Healthy Grocery Store Habits

Being a healthy, fit and active person is so much more than the time you spend running on your treadmill or elliptical or lifting weights or utilizing your home gym. Healthy is a lifestyle that you live in every setting of your life. One of the places that is most important for you to adopt a healthy lifestyle is at the grocery store. The food that you buy when at the supermarket sets up how healthy you are going to eat for the week. If you buy unhealthy food, then you are obviously panning on eating in an unhealthy manner. We have a few tips here for some rules you should follow while at the grocery store so that you stay healthy all week long!

1: The outside perimeter is where most of your food should come from

                This one you may have heard before. These areas, versus the aisles, have the least amount of processing and are more natural foods like fruits, vegetables, grain, and dairy.

2. Choose aisle food with less than 4 ingredients.

                When choosing snacks, sauces, cereals, and all the other foods you will find in the aisles of the grocery store, you want to choose the ones that are the best out of the bunch. If a products has a huge list of ingredients, it is more likely that that product is going to contain unnatural and harmful additives or processed ingredients. Stick to the food that have the least amount of ingredients.

3. Have a 5 color cart.

                Having a colorful cart is a way of saying that you are eating your proper amount of fruits and vegetables. If you are new to the healthy lifestyle, this rule of thumb is a good one to force yourself to buy more produce. You won’t be able to resist eating the gorgeous colors in your fridge.

4. If you’re going to buy “cheat” foods, make them a small portion.

                We all know that at some point, you will pass the aisle of cookies or of chips and you will want to bring those home for those days that you just want to cheat a bit. Instead of buying an entire large bag, try buying the single serving size. This way once you cheat, you can get back on track to eating healthy and not be tempted by the remaining junk food in your pantry.

5. Stick to water, coffee, and tea.

                Coffee and tea are water based drinks and they can be customized for many different tastes. The liquids you drink should rehydrate you and nothing does that better than water and others made form water.

6. Make sure all your carbs are 100% whole grain.

                Your breads, pastas rice, etc. should all be whole grain to provide the most benefit to your health.

7. Stay away from frozen meals.

                These meals are basically void of any nutritional value.  Make it a part of your healthy lifestyle to cook more and avoid using these meals that are full of refined grains and simple sugars.

Original: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/01/healthy-grocery-shopping_n_6076090.html?utm_hp_ref=health-fitness&ir=Health+and+Fitness

Staying Fit on Vacation

Tips for staying fit on Vacation!

• If you’re flying, eat a large meal before the airport that way you won’t be tempted to eat in the airport’s fast food court.
• Plan when & where you’ll be stopping for meals. This will help eliminate the number of times you stop at a fast food drive thru.
• Watch out for jetlag as it will make you hungry at abnormal times. Resist the urge to snack at 4 a.m. and wait for normal meal times instead. Or, if you simply cannot wait then it is best to choose a healthy snack such as a handful of nuts or piece of fruit.
• We know you’re on vacation, so you’ll want to indulge in some treats & that’s fine! That’s what vacation is all about! On days you’ll be indulging more than usual, try to keep other meals and snacks on the healthy side.
• Beware of buffets. Avoid them as much as possible.
• Try to eat roughly the same amount and kinds of food as you usually do. Your body will thank you.
• Markets are a great place to soak up local culture and eat delicious, cheap fresh food. Local food is better for the environment; you get to pick what you’re eating and you'll even squeeze in some movement as you walk around the market.
• When you plan to be out all day, bring along your own healthy snacks like trail mix, granola bars, or even PB&J sandwiches to stave off hunger. It’ll save you money & keep you away from unhealthier options.
• Make your own meals if you’re staying somewhere with kitchen access. You’ll know exactly what’s in it & you’ll have more of an opportunity to eat a fully nutritious meal.
• Beware of drinks. A single cocktail can contain loads of sugar (and calories). If a stiff drink is necessary (and sometimes it is!), try healthier drinks instead.

