As summer approaches, adding nutrient dense foods and spices to your hydration might be something to add to your grocery list! Here are a few ideas:
Cinnamon: Helps regulate blood glucose and aids in digestion. Great in almond milk and yogurt smoothies!
Rosemary: Known to help improve digestion and boost immunity. Rosemary has a pine like taste and goes well with a dollop of honey or agave nectar and Perrier.
Beet juice: Beets (when not in a can and pickled) are fabulous. This is one of my “newly found foods!” Beets help our bodies fight off free radicals that have been linked to cancer and heart disease. Beet juice can be taken by itself (similar to a wheat grass short) or even added to water for a pure body cleanse.
Carrot juice: Carrots are well known to be loaded with beta-carotene a powerful anti-oxidant. Carrot juice when fresh pressed is very sweet and can be drunk in a 4 oz shot in the morning or added in a vegetable juice blend. Add some cinnamon and you get a lot of “wow” in your drink!
Pomegranate juice: There are “ellagitannins” found in this dark fruit which has been thought to help slow or prevent the growth of breasts cancer cells. Add about an ounce of unsweetened pomegranate juice to your seltzer water. It’s great with fresh lemon juice too!
Enjoy mixing up your nutrition into some of your liquids! I promise…it WILL get warmer and before you know it, water will be a hot (or cold) commodity!! Add some “zest” and some nutrition!!
As spring approaches, the down jacket gets packed, the long pants are the exception vs. the rule and (gasp) tank tops are donned! What does this mean? Skin is now exposed!
Simply put…it’s time to tone up!
We see the panic stricken friends come in to the studio to do double duty workouts and want quick options for losing the winter 10 pounds!
As you cling to your computer, hoping I’m going to give you the secret to lose body fat and lean up in 7 days or less….I am not! (sorry!) However…I can give you some tips that if you are diligent, you can get a head start on anyone who is watching the latest infomercial about quick weight loss.
Fitness:
- Decide on an “amount” of minutes you will commit to towards exercising each week. For instance, if you decide you will exercise 150 min. a week, you can divide that in 2 days, or 7, just as long as you clock 150 minutes!
- Get in a little extra upper body work by doing 10 push-ups a day, increasing this by 1 every day a week at a time (you can always begin by doing push-ups against the wall)
- Once a week, make a date of sorts with a friend, coworker, spouse, child, etc to get outside and walk for at least 30 minutes. This beats Starbucks any day!
- Hire a personal trainer 1x a week to give you a quick head start!
Nutrition:
- For one week, cut out any foods made with white flour. This will help your blood sugar and will teach you how to make healthier choices, simply by committing to this one rule.
- If you are used to having chips once a day, replace that with a piece of fruit or vegetable. Again, try this for one week
- See if you can have dinner be 70% vegetables, again for one week. Ideally the other 30% should be a lean protein source like fish, egg whites, poultry or temphe.
If you try these little tips for 1week, see how you feel…if the answer is pretty darn good…try it for another week! It’s not necessary easy…but it’s simple!
Summer’s coming!! If you need a little “extra” push…call your favorite personal training and nutrition studio, Body Firm!
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