Beautiful Abs and a strong core

Yikes it is time for a work-out challenge and I have decided to focus on some dreaded abs exercises.

According to Shape Magazine, “We all want a toned, flat stomach. But since many women are still relying on crunches to get it, we want to make one thing clear: Crunching is not the most effective abs workout. "Crunches work only the muscles on the front and sides of your abdomen, but it's important to target all the muscles of the core to get more defined abs—including lower back, hips, and upper thighs."

Instead Shape Magazine suggests "Core exercises like the plank help train muscles to stabilize the spine and pelvis so you can avoid back pain and improve posture, Schuler says. "They also burn more calories than crunches because they work more muscles."

Since planks are one of the most effective ways to get a good ab work out I would recommend you start a daily plan challenge like this one and continue it after our competition has ended.

If you find doing a full plank too difficult you might want to begin with one of these modifications

The knee elbow plank

or The Wall Plank

Along with a regular plank the following are extremely helpful in getting your abs into shape.

SIDE PLANK

Why it works: This abs exercise is more challenging than a traditional plank because you're supporting your entire body weight on two points of contact instead of four. As a result, you must work your core harder to stay stabilized.

How to do it:
A. Lie on your left side with your elbow directly beneath your shoulder and legs stacked. Place your right hand on your left shoulder or on your right hip.

B. Brace your abs and lift your hips off the floor until you're balancing on your forearm and feet so that your body forms a diagonal line. Hold for 30 to 45 seconds. If you can’t hold that long, stay up as long as you can and then repeat until you’ve held for 30 seconds total. Switch sides and repeat.

WALKOUT FROM PUSHUP POSITION

Why it works: This abs exercise involves full-body movement, such as the arms and legs, while incorporating resistance to strengthen your entire core.

How to do it:
A. Start in pushup position with hands two inches wider than your shoulders.

B. Walk hands out as far as possible, then walk back. Do 10-12 reps.

Why it works: This abs exercise uses your entire core to keep your body stabilized and burns additional calories by adding movement (dragging yourself along the floor). It mixes cardio, stability, and strength training to get you fast results.

Alligator Drag

(* You tube has some great videos of how to do this one)

How to do it:
A. Find a stretch of floor that allows you to go forward 10 to 20 yards, and grab anything that will slide over the surface with minimal friction. Dinner plates or plastic bags work on a carpeted floor, while towels work on wood or tile.

B. Start in pushup position with your feet on the slides, towels, or plates.

C. Walk yourself forward with your hands to the end of your runway (aim for at least 10 yards). Rest for 60 to 90 seconds (or as long as you need to recover) and repeat the alligator walk back to where you started. That’s one set. Repeat one more time.

I realize that some of these AB exercises might be beyond your ability (for now!) If they are, do a google search for Beginner Ab exercises and find something more appropriate for your abilities. We must always start where we are to journey to where we want to be.

For every day that you do some type of ab exercises (at least do some kind of plank as assigned in the chart above) this week you earn 5 daily bonus challenge points. Happy abbing ladies!

Fruit and Veggies at EVERY meal

As you know one of the things we track on our healthy living challenges is fruits and vegetables. Our goal has been to eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day with 3 of those being vegetables. Did you know I’ve been going super easy on you? The suggested number of daily servings of fruits and vegetables vary among dietetics guidelines with some suggesting as many as 12 servings per day.

Check out this fruit and vegetable calculator prepared by the Center for Disease Control to see how many it says you need.

http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/fruitsvegetables/howmany.html

It suggests that I get 3 servings of fruit and 5 of vegetables daily.

Yowsers!

To be honest I’d have to make an extra effort to get that many servings of fruits and vegetables in --especially since I’m still traveling. While home I tend to get a lot of my daily vegetable servings from my green smoothie lunch and I fit in the others as a snack or with dinner. I often don’t enjoy any fruit or veggies for breakfast. This challenge to eat more fruits and vegetables throughout the day is one in which you can include your husband and children. Why not begin their summer vacation with healthy foods spread throughout the day? Before we get started you might want to stock up your fridge with favorite fruits and a veggies and have them washed, cut up and prepared for easy grabbing throughout the day.

The whole point of this particular challenge is for you to displace something else that you would normally eat (like chips or fries or even crackers) with some colorful produce. So for those that are worried about the extra expense of fruits and vegetables try buying more produce INSTEAD of something else that you would normally buy. And also consider buying frozen produce, which is a wonderful alternative to fresh and usually cheaper. I started having a dessert of frozen mango (eaten while still frozen) while visiting my daughter and it is one of my new favorite treats.

I’m not sure if I shared that my dietician daughter worked with a very fit and trim dietician in Hawaii a few years ago. This dietitian had children and when talking with my daughter about how she handled their desire to eat at McDonald’s she shared “We do go once in awhile but I limit them to one fast food item. That isn’t enough food for them to get full so I always grab a bag of mixed frozen veggies and throw it in the car when we head off! They eat it while I drive.” Can you imagine inspiring such a healthy habit in your family?

