Niagara Culinary Trail

Crossfit Exercise and Healthy Living

Knee Strengthening Exercises For Osteoarthritis

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Osteoarthritis affects a lot of people and this is why it is important to find out all the necessary information on how to heal it. One of the effective ways in which you can heal your osteoarthritis is through knee strengthening exercises that are regimented and geared towards strengthening this part of your leg.

knee-stregnthining

Prior to looking at the exercises that will strengthen your knee and heal the problem, there is a need to look at what osteoarthritis is for a better understanding. It is important to note that among the different types of arthritis, osteoarthritis is in the list of the commonest types.

When the articular cartilage found around your joint degenerates, osteoarthritis kicks in. The human body has numerous joints but the hip and knee joints are affected in most cases. The main reason behind this is that these joints carry most of the body’s weight. If the knees are under excess weight, elasticity is lost, hardness comes in and cracks appear. At this point, the knee is damaged and the pain and discomfort experienced affect the person’s ability to handle their daily activities.

While the condition is more common as a person ages, there are cases involving younger people. A person affected by osteoarthritis needs to follow knee strengthening exercises that will ensure that their knee is strong enough to prevent further damage, assist in the healing process and help in alleviating the pain. The following section covers some of the most effective osteoarthritis knee strengthening exercises that target the joint and the muscles around it.

Osteoarthritis Knee Exercise Treatment

The formulation of a regime using the following exercises will ensure that your knee is stronger, has enough time to heal and the pain is reduced. I would also advise additional support with either a pair of knee sleeves if you have issues with both knees or a knee brace if you only have the issue in one knee.

Here are some of the most effective knee exercises:

Knee Raises Exercise

  1. You need to be seated comfortably (a comfortable chair will be effective) ensuring that your back is straight and your feet’s soles are flat on the floor.
  2. Raise one foot slowly about 4 or 5 inches from the floor.
  3. As you keep this position, there will be a stretch in your thigh. Maintain the position for about 10 seconds and release slowly.
  4. Raise the other leg following the same steps.
  5. Repeat these steps 5 to 8 times for both legs.

Heel Raise Exercise

  1. For this exercise, you need to stand behind a chair with your hands placed on it for support.
  2. While maintaining a straight back, place some pressure on our toes by raising your heels off the floor.
  3. Maintain the position for about 5 seconds then relax and bring your heals down.
  4. 4 repeat this exercise about 10 times, rest for 2 to 3 minutes and do another 10 times.
  5. If your knee hurts too much with the raise of your heels, you can sit and repeat the exercise to reduce the weight exerted on the knee.

Side Kicks Exercise

  1. This exercise requires being behind a chair standing and placing your hands on it.
  2. Holding the chair to provide support, raise your right leg to your side and raise it about 3 to 4 inches from the floor.
  3. This position should be held for about 4 seconds and released.
  4. Make sure that your back is straight, your waist is not bended and you only use one hip to carry the weight. Any other way of going through this exercise might be a risk to causing more harm.
  5. The steps above should be repeated with the other leg and each leg should get about 10 raises.

Hamstring Stretch Exercise

This is a stretching exercise that is aimed at strengthening the knee and making it limber.

  1. You need to lie on your back with both legs extended out.
  2. Take a towel, or bed sheet and use it to raise your foot around 60 degrees by looping it around the sole and making sure the foot is stretched and straight at the knee.
  3. This position should be maintained for about 20 seconds.
  4. Bring the foot down and repeat the same process with the other foot, maintaining the position for 20 seconds and releasing.
  5. This exercise should be repeated about 10 times for both legs

Pillow Squish Exercise

  1. This exercise should be done while you lie on the bed, or a soft comfortable surface with your legs bended such that your soles are flat on the top of the bed.
  2. Place a pillow (make sure it is a soft pillow) between your knees and hold them together.
  3. Squeeze the soft pillow ensuring that both legs apply equal force. This should be done for about 5 seconds.
  4. Release the pillow and relax your legs, then squeeze it again for 8 to 10 more times.
  5. You can do this exercise while sitting and the results will be equally effective.

All the above osteoarthritis knee strengthening exercises are geared towards strengthening your knee joint and the muscles around it to give it ample time to heal and strength to prevent further damaged caused by this condition.

