How Much To Burn?

A candy bar now and then is no problem. Many women trade off the enjoyment of a quick bar of chocolate for a longer workout. But how hard do you really need to work to burn off your not so healthy lunch?

RealAge has a great calculator to figure out what it will take to burn off whatever you munch on. From fresh fruit, to candy, breads, soups and condiments, the calculator has an extensive list so you can choose an almost perfect match.

A second drop down menu lets you pick your form of activity. The program then matches the two and figures the time it would take to burn off the food.

Working out daily for the time the program requests to burn off the food you intake in a day is not realistic and not healthy. However, it's interesting to look at the site and see just how much that Kit Kat is costing you.

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Related Resources:

No matter what fitness company you go to, majority will prefer
stepper amongst the entire range of fitness equipment available.
A few may go for the trampoline too.

BMI- TMI

My take on health sites that depend on user information and hidden formulas to determine health statistics.

After all the health hunting I've done on the internet, I've come across many pages that promise to help you with this, that, and figure out exactly what you need based on your plug ins. I've been told what my body age is (as apposed to to my annual calendar age), what my exact workout plan should be, my daily calorie intake number down to a tee, and now my body mass index as well.

While some of these sites are obviously more legit than others, it's an interesting thought to plug in minimal information about yourself to be chugged through a hidden system and provided with a figure. What do you believe? If you run with the information from every site, you're a fool of the system. What kind of calculator and system are these sites using? Is someone behind the site a legitimate health figure, or someone after your visit?

I've always tried to pass along sites that I believe are the most accurate and well handled. However I'm not a doctor and I only have what I've learned through blogging, nutrition and my web knowledge. I hope that as readers, you visit every site with a grain of salt and take nothing as a serious end all be all word.

That said, the latest site I've come across, offers a body mass index finder which uses your height and weight to determine your standings. This site actually shares their equation, plus backs their information up with a government health site. While their calculator cannot determine your fat to muscle ratio, it does warn at the bottom that they may incorrectly place you depending on your athletic build.

While I always think relying on a computer program to give you such important health figures is dangerous (a doctors visit is always best), keeping a general figure in mind is good to have in mind for those health conscious.

Exercise Boosts Mental Health

Keeping up with routine workouts has been linked to help strengthen mental health. One recent article I found did a great job of breaking down how your brain is really effected by biking at the gym.

Mood
Regular workouts has have been proven to lessen anxiety and lead to generally all around happiness. The increase in flexibility and physical implications make every day tasks easier and generally more enjoyable for adults which adds to the increased level of happiness when constantly working out.

Memory
The same study found that those with an increase in daily activity scored better in cognitive testing than adults who skimp out on regular exercise. Keeping physically active has a positive effect on memory and has been proven to lengthen the time in which older adults may start to loose memory function.

Stroke & Alzheimer's
Studies show brain flow begins to slow at an older age, leaving adults more prone to stroke and Alzheimer's disease. Constant exercise keeps blood flow throughout the body and brain regular, lessening the risk for these two common health issues later in life.

Scientists have shown that exercise can increase the number of brain cells as well as increase levels of protective molecules in the brain. This means that exercise has the potential to slow neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease, or repair damaged or aged brains.

Do I look fat in this suit?

This past weekend I was sitting at home watching football with my dad and sister's fiance. Charles Barkley was shown on the sidelines in a extremely unflattering shot from the gut up. The commentators followed with a line about how many Thanksgiving dinners he's enjoyed. I made a comment about how unflattering the whole scene was.

My dad and sister's finace added with their thoughts on Barkley and the comments. In addition, one of my male friends at school is constantly worried about his weight and expresses concern to get to the gym more often.

Point being, I think as women, we tend to forget that body image issues are not a single sex issue.

Men also have body image concerns, and while they are not as open and discussed as typical female image concerns, theirs linger just the same. One site I found said that when surveyed, 45% of men admit they are unhappy with their appearance to the 55% of women who were less than satisfied with their physiques.

