Indoor Date Ideas…that Burn Calories!

During the Summer months it can get a little too hot for comfort, and sometimes during the Winter months it can get too cold for comfort. Either way, there’s still no excuse to not be able to burn some extra calories!

Here’s a list of fun indoor date ideas that will help you burn some extra calories!

Bowling – Enjoy the cool indoors by going bowling and have fun burning about 180 calories an hour! Just be sure to skip the junk food available at the bowling alley and opt for a healthy meal before you go have fun bowling!

Indoor Swimming – As I have said before, swimming is a full body workout, if done properly. You can burn anywhere from 270 to 550 calories an hour - depending on how vigorously you decide to swim.

Yoga DVDs – Do yoga in the comfort of your own home as you watch your favorite yoga DVD. You can expect to burn about 220 calories an hour as you are sculpting your body to perfect form.

Roller Skating – Go to a roller skating rinkThis is a fun way to burn about 465 calories an hour, and that’s just if you are skating on a flat surface. If you roller blade uphill, expect to burn even more calories!

Karate Class – Take a Karate class together and and you could end up burning about 390 calories an hour.

Laser Tag – Ever played laser tag? You get to run around and shoot the opposing team with a plastic (sometimes heavy) laser gun! Play on the same team or opposing one and you can end up burning about 370 calories an hour!

Dancing – Do you and your date love music? Dancing is a great way to have fun while burning lots of calories! Turn up the music to upbeat songs and have fun burning about 160 calories an hour!

Museum – Take your date to an Art Gallery or Museum, and have fun while you do a lot of walking, which you will end up burning about 130 calories an hour.

Wii Sport – You will have loads of fun on your date when you play games on the Wii Sport! You can try out boxing, bowling, or tennis and you can expect to burn an average of 390 calories an hour!

Indoor Rock Climbing – For those of you who are not afraid of heights, this is the perfect activity for you! You can expect to burn approximately 575 calories an hour from Rock Climbing!

Spin Class – You can burn about 320 calories an hour by going to a spin class together!

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Tags: burn calories, burn fat, date ideas, exercise, Fitness, fun, Health, Weight Loss

Virgin Coconut Oil

I recently had a poll on my site asking others what they thought was the healthiest oil for them. To my shock, Coconut Oil was quite underrated for it’s many health benefits. Apparently The marketers of Olive Oil are doing a better job, but still, I must set the record straight.

Let’s first begin with going over the different types of coconut oil. I want to be sure when you are using Coconut Oil, you are getting only the good stuff, and using only the best.

Refined Coconut Oil

This is the most common way to mass-produce Coconut Oil. Refined Coconut Oil is RBD, which means it is Refined, Bleached, and Deodorized. When you deodorize the oil, very high heat is used to do so. Sometimes the RBD oil is hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated.  Sodium hydroxide is usually used to get rid of the free fatty acids, which helps prolong it’s shelf life. Due to the refinement process, the taste and smell is bland, and does not keep to the taste and smell of an actual coconut. You may think you want a bland taste rather than a coconut flavored oil…but trust me, you don’t want the refined oil. Please read on..

Virgin Coconut Oil

The only way to extract Virgin Coconut Oil is by using fresh coconut meat. No chemicals or high heating is used in further refining since it’s natural pure coconut oil is naturally able to have a long shelf life (why the processing is done in the first place, I will never know). Virgin Coconut Oil retains the taste and smell of coconuts.

Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

Unlike the Olive Oil Industry, there is actually no difference between “Virgin” and “Extra Virgin” Coconut Oil. When it comes to Coconut Oil, “Virgin” is just as good as “Extra Virgin”.

Coconut Oil Heated

One of the wonderful benefits of Coconut Oil, is that it isn’t damaged by heat. Because Coconut Oil can be cooked without worrying the nutritional benefits will be cooked out, Coconut Oil is great for cooking and baking. Not only is it still good for you, but it taste great too.

Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

Coconut Oil is the richest form of Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT), which the body burns for energy (unlike other oils which have Long Chained Triglycerides which actually store as fat – Not good!). Coconut Oil contains Lauric Acid (form of MCT), which is a predominant fatty acid that has anti-microbial and anti-viral properties. The medium chain fats in Coconut Oil is similar to the fats found in breast milk, and even have some of the same health effects, and have a great healing power.

Coconut Oil shows evidence of killing yeast infections (think Candida), increased energy, better immune system, helps with memory, protects the liver, reduced risk of heart disease, normalizes blood sugar levels (also reduces cravings of foods that would raise blood sugar levels), aids digestion, helps with the absorption of nutrients into the body, lowers cholesterol levels, and even helps with Weight Loss.

There are many health benefits of Coconut Oil – even more than what I have already mentioned! Nice.

How Coconut Oil effects Weight Loss

Just as I already mentioned, Coconut Oil has MCT, which helps your body burn fat, thus helping you lose weight. Coconut Oil also helps your body have the ability to control hungry and cravings, which again, helps you lose weight. Does everyone who consumes Coconut Oil lose weight? No, not always. There have been reports of people not losing weight, but they noticed their pants fit better. Apparently Coconut Oil also helps with muscle mass while trimming fat.

Research shows that an under active Thyroid may be to blame for weight problems. That is a pretty intense claim considering that 65% of the US population is overweight, and 27% is clinically obese. Wow. Good news, Coconut Oil is also known to help with an under active Thyroid. Diet seems to play a major role in Thyroid health (for good or bad), and considering their is a choice in the matter, I would do what I can to naturally have great thyroid health.

