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Archive for August, 2010
Dream Big, Be Big!
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Do you fall asleep in a positive or negative mood?
What do you think about before you go to sleep? Does it really matter? What you think about could be very beneficial and profitable to your life. While your conscious mind takes a break as you sleep, your subconscious mind actually stays very active. Because of this, the thoughts that you think about before you drift off to sleep are vitally important.
Many people end their day by watching the news, which is usually negative and depressing. When they go to sleep after pouring all that junk into their minds, they are basically saying, “Okay subconscious mind, work on all that stuff.” And people wonder why they wake up depressed, negative, and with no ambition for the new day ahead?
Your subconscious mind is at work day and night, including throughout your slumber. Have you ever heard the expression, “I’m going to sleep on it?” I remember watching a movie and when faced with a problem, the main character said, “I’ll sort it out in the morning.” Many times after “sleeping on it,” a person wakes up with a solution, or at least, a direction in which to proceed.
One day, a man had diligently worked for hours towards a solution to a problem, yet still knew that there was something missing. He went to sleep, still trying to grasp that missing piece. His thoughts before he fell asleep were focused on unearthing the solution. He said the next morning he suddenly woke up feeling “the greatest excitement.” In a short amount of time thereafter, Albert Einstein wrote his first draft of a new article – a full thirty pages. It was the start to his theory of relativity.
There are a lot of people who wake up right before their alarm goes off. Does that happen to you? Is it just a habit, or, before falling asleep, do you consciously think about what time you want to get up? I think it is the latter.
Personally, the only time I use an alarm clock is when I need to get up much earlier than usual. However, every time, it seems like I still wake up before the alarm goes off. Before falling asleep, I was very aware that I needed to get up early…and the next morning, my subconscious mind stepped in, telling me it was 4:30.
Why not tell your subconscious mind some really positive things before you nod off to sleep? Things like, “I am going to wake up happy and refreshed,” or “I am going to get some good, peaceful sleep and tomorrow I will get a lot done,” are some excellent examples.
There are many programs that suggest doing your affirmations right before you go to sleep. Some recommend reviewing your goals at that time.
Here’s something to try. Take note of what kind of mood you are in as you go to sleep. Emotions are a product of your thoughts. Change your thinking so that you don’t allow yourself to fall asleep in a doubtful mood, or in a depressed mood, or in an angry mood.
If you fall asleep in a negative mood, you are impeding the work that your subconscious mind could be doing for you while you sleep. You are losing ground and also losing precious time.
Whether it is your affirmations, or goals, or something you are working on and trying to solve, take careful note of what you are thinking about right before you fall asleep. Your subconscious mind is going to be working all night on something anyway, so why not give it something profitable?
Successful people develop successful habits – it just doesn’t happen automatically. You can take charge of your life in so many little seemingly insignificant steps. However, some of these “little” things will reap enormously profitable dividends in your life.
So have a sweet, peaceful, productive sleep!
By Michael A. Verdicchio
LA Boxing Kicks It In B.R.
Friday, August 20th, 2010
225 Magazine
www.225batonrouge.com
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Whether you want to kick butt like those mixed martial arts fighters on Spike TV or you simply want their six-pack abs, this new Baton Rouge business offers to help you reach your goal.
Gabe Miller has opened the first Baton Rouge location of L.A. Boxing, a national company. The 29-year-old operates the Sherwood Forest Boulevard gym, which specializes in one-hour classes in a variety of styles that includes Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, boxing, wrestling and kickboxing. Amateur and professional fighters demonstrate proper technique to customers for 15 minutes, then begin the training. “We give (our customers) the foundations of boxing and kickboxing,†Miller says. “Then we give them one hell of a workout.â€
There are multiple group levels of competition to accommodate people for whom fighting is not a forte.
“I had a mom come in, she was maybe 50 years old and hadn’t worked out in years,†Miller says. “She knew she needed to get in shape. She was intimidated, but by the end of that hour of training she knew how to throw a four-punch combination. It gave her all the confidence in the world.â€
L.A. Boxing offers one complimentary class for anyone interested in checking it out. Memberships include unlimited appointments for the one-hour classes.
4520 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd. No. 110, 291-5269;
Some Stay Fit in Non-Traditional Ways
Friday, August 13th, 2010
By Sarah Rosario
Source: WBRZ
Updated: August 12, 2010 6:57 PM
If you’re looking for ways to tone up and stay fit, you may want to check out kickboxing or boxing.
In addition to your regular work out routine, LA Boxing owner Gabe Miller said kickboxing and boxing are some of the best ways for women to get in shape because they are full body work outs.
