Yay, dead lifts!!

A Deadlift Variation That Works Just About Every Muscle in the Body

March 3, 2016 by Michele Foley

                     

Deadlifts may as well be deemed the unicorn of exercise moves. Praised by trainers and physical therapists alike, the strength training move simultaneously works the core, back, butt, upper body, and legs — no stone unturned here. But if you want an even bigger challenge, try it on one leg with a kettlebell — you won't be disappointed! (In fact, be proud of yourself for stepping up to the advanced variation.) Doing so challenges your balance, increasing the intensity of the core workout, and also gives your hamstring some extraspecial love.

 

• Hold a kettlebell (between 10 and 20 pounds) in your right hand, and lift your left foot slightly off the ground.
• Keeping your back neutral, lean your entire torso forward while raising your left leg, which should stay in line with your body. The kettlebell will lower toward the ground. Keep your left shoulder blade pulled down your back.
• With your back straight, return upright, coming to your starting position. This completes one rep. Maximize this move by keeping your right foot off the ground as you go through your reps.
• Do 12 reps on each leg to complete one set.

Healthy mornings...

5 Things You Should Do Every Morning If You Want to Be Healthy

February 12, 2016 by Dominique Astorino

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

                     

In those first years out of college, I struggled with the transition into "real adulthood." Adulting is hard! But as I started to make health and self-care more of a priority, I realized that I was lacking a solid morning routine. Fast-forward to today, and the routine I've established has helped set the tone for a healthy day, every day. Aside from the universal tip of "eat breakfast," here are the top five things that have helped me rise and shine; try these for a morning of wellness!

Oil Pull

Before you start saying "oil pulling is so 2014," hear me out. I grind my teeth at night, and I know I'm not alone in this. In addition to the possible oral health benefits, oil pulling exercises a stiff jaw to alleviate pain, forces you to get up 20 minutes earlier, and acts as a chemical-free mouthwash.

Stretch

While I oil pull, I stretch. I take this time to relax, meditate a bit, and warm up my body for the day. If I have time or get up early enough, I go to yoga or do a few Sun Salutations in my room. I know I'll be in a desk chair all day, so I try to carve out some time to always get a good stretch session in.

Drink Lemon Water

A room-temperature glass of lemon water has tons of health benefits: alongside improved hydration, you'll get a vitamin C boost for glowing skin, a metabolism boost, and a mood boost.
Related: 10 Reasons Lemon Juice Is Good For You

Care For Your Skin

I don't have an extreme 11-step Korean skin care routine, but I do have a pretty solid lineup for my skin. I cleanse my skin with Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel and my Clarisonic, then tone, apply serum, and moisturize. Twice a week, I use a peel, and three times a week, I use a retexturizing scrub. And you know what? I never knew my skin could be this good! The byproduct of this is that I now look forward to waking up (don't judge me) to go through my skin care routine.

Take Vitamins

I take B12 for energy, omega-3 for mood and muscle health, and vitamin E for hair, skin, and nails. If I'm drinking my vitamins in a shake, I use Vega One powder mixed with some coconut milk. At the risk of sounding like your mom, take your vitamins!

Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography / Sisilia Piring

Heart healthy living

Treat Your Heart Right!

by Wally Bishop

Jul 25, 2014

  

The lifestyle you lead has the biggest impact on your heart health. Even if heart disease runs in your family, you can trump those genetics by adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle!
Did you know that a plant-based diet has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of (and even reverse) heart and cardiovascular disease?
Many factors can affect our heart health. Our diet, stress we may face and other lifestyle factors, like smoking and the amount of physical activity we get, play a huge role in how our hearts perform.
In about a day, your heart beats 100,000 times, pumping about 2,000 gallons of blood to 100 trillion cells through 60,000 miles of blood vessels. Every time I think of it, it blows my mind!
And it's not just an organ, it's also a muscle. The heart requires a lot of energy and quality nutrition in order to remain healthy. It's unique and, unlike other organs and muscles, it does not become fatigued - it stops only when oxygen is no longer available.
Exercise increases the heart's fitness, so it can deliver more oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. Be sure to develop a good exercise program after approval from your doctor!
This is why nutrition is so important. In order to live a long and happy live, you need vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, enzymes and antioxidants.
Heart-Healthy Eating

• Studies show nuts and seeds consumed daily reduce the risk of heart disease. They are anti-inflammatory and a good source of vitamin E, an antioxidant which is very important for cell membrane health.

