Studies showed exercise is good for the brain.  More reasons to exercise.  Good for the brain and body!

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/07/can-exercise-protect-the-brain-from-fatty-foods/?smid=fb-share

Train Your Glutes - Reduce knee pain and lower back pain with one simple move.

Think of your glutes (butt muscles) as your body's natural shock absorbers. Training these muscles will help prevent or reduce strain on your knees and lower back.

Having strong glutes (gluteus maximus aka butt muscles) is not only important in enhancing your overall athletic performance, but also plays a vital role in daily activities such as walking, climbing stairs, plus sitting and standing.

Glute muscles play a very important role in hip stability and are a foundational component of lower core strength. Weak glutes cause instability in your hip joints and other areas, such as your lower back, resulting in soreness, muscle strain and sometimes serious injury. 

Performing The Glute Bridge Exercise -

• Step 1: Lie flat on your back with your arms at your side and palms on the floor.
  
  
• Step 2: Bring your feet towards your butt until your knees are bent at a 90 degree angle.
  
  
• Step 3: Keeping your feet, arms, hands, shoulders, neck and head flat on the floor; raise your hips upwards until your body is at a 45 degree angle.
  
  
• Step 4: Squeeze / flex your glutes and abdominal muscles. Hold this position for the designating time period.
  
  
• Step 5: Relax your muscles and lower your hips to the floor.

Be sure to contract the glutes hard and keep the hamstrings relaxed. You may need to place your hand on your hamstrings to make sure they stay soft.

Fitness Tip Of The Day: Healthy Snacks

50 – 70 Calories

1 kiwifruit – 50 calories
1 part skim cheese stick – 72 calories
Carrots and dip – 55 calories: dip 8 baby carrots into 1 tablespoon of your favorite fat free dip
1 cucumber – 45 calories
6 thin slices of turkey breast – 62 calories
1 cup grapes – 60 calories
15 cherry tomatoes – 54 calories

100 Calorie Snacks

1 medium apple – 80 calories
brown rice and salsa – 117 calories; 1/2 cup brown rice cooked and 2 tablespoons salsa
Yogurt – 100 calories; look at label for portion size
1 cup multigrain cereal – 112 calories (no milk)
canned pears – 120 calories; 8.5 ounce can
8 ounces of skim milk – 80 calories

150 –170 Calories

Natural peanut butter, celery and raisins – 132 calories; 1 stalk celery spread with 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter and 1 tablespoon raisins
Cottage cheese and apple sauce – 132 calories; mix 1/2 cup nonfat cottage cheese with 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
Whole wheat pita and hummus – 163 calories; break up 1/2 of pita into squares and dip into 3 tablespoons hummus
Trail Mix – 217 calories; 2 tablespoons peanuts, 1 tablespoon chocolate chips, and 2 tablespoons dried cherries


Notice the serving sizes for the snacks above. These are great snacks but make sure you don’t over do the portions.

How to Stay Accountable To Your Fitness Goal

Summer is over . That means that we’ve had our fun and committed our indulgences and are ready fully set our sights on our health and fitness goals.

Accountability is the factor most important to being fit.  Now there are 2 types of accountability I’m talking about: workout accountability and nutrition accountability.  There are several effective ways to be held accountable.  You can hold yourself accountable, have a friend hold you accountable or theres even online sites that help hold you accountable for your workouts and eating. 

Below are usefule tips to help you and those around you to help you stay accountable.

1. Tell your friends and family
 When you put your goals, or even your intentions, out there for others to see, it makes them real and makes them known. Tell your family and your friends. Even ask them to intervene if they see you about to make a decision that will hurt your progress Tell them about your dietary guidelines and be specific about the foods you have to avoid or have in moderation. This way they know not to offer you certain things that you shouldn’t have but may have trouble resisting.

2. Write out your workout plans for the week.

This is something that I usually do on Sundays, and even though the plans aren’t super-specific, they generally outline when and how far I’ll run, when I’m teaching, when I’ll be doing weights (and what general muscle groups), and when I’ll be doing group exercise classes. As you’ll soon see in the next few tips, I’m a huge fan of writing things down because it means they’re real, not just a thought that floats through my mind. There’s nothing more satisfying than being able to put a great big check mark next to a completed workout, or any other completed goal.


