Category Archives: Seasonal Tips

Exercises for bad weather

Posted on by
Exercises for Bad Weather

Exercises for Bad Weather

There are many exercises for bad weather out there. People often use the excuse of bad weather as a reason they can???t get to the gym or to workout. There are many ways to work out besides going to the gym so that you can still stay healthy and in top shape.

Here are a few options to consider if you find weather is hindering you from getting to your workout.

  • Half an hour run through your neighborhood. Even on a day when there may be a lot of rain or snow outside it is very refreshing to go outside for a run and then come back inside to a warm house and a warm shower.
  • If you have stairs in your home you can use them to intensify your cardio. Run stairs for 1 minute intervals combined with some other cardio such as running on the spot, jumping jacks or high knees. This can give you a great workout.
  • Create your own interval workout. Pick 10 exercises and write them down. Here is an example: Shuffles side to side, Squats, Pushups, Jumping Jacks, Lunges (alternating), Burpies, Tricep Dips, Flurries (quick runs on the spot), Jog with high knees, Skip side to side on the spot. Perform each exercise for 30 – 60 seconds. Then take a break for the same amount of time. Then move onto the next exercise. You can perform this circuit of 10 exercises 1 – 3 times and it will give you a great workout.
  • If you want a full complete workout you can do at home, our Cardioblast.com workouts give you a great interval training workout that you can do anywhere as long as you have internet access. The workouts are 45 minutes long and require minimal equipment.

About the Author: Alex K is an online Fitness Professional providing health and wellness to the world through his online workout program Cardio Blast. Members of www.Cardioblast.com receive new cardio workouts every week, full meal planning, fitness tracking and customized online workout programs.

Valentines without sugar

Posted on by
Valentines without sugar

Valentines without sugar via Paper-Pixie

A Valentines without sugar seems impossible given all of the chocolate and candies we are bombarded with at the stores.

Most of the candy we buy, our favorites are those little valentines hearts, are 90%+ sugar. Basically they form sugar into a shape, add some artificial flavors and colours, and then call it valentines candy. The same goes for chocolate. Have you ever heard yourself saying “I’m craving some chocolate”. Most of us have and you’re probably not craving chocolate. You’re actually craving sugar!!

You see the first ingredient in most chocolate we buy is sugar – the ingredient that is the highest in quantity. You’ll be lucky if you get cocoa mass or cocoa butter in the top 5 ingredients but what you will get most of in chocolate is sugar! If you want to know what real chocolate tastes like, the kind that has all of the antioxidants in it, go to the baking section of your grocery store and buy 100% chocolate. This contains ONLY chocolate and will taste nothing like the chocolate that most of us buy.

We as a society crave, and are addicted to, sugar and of course this has many drawbacks to our health which have been discussed in previous blogs we have written. So how do you have a valentines without sugar and still feel like you are having a treat. Well there are many creative solutions.

For those of you that want chocolate you can buy that 100% chocolate, melt it down in a pot on the stove and then add a sweetener such as stevia or xylitol to it. These sweeteners won’t spike the glucose levels in your blood the same way sugar will. You can then sweeten the chocolate to whatever level you desire. Take the melted chocolate and eat it as is, put it into molds to create some cool shapes, or just let it harden and break it off into chunks.

Another great treat is to cook some frozen berries in a pot such as blueberries. Often when cooking blueberries we find they taste even sweeter than when they were raw. Take these cooked berries and dump them over some plain frozen yogurt for a yummy treat. Or let them cool in the fridge for a couple of hours and they will form a jelly like substance. Then you can mix them in with some plain greek yogurt to make a sweet, creamy treat.

Both of these options are very easy to do and give you great healthy alternatives to commercial grade candy that you buy in the store. They will taste great as well. There are many other things you can do. Just keep the mindset that you are trying to avoid excess sugar, artificial flavors and colors that most products contain in stores. For more information on great recipes and food ideas from our Cardio Blast Meal Plan please visit www.blog.cardioblast.com.

Avoid junk food at work during the holidays

Posted on by
Avoid Junk Food

Avoid Junk Food via Life Supercharger

Trying to avoid junk food during the holidays can often be challenging. Often co-workers will often bring junk food into work and eating this food can quickly add on extra calories. Just picture all of the Halloween candy or Christmas chocolates sitting in the lunch room at your office.

To avoid eating too much of these empty calorie foods we suggest bringing your own healthy snacks to work. Prior to visiting the lunch room, make sure you are mostly full with these healthy snacks. Then you can go and sample the other alternatives that your co-workers bring in without feeling hunger and wanting to fill up on them.

For more information on how Cardio Blast can help you stay in shape please visit our website at www.blog.cardioblast.com.

Stop weight gain during the holidays

Posted on by
Stop Weight Gain

Stop Weight Gain via ppurgedschneider

In order to stop weight gain during the Christmas holidays we need to focus on a few things. The holidays tend to be a time when we are busier and tend to eat more food than normal. This means we workout less and eat more calories. This of course is a bad combination as we have two things working against us.

To stop weight gain during the holidays we suggest scheduling your workouts during your day like you would schedule other meetings or appointments. This will ensure you stick to your workouts. Also since most of you have less time to work out we suggest you try interval training during your workouts. Interval training involves short bursts of intense exercise and this will burn more calories than steady exercise.This means you don’t have to work out as long as normal to burn the same number of calories.

We also suggest you keep track of your eating so you know how many extra calories you are eating. Remember that one pound is 3500 calories so for every 3500 extra calories you eat above and beyond your norm you can expect to gain a pound of weight. This is not very difficult to do especially given the high calories most Christmas goodies have in them.

Our Cardio Blast Ultimate Athletic Meal Plan and Cardio Blast Fitness Tracker give you great meal ideas and help you stay on track with your food consumption. For more information please visit www.blog.cardioblast.com.

Workout tip for the holidays

Posted on by
Workout tips for the holidays

Workout tips for the holidays via Pilar Azana

With the Christmas holidays around the corner we all need workout tips to keep in shape. Everyone is going to be busy with parties and celebrations. This means that it will get tougher to get your workouts done each day. One important workout tip is to schedule your workouts just like other events in your day so you don’t miss them. Using the Cardio Blast Fitness Tracker will help ensure you stay on top of your fitness and workout goals even if you are busy. For more information on Cardio Blast programming please visit our website at www.blog.cardioblast.com.