she mentioned wanting to put in high quality ayurvedic herbs, Chinese herbs, antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, prebiotics, and a host of other vitamins and minerals, my initial reaction was, "Yeah, right!"

My doubts were not unfounded. Having spent years studying (and consuming) Chinese herbal medicines, I had a familiarity with a good deal of what Brousseau was talking about. The ingredients she'd mentioned sounded like a wish list that only insiders would know of and only the filthy rich and well-connected could afford. On top of that, the taste of such a mixture, I surmised, would probably make even the least sensitive tasters wretch with disgust. To make a mixture that would contain the type of ingredients she mentioned, be stable enough to ship and store, and not taste like the bottom skim of a Los Angeles sewer was a pipe dream as far as I was concerned. So I filed the conversation away in my mental round file. A couple of years later, when I met with Carl to discuss a project idea, I saw the finished product on his shelf. Eager to see how far from the initial ideal the finished product had to compromise, I was in for a shock.

Not only did Shakeology have EXACTLY the type of ingredients that Isabelle had mentioned during our training sessions, but it had MORE!Some notables:

Astragalus: widely used in Chinese medicine as an immune system regulator
MSM: one of the most popular supplements for joint health
Chia: the Mayan super-seed with more calcium than whole milk, more omega-3 and -6 than salmon, and more protein than kidney beans
THREE different proprietary blends and some vitamins and minerals that actually exceeded the U.S. RDA.

This stuff looked like it was fit for a king for sure. So I was curious to put it to the final 2 tests: taste and performance. I wanted to know if it smelled or tasted anything like what I thought it would and was curious if it'd make a difference for my high-velocity, high-output, high-mileage lifestyle.

A little background: I'm a caffeine junkie by virtue of workaholism. Ever since discovering the "joy" of all-nighter homework sessions in high school, I became keenly aware of the value of being able to work harder and sacrifice sleep. So when the NoDoz, Vivarin, and Mountain Dew lifestyle needed an adult turn after I'd graduated and started writing, teaching, treating patients, travelling, training, and trying to spend time with my family, I dove hip deep into energy drinks like Red Bull, Monster, and caffeinated energy bars like Pit Bull. When I speak well about a nutritional product, it's for one reason: it helps me get my work done while keeping me healthy. Another bit of background: I'm a glutton. I love food, especially food that tastes good. I never met a filet mignon that I didn't like, and never met one that I didn't like better wrapped in bacon, with a side of bacon-wrapped scallops, and mashed potatoes—topped with bacon. If it doesn't taste good, I don't care how good it is for me. I'll STILL probably not like it well enough to be disciplined about taking it.

The Greenberry Shakeology bag that Carl gave me turned my ball of preconceived notions and stood it on its ear. From the moment I opened the bag, the scent was wonderful, like a dessert that you're eager to tear into. So I dumped some ice and water into the blender and dropped a scoop of the bright green powder in with it. I didn't add juice or other fruits because I wanted to know exactly how this tasted by itself, unadulterated. The next sound I heard after taking my first sip was, "Yum!" It passed the taste test.

Next was the travel test. I wanted to see how it kept me going while traveling, so instead of my usual chain-drinking habit of Monster or Red Bull, I tried a shake or two during the day, usually with one in the morning. I brought Shakeology with me to New York, New Mexico, and most recently to Australia to see how I'd do with it, and the results were remarkable. I had sustained, stable energy, but without the jitters, aggression, and hard drops afterwards. When I travel, I travel to teach, and I have to be up, energetic, strong, and focused. My days here in LA revolve around teaching, training, treating patients, and trying to steal moments with my family. So if something doesn't give me the energy to do what I need, I can't waste my precious time or hard-earned money with it.

Shakeology has proven itself to be able to give me all of that on multiple occasions, both while traveling and here in Los Angeles. You can draw your own conclusions about any product you want, but I'm sharing my experiences with Shakeology here openly. And if you think I'm endorsing it only for financial gain, you couldn't be more wrong. I signed up as a "Coach" so I could buy the product for myself! If you want to try it, you know where to find it, and get ready to be surprised how little such high-quality nutrition costs!

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Did you know? As a Beachbody Coach, you get a 25% discount on ALL Beachbody products, including Shakeology? And, if you sign up on Home Direct (monthly autoship) Shipping is FREE!

Contact me today with any questions you have regarding Shakeology or becoming a Beachbody Coach! I look forward to working with you!