The Benefits of Exercise in the Morning

There are a number of reasons to exercise in the morning:

1. An Accomplishment First Thing in the AM It's a fantastic feeling to start the day with success. Exercising in the morning sets off every day with a job well done and an accomplishment under your belt! Plus, exercise makes you feel good and this glow will carry with you all day long.


2. Get it out of the Way How many times have you wanted to exercise but ended up pushing it aside for an emergency meeting, falling behind on chores or coming home from an especially tiring day at work? Exercising in the morning ensures that the workout is completed before any of life's other surprises can be thrown your way.


3. Better for Fat Burning There has been a lot of research that indicates that exercising in the morning burns more fat. This is because there is no carbohydrates (glucose) to burn in your body before fat cells can be begin to be used as an energy source. Also, cardio in the morning will rev up your metabolism for up to 24 hours, making your body a fat burning machine for the rest of the day.


Note: If you lift weights in the morning eat a little something before you begin. The food energy will give you the extra "push" to work out harder and stay focused (for safety). Building muscle will help to burn more calories all of the time, even at rest!

Enter your email address:












Delivered by FeedBurner

How to Keep Your Fitness Thriving When Dealing with an Injury

Injury. It’s the one word that can strike fear into even the most dedicated of athletes. It’s the one word that can completely derail even the most motivated of gym-goers. And unfortunately, it’s one of the most common mishaps of training.

 Suffering from an injury is one of the biggest reasons that people stop working out altogether, but it doesn’t have to be! If you approach working out the right way even though you’re injured, and you maintain a positive mindset then you can preserve your physical fitness while still healing.

1. Go get a professional opinion – Before you do anything else, go see a doctor! Though most of us have an uncanny fear of going to see a doctor to get an injury checked out (how many of us have fallen victim to the “if I ignore it, it’s not real!” mindset?) it’s the very first thing you need to do. Getting a professional opinion will help you overcome injury faster and help you come back stronger than before. Many times they can point out things that are wrong that you didn’t even notice, thus saving you from repeating the same mistakes and re-injuring yourself over and over again.

2. Exercise around the injury – You don’t have to completely stop working out just because you have injured a body part. Instead focus on the workouts that you can do. If you can still do low-impact cardio try taking up swimming or biking. If you’re sidelined from doing upper- body weights find lower-impact lower body exercises or core work that you can do without affecting the injured area.

3. Don’t use injury as an excuse to completely stop – If you are able to still work out despite an injury than do so! It’s going to be that much harder to get back into working out if you stop completely. It’s easy to view an injury as an excuse to become lazy and stagnant,however continuing to maintain your physical fitness will make you stronger not just physically but mentally as well.


4. Focus on what you can do – Use this time to clean up your diet or try something new that you have been putting off. Injury is your body’s way of telling you that it needs a break from some activity or that you approached an activity with a little too much fervor. You may have never realized how much you enjoy cooking until now, or that you actually really love yoga classes despite what you thought before. Use this time to make yourself a better-rounded fitness and nutrition enthusiast!

5. Stay positive – It’s so easy to fall into a downward spiral of negativity when you suffer an injury, sometimes even bordering on depression. When you’re sidelined from doing something you love it’s hard to find acceptance in that. And it’s ok to acknowledge these feelings. But don’t let them consume you. Stay as positive as possible and focus on the good in your life – it will make everything else more bearable as you wait for your injury to heal.


6. Give your body time to rest – I know, I just spent several paragraphs explaining how you should stay active. But you also need to allow your body adequate time to rest and heal. Just like you shouldn’t give up exercise completely, you shouldn’t approach it with an over-zealousness either. Use this time to find a healthy balance between both rest and exercise.

As frustrating as injuries are, they don’t need to signify the end of your fitness career, only that you need to tweak it a bit. Get professional opinions from doctors and personal trainers so that you can approach your recovery in smart way and come back more fit and strong than before. Don’t give up hope – you’ll be back on your feet in no time!

Author Bio: Kate Croston is a freelance writer, holds a bachelors degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She writes guest posts for different sites and loves contributing business internet service related topics. Questions or comments can be sent to: katecroston.croston09 @ gmail.com.

Enter your email address:












Delivered by FeedBurner

A Reason to "Up" your Calcium

I'm one of the few that seems to thrive on dairy.  I eat a lot of it including: Greek yogurt everyday, goat's cheese, cottage cheese, parmesan and a bit of skim milk.  Of course, calcium isn't only found in dairy.  Hardly! Even greater amounts are in leafy greens and veggies such as broccoli, spinach and kale.

Check this study out that has linked calcium to increased fat burning capabilities in women: 

Those ads linking a daily cup of yogurt to a slimmer silhouette may have a real basis in scientific fact. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition not only shows a calcium-rich diet is associated with fat loss but may help explain why.

Normal-weight women ranging in age from 18-30 years were randomly assigned to a low (less than 800 mg per day) or high (1000-1400 mg per day) calcium diet for 1 year, and the rate at which their bodies burned fat after a meal was assessed at the beginning and end of the study. After 1 year, fat oxidation (burning) was 20 times higher in women eating the high calcium diet compared to those in the low-calcium control group (0.10 vs. 0.06 gram per minute).

The women's blood levels of parathyroid hormone were also checked and were found to correlate with their rate of fat oxidation. (The primary function of parathyroid hormone is to maintain normal levels of calcium in the body. When calcium levels drop too low, parathyroid hormone is secreted to instruct bone cells to release calcium into the bloodstream.)

Higher blood levels of parathyroid hormone were associated with a lower rate of fat oxidation and lower dietary calcium intake, while lower blood levels of parathyroid hormone levels were seen in the women consuming a diet high in calcium, who were burning fat more rapidly after a meal. So, it appears that a high-calcium diet increases fat oxidation, at least in part, by lessening the need for parathyroid hormone secretion, thus keeping blood levels of the hormone low.

Enter your email address:












Delivered by FeedBurner