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To Skip or Go? Exercising While Sick

March 9, 2010 in Health by admin | No comments

sick

I’m feeling sick.  My throat is swollen and scratchy and it’s uncomfortable to swallow.  My roommate is sick as well, so I blame her.

Here’s the question: do I work out?  Aside from my throat, I feel fine.  My energy is good.  So is it a good idea, or will it make me worse?

I did a little digging, and here are some guidelines:

If you have a slight cold: Tone down the intensity. If you have a lower energy level, and feel like you are dragging, listen to your body and pull back a bit. Your body needs all the energy it can get to fight your illness and keep it from coming to a head, so don’t make it expel most of it’s energy at the gym.

If you are achey and congested: skip your workout. You are full blown sick and your body needs all the energy it can to heal. Working out can extend how long you are sick at this point.

If you have a fever: this one’s obvious, you need to rest.  Also, no one at the gym wants your germs, so keep them to yourself.

Cramps (ladies only): you gotta workout! It might be the last thing you want to do, but working out gets the blood pumping which speeds up the crampy process and aleviates pain.

So where am I?  I’d say slight cold, if that, which means I’m off to the gym.  To be honest, writing this post was just the kick in the butt I needed, because I was prepared to use my slight sore throat as an excuse.  And what does Dave always say?  NO EXCUSES!

In (mostly) Good Health,

Kelly Turner

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To Cut Calories, Eat Slower

March 2, 2010 in Nutrition by admin | No comments

eating-disorder

In a recent study, scientists found that when a group of subjects were given the same serving of ice cream on different occasions, the subjects who ate it in 30 minutes released more “feeling full” hormones than those who ate the ice cream in five minutes. (Bet it was melty by then)

The scientists took blood samples and measured hormones before, during and after the subjects savored their ice cream. They found that the two hormones that cause you to feel full — glucagon-like peptide-1 and peptide YY — were more pronounced when food was eaten slowly.

This falls in line with a 2008 study published in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association that reported subjects consumed roughly 10 percent fewer calories when they ate slower.

So, if you eat slower, you are going to eat less. I think we knew this one already — it’s sage dieting advice that it takes 20 minutes for your belly to tell your brain you are full, but now you have some scientific jargon to solidify it for you.

Eat slower, eat less.  This only works if you stop eating when you are full (which is a whole other ball of wax) so if you have trouble eating beyond the point of satiety, eat slower and pay attention to how you feel.  When you are satisfied, you are done, but if you scarf your food, you’ll consume more by the time you get the message.

Let Go of Your Cardio(It’s not helping you anyway)

February 23, 2010 in Fitness by admin | No comments

bored-girl-on-treadmill

Cardio, cardio, cardio

“If I do tons of cardio, all the time, I will lose weight and be thin and un-bulky like all the movie stars! I will be svelt and toned and thin, thin, thin.  Weights are ok occasionally, as long as they are light so I don’t build too much muscle, and the reps are high so I burn more calories.”

Does this sound like your workout mindset?

You’re wrong, and you’re wasting your time.

People, women especially (sorry, it’s just a fact- men’s goals usually aren’t to be thin) have this notion that cardio is what will melt the fat off and leave them with the thin, toned body they crave.

Does this sound like you? Are you the gym goer that has never stepped foot into the free weight room? Do you have your designated cardio machine, and don’t leave it until you reach a certain amount of minutes or burn a certain number of calories, and then stretch and maybe do a few crunches?

YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME.

Yea, you are burning calories, but you are burning them slower than you could be, and in that same time, you could be building lean muscle which will help you burn more calories every second of every day so you aren’t shackled to a machine for hours a day, only doing half the work.

How can you magically burn more calories in less time, and get more noticeable results, faster? A pill? A new gadget? A diet?

Resistance! Weights!

Weights will not make you bigger. We’ve been over this before. What they will do is get your heart rate up higher than any conventional cardio machine, and simultaneously build muscle to give you a firm, toned look. If you burn off fat, with nothing firm underneath it, you are still going to be squishy.

Strength train. Don’t be afraid. It will give you the body you dream of while you are wasting hours on the eliptical, and it’s a hell of a lot more fun.

This is Your Metabolism. This is Your Metabolism on a Low Calorie Diet

February 16, 2010 in Health, Nutrition by admin | No comments

MetabolismEngine

Oh, Metabolism. You have been our scapegoat for so many years. Our excuse. Our foe. ‘It’s my metabolism’s fault.  I have a slow metabolism.  It changed.  I can’t eat the way I used to.  I try, and gain weight, and blame my metabolism.’

