The 5 Steps to Healthy Living Workshop

Women: You’re not usually complimented on how great your bones look, but bone fitness is important to keep you strong and to prevent osteoporosis. What can you do to enhance your bone health? Get the skinny on this topic from Jason R. Karp, PhD, owner of RunCoachJason .com, director and coach of REVO2LT Running Team, a freelance writer and a competitive runner.

Exercise and Bone Health Exercise is important to build healthy bones, and weight-bearing exercise is best. Weight-bearing exercise is activity that works the bones and muscles against gravity. For example, running, walking, hiking, stairclimbing, dancing and sports that involve running are all weight-bearing. Swimming and cycling, however, are not.

Weight Training and Bone Health Doing weight exercises is also crucial for strong bones. Researchers found that women who combined aerobic exercise and weight training had a greater bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar spine than women who did only aerobic exercise (Davee, Rosen & Adler 1990). A number of other studies have also shown that weight training increases BMD, especially in premenopausal women (Layne & Nelson 1999; Petranick & Berg 1997). The strong contraction of muscles as they pull on the bones to which they attach influences the magnitude of stress on the bones themselves.

Since the intensity of the stress on the bone is more important for increasing BMD than the number of times the stress is repeated (Prior et al. 1996), you need do only one set of weight training with a heavy weight to increase BMD. Weight training should target specific body parts, since the effect of weight training on BMD is specific to the bones that attach to the muscles being used.

Nutrition and Bone Health Two essential nutrients for bone health are calcium and vitamin D. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences recommends that women aged 19–50 years need to consume 1,000 milligrams (mg) of calcium and 400 International Units (IU) of vitamin D per day, and women over 50 years (or postmenopausal) need to consume 1,200 mg of calcium and 600–800 IU of vitamin D per day (Borer 2005).

Adequate calcium and vitamin D intakes become increasingly important after age 40, when losses of bone mineral become measurable (Borer 2005). While dietary sources of calcium and vitamin D are optimal, you should consider supplements if your diet alone cannot provide the recommended daily intake. n

Exercise and Nutrition Strategies for Bone Health Exercise

high-intensity resistance exercise
resistance exercise that focuses on the muscles of the lumbar spine and front and back hip regions
plyometric exercises (such as hops, jumps and bounding)
an emphasis on movement in varying directions
weight-bearing exercise during adolescence, before skeletal maturity is reached

For guidance on developing an exercise program to maintain bone health, consult a qualified personal trainer. Nutrition

1,000 mg of calcium per day for women aged 19–50 years; 1,200 mg per day for women over 50 years
400 IU of vitamin D per day for women aged 19–50 years; 600–800 IU per day for women over 50 years
adequate caloric intake to meet metabolic needs
References

Institute of Medicine. 2004. Executive Summary, Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate. National Academy of Sciences, Food and Nutrition Board. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Sawka, M.N., et al. 2007. American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand: Exercise and fluid replacement. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 39, 377–90.

Williams, M.H. 2005. Nutrition for Health, Fitness & Sport (7th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Did you know that heart disease is the leading killer of females in America? Not only does heart disease kill more women than men each year, but females who survive a cardiac event fare much worse than their male counterparts. Yet many women fail to recognize the toll that cardiovascular disease (CVD) can take on their bodies, and thus fail to do what is necessary to reduce the risk of getting this largely preventable disease.

What is CVD? What puts women at risk and how can you lower your risk? Natalie Digate Muth, MPH, RD, CSCS, a registered dietitian and medical student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, discusses these topics below.

What Is CVD?

The term cardiovascular disease refers to any disease of the heart and its blood vessels. Generally speaking, CVD is an umbrella term that encompasses all conditions affecting the heart muscle itself, the valves of the heart and/or the blood vessels that supply the heart (i.e., coronary arteries).

Vessel disease, or vascular disease, includes diseases such as hypertension (high blood pressure) and atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries caused by the formation of plaque deposits within the arterial wall).

Atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries is the main culprit behind chest pain (angina) and heart attack (myocardial infarction). Although the condition is not usually dangerous until middle age and beyond, atherosclerosis typically begins to develop in childhood.

