The Reality of Health and Weight Loss

Eat clean and train mean to burn fat!

From Livestrong:

Protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats should all be balanced to enable you to maintain energy levels, rebuild and recuperate, and avoid illness. Finding ways to include protein, carbs and fats in your diet in the proper forms and amounts is the key to optimum health.

High intensity interval training is the way to go! The research speaks for itself:

The most recent study, out of Australia, reported that a group of females who followed a 20-minute HIIT program consisting of eight-second sprints followed by 12 seconds of rest lost an amazing six times more bodyfat than a group that followed a 40-minute cardio program performed at a constant intensity of 60% MHR. Source

Tomorrow, the 30 Day Youtube Challenge begins! HIIT is a huge part of the Challenge in order to burn fat like nobody’s business. It’s also a buffet table of all the great workouts youtube has to offer. And it’s free! No gym membership required :)

photo by lululemon athletica via Flickr Creative Commons

Jump into summer fitness! 

I’ll be starting the 30 Day Youtube Workout Calendar I created on Monday, May 13th— you should too!

Benefits of the program:

1. It’s totally free!

You can work out in your own home for free. No gym membership required!

2. Effective workouts in less time

This workout calendar uses several different types of workouts proven to speed up your metabolism and turn on your fat burning capacities. Here they are:

• Circuit and high intensity interval training 3x/week. If you want to lose fat, interval and circuit training are the way to go. Both circuit and interval training keep burning calories even after the initial workout is over, and they’re the best fat burners.
• Strength training twice a week. Read my article about why strength training is critical not just for fitness but also for weight loss.
• Flexibility training once a week. Get long, lean muscles, and protect yourself from injury. Near the end of the program, these flexibility workouts will add in a strength component to help you tone up.

3. Increase in intensity

If you don’t train hard, you won’t see results. That’s why I designed this program to increase the intensity of the workouts as the weeks went on.

4. Moral support

You guys, I’ll be doing this with you. I’ll be sweating and pushing myself and working through each day alongside you like the Jiminy Cricket of personal trainers but on Tumblr. I’ll be sharing recipes and swapping lame metaphors and awkward jokes with you as we work through this program together.

I also have an additional list of easier and more difficult workouts so you guys can customize the intensity of the program.

Even if you miss the start date, you can always visit this tag on my blog or the start page to see all the posts and you can join me whenever you have the chance :)

START DATE: Monday, May 13th

Let’s get working!!

3 Things I Learned from My Yoga Class:

1. Take time to treat your body right. Recognize how much it allows for you to do each day, and treat it accordingly!
2. Slow down. Savasana, or the final pose, is meant to take a moment and relax as if it’s the only thing your body knows how to do. It’s one of the highlights of my yoga practice because it reminds me that life isn’t just about business and productivity and noise. 
3. Acknowledge the world around you. We are held up by the earth, and those around us set intentions for their yoga practices as well. We’re asked to be aware of those around us, and that life wouldn’t be possible without them. We are not the center of the universe.

Also, balancing poses are for badasses who (unlike me) can somehow twist in awkward positions and then do these freaking impossible handstands like it’s nobody’s business.

And I’m all like, “yay child’s pose time!’ because I’m advanced like that.

photo by lululemon athletica via Flickr Creative Commons

“Skipping breakfast is often a big no-no if you are trying to lose or maintain weight because it leads to high-calorie cravings later.”

Source: Web MD.

I know that eating breakfast isn’t always on the top of our priority list when you’re running late or not feeling hungry, but it’s important! Eating a good, healthy breakfast improves your mood and energy levels. 

Prepare a parfait or smoothie makings in the fridge before you go to bed! That way, you’ll have no excuse. 

5 Minute Meals

photo by adactio via Flickr Creative Commons

Your shoes lose cushioning, shock absorption, and stability over time. Prevent injuries and know when you need to replace your running shoes!

Loss of cushioning in the midsole usually leads to an increase in joint pain and shin splints. The midsole is responsible for cushioning and stability, and it breaks down before the treads of the sneakers.

If you run several times a week but don’t count miles, try and replace them around every six months. 

5 Steps from Couch Potato to Runner

photo by puuikibeach via Flicker Creative Commons

It’s final exam season for those of us in college!

I know you may be stressed and feel like you’re too tired or busy to exercise, but as it turns out exercising is the perfect cure for fatigue and mental exhaustion. Exercise lowers stress levels, boosts brain power, and improves energy better than stimulants such as coffee.

From WebMD:

Not only does exercise improve your body, it helps your mental function, says certified trainer David Atkinson.

“Exercise increases energy levels and increases serotonin in the brain, which leads to improved mental clarity,” says Atkinson, director of program development for Cooper Ventures, a division of the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas.

All that makes for a more productive day.

“It is clear that those who are active and who exercise are much more productive at work,” says Todd A. Astorino, assistant professor of kinesiology at California State University-San Marcos.

Go hit the gym!

photo by lululemon athletica via flickr creative commons

I love my coffee drinks. As a writer, there is nothing more awesome than taking my notebook and laptop and hanging out in Starbucks drinking espresso while Stan Getz plays in the background. 

The health world is conflicted about whether or not coffee is good for you and in what amounts, but one thing is for sure: regular exercise is a better at improving your energy than stimulants such as caffeine. (Source)

Yep. Here’s an excerpt from that article:

“More than 90% of the studies showed the same thing: Sedentary people who completed a regular exercise program reported improved fatigue compared to groups that did not exercise,” says O’Connor. “It’s a very consistent effect.”

The results show that regular exercise increases energy and reduces fatigue.

The average effect was greater than the improvement from using stimulant medications, including ones used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy.

Source

So even though my coffee habit isn’t going to dwindle anytime soon, it’s good to know that not even Starbucks can replace the natural energy boost that comes from going to the gym. 

photo by epSos.de via Flickr creative commons