For your pre-workout meal should be about 2 to 3 hours prior to your exercise. I  personally recommend 30 to 40 grams of a low-glycemic, slow-digesting carbohydrates, such as yams, brown rice, whole grain or Ezekiel bread, beans and red potatoes.  Eating slow-digesting carbs results in a slow, steady rise in blood glucose and, in turn, a moderate release of insulin in the body.  These types of foods are whole, natural carbohydrates, which are much healthier than highly processed and refined carbs that will spike your blood sugar.  These natural carbs will give a more prolonged, sustained release of energy.  Lean sources of protein such as boneless, skinless chicken or fish are excellent for your protein needs.

Post-Workout Meal

For your post-workout meal, I highly recommend eating within 30 to 45 minutes of completing your training to get the maximum benefit for muscle tissue repair and recovery.  Consume a fast-absorbing protein shake with whey protein.  You can also supplement with a slow-absorbing casein protein shake.  Combining the two types of protein will give you the benefit of both fast-acting protein for recovery and fuel for the body as well as sustained supplementation for muscle recovery through the rest of the day.   In addition, you want to supplement with a high-glycemic carbohydrate drink such as orange juice or non-diet sports drink.  The fast-absorbing sugars in these drinks will spike your insulin, thereby aiding in shuttling that protein into the muscle cells as fast as possible.  Once you have had this high-glycemic energy drink within 30 to 45 minutes post-workout, go back to low-glycemic foods and beverages for the rest of the day.

Gluten-free diets have been shown to benefit those suffering from thyroid disease, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, anemia, autism, and irritable bowel syndrome. Eliminating gluten from the diet can also be of great benefit to those wishing to lose weight, increase their energy levels, lower bad cholesterol and improve digestion.  It helps in weight loss because a gluten-free diet is usually low in carbohydrates.

Going gluten free usually means eating more fresh, organic foods, which will in itself benefit your overall health.  It reduces the chance of consuming highly processed, starchy fatty foods with refined sugar.

Most health professionals don’t think eliminating gluten from the diet is necessary for everyone – only those who have sensitivity to gluten.  However, there is substantial scientific evidence that a large percentage of the general population can have negative health impacts from consuming too much gluten.

A very small percentage – about one percent of the population has what’s known as Celiac disease, which affects the immune system.  Consuming gluten causes an immune response where the body attacks itself, thereby damaging the small intestine.  This, in turn makes it difficult for the body to absorb nutrients from food.

It has been shown that approximately twelve percent of the population has some form of immune response to eating gluten, but do not have the typical damage to the intestines from celiac disease.   In addition to digestive difficulties, gluten can cause fatigue in the body.  Most grains are difficult to digest and are hard on the digestive system.  With modern advances in agriculture, the gluten content in our food has consistently risen in the last few decades.

Eating a gluten-free diet is very difficult unless you are very strict about what foods you eat and avoid.  Most people do not have the discipline, nor the time to eat a completely gluten-free diet.  However, your consumption of foods containing gluten can be dramatically cut back by simply cutting back or even avoiding foods that contain wheat and grains.  A diet richer in fruits, vegetables and lean, natural forms of protein such as chicken and fish is a relatively easy way to cut back on your gluten consumption.  If you have a sensitivity to gluten, you should hopefully see an improvement in your digestion, moderate weight loss and even less fatigue.  So try it and see what positive affects you will see in your daily life.

1.) Garmin is probably best known for making GPS devices for automobiles.  In my opinion, they have designed one of the best fitness apps on the market.  It uses GPS (global positioning) technology to keep track of your speed and distance when riding your bike or running.  It even calculates the calories burned during your workout. It is very user friendly and easy to navigate the program.  You also have the option of connecting it to a heart rate monitor and can even keep track of your training logs, so you can monitor your progress.  And you can use this excellent app for only $0.99, which makes it easy to give it a try to see if it’s good fit for you.

