Fitness Together - Palatine

Five Tips to Avoid Skipping Your Workout

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:32:00 -0600

As New Year’s resolutions start becoming stale around this time of the year and opportunities arise to trade in daily workouts for work and personal extracurricular activities, you may be tempted to skip your workout and derail your health and fitness goals.

To help keep you focused on your ultimate fitness goals and ensure your workout commitments stay intact this spring, incorporate the following five techniques for continued health and fitness throughout the year.

Change it Up: If your workouts are getting dull, start the spring season off fresh by trying a new workout routine or activity. If you’re lacking motivation and looking for a social outlet, try small group personal training sessions that offer sweat pumping total body exercises in a fun, upbeat environment. Or, one-on-one personal training can keep you on track with a customized workout and nutrition plan designed to meet your specific health and fitness goals.
Pen it In: Regularly scheduled workouts make exercising a priority in your busy life and turn a tentative penciled in obligation into an inked commitment. By making routine fitness appointments with yourself, you eliminate the urge to second guess yourself or make excuses for bailing on your workout.
Buddy Up: When a friend is relying on you to show up for your workout each and every day, you are less likely to skip out on your fitness routine. Find a buddy to work out with to increase your accountability, add a social aspect to your routine and have someone to share the journey with to overall health and fitness.
Scale it Back: While you would love to have a full hour to work out every single day, you know that isn’t always possible. Instead of bailing on your workout, though, when your schedule gets tight, opt for a scaled-down version of your regular routine. Focus on quality over quantity by reducing the number of exercises you do, but increase the intensity of the exercises so you can still get in a good sweat even when you’re limited on time.
Reward Yourself: To stay motivated with your workout routine, it’s important to focus your outlook and approach on positive measures. Reward yourself with positive reinforcement each time you reach a health and fitness goal and celebrate your successes with your friends, family and workout buddies when you accomplish major fitness milestones.

Stay on track with your fitness routine this spring by implementing the above fitness tips into your daily life. You will be glad you did when swimsuit season hits full force this summer and you have accomplished the health and fitness goals you set for yourself at the start of the year.

If you need help with keeping your workout commitments strong this season, the personal training experts at Fitness Together are here to help you look better, feel better and perform better than you ever thought possible throughout the year. Call 847-776-7000 or come into our studio today to re-commit yourself to living a healthy and fit lifestyle.

Go Red for Women!

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:34:00 -0600

Top 5 RED foods to eat for a healthy heart

It’s Heart Health Month meaning this month is ablaze with the color red! The purpose of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women movement is to call attention to the fact that heart disease is the #1 killer of women (and men). Take care of your heart and tap into the heart-healthy power of eating red to garner the healing power of this fabulous group of nutrition powerhouse foods. Red is the new green, at least as far as heart-healthy eating goes. The bright hue of red foods (and no, I don’t mean the Red Hots candy you ate as a kid!) is a sure sign the food is packed with a lot of disease-fighting antioxidant plant chemicals. The specific phytochemicals include some names you may have heard before: lycopene, carotenoids and resveratrol. Here is a list of the top 5 RED foodsyou should be eating on a regular basis to keep your ticker strong:

Tomatoes: Tomatoes and cooked tomato products (such as tomato sauce and tomato paste) are high in the powerful antioxidant, lycopene. Lycopene is a plant pigment responsible for the deep red color of tomatoes. Lycopene has numerous health benefits, most notably its ability to ward off prostate cancer in men. When it comes to heart health, lycopene stops LDL or “bad” cholesterol form becoming oxidized by free radicals hence prevents the formation of arterial plaque. Cooking tomatoes has been shown to increase the amount of lycopene that the body can absorb by breaking down plant cells that trap the substance, so eat that tomato sauce! Try the Nutrition Together Shrimp Fra Diavololycopene-rich recipe (attached). Serve with a dark leafy green salad and wash it down with a nice glass of pinot noir for a perfect heart-healthy dinner.
1. Apples: An apple a day truly does keep the doctor (cardiologist) away! Sometimes the best heart medicine is the kind you can get from your produce section. In this case, apples contain a large amount of pectin, a soluble fiber, which blocks cholesterol absorption in the gut and encourages the body to excrete the cholesterol. Apple peels are also packed with polyphenols -- antioxidants that prevent cellular damage from free radicals. So whatever you do, don’t toss the peel.
2. Red wine: Red wine is liquid heart medicine. Studies have shown that drinking one glass a day with a meal promotes clear, healthy arteries. Make sure to go red and not white when you choose your color of wine as red contains the powerful antioxidant resveratrol as well as flavonoids which partner together to ease arterial inflammation. Your best bet for maximum antioxidant power is to drink either pinot noir or cabernet sauvignon. Remember, one glass a day is all you need as any more could cause health problems. Don’t drink? Try a small glass of 100% Concord grape juice instead.

Red Bell Peppers: Who knew? One red bell pepper has three times the vitamin C as an orange! Red bell peppers are also packed with other antioxidants as well as fiber which functions to keep your intestines in good shape as well as lower your cholesterol. Try snacking on red pepper with a hummus dip. Try the Nutrition Together hummus recipe—delicious and simple to make.
Beets: Reddish purplebeets are chock full of plant chemicals called anthocyanins which give them such a deep red color. Anthocyanin pigments and the associated flavonoid polyphenols have demonstrated the ability to protect against a myriad of human diseases, and anthocyanins are also powerful antioxidants that can protect the heart. Try the Nutrition together roasted beets recipe to really bring out the natural sweetness of these purple gems.

Do your heart a favor and "Go Red!" this month by including these heart-healthy red foods into your daily diet. Add some of these foods to your day and with the support of Fitness Together you’ll surely be giving your heart the gift of health this Heart Health Month. Let a Fitness Together trainer work with you to develop a heart-healthy exercise program to accompany your heart-healthy diet, a program designed to meet your specific goals. You’ll also receive nutritional counseling through the Nutrition Together program, which will complement your workouts. Call us at 847-776-7000, or visit fitnesstogether.com/palatine

Let Fitness Together help you Go Red for Heart Health Month!

