I have a guest post from a boot camper. Karen is a great example of exactly what we instill at Memphis Adventure Boot Camp. One of my main strengths does NOT involve fitness form or technique, despite the fact I am knowledgable in it. What I specialize in is the psychological aspects of fitness and health and the journey it takes to allow yourself to be a part of the process instead of working against it. When Karen told me her focus in nursing, I became immediately interested in her work and I asked her to write a guest post because she has great insight on these matters. So, the rest of this post is Karen and I hope you enjoy!

Greetings and congratulations to those of you that have taken steps to change your lives through a commitment to healthy eating and a regular exercise plan.  I too accompany you on the journey.  As a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, I want to stress the importance of taking care of your emotional needs while you are healing your physical body.  As we let go of old patterns of eating (bulk eating, carbohydrate addiction), we may experience emotions at a greater level of intensity since our “drug” is no longer available to us.  With that in mind, I have listed some tools that may help boost your emotional immune system as you embark on this journey of balanced eating and a regular exercise plan.

1. Journal every day about what’s “eating” you.  Taking time to write what you feeling and thinking is a very validating experience and can help you get to know what is going on inside your internal world—a world you may have been avoiding unknowingly by numbing out with food.
2. Cultivate an attitude of loving kindness toward yourself as you embark on this road of transformation and self-discovery.  Treat yourself as you would treat a small child who is learning something new—with patience and forgiveness.
3. Don’t waste time being mad at your fat. Forgive yourself and let it go. Remember that the excess weight served you in some way or you wouldn’t have it. In Sheryl Canter’s book Normal Eating for Normal Weight (p.71-72), she notes that for many, especially women, fat serves a function…

• It can reduce unwanted sexual attention.
• Makes us feel less vulnerable and less likely to be “pushed around.”
• Gives us an excuse to put off things that we are intimidated by.
•  In the workplace, switches focus from our “looks” to our performance.
• Makes friendships easier because fat women are not generally considered a “threat.”
• Is a way to express anger (“I’ll show you, I’ll just eat what I want.”).
• Reduces discomfort with intimacy, making it less likely to happen.
• Allows us to test a partner’s affections to make sure we are loved for more than our looks.
• Is a way to rebel against our role in society.

4. Develop a practice of daily meditation to train the “monkey-mind”—that part of our brain that is constantly thinking.  Studies have shown that meditation helps to quiet the mind, reduces anxiety, stress, and improves overall health. Start with five minutes a day and work up until you can sit for 30 minutes, just noticing your thoughts.  If you would like to experience a guided meditation, you can download free podcasts on I-tunes by entering the search words “free meditation podcasts.”

5. Become aware of cravings and what they are rooted in so you can take care of your needs. “HALT” is a great acronym to remember. Are you really Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired?

6. Choose people to lean on who have the support to give you and who will not sabotage your progress.  Remember that even those we love may try to give us “change back” messages out of their own fear of change (“you don’t need to lose anymore weight, you’re too skinny” or “One pizza won’t hurt.”).
7. Build that muscle in your lips that helps you form the two letter word “no.” This can be tricky in the beginning if this was a muscle you never used before.  At first, it will require a lot of focus and strength, but don’t give up.  The more you use it, the more you will like it, and you will feel stronger on the inside.
8. Every day, give yourself a pat on the back and praise yourself for sticking to your commitment to yourself. Develop a positive affirmation that makes you feel happy inside when you read it and say it to yourself every day.  It always begins with an “I am” statement.” Here are some examples:

• “I am healthy and whole”
• “I am a confident, worthy woman/man”
• “ I am okay just the way I am”
• “My body is at it’s perfect weight and size”
• “I am loved and safe.”
• “ I glow with health and aliveness”
• “I am joyful and free.”
• “I am deserving and whole.”
• “It is okay to make mistakes, I am human.”

9. When you feel stuck, remember it’s okay to ask for help.
10. Finally, find ways to give back. The more invested you are in helping others, the more committed you will be to your own progress.

See you all some time in class!!

Karen Diana, APN
Advanced Practice Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
Chamberlin Psychiatric Practice, Cordova, TN

Gardening, Fitness, and Heath Series, part 3

Starting seedlings indoors can be a fun experience, especially since it is still winter. It’s cool knowing that you are getting a jump on the season and you are protecting your investment of awesome organic produce by protecting them from the cold winter nights.

According to averages, the last frost that occurs for the year in Memphis is April 7. Realize that this is an average and you don’t have to be exact about it. Do your best to be around the date and you will be fine. Using the date April 7, you can plan your entire growing year if you know how many weeks the vegetable matures and what climate it prefers. Some vegetables prefer cooler weather, hence the reason you see more of them in the spring and fall. Examples of these include broccoli, lettuces, and greens. Some vegetables prefer the summer months. Examples include tomatoes, summer squash and eggplant.

The earliest vegetables you can begin right now is broccoli. Cauliflower is second but since it isn’t as tolerate of the cold, broccoli can get a head start. Broccoli has a 16 week growing cycle from seed to harvest. Since it can tolerate some degree of cold weather, you can start it 12 weeks before the average last frost. You don’t want to plant broccoli too far into the warmer months because they will produce their yellow flowers too quickly and they will be pretty inedible for you at that point. For Memphis you want to start broccoli indoors around January 14. If you want to create a continuous harvest, you can start some of your seeds around January 14 and more around January 28. The transplant date to your actual square foot garden is around March 3 and March 17 respectfully. Cauliflower gets started a little later and has a 14 week growing cycle from seed to harvest. Start cauliflower seeds around January 28 and a second harvest around February 11. Realize that both cauliflower and broccoli will be ready to be harvested at the same time. So, what that said, only plant as many as you know you and your family will eat. Don’t be the gardener that plants so much they have to literally give all their hard earned produce away because it will spoil otherwise.

One broccoli or cauliflower will take up one entire square foot from your garden. If you recall, there are 16 spaces in an entire square foot garden. So, you will need to plan accordingly and you might want to have more than one box. However, you will harvest both vegetables around May 5 and May 19, so you can always harvest and immediately replant something new as soon as you harvest.

Now, let’s talk about some of the potential problems with starting seeds indoors. I mean, isn’t it as easy as putting a seed in a cup filled with dirt? Well, in some ways it is, but you need to consider a few things to make sure you are getting the most successful plants possible. First, if you want to have 8 broccoli plants to be in your garden, realize that not every seed you put into the ground is going to germinate. For example, I wanted to start with 8 broccoli this year so I started 10 seeds. It just so happens, I only got 7 to be successful. This is a pretty good percentage, but not all 10 sprouted as they should have.

If you want to skip the Jason Beam method of using Potting Blocks, you can use Mel’s method of starting seeds. You will need a small plastic container and you need to poke some small holes in the bottom. Fill it with vermiculite. With the container on a saucer and add water on the saucer. You should see a change in the vermiculite’s color. Pinch a few seeds with your thumb and forefinger and place into the container. Try to space out the seeds in a way that gives room, but you should have plenty of room to create plenty of seedlings.

Once the seeds have sprouted, transplant them into a seedling tray (or styrofoam cup) filled with the Mel’s Mix of 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 peat moss (Or the Nature’s Earth garden soil). You want to more them as soon as you see the first two leaves appear. Carefully loosen the vermiculite with a pencil and lift the seedling while grabbing one of its plant ears. Create a hole in the seed tray and carefully transplant the seedling. That’s it for now! When you transplant into the garden, you will need to take a pair of scissors and clip part of the roots to keep the plant from stunting and being root bound.

For the Potting Blocks, I used a container that doesn’t leak water such as a chicken stock box and cut it into half to use the Micro 20. With the soil I bought, I added a little water and simply put the Micro 20 into the box of soil to charge it full of soil. I then placed the small blocks on the 1/2 stock box container and released. If you don’t want 20 seedlings, keep the best formed blocks and remove the rest. Place one seed in each block. Remember, more than likely, not all will sprout so do 20% more than you actually want in the garden. That way, even if all sprout, you can choose the best ones to perform well in your garden.

After you have placed the seeds in the micro 20 blocks, you should put a black bag over the broccoli or cauliflower for 2-3 days until they sprout. Apparently, these seeds prefer the dark and need it before sprouting, so do so to get best results. For both the Mel method and Potting Block method, you want to have a temperature of around 65-70 degrees inside your house.

