Checking In?

Bring new meaning to the term, "staying in."  Reserve a luxury suite in a beautiful hotel in your city (the one you would recommend to an out-of-town guest).  Relegate yourself to your room, bathing in the huge tub, ordering room service, and catch up on the new releases that you missed in the theatres.  Have breakfast in bed in the morning, sip a daiquiri pool-side, enjoy a shower to freshen up before checking out and heading home.  Ahhh...

Camping Out

Pack up the gang and head to where there is still no cell service and enjoy the freedom from the rest of the world.  Not much of a camper?  Do your research, there are campsites with modern day facilities while still being at one with nature.  Go horseback riding, floating, hiking, swim in a river and be brave enough to catch crawdads.  Not recommended for more than 48 hours but your family will cherish the memories forever.  

KOA - Campsites for the U.S. and Canada

Brushy Creek - We recommend this campsite for those in the St. Louis area.  If you have a question regarding this campsite please feel free to ask--we experienced it first-hand this summer. 

Send 'Em Packin'

Pick a family friend or a classmate and schedule a child swap.  You take their child/children one weekend and they take yours another.  The rewards are two-fold: your child will get two weekends full of sleepovers, play, and entertainment, and you will get one peaceful adult-only weekend to do all the things that you did before you had kids (if you can even remember).  If you don't have children, we suggest picking a weekend and clearing your calendar, hiding your to-do-list, and spend two full nights and days doing whatever you want. A vacation from obligation, routine, or expectation.

Tour Your Town

We love this idea.  Make a list of all the places in your city where you send a friend visiting from out of town. The best your city has to offer in the way of restaurants, unique attractions or fascinating historical sites and tours.  Include family as well as adult activities.  Print it  and work your way down the list throughout the rest of the summer.  You'll rediscover all the places you love and probably haven't been in a really long time, while renewing your appreciation for the best place on Earth, home.

Summer Concert

Purchase lawn seats, pack a blanket, and take the family to see a summer concert.  Enjoy the outdoors while listening to some great tunes and the BEST people watching.  Click here for tour schedules in your city. (John Mayer, Colbie Callait, Tom Petty, Modest Mouse, Sheryl Crow, and  Dylan, are just a few on tour this summer.)

Happy 4th of July!

The holiday weekend is days away.  MNH shares last-minute party ideas. 

Stars & Stripes Cocktail!

Remember that incredible Blueberry cocktail we featured a while back?  Add some muddled strawberries with the blueberries and you'll have a little red, white & blue.  Mix up a pitcher, tie a red ribbon around the handle and if you want to do something a little extra, treat your host(ess) to a muddler (a wooden or stainless baseball bat-shaped bar tool). Everyone needs one. On sale at Pottery Barn ($6), also at  Target.

Patriotic Chips & Salsa

Please the crowd with this delicious and easy-to-make salsa.  Serve the salsa in a white dish with the blue chips on the side.  p.s. even easier,  pick up the salsa from your favorite Mexican joint.  

Independence Pie!

If you have 15 minutes you can whip up this so simple dessert.  Follow this recipe. Substitutions: use cheesecake pudding, graham cracker crust and top with blueberries and sliced strawberries.  A la, red, white and blue.

Make some noise!

The kids will love it!  Find a rectangular basket, line it with a festive red or blue and white checkered cloth napkin and fill it full of Pop-Its or Sparklers!   I found Pop-Its at Target ($1)  

Nicole's Plan Part II: The Maintenance Program

80% of weight loss and maintenance is diet and nutrition.  After you have completed Part I of the program, you're ready to move on to the maintenance program.  You'll keep the weight off and continue to lose more, though not as fast.  Maintenance eating is simple, not easy, but simple.  The Naughty List (from Part I) is still the naughty list but now you can add whole wheat grains and fruits to all meals and snacks.  The rules for cheating are the same but you can indulge in them more often (depending on if you really want to lose more or just maintain)  Click here for my weekly grocery list.

Cardio

If you are used to doing cardio it will help you stay heart healthy, but it may not help you drop weight. This happens because it is easy to reach a plateau with cardio. Once this happens you will always have to increase the amount. A good way to avoid this is to do cross training and constantly change your routine. Keep the body in shock.
Walk/jog cross training (3 days per week): Begin with a 5 minute brisk walk to warm up.  Alternate 3 min walk/ 1 min run- This will keep the body guessing.  25 min total. (This can be done on a stationary bike, elliptical, or stair-stepper)  Stick with this plan for about a month. As it gets easier you will need to make a change.

