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Michelle Spindler

Willpower: What’s Sugar Got to Do With It?

Posted on by Michelle Spindler

Temptation is everywhere. It starts with your alarm clock — that dreaded blare begging you to hit the snooze button yet again. It joins you at the cafe, where the sight of chocolate-dipped pastries reduces your vigor for the veggie omelet you’d planned on eating. Then at work, it strikes again when an online sale or Twitter feed lures you from a pressing, although monotonous, computer task.

Many people believe that whether or not you give into temptation boils down to one thing: willpower.

Renowned social psychologist Roy Baumeister has spent more than a decade researching issues related to self-control. Some of his most recent findings, featured in his book “Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength,” demonstrate a strong link between willpower, self-control and glucose, or sugar — your body’s and brain’s main dietary fuel source.

To read more click here!

How to Strengthen Your Self Control

Posted on by Michelle Spindler

Self-improvement often requires willpower, a word the dictionary defines as “energetic determination,” but in modern times has come to mean “the ability not to inhale a donut every time you see one.”

As important as willpower is for establishing good health habits, Americans know little about it. Acquiring willpower is not something that is taught in public schools or discussed in many homes, and – outside of sports – it is seldom a theme in popular culture. Like annuities or kale, willpower is a thing that we know we should have more of, but don’t.

So what happens? We make New Year’s Resolutions and break them. We work out to get the perfect body, but end up wearing a huge T-shirt to the pool. We try to make it to lunch without drinking soda and fail. Beer? Five, please.

Then we blame ourselves for being failures, but the truth is we’re not failures. We’re willpower amateurs in a world of professionally-packaged temptation. It’s us, with zero training, against a $15 trillion economy that gets better at selling us things and capturing our attention every day.

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How To Beat The New Year’s Resolution Illusion

Posted on by Michelle Spindler

 

Chances are that quite a few of us might have taken full advantage of the holidays by indulging just a wee bit more than what we should have. “Don’t worry,” we mumbled between bites of Grandma’s Christmas cookies. “Come Jan. 1, I’ll never touch these treats again!” Now, Jan. 1 has come and gone and we’re still brushing crumbs off our chests.

Weight loss, undeniably the most popular of New Year’s resolutions, is also one of the most elusive. Each year, millions embark on the seemingly never-ending quest for those fabled six-pack abs. And each year millions are crushed to find that crash diets don’t work in the long run.

Unfortunately, it’s the same with so many other behavior patterns.

The most common New Year’s resolutions include those made by smokers vowing to quit cold turkey, shopping addicts swearing to whittle their frivolous spending from tens of thousands of dollars to zero, and sedentary folks suddenly attempting to exercise for upwards of 10 hours a week.

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Why Slow and Steady Really Wins The Race

Posted on by Michelle Spindler

Dieting is never thought of as an easy process. Granted, for most of us, it’s not. The journey is undeniably simple — stick to this food list, consume this many calories, and so on and so forth. Yet execution isn’t always a success. All of a sudden, everything that’s temporarily forbidden takes on a new luster, and what was previously just another snack in your cabinet has now become that one thing you can’t have that you suddenly really want.

We somehow convince ourselves that are we going to die — immediately — if we do not cram that cookie into our mouths right this instant. As a rational adult, you know this is absurd thinking, of course. But at that moment, we are not rational adults. We have rapidly regressed to cranky toddlers on the verge of throwing a tantrum if we do not get what we want within the next 10 seconds. It’s become a matter of life or death.

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10 Reasons to Run! (even if you hate running).

Posted on by Michelle Spindler

I don’t like running. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say I hate it. To begin with, I’m slow. My all-out sprint is another person’s gentle jog. True, I’m in my fifties, but that’s no excuse. People a whole lot older than me regularly zip past me on the sidewalks, chatting to their buddies, bopping to their tunes, and barely breaking a sweat. Meanwhile, I’m gasping for breath and gritting my teeth in determination. It’s downright humiliating. When it comes to technique, the best I can say is that I manage to propel myself along. Oh, sure – I’ve attended a couple of clinics. And I tried to put the instructor’s advice into practice, consciously leaning forward, reminding myself to pull. But I can’t say it’s made a lot of difference. To read more click here!  

What to Eat For a Stronger Immune System

Posted on by Michelle Spindler

The right foods can prevent you from getting sick and help you recover quicker if you do fall ill. Here’s how to build a strong immune system and help your body fight off the bad guys. You got sneezed on in the subway. Coughed on in the coffee shop. Your colleagues keep coming to work when they should be calling in sick. And your kids are bringing home illnesses you never even heard of. How the heck are you supposed to stay healthy? It might seem like seasonal illness is out of your control. And, yeah, sometimes, sick happens. But you have more power than you think. To read more click here!

