Healthy Habits Studio

Fitness, Health and Happiness
If there was such a thing, could you train your “happiness muscle”?
Well, the emerging field of Positive Psychology says “Yes!”
By using these techniques on a regular basis, you can actually increase your well-being, life satisfaction and joy:

• Single Task- Doing too many things at once makes it difficult to be present and enjoy what you’re doing.
• Celebrate- Appreciate your accomplishments, large or small and share with others
• Slow Down- Spend more time doing things that you truly enjoy
• Underdose- Try to avoid going overboard.  Too much of a good thing reduces it’s pleasure.
• Share the moment- Do things you like with people you enjoy spending time with
• Set Goals- Working toward goals bring a sense of purpose and satisfaction.  Happiness grows when you reach for and achieve your goals.
• Remember well- Spend time recalling and reflecting on happy moments.
• Think ahead- Plan fun activities for the future and envision your enjoyment.

Just like exercise, these techniques get easier with practice.  Make these part of your healthy daily habits and your quality of life and overall joy will improve!  For more info, check out the report at www.health.Harvard.edu

Want to burn more body fat, improve your glucose and insulin response (and potentially prevent Type 2 Diabetes), increase your metabolic rate, and get these results by SPENDING LESS TIME WORKING OUT?

Me, too!

So I looked into current trends like High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and similar programs and I am excited to share the good news with you:

You can work out for a shorter period of time (15-30 minutes using HIIT) and get better results than the old fashioned “steady state cardio” we used to suggest for weight loss (30-60 minutes on the treadmill for example).

Woo Hoo!  Let’s celebrate!

The fact is, we’ve known for years that doing intervals of higher intensity work combined with lower intensity (or even rest intervals when the high intensity is super high) has been shown to help improve fitness and athletic performance.  But what’s really exciting to me is the current research that shows an increase in metabolism, so that you can burn more fat and calories by doing these shorter, harder workouts.  It’s not that HIIT workouts burn more calories during the workout, they actually increase EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), which means your metabolism is increased for a longer period of time after the workout, which means you burn more calories the rest of the day! (Some studies showed 24 hours of elevated metabolism) Yippeee!!!!

So, how do you do HIIT?

1. You can walk, run, bike, or any other mode of aerobic exercise and start with 3-5 minutes warm-up where you gradually increase your pace and heart rate.
2. After the warm-up, alternate intervals of high intensity exercise (8-10 on a scale of 1-10) with lower intensity (4-6 on a scale of 1-10)
3. You can change the intervals as you go through your workout (and as you get more fit), but start with a 1:1 ratio.  For example, 30 seconds of fast running then 30 seconds of easy walking.
4. Eventually, you can try a 2:1 ratio. For example, 1 minute of fast running then 30 seconds of easy walking.
5. Do this for 10-20 minutes and make sure slowly cool down for 3-5 minutes to gradually lower your heart rate.

The high intensity intervals should be tough, but be smart and safe to avoid pushing yourself too hard, too soon.  The low intensity intervals should feel so easy that you could continue at that pace all day.  If you are just starting a fitness program, wait until you’ve built up a base of fitness before you try the high intensity intervals.  Oh yeah, the research also showed that doing HIIT workouts, you can exercise just 3 times per week and get similar results to doing steady state cardio 5 times per week.

So, incorporate HIIT workouts and get better results and more free time, too!  We’ve been doing them in our FitBody BootCamps lately and people LOVE the “more results in less time”.

Get ready for our 8 week Tabata BootCamp Program which includes an interactive website, nutrition guidance and more, coming in March 2012.

Here’s a quick and yummy, high protein, low fat chicken recipe that you can whip up in almost no time! I just made 4 chicken breasts, so that I’ve got enough for dinner tonight as well as the next few days! Here’s the “recipe”:
Heat a teaspoon or so of olive oil in a skillet, then add (boneless, skinless) chicken breasts. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (or lemon pepper) and fresh lemon juice or lemon zest and thyme. If you’re one of those people who needs exact amounts, mix 1 Tablespoon Thyme with 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon zest.
Sear on med-high heat until browned, then turn over and cook until other side is browned. Cover and lower heat until center of chicken is cooked.
Serve with steamed broccoli or zucchini and ENJOY!!!

I absolutely LOVE pumpkin pie, especially when I know that the filling is lean and relatively healthy, which it is when made MY way!  Here’s my recipe:

I use the recipe on the back of the giant can of Libby’s 100% Pumpkin (not pie filling) with just three modifications:

Instead of 4 whole eggs, I use 8 egg whites

Instead of 2 cans of Evaporated Milk, I use 2 cans of Evaporated Non-Fat Milk

Instead of  1 and 1/2 cups sugar, I use about 3/4 cup sugar (and I like to use organic turbinado sugar or organic cane sugar)

Everything else is just like the regular recipe (spices, baking time, etc.), but those three modifications decrease the sugar content and completely eliminate the fat in the filling AND I don’t add anything fake or artificial!

The crust:  Well, here’s where you get to choose.  If you’re making this just for yourself, or you’d like to eat this frequently, then I suggest eliminating the crust completely.  I have a client that make little ramekins of this pumpkin pie filling without any crust.  It’s like a pumpkin custard!

Personally, if it’s a special event and I’m making the pies to share, I’ll use a “regular” crust, maybe even a store bought crust if I’m too busy to make one homemade (but I don’t buy it the ones made with lard.  In fact, I saw one crust was made with partially hydrogenated lard!  What?!?  That’s beyond bad, it’s totally unnecessary!)  Or use organic butter and make your own crust if you’ve got the time and energy. You can also find healthier recipes for crusts online.

There will be fat in the crust, but the filling will be fat free, lower in sugar, protein from the egg whites, and Vitamins A and C plus Fiber from the pumpkin!

And if you “must” put something on top of your slice, I suggest REAL whipped cream.  (Don’t even get me started on the evils of Cool Whip)

My guilty pleasure is this pumpkin pie for breakfast with coffee!  Ok, and for lunch and dinner, too!

ENJOY and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

rose

You’ve heard about this recipe from KC in class. Easy and well balanced nutritionally!  Enjoy with a few cups of steamed broccoli and eat up!!

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=16385