Grilled Ahi Tuna with Caramelized Pineapple Salsa

Grilled Ahi Tuna with Caramelized Pineapple Salsa

(4 Servings)

Ingredients for the Tuna:
4 -four oz. pieces of Ahi tuna
Cajun spice (see recipe)
1 cup pineapple, diced small
1/4 cup pineapple juice
2 Tbsp. red bell pepper, diced small
1 Tbsp. red onion, diced small
1 Tbsp. fresh basil, minced
2 medium roma tomatoes, seeded & diced

Cajun Seasoning Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. white pepper
1 Tbsp. black pepper
1 Tbsp. cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp. granulated garlic
1 Tbsp. oregano
2 Tbsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. salt

Directions:

1. Pre-heat a heavy gauge (thick bottomed) sauté pan for about 1-2 minutes.
2. Pre-heat a grill. (A cast iron skillet can be substituted if you don't have a grill.)
3. Add diced pineapple to the sauté pan. It should shriek a little when it hits the pan.
4. Let the pineapple caramelize on one side before stirring (about 30-45 seconds).
5. Continue sautéing until the pineapple is charred on the outside.
6. Add the pineapple juice to deglaze the bottom of the pan, and reduce.
7. In a small mixing bowl, combine the pineapple, diced red bell peppers, diced red onion, basil and tomatoes. Reserve for service.
8. Lightly coat the Ahi tuna with Cajun spice. Place on a hot grill (or in a cast iron skillet) and cook until aroma from the Cajun spice is released - about 60 seconds per side, depending on heat. The suggested serving temperature for Ahi is rare to medium rare.
9. Remove the Ahi from the grill, plate up with your favorite rice dish, and top with pineapple salsa.

Meet General Manager Tracey Welsh

Meet General Manager Tracey Welsh

Hometown: Dubuque, Iowa

Current town: Santa Clara, Utah

Age: 48

Birthday: August 2 - Yes, I am a Leo

Favorite color: Red

Favorite sport to watch: It's a toss up between baseball and swimming. Baseball is a necessity to share with my husband, and I'm one of the few people who loves to watch distance swimming.

Favorite fitness activity: Swimming tied with hiking. I also enjoy stretch and dance classes.

How long at Red Mountain: 9 years

Favorite spa treatment: Desert Rain Massage

Favorite fitness class offered at RM: Stretch class - I also love any water fitness class.

Family info? Married? Kids? Pets? Married to Tim over 25 years with one daughter, Reagan, and two four-legged kids, Joey and Dali.

Favorite thing about working at RM: Two days are never the same, and the scenery is outstanding. I have the privilege of working with a diverse group of experts, and it's wonderful to mix hospitality with wellness and impact a guest life in a powerful way. Each day, I learn something to improve my own health and I realize how fortunate I am to be here.

If you weren’t in Southern Utah, where would you live? I have dreams of a rolling mid-western farm someday where my border collies will herd sheep…but I'll have to leave when it snows. Southern Utah is truly home now.

Favorite vacation spot: I have great memories of Sanibel, Florida. It was a really stressful time in my life, and I got to spend a few days on my own before my family joined me. The solitude and reflection was very self healing, and then I was ready to enjoy my family. We spent hours walking the beach and playing in the ocean. I also love Zion National Park as it brings out the "earth scientist wanna be" in me. Finally, I enjoy visiting my hometown. I lived each summer on the Mississippi River as I grew up, and there are great memories when I go back during boating season.

Best RM memory: My first hike in Snow Canyon. Absolutely life changing. I don't think that I stopped talking the whole time because I was simply amazed at the beauty and the sunshine.

Favorite food: My absolute favorite meal comfort food is tomato soup and grilled cheese. My "feel good" food is chicken because I feel best when I eat protein and avoid white flour and sugar. I also love cheese...any kind...must be my Swiss cheesemaker ancestry.

Favorite indulgence: I love bath time with a book, or cuddling under a blanket in the sun when it's a bit brisk outside. I also find crocheting very comforting....seems pretty old fashioned, but I like to think I'm being creative and producing something at the same time. My nieces and nephews get hats and scarves each year, and I send hats and scarves to the local homeless shelter.

Where did you go to college? Loras College, Iowa

When you aren’t at work, what do you do for fun? Tim and I now RV and try to spend as much time in the National Parks as we can. Dali and Joey are great travelers and keep us walking and active so we are always looking for pet friendly spots to go. I also enjoy golf, and I find shopping with my daughter a great hobby.

Is there one thing at RM that you haven’t done that you want to? I would love to do the Eat Well, Feel Well School of Cuisine. I truly need Chef Dale to teach me how to cook.

