Fitness4Her

Women's Fitness

Seeing the Truth About Eye Care

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It’s what allows you to appreciate a golden sunset sitting poolside on a warm summer’s day. It captures your children as they take their first hesitant steps on their own. And it let’s you see the world around you in all its perfect splendor. Your eyesight does so much for you, and yet most people don’t think twice about their eyes or how to keep them healthy.

The truth of the matter is though that there are 37 million people worldwide that suffer from blindness, and about two-thirds of them are women. Women tend to have a genetic predisposition to developing eye conditions and often ignore the warning signs because we often put the health of our families in front of our own. However, more than three-fourths of the eye conditions that we suffer from can be easily prevented with regular eye exams and a healthy lifestyle.

So what exactly can you do to keep your eyes healthy and able to see the things around you clearly? For starters, if you’re a smoker, quit the habit immediately. You probably already know the negative affects that smoking can have on your body when it comes to lung cancer and heart disease. What you probably don’t know is that in addition to these devastating diseases, smoking has also been directly linked to cataracts and age-related macular degeneration or AMD, a disease that will eventually cause you to lose your sight completely.

Another lifestyle change you can work on is keeping yourself and your family at a healthy weight. That’s right. Being overweight has been known to cause Type 2 Diabetes, which can have a huge impact on your eyesight and can lead to cataracts and diabetic retinopathy, which is when damage occurs to the retina. Symptoms can include blurred vision, floaters, and even blindness.

In addition to seeing an eye doctor on a regular basis, there are several warning signs of eye conditions that you should be aware of. These include the following:

• A decrease in your vision, such as issues reading or watching TV, or trouble seeing to the side.
• Floaters in your vision or flashes of light
• Eye pain of any kind including persistent pain or pain when touched
• Redness or drainage of the eye
• Double vision
• Seeing halos around lights

Any of these symptoms are clear warning signs that something is not right with your eyes, and you should schedule an appointment with your eye care professional immediately.

With just a few simple changes in your lifestyle and an added awareness to the issues that can affect your eyes, preventing eye conditions before they can become a serious problem should be a much easier task for you and your family.

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Roasted Vegetables

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Great accompaniment to the Roasted Chicken main dish. Roasted veggies are a great alternative to fried foods but still have that same great taste.

1 large onion, sliced or cubed
2 large baking potatoes, cubed
1 pkg. baby carrots, peeled and trimmed
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper for flavor
Red or green peppers (optional)

Directions
1. Rub veggies with olive oil.
2. Salt and pepper minimally for taste.
3. Place vegetables in a roasting pan, you may need to spray it lightly with PAM.
4. Roast in preheated 350 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes.
5. Test for doneness by pricking potatoes with fork, if it goes in easily, veggies should be ready.
6. Serve with roasted chicken, steak or pork chops.

Health Benefits
Nutrient dense, meaning you get a packed house of nutrients for the amount of calories that carrots, red peppers and potatoes have. The great thing about a potato is that it has both soluble and insoluble fiber. It helps to lower cholesterol and aid digestion. Eating foods like these are a great way to ensure women’s fitness and health.

See how vegetables can be so tasty?  Give us your opinion of this recipe in the comment space below:

Are You Suffering From Diet Information Overload?

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Do you ever feel like no matter where you go, no matter what you see, there seem to be constant messages about dieting and losing weight? You may even feel like you are suffering from so much information that your brain just doesn’t want to even think about dieting, the effects of dieting or how to diet wisely.

Sure, there’s a plethora of information available on diet, some good…some bad. But there’s always lots of information out there about subjects that interest a large number of people and dieting happens to be one of those subjects.

It could be, the reason that you notice all of this abounding information pertaining to diet is because you too have a specific interest in dieting. Once the desire to lose weight overcomes you, you begin to search out ways to begin dieting, seek out tips to make it easier to stay focused and pay special attention to success stories of others who have lost weight.

