10 Snacks To Avoid

I recently read this article in Shape Magazine on the worst snacks for your body. I was actually surprised  by a couple of the snacks...2 of the 10 were actually "fruit". I'll recap for you, but I highly recommend reading the article for yourself. 

1. Canned Fruit: Loaded with excess sugar and has a much lower nutrient content than frozen fruit and veggies. Also, the chemical used to preserve the canned good is actually toxic :/

2.Potato Chips: Well, yeah. I'm not even going to elaborate on this one. 

3. Rice Cakes: Low on calories and nutrients. Made from processed white rice, which is a high blood pressure spiking carb. 

4. Blueberry Muffins: Don't let the fruit fool you, a muffin is basically a cupcake without the frosting. Make muffins a treat not an everyday snack. 

5. Granola Bars: Usually filled with processed carbs and dried fruit (yup, even thats bad) and held together with some type of sugar (i.e. honey or agave). High in calories and low in filling fiber :(

6. Honey Roasted/Salted Nuts: Sugar, fat, salt and easy to overeat. 

7. Yogurt w/ fruit on the bottom: High sugar fruit mixture...defeates the purpose of being good and eating yogurt. Try greek yogurt instead :)

8. Microwave Popcorn: Processed carbs, salt, trans fat, and chemicals coating the inside of the bag. 

9. Dried Fruit: Dried fruit is just regular fruit that has the moisture taken from it and shrunken down. So eating 7 dried apricots is like eating all the sugar in 7 regular apricots. I can't believe I never thought of this before. 

10. Diet Soda: Finally one that is obvious again. Diet soda can deplete calcium from your bones and is full of artificial sweetener. Steer clear of all soda. 

Just to keep this from being too depressing for all the dried fruit popcorn lovers like myself, HERE  are 10 summer snack under 200 calories :)

(photo via)

Santa Monica Stairs

The weather right now in LA is perfect for outdoor workouts, mid seventy's sunny but not hot with a breeze if your by the ocean. Yesterday I ran the Santa Monica stairs —a staircase on 4th and San Vincenti that is about 200 steps straight up. Then you can either take the stair back down or run back down the cannon on the sidewalk (it's about 600 meters) I alternated 1x jogging up the stairs 1x walking up skipping a step to work my glutes. I was able to do eight times before I decided to call it a day and end with a run up the cannon back to the car. This is a fun workout that can be as difficult or easy as you want it to be. (My boyfriend said he has even seen a lady doing the stairs w a baby on her back) If you live in the west LA area you should definitely try this out, you may even be lucky enough to see Matthew McConaughey looking like a sweaty mess running up them. The view from the top isn't bad either... ;)

PS- If you are not lucky enough to have a large staircase with ocean views at your disposal, any stairs will do really. Just picture yourself climbing these stairs in Santorini...with Mattew McConaughey waiting for you at the top. 

couch potato workout

When I set out to write a mid week fitness post I had something different in mind but while this certainly isn't a replacement for exercising off the couch...it's actually a really good idea. This reminds me of something me and my college roomies would do while we watched stupid reality tv. If I'm going to watch the bachelorette (my guilty pleasure) I might as well get something good out of it. 15 reps of each on every commercial break isn't too much to ask and it keeps you from snacking. I think it's worth a try. :)

MONDAY MENTAL HEALTH

After spending years working in palliative care (caring for patients the last 12 weeks of their lives), nurse Bronnie Ware began recording her patients dying epiphanies on her blog, Inspiration and Chai. Eventually it became so popular she wrote a book, The Top Five Regrets Of The Dying. Ware writes that people gain incredible clarity and vision at the end of their lives, and that when it came to regrets common themes would surface again and again. So we can learn from their wisdom, here they are: 

1.  I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

4.  I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5.  I wish that I had let myself be happier.

I really really really don't want to be thinking any of these things near the end or ever. Which I guess means trying to keep these in mind every day. :)

(photo from here)

MONDAY HEALTH AND FITNESS

DENISE AUSTIN'S 15 MINTUE CHAIR WORKOUT

I recently stumbled across this 15 minute chair workout on WomansDay.com. If I had my own office I would probably do this everyday...for now it will have to wait until I'm alone in my apartment. The workout consists of 8 simple exercises and stretches easy enough for everyone to do but difficult enough get you toned up if you did it everyday. Click the clink for the full article with explanations of the poses!  

