LIVING FIT Personal Training-Fitness, Nutrition and Weight Loss, Stamford, CT

DeLallo Quoted in Healthy Life

Living Fit Personal Training — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:11:28 +0000

At some point or another, most of my clients and acquaintances have probably heard me say, “There is no good excuse to not exercise.” My thoughts on barriers to exercise and how to overcome them have now been immortalized in the January/February issue of Healthy Life Magazine. Click the logo to the left or the link below to read what yours truly and other local health and fitness professionals have to say on exercise barriers. I’d love to hear your feedback.

Enjoy!

Healthy Life CT: Taking the First Step: Overcoming excuses

Workout Video: Curtsy Lunges

Living Fit Personal Training — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 03:34:12 +0000

The name of this lunge says it all–I wonder if Natalie Portman used these to train for her role in Black Swan? Curtsy lunges place a little more emphasis on the outer thigh than a regular lunge and you’ll pretty much look like the coolest person in the gym when you’re doing them (and, like all lunges, you can easily make these part of any home workout!). Watching this video might make you work up an appetite so be sure to visit my other new post Healthy Waffle Recipe before you go.

–Laura DeLallo, Founder, Living Fit
(Laura is a certified personal trainer and weight management consultant. Want to train with her? Visit Personal Training at Living Fit. Want to learn more about her? Visit the About page.)

Healthy Waffle Recipe

Living Fit Personal Training — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 03:16:21 +0000

Get up and shake your wafflemaker!

I swear, my Cuisinart Wafflemaker was the best thing that happened to me in 2010. I bought it on a whim at Bed Bath & Beyond for about $25 when I was supposed to be buying something lame like forks (isn’t BB&B great at getting you to make unplanned purchases?). I have gotten way too much enjoyment out of this thing and now I would like to pass my joy onto you. The simple recipe below makes 9 delicious low-calorie whole wheat waffles (137 calories each, to be exact). I like to prepare these fluffy 7-inch wide delights on a Sunday morning and freeze the leftovers to have for breakfast all week. Just make sure to put a piece of parchment paper between each waffle before placing them in a freezer bag so that they don’t stick together.

1 egg
2 egg whites
½ cup white flour
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 ¾ cups fat free milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Directions

1. Preheat waffle iron and spray with cooking spray.
2. Combine ingredients and mix until smooth.
3. Pour ½ cup info waffle iron and even out with spatula before closing it.

Nutrition Info

137 calories, 20g carbs, 2.3g fat, 5.3g protein, 2g fiber, 3g sugar, 231mg sodium,

Indoor Winter Workout

Living Fit Personal Training — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:57:30 +0000

Well, we’ve certainly had our share of what I like to call “the white plague” this winter, and it has made outdoor cardio difficult for those of us who aren’t ice skaters or snowshoers. Luckily, there are some easy ways to keep the calorie burn going through the dark months. I know many of you have only 1 piece of cardio equipment at home (often a bike or treadmill) and you complain of boredom. Here’s a way you can mix that piece of equipment in with intervals of a few other activities to jazz up your workout. Make an iPod playlist of your favorite upbeat songs and crank it up as you try this approximately 45-minute workout:

1. Warm up: 5 minutes. Be creative; Suggestions: dance to the first song on your mix or shadow box in the mirror
2. Bike (or treadmill): 4 minutes at a moderate intensity
3. Stairs: 2 minutes of quickly walking or running (depending on your level of fitness) up and down stairs.
4. Bike (or treadmill): 4 minutes at a moderate intensity
5. Jump rope: 1 minute as fast as you can
6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 TWICE more.
7. Cool down: 5 minutes (either more dancing or simply peddle the bike starting at a moderate pace and working down to a light pace by the end of the 5 minutes).

Extra tip: Working out with a friend can be a lot more fun than going it alone. Invite a buddy over, crank the tunes up on the stereo, and complete this workout together. Stagger the workout start time so you can share equipment.

Pumpkin Chase 5K Race

Living Fit Personal Training — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 02:05:55 +0000

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. I love getting dressed up (favorite and most-used costume: Turn Back Time Cher) and I love hosting my annual party. Clearly, hosting party=cheat day so I let loose last night, sucking down some of my homemade mummy rummy punch and eating deviled eyeball eggs and other borderline bad-for-you, festive apps. Feeling a little overstuffed and tired from staying up way too late, naturally I decided to enter a 5K today just hours before the 3 pm race time.

As you’ve seen if you’ve followed my workout posts, I don’t do much speed work during my runs. Based on my resting heart rate, average run pacing and corresponding heart rates, and daily mileage, I

Some of the tastiest eyeballs I've ever eaten.

determined breaking the 30-minute mark for the 3.1-mile race was a reasonable goal for the day. I fell short by 2 seconds, crossing the finish line at 30:01. How could I have missed by 2 seconds? Chalk it up to lack of familiarity with the course and a miscalulation. In the last 1/4-mile, my trusty Forerunner was telling me I wouldn’t beat 30 minutes so I let up a bit and put it in cruise control. Soon after, the course

took a sharp right, uphill turn and then a left and to my surprise the finish line was suddenly about 30 yards away! I sprinted toward it with an eye on the clock that read around 29:50 and I just couldn’t make it. I also should have considered that I was running the inside track on the course, which shortened up its length to 3.04 miles (hence why Garmin told me a little white lie about my timing). Better luck next time–lol.

