5:45am Fitness Camp-Final Week of August

Well we have almost made it through another month, so lets finish this month strong and hard!

Tuesday-27-Cardio Interval - Full body with light dumbbells, mats, steps and risers
Wednesday-28-On the Ball - Focus will be Core - Stability Ball
Thursday-29- Heavy Chest and Triceps- Steps, risers, mats and Heavy Dumbbells
Friday-30-Heavy Back and Biceps- Steps, risers, mats and Heavy Dumbbells

So lets tear it up!

7 Side Effects of Drinking Diet Soda

Deceivingly "Diet"

Pop quiz! What’s the single biggest source of calories for Americans? White bread? Big Macs? Actually, try soda. The average American drinks about two cans of the stuff every day. “But I drink diet soda,” you say. “With no calories or sugar, it’s the perfect alternative for weight watchers…. Right?”

Not so fast. Before you pop the top off the caramel-colored bubbly, know this: guzzling diet soda comes with its own set of side effects that may harm your health—from kickstarting kidney problems to adding inches to your waistline.

Unfortunately, diet soda is more in vogue than ever. Kids consume the stuff at more than double the rate of last decade, according to research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Among adults, consumption has grown almost 25%.

But knowing these 7 side effects of drinking diet soda may help you kick the can for good.

1) Kidney Problems

Here’s something you didn’t know about your diet soda: It might be bad for your kidneys. In an 11-year-long Harvard Medical School study of more than 3,000 women, researchers found that diet cola is associated with a two-fold increased risk for kidney decline. Kidney function started declining when women drank more than two sodas a day. Even more interesting: Since kidney decline was not associated with sugar-sweetened sodas, researchers suspect that the diet sweeteners are responsible.

2) Messed-Up Metabolism

According to a 2008 University of Minnesota study of almost 10,000 adults, even just one diet soda a day is linked to a 34% higher risk of metabolic syndrome, the group of symptoms including belly fat and high cholesterol that puts you at risk for heart disease. Whether that link is attributed to an ingredient in diet soda or the drinkers’ eating habits is unclear. But is that one can really worth it?

3) Obesity

You read that right: Diet soda doesn’t help you lose weight after all. A University of Texas Health Science Center study found that the more diet sodas a person drank, the greater their risk of becoming overweight. Downing just two or more cans a day increased waistlines by 500%. Why? Artificial sweeteners can disrupt the body’s natural ability to regulate calorie intake based on the sweetness of foods, suggested an animal study from Purdue University. That means people who consume diet foods might be more likely to overeat, because your body is being tricked into thinking it’s eating sugar, and you crave more.

4) A Terrible Hangover

Your first bad decision was ordering that Vodka Diet—and you may make the next one sooner than you thought. Cocktails made with diet soda get you drunker, faster, according to a study out of the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia. That’s because sugar-free mixers allow liquor to enter your bloodstream much quicker than those with sugar, leaving you with a bigger buzz.

5) Cell Damage

Diet sodas contain something many regular sodas don’t: mold inhibitors. They go by the names sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate, and they’re in nearly all diet sodas. But many regular sodas, such as Coke and Pepsi, don’t contain this preservative.

That’s bad news for diet drinkers. "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it - they knock it out altogether,” Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology at the University of Sheffield in the U.K., told a British newspaper in 1999. The preservative has also been linked to hives, asthma, and other allergic conditions, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Since then, some companies have phased out sodium benzoate. Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi have replaced it with another preservative, potassium benzoate. Both sodium and potassium benzoate were classified by the Food Commission in the UK as mild irritants to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes.

6) Rotting Teeth

With a pH of 3.2, diet soda is very acidic. (As a point of reference, the pH of battery acid is 1. Water is 7.) The acid is what readily dissolves enamel, and just because a soda is diet doesn’t make it acid-light. Adults who drink three or more sodas a day have worse dental health, says a University of Michigan analysis of dental checkup data. Soda drinkers had far greater decay, more missing teeth, and more fillings.

7) Reproductive Issues

Sometimes, the vessel for your beverage is just as harmful. Diet or not, soft drink cans are coated with the endocrine disruptor bisphenol A (BPA), which has been linked to everything from heart disease to obesity to reproductive problems. That’s a lot of risk taking for one can of pop.

I hope that this makes at least one person stop drinking this poison. There is nothing, I repeat nothing good about soda and especially diet soda. If you must have a soda just drink the real thing, but try and limit your soda to one a month and see what happens.

In Health,

Arden

50 Reasons to Exercise

And there are so many more reasons.  If your currently not working out then contact me and I will help you get started.

5:45am Fitness Camp week of August 19th.

Tuesday-20th- Chest, Triceps, Shoulders- Stability Ball, Dumbbell, Mats and Jumprope
Wednesday-21st- Heavy Legs - Steps, Dumbbell, Mats
Thursday-22nd-Back, Biceps, Shoulders- Steps, Dumbbells, Mats
Friday-23rd - Full Body Cardio

Remember - You only get out of the workout what you put into it! So lets push our bodies and get fitter this week.

4 Surprising Secrets About Bottled Water

I have a product I want to sell you, and I call it AirFlow 3000. It's a ventilation system that pumps air into your house. AirFlow 3000 air comes in an elegantly packaged delivery system that will lend you and your family style and sophistication. And it’s available for just $5 per day, per person! Interested?
 
Well, just to be clear: AirFlow 3000 is 100 percent identical to the air outside. It contains all the same pollutants and funky odors, and it doesn't do anything special for your health. You’re really just paying for the packaging, because you’re already breathing the exact same air for free. Still interested?
 
Of course you aren't. But the AirFlow 3000 pitch is essentially the same pitch water bottlers are making right now. The difference is they're not so straightforward about their wares. They're not selling water, they're selling "mineral" and "spring" water. And we're buying. The average American chugs nearly 30 gallons of bottled water a year, making it the second-most consumed commercial beverage in the United States. (Sadly, soda is the first.) But, as it turns out, bottled water is no more pure than the federally regulated—and virtually free—H2O that comes out of the tap.
 
Read on to find out what’s really going on behind the fancy names and pristine labels of your favorite bottled water brands. It's time to rethink your relationship with water.

#1: It doesn't taste any better

In a 2010 study published in the Journal of Sensory Studies, researchers asked people to rate the taste of six bottled mineral waters and six types of tap water. They found that, overall, bottled water didn’t perform any better than the stuff from the tap. The reason: It’s mineral concentration, not "water purity," that influences flavor. The study’s participants preferred water with medium mineralization, which they described as “tasteless” and “cooler,” but whether it came from a bottle or the tap made little difference.

#2: It’s not necessarily pure

The Natural Resources Defense Council recently tested 1,000 bottles of water and discovered that about 22 percent of the brands in the study contained chemical contaminants at levels above state health limits. And in 2011, California State University researchers tested six brands of bottled water and found that while none contained more than the legal level of contaminates, all six exceeded California public health goals for arsenic. There’s also substantial research showing that when certain plastic bottles are heated at high temperatures, chemicals from the plastic can leach into a container’s contents (a good reason not to store cases of water in the garage this summer). The takeaway: Don’t let label jargon like “pure” and “natural” fool you. Unlike bottled water, tap water is subject to strict federal, state, and local guidelines, making it a safer beverage choice.

#3: It may be glorified tap water

Exotic names and labels conjure up images of tropical waterfalls and mountaintop springs, but in reality, roughly 25 percent of all bottled water comes from municipal water sources. Coca-Cola’s Dasani, for example, is nothing but purified tap water with added minerals. And Pepsi’s Aquafina? Another bottle of city water. I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to be drinking tap water anyway, I’d rather save some cash and drink the free version.

#4: It’s hurting our planet

Most water bottles are made of a plastic called polyethylene terepthalate, or PET. There are two problems with PET bottles. Problem 1: They take a boatload of crude oil to produce. University of Louisville researchers estimate that around 17 million barrels of oil are used each year to produce PET water bottles—a major reason why bottled water costs roughly four times as much as gasoline. Problem 2: We’re chucking our water bottles in the trash, instead of the recycling bin. According to the Container Recycling Institute, nearly 90 percent of the 30 billion PET water bottles we buy annually end up in landfills—a huge problem when you consider that PET bottles take from 400 to 1,000 years to decompose. The bottom line: We should all take a cue from environmentally conscious activists like the folks at the University of Vermont—which recently banned bottled-water sales on campus—and opt for the tap when ever possible.

5:45am Fit Camp week of August 13th

We are going to be doing a variety of workouts this week, a reminder that the Group Fitness room will be closed tomorrow so there are NO classes all day at Cimarron.

Tuesay- 13th- GROUP FITNESS ROOM CLOSED- NO CLASSES ALL DAY
Wednesday- 14th - Dumbbells, Mats
Thursday- 15th-Dumbbells, Mats, Steps/Risers
Friday- 16th- Dumbbells, Mats, Jump rope

Of course the above is subject to change!

In Health,

Arden

7 Habits That Make You Fat

According to recent research, the average person makes 200 decisions every day that will influence his or her weight. And most of these decisions aren’t monumental choices, like “Should I become an elite marathon runner?” or “Should I move to Wisconsin and live entirely on bratwurst and cheese curds?” Most, in fact, are tiny little choices—habits, really—that over the long run, lead us down one of two paths: the road to ripped, or the freeway to flab.
 
And guess what? That’s great news! Because it means that you don’t have to run marathons—or even give up bratwurst—to start losing serious weight. You just need to break 7 very simple, common habits—tiny changes that have nothing to do with diet and exercise, but have everything to do with dropping pounds, looking great, and making a huge improvement in your health.

Fat Habit #1

Putting the Serving Dishes on the Table

Researchers at Cornell University found that when people served themselves from the kitchen counter or the stove, they ate up to 35 percent less food than they did when the grub was on the kitchen or dining room table. When there’s distance between us and our food, the scientists theorize, we think harder about whether we’re really hungry for more

Fat Habit #2

Getting Too Little (or Too Much) Sleep

A sleep schedule is vital to any weight-loss plan, say Wake Forest University researchers who tracked study participants for 5 years. In the under-40 age group, people who slept 5 hours or less each night gained nearly 2½ times as much abdominal fat as those who logged 6 to 7 hours; also, those who slept 8 hours or longer added nearly twice as much belly fat as the 6- to 7-hour group.

People with sleep deficits tend to eat more (and use less energy) because they’re tired, says study coauthor Kristen Hairston, M.D., while those who sleep longer than 8 hours a night tend to be less active.

Fat Habit #3

Not Multitasking While Watching TV

We don't need to tell you that too much TV has been linked to weight gain. But here's what you may not realize: You can have your TV and watch it, too. Just do something else at the same time. Washing dishes burns 70 calories every 30 minutes. So does ironing. Here's another thing to keep in mind: Cutting TV time even a little helps you burn calories, say researchers at the University of Vermont. In their study, overweight participants who cut their viewing time in half (from an average of 5 hours to 2.5) burned an extra 119 calories a day. “Nearly anything you do—even reading—uses more energy than watching TV,” says study author Jennifer J. Otten, Ph.D.

Fat Habit #4

Drinking Soda

Researchers say you can measure a person’s risk of obesity by measuring his or her soda intake. Versus people who don’t drink sweetened sodas, here’s what your daily intake means:

½ can = 26 percent increased risk of being overweight or obese

½ to 1 can = 30.4 percent increased risk

1 to 2 cans = 32.8 percent increased risk

More than 2 cans = 47.2 percent increased risk

That’s a pretty remarkable set of stats. You don’t have to guzzle Double Gulps from 7-Eleven to put yourself at risk—you just need to indulge in one or two cans a day. Wow. And because high-fructose corn syrup is so cheap, food marketers keep making serving sizes bigger (even the “small” at most movie theaters is enough to drown a raccoon). That means we’re drinking more than ever and don’t even realize it: In the 1950s, the average person drank 11 gallons of soda a year. By the mid-2000s, we were drinking 46 gallons a year. A Center for Science in the Public Interest report contained this shocking sentence: “Carbonated soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet.”