Once the seeds have sprouted you will want to transplant them to the Mini 4 Soil Blocker that has the Micro 20 pins. This allows you to simply pick up the micro 20 blocks and move them into the Mini 4’s without touching the ears of the plants and possibly killing the plant.The last thing I am going to mention in this post is light. If you don’t think your plants are going to get enough light with the window you put them close to, them you might want to strongly consider getting shop lights. You can get some at Home Depot for $10 bucks a piece. You can hang them to your ceiling with a chain so that as the plants grow, you can move the light up. Don’t get sold on having to get “plant light bulbs.” Get the “Natural Light” bulbs and they provide the full spectrum of light them need. Finally, make the whole system foolproof and get a timer to hook the lights up to. Let the plants get 16 hours of light a day since it is much weaker than the actual sun.

Provide a little water every day to you plant babies and you will be ready to transplant into the garden in no time!

Seeds to consider starting around January 28: leeks, green onions, and red onions!

See also:

Gardening, Fitness, and Heath Series, part 1

Gardening, Fitness, and Heath Series, part 2

Our boot camp is intense. The workouts are hard and the environment sometimes causes a little bit of unintentional competition against others when in reality, the competition is against only with oneself. Can I be completely honest for second? I would really, really prefer that most people implement the boot camp more around 3-4X a week than trying to use every single 6X a week offering.

The single most important area to implement that people forget is the nutritional aspect. Oh, there he goes again. Keep reading! So many people try but trying to out-exercise a bad diet will not only leave your frustrated and disappointed, but you really have the potential to get hurt! My definition of a good time does not include hurt back, aching knees, and hurt shoulders. If you experience any of those when exercising, then you may need to consider the fact you are exercising in a way that is going to get hurt! I am not saying that things occur from time to time and they do occur! If they do occur listen to your body and give that area that is hurting a rest for a minute!

The nutrition is really really simple. If a person could eat a portion of protein and a portion of fibrous carbohydrate 3 meals a day, they would be 90% getting the body they desire and want not only for looks but for performance for life. This means excluding starchy carbohydrates and unnatural and processed foods but keeping the foods that are natural and optimizes our gene expression. There is no need to count calories doing this approach and a person can and should eat when hungry. Think about this for a second. If you put nutrition number one on your list to fix and improve upon, you would not need to beat yourself up doing those 6X a week routines or even worse starving yourself while doing two hours or more of cardio just to keep re-injuring an area and continue inflammation in the body.

There are two other important areas that people forget about when trying to live a healthy lifestyle: rest and relief from stress, and allowing the time to play and have fun. Rest is the most overlooked area of fitness and health. We live in a society that believes more is better and you are considered lazy if you don’t put in the sacrifice of working out, working overtime, taking the kids to 19 sports and activities, and not getting enough sleep every night. When was the last time you slept most of the time and then to awaken completely refreshed? If you can’t say you do most days of the week, then you should consider changing this. This is your time to recharge and heal.

If you were to change your mindset and dedicate yourself to a 3X a week schedule, you would have 4 other days that give you an hour or more of your day to rest from the stress of your life. Also, you can put better focus on the nutrition part we talked about earlier and even make a few more meals each week that eliminate the processed junk from your food supply! The physiological and psychological effects would be amazing!

I mentioned allowing yourself to have time to play and have fun. Why do we feel guilty these days when we want to simply do things we enjoy even if it’s sitting down and enjoying a good book on the back patio? If you change your mindset to allowing yourself 3 days a week spaced out where you dedicate to boot camp, you now have 4 days in the week you can simply play and have fun! You can finally take a walk and enjoy the scenery. Play a sport one to two times a week such as tennis, ultimate frisbee,  flag football or even jogging if that is what you love (runners finally getting some love from me!)! Play with your kids. A game of tag can be fun and you yourself can be more like a kid! Do what YOU think is fun to do and don’t let anything consume you!

I think people make fitness and health a task when it doesn’t have to be at all. For most people, fitness and health can be achieved with sufficient exercise, plenty of rest, allowing yourself to play, and an undying commitment to eating correctly in a world that wants you to do anything but eat correctly.

