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“Nothing lifts me out of a bad mood better than a hard workout on my treadmill. It never fails. To me, exercise is nothing short of a miracle.”
- Cher

“The hardest thing about exercise is to start doing it. Once you are doing exercise regularly, the hardest thing is to stop it.”
- Erin Gray

Cardiovascular Disease
There is overwhelming evidence suggesting that cardiovascular disease is largely associated with physical inactivity.

Breast Cancer
Did you know that 70% of women who have breast cancer don’t have a family history of breast cancer? Get a yearly mammogram!

Can microwaves cause cancer?
No. While high-energy forms of EM radiation, such as x-rays, can cause cancer, infrared and microwave radiation can’t, because they simply don’t pack enough power to damage your DNA, explains Gary Zeman, ScD a certified health physicist in Berkeley, Ca.

Try the Complex Carbohydrate Experiment
To prove that all complex carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, beans and starchy vegetables are made up of sugar (with fiber), place a piece of whole wheat bread in your mouth and let it dissolve for a couple of minutes. Guess what, it’s going to start tasting sweet because it’s breaking down into its simple sugars.

“As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.”
~ Buddy Hackett

“The more you eat, less the flavor; the less you eat, more the flavor.
~ Chinese Proverb

Oil and Vinegar
Eating a salad for lunch is smart. Using fat-free dressing may not be. A recent study from Iowa State University found that without dietary fat, your body won’t absorb some of the disease-fighting nutrients in vegetables. Fat is necessary for the carotenoids to reach the absorptive intestinal cells. Choose dressings with health fats from olive or nut oils.

What’s Keeping You from Getting in Shape?
#1 Reason – No Time.
Fitting exercise into a busy schedule is the primary obstacle to regular workouts. The truth is, you do have time because it impacts your ability to do everything else with excellence.
Solution: Work out at the same time each day and you are more likely to make exercise part of your routine. Many people who stick with exercise find mornings work best. Or, if you are physically able, raise your intensity level to shorten your workout time.

Benefits of Regular Exercise:
“Physically fit men are at 53% less risk of premature death than sedentary men and physically fit women are 98% less at risk of premature death than sedentary women.”
--Journal of the American Medical Association

Fruit Today, Sight Tomorrow
Eating fruit today may ensure better eyesight tomorrow. People over 50 who eat at least 3 servings of fruit per day are less likely to develop macular degeneration than those who consume less than 1.5 servings per day. Macular degeneration is a leading cause of blindness. Snack on apples, oranges and bananas.

“Simply, as exercise intensity goes up, the risk of heart disease goes down.”
--The American Heart Association

The fine art of aging.
Men, you need to start lifting weights today! 10 percent of a man’s muscle mass is lost between ages 25 and 50; 35 percent of his muscle mass is lost between 50 and 80.

Important for runners.
The strength and function of the gluteus medius muscle is probably the most important active component in the achievement of a biomechanically efficient running technique. Its key role in running is to act as a stabilizing force, to slow the downward drive of the pelvis. Many, if not most, injuries from running are caused from weak hip and gluteal muscles.

From Dr. Kenneth Cooper
“We have found it fascinating to know that one can grow healthier as one grows older with regular, vigorous cardiovascular exercise and weight training. We also have found that we can slow down, and some cases, even reverse the aging process.”

Myth:
You have to do cardio in your ‘fat burning’ zone.
While you might burn a larger proportion of total calories as fat when you exercise in your fat-burning zone, you burn fewer overall calories. When you increase your intensity, you burn more total calories, and as a result, more fat.

The truth is, almost everyone can lose weight but only 5% keep it off. These are the Weight Loss Registry's figures. Thy followed highly successful dieters and came up with four reasons why people were able to keep the weight off.

1. The dieters accepted failure and kept on trying.
2. The dieters did not deny themselves--they indulged from     time to time.
3. They weighed themselves often.
4. They exercised one hour a day.

FACT – 65 YEARS AND OLDER
By the age of 65, individuals who haven’t engaged in exercise on a regular basis may incur a decrease in their muscular strength by as much as 80 percent.

