Workout Tips While On Holiday

As you make plans to go off on holiday and relax and unwind after a few months of high-stress, it’s important that you don’t completely abandon your fitness program altogether.

Not only will maintaining some degree of a workout program while you’re away help to reduce the chances that you start to gain weight, but it’ll also make it that much easier to carry on with your program upon your return.

If you take a complete week (or longer) off your workout, you’re going to find that when you get back to it, you’re incredibly sore and just feel ‘out of it’ overall.

Let’s take a quick look at a few of the top workout tips to remember for your vacation.

Bring Some Equipment
The very first thing that you’ll want to do is make sure you go prepared. Bring a few of your own pieces of workout equipment so that at the very least, you can do a quick workout in your hotel room.

A skipping rope is the perfect option for your cardio training session and a resistance band will help you keep the strength component in place.

Both of these are incredibly lightweight and will easily fit right in your suitcase.

Call Ahead To Check On Gym Facilities
The second thing that you should do is call ahead to wherever you’re staying and see what gym facilities are available.

If you can find this out ahead of time, it’s going to be that much easier to plan a workout that you can do using the equipment there.

It’s very important that you go in with a plan. If you don’t have a plan, the chances that you skip over the workout will be that much greater. If you do, you’re one step ahead of the game.

Keep The Workouts Short But Intense
When it comes to the actual workouts you do while away on holiday, intensity should be the name of your game.

You can cut back on the volume of your standard workout by up to 2/3’s as long as you maintain the intensity of the session. This will allow you to maintain your fitness level so that you can pick right back up as soon as you return home again.

This will also make it easy to perform short workouts that don’t eat up your vacation time, making it that much easier to get them in as well.

So there you have the most important tips to remember as you go about your hotel workouts while on vacation. If you take some time to prepare yourself for them and stay committed to leading the healthy lifestyle while you’re away, when you arrive back home it’ll feel as though you’ve never skipped a beat.

Have a Wonderful and Safe Holiday Folks!!

Eating Healthy While On Holiday

If you’re about to go on a much deserved holiday and are looking forward to all the fun activities about to come your way, one issue that may be causing a slight amount of anxiety is what you’re going to be eating while away.

Eat the wrong foods and you’ll be facing some weight gain when you return. Since this is clearly not something most people want to experience, it’s going to be vital that you put some steps into place to ensure that this doesn’t happen to you.

Let’s go over the key points to remember so that you can still maintain a decent eating plan while away on holiday and return back to your normal program after vacation ready to make progress forwards, not do damage control.

Choose One Meal To Indulge In
Chances are while on holiday you are going to want to indulge a little in the different food options available. After all, you are on holiday and holidays are meant to enjoy yourself.

As long as you practice some control and moderation, you definitely can treat yourself to the odd food that you really want without seeing weight gain result.

A good strategy to use is to select one meal in which you’ll treat yourself at each day. If you can keep the rest of the meals very clean and healthy, this will reduce the chances that you take in too many calories but instead, at the end of the day, it’ll all balance out.

Then when you eat that food that you’re choosing to indulge in, make sure to eat a reasonable portion. Don’t let yourself get out of control as how much you eat is just as important as what you’re eating.

As long as the calorie balance is correct at the end of the day, you won’t gain weight.

Stick To Lean Proteins And Vegetables
The second strategy to keep in mind as you aim to eat healthy while on holiday is for the rest of the meals during the day, stick as much as possible to just lean protein and vegetables.

Since there’s a good chance that fats will be added during the cooking process of these proteins and vegetables, you’ll want to keep carbs out of the picture as much as possible to create that ‘wiggle’ room for those added fat calories.

Again, it’s all about calorie balance.

Protein and vegetable based meals also tend to control hunger best, so this will allow you to maintain a reduced calorie intake while away.

Get A Suite With A Kitchen
Finally, the last quick tip to remember is to try, if you can, to get a suite with a kitchen. If you can eat at least one meal in your room where you’re staying, then you will have complete control over what goes into that meal.

At least then you know that one meal of the day is going to be directly in line with your normal diet plan.

So there you have a few quick tips to remember. If you’re smart in your approach, you definitely do not need to be facing a high amount of weight gain when you return back from your holiday.

