 Stress Sucks...your energy out and raises cortisol levels.
Stress has a severely negative impact on your immune system. When we’re stressed, the immune system’s ability to fight off antigens is reduced. That is why we are more susceptible to infections and viruses. The stress hormone cortisol suppresses the effectiveness of the immune system (e.g. lowers the number of lymphocytes). Stress can also have an indirect effect on the immune system as a person may use unhealthy behavioral coping strategies to reduce their stress, such as drinking and smoking. What does this mean for you? The lower your stress level the lower your risk of catching an infectious disease or virus. We all have stress in our lives and the coronavirus has everyone even more stressed out. So, now, more than ever we need to get our stress under control. So let's start to manage it. Together. Action Steps Choose Friends Carefully Your choice of friends can be the key to stress reduction. Friends should be people who help us to increase our strengths and create innovative solutions to stressful situations. They support us and reaffirm that we are not alone. Accept What We Cannot Change We can accept what we cannot change by changing what we can. Make choices that are realistic, not out of reach. Great quote: "Grant me the power to accept the things that I can't change, the courage to change the things that I can and the Wisdom to know the difference." Create Environments That Reduce Stress Colors of the walls, floor coverings, and furniture can reduce stress. Hues such as cooling greens and blues are positive colors that can reduce stress and create a sense of well-being. Maintain a Sense of HumorLaughing at oneself can release potential stress from the inside. And laughing creates fewer wrinkles than worrying. Stop and Look at Yourself Take time to recognize signs of stress such as anger, exhaustion, and poor quality sleep. As you become aware of these signs, you are beginning to identify how to make stress work. You are being proactive, not reactive to situations. Use Stress as a Teacher As a crisis occurs, stop and think of how to use it to make things better. Make lemonade out of the lemons in life. Make Decisions Indecision increases stress. Good leaders make decisions and act on them. If a bad decision is made, reevaluate. Don't Say Yes to Everything Recognize what your strengths are and focus on taking the time to do a project built on them. Taking on too many projects results in loss of control and creates stress. Learn to say "no". Organize Disorganization creates stress. Taking the "dis" out of disorganization can produce a sense of control in knowing what will happen. That in turn, reduces stress. Leave Time for the Unexpected Look for the natural coping ability to deal with the unexpected. Coping requires time. Time is needed to perceive a crisis to rally our internal and external resources. If you want more information on taking control of stress, read here. If you want help meditating, try Headspace or other Meditation Apps.
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 Beach season is almost here! But with most of us stuck at home, we may have become a little unmotivated and our summer clothes may be fitting a little tighter than usual.
Don't stress! Here are a few helpful tips to get you back on track feel comfortable in your bathing suit. 1- Increase your intake of vegetables at every meal. This will help keep you full while increasing your energy level and decreasing your likelihood of eating processed high-calorie crap. 2- Get more sleep. Your sleep quality and quantity affects your mood, motivation, metabolism, hormones... you get the point. Set a proper sleep schedule and you will reap the benefits. 3- Drink more water. This one may be simple but keeping hydrated will decrease your chances of excess eating among a long list of health benefits. Also, by replacing your pops and juices with water you can also significantly lower your empty calorie consumption. 4- Add a little bit of resistance training into your daily routine. It's a common misconception that you need to do hours of cardio a week to shed body fat. When in reality resistance training has the highest effect on improving body composition. Just 15-20 min of some basics a day can make a big difference. And if you need some guidance on what to do at home to workout we would love to help you out. Book a free consult with a Groundworx coach today. https://www.groundworx.fit/onboard.html  WHAT IS IT?
This challenge was designed by OptimizeMe Nutrition. Eat 800 grams (g) of fruits and/or vegetables, by weight, per day. No foods are eliminated, but only fruits and veggies count toward the 800g. Eat the fruits and veggies of your choice. Hit the macros you want. Raw, cooked, canned, frozen; doesn’t matter! If you can weigh it as a standalone and unprocessed fruit or vegetable, you can count it. Yep, that’s it! Here's a one-sheet with all the rules and scoring details. So why 800g? It’s associated with increased health and is a simplified way to hit those recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. Read more here. DATES Starting Monday May 11th and Ending Sunday June 7th. SIGN-UP We will be taking registration up until Sunday May 10th. Contact tj@groundworx.fit if you have any questions or would like to sign-up. All current members are already enrolled. MEETING We will host a meeting online to go over all the challenge rules and answer your questions. Be sure to be there!
COST
SCORING We will be using SugarWOD to log scores, leaderboard, and fist bump throughout the challenge. More info on scoring and logging can be found here. PRIZES We will be awarding personal training and nutrition coaching, local business gift certificates, Groundworx swag and more!  This cute dog has it figured out! Every animal (including humans) need sleep to recover from our day of work and living. While we sleep, the cells in our body regenerate allowing us to heal and stay healthy.
Missing out on sleep is a huge culprit in breaking down our immune system. Are you getting enough sleep? How much sleep did you get last night? 8 hours? 6 hours? 4 hours? Too tired to remember? We, coaches, have more conversations than you know with clients on the importance of sleep, how to get more of it at a higher quality to help with overall health, but also help with fat loss. Nothing about staying up late is helping us be better, healthier or smarter. And sacrificing sleep will hinder our immune system, increase stress hormones and reduce recovery. Tips for Better Sleep Avoid caffeine - If you’re having trouble falling asleep, eliminating caffeine from your diet is a quick win. If you can’t go without your morning cup of coffee, then stop drinking coffee after 12 pm as this gives caffeine enough time to wear off before bedtime. Use the bedroom for sleep and sex only - Is your bedroom designed to promote good sleep? The ideal sleeping environment is dark, cool and quiet. Don’t make your bedroom a multi-purpose room. Eliminate TVs, laptops, electronics, and clutter. Exercise - There are too many benefits to exercise to list them all here. When it comes to sleep, exercise will make it easier for your brain and body to power down at night. One caveat: avoid exercising two to three hours before bedtime, as the mental and physical stimulation can leave your nervous system feeling wired and make it difficult to calm down at night. Weight - Obesity can wreak havoc on your sleep patterns. The role of exercise only becomes more important with age. Fit middle-aged adults sleep significantly better than their overweight peers. Temperature - Most people sleep best in a cool room. The ideal range is usually between 65 - 70F (18 - 21C). Sound - A quiet space is key for good sleep. If peace and quiet is hard to come by, try controlling the bedroom noise by creating “white noise” with a fan, or use earplugs. Alcohol - This one is a slippery slope. It is true that having a "nightcap" before bed often does help people fall asleep. However, while it makes it easier to fall asleep, it actually reduces the quality of your sleep and delays the REM cycle. So, you fall asleep faster, but it’s possible that you’ll wake up without feeling rested. It’s probably best to improve your sleep through other methods before resorting to alcohol to do the job. Besides alcohol weakens the immune system. Verdict: Not helping you sleep better! If you need any more helpful tips for staying healthy at home check out our 14 Day Health at Home program today https://www.groundworx.fit/healthy-at-home.html  You have a very important goal. Sometimes that goal will feel far away and sometimes it will even feel out of reach. And with all the "Corona-craziness" going around it is more important than ever to replace any darkness with light.
Sometimes people will doubt you and sometimes you will doubt yourself. Release the Doubt! There is no room for it! Focus on your Goal! To overcome the doubt you will need a special weapon. Positivity is your special weapon! Positive energy =positive results! That means being mindful of what you think and say so you can be a positive source of energy for everyone around you. And right now the world needs as much positive energy as it can get! So avoid negativity whenever possible. That doesn't mean pretending everything is sunshine and rainbows. But don't surround yourself with negativity either. Because what you think about it and what you care about shapes what you experience. So be mindful of the words you speak and your intentions. And be even more mindful of what thoughts occupy your mind space. There are opportunities in every obstacle, and this situation is full of options. Everyone has more time to focus on exercise, quality sleep and healthy eating. All those distractions of a busy schedule are no longer excuses to hinder your improvement. Turn every lemon you can into lemonade and the world will be full of possibilities. The world needs more healthy positivity and it counting on you to keep your body and thoughts healthy!  Fasting of any kind requires a strong and dedicated mindset but the immune system benefits are definitely worth it!