Gardening, Fitness, and Heath Series, part 2

A had a couple of questions after I did the first post on Getting Started with Your Back Yard Garden that I wanted to address.

How do you keep your dogs from getting into your garden?

Good question! In fact there will be a blog post dedicated to that subject on how to keep dogs, cats, and squirrels out of your garden. Know for now, all you need to do is create the boxes because you aren’t quite ready to use the boxes just yet.

My neighbor uses chemical fertilizers in their yard and I know it is getting into my yard. I would love to do this but I am afraid of the chemicals getting into the garden. What should I do?

This is indeed a problem and can hamper with the reason you’d want to grow a garden in the first place, to be organic! Remember, when creating a raised garden, what we are doing is taking out all of the guess work for the soil. You don’t need to know if your soil is low in nitrogen or is too acidic or whatever! You are creating a soil above your existing soil that is perfect for your vegetable garden. There is a simple solution to your problem. You need to do one more step and create a barrier between your ground and your raised bed soil. You can do this by getting a 4X8 piece of plywood sheet and cutting it in half. Drill this on the bottom of your box before applying the weed barrier cloth. Then, drill holes large enough into the plywood every 6 inches to allow the water to drain out when watering your plants. Then, apply the weed barrier under that and you are good to go! In fact, I did not mention in the first blog that I did indeed add plywood bottoms to my boxes because I was considering making them mobile and possibly moving them to different areas of the yard or even putting them on 2-3 foot legs! This is what you would do if you are a person who can’t bend down very easily who still want to enjoy gardening. I was just thinking lazy!

How to Start Seeds Indoors

There are several different ways to start seeds and Mel has his own version of using vermiculite in a bowl and then moving them over to soil in a cup or container. I am sure this is fine, but one of my main concerns was the fact that uprooting the plants creates a shock to them and the possibility of them dying increases due to this shock. As it is customary to do in this day and age I began Googling what to do for starting seeds. Lo and behold, I found a method that I really liked. It uses no potting containers at all, which is pretty cool!

The way I am starting my seeds is using Potting Blocks (http://www.pottingblocks.com/). A hippie farmer by the name of Jason Beam, who you can tell was the kid that was picked on at school but very passionate about what he does, is selling these and they are wonderful. On his site, he tells you exactly how to use the Potting Blocks with his soil. It is a little bit of a “if you get chips, you gotta get the salsa” kind of deal, meaning you pretty much have to get his soil too. But, I find the easy approach irresistible. The idea of making blocks without a container is right up my ally!

Now Jason is a salesman and he has several versions of his product. I am going to tell you what you exactly what you need if you go this route. You will see the Micro 20 at his online store. This is what you want to use to start your seeds. It gives you 20 starting blocks with one lift of the lever. As he explains, the plants will perform better if there is only a small space of them to grow. The air with naturally prune the plant before transplanting to the next block size.

The final block you need to get is the Mini 4 Soil Blocker. It does NOT come with the Micro 20 pin attachments so you need to get those. You need them because it will create a mold that will be a larger block that you can put your Micro 20 block right into without any trouble at all.

Finally, you will need the potting soil. I got the Micro 20 Potting Mix and it was only $10. He claims it’ll make over 260 blocks, which is plenty for me! I went ahead and got it because the mixture is just right so that your blocks don’t fall apart very easily. His videos on his site make it easy to follow and create your own blocks. Just try to not smell the cheese he puts out!

Picking Out Seeds

This is the easy part! Go to Home Depot, Dan West, or your favorite store and begin picking out things you want to grow! Remember you have 16 square foot spaces and different vegetables require different spacings. We will have a blog talking about this specifically, but for example, your can plant 16 radishes in one square foot. For lettuce, you can plant 4 in one square foot. I strongly suggest you buy only what you will eat. You won’t see brussel sprouts growing in my garden any time soon! Seeds should be in the price range of $1-$3 bucks. I wouldn’t spend any more than that.