“Anytime you throw a punch, a kick, you’re working your core muscles, so it’s going to get every part of your body. You can do it quickly. You’re going to burn out quickly, so we found within an hour of working with a heavy bag, working with mitts, women have found that this is one of the best ways to get in shape,” said Miller.
Miller advises the best way to get energy and increase your metabolism is by doing cardio. He said boosting your metabolism will help you lose the weight and tone up the way you want to. An alternative method to traditional cardio is jump roping.
“With the jump rope, it’s a great way to get the heart rate going and continue at the level you need it to be to really work the heart, really push the blood around the body and keep your metabolism up and your heart rate fine,” said Miller.
Another way to burn fat is by doing circuit training. LA Boxing head trainer Ricco Rodriguez came up with a circuit training routine that will help you burn fat by fatiguing the muscles after your routine work out. You start by jump roping for about a minute straight. Then you practice doing push ups with a medicine ball. You place one hand on the medicine ball and the other on the ground. You have to make sure you’re getting as low to the floor as you can. Exhale on the way up. Repeat five times, and switch hands, placing the other hand on the ground and the opposite one on the ball.
Afterwards, you can get an abs work out by doing an exercise called “scissor clappers.” To do this, you must be lying on the ground. Make sure your head is not touching the floor. Then kick your feet, similarly to how scissors open and close. Continue to work your abs by doing elbow-to-knee crunches. Those drills are meant to fatigue the muscles after a work out. If those don’t work for you, another way to drop pounds and keep them off is by taking classes.
“You have someone there who is pushing you through the work out. There’s a start time, there’s a finish time, and there’s work in between. They don’t stray from that. They’re there to push you to motivate you and help you finish, and when you’re walking out of the class, the trainers are the people who are going to be the ones to kinda lure you back in, so no cheating,” said Miller.
Whether it’s boxing, jump rope or classes, all must be combined with a healthy diet.
“You’ve got to eat right. You’ve got to get the nutrition in your body in order to push through the work out. If it’s not there, then your body is just going to be breaking down and never really building up,” said Miller.
Remember, you have to get into a routine of exercising and stick with it in order to get results.
Former UFC Champ Patiently Awaits
Friday, August 6th, 2010
Great article written by MMA Junkie regarding LA Boxing Baton Rouge Trainer, Ricco Rodriguez.
Former UFC champ, Ricco Rodriguez, patient for next big career opportunity
by Steven Marrocco on Aug 04, 2010 at 8:00 am ET
Ricco Rodriguez (42-11) just wrapped his 10th fight since July 2009, and he’s fallen short just once – by decision. At 32, he says he’s in the best shape of his life.
Of course, that’s a pretty common statement among fighters plugging away in the prime – or twilight – of their careers. But for Rodriguez, a former UFC heavyweight champion who’s seen more highs and lows than most, it feels genuine.
And while he feels poised to make a return to the upper echelons of the sport, he’s not waiting with hat in hand for a big time contract.
“I’ve never asked, and I’ve never approached anybody,” he told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “I’m waiting for the right time.”
With the way things are going, that time might be approaching. After a well-publicized battle with drugs, alcohol and weight, Rodriguez’s current life bears little resemble to the one portrayed on VH1′s “Celebrity Rehab.” He’s found sanctuary in Baton Rouge, La., where he’s taken the helm of an LA Boxing franchise in town and teaches a growing base of students. He regularly trains with UFC veterans and lifelong Louisianans Rich Clementi and Tim Credeur, who each run separate gyms about an hour away.
Once 330 pounds and, depending on who you asked, a joke or candidate for a pity party, Rodriguez hovers between 225 and 230 pounds. That’s less than what he weighed when he took on and defeated Randy Couture for the UFC title at UFC 39. Now, light heavyweight is not out of the realm of possibility – he weighed a svelte 218 pounds at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Combat Club World Submission Fighting Championships – though he says he’d like three months and a nice paycheck to make the 205-pound limit.
The important thing is, he’s turned his life around.
“I’m just focused on really fine tuning my game for that moment that I might get that call and step up to the big leagues and get that opportunity,” Rodriguez said.
Recently, it seems he’s been inching ever closer to such an opportunity. At July’s DREAM.15, he was supposed to meet Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem, which many observers felt was a very winnable fight. In the end, it was not to be; the bout fell apart when Overeem revealed that he never agreed to the fight, and Rodriguez sat the event out when light heavyweight Gegard Mousasi turned down a fight with him (Mousasi fought his originally scheduled opponent Jake O’Brien despite O’Brien missing weight by seven pounds). But it proved that marquee promotions who may have initially been skeptical about his comeback now take him seriously.
“They’re all available,” Rodriguez said of the promotions interested in him. “It’s just whether we want to take the offer, and the timing is right. Bellator’s put something nice on the table, and I believe I’ll be doing some work for them in September. I wish I could have gotten into that heavyweight [tournament], and if somebody gets injury, hopefully, I’ll get that opportunity.”
