Fitness & Wellness

While it’s normal for children to run like wild animals when playing and be active, it’s not necessarily how it is today. We are a nation of screens and video games and kids are caught up in the technology. Today, we have to take an active role to ensure that our kids get the activity they need. We have to do the same as adults, since manual labor has been replaced by modern machinery. How do you teach kids to be healthy? It starts by being a good role model.

You have to motivate your kids and what better way than playing with them?

It’s not always easy to find time to play with your children. You may still be at work when they get home from school, then there’s the dinnertime hassle and before you know it, it’s bedtime. One way to help is our kids club and youth program. They can come to the gym the same time as you do and both of you will get fit. Carving out time specifically each night to shoot hoops, ride bikes, play red light/green light or do hula hoops, for example, can create more than a healthy lifestyle for your kids, it creates bonds.

Save time with meal prep and let the kids help.

Have you ever tried meal planning and prep? You create a meal plan for the week, create a list of ingredients, shop on one night and then when you have time, usually on the weekend, cook all the meals for the week. We provide meal plans with our app with meals the kids can help prepare ahead. Meal prep can make mealtime easier, since all you have to do is heat it and serve. Kids can help. Nothing tastes better than a meal you helped create, so give them a starring role in the dinner.

Have water in the refrigerator ready to drink and cut out the sugary drinks.

Sometimes, having a drink already in the fridge can make it more appetizing. If your kids don’t like water, try infused water. You can make a wide variety of flavors without added sugar and even create ice cubes with fruit inside it. Steer clear of soft drinks and even fruit juice. While it might seem healthy and is better than soft drinks, fruit juice is high in sugar and doesn’t have the healthy fiber of the whole fruit. Infused water or water and the whole fruit is far better.

• Combine the physical with the mental and learn about the wild life and plants before hiking or take a walk at the Houston Botanical Garden. Visiting the Museum District and stopping at the Health Museum can provide a great education.
• Have healthy snacks in the refrigerator ready to eat after school or bagged in individual servings on the counter. Whether it’s cubed watermelon, a bag of nuts or homemade trail mix, they’ll learn healthy eating.
• Set a bedtime and stick with it, for both you and your child. Getting adequate sleep is extremely important, so get them started out right, while you also break bad habits.
• Make household chores part of your routine together. Cleaning house can be fun if you put your muscles into it. When you have helpers, it can also save time to do other activities with the kids.

For more information, contact us today at Rising Fitness Gym

If you’ve put your winter clothing to the back of your closet and started focusing on the more revealing summer attire, it’s one step toward getting ready for summer. If those clothes don’t quite fit right or show every bulge, you need to make some changes in your life so you can have that summer fun in the sun and enjoy every minute at the beach or pool. Getting ready for summer isn’t just about how you look, it’s also about how you feel and boosting your energy level.

Walk away from that pastry.

That’s two great pieces of advice in one. You need to avoid pastry and focus on healthier eating, while increasing your daily exercise, which includes walking. Starting a healthy program means deciding what you want to achieve. Do you want to lose weight? Tone muscles? Or just have more energy? Identify your goals that will make this summer memorable and fun. Once you know what you want, you can start a program that will help you achieve it. Our training programs that include both exercise and healthy eating, can get you on the track to success.

All fitness goals start with a program of healthy eating.

I can’t say enough about how food affects your health and your fitness goals. If you want to lose weight, gain weight or just have more energy, what you eat makes a huge difference. If your diet is jam-packed with high sugar food and drink, you’ll end up tired by mid-day, with health issues and with weight problems. Just cutting out sugar, refined white flour products and highly processed foods or fried foods and substituting fresh fruit and vegetables can make a huge difference.

Get moving.

It’s spring and a time of renewal. Get out and enjoy the weather before it gets too hot. If you’re not quite ready for a formal exercise program, make it a habit to walk at least 30-minutes a day. You can even break it up to three ten-minute sessions and still get benefit. Take that a step further and start a workout program for faster results. Don’t worry if you’re completely out of shape. We develop a program that’s personalized and based on your goals, special needs and fitness level.

• If you’re confused about how to reach your goals, we’re ready to help and streamline the process. Our nutritional program is easy to follow and our personal trainers will guide you to fitness.
• Getting fit can be fun. Spend time in active play with your family. Shoot hoops with the kids. Go for a hike. Ride bikes or go out for a night of dancing. It doesn’t all have to take place in a gym.
• Winners keep score. Track your progress. When you workout at Rising Fitness, we do that for you and help you identify ways to achieve your goals faster.
• Don’t waste another summer wishing you’d done something so you could enjoy all the fun. It’s never too late to start on the road to fitness. You’ll feel better about yourself the minute you begin.

For more information, contact us today at Rising Fitness Gym

If you’ve wondered how often to workout a week, you might be asking the wrong question or have missing information, like what types of workouts should you do and should they be varied. While it’s true that working out at least three days a week is a great start, you can actually do more and get good results, but not if you’re doing the same type of exercise every day.

You need all types of training.

If you’re only doing cardio, you’re not doing yourself a favor. You need a variety of training to achieve fitness in all areas, strength, balance, flexibility and endurance, also known as cardio. You need balance when you workout. If you do strength training every day, you’ll actually be doing your body a disservice. Your body needs at least 48 hours to recover, since strength training causes micro tears in the muscles. If you don’t have that time for your body to heal, it can cause muscle loss and set you back, rather than aid you in achieving your goals.

Start slower and add to your workout.

If you haven’t worked out for a while, you shouldn’t start by planning to work out at high intensity for an hour a day. It’s better to start slowly and work up toward a tougher workout. The reason is simple. Those initial workouts prepare your body and get it ready for tougher ones. If you do too much initially, you’ll either end up sore, which can lead to skipping the next workout, or injured, which leads to skipping the next month of workouts. Starting with a half-hour three days a week and building up to an hour, can help boost your chances for success.

Supplementing your workout can be quite beneficial.

If you’re working hard in the gym or online three days a week doing flexibility training and strength training, with a touch of cardio, there’s nothing wrong with going for a walk on those days off or doing yoga. Those types of workouts help you stretch your muscle groups and participate in active recovery. They’re easy on the body, but increase circulation to boost the healing of muscle tissue.

• At The Worx, we can provide a program of healthy eating and exercise designed specifically for you. You won’t overwork your body, but will get in the right amount of exercise to see the transformation faster.
• The longer you participate in a fitness program, the more days a week you can exercise, as long as it’s not all strength training. For the average person who isn’t a bodybuilder, strength training should never be done two days in a row.
• No matter what your workout program, the key to success is consistency. Even the best program created by a personal trainer won’t work if you don’t do it on a consistent basis.
• If you’re unsure where to begin, at The Worx, we offer two weeks of free at home training. You’ll get zoom workouts, meal plans and so much more, which takes the confusion out of how many days a week to train.

For more information, contact us today at Team Worx Fitness!

Eggs are an inexpensive source of protein and chock-full of nutrients. Go to any restaurant in Houston, TX, and you’ll find a variety of egg dishes on the menu. They’re nutrient-dense and low-calorie. You can eat them at every meal. Unfortunately, eggs suffer from bad PR and inaccurate science. There are myths about the dangers of eating too many eggs and how they negatively affect your health. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Are eggs bad for your cholesterol?

Eggs are high in cholesterol, but that doesn’t affect the cholesterol levels nearly as much as saturated and trans fats, often found in snack foods and sweets. One reason for the link to high cholesterol may be the foods usually eaten with eggs, such as sausage, ham, or bacon, and how you cook eggs. One factor often overlooked about low cholesterol diets is that the body manufactures it. If you cut cholesterol from food, your body makes more.

Studies about the effects of eggs often have polar conclusions.

Early studies linked egg consumption with an increased risk of diabetes. New studies show that’s not true. Eating up to 12 eggs a week had no effect. One Chinese study found eating one egg a day reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke. One problem with the study is that the diet was a traditional Chinese diet, not a Western diet. Other studies found that if cholesterol increased from eating eggs, the increase was good cholesterol that improved health. Eggs contain omega-3 fatty acids that decrease the risk of heart disease and many antioxidants that fight inflammation.

Eating raw eggs helps you build muscle faster than eating cooked eggs.

Raw eggs have 36% more vitamin D, 33% more DHA, 20% more zinc, 20% more biotin, and 23% more choline, but it has a downside. Raw eggs contain avidin that blocks the absorption of biotin. The biotin in raw eggs isn’t as bioavailable as in cooked eggs, even though there’s more. It’s also harder to absorb the protein in raw eggs since cooking breaks down the protein and makes it more available. The protein in cooked eggs is 91% bioavailability. In raw eggs, it’s only 50%. You also face the risk of bacterial infection from salmonella.

People often eat only egg whites, believing the yolks are fattening. The yolks contain fat that extends satiety when you eat them, so you stay full longer.

There are many labels for eggs. Caged, cage-free, free-range, and pastured are four types. Cage-free chickens still live inside. Free-range have a small area outside to use. Pastured hens wander and eat bugs and plants. They are more nutritious than the other eggs.

Another myth is that all eggs require refrigeration. Eggs have a natural protective coating. Washing the eggs and preparing them for sale removes the coating. Only then do you have to refrigerate them.

Even though eggs are far healthier and contain less risk than most people believe, if your healthcare professional suggests you don’t eat eggs, discuss it with your healthcare professional and follow their suggestions.