How Good Nutrition and Exercise Work Together to boost your burn

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:16:00 -0600

Health, fitness and weight management is all about balancing the number of calories you take in (eat) with the number of calories your burn (metabolize). In general, fit people have higher metabolic rates. Just what is metabolism? Your metabolism is the process by which your body converts food into energy and then puts that energy to use. You need energy for rigorous activities like jogging or biking, but you also need those calories to fuel bodily processes such as breathing and keeping your heart beating.

Scientifically speaking, there are four components that make up your total daily metabolic burn rate: 1) your resting metabolic rate (RMR or the number of calories your body burns at rest) 2.) TEF or the thermic effect of metabolizing food 3). The amount of calories you burn when going about your daily activities and 4.) physical activity which includes lifestyle activities as well as the planned exercise you partake in. Each of these areas can be tweaked to boost your total daily calorie burn rate. Here are 6 tips for staying lean and fit by igniting each of these metabolic areas in different ways:

Boost your calorie-burning furnace by strength-training. The only scientifically proven method of enhancing the number of calories your body burns at rest (RMR) is to change your body composition meaning adding more muscle mass. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat (one pound of muscle burns approximately 9 times the calories as a pound of fat) so by increasing muscle mass through intensive strength training, you can increase RMR to a small degree. Strength-building exercises also help maintain your bone density and balance, two important factors in healthy aging.
Daily cardio adds to your burn. Here is where you have the greatest daily control over your total burn rate. Cardio is the greatest calorie burner in the least amount of time. Combine a daily cardio expenditure of a few hundred calories with your strength training workout calorie burn and you have a one-two punch which will guarantee to fire up your metabolism.
Power up your protein intake. Eating a small amount of lean protein at every meal is also an effective metabolism booster. Protein takes more calories to assimilate thereby raising your TEF to a greater degree than carbs or fat.
Eat small, frequent meals. And don’t forget to eat small frequent meals throughout the day (another proven metabolism booster) rather than consolidating your entire food intake into just one or two large meals. Eating metabolism-raising foods in small quantities, spread throughout the day, will also provide you with a stable blood sugar level and a constant source of energy needed for metabolism. It is also important that you do not skip breakfast or drastically reduce your calorie intake as it will be interpreted by your body as potential starvation and lead to a slowdown in your metabolism.
Get enough Z’s. Sleep deprivation actually has been shown to harm your body’s endocrine function and capacity to metabolize carbohydrates. Translation: when you don’t get a good night’s sleep you decrease your calorie burning potential. Aim for at least 7 solid hours per night to help your metabolism run more smoothly.
Practice stress reduction. Stress triggers the release of cortisol, the primary stress hormone. When cortisol bathes your body’s tissue it stimulates fat storage, particularly around the middle (the more dangerous location). Cortisol also slows metabolism. Practicing healthy stress reduction techniques such as exercise, listening to music, gardening or any other relaxation technique will lower the amount of cortisol and help you maximize your metabolic rate.

Remember, you can take action to enhance your total daily metabolic rate. Targeting your calorie burn from multiple angles using the scientifically proven strategies outlined above, is an effective way to control your metabolism. Follow these 6 tips with the support of Fitness Together and you can and will ignite your inner inferno! A Fitness Together trainer will develop a strength training routine designed to meet your specific goals. You’ll also receive nutritional counseling through the Nutrition Together program, which will complement your workouts.

Call us at 847-776-7000 or visit fitnesstogether.com/palatine

Honor National Diabetes Month by Dedicating Yourself to a Healthy and Fit Lifestyle

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:11:00 -0600

Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. Almost 26 million Americans, both adults and children, battle this chronic, serious disease, which is a leading cause of kidney failure, heart disease, stroke, non-traumatic lower limb amputations and blindness.¹

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), this leading disease nationwide is characterized by high blood glucose levels that result from the body’s inability to produce or use insulin. There are two major types of diabetes – Type 1 and Type 2. Individuals’ bodies with Type 1 diabetes are unable to produce insulin. This type of diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults. Type 2 diabetes is the most common with millions of American’s bodies either not producing enough insulin or their cells simply ignore the insulin. Insulin is responsible for the body being able to use glucose from the food you eat for energy and to fuel the cells in your body.²

The ADA suggests that a healthy lifestyle made up of a nutritious diet and regular exercise can contribute to preventing diabetes. In honor of National Diabetes Month this November, dedicate yourself to living a healthy and fit lifestyle by incorporating the following three guidelines into your daily life.

Eat Healthy to Fuel a Strong Body

Everyone has heard the saying, “You are what you eat,” but the truth of this simple saying is more accurate than most are willing to give credit. The food you put in your mouth fuels your internal systems to function appropriately, your brain to think clearly, and your cardiovascular and muscular systems to perform physical tasks appropriately. Food is such an important factor to your body’s livelihood that it’s important to focus your eating habits on a nutrient-rich, whole foods diet that is packed with fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, healthy fats and whole grains.

Exercise Regularly to Reduce Risk of Disease

A healthy diet and regular exercise routine go hand-in-hand to help reduce your risk of diseases such as diabetes and live an overall healthy lifestyle. The ADA offers the following benefits to being active, as it relates to combating diabetes:²

Improves Blood Glucose Management: Activity makes your body more sensitive to the insulin you make and it burns glucose (calories), both of which help to lower blood glucose levels.
Lowers Blood Pressure: Activity helps your heart pump stronger and slower.
Improves Blood Fats: Exercise provides heart healthy benefits such as raising good cholesterol (HDL), while lowering bad cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides.
Promotes Weight Loss and Maintaining a Healthy Weight
Lowers Risk of Common Diseases Such as Heart Attack, Stroke, Some Cancers and Bone Loss
Increases Energy and Improves Quality of Sleep
Reduces Stress, Anxiety and Depression
Builds Stronger Bones and Muscles: Weight-bearing activities, such as walking, can make bones stronger. Strength-training activities, such as lifting light weights can make muscles strong.

