13 Candy Alternatives to Give to Trick-or-Treaters

Admittedly, no one wants to be like that weird neighbor down the street. You know, the one who gave out Bic pens or cough lozenges for Halloween. At the same time, if you’re working on getting fit, you probably feel at least a tiny bit guilty dumping a handful of sugary junk into trick-or-treaters’ bags, especially with child obesity rates at an all-time high.

In light of that, we thought we’d offer you a few healthier options, some culled from our experts, some from you! Here’s our list of candy alternatives you can hand out tomorrow night. And, consider this, since most houses will be handing out candy, your treats will stand out (in a good way) from the bunch!

Sunflower Seeds Mini Pack
Sunflower seeds are incredibly labor intensive, so kids tend to reach satiation or boredom before they can overeat. The sodium is a little dodgy, but the fats are all good and they pack a nice little bit o’ fiber.

Crayon 4-Packs
No kid can have enough crayons. And they inspire creativity instead of obesity. You’re not going to get much healthier than this, provided kids don’t eat the crayons, of course.

Pretzels Mini-Pack
Yes, we know, refined flour. But no fat and little or no chemicals. A 100-calorie pack of pretzels is such an improvement over, well, any candy.

Bubbles
This simple toy can lead to hours—or at least minutes of entertainment.

Temporary Tattoos
Rebellion, man! That’s what Halloween is all about. Kids will walk away from your house happy and healthy and, if you’re lucky, you’ll really annoy a few parents. Those things don’t come off in the bath, ya know. (They do, however come off with a little rubbing alcohol.)

Fitness Passes
Crystal (@Crickey13) had the great idea of inspiring fitness in a fun way. She “bought swim/skate passes for the kids! Great exercise and fun too!”

Fruit “Snack” Rolls
They may not be as good as a real piece of fruit, but they’re individually wrapped and they usually contain about 1 gram of fiber for every 12 grams of carbohydrates.

Pirate’s Booty
Katheen Larsen (@Markaval) likes to hand out this cheesy snack. “I tried to do glow-in-the-dark fangs, but they aren’t individually wrapped.”

Finger Trap
Remember these little bamboo puzzlers? Stick your fingers in each end of the tube—and you can’t get them out!

Stickers
There’s something about kids and stickers. They’ll be happy to sticker themselves, each other, and all sorts of stuff with Halloweeny stickers. Can’t find Halloween stickers this late in the game? Pick up animal or fantasy themed ones!

Halloween props
Most stores carry bags of spider rings, bouncy eyeballs, or snakes. Or consider handing out Halloween-themed pencils and erasers. The fun of these will last long after the Halloween sugar high is gone.

Glow in the Dark Sticks
Courtney (@Wolfey10101) likes to hand out glow sticks! We loved these as a kid and kids will have fun waving them around as they trick or treat.

Finger Puppets
If you can find them, those little monster finger puppets are super fun at Halloween both for terrorizing siblings…and parents.

What do you like to hand out for Halloween?

Via: Team Beachbody

Cryotherapy - Can You Freeze Your Way To Weight Loss?

This is very interesting but not sure I am into freezing myself.......I will stick to my workouts and clean eating for now.

It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie: Strip down to your skivvies and step into an icy chamber cooled with liquid nitrogen, where temperatures plummet to nearly 200 degrees below zero. In just a few minutes, the frigid temps — colder than any part of Antarctica —can supposedly zap inflammation and boost metabolism, giving you a killer endorphin rush in the process.

But whole-body cryotherapy — or “cold therapy” — has actually been around since the late 1970s (the same decade that gave us Alien, the first Star Trek feature film, and Star Wars), when it was introduced as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. Since then, localized cold therapy has proven effective for destroying skin lesions (ever had a wart frozen off?) and whole-body cryotherapy has gained popularity among elite athletes as a way to soothe sore muscles (Kobe Bryant and LeBron James swear by it). Marcus Elliot, MD, founder and director of P3, an elite training center and research lab in Santa Barbara, CA explains. “It appears there is a large, whole-body decrease in inflammation. This can improve recovery post-training [and] in some cases reduce chronic pain. The mechanism isn’t really well worked out, but it appears to reduce the levels of at least two pro-inflammatory chemical intermediates.”

