Archive for January, 2010

What’s Happening This Week (Sports, Health, Fitness Events)

Monday, February 1^st

No known events

Tuesday, February 2nd

Who: New Orleans Rugby Football Club
When: 7 pm
What: Practice
Where: Lakeview Pitch on Harrison and Marconi Gretna Pitch

Wednesday, February 3^rd

Who: New Orleans Badminton Club
When: 5pm – 8pm
What: Practice and play
Where: Loyola University Recreational Sports Complex (RecPlex), Fifth Floor

Thursday, February 4^th

Who: New Orleans Rugby Football Club
When: 7 pm
What: Practice
Where: Gretna Pitch

Friday, February 5^th

Who: New Orleans Lacrosse Club
When: 5-7 February
What: Mardi Gras Lacrosse Tournament
Where: LaSalle Park, Metairie 6600 Airline Drive Metairie, LA 70003

Saturday, February 6^th

Who: Crescent City Cyclist
When: 10:30am – 1:30pm
What: After Breakfast Ride (20-30 miles)
Where: Meet at NOMA in City Park

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Who: The Louisiana Hiking Club
When: 6-7 February
What: Trail work at Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge
Where: The refuge is located at the south edge of Franklin, LA.

Sunday, February 7^th

Who: Crescent City Cyclist
When: 9am – 11:30pm
What: Green Ride – about 15 miles at a pace of 10-12 mph to visit nine “green” places in New Orleans plus a monument to World War I soldiers.
Where: City Park NOMA

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Who: Runners Who Hate to Run
When: 1pm
What: Run 5.5. miles
Where: People’s bridge across from Cabrini High School (City Park)

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Who: New Orleans Badminton Club
When: 5pm – 8pm
What: Practice and play
Where: Loyola University Recreational Sports Complex (RecPlex), Fifth Floor

Contact us if you have a health and fitness event you would like us to post for next week.  We post health and fitness events that are open to the public in the Greater New Orleans area.

One of our primary goals at Be Fit NOLA is to bring out to the forefront the many health and fitness activities, events and opportunities that exist in New Orleans that both locals and tourists simply don’t know about.  I’m willing to bet that one area of health and fitness many folks don’t know about are all the various sport organizations that exist and participate in league events.  Did you know that New Orleans has a Rugby Team? We connected the Captain of the New Orleans Rugby Football Club, Matt Upton, and asked him a few questions in order to find out more about them.

Interview with Team Captain Matt Upton

A few basics first. We practice twice a week in Lakeview and hold our home games in Gretna. The team also owns its own bar, the Rugby Pub in Gretna, right near the home pitch. We play a spring season building up to regional and national playoffs, and a fall season that is a little more casual.

The team stays active year-round with different types of competition and fitness opportunities.

Q: What is the history behind the New Orleans Rugby Football Club? (When did it get started…who started the Club? How was the original team brought together?)

Matt Upton (Captain New Orleans Rugby Football Club):

Our team’s roots go back to 1973. It was formed by a group of local guys who had experience playing rugby in college and wanted to create a next level opportunity to help build the sport here.

What we’re seeing now is a deepening pipeline of players coming out of rugby families, in much the same way as you saw soccer develop in America a generation ago. Some of our past and current players have been instrumental in starting local high school rugby programs. When kids start playing as teens, then continue through college, they can have tremendous skills and experience by the time they’re ready to join the NORFC.

Q: What League is the New Orleans Rugby Football Club member of? What teams do you play against?

Matt Upton:

NORFC is part of USA Rugby, the national league for this level of play. The league is divided into regional divisions and ours is called the Deep South Division. During our spring season, we compete against teams in Baton Rouge, Jackson, Miss., Mobile, Ala., Little Rock, Ark., and Memphis, Tenn. We travel to them, and they come here to play at our home pitch in Gretna. If we do well against our regular season divisional competition, we can advance to the regional playoffs and eventually to the nationals. In recent seasons, we’ve made it to the national “sweet 16″ round of playoffs, competing against America’s best teams in our division.

Apart from these league games (or what we call “matrix games”) we also play a lot of games against teams from across the country and around the world. Not surprisingly, it turns out a lot of teams want to schedule visits to New Orleans. These non-matrix games don’t count for our league record or playoff standings, and we mostly hold these in the fall season. They’re a great chance to get more game experience with different levels of competition.

Q: What is most unique about the sport of Rugby? And how grueling of a sport is Rugby?

Matt Upton:

It’s a rough sport, no doubt about it. Guys take some pretty hard hits, and it’s relentless. Frankly, that’s part of the appeal. It’s extreme. It pushes you to a level you normally don’t ever need to reach. It’s that combination of full contact, no pads, no blocking and 80 minutes games of continuous action. But probably the biggest thing that sets rugby apart is the global community. There’s a very strong, very important social aspect to the sport, within the team and between teams. After games, win or lose, the home team always throws a party for the visitor. It’s the world’s largest fraternity in a way, but the membership requirements are heart and dedication to the sport.

