Keeping Fit With Amy Blizzard

If you have had a rough day and need something to help lower your stress level, Crunch Candlelight Yoga may just be the ticket for you. I just completed the video and I feel so loose and relaxed that I could just go to sleep. It is about a 40 minute yoga routine that is very easy to follow. There are no hard poses in the video and it is more focused on helping you to relax by stretching and breathing. It will also help if your muscles are feeling tight and you need to stretch them out. They give you modifications to the poses so even if you are a beginner, you will be able to benefit from this video.

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I have done other video workouts with Tracy York and Michelle Dozois, the instructors in this video, and have always enjoyed them. This did not disappoint. This is a good dance workout with fairly easy to follow steps. The cardio dance portion lasts for about 40 minutes and is a good workout by itself but there is also a 30 minute pilates routine that is like the icing on the cake of this workout. After completing this workout, I felt that I had a good total body workout.

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Trying to decipher all of the fitness and diet information out there can be so confusing.  I’m always looking for realistic advice on maintaining my weight, exercise, and what the best foods are to aid in fat loss.

As I was searching for information on losing fat, I kept coming across information on the book, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. It seemed like everywhere I looked, there was someone talking about it. I decided to go to the www.burnthefat.com website to see what the hype is all about. The author of the book, Tom Venuto, is a natural bodybuilder and has written a lot of articles for different fitness and bodybuilding magazines. After reading all the testimonials about the book, I continued to read about his experiences and the knowledge he has gained over the years in regard to bodybuilding without supplements. It seems like he really knows what he’s talking about. He doesn’t pull any punches when talking about all of the lies and misconceptions on losing weight, exercise, and supplements. I signed up to his newsletter and also a 12 part mini course on “Big Fat Lies”.

I just completed reading the 12^th part of Big Fat Lies and the whole series was quite eye opening. I’ve learned some pretty interesting things on all the lies that are spewed on the public and they all make perfect sense. The bottom line is you get out what you put in. The only REAL way to lose weight and be fit is to work hard for it. There are no miracles.

As I do a workout, I like to review it while it is fresh in my mind. I have done this YogaSculpt workout quite a few times and it is still a challenge for me. Karen Voight is a good instructor. She moves through each pose very easily and it is easy to follow. It is just her in the video and there is not really any beginner level instructions although she does tell you on certain poses when you can use a block. It consists of about 25 minutes of standing poses and 20 minutes of matwork, a combination of yoga and pilates, to help strengthen your abs and back. I am not a heavy duty Yoga practitioner but the workout is good and I would recommend it to anyone above a beginner level who wants a good workout.

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I consider myself to be at an intermediate level when exercising and this video was tough for me. It is broken down into five 10-minute sections; one focuses on your butt, one on your thighs, one on your midsection, one is a combination of cardio and lower body toning, and the last one is a combination of cardio and strength to help get rid of belly flab. I did the entire workout, but let me tell you it was a challenge. By the end of the workout, I was really feeling it. It is done using a sculpting loop throughout the whole video which adds a lot of resistance to the workout. The sculpting loop comes with the video so you don’t have to purchase it separately. It’s really a good workout.  The only downsides I see to the video is there is not enough stretch. I like stretching after a workout and I felt that was lacking and the resistance band is a little distracting. It has a tendency to roll up when working out and I felt like at times I was focusing on keeping it in place.

If you are a beginner and decide you want this video, I would suggest working without the sculpting loop to start. You can always add it when your body is ready for it.

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I recently purchased a stability ball and a couple of exercise videos to go along with it. The first video I tried is 10 Minute Solutions Pilates on the Ball. Wow, what a good workout for me. I have been doing pilates for a couple of years now and the stability ball adds a good level of intensity to the workout. If you have never worked out with a stability ball, you should try it. It is pretty challenging to keep the ball steady when you are working out on it.

The video contains 5 ten-minute sections that focus on different parts of your body. There is a section just for abs, one for the lower body, one for the upper body, one that combines exercises that work all of your body, and the final one is a stretch. One thing that is great about all of the 10 Minute Solution videos is you can mix and match the sections to focus on the areas you want, or if you only have a few minutes to get a workout in, you can choose just one or two sections.

One suggestion I would make to anyone purchasing a stability or fitness ball is make sure you buy the right size for your body. I didn’t do any research before buying and I didn’t realize there are different sized balls for different sized people. I am 5′2″ and the medium sized ball fits me alright. I would say if you are any taller, you may want to consider a larger ball. 

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Having heard so much about trans fats lately and how New York City has banned the use of them in restaurants, I wanted to find out more about them and why they are so bad. I thought you may be interested too.

