Motivation Tips

When beginning to workout or trying to become active and get in shape motivation to get you to the gym is one of the most important things. If you aren't motivated you aren't going to work out. Here's some fun tips.

To make cardio more fun:
Attention Book lovers

Bring a new book you have dying to read.  Only read when you are doing your cardio exercise. For example, if you are a hunger games fan, only allow yourself to read the hunger games while working out. Think about it, if you were only able to read the hunger games at the gym it'd be pretty much guaranteed that you'll make to the gym each day right? If you really like the book, you'll go to the gym and you won't be thinking about how much you hate to exercise or how tired you are. If you are like me and can't stop reading once you've started, keep the book in your gym bag and in your car. That way you won't be tempted to cheat with this one.
  
Moving Pictures

Watch Hulu or Netflix on your super cool iPhone or smartphone while you are on the bike or elliptical. I haven't tried this on the treadmill, but highly recommend for an exercise bike or elliptical.

Get a buddy.
Get a friend who will make you work, but make it enjoyable. MY freshman year of college my roommate and some of our guy friends did P90X religiously. This was because we had a group of 4-6 people working out with us everyday. It's hard to slack on a workout when the people who you enjoy spending your time with can only spend that time with you working out. Peer pressure can be good in certain situations.

Here's a great workout for people blessed enough to have a cardio machine in their home or access to a gym with tv's you can control while exercising.
TV SHOW HIIT Cardio
Watch your favorite movie or show on tv. Go for a solid hour. Use commercial breaks as to incorporate High intensity interval training into your workout. You are going to use commercials to make you work so no skipping channels for this workout. (No cheating allowed) For every 2 commercials up the incline or intensity to get your heart rate up to 80% of your maximal heart rate. (You maximal heart rate= 220- your age, if you have had a doctor tell you to not go above a certain heart rate listen to them first.)Then take the third commercial to a jog and rev it back up to 80% of you maximum heart rate for the next two commercials. Continue this pattern until your show returns. While watching your show try to keep your heart rate around 65- 70% of your maximum heart rate. This can easily be done at a gym or in your home.

Buddy Barbell Pull Downs

Here's another bicep post. This exercise will kill your arms and help build strength. This exercise is an eccentric workout so you will feel some soreness in the following day or two. Eccentric movement are also one of the most effective ways to build strength.

Buddy Barbell Pull Downs
This exercise requires a barbell, preacher bench, and a partner. (The picture to the left can be used as a reference if you have no idea what a preacher bench is)
I recommend simply using the barbell without weights for this exercise and doing a set of 3 at the end of your workout.

1. Holding the barbell, sit on the preacher bench with your arms resting with palms facing up (pronated) on the preacher bench. The preacher bench is used to isolate the bicep muscles in this exercise. Have your partner stand facing you as you bring the barbell up to the top of a curl position where the barbell is at the same level as your shoulders.

2. At this point have your partner place their hands on the barbell palms facing the floor. They are now going to pull down and provide resistance as you pull up trying to keep the barbell at your shoulders. Your partner should end up pulling hard enough to slowly cause you to fully extend your arms. If your partner can pull your arms down in  a couple of seconds, it is too much resistance. If this doesn't make you feel like you are using all of the strength you possibly can manage, you aren't doing it right. Your partner should provide enough resistance to slowly straighten out your arm but you have to work to try and stop them. Once they have brought your hands all the way down take 60 sec rest. That's set 1.

Cascade bicep curls

Here's an amazing bicep workout introduced to me by one of the other trainer's I work with. First pick a weight that you could lift between 5-8 times. Do 5 reps of those. Put those weights back on the rack grab a weight 5 lbs lower. Do 10 reps of those. Put those weight back and grab weights 10 lbs lower than your first weight. Do 15 reps of those. Pick up weights 5 lbs lower than your previous weights. Do 20reps. That's one set. Enjoy the results :)

myplate.gov recipes!

If you are interested in healthy low calorie recipes check out myplate.gov THey all look so yummy and only require ingredients you can pick up at any grocery store. No trips to a health food store necessary.
Click on the link below
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/healthy-eating-tips/sample-menus-recipes/Recipes.pdf

Egg Pasta Toss

So this is one of my favorite dishes introduced to me by my lovely friend Colleen. She's vegetarian and so she has to be creative with her food. I took the recipe and healthified it. Here it is!

Egg Pasta Toss

2 medium eggs 

1 serving (2 oz) of whole wheat linguine or spaghetti pasta. (I used Barilla.)

1/3 of a tomato diced

2tbs of canola or olive oil

a sprinkle of parmesean cheese 

a dash of red pepper flakes

a pinch of salt

First bring a small sauce pan filled with water 1/2 way  to a boil. Cook pasta according to directions. 

While past is cooking crack open eggs use a small cup and scramble yolks. This is also a good time to dice the tomatoes. 

Once noodles are soft remove from heat strain noodles. Keep them there in the colander for just a little while.

Place oil in the sauce pan pour Egg and noodles into the oil. Stir eggs and noodles until egg is completely cooked, Remove from heat. Top with tomatoes, red pepper, and a pinch of salt.
Enjoy!

Nutritional Info (w/o cheese)- 340 kcals, 84 kcals from fat, 15 g of protein, 8 g of fiber