Back on Track: Cut Veggies For the Week

One way to ensure you get your five to seven servings of fruits and vegetables every day is to pack precut veggies as a healthy snack or accompaniment to your lunches at work. To save yourself some trouble, wash and chop a large quantity of vegetables on Sunday night, then store them in the fridge to dole out each day. Though some vegetables, like cucumber, may not keep for a whole week, many other chopped vegetables will stay fresh for days. I like to mix carrot sticks with celery spears and sliced red bell pepper. You can also wash a few sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes on Sunday night and store those too; they don’t even need chopping! Just 15 or 20 minutes of work, and you’ve got portable salads for the week. Do you pack fresh veggies for work? If so, what are your favorites? Source

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Back on Track: Cut Veggies For the Week

Skip the Exercise by Skipping the Sugar

I don’t know about you but I really hate to exercise on a regular basis.  That doesn’t mean that I am anti-exercise, it simply means that I find the effort that is needed to really get physically fit is usually very inconvenient at best.  I work a lot in order to be able to support my family and taking the time to exercise regularly is not necessarily something that I can do.  Believe it or not, I am actually in the best shape of my life and it doesn’t have anything to do with exercising at all.  If you make smart choices along the way, you can get physically fit and stay healthy, even without an official exercise regime.

One of the easiest ways to do so is to totally cut sugar out of your life.  Although this is impractical to a certain extent, you cannot imagine the benefits that you can get by doing so.  The easiest way for you to be able to do this is to eat according to the glycemic index.  This is a list of carbohydrate foods that are arranged according to how quickly the sugars that are contained within them are dumped into our bloodstream.  As long as you are eating foods that are on the low end of the glycemic index, you will be able to eat about as much as you possibly want.  You will stay full in the process and you will not have the highs and lows that are experienced whenever you eat sugar.

Along with making sure that you are eating the low on the glycemic index, you should be eating a protein and a legume at every meal.  Vegetables are notoriously low in calories and in order for us to keep our metabolism running strong, we need to eat calories.  The protein will help you to maintain your muscle mass, even if you are losing weight and the legumes will make up for any calories that are lost as a result of you eating a lot of vegetables.

Of course, it always helps to do a little bit of exercise along with eating the proper way.  You don’t need to hit the gym on a regular basis in order to experience these benefits.  Just make sure that you’re moving around and try to stay as active as possible in your everyday life.  The benefits of doing so will be evident whenever you look in the mirror.

FitSugar Roundup

This last week of May brought us both good news and bad. The death rate from cancers deaths is down and Washington DC was named the fittest city in the nation. For the bad news about fitness, fat burning, and weight loss, just start the slideshow. Source View Slideshow ›

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FitSugar Roundup

Healthy Recipe: Mediterranean Salad With Chickpea Patties

Warm Summer weather inspires me to eat more fresh salads, and here’s a recipe I found that’s really easy to make. if you like falafel , you’re going to love this. The patties are made with chickpeas and the dressing is made with Greek yogurt, so this recipe is full of protein and flavor. To learn how to make this for dinner read more. Mediterranean Salad With Chickpea Patties Recipe from Eating Well Ingredients 1 15.5 ounce can chickpeas, rinsed 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley 1 clove garlic, chopped 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin Salt and pepper to taste 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 8 cups mixed greens, washed 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced Directions In a food processor, blend the chickpeas, parsley, garlic, cumin, and salt and pepper. Mix it just enough so it’s still coarse (if you blend too much, you’ll have a creamy hummus consistency). Then stir in the flour. In a pan, heat up the oil. Form patties that are about three inches in diameter, and place them in the pan. Fry both sides until golden brown. While the patties are cooking, make the salad dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, lemon juice, and a little pepper. Place the greens on a plate, and add tomatoes and sliced onions. Place two patties next to the salad, drizzle with the yogurt dressing and serve. Makes four servings. Print recipe with images | without images

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Healthy Recipe: Mediterranean Salad With Chickpea Patties

Weekend Workout: Get Off Your Booty and Work It

Now that warmer weather has come for good, you’re probably sporting shorts, skirts, and teeny bikini bottoms to beat the heat. If you’re looking to tone up your tush, here are three must-do moves to get your booty in shape. Dumbbell Squats Elevated Leg Lift Knee Lift With Reverse Row If that wasn’t enough for you, click here for more Weekend Workouts.

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Weekend Workout: Get Off Your Booty and Work It

