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I have a lot of clients in Houston, TX, that tell me they actually are staying healthier, looking great and avoiding illness now that they are working out. One even told me that he was ready for the flu when there was chaos at work, but it didn’t happen this year. That’s because working out burns off stress hormones. There’s a link between stress hormones and illness, so burning them off can keep you healthier.

What are stress hormones?

Your hormones are messengers. You may immediately think of sexual hormones like estrogen or testosterone, but there are so many other types of hormones that don’t affect your sexuality and are responsible for keeping you healthy. Hormones are chemical messengers that affect all parts of the body and triggers proper functioning. Stress hormones prepare your body for fighting or running. In early man, that was beneficial. It helped prepare the body to escape a predator or fight when attacked. Today, stress comes from far different types of things. It can occur when your boss yells at you, the baby cries or during a traffic jam. None of those situations would benefit from the fight or flight response. Adrenaline, cortisol, norepinephrine are the three primary stress hormones.

Adrenaline raises your blood pressure, boosts your heart rate and increases your energy supply.

Cortisol, another stress hormone and the primary one, triggers more sugar to be put in your bloodstream, sending more to the brain, while also boosting the amount of the substance that stimulates the repair of tissue. It ensures the essential functions necessary for flight-or-fight receive the majority of energy by curbing nonessential functions or those that would interfere with running or fighting. Norepinephrine causes blood flow to increase to the muscles that help you run or fight or reduces it to the digestive system, while also inhibiting digestive and even voiding.

Stress hormones do more than just that, they affect your metabolism, too.

When stressors are always present and you constantly feel under attack, that fight-or-flight reaction stays in “on” position. It slows the metabolism and affects where the body stores fat. When you have high levels of cortisol, fat is stored around the abdomen. This visceral fat crowds organs and can create even more digestive problems than the original hormones, while also crowding and interfering with vital organs, like the lungs or heart. It causes anxiety, depression, headaches, heart disease, sleep problems, digestive problems, weight gain and affects concentration and memory.

• Why do clients find they stay healthier when they exercise. Stress hormones suppress the immune system. When they workout, they mimic fight-or-flight and burn off stress hormones.
• When you burn off the hormones of stress, you also improve your sleep. During sleep the body makes repairs, while chemicals boost the immune system.
• Stress hormones can lead to craving unhealthy food, such as those high in sugar. Exercise helps burn off stress hormones and makes eating healthier easier.
• At Reggie C Fitness, I’ll provide help with a program of exercise and healthy eating to help you deal with stress hormones, burning them off and getting back into shape and healthier.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

No matter what you’re talking about, if you’re looking for results of some type, the eighty/twenty rule is significant. Believe it or not, the rule actually is one of the most significant rules when it comes to fitness. What is it? It’s the rule that 80 percent of your results will come from a specific action, diet in the case of fitness, and 20 percent will come from everything else, exercise in this case.

You can’t out exercise a bad diet.

If you workout for an hour, you’ll burn from 200 to 1000 calories, more or less, based on your weight, amount of effort and the actual exercise. For instance, walking would burn fewer calories than running at top speed. A 200 pound person would burn more calories than a 130 pound person would exerting the same effort at the same activity for the same length of time. Now that you know how many calories you’ll burn, lets check out how many calories the typical fast food meal has.

A burger and fries with a soft drink is one option.

If you ate a double quarter pounder with cheese with an order of fries and a coke after your workout, no matter what the workout, you won’t lose an ounce. The double quarter pounder with cheese is 780 calories, large fries are 510 calories and a soft drink adds another 150 to 200 calories. That’s a whopping 1440 calories, more than you burned in an hour of exercise. A Big Mac meal with a medium fry and medium soft drink is 1100 calories, again far more than you could work off in an hour. Consider the consumption daily of a typical Frappuccino from Starbucks that adds up to an extra 500 to 600 calories, you’ll never lose weight UNLESS, you change your diet. 80 percent of your weight loss is diet.

So why bother exercising if diet is so important?

Diet is important, but exercise is also a priority. Exercise does more than just burn calories. It helps build muscle tissue and tone your body in the process, giving you a curvier look. Even if you never lost weight, but built muscle, you’d wear a smaller clothing size. That’s because one cubic inch of muscle tissue weighs more than a cubic inch of fat tissue. In other words, it’s like comparing lead to feathers. Since the lead weighs more, the container to hold a pound would be smaller than the container to hold a pound of feathers.

• Exercise also can help relieve stress. As mentioned before, exercise also has other functions. It helps burn off the hormones of stress, like cortisol, that can cause belly fat.
• Not only does combining that 20 percent beneficial exercise with the 80 percent beneficial healthy diet make weight loss faster, it also builds muscle tissue. Muscle tissue burns more calories to maintain than fat tissue does, that boosts your metabolism 24/7.
• Once you start eating healthier, you’ll find you love how delicious the food tastes. It can also be faster and cost less than junk food, especially if you use our menus and plan meals ahead.
• At RC Fitness, our online training is affordable and provides help with both healthy eating and exercise. You’ll love how quickly you’ll lose weight and become the person you were meant to become.

For more information, contact us today at RC Fitness

If you live in Houston, TX, it’s easy to find the right gym or trainer, just come to RC Fitness & Signature Physiques Studio. However, not everyone can get there, so providing some additional help is necessary. Our online fitness program can help turn any place you are the perfect gym and provide a trainer that will help you shed extra pounds and build the perfect body, but if you want a more hands on face-to-face experience, there are some things to look for before you make your decision.

Find a trainer that creates a program designed especially for your needs.

No two people are alike, so their programs shouldn’t be alike either. You may have a different goal, special needs like physical limitations and a fitness level that’s different from other people, even family members. That’s why I always recommend you work with a trainer that learns about you before providing a workout program. That way it would be personalized, to help you specifically with your problems with a challenging workout that is still within your capabilities.

Find a gym or trainer that offers nutritional advice.

What you eat is just as important as how much or what type of workout you do. You can’t out-exercise a bad diet. Even if you did a calorie torching workout, but ate a supersized Big Mac meal immediately following, you’d still gain weight, without getting the benefits of all the nutrients of healthy eating. Find a trainer that helps you learn how to eat healthier and provides a program you can follow that will baby your body, while helping you shed calories.

Look for a gym or trainer that helps you make goals and track your progress.

It’s not as easy to create a goal as you might think. Goals have to be measurable, have a timeline, a plan to achieve the goal and be realistic. Just saying you want to lose weight isn’t enough and creating a goal to shed 100 pounds in a month isn’t achievable if you’re healthy. Trainers should help you set the goals and provide steps to help you achieve them. The trainer should then continue to monitor you each step of the way to make sure that the program is working.

• Find a trainer that will show you how to do each exercise correctly. In person trainers aren’t like watching a DVD where you can view it multiple times to get it right. Doing an exercise wrong can cause injury or minimize the benefit.
• You need a workout program that is varied frequently to avoid plateauing and boredom. A good trainer will change your workout frequently.
• As you get fitter, a trainer should change your workout to match that improvement. Look for guidance from a trainer or at a gym to help you track the workout so you can identify when it occurs.
• One of the easiest ways to workout is to do it in the comfort and privacy of your own home. At RC Fitness, our online training lets you do it and you can even workout with others to make it more fun.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C. Fitness

Everywhere you look in Houston, Tx, there are temptations lurking. Whether it’s that new bakery down the block that has the most delicious cinnamon rolls or a quick drive through for an order of fries. If you want low calorie snacks, you have to make them yourself. Luckily, there’s a lot of easy ones you can make quickly. For instance, just bagging individual serving sizes of nuts, which is the equivalent of either 24 almonds, 12 hazelnuts, 18 cashews, 35 peanuts, 15 pecan halves, 8 Brazil nuts or 14 English walnut halves, is about 200 calories. It’s quick and easy, while also providing heart healthy benefits.

You can keep your calorie count low, while you enjoy this tasty treat.

