Rotisserie Chicken Enchiladas

If you are looking for meal ideas you MUST check out Jen-fits Playground!
She has a ton of free recipes and even more for members.

I love this recipe simply because it is super tasty, fast and inexpensive to make. Try it and let me know if you love this as much as I do :-D

*DON'T THROW AWAY THE CARCASS* Throw it in a crock pot and simmer for a few hours to make a useful stock fir future recipes or add veggies and quinoa to make a yummy soup.

Makes 5 servings (2 stuffed tortillas each)
Ingredients:

• 1 cup fat-free refried beans
• 2 cups green enchilada sauce
• 10 oz Rotisserie Chicken (Costco $4.99!)
• 1/4 cup fat-free cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup fresh chopped Cilantro
• 1/2 cup nonfat Greek Yogurt (VOSKOS is my favorite)
• 1/2 red or white onion thinly sliced and sauteed
• Cumin spice
• 10 low-fat, low-calorie corn tortillas

Directions:
Remove chicken breast from Rotisserie Chicken and shred. Distribute chicken evenly among tortillas.
Grease (spray) a small casserole dish.

Saute sliced onion for 3-5 minutes until softened. Add enchilada sauce and heat through. Pour a little sauce in each tortilla. Add a tablespoon or so of refried beans to each tortilla. Sprinkle with fresh cilantro and Cumin spice. Roll tortillas and place (seam down) tightly in casserole dish.

Top with remaining enchilada sauce. Sprinkle with fat-free cheddar cheese.

Bake in oven at 350 for 20 minutes or until heated through (chicken is already cooked, so it shouldn’t take too long).

Serve with fat-free sour cream or with nonfat Greek Yogurt. We used Greek Yogurt to help increase protein.

Nutrition:
Calories 326
Calories from Fat 63.6
Total Fat 7.07g
Saturated Fat 1.67g
Cholesterol 38.16mg
Sodium 1160mg
Total Carbohydrate 40.23g
Dietary Fiber 4.42g
Sugars 2.73g
Protein 22.28g

10 Reasons you NEED to Start Stretching NOW!

 
Every body type, age, gender, size, race, religion needs to stretch.  
So this means YOU!

1.) Prevent injury
2.) Increase muscle-tendon flexibility
3.) Enhance performance
4.) Improve range of motion
5.) Increase sleep
6.) Alleviate muscle soreness
7.) Enhance well-being
8.) Decrease low-back pain
9.) Improve circulation
10.) Post-exercise cool-down


How does stretching work? 
Muscles get sore when their fibers remain partly contracted, from either overuse (such as too many rounds of racquetball) or underuse (too much time in the car). Tight muscles also trigger the body's stress response, which prompts them to tighten even more. By systematically lengthening those fibers, stretching helps ease muscles out of this semicontracted state. That makes it a great way to "cool down" after exercise. And the act of stretching itself builds body awareness: In slowing down to focus on each movement, you become less apt to use your muscles in harmful or inefficient ways.
 

When Is The Best Time To Stretch?
The best time to stretch is when the muscles are warm. Either after exercise or after a warm-up activity. This gives the muscles a chance to heat up and become more flexible. Injuries usually occur when people stretch muscles when they are cold or not warmed up. Stretches should be held for approximately 20 seconds. Think of your muscles as a piece of taffy, cold taffy seems to break when you try and stretch it while warm taffy stretches very easily.

How often should I stretch?
Frequency: Try to stretch every day; start doing each stretch once and build up to doing each stretch 3 times

Intensity: Light pressure, about 30-40% of max

Duration: Hold each stretch between 10 to 60 seconds depending on your current flexibility, conditioning, and time. Start slow and gradually build up the time you hold a static stretch.

If you are unable to stretch on a daily basis, a post-workout stretch is necessary. Or, as I advice my clients, incorporate stretches DURING your workouts . Typically, that means stretching the bodypart that has just been exercised. For example, if you just did a set of bicep curls, follow it up with a bicep stretch. Or, if you're doing multiple sets, stretch the bicep after the first set. This is a very time efficient way to incorporate stretching and to ensure you're getting maximum benefit.