2.) Another app from Adidas, called MI Coach, can calculate your running or biking pace, distance, time and calories burned.  It even has a pacer device in so you can use it for the treadmill.  And, like more apps offering this new feature, this too has a heart rate monitoring feature as well.  You can even track and share your workouts and results online with other people so you can have a bit of friendly competition with friends or family.

3.) Nike also provides a very effective app for upping the intensity of your workouts by including motivational music and even inspirational notes to keep you going when it gets tough.  You can also get audio feedback about your pace and your progress during the workout.  It offers a wireless heart rate monitor as well, and of course you can track your workouts and progress online to have a quantitative measure of your progress.

4.) Google My Tracks – this is a great application that is FREE.  It provides you with tracking of your time, distance, speed and elevation.  You can set waypoints with this app, so you can track where you are and your progress to your destination.  Because of this feature, ‘My Tracks’ is popular with hikers.

5.) Runkeeper is named appropriately for its design geared towards runners.  It provides you with interval workouts, target pacing of your running, speed and distance tracking.  This is a cool app in that you are able to control the music on your phone without leaving or closing down the app.  You can purchase a heart rate monitoring accessory to go with the app if you want and it will store your performance history online for you.

Unless your primary goal is to gain weight and pack on pounds of muscle, you should not be lifting heavy weights.  Rather, you should be lifting enough weight so that you can do approximately 15 repetitions with a set.  If you can do more than 15 reps without getting too fatigued, then you are not lifting enough weight.  If you can’t lift more than 6 or 8 reps, you are lifting too much for the purpose of losing weight and leaning out.  So whatever exercise you are doing – bicep curls for example, you should be lifting an amount of weight where you can do about 4 sets of 15 repetitions each.  If you go at a good pace, with no more than about 20 seconds rest between sets, you should not need more than about 30 minutes of resistance training.

Then once you have finished the weight training, your body should be depleted of most of its glycogen and you should now be in ‘fat burning mode’ where the body now has to draw on fat stores for energy to finish the workout.  This is when you do your cardio.  When doing cardio, the best way to lose body fat is to go at a pace of about 65% of your maximum heart rate.  A non-scientific way of determining whether you are in the ‘fat burning zone’ is that you should be able to carry a conversation, but not want to talk.  If you are ‘huffing and puffing’ and can’t really talk, you are working too hard and drawing on blood sugar and carbs – we want to burn fat.  Go at this steady pace for at least 30 minutes after doing your resistance training.  So the entire workout, between resistance training and cardio, should not last more than about one hour.  If you do this consistently – at least 3 times a week, preferably 4 times a week, you should see effective and tangible results fairly quickly.  Of course, diet is about 80% of the equation when trying to lose weight, so that must ultimately be treated with the same level of urgency as your workouts.

So particularly in the third trimester, it is all about the type of exercise you chose that will determine your success.  The right type of workout can be just what your body needs to get a boost of energy to handle the everyday tasks of supporting two bodies.  Some of the best exercise includes a simple 20 minute walk.  Walking every day can do tremendous good for helping your body’s strength and endurance.  There are also pregnant yoga classes that are quite popular.  These classes help keep the body flexible, limber and strong.  Swimming laps in the pool is a great way to get some low-impact cardio exercise in your day.

There will be plenty of days where you are simply not up for any kind of exercise.  On those days, it is critical to not get down on yourself and you must understand that it is all a process.  Exercise as much as you can safely on the days you are able and take a break on the days when your body is telling you ‘no way’  The more you exercise, the more energy you will have to maintain that activity.  Having a friend as a workout partner to keep company and hold you accountable is an excellent way of staying consistent.  The most important thing is to just get started – so get up on your feet and get to it today!

For example, a high quality protein supplement allows you to ingest an adequate amount of protein to repair damaged muscle tissue and promote strength gains without having to eat so much protein from traditional sources such as meat and eggs.  A good protein supplement will absorb more quickly and completely and is not as hard on the digestive system.  Supplementing with a vitamin, mineral and electrolyte supplement will help replace these vital nutrients that are naturally lost through perspiration with exercise.  Of course, moderation is key, so there is no need to spend a ton of money on expensive supplements that make fantastic claims.

Taking in about 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight for men and about ½ gram per pound of bodyweight for women is about right for proper muscle repair and strength gains.  This can be achieved with a high quality protein powder.  That, in addition to a good multi-vitamin and drinking plenty of fluids, which include low-sugar sports drinks that contain electrolytes, should be adequate for an effective supplement program with your workouts to help get you the most effective gains towards your goals.

This blog post coincides with one that I wrote two weeks ago on Workout Supplements. In that blog post I listed some of my favorite Pre & Post Workout Supplements as well as some of the benefits to each. I also went over each of the active ingredients with in them that help boost performance before, during, and after your workout. If you are looking for a good supplement, I recommend that you head over to my previous post and check out some of my favorite ones!

Some of the pros of the Paleo diet are that it includes meats, fruits and vegetables that digest slowly in the body, which in turn help keep blood sugar levels stable and provide steady, consistent energy throughout the day.  Since the paleo diet does not contain refined, processed carbs and sugars, it relies more on fats and protein, which help keep you feeling full – much more so than a diet high in refined carbohydrates.  So hunger between meals is less likely to happen. Getting rid of highly refined carbs and sugars often results in fat loss.  A diet low in refined, starchy carbohydrates will help in burning body fat stores.

There are cons to the Paleo diet as well.  Dairy products and grains are used quite a bit in processed and prepared foods. These processed foods are not allowed in the paleo diet.  SO often times a person on a Paleo diet finds it difficult to eat food on the go and it can be difficult to stick to it when having to always prepare meals in advance, especially with a busy, hectic schedule.  Fast food is out of the question.  Much of the food included in the Paleo diet is often more expensive than with a typical modern diet. The Paleo diet usually calls for beef, chicken and eggs, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Inexpensive foods like bread, rice and pasta have no place in the Paleo diet.

Saunas provide dry heat in a wood-paneled room from a wood or electric stove. Generally the stove heats rocks, which radiate heat throughout the room. A sauna may have a small amount of steam if water is poured over the hot rocks, however a sauna overall provides dry heat. The temperature in a sauna typically ranges from 160-200 degrees Fahrenheit with a low level of humidity (ranging from 5-30 percent).

Steam Rooms

Steam rooms, on the other hand provide moist heat from a water-filled generator pumping steam into the enclosed room. The temperature in a steam room typically ranges from 110-114 degrees Fahrenheit with a humidity level of 100 percent. Neither one is necessarily better than the other; so go ahead and try them both out and decide which one you prefer.

Benefits of heat baths

(Dry or Moist air)

Sweating opens pores and can temporarily cleanse the outer surface of your skin, but sweating in saunas doesn’t remove toxins from within the body as most people believe. Also, scientific evidence doesn’t support the widely-held belief that using saunas or steam rooms can cause weight loss, which is a popular reason why many people use these facilities. Both do make you warmer, make you relax and sweat, lower your pulse and blood pressure by causing blood vessels to dilate, improve blood circulation, clean and rejuvenate the skin, and ease muscle tension.

One of the most important components of eating properly is breaking up your calories evenly over the course of 5 to 6 small meals a day.  Doing this keeps your blood sugar constant, which in turn keeps your insulin level constant.  By keeping your sugar and insulin constant, you are decreasing the likelihood of the body storing excess calories as body fat.  Having a good balance of protein, ‘good fats’ and low-glycemic carbohydrates is also critical.  This basically means you should aim towards lean sources of protein such as chicken, fish and lean meat along with lots of fibrous, green, leafy vegetables.  Avoiding heavy starches such as breads, pasta, potatoes and refined sugar is very important.  And supplementing with the right kinds of fats such as avocados, olive oil and nuts is also important.

Having a well-balanced diet is the most important thing for well-defined abs.  But again, cardiovascular exercise is also important.  30 minutes a day of running, biking, stair climbing, or aerobics can burn off a lot of calories and stored body fat.  So, in short, abdominal exercises are important.  But it is the combination of proper nutrition and cardiovascular exercise that will shed the body fat so that you can actually see those well-defined abs underneath the skin.

