“the question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me”
CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK
Challenge this week!
It's a no brainer that kickboxing is a mega calorie burner (Muscle and Fitness Magazine reports that fitness kickboxing can burn over 800 calories per hour) as well as a great workout to tone up your entire body as you rev up your metabolism. If you are a cardio junkie, this is a great cross training workout to switch up your routine. I challenge you to 200 kicks per day (100 kicks on the left leg, 100 kicks on the right). Do this for the next two weeks. This is going to be like your morning coffee and give you that energy boost you are looking for. You'll be breathing hard and sweating out toxins; LET'S GO!
TIP OF THE WEEK
TIP OF THE WEEK!
Back to sugar. I am coming back to this one because I am not sure people realize the effects of sugar on the body, how addictive it is and how it's hidden in so many different foods. My TIP this week is to look on the back of the ingredients list of the foods you are eating and be sure that there are no "added sugars." I really think you will be shocked to see how much added sugar there is in different foods you buy. I promise you will notice a difference in your energy levels and overall mood when you cut back on this. Check out the article below that provides details on how to locate added sugars as well as the dangers of consuming added sugars.
How to spot — and avoid — added sugar
It's not just in sweetened drinks. Sugar is added to cereal, pasta sauce, and even crackers.
We all know that too much sugar is bad for health, but even the detectives among us may not realize how often sugar shows up on the dining table. "It's the added sugar that's problematic. Not the natural sugar in fruit, which has fiber to slow absorption, but added sugar—such as honey, molasses, and corn syrup," says Debbie Krivitsky, a registered dietitian at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.
Why it's bad for you
Sugar is added to many types of foods, and eating too much of the sweet stuff—even when it seems to come from a natural source—is a risk for weight gain, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, and even dementia. A diet heavy in added sugar is linked to a risk of dying from heart disease even if you're not overweight, according to a study that was published earlier this year in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Why does added sugar cause so much trouble? It's digested immediately and rapidly absorbed, and this causes an upswing in your blood sugar levels. "That challenges your pancreas to pump out more insulin. If the pancreas can't keep up with that demand, blood sugar levels rise, which can lead to more problems with insulin secretion, and ultimately to diabetes," says Dr. David M. Nathan, a Harvard Medical School professor and the director of the Diabetes Center and Clinical Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Sugar also raises inflammation throughout the body, increases triglycerides (a type of fat found in the blood), and boosts the levels of dopamine in the brain. "Dopamine gives you a high, and that's why the more sugar you eat, the more you think you want," says Krivitsky.
Where it's hiding
Added sugar is obviously in candy, cake, soda, and fruit drinks. But it's also in foods that aren't considered sweets, including salad dressings, crackers, yogurt, bread, spaghetti sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, and breakfast cereals.
You can find added sugar by looking at the ingredients in a product. Look for words ending in "ose," such as fructose, dextrose, and maltose, and look for syrups and juices (see "The many names of added sugars").
You won't find added sugars on the Nutrition Facts label, since the listing for sugar includes both natural and added sugars. Proposed new labels aim to change this. But you can see how many grams of sugar are in a product.
The many names of added sugar
The sweet ingredient goes by many different names on food labels. Keep an eye out for these added sugars when you reading ingredient lists:
agave nectar
brown sugar
cane crystals
cane sugar
corn sweetener
corn syrup
crystalline fructose
dextrose
evaporated cane juice
fructose
fruit juice concentrates
glucose
high-fructose corn syrup
honey
invert sugar
lactose
malt sugar
malt syrup
maltose
maple syrup
molasses
raw sugar
sucrose