You wont get much done...

so why do we only exercise on the days we feel like it...

Fitness Apps

Im going to share some of my favorite health and fitness apps with you today!!

Wellness Tip of the Day

A new easy to follow wellness tip every day.  

There are body tips, food tips, mind tips.

Easy to save into your favorites, or share with your friends on facebook

And its free!!

Nike Training

It's like a personal trainer in your pocket.

You can chose from TONS of different workouts,

Specific ones for getting lean, for getting strong, or for targeting specific areas!

It keeps track of how many hours you use it, lets you save your favorite workouts and tracks your progress.

And its free!!

Jillian Michaels Slim Down Solution

It's like have Jillian Michaels in your pocket.

This app is LOADED -  there are tips for everything like how to read nutrition lables, how to get strong arms, celebrating weight loss

Tons of individual exercises, and intense workouts and circuits

There are recipes...  the mediterranean pizza looks AMAZING

And there is a section where Jillian gives you her advice about many topics about self, science, sweat, and sticky situations.

If having all that amazing information at your figure tips isnt convincing enough... Its FREE!!

What are you waiting for!?

what are your favorite health and wellness apps?

Heart Month

February is Heart Month

Its time to learn your risk factors

learn how to reduce them

and take care of your heart

click here, here and here to see previous posts about heart disease

and check back throughout the next couple weeks

for posts on heart health

Osteoporosis

The loss of bone tissue can be detrimental to your health. With weak, brittle bone tissue, bumping into a table, or tripping and falling can be life threatening.
While most people associate osteoporosis with women, its important to remember that men are susceptible too.  Women are more likely to break a hip from a fall, but men are more likely to die from complications if they do break a hip.

There are two things you can do now to help prevent the disease.
1. Getting enough vitamin D and Calcium.  Bone tissue is alive and constantly being broken down and built up depending on your blood calcium levels. Talk to you doctor about supplements
2. Exercise. Weight bearing exercise - such as weight lifting, or running because of the impact puts stress on the cells in your muscle and bones.  We know this helps build up muscle, but did you know it also helps to build up bone. The stress causes a response in your bones to get stronger, and therefore your body builds more dense bone tissue.

Exercise guidelines:
under 18 - 1hr x day
19-50+ - 1hr x 3 days a week

Women over 50 should get a  bone density test and younger women should be tested if they have 1 major risk factor, or 2 minor risk factors ( listed below)

Major:
• A family history of the disease
• Long-term use of steroids
• Loss of menstrual periods in younger women
• Having had a low-trauma fracture (a fracture that results from a fall from standing height or less—usually the wrist, arm or hip)
Minor:
• Body weight of less than 125 pounds
• Low calcium intake
• Drinking more than four cups of coffee a day
• Drinking more than two alcoholic drinks a day
• Smoking

eat at home

The average Canadian household spends about 30% of their food budget on eating out.  People who eat out more often tend to eat less-healthy foods and be heavier.
Want to try saving some money and maybe cut back on some calories? Eat at home.
besthealthmag.com suggegests keeping track of how often you eat out and how much money you are spending at restaurants and then cutting back gradually.

Interesting fact:  the rise in obesity over the past 30 years has fallen closely inline with the decline in cooking meals at home.

to check out 9 otherways to drop a few pounds or be healthier click here






{image from whig.com}

Diet vs. Exercise

Women's Health recently discussing whether its diet or exercise that is the most important. They looked at 6 common situations.
Here's what they found

To Lose Weight - Diet
To Boost Energy - Exercise
Reduce the Risk of Heart Disease - Diet
Prevent Type 2 Diabetes - Exercise
To Prevent Cancer - BOTH - plant based diet and consistent exercise
Improve Mood - Exercise

To read the full article including reasons why they came to these conclusions check out the article here

To sum up - both diet and exercise are vital to living a healthy lifestyle. Avoid yo-yo dieting or yo-yo exercising and try to maintain consistency with both. Everything in moderation

{image}

What you need to know

About sunscreen and sun bathing...

1. The SPF on the bottle is not a reliable number. The problem? Most people do not apply enough to get the amount of protection the sunscreen claims.  You should apply about 1 -2oz of sunscreen - (1oz = 1shot glass)

2. Environmental Working Group has come out with some new information suggesting that Vitamin A (or its derivatives ie. retinol) can actually promote burning. This is very preliminary information and the studies have only done on mice.

However, it is something to think about when buying sun screen

(read more here and here)

3. Even in the shade you can be reached by UV rays - so put sunscreen on either way. Same goes for sheer or thin clothing.

Now that its getting sunny and hot out we are spending more time outside. It is important to apply sunscreen before you go out, after swimming or sweating, and apply liberally. Most dermatologists (mine included)  suggest anything below SPF 15 is useless. Use broad-spectrum sunscreen so it blocks burning and cancer causing rays as well as those that cause tanning and wrinkling.

-remember to use enough of your spf containing makeup to be protected. - re-read this post

image from Bittersweet Life

Snack Girl

i have found my new favorite website! http://www.snack-girl.com/

it is full of great food and snacking advice. there are tons of healthy recipes and tips for eating well.

this picture is from an experiment she did involving a mcdonalds burger and a homemade burger. this is what they looked like after 11 weeks.

yess the rotten burger is gross, but the fact that the mcdonalds burger hasnt changed in 11 weeks is worse.

check out the article here




i tried her recipe for steamed artichokes and lemon butter sauce a couple of times last week. and i love it. the sauce is great and peeling a part the artichoke is oddly satisfying despite not getting much from each of the leaves. you can find the recipe here


im sure there will be plently more posts inspired by snack girl in the future. i definitely recommend taking a look. i have learned a lot from this site.