• Skip the bus tours and check out your new surroundings on foot or on bike! You’ll burn calories while taking in the views like locals do! Some cities even offer running tours to let you explore while getting a workout in.
• Take the stairs. Skip the elevator and sneak in some extra cardio. Lots of sightseeing attractions—churches and towers, for example—have stairs with architectural oddities, letting you kill two birds with one step.
• Embrace your surroundings. If you’re at the beach, try doing the usual yoga routine on the sand instead of indoors. A change in scenery might be the boost needed to get physical.
• Take a long walk through a local park.
• Use vacation as an excuse to try a new, fun activity. Whether it’s rock climbing, sailing, or trapeze swinging, challenge yourself to try something different while you’re away.
• Do as the locals do! Take advantage of what an area’s known for—or even plan a vacation around it! Unroll a yoga mat in India, climb boulders in Colorado, learn tai chi moves in China, or woo potential suitors with flamenco moves in Spain. It’s a great way to learn about a different culture while getting fit.
• Make exercise your vacation. A surefire way to guarantee you keep moving while traveling is by planning a getaway around a fitness event or competition. Force yourself to vacation by registering for a race in a different city or try a weekend fitness retreat.

• Check out amenities first. Make it easy to squeeze in workout time by booking a hotel with a gym or pool. If you hotel does not offer these things, see if there are any discounts at a nearby gym.
• Check out the neighborhood. Book accommodation near places where you can sweat. If you need to run laps before starting your day, stay somewhere where it will be safe to go for a run. If you need to hear namaste, stay near a yoga studio.
• Bust a move in your hotel room to keep fit using body weights or simple workouts. Something is always better than nothing!
• Keep your mini-fridge stocked with healthy snacks like fruits, veggies, and nuts to avoid unhealthy room service.

Original: http://greatist.com/fitness/24-tips-fitter-happier-summer-vacation

The Worst Frozen "Diet" Foods

Avoid These 6 Frozen Diet Foods!

The 6 Worst Frozen Foods You Could Have!


There’s no place as packed with truth-twisting treats as the frozen food aisle of your supermarket.

How do so many bad-for-you foods get away with masquerading as “health” foods? Well, consider the case of the most famous imposter of all, Frank Abagnale: Over the course of several years, he masqueraded as a doctor, airline pilot, and lawyer. So successful were his impersonations that Hollywood made a movie about his life: "Catch Me if You Can," starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Abagnale had exactly what it took to pull off any hoax: the right look, the right talk, and a detachment from the consequences of his actions.




Sound familiar? Think about food industry: The people who fill our supermarket freezer section have no problem clumping together pseudo-foods and processing chemicals and selling it to you under the guise of "healthy eating." They give these foods the right look (gourmet packaging with wholesome images) and the right talk (nutritional buzz-terms like "light," "natural," and "gluten-free"), and they obviously don't care about the consequences (more than two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese).

Indeed, some frozen-food manufacturers even go so far as to spackle terms like "lean" or "healthy" right on the label. But the truth is, many of these foods are imposters. 

#6: WORST FROZEN DESSERT

Ben & Jerry’s FroYo Phish Food (1/2 cup)

240 calories
6 g fat (4.5 g saturated)
27 g sugars

Frozen yogurt is often a healthy alternative to ice cream, but not this version. In fact, it has 100 more calories than your standard vanilla frozen treat. That’s largely due to coconut oil and butter being high on the ingredient list—not to mention nearly a half-dozen Oreos' worth of sugar in every scoop.

EAT DESSERT EVERY DAY! You can—and not put on an extra pound. You just need to know which desserts to indulge in, and which to avoid.

#5: WORST FROZEN BEEF MEAL

Lean Cuisine Beef Chow Fun

320 calories
5 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
520 mg sodium
18 g sugars

The calorie toll here isn't so bad, but the sugar impact is unacceptable. This isn't dessert, after all. You could have a scoop of Edy's Slow Churned Rocky Road ice cream and still cut 6 grams of sugar. The problem here is Lean Cuisine's “sweet and spicy” Asian sauce. Think of it as pancake syrup with a few spices stirred in.

