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I'm sure you've heard the saying, "a calorie is a calorie," and that when weight loss is the goal, you can probably loose weight on a 1,200 calorie/day diet whether it is 1,200 Twinkie calories or apple calories. At this point, you might be thinking, "Cool! I'll go on the Twinkie diet!"   Our bodies are smarter than that though, and I say, thank goodness. I know - I'm no fun at all :-). Last week at the grocery one of my kiddos held up a box of Twinkies and had the audacity to ask me to purchase them. I nearly burst a vessel in my forehead trying to restrain myself from smashing the box with......
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Being that it is summer, and there are vacations, kids home from school, camps, a lot of running around in circles...sometimes a workout is hard to knock out, even when intentions are high. When that happens, I have a 30-minute, total body workout that requires very little equipment, yet will leave you dripping in sweat. Wanna hear it? Here it is... You'll need:  a set of 10 or 12lb wts (lighter if you like), a resistance tube 5-10 minute warm up @ 40-50% max heart rate Set 1: 10-14 Burpees (also called pop squats) 3-way lunges w/ dumbbells: Start with weaker leg leading. Take one lunge forwa......
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Stumbled upon a few deals I'd like to pass along: 20% off planners! For all of you planners out there (you know who you are, planning each workout weeks in advance), get a head start on school year planning at MomAgenda. MomAgenda is offering 20% off small School Year books (use code: schoolyearsmom) Visit MomAgenda.com, offer expires 7.31.2011 *P.S. I LOVE MomAgenda planners. Seriously, love them - totally created by moms, for moms. Enough said. EatingWell magazine has a new book out: EatingWell 500-calorie Dinners for $22.45 (10% off the regular price). While you are planning workouts in you......
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Check out this video if you are unfamiliar with trigger point therapy... TPR Therapy, Ironman competitor Have you ever wished you could afford a personal masseuse? One who could come to your home, preferably daily, to help relieve you of the knots and muscle tightness that inevitably occur from daily workouts and, well, being a mom? In search of a solution to my IT band issues, I tried a chiropractor (not money well spent), stretching, massage therapy (therapist too gentle to release deep tissue), and my O.D. The O.D. provided the most valuable information: without proper biomechanics, the bod......
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The mysterious " fat burning zone " continues to confuse many gym-goers. The theory goes something like this: working out in a "zone" of intensity that is less intense for at least 20 minutes will burn more fat calories than calories from carbohydrate. Is this true? Yes and no, but mostly no. You actually burn more calories from fat right now, sitting still, reading this post, than you do on the treadmill. That is because in the resting state, the body burns a higher percentage of fat calories. As you crank up the exercise intensity, you burn a little less fat per calorie. However, it really c......
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Just the other day, I overhead a couple of women at my gym complaining that they weren’t able to sign up for two cardio machines side-by-side. The dilemma, it appeared, wasn’t that there were no cardio machines available, just not two next together, so they wouldn’t be able to pass the time gabbing. I understand that talking seems to make time pass without notice, however, if you are able to carry on such a conversation while you’re “exercising,” you aren’t working out all that hard. And here is reason #467 – why I loathe the gym – there is too much talking going on and not enough exercising. Back to my original point – if exercising and talking must occur as a package deal, why not go outside and take a long walk? When the gym is crowded, hot, noisy, and unproductive – make the world your gym instead. Think about it – anything you do in the gym can be replicated outside.

Lunges, push-ups, dips, step ups, calisthenics…you name it. You don’t even need equipment – gravity is the ultimate resistance tool! Combine that with hills, benches, stadium steps, playground equipment, logs, rocks and portable equipment, such as tubes, bands and weighted balls, and you have a workout that is incredibly challenging and refreshingly different.

Another benefit to training outdoors is its real-life applicability. While machines confine you to restrictive motor patterns, they don’t mimic real-life situations very well. Outdoors, you won’t have to wait in line for equipment, listen to the hum of 50 treadmill motors, or have to wonder if the sweaty guy who just exited the leg press machine wiped it down thoroughly, or at all.

And, nature is FREE!

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  1. [...] that was shocking: Americans spend 90% of their time indoors! Say what?!?! I think it is time to step out into the fresh air (more than 10% of the time) and starting reaping the many benefits Mother Nature [...]

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