How to Wake Up Sleeping Glutes

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“Sleeping Glutes,” or the inability to effectively engage the gluteal muscles so necessary for faster, more powerful running, is a relatively unsung problem that plagues many athletes at all levels. It can lead to a variety of problems, from lack of power and speed in sprinters, to overuse injuries in other muscles and tendons of the leg in distance athletes as the body compensates for the glutes inability to engage and drive power down into the lower portions of the leg.

If you find that you struggle to run faster, climb hills and drive the leg down and push off powerfully in your running stride, or if you are dealing with injuries anywhere in the “drive train” of the lower leg, “sleeping glutes” may be part of the problem. Typically, runners who have this problem will use the muscles of the hip flexors, quadriceps and hamstrings to compensate for the lack of activation in the gluteal muscles, so problems in these muscle groups can be another indication.

Still wondering if you have this problem?  Here’s a simple test: lie on your back with your arms at your sides, palms pushing into the floor. Now pull in your feet towards your buttocks and lift up your hips into a hip bridge. Hold the position for as long as you can. If you feel soreness in your quads and lower back, you likely have “sleeping glutes.”

So, how does one wake up these napping muscles? By learning to use them properly through performing exercise that target, strengthen and force them to engage. Just running more miles or lifting weights to strengthen them usually doesn’t work, as people who have this problem have learned how to use other muscle groups to compensate. So the exercises must target and isolate the glutes, allowing the runner to feel the engagement and learn to repeat it in their running stride.

Four Exercises to Wake Up Those Glutes

Butt Squeezes – This is one of the best exercises around because you can do it anywhere. And it is very simple: when walking, standing, running or performing any other exercise, simply remember to squeeze the glutes. This allows you to feel when they are working and when they are not.

Forward pivots in saggital plane – Standing with your feet slightly apart and toes pointing straight forward, lift up your left foot about 30cm so that you are standing balanced on your right foot. Raise your hands straight up over your head and reach them forward and down towards the floor, pivoting forward through the right hip. The left foot will be stretching behind you so that your body forms a T, with your right leg as the base and your arms and left leg forming the top of the T. Now engage and tighten the right glute muscles as you return your arms to the overhead position, and return your left leg to its’ original raised position. Repeat this exercise 10 – 15 times on each leg.

Plank with leg raises – Adopt the plank position, with your hands and feet planted shoulder width apart, straight arms, with a straight line from the top of your head down through your toes planted on the floor. Focus on getting your buttocks down, and feel the engagement in your shoulders, core and hip flexors as they support your body. Now, raise your right leg, keeping the leg straight and thinking of pushing down and back through your heel as you use your buttocks muscles to raise the leg. Do this 15 – 20 times on each leg.

Leg Bridges – Yes, the test to determine if you have sleeping glutes is also one of the exercises you should do to help resolve the problem. Repeat the exercise outlined in the test, holding the position for up to two minutes. A variation to make this more difficult and target the glute muscles even more effectively is to straighten out one leg, lift it over your hips and then lower while continuing to hold the bridge position with your other leg. Repeat 10 – 20 times on each leg.

Incorporate these exercises into your workout routine and in a few weeks you should find that your glutes are wide awake and providing more power and speed than ever to your running.

My New CrossFit Shoes 2015

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Hey everyone, Today I wanted to talk about the CrossFit shoes I have just purchased and have been testing over the past four weeks. If you enjoy hard workouts like CrossFit it’s important to have a good quality pair of shoes that are going to last eight months to a year.

my crossfit shoes for 2015

Research for the best shoes

It can be a little time consuming trying to find the best CrossFit shoes on the market simply because there are so many different choices (this is a good thing). In the past I have always opted for a padded shoe rather than the bare foot experience. I think the minimalist shoes have there place but after testing a number of pairs including the New balance Mx20v4 and the Inov-8. I have come to the conclusion that bare foot training is just not for me.

After searching online for a number of hours, reading and watching youtube reviews I decided to buy a pair of Nike Metcons. There where a little expensive at $200 but I love Nike products and figured these would be ideal for my requirements.

Testing

I decided to do my own testing as soon as they arrived. Six hours at the box, twelve miles of running and a little bit of light wear around the house I discovered the shoes to be kinda ok but not good value for money considering how much they cost.

The Metcons did well at the box don’t get me wrong. I liked the way you can go from one activity to another with ease, including weights to running without having to change shoes. They are pretty good for lifting but I think my liters are better equipped.
The grip is excellent and when completing short run bursts I think they out perform the nano’s.

I love the design it’s very modern and you can instantly tell it is a shoe made by Nike.

Check out this video by the Dsstuff team reviewing the Metcons they sum up the shoe very well (much better than I can describe).