A Successful Fitness Program…
Requires effort. Successful exercise programs are easy to comprehend, but it doesn’t mean they are easy to carry out.

Let’s face it: working out is…WORK! If something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t. You will never gain the perfect body by popping a pill. (Read that sentence again).

Complete transformations don’t happen in two, six, or even twelve weeks. Only consistent application of effort--over time--makes our goal a reality.

Benefits of Exercise
“The single thing that comes close to a magic bullet, in terms of its strong and universal benefits, is exercise,” said Frank Hu, epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health.

“I have written often about the protective roles of exercise. It will lower the risk of heart attack, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, dementia, osteoporosis, gallstones, diverticulitis, falls, erectile dysfunction, peripheral vascular disease and 12 kinds of cancer.

Exercise and Weight Control.
Your weight is determined by the number of calories you eat each day minus what your body burns. Everything you eat contains calories, and everything you do uses calories, including sleeping, breathing, and digesting food.

Any physical activity in addition to what you normally do will burn more calories than you bring in – hence, weight loss.

A simple way to tell how fit you are?
A good way to see if you’re in decent overall cardiovascular shape is by measuring your recovery pulse rate—how hong it takes your heart to recover from high intensity exercise.

Try to get your heart up near your maximum rate (220 minus your age). Then stop, take your pulse for one minute. If you don’t drop at least 15 beats per minute, you’re in poor cardiovascular shape. Dropping by 40 to 50 beats per minute is excellent.

Don't mistake hunger for thirst.
If you wake up in the middle of the night craving something sweet, make sure it's not thirst rather than hunger.

Most often we are dehydrated and not hungry. Drink a glass of water and watch your cravings disappear.

DIET SLIP UPS EVERY MOM MAKES

Mistake #4: You start snacking on the kids snacks. Bottom line, don’t buy your kids snacks – we all know we love to eat gummy fruits and Goldfish.
Mistake #5: You buy in bulk. Research shows that if you buy food and drinks in bulk you tend to eat more.
Mistake #6: You eat because you are exhausted.
Research proves that sleep deprivation increases appetite and cravings for sugary, high-calorie foods that will comfort you and give you quick bursts of energy.

Liposuction & Your Health
Removing 20 pounds of fat with liposuction won’t make you healthier. Women who had 20 pounds of subcutaneous (beneath the skin) did not improve their health status profiles such as inflammation, cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

But when women lost 20 pounds of fat through diet and exercise, they saw dramatic improvement in all their metabolic abnormalities.

Virtues of Weight Training
Without the weight training, you will never optimize your muscle to fat ratio and you will always struggle to keep fat off permanently! Last, but not least, don't forget that weight training, not aerobic training, is what shapes and sculpts your muscles. Simply put, lifting weights makes you look better!

We now know that regular exercise has positive effects on insulin sensitivity, body composition, blood pressure, cardiovascular and pulmonary function, lipid profile, bone mineral density, muscle strength and power, cognitive function, and chronic inflammation.

In fact, epidemiological evidence shows that lack of physical activity is a greater risk factor for coronary heart disease than obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension and family history.

World’s Greatest Type II Diabetes Prevention Tool.

The world’s greatest diabetes prevention tool is exercise. In a 30 year study of 5,000 women, those who were the fittest were 70% less likely to develop this killer disease.

Being sedentary is the most powerful signal for physical decay in the human body. In nature, there is no reason to be sedentary except for lack of food.
– ‘Younger Next Year’

Can an Apple a Day Really Keep the Doctor Away
That belief has been common since medieval times, and it turns out for good reason: Researchers from Cornell University have found that an apple’s peel and flesh contain powerful cancer-fighting and preventing chemicals.

ANTIOXIDANTS AND TEAS - WHITE, GREEN, BLACK & OBLONG
The teas mentioned above come from the camellia sinensis plant & contain healthful levels of different antioxidant compounds. Because they’re less processed, white & green teas have higher levels of antioxidants called catechins.

Studies show that antioxidants in tea can protect against heart disease and cancer. Sip about 4 - 8 cups of green or black tea throughout the day and reap the benefits.

