Fruit Is Your Friend
There’s nothing better than eating a cold piece of fruit on a hot day in Houston, TX. In fact, I know people that freeze grapes and snack on them during the hottest day. They’re like Mother Nature’s Popsicle. Fruit is a good option as part of a breakfast. It offers a higher sugar content to get you going, but the fiber slows the glucose entering your blood stream so you always have a constant stream of energy. The fiber also fills you up and keeps you full longer.
There are a lot of nutrients in fruit.
If you want to boost your nutrition, eat fruit as a snack. Unlike sugary treats that causes harm to the body, fruit contains beneficial nutrients and fiber. One study compared people that ate a minimum of two servings of fruit a day, with an additional three servings of vegetables for a total of five servings, to those that ate just two servings of total. That combination provides nutrients that lower the risk of death from any cause by 13%, reduced the risk of death from heart disease by 12%, reduced the risk of death from cancer by 10% and the death from respiratory disease by 35% when compared to people who ate just two servings of fruits or vegetables a day.
Fruit helps lower the risk of diabetes.
It’s the fiber in fruit that helps regulate the blood sugar levels, so drinking fruit juice won’t do the trick. You have to eat the entire fruit. The bulk from the fiber also helps aid digestion. You need to eat a wide variety of fruits to ensure you get a variety of benefits. For instance, apples provide polyphenols that helps lower blood pressure and are linked to reduced risk of stroke. Eating apples can help with asthma and improve dental and brain health. You can fight inflammation with blueberries, cherries and pineapple and bananas act like a natural beta-blocker.
Combine fruit with a source of protein for a pre or post workout or a meal.
Whether you opt for Greek yogurt with fruit, eating sliced apples with peanut butter or snacking from a fruit and cheese tray, you’ll get a protein and carbohydrate source that’s nourishing and can keep your energy level for hours. Having a half grapefruit with toast topped with nut butter or an egg is also a complete meal that will keep you going for a long time.
- The anthocyanins in blueberries were studied as a way of stopping or reducing the risk of colon cancer. However, it was found that it’s the synergy of all the nutrients that help reduce the risk.
- You don’t have to eat fresh fruit to get the benefits. You can use frozen fruit or canned fruit. In fact, frozen fruit may contain more nutrients than the fruit in the produce department. Just make sure it doesn’t have added sugar.
- Make fruit ice by freezing sliced fruit and throwing it into a blender or food processor for a fruit ice. It has to be the whole fruit for benefit. Frozen bananas dipped in a bit of dark chocolate and topped with nuts is another healthy quick treat.
- Boost your immune system with fruit. Combine kiwi, strawberries and grapefruit to boost vitamin C and reduce inflammation. It can help prevent serious illness and is quite tasty.
For more information, contact us today at Reggie C Fitness
While summer is barely here, warm weather started a while ago and will last well into fall. There’s still time to get bikini body ready and show off your body at the end of the season. In fact, if you start right now, imagine the progress you’ll make by August or September and how great you’ll look at the end of the year. You’ll be ringing in the New Year with a whole new you that’s gorgeous and fit.
We focus on results at RCF in Houston, TX. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on equipment to get the results you want. Bodyweight exercises can get you in shape quickly. One of the best bodyweight exercises for both the lower body and upper body is squats. They provide a functional fitness workout, exercising the muscles that you use in everyday movements, like climbing stairs, bending, walking and carrying heavy loads.
Before you can hit your workout goals, you have to set goals. Setting goals is always the first step toward fitness. You have to know what you want and create a pathway to get to that destination and actualize your dreams. One of the first steps is looking at your goals and making sure they’re achievable. If you want to lose 50 pounds a month for two months, that’s not possible to do. It’s not only unhealthy, but it would also require some type of major illness or surgery to do.
More is better is what most people think when they’re trying to get fit. When you have that mindset, you workout for hours every day and do all types of exercises, including strength-building ones in hopes of reaching their goal more quickly. There are signs that you may be taxing your body and working out too much. Overdoing your exercise goals not only can stress your body and slow your progress, but also cause you to lose ground.
Everyone is different and every pregnancy is different, so advising you whether you should workout while you’re pregnant and if it’s safe is impossible. However, there are some generalizations that can be made that will help guide you. Always check with your health care professional first, even if this isn’t your first pregnancy and you worked out your last pregnancy. Most women who have had more than one child understand that not only is each person different, so is each pregnancy. It’s always better to take precautions and be informed before you begin any exercise program.
Great legs make you feel fabulous whether you’re wearing your favorite shorts or jeans or at the beach in a swimsuit. At RC Fitness in Houston, TX, we can help you achieve that goal. Workouts to tone your legs focus on the muscle groups of the thighs, calves and booty. It gives you that curvy, trim look. Do you suffer from cankles—where your calves and ankles are the same size? Start with the ankles with weighted calf raises, side lying leg lifts using resistance bands, seated calf raises and stair calf raises. They shape the calves and slim the ankles.
If you’re moving, you’re using your core muscles. Even sitting in a chair involves them. These are the muscles that start right below the pectorals and end right below the abs. They are muscles both in the front and back of your body. You need strong core muscles for other muscles to function properly. You even need them to walk. Strong core muscles will help you look thinner, aid in your workout and allow you to do every task more easily. That’s why it’s important to do exercises for a strong core.
We focus on both diet and exercise for a healthier life and great appearance at RCF in Houston, TX. Fruits and vegetables are an important part of that. Some tasty additions to a healthy diet are berries. Berries are defined as a fruit with a pulpy pericarp that has seeds embedded inside it. You immediately think of grapes, blueberries and currants, but bananas, peppers, eggplant, watermelon, oranges, pumpkins, avocados tomatoes, kiwis and cucumbers also fit that description. Yes, all of these are considered fruits and are berries. Strawberries, black raspberries and raspberries aren’t berries, but we’ll include them in the group of berries.