Other offerings

I often go shoe crazy and end up buying a range of shoes that I don’t need. This year I tried to hold back the bets I would but there are some many good shoes on the market right now it’s difficult to resist.

I did end up buying another pair of shoes and this was mainly because of the recommendation shoe review video check it out here.

The Nike Free 5.0 V6 has taken me by surprise. I have had two or three pairs of free shoes in the past and I really never imagined buying another pair (they where just not for me). So when I purchased the new v6 I was a little apprehensive as to weather or not I would keep them.

I can’t stress how nice the new Nike free 5.0 v6 are in every way. the design is awesome they look fantastic. You have the option to design your own and I like that. The cost is only $100 and you also get free shipping so no complaints.

All in all you could buy either of these two shoes and be happy but it comes down to two options if you have money go with the metcons but if you are on a budget choose the free.

Jillian Michaels: Banish Fat Boost Metabolism Review

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Jillian Michaels is one of the most recognized names in fitness today. Bursting onto the scene with reality shows, workout videos, and endless advice, she has literally inspired millions of people to get their lives together and turn their health around. Her face is everywhere and she demonstrates that she is so much more than a money earning celebrity by offering free workout instruction via Youtube. The best part is, this platform can reach to the farthest corners of the world, provided they have an internet connection.

free workout routine

Michaels’ Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism video has been mirrored on multiple channels and the original post has been viewed over 7 million times. She speaks throughout, providing her audience with wisdom that includes: what shoes to wear more here, thorough explanations of each exercise, and plenty of her typical energy to keep the audience pumped up. This 45 minute workout asks everything of its viewers and is perfect for daily activity.

She begins with a quick warm up to get the body moving. Warm ups can greatly reduce your risk of injury so it is always a good idea to participate for at least 5 minutes. From there, this video is more intense than your average High Intensity Interval Training. Generally any given HIIT workout will offer you at least a 20-30 second respite between workout segments, hence the “intervals.” Michaels plows right through a 45 minute, non-stop, killer workout that can have you sweating very, very quickly.

Hundreds of thousands of personal anecdotes will tell you that Michaels’ workouts can work for you. Coupled with a healthy diet, these videos can take you to the level of fitness you are looking for. Quick and effective, she walks you through each step with ease. If a beginner struggles with it, and they will, their best bet is to keep up at their own pace and measure their improvement each time they try it. If she can do the entire workout and make it look effortless, along with her two counterparts, then so can you.

The best part of this video is that she targets absolutely everything. Every movement is formulated to target multiple areas of the body and keep the heart rate up. There is plenty of jumping, squatting, kicking and punching. There is an entire segment that tackles the core.

Prevention of injury is so incredibly important for any and every CrossFit athlete. Attention to detail when she demonstrates a move is crucial to each viewers safety. Luckily, none of these movements are particularly complicated. Adapting a workout to your own pace, as previously stated, is essential. That’s not to say you should not push yourself. You just need to realize where the limits are and to respect them until you are able to pass that threshold.

Now, a seasoned athlete might consider this workout to be a cake walk. Its important to realize that you will always get out what you put in. If you feel a workout like this is not challenging enough for you, chances are you are not pushing yourself. In the end, this is all a gut check. For real results, you have to put in real effort, beyond the bare minimum represented here for the beginners.

If you are sufficiently determined, you can absolutely carve out 45 minutes of your day to complete this workout.  Michaels is incredibly inspiring throughout and her energy level never falters.

Altogether, Jillian Michaels: Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism is a solid workout. Incredibly challenging for a beginner and a steady workout for the expert. The body-weight exercises require no extra fear workout gear (dssstuff.com) and can be performed in a confined space. It is fast, simple, and just right for a quick, indoor workout.

Watch the entire workout for free here

What is In Your Crossfit Gym Bag

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Guys and Girls, listen up!  Nobody, wants to be around a smelly, dripping, pimple infested, neanderthal!  Avoid the mistake of fitting into this category!   Pack all the right essentials in your gym bag before heading out the door to do your crossfit workout.  Here are some great ideas for keeping yourself attractive to the opposite sex, before, during and after an intense workout.

Towelettes

Disposable towelettes are a great essential for the gym bag.  They fit into your pocket, are easy to pack, and provide relief from sweat.  You can use them to wipe off your hands or wipe down gym equipment that needs a slight cleaning before you use it.