Educate Yourself About Your Risk

Minimize your CVD risk by learning about risk factors such as:

elevated total and LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol levels
low HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol levels
obesity
smoking
hypertension
sedentary lifestyle
poor diet
stress and depression
family history of premature CVD
middle age
diabetes
The more risk factors that are present, the higher the risk of atherosclerosis and subsequent heart attack or stroke.

Talk to Your Doctor

A simple preventive health checkup and a blood draw in the lab can arm you with the information needed to determine your specific risk. Ask your doctor questions such as:

What is my risk for heart disease?
What is my blood pressure reading? What does this reading mean for me, and what do I need to do about it?
What are my cholesterol numbers? What do these numbers mean for me, and what do I need to do about them?
How can I tell if I’m having a heart attack? What are the typical signs in a woman compared with a man?
SIDEBAR: Improve Your Risk

Regardless of your risk, you should follow these guidelines, with women
at highest risk needing to make changes urgently:

Quit Smoking. Smoking is responsible for multiple serious diseases.
A lean and physically fit, fruit- and vegetable-loving woman who smokes is not immune from CVD.

Aim for a Healthy Body Mass Index (BMI). A BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered optimal (check out www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi to
determine your BMI). While this BMI range may be out of the question for you, even a small weight loss can reduce CVD disease risk.

Engage in Regular Exercise. Experts recommend getting at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity daily. If you need to lose weight, up that time to 60–90 minutes daily.

Eat a Healthy Diet. Aim for a regular diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains and high-fiber foods. Consume fish (in particular oily fish like salmon, trout and tuna) at least twice per week; limit saturated fat, cholesterol, alcohol and sodium intake.

Avoid any foods that contain trans fats. The MyPyramid website (www.mypyramid.gov) offers many helpful resources.

Seek Help for Depression. Depression wreaks havoc on the heart and arteries. If your depression doesn’t improve with a regular exercise program, seek professional help not only for your mental health, but also to protect your heart.
Reproduced with Permission IDEA Fitness Journal
IDEA Fitness Journal, Volume 5, Number 2
IDEA Fitness Journal, Volume 5, Number 2

Let’s face it the weekend tends to be the time we overeat the most. To avoid the weekend diet blunders you should pre-plan what you are going to eat over the weekend, have plenty of healthy snacks on hand. Make sure that you have done some grocery shopping before the weekend hits so that you will not be tempted to indulge in fast food or eating out too much. If you must eat out plan in advance and make sure the restaurant or fast food chain have a low calorie menu. Most places now have menus available online. Make sure you choose wisely!

Allow yourself two cheat meals; per week so that you do not feel deprived, just keep them to 1,000 calories or less. This may sound easy but check the calories you can easily go over this by having a full meal of steak, loaded potato, a glass of soda and cheese cake for dessert…so be careful.

Do all of your social activities revolve around food or eating? Well if they do this could be sabotaging your best efforts to lose weight. It really doesn’t matter how good you are all week if you ruin all your efforts over the weekend by over indulging. To keep this in check stick with the two cheat meal rule religiously. Plan get together’s with friends for other things besides eating and drinking.

Schedule walks with friends or softball games, volley ball etc…. Soon your friends will be thanking you for being such a good influence!

Skip the popcorn and soda at the movies. Little changes like these can reap huge rewards to your waist line! Don’t let your friends talk you into making bad decisions…they will respect you for standing your grounds—when it comes to weight loss. They may even pick-up on your good habits! Reward yourself with a new pair of shoes or something you have wanted, non food related, for sticking with your diet. Chances are you saved money on not eating out anyways!

Start with implementing one of the ideas above for the next month and then add another, before you know it they will be a habit. The hardest part of weight loss is overcoming bad habits…with a little will power perseverance you can do it!

To recap: Tips to avoid overindulging on the weekend.

1) Grocery shop before the weekend and stock-up on healthy foods.

2) Stay away from fast food and restaurants. If you must eat out check the menu online and choose wisely.

3) Give yourself two cheat meals per week to avoid feeling deprived. Make sure to keep them less than 1,000 calories.

4) Schedule activities with friends and family that does not involve eating and drinking.