Now, devotees claim that cryotherapy can also speed up weight loss. The theory is that your body goes into survival mode when exposed to the brutal cold; this supercharges your metabolic rate and torches about 800 calories in the process. Cryo spas claim this type of therapy can also boost energy, banish stress, improve sleep, and alleviate skin conditions like psoriasis. Not bad for a three-minute spa treatment.

If these whole-body benefits are legit, it’s no surprise that cryo spas are suddenly popping up all over the country. But is it too good to be true? The short answer: It’s too soon to tell. “We saw an initial increase in metabolic rate, but no consistent results for lasting weight loss,” says Dr. Alan Christianson, a naturopathic medical doctor (NMD) in Phoenix who has studied cryotherapy.
Dr. Elliott was among the first — possibly the first — to open a cryotherapy chamber on the West Coast after hearing rave reviews from a sports scientist for the San Antonio Spurs, but is cautiously optimistic about the potential weight-loss benefits. “We were one of the earliest adapters, but my interest was from reading the literature on reducing pro-inflammatory components…I was very dubious of the weight loss claims,” he says. “However, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a caloric bump post-cryotherapy. There is definitely a big release of norepinephrine or adrenaline, and subjectively, it feels like you are utilizing more energy.”

One potential snag for long-term weight loss is the price tag. While a few minutes of extreme shivering might sound a lot easier than an hour-long spin class, treatments typically cost between $50-100 per session, making regular visits difficult for those of us whose paychecks don’t come from the NBA. So even if the calorie-burning claims ultimately prove to be true, it’s just like any weight loss effort — without repetition, you won’t see results. And repetition can get costly.

Still, if you’re intrigued by the idea of becoming a human popsicle, the procedure is relatively safe to try. Unlike the bone-chilling effects of an ice bath, the lack of moisture in a cryo chamber keeps the cold air from penetrating your skin by more than a half-millimeter. “When the treatment is done per guidelines, there are no substantial risks,” Dr. Christianson says. (Following the rules is crucial, though; track star Justin Gatlin reportedly got frostbite after wearing damp socks into a cryo chamber.)

So what is cryotherapy actually good for? The studies are few and far between, and mostly focus on its effectiveness for pain relief. “It can be helpful for inflammation and in speeding recovery from rigorous physical training,” says Dr. Christianson. Even if it’s not a magical weight-loss chamber, cryotherapy may help you recover more quickly and get back into your regular fitness regimen. And in the long run, that might help you see faster results.

Via: Team Beachbody
         

Banana Berry Oat Bars

Ingredients

for strawberry topping

• 2 cups(330 grams) finely minced fresh or frozen strawberries 
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 medium lemon, juiced

for banana oat bars

• 2 cups (162 grams) uncooked rolled oats, divided (certified gluten-free if necessary)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 medium (262 grams) ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons honey, divided

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine strawberries with 1 tablespoon honey and lemon juice (note: if using frozen strawberries, thaw first). Toss with a spoon until well combined. Set mixture aside to chill in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.
In a food processor, process 1 cup rolled oats until it reaches a flour consistency and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add the remaining 1 cup rolled oats, baking powder, cinnamon, mashed banana, vanilla extract and remaining 1 tablespoon honey. Stir with a spoon until well combined.
Line an 8-inch by 8-inch baking dish with parchment paper. Transfer one-half to two-thirds of oat mixture into the baking dish and press into dish with a spatula.
Strain liquid from strawberry mixture and spread berries in a single layer over the oats in the baking dish. Crumble remaining oat mixture on top of the strawberry layer.
Bake the bars for 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Remove and cool before cutting into bars.

