- December 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- Holiday 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
DECEMBER 2007
Secrets to NOT Looking Like Santa After the Holidays
Your belly doesn’t have to resemble Santa’s after this holiday season is over. There is no secret to preventing weight gain during the holidays: Just burn as many calories as you consume. Of course, it’s harder at this time of the year; So, here’s the skinny on keeping you on the straight and narrow:
- Weigh yourself every week. Don’t obsess – an extra pound one day can disappear the next. But it’s a good idea to keep track.
- Do what you can to increase your metabolism. Walk a little faster at the mall, through the parking lot or down the grocery aisle. Pause the video you’re watching and make a quick trip up or downstairs to refill your glass of ice water. Do some deep breathing and stretches often when sedentary.
- Be sensible when it comes to portion sizes, and balance your daily consumption.
- Don’t skip meals in anticipation of a big holiday dinner or party. Remember, balance is the key.
- If you drink, watch the alcohol.
- Keep a food and exercise diary. You’re more likely to “be good” if you know you will write it down.
Fitness Tip
Strengthen Your Abdominals with Stability Balls
The stability ball can be adapted for many uses, including developing core strength, improving posture and facilitating stretching. Its uses are widespread in the physical therapy industry where it was first put to use near 30 years ago. Thanks to fitness professionals, there have been several exercise programs developed over the past few years for just about every need, desire and body part.
Besides providing balance training, stability balls work the trunk in almost every exercise that is performed. By concentrating on the abdominal section, your posture will improve and you will find that you are generally more balanced and aware of your body movements. Your core will be more prepared to support the rest of your body in whatever activity you choose to do.
SEPTEMBER 2007
Health & Nutrition
MAKE SURE YOU ADD PROTEIN TO MEALS TO HELP BUILD
MUSCLE.
Examples could include:
-Eggs
-Tuna
-Peanut Butter
-Cheese
-Chicken
-and the other white meat PORK.
Fitness
Strength Training Tid Bits
You don't have to be Arnold to benefit from Strength Training! A well designed strength training program can provide you with the following benefits.
A. Increasing strength of bones, muscles and connective tissue. This will decrease your risk of injury.
B. Increase your muscles mass. Most adults lose about one half pound of muscle per year after the age of 20. This is largely due to decrease activity.
C. Enhance quality of life. As general strength increases, the effort required to perform daily routines like carrying groceries, cleaning and yard work will be less taxing.
Theresa
O'Donnell is
an ISSA Certified
Personal Trainer at the
Flying Hills Fitness Center
AUGUST 2007
Health & Nutrition
Weight Loss Hint – Eat this to feel less hungry throughout the day:
You won’t find a more perfect protein source. Eggs are highly respected by dietitians because of their balance of essential amino acids (protein building blocks used by your body to manufacture everything from muscle fibers to brain chemicals). We like them because they keep our hands out of the cookie jar. Researchers have found that when people ate eggs in the morning, they felt less hungry throughout the day than when breakfast consisted of complex carbohydrates like bagels. The protein and fat in the egg may be contributing to the feeling of satiety.
Fitness
YOGA – A trend worth following!
Before you start conjuring up images of zoned-out new-agers in pretzel-like positions chanting mantras, consider this; Yoga is an ancient practice that can help you deal with the stress of modern life. More and more people, stressed out or not, are discovering the benefits of yoga. In fact, it’s been reported that more than six million Americans are now practicing some form of yoga.
Yoga, which means to yoke or unite, is the practice of uniting all aspects of a person – body, mind and spirit – through physical postures, breathing exercises and meditation. Flexibility, strength and muscle tone improve quickly as the mind and body work together in harmony and unison.
Try Linda’s Power Yoga at Colonial Fitness and Flying Hills Fitness!
Elaine Forry, CPT
Fitness Director
CHB Sports, Inc.
JULY 2007
Health & Nutrition
PORTION WISE: Do you know how many serving sizes you are eating?
- A serving consists of one slice of regular-size bread. A jumbo bagel may contain as many as 5 servings.
- A serving of pasta is about one-half cup, which is about the size
of half a baseball.
- A serving of cheese is roughly the size of your pinky.
- A serving of cooked lean meat is equivalent to 3 ounces, which is roughly the size of a deck of cards.
CHECK YOUR SERVING!
Fitness
DIGGIN' IN THE DIRT!