Pull up Bands

I started to take my own bands to the gym a few weeks ago as I have always struggled with this part of my fitness, if you don’t know what they are to quickly explain they wrap around the pull up bar then attach to your feet, the band assists you with the pull up.
There are a number of other routines you can also do using the power bands check out this page with a detailed video guide.

Pain Relieving Cream

There are many brands on the market for reducing joint and muscle discomfort.  Keep a jar or tube in your gym bag to prevent annoying pain that keeps you from focusing on your workout at home or away.

Pain relief for your gym workouts

Body Spray

You might not feel like you have a lot of energy, but you can smell like you do!  Body sprays are great to have handy because they can give you a quick spritz of freshness.

Gloves

For me a pair of good quality gloves is extremely important for a two reasons.
Safety: When weightlifting I would never try to lift without a pair of gloves
Protection: My hands in general need to look good and it’s easy to get cuts during a crossfit session
When buying a pair of gloves you need to take into consideration what you will be using them for and a style of glove that is right for you, there is a page you can view for more information regarding buying a pair of crossfit gloves here: http://www.dsstuff.com/review-gloves-men-women-wod-crossfit/

Bandages

No one thinks you’re a baby for carrying band aids!  Blisters are a common injury in the gym.  You can easily get a blister from weight equipment, so if this happens make sure you have a band aid or bandage to cover those sore spots.

2-in-1 Wash

If you don’t have much room in your gym bag, you might want to consider a 2 in 1 hair and body wash.  These are great because you only need one container and the variety of scents available works well as both a hair and body wash.

Astringents, Toners, and Refreshers

With any strenuous workout, our bodies sweat.  If we don’t wash off the sweat quickly, the sweat can build up and clog our pores.  You can prevent this from happening by using an astringent, a toner, or a refresher.  Which one of these you choose depends on your skin type.  If you’re prone to oily skin, you might want to consider an astringent which contains alcohol, antiseptic ingredients, water, and a mild fragrance.  However, if you don’t have oily skin, you might want to consider something more mild like a toner or skin refresher which are designed to gently cleanse the skin and shrink the appearance of pores.

Deodorant Stick

There isn’t much to say about a deodorant stick other than make sure you use it, and keep it in your gym bag as a main ingredient for your workout.

don't be smelly

Flip Flops

This item is often forgotten.  If you take a shower at the gym or use the pool, bring a pair of flip flops.  Gym floors are easy places to pick up a foot fungus which can create discomfort.  Athletes foot is a common foot fungus that results in scaling, flaking, and itching of the affected areas.  Protect yourself from a foot fungus by investing in a pair of flip flops!

These are just a few of the popular essentials that men should consider when they pack for the gym; however, there are several other important items that you should consider when preparing for your workout.

Other Essentials

  • Clothing that fits loosely and is comfortable
  • Properly fit sneakers for all your workouts and especially for CrossFit workouts
  • A shaker bottle for shaking supplements that have been added to your water bottle
  • Water bottle
  • Workout journal to record a history of your workouts and track your workout progress
  • A towel for wiping off sweat during and after a workout or for wiping off gym equipment that was used by someone else
  • Motivating music to help you stick it out until it’s over

How to Shop for a Crossfit Athlete

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We all have at least one person in our life that is a total fitness freak of nature like me. When the holidays roll around, it’s easy to get stumped when shopping for the fitness buff in your life. The whole sweat wicking t-shirt thing is appreciated, but it can be worn out if it’s the only gift you give five years in a row.

How to Shop for a Crossfit Athlete

Fret no more! Below you will find an eclectic list of some of the top gifts every crossfit athlete would love to unwrap on Christmas morning. Some of these come with hefty price tag but they’re well worth—you’re likely to score a lot of points and have the favor returned with some of these as well.

Perfect Crossfit Gadgets

  • Garmin Forerunner 10. The Garmin Forerunner 10 is the ultimate sports watch for most any crossfitter. It’s light, it’s comfortable, and it comes equipped with built in GPS and the ability to track pace, distance, and calories burned during your workout.

  • GymBoss Interval Timer.  This compact timer is the perfect addition to any gym bag and can be used as stopwatch to help users blast through workouts, or time intervals of high intensity training. Price: $20.

GymBoss Interval Timer

Crossfit Gear

  • ErgoBells are an upper body foam tool created to intensify strength training during a swim workout. They look a little goofy but they don’t get waterlogged and are small enough to store in your gym bag. Price: $25.

