Exercise - The Secrets Of Becoming Super-Fit

It’s really not that hard to become super fit – it just takes time, energy, and dedication! The hard part is in executing on that. So, let’s take those three parts separately.

Time
Time means many things when it comes to your workout. It means you should time everything. Do your workout against the clock. Whether it’s weight lifting, or cardio – set yourself a plan to do a certain amount of work within a certain time – and then keep track of what that time was. For example, let’s say you’re running on a treadmill. Set yourself a goal for, let’s say, 3 miles in 35 minutes. Then, if you did 2.8 miles in 35 minutes, and the next time you to 2.9 miles in that same time – you can see not only how good you’re getting, but what days you might have slacked off a bit.

Energy
It’s not always easy to get in a good workout – especially if you find it boring. Actually, there is a way to avoid that – break your workout into three stages. First, to a 10 minute warmup. This helps get some oxygen into your system, warms up your muscles to avoid energy, and gets some endorphins going – which gets you to the next part. For that – to 10 minutes of a medium intensity workout. This gets your metabolism going, and gives you the chance to add variety. One day you could do things like pushups, situps, etc., where the next day you could to a weight workout, or pick up the pace on your cardio workout. This second step then prepares you for the third step – Interval Training. This is the brutal, final stage where you’re pushing yourself against your limits (but, make sure before you push your limits – you know what they are!) Do this for another 10-20 minutes – and your done!

Dedication
There are no breaks…unless you’ve hurt yourself (and, if you’re careful with your workouts – the only “hurt” you should ever feel is maybe some slight muscle soreness that goes away after a day). This means no repeats as well – never, ever repeat a workout two days in a row! Try to create a slightly different plan for each day – and stick to it. Not only does having this variety keep you excited about your next workout, it also keeps your body from getting too accustomed to your workouts – and you’ll keep making progress with those workouts!

Healthy Living - Avoid Fast Food Dieting Problems!

Have you been trying to watch your diet, but seem to be having problems staying dedicated to it? We've all been there...when life gets crazy, and your running out of time, a quick stop at a fast food restaurant is convenient - especially when your tired! Yet, stopping by the local trive through burger joint for a quick burger and fries...is well known to be bad for a healthy diet - especially if you're trying to drop a few pounds!

Researchers at New York's Baruch College recently reported that having a bad nights sleep makes you much more prone to stopping by for a grease-burger during the day. Seems that one night of tossing and turning can make you crave fast food! When they reviewed the food and sleep journals of their study group's participants, those that had a hard time falling asleep (or staying asleep) had a much greater tendancy to eat fast food the next day.

Additionally, there is an additional reason for men to avoid shoveling down that order of fast food fries - greasy fries have been linked to an increased rate of prostate cancer!

Now, that doesn't seem like a big surprise. Nobody feels like cooking when they're irritable and tired. Yet, 60 percent of the US is overweight, and 30 percent is considered obese. So, the next time you're tempted to break your diet for just one night - keep in mind that men who have only two fast-food meals weekly gain an extra 10 pounds over 15 years, compared to those that went home to eat a healthy meal!

Diet - Grilled Chicken with Tomato Avocado Salsa

A healthy diet includes at least a gram of protein per pound of body weight per day, and chicken is a wonderful source of that protein! Looking for a new way to cook that chicken? Try this recipe for Grilled Chicken with Tomato-Avocado Salsa

Ingredients
4 ripe plum tomatoes,
chopped or 12 cherry tomatoes,
halved1/2 small red onion,
finely chopped1 jalapeño chili pepper, seeded and diced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 avocado
1/2 cup non-fat, plain yogurt
1/2 small red onion
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, about 4 to 6 ounces each
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper

In a small food processor or blender, puree the yogurt, red onion, lime juice and cilantro to make a yogurt marinade, and transfer the marinade to a shallow bowl or a plastic bag. Drop the chicken in the bag, making sure that the chicken gets coated well with the marinade. Throw in the refrigerator for at least an hour, and up to 8 hours. To cook, preheat your grill to medium high. Pull the chicken out of the plastic bag and throw the bag with the remaining marinade away. Season the chicken with some salt & pepper, and grill the chicken on both sides until it is cooked through, about 6 minutes per side. Serve the chicken with tomato-avocado salsa.

