Best Workout Foods

Have you ever tried to go for a run, or take a fitness class, when you have not eaten right all day? Did not feel to good, did it?  You need the right nourishment throughout the day in order to have the energy and endurance to perform your best, and maximize your exercise.  Take inspiration from professional cyclist Ally Stacher, who eats clean filling foods to fuel up.

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Don't let your exercise, training, work, or travel schedule interfere with your personal pledge to eat better.  When you eat right, you feel better, your body operates better, and you look better. Look to fresh vegetables and fruit, and try to make or pre-make as many things as possible.  And when you do need to grab something quick, make sure you are choosing or carrying with you the best options available.

Whether you are a competitive athlete, a work-out junkie,  or a recreational exerciser, fueling properly before exercise is crucial to your performance.  The amount of fuel you needs will depend upon your time and intensity exercising, but that does not influence the importance of the quality.  Check out these RD-approved snack and meals to make sure you have enough fuel to get you through you workout, and your day.

Fresh Fruit and Vegetables.
Raw fruit and veggies add healthy nutrients such as vitamins and antioxidants to your diet. Blending combinations of berries, kiwi, citrus fruits, leafy greens, carrots, peppers, and beets will also help your endurance.  The majority of carbohydrates you consume should come from fruits and vegetables.

Bars
Due to their convenience (and marketing), protein bars have become very popular choice as pre-workout snack.  Unfortunately, many of these bars are highly processed, full of preservatives, full of poor-quality protein, and high in sugar and empty carbohydrates and calories.  Look for bars that are high in fibre ensuring you get high-quality carbs, with quality protein, and low in sugars.  The Vi-Cookie from Visalus Sciences is full of high-quality non-gmo protein, high in fibre (from Kale, Spinach, and Broccoli), and low in sugars.  With three flavour--chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal raisin--they taste like the cookies grandma used to make.  We have to hide them in our house, our kids loved them so much. They are portable, so they are great for on-the-go workouts, and good a good choice for a snack, or just before your next workout.

Breakfast Burrito
A well-balanced breakfast (carbs healthy fat, and lean protein) is a great way to start the day.  The thing I love about breakfast burritos, however, is I can eat them for lunch, or dinner, as well.  You may not have your workout or training session planned until later in the day, but a good breakfast burrito will supply the nutrients to sustain your energy levels through the day, and help you avoid overeating later, all while maintaining lean muscle.  Choose ancient grain wraps/tortillas such as Spelt, Kamut, or Quinoa, instead of wheat or corn tortillas.  A good breakfast burrito includes an egg, kale or spinach, abocado, hummus, and goat cheese.  You can wrap it up and take it on the go, and with it's great mix of essential nutrients, and great taste, you will love it.

Ninja Smoothies
Great for breakfast, lunch, or after your workout, proper protein smoothies include refreshing ingredients that are not expensive.  Try to mix three fruits in yours, such as half a pear, half a banana and half a kiwi; or half a cup of raspberries, half a cup of blueberries, and half a banana.  Add a dollop of 2% Greek yogurt for protein and "good bacteria" (avoid low-fat or non-fat yogurts that tend to have added sugar and higher calories), ground flax seed and ground chia seed for fibre, Almond or Coconut milk, and a high-quality protein powder--be ware of the bulk or inexpensive brands.  Vi-Shape shake mix is a research based protein powder, independently proven i the lab to be one of the most efficient proteins on the market.  

Snacks
What other snacks do you need to help you get to your workout?  How about some celery with a nut butter like almond butter or peanut butter.  Or some apple slices smeared with a seed butter such as sesame seed or pumpkin seed butter.  In order to satiate any hunger or cravings later, and to prevent any overeating later, you want to mix quality carbohydrates from fruit and vegetables, with good fats and protein from the nut or seed butters.

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Mud Runs--Safe and Effective Training, or an Injury Waiting to Happen?

Are Mud Runs Safe?

Mud runs--events such as Tough Mudder--have become very popular over the last couple of years.  The insane terrain is a lot more exciting the the treadmill.  Testing your physical and mental limits may be exhilarating, but the lax safety rules, and overcrowded courses have put your personal safety at risk.

The Dangers of a Mud Run

The first time Patricia Wooldridge considered entering a mud run, she was at a get-together near her Dallas home, it was early 2010, and as a friend described the crazy 5-K event coming to town that spring, Patricia, 39, thought about her treadmill. Lately, it had been little more than a piece of furniture. Perhaps the idea of an obstacle race would kick-start her return to an active life.

