Week #9: Time challenge!

Hey there you guys,

I hope that you all have been doing well and that you have been able to knock all these challenges out of the park!

This week you will complete the listed exercises for a full 60 seconds for each one, you must complete it daily... however, I am not saying all at once, in the order given, or even restrict any of you from completing it more then one time through.  :)

1) Wall Sit: (this one you may have to work up in but take breaks and keep going! you can do it!)
2) Squats: (see how many you can do.)
3) Push Ups: (on your feet or knees, it doesn't matter. Just work hard.)
4) Jumping Jacks: (make it a competition.... how many can you get?!)
5) Plank Hold: (watch your back and bottom, no sagging! You can also go to your knees if you feel your form leaving you.)

Good luck to you all for this challenge next week! Kick Booty! :)


Committed to your health and fitness,
Justin and Angie LaPointe

week #7: Weekly Challenge! Make It Happen!

Wow! I can't believe that its been almost 2 months of challenges already! How are you doing with these challenges?  What do you think about them?  I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions about them and really I want the good with the not so good. So, let me know what you think. 



I hope that every one's week is going well and that the weekend holds nothing but great things!  So, for the next 7 days, here is what I have planned for you to include into your routine.  Ready?

First and foremost, I want there to be at least 1 serving of vegetables with EVERY meal.  Now, if you are eating 5-6 times a day you might think that its hard but really it is so easy to just add a serving of vegetables.  Add 10 baby carrots to a snack, add 1/2 cup of mixed veggies with your eggs in the morning, have a small salad with lunch and/ or dinner, etc.  If you guys ever need help with ideas and placement of foods let me know and I will help you out where you need it.

Ok, for the second part of this, daily you will complete:
1) 1 Max plank hold.  (try and beat the time you got from the day before every time!)
2) 50 lunges (any kind and 50 total reps)
3) 2 sets of 30 seconds each of: Mt. Climbers and Jumping Jacks. (A total of 2 minutes of extra cardio. YAY!)

And remember, (taking from the quote above) don't just talk about it, think about it, or dream about it, be about it. What you want, dream, talk and think about can be yours but you have to take action.  Start today, you can do it!

Committed to your health and fitness,
Justin and Angie LaPointe

Week #5: Fitness Challenge

Happy Monday everyone!!!

Hopefully you all had a great weekend and got outside now that the weather seems to be getting warmer and a little more sunny... depends on where you are I guess. 

OK, down to business.  Here's the deal with this week's challenge.  During the times that we are watching TV and all those annoying commercials come on, which for some reason we all decide to sit and wait and watch all of it.  Instead, lets have fun and make it a fun activity/ game time.  How many sit-ups can you do during that car ad? How long can you do fast feet during that preview? etc. 

So for however long or how many shows you decide to watch this week, you will do an exercise for each commercial that you have come on.  Now, you will want to keep it simple but effective and somewhat challenging.  Some recommendations are:

• Cardio based: High knee runs/Jogging in place, Burpees, Jumping Jacks, skaters, Mt. Climbers, Fast Feet, Tuck Jumps, "Jumping Rope" (pretend that you are), etc.
• Strength: Push-ups, Sit-ups, Lunges (in place), squats, Plank hold, etc.

Hopefully, those exercises will help people fill their TV time with fun times and exercise to help burn off those  unwanted pounds and calories.  Remember, there needs to be a caloric deficit for there to be weight loss and with spring around the corner there is no better time then now.  We all have times were we are more into or less into our health and fitness goals.  But that time for being into them 100% is now and Better Body Fitness NW is here to help support that. 

Good Luck this week! We know you all can do it!

Committed to your health and fitness,
Justin and Angie LaPointe

Week #3 Fitness Challenge!

Happy Week 3 One and All!

I hope that this post finds you all well and that you guys are tackling those challenges! I am so excited to also announce that we are only about 3000 views away from 15,000 views! This blog is  something that is close to my heart and the fact that you all are taking such an interest in this as well as taking away information that will help you get closer to your goals is so amazing in my eyes. So, thank you. 

Anyways, back to your weekly challenge.  This week is more of a "workout" oriented challenge.  Its a great way of burning those little extra calories but it won't feel like you are "over doing" for any workouts that may happen that day or throw you off from a rest day that you may be enjoying. Remember, we need to start getting our gears into place because it is almost march! I know, I can't believe it either.  BUT this means that summer is coming and really isn't all that far away. So, by adding these challenges into your daily routine it will help you transition into a different mentality and help you get ready for summer quicker. OK! Our challenge looks a but something like this:

50 Squats (body weight)

40 Jumping Jacks

30 Russian Twists
(for beginner to moderate levels do 30 total, for more advanced levels complete 30 each side.)

20 Planks rows
(please review this: http://betterbodyfitnessnw.blogspot.com/2012/06/move-of-week-plank-row.html)

10 Star Jumps

Please complete this circuit 2 times during your day. You don't have to do this all at once if you do not have the time. You could do one set in the morning and the other after you get home from work, or during your lunch break, whenever.  That is the beauty of this challenge, it is quick and does not take long, so there is no reason not to do it!

Good Luck everyone and enjoy your week!

Committed to your health and fitness,
Justin and Angie LaPointe

Fitness Challenge #2: Bring it on!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I hope that the week has started off to a great start and that you all have only great things headed to you this week.  OK! So, it is the start of another week and therefore another 7 days worth of awesome health and fitness challenges.  This week, we are going to be doing a nutritional and an exercise challenge. 

