Fitness Contrarian

For most people, how many carbohydrates they eat will determine whether they are gaining, maintaining or losing weight. Limiting your carbohydrate intake is probably your best weight loss option.

Figuring out what your Carbohydrate Sweet Spot is for Weight Loss can be confusing. We all need to eat nutritious carbs like fruits and vegetables for good health. We want to cut back; however, on the empty calorie carbs like breads, pasta, rice and processed high carbohydrate foods such as soda, cake and cookies. In addition, we have to take into account how active we are. If you’re sitting behind a desk all day you should obviously be eating less carbohydrates then someone doing manual labor all day (…)

Dieting and exercising over the holidays can be very challenging. I find the last two weeks of December to be the likeliest two weeks of the year to gain weight. Most people will gain about five pounds or more over the holiday season. We are all so busy and off our normal schedules. Eating right and finding the time to exercise is almost impossible for a number of us; therefore, this year follow my two-week holiday diet and exercise plan to avoid gaining weight over the holidays.

This plan will let you enjoy your favorite foods at holiday parties while eliminating calories at other times of the day so you won’t gain weight. You will be exercising for short periods first thing in the morning (…)

With all the joy and happiness the holidays can bring, it is also a very stressful time. Reducing stress during the holidays can be challenging. There are so many additional things to do such as shopping, hosting parties, going to parties, etc. Just being thrown off your normal schedule can be overwhelming.

How to Reduce Stress During the Holidays (…)

You have to cut down on sodium to have a healthy diet. Most people in America eat an average of 3,400 mg of sodium a day while the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) is less than 2,400 mg which is just about a teaspoon of table salt. I recommend you limit your sodium to no more than 1,500 mg per day and even less, if you have high blood pressure. I try to eat less than 1,000 mg of sodium per day.

Research has shown that reducing your sodium to less than 1,300 mg per day can reduce artery stiffness by up to 46 percent in just two weeks (…)

Finding the right gift for someone is never easy. To help you out this holiday season I decided to make up a list of my top 6 health and fitness gift ideas for the fitness enthusiast and athlete. Everything on the list I have personally used and recommend.

Top 6 Fitness Gift Ideas:

1-Bowflex Dumbbells are top on my list. A number of my personal training clients have them and they work great. One stack of weights go from 2.5 pounds up to 52 pounds while not taking up too much room. The exact model I recommend is the Bowflex SelectTech 552 Dumbbells. I looked around for the best price and found it on Amazon. In addition, I recommend you purchase the matching stand that goes with the dumbbells which is the Bowflex SelectTech 552 / 1090 Dumbbell Stand. Likewise, if you want to go all out, get the bench as well. The Bowflex SelectTech Adjustable Bench Series 3.1 is a good value. Anyone who is into resistance training will love this set up (…)