5) Skip popcorn and soda at the movies

6) Start implementing one of these tips immediately and stay on track for at least a month so that the behavior becomes a healthy habit!

7) Reward yourself for following through with a non-food related item!

Written By Julie Prince ACE Certified Personal Trainer~

BY JOHN P. PORCARI, PH.D., RACHEL HAZUGA, M.S., CARL FOSTER, PH.D., AND SCOTT DOBERSTEIN, JORDAN BECKER, DENNIS KLINE, THOMAS MICKSCHL, AND CHRIS DODGE, WITH MARK ANDERS

The first time I heard about these so-called performance-enhancing bracelets I was at a cycling event. As a fellow rider and I walked along checking out the booths with various biking apparel and gear, a pitchman lured us over claiming this little rubbery bracelet would immediately improve our balance, flexibility and strength.
The man proceeded to give us an obviously well-rehearsed spiel about the tiny holograms imbedded in each bracelet. He explained that our bodies have a natural energy field and our molecules vibrate at a preset frequency. But due to the notion that we’re being bombarded daily by other types of energy from cell phones and TVs and computers and such, our frequencies get changed—they get out of whack. And that, in turn, supposedly throws off our balance and degrades our potential athletic performance. Bummer.

Well, thankfully, said the man, the Mylar holograms in these bracelets are programmed with special frequencies designed to restore our energy balance and, you guessed it, improve our strength, flexibility and balance. He could tell I was immediately skeptical, so he swooped in on my friend instead. The man asked him to stand on one foot with his arms outstretched.

“Now, I’m going to try to push you off balance,” he said. And with that, he easily sent my friend stumbling.

“Here, now hold this bracelet in your hand and let’s try again.”

This time the man struggled to topple my friend, but he seemingly could not.

“Did you feel more balanced that time? Stronger?”

Personally, the only I was feeling was that we’d somehow been transported into the past to a carnival where some snake oil salesman was preying on a crowd of unsuspecting would-be customers. I wasn’t buying it, or the bracelet for that matter, so I yanked my friend out of there and we left.

Later on that weekend, I started noticing lots of people wearing these bracelets, and others like them. At home I did some quick research and discovered there are many similar bracelets on the market claiming comparable benefits including brands like Power BalanceTM, EFX, iRenew®, Trion:Z® and more. There were photos upon photos of pro athletes and movie stars wearing this “performance jewelry,” as it has been called. And one of the most popular brands, Power Balance (powerbalance.com), even sponsors a team stacked with high-profile athletes like basketball icon Shaquille O’Neal and NFL quarterback Drew Brees.

With all of these followers and performance-boost claims, it’s easy to see why so many people have bought these bracelets, which cost up to $30 apiece. “Everyone is looking for a quick fix, especially athletes. They want what’s going to give them the edge over someone else,” explains Rachel Hazuga, M.S., a researcher from the University of Wisconsin. “Even if it makes them only slightly better, it still means they’re better.”

And people have been buying them indeed. Power Balance reportedly sold three million units in the past three years.

The Study

To test Power Balance’s claims, ACE tapped a team of exercise scientists from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse Exercise and Health Program, led by John Porcari, Ph.D., and Hazuga. Together they recruited 42 college-aged volunteers, roughly half men and half women, all of whom were NCAA Division III athletes.

Each subject completed two trials of four tests: trunk flexibility, balance, strength and vertical jump. The first three tests mimic the tests used on the Power Balance Web site (www.powerbalance.com/test-video) to demonstrate the efficacy of their performance jewelry. The vertical jump test was added to gauge lower-body power. The tests were presented in the same order for all subjects, without a warm-up, and subjects were required to not have done any exercise prior to testing on that day.

For one trial, subjects wore a Power Balance bracelet ($30) and for the other trial they wore a placebo ($0.30 rubber bracelet). The order of bracelets worn was completely randomized and double-blinded so that neither the subjects nor the examiners knew which bracelet was being worn for which trial. Half of the subjects wore the Power Balance bracelet for their first trial while the other half wore the placebo bracelet for the first trial.
The Tests
Flexibility: To measure trunk flexibility, a stick was placed on the participant’s shoulders (at the back of the neck) and he or she was asked to slowly rotate clockwise as far as possible. The amount of trunk rotation was measured in degrees using a calibrated grid.

