Frugal Finance: February 2013

Fitness Regimen For Increased Job Performance

You don't want this on the job...

There will be more pride and profit for the whole company if it invests in the fitness of their employees. Get fit or get fat!

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- 10 Reasons Why You Aren't Seeing Muscle Gains

- Just How Natural Is Natural Bodybuilding?

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Running & Cupcakes Fitness Return!

Contributed By Samantha Zeigler, Author of Running and Cupcakes

Happy Monday! It’s freezing out there today, but the sun is shining and that makes me so happy! I love it when I can be super happy on a Monday, after all, isn’t that why I started this feature?!

1) RunCupcake Fitness is taking off! I just signed a 3 month client and his wife for 3 training sessions per week, and I also obtained an online-only client who’s getting ready for a wedding in August!

2) Feeling oh so sore… Trips to Vermont, blizzards, and life in general kept me away from kettlebell training for the last couple of weeks. Saturday I had an opportunity to workout with my friend Becky and teach her some kettlebell stuff. The best part for me is that I did 100 swings with a 16 kg kettlebell – that’s a new personal record! I am definitely feeling this workout today, I love it!

3) Later sunsets! It’s 6 p.m. and it’s not completely dark out yet, that means spring is on the way! Only 19 days til we spring ahead – oh boy, I cannot wait! Now that I’m training for Reach the Beach I will need to start running in the morning and in the evening, so a little more light at night is a big help! Plus I am SO over winter. Anyone else?

4) Homemade sushi. The bf decided to try his hand at sushi making and let me tell you, he did a fantastic job! We had it for dinner last night and lunch again today. We share a common HUGE love for sushi, so I feel like this is going to become a staple in our lives…

5) It’s BASEBALL SEASON! Kinda. All Boston Red Sox players reported to Spring Training last week. The very first Red Sox exhibition game is Thursday! And to top it all off, the bf got me my very first Alex & Ani bracelet for Valentine’s Day, an excellent way to celebrate the opening of baseball season:

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Mile High Cannabis Vape Lounge is Creating A Buzz

The Mile High City of Denver Colorado has created a buzz in the world of vaping and cannabis. Literally and figuratively Denver is buzzing about the first legal cannabis vape lounge in the country. The reality of legal public consumption of marijuana has arrived. The fact is in the form of vaping should surprise no one who knows and appreciates the Colorado mentality.

Vaping is a growing industry for a reason. It won’t take you long browsing YouTube to find more than a few videos comparing the effects of vaping versus smoking. When you couple that aspect that vaping gives you a way to control the amount of your desired intake whether it be Nicotine, CBD Oil or THC the advantages start adding up for vaping. Now start adding cool flavors into the mix and you can see why the vape industry has grown at such a fast rate.

The real buzz is being created because the vaping at Vape and Play in Denver Colorado is not your standard vape juice. Vape is the first legal cannabis vape lounge in the United States. The Vape Lounge does not sell cannabis and is set up more like a BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle Bar) bar that some parts of the country have. In this case, it is bring your own cannabis or CBD to start vaping.

The Cannabis Vape lounge has a bar that uses a specialized Trademarked and Patented vaporizer that makes flower, concentrates and THC vape juice all vapebale. This vaporizer is known as The “BadPenny” the unit has variable digital temperature settings is equipped to handle flower, liquid or solid concentrates, and THC vape juice. The really cool thing about this multi-faceted vaporizer is just that it’s really cool. When you enter Vape and Play you are given a vape whip. This is a long silicone tube with a mouthpiece.

When you sit down at the vape bar with your cannabis ready to go you will then be shown how to use the vape whip. It plugs into the BadPenny and then comes and is wrapped around a cylinder. The silicone tube fits between copper coils of tubing. These copper coils are supercooled with gas flowing through them from a dry ice chamber. The result is the silicone whip is cooled and so is the vape as it flows for the heated concentrate through the long tube of silicone providing a cool crisp sensation and flavor.

The flavor and differences in taste between the flower, concentrates and THC vape juice was incredible. We brought several small stash bottles of flavored THC vape juice we had made using Wax Liquidizer. The Pineapple was unbelievable. We even had the vape tender put some strawberry and banana in the BadPenny at the same time. The cool crisp taste was outstanding. We finished our Vape sesh it was time to experience the lounge part of the vape lounge.