Tomato Avocado salsa:
In a small bowl, combine the tomatoes, red onion, pepper and cilantro. Chop the avocado and sprinkle it with 2 tablespoons of lime juice to keep it from browning. Add the avocado and remaining lime juice to the bowl and toss to combine.

Serving Size: 1 chicken breast with salsa
Number of Servings: 4
Per Serving :Calories 283
Carbohydrate 16 g
Fat 6 g
Fiber 4 g
Protein 43 g
Saturated Fat 1 g
Sodium 341 mg

Healthy Lifestyle – Feeling A Little Stressed?

Life can get a bit crazy for all of us. Between work, relationships, and family pressures, we all have those days where we can get a bit overwhelmed. Yet all of this stress that builds up, is counterproductive towards a healthy lifestyle, as when we’re stressed, that seems to be the time where we actually do the worst damage to our bodies! So, here’s some tips to help you “de-stress” your day!

First, don’t skip your workout. When you exercise, you pump oxygen into your body, which helps reduce your stress levels. Plus, as your workout progresses, your body releases endorphins, which also can help you relax! And, taking 20 minutes to focus on something other than that days stress – can help your mind wind down and improve your mood as well.

Drink some tea. I know – that sounds funny. Yet, British researchers found that people that drank 4 cups of tea daily, had 20 percent lower levels of stress hormones than those who drank a placebo beverage containing the same amount of caffeine.

Get some sleep! Now, that may sound funny, since when your stressed, it might be hard to get a good nights sleep. Yet, Canadian researchers have shown that people who don’t get enough sleep not only had a hard time concentrating the next day, they also had high stress levels. So, getting a good nights sleep can help decrease your stress the next day!

Take a deep breath! When the stress is really getting to you, and you need a quick way to “take things down a bit” so you can think about the other ways of dropping your stress level, try some deep breathing exercises. For 5 minutes, breathe in for 5 seconds, then exhale for 5 seconds. Emory University scientists found that by doing this on a regular basis, you can maintain better mental focus as you age!

Diet – Nutrition Myths

There is quite a bit of information out there about what makes up a healthy diet – and quite a bit of misinformation as well! And, it’s tough – every time you put together a new diet plan, you either read something, or hear from a friend, that some aspect of your new diet is going to be bad for you. The problem is, sometimes the information you get is accurate, and other times – it’s a nutrition myth. So, here’s a few nutrition myths to help you separate “truth from fiction”.

Nutrition Myth #1 – That white potatoes are bad for you, and you should eat sweet potatoes instead. This myth probably came about because white potatoes are what are commonly used in really unhealthy processed versions of snack foods, such as potato chips or French fries. The reality is, they compliment each other. White potatoes have more essential minerals like iron, potassium and magnesium, and sweet potatoes have more fiber and Vitamin A. So, what’s important to remember is that both can be healthy for you to eat, just make sure the form you eat them in is healthy (i.e. – don’t deep fry them, or smother them in cheese, butter or sour cream!)

Nutrition Myth #2 – Salt Causes High Blood Pressure. Nope – not really. Large scale scientific studies have shown that there’s no reason healthy people need to cut back on salt. Keep in mind that if you already have high blood pressure, your sensitivity to salt may mean you do need to cut back on your sodium intake. But, if you’re worried, just eat more foods with potassium such as fruits, veggies, and beans. The issue is more that we need a balance between sodium and potassium, and we normally get about 1,600mg less that the 4,700mg of potassium we need daily.

Nutrition Myth #3 – High Protein Diets Damage Your Kidneys. The story behind this myth is that researchers found out back in the mid 80’s, that increased protein in your diet increases the amount of blood your kidneys filter. And from that came the assumption that this increases the stress on your kidneys. Yet, those same Dutch researchers also found that there were no adverse effects on the kidneys from the increase protein in ones diet. Keep in mind that the more of anything you ingest (whether it’s protein, carbohydrates or fat) – if you take in more than you burn, you’re body will convert it to fat stores. Your goal for daily protein intake should be around a gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.

