Tricks and Treats

October 2012

Monthly Newsletter

Return to Fitness and Its Fountain of Youth!

It's no hocus pocus that fitness has incredible anti-aging benefits.  According to this Los Angeles Times article, it keeps our joints intact, prevents arterial stiffening, and the increase in blood flow, speeds the body's regeneration abilities.  Studies even showed a 3.3 times higher death rate in less active individuals than the runners they were compared with.  So, are you ready to become active again?

If you've given fitness a hiatus, you might be feeling like Return of the Living Dead coming back to it, perhaps tempting you to put it off longer. If you only focus on how terrible you feel waking up those neglected muscles and weakened lungs, you won't find much motivation in that. Take a moment and remember what you were capable of when you were exercising. What could you do that filled you with pride? Could you do more burpees than the others in a boot camp class, preform a challenging pole trick, or lose several pounds making you feel better than you ever had before? Don't you miss that and want it back? Sure you won't get to start where you left off and you might even be mad at yourself, but if you stick with it, you'll get to where you were and beyond, quickly, thanks to muscle memory.

 
Some might say it doesn't matter what made your good fitness habits decline, but it can. Knowing where the derailment happened, can help you stay on track the next time life's distractions present themselves and they will-a lot! Learn to recognize what sabotages you and the excuses you use to avoid the healthy options.  We're never short of excuses to keep ourselves complacent.  Do any of these sound familiar?  I'm too tired, I don't have time, everyone will be better than me, and our favorite, I have to lose weight before getting into the studio.  Trust us, if fitness is important enough to you, you'll find time, possibly in creative ways, and the rest will improve as you workout.

The worst thing you can tell yourself is that it's too late to return to health or to adopt a healthy lifestyle if you've never had one. Exercise and a diet rich in unprocessed, natural foods, will greatly improve your life span and it's quality, and know one knows that better than Ernestine Sheperd. She's the oldest female competitive bodybuilder at the age of 75.  She didn't even start to exercise until the age of 71, when she decided she wanted to pump iron!  Watch this beautiful woman tell her inspiring story and she'll surely convince you to not put your fitness off any longer. We'll be waiting eagerly to welcome you back!

The Spooktacular Benefits of Chocolate  

More and more studies are finding heart health benefits from dark chocolate's flavonoid, epicatechin, prompting more health care professionals to suggest that you eat a little everyday to improve your cholesterol, reduce atherosclerosis (stiffening of the arteries), and reduce blood pressure, as this WebMD article explains.

Sadly, this doesn't mean that you can binge on the numerous mini candy bars that might be coming into your home this Halloween. The suggested amount is only 1.6 ounces and it should be dark chocolate.  To change up your daily chocolate treat, fix yourself some hot cocoa (made with pure cocoa powder, not pre-sweetened mixes), add cocoa powder into a smoothie, or make this healthy Black Bean Fudge Cake.  Trust us, you'd never know it was made with beans and not flour!

While chocolate will keep your skin younger from the inside out, it can also moisturize the skin.  Many spas offer chocolate mask treatments, but you can make your own for pennies an application and the recipe almost sounds good enough to eat.

8 Bad Habits That Make You Age Faster: Certain lifestyle choices can make you look and feel older than you are. Steer clear of these saboteurs to stay younger, longer.

PoleFIT Revolution 

1037 W 12 Mile Rd.
Madison Hts MI, 48071

248.246.2222 

polefit360@gmail.com