Monthly Archives: December 2013

How to Avoid Common Workout Mistakes

Hey guys! I’m excited to have a guest post today on a topic I think a lot of people can benefit from hearing about! Enjoy!

How to Avoid Common Workout Mistakes

Exercise is more than just a way to shed some fat or prepare for an upcoming marathon. Exercise benefits your physical appearance and overall health.

However, there are certain things about exercise that everyone should remember. If not done properly, exercise can backfire. Below are some common mistakes people make when they work out.

Mistake#1: Focusing on a Single Muscle Group or Body Area

Do you dream of having washboard abs and eliminating that beer belly? While these goals are specific, concentrating on your abs by doing 100 crunches may be counterproductive. Regardless of what muscle group you’re targeting, you need to lose fat in order to obtain muscle definition. Spot-specific exercises like crunches and sit-ups are not enough to improve your fat metabolism.

You should incorporate high-intensity interval exercises and core exercises in your routine. These exercises help burn fat, improve muscle definition all over your body, and promote aerobic fitness.

A well-rounded exercise program includes not only core training and high-intensity exercises, but also strength training, aerobics, and active stretching.

Mistake #2: Limiting Sleep for the Sake of Your Workout

Although experts recommend working out first thing in the morning, sacrificing sleep for it is not the answer. It is crucial not to lose sleep, as this is your body’s way of recharging itself. Loss of sleep can impair your weight management efforts and raise your risk for various health problems.

Some people think that they can allot more time for exercise by cutting down on sleep. However, if you integrate high-intensity exercises into your routine, you don’t have to exercise for hours at a time.

According to studies, people who do high-intensity exercises reap more benefits than those who focus on slow, long-distance forms of physical activity.

Mistake #3: Exerting Too Much or Too Little Effort in Strength Training

When strength training, some people go to the extreme. Some push themselves too hard, while others use weights that are too light. To benefit from strength training, make sure that your body is challenged, but just enough for your current level of fitness.

It will make no difference whether your weights are heavy or not. As long as you achieve muscle failure and fatigue after a few repetitions, your routine is effective.

Also remember that you need to increase the intensity of your workout to keep your body challenged.

Mistake #4: Over-Exercising

Sometimes, the “no pain, no gain” mentality and exercising too intensely or frequently can backfire. Part of a well-rounded exercise routine is recovery – you need to allow your body to recuperate. Also, you should not do high-intensity exercises more than twice a week.

One thing that many individuals keep forgetting is when you increase intensity, you can decrease frequency. Give yourself sufficient time to recover. Pushing yourself too hard can lead to injury.

Other Ways to Stay Healthy and Attractive

Good health is achieved from the inside out. Aside from exercising, there are other ways to promote optimal health and physical appearance, such as:

  1. Avoid toxins –The key is to keep toxins out, as they speed up the aging process. Processed foods, refined carbohydrates, sugar, and grains are sources of these toxins.
  2. Avoid alcohol and smoking – These vices are other sources of toxins and free radical damage.
  3. Get some sun – Not only does sun exposure help optimize your vitamin D levels, but it also gives your skin a natural tan.
  4. Ditch drugs for natural alternatives – Instead of using drugs to support your health, try using natural supplements instead. Some experts recommend taking saw palmetto with pumpkin seed or lycopene.

About the Author

Adrienne R. writes health and fitness articles. At present, she is researching how multivitamin benefits one’s health. She uses online sources, such as the Mercola natural health newsletter, to get up-to-date information about health and fitness.

Giveaway Winner!

I’m going to go through today in reverse order so I don’t leave you all in suspense over my giveaway winner!

But first I have to set the mood. I’m old fashioned so I picked the winner out of a hat. A hat I specifically brought back from school for this purpose (don’t ask why I have a hat like this…), so as I wrote down all the entries, I blasted Christmas music. Tis the season!

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I was going to bring the hat down by the tree for picture purposes, but then I ended up with something even better. I decided to take a picture with Charlie and the hat…and he decided he wanted to pick the giveaway winner!

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And then for good measure, he decided to sit on the hat.

