Thanks to everyone who entered the latest fitness giveaway. Trisha S is the winner of the BalanceBall Chair giveaway. Trisha has been notified via email and the product is on the way to her.

If your are interested in getting the BalanceBall for yourself, it’s available at gaiam.com. Check back here later this week because we’ll be starting another terrific fitness giveaway.

Thanks!

Image: Gaiam

In this video, you can learn about incorporating a fitness routine while you are on vacation. Sure, you are on vacation but it’s actually a good time to start working out. The workout consists of four parts:

• Biking/walking for cardio
• Crunches for core/abs
• Pushups for chest/triceps
• Pullups for lats/biceps

With this vacation workout routine, you actually don’t need any equipment. So you can do the workout anywhere. With a good workout routine, you can get healthy, have more energy, sleep better and feel good about yourself. There are some parts of the video that are a little corny but the information is good.

Also checkout the website, fitness.scoobysworkshop.com.

If you are trying to figure out what brands to buy in the grocery store, check out The FITNESS 2009 Healthy Food Awards. Every year, Fitness Magazine goes through thousands and thousands of packaged foods to find the healthiest options in a variety of categories. This year, the “combed through more than 46,000 products” to come up with the top 50.

Four top nutritionists put together criteria for each category and then dozens of people throughout the company tested different brands that met the standards. The category I was most interest in was the bread.

I can never figure out which bread is actually good for you and how to balance the carbs and the fiber content to find the best one. For bread, Nature’s Pride 100% Whole Wheat came out on top.

The 2009 Healthy Food Awards winners were announced in the FITNESS magazine, July/August 2009 issue. On their website, you can find some terrific coupons and recipes for the product winners.

Image: www.naturespridebread.com

At the office, you might find yourself buying snack food from the vending machines. These types of snacks add empty calories with no real nutritional value. The best way to fight the temptation of the chips, candy and soda in vending machines is to have another type of snack on hand. Here are some simple healthy snacks that are perfect for the office.

Image: sxc.hu

In your office desk drawer, store:

• Almonds and other nuts (eat only a small handful)
• Canned fruit (packed in water)
• Granola
• Instant oatmeal
• Microwave soup cups (low sodium broths)
• Microwave popcorn (no butter or salt)
• Peanut butter (eat a Tbsp with crackers)
• Raisins (mini-boxes)
• Whole grain, low sodium crackers
• 100-calorie snack packs

In your office refrigerator, keep:

• Apples, oranges and other fresh fruit
• Hard boiled eggs
• Non-fat yogurt or pudding
• Single serving canned juice
• Sliced carrots and celery

Snacking isn’t a bad thing as long as you snack smart. Don’t starve yourself between meals, instead reach for one of the above snacks. These are delicious snacks that can give you some energy and vitamins without a lot of sugar or salt. Also be sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day.

While on your quest to beat the bulge, you may want to pick up some reading material to learn more about losing weight the healthy way. Purchasing books can start to get expensive, though, especially if you’ve recently invested in a gym membership, new running shoes, or exercise equipment. Here are 10 totally free e-books you can download instead:

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1. Keeping Fit All the Way: How to Obtain and Maintain Health, Strength and Efficiency
Written by Walter Camp, this ebook reflects upon the high percentage of people in America who make resolutions to stay fit as they age, but the low percentage of people who actually do so. It is available for free from Many Books.

2. The Wellness & Nutrition Landslide
If you’re looking for healthy recipes and information on nutritional choices that you should be making, check out this ebook, available from Linkerton Publishing.

3. Insider Secrets for a Lean Body
Author Mike Geary is a certified personal trainer, and in this ebook, he shares with readers the best strategies for getting results from your workouts. You can get it for free from Abs Facts.

4. Diet and Health with Key to the Calories
This ebook, written by Lulu Hunt Peters, may be nearly 100 years old, but it is a great starting point for those who want to learn more about what calories are and what they have to do with your weight. You can download it from Project Gutenberg.

5. No Animal Food
You don’t have to cut out animal products to lose weight, but most people don’t eat nearly enough vegetables, fruits, and healthy grains. This ebook, by Rupert H. Wheldon, is filled with recipes to help make it easier to incorporate non-animal foods into your diet. Project Gutenburg also has this book online for free.

6. The Science Inside: Obesity
This ebook, although short, is a great resource for people who are struggling with obesity. It covers topics like health problems that come from being obese, how to create a good exercise program, and what foods to include in your diet. It’s available for free from The Healthy People Library Project.

7. Weight Lifting Complete: Your Guide to Getting Started
Weight lifting is an important part to getting healthy, but it isn’t as easy to learn compared to cardio workouts. Weight-Lifting-Complete.com has a great guide for beginners, which you can download from their website (opens a pdf).

8. 5 Most Effective Abdominal Exercises
Belly bulge is the hardest weight to lose for many people. The Proven Program has compiled a short list of the best exercise for your abs, regardless of your skill level. You can find a free copy at their website (opens a pdf).

9. Big Fat Lies
Not everything you read or hear involving weight loss is true. Big Fat Lies is an ebook that explores fact and fiction in this industry. It’s available for free from Truly Huge.

10. Eat Right, Live Right: The Mediterranean Way
Most dieters know that Mediterranean cuisine and lifestyle is generally very healthy. This ebook is a guide for beginners who want to lose weight and feel healthier using the ideals of the Mediterranean lifestyle. Mediterranean Meals has it available for free.

Allison Boyer is a freelance writer and covers topics such as ultrasound technician schools and medical careers, health care topics, and more.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched LEANWorks! This website is designed to help businesses address obesity. The site offers an array of resources including an obesity cost calculator to determine medical costs, tips on how to promote means to combat obesity and information on the cost of an intervention.

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“CDC LEANWorks! was developed in direct response to organizations asking CDC for help in addressing the obesity epidemic. Specifically they wanted to know what interventions were effective in helping employees maintain a healthy weight,” said William Dietz, M.D., Ph.D., director of CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity. “CDC has identified science-based interventions that work to prevent and control obesity. CDC LEANWorks! provides the tools that employers need to take action.”

As you probably know, obesity is a risk fact for a number of diseases and ailments, including high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes. Studies show that obese people spend 77% more on necessary medications than those who are not obese.

“Obesity affects more than just health care costs. It also has a significant impact on worker productivity because the more chronic diseases employees have, the more likely they are to be absent from work, or less productive if they come to work sick,” said Janet Collins, Ph.D., director of CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

If you are interested in more information, visit the CDC LEANWorks! website at cdc.gov/leanworks.

If you have hit a plateau in your fitness program and aren’t losing more weight (or seeing an improvement in muscle mass), then you are probably not working hard enough. Kick up the intensity of your workouts and you’ll see some results. There are several ways you can increase the intensity.

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Shorten Your Rest
By shortening your rest intervals, you will finish your workout faster and your muscles will have to work faster and harder.

Start Lifting More
Add a little extra weight to your regular lifting. It will get your muscles out of the rut and improve your strength.

Raise the Speed of Your Reps
Whether you are weightlifting, doing crunches or anything else, raise the speed of your reps. Without sacrificing form, pick up the speed.

Mix Up Your Routine
Reverse the order of your workout routine and see if you see some improvement. Your muscles sometimes get used to your routine. Mixing things up will make them work harder.

Hire a Trainer
When all else fails, hire a trainer. A pro will be able to help you improve your technique and give you tips on how to get the most out of your workouts.

If you find that you oftentimes skip workouts and are generally lazy about your fitness routine, finding a workout partner to push you is the best option. Working out with someone else helps fight laziness and keeps your motivated. It’s much more difficult to skip workouts when you know someone else is expecting you to be there.

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Together with a partner, you can set goals, track your progress and compete against each other. Plus, a friend can help you by spotting you at the gym.

A knowledgeable workout partner who has perhaps been working out longer than you will also be able to provide valuable training tips, correct your form and suggest diet advice when necessary. With a workout partner, take things seriously. You should be able to listen to their advice and praise, as well as their criticism constructively.

Do you have a workout partner? How has the relationship benefited you? If you have never worked out with someone else, you may find that the support, criticism and motivation is just what you need.

Yesterday, we talked about the benefits of exercise balls. So now, we are giving one away. The BalanceBall Chair by Gaiam was created with the help of chiropractic pioneer Dr. Randy Weinzoff. The chair can be used at home or in your office to strengthen your core muscles and improve spinal alignment. This chair set includes a 52cm (20 1/2 inch) BalanceBall that can be used for exercises with the chair or on its own.

Image: Gaiam

This set is currently on sale at Gaiam.com for $79.98. But right now, you can enter this giveaway and win the it for free. To enter, just leave a comment here on this post about your fitness routine. The comment will automatically enter you into the contest, which ends on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 11:59pm. One random winner will be selected from all the comments to win the BalanceBall Chair set.

Good luck!

You might have seen people working out with those big fitness balls at the gym but never tried one yourself. They are actually a very versatile piece of equipment that almost anyone can use — no matter your age or fitness level. Whether you call it a stability ball, exercise ball or just fitness ball, you should try it.

Just sitting on the ball, you use some muscles to try to keep balanced. So when you are doing exercises with it, you are working your muscles more than you would doing the same exercise lying on a bench. Exercise balls can help you improve your core strength and balance. Beginners should start out with a softer ball that isn’t overly inflated. The firmer the exercise ball is the more difficult the exercise will be.

Lying with the ball under your back, you can do crunches, oblique twists and other “sit-up” type moves. You can also work with weights to do a multitude of exercises. The ball can be used for just about every type of exercise imaginable.

Here are a quite a few exercises you can do with the stability ball, both by laying/sitting on it or holding it.