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Archives For November 2009

>PRODUCE and LEAN PROTEIN: Keep a good stock of these in your fridge

November 18, 2009 — Leave a comment

Stock Up on Produce and Lean Protein

Here’s a well-written article that focuses on nutritional “make-overs” for on-the-go mom’s and teen sons. The basic premise is to avoid unhealthy convenience foods (packaged snacks, fast food), and to keep the fridge/pantry well-stocked with PRODUCE and LEAN PROTEIN.
Interestingly, I’ve found myself giving the same advice over and over, to most of my clients and friends who really want to make some lifestyle changes that make it easy to stay fit and trim.
A very easy solution is to actually use the pre-cut, pre-cooked chicken breast or salmon at your local Trader Joe’s, along with buying their 3-minute, easy-to-heat broccoli packages. These are my personal favorites — I flavor them with the lower-sodium sauce or hummus options. On days that I need extra carbs due to a heavy teaching load, I’ll throw in the easily-microwavable packages of brown rice.
If you eat healthy portions of these types of food approximately every 3 hours, and stay within your required net calories per day to consistently lose weight, you simply can’t go wrong.
Being prepared and having HEALTHY OPTIONS around will always help in keeping you on-track toward your fitness goals.
Of course, the necessary amount of calorie expenditure via exercise, both cardiovascular and resistance training, is assumed to be part of your overall plan. Without it, you’re just dieting, which really isn’t the best way to go about improving your overall health and fitness.
Cheers!
In Nutrition ,
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>TIMELY REMINDER: Healthy Holidays

November 14, 2009 — Leave a comment

>With Thanksgiving coming up in less than 2 weeks, I challenge you to look at the holiday season as a time to exercise MINDFULNESS when it comes to your consumption choices.

Frankly, if we were just mindful of our food/drink intake during most meals, I can guarantee that many of us wouldn’t be having weight or excess body fat issues. The thing is that such mindfulness isn’t an easy task.

Ideally, we eat out of an awareness of the need to refuel our bodies with good, wholesome food. However, in most cases, any of the following things happen:

1. We wake up early, have coffee, and allow our mental to-do list for the day to take over. We forget to fuel first thing in the morning, and in fact, only turn to it once we realize it’s lunchtime and others around us are eating. Some even get to the point of allowing their day to pass them by without eating, leaving them famished and their body physically starving by the end of the day.

2. We get home after a stressful day at work, and the first thing we want is to sit in front of the couch and eat dinner while decompressing in front of the TV. Before we know it, the TV is what we are focusing on and not what or how much we’re eating.

3. We get home and there is no food in the pantry/fridge. We’re too tired to go out and get wholesome, healthful food, so we opt for take-out, or go to a grocery store to get something quick and easy to make. Because we’re pretty hungry when this happens, smart choices go out the door — it becomes all about satisfying the hunger.

4. We are out at a restaurant or at a gathering of friends or family, and the focus of the moment is the socializing and getting together. Not much attention is paid to the amount or type of drink/food consumed because we’re distracted by the fun we’re having as we’re around our loved ones.

5. We’re at our workplace and there are no healthful options around. So not only does our to-do list get in the way, the fact that we’re not armed with good fueling options adds even more hindrance in the mix.

These are 5 typical examples I’ve personally seen myself and clients/friends go through as part of their challenge toward improving on their nutrition. Example #4 is what applies the most to this post, especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas as typically known holidays for feasting and socializing.

For additional guidance on increasing your healthful behaviors through the holidays, check out the link below, recently posted by the MayoClinic:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-eating-habits/MY01057/METHOD=print

That said, enjoy this holiday season, and keep it healthful and happy!

In Fitness Information and Tips, Nutrition , , , , , ,
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>This week’s FITNESS PULSE: Jumping as a recommended exercise for bone density

November 13, 2009 — Leave a comment

>Hello all! The past few weeks have been busy, but thankfully, I have committed to a weekly schedule of updating my blog with that specific week’s “fitness pulse”, i.e. what the health/fitness world is talking about per the articles and news stories from prominent sources.

This week’s FITNESS PULSE is on bone density, and how to increase this through specific types of exercise. The New York times article can be found on the link below:
Prior to the research in this article, the known approach toward increasing bone density has been heavy weight training. This was particularly necessary for a specific population: Women in their 40′s and above that were at risk for osteoporosis.
With such cases, the exercise prescription was to load the clients with weights that were at least at 75% of their 1-rep max. This would be a resistance load that they could only effectively lift up for 10 repetitions with good technique. Such training remains valid, with the methodology backed up by exercise physiology; the more one builds lean muscle through such weight training, the more one adds to bone tissue as a direct result.
The article specifies that “resistance-style” exercises were discovered not to increase bone density, and it adds that heavy weight training is not part of the above definition. This then lends to the continued credibility of the heavy training approach.
More notable from this article, however, is the effectiveness with which a certain amount of plyometric work (jumping/hopping) can successfully improve bone density. A detailed description is provided, on how such action stimulates the further growth/development of bone cells.
An added plus is the balance-inducing benefit of plyometric work. This has a particularly useful benefit, because it is a widely-known fact that losing one’s balance is the primary cause of hip fractures in those with compromised bone density. If balance or proprioceptive awareness is increased through learning to properly land in jumps/hops and other plyometric work, the potential for falling is greatly decreased.
Our CardioSculpt classes over this last month have included such plyometric work, and the research behind today’s posted article further validates the reason behind such application.
Do note that there are pre-requisites to including jumps/hops in your program. Make sure to learn landing technique properly before getting into any vigorous or volume-heavy jumping. Armed with good postural awareness, these plyometric exercises can bring you great benefit, in terms of improved bone density and increased balance.
In Fitness Information and Tips, How To (Get Fit, Stay Fit, Perform an Exercise ...) , , , , ,
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