"I've been on a diet for two weeks and all I've lost is two weeks!"
- Totie Fields, comedian

Exercise Infomercials...Nonsense!
Ab belts, ab-rockers, ab-lounger and other infomercial ab-gimmicks...they're all a waste of time and money. Despite the misleading infomercials, the perfectly chiseled fitness models pitching them did not get their perfect bodies by using that “ab” contraption. They got it through real workouts and real nutrition strategies.

40,000 Years of Evolution
Our bodies have not changed in 40,000 years, but our eating and exercise habits have changed tremendously. The same amount of calories it might have taken our prehistoric ancestors an entire day to hunt and gather, we can now have brought to our door with a phone call.

What is a Calorie?
A calorie is the amount of energy required to increase the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.

1 Gram of Carbohydrate = 4 calories.
1 Gram of Protein = 4 calories.
1 Gram of Alcohol = 4 calories.
1 Gram of Fat = 9 calories.

A healthy, well-balanced Super Fit dinner:
(4) oz. Lean Beef
(1) Ear of Corn
(1) Green Salad w/ Vinaigrette

10 Calories is all it takes.
It takes only an extra 10 calories a day for the average person to gain one pound of fat a year.
– American Dietetic Association

Think 30 Days a Month to Lose Weight
To really be successful at losing weight, you need to think of your average daily calorie intake for 30 days. If it is 1200 to 1500 for women and 1800 to 2200 for men and you are exercising vigorously 12 days a month, you’re going to be successful at losing weight.

Diet Ads Work – Diets Don’t
A “heads up” for the chronic dieter: as much as diets don’t work, diet ADS do. Weight loss products and services are a $30 billion industry. If diets did work, why would people have to repeat the process on a continuing basis? Real success with weight loss requires disciplined choices that you need to make at every meal. This is a fact, and not an empty promise. You will not experience weight loss success unless you change the way you think about food, change the way you eat and how much you eat.

Meal-Replacement Shakes May Work
A study recently published in the Journal of Nutrition found that meal-replacement shakes work. For 6 months, more than 60 men and women either replaced two daily meals with shakes and bars. They shaved off more than 9 percent of their original body weight. The authors of the study attribute the shakes’ success to their ease of use.

Are fresh vegetables better than frozen or canned ones?
Frozen and canned vegetables can actually be more nutritious than fresh ones, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research. They’re often picked and processed at their peak of ripeness, using techniques that lock in a slew of nutrients. Just make sure not to destroy their nutritional value by overcooking them. However, if you’re watching your sodium intake, buy either frozen or reduced-sodium canned veggies.

Do you have to do cardio the first thing in the morning on an empty stomach to lose weight?
No, this is a false. There is nothing magical about this time – although it is often the only time of day many people have to exercise.

Ideal Body Fat Percentages
Men – 12% to 18%;
Women – 16% to 26%

How do you achieve this?
1. Don’t skip workouts at Super Fit and do aerobic type exercise or recreation activities on your off days.
2. Eat a variety of fresh, unadulterated fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes and lean meats 3 to 4 times per day.
3. Cut in half the amount of food you eat at each meal.
4. Avoid over consumption of alcohol.
5. Avoid eating food out of stress or fun.

Life Extending Foods
Pick any life-threatening disease--cancer, heart disease, you name it--and eating more broccoli and its cousins may help you beat it, new Johns Hopkins research suggests.

Averaging just four weekly servings of cruciferous veggies--broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, for example--slashed the risk of dying from any cause by 26% among 6,100 people studied for 28 years.

“I NEED TO GO ON A DIET”
The whole concept of a ‘diet’ sets us up to think we will be ‘on a diet’ then ‘off a diet.’ Instead, think of your weight-loss plan as a lifestyle commitment to healthy eating and exercise, for the long haul.

Myth:
Weight training tends to shorten the muscles, but Pilates lengthens them.

Fact:
All muscles shorten when they are activated. All muscles lengthen when they relax. If muscles appear to lengthen and flatten with training, then this would imply that one is losing muscle size (atrophy) which is not a
desirable state for anyone.

