If you’ve hit a health and fitness plateau, it may be time to look at the lifestyle factors that could be slowing down your metabolism and hindering your progress toward achieving your health and fitness goals. While you can’t change all of the factors that determine how your metabolism functions, it is possible to give your metabolism a jumpstart simply by changing some of your daily habits.

Source: The Role of Metabolism in Reaching Your Goals and Improving Your Fitness

Turning these tips into daily habits is a great way to give your metabolism a boost and enhance your ability to meet your health and fitness goals. You may also benefit from working with a personal trainer, who can design a specific exercise regimen that your body responds to positively. Regardless of where you are in your health and fitness journey, don’t despair—get up, get moving and give your metabolism the boost you need to start seeing results.

You know that eating more fruits and vegetables is good for you, but it can be daunting to think about cutting out meat and making the switch to a more plant-based diet. The good news: You don’t have to give up meat altogether to eat healthier. If you’re considering transitioning to eating more vegetables and less meat, this four-step guide can help make the process much more manageable.

Source: 4 Steps to Make the Switch to a Plant-Based Diet Less Daunting

It seems more people than ever are moving away from a meat-heavy diet and making the switch to a plant-based eating style. Not only is this trend popular with celebrities like Carrie Underwood and Gwyneth Paltrow, it is, arguably, a healthier way of eating and better for the environment, as well.

As registered dietitians, we’ve witnessed a growing body of research confirming that diets centered on minimally processed plant foods that come straight from the earth not only fight a myriad of chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, they also help to keep you svelte. However, many people feel overwhelmed when they try to dramatically change their diets, especially If they think mistakenly believe they should cut out all animal products.

Fortunately, this is not the case at all. If you’re considering transitioning to a more plant-based diet, this four-step guide will help make the process much more manageable. When you feel as though you’ve mastered one step, move on to the next. And feel free to start with any of the steps and progress to another step in any order that feels most comfortable for you.

One thing to keep in mind: A “plant-based” diet emphasizes minimally processed foods from plants, with modest amounts of fish, lean meat and low-fat dairy—red meat is eaten at only sparingly. In other words, you don’t have to become a vegan. After all, one of the best ways to embrace a plant-based diet is to enjoy a healthy, anti-inflammatory diet like the Mediterranean diet, which includes fish, seafood, and some occasional poultry and meat.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been linked to several health issues, including type 2 diabetes and obesity. Here are the facts on HFCS and how it compares to other sweeteners in terms of its effects on overall health.

Source: What You Need to Know About High Fructose Corn Syrup

What Is HFCS?

Chemically speaking, sucrose or plain table sugar is one part glucose—the simplest sugar that is a component in many carbohydrates—and one part fructose or fruit sugar. Therefore, sucrose is 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose. This is very similar to the chemical composition of honey (48 percent glucose/52 percent fructose). Corn syrup, a liquid sweetener made from cornstarch, can vary in composition depending on the brand. HFCS, a modified version of standard corn syrup, is similar in chemical composition to table sugar and honey with two forms: HFCS-42 (58 percent glucose/42 percent fructose) and HFCS-55 (45 percent glucose/55 percent fructose).

The Controversy

The media has implicated HFCS as a potential contributor to the U.S. obesity epidemic (White, 2008; Zeratsky, 2005). These inferences have been drawn from studies that show Americans have more than doubled their intake of HFCS over the past 50 years, as this sweetening agent has slowly replaced traditional sucrose in a number of processed foods (White, 2008). In the same time period, the total number of calories consumed from just sugar has also doubled to approximately 400 calories per day. Recommendations from the American Heart Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics suggest that this level is too high, and that daily sugar intake should be no more than 100 calories for women and 150 calories for men (Fitch  and Keim, 2012; Zeratsky, 2005).

Flexibility is an important component of a well-rounded fitness routine, especially for those who tend to gravitate towards strength training. Incorporating these yoga poses into your workout regimen will help increase range of motion, as well as enhance stability and mobility.

Source: Yoga for Weightlifters: 7 Poses for Increased Range of Motion

Flexibility is an important yet often overlooked component of a well-rounded fitness routine, especially for those who tend to gravitate to strength-based workouts. Adequate range of motion around the joints is imperative to perform loaded movement patterns safely and effectively using strength-training tools such as barbells and dumbbells. In addition to enhancing performance in the gym, incorporating movements into one’s workout routine that enhance joint stability and mobility will also address existing muscle imbalance and allow for greater ease and efficiency when performing activities of daily living (ADLs) outside of the gym. The following yoga poses focus on stretching the major muscle groups typically used when performing ADLs (calves, thighs, hip flexors, back, chest and shoulders) while enhancing mobility in the hips, ankles, shoulders and thoracic spine.