Your metabolism responds based on how you treat it.  So be nice.

There are millions upon millions of books and gurus telling you how to “change” your metabolism. This implies that you were somehow given the wrong one and can swap it out for a new, faster model.

Its not about what metabolism you have, its how well you metabolism is functioning.

There is no better way to explain metabolism than with my infamous Furnace Analogy:

Your metabolism is like the fire in the furnace of a train. Just as a furnace burns coal for fuel to power the train, your metabolism burns energy to power your body. To get the most power from that furnace, you must consistently add fuel to the fire to keep it burning its brightest and hottest. If you don’t put fuel in the furnace, the fire will die out, and the train will stop moving. Then if you come back hours later and throw a shovel full of coal on top, it stacks up- it doesn’t burn. If you continue to shovel coal into the unlit furnace, the coal will pile up, storing for future use.

Along the same lines, if you continue to dump more and more coal onto the fire before it has a chance to burn what you have already added, the extra coal will smother that fire and again, begin to pile up. Too little or too much fuel has the same effect on the fire.

If you don’t eat for hours at a time, your metabolism slows down. Then, next time you eat, your body stores that energy for later use, when your metabolism finally (hopefully) starts up again. A slow metabolism causes your body to store food as fuel for later use, just like that train furnace has turned into a coal storage room.

To keep your metabolism running and revved to power your body like an unstoppable calorie burning freight train, you must consistently feed it a steady stream of healthy food. Small meals and snacks evenly spaced throughout the day will keep your metabolism running at its strongest: never letting the fire die down, and never signaling your body to store fuel.

You cannot “change” your metabolism, but you can definitely make it run more efficiently. Then, if you do occasionally dump a wheelbarrow full of coal into your belly, that fire is burning brightly enough to eat it right up- like it never happened.

No guilt, no blame. Now apologize to your metabolism for the emotional abuse you inflicted upon it, the starvation and the binges, and give it a healthy snack.

Kelly Turner is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and health and fitness writer from Seattle, WA.  Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, and she currently blogs for Breathe Magazine, Kidglue.com is the Health and Fitness Expert for Twirlit.com and feature fitness writer for FitPeeps.com.  To contact Kelly with any questions, you email her at kellycturner@hotmail.com.

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Guest Post: Valentine’s Day Guilt-Free Treats

February 11, 2010 in Nutrition by admin | No comments

valentines_day_chocolate-11818

Yay! Fun stuff!

I don’t think Valentine’s Day was made up by greeting card manufacturer’s, I think I was invented by chocolate and sweat pant manufacturers so you eat and bloat and leaves you definitely not in the mood for any lovin’ that night.

Here are some V-Day snack ideas that will satisfy your sweet tooth and your skinny jeans.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Look! Fruit! and chocolate!  Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Buy microwavable melting chocolate at the grocery store (or go old school and melt down some chocolate chips in a sauce pan.) Wash and dry a carton of strawberries, and leave the stem on. Dip the strawberries into the melted chocolate and place on the wax paper. Place baking sheet in fridge until chocolate sets, or you are ready to serve.  To mix it up, try different fruits, like bananas.

Strawberry Shortcake

Mini angel food cakes (one per person)
Strawberries, sliced and hulled
Fat free whipped topping (like Cool-Whip)
Fat free chocolate syrup (just a drizzle)

Place cakes on four plates. Top with strawberries. Top with whipped topping. Drizzle with chocolate sauce. Yeah, that’s it.

Enjoy!  Sweet, figure friendly sweets for you and your sweet!

Kelly Turner is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and health and fitness writer from Seattle, WA.  Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, and she currently blogs for Breathe Magazine, Kidglue.com is the Health and Fitness Expert for Twirlit.com and feature fitness writer for FitPeeps.com.  To contact Kelly with any questions, you email her at kellycturner@hotmail.com.

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Guest Post: Is Your Salad Hiding a Dirty Secret?

January 27, 2010 in Nutrition, Tips and Tricks by admin | No comments

salad1

You want to lose weight- so what is your go-to meal?  Salads.  Full of veggies, low on starchy carbs, and toss in a little bit of lean protein and you have a low calorie delicious meal made in weight loss heaven, no?

Probably not.

Most people trying to lose weight, or those trying not to consume their daily allowance in one sitting, will automatically order a salad when they go to a restaurant, feeling like it’s the only safe bet.  More often than not, those salads contain the same amount of calories as a burger.  Seems like a waste.

