NIFS Healthy Living Blog

We all know that physical fitness and wellness are prerequisites for a productive and healthy life. Exercise is good not only for the body, but for the mind as well. We want to ensure a future full of great experiences. For one population, our children, participating in physical activity may be becoming more and more challenging, whether it be from lack of interest, lack of support, or lack of funding for programs in their community. One area in which this population excels, however, is technology. Without a doubt, smartphone technology is a part of our current culture and most likely will be for a long time. For some older people, this might be a newer concept. At the moment, though, ensuring the future of physical fitness for the next generation will need to coexist with technology.

Can Exercise and Technology Coexist?

Being somewhat skeptical of the coexistence of exercise and technology, I, like some people, associate the latter with inactivity and laziness. In the past, this might have been the case; however, a new generation of technology is now capable of training children to be more active while using technology. This was evident with the evolution of video game technology such as Wii Sports and Microsoft Kinect games.

The next evolution, naturally, moved to smartphones. Nearly every person has a smartphone and spends hours and hours per week staring at their screens. Then apps were developed, and have built a new outlet for fitness that not only utilizes the strengths (technology) but the interests (fun and leisure) that really entice children to exercise without even thinking about it.

Smartphone Technology That Gets People Moving

Here are some examples where smartphone technology is positively impacting people’s lives with exercise (source: Wezift.com).

• Pokémon GO: Users use an interactive app to walk to Pokémon sites. At that point, a virtual battle ensues. Afterward, the user tries to find the next real-world location for the next battle. Sometimes these sites are common areas where likeminded individuals can meet up and battle with friends. It encourages walking, a proven method of burning calories and promoting a healthy lifestyle.
• NFL Play 60: The National Football League’s app, geared toward fighting childhood obesity through activity, specifically 60 minutes per day. NFL players get involved and help inspire the youth to be physically fit.
• Kids Fitness—Daily Yoga: This app is geared toward the benefits of yoga, teaching children 10 basic poses and movements. This free app helps kids understand the foundational concepts of yoga.

Find the Exercise That Keeps You Engaged

Getting involved with exercise can come in many forms. There are thousands of ways to exercise with thousands of plans. The best one, however, depends on you. What will you do to exercise and keep exercising for a lifetime? That, my friends, is the best exercise in the world. Keep your eyes open for new ideas and concepts as the fitness world is ever-changing. At NIFS, we are dedicated to making sure you are connected with our staff through all forms of social media. Connect with a NIFS Health Fitness Professional to get started on your fitness journey today! Until next time, muscleheads rejoice and evolve!

This blog was written by Thomas Livengood, NIFS Health Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer. To learn more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.

Every day Americans waste a lot of food. One statistic states that we throw away up to 40 percent of the food that is purchased! This is usually due to the fact that even though food costs are rising, no other nation spends less on the food supply. Since food is so abundant, especially with the warehouse options like Costco for grocery shopping, it makes it easier to not value the food and therefore toss more in the trash.

Tips for Reducing Wasted Food

Here are some simple and practical tips to help you contribute to reducing food waste in America.

• Shop smart. This is the easiest and most practical one to follow. When you go grocery shopping, don’t buy too much food! This might mean going to the store more frequently or just buying less each time you go. Plan your meals and snacks and then make a list. When you get to the store, actually stick to the list.
• Practice portion control. This one is tough! Following portion sizes is a challenge since we tend to over-serve ourselves; however, if you are eating the correct portions, then the food isn’t being wasted. A typical serving of a side dish, from potatoes to vegetables, is ½ cup and meat is 3 oz. Start measuring every so often to keep portions and calories in check and get the right nutrition.
• Save and EAT leftovers. If you are sticking to proper portion sizes, chances are you will have leftovers of food. Use this opportunity to have lunch or dinner ready for the next day instead of eating out or struggling to come up with an idea of what to cook. If you did eat out and brought home a doggy bag (since restaurant portions can be very large), be sure to eat your leftovers within a day or two.
• Use an app to help. Handpick is a useful app that allows you to put in what items you have on hand and it will generate a recipe for you to make. There are thousands of recipes to choose from, so chances are one will appeal to your taste buds.
• Use expiration and sell-by dates as guidelines. These dates refer to food quality and not food safety. A food doesn’t automatically turn bad on the exact date that is printed. This is just a guideline. When eating a product after the date listed, use your senses. Go by your smell, sight, and taste.

Keep Track of How Much You Throw Away

Try to start implementing some or all of these tips so you can decrease your personal food waste. Each week take an inventory of how much you had to toss and try to make it less the next week. You will end up saving money and calories, and maybe moving closer to being a zero-waste home.

This blog was written by Angie Mitchell, Registered Dietitian and Wellness Coordinator. To find out more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.

Technology can be incredibly good and bad for your health. It can be said that we, as a society, are much lazier now than the previous generations due to modern conveniences. These modern conveniences, some of which we might not be able to live without, allow us to circumvent exercise and work.

Knowing that physical fitness and technology are not always on the same page, there are some enlightened and engaging computer programs, phone apps, and personal devices that enable you to better monitor your health and track your progress. Here I will look a little more closely at these products are they pertain to your personal fitness.

Personal Health Monitoring

Taking a step beyond tracking your reps and sets, being able to monitor everything from calories in/out to diabetes management can be easier with software and activity tracking devices. For those with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, uploaded data can provide information to doctors to better serve you and adjust the medications you require to live. Future technology might make it possible to adjust medication doses remotely, without having to see a doctor, or help in an emergency.

Weight Management and Social Media

If used as a weight-management tool, tracking nutrition with a cell phone (whether you are entering the calories manually or scanning barcodes) is much faster and easier than ever. Writing down every single item you eat can be a challenging task, so this tool gives you more time to spend doing other things you love doing (hint: exercise). Many social apps are available that help link you to other likeminded individuals; so, finding a workout buddy or getting ideas for your next WOD (workout of the day) is at your fingertips.

The NIFS App

We are proud to offer a NIFS app that enables you to manage your own fitness center experience. App users can sign in with their cell phone (so there’s one less thing to have to carry on your keychain). This can be nice on days you are running late or are trying to maximize your time at the gym.

Secondly, you can use the app as a tool to set personal goals and track progress. Recording your workout on your favorite cardio equipment is as easy as taking a photograph of the machine and submitting it. The rest of the work is on us!

Thirdly, app users have access to the NIFS Group Fitness Calendar. The calendar can be useful when trying to decide between classes because there are descriptions of each class on the site. Finally, there are monthly challenges posted on the app that give you incentives to come and exercise. The app is free to download and is geared toward enhancing the member experience.

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Technology definitely gets a bad reputation when it comes to fitness, but there are many ways it can be helpful. If you are new to apps or fitness tools such as these, please ask a staff member to help you access this useful asset. As technology advances, we can only hope that there are positive links toward a healthier and more active society. Take a new approach to fitness; download the NIFS app today! See what we can do for you!

This blog was written by Thomas Livengood, Health Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer. To read more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.

After the feasting season (Halloween to Christmas) comes the New Year, and for a lot of people this means a resolution. Most people make resolutions to start weight loss, work out more, eat better, and so on; but typically it is some sort of goal to start off the New Year on a healthier note. If you are hoping to have a healthier year, I have some suggestions that will help jump-start your January.

Keep Food Logs

The best and easiest thing you can do to help with changes in your diet is to start keeping track of what you are eating. It has been well researched that just writing down what you are eating helps you be more accountable to yourself, eat less, and create a more balanced diet with better nutrition.

Technology has made it much easier to keep track of what you eat. Using popular apps such as MyFitnessPal and LoseIt allows you to log millions of food choices, track your calories and macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, and fat), and easily see where you are getting too much or not enough of the foods your body needs. But if these apps aren’t appealing to you, just jot down on paper what you had. That act of accountability alone has been found to help individuals eat 40 percent less!

Clean Out Your Fridge and Pantry

If you have a goal to eat more balanced in the new year, the first place to look to achieve this goal is your kitchen. Open your fridge, freezer, and pantry and start tossing! If items are expired, throw those in the trash so you can start with fresh foods for the year.

Next, take a look at the foods with really long ingredient lists. If you don’t know what is in your food or if you can’t pronounce it, this is typically a sign that the food is highly processed and high in preservatives and other additives. Swap these out for more fresh items or foods that have short and familiar ingredients.

Finally, stock your fridge and freezer with fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meats, low-fat dairy, whole grains, and healthy fats.

Hit Up the Grocery Store or Sign Up for Meal Delivery

Chances are you finished out the previous year eating a lot of meals away from home or not being able to control your choices at parties and gatherings. Make a goal this year to spend more time in your kitchen. This means going to the grocery store once per week to have the foods available to prepare balanced meals and snacks. Or, consider signing up for a meal delivery service such as Hello Fresh or Blue Apron to take the guesswork out of three meals per week. Check out my previous blog with my review of Hello Fresh.

Try Something New

Are you in a food rut? Are you bored with the same meals over and over again? Make an effort to get out of that rut by trying something new each week. This might be starting your day with veggie-filled egg muffins instead of your typical bowl of cereal. Or instead of running out at lunch to grab a sandwich, you start packing your lunch and include a turkey and avocado wrap with fresh-cut veggies and a Greek yogurt. Then at dinner, instead of corn and green beans as your go-to veggie, try something new like Brussels sprouts or asparagus. Make a list of new foods or food goals you want to achieve each week and enjoy new food experiences.

If you have been wanting to change some of your habits, take the New Year as an opportunity to start some fresh ones. It just takes one or two small changes to help jump-start your healthy eating.

This blog was written by Angie Mitchell, RD, Wellness Coordinator. To find out more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.

We are all on a fitness journey in one way or another. With life’s hectic schedule, it’s easy to lose track of where you are and where you want to be regarding your fitness. No matter whether you are trying to lose weight, put on mass, or maintain where you are, tracking fitness progress is an essential piece of your ongoing success.

While some people track every single workout, all gains, and all food consumed in their fitness journal, others just want to get it done and go by how they feel. But with the constant change in technology, specifically in the fitness industry, tracking progress becomes easier and easier; and in fact, it can add some benefits to your training.

The Benefits of Logging and Tracking

For those who regularly log and track their progress, you may not need to be convinced why you should be tracking it. But keep reading—this is still for you! And for those who don’t normally track progress, take a quick look at why it might be important to start.

• Makes it more likely to reach and surpass your goal.
• Allows you to be more efficient in your time and workouts.
• Lends accountability to yourself and your goals.
• Allows for easier modifications and shows when and where changes need to be made.
• It can be motivating and reinforcing to remind you why you are doing what you are.
• Helps to drive the focus and direction of your programming.
• Keeps you committed to your plan.

How to Track Your Progress

So how do you track your progress? There are so many different ways these days that you can do this. Apps, old-school fitness journals, online fitness challenges, in-house competitions in a gym, measurements, BOD PODs, photos, assessments, and the list goes on. One of the newest innovative ways to track progress is with a Fit3D scan. This assessment can provide over 200 measurements so that over time you can track your progress, whether you’re working on weight loss or muscle building.

This blog was written by Amanda Bireline. To read more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.

For years, people have been setting goals and logging their workouts to help them stay on track with their health and fitness aspirations. Back in the good old days, people would bring their workout notebook and pen to the gym and write down the exercises they completed, the weather, the lift of the day, tracking personal bests, etc. Tracking workouts has never been easier with the growth in technology and wearables in the fitness industry.

6 Advantages of Using a Fitness App

While some may still enjoy the old-school notebook method, allow me to share the benefits of using an app, like the NIFS app, to help you do the very same thing.

• Automatic synching: Wearables directly sync with apps, so you don’t have to do anything manually. Whatever the app may be, you can usually sync your Fitbit, Garmin, or other wearable device directly to it. Then when you are in range, your workouts will automatically upload into your phone and onto the app. This makes for very simple tracking of your workouts—in fact, it’s effortless!
• Personal accountability: No matter how committed you are to your fitness, everyone needs some personal accountability to themselves and their plan/goals. Having an app allows you to set goals and keep yourself on track to meet them in a realistic amount of time.
• Progress: It’s no secret that as you keep yourself on track and set smaller achievable goals, you will see progress. Utilizing an app will allow you to tangibly see those progress gains as you log your new personal best.
• Motivation: There’s nothing more motivating for the exercise logger than to write down your new heaviest lift, fastest mile, highest caloric burn, or longest workout. Logging workouts in an app and being able to look back on how far you have come and what goals you have met will keep you motivated and on track.
• Free: We cannot forget to mention that there is no cost for an app like ours at NIFS! No purchasing an app, notebooks, or losing a box of pens a week at the gym! Simply download the app and you are ready to roll!
• Easy: With a feature like X-capture, all you have to do is snap a photo of the console of the machine you are on or the workout you just completed on paper, and within 24 hours it will be logged into your workouts. And if you forgot to add in your workout when you were at the gym, you can always go back and add it after.

Try the NIFS App

Maybe you have found your favorite app to log your workouts, whatever that may be; using a phone makes it so much easier than logging it into a notebook. If you haven’t taken time, download the NIFS app and enjoy many benefits aside from the ones that are listed above. Some of those include: using your phone to scan in at the desk, monthly challenges with great prizes, setting goals, logging workouts, utilizing deals and finding out extra things that may be going on at NIFS, and receive push notifications for important updates!

Download the NIFS app now at the app store or Google Play!

This blog was written by Amanda Bireline, Fitness Center Manager. To find out more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.

Losing weight can be one of the most frustrating things to work at. We all know someone who has gone through it or may have experienced ourselves the constant ups and downs and carrying the heavy burden that goes along with it.

7 Steps to Reaching Your Goal Weight

It’s easy to feel defeated, let down, and not motivated to keep going when you don’t see the results that you want. And though sometimes the mountain seems impossible to climb, I am telling you that you can do it! By taking some simple steps, you can make weight loss your success story.