Exercise – Tips for Maintaining Sound Cardiovascular Fitness

Cardiovascular activity, referred to simply as “cardio,” should be as much a part of your body-sculpting efforts as hitting the gym and “pumping iron”. The one muscle group that seems to get missed when in a good weight-lifting workout – is your body’s most important muscle, and often as you’re pumping the iron, you should also be pumping your heart.

The 30 minutes per day that you should reserve for cardio work should always entail exercises that are enjoyable, manageable, and of course, safe. So if you’re ready to get sweaty, here are a few wise choices:

Running: Running is a fantastic way to get into shape and improve your cardiovascular fitness! Here in Phoenix, running through the park or neighborhood isn’t always possible. It’s just too hot outside to think about it! And, even when the weather is more conducive to outdoor running, running can be hard on your joints. Yet, the treadmill, because of its smooth rubbery conveyor belt, is a lot more merciful on your joints. It doesn’t wear and tear your body the way running on the tarred street will. There is no pounding-like effect. And, you get to avoid the smell of car exhaust as well!

Ellipticals: These “sweat machines” are an excellent method of losing weight and shedding body fat. And, unlike traditional “steppers”, Elliptical machines work both your upper body as well as your legs, so you end up with a full body workout while you improve your cardiovascular health!

Stationary Bikes: Looking for a low-impact workout? Try a stationary bike! They’re an effective way to raise your heart level, and they also cause far less strain on the knees and back than other methods of cardio. Plus, they are excellent for toning up the quadriceps. And, if leaning over a bike seems like too much work for your back, there are also “recumbent” bikes available that let you sit in an upright position for your workouts!

Swimming: Swimming is an excellent cardiovascular activity, as it is considered a total body exercise, as swimming hits the various muscles in the body. The water provides an excellent form of resistance that will get your heart pumping in no time. The benefits for the heart and lungs are endless.As for the down side? There’s only one. Not everybody has a swimming pool!

Be All That You Can Be

So, whether you’ve just started running, or you’re an experienced marathon runner, we all run into the same plateau. There is that point where we all realize that there is what we are, and what we want to be, and the realization goes beyond that when we finally figure out that we may not get to where we want to be.

Of course, that happens with most things in life. No matter how hard we work, we may not be able to quite hit that lofty goal we set for ourselves. Now, before that sounds negative – it’s not. The reality is – you are what you are, and you can either spend your life frustrated by what you aren’t, or be grateful for what you are.

When it comes to your exercise program, we all start out with pretty lofty goals. Maybe it's to fit into the clothes we wore in high school or college. Maybe it's to win a marathon. Maybe it's to be the next winner of the Ironman Triathlon! And, it's important to set these high goals - it's a way to get ourselves started.

When you start exercising, you may get overwhelmed initially with your progress. Of course, if you’ve spent 25 years in an unhealthy lifestyle, every positive change in diet and exercise is progress! Yet, as the months go on, your progress seems to flatten out. Where once you could extend your distance by 50% in a month, now it seems like no matter how hard you try, you can’t go any farther!

What’s important is that you set a goal and go after it. And, realize that at any point, you can re-evaluate and change your goals! Rather than constantly battling yourself against unrealistic expectations, you can look at each run, each bike ride, or each gym workout, as “good” or “bad”. You can choose to look at your exercise activities as a way that you enhance your life! You are fortunate because you choose to live a healthy lifestyle. You are fortunate because you have more energy when you play with your kids. You are fortunate because you look and feel younger.

In the end, your biggest competitor is yourself. And your definition of what your best is, is always subject to your own reevaluation! Your goal shouldn’t be to be the next winner of the Ironman Triathlon (although, if you are the next winner – good for you!). Your goal should be to always be the best you can be!

Add Water To Your Diet With Water-Rich Veggies!

