Fitness Archives | Dean and Marcie Whalen

Can You Be Busy & Healthy? Easy Wellness Tips In Today’s Hectic World

September 25, 2018 Dean and Marcie Whalen Fitness

Everyone wants to enjoy the benefits of healthy living. So you vow to set a regular time for exercise, be more mindful about food intake and indulge in rest and relaxation. For most people though, the commitment to be healthy quickly vanishes into thin air once the demands of the real world come in.

Too often, once you realize that you have too much on your plate, you find it difficult to have the time nor the energy to even bother about wellness. The journey to health and wellness can really be a struggle with today’s hectic lifestyles. However, if you are ready to exert effort, staying in tip-top shape amidst tight deadlines and numerous goals is not impossible.

Time management is the key.

The gift of time is essential for you to accomplish your healthy goals. Still, being busy is not an excuse to ignore your fitness regimen. If you take time to organize your day, you can discover ways to squeeze a quick workout on your to-do list. You can also spend some time to whip up a nutritious meal.

You do not necessarily need superb and sophisticated organizational skills, just a clear idea on the tasks that make up your day. By identifying the areas that eat up most of your time, you get to see what you need to adjust or give up to be healthier.

Strive to get enough hours of sleep.

Sleep deprivation is surely one of the ill effects of the modern way of the life. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ((CDC) reported that one out of three adults in America do not get the recommended number of hours of sleep every night. Moreover, many studies have linked lack of sleep to chronic diseases such as heart problems and diabetes. According to the CDC report, if you truly want to be healthy, decide to give your body at least seven hours of sleep every day.

The reasons that rob you of sleep may vary, but whatever it is, your body deserves some rest. Giving your body ample amount of sleep will get you in the best condition to accomplish more, making it possible to be busy and healthy at the same time.

Be an early riser.

If you want more hours in a day, try getting up an hour or two earlier. By being an early riser, you get a chance to finish tasks that you would normally run out of time for in the course of the day. You can use the extra time to improve your well-being. Maybe you can meditate to clear your mind or allot some time for flexing those tired muscles. By making it a habit to wake up early, you are one step closer to reaching whatever goals you set your mind to.

Have a role model.

An article that appeared in American Psychological Association notes the importance of role models when setting goals. The scientist, Albert Bandura states in his social learning theory that people learn by imitating certain influential individuals.

With this theory in mind, it is safe to conclude that choosing a certain person to serve as inspiration will greatly help in your fitness journey. Aside from the tips and tactics you can learn from your fitness idol, he or she can also be the powerful reminder you need when you feel like giving up.

Set achievable goals.

If you have been stretching yourself to the limits but still failing to achieve results, it may be time to examine your goals. Chances are, you have set unrealistic targets. To succeed, it is better to start with small goals then gradually increase targets in time.

Stick to your wellness goals no matter what.

It is normal to feel guilty whenever you skip a gym session or feel bad whenever you stray from healthy eating habits. These mishaps can happen every now and then but it does not mean you need to abandon the overall goal altogether. Sometimes, what matters is that you strive to stand up and start again even if you keep on failing. Small progress is better than none at all, so do your best to hold on to your goals.

Good health is associated with happiness and vitality. It is hardly surprising that many are aiming for physical fitness. Sadly, the stress-filled days of the modern world are not exactly health-friendly. Nevertheless, with sheer determination and discipline, you can enjoy all the benefits of being in the peak of health.

Recreational Team Sports That Will Help You Stay In-Shape

September 4, 2018 Dean and Marcie Whalen Fitness, Lifestyle

As children, it was easy to get daily exercise. We explored our backyards, ran at recess and had neighborhood friends who begged us to come and play outside. As adults, things aren’t so easy. We think of our backyards as nothing more than postponed yard-work. Our recesses have turned into coffee breaks. And our friends? Well, they only beg us to pick up our phones to view the latest memes. None of which help us stay in shape. We didn’t lose our love of play or appreciation for healthy competition; matter of fact, we watch sports all the time. So why do we no longer play them ourselves? Adult athletic leagues offer friendship, exercise and a chance to relive our childhood passions. What could beat that? Whether you want to join a local recreation league, an amateur team or form a team of your own, there are many sports to choose from. (Clickable league links are in each sport’s title)

Basketball(or here)

For those who love high-paced, high-scoring activities

Requires: Agility, speed, hand-eye coordination

Soccer

A runner’s dream! Soccer is a perfect way to implement a high level of cardio and build leg strength.

