Friday, March 21, 2014

The Meat/Blood Pressure Equation, Fitness Trackers, and a Crazy Workout: Friday Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

Happy Friday Fit Friends!!

It's time for your weekly dose of Tips, Tricks and Inspiration to cheer you into your weekend. How has your week been?

I have had some physical challenges this week and had to employ the strategy of rest to heal up my right foot once again. I am finally fed up with this ongoing right foot issue and have committed to myself to go to the podiatrist the next time it starts acting up. I'm no doctor but my best guess is it's a stress fracture. I am on my feet all day at work so I have to take good care of them. I also finally got fed up with a pair of my work shoes that seem to exacerbate the issue and have ordered replacements. I'm sticking with Reikers, by far the best fitting, most pain-free shoes I've ever owned!

Finding the Right Fitness Tracker

Good equipment is paramount, isn't it? Sometimes it's worth paying a bit more to get the thing that really is a good "fit" for you. My tip this week is to consider purchasing a fitness tracker to help you in your health goals. I personally love my Fitbit One because it not only counts my steps and other activity with it's accelerometer, it also differentiates between light, moderate and "very active" activity. This motivates me to pick it up as the day nears an end. Don't take my word for it though, here is a helpful review of several different fitness products. Not included in this review are the Weight Watcher's ActiveLink product which is surprisingly much lower priced than most of its competitors and can be even used in the pool! Also not included is the BodyMedia armband, offspring of the once-popular BodyBugg, made famous by the show, Biggest Loser. I believe both these last two products do require subscriptions to access their measurements. Check it out for yourself and consider treating yourself to a very useful step up from a simple pedometer.

Why You Might Want to Eat Less Meat

Are you or someone you know suffering from high blood pressure? Here's a simple trick to lower that number In my wellness reading recently I came across this JAMA paper review on Obesity Panacea that shows eating less meat can help lower blood pressure. Having been raised in a rural area, I am from the meat-eater ancestral pool. I have been vegetarian for several months at a time but it is not a way of life that is sustainable for me personally. Nonetheless, "Meatless Monday" and "Fish Friday" have helped me reduce the amount of meat our family eats and we also have meatless lunches at least half our days. Take a look at the article for yourself and see if there are some practical changes you can make.

Bookend Your Weekend Days with Workouts

Finally, a little inspiration for your weekend. If you tend to overdo on the weekends, try book-ending each day with a couple of workouts. Research shows that working out on the weekends makes us more mindful not only of what we are consuming but also of the work it takes to burn off the excess.  I tried out this SparkPeople video recently and it gave me a good run for my money! It's an all-over toning plus cardio piece that runs 28 minutes total. Give it a shot and let me have your thoughts! My commitment for the weekend (Friday through Sunday) is to break my workout into two pieces - morning and evening - so I'm less tempted to overdo on the snacks and alcohol. If you have some other inspiring weekend motivators for us, please share them in the comments.

2 comments:

Kitty said...

I currently use a Fitbit but had a Weight Watchers ActiveLink. It does require a subscription at $5 a month in addition to the cost of the monitor. But, what I really didn't like about it was that it didn't give me the data that the Fitbit gives me. The Active Link tells you how many WW Activity Points you've earned and shows you a graph of your activity. That is all. It doesn't tell you how many steps you've walked (or run) and doesn't tell you how many calories you've burned. That is why I prefer my Fitbit.

Dreena M. Tischler said...

Thank you Kitty! That is a helpful differentiation. I would have never dreamed ActiveLInk didn't report steps -- such a basic bit of information.

I love that Fitbit lets me "friend" people so I have a little friendly competition for my day's steps. I'm losing currently but plan to beat them this week!