As you begin harvesting your garden and wonder what in the world to do with the abundance of the fruits (and veggies) of your labor, keep in mind one of my favorite ways to use garden veggies – grill them!
 
No matter what favorite summer veggie comes out of your garden, grill it.
 
There’s no wrong way […]

Popularity: 33% [?]

Summer is a time when many people, including myself, are tempted to spend the majority of their exercising time performing cardio outdoors, rather than balancing their fitness routine with strength and stretching. 
Let me offer a piece of advice that works for me.   
Don’t completely give up strength training (and losing all that you’ve gained over the […]

Popularity: 31% [?]

Do you judge your health by how you feel?  If so, you may be headed down a path away from health.
 
You won’t start feeling bad, or developing symptoms, until you are already ill.
 
That means that you could be feeling “fine” for a long time, while your health worsens, unbeknownst to you.
 
Symptoms develop only after you’ve […]

Popularity: 31% [?]

Are you experiencing the strength and muscle gains you would like to achieve with your strength training program? 
If not, it’s not you.  It’s your program. 
Conventional exercise physiology suggests that to build muscle, it is best to perform 8-12 repetitions using a weight that pushes the muscle to extreme fatigue (or even failure) within 8-12 repetitions. However, […]

Popularity: 53% [?]

This week Americans celebrate independence, our freedom.
 
Freedom is indeed a concept to celebrate.  Typically, when we think of “freedom”, we think of freedom from something.  Actually, “freedom” entails “freedom to” as well.
 
In the realm of health and fitness, we are “free” to care or not care for our bodies.  We are free to nourish our […]

Popularity: 52% [?]

“It totally amazes me that we are so [professionally] driven that we lose our healthto make money and then…turn around and spend all our moneytrying to get our health back.” This quote from Darrin Steen, the creator of Fat Loss Lifestyle, The 12 Week Body Transformation Program, struck me the first time I read it and […]

Popularity: 55% [?]

Life ‘gets better…if you are fit”
-         Sally Edwards, Ironwoman, creator of heart zones.
 
Conventional wisdom tells us that are bodies decline in function, and thus, our quality of life decreases with age.
 
This, however, is not true, especially for fit individuals.
 
Stiffness, tightness, loss of strength and many other qualities are attributed to aging, however, these are not […]

Popularity: 38% [?]

Whether or not sugar can be link to hyperactivity in children is still debatable (however, I get the feeling that some parents don’t need the research to support that claim).  However, we do know a couple things about sugar:

it has no nutritional value (no vitamins, no minerals)
sugar often keeps bad company (unhealthy ingredients, such as […]

Popularity: 47% [?]

Weight management programs for kids are an interesting concept to me. Why do we assume that only families in which there is an overweight child need education? All families need education in how to live healthfully. Dr. David Katz, from Yale Univeristy said:

 “This is the first generation that probably will not outlive their parents.”  This is the first […]

Popularity: 50% [?]

I frequently encounter women who are resistant to strength training (i.e. weight lifting or resistance training) because of their fear of bulking up.  Learn why this is not a valid fear.
 Here are the facts. 
1.  Strength training will increase muscle, however, not to the extreme degree (unless, of course, you are planning on dedicating several hours […]

Popularity: 59% [?]