#4: WORST FROZEN MEXICAN MEAL

Cedarlane Roasted Chile Relleno

360 calories
20 g fat (10 g saturated)
620 mg sodium

This box advertises “all natural” in the corner. Maybe, but Monterey jack and cheddar cheese, which make up two of the first five ingredients, are still naturally full of fat. And that’s how Cedarlane stuffs this relatively small dish with 50 percent of your day’s heart-unhealthy saturated fat.

#3: WORST FROZEN CHICKEN DISH

Healthy Choice Sesame Chicken

410 calories
10 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
460 mg sodium
21 g sugars

Remove the calming green packaging and the ostentatious use of "healthy" in the name, and you'll see this meal for what it is: fried chicken swimming in sugary syrup. Healthy Choice claims this is “roasted” chicken, but an inspection of the ingredient statement reveals the meat is coated in corn flour and cooked in vegetable oil. At KFC they call that "fried."

FOWL FOULS: Chicken is a lean, fat-fighting protein. But it's also the most abused food in American restuarants.

#2: WORST FROZEN BURRITO

Evol Burritos Egg & Sausage

480 calories
16 g fat (5 g saturated)
850 mg sodium

We love Evol’s commitment to unadulterated produce and naturally raised meats, but "natural" alone won't keep fat off your body. Sausage is still the first ingredient in this beast of a morning wrap, and as such, it saddles you with 25 percent of your day’s fat and saturated fat, 35 percent of your sodium, and half your cholesterol. These numbers don’t make Evol evil, but they don’t make this burrito nutritious either.

BREAKFAST BOMBSHELLS: Research shows that those who eat a balanced breakfast consume fewer calories over the course of the day. But do the first meal wrong, and you can set yourself up for calorie overload.

#1: WORST FROZEN PASTA DISH

Amy’s Rice Macaroni with Non-Dairy Cheeze

520 calories
22 g fat (5 g saturated)
740 mg sodium

Amy’s casts itself as the healthy alternative to other frozen meals, and often that's true. But not here. “Made with organic pasta,” as the package proclaims, means nothing if you’re consuming an oil-soaked cheese-alternative that crams in more than a third of your day’s fat allotment. For the same amount of calories, you could eat two packages of Banquet’s macaroni and cheese.

Fit Tip: Stretches to Improve Your Golf Game

Many golfers start the season with visions of greatness only to become frustrated when their game plateaus or even gets worse. One of the best ways to prepare before each game is to warm up your muscles and your mind. Done consistently, golf stretching exercises can help your range of motion, your strength and ultimately your handicap.

Dynamic golf stretches are the key to a warm up and involve sports specific movements that start with a small range of motion for the first few reps and increase the range as you go. (Static stretches should only be done after your golf game.) Get to the course a little early and do this pre-game warm-up. It should take no more than 10 minutes and allow time for a few practice swings before you tee off. 

Warm up: Do three to five minutes of brisk walking in the parking lot to get your blood pumping, muscles warming and heart rate up a little. 

Golf squat with shoulder raise: Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Hold a club at each end waist level. Bend your knees into a squat and raise the club up to shoulder level. Raise yourself back up, dropping the club to waist level and repeat 15-20 reps. 

Side bends: Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Place a club on your shoulders. Lean to one side keeping your torso straight and switch to the other side. Complete 15-20 stretches on each side.

Leg swings: Start by standing with your feet shoulder width apart. Keep your upper body straight and swing your leg forward and backward. Repeat 15-20 times and switch to the other leg.

Trunk rotation: Place a club on your shoulders holding at both ends and place feet shoulder width apart. With knees slightly bent, hinge forward from the hips slightly (Just like you do when you swing). Turn from side to side, starting with a controlled twist, aiming to get the ends of the club directly in front of you for the last few turns. Complete 15-20 swings.

Alternating toe touches: Start by standing with your feet spread as far apart as comfortably possible. Lean forward toward one leg and try to touch the foot or ankle with the opposite hand. Alternate and repeat 10 times each side. 

These stretches will warm up all of the muscle groups involved in a fluid smooth swing including the shoulders, back, hamstrings and hips.

