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Walking Your Way To Meet Your Goals!

If you are looking to track your daily physical activity in the form of counting steps, then a pedometer may be the best option.

Try it out. If you have ever been curious about how much you are moving throughout the day then wearing a pedometer can answer your question. A pedometer counts your steps for any activity that involves step-like movement. This includes walking, running, stair climbing, and movements as you go about your activities of daily living.

Cheaper than a fitness tracker. If you are only looking to count your daily steps, then a pedometer may be the best option. Fitness trackers do more than count steps which is why they cost more. Generally, the more features it has, the higher the price. A basic pedometer should not cost more than a few dollars. Some of the more expensive ones may include a memory feature or hook up to a computer.

Start making activity goals. The simplest way to start increasing your physical activity is to make small daily step goals. Wear your pedometer for a few days and make a note of how many steps you are currently averaging per day. Once you know your starting point, you can create short term step goals for each day. Your short term goals are the building blocks for your long term goals. Along the way, your small goals will change as you come closer to reaching those bigger goals.

10k steps per day. This is the recommended number of steps you should be aiming for on a regular basis. This number follows the American College of Sports Medicine’s guidelines for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week. If you’re not there quite yet- don’t fret! Creating those short term goals along the way will help you build yourself up to 10,000 steps.

Pedometers can be discreet. Most commonly worn on your belt, pedometers are more discreet than activity trackers which are often worn on the wrist. You can even tuck them in your pocket or in a purse held close to your body. You won’t notice it’s there… until your curiosity gets to you and you keep checking how many steps you’ve taken.

No excuses! It’s time to get up and get moving!

Recipe Of The Week: Tomato & Butternut Squash Quiche

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

  • 4 eggs
  • 6 egg whites
  • ½ cup greek yogurt
  • ½ onion, sliced 1 cup butternut squash, cubed
  • 1 ½ tbs olive oil 2 tbs rosemary
  • 2 cloves of garlic 1 tsp pepper
  • 1 tbs balsamic vinegar 1 tomato, thinly sliced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° degrees. Next, slice onion while you heat up a sauté pan over medium heat. Once hot, add olive oil and onions. Cook the onions for about 10 minutes until translucent and just beginning to caramelize, stirring every few minutes. Add the balsamic and continue to cook over low heat for another 10 minutes before adding squash and garlic. Cook for another 10 minutes, allowing squash to soften.

While the veggies cook, place eggs, egg whites, pepper, 1 tbs of rosemary, and yogurt in a blender and blend until frothy. Add your veggies to a pre sprayed casserole or baking dish and pour egg mixture on top. Garnish with tomato slices and additional rosemary. Place in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until cooked. Enjoy.

Nutrition:

Calories 210
Carbohydrate 13g
Fat 10g
Protein 17g

Original recipe from toneitup.com

*Reminder: You can always pick up a copy of our weekly recipe at the gym!*

Activity Trackers… Are They Beneficial???

Fitness and activity trackers are hot on the market right now. It seems like every major company has their own version. But do you need one? What are the benefits of using an activity tracker?

Accountability. This is a big one for those who need a little push out the door to get moving (especially in the morning). Most fitness trackers work with third party apps where you can challenge a buddy to a workout and post your planned sessions to keep yourself accountable to your exercise program. Research has shown that social exercise aids in helping us perform more regular exercise and avoid pulling the cover over our heads to sleep in. Plus, when you do fit in that activity, you can share it on social media with your active friends!

Motivation. Another benefit to fitness trackers is the visual progress you see as you log your time moving. This includes seeing how many steps you take during the day and the motivation that comes with that information. On average, it is recommended that we take 10,000 steps per day to be in the healthy, active category of movement. Setting daily goals for yourself helps you get those extra steps so you reach 5 miles, 15 flights of stairs, or 1,000 calories- whatever your daily goal may be!

Healthy Eating. We all know living a healthy lifestyle involves both regular activity and a healthy diet. Trackers often feature a fuel and hydration log to help you keep track of the quantity and quality of your every day fuel. You can enter your food choices for each meal including the quantity and see calories for that serving. Tally your water intake during the day will keep you on track. Evaluating the quality of your diet may help to inspire better choices.

Goal Setting. There is nothing more helpful in achieving weight loss and other goals than to have a carrot dangling out in front of you to keep you inspired. One of the key features of fitness trackers is the ability to set goals and achieve them. Whether it is to lose ten pounds or increase your daily activity, by tracking your exercise, fuel, and sleep you are hands on in learning what it takes and how to achieve any goal you set. Goal setting keeps you focused on progress and personal fitness evolution. It’s the difference between wanting to be fit, and actively engaging in a plan to live a fit and active lifestyle.

Tracking your Sleep. The quality of your sleep can affect everything from your metabolism, cravings, energy, mood, and safety. Many fitness trackers can also track your sleep patterns, not only showing you how long you slept, but whether it was deep or light sleep throughout the night and how many times you woke up. Realizing the quality of your sleep is less than optimal can inspire life changing sleep habits, which will improve your life performance.

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

Serving Size: 10

There is nothing better than a Crock Pot meal on a winter weekend and this one is a favorite. It’s easy to make and little prep is required!

Ingredients:

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 16oz can black beans
  • 1 16oz can kidney beans
  • 1 8oz can tomato sauce
  • 1 10oz package corn kernels
  • 2 14.5oz cans diced tomatoes with chilies
  • 1 packet taco seasoning
  • 1 tbsp cumin
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 24oz boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • chili peppers (optional)

Directions:

Combine onion, beans, tomato sauce, corn, tomatoes, taco seasoning, cumin, chili powder and chili peppers in a slow cooker. Place chicken on top and cover. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in.