We bought our tickets online for Vape and Play and chose a 3-hour session that featured a local musician who performed cover tunes and originals. We were surprised at the quality of live music and wanted to give a Shout Out to James Hurtado for the great tunes. We mingled with another couple we had met at the bar. The vape juice lounge had an easy feel to it and it was laid back. We decided to utilize the Jenga game at the table near us and shared a few laughs and of course the inevitable crash of the wooden Jenga pieces.

The aspect of getting the munchies was something I had not thought about prior to visiting the vape bar. I had come empty-handed and had a desire for something to drink and a sweet snack. It was obvious that the folks who ran the vape lounge had planned for these circumstances to arise. There was a bank of vending machines and to my surprise they were really reasonably priced. The eclectic selection was incredible. It was like going to a restaurant when the menu is too big and you can't decide what you want. The choices ranged from healthy to all-out sugary junk food.

After grabbing some munchies we were back in lounge mode kicking back listening to tunes and socializing. I loved the fact the music was good but not so loud you couldn’t talk. The other thing I truly enjoyed is everyone there was really laid back. The loud obnoxious guy spilling drinks you get to meet at the bar was no place to be found.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and time in Denver and are really hoping that cannabis vape lounges become more widespread. It seems Vape and Play in Denver has set a great standard of what public consumption of cannabis should look and feel like. Next time we are headed to Denver we will get our tickets online ahead of time for another session at Vape and Play. Have some very good vaping, enjoy the high times!

I hope you enjoyed this blog post about why the mile high cannabis vape lounge Vape and Play is getting great reviews for vaping marijuana bars in Denver Colorado.

Interested in more articles about vaping, THC, and smoking?

Read Related Resources:

• The Biggest Health Benefits Of THC & CBD

• Baked Bodybuilding: Building Muscle On Bud

Free Frugal Fitness Finds Below

Sole Food Soul Food! Fish FTW!

Contributed By Chef Amanda, Author of The Skinny Spice & Frugal Feasty Co-Host

I don’t know about you, but I question most online fish recipes.

Why?

a.) because it’s easy to mess up a fish dish

and

b.) fish tends to be expensive so it’s a shame to try a recipe only to find that it’s not so great or that you screwed up somehow.

I realize that this post is about to be very contradictory, given that I’m about to tell you how to make a fish recipe via the internet.

The difference here is that this a tried and true homemade creation. I can vouch for the fact that you pretty much can’t mess this one up, and it’s really good. I use sole, which is a white fish that doesn’t have a really ‘fishy’ taste to it. It’s stuffed with a shrimp, scallop, and crabmeat mixture which you can tailor to your specific seafood likes and dislikes.

Eating fish is a really important key to a healthy diet, and so I say go ahead and enjoy a different type of ‘SOLE’ food with this easy and satisfying recipe below.

Ingredients:

1 cup of Ritz crackers (crushed up)

5 pieces of sole (or however many you need to feed yourself/family)

¼ cup olive oil

3 jumbo scallops (diced)

5 raw wild caught jumbo shrimp (de-shelled, de-veined, and diced)

½ cup crabmeat

¼ cup olive oil

pinch of salt and black pepper

have a stick of butter out to use later

squeeze of lemon juice

**Make sure you have toothpicks**

What To Do:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Crush ritz crackers.

2. Prepare stuffing: Mix scallops, shrimp, crabmeat, olive oil, salt and pepper together in a large bowl.

3. Set yourself up to put the fish together. Place the crushed Ritz crackers in a bowl. Have a separate bowl with olive oil in it, and have the bowl with your seafood stuffing ready as well.

4. For each piece of fish, first coat with olive oil, then cover in Ritz crackers, then lay place in 11×14 pan coated with Pam.

5. Place a heaping tablespoon of seafood mixture in the center of the piece of sole, then fold one side of the fish over the mixture and roll to the other side.

6. Put one slice of butter on top of each piece of fish. Not even a ½ of a tablespoon- smaller! (I also like to sprinkle the extra Ritz crumbs on top of the whole thing.) This is the only bad part for you, but it’s essential. Just deal with it.