  • TriggerPoint Foam Roller. The TriggerPoint Foam Roller is the best gift you could ever give a crossfit runner. It’s lightweight, durable, and the varying widths and densities it is available in can provide you with a perfectly precise massage. These rollers are perfect for rolling out sore muscles, preventing injuries, and improving range of motion. Price: $40.

TriggerPoint Foam Roller

  • Joyus At Home Elliptical. ok so your probably thinking this is no good for crossfit workouts and your correct unless you use a full size machine on max!, however I have found this device to be perfect for a really good warm up before the crossfit training session haha your following me now. This is a nifty little machine—much smaller than the average elliptical—that’s guaranteed to keep you moving. Price: $125.

  • ROAM Folding Yoga Mat. For your Yoga on the go there’s nothing worse than having to lug their pain-in-the-butt mat around campus or to the session it’s an ideal workout mat. The ROAM mat folds into a neat 12 x 12 square that’s easy to carry and easy to store. Price: $24.

ROAM Folding Yoga Mat

  • SKLZ AccuRoller. Akin to the foam roller, the AccuRoller comes with interchangeable balls used for targeting specific pressure points. This massage stick promotes recovery after a long trail cycling route or an intense crossfit workout—the fact that you can get a deep tissue massage out of it isn’t half bad either. Price: $40.

  • Gopher Sandbells are a magical cross between medicine balls, kettle bells, and dumbbells. They are sturdy, stretchy, soft, and so much fun to work out with. You can toss them, you can lift them, and do just about any other creative thing you can think of to get the sweat flowing. The price of a Gopher ranges from $10 to $95 dollars; it just depends on the weight.

Gopher Sandbells

Crossfit Clothing

  • Corey Vines Workout Socks are a brilliantly designed quick dry socks that offer optimal heel cushioning, chafing protection, and help prevent runner’s toe. If you have a runner in your life chances are they’ve proudly displayed this condition for you to view before; if you’re not familiar with what I’m referring to, runner’s toe is when your toes get all bruised and disgusting due to irritation from your shoes. It’s nasty. Do the runner in your life a favor and stuff a 3-pack in their stocking this Christmas. Price: $20.

Corey Vines Workout Socks

  • Crossfit Shorts There are so many different options and choices when it comes to shorts however I personally love the Hayabusa range, to keep you up to date I found a site that provides an ongoing top 50 list so choosing any in the top 5 would be a winner click here

top 50 crossfit shorts

  •  Columbia Gloves are soft, warm, and moisture wicking. The gloves even come equipped with a touch-screen compatible thumb that will make shuffling through your play list a breeze. Price: $40.

  • Cold Gear Under Armour Beanie. This beanie is a gift from the fitness gods when it comes to cold weather training. This fleece hat will keep every winter crossfit athlete warm and dry. Price: $30.

Crossfit Accessories

  • Action Wipes. Let’s face it, workouts make you stink. Unfortunately, there’s not always time to squeeze in a quick shower when you’re pressed for time. If you’re friends with a fitness buff I’m willing to bet you’ve noticed this problem at least once before. Action Wipes are all natural tea tree and eucalyptus scented moist wipes that are tough on dirt, grime, and body odor. Their safe for sensitive skin too so nobody has to miss out. Price: $25.

Action Wipes

This concludes my list of crossfit gifts to give the fitness enthusiast a happy experience this year.

Good Hygiene During Crossfit Training

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Crossfit sessions are the best place to get fit… and sick. As the adrenaline rushes through your body and you jog towards burning those extra 50 calories, sanitation becomes the last thing on your mind.  But while you’re sweating it out on the equipment, your clothes becomes a breeding ground for all sorts of bacteria.

Like most of us, germs love warm and cozy places. Crossfit gym facilities, including saunas, locker rooms and swimming pools, are the perfect venues for these bugs to thrive. They are most commonly found lurking on handles, dumbbells and bike seats, crawling all over the shower floor and hiding inside your clothing.

So have you ever wondered where that ringworm came from? Or why you keep getting an Athlete’s Foot?  Lack of good gym hygiene practices can lead to regular fungal infections, not to mention aggressive colds and the seasonal flu.

Getting into the habit of the following good hygiene procedures doesn’t entail much effort, but it will certainly earn you the respect of your fellow crossfit friends.

Use Towels

towels

Most crossfit gyms provide members with clean towels at the start of their workout. If not, always take two towels with you. Use one of the towels as a shield against germ-populated surfaces, particularly seats, handles and mats. Don’t use the same towel to wipe down equipment if paper towels happen to be at your disposal. You will need the towel to wipe off your own sweat instead.

