Bright Star Bootcamp: Stay At Home Challenge

Dear Bootcampers,

Just wanted to send some encouragement and motivation your way… it’s a bummer that we’ve had to postpone the bootcamp due to COVID-19 and social distancing but that doesn’t mean that we should stop it from allowing us to continue with the great progress that some of us were having – weight and inches were being lost!!

The Bright Star Bigget Loser Bootcamp will return but in the meantime here’s the Stay at Home challenge. Can we keep making progress even during this time??

I think we can if we focus on 2 things:

#1: Eating Well

It can be extremely tempting to just snack and snack and snack and snack during this time of extended staying at home, binge watching shows, working from home, etc and I enjoy the occasional snack myself from time to time BUT there are ways to snack in a HEALTHY WAY.

Here are a few healthy snacks:

Protein Bar and Yogurt w/ Almonds

Pure Protein Cookie Dough Bar
Oikos Triple Zero Vanilla Yogurt
17 Almonds
Mix almonds with yogurt – enjoy

Peanut Butter / Banana Smoothie

1 cup Fat Free Milk
1 scoop Pure Protein Vanilla Whey Protein
½ TBSP Peanut Butter
1 Medium Sized Banana
Mix together in a blender enjoy
If you don’t have a blender, just having the banana and peanut butter together is a good option

Here are some additional links to snack options (click the links below to view more):

The other big item is eating healthy meals in general, especially breakfast. Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day. It gets the day started off right and can get your metabolism burning, keeping you fuller longer and helping with over eating later in the day. I know most don’t have lots of time to cook so here are some quick and health meal ideas:

Strawberry Banana Protein Smoothie

1 cup of West Soy – Soy Milk (can also use 1 cup of fat free milk)
1 scoop of Pure Protein Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
1 Medium Banana
½ cup of Strawberries
½ TBSP of Peanut Butter

Rice Bowl

½ cup Brown Rice
½ cup Peas
½ cup Corn
¼ cup Simple Truth Organic Soy Nuts (from Kroger) (can replace this with chicken breast or hard boiled eggs)
1 cup Low Sodium V8 Juice

Here are some other health meal ideas (to try and add to your meal plans) (click the links below to view more)

The take away – during this time of social distancing and staying home do your best to EAT WELL!!

#2: Stay Moving

It can also be very tempting to pick your favorite spot at home – be it couch, bed, laz-i-boy, computer screen and just stay there ALL DAY. This (along with not eating well) is the exact recipe for weight gain during this time but we can combat this… if you do #1 above AND focus on continuing to stay moving. You can keep the extra calories off.

Why do the extra pounds creep on us? Easy – if you don’t burn off the excess calories you eat that your body doesn’t need then the calories get stored on your body as fat. Plain and Simple – if we do #1 and eat well we are attacking the excess calories in by eating better and with #2, we are attacking the calorie burn.

The thing with staying home is that we’re not moving. Think about your typical day. For me, I walk to my car, walk to the bus stop, walk from bus stop to work, walk all day at work (to desk, meetings, bathroom, etc) then walk to bus stop, walk to my car, etc, etc. – you get the idea. Well guess what? Those steps (the activity) add up and help with calories burned just by going through the typical day. Well staying (working) from home robs us of these built in extra opportunities to stay moving and burn calories.

During this time of social distancing it’s VERY important to stay moving.

So how do you do it? Again easy – get at least 30 minutes of focused “extra” activity every day. What do I mean by focused? This is an activity that you do for at least 30 minutes straight – no distractions. What do I mean by “extra” activity? This is an activity that gets your heart rate going… some ideas:

Walking briskly outside
Jog / Run (if you’re at that point)
Ride a bike (indoor or outdoor)
Treadmill at a steady pace

For me I choose to stay moving by doing online workout videos. I use a paid option with BeachbodyOnDemand.com but there is a free tier of videos if you sign up here – (you can click the Play button – but you will need to create a free account to view).

You can also search on Youtube for Free Workout Videos for Beginners No Equipment (or just click this link) there are 1000s of free videos. If you did 1 of these every day (make sure it’s at least 30 minutes) then you’ve hit this goal!!

To recap, the Stay At Home challenge during this time of postponed bootcamp:

#1 – Eat Well

Choose better healthy snacks
Eat healthy meals – Michi’s ladder from your Bootcamp book can help as well
EXTRA: Keep the no junk food challenge from Bootcamp Week #1 going

#2 – Stay Moving

Get at least 30 minutes of focused “extra” activity every day
Walking, running, bike riding, workout videos – choose something and DO IT.

Extra Credit!
Reply to this email with the healthy food and exercises you either have been doing or will start to do. I’ll compile the list and send to the group for even more ideas of ways to eat well and stay moving during this time.

I know the times right now are rough and unprecedented but hopefully this Stay at Home challenge will help us all to eat well and stay moving so we can keep our boot camp progress going!

Remember the Bootcamp will return!!

Stay healthy and safe,

2020 Biggest Loser Bootcamp

(feel free to forward this email to others who may need this Stay at Home challenge and tell them to join the Bootcamp when it returns!!)