As to the biggest promotion of them all – the UFC – Rodriguez said his return depends on a move to light heavyweight.
“They want to see me make 205 once, and (get) a win at 205,” Rodriguez said. “They said they’ll give me an opportunity in the UFC.”
But while he would certainly love the opportunity to redeem himself inside the octagon, he’s in no rush to sign the first deal that comes his way.
“I’m only going to get one shot at it, and I know that when I get that one shot, I want to be the best Ricco Rodriguez there is,” he said.
For now, winning fights and representing himself well is enough. He’s unconcerned whether his reality show image continues to follow him. The way he sees it, the show was a difficult time in his life from which he’s moved on.
“It’s like this: you go to church (and) you confess your sins,” he said. “Does anybody cast you for your sins? No. You go, you pray, and you ask for forgiveness. I did mine; I asked for forgiveness. I got a lot of help. A lot of people have the feeling that they need to judge me, or they have to say that I’m a bad person. When I go and confess all my sins, I feel bad about what I did. That alone should be enough.
“Apparently people want to judge me for what I’ve done. It doesn’t bother me, but I’m sure it didn’t help me at all. I see a lot of people come up to me and give me a lot of recognition for what I did. If it can help other people get their life back together, I think that’s what’s important.
“Sometimes you step off track, but it’s how you get back on and do what you need to do.”
MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by Gorgeous George, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Goze. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.
7 Steps to Curve the Crave
Friday, August 6th, 2010
There are no easy ways to fix junk food habits and make them into healthy habits, but I do have 7 quick strategies that you can easily put into place to start into motion your new lifestyle without junk food. I recommend implementing these one at a time, to ensure that you don’t overload and burn yourself out.
FACT: Obesity accounts for 300,000 deaths in the U.S. alone.
Research into junk food and fast food restaurants have found that there is a direct relationship between the number of fast food restaurants located within your local area and obesity rates.
The way in which we eat, and what we eat, is of vital importance to our state of health. The convenience and habitual nature of the problem mean that fast food consumption is so in-grained, that healthy eating is near impossible.
There are no easy ways to fix junk food habits and make them into healthy habits, but I do have 7 quick strategies that you can easily put into place to start into motion your new lifestyle without junk food. I recommend implementing these one at a time, to ensure that you don’t overload and burn yourself out.
1. Do your shopping every week. Make it a regular habit to do your groceries every single week on the same day.
2. Make a shopping list on the computer with all the regular foods that you buy, to ensure that you aren’t going to run out of food at the end of the week, tempting you to reach for the fast food pamphlet, running out for take-away or buying unnecessary food items.
3. DON’T STARVE YOURSELF! Eat 6 small meals instead of 3 large ones, snacking on healthy foods such as a fat burning apple, protein packed peanuts, or metabolism raising light salad with boiled eggs and flaxseed oil dressing.
4. Make food your hobby. Join a cooking class. There are often many community classes that you can enroll in inexpensively to learn how to prepare interesting food.
5. Unplug the TV at the point. You will be less likely to sit there and watch it aimlessly if you have to make a conscious effort to turn it on. Particularly around 6-8 pm, the junk food restaurants will advertise, watch a DVD during these times. A recent review of childhood obesity research, has, not surprisingly found that the amount of time you spend watching TV has a direct affect on being overweight.
6. Try this recipe to help curb your need to buy junk food, or if you’re feeling the urge to have a smoke:
2 eggs beaten
1 Chopped lean bacon rasher – no fat.
1 chopped canned tomato
1/4 cup soy milk/low fat milk
1 finely chopped leaf spinach/frozen spinach
Sprinkling of low fat cheese
Mix ingredients together in mixing bowl. Transfer into a microwave safe bowl and cook on high for 2 minutes or until eggs have solidified. You’ll find that depending on the quantity eaten, it can be a filling snack or light dinner.
7. When eating out. Avoid the restaurants with the all-you-can-eat option. These restaurants unfortunately encourage people to eat until they are bloated. Researchers found that 20% of weight gained among freshman University students could be attributed to their eating in the all-you-can-eat student dining halls.
References:
Caroli M, Argentieri L, Cardone M, Masi A. Role of television in childhood obesity prevention. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Nov;28 Suppl 3:S104-8.
Levitsky DA, Halbmaier CA, Mrdjenovic G. The freshman weight gain: a model for the study of the epidemic of obesity. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Nov;28(11):1435-42.
Maddock J. The relationship between obesity and the prevalence of fast food restaurants: state-level analysis. Am J Health Promot. 2004 Nov-Dec;19(2):137-43.
