Part 1: A, B, C – Work Your Abs, Use Your Bodyweight and Eat Carbs!
Part 2: D, E, F – Detox Details, Ease Into Exercise and Figure Out Fats
Part 3: G, H, I – Get A Good Morning, Hydration Help and Ice Is Nice
Part 4: J, K, L – Jumping Jacks, All Hail King Kale and Legendary Leg Day
Part 5: M, N, O – Mudder Mayhem, Neato Nutrients and Overnight Oats
Part 6: P, Q, R – A Pizza Party, Why QUICK Workouts Work and Rock Steady
Part 7: S, T, U – Squeeze In More Movement, Traveler 10, and Upside (Down Cake… With Apples)
Welcome to our series that takes us traveling through the alphabet – one workout, #FitTip and recipe at a time. This is the final installment; we hope you’ve enjoyed the journey!
V is for Vegetables
They come in all colors of the rainbow and are delicious and nutritious cooked or raw. V is for Vegetables and, man, do we love ‘em. Vegetables fill us up, fuel us for our day, and taste soooooo good. Each vegetable offers vitamins and nutrients so make sure you’re maximizing each bite. Some guidelines suggest eating between five to 13 fruits and veggies a day so in honor of the mighty plants we eat, here are seven of our favorite recipes featuring very versatile vegetables.
#1 – Vegetable and Tofu Pad Thai Featuring Carrots and Scallions
#2 – Roasted Vegetable Soup Featuring Everything from the Farmer’s Market!
#3 – Chocolate Brownies with Hidden Spinach
#4 – Baked Tomatoes with Quinoa, Corn and Green Chiles
#5 – A Creamy Kale and Cranberry Salad from Tara Stiles
#6 – A Chocolate Cupcake with Hidden Beets
#7 – Soba Noodle Bowl with Kale and Mushrooms
W is for Winter (Health Tips)
Winter is around the corner (for a lot of the world) and if your life is anything like ours, you’ve already noticed an uptick in seasonal colds and flu bugs. It seems colleagues and friends are coming down with the latest and nastiest, symptoms daily – which is why W is for Winter Health Tips. Let’s combat that cold and stay healthy with these three tips – get 13 more tips here.
#1 – Wash your hands.
Sure everyone says it, but does everyone do it? Make sure you do with warm soapy water, especially after a bathroom break, before touching and eating food, and after blowing your nose.
#2 – Sleep!
Studies show that people who sleep less than seven hours a night are three times more likely to come down with a cold than those who sleep eight hours or more.
#3 – Eat Right
See above and get your fill of healthy and hearty veggies! Getting less-than-recommended amounts of essential vitamins and minerals can increase your chance of contracting a bug.
X is for eXercise (Moves)
Okay, so maybe we’re cheating here a little, but of course when we think of the letter X we think of eXciting and eXtraordinary workouts. X is for eXercise, and specifically, we’re talking about our favorite eXercise moves! Have you tried The FitStar 15 Freestyle session? We used our popular 7-Minute Workout as inspiration to create it! This 15-minute sweat sesh is composed of 15 of our favorite moves all packaged into a total-body workout. And since the exercises are all time-based, you can set your own pace to make it as challenging as you’d like. So what are these favorite eXercise moves? Glad you asked: skipping scissor kicks, squat walk, dive bombers, bicycle kicks, jump lunges, star skaters, pike presses, floor bridges, elbow plank pushups, mountain climber twists, bodyweight squats, superman planks, fast feet in squat, back plank kicks, and standing pigeon. If you have 15 minutes, you can complete The FitStar 15. Check out our favorite eXercise moves now!
Y is for Yoga
If you’re looking for a little more zen approach to fitness, we’ve got you covered. Y is for Yoga, or more accurately, FitStar Yoga. When we launched FitStar Yoga last year our goal was to make yoga accessible, inclusive, and enjoyable to everyone. We love to hear from experienced yogis and novices alike, who are getting flexibly fit with yoga expert Tara Stiles and our app. We built it using the same great technology in FitStar Personal Trainer, so it’s adaptive and listens to your feedback in order to provide you with a personalized Program. You can decide the length of a workout you want to do, you can seamlessly switch between your Program and Freestyle sessions, and you can get fit wherever you’ll fit – literally! If you can lie down without hitting anything, you have room to strike these poses. FitStar Yoga works with your iPhone, iPod and iPad so check it out now!
Z is for Zucchini
How to end this terrific fitness journey through the alphabet? With a rad recipe for some squash. Right? You know how much we value healthy eating and since we’ve been singing the praises of vegetables lately, why not share one of our favorite recipes with you? Z is for Zucchini and we love it in all forms.Though not a “winter squash”, most markets are still carrying it this time of year, so grab it and make some zoodles, Paleo fritters, or this delicious Zucchini-Walnut Loaf from Eating Well. The loaf is delicious and while the recipe on Eating Well’s website calls for a cup of sugar, we’ve learned you can cut that in half, or substitute a ripened and mashed banana for natural sweetness to make up for half of the sugar.
Zucchini-Walnut Bread
Ingredients
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 cup sugar, or 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup mashed banana
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract, (optional)
1 cup grated zucchini, lightly packed (about 8 ounces)
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts (optional)
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat 2 mini 6-by-3-inch loaf pans with cooking spray.
2. Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl.
3. Whisk egg whites, sugar (or Splenda), applesauce, oil and lemon extract (if using) in a medium bowl. Stir in zucchini.
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients; slowly, mix in the zucchini mixture with a rubber spatula. Fold in walnuts. Do not overmix. Transfer the batter to the prepared pans.
5. Bake the loaves until a toothpick comes out almost clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 5 minutes, then turn out onto the rack to cool completely.
Makes 2 mini loaves, 8 slices each.
Nutritional information per slice*: Calories 118 | Fat 3g | Protein 2g | Carbs 22g
Nutritional information is provided by Eating Well.
Thanks for joining us on our FitStar Fitness alphabetical adventure! Please let us know what your favorite part is in the comments!
Keep Moving,
– Team FitStar
The post FitStar Fitness A-Z | Veggies, Winter Health, eXercise Favorites, Yoga, and Zucchini! appeared first on FitStar - Inspiring people to live healthier lives.