Cooking with Coconut Oil

Personally, I have thrown out all of my oils (Shortening, Vegetable Oil or any other “cooking oils”), and I have replaced them all with Virgin Coconut Oil (USDA Organic). I have to admit, I was a little worried how the Coconut Oil would effect the taste of my food. Come to find out, it has only made the flavor of whatever I was cooking- even better! You can use Coconut Oil as a replacement for all other oils whether it be for baking desserts, adding to smoothies, or to cook with your meats- you won’t be disappointed.

Coconut Oil has a melting point of 76 degrees, so if it is colder than 76 degrees, the Coconut Oil is going to be more of a solid texture. For measuring purposes, you might want to warm up the Coconut Oil by either running warm or hot water on the jar, or just taking a couple of spoonfuls and baking them for a couple of a minute or two. At this point, it will be a liquid, and easy to measure for recipes.

I love this wonderful oil, and believe you will too!

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Tags: better immune system, burn fat, coconut, coconut oil, fatty acids, health benefits, Healthy, helps burn fat, helps with absorption of nutrients, helps with memory, helps with weight loss, ids digestion, increased energy, kills candida, kills yeast infections, Lauric Acid, lowers cholesterol levels, MCT, Medium Chain Triglycerides, normalizes blood sugar levels, oil, organic virgin coconut oil, protects the liver, reduced risk of heart disease, thyroid solution, Weight Loss

Walk, Jog, or Run?

Is walking better for you, or is jogging? What about running?

Walk

Walking is a lot easier on your body than jogging or running, and if you have been out of the gym for awhile, walking is an excellent place to start. Walking is also a great cardiovascular exercise, and should not be looked at as an inferior workout to either jogging or running. Try to keep a steady brisk walk, and this is a great way for you to burn calories and lose weight.

Focus on walking correctly, get good comfortable shoes, breathe correctly, and work your way up to speed walking. If you have ever had a knee injury, you might want to stick to walking until you have fully recovered from your injury. Never feel like you have to go faster than what your body is ready for, or capable of.

With any other workout that you do, walking is also a great cool down.

Jog

If you like a short and intense workout, jogging might just be for you. Jogging takes less time for the same calorie burn and cardiovascular benefits compared to walking. Be sure that you have great shoes, and that you are jogging correctly. Jogging can be really hard on the knees and shins if you jog “wrong”, jog for a prolonged amount of time, or even if you didn’t properly stretch before or after your workout. Something important to also keep in mind, is to breathe correctly. It is important that you breathe in through your nose, and out through your mouth. If you need help practicing this, try walking until you can get the hang of things.

Run

Most people who say then went “running” actually went “jogging” instead.  Running is faster than jogging, and if you are on pace to finish a mile in less than 9 minutes, you are “running”. Just like walking and jogging, running is a great cardiovascular exercise, but takes much faster to burn the same amount of calories as it does for walking or jogging. Just know that this is an intense workout, and not for those just trying to get back to the gym. This is something you should work up to, but you don’t have to reach this point.

Which one is for me?

Do what is best for your body. Because I have had a knee injury in the past, I am not pushing myself to run, and I even limit the amount of jogging that I do. Am I depriving myself of anything? No. Whether you walk, jog, or run,  you are having a cardiovascular workout, burning calories, and getting a great exercise in. As long as you are properly warmed up and prepared, whether you walk for an hour, jog for 15 minutes, or run for 3 minutes, your body will thank you.

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Tags: breathe, burn calories, burn fat, cardio, cardio workout, cardiovascular, cool down, exercise, Fitness, Healthy, heart, injury, jog, jogging, knee, Lose Weight, quality shoes, run, running, running shoes, shin, Skinny, walk, walking

Isagenix® IsaLean Shake

Whether you choose Vanilla or Chocolate, either way, you are making the right choice by having an Isagenix® IsaLean Shake (Side Note: My favorite is Vanilla!)

The Isagenix’s IsaLean Shake is a complete meal replacement that is actually healthy for you. The reason I say “actually” is because there are so many weight loss shakes that have nothing but sugar as the first ingredient (just look and see!), and added vitamins – though they may be low in calories, they aren’t healthy for you. If you are going to try to lose weight, you should be healthy while doing so.

Nutrition

The IsaLean Shake has high quality Whey from New Zealand, Fiber, Calcium, Vitamins, Casein protein that is from grass-fed cows with no added hormones or antibiotics, Ionic Alfalfa™ (Isagenix’s proprietary blend of 70 super-charged minerals, trace minerals and alfalfa juice), and active enzymes to help maximize the absorption of key nutrients.

Health Benefits

• May support your body in burning fat*
• May support increased energy*
• Highest quality of amino acids
• Exclusive source of whey and casein protein
• Supports digestive health*
• Low lactose
• Zero Trans Fats
• No artificial flavors
• Gluten-Free
• Wheat-Free

The Isagenix IsaLean Shake has nothing but ingredients to help benefit and feed nutrition to your body…your body will thank you.

Feel free to watch an informational video on the Isagenix® IsaLean Shake

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

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Tags: amino acids, burn fat, casein protein, Chocolate, gluten free, Healthy, Ionix Alfalfa, Isagenix, Isagenix IsaLean Shake, Isagenix Video, IsaLean Shake, low lactose, meal replacement, no artificial flavors, Nutrition, supports digestive health, Vanilla, Weight Loss, wheat free, whey protein, zero trans fats