Never share towels with a friend. Take a second towel with you if you plan to have a shower after the workout.

Wipe and Sanitize

Wipe down equipment with disinfectant gel and wipes before AND after use. You’ll be doing yourself, and the person who uses the machine after you, a huge favor. Skin infections are easily transmitted through direct contact with a contaminated surface. The worst areas are the handles of some of the most commonly used machines – tread mills, bikes and cross-trainers. Ideally you should also rub your hands in an alcohol-based sanitizer before moving on to another machine.

Cover any cuts or breaks in the skin with a bandage. Do not use saunas and swimming pools if you’ve got open wounds, skin infections, or cold sores. It will make you more susceptible to contracting skin infections from contaminated water.

Watch this video on how to do it correctly

Shower Hygiene is Vital

Who wouldn’t want to indulge in a long cold shower after a sweat-breaking workout?  It’s that moment we all look forward to as we push ourselves over the limit on that final machine.

Always wear rubber flip-flops when having a shower – or even if you’re heading to the pool area. Athlete’s Foot is highly contagious if you’re walking around barefoot in warm, humid places.  Using an antifungal powder or cream as a prevention won’t hurt.

take a shower

Use a clean towel to dry yourself thoroughly, especially your feet and between your toes. Do not wear the same socks after a shower. Fungi and bacteria flourish in sweaty shoes and socks. Pack a change of clothes and spare shoes before heading to the gym.

Once you get home, throw all your gym wear, including towels and swimsuits, straight into the washer. Wipe the insoles of your sneakers with a disinfectant.  Occasionally wash your shower sandals or flip flops in a bleach solution. You might also want to soak your gym bag in hot water.

Follow Basic Personal Hygiene

Even the most obvious sanitary practices tend to be left out. Here are some other gym hygiene tips:

  • Don’t go to the gym if you’re not feeling well at all. Your blood might be pumping for some exercise, but you must be considerate of others.
  • Wash your hands regularly and properly, and even more frequently if you’re visiting the gym during influenza season.
  • Do not share or borrow personal care products, like brushes, body creams, deodorant, soap, combs and razors.
  • Don’t leave any sweaty gym wear in your bag. It’s true that the least thing you feel like doing after an exhausting workout is washing your dirty tracksuit, but you wouldn’t want your gym bag to become a petri dish for germs either.
  • Avoid touching your face while you’re working out.
  • If you’re drinking from a plastic bottle, do not reuse without first rinsing it in hot water. Bacteria build up in unwashed plastic bottles, particularly around the rim and the mouth.   Preferably you should use stainless steel bottles.
  • Choose the right crossfit gym. It’s always a good idea to visit the gym and observe its level of cleanliness before applying for a membership.
  • Above all, do not hesitate to approach the gym management if you need to report poor hygiene practices at the facilities.

Crossfit and Healthy Food Planning

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Everything I have spoken about so far has been about food and nutrition these are excellent ways to get started when it comes to changing your life around and loosing weight if that’s you goal, however another big part of my life is fitness I love a wide range of sporting activity’s that include: football, soft ball, swimming and cycling.

Over the past 3 years I have taken part in a workout or fitness activity called crossfit and to say it has taken my fitness ability to a new level is an understatement, crossfit training is any and every workout, sport and exercise combined into one tough training session the idea is instead of just running or only weightlifting, playing soccer or only ever doing swimming you do a mixture of anything and everything making you better, stronger and defiantly a lot fitter.

In this post I want to talk about crossfit and food in fact this entire site is going to be about food and crossfit so if a video exists that I think is relevant to either one I will most likely post it, if there is a cool article with helpful info I will make sure you can find it and I am also here to help so if you have any questions about crossfit and healthy food please message me.

Ok a very cool video example I found yesterday during a search of the you tube demonstrating how to get organised when it comes to your weekly shop. check out the video below and I will give me opinion shortly afterwords.

Ok so we see at the start this is a mission of some kind and I do very much like there approach, so if you want to give this a try you will need:

1. a shopping list for a weeks worth of food

2. transport

3. money

That’s it you are good to go however you may want to think about what you are buying before rushing off spending money like a crazy fool.

In the video are two crossfit members, there mission is to do this process quickly but the main aim here is to ensure they are eating the correct foods for the workouts they are doing.
If you are working out at the same level then go for the list they put together however please be careful especially if you are not training as their diet is designed for them.

Crossfit and Healthy Food Planning

The meats are giving them a stack of protein everything else is what I call healthy food, you really can’t go wrong with fruits and vegetables it makes up 95% of my diet and I also do crossfit training.

The idea of chopping up vegetables is an excellent way to get ahead of your self and makes cooking easy for during the week as long as all the food is stored correctly i.e bags in the fridge I can’t see a problem with this method.

I like the fruit idea as a lot of people have other kinds of snacks around the house mainly full of salt and sugar, fruit is the perfect replacement as it contains natural sugar stopping you from resorting to the bad snacks.

I hope this little video has helped you plan a little better for the future and I would love to know your opinion or your own helpful tips for eating healthy.

7 Reasons to Stay Away From The Fad Diets

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Fad diets have been around for years, and there is always a new fad diet that promises weight loss. People want to follow the crowd, and so they get involved with these fad diets, but there are some serious risks to taking part in these fad diets. Plus they never work. You might lose some weight in the beginning, but once you stop the diet, you gain all the weight back, plus some.

These fad diets aren’t meant to be long term health solutions, which is why they call them fad diets. They are a quick fix, and a quick fix never helps the problem at hand. The people and companies who come up with these fad diets don’t care about helping, they just want to make their money. They market to those that are desperate and trusting, and unfortunately those people then think they aren’t able to lose weight, when in fact if they knew how to eat right and exercise correctly, they could lose the weight and feel a lot better in the process without having to spend a lot of money.

The Fad Diets

The Fad Diets

There are hundreds of fad diets, but here are some popular ones that you should stay away from

–       The Atkins Diet

–       The low Carb diet

–       South Beach Diet

–       The Zone

–       Hollywood Diet

–       Cabbage Soup Diet

These diets are meant for you to lose weight quickly, but they aren’t the solution to long term weight loss and real health. You can lose some weight, but again, you will quickly gain it all back and most times even more weight. These fad diets put stress on the body, and cause the body to go into healing crisis, which means it will store fat.

7 Reasons to Stay Away Fad Diets

1. Any diet that wants you to eat a ton of animal meat for protein. First of all, our bodies don’t require that much protein in order to stay healthy. A mother’s breast milk is only six percent protein, and that is the most important developmental stage for humans. If we only need six percent then, then we don’t need any more than that now to stay healthy. The second reason to stay away from a diet full of meat is because meat has not water or fiber in it, which is two ingredients necessary for weight loss and health. Those people on the Atkins diet are severely backed up.

2. Any diet that claims you can lose weight without exercising. Exercise is important no matter what you eat. Exercise keeps your body fit and healthy, I like to do a fitness called crossfit it can be difficult most exercise should be to a certain level but I would suggest finding an exercise or a combination of exercises like crossfit that will keep you in shape.

3. Any diet that has a photo shopped picture of a before and after for their advertising campaign. This is a huge red flag. Even if the photo is real, you don’t know how these people got fit in the first place, but it definitely wasn’t from the fad diet.

4. Any diet that claims pills or processed drinks full of sugar will make you skinny. These pill and energy weight loss drinks are so bad for your body, and they make you crash after the caffeine buzz wears off. They want for you to crash so that you need to go buy more of their product. In the long run you will wind up with adrenal fatigue and all sorts of weight problems from the refined sugar.

5. Any diet that limits you to their processed food. Anything processed is going to be bad for your health. These companies get people to believe that somehow their “healthy” brownies and pizza are good, just because of the packaging that they are in. Stay away from it; they put something in it that isn’t good for you in the long run.

6. Any diet that says to drink their sugar milk drinks in order to lose weight. This is one of the worst things you can do to lose weight. Milk not only causes mucus in the body, but it also is full of fat and calories. Skim milk is just milk with water added to it, that doesn’t make it any healthier.

The real problem is that most people don’t know how to eat right, but it isn’t our fault. We grow up eating what our parents make for us, and then when we realize that we need to make some changes, we are thrown in to a huge amount of information that tells us everything under the sun. What is important is that you learn to start eating more naturally, and things that works for your body.

There will always be a new fad diet until we learn to take our health in to our hands, and begin to eat the right way. There is no magic pill, and there is no miracle cure for being overweight. The reason that people gain weight is because of what they eat, if you eat unhealthy foods, you will gain weight. On the other hand, if you eat healthy, natural foods, then you will become your natural healthy size and weight, and feel great in the process

5 Reasons Why What You Eat Is Important To Your Health

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Eating has become such a social aspect of our lives that most of us don’t ever take a step back to really notice what we are ingesting in to our bodies. It’s no wonder that our sociality has become over weight and disease ridden, and the only thing most people know to do is what we were taught as a child, and that is to go to the doctor when you don’t feel well.