Favorite book or movie that is related to health, wellness or fitness: I love the movie "Warm Springs" about Franklin D. Roosevelt and his quest for healing after being struck with polio. The movie is about his trip to a run down health facility in Georgia to take in the healing mineral waters. However, it's not simply the waters, but the team of people who are dedicated to the guests that help with the healing.

Favorite quote: I have many…anything by Abraham Lincoln. Here's one: “And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.” And from Mahatma Ganhdi, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

Feeling Restless?

Feeling Restless?

By Cindy Clemens,
Contracted Life Coach

When we begin to feel restless in our lives and ready to explore new options, it is very tempting to look at what we can do differently. New jobs, locations, hobbies and partners often seem to be the answer. While these changes may ultimately happen, they are not the place to start. Rather, we need to turn inward and reconnect with what is on the inside - priorities, passions and gifts and talents. This is the only way we can build a new life that really fits us and feels right. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wisely observed, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

A great way to connect with your wise, inner voice is to spend some quality time each day working on your life. I offer two suggestions for creating this self-discovery time.

First, make an actual date with yourself and keep it. Try blocking out an hour each day. It is amazing how much we honor our commitments to other people, yet find countless ways to blow off the time we have set aside for self-care. We seem to value other people more than we do ourselves. To counter this, I strongly recommend making a solid date with yourself and viewing it as important as the other meetings and appointments you have during the week.

Second, find a special place where you can go by yourself and spend some quiet time. Try to block out as many distractions as you can. Select a place where you won't be interrupted. Turn your cell phone off, find a comfortable spot to sit, and provide your senses with as much positive input as possible. Beautiful music, lovely scenery, and tantalizing aromas can greatly enhance your self-discovery time. Bring along your journal and develop your life compass - what is important to you, what you love to do, and what you feel you are meant to do with your life. Use these findings to guide your decisions about what to change on the outside.

Three Morning Stretches

Three Morning Stretches

By Kim Watters,
Fitness Manager

Big stretch for the front of the body and the back of the legs

• While on your back, lengthen your arms (biceps next to your ears), torso and legs (pull your toes towards your shins).
• Try to put as much space between your hands and your feet as possible.
• Alternate lengthening one leg farther than the other.
• Alternate lengthening one arm farther than the other.

Rounding your spine to stretch your back

• While on your back, put your hands on the back of your thighs, and pull your bent knees towards your chest to round the spine.
• Press your chin towards your Adam's Apple then lift your head and neck up rounding your upper spine and pressing your forehead towards your knees.

Twist

• While on your back, open your arms out to the side in a letter T-shape (palms up).
• Bend your knees and slowly lower them to one side.
• Try to keep your shoulder blades flat.
• Slowly turn your head the opposite direction.
• Repeat to the other side. (To intensify this stretch hike both knees up, towards your armpit.)

Inhale as you begin a stretch and exhale as you get into the deepest part of the stretch. Continue with deep slow breathing as you hold the stretch for 20-30 seconds.

Top Five Exercises to Burn Fat

Top Five Exercises to Burn Fat

By Dr. Brad Crump,
Health Services Manager

When we want to lose weight, the first things we think to do are eat less and burn more calories. We then embark on a rigorous and intense exercise program in addition to a highly restrictive dietary plan which most often results in little to no change on weight or more importantly, body fat percentage.

In order to develop a more successful and efficient fat loss program, it is important to understand some of the basics of metabolism.

Metabolism Basics
The metabolisms work of turning food into energy and then using that energy to operate the body and to bounce back from everyday wear and tear is a very specialized process. Through our choices of food and physical activities, we can make the process more efficient.

First we need to understand the process of basic metabolism. After we have eaten, the body uses oxygen to convert our food into energy. This conversion allows us to do work and to run all systems of our body. If the calories we consume our not burned for fuel, they will be stored in our body fat as a reserve. Here is how our bodies use the nutrients we consume as energy. What fuel you burn I s directly tied into your ability to deliver oxygen.

Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are generally the body’s main source of energy. Carbohydrates are broken down into sugars and stored in our muscles as glycogen. The body stores only a certain amount of carbohydrates. They have four calories per gram.

Protein
Proteins are used to build and maintain body tissues and are rarely if ever used as a source of energy. Like carbohydrates, only so much protein can be stored. They also have four calories per gram.

Fat
Fat is the most energy dense of these nutrients. Each gram of fat contains nine calories per gram making it the most efficient fuel source for the body. It acts as a long term fuel reserve that helps keep us from falling into a starvation mode. Given that fat is so efficient and valuable, why has it been given such a bad reputation? Given that fat has twice the amount of stored energy, it would stand to reason that it would be a valuable fuel to burn during exercise.

