Salsa and Soul Blog

To work your core from a seated position, sit tall in your chair with your feet firmly planted on the ground. Lift your right foot slightly off the ground. Keep your hips parallel and avoid tilting to the side. Avoid holding your breath. Keep abdominals braced. There should be no stress in your back. Hold the leg up for 10 sec. or less. If that is too difficult, lift your heel and leave your toes on the ground. Repeat on other side. Work up to a set of 10 on each side.

Sleep Apnea is when there is a pause in your breathing pattern of 10 seconds or greater. It is very disruptive to sleeping patterns, causes daytime drowsiness, and can be dangerous. These individuals also usually are obese, with high blood pressure, central obesity, elevated tryglycerides and cholesterol levels, and sometimes have diabetes. Combining good nutritional habits, a comprehensive supplemental plan, and moderate exercise can improve their overall health overtime, including sleep apnea.

Resistance Bands or tubing are great tools for toning. They are light weight so they are easy to pack for traveling.

To assist with weight-loss, purchase a pedometer and wear it everyday for 3 days. Take your average number of steps over the three days as your benchmark. Now add 200 steps to that number. Every week add an additional 200 steps until you are walking 10,000 steps each day.

A four year clinical study was done involving 1200 women. A group was assigned to take 1400 mg of calcium alone. Another group was assigned to take 1100 IU of vitamin D along with 1400 mg of calcium. The study showed a 60% decrease in the development of any cancers in the vitamin D group. If you excluded the number that developed cancer in the first year, since it is likely the cancer was already developing, the study showed over a 77% reduction.

If your knee bothers you when you walk or exercise, and you are wearing the same shoes you wore a year ago, that is the first thing to check. It may be time for a new pair.

Just 1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream is 145 calories. Half of the calories are fat. So when you eat a pint of vanilla (2 cups), you are consuming 580 calories.

If you are a soda, or sweet tea drinker, eliminating that sugar from your diet can easily result in several pounds of weight-loss.

Stress is a natural part of life. However, when stress is constant, the adrenaline released into your bloodstream without enough time to allow the body to recover, leads to conditions like high blood pressure, migraines, backaches, and insomnia. Physical activity can help to relieve stress.

Stretch your hip flexors by sitting in a chair that does not have arms. Turn your body so that your legs are to the right side of the chair facing the side wall. Sit tall and step back with your left leg as far as you can, allowing that knee to bend toward the floor. That left side is partially off of the chair. You are in a seated lunge. To strengthen your legs at the same time, hold the back of your of the chair with your right hand and lift your hips off of the chair for a perfect lunge. Keep the left knee pointing toward the ground. Hold for 20 – 30 seconds. Sit back into the seated lung. Bring your left leg forward. Take both legs to the left, and repeat on the opposite side.