Monthly Archives: August 2013

Aug182013

Green Protein Smoothie

This may surprise you, but I’ve never really done “juicing” or used spinach in my smoothies. Sure I’ve had carrot/apple juices, but it’s just not something I’m into (nor am I against it–just don’t have a juicer). However, when I saw this recipe from one of my favorite bloggers, I had to try it immediately! Yes, it has spinach in it, but don’t let that deter you! It also has peanut butter, banana, and greek yogurt in it! Those are the ingredients that pulled me in. I actually wanted to make this a few days ago, but we had everything except bananas (I had just made these muffins). I was heartbroken. So the next day, we went and got bananas so I could make this first thing. I changed this recipe a little: went from smooth to chunky peanut butter, used almond milk instead of regular, and, of course, threw some protein powder in there.

Macros (per serving)

Calories: 261
Fat: 5.7g
Carbs: 28g
Protein: 28.6g

Ingredients

1 cup raw spinach
1/3 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
1/2 cup Silk Vanilla Unsweeted Almondmilk
1 tsp chunky peanut butter
1 tsp honey
1 scoop unflavored protein powder (but a vanilla flavor would do well too)
5 ice cubes

Directions

Throw the ice, milk, yogurt, banana, spinach, peanut butter, and honey into the blender. Press “ice crush” a few times to get that ice down to bits. Then blend.
Once it starts to become mixed, throw the protein powder in.
Serve!

Yum

Pretty easy directions and it serves well anytime of the day. I was a little cautious about trying it, with spinach being the main ingredient of the smoothie. However, I threw a straw in and went for it. I was so pleased and surprised–it was delicious! You could taste all the subtle flavors. The spinach didn’t overpower it at all but rather shared the palate well with the peanut butter and banana. I wish I had two servings because it was so tasty, but I was actually quite full and satisfied just after one. And I absolutely love the natural color the spinach brings out–a light fresh green. Use this recipe to stay hungry and fit!

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BONUS KITTY PIC

Aug172013

Ellen DeGeneres Liked Our Pin

Did I get your attention? But here’s the best part: I DIDN’T MAKE IT UP. I even screenshotted it and everything, look below for yourself. And surprisingly enough, that isn’t the reason for this post. It came at quite a convenient time because we’ve been wanting to introduce our Pinterest to you. Now that you’re introduced, you should check us out, we’re obviously kind of a big deal (as per Ellen).

It’s real life!

Besides celebrity appearances of our favorite comedians/icons, we pin lots of great stuff from our own recipes to hilarious geeky stuff that bleeds our nerdiness out to beautiful nature we’d love to adventure in. At first, I didn’t really get Pinterest, so I didn’t really use it. The more I used it, the more I fell in love with it. It’s not just useful for us to get our posts out on the Interweb, but so great to find other recipes that people all across the globe are sharing. It’s a fantastic, eye-candy database of endless information and knowledge.

I’ll just click on the ‘Geek’ tab and laugh constantly or click on ‘Food & Drink’ to have a drool session. It’s such a fabulous tool–people like visuals. They like images to pull themselves in. I’m so glad I started using it. But I have to watch out…it’s addicting! I am slowly adding all of our recipes, workouts, and other posts to our boards so stay tuned to stay hungry and fit!

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BONUS KITTY PIC

Sajah LOVES chin rubs…look at that face

Aug162013

Recipe FAIL and a Pick-Me-Up

We’ve had this cauliflower in the fridge for some time now, and we’ve just been so busy moving, house-sitting, being sick, and getting our stuff together that we haven’t done as much at-home cooking as I would like. Sure we’ve done easy peasy meals here and there like quesadillas, muffins, and ramen, but not new recipes I’ve wanted to try. Well this was about to change (or so I was hoping)! I was so successful with my other no-yeast whole-wheat pizza recipe, I was like SURE I can do this cauliflower pizza recipe from here. WRONG. It called for a food processor, but I don’t have one really. So I just chopped into lots of bits. Anyhow, as you will see below, IT DIDN’T WORK OUT. I made the crust too thin and didn’t balance the cheese ratio me thinks.