4 Keys to Staying Lean All Year

Posted on by Michelle Spindler

In the northern parts of the world, autumn is here and winter is right around the corner. For many of us, that means it’s growing season! The chill in the air comes at the perfect time to add calories, strength, and size. The problem with bulking season though, is that those extra calories you eat to increase muscle size and strength often deliver a hefty portion of extra body fat. Now, don’t get me wrong, adding muscle without adding any body fat is next to impossible, but you can increase your muscle and fat mass proportionately so that your body-fat percentage remains about the same. Fitness professionals all over the world stay relatively lean all the time because they compete, do photo shoots, and make appearances throughout the year. So, even when they’re trying to put on size, they can’t be too many months (or weeks) away from looking photo-ready. Even though it’s their job to look great, fitness pros prove that despite the challenges, it is possible to stay relatively lean year-round, even when the main goal is adding size and strength. If your quest to build your best self includes staying lean through bulking season, then here are four key factors you need to know! To read more click here!

Looking for a Great Circuit Workout? Give This One a Try!

Posted on by Michelle Spindler

One of the best part about circuit workouts is that many of them require no gym equipment and those that do can usually be slightly altered so you can do them at home in your living room. Below you will find some of my favorite workouts that I modified slightly (the original workout is hyperlinked) so that they may be done at home or in a hotel room when you’re traveling. No fancy equipment or weights required! To read more click here!

Healthy Living Tips For Beginners

Posted on by Michelle Spindler

It can be overwhelming to change your lifestyle from a sedentary one to an active one. Just thinking about preparing your own food when you’re accustomed to eating out can be enough to deter people from taking the initiative to eat healthy. Here’s the good news: You don’t have to flip a switch and change dramatically over night. Your new healthy life begins today, and you can work on perfecting your healthy lifestyle forever! My best advice to those new to the idea of working out and eating healthy is to make little changes. Enough little tweaks to an unhealthy lifestyle can completely transform you into a health-conscious eater and an active person. To read more click here!

The Ultimate List of Low Carb Food

Posted on by Michelle Spindler

Carbohydrates have long been a gray area for the physique-minded individual. On the one hand, you need some carbs in your diet to provide the energy necessary to fuel an intense workout. Go overboard, however, and you can easily end up with a midsection that’s a few cans short of a six-pack. Low energy, a gut, and lackluster muscle growth are telltale signs that you may have become too chummy with pasta, cereal, and other carb-heavy grub. And without question, any stroll through the supermarket can be tantamount to starch madness as you try to steer your cart away from the deluge of foods saturated with refined carbs and simple sugars at the expense of muscle-building protein. The key to winning the war on flab is knowing where to turn to for low-carbohydrate foods that are still chockfull of what your transforming physique needs—namely protein, vital minerals and vitamins, and less hazardous unrefined complex carbs. We’ve put together an ultimate grocery list of the low-carb edibles to power your active lifestyle. We’ll take you aisle-by-aisle for our top picks. Who’s hungry? To read more click here!

How to Stick to Your Resolution When You Want to Quit

Posted on by Michelle Spindler

Mid-January: That make-or-break, do-or-die, go-to-the-gym-or-watch-your-resolutions-whither time of year. Sigh. Why is it that New Year’s resolutions are so exciting and motivating for the first few days, only to turn into dreaded obligations that can go from making you feel like a rock star to a failure practically overnight? And how do you keep them on your side…when all you really feel like doing is curling up on the couch with cereal and a new episode of Girls? You. Can. Do it. Here’s how to stick to your resolution that has the potential to make you feel awesome if only you’d keep going…even when you really, really want to quit. To read more click here!

The 8 Best Stretches to Do Before Running

Posted on by Michelle Spindler

Nothing can derail your fitness goals like an injury. Running with muscles that are cold and not properly stretched can result in a muscle strain that keeps you off your feet — and off the road or trail — for days, weeks or even months. Beginning each running workout with a 5- to 10-minute jog followed by stretching helps warm up your muscles sufficiently so they’re primed for your run, whether it’s a couple of miles or a marathon. Focus on stretching the major muscle groups used in running — the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteals and hip flexors — and incorporate movements that also warm up the abdominal, back and calf muscles. On the next slides, we’ll show you the best pre-run stretches. To read more click here!