I did it! I started a Be Fit NOLA Tour de Cure Team!! My grandmother (mom’s side) had diabetes and my aunt also has diabetes – I have to be extra cautious because this is a disease that I’m genetically predisposed to…so I am at risk.  This is a personal quest but obviously it’s also a quest on a much larger level for what we believe-in at Be Fit NOLA. Participating in the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure is a way for us to encourage you to join us in a 25 miles bike ride to raise money for a fabulous cause.

To prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes.

Now you can make a difference in the lives of more than 23.6 million Americans with diabetes by joining thousands of cyclists around the nation who are riding in Tour de Cure.

Tour de Cure is a series of fundraising cycling events held in 43 states nationwide to benefit the American Diabetes Association. The Tour is a ride, not a race, with routes designed for everyone from the occasional rider to the experienced cyclist.

The event is being held May 23, 2010 at Tammany Trace Trailhead (Koop) Drive in Mandeville.

This is a great opportunity to do something good for yourself and for a good cause…while having fun with us!!

To Register to Ride with Us – On the Be Fit NOLA team click here and for team name put in Be Fit NOLA (we are a Corporate team).  Our goal is to get at least 5 riders together who will raise $150 for a total of $750.  We would of course love to get more!!

If you aren’t interested in riding- please support my fund raising efforts

Aaron and I will start riding and everyone will be invited to join us.

Mardi Gras 1/2 Marathon 2007

In 2007, I had taken up running to spend more time with my dad. He loves to run and I thought no better way to spend time with him then to do something active and healthy. I was NOT a long distance runner by any means but decided to become one for my dad. I use to run your occasional 5k or 10k for fun, but nothing like 13.1 miles (1/2 Marathon).  Well in February of 2007 I ran my first ever Mardi Gras 1/2 Marathon with my dad.

After completing my first 1/2 Marathon my dad asked me if I would be willing to train for a full marathon (26.2 miles) He said I could pick any destination I wanted to run and he would do it with me. Well of course, Maui popped into my head VACATION!!!! Then I thought about running in the 85 degree heat and that soon my excitement started to fade. Finally I decided and picked the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C.  In October 2008, I completed my 1st Marathon with my dad, who is my inspiration. All 26.2 miles of it!!!

Matt, 35, Metairie

I just started running again recently and hadn’t ran since grammar school.  I usually ride bikes but I was getting bored with doing the same thing and I was looking for a way to burn more calories in a shorter period of time.  I started off just running a mile or two after work.  Each time I ran I would try to push myself a little bit further. I like the idea that running is just you and the ground.  Besides shoes and water, there is no other equipment you have to worry about. Everything else I do in life requires the best and usually the most expensive gear.  With running,  as long as you have a decent pair of shoes you are good to go.  After building up the endurance to run several miles I just wanted to see how far I could go.  I wanted to do the Mardi Gras half marathon to set a goal for myself and follow through with it.  I like having events to look forward to.  Luckily I got to train with a group.  This is the only reason I made it through my long runs. In the beginning I didn’t have the mental or physical strength to run for more than 30 minutes.  Over the weeks I learned that if I believed I could do it in my head, my body would follow.

Stephanie, 32, Metairie

I chose to train for the 1/2 marathon just to prove to myself that I could.  I never considered myself a runner and before this I had never ran more than one mile.  I now realize that with a little motivation and training I can acheive whatever I put my mind to. I have learned that my body can physically endure the runs. I just have to keep a positive mental outlook to complete my goal.

Elizabeth, 27, New Orleans

I am not a person to turn down a challenge. When the challenge came to train for the half marathon, I was willing to accept. I was very unsure that I could even do this being that I had never run in my life. Now through the encouragement of my team, I feel like I am ready to complete the challenge.

February 28th 2010 is the 1st ever Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Marathon & 1/2 Marathon and will be my group’s 1st time running a 1/2 Marathon. I can not express the excitement and pride I feel about what my team is about to accomplish. I can not wait for them to cross that finish line. I told them from the beginning and it still holds true “There will be no man or woman left behind” and I mean it. We started this journey as a team and we will finish as a team.