ResistanceTraining

Pilates and Yoga are great for the body and stress reduction however you will get much better results if you don’t substitute them for your strength training program. Circuit training is a type of cardiovascular strength training.  As a beginner you can work all body parts each day (upper and lower body).  Orient yourself with your gym or enlist the help of a personal trainer to get started with a circuit program.  Begin with a 10 minute warm-up on the bike or treadmill.  Go around in two circuits (this will work each body part twice) concentrate on doing 20 reps of each.  End with a 5 minute cool down.  (about 35 min total)

Stress

Reading, meditation, and yoga are great stress reducers but may I also suggest that you get regular sexercise.   Sex and weight loss have a common link - stress.  Apart from burning calories, sex reduces stress, helps you sleep better; raises your heart rate, improves blood flow, tones your muscles, and rejuvenates your mind and body.   It satisfies late night cravings without a trip to the refrigerator and the increased activity helps women to produce more estrogen, which make them feel attractive, beautiful and sexy.  Check out the MNH Book Club for great reads and these authors of meditation instruction (courtesy of Ashley VonHatten): Pema Chodron (The places That Scare You and How to Meditate), Jack Kornfield, and Thich Nhat Hanh

Drink

Drinks are what usually get most people. If you are drinking things other than water you are probably adding a ton of calories.  Here are a few ideas on how to have a little fun while keeping your fluid intake from adding to your waistline.  Infused water or un-sweetened iced tea with Crystal Light lemonade (these will feel like you are getting some of the sugar).  Stay away from sugary drinks and juice.  Soda (even diet) is not good.  If you must, one every other day is a good limit.  Alcoholic beverages- While they are no good for you, who wants to stay away completely?  Do not drink mixed drinks (especially with fruit juice). Do not drink with a fattening meal.  Try a flavored vodka on the rocks.  By sipping, you'll drink less and slower.  

Great Gifts for Dad

Clint Eastwood: 35 Films, 35 Years

The box set includes 34 Warner Bros films that Eastwood either headlined and/or directed. The 35th “film” included is Eastwood Factor, a feature documentary film by critic/historian Richard Schickel. The box set also includes a 24-page extract of Schickel’s book Clint: A Retrospective. The collection contains Eastwood films from 1968’s Where Eagles Dare through last year’s Gran Torino.

Grill Pan

William Sonoma Fine Mesh Grill Pan

$29.95

Laptop and Camera Bag

Lowepro CompuDaypack

$79.99 at Best Buy

Randolph Engineering

Aviator Sunglasses

$99 and Free Shipping

Zodiac Watch

Zodiac Sea Dragon diving watch

$225 and Free Shipping

Lose 5 to 10 FAST!

1. Throw away your scale.  Let your favorite "little" jeans be your gauge.  And the multiple compliments like "WOW you look GREAT!" will work too.  You know the whole "muscle weighs more than fat" thing, well, it's true.  Scales are evil and depressing and will only haunt you while you sleep.  Throw it away!

2.  Don't follow these tips for more than a week or two.  If you follow a healthy maintenance plan (Part II), you won't continue to lose dramatically but you WON'T put back the fat either.

3.  This is intended for people who are close, but not quite at their target "weight."  If you have a lot of weight to lose, try this!  You'll be so motivated by how great you look and feel you might be inspired to continue on.  As with anything related to nutrition and exercise, consult with your physician before making any dramatic changes to your diet or routine. 

The Naughty List

This is very straight forward, leaving nothing to count, calculate or question:

White carbs: nothing made with bleached enriched flour (white bread, cereals, white pasta, don't confuse "whole grain" with "whole wheat"), no potatoes.

Saturated fat

Sugar: no refined sugar.  Fruit is okay in the morning (half of a grapefruit, strawberries or dark berries such as blueberries or blackberries)  Carrot sticks, ketchup, bar-b-q sauce and teriyaki sauce are loaded with sugar so be careful.  Try to stay under 8 grams per serving.   

*REMEMBER: this is very temporary, only a week maybe two, and then you move to the maintenance program which is much more inclusive (part II)

Get Grillin'

Hunger and time are huge barriers to success.  If you wait until you're hungry you run the risk of eating whatever you can get your hands on.  Preparing meals can also be time consuming and unrealistic for those who work long days.  Grilling is a perfect solution.  Plan ahead and stock your fridge with fresh fish, chicken breast or lean steak, and fresh veggies to grill.  Meals are complete in minutes and there's no prep or clean up. 

All in a Day

"So what do I eat?" Lean protein, nuts, and vegetables.  Click here for an example of a meal plan for the day.

Ahhhh, the Cheat Day

Of course you can cheat...a little.  Rules for cheating (an oxymoron, I know)

1.  Plan ahead for your cheat day.  Social gatherings like birthday parties, weddings or romantic dates a perfect excuses to cheat.  There's too much temptation and NO one this that strong all of the time.  Look at your calendar and pick your day.

2.  Cheat day doesn't mean that you get to cheat all day.  I means that you can cheat once within the day.

3.  Pick your poison.  Acceptable cheats can contain refined sugar OR saturated fat OR white carbs but not in combination with each other.  Pasta with marinara sauce, OK, pasta with cream sauce, no go.  Bacon and eggs, ok, bacon and eggs with cheese, no go.  Get it?  Remember the donut.  Donuts are the trifecta; fat, sugar, and white flour.  That's why they're so evil and delicious and basically unacceptable after 30.