By Hilary Meyer, Associate Food Editor, EatingWell Magazine
Now that spring has sprung, I’m loading up on more fresh veggies, and that has me thinking about the best way to store them to keep them at their freshest. I only go to the grocery store once a week, which means I have to keep my produce stored properly to avoid ending up with a giant pile of bad veggies ready for the compost pile at the end of the week.
And as it turns out, the refrigerator is not the go-to storage unit for all your produce. Below are 5 types of produce you shouldn’t keep in your fridge.
Tomatoes: OK, a tomato is technically a fruit, but taste-wise, it’s closer to a vegetable. If you’ve ever grown tomatoes, then you know that they love the heat and hate the cold. Turns out even after they’re plucked from the vine, they still hold their aversion to cold. The fridge is not the ideal place to store tomatoes. Store them there and your perfect tomatoes turn into a mealy disappointment. They’ll still be good for cooking, but not the best for eating fresh. Instead store them on your counter (not in direct sunlight) and enjoy them when they’re ripe.
Basil: Tomatoes and basil go well together on your plate and it turns out they have similar needs in the storage department too. Like tomatoes, basil loves the heat, so extended periods of time in a cold environment like a refrigerator causes it to wilt prematurely. Basil will do best if it’s stored on your counter and treated as you would fresh cut-flowers. A fresh bunch of basil can be stored for in a cup of water (change it every day or two) away from direct sunlight. Covering it loosely with a plastic bag will help keep it moist (but make sure the bag has an opening to allow for some fresh air to seep in).
Potatoes: Potatoes like cool, not cold temperatures. They do best at around 45 degrees F, which is about 10 degrees warmer than the average refrigerator. Most of us don’t have a root cellar (a cool, dark place to store root vegetables like potatoes), so keeping them in a paper bag in a coolish spot (like a pantry) is best. Why paper? It’s more breathable than plastic so potatoes won’t succumb to rot as easily. And why not the fridge? Storing potatoes at cold temperatures converts their starch to sugar more quickly, which can affect the flavor, texture and the way they cook.
Onions: Onions don’t come out of the ground with that protective papery skin. To develop and keep that dry outer layer, they need to be “cured” and kept in a dry environment like a pantry, which is not as damp as the refrigerator. Also, lack of air circulation will cause onions to spoil, as will storing them near potatoes, which give off moisture and gas that can cause onions to spoil quickly. Store onions in a cool, dry, dark, well-ventilated place. (Light can cause the onions to become bitter.) Scallions and chives, however, have a higher water content, bruise more easily and have a shorter shelf life, so store these alliums in the fridge.
Avocados: Avocados don’t start to ripen until after they’re picked from the tree. If you’re buying a rock-hard avocado, don’t store it in your refrigerator, as it slows the ripening process. On the other hand, if you have a perfectly ripe avocado that you’re not ready to use, storing it in the refrigerator may work to your advantage by prolonging your window of opportunity to use it before it becomes overripe. So the bottom line on storing avocados is store hard, unripe avocados on your counter and store ripe avocados in your refrigerator if you’re not going to eat them right away.
I love a new year. It almost seems like we can start all over, finally become that wonderful, productive, healthy, happy person we’ve always wanted to be. The trouble is, the enthusiasm to make changes, especially with exercise and diet, tends to fade once we realize we can’t change everything overnight. If you want to make lasting changes, there are three things you can do to make your resolutions work all year long: Adjust your attitude, change your lifestyle and come up with a plan for success.
Adjust Your Attitude
If you have the wrong attitude about fitness, you’re already setting yourself up for failure. Most people look at exercise as:
Punishment for bad eating
An obligation
Painful
Time consuming
Impossible to sustain over a long period of time
Boring
If any of these sound familiar, how long do you think you’ll stick with your program? Nobody wants to do something painful, boring or obligatory. Before you throw yourself into weight loss, suss out your attitudes about exercise and figure out whether these attitudes are true or just lies you’ve been telling yourself for years. Then, try a different perspective and look at exercise as:
A break from a stressful workday
A way to boost energy and mood
The only time you’ll have to yourself all day
A chance to get totally physical and let your mind rest
A chance to reward your body for working so hard
A way to improve your quality of life immediately
And here are some more key points about exercise that you must understand:
Willpower won’t work. Willpower is for short-term success. Long-term success requires planning, discipline and finding ways to motivate yourself every day.
Motivation will not magically happen. What motivates youwill change from day to day. You have to recommit to your goals each day, tweak them to fit changes in your lifestyle and attitude and find new ways to motivate yourself over the course of your life.
You will not always want to exercise and eat healthy. Even the most committed exerciser doesn’t always want to do it. Know that you will have to work on it every day.
