Barefoot Is Best

I hate shoes.  {I do love a cute pair of heels though}  I try and avoid any shoes whenever possible.  I call them "foot jails".  I only wear them because I have to or, it's cold.  If I wear tennis shoes for too long then my feet swell, my legs hurt, I'm just a mess.  

Did you know that there have been many studies done that show that humans were not meant to wear shoes and we are actually doing more DAMAGE to ourselves by wearing them?

These following facts are from an article title "You Walk Wrong" by Adam Sternbergh published in 2008.  Click to read the entire article

• They change the way you walk.
• “Natural gait is biomechanically impossible for any shoe-wearing person,” wrote Dr. William A. Rossi in a 1999 article in Podiatry Management. 
• If you wear high heels for a long time, your tendons shorten—and then it’s only comfortable for you to wear high heels
• We’ve come to believe that shoes, not bare feet, are natural and comfortable, when in fact wearing shoes simply creates the need for wearing shoes.
• More people are injured wearing expensive running shoes than people who ran in hard shoes

Are you an avid shoe wearer or do you prefer to go barefoot?

Un-Birthday Cake

Happy UN-birthday!!!  Yes, un-birthday.  We celebrate those once or twice a year.  They are great because with an actual birthday you get only 1 a year but you get 364 un-birthdays a year!! All joking aside, this cake is great because there is no added fat or sugar (unless your 10 year old decides it needs a pretty powdered sugar design on it).   

I actually had a piece of this for breakfast.  

Recipe from:Fat Free Vegan

1 1/4 cup flour
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground chia seeds 
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup blueberries
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup sugar free maple syrup

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, chia and salt. In blender, combine water, 1/2 cup blueberries, and balsamic vinegar and blend until smooth.
• Make a well in the dry ingredients. Add the syrup and the blueberry mixture. Stir until completely mixed. Pour into an oiled 9-inch round cake pan.
• Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before inverting onto serving platter

Workout

If you ever find yourself looking to switch up your workout or need a semi-quick total body workout try this, Peripheral Heart Action Training System.  Peripheral Heart Action Training System is a form of resistance training performed in a circuit fashion (or little rest between exercises). The Peripheral Heart Action Training System requires you to perform multiple exercises in rapid succession, but alternating between upper and lower body exercises. This helps facilitate circulation to various muscles and helps you burn extra calories compared to traditional weight lifting.

This the way it works.  That you work each body part separately one right after the other.  I know the definition above says one thing but, for strength training I like to do it slightly different.  The order for weight lifting is: Legs, chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, legs.  

Here's a sample workout.  I normally do 10 reps per exercise with moderate weight and run through it 3 times 

Legs -- Squat
Chest -- Chest Press
Back -- Bent over Row
Shoulders -- Arnold Press
Biceps -- Curl
Triceps -- Overhead Tricep Extension
Legs -- Deadlift

Looking for a high intensity version of this? Do each exercise for 45 seconds and repeat 3 times through.

Lower -- Squat jack
Upper -- shoulder taps
Lower -- Walking Lunges
Upper -- medicine ball toss
Lower -- Banded Side Shuffles
Upper -- Kettlebell Swings
Lower -- Bear Crawl


You don't have to use the same exercises I suggested.  You can switch them out for ones you enjoy more.  


Incorporate this into your next workout and tell me how you feel about it!  Leave a comment below if you've done this before.