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"Change in all things is sweet"
-Aristotle |
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Fitness Together Celebrates 5 Years With A Re-Model And Launch Of PACK Training! |
December 20th marks our 5 year anniversary in Eagle. We have been privileged to train thousands of sessions a year, change hundreds of lives, and do our part in making a happier and healthier community.
Check out our re-model (pictures below)... this is all part of an exciting announcement at FT... small group personal training, affectionately referred to as PACK training.
PACK Training is small group personal training from the personal training experts. PACK combines the energy and fun of the small group, with the coaching from a FT certified trainer all conducted in a private setting.
Whether it is part of PACK training, 1:1 personal training or some combination of the two, FT has the safe and effective solution for people at all levels of conditioning to feel better, look better and perform better than you ever thought was possible.
Look for more information on PACK training in the coming months!
 
 
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Walk To Better Cholesterol |
Your heart welcomes a good walk, finds a study in the International Journal of Sports Medicine. For every 100 calories women burned daily in moderate-intensity workouts (such as brisk walking), they slightly lowered levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol by 1.6 points and raised HDL (good) cholesterol significantly, by 1 point in one year. Women who worked out less vigorously than the moderate-intensity group didn't get the same cholesterol benefit. |
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Recipe Of The Month - Fresh Vegetable Frittata |
 Prep time: 25 min
Start to finish: 25 min
Makes: 4 servings
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup broccoli
1 medium carrot, shredded (1/2 cup)
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
4 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper sauce
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (2 ounces)
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1. In 10-inch skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Cook broccoli, carrot and onion in oil about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until vegetables are crisp-tender.
2. In medium bowl, beat eggs, milk, parsley, salt and pepper sauce with wire whisk or fork until blended. Pour egg mixture over vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with cheeses; reduce heat to low.
3. Cover and cook about 10 minutes or until eggs are set and light brown on bottom. Cut into wedges.
Nutritional Information
1 Serving: Calories 110 (Calories from Fat 35); Total Fat 4g (Saturated Fat 1 1/2g, Trans Fat 0g); Cholesterol 5mg; Sodium 480mg; Total Carbohydrate 7g (Dietary Fiber 2g, Sugars 3g); Protein 12g Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 70%; Vitamin C 20%; Calcium 30%; Iron 6% Exchanges: 0 Other Carbohydrate; 1 Vegetable; 1 1/2 Lean Meat Carbohydrate Choices: 1/2
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
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Toxic Levels of Arsenic Found In Popular Juice Brands |
Arsenic has long been recognized as a poison and a contaminant in drinking water, but now concerns are growing about arsenic in foods, especially in fruit juices that are a mainstay for children.
Controversy over arsenic in apple juice made headlines as the school year began when Mehmet Oz, M.D., host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” told viewers that tests he’d commissioned found 10 of three dozen apple-juice samples with total arsenic levels exceeding 10 parts per billion (ppb). There’s no federal arsenic threshold for juice or most foods, though the limit for bottled and public water is 10 ppb. The Food and Drug Administration, trying to reassure consumers about the safety of apple juice, claimed that most arsenic in juices and other foods is of the organic type that is “essentially harmless.”
But an investigation by Consumer Reports shows otherwise. Our study, including tests of apple and grape juice, a scientific analysis of federal health data, a consumer poll, and interviews with doctors and other experts, finds the following:
•Roughly 10 percent of our juice samples, from five brands, had total arsenic levels that exceeded federal drinking-water standards. Most of that arsenic was inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen.
•One in four samples had lead levels higher than the FDA’s bottled-water limit of 5 ppb. As with arsenic, no federal limit exists for lead in juice.
•Apple and grape juice constitute a significant source of dietary exposure to arsenic, according to our analysis of federal health data from 2003 through 2008.
•Children drink a lot of juice. Thirty-five percent of children 5 and younger drink juice in quantities exceeding pediatricians’ recommendations, our poll of parents shows.
•Mounting scientific evidence suggests that chronic exposure to arsenic and lead even at levels below water standards can result in serious health problems.
•Inorganic arsenic has been detected at disturbing levels in other foods, too, which suggests that more must be done to reduce overall dietary exposure.
Tainted brands include Minute Maid, Mott's, Gerber, Welch's, and Great Value (Walmart) among others. See results from tests on other apple and grape juice brands.
Our findings have prompted Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, to urge the FDA to set arsenic and lead standards for apple and grape juice. Our scientists believe that juice should at least meet the 5 ppb lead limit for bottled water. They recommend an even lower arsenic limit for juice: 3 ppb.
