8 Tips for Keeping the Family Healthy

By Carole Cousineau

1. Plan Healthy Meals Ahead
 – When you know the week will be hectic: take a day to plan a few healthy meals that can be put in the freezer. Then during the week add salad and serve. Make larger portions so you have leftovers and pack them up for lunches.
2. Make Healthy Snacks More Convenient – As soon as you come home with groceries spend some time to make healthy foods easy to grab. Cut up and wash your strawberries and leave them in a bowl so your family can eat them instead of popcorn. Pre-portion and package a mix of vegetables so when you’re planning the kids lunches you have a quick and healthy grab. We all want munchy snacks so keep the chocolates in an area out of reach and away from the kitchen so it is a weekly treat rather than a daily afternoon snack.
3. Don’t Force Dinners
 – Give your family choices when you are cooking. Children hate having broccoli on their plate with no notification. So ask them if they would like broccoli or celery, this gives them a few healthy options and then they wont feel like they have to eat the worst food ever.
4. Be Careful of Portion Sizes – Since 1975 child obesity has tripled. So please don’t starve the kids but watch the portion you are feeding them. Consider the age and sex of your children, these are factors that determine how much your children should be eating. If you find that your family gets very hungry make sure they are getting snacks between meals. This will speed up their metabolism and large portion sizes will be easier to downsize.
5. Watch Out for “Healthy” Versions 
- Most of these options that are sugar free or fat free or sodium free usually have another substance that can often times be just as bad for you.  Instead, splurge on tiny portions of the real thing. Don’t drink a bottle of Coke Zero, split a can of Coke with someone as a treat instead of a drink with lunch.
6. Offer a Challenge 
- Instead of the usual post-dinner leap to the TV room suggest an active game of charades, go for a bike ride, or play in the park. Trade in the high-calorie dessert for a fun and healthy alternative, like dipping fruit in yogurt or making fruit smoothies.
7. Use Your Feet
 - Walk with your kids to the store, or if you have to drive, park at the back of the lot. In those extra steps, you’ll unlearn lazy habits and learn more about your kids.
8. Plan a Family Fitness Activity – This can include an outdoor adventure, playing soccer, or trying a group fitness class together; you’ll be surprised how much fun fitness can be.

5 Tips to Help You Lose Fat Quickly

One of the main reasons people fail to lose weight when on a diet is lack of motivation. It is so easy for us to just fall back into our old routines rather than follow a consistent steady plan of action to achieve real fat loss success. If we can make our ROUTINE something that is healthy and promotes weight loss, then we can stop worrying about being motivated and simply do our “normal routine” and lose all the weight we want.

Below are 5 simple tips that you can begin implementing as part of your daily routine to help you lose all the fat you want.

Always East Breakfast: Many times, those on a diet choose to skip breakfast thinking that the lack of calories will lead to weight loss. The fact is, when you DON’T eat, your body goes into survival mode and it tries to store the calories you eventually eat as fat. So, your plan actually ends up backfiring and you gain weight, not lose it.

Steam your veggies: When you sauté your vegetables in butter, you allow them to soak up all the bad fat making your once healthy veggies little piece of fat stuffed junk. Instead, just steam them and top with a dash of salt and pepper. All the flavor of the vegetables will be there without the fat.

Stop Late night snacking: If you are going to sleep, you DON’T need extra calories. Fight off those late night cravings by having a glass of warm tea before bed instead of those cookies or pie. Doing so can help you get rid of thousands of worthless calories from your diet each and every month and help you lose fat quickly.

Eat healthy when you are hungry, then stop: Your body is designed to tell you when it is full. Most of the time, it is our cravings and overindulgence that allows us to keep eating long after our bodies tell us we are full. Listen to what your body is telling you and just eat to the point that you are satiated. This amount will be the perfect amount for your body to have the energy it needs without excess calories that will be stored as fat. It is ok to eat multiple times during the day as long as the food is healthy. This helps to keep your metabolism working.

Move as much as you can: Yes, this means EXERCISE! If you can walk versus ride, do it! Park further away from the front to the building. Jog wherever you go. The more steps you can include in your daily routing, the more calories you will burn. Add to this a regular program of vigorous exercise such as jumping rope, running, or weight training and you can burn thousands of extra calories per week. In addition, and muscle you build will act to burn calories even when you are not working out.

The above represent just a few fat loss suggestions, but if followed consistently, they can be your answer to quick and significant fat loss.

10 Tips for Fall Fitness

With 10 easy tips, you can stay fit without even knowing that you’re exercising. Simply get outside and enjoy the crisp, fall air and gorgeous scenery.

1) Take a walk. With the heat of the summer long gone, fall is the perfect time to take a brisk walk through your neighborhood. You could even drive to a nearby hiking trail. Bring a bottle of water and your camera.

2) Rake up your leaves. Just one hour of raking the leaves from your lawn can burn 275 calories. If you’re feeling ambitious and want more fitness, do your neighbor’s lawn too.