Greek yogurt, the original kind with live culture, full fat and no additives to make it sweet or give it flavor, can be a real diet saver. While the full fat style yogurt has more calories than the low fat type, the fat provides more health benefits, plus keeps you feeling fuller longer. Get a large container and scoop out a half cup of yogurt, slice a handful of grapes or other fruit into it and mix. Mix in cinnamon to taste if you want. If you want a frozen treat that’s easy to make, get popsicle molds. Blend yogurt, coconut milk and frozen or fresh pineapple and freeze. Yum! It’s a pinasicle. Since most mold holds a half cup, this treat is under 100 calories, too.

Do you want a crunchy snack?

Crunchy and salty are often what your mouth desires. There’s nothing better than some popcorn to achieve this goal. You can either make air popped corn for a low calorie treat or make your own microwave popcorn. If you want an easy way to make it at the office, just buy some brown paper lunch bags. Pour ¼ cup in the bag, fold the top over and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until the popping quits. You can top it with a drizzle of butter and salt or even some Parmesan or powdered American cheese.

The go to favorite snacks that still hold top position.

What would a blog on healthy snacks be without at least the mention of raw fruit and veggies with dip. For ease, slice up all the vegetables ahead of time and refrigerate. If you choose fruit like cantaloupe or watermelon, cube it ahead of time, too. You can make a veggie dip out of hummus or create your own. For vegetables, mix cottage cheese and Italian dressing mix or cottage cheese, Greek yogurt and ranch dressing mix. You can also slice apples and put nut butter between the slices for a tasty treat.

• Unsweetened applesauce is delicious! Now to add more flavor, sprinkle it with cinnamon. It’s healthy, low calorie and a treat that won’t make you sorry you ate it.
• Another treat under 100 calories that also takes minimum effort is a date that’s stuffed. Just put a teaspoon of unsalted nut butter—I love almond butter for this—into one medjool date.
• Is ice cream one of your guilty pleasures? Now you can have your marvelous figure and your ice cream too. Slice a banana in 2 inch chunks, lay the chunks on a tray and freeze for six hours. When you take them out, put in a blender for a treat that tastes like banana custard. It’s 105 calories.
• You’ll love all the recipes and ideas available with our nutrition plan at Reggie C Fitness. You’ll also get even more benefits when you combine it with a workout plan that will have you looking like the star you are quickly.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness

If you’re on a hit-and-miss schedule when it comes to fitness, it’s time to make a regular workout schedule. It’s particularly important if you’re working out at home, rather than attending a class that would automatically put you on a schedule. Not only does putting a workout on your schedule make it as important as any other appointment, it also ensures you carve the time out to do it.

Pick a time that’s best for you based on your present schedule and energy level.

Both your energy level and schedule play an important role in when you’ll workout most effectively. If your mornings are chaotic and already stressful, aim for a time that’s better, such as lunch hour or after work. Your energy level also plays a role in how well you’ll do when you workout. Make the workout coincide with when you’re apt to perform the best.

Don’t negate after work because you feel wiped out from stress.

Your energy level should be based on how you feel on the weekend, not based on the stress from work. In fact, some people choose to schedule their workout at lunch time or after work to burn off the hormones of stress and boost their energy. You’ll feel great after working out, thanks to the increased circulation that sends oxygen and nutrient laden blood to all parts of the body. You’ll also benefit from the hormones that exercise triggers that make you feel good. It’s one reason busy executives workout during the day and often have a gym dedicated exclusively to the management team.

You can identify the type of workout you’ll be doing and get a full workout.

Not only should you schedule your workout, you should add information, such as full body workout, strength training or flexibility training to your schedule. That way you’re ensuring that you’re working on all types of fitness and all muscles in your body. You need endurance, strength, balance and flexibility training to ensure you are at your fittest.

• When you don’t have a schedule, you’re functioning on memory. If you’re like most people, that memory gets blurred after a while and you find you’re doing too much cardio and not enough flexibility or constantly working on just one body part.
• Scheduling a workout helps you get busy faster. All you have to do is check your appointment with the workout and you’ll know what you’re doing. You’ll never have to worry about what you should do next.
• Keeping a schedule helps prevent burnout and gets you working out quicker. You’ll always be ready when it’s time. It helps you not only track your goals, but also work toward them.
• The Reggie C Fitness online training makes it easy to schedule your workout. Just log in and you’re ready to go.

For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness