Here’s a topic that we spent quite a bit of time discussing in a class I teach called Fit for Life.

The topic is Healthy Fast Food Breakfasts.

I first have to say that I rarely, and I do mean rarely, eat breakfast away from my home.

So, I have to admit that although I’m going to pass this information along to you, I have never tasted any of these breakfast choices. I do know that many people take breakfast to go and that it’s important to keep those to-go choices as healthy as possible.

This list was compiled by Health Magazine. They looked at the best breakfasts that would combine complex carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats in a “fast-food” breakfast.

Here’s what they came up with.

1. Spinach Florentine Breakfast Wrap: Cosi.

2. Protein Artisan Snack Plate : Starbucks

3. Berry Topper Ideal Meal: Jamba Juice

4. Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal: Au Bon Pain

5. Scrambled Egg Whites, Chicken Sausage, and Fruit: Denny’s

6. Fruit and Maple Oatmeal: McDonald’s

7. Simple and Fit Veggie Omelette: IHOP

8. Western Egg White and Cheese Muffin Melt: Subway

9. Egg White Turkey Sausage Wake-Up Wrap: Dunkin’ Donuts

10. Breakfast Power Sandwich: Panera Bread

Don’t do the take-out breakfast routine too often. You’ll eat healthier, eat less and save a ton of money if you get in the home breakfast making mode.

Speaking of which, it’s time for my breakfast! Most days that’s a smoothie which these days consists of berries, protein powder, green drink, walnuts, yogurt, and pumpkin seeds. Yummy!

shelli

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More and more good news keeps coming out about boosting brain health for seniors.

I think it also applies to the rest of us, which is why I pass this information along to you.

Our brains are capable of superior performance even into the 10th decade and beyond!

If the brain remains healthy and free from disease, it can continue to function normally for as long as we live.

What can you do for your mental and physical health to promote a healthy brain?

The answers will, I hope, not be much of a surprise!

1. Exercise.

Neuroscientists recommend swimming, dancing, gardening, knitting and more frequent use of the nondominant hand and leg, and walking 10,000 steps on a daily basis.

In one study it’s suggested that aerobic exercise is the key to lowering the odds of getting Alzheimer’s by 60%. A daily 20 minute walk can cut the risk of having a stroke by 57%.

Think of exercise as fertilizer for your brain!

2. Mental activity.

Use your brain to keep it healthy. How? Play board games, do crossword puzzles, learn a second language, read, take a class and acquire new skills.

3. Healthy diet.

Balanced nutrition is essential for brain health. Emphasize fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts and decrease added sugar. Water is also essential for nervous system electrical transmissions that will keep your brain functional.

There you have it. Maybe nothing new, but a good gentle reminder.

If you’re lacking in these three areas, get with the program now. It’s never too late to give your brain cells a boost!

shelli

Do you have bat wings?

A woman recently asked me, “How do I get rid of my bat wings?” I didn’t want to laugh but I swear I had no idea what she meant.

Then when she showed me her arms I got it.

It’s the skin that wiggles underneath our triceps!

Want an idea for tightening tricep wiggle?

I read a study that showed that 85% of women who massaged their skin with rosemary oil found it appeared tighter.

That’s because stimulating compounds in rosemary oil increase circulation in muscles and skin, creating a firmer appearance. It usually takes a few weeks for the difference to show.

Rosemary essential oil also contains antioxidants such as carnosic acid and rosmarinic acid, which help repair and safeguard collagen for firmer skin.

To make a lotion, mix 3 drops of rosemary oil into your body moisturizer and massage into your arms (or any other area you want) daily.

Of course there’s always tricep dips and other strength training you can do, but when I gave her this idea for using rosemary oil, she was thrilled.

Try it and see what you think!

shelli

This week I have a fun article for you. I may be dating myself a bit, but so what!

Here are MOVIE MUSIC ideas to MOVE to!

I love to dance. I must admit that I dance around the house when no one is looking and sometimes even when people are looking! My dog usually runs and hides because it often means I’ll pick him up and do the lindy hop with him. Just when I can see he’s getting nauseous, I put him down again.

Where was I? Yes, movie music!

So here’s my list of some great movie soundtracks to sing and dance along with.

1. Saturday Night Fever. Disco Inferno from the 70’s, what fun. How can you not get up and dance to “Stayin’ Alive” or “More Than A Woman”?

