FitSugar

Book Review: TravelFit London

FitSugar — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:00:00 PDT

Vacations and honeymoons are a great time to sit back and relax, but that does not mean you have to let all your healthy efforts go to waste. If you and your new spouse are heading to London for your honeymoon then you'll definitely want to bring along TravelFit London ($15).

This handy, little travel guidebook gives you the ins and outs on how to keep off holiday weight gain in a city that treasures its fish 'n' chips. From finding bike tours to health clubs that offer day passes, to health-food stores, to walking tours, you'll be sure to keep up with your health while still be able to take in the sights. I love that it's small enough to fit in your purse so you can take it on all your outings. After all, Ben may be big, but you don't have to be.

If the City of Lights is your destination, be sure to check out TravelFit Paris.

Sightseeing + Running = City Running Tours

FitSugar — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:15:00 PDT

I am all about multi-tasking and amazed at the new strategies folks create to combine fitness with other activities. When I first learned about running tours in Rome, I was so excited by the concept that I almost bought a ticket to Italy. Thanks to City Running Tours I can stay stateside and jog to see the sights of New York, Chicago and D.C., with Austin and Denver coming soon.

This concept is great for the business traveler bored with the hotel treadmill, the vacationer in training for an upcoming race, or the recreational runner who wants to explore the sights and exercise at the same time. City Running Tours offers set tours, as well as customized runs to accommodate any athletic ability, style, training regimen or specific landmarks. Pricing is $50 per person for the first 6 miles and $4 per person for each mile after that. In the Big Apple prices are a little higher - $60 per person for the first six miles and $6 per person for each additional mile.

Buy your tickets online and hit the streets, see new sights, and get your heart rate up all at the same time.

Lightweight, Compact Gym Essentials For Any Travel Workout

Leta Shy — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 17:59:56 PDT

Travel is no excuse to upend your healthy routine, but sometimes it can be tough to feel like you can get a good workout while on the road. And while there are many ways to exercise without any equipment at all when you travel, having the right essentials can help out a lot. But no need to take up valuable suitcase space just for your workout! Check out these lightweight, compact gym essentials for the road!

How Not to Destroy Your Marriage

The Good Men Project — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:30:42 PDT

We're happy to present this story from one of our favorite sites, The Good Men Project. Today, Mark Tyrrell offers eight relationship tools to make your marriage work.

"All marriages are happy. It's the living together afterward that causes all the trouble." - Raymond Hull

So how do you make your marriage work? Or do you just blindly hope it'll take care of itself?

Think of a hot, successful date with someone you’re attracted to. You have fun, great conversation and more sexual chemistry than a warehouse full of pheromones. You don’t have to “work at” the date because it’s self sustaining. It runs as smoothly as the gliding hand of a classical guitar maestro and you can’t wait for another rendition.

Teenage Dating in a Twilight-Hunger Games World

But marriage, or any long term relationship; well that’s a whole other caboodle.

If we’re not careful, marriage can deteriorate into little more than a torturous assault course; littered with routine boredoms, frustrations and resentments. Couple all that with external pressures and sometimes marriage feels not worth the effort. But there are major benefits to being hitched or committed, other than just a beneficial tax regime.

Healthy marriage; healthy people.

Being happily married bestows heaps of health benefits. You might be forgiven for thinking that if you’re married you don’t live longer it just seems like it but, no, a good marriage really can help you clock up more years (1) and married people are happier (2) even though they don’t always look it from the outside.

But when marriage doesn’t work it can feel being manacled to a maniac, marooned with a misogynist or nailed to a nag. And I don’t care what the studies say, that’s not healthy. You may hear couples say stuff like: “We are making our marriage work!” but how do we do this?

Making it work.

We pay lip service to “working on the marriage” but what is the work we need to do? Marriage vows such as “to love and to cherish” and “forsaking all others, for better or for worse” don’t really tell us how to make it work, although they give us a clue.

Fortunately a ton of research has been done on what to do and not do to make your marriage, or any intimate relationship work. Follow the guidelines here to become “good at marriage."

Tip one: Be romantic but keep it real.

