A 15-Minute Core Routine You Haven’t Tried

There is always an occasion for a strong set of abs, whether it’s for a little black dress, a bathing suit or casual get together with friends. “I don’t want six-pack abs,” said nobody ever. Today is the day you start (or maybe maintain) your impressive core.

This Hot5 Yoga Abs Flow Workout with Miranda will focus on every inch of your middle. She will lead you through a series of exercises that will leave no core muscle unturned. From the origin of the muscle to the insertion of the muscle, Miranda will get every fiber of the muscles involved. She makes it look easy, so remember to work at your own pace and focus on your breathing as you do these moves.

For the most effective results, perform each exercise for 1 minute and try to complete the circuit 3 to 5 times.

1. Rowboat Crunch

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Start with a neutral spine position and pull your knees into your chest as you bring your chest up to meet your knees. Your arms should stay in an extended position. Remember to keep your core completely engaged throughout this exercise.

2. Oblique Crunches

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In a seated position, pull both knees into your chest and shift your weight over to one side of your glutes. Extend both legs out away from your chest, then pull them back into your chest. Do this twice on the same side then swing around to the other side and extend both legs out away from your chest then pull them back into your chest twice on this side. Repeat.

3. Slow Double Curl

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Lie on your back with your head lifted and knees hugged into your chest. Extend your arms up next to your ears and then extend your legs out to a diagonal position. From here, sweep your arms around to your sides and then bring your knees into your chest. Extend your arms out and then extend your legs back to the diagonal. Continue the movement pattern again and again.

4. Plank Lift Squeeze A

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Starting in a side plank position, bend your top leg, driving the knee in towards your chest. Straighten the top leg and bring the bottom knee to the floor. From here, lift your top leg up and then lower it and get back into a side plank. Repeat from the top.

5. Plank Lift Squeeze B

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Starting in a side plank position on the other side, bend your top leg, driving the knee in towards your chest. Straighten the top leg and bring the bottom knee to the floor. From here, lift your top leg up and then lower it and get back into a side plank. Repeat from the top.

This yoga abs flow workout will strengthen your core and abs more effectively than crunches or the ab machines at the gym. Every move in this workout uses the whole length of the muscles, giving you the definition that will make heads turn.

To follow along with the workout on your phone, download the Hot5 Fitness App for your iPhone.

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Easy Fried Rice–With Bacon!

Fried rice is a huge time-saver especially if you have rice leftover from yesterday’s meal. Make a sizzling batch of fried rice jam-packed with budget-friendly frozen veggies and flavorful bacon bits. This one-skillet recipe is easy and clean up is a breeze.

Easy Fried Rice–With Bacon!

Ingredients

• 6 cups (1,170 grams) cooked brown rice (certified gluten-free if necessary)
• 6 strips (170 grams) bacon, chopped
• 4 cups (420 grams) frozen mixed vegetable medley, thawed
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2  teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 4 large (50 grams each) eggs, beaten
• Hot sauce, to taste

Directions

Prepare brown rice according to package instructions. Approximately 2 cups uncooked brown rice will yield 6 cups of cooked rice. Set cooked rice aside.

TIME SAVING TIP: Purchase pre-cooked frozen brown rice, and thaw in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chopped bacon and cook for 5-7 minutes until bacon is crispy. Remove the bacon bits from pan and set aside.

To the same skillet, add frozen vegetables, garlic and ginger powder, and stir-fry in the bacon grease. Allow vegetables to cook for 3-5 minutes until tender. Then, add the rice and soy sauce, and stir-fry for another 3-5 minutes.

Push the rice to the sides of the skillet to make a large well. Pour the eggs into the well and scramble. When the scrambled eggs are fully cooked, turn the heat up to high and stir-fry for another 2-3 minutes allowing the fried rice to sizzle.

Fold in the bacon bits, and add hot sauce to the your desired level of spiciness.