“People sometimes say, ‘If arsenic exposure is so bad, why don’t you see more people sick or dying from it?’ But the many diseases likely to be increased by exposure even at relatively low levels are so common already that its effects are overlooked simply because no one has looked carefully for the connection,” says Joshua Hamilton, Ph.D., a toxicologist specializing in arsenic research and the chief academic and scientific officer at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.
As our investigation found, when scientists and doctors do look, the connections they’ve found underscore the need to protect public health by reducing Americans’ exposure to this potent toxin. |
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Nutrition Facts Labels: Who Reads Them? |
By: Sarah Kruse
Despite being required on packaged food items for more than 15 years, the Nutrition Facts label barely gets read by most consumers. Although a majority of consumers report that they do in fact view labels, objective measurements suggest otherwise, according to a study in the November 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
Researchers used an eye-tracking device to measure how long consumers viewed the Nutrition Facts label in a simulated grocery-shopping exercise on a computer monitor. Study participants saw over 60 different products. Three images appeared for each product: the Nutrition Facts label, a picture and a list of ingredients. The images rotated so that one-third of the 203 participants saw the Nutrition Facts label on the left, one-third saw it on the right and one-third saw it in the center. Participants were asked whether they would consider buying each of the products. Subjects knew their eye movements were being tracked but did not know the study focused on viewing nutrition information.
Lead investigators at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, found that subjects viewed labels more when they were placed in the center than when they were located on either side. Researchers also learned that the average consumer reads lines at the top of a label more than those at the bottom.
When it came to self-reporting, 33% of participants said they almost always looked at the calorie content on Nutrition Facts labels; 31% said they almost always looked at the total fat content; and 20% said the same for trans fat content, 24% for sugar content and 26% for serving size. However, only 9% of participants actually looked at the calorie count for almost all of the products in the study. And only 1% actually looked at the information for fat, sugar and serving size on almost all labels.
Study authors suggested that a more prominent placement of the Nutrition Facts label on product packaging could positively impact public health, since consumers would be more likely to view the nutrition information. |
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Exercise Of The Month - Squat With Lateral Raise |
Benefits:
This exercise is a great progression from the simple standing lateral raise.
It builds total body strength and burns a lot of calories.
Preparation:
Maintain tall posture throughout the exercise, and good stability through the abdominal complex.
Movement:
This exercise involves performing a squat, and adding a dumbbell lateral raise.
Start with light weights (30% of normal lateral raise weight is recommended) to the side of the body (palms facing in).
Perform dumbbell squat.
As you ascend from the squat, use that momentum as you perform a dumbbell lateral raise as shown.
Lowering the dumbbells to the side completes one repetition.
 
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Its Time To Start Thinking Positively |
It feels like the world is in a collective funk right now. A few years after the financial crisis began, we're still mired in a slow global economy. There is gridlock in the U.S. government. Politicians spend more time explaining why their opponents are wrong than they do trying to fix things. Even the sports news is filled with stories of drug use and sexual abuse.
What do we do?
At this point, we might want to take some advice from Monty Python and "look on the bright side."
Seriously.
The human mind is capable of getting into a vicious circle when times are bad. Classic research by Gordon Bower has demonstrated that memory depends on your mood. When you are happy, you are generally reminded of happy things and happy times. When you are sad, you are reminded of sad things and sad times. Further work by Ian Gotlib and his colleagues shows that these memories feed back to further influence your mood state. That is, when you're in a bad mood, you remember sad things. Those sad memories keep you sad.
But wait, it gets worse. Many things in life can be viewed either positively or negatively. A person who speaks up and gives his opinion can either be assertive (a positive characteristic) or aggressive (a negative one). Work by Tory Higgins shows that your mood also affects how you deal with this kind of ambiguity. When you are sad or angry, you will interpret the things going on around you more negatively.
And one more. When you are focused on the negative side of things, you often focus on rejecting options rather than selecting them. Witness what is happening with the GOP primaries now. Republican voters are focused on eliminating candidates rather than finding ones they like. Research by Eldar Shafir shows that when people are trying to reject options, they weigh the negative information about the options more heavily than the positive information.
Getting out of this funk, then, requires a bit of work. We all need to make a conscious effort to focus on the positive aspects of life and the glimmers of hope. You may have to do that with small things at first. During the holiday season, enjoy your time with family. Spend some time with children and see the world through their eyes. Listen to some upbeat happy music. Go out with friends.
And at the same time, try to focus your conversations about the world on positive things. Right now, it is too easy to slip into complaints about the government, the economy, and the prospects for world peace. When you find yourself in yet another discussion about the ills of the world, look for a positive spin. The more that you train yourself to focus on the good things in life, the more that you will see the hope in every situation. |
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