Answer Fitness®: Practical Fitness Advice for Everyone

Weight Training: Burn Fat, Be Strong & Stay Healthy

Find out how adding weight training into your fitness routine can pay off big with more muscle and less fat

Weight training is one of the most effective additions anyone can make to their workout routine. It improves overall strength; encourages a more lean, “toned” appearance; can reduce the risk of injury (especially as you age) and is a potent metabolism booster, helping you burn fat even when you aren’t exercising.

Yet many people never even start weight training because they either don’t know where to begin, are intimidated by the idea of lifting weights, or think weight training is something only bodybuilders or power lifters can benefit from.  

What Exactly Is Weight Training?

Weight training is simply performing an exercise under resistance or with added weight to challenge the muscle to become stronger and larger.

When you weight train, you are resisting the force of gravity (which is increased by adding weight to the movement) during the exercise. You can increase resistance by adding additional weight in the form of dumbbells or weighted bars, or by utilizing a cable and pulley-based weight machine or cable-station.

Weight training improves strength and increases muscle size because it “overloads” the muscle and works it beyond what is normally required every day to meet your basic physical needs. This overload literally damages the muscle. However, the body, being the wonderful machine it is, responds by repairing the muscle in a way that over time allows it to meet the increased strength needs that regular weight training requires. So you get stronger over time, and your muscle also becomes larger to meet the demand.

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Five Ways to Make That Glass of Water Taste Better | Diet Tips from Answer Fitness®

Try these five tricks to stay hydrated and enjoy drinking water at the same time. 

Water is essential to good health, but let’s face it, compared to soda, juice, wine or beer, water is pretty … um … boring. But it has zero calories, no sugar, is filling and may help with fat-loss, so drinking plenty of water makes sense.

The problem is, water just doesn’t have much zip to it.

Until now.

Try one or more of these tricks and products to meet your daily fluid requirements while making water a beverage that you actually enjoy:

1. Make It Fruity: Adding wedges of lemons, limes, oranges and other fruits like strawberries, kiwis and even blueberries can add a subtle fruit flavor to water. Even better, when you get to the bottom of the glass, you have a few pieces of fresh fruit to reward you for your effort.  Can’t keep fresh fruit with you everywhere you go? No problem. Check out True Lemon®, an all-natural crystallized lemon powder (it comes in lime and orange, as well) that’s perfect for adding to your water bottle. They’ll even send you a couple free samples!
2. Make It Juicy: Adding a splash of fruit juice to your water is a nice way to add some additional flavor and nutrients (as well as a little sweetness.) Good choices include grapefruit, orange, cherry, cranberry, and grape juices. Or try adding a blueberry-pomegranate juice like POM for some additional flavor and a dose of powerful antioxidants.
3. Make It Fizzy: Love the fizziness of soda, but could do without all of the sugar? Try making your own “light” sodas by adding fruit juice to sparkling mineral waters like Perrier or San Pellegrino. If the price tag that comes with mineral water is a little steep, you can also substitute bottled carbonated water, which you can find in the soda or water isle. They’ll often come pre-flavored which makes them a tasty, convenient option to soda.
4. Make It Frozen: Ice is water. Consider whipping up a frozen smoothy with a couple scoops of your favorite flavor of protein powder, a handful of ice cubes and a little water to get things going. Throw in a banana for some sweetness and whip it up in a blender to a nice frothy consistency. Instant milk-free, milkshake! And you get some protein along with the water.
5. Make It Into Tea: Yes, that’s right, tea counts toward your daily water requirements. While tea is a mild diuretic, the amount of water it causes you to lose is far outweighed by the total volume of water you drink. And, a 2006 study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that drinking tea is actually healthier than just drinking plain water. The high flavanoid content of tea may protect against heart disease and cancer. So whether you like it green, black, white or herbal, tea is a great way to meet your daily hydration needs. Just skip the sugar or cream. 

Remember, The Institute of Medicine  advises that men consume roughly 3.0 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day and women consume 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day. If you are more active, your requirements may be higher.