Maintain a Healthy Weight for Optimal Health and Fitness

There isn’t one magic number when it comes to determining a healthy body weight. Everyone’s ideal weight is unique to their specific body structure, muscle mass, water retention and overall health. To determine what your specific healthy weight range should be, consult your health care provider or a licensed nutritionist/dietitian. After you work with a professional to determine your healthy weight range, these providers can help you establish and adjust your weight loss or management goals to align with achieving overall health and fitness.

Before you begin any weight loss or exercise program, you should always seek the advice of an appropriate professional, which could range from your health care provider, licensed nutritionist, a certified personal trainer, etc., depending on the specifics of your situation. Through state-of-the-art techniques and science, Fitness Together combines strength training, cardio conditioning and nutritional guidance for a complete health and fitness solution that can help get you started toward making healthy, well-rounded food and exercise choices to support an active lifestyle. Call or come into our studio today for more information on individual nutrition and exercise plans that can help you make your overall fitness goals and aspirations more attainable.

847-776-7000

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¹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National diabetes fact sheet: national estimates and general information on diabetes and prediabetes in the United States, 2011. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011.

²American Diabetes Association, www.diabetes.org.

The Runner’s Diet

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 11:26:00 -0500

If you’re a runner or have friends/family members who are runners, there is a pretty good chance that you’ve heard people ask, “What kind of diet do I need to follow to be like a runner?” Just as the specifics of everyone’s diets are different due to a handful of variables, each runner’s diet is as unique as his/her pre-race rituals. Even so, many members of the running community tend to have some similar characteristics – runners are planners, runners are consistent, runners keep track of their daily activities – that can carry over to creating healthy eating habits to benefit runners and non-runners alike.

Plan What You Eat

It’s a lot easier to maintain a healthy diet that includes all of the essential vitamins, minerals and nutrition your body needs when you plan out and prepare your meals for the day/week ahead of time. On a weekly basis, create a master menu and shopping list that include whole grain carbohydrates, lean proteins, healthy fats, fruits and vegetables. Go to the grocery store at the beginning of the week and purchase all of the ingredients you will need to complete your weekly menus. Try to stay away from processed foods as much as possible. When you return from the grocery store, you now will have all of the ingredients you need in-house to prepare healthy meals all week long and eliminate excuses for not being able to cook/eat healthy.

Eat Throughout the Day

Consistency is key to fueling your body like a runner and ensuring optimal performance before, during and after your workout. You should strive to eat three meals and two small snacks per day in order to support a consistent metabolism in your body that can keep you from crashing and becoming over-hungry. Once you let yourself get too hungry, you run the risk of quickly consuming more calories than you realize to combat your strong hunger pains.

Track Your Progress

No one enjoys counting their calories – not even runners. Even so, you need to be honest and realistic about how many calories you consume on a daily basis to determine whether you are fueling your body appropriately. Counting calories can be as easy as tracking your meals in a paper-based journal or inputting your calorie numbers online in an accountability journal. Just make sure to be consistent and take into account every calorie you consume – even the ones you may be drinking in your morning coffee or evening cocktail.

Take It Slow and Steady

In addition to tracking the number of calories you consume, it also is important to be conscious about how fast you are consuming your meals. Recent research has found correlations between how fast you eat and your Body Mass Index (BMI) rating. Faster eaters reported higher BMI levels during the study than those who took their time to completely chew their food. Slower eaters reported lower BMI levels, which may be associated with being more aware of each bite of food they put into their mouths, and focusing on the actual act of eating rather than becoming absorbed by mealtime distractions such as the television, a good book or the computer.¹

Whether you are a runner or not, everyone can benefit from following the four easy healthy eating habits described above. By planning what you eat ahead of time, eating smaller, more frequent meals/snacks throughout the day, keeping track of your daily calorie count, and eating your food slower you are well on your way to creating healthy eating habits to fuel your body for optimal performance. If you would like more information on how combining smart nutrition with regular workouts can help you meet your fitness goals, call our Fitness Together studio today to learn about our Nutrition Together program.

847-776-7000

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¹Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2011.

Celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month by Incorporating Healthy Habits into Your Daily Routine

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 10:17:00 -0500

Experts throughout the fitness community have long encouraged everyone to exercise more in order to live a healthy and fit lifestyle. Recently, the medical community has further supported the importance of encouraging adults to be more physically active, especially for individuals who have or are at high risk for life-threatening diseases such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes.¹

In honor and recognition of October being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it’s imporant to revisit the importance of being active and eating healthy in order to reduce the risk of diseases such as cancer, increase fitness levels, and promote healthy living and longevity.

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), more than 572,000 Americans die of cancer each year, with 1/3 of the deaths linked to poor diet, physical inactivity and being overweight.² The most important things you can do to help reduce cancer risk for you and your family include:

Establishing and maintaining a healthy weight.
Incorporating regular, consistent physical activity into your lifestyle.
Making healthy food choices with a focus on plant-based foods.

The latest recommendations from the ACS in regard to healthy physical activity levels for adults include 150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activities each week. Moderate activity would be equivalent to prolonged brisk walking, biking and hiking, while vigorous activiites include sweat drenching, muscle pumping workouts like Fitness Together’s PACK Small Group Personal Training sessions.

In addition to adding regular workout sessions into your daily schedule that motivate, encourage and support living a healthy lifestyle, you also can begin incorporating more active habits into your normal daily routine. Starting today, try incorporating as many of the following approaches (suggested by ACS) as possible to support an active and healthy lifestyle.

