Thursday's eating tip

Today I want to talk about almonds.

Almonds are a tasty treat full of protein and dietary fiber as well as several other vitamins.  Eating nuts such as almonds can help lower cholesterol.  Almonds may help with your complexion or even help prevent cancer.  Almonds can be eaten by the handful or added to a a trail mix.  Almond milk is a great way to get the benefits of almonds in a tasty drink.  Almond milk only has around 60 calories!! I like to make smoothies from it, using almond milk, honey and strawberries or bananas.  It is much healthier than other smoothies and has less than 200 calories!!

P90X Review

A really good work out I like and several others enjoy is beach bodies P90X.  I wanted to use this blog to talk about each P90X work out!

Get P90X from Amazon.com

Chest and Back: Chest and back is hard, it's full of push up and pull ups.  It is a full focus on the chest muscles and the back muscles.

Plyo: Plyo is a super cardio work-out all about jump training.

Shoulders and Arms: This is my favorite lifting work out, it works the three main arm muscles, biceps, triceps, and shoulders.

Yoga X: This is an hour and a half workout, it's extremely difficult.  It is much harder than any yoga workout I have done at the gym.

Legs and Back:  This is a tough leg workout, its includes squats, and lots of lunges.  It gives your legs a break as you work your back with push-ups.

Kenpo X:  This work-out is another favorite work-out of mine.  It is a great cardio work-out that includes several kicks, blocks, and punches.  It is a great core work out!

X-Stretch: I add this as a supplemental work-out, it is very much like a basic yoga or hatha yoga.  It gives practically every muscle in your body a good stretch!


Core Synergistic: This is a tough workout that integrates some cardio with shoulder, chest, abs, oblique, glutes, thighs, hip flexors, and hamstrings.

Chest, Shoulders, Triceps: Like the shoulders and arm work-out this is a basic weight lifting work-out.  It just mixes in push ups, along with shoulder and triceps moves.  It is tough.

Back and Biceps: Another weight-lifting workout, with pull ups and bicep moves.  Very focus on biceps.

Cardio X: This is a fairly simple workout.  It is one of the shortest and it takes the cardio out of core, kempo, and plyo, with a yoga warm-up.  This one is enjoyable because it really gives you a mix up and taste of a few different work-outs.

Ab Ripper X: This is the shortest work-out of them all but don't let it fool you.  Fifteen minutes of hard ab work that will leave your abs hurting for days.

Wednesday's eating tip

Fast Food:


Fast food is good and bad, but mostly bad!!! It does not digest as quickly because it is full of bad chemicals and preservatives, it is full of sodium, and BAD BAD fats, and it is full of un natural and bad sugars that our body can not process. I want to share some information with you on what exactly fast food is, and also, if you are on the go, and if you must eat fast food, what should you chose!

Bad choices:
Grilled Cheese Burger Melt ---1500 calories
White Castle Large Shake - 1680 calories
DQ Large Chocolate Malt---1300 calories
DQ 6 piece chicken strip basket----1270 calories
White Castle Chicken Rings 20 piece---1130 calories
Jack in the Box Bacon Ultimate Cheese Burger----1090 calories
Hardee's six dollar burger----1060 calories
Sonic Peanut Butter Shake Large- 1010 calories
Arby's Pecan Sticky Bun 4-pack----2751 calories
Sonic Bacon Cheeseburger----780 calories
KFC Chicken and Biscit Bowl----870 calories
Subway Pepperoni and Meatball 6 inch---600 calories


Better choices:
Mcdonalds Fruit and Yogurt Parfait---160 calories
Taco Bell Fresco Soft Steak Taco---150 calories
Taco Bell Fresco Chicken Soft Taco-----150 calories
Taco Bell side black beans----80 calories
Taco Bell Mexican rice----120 calories
Taco Bell chicken soft taco----170 calories
Taco Bell volcano taco----230 calories
Taco Bell Cinnemon twists- 170 calories
Taco Bell bean burrito---370 calories
Subway 6inch black forest ham no cheese---290 calories
Subway 6inch oven roasted chicken breast on whole wheat----310 calories
Subway 6inch turkey breast no cheese--- 280 calories
Subway 6inch veggie delite no cheese---230 calories



Websites for nutrition facts
http://www.tacobell.com/nutrition/information/
http://www.subway.com/nutrition/nutritionlist.aspx

