Nutrition

A healthy diet means a healthy heart.  An unhealthy diet means an unhealthy heart. 

Foods to stay away from:

All foods that have a high content of unhealthy fats (think saturated and trans fats) and / or all foods that have a high content of sugar / refined carbohydrates. 

Foods to include: 

• All foods that are naturally rich in Omega-3 fatty acids such as wild salmon, raw walnuts, flax seed, anchovies, organic eggs, and high quality fish oil.  Undamaged, quality omega-3s have been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in study after study. 
• Vegetables, especially green ones like romaine, green leaf, and red leaf lettuce, spinach, kale, swiss chard, collard greens, brussel sprouts, parsley, basil, broccoli, green onions, leeks, zucchini, and bok choy.
• Fruits that are rich in the full Vitamin C complex, meaning they contain flavanoids such as grapefruit, kiwi, oranges, lychee, cantaloupe, papaya, persimmons, and goji berries.  Some other top fruits are berries, apples, peaches, bananas and apricots.

A final note on nutrition:  Too much sodium is bad for your heart as well.  Much of the food that you eat out, as well as most pre-made foods you find in the grocery store, are high in sodium, so it's best to cook your own food as often as possible. 

Exercise

Exercise is important for the heart because it strengthens the heart muscle, helps to make it more efficient, increases blood flow, and improves the heart's ability to handle stress.  Lack of exercise has been linked to heart disease in study after study.

Stress

DO NOT skip this section!  So many health conscious people glaze over the emotional well-being portion of the equation, when, in fact, it could very well be the most important ingredient to a healthy heart.  Chronic stress is a well-documented cause of heart disease (and many other diseases as well), and here is why. 

Stress of any kind (anxiety, frustration, anger, depression, etc.) sets off our sympathetic nervous system, which is what keeps us alive in situations where we are at risk, like if we stumbled upon a mountain lion while on a hike.  Here's what happens inside our body when the sympathetic nervous system is triggered:

All of these reactions have been vital to the survival of the human race.  However, the chronic, low-grade version of this sympathetic nervous system reaction associated with regular stress is terrible for us and, in fact, slowly kills us. 

Tips to Manage Emotional Stress

 1. Breathe deeply and regularly.

Whenever you feel stressed, or better yet, whenever you can possibly remember, take deep, nurturing breaths.  This will do wonders to alleviate any stressful feelings you might be having and keep you calm.

2.  Pray / Meditate / Purposeful Relaxation.

Whichever of the three you choose, making it a daily practice is what will make it effective in combating stress. 

3.  Practice Gratitude.

When life seems too much, remind yourself of all you have going for you.  A great idea (courtesy of Oprah Winfrey) is to keep a gratitude journal where you list 5 things you are grateful for that day.  The journal helps you stay focused on what you are grateful for in your life, rather than what you're not happy with.

4.  Practice Compassion.

Most often, our emotional stressors stem from our relationships with other people, whether they are our closest loved ones or the driver in the car in front of us.  Compassion is the antidote to frustration and anger.

5.  Pay attention to your thoughts.

Negative thoughts cause stress in the body.  Sometimes our negative thoughts are so automatic, we don't even realize we are thinking them.  Start listening for them and eventually they will reveal themselves to you.  Once you've identified your negative thoughts, replace them with more positive thinking.  For instance, maybe you constantly tell yourself you are stupid.  Once you actively hear that thought, immediately turn it around by telling yourself how smart you actually are.  If you have a hard time doing this at first, ask your friends to help you make a list of all your postive attributes and keep it handy.  Eventually, the negative thoughts will grow weaker and they will become the ones "hard to believe."

6.  Eat a healthy diet.

It's hard not to be stressed when our body due to lack of vital nutrients.

 7.  Exercise.

Exercise has been proven to significantly reduce stress.

Evolution Fitness is excited to announce the addition of the InBody 520 to their fitness facility in Cherry Hill, NJ. 

The ultimate scale, the InBody has the ability to analyze body composition, rather than just total body weight like a regular scale.  The InBody reads exactly what your weight is comprised of: how much is lean muscle mass, how much is body fat, and how much is water.  A simple, non-invasive screening method, all you have to do is stand on the footplates, hold the handgrips and, within minutes, you get your results. 

The value of the InBody is that it takes the guesswork out of the equation.  Now, we can accurately monitor your progress like never before!  With the InBody, we will know exactly how much body fat you are losing and how much lean muscle mass you are gaining.  Whereas before you might have been frustrated by the scale, wondering why it isn't moving as much as you'd hoped, now we'll be able to see more precisely what's going on inside your body.  For instance, you might have only lost 2 total pounds, which can feel frustrating if you're working hard and doing what you need to lose the weight.  But, step on the InBody and you'd find out that what actually happened was that you lost 10 lbs of fat and gained 8 lbs of lean muscle mass.  With the knowledge the InBody provides, you are no longer discouraged, you are elated, as you should be!

The InBody is a service we will make available to all of our members as part of their membership package. It will also be available to non-members for a fee.  Call today to learn more!

 

A sweet treat for

A sweet month