I’ve heard about all kinds of ways to exercise or things to eat that will make you burn more calories; eating something cold, eating something spicy, wearing extra layers to sweat more, wearing fewer layers to burn more…

I had a conversation with another trainer yesterday about the idea of exercising in the cold and if your body would burn more calories. He was doing an experiment to see if it would work for him. He thinks it does and has lost a few pounds in a week by running in colder temps without adding extra layers of clothing.

Looked a few things up online and here is what I came up with. Yes, when you are cold your body can burn extra calories trying to keep warm. When you shiver your body is trying to generate extra energy to warm itself up. I read you can actually burn up to 400 calories per hour shivering!! That’s kind of crazy, must be a lot of shivering.

Here’s the catch; your body will burn more calories to increase its temps but once you start exercising (in the cold) and your body temp rises you won’t need to generate extra energy anymore to warm up so you won’t burn extra calories. It sounds like the extra calorie burn only happens during the warm-up phase; once you are warm your body burns normal again.

One of the articles did state that your body will actually burn more calories in hot weather while it works to cool itself.

So, either way, cold or hot, it seems there are benefits to burning some extra calories. If its cold be sure to wear a hat and gloves, cover your skin to stay safe but don’t over do it. Get the extra benefit of working harder to get warm.

Next time the weather is not perfect outside for your workout you can remember the added benefit instead of skipping it.

As I sit here writing this at 8:30pm, I think I could use a cup of coffee or maybe just need to get to bed. Today was National Coffee Day; I hope you got to pick up a free cup in your city.

People always seem very confused about coffee; is it good to drink, bad to drink?? I can tell you that I have a cup (a big mug) every morning. How else do you think I could get up at 4:10am for the past 4 years!

I think coffee, like most things, is fine in moderation. If you are drinking a pot or two a day by yourself you may want to consider cutting back.

One thing I have heard some of my trainer friends tell their clients is, if you are going to drink coffee, drink it to help your workout. Drink it about 30 minutes or so before your workout so you can use the energy boost to get a better workout in.

Here are some other benefits that have come about in different studies. By no means are these guaranteed to absolutely be true but it is what they are finding when studying the effects.

Coffee may reduce the risk of the following;

Alzheimer’s disease

gallstone disease

Parkinson’s disease

Cancer (certain types)

Gout in men over 40

Type 2 diabetes

** Coffee has been found to have antioxidants, magnesium and chromium which all help use insulin and control blood sugar.

For every benefit of coffee I am sure there is a study discussing the down sides. On National Coffee day enjoy a cup and think about using your coffee habit to better your daily workouts. Remember exercise and healthy eating is the best way to ensure a healthy body :)

Grilled Shrimp, Sauteed Shrimp, Raw Shrimp, how about some Spicy Shrimp?

I’m actually very excited to try this recipe tonight. I found it over the weekend in a magazine (either Fitness or Women’s Health, tore it out so not sure?).

Hope you like it!

Buffalo Shrimp Salad with Spicy Pita Croutons

1 small whole wheat pita

Olive oil cooking spray

1 large pinch chili powder

1 larger pinch garlic powder

1 larger pinch ground black pepper

1 Tbsp BBQ sauce

1 dash hot sauce (or to taste)

10 large shrimp, boiled

3 cups romaine lettuce, torn into bite size pieces

1 celery stalk, thinly sliced

1/2 cup shredded red cabbage

1 cup halved grape tomatoes

1Tbsp blue-cheese crumbles

Dressing:

1 tsp granulated sugar

1.5 tsp white wine vinegar

2 Tbsp nonfat Greek yogurt

2 Tbsp light canola mayonnaise

1 Tbsp blue-cheese crumbles

1. Combine all dressing ingredients in food processor or whisk until smooth.

2. Cut pita into eighths, spray with cooking spray on both sides. Sprinkle with chili powder, garlic powder, and pepper. Toast in a 400 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until golden. Set aside.