Just because you throw a bunch of crap on top of a bed of lettuce, doesn’t mean it’s going to be good for you.  To get the most (and the least) from your salads, listen up:

• Choose nutrient-rich dark green, leafy vegetables, such as spinach, romaine, and endive over iceberg lettuce which offers little nutritional value.  It’s pretty much water,m which is low in calories, but doesn’t nothing for your health.
• Fill up with tons of veggies like cucumbers, peppers, broccoli and tomatoes. The brighter the colors, the more nutrient packed the veggie is so look for deep greens, bright reds, yellows and everything in between.
• Add a little lean protein to keep you fuller longer. Opt for beans, lean meat, turkey, and tuna over fatty meats like ham, pepperoni, salami and definitely anything deep fried.
• All salads are not created equal.   Pasta salad, potato salad, tuna salad, chicken salad and macaroni salad are loaded with fatty mayo and oils.  I feel like I shouldn’t even have to say that, but there it is, just in case.
• Skip extras like croutons, crackers, crumbled bacon, and shredded cheeses, and go easy on healthy, but calorie dense extras, like nuts and seeds. These little additions can easily add hundreds of calories to you salad.
• Dressing is probably the easiest way to undo a healthy salad. Choose low fat or fat free dressing, oil based dressings, or just a little vinegar. Always put dressing on the side and dip each bite so you control how much you use.
• Add some sweet with fruits. They are great on the side, or try interesting combinations on top of your salad, like pineapples, blueberries, orange segments or strawberries.

Fast food salads are pre-made and rarely give you the option of choosing your toppings. However, they usually give you the topping in individual packets so you can choose what you put on. Skip crunchy noodles or croutons, bacon and cheese. Always ask for the low fat or fat free dressing choice, even if it isn’t the dressing that comes with your order- most places will accommodate.

Never order an already designed salad for you at a restaurant.  Make substitutions and eliminations.  Their job is to make it taste good, not to ensure you can button your goal jeans, so be your own watch dog.

Salads can be your be your best friend, or your worst diet enemy. Make smart choices with what you load onto your lettuce.

Kelly Turner is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and health and fitness writer from Seattle, WA.  Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, and she currently blogs for Breathe Magazine, Kidglue.com is the Health and Fitness Expert for Twirlit.com and feature fitness writer for FitPeeps.com.  To contact Kelly with any questions, you email her at kellycturner@hotmail.com.

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Guest Post: Is Your Scale Lying to You?

January 19, 2010 in Fitness, Motivation by admin | 1 comment

black-scale

It’s me again.

It’s the same old story: You’re standing on the scale, watching the digital numbers tick by, wishing you could have peed one more time, until, finally, the scale settles on a number.

Love it or hate it, can you trust it?

There are a lot of different factors that can affect your scale’s reading, either by adding a few pounds or taking them away.

Next time you fixate on tenths of pounds every morning, keep a few things in mind:

When did I last eat?

If you just have a big meal, all that food hasn’t had a chance to digest yet, and is just sitting there in your belly. It’s just like you were holding that meal in your hands when you stepped on the scale; the food has weight and that weight gets added to yours.  Meals take anywhere from 6-12 hours to digest.

What did I last eat?

Often, the healthiest foods are the heaviest in terms of weight. Fruits and veggies are great for your health and your waistline, but because they are so full of water and bulky fiber, they can temporarily add pounds to the scale.
If you ate a salty meal, like canned soup or a frozen dinner, the scale may also take a temporary jump. Your body retains water after you eat a lot of salt to dilute the excess sodium in your system, which can cause you to bloat.
Going light on carbs could explain a false lower reading. Carbohydrates, your body’s number one source of energy, are like a sponge- they hold water in your body. If you cut carbs, you risk dehydration, as there is nothing to prevent water from going straight through your system. The scale may read a bit lower, but it’s just because you are missing water, not from fat loss.

What did I have to drink?

If you just polished off a bottle of water, the weight of that water will show up on the scale. A liter of water weighs about 2 pounds, so if that water hasn’t had a chance to get through your system, it’s going to add to your weight.
If you had a few drinks last night, or a few cups of coffee this morning, you are probably dehydrated, as both are a diuretic, and you may be weighing in a few pounds less that your actual weight. Once the missing water is replaced in your system, your weight should return to normal.

Water is one of the biggest causes of inaccurate scale readings. It takes 3,500 calories to gain or lose a pound of fat; that’s nearly impossible to do in a day.

So, if you get an unexpected scale reading, take it with a grain of bloat-inducing salt. And remember, it’s just a number. Don’t let it make or break your day.

Body fat is the only true way to measure the composition of your body, and track real progress, so to get your body fat checked, make an appointment.