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Get More Out Of Each Session

Get More Out Of Each Session

Exercise takes commitment and the more committed you are, the harder you’ll work. It’s like most trainers say, to get more out of each session, you have to give more. You can start with your commitment to working out. Create a plan that has you exercising at least three times a week. Don’t just say you’ll try to workout but do it and put your heart into it. Everyone has seen the “lazy guy” at the gym who barely makes an effort, just going through the motions. I believe he’s the one that coasts down the hill on the exercise bike. He’s definitely not getting the most for his time or money.

Create a schedule, stick with it and track the progress you have.

When you schedule exercise into your calendar, you’re more apt to workout than if you just said, I’ll get to it when I have time. Staying with a program of regular exercise is the key to success. Tracking your progress not only provides motivation that can help you through frustrating times, it also helps give direction and shows you where you need to improve. When you track your progress, you don’t have to try to remember if you’re doing four sets or five, just look at your records.

Watch your form.

Take the time to learn the proper form and ensure it’s just as good as you build difficulty. If you’re lifting and the heavier weight causes your form to suffer, go back to a lighter weight until you perfect it. Form is everything when you exercise. If your form is wrong, it can cause injury or minimize the benefits of the workout. Move slowly until you’re sure you’ve mastered every movement and then ask help from someone if you’re unsure. When you work with a personal trainer, it’s not a problem. They’re tracking your movements and will let you know immediately.

Find exercises or equipment that does double duty.

It might be scary to learn how to use a new piece of equipment, but it also could boost your benefits. Kettlebells, for instance give a full body workout. Boxing may be totally intimidating, but you’ll love it once you try it and it also gives a full body workout. You’ll be amazed at how quickly time flies and how quickly you’ll trim your body when you do exercises that hit all areas of fitness and the body at once. You’ll enjoy yourself in the process.

  • Keep your cell phone off. Treat the appointment with the gym as a top priority, like you would a job interview or an interview with an important client.
  • Push yourself. Don’t sacrifice form, but do push a little harder each time. Before you know it, you’ll be doing things you didn’t think you could do.
  • Take your workout outside the gym. Once in a while, you need a change of pace. Take a break from regular exercising and do another active sport. Whether you rock climb, dance or swim, it’s all good exercise.
  • Believe in yourself. Whether it’s weight loss you hope for or a toned body with a stomach you could bounce a quarter on, YOU need to believe you can do it. Everyone else will sit back and weight for results before they do.

Thanksgiving Is Coming Fast

Thanksgiving Is Coming Fast

If you’ve made it through Halloween unscathed, avoiding the pitfalls of sampling the trick-or-treat candy, it’s time to start planning for the next holiday. Thanksgiving is coming fast and it’s a holiday that’s all about food and sitting around the table filled with a feast. Even worse, it merges with the preparation for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, St. Lucia Day. or Three Kings Day, depending on your beliefs. That makes it a hectic stressful time, too.

Create a holiday challenge for yourself.

Start now and work through New Year’s to achieve a holiday challenge. It an be something simple, such as adding an additional half hour to your present workout schedule or not missing any workouts. It can be a specific number of pounds you want to lose or how much weight you want to lift. Whatever excites and motivates you to get moving is excellent.

Get the facts on the food.

If you aren’t already knowledgeable about the best foods to eat and what not to choose, at least not in large portions, it’s time to start learning before you have to choose from the holiday fare. It’s also time to start planning a Thanksgiving menu of healthy food if you’re the one doing the cooking for the holidays. Remember, there are lower calorie alternatives that are still great desserts, so don’t omit them because you’re worried you’ll gain weight.

Set a goal for a new outfit for the holidays.

The size of that piece of clothing should be smaller than your present size. If it’s something that you can get anywhere, such as traditional jeans, no need to buy it ahead of time. If it’s a not-so-easy-to-find design, commit to it by putting it on layaway if possible. The fact that you’ve paid money upfront will help provide the incentive to earn that special reward. You can also reward yourself with some great looking boxing gloves.

