Fitness4Her

Women's Fitness

Christmas Colored Salad

By

Red, green and white are the traditional colors of Christmas, but you won’t have to wait until December to enjoy this sumptuous salad. As vivid as a Christmas tree, this salad brings excitement at every presentation.

1 large red tomato
1 large yellow tomato
1 large green pepper
1 jar of black olives

Directions:

1. Cut up and mix together all ingredients.
2. Add a pinch of olive oil.
3. Garnish top with 2 tsp of fresh basil.
4. Drop curled ribbon on the table around the base of the bowl, to draw attention and entice your guests.

Health Benefits:
Low in saturated fat, low in cholesterol, low in sodium, low in sugar and low in calories, this salad is a great way to get a jump start on your daily fruits and veggie requirements. Full of heart healthy antioxidants and high in Vitamin C, it’s a good source of fiber.

Wet, Wild and Wonderful Water

By

Water is essential to good health. It helps to rid the body of toxins while delivering essential nutrients to our cells. It helps us to digest our food and keeps us hydrated.

Eight glasses of water per day is the goal. Not only will this help to flushes contaminates from your body water will also fill you up without adding calories. Drinking water with your meals is a great way to cut down on extra calories and will help you to lose weight quicker.

If you don’t like to drink water or find it boring and tasteless, unsweetened tea is of course a healthy substitute. A squeeze of lemon to your water or to your tea, will add flavor without additional calories, too. Lemon is an alkalizing food, and thus could help you avoid acid reflux.

It is important, especially when you exercise to keep your body well hydrated. Drinking water while exercising helps to regulate the body’s temperature through the sweat glands. As we sweat our body cools down. By keeping ourselves properly hydrated, we keep this vital process working at its best.

You can usually tell if you have been drinking enough water by the color of your urine. Unless you are taking vitamins that are high in iron, your urine should be lightly colored. Iron tends to make the urine darker. When you are properly hydrated, the water leaving your body in the way of urine should be almost clear.

Drinking enough water each day will improve the function of your kidneys, too. By aiding in digestion, and speeding up the way your body processes food, an ample amount of water will actually speed up the metabolism, making weight loss easier and longer lasting.

Water stimulates the circulation of blood and regulates your skin’s natural balance. It helps to revitalize, detoxify and oxygenate the skin. Drinking plenty of water will help replace the moisture that your face loses through free radicals and other forms of stress in our everyday lives.

Start a discussion by leaving a comment below:

How to Survive the Holidays Without Destroying Your Diet

By

We all know it’s coming. We can feel it in the air as summer fades and we head straight into fall. Soon the air will be thick with rich holiday smells wafting from the kitchen enticing us to gorge on sweets and goodies that we’ve denied ourselves all year.

It’s a fact that most people will gain their fair share of festive holiday weight during this time of year, but that doesn’t mean you have to set your diet aside completely. It also doesn’t mean that you have to deny yourself a little holiday treat now and then either. The problem most people have is they completely put their diet on hold for a couple of months to enjoy the holidays. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Here are some tips on surviving the upcoming holidays this year with your belt buckle still intact.

1. Don’t deny yourself. For most of us, there are a couple of days in the holiday months where we are presented with delicious food. It’s ok to eat what you want on these days as long as you limit yourself to just a few days! Just because you ate badly one day doesn’t mean you have to give up the next! If you allow yourself a few days to splurge on your diet, it’s not going to ruin your diet. Plus you’ll have something to look forward to that may help you say no to sweets before the big day.

2. Keep up the exercise. Exercising during the holiday months is crucial if you want to splurge on your diet. By keeping up your daily exercise routine, you can maintain your weight and stay trim through the pieces of pumpkin pie and ice cream.

3. Eat smaller portions. Yes, you can eat pie on Thanksgiving, but try just having a small slice instead of the jumbo one you really want. By eating smaller portions, you still get to have the food you want, but you’re not stuffing yourself silly with high calories foods.

4. Keep a healthy balance. OK, so you ate a large portion of cheesy mashed potatoes. Balance out that meal by eating a portion something healthy like steamed broccoli or spinach. If you’re the one cooking the meal, make sure there are an equal amount of healthy options for every indulgence you cook.