Q: Do players interested in playing need prior experience? Special equipment? Should a player expect to travel with the team often?

Matt Upton:

We’re always recruiting new players, and no prior experience is necessary. That’s part of the beauty of the sport, at least in America. While we are seeing things start to change a bit thanks to new high school programs, most people have not been playing rugby all their lives in this country. There’s not a huge disadvantage here to starting in your 20s or 30s.

Also, there’s no real heavy equipment requirement. Basically, all you need is a mouthpiece, cleats and your jersey.

As for traveling, we do have road games around the Deep South and beyond, so there’s a travel opportunity there for guys who want it.

Q: What brings players out to play? Why do you play?

Matt Upton:

We have guys come out who used to play football and miss that contact. Heard about it in college, thought they’d give it a shot and want to get in shape. Less expensive and more fun than joining a gym. See us out at bars together, see the camaraderie. So there’s the competitive thing, the fitness thing and also that social aspect.

Now why I play is basically because I love the sport and always want to get better at it. I’ve taken time off before, played other sports, did wrestling in college, but I always missed rugby and came back to it. There’s just nothing like it.

Q: If someone is looking for a team sport and has never played Rugby; what do you want to tell them as to why they should try Rugby?

Matt Upton:

It’s like no other sport they’ve played before, and while it’s not for everyone the people who connect with it usually stay involved in the rugby community for a long time. There are guys involved in our club who are still in college and guys who have been playing for more than 30 years. You plug into this diverse network of people who all share a love of this sport.

To find out more information about the New Orleans Rugby Football Club be sure to check-out their website and you can also find them on Facebook. We’ll see you at some of their games!!

2010 is off to a blissful beginning.  Mardi Gras AND the Super Bowl! What’s a yogi to do? I can see yogis, jumping off their mats, rushing out the door to follow Xavier prep down Laurel Street or leaping out of bed as the Buzzards walk by with drinks in hand at 6:30 am, Mardi Gras day.

I see Saints fans trying their best to meditate before the big game, with thoughts of touchdowns interrupting their efforts.  I’ve considered our options, yogic revelers. How can we practice and party?  Easy, just requires a little balance, exactly what we’ve been working on, right?

Lets’s start with the Big Game and in the next post we’ll get into Mardi Gras.

Have any of you noticed your heart rate skyrocketing during the past few games? We have a lot of emotional energy invested in our city and our fantastic team. If you find your chest tightening and your heart pounding wildly during the big game, it might not be a bad idea to try a couple of breathing exercises during commercial breaks.

You can begin diaphragmatic breathing by simply bringing a palm to rest on your belly.  Allow your upper chest and shoulders to relax and trace your inhale as it enters your nose and travels all the way down to the diaphragm.  When your belly expands at the bottom of your inhale, you’ll feel your palm move out with the rise of your belly.  As you exhale, your abdomen will begin to settle toward your spine.  This diaphragmatic movement activates the vagus nerve, which, in turn, stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, thereby slowing your heart, oxygenating your organs, easing muscle tension and generally calming you down.  A couple of minutes of diaphragmatic breathing can work wonders on the nervous system.

Another calming technique is left nostril breathing.  Gently close your right nostril with your right thumb; bring your two peace fingers to rest between your eyes.  Inhale and exhale through the left nostril. Allow the exhalation to last a couple of seconds longer than the inhalation. You could even include a silent mantra on both the inhalation and exhalation, for example:

Inhale: Saints
Exhale: Victory

At the same time, you can visualize an open field with your favorite player racing towards an easy touchdown…for a nice added touch.

Thank you to the Saints for giving us so much to celebrate.

Peace, love, namaste and WHO DAT!!!

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Heather Ryan is a strength trainer and certified yoga instructor in New Orleans. She trains clients at Ultimate Fitness and teaches at NOLA House of Yoga. You can also find Heather cooking on The Herbivore Next Door show.

As you know, we have been encouraging people to take part in the Pound for Pound Challenge because we believe it is such a wonderful opportunity to do something good for yourself, while at the same time, do something amazing for your community.

How exactly will you be helping your community? Watch this video and learn more about Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana and how the donation from General Mills for every pound you pledge to lose will help people in need.

As of this post, 18,686 pounds have been pledged by 578 people for New Orleans.

Be Fit Nola Interviews Second Harvest Food Bank from BeFitNola on Vimeo.

Willpower After Eycken by Tim Brown

Here’s a quick recap from Part I of this series on Willpower. Studies show human beings only have a limited amount of willpower and if overtaxed…you will run out of willpower and the ability to say no to temptations or yes to things you must do but hate doing.  This means that if you’re planning to survive the Super Bowl, Mardi Gras and living in New Orleans by relying on your willpower to not over eat and over drink…you are guaranteed to eventually give in and fail.