So how do we actually tap into fat when we exercise? Does burning as many calories as possible result in greater fat burning? To answer that, we need to remember that oxygen is required to breakdown these nutrients to use them as fuel.

When we exercise, we breathe in and deliver oxygen out o our working muscles. The oxygen is then used to convert mainly carbohydrates or fat or a mix of both into energy. The difference between burning fat versus burning carbohydrates is a function of much and how efficiently you delivered oxygen. Fat burning requires more oxygen that carbohydrates.

So, to make a long story short, in order to burn fat at higher levels, a person much be able to stay as aerobic (oxygen efficient) as possible for a sustained period of time regardless of what the activity is. It is suggested to find the activities you find most enjoyment in so that it can become a consistent activity. In order to truly find where you are most efficient, you will want to be tested using a metabolic cart system (see www.newleaffitness.com).

Here are the top five activities that can be used to track heart rate and can be maintained over the required timeframe:

• Active yoga: This type of yoga provides consistent movement to maintain appropriate heart rate and also acts as a great toning and core workout.
• Hiking: This allows you to choose the terrain or area that you are hiking in and to regulate your heart rate. You will also see some great sites and get a lot of fresh air.
• Circuit training: This type of weight training is sustained movement that is maintaining proper heart rate and is also providing strength training. This will allow for greater caloric burn while at rest.
• Kick boxing: This is one that will get your heart rate up so you will want to control your pace to stay within your fat burning zone. Great strength training activity.
• Swimming: This is a great all around exercise that will use many muscle groups you normally do not use which will result in great fat burning at the right heart rate.

Whether an activity is fat burning is tied into proper testing. Consider doing a metabolic test to determine you most efficient fat burning heart rate zones.

Weight Loss Tip: Fiber

Weight Loss Tip: Fiber

Eat 2 cups of non-starchy vegetables at lunch and dinner every day (total 4 cups daily). Vegetables are loaded with vitamins, minerals and fiber and are very low calorie. The nutrition fuels your metabolism. The fiber helps you feel full.

Note: This tip not recommended for those who have had gastric bypass, or have digestive problems such as: Irritable Bowel Syndrome, etc.

Slide & Glide Your Thighs into Shape

Slide & Glide your Thighs into Shape

By Kim Watters,
Fitness Manager

This workout is not only fun but is also a great way to tone your inner thighs. Just get into your cupboard, and get out your picnic supplies. You will need two paper plates (the higher quality paper plate’s work best) and a carpeted floor.

• Put the plates on a carpeted floor, and then stand on them. The balls of the feet should be towards the center of the plate, and the heels of the feet should be lifted up off the plate.
• Tighten the abdominals for balance and support.
• Extend the right leg from the hip joint to your right side, sliding the plate under the foot as the leg extends. The left knee bends to allow the right leg to extend further.
• Push down into the plate with the ball of the foot; continue to push down as you slide the foot and plate back into the starting position. (8-12 repetitions)
• Repeat the same exercise with the left leg. (8-12 repetitions)
• Repeat the same exercise, except this time alternate the legs. (8-12 repetitions)

If it seems too easy, push down harder as you pull your leg in towards the midline, and if it is too difficult push down less. Keep in mind, the harder you push into the plate, the more resistance you will create for yourself. This is your workout; make it what you need it to be.

Sweet Moments and Soothing Soaks – Honey Recipes from the Beehive State

Sweet Moments and Soothing Soaks – Honey Recipes from the Beehive State

By Myrna Beardshear,
Director of Spa & Wellness

Water has been used as a healing aid for centuries. We continue to use water and water therapy in spas today as one of our most powerful natural elements to effect mood and lift the spirit. A twenty minute soak in the tub relaxes, cleanses, hydrates and uplifts us both mentally and physically.

Honey is a perfect addition to warm bath water. Not only is it soothing to the skin, honey is also naturally anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. Add a few drops of aromatherapy to a honey bath, to relax or stimulate the nervous system depending on the chosen scent.

Morning Milk and Honey Soak
For a stimulating bath add a cup of dry milk, 1/2 cup of honey and the zest of 1 orange.

Bedtime Chamomile and Honey Bath
Relax in the tub with 3 chamomile tea bags, 1/2 cup of honey and a few drops of essential oil of ylang ylang (optional).

Hydrating Milk and Honey
Bring back the days of Cleopatra and the land of milk and honey when you soak in a tub of warm water to which you have added a gallon of milk and half a cup of honey. For quick dissolving, heat the honey with 2 cups of milk, stirring until honey is melted and then add to bath water.

Non-Stop Shopper’s Foot Soak
To relieve tired, achy feet, steep two peppermint tea bags in hot water for 10 minutes. Mix a gallon of warm water, and the peppermint tea in a large bowl or foot spa. Soak feet for 20 minutes.