Even as we move into cooler temperatures this fall, those of us in Arizona still need to make sure we get enough water each day. Yet, drinking the recommended 8 16 oz servings of water each day, well, can not only be difficult, it can get quite boring as well! Yet, there are ways to get some of our water each day from the vegetables we eat each day!

Plus, it’s also good for your diet to keep up the amount of veggies you eat each day. Vegetables not only contain valuable vitamins and minerals and antioxidants, but special plant nutrients that can't be found elsewhere.

The vegetables with the highest water content are:

• Cucumbers (96 percent water)
• Lettuce (95 percent water)
• Green peppers (93 percent water)
• Cabbage (93 percent water)
• Asparagus (92 percent water)
• Cauliflower (92 percent water)
• Spinach (92 percent water)
• Broccoli (91 percent water)
• Beets (91 percent water)

Healthy Lifestyle - Get Some Sleep!

We’ve all experienced it. Whether it’s due to a crazy schedule or too much stress, we don’t get enough sleep these days. Yet, by short-changing yourself by not getting enough sleep – you’re doing yourself more harm than good!

All those workouts you do aren’t what build muscle – those workouts actually break down muscle. That’s right – whether you’re at the gym, running at home on your treadmill, or doing that long bike ride outside, you’re tearing things down. Where you gain muscle and improve your muscle tone is when your body rebuilds the damage. And, your body does that during your rest periods – in other words, you break things down when you’re awake, and you rebuild when you sleep.

And, it doesn’t stop there. The stress on your body keeps building up when it doesn’t get rest. In a recent sleep study, researchers at the University of California at San Diego studied 135 men. When they collected and analyzed their blood, they found that those that suffered from interrupted sleep increased clot promoting proteins, which may increase the risk of heart attack.
So, how can you make sure this doesn’t happen? Simple - get some sleep! Make sure you make sleep a priority most nights of the week. Stay on a regular schedule wherever possible – and get those 8 hours. Also keep in mind that recent studies have shown that if you’re sleep deficient, getting an extra couple of hours on the weekend won’t make up for it. (Although, it might be good for your mental health!).

And, there are a few things you can do to make your sleep deeper. First is – keep up those workouts! When your muscles are tired, you’ll sleep deeper! Also, limit the amount of carbohydrates you eat before bedtime. Eating carbohydrates late in the day causes your blood sugar levels (and insulin levels) to drop dramatically at night, causing your body to wake up to seek more food.

So, avoid morning grogginess, feel healthier - and enjoy some sleep!

Exercise –Start Building a Home Gym

by Bob Lachniet
President - Fitness 4 Home Superstore

Have you been thinking about adding resistance training equipment for your home gym, but not sure where to start?

Purchasing a home gym can become quite a daunting task. But, it’s actually very easy to start – and you can do this with a few simple pieces of equipment!

First, get a high quality adjustable bench. An adjustable bench will replace the need for an incline bench, a flat bench, and a decline bench, saving you space. An adjustable bench is highly versatile and can be used in almost any exercise.

Next, pick up a set or two of dumbbells. Again, since your home doesn’t have the same room as a gym, saving space may be a priority for you. Rather than starting with a full set of weights, dumbbells are an excellent place to start, as dumbbells have long been hailed as the better choice among strength training equipment. Dumbbells are extremely versatile as well. Almost every exercise incorporates the use of weights. And, a wonderful alternative purchasing an extensive set of dumbbells, is to consider PowerBlocks, as they give you the same versatility of a full set of dumbbells in 18” x 22” of space. (Visit a Fitness 4 Home Superstore to check them out!).

Finally, get a burst-resistant stability ball. These are excellent for abdominal work because they support the spine, while isolating your stomach muscles. Unlike the expensive ab-machines you see on late night infomercials, a stability ball is inexpensive, and itl works the abs more than a crunch or sit-up could ever dream of.