The One Exercise Technique That Will Help You Burn More Calories Daily

Tired of going to the gym but not seeing the best results from your workout? One of the top trends that many personal trainers are noting right now is the number of people going at their workouts alone but never seeing the progress they’re after. They see the same individuals in the gym day after day, doing their workout routine, but they hardly ever look any different from week to week. This is also what leads many people to sign up to work with a personal trainer in the first place. If you can learn a few simple techniques for how you should structure your workout program however, you can get past this hurdle and back on to success. One specific exercise technique that is extremely effective for helping you burn off more calories not only during the session but for hours after its completed as well is a superset. Let’s look more closely at what this is all about. What A Superset Is A superset is essentially where you take two exercises and pair them immediately back to back with each other.  So for instance, you might do a lunge and then move directly into a shoulder press. Or, you might do a squat and then perform a bench press.  Whatever your chosen mode of exercises are, you’re doing these two movements with no rest in between. Once both are completed, then you’ll rest for 30 seconds before starting up again. Exercises To Perform When selecting the exercises that you’ll want to perform with your supersets, the best advice is to select compound movements as often as possible.  It’s these exercises that are going to help to boost your metabolism the fastest since they’re going to be working so many muscle tissues all at once. Top compound movements to include are the squat, deadlift, chest press, bent over row, shoulder press, lunge, split squat, or leg press. While you can use isolation exercises such as bicep curls, tricep extensions, lateral raises, leg extensions and hamstring curls for your supersets and still see results, these tend to be slightly less effective than the former. Key Points To Know Finally, last but not least, as you go about introducing the superset into your workout program to help boost your total daily calorie burn, make sure that you aren’t doing all your exercise as supersets. Choose two or three different supersets and then keep the rest as straight sets. If you overload and do too many, you’ll just find yourself overtrained before you know and quite possibly, injured.  Supersets are intense so you need to strive for balance with them in your workout routine. So there you have the one technique that’s a must-add to your workout program for faster success.  Always remember that if you are struggling, consulting with a good personal trainer will be your best bet to get your progress moving onwards as fast as possible.

Four Workout Mistakes

If you are seeking fat loss success, getting a good workout program in place will be a must.  The workouts you do are going to help to boost your metabolic rate, improve your lean muscle mass retention, and ensure that you are looking tone and defined as you lose the weight, not soft and flabby.

Yet, many people are still making a few critical errors as they go about their workout, so it’s vital that we clear those up so that you can make sure you steer clear of them.

Let’s look at what you should know.

Doing Only Cardio Training

The very first error you might be making is focusing strictly on cardio training.  Some people come to believe that cardio is the exercise to do for fat loss while weight lifting is the exercise to do for muscle building.

Nothing is further from the truth.  Weight lifting is a far superior form of exercise for fat loss, so getting it in is a must.

Working Out Seven Days A Week

Another big mistake that many people make is working out seven days a week. Remember, your body does need time to rest and repair, especially when eating a reduced calorie diet.

At this point you aren’t providing a lot of fuel for recovery purposes, so if you aren’t providing rest either, you’ll really be in for some trouble.

You should always have at least one day off each week from all exercise, if not two.

Lifting Light Weights

The next vital mistake that some people make is turning to very light weights in their weight lifting program.  The thought behind this concept is that by using light weight and high reps, they’ll take their calorie burn up higher during the workout, helping move fat burning along.

Sadly, this isn’t the case.

You should be focusing on heavy weight more often because it’s heavy weight that will help you maintain your lean muscle mass, stroking your metabolic rate in the process.

Never Changing Things Up

Finally, the last big mistake that some people make is never changing their workout around.  Remember, your body is highly adaptive and if you’re doing the same workout day in and day out, you aren’t going to be making any progress forward.

Once your body can do a given workout, it’ll just maintain the status quo.

In order to move forward and see faster progress, you need to give the body a reason to do so.  Add a new exercise, do more reps, or change the order of your exercises around.

Just do something to evoke change and you’ll see faster success because of it.

So there you have the top mistakes that you must make sure you’re not making in your workout program. If you are making any of these, it’s high time you changed something around.  