Balance: Subjects were instructed to stand with feet together and arms extended straight out to the sides, and lift the right foot approximately 15 centimeters off the ground. Once the subject was in position, the examiner pushed straight down on his or her right arm with a Lafayette Manual Muscle Tester (MMT—a device that measures the amount of force exerted by the examiner) until the subject lost his or her balance or broke form. The amount of force required to disrupt the subject’s balance was recorded.

Strength: Each subject stood with feet together and arms close to the torso, while the examiner placed the Lafayette MMT in the palm of the subject’s cupped right hand. As the examiner exerted force straight down, the subject tried to resist. The amount of force required to cause the subject to either move his or her feet or break form was recorded.

Vertical Jump: Subjects were asked to jump as high as possible, touching the highest vane they could reach on the Vertec Vertical Jump Tester. Jump height was measured in centimeters.

The Results

After the numbers were crunched, researchers found there was no significant difference in flexibility, balance, strength or vertical-jump height between the Power Balance and placebo trials (Table 1).

Table 1. Comparison of the Power BalanceTM Versus Placebo Conditions Power Balance Placebo Flexibility (degrees)
118.6 (+19.29) 118.9 (+17.34)

Balance (kg) 11.6 (+2.69) 12.1 (+3.26)

Strength (kg) 37.4 (+9.54) 36.8 (+10.01)

Vertical Jump (cm) 57.4 (+12.42) 56.9 (+12.19)

“Invariably,” explains Porcari, “the subjects always did better on the second trial, and it didn’t matter which bracelet they were wearing.” He attributes these results to what he calls the “order effect,” as in the order in which the trials were administered (Table 2).

Table 2. Comparison of Trial 1 Versus Trials 2 Scores

Trial 1
Trail 2
Flexibility (degrees)
114.2 (+15.71) 123.3 (+19.57)*

Balance (kg) 11.0 (+2.87) 12.7 (+2.85)*

Strength (kg) 35.9 (+10.43) 38.3 (+8.93)*

Vertical Jump (cm) 56.1 (+11.91) 57.9 (+12.62)*

*Significantly greater than Trial 1 (p

Trunk flexibility was 9.1 degrees greater on the second trial compared to the first trial. Since no warm-up was given, this improvement in flexibility was attributed to the subjects being warmed-up for their second trial.

For the balance test, it took 16 percent more force to throw the subjects off balance on the second trial. And for the strength test, 7 percent more force was required to cause a break in form on the second trial. Anecdotally, many of the subjects said they did better on the second trial because they “knew what was coming.” The subjects consciously (or subconsciously) seemed to prepare themselves for the second trial, compensating for how the examiner was going to try to push them off balance.

After the numbers were crunched, researchers found there was no significant difference in flexibility, balance, strength or vertical-jump height between the Power Balance and placebo trials.

“If I knock you down once, your body learns what to do for the next time,” explains Hazuga. “This is the learning effect and it’s a fundamental principle of human performance.”

During the vertical jump test, subjects jumped nearly 2 centimeters higher on their second trial. According to other published research, subjects typically will continue to improve their vertical jump performance over the first one-to-four trials of a test. With that in mind, researchers attributed the boost in jump height in the second trial to the fact that subjects were already warmed up.

The Bottom Line

“We tested the bracelets the exact way they were advertised,” says Porcari. “They simply don’t work as advertised. To me, it’s just an absolute scam.”

Because the order of bracelets was randomized during testing, the improvements in the second trials were attributed to the fact that subjects were either: (1) more warmed up, or (2) habituated to the task. This would explain why the public sales demonstrations of Power Balance and similar performance-jewelry products appear to have beneficial effects on flexibility, balance and strength. But in reality, these sales demonstrations are essentially carnival tricks. By altering the way you apply force to the body, explains Porcari, you can easily change the outcome. “If I’m pushing a certain direction, and then I change the angle of pull or push a little bit, I can get you to lose your balance easily,” he says.

But how do you account for the testimonials of people who swear that Power Balance improves their own performance? It’s the placebo effect. “The power of the human mind to believe something works,” says Porcari. “If they think it’s going to work, it’s going to work to some extent.”

