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Best Drinks To Have Before Bed

Published by superadmin on January 5, 2021 | Leave a response

Getting a good night’s sleep is extremely important. Not only does it help you concentrate better the next day, it can actually help you lose weight or prevent weight gain. A good night’s sleep improves your athletic performance and can improve heart health, too. It’s an important factor in preventing depression, as well. Reducing inflammation and boosting your immune system are highly important for your overall health and a good night’s sleep can do it. What you drink before you retire to the bedroom makes a difference. Here are some drinks to have before bed.

Hot chocolate is soothing, but warm milk helps you sleep better.

A cup of hot chocolate often comes with fond memories, like Christmas morning or an evening around the fire with family. Sure, a cup of cocoa or hot chocolate can help you sleep, but the chocolate contains stimulants. It’s better to opt for warm milk instead. Milk has calcium and calcium aids sleep. It also is warm and prepares your body for sleep. It aids with stress reduction, too. The tryptophan in milk helps your brain to slow nerve activity.

Herbal tea is good before bedtime.

You’ve probably heard that chamomile tea is calming and good for insomnia. It helps lower stress levels and can aid in getting better sleep. Other herbs such as valerian, also have a soothing, destressing action. Green tea contains theanine and that can promote good sleep. It lowers the stress hormones that tend to keep you awake. Add some ginger, orange peel, honey or peppermint to your tea to improve the results.

A glass of cherry juice can help bring on the ZZZZs.

Cherries are known to boost the quality of your sleep. It’s the tryptophan content in cherries that make it a great sleep aid. Tryptophan is required to make melatonin that regulates your sleep/wake cycle. Cherries also have melatonin. Tart cherries have the most. One study found that drinking a cherry juice concentrate improved nightly rest. Another study showed that people who drank two cups of cherry juice a day boosted their sleep time by an hour and 24 minutes, while relieving symptoms of insomnia.

Ashwagandha, also known as Indian ginseng, has been used to treat stress and anxiety. The root has compounds that increase sleep and the leaves promote non-REM sleep, which is when the body regenerates bones and tissue.
Who doesn’t love the smell of peppermint? While the smell of peppermint may be invigorating, drinking peppermint tea may help you sleep. The reason hypothesized is it does that by relieving gastrointestinal problems that may be keeping you awake.
Opt for golden milk, which is better than regular milk. Golden milk contains ginger, milk and turmeric, with all three providing compounds that help you sleep in a different way.
If you can’t drink regular milk or simply want an alternative, warm almond milk is good for sleep. Almonds have minerals and other compounds that promote sleep and help you sleep sounder.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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Which Cardio Burns Belly Fat?

Published by superadmin on December 25, 2020 | Leave a response

No matter how hard you work your abs, if you have a layer of fat covering them, nobody can see your hard work. While spot exercises create strong underlying muscles, when you lose weight, you lose it all over your body, not just in one spot. So finding the cardio that burns belly fat the best is actually finding one that burns the most calories.

Cardio may not be the best way to lose belly fat.

The truth is, the best fat burner is a combination of strength training and HIIT—high intensity resistance training. Strength training builds muscles as it burns calories and muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue does. HIIT isn’t a type of exercise, but a way of doing any exercise. It bounces between going at top intensity for a short period, such as 30 seconds to two minutes and then dropping back to a recovery intensity for the same amount of time or longer. You can use this technique with any cardio workout.

Take it easy and go walking or running, but modify it to a HIIT workout.

You probably put walking on the back burner, thinking it’s far too easy to burn tons of calories, but what about power walking. In fact, you can set your calorie burning ovens on high by making it a HIIT workout and adjusting the intensity. Not only does HIIT burn more calories in a shorter period, it burns extra calories longer. It increases your metabolism longer after you’ve finished exercising.

Bicycling can also be a HIIT workout and burn fat quickly.

No matter what type of exercise you do, including bicycling, using the HIIT technique helps burn more fat and that includes more belly—visceral—fat. In fact, some studies show that people doing HIIT workouts three times a week for a 20-minute session, lost not only fat, but inches around their waist, indicating belly fat disappeared, too. Burning off the visceral fat is not only good to flatten your stomach, but also important to your health. It’s the most dangerous type of fat to your health.