Diets don’t work. Stop wasting your time following someone else’s plan for you. Make your own plan based on realistic changes–if you can’t follow your chosen diet for the rest of your life, you’re wasting precious time.
Adjust Your Lifestyle
The facts about being overweight:
You can’t be overweight unless your lifestyle is set up to encourage it.
You can’t be overweight if you haven’t allowed yourself to eat too much.
You can’t be overweight if you’ve made a daily schedule that doesn’t allow time for exercise.
Never forget that losing weight and maintaining that weight loss is a lifetime prospect. You will never stop working to maintain your fitness and weight. So, before you start that same old diet or exercise program, ask yourself this question: Can I sustain this diet for the long term? Is this exercise program something I can do every day?
Once you recognize the gravity of permanently losing weight, you’ll need to change your lifestyle to accommodate this goal.
Figure out your bad habits. Keep a food/activity journal for an entire week. Do it without judgment or shame–you’re simply trying to figure out what you’re doing every day that may be hurting your weight loss goals.
Replace those bad habits, one at a time, with different habits. Experts know that you can’t break bad habits without forming new ones. If you take away your daily Egg McMuffin and don’t replace it with something else you’ll drift right back into the old McDonald’s habit.
This may sound simplistic, and it is. Giving up something yummy for something healthy isn’t easy. You have to change your environment to make it impossible to have or even want that Egg McMuffin. Get started with these ideas:
Decide what you’ll eat instead of fast food. Stock up on breakfast foods you like, keep meal replacement bars in the car or try healthy fruit shakes or smoothies.
Eat before you get in the car so you won’t be starving and, therefore, tempted to hit the drive thru.
Change your driving route to work so you don’t even pass by McDonald’s.
Don’t carry cash in the car (even if you DO have the urge to indulge, you won’t be able to), write down your weight loss goal and tape it to your steering wheel or your glove compartment so, when you’re reaching for your wallet, you’re immediately reminded your goals.
Make a Plan
You’ve figured out how to change your bad eating habits by replacing them with good ones and you’ve learned to create an environment that doesn’t allow those bad habits to exist. Now, you need to make a plan for what you really want.
Set Your Goals
Write down specific goals you have (not just ‘I want to lose weight.’). List everything, for example:
How much weight you want to lose. Make sure the amount of weight you want to lose is reasonable for your height and frame. This Ideal Weight Calculator will give you a starting point for setting your goals.
A target date to reach your goals. Make sure you’ve given yourself a reasonable time to reach that goal – (a safe bet would be to lose a pound a week)
Why you want to lose this weight (i.e., I want to look good in a bathing suit for summer)
What you think will happen if you reach your goal
How you’ll maintain your weight loss once you reach your goal (remember, it’s a lifetime thing–even when you reach your goal, you can’t quit!)
To set up a good routine, you’ll need to know the basics of a complete program. You’re program will involve cardio, strength training and stretching.
For help choosing a program contact me and we will find the right program for you! You can find my contact information at the bottom of the newletter or visit my site www.beachbodycoach.com/coachgshort to look at the different products that BeachBody has!
Ensure Your Success
Success involves using every resource you have to keep you going. Do whatever it takes to be consistent including:
Enlist all family members to get involved. If everyone eats healthy, you won’t have to fight to avoid that bag of chips your spouse munches on every night
Join a BeachBody Challenge
Get a friend to exercise with you
Take time every week to schedule your exercise routines
Keep a workout bag packed so you don’t have to scramble for your gear
Keep a fitness journal to track your workouts and progress
Reward yourself often with massages, new clothes or a vacation
Change your program every 6 weeks to avoid plateaus
Re-visit your goals every three months and gauge your progress. If you’re not reaching your goals, maybe you should change them to something more accessible
The important thing to remember is that losing weight requires that you change your lifestyle. You have to change the way you think about exercise and eating, change the way you schedule your day and how you prioritize your tasks. It’s easy to lose a few pounds, but it’s hard to keep them off for good. Being prepared for what’s ahead is your first step in the right direction.
Do you find that losing weight is difficult because you are eating on the run with no time to shop, cook, or plan meals? Do you eat out or get take-out food a lot and then eat restaurant portions that may prevent you from losing weight and keeping it off? These are some of the reasons people who want to lose weight often consider using meal replacements.
What Is A Meal-Replacement?
A meal replacement is a portion-controlled, prepackaged meal, shake, drink or bar that contains approximately 100 to 200 calories and is used to replace an entire meal or snack to help you reduce your total calorie intake and thus lose weight. These include nutritionally fortified diet protein shakes, snack bars, and low-calorie meals.
The weight loss shakes and bars are usually low in fat and calories, with about 100 to 200 calories, 2 to 5 grams of fat, about 10 to 15 grams of protein, various vitamins and minerals, and up to 5 grams of fiber.