  • Take up a new active sport. If you’ve never ice skated, it’s time to learn. Of course, I always promote boxing. It’s great for people of either sex, challenging and loads of fun.
  • Start your Christmas window shopping early. Go to the mall frequently and hike the area, checking out the buys in all the stores. You might even do a little early holiday shopping.
  • Plan a night out dancing to burn off a few extra calories and have some fun. Stick with water or coffee while you’re out on the town, since alcohol is high in calories, with little nutritional qualities.
  • Put in a workout video and train in your living room for an extra workout each week. It can be spontaneous and used when you have some extra time that you otherwise would waste lounging about.

What To Do With All The Leftover Halloween Candy

What To Do With All The Leftover Halloween Candy

After October 31, everyone has the problem of what to do with all the leftover Halloween candy and all the candy their kids collected. If it’s put in a candy dish and left on the counter, it’s more likely than not, you’ll be snitching a bite size Snickers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup on a regular basis. You don’t even have to like those types of candy, they just have to be available when you get a craving for a sweet treat. The pounds of candy available are often too much for the kids to eat on their own. They’ve probably eaten enough already to keep them flying around the room for days. Here are some ideas on how to eliminate the problem.

Find your local Operation Gratitude Candy Buy Back participant.

The Buy Back Program was started by a dentist that was concerned with the dental health of children after gorging on candy for several weeks after Halloween. The concept is simple. You find a dentist that’s participating in your area, have your child take his or her candy into the dentist, they weigh it and pay your child a dollar a pound. The cash makes an impression on the children and so does where the candy go. It’s sent to troops overseas, where they get a small bit of home in the mail and can munch on the candy or give it to local children to improve relationships. If you use this option, impress on your child the good they’ll be doing and of course, they’ll get cash in return. Treats for Troops also has a similar program.

Donate the candy to Ronald McDonald House or other charities.

Ronald McDonald House accepts donations of candy for the parents of the children who are critically ill and stay there. A nibble of sweets can be quite soothing and offer a burst of energy, especially if you’ve been at the bedside of a sick child for over 24 hours. There are other local agencies where the donation will be appreciated. The Homeless Shelter, CAPS, Women’s Shelter and other organizations that help people who just need a helping hand often accept these sweet treats to brighten their client’s day.

Use it in a recipe for the upcoming holiday season.

You can freeze the candy to keep it at its freshest and also prevent it from disappearing too quickly. Once frozen, it’s the perfect extra for Thanksgiving brownies or as Rice Krispie treat extras. Frozen mini candy bars stored in a plastic bag can be set on a wooden cutting board and smashed with a hammer if you want to sprinkle it throughout the treat. Just open the plastic bag when you’re finished, then take off the wrapper and it’s the perfect size for your creation.

  • Budget the candy to a few pieces a day if you choose. Those not used for a while can be stored in the freezer and removed when ready for them.
  • Introduce the Candy Fairy to the kids. (She’s a sister to the tooth fairy who insures her sis will be collecting good teeth.) You leave the candy out one night and the fairy exchanges it for small toys.
  • Do a reverse trick-or-treat called treat-or-treat. Let the gets put their costumes on again and take the candy to a senior center. Not only will they appreciate the treat, they’ll love the attention from the children.
  • Use the candy for decorations, such as on the holiday gingerbread house.

Increasing Iron Can Increase Performance

Increasing Iron Can Increase Performance

There are a few obvious reasons that increasing iron can increase performance, such as its effect on anemia caused by low iron and the role it plays transporting oxygen in the blood to all the tissues of the body. Iron also helps the body to use the carbohydrates for energy while you perform a workout and aids in the process of recovery after a tough workout. It helps the body to produce proteins, hormones and new cells. As you age, absorption is less. Iron deficiency can also occur with excessive bleeding from menstruating, too frequently donating blood and digestive problems such as Crohn’s.

Athletes lose iron through sweating and it shows in their heart rate.

If your body is lower in iron, your heart rate isn’t as steady as you increase how strenuous your workout is. Your body can’t get the proper volume of oxygen to create the necessary energy, either. Long distance runners and other endurance athletes are most at risk, but so are females and vegetarians. That means all groups should ensure they have adequate supplies of iron in their diet, especially during training.

Your body stores iron 66% of the iron in the hemoglobin. The rest is in the liver, spleen and

bone marrow.