3) Take your kids trick or treating. Try going to a neighborhood a few blocks from your own, and walk the entire way. You’ll get to see the scary decorations and sneak in some fitness. When you return home, have your children pick 10 pieces of candy, and then store the rest of the goodies for later, somewhere where it won’t be tempting for you to have a bite.

4) Infuse your fall television lineup with some much-needed fitness. Get down on the floor and do an activity for each commercial; crunches, push-ups, jumping jacks. And try a healthy snack like carrots and hummus instead of chips and popcorn.

5) Don’t indulge only because it’s the holidays. It can be tempting to go for that second helping of candied sweet potatoes, but keep your goals in mind. You can always take leftovers home, so pace yourself at Thanksgiving, Eat slowly and pay attention to your body cues to tell you when you’re full, not stuffed.

6) Take advantage of a fall harvest and purchase fresh produce from a farmer’s market. Apples, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, corn and other seasonal treats taste great and are easy on your waistline.

7) Walk your children to school instead of driving them. Not only is it great for your fitness level, it’s a good way to keep your kids active

8) Choose a new group conditioning class offered by Le Club West Island.  We offer fun and challenging muscle circuit classes, group indoor cycle, Pilates and yoga. Try something new for your fitness level.

9) If you don’t like working out alone, recruit some friends to come along. Chances are with the children in school, your friends may have some extra free time to walk, run, head to the gym or do a fitness video.

10) Place a picture of you in the summer, at the beach or pool somewhere where you’ll see it often, to remind yourself that although the cooler weather has you more covered up, another summer will soon be here. It may be the push you need to stay fit even though you’re wearing coats and sweaters instead of shorts and tank tops.

The Heat is ON!

If you love to exercise outside in the fresh air, this time of year can be downright hot and sticky. Harsh summer conditions may mean it’s challenging to exercise outdoors.

Knowing how to handle these outdoor conditions will protect you from fatigue and heat-related diseases. Jason R. Karp, PhD, exercise physiologist and owner of RunCoachJason.com, discusses what you can do to prepare yourself for the summer heat.

Hydrate

Beginning a workout fully hydrated or even “hyperhydrating” (hydrating to a greater degree than normal) before a workout can delay dehydration during exercise, maintain exercise performance and decrease the risk for heat-related illnesses.

Pre-exercise fluid intake enhances your ability to control body temperature and increases plasma volume to maintain cardiac output. You should drink enough fluids before exercising in the heat to begin every workout fully hydrated, and you should continue to drink during workouts longer than 1 hour (see next section for specific guidelines of what to drink.)

A good indicator of your hydration levels is urine color. The lighter the urine color, the better the level of hydration. Your urine should look like lemonade rather than apple juice.

What Should You Drink?

Fluid Before Exercise. Drink 500 milliliters (ml) 2 hours before exercise.

During Exercise. Drink about 200 ml every 15–20 minutes, aiming to match fluid intake to sweat loss. Maintain 400–600 ml of fluid in the stomach to optimize gastric emptying.

After Exercise. Drink 1 liter (L) per kilogram (kg) of weight lost during exercise.

Sodium

Sodium intake is necessary only if exercise lasts more than 60 minutes or if you have a sodium deficiency. Before, during and after exercise, consume 0.5–0.7 gram (g) per L of fluid.

Glycerol

Drinks that contain glycerol cause fluid retention. This effect facilitates hyperhydration, protects against dehydration and maintains core body temperature.

Before Exercise. Ingest 1.2 g per kg of body weight in a 20% glycerol solution within a 30-minute period, followed by 26 ml of water per kg of body weight, distributed over the 90 minutes prior to exercise.

During Exercise. Ingest 0.125 g per kg of body weight mixed in 5 ml of fluid per kg of body weight.

After Exercise. Ingest 1.0 g per kg of body weight mixed in 1.5 L of fluid.

Acclimatize

Chronically exposing yourself to a hot and humid environment simulates adaptations that lesson the stress. Cardiovascular adaptations to exercising in the heat are nearly complete within 3–6 days. Full acclimatization becomes complete after 2 weeks as the increased sweating response catches up to the other adaptations. Therefore, take 2 weeks of slowly introducing yourself to the heat to be fully acclimatized and prepared for prolonged continuous exercise.

Recommendations For Heat Acclimatization

1. Attain adequate fitness in cool environments before attempting to acclimatize to the heat.
2. Exercise at intensities > 50% VO2max, and gradually increase the duration (up to 90–100 minutes per day) and intensity of the workouts during the first 2 weeks.
3. Perform highest-intensity workouts during the cooler morning or evening hours and other training during the hotter times of the day.
4. Monitor body weight to ensure that proper hydration is maintained as sweat rate increases.
5. If you must train during the hotter part of the day, do so in the shade and wear loose-fitting, moisture-wicking, light- coloured clothes that reflect the sunlight.