How Do Meal Replacements Work?
Meal replacements help people lose weight by providing a controlled amount of calories, protein, carbohydrates and fat in a prefixed portion. They simplify meal planning because they are convenient — easy to store, and requiring little preparation. They are also reasonably prices, usually costing less than the meal they replace.
Meal replacements reduce the number of decisions you have to make about what to eat and reduce your exposure to tempting foods that might result in overeating.
Many effective weight loss plans that use meal replacements recommend either using them in addition to eating 1 or 2 healthy “grocery” foods meals, or replacing 2 or 3 meals and several snacks per day to lose weight, and then replacing 1 meal per day to maintain weight.
Using a meal replacement instead of an entire meal or snack can help you to reduce your calorie and fat intake and your blood sugar levels. When you first start using meal replacements, you will likely notice an immediate reduction in your blood sugar levels because you will probably be consuming fewer calories and less carbohydrates than you would with your usual meal.
How Effective Are Meal Replacements?
Recent studies show that meal replacements have an important role to play in the diet of anyone who wants to lose excess body-fat and build healthy lean muscle.
A good example comes from a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers from the University Hospital of Ulm in Germany assessed the effects of low-calorie diet combined with meal replacements on weight loss in a group of 100 obese patients.
Half of the group followed a self-selected diet of 1,200 to 1,500 calories per day, which included three meals and two snacks. The other half followed a similar self-directed diet except that they replaced two snacks and two of the three meals with meal replacements (shakes, soups or hot chocolate).
After three months, the people on the
self-selected diet lost an average of 2.9 lbs., while the people using meal
replacements lost an average of 15.6 lbs.
After the first three months, everyone was asked to replace one meal and one snack per day with a meal replacement. Over the next 24 months, original self-selected diet group lost an average of nine additional pounds, and the original meal replacement group lost an average of another seven more pounds. At the end of the study, the self- selected diet group had a 5.9 percent weight loss, whereas the original meal replacement group had an 11 percent weight loss.
Another study by researchers from the University of Nevada report similar results. Women using meal replacement supplements were able to maintain a far greater weight loss over the course of a year than those using other methods to control their weight.
I truly believe in this product! I recommend giving this product a try and with the Beach Body Bottom-of-the-Bag guarantee if you are not totally satisfied in the first 30 day you can return it for a full refund (less s&h). If you are interested in trying a sample please either message me on teambeachbody.com or send me an email at gshort@shortfam.com
Beach Body Coaching Team!!!
What are you doing to fight obesity?
Who else is looking to spread the word of health and ready to “END THE TREND”?
Contact me @ me@coachgshort.com for details on how you can spread the word, get in shape and help your finances!! Together we can end the trend!!
Success Story Of the week!!
Please contact with any questions.
Gregory Short – Independent BeachBody Coach
I have always has the team thread that I am running which anyone can join weither you are doing P90X, Insanity, 10 minute trainer, or any other BeachBody workout.
Do you want to join? Do you have a friend that wants to get in shape with you? Email me right away as there are only 5 spots for this challenge!! Email me today at: me@coachgshort.com
We will be starting November 7th so don’t hesitate!!
Do you find that losing weight is difficult because you are eating on the run with no time to shop, cook, or plan meals? Do you eat out or get take-out food a lot and then eat restaurant portions that may prevent you from losing weight and keeping it off? These are some of the reasons people who want to lose weight often consider using meal replacements.
What Is A Meal-Replacement?
A meal replacement is a portion-controlled, prepackaged meal, shake, drink or bar that contains approximately 100 to 200 calories and is used to replace an entire meal or snack to help you reduce your total calorie intake and thus lose weight. These include nutritionally fortified diet protein shakes, snack bars, and low-calorie meals.
The weight loss shakes and bars are usually low in fat and calories, with about 100 to 200 calories, 2 to 5 grams of fat, about 10 to 15 grams of protein, various vitamins and minerals, and up to 5 grams of fiber.
How Do Meal Replacements Work?
Meal replacements help people lose weight by providing a controlled amount of calories, protein, carbohydrates and fat in a prefixed portion. They simplify meal planning because they are convenient — easy to store, and requiring little preparation. They are also reasonably prices, usually costing less than the meal they replace.
Meal replacements reduce the number of decisions you have to make about what to eat and reduce your exposure to tempting foods that might result in overeating.
Many effective weight loss plans that use meal replacements recommend either using them in addition to eating 1 or 2 healthy “grocery” foods meals, or replacing 2 or 3 meals and several snacks per day to lose weight, and then replacing 1 meal per day to maintain weight.
Using a meal replacement instead of an entire meal or snack can help you to reduce your calorie and fat intake and your blood sugar levels. When you first start using meal replacements, you will likely notice an immediate reduction in your blood sugar levels because you will probably be consuming fewer calories and less carbohydrates than you would with your usual meal.
