REST is BEST!

Hello again Bloggers!

We know it’s been a while since we’ve posted something for you, but we, just like all of you, were enjoying our mid-semester break!

Hopefully this blog post was worth the wait!

Come one, come all! Find out just how good it is for your body when you do… not much at all. This week’s entry is dedicated to my favourite days of the week – REST DAY!

We at HealthyU love a good rest day, especially after a busy week of exercise and uni, so we thought we would discuss WHY a rest day is important, HOW to get the most from your rest days and WHAT to eat on a rest day, as well as WHEN the best day to set as a rest day is.

To put it simply – REST IS BEST!

It is crucial to have a rest day amongst a busy work out schedule to promote a quick recovery and decrease the chances of extreme fatigue. Just like the consumption of proteins post-work out is important, a rest day is equally vital in your health and fitness journey for a very important reason – muscle repair!

If you are new to exercise, it is important to alternate your workouts so that you are easing into your program or routine. A good starting point would be a “Day on, day off” approach, where you would exercise one day and rest the following. Alternatively, if you feel that you are in a great work out routine at the moment, but like so many others you neglect the rest day, perhaps a two on one approach would be suitable to ensure that you take the necessary time to rest. My current workout plan is pretty simple. I go hard with some cardio on a Monday, do some weights training on a Tuesday and rest on a Wednesday. Thursday I’m back in for more weights training, Friday I’ll try a group fitness class or some circuit training (check out our WOW for some ideas) and will have Saturday reserved for rest as well!

For a basic run down of why you need a rest day, check out this quick link for a UK fitness site, complete with DIY therapy ideas for muscle fatigue or soreness.

http://www.ffnetwork.co.uk/fitnessfacts/recovery.php

Whatever kind of workout plan you decide to follow, it is first important to keep yours goals in mind. Sometimes the idea of the perfect body or losing a certain amount of weight by a deadline can cause our minds to go into overdrive, which will often lead to over doing it on the exercise front. The truth is, by doing this and skipping your rest days, you may think it will help you achieve results faster but it is actually slowing you down! After some time of over working the body, your muscles will actually start to deteriorate, decreasing your fitness and making it highly likely that you will ruin your progress and add that weight right back on!

Having a rest day every now and then will ensure two things:

1: You will repair your body and your strengths much easier and a lot quicker

2: You will continue to love exercising and fitness – because you lower the risk of hurting yourself!

“Your body builds itself when you are not working out. Most people who think that working out six days a week is an absolute must, think wrong! Your body needs time to recover and giving it just one Sunday to do that is not enough. It needs more than that.”

Find out more HERE: http://healthmeup.com/news-diet-fitness/importance-of-rest-days-in-a-workout-plan/3055

Once again, HealthyU bloggers, don’t be too alarmed if you are feeling sore after your workouts:

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (or DOMS) is the feeling of muscular stiffness, soreness or fatigue that is often experienced for the first day or two after an extreme workout. Particularly painful if you are new to exercise – but here at HealthyU, WE LOVE DOMS!

Some quick and easy ways to get rid of DOMS are:

– Wait it out: Rest and recover for the next day

– Some light stretching or a walk on your rest day

– Try a Yoga class

DOMS is a really good indication of how hard you have pushed yourself throughout your workout, and is an adaptation process to a new or more intense routine. This soreness is a good thing though, as it leads to improved strength and stamina as your muscles recover and build. This is why we love rest days when DOMS kicks in!

To find out more about Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness: Check out this easy to read article on About.com: http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/injuries/a/doms.htm

Okay so now you know why a day of rest is important, but what are you going to eat on your 24 hours of relaxation. Well you may be thinking that you need to follow a strict diet and make sure you are eating correctly as to not lose all your progress.

Don’t worry; eating what you want on this day won’t really make that much of a difference as long as you have well timed meals that are still relatively healthy. However if you eat the right kind of meals you may in fact generate a positive effect for your body allowing you to recover more quickly (The Food Guru, 2012). On a rest day you body is dealing with the broken down muscle fibres and deleted energy stores that have been used throughout the week. So make sure you don’t skimp on any nutritional food and you will feel much better the next day (The Food Guru, 2012).

Now when planning meals for your rest day you need to take into account the amount proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. You want to eat carbohydrates such as whole wheat breads, pasta, brown rice, so as to restore you energy stores (Vaesa. J, 2010). Eating a lot of proteins is also very useful in helping the development of new muscles, along with some unsaturated fats you will be ready for exercise the very next day (Vaesa. J, 2010). So to help you with making a decision on what you will cook for your rest day meals I will provide a couple to help you out.