That's right - muscles. Gardening can burn an average of 300 calories per house. Remind yourself that the tasks of gardening require the use of muscle that may not have been active for awhile, so start off slow. Try turning tour compost pile and pulling weeds by hand. Raking and hoeing trains your biceps, triceps, deltoids, trapezius and latissmus dorsi, while diggint targets your gluteus maximus and quadriceps. You can get your heart pumping by taking a turn or two around the yard with a push mower.
Theresa
O'Donnell is
an ISSA Certified
Personal Trainer at the
Flying Hills Fitness Center
MARCH 2007
Health & Nutrition
Unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids that can only be obtained from foods are found in fish such as tuna, salmon, haddock and sardines. Omega-3 fatty acids may lower the risk of heart disease and reduce inflammation from rheumatoid arthritis. Omega-3 fatty acids can also be found in foods such as spinach, broccoli, canola, walnut or flaxseed oil.
Fitness
Your chances of sticking with a exercise program double when you workout with a friend or spouse. Look for someone who is reliable and at the same fitness level or slightly higher. Working out with a partner is inspiring and motivating, and you will both accomplish more than you thought possible. Make standing appointments with each other to take a group exercise class or do your own workout. Choose activities that are challenging, appropriate for your fitness level and, most of all, fun!
Elaine Forry, CPT
Fitness Director
CHB Sports, Inc.
FEBRUARY 2007
Fitness Tips
For Older Adults, A Little Exercise Goes A Long Way (Research done by the American Council on Exercise)Just one workout a week is all it takes for older adults to maintain their strength and, possibly, their independence, according to a new study from researchers at the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University, Muncie, Ind.
Ten sedentary 70-year-old men were recruited to take part in a 12-week strength-training program.
After training three times per week, the men had increased their muscle size and strength by 50 percent.
At the end of the program, half the men went back to their sedentary ways, while the other half did the same routine, but only once per week.
After six months, the sedentary men had lost much of their muscle size and strength, but the once-a-week exercisers were still going strong.
Sarcopenia, or loss of muscle size and strength, is a major cause of the falls and injuries among older adults that result in a loss of independent living.
''One day per week seems to be effective,'' writes Scott Trappe, Ph.D., in the April issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences.
''Older adults could engage in a low-volume, high-intensity resistance-training program and still maintain independence and reduce their chances for falls and injuries.''
Source: Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences, 2002; 57, B138-B143
Nutrition Tip
Green Tea Sparks Your Metabolism (Research done by the American Council on Exercise)
Green tea has had more than its fair share of good press lately, with several studies touting its protective effect against heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and tumors.
Now a new, albeit small, study out of Switzerland reports that green tea may have the power to raise metabolic rates, speed up fat oxidation and help people lose weight.
Ten healthy men consumed either green tea extract, which contains 50 milligrams of caffeine, 50 milligrams of caffeine alone, or no caffeine at all. Only the group that consumed the green tea extract showed any increase in metabolic rate.
Researchers suspect that the powerful antioxidants found in green tea, along with the caffeine, are responsible for its higher fat-burning effects.
Matt Weik
JANUARY 2007
Fitness Tips
The new year is a great time to begin or get back into regular exercise habits. Below are some tips on starting or continuing your workout routine:
-
Make your workouts fun! Fill your workout with activities you enjoy!
-
Workout with a friend.
-
Track your workouts. Keep a log of your progress.
-
Schedule your workouts and stick to your schedule. Treat every workout as an appointment you can’t break.
-
Have a fitness trainer assess your body fat percentage periodically.
-
If you are busy and don’t have time for a long workout, try exercising in smaller amounts throughout the day.
Nutrition Tip
-
Timing your meals and exercise sessions can make a difference in performance, recovery and muscle growth. If you haven’t eaten for several hours before your workout, you are likely to run out of steam before the end of your session. If you eat immediately before an exercise session, you will slow your digestive process because the body’s focus will shift to meet the demands of the exercising muscles, rather than digesting what was consumed. It is best to wait 1-1 ½ hours after a meal before working out to give your body time to digest the food and allow blood sugar levels to re-stabilize.
Elaine Forry, CPT
Fitness Director
CHB Sports, Inc.
HOLIDAYS 2006
Holiday Fitness Tips
-
Take an extra long walk around the mall when shopping.
-
Do your fitness early in the morning so you won't be tempted to miss them due to shopping, family, parties, etc.
-
Don't put your fitness goals on hold for the New Year. Before the holidays sneak up on you, create a plan for incorporating fitness into your daily routine.
-
Schedule your workouts. Mark them on the calendar and set-aside time to complete them
Holiday Nutrition Tips
-
Eat breakfast within one hour of walking. You'll be less tempted to eat sugar when you've started the day with good nutrition.
