Briana Stockton is a certified fitness instructor and Raw Food Chef. Her infectious personality and sincere interest in her clients’ success in both body conditioning and lifestyle improvements permeate her sessions. She is AAISMA-certified, CPR-certified and through her burgeoning experience with nutrition and raw food nutrition, consults on diet to help her clients gain awareness, overall health and weight loss. Her goal is to help them achieve their goals of fitness and life balance while educating them to natural ways of practicing good health. She builds a relationship of trust and commitment with her clients, while teaching her philosophy of the benefit of a raw food diet during the day and correct combining of cooked food at night.

Not only does she work to improve her clients’ physical appearance but also their spiritual and emotional outlook on life and nutrition.

No one seems to have as much time as they did to workout at the beginning of summer, when we were faced with the daunting prospect of three months in shorts and bathing suits. So imagine if you could face the long, cold winter months and still lose weight with less exercise. Does that sounds too good to be true? Well guess what, you can! High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is the secret. This revolutionary way of both training and losing weight is about mixing bursts of high intensity exercises with moderate intensity recovery periods.

Interval training is so much more effective than regular training because it uses both anaerobic oxygen and aerobic oxygen. Anaerobic means without the use of oxygen, while aerobic exercise does need oxygen. During the high-intensity workout, anaerobic metabolism uses the energy stored in muscles (glycogen) for quick, short bursts of activity. At this rate of intensity whether it be weightlifting,  core, or even cardio, you will build lactic acid, which is the reason for the burning sensation in your muscles. During this time lactic acid builds and one develops oxygen debt. When you then switch to recovery time (aerobic exercise) the heart rate comes down and works with the lungs for oxygen to break down the lactic acid and start using the stored carbohydrates for energy.

During this routine you are confusing your muscles and heart rate to benefit your body. You will not only be burning calories during your 20-minute workout, you will also be burning them up to 8 hours after.

Since we all seem to be on the go these days, all you will need is a jump rope and a stopwatch for this routine!

*jump rope is a full body workout. A 10-minute straight jump rope is the equivalent of a 40-minute jog.

20-Minute Jump Rope Interval Routine:

1 min – jump rope (if you mess up keep going, you will get better)
1 min – sumo squat (stand wider then shoulder-width apart and feet angled out while dropping your butt down as low as possible and up)
1 min – jump rope
1 min – pushups (start on your feet, even if you only do one, then drop to your knees if needed)
1 min – jump rope
1 min – sit-ups (lay on your back with your legs out straight in a v-shape and your arms out long, straight over your head. Use your core to bring your upper body up and hands to one foot and back down and up to the other foot and repeat)
1 min – jump rope
1 min – forward lunge (stay in one place and step forward with one foot while dropping the back knee of your other leg, step back, reverse legs and repeat)
1 min – jump rope
1 min – plank (balancing on your forearms and toes while holding your body upright like a flat table
During this exercise routine you are going to use the minute of jump roping as your high intensity anaerobic training. You want to use that minute to jump rope as fast as you can. Then use the next minute for recovery. You will focus on breathing and performing your exercise correctly.

*If you do not have a jump rope you can jump from low to high for the full minute, raising your heart rate.

FOOD CLASSES AND THEIR BENEFITS

The Benefits of Chlorophyll (RAW):

• Insure good, daily elimination.
• Chlorophyll: Nature’s medicine.
• Counteract acid-forming foods such as nuts, seeds, durians, cooked foods, apple cider vinegar, proteins, and animal products.
• Counteract acid-forming air toxins such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfuric acid, nitrous oxide, chlorine, etc.
• Greens are the lung cleansers.
• Deactivate, combine with, and help wash out heavy metals.
• Alkaline-forming foods. Greens make the body alkaline.
• Best source of alkaline minerals (calcium, sodium, magnesium, iron and trace minerals).
• Balance the endocrine system (especially if wild greens are eaten).
• Green-leaves naturally brush and clean the teeth.
• Green-leaves naturally broom out the entire digestive tract as they pass through the body.
• They calm the system.
• They ground the mind.
• They are karmically neutral.
• Antioxidants.

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The Benefits of Sweet Fruits (RAW):

• Glucose/Fructose/Sugar: Immediate energy.
• Karma: A positive role in spreading fruiting plants and trees about brings us good luck.
• Pleasure.
• Captured nutrients from the sun—Sunfood!
• Cleansing food: Fruits are relentless cleansers and mucus dissolvers.
• Vitamin C.
• Antioxidants.

The Benefits of Fatty Foods and Oils (RAW):

• Builds better brain tissue.
• Insulates the nerves; protects the body against pollution.
• Helps reverse heart disease and atherosclerious because the lipase enzyme present in raw plant fats (except nuts) helps metabolize the cooked fat clogging the arteries and lymph system.
• Replace trans-fatty acids which have hindered the respiration of each cell.
• They are a stabilizing factor in raw diets.
• They ground the body.
• Long-term fuel.
• They deliver minerals to the bones; they help with the assimilation of minerals, including calcium.
• They help transport vitamins A, D, E, and K, along with other nutrients, to the tissues.
• Antioxidants.

The Best Green—Leafed Vegetables include:

• Arugula
• Bok Choy
• Celery (very important; an excellent source of sodium)
• Cilantro
• Crane’s bill
• Collards
• Dandelion
• Dark green cabbage
• Endive
• Fennel (wild)
• Kale (especially dinosaur kale)
• Lamb’s quarters (goosefoot)
• Lettuce (all types)
• Malva
• Mustard (wild)
• Parsley
• Purslane
• Spinach
• Spring onions (green)
• Sunflower greens
• Wild radish
• All green herbs
• All wild edible greens
• Algae (blue-green, chlorella and spirulina; these are alkaline-green protein superfoods, they are not true leafy-vegetables; nevertheless they can be used in the category)

The Best Sugary Fruits include:

• Apples
• Apricots
• Berries of all kinds
• Black Sapotes
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Cacao fruit (Chocolate fruit)
• Cherimoya
• Cherries (wild are the best)
• Crab apples
• Dates of all exotic types
• Figs of all types (wild are the best)
• Goji Berries
• Incan Berries
• Jackfruit
• Loquat (they are close to the wild state)
• Lychee
• Mango Mangosteen
• Melons with seeds
• Mulberries
• Oranges with seeds
• Papaya (must be organic, all conventional are now genetically modified)
• Passion fruit
• Paw-Paws
• Pears (the wilder, the better)
• Persimmons with seeds
• Plums
• Pomegranate (extremely strong fruit, resist hybridization)
• Raspberries
• Sapodilla
• White Sapote
• All wild sweet fruits and berries

The Best Fatty-Foods include:

·         Akee (a relative to the durian fruit that grows in West Africa and the West Indies)

·         Avocados

·         Borage seed oil

·         Cacao beans (chocolate nuts)

·         Coconut oil/butter

·         Durians

·         Flax seed and its oil (cold pressed)

·         Nuts of all types (cashews must be soft to be truly “raw”)

·         Nut betters (almond butter is excellent)

·         Olives and their oil (stone pressed if possible, cold pressed is also good)

·         Peanuts (must be certified aflatoxin free)

·         Pili nut (a tasty, oily tropical nut originating in the Philippines)

·         Poppy seeds

·         Pumpkin seeds and their oil (cold pressed)

·         Sesame seeds

·         Tahini (sesame butter)

·         Unhulled tahini (an alkaline fat, high in calcium)

·         Young coconuts (young Thai coconuts are available in the US at Asian markets)