Nutrition per Serving:

Calories: 204
Fat: 2g
Carbohydrates: 33g
Fiber: 10g
Protein: 17g

**For those with special dietary needs, a couple options are to remove the corn to reduce the carbohydrates by about 5g per serving or you can reduce the serving size and pair with spinach leaves for a taco salad.

Safe Shoveling 101

PUNXATAWNEY PHIL SAYS WE ARE GOING TO HAVE SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER… AND WINTER IN NEW YORK MEANS MORE SNOW! SHOVELING SNOW CAN BE A BIG PROJECT; IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOT ONLY DO IT EFFICIENTLY, BUT DO IT SAFELY, TOO! HERE ARE SOME TIPS TO HELP YOU GET THROUGH THE LAST FEW WEEKS OF WINTER…

1. Stretch first
Don’t be in a hurry to get outside. Thoroughly stretch your hamstrings, back, and shoulders. Then dress in removable layers, grab your shovel and resist the urge to fly at the white stuff just to get the job done. Pace yourself. Start slowly and ramp up to speed.

2. Don’t move snow twice
Before you even take your first scoop, decide where you’re going to dump the snow. Drop the first shovelful farther away from where you are standing, then dump remaining snow closer and closer to where you are. That way, the last scoops that you shovel are moved the shortest distance. Don’t block access to snow that needs to be removed by piling it up in a way that will force you to move it twice.

3. Move snow the shortest distance possible
Consider that everything from a driveway to a patio to a walkway is really a rectangle, and rectangles have a center point. Move the snow from the center of the rectangle to the nearest edge.

4. Clear cars first
Brush snow off cars then clear around the cars.

5. Do the foreground then the background
For example, to clear snow from a rectangle, first shovel a strip clear along the perimeter of the rectangle. Then, moving from the center to the edge, push the snow into the cleared area. Next, lift and throw the snow out of the area.

6. Maintain proper posture:
A. Use your leg muscles as much as possible – push snow when you can and use your legs to lift when you can’t push it.
B. Keep your back straight as you move from the squat position to the upright position.
C. Use your shoulder muscles as much as possible.
D. Hold the snow shovel as close to your upper body as possible.
E. Keep one hand close to the shovel blade for better leverage.
F. Don’t twist your upper body as you throw snow.

7. Keep hydrated
Take bottles of water out with you and keep them accessible, either in the car or on the front stoop or somewhere else convenient.

8. Rest frequently
Clearing an area by hand means that you may lift and carry anywhere from hundreds of pounds to tons of snow.

9. Be thorough but not fussy
The sun is relatively strong this time of year. Clear an area, spread de-icer if necessary and then let the sun do the rest. The fact is, any surface color that you expose in shoveling (gray, green, brown or black) will be far less reflective than a thick blanket of snow, and remaining snow will melt more easily from that darker surface.

10. Don’t overdress
You need to stay warm, but if you overdress you’re going to be soaked in sweat in no time. Dress in loose-fitting layers that you can peel off as you heat up.

11. Whenever possible, team up
Shoveling with a friend or neighbor is inherently more enjoyable than shoveling on your own. Plus, it’s quicker to get the job done with two or three sets of hands.

12. Go easy on the de-icer
Once the area is clear, all you need is a thin scattering of de-icer to keep it that way. If you’re scattering by hand, throw the salt, pellets or granules low along the ground so they bounce and roll into a uniform layer.

13. Whenever possible, get a head start
It’s easier to remove snow in thin layers than wait until all the snow is down to have at it. If it looks like your area is going to get dumped on, try to get out there and shovel it in several passes.

14. Maintain your equipment
The front edge of a snow shovel takes a beating. If it’s metal, hammer it straight when it gets bent; if it’s plastic use a utility knife to carve off the burr that forms on its end. Tighten a loose handle by driving a large hex head sheet metal screw through the blade socket and into the handle.

15. Stretch when you’re done
Stretch gently when you’re done and use an ice pack to take care of inflamed muscles. Rest and remain hydrated.

How Do You Get The Sunshine Vitamin In The Wintertime?

Vitamin D is important for our bodies, but how can we get enough during the winter months?

Research has linked Vitamin D to decreased rates of cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, heart disease, anxiety and depression. Vitamin D levels in the body are not as much of an issue during the summer when people are going outside. However, during the winter months, people spend a lot more of their time indoors due to colder temperatures and snowy days. This often leads to a drop in the body’s vitamin D levels.

But how can you get Vitamin D in the winter? Go outside! Even when there is snow on the ground, you can still get enough sun to boost your vitamin D levels. When you’re outside, let as much skin show as you comfortably can- your face, neck, and hands can get some sunshine. Go outside during “solar noon.” This is the time of day when the sun is at its highest point in the sky. When you’re outside, use your skin as a cue. If your skin starts to turn pink, you’ve had enough. Keep in mind that you don’t need to spend hours in the sun. Even ten minutes a day can help boost the level of vitamin D in your body.

We live in an area where the sun shines enough in the winter that vitamin D supplements may not be necessary. However, especially with supplements, we need to ensure that we don’t get “toxic” on vitamin D. A better way to get vitamin D is simply by eating more of the foods rich in this vitamin. There are a handful of foods that can help boost vitamin D levels. Good food sources include fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, mushrooms, eggs, and vitamin D fortified foods such as milk. Wild salmon is a great source and just a small 4 ounce serving can give us more than enough of the recommend daily allowance. For those with dietary restrictions, any type of milk will do! Cow, soy, almond, and coconut milk are all vitamin D fortified.

Following these simple recommendations can help everyone enjoy the health benefits of vitamin D naturally not only during the winter, but all year long.