However unlikely this sounds, its a true testimate to the conversational differences between men and women. While women's body issues gain more media attention on television, magazines, and around all local water coolers; men's body concerns are rarely discussed. This concept leads women to believe men are much more confident creatures, and often lead to body talk escalating.

Advertisements in all media outlets have always favored the thinner most beautiful women to lead in every campaign from cologne to chocolate. While men are less represented. What women sometimes fail to understand is while females take these ads to heart, men do as well.

What areas of your body are you most self conscious about? Have you noticed any body image concerns with men?

Serious Calorie Cuts

Thanksgiving may be over, but more holiday dinners are just around the corner. Looking for ways to home cook holiday meals is a definite way to help control calorie and fat intake. But, some of the best tips I've come across can be used all year round to drastically change your calorie intake in some of your favorite recipes.

Women's Health Magazine has an outstanding article on short cuts to trimming oils and substituting to make the best of your favorites.

Tips like an oil spritz, baking for fried flavor, and substituting with broth are some of the most notable tips shared which cut from 100 to almost 3,000 calories.

The site also gives great tips on cutting calories with pasta substitutes. Cauliflower, squash, or tofu noodles can save you hundreds of calories.

Overall, I definitely recommend checking it out for every day solutions and daily swaps that can save you a bundle. What substitutions do you make at home? What kinds of non-healthy favorite flavors are you looking to switch up for?

Favorite Links

Nutrition Lingo Defined
In a fog when it comes to antioxidants, and free radicals? This site defines a few of the common nutritional jargons.

Diet Ditching
Keeping to a strict diet is hard, especially when trying to enjoy food with a larger group of friends or family who may not be so thrilled about skipping cheese for your shredding of pounds. It comes with an 8 week layout of breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks to keep you on the right track. This link gives some great tips and recipe ideas for all around healthy dinners that everyone can leave feeling good about.

Cooking Methods for Health
Bake, broil or microwave? The way you prepare your food can drastically change its health benefits. Here's a good rundown of the top 5 ways to take care of preparing your food, along with some great recipes to practice.

Snack Successes
When the next meal is just too far away, this site gives 9 tips on healthy snacking that will keep you away from chips and cookies.

Breakfast Woes
For busy bees on the go, getting in your morning honey is easier said than done. The most valuable meal of the day often goes skipped or skimped without much attention. Here's a good look at a couple different options for breakfast that are quick and delicious. The site has a good variety and even dresses up the doughnut in a healthy way.

Know of a blog or article that should make A Sizable Apple's favorite links? Email Dana at asizableapple@gmail.com

Favorite Links

Girlshealth
This government run site was designed specifically for girls in the 10-16 age group. If you're a parent of any aged child, or have any younger girls close to you, I would recommend taking a look around the site and perhaps passing it on. It gives younger girls the chance to feel accepted within a community that gives relevant correct information that they may not feel comfortable talking to other friends or parents about.

Pain Management
This site combines articles from doctors with great in depth information on pain management through multiple different healing options. It also has a decent dictionary like feature to find a correct name to what your pain may really be.

Coping with Stress
This sunny site has some great tips on dealing with stress, as well as a community message board feature. There's an area to search for a therapist in your area if you're looking for that kind of help, tips of the day, tips from a health expert and several great articles about dealing with stress as well.

Alternative Medicine
Another site formated like the two above, with message boards, links to articles, helpful tips, ect. An interesting look at alternative medicine organized really well with a lot of very authoritative sources.

Know of a blog or article that should make A Sizable Apple's favorite links? Email Dana at asizableapple@gmail.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers! No new post today, check yesterday's double post for a great lengthy feature on holiday eating.

Holiday Control

A Sizable Apple Readers:
I wanted to post a holiday eating guide before Thanksgiving. Here's a few tips to managing the season of food successfully. Enjoy the early post, and have a good Thanksgiving!

Welcome the holiday season, time for family, friends and the temptation of mass amounts of food. It's the time of year where a majority of diets go sour, and the beginning of the I'll definitely get to the gym tomorrow compromise for another cookie which turns into six.

The Washington Post estimates that Americans eat about 4,500 calories and 229 grams of fat on Thanksgiving alone, which is more than double the daily recommendation.

