Best Fitness Blog

You are busy, and when you are busy you exercise less and don’t eat as well as you should. But the key to weight loss is burning more calories than you take in, but also eating healthy. You may think you eat fine, but if you take a few minutes to evaluate what you eat, you may start to notice some unhealthy habits. The first question that you should ask yourself is: What types of processed foods do you eat?

Processed foods have added fats and sugars to make them taste better, last longer and cook faster. This hidden extras add on the calories more quickly than most of us realize. Because of this, the typical American diet is loaded with sugar, fat, and sodium, often leading to high blood pressure, low energy, and poor digestion. The best way to reduce your risk for many diseases and health issues is to choose natural and minimally processed foods. Often called “eating clean”.

If you want to eat clean, you need to eat the least processed food with the most nutrients. How? No more fast foods, no more frozen food aisle at the grocery store, choose fresh vegetables and fruits over canned or frozen.

Choose foods that are low in fat, high in fiber, with essential vitamins and minerals. This will control blood sugar, give you more energy for exercise and give you the fiber that you need for better and healthy digestion.

Eating a less processed, healthy diet along with increased exercise can boost your metabolism and help you lose weight. Replacing fast foods and processed foods can help you eat less calories overall and increase the amount of fiber you eat. Additionally, high-fiber whole grains, vegetables, and fruits will help you feel fuller longer causing you to eat less. Did you know that people who eat an additional 14 grams of fiber a day eat 10% less throughout the day.?

By Karli Taylor

Even though the low-carb craze has finally started to die down, I still hear people ordering burgers without buns and salads instead of sandwiches in an attempt to lose weight. There is not one particular type of food that makes us fat- Bread is not the enemy! Let’s take a look at some ways to keep the bakeries in business while still managing our waistlines.

Despite what disciples of the low-carb craze profess, bread can actually be an ally in the battle of the bulge. Though simple white breads can leave us feeling less than satisfied, hearty whole grain breads that are heavy and dense can help fight cravings for hours after we have eaten them. The complex carbohydrates found in whole wheat and whole grain breads provide fiber that makes us feel fuller for longer and keeps us from reaching for a snack 20 minutes after we finish our lunch.

So what should you look for when choosing something on which to spread your pb&j? I’m sure that you have heard to look for whole wheat or whole grain on the label, but make sure that the first ingredient is whole wheat or whole oats- without the “whole” you may be getting the nutrients of a white bread with some brown food coloring!

The key word is FIBER. Look for a bread that has at least 4 grams of fiber per slice, and you will feel fuller for longer while helping to maintain your gastrointestinal health at the same time.

Once you find something with 4 or more grams of fiber, make sure that the sugar does not outweigh the fiber. Some breads may have a decent amount of fiber, but the calories are through the roof . Your best bet is a light whole wheat bread or one of the newer sandwich thins or flat breads on the market. With about 100 calories and five or more grams of fiber and protein each, they really are the best things since sliced bread!

...By Karli Tayor

Losing weight can be overwhelming. Even losing that last 5 pounds can seem like a daunting task that requires hard work and sacrifice. I’m not about to tell you that there is a quick fix to drop pounds, but I will tell you a few little things that you can do that will really add up to some big drops on the scale.

• Drink Water. Not only will drinking more water make you feel fuller for longer, but water is essential to keeping your body running efficiently. If you don’t drink enough water, your kidney function slows down. As a result, your kidneys pass off the unfinished work to your liver. What does that have to do with weight loss? Well, one of your liver's functions is to help your body burn stored fat for energy- it can't perform that job fully if it has to do the kidney's job also. By not drinking water you put your liver on double duty, decreasing its fat burning potential and causing you to store more fat.
• Do NOT drink soda, even diet soda. Since regular soda is basically liquid sugar loaded with useless calories. Did you know that if you replaced 2 bottles of soda with 2 bottles of water, you could lose up to 2 pounds a week? Some studies now link consumption of diet soda with weight gain because even though diet sodas have 0 calories, the artificial sweeteners increase your cravings for sugars and other foods that make you gain weight.
• Don't sit down for more than 4 hours. Studies show that sitting down or being virtually inactive for longer than 4 hours slows down your metabolism making it easier for you to store fat. To prevent this from happening, try standing up for at least 10 minutes within every 4 hours that you are awake. Easy enough right?
• CHEW your food longer and lose weight faster. Your grandmother wasn’t completely nuts for telling you to chew everything 20 times. You should chew everything you eat at least 8-12 times. Eat slowly. Your body doesn't realize that you've had enough to eat until several minutes after you've had it. If you chew your food more than usual, not only will you eat more slowly, but also you'll trick your body into thinking it's had more to eat

Try adding these simple habits to your day and watch the number on the scale get closer to that goal.

... By Karli Taylor

What did you have for breakfast today - coffee? Most mornings, we barely have time to glance at the kitchen. Though fixing breakfast can take up a few minutes that are  in short supply, there is a great deal of evidence that breakfast really may be the most important meal of the day!

Did you know that the simple act of eating breakfast every day is a big part of a successful weight loss plan?

People skip breakfast thinking they're cutting calories, but by mid-morning and lunch, the hunger takes over and most people eat more calories than they would have had they eaten a sensible breakfast.  Breakfast skippers tend to replace calories during the day with mindless nibbling and overeating at lunch and dinner.

A study conducted on individuals who have lost and kept off more than 30 pounds for over a year reported that 78% of the participants ate breakfast every day, and almost 90% reported eating breakfast at least five days a week.
Another research group analyzed government data on 4,200 adults.

They found that regular breakfast eaters were more likely to exercise regularly. Perhaps starting your morning off in a healthy way sets the tone for the rest of the day!

The same study showed that women who ate breakfast regularly tended to eat fewer calories overall during the day, and men and women who ate breakfast had lower overall daily fat intake than non-breakfast eaters.
 It makes sense. Eating early in the day keeps us from overeating and making poor food choices  later in the day.  But that’s not all! Eating breakfast also jump-starts your metabolism allowing your calorie burning furnace to start earlier- the longer your furnace is active, the more total calories you burn in a day.

So what’s for breakfast?