3. Whisk barbecue and hot sauces together. Toss shrimp with sauce mixture and set aside.

4. In large bowl, combine romaine lettuce, celery, red cabbage and tomatoes. Toss well with dressing.

5. Top with shrimp, homemade pita croutons, and blue cheese crumbles.

Makes 2 Servings:

199 kcal.

8g fat

22g carbs

5g fiber

12g protein

I’ve been hearing whispers about Chia seeds and how it is the “new” super food.
You know the saying things that are old are now new again, well that’s a definite with these tiny little seeds.

Dated back to the Aztec Indians (pre-Columbian Era; before European Influence on the American Continents; aka – a LOOONG time ago!) Chia seeds were an important crop which is still grown in Mexico and Guatemala.

A friend of mine introduced me to them earlier this summer. I tried a sample of them and liked the crunch they added to my dish but didn’t really look too much into them.

I ran across them again the other day at the grocery store. I bought a container of them to take a closer look.

These rumors may be true; they sure do seem like THE super food. Check out what is packed in these tiniest of seeds:

• 1 serving (2 scoops according to my jar) = 156 calories

• Omega-3 Fatty Acid (Alpha Linoleic Acid) – 6.1g

• Omega 6 Fatty Acid (Linoleic Acid) – 2g

• Total Carbs = 10.5g

• Dietary Fiber = 10.4g! That’s 42% of the daily value base of 2,000 calories.

• Protein = 6.3g

• Calcium = 30%

• Iron = 25%

After looking around on line Chia seeds are even surpassing blueberries when it comes to antioxidant activity as well as helping to keep blood pressure and blood sugar under control.

Not bad for a seed.

What do you do with these seeds? You can sprinkle them on your food, mix into a smoothie and if you are really inspired grind them up to mix in with flour and use when baking.

My experience with the Chia seed is very new but here are a few ways I have incorporated them into my diet.

Mix them into my morning oatmeal.

Sprinkle on a salad.

Sprinkle onto peanut butter sandwich.

Mix into a protein shake.

Take another look at the Chia seed; it’s an easy way to incorporate something really good for you into your daily diet with ease and not a lot of fuss.

And yes, I think these are the same seeds as in Chi-Chi-Chi-Chia but don’t order a planter of your favorite character or shape to get them, buy the ones at the grocery store.

PS – when you eat them they get a gelatin like bubble around them so be sure to check your teeth 

A few posts ago I wrote about A Complaint Free World. Am I complaint free?? Um, not yet. But…I can say it does make you more conscience of what you’re saying and snapping about during your day. I have found myself in situations where I could have let it roll into a big ball of anger and tick me off for the entire day, which would only have ruined MY day, not the person or situation I was irritated by.

I was happily surprised that my husband and daughter were interested in the idea and are both wearing complaint bracelets. They are not yet non-complainers but I think the same goes for them, it makes you more aware.

The first day my daughter wore it to school I asked her how it went and she told me she had to switch the bracelet from one arm to the other a whole lot that day. I’m not sure what a 10 year old can complain about but if she can get a better outlook on life down at her age, she will have many relaxing years ahead of her.

My take on it, use it to help YOU. I’m not sure any of us can go with out a gripe but pick an area you want it to help you in. I decided to focus on my household. I want to do less snapping at my husband and daughter and find better ways to express things instead of SNAP and I’m off!

I don’t know if it’s in me to not snap at a person trying to steal my parking space or some loud mouth who I’ve had my limit of but I do feel it can make my family communicate better and I think that is a great start.

Good luck with you non-complaint goals or any life improvement you may be working on.

…and take lots of deep breaths.

“If you don’t like something, change it, if you can’t change it, change your attitude - don’t complain” ~ Dr. Maya Angelou.

A Complaint Free World….is it possible?

I added the picture above because I think it represents a fun day at the park with my family and how we should want majority of our days to be.

I’ve decided to try this out and see if I cam make a change in my own little space. I can remember when I was younger, college and shortly after, how easy going everything seemed and things always seemed to work out. I think I was in a pretty good mood most of the time. Now that I am grown up with more responsibility of a “real” life days seem to be more filled with stress and non-fun stuff which is draining and a waste of time.

