Fitness & Wellness

Many people in Fort Lee, NJ, believe snacking is bad for you, especially if you’re trying to lose weight. That’s not true. It can be healthy when you choose the right food. Don’t select a bag of M&M’s, even ones containing nutritious peanuts. Search out snacks that are low in calories and loaded with vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. They should satisfy your hunger for longer and taste good. If you’re trying to lose weight, keep them under 200 calories.

Go natural with fresh fruit and dip.

One of the simplest treats is watermelon or cantaloupe sliced or cubed and ready to eat. You can also use fruit in other ways. Yogurt with fruit already in it isn’t the best snack. It has a lot of sugar. You can use a small amount for a dip. Mix two tablespoons of your favorite yogurt with fruit and two tablespoons of Truwhip. Truwhip is a healthier whipped topping. Use the combination as a dip for grapes, apple slices, or other fruit. It only adds 60 calories. If you slice a whole apple or banana, the total calories are less than 200.

Create a Greek yogurt parfait.

Use half a 5.3-ounce container of full-fat Greek yogurt, about two heaping tablespoons. The healthy fat and protein in the yogurt keep you full longer. Put one half in a pint mason jar and add a layer of fresh or frozen berries. Slice half of a ripe banana and layer it on the berries. Put the rest of the yogurt on top and sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Put on the lid and store in the refrigerator until you’re ready for a snack. It’s about 200 calories. Mix the banana and yogurt until it’s creamy before you add it. It’s even more satisfying.

Another filling snack contains avocados.

Avocados contain both fiber and healthy fat. Both keep you full longer. The fiber slows your digestion and sugar absorption, which keeps your blood sugar level. You can mash the avocado and use it in place of butter on whole grain toast, eat half of it plain topped with hot sauce, or make guacamole to dip celery and other vegetables. Make guacamole by mashing the avocado and adding chopped tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lime juice, and salt to taste. You can also add garlic or garlic salt.

• Have snacks ready for when the hunger strikes. Store them in individual serving sizes. You’ll know the exact number of calories it contains.
• A tablespoon of nut butter on apple slices or a banana is about 200 calories. It provides carbs, protein, and healthy fat, which keeps you full longer.
• Eat a pre-workout snack 30-60 minutes before and one right after a workout to improve your session and start recovery. It should be a combination of protein and carbs. Cottage cheese and unsweetened applesauce or mini sweet peppers stuffed with cream cheese.
• A filling snack that provides fiber but few calories is popcorn. Make it in a special microwaveable dish or air popper. Don’t add butter. Instead, use the popcorn toppings like cheddar cheese or jalapeno.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

Fasting is a general term for many ways of consuming or not consuming food. There are water fasts that can last for days and intermittent fasting that may last a few hours. Some of these may affect your metabolism negatively, while others may have a positive effect. What is the difference in how the body reacts? It all depends on whether you’ve reached starvation mode and how restrictive it is.

Long water fasts may slow your metabolism.

If you only drink water on your fast and consume no calories for days, you might slow your metabolism. Even a severe calorie-restricted diet for a long time can cause a problem. Your body senses a shortage of food and imminent starvation. It reacts as it was created to avoid death and slows the metabolism. That ensures survival by saving the calories for vital functions like brain, heart, and lung functions. You have to boost your metabolism once the fast ends. Building muscle with exercise helps.

Fasts that won’t harm your metabolism include intermittent fasts.

Intermittent fasting can be achieved in several ways. The most common method is to shorten the window when you eat. It’s often done by eating within an eight-hour window and fasting the other sixteen hours. Your body never senses starvation, so it doesn’t diminish your metabolism. Another way to do intermittent fasting is to eat severely calorie-restricted diets three days a week and eat the normal amount of calories on the other days. Some people include feast days in their fasts, where they eat more than their normal calories.

Intermittent fasting has other benefits.

Studies show intermittent fasting may make you healthier. It may slow aging and potentially improve your metabolism when compared to calorie-restricted diets. It allows your body to flush out damaged cells and may help prevent inflammation that can cause asthma, stroke, arthritis, MS, and Alzheimer’s.