-
When at a party, start by eating some of the healthy offering. For example, vegetable sticks (without dip) , etc. Then move on to some of the less healthy (but yummy) offerings.
-
Limit alcohol consumption to cheat day. Alcohol does the same thing as just dumping straight sugar into your body.
Theresa
O'Donnell is
an ISSA Certified
Personal Trainer at the
Flying Hills Fitness Center
NOVEMBER 2006
Can Poor Sleep Affect Your Weight?
Are you avoiding the bathroom scale? Is it a struggle to pull on last year’s
clothes? If the answer is "yes," you probably need to take off
some extra pounds. But what you might not know is that a little extra sleep
could be the answer.
Studies show that people who sleep too little are actually more likely to raid the refrigerator. Not only might you be eating more, you’re probably going to crave the wrong foods. When you’re sleep-deprived, you want to go for an empty calorie energy boost and usually those are carbohydrates that are very low in nutrients and very high in calories.
When someone switches their sleep pattern to one of increased deep sleep, they wake up renewed. They don’t put off going to the gym. They get out of bed, have their water, put on their gym clothes and go out the door and exercise.
While we all know quality sleep keeps us rested and alert for the day ahead, it now seems that it might even lead to a better metabolism and a healthier life.
Change That Same
Old Routine.
Tired of that same old workout circuit? Why not try doing those same old
machines in a different way. Try super setting or doing opposing muscle
groups.
One of the programs, I like to do with my clients, is super setting a lower body exercise with an upper body exercise and then throwing in a 30 second heart pounding drill that leaves them sweating.
So the next time you think you just can’t get through another circuit workout, head to the front desk and ask to set up an appointment with a trainer to update your workout.
Mitch Huggett is
an ISSA Certified
Personal Trainer at
Colonial Fitness
OCTOBER 2006
Nutrition Tip
When trying to change your eating habits, start small. Keep a log of your current diet, then re-evaluate what reasonable changes you can make. Gradually change one or two things per day or week. This progression will make the changes easier to tolerate. It also will be more likely to become a permanent part of your new healthy eating plan. Avoid jumping on fad diets. Trying to drastically and unrealistically change your diet usually will result in discomfort and failure.
Fit Tip
Move more! Exercise is a cumulative process. It is great if you can play racquetball for an hour or join a 30-minute PACE workout at Colonial Fitness, but that is only a small part of the picture. Simple things such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking the dog, mowing the grass (soon to be shoveling snow), and parking farther away from the store, can lead to improvements in cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance, and weight loss.
Jason Stephenson has
a
BS in Kinesiology
and is a trainer
at Colonial Fitness
SEPTEMBER 2006
Nutrition Tips
Eating small frequent meals is the key to losing weight. By eating small frequent meals (5-7 a day spread out every 3 hours) you will have a constant supply of nutrients to fuel you throughout the day. Not only will you not be starving throughout the day, but your metabolism will stay elevated all day long, helping you burn more calories. Now these frequent meals aren't normal sized meals, these meals consist of some type of protein and carbohydrate but are low in fat and calories. A small meal can be something as simple as a piece of fruit with a handful of nuts.
Fit Tip
It is just as important to do weight training as it is to do your cardio. Neither should be neglected. Weight training is what boosts your metabolism while the cardio is what will burn the extra calories. Weight training will also help tone and build your muscles. By building more muscle you will burn more calories since muscle burns more calories than fat does. Therefore, by utilizing BOTH weight training and cardio, you will burn more overall calories and fat than you would just doing one of them alone.
Matt Weik
AUGUST 2006
Nutrition Tips
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. People who skip breakfast have a slower metabolism and less energy throughout the day. Whatever you eat for breakfast gets the body's fire burning, and it is proven that people who eat breakfast maintain a healthier weight and eat less calories throughout the day. It doesn't have to be complicated. Examples include low-fat yogurt and a piece of fruit, whole wheat toast and a little peanut butter, or cereal and milk, just make sure the cereal has 5 grams of fiber or more. If time in the morning is short, toss everything in a blender and mix it up for a quick smoothie. Start the day with a good breakfast and you will start burning calories right away and have more energy to boot.
