Fitness & Wellness

There’s still time for fun this summer and time to help steer your family toward a healthier lifestyle. After all, summer means family fun and what a great time to add healthy food and an active lifestyle to the agenda. How are your weekends spent? Sure, some of them are devoted to getting things done that you can’t do during the week, but that shouldn’t stop you from taking time for fun with the family. Get the kids involved with chores with their reward being a fun outing, since the chores are done faster.

Take the meals with you rather than eating on the run.

Eating healthy shouldn’t cost a fortune. It won’t when it comes in a picnic basket or cooler you take with you. Get the kids involved with shopping for your next family trip and take them shopping with you. The produce section is perfect for sweet treats and snacks that are healthy. You can monitor what they eat because you provide the selection. Better yet, take an outing to a U-Pick farm where the kids can help you gather fresh fruit and vegetables for supper, have fun and actually learn a bit about how plants are grown.

Make it a no phone day.

Prying kids away from the computer and out into the fresh air may not be an easy task, but it’s worth it. All cell phones should be shut off, except for one for any emergencies and that one’s yours. Let extended family members or neighbors know that you only accept texts if there’s an emergency as you’re in a no phone call mode for the day. That way diversions are at a minimum.

Plan an active day.

Whether you’re going for a trip to the zoo or nature preserve or an amusement park, it all involves walking and that can be wearing when you’re doing it all day long. Hiking, biking, rock climbing and swimming are also great ways to get the kids exercising, without calling it exercise. If the temperature is high, consider some indoor walking, like going to a museum or aquarium.

• Enjoy the day and have fun together. Make an active lifestyle and healthy eating part of the fond memories you build with the family.
• If you’re planning a big trip, like to Disney World or other major park, start the kid walking to help them get ready for the trip. It’s pretty tiring walking all day and getting too tired can spoil the fun.
• Prepare to have fun with the family, while also staying safe. We provide functional fitness training that will boost your endurance and energy, while helping to prevent injury doing everyday tasks.
• When you need help developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, TeamWorX can provide it. It not only educates you and clarifies the steps to take, it also keeps you accountable, while you’re learning it.

Want to Learn More About Being Active?

If you’re ready to take the next step, contact me today here or call me at 540-421-8527.

While there are many healthy restaurant options in Alexandria, VA, there may not be ones near your work. That means you either have to carry your lunch or opt for an unhealthy option. You might consider the second choice, especially if your morning is hectic. However, my suggestion is to make lunch the night before to avoid the hassle in the morning and stick with your program of healthy eating. Most of these can be made on the weekend for the whole week and even stored in the freezer for those super busy weeks.

Mason jar lunches don’t take a lot of effort and can be perfect when you’re on the go.

If you have an air fryer, you’re in for a treat. You can make rotisserie tasting chicken that’s super low in calories. You do need a little oil, seasoning salt and of course, a chicken. It tastes like rotisserie chicken but with fewer calories and the best part is that you can shred in pieces and use it for Mason jar lunches. Use wide mouth jars. Put your favorite dressing on the bottom layer, then to with the layer like tomatoes, peppers, onions, beans, cheese or chicken, making sure that the “wettest” ingredients are the closest to the bottom. Top it off with a layer of greens. When you’re ready to eat, shake the jar and pour it in a bowl. Lunch is served!

Wraps can have the ingredients made the night before to assemble when you eat it.

Get everything ready to put in the wrap and take those ingredients in a bowl, with the wrap or pita bread separate. I love chicken salad and I thought only the real mayo type would do, that is until I found out you could make it with Greek yogurt and avocado and it tasted delicious. My recipe varies, since I add a bit of this and that to season it. It uses one small avocado, a half cup Greek yogurt, two cups of shredded or finely chopped chicken and the juice from a small lime for starters. From there I add a bit of garlic powder, chopped red onions, a little salt, pepper and even some onion powder occasionally. It stores well for two to three days in the refrigerator. Fill the wrap when you’re ready to eat.

There’s nothing better than a hearty soup on a cold day.

Sure, it may be hot as ever right now, but that heat doesn’t last forever. It won’t be long before you’ll be looking forward to a warm meal. Soup is always a great go-to that saves money and time. You can use left over veggies before they go bad and make a batch that will provide weeks of lunches. Some of my favorites are stuffed pepper soup, Zuppa Toscana and hearty chicken vegetable soup—which uses some of that air fried rotisserie chicken.

• You can use leftovers from the night before to create an entirely new lunch. Use chopped pieces of steak or chicken on a bed of spinach, tossing a sliced boiled eggs, some pecans, tomatoes and feta cheese on for a salad that’s delicious, filling and nutritious. Top with a balsamic vinaigrette.
• If you want to make your wraps even lower in calories, wrap the ingredients in a large lettuce leaf. The Greek yogurt chicken salad is delicious that way.
• If you’re vegetarian and want something more filling, put some chickpeas in your salad or kidney beans. I also have tried salads with a small amount of sweet potato gnocchi added and it’s delicious.
• Make all your friends at the office envious by bringing your favorite pasta—vegetable spaghetti! Make it any way you wish the night before for dinner and then top the leftovers with a different sauce for lunch the next day. Just heat and serve.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Move it or lose it”? It can take on many reasons, depending on how it’s used, but at the gym in Alexandria, VA, clients know that it means that if you don’t workout, you’ll lose muscle mass, energy and strength. That’s why they stick with a workout schedule. Staying active is important throughout your life, especially the older you get. That’s when the body loses muscle mass, energy and cardio functioning more quickly. It doesn’t mean you have to have a formal program of working out, but it does mean you have to do activities regularly that improve your flexibility, strength and endurance.

Moving it will help prevent obesity and improve longevity in other ways.

Studies show that those who move more, have improved metabolic and cardiovascular function. Not only does inactivity lead to obesity, the number one cause of preventable death, it actually holds the number four position of preventable deaths. Even if you workout regularly, studies show that people who sit the longest amount each day have an increased risk for heart disease and diabetes. Sitting for six hours straight can actually wipe out all the benefits from working out regularly.

There are ways to increase the amount of time you are active, even if your job demands otherwise.

It’s pretty hard for a truck driver to take a break every 50 minutes to take a walk or move around, which may be why obesity is so prevalent in that industry. In fact, it’s such a risk, many insurance companies have programs to help drivers get more activity. That program is ten to fifteen minutes of working out briskly when they stop and a mandated rest. Moving briskly when you can is important. So take advantage of those times you can walk faster, climb stair or walk to a destination rather than driving.

A consistent program with strength building can prevent sarcopenia—muscle wasting.

When people reach their mid thirties, losing muscle mass begins, which eventually can lead to losing bone mass—osteoporosis. It doesn’t have to occur if you workout regularly. In fact, it’s never too late to slow, stop or reverse the process, but it is definitely harder the older you get. Studies show that to get the same results as someone younger, a person over 60 has to do strength training more frequently.

• If you have a sedentary job, get up and move for five minutes every hour. It doesn’t mean you have to do an exercise, just briskly walking across the room helps prevent the damage of prolonged sitting.
• Getting your blood circulating, which can come from walking briskly, can help improve health. It’s all about an active lifestyle, not just hitting the gym.
• Find a quick routine you can do when you have a few minutes. There are several four or seven minute workouts you can do during work breaks. One called the four minute nitric oxide boost can be done anywhere.
• Studies show that walking more frequently not only helps prevent obesity, it can reduce the risk of death for the obese and for smokers.

There are three different body types with different needs. That’s why getting a workout for your body type can be important. One of the many things we take under consideration before creating a workout for clients in Alexandria, VA is their body type. Ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph are the three body types. Each stores its fat differently and builds muscle tissue faster or slower. Ectomorph people are those who are naturally thin, with very low body fat and thin extremeties. Mesomorph people put on muscle fast and have broad shoulders, strong legs and arms with a narrow waist. Endomorphs may have muscle tissue, but it’s often hidden under a layer of fat. They are rounder or pear shaped.

If you’re an ectomorph, you’ll want to build muscle tissue, but it could take a while.

Endurance training is beneficial for everyone, but if you’re trying to build muscle tissue, it’s your undoing. You need to conserve calories, while also building muscle tissue. Use heavier weights to train and rest in between sets. Take it slow. Do five but no more than ten repetitions and between six to eight sets with two minutes between them. Brisk walks and bike riding are great cardio workouts. They don’t burn as many calories, but still make you feel great and enhance your endurance.

