Step Up to the Calorie Counter: No-Bake Banana Bites

Spring has sprung, which will take you outdoors and away from the kitchen. Try these nifty snacks on the go, courtesy of Nature Box.

Remember to look for low-salt and l0w-sugar ingredients — and try to find local honey.

Makes 2 dozen 1-inch balls

Ingredients:

• 1 cup NatureBox Banana chips
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (or other nut butter of your choice)
• 1/3 cup honey

Directions:

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Crush the banana chips with the back of a butter knife (or roughly chop in food processor) and add to a large mixing bowl.

Add the oats and cocoa to the banana chips and mix together. Add the peanut butter and honey and stir well.

Place in the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes. Once chilled, remove from the refrigerator and form small 1-inch balls with your hands.

Place onto a baking sheet and chill for 15-30 minutes (until firm). Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Courtesy Nature Box

Fitness Workshop in Fairfax Set for 4/20

Fitness Workshop 

with David Cohen

1 pm • 

April 20

City of Fairfax Regional Library, 

10360 North Street, Fairfax, Va.

703-293-6227

No matter how long you've been exercising, there's always something new to learn.

Spend some time with this personal trainer and fitness expert for a talk on fitness, health, weight loss tips, weightlifting and body composition at this workshop.

Here are a few topics I'll discuss at the workshop:

• fitness
• weightlifting 
• food and calories
• BMI
• body fat composition

Hope to see you there!

(By the way, if you have questions but you're unable to make it to the workshop, drop me a line. You may inspire a blog article!)

Why It's Better to Eat Small Meals

The human body takes anywhere from 12 hours to 72 hours to process food. The bigger the meal, the longer it takes to break down.

What does that mean for you?

After a few large meals in a week, the body is burdened with the burning of all the extra calories that it does not immediately break down.  Because all available blood is used to transport broken-down food, the body's metabolism actually can slow down.

Even those who consume the proper calorie amount each day may gain weight. 

Therefore, eating many smaller meals during the day helps boost the body's metabolism and keeps the body running more smoothly.

More Muscle Groups, Higher Dividends

Boy, was I glad when I read the article below in the July-August 2012 issue of IDEA Fitness Journal. The article states that using multiple large-muscle groups creates a larger after-burn with your muscles. 

By expending more energy (which translates to calories), your burn more calories. This leads to more effective muscle-sculpting and weight loss.

As I have said repeatedly, keeping the body off-balance gives us better results, and we need to learn — and apply — new techniques and practices in our workouts. It also reinforced the message I bestow on my clients: Don't be afraid to try something new in your workouts. More often than not, it will pay off.

What's your favorite multi-muscle workout? 

Energy Expenditure During 1-Set and 3-Set Training Protocol

by Ryan Halvorson

 IDEA Fitness Journal

Many fitness professionals incorporate strength training routines into clients’ programs in part to incite postworkout elevated energy expenditure. But how many repetitions and sets are enough to generate extended periods of afterburn? Probably many fewer than you think.

A small study of eight young overweight males pitted the traditional 3-set strength training protocol against a 1-set program. Participants completed 1 set of 10 exercises, at 10-repetition maximum (RM), targeting all major muscle groups. During a separate intervention, they completed 3 sets of the same exercises, also at 10-RM. Exercises included leg press, leg curl, calf raise, bench press, lat pull-down, shoulder press, biceps curl, triceps extension, abdominal crunch and back extension. 

Movements were divided into three circuits, with 4 minutes’ rest between them. Energy expenditure was then tested 24, 48 and 72 hours after the exercise session.

The researchers discovered that the 3-set protocol resulted in significantly more energy expenditure during the workout than the 1-set protocol. “However, within protocols, both the one-set and three-set protocols were significantly elevated for resting energy expenditure expressed in absolute amounts at 24 hours post, 48 hours post, and 72 hours post, compared with baseline,” said the authors. “The results of this investigation support the current American College of Sports Medicine recommendation for resistance training, which is one set of eight to 10 exercises focusing on the major muscle groups. 

Although this recommendation is most often cited for overall muscular fitness, the fact that a single set can elevate resting energy expenditure for 72 hours may be an important modality for weight management.”

The study appeared in the European Journal of Applied Physiology (2011; 111 [3], 477–84).