• Omega 3’s from salmon, sardines, ground flax seed and walnuts reduce inflammation and keep blood platelets from sticking, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

• Antioxidants in fruits and vegetables reduce inflammation and protect the heart from free radical damage. The greater the volume of oxygen needed in a cell to make energy, the higher the potential for free radical damage. The heart is a big air and fluid pump, so antioxidants are even more important!

• Magnesium is also crucial. It helps blood vessels relax, potentially reducing blood pressure, which, if high, can damage the heart.

• B12, folate and B6 are critical to reduce the protein homocysteine from accumulating in our tissues. Homocysteine causes cellular damage to the heart and blood vessels and is heavily associated with heart disease.

• Iron, B12, Vitamin C and folate are the worker bees; they make healthy red blood cells and blood vessels.

Heart Health Destroyers
Sadly, the American diet is the perfect diet if you want poor heart health. It is high in sodium, sugar and bad fats and low in nutrient-rich foods like vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains.
If you love your heart, it would be best to avoid or limit the following foods from your diet. These foods are health destroyers!

• Foods high in saturated fats and cholesterol (meats, processed meats, eggs, cows milk and cheese)
• Processed meats
• Foods high in sodium
• Foods high in sugar, particularly added sugars, including refined sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, confectioner's sugar, brown sugar, etc.
• Fried foods
• Flour-based foods (including breading on fried foods, cookies, crackers, cereals, pastries, breads, pasta, etc.) Flour can turn to blood sugar as quickly as table sugar.
  • Excess sugar is an additional risk factor in your diet because it creates inflammation and sores in your arteries, which forces your body to use cholesterol to repair them. This makes arteries stiffer, creating more sores or tears requiring more cholesterol. It’s a vicious cycle that accelerates heart and vascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

Other Heart Health Factors
Stress is a killer! It creates hormonal changes that raise blood pressure, cause obesity and eventually damage your heart.
A lack of exercise let’s muscles atrophy, becoming weaker. Your heart and blood vessels are muscles and need exercise to remain in top condition!
A lack of sleep creates systemic stress, putting additional stress on your heart.
Cigarettes destroy your blood vessels and lungs, obviously critical to healthy heart function.
Limit alcohol to no more than 3 drinks per week.
Having 2 Blasts a day filled with every color of vegetable and fruit, nuts and seeds is going to get you on the right track to greater heart health.


Happy, healthy eating!

Read more at https://www.nutriliving.com/articles/treat-your-heart-right#6XtepUlVvywpfv2d.99

Yummy proein snack

Honey-Roasted Chickpeas Make the Perfect Sweet (Protein) Treat

December 20, 2015 by Jenny Sugar

                     

If you're craving something sweet, but know inhaling candy will have you feeling flat, reach for this warm, low-cal option instead: honey-roasted cinnamon chickpeas. High in protein and fiber, chickpeas offer a satisfying crunch when roasted, and if you toss them with a little honey and cinnamon, you'll have a sweet treat that will also give you a boost of energy.

Honey-Roasted Cinnamon Chickpeas

Ingredients

15-ounce can organic garbanzo beans
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat silicone mat.
2. Drain and rinse the chickpeas in a colander. Place them on a towel to dry off.
3. Spread chickpeas on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until crispy. Test one, and if it's still soft, bake for longer.

 


4. While the chickpeas are still hot, toss them in a bowl with the oil, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Enjoy as is, or for a caramelized effect, place them back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so.
5. Store leftover chickpeas in an airtight container.

Makes four servings. See below for the nutritional information of one serving.

    Source: Calorie Count

Information

Category

Other, Snacks

Yield

4 servings

Cook Time

45 minutes

Nutrition

Calories per serving

146

Write it down...

Start Your Week Off Right With a Printable Meal Planner

September 27, 2015 by Susi May

           

 

Planning out your meals for a week has so many benefits: it helps with weight loss, it saves money, and it saves time. Take some time to map out your week of meals and snacks on the printable planner below. Make a grocery list of the items you will need, hit the store, then get cooking! This is your game plan for the week, so include the meals you plan to eat out as well as all your snacks. A well-laid plan is the best way to stay on task when it comes to eating well to lose weight.
Check out our
Mix and Match Meal Plan for tasty, healthy recipes for a daily eating plan that's between 1600 and 1800 calories.

Oops...try to avoid these...

Post-Workout Mistakes That Cause Weight Gain

March 29, 2015 by Leta Shy

           

Feeling like you hit the gym pretty regularly but aren't seeing results? One of these post-workout habits may be sabotaging your weight-loss results.