 

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ANYWAYS-now that you’ve sat through enough cat pictures, here’s the winner!

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Miranda, please email me your address at astottler @gmail.com! 🙂

Confession-when I decided to do this giveaway, I was kind of scared no one would enter…and I’d be forced to eat all the delicious food by myself. I guess there would be worse things! So thank you to everyone who entered!

(Random note-my Christmas playlist just got the the Spanish Christmas music. NOW it’s Christmastime!)

So what did I do today besides listen to Christmas music and choose a giveaway winner?

To be honest, not a whole lot. I went for a 3 mile hilly run…4 hours after I meant to do it. I guess I need to schedule better! I’m definitely in better running shape than over the summer when I did this-but I also haven’t done hills in a while so this kicked my butt. 

I also went to my home Crossfit this evening. I love it-it’s totally decked out for the holidays.

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After looking at today’s WODs-I was super tempted to go to my Crossfit at school (since I live pretty close) as well as my home Crossfit because both workouts looked awesome! But I am not crazy. Or stupid. Speaking of which-I’m at the point with my fitness where I think I can do pretty much anything. Which is great and definitely potentially stupid. Such as going to 2 Crossfits in one day-I’m definitely glad I didn’t because just the one killed me! Lots of front squats-my wrists are rubber. And my shoulders were burning just after the warm up! My running in Crossfit has definitely improved since the summer as well-I’ve gained so much fitness this past fall, and coming back has made that even more apparent!

Dinner was on my own since my parents were out at a cocktail party. I wanted something festive (think eggnog), but I also wanted to use all the kale I bought. Enter-kale eggnog protein smoothie!

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If you’re curious, here’s what I threw in the blender:

1/4 c  light eggnog (my family always buys this kind because we’re not fans of the thickness of normal)

3/4 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

3/4 frozen banana

a couple of large handfuls of kale

vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg

ice

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For dessert, I tried some of the candy my aunt sent us. Chocolate covered potato chips and chocolate, potato chip, and caramel candy.

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All I have to say about chocolate covered potato chips is don’t ever try them-they are insanely delicious and addicting, and if you eat a million you most likely will feel like death. I enjoyed just 1 and a couple of baby pieces, but it still had my running to the fridge for veggies!

Have a great day everyone!

 

My Little Adorable Wake-up Call

I must admit, I haven’t been the greatest about posting. Or at least it seems! With Christmas less than a week away, there seems to be so much to do! I think I’m actually more or less done with Christmas shopping. I CANNOT wait to share with you guys what I’m doing for people, but it will have to wait until after the recipients who read my blog have opened their presents!

I never recapped my last day (ok, morning) in Solvang!

Here are a few of the last pastries of the trip (or of the next few months-WHEW we ate a lot of pastries!)

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Blueberry boat.

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Cappuccino at an adorable bakery.

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A much more delicious version of a poptart.

On our way out of town, we stopped to see mini horses. I really want one. Not quite as much as an ostrich, but still!

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It was a long drive home, but a delicious and interesting dinner made up for it. I tried Ethiopian food for the first time! (For others in the area, it was called Walia).

I honestly couldn’t tell you what anything was. We got somethings with chicken, some things with other meat, and veggie combos. But really, everything I tried was excellent. What is really cool also is how the food is served. There were no utensils-the table got served all the dishes on a giant platter.

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(Excuse the awkward hand in the picture).

This was served with Injera, which is sort of like a spongy bread made with teff. It has a vaguely sourdough flavor, which was great to cut the spice.

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You use the Injera as a utensil and kind of just go at it. Being the totally neat person that I am, somehow I ended up totally soiling 3 napkins, and still ending up with food all over my hands, while the rest of my family had barely used one napkin. I don’t get it!

