by Kelsey Murray
The 4th of July is quickly approaching and along with lighting firecrackers and watching fireworks shows, many of us tend to eat a lot of high-calorie foods such as hamburgers and potato salad on this summer holiday. If you want to burn off these extra calories while still celebrating the holiday, try these red, white, and blue activities everyone will enjoy.
Red: For your red exercises, it’s time to regress to your childhood days. Find a red ball like the one you used to play with when you were younger. It could be a basketball, a tether ball, or even a baseball (the stitches are red) and then enlist a friend or family member to join you in the fun. Throw the ball back and forth, roll it down a hill and chase it, or just play a traditional game. Either way, using a red ball is a great way to get in some cardiovascular exercise this Fourth of July.
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With this week’s record breaking heat, which has been blamed for five deaths in Tennessee, Maryland and Wisconsin, some experts predict an unusually hot summer for the United States.
According to MSNBC.com, a new study from Stanford University predicts that global climate change will lead permanently to unusually hot summers by the middle of the century. So, as the summers heat up, what can you do to stay cool and keep hydrated?
Lather Up: With excessive heat often comes excessive sunshine and no matter how much time you plan to spend outside, sun safety is critical for preventing skin cancer. Use sunscreen with an SPF30 or higher daily for protection and if you’re planning on spending the day outdoors, up the ante to an SPF45 or higher.
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Playing sports has a multitude of benefits for kids. Beyond the understood exercise, children learn time management, how to get along with other players, and most importantly, the necessity of teamwork. One of the most important, and least emphasized, skills that children will learn while playing sports is the necessity of proper nutrition and how it relates to both endurance and results.
Have you heard the saying, “You only get out of it what you put into it?” That saying seems tailor made for sports. As adults, we know the importance of fueling ourselves correctly, being certain to be adequately hydrated and well rested. These lessons are not usually at the forefront of a coach’s mind, however, and when you spend time ferrying your kids back and forth, it can often slip to the bottom of your priority list as well. After all, you’ve got to remember where the practice has been scheduled, remember to get the kids there on time AND the gear – something’s bound to slip your mind.
Arguably the most important aspect of the children/sports/nutrition triangle, and the one easiest to overlook, is hydration. Sure, we send our kids to practice and games with a water bottle – but do we make sure that they drink it all? And is the beverage that we’ve given them the best choice? How many of us have seen the swarm of players at the end of a game, grabbing a sugar sweetened drink pouch and thought to yourself, “Is that really the best beverage choice for a player who has just run for an hour?” Let’s take a look at hydration as it relates to the child or teen athlete.
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Water is boring. Why drink flavorless H20 when your tongue can be excited by bubbles or, well, flavor?
Unfortunately, with that flavor everyone craves usually comes a lot of excess calories and sugars, and despite the fact they come in liquid form, flavored beverages like tea and soda (even diet soda, which people seem to think because it is calorie free, it is an acceptable substitute for water) can dehydrate you rather than re-hydrate you.
Neuro has heard the plight of the under-hydrated adult craving flavor without junk, and offer a large array of tasty, hydrating waters that focus on every area of your health.
Not sleeping well? You’re covered. Libido needing a boost? Neuro’s got the stuff. Looking to drop a few pounds? You got it.
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Pamela Hernandez owns Thrive Personal Fitness in Springfield, MO where she focuses on weight training for weight loss. She writes a blog for her web site, www.thrivepersonalfitness.com, sharing vegetarian recipes from her kitchen, exercise strategies, lifestyle tips and stories from her own journey. You can also follow Pamela on Twitter @ThriveFit or pick up more tips on Facebook, www.facebook.com/thrivepersonalfitness.
Some days I feel really lucky to live in the day and age we do. Can you image trying to figure out how many calories are in your lunch or keep yourself entertained while running without modern technology?
I love the fact that I can check out nutritional information online before heading out for a meal or go to YouTube for a quick and easy demo of a new exercise. Technology certainly makes the journey to health and fitness a lot easier.
Of course the problem is deciding which technology to use. There are almost as many apps and online fitness tools as there are diets. You could spend hours exploring each and every one, trying to decide which one has the features you need. Or you could get so overwhelmed with choices that you don’t do anything at all.
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