Fitness Resources

Month: December 2015

4 Easy Ways to Prevent Holiday Weight Gain

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ACE Fit Life December 11, 2015

Most people assume that, to prevent holiday weight gain, they need to forget about enjoying themselves and not indulge at all during this festive time of year. The majority of Americans simply accept that they’ll gain a little weight, but they’ll make it their New Year’s resolution to take it off. Here’s the good news: You can enjoy the holidays and prevent weight gain with these four simple steps.

1. Set limits before you go to parties.

Although this sounds trite, providing yourself with some structure and setting limits prevents mindless eating and keeps you from indulging in an extra cocktail or hors-d’oeuvre simply because it’s offered to you.

If alcohol is your thing, take a peek at the calories in popular drinks and use this list to create your party limits:

  • Hot buttered rum (10 ounces): 418 calories
  • White Russian (4 ounces): 355 calories
  • Eggnog (8 ounces): 350 calories
  • Sparkling cider (8 ounces): 180 calories
  • Beer: between 64 and 198 calories per 12 ounces. Choose light beers and low-carb options to stick to about 100 calories.
  • Gin and tonic: There are 103 calories in a 1-ounce gin and 3-ounce tonic, and it’s easy to get more than 1 ounce of gin in a mixed drink. One ounce of gin contains 65 calories, so just two ounces of gin is 130 calories. Factor in the 3 ounces of tonic and your “small” 5-ounce drink contains 160 calories.
  • Vodka (1 ounce) with Diet Sprite (8.5 ounces): 70 calories
  • Vodka (1 ounce) and diet cranberry juice (8.5 ounces): 70 calories
  • Skinnygirl margarita or sangria (4 ounces): 100 calories
  • Prosecco wine (5 ounces): 100 calories
  • Champagne (5 ounces): 110 calories
  • Low-carb cosmopolitan cocktail (6 ounces): 105 calories
  • Sugar-free whiskey sour cocktail (4.5 ounces): 106 calories

2. Keep a sugar-free mint or sugar-free gum with you.

Pop either of these in your mouth as soon as you reach the food or drink limit you’ve set for yourself. If you can brush your teeth, having a minty mouth works well, too.

3. Plan to have an enjoyable, portion-controlled sweet treat at home after the party.

This way, you have something to look forward to and you can either turn down the desserts at the party or limit yourself to a bite or two. Alternatively, some of our clients like to have their dessert before going to the party rather than after to keep them in check. Here are a few to try:

  • Carob Peppermint Smoothie: 125 Calories
  • Skinny Pumpkin Muffins with Pecan Frosting: 82 Calories
  • Skinny ginger cookies: 40 calories/ cookie
  • Skinny Speedy Banana Walnut Cookies: 55 Calories
  • No Bake White Chocolate Granola Balls: 74 Calories
  • Speedy Spiced Oatmeal Cookies: 45 Calories
  • 5-Minute Pumpkin Spice Cookie: 38 Calories
  • Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream: 139 Calories
  • Chocolate Drizzled Granola Balls: 59 Calories
  • Avocado Chocolate Mousse: 85 Calories

4. Don’t forget to hydrate.

You likely hear this health advice all of the time. it’s so simple and repeated so often that many ignore it. But the truth is that simply drinking water, seltzer or another calorie-free beverage and choosing water-rich foods like fruits and veggies helps hydrate and fill your stomach and your body. Plus, the fiber in the produce helps to fill you up. There’s also evidence that drinking water before meals helps you consume fewer calories. Drink water throughout the day (especially a cup or two before each meal and during exercise), and add some colorful produce at each meal. Do this right before heading to a party to take the edge off hunger so that you can make rationale decisions about what to eat.

Find it hard to drink plain water? Try these jazzed up water options:

  • Sparkling Cucumber and Refresh Detoxer: 8 calories
  • Apple Cider Mint “Detox” Drink: 2 calories
  • Citrus Reboot & Detox Flush: 3 calories
  • Slimming Raspberry Mint Detox Spritzer: 8 calories
  • Lemon Mint Detox Drink: 3 calories
  • Orange Lime Sparkling Flusher: 5 calories

The Nutrition Twins The Nutrition Twins ContributorTammy Lakatos Shames and Elysse (“Lyssie”) Lakatos, The Nutrition Twins®, share a passion to teach people how to eat healthfully and exercise so they’ll have energy to live happy lives. The twins have been featured as nutrition experts on Good Morning America, Discovery Health, Fox News, NBC, Bravo, CBS, The Learning Channel, FitTV, Oxygen Network, and Fox & Friends. They co-wrote The Nutrition Twins Veggie Cure: Expert Advice and Tantalizing Recipes for Health, Energy and Beauty, The Secret to Skinny: How Salt Makes You Fat and the 4-Week Plan to Drop A Size & Get Healthier with Simple Low Sodium Swaps. The twins are both ACE Certified Personal Trainers, and members of the American Dietetic Association and several Dietetic Practice Groups.

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Can four fish oil pills a day keep the doctor away?

July 7, 2015

Fish oil is one of the most popular dietary supplements in the U.S. because of the perceived cardiovascular benefits of the omega-3 it contains. However, scientific findings on its effectiveness have been conflicting. New research in Physiological Reports supports the claims for seniors, reporting that taking omega-3 fish oil supplements every day can improve the cardiovascular health of healthy seniors after 12 weeks of use.

Risk of cardiovascular disease increases with age because the arteries become stiffer. Arterial stiffness affects how blood travels through them and ultimately how strongly the heart needs to pump. The most commonly used measures of arterial stiffness are pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index. When the heart ejects blood into the blood vessels, pressure increases, creating a bulge in the vessel. PWV is the speed at which the bulge ripples through the arteries. When the pressure pulse hits a fork in the arteries, part of the pressure pulse bounces back towards the heart and combines with the new pulse coming out of the heart. How much the reflected pulse enhances the new one is called augmentation index. High PWV and high augmentation index values reflect stiffer arteries.

Reported cardiovascular benefits of omega-3 include reduced arterial stiffness seen through improved PWV and augmentation index. In this new study, researchers at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine examined whether omega-3 supplements could reverse the effects of aging on the blood vessels in healthy older adults and reduce PWV and augmentation index.

Healthy subjects ages 60 to 80 took two omega-3 capsules twice daily for 12 weeks. Each capsule contained 1000 mg of omega-3 (465 mg eicosapentaenoic acid and 375 mg docosahexanoic acid). The researchers measured PWV, augmentation index and blood pressure before and after the 12-week regimen. The results were compared to young healthy subjects, ages 21 to 35, who also followed the same omega-3 supplement schedule.

The researchers found that 12 weeks of supplementation significantly decreased PWV in the older subjects, supporting improvement in vascular health, although PWV was still higher than in young subjects. While PWV improved, augmentation index and blood pressure did not. The omega-3 supplements also did not improve either index of arterial stiffness in the young subjects.

According to the researchers, “These findings provide support for the concept that increased omega-3 intake may be an efficacious therapy in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in aging humans through effects on central arterial stiffness.” They also noted that “these effects occurred over a relatively short period of time.”

The article “Effect of omega‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation on central arterial stiffness and arterial wave reflections in young and older healthy adults” is published in the June issue of Physiological Reports, a joint journal of the Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society.

Explore further: A novel method for simultaneously measuring blood pressure and arterial stiffness

More information: “Effect of omega‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation on central arterial stiffness and arterial wave reflections in young and older healthy adults.” Physiological Reports Published 24 June 2015 Vol. 3 no. e12438 DOI: 10.14814/phy2.12438

Provided by: American Physiological Society search and more info website

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The trainers are friendly, educated, and motivated.

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Prior to coming to Fitness Resources I performed a weeks worth of research on gyms, trainers, and costs. I stumbled upon FR in one of my Google searches and found that it was right in my backyard. And Fitness Resources, hands down, offers the best rates on personal training in my area.

I have been working with Christine and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner on my journey to healthier living. The education she provides is invaluable. I came to Fitness Resources to gain strength, muscle, and endurance. After just twelve 1-hour sessions, I have gained more strength & muscle, and have more definition, than I had when I served in the military.

If you’re looking for a fun, tailored workout that changes almost every session, then Fitness Resources is the place for you. The trainers are friendly, educated, and motivated. They provide you with the education you need for continued success, both, in and out of the gym through exercise techniques, and nutrition education.

Joshua Dickson

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