5. Consider why you are eating. Before you take that first bite of gingerbread cookie, consider why you are eating. During the holidays people tend to overeat because they are depressed or lonely. Make sure before you put that cookie in your mouth that you are doing it for the right reasons. If you think you may be depressed, a quick call to a close friend can help alleviate some of your depression.

Dieting during the holidays doesn’t have to be a lost cause. If you allow yourself some treats but still keep up with healthy eating and exercise, you’ll make it through the next few months without even one extra inch.

We value your input.  Start a discussion by commenting below:

Lose Weight By Eating More Often

By

The best way to lose weight is to eat every 21/2 to 3 hours. Eating frequent, small meals will help to keep you from overeating at any meal and from making unhealthy food choices.

Going for long periods of time without eating causes your metabolism to all but shut down to conserve fat and energy. A slower metabolism burns less calories. When you eat three large meals per day, you will tend to eat more at each meal and with a slower metabolism, it will be more difficult to burn off those calories.

Large meals will make you feel more sluggish than small, healthy meals. The idea is to keep your body satisfied with food, but not overindulge yourself which leads to weight gain.

Plus, if you are active, five meals will sustain you better, keeping sugar levels from falling and rising which may cause you to become hungry, tired and irritable.

The best way to succeed with this way of eating, is to plan your meals each day. If you work away from home, pack a lunch with healthy snacks of fruit, vegetables, cheese or crackers. Make sure you are getting enough protein, too.

When eating five times per day, keep the portions small—each serving about the size of the palm of your hand.

The key to portion control is to stop eating when you are full. Learn the language your body is speaking. Don’t take another bite past that satisfied feeling. Remember: your next meal is only a few hours away.

That’s the clincher, knowing you will be eating again in less than 3 hours, really does keep you from overeating. You can be free to enjoy your food, not have to worry about counting calories, and feel satisfied all day long. It really is the secret to eating more and weighing less.

My meal schedule works best this way: 7 am: breakfast. 10 am: snack. 1 pm: lunch. 4 pm: snack 7pm: dinner. I’ve eaten this way my whole life, and never had a weight problem or a significant health problem.

Give it a try. Nutritious food, in sensible portions, eaten several times a day really will keep your hunger satisfied and help you to lose those excess pounds.

Was this blog helpful to you?  Tell us about it in the comment space:

Jogging Your Memory and Your Body

By

When it comes to losing weight, there really is no better way to effectively beat back the bulge than with jogging or running. Nearly 60 percent of all people that start running do so to take off the pounds, but running can also provide even more health benefits than just weight loss.

Running can be the proverbial fountain of youth for our bones and muscles. It helps prevent bone and muscle loss that occurs naturally as we age, and helps strengthen our legs, hips, and feet. Most of us spend countless hours in front of a computer at work, but by adding running into our daily routines, we can help offset the damage we do by leading such sedentary lifestyles.

Running can also do wonders for our organs and vital body systems. It makes you hearts stronger and increases the capacity of your circulation and respiratory system. It helps increase your metabolism and speeds up your digestive system and can even help clear up digestive problems. Running can help fight off diseases such as breast cancer and it reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

So, are you getting the picture? Running is great for your body. But the health benefits don’t stop there.

Running has been proven to also play an essential role in mental health. People who suffer from depression can find great relief from the benefits of running. It provides a huge release of endorphins that can help bring forth a positive attitude, and it also helps to build character and confidence like few sports can. People who run have also found that it helps alleviate the stresses of everyday life.

While running can provide vast health benefits to both body and mind, it’s still one of the hardest forms of exercise to begin. Most people dread the prospect of running, or they injure themselves because they didn’t properly stretch.

To begin a running program, you first should treat it as your time to get away from the daily stresses of your life. It’s a time you should look forward to, where you can challenge yourself to become stronger and faster.

Start with a good pair of running shoes and always remember to properly warm up and stretch before you run. If you’re not used to exercise, then it’s better to start off slow and build up as you go. By starting a running program, you’ll soon experience some of the many extraordinary health benefits that can come from simply putting one foot in front of the other.

We value your input.  Please share it in the comment space below: