What Is Physical Fitness

I was watching Dancing with the Stars and Toni Braxton mentioned that she was (physically) fit. Toni was also recently diagnosed with heart disease. She doesn't fit the profile of someone with heart disease. She is thin, but the question is...is she fit? Just because she is thin does not mean she is physically fit. She has heart disease and high blood pressure (which was reduced since starting with Dancing with the Stars), therefore in my opinion she is not fit.

What does physically fitness mean?
Overall fitness is made up of five main components: -- Cardiorespiratory endurance -- Muscular strength -- Muscular endurance -- Body composition -- Flexibility. To access your fitness you have to look at all 5 factors. I recently joined a new gym and was tested in all of those areas and I did a VO2 Max test (it's considered the best test to measure cardiorespiratory endurance). This test was extremely useful to me because it showed me the best zone I should train in order to burn the most fat. Considering I don't like doing cardio this really helps me so that I don't have to do as much (hopefully).
For all those people who ask thin people why they are going to they gym or that they don't need to exercise, think again. Just because you are skinny does not mean that you are healthy!

What Motivates You?

Motivation is different for everyone. Sometimes I need to get motivated to workout. So what motivates me? Some of the things that motivate me to workout include: my belly bulging out of my clothes, but the best motivation for me is setting a goal. I try to set a realistic goal and will keep at it until I attain it.

The health department recently determined that 2.5 hours of exercise is required weekly; this is the minimum amount required for "good health". So what does this mean? The reality is that with today's hectic schedule not everyone can exercise 2.5 hours a week and people will always find excuses for not exercising. But getting in some exercise is better than nothing. What is comes down to is getting motivated and finding what it is that motivates you? What is really preventing you from exercising 30 minutes, 3 days a week? What fits your busy schedule better, exercising one hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day? Lol!

Free Copy of Natural Muscle Magazine

I am often told by women that they only do cardio in the gym because they do not know how to lift weights. I used a variety of sources to learn the proper techniques for lifting. This is really important to prevent any injuries. I purchased magazines, VHS tapes and practiced lifting looking in the mirror. Finally, when I thought I knew what I was doing, I hired a trainer for a few weeks to confirm that I was lifting properly. Finding a good trainer is difficult and I was lucky to be informed enough so that when I got a crappy trainer and knew not to continue with him/her. For example, one trainer looked at me and actually said to me "why do you need to workout/go to the gym"? I guess she didn't want my money. Needless to say, I did not select this individual to be my trainer.

Download a free copy of Natural Muscle magazine below. This magazine is full of recipes, training and workout tips to help you get started and help you reach your goal and be informed. Click on link below for your free copy:

http://webcast.bodybuilding.com/fitshow/other/nmmay08web.pdf

Healthy Eating on a Budget

With the current economic crisis in the world today there is a lot of talk about saving and budgeting. Economic crisis or not, I am always thinking of ways to save (it’s my hobby)! So we have all heard that healthy eating is expensive so here are some ways to eat healthily on a budget:

Coupons, coupons, coupons! I’ll be honest, I clip coupons. I have at times saved as much as $15 from coupons. I am selective and I only clip coupons that are $1 or more, I also only clip coupons for products I use. The trick is remembering that I have them and not letting them expire.
Use a Grocery List. I find that if I have a grocery list I buy the items on the list and I don’t buy on impulse. A list also helps me get out of the grocery store faster (I am not a fan of grocery shopping).
Buy Generic. There are few things where I have brand loyalty (automobiles is one). I like trying new stuff and I am always doing so. You won’t know until you try. I will definitely try generic brands and if I don’t like them, then I will buy the brand name (hopefully with a coupon).
Buy in Bulk. It is not always wise to buy in bulk if you are going to use it all, so I stick with items that don’t perish easily. I’ll go to Costco and buy oats, tuna and items that I know won’t waste because it spoils or gets stale. I really, really, really hate going to Costco and try to get out as quickly as possible. One of my pet peeves is people who leave their carts in the middle of the aisle and are busy sampling! I also hate paying for the annual membership $50 for a membership to get a discount on food is expensive in my opinion.
Buy Fruits & Vegetable on Sale. We all know that fruits and vegetable are full of vitamins and minerals and are better than processed foods so you are not wasting your money on empty calories. I find that when they are on sale they more likely to be fresher. My mother takes this to an extreme; she only buys whatever fruit is on sale. So if grapes are on sale this week at the grocery store, she will buy grapes and next week if it’s pineapples, she will buy pineapples. Since she will eat almost any fruit known to man, she buys whatever is on sale!
Shop the “Outer” Ring. Grocery stores keep the junk food in the middle aisle and you are most likely to find the fresh produce, meats and diary around the perimeter. Stay way from the aisles with the processed and junk foods!
Eat out Less. Enough said about this. Eating out is more expensive!

Breakfast - The Most Important Meal of the Day!

