The Environmental Effect
These days there is a lot of talk about our environment. Everywhere we turn, we see more and more push to live “green.” In all of the great efforts to preserve our Earth, we must not forget about our own, personal environment; the environment with which we surround ourselves each and every day. This environment consists of our homes, our family and friends, our workplaces, and even the places where we do our workouts.
Have you ever stopped to think about how your environment might affect your health and fitness goals? In some aspect, you have probably already taken environment into account when you chose to train with us at Body Basics. Body Basics provides an environment that is unlike any other gym or fitness studio. Our environment is so unique because it was built and designed around our company’s mission:
“To empower our clients to realize their innate abilities by providing an environment that nurtures, educates, and inspires.”
Let’s take a deeper look at exactly how the Body Basics environment might affect you and your goals.
Nurturing
At Body Basics, we are in the business of helping people change their lives. For a handful of people, this change can happen quickly. But for the vast majority, changing life-long habits is a process that occurs over time. During this process, it is important that the client feels supported and encouraged or, in other words, nurtured along the way.
A nurturing environment is a place where one feels safe and secure. Some gyms may feel cold, harsh, and intimidating. At BodyBasics, we understand how this unpleasant environment may not be conducive to achieving your goals. The environment at BodyBasics provides the feeling of support and encouragement not only through the Fitness Coaches, but through our clients as well. As your Fitness Coaches, we take on the responsibility of being supportive and encouraging to you, but when our clients do the same, well that’s just icing on the (carrot) cake.
Educating
Living a healthy lifestyle is a skill, we believe, anyone can learn. As your Fitness Coaches, we make it our goal to educate you in ways that will assist you in developing this important skill.
Each one of our Fitness Coaches has been educated on the science of health and fitness. Our degrees, certifications, and experience have made us qualified to train individuals in the gym. At BodyBasics, we strive to do more than just develop a workout routine to perform in the gym for two to three hours a week. Our desire is to pass on our acquired knowledge to our clients. We want you to leave every session having learned something new about your body and/or your life.
Just as there are many spokes on the Healthy Lifestyle Wheel or “Wagon Wheel of Life” (“We Have it Backwards, July/Aug issue of The Pulse), the Healthy Lifestyle Skill is comprised of many other skills. While there is no one “right” way to live a healthy lifestyle, our role as your Fitness Coaches, is to educate you and help you discover your right way of making healthy changes in your life.
Inspiring
While our Fitness Coaches may inspire our clients to discover healthier lifestyles, we can not take all the credit. Once again, it is the clients of BodyBasics that help to inspire each other. Nothing speaks louder and more honestly than our own clients’ testimonies. We have so many inspirational stories that walk in and out of our studio every day. The most exciting part about these stories is that the BodyBasics environment provides a safe place to share these amazing stories.
One incredibly fulfilling aspect of being a Fitness Coach comes when we have inspired someone to achieve their goals. What is equally fulfilling and exciting is how each and every day, we too, are inspired by our clients.
A More Personal Note
As a Fitness Coach branching out on her own, I am constantly faced with the realization that there is no other place like BodyBasics. Not only does BodyBasics provide the necessary environment for our clients to succeed, but it is also a place that allows the Fitness Coaches to reach their potential and be the best they can be at their job. The team dynamic, specifically the support and encouragement, amongst the Coaches is hard to find anywhere else. I truly believe that in the process of creating an environment where our clients will feel nurtured, educated and inspired, Body Basics, in fact, is providing a home where our Fitness Coaches feel nurtured, educated and inspired. This, in turn, helps us discover our innate abilities and develops us into more confident, more motivated, and more successful Fitness Coaches. I know the BodyBasics environment did this for me and for that, I say, “Thank you.”~Coach Kerbs
Our Mission
The Body Basics mission is centered around environment. We are committed to providing the type of environment you need to succeed. Just as our personal environment affects our daily lives, the Body Basics environment affects your health and fitness goals. Pay close attention next time you walk through the door. Notice the “hellos,” the smiles, and the encouragement from others. It is a place where people’s lives are changed everyday. The Fitness Coaches and the clients are what make up the environment of Body Basics and it is just the right amount of nurturing, education and inspiration one needs to find success!
Nutrition Corner – Eat More During the Holidays!
Is it that time of year again already?! The air is a bit crisper, nights are growing longer, and the stores are displaying their supplies of holiday cheer. For many “dieters” and those with healthy-weight goals, this time of year can feel a bit dreadful. If you are currently working toward eliminating weight and body-fat, you may want to pick a date to start more of a maintenance program. Maintaining your current weight throughout the Holidays may be a more realistic goal and will keep you from feeling the inevitable guilt that often accompanies the consumption of traditional holiday eats. If you maintain your weight from Halloween through Jan 1, 2009, you will be, on average, one pound ahead of the rest of America. Although it may seem that more weight is gained during the Holidays, it is that one pesky pound that stays with us for the rest of our lives.