Dr. Longo and colleagues at USC found that fasting lowered white blood cell counts, which in turn triggered the immune system to start producing new white blood cells. White blood cells (or lymphocytes) are a key component of your body’s immune system. Once you start eating again, according to Longo, your stem cells kick back into high gear to replenish the cells that were recycled. For years, the verdict was that you would need to fast for 72-hours straight to get the immune system benefits. Because for it to work, you have to fully deplete your energy reserves (in the form of glycogen), and it takes your body at least 24 hours, and probably 48 hours or more, to do this. That's the not-so-good news. Because fasting or 72-hours straight doesn’t sound so great especially during these stressful times.Here’s the good news: Recent studies have proved that you can get many of the benefits of fasting without doing a 3-day fast, which for most people is really, really difficult to accomplish. Instead, you can try a much easier type of fasting, called "time-restricted" fasting also known as intermittent fasting. With this strategy, you fast every day, by eating all of your food in a 6-hour or 8-hour window. Here are a couple of options to choose from:
Fasting is Your Immune System Superpower Here are some science-back benefits of I-F: lower blood pressure; resting heart rate; levels of HDL and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, and insulin resistance. In addition, intermittent fasting reduces markers of systemic inflammation and oxidative stress that are associated with atherosclerosis. Because intermittent fasting reduces inflammation, it may also improve symptoms of arthritis and even rheumatoid arthritis. But the big benefit, the one we really care about right now, intermittent fasting boosts our immune system powers! Time to get nerdy for a bit, you can skip ahead of nerdy-nutrition science puts you to sleep… lol. Why does fasting work? It's all about getting your body to switch over from glucose metabolism to ketone metabolism. Our usual 3-5 meal-a-day diet provides our body with a constant source of fuel in the form of glucose. Once that glucose is used up, though, our body switches to using fatty acids and ketone bodies. Ketone bodies provide more than fuel. Ketone bodies regulate the expression and activity of many proteins and molecules that are known to influence health and aging and boost immunity to viruses and infections. Ketone metabolism brings a host of health benefits. The trick is getting our bodies to switch over to it, now and then. If we eat constantly, then our bodies happily subsist on glucose and never make the switch. In a nutshell: The more ketones we can produce the stronger our immune system gets. Accelerated metabolism is also a Bonus! So, as of today start taking the steps to move all your meals into an 8-hour eating window. If this change seems intimidating, start with a 10-hour window and cut it down by :30 minutes each day until you get to the 8-hour window. You will still eat the same amount of food each day you will just eat in a smaller period of time. I like to workout out in a fasted state. But try both and see which one works best for you. Happy Intermittent Fasting. This is a game-changer! References: https://www.vitacost.com/blog/food-nutrition/nutrition-advice/best-foods-tobreak-a-fast.htmlhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2020 Event 1- Menage a Trois AMRAP 7 Min 9 Deadlifts 7 Hang Squat Clean 5 Shoulder to OH Performance: 135/95 Fitness: 95/65 Athletes all have their own bars. Athletes can divide reps as desired. Score is total reps. Event 2- Box of Chocolates 3 Rounds for time Each Partner completes: Partner A- 10 PERFORMANCE (Pull-Ups), FITNESS (Jumping Pull-Ups) 10 Wallball PERFORMANCE (20/14), FITNESS (14/10) 10 KB Swings PERFORMANCE (52/35), FITNESS (35/25) 10 PERFORMANCE (Box Jumps), FITNESS (Step-Ups) 24/20" Partner B- Must complete 15/12 Calories before they can switch Each athlete will complete 3 rounds of both the floor work and rowing The score is the time when the last athlete completes either the box jump or row. Event 3- Partners in Crime For time (time cap TBD): PERFORMANCE (100 Double Unders), FITNESS (150 singles) 80 ft OH DB Walking Lunges 60 PERFORMANCE (Toes to Bar), FITNESS (Hanging Knee Raises) 40 Alt. DB Snatch 20 Burpee Over DB Athletes can divide reps as desired. DB PERFORMANCE(50/35), FITNESS(35/25) OH Lunges are one arm and can be switched as desired. 
 It's a common misconception that weight lifting will make you bulky and beefy. This is unfortunate as resistance training has such a wide array of health benefits including increased bone density, calorie burning, hormonal balance, stress relief, injury prevention, functional capacity and much more. Here are my top 3 reasons you shouldn’t be afraid to meet me at the bar.
There really isn’t anything to be afraid of when it comes to lifting weights and becoming bulky. The nutrition, supplementation, time and programming related to ‘getting bulky’ is so specific and challenging that you would never do it by lifting weights a few times a week. In reality, a properly designed and implemented weightlifting program may be exactly what you need to shed those extra pounds! Looking for some advice on how to start a weightlifting program? Book a free consult below.
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