Win An Autographed Copy of The 90-Second Fitness Solution!

It’s time to kick start your new year with a healthy lifestyle! I figured this book would help provide you with the information you need to get started!

Three lucky readers will win an autographed copy of The 90-Second Fitness Solution!

What is The 90-Second Fitness Solution?

This book is designed for people like you and me. Life is busy and complicated, and The 90-Second Fitness Solution provides a unique set of 90-second sets that are efficient for a healthy and stronger you.

Skeptical? I might be a little too, but there are plenty of testimonials in the book that will quickly change your mind about the power of intense workouts and consistency.

Overall, The 90-Second Fitness Solution will help you accomplish the following:

1) Shorten your workouts

2) Simplify your eating

3) Save money on supplements

4) Stress-proof  your life

About The Author

The 90-Second Fitness Solution was written by one of the most respected and in-demand fitness trainers, Pete Cerqua (with Alisa Bowman). Pete owns and operates the 90-Second Fitness flagship studio in New York City and has been helping people lose weight for more than 20 years.

Want more info? Check out the book’s website: 90-secondfitness.com

How to Enter

1) Join this website (through Google Friend Connect) and make a comment on this post with your email address. If you are already a member, just log in and comment. Yup, it’s that easy!

I encourage you to consider the bonus entries, since we will announce the winner on this site, facebook, and twitter!

Bonus Entries: 

1) Find us on Facebook and “like” our page. We’ll have a post that you can comment on, which will provide you an additional entry point when you comment on it. Nice!

2) If you like to tweet, you should “follow” Skinny Twinkie on twitter! All you need to do is Retweet our tweet on twitter that announces this giveaway, and you will get another entry point.

3) Do you have a blog? Grab my button and add it to your site or you can blog about this contest and link to this giveaway post, provide the link to your blog in the comments section on here (or facebook), and you will have gained another chance to win!

4) For those of you addicted to Pinterest (you know who you are!), add SkinnyTwinkie.com to your list of favorites and include the link in your comment.

♦♦♦You can give yourself a total of five chances to win! ♦♦♦

Contest Rules and Eligibility

This contest is open to all U.S.  and Canadian residents who are 18 years or older. Void where Prohibited by Law. This is a giveaway, which means you are not obligated to buy anything from anyone.

This contest starts on January 5th 2011 and will end on January 22nd, 2011 at midnight EST.

Skinny Twinkie will use Random.org to choose one winner by picking a random number based on the total number of entries. Skinny Twinkie will draw the winner on January 23rd, and the winner will be announced that same day on SkinnyTwinkie.com, twitter, and facebook.

If you are selected as a winner, we will contact you via email, to let you know that you have won! If you do not reply back to us within 48 hours after we have notified you, we will choose another winner and you will forfeit your prize.

Good luck everyone!!!

Feel free to follow us, however you like: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest

Tags: contest, exercise, Fitness, fitness trainer, giveaway, Health, Nutrition, Pete Cerqua, The 90-Second Fitness Solution

Choose Health

Exercise is for People of ALL sizes

It drives me nuts when people say that I don’t need to exercise or eat healthy because I’m already at a healthy weight. Depending on who is asking me, I’ll ask them two very important questions.

1) How do you think I became this weight?

2) How do you think I stay at this weight?

I answer my own question (because usually they are still thinking about what I just asked them) and I say, “Well, it didn’t happen by accident!”. I may say it jokingly, but it’s completely true. I have to work at it, and I’m not complaining by any means, it’s just the honest truth. I have completely revamped my eating habits as well as my exercise routine and it’s made a world of difference to my overall health.

Prevention is Key

“Just because you’re not sick doesn’t mean you’re healthy.”  ~Author Unknown

I believe that you should do everything you can to prevent illness in the first place. You will more than likely still become sick now and again, but not nearly as often as you would be if you didn’t have a healthy lifestyle in place. Most people will completely neglect their body until they are forced to recognize that changes needs to be made. At that point, it might already be too late. I hope you all have another chance, but I realize that’s not always everyone’s reality.

Today

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. You have everything you need to make healthier choices in your life. Being a “healthy person” doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process. Creating a healthy lifestyle means you are continuously making healthy decisions over and over again. It doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, it just means that more often than not you are making healthy choices.

To get started, make one change that will have a positive impact.  For example, you can start drinking water instead of soda . You can start eating products that are whole grain instead of made with white processed flour. You can exercise every day for 5 minutes rather than nothing at all. It all starts with the first step.

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Tags: disease, Fitness, Health, illness, Nutrition, prevention

Know Your Heart Rate Zones

Too many gym goers  just aren’t seeing the results they want to see. They don’t know what they are doing wrong, and most of them just stop going to the gym altogether. Problem is, just going to them gym and exercising your hardest just isn’t always the best way to see the results you are after. If you want to maximize your exercise results, the key to your problems is knowing your heart rate zones.

Calculating Heart Rate Zones

If you want to reach your goals in the gym, you first need to know what your maximum heart rate is.

Maximum Heart Rate

220 – age = Maximum Heart Rate

For example, if you are 30 years old:

220 – 30 = 190

Now that you know what your maximum heart rate is, you can determine what your heart rate zones are.

Heart Rate Zones

Zone One: 65% – 75% of Maximum Heart Rate

Zone Two: 80% – 85% of Maximum Heart Rate

Zone Three: 86% – 90% of Maximum Heart Rate

For example, if you are 30 years old:

Zone One: Heart Rate of 123.5 – 142.5

Zone Two: Heart Rate of 152 – 161.5

Zone Three: Heart Rate of 163.4 – 171

Advantages Of Each Heart Rate Zone

Zone One

• This is a great zone for your warm up and cool down during the exercise.

• If you are new to working out, this is a great zone to stay in during your entire cardio workout.

• This zone will help improve the blood’s ability to deliver oxygen throughout the body and remove waste which increases blood volume and allows the heart to become stronger.

• This is an Aerobic workout, which uses your muscle glycogen and fatty acids as an energy source.

• An example workout would be walking or even jogging.

Zone Two

• This zone is near the anaerobic threshold, which is when the body is at a point where it can no longer produce enough energy for the muscles with normal oxygen intake. As a result, higher levels of lactic acid is produced. Increase your anaerobic threshold should be one of your cardio goals.

• Exercising at an aerobic level, such as being in Zone Two, will result in more calories being burned with a higher percentage of those calories coming from fat. This is an effective zone for those who want to decrease body fat.

• This is the Aerobic/Anaerobic workout, which uses your muscle glycogen and lactic acid as an energy source.

• An example workout would be jogging, group (cardio) exercise classes.

Zone Three

• This is a high intensity workout that can’t be kept up for a long period of time. You should only stay in this intense zone for 60 seconds or less.

• Once you have worked your way up to this zone, you should only go into this zone about once a week – that’s it! If you go into this zone too much, you will overwork your heart and have less efficient workouts.

• Zone Three should only be used in conjunction with Zones One and Two.

• The benefit of Zone Three is to prevent  plateaus and to continue improving your overall fitness level and boost your metabolism.

• Increases the amount of oxygen burned after the workout, also increasing the number of calories burned after the workout.

• This is an Anaerobic workout, which uses ATP/CP and muscle glycogen as an energy source.

• An example workout would be a fast run or sprinting.

Interval Training

Knowing how to use your heart rate zones to your advantage will help increase the effectiveness of your workouts.

Before you start any exercise program – especially Interval Training – I suggest that you get the approval from your Doctor to make sure your heart can handle the intensity involved in this kind of workout.

Beginners

Zone One: 20-40 minutes (entire workout)

• If you haven’t been exercising consistently, it’s important that you start here. You will still get a good workout in, without causing more harm than good. You need to develop a strong cardio base before you move on to other heart rate zones.

Intermediate

Zone One: 5 minutes (warm up)

Zone Two: 1 minute

Zone One: 5 minutes

Zone Two: 1 minute

Zone One: 5 minutes

Zone Two: 1 minute

Zone One: 5 minutes (cool down)

• You may only end up being in Zone Two for about 15 or 30 seconds, rather than the entire minute. That’s OK and is expected. Once the minute is up, it’s time to go back into Zone One for 5 minutes. If you never reached Zone Two during that minute, your heart may not be ready for Zone Two.