We tell the doctor how we are feeling, and he or she might run some tests or just going by your symptoms, tell you what they think you might “have”. Then they prescribe you a drug that costs you money, and tells you either that this will be a short term drug you have to take, or that you will have to take it forever.

Now you go and get your prescription drugs (the drug should raise some alarms in people’s heads), but since we trust our doctors, we take them anyway. The symptoms usually will seem to get better for a little bit, but since you are still eating the same diet as you were, that relief doesn’t last long, and soon you will have new symptoms rising up. You return to the doctor and the cycle continues. It is explained to us that what we are experiencing is the “aging process”.

what you eat is important to your health

Let me first say that doctors are great, and they do help save many lives, but what I want to stress in this article is that we need to begin taking our heath into our own hands, and begin using doctors as a guide, and not the end all to your health problems. Being on a cocktail of prescription drugs is not healthy, and eventually, it will kill you.

What we all need to begin doing, is to first take a look at your diet, and what you eat on a daily basis. If it’s not all that healthy, then the second thing is we need begin to choose a more natural diet. Secondly, you must find a doctor that is willing to work with you on finding solutions to whatever aliments you might have, and thirdly, you must begin to look into holistic ways of healing. If you look around you will find that Mother Nature has given us so many healing plants, herbs and foods. It’s just a matter of finding which one is right for you. What is most important is that we first realize why what we eat is the first step in feeling better and healing our bodies.

Top 5 list to keep eating healthy

1. You are what you eat – We literally become what we ingest into our bodies on a daily basis. If you eat processed foods, sugary drinks, over eat meat and dairy products, or worse yet, eat fast food every day, then you will become that. Those foods have no nutritional value to them, and they create no nutritional value for our bodies. Without proper nutrition, our bodies begin to die from the inside out. Disease and pain are formed as a warning sign from your body.

2. Food either heals us or it kills us – Food is either going to heal us and keep us strong and healthy, or it is going to kill us. Yes eventually we are all going to die, but wouldn’t you rather live out your life feeling the best you can?
I love to take part in as much sporting activity as possible in my next set of articles I am going to talk about crossfit training you may or may not have been told about crossfit but to sum it up quickly crossfit is a combination of all sports taken to the highest level you can physically do I hope the teachings of my own personal crossfit training and my education in healthy eating will set you on a new found path.
When we eat highly nutritional foods, we are feeding our bodies life. On the other hand, when we eat processed and chemically laden foods, that have no nutritional value, and are foreign to our bodies, then the only thing the body can do is fight it and try to get rid of it as fast as it can, and if it can’t get rid of it fast enough, it will create fat in the body to store it in. All of that creates a toxic atmosphere in the body, and eventually things are going to start popping up in the body, like pain and disease.

3. Foods are either acidic or alkaline – The foods we eat are either going to have an alkalizing effect on the body, which is good, or an acidic effect on the body, which is bad. Acidic conditions create stored fat in the body, and alkaline conditions create a clean body. Highly processed, chemical, meats, dairy and refined sugars create acidic conditions in the body, while fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds create and alkaline state in the body.

4. Food either makes you fat or keeps you thin – If you are continuously filing your body will acidic foods, then it won’t be able to expel them quick enough and in order to keep you alive, the body will form fat in the body in order to store the acid. That is why when people first start to cleanse or detox, they can feel worse before they can feel better. It is because the acid that is in the fat in the body is finally able to be released. It gets released into the blood stream first before being expelled from the body, causing the feeling of sickness, tiredness and headaches. Once the acidic condition is taken care of, there is no need for the body to hold onto the fat anymore.

5. There is always a cause and effect – For everything you do and every choice you make, there is some kind of effect it brings. Whether it is the food you eat, the exercise or lack of exercise you do, or the choice of people you hang around, there is always going to be an effect from it that is wither good or bad. If you choose to eat heath foods, then the effect is going to be health and vitality, on the other hand, if you choose to eat poorly, then the effect is going to be heath problems.

Becoming more aware of what we eat is so important, especially if we want to live happy, healthy and full lives. There is just no way around this concept. You cannot eat fried foods all day long and keep your health intact for years to come.