Nutrition Information

Serves: 4 |  Serving Size: 1 3/4 cups (295 grams)

Per serving: Calories: 481; Total Fat: 11g; Saturated Fat: 4g; Monounsaturated Fat: 4g; Cholesterol: 212mg; Sodium: 460mg; Carbohydrate: 78g; Dietary Fiber: 8g; Sugar: 4g; Protein: 18g

Nutrition Bonus: Potassium: 235mg; Iron: 14%; Vitamin A: 13%; Vitamin C: 21%; Calcium: 6% 

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3 Benefits of Cutting Back on Artificial Sweeteners

The message for us to cut back on sugar is loud and clear. The average American eats more than 70 pounds of it per person, per year. For many, the solution to cut back is a simple one: Swap sugar-filled beverage and food choices with calorie-free, artificially sweetened options. The American Heart Association suggests replacing sugary foods and beverages with artificial sweeteners as a way “to limit calories and achieve or maintain a healthy weight.”

Artificial sweeteners lend sweetness without adding extra calories, but they may not be as beneficial as you’d think. Here are three reasons to think twice before chucking back a can of diet pop:

1. You don’t feel fully satisfied on artificial sweeteners.

There’s a growing body of evidence to support the idea that people who consume artificial sweeteners may actually end up consuming more calories than those who don’t. Researchers at Yale University School of Medicine discovered that artificial sweeteners don’t signal the release of dopamine, an appetite-controlling hormone. Dopamine is a reward-signaling chemical, meaning it leaves us with feelings of fullness and satisfaction. Artificial sweeteners don’t satisfy the appetite with calories, says Dr. David Ludwig, professor of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. Diet soda might quench your thirst and your immediate craving for something sweet, but it won’t reduce your appetite. Artificial sweeteners may trick the body into thinking it’s about to receive more calories than it actually does, causing people to then compensate for lack of satiety with more food later in the day.

2. You develop a hyperactive sweet tooth.

In addition, frequent use of artificial sweeteners “may limit tolerance for more complex tastes,” explains Ludwig. Think about it: Artificial sweeteners are 200 to 600 times sweeter than sugar. The more of them you eat, the more your body starts to crave these hyper-sweet foods because you develop a higher tolerance for sweetness. Over time, healthy foods like whole-grain products, fruits and vegetables lose their luster. Even naturally sweet foods (think: carrots, apples, beets) don’t taste nearly as sweet, nor satisfying, to people who regularly consume artificially sweetened foods.

3. You’re probably changing your gut bacteria in an unfavorable way.

Last year, a team of Israeli scientists found that artificial sweeteners (including aspartame, sucralose and saccharin) may contribute to obesity and diabetes because it disrupts the gut microbiome; a collection of bacteria that help digest food, absorb nutrients, and maintain the inner lining of your digestive system. They influence our risk of obesity, regulate our immune system, and provide us with valuable nutrients.

The study looked at the microbiome and found that artificial sweeteners disrupted the bacterial balance of the digestive system in mice, increasing blood sugar and boosting the growth of a certain gut bacteria that triggered fat storage. There are no calories tied to the fake sugars—leaving nothing to digest—so they pass directly into the gut, affecting the millions of microbes that live there. And while authors of the study caution that the findings are preliminary (mice, after all, do not behave like people and results do not necessarily reflect what happens in humans), many scientists are now interested in the effect of artificial sweeteners on the human microbiome.

So what’s the takeaway?

While artificial sweeteners might save you a handful of calories every now and then, it is important to look at the types of foods and beverages that contain these sweeteners as a whole. Most are highly processed, like sodas and packaged snack foods.

Foods that replace sugar with artificial sweeteners may have fewer calories and appear to be healthier, but are not as healthy as you’d think. Look at the entire package. Stick to wholesome, hearty foods, and satisfy your sweet tooth with foods high in naturally occurring sugar, like fruit and dairy. Sugar-containing foods in their natural form tend to be highly nutritious. You’ll not only be full and satisfied, but you’ll also benefit from the fiber, protein and calcium inherent to these whole foods.

Still stuck on sweet? Some have more difficulty shaking their sweet tooth than others. Rather than switch to artificially sweetened foods, take a new approach with some of your traditionally sweetened favorites:

Oatmeal: Go savory! Top steel-cut oats with a creamy poached egg, fresh tomatoes and diced avocado.