7. Place a toothpick in the center to hold together when it cooks. I ran out of toothpicks, so you should remember to get some unlike me.

8. Cover entire pan with aluminum foil. This will help it cook nicely. Place in oven and bake for 45 minutes. Take the foil off after 30 minutes of bake time.

Mangia Mangia!

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Why Fitness "Before & After" Shots Are Bogus!

Before and after fitness photo shoots are always suspect. Whether it's an Instagram selfie photo shoot or an advertisement from a multi-million dollar ad agency, they'll do whatever it takes accentuate the differences. Note the shaving, lighting, posture, photo-shopping, tanning, and facial expression. That is among plenty of other tactics they can use. At least half bogus for sure.

One of the most significant tactics is simply "sucking it in" for the camera or sticking out your gut. You can make an "after" shot just by tightening your abs and getting a pump from a few sets of pushups.

Just keep this in mind next time you see another miraculous before and after fitness results shots side by side.

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I hope you enjoyed this article about how to live healthier on a frugal budget and maximize your performance!

Interested in more articles about frugal fitness physiques?

Read My Posts:

- 10 Reasons Why You Aren't Seeing Muscle Gains

- Just How Natural Is Natural Bodybuilding?

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Starve Cancer By Eating! Anti-Angiogenesis Foods That Fight!

Contributed By Amanda Santucci, Author of The Skinny Spice

Did you know you can essentially starve cancer cells? True story.

Watch this amazing talk from TED (below). If you don’t have time, I’ll give you the cliff note version. Our body can regulate capillary growth by growing capillaries to heal injures or pruning them back when they are not needed. Abnormal angiogenesis is at the root of many diseases, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, obesity, stroke, and coronary heart disease. This study found that certain foods can essentially help prevent abnormal angiogenesis, such as berries, cocoa, cucumbers, red wine, turmeric, garlic, and tomatoes, etc. This is called Antiangiogenic Therapy.

William Li: Can We Eat to Starve Cancer?

Another interesting part of the study is that abnormal capillary growth also aides obesity, because fat is dependent on it. When overweight mice were given Antiangiogenic Therapy, they lost weight. More interestingly, they only lost enough weight to bring their body weight down to that of a normal healthy mouse.

I created a fruit salad that is delicious and uses many antiangiogenic foods. I am continuing to put special effort into creating recipes that consist of many antiangiogenic foods.

Berry Beneficial Salad:

1 carton strawberries (cut into small pieces I cut them in quarters then I cut each quarter in half)

1 carton blueberries

1 carton blackberries (cut in half- horizontally)

1 carton raspberries

2 tsp agave

2 tsp. lemon juice

½ tsp cinnamon

What to do:

1. Place blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries in a large bowl.

2. Put raspberries in a separate smaller bowl and crush with a fork until nearly liquid-like. Add agave, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Mix together. The picture to the left is what everything looks like before you mix the two mixtures together. Step 3

3. Coat berry mixture with raspberry mixture. Add coconut shavings if you like to pretend you’re like me and like to pretend you live in Hawaii.

**Eat by itself, over pancakes, on top of greek yogurt or oatmeal, etc.!**

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FREE WORKOUT: 6-7 DAY TONING REGIMEN

This workout regimen is for an intermediate fitness enthusiast, very driven, looking to take physique and performance to the next level. It can be worked up to, modified, and reduced in training volume if needed...

REFER TO MY VIDEOS, GOOGLE IMAGES, ETC FOR ILLUSTRATIONS AND/OR DEMOS. LET ME KNOW QUESTIONS BEFORE SUNDAY :)

x = 1 set of 8-15 Reps

Day 1: Total Body Lifting / Interval Beasting (With Frugal Fitness or On Your Own at Latitude Sports)