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Wolfgang Puck All-Natural No-Stick Cooking Spray | Healthy Food of the Day

Love the flavor of butter, but not the saturated fat and calories that come along with it? Try these butter-flavored non-stick cooking sprays.

The next time you’re in the baking isle at the grocery store, check out Wolfgang Puck’s Butter-flavored All-Natural No-Stick Cooking Spray.

I always keep at least one can of this around (usually right on top of my range) for those times when I need to add a little butter flavor to a dish or need some healthy fat to make the perfect omelette or frittata.

Why butter-flavored canola oil?

First, canola oil contains heart-healthy Omega 3s, is high in healthy unsaturated fats (93 percent), is free of cholesterol and trans fat, and has the lowest saturated fat (7 percent) of any common cooking oil.

Also, because the oil is in a spray form, you tend to use less of it than when it’s liquid. So a 1/3 second spray (0.25 grams) of non-stick cooking oil, for all practical purposes, has zero calories and zero fat.

Obviously, the longer you spray it, the more calories you add, but even if you sprayed it for 6 seconds (which is quite a bit of time), you’d still only be adding around 46 calories and 4 grams of fat to your dish.

The oil also tastes great and contains natural butter flavor (no artificial flavorings which you may find in other “butter” flavored sprays), so it adds a nice richness to your food.

But you don’t need to limit your use of non-stick cooking sprays to coating your pan when making egg-white omelettes. There are dozens of other interesting uses, including:

• sauteing, stir frying and grilling (spray it right on steaks and salmon filets for a little butter flavor and GREAT grilll marks)
• basting and browning meats, poultry and fish
• use it as a finishing oil on veggies (spray it on just before serving.)
• toast, english muffins, whole-grain bagels and high-fiber muffins (give ‘em a quick spray for tasty butter flavor and add a sprinkling of sea or kosher salt to amp things up)
• eggs - a great finish to “canola” fried eggs
• Popcorn — my personal favorite.  Coat microwave or air-popped popped corn with a couple quick sprays of non-stick cooking spray and salt and pepper – or even better, a little seasoned salt. This makes amazing, tasty, and buttery,  popcorn without the usual fat and calories.

If your grocer doesn’t carry Wolfgang’s no-stick cooking spray, don’t fret. There are a number  of other natural non-stick cooking spray options, including, Mazola Pure Cooking Spray and  All-Natural PAM® Butter Flavored non-stick spray, as well as organic options like Spectrum Naturals Non-Stick Organic Olive Oil Spray.

So the next time your tempted to reach for the butter, consider instead reaching for the butter-flavored non-stick spray. Your waist-line will thank you … and so will your heart.

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The Skinny on Protein, Carbohydrates and Fats | Nutrition 101

The right combination of carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats is critical to reaching your diet and fitness goals. Learn how it all comes together on your plate.

You’ll often hear myself or fitness and nutrition experts discuss the importance of “balanced-meals” to people who are trying to stay fit and in-shape. But what is a balanced diet? And why is it so critical?

A balanced diet simply means that you provide your body with all of the basic nutrients that it needs to provide you with energy each day, as well as to repair and build tissue.

Even if you laid in bed all day, your body still requires around 1200 calories just to fuel basic functions like breathing, digestion, cellular repair and even thinking. The more active you, the more calories you need.

But calories alone are only part of the picture.

Your body also requires amino acids from protein and lipids from dietary fat to maintain, regenerate or repair tissue, whether that’s skeletal muscle, connective tissue, skin, or nervous tissue.

Protein, carbohydrates and fats are often referred to as “macro-nutrients” because your body needs large amounts of them to perform basic cellular functions.

“Micro-nutrients”, on the other hand, are things like vitamins and minerals, which your body uses in smaller amounts to maintain healthy, functioning cells, tissues and organs.

Let’s take a closer look at each macro-nutrient and the role it plays in remaining healthy and fit.

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Low-Fat Homemade Vanilla-Orange Granola | Healthy Recipes from Answer Fitness®

Want an economical, low-fat and low-sugar homemade granola recipe? Try this homemade orange granola and be prepared to be blown away.