We are all (force?) fed romance in movies and novels. The handsome man gets the beautiful woman. But what I wonder is what happens after our romantic couple ride off into the sunset together? What do they do exactly? Bicker? Moan at one another? Start to ignore each other?

After all that romance, our beautiful couple is bound to have massive expectations of their life together. But when rose tinted expectations clash with day to reality, watch out!

Romance is vital in any relationship. Always seeing the best in your partner helps to keep things intimate and love should be expressed. But if you have been raised on Mills and Boon Romance novels or feel-good movies, then your own romantic expectations can work against the sustainability of your long term relationship.

When day to day life fails to live up to the giddy, heady lust-filled days of the pre-settled down romance people can become angry, even blame one another: “This wasn’t what I signed up for." They find it hard to take the rough with the smooth because they never really figured there would be any rough.

Expectations not diluted with at least a dash of realism can be a royal road to relationship ruin. Your partner may be an angel, but they have feet of clay. You must learn to love those feet or at least accept them a bit!

Get the rest after the jump!

Fun With Resistance Bands

Susi May — Sat, 12 May 2012 04:06:32 PDT

With the Summer travel season fast approaching, remember you can pack your workout gear and still travel light with a resistance band. Be sure to throw one into your suitcase since you can give yourself a full-body workout with this lightweight fitness tool. Here are three of our favorite moves to work your arms, legs, and abs that you can do just about anywhere you go. Be sure to check out our hotel room workout too! It's full of moves perfect for tight spaces.

Fit Tip: Need to Remember Something? Go For a Run

Leta Shy — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:36:10 PDT

Have a pregraduation final or an upcoming important presentation to nail? It may help to take a step back from your notes and go for a run or a bike ride. A new lab study, reported in The New York Times has found that exercise can improve your memory and learning skills.

In the study, scientists fed a group of mice certain drugs that mimic muscle changes from exercise and compared them to sedentary mice. The mice who "exercised" ended up performing much better on memory and learning.

Previous studies have already found that exercise can make you smarter, but investigators in this lab test say that it could shed light on exactly how exercising affects your brain; they think that exercise releases an enzyme into your blood that travels to your brain, where it has an effect on learning and memory.

The researchers note that sustained aerobic exercise is most effective if you're trying to improve your smarts, since endurance cardio increases blood flow (although they also say that a good strength training session may be effective as well, but wasn't tested). Want more ideas to make you smarter in time for your big brain-testing event? Read our tips on what to eat to be smarter here.

11 Ways to Love Yourself More

Laura Marie Given — Wed, 09 May 2012 03:05:52 PDT

There's no magic recipe for self-confidence, but there are certainly a few everyday habits that can set you on the right path. Whether you're stressed, overcommitted, bored, or simply insecure, we've come up with some quick tips to help you boost your self-esteem and maintain a positive attitude. Struggling to feel good about yourself? Here are 11 simple ways to love yourself more:

Surround yourself with positive people. Moods and attitudes can be contagious, so if you're hoping to boost your self-esteem, it's important to keep confident company. Steer clear of the Debbie Downers: people who are constantly rattling off their insecurities will only prompt you to acknowledge yours.
Be a planner. Organization is key to feeling good on a day-to-day basis, so do what you need to do to stay on top of your schedule. Rushing around, running late, and missing deadlines puts you on the fast track to anxiety, but you can avoid these common culprits by simply tackling your to-do list.
Make time to do the things you enjoy. To be your best self, you need to set aside plenty of time for the hobbies and passions that fulfill you. Whether it's long walks, a good book, or a few minutes of art each day, you need to prioritize the simple pastimes that put you at ease.
Get plenty of Z's. If you're exhausted and run-down, your mood - and your confidence - is sure to plummet. You need energy to be social and productive, so try to avoid burnout by balancing your work with plenty of R&R.

Keep reading for more confidence-boosting tips.

Long Commutes Are Detrimental to Your Health, Study Says

Jenny Sugar — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:14:05 PDT

Working a nine-to-fiver is mandatory for most people, and unfortunately, a long commute often comes with the territory. According to a study published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, those who travel 16 or more miles each way weigh more and have higher blood pressures than those with less than 10-mile commutes.

