Best Fitness Blog

By Karli Taylor

Can’t find the time to exercise? With the busy lives that Americans all lead, this may be the number one excuse that I hear when I ask people why they have let their “unfitness” get so far.

I understand that we work longer hours than we did 10 years ago. I understand that commutes take time and the children have places to go and cannot drive themselves. I will not argue with any of those time constraints. However, when I ask people what their favorite television show is, they all have an answer…

Americans spend more than 35 hours every week in front of the television.

I’m not asking you to go cold turkey on CSI or American Idol. I know that the tv can allow you to “zone out” and forget about reality for a bit, and we all need a certain amount of that. For one week keep a journal of your tv habit. Write down every show that you watch. I guarantee you will be shocked at the amount of time you spend sucked into shows that you don’t even really enjoy.

In addition to writing down what you watch, write down what time you watch and what you snack on while you are staying up late to watch Dave or Conan. Not only does TV watching take away time that you could be exercising, it tends to encourage other unhealthy habits like mindless snacking and staying up too late. These habits are slowly sabotaging your weight loss goals.

Not enough to convince you to put down the remote? Studies conducted at Cornell University found that slouching on the couch while watching TV pinched nerves exiting the spinal cord, worsening neck, shoulder, back and headache pain for 90 percent of people studied.

Can’t imagine an evening without your shows? There’s good news. Researchers at Yale University concluded that people don’t start to suffer the negative effects of television watching until they surpass the two hour a day mark.

...By Karli Taylor

Did you know that 70% of the calories that Americans eat every year are from restaurant meals?

With our over-extended lives, it often seems easier to pick something up or stop somewhere on the way home to eat, but the benefits of preparing your own meals are hard to ignore.

First of all, it’s less expensive to eat a home cooked meal than to buy take-out or eat at restaurants night after night. Find a few recipes that appeal to you, make a list, and buy only what you need, you can make a week's worth of dinners for about the same amount of money you'd spend in a mid-range restaurant for two or three meals. As an added cost saver, there are usually leftovers when you cook at home that you can use for lunch the next day.

In addition to saving money, eating home cooked meals will save your waistline. When you are preparing your own food, you control the amounts of fat, sodium, sugars and overall calories. Restaurants typically add butter, oil, salt and sugar to make foods more palatable adding hundreds of unnecessary calories to your plate.

Home cooking also puts you in control of portion sizes. You are the one deciding how much food to put on your plate which eliminates the temptation to overeat. Did you know that today’s restaurant portions are almost double what they were 10 years ago.

Last but not least, preparing your own food at home assures you that the food you are eating is fresh and free of chemicals and additives. All the techniques used to process food - canning, dehydrating and freezing - virtually destroy the flavor of food, so chemicals are often added to enhance their flavor. While chemicals might make the food look and taste better, it's not doing much for our bodies. The fewer chemicals you have in your body, the better your health will be. Studies have shown that chemicals contribute to obesity, high blood pressure, cancer, and come neurological issues.

With a little planning and a few weeks to get yourself into the habit, eating in will be as easy as eating out- and your body will thank you for it.