And then Thursday. That was an interesting day, thanks to a 4:30 am wakeup, courtesy of this little guy:

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He’s sort of in the habit of coming into my room in the middle of the night-loudly. For some reason, at 4:30am, he desperately needs attention, and won’t stop meowing and purring, which would be great and all if I actually wanted to be awake then…

I went to my home gym for a spin class with one of my favorite teachers, and then desperately needed to go to yoga because I’m so tight, but yoga was an awkward amount of time from the end of spin-not really enough to leave…so I killed time by doing some abs and a treadmill workout. I started with an 8:00 mile, and then did 10 2:00 intervals at about a 7:30 pace, with 2:00 of walking in between. It was a good one-my legs were done by the end. I’ve been really loving running lately-ever since my 5k, I’m starting to feel faster in my every day runs. I think part of my problem was being overly ambitious in my 5k-I wanted to break 24:00, when I should have been racing to break 25:00-next race I will definitely not go out so fast!

After yoga, I over caffeinated myself with a curiously strong cappuccino. Image

After some quick grocery and Christmas shopping, it was lunchtime! I picked up some turkey apricot soup at Whole Foods, plus some carrots and guacamole.

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Whole Foods’s eggnog selection was quite dissapointing-they didn’t have either of the two types I was hoping for. I got a baby jar instead-it was good but very vanilla flavored.

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My afternoon was spent cursing my printer and working on Christmas things. Then, I threw a bunch of things together for dinner, and the flavors worked really well together!

The basica idea was sweet potato nachos-all the toppings, but with sweet potatoes in place of chips. The result reminded me more of deconstructed veggie tacos, or a Mexican style vegetarian chili.

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Topping the sliced sweet potatoes was this mixture-my idea was for this to be black beans, but I’m also trying to incorporate more veggies into my life, so I added some kale, and half a can of diced tomatoes and jalapenos, plus salt, pepper, and taco seasoning. (Of you’re wondering about the things in there that look like carrots and cabbage, the only kale I found came in a ‘salad mix.’)

Then, I topped everything off with guacamole (of course), fresh salsa, and cheddar cheese.

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And believe me, much more guacamole was added after the fact. I’m just a little obsessed. I’m seriously considering making a 2014 calendar consisting only of avocados. Too far?

And with that, I leave you. Hope everyone has a great day-and remember, I’ll do the drawing for my 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway tonight at 9:00pm PST.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever woken up to?

Given I’m cat-deprived, I can’t complain about Charlie too much. I used to have this alarm clock that had nature sounds, and for some reason it was set to blast the sound of rain as my alarm, so it sounded like extremely loud static. Not pleasant.

Sun Cups

Let me just preface this by saying that I’ve never done a product review on Fitness is Sweet, because I really believe in only talking about things for a reason. When Sun Cups reached out to me, I immediately agreed to do a review. Why? Because like so many others out there, I can’t eat nuts, and sunflower seed butter saved me. 

A little over a year ago, my skin inexplicably began breaking out terribly. I could not figure out what was happening, as my skin had always been clear. Fast forward about 6 months-I knew nuts were for some reason causing my skin to go crazy, but I was so addicted to peanut butter that my skin suffered. A few months later, I discovered sunflower seed butter, and it saved my skin. While I’m lucky not to have a dangerous reaction to nuts, my response to them are getting worse, and many are much worse off. I want to share Sun Cups with you all because they are such a great option for those who cannot have nuts-but for those that can, they are delicious and definitely worth having over a Reese’s. 

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Sun Cups sent me these samples to review a few weeks ago, and they were a big hit in my house!

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Lilly especially loved the box they came in! 

I was expecting the Sun Cups to be good, but what really blew me away was the quality of the chocolate. It was amazingly rich and creamy, and so, so smooth. 

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We tasted milk sunflower butter, dark sunflower butter, dark mint, and milk caramel. Despite being a family of dark chocolate lovers, the milk sunflower butter stole our hearts. The milk chocolate complimented the sunflower seed butter so perfectly.

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We were also impressed by how fresh the mint cup tasted. 

Just in general, everything tasted so fresh. Let’s just say these didn’t last long.

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Besides the taste, one of the best things about these guys is the ingredient list.

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No high fructose corn syrup, and no weird artificial sweeteners. Let’s compare to a Reese’s: one Reese’s cup has 10 grams of sugar, while one sunflower butter cup only has 7. That’s almost a teaspoon of a difference, in one candy!

