Winter Workout Tips

As the weather gets colder I begin to dread going outside for the run that I know I need. I kept asking myself that surely there had to be a way to make this easier!  Well, thankfully I found several post on Pinterest that have given be helpful tips for working out in the winter. And today, I'm going to share them with you!


The first tip is to dress for the weather! But you need to be careful because you don't want to be in the middle of your run and want to take all your layers off! A tip from EatPrayRunDC suggest to dress like its 20 degrees warmer outside than it really is, that way when you start to get warm from the workout you don't start roasting in your clothes! Here is a Winter Guide to Layering Clothes .

 While we are on the topic of dressing, here are a few tips that I found various places.
   Keep your feet, toes and ears warm! You don't want freezing body parts to slow you down!
   Where clothes that allow you to move freely and don't weigh you down.
   Make sure your shoes aren't mesh or too thin. You might even need to get a pair of shoes just for winter workouts!
I have a few favorite Winter must have for my workouts. They are: Ear warmers (Nice toasting ears instead of frozen ones!) Thick socks! (No more frozen toes!) Neck warmer or Cowl ( I don't suggest running in a scarf because that can cause difficulties. Cowls are shorter, kind of like a short infinity scarf.) What are your favorite winter workout must? Share them in the comments!

Here is us getting ready for a hike last Thanksgiving! No, I wouldn't run in that jacket, but it was and still is great for hiking and low impact outdoor activities!

The second tip is that you need to drink water! Just because its cold outside doesn't mean that you need to drink less water than you did in the summer! Fill your water bottle up just as full as you did in the summer!

Stay motivated! Sometimes trying to get yourself to leave your cozy place by the fire can be so hard! Find some friends to workout with or set a goal of your self (Or both!) Let me know how you stay motivated!

Lotion up! I hate chapped lips, cheeks and hands and they can be so uncomfortable! Applying lotion and lip butters can help relive and even prevent chapped skin. Several places have suggested using coconut oil to treat the chapped areas.


Now, I can't lie, I sometimes just hang up the idea of going outside for a workout. I either run on the treadmill or do something different for the workout that day. I don't want to run in below-freezing weather or when its snowing outside, so here are a few indoor workouts that I like to do instead!

Pop Sugar's 9 workouts to try this winter

Indoor HIIT workout for the winter

Indoor Cardio Crusher for the Winter



There are so many other workouts out there so feel free to search around for yourself! Let me know what you like to do for a winter workout and if you workout outside!


I hope this post helped you and if it did please share it with a  friend!

Keep it healthy and Safe
H.Banana

ps. Follow be on Pinterest! I am under Hannah Plunkett!

Healthy Chocolate Cookies!

 

 

I love-love-love chocolate cookies and I was so excited to find a healthy recipe for them! When I found this recipe on Pinterest I tried it and fell in love! We have made them several times and the whole family enjoys them. To see the original recipe please go to my recipe's page. I took a recipe and added things to it to make it fit my tastes. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients:
1 cup Old Fashioned Oats
1 cup Chocolate chips
2 medium ripe bananas
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
2 tsp vanilla
1 to 2 tsp of cinnamon (Or for a fall-ish twist, pumpkin pie spice!)

Start with peeling your bananas and placing them in a bowl. Blend them until they are creamy and smooth.

Add the oats, coconut and cinnamon. Blend till combined.

Next add the vanilla and chocolate chips and stir it all together.

I took a bit of coconut oil to grease my pan, but you can use butter or parchment paper to keep the cookies from sticking. Use a spoon to scoop out the cookies on to the pan. They don't spread much so make them the  sixe you want them to finish with.

Set the oven to 350 degrees F and bake them for 20 mins. They smell heavenly as they bake. I think it smells like banana bread baking!

When they come out of the oven they should be firm and starting to brown on the edges.

My goodness they smell amazing! Let them cool a bit and then remove them and let them cool completely on a cooling rack.

Please let me know what you think about these cookies! I love that they taste to good and they don't have any sugar or flour! If you enjoy this post and the cookies please share it with a friend!

Keep it healthy and Safe
H.Banana

 

 

Your Body On: Coffee

I love coffee is almost every way and I was glad to find that its actually helpful to our health! Coffee isn't just great at giving us caffeine, but it can help us in other ways, (Info from prevention.com )

So here are a few of the benefits of coffee!!

#1
A study from the Harvard School of Public Health found that the risk of depression was 20% lowerin women who drank 4, 8oz cups of coffee daily. The caffeine in coffee may affect brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine.

#2
A recent study found that drinking 200 mg (which is about 2 8oz cups) of coffee improves long term memory.

#3
Drinking 200 to 300 mg of caffeine daily may make your heart preform better by improving blood flow while you are resting.