2. Footloose. Dance with Kevin Bacon to “Let’s Hear It For The Boy”.

3. American Graffiti. “Party Doll” and “All Summer Long” make me remember how much fun drive-in movies were.

4. Dirty Dancing. Patrick Swayze as a dance instructor? Sign me up! “I’ve Had The Time of My Life” always makes me get up and dance and sing at the top of my lungs.

5. The Big Chill. How can you not love Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson and my personal favorite, ARETHA! I’ve often written about how I love to workout as long as Aretha keeps me company!

6. When Harry Met Sally. Harry Connick, Jr. croons his big band numbers which provide a nice dancing cool down period in between all the wild and crazy disco dancing.

7. Grease. No song from the soundtrack gets left out when you want to have fun dancing. You can start by using “Hopelessly Devoted To You” as a warm-up and end with a heart pumping “You’re The One That I Want”.

Do you have any soundtracks that you’d suggest??? Let me know and I’ll pass them along.

And, if anyone out there has the technology to make a copy of these songs on a dance CD and sends it to me, I’ll gladly gift them a copy of one of my products.

shelli

Is eating your way to beautiful skin possible? I think it is.

After all, your skin is your largest organ and its health is an inside out job, despite the myriad of over-the-counter skin care items for sale.

While it’s good not to overdose on the sun, and emollients are useful, I’m here to tell you that a healthy diet is just as important, and perhaps even more essential, if you want your skin to be healthy.

What nutrients should you be focusing on for an eating-for-healthy-skin plan?

Glad you asked!

1. Include antioxidant-rich foods with strong concentrations of vitamins C and E.

They help reduce free-radical damage that contributes to aging skin. Eat red bell peppers, broccoli, citrus fruits, mango, strawberries and raspberries. Foods high in vitamin E include peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds and hazelnuts.

2. Include foods containing the B vitamin biotin, which forms the foundation of our skin, hair and nails.

Eat liver, oats, turkey, Brazil nuts, potatoes, avocados, bananas, legumes, and kefir (a yogurt drink).

3. Vitamin A helps maintain and repair skin tissue, so eat carrots, sweet potatoes, mangos, spinach, dried apricots, milk, egg yolks, and mozzarella cheese.

4. Foods rich in lean protein provide skin benefits too. Eat yogurt, cheese, turkey, chicken, lean beef, and sardines.

5. A good combo to think about for optimizing the skin’s structure and function is: water, antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3’s are found in fish, healthy oils and nuts.

Focus on these 5 steps for healthier skin and let me know how it goes!

shelli

What’s almost as good as an outdoor alpine climb for losing weight?

How about omega-3’s?

I read that due to factors such as chronic stress, age-related hormonal fluctuations, and exposure to environmental toxins, 65% of American women have low levels of the appetite-suppressing hormone leptin.

That’s a lot of women!

It’s relatively easy to correct.

Just consume more omega-3 fatty acids. These healthy fats elevate leptin levels and increase the body’s sensitivity to it. Consume three daily servings of omega-3 rich foods like salmon, tuna, sardines, walnuts, chia seeds and flaxseed oil.

Keeping your leptin levels in a healthy fat burning range is important whether you’re losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight.

shelli

I’ve been noticing that more and more gizmos, online tools and fitness books are coming on the market to help people exercise and get fitness results. However, you’d get a huge bang for the buck (actually forget the bucks), if you used your MIND as an exercise and fitness tool.

Your thoughts control everything from how fully your muscles contract to how difficult an exercise feels. You must use your mind to get the best and quickest results from your efforts.

Here’s how!

1. Are you working on your abs or core strength? Set a difficult goal.

You may just achieve more than you thought possible. In study after study on human performance, people who aim for a specific goal significantly outperform those who just aimed to do the best they could. People generally underestimate their own abilities. Aiming high allows you to push past your own perceptions.

2. Do you ever get bored, particularly when you do cardio exercise?

Many people tend to focus on boredom, fatigue or discomfort while they do their cardio routines. That usually leads to those sensations feeling even worse!

Instead, try focusing on unrelated thoughts.

I read about one study where researchers instructed one group to try and recall the names of every teacher they’d had since kindergarten while cycling for 15 minutes. Another group was told to focus on their exertion level. The name game group found their routine to be at least 10% easier.

3. Do you get tired or discouraged while doing your strength training?

While staying focused on what you’re doing, try filling your mind with affirmations. Make up some of your own or use ones like “I can feel my muscles growing.” Positive thinking lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Also, motivational self-talk boosts performance.

4. What do you use your mind for when you’re waiting on line or generally waiting for something or someone?

You can use your mind and imagine yourself doing a push-up, for instance.

Picturing an action activates the nerves that make muscles move and triggers an actual contraction. Please read that again, because it’s a very crucial point in understanding just how important your mind actually is in what you can accomplish.

Studies have shown that people who practiced exercise visualization for 5 minutes a day were able to increase their muscle strength by 35% in 12 weeks, without ever stepping into a gym.

Of course, don’t forget to use visualization when you ACTUALLY exercise! Always imagine yourself using proper form as you move.

5. As you complete your chores, what do you think about?

Try thinking about the muscles you use to do daily chores.

Carrying things up and down stairs, for instance, works your quadriceps, butt muscles and hamstrings. Again, concentration strengthens the neurological connection between the brain and the muscles, prompting the body to use up to 30% more muscle fibers during a movement. This added muscle action helps speed muscle growth while increasing caloric expenditure. That’s a GOOD thing!

So remember that your mind is not only an incredible tool in your health and fitness journey but it’s free and accessible to you ALL the time!

shelli

Here’s an easy way to age-proof your body. Eat vegetable soup!

Eating two cups of soup made by simmering chopped tomatoes, green bell peppers, onions, garlic and olive oil in a pot of water with some spices can lower your risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke and other age-related diseases. Why? Because it boosts your blood levels of vitamin C by 22%. Vitamin C is an antioxidant superstar that helps keep every cell in your body healthy.

Protect your heart with camellia tea oil.

Camellia tea oil is made from the seeds of tea plants. It contains large amounts of catechins, the same powerful antioxidants found in green tea. These help reduce cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and guard against artery damage. They may also assist in weight loss and boost memory.

It’s a perfect oil for stir-frying since it can be heated much higher than olive oil before it starts to smoke. Give it a try and see what you think.

Pinot Noir can save your sight.

It turns out that people who drink anywhere from two glasses of red wine per month to three glasses per day are 50% less likely to develop cataracts when compared with nondrinkers, heavy drinkers and beer drinkers. Scientists speculate that wine’s enormous amount of resveratrol may be what stops cataracts from forming.

Broccoli seems to have a protective effect on the eyes as well, but hey, sometimes it’s just more fun to drink wine than eat broccoli!

shelli

Seems like I’m always talking about and looking for ways to cut back on our intake of sugar.

I recently read that for the past 100 years in the United States, blood pressure has been rising.

Today, 30% of American adults are diagnosed with hypertension. That’s a lot of people!

Researchers have been able to link both fructose and high-fructose corn syrup to high blood pressure in rats.

But what about in people?

Researchers from the University of Colorado checked to see whether added sugar intake was linked to blood pressure among the thousands of Americans who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2003 and 2006.

They found that those who ate and drank more fructose from added sugars (as opposed to healthy sources like fruit) had higher blood pressure AND larger waistlines than those who didn’t.

How many grams of fructose seemed to be the cut off point? 74 grams a day would do it.

How much is that exactly? Well, 2 bottles of soda a day would just about get you there.

Don’t drink soda?

Here’s what I suggest.

Just for a week, (yes, you can do this, it’s only 7 days) keep track of what you eat and the added sugar.

Then, cut back on foods with a lot of added sugar.

READ labels: you’ll be amazed when you start to pay attention to how much added sugar you take in each and every day.

And your heart, kidneys and waistline will thank you!

shelli

Are you on a mission to either get lean OR stay lean?

Maybe you don’t care about getting lean or have even given up trying.

My guess, though, is that we’re all at one or the other of those two places.

Here are 3 tips to help you out:

1. Accountability.

Staying accountable to someone, be it a friend at work, someone at the gym, or a coach or mentor means you’ll MORE often make better nutritional choices.

Keeping a food journal, even if no one but you ever sees it,
has also been proven to increase the likelihood of positive results.

2. Eat the same foods everyday.

Sometimes this is just what you need to get the fat loss ball rolling because it keeps choices SIMPLE.

Obviously this isn’t for the long term.

Create healthy choices for mealtimes (breakfast and lunch seem to be the easiest meals to simplify in this way) and stick with them until you get bored.

I’m guessing that for those of you that have maintained a lean body over time, you’ve probably already done this instinctively.

3. Increase your fiber intake.

Fiber fills you up and helps you eat fewer calories.

Puzzled about simple ways to get more fiber in your diet?

* Use raw nuts when you make smoothies
* Add vegetables anytime you make an omelet
* Eat fruit between meals instead of other higher calorie snacks
* Use raw nuts as snacks

Try these simple proven ways to improve your nutrition and increase your odds of a LEAN lifestyle!

shelli