1. You reward yourself too much: The workout's done, the sweaty clothes are off, and you've been eyeing that piece of cake for a while. While occasional indulgences are smart — and necessary — using your workout as an excuse to help yourself to junk food is not going to get you the results you're after, so don't use the fact that you've just burned 300 calories as an excuse to indulge in twice that much.
2. You skip the stretch: You may think of the cooldown as a waste of time, but regularly skipping your post-workout stretches will put you at risk for injuries that will sideline your weight-loss progress by keeping you out of the gym.
3. You recover with a sports drink: Sugary sports drinks can replenish electrolytes, but if you've just finished a short workout, the extra calories are probably unnecessary. Save the sports drinks or coconut water for intense workouts lasting more than an hour or for workouts in hot weather.
4. You use it as an excuse: Monday's boot-camp class was so hard, so you can be forgiven for nursing your sore muscles until the start of next week, right? Not the best idea if you want to see pounds dropping on the scale. Make sure you get at least 300 minutes of vigorous exercise every week in order to stay on the right weight-loss track.
5. You wait too long to eat: Refueling soon after a workout is crucial because it's what helps you rebuild muscle after a workout. Since the more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolism, make sure you fit a snack of carbs and protein into your post-workout ritual.
6. You don't schedule the next one: You should pat yourself on the back for finishing this workout, but don't let your self-congratulations get in the way of scheduling your next workout. You'll only see progress if you make exercise a consistent part of your week.

Emotionally eating??

The Biggest Diet Mistakes Women Make

by Leta Shy 12/06/15

 

 

We asked four experts — who've helped everyone from celebs to everyday women get their diets back on track — to tell us the mistakes they see their clients make over and over when it comes to healthy eating. Read on for the top four mistakes women make when it comes to nutrition, as well as our tips to be sure you're not making these same choices!

1. Only counting calories: When it comes to losing weight, it can be easy to fall in a quality vs. quantity trap — focusing on calorie counting instead of the whole picture. "Many [diet] programs focus on what I call the 'surface' evaluations of foods — how many calories, grams of carbs, protein, etc. a food has," says Kimberly Snyder, a celebrity nutritionist and author of The Beauty Detox Solution. "Too many women feel like they have to micromanage and count everything they eat in order to look their best, [but] that's simply not true," she advises.
   Our tip: Instead of counting calories, focus on adding more whole foods, especially vegetables and fruits, into your diet. A green juice or smoothie in the morning is an excellent way to get a lot of nutrients into your diet in one go; check out Kimberly's recipe for her Glowing Green Smoothie to start.
2. Not being consistent: Busy lives tend to mess up our carefully constructed healthy eating schedules, which doesn't do a body good. "I see many clients who eat erratically in terms of the timing, composition, and quality of their meals. Some days they may graze all day and on others go long stretches without eating, and some days may include kale salad and lentils, while others include frozen dinners and processed snack foods," says Cynthia Sass, a registered dietitian and author of S.A.S.S. Yourself Slim.
   Our tip: Before your busy life gets the better of you, block out time on the weekend to prepare lunches and shop for dinner so you won't go the takeout route on the weekdays.
3. Not drinking enough water: Getting adequate hydration is a simple part of a nutrition plan that many women neglect the most, says registered dietitian Erin Palinski, a spokesperson for ZICO Coconut Water. "In order for your body to function properly, you need to be properly hydrated, otherwise you can run into issues like fatigue, headaches, even dizziness and more dangerous long-term issues like kidney and liver function, cholesterol problems, and muscle damage," Erin says. And not only that, but she's seen that "many people also mistake thirst for hunger and can overeat as a result."
   Our tip: Make your water bottle a fixture on your desk at work. If you're tired of drinking plain water, add healthy, no-calorie additions like lemon slices, ginger, cucumber, or mint to your water to make it more appealing.
4. Eating emotionally: "Women let nutrition go before anything else," says vegan nutritionist Melissa Costello, author of the Karma Chow Ultimate Cookbook. "We have a lot on our plates — kids, works, husbands." A hectic schedule can upend any healthy eating goals, leading you to eat emotionally, "which usually always tends to be something that is not so healthy for us, like sugar, candy, or processed foods," warns Melissa.
   Our tip: If you find yourself reaching for what's convenient or what you crave, make healthy snacks easily accessible — and more convenient than the junk food option. This snack center you can keep in your fridge includes healthy options like string cheese, already-washed fruit and veggies, and preportioned nuts and pretzels to make choosing a lower-calorie, more-nutritious snack easy.