Fat Habit #5

Taking Big Bites

Dutch researchers recently found that big bites and fast chewing can lead to overeating. In the study, people who chewed large bites of food for 3 seconds consumed 52 percent more food before feeling full than those who chewed small bites for 9 seconds. The reason: Tasting food for a longer period of time (no matter how much of it you bite off) signals your brain to make you feel full sooner, say the scientists.

Fat Habit #6

Not Eating Enough Fat

You don’t have to go whole hog on a low-carb diet to see results. Simply swapping a few hundred calories of carbs for a little fat may help you lose weight and reduce your blood-insulin levels, according to researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. People in their study who consumed just 43 percent of their calories from carbohydrates felt fuller after 4 hours and maintained their blood-sugar levels longer than those who ate 55 percent carbs.

Carbs can cause blood-sugar levels to spike and then crash, leading to hunger and overeating, says study author Barbara Gower, Ph.D. Fat, on the other hand, keeps you satiated longer. Some easy swaps: butter instead of jam on toast; bacon instead of potatoes; low-fat milk instead of a sports drink.

Fat Habit #7

Not Getting the Best Guidance!

Signing up for e-mails (or tweets) that contain weight-loss advice can help you drop pounds, a new study reveals. When researchers from Canada sent diet and exercise advice to more than 1,000 working adults weekly, they discovered that the recipients boosted their physical activity and ate smarter. People who didn’t receive the reminders didn't change. 

So sign up to follow this blog so you will be notified of all updates.

The 5 Best Foods for a Stronger Heart

    Your heart will beat over 2.5 billion times if you live to 70. That’s a lot to ask of an organ just slightly larger than your own fist. With American obesity reaching near-epidemic proportions and companies still sneaking artery-clogging trans fats into our food, our hearts are in need of some major assistance. Yes, exercise helps—but just as important is eating the right foods. Start working these 5 best foods for a stronger heart into your diet and a longer, healthier life will be your reward.

Cranberries

   Researchers at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania found that men who drank 3 cups of cranberry juice daily raised their HDL (the good kind) cholesterol levels by 10 percent, which in turn lowered their risk of heart disease by 40 percent. Plant compounds called polyphenols are believed to be responsible for the effect. (Note: Cranberry juice often comes diluted, so make sure the label says that it contains at least 27 percent cranberry juice.)

Whole Grains

    

    In a study at Tulane University, researchers found that people who ate 4 or more servings of foods like whole grains, nuts, and beans a week had a 22 percent lower risk of developing heart disease (and 75 percent fewer camping companions) than those who ate the foods once a week or less.

Grapefruit

   Eating just one grapefruit each day can lower your total cholesterol and LDL levels by 8 and 11 percent, respectively, lowering your risk of heart disease. It will also provide you with more than 150% of your daily recommended intake of vitamin C.

Water

   Loma Linda University researchers found that drinking 5 or more 8-ounce glasses of water a day could help lower the risk of heart disease by up to 60 percent—exactly the same drop you get from stopping smoking, lowering your LDL cholesterol number, exercising, or losing a little weight.

Fish

   Omega-3 fats in tuna and other fish as well as flaxseed help strengthen the heart muscle, lower blood pressure, prevent overclotting, and reduce the level of potentially deadly inflammation in the body. And favor fruits high in vitamin C, like oranges and pineapple: According to research from England, people with the most vitamin C in their bloodstreams are 40 percent less likely to die of heart disease

Taken from Eat This Not That!

For great swaps and completely up-to-date calorie counts and nutritional information, order Eat This, Not That! 2012 today.

5:45am Fitness Camp Schedule week of August 6th

The first full week of August is under way, time to get it going!

Tuesday - 6th - Tabata - Cardio mixed with Heavy Back and Biceps
Wednesday - 7th - Kickboxing and Stretching
Thursday - 8th - Tabata - Cardio mixed with Heavy Chest and Triceps
Friday - 9th - Stability Ball Madness

Lets have a great week and remember, "There is NO I can't, only I Quit"

In Health,
Arden