This year, don't let the holidays be your excuse to give in no matter what stage of health you're in. Being ahead of the gang come the New Years resolution rush will make staying on track past February much easier.

For Thanksgiving and other holiday dinners, think about these steps for staying true to your figure.

Helping Hand-
Offering to help make dinner or bring a dish to share is not only thoughtful and impressive, but can help you better control your intake. There are several ways to cut back on the calories in traditional Thanksgiving dishes.

The skin on meets, extra cheese in casserole dishes, and salty foods are dangerous additions to your plate. Here is a great site that gives tips on substitutions for holiday meals.

Portion Control-
This becomes a bit harder as it seems plates grow in size, and are piled higher. Stay true to your normal portions. Choose to be served on smaller plates than the rest of your family. Serve yourself smaller than normal portions to make yourself feel better about going back for seconds.

When you are fixing your plate, try to fill it more with vegetables than starches. Less mashed potatoes and gravy, more green beens.

Stall-
Eat until you feel full and you'll most likely feel like you're about to explode 15 minutes later. This is because our bodies take some time to digest food, thus the feeling of over eating that Thanksgiving is known for.

Stalling during dinner is a perfect way to keep from going wild on stuffing. Think about leading dinner time conversation, drinking more water or cutting up your food into smaller pieces.

Snack-
In this case, snacking may not be the enemy, but if you're munching on some left over veggies from the stuffing, you can skip the need to stuff your face at dinner.

Thanksgiving isn't an excuse to skip lunch. Making it to dinner content instead of starving will help you eat less.

Tread Tradition-
Exercising right after turkey dinner isn't everyone's idea of a great time, but getting your family to go on a walk between dinner and dessert is a better alternative to laying on the couch watching football.

As with all tips for controlling your intake during the holiday season, make sure to eat consciously, and be attentive your plate to know when its time to turn away the extra dessert. What keeps you on plan during the holidays? How do you know when you've had enough?

Workout variation

Doing the same in the gym day in and day out becomes quickly redundant and boring. Without adding some variety to your workout, the odds of making gym visits regular dwindles.

Many women head to the gym with the mindset- if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it, or are afraid to stray from their routine without knowing what would work best for them.

Here is a great site that offers lots of variation on a few widely used workouts. The site shows you different workouts you can do for your core, upper, lower and total body, giving new ideas to the same concept. You can drag over each exercise you like and print off your own workout plan for your next gym date.

Favorite Links

Working out, eating right and still not meeting your weight goals? According to a Women's Health Magazine article, there may be some stranger reasons you're not dropping dress sizes. Air conditioning, unrealistic goals and lack of potassium may all be hindering your fitness plans.

How do you do Thanksgiving without giving it all up? Here's a start, a recipe for a healthy gravy you can feel good about slathering on mashed potatoes and stuffing. If you're heading to a family dinner, suggest bringing a dish with you. Not only will you be a big hit for the help, but you have a level of control and feel nutritiously confident with at least one dish going around the table.

For women of all ages, skin issues can be an image issue. RealAge has a good skin care quiz that can help determine some great products and ways to care for your particular skin issues if getting to the dermatologist is too tricky.

Is your kitchen out of control? Here's a great list of health conscious foods to restock your pantry with. There's a quick print link to the list at the bottom. Consider printing it out and going over what you currently buy and what healthier alternatives may be on the list.

Twenty minutes of extra downtime at lunch? Waiting in line for too long wishing you could be making better use of your time? There are great workouts you can do on your own with no equipment, wherever, whenever. Check out these 18 variations with pictures and descriptions on quick workouts when a trip to the gym is out of the question.

Know of a blog or article that should make A Sizable Apple's favorite links? Email Dana at asizableapple@gmail.com

Ultimate Fitness Plan

I was looking at Women's Health Magazine online, (one of my favorite inspirations for blog posts) and came across a guest blog. This woman has been on WHM's Ultimate Fitness Plan 07 and has been recording her progress. So, I got a little curious and poked around for what kind of "ultimate" plan she was talking about.

