Let's get Summer ready....together:

We'll take baby steps together:
Weekly discussions on diet, exercise and beauty (yes, for men too):

Let's begin:

Diet:
Eating foods that make you healthier:

• Eat more nutritionally dense foods, instead of calorie dense foods.  - Stay away from processed and fried foods
• Eat more alkaline foods, instead of acidic foods - if your food intake is too acidic, your body will take nutrients needed from your bones to satisfy it's needs (eg Calcium) 
• Try substituting your juices and soda based drinks for water.  Start slowly, if this is easier for u.  If you are used to drinking juice in the morning/hot chocolate, juices with lunch and dinner.  Start by drinking just juice in the morning and sub everything else.  Then eventually take away the juice/hot chocolate in the morning as well.  Black coffee is still suitable, no sugar or cream though.  (oops, yeah i said NO SUGAR OR CREAM).

Ok, so let's take baby steps...every week if we try something new it's much easier than taking everything away all at once....but education is key.  So read on and do your research.

Exercise:

• Try a mix of cardio and strength training.  I would reccommend more strength training than cardio (for both weight loss and weight gain - diet plays a very important role in achieving your goals.  It also plays a part in your recovery time as well)

Beauty tip:

• Be sure to moisturize your body especially your face before going to bed, namely your face and your extremeties (hands, your feet, especially your heels...this added moisture will be needed when the heat arrives)

Here are some things that you can try to transition to a healthier lifestyle:

• Sunbutter (healthier than peanut butter, but tastes just like it)
• Almond butter (not as smoothe as Sun butter but it's just as healthy)
• Substiutute cauliflower for potatoes in your regular mashed potato recipe (recipe to follow)
• Try run/walking, start with 30 sec run, 1 min walk, then increase your run to 1 min run, then 30 sec rest, then when that's mastered try doing it in ratios of 2:1 until you don't have to rest for 5 mins then keep adding 30 secs onto the 5mins.  This may take some time, so please be patient.  (after all Rome wasn't built in a day...right)

Pls post any questions or comments, they will be answered or addressed.  If there is a specific topic that you would like to know about, please feel free to add those in as well.

The Cardio Debate

Losing  weight without doing tons of cardio...

Year after year gym members run, walk or swing their extremities on electrical machines for several hours a week, months or even years...but they still look the same.  Everything has it's purpose of course, but to enlist "cardio" as the main or sole source of weight loss can be deemed as incorrect.  From personal experience apart from cardio not being the most thrilling of workouts, it can for some yield slow results and does not strengthen muscles throughout the body.  Some people may not be looking for physical muscle definition, but at the end of a year of running on a treadmill, one would hope somewhere would be stronger as well as being thinner.

Research has shown that strength training stimulates fat loss and it's guaranteed, if you do strength training for even half the time that is dedicated to cardio, results would be clearly evident.  Here are some examples of strength training exercises:

1. Ball slams for 1min and 2 mins of jumping rope (do 5 times, with 30secs rest after each set)

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_BallSlams.mov

above: illustrations of ball slams.

     2.   Mountain climbers for 1min and 2 mins of push and press (do 5 times, with 30secs rest after each set)
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_SherwoodPushPressDip.mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO5KVEoEbo4&NR=1
click the link above for an example of the push press


    3.  Box jumps for 1min and 2 mins of renegade rows (using a dumbbell)



BoxJumps_exercise_2up.jpg
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_BoxJumpVariations.wmv

Food Focus: The Egg

Is it healthy to eat an entire egg?

Give your opinions, and the answer will soon follow.

The Squat:

Positioning is very important in most exercises to increase effectiveness and to avoid injury.  Proper positioning while squatting, feet should be shoulder width apart angled outward slightly.  Always looking forward, torso upright, shoulders back and always moving in a straight line up and down (never swaying in various directions).  Now at the base of the movement, you should feel like you are about to sit in a chair... calf and hamstring nor chest and thigh should meet, then back to an upright standing position.  If you feel off balance, check your foot positioning and at the base of the movement push back further into the invisible seat.  See illustration below.

 

 

Thanks to :http://www.marylandaau.com/images/squat.gif for this illustration, feel free to browse this link for further information.

What's needed to be healthier?

When it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, people often hear: "You need to exercise and eat healthy!" But what does that really mean??  Kilter Athletics will attempt to explain what is needed to be healthier with as much detail as possible. 

Also, everyweek a food item will be highlighted, it's nutritional content and explainations about it's role on the human body will be exposed to you. A list will also be posted indicating which foods are encouraged and which foods should be avoided.  All of this coupled with the weekly workouts, you should be well on your way to a healthier you in 2010...shall we begin???

The co-founder of Kilter Athletics - hard at work

Introducing Grant Belton....also one of our personal trainers and spinning instructors (who has a passion for lifting).  This is the person that would be answering your questions about fitness and working out.  He'll also be creating your workouts on a weekly basis, displaying his unique approach to fitness...apart from being different, it's a lot of fun - some pain of course, but it's the kind that has a great end result.