This holiday season, we encourage you to stop focusing on what you should NOT eat and start focusing on what you should include in your nutrition plan.
Add, Don’t Subtract!
Deprivation is sure to squash any diet, so it is important that you allow yourself to have the treats that you love in moderation, of course. And speaking of squash…
The Fall and Winter seasons provide us with a wonderful variety of unique and very healthful fruits and vegetables. Here is a consolidated list of some Fall and Winter produce that are in-season:
Fall/Winter Fruits
- Apples
- Bananas
- Blood Oranges
- Clememtines
- Cranberries
- Grapes (Red)
- Grapefruits
- Kiwi
- Oranges
- Pears
- Pomegranates
- Tangelo
- Tangerine
Fall/Winter Vegetables
- Artichokes
- Avocado
- Beans
- Beets
- Bok Choy
- Broccoli
- Broccoli Rabe
- Brussel Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Kale
- Leeks
- Pumpkin
- Radishes
- Snow Peas
- Spinach
- Squash (Winter)
- Sweet Potatoes
- Swiss Chard
- Turnips
- Watercress
If you have not tried some of these fruits or vegetables, we encourage you to do so. Consuming in-season produce can ensure variety in your diet and will force you to try different out-of-the-ordinary produce you may be used to cooking more often. Slice up some apples or pears to add to a salad or eat as a snack with some mozzarella or Swiss cheese. Pomegranate seeds and cranberries are also a wonderful, tasty addition to your salad greens. Toss in broccoli florets with your pasta dishes or steam and then saut up some brussel sprouts with garlic and balsamic vinegar.
Experiment with roasting vegetables as this cooking method brings out intense flavors in carrots, cauliflower, leeks, beets and all varieties of winter squashes. Plus, the colder weather makes us all crave warm, comforting foods and roasting vegetables is sure to hit the spot! Soups are also soul-warming meals and they are wonderfully healthy as you can feel free to add almost any vegetable to your pot. Puree roasted garlic and butternut squash with cooked onion, potato and chicken or vegetable broth and you have a silky smooth and very flavorful soup.
Break Tradition Just a Little
When it comes to holiday food, it is okay to veer a little from the traditional path. For example, when making a green been casserole try substituting fresh or frozen green beans for the canned green beans and take the dish out of the oven before the beans are too mushy. Use the same concept with a sweet potato casserole. Opt for using fresh sweet potatoes and a little less brown sugar and maybe some extra, non-candied pecans. Also, think about adding a raw dish, like a salad or a winter veggie tray that might include radishes, carrots, artichoke hearts, broccoli, cauliflower and snow peas. Making these simple and minor adjustments to your traditional holiday feast will help you add more nutrients into your meal without sacrificing the food that you love.
For traditional and some not-so-traditional healthy recipes for Thanksgiving, visit: EatingWell’s Healthy Thanksgiving Recipies.
Focus on the Good
To quote Abby Floyd, Registered Dietician and former Nutrition Coach at BodyBasics, “No one ever got fat from eating too many fruits and vegetables.” Abby likes to focus on adding nutritious foods into a diet before eliminating the not-so-good-for-you options. The idea is to fill up on the good stuff to edge out the bad. In the effort to stay ahead of the game this holiday season, we encourage you to eat more! Eat more delicious Fall and Winter fruits and vegetables and your body, jeans, and waistline will thank you come January!
Healthy Recipe: Black Bean Brownies
The following recipe was submitted, tested, and approved by BodyBasic’s client Susan Mannion.
For a little sneakier way to add more nutrition to your Holiday treats, try this brownie recipe.
Guiltless Brownies
High-fiber, high-protein brownies.
15oz can black beans (drained & rinsed well)
4 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated Splenda
3 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp strong coffee (or 1 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water)
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp canola or olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 350*F.
Prepare an 8×8 baking pan by spraying it with cooking spray.
Mix all ingredients in a food processor or blender.
Add the beans last and make sure you blend VERY well.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool before slicing 2″x2.”
Number of Servings: 16
Calories 79.2
Total Fat 3.4 g
Cholesterol 53.1 mg
Sodium 45.5 mg
Potassium 126.4 mg
Carbs 9 g
Sugars 0 g
Dietary Fiber 2.5
Protein 4.2 g
Guest Article – Happiness, the Enneagram Way
Happiness…The Enneagram Way
Carol Bartol, RN, MS, CS
What is an Enneagram?
Susan was a perfectionist. Having everything in its right place was important to her. Her fianc, Rob, was a free spirit and gave little attention to details. He brought fun and excitement to her life but Susan was worried about whether they would actually be able to live together as a couple.