If you need to lose belly fat—which translates to losing weight—but have bad joints, try an elliptical workout. It’s a good cardio workout that doesn’t pound your joints like jogging and other types of exercise.
Remember to make your daily life more active to burn fat. You can run up and down stairs to burn calories and those burnt calories mean fat loss, which can also cause you to lose belly fat.
Create circuit training to burn belly fat. You can create a workout that burns fat more quickly. Just shorten the time between exercises to maximize the results.
No matter what type of exercise you do, what you eat is important. In fact, to get rid of belly fat, eating healthy should be your first step, with exercise forming the second.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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Why Running Outside Is Better

Published by superadmin on December 15, 2020 | Leave a response

Louisville, KY, is beautiful, which is one big reason that running outside is better. There are so many things to see and enjoy that it makes running better and less of a chore. If you’re running to some place, like a local coffee shop or to the store, all the more reason to enjoy a run. Are there other reasons beside enjoying the landscape, a purposeful run or visual enjoyment? There are.

While some treadmills offer adjustments to the incline, most don’t have a downward incline.

Going down hill always seems easier, but it’s also quite necessary. It helps strengthen the muscles in the front of your legs. Treadmills also can’t simulate twists and turns in the road. Treadmills don’t have an uneven surface like you might find on a trail, which makes running more challenging and works you harder. You get all those movements when you run outside. It works your muscles in more ways than a treadmill does.

If you run outside and not on a treadmill, you can do it anywhere.

Are you going on a vacation? Unless you’re staying at a hotel with a treadmill, you’re out of luck if that’s the mode of exercise you choose. However, if you run outside, it’s not a problem. You can do it anywhere and it could be a great way to get to know a city and watch the city start to bustle if you do it early in the day.

Breathing fresh air and getting out in the sun is healthy.

You’ll soak up more sunshine and that means an increase in vitamin D, when you workout in the fresh air. Studies also show that working out or running outside can lower your blood pressure, compared to running on a treadmill in the gym. There’s no drive to the gym, so you’ll save plenty of time and take less time getting to and from the gym.

Running outside can add variety to your workout and give you a break from the norm. That can help prevent burn out and increase your desire to stick with your exercise program.
If your run includes a local park or playground, you can take a break and use the equipment for some upper body workouts on the monkey bars and jungle gyms. There’s a wealth of workout equipment that is fun to use.
No matter where you run, you’ll get the benefit of boosting your cardio fitness and aid in keeping bones strong. Studies show that weight bearing exercise like running is even better than some medication for osteoporosis.
A personal trainer at Body Sculptors will be happy to design a program that includes alternating gym workouts and outside exercise. We believe working out, no matter where you do it, is important.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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Diets Without Meat

Published by superadmin on December 5, 2020 | Leave a response

You might be surprised at how many diets without meat there are. If you think of vegans immediately, it isn’t too surprising. That’s what people normally consider, a diet that has absolutely no animal products. Vegans not only cut out meat, fish, eggs and dairy, they also exclude food that contain those products. That includes food that has gelatin in, which is made from animal parts. Sweets, fruit snacks, many confections and even the frosting on Pop Tarts has gelatin. Any food with milk or eggs in the ingredients are not in the diet.

A lacto-vegetarian diet includes milk.

If you’re a lacto-vegetarian, you don’t eat meat, poultry, fish or eggs, but you do have dairy in your diet. Milk is allowed, so is cheese, yogurt and butter. If eggs are added to the diet, it’s a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet. By adding milk and eggs, it makes it easier to get all the types of protein that otherwise requires combining plant proteins for a strict vegetarian to achieve a completion. In the same vein of thought, ovo-vegetarians include eggs, but not dairy.

Pesco-vegetarians eat fish and seafood.

You get a wider variety of food as a pesco-vegetarian, also known as pescatarians. These people do not consume poultry or meat, but do include fish of all types in their diet, including shellfish. They may or may not include eggs and dairy, besides the fruits, vegetables and grain they consume. This type of diet tends to mirror a Mediterranean diet. It’s considered one of the healthiest diets by some and probably the easiest to follow. The Omega-3 fatty acid from the fish is just one reason for that.

There’s even a word for people that eat meat, but not much of it.

If you’re a flexitarian, you’re more of a vegetarian than a carnivore. You eat meat, but tend to eat more plant based protein than animal protein and get most of your calories from plant sources. While you aren’t restricted to fish or strictly vegetables, that tends to be what is on your plate. Cutting back on meat, having several days a week that are meatless, tends to be done more for health reasons, than moral or environmental reason. It’s far easier to design a balanced diet for a flexitarian than it is for other types of vegetarians, since everything can be consumed. It’s just a matter of how much.