Coffee: Try a cold brew. It has a much cleaner flavor, so there’s less need to temper bitterness with sugar. Or choose a flavored coffee grind, like vanilla or hazelnut with a splash of half-and-half or almond milk.

Yogurt: Stir a tablespoon of nut butter into plain yogurt and top with naturally sweetened fresh fruit.

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Tone Your Entire Body With Just Seven Treadmill Moves

Add a weighted ball and a little creativity, and this go-to indoor machine can give you a full-body workout. Try these seven moves to improve your balance, sculpt lean muscle and boost your metabolism. Watch the moves. (http://ift.tt/1P0Pt0e)

Your trainer: Jeff Halevy, owner of Halevy Life, a personal-training gym in New York City

You’ll need: An 8- to 10-pound medicine ball and a treadmill

Do: 2 to 3 sets of these moves 3 times a week on alternate days. Use the inclines and speeds listed here as your starting point, but never go so fast or steep that you might lose control.

1. Reverse Heartbeat

With treadmill off, stand on belt with back to console, holding ball with both hands at chest. Set incline to 5 and speed to 2.5 mph, and start walking backward. Press ball out (as shown), then bring back to chest. Continue for 1 minute.

Works chest, butt, thighs

 

 

 

 

2. Pike Pull

With treadmill off, do a plank with feet on belt. Use feet to move belt, drawing hips up to form an inverted V (as shown). Press feet back to start for 1 rep. Do 10 reps.

Works shoulders, chest, abs

 

 

 

 

3. Game of Catch

Set incline to 10, speed to 6 mph. Sit on floor with toes under end of treadmill (avoid contact with belt), holding ball with both hands at chest. Lower torso to floor, reaching arms overhead. Sit up and throw ball onto belt (as shown). When ball returns, grab it and lower for 1 rep. Do 10 reps.

Works chest, abs

 

 

4. Weighted Shuffle

With treadmill off, stand on belt facing right, holding ball with both hands at chest. Set speed to 3.5 mph and shuffle (as shown) for 30 seconds. Switch sides; repeat.

Works biceps, abs, butt, thighs

 

 

 

5. Lunge and Press

Stand on belt and set incline to 5, speed to 2.5 mph. Lunge left leg forward and press ball straight up (as shown). Lower ball to chest, then lunge right leg forward and press ball up. Continue, alternating sides, for 1 minute.

Works shoulders, abs, butt, legs

 

 

 

6. Wheelbarrow

Set speed to 2.5 mph and get into a plank with feet on floor, hands on either side of belt. Carefully move hands onto belt, walking left hand forward (as shown), then right. Continue, keeping hips square, for 1 minute.

Works shoulders, chest, abs

 

 

 

7. Floating Dip

With treadmill off, stand on belt with back to console, grasping handholds with both hands. Straighten arms to press body up, bringing feet off belt. Lower yourself slowly, leaning slightly forward to take pressure off shoulders, bending elbows until upper arms are parallel to floor (as shown). Press up for 1 rep. Do 8 to 10 reps.

Works shoulders, back, triceps, abs

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Holiday Health Hurdles and How to Handle Them

1000 years ago people thought of winter as a time of scarcity. Less food. Nothing fresh. Less warmth. Less sunlight. People often wondered if they’d make to Spring. Now we wonder if our waistlines will make it to Spring without doubling.

The holidays are a time when our priorities get, well, jumbled. When daylight is short and cookies are plentiful. But when I work with clients we don’t see excuses, we see hurdles. And I thought I’d collect come of the most common Holiday Hurdles I’ve healed people with and share some of the tactics we’ve used to get over them.