BUDGET TIP: Fresh berries too expensive? Buy a jar of low- or no-sugar jam at your local supermarket and use it in place of the strawberry topping.

Nutrition Information

Serves: 4 | Serving Size: 4 small bars (2-inch by 2-inch bar)
Per serving: Calories: 296; Total Fat: 3g; Saturated Fat: 0g; Monounsaturated Fat: 0g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 641mg; Carbohydrate: 62g; Dietary Fiber: 8g; Sugar: 27g; Protein: 8g
Nutrition Bonus: Potassium: 355mg; Iron: 3%; Vitamin A: 1%; Vitamin C: 80%; Calcium: 2%

Energizing Tips (optional)

• Spread the bars with 1 tablespoons of nut butter to up calories, protein and fat. (Per serving: Calories: 401; Fat: 12g; Carbohydrate: 65g; Dietary Fiber: 9g; Sugar: 28g; Protein: 12g)
• Enjoy your bars with 1 cup of reduced-fat milk to increase calories and protein. (Per serving: Calories: 418; Fat: 8g; Carbohydrate: 73g; Dietary Fiber: 8g; Sugar: 39g; Protein: 16g)

Via: My Fitness Pal

Cinnamon Coconut Protein Pancakes

Deliciousness!! Pancakes + protein = Heaven! 😋

Ingredients:

1/4 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup liquid egg whites
1/4 cup vanilla Shakeology
1/4 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup almond milk
1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions:

Blend all ingredients together.
Spray a nonstick pan with coconut flour or non stick spray (coconut or olive oil).
Turn your heat to medium/high.
Once the pan is sizzling hot, pour your batter on it. Then turn the heat back to medium/low to make sure the pancakes cook through without burning.
Flip once bubbles start to appear on the pancake's surface then flip again!

10 Reasons Women Should Lift Weights

Many women believe that the only way to lose weight is to do cardiovascular (aerobic exercise). So they jog or take aerobics classes five times a week. Eventually, though, they notice that while their bodies are a little smaller, there are still a lot of flabby and jiggly bits. Sound familiar? Aerobic exercise is important for good health, but it’s only half of the equation. Keep reading for the other half.
For optimal fitness, longevity, and a lean body, weight training is essential. If you avoid pumping iron because you’re afraid of getting “bulky,” then you’re missing out on one of the best fat-burning methods around.
When you’re weight training, you shouldn’t rely exclusively on the scale to gauge your progress. You can use a body fat tester or a tape measure to track how many inches you’re losing. The size of your body will shrink as you shed fat and build muscle, but your weight may not change as dramatically as you expect. Besides, what’s more important, the number on the scale or how you look in your skinny jeans?
If you’re still not convinced that you need to lift weights, here are 10 reasons you should reconsider.

1. Burn more fat. Researchers at Tufts University found that when overweight women lifted heavy weights twice a week, they lost an average of 14.6 pounds of fat and gained 1.4 pounds of muscle. The control group, women who dieted but didn’t lift weights, lost only 9.2 pounds of fat and gained no muscle. When you do an intense weight-training program your metabolism stays elevated and you continue to burn fat for several hours afterward. During regular cardio exercise, you stop burning fat shortly after the workout.

2. Change your body shape. You may think your genes determine how you look. That’s not necessarily true. Weight training can slim you down, create new curves, and help avoid the “middle-age spread.” Dropping only 3 percent of your body fat could translate into a total loss of 3 inches off your hips and thighs. And no, you won’t bulk up—women don’t have enough muscle-building hormones to gain a lot of mass like men do. If you keep your diet clean and create a calorie deficit, you’ll burn fat.

3. Boost your metabolism. The less muscle you have, the slower your metabolism will be. As women age, they lose muscle at increasing rates, especially after the age of 40. When you diet without doing resistance training, up to 25 percent of the weight loss may be muscle loss. Weight training while dieting can help you preserve and even rebuild muscle fibers. The more lean mass you have, the higher your metabolism will be and the more calories you’ll burn all day long.