Lynn was a kind and gentle person, treasured and admired by her many friends. They always knew that they could call on her for help when they needed it. Her husband John was a successful businessman, and generous in his own way. But there were many times that Lynn thought he was too bossy and insensitive to her needs.
Julie loved to go out and socialize at parties and gatherings. She was the one that always arranged her family get-togethers for birthdays and celebrations. But her husband Richard preferred to stay at home with his books and TV sports.
Each of these couples had dramatically different styles and preferences. When they had disagreements, it often reflected these differences in style and viewpoint. So how do people resolve these differences so they can experience happiness in their lives and their relationships? The ancient Sufi’s had an answer for this. Many hundreds of years ago, this middle Eastern sect described a system called the Enneagram, which looked at innate differences in personality on a nine-pointed star. “Ennea†is Greek for the number nine, and “gram†means a drawing. This theory was handed down through an oral tradition, and appears to have been resurrected during the last three decades at Stanford University, and by the Jesuits.
The Enneagram is a fascinating way of looking at our basic personality styles, as well as identifying the individual ways in which we handle stress and conflict. The Sufi’s believed we were born into a unique style or point on the Enneagram. (In fact, some researchers have identified nine distinct behavioral patterns in newborn babies)! Then, our coping skills seem to be further influenced by the reactions of our parents and family as we were growing up.
Do each of us fit neatly into such a box? No there are many variations and sub-groups within this model. But learning more about the Enneagram, and the basic types, will give us some clues about our own behaviors and those of the people we care about. Over the years, my clients and students found this non-judgmental system to be an exciting and insightful way of pinpointing their own unique stress responses. They learned to be more accepting of themselves, and to be more understanding of their families, friends, and colleagues. Less conflict more peace more happiness!
If you look at the diagram, you will notice a nine-pointed star within a circle. Each point is also connected to two other points by the interconnecting lines. Once you have identified your basic personality type, you then follow the interconnecting lines to find your stress point, and your heart point. (i.e. your behavioral style when you are stressed and your behavioral style when you are happy and peaceful).
The following are thumb-nail sketches of the nine different types. I invite you to look at this brief summary and see what might fit for you.
Type 1 – Perfectionists are realistic, conscientious, and principled, and strive to live up to their high ideals.
Type 2 – Helpers are warm, concerned, nurturing, and sensitive to other people’s needs, and thrive in the helping professions.
Type 3 – Achievers are energetic, optimistic, self-assured, and goal oriented, and typical of the American ideal for success.
Type 4 – Romantics have a flair for the dramatic, experience feelings deeply, are exceptionally perceptive, shun the mundane, and often are in the creative arts.
Type 5 – Observers tend to be introverted, curious, analytical, and insightful, and view the world from an intellectual perspective.
Type 6 – Questioners are responsible, trustworthy, and value loyalty to family, friends, groups, and causes, with personalities ranging from quietly reserved to outspoken and confrontational.
Type 7 – Adventurers are energetic, lively, and optimistic, and welcome new and exciting experiences. They are often multi-talented and entrepreneurial.
Type 8 – Asserters tend to be powerful, direct, self-reliant, and resourceful, and often emerge as strong natural leaders.
Type 9 – Peacemakers are generally receptive, good-natured, and supportive. They tend to place strong value on peaceful communication, harmony, and conventional roles.
Although these types provide a road-map, each of us has developed our own individual style of interacting with others, and of coping with the stressors in our life. As we mature, we hopefully develop new and more effective ways of coping with stress. Learning about the Enneagram is a fun and creative way to better understand ourselves and to experience greater insight into the behaviors of other people in our lives. Through workshops and personal consultations, many people have discovered that this intriguing system of the Enneagram offered them a smoother path to happiness.
Carol Bartol RN,MS,CS is co-founder of Imagine Wellness, located at 7493 N Oracle,Suite#115, Tucson, AZ 85704. She has been a psychotherapist, educator, consultant, and wellness coach for over 30 years. The Enneagram has always been one of the most popular workshops for helping people achieve greater health and balance in their lives. You can contact her at 520 797-4099 for more information.
Client Spotlight
Dennis Ritchie – November
In the five short months that Amanda and Dennis have been coming to Body Basics they have seen outstanding results. Both came in wanting to improve their strength and stamina for badminton and life in general. This is exactly what the two of them are realizing. Both report much greater stamina and higher energy levels during AND after badminton matches. They are also feeling more sustained energy during the work day.
Dennis and Amanda, We commend you for sticking to your workout schedule and always coming prepared to give your best each time.
Amanda Ritchie – December
Our Mission
To empower people to realize their innate abilities by providing an environment that nurtures, educates, and inspires.
Keep Up the Great Work!
We are very proud of all of you!
Chris, Mike, Kathleen, Katrina, Cecile, and Jenny
