RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

It's not about HAVING time to exercise or eating healthy, it's about MAKING time. We all make time for what we think is important to us. So what's important to YOU? Making time for Facebook, watching TV, eating junk, playing Candy Crush, etc.? Or you & your loved ones living a healthier, more vibrant, thriving lifestyle where you're more active TOGETHER, and coming up with healthier, fun recipes & cooking them TOGETHER? There's 1,440 minutes in a day, what are you doing with yours?

 

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

Do you do cardio on machines (treadmill, elliptical, stairclimber, etc.) a lot? Do you rely on the calorie counter to measure your progress? Did you know it's inaccurate? Accurate calorie count is taken by age, gender, and body fat %. Most machines you just enter age & weight. Men burn more calories than women, and the machine has no idea if you're either. The machine is calculating heart rate & calorie count by a predetermined math equation set in the machine (based off weight & age) & by how fast it's going. Also, these machines need to be recalibrated often to ensure accuracy, but most gyms never do that. To get an accurate reading of both heart rate & calorie count so you can start tracking REAL progress, invest in a heart rate monitor. They can range from $20-$200. You can find them inexpensive at Walmart. The brand we trust, we recommend & we use is Polar (www.PolarUSA.com). 

Chicken alla Parmigiana RIO Fitness Chicago style about to go in at 400*F for 26mins! EVERYTHING organic, hormone-free, antibiotic-free from the chicken to the tomato sauce to the seasoning (black pepper, garlic & onion powder) to the Parmigiano Reggiano. Just like your Mamma use to make except this is super healthy! Who's hungry? 

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

LADIES, look at this picture. It explains itself. There ARE natural alternatives to every beauty & hygiene product, and they work just as well as the disease causing chemical filled ones you're using now. You can find them at Whole Foods, or more reasonably priced at Trader Joe's & www.iherb.com. 

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

The best defense against cancer is to stop doing things that increase growth & spread of the cancer cells that are already in body. Here's TEN things YOU & your loved ones are doing right now & need to stop that are increasing your/their chances of getting cancer:

1) Stop eating & drinking from plastic containers. Especially don't eat & drink from plastic containers that have been frozen or warmed up. Plastics leach chemicals into the food/drink that mimic estrogen which increases cancer cell growth/spread. Choose glass. 

2) Avoid/limit alcohol consumption. Alcohol lowers testosterone in the body, which then increases estrogen in the body. 

3) Avoid foods that contain GMOs, pesticides, herbicides, preservatives, nitrates (most powerful cancer causing preservative known), artificial flavors/colors, etc. All of these chemicals much like plastics cause everything from cancer to birth defects to learning disabilities. Eat ORGANIC. 

4) Avoid completely foods & drinks with artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners are what the cancer cells already in the body love to feed off of to grow & spread. 

5) Limit excess sun/tanning bed exposure. Choose a high SPF natural sunscreen that is free of titanium dioxide which is a known carcinogen. 

6) Stop smoking. 

7) Avoid dairy products that have the rBST/rBGH hormone which is linked to causing breast, colon, and prostrate cancer. 

8) Start using more natural beauty & hygiene products that don't contain the chemicals in the ones you're using now that cause everything from cancer to birth defects to reproductive issues to allergies. 

9) Use a natural deodorant (Mix 1/4 Cup Organic Arrowroot starch, 4Tb Organic Coconut Oil, 1/4 Cup Organic Baking Soda). The aluminum in the deodorant you're using is linked to causing breast cancer. 

10) Start exercising daily because body movement moves lymph fluid around, and this is an important function of your immune system that fights cancerous cells.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Look at this picture. Another example to show there's chemicals in what we're eating & drinking if we're not eating ORGANIC. 180 days later & it still looks fresh?! That's unnatural, that's a problem. These chemicals are why our nation's obesity, birth defects, learning disability, allergy, reproductive issues, mental illness, cancer, etc., rates have more than quadrupled since the 1960s. Protect yourself & your loved ones, demand organic, shop organic, eat organic, live organic. It's not that expensive as Big Agriculture companies want you to think. Go to Trader Joe's, their prices are reasonable & comparable to any other grocery chain.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

Look at this picture. When Maickel Melamed was born he was given a week to live, and for the last 38yrs he's lived with muscular dystrophy. Earlier this month, 17hrs after it started, he finished the 2013 Chicago Marathon at 1am Monday morning. There's NO excuse to not accomplish your goals in life. There's no excuse not to eat healthy & exercise daily. People busier than you, people more disadvantaged than like Melamed are making the effort to lead a healthier, thriving life, so why aren't you? It's not about having the time, it's about MAKING the time, MAKING the effort. 

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local/chicago_news&id=9286065

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

Do YOU use beauty & hygiene products like makeup, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, soap, lotions, perfume, etc.? Look at this picture, then go check the labels of all your products for the 12 cancer, birth defects, learning disability, infertility, allergy, reproductive issue causing chemicals shown. It only takes 26sec for these chemicals to absorbed into the body once applied. There are so many natural products that work just as well if not better as the ones you're using right now. You can find them at www.iherb.com, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's, among other places.

 

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Have a lot to drink this weekend? Look at this picture. Here's FIVE things that are happening internally when we drink too much alcohol, and SIX natural remedies for when you do (exclude the remedies "hair of the dog" & sports drinks because they're loaded with artificial sweeteners, sugar, sodium, and artificial flavors that all cause long term health problems). 

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

If we don't exercise regularly & eat healthy daily, when we hit 25yrs old we lose 1/2 a pound of lean muscle tissue every year. Lean muscle tissue is what helps us burn more cal all day long, thus preventing body fat gain, so losing it is bad. At 30yrs old our metabolism (how fast we burn cal) slows down. At 40yrs old, we start to lose bone density (bones becoming like glass & making us more susceptible to injury). Moral of the story, start exercising & eating healthy ASAP so you counter the natural aging process. It's never too early or too late to start! 

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Take a look at this picture & at the ingredients of everything you eat & drink. Nearly everything we eat & drink (even gum) have artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose & saccharin thanks to Monsanto who created them. Artificial sweeteners are what cancer cells already in the body love to feed off of to grow bigger, stronger, and spread. They are also known neurotoxins which cause insomnia, migraines, anxiety, vision loss, muscle spasms, and even death. Not to mention, since they are artificial, the body cannot properly metabolize them = gaining body fat.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

Look at this picture. Doesn't get any clearer than this that if we're not eating ORGANIC meat, fish, eggs, dairy, fruits, veggies, grains, etc., we're consuming chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, preservatives, etc., that cause everything from cancer to mental illness to allergies to digestive issues to learning disabilities. Protect yourself & loved ones, eat ORGANIC. It's NOT as expensive to do so as you think. Stores like Trader Joe's are reasonably priced. Regardless, how much is your health or the health of your loved ones worth to save a few bucks each week? If you or they get sick you'll pay the difference in copays, hospitalization bills, and prescription meds anyway. 

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

Are YOU scale obsessed (weighing yourself every day/multiple times a week)? If yes, STOP! If you're trying to get in-shape you should weigh once every two weeks, maximum once a week. First of all, the scale is NOT the measure of REAL progress, losing BODY FAT % is, because you CAN lose on the scale but not body fat % = you lost muscle/water weight. Other than body fat %, REAL signs of progress are also the things in the picture. More signs of REAL progress are your clothes fitting better, your blood pressure/blood sugar levels/pulse/other vitals improving, etc. Don't get discouraged if the scale isn't moving as fast as you want, REMEMBER, you didn't get out-of-shape overnight, so you won't get in-shape overnight either. Being healthy & fit takes PATIENCE, DEDICATION, and DETERMINATION.

 

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Do you ever see people, especially women, posting on Facebook: "just did abs, butt, legs, or arm day?" 

Isolating muscle groups like that is NOT the quickest way to be lean & toned, which is what most women want. That is a body building schedule. And unless you want to look like Schwarzenegger, don't exercise like that. Also, **there is no such thing as exercising to be lean & tone one specific area, outside of having liposuction.** 

To be lean & tone quickly your weekly exercise schedule should look like this:  

Day 1: Lower body (quads/glutes/hamstrings/calves) & Upper Body (shoulders/triceps/chest/biceps/back).

Day 2: 30mins core (side/lower/upper abdominals & lower back) then 25mins of 60sec high/low intensity interval cardio.

Day 3: 25mins of 60sec high/low intensity interval cardio as soon you wake up & again in the afternoon/early evening. 

Day 4: Lower body (quads/glutes/hamstrings/calves) & Upper Body (shoulders/triceps/chest/biceps/back).

Day 5: 30mins core (side/lower/upper abdominals & lower back) then 25mins of 60sec high/low intensity interval cardio.

Day 6: 25mins of 60sec high/low intensity interval cardio as soon you wake up & again in the afternoon/early evening.

Day 7: Rest

There should be 48hrs rest in between each muscle group. 

Also, in case you're not doing it already, weight training for lean & toned is not doing one set then resting. For your goal, you need to weight training using High Intensity Interval Training. HIIT means doing one set of an exercise then following it up with a completely different exercise no rest in between, then resting 30-60sec and repeating for 3sets. For example, doing one set of 15 lunges, followed by pushups for 30sec no rest in between, then resting 30-60sec and repeating for 3sets. Or one set of 15 bicep curls followed by 30sec of jumping jacks no rest in between, then resting 30-60sec and repeating for 3sets. YouTube/Google HIIT to see more.