Tag: Exercise

Why is sugar so bad? Sugar is not your friend

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Well guys , it is the holidays and Christmas is literally less than four days away Whew! I know with everything that has been happening in 2020 we are looking forward to the holidays. One thing some of us look forward to is having our SWEETS! Yes I said it SWEETS. For most of us it all really starts with Thanksgiving, and we are not usually working on our summer bodies at this time. I always have a sweet and a lot of the time I have to remind myself to get that under control and not go overboard. With that being said now I will let you know all the reasons why sugar is not your friend:

1. Too much sugar consumption leaves the door open for many diseases and disorders

2.  Too much sugar in diet can cause you to crash and feel sluggish

3. Too much sugar in the diet opens the avenue to Type 2 Diabetes due to an excess in sugar in the body can lead to insulin resistance

4. More prone to cancer

5.Weight Gain

6. Heart Disease

7. Arthrosclerosis and so much more

Now that you know why sugar is not your friend , how are you going to work on limiting it in your diet? To start always read your nutritional facts label that is where you will find out how much sugar is in your food. Also keep in mind if a food item is more than one serving and you eat more than one you will consume more sugar per serving. Try other alternatives to sweetening your food such as honey, agave, and stevia. I’ve even heard now that there is coconut sugar ! It is recommended that men should have 37 grams or 9 teaspoons of sugar a day while women can have 25 grams or 6 teaspoons of sugar a day according to the American Heart Association. Now that is not a lot so you can see why controlling our sugar cravings is so important. Make sure this holiday not to splurge to much sweets but also enjoy what can in moderation. Happy Holidays! Stay Safe

Check out my Youtube Video on why Sugar is not your friend

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The New Normal Exercising At Home

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Our physical health is so important and this is no surprise. Exercising has many benefits it keeps you fit, contributes to weight loss, helps you to get stronger and build muscle, and is beneficial to our mental health. With everything going on in 2020 with the pandemic and stay at home orders exercising at home is becoming the new thing. Even though many people were exercising at home way before things changed for us our homes are going to become our new gym.

I will admit I was never into exercising in the past because I always felt like my weight was stable for many years and I didn’t need to lose any weight. I thought exercising was all about weight loss but it isn’t theres so much more to it and it makes you feel good. These days with being a mom and into my first year of motherhood I am still working on time management and fitting in time for myself to get things done but below I will share with you some the exercises I am doing at home.

After giving birth I lose a great amount of weight going from 162 pounds down to 146 pounds. Most of my weight was baby weight! But as time went on and I started getting my appetite back I was eating pretty much anything and then when quarantine started I gained all my weight back. It has been a struggle for me to shed the weight but I am trying very hard to get it under control.  Right on my main focus is burning calories and cardio exercises.

Here are some of my favorite cardio exercises ( and I’m sure some of your favorites too!)

1. Jumping Jacks – jumping jacks is one of the most classic exercise moves I know. I remember doing jumping jacks in Kindergarten! when we had gym and pretty much all through elementary school during gym time. Jumping jacks are fairly easy but you can get tired easily. But I love it because it is a quick calorie burner and depending on your intensity and how many jumping jacks you can do, you can even burn more calories. Start off with a set number and gradually increase the number. So first start off with 50 then increase to 100 then 150 and so on

2. Burpees – I don’t know if this is a favorite of everyone but I love doing burpees. For me it’s a better alternative to doing push ups and allows for full body movement. Depending on the intensity of this you can also burn some calories really fast.

3. Squats – Now I know this is a sure favorite for everyone. They are easy to do but they do hurt after a while  lol my legs get tired easily but I love how versatile you can be with a squat doing it in many different ways for example a jump squat

4. Jump Ropes – This is my new favorite thing and I should have purchased one way before this. Jump roping is an instant fat burner and you can literally burn 150 calories in 11 minutes so imagine how much you can burn doing twenty minutes of jump rope probably close to 400 calories!

5. Side to Side High Knees – The way I do this is a run side to side doing high knees and increase the intensity as I go along

For now those a my top 5 calories burners but I will be adding many more to the list. Leave a comment below and let me know your favorite stay at home workouts!

Be well and stay safe.

I was a little late on getting my workout equipment since when quarantine had started I had so much trouble finding workout jump ropes in stores. I was able to finally get one through Amazon. Click the link below if you are looking for a nice workout jump rope


 

Blogmas Day 10 – Health and Wellness

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Hey Everyone,

Lately on Youtube I have been seeing that everyone is doing Vlogmas and I love watching Vlogs. Since I am not on Youtube anymore and I am getting back into the groove of blogging I decided that I am going to do Blogmas! I thought that this would be interesting and get me used to writing more since I have been gone for a while. I am a bit late so I will be starting with day ten of Blogmas. I hope you all enjoy reading and Happy Holidays to All!

I say choose both because both are equally important and yes they both do mean different things. The real question I guess I want to ask is how well do we think we care of ourselves on a daily basis.  The definition of Health is “ the state of being free from disease or injury” and the definition of wellness is “ the state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal” (see references below). 

Those definitions above is how health and wellness is defined by the World Health Organization but now I would like to break down how I view both. My definition of health goes beyond just the state of being free from disease or injury but it also deals with your mental health as well , how you think about yourself, how to do view the world or society, and how well do you cope in difficult life situations. I always viewed wellness as the ways in which you take care of yourself, such as eating right or a healthy balanced diet, being physically active, hygiene (hair , skin, and nails), and mental health such as yoga and meditation. All of these things are vital to us taking care of ourselves. 

It all starts with YOU. A lot of us carry habits from when we were younger into adulthood such as eating fast foods and many people do not know what it is like to exercise. I will admit I was never a big fan of exercising but as I entered into my mid 20’s my physical health changed and I became weaker. I also gained a lot of weight in my mid 20’s and when I did begin to exercise I struggled but it also felt so good. Every time that I would exercise and go to the gym it felt like my mind was being cleared and free. Then when I was diagnosed with LPR Acid Reflux that was the point that I started to take my nutrition health more seriously, even though I was studying nutrition sciences in school it took awhile for me to apply it towards myself.

Don’t wait until something happens to you to take care of yourself. Take preventive measures to make sure that you are in good health and maintaining homeostasis. Take control of your life and your health!

Reference Links:  

Definition of Health : https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/constitution

Definition of Wellness: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/wellness