Here are some tips and meal ideas to help you fit more vegetables and fruits into your week

•  For breakfast…

◦                     Put some small bits of fruit in your cereal or oatmeal (like frozen blueberries or bananas), and also have some fruit (like apples or pear) on the side

◦                     Mash up some bananas to go inside your pancake batter and offer a second fruit like grapefruit on the side

◦                     Make an omelet with chopped bell peppers, onions and mushrooms inside and have some fruit to go along with it as well

◦                     Have a smoothie with your breakfast especially if you have to run out the door…you can easily throw in a lot of different fruits (and even veggies like spinach)

•  For lunch…

◦                     Try making a sandwich or wrap with veggies inside (like cucumber or lettuce or avocado) and also have some fruit on the side

◦                     Cut up some raw veggies that you can dip into something like hummus

◦                     Soups are often packed with veggies and would be easy to heat up (or take to work) if you had some leftover from dinner the night before

◦                     If you are going out to lunch consider bringing a banana or apple with you (or eat it beforehand) to supplement your meal…restaurants don’t usually offer very many fruit items on their menu

•  For dinner…

◦                     Have a salad with your dinner as well as a side of veggies

◦                     Make a one-dish meal like pasta, stir fry, or quesadillas where you can easily mix in a variety of vegetables

◦                     Eat two vegetable sides instead of a starch like rice

◦                     Consider adding fruit to your dinner…I always think of dinner as a time to have veggies, but fruit would often be a good addition as well

So here is our 3 part challenge for the week:

1. Use the CDC calculator to see how many servings of fruits and vegetables you and your family members should be getting per day.

2. Eat a minimum of two different fruits or vegetables with every breakfast, lunch, and dinner meal this week.

3. Try to increase your daily intake of fruits and vegetables to the level suggested by the CDC

Healthy Snacks

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics have synthesized years of research on adult weight management to form nutrition guidelines. One topic they've analyzed is the effect of regular meal and snack patterns on weight loss. "Several studies show that eating four to five times per day is associated with reduced or no obesity risk,"  The research also shows that the three squares a day could actually hurt your efforts to reach and/or maintain a healthy weight. "Eating less than three meals or snacks per day may increase the risk of obesity,"

Physiologically, it does make sense: "When you eat regularly throughout the day, your body knows that more food is on the way, and it's more likely to burn the calories you consume than store them as fat," Eating at regular intervals helps stabilize blood sugar and energy levels.

I’m sure you’ve had that experience where you realize it has been a long time since your last meal but you are rushed and busy and keep putting off finding something to eat. As you get hungrier and hungrier your resolve to choose healthy foods subsides and before you know it you can find yourself over eating unhealthy foods. It’s as if your blood sugar got too low for your brain to remember your goals so you just start shoveling in food (usually highly processed low nutrient dense carbohydrates!)

I’d like you to take a good look at the time pattern of your healthy eating. Is there a time (mid-morning or mid-afternoon) when a healthy snack would be a wise choice? For me it is mid-afternoon. I eat lunch around noon and dinner at 6 and that is too long for me to go without eating. So I love to have a snack around 3.

OUR CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK IS TO SCHEDULE, PLAN, PREPARE AND EAT AT LEAST ONE HEALTHY SNACK A DAY. I’d like you to do your planning the evening before or morning of the day. And by preparation I mean you purchase, wash, measure or weigh, cut up and prepare your food for eating in the morning BEFORE your day starts.  And don’t forget to enter it into myfitnesspal to make sure you don’t go over your daily calorie budget. I want you to make sure your day starts with your snack in a bag ready to take along to work or errands or to enjoy in your kitchen later that day.

Here are some ideas for healthy snacks:

1.           Plain or flavored yogurt or cottage cheese with sliced fruit or granola

2.           Whole grain cereals or oatmeal, dry or with milk, yogurt, or raisins

3.           Trail mix or healthy granola bars and fruit bars (look for high fiber and no trans fats and watch the calorie count)

4.           ½ a Peanut butter sandwich with raspberry jam and cashews

5.           Chocolate graham crackers with peanut butter

6.           Quesadillas (melted cheese on whole wheat tortillas)

7.           Popcorn, homemade or store bought (I am a huge fan of Smart Pop and Chicka Boom Popcorn and I eat it right out of my measuring cup)

8.           Tortilla chips and salsa or guacamole or topped with shredded cheese and put under broiler

9.           Whole grain muffins or breads, such as banana, pumpkin, corn, or zucchini (you can make a healthy batch and freeze them)

10.       Mini-bagels with cream cheese and sliced cucumbers

11.       Hummus dip with whole grain pita or crackers or veggies

12.       Sliced avocados with wheat crackers

13.       Hard-boiled eggs

14.       Celery filled with cream cheese, Boursin cheese, or peanut butter

15.       Edamame in the shell, sprinkled lightly with sea salt

16.       Chickpeas or other beans, eaten with fingers or toothpicks

17.       Olives, pickles, canned artichokes or hearts of palm (In searching the menu board at the movies the other day for something I could eat I discovered they sold pickles! Wow what a full taste snack!)

18.       Frozen peas (not thawed!)

19.       Apple slices with cheese, peanut butter, peanut butter and chocolate chips, or honey

20.       Fruit Kabobs (Cut fruit on a stick and dipped in vanilla yogurt)

21.       Smoothies: combine fresh and/or frozen fruit and vegetables, fruit juice and yogurt or soy milk

22.       Dried fruit such as mango, apricots, raisins, plums (I love Costco’s dried coconut but I have to weigh and bag my portions or I could eat the whole bag)

23.       Bananas and/or strawberries with semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate syrup

And if you want the recipe for the snack pictured you will find it at http://therepowoman.com/quick-healthy-snack-recipe-no-baking-required/