For marketing tactics, companies are saying they have “organic seeds” and such. Unless you are getting corn or beans, I wouldn’t worry too much about being certified organic right now. The seeds aren’t being sprayed with pesticides; it’s the plants themselves that are. They are just trying to do as nature intended: reproduce by bolting and releasing their seeds. I may change my mind on this later, but remember you are the one who controls the upbringing on your veggies.

Once you have your stuff, practice making the blocks and begin to make some seedlings! Put them in a container that is water holding and make sure they get plenty of sun and a keep a constant temperature of 65-70 degrees in your house. Even warmer temperatures can produce faster seedlings! The first ones you want to make are broccoli and cauliflower! Broccoli’s time to start seedlings can be as early as January 14 in Memphis using the average frost date of April 7. Enjoy!

See also:

Gardening, Fitness, and Heath Series, part 1

Gardening, Fitness, and Heath Series, part 3

Gardening, Fitness, and Heath Series, part 1

Believe it or not, gardening season is quickly approaching and preparing for a garden NOW is what you need to do to have a successful garden!

Once I made the full decision to go “Primal” “Paleo” or whatever buzz word you want to use (which is essentially saying to eat natural meats and veggies), my interest in vegetable gardening began to reemerge. It seems logical, if you grow your own food, you know exactly what you are getting and putting into your body. Plus, conventional vegetables cannot even come close to the taste and vitamin content veggies from a home garden can produce. However, thoughts of spending hours and hours of pulling weeds in my parents’ garden when I was a kid gave me a stomach ache. I hated doing that and honestly, I can’t think of very many things I liked about gardening as a kid. It was hot and required a lot of work for what seemed to be little result!

But, the desire to be healthy and my desire to stop eating inferior foods consumed me so I started my research on the web. I ran across an amazing method called Square Foot Gardening. An engineer by the name of Mel Bartholomew developed this method in the 1980s and it seemed as though I had found a buried treasure.  He even had a popular PBS show in the 80s about it. I was too young to know about him, I guess! This method met every single one of my requirements if I was going to pursue gardening in the city of Memphis.

1. Must be easy to do.
2. Must take out the hard parts of gardening.
3. I don’t want to weed, period.
4. Must utilize space to the maximum capacity.
5. Must be as cheap as possible to get same or lower prices of grocery stores.

So, Square Foot Gardening takes care of all of these requirements! I strongly suggest you get the book for a great reference!

http://www.amazon.com/All-New-Square-Foot-Gardening/dp/1591862027/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326129592&sr=8-1

You quickly realize that the whole purpose of this approach to gardening is to eliminate the need to know if you have good soil to grow crops, maximizes space and efficiently, and allows you to focus on the best parts of gardening: growing and harvesting! Mel recommends that the person or family to focus on planting only what a person truly needs and uses. This means that if you only use radishes once in a while, don’t plant a zillion of them just because you can. Grow what you know you will eat!

The suggestion for Square Foot Gardening is simple: start small. Once you get a grip on things you can expand as you need. You can create a garden for less than $50 bucks including the soil and all!

What you’ll need:

• 2- 2X6 or 2X8 untreated 8 foot pieces of lumber cut in half.
• 3 inch screws (or 1 inch screws if using brackets)
• Weed killer cloth: 4 foot kind
• Staple gun and staples
• Optional 4 metal brackets
• Gardening soil (can be both locally or follow Mel’s Mix directions)
• Twine

I went to Home Depot and against my better judgement, bought the pre-made boxes for square foot gardens. I wished I didn’t because I spent $60 for 2 boxes I could have made for $8. Starting with one or two square foot boxes can be quick and simple.
Buy 2- 2X6 or 2X8 untreated pieces of 8 feet lumber to create one 4X4 box. If you don’t have a saw at home, ask the people at Home Depot or Lowe’s to cut them in half for you. NOTE: the lumber is actually slightly longer than 8 feet and ask them to take that into account. (They won’t if you don’t mention. They are nice, but they really just want to get away from you!) Urban readers with even smaller space, you can make these even smaller, say a 2X2 box! In fact, you can go super portable and simple by just using pots!

You want to put the boards together to create an above ground box. You have two options for putting the boards together. You could buy some 3 inch screws and put two of them on each board attaching them. Or, you can buy some metal brackets to place inside the boards to secure the garden. You’ll need one inch screws if you are using brackets. This is up to you. I have done both at this point and I favor the brackets.