No One Wants to Be a Failure

There nothing good or appealing about failure.  Failure is demoralizing, depressing and discouraging. We’ve all heard the saying “You don’t plan to fail – You fail to plan”.

If Not Willpower Than What!??!

If you can’t rely on your willpower to live a healthy lifestyle…than what can you reply on?  What can you do, a mere human being, to be able to withstand New Orleans and all her temptations?

Plan, Structure and Boundaries

Without a plan, structure and boundaries you have a bit of chaos and free for all.  You keep yourself open and vulnerable to every temptations and weaknesses you have.

In order to not overtaxed your willpower – you need to craft a plan, establish some structure and set boundaries in order to create an environment where you are no longer exposed to constant temptations and your weaknesses.

From within the comfort of your plan, structure, and boundaries you can strive and achieve your goal of living a healthy lifestyle.

Can you see it now!?! Starting to?  Not at all…

Willpower Meter

Have a look at that list of everything that was taxing your willpower meter in a 24 hour period.  Can you see how, if you had a plan, structure and boundaries you would forego quite a few things on your list?

Going to give you some time to think about it; we’ll pick this conversation back up next week!

The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living is looking for supporters of smoke-free air to come out and be a part of its next statewide media campaign. Film crews will be on site in four cities across the state this week to film to conduct on-camera interviews with volunteers who want to speak up for smoke-free air in Louisiana. Some interviews may be used for the statewide television ad campaign, while others will be featured in a short documentary.

Film producers are looking for supporters of smoke-free environments, especially:

• Office workers
• Restaurant wait staff
• Casino dealers
• Bartenders
• Musicians
• Cocktail waitresses
• Citizens who support smoke-free bars and casinos

While walk-ins are welcome, we encourage those interested in participating in the shoot to RSVP by emailing kdabdoub@lphi.org. Since this film project is being conducted in multiple cities across the state, please specify the city you are in. (The New Orleans shoot is Friday)

Shoot schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, January 27
Randol’s
2320 Kaliste Saloom Rd
Lafayette, LA
12:30 – 3 p.m.

Thursday, January 28
Vincent’s City Club
7132 Florida Boulevard
Baton Rouge, LA
1 – 5:30 p.m.

Friday, January 29
The Republic
828 South Peters Street
New Orleans, LA
1-4:30pm

Since posting my initial bodybuilding blog I’ve been doing a lot of research on bodybuilding in New Orleans and throughout the rest of Louisiana hoping to find new and updated information to share with everyone.  Well, there isn’t much information available on the internet despite there being a great bodybuilding community.  What I find is bodybuilding, similar to health and fitness in New Orleans, gets overlooked because no one has taken the lead on educating others on the available resources in the area.  I’m going to put some focus on highlighting bodybuilding, events, meetings, seminars, etc… to help connect athletes so they are informed.

One good place to start out is the Louisiana National Physique Committee (NPC), where you can view the 2010 calendar of upcoming events.  Luke Tesvich, Louisiana NPC Chairman, tries to keep everyone informed on NPC related events; you’ll find this site informative because it lists different athlete meetings, as well as, the competitions and seminars for the region.  On Facebook, a gentlemen named Allen Wess Coon has taken the initiative to try to provide motivational content through a group called Louisiana Muscle.  This is all excellent stuff and it’s a great starting point to get bodybuilding going again in the GNO.  Below are a couple of key dates to mark in your calendar this year:

2010 Bodybuilding, Figure, Bikini & Wheelchair Championship events:

• May 22^nd Shreveport NPC Optimum Classic
• June 19^th Baton Rouge NPC Red Stick Classic
• June 26^th Metairie NPC Greater Gulf States
• July 10^th Lafayette NPC Louisiana State

Above I mentioned “getting bodybuilding going again”; there was a much stronger presence years ago and dated back into the 1960s.   I was fascinated to find out Boyer Coe, a bodybuilding superstar in the Arnold Schwarzenegger days, was a Louisiana native from Lake Charles.  Boyer’s bodybuilding titles include: Teen Mr. America, Junior Mr. USA, Junior Mr. America, Mr. America, Mr. Universe, Mr. International, Pro Mr. World, Grand Prix Champion and IFBB Weider Hall of Fame member.

As you can see, there is a history to Louisiana and bodybuilding so it’s a goal of Be Fit NOLA to revitalize that and to bring some NOLA swagger back to the industry.  There is so much that can be done online to increase visibility and awareness for Louisiana bodybuilding.  I’ll continue to do research and share what I find.  I encourage everyone to do some searching too and share your findings and thoughts on how to highlight the bodybuilding community that exists in the Greater New Orleans area now.  We’d also like to begin an interview series with local bodybuilders so they can get the recognition they deserve for all their hard work.  If you’d like to be interviewed, let us know!

