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Exercise Tips

Woman measuring her dress size
 by Victoria Santalesa

What It Takes To Drop Two Dress Sizes

You just got an invite to your high school reunion. Great, right? You’ve stayed chummy with all your old friends through social media; now you’ll get some time to catch up face to face. There’s only one problem. The picture on your Facebook page is about two years old and you’ve gone up about two dress sizes since you took it. What are you going to do? You can’t possibly show up looking like you spent the last ten years channel surfing with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s! You need to drop two dress sizes and you need to start now! What can you do?
Well, Khloe Kardashian did it, Jennifer Hudson did it, and Oprah Winfrey did it, several times! Here’s what you need to do to drop two dress sizes in a few weeks time.

Eating
Leading naturopath Max Tomlinson says, “You need to be clever with your diet to see optimum results, especially within a relatively short time frame. Crash dieting or starvation will only lead to weight gain down the line,” These are some of the suggestions Max recommends:

Eat Regularly
If you skip meals, your body will store the food you eat rather than burning it as a source of energy. Regular eating will kick start your metabolism and help you lose weight. Breakfast is the most important meal for raising metabolic rate and ensuring that the body uses food effectively for the remainder of the day.

Control Portions
Try to reduce food intake by 45 percent. Try to consume 1,000 calories per day to lose weight without slowing metabolism.

What to Eat
Avoid empty calories and make sure to eat food that is nutrient rich. Plan a menu consisting of foods such as organic fish, eggs, poultry, lean meat, brown rice, quinoa and oats. Satisfy the RDA with two servings of fruit and three of vegetables, sticking to leafy greens and avoiding peas and sugar rich roots vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes.

What Not to Eat
Steer clear of junk food and saturated fats. Restrict dairy intake, or cut it out completely, and replace it with goat milk and soy cheese. Limit treats like cakes and chips and don’t drink too many fluids. Many people up their liquid intake when they diet, but water can be taxing on your kidneys causing poor digestion and bloating.

Training
Tomlinson says, “When you diet without exercise, at least half of your weight comes for lean body mass. (muscle and non-fat tissue.) This slows your metabolism, setting you up for weight regain as soon as you increase your food intake.” Here’s one of the exercises Tomlinson suggests for his celebrity clientele.

Pile Squats
Stand with your feet a hip-width apart with your feet turned out holding dumbbells in each hand with your palms facing inward. Put your weight on your heals and squat, curling arms to your shoulders and keeping your elbows tucked in. Hold squat, and push your arms up, locking your elbows. Lower arms and come out of squat. Repeat 20-30 times.

Let us know your tips for keeping slim and, if you ever dropped a dress size or two, we’d love to hear how you did it! Let us know!

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Woman doing some exercise
 by Victoria Santalesa

Ideal Amount of Exercise

Humorist Dave Barry once said, “Albert Einstein discovered that a tiny amount of mass is equal to a huge amount of energy which is why you have to exercise for a week to work off the thigh fat from a single Snickers.” Although this may be a bit of comedic hyperbole, looking at the calorie burn exercise time ratio can be quite disheartening. For example, according to an infographic, a 490 calorie Big Mac will take the average women over an hour of weightlifting to burn. Wash it down with a soda and that’s about two hours of cardio. With those kinds of figures, you could spend the next few years in a never ending cycle of eating and exercising. So where do we draw the line? How do we decide how much exercise is enough and how much is too much? Here are some hard and fast guidelines that will help you find out the ideal amount of exercise for your body.

How Much Exercise Do I Need?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you should be getting thirty minutes of aerobic exercise 5 days a week. But the American College of Sports Medicine says that if you’re are doing a high intensity workout, you can cut that number down to 75 minutes a week with strength training and stretching 2 -3 days a week.

For Weight Loss
If you are looking to drop pounds, a study in JAMA Oncology found that 300 minutes of physical activity each week was the best way to obtain the greatest loss of weight and body fat. However, if that number seems a little out of reach to you, there may be other ways of achieving weight loss goals. Lisa Cadmus- Bertram, Ph., assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin explains, “… for most people, there is more room to cut calorie intake than to expend very large numbers of additional calories.” In other words, the key to success is burning more calories than you are taking in, so if you cut down on food intake, you may be able to avoid spending half a day at the gym.