• Some people use a 12-hour window to eat and a 12-hour window to fast. It’s easy to do since seven or eight hours are spent sleeping. You can eat breakfast at seven and stop eating at seven that night.
• One reason intermittent fasting works so well is that your energy level never dips. It helps improve fat burning without burning muscle tissue, increases the creation of stem cells, and helps regulate blood sugar.
• You need to consume healthy food when you eat as part of your fat. It doesn’t matter whether you’re consuming a liquid diet of juices or a calorie-restricted diet. Choosing healthy food is a must.
• You can’t use long-term fasts for extended periods. Your body requires food. Without adequate calories, it starts breaking down muscle tissue. Always check with your healthcare provider before starting any fast.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

At VIP Fitness, we use strength training to benefit both men and women. While some women worry they’ll build bulging Hulk-like muscles. Nothing could be further from the truth. Female hormones prevent bulking up. Women bodybuilders have a grueling workout and strict diet to build their muscles. Some even take it a step further using chemical methods.

Women can improve their body composition.

That also boosts their metabolism to make it easier to lose weight. Muscle burns more calories to maintain, so the more you have, the more calories you burn 24/7. Muscle tissue is more dense and weighs more per cubic inch. Even if you don’t lose weight, you’ll lose inches. Your clothes will fit better, your posture will improve, and the backaches and pains of poor posture will disappear.

The older you get; the more important strength training becomes.

Once a woman passes menopause, the risk of osteoporosis increases. Osteoporosis is the leaching of calcium from the bone. It weakens them and makes them brittle. When the muscles tug on the bones, they calcify to stay strong. The more it tugs, the more dense the bone becomes. If the muscles aren’t challenged with weight-bearing exercises, there’s no need for the bones to be strong. When the calcium leaches, the bones become weak. Strength training can help recalcify the bone. Younger women have a limited risk due to estrogen. Menopause changes all that. Studies show that menopausal women who are inactive have twice the bone mass loss as active women.

Avoid high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and menstrual cramps with strength training.

You’ll lose weight, lower your blood pressure, and improve insulin sensitivity by doing strength training. When your blood sugar is high, your body sends insulin. Insulin signals the cells to open and uptake the sugar. Insulin resistance causes the cells to be less responsive, so the body makes more insulin. Exercise helps burn glycogen stores in the muscles and gives them the capacity to hold more, making cells more receptive. Insulin resistance causes belly fat, food cravings, and weight gain. Improving insulin sensitivity makes weight loss easier and can help reverse type 2 diabetes.

• Unless people work hard to stop the process, the body starts losing muscle in the mid-thirties. You lose between 3 to 5% every decade. Lack of strength can cause the inability to do the activities of daily living in senior years and impede independent living.
• When you do strength training, you’ll reduce back pain, arthritis pain, and chronic depression. You’ll have more energy and a better attitude. Obesity leads to chronic and terminal illness. Strength training can reverse or prevent it.
• Women with menopausal symptoms, like hot flashes, can be helped with strength training. One study found that 15 weeks of training cut the occurrence of hot flashes in half and helped shed menopausal weight gain.
• Strength training can help improve the quality of health during pregnancy. It can reduce complications during pregnancy and make delivery easier. Always check with your healthcare professional before starting any exercise program.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center

At VIP Fitness, we use strength training to benefit both men and women. While some women worry they’ll build bulging Hulk-like muscles. Nothing could be further from the truth. Female hormones prevent bulking up. Women bodybuilders have a grueling workout and strict diet to build their muscles. Some even take it a step further using chemical methods.

Women can improve their body composition.

That also boosts their metabolism to make it easier to lose weight. Muscle burns more calories to maintain, so the more you have, the more calories you burn 24/7. Muscle tissue is more dense and weighs more per cubic inch. Even if you don’t lose weight, you’ll lose inches. Your clothes will fit better, your posture will improve, and the backaches and pains of poor posture will disappear.

The older you get; the more important strength training becomes.