How Effective Are Meal Replacements?
Recent studies show that meal replacements have an important role to play in the diet of anyone who wants to lose excess body-fat and build healthy lean muscle.
A good example comes from a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers from the University Hospital of Ulm in Germany assessed the effects of low-calorie diet combined with meal replacements on weight loss in a group of 100 obese patients.
Half of the group followed a self-selected diet of 1,200 to 1,500 calories per day, which included three meals and two snacks. The other half followed a similar self-directed diet except that they replaced two snacks and two of the three meals with meal replacements (shakes, soups or hot chocolate).
After three months, the people on the
self-selected diet lost an average of 2.9 lbs., while the people using meal
replacements lost an average of 15.6 lbs.
After the first three months, everyone was asked to replace one meal and one snack per day with a meal replacement. Over the next 24 months, original self-selected diet group lost an average of nine additional pounds, and the original meal replacement group lost an average of another seven more pounds. At the end of the study, the self- selected diet group had a 5.9 percent weight loss, whereas the original meal replacement group had an 11 percent weight loss.
Another study by researchers from the University of Nevada report similar results. Women using meal replacement supplements were able to maintain a far greater weight loss over the course of a year than those using other methods to control their weight.
I truly believe in this product! I recommend giving this product a try and with the Beach Body Bottom-of-the-Bag guarantee if you are not totally satisfied in the first 30 day you can return it for a full refund (less s&h). If you are interested in trying a sample please either message me on teambeachbody.com or send me an email at gshort@shortfam.com
Beach Body Coaching Team!!!
I would like to welcome Phil F. (CoachPhilF) and Harold M. (CoachHaroldM) to team engage. They have decide to join my personal team to pick up the fight against Obesisty!! That make a full dozen people on my personal team of a group of 60 on Team Engage!!
What are you doing to fight obesity?
Who else is looking to spread the word of health and ready to “END THE TREND”?
Contact me @ me@coachgshort.com for details on how you can spread the word, get in shape and help your finances!! Together we can end the trend!!
1. Not warming up before stretching. Because stretching cold muscles increases your chances of injury; you should always warm up before stretching (i.e., perform activities that will increase your body temperature enough to “warm” you up sufficiently to safely begin exercising). Contrary to popular belief, stretching is not a warm-up.
2. Not stretching the muscles you’re trying to stretch. Too many people don’t stretch what they think they’re stretching because they don’t perform their flexibility exercises properly. More often than not, either they don’t know how to do a particular exercise properly, or they make an inappropriate adjustment in their body position while stretching.
3. Not watching how much pressure you place on your ligaments. Unfortunately, some people stretch their ligaments too much (rather than stretching their muscles) when performing stretching exercises. As a result, they develop excessive ligament looseness. As such, when you’re stretching, you should always avoid holding your joints in a position that places too much weight or pressure on your ligaments.
4. Not watching how much weight you place on your joint capsules. While stretching, if you place more weight on your joints than they can safely stand, you increase the likelihood that you may damage them. Accordingly, you should avoid activities that can injure your joints, such as standing toe touches.5. Not performing a balanced stretching regimen. To avoid the consequences of stretching unequally (e.g., the muscles that receive inadequate attention tend to tighten and shorten, causing such notable conditions as rounded shoulders), it is essential that you don’t stretch in one direction without balancing out that effort by also stretching in the opposite direction.
6. Not performing each stretching exercise slowly and smoothly. You should avoid using fast, jerky, or bouncing movements when performing stretching exercises. Doing so may force your muscles to stretch to an unsafe range of motion before your nervous system has time to protect them by signaling your muscle(s) to contract.
7. Not stretching to the point of maximum extension. When you stretch, you should move your body or body segment at a controlled speed through its maximum range of motion. You reach this point when you place a mild – but not painful – stretch on the muscles. On each subsequent repetition, you should attempt to go a little bit farther, while again avoiding pain and overstretching.
8. Not performing an appropriate amount of stretching exercise. A certain degree of subjectivity exists concerning what constitutes too much or too little stretching exercise. As a rule, it is recommended that you perform stretching exercises for each of the major areas of your body. ACSM recommends that individuals perform static stretches with each stretch being held for approximately 10 to 30 seconds each. Generally, static stretches are preferred because the risk of injury is low, and they require minimal time and little assistance.
9. Not stretching often enough. At a minimum, most fitness experts recommend that stretching exercises should be performed four to five times per week, and preferably daily. As a rule, because most flexibility gains are (far too) easily lost, the basic rule of thumb is that you should stretch often.
10. Not understanding that being flexible is not synonymous with being in good shape. Flexibility is just one of the essential components of physical fitness. As such, you should combine aerobic exercise, strengthening exercises, and adherence to sound nutritional practices with your stretching exercises in order to “attain and sustain” a desirable level of fitness.
Why shakeology?Just look at the results BeachBody got from an internal 90-day research study where they replaced one meal per day with Shakeology:By the end of WEEK ONE
Improved digestion and regularity
Reduced cravings
By the end of WEEK FOUR
Increased energy and stamina
Lost weight
Improved mental clarity
By the end of WEEK TWELVE
Lost 10 pounds and 2 inches off waist on average
Reduced risk for heart disease and other degenerative diseases
Lowered cholesterol on average by 30% and even up to 70%
Healthier skin, hair and nails
I truly believe in this product! I recommend giving this product a try and with the Beach Body Bottom-of-the-Bag guarantee if you are not totally satisfied in the first 30 day you can return it for a full refund (less s&h). If you are interested in trying a sample please either message me on teambeachbody.com or send me an email at gshort@shortfam.com
Beach Body Coaching Team!!!
Someone asked me why did you become a BechBody Coach? I didn’t hesitate to tell them the reasons why. It is the feel that you get when helping others. The best way I can explain it is when you do a service project for the needy you get that great feeling. But after the service project you may ask about the people that you helped but in most cases that is the only time you have contact with them, where as when you become a BeachBody you help people though their program for 30, 60, 90 and beyond.
Have you ever thought about the people around you that you could help by sharing a BeachBody product?
Who else is looking to spread the word of health and ready to “END THE TREND”?
October 2, 2011 | Author: fernando | Posted in Fitness
Many of us do not consider the importance of exercise safety when we embark on a workout regime. We are usually more concerned with burning calories and shedding those unwanted pounds, but being safety conscious should be a priority if we want to achieve the best benefits from our workouts.We must consider two important exercise safety categories: strains and other injuries that can occur from the exercises themselves, and external dangers which can jeopardize our safety during exercise. Below we will point out some of the most common dangers from both categories, and suggest tips to help avoid them.Exercise Safety Tip #1 – Proceed with caution.When we begin a workout regime, it is important to gradually work our way up to higher levels of intensity. There are numerous common injuries sustained by over doing things too soon. These include injuries such as torn ligaments, back damage, strained muscles, sprained wrists, ankles, shoulders and knees so we should take a more cautious approach and take things easy when we are first starting our exercise programme.Exercise Safety Tip #2 – Awareness of surroundings.Whether we are exercising in our own home or outdoors, it is vital that we are aware of our surroundings. Whether we want to avoid banging ourselves against furniture or being hit by a vehicle, awareness and prevention can help to keep us free from injury and ensure our safety.Exercise Safety Tip #3 – Use equipment correctly.Many exercise injuries can be attributed to the use of unsafe equipment, or improper use of exercise equipment. Whether we are lifting weights, riding a bicycle or using a rowing machine, we should make sure we use the equipment available is intended for this activity, and make sure that we are using it as the instructions intend it to be used. For example, we should not try to use a bicycle that is intended for street use as a mountain bike, or a couple of bricks and a piece of wood as a step.Exercise Safety Tip #4 – Dress appropriately.Different forms of exercise will require different types of clothing and footwear. We should look into which type of footwear are the best for walking, running, aerobics and other sports such as tennis and dance. We should also consider different types of fabrics and find out which ones will allow our skin to breathe and keep us cool and dry during workouts. If we are exercising outdoors in the early morning or evening when the lighting is poor, we should wear reflective clothing and footwear to make sure we are seen.Exercise Safety Tip #5 – Keep well hydrated.
We normally sweat during a workout, which means fluid loss, which can lead to dehydration unless we are drinking adequate water before, during and after our workout. We should keep a bottle of water close at hand so that we can drink plenty of water during our workout. Ideally we should drink 8-10 8oz glasses of water daily, plus an additional glass or two during a 30 minute workout session. We can safely drink more than this, particularly in high temperatures or if we are especially thirsty.It is really only common sense to follow a safe exercise regime. We should try to not be careless, and try to think ahead to avoid any possible dangers. If we think and plan ahead we can avoid the common injuries associated with exercise and fitness.Original Article: http://www.cyberread.com/exercise-safely-daily-workouts/Why shakeology?Just look at the results BeachBody got from an internal 90-day research study where they replaced one meal per day with Shakeology:By the end of WEEK ONE
Improved digestion and regularity
Reduced cravings
By the end of WEEK FOUR
Increased energy and stamina
Lost weight
Improved mental clarity
By the end of WEEK TWELVE
Lost 10 pounds and 2 inches off waist on average
Reduced risk for heart disease and other degenerative diseases
Lowered cholesterol on average by 30% and even up to 70%
Healthier skin, hair and nails
I truly believe in this product! I recommend giving this product a try and with the Beach Body Bottom-of-the-Bag guarantee if you are not totally satisfied in the first 30 day you can return it for a full refund (less s&h). If you are interested in trying a sample please either message me on teambeachbody.com or send me an email at gshort@shortfam.com
Beach Body Coaching Team!!!