5 Minutes Elliptical w/ Arms

1x Pushups Warmup

1x Dumbbell front and lateral raises (10 lb dumbbells) Warmup

2x Lat Pulldown Machine 80-100+ lbs vary grips

2x Chest Press Machine 80-100+ lbs vary grips

5 Minutes Bike Resistance 8-10 Speed 60-80 RPM

2x Dumbbell Squats 15-20 lb dumbbells

2x Physioball crunches

5 Minutes ArcTrainer w/ mobile Arms Resistance 12-15

2x Planks

1x Pushups until failure

3 Minutes Treadmill Incline walk (cooldown)

Day 2: Cardio

45 Minute Walk/Job Combo, hills if you can

Day 3: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

3 Minutes Elliptical w/ Arms

1x Pushups Warmup

1x Dumbbell front and lateral raises (10 lb dumbbells) Warmup

3x Chest Press Machine 80-120+ lbs vary grips

3x Dumbbell Chest Flies 20-25 lb dumbbells

3x Dumbbell Incline Chest Presses 30-50 lb dumbbells

2x Dumbell Standing Shoulder Press 20-25 lb dumbbells

1x front and lateral dumbbell raises til failure (10 lb dumbbells)

1x Pushups until failure

1x Tricep Bench dips til failure

1x Plank hold until failure

Day 4: Cardio & Abs / Core

3x Crunches

3x Planks

3x Hip Bridges / Single Leg Hip Bridges

30-45 Minutes Stairclimber

Day 5: Legs, Biceps, Back Abs, Core

3 Min Cardio Row Machine (vary overhand, underhand, and close/wide grips)

1x Warmup Pushups

3x Row Machine 100 lbs

3x Lat Pulldown Machine 100 lbs

3x Single Arm Dumbbell Rows

3x Dumbbell Squats 20 lb dumbbells

2x Dumbbell Wide Squats

2x Dumbbell Hammer Curls 20 lb weights

2x Dumbbell Bicep curls 20 lb weights

2x Reverse Cable Flies (working upper back and rear shoulders)

3 Minutes cardio row machine (cool down)

Day 6: Core & Cardio

3x Twisting Crunches

3x Planks hold 15-30 seconds per set

3x Hip Bridges / Single Leg Hip Bridges (do some holding, do some dynamic)

30-45 Minutes Cardio (your choice)

Day 7: Rest / Active Recovery

Light stretching, maybe 1 easy set of pushups / squats / crunches, optional 1-2 mile walk slow.

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Vegan Gluten-Free Thai Som Tum Recipe

This is a popular Thai dish, called Som Tum (spicy papaya salad or papaya kimchi), that my mom used to make for us when we were kids and since we always begged for more, she would end up making an asinine amount. For just a week or two our fridge would be stuffed to the brim with this spicy deliciousness. But only for a week or two at most, this stuff never lasted very long at our house. So here’s what you need to make this tasty and healthy side that will clear your sinuses and make you cry for more. Enjoy this vegan and gluten-free delicious frugal feast!

Ingredients

1 tablespoon sugar
1 lime
1 lemon
2 cups green papaya, shredded
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon vegan fish sauce alternative
3 thai chili peppers
3 tomatoes cut unto medium sized chunks
Handful of cilantro, chopped

Directions

Place the garlic cloves and the chilies in a high quality food processor and process until crushed into chunks. Set aside. Peel papayas until the whites show and then shred into long pieces using a mandolin. Squeeze juice of lemon and lime over papaya. Mix with sugar, vegan fish sauce, garlic, chili peppers, cilantro and tomatoes.

And that’s it! It’s such an easy dish and one that’s so nutritious for you too. It’s best when served cold and is so refreshing with the sweetness of the papaya, the saltiness from the citrus, and the sourness from the fish sauce. And you know that I’m loving all over that spicy kick from the thai peppers.

Make this dish, and then eat it as a side for whatever your eating, or top it on a fish or another protein as a garnish, or maybe even stuff your face with this stuff for breakfast. OK I am just kidding about the breakfast part. Enjoy the gluten-free vegan frugal feast!

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I hope you enjoyed this article about how to live healthier on a frugal budget and maximize your performance!

Interested in more articles about frugal fitness?

Read My Posts:

- Homemade Zucchini Bread

- Gluten-Free Broccoli Salad

Stay Frugal & Fit My Friends!

