Fitness4Her

Women's Fitness

Archives for May 2013

Belly Busting Benefits of Balsamic Vinegar

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Balsamic vinegar is a tasty topping that can help you to lose weight. That’s because vinegar with its acidic properties slows down the body’s ability to absorb sugar. To keep starchy foods from converting to sugar, eat foods like pasta or rice with balsamic vinegar. Not only will this provide belly-busting benefits, it will also make you feel fuller after eating these foods.

Pasta and other starches break down and convert to sugar in the body. When you toss in a little vinegar, you actually slow the process of breakdown and conversion, thereby keeping your tummy fuller longer, staving hunger from coming on too quickly.

When sugar levels drop too quickly, hunger sets in. When sugar levels are kept stabilized, you won’t feel the strong urges to satisfy your hunger with something sweet. The same solution to hunger comes from eating more often. I suggest eating five to six smaller meals each day rather than the traditional three large meals. This keeps sugar levels from dropping off too sharply, which tends to make women hungrier between meals.

Balsamic Vinegar is made from pressed grapes and has a tart, yet sweet flavor. It contains Omega 3 fatty acids that protect against heart disease. It’s interesting to note that a study done at Harvard University found that women who consumed one to two tablespoons of vinegar a day cut their risk for heart disease in half.

To add some zing to your rice or pasta, try adding a couple of tablespoons of vinegar for best results. A great alternative to sauces or gravies, balsamic vinegar is low in calories and saturated fat. It’s also great on vegetables, tomatoes or low fat cheeses.

Balsamic vinegar can liven up a pasta salad and has an aromatic smell that enhances the appetite. I like the corkscrew pasta with carrots, bell peppers and green onions, chopped finely and then tossed with two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Be creative and find ways to add balsamic vinegar to your foods daily. Your heart and your waistline will benefit from this healthy way of eating.

Long Lean and Alive – The Benefits Of Staying Fit

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What is so great about women’s fitness and why is it so important to stay fit? Not only will maintaining fitness keep your weight down and give you a long, lean body, it also plays a major part in keeping your body healthy and alive. It has been proven time and again that regular exercise, a sensible and nutrient rich diet and an active lifestyle are important factors in keeping your body working to its maximum potential.

Simple tasks such as bending to pick up a child or reaching for a book on a shelf can be potentially harmful and can result in injury when our fitness is compromised. Delicate muscles, especially those in the back and neck can be injured easily when they are not exercised and strengthened regularly. Once injured, it takes a muscle even longer to reach a healthy fitness level. That’s just one of the many benefits of staying fit through a women’s fitness program.

Staying alive is probably one of the most vital benefits of maintaining your fitness. While nothing guarantees our longevity, it has been proven that a fit and active lifestyle does make a big contribution towards it. Your heart is strengthened through cardiovascular exercise and these exercises also burn calories to help you lose weight. Building your cardiovascular strength means it will be much easier to complete every day tasks without fatigue as well as those unusual times when you may need extra strength to accomplish a new challenge. For instance, if you have to chase down a taxi, it will be much easier if your heart and legs are accustomed to running short sprints.

Keeping your body in shape with resistance exercises will probably mean less chance of injury when you perform a task that your body isn’t accustomed to. Staying agile through exercises such as yoga or Pilates, is also a great way to keep your body long and lean. Each exercise works various muscle groups, to lengthen and strengthen your muscles, organs and improve your health to make you healthier mentally, physically and spiritually.

Having a long, lean body is an achievement many women only dream about. The truth is, no matter what your body type or level of fitness, you can make improvements and increase your overall fitness ability. Set goals for yourself, write them down and make a solid plan to achieve them. Don’t allow anyone or anything to stand in the way of your women’s fitness program.

Motivational Moments In An Otherwise Crazy Schedule

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Most days I stay busy from sun up to sun down. It’s not that I like to have such a crazy schedule, but there are so many things I want and feel the need to do each day that it’s hard to take it easy. I confess, I do take a restful day usually on Sunday, to enjoy time with family and friends because I believe one day of rest is needed to recharge and refresh. All throughout my busy days however, I find motivational moments that inspire and encourage me along the way.

Motivational moments are those tiny gusts of motivation that hit you for a minute and if you aren’t quick enough to grasp them they are gone like tiny sands in the wind. These tidbits of motivation come from various sources. I may look out the window and spot a butterfly moving from flower to flower, or see one neighbor helping another. I may watch a football game and feel motivated from the team spirit or listen to a heartfelt story of someone’s struggles that emulate my own challenges.

These motivational moments are not unique to my world and my life. Each and every one of us is blessed by these occurrences every day. It is how we use these occurrences that determine whether or not we are taking advantage of the motivational moments in our lives.

