Low-Impact Workouts – Some people confuse “impact” with “intensity.”

With so much emphasis on high-impact workouts these days where you’re leaping off the ground, doing jumping jacks and plyometrics, some people think that’s the only way to work out. High-impact exercise does have benefits you won’t get from low-impact workouts. For one, high-impact exercise is best for building bone and preserving bone mass. On the other hand, you can get a good cardiovascular workout without jumping and pounding your feet against a hard surface. In some situations, a low-impact workout may be just what the doctor ordered – and a good change of pace too.

What is Low-Impact Exercise?

Low-impact exercise is exercise where one foot stays on the ground. It doesn’t involve running, jumping or plyometrics where both feet leave the ground at the same time. Many high-impact workouts can be modified so that they’re low impact, so that one foot always stays on the ground. You an even modify traditionally high-impact movements like jumping jacks so that one foot stays on the floor.

Some people confuse “impact” with “intensity.” Low-impact workouts don’t have to be low on the intensity scale. For example a step workout can be intense even when you’re not taking both feet off the floor. During a step workout, you’re constantly moving up and down off the platform and using large muscles in your lower body. This burns calories and boosts your heart rate without jumping around. If you think low impact means easy, try my Low Impact series videos!

Spin and cycle workouts, like my XTrain Ride and Cycle Max videos are another example of exercise you can take to a high level of intensity without pounding your feet against a hard surface. In fact these cycle workouts are not only low impact, they’re zero impact! The key is to do intervals at a higher resistance and pedal as fast as you can for short periods at different tempos and resistance. You can burn a significant number of calories doing a low-impact workout at a high intensity.

Why Would You Want to Do a Low-Impact Workout?

High-impact workouts place significant amounts of force on your feet and that force is transmitted to your joints. If you have osteoarthritis, exercise that pounds your joints can speed up the breakdown of cartilage and make the problem worse. But that doesn’t mean you should sit on the sidelines. Research shows that low-impact exercise helps to prevent osteoarthritis and is a good prescription for anyone who suffers from this common joint disease.

If you have an overuse injury, high-impact exercise may not be a safe option, but a spinning workout on an exercise bike may be an acceptable alternative, depending on the type of injury you have. If so, it’s a way to maintain your fitness level until you’ve recovered. Doing an occasional low-impact workout can also help you avoid overuse injuries by taking some of the pressure off your muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints.

Other situations where a low-impact workout works is when you took a break from exercise due to illness or surgery or immediately after a pregnancy when you’re de-conditioned. It’s a way to “get back into it” without risking an injury. It’s also a good way to start if you’re new to exercising.

Finally, a low-impact workout is a good change of pace when you’re a burned out from too many plyometric and boot camp sessions. It’ll break up the monotony of doing the same old routine and work your body in a different way. That has its advantages. Changing your routine is also a good way to break through a plateau and begin seeing results again.

How to Make It Effective

If you’re doing a low-impact routine because you’re “burned out,” you may not want to work out at a high-intensity level. On the other hand, if you’re using it to get a challenging cardiovascular workout, you’ll need to up the resistance if you’re doing a spin workout or increase the speed.

If you’re doing a step workout, you can raise the step height or use dumbbells to increase the calorie burn for some exercises or exaggerate the movements by lifting your legs higher.

The Bottom Line?

Don’t confuse low-impact with low-intensity. You can still get a good workout keeping one foot on the floor, and it’s a good way to work out when you don’t want to place extra stress on your joints or aggravate an injury. Even if you don’t have an injury or joint problems, an occasional low-impact workout is a nice change of pace and can help you avoid overuse injuries.

Low-Impact Workouts – Some people confuse “impact” with “intensity.”

Sticking With Menu Plans: I’m Shocked

I have been doing OK sticking with the menu plans I have been blogging about.  I can’t believe it although one meal usually doesn’t make it for the week and I just move it to the next. This has happened the past two weeks.

I am finding lots of great recipes on Pinterest. Even some desserts I would like to try like homemade Fig Newtons. We love those and I imagine making it ourselves would be healthier.

We are still juicing which is a lot of fun.  Had some discussions on juicing this weekend and decided most likely that we won’t be doing a 10 day juice fast for quite some time if at all.

We are thinking that we could do something like one or two juices a day and then have a healthy dinner.  Then maybe do a 3-5 day juice fast but we’ll just keep playing around with new juice recipes. Right now, the weekends are easiest to make them so that’s what we’ll do.