Brought to by LifeFitness

Fit Tip: Use Technology to Improve Your Health

Technology can get a bad rap, often blamed for the increasingly sedentary lives many people are leading. But your phone, tablet and television don’t have to be a license to sit still. They can actually be used as motivators to get and stay fit. In fact, in a global survey of exercisers, Life Fitness found that exercisers that use technology to support their workouts consider themselves to be more successful at achieving their weight and fitness goals.  Try one of these tech-driven tools to lead a healthier life:

Heart Rate

A heart rate monitor can be a great tool for monitoring workouts. Most cardio machines feature an embedded heart rate monitor that clearly displays how hard the body is working. You can also wear a heart rate monitor for indoor and outdoor workouts. To effectively us it, it’s important to know your maximum heart rate. This is the highest number of times your heart can beat in one minute and offers a key figure in determining training intensities. Using heart rate to create interval training sessions or steady-state workouts, can strengthen the heart and improve cardiovascular fitness. 

Wearable Fitness Tech

One of the biggest trends in fitness technology is wearable monitoring devices. They come in the form of bracelets or clips and go beyond classic heart rate monitors. Meant to be worn at all times, these devices can measure movement, calories burned, heart rate, sleep patterns, skin temperature and even blood oxygen levels. Most also sync with mobile apps to help you track these vital statistics over time. Investing in these tools and seeing results over time can be a huge motivator. Some of the most popular wearable fitness devices include the Nike+ Fuel Band, Core 2 from Body Media, Fit Bit Flex and Jawbone UP.

Healthy Eating Apps

With the advent of apps that support meal planning, nutrition tracking and calorie counting, it’s never been easier to eat right. Find tools that fit with your lifestyle to educate yourself about your food and take steps towards a healthier diet. Not sure how healthy that granola bar really is? Apps like Fooducate will analyze the nutritional content of a product and give it an easy-to-read grade of A – F.  Meal tracking has been a long trusted technique for improving eating habits, and it’s even easier today with apps like Lose It!, which features a rich database of foods to help you count calories and even sync with Life Fitness cardio equipment.

Social Accountability

One of the greatest fitness benefits technology can provide comes through social accountability. With just a few clicks you can join an online community like Spark People or LFconnect to connect with others trying to get fit. Apps like Fitocracy and Teemo add a sense of gamification and competition with your friends. You can even take your accountability to the next level with GymPact, which charges you real cash every time you miss a scheduled workout.

This FitTip was brought to by LifeFitness

Fit Tip: Eat Clean and Train Mean

It should come as no surprise that you need both a healthy diet and an effective workout plan to reach your health and wellness goals.  As the old saying goes, “You can’t out-train a bad diet.” If you want to be healthy inside and out, you have to eat clean and train mean. Some people take this mantra very seriously, but even small lifestyle changes will go a long way. Use these tips to clean up your diet and step up your workouts:

What is eating clean? Eating clean involves not only choosing the right foods to eat but also avoiding junk foods and processed foods whenever possible. Try eating more plant foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Also consider choosing grass-fed and free-range meats and poultry, fresh fish, low fat dairy products and raw nuts and seeds.

Shop the perimeter.  At the grocery store, stick to the outer perimeter where you will find fresh fruits and veggies, fish and other lean proteins. Avoid processed foods, boxed food and packages that are full of ingredients you can’t pronounce. Opt for foods closest to their natural state as possible and with the least amount of ingredients. Read nutrition labels and look for ways to reduce your intake of sugar, salt and saturated fat. Swap soda and juice for more water and switch from refined grains (white breads and pasta) to whole wheat.

Get back to cooking. Instead of buying frozen or boxed meals, cook meals from scratch. Clean, whole foods are easy to prepare and you can make extra to take for lunches and use for leftovers. It may take some extra planning upfront, but there are many blogs dedicated to sharing clean, homemade recipes that will fit into your busy schedule. Extra bonus: Avoiding processed foods and cooking from scratch can save you money in the long run.