When the diet bug bites, you naturally hunger for all the fortitude you can muster to keep you committed to your goal. That’s where diet information is most helpful. The only problem is that sometimes what you read conflicts with other information that you’ve heard. It’s often hard to know what to believe.

The best way to help you decipher the good info from the bad advice is to use a little common sense. If it sounds too crazy, then it probably is. If something claims instant weight loss, beware. You should focus on healthy eating choices that you can live with for the rest of your life. Dieting is not about a quick fix.

If the diet information is too strict for you to follow, then it may not be the plan for you at this time. Perhaps you need to modify it. Cutting out one thing at a time may work better for you that eliminating a whole list of food at one time. No one know you better than yourself, so you must measure the advice against what you know will work best for you.

Along with dieting, exercise is one of the best ways to help you lose weight. Exercise and regular movement are necessary for a healthy lifestyle and aids in your overall weight loss plan. Aerobic exercise helps to burn calories and strength-training exercises build muscle. Remember: the more muscle you have the more calories you can burn—and that tip is true!

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Remarkable Red Snapper Oriental

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I serve my family fish a couple of times a week, so I’m always searching for healthy and delicious ways to serve it. This variation calls for soy sauce and orange juice which gives the dish a remarkable oriental flavor. Makes 4 servings.

1 lb red snapper
2 tsp low sodium soy sauce
1 Tbsp of frozen orange juice concentrate
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp sesame oil or olive oil
1 Tbsp dried ginger
Pepper to taste
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
Chopped parsley for garnish

Directions
1. Arrange fish in lightly sprayed baking dish.
2. Combine all ingredients in small bowl.
3. Drizzle mixture over fish.
4. Let marinate for 30 minutes in refrigerator.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Place fish in oven and bake for 30 minutes until golden and flaky.
7. Serve over rice and mixed veggies.

Health Benefits
An excellent source of protein, yet low in fat, cholesterol, sodium and sugar. The only fats this fish contains are omega 3 fatty acids, that actually provide benefits for your heart. If you are concerned about women’s fitness, you need to be concerned about your heart. Choose heart healthy recipes that like this one, are low in fat and salt.

Do you have a favorite seafood recipe you’d like to share?  Do so in the comment space below:

Spinning For A Healthy Body And Mind

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World-class cyclist “Jonny G” created the aerobic activity referred to as Spinning. Goldberg as a convenient and quick way to train for races. In 1989, he and John Baudhuin opened the first spinning center in Santa Monica, California and then developed a program to certify other spinning instructors.

Spinning is an aerobic exercise that takes place on a specially designed stationary bicycle called a spinning bike. Performed as a class, you pedal while motivating music plays and the instructor talks you through a visualization of an outdoor cycling workout. “You’re going up a long hill now, you can’t see the top yet…” During the class you adjust your pace. Emulating hill climbing and traveling down hill, you are sometimes pedaling as fast as you can, other times cranking up the tension and pedaling slowly from a standing position. This exercise helps you to focus inward and to work on your mind and your body.

Spinning burns a great many calories. Usually about 450 calories are burned in 45 minutes, plus spinning offers an awesome aerobic workout that gets your heart pumping fast. It also tones your quadriceps (front thigh muscles) and outer thigh muscles. Spinning doesn’t involve a lot of coordination making it easier to concentrate on your form than in other types of aerobic classes. Even though you follow the instructions from the spinning teacher, you are in control when it comes to your pace. You can finish a spin class, regardless of your fitness level, simply by adjusting your pace or the tension knob on the bike.

Your confidence will soar as you complete class after class. As I said this exercise works on the mind as well as the body. It’s a great way to keep your workout fun and exciting, you never know what is going to happen in the class, uphill, downhill, fast or slow, it will keep you in shape for all the absolutely wonderful things in life that are out there to enjoy.

How long have you been spinning?  Share your feedback in the comment space below: