Everyone associates Thanksgiving Day with food and family, but this year why not make it a healthier holiday. Change is good; a lifestyle change is even better. Even if you are not doing the cooking, you still can eat healthier and make this Thanksgiving the best ever. There is no reason to overstuff yourself and lay around after dinner watching football. You don’t have to deprive yourself of all the goodies served at the annual feast; it just means that with a few changes you can have a healthier holiday season.
Follow the simple steps below and enjoy a Healthier and Fit Thanksgiving.
1.) Eat a healthy breakfast. Oatmeal with blueberries (fresh or frozen) and almonds, Agave syrup if you need a sweetener, skim milk, coffee or tea.
2.) Take a walk. Get your body moving.
3.) If dinner will be late in the day, be sure to eat a light lunch. Don’t starve yourself waiting for dinner. Keep your metabolism burning.
4.) Use a smaller plate at dinner. A salad plate holds less than a dinner plate and you will be less likely to overeat.
5.) Do not let your foods touch on the plate. Smaller portions allow you to enjoy a little bit of everything without overeating.
6.) Quarter the pieces of pie and don’t pile whipped cream on top.
7.) Limit yourself to two glasses of wine at dinner.
8.) Drink water. It will help fill you up.
9.) Take another walk after dinner. Get your family members or friends moving instead of just sitting on a sofa. You can still talk, enjoy each other and the holiday while you work off that wonderful holiday dinner.
Healthy Thanksgiving tips from Pat McFerren, Personal Trainer and Instructor at Steel Fitness in Bethlehem.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Give Your Muscles Rest
When a muscle is forced to respond to any type of resistance, an increase of blood flow to your muscles is developed. Strength trainers call this “the pump”. What you are actually doing to the muscles when strength training is creating small tears in your muscle fibers. If proper rest is achieved before breaking down your muscle fibers again, progress and GROWTH are the results.
I strongly recommend that you split your strength training and cardio or group exercise workouts on separate days which will help you achieve maximum results. Your muscles will thank you and lean muscle mass will be created much faster.
By Mike Kramer, General Manager of Steel Fitness, Bethlehem, PA
I strongly recommend that you split your strength training and cardio or group exercise workouts on separate days which will help you achieve maximum results. Your muscles will thank you and lean muscle mass will be created much faster.
By Mike Kramer, General Manager of Steel Fitness, Bethlehem, PA
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Jump Start Your Workouts
If you find yourself reaching a workout plateau, I recommend switching things up. Take home with you a copy of the aerobics schedule and pick three group fitness classes that you have never participated in. Make a commitment to attend all three classes.
Group fitness classes are the most effective way that a member can learn new exercises, meet people and have something to look forward to each week in addition to your routine workout.
If you want to commit to a healthy lifestyle, be sure that you are utilizing all resources that are surrounding you at the health club.
By: Mike Kramer, General Manager of Steel Fitness, Bethlehem, PA
Group fitness classes are the most effective way that a member can learn new exercises, meet people and have something to look forward to each week in addition to your routine workout.
If you want to commit to a healthy lifestyle, be sure that you are utilizing all resources that are surrounding you at the health club.
By: Mike Kramer, General Manager of Steel Fitness, Bethlehem, PA
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Tips for Eating In Moderation
Eat with moderation…listen to your body. Sounds simple, but it’s not. Even if you’re eating a healthy diet, overeating could become your downfall. You need to start listening to your body and not overeat.
You need to know when to stop eating.
A few tips to help you eat in moderation:
1. Slow down and chew your food
2. Stop and ask yourself the question “Am I full?”
3. Don’t stuff yourself full, you can snack later if hungry
4. Most importantly, eat when you're hungry, not according to the clock
5. Drink a glass of water before you eat
Written by Carolyn Kenyon, Personal Trainer at Steel Fitness in Bethlehem, PA
You need to know when to stop eating.
A few tips to help you eat in moderation:
1. Slow down and chew your food
2. Stop and ask yourself the question “Am I full?”
3. Don’t stuff yourself full, you can snack later if hungry
4. Most importantly, eat when you're hungry, not according to the clock
5. Drink a glass of water before you eat
Written by Carolyn Kenyon, Personal Trainer at Steel Fitness in Bethlehem, PA
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
VACATION WORKOUT TIPS!
Finding fun cardio activities is easy when you're on vacation. Lifting weights or strength training, however, presents more of a challenge. You usually don't have much equipment and the thought of going to the hotel fitness room isn't that appealing when you're trying to have fun.
You don't have to do much, however, to maintain your strength and muscle while you're out of town. A quick workout with body weight exercises, resistance bands or full water bottles will keep you strong and fit until you get back home to your usual routine.
If you decide to use your vacation to rest from exercise entirely, you may wonder what happens to your body. How long can you go before you lose fitness? How fast you lose endurance and/or muscle depends mostly on your genetics, but below are some general guidelines:
Aerobic power can decline 5-10% in three weeks. All your gains could be gone after about 2 months of inactivity. The more fit you are, the faster you lose your fitness, which doesn't seem fair, does it? You tend to lose aerobic capacity faster than muscular strength. Muscles are resilient and retain a memory of all those exercises you did.
Taking a week off probably won't make much of a difference but, any more than that, and it may be harder to get back to your previous levels. Finding ways to stay as active as you can will keep you fit, help you avoid weight gain and make the transition back to real life a little easier.
Written by John Stefanowicz, Personal Trainer at Steel Fitness in Bethlehem PA
You don't have to do much, however, to maintain your strength and muscle while you're out of town. A quick workout with body weight exercises, resistance bands or full water bottles will keep you strong and fit until you get back home to your usual routine.
If you decide to use your vacation to rest from exercise entirely, you may wonder what happens to your body. How long can you go before you lose fitness? How fast you lose endurance and/or muscle depends mostly on your genetics, but below are some general guidelines:
Aerobic power can decline 5-10% in three weeks. All your gains could be gone after about 2 months of inactivity. The more fit you are, the faster you lose your fitness, which doesn't seem fair, does it? You tend to lose aerobic capacity faster than muscular strength. Muscles are resilient and retain a memory of all those exercises you did.
Taking a week off probably won't make much of a difference but, any more than that, and it may be harder to get back to your previous levels. Finding ways to stay as active as you can will keep you fit, help you avoid weight gain and make the transition back to real life a little easier.
Written by John Stefanowicz, Personal Trainer at Steel Fitness in Bethlehem PA
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The following post was written by Tom Fenstermacher, Owner and President of FACTS Fitness. Watch for the follow up post: Eating Habits 101
Common sense tells you that to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. This means you will change your daily patterns by increasing physical activity while decreasing food consumption.
A person can exist in the following 3 states of energy balance:
1. Neutral Energy Balance – You burn what you consume and will stay the same as you are today.
2. Positive Energy Balance – You consume more than you burn and will gain weight. If you require 2000 calories and consume 2,100 per day, even if the extra 100 calories is a banana you stand to be 700 calories per week in positive energy balance. This will eventually result in 36,400 excess calories per year divided by 3,600 calories per pound of fat is over 10 pounds of weight gain per year.
3. Negative Energy Balance - You consume less than you burn and will lose weight. Reverse the scenario above and you can see over 10 pounds of weight loss per year from that same banana!
Diets DO NOT WORK! – Wouldn’t you rather be in negative energy balance due to an exercise regimen that burns excess calories and increase 24 hour a day metabolism and will ultimately help you live longer and reduce your risk factors and improve quality of life?
CRASH DIETS ARE ESPECIALLY BAD!! Consider this: You go on a crash diet and begin to deprive your body of its essential needs. Your body doesn’t know you are trying to lose weight, it assumes there is a food shortage in nature and goes into survival mode.
What is survival mode?
It is conservation of energy stores.
What are energy stores?
FAT!
Your body will burn anything it can EXCEPT fat. So, when you lose your 20 pounds on your crash diet and 10 pounds of that loss was in lean muscle that your body consumed what do you think happens?
For starters, it is important to understand that your lean muscle is the key to your METABOLIC RATE or your daily caloric requirement and the more lean muscle you have, the more calories you will burn.
It’s a fact that 98% of people on crash diets gain the weight back. Consider the information above: when you gain your 20 pounds back, the muscle will not return so the net gain is all fat. So all that your CRASH Diet helped you do is become fatter! The problem is that now you have less muscle to burn calories on a 24 hour basis, so you will be predisposed to gaining even more weight.
