Positive Fitness

Photo by: karviainen.

I am sure some of you have heard people talk about eating several smaller meals per day instead of 3 large ones. Well there are some truths to that, MayoClinic has a great article on “Snacks: How they fit into a healthy diet.”

• “Binge control. If eating several low-fat whole-grain crackers, a few pretzels, a piece of fruit or some raw vegetables keeps you from taking second or third helpings at your next meal, you may actually consume fewer total calories for the day.
• Extra energy and nutrients. Traditional, made-at-home meals often lose out to busy schedules. A grab-and-go snack can be the difference between some nourishment and none at all.
• Satisfaction for small appetites. Young children’s tiny stomachs can hold only small portions of food at one time. Older adults who are less active and who burn fewer calories also may feel more comfortable eating smaller meals more frequently.” - MayoClinic

They have some great information (calories, snack ideas, and general information) also on that article on MayoClinic that I recommend checking out.

Snacks are a great way to regain energy during the work day, while traveling, or just when you need a boost. There are many healthy snacks that can provide you with what you need to keep going (without coffee or soda pop).

Try taking a snack to work next week with you, I recommend an apple for the morning break and maybe a couple handfuls of trail mix. Afternoon snack maybe some baby carrots or another favorite healthy fruit or vegetable.

See Also my posts on Healthy Snack Suggestions Part 1 and Healthy Snack Ideas Part 2 for great healthy and delicious snack ideas.

The Nintendo Wii has already revolutionized gaming, but now some people are pushing for the Wii to not only provide entertainment, but to provide people with a new way (and alternative) to work out and stay active.

WiiHealthy, is a site completely dedicated to getting in shape and being active on the Wii. They just posted a Wii Sports workout guide that is 30-45 minutes a day. They do a great job into breaking it down into sport by sport (boxing, tennis, etc) instructions on how to play “actively” as they call say, instead of taking your time watching replays, etc. Also provided is the estimated number of calories you will burn from actively playing these games.

“Boxing is the most active game on the Wii Sports disc. We strongly advise very heavy people not to go too wild in this one since your heart rate will go up a lot. This could be a problem for people who have been advised not to do big efforts. The fact is that this is the perfect game to lose weight. In a couple of minutes you can burn easily 121 calories in 15 minutes time. So this is a rather fast method and you can even speed it up by using a Mii version of a person that you don’t like as an opponent! Keep moving, move from the front to the back, from left to right. Try punching your enemy from different angles, different types of punches and you’ll be sweating that body fat away. Make sure to keep the wrist strap tight!” - WiiHealthy

I really like the concept of WiiHealthy, since I own a Wii, I know how much of a workout it can be if you really get into it. I personally love my Wii, although I am only good at Tennis.

I hope to make this a regular feature on Positive Fitness, what I am going to do is link to the best information and content I find during the week and post it to share with everyone. Everything from fitness, positive lifestyles, and other things.

Positive Living and Productivity

The Happiness Project has a great article on passion titled “Why PASSION is so critically important to happiness.“

A passion gives you a reason to keep learning and to work toward mastery. It can often give you a reason to travel, and therefore to have the new experiences so key to happiness. It gives you something in common with other people, and so fosters social bonds. It gives you purpose. It often has a satisfying physical aspect—rock-climbing, fly-fishing, knitting. It gives meaningful structure to your time. It makes the world a richer place. When you’re in pain, it can be a refuge, a distraction, a solace.

This can be applied to anything in life, becoming passionate about weight loss, fitness, healthy eating, anything and everything. I highly recommend this great article and blog by Gretchen Rubin she is a great author and blogger I have quickly come to respect.

Matthew Cornell has a good article on his blog “Idea Matt” about designer Bruce Mau on personal growth, a small excerpt from the article:

1. Allow events to change you.
2. Ask stupid questions.
3. Study.
4. Think with your mind. Forget technology.

The article is about design but I think a lot of it could pertain to health, fitness, and exercise. Good read and an interesting look at some things in life.

Game Producer has a good article on motivation entitled “14 Ways to Motivate Yourself” check out this article whether you are already motivated or looking to get motivated it is sure to have some thoughts and ideas you may not have thought of yet.

#14 - Remind yourself why you are doing this

The first tip about goal setting is important, but it’s as much important to remind yourself why you are doing games - or whatever it is where you need motivation. When you start reminding yourself about the main reasons what made you start the project in the first place you’ll be more motivated to continue.

The Positivity Blog has a nice list of 17 Inspirational Quotes on People Skills which I found to be a good and entertaining read with some good quotes, my favorite being:

Arguing with a fool proves there are two.
Doris M. Smith

Fitness and Exercise

I just discovered Wildman Training’s blog and found a good post on outdoors training, and being that summer is fast approaching I thought it would be appropriate that I am quite impressed with, the first is based on working out outdoors and in the playground, what could be better?

Real Muscle Online has a great article on “How to structure your ab workout for better abs” that I found very helpful and informational. They also had an informational post on “How to make your daily run more weight loss effective” that I found to be great as well. A lot of positive work going on at Real Muscle Online, keep it up guys!

The main reason regular running is limited in its effectiveness is because you get used to that heart rate range. If you jog at the same pace everyday your body becomes adapted to it and doesn’t get pushed. If you add some sprints in there though, you can increase your heart rate during the run as well as boosting your metabolism for the rest of the day. This means less calories absorbed as fat and more fat burning the next day. All good.

Crunch Notes has an article on “Marathon Training for Nerds” that is worthy to check out for the tech-hearted. They have a lot of great gadgets and technology that pertain to active workouts and running.

I just found a similar blog to mine called Real Women’s Fitness, although there site is geared specific to women, I found their site to be a good overall resource which I will use in future posts as well.

The post that actually brought me to this blog is a post about “Do You Help Others With Fitness and Weight Loss” and it made me think about going to the gym and people’s attitudes there. She writes:

It seems that when someone gets a good piece of information or advice they hoard it for themselves when they know that a lot of other people could benefit from it.

I do not believe to this to entirely true however, because I have seen many people willing to help out at the gym with each other. I do not however, impose my ways of working out upon others unless I am asked, but if someone where to ask me how to work a machine, or how to do an exercise correctly I would be more than happy to share. The reason I am writing this blog is to share my knowledge with as big of a crowd that will read me.

Part of Positive Fitness’s goals is to provide people with the knowledge so that they can pass it on to others. I hope more people would do the right thing in the situation that Real Women’s Fitness writes about and give the person the correct information.