Take a moment and congradulate Bill Nichols as he will finish his second round of P90X and has decided to help “End the Trend”. He has signed up to be a BeachBody coach!! He will continue to spread the word of health and well being!
Who else is looking to spread the word of health and ready to “END THE TREND”?
Yes, we’ve all been told to “sit up straight”–or suffer the consequences of poor posture. But that’s just not a particularly scary warning. So let us explain it in a way that’s a little more specific: a bent spine might mean saggy breasts.
Did that get your attention?
Here’s how it works: When you slouch forward all the time–like you probably do while working on your computer or driving your car–your chest muscles actually stiffen, which pulls your shoulders forward into a permanent slump. The result: A look that’s unbecoming to your bosom. Worse, hunching forward also puts more stress on your upper spine, which leads to neck, back, and shoulder pain. Did your neck start hurting one day and never stop? It’s probably the result of poor posture.
But bad posture doesn’t just mean slumped shoulders. When you sit constantly–as most of us do–the muscles on the fronts of your hips become short and tight. What’s more, your glutes–or butt muscles–actually forget how to contract. (After all, with so much chair time, they’re not being used for much of anything except padding for your hip bones.) Now, the combination of tight muscles on the front of your hips and weak muscles on your backside causes your pelvis to tilt forward. This pushes your lower abdomen outward, making your belly pooch out–even if you don’t have an ounce of fat.
Worse yet, high heels complete the ugly picture. Your high-fashion shoes not only contribute to your pooch, but again, leave you less perky up top as well, according to Rachel Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., author of The Female-Body Breakthrough. That’s because heels make your ankle muscles tight. This leads to tighter muscles all the way up your legs to your lower back. (Think of the old song: “The ankle bone is connected to the knee bone . . .” It’s the same way with your muscles.) And a tight lower back causes you to compensate by hunching forward even more, says Rachel. So your sag worsens. Not a pretty sight.
The bottom line: Your body is a chain of inter-related muscles from head to toe. If you have a problem in one area, it’s going to cause problems in another. But you can use this simple three-step guide to slouch proof your posture. Start today–and you’ll begin to look better instantly.
1. Always sit as tall as you can. Sure, it sounds obvious, but remind yourself every few minutes, whether you’re at your desk or in your car. You’ll be surprised at how much you tend to slump when you’re not thinking about it. Then use these simple cues to set yourself straight.
*Pull your shoulders down and back. Simply imagine that you’re trying to create as much space between your ears and shoulders as you can, and try to hold that position.
*Pretend there’s a string attached from your chest to the ceiling, pulling your chest up at all times.
*Brace your abs–as if you were about to be punched in your gut–but breathe normally. It’ll seem hard at first, but keep practicing, and it’ll become second nature. A bonus: It’ll also help fight lower back pain.
RELATED: 5 Pain Relieving Yoga Poses
2. Do an exercise called the hip raise daily. This strengthen your glutes and teaches them how to contract again–which helps allow your pelvis to move back in its natural alignment. Here’s how to do it: Lie on your back on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Place your arms out to your sides. That’s the starting position. Now squeeze your glutes and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from you shoulders to your knees. Pause for five seconds, than lower body back to the starting position. Do two to three sets of 12 repetitions every day.
3. Stretch your chest. This helps loosen your chest muscles, which become short and tighten when you slump. Try a simple doorway stretch: Place your arm against a door frame in the high-five position–your palm facing forward and your elbow bent 90 degrees. Now step through the doorway until you feel the stretch in your chest and the front of your shoulder. Hold for 30 seconds, then repeat with your other arm. That’s one set; do a total of 4 daily.
Everybody knows that working out often belongs to the things you must do if you want to lose weight. It does not matter what other folks might explain; you are unable to lose weight just by sitting around. What most people don’t realize however is that exercising can definitely be a pain. You are most likely geared up for muscle cramps and aches in your back and in your joints, but are you prepared for exercise induced headaches? Unfortunately a lot of individuals suffer from exercise triggered headaches but, thankfully, there is plenty you can to do treat and prevent them. Here is the way to do that.
Drink lots of water–you likely already understand that this is important to do regularly but it starts to get even more important when you exercise. Headaches will often be brought on by dehydration and dehydration can happen after a workout that has been successful and sweaty (sweat drains the body of fluid). Drinking fine volumes of water before your training session routines, during your work out and after you have finished working out can do quite a bit to help you keep the headaches at bay. This is typically usually all you will need to do to heal any headaches that turn up a while after your workouts too.
