JANUARY 28, 2008

DID YOU KNOW that where spot-reducing fails to work, spot-firming succeeds. It’s the visible difference in muscle definition that you can see in your arms after doing biceps curls, triceps presses and pushups for a couple of weeks. So no, it’s not a figment of your imagination. Regular resistance training helps tone spot-specific areas of your body, increasing both muscle definition and strength or endurance. Pumping iron can also increase your resting metabolism, because you’re increasing your muscle size. And the more lean mass you have, the more calories you burn at rest. Just remember, if you’re trying to trim flabby arms or find your six-pack, you still need to do cardio to lose the layer of fat that’s hiding your muscles. But combine cardio with resistance training, and you’ll be able to see the changes sooner. And the more results you can see, the more motivated you’ll be to keep working out. So if you’re trying to trim your flabby arms or give shape and definition to your calves, don’t just hit the treadmill to trim the fat; hit the weights as well and you’ll tone your muscles for a double whammy. (LifeScript)

Shrink Your Produce. Cooking can reduce the volume of your vegetables by as much as 80%, which sure makes getting them down the gullet much easier. Take spinach for example: one cup of fresh sautéed spinach (which is very tasty, by the way) is equal to nearly five cups of raw spinach. So instead of forcing down forkful after forkful of a raw spinach salad, you could be easily slurp down almost 300 mg of folate and over 11,000 mcg of beta-carotene of the cooked stuff. Not only will cooking your veggies help you get more of the good stuff down in one sitting, it also helps release many of the nutrients found in the foods. For example, cooked tomatoes are a more concentrated source of vitamin C and lycopene, an important phytochemical for fighting prostate cancer. One cup of cooked broccoli actually has three times as much fiber as the same serving size of raw broccoli. Just be sure that when you cook your veggies, you don’t use too much water. Steam your veggies to avoid nutrients being lost in the cooking water, or cook them into soups so that you end up drinking the broth. Get clever with how you eat your veggies and you’ll outsmart your picky side every time. (LifeScript)

No time for exercise during the week? You’re not alone. Millions of adults are stretched for time and can only spare a few precious moments to exercise during the week. And that makes weekends the perfect time to catch up on fitness. We call those people “Weekend Warriors.” Although fitness experts recommend exercising at least 30 minutes each day, research suggests that those who burn a lot of calories on the weekends and not during the week are still much better off than those who do not exercise at all. Burning just 1,000 calories in one or two exercise sessions a week (or weekend) can increase your chance of living for at least 10 years longer than sedentary individuals by 60%. In other words, don’t adopt an “all or none” attitude! Some is better than none, and fitting it in on the weekends is just fine. (LifeScript)

For comments, questions or suggestions . . . please email Allen