Advanced

Zone One: 10 minutes

Zone Two: 2  minutes

Zone Three: 1 minute

Zone Two: 1 minute

Zone One: 10 minutes

• This Zone should not be used by beginning or intermediate clients, otherwise it could result in a critical health-related injury.

I suggest buying a Heart Rate Monitor that can easily provide you with your heart rate throughout your workout so you can adjust your pace accordingly. You can manage your heart rate while walking, jogging, running, biking, or even on an elliptical machine or group exercise class. Just monitor your heart rate regularly and know which zone you should stay in.

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Tags: exercise, Fitness, Heart Rate Zone, Weight Loss

The Two Ripped in 30 Winners!

Congratulations JenniferHarmon and Heidi! Our lucky readers (comment #27 and #39 on our giveaway post) just won the Workout DVD Ripped in 30 by Jillian Michaels!

This is a great Workout DVD to help anyone stay or get in shape during the holidays! Since I can’t come there to your house and train you, I figure Jillian can help get the job done! As if you didn’t already know, Jillian is one tough trainer…so you will see the results you were looking for! Good luck!

Thank you everyone for participating in this contest! We will have many more opportunities for you to win something, so stay tuned…

Winner’s next steps: Watch for our email! It will come from editor@SkinnyTwinkie.com, and we will need you to provide us with your mailing address so we can have your prize sent directly to you.

If you do not reply back to us within 48 hours after our email, we will have to choose another winner.

Feel free to follow us, however you like: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest

Tags: Fitness, giveaway, Health, Jillian Michaels, workout

Your Chance To Be Ripped In 30!

Two lucky readers of ours will win the Workout DVD, Ripped in 30 by Jillian Michaels! I thought this Workout DVD would be the perfect holiday gift from me, to not one, but two of my readers! 

You Can Be Ripped in 30!

Jillian Michaels is the Personal Trainer who we have all come to love and fear from The Biggest Loser! The Workout DVD Ripped in 30 by Jillian Michaels is the perfect way to start the Holiday Season – in shape!

The DVD includes 4 weeks of 4 incredible workouts to help you get in “insane shape” in less than 30 minutes.

In addition to helping you with your workouts, the DVD also includes access to an online 30 day diet plan. I am not one for “diets“, but I believe it will help kick start some healthy eating habits you can incorporate into your healthy lifestyle.

How to Enter

1) Join this website (through Google Friend Connect) and make a comment on this post with your email address. If you are already a member, just log in and comment. Yup, it’s that easy!

I encourage you to consider the bonus entries, since we will announce the winner on this site, facebook, and twitter!

Bonus Entry Points

1) Find us on Facebook and “like” our page. We’ll have a post that you can comment on, which will provide you an additional entry point when you comment on it. Nice!

2) If you like to tweet, you should “follow” Skinny Twinkie on twitter! All you need to do is Retweet our tweet on twitter that announces this giveaway, and you will get another entry point.

3) Do you have a blog? Grab my button and add it to your site or you can blog about this contest and link to this giveaway post, provide the link to your blog in the comments section on here (or facebook), and you will have gained another chance to win!

♦♦♦You can give yourself a total of four chances to win! ♦♦♦

Contest Rules and Eligibility

This contest is open to all U.S.  and Canadian residents who are 18 years or older. Void where Prohibited by Law. This is a giveaway, which means you are not obligated to buy anything from anyone.

This contest starts on November 14th 2011 and will end on November 27th, 2011 at midnight EST.

Skinny Twinkie will use Random.org to choose one winner by picking a random number based on the total number of entries. Skinny Twinkie will draw the winner on November 28th, and the winner will be announced that same day on SkinnyTwinkie.com, twitter, and facebook.

If you are selected as a winner, we will contact you via email, to let you know that you have won! If you do not reply back to us within 48 hours after we have notified you, we will choose another winner and you will forfeit your prize.

Good luck everyone!!!

Feel free to follow us, however you like: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest

Tags: Fitness, giveaway, Health, Jillian Michaels, workout