Proper warm ups along with cool downs are extremely essential. Just jumping right into a vigorous workout can cause headaches because the blood will start rushing in the direction of the parts of your body that are doing the work and away from your head and brain. Your brain needs time to adjust to the changes and a complete warm up and cool down lets your body to make those changes gradually.
Practice suitable breathing techniques while in your workouts and weight liftings. Our brains require oxygen to survive and operate properly. Most of us instinctively hold our breath whenever we are executing something difficult but that just reduces the oxygen that is available for your brain. By exercising good breathing you keep the brain supplied with a good amount of oxygen and will ward off headaches.
If you see that you are experiencing headaches frequently and nothing that you are trying is reducing them or helping you keep them away, it is time to talk to your doctor. If your workouts or diet plan are causing your regular headaches then your physician will be able to help you figure this out. It is possible that you need medication to keep the headaches at bay. Your doctor should be able to make it easier to figure out how to both cure your headaches and go on working out and your diet.
None of us really wants to experience a headache; we do almost everything we can to keep them at a distance. The best part is that you don’t have to merely suffer through them. With the proper preparing and know-how, it is possible to avoid exercise induced headaches completely!
Is Shakeology worth it?
Is Shakeology good for you?
Hopefully, by the time you’re finished reading this post, you’ll have a better idea of whether or not this best-selling meal replacement product is right for you.
Shakeology Review – The Basics
Shakeology is much more than just a protein shake. It’s also in a completely different league than your standard, everyday “meal replacement shake”.
In a nutshell, Shakeology is a complete (and super healthy) meal in a glass. Each shake is packed with 70 whole food ingredients that deliver the essential nutrients that the body craves and is often deprived of due to today’s typical unhealthy American diet.
Most Americans eat a steady stream of processed foods that are high in fat and sugar, and the challenge of eating a healthy diet is more difficult than ever. Shakeology offers a solution to that problem, one that is both convenient and affordable.
Is Shakeology a Scam?
Let’s be honest. The health and nutrition supplement industry isn’t always trusted or well-respected, and with very good reason. Many of the nutrition supplements being peddled today make huge claims and do very little (if anything) when it comes to providing real benefits to the customer.
With this in mind, it’s no wonder why some people are still skeptical about a possible Shakeology scam.
Fortunately, Beachbody is a company that takes great pride in their reputation and only produces the very best when it comes to health and fitness products. Great care was taken when formulating and sourcing the ingredients contained in Shakeology, and the end result is a product that truly deserves the growing popularity it’s enjoying.
The bottom line is Shakeology isn’t a scam, ripoff, or hoax. It’s a legitimate meal replacement product that delivers essential nutrition in a great-tasting, convenient, and affordable way.
Shakeology Benefits
Shakeology users have reported a wide range of health benefits, ranging from increased energy to lower cholesterol. In addition to providing all of these great benefits, it’s also great to know that Shakeology is certified low glycemic with a 24 GI (glycemic index) rating. A 24 GI rating is extremely low (which is a very good thing), and yet another confirmation of just how healthy this product really is.
In case you’re not familiar with GI ratings and the topic of blood sugar, foods that have high glycemic index ratings cause the body to produce higher levels of insulin which will provide a sugar rush, followed by a crash. Eating a diet that is primarily made up of low-GI foods is a great way to stabilize blood sugar and insulin levels.
Here are some more Shakeology benefits that have been reported by customers:
Weight loss
Improved digestion
Better bowel regularity
Increased energy
Lower cholesterol
Looking for motivation?
Come join our team thread for some support and answers. If you don’t have a teambeachbody.com account join team it free!! Click here for TEAM SIGN UP!!!
Already have an account come join the team thread here: Team Thread
So all those looking for support please
come to our TEAM Thread!!! Most of the team is doing P90X but
there are people who are moving on to Insanity, Hip Hop Abs, and Turbo
Fire!!! So come get the support that you deserve!!!
Many of you have heard that I have three keys to a successful workout. This is for any workout whether it is P90X, Insanity, or walking around the block every night after dinner. First is the exercise, this is the easiest of the three (even if it is P90X or Insanity). Next is nutrition, this is hard but a lot of this is education. The third and in my opinion the hardest of all three is motivation! Without motivation you won’t eat right and you won’t workout. In this weeks article by Andrew Lock (www.helpmybusiness.com) he discusses famous people who failed before they became the success that we all know.
Don’t give up!
OFTEN LIFE DOESN’T go in the direction we want it to. Does that mean our lives are doomed and we can’t achieve the success we dream of? Let’s be realistic: Everybody fails. Consider the following.
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Disney went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim, California, on the grounds that it would on attract “riffraff.”
