Sports Health Exercise» tracybenham

EarthHour. It’s More than Turning your Lights Out for an Hour

tracybenham — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:29:20 +0000

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EarthHour. It’s More than Turning your Lights Out for an Hour is a post from: Sports Health Exercise

Why Losing Weight is like Spring Cleaning

tracybenham — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:40:28 +0000

Getting started on your weight loss goal is kind of like spring-cleaning or organizing your closet. It’s not hard, but it’s usually a pain in the butt to get started. Sometimes it is just easier to get going and not think about it too long. If you have decided to spring clean your house this month, but need to wait until you have time, energy or help – nothing is going to happen as soon as you want or need it to.

Spending more time then necessary on making a list, getting someone to help, getting the proper cleaning supplies and making sure you have enough the time in your schedule is a recipe for frustration. You may even end up starting and stopping a few times and even spend valuable time, energy and money to never really get anyway.

Same thing can be said when you organize your closet. When you make a plan, go out and buy new hangers and organizing bins, by the time you get home you are out of time for the day. The next day you start to sort, but realize you don’t have time to finish and everything gets squished back into the corners. You then make another plan to start again next weekend. Over-scheduled and overwhelmed at having to start again, it is easy to put it off ‘one’ more time. Or at least until you have more time, a rainy day or when you have someone to help. Even if you just finished one drawer it makes it easier to continue the process.

Losing weight has some of the same struggles. Every time you start and stop a healthy eating and/or an exercise routine, it makes it hard to start all over again. If you are so busy that you feel like you can’t waste anytime it seems only fitting that you wait until you find the perfect product or plan. Or maybe you need to wait because you know your schedule is going to open up next week… or you need to wait till you can afford the new cross fit program or a trainer.

It is going to be impossible to get to the stage where being healthy is not just about losing weight.

Just get started. Spend 1 minute and decided what you are going to do today and this week to improve your health and fitness. Make it simple and get going. I do not know one person who doesn’t know 5 things that they can do today that will take them closer to a healthier lifestyle. NOT ONE.

You know that fruit and vegetables are better for you than hamburgers and fries. You know that walking 30 minute, (even 15 minutes) is better than watching Dancing with the Star on TV. We know that drinking water is better than soda. Just get started doing a few things that you already know will get you steps closer to losing weight, have more energy, being more productive…

Most people know enough about health and fitness to get started and get quite far along without doing any extra research, or spending any money. Once you get to the point where you need a few tips, motivation, more detailed vs. a general get you butt moving plan then you should contact an expert, join a gym/program or take the next step like buying new shoes. After you get moving toward your goal you will be able to ask better questions. It is easier to customize a program and your goals once you have started on the path.

But for today, just get started. Go for a walk, eat your veggies first, drink a glass of water before any soda – or do any of the 1 to 5 simple things you already know you can do today to move you one step closer to your health goals. You may find that you have a little more energy to actually get and finish your spring-cleaning faster and be ready to tackle those closets.

Ready for an Epic adventure? Join Tracy Benham as she Cycles the Silk Road this summer with Tourd’Afrique and get all of her travel, health, fitness, training and TravelFit tips on her new Facebook page and Twitter.

Why Losing Weight is like Spring Cleaning is a post from: Sports Health Exercise

Daily Kick in the Butt: How many Great Travel Stories to do have to Tell?

tracybenham — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 02:00:47 +0000

“To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.” Chinese Proverb

Travel and Explore More: You want to be the one that has the stories to tell.

Daily Kick in the Butt: How many Great Travel Stories to do have to Tell? is a post from: Sports Health Exercise

Does Exercising in Hot Weather Burn More Calories?

tracybenham — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:51:47 +0000

Guest Post:

If you’re looking to burn more calories and think running during the highest temperatures each day or doing yoga in a stuffy room will do it, think again. The only extra weight you’ll lose by training in the heat will be water weight and of course, that will be instantly regained the second you drink in some much needed water. In my professional opinion, you’d be wiser to exercise in more moderate temperatures which may inspire you to exercise even longer or more intensely; doing so would definitely increase the amount of calories you burn.

Exercising in very cold temperatures, on the other hand, does result in extra calories being burned. Our bodies have to work harder to maintain our core temperature in the cold. Shivering, for example, requires our muscles to continuously flex, and this active motion does burn extra calories. Interesting, huh? I don’t recommend that any one should set their home thermostat to 20 degrees though; that would just be silly. At the end of the day, we should all plan to burn calories based on our actions. Training in a super hot environment can be dangerous. If you do choose or have to train in the heat, make sure you’re wearing proper sun-protecting if necessary and hydrating properly.

Does Exercising in Hot Weather Burn More Calories? is a post from: Sports Health Exercise

Running Shoes: Your Secret Weapon on Holiday

tracybenham — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 23:15:57 +0000

Holidays, Vacations and Traveling are some of the most common excuses I hear for lack of exercise. This excuse, of course, always makes me wonder if the excuse maker had traveled to a vacation in the clouds or to a communist country which strictly punishes physical activity by death. If not, why else would the mere concept of exercising while away from home seem so outlandish? Folks, I’m gonna be frank. Excuses stink and travel should not stand between you and the healthy body you’re eager to have.

The secret to taking the complexity out of this ”working out while away” situation is simple: bring sneakers! Every place you go will have some combination of roads, sidewalks, sand or grass. These items are great for both walking and running, and can even be utilized for activities like lunges, squats, push-ups, stretching and more. Fancy, right? Hotels gyms may be small or large, but most are at minimum, stocked with a decent treadmill. Treadmills are the perfect answer to any concerns about jogging in strange neighborhoods or in inclement weather.

If all of those options fail you, jumping up and down in your room only requires one piece of equipment: sneakers! So if you’re committed to pursuing fitness without fail and make a habit of spending time out of town, always pack your kicks.

Guest Post, by our favorite Fitness Expert Fitz. Check out here fun site at Fitzness.com

Running Shoes: Your Secret Weapon on Holiday is a post from: Sports Health Exercise

Why Bother staying Fit through the Holidays?

tracybenham — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 04:10:06 +0000

Why not enjoy your holidays and start you diet and fitness plan after the new year?

If you have ever asked yourself this question, I don’t need to tell you why. You can make the argument all on your own.

So make this holiday season one you will remember.

Make the effort to eat more fruit and veggies and less holiday treats.

Savor your favorite dessert.

Get your workouts in before the parties.

Traveling for the holidays?

Make activities part of Game Plan.

Be good to yourself while you are appreciating and celebrating traditions, family and faith.

Holidays are stressful times for many people. The more tired, stressed and run down you are during the holidays, the more likely you are to skip activities and ignore to memory-making moments. Plan some time in your busy holiday schedule to play sports, get outside and be active.

If you would like more travel fitness tips and information please check out http://TravelFitNow.com or Follow TravelFit on Twitter.

Why Bother staying Fit through the Holidays? is a post from: Sports Health Exercise

Daily Kick in the Butt: Overnight Success and Miracle Products

tracybenham — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:40:08 +0000

Overnight successes do not exist. Neither do Miracle weight loss products.
Hard work sneaks up on people who are not paying attention.

What success are you working toward surprising others with?

Daily Kick in the Butt: Overnight Success and Miracle Products is a post from: Sports Health Exercise

SHE is Getting More Social.

tracybenham — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:00:21 +0000

Lots of changes here at SHE throughout the past 12 months. The Active Health Network and TravelFit have grown and can be found all over the internet.

We have been sharing our tips, shows and clips at numerous health and fitness information sites for the last 4 years and we realize most of our readers, and friends have no idea where all of our stuff is airing.

Througthout the month of August be will be sharing are favorite sites and places we produce shows, write articles and share our insights.

