At work, there’s been a new trend of using standing desks. Our CEO has had a treadmill desk for some time now, and perhaps others have been inspired to improve their health. I jumped on this trend as well–as I don’t love sitting for 7-9 hours. Many studies have been coming out (like this one and this one) about why sitting all day is bad for your health.
Spring is in the air! Can you smell it? The flowers are blooming, the fruit is growing, and the sun is shining. Hooray at last! Although in Southern California, you can’t always tell what season it is, we know Spring is here because everything is blooming. With the start of Spring, comes the start of fresh fruit recipes. My mum has a lemon tree that grows fruit all year round. There are no pesticides or anything like that and there is a constant flow of huge lemons wanting to be used. She can’t consume lemons because of the acidity–but I sure can! I usually put her lemons in my water every morning for a refreshing start to the day.
While I was busy house sitting at my parents’ place last weekend, the sun was shining along with a gentle breeze and I decided that I should make lemonade. I don’t know why I’ve always been intimidated to make lemonade from scratch. I know now that making lemonade is easy and incredibly rewarding. Now, I like my lemonade tart. Sweet lemonade isn’t my cup of tea. So if you go searching for other lemonade recipes, you will find more sugar in them. Let’s get started!
Beautiful!
One of the goals here at Hungry & Fit HQ is to provide our readers with low-budget alternatives. We also try to keep things as healthy as possible. I was alarmed recently when I decided that I wanted to have some BBQ sauce at home to add to our condiment arsenal and found some less than stellar options at multiple groceries. Every single option at a major grocery chain had high fructose corn syrup in it as one of the top ingredients. (The macros were NOT the friendliest, even to flexible dieters.) When I finally found some healthier choices at Whole Foods, the value just wasn’t there. I was looking at $5 small bottles, and I don’t know about you, but I like to use a lot of BBQ sauce. I decided at the time to bite the bullet and spend the extra money (because I love good flavor) but unfortunately, I was not impressed.
The mornings are the start to our day. I’m wildly observant, I know. Why does it matter that the mornings are the start to our day? Because we get a period of time to set the mood, tone, intention or whatever you want to call it for the rest of the day. Most of us often feel rushed and frazzled in the morning which doesn’t quite set up a productive, peaceful day. Most mornings I felt like this, barely having enough time to throw food down my gullet. So I made a decision to wake up an hour earlier: at 5:30am instead of 6:30. The difference it made is remarkable.
Sleepy puppy
Boy is this recipe a home run! I spent a good amount of time researching other protein bar recipes. Hungry had a great idea–we had some old bananas, so instead of banana bread, what if we made something fun like protein bars? We are always wanting more protein bars, and they can get expensive! This recipe is incredibly cheap to make (and easy). There are under ten ingredients and it is absolutely delicious. Nutritious and delicious–that’s my favorite kind of recipe. This one is fun because you can really have variety with it–you can substitute and switch out ingredients as you please. This recipe will have you gobbling down protein like no other!
In the past few weeks, Hungry and I have kicked up our fitness level to a certain degree. It’s been going fairly well, and we are a mission to achieve our goals and stay healthy! It’s not always easy. We have busy lives, a not-so-great neighborhood, and everyday troubles. However, we rise above and keep fighting for our passion! To go along with that are healthy recipes. Recently, our fridge and pantry have been chock full with delicious fruits and veggies. We’ve been getting great prices on avocados from Trader Joe’s which we’ve been certainly using to our advantage. We’ve been making different things like caprese salads, roasted tomato on toast, and yummy spinach recipes too. In this case, I simply combined a few ingredients to create something very tasty: a tomato avocado salad.
Finished product
February was American Heart Month and March has begun, but that doesn’t mean that American Heart Month is over. I purposefully delayed this post to show you that while associating a month with this important issue is important, it’s equally important to be mindful all the time. You should be thinking of your heart every day of the month, every month of the year. Most people don’t know what the heart actually does, but it is the most important organ in your body. Your brain and lungs are also key components to the facilitation of your body systems operating, but without the heart we lack the ability to provide oxygen to the brain and the lungs.