The higher the amount of iron in the hemoglobin, the more oxygen it can carry from the lungs. That means the more endurance you have when performing aerobic workouts and the higher your level of performance will be. Some foods promote the absorption of iron, while others prohibit it. Animal sources, such as shrimp, fish, beef and chicken tend to promote iron absorption, whereas sources of iron from vegetables, like pumpkin seed and tofu lower absorption rates.

Iron deficiency can lead to a poor performance.

If you feel tired and it gets worse with exertion, you may be iron-deficiency. It can lead to poor performance a tired feeling that is more than normal, poor concentration, irritability and feeling cold. One symptom is chewing or craving ice, although science has yet to find the reason. A decreased function of the immune system is another.

– Get a baseline iron test on your blood before you start working out. If you start a strenous workout program and begin feeling tired, have another test and compare it to the first. You’re likely to find iron-deficiency.

– Pay close attention to your diet to insure you get adequate amounts of iron. Make sure you have adequate B12, folate and vitamin C.

– Consider supplementation if the problem of low iron continues. Your health care professional can help guide you on this.

– Replenishing your store of iron may take up to eight weeks, so insuring your have adequate stores is of primary importance.


Fat Burning Foods

Fat Burning Foods

Fat burning foods don’t literally burn off fat or everyone would eat them until they reached their perfect weight. They do set in motion different mechanisms in the body that burns more calories in the body than the food itself contains. However, each fat burning food works in a different way to help take off fat. While these aren’t the tools for weight loss, they’re one tool you can add to your arsenal to help shed pounds faster and keep weight off permanently. Celery is always at the top of the list. It’s primarily fiber and water with very few calories, yet is filling.

Spice up your food with red peppers.

Peppers, all except bell peppers, contain capsaicin. It’s what produces the heat in the peppers. While it will burn the skin and your eyes if you happen to rub your eyes, it also boosts your metabolism. Capsaicin boosts thermogenesis, the rate your body burns fat and calories. It also lowers the effect of dietary fat, triggering some genes that inhibit fat accumulation. It also helps regulate blood sugar, has anti-inflammatory effects to help reduce the pain of arthritis, cleans the sinuses and flushes mucus from the nose and lungs, as well as slow the growth of certain types of cancer.

Green tea has certain compounds that boost your metabolism.

Green tea contains catechins, specifically EGCG. This antioxidant boosts fat oxidation rates by as much as 25 percent. It also contains caffeine, another metabolism booster. Don’t expect just one cup to do the trick. Studies show that in order to lose weight you need to do two things, combine it with exercise and drink six to seven cups a day. It flushes out your system in the process. The catechins and flavonoids protect the cells with antioxidant properties, too. It can reduce the risk for cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkisons, as well as help fight bacteria responsible for tooth decay.

Coffee boosts your metabolism, while apple cider vinegar helps you stick to your diet.

Coffee, the kind with caffeine, does boost your metabolism and help you burn calories faster. While you might think that Starbucks is the location of the new Holy Grail of weight loss, beware. Those fancy latte drinks pack on the pounds. Drink a cup of joe before your workout to make the workout more effective. Drinking a glass of cold water with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in it each morning also boosts weight loss. The cold water makes your body work harder and the ACV gives you a full feeling longer.

– Whole grains make your body work harder to break down the fiber than you would on preprocessed grains.

– Lentils are a protein rich food that’s low in calories and high in fiber, which also requires more calories to digest that you ingest.

– Lean meat requires a large portion of the calories it contains to digest the meat, lowering its calorie count significantly.

– Add bone broth to your diet for a number of benefits besides weight loss. It does boost your metabolism, but is also a great source of protein. Make it from the bones of grass fed beef or free range chickens.


How To Workout And Still Have Time For Everything Else

How To Workout And Still Have Time For Everything Else

No matter how busy you are, you can’t put a workout on the back shelf like you might with cleaning out a drawer, getting to it when you have time. You can make a few adjustments that let you workout and still have time for everything else. One of the easiest is to change your mode of transportation. If you drive to work, consider taking the bus a few days and jogging home, or at least part of the way home. Change to comfortable running clothes and if your run is too far, get off the bus early and run the rest of the way. Pace buses allow you to put your bike in a rack on the back, so you could pedal and relax on the bus the rest of the way. You’ll be burning “clean energy” and leave your car in the garage.

Split your lunch hour.