Use the stairs instead of the elevator.
Walk or bike to your destination.
Be active at lunch with your co-workers, family, or friends.
Take a 20-minute activity break at work to stretch, or take a quick walk.
Walk to visit co-workers instead of sending an e-mail message.
Go dancing with your spouse or friends.
Plan active vacations, rather than driving trips.
Wear a pedometer every day to increase your number of daily steps.
Join a sports or recreation team.
Use a stationary bicycle or treadmill while watching TV.
Plan your activity routine to slowly increase the days per week and minutes per session.²

Breast cancer is a deadly disease that continues to take the lives of too many mothers, sisters, wives, grandmothers, aunts and best friends in our community every year. Our local studio is dedicated to helping you incorporate healthy habits into your daily routine to support an active and fit lifestyle that can help to reduce the risk of this life-threatening disease. During Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October.

847-776-7000

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¹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov.

²American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org.

The Buddy Advantage: Enlist the Help of a Workout Buddy to Stay Strong, Fit this Holiday Season

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:34:00 -0500

The temptations of the holiday season – baked goods, candy canes, cocktail parties and large social gatherings centered on food – can lead you down the path of weight gain, irritability and inactivity during the cold, dark winter months. To overcome these temptations and stay focused on consistently working out and eating healthy during the holidays, you may need to enlist the help of a workout buddy. A workout buddy can help keep you motivated, dedicated and encouraged as you venture through the journey of living a healthy and fit lifestyle during the holidays and beyond.

Buddy’s Bring Accountability

It’s not just about you when you work out with a buddy. It’s about being there for your partner, showing up every workout session to give your best effort, and setting a good example of being dedicated to you and your partner’s workout success. It’s a lot harder to skip your 6 a.m. workout if you know you have a workout partner waiting for you at the gym to take a class together or someone is relying on you to show up at a local trailhead for an early morning run. It’s also a lot more difficult to “phone in your workout” by just going through the motions and not giving your all when you have a workout buddy beside you who is expending their time and energy to workout with you and give their best. A buddy is an essential resource to help keep you on track, on time and on point during your workouts.

Buddy’s Bring Camaraderie

Working out with a buddy can be a fun adventure that changes with each workout. By working out side-by-side day in and day out, you naturally will begin to build a sense of community, friendship and pride from maintaining a consistent workout schedule together, accomplishing physical and mental goals together, and living by example as to what it means to be fit and healthy. Your workout buddy can quickly become more than just someone to count your push ups or hold your feet during sit ups. Your workout buddy may become a lifelong fitness teammate and friend.

Buddy’s Bring Motivation

Whether you are a competitive person in nature or not, working out with a buddy can improve your health and fitness levels beyond what you could do alone. Buddies can help push you out of your comfort zone by encouraging you to try a new adventure, they can help increase your confidence in how you look and feel about your body by motivating you to perform at levels you never thought possible, and they can celebrate with you after a strenuous workout session that leaves you sweating and feeling good about your accomplishments.

Need a Buddy?

Do you need help finding a workout buddy who is dedicated to looking better, feeling better and performing better during the winter season? Consider joining a small group personal training studio to workout with other like-minded individuals who are seeking real health and fitness results. Fitness Together’s PACK Small Group Training can help you elevate your fitness routine this holiday season in a fun and energetic group setting, with coaching from a Fitness Together certified trainer.

In our PACK training sessions, like-minded people begin together, work together and finish together in pursuit of a common purpose and to achieve individual goals. Call us today to pack your winter with a fun, affordable and structured health and fitness routine for you and your buddy. 847-776-7000

Four Tips to Improve Your Healthy Lifestyle

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:20:00 -0500

Living a fit and healthy lifestyle doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a consistent and dedicated effort to not only become physically fit, but to maintain a healthy lifestyle in the long-term. Although exercising consistently and eating a nutritious diet are the cornerstones to achieving a healthy lifestyle, the following four quick tips can help improve your efforts, as well as provide some fun and memorable experiences along the way.

Lifestyle Improvement Tip #1: Turn Up the Tunes

The popularity of MP3 players on the workout scene has brought about various research findings that support the benefits of exercising to your favorite playlists. Motivation, increased workout tempos and positive mental influences may all be associated with turning up the tunes during an exercise session. New research published earlier this year, though, has found that music may also be beneficial after a hard workout to enhance your body’s recovery. The study published earlier this year in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning suggests that listening to motivational music during workout recovery times following intense exercise can lead to increased activity, faster lactate clearance and enhanced body recovery.1

Lifestyle Improvement Tip #2: Race to the Finish

As the weather gets cooler and everyone settles in for winter preparation, the fall season is one of the most popular times of the year for running races, triathlons and fitness competitions. A fall family 5K or fitness event can be a fun and memorable experience to enhance and energize your workout routine. By following a training plan for your fall event and completing the activity either on your own or as part of a family/group of friends, you can gain a sense of accomplishment and pride that will drive you to continue improving you and your family’s healthy lifestyles.

Furthermore, writing down specific health and fitness goals associated with a race or fitness event can help keep you focused and on track to realizing monumental accomplishments. Clear and concise goals help eliminate the clutter that can build up in your busy life and mind, while giving you a concrete reason (finish a race, beat a personal best time/record, etc.) to stay motivated, eat well and work out on a consistent basis.

Lifestyle Improvement Tip #3: Get Some More Z’s

With work deadlines, family commitments and busy back-to-school schedules, sleep can easily become overlooked. Getting an adequate amount of sleep per night, though, does more than just rest your body and mind – at least eight hours of sleep per night helps to prevent weight gain, diabetes and heart disease. While everyone may wish they could sleep in more often, realistically, that may not be an option. If you struggle to get enough sleep each night, you can start setting up more healthy sleep habits by going to bed 15 minutes earlier for a week, followed by 15 minutes earlier the next week and so on, until you reach your desired bedtime that will leave you with eight hours of valuable sleep.

In addition to getting enough sleep each night, it also is important to get quality sleep. Recent research has shown that individuals who exercised regularly (logged at least 150 minutes of physical activity each week) reported 65 percent better sleep quality. The individuals in the study who exercised regularly fell asleep faster, reported less daytime sleepiness and more daily productivity than those who weren’t as active.2 By focusing this fall on getting enough quality sleep each night, you can take steps toward positively improving your overall lifestyle.

Lifestyle Improvement Tip #4: Replace Multi-Tasking with Single-Tasking

Digital distractions are everywhere with smart phones, laptops, tablets and televisions filling up our days. While these tools can help you juggle the many hats you wear on a daily basis (parent, co-worker, friend, volunteer), it is important to unplug from these digital drainers on a regular basis and force yourself to focus on one thing at a time. For instance, leave your digital gadgets in your car or at home when you go into the studio for your daily workout so you can focus all of your mental and physical efforts on improving your healthy and fit lifestyle. This may help keep you from getting distracted during your workout so you won’t be tempted to peek at your work e-mails or social media status updates in-between squat sets.

Healthy lifestyles take consistent, dedicated time and energy to establish and maintain. Using the four tips above is a good place to start implementing small changes in your life each day that can lead to huge improvements to your overall lifestyle. The experts at Fitness Together can further help you improve your lifestyle by taking your workout to a new level in a fun and energetic setting. Give our studio a call today to learn how our exceptional trainers will push you, motivate you and support you to elevate your fitness routine and exceed your personal expectations.

847-776-7000
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1Journal of Strength & Conditioning, 2012

2Mental Health and Physical Activity, 2011

Take Back Control of Your Exercise Routine this Fall

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:00:00 -0500

With kids going back to school and summer vacations coming to an end, it is the perfect time for you to take back control of your life by getting back into a regular exercise routine and getting back on track to living a healthy and fit lifestyle. To help you get back into the fitness groove this fall, we offer the following three tips for re-activating and enhancing your exercise routine.

Go Back to Basics

If you’ve taken a break from your regular exercise routine during the summer months, you may be eager to jump back into where you left off before your exercise hiatus. When getting back into your exercise routine, though, it is important to start with the basics to get your mind and body acclimated to a regular, consistent exercise regimen. If you jump back in too fast and take on more than your body can handle too soon, you run the risk of sidelining injuries, early burnout and fatigue – all conditions that can keep you out of the fitness studio well past the summer months.

Get Moving

According to the World Health Organization, physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for all global deaths, with 31 percent of the world’s population not physically fit.¹ As a society, we need to make a concentrated effort to get our bodies moving to not only increase our mortality rates, but to put ourselves in a more positive position to live a physically fit and healthy lifestyle. To get started on increasing your body’s movement, you can make some simple changes every day that can make a big difference to your life. For instance, take a 30-minute walk each evening with your family, ride your bike to run errands instead of driving, replace workplace breaks in the kitchen with walking breaks around the block, turn off the television and play an active game with your family instead of laying on the couch, or sign up for a recreational sports league for increased weekly movement and friendly competition.

Make It a Habit

When exercise becomes a part of your daily schedule, it quickly becomes less of a chore and more of a habit. You can make exercise a habit by doing your workouts at the same time each day, creating a routine you can follow and adapt on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, and including a support group environment (trainer, friends, family) that provides accountability and encouragement. When exercise becomes a habit, you help to eliminate the mental tendency to skip a workout and create a more positive mind set that is focused and dedicated to exercising regularly.

Changing your current lifestyle – even when it’s for the good – can sometimes feel overwhelming and intimidating. By breaking up your overall objectives into more manageable smaller changes like the ones listed above, you can create a foundation that will lead you to successfully meeting your lifestyle goals. The expert trainers at Fitness Together can help guide you through your journey of re-activating and enhancing your fitness routine this fall by creating a personalized health and fitness plan that addresses your specific goals and needs. Give our studio a call today to jump start your exercise routine and begin feeling better, looking better and performing better than you ever thought possible.

847-776-7000

¹World Health Organization (WHO)

How Good Nutrition Can Make You Happier

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:52:00 -0500

You probably are already aware that what you eat can affect your health. But did you know that when and what you eat can definitely affect your mood? Add these special mood-boosters into your day and combine them with daily exercise (another proven mood-lifting lifestyle habit) and you have the key to becoming a healthier and happier person. Here are 5 happiness foods for you to consider adding into your day:

Eat salmon. Salmon and other fatty fish that swim in the deep blue sea are chock full of the “good fat” known as omega-3. Scientists have found that one type of long chain fatty acid in particular, called DHA, is highly concentrated in the brain and required for healthy brain function. In fact, research has shown that omega-3 fat has a mood boosting effect—people with higher blood levels have more serotonin and dopamine — two key neurotransmitters that keep our moods happy and balanced. Salmon, especially wild salmon, is exceptionally high in vitamin D, another nutrient believed to affect mood. In fact, vitamin D has been shown to help people with a type of depression common in the long dark days of winter, called “seasonal affective disorder” or SAD.
Eat spinach. Spinach and other dark leafy greens are brimming with plant antioxidant chemicals. These phytochemicals protect the delicate brain cell membranes from free radical damage which can contribute to fatigue and a dampened mood. Spinach is also rich in the B vitamin folic acid. Research has shown that many depressed people have low folic acid levels in their blood. Other food sources of folic acid include legumes and asparagus.
Eat beans. Beans are loaded with iron. Iron is a mineral that greatly affects mood as it transports oxygen in the blood. Not enough oxygen transported to the tissues translates into lethargy, fatigue and anxiety. Therefore, it is important to ensure that you are eating enough iron in your diet. Other good sources of iron include lean red meat, raisins and iron-fortified cereals.
Eat whole grains. Carbs are the classic “feel good” foods because they enable tryptophan to cross into the brain where it forms the neurotransmitter, serotonin. Serotonin is our brain’s natural antidepressant—it has a calming, sedative-like mood enhancing effect. To increase your level of serotonin, be particular with what type of carb you eat. Don’t go for the simple carbs because unlike the complex, whole grain carbs (which provide lasting energy), simple carbs such as sugary soda or cookies cause a transient blood sugar surge followed by a mood-wrecking crash.
Choose protein with a high tryptophan count. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid—meaning the body can’t manufacture it on its own so you have to eat it. Tryptophan is the building block of serotonin, therefore it is imperative that you consume enough in your diet. So how much is enough? Aim for about 300 mg a day from protein. Here are some sample proteins and their respective tryptophan content:
- Chicken or turkey breast, (4 oz.): 390 mg
- Yellowfin tuna (4 oz.): 380 mg
- Soybeans, cooked (1 cup): 370 mg
- Halibut, (4 oz.): 340 mg

When it comes to your mood, you truly are what you eat. Combining a nutritious diet with daily exercise is the ultimate happiness prescription. A Fitness Together trainer can develop a program designed to help you stay happy and fit. You’ll also receive nutritional counseling through the Nutrition Together program, which will complement your workouts. Call us Today at 847-776-7000.

Exercise Regularly to Live a Happy, Healthier and Longer Life

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:14:00 -0500

You have heard hundreds of times that exercise is important to living a healthy lifestyle. But, how important is it to living a happy and fulfilled lifestyle?

Exercise is extremely important to establishing a happy lifestyle as it fills your mind and body happiness tanks by contributing to make you feel better, look better and perform better than you ever thought possible. In honor of August being Happiness Month, let’s take a look at how exercise is the engine to power a happy and healthy life.

Feel Better

Your body naturally values the power of exercise to make your brain and body feel good about your fitness accomplishments. When you exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins, which interact with receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain and trigger a positive feeling in your body. So, exercising regularly is not only good for maintaining a physically fit lifestyle, but it also contributes to keeping your happiness tank full and reducing the risk of depleting your happiness resources (endorphins).

Look Better

Exercise and a healthy diet are the key ingredients to feeling happy about the way your body looks. Whether you are able to finally fit into a pair of “skinny” jeans, feel comfortable sporting a two-piece swimsuit at the pool or are able to shop a new line of clothes at your favorite store, exercise drives the self-confidence, smiles and feelings of happiness that result from a strong, lean body built from consistent physical activity and proper nutrition.

Perform Better

Exercise fuels your competitive nature by taking your efforts and performance levels to new heights. When you advance through the stages of an exercise and/or training program and start exceeding your expectations, a performance high of adrenaline, accomplishment and happy feelings soon follow. These positive feelings are often described as “euphoric” and/or may be known as a “runner’s high,” which can lead to an energizing and upbeat outlook in all areas of your life.

In addition to positively enhancing your mental well-being, regular exercise also can contribute to your internal body (organs) performing better and ultimately contribute to living longer. A recent study has shown that individuals who performed 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week lowered their mortality risk by 10 percent, while those who engaged in vigorous exercise reduced their mortality rate by 22 percent.¹

Researches commonly agree that exercise and a proper diet can lead to a healthy body and happy. If you are looking to rev up your engine and begin a consistent workout program or if you are in the need of a fine-tune workout adjustment, the professional trainers at Fitness Together are dedicated to helping you establish and maintain a healthy, fit and happy lifestyle. Give our studio a call today to get started on the journey of looking better, feeling better and performing better than you ever thought possible.

847-776-7000

¹Internal Journal of Epidemiology, 2011

Exercise: Medicine for the Mind and Body

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:33:00 -0500

As the dog days of summer slowly fade from the horizon, to-do lists become longer with the craziness of back to school schedules, days become shorter with less sunlight brightening our days, and our carefree summer moods can quickly sour if we aren’t careful. Incorporating a consistent fitness routine into your end-of-summer schedule can help keep a pep in your step and a smile on your face during the summer/fall transition period.

Studies show that exercise is just what the doctor ordered for living a happy and healthy life anytime of the year, but especially when life has you running in many different directions. A healthy and fit lifestyle that includes daily exercise can help keep you focused, mentally and physically aligned, and in good spirits year round. Fitness can lead to overall happiness by offering the following life balancing and enhancing characteristics.

Setting Goals: The cornerstone of a sound fitness routine includes setting goals that lead to positive lifestyle results. Whether your goals include losing weight, training for an endurance event, bench pressing a certain amount of weight or reducing inches around your waistline, setting fitness goals creates a structured environment of clear expectations that can lead to happy and healthy outcomes.

Pushing Through Rough Times: One of the important lessons that a consistent workout routine can teach you is that most days will produce great workouts, but a few days every once in awhile will lead to less than desirable workouts. Even so, a rough workout (feeling tired, sore, poor mood) is better than no workout at all. Finishing a less than desired workout can still lead to a happy ending – feeling a sense of accomplishment and appreciating the effort exerted to lead an active lifestyle. Exercise teaches us to turn a negative into a positive by pushing through the rough times to make way for good times and great workouts when you feel on top of the world.

Releasing Mental and Physical Tension: Stress, responsibilities, work and family commitments, and over-scheduling are common conditions that can exist in our everyday lives. Exercise can be a healthy outlet to blow off steam and turn these often negative elements in our lives into more manageable and happy situations. In fact, several lines of research suggest that exercise increases brain serotonin function in the human brain, which is believed to contribute to feelings of well-being and happiness. Specifically, research has indicated that patients diagnosed with depression have realized positive effects after they increased their physical activity.¹

Celebrating Your Successes: Too many times in our busy lives we forget to stop and take the time to celebrate our successes. A fitness routine based around specific goals naturally leads to accomplishments that are worthy of a celebration. So whether you finish your first 5k race, break a personal best record or complete a group workout with friends three times in one week, have fun, be happy about your accomplishments and enjoy your successes. Isn’t that what motivates us to keep going in the first place?

If you find yourself feeling down during the summer/fall transition this year, take a dose of consistent exercise to lift your spirits and keep your body moving in a healthy direction. The professionals at Fitness Together are here to help you get back on track to working out regularly or to enhance your existing workout routine so you can realize healthy and happy results for both your mind and body. Give our studio a call today to energize your exercise routine and support a happy lifestyle.

847-776-7000

EAT LIKE AN OLYMPIAN: Go For the Nutritional Gold

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 14:32:00 -0500

We can all take inspiration from the remarkable athletes competing in this year’s summer Olympic games (in London from July 27, 2012 to August 12, 2012). These athletes not only train their bodies and their minds to perfection, they also know that their nutrition plays a key role in the recipe for an Olympic champion. Training and competing in the Olympics involves an immense amount of hard work, dedication and perseverance. Eating a healthy diet sufficient in nutrients and with enough calories to fuel competition and training is an important component of all athlete’s training plans and just may be the deciding factor in that tenth of a second that distinguishes gold from silver. Take this opportunity to tap into the Olympic energy swirling around the world this summer and see if you can incorporate some or all of the 6 nutrition tips below and you will eating like an Olympian!

1. Eat breakfast and wake up a winner. Mom was right, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Athletes know that they must fuel their workouts with nutritious foods or they will not be able to train and compete to the best of their ability. Ideally it is best to “break the fast” with a whole grain (oatmeal wins the gold for heart health), mixed with a calcium and protein-rich liquid (such as fat-free milk or soy milk) and topped with vitamin and antioxidant-rich fresh fruit (such as blueberries).

2. Eat at home more often. Athletes must ensure that what they put in their mouths is top quality food that has the highest nutrient to calorie ratio. This means that athletes minimize the amount of “empty” calories they consume by limiting refined sugars, flours, and “bad” fats. When we eat out, we are served gargantuan portion sizes packed with too much sodium, saturated fat, trans fat, sugar and refined carbs. Cooking at home more often will allow you to control what goes in your mouth. Start with fresh, unprocessed food and flavor your meals with more healthful alternatives.

3. Eat small frequent meals for endurance. Another principle many professional athletes embrace is to eat small, frequent meals. Olympic athletes begin early by fueling-up with a quality breakfast and then continue to fuel throughout the day with healthy meals consisting of low-fat dairy, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and “good” fats. Eating lots of healthful mini-meals keeps energy levels up and powers the body over a 12 hour time span. Although the main nutrient in an athlete’s diet is healthy carbohydrates (such as fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains such as quinoa, steel cut oats, potatoes, brown rice, and 100% whole wheat pasta and breads), athletes also know to include quality protein sources such as lean beef, poultry, eggs, beans and fish as well as a smaller amount of “good” fats such as olive oil, nuts, seeds and fatty fish.

4. Rehydrate but limit liquid calories. Athletes drink plenty of water to keep hydrated through the day, and so should you. Sports drinks have been marketed as the elite athletes “secret weapon” for peak performance, however in reality this is not the case. Hard core athletes know that sports drinks were designed to be consumed during training or during the event - not to drink all day long. Water is still the best for rehydration (for most of us) unless we are competing in long distance endurance events.

5. Eat those carbs. Athletes look at what they put into their bodies as essential fuel to perform. Carbohydrate is the muscle’s primary form of energy so the athlete’s plate will most often consist of foods that are packed with carbohydrates (as well as vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals) to maximize performance.

6. Eat healthy fats and limit fried foods. Fried foods are not only high in calories, but often contain “bad” fats. Athletes typically limit their intake of fried foods and instead compliment their meals and snacks with more healthful plant based sources of fats such as nuts, avocados, olive oil, canola oil, and fatty fish.

Follow these six tips with the support of Fitness Together and you’ll surely be staying fit and striving for nutritional gold. A Fitness Together trainer will develop a program designed to meet your specific goals. You’ll also receive nutritional counseling through the Nutrition Together program, which will complement your workouts.

Let Fitness Together-Palatine help you eat like an Olympian!

Call us today @ 847-776-7000

Healthy Eating: Tips and Tricks for a Nutrition Transition

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Nutrition Tip 1: Don’t Do It Alone

The most important step to successfully transitioning to healthier eating is to establish a strong network of support in preparation for your journey. Breaking old habits and making healthier lifestyle changes is a difficult task, so don’t be afraid to ask for help. By enlisting support from family, friends and a health and fitness professional, you will get started on the right path to continued nutrition success. A nutrition specialist can help you evaluate your goals and set a plan in motion, one that is smart – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely – to your particular lifestyle.

Nutrition Tip 2: You Bite It, You Write It

The simple act of writing down and keeping track of all food or beverages that enter your mouth will increase awareness of the amount and variety of foods you eat each day. Keeping an Accountability Food Journal is the best tool available to help increase your consciousness regarding the foods you eat. A journal also enables you to analyze the circumstances that contribute to making less healthy food choices. Journaling should be as specific as possible and include the date, time, amount of food, situation and hunger level. Your journal will not only help you keep track of your daily food consumption, but also serve as an insightful follow up tool to share with your nutrition professional. The information in your journal will enable your nutritionist to identify which foods are working for you, as well as which foods and circumstances are barriers that may be getting in the way of attaining your healthy eating goals.

Nutrition Tip 3: Take Baby Steps

Few people are successful with major lifestyle changes when they dive in head first. The best strategy to achieve major goals in life is to break the goal down into small doable steps. For instance, if your goal is to improve your eating habits and you have a problem eating too much high fat, high calorie fast food (and you truly enjoy the food), then it would probably not be realistic to cut it out completely. Instead, you would work with your nutrition consultant to come up with a better plan, one that is doable for you such as cutting back on fast food consumption or even choosing healthier fare at fast food restaurants. Rome was not built in one day and neither should your transition to healthier eating.

Nutrition Tip 4: Focus on the Positive

Some people equate healthy eating with deprivation and eliminating favorite foods from your diet. To keep your nutrition transition from stalling before you take the first step, give yourself the gift of positive thinking and keep your momentum toward healthy eating moving strong. Instead of putting the sole focus on eliminating foods from your day, switch your mindset to a more positive approach…what healthy foods can you add into your day? For example, if you want to cut back on your red meat consumption, perhaps commit to eating a vegetarian dinner on Mondays (Meatless Mondays); or reserve one day a week dedicated to trying different kinds of fish from around the world (Fish Fridays). Have fun with it and make your journey to healthy eating an adventure.