Fit Tip
No matter what you like to do at the gym, don't forget to crosstrain for the best results. If your progress has stalled or your weights aren't increasing or you aren't seeing any more changes in your body, your body has probably adapted to your program and you need to change your routine to get past the plateau. Whether it is trying some new machines or exercises, trying a new cardio machine, or maybe some different classes, getting out of your "comfort zone" can keep the results coming. The trainers are more than willing to help you find something new to try if you don't feel comfortable on your own. And especially guys, don't be afraid to try a new class. We have the best variety of classes anywhere and surely there is something that would be a great compliment to what you already do, whether it be a kickboxing class, indoor cycling, or Bodypump. Change does the body good.
Bryon Lewis
Fitness Consultant &
Personal
Trainer at
Colonial Fitness
JULY 2006
Nutrition Tips
Whenever you serve your child healthy food, especially if he or she isn’t too crazy about it, make sure that the accompanying atmosphere is delightful and cheerful. This way your child will associate healthy food with pleasant mood and good times.
Before grocery shopping, make out a small list of produce items for your child to scavenge for at the supermarket. Not only will your child get some physical and mental exercise searching for each item, but he is more likely to eat these healthy foods that he found all by himself.
Fit Tip
Summer is here and children need to stay active, healthy and busy during their break from school. Parents need to encourage their children to warm up properly and stretch before each activity and teach them never to play through any type of pain or make winning the reason for playing any sport. Let them choose the activity and keep the focus on having fun. To keep kids moving, the American Council on Exercise suggests 10 fun fitness summer activities:
- Soccer
- Martial Arts
- Bike Riding
- Swimming
- Basketball
- Obstacle courses
- Dancing
- Board Sports
- Jumping Rope
- Ice Skating/Inline Skating
Elaine Forry, CPT
Fitness Director
CHB Sports, Inc.
JUNE 2006
Nutrition Tip
Healthy Hydration
In one hour of exercise the body can lose more than a quart of water, depending on exercise intensity and air temperature. Make sure you drink water before, during and after exercise. Remember that both caffeine and alcohol can have a diuretic effect, so be sure to compensate for this additional water loss.
Fit Tip
Five Signs You're Overtraining
1. DECREASED PERFORMANCE. Slower
reaction times, reduced speeds and lower endurance levels are common
signs of overtraining.
2. EXCESSIVE FATIGUE. A body that never has a chance to fully recover
from a previous workout will continue to feel more and more fatigued.
3. CHRONIC OR NAGGING MUSCLE ACHES OR JOINT PAIN. Overused muscles and
joints can cause constant aches, which may go unnoticed until the body
is given proper rest.
4. INSOMINIA OR RESTLESS SLEEP. During sleep the body has time to rest
and repair itself. An overtrained body, however, is sometime unable to
slow down and completely relax, making it difficult to recover between
workouts.
5. INCREASED PERCEIVED EFFORT DURING NORMAL WORKOUTS. Overtraining takes
a toll on the body, and workouts that were once a breeze can begin to
feel like a grind.
Theresa
O'Donnell is
an ISSA Certified
Personal Trainer at the
Flying Hills Fitness Center
MAY 2006
Nutrition Tip
There are two types of fiber
Fiber is only found in plant-based foods. It is the structure that holds a plant together. There are two kinds of fiber: insoluble and soluble fiber. Soluble fiber collects water as it moves through the gastrointestinal tract, which helps to bulk up the stool and improve regularity. Soluble fiber is also the fiber that is found to reduce cholesterol levels, blood sugar, and your risk of colon cancer. Insoluble fiber is not soluble in water, helping to make things move faster. That helps speed through any carcinogens that might be in stool so it doesn't sit in the colon for long periods of time. High fiber foods tend be low in calories, very low in fat and they keep you fuller longer, so they help fight obesity.
Fit Tip
Weight vs Form
When embarking on a new exercise, it is better to guess low rather than high on the amount of weight you should use.The amount of sets and reps. are dependant on what you are looking to acomplish, however in general 10-15 reps and 3 sets is always a good begining.These should always be done with correct form. I think too many people sacrifice form for weight, meaning they do far too much weight and their form suffers for it.You gain nothing by doing heavey weight with poor form, other than the possiblity of injury. Isolating the muscle that you want to work and doing it correctly prevents injury and you get more out of it.
Mitch Huggett is
an ISSA Certified
Personal Trainer at the
Colonial Fitness
APRIL 2006
Fit Tip
Proper form is key to success and staying pain and injury free. If you cannot go through a full range of motion, drop the weight until your form is perfect throughout the whole set.
Nutrition Tip
Make sure you check the serving size on a product label. At first glance the product might look like a good choice, but in reality the serving size might be 1/4 of what you were thinking about eating. Those extra calories add up.
Matt Weik