Be Fit Fitness Blog

A lot of people have trouble falling asleep or going to sleep once they hit the pillow. There are of course those people who just lay down and are quickly asleep. It’s very important that you get good night’s sleep for your health, well-being and especially for those people who exercise on a regular basis. Your body needs time to rest and recover from the day!

What are the reasons that people may have trouble falling asleep? Some of the common reasons are that you are under a lot of stress at home or at work. You have a lot of things to think about for the next day or you are just not tired!

To be able to fall asleep quickly, you need to clear your mind of all these problems and worries, otherwise you may not fall asleep for hours or have a restless sleep or sleepless night!

My simple and effective technique for falling asleep quickly:

The key to falling asleep quickly is that you must clear your mind of everything. Basically, you must prepare yourself to just sleep.

Lay down in your bed in a comfortable position. I always lay flat on my back with my head rested on a pillow in a comfortable position.

Now breathe in slowly through your nose and breathe out through your nose. By doing this, you relax your body and your mind by replenishing it with oxygen and this helps you to focus on breathing and thus clear your mind.

If you focus only on the breathing and stay relaxed, you will fall asleep.

This is my meditation technique towards falling asleep quickly and it’s 99.9% effective. I tell myself sometimes that I will count the number of breaths that I have to take before I will fall asleep, but I never can because I end up falling asleep. It’s probably in the neighborhood of 3 to 5 long deep breaths.

On the other hand, if your bed is uncomfortable, you may consider purchasing a new quality mattress or good pillows such as those Obus Forme pillows. I find them to be amazing, although they may take a day or two to get used to.

In summary, I find this the most reliable, healthy and effective way to fall asleep naturally. Getting the right amount of sleep is critical to your health and well-being. It can be very frustrating and annoying if you cannot fall asleep. You may also want to consider taking Yoga classes. It also has many health and exercise benefits for both body and mind.

Since we live in a very fast-paced world, many people opt to purchase processed foods because of its convenience and the time saving involve in meal preparation. Processed foods can include those found at fast foods restaurants, frozen foods and pre-packaged foods. All of these types of foods contain too much sodium, in excess of what the daily intake of sodium should be plus many additives with strange names. Even restaurant foods and those healthy choice frozen and processed foods can contain too much salt and sodium. As you probably are aware, sodium in excess of the daily recommended amounts can cause many health problems, particularly heart problems.

To add to this, I also wonder how much sodium the prepared meals from those diet centers contain.

Of course there is a way to avoid all this unnecessary sodium and still eat healthy and delicious meals and it is to prepare your own meals. If you do it wisely, it can be quick and not very time consuming to do. Start by planning your meals for the week when you go shopping. Simply prepared dinners can be just as delicious as fancy ones which take a lot more time. What I like to do with certain foods is to pre-cook for a few days and store it safely in your refrigerator for 2 to 3 days like rice and chicken. So all you have to do when it is time to eat is to reheat when you are ready to eat. Other meats like fish and beef can be cooked quite quickly on the day you want to eat it. Preparing salads also doesn’t take very long. So basically in 30 minutes or less you can have a healthy and hot dinner ready to eat. Also, try to avoid adding salt to your cooking. Substitute salt with spices and herbs. It’s much healthier and tastes great!

Other meal preparation and meals tips:

For lunch, try opting for tuna and salads instead of deli meats whenever you can. They contain a lot of sodium plus other preservatives.

For breakfast, choose the cereals that contain the lowest amounts of sodium.

In summary, eventually governments will legislate companies and restaurants to substantially reduce the sodium content in their processed foods to much lower levels. In the meantime, these are just some of the ways to reduce your sodium intake.

Are you looking to tighten and tone your butt for the summer? If you haven’t started to focus on exercising your gluteus muscles, it’s not too late. Despite the fact that many leg exercises either on the floor or with machines and exercise activities will in fact work out your gluteus muscles, it’s a good idea to do at least one exercise that specifically focuses on and targets these muscles. You can do it using machines at the gym or simple, effective floor exercises. In fact there’s one exercise that I want to point out that the technique, method is almost basically the same whether done on the floor or using a machine. The only difference is that with the machine you can add on weights.

If you have a gym membership and your gym carries excellent machines, LifeFitness has a really good machine to work out your butt. Actually, it also works out your other leg muscles. I find that it’s an excellent all-leg workout machine, especially if you are pressed for time. I use it in late winter to early spring to get ready for rollerblading. Basically on this machine you can adjust the weights to the appropriate level. Now lean forward a little to grasp the handles, with your chest pressed against the adjustable padding in front of you. One leg remains on the floor, with your knees bent a little, you then press the other leg against the foot rest and push backwards and outwards with it basically as far as you can go. Now you bring the leg in as close as you feel comfortable or as close as you can. Do this for about 12-15 repetitions then repeat for the other leg. 3 to 4 sets of this is fine, once a week.

If your gym does not have such a machine, you can of course do a similar and just as effective or more effective exercise. Press your hands and knees against the floor (the doggy position). Keeping your legs bent at a right angle, push your leg upwards just a little above your waist. Now bring your leg in towards your chest but not touching it. Again do this for about 12-15 repetitions then repeat for the other leg. 3 to 4 sets of this is fine, once a week.

Other great exercises for your butt include stair climbing and rollerblading.

