Two Do-Anywhere Workouts

It’s the holiday season. You could be traveling, stuck in airports, hotels, or maybe your bedroom from fifteen years ago. Either way, you might not be in your normal setup and routine. Or, even if you aren’t traveling for the holidays, other things may interrupt your routine. For example, your usual gym could be closed for a few days over the holidays. But have no fear–Hungry & Fit are here! Fit recently had to travel for work and didn’t have a gym handy so she had to get creative in her hotel room with no equipment!

Please enjoy the two workouts below. I try to keep them as simple as possible and under 30 minutes so that they can fit in your busy schedule during the holidays.

Dec032018

Taking Care of Yourself

As some of you may know, on November 2nd, I hurt my neck at the gym. It didn’t feel different than other times in the past when I turned it the wrong way, but after two days, I ended up going to the Emergency Room. BIG mistake. Growing up, playing sports, I had many trips to the emergency room. Throughout college, two more that I can remember. While living in Boulder, another two that come to mind. In our first five or so years in LA, I had been accident free… or perhaps I just toughened up and dealt with issues myself. I don’t know why I decided to head to the ER at Cedars-Sinai on November 4th. The doctor, who I won’t name, was your typical doctor. To be honest, I haven’t cared much for any of my doctors in the past. I give credit to one chiropractor and one eye doctor that I’ve worked with; everyone else seemed like a robot, or some kind of societal drone. This man was no exception and did nothing other than tell me to be careful, write some useless prescriptions and order some tests.

Dec022018

5 Benefits of Taking Fish Oil Supplements

Fish oil is one of the things that you should always take as a supplement due to the many benefits that it has on your body. Whether you want to improve your optimal health or build muscles, fish oil is always a recommendation. Fish oil is a kind of fatty acid that is taken from the tissues of fish that are oily. It is known to contain the Omega 3 fatty acids that are very important for the body. In this article, we shall discuss some of the benefits that come with fish oil supplements.

Here are 5 benefits of taking fish oil supplements:

Dec012018

The Push Up & Plank Challenge

While many of you are probably preparing for Freeform’s (although we all know it as ABC Family) 25 Days of Christmas, which starts today with Kittens vs Christmas Trees, there are others stressing about their physical health during the month of Thanksgiving all the way to Christmas. While we spoke about optimizing your health from a food and fuel point of view yesterday, we have a simple, yet rewarding challenge to issue for this month… starting today!

Everyone can do push ups and planks. By that, I mean, there are a lot of people who cannot swim because they do not have access to a pool or body of water. There are people who cannot cycle because they do not have a bike and cannot afford a membership to a gym. Nearly everyone can roll out of bed in the morning and get on the floor to put down a set of push ups and a plank.

Nov302018

The Optimal Holiday Season

Thanksgiving is over and you’ve probably just stopped feeling full from what was surely a gluttonous night. Preparing for the madness and chaos between Christmas and New Year’s, we are all trying to stay in the best physical and mental state possible. After all, we need to hit some of our 2018 resolutions and prepare ourselves for 2019. Instead of just giving up entirely and letting yourself go, give December your absolute best effort. We already threw some tips out for Black Friday shopping, which are still somewhat useful now. Even if you missed out on all of the sales, focus your mind and be an absolute beast this last month of the year.

In order to keep your mind in the best possible place and minimize the stress that is associated with this time of year, we need to keep our bodies in great shape. We need to stay healthy and fight off colds or flus that notoriously wreck us at the worst time possible. (I remember having a 106 degree fever while recovering from Bells Palsy a few years ago, at our family Christmas celebration… it was the worst!) Regularly exercising and eating well will put you in a good place and set you up for success, but everyone can use some help. Fortunately for all of us, one of our absolute favorite companies in the health and wellness space just came out with some new products and after trying them for a few weeks, we have to share!

Nov272018

A Beginner’s Guide to Counting Macros

[Please enjoy a guest article from former NFL player, Chris Gronkowski!]

Starting a new diet can be a difficult adjustment and part of the change involves becoming accustomed to a new routine and way of thinking about food. Counting calories is an accurate but sometimes challenging method for tracking what you consume each day. If your goal is to lose weight, you’ll want to record how many calories you eat and work to burn off more calories. For some people, this dieting method is tedious and easy to forget about. But those willing to stick to a strict approach may want to take it one step further and experiment with counting their macro calories.

What Is a Macro Diet?

Following a macro diet is similar to the process of counting calories but, instead, you must focus on tracking how much you consume of the three macronutrients—protein, carbohydrates and fats. One of the major benefits of counting macros is that you are compelled to consume only foods that are fueling your body in some respect. For example, if you were on a calorie-counting diet, you could eat a bag of potato chips as long as you write down the calorie count. But, with a macro-counting diet, you would want to replace the chips with a food heavier in protein, carbs or fats.

Macronutrients are vital to our body’s well-being, and they can be found in nearly every food. Most items though are classified by whichever macronutrient they have the most of—for example, beef is considered a protein even though it also contains fats. Counting macros has been a popular practice amongst athletes for many years but, as of late, people have found this method to be a beneficial way to hold themselves to healthy eating habits.

Nov262018

What Foods Are Considered Superfoods?

Superfoods are foods that are considered of high nutritional value. While there is no particular category of foods branded as the superfoods, the ones regarded as so help to keep diseases at bay and keep the body healthy. Despina Hyde, a New York dietician said that the term superfoods is used on foods with multiple health benefits and as reported by the American Heart Association, there is no set criteria for determining superfoods. With an idea of what superfoods are, let’s delve in some of the most popular superfoods and their benefits;

Nov222018

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Banana Bread

You guessed it. MORE PUMPKIN. Winter isn’t here yet, so that means it’s still pumpkin’s spotlight! I had extra pumpkin leftover from those whole wheat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies so I searched for another healthy-ish recipe. I found the perfect one at Well Plated for Whole Wheat Pumpkin Banana Bread. I also had two very ripe bananas just asking to be baked. And guess what, it was a natural pairing. This is a great recipe if you want to contribute something healthy to the Thanksgiving table. It’s fall-like because it has pumpkin and is sure to be a popular dessert!

This recipe uses little sugar, not much butter–I was surprised by how healthy it was. I changed a few things from the original recipes (such as taking out the nuts), but it still ended up great. The thing that makes this recipe take a little longer is that for best results, you should wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight! And beware, the texture is very pumpkin-y just in case you’re not into that.

Nov202018

5 Tips to Buying Medical Supplies

To some of us, obtaining medical supplies is a way for us to stay healthy and function normally. These medical supplies include walkers, wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, diabetes supplies, and other products. Thankfully, we now live in the times where access to these products has become a lot easier. In fact, you can even easily buy these medical supplies online. But for that exact same reason as well, it can be worrying to buy online because there are supplies that cannot guarantee a good product. So when it comes to buying medical supplies – whether they are second-hand or not – it is necessary that you are wise about it.

Nov192018

Black Friday Tricks and Tips

Tis the time of the year to start buying presents for your family, friends, etc, if you do that sort of thing! We’re sure some of you are already finished shopping, while many others don’t plan on starting until it is too late to have everything shipped in time. This weekend is generally seen as one of the best to shop, at least when it comes to prices. There are countless sales for Black Friday and we recommended taking advantage of this for a few reasons: 1) you might save some money in the process and 2) it will help you get your shopping done now and alleviate some stress in the upcoming weeks.