Thomas Edison‘s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “nonproductive.” As an inventor, Edison made more than 1,000 unsuccessful attempts to invent the light bulb. When a reporter asked him how it felt to fail 1,000 times, Edison said that he didn’t fail all those times, but that the light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.
Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4 years old and did not read until he was 7. His parents thought he was “subnormal,” and one of his teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in foolish dreams.”He was expelled from school.
Every cartoon that Charles schulz, creator of the comic strip Peanuts, submitted to the yearbook staff at his high school rejected.
After Fred Astaire‘s first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, read, “Can’t act. Can’t sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.” Astaire kept that memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home.
Decca Records turned down a recording contract with The Beatles with this fascinating evaluation: “We don’t like their sound. Guitar groups are on their way out.”
A friend of mine in the music industry personally auditioned a singer by the name of Reg Dwight in the 1960s. He unceremoniously shoved the singer out of his office for wasting his time. That singer is now better known as Elton John.
Imagine if these individuals had given up, believing they were doomed to failure and would never achieve success. Do you think they ever felt down and depressed? Sure. But they didn’t allow a gloomy state to overtake them, to overpower their desire to succeed. in every case they did succeed – in a huge way, far greater than their wildest dreams.
Bad experiences can be viewed as positive in hindsight. They can be stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks. It’s your choice. But be determined to never give up.
I truly believe in this product! I recommend giving this product a try and with the Beach Body Bottom-of-the-Bag guarantee if you are not totally satisfied in the first 30 day you can return it for a full refund (less s&h). If you are interested in trying a sample please either message me on teambeachbody.com or send me an email at gshort@shortfam.com
Beach Body Coaching Team!!!
“End the TREND” is just a saying, it a way of being.
In this video they talk about foods that we are feeding our kids which are causing issues that we relate to adulthood.
What is holding you back?!? Help pick up the fight!!!
Take a look at Craig S. and his success story as a BeachBody Coach:
What are some of the benefits of being a coach?
Help other discover the Beach Body products and
programs
Discounts on all Beach Body products and programs
Opportunity to supplement you income while working out and sharing your experiences with Beach Body.
Now is the time to join. For more information please message me on
teambeachbody.com or email me at gshort@shortfam.com
BeachBody Help around the world
For billions of people, clean drinking water is a matter of life or death. Together, BeachBody and RainCatcher are changing this. By providing purifying filters to African villages, watch how we’re creating a healthier world!
These two children are going through a lot of physical complications in their journey of life and as such are making quite a bit of runs to hospitals and specialists to find out more specifically what is going on in their bodies.
Faith was born with hypotonia, which is loose ligaments, making her too flexible and hip dysplasia which means her hips are not fully developed making her asymmetrical.
Robert was also born with hip dysplasia, yet not as severe as Faith’s, and he has two holes in his heart making his heart pump more to keep up the oxygen required to maintain his body’s functions.
Both children are smaller than average (which makes them much cuter!) and their airways are also smaller making it more of a task to work on them; as well as their ear canals, among other things.
To help cover the cost of medical expenses that occur a yard/bake sale is being held to help them live a “normal” life. Insurance will only cover so much and the rest has been up to the family and those around them.
So please come out to help support the Nielsen’s this Saturday August 27, 2011 starting @ 7 A.M. Located at 586 N. 100 E. Lehi. The yard sale will be huge and include Furniture, electronics, clothes, books, toys.
Delux (His teambeachbody.com username) started april 2009 at a weight of 350+ pounds!! All his push-ups were done from his knees, Plyo X was his worst enemy, and pull-ups where an impossilbe dream in fact he could even hang from a pull-up bar. After 5 rounds of P90X while enjoying other activites like golf, jogging, hiking, biking or snowboarding he took his pictures on July 17th 2011 and just look at the results!!!
He is now at 220 lbs does all his pushups from his feet and not his knees, Plyo X the mother of all X workouts is easy and he can do 8 pullups without a break!!!
Delux says “I’m happy to say that ordering p90x was one of the best decisions i’ve ever made because (heres comes the cliche) it literally has changed my life. my goals now are to finish losing the last of my fat and being a lean mean healthy machine… i cant wait to say goodbye to the old me forever!”
And is he done? Heck no he is going on to his new goal of 10% bodyfat!!!
So what is your excuse? Delux could have made those excuses but he got the disks and pushed play!!!
Faith and Robert Nielsen
![](<img class="aligncenter" title="TBB_blue" src="http://www.coachgshort.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/TBB_blue-300x34.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="34" />” target=”_blank”>TEAM THREAD</a></p>
<p>Through a new program with BeachBody I am going to be starting a smaller group of 5 people that I am going to work with on a more individual and personal level. We will create a facebook page and work through your program together. Watch this video about the Beachbody Challenge!!</p>
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