• “I don’t have enough time.” It’s a popular sentence around this time of year. Last time I checked there were still 24 hours in holidays as well as regular days. The issue here isn’t “time,” it’s priorities. What clients usually mean is, “I don’t have enough time to exercise with everything else going on.” And that’s a solvable problem: You just need to make your workouts shorter. How short? Pick up something heavy and carry it as far as you can every day from now until January 1st. It’ll take 3-4 minutes and you don’t even have to change clothes. The point is to do something so you don’t lose the habit.
• “It gets dark out so I can’t workout outside.” Workout inside. You can carry heavy things up your stairs, do push ups, squats, even lunges while you hold your baby. Again, the point is to do something. Anything. The Minimum Effective Dose is whatever you do.
• “Sweets are everywhere.” I want you to get out a tape measure. Measure the distance from your chest to your the tip of your fingers with your arm fully extended. Got that? Great. All you need do is stay that far away from sweets. When you go to a party, congregate on the other side of the room from the buffet. When people put out holiday candy in the office, never walk by it without holding something in both hands so you can’t reach for it.
• “The holidays are overwhelming, so I eat comfort foods.” The easiest way to stop an unwanted habit is to replace it with a desired habit. So, look for those triggers. Are you comfort eating because you need to escape the pressures of Holiday planning? Then pick something else that feels like an escape and try doing that instead. I had a client that knew she would stress eat in the holidays so she and her husband made a deal: from Thanksgiving to New Years, every time she wanted to eat junk food, she would ask for a footrub intead. And every time he noticed her eating mindlessly, he would just say, “honey would you like a foot rub?” She told me it was the best winter ever.
• “The portions are so huge!” If you are out at a restaurant, think of every entree as two. Either split it with a partner or take the other half home. If you are at a party with a buffet, use a dessert plate instead of a dinner plate (this works!).
• “I eat things I don’t even want just because they’re there.” Eat what you want before the party. If you’re full, you’re less likely to snack mindlessly (assuming you remember how long your arm is from the tape measurement) and you don’t have to rely on food you don’t want for sustenance.

The Holidays are hard, but they are a lot harder if you think of these problems as inherent instead of solvable. So think ahead to what you have coming up and start making a plan!

Have you have a great holiday hurdle solution? Tell us in the comments below!

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A Stress-Busting Bodyweight Routine—Under 25 Minutes

Tell me this: Has the holiday stress started to get to you yet? Are you freaking out yet about all the shopping, decorating, and cooking?

Well, there’s still a little more than a month to go before the New Year, so it’s time to get all that seasonal stress under control. It’s time to replace your stressed-out holi-craze with a genuine sense of holiday cheer.

You may be wondering how I plan to help you to do that. It’s very simple…a workout that is guaranteed to make you smile.

I sat down and gathered up all of the most hilarious, oddest-looking (but still very effective) moves and put together a workout that’ll have you smiling from ear to ear and beaming with loads of holiday cheer in no time.

Seriously, this is probably the most fun you can possibly have while working out. Don’t believe me? Just watch the demo videos and try not to smile…I dare you!

Do each of the 7 moves on the list below for 45 seconds, resting for 15 seconds between moves. Once you’ve completed all 7, rest for 60 seconds and repeat the 45/15 circuit again. Do the entire circuit 3 times for a super fun, nothing but smiles, 24-minutes of butt-kicking awesomeness.

Low Bear Crawl

Step your right hand and left knee forward at the same time to crawl, then alternate sides. Be sure to keep your knees no more than 2 inches off the floor through the entire movement.

Dumbbell Zercher Squats

Place a dumbbell in the crook of each of your elbows, and hands (or fists) together at your chest. Your feet should be shoulder-width’s distance with your toes slightly pointed out. Keep your weight on the front of your ankles as you squat down as low as you can.

Butterfly Rolls

Grab the underside of your ankles, then pull your navel in toward your spine and up to initiate the backward roll onto your shoulder blades (not your neck) and back up without letting your feet touch the ground.

Crab Walk

Make sure that you push down into the ground with both your hands and feet to help keep your butt lifted off the ground. Move as quickly as you can control.

Froggie Planks

Keep your hips low at all times and use your abs to control the landing as you jump back to plank. If jumping back is too intense, you can step back one leg at a time.

Sumo Stomp Walk

Don’t shift or lift your hips too much while moving. Engage your core and try to keep your hips as level as possible as you raise and lower each knee.