To Tone Up
To add additional tone, incorporate resistance and strength training. This will help to build muscle and also increase the basal metabolic rate, which is the amount of calories your body will burn calories when it is resting. Also, try to engage in a variety of exercises to challenge your body in different ways.

For Longer Life
By engaging in the 150 minute minute of activity per week with 2 to 3 days of resistance training, you are not only ensuring a fit body, but you are also working to strengthen the lungs and heart, to avoid inflammation and to prevent insulin resistance from developing.

woman sleeping
For Better Sleep
A study of over 2,600 adults found that those who did their recommended amount of physical activity reported a 65% improvement in quality go sleep, were 68% less likely to have leg cramps at night and were 45% less likely to have difficulty focusing when they were tired as compared with individuals that did not get the recommended amount.

In short, aim for 150 minutes of aerobic activity per week and double that if you want to see weight loss results, but in the end it is most important to balance your exercise with food intake and maintain a schedule that works for you. Let us know how you do it. Eat happy and be healthy!

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Happy young woman exercising in winter
 by Mayank

Resveralife Live Well Guide: Safe Exercise Tips for the Winter Months

The benefits of exercising during the winter months go well beyond being beneficial for your skin. Exercising during the winters can also prove to be extremely satisfying and it can go a long way in helping you improve your mood, particularly when you exercise in the mornings. However, exercising in the cold winter months can also be quite risky. This Resveralife Live Well Guide from Vine Vera examines some of the best tips to follow while exercising during the winter months.

Warm up your body before going outdoors

It is very important to start off with your warm-ups while you’re still indoors. Allow the body a chance to be able to ease into the workout routine. To do so, all you need to do is warm up for a few minutes while you’re still indoors. Once you’re outside, take a 30 second break in every few minutes for the first 10 minutes to allow your body to be able to adjust to the chilly conditions.

Cool down over a period of time

Cooling down the right way is as important as a proper warm up. You need to start cooling down over three to four minutes before the end of your routine by slowly easing up on the pressure. Once you get back indoors, remove a few layers of your clothing and make sure that you’re active for another 5 – 10 minutes to allow your body to cool down properly. If you end up experiencing some muscle soreness, apply a pain relieving gel on the problem area.

Dress properly

Don’t forget to layer up properly before venturing outdoors. You might want to wear layers that can be removed once you complete your warm ups in order to avoid any sort of discomfort. The ideal way to do so is to start off with a thin layer of synthetic materials like polypropylene to ensure that the sweat stays away from your body. The next layer should always be an insulator layer like wool or fleece and the topmost layer should be waterproof with a breathable shell. It is also important to cover up your hands, ears, neck, head and feet, depending on the conditions outside. These body parts are the ones that are most affected by the cold. Don’t forget to add reflective panels on your clothing if it’s still dark outside.

Take proper care of your feet

Making sure that you keep your feet warm and dry is very important for ensuring that you don’t end up with blisters. Wear sports socks which help you to draw away perspiration from your skin and use shoes that have a decent tread.   

Don’t ignore the importance of weather reports

Don’t forget to check the weather report before heading out. Things like pelting rain and biting winds won’t do you any favors. It is essential to be flexible with your workout timings during the winter months. And if things look really bad, take a rain check on your exercise.

Chalk out your route

Have a pre-fixed route in mind and don’t forget to keep to well lit areas when it’s dark or damp. Try to perform loops around your neighborhood and repeat them. You can also head over to the local park, provided that it is well lit.  Make sure that someone is aware of your route, in case something goes south.

Don’t ease up on your hydration

Just because you’re sweating less during the winters doesn’t mean that you need less water. Don’t ease up on your water intake and stick to a minimum of 10 – 12 glasses of water each day. Try drinking water before, during and after your workouts. Force yourself to a glass of water if you don’t feel thirsty.

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