Regardless of falling a little short of my goal, I enjoyed the run, which was part road, part trail. Waveny Park in New Canaan is gorgeous and well-groomed and who knows if I would have pushed myself that hard today if I hadn’t entered the race? The cute T-shirt and post-race apple cider sweetened the deal as well, making it an afternoon well-spent.

–Laura DeLallo, Founder, Living Fit
(Laura is a certified personal trainer and weight management consultant. Want to train with her? Visit Personal Training at Living Fit. Want to learn more about her? Visit the About page.)

Weight Loss Inspiration

Living Fit Personal Training — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 03:50:56 +0000

Real Women’s Weight Loss Stories
Loved this article–hope it provides inspiration and ideas for those of you trying to shed pounds and make healthy eating and exercise part of your lifestyle! Click the “link” button or the article title to check out the story.

Stamford: Cummings to Cove Run

Living Fit Personal Training — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:14:17 +0000

Here’s a nice route I ran today from Cummings Park to Cove Island. Not only is it a scenic and fairly low-traffic route, it’s also very versatile. It can be as short as 4 miles (if you just run from the middle of one park to the middle of the next and back) or as long as 6 miles (run through Cummings, to Cove, through Cove, and back). You can make it even longer by jogging down Weed Ave near the Cove, which is a great stretch right along the water, then up the Post Rd, left onto Seaside Ave, and then right onto Cove Rd and continue with the route shown below. That would be about 8 miles. Enjoy the water views, the bright foliage, and the large variety of birds along the way!

–Laura DeLallo, Founder, Living Fit
(Laura is a certified personal trainer and weight management consultant. Want to train with her? Visit Personal Training at Living Fit. Want to learn more about her? Visit the About page.)

Workout Video: Lunge Combo Exercises

Living Fit Personal Training — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 20:20:30 +0000

This video has been posted in the Workout Video of the Week section of my homepage for way too long, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Well, that section has since been refreshed with the latest and last video in the lunge series, so it was time to move this one into the archives. As my personal training clients know, I heart lunges, and I especially love combining them with moves that work other parts of the body–it ramps your heart rate up more and help you shorten your workout. In this video, I show you how to do a lunge with a bicep curl (works legs AND arms) and a lunge with a shoulder press (works legs AND shoulders). These are just a few of many lunge combo exercises you can do. Want to work legs and triceps at the same time? Do a lunge with an overhead triceps extension. Don’t like shoulder presses but still want to work shoulders and legs together? Do an upright row or lateral raise as you go down into your lunge. Upper legs and calves? Try jumping lunges. Need I go on?

A So-so Return to Running

Living Fit Personal Training — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 20:01:55 +0000

After a viral ear infection kept me sidelined for a few days, I returned to the great outdoors today for some exercise. I wanted to mix some jogging and walking so as to not overdo it, but I was feeling pretty good. I thought choosing a route with some hills (uphill is when I did the walking) would be a good compromise. Those of you from Stamford know that Palmer’s Hill Rd is named so for a reason so that’s the route I picked. I knew there were some parts of the route that would be sans sidewalk , but I definitely underestimated the length of those stretches. Nearly all of Stillwater Rd and Palmer’s Hill were devoid of sidewalks, making this run a bit too stressful for my tastes. Too many trucks and other large oncoming vehicles moving at clips in excess of 35 mph and lots of exhaust fumes flying up my nose. Not the greatest reintroduction to jogging, but it felt good to get back out there. I posted my stats below. As an aside, I still haven’t been able to fix the new post email notifications for those of you who have registered for them. They’re only going out on random posts, so often I post and no one is notified. Please check the site frequently for updates until you start seeing the notifications return to your inbox on a more regular basis.

–Laura DeLallo, Founder, Living Fit
(Laura is a certified personal trainer and weight management consultant. Want to train with her? Visit Personal Training at Living Fit. Want to learn more about her? Visit the About page.)

Nutrition Articles of the Week

Living Fit Personal Training — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 22:34:43 +0000

Healthy Cup o’ Joe
When many of my clients “admit” to me that they drink a lot of coffee, you’d swear they were admitting to eating a dozen donuts a day. Their gazes turn to the floor and their voices get real quiet as if they know a reprimand is coming. I’m not sure how coffee got such a bad rap, but it’s actually quite good for you as long as you don’t load it up with sugar and cream. I say “drink up!” (as long as you quit around 3 pm to keep your sleep cycle in order) and this article backs me up. It also tells you how to make sure you’re maximizing coffee’s benefits.

Fast Food Do’s and Don’ts
Sometimes you get stuck–you forgot to make lunch, you only have a 1/2 hour to eat; fast food is the only antidote for your growling stomach. This is yet another article that helps you make healthy choices at fast food joints like Subway, Wendy’s, and Dunkin’ Donuts.

Deep Freeze
Frozen dinners should always be a last resort; they are notoriously high in sodium and saturated fat. However, there are a few decent ones to choose when you’re in a pinch and this article names them all. Always remember to read labels when shopping for frozen meals (and any time you’re shopping, really!): adults should consume less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day and many frozen dinners have nearly that amount in one meal!