Just another Friday at ABG

Welcome back to your Just another Friday at ABG Capital blog post! We have a few things to share before you wrap up your week. Let’s start with the blog posts that we featured this week that are sure to help you with your growing business.

Health InsuranceFor the first post on the ABG Capital blog, we talked about choosing the right health insurance plan for your small business. Have you truly evaluated the best plan for your employees? If not, we have some good news! We’ve provided you with a few options of plans that might be good for you. The biggest takeaway from this post is that you shouldn’t just settle for any ordinary health insurance plan. There are plenty out there and there’s one that perfect for you.

The second post that we featured on our blog surrounded the idea of businesses giving their employees the opportunity to participate in online education. Providing this benefit is something that every business can do, but we want you to understand some of the advantages of an online learning environment.

The last big update that we have for this Just another Friday at ABG Capital is about our Biggest Losers Challenge. Today wraps up the 7th week of the challenge and that means we only have one week left! All of the challengers are doing a fantastic job and we’re proud of everyone who has been involved and has made a change in their lives.

As you know, every week the challengers are asked to do a weekly challenge as a way to ramp up the competition a little more. Some of the challenges have been to record the minutes of exercise you’ve done all week, try a new type of exercise and even to track your Non-Scale Victories.

The challenge for week 7 was to put together everything we’ve been doing and all the tips we’ve learned. These things included getting enough rest, exercising frequently, eating fruits and veggies, avoiding junk foods and drinking plenty of water.

If you started your own Biggest Losers Challenge, we hope that you’ve seen some changes in yourself and your eating and exercising habits. We know you can accomplish your goals if you stick with it and don’t give up! If you’re finding that you keep making up excuses to get up and exercise, take a look at these motivational sayings to give you the push you need.

Hit the Gym

Just another Friday at ABG

Welcome back to this week’s Just another Friday at ABG Capital blog post! Let’s jump right in and chat a little bit about what we have going on with our blog posts and then we’ll get into some Biggest Losers updates.

This week on our blog we had a great article that talked about Massively Open Online Course (MOOCs) and how they help to improve employee skills. These courses are free and give people access to professors worldwide. It’s a fantastic opportunity for people to further their education or stay up to date with other topics that they just want to brush up on.  The biggest point made in this article is that it can be a fantastic resource for employees who want to grow their current skills or learn some new ones.

Next week on the ABG Capital blog, we’ll be posting an article on how incorporating sports into your employee health and wellness plan can be a great thing. Sports aren’t only good for your employees’ health, but they can work wonders for building teams as well. This is definitely something that we’ve accepted into the ABG Capital culture. We have quarterly sporting events (bowling, kick ball, soft ball, football), we implemented Tend to You at 10am and 2pm breaks to play sports during work and we’ve even added a ping pong table in the office! It’s brought all kinds of people together who wouldn’t normally get the chance together.

And now let’s check in with our Biggest Losers contest. Last week we had the participants focus on the number of minutes they exercised that week. This week, we wanted people to focus on getting enough sleep. Here are some of the risks that come along with lack of sleep:

  • Increased risk of drowsy driving
  • Increase in body mass index – a greater likelihood of obesity due to an increased appetite caused by sleep deprivation
  • Increased risk of diabetes and heart problems
  • Increased risk for psychiatric conditions including depression and substance abuse
  • Decreased ability to pay attention, react to signals or remember new information

Missing sleep causes many more problems that simply being a little sleepy the next day. While you’re on your journey to creating a healthier lifestyle, make sure to pay more attention to your sleep patterns.

Now that we’ve covered this week’s challenge, let’s look at a new Last Chance Work-Out! You will need a stop watch and a towel or exercise mat. Hand weights are optional and you should plan to workout for about 30 minutes

Interval levels: Beginners: 30 seconds on, 30 seconds recover/Advanced: 45 seconds on, 15 seconds recover

Kick Downs (lay on your with legs straight up in the air at a 90 degree angle, Keeping legs straight, lower them as far as you can. Return to start, keeping your belly button drawn in and your back pressed to the mat the whole time)

Push Ups (modify as needed)

Lateral Lunges (feet wide, lunge into the left knee keeping the knee in line with the toe but not allowing it to stray over your shoelaces, straighten, lunge right, repeat) Advanced: Hold a hand-weight in each hand as you lower and lift

2 foot hops back and forth

Beginners: Repeat until 30 minutes is up/Advanced: Repeat for 45 minutes

STRETCH!

Recipes

Turkey TacosJust another Friday at ABG Capital

Corn tortillas

Avocado

Cheese

Black olives

Shredded lettuce

Chopped onions

Tomatoes

Try a tablespoon of plain Greek yogurt in the place of sour cream!

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Simple, clean eating salad:

½ cup fresh blueberries

½ cup fresh strawberries, sliced

3 cups baby greens

1 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp pecan pieces or sliced almonds

Optional: 1 tbsp blue or gorgonzola cheese sprinkled on top

Thanks for stopping by to check in with ABG Capital. Have a great weekend a happy Father’s Day!