Of the almost 4,300 residents from Dallas and Austin involved in the study, researchers discovered that for every 10-mile increase in driving distance, the commuter's BMI (body mass index) rose .17 units. People with lengthy commutes are nine percent more likely to be obese, either because they didn't exercise as much, are eating fast food while driving, or they're not getting enough sleep because their long commute forces them to wake up early.

Weight isn't the only thing affected by a long drive to work. Spending that much time in the car, especially stuck in traffic, also makes a person tired, moody, and stressed out, which is one reason 52 percent of those in the study with a longer commute suffered from high blood pressure.

So what's a commuter to do? Quitting your job is obviously not an option, and if working at home part-time isn't feasible and neither is finding a job closer to where you live, keep reading to learn what commuters can do to avoid weight gain and other health issues.

Happy 26th Birthday Lady Gaga - How the Singer Keeps Healthy

Michele Foley — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:07:53 PDT

Lady Gaga turns 26 today, and to celebrate, we're taking a look at how the singer stays fit - I mean, look at those abs! - while living such a demanding lifestyle. While Gaga isn't without controversy (she's admitted to occasional drug and alcohol use), she remains extremely focused when it comes to her diet and fitness regimen.

She keeps a consistent workout schedule: Without fail, Gaga maintains the fitness regimen created for her by trainer Harley Pasternak. Even while touring, she works out five times a week for at least 25 minutes each day. The secret to Lady Gaga's killer abs? Lots of crunches. Harley starts her on a basic crunch and modifies that into reverse crunches, ending with a double crunch. If you want to get abs like the birthday girl, check out Lady Gaga's favorite ab exercises. When you've finished the ab routine, watch this video of Harley as he takes you through Gaga's butt workout.
She keeps a healthy diet: Besides following Harley's fitness routine, Gaga also subscribes to his 5 Factor Diet, which says to eat five times a day (two meals and three snacks) of foods falling into these five categories: lean protein, low-glycemic carbs, healthy fats, fiber, and a sugar-free beverage. The diet also allows for one cheat day a week. Some of Gaga's favorite foods to munch on are salsa with grain chips, tofu, turkey slices, hummus, and coconut water. Tonight, make yourself a Gaga-approved meal: check out Harley's recipe for five-spice halibut.
She believes in the healing power of yoga: A longtime yogini, Gaga even makes a habit to practice at local studios wherever her travels take her (Bikram and hot power yoga are her styles of choice). She has said, "Yoga makes me feel like I can do anything," and has called her longtime NYC-based teacher Tricia Donegan an inspiration, saying " . . . yoga heals me and so do you."

Source: Terry Richardson, Getty, Twitter

Tracy Anderson Talks Pregnancy and Postpregnancy Fitness Tips For Celebs and Real Women

Kate Stahl — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:02:03 PDT

We recently sat down with celeb trainer Tracy Anderson to talk all about her new pregnancy DVDs, which are set to be released next month. (Stay tuned for some exclusive exercise routines Tracy created for FitSugar and LilSugar.) Tracy, who's expecting a daughter in May, opened up to us about her own pregnancies, her celeb clients, and how real women should approach pregnancy before, during, and after it. Check out the highlights of our intimate talk below.

On her pregnancy weight gain: "I gained 60 pounds with my son, and I've only gained 20 pounds during this pregnancy. I was 22 years old when I was pregnant with my son, and I actually discovered my method while I was pregnant. For the last 13 years, I've been giving birth to a business! My body is so tightly knit and so much stronger from 13 years of doing my method. It's so important that you get into good shape before you get pregnant, if you're lucky enough to plan it. Your chances of staying put together are better, and it's so much easier to get it back."

On her pregnancy diet: "With my son, I ate what felt natural, and that was cheeseburgers and milkshakes! I still eat what I crave, but I learned with my son, pregnancy is not the time for a total gorge fest. But even with this pregnancy, sometimes the only thing I can get down is a doughnut or an Arby's sandwich - and I don't even eat Arby's. I've had a lot of food aversions."

On her teenage son: I don't recommend waiting 13 years between children, but my son is so excited about the baby. One thing that's been really great about the age difference is that I've been able to see that my son is going to be a great man because he's been so sweet, nurturing, and protective during my pregnancy."

Keep reading for more on Tracy's celeb clientele and her tips for real women!