Fitness Tip: The Ball Squeeze - Video

The Ball Squeeze is an excellent way to hit your core abdominal region with the use of your fitness ball.


Muscle Groups Worked in This Exercise: Pectineus, Adductor longus, Adductor Magnus and Gracilis

Preparation: Lie on your back and place your arms at your sides with your palms facing the floor. Grasp the ball between your calves with your legs extended.

Breathing: Inhale to grasp the ball, exhale after exercise.

Execution: Grasp the ball with your calves, inhale and lift the ball off the floor. Squeeze the ball between your calves as hard as you can and then release; alternate between squeezing and releasing for 20-30 seconds breathing normally while you do this. After 20-30 seconds, exhale and release back down to the floor.

Skinny Dip: Cantaloupe Chutney

Food for Thought: Serve this tasty chutney as a dip or as a topping for whole grains, steamed veggies, chicken, fish or tofu.

• 4 cups diced cantaloupe (about 1 melon)
• 1⁄3 cup golden raisins
• 1⁄3 cup minced red onion
• 1⁄4 cup sugar
• 1⁄4 cup water
• 3 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Place pan over medium-high heat and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 25–30 minutes, until cantaloupe breaks down. Cool to room temperature, then drain (but reserve the liquid to use as a marinade for another dish). (Makes 10 servings).

Per serving: Each 1⁄4-cup serving contains: 62 calories; 0 g total fat; 0 g saturated fat; 16 g carbohydrates; < 1 g protein; 0 g dietary

Label Fables: Sneaky Nutritional Information Traps

Watch out: Deceptive packaging and creative serving sizes mean you're eating and drinking more than you realize! Now...a reality check.

Want some fiction to read at the beach this summer? Look no further than your cooler. With cans of iced tea that are meant to serve three people and "individual" snack packs that harbor extra servings, it's no wonder the FDA's latest Health and Diet Survey found that consumers are skeptical of food labels.

Fortunately, the FDA is taking steps to clear up some of the misleading information and pushing for clear, user-friendly front-of-package labeling. In the meantime, we're exposing some sneaky diet wreckers.

Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey
Serving size: 8 ounces
(approximately 3 servings per 23-ounce can)
Calories per serving: 70

Most of us overlook liquid calories entirely, so you may not notice that this can supposedly serves three. "When you buy any drink in a can, you assume it's a single serving," says Bonnie Taub-Dix, R.D., author ofRead It Before You Eat It. And while antioxidant-rich green tea has a virtuous rep, this particular one packs almost 12 (12!) teaspoons of sugar per can.

Do You Eat Too Much? Break This And Other Bad Food Habits

Nutritionists would call a three-margarita meal a no-no. We call it the highlight of our week. Lots of so-called food faux pas—eating until you're good and stuffed, skipping breakfast to save time—are things we need to do once in a while to survive. Sure, unhealthy eating habits can cause everything from weight gain to sluggishness, as Charla K. Schultz, RD, a dietitian at the Women's Health Clinic at the Mayo Clinic, helpfully points out. The good news is that with minimal effort, you can make up for most not-so-good food decisions. Put these damage-control strategies to work and start gaining healthy food habits.

Bad Food Habit: You Blow Off Breakfast
The thought of food at the crack of dawn makes you queasy. But your brain (which runs on glucose) and body need a little something in the morning.

Mental Health And Exercise

Mental Health And Exercise

Want to alleviate stress or cope with depression? Exercise may help. Increasingly, there is evidence from researchers that certain levels of physical activity can positively affect mental health. Len Kravitz, PhD, researcher and program coordinator of exercise science at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, takes a look at what research has discovered about the connection between exercise and mental health.

Stress

A growing body of research over the last 10 years shows that physical activity and exercise also improve psychological well-being (Dubbert 2002). Published data show that people with higher levels of fitness are capable of managing stress more effectively than those who are less fit (Hassmen, Koivula & Uutela 2000). It appears that cardiovascular exercise is the method that most benefits stress reduction. The research indicates that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, performed three times a week (sessions lasting over 20 minutes) for up to 12 weeks, has the most influence on stress management.

Your Dinner Made Healthy in 5 Steps

Your Dinner Made Healthy in 5 Steps you think you're eating healthy meals, but aren't sure?

If your weight loss has slowed, or even stopped, then there's a good chance that you haven't been eating as healthy as you should be.

I'm going to end the guesswork for you, once and for all, with my 5 steps to a healthy meal.

By following these 5 guidelines you'll know that your meals are healthy and fitness friendly. And as a result you'll experience healthy weight loss.

Here are the 5 Steps to a Healthy Meal:

Use the TV for training

Use the TV for training - The TV can be a great tool for working out, but here's the catch; work out only during your favorite shows. Or, even better, record your favorite shows and exercise then (but don't fast forward through commercials, unless you have more than one hour of programming to watch). This tip can really help time to fly by faster during your workout, and you get the added bonus of spending less time with your butt on the couch.

Toning Overview

Everyone is looking for that elusive, magic weight-loss trick. The only "magic" weight-loss trick I know of is strength training - weight-bearing exercise designed to build and strengthen your muscles. That's what this section of my site is all about toning and firming those muscles!

Quality Does Matter

Quality Does Matter - Take your time in your next fitness resistance training session. Each rep you perform as you lift your weights should last at least 4 seconds.

In fact, the next time you have a training session challenge yourself by going as slow as you can go. See how much you can focus on really keeping your muscles contracted, and I guarantee you will feel it the next day.

Fitness Tip: Exercise of Choice - Many people are looking for the best overall exercises. If I was to select the best single exercise if you could only pick one, then it would be the Leg Squat. Squats are an excellent lower body exercise that hit the largest muscles in your body which includes glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves.