New Blog

So I thought I'd try something new here. I'm trying to send a blog via email. It's a new and easy way to blog on the go! It's pretty cool, and it makes life just that much easier.

My blog this time isn't as informative as others have been in the past but I thought I'd still share these some of the new things I've encountered along the way. One thing that I really want to share with you all is something that I think is very important for those who are trying the weight lifting aspect of being healthy. For those of you who will be going into the gym to stay healthy, I HIGHLY suggest you invest in purchasing a stabilization belt. This belt, something that I have recently invested in, is meant to help people keep their backs straight while they lift. Keeping one's posture is very important because no matter how heavy a weight you may be lifting, any time the back goes out of line you run a high risk of injuring yourself. These belts, which can cost very little (mine only cost $10), are a very wise investment in my eyes. They're easy little things that help to further prevent possible injuries. Injuries are very common in weight lifters, especially for beginners who don't know what exactly they're doing just yet.

So what's the point I'm trying to make? If you're going to hit the gym go out and get yourself one of these belts! There are so many kinds out there an I'm sure you'll find which one will suit you. the one I bought, for just over $10, is actually one that help with both posture and calorie burning. What it does is that while I work out it pulls my stomach, sides, and back all in tightly and essentially slimming the waist. Also, it is made of a thin, cotton-like material that makes my temperature rise slightly above normal and sweat more. By sweating more I'll be burning more calories and shedding more weight more quickly. Now you don't have to go out and buy one these belts, I just liked this one more than the others I saw at the time. There are some that simply help to keep posture in line and then there are those that contain magnets and massagers that help with blood flow and circulation.

So yeah, get out there, be safe and be healthy! Living a healthy life is easier than you think. Just believe in yourself and you can do anything you want!

I'm out!

Mike

5 Quick Fat Burning Tips

So I'm sure many of you, like myself, are working out regularly to help maintain a healthy body. Not all of us are out there for the glorious physiques, some of us just want to be healthy! Well, one of the keys to maintaining a healthy body is to keep one's body fat percentage as low as possible.

Typically, women should have a total body fat percentage between 10% and 25% and men should have something between 2% and 18%. Now, don't quote me on these percentages, everyone has their own percentage that they see as ideal for their bodies, this is simply a percentage range that I found online. Also, typically any percentage over 30% is considered obese, and that applies to both men and women.

So how can you keep this percentage down? By eating healthy and working out on a regular basis! Eating healthy foods is one of the best ways to keep one's body fat percentage down. If you eat nothing but fattening foods all day all week and all year you'll only blow up that number along with your body. Watch what you eat! Low, or non-fat foods are good ways of keeping the fat down. Also, reducing sugar intake from cokes and candies. Little do we know that these tiny, "innocent" things are building up and harming our bodies. Take 1 coke away from your daily consumption, it'll make a difference trust me.

Also, by working out on a regular basis you'll boost your metabolism. By raising one's metabolism your body will continue to use that excess fat for energy and it won't be sitting there piling up on you anymore. Keep active, and keep it up daily. Simple walks or quick visits to the gym will suffice, just make sure you're doing something. For all you gym goers and those who are looking to really help reduce body fat here are 5 quick tips that I follow whenever I work out. I got it from my magazine called MensFitness.

Follow these 5 tips whenever you hit the gym and you'll start seeing the fat melting away quicker than ever! The tips include:
1. Shorten your rest periods- by reducing rest periods to about 30 seconds or a minute between sets you'll keep your heart rate high up in the calorie burning zone. The longer the heart stays at this level the more fat it will consume and use up for energy.
2. Train the whole body- by training the whole body every time your body will not only work extra hard, but it will also experience a boost in growth hormone. It's like being a kid all over again. The more the body is working to help muscles grow and expand the more energy necessary and the more fat being consumed.
3. Alternate sets- by alternating sets you're giving yourself more time for rest. Do an upper body workout then go to a lower body workout or a workout that uses a different muscle group. Many times when in the gym people like to just blast a single muscle group, but when you do this you're exhausting your body and your muscles, not allowing you to hit your full potential each time and slowing you and your work out down.
4. Increase lifting speed- by doing this what you're doing is you're training your body work faster and harder. Your hear rate will stay high and your fast twitch muscleswill be trained. Fast twitch muscles are our every day muscles, they're the one's we really use. By increasing lifting speed, but still keeping it under control, you'll further develop these muscles.
5. Decrease reps- in following this tip not only should you decrease rep count, but you should also increase weight. Many people do not know that the success to true fat loss is muscle development. By developing muscle beneath fat, the muscle will literally eat up the fat and use it for energy and development. Increasing weight and decreasing reps is one of the best ways to help develop muscle quickly and efficiently.

So, need more convincing? Check out the article from the MensFitness website, here's the link http://www.mensfitness.com/fitness/strength_training/456 And check this link out as well. As I was writing this article a news feed popped up about more ways of burning fat. Check it out and see what you can learn http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30111205/

The key to a healthy lifestyle is being happy with oneself. None of us have the ideal body, many of those who do are either very,. VERY lucky or they cheated their way there. Just be happy with how you feel, that's the best thing you can do for yourself. Personally, I never like to weigh myself or anything like, it's too personal. The way I judge whether or not I'm healthy is how I feel when I'm performing sports or when I'm out playing with friends. Only you can judge how you feel, just make sure you're happy and all else will fall in place

Easy Food Management

So here comes one of the hardest parts of living a healthy life, managing what you eat! Very few people eat "by the books" today; there's simply too much temptation from all the good, but unhealthy things around us. However, started doing a little trick that helps me watch what I eat and help maintain that healthy living.

I know many of you, like myself, would much rather have a big ol' cheese burger or some pizza for lunch than a boring salad. But, those veggies are all necessary aspects of our diets. All these healthy foods are necessary parts of our diets becuase of the vitamins and minerals they provide our bodies, so how can you get them with the life style you live? Take some multi-vitamins! Multi-vitamins are like a short cut. They provide the body with the essential daily vitamins and minerals it needs to stay healthy. Now, just because you take them doesn't mean you're 100% in the clear. Supplemental vitamins should in no way be seen as a complete substitute for a healthy life, they simply help those get nothing in their bodies at all.

So which vitamins should you take? There are literally thousands of options out there, and the best advice I can give is to simply go visit a local Vitamin Shop or GNC or Vitamin World or even one of the pharmacies at a Target or Wal Mart. All these places have professionals that can point you in the direction of which vitamins best support your life style. Someone like myself, an athlete, would take performance vitamins. These are different kinds of supplements in that they provide extra levels of certain vitamins and minerals that are used during hard work outs or extreme conditioning. Someone who is simply looking to help their body out a little bit don't need anything this extreme, a simply daily supplement such as One-A-Days will do. There are also multi-vitamins out there that specify for children, women, and men. Look into it, you have nothing to lose. You'll only be helping your body out that much more.

Want some more persuassion? Check this article I just found online! It'll make you want to run to the nearest pharmacy. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29958721/

Multi-vitamins are a simply, quick and easy way to help the body maintain itself. Clearly, the best possible solution to living a healthy life is to watch and regulate what you eat. Try and get at least one salad in each day. Try and eat a cup of fruit and vegetables. Anything you do will help your body that much more than not doing it at all. What I like to do is that I set maybe one or two days out of the week that I try my best to force myself to eat healthy. For breakfest I'll have a cup of yogurt and some fruit, for lunch I'll have some pasta, and for dinner I'll have some chicken and rice and some veggies; and if I ever get hungry and need a snack between meals I'll try and eat fruit or a salad. By having even a single day like this in a week you're improving your body and you're avoiding a whole days worth of unhealthy, junky food.

Just do what you can! Remember, no one is perfect. By trying and doing just a whole bunch of little things they'll all add up and do you so much good that you won't be able to believe it. It's easier to gradually ease into things rather than waking up one morning and trying to change your whole life around. So get out there, get your vitamins and minerals, get to walking, and watch what you eat. Anything you can do is better than doing nothing at all. Good luck, and have fun!

Fun Fact

So I'm sure many of you out there are like me and like to find new and interesting ways of helping your body. I like learning about how little things help the body maintain and improve itself, because after all, it's the little things that count right? Well, after pursuing one of my many curiosities I actually found something that I simply could not pass up and must share with everyone.

So how many times have you finished a long day or work and all you want is to take a nice relaxing hot shower? Well, like many of you I too am addicted to hot showers. They seem so relaxing and good for you. But how many times have you stepped into what you think to be warm water and found it to be freezing cold? Now that can't be good for you right? Wrong! Cold showers are actually very good for your body and it's maintenance.

One of the things I've always wanted to know was why at one of the gyms that I work out at back home to they have that dreaded contraption called "The Cold Splash" in the locker room. I remember walking out of the sauna I would see many people walk under the shower head and take the ice cold splash and just let out a loud yelp. I thought maybe it was just something to prove one's manhood in front of everyone; but it turns out it's actually something productive for the body. Cold showers help to not only refresh the body after being so heated from a workout but they also help the internal organs.

When working out, or just working hard in general, blood usually rushes to one's skin, or more towards the surface of the body. When that happens the organs are usually not as filled with blood as they normally are, that's why people are usually so red when they work hard. When, and if, the body were to be suddenly experience a drastic change in temperature (say a splash of ice cold water) all of the blood rushes from the skin back down to the internal organs flushing out all that old blood. And this isn't even all that these showers do for you! Some other benefits associated with cold showers are: brings blood to the capillaries, therefore increasing circulation throughout the body, cleans the circulatory system, reduces blood pressure on internal organs, provides flushing for the organs and provides a new supply of blood, strengthens the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems, contracts the muscles to eliminate toxins and poisonous wastes, and strengthens the mucous membranes, which help resist hay fever, allergies, colds, coughs.

I know it sounds painful, but cold showers really are good for you. Now I'm not saying that every time you shower you have to shower in ice cold water the whole time, that would just be torture. What is recommended is that you should begin your shower as you normally would, whatever temperature you prefer. Towards the end of the shower however you should gradually ease into cooling the water as much as you can take, preferably ending the shower with the water being cold. I know that now that I started doing this technique I've started feeling fresher than ever. The cold water shocks the body awake and leaves you feeling just great once you're out.

I know I'm just a kid and I really can't explain all that goes on in the body but there are many websites. I know that's where I found all of my information. Here are a few websites that I visited.

http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/showers.html http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/sampleworkouts/a/After-Exercise.htm

Well I know this blog wasn't so much about healthy living but I thought it was something really cool that many people probably didn't know about. It's just one of the many little things you can do to help your body stay healthy and feeling great. Try it out and see what you think! I now do this every single time I shower and I feel even better now. Hope you all found this to be as interesting as I did! Have fun, be safe, and be healthy!

Spring Break Challenge

So here comes one of the most challenging parts of maintaining a healthy life, vacations. It's spring break for us all, but that's no excuse to get off track from working out and being healthy. It's easy to understand how most people don't exactly plan on working out on their much deserved time off from school, so therefore the main objective here should just to do as much for yourself as possible; whether that be taking time to workout or simply watching what you eat. Whatever you can do will help.

So what can you do from where you are? Anything and everything! Luckily I, and I'm sure many of you went home for break. Going home is probably the easiest places one can go and maintain a healthy life style. At home you already know everything. You know all the possible runinng routes, you know the gyms, you know the food that is around, everything. Did you go to the beach for break? Even better! It's the best excuse to get outside, catch some sun, and get a great workout. Not to mention, the beach places usually offer some good old fashion healthy food. Go somewhere cold? Workout indoors! Find a gym somewhere close or in the hotel; and if worse comes to worse workout in the room. Do a quick ab workout, anything will do.

Overall, the most important thing one can do while on vacation is to not lose track of their goals and objectives. Vacations are everyone's weakness. I know when I come home all the true, real mexican food is just oh so tempting (and not to mention belly busting). I can't say that I resist completely, but when I do cave in I'm sure to take at least a 15 minute run to help burn some of it off. Everyone would much rather just take the week off, eat junky, and be lazy; but if you do that then getting back on track will be harder than ever. Now, I'm not saying to go out there and workout all day and all week long during your vacation, just something. Try not to snack between meals, do quick short workouts, and watch what you eat. Being smart is the best thing you can do while on vacation.

Alright everybody, so it's spring break. Get out there, have some fun, be safe, and be smart. Do your best to watch over self, but most importantly enjoy yourself. See you all when we get back!

Where to Begin...

Ok, so here we are; we've set our minds to live healthy. Now what? Where do we start? You can't exactly just go out there and start running miles upon miles and giving up all your favorite foods right off the back. First you've got to ease into things, moderation is the key. In order to change certain aspects of your life you have to do it slowly and most importantly intelligently. So, now that we've committed it's time to get started and from the basics for that matter.



First, and foremost, you HAVE to get active. You can't expect to have a healthy body just from sitting on your butt all day, you've got to get moving! Get outside, take a run, a jog, a walk, anything! Being active is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your body. By being active at least 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week you'll be doing your body so much good that you'll probably already start noticing some differences in little time. Changing one's diet is probably going to be the hardest part of healthy living, so by doing this simple task you can get started easily.



What can you do on campus to be active? Just about anything and everything! Some things that I personally like to do are hit the gym for an hour or so, or go running on the track, or even running on campus with a group of friends. Being on campus is probably one of the best places you can be in order to start living an active life. The gym is literally within walking distance, and not to mention the beautiful landscaping all around us. Take a quick run on the dirt track up by Coates Library or run through the neighborhoods. Just keep in mind that you don't have to kill yourself in order to be healthy, anything will do. Taking walks are painless and take almost no time out of one's schedule. Use it as a study or a work break, it'll be relaxing and you'll be benefitting yourself.



Also, keeping in mind that this can be tedious at times, one of the best things you can do is to take a friend or some music with you. By taking a friend with you you'll not only have company on your run, but you'll also be encouraging others to be active with you. Making workout dates and encouraging one another to stay dedicated is one of the best ways to stay dedicated to an active life. Also, music just makes the run that much better. Find the music that suites you though, some people like the hard rock to get pumped for their runs, others like mellow music that keeps them calm and relaxed. Everyone has their preferences, it's just a matter of finding your own.

So now we've established a starting point. Now it's time to start implementing it. Keep in mind that you shouldn't over due it at the beginning, ease into things. Start with some simple walks and jogs for about 30 minutes. After doing this for about a week or so you can start increasing the intesity, SLOWLY. Start doing longer runs or running harder, whatever you feel your body can handle at the time. So get out there people, start gettin active, before you know it you'll be a marathon running machine and feeling better than you've ever felt before. Good luck! And see you soon.

Mike

Healthy Living at Trinity University

This first blog is mainly going to me explaining to you what exactly I am planning on doing in the blogs to come. Obviously, as the title implies I want to explain to everyone as best as I can how someone in College (specifically Trinity University) can live a healthy life and avoid the widely feared "freshmen fifteen".

Going away for college is known for causing teenagers to gain weight, most notorious of all the "freshmen fifteen". But have any of the students who have gained the weight ever stopped and asked themselves why? Is it from the easy access to food all day? Is it the lack of exercise? Or is it the lack of knowledge of healthy living? Personally, I believe all three are major factors in gaining weight. In order to have a successly healthy life at college one must be educated overall, in all aspects. Everyone knows to limit their food portions, everyone knows that they should exercise regularly; but without proper education as far as why they should do this it makes no sense. In the blogs to follow I will give tips as to how to work out properly, how to know what to eat (and what to keep an eye out for at TU), and give some personal tips every now and then.

Now I know what you're all thinking, "Well if this guy is preaching then he better be doing everything he says to do." Practice what you preach right? Well, as I go through these blogs I will also be logging my personal progress. Since I came to TU I've done my best to keep the "freshmen fifteen" from attacking my body, and so far so good. I'm no saint when it comes to following the rules, but I plan on showing everyone that you don't have to be perfect in order to live a healthy life, you just have to do the best you can. Hope you're all interested! I'm excited about doing these blogs not only for you, but also for myself. (Now I have to try and make myself look good in front of you all)