Once a woman passes menopause, the risk of osteoporosis increases. Osteoporosis is the leaching of calcium from the bone. It weakens them and makes them brittle. When the muscles tug on the bones, they calcify to stay strong. The more it tugs, the more dense the bone becomes. If the muscles aren’t challenged with weight-bearing exercises, there’s no need for the bones to be strong. When the calcium leaches, the bones become weak. Strength training can help recalcify the bone. Younger women have a limited risk due to estrogen. Menopause changes all that. Studies show that menopausal women who are inactive have twice the bone mass loss as active women.

Avoid high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and menstrual cramps with strength training.

You’ll lose weight, lower your blood pressure, and improve insulin sensitivity by doing strength training. When your blood sugar is high, your body sends insulin. Insulin signals the cells to open and uptake the sugar. Insulin resistance causes the cells to be less responsive, so the body makes more insulin. Exercise helps burn glycogen stores in the muscles and gives them the capacity to hold more, making cells more receptive. Insulin resistance causes belly fat, food cravings, and weight gain. Improving insulin sensitivity makes weight loss easier and can help reverse type 2 diabetes.

Unless people work hard to stop the process, the body starts losing muscle in the mid-thirties. You lose between 3 to 5% every decade. Lack of strength can cause the inability to do the activities of daily living in senior years and impede independent living.

When you do strength training, you’ll reduce back pain, arthritis pain, and chronic depression. You’ll have more energy and a better attitude. Obesity leads to chronic and terminal illness. Strength training can reverse or prevent it.

Women with menopausal symptoms, like hot flashes, can be helped with strength training. One study found that 15 weeks of training cut the occurrence of hot flashes in half and helped shed menopausal weight gain.

Strength training can help improve the quality of health during pregnancy. It can reduce complications during pregnancy and make delivery easier. Always check with your healthcare professional before starting any exercise program.

If you’ve recently been injured, you don’t have to sit in your easy chair nursing a bowl of ice cream or mashed potatoes for comfort. You can stay fit and healthy even if you can’t do your normal workout. It may take some modifications or changing your fitness routine, but it’s possible. Get creative to overcome your limitations while you keep your goal in mind. Always listen to your healthcare professional before starting an exercise program to ensure you won’t exacerbate your condition.

Once you get the green light, identify things you can and can’t do.

If you’re in a complete body cast, finding what you can do is a challenge. Most injuries aren’t that dramatic. Usually, it’s the upper body, lower body, or weakness that leaves you bedridden. Those things don’t affect all muscle groups. If the injury is on the upper body on one side, you can still work the opposite side and your lower body. If you’re bedridden or can’t stand unaided, you can work your arms in many ways. Don’t shy away from exercising the uninjured arm or leg. Studies show that using exercises that elongate the muscle— eccentric exercises—benefits the other side as well. You’ll slow muscle loss on the injured side and maintain muscle mass on the uninjured side.

Are you bedridden?

Stretching exercises can be valuable for several reasons. It keeps your joints lubricated, increases circulation, works the muscles, and prevents muscle aches from laying too long. Besides stretching, you can do arm exercises, work on grip with a rubber ball, lightly flutter your legs, and keep moving. Arm exercises are possible in a wheelchair and bed.

Work on your upper body strength if your lower body is injured.

The reverse is also true. If you have a lower-body injury, it doesn’t prevent you from exercising your upper body. Do a modified leg lift with an uninjured leg from a wheelchair. Nothing stops you from doing bicep curls with an uninjured arm or seated curls with a leg injury. If your upper body is injured, taking walks, squats, and other lower body exercises keeps you toned.

• Swimming or pool exercises are excellent if you have an injury. The water keeps you more buoyant, so it’s low-impact. Use a cast cover or cast designed for use in the water.
• Focus on staying active and maintaining your fitness level. Don’t try to push yourself to the point it’s dangerous. Always do warm-up and cool-down exercises before you begin, even if the exercise is mild.
• Isometric exercises—contracting the muscles and holding—can be done without putting weight on an injured area. Some exercises aren’t safe for certain injuries. Choose your isometrics wisely.
• If you have a physical therapist, ask for help creating a workout plan to maintain your fitness level or tell them your workout strategy to see if there’s any way it can harm you. Always protect the injured area, but work the rest of your body.

For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center