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Free Workouts & Nutrition On A Budget
"Crushing Fitness Costs Worldwide"
#FrugalFitness

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How To Eat Red Meat And Run Ravenously

Quite a while ago (a little over a year now…) I declared that I was (mostly) quitting eating red meat and pork. Food documentaries and health concerns had me convinced that I just didn’t need it. And I made it an entire year. I didn’t avoid red meat or pork completely (the only pork I really eat is ham and bacon – I don’t like pork chops). Once in a great while I just want a steak, or a burger, or bacon, so I eat it. But I didn’t plan it into my weekly meal plans.

Then a couple of weeks ago I noticed I was getting a lot of dizzy spells. I thought it was blood pressure – so I checked, it wasn’t that. I thought it was dehydration, so I started really forcing myself to be more diligent about my water consumption – it wasn’t that either. I mentioned it to a coworker and she said it could be an iron deficiency. So last week I started to make sure I take my multivitamin every day, I have been making smoothies with spinach, and I ate red meat once (after mentioning that I needed it, the bf made me tacos for dinner in an effort to get me to eat the red meat, and it worked, I do love tacos.) While grocery shopping the other day I saw a package of 6 pre-made beef sliders in the meat department at Trader Joes. I only thought about it for a minute or two before picking them up.

It turns out that large amounts of exercise can in fact lower your iron levels – not something a woman really wants to worry about. Given that I’ve been working out a lot harder than my body is used to, I am willing to bet that lots of workouts combined with iron deficiency were the cause of my dizzy spells, because they’ve subsided.

That had me a tad bit scared so I’m glad I got it figured out pretty quickly!

Other awesome things lately? I’m RUNNING AGAIN! I took 23 whole days off of running, and when I came back to it, this is what happened:

I honestly thought I was crawling – the path I run on was snowy and icy in spots so I was being very cautious of my footing. I kept my Garmin under the sleeve of my coat the entire time so I had no idea how quickly I was moving until I was done – boy was I shocked.

Compared to a 5 mile run that the bf and I did back on December 22nd – 8:44 average pace which felt hard toward the end. Well the bf did tell me that all this kettlebell stuff was going to make me a stronger runner, but I had no idea it would happen that quickly.

Now I’m going to try to run at least 3 times per week in order to get ready for Reach the Beach in May – but I’m also still going to keep up my kettlebell workouts as well.

I am looking forward to seeing how much faster and I stronger I continue to get!

Have you ever taken a hiatus from running to focus on strength and come back and surprised yourself like I did? Let us know on social media by sharing this article with the #FrugalFitness hashtag!

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EPIC SUPERBOWL SPINACH ARTICHOKE DIP

Contributed By Amanda Santucci, Author of The Skinny Spice

One of the BEST football party dishes is spinach artichoke dip, which is also one of the highest calorie party appetizers that you could eat. It’s deceivingly unhealthy, because with Spinach and Artichokes in the title, you typically think it can’t be *that* bad.

To give you a little perspective, in there is 312 calories, 19 grams of fat, 26 carbohydrates, and zero vitamins in ONE serving of Ruby Tuesday’s Spinach Artichoke Dip. Believe it or not, Chili’s Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip has 1,130 calories, 90 grams of fat, 2,460mg of sodium, and 40g of carbohydrates in just one serving! Disgusting when you think about it. However spinach dip tastes so good, and it’s great for parties.

Instead, try this healthy recipe below for your SUPERBOWL 2013 party, and I guarantee people will LOVE it. It tastes just as good, if not better than spinach dip recipes that are loaded with fat and carbs.

Spinach Artichoke Dip:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 10-ounce box frozen spinach, thawed, drained, then squeezed dry by the handful
1 (8-ounce) can water chestnuts and 3 artichoke hearts chopped (optional)

Black pepper and salt
Lemon

What to do:

1. Saute onion and salt in a frying pan over medium heat, stirring until it is browned. This takes awhile, about 10-15 min. Add garlic when the onion is nearly done, and saute for another minute or so. Cool the mixture.

2. Blend yogurt, cottage cheese, and mayo until smooth in a food processor.

3. Squeeze the defrosted spinach. This part is important but kind of gross. Be sure to wash your hands before you attempt this. (I know squeezing it is annoying and gross, but it is completely necessary, I promise).