This Pilates belief is sheer nonsense and betrays the knowledge of muscle physiology. It would seem to suggest that the more Pilates work you do, the longer your muscles become. That, of course, would mean that your muscles would develop so much slack that you would not be able to move your joints!

“Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the truth, bending over backward, lying down on the job, sidestepping responsibility and pushing their luck.”

~ Author Unknown

High Intensity Exercise is Key
Several new studies show that high-intensity (anaerobic) exercise achieves better results in fitness and fat loss. It turns out that the more anaerobic the workout, the more fat and calories we burn for hours and even days after the exercise.

Ladies, stop worrying that you’ll bulk up!
Many women still believe that heavy or high-intensity weight training for fitness and weight loss will bulk them up. This is absolutely and positively not true.

Women do not have enough of the muscle building hormone testosterone to build too much muscle. Bulk comes from too much fat gain from overeating – sorry, it’s just the truth.

The doctor said to his patient, "What fits your busy schedule, exercising one hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day?"

With a goal of enhancing your health, getting stronger and losing weight, exercise has to become a part of a person's life, not an afterthought.

Exercise Helps Beat Fatigue.
Exhaustion ranks right up there with the girls’ night out on the list of good reasons to skip a trip to the gym. But a new study suggests that when you’re feeling run-down, a workout may be exactly what you need.

Researchers at the University of Oslo in Norway asked more than 6,000 women about their exercise habits and how often they felt tired. When the scientist followed up 15 months later, they found that those subjects who had exercised for at least 20 minutes once a week were, on average 30% less likely to feel fatigued.

Exercise Helps Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
With 3 months of regular exercise, chronic fatigue syndrome suffers can get renewed energy, a new report shows.

Patients exercising vigorously three days per week were significantly less fatigued, slightly less depressed, had better physical functioning, slept better, and were better able to work, compared with patients who got no exercise.

(WebMD Medical News)

Exercise and Pregnancy
SAN DIEGO, CA – Studies have shown that exercise has a positive effect on mothers-to-be, and no detrimental impact on their developing offspring.

A new study further extends the knowledge of research in this area and has found that not only do women benefit from exercise during pregnancy, but their fetuses do too.

Does exercise help you live longer?
Yes, absolutely! There is now unequivocal data that proves regular, vigorous exercise will enable you to live longer. In fact, it has been estimated that there are approximately 250,000 deaths in the United States each year that result from a lack of exercise.

"The first wealth is health."
--Thomas Fuller, M.D.

DIET SLIP UPS EVERY MOM MAKES

Mistake #1: You often eat of your child’s plate.
All that picking adds up in excess calories.
Mistake #2: You skip meals.
Without fuel, your blood sugar drops. Once it gets too low, you get uncontrollable cravings, especially at night. You binge, then battle.
Mistake #3: You inhale your food.
When you eat too quickly, you risk taking in too many calories. It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to signal your brain that you’re full.

Keep Taking Calcium
Powerful new drugs are available to prevent and treat osteoporosis. Unfortunately, many women who take these drugs stop taking calcium supplements. But to ensure the maximum benefits from these drugs, women need to also take calcium.

Question: I'm pretty lean overall, but no matter how many crunches I do, I can't seem to get rid of this last little bit of fat on my abs.? Are there better ab routines?

Answer: Ok, let me clear this up once and for all: You can't" ‘spot reduce’ fat from one specific part of your body. You lose fat systemically. That means you can't control where it comes from. When fat is used for energy, you will draw it from all areas of the body, and the first place you tend to put it on will be the last place it comes off. If you keep your caloric consumption at bay and add more input into your exercise, I guarantee you will get rid of that extra flab on your stomach.

What is "sarcopenic obesity?"
Sarcopenic obesity is a term used to describe a person that looks skinny but is not. They are within normal weight but their muscle-to-fat ratio is comparative to an obese person. These people may look slim in their clothes, but can have body fat percentage as high as 40%. This is because they don't lift weights and generally have poor nutrition.