Once your boxes are together, you want to eliminate the worst part of the whole gardening experience: weeding! On the bottom of the box, roll out your 4 foot weed killer cloth and cut off what you don’t need. (You’ll probably want to make more boxes later as you see how easy this is!) Leave a inch or two on each side if possible. Staple the cloth to the box so that the weeds can’t get in. After that, flip it over and that is your box! Find a place that gets at least 5-6 hours of sun a day to place your box.

Now the fun part: the soil! Note, you can’t buy this at home depot or Lowe’s as they only have Miracle Grow, and that isn’t organic stuff my friends! Mel has a great blend he uses and it involves 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 compost. Each component has a specific role. The peat moss absorbs moisture. The vermiculite keeps the soil nice and loose and the compost provides the nutrition the plants needs to grow. You can get this locally at Dan West Garden Center (http://danwestonline.com/). This is what I did on my first boxes and they are great!

However, I was not happy with the cost as the soil was just too expensive. This caused me to look deeper and sure enough there is a great option right here in Memphis! You know the leaves and stuff you bag and put by the curb here in the city? Well, there is a place that uses that to create a great garden mix. They are called Nature’s Earth (http://naturesearthproducts.com/) and the product you can use to replace this step is called “Garden Mix.” It is an excellent economical alternative and will be used in my next additional boxes. Call them and ask them the price for 6 inches of a 4 foot by 4 foot box. They’ll laugh because it’s little of nothing! You do have to pick it up.

The final part is creating a grid. Once again, I went the more expensive routine the first time and used wood. You really do not need to do that. You can buy twine to mark off your grid. Here is what you want to do: you want to create 16 square foot squares. With a tape measure, mark off the 1, 2, and 3  foot spaces on each side and screw partially in your 1 inch screws. Using your twine wrap the string from one screw to the other end. Do this for all marks and for both sides. The end result is you have 16 square foot spaces of gardening space to grow more produce than you could imagine! Here is the end result: (mine being the too much money spent version).

In the next part of the series, I am going to talk about the pot alternative to this and then starting of broccoli seeds, since they are the first things you want to start in January indoors before transplanting them to your outside garden!

Be Better. Have Some Adventure!
Dexter Tenison, MSS

See also:

Gardening, Fitness, and Heath Series, part 2

Gardening, Fitness, and Heath Series, part 3

There are people who want to lose weight. They are looking for ways to get started, boost their weight loss, and get healthier. Some people may even already be working out, but not getting the results that they are looking for. It is possible to plateau because your body gets used to doing one kind of exercise, and for it to not work anymore. But, there is one thing that you can do to jump start your weight loss, and lose inches off your body. That is to visit the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp.

This boot camp is run by Dexter Tenison Fitness. Dexter Tenison knows what it is like to be overweight. He has had to fight his own weight issues, not once, but twice. He learned that working with a personal trainer and sticking with a routine can really help. After working with his trainer, and then moving on to taking other classes, and working as a personal trainer himself, he went back to college to earn his masters in sports science. That is what makes Dexter Tenison so qualified to run the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp.

The boot camp that is run by Dexter Tenison Fitness is designed to help women lose weight, get stronger, lose inches and shed body fat. The boot camp program is there to help women feel more confident with their bodies. The reason that the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp is geared towards women is because women have the most obstacles. They include bad body image, low self-esteem and just being too busy to work out regularly.

The things that you can learn from Dexter Tenison and the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp you can take with you. You can get results that will last your entire life because you will have learned how to work out in ways that will be sustainable. You will be able to feel confident because you already know that you can do anything that you can set your mind to.

When you go to the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp you will get the body that you have always wanted. You will lose weight, tone your stomach, hips, thighs and get a booty that every woman will be jealous of. You will also have a strong body that will do everything that you want it to do. You will be able to feel more confident about yourself. You can take that confidence and use it to help you get ahead in the rest of your life. The only thing you have to to lose is the weight.