YIKES-and a blurry pic to boot, nice, Alana

I kind of knew it went wrong after 5 minutes in the oven, but went through some self-denial until after, 25 minutes it was a burnt mess. Determination squashed, I told Chris that my dinner attempt was done and that it was his turn. He debated making a gourmet mac and cheese, but as we are both sick (who gets a cold in summer?!), we didn’t need more congestion, ESPECIALLY since Warrior Dash is this weekend. So eventually, he decided (I wouldn’t give him any input like a brat) on his favorite Chinese place in town, China Gourmet (I can’t believe we haven’t done a post about that place).

I got a delicious Pad Thai and he got Chicken and Broccoli

We enjoyed a nice sunset and spent some good time together sitting down and eating food we didn’t have to prepare. The motto of this story isn’t to get Chinese food after a recipe fail, but I wouldn’t be mad if that’s what you got out of it. What I want you to get out of it is to not be hard on yourself for everything and accept that you’re not perfect and you can’t be good at every little thing you do. I screwed up a recipe–who cares, we made a solution and are happy for it. So next time you burn that batch of cookies, either cook up something easy that you love, make your partner cook for you, or go out for a cheap meal! I promise you will forgive yourself. Use this advice to stay hungry and fit!

Beautiful Boulder sunset

We got a ping pong table! And Nymeria is absolutely adorable with us playing. Need to get a video

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BONUS KITTY PIC

^_^

Aug152013

Happy 1st Birthday, Hungry and Fit!

Happy Birthday to us! Happy Birthday to us! Wow! We made it one whole year of posting and you actually listened to us that whole time! Starting and continuing this blog has been an absolutely treasure for us and we appreciate our followers so much for their support and willingness to try new things. I can’t believe a whole year of blogging has gone by already! Time flies when you’re busy and having fun.

We originally started this blog to share our food and fitness knowledge and to discuss our journey–all which we’ve done with flying colors I believe. When we first started this blog, we were broke and jobless–using the public library to get our blogging needs done. Now we’ve moved to a new apartment (bigger and nicer than previous), gotten several jobs and moved up the chain in those jobs, becoming directors and coordinators of departments.

Chris has Bell’s Palsy here…

Hungry and Fit! Our pose

We’ve been through some rough times and some great times and we’ve both grown in our first year here in Colorado. We’ve achieved great fitness goals and killer recipes. There was the point when we hit 1k followers, and now we’re up to 1,500! We’ve expanded a great deal with different social medias in our Hungry & Fit Nation. We’ve extended our services as personal trainers and become friends with other businesses. We get 400 views a day! Pretty good first year I’d say. And tons of “bonus kitty pics” (obviously the best part of our posts).

And let’s look at the very first post we wrote…”Welcome to Boulder“. Awww, isn’t that cute! It’s fun to look back and see our journey from Day 1 to where we are. Fresh out from college (me anyhow–Chris was one year out), living on our own, and creating a life together. Pretty exciting stuff to think about. We’ve now surpassed a half million views and we are ecstatic about how well our blog has taken off. We’ve gotten some attention from sponsors and ad agencies, but we do this for the love of creation and helping others. And we plan to keep it that way.

It’s a lot of work to blog every day (or so we try), but it’s something we think worth doing and we truly do enjoy it. You gotta do what you love and love what you do. But YOU guys help us keep going. So thank you so much for supporting us! And as always…stay hungry and fit!

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BONUS KITTY PIC

Sajah has become such a cuddle bug

Aug142013

Best Way to Burn Calories: Cycling Interval Training

A few months ago, we discussed HIIT (high-intensity interval training) for treadmills. Now let’s move onto the bike. If you want thighs of steel, this is the workout for you. You will come off the bike feeling like your legs way a hundred tons after this workout because you’ve worked so hard. HIIT is a great way to stay in shape, turn the fat-burners on high, and improve oxygen capacity. Think you had to run 6 miles a day to do that? Think again! HIIT is a great time-saving way to stay in shape while constantly challenging your body, thus burning more calories. Plus, you build more muscle because you’re doing more powerful exercises that require force (sprints, etc.).

