RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

Are you an emotional eater/drinker? Do you turn to food/alcohol when you're happy/sad/bored/anxious/depressed? It's a biological fact food has the same effect on the brain (dopamine, etc) as illicit drugs. Only way to break the cycle of negative feelings then emotional eating/drinking which lead to more negative feelings is to replace the unhealthy behaviors with positive ones. Exercise being the best, because just 25mins of an intense activity can boost endorphins, good brain chemicals & hormones. Other things like taking a walk, a nap, journal ing, yoga, meditation are all other positive outlets instead of food & alcohol. Break the cycle! 

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

To be successful at anything in life you need a plan, a strategy for success. Same goes for looking & feeling your best ever. What healthy snacks are you going to have with you tomorrow & the rest of the week, so you're not hungry & searching for bad options? Are you going to bring enough water with you too? What are you going to do for your 30mins of intense daily exercise tomorrow & this week? Kickboxing class? Running stairs? CrossFit WOD? *Failure to plan, is planning to fail!*

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

Look at this picture. People who are more disadvantaged & busier than you are MAKING time daily to get healthier, why aren't YOU? It's not about having time, it's about MAKING time. There's 1,440 mins in a day, all you need to do is just 30mins a day of intense exercise. No more excuses, JUST DO IT! If you don't want to do it for yourself, get healthier for your loved ones who care about you. 

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

Ladies, how many EDCs do you eat & drink daily? What are EDCs? They’re endocrine disrupting chemicals & many of these chemicals mimick estrogen; the hormone that if increased artificially increases risk of heart disease, breast cancer, stroke, blood clots and abnormal mammograms. Here are three simple ways you can avoid eating/drinking a lot of EDCs:

1) GO ORGANIC. Eating & drinking organic is the best way to go; if you refuse to go organic know that high pesticide foods are celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries (domestic), nectarines, sweet bell peppers, spinach, kale/collard greens, cherries, potatoes and grapes (imported). Low pesticide foods are onions, avocado, sweet corn (frozen), pineapples, mango, sweet peas (frozen), asparagus, kiwi fruit, cabbage, eggplant, cantaloupe (domestic), watermelon, grapefruit, sweet potatoes and honeydew melon.

2) GO LEAN. Always choose pasture-raised meats, which have less fat than their confined, grain-fed counterparts and none of the weight-promoting hormones or antibiotics. Plus, grass-fed beef contains 60% more omega-3s, 200% more vitamin E and two to three times more conjugated linoleic acid (a nutrient that helps ward off heart disease, cancer and diabetes, and can help you lose body fat). For fish, avoid ahi or bigeye tuna, tilefish, swordfish, shark, king mackerel, marlin and orange roughy. Focus on smaller fish like anchovies, Atlantic herring and mackerel, and wild-caught Alaskan salmon. When you cook the fish, broil, poach, grill, boil or bake instead of pan-frying; this will allow contaminants from the fatty portions of fish to drain out.

3) FILTER YOUR WATER. The best way to eliminate EDCs from your tap water is an activated carbon water filter. Available for faucets and pitchers, and as under-the-sink units, these filters remove most pesticides and industrial pollutants. if you have perchlorate (a component of rocket fuel!) in your water (you can find out by asking your municipal water supplier for a copy of its most recent water-quality report) you’ll need a reverse osmosis filter. These filters range from $28-$60.

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

No matter your fitness level, if you can honestly say you're doing your absolute best to be healthy, you're progressing. That's the key to success, progression, always moving forward & away from unhealthy habits & behaviors. With that said, have YOU done your 30mins of intense exercise TODAY yet?

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

We weren't meant to live lives seated in traffic trying to get to a job where we're sitting all day to then go home in traffic seated just to sit & watch tv all night 'til bed. Meanwhile, filling our bodies all day with processed foods filled with pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, GMOs. This is not the life we were created for. Break the cycle! Eat organic, exercise 30mins a day, get extra activity everywhere you can (always take the stairs instead of elevators/escalators, park further away from your destination, walk around while you're on the phone, do 20 squats & 20 pushups for every hour you're sitting at work, etc.). #7WeeksTilSummer2014

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip: 

It's basic biology, we need protein to build lean muscle tissue. The more lean muscle we have, the more calories we'll burn all day long, because 1lb of muscle burns 50cal at rest. So the key to get lean & tone in a fast, healthy way is to not only to burn a lot of calories during exercise, but to burn a lot all day long. Here's a natural, healthy protein that you should take after cardio & strength training: http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/nb/perfectisopure.html

Mix one scoop with 10oz of cold water or organic almond milk. #7WeeksTilSummer2014