Mix up your exercise. If you truly want to train mean, don’t keep doing the same old routine. Challenge and surprise your body with a different workout, heavier weights, a new class or an exercise machine you never tried before. Change happens when you push your limits.

Take the intensity up a notch and try some intervals. Are you sweating or just reading a magazine while you drone out riding a machine? Make sure your workouts in and out of the gym make you sweat. Go high intensity for short bursts during your workout to get in some interval training. If you are on the treadmill, try running at your fastest pace for a minute, take it down to recover for a minute and repeat. On the elliptical? Bump up the resistance level to work different muscle groups and increase effort. Track your workouts and make consistent plans to increase intensity and you will see progress.

This fit-tip was brought to you by LifeFitness

Fit Tip: Basic Strength Training Tips

Strength training is a beneficial form of exercise for everybody no matter your age, gender, or fitness background. And no, it’s never too late and you are never too old to get started.
It’s important to know a few fundamental principles of strength training:

• Resistance: You have to apply an appropriate resistance to build muscle.  The amount of resistance should be above what one is accustomed to in everyday life.  Add this resistance by using weight machines, free weights, cable machines, various weighted tools or even your own bodyweight. 

• Balance: Make sure to work the entire musculoskeletal system, to avoid postural and strength imbalances and injury. Work several muscle groups at once when possible.   

• Rest: Rest between sets of exercise for about 60-90 seconds giving your muscles a chance to recover before you attempt the next set.  Also, rest 48 hours between bouts of weight training if you are sore.

Other basics to help you be successful:

Use bodyweight. Sometimes your own bodyweight can be the most effective and most challenging training tool. Add bodyweight training exercises to your workout with planks, push-ups, squats or lunges. Equipment like TRX Supsension Training Straps or the Synrgy360 can provide even more ways to make bodyweight training fun and effective.

Make the muscles do the work. It’s important not to use momentum to lift free weights. You will activate more muscle fibers if you lift and lower weights with purpose through your range of motion. If you cannot lift a weight without swinging it, it is too heavy and you should lower the amount of weight you are lifting. As a beginner, select a weight that allows you to go for 15 repetitions. Around repetition 12, you should be feeling a bit of fatigue.  

Practice good form. Stand tall with your chest lifted and your arms naturally at your side. Don’t hunch over in the shoulders or hold tension in your neck. Hold your abs tight.  The stronger your core, the more effective you will be at lifting weights. Make sure you breathe. Exhale during the hardest part of the exercise to fuel the movement.  If you have questions about form, you may consider hiring a personal trainer for a few sessions.

Pay attention to your body. Never work through intense pain and learn to differentiate between pain and muscle fatigue. Muscle fatigue is a feeling of your muscles being tired but pain makes you want to say “Ouch!” 

This FitTip was brought to you by LifeFitness

Fit Tip: Add a Jump Rope, Try Plyometrics

Plyometric workouts have long been known as one of the most efficient and effective ways to train, because they simultaneously burn calories and build muscle. Plyometrics or “plyos” are a type of exercise that encourages muscle development, power, speed and endurance. It can even build bone mass. Get all of these benefits by adding plyos to your fitness routine with these tips from Life Fitness:

What are plyometrics?

Plyometric exercises use explosive, fast-acting movements to develop muscular power. In other words, they are high-impact movements that involve jumping. 

Why try them?

By implementing plyos into your cardio and strength routines, you’ll help transform fat into lean muscle while increasing your heart rate and burning calories.   

What types of exercises are considered plyometrics?

Plyos include anything that involves jumping. Start with something less complicated like picking up a jump rope, skipping or high knees. Gradually add squat jumps, split lunge jumps or box jumps. Even try good old-fashioned burpees. You’ll see gains in strength and confidence in no time.  

How do you get started if you are new to plyometrics?

• Make sure you warm up properly.  Use 10 to 15 minutes to get your joints warm, muscles moving and heart pumping. 
• Start with the basics on a soft surface, such as carpet, a rubber mat or grass.   Check your surroundings to make sure there are no obstacles in the way. 
• Start at a slower pace, lesser range of motion and fewer repetitions. As you improve, build up to a faster speed, larger movements and more repetitions.
• If you feel any pain, stop.
• Take a day or two between sessions for muscle repair and recovery.  Listen to your body at all times. 