If you’re a mesomorph, lucky you.

You build muscle tissue more rapidly than others and tend to have more muscle tissue than fat tissue. If you’ve been out of shape for a while, it won’t take long to get back into shape. Almost any type of exercise will help. Vary your weight training by your fitness level and use basic exercises with as many reps as twelve. HIIT training and circuit training work well for you. Traditional cardio is also in order.

Poor pear-shaped endomorphs have the hardest time of all getting in shape, but it’s worth it.

Use moderate weights and total body workouts to get the best results. Lower or moderate weights with eight to ten repetitions in three to five sets works best for your upper body and up to twenty repetitions for your lower body. Weight loss is often the goal for endomorphs, so strength training is the best way to do it. It builds muscle tissue, while burning fat. Cardio, which is important, shouldn’t be overdone. Cardio burns both fat and muscle tissue, making it even harder to lose weight, since muscle tissue requires more calories. Do mild cardio like biking, swimming and walking three times a week for twenty minutes.

• You may never be able to change your body type, but you can make it the best it can be. For ectomorphs, building rippling muscles will be hard, but with extra work, can be done.
• Endomorphs may have a hard time losing weight, but they still build muscles more easily than ectomorphs. To make sure they show, without a layer of fat covering them, a healthy diet is important.
• If you’re a mesomorph, you’re a natural athlete. You have a high metabolism and build muscle tissue quickly. Train like there’s no tomorrow with high weights and low reps, doing power moves like vertical jumps.
• While both the mesomorph and ectomorphs are often envied by the slower metabolism endomorphs, it was the endomorphs that were the survivors in caveman times. They build muscle quickly, but it doesn’t show under the layer of fat. That fat helped them to survive.

Do you have that feeling of impending doom for no reason? Do you fret and stress about things that probably won’t happen? You probably suffer from excessive anxiety and maybe even mild depression. I have clients in Alexandria, VA, who tell me that while they initially started to workout to help them lose weight or become fitter, they found that working out alleviates anxiety, too. It’s a win-win situation and comes from the other benefits of exercise.

Knowing the causes of anxiety can help you understand how exercise helps it.

The body has a primitive response to danger. It’s called the fight or flight response. In order for the body to be prepared to do either, the brain sends out hormones that make changes. It sends more blood to the extremities, slows the flow of blood to organs that aren’t necessary for running or fighting, increases the heart rate, raises the blood pressure and even dilates the pupils. You’re left with a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach and sometimes trembling and muscle tension. That describes both the changes in the body during the fight or flight response and the change that occur during an anxiety attack.

To make things even worse, the dangers don’t have to be real.

People who suffer from anxiety often have a trigger that stimulates the attack. It can be anything from a smell to a familiar situation. The danger doesn’t have to be real, it can come from some threat real or imagined. In fact, the trigger didn’t have to happen to the person with the attack, it can be a vicariously experienced situation. The brain doesn’t care, it still sends out the hormones. The only way to reverse the hormones of stress and replace them with ones that make you feel good is to run, fight or simulate running and fighting with vigorous exercise.

If you’re a pacer, you know that moving around makes you feel better.

For me, there’s nothing worse than having to sit still when I’m in pain or worrying. I’m a pacer that feels better when I move. I think it’s because pacing mimics exercise, even though it’s not as physically demanding. It helps keep the blood circulating and aids in burning off stress hormones. While it’s not as good as a tough workout, it’s far more appropriate in most stressful situations. When you’re stressed, there are some things you can do that may help relieve the anxiety. A brisk walk, running up and down stairs or doing any brisk activity that will make you breathe harder and maybe even sweat a bit.

• Some therapists combine exercise with therapy for those clinically depressed or anxious. It’s an accepted complementary form of therapy. You can do it on your own by starting a program of exercise and track your episodes of anxiety before and after you started.
• Focused breathing and meditation are also helpful for anxiety. They’re a viable alternative for times that exercise is totally out of the question.
• If you have serious anxiety or depression issues, always seek out professional help first and use exercise and healthy eating as a complement to it.
• Working out helps decrease anxiety in another way. It puts your focus more on the exercise rather than the problem that caused the anxiety.