RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Look at this picture. Don't let an injury be the reason you don't exercise. You can ALWAYS train around it. A lower body injury? You can still do core/upper body. Upper body injury? You can still do core/lower body/cardio. A midsection injury? You can do still light cardio like walking or a stationary bike. Staying active helps you recover faster, and being inactive does the opposite. After just two weeks off from exercise, cardio & strength levels in the body begin to plummet, with cardio going faster. Ps. The guy in the picture is Kyle Maynard. Author, Crossfit & MMA athlete, and all-around badass all despite being a quad-amputee.

#DailyRIOfitnessChicagoTip

Look at this picture. Which Level (1-4) eater are you? To be in-shape & as healthy as possible we MUST be a Level 4 eater. Eating healthy & exercising daily is more of psychological battle than it is physical. YOU need to identify what are the psychological obstacles that prevent you from being as fit & healthy as possible. For example, are you an emotional eater/drinker? Do you not preplan your meals so you're not starving & then tempted to impulse buy junk food? Are you exhausted after work so you skip exercise instead of doing it before work? For every obstacle, there IS a solution, but you must first identify the issues in order to find the remedies. 

#DailyRIOfitnessChicagoTip 

Do you drink caffeine (coffee, energy drinks, etc.) every day? Caffeine is pulling the calcium out of your bones, making them weak = you getting injured. If you refuse to give up caffeine, you MUST eat high CALCIUM foods (organic low-cal cheese/yogurt, almond milk, collard greens, spinach, etc.) and take a CALCIUM CITRATE supplement daily. With the calcium citrate also take a MAGNESIUM supplement to help balance the calcium which will then help reduce fatigue, PMS symptoms, constipation, headaches, cramps, muscle tension & spasms, etc. www.iHerb.com is great website to purchase all-natural, non-GMO vitamins & minerals at very inexpensive prices.

Look at this picture, here's a FIVE week plan, to rid yourself each week of unhealthy nutrition choices, so that after five weeks you'll be done with sugars, preservatives, bad fats, refined sugars like white breads, artificial sweeteners, etc., that cause you to gain body fat & grow/spread the cancer cells in your body. Eating healthy is NOT something we do for just 4-12wks and then stop. It's an EVERY day lifestyle change. That lifestyle comes from making eating healthy a daily habit. Daily habits whether good or bad take 4-6wks to form. Follow this five week plan to start forming healthy daily habits, making better choices, and being successful with your goals of being healthy & in-shape. #DailyRIOfitnessChicagoTip 

What are YOU eating TODAY that's helping YOU get healthier? Here's our RIO Fitness Chicago® HEALTHY post-exercise meal of the day!:
•Organic, omega 3 enriched eggs.
•Organic, antibiotic-free, hormone-free, 99% lean ground homemade turkey burger.
•Organic cherry tomatoes.
•Organic plain Greek yogurt.
•Stone milled handmade 100% whole grain wheat tortillas.
#RIOfitnessChicago #Summer2013LessThanTHREEweeksAway #GroceryShopAtTRADERJOES

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Do you stretch after you exercise/do physical labor? If you want to see quicker results & prevent injury, STATIC STRETCHING is ESSENTIAL after exercise. Static stretching after exercise helps to: 1) Reduce the buildup of lactic acid in our muscles. The more that acid builds up, the more sore we'll feel & the slower our muscles recover & grow new muscle tissue = slower results. 2) Elongate the muscle = better blood flow through the muscle = better protein absorption into the muscle = growing new lean muscle tissue = seeing results faster. For a list of every muscle group and how to stretch them properly after exercise visit www.exrx.net.

#MorningMotivationPic
What are YOU going to do TODAY to be GREAT/HEALTHY? Start your day with just 30mins of intense exercise? Bring healthy snacks with you to keep your metabolism fast/so you're not tempted to eat junk throughout your day? Don't let the sun set tonight without doing some heart pumping, sweat inducing activity! Even just 15mins of that is better than nothing! #RIOfitnessChicago

Healthy Snack Ideas:
•unsalted/raw nuts
•unsalted/raw seeds
•plain organic Greek yogurt
•fresh organic fruits
•fresh raw organic veggies

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

The unofficial start to Summer 2013, Memorial Day Weekend, is only THREE weeks away! That starts the season of swimsuits, shorts, short sleeve shirts, tank tops, Summer dresses, etc., and if you have cellulite, that can make you feel really uncomfortable. Here's FOUR simple things you can start doing TODAY to begin reducing the appearance of cellulite.

1) Avoid saturated/trans fat completely. Cellulite is fat deposits under the skin, so the more "bad" fat you consume the more cellulite is going to collect under the skin.

2) Start consuming more "good" unsaturated fat (poly & mono) with items like unsalted/raw nuts, avocados, oily skin fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna, herring, etc.), unsalted/raw seeds, cooking with olive oil-sunflower oil-safflower oil-avocado-oil, and put flax seeds in everything you eat.

3) Start strength training three to four days per week. Strength training burns four times more calories than cardio, and keeps your metabolism high twenty-four to thirty-six hours. The most effective way to strength train to get lean & tone quickly is HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING.

HIIT Examples:

Do 60sec of walking lunges while doing dumbbell bicep curls, then with no rest in between do 60sec of side to side pushups. Then rest 60sec and repeat for three sets.

Do 60sec sit/stand on a chair/bench while doing dumbbell shoulder presses, then with no rest in between get in a pushup position and for 60sec do a jumping jack. Then rest 60sec and repeat for three sets.

Google/YouTube High Intensity Interval Training for more.

4) Four to five times per week as soon as you wake up before consuming any calories start doing cardio properly to be burning majority calories from fat, not energy. Doing more than 30 minutes of cardio is going to be majority energy calories; more than an hour is going to burn muscle. To do cardio properly to burn majority fat calories do just 25 minutes of 60 second high then low intensity intervals of cardio.

Cardio example (treadmill):

Warm-up 60sec @ 3.0 speed
Minute 1 - Speed 5.0
Min 3 - Speed 5.0
Min 5 - Speed 5.0
Min 7 - Speed 5.0
Min 9 - Speed 5.0
Min 11 - Speed 7.0
Min 13 - Speed 7.0
Min 15 - Speed 7.0
Min 17 - Speed 7.0
Min 19 - Speed 7.0
Min 21 - Speed 9.0
Min 23 - Speed 9.0
Cool-down 60sec @ Speed 3.0

That's it just 25mins of cardio to burn body fat! All the even numbered mins (2,4,6, etc) you come down to Speed 3.0. This is just an example, adjust it to your fitness level.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Recipe for HEALTHY tacos:
•Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon.
•Organic, Omega 3 enriched, hormone-free, antibiotic-free eggs.
•Organic cherry tomatoes.
•Organic avocado.
•Organic plain Greek Yogurt (substitute instead of sour cream).
•Handmade stone ground whole grain tortillas.
*You can sub out the fish & eggs for organic, antibiotic-free, hormone-free chicken breast/95% or higher lean ground turkey.*
Is what YOU are eating right now getting you closer to being healthier? #RIOFitnessChicago #HealthyDinnerorLunchRecipe #SummerIsOnly25DaysAway