Even if you aren’t a vegetarian, having a meatless Monday might be a boost to your health, but only if you’re replacing that meat with a healthy option.
Some people start out with one day a week meatless for their health and find out it makes a big difference in their budget and extend it to more days for even more savings.
Meatless meals and diets are catching on across America. You’ll find that even fast foods offer meatless options.
If you’re going vegan, eliminating all animal products, from your diet, study how to get a complete protein for each meal by making food combinations. Peanut or nut butter on whole wheat bread is one way and whole grain rice with beans is another.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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What I Wish I Knew Before I Started Working Out

Published by superadmin on November 25, 2020 | Leave a response

People often ask me what I wish I knew before I started working out and that’s tough to answer, since I fell like I’ve always been active and have been doing this for a while and forget. However, after working with so many people, I hear comments and remember many of the misconceptions that I had when I first started to get fitter. My first realization was that it all started with healthy eating and that a great body begins in the kitchen, not the gym.

Everyone needs to find his or her own motivation and set their own goals.

No matter how much you want to motivate someone, if you don’t find out why they want to look and feel better through a healthier lifestyle, you simply can’t. People need to have a personal reason and a personal motivation for those times that going to the gym isn’t a top priority. Nobody can give you that motivation or set your goals. Those things must come from you. If you’re here because your doctor said to come, then staying healthy is your goal and seeing your kids have kids or enjoying a healthy life longer.

Seeing progress takes time.

One of the biggest misconceptions, and often one of the most detrimental to your workout program, is the desire to see immediate results or thinking that you’ll get the same results every week. It took time for you to get out of shape or overweight and takes time to get your body back into shape. You should track your progress, doing everything it takes to see weight loss and a difference in your appearance, but some weeks you won’t see that progress. That’s because fitness isn’t always linear. We track your fitness to make sure that if it occurs for longer than a week, we make some changes to your program.

NEVER compare yourself to another person or their progress.

No two people are alike. That’s a mantra personal trainers say every day. Their progress will go differently, too. Men may lose weight faster than women because they have a higher ratio of muscle tissue. Your neighbor may progress faster when it comes to strength. Don’t compare yourself to anyone, even if you’re the one that’s making the best progress. At some point, the tables will turn, so only compete against yourself.

Fitness can be fun. If you’re looking at the workout in the gym with awe and some reservation, you need to take a step back and reconsider. You can do fun activities to get fit. We even offer small group activities, where you and friends can have fun getting fit together.
You don’t have to go it alone or reinvent the wheel. Sometimes, using the expertise of others is the best route to take to get the quickest results. There’s no shame in getting help from experts in any area.
Scheduling a time and making an appointment with fitness will help you stick to the program. When you are developing a habit, like working out, doing it at the same time encourages it to develop.
Changing your mind about working out and eating healthy makes a huge difference. If you only focus on the negatives and not the positives, you’ll get discouraged really soon. Feel how the workout energizes you and how tasty healthy food can be, not on what you can’t eat.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

How To Meal Plan And Hit Your Goals

Published by superadmin on November 15, 2020 | Leave a response

We focus on all aspects of fitness at Body Sculptors in Louisville, KY. Not only is working out important to get to your proper weight and level of fitness, so is eating healthy. In fact, most trainers feel that a great body starts in the kitchen, not in the gym. To make eating healthy easier, planning your meals and preparing them ahead is the best option, especially for busy people. If you don’t know how to meal plan, it’s a process where you create menus, cook ahead and have the meals ready to warm every night. We make it easier by creating the menus for you, but you can do it on your own.

You need to plan ahead so you have all the ingredients.

Creating the menus for the week is probably the hardest part of meal planning. It’s also one of the reasons most people fail to do it more than a few weeks. Finding food you like that has the right number of nutrients, contains fewer calories and uses only healthy ingredients is tough, but still doable. The internet offers a variety of menus from which to choose. However, if you want to save time and have a less stressful way to do it, just use our app. It contains meals designed by nutritionists based on your personal input.

Taking a few hours on the weekend can save time during the week.

If you’re too tired to think about what to eat after a long day of work and often opt for carryout, planning a weekly menu and preparing food ahead is perfect for you. In fact, it’s often quicker than waiting in line at a drive-through. Chop all your fresh vegetables at once for every meal that week. If you’re having melons or other fruit, get it ready, whether it’s dessert or a snack. Use everything. If you’re making a dish with chicken, use the bones to make a broth for a soup later. Bake two main dishes in the oven at the same time, which will cut your time in the kitchen.