I would definitely recommend Sun Cups-I haven’t seen these in stores much but you can order them on their website here. This would be the perfect gift for someone with a nut allergy, or even someone wanting a healthier treat. 

*Full disclosure-Sun Cups sent me samples to review, but all opinions are my own.

WIAW-Healthy Living is About Balance, Pastries, and Ostriches

Happy WIAW!

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Today, I’m blogging from Solvang, an adorable little Danish town completely decked out for Christmas. There’s not a not to do here besides eat delicious Danish pastries. There are worse things in life. 

Technically I consider myself a “healthy living blog,” and while these foods may not be your typical idea of healthy, healthy eating really is all about balance. How many times will you be conveniently within a mile of about 20 different bakeries, with a father who wants to go into all of them? Balance is trying one of everything…and then splitting it with your family. So here are some things from the past couple of days!

Monday before we left, I went to m gym for an abs class, followed by weight lifting on my own-I did my Jingle Barbells workouts. It was nice to have all the time in the world, and be able to take long rests between sets. I’m normally in such a rush! I followed that with a protein smoothie-I’ve been dying to have one of these for months. Yay for being home!

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Milk, spinach, frozen banana, cocoa powder, a little protein powder, and a handful of ice. 

Lunch on the road was a bagel sandwich and thai bubble tea.

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And then we arrived! Naturally the first stop was pre-dinner pastries. 

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A blueberry “boat” (probably my favorite o the trip), custard filled pastry, and a Danish “waffle”-a pastry with butter cream frosting and raspberry.

Dinner was at Pea Soup Anderson’s. Anyone who has driven through California on the main, long stretches of road will be familiar with this place-there are signs advertising it hundreds of miles away, and since we were RIGHT THERE we had to get their famous pea soup!

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In the morning, we went to the hotel’s hot breakfast. The oatmeal was a highlight-it was very vanilla and cinnamon-y.

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Then, I went for a run with my sister and her boyfriend. I’m in WAY better than last time I ran with them (at the beginning of half training in June)-last time I was dying, and this time their pace felt comfortable. I think we covered between 4-4.5 miles? 

Then, on our way in to town, we stopped at a little drive in. I ordered a burrito with chicken-it was interesting, the lettuce, salsa, and guacamole were on the outside! A lesser known fast-I’ve eaten very few burritos in my life. And as a result, I never know how to eat them! I’m really uncomfortable eating them-I had one of my first burritos with my friends and they totally made fun of me for it!

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And of course dessert.

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We spent the afternoon walking around downtown Solvang and wandering into little bakeries. A highlight was our visit to the foot spa for a massage. Since we all know the sad shape of my feet, it was great. 

Guess what we did next?

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We went to an ostrich ranch! I kinda really really want one. Or at least to ride one-is that a thing? 

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We even got to feed them. They’re aggressive little guys! (Ok, maybe not little…) We had a bowl with a handle, and you held on the handle tightly while they went at it and just kind of hoped. It reminded me a little of water skiing-you hold on for dear life and hope, and there’s the adrenaline rush that something is going to go horrible wrong, like they will somehow peck your hands off.

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My sister’s boyfriend feeding ostriches.

Since we were all stuffed with pastries, we ended up eating a late dinner at our hotel restaurant, which turned out to be really nice.

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I ordered the vegetarian portabello mushroom burger, which had a lots of veggies, lots of cheese, and lots of mess. Image

And since this is vacation, dessert happened (again) as well. Bananas foster and lava cake.

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Everything has been delicious, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t ready to go back to my routine. I wanted to do nothing all afternoon but curl up and sleep. But such is life. Everything is about balance. 

Oh, and one more though about my 5k on Sunday-I probably screwed myself over with pacing as well. I thought I could have held an 8 minute pace, but based on my pace estimates, my first mile was probably 7:30, and the last two 8:30-so if I go out that fast there’s no way I could hold an 8:00 pace! I think I need to practice running more at that pace-to get my body used to the effort as well as the feel. 

Have a great week everybody!

Favorite pastry?