Tip 5: Break it Down

A marathon (26.2 miles) is run one step at a time. Many people fail in making the transition to a healthier lifestyle when they take the all or nothing approach. The key to successfully making this transition is to work with your support team to embrace the opportunities, work through the challenges and learn from your mistakes during each step of the journey. By breaking your nutrition transition plan down into one step, one meal and one day at a time, you will cross that finish line healthier and happier.

Fitness Together

Do some spring cleaning by starting now to make a healthy nutrition transition. Start off on the right foot for your healthy eating journey by contacting your local Fitness Together nutrition professional today. With Fitness Together’s Nutrition Together program, you will receive all the help and support you need including a detailed roadmap to eating healthy, eating light and eating often—in tandem with your exercise routine. Let Fitness Together support you as you take the right steps to “spring” into action!

Energize Your Exercise Experience

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:03:00 -0500

by Joining a Small Group Training Pack

Rolling over, turning off your alarm and sleeping in for an extra hour instead of heading out for a morning run is too easy to do. Letting the day get away from you and opting for happy hour with friends rather than working out at the gym can be an easy out too – especially if you’re running solo in your workout routine as daylight gets shorter and temperatures get cooler.

If you are feeling sluggish this winter and struggling to start a workout program, have hit a fitness plateau or just looking for something new to add to your fitness regimen, it may be time to join a pack of workout buddies to help you meet your health and fitness goals. Small Group Personal Training is the hot trend this season as individuals opt for a more cost-effective, fun and engaging environment to meet their personal fitness goals, dreams and aspirations. It doesn’t matter if you are an elite athlete, weekend warrior, new mom, senior citizen or desk jockey, everyone can benefit from training in a small group setting.

Increase Your Motivation

Whether you are getting started on a fresh workout routine or you’re a seasoned fitness veteran, establishing and maintaining consistent motivation can be quite a challenge. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently reported that almost 50 percent of people who begin an exercise program drop out in the first six months and those who lack self-efficacy (the power to produce results on your own) won’t even try to start a new routine. However, research has shown that there are ways to increase your confidence in relation to fitness goals – remembering previous successes, observing others doing something you find challenging and enlisting other peoples’ support. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2011, August 16).

When you set up a support structure of working together with other individuals, you breakdown the common roadblocks of making excuses for yourself and never taking the first step toward a fit and healthy lifestyle. Small Group Personal Training gives you the motivation of three to four other individuals and a seasoned personal trainer who are dedicated to working together to achieve total body fitness. By incorporating a fitness routine together with a small group of like-minded individuals, you become a part of something bigger than yourself – an environment that is packed full of fitness motivation and encouragement.

Build Accountability

As the days get shorter and holiday to-do lists grow longer, staying active can become a thing of the past. To stay dedicated to working out, especially this time of year, it is imperative to have a group of workout companions that you are scheduled to meet with consistently throughout the week. By scheduling your workout into your busy schedule, you are less likely to push your workout until tomorrow again and again. By having a small group of people who are reliant on having you participate in the workout session, you are less likely to skip your workout when something more appealing like happy hour and shopping trip invites pop up in your inbox. Your group counts on you to show up every workout and bring the enthusiasm needed to succeed in fitness, together. Being accountable to a consistent workout time and having supportive workout buddies are the key ingredients to maintaining a successful workout program as the New Year approaches.

Drive Your Competitive Desire

The power of getting fit together, lies in human nature’s innate desire to push ourselves harder and further when alongside other individuals. According to recent research from Michigan State University, the best workout environment is one where you have someone to push you to work harder. The study found that people who exercised with someone worked out 24 percent longer than those who worked out alone. Michigan State University (2011, May 19)

Working out in a small group setting, there will be days when you’ll be the inspiration and there will be days when you’ll be inspired. The true power of working out in a small group is the synergy that develops as you and your workout buddies train side-by-side, commit to better yourselves individually and celebrate each other’s victories together. Working out in small group training setting is not about beating the person next to you. It is about exceeding your own potential one day at a time and encouraging those around you to do the same.

Socialize with Active-Minded Individuals

Rather than surrounding yourself with bonbons and eggnog this holiday season, join a PACK of fitness-minded people who value a healthy lifestyle to close out the year. A small group personal training environment will equip you to stay motivated and on track for successfully meeting your fitness goals. By joining others in your quest of reaching your goals, the experience can become less of a task and more of a social event where you catch up with your workout buddies and decompress from a busy work day in-between chest press reps and squat jumps. Before you know it, your workout is over, you’ve burned thousands of calories and you’ve fulfilled your need for socializing.

As you embark on closing out 2011 and setting new lifestyle goals for 2012, energize your workout and your attitude with small group personal training at Fitness Together. Enjoy pushing yourself to fitness levels beyond your imagination, enjoy the companionship of working out with like-minded individuals, and enjoy the accomplishment of looking better, feeling better and performing better. Join Fitness Together’s small group personal training today to be a part of the pack, but not lost in the crowd.

Call us at 847-776-7000 and visit our website fitnesstogether.com/palatine

How to Choose the Right Trainer for You

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Q. What are the benefits a hiring a trainer?

People get trainers because they’re not sure what to do. If you try an exercise you saw on TV, injure your back and can’t work out for two weeks, that’s not gaining you anything. A trainer can observe and evaluate whether you’re at an appropriate level of conditioning for higher intensity, higher impact activities, and design a program specifically for you.

And if you’re getting bored with your routine you’re probably not working out as hard or as often as you would like, a trainer is a great way to add newness that gets you excited about working out again.

Not seeing the results you want? Not sure if you have good form? Just need new inspiration? Ask Fitness Together about a personal training consultation including an assessment of your health and fitness condition today. We’ll match you with the best trainer for you based on your goals, priorities and preferences, and we’ll even map out a Nutrition Together nutrition plan customized for you to help you maximize the benefit of your workout program. Just call Fitness Together-Palatine today at 847-776-7000 to set an appointment.

Consult a doctor before beginning any new fitness program.