Pack your food in individual serving sizes.

Is portion control a problem? If you meal prep ahead it doesn’t have to be that way. When you’re hungry, it’s not the perfect time to decide how much you should eat, nor is it the best time to shop for the week’s groceries. That’s why shopping is done in one day, after you’ve eaten and portions are determined when you cook on the weekend. You can ingredients in a main dish one day, such as green beans, and as a side dish another day.

Don’t forget that leftovers, especially fresh cut vegetables, can go into a soup if they’re not eaten during the week. You can make the broth from left over meat and bones.
Some people save money by checking the food on sale and using in season fruits and vegetables when they plan menus.
Meal planning can save money, since you can include the ingredients in other items that week so nothing goes to waste. You also can make enough for extra servings and freeze it for later.
Planning meals ahead and cooking them over the weekend, lets you get the whole family in on the process. You can take your list to the grocery and have the kids help, while also getting them to help you cook on those days. It’s a good lesson on healthy eating and great family time.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Favorite Health Food Stores

Published by superadmin on November 5, 2020 | Leave a response

I am writing this blog because so many clients ask about the best health food stores and want information on where to go. You’ll really be surprised at my answer. Any grocery with an organic fruits, vegetables and meat selection are the best places for health foods. I love the organic section, but it’s not necessary to buy only organic fruit and vegetables. Food on the Clean 15 list are relatively free from pesticides, so choosing non organic avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, frozen sweet peas, onions, papaya, eggplant, cauliflower, mushrooms, asparagus, cantaloupe, broccoli, kiwi, honey dew melon and cabbage will save you money.

Organic meat, eggs from free-range chickens and butter or milk from grassfed cows are also a high priority.

You might have expected a different answer, but any store that sells these products gets an honorable mention from me. What the animals eat makes a difference. Butter from grassfed cows actually has more nutrients, including conjugated linoleic acid, which is good for heart health. Eggs from free-range chickens have more vitamin D and less cholesterol. Organic meat doesn’t contain hormones and let’s not forget choosing sea food and fish from wild sources.

Go to local Farmer’s Markets for in season fruits and vegetables.

If you want to get food at it’s peak, choose local options. Another source of health food is the Farmer’s Market. Local farmers, particularly those that do organic farming, provide healthy options for all meals. You get to talk to each vendor and get a feel on how they farm and whether they use pesticides. Remember, the healthiest options always contain the least amount of ingredients and no preservatives or pesticides. So starting with fresh fruits and vegetables from locally grown sources is a great idea.

Look for whole food markets and natural food markets for a good selection.

I don’t want to name specific markets, since I like all the local whole food stores and natural markets around and go to several of them, particularly when items are on sale. Some of the healthiest stores I go to actually have some lower prices than you might expect. I focus more on whole foods than nutritional supplements, unless you have a special need that requires supplementing nutrition, such as not digesting food as well.

We’re lucky enough to have many groceries and whole food markets dedicated to healthy eating, but also several healthy options for a dinner or lunch out. If you’re going out to eat, look for natural food options.
If you do meal planning, you’ll save money. It is often a savings that’s more than the extra you spend buying organic.
Grow your own. Some people have a chicken or two for eggs. Others don’t want to be that involved, but raise a garden. Just one tomato plant in a tub can provide both satisfaction and tomatoes for meals.
Shop where you can buy whole foods in bulk. You’ll save money and time getting some ingredients in bulk. If you’re near a pick-your-own farm, it’s a money saving way to get healthy ingredients and have some family fun picking.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Why Is Salmon Recommended Over Other Types Of Fish?

Published by superadmin on October 25, 2020 | Leave a response

If you’ve just started focus on eating healthier, you’ll often find salmon, more than any other fish. Why is that? What makes salmon so healthy? First, most fatty fish are healthy, they have high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, which are known to play an important role in the health of the brain and heart. These fish include salmon, lake trout, sardines and albacore tuna. Some fatty fish, such as swordfish, shark, king mackerel and tilefish, have the potential for high levels of mercury

The type of salmon you choose makes a difference.