For the nutrition part, I want you all to focus on making sure you are eating 5 to 6 meals each day and are spacing them out about every 3-4 hours.  This is very important when you are working at getting weight off or keeping it off because it lets your body know that, one, you are not starving it and therefore it does not have to store all of what you are eating to fat. Then secondly, it keeps your metabolism running at a higher rate so you will feel hungrier and your body will have to fuel that it needs to give you more energy to do the things you need to get done everyday, as well as, having increased energy to stay and be active.

Now, for the exercise challenge! It is a burpee week.  If you are unfamiliar with burpees, please review at this link: http://betterbodyfitnessnw.blogspot.com/2012/04/best-total-body-exercise.html
Here is the concept.  I will have you all start with 10 burpees on day 1.  Then, on day 2 you add 2 for a total of 12 and so on for a total of 7 days you continually add 2 reps.  (You will end at 22 on the last day of your burpees. 

Good Luck with your challenges this week everyone! I know that you will do a great job and remember that you can always ask us any questions via our comments or our email.  I hope that everyone has a great week of kicking butt!

Committed to your health and fitness,
Justin and Angie LaPointe

Workout Challenge Of The Week: The Squat Pyramid

O.k. you guys, here is the deal, every other week we will have a workout challenge posted for you guys to do during the week. This way you can get some extra calorie burning exercise in! They will be simple challenges that you can incorporate into day, maybe even at work.

So, for this week I want you all to do squats.  This is perfect because you can do them anywhere, even at your desk! But here is the twist, you will need to pick a number (that has to be 15 reps or higher) and then every day you must complete 5 more squats for 7 days straight.  So, you start with 15, then tomorrow 20, then 25, and so on.

If you aren't sure how to do a squat or if your form is correct please refer back to the Move Of The Week: The Squat.


Good luck this week you guys and remember that we are always here to help out. :)
Committed to your health and fitness,
Justin and Angie LaPointe

Eating Out Can Be Healthy: Just UseThese Little Tips

Hey everybody!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and has been having a great week since.  With school starting back up and with summer coming to an end, we all will start to become busier and most likely may be going out for those quick “on- the –go” meals.  It is hard to always know what is healthy and what isn’t, even a salad can be over 1000 calories with dressings, cheeses, and other additives.

Looking for healthy choices doesn’t have to be hard and you can find healthier options even at the major chains restaurants.  If you know you will be out or just out and about you can visit this website to find the restaurant that is near you and look it up and they even have healthy meal choices and how to order it! Nothing could be easier to stay on track and be able to go out.

Go and visit: www.healthydiningfinder.comand try it out to see what you think. I find it a very helpful and hopefully you will too.

Remember that other good ideas are to get a take-out box and put half away so you are eating a proper portion too, order water and drink about 16 ounces before your meal (stay away from the pop and alcohol), and either don't eat the bread or chips that come to your table or just pull one serving aside for yourself . 

Committed to your health and fitness,
Justin and Angie LaPointe

Clean Eating BBQ Garlic & Dill Asparagus

Hey everyone! Here is a fun way of spicing up your vegetables to make them more entertaining to eat that are easy to make! Plus they are a great add in for summer grilling. Just Click on the link and enjoy!

Clean Eating BBQ Garlic & Dill Asparagus


Enjoy your summer eats!


Committed to your health and fitness,
Justin and Angie LaPointe

Stress: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

In today’s world, it has come to be that we are all a little stressed out. We all have bills to pay, work to go to (in which the dynamics there might be a little stressful), a house to take care of, then add on a family, pets, and the list can go on and on. After a while we all just start to break down. We all handle stress in different ways and how our body responds to that stress can very but it can come in the form of sickness, eating too much or not enough, gain weight or lose weight, get acne, and the list continues.

First things first, what we should all know is that stress in of itself is a neutral. But it is how we use this stress that can make it a good stress (eustress) or a bad stress (distress). Now, the stress we are going to be talking about with negative impacts on your body is related to the distress. So, why does stress have such an impact on our bodies? Well, it is because when the body is under stress, a hormone, Cortisol, is released in the body and it produces what is known as "our fight or flight response". This is a good thing (especailly if we are being chased by something like a T-Rex), however, only for a short period of time. It is the very thing that saves people or gets us through a really rough patch. But the longer that we are under a great amount of stress,  the more that it will break down our bodies because of how hard it is on it over time.

With the way that we are all living these days we are always on the go and should have had things done yesterday. Therefore, we all don’t take the time to eat as well or exercise as often as we need to. To top it off, there is so much stress that we have to deal with there seems like there is no healthy way of getting rid of it.

Stress is something that everyone will experience but we need to find ways to combat it so that we are not victims of weight gain (due to cortisol, which is known to increase abdominal fat), weight loss by not eating, or getting sick (by being run down). Here’s how….

1.       First, you need to exercise. And not find the time but make the time! This is very important because by putting your body under that kind of work and stress it will help alleviate the distress that we are put under.

2.       Next, Eating will also become crucial to you and by eating healthy you are providing your body with the proper nutrients to support optimal health.

3.       Another thing you should do is make time to have fun. Whether this is time that you sit at home and read a book or you go out to watch a movie or participate in a hobby, you need to make time to decompress and have fun.

4.       Make sure you have a safe or scared space. You need to have a place where you feel like you can have calming time and a place where you can relax completely.

By doing these relatively simple things you will change your life. And we know that it seems like a grand statement but it is true. We all may not even realize how much stress we even are carrying around with us until we make that change or all four and then you see how much of a difference there is. We hope that this will help you through your holidays and through your daily life. There are sites below that are related to stress and its impact on the body and techniques to help you through it.

·         http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/slash-your-stress-level

·         http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/meditation-lowers-blood-cortisol-levels

·         http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/mental-health-and-exercise

Committed to your health and fitness goals,

Justin and Angie LaPointe