In a 2008 New York Times article about the Half Marathon becoming the hottest new distance in running, it estimates that 650,000 people completed half marathons in the US in 2007. A Google search of the US population for 2007 gives a result of 301M total people. This would make the percentage of half-marathon finishers less than 1%.

It is truly an accomplishment in and of itself and I can’t wait to experience it with such an AMAZING group of people….and of course…… my dad who will be right by my side every step of the way.

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Emily Eoff received her M.S., in Health and Exercise Science from Louisiana Tech University, as well as, her B.S. in Kinesiology and Health Promotion. She also holds her personal training and group fitness instructor certificates from some of the leading certification programs in the country. As a motivator, role model, and leader, Emily brings nine years of experience in the health and fitness industry to her XLR8 Fitness business.

Update: This Event was CANCELED due to the Saints Parade and will be re-scheduled. Stay tuned for details.

There is a very special event going-on tomorrow night…besides the Parade for our New Orleans Saints Super Bowl Champs – it’s the LGBT Community Center 2010 Weight Loss Challenge’s February Weigh In and Discussion Panel.

The LGBT Community Center of New Orleans’ 2010 Weight Loss Challenge kicked off on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at the Community Center on Decatur Street with the contestants’ initial weigh-in.  It was an amazing day for the contestants and included meeting all of the Weight Loss Challenge’s sponsors, the LGBT Community Center’s Board of Directors and each other.  The Challenge has officially started with a total of nine contestants.

The contenders are competing against each other for prizes all while losing weight that they have tried so hard in the past to lose and have been unsuccessful. The goal of 2010 Weight Loss Challenge is to assist each contestant to lose the most percentage of body weight in a stable and healthy manner. The Center is optimistic that it will be successful in changing the way that all involved, including the entire New Orleans Community, looks at themselves as it pertains to their health. Throughout the duration of the contest, the public will be given an opportunity to follow the contestants in their struggle to reach their individual goals.

When: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 8pm
Where: LGBT Community Center of New Orleans (2114 Decatur Street)
What: Weigh in and Panel Discussion

You definitely have time to make both the parade and this event – which is open and free to the public.

The panelists and items of discussions are:

Nutritionist, Ginger Bouvier: Discussing the proper dieting techniques to fit your lifestyle.

The Fit Gourmet, Chef Dione Duhon: Discussing the importance of having a fully stocked pantry with it comes to making diets work.

Executive Chef from Ralph’s on the Park, Chef Chip Flanagan: Discussing different cooking techniques to lower the calories in your meal and how to make healthy choices with dining out.

Corporate Executive Chef for Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, Chef Haley Gabel Bittermann: Discussing different cooking techniques to lower the calories in your meal and how to make healthy choices with dining out.

The general public will be allowed to ask the panelists questions and interact with the contestants. Be Fit NOLA will be there and we hope you will too…this is such a great opportunity to discuss healthy eating habits.

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!!

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.

Every Sunday we are going to post upcoming events for the week. Please contact us if you want your event listed.

Monday January 4^th

No known events

Tuesday, January 5^th

No known events

Wednesday, January 6th

Who: New Orleans Badminton Club

When: 5pm – 8pm

What: Practice and play

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

Thursday, January 7^th

Who: New Orleans Rugby Football Club

When: 7 pm

What: Start of new season practice – all welcomed

Where: Gretna Pitch

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Who: PlayNOLA

When: 6:30pm

What: Co-ed Dodgeball

Where: UNO Human Performance Center

Friday, January 8^th

No know events

Saturday, January 9th

Who: The Louisiana Hiking Club

What: Hike Clark Creek

Where: Clark Creek

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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 10th

Who: NOTC

When: 8:30am

What: 103rd Anniversary Jackson Day Race

Where: Old Spanish Fort, New Orleans, LA. Corner of Robert E. Lee Blvd., and Wisner Blvd.

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Who: Crescent City Cyclist

When: 9am – 2pm

What: Two Ferry, Tri Parish Ride (40 miles)

Where: Meet at NOMA in 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