Apparently, more than just that blogger thought the fitness plan was a good idea, according to this press release, 21,000 people participated in the first month alone.

Turns out, WHM has a pretty cool program going on. They boast that their six month program will buff you up to be in the best shape of your life. The program comes with an expert designed 5 part test that determines which what level you should start out at. The tests are really simple, and well described, and really should only take a few minutes of your time. Even for the fitness gurus reading, the fitness test may be a good way to see where you're at anyway.

In addition, the Ultimate Fitness Plan promises to better your health and specifically increase your abilities in the 5 part test. Every two weeks WHM provides a new workout routine, changing things consistently, and new exercises every 8 weeks for more variation. WHM also has all your questions and motivation issues covered. Expert advice for all your concerns and daily tips and motivation will keep you going.

Overall, their program definitely sounds interesting, and complied with all their extra factors and the guest blog of a real woman participating are all great additions to going at it on your own.

Although the challenge was created in December of last year, thus a little dated, but I'll make sure to post if I see a new fitness plan coming up for the next year.

Your workout

No two women are made alike, so why should we stick to the same workout routine? While the benefits of having a workout buddy are undeniable, working together is bound to benefit one of you more than the other.

Understanding your shape and the way your body functions is the first step in customizing your perfect workout routine. Using the shape of your body and information about your metabolism, Women’s Health Magazine has devised 6 specific workout plans.

For the full detailed article and to pick your specific shape, see the article in its entirety here .

Generally speaking, a pear figure is one with more curvature, or bottom heavy (weight gain around hips), while apples appear to have less shape or gain weight in a rounded way (weight gain around belly).

For mid-sized pears, the article recommends a good 40-60 minutes of moderate cardio (think able to talk but not tell a whole story in one breath) twice a week. Concentrate on building your upper body for a more balanced look, while toning your lower body to elongate muscles with extra reps without bulking up. Lifting more for fewer reps can increase your power and build curves.

Mid-sized apples should focus on a slightly different routine. Apples should work a good 30 minutes worth of cardio into their week about three times. Core specific workouts are key to the apple shape, and working core with weights is a perk (think stability ball). Extra leg work with heavier weights and less reps is recommended to build your backside, and think about the opposite for toning arms and shoulders.

Eating too well?

A great article in Runner’s World Magazine discussed how health conscious runners are watching what they eat too carefully and missing out on other key nutrients. If you are turning away red meat, nuts and dairy, you’re most likely short on iron, vitamin E and calcium.

Trying to replenish these nutrients with supplements may not be the answer either, as over doing it can harm your liver or not be effective all together. The advice from Runner’s World is to mix your diet up to incorporate quantities of nutrients you may be lacking, but would rather not eat a full meal of.

Mixing nuts in your yogurt or adding beans to your meal can boost level of iron in your body. Yogurt, spinach, and calcium-fortified energy bars and orange juice are all great providers of calcium without too much added fat. To meet your vitamin E needs, think almonds and sunflower seeds, both of which are significantly less fatty than some others. For those steering clear of red meat, look for darker poultry, clams, oysters, green peas, broccoli and beans.

As important as it is to watch your diet, getting too wrapped up in nutrition is something to steer clear from. Generally speaking, if you're eating fresh fruits and vegetables and trying to meet the revised food pyramid as best as possible, you shouldn't stray from other categories. All foods contain some level of fat, but don't write off a group before you do some reserach to find healthier alternatives.

Dips, sips and desserts

Party dips, smoothies and dessert are all a dieters’ nightmare. You can forget about enjoying yourself while tailgating or watching football at home, vacationing on the beach, or attending any dessert infested occasion, right?

Runners World Magazine has some great tips on how to lighten up your favorites, and enjoy what your friends do.

