May Mini Challenges
luvs_choc8
Posts: 788 Member
May 1
Ahanksa Wrote:
FOOD: Today's food advice is to get you to prepare for Monday. I wanted to encourage as many people as possible to get more fruits and vegetables in their diets and to reduce eating meat. Meatless Monday is an international campaign that encourages people to give up eating meat one day per week. Eating less meat can have several health benefits, as most people already have enough protein in their diets. So, take some time to plan ahead for Monday this weekend and see if you can adopt Meatless Mondays in your families as well. EXERCISE: If you have a kettle bell or can get one, doing kettle bell swings is one of the most beneficial exercises for your posture out there. This exercise can help someone regain their posture from one of sitting hunched over to one that was upright, extended, and open. There are some great youtube videos that teach you how to do it...give it a try and do 2 to 3 sets of 5 to 10 reps. Increase your reps as you get more comfortable with the move. INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!' - Robin Williams **Happy May Day to all those celebrating it around the world and hope you all have a great weekend!!**
Ahanksa Wrote:
FOOD: Today's food advice is to get you to prepare for Monday. I wanted to encourage as many people as possible to get more fruits and vegetables in their diets and to reduce eating meat. Meatless Monday is an international campaign that encourages people to give up eating meat one day per week. Eating less meat can have several health benefits, as most people already have enough protein in their diets. So, take some time to plan ahead for Monday this weekend and see if you can adopt Meatless Mondays in your families as well. EXERCISE: If you have a kettle bell or can get one, doing kettle bell swings is one of the most beneficial exercises for your posture out there. This exercise can help someone regain their posture from one of sitting hunched over to one that was upright, extended, and open. There are some great youtube videos that teach you how to do it...give it a try and do 2 to 3 sets of 5 to 10 reps. Increase your reps as you get more comfortable with the move. INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!' - Robin Williams **Happy May Day to all those celebrating it around the world and hope you all have a great weekend!!**
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Meatless Monday! Sounds great. I live with a vegan so I'm surrounded by delicious meat-free cooking.0
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great idea
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No meat will be a challenge for me, but I will try
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Monday May 4
Ahanksa Wrote:
FOOD: To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy diet or lifestyle as a number of small, manageable steps—like adding a salad to your diet once a day—rather than one big drastic change. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices. On Friday I encouraged you to try a Meatless Monday today and if you tried it i wish you all the best. If not, then thats cool too! Just try to increase your vegetable and fruit intake today! Overall watch your calories and make sure you get plenty of water. EXERCISE: This month while getting back in the gym (home gym or at an outside gym) I am putting forth a push-up challenge. You can do it on your knees or on your toes. Today, pick your position and make sure you have good form and do 10. If you can do more (or less) comfortably then start at that number. We will add one push up a day and by the end of May...you will be surprised in how many you can do. INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated. - Maya Angelou0 -
Meatless Monday was a success! Hope everyone found some yummy proteins.
Pushups haha.. I can do zero. I will definitely have to work on this0 -
Had a meatless Monday without even noticing. Might be easier than I thought.0
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Wednesday May 6
Ahanksa Wrote:
FOOD: Focus on how you feel after eating. This will help foster healthy new habits and tastes. The more healthy food you eat, the better you’ll feel after a meal. Watch your calories and stay within your limits. Do not forget about the water!! EXERCISE: Ok, one more push up today!! If you are finding it hard to do one more, then do the same as yesterday...do not beat yourself up about it!!! Slowly you will notice the change and improve! INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever. Audre Lorde **Have a great Wednesday!!**0 -
Monday May 11
Ahanksa Wrote:
FOOD: Hope everyone had a great weekend and Mother's Day. This week I plan to review a basic building block of our diets again....proteins! In reality if you are eating enough calories, you are probably eating plenty of protein. Generally an active women needs about half a gram of protein per pound a day, or approximately 65 grams for a 130-pound woman. And according to the USDA, most of us — even vegetarians — are eating 69 grams of protein daily, so we're in the clear. Mind you if you exercise for more than an hour five or more days a week, you should bump up your intake to 0.75 grams per pound. The worst thing to do is to skimp at breakfast and then load up at lunch and dinner, because eating protein in the morning can help curb your calorie intake for the rest of the day. A word of warning though....as your body digests protein, it produces nitrogen as a by-product, which your kidneys have to work to process and eliminate as urine. Therefore, huge amounts of protein put a big-time strain on your kidneys. So, it is important to talk to your doctor if you have kidney problems and to drink enough water to keep your kidneys flushed if you are on a high protein diet. Make sure you are getting your 1.5 to 3 liters of water per day. EXERCISE: Hope those of you who are doing the push up challenge took one day off and are still with me on the challenge!!! Let's add one more today and everyday for six days!!! So, some of you may have noticed that once you dropped a few pounds it has become harder to lose more weight. That is because your body become more efficient at burning calories, which makes losing more weight difficult after a certain point. The fix may be to tweak your workout and turn up the intensity or burn. Try to go faster and not longer. Try adding a high-intensity session which can really kick up your post workout burn!! Take a look at your workout and see where you can kick it up a notch!! INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do. - Mother Teresa **Start your workweek and Monday out with a smile at a stranger, co-worker, family member or friend...you never know who may need it!!!**0 -
First day back at the gym after a calorie PACKED weekend. Time to get back into gear.