Those looking for a high-end Germantown fitness trainer should begin by checking out Memphis Adventure Boot Camp, as this location makes it much easier to lose weight. Not everyone has a body type that is conducive to losing weight quickly and, therefore, different people require different workout routines. It can also be difficult to lose weight if you team up with a Germantown fitness trainer who has never had weight problems him or herself. While these individuals are certainly in good shape, they do not know what it is like to struggle with weight loss and therefore they are less sympathetic to others struggling with their weight.

If you have struggled to lose weight in the past, you likely have seen patterns when failing to meet your goals. In many cases, you likely start on a diet that is supposed to help you considerably. You will then likely start a workout routine that is supposed to burn excess calories and help you lose weight. While all of this looks good on paper, it is much more difficult to motivate yourself to eat healthy foods and exercise daily. A Germantown fitness trainer can help you with this process, however, by keeping you on track. Your Germantown fitness trainer will help you set goals and meet them throughout the year, making weight loss a much more attainable thing.

Perhaps the best thing that a Germantown fitness trainer can do for you is schedule your workouts. When exercising on your own, it is easy to skip a workout when something else comes up. For example, you might choose to exercise on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 PM weekly. If you have a rough day at the office and do not want to exercise on Monday, it is simple to just skip your trip to the gym. Unfortunately, this can snowball and before you know it, you will have missed an entire week’s worth. A Germantown fitness trainer will hold you accountable for reaching your goals, making the entire process easier.

If you choose to go through Dexter Tenison Fitness for your Germantown fitness trainer, you will get the results that you desire. Your Germantown fitness trainer will schedule your workouts and will ensure that you show up for them. When you select a Germantown fitness trainer, you can expect to lose about five pounds in the first week. You can then expect to lose more weight as time goes by, depending on your body type and your ideal weight.

Dexter Tenison Fitness also helps customers develop customized meal plans. Since every person has different nutritional needs, it makes sense that your Germantown fitness trainer would help you individually. Losing weight is a very personal thing, as techniques that have worked for others might not work for you at all. For that reason, having a trained professional come up with a personalized program is the most efficient way to get yourself into great shape.

Many people struggle with the problem of losing weight or simply keeping their body toned. Things like strict diets and long hours in a gym may be a solution for losing weight, but in time they will get you weary and for this reason the results may not be the ones that you expected. Fortunately, there are alternatives to the dull working out routines and diets. If you’re based in Memphis and looking for a unique Germantown gym, you should look no further than Memphis Adventure Boot Camp.

The Memphis Adventure Boot Camp is a great way to achieving a firm body by toning it without strict diets or long hours in the gym. This is an original program of motivational training, nutritional counseling and fitness instruction. The training takes place either outdoors, when the weather is good or indoors, in an excellent location that provides all the facilities you may need for your training. The workout is inspiring and fun and it is conducted by Dexter Tension, Certified Adventure Fitness Trainer. The training sessions last for an hour and they are designed to cater for the needs of people of all ages and all levels of physical fitness. As you progress, the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp program becomes more and more challenging and you will truly feel that you evolve together with the group.

The goal of the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp is to offer an alternative to every Germantown gym, by making fitness fun. The Dexter Tenison Fitness program is designed with excitement in mind and it is intended to be an original kind of Germantown gym. By joining this program, you will burn a lot of fat and tone your body without the boredom that accompanies regular gym programs. The Dexter Tenison Fitness Program at the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp consists of a variety of exercises, including team training, obstacle courses, light running, body weight training and resistance training. Another huge advantage of the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp over any other Germantown gym is that you are not alone when exercising. You are part of a group and this is an excellent opportunity to meet new people. Without any doubt, training in a group has a better effect on your motivation than running alone on a treadmill at a regular gym.

With the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp you will begin to see results from as early as several days. Generally, it is a common occurrence to lose up to 2 dress sizes in the first month of training. The Dexter Tenison Fitness program is a life changing experience and, whether you look to lose 5 or 50 pounds, completing the course will benefit you for life. Choosing the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp over a regular Germantown gym will certainly have visible effects in your appearance and, not to be overlooked, in your mood and the way you enjoy life every day.

If you are looking for a Germantown personal trainer then you need to go no further than Dexter Tenison Fitness. Dexter Tenison knows what it is like to be in your shoes. He has had to fight his own battles with weight. It took him two tries to get to a point where he could actually win his fight. That happened only because he found a personal trainer that he could work with. Dexter discovered that working with the trainer really helped him feel motivated.