Start smart-
There’s more to a milkshake than ice cream, and more to dips than loads of sour cream. Think about substituting the following in your dips, smoothies or shakes:

blended beans, roasted peppers, eggplant
soft tofu or tofu yogurt
low-fat or fat-free cottage cheese, cream cheese, or plain Greek-style yogurt
(from Runners World)

Additions-
Add to the taste and incorporate some nutrients by adding in flavorful twists:

fresh herbs
fresh garlic and green onion
lime or lemon juice
fresh or dried hot peppers
(from Runners World)

Lose the cracker-
Forget about chips and crackers to go with your dip. Think about healthier alternatives like fresh vegetables, fruits, or whole-wheat home made baked pita chips.

These tricks allow you to have more control over your snacking and take part in traditions.

Diet friendly desserts

iVillage had a feature of fabulous diet friendly desserts that I had to share with all my readers. Check out the link for a few great after dinner delights.

5 steps to a healthy heart

Last Friday I posted a great 5 step article from iVillage about fighting osteoporosis. This week, there's a new 5 tip out for taking care of your heart. While living by moderation (food, smoking, drinking) are all the obvious ways to keep your healthy, there are several other quick tips to giving back to this important organ.

Get tested-

Knowing where you stand is the first step to becoming healthier. A doctors visit would be the best, but some local stores like Wallgreens and K-Mart have a machine that will administer heart healthy testing for you in a few minutes. Of course these are not as accurate as a doctor visit, but checking in the pharmacy section of your local drug store and taking some time out to get tested here is a great way to know where you stand.

Cut the salt-

A salt reduced diet is one of the best ways to treat your heart. Most of us forget, however, that without adding salt we can still be at risk because of the additives in store bought products. The iVillage article gives some great alternatives. First, cook with your own fresh ingredients instead of relying on store bought sauces and products. Tomato sauces can be made very simply on your own and can cut back on salt intake dramatically. Also think about your intake of condiments and diet sodas. Both contain high quantities of salt and can be easily substituted or used in extreme moderation.

Be mindful of your fats-

Not all fats are bad, some have heart helping qualities. Cut all trans-fats (aka hydrogenated/partially hydrogenated oils) and stick to fats that help instead of harm.

* Opt for vegetable fats over animal fats.
* Choose leaner protein sources like fish over red meat.
* Enjoy foods like walnuts and salmon for your crucial Omega-3s — a subset of "good" fat that fights coronary disease and lowers blood pressure.
* And remember to get your anti-oxidants, which enhance blood-vessel flexibility. They're found in the pigments of fruits and veggies. Think peppers, bok choy and blueberries.

(iVillage tips)

De-stress-

Sometimes we forget how harmful feeling stressed can be. It's OK and normal to be busy, but make sure you have a few minutes to yourself to relax, even if it's just before bed.

Exercise-

Nothing helps the heart than regular exercise. Anything from dancing to heading to the gym every day is a great help wellness in general.

Aging diet

Here's a great link to an article specifically for those older readers. It gives some great information on how your diet should change as you age.

5 steps to fighting osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a big problem among women. Even if you think you're getting enough calcium in your diet, underweight white women, those with a family history of the disorder and women who drink or smoke more than moderation are more at risk than others. What can you do to fight osteoporosis? IVillage.com had a great feature with 5 steps to fighting the disease.

1: Increase your calcium intake.
Simple enough- calcium strengthens bones, as young as possible, load up on low-fat cheese, fortified orange juice, fish and fruits and vegetables.

Also, watch your caffeine intake, as it increases the body's ability to excrete calcium through urine.

2: Double up
IVillage article puts it best-

"It's hard to rely on food alone for an ample amount of calcium — we women need at least 1200 mgs per day. Look for supplements of about 500 mgs calcium plus 200-400 mgs of vitamin D. Try ViActive Calcium Soft Chews — they double as dessert! (Bonus: Calcium also keeps blood pressure low.)"

Check your multivitamins to see how much calcium is really included. Most do not include enough to meet daily recommendations.

3: EXERCISE! Adding about 30 minutes a day of low-medium impact exercise to your day is another way to strengthen bones. Lucky for you non-gym goers out there, the IVillage article suggests walking, dancing or gardening all as great ways to strengthen bones without putting them at risk of fracture.

4: Get Tested- Women should start getting tested for bone density as their physician recommends it. Especially post-menopause, women should be tested every two years.