A half hour workout is better than none and you can use the other half to have a snack and get dressed for work again. Prepare several healthy snacks for the day and a light meal that won’t take forever to eat. You’ll have time to workout, eat and go back to the office feeling refreshed and probably be more productive in the afternoon.

Take the kids for a walk, ride or workout with them.

If you want a good aerobic workout, take the kids out for a run or workout with them. Is your child a toddler or younger? It’s not a problem jog behind the stroller or use a stroller design specifically for that. Strap your child to you in a baby carrier/sling and start making moves. This is great for new mothers who never seem to have enough time and can help calm a cranky baby while you’re burning calories.

Have a workout date or night out with the girls or guys group workout.

It’s always important to have both “me” time and “us” time. That’s one way group workouts can serve two purposes. You’ll spend time in group sessions, sweating together and then go out for a healthy meal afterward. It not only burns off the stress of the day, it leaves you feeling great afterward to make the evening more romantic or lighten the conversation at the gab fest that follows. Exercise builds sexual drive, so this can even help in the bedroom.

Break up your workout to smaller sessions. You may not be able to get in a half hour at one time, but ten minutes might be doable. Do three or more ten minute sessions throughout the day when you find a few minutes of time. You’ll be more energized.

Shun the elevator and take the stairs. Park further away from the door. Make small changes in daily habits to reap the reward of fitness.

Turn on the music and do housework with vigor. Dance your way through household chores for a productive multitasking workout.

Workout at your desk. There are some exercises you can do at the desk in just a few minutes. Have weights, exercise bands and other types of equipment ready for strength and flexibility training.


Unusual Workout Places

Unusual Workout Places

You really don’t need to hate the gym or traditional workouts for that matter, to appreciate finding some unusual workout places to provide a little variety in your exercise routine. That’s one reason our kickboxing classes are so popular. You get into shape without even realizing how hard you’re working. It’s fun and has a dual sense of purpose. Even though it provides a grueling full body workout, you only focus on the fun of winning the match or learning something new to help you do that. Here are some other workouts I thought might be fun to do.

You’re never too old for ballet lessons.

Before you start picturing yourself in a little tutu up on toe, you have to prepare for the dance. Ballet builds strength and flexibility, but it’s short on cardio. Before I hear all the clamor about the strenuous workout and the burst of speed you see when you watch ballet, let remind you that when you take ballet classes, you will NOT be a prima ballerina initially, but be learning all the basic steps. Most of these require focus, flexibility and strength, but are done slowly. Ballet is a complementary exercise for many sports, including kickboxing. It provides grace and flexibility you need.

Kangoo jump workouts can be done anywhere there’s a solid surface.

I’ve seen these used in gyms, on the lawn and sidewalks. These are running shoes with a twist. They’re springy and absorb 80 to 90 percent of the impact to help protect your joints, making them a good choice for anyone that wants to run, but doesn’t want to feel it in their joints for days following. These are also great for really overweight people who find the high impact of running can put them out of commission for days. Best of all, they make a workout a blast!

Bounce your way to fitness and have fun with the family.

Trampolines and the new mini-trampoline craze are more than just fun. They’re a great workout that can get your heart racing and improve your cardiovascular system. You’ll build great leg muscles while you do it and have a blast. This is one trend the whole family can enjoy and you’ll find yourself laughing all the way through the workout.

Pole dancers work harder than you think, so taking a class provides acrobatic strength and stamina you might not expect.

Go retro and break out the hula hoop. The trend from the 50s and 60s has re-emerged as a form of exercise that most baby boomers already know how to do. It’s a good total body workout that builds endurance and flexibility too.

Water workouts taken to the next level have become extremely popular. Forget those slow graceful movements and substitute hard hitting aerobics and jogging and you’ll have this new workout that burns as much as 800 calories each class.

Altitude training will take you to the mountains to do your workout without leaving the gym. It simulates the low oxygen levels at high altitudes by adding 7 % nitrogen to the workout area and reducing the oxygen by as much as 21%.


Welcome to our new website!

Welcome to our new website!

We will be writing about a variety of informative topics to help you achieve your health, weight management, and fitness goals. Be sure to check back often and let us know if there’s a specific topic you’d like for us to include. Here are some of the topics we will be covering – hope you’ll enjoy it!

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