Motivational moments or any type of motivation is the key to sticking with your diet and exercise program. As a women’s fitness trainer, I have seen so many women who start out motivated to lose weight and they stay that way for about the first 30 to 45 days. During that time, they are full of enthusiasm and usually proud of the weight they are losing. However, around the 7th week or close to the 45-day period, the weight loss hits a plateau and they become discouraged because they aren’t experiencing the same euphoric success they felt in the beginning. These women are literally starving for some motivation to keep them going and when they don’t find it, many give up and return to a sedentary lifestyle.

Although I try to head off these low points and offer lots of encouragement to the women I work with, I know how hard it is to stay motivated in the face of low to no results. Women start to feel as if they are exercising more than ever and eating less than ever but still not achieving the weight loss goal that they have set for themselves. The good news is that if you switch to a healthy diet and combine that with an active lifestyle, you will do much more than drop a dress size. Every part of your body will benefit from these healthy changes.

Your motivational moments can turn into a motivated and purposeful life. Once you harness the power of self-motivation, you can be a motivational guru to those around you. People looking for motivation will see the enthusiasm that you have for life and will want to achieve the confidence and improved self-esteem that is apparent in everything that you do.

Journaling – The Best Kept Secret For Staying In Shape

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When asked what my secret is for staying in shape, my response varies. I could answer that it is my diet or that I exercise 6 days a week or that I truly believe that a fit body is a healthy body. The truth is that journaling is the real secret behind my success.

Journaling is the act of keeping a journal. While there are all sorts of journals, like work journals, travel journals, or personal journals much like diaries, the journaling I am referring to is a fitness journal. Within the pages of a fitness journal, I record everything that I eat and everything that I drink. I record my physical activities such as my strength training sessions and my cardio workouts. I make notes of the level and intensity of each exercise and write down how much time I spend walking, running and playing.

There are many advantages to keeping a fitness journal. It gives me a starting point and helps me to visualize my goals. The very act of writing these acts in a book, make them more of a reality than if I just keep it all in my head. When I am ready to take my workout to the next level, I write these goals in my journal and then form a plan to make them happen. It’s not always easy, it’s not always convenient, but I truly believe that it helps me.

It has been proven time and again, that people who keep a journal of every thing they consume and all the activities they do to burn off calories have a far better chance of success in losing weight and getting in shape than those who do not. It’s such an easy and rewarding activity and it really does help to validate your fitness goals.

You can purchase a journal with pages that can be removed or added or you can just use a composition notebook. In this digital age, many women prefer using their phones or computer to record their food consumption and workouts. I prefer the old school method of actually taking pen to paper and writing. I enjoy writing and the act of journaling both soothes and energizes me in so many ways.

The wonderful thing about writing down your goals, is reading them later and reflecting on how much hard work, commitment and dedication it takes to achieve the goals that you set for yourself. Begin journaling today and you can turn your dreams into reality.

Overcoming The Urge To Binge

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When you are trying to diet and have decided to eat healthy foods, you might find it hard to resist the urge to binge. Binges affect women differently, but more importantly is how we deal with these urges to “pig out” that has the biggest effect on our lives. Binging has many disadvantages especially when it means eating foods that are unhealthy or gobbling up an overabundance of food.

Eating unhealthy foods can cause stomach disorders, weight gain, bloating or cause blood pressure or sugar levels to rise. Overeating can result in a distended stomach and done repeatedly will cause your belly to grow larger and stretch to accommodate these occurrences. Prolonged binge eating can cause many other physical ailments but the underlying emotional damage is sometimes even more dangerous.

When you overeat, you are eating out of control. Anytime we aren’t totally in control of our lives, we can become emotionally distraught or depressed. Looking for the reasons behind the need to binge will help you to overcome these symptoms but if you have been suffering from this ailment for a while, you might want to consult a medical professional.

Binging as a result of dieting is something different than binging to fill an emotional void. In this article, I am referring to the urge to binge on foods that you are trying to avoid. Many times when starting a new diet, we find ourselves overcome with cravings for the very foods we have sworn to abstain from. If this happens, it’s better to give in a little than overcome with the need to binge.

A great way to overcome the urge to binge is by eating 5 meals a day instead of just 3. If you just add 2 snacks a day, you can keep your body satisfied and vary the types of food that you eat. Maybe you love a milk shake but have decided that the saturated fat content and calories are just too much to allow in your diet. Try substituting with yogurt and fruit for a fruit smoothie. Make it a smaller portion and enjoy it between meals for a healthy snack. This alternative will satisfy your emotional and physical needs when you are craving a comfort food that is sweet and creamy.

Be creative with your meals and plan them ahead of time. The less uncertainty there is in your diet the less chance you will fall to cravings and urges to binge. Hang your day or week meal plan on the refrigerator along side of a picture of what you want to look like. Little steps like this will help to keep you inspired and help to make your diet a success.