First up, social networking sites.

We love Twitter – please add us as a friend: ActiveHealth , Travel Fit – we also have 8 other individual health or fitness pages with focused interests, but these are are main ones. You can also follow our director TracyBenham

FaceBook – SportsHealthExercise, TravelFit, Get Fit Be Active, The AHN page is changing and we will share the link as soon as it is finished.

All of our team uses FaceBook for personal use, but we recently added a company page, GetFitBeActive page and a TravelFit page (the travelfit group pg is no longer in FB – we have an entire site for that group now:)

LinkedIn – stop by and say Hi and learn all about me here -TracyBenham

Amplify (our new favorite site) Active Ideals

FriendFeed – The Best interactive health and fitness group on the web. No hype or gimmicks just lots of useful tips, info and sites shared by hundreds of active users Get Fit -Be Active , and TravelFit group. Since Friendfeed was bought out by FaceBook (FB) our groups are slighty smaller than they used to be. Consequently, we just added groups to FB to make sure we went where are members are active.

We also use various other sites such as Flickr, Tumblr, and Posterous.

Though we do have pages on My Space , Multiply and a few others, we are not presently active engaging with those communities.

Please add us as a friend, like our pages and let us know what other sites we should be actively participating in/with.

* We want to know our readers and followers. Please let us know if we are not following you, so we can quickly fix the oversite

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SHE is Getting More Social. is a post from: Sports Health Exercise

Daily Kick in the Butt: Writer’s Block, Confused, Frustrated, STUCK

tracybenham — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:55:03 +0000

Three easy steps:

1) Take a break

2) Put on shoes and sunblock

3) Go for a walk

When you get back -record ideas – and take action!

Repeat daily

“Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.”

~Henry David Thoreau

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We love Twitter – please add us as a friend: ActiveHealth , Travel Fit

Daily Kick in the Butt: Writer’s Block, Confused, Frustrated, STUCK is a post from: Sports Health Exercise

Give in – Get Fit, Be Active and Start the Journey to Increased Energy – Today

tracybenham — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:16:01 +0000

Summer is here. Shorts, swimsuits and flip flops should be out front in your closet and are the first things you look forward to putting on after a long day at work and on the weekends. But Tracy,”I was super busy all winter and spring just few by. I never got a chance to make health and fitness a priority and now I want to enjoy all of the summer goodies. All I want to do is relax when I finally get a couple of days off.” I have heard some sort of this mantra repeated over and over in the last few weeks as I was telling people about our new Travel Fit program.

So here is the deal if you have not reached your health and fitness goals, now’s the time to get started!

If you wait until the kids are back in school, after your vacation, when the economy gets better, when your schedule opens up, or when a pill comes out that can make you fit while you sit on the couch – stop waiting! (Unless you are a mouse – see below!).

There isn’t a perfect time to start something new once you are out of sixth grade.

Couch potato’s, gym membership avoiders and exercise haters – join us and come aboard. Give in and get fit, be more active and start the journey to increased energy – today.

We’ll help make it easy (well, much simpler and a whole lot easier to begin and keep going until fit & healthy is an integral part of your lifestyle) – stay tuned here for quick tips, workouts, activity and sport guides, easy healthier cooking options, recipes and so much more. If you are interested in our Travel Fit program we would love to have you check out one of our favorite travel sites TravelFitNOW.com (of course we are a little biased, since it is brought to you from the teams at SHE & AHN

*A 2009 study reported that sedentary mice that were feed a ‘diet pill’ burned more calories and could exercise longer than mice than the control mice. This drug may some day help bedridden patients fight obesity and diabetes, but they are a long away from seeing if these results can some how translate to people. So health and fitness professionals can relax and not worry about how the next magical product could force them out of a job.

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We love Twitter – please add us as a friend: ActiveHealth , Travel Fit

Give in – Get Fit, Be Active and Start the Journey to Increased Energy – Today is a post from: Sports Health Exercise