3. Find a workout partner
Sometimes, we need a little extra help keeping motivated and sticking to a routine. If you are having trouble keeping yourself accountable, seek out an accountability partner. This can be a personal trainer if you need someone more like a drill sergent to keep you on track.
Having a workout partner will hold you accountable to a set workout schedule for many reasons. You know that someone else’s goals rely on you being there with them. You know that if you don’t show up, at least one other person will know that you’re skipping on your workouts.  If things come up, you won’t be able to push your workout to a later time which will increase the likelihood of not going at all. This means that you’ll be forced to work whatever unexpected things life might throw at you around your workout schedule and not the other way around.  Be sure that your partner is reliable as well. Before committing, tell them about your goals and the specific reasons you need a partner and make sure they’re on the same page as you.

5. Use a food diary
One accountability trick is to write down what you plan to eat before you eat it, not after. “The power in this is that it really increases your awareness more and makes you think literally twice about a food before you eat it. List the foods or calories you’re eating, or simply mark an “X” on the calendar for every day you met your daily goal to, say, eat healthier snacks or avoid nighttime eating.

6.  Plan your meals for the day – and write them down.   
Anyone who has ever carried a food baby (or two, or six) will know that it’s easy for eyes to get bigger than our stomachs when we’re hungry. I find that writing out a rough outline of meals for the day first thing in the morning helps to ensure that I’ll be eating regularly (hence not letting myself get to the point that I’m so hungry I want to shove everything in the fridge in my face), and in reasonable portion sizes.

7. Hire a personal trainer
 
Having a personal trainer is probably the most effective way to reach a fitness goal.  Personal trainers, like myself, not only walk you through the workouts, but hold you accountable to show up, complete the workouts and to eat properly.  Similar to having a workout partner, your workout time with your trainer pre-set.  I often recommend my clients to keep a workout and food journal to make sure they adhere to their fitness and nutrition.

Hold yourself accountable.  Have a friend hold you accountable.  Have a trainer hold you accountable.  Stay focused on whatever goal you have and don't stop until you achieve it.


Hold yourself accountable.  Have a friend hold you accountable.  Have a trainer hold you accountable.  Stay focused on whatever goal you have and don't stop until you achieve it.
 

Stop Playing the Weight Loss Game

You cannot outsmart your metabolism. Eat less and you burn less fat, exercise more and you will become more hungry. Cut back on your sleep and watch your cravings escalate. The weight loss world has tricked you into believing it is possible to win a battle of wills against your own physiology. The metabolism will always win. This is why research shows 2/3 of those playing the weight loss game end up fatter 2 years later than they were before the diet. To escape the weight loss trap you need an approach that works with, not against your physiology. That means eating more of the right things more often and exercising in a way that does not result in compensatory eating. Stop playing the weight loss game!

Fat Loss Insights

1) Excessive cardio may work for some, but it is not the most efficient way to burn fat. It burns fat and muscle and makes you hungry= not an efficient strategy for fat loss.
2) Nutrition not exercise will be what delivers the result. The idea is to use exercise to maintain muscle and proper diet to burn the fat.
3) Doing weight training that is fast paced and rest-based will give you both the muscle building stimulus and fat burning effect and saves on time
4) There is no magic supplement you need or that will make it so you don't need to change your diet
5) What is your stress reducing strategy? Leisure walking can be done without limit and does not make you hungry and lowers stress hormone production. If you must do cardio, do this.
6) If you are not ready to make a meaningful, consistent change to the way you approach food then you simply will not be successful period.
7) If you are still counting calories as your primary method of body change, that is likely your problem right there.

Weight loss vs. fat loss

A pound of muscle and a pound of fat each weigh the same amount, but muscle is denser than fat, which means that it takes up less space on your body. If you are putting on muscle and burning fat, your body-fat percentage will decrease, but your weight won’t drop considerably at this point. This means the body will not only shrink in size, but will also improve its shape and tone, another major difference between fat loss and weight loss. When the focus is only on weight loss, your body may get smaller, but its shape won’t change. If you’re pear shaped, you’ll become a smaller pear shape, and we’ve all seen people who’ve lost a lot of weight, only to find that their skin becomes loose and saggy.