Who wants to spend their days being cranky and in a bad mood, not me!! I want to enjoy everything so I am going to try to make that happen with this little purple bracelet given to me by one of my boot campers.

It’s a simple idea but I believe it can have big results. You wear a rubber purple bracelet (just like any other bracelet you see out there for different causes) that says, ‘A Complaint Free World.org’ on it.

If you complain, get angry at someone, say something nasty… you have to move the bracelet to the other arm. If you keep complaining during your day you have to keep moving the bracelet arm to arm. Obviously moving a bracelet isn’t going to curb your complaining but it will make you realize just how many times you had to change arms that day and just how much of your day is filled with negative words and outbursts.

I’ve already felt the effects on how conscience I will be of my negative thoughts. Just getting the grocery shopping done this morning could have at least brought on 3 or 4 things that would normally irritate me. Instead I thought about how that would normally tick me off but why should it?? So, I didn’t let little things change my good state of mind. I had a great run with my boot camp this morning, it’s an amazing sunny day in Chicago and I should be in a good mood and hope to stay this way all day.

The goal is to hit 21 days of not complaining. Yep, 21!! But, I’m not complaining ;)

If you end up saying something that makes you switch your bracelet to the other arm you have to start ALL OEVR again. If you were 5 days in and you slip, BOOM, back to day 1.

I don’t expect this experiment to make me in to a mushy push over, everyone has the right to speak their mind and have feelings, and I am looking to be able to redirect how I relay those feelings and thoughts to other people. More constructive instead of deconstructive. If you know me and my mouth…I could use this.

So, here we go. Wish me luck! I’ve had it on for 5 hours and 8 minutes and it’s on the same arm, so far, so good.

Interested in trying this yourself? Check it out. Here is a video on the website of Dr. Maya Angelou receiving the 6 millionth bracelet and her stories about learning not to complain. http://www.acomplaintfreeworld.org/maya-angelou-video

I know my last post was about drinking water but I feel the need to discuss this is a little more detail after my 9am boot camp today. The weather has taken a drastic change here in Chicago, going from 50’s-60’s and rain to 80’s and humid overnight and the effects of this change combined with how quickly it happened is showing up in the boot camp workouts.

We are not used to pushing through this kind of heat and humidity yet and probably not getting the water in that we did last summer since we are coming off a cold winter and people tend to not think about it.

Let’s start thinking of all the ways water is good for us and the best defense against dehydration and fatigue is to always have our water bottle with us and make it a habit to choose water for our main drink through out the day.

Here’s a few things to keep in mind the next time you don’t think you need to amp up your water intake or want to grab some pop:

1. Water is a natural way for the body to cleanse itself of toxins. Toxins from other things we eat, drink, inhale or put on our skin that get in to our body. A steady flow of water helps to flush the toxins out.

2. Digestion and metabolism; everything our body does, it needs water to do. Don’t forget over half our body weight is made of water so it must be pretty important. Drinking will help the food you eat to digest properly and move through your body.

3. Get rid of the mid-afternoon sluggish feeling with some re-hydration. If you are feeling tired don’t automatically assume you need a nap or more food. If you have been getting decent sleep and you have been eating normally through your day that tired feeling can be caused by dehydration so be sure to add a big glass of water to your lunch and afternoon snack. It can really give you some energy back!

4. Water also helps to regulate the body temperature. My campers were getting HOT when the sun decided to peak out at 9am and the cool lake breeze turned muggy. It’s a good idea to even bring an extra bottle of water to a hot workout so you can drink as much as you need instead of trying to conserve the 1 bottle you brought.

5. Don’t forget water is a little messenger carrying oxygen and nutrients to ALL of your cells. This includes joints and muscles that need some help recovering after a workout. Water can help your body heal and become stronger for the next workout.

I want to see a lot of full water bottles during our warmer months at boot camp. Please remember to drink all day long so you are ready for your morning workout, not just drinking during, it may be too late.