Requires: body control, balance, conditioning

Hockey

Hockey offers a bit of variety with the option of ice or field play. Master skaters who love being on the ice find joy chasing down a puck and making the big shots. Field hockey is played on foot.

Requires: Endurance, speed, hand-eye coordination

Tennis

With quick bursts of energy and powerful racquet swings, tennis is a full-body workout.

Requires: Flexibility, quick response, hand-eye coordination

Volleyball

Played both indoor and outdoor, volleyball is a know for short spurts of high-intensity play.

Requires: Multi-level movements, spatial awareness, quick bursts of energy

Baseball/ Softball

America’s favorite! Time to put all those catching lessons from dad to the test. A slower paced activity for those who are okay with lower-scoring sports and long breaks between action.

Requires: Arm strength, patience, running, hand-eye coordination

Football

Most adult leagues feature flag football, which increases safety while maintaining the fun.

Requires: sprinting, agility, balance

Other Unique Team Sports: Ultimate Frisbee, Roller Derby(or here), Kickball, Quidditch, Dodgeball

Cautions

Don’t Over-Commit

As tempting as it is to commit to a team on a whim, don’t fall victim to impulse. Many teams require practice, weekly matches, and extra time in the gym. You may also need to travel for playoffs, championships, and tournaments. Sans proper research, the unexpected time commitment can lead to burnout or lack of follow through. Make sure to pick a league that aligns with the time availability that you can handle.

Listen to Your Body

Starting a new sport, or even a new season of an old sport can cause strain on the body. Suddenly increasing your level of activity can be a jolt on muscles that haven’t been conditioned. Instead of jumping from no (or low levels of) activity to high exert play, make the transition seamless by preparing for your sport weeks in advance. If you feel irregular pain and fatigue during the season, listen to your body instead of pushing yourself past your limit. Let your teammates know that you need to sit out or rest and jump back in during the next game.

Don’t Forget About Your Mental Health

At their best, team sports feed an internal need for socialization, physical activity, and challenge. At their worst, those three things can go awry. If you find yourself on a roster where tense interpersonal relationships are causing issues, don’t overlook how that affects your mental health. Some teammates will take the league more seriously than others. The varied levels of competitiveness are a common cause for dissension amongst the group. As is the varying level of skill. If the level of physical activity or challenge is causing strife, the mental weight of the situation can also negatively affect your health. The goal is to remain happy while your body benefits from the workout. If that isn’t happening, there’s no shame in finding a new team, or a new sport. Your physical and mental health comes first, even when you are a part of a team.

Be Mindful of Your Budget

Before you consider joining a team sport, first look into the cost. For some, the fees can be higher than assumed. If that’s the case, instead of giving up on joining, research other local teams. Gyms, rec centers, independent clubs, and sports complexes all offer adult sports programs. If your first choice is too pricey, there’s no harm in placing budget over preference. If your heart is set on playing in an expensive league that isn’t necessarily budget-friendly, consider playing one season a year while supplementing your exercise regimen with a less expensive alternative during the off-season.

Adult team sports greatly benefit both your physical well-being and your social life. Enroll in a local club today and restore your rightful title as a lifelong athlete.

How to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

August 7, 2018 Dean and Marcie Whalen Fitness, Lifestyle

Whether you’re a picky eater in search of ways to add more fruits and vegetables to your diet, or you have a child who perpetually leaves “the healthy stuff” on his plate, I’m here to help. There are plenty of creative techniques that will assist you in your efforts in meeting your nutritional needs, without feeling like you are forcing yourself to eat things that you dislike. Keep reading for a few easy tips.

Purée or dice them

Mashing, processing, or blending a cooked fruit or vegetable, create a purée.
Traditionally, the skin and seeds will be removed and liquid will be added, to create a smoother end result. You can purée an array of foods such as carrots, beets, bananas, and blueberries; the possibilities are endless. Fruits and veggies can even be combined to double the benefit. Purées can be used as a base for soups, smoothies, and sauces. Depending on your choice of ingredient, purées can also add fun and vivid color to foods, which increases their visual appeal to children. A win-win.