"It's simple, non-invasive and pain-free — you don't even have to undress! "Not only does it determine your actual bone density, it also predicts your risk for developing osteoporosis in the future," says Moore. "Your doctor may have forgotten to bring it up; be proactive and ask him.""


Your results could be the life line you need. The test can show if you are osteopenic, meaning your bone mass is less than normal, leaving you time to take care of yourself and fight osteoporosis.

5: Watch for bone breakers-
Eating disorders, over activity, some medications and smoking all add to the stress on bones.

Watch out for these in particular and double up on calcium supplements!

Favorite Links

Hey readers- I'm skipping out on posting today to bring you a series of articles I found most interesting lately. Each has a good short description on the story so you can choose what you may be more interested in looking at. Happy reading!

This past weekend, a British woman won the New York Marathon- 9 months after giving birth to her daughter. It's an incredible story, and while not all of us are post pregnancy marathon winners, this story- printed before the race takes an interesting look at Paula Radcliffe and the controversy over exercising during pregnancy.

Here is an interesting in depth look at how our little quirks at the gym may be more than that. While some of these cases may seem a little far fetched and intense, think about your comfort zone at the gym, what machines you choose over others, and the atmosphere you enjoy the most. Are you a little workout OCD as well?

A national concern that we should all be paying attention to, this is a good look at the MRSA (staph) infection lurking at the gym. The article has some really good stats as well as good tips and information for prevention measures.

Know of a blog or article that should make A Sizable Apple's favorite links? Email Dana at asizableapple@gmail.com

Real Age

Doctors say that we actually have two ages. Our calendar age, and our real age. Your real age takes into account your current health standings combined with your family history to form a better perspective of how old you really are. There are plenty of online questionnaires that can help you determine the age of your body. Of course seeing a doctor and getting the results from real testing would be most beneficial, if you're looking for a general idea of where you stand, taking time out for one of these is a good plan. Below are links to my two favorite real age tests.

Real Age is a website dedicated to the results of this test. Their daily health tips always come with a keynote of how many years each specific change in your lifestyle can take off your life. Their test has been featured on many prominent news programs and has been formulated with the help of doctors. It does take a bit of time to fill out, and has quite a few questions. If you have free time, I would suggest filing it out in spurts while completing another project. It also requires that you know about your family's medical history and your own medical history fairly in depth, although there are always options to skip questions if you are unsure.

Real Age Test Link

This next link is one for those who may not have as much time, or may not know their family history or their own medical history with detail. It allows you to move a dial on a scale to the general area you think you may stand for each question. It goes much faster than the other link, at about 34 questions in total. However, I could not find any research that linked this site to any doctor or personal with medical knowledge.

Life Expectancy Calculator

After taking both, I personally prefer the Real Age test. I think it's a bit more accurate and asks deeper questions. Even though I didn't know the answers to all of them, they were thought provoking and opened my eyes to what key issues effect health. Checking your real age is a good way to look at where you are with your health choices.

Workout playlists

No matter what your workout routine is like, having the perfect music to go along with it makes it all seem better. I found a cool link on one of my favorite sites that gives some great workout play list ideas. Better yet, if you don’t have the time to look at other’s suggestions, the Itunes link at the bottom allows you to create your own to share with others or to send to your Ipod.

Here’s my playlist, click the Itunes text at the bottom of it to make your own!

Top 10 tips from trainers

Attention Readers-
Please check yesterday's post, my message to readers!

I always enjoy finding articles about with insight from trainers. Usually I find that I prefer my workout routine to their suggestions, but sometimes I pick up some interesting tips. Also, it saves the money you might have otherwise wasted on hiring a trainer for a few hours.

So when Women’s Health Magazine came out with the top 10 tips from trainers, I couldn’t resist taking a look to see if any of them had come out with a breakthrough technique that beats the traditional exercises and healthy diet we all know and love. Here’s the best tips I found-

Increase flexibility-
One trainer boasts a resume of studying with several Pilates greats. She says that extended flexibility mimics motions you use in other activities, making those easier for you when you increase your range of motion.