While some believe that losing weight is simply a matter of moving more and eating less, it’s a bit more complicated than that. The human body is much more complex than we realize and there are many variables that come into play when trying to lose body fat. Here are some important things to consider when trying to lose weight.

Source: ACE Fit | Fit Life | How Eating Too Little Will Eat Up Your Fat-loss Goals

You’ve decided to lose weight, so it’s time to start moving more and eating less, right? Well, sort of.

That may sound like the right move, but sometimes it can end up doing more harm than good. The human body is much more complex than we realize, and there are many variables that come into play when trying to shed body fat.

Here are some things to consider when your primary goal is weight loss:

If you’ve eaten out at a restaurant lately, you know that portions sizes are huge, especially compared to those served just a few decades ago. For many of us, this has skewed our perception of what a normal portion size should look like. Here are some easy tips and strategies for controlling both your portions and your food intake.

Source: ACE Fit | Fit Life | 9 Tips to Help You Control Your Portions

The clothing you wear to workout is just as important as bringing a water bottle. Choosing the right clothing, therefore, for your workout is so very important.

Choosing, however, the right exercise clothing is not always easy to do, especially if you are a bit self-conscious about your appearance that I find to be the case with those easing back into exercising. So with that in mind, the best choice is both, practical, objective as well as, subjective, in that it reflects who you are, and your individual taste for fashion. You want your clothing and footwear to be stylish, but they also need to be functional. We wouldn’t want to wear something that’s so practical that you’re wearing something your mother would wear; but of course, I would like to think my daughters feel I have great taste in fashion, so that wouldn’t necessary be a bad thing.

First of all, we want to wear clothing that is appropriate to the sport or activity. That’s a given. If we choose baseball, we wear the appropriate attire, which includes cleats. However, if your activity is just that – to be active, play a little racquetball, hit the cardio machines or run the local trails – to choose the proper attire isn’t that simple.

The best advice I could give regarding workout clothing is that you pick fabrics that breath wicks away sweat. There are many breathable synthetic fabrics that “wick” the sweat away from your skin, which can help it to evaporate quickly and keep your body cool. Clothing made out of fabrics containing polypropylene or fabrics such as COOLMAX® and SUPPLEX® are a good choice for exercise and other activities in which you are likely to sweat a lot, as they allow the sweat to be evaporated from the skin but do not soak clothing and leave you feeling sweaty and uncomfortable.

Cotton shirts and pants, on the other hand, absorb the sweat, and they don’t pull it away from the skin or help it to evaporate quickly. That’s why cotton workout clothes can feel heavy and wet as you exercise.

Equally important is choosing the proper footwear. Having the right, supportive, shoe is extremely important for physical activity, especially weight-bearing activities. Likewise, choosing the right kind of footwear depends on your exercise routine. Certain exercises require shoes that are light in weight while others require more ankle support. If you perform more than one type of workout, you may want to buy a different pair of shoes for each activity, especially for high-impact exercises such as running.

If you’re a runner, for example, you will need lightweight shoes that are designed specifically for running. It’s a good idea to go to a running store to buy your shoes, instead of a standard shoe store. The sales staff will measure your foot and look at the pronation of your foot; whether it over or under pronates, as well as, your gait. If you’re a distance runner, make sure to let the salesperson know how any miles you run each month. This will help them to recommend the right kind of shoes. Now get out there and have some fun!

This graphic was put together by former U.K. pharmacist Niraj Naik, also known as the Renegade Pharmacist

These are the words of the Renegade Pharmacist:

Something that I noticed when working as a pharmacist was why people would still gain weight even though they were following a strict low fat diet recommended to them by their doctor.

This made me question whether it is really the ‘fat’ that causes us to gain unhealthy weight.

After seeing so many people suffering from obesity related diseases like heart disease, diabetes and the side effects of the medication they were taking, I was strongly motivated to research what actually causes people to become obese, it clearly was not just the fat they were eating!

I actually discovered that a trigger factor for many widespread diseases of the west such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes could be closely linked to the consumption of one particular substance found in many processed foods and drinks – fructose in the form of high fructose corn syrup.

Fructose is the form of high fructose corn syrup found in pretty much all processed foods such as ready meals, fast foods, sweets and fizzy drinks and most people are totally unaware of its danger.

It is also often found in ‘low fat’ supposedly healthy alternatives and even many popular weight loss products because food with the fat taken out simply tastes horrible. High fructose corn syrup in combination with many other additives are usually added to enhance the flavor.

Glucose is the type of sugar our body loves. It gets metabolized by every cell in our body and is very easy to burn with very few toxic by-products. It also tells the brain to stop eating when you are full.

Fructose on the other hand is another type of sugar and is found in sucrose which breaks down to glucose and fructose.

Fructose is actually only metabolized by the liver and it’s very similar to ethanol (the alcohol in drinks).

When you consume it, it’s actually like ethanol but without the high. It confuses the liver and ends up making lots of bad fats in the process. It also doesn’t signal your brain that you are full.

This is why people can drink massive cups of fizzy drinks which are high in fructose and still eat huge meals containing refined foods that are also full of fructose.

Many fruits also contain fructose, but nature has provided the antidote, as these fruits are also packed with fibre which prevents your body from absorbing too much of it.

When I advised people to reduce their consumption of high fructose corn syrup by eating lower carb/higher protein diets, free from processed foods, even if the labels say they are healthy options, they started to lose weight and feel much better as a result.

In many cases I asked people to just stop their consumption of fizzy drinks like Coca Cola  and instead swap it with either plain water, or add some freshly squeezed lemon for flavor.

Green tea is also a great alternative, and it is one of my personal favorites because it contains alpha wave stimulating theanine that also double serves as an antidote to the harmful effects of caffeine.

Those who loved to drink tea and coffee sweetened with lots of sugar, I advised to swap with natural sweeteners like stevia instead. This alone had some remarkable results.

There are 1.6 billion servings of Coke sold each day worldwide!! A very significant percentage of that is through supermarket chains like WALMART.

Read more: http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/about-us/coca-cola-by-numbers.html

So you can imagine how unpopular I became in WALMART’s head office in the UK with my information strongly advising people to stop drinking fizzy drinks like Coke!

I recently came across a great article by Wade Meredith that explains what happens when you drink just 1 can of Coca Cola and this applies to pretty much most caffeinated soft drinks, not just Coke!

I have added citations to research I have found that gives some evidence to the claims in the original article.

Read more: http://www.blisstree.com/2010/06/23/mental-health-well-being/what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-drink-a-coke-right-now/

When somebody drinks a can of Coke or any similar sugary caffeine drink, watch what happens…

Is the fitness club or even private studio where you and your love ones work out SAFE? How does the equipment look, as well as basic overall club cleanliness?

Are the machines in shambles, and the upholstery cracked and split? Is there a build up of dust, hair, and gunk on the equipment? If so, that speaks volumes not only of the cleanliness of the club but also about the maintenance of the equipment.

The potential dangers in a fitness center can be observed likewise in the proximity of equipment, poorly maintained equipment, and improper use of equipment. But by management taking a proactive approach – through ongoing preventative maintenance, daily equipment checks, and having an attentive, qualified staff, many mishaps can be prevented.

According to Consumer Product Safety Commission spokeswoman Kim Dulic, there were an estimated 24,400 treadmill-related injuries treated in hospital emergency departments in 2014 – but just 30 reported deaths associated with treadmills for the 10-year period between 2003 and 2012. Moreover, per the CPSC, treadmills, free weights, stability balls, and resistance bands, four of the most recognizable pieces of fitness equipment were notably four of the most dangerous pieces of equipment.

(http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/04/treadmill-emergency-room-injuries-exercise-equipment/26898487/)

A noted safety requirement for all exercise equipment is to leave ample space, two or more feet on each side and four or more feet in the rear to avoid serious injury or even death. Tragically, when safety is not paramount, accidents do happen. David Goldberg, the 47-year-old CEO of an online company, died from severe head trauma and significant blood loss after slipping and falling from a treadmill at a hotel gym in Mexico. Again, you need to ask yourself, is the club where I work out SAFE?

Think Fitness – Think Safety!

Squats work the glutes, hamstrings, quad, back and core, making it a great total-body exercise. Once you’ve learned the basics of good form (described here), you’ll be ready to move on to these six super-effective squat variations that will do wonders for your strength, flexibility, physique and power.

Source: ACE Fit | Fit Life | 6 Super-Effective Squat Variations You Need to Try

6 Super-Effective Squat Variations You Need to Try

July 28, 2015

Love them or hate them, squats can work wonders for your strength, flexibility, physique and power. This multijoint movement engages the glutes, hamstrings, quad, back and core, making it a great total-body exercise.

Before stepping into the squat rack or grabbing those heavy dumbbells, be sure to check in with your squat form. Stand in front of a mirror and begin with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-distance apart, giving yourself a good base of support. Throughout the squat, make sure your heels stay on the ground and your knees stay behind the front of your toes. As you begin to lower into the squat position, think about pushing your hips to the back of the room (or whatever is behind you). Continue to lower your glutes until parallel with the floor.

Remember: Squatting is like sitting in a chair. You don’t sit in a chair with your behind half in the air, do you? The bottom half of the squat is the hardest part and the portion of the exercise that really focuses on the glutes and hamstrings. In other words, get low, even if that means using no added weight at all.  (Read More)