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There are many times in your life that you might want to have the help of a personal trainer, and doing aerobic exercise is certainly one of those times. This is a situation in which a personal trainer can really help you get the most out of your fitness goals, as well as help you figure out where you should go next when it comes to working out.

Myself, I’ve decided to find a personal trainer who can not only help me reach my fitness goals, but do so without injuring myself — an issue I’ve had many times because I can sometimes push myself to hard or I just get excited and over enthusiastic. But that’s just me.

Anyway, it is very easy to find a trainer to help you with your aerobic exercise. The most important thing is that you are able to find one that understands who you are and can help you be the best that you can be. Just like any other kind of counselor or coach, there needs to be a match of personalities and talents. Read more »

A group of muscles that often gets neglected in stomach exercise routines are the transverse abdominals, the core muscles that lie below the rectus abdominus. Most abdominal exercises target the rectus abdominus and the vertical abdominals, ignoring the transverse abdominals. Even crunches, the staple of most abdominal workouts, do nothing for the transverse abdominals.

These muscles are actually the most important to target, however, as they connect to both the lower back muscles and the rectus abdominus, and for a girdle for the entire abdomen. Any routine aimed at flattening the stomach should include the transverse abdominals as a focus. Using the following exercises, you can work out your transverse abdominals and really make progress on that flat tummy. As with any workout routine, be sure to consult a professional before beginning and always warm up properly to avoid injury. Read more »

There are many great things about starting an aerobics program. One of the best is that you can use it to loose fat in ways that are easier on your body than dieting. It is very simple to burn fat using an aerobics program, because there are many ways that you can train your body to do the work that it is supposed to in order to really get the most out of your program.

While you are building up a sweat and working on increasing your heart rate, all of your muscles are also getting the benefits of strengthening. As you bring fresh blood and oxygen to all of your body’s systems, you are going to find that you are giving yourself the best chance to really get rid of all that unwanted fat as you go along. Working hard to burn fat is something that you can finally take control of when you are doing aerobics on a regular basis.
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Guest Writer: Spencer Hunt

Editor’s Note: As the recipient of carpal tunnel release surgery, I’m very big on making my workspace as ergonomic as possible. I use a trackball instead of a mouse, I have an ergonomic keyboard and I sit on a ball instead of a chair. Therefore, I thought I would share this article by Mr. Hunt with you because, as writers, we really need to watch the ergonomics of our workspace.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition that causes tingling, numbness and pain in the hand and fingers. It occurs when the median nerve that runs from the forearm to hand becomes pressed or squeezed at the wrist area. This nerve is what controls the sensations in the thumb, first three fingers (excluding the little finger) and the palm. It also is the nerve that controls impulses in the smaller muscle groups in the hand that allow movement. The carpal tunnel itself is a rigid, narrow channel of ligaments and bone. It lies at the base of the hand, housing most of the median nerve and tendons.

A person gets carpal tunnel syndrome when this channel of ligament and bone thickens and the tunnel is narrowed. This can happen due to swelling of inflamed tendons or other swelling within the tunnel. This swelling compresses the median nerve causing pain, weakness, numbness and tingling in the hand and wrist and can even radiate up the arm. This type of condition, broadly known as an entrapment neuropathy, can occur in any part of the body where the body’s peripheral nerves are traumatized or compressed. Of the entrapment neuropathies, carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common and most widely known. Read more »

Guest Writer: Leeann Simons

It’s upsetting that so many people mentally categorize food as good or bad. “Good carbs” and “bad carbs,” “good fat” versus “bad fat.” Why does this bug me? Apparently, when you eat a “good carb,” that makes you a good person, and when you eat a “bad carb,” that makes you a bad person.

Why is the individual who eats whole grain bread better than the person who eats white bread? As a Registered Dietician, I am not crazy about hydrogenated peanut butter on white bread, but I know plenty of successful, bright, healthy people who hate natural peanut butter and love mushy white bread. And you know what? They are perfectly capable of making other healthy food choices, as well as good decisions in the other parts of their lives.

These “good” and “bad” assumptions on food choices are a total waste of our energy. When you eat the yummy Haagen Daz ice cream on a hot summer afternoon and suddenly feel like a bad person for doing so, you feel guilty. When you doubt your food choices, then you doubt the rest of the choices you make in your life. After all, if you can’t trust yourself to make good food choices, can you trust yourself at all?

Let’s stop this craziness! What about thinking of food choices as simply “healthier” or “not as healthy”? “Essential” or “nonessential”? It is a fact that it’s healthier to choose whole wheat bread over white bread, since there are more nutrients in the whole grains than in the refined flours. In reality, the TRUTH is this has nothing what-so-ever to do with the kind of person you are, your character or, (if I may use this term), “badness.” I believe that if we allow ourselves to relax, we will ultimately create a balance and most of our choices will be ones that fall into the healthy column. And, more importantly, we will also learn to trust ourselves in making good decisions in the other areas of our lives.

Becoming “at peace with food” involves a journey resulting in a new relationship with food. Instead of being marked by frustration and disappointment, by fear and competition between you and the food you eat, food will take its place as one of the many activities in your life, along with family, friends, working and being active. And, like these other activities, it should be pleasurable.

In order to become truly at peace with food, you need to learn about yourself and why you have the relationship you do with the food you eat. Like all relationships, your relationship with food took time to develop, and it will take time to change.

And that’s the truth!

For additional information on becoming At Peace With Food, free healthy lifestyle tips, and access to interesting reading and nutritional links, visit www.AtPeaceWithFood.com/freetips.html