Interval training burns more calories and challenges your body more than most cardio programs due to the nature of intervals. You are constantly changing your speed and pace, thus forcing your body to try to adapt. In sprint mode? Your body has to fight to give your muscles and lungs enough oxygen. In recovery mode? Your body has to slow down all its systems to try to provide you with the right recovery tools. But do you let it recover? Of course not! Thus, your body is constantly attempting to adapt to the conditions you force upon it, but the nature of intervals cause it to never be able to properly catch up, which makes us stronger in the end.

Do this for a minimum of 15 minutes. The best would be 25-30 minutes, or even more if you’re feeling crazy.

Begin with a 3-5 minute warm-up of 75-80 RPMs. Let your legs get warmed up so you can TOAST them.
Start your 1-minute sprint. I want you to pump those pedals as FAST as you can, get your RPMS above 100, maybe above 120! If you need to up the resistance, do it! Go hard! Train with purpose! Listen to awesome music!
Once you hit a minute, go into 1-minute recovery mode–think of it like a fast enough pace without killing you. Cycle easy, but not too easy.
Repeat–go back into your sprint for a minute. Then return to recovery.

If this seems too advanced for you, try doing 30s sprint/1min recovery. If this seems too easy for you, try doing 1min sprint/30s recovery. There are so many ways to change this up to fit your needs. HIIT is one of my most favorite ways to train and this is just ONE example. Doing HIIT on the bike will accelerate muscle development in your legs, shaping you to be more powerful in that part of your body. Keep your eyes out for more on this series of how to burn calories and the best HIIT tricks. Use this workout to stay hungry and fit!

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BONUS KITTY PIC

Double cuteness!!

Aug132013

Whole-Wheat Churro Balls Recipe

Boy am I ecstatic to have found this recipe. And boy am I even happier to have not looked ahead and not have any regular flour on hand. What do I do when I don’t prepare properly (aka too busy drooling over the thought of churros)? I improvise! Would whole-wheat flour work with this recipe? Not so sure! Try it anyways? Sure! And guess what–I lucked out! Even though it wasn’t exactly a smooth recipe process for me, they turned out delicious and fuller with fiber without the processed flour. Yay for steps in a healthier direction! Anyone who knows me knows that I have a bad addiction to churros…and anything cinnamon. When I stumbled upon that recipe, I couldn’t contain my excitement. I finally finished my contest, so I jumped on the opportunity to do this.

Mmmm-mm!

Prep Time: 5-7 minutes
Cooking Time: 4-5 minutes

Macronutrients (per ball)

Makes: 10-15 balls (but it depends on the size you make them, mine came to 11)
Calories: 58
Fat: 1g
Carbs: 11g
Fiber: 2g
Protein: 1.5g

Ingredients

1 cup water
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon oil
oil for frying
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Combine the water, tbsp sugar, and tbsp oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil
Stir in the flour until it forms into ball-like structures

Keep mixing!

There we go

Heat up oil in a deep pot to fry the churro balls in. Should be 190 degrees F and that’s when you need a thermometer (which I don’t have and consequently slightly burned them…only some!)
While the oil is heating up, mix together the 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in a bowl

I could just eat this plain

With your hands pick up the dough in the cooled saucepan and roll them into donut hole-like balls. Make them whatever size you want. Pop them into the hot oil and let cook for 4-5 minutes. I didn’t put enough oil in so I had to roll them around. Make sure the oil isn’t too hot so you don’t smoke the apartment out (oops)!
Take them out and drain or pat with paper towel. When cool to touch, roll them in the cinnamon-sugar mix. Get them nice and covered!

Serve as a pile or just eat them all yourself! I couldn’t help myself and had four as soon as they were done. Oops.

Mmmm-mm!

This is such a simple recipe–I mean look at the ingredients! If you want to follow the traditional recipe, you can use regular white flour, but why not go a little healthier? Add some more fiber and whole-grain into your diet through deliciousness! They are a perfect treat for after dinner or to serve to friends. This is a recipe I will continue to use and perfect upon. I think next time I might add some cinnamon-sugar to the filling…Use this recipe to stay hungry and fit!

Don’t mind if I take another…four!