We have all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day therefore it is important to eat breakfast. Breakfast provides fuel that your body needs after a night of fasting. I try to eat breakfast within 30 minutes after waking up, I will be lucky if I can make it an hour. I usually wake up extremely hungry and after brushing my teeth I must eat. I didn’t always eat breakfast, when I was in high school I rarely ate breakfast unless my mom made porridge or an omelet for us. I started eating breakfast when I was in college because I started getting major stomach cramps when I didn’t eat enough food. Breakfast foods that were common in my family included porridge (oatmeal, cream of wheat, cornmeal), fruit, an omelet, raisin bran cereal and occasionally bakes with salt (cod) fish (typical Dominican breakfast).

Below is my list of worst breakfast choices”
Steak & Eggs. One of the oddest breakfast choices in my opinion is Steak and Eggs. Now why would anyone want to eat steak and eggs for breakfast? Just think of all of the cholesterol and fat in steak and eggs.

French Toast. Sorry, I am not too interested in eating a slice of bread coated with egg yolk (yuck!) and drenched with syrup. Denny's French toast has over 1,200 calories, 79 grams of fat, and 141 percent of your daily value of cholesterol. Not sure what is in it for the caloric content to be so high?

Doughnuts. I ate my first Krispy Kreme donut when I moved to the US about 7 years ago and it was also the last time I ate it. These donuts melted in my mouth like cotton candy and I hate cotton candy. I got sick eating cotton candy as a child and never ate it again. The Krispy Kreme Chocolate Iced Kreme Filled doughnut has 350 calories, 20 grams of fat, and 23 grams of sugar per doughnut.

Bagels. I am not sure why people think that bagels are healthy? Really now, it’s just bread with a hole in the middle. White bread isn’t the healthiest choice so I am not sure why a bagel would be? The average bagel will provide you with four servings of bread, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Sugary Cereals. Just because a cereal uses the word fruit in its name doesn't make it healthy. Some of the worst cereal culprits include Fruity Pebbles (9 grams of sugar) and Fruit Loops (12 grams of sugar).

While breakfast is important, it is just as important to make the right choices and the five choices above would not it.

7 Reasons Not to Drink Soda Pop!

Honestly, I've never liked soda, even as a child. I stopped drinking soda when I was in the 8th grade when my science teacher told us that if a cockroach fell into a bottle of coke it would disintegrate. I still don't know if that is actually true but I am terrified of insects. Just the thought of that made me sick. If the coachroach story doesn't scare you like it did me, below are 7 more reasons not to drink soda pop:

1. It can cause weight gain. According to a study drinking one to two cans of soda a day increases a person’s risk of being overweight or obese by 32.8 percent. The researchers found that those who drank one to two cans of diet soda per day were at an even higher risk (54.5 percent) of being overweight or obese.
2. It puts you at risk for diabetes and heart disease. Another study found that people who drink soda every day, whether regular or diet, were 44 percent more likely to develop metabolic syndrome—a condition that greatly increases your risk for heart disease and diabetes.
3. It may cause digestion difficulties. Some experts believe the phosphoric acid that is in soda may disturb the acid-alkaline balance of the stomach. As a result, soda drinkers may develop digestional distress, acid reflux, stomach inflammation, and intestinal erosion.
4 It’s addictive. A 2000 study revealed that soft-drink manufacturers add caffeine to soda for one reason only: to get consumers hooked. Once you’re addicted, going cold turkey can create withdrawal symptoms, including fatigue, depression, irritability, tremors, sleep deprivation, and headaches.
5. It does not contain any nutrients. A 20-ounce bottle of cola contains nearly 250 calories, but take a look at the label, and you’ll see that it has virtually no vitamins or minerals. In fact, the only things soda is packed with are sugar and caffeine—
6. It’s harmful to your teeth and bones. According to a recent Tufts University study, women who drank three 12-ounce colas a day had 5 percent less bone density than women who drink less than a serving a day. The phosphoric acid in cola prevents calcium from being absorbed by the body. Soda is also damaging for teeth:
7. It’s expensive. Compared to fruit juice or milk, soft drinks may seem cheap, but when you consider the lack of nutritional value, soda seems like a rip-off. The average 12-ounce can of soda costs about $1 from the vending machine, so if you drank two a day for a year, you’d spend a whopping $730 on pop every year.

I am sure there are several more reasons not to drink soda, but those are my top 7 (in addition to the coachroach story which I dare not to test)!

Is eating healthy foods more expensive than eating junk food?

Someone was complaining to me that their doctor told them to eat more healthy foods and include fruits and vegetables in their diet, but healthy eating is so much more expensive. I’ve heard complaints from people who started eating more healthily that, as a result, their grocery bills increased significantly. But, we don’t know if their “dining out” costs were reduced. Eating out is definitely more expensive than cooking your own meals. If you were to compare healthy snacks to junk food snacks, for example, eating an orange instead of a bag of potato chips, it would probably be the same cost. Although a bag of potato chips would keep me full longer, but it would be mostly empty calories. In the long run, I think eating healthily would be cheaper since it would mean avoiding the high costs of medical care as a result of heart disease, hypertension and all of those diseases associated with an unhealthy diet!

Remember, you are what you eat!