In summary, getting Buns of Steel
for a man or a woman has many advantages. They range from looking great and feeling confident in how you walk or look like at the beach in a bikini or bathing suit to the strength training benefits that arise whether you play sports, jog or rollerblade. It’s also a great way to stretch out those tight butt muscles, especially if you have a desk job at work.

You’ve probably seen all these websites promoting full-body workouts in 7 minutes a day and guaranteeing you amazing bodybuilding, toning or weight loss results. Well, save your hard earned money.

Let’s look at this logically. If evolution intended humans to exercise for only 7 minutes a day and end up achieving amazing results, than our bodies would have evolved that way, but they didn’t and probably never will. If anything, lack of exercise and inactivity will continue to be a health problem in the future. Limiting yourself to a very limited and set amount of time for exercise will hinder your strength and cardiovascular system in the long-run. It’s pretty obvious why.

Also, if you could train from only 7 minutes than Olympic athletes would be doing this instead of the long hours they put into various training programs.

The human body was meant to be active whether through exercise, work or some other activity. Sure you can focus on a 10 minute exercise for a certain body part like your abs, but not your entire body. Exercise should not be just viewed as a way to achieve a certain look… A healthy and toned look is important but it’s more than that! It’s a major health benefit for you and it can be a social thing too especially if you exercise with friends or socialize with friends at the gym. It’s a chance to get away from stress and the daily routine of life, a chance to do something else. So if you are limiting yourself to only 7 minutes a day of exercise, you will be missing the whole point of exercise.

What exercise program works best for you is something that you will figure out over time or with the help of a personal trainer.

As you may already be aware, Alzheimer Disease and dementia are on the rise amongst seniors these days, but there are a number of ways that you can prevent yourself from getting this disease in your senior years.

The first is to keep your mind always active. This can range from engaging in creative and artistic hobbies to reading and doing crossword puzzles. Anything that makes you think and keeps your brain engaged.

Eating properly and nutrition also plays an important role in the onslaught of Alzheimer disease.

Regular exercise is probably the most important factor in preventing these types of diseases and it’s never too late to start.

These are just the three key ways to avoid this disease for seniors.

Ice skating is a very enjoyable way during the colder months of the year to get some exercise, spend time with friends and enjoy the outdoors. It’s another way to vary your exercise during the year either during the day or in the evening. Well, I got my first chance this season to lace up my skates and go skating this past weekend. The earliest for me in many years!

Most people will get most of their cardiovascular exercise during the colder months indoors either at home, at the gym or playing recreational sports. Ice skating is another way to get a light cardio and good leg workout in, without it feeling like you are exercising. Usually time passes by very quickly when you go with a friend or friends.

Most ice rinks will rent ice skates, but with them being so inexpensive to purchase new or used and they last for many years, it’s an inexpensive and fun way to exercise and get some fresh air. If you don’t now how to ice skate take a few lessons or get a friend to teach you.

Also, with the advent of synthetic ice, many warmer climates now have skating rinks. Is it possible one day to see synthetic ice skating rinks outdoors in the middle of summer? That would be quite a novelty for everyone at first!

High Park in Toronto is a great place to go for a run or to go jogging with it’s steep hills and flatter areas.

These days there are many different and new approaches to cardiovascular exercises. It’s a way to make cardio a lot more enjoyable and fun, while at the same time helping you to get in shape, stay in shape or lose weight in the process.

Quality gyms usually incorporate into their fitness classes these new exercise trends. The latest is Zumba. Actually, Zumba as fitness exercise has been around awhile, but I’ve noticed that more gyms are now creating fitness classes for it.

Have you tried it yet?  What do you think?

Summer has just ended and fall is here. During this season many people become less active, eat more and exercise less. A lot has to do with the fact that summer holidays are over! People are all back to work and their children are back to school. People are back to the normal routine of their daily lives.

Just because summer has come to an end doesn’t mean you have to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. You should still exercise regularly and eat properly. Sure work and your private life will put more stress on you, just look at exercise as a way to escape any stress in your life.

Here are my recommendations to exercise and stay healthy now that summer has unofficially come to an end.

First of all, when it comes to exercise, set your goals. Decide what days are best for you to work out, how long you want to workout and stick to your goals. Avoid missing days because over time it will become a bad habit!

Vary your workouts so that over time they do not become boring or monotonous. Perhaps incorporate weight training, cardiovascular exercise or exercise classes like Yoga into your workouts. Even varying your weight training over time will produce better results for you and prevent you from getting bored.

Most importantly, pace yourself. You may want to do lighter workouts from September to December and then pick it up in the New Year. In this way, you don’t burn yourself out or get bored of exercising by the time spring rolls around. Also, a lot of people use summer as their workout endpoint. By this I mean, they want to look good for the summer. Sort of like a fiscal workout year end!

Also, sometimes it’s good to take a couple of weeks off in a year from your workouts. A lot of people do this during the summer. This way it gives you a chance to get away from the gym and feel refreshed when you get back to exercising.

These are just my recommendations to stay fit, keep your workouts interesting and effective and to remain healthy throughout the year!

Today I would like to let you know about a free 2-week workout plan that you can receive. All you have to do is fill out a simple questionnaire. It’s that easy. Plus you will receive 2 free fitness guides: “Who Else Wants to Gain 15 Pounds of Muscle in 12 weeks” and “Who Else Wants to Lose 40 Pounds of Fat in 12 weeks”

Get your free 2-week workout plan here.