Featured Recipe

Chicken Kabobs

 Ingredients

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
• 1 large green bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 onion, cut into wedges
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 cup barbeque sauce
• skewers

Directions

1. Preheat grill for high heat.
2. Thread the chicken, green bell pepper, onion, and red bell pepper pieces onto skewers alternately.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Place kabobs on the prepared grill, and brush with barbeque sauce. Cook, turning and brushing with barbeque sauce frequently, for 15 minutes, or until chicken juices run clear.

8 Myths That Make You Fat

Misinformation convolutes our weight loss journey. It seems like every month some new research is coming out to confuse us. Often the research is contradicting or misinterpreted, which leads to common dieting myths that create unhealthy habits. Do you believe any of these myths?

Myth #1: Eat a big breakfast to avoid overeating later.

It’s important to avoid skipping breakfast, but you don’t want to overdo it with too many calories either. In fact, a large breakfast can add an extra 400 calories. However, people don’t necessarily eat fewer calories throughout the day.

Myth #2: Grazing on small portions throughout the day boosts one’s metabolism.

Eating smaller, more frequent meals helps people control their appetites, but not if you are grazing on high-fat, high-calorie foods. If you are trying to lose weight, it’s best to plan out your meals with healthy vegetable sides and work in a couple of healthy snacks.

Myth #3: Low-fat or Fat-free food always has fewer calories too.

Fat is often replaced by protein, starch and sugar – which can really rack up the calories. For example, a small low-fat blueberry muffin has 131 calories, whereas a regular blueberry muffin has 138. Smaller portion sizing and moderation are more important practices than switching to low-fat foods.

Myth #4: Eating late at night will make a person fat.

It’s simply not true that food consumed at night will be unused and therefore be converted into fat. You will gain weight if your energy intake exceeds your expenditure, regardless of when the calories are consumed. Large meals may cause digestive disturbances, which is why eating late is not recommended. It’s better to eat a more modest-sized dinner and a snack before bed than a huge meal.

Myth #5: Sports drinks are healthier than soda.

You may opt for Vitamin Water before a workout rather than Coca-Cola, but keep in mind that Vitamin Water has 13 grams of sugar and 50 calories per serving… and there are 2.5 servings per bottle, which adds up to 125 calories. That’s just 15 calories shy of a Coca-Cola. Yes, sports drinks have more vitamins and minerals, but you still need to watch out for sugar and calories. Water with lemon is a much better alternative.

Myth #6: You can lose weight by dieting alone.

Diets may help you reduce your blood pressure or risk of cardiovascular disease, but researchers have found that diets often stop working after a person loses 5-10 percent of their weight and doesn’t help people sustain weight loss. Additional lifestyle modifications and exercise are needed to lose weight and keep it off.

Myth #7: You can lose weight simply by cutting starches from your diet.

Low-carb diets have perpetuated this myth, but starch is not necessarily bad. It’s true that the body processes starch and carbohydrates into sugar that may be stored as fat – but it also may be used as energy. The real culprit is indulging in high-fat sauces and toppings like sour cream, butter and alfredo.

Myth #8: Eat whatever you want as long as you’re exercising.

Your body is cutting more calories if you’re exercising, but you will not lose weight if you are replacing all the energy you burn off with sugary sports drinks or high-calorie foods. It’s best to find other “rewards” for a good workout that are not edible.

Featured Recipe

Salmon and Asparagus in a Bag

Ingredients

• 1 pound asparagus spears, trimmed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 pound salmon fillets, skin removed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon dried dill weed
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 cup sliced spinach
• 1 tablespoon capers
• 1/4 cup diced red onion
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. Place asparagus and water in a covered, microwave-safe, and vented bowl; steam in the microwave for 5 minutes.
3. Rub salmon with olive oil, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, dill weed, salt, and black pepper; place in a foil oven bag. Toss spinach, capers, red onion, and asparagus with salt, black pepper, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice in the foil oven bag. Place vegetables on top of salmon. Fold foil bag closed and place in a baking dish.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until salmon flakes easily with a fork, about 30 minutes. Carefully split bag open with a knife to release steam.