When attempting to loss weight, check with your doctor first. The next step is to combine common sense food choices and start with an exercise program that will fit your lifestyle. Start slow and work your way into moderate levels of exercise.
Common sense tells you that to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. This means you will change your daily patterns by increasing physical activity while decreasing food consumption.
A person can exist in the following 3 states of energy balance:
1. Neutral Energy Balance – You burn what you consume and will stay the same as you are today.
2. Positive Energy Balance – You consume more than you burn and will gain weight. If you require 2000 calories and consume 2,100 per day, even if the extra 100 calories is a banana you stand to be 700 calories per week in positive energy balance. This will eventually result in 36,400 excess calories per year divided by 3,600 calories per pound of fat is over 10 pounds of weight gain per year.
3. Negative Energy Balance - You consume less than you burn and will lose weight. Reverse the scenario above and you can see over 10 pounds of weight loss per year from that same banana!
Diets DO NOT WORK! – Wouldn’t you rather be in negative energy balance due to an exercise regimen that burns excess calories and increase 24 hour a day metabolism and will ultimately help you live longer and reduce your risk factors and improve quality of life?
CRASH DIETS ARE ESPECIALLY BAD!! Consider this: You go on a crash diet and begin to deprive your body of its essential needs. Your body doesn’t know you are trying to lose weight, it assumes there is a food shortage in nature and goes into survival mode.
What is survival mode?
It is conservation of energy stores.
What are energy stores?
FAT!
Your body will burn anything it can EXCEPT fat. So, when you lose your 20 pounds on your crash diet and 10 pounds of that loss was in lean muscle that your body consumed what do you think happens?
For starters, it is important to understand that your lean muscle is the key to your METABOLIC RATE or your daily caloric requirement and the more lean muscle you have, the more calories you will burn.
It’s a fact that 98% of people on crash diets gain the weight back. Consider the information above: when you gain your 20 pounds back, the muscle will not return so the net gain is all fat. So all that your CRASH Diet helped you do is become fatter! The problem is that now you have less muscle to burn calories on a 24 hour basis, so you will be predisposed to gaining even more weight.
When attempting to loss weight, check with your doctor first. The next step is to combine common sense food choices and start with an exercise program that will fit your lifestyle. Start slow and work your way into moderate levels of exercise.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
The Importance of Stretching
Stretching is a key component of a each workout session. The key to proper stretching is knowing how far and how long you should go. You should feel slight discomfort, but not pain and it hurts, you've gone too far. It is important to aim to hit every muscle group when stretching.
Here are a few more tips:
1.) Inhale deeply. As you exhale be sure to slowly and smoothly stretch to a point of moderate tension, before the warm burn of the muscles turns painful.
2.) Never bounce or jerk the movements.
3.) Hold the stretch for 15-30 seconds. Breathe deeply and naturally during the stretch hold. Don't hold your breath, but stay relaxed.
4.) Slowly return to your start position and relax for a few seconds. Repeat the stretch two more times, if you choose. If possible, try to stretch a little farther each time you stretch—but don't push it.
Stretching after a workout relaxes your muscles, increases circulation to joints and tissues, and helps remove unwanted waste products. Another advantage of stretching is that it will reduce muscle soreness and stiffness.
Now you have all the reasons you need to make sure stretching comes after every workout.
By John Stefanowicz, Personal Trainer at Steel Fitness (Bethlehem, PA)
Here are a few more tips:
1.) Inhale deeply. As you exhale be sure to slowly and smoothly stretch to a point of moderate tension, before the warm burn of the muscles turns painful.
2.) Never bounce or jerk the movements.
3.) Hold the stretch for 15-30 seconds. Breathe deeply and naturally during the stretch hold. Don't hold your breath, but stay relaxed.
4.) Slowly return to your start position and relax for a few seconds. Repeat the stretch two more times, if you choose. If possible, try to stretch a little farther each time you stretch—but don't push it.
Stretching after a workout relaxes your muscles, increases circulation to joints and tissues, and helps remove unwanted waste products. Another advantage of stretching is that it will reduce muscle soreness and stiffness.
Now you have all the reasons you need to make sure stretching comes after every workout.
By John Stefanowicz, Personal Trainer at Steel Fitness (Bethlehem, PA)
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