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Nymeria being ridiculously cute…what’s new

Aug122013

Snarfburger (Boulder, CO) Hungry’s Food Reviews

Boulder is full of spots to grab a quick meal and there is a ton of competition when it comes to burger joints. It’s convenient for the college population and the relatively large high school. Businesses can capitalize and those that cater to that population seem to do well. Obviously Five Guys was happy with their business on the hill because they just opened a new location in the 29th Street Mall. Burger King and McDonalds are right next door to that new spot and Wendy’s has a location farther south. Mustard’s Last Stand (review to come) is probably our favorite fast food burger spot but recently Snarfburger opened on Arapahoe.

My man Ryan outside Snarfburger

Snarf’s is probably our favorite fast grab sandwich shop in town so we had to give their newest creation a try. I went with my boss twice already and I’ve had the same feelings each time. It’s okay but the comparisons to In-n-Out cannot be justified. Those who say it is better than In-n-Out are a little bit off, in my opinion. You go with the comfort of knowing that it’s not a chain, but at the same time it doesn’t have that same taste as a place like White Mana (Hackensack, New Jersey) who serve the best burger that I have ever had.

Here is some more information with some positives and negatives. The parking is horrible and the lot shouldn’t even exist. A dumpster takes up one of the few spots and the recent construction on Arapahoe has surely destroyed business in the summer. The small shop is well-air conditioned and there’s a decent amount of seating between indoor and outdoor options. They also have your typical soda fountain and offer milkshakes and concretes, which is nice. I have a hard time going to a burger joint when you can’t get a milkshake. Service has been fast and slow but that usually just depends on how busy it is. They usually have 3-4 employees during lunch rush hours and I’m sure you can’t fit many more in that small kitchen.

As for the meat, they have your standard burgers (with hot sauce), hot dogs, veggie burgers, and fried bologna sandwiches. I haven’t had one yet because they seem overpriced but that’s a favorite back east. And of course they have fries. The fries and shake are solid, although the fries aren’t as good as Mustard’s. And the prices are somewhat comparable to Mustard’s, but still seem a little on the high end. Nearly 4 dollars for a small single burger is a bit much. Especially when the majority of the patties I have had have been overcooked, pretty hard, and chewy. I think they try to caramelize the outside but they overcook the inside in the process. They probably don’t have a ton of experience making burgers so they’ll get better with time.

The absolute top reason for returning is the custom options for your burger. I’m not talking about what you can do at Five Guys with all the toppings. You can get the typical condiments and veggies thrown on, plus bacon if you desire. I’m talking about their willingness to throw 6 patties onto a single burger. You can add a patty for $1.50 and that’s what I do, six times. They get all excited when you do it and apparently I have the record for biggest burger ordered thus far. I’m sure someone (if not a CU athlete, I will return) will get a bigger burger. That one took me about 7 minutes to finish but I did it with no water or drink whatsoever. That was fun.

The bottom line is that the food isn’t good enough for me to suggest going to Snarfburger but if someone else does, I would oblige. I’d get a double bacon cheeseburger, shake, and fries and be pretty content with paying a bit more than I should. Just know that parking will be bad and the wait could be long if you go at a busy time. Oh, and I don’t know what they plan on doing in the winter with such limited seating indoors.

Snarf’s might not have hit the gold mine like they did with their sandwich shop but they still have room for growth here and I’m sure Hungry and Fit will return in the future. Because an occasional “cheat meal” at a burger joint can be a tricky way of staying hungry and fit!

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Sajah found a favorite spot under the desk

Aug112013

Intro to the Barstarzz

You may have seem them walking through the streets or parks using public structures as equipment for training. You might have been walking through the subway and seen one of their videos at that sketchy shop that sells everything from candy to underwear. Or you probably saw their crazy videos on YouTube and told yourself you would never be able to do what they were doing.

The Barstarzz is an international team of individuals that use creative calisthenics in order to stay in shape mastering their own body weight while building a natural looking but ripped aesthetic. I remember watching my first “ghetto workout” years and years ago when YouTube first started. It might have even been before that when I saw Hannibal for King hanging on monkey bars in the New York City playgrounds with his 8-pack and bulging muscles for minutes at a time. But he wasn’t just hanging there… he was doing pull ups, chin ups, muscle ups, dips, push ups, levers and every other body weight exercise under the sun. It was inspiring.

Eventually when I started going to the school in the Bronx, I found myself at the same parks in the bad parts of town, playing basketball, sprinting around the track and hitting up the monkey bars or any other piece of round metal that I could. It was tough being 6′ tall because many of the bars were much shorter in those playgrounds but I had to get creative and learn to contort my body. When I started at about 155-160 pounds it was easy to hold myself up with the strength I developed from sports but at that point I had never lifted weights enough to make an impact.

About three years later of serious training in the pool and the weight room for D1 swimming, I was the same height but packed on 65-70 pounds, topping out at 225 pounds. Even though my body fat percentage never increased (I entered school at about 9% and when I hit 225 I was actually about 6%, but usually in the 8-12% range during the regular season) it became so hard to manipulate and control all that weight on those bars with my long arms. Nevertheless, I always kept body weight exercises in my workouts. (That mostly included a lot of core work, swimming obviously, pull ups, dips, and push ups.) It was hard to focus on a single type of workout as I trained how I wanted but also how I needed to as well.

Now that’s not an issue and I have been watching more videos of the Barstarzz online. The movement has grown to an international level and guys that weren’t known years ago are know representatives of the group. I am subscribed to the group on YouTube and follow some of them on Instagram. As the movement has grown and more people are participating, their workouts and exercises have become more creative and inspiring.

And THAT is the reason why this article is being written! Not because I want to share my background of controlling my own body weight on a small scale, more so because I want to share the Barstarzz and what they do with anyone who is not familiar with them. I want to share it with you all because they are inspiring. They inspire individuals that can’t afford to pay for memberships to gyms and supplements. They inspire people who walk by them on the street. They can inspire everyone. There are Barstarzz followers out there that are sentenced to a life in a wheelchair, but the idea of creative calisthenics allows most of the population the opportunity to exercise, stay in shape, create a great aesthetic, and do all of that in a way that fits their needs and lifestyle. If you check out their YouTube page, you will see some great stories about who they have helped.

The greatest aspect of the Barstarzz is the support within their community. A lot of bodybuilders love to put other people down to make themselves feel better, powerlifters in different weight classes sometimes look down on the smaller and weaker guy, athletes come in all levels from amateur to professionals, but the Barstarzz truly want to see every first timer with a great attitude learn to muscle up and human flag one day. They travel the globe and United States running clinics to help get everyone started. And they actually stress technique in order to prevent injury and properly perform the movements. Crossfit is a great form of exercise but there are so many “bad coaches” (there are for everything, but Crossfit can be very dangerous) out there that the risk of injury is high. From my experience, I find the Barstarzz to be different, but they are just the face of this movement. People have been working out creatively using nothing but their own bodies and some tree branches or bars for hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of years.

So look up these masters of creative calisthenics, get some ideas and SAFELY stop by a local park with some good bars in order to see where you hang. Make sure to bring a friend for safety reasons and also because it’s always more fun with someone else! Hungry and Fit approves of the Barstarzz and their workouts as a great way to stay… hungry and fit!

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Aug102013

Fit’s Food Review: La Vecchia (Santa Monica, CA)

La Vecchia has always been a “treat” or “very special occasion” for my family and I. Most of you know I grew up in Santa Monica, California, and that’s where this gem is located. Whether it was birthday dinner, graduation dinner, or someone special from out of town visiting. I always have fond memories of being so excited and sitting in the restaurant devouring their delicious warm perfectly-cooked bread. It’s my mum’s favorite Italian place in town.

On this day, our last day in town during Memorial Day Weekend, my mum wanted to take us somewhere special for lunch before our flight. She would take no refusal on HER paying for lunch and she decided on La Vecchia’s. So we went RIGHT at opening–11am. It was hard to even get in because tree cutters were blocking the entrance. Finally, we got seated (first ones in so we knew everything was going to be OH SO FRESH). Chris didn’t know what he was in for but I was so excited, basically drooling for what was to come. The waiter came right up to us and gave us water and…yes, you know it, BREAD. And their amazing dipping sauce. I was in heaven.

Each slice was as warm, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside as ever. Just as good as I remembered it. And that garlic-basil-olive oil dipping sauce is out of this world. Basic ingredients, but they do it right. Now another food I always remember from La Vecchia is the fried calamari. My mum really wanted to treat us so we got the calamari and a tuna salad. The calamari was just as good as I remember and the tuna was fresh. Awesome appetizers.

Calamari

When I was little, I would always always always order the angelhair pasta. It was the only pasta I would eat from here. With olive oil and garlic. Mmm! However, I wasn’t in the mood for that today and actually had a really tough time deciding. Eventually I landed with the margherita pizza which I of course could not finish. My mum got fish and roasted vegetables and Chris got spaghetti and meatballs (classic Italian dish–he always has to go for this or chicken parm to try new Italian places out).

My pizza

Spaghetti and meatball

Close-up!

Overall, we were very happy with each of our dishes. The veggies were roasted to perfection for my mum and the fish was seasoned beautifully yet subtly. The pizza had a nice thin, crisp crust and the cheese wasn’t overwhelming. Great balance of flavors. Chris really enjoyed the spaghetti and meatballs because it was fresh, the flavors were wonderful, the tomato sauce wasn’t too heavy, and the pasta was cooked just right. The only tragic thing about this meal was that we couldn’t eat our leftovers since we were going on the plane! I’m still regretting that. If you’re in Santa Monica, stop by La Vecchia on Main St. for a bite to remember and a great way to stay hungry and fit!

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The only way of seeing Nymeria in pictures at night is with the flash on

Aug092013

Sport Discovery: Disc Golf

Boulder is known for many physical activities including rock climbing, bouldering, triathlon, and more. There is another sport that we recently discovered in town that may be less physically exhausting then those already listed, but just as fun for some. Disc golf, or frisbee golf, is a game that blends golf with frisbee. Seems simple enough right?

You take your discs (that are crafted specifically for the sport), step up to the tee, and use a driver to launch the disc anywhere from 100 feet to 100 yards. Then you switch to other discs that float and curve less as you approach the “hole.” The hole is actually a basket that stands about 5-6 feet tall and has chains that help you sink the final shot. If you hit the chains properly with a straight shot that is not too hard, you typically will get the rebounding effect to knock the disc into the basket, effectively allowing you to move on. Every hole has a suggested number of throws that determines what your score should be. At the course we play at every hole has a par of 3. The last two times I finished two and one shot over par, which I was happy about. Alana doesn’t count her throws, or strokes. Let’s talk more about the physical aspects of the sport.

Some might argue it isn’t a sport and is more so a hobby, but we could do that for everything. It’s a combination of two sports and requires some physical skills, including serious hand-eye coordination. If you just go onto the course and try to launch the discs, you’ll score horribly. If you try to take short straight throws to be safe, your result will be similar. You need to practice proper throwing and release techniques in order to get distance while maintaining the right position relative to the hole. It’s a delicate balance of power and finesse, which is not easy. A great way to generate power is by snapping your wrist, but this needs to be done with precision. Otherwise you will snap the disc into the area code next to you, when you want to throw the disc in front. Those are some basic tips if you want to improve your game. But I’ll tell you why you should play.

It’s not going to necessarily be a workout and help you lose fat, build muscle, or anything along those lines. However, it’s something active that could lead to playing Ultimate Frisbee, hiking, biking or another outdoor activity. Here in Boulder, the course at Valmont Park has all kinds of trails and just watching other people move on by while playing frisbee golf can be a motivating factor. It can help you develop some specific muscles in your shoulders and arms if you throw the disc enough. Plus, walking from hole to hole is a workout in itself for some more than others.

Trying out disc golf is a way to get outside and motivate yourself to be more active. It’s not very strenuous so it can be a good way to ease yourself into more intense exercise and fitness routines. Or it’s a great way to spend some time with family and friends and enjoy life. I do not recommend playing alone. It’s nowhere near as fun. And family, friends, fun and sun are all a major part of being hungry and fit!

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