Photo from http://www.livingfitoc.com

The fitness industry is growing rapidly and every year we see an increasing number of products to choose from in helping improve exercise performance and recovery.  Workout supplements have become more and more popular over the course of the past few years.  They are designed to increase your energy, alertness and intensity while exercising.  Many of your choices contain much of the same ingredients, which have all been proven to help improve performance and intensity.  Among the key ingredients you will find in many of these supplements include:

Pre-Workout Supplements

Active Ingredients

Beta-Alanine

This is a naturally occurring amino acid found in large concentrations in muscle and brain tissue. Supplementing with BA has shown to decrease muscle fatigue, thus allowing more muscular work to be done.  It has also shown to reduce the burn brought on by lactic acid from intense training.

Arginine

This one of the most common naturally occurring amino acids. It is mainly included as a supplement because it helps decrease healing time of damaged muscle tissue and decreases blood pressure.

Theobromine

This a caffeine-like ingredient that is not as potent. It comes from the cocoa tree so you can find it in dark chocolate. It is a mild stimulant and is a diuretic, which makes you urinate more often.  This is beneficial in fat burning because it boosts your metabolism.  Since it is also a diuretic, the loss of water underneath the skin can also make you look leaner. This means you should always be hydrating yourself properly in order to avoid dehydration.

Evodiamine

This is a common ingredient in pre-workout supplements and has shown to reduce fat uptake as well as increasing metabolic rate much like a thermogenic, or “fat burner” pill like Hydroxycut.

Of all the choices out there for pre-workout supplements, these are my favorite:

1. Driven Sports Craze
2. C-4 Extreme
3. N.O. Xplode 2.0

Post Workout Supplements

Post-workout supplements are designed a little differently. They are used to help the body recover faster after an intense workout.  The ingredients in post-workout supplements help turn the body from a catabolic (muscle breakdown) state, into an anabolic (muscle growth) state. Including a post-workout supplement with your workout routine can definitely improve your performance, reduce muscle soreness and speed up your recovery time.

Active Ingredients

Liquid forms of carbohydrates, protein, and fat are the “essential” ingredients to include in a post-workout drink and will aid greatly in recovery from that workout. But there are many other ingredients you may want to include in a post-workout drink that will further aid in recovery.

Creatine

In your post-workout drink will help replenish Creatine phosphate stores in the muscle cells and result in faster recovery and greater strength and endurance during the next workout.  The guideline is about 2 to 10 grams post-workout, depending on your size and level of training.

Glutamine

Many find that it reduces post-workout soreness.  Research has found that glutamine can reduce the colds and flu’s that many experience as a result of the immune system being depressed from intense exercise. Glutamine has also been shown to reduce cortisol levels as well as increasing growth hormone levels.  In addition, recovery time is often much quicker with glutamine use.

Arginine

Another amino acid that is often recommended for use both pre- and post-workout. The main benefit for arginine is that it increases nitric oxide, which acts as a vasodilator, increasing blood flow to the muscles. Many report feeling a greater “pump” during and even after their workouts while using arginine. But more importantly, the increased blood flow is supposed to aid in recovery by increasing the flow of nutrients to the muscle cells.

Vitamin C

Post-workout reduces post-workout soreness and cortisol levels. Cortisol is a catabolic (muscle-destroying) hormone that is released during and after intense exercise. So reducing it as soon as possible after a workout is imperative.

Sodium and Potassium

Electrolytes that are lost in sweat.  Since a loss of such electrolytes can lead to cramping and other problems, replenishing them is a good idea.  Including sport drinks such as Gatorade or PowerAde in your post-workout supplement regimen is wise as these products are designed to replace lost electrolytes from intense workouts.

These re my favorite choices for post-workout supplements:

1. Myotein Protein Powder
2. BSN Cellmass
3. Optimum 100% Whey Protein
4. XPI Xtreme ZMA
5. Myoplex