NOTE: Don't bounce as you stretch; that only tightens the muscle you're trying to extend. And try not to stretch "cold": Wait until you've taken a warm shower or moved around a bit.

Fun Summer Family Fitness Ideas

As an active mother, to an active family, I am always looking for fun and exciting ways to keep the kids entertained during the long summer days or on a rainy day.

I found this list and a cute kid-friend workout video by Natalie Heckert 

Who says fitness can’t be fun! 

It’s a great time to get together with your children to stay in shape. 

Here are some fun summer family fitness ideas so get up, get outside, and have fun!

1. Go to a local school track so that everyone in your family can walk and/or run at their own pace, and still be within 200 meters of each other. Make a game of it: map out a bunch of tracks in your area and try to go to all of them this summer. 

2. Find a safe place to ride and go for family bike rides. Rails-to-trails paths are awesome, safe, and pretty flat.

3. Go on family hikes at local state parks. Hit as many different trails and parks as you can. Save the maps so that at the end of the summer you can see all that you’ve done.

4. Go on walks together in your neighborhood, and then if you get bored with that, drive to other neighborhoods and walk around there. You’ll probably meet a bunch of new people and get some new landscaping ideas for your house (this may or may not be a good thing).

5. Go to your favorite swimming pool/lake/ocean and actually swim. Even flopping around in the water is good exercise, and it sure beats just lying there baking in the sun.

6. Sign your kids up for summer programs. The YMCA, city recreation centers, fitness centers, racquet clubs, sport facilities and schools have various day camps, classes and workshops that provide a variety of activities. They include sport like soccer and basketball to more nontraditional activities such as martial arts, gymnastics or table tennis. 

7. As a family, enter some local 5K run/walk events. Most events are put on for raising money for a particular charity or cause, and it’s a great way to hang out with other like-minded people.

8. Play Capture the Flag with your kids. They’ll absolutely love it! Kids love to have their parents play
with them and to see them act like kids again.

9. Do some simple exercise (push-ups, sit-ups, stretching) with your kids every commercial.

10. Rent canoes or kayaks and go out to enjoy some calm (or rough) water. Most rental kayaks are very stable and are made with inexperienced kayakers in mind. 

11. At home ideas: Keep a variety of games and sports equipment on hand. They don't have to be expensive an assortment of balls (soccer, basketball, baseball, tennis, and playground), hula-hoops, and jump ropes can keep a child busy for hours.

12. Walking the dog to simply playing with it provide an opportunity for activity. The Internet has lots of sites that offer exercise, zumba, dance, kickboxing, pilates and yoga videos for kids to learn on their own. 

13. Local parks: You'll find basketball courts, tennis courts, football fields, baseball fields and soccer fields at area parks. Some offer more unique activities like Frisbee golf, croquet fields, horseshoe pits, miniature golf courses, and skateboarding areas. 

14. Other ideas: Bowling, laser tag, ice skating, roller skating, golf, in-line skating, canoeing, gardening, swimming, cycling or simply taking a walk are a few more simple ideas to keep your student active this summer.

Get up, get moving, and have some family fitness fun this summer!

 

Benefits of Balance Training

The Many Benefits of Balance Training
By Ryan Krane

In order to improve your balance, and a little thing called proprioception (which I'll explain in a moment), in comes BALANCE TRAINING. But what is proprioception, you ask? It's just a big word for the body's ability to use information about your body and joints are in space.

So what can balance training do for you exactly?
There are numerous benefits, actually! Through balance training, your agility is much increased. Furthermore, your risk of falling over is lessened, due to your improvement in being able to properly balance yourself and better proprioception. Your overall coordination, posture, and balance are all boosted through the proper training. Thus, you'll get injured less, become stronger, and your stability will increase, even as you grow older.

Now that you know more about balance training and how it can help you, how about trying out some exercises to get the ball rolling? Try using a balance/exercise ball, and exercises that require standing on one foot. Yoga and Pilates are two great ways to improve your balance, but try that if you're willing to work on something more challenging!

Here are some visual examples of how we train our proprioception at bootcamp:

Using a stability ball

Using a Bosu

Using your own body weight