Trans fats are made by adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to help make them solid. They can also be referred to as partially hydrogenated oil. Restaurants like to use them for their fried foods as they makes the food taste good, have a long shelf life, and are pretty inexpensive to make. Unfortunately, they are not good for your health, as they raise your bad cholesterol and lower your good cholesterol, increasing your risk of a heart attack or stroke.

There are four different types of fat: trans, saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. The first two, trans and saturated, are not good for you. Trans fat can be found in a lot of fried foods and baked goods, and most stick margarine has trans fat. Saturated fats can be found in red meat and dairy products. Trans and saturated fats can clog arteries and may increase your risk for heart disease.  The other two, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated, are much better choices. Polyunsaturated helps to lower your bad cholesterol and is found in fish like salmon, herring, and trout, as well as many nuts and seeds. Monounsaturated can be found in oils like olive, canola, and soybean. These are oils that are recommended when you fry or saute food. Even though these fats are better for you than trans and saturated fats, they still should be eaten in moderation. There is a lot of information at the American Heart Association if you want to learn more.

We all need some fat in our diet, but when you have a choice, choose foods made with poly or mono unsaturated fat. Your body will thank you for it!

If you like cardio dance than you will probably like this video. The moves are funky and fun. The instructor Maria Forleo is easy to follow as she breaks down each move at half time to begin and then puts the moves together to make a full dance routine. You may not get all the steps the first time around, but should be able to catch on after doing it a couple of times. Once you get all the moves, you can get into the rhythm of the dance and won’t even feel like you are exercising. I have fun with it and work up a pretty good sweat too!

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Once my workout routines became a daily habit, I considered joining a gym. As I weighed the pros – great machines, exercise classes, qualified fitness instructors, and the cons – the effort of finding a babysitter in order to leave the house, worrying about criticism, buying stylish workout clothing, and the financial commitment, I decided it would be more beneficial to me to work out at home using exercise videos.

Over many years I have accumulated an extensive collection of videos covering a wide variety of exercises. This has helped keep me going, because I can choose whatever I feel like doing on any given day and I don’t get bored.

In future posts I will share with you my thoughts on many of the videos I have experienced. I will let you know how they have helped me and maybe it will help you too!

When I started researching artificial sweeteners I was overwhelmed with information, both pro and con. What I have tried to do is take that wealth of information and boil it down to a quick summary that might peak your curiosity. I hope you will research sweeteners in more depth after you read my post and then make an educated decision on the use of artificial sweeteners.

Saccharin

You probably know this sweetener best by the name “Sweet and Low”. Sweet-and-Low has been around for a very long time and its available in almost every restaurant and many homes. I was a regular user a long time ago until I started hearing it being linked to cancer. For a time there was talk that it might get banned. This was before the internet was popular so all we had to go on without extensive research was what we heard on the news or read in the newspapers. I’m not a conspiracy theorist but I’m also not naive. I understand the influence Corporate America has so based on the chatter I was seeing I stopped using it. It has since been determined that the naysayers could have been mistaken and it might only cause cancer in rats.

Nutra Sweet and Equal

After Saccharin there was a lot of buzz about this wonderful new sweetener called Nutra Sweet or Equal made from aspartame. It was much better tasting than saccharin and much better for your health.  Pretty soon popular “diet” foods and drinks were being made with aspartame. As this sweetener started to gain popularity there were bits of information trickling out about how it may cause memory loss. There was also concern that you shouldn’t use it if you are pregnant since they did not know what it would do to a fetus. Despite the talk it is still going strong after all these years. The FDA claims it is safe but there is a lot of evidence from independent researchers that says it may not be.

Splenda or Sucralose

When this sweetener first came on the market it was being sold with the claim that it’s made from sugar. It might start from sugar but is so chemically altered that they had to change their claims. It is still relatively new so no one really knows what the long term effects may be. There is evidence that it may cause quite a few different problems, some mild and some severe. Only time will tell whether or not it is a safe product.
Here is an article with a summary of pros and cons for these artificial sweeteners.

Stevia – Truvia – PureVia

From all reading I have done this sounds like one of the best choices for sweeteners. It is a natural, no calorie sweetener that is native to areas of Paraguay. It has been used for centuries and is very popular today in Japan, areas of South America, China, Germany, Malaysia, Israel, Australia and South Korea. There are not any known ill effects from using Stevia as a sweetener. It has been sold in the United States in health food stores for quite some time but only as a dietary supplement. It was not lawful as a sweetener until recently. It is now being sold in grocery stores under the name Truvia. Pepsico and Whole Earth Sweetener Company have introduced PureVia,  their Stevia product. Some drinks and foods are starting to be made using Stevia. How exciting to think of being able to drink and eat sweetened products without the fear of health problems!

I am no expert when it comes to chemical or natural sweeteners but I hope this has enlightened you and encourages you to study your choices when that sweet tooth starts calling.