Fitness & Wellness

One of the things that many of our clients in Chino Hills, CA, love about kickboxing, is that it helps them get rid of that muffin top. Not only do they take off extra pounds, all that kicking and twisting the body works the obliques and helps tighten the waistline. Muffin tops are also called love handles and even if the names are cute, the actual flab isn’t. It dangles over the waistband of your jeans and looks like you’ve got a tire around your waist, which brings us to the other nickname, “spare tire.”

All types of muffin tops start in the kitchen.

Whether you’re talking about the top of an actual muffin or that roll of flesh that hangs over the top of your jeans, it begins in the kitchen. No matter how much you exercise, if you’re overweight, you’ll still have excess flesh that’s primarily fat coating the outer layer of your body, so your hard efforts won’t show. Start with a healthy diet that consists primarily of whole foods without extra sugar or processed foods. Cardio workouts help burn calories and so do strength building ones. You need to tone while you shed those extra pounds.

Working on your core muscles is important.

Whether it’s your belly, back or sides, toning your body, particularly core muscles, helps slim you down and improve your silhouette. You can start to eliminate love handles by doing exercises, such as Superman. Superman tightens the lower back and abdomen. Lay on the floor with your face down, arms straight ahead and legs stretched out straight, looking a bit like Superman in flight. Now the real work begins. Tighten your core muscles and lift your arms and legs up at the same time and hold for 10 to 20 seconds.

A bicycle crunch can help tone those obliques.

When you tighten and tone the obliques, you’ll be smashing that muffin top. For a bicycle crunch, lay on your back, lifting your feet as you bend your knees and have your calves parallel to the floor. Put your hands behind your head and bring your left knee to your right elbow as you straighten your right leg. Then bring the right knee to the left elbow and back down, as though you’re pedaling a bike.

• Do a Russian twist, sit on a mat and press your feet into the ground with knees bent. Lean your body back. Join your hands together and rotate to one side and then to the other side as you twist your torso. As you get stronger, hold a dumbbell.
• A butt lift can smash those muffin tops and tighten your tummy. Lay on the floor with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Lift your bottom until your body for a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Lower and repeat.
• Add weights to your workout. Whether it’s a cardio workout or not, carrying a little extra weight in the form of a dumbbell or ankle weights can help burn up extra calories.
• You’ll watch those muffin tops melt when you use our personal training option or sign up for kickboxing. Try our special five kickboxing class offer that includes gloves to learn how kickboxing burns fat.

For more information, contact us today at One Love Fit Club

I know you’ve heard it or read that you should avoid processed foods if you want to eat healthy. I’ve even had it in my blogs. While it’s a generalization that is often true, it doesn’t mean all processed foods are bad for you. Processing may take away some of the nutrition, but what makes food unhealthy is often the additives. Cooking any food means you’re processing it, so unless you’re on a diet of raw food, processing isn’t always bad.

Whole foods are foods with the least amount of processing.

Processed food includes food that’s dehydrated, milled, canned, cooked or frozen. In some cases, the concern is that the nutritional quality of the food is lowered, but most of the time, it’s all about the changes made to the food with additives. Sugar and salt are two of them to watch for in food. Sugar, is often called other names, like fructose, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, honey and etc. To make food look like it has less sugar, manufacturers often use several types of sugar, so it’s not at the top of the ingredient list. It’s important to be able to interpret the labels.

You can save money and time by making smart choices when it comes to processed food.

The fewer the number of ingredients in any processed food, the traditional thinking is the healthier it is. Food like canned beans, which contains beans and salt, can be rinsed and put on a salad to add nutrition without taking hours of time. Water packed tuna, canned salmon, frozen fruits and vegetables without extra additives are all healthy alternatives to their fresh counterparts and can save money.

Nix the refined grains, food with added sugar, those with chemicals with names you can’t pronounce and food with added salt.

When you start reading a label and it feels like you’re back in chemistry class, it’s time to put down the food and walk away from the grocery shelf. Processed food that contains refined grains, like white flour and even white rice, has no place in a healthy diet. All the good nutrients in the bran and the germ were milled away. Studies show that too many refined grains can lead to health issues.

Some frozen fruit and vegetables without added sugar or salt is often fresher than those you find in the store. The frozen options are normally picked closer to ripening and studies show they may have the same or even more nutrients than fresh counterparts found in the grocery.

Don’t read the front of the package with all the health claims that make you want to pick it up without checking. Always look at the ingredient list. The fewer the ingredients, the better.

You can often make your own nut butter, such as natural peanut butter, at whole food stores free after you purchase the nuts, but that’s not the only place for wholesome nut butters. Healthy natural peanut butters on the market only contain peanuts and sometimes a bit of salt.

Eating healthy doesn’t have to cost a fortune when you know how to save money. Neither should staying in shape. You can start your journey to fitness at One Love Fit Club for just $29.99.

Weight loss and getting in shape over 40 isn’t nearly as easy as it is for a 20 year old. What once took a few months may take twice as long and you won’t bounce back as quickly after a tough workout. The body starts losing muscle tissue naturally in the mid to late thirties. You can lose between three and five percent every decade with about 30 percent muscle tissue loss for most men during their lifetime. The lower amount of muscle mass you have the slower your metabolism, since muscle tissue requires more calories for maintenance than fat tissue does.

If you’re inactive, expect to lose more muscle and gain more weight.

Not only does working out reverse the loss of muscle mass, it also burns calories. Excess calories are what put the weight on in the first place. When you workout, you’ll boost your circulation, which sends oxygen and nutrient rich blood to all parts of your body, so your skin will look younger, too. Strength training for both men and women can help burn off tons of calories, build muscle and take off weight.

Eat healthier.

Obesity has become epidemic in America and now, because many of our fast food restaurants are worldwide, has become a problem everywhere. At one time, the Japanese had little problem with obesity, but now it’s running rampant as their cultural eating patterns change. Eliminating sugary products in your diet and focusing on whole foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables or lean protein, can help you shed those pesky pounds that seem to want to stick.

Eating healthy isn’t dieting.

One of the biggest problems with dieting is that diets always end. Sometimes, they end in success and sometimes with a pizza, beer and bread sticks. Either way, you go back to old eating habits that packed on the pounds in the first place. Instead of dieting, making smarter choices when it comes to food will never leave you feeling deprived or hungry. In fact, you can eat some of your favorite foods, just not frequently and keeping portion control in mind.

• What you drink makes a difference. Soft drinks add extra empty calories and diet drinks are bad too. Studies show that both can add inches to your middle, which means more visceral fat, the most unhealthy type to have.
• Getting adequate sleep can help you lose weight. When you lack sleep, your body makes less leptin, the hormone that makes you feel full and your body goes full steam on producing ghrelin, the hunger hormone.
• Eat more of your carbohydrates in the morning for extra energy and less at night. Make your dinner your light meal and lunch your main meal. The earlier you eat, the better and the less chance the food has to turn to fat.
• Come in to One Love Fit Club and start a workout program. I offer personal training if you want extra help. You’ll love our kickboxing classes that burn off calories quickly, while you’re having fun!

For more information, please contact us today at One Love Fitclub

If you continuously run out of energy before the end of the day, exercise will help. You may say that you don’t have time to exercise, but think about the time you use online or watching videos or TV! You may say, “Hey, that’s my entertainment. It’s my way of getting rid of the stress of the day. I enjoy it.” We get that. Everyone should have something they enjoy as a treat after a full day of work. That’s why kickboxing can be the perfect way to get the workout that builds your energy and burns off stress. It’s so much fun!!!!

The body is amazing. The harder you work it, the more energy you have.

Sure, the first time you go to a kickboxing class, you’ll go home feeling dragged out. It’s a good kind of tired, since you’ll also have that euphoric feeling from burning off stress and increasing those happy hormones that happens when you exercise. The longer you attend kickboxing training, the more energized you’ll feel as it builds your endurance and strength.

You’ll start to feel more energized after you workout.

When you kickbox, it boosts your circulation and sends oxygen and nutrient laden blood to all cells of your body. It energizes you as it improves your focus and cognitive functioning, which includes your concentration. It provides a type of high-intensity interval training that has been found to increase attention and short-term memory. You’ll be ready to take on the world.

You’ll get better sleep after you start kickboxing.

That exercise helps you to get a better quality of rest and even helped people with insomnia. One study published in the Journal of Sleep Research, April 2015 edition, found that as little as 150 minutes of exercise every week reduced the symptoms of insomnia and improved sleeping patterns. Not only does it reduce stress and improve overall mood, it helps reset the circadian rhythm that dictates the awake/asleep cycle. More sleep means more energy the next day.

Kickboxing can help you lose weight. Losing weight can help with several sleep issues, such as sleep apnea, acid reflux or back pain. The higher quality of sleep you get, the more rested you’ll feel.

You’ll have fun when you use kickboxing as your type of exercise. There’s nothing more energizing as having fun.

The longer you workout, the more you’ll notice a boost in your energy. It won’t take long before you’ll find you get everything done faster and have energy to spare at the end of the day.

If you’re feeling exhausted at the end of the day, it’s time to change all that. Call, message or come in and find out how we can help. At One Love Fit Club, we offer both kickboxing classes and personal training, which can help boost your energy level quickly.

Want to Learn More About KickBoxing?

Contact me today here or call me at 909-529-2201.

There are so many different ways to change lifestyles to a healthier one, that trying to do everything at once can be daunting. It’s much easier to develop one new healthy habit or maybe two, at once, then move on the next one. For instance, choose the one that’s the hardest for you to do, such as eating healthier or working out. Then move on to the next.

Trade a bad habit for a good one.

Some people find that quitting smoking is easier when they build the habit of exercise at the same time. There’s a good reason for it. Exercise can help relieve stress and quitting smoking can create a lot of stress. The two work well together. Short periods of physical activity help eliminate the urge to smoke during the exercise and for up to 50 minutes after it’s finished. You’ll strengthen your lungs and heart at the same time. It helps burn calories at a time when weight gain often occurs and improves your mood to keep you on track.

It takes anywhere from 21 days to 6 months to develop a habit, but most of the time sixty-six days will have you doing it automatically.

Do you have to wait two months to start the next new habit? Absolutely not. Two to three weeks to get into the groove of the first new healthy habit is enough. If you started with exercise, it’s time to add healthy eating to your new healthy goals. That can start slowly, like cutting out sugar first until you no longer crave it. Next eliminate processed food from your diet. You can build on those two things until you automatically choose healthier options when you eat.

Identify the new behavior or habit you want and create a goal to help you achieve it.

Maybe you find you don’t drink enough water. That might sound silly, but dehydration can cause health issues. Find ways to include more water in your diet. Instead of grabbing a soft drink or cup of coffee on a break, make it a point to drink a bottle of water. Carry water with you at all times at first and sip on it at least once or twice an hour. Track your progress. While drinking more water is the example, this works for all new habits.

• Stay vigilant, particularly when you first begin the change. Put the new habit you want to develop on your schedule. Create an alarm with your cell phone to remind you. Track your successful completion each time you do the new habit.
• Don’t worry if you mess up at first, just get back on track as though you didn’t miss a day. Habits take time to develop, so give yourself that time.
• Make sure you get adequate sleep while you’re developing the new habit. Lack of sleep can ruin your resolve and make sticking with your program harder. If you have an erratic sleep schedule, you might want to start there.
• Remember every step you take to live healthier is a step in the right direction. It took you years to form bad habits, but changing them doesn’t have to take years. However, it won’t happen overnight. Just keep your focus and stick with it.