• Log your workouts. While logging things can become tedious and something to easily obsess over, logging your workouts is a great way to keep you accountable and stay on track. With the million different apps and fitness wearables out there, logging your exercise is simple. The other additional perk that comes with logging your workout is that you can tangibly see the improvements you are making along the way.
• Log your food. Logging your food is another great way to stay on track and focused to meet your goals. With nutrition apps out there like MyFitnessPal and Lose It!, food tracking is easy. Many of the apps even allow you to scan the barcode, and off you go. If apps aren’t your thing, log your food on paper. It’s important to find whatever works for you and realistically know how much you can eat per day to get you to where you want to be.
• Get a support team. You need to find people around you to be your backbone. Friends, family, coworkers, or workout buddies will help you during the highs and lows of weight loss. It’s not all going to be easy, so when those times come that you need someone there to keep cheering you on, having a support team in place is key.
• Discover how to fill idle time. We all are guilty: bored eating! You have nothing else to do so you find something to eat. And often the choices that you make during idle time are not the healthiest options. Find other ways to fill that down time so that you are not adding in a bunch of unnecessary calories.
• Stop weighing yourself everyday. This is one of the most dangerous things when trying to lose weight. While I encourage getting on the scale routinely for accountability and progress checks, daily is not the answer. When people weigh themselves every single day and tend to not see the numbers drop on a 24-hour basis, depression and frustration set in. Do yourself a huge favor and weigh only every other week.
• Take it easy. While your overall goal may be to lose 30 pounds, make sure that you have smaller markers to get to in the process. Too often we see people go to the extremes when trying to lose weight and not giving themselves enough time to get there. Don’t set yourself up for failure; your overall goal is of course to lose weight, but if you want to keep that weight off and have a much healthier lifestyle, take it slow and do it right!
• Get to the root of the problem. Although this is listed last, it is probably the most important yet most challenging one. And though it’s an uncomfortable topic to bring up, we must talk about it. For every person who struggles with their weight, there is also a deeper struggle that has nothing to do with pounds. And often that reason is a deep-rooted issue that needs to be dealt with. Maybe you find comfort in food, or it’s your outlet for something challenging you are going through. Whatever the case may be, you are the only one who knows that. Work as hard as you can to deal with the root of the issue and find freedom in your weight loss.

Do It for Your Health

There are tons of ways to get to your goal. The most important thing is that you do it for yourself, for your family, and for your health. Here’s to a successful weight-loss journey!

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If you need help getting started NIFS has developed a serious weight loss program for people serious about weight loss. Ramp Up to Weight Loss and Ramp Up at Home is a 16-week membership that includes personalized plans and one-on-one workouts. Click below to learn more about Ramp Up.

This blog was written by Amanda Bireline, Fitness Center Manager. To find out more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.

With the rapid development of technology, apps for our smartphones are grabbing our attention. In the growing world of hands and eyes being permanently glued to the cell phone, I have to admit that it’s not all bad! Some of our staff here at NIFS would add to the list of helpful apps one that could be a potential lifesaver—it’s called ICE.

An App That Gives Emergency Medical Information

ICE, which stands for “In Case of Emergency,” is a smartphone app that allows a rescuer, doctor, or first responder to access helpful emergency information. Even if the screen is locked with a security password or touch ID thumbprint, the ICE information can be accessed. This app was developed following 2005 Vodafone research, which showed that less than 25% of people have on hand any sort of details about who they would like contacted in the event of an emergency. On top of telling responders who should be contacted in an emergency, the ICE app also gives information about medical issues, diseases, allergies, and medications that an individual may be on.

ICE Helps Save a Life at NIFS

My first thought after discovering what this was all about was, “Okay, that sounds kind of cool, but that’s a lot of personal information potentially being displayed for all to see if they got ahold of my phone.” But in early February, an emergency event occurred in the NIFS fitness center.

One of our longtime members experienced a cardiac emergency while running on the treadmill. After our staff analyzed the situation and followed emergency protocol, someone saw his phone and decided to take a quick look to see whether he had the ICE app. And sure enough, when our employee swiped across the screen, the emergency information came across, making the responders aware of a previous heart condition and replaced heart valve, which in turn caused his heart to stop. Today, we can gratefully say that after CPR, shocks from the AED, and the help of EMS, this individual is living and well; hands down we can attribute part of that success to knowing his previous medical history because he had the ICE app on his smartphone.

Get the App

If you do not currently have this on your phone, I would encourage you to get it. If you have an iPhone, you can download it through the App Store, or if you are an Android user you can access it through Google Play. Allow your family to rest secure; whether or not you have a medical condition, your emergency contact info can be reached far faster with the ICE app.

This blog was written by Amanda Bireline, Fitness Center Manager. To find out more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.