Trying to argue that the youth of today are far larger than ever is a losing argument, so we won’t even try. That said, I am sure you’re more than aware of the fact that one of the main targets of blame in this obesity battle is schools, and the lunches they serve. The question is, ARE they to blame? New studies say no.
That’s right, new studies are showing that when 5000 children were tracked, “the biggest gains in body mass index occurred in the summer when parents had sole responsibility for their children’s diets and exercise opportunities.” So, are you going to let this summer be the same as all the rest while you watch your kid fall deeper into the obesity trap, OR, are you going to use this summer as a fresh start to really get things off on the right foot? That’s what I think you should do, and the article I just read wholeheartedly agrees. The beauty of this summer is, you can teach your kids habits that by the time Fall arrives, really will be habits. That way, during the school year they can begin to truly take care of themselves and get into positive, healthy routines.
The article is packed with great tips for you, the parents, to adopt this Summer. Head over and check out how the experts think you should tackle the arduous task of getting your kids healthy both physically and mentally this Summer. After that, head back to Fit Express and read up on ways you can do this in 30 minutes a day!
Well the experts all agree on this little gem: Stop sugar-coating the terms for when our kids are fat! Stop saying they are “at risk for being overweight” or “simply overweight” when the kids are in fact, overweight or obese respectively. The crisis time is now, and it’s time to stop glossing over what is arguably the largest hurdle facing our country in decades.
In a world where everything has to be very politically correct, we’ve sugar-coated ourselves fat in this case. You think we would have realized by now that all that sugar we’re glossing over our terminology would end up somewhere! The bottom line is, experts are agreeing that henceforth, kids that are obese should be called obese, kids that are overweight should be called overweight, and the diplomatic ways of referring to these children needs to stop, and stop NOW.
The committee spokesperson put it best: “We need to describe this in medical terms, which is ‘obesity’….When we talk to an individual family, we can be a little more cognizant of their feelings and more gentle, but that doesn’t mean we can’t discuss it.” I couldn’t agree more; the truth, as they say, will set us free.
Man, I swear, if you’re not exercising consistently in your life and you’re a regular reader of this site, I must be an enormous failure. I try really hard to motivate all you fine folks to get up, get moving and stay that way on a daily basis, and today, I found another little gem of motivation for all of you.
This is especially great news for any of you with friends, family or acquaintances with Down Syndrome. New research is proving with overwhelming success that when young adults or teenagers with Down Syndrome participate in strength training exercise, not only does their muscle strength and functional performance increase, their quality of life and ability to participate in other aspects of everyday life later on goes up too! This news is great especially given the fact that very often, people with Down Syndrome have significantly lower muscle strength, often 40-50% of those people without Down Syndrome. The fact that doing exercise like this can greatly help them is an amazing reason to get them involved in any type of strength training exercise.
According to the study that was presented to the American College of Sports Medicine, “leg strength increased in particular, which is associated with the ability to perform tasks required in everyday life…Arm strength improved 42 percent, on average, and leg strength a remarkable 90 percent.” Bottom line, get them to a Fit Express, Now!
What do you do when you want a new weight-loss pill that hasn’t even hit the U.S. market yet? Do you wait and keep up with your consistent daily exercise and diet control? Do you forget about it and work on yourself in other ways? No, if you’re at all like all these people that are so anxious for the new weight-loss pill Acomplia to come out.
If in fact you are like these people, chances are good you’re either going overseas to Europe or even turning to the Internet to acquire these contraband pills before they are legally allowed to be sold on U.S. shelves. I guess the fact that a decision on whether or not the drug is safe has not been made officially three times now, delaying the drug launch by over 16 months. Some people are sick of waiting so overseas they go, or onto foreign web-sites that aren’t afraid to sell the drugs. How scary, and how risky. If the drug has not been approved, obviously it’s for a reason, do you really think it’s easier and safer to try it anyway, rather than just getting up and exercising for 30 minutes a day? Honestly?
At any rate, an interesting read, but please, all my readers, do not do this. If the drug is going to be approved, it will, but for goodness sakes, let it be approved first! Come to Fit Express, give us 30 minutes a day and we’ll transform you. Just be safe!
Finally, the end of the week, and the final round of the numbers day! This last one, before you go enjoy your fine Spring/Summer weekend, is a collection of the 15 best diet tips from all over the globe, all over the industry, and all over the internet. I found this article while browsing my feeds, and I have to say, it’s a perfect way to end the week.
On this site, the majority of the time I spend trying to stress that no matter what kind of diet plan you’re on, or wanting to be on, exercise is the best thing you can possibly do to not only help yourself reach your goal weight, but to keep your entire body healthy, trim and functioning properly. No matter how your diet goes, without at least 30 minutes a day of exercise, you’re wasting your time. At any rate, it’s helpful to get some tips on the Diet end of the spectrum, and this article does just that. So, to save you time, here are the top 5 “best diet tips ever,” for you to read up on. For the full list of 15, head over and read the full article!
- Drink plenty of water or other calorie-free beverages.
- Think about what you can add to your diet, not what you should take away.
- Consider whether you’re really hungry.
- Be choosy about nighttime snacks.
- Enjoy your favorite foods.
There you are, and now, you should read the other 10, they are just as helpful, just as simple, and just as effective. Now, get off the computer, put on your shoes and go exercise somewhere! It might just be a beautiful day where you are, take advantage of it!
Ok, a little fair warning for today…it’s going to be numbers kind of day. When I say that, I mean that today, I have 3 great posts on 3 great articles I have found that all have a numbered list of sorts. Rest assured, on a scale of 1-10, after reading the 3 today, you’ll be at about an 11 as far as feeling better about facing this weekend!