Having been through multiple emergency response courses from ARC to AHA to React Right and more, we learn that as soon as you see an individual in need, it’s best to be safer than sorry. Call 911 and have someone get an AED immediately. The ratios of chest compressions to rescue breaths has changed over the years to favor more compressions since it is imperative to get the heart working as soon as possible. CPR stands for cardio pulmonary resuscitation, in other words, creating an artificial flow of blood that carries oxygen through the body, so that brain function stays intact and body systems do not suffer long-term damage, or the worst short-term result of total body system failure, or death.
I have a friend at work who struggles to get enough protein as a kind-of-vegan (she just doesn’t eat cheese and milk by itself) and who also can’t eat soy. I can suggest all the protein powders in the world, but they usually end up having either milk proteins or soy in them! It’s been a tough case to try to find one that would work for her. As fitness professionals, we run across a lot of people who are soy or dairy limited, so it can be a struggle to provide enough options for good protein. Here at Hungry and Fit we finally found a one-fits-all product! Enter Sunwarrior (epic name, right?).
As you can probably tell from previous posts and our Pinterest, we really love infographics. Not just any infographic, of course, but solid ones with good information and great visual content. Fitness and health are great subjects to put into infographics. It breaks down fitness techniques or health studies into relatable and understandable content that the reader can digest. We can totally get behind that. And they are just so fun to look at! We recently found Fit Over 40–an awesome infographic explaining what happens when you age and how you combat those aging effects.
I suggest–even if you’re not 40 or beyond–to take a gander at this infographic and article. We wouldn’t share things with you that didn’t have good grounding or that we didn’t think had good information. This one does and everyone can learn a thing or two from it. I really like the above picture, explaining what changes in our bone mass depending on what age we are. When we think of fitness, we often think of outside appearances. This is a huge “inside” health issue that can completely change your life. Pay attention to these types of things! It also talks about a range of different effects of aging like what happens to your hormones and more. Let us know what you think of the full infographic. And as always…stay hungry and fit!
BONUS KITTY PIC
Every day we hear something new in the media about different supplements. This one can stop Alzheimer’s and this one can prevent you from getting fat! It’s hard to know what to trust or what to believe in. You become hesitant with everything OR you simply start trying everything. Recently, my coworker showed me this incredible infographic on supplements and correlating studies. I got really excited about it because I am a firm discourager of fads. Most often, many supplements (I’m talking health supplements so things like coconut oil and garlic extract are included here), are popular fads without real grounding. Take a look at the Interactive: Snake Oil Supplements (no it’s not about snake oil, it’s just the title).
Screenshot
So how does this infographic work? It’s hard to understand at first. If you’re starting from the top, you’re looking at supplements with the most studies behind them which make them “Strong.” And if you scroll to the bottom, you’ll find “Slight” or “None” meaning there are very few studies behind it. This provides a wonderful foundation for the infographic–it’s all based on research. In addition, to keep this infographic fresh, the bubbles are all tied to a google doc. So when more studies come in, the infographic gets immediately adjusted. Pretty freaking cool, I think!
There’s also the size of the bubble which–at first–could be misinterpreted. We usually think big is better, but not necessarily. You’ll notice garlic high at the top in the “Strong” field yet its bubble is smaller than, say, copper, which is at the lower end of the spectrum. The bubble simply represents the popularity of the supplement. So even though egg shell membrane is a tiny bubble, it is backed by many strong studies.
I love infographics. I love health and fitness. And I love when they come together to provide free information to the masses. What do you think of this infographic? Are you going to start taking garlic extract now? Don’t forget your probiotics or B3! It’s always fun to learn more about supplements and I believe this infographic is a great way of doing so. Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below! And as always, stay hungry and fit!
BONUS ANIMAL PIC
Nymeria keeping an eye on Noke