How to get rid of leg cramps

This one was asked as a request for me to write,  I've never had a real issue with leg cramps so I did a little research on this one.  One thing I found that I have heard works before is potassium.  I've been told before that eating a banana will help with leg cramps.  I have never myself had any kind of cramps but I have heard that any kind of body cramps come from dehydration.  So when you're working out or doing yoga or stretching it's extremely important to drink lots of water.  Not just to keep hydrated but to prevent cramps.  I think i might have heard about staying hydrated from my track coach.  If you have cramps at night drink a lot of water or Gatorade to hydrate your body.  If you didn't know alcohol and caffeine will dehydrate the body so try avoiding these drinks if you suffer from cramps.  One remedy I use for muscle aches, which I am sure will work well with leg cramps is stretching, heating and iceing.  As a runner and athlete, I constantly have muscle pain somewhere on my body.  Stretching is absolutely necessary daily for me.  A simple 2-5 minute stretch will normally do the trick, but yoga or a long stretch routine can really help take kinks out of any sore muscle.  Stretching will also lengthen and loosen muscles so they are not so tight.  Heat works like stretching, heating the muscles up and losing them.  Sitting in a hot tub or hot bath, or even taking a hot shower sometimes really can help.  Ice calms the nerves and helps numb pain.  From the research I did it really seems like the best thing to take internally is zinc, calcium and potassium.  Like I said before, bananas are helpful, a lot of juices and as before Gatorade has some of these minerals in them.

So I can't tell you exactly what to do, but from my common knowledge as well as some research this is what I seemed to have find. Please be sure to comment if you know of anything else!!

Holistic Nutrition

I've had people ask me what are cures for this and that, and what can I do all naturally.  So I thought I'd put a few things together that come from all natural foods, supplements, etc...stuff from the earth that can heal you.  I have taken and tried several of these!!

Coconut Oil and Brown sugar or regular sugar:  Great for stretch marks, wrinkles, and evening skin...OK ladies, no need to spend tons of money on expensive treatments and products.  A container of Coconut is about 10-12 dollars and Brown sugar is like what 3 dollars?  Mix it together and put it in a container, after soaping up in the shower, shaving etc, use this mix everywhere, really massage well especially areas with scars, stretch marks, wrinkles, dry skin.  You can also really rub plain coconut oil into skin as well.  I wouldn't recommend putting it directly on your face because it is very oily unless you plan to wash it off.  My skin glows like never before, my wrinkles soften and my stretch marks have faded and I've only been using it maybe two weeks.  I have been using cocoa butter and lotions for months now and coconut oil is best thing I have tried so far!!!  It is very important though to use something to exfoliate while using coconut oil to get the oil deep into your skin.  I use brown sugar, but regular sugar works as well, or you could probably use some kind of body scrubber.

Apple Cider Vinegar:  It's nasty and I've tried it before.  I'm not exactly sure if it worked for me, but I know it has SEVERAL health cures.  From weigh loss to acne.  Like I said I am not a pro on this one, it is really strong, you have to mix it with water in order to drink it.  You can also make salad dressings with it as well, would probably hide the taste.  I would ask around or google Apple Cider Vinegar, but I know it's one of those cure all.

Cayenne Pepper- I LOVE this one, I add it to stir fry's marinades, fajitas, BBQ!!  It's the greatest and adds tons of heat to any meal.  Cayenne pepper is excellent for your digestive system.  I have read up that it can relieve a heart attack as well.  I have never seen proof, I just read it.


If anyone has anything else on this topic they are interested in be sure to leave a comment! I would be more than glad to write up something on health foods.  I believe that good eating leads to a healthier you!




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Zumba

I thought today I would give you some information on Zumba.  Zumba fitness is a fitness class that is all about international dancing while getting fit.  Zumba incorporates belly dancing, classic American Show tunes, reggeaton, salsa, cha cha, tango, cumbia, hip hop, pop and more.  It is very latin influenced but most of the instructors play some awesome modern tunes like Sexy and I Know It.  I would rate Zumba as an easy to moderate class.  It is more a cardio workout than anything.  There is lots of movement and dancing around..  Very rarely though will you actually feel sore.  More out of breath, and needing water.  It's a great cardio workout to add to your training schedule.  It is great for any level.  The dance moves aren't extremely challenging, some are faster but they are very repetitive so it's easy to catch on fast.  Most age levels could probably handle Zumba as well.  I take my Zumba at Gold's Gym, but check out this website to find a Zumba instructor near you.
http://www.zumba.com/

You can also get Zumba for your Wii system and Kinect system, check out this ad I found below!!! 







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Sunday's Eating tips

100% whole grain bread? White Bread? Wheat Bread? What should I chose?

Everyone has tried a low carb diet at least once, and you always hear cut the carbs, don't eat bread, don't eat this....Well the thing is carbs are good for you, especially if you are athletic.  White bread or enriched bread is full of carbohydrates that break down and send sugar into our bloodstream, raising our blood sugar levels...in turn helping cause diabetes as well as making us fat!

In turn the best bread you can eat is 100% whole grain bread it is full of fiber, not carbs that turn into sugar.  Whole grains also are full of vitamins and nutrients unlike white bread.  

Beware....read the ingredients label.  It is easy to grab a bag of bread that looks like wheat bread, but be 100% sure that the ingredients does not list enriched flour, it should say whole wheat.

All in all stay away from anything enriched or refined and stick to whole grains.  You can find whole grain pasta, and whole grain rice as well.  I eat lots of bread and I've lost lots of weight, so ignore people who tell you to stay away from bread...the key is STAY FAR FAR FAR away from white bread :)

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