(photos from Womans Day)

DAYS 2 & 3

JUICE FAST UPDATE

I finished my juice cleanse Friday evening right in time for cinco de mayo and I have to say I'm happy I did it. I did get hungry, especially in the early evening but the vanilla cinnamon cashew milk they have as the last drink is actually really filling. By the last day I felt energized and clear minded but I was just plain tired of drinking. I really didn't feel thirsty, in the least bit at all and I would drink have the juice and want to be done with it. I did lose about 5lbs though, which was nice. So overall I give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars. Good if you want to loose some weight and feel good in a hurry. :)

DAY 1

Today is day one of my three day juice cleanse. I decided to do the Blue Print Foundation Cleanse, and so far (I'm only 2 juices in) the drinks have been refreshing and delicious. The first juice was a mixture of lemon and green veggies, and the one I'm enjoying now has pineapple, apple and mint. I feel clear headed but a little tired...probably from staying up too late though. Four more drinks to go today and I'm pretty excited...especially for the spicy lemonade!

MONDAY HEALTH & FITNESS: SWIMMING

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After 15 years of competitive swimming I usually find other ways to work out. Swimming makes me miss doing it competitively too much, and I get sad. But for most people it's an awesome workout. My advice for people who want to swim for a workout is to not think of it like going for a run. Think of it as more of a track workout, even if you are training for a triathlon or longer swim. Do a long swim to warm up then do sets depending on your goals. Try something like 10x100's (4 lengths) or 200's (8 lengths) on an interval you can hold but not by much, maybe 10 seconds. This type of training will keep your heart rate up and make you hold a certain level of intensity (or you'll miss the interval). When you just swim laps continuously you have no way to know if you're slowing down or slacking off. 

(photo from a friend)

MONDAY FITNESS: BIKRAM YOGA

My experience with bikram yoga (or hot yoga) has been one of extreme highs and lows. For those of you not familiar with bikram it is a type of yoga done in a heated room usually between 98 and 105 degrees. Each class you do the same 26 poses designed to strech your entire body and distribute fresh oxenegated blood to all your muscles, tendons, and organs. I did bikram pretty religously for over a year and I have to say it made me feel amazing...AFTER each class. During class I would experience a wide range of emotions from raging anger to extreme euphoria, but after class I felt refreshed and relaxed. It must have been something about the 100+ degree room that would bring to the surface all the emotions I had been trying to surpress during the day. Eventually I decieded to take a little break from bikram to try different types of yoga, my first "regular" yoga class in a "regular" air conditioned room felt like a trip to Disney World. But the truth is...I miss bikram. Well, maybe I don't miss bikram exactly, but the way it made me feel after I did it. I think I'll look into finding a hot yoga studio out here. If  your in the Miami area this studio is awesome. Below are the 26 poses of bikram:

Look easy? They aren't.

PS - 10 funny things they don't tell you about hot yoga. All SO true.

(photo from here)

GREEN TEA BREAKDOWN

One of my New Years Resolutions was to drink more water and green tea instead of coffee. The benefits of green tea seem to know no end, from preventing cancer and dementia to boosting metabolism (as long as you don't load it down with harmful sweetners and sugar!). And the best part of it all is it's super affordable and available at every grocery store. 

(photo from here)

HOW TO: KEEP A FOOD JOURNAL

Writing down what you eat and drink lets you take look at your eating habits and make healthy changes. Use the following guidelines to help you as you go:

• Get in the habit of recording everything immediately - right after you eat or drink.

• Write what you were doing (i.e driving, watching t.v. etc) and how you were feeling (i.e. rushed, depressed, excited) when you were eating

• BE HONEST! This isn't something other people are going to read it's only for you and your own good.

PS— a few ways to keep your journal: online/on your phone, in an actual journal, or print out some of these every week

(photo from here)

THE TRUTH ABOUT LOSING WEIGHT

Start The Week Off Right Fitness Tips

My boyfriend recently got certified to be a personal trainer and told me an interesting thing he learned about losing weight. To lose weight, you simply must burn more calories than you consume. That's it. If you do this no matter what you will lose weight. Now that doesn't mean eat taco bell all day and just make sure you burn it all off. You would lose weight but you probably wouldn't be healthy. So drop the fad diets, eat a healthy balanced meals, get plenty of exercise, drink lots of water and (if you want to lose weight) just try to burn more calories every day than you eat and drink  — but remember everyday activities and even sleeping burn calories, so take that into account :) 

PS- I think I am going to incorporate more health and fitness into the blog. As a former college athlete it was a big part of my life and still is. 

(photo from jasperphoto)

(Note: I am not a nutritionist or a physician so please consult you doctor before making any extreme changes to your diet or exercise routine.)

WHY YOU SHOULD LAUGH LIKE A 5YR OLD

Did you know the average four-year-old laughs 300 times a day versus the average fourty-year-olds mere 4 times?  It has been proven that laughter can actually reduce physical pain and stress, increase health-inducing hormones, and make you an all around friendlier and more attractive person. So why aren't we all laughing like kids?! Read this article to find out more.

PS- need a little help getting started? Watch this shark scene from Strange Wilderness:

(photo from things about love)