Dicing means cutting into small chunks. Diced vegetables add color, flavor, and important vitamins to dishes. Many recipes like salads, pasta sauces or egg rolls already include diced vegetables, but they can be added to other foods as well. Below are a few examples:

· Scrambled eggs with diced asparagus, red bell peppers, and onions
· Rice/quinoa with diced mushrooms and broccoli
· Flaked tuna with diced carrots, celery, and grapes

If dicing is too difficult (raw carrots are hard to dice) try using a peeler or food processor to make the process a bit easier.

Make fruits and vegetables look like other tasty foods.

Popular foods like fries, chips, pasta and ice cream can be elevated to fit into a healthy lifestyle. Simply replacing the core ingredients with nutrient dense foods can make all the difference.

Here are a few substitutions that will leave your whole family wanting more:

Fries
· Zucchini fries
· Carrot fries
· Beet fries
· Apple fries

Chips
· Kale chips
· Banana chips
· Apple chips
· Eggplant chips

Pasta (*use a spiralizer)
· Spaghetti squash
· Eggplant lasagna noodles
· *Carrot noodles
· *Zoodles (zucchini noodles)

Ice Cream
· Nicecream
(Blended frozen bananas are the base for “Nana Cream”. Nicecream can be combined with other fruits, purées, and flavors to increase the taste complexity)

· Fruit popsicles
(Purées, mixed with chopped fruits, can be frozen to create healthy popsicles)

· Yogurt popsicles
(Greek, dairy-free, or traditional yogurt, with added fruits, make a perfect frozen treat)

Pizza
· Cauliflower crust
(After pulverizing the cauliflower in a food processor, combine it with garlic, herbs, egg, and spices, then bake)

Bake them

Fruits have been baked into muffins, breads, and cakes for centuries, but did you know that vegetables could be included too? Most of us only have extensive experience with carrot cake, a fan favorite, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

A list of untraditional (vegetable based) baked goods:

· Zucchini bread
· Red beet pancakes
· Coconut butternut squash bread
· Chocolate avocado cake
· Spinach muffins
· Cauliflower bagel bites
· Chickpea peanut butter cookies

Fruits and vegetables are a vital part of sustaining any healthy diet. Each meal should contain at least one serving of a fruit or vegetable. Reaching that goal doesn’t have to be difficult. Be creative when preparing your food and use the tips above as a guide. Before you know it, you’ll have formed a habit of eating foods that are both delicious, and good for you.

Our Favorite Tips to Keep the Family Healthy

April 10, 2018 Dean and Marcie Whalen Family, Fitness, Lifestyle

Adopting a healthy lifestyle for your family is important for every member to reach his or her full potential. In our household, we focus on health in all areas of life––mentally, emotionally, and physically––because we know that well-rounded health leads to a well-rounded life. Our home encourages this all-inclusive healthy lifestyle because our family is the happiest when we make our health a priority. However, we know that maintaining a healthy lifestyle in every area of life can be difficult when life gets busy. That’s why we came up with three of our favorite tips to keep the family healthy even when life gets in the way.

Stay active

An active lifestyle leads to health in multiple areas of life. Not only does it help maintain a healthy weight, but it also reduces the risk of conditions like a stroke and heart disease. Perhaps most notably, staying active increases children’s self-confidence, enhances cognitive function, and provides them with a healthy way to improve their mental health. Whether it’s a walk around the neighborhood after dinner, a pickup game of basketball in the driveway, or soccer practice after school, make sure your family members participate in physical activity every day.

Make sleep a priority

When life becomes overwhelmingly busy, sleep is often compromised. However, make sure sleep is a priority in your household because a well-rested person performs exponentially better throughout the day. Overtiredness leads to lack of energy, crankiness, and laziness. One of the best ways to ensure that your family members get enough hours of sleep each night is to establish a nighttime routine for your whole family and stick to it as often as possible because consistency maintains our internal body clocks. Also, make sure you don’t over-commit yourself or your family because two big nights in a row may not be worth the meltdown on day three.

Eat meals together

Sharing meals with your family provides an opportunity for everyone to catch up with each other on a daily basis. But, your family dinners are also so much more beneficial than that. This time together provides your family with an opportunity to learn how to choose and pair healthy foods together, understand what foods make you all feel and perform your best, and establish healthy eating habits to use as a guide throughout life. Not to mention, family time around the table can also foster healthier relationships and improve communication within your family.