If you can, avoid farmed salmon, although it’s far cheaper. It has fewer vitamins and a less healthy balance of omega-6 to omega-3. Wild salmon contains 3.4 grams of Omega-3, while the farmed kind contains 4.2 grams. While that might seem better, the difference comes from the amount of omega-6. Wild salmon has 341 mg, while farmed has 1,944 grams of omega-6. Studies show that the American diet already has too much omega-6. It also has more saturated fat. Wild salmon is more expensive, but it’s worth the extra investment. The difference in the profile comes from the type of food the two eat. Farmed fish eat processed food for fish, while wild salmon eat what nature provided, various invertebrates. It’s similar to the difference of nutrition between grass fed beef and grain fed beef. Grass fed is healthier.

Salmon has high amounts of protein.

The amount of protein you get depends on the type of salmon you’re eating. Three ounces of wild Atlantic salmon and sockeye salmon both have 21.6 grams of protein. Coho salmon has more with 23.3 grams. The amount of potassium also makes a difference. Wild Atlantic salmon contains the most with 534 grams, while sockeye and Coho salmon both have 387 for a 3-ounce serving.

Salmon contains potassium and phosphorous.

Phosphorous is necessary to help calcium build strong bones and teeth. Salmon is high in phosphorous, with a three ounce serving containing from 218 milligrams to 286 based on the type you serve. Wild salmon contains the least with sockeye salmon containing the most. Salmon also contains potassium, which helps support your muscle functioning and keeps your heart beating normally.

Salmon contains a higher amount of selenium that gives your immune system a boost and keeps your thyroid in good working order. You need approximately 55 micrograms a day. A three ounce serving of pink salmon has approximately 44 grams and sockeye, wild and coho salmon has about 36 micrograms.
Salmon is heart healthy. It’s the omega-3 fatty acids that help protect your heart by keeping your blood vessels in food health. It helps prevent clots, lowers blood pressure and lower triglycerides.
If you choose salmon, rather than red meat, you’ll lower your cholesterol, which helps reduce the potential of clogged arteries that increases the risk of heart attack.
Salmon can fit into any type of diet. It doesn’t contain any carbohydrates, making it good for low carb diets. It also is versatile and can be made a number of ways, including grilling or baking.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

How To Stay Physically And Mentally Healthy When You’re Stuck At Home

Published by superadmin on October 15, 2020 | Leave a response

Everyone has coped differently during the quarantine, unfortunately, many people found their coping skills wanting and didn’t make the best use of time. It’s tough stay physically and mentally healthy when you’re stuck at home unless you have a plan of action. While you thought you’d get a lot done with all the time from work, you may have found that the only thing you accomplished was putting on weight. Here are some ideas to help if you find you have free time and are stuck at home.

Focus on healthy eating and planning meals ahead.

Maybe it’s time to get a start on meal planning. Of course, it all starts with finding out what you already have, so cleaning cupboards and the refrigerator and freezer should be your first step. Your meals should have a protein, fruits and vegetables and a starchy food, like Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes or brown rice. If fresh produce is on sale, buy it and freeze it for later. Create menus that are healthy and freeze portions for later, when you aren’t stuck at home. Get healthy snacks like fresh veggies to munch on between meals. We offer an online nutrition program to make meal planning easier.

Get exercise.

If you don’t have a formal exercise plan, just taking a walk will do. Get outside and enjoy. For those ultra cold, hot or rainy days when getting outside is impossible have an exercise routine written down. If you’re a client, get help from your personal trainer to create a go-to workout plan. Staying active can help prevent stress eating and lower the stress level dramatically. Remember, stress hormones like cortisol can cause the accumulation of abdominal fat.

Create a sleep schedule and stick with it.

Getting adequate sleep is important for your health, but when your schedule is thrown asunder, is often difficult to get. You either stay up late watching television or sleep too much to avoid the depression that isolation can cause. Keeping your daily schedule can help you get back to normal when you’re no longer stuck at home.

Go through your daily rituals each morning, showering, getting dressed and brushing your teeth. It’s easy to skip them, but can make your day more normal.
Busy hands are happy hands. Create a list of things you need to do around the house that you never seem to have time to do. Do one each day and check it off your list. You’ll love that feeling of accomplishment.
Appreciate what you have. Being grateful for what you have, rather than feeling sorry for yourself for what you don’t is good advice whether you’re stuck at home or not.
Stay connected to family and friends. Whether you use a video option, phone call or text, communicating with family and friends can help improve your day. Humans are meant to socialize and today we have ways to do it without leaving the house.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in Fitness & Wellness