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Cut steak (or tofu) into thin strips and place into a mixing bowl.  Combine mirin, shoyu and maple syru and marinate 35-40 minutes.  Remove steak from the marinade and coat with corn meal. Save the marinade.  Add 1 tbsp. oil into a frying pan.  On medium/high heat cook steak one minute on each side. Remove from the pan and set aside.  If using tofu cook until lightly browned on each side. Add remaining oil into the pan an saute onion and ginger for 1-2 minutes.  Add broccoli stems and florets, and cabbage and cook 3-4 minutes.  Return cooked beef (or tofu) back into the pan, with the leftover marinade, and cook on medium high heat for 2-3 minutes.

Lay ingredients into a crockpot starting with butter at the bottom, onions, garlic, carrot, parsnip, potato, collard greens, sea salt, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, fresh rosemary, water, red wine and stew meat on top.  Cook in crockpot on high setting for 4-5 hours or on a low setting 8-10 hours.  Garnish with sprig of fresh parsley.

Core conditioning and abdominal conditioning have become synonymous in recent years but the abdominal muscles alone are over-rated when it comes to real core strength or conditioning. In reality, the abdominal muscles have very limited and specific action. The "core" actually consists of many different muscles that stabilize the spine and pelvis and run the entire length of the torso.

You consider yourself to be in better than average shape. You run several times a week for health and fitness and maybe do an occasional fun run on the weekend. Some friends come into town for the holidays and you decide to go skiing. No problem, you're in great shape, right? Wrong. After a day on the slopes you feel like you've been run over by Santa's sleigh and all his reindeer. What's going on?
You may be in great shape, for the sort of exercise you do routinely. But if that's all you do, day after day, you may be setting yourself up for injury or mental burnout and that is not a good way to get fit. What can help prevent injury and burnout? Cross training.

Fennel & Chicken Flatbread

Here's an easy, new take on pizza: pita rounds that hold a fennel and chicken saute and that are then baked until the cheesy topping melts. Although great warm, they're just like pizza: a fabulous lunch out of the fridge the next day.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons Extra-virgin olive oil
1 Bulb fennel, quartered, cored and thinly sliced, plus 1 tablespoon chopped feathery tops for garnish
1 Red bell pepper, thinly sliced
8 ounces Boneless, skinless chicken breast, very thinly sliced crosswise
4 6 1/2-inch whole-wheat pitas or eight 4-inch whole-wheat pitas
1 cup Shredded provolone cheese
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 500°F.

2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add fennel and bell pepper and cook, stirring often, until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add chicken and cook another 5 minutes, stirring often, until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is cooked through.

3. Place pitas on a baking sheet and top each with an equal portion of the chicken and vegetable mixture; sprinkle with cheese and pepper. Bake until the cheese melts and turns golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped fennel tops and serve warm.

Nutrient Information

Calories 447	Vitamin C 96 mg
Total Fat 13 g	Calcium 250 mg
Saturated Fat 6 g	Sodium 660 mg
Carbohydrates 53 g	Fiber 10 g
Protein 30 g	Vitamin A 1750 IU

Below is a smoker of a work out submitted in by our CERT Fitness Team. Take the CERT Operator Fitness Workout Challenge.

Set #1) - 100 crunches / 25-40 pushups (regular)

Set #2) - 50 regular crunches / 50 reverse crunches / 25-40 pushups

Set #3) - 50 Left crunches / 50 Right crunches / 25-40 pushups

Set #4) - 100 L/R Crunches with bicycle of legs / 25-40 pushups

Set #5) - 50 Double (Reg/Reverse mixed) at same time 25-40 pushups

Set #6) - 100 Flutterkicks (or regular crunches for those with back problems) / 25-40 pushups

Set #7) - 100 Leg levers (or 50 left crunches / 50 right crunches - back problems) / 25-40 pushups

Set #8) - 100 morning darlings (scissors) (or 50 reg / 50 rev at same time) / 25-40 pushups

Set #9) - 100 situps in 2-3 minutes (or 50 left / 50 right crunches with bicycle of legs) / 25-40 pushups

Set #10) - 100 abs of your choice / 25-40 pushups

This one is for those who are just beginning:

Get creative with your fitness program! . The benefits of exercising and stretching after sitting idle for hours are numerous and include the following:

• Loosen up tight joints and muscles
• Increased blood flow to extremities
• Increased attention span
• Better nights sleep

This workout should only take approximately 21 minutes.. No equipment necessary! The super set is a series of exercises to be repeated with no rest. For the upper body superset, simply do five to ten pushups then roll over and rest your pushup muscles by doing ten crunches and continue on with the two different versions of pushups and crunches. One super set can be accomplished in as little as two minutes. If you repeat this particular workout five times you will have 150 pushups and 200 crunches in a ten minute period.

5-10 Super sets

1) Pushups 10
2) Crunches 10
3) Wide pushups 10
4) Reverse Crunches 10
5) Triceps pushups 10
6) Left/Right crunches 10/10

total time - 10-20 minutes

Listed above is a great chest, triceps, and abdominal workout. You can do the same for legs as well if you follow the super set below. Repeat the leg superset five to ten times as well depending on your fitness level.

1) Squats - 20
2) Crunches - 10
3) Lunges - 10/leg
4) Left/Right crunches - 10/10
5) Heel Raises - 20
6) Reverse crunch - 10

CAN YOU GET TOO MUCH PROTEIN? — PART I

No, this isn't a "Things a Bodybuilder Would Never Say" list. Instead, it's a serious look at whether mainstream nutritionists have a reason to tell us what to put on our plates

Can you get too much protein? Good question. With M&F and your gym buddies preaching the minimum of 1 gram per pound of bodyweight and a lot of mainstream media talking about the dangers of that standard, things can get a bit confusing. This two-part series, presented in easy-to-follow Q&A format, should help assuage your fears.

Q: This sounds stupid but what is protein?

A: Proteins are large molecules made up of chains of smaller molecules called amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids the body uses to make protein, and when you eat protein, your body breaks apart the amino's and sends them to whichever part of your body needs whichever type of amino.

Protein in general is an extremely important nutrient, and not just because you like big muscles. "In all cells of the body, proteins perform crucial functions and are present in numerous forms," says Tabatha Elliott, PhD, who has studied protein extensively at the University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston). "Proteins form structural tissue [such as muscle fibers], blood plasma, enzymes, hormones, antibodies, hemoglobin, you name it." Protein is also responsible for a host of other things, from making your muscles move to transporting other substances (such as vitamins and minerals) throughout your body. Without it, you would be practically unable to function.

In fact, people who don't eat enough protein suffer a host of problems, namely wasting, where the body basically attempts to feed the protein hunger by breaking down muscles and other organs. Protein deficiency isn't often a concern in meat-loving America, and it certainly isn't a risk among those who follow a well-planned bodybuilding diet. Rather, mainstream nutritionists worry about the opposite "problem": the health effects of eating too much protein.

Q: So exactly how much is too much? What are the guidelines for protein?

A: There are a lot of ways to determine how much protein the average person should eat to remain healthy. It can get really complicated, so we'll spare you the details and just tell you that, according to the FNB, the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of protein is 0.8 gram per kilogram of bodyweight per day. That translates to roughly 0.4 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight for men and women ages 19—70. Sounds awfully low, doesn't it?

It gets worse. You'll sometimes see the RDA for protein listed as 56 grams per day for men. This number was derived based on a bodyweight of 154 pounds for the average male. Anyone see a problem with that?