It’s easy to let the business of life take advantage of your family’s time and health, but follow these three tips to keep your family healthy no matter what.

Healthy Living Is About More Than Losing Weight

April 5, 2017 Dean and Marcie Whalen Fitness

With message after message in the media implying that the secret to happiness is losing weight, it can be easy to conflate healthy living with being skinny. But, the truth is, you can be skinny and still not be living the healthiest lifestyle. The key to healthy living isn’t losing weight (although that generally doesn’t hurt, if you do it the right way); the key is creating a lifestyle that makes you feel your happiest, most energized, and most capable.

Healthy Living Should Make You Happier

When you step into a healthier lifestyle, one that includes regular exercise, you naturally increase your endorphin production. Endorphins are responsible for that happy, elated feeling you get when you go for a long run or finally conquer the mountain you’ve been climbing.

In essence, endorphins are the reason that regular exercise makes you a happier person all around. That alone should be enough to encourage you to lace up those old running shoes and hit the pavement. It isn’t about looking your best in your bathing suit this summer; it’s about feeling your best all year long.

Healthy Living Should Energize You

A healthy lifestyle shouldn’t just be about exercising more regularly. You should also make it a point to pay attention to the nourishing food you put in your body.

Whether it’s a protein-packed breakfast smoothie or a nice fillet of fresh-caught salmon for dinner, what you choose to put into your body does just as much for healthy living as does working out.

One of the most destructive notions about dieting is that food is the enemy, that calories are to be feared and restricted. But, if you pick energizing foods that nourish your body, you should start to feel more energized and healthy—and you’ll never feel deprived.

Healthy Living Should Help You Feel More Capable

Not living up to your potential health-wise can be detrimental in so many ways. When you look at yourself in the mirror and you don’t like your reflection, it can frankly be pretty upsetting. But what’s worse is feeling like you can’t quite keep up with life. You miss out on living life to the fullest when you lead an unhealthy lifestyle.

Healthy living should help you feel more capable and better able to get out there and do all of the things you’ve been wanting to try. It should also enable you to keep up with your kids. What greater joy is there than being able to play with your kids?

In short, when you stick with a healthy lifestyle, you allow yourself to be an active participant in life’s greatest joys.

High-Protein Breakfast Ideas to Help Fuel Your Morning Workout

February 15, 2017 Dean and Marcie Whalen Fitness

There’s nothing quite like starting your day off with an intense workout session. It makes your whole day better and kicks things off in the right direction. But, if you skip breakfast to sneak in that little bit of extra sleep before your 6 a.m. kickboxing session, you’ll be kicking yourself when your stomach grumbles loudly 15 minutes into sparring.

To avoid that pain and embarrassment, check out these high-protein breakfast ideas that are guaranteed to keep you full and fuel your favorite morning workout.

Chocolate-Banana Protein Shakes

If you’re crunched on time before you get your daily set of crunches on, then this high-protein breakfast idea is perfect for you. It only takes a few minutes right when you wake up to throw together a delicious, high-protein shake that will help you power through whatever the day has in store for you.

To make an ideal high-protein shake, start with frozen banana chunks. For protein, add in a cup of almond milk, two tablespoons of peanut butter, and whatever protein powder you prefer. To get that extra chocolatey taste without the extra sugar, add a couple of tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder.

Bonus: the flavonoids in the cocoa powder will give your body an added antioxidant boost!

Veggie Power Protein Omelets

Eggs are a staple in both the breakfast arena and the workout realm. If you want to bulk up and get fit, eggs are a powerhouse food; they’re practically made for the gym.

Take that protein power that eggs bring to the table and multiply it by the health benefits you can derive from veggies. Depending on your tastes, you can add things like iron-rich spinach, fiber-dense broccoli, or lycopene-full tomatoes to take your power omelet (and your morning workout) to the next level—and beyond!

Apples and Cottage Cheese

Again, this high-protein breakfast solution is for those who don’t have a lot of time to spare in the morning. This spectacular combo is easy to throw together when you’re groggy first thing in the morning and need a quick, lasting burst of energy to get you going.

In just a single serving, cottage cheese packs a whopping 28 grams of pure protein. That’s tough to beat. Throw in an apple for long-lasting fiber and energy. You’ll be powering through your morning workout in no time—with no pesky stomach growling in sight.