Fit Friday

(Thought this picture was ironic. Only in America do they have a freaking escalator to the gym!Fatties!)

So thanks to Alyssa mentioning it, I'm going to make each Friday's blog entries full of workout /nutrition tips for you (and me) to take into the weekend.

I bought this book at target the other day for $5.99. Many of you have been out to eat with me and know how annoying I am with calories, but like the title of the book, calories are king.At the end of the day what matters is how many you burned vs how many you took in.This book is cheap, purse size, and has 200 chains and fast food places as well as about anything you can find at the grocery store.AJ has the "eat this not that" book which is reallllly cool too.Click HERE to see an example of what you'll find in the book.They have just come out with a kids version too, definitely on my list to buy.Training tip, front-back split: I read Jillian Michaels book called "Making the Cut".She's the trainer from the biggest loser and I always liked her so I thought I'd try it.I really like her split routine, where you train all the muscles on the front of your body one day, and the back the next.This causes you to train your lower body every session because it is the most effective way to elevate your heart rate and burn calories. You will be shunting your blood back and forth between your upper and lower body, which allows you to burn twice as many calories.Cool huh?

In honor of the olympics coming up, I got this weeks move from Sarah Haskins who is representing USA in the triathalon. She says she does killer core workouts to prevent injury and improve her speed. Here's one of her moves, the stability ball tuck-in push-up:

Place your lower legs on a stability ball and get in a pushup position. Use your core to pull the ball toward your face (1). Hold for a second, then roll back out until your body is straight (2). Now, keeping your back straight, do a pushup (3). That's one rep. Do 10. To make this easier you can roll the ball out to your shin or even knees then do the push-up.STILL do 10 you big baby. (If you don't own a yoga ball, you should.Best $15-$20 investment you can make for fitness.Or I've even seen them on craigslist. If you want to splurge, get a bosu ball, about $99 at Target, but worth every penny and easier to store.)

This move is from Women's Health this month, for more moves from different olympic athletes go to http://www.womenshealth.com/

Sarah's workout playlist includes: Crazy in Love-Beyonce, Hey Ya-Outkast, Pump It-Black Eyed Peas (I have this one too, good one), Welcome to the Jungle-Guns 'n Roses, and a lot of country stuff.

Click HERE to read WH list of 125 Best Packaged Foods.It gives you calories, etc and even puts them in a printable list for you.

Nutrition Tip, Lucky-Bran: Who doesn't love yummy sugary kids cereals, I LOVE cereal, my fav is cocoa crispies mmmmmmmmm.....but unfortunately they don't offer much fiber and you're supposed to have 25 grams a day, so mix in some bran!You'll get about 10 grams of fiber and still get your sweetness fix.

Oh, and by the way, BON VOYAGE!!We leave early tomorrow morning.I will be cruising around Jamaica until the 17th, then we stay in Houston, then back home the 18th. Unfortunately the internet is like $10000 per minute or something so I won't be blogging til I get back, but you better believe I will make up for it! Buh-Bye!And GET MOVING!