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Tuesday May 12
Ahanksa Wrote:
FOOD: So, I am sure most of you have heard that it takes more calories to burn protein than fat or carbs. Well in general your body uses up calories to break down food and absorb nutrients. It takes the body about 5 to 15 percent of the calories from fat and carbs to digest them. With protein, it's more like 20 to 30 percent. That's because protein is made up of amino acids held together by peptide bonds, which take more effort to breakdown. So, in short, it does take more calories to breakdown proteins, but not much more. Watch your general calorie counts and do not forget your water intake today! EXERCISE: I do not know about you guys and gals, but music makes my workouts so much more enjoyable. So, tune in folks!! Research shows that music can increase the intensity of your effort and decrease how difficult it feels. This is especially true during the last part of your workout, when you tend to feel more tired. So, do you need an extra push to do those push-ups today...well put on some of that Rocky theme music or Queen's "We will rock you" to name a couple of my favorites! Amp up your intensity with some workout music today. INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life. - Omar Khayyam **Have a great Tuesday folks!!**0 -
Thursday May 14
Ahanksa Wrote:
FOOD: Protein is made up of 20 amino acids. Out of those 11 are produced by the body and nine come from food. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy contain all nine, which is why you may have heard them called complete proteins. Plant-based foods, like beans, legumes, nuts, seeds and grains are lacking or extremely low in one or more of those amino acids. So, if you are vegetarian you have to eat a variety of foods. So, think brown rice and beans or whole-grain cereal and soy milk. That way you will get all that your body needs too. Try your best to keep your diet varied and largely plant based with lean animal proteins! EXERCISE: One more!! Yes, you can do it!!! For all those who have desk jobs...remember that sitting will kill you! Even standing or moving around for a little as 2 minutes in a hour can do a lot for your health. Get moving...do not leave all your exercise for the end of the day...do 10 squats today every time you respond to 10 emails or every hour on the hour or take a quick walk around the office every hour. Your choice today, but get moving! INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone. - Ronald Reagan **Hope everyone has a great Thursday!!**0 -
Tuesday May 19
Ahanksa Wrote:
FOOD: It is important to keep up with your fluids as the weather gets warmer. Remember to drink 8 or more glasses of water a day and supplement that with frozen fresh fruit for an easy, on-the-go snack, or fruits such as watermelons, cantaloupes, and star fruits. Vegetables such as iceberg lettuce, baby spinach, cucumbers, green peppers, carrots, radishes, and tomatoes (which contain large amounts of lycopene) are excellent ways to supplement your fluid intake while getting a lot of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. All without containing many calories. EXERCISE: Squats are a great exercise for your lower body and in general to improve your functional status. Combine squats with a few upper body moves and you have a perfect all round workout. Try doing 2 to 3 sets of 8-12 reps of these three squat based moves: squat with overhead press, split squat with bicep curl (the foot that is behind should be on a step), and wide squat with hand weight exchanges (as you do the squat you move the weight from one hand to another). Pair these moves today with your push ups and you are well on the way to summer swim suits! INSPIRATION QUOTE: The first wealth is health. - Ralph Waldo Emerson **Happy Tuesday to everyone!!** I will get on a transatlantic flight tonight so may not get a chance to write tomorrow due to the flight times...so keep moving and adding one more push up!!! Take care and have a wonderful Wednesday too!!!0 -
I'm so off the wagon since the end of last week. I gotta get back on track with these mini challenges0
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Wednesday May 27
Ahanksa Wrote:
FOOD: Please excuse for the next bit of information...it is very US centric. The USDept. of Agriculture has identified three categories of labeling organic products: (1)100% Organic: Made with 100% organic ingredients; (2) Organic: Made with at least 95% organic ingredients; (3) Made With Organic Ingredients: Made with a minimum of 70% organic ingredients with strict restrictions on the remaining 30% including no GMOs (genetically modified organisms). The third category with less than 70% organic ingredients may list organically produced ingredients on the side panel of the package, but may not make any organic claims on the front of the package. I imagine many countries have similar rules to these, so be familiar with your countries rules on labeling items organic to be sure that you are getting the right items. So, if you are going to add more organic foods to your lives, make sure to go for those that say 100% Organic! Finally, please watch your water intake as the weather in many parts of the world gets hotter your body needs more water to function well. EXERCISE: You know that sore feeling you get the day after a great workout or the first day after you went back into the gym. That "i can't get out of bed" or "ouch" with every step up a staircase feeling...yes, that feeling has an official name. It is called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)!!! You get it because when you work out you create micro-tears in your muscles and the soreness is the inflammatory response of the body fixing the tears. The new rebuilt muscle will be stronger and so the more you do that exercise the less sore you will get. If you got really sore then the best way to minimize it is to stretch and warm up before the exercise and to stretch again afterwards. Getting a good recovery drink such as cool glass of milk should help also. You should take the next day off from that activity to give those muscles a rest, but you could do another exercise so that you continue to challenge your body. Vary your workouts to give your sore muscles a chance to recover. INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us. - Alexander Graham Bell **Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!!!**0 -
Thursday May 28
Ahanksa Wrote:
FOOD: Many people say that organic food costs to much. Well, the truth of the matter is that organic food doesn’t always cost more. Some items, such as coffee, cereal, bread, and even hamburger, may cost the same or even less than their conventional counterparts. And, as the demand for organics continues to grow, the cost will continue to come down. When the cost is higher, consider these facts. In the US organic farmers don’t receive federal subsidies like conventional farmers do. Therefore, the price of organic food reflects the true cost of growing. The price of conventional food does not reflect the cost of environmental cleanups and the damage the pesticides and antibiotics cause our bodies which are reflected in our medical care costs. Organic farming is more labor and management intensive. Finally organic farms are usually smaller than conventional farms and so do not benefit from the economies of scale that larger growers get. So, look and compare the costs when you are in the supermarket next time, perhaps the organic food item may be a cheaper and healthier choice. EXERCISE: Emerging science suggests there are benefits to exercising outdoors that can’t be replicated on a treadmill, a recumbent bicycle or a track. You stride differently when running outdoors, for one thing. Generally, studies find, people flex their ankles more when they run outside. They also, at least occasionally, run downhill, a movement that isn’t easily done on a treadmill and that stresses muscles differently than running on flat or uphill terrain. Outdoor exercise tends, too, to be more strenuous than the indoor version. In studies comparing the exertion of running on a treadmill and the exertion of running outside, treadmill runners expended less energy to cover the same distance as those striding across the ground outside, primarily because indoor exercisers face no wind resistance or changes in terrain, no matter how subtle they may be. So, as the weather improves, move your workout outside and reap the benefits. So, tomorrow is the last day of the push up challenge. Add one more today...push yourselves!! INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs…one step at a time. ~Joe Girard **Happy Thursday everyone, hope you all have a terrific day!!**0 -
Friday May 29
Ahanksa Wrote:
FOOD: So, which is more nutritious organic or conventional foods? At this time, there is no definitive research that makes this claim. It is extremely difficult to conduct studies that would control the many variables that might affect nutrients, such as seeds, soil type, climate, post harvest handling, and crop variety. However, some recently published studies in peer-reviewed journals have shown organic foods to have higher nutritional value. For example, researchers at the University of California, Davis, recently found that organic tomatoes had higher levels of phytochemicals and vitamin C than conventional tomatoes. Also the organic fruits and vegetables have the added benefit of not having all the toxic affects of the pesticides and fungicides and the affects of antibiotics on our environment and bodies. EXERCISE: Today is the last day of the push up challenge. I managed to go from 7 full push ups to 21 full push ups...if you challenged yourself this month and have seen an improvement..please share. INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve. - Mary Kay Ash **Have a fantastic Friday!!**0
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