Strengthen your core-
For anything and everything you have ever wondered about your core, check the last 3 posts. No wonder trainers are trying to get you to strengthen your mid section!

Connecting mind and body-
Focus on other areas of your life besides just your physical workout. If you’re stressed, tired or mentally not fit, you won’t be able to get the physique you’re after either.

Mix it up-
Try different classes, expand what you know. Including martial art moves, yoga, stretching, and other aspects into your workout helps keep you interested and increases what you’re able to do.

Work your total body-
You may not think you need to work on certain areas of your body, but you could spend considerably less time in the gym if you focused your exercises on targeting multiple muscle groups of your body at once. (Think about weights on an incline or the balance of a stability ball.)

Improve you agility-
Keep yourself moving with fun and exciting workouts. Things like jumping rope as fast as you can or completing tasks that challenge your endurance and agility are fun ways to compete with yourself day after day to see progress. Think about joining high energy classes, the atmosphere will keep you motivated.

Attention Readers-

I'm now entering about my third month with A Sizable Apple. So far I've really enjoyed reader feedback and finding new tips and tricks to help women of all lifestyles to live healthier lives. I'm always looking for new ideas and feedback. If you have any ideas, questions, or comments, please do not hesitate to email me or comment on posts. (Even if you comment on a past post, I will receive an email update to make sure no comments go unnoticed!)

I'm considering including random guest reviews to A Sizable Apple as well. If you are particularly fond of a nutritious recipe, a new workout tape, a favorite exercise, specific sports drink or energy bar, or have any helpful hints, please email me and upon review, I will post your tip for the readers of A Sizable Apple. (Feel free to submit questions to me and readers, as I will also consider posting those as well!)

For submitions, please email asizableapple@gmail.com!

Thanks for all your reading!

Core workouts- trying your stability ball

As promised, here are some good exercises to start with for core work and stability balls-

• Crunches- Moving off the ground and onto a ball supports your back a bit more, and gives you a better range of motion for your crunch. Experiment with moving the ball between your lower back to high back for different ranges of balance.
• Push ups- Again, experiment with having the ball only on your toes, at your knees, and at hips for a variety of balance.
• Free weights- You can lay with legs bent or sit on the ball and use free weights like a typical gym bench plus the core benefits.

For more ideas, here is a great site with several ways to use your ball, description and pictures on how to complete each exercise as well as a section describing which muscles groups are mostly used in each workout.

Stability Balls

Stability balls have been a hit since they rolled their way into the health scene a few years ago. The benefits for using the ball regularly are undeniable to your health. You can complete hundreds of different exercises with it; while it increases your core (flexibility, balance, and overall weight loss). Working with the ball makes every exercise full body related.

Working with a stability ball is a great way to double up on your core workout while completing other favorite workouts. Most of the exercises completed on the ball require some balance while combining other (mostly free weight) motion. This balance comes from your middle muscles (core) and by focusing on staying still on the ball your core muscles will benefit.

For those starting with a ball, the idea of balancing on a large ball with weights in both hands can be daunting. For beginners, start off with simple balancing exercises, laying on the ball and trying to lift your legs and arms off the ground while focusing on tightening your midsection on the ball.

Because of the stability and balance work, it's said that stability balls are more beneficial than mat work. And, they can be used in other aspects of your day after workout. Replace your desk chair at home or the office with a resistance ball and strengthen your core (and posture!) while completing other tasks. Watch TV on it, or use it to stretch by rolling your spine along it.

If you're looking at using or buying a ball, make sure you buy one for your correct size. Generally speaking you want to be able to sit on the ball and have your knees at a 90-degree angle. Check the size of your ball against your height as well, this will help choose a correct size-

Ball size/Height
- 45 cm diameter: Under 4'8''
- 55 cm diameter: 4'8'' to 5'4''
- 65 cm diameter: 5'4'' to 5'10''
- 75 cm diameter: 5'10'' to 6'4''

There are hundreds of articles, videos and exercises only dedicated to the stability ball. I'll look for some favorites and post them in an upcoming core/stability ball workout post in the next few days.

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