Fitness For the Fun of It

Beginning to see a pattern here? Paul can’t wait to break a sweat with his next renovation project, climb on the jungle gym, or give an after-dinner piggyback at the request of his three-year-old, And as Joan says of her time running around like a teenager in her duties as a volunteer coach, “It’s the most rewarding part of my day.” Which says it in a nutshell. Some people participate in a sport; others discover a hobby. Whatever it is, it should be something that satisfies you and that you actually look forward to doing. Fitness after 5 o’clock, in short, should be for the fun of it. But nothing that comes even close to inducing a sweat could fill that bill, you say? l challenge you to test that claim. Below are some ideas for leisure»time activities that are fully capable of providing substantial fitness and fat burning benefits, yet would be very difficult, indeed, to classify as one: If you have children, involve them. Take them for nature walks, or even just walks to the nearest ice cream store if you live in the city (and don’t worry, you’ll have earned yours). Or do sporting activities with them — play ball, Frisbee, tennis, badminton, even horseshoes or croquet. You’ll at least be doing more than watching Wheel of Fortune, and you’ll also be getting your children into the healthful pattern of being active — very important for influencing their exercise behavior as adults, studies show. If you own a home, improve it. And don’t worry if you know as much about dovetail joints as Joan. Hoodwink a friend who does know, and work along as a helper. Or hire a professional if no such friend exists, and work along on weekends until you know enough to go it alone. (That’s the way Paul got started. He took his vacation one summer to work alongside the carpenter building his deck and learned enough to remodel his family room. Not only did he lose five pounds during those two deck-building weeks, but he also saved himself about $40O!) If you’re a competitive type, compete. Sports can be especially suitable for those of us who inherently seem to get ourselves too busy, because they can help channel the aggression that makes us overbook ourselves in the first place. Besides, activities such as tennis, softball, racquetball, and squash can be great exercise as well as fun. Why come home and crunch more numbers when you can crunch the likes of a tennis ball instead? Research confirms that we aggressive types do best when we let our aggressions out, so we’d be foolish not to do so in ways capable of bettering our health along the way. If you like animals, show it. Amazing but true: Studies show that pets can help us live longer; they are sources of comfort more important than we realize. So what better way to grab a few extra years than by taking Fido for more of those walks he craves? Or even Morris? Undertake the care and riding of something as large as a horse, and you could really have some exercise on your hands. As the American Council on Exercise poster that pictures a dog states, “Think of him as an exercise machine with hair.” If you like vegetables, grow them. How many avid gardeners do you know looking plumper than their tomatoes? Not many, and the reasons are simple: Vegetables are virtually fat»free, and gardening can make for some awesome exercise. The digging builds cardiovascular endurance as well as muscular strength, and the weeding and picking are great stretching movements. Start delivering all those extra tomatoes to neighbors by foot, and you’ll really have a victorious garden on your hands. If you like dancing, just do it. Dance instruction has come a long way since Arthur Murray taught the tango. There’s now improvisational jazz dance to be learned, disco, ethnic, and of course square dancing and ballet, in addition to the ballroom types that Arthur stepped so well. So if you like to move to rhythms — which a lot of us do, as demonstrated by all the Walkmans we wear — dance is the best way to do it. It also can be a real sweetheart of a calorie-burner, as the physiques of the great dancers attest.

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Fitness For the Fun of It

Healthy Living, Weekend-Style

According to the research journal Obesity , weekends mean more than two days off. People between the ages of 19 and 50 were found to consume 115 more calories on both Saturday and Sunday than any other day of the week. Maybe it is the lack of structure that leads us to eat more, but I say, use your extra weekend free time to stay healthy. Here’s how: Work out more: Schedule a long workout since you have more free time. Go for a hike with your husband or 30-mile bike ride with your gal pals. More of a gym rat? Try taking back-to-back group classes at your gym. Shop for healthy foods: Take time to write out a list then head to the grocery store to fill your pantry and fridge with healthy foods. Make an adventure out of grocery shopping by going to your local farmers market - extra points if you bike there. Experiment with healthy cooking: Use your free time to experiment with healthy recipes. Cooking your own food means you are in charge of the ingredients. Plus spending time in the kitchen can be very relaxing. Put on some tunes and get to chopping. Most importantly, you need to remember your goals and stay on track . Weekends may mean you don’t have to show up at the office, but you do need to stay active in your own life. Source

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Healthy Living, Weekend-Style

Save Your Breath: Explanatory Slings

If you’re a weekend warrior or prone to injury, you might find these explanatory slings handy. Having lived through a couple of different shoulder injuries, which both required sling time, explaining my situation became old, and fast. Unfortunately, these supports weren’t around when I was injured, nor are they available now. These cute explanatory slings are a concept of a designer who no doubt has had his fair share of upper body injuries. Hopefully you all will make it through your next weekend sporting event free of injury. Source

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Save Your Breath: Explanatory Slings

Doing Cardio? Start Off Fast, Finish Nice and Easy

Whether you’re running, biking, or swimming as your form of cardio, you want to get the most out of your workouts. When some people are training, they incorporate negative splits into their routines. It involves moving faster in the second half of your workout than you did for your first half. This warms up the muscles slowly, which helps reduce your risk of injury, and it also helps you finish strong when you’re racing. You can also work out in the opposite way, where you start off fast and intense and end your workout slower and with moderate intensity. Researchers at the College of New Jersey found that after a short warmup, “cyclists who punched up the intensity during the first half of their workouts and then cruised for the second half burned about 10 percent more calories than those who started slow and finished fast.” Not only will you burn more calories, but when you give it all you’ve got in the beginning, it feels so good to reward yourself with a more relaxed second half of your workout. Source

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Doing Cardio? Start Off Fast, Finish Nice and Easy

Tummy Troubles? Try These Foods

When your stomach isn’t feeling great, you want to baby it a little by consuming foods that digest easily. Meats, most dairy products, wheat, alcohol, fatty foods, and those containing sugar are all considered difficult to digest, so keep reading if you’re curious to know which foods can soothe an upset stomach. Source View Slideshow ›

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Tummy Troubles? Try These Foods

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