Here are 3 ways you can make a difference, please do what you can:

1) Buy a t-shirt from the following http://spectrumdesignsltd.bigcartel.com/category/strong-island-hurricane-sandy-relief and “like” http://www.facebook.com/RebuildLongIslandNY

2) Send only new items:

• socks (All Sizes)
• underwear (All Sizes)
• sweatshirts (All Sizes)
• sweatpants (All Sizes)
• toiletries.
• non-perishable foods

You can order from a site like amazon.com and send to the below address:

Plainedge High School
Attn: Naomi Knee / Tara Costa
241 Wyngate Drive
North Massapequa, NY 11758

3) Donate to Inspire Change Foundation make sure to put Hurricane Sandy in Dedication Area and to click on Program Destination “Tara Costa Inspire Change Fdn”
https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1003928&code=TARA-ICF

All goods and monies raised will be given to the people most affected by Hurricane Sandy and are in need of assistance.

Thank you all so much for your help!

- T

1 SET
50 crunches
25 leg lifts
25 bicycles
15 sumo squats
50 calve raises
100 arm circles
(50 right / 50 left)
15 pushups
50 jumping jacks
1 minute plank

Tell me your thoughts =)

- T

Collage from Kona

First off, I just wanted to say thank you. THANK YOU for coming to my site and keeping up with what I am currently doing. Something I am very excited about is what I am currently doing with my charity, The Inspire Change Foundation. My foundation was born after being on The Biggest Loser.  I realized that I wanted to be involved with helping people live healthier each day. Ever since the show ended people constantly reach out to me for help and advice. The problem is that I can’t handle the requests and questions that I have received. As a way to give back and to keep my passion for helping others alive – the foundation was born. The Inspire Change Foundation allows me to encourage others in the fight with the same battles I fought. I am privileged to have the opportunity to inspire others and wish to continue being a resource and advocate for living a healthy lifestyle.

This past summer, I have been tirelessly working on my first programing efforts, Kicks 4 Kids! Basically the program is designed to supply under privileged children with new sneakers and a playbook. The playbook will provide to the child/parent different exercise games/activities to help them achieve the daily 60 minutes of exercise a child is suppose to get! Hopefully, this will be the first step in the right direction of helping families embrace a healthy lifestyle. To help launch this program, we have created a raffle (www.tararaffle.com).
I hope that you will take a look at the raffle and buy a ticket if any of the prizes look good to you. We have been able to get some pretty awesome prizes that I think you would think are pretty cool. If you feel it is appropriate please share the raffle/my story with friends, family and co-workers. I want to make this program the best it possibly can be & help as many kids as possible!
I appreciate all of you taking the time to read this!

Below is some more details on the program and raffle.
The Inspire Change Foundation raffle (www.tararaffle.com) running now through September 23, 2011, is raising money to support Kicks 4 Kids, a program aimed at providing active footwear to children grades K-8 who otherwise would not be able to afford them. The mission of Kicks 4 Kids is to get kids back on their feet and active from an early age! In addition to supplying kids with new footwear, each child will be given a playbook that they and their parents can use as a reference guide to ensure they get their 60 minutes of activity per day.  Kicks 4 Kids will officially launch in October in Kona, HI when Tara Costa races in the Ford Ironman World Championship!

Each $25 raffle ticket enters you into the drawing for all six raffle prizes!  There will be two drawings: September 1 & September 23, 2011. Winners of the Trek Bike and the Yuengling Shamrock Marathon packages will be selected on September 1 and the winners of the Biggest Loser Resort stay, the Orlando vacation package, the membership to iLoveKickboxing, the 3 memberships to Anytime Fitness, and the LIVESTRONG package will be selected on September 23.  To learn more and to buy tickets, please visit www.tararaffle.com.

We’d LOVE your help getting this out to as many of your followers, friends, associates, family members, etc., as possible! We’re super excited about all 6 prizes, especially the grand prize courtesy of LIVESTRONG, and we think this can be a great opportunity for us to raise money and awareness about the Kicks 4 Kids program!

