Do you read SHAPE or SELF Magazines? Then you’ve probably read nutritional information by C&J Nutrition.  In fact, they recently teamed up with SELF magazine to develop nutrition criteria for the first annual 2009 Food Awards and have authored the diet plans for the SELF Challenge in 2009 and 2010.

Stephanie and Willow are the experts and authors behind C&J Nutrition and I asked them to provide us with a Random Acts of Fitness & Spice challenge…probably their most prestigious assignment to date! Fitness & Spicers I give you the…

C&J Nutrition Random Acts of Fitness & Spice Challenge

Veggies are low in calories and deliver flavor, volume, phytonutrients, and vitamins/minerals to meals and snacks.  We encourage everyone to include veggies in the majority of their meals and snacks .  But it seems like all too often, veggies don’t take the spotlight during meals.  In fact, sadly, they’re often forgotten altogether – making meals less filling and higher in total calories (not a good combination for meeting your 2010 weight and health goals!)

Our challenge to you is to create one dinner around a veggie this week.

Many people plan meals around protein and carbohydrates (pasta with meatballs, chicken and rice, turkey burgers), and save veggies as the side dish.  We challenge you to plan a meal around a veggie and then add protein and carbohydrates as your side dishes.  Here’s a veggie-centered meal idea that we love: Roasted eggplant marinara with whole wheat penne tossed with grilled chicken, olive oil, and parmesan cheese on the side.

And if we may offer an even longer-lasting challenge… try creating a veggie-centered at least once per week, every week.  You might just be surprised that once you start seeing veggies as the star of the show, your dinner options get tastier and more creative.

Want to learn more tips like this from C&J Nutrition? Then follow Stephanie and Willow on Facebook and watch them tweet what they eat on Twitter!

As someone who usually plans my meals around protein, I am totally accepting this challenge! Who’s with me?

Now I really must go get mySELF into SHAPE and make some plans to veg out!

I like to try something with my workouts every year. Last year it was belly dancing. That’s right, I said belly dancing. Make fun of me and I just might knock you out because I’m shaking things up and incorporating some boxing classes into my workouts this year. Afterall, the great boxer, Muhammad Ali said…

“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”

No, I don’t plan on stepping in the ring for a fight like Muhammad, Rocky, or that one girl in the movie Million Dollar Baby. I just want to beat up some punching bags and get a killer workout. My first step is to find a gym in my area that offers group boxing classes. Since there isn’t a LA Boxing gym in my neck of the woods I’m going to have to find an alternative spot for my training. Boxing and kickboxing workouts look like a ton of fun, plus they must burn a lot of calories and a lot of stress!

LA Boxing offers boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts themed group exercise classes, and is also a full service facility with all of the equipment you’d expect to see in a traditional gym. Take a look around, this place looks fierce…

Want to WIN a one month pass to LA Boxing? First, check the gym locator on their Web site and see if there’s a gym in your area (they are in a lot of places around the United States, not just LA)! Then, accept this Random Acts of Fitness & Spice Challenge: Tell us one new thing you are going to try to incorporate into your fitness mix this year in the comments section below. Hurry! This contest will end on Wednesday, January 6th at 11:59 P.M. CST and the winner will be announced back here on Thursday.

Now I really must go trade my belly dancing skirt in for some boxing gloves because this year I’m going to stop floating like a butterfly and start stinging like a bee. Or something like that.

I’m one of those people that sets some pretty impressive New Year’s resolutions every year that I never keep. For example, two years ago I decided I was going to learn how to speak Italian. So far I can say this (right, Dad?): Ti va un’isalata verde come contorno? Which means: Would you like a green salad as a side dish? That’s about the extent of my Italian vocabulary, which is great if I ever want to have a short lived career as a waitress in Rome.

Recently, my friend MizFit introduced me to Seth Simonds who blogs and vlogs at Primal Stride. As I was browsing Seth’s site I was incredibly impressed with a video he posted about setting realistic goals. Little goals. Achievable goals like drinking one more glass of water a day for a week. How hard is that? It sounds like a type of goal I could set and actually keep.

I shot Seth a quick note asking him if he would be willing to create our next Random Acts of Fitness & Spice challenge to give our New Year’s resolutions a healthy shake! Ladies and gentleman, grab a glass of water and give it up for SETH SIMONDS…

Seth is challenging us to set realistic fitness, food, and fashion goals for 2010. Here are mine:

• Fitness: Increase the intensity in my cardio workouts. I am guilty of just going through the motions and clock watching when doing any form of cardio. Just stepping it up a notch WILL do my body good.
• Food: Increase the variety in my diet. I tend to eat the same things over and over and over again. Hold your pumpkin comments to the end!
• Fashion: Wear “real” clothes more than once a week. I have been living in workout clothes for months. Putting on real clothes could do wonders for my mind, body, and spirit!

Your turn…how are you going to set yourself up for success in 2010? Seth and I dare you to set realistic fitness, food, and fashion goals to kick off the new year! Tell us your goals in the comments section below.

Now I really must go put on an old bridesmaid dress, sprint to my kitchen, and whip up a new verde salad! Ciao!

Congratulations to these Fitness & Spice readers for winning the Revival Soy candle drawing:

Heather, Liz, and, The Candid RD!

Please email your mailing addresses to fitnessandspice@gmail.com and we’ll have your candle shipped to you.

Thanks to everyone of you for taking the Random Acts of Fitness & Spice challenge. Now make sure you follow through and pamper yourself this weekend! Break out the good candles, the good perfume, the good towels, the good shoes, the good candles, or do whatever it takes to make your weekend merry and bright!

You know how some people have “the good towels” they only put out for company? Or the “good china” they only use once maybe twice a year? Yeah, I have those, too. I also have “the good candles” I only burn on special occasions. Why do we do this? Aren’t we good enough for these good things everyday?

I have been burning a candle that Shannon from Revival Soy sent me to try out. Let me tell you, I love it. Shame on me for not lighting candles more often. I love the ambiance candle light brings to my home, not to mention the fact that my entire place smells like……Sugar & Spice (a candle named after me or my site, I’m sure).

Revival says their First Flame of Soy Candles…

• Contain no carcinogens allowing us to breathe easy
  
• Have lead-free wicks
• Are non-toxic and biodegradable
• Longer Burning – slower and cooler – as much as 35% longer than regular candles!
• Highly fragrant all the way through the candle
• Made from Soybeans – Supports American Farmers
• Are hand-poured

Three Fitness & Spice readers are going to win a First Flame of Soy Candle from Revival Soy. But only if you take this Random Acts of Fitness & Spice challenge. I propose we do something special for ourselves, after all, we work hard in the gym, at work, at school, at home, right? Tell us in the comments section below one thing you are going to do to pamper yourself over the next few days and I’ll tell you who won on Friday, December 18th.

Now I really must go splash on the good perfume…I never know when I might run into an old flame!

How many Random Acts of Fitness & Spice have you committed so far this week? 

So far, I’ve added 1 minute of cardio to my workouts on Monday and Tuesday and did some reverse lunges with a knee raise while I watched the weigh-in on The Biggest Loser last night.

Now I really must go do one more set of push-ups, but before I do, I’m going to drop Tanya a note to let her know she’s the winner of 3 Safe Side Towels!

We’ve all heard of Random Acts of Kindness, right? If we all do one thing nice for someone else everyday it could make a world of difference.

Well, what if we applied that same philosophy to bettering our own health and wellness? What if we did one little thing everyday to improve our bodies? I think it could make a world of difference. I suggest we start a movement and start committing…

Random Acts of Fitness & Spice: Let’s Sweat the Small Stuff!

Random Acts of Fitness & Spice (RAFS) will be a random, ongoing series on Fitness & Spice, because sometimes sweating the small stuff isn’t such a bad thing. I’ll be asking my friends and experts like personal trainers and dietitians to make small suggestions for all of us to try in terms of fitness, nutrition and other spicy stuff, in addition to our regular healthy-living activities.

Some of these RAFS might be things we already do, so we’ll just consider those things reminders, and others might challenge us just a little.

Let’s get started with the first of many RAFS (and laughs!)

Because little things add up to make a world of difference, every time we workout over the next few weeks lets add on ONE small thing. That one thing could be:

• Adding one more minute to a cardio session
• Adding one more rep to a set of exercises
• Adding one more set to a group of exercises
• Adding one more minute of stretching after a workout

I think I have an extra one minute (or less) a day to spare, do you? Let’s see if we can incorporate the first RAFS into our workouts for the rest of the year…just think of the possibilities…that could add up to an extra 30 minutes of cardio or 30 extra reps if we got started right away.

With all of this “sweating the small stuff” we’re going to be doing, we might need a set of new gym towels, right? Just to be on the safe side, we’ll be giving away a set of 3 Safe Side Towels to one random Fitness & Spice reader. To enter the drawing, just tell us one Random Act of Fitness & Spice you are going to try to commit during your workouts this week in the comments section below. The contest will end on Tuesday, December 1 and the winner will be announced on Wednesday.

Now I really must go, I have 31 minutes of intervals to randomly commit!