What’s Happening This Week (Sports, Health, Fitness Events)

Monday January 25^th

No known events

Tuesday, January 26^th

Who: New Orleans Rugby Football Club

When: 7 pm

What: Practice

Where: Lakeview Pitch on Harrison and Marconi

Gretna Pitch

Wednesday, January 27^th

Who: New Orleans Badminton Club

When: 5pm – 8pm

What: Practice and play

Where: Loyola University Recreational Sports Complex (RecPlex), Fifth Floor

Thursday, January 28^th

Who: PlayNOLA

When: 6:30pm

What: Co-ed Dodgeball

Where: UNO Human Performance Center

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Who: New Orleans Rugby Football Club

When: 7 pm

What: Practice

Where: Gretna Pitch

Friday, January 29^th

No known events

Saturday, January 30^th

Who: Crescent City Cyclist

When: 10:30am – 1:30pm

What: After Breakfast Ride (20-30 miles)

Where: Meet at NOMA in City Park

Sunday, January 31^st

Who: NOTC

When: 8:00am

What: 31st Annual “The WALL” Louisiana State 30k Championship

Where: East Bank Bridge Park, Destrehan, LA

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Who: Crescent City Cyclist

When: 9am – 12:30pm

What: City Ride

Where: City Park NOMA

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Who: Runners Who Hate to Run

When: 1pm

What: Run 5.5. miles

Where: People’s bridge across from Cabrini High School (City Park)

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Who: New Orleans Badminton Club

When: 5pm – 8pm

What: Practice and play

Where: Loyola University Recreational Sports Complex (RecPlex), Fifth Floor

Contact us if you have a health and fitness event you would like us to post for next week.  We post health and fitness events that are open to the public in the Greater New Orleans area.

This week Molly explores snacks that can be custom made from various websites – this is really awesome. The sites are MixMyGranola, Element Bars and YouBar

 

Next Molly does her Like, Love, Hate segment on Pretzels:

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is one of the most talked about and most recognized vitamins of the 13 essential vitamins.  Like other vitamins, the body does not produce vitamin C, nor does it store it. It’s important to get your daily allowance of vitamin C through foods rich in vitamin C and/or by taking vitamin C supplements.

Vitamin C Foods (a few):

• Oranges
• Kiwifruit
• Bell Peppers
• Spinach
• Broccoli
• Grapefruit

You’ll find Vitamin C at the top of virtually any list pertaining to immune health. Extensive research is available and has gone into exploring the benefits and impact of Vitamin C. The ability for Vitamin C to cure the disease scurvy was discovered by a Scottish surgeon in the British Royal Navy, James Lind.  In 1753, Dr. Lind wrote his findings from an experiment where he fed sailors citrus fruit everyday during a long sea journey – none of the sailors got scurvy which was very common during that time period on long journeys at sea.

Vitamin C is a very good antioxidant and does a great job at protecting the body against pollutants and free radicals, which is allegedly how vitamin C boosts immune health.  In addition to immune health, vitamin C helps regulate tissue growth & repair, healthy gums, enhance iron absorption, protect from infection and may help reduce cholesterol and high blood pressure.

As I mentioned above, there has been extensive research about vitamin C but it does turnout that the studies have mixed results.  You see, some studies argue vitamin C does little to help boost the average person’s immune system.  However, if you’re an active person who stresses the human body, such as an athlete, than taking vitamin C shows significant increases in immune system health.  Vitamin C and its immune boosting properties are arguable at this point; however, the majority of studies show positive immune health by taking the recommended daily allowance.  I can personally say vitamin C works for me; I notice a big difference if I don’t take it.

No matter what, there is no debating that you need vitamin C (you don’t want to end up with scurvy) so if you can’t get your recommended dose from food, fruits and vegetables; vitamin C is thankfully a relatively cheap vitamin to purchase and it can be bought at nearly any store that sells vitamins, supplements, groceries, etc.

Having talked about some of the benefits, it’s important for people to understand vitamin C is not a cure-all for diseases and physical problems; this seems to be big misunderstanding.  Part of this confusion stems from its reported prevention of degenerative and cardiovascular diseases.  Although vitamin C may help prevent these diseases, the reliability on just vitamin C to do this is not valid.  Generally, vitamin C, among other vitamins and nutrients, work synergistically to prevent such diseases.  There are great articles to research about different diseases and physical problems where vitamin C can potentially be of benefit.

The recommended dose is 200 – 350 milligrams per day; smokers and people who consume alcohol need to consume more vitamin C.  For people who take vitamin C supplements, the best practice is to evenly space them out over the course of a day.  Just like with many other vitamins and supplements, your body will rid them through urine therefore; you’ll be wasting money by taking more than you need at one given time.

Let us know if you take vitamin C and what kind of results you get from it.