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Get Inspired. Change Your Life.

First make your basic plain oatmeal. While oatmeal is cooking get your egg whites prepared into a bowl. Once oatmeal is done cooking just take the oats (if it is soupy, drain it a little bit – you don’t want to add water to the egg whites you only want to add the cooked oatmeal) and add it to the egg whites. Stir the oatmeal into the egg whites briskly add the vanilla extract, cinnamon and truvia. Take mixture and cook in a small pan. It should make one large pancake.

**Cook the pancake slowly, so you will be able to flip it!**

Once it is golden brown on both sides, top with your favorite fresh fruit!
This was my breakfast this morning and it came out to less than 300 calories =)

ENJOY and let me know if you have any other favorite “pancake” recipes!

For Topping:
1/4 cup fat free and sugar free ketchup
1 tablespoon chipotle pepper adobo sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar substitute (such as Splenda Brand or you can try truvia) Hard to figure this part out because it really is to taste!

Cooking Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. In the work bowl of a food processor, combine
onion, carrots and celery. Pulse until finely chopped. Add chipotle
peppers and pulse until just combined. In a large bowl, combine the ground
turkey with the pepper and vegetable mixture. Add egg whites and oats;
gently mix until combined. Place about 1/3 cup of the prepared meat loaf
mixture into 9 wells of a standard size muffin pan that has been lightly
sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine all of the topping ingredients in a small bowl; set aside. Remove
meat loaves from oven and spoon the topping over each meat loaf. Return
meat loaf to the oven and continue to bake for an additional 5-10 minutes
or until meat loaf is firm and the internal temperature registers 170°F.
Let meat loaf stand for 5 minutes before serving. Makes 9 mini loaves.

Nutritional Information per Serving:
Calories: 110
Protein: 16 g
Carbohydrates: 6 g
Fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 25 mg
Sodium: 180 mg
Saturated Fat: 0
Fiber: Less than 1 gram

Please check out the site – www.inspirechangefoundation.org

I am so happy that I could share this with all of you

xo – T

xo – T

Physical activity and exercise can become boring if you do not make an effort to change things up from time to time. I am a creature of habit and love to do my usual workout routine, which used to consist of hour jog and an hour spin class. Since I fractured my tibia my routine has been out of whack, but as I get back into one I am making sure to mix things up.The key is to be sure the activities you choose are fun and challenging so that you will always look forward to performing them. For some people, this can be participating in group fitness classes, 1-on-1 with a personal trainer, running in a road race or competing in a triathlon.

Tips for making your physical activities fun:

1. Find a workout buddy. Accountability is key when you are trying to accomplish a goal. If you know someone is going to be waiting for you at 6am to go swimming, you will be less inclined to forgo exercising.

2. Don’t get discouraged. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, be positive about your own improvements and triumphs.

3. Don’t give up. Quitting is no fun, if you quit you can’t ever learn from the experience. If you fall down 7 times, you stand up 8!

4. Exercise during a comfortable time of day for you. My best time is first thing in the AM before my day gets started, while my boyfriend enjoys to exercise after work. Find your best time of day and schedule an appointment with yourself – this is non-negotiable!

5. Forget “no pain, no gain.” It is good to be uncomfortable, but it’s a total other beast to keep working out on an injury. YOU WILL MAKE IT WORSE, then not be able to work out for weeks or months and that is just no good! Listen to your body.

6. Choose fun activities. List 5 exercises that you always wanted to try, but haven’t. Now set up a plan to try those exercises. Use your resources and goggle to see who has those type of opportunities available for you to try! If you wanted to try hot yoga, Zumba, CrossFit, agility training or even pulling a car. There are places available for you to do these types of workouts! It just takes a little research.

7. Change your routine. If you have a daily running route, switch it up for some new scenery and add in some cross training exercises. Once a week doing something a little different, can keep you interested!

Please share other tips that you have to keep exercise fun! The more the merrier this holiday season =)

Hope you all are doing well.

xoxo,

T