Try This Killer Leg Exercise!!!

Stability Ball Wall Squats are a great leg exercise that work your glutes, quads, and hamstrings as well as your core muscles while supporting your back. They are also a great exercise that you can do at home or at the gym. All you need is a stability ball and some light free weights (which are optional) to get started!!!

1. Stability Ball Wall Squats:

Step 1: Place the ball between your lower back and the wall. Place your feet shoulder-width apart, and make sure your weight is in your heels, while toes are pointed forward. Press your back into the ball for support.

Step 2: Begin to lower into a squat as if you are going to sit in a chair, keep your core muscles tight and continue to press your back into the ball. Come down to a ninety-degree angle at the knee joint.

Step 3: With your back pressed into the ball, extend your knees and return to starting position.

*To create a greater challenge -try adding light free weights to each hand, and rest weights down by your sides or on top of your thighs as you perform this exercise. For an even greater challenge - try adding a biceps curl as you lower into a squat to get more muscles involved and burn more calories during this exercise!!!*

Bringing Breakfast Back!

One of the most common questions I hear as a fitness professional is "what's the deal with breakfast?" and "why is breakfast so important anyway?" In my opinion, there is only one drawback to breakfast - it usually occurs too early in the morning ;-) Besides having to take place in the early hours of the day, breakfast brings many benefits and is worth your time!!!

Breakfast literally "breaks" our "fast" after a night of sleep, replenishing our energy stores and providing us with essential nutrients we need to start our day. While a common weight loss myth is to skip meals such as breakfast, research suggests that eating breakfast actually assists in weight loss and maintenance, as well as helping to reduce total daily caloric intake. Studies have shown additional benefits to eating breakfast are improved strength and endurance in the late morning.

Here are some quick Breakfast Tips from the USDA's Human Nutrition Information Service to help get your day and breakfast off to a great, healthy start:

• No time? Build a breakfast around foods that are ready to eat or take little preparation time: fresh fruits, milk, yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, ready-to-eat cold cereals and instant breakfast mixes.
• On the go... Try celery stuffed with peanut butter or a meat or cheese spread, dried fruits or vegetable juices.
• Spice up cereals...Top cereals with fruit or stir chopped nuts such as peanuts, pecans and walnuts into cooked cereal.
• Not hungry yet? Drink juice. Something is better than nothing. Have some wheat bread or crackers later in the morning, then drink some milk and eat some cheese, an egg or peanut butter.
• Don't skip if you're on a diet. There's no evidence that skipping meals will help you lose weight. In fact, studies show that most people who skip breakfast tend to eat more later in the day. Some even select more calorically-dense foods than those who eat breakfast.

Pass the Cereal Box Please;-) Tips On How to Buy a Healthy Cereal that Still Tastes Great TOO!!!

Cereal is one of my favorite foods and maybe yours too:-) And, while cereal often gets a bad reputation...there are plenty of yummy ones out there that are worthy of our attention and our taste buds for that matter!!!
The key is knowing what to look for when it comes to choosing a cereal because there is no shortage of selections promising a multitude of health benefits on almost every grocery store aisle in America.
So, how do you pick a "healthy cereal" when practically all of them are promising us something??? Check out these quick tips that I use to make a healthy cereal selection and would love to pass on to you:

• Watch for Whole Grains: Recent research suggests that those who eat whole grains may be at a lower risk of diabetes, heart disease, and weight gain - so make sure whole grains are in the first 3 ingredients of your cereal selection.
• Be Smart about the Sugar: Check the ingredients to see where sugar falls on the list - the U.S. Government's Dietary Reference Intakes recommend that added sugars not exceed 25% of total calories - so look for a cereal that gets 25% or less of its calories from sugar, and if the cereal contains dried fruit this can be slightly higher as dried fruits do add nutrition to your cereal. You can figure out the percentage of calories that come from sugar in your cereal by using the following formula from WebMD:

"Multiply the grams of sugar per serving by 4 (there are 4 calories per gram of sugar).
Divide this number (calories from sugar) by the total number of calories per serving.
Multiply this number by 100 to get the percentage of calories from sugar."

• Stay Full with Fiber: Cereals containing bran pack more fiber per serving so they keep you feeling full for longer periods of time, and recent research suggests adding bran to your diet and increasing your intake of fiber can help keep the pounds off too:-) So, try to aim for at least 5 grams of fiber per serving from your cereal of choice.

Ok, I hope these quick tips help you make sense of the cereal chaos and bring a healthy bowl your way:-)