First up, I found a great article packed with 6 reasons why we, as a culture, are not eating healthier. The options are there, the choices are there, but for some reason, the vast majority of us choose time after time to eat the junk. This article, and the research behind it, thinks it knows why that is the case, and offers 6 very helpful reasons to compare and contrast your own lifestyle to. If you have some of these reasons on the list, realize it, and maybe make a change for the better. So, as always, read the full article, but for now, here are those aforementioned 6 reasons:
” 1. Calories. Some70% of those who reported trying to eat healthier said they were doing so because they wanted to lose weight. Yet only 11% of Americans knew how many calories they should be eating each day. (To find out your own recommended calorie level, go to http://www.mypyramid.gov/mypyramid/index.aspx.)
2. Diet and Exercise. Most Americans — 84% — say they are physically active for health benefits at least once a week. But 44% of those who are active say that they don’t balance diet and physical activity to manage their weight. “Consumers need to understand that calories have to be balanced with physical activity — either by eating less or exercising more — to achieve weight control,” says Bonnie Taub-Dix, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.
3. Breakfast. According to 90% of Americans, breakfast is the most important meal of the day (something most dietitians agree with). Still, less than half (49%) report eating it every day. (If this sounds like you, dietitians recommend stocking your kitchen with healthy “grab and go” breakfasts: low-fat yogurt, cereal bars, whole-grain cereal, and hard-boiled eggs.)
4. Fats. Americans’ concern about how much and what kind of fats we eat is up from a year ago (from 66% to 72%) and we’re specifically trying to consume less trans fats. But it seems we’re as confused as ever about which fats are healthier. Some survey participants reported trying to eat less polyunsaturated fats, but this is one of the fats recommended for health benefits. (For the record, healthier fats include canola, olive, corn and safflower, though it’s important to keep in mind that all fats are high in calories.)
5. Carbohydrates. Americans are getting the message that some types of carbs can improve the healthfulness of their diets. More than 70% of those surveyed said they are trying to eat more fiber and whole grains. But even though low-carb diets have seen a drop in popularity lately,more than 50% of Americans are still concerned about the amount of carbohydrates they consume.
6. “Functional” Foods. According to the survey, Americans believe that consuming specific foods and beverages can provide health benefits, like improving heart health (80%); digestive health (76%); and energy or stamina (76%). Yet more than 50% of those surveys say they don’t actually consume food or beverages that deliver these benefits.”
There you go…I don’t know about you but I very much agreed with all of them. I especially love that exercise made the list. If I could say one change people could make to see better results with whatever diet they choose, it’d be exercise. Get up, and get moving!
I don’t know about you, but it’s starting to feel a lot like Summer around these parts. The air is warming up, the sun shining a whole heck of a lot brighter, days are longer and the outdoors are calling! The good news is, when the outdoors call and you answer, you’re helping your body in ways you might not even believe. One of those ways to help your body is in the form of hiking, and it is truly a way to blast your body in a short amount of time.
A new kind of hiking, I just read about in a great article, is called speed hiking. More and more people are turning to this new-fangled way of hitting the outdoors and their bodies are very clearly reaping the benefits. There’s no real data as to how many speed hikers are fluttering around the nation, but one thing is clear, it helps. The speed of your hike hovers right in between normal hikers and trail runners at about 4 - 6 miles per hour, and at this speed, an hour of work will absolutely help you cardiovascular wise, as well as pumping up your leg muscles.
Bottom line, it’s Summer and you should get out there and enjoy it. While enjoying it, why not try something that will get you fit FAST? Have speed hiking be your weekend plan, and during the week, get yourself into Fit Express and try our hydraulic resistance circuit training equipment. In 30 minutes, you can get a full body workout that will leave you tone, not sore.
You know those people (you might be one of them) that just can’t sit still? The pen clickers, the foot tappers, the pencil rollers, and the hair twisters? Yeah, turns out those people quite likely are fidgeting because they are genetically told to, and it turns out all that fidgeting might actually help you fight off fat.
That’s right, new studies are showing that fidgeters actually tend to weigh less on average than all those who do not fidget. All that motion, all that moving around, all that NOT sitting still actually leads to about 350 extra calories burned each day. They think a certain molecule called Bsx is in charge of the bodies decision whether or not to fidget, and could have a great deal to do whether or not you’re the sit-still variety, or the non-stop motion variety.
The cool thing is, some scientists also believe that the absence or presence of this might explain why some people are just intrinsically more active than others, and why some people have to fight so long and hard to lose the same amount of weight others lose with no effort at all. We can all hope, in the meantime, that this discovery leads to further prevent obesity!
Finally! Good News! I have to be honest, on this type of site, in the type of physical climate we seem to have surrounding us as of late, I get more and more used to posting bad news. More people each day gaining weight, more people getting sick from obesity, etc. etc. Today, however I finally get to post some good news!
According to a study recently completed by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, talk about a mouthful, 60% of the people studied actually were able to maintain their weight-loss within 5% over the course of an entire year. What does this mean for you folks? It means that weight-loss IS maintable, it IS possible to be successful, and heck, if 6 out of 10 American’s can do it, SO can you. Those in charge of the study were quoted as saying, ““Weight maintenance following weight loss is doable…We’re still learning the things that are necessary for weight maintenance in the long run.”
While the study did show that those who lost the largest amounts of weight also tended to gain back more, that could be because they had to make the largest lifestyle changes in order to lose that weight, and those, can be hardest to maintain. Regardless, th