Because of his experience Tenison went back to school. He graduated with a masters degree in sports science. He became a Germantown personal trainer and started Dexter Tenison Fitness. He also started a boot camp program that is aimed at women. The Memphis Adventure Boot Camp is a great program for women who are looking to jump start their fitness program. Women have many challenges when it comes to working out. They can range from just trying to find the time to having low self confidence. But, the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp is designed to help women get a great workout in, no matter what their challenges are. The class takes place in the early morning hours, so you are able to get your day started on the right foot. The things that you learn from this program, and from using a Germantown personal trainer are things that will be with you for life. The results are ones that you will see your entire life.

When you get a Germantown personal trainer with Dexter Tenison Fitness, you will have someone who will be on your side. Your trainer will help keep you motivated. Before you start any workout program you and your trainer will sit down and discuss your goals. Then your trainer will customize a program just for you. Your goals aren’t going to be the same as the goals that other people have, so you don’t want to do just some one size fits all plan. Part of your customized workout program may be going to the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp. After doing the boot camp you will see inches just falling off your body. You will have a stronger body, and will be able to go on to do other workouts because you have shown yourself that you can.

It doesn’t matter if you want to go through the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp in addition to working with your Germantown personal trainer, or if you just want to work with your trainer. Dexter Tenison has the option that will work for you, and will help you get the results that you want.

If you live in the Bartlett, TN area and you want to lose weight, get fit, and feel healthy like you never have before, you really should look into hiring a Bartlett personal trainer. Now, why would you want a Bartlett personal trainer? The answer is simple. Working with a Bartlett personal trainer beats wasting time (or embarrassing yourself) in some Bartlett gym, and it sure beats counting calories every time you eat. Why is going to the gym a waste of time? It’s because you’re pretty much, or entirely, on your own there, and if you need to lose weight and get in shape you probably can’t do it by yourself—because if you could, you already would have! And counting calories is totally unnecessary if you simply begin putting healthy calories, in a healthy balance, into your body instead of “junk” calories. Besides, not getting enough calories is potentially dangerous for you!

A Bartlett personal trainer has the capability to motivate, inspire, and guide you while making sure that your workout regimen is customized to your unique needs in addition to being safe and as least likely to cause you injury as possible. Furthermore, a Bartlett personal trainer will be able to help you change your diet and eating habits permanently, so that once you have shed those unwanted pounds and strengthened those muscles you will never “backslide” again! And this can be done without your ever going hungry or ever needing to eat “yucky” food.

If you’re thinking about losing weight and getting into better shape but haven’t been able to do so, then one, some, or all of the following probably apply to you:

•  You are embarrassed by how your body looks and feels.
• You feel like you’re too busy with life or work to get into a disciplined exercise regimen.
• You have tried going to the gym and found it too embarrassing and too impersonal for you to keep motivated.
• You constantly feel sluggish, lethargic, and irritable.
• You won’t buy fashionable clothes or “skinny jeans” because you don’t want your body shown off.
• You are stressed out all the time, and this stress not only feels terrible but it is causing your body to produce high levels of cortisol which, in turn, just keeps those unwanted pounds hanging on your body.

Now, what should you be looking for in a Bartlett personal trainer if you need help in any or all of these areas? How about a guy who really understands the way you feel about yourself? How about a man who, once upon a time, was a “fattie”, was slow and lethargic even though a young man? You don’t want a Bartlett personal trainer who’s just some know it all jock-type and “health nut” who has never known what it means to be out of shape, right? Your Bartlett personal trainer should understand everything it takes to rise up and overcome your condition, how to change your lifestyle and eating habits permanently, right? That Bartlett personal trainer does exist.

He is Dexter Tenison, MSS. He runs the Memphis Adventure Boot Camp and the Dexter Tenison Fitness program, and both of these health and wellness programs have received rave reviews from those who have tried them and found success with them. Don’t defeat yourself by settling for an embarrassing corporate gym and miserably counting your calories. Try out Dexter Tenison as your Bartlett personal trainer!