Back home, she cruised the race's website, with its images of laughing, mud-smeared runners. She saw people in Viking hats, women in tutus, people hoisted skyward at post-race parties. Her first thought: This is wild! She scrolled through pictures of the obstacles, including a fire leap, which looked like someone had set a match to a straight line of lighter fluid. Intrigued, Patricia recruited a girlfriend and ponied up the $43 entry fee. A few clicks later, they were in.

The race fell on a warm May day, and the two women found themselves wandering through a boisterous crowd. As they lined up at the start, ready to sprint down a dirt road, any pre-race nerves vanished. "This ought to be pretty easy if someone is doing it in a dog costume," Patricia said to her friend. Heck, a few people were even wearing knee braces. Patricia knew the competition drill; she'd done her strength training—pushups, squats—and had finished traditional races before, a lone contestant in a solemn, panting sea of concentration. These warrior types couldn't be more jovial. Lose a shoe? No problem! Face-plant into the mud? Hilarious!

"I was having a great time," she says, "right up until I got burned to a crisp."

At the time Patricia participated in her race, the mud-run craze was just leaving the starting line. Since then, the events have become a sports phenomenon, with swarms of people showing up to get dirty and drink beer. One mud run, the Spartan Race, began modestly in 2009; it hosted around 750,000 participants in 2012. Another, Warrior Dash, also began in 2009 with one race and 2,000 people. Last year it fielded more than 800,000 runners and earned $50 million (it will hold more than 35 races in 2013). Perhaps the best-known mud run, the three-year-old Tough Mudder, is projecting more than $150 million in 2013 earnings. But these are just the majors; almost anyone who can rent a field can put on a race. Florida alone hosted an estimated 40 different ones last year.

No set criteria define mud runs, though army training courses are a clear inspiration. Participants scramble up and down obstacles and across monkey bars and, of course, crawl through pits of mud. Some inventive promoters are carrying the theme even further: If you're in the mood for it, you can now run a 5-K through simulations of end-of-the-world disasters or while dodging the aggressive undead.

Fast Fat Blasting--60 Seconds

In just 60 seconds a day, you can do something to help your body get rid of excess body fat.  It all starts with your body's pH level--the balance between acid and alkaline in your body, and from the food you eat.  the more acidic your system, the more fat your body stores.

As Acid Rain pollutes the environment, acid in your food pollutes your body.  As the acid levels in you body increase, your body tries to protect your organs and blood from the acidic levels by covering them in a protective blanket of fat.  Your body then uses more fat to try to neutralize the acid, thereby adding more fat to your system.  Leading to your body storing even more body.  This is one of the reason is can be so hard to lose weight and to lose body fat.

But there is a way to decrease your body's acidity level, and shed that body fat.  Click Here for free access to a way to balance your body's pH levels, and lose up to 13 pounds in just four weeks in just 60 seconds a day.

Flat Belly Yoga

The time has come.  Enough sitting around thinking about change.  Enough hiding your belly under layers of clothing.  Enough of secretly wishing your could still fit in your skinny jeans.  The time has come to start doing yoga, and start looking and feeling better. Hot yoga, power yoga, vinyasa yoga, hatha yoga, and types of yoga offer a full-body workout, challenging all muscle groups.

Yoga can help you increase your core strength, boost your metabolism, and burn fat.

Yoga can help you adjust your mindset in order to stop thinking of working out as a painful exercise.  Transform your perception of exercise form something that you are supposed to do into an activity that you truly look forward to doing.

Combing yoga with a proper nutrition plan can help you reach your health and fitness goals.

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The Weather is Screwing With Your Weight!

Okay, we all do it when the weather is nasty outside--skip the gym and cozy up on the couch with a book and a warm drink (or a glass of wine).  In fact, a recent poll from Gallup-Healthways found that people were about 13% less likely to exercise shortly after Hurricane Sandy.  Stop letting weather be an excuse to stop working out.  Read on to learn how to motivate yourself to exercise in any weather.  

When it is cold and dark outside, like in winter, people are less likely to exercise--indoors or outdoors.  Maybe it goes back to our genetic make-up--we want to curl up under the covers where it is warm and dry.

Weather has become a socially acceptable excuse for not exercising, but making excused and skipping workouts will not make you feel better, and will in fact make you feel worse long-term--especially in the springtime when you are trying to hide the extra pounds of "winter weight."

Now, get ride of those excuses, and motivate yourself to exercise in any weather with these tips on: consequences, special workouts, winter workouts, fitness buddies, and guilty pleasures.

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