“Everybody is looking for the magic bullet,” he says. “The Power Balance salesmen do these demonstrations, and people want to believe it might work. Shaq wouldn’t lie. Lamar Odom wouldn’t lie. There’s got to be something to it, right?”

The Australian government recently took Power Balance to task because the company has no credible scientific evidence to back up the claims they make. As a result, the Australian manufacturer of Power Balance bands was forced to publicly apologize and admit there is zero scientific backing to their claims. Here is part of their written apology:

“We admit that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims. Therefore we engaged in misleading conduct.” You can view the rest of the letter here: www.powerbalance.com/australia/ca

Meanwhile, in the U.S., Power Balance continues selling their performance jewelry with the same claims as before. When approached about ACE’s findings, the company simply released a statement saying: “Power Balance has lived and thrived in the ultimate testing environment, the real world.”

The U.S. government has yet to address Power Balance’s marketing claims or those of other bracelet makers like them, but several class action suits have been filed throughout the U.S. against the company citing false advertising and unfair business practices. Given the growing body of evidence discrediting their claims, along with the threat of impending lawsuits, it seems likely that the success of Power Balance and its contemporaries has reached its peak and that inevitably these bracelets will meet the same fate as other lauded magic bullets and quick fixes—gathering dust in clearance bins across America.

This study was funded solely by the American Council on Exercise (ACE) and was published in the March 2011 issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Sports Science & Medicine. You can read more ACE-sponsored studies on ACE’s website.

Want to look and feel younger? While everyone will age, regular aerobic exercise can decrease your biological age by 10 years or more (Shephard 2008).

Interval training is an effective way to exercise at a high enough intensity to significantly increase oxygen demands and ultimately slow aging (Wright & Perricelli 2008). Interval training consists of short bursts of going all out followed by brief periods of active recovery. It allows you to exercise briefly at a high intensity in order to force the body to adapt in ways that slow aging. How can you safely interval train? Get suggestions below from author and consultant Amy Ashmore, PhD, who holds a doctorate in kinesiology from the University of Texas at Austin.

How to Interval Train The best way to interval train is to keep it simple by changing one variable at a time; for example, increasing resistance on the elliptical trainer and maintaining speed, or increasing incline on the treadmill and maintaining speed. It makes no difference to the body which variable changes. All that matters is that the muscles work harder, oxygen demand increases, the heart rate goes up and thereby aging slows.

Designing Workouts Here are some variables to consider when creating interval workouts:

Speed. Increasing speed is an obvious way to boost intensity. However, speed can cause injury and should be used to increase exercise intensity only if you are conditioned and free from musculoskeletal injuries.

Incline. Adding incline, along with resistance, is an alternative way to increase intensity on most cardiovascular equipment. A change in incline changes the mechanics of movement by incorporating additional muscles or increasing output, both of which increase how hard the heart works and what the maximal oxygen consumption is.

Resistance. The greater the resistance, the harder the muscles work to move the bones. This variable can be manipulated by increasing resistance on cardiovascular machines or by incorporating added weight.

Relationship to Gravity. One of the most effective ways to train is to use body weight against gravity; for instance, by incorporating jump push-ups or squats into a workout.

Impact. Impact is most commonly associated with sustained, high-impact activities like jogging, but plyometrics (explosive movements such as hopping and jumping) are effective for adding impact moves in a nonsustained manner. Including a plyometrics component can increase the intensity of almost any exercise, but plyometrics calls for the same care that is needed when speeding up an exercise.

Lower Alternating With Upper. A simple way to increase intensity and then recover is to alternate a lower-body exercise like a lunge with an upper-body exercise like a dumbbell shoulder press. This strategy is particularly effective if you are out of shape. The lower-body exercise increases the heart rate, while the upper-body work allows a brief recovery.

SIDEBAR: All-Out Effort Versus Recovery All-out efforts cannot be maintained for long; how long each all-out interval can be maintained depends on intensity and heart rate. The goal should be to sustain high-intensity exercise for 30 seconds to 1 minute. “High-intensity” is anything that makes the heart work at 85% of maximum or higher. However, 85% may not be feasible for everyone, and you may need to modify your intensity level. The recovery time is proportional to the intensity and the length of the all-out phase. For example, 1 minute at 85% should require 2–3 minutes of recovery. Sticking to the exact time increments is not nearly as important as simply incorporating short bursts of high-intensity exercise in training sessions.