4. Get stronger and more confident. Lifting weights increases functional fitness, which makes everyday tasks such as carrying children, lifting grocery bags, and picking up heavy suitcases much easier. According to the Mayo Clinic, regular weight training can make you 50 percent stronger in 6 months. Being strong is also empowering. Not only does it improve your physical activities, it builds emotional strength by boosting self-esteem and confidence.

5. Build strong bones. It’s been well documented that women need to do weight-bearing exercise to build and maintain bone mass, and to prevent osteoporosis. Just as muscles get stronger and bigger with use, so do bones when they’re made to bear weight. Stronger bones and increased muscle mass also lead to better flexibility and balance, which is especially important for women as they age.

6. Fight depression. You’ve probably heard that cardio and low-impact exercises such as yoga help alleviate depression, and weight lifting has the same effect. The endorphins that are released during aerobic activities are also present during resistance training. Many women find that regular strength training, in conjunction with psychological treatment, helps lessen their depression symptoms substantially.

7. Improve sports fitness. You don’t have to be an athlete to get the sports benefit of weight training. Improved muscle mass and strength will help you in all physical activities, whether it’s bicycling with the family, swimming, golfing, or skiing…whatever sport you enjoy.

8. Reduce injuries and arthritis. Weight lifting improves joint stability and builds stronger ligaments and tendons. Training safely and with proper form can help decrease the likelihood of injuries in your daily life. It can also improve physical function in people with arthritis. A study conducted at the University of Wales in Bangor, United Kingdom, found that mildly disabled participants who lifted weights for 12 weeks increased the frequency and intensity at which they could work, with less pain and increased range of movement.

9. Get heart healthy. More than 480,000 women die from cardiovascular disease each year, making it the number-one killer of women over the age of 25. Most people don’t realize that pumping iron can also keep your heart pumping. Lifting weights increases your “good” (HDL) cholesterol and decreases your “bad” (LDL) cholesterol. It also lowers your blood pressure. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that people who do 30 minutes of weight lifting each week have a 23 percent reduced risk of developing heart disease compared to those who don’t lift weights.

10. Defend against diabetes. In addition to keeping your ticker strong, weight training can improve glucose utilization (the way your body processes sugar) by as much as 23 percent. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 weeks of strength training can improve glucose metabolism in a way that is comparable to taking diabetes medication. The more lean mass you have, the more efficient your body is at removing glucose from the blood, which can reduce complications from diabetes or even help prevent type 2 diabetes in the first place.


Via: Team Beachbody

Caprese

Ingredients:

Tomatoes
Mozzarella Cheese (part skim)
Fresh basil
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Sea salt
Pepper


Directions:

Slice cheese and tomatoes into thin slices
Pick basil off stalk, wash and pat dry with a paper towel
Stack however you wish, drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste
Salt and pepper to taste



Maria Doney

Caffeine and Its Effects on Exercise Performance

It’s the end of a long and trying workday. You want couch, and plenty of it. But on the way home you knock back a double espresso and find, miraculously, on arrival you’re ready for that round of INSANITY:MAX 30 you’d planned to blow off.

Ah caffeine, the original performance-enhancing drug.

Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive substance in the world. According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), more than 80 percent of North American adults regularly consume caffeine, with intakes averaging between 210 and 238 mg per day. One in 10 of us ingests 1000 mg per day or more, from sources that include coffee, cola, tea, sports drinks, chocolate, and non-prescription supplements.

Yet despite caffeine’s ubiquity — and considerable research on the topic — its role in athletics is still emerging science. People of all stripes consume caffeine to enhance their well-being and daily activities, but athletes are often left wondering how it affects their performance, notes Louise Burke, head of Sports Nutrition at the Australian Sports Commission and co-author of Caffeine for Sports Performance.

And it’s not as if the beverage industry has played down the potential link between caffeine and athletic performance. As far back as 1928, Coca-Cola sent 1,000 cases with the U.S Olympic team to the Amsterdam games, and Coke remains the Olympics’ longest continuous corporate sponsor.

Until recently, caffeine was considered a banned substance by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Burke says that when it’s intentional, athletes usually used caffeine to reduce fatigue or offset a performance decline that would otherwise occur during an event. But given how prevalent caffeine is, some athletes were “juicing” without even realizing it. “Not all athletes who have caffeine in their system while they train or compete had the intention of gaining a performance advantage,” Burke says. Recognizing this, WADA removed caffeine from its list of prohibited substances in 2004. The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) still considers it a regulated, but not banned, substance.

How Caffeine Can Give Your Workouts a Jolt

 The stuff works, as any swing-shift employee can attest, and used judiciously can help both get your butt out there on training days, and peak your performance in competition.

At the physiological level, ingested caffeine is quickly absorbed by the stomach and peaks in the blood within 1-2 hours. Initial effects — the jolt — can be felt sooner, and women metabolize caffeine about 20 percent quicker than men.

Because caffeine is absorbed by most human tissue, it can affect all of the body’s major systems. Caffeine stimulates your brain, can elevate your mood, and postpones fatigue. While it doesn’t appear to improve fine motor coordination, it has been shown to improve endurance and performance at simple tasks.

Studies in the 1970s suggested that caffeine helped performance in endurance exercises by upping the level of adrenaline in the blood, which in turn stimulated the release of free fatty acids from fat tissue or skeletal muscle. The idea was that working muscles were using this as an energy source early in the exercise, saving more glycogen for later on.

And there’s probably something to that, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. While conflicting studies in the 1980s left many thinking caffeine had no real net impact on athletic performance, more recent double-blind experiments have found there is a physical gain to be had. For some. At certain concentrations.

Are there any downsides to caffeine? Well, shaky hands are a telltale sign of too much of the stuff. (This is a problem easily solved for most by sticking to low doses.) And if you consume caffeine before bedtime, you’ll probably take longer to fall asleep and sleep less deeply. Happily, the wives’ tale that caffeine is a diuretic has proven false under study: Not only do you not pee more than if you were drinking plain water, you also don’t lose substantially more moisture due to sweat.

How Much Caffeine Is Ideal?

In a well-regarded 2002 study, researchers examined how competitive cyclists performed using caffeine vs. a non-caffeinated but otherwise nutritionally-sound sports drink under two protocols. In the first, they tested how subjects performed in time trials using varying levels of caffeine before or during a ride. In the second, they gave subjects Coca-Cola in the final 40 minutes of a long, steady-state ride. Between the two studies, it was determined that 6 mg/kg of body mass did have an ergogenic effect.

A 2012 study compared that amount to 3 mg/kg of body mass and uncovered that the lower dose was equally as effective. While this research was on cyclists, it’s been shown that caffeine taken before exercise can help across a range of sports, including endurance events like long-distance running, stop-and-go events like racquetball, and sports involving sustained high-intensity activity lasting up to an hour, such as swimming and rowing.

But the benefit may go beyond just the physical. “Performance is not all physiological — a lot of it is mental,” notes Bob Girandola, an associate professor of Biological Sciences at USC who has taught classes on drugs in sports.

“Caffeine may affect your subjective feeling of fatigue or stress or pain,” Girandol says. “If you and I were doing an exercise and I was taking caffeine and you were not, perhaps it would feel a little bit less strenuous to me.” He explains that over the course of a sustained training regimen that could provide an advantage. “With any kind of performance enhancing substances, there’s a lot of individual variation with people. I always tell athletes here, as long as it’s not illegal…take it during practice and see if you think it’s going to help. Even if it’s just psychological, that’s fine.”

Via: Team Beachbody