Inchworms

Keep your legs as straight as you can during the walk out and in. Be sure you are in a full plank before you walk your legs forward to meet your hands.

—By Alison Heilig for AcaciaTV

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3 Weight Loss and Nutrition Tips for Your Dog

It is thought that humans domesticated the dog somewhere between 18,000–32,000 years ago. Since the days Fido was helping early humans hunt down woolly mammoth, we’ve evolved in parallel. Over the millennia, dogs have become particularly attuned to our emotions and actions, allowing us the unique ability to understand and communicate with one another.

Considering the history, it may not come as a surprise that in today’s modern world, dogs have developed some of the same problems as humans—namely obesity. With more than 50% of dogs reportedly overweight or obese, it appears that an unhealthy lifestyle can have the same consequences for our dogs as it does for us. Indeed, excess weight has been linked to some of the same negative health consequences.

“It’s really important to help keep your dog in shape, as long-term studies have shown that the skinnier your dog, the longer they live—by an average of almost 1.5 years,” says Dr. Justine Lee, DVM, a Minneapolis-based veterinarian and author of “It’s a Dog’s Life…but It’s Your Carpet: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Your Four-Legged Friend.” “It also helps ward off osteoarthritis, diabetes, ACL tears, back injuries and cardiopulmonary problems, all of which are worsened or exacerbated by obesity.”

It you suspect your pup may be overweight, now is the time to address the issue. As all dog lovers know, their life span is shorter than we’d like, so there is no time to waste. The first step is to figure out whether or not your furry friend is currently at a healthy weight. Lee suggests that eyeballing your dog’s general shape can help you determine this.

“You should be able to see and feel your dog’s ribs easily, and see an abdominal tuck or waist,” she says. “If you can’t, it’s time to go on a diet.”

For pooches packing extra pounds, here are three changes to consider making in your dog’s regimen:

1. Examine your dog’s nutrition and consumption.

Lee suggests that simply cutting back on the portions you’re feeding is a good first step, saying, “My general rule is for dog owners to cut back by 25%. A lot of pet owners interpret the instructions on a bag of food incorrectly and they feed for an 80-pound dog when their dog really should be 70 pounds.”

Research backs up the 25% rule. One study by the American Veterinary Medical Association paired a group of Labrador retrievers, feeding one 25% less food than the other in each pair throughout their lives. Results were conclusive, showing that restricting food by 25% increased median lifespan and delayed the onset of the first signs of chronic disease.

2. Consult your vet to discuss how specific dietary changes can impact your dog.

For extreme cases, your veterinarian may suggest something more specific. “There are prescription diets designed to specifically help your dog lose weight, including ones with higher fiber to make them feel more full, one targeting nutrigenomics, and ones that have less protein for senior dogs who are obese,” explains Lee. “When in doubt, check with your veterinarian.”

3. Increase your dog’s (and your) physical activity.  

Of course, physical activity is also an important part of the weight-loss equation. Unless you’re planning on training your dog to walk on a treadmill, there’s mutual benefit for you and your canine when it comes to increasing exercise.

“Studies have shown that if you exercise your dog more, you and your dog will both lose weight—so get out there and walk your dog,” says Lee.

Indeed, if you need more evidence of how closely our lifestyles are intertwined with that of our dogs’, one study published by the American Veterinary Medical Association concluded that: “Less active owners generally had less active dogs.” Put simply, the more you move, the more your dog likely will, which leads to improved health outcomes for everyone involved.

At minimum, dogs should be participating in two 15-minute play sessions a day. If you aren’t sure whether your dog is getting enough exercise overall, consider purchasing a health monitor that clips to his collar. Just like fitness trackers work for humans, these devices can offer vital health metrics on everything from your dog’s activity levels to things like resting heart and respiratory rates.

“If your dog needs to lose weight, remember these three things: Feed less, exercise more and weigh your dog every two weeks,” adds Lee. “With these simple steps, you can help your dog stay happier and healthier.”

Photo by Mackenzie Lobby.

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