So one of the meals that I recommend for one of your day off meals is fried rice. This is the perfect meal to replace those calories that you burnt during you workouts containing a total of 605 per serving. The recipe that I will provide was even used by the cyclists participating in the Tour de France in 2010, so here it is (Megroz. G, 2012):

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
• 2–3 green onions, diced or thinly sliced
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• COOKED 2 cups cooked rice
• COOKED 1 cup boneless chicken thighs (2–3 pieces)
• 1 cup frozen peas and corn

Directions:

1. Bring a lightly oiled sauted pan to medium/high heat.
2. Add the garlic and green onions and saute for about one minute.
3. In a small bowl, beat the eggs and soy sauce vigorously and pour into the hot pan. The pan should be hot enough to cause the eggs to fluff.
4. Stir the eggs to cook them quickly.
5. Add the rice and cooked chicken thighs and fry the mixture for five to six minutes.
6. Add the peas and corn and cook until the vegetables heat through and are vibrant in color.

Another recovery recipe that I recommend is definitely going to be something that you enjoy; Hot Chocolate!

That’s right, hot chocolate contains approximately the same amount of protein and carbohydrates as Gatorade and has been shown to work on a similar level in professional events, making it the perfect relaxation food while still improving your recovery. A great recipe is this one I found (Megroz. G, 2012):

Ingredients:

• 4 cups whole milk
• 11 ounces Bittersweet chocolate ~60-70%, Finely chopped
• 3 Tablespoons Confectioners’ Sugar

Directions:

1. Warm milk in medium sauce pan until steaming slightly, take care not to boil over.
2. Slowly whisk in chopped chocolate.
3. Whisking constantly reduce at a low simmer for 4-5 minutes
4. Whisk in Confectioners’ sugar to your desired sweetness.

Both of these recipes are from this website so go have a look at the others which they provide:

http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/nutrition/The-Top-10-Recovery-Foods.html

Anyway that’s all for this blog post, remember to take care of yourself and always strive to be the HealthyU.

The Food Guru (2012) Rest Day Diet. Retrieved From:

http://foodguru802.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/rest-day-diet.html

Vaesa, J (2010) What to Eat on Recovery Days Between Workouts. Retrieved From: http://www.livestrong.com/article/334862-what-to-eat-on-recovery-days-between-workouts/

Megroz, G (2012) The Top 10 Recovery Foods. Retrieved From: http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/nutrition/The-Top-10-Recovery-Foods.html

Related articles

• Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) – 9 Tips to Conquer DOMS and Maximize Your Workouts (comptaenligne.wordpress.com)
• Factors that Influence the Effectiveness of your Workout Recovery (drrobsite.wordpress.com)
• Muscle Fatigue (isouthchamp.wordpress.com)

SMART is the New Sexy !

Hey guys! Today we wanted to talk about why goal setting is important for achieving optimum results. Right now you are probably thinking that your goal is to look hot for summer, and that’s great, but how about we give you a couple of pointers on setting some smaller goals to help you attain the body of your dreams.

We’ll break it down into categories to ensure your goals are SMART!

1. S – Specifics

The first step of goal setting is making sure that your goals are specific. This means that your goals are unambiguous and require a certain result by a certain amount of time. The down side of this is requiring an extra hit of motivation, but by following the HealthyU blog, you shouldn’t have any problems at all. An example of a specific goal could be: “I will be fit enough to run the “Bridge to Brisbane” race next year” or, “I will lose 10% body fat by December 1, 2013”. Whatever your goal is, if it is specific enough, you will be able to keep track of it and determine how close you are to reaching it.

2. M – Measureable

In order to see how your progress is going, your goal needs to be measureable. Think of it as a science experiment, where your results are the dependant variable. We recommend that if your goal is weight loss-based that you take some photos and measure the circumference of the key areas that you wish to work on. Our measurements at HealthyU usually include our arms, tummies, thighs, calves and bums. It’s also important to weigh yourself. However, if you’re looking at toning up, don’t worry if you put on some kilos because it will most likely be due to your increase in muscle weight.

3. A – Attainable

An attainable goal usually serves a purpose. In other words, your goal must be reachable, achievable, and not too extreme. You must ask yourself; “How am I going to achieve this goal?” When you set a SMART goal, it obviously means that the overall goal is important to you, so please do not set yourself up to fail –  that isn’t healthy and can leave you feeling quite negative towards health and exercise. We are aiming to inspire you and instil within you a positive attitude towards life. So start with small goals, and when you’ve reached them, aim higher. A SMART goal is a good goal.

4. R – Relevant

You need to make sure that your goal is going to be worthwhile. There is no point in setting a goal that, if achieved, is of no benefit to you or anyone around you. The goal must be relevant to the cause. For example if your aim was to start eating healthier, you may try setting a goal to go a week without chocolate or chips. If your aim was fitness related you would want to set a goal to improve the time in which you run a certain distance. Whatever you choose to do, make it relevant to a certain cause.

5. T – Time-bound

Set a time-limit for your goal! This will inspire some self-motivation to ensure that you do not drag your goal out over an unnecessary period of time. A key example of this is putting a start date off until the never-coming “tomorrow”. Get focused and get started! Jump on to HealthyU for some motivation and health tips and stop making excuses. Your health and fitness is your most valuable asset, so set some SMART goals and get a move on!

We look forward to hearing about your results! Please comment below or check out our Facebook page to share your success! Don’t forget to give us a “Like” 🙂

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Be-the-Healthy-U/502601439826483

Until Next Time!

*Note – The SMART criteria is a universally used fitness term for goal setting and motivation. HealthyU does not claim to have invented the SMART system, however the content in the individual paragraphs is brought to you by Keira and Ellen of the HealthyU team.

For more info; please see http://www.hr.virginia.edu/uploads/documents/media/Writing_SMART_Goals.pdf

Make them “Green with Envy”!

Hello again, HealthyU bloggers!

We hope you’ve done a nice bit of exercise today, because today’s recipe is the perfect pre or post work-out fix!

I’m hoping that many of you will have heard of a green smoothie or a green juice before, but for those of you who haven’t, one of these bad boys is the perfect combo of your daily “greens” needs. Now, unfortunately, it had taken me a solid month to play around and come up with a green smoothie recipe that I really like, but luckily for you guys, I’ve got it nailed and am ready to share it with the internet!

Before I get started, here’s a quick link to a page that describes 10 easy benefits of green smoothies: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-benefits-green-smoothies.html

Now, are you ready to make your friends green with envy? Your healthy lifestyle choices are the perfect way to get a fabulous beach-ready body and this Green smoothie will help get you there in no time!

What You Will Need:

–       1cup of chilled, filtered water

–       1cup of shredded baby spinach

–       ½ cup of shredded lettuce

–       1 tablespoon of chia seeds

–       1 green apple

–       1 pear

–       A stalk of celery, chopped

–       A blender

 

These ingredients, if purchased in bulk, will set you back as little as $15 a week or a fortnight (Based on Woolworths pricing) depending on how often you drink it. We are recommending once every second day in conjunction with some other great recipes that we offer at HealthyU. Please note, that one bag of black chia seeds will last you at least a fortnight to a month if you are having a green smoothie every second day, so that can be taken off the occasional shopping list.

Baby Spinach	$3 a bag from Woolworths
Lettuce	$2 per head from Woolworths
Black Chia	$5 150g bag from Woolworths
Apple	$0.87 each from Woolworths
Pear	$0.92 each from Woolworths
Celery	$2.98 for 300g from Woolworths
TOTAL PRICE	$14.74 per fortnight

Method:

1. Prepare smoothie ingredients
2. Place your tablespoon of chia seeds into a small bowl and cover with water while you prepare the smoothie. (Doing so allows them to soak and “puff up” for ideal benefit)
3. Pour 1 cup of water into a blender
4. Add shredded spinach and lettuce to the blender
5. Pulse or blend on a low speed until smooth and thoroughly combined
6. Add apple pieces and pulse again
7. Add pear pieces and blend smoothie on high speed
8. Once combined, add the chopped celery and lemon juice (optional) and mix on high speed for 1-2 minutes
9. Add soaked chia seeds and pulse 2 or 3 times.
10. 10.Serve in a chilled glass with ice if preferred.

How easy is that guys?

Now I personally enjoy this smoothie after a nice run (See previous running post) or after some Pilates and a bit of stretching. Ideally, this smoothie should be hydrating and increase energy pre or post workout, but you can change it up as little or as much as you want. There are plenty of great Green smoothie recipes out there on the web, so feel free to try this and play around until you find something that works for you. One of the key benefits of Green Smoothies is that if you’re like many of the other Uni students out there who don’t like vegetables, you can still absorb your recommended intake in liquid form! Yum! This recipe has a nice Apple taste and is bound to become one of your favourites throughout summer.

Our aim at HealthyU is to provide you with cheap and easy options to better your lifestyle, and this smoothie is exactly that, cheap and easy to make.  Stay tuned for some more great posts on exercising and some yummy and healthy recipes to inspire some fun in the kitchen as well.

Until next time!

The completed Green Smoothie! Yum!

 

Related articles

• Why I love green smoothies (and a recipe) (thislittlegreenpocket.com)
• Super Green Smoothie (exerciserskitchen.com)
• Weight-Loss: Super Green Smoothie (foxbodyfitclub.wordpress.com)