Corrective Exercise and the Fight Against Inactivity

The technology revolution is not the only force impacting the future of fitness. There is another factor contributing to the changing needs of exercisers: evolution.  Our bodies have been changing since the dawn of human kind. The athletic, hunter-gatherer-nomadic lifestyle has given way over time to a more sedentary and unregulated life for most. A life comprised of largely unilateral movements. The effects of our current day-to-day activity (or lack thereof) have shaped the growing fitness trend known as corrective exercise and postural training.

Corrective exercise techniques can be utilized to help relieve pain and some even claim it can reverse improper posture. 

While corrective exercise is an area of training with many different philosophies, the foundation for these techniques is built around four core methods: massage, stretching, muscle strengthening and deep breathing.

Massage is a treatment meant to relax muscles and restore elasticity to the tissues. Posture-specific massage focuses on small knots and tension points that develop in a muscle when it is overloaded or has suffered trauma, causing joint pain, decreased range of motion, and even chronic stiffness. Combined with corrective exercise, massage techniques, such as foam roller, trigger point therapy and deep tissue work, can release adhesions have been shown to improve posture and enhance mobility .

Stretching is used to impart suppleness to our muscles. Advanced stretching techniques, like Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation, are often performed with the aid of a corrective exercise specialist. Among the most effective methods for postural stretching, the Mézières method combines numerous muscle groups and promotes better total body posture.

Deep breathing exercises, particularly diaphragmatic breaths, can be incorporated into stretching and massage programs to augment their effectiveness. Expanding and contracting your diaphragm facilitates the simple benefit of stretching your chest muscles and some studies have shown even more comp lex effects like alleviating panic disorders and digestive diseases.

Strengthening your muscles can also help improve your posture, especially when you focus on your core. Use equipment designed to intentionally throw off your balance, like a Bosu ball, to tighten up your core, which will strengthen and lengthen your spine.

These core methods just touch the surface of corrective exercise and there is much debate around what methods are effective. We want to hear from you. What are your experiences with corrective exercise?

Brought to you by LifeFitness

Fit Tip: Working Out While Under the Weather

Flu season is on its way to becoming an epidemic in the U.S. and while a flu shot is preventative, it won’t always help you escape a winter cold.  While your dedication to hit the gym every day is admirable, there are some symptoms of sickness that should make you think twice. Please use common sense.  If your symptoms are severe, skip the exercise and see your doctor.  Otherwise, follow these guidelines to decide when you’d be better off staying at home, getting rest and keeping your germs to yourself.

Do a neck check. You can exercise while sick if your symptoms are all above the neck, like a runny nose, a sore throat, nasal congestion and tearing eyes. Of course, you should always listen to your body and take the intensity of your workout down a bit if your regular pace feels too strenuous.  

If it’s below, don’t go. If you have any symptoms below the neck, such as body aches, chills, coughing, fatigue, stomach problems or diarrhea, it’s advised to take it easy until you're feeling better. And if you're running a fever, no matter where your symptoms are, put off exercising until your temperature returns to normal.

Follow common courtesy. Just as no one likes gym goers who sweat on equipment and don’t clean the machines, you won’t make any friends having a nonstop sneezing or coughing spell. If you suspect you’re contagious, follow common courtesy and stay home. If you do go while under the weather, use hand sanitizer and wipe down all machines after use.

Listen to your body. When suffering from congestion or low energy, exercise often helps you feel better. Know your limits and take the intensity down a notch. A brisk walk can sometimes unclog the sinuses better than an afternoon on the couch. Gentle exercise will rev up circulation and counteract that sluggish, rundown feeling. Exercising while sick is a personal decision and you’re the best judge of what your body can handle.

To avoid getting sick remember to keep up a healthy lifestyle without running yourself down. Take time to relax, get seven hours of sleep, drink plenty of water, eat healthy and wash your hands—a lot.

Brought to you by LifeFitness