ReferencesShephard R.J. 2008. Maximal oxygen intake and independence in old age. British Journal of Sports Medicine (E-pub ahead of print).

Wright, V.J., & Perricelli, B.C. 2008. Age-related rates of decline in performance among elite senior athletes. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 36 (3), 443–50.

used with permission from IDEA Fitness Journal Volume 6 Number 2

Let’s admit that sometimes it is not easy to stay motivated to exercise! What? How can that be? Well, when you consider that exercise is arguably one of the most important things you can do to stay healthy in life. Life is long; how good it is…..is up to you. You are going to need motivation! You can try “The Kedging Trick” I love this! A lot of know that I am reading a book called “Younger Next Year for Women” great book by the way….by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge M.D.

Well chapter nine in the book is called the ‘The Kedging Trick” I am going to quote the authors “Let us admit to each other that it is not easy to doing exercise six days a week, year in and year out for the rest of our wretched lives. We may falter. We may slip off to the 7-eleven …buy a pack of ciggies. Or start dunking Oreo’s in peanut butter. ……. We may in a word go to hell with it and go sit down someplace to scratch our butts. ” This is why I think this book is so funny!

Quoting the author again. “Sometimes we need help. We all do. …..We are here to introduce you to the mystery of “kedging”. Never heard of it? Fine. Nobody else has either but it is a wonderful notion.
Sailing ships in ancient times—before the invention of the steam engine—often got becalmed and the crew just had to sit there in a funk. Which was alright sometimes but not always. Sometimes there were enemy ships, drifting down with dark intent. Or a hostile shore getting closer. ……Sometimes people get stuck really, really stuck and desperate measures are needed. Kedging is one of the best.
It goes like this. The captain of the becalmed and threatened vessel has a light anchor (called a Kedge) loaded into a longboat and rowed half a mile away or so. The longboat crew pops the anchor over the side, makes sure it is set on the bottom, and then everyone back on the big boat pulls like demons on the line literally hauling the ship to the anchor. Then they do this whole business again until they get to where they want go go. Sounds like a lot of work but worth it if your ship is about to be overcome by pirates.
So kedging : climbing out of the ordinary, setting a desperate goal and working like crazy to get there. To save yourself. Sounds nasty but in fact the kedges we have in mind are pleasant…….”

The authors go on to talk about what it means to pull a kedge. Kedging is basically setting a goal that gets you out of your comfort zone and motivates you beyond belief. The great thing about this is it’s FUN! Something like training for the Warrior Dash or buying a new great bike, new shoes, or even something as extravagant as a ski trip. It just has to be something that motivates you if you find yourself stuck in a funk…..as you surely will at some point.

I want to talk about the four P’s as they pertain to STAYING MOTIVATED!!!

Perception – It is often said that Perception is our reality! How do you feel about doing things? Check your mental attitude; choose self talk such as I get to workout rather than I have to and see how your attitude changes. By the way this works for everything! Try it the next time you (get to clean your house) see if it helps! Don’t make mountains out of mole hills—see you problems as they truly are most of the time, small and temporary.

Plan – If you leave your house with no course of direction how likely are you to arrive anywhere? The same goes with goals…you have to plan to succeed and remember be realistic! As I say time and time again “Rome was not built in a day” so you have to keep your plans and goals realistic. Do this and you are much more likely to arrive at your destination….whatever it may be!

Prioritize – Keep this in mind: If you do not take care of yourself, you cannot take care of others. So it is okay to be selfish sometimes especially you when it comes to taking care of yourself! Taking care of yourself should always come first not second. Sometimes this means Kedging and leaving the kids and husbands home for a week and going to that resort with the girls. It definitely means making time to exercise and enjoy yourself everyday!

Play – Make goals that are joyful for you in not only reaching the product but also the journey! You want to enjoy the journey of reaching your goals! Create goals that align with your purpose, create happiness, and motivate you. You will be much more likely to achieve them.