I’m still shocked that I’m starting to enjoy cooking. Now if we just had a bigger kitchen life would be much easier.  Mom and dad are treating us to a nice new kitchen cart for our birthday’s so that will go in the small dining room and we’ll move the microwave from the kitchen out onto that.  And Kev brought home his little office fridge from work so we could put all our juicing goods in there. What a guy!

Here’s the tentative menu plan for this week:

Monday-

Tofu (me)/Chicken (Kev), Basmati rice and buffalo cauliflower

Tuesday-

Quinoa vegetable ‘fried’ rice plus tofu (me) & chicken (Kev)

Wednesday-

Breakfast for Dinner (probably eggs/biscuits)

Thursday-

Homemade veggie burgers, sweet potato fries and veggie

Friday-

Spaghetti w/’meat’balls, garlic bread and salad

Hit up Bed, Bath & Beyond this past weekend and bought a zester, an olive oil bottle and of course more Keurig K-Cups.  A Hawaiian Blend, something new to us.  Do you love BBB and Keurig as much as I do? LOL

Getting closer to making a decision on a processor/blender.  I have heard great things about the Ninja Mega Kitchen System so that is leading the pack right now.  Do you have a Ninja Kitchen System?

What is on your menu plan this week?

Sticking With Menu Plans: I’m Shocked

From Fit to Chic

Shop these outfits: Bruna wears Long-sleeve Cover-up and Rib Essential leggings – Laura wears Strength fitness tank and Denim skirts – Amanda wears Freedom Blouse and skinny jeans – Laura wears Strength fitness tank and Stride fitness capri – Jenn wears Freedom Blouse and Active fitness capri

From Fit to Chic

Building Healthy Self-Esteem

By Christy Primmer

We have all been there. You spot a successful and attractive person walking with their head held high; rather than feeling good about yourself and your accomplishments in life the voice sets in “why can’t I look like that” or “how come I never have any luck?” and so it begins… the vicious cycle of negative thoughts leading to poor self-esteem.

Has it ever occurred to you that luck truly has nothing to do with it? Do you often find yourself feeling jealous or insecure around certain people, perhaps even random strangers who appear to have it all?

This brief article is designed to encourage you to start living your life, focusing on your goals and not anyone else. Only you know what is holding you back from “having it all.” Only you can make the necessary changes – but first you need an action plan.

I encourage the clients I work with to focus on their personal goals and desires. Whether it is pursuing education or a new career or improving your body image, it can happen. You need to be plugged into your own life and build your own self up. News flash… No one will do it for you. If you are tired of living life behind the scenes and feel desperate to make positive changes then start today!

You know where you have been and where you want to go. There is nothing wrong with asking for some help or guidance to get there but the responsibility is yours.

Start with the small things. Start complimenting yourself and when others compliment you simply reply with thank you! Too often, people find excuses not to accept compliments or to take pride in their work. Why? It is acceptable to feel proud about yourself. It is good for you and ultimately, for those around you that you like who you are. I encourage you to embark on a new journey today. No more body comparisons, no more self-guilt because you do not possess the body or career of your dreams. Take action and make it happen. You are worthy of healthy self-esteem. There is only one you. Why wait?

The only regret you may have is that you did not start sooner on your journey to a healthy you. Your self-esteem needs to be able to endure the critics in life. For some people that may mean family, co-workers, employers, neighbours, etc. the list goes on and on. Why do I say endure them? I say endure because it is bound to happen. Someone is going to criticize you in some way. Being able to endure another person’s opinion of you is simply accepting that it is theirs and not owning it as your own.

In order to feel good about yourself you need to honestly believe that you are enough just the way you are.

Create a list of the many desires you have and tackle them one day at a time. It will not be an easy process; that I promise you. You will have days that are more difficult than others. That is for sure! Do not give up. Persevere. Build on what you have right now.

Feeling good about yourself will definitely lead to healthier choices in all aspects of life. Feeling good about yourself will allow you to try new things and to step outside of your current comfort zone. Do it… what are you waiting for? The time is now.

Inspire yourself to put the past where it belongs – behind you. Take time to put yourself first and reap the benefits of building positive and healthy self-esteem. Your heart, mind and body will thank you.

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Building Healthy Self-Esteem

How Compulsive Overeating Affects Your Health and Happiness

By Jenn Emar –

Eating habits can reflect a lot of elements of a person’s mental health if they are in anyway unique or irregular. While not all unusual eating habits indicate a disorder, they can offer a glimpse of someone’s state of mind or inner emotional life. Someone might describe themselves as a “food lover” if they have a habit of eating large portions and snacking often even when they are not necessarily hungry. While they may have a love of food, there could be indications in their behavior that are related to compulsive overeating.People that suffer from this type of eating disorder show signs of being very overweight and most often, morbidly obese. A BMI greater than 30 is considered to be obese and many people with an overeating disorder are well within this range as they often consume nearly twice or even three times the amount that an average person needs to have a healthy diet. Their desire to constantly eat is fueled not by a bodily need but by an emotional one. Whether they are conscious of it or not they are most likely engaging in what is known as emotional eating.

People who are diagnosed with compulsive overeating struggle with feelings of stress and anxiety but appease themselves through the comfort of their favorite foods. The type of food that usually becomes “comfort food” is often high in fat and sugar, making the person’s eating habits very unhealthy and leading to tremendous weight gain. Consuming much more than the average person needs can actually put quite a strain on the body and the physical stress of being overweight is detrimental to a person’s health as well. The biggest problem with an eating disorder such as this is that there is no real telling how much weight the person might eventually gain. If they continually eat far more than is recommended by health guidelines then they are likely to gradually increase weight over time which leads to even more health problems with fatal consequences.

The sooner a person with compulsive eating disorder gets treatment, the better they will be able to recover from both their food addiction and their growing health problems. A combination of diet and psychological care is crucial as a preventative measure to keep their health intact for years in the future.

Sovereign Health of California offers a highly specialized team of qualified and licensed professionals with diverse clinical experience in behavioral health and addictions. Our staff will create your unique program to improve your mental and physical health, helping you get back to life.

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How Compulsive Overeating Affects Your Health and Happiness

It’s National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day

Plus it’s FRIDAY!

Celebrate with one of these recipes…

Peanut Butter No Bake Balls

Kale and Sweet Potato Brown Rice Bowl

The Green Elvis Smoothie

Chocolate Peanut Butter LOVE Cookies

Healthy No Bake Cookies

Even more:

Kale with a Peanut Sauce
Tasty Noodle Salad with a Peanut Sauce
Fresh Spring Rolls with a Light Peanut Sauce

In life news, I’m super pumped for this weekend — tomorrow is my bridal shower and I have a lot of friends and family coming into town. It should be quite a fun weekend. I hope you all have a lovely weekend as well. Let me know if you try any of these peanut butter recipes to celebrate National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day.

It’s National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day

The Many Manifestations of Fear

By Tim Ong –

Fear manifests itself in many forms. At it’s mildest, it is experienced as a vague sense of anxiety or frustration, or a sense of discomfort that is difficult to pin down. At its extreme end, fear can kill. In between these two ends, fear manifests itself in all negative feelings.

Take for example anger. At first glance, anger may not seem to have anything to do with fear but on closer scrutiny we can recognize that the root cause of that anger arises from fear. A simple display of anger at someone who suddenly cut into our lane while we are driving has its root in our fear of accident, which means damages to our car, injury to self or even loss of life. The fear of accident has a deeper fear of loss of life and property. Sometimes the anger is directed at ourselves for our carelessness in driving.

Procrastination is also a result of fear. People who procrastinate in doing what they needed to do are not facing up to their fears or aversions to certain things and situations. Even laziness may be a symptom of fear in facing up to certain tasks.

Greed is a form of fear. The root cause of greed is our fear of not having enough food, money or security. From this root cause grows not only the desire to have enough but to have more than enough so as to cover the fear of loss. The more one fears, the bigger his buffer of security is, and so his needs to accumulate more and more.

Fear also manifests itself in the form of poverty, poor health, lack of energy and interests, and depression. Fear also manifests itself as obsessive compulsive disorder, panic attacks and the many types of phobias.

It is fear that leads men to war and wanton killings. It is fear that leads to violence.

If we can recognize the many faces of fear, we can then see how costly it is to live in fear all the time. Perhaps then we can be motivated to transform fear and find peace.

Dr. Tim Ong is a medical doctor with keen interests in self improvement, mind science and spirituality. He is the author of “From Fear to Love: A Spiritual Journey” and a contributor to “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life: Volume 3″ together with other authors like Ken Blanchard, Byron Katie, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Brown. For more similar articles, visit: http://fromfeartolove.com

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The Many Manifestations of Fear