Oats are considered a fitness power food, and granola is a tasty way to get your daily oats. The problem is that most granola recipes are loaded with sugar. You could buy a low-fat or low-sugar prepackaged granola at the store, something like a Bear Naked Granola, but at nearly $6 a bag, it’s more economical to make your own.

This particular recipe uses freshly squeezed orange juice and a touch of honey to naturally sweeten the granola. There is no processed or brown sugar added. 

The sugar content is minimal in this recipe and it uses no oil, so the granola is about as pure and close-to-the-earth as it gets. The only fats are the healthy kinds from walnuts, almonds, pecans and flax meal. And the coconut, although high in saturated fat, is plentiful in medium- and short-chain fats, which the body burns more readily for energy.

Best of all, this particular granola recipe is wicked easy to make.  If you aren’t crazy about nuts, you can substitute dried fruit like raisins, dried cherries, blueberries, cranberries or even dried apple slices or banana chips. Add these after the granola has been cooked and cooled.

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How Often Should I Workout? | Fitness Tips

Workout frequency is highly individual. Learn how to find your perfect schedule and avoid over training.

How often you should work out is really a matter of your current fitness level, the types of exercises you are performing, the intensity of your workouts, and how much time you actually have available to spend in the gym.

Current Fitness Level

Your current fitness level is one of the primary factors used to determine workout frequency.

Beginners will typically need more recovery time between workouts than more advanced trainees, bodybuilders or well-conditioned athletes or runners.  Nearly everyone has experienced one of those workouts where you “over did” it and couldn’t move for three days. While this can happen at all levels of fitness, it’s more common among beginners who are still gauging their strength, stamina and recovery ability.

The body also makes certain adaptations with training over time that may shorten the required recovery time. So while some people can go heavy in the gym every day, others may need to take a break every-other-day.  

As a general rule of thumb, a good training frequency for someone who is new to the gym, or returning after a lengthy break, is three resistance workouts a week lasting between 45 and 60 minutes. This will allow you to work each major muscle group with at least one exercise and give yourself 48 hours for recovery between workouts.

This full-body workout is ideal because it helps build a solid foundation for later, more advanced training; encourages overall core development; discourages the development of muscle imbalances that can accompany “split routines”; and may burn more calories after training.

And by the way, this is actually also an excellent workout for an advanced trainee. The difference is they will work with heavier weights and may do more total sets for each exercise than a person who is less-experienced in the gym.

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Healthy Food of the Day: Five Low Fat, Great Tasting, Mexican Food Toppings

Try one or all of these tasty low-fat, low-calorie toppings on your next taco or burrito

So you think eating healthy means you can’t enjoy Mexican food? Think again. These five toppings for Mexican food not only taste great, but they’re also excellent, nutrient-packed additions to any healthy diet.

Salsa

What’s a taco or burrito without a generous helping of salsa on top? The good news is this delicious mix of onions, tomato, garlic, chilies and lime juice is not only low in calories and fat, but also a nutritional powerhouse, combining four of the most antioxidant-rich foods available in one dish.  Salsa has actually surpassed catsup as America’s favorite condiment. In 2007, salsa outsold catsup by $175 million dollars according to research firm ACNielsen.

Fresh salsa or pico de gallo is your best bet since it tends to be lower in sodium than canned or bottled versions, and it adds a fresh twist to your Mexican food.  But in a pinch, the jarred versions will work just fine. Salsa is the ultimate convenience condiment, but remember you can also make your own salsa at home with just a few ingredients. It’s almost always superior to the pre-prepared store-bought salsa in taste and nutritional value.

Two tablespoons of ready-to-serve, store-bought salsa contains 9 calories, 0 fat, 0 cholesterol, 198 milligrams of sodium, 2.1 grams of carbs, 0.5 grams of protein and 98 mg of potassium. Fresh salsa or pico de gallo will generally have less sodium. (Source: Calorie King.com)

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