With these simple pieces of equipment, you can start your home resistance training routine without taking up a lot of space in your home, and if you find your equipment needs increase, all of these pieces of equipment build a great foundation to a more extensive gym down the road! Just one reminder, though – don’t risk hurting yourself – if you find that the weights your lifting might be a little heavier than you’re used to – have someone act as a spotter so you don’t run the risk of injury. Just start slow, at a lower weight, and increase your weight as you get stronger!

Diet - Tailoring Your Sports Diet

We all know it’s important to eat healthy as part of a healthy lifestyle, and it seems pretty intuitive that the caloric requirement for an active person is greater than that for someone who is more sedentary. But, the diet for a runner or biker might be a little different than for a swimmer.

Susan Kleiner, sports nutritionist and author of "Power Eating" says that although technically there are differing needs between different types of athletes, it's very individualized. "While an endurance athlete does need less protein and more carbohydrates than a weightlifter, few athletes train purely in their own sport; most do some cross-training."

The first think you need to do is to determine how hard and how often you exercise. When you do low level exercises such as walking, your muscles burn fat (mostly) for energy. But as you increase the intensity level, stored fat might provide half (or less) of the fuel your muscles use, and also burn glycogen (carbohydrates your body stores). Glycogen gets converted by your body into glucose (energy) as you need it.

So, to burn fat and build muscle, you need carbohydrates. And, if you’re either planning a hard cardio workout, or competing in an event (like a running event or triathlon), you should eat carb-rich meals for two to three days prior to the event to load your muscles up with extra glycogen. And, also eat extra carbs just after the event to rebuild your depleted stores.

Most Americans eat 5 to 6 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight per day (one kilogram translates into 2.2 pounds). Says Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, "If you eat a low-carbohydrate diet your muscles will feel chronically fatigued." Susan Kleiner, author of "Power Eating," offers the following rule of thumb for daily carbohydrate intake:

• Working out for one hour: 6 to 7 grams per kilogram
• For two hours: 8 grams per kilogram
• For three hours: 10 grams per kilogram
• For four or more hours: 12 to 13 grams per kilogram

Now, this doesn’t mean that you can cut back your protein requirements. Protein is essential for building and repairing muscles, and it can be used for energy if you've exhausted your carbohydrate supply. To make sure you’re keeping the right amount of protein in your diet:

• If you are training primarily to maintain muscle: you'll need 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram. That's about 70 grams for a 125-pound person.
• If your goal is to build muscle: you'll need 1.4 to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram.
• To maintain or even build a little muscle and lose fat: you need to eat fewer calories while making sure you're getting 1.8 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram.

Note - to convert kilograms into ounces, mulitply the kilograms by 35.274.

Exercise - Lift Weight to Loose Weight!

In your quest to lose weight and stay fit, it’s pretty much common knowledge that cardio is a great way to burn fat while increasing your cardiovascular health as well. But, when you’re busy working out your cardio program, don’t forget to also include some weight training! Studies have shown that strength training plays an important role in ridding the body of extra weight.

Sure, aerobic exercise burns calories, but the body’s metabolism quickly returns to pre-exercise levels, usually within 30 minutes or so. Yet researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found that resistance training actually leads to increased calorie burning for up to two hours after the workout is over. In the study, research lead Carol A. Binzen and colleagues recruited 10 moderately trained women to perform three sets of 10 exercises at 10-repetition maximum with a one-minute rest period between each set. They found that fat burning was significantly higher after the strength-training session.

Why? Simple. If you lift weights, and eat healthy, you will increase your muscle mass. Which picks up your metabolism, burning fat! But, one thing to keep in mind is that weight training often results in a corresponding increase in weight due to increased muscle mass. While men usually don’t have a problem with that (since we’re suppose to have muscles!), unfortunately many women abandon their strength-training efforts, opting instead for strictly cardiovascular activities. There is this myth that as a woman, if you lift weights, you will gain muscle like a man. Those female bodybuilders you see – well, without either a bizarre hormone balance, or testosterone supplements, women won’t put on muscle like a man.

So, don’t give up your cardio workouts….just don’t forget to add some weights once in awhile! And, if you’re looking for help on finding weight lifting equipment, Fitness 4 Home Superstore can help!