Here are some other P’s – consider these key words during the creation of Great Goal Setting: promise, prosperity, parties, pro-action, perseverance, potential, peace, possibility, and purpose!

I hope this inspired you to SET SOME Goals Today!
Julie Prince!

“Bring the Guys” – fundraiser for Japan!

Our “Girls Day in the Park” was so fun and successful we’re doing it again! But this time you can bring the guys along!

Come out Saturday, June 11th and show the guys how it’s really done and what you’ve been doing in boot camp!

Indoor Boot Camp/Kettlebells at the Fit Women Studio!

2 Class times, limited to 20 people per class:
June 11th 9am-9:45am
June 11th 10am-10:45am

Donations of $5 or more accepted to participate.

Start signing up now!
When you RSVP please indicate the time you want and if you’re bringing someone so we have an accurate headcount!

If you have questions or to RSVP
email frances@fitwomenoforlando.com or call 407-967-5486

Okay here is the run down…for our “AWESOME Referral Contest” for May!

The contest will run from Monday May 9th until Friday 5:00pm June 17th.
Winners will be announced on Saturday June 18th!

It’s super easy to participate!!! All you have to do is bring your friends for FREE classes this month all of our classes will be FREE for one visit! Any class you want to take them to!

If they are interested and want to move beyond that you can give them a $70 Gift card which is about 2 Weeks worth of classes.

How you win!! You get point to be collected over the period of the contest!
Here is the breakdown of the points

*You Get 5 Points for every new person who takes a class
*You Get 7 Points for every new person you bring to “Girls Day in the Park”
*You Get 20 Points for every new person who uses their $70 Gift Certificate
*You Get 50 Points for every person you refer who purchases a package!!

Points will be tallied Friday June 17th at 8:00pm

Fit Women is going to help you out by giving you a package to help!! Come by Fit Women this Saturday May 7th anytime until 1:00pm to get your referral packages and sign-up.

You do not have to come to the studio to sign-up just e-mail me and let me know you will be participating and I will put your name on the list!

AWESOME PRIZES!!!!

1st place wins: your choice of Garmin FR60 Heart Rate Monitor & Foot Pod LTD or Sony Headphone-Style Walkman MP3 Player (Pink) 1 Year Subscription to “Women’s Health Magazine” plus “Unlimited LEAN Body Variety Pack” whooo hooo!!!! this is over $300.00 dollars worth of prizes!

2nd Place wins: Your choice of 1 year subscription to “Women’s Health Magazine” or $35 Gift Certificate to Sports Authority and a “Unlimited Lean Body Variety Pack”

Let’s ROCK -N- ROLL and help spread the gift of Health and Fitness with Fit Women of Orlando!!!

Some guidelines apply in order for there to be a 1st place winner at least 2 of the referrals brought in must purchase a package if this is not meet then there will be just one winner and it will be the 2nd place prizes!!

Simple food choices go a long way when it comes to your heart’s health. Focusing on fresh foods full of heart-healthy fats and antioxidants can decrease your risk of developing heart disease and cut your chances of a heart attack. These 10 foods will help keep your ticker in top shape.

Oatmeal
Start your day with a steaming bowl of oats, which are full of omega-3 fatty acids, folate, and potassium. This fiber-rich superfood can lower levels of LDL (or bad) cholesterol and help keep arteries clear.

Opt for coarse or steel-cut oats over instant varieties — the coarse and steel-cut contain more fiber — and top your bowl off with a banana for another four grams of fiber.

[Read more...]

Childhood obesity, underage drinking, smoking and failure to exercise are all concerns for parents these days. If you want your kids to adopt a healthier, wiser lifestyle, you are going to have to show them the light. Children often learn best by example. Lead and they will likely follow.

How can you set the example and get them off on the right foot if your habits aren’t that great? Consider taking these steps to put yourself and your family on the road to better health and fitness: [Read more...]

We all know it’s best to have a healthy snack after working out. Studies have shown that eating a small meal of protein and healthy carbs helps increase the benefits of your workout and speeds up the fat loss process.

So what’s your favorite post workout meal?

Leave a comment below and tell us your favorite healthy after-workout snack.