#4
A study in 2012 found that women who consumed more that 3 cups of coffee a day had a lower risk of basal carcinoma.

#5
Drinking more than 2 cups of coffee a day appears to protect against liver diseases such as cirrhosis.

#6
A PLoS One study finds that drinking 3 to 4 cups of coffee a hour prior to a workout and you'll go for longer.

#7
According to a Harvard review of 28 different studies, drinking six 8oz cups daily was linked to a 33% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

#8
6 cups of coffee daily reduces the risk of gout for men by 59%. Coffee lowers the levels of uric acid in the blood.

I personally was super excited to know that my morning coffee could do more for me than just get me awake! Do you drink coffee? Since reading this, are you going to start drinking coffee? How do you like to have your coffee? Let me know in the comments! Some of my favorites are, hot with 1/2 and 1/2, iced with a little Truvia and cream, and hot mixed in with a little cocoa.

Thank you for visiting my blog and be sure to check back for more post!
Keep it healthy and SAFE!
H.Banana

Your Body On: Sugar

  Sugar is in almost everything! My family and I have been trying to stay off of sugar since we watched a film called Fed Up  and we have found it incredibly hard! You might be wondering, why is it important to stay away from sugar? I encourage you to watch the film mentioned earlier to get a bigger picture, but here are a few things that will happen if you eat too much sugar ( 24g and day for woman and 36g for men)

#1:
Sugar can rewire the brains pathways. If your diets contains too much sugar this can increase the risk of depression by 58%!

#2:
Sugar will inflame the linings of the arteries to the heart. This will increase the risk of strokes and heart attacks!

#3
Sugar can age the way you look, causing wrinkles! When you bombard you body with sugar, proteins incorporate it as a part of their structure which leads to aging of the skin and wrinkles.

#4
Kidneys have a delicate filtration system and sugar over load and damage that. Diabetes is one of the main causes of kidney failure.

#5
Being on a high sugar diet will affect your joints! High sugar diets pump inflammatory cytokines into your bloodstream which will exacerbate arthritis.

This information came from Prevention

So, now that you know a few reason to get off of sugar, what will you do about it? If you are like my family and you want to try to be on a sugar free diet, here are a few things that might help you.

What is your Sugar IQ?  This is a fun quiz designed to show you just how much you don't know about sugar. I found it very helpful. I got 6 out of 10 my first go, but my favorite part is that the website explains the answer so well! If you want to learn more about sugar, I encourage you to complete this quiz! If you do, share your score in the comment section and let me know if you learned anything new!

Added Sugar This website explains why added sugar is so very bad for you.  I enjoyed reading through this article and I hope you will too. It list several other things sugar will do to harm your body. Let me know what you think about this article!

Sugar Free Shopping List  This is a list of things to buy that are sugar free and there are also a few snack  ideas and things like that.

Sugar Addicts Listen Up! Here are a few tips and tricks for the sugar addicts out there who are ready to leave a sugar-high diet in the past! Let me know if they are helpful.

Pinterest is also a great place to find recipes and snack ideas that are sugar free. I have found so many and a few of them I have shared with you on my blog. Be sure to check back for more recipes soon!

  Like I said, my family is trying to get rid of sugar for good, but its hard. I'm sure you will find that to be true if you take the plunge. We often have to go without things that we really enjoy. A few months ago I liked nothing better than a nice cold Coke-A-Cola or Sprite, but I decided to play a game when I started my healthy adventure. How long could I go without a soda? It started with a few days, then weeks and now, I can't remember the last time I had a sugary soda. I can honestly say that I don't even like the taste of soda anymore. Now, when I need a fizzy fix I head to the fridge to get a ever present bubbly-water. Here is the brand my family loves: La Croix. I am trying to get the rest of my family completely off soda, and we are getting there! Let me know how long you can go without a soda!

I hope this post encourages you to start and have a sugar free diet and to help others as well! Spread the word about the truth about sugar and let me know some of the things you are doing to get off of sugar!

Keep it Healthy and Safe!
H.Banana

Quick and Easy Sweet Potato

I love sweet potatoes but if I want to have one for lunch, I have to plan it out at breakfast so they are done by lunch time! Not anymore though! With this new recipe, that I found on Pinterest, I can have a sweet potato at short notice! For the original recipe, see my recipe page.

You will need:
 1 potato per serving
Butter
Parmesan Cheese(Shredded)
Cinnamon
Honey
Salt and Pepper

To start with, wash and dry your potatoes and use a fork to poke holes in them. Place them in a paper plate and microwave them for about 10 minutes (If your potatoes are smaller you might not need that long. I did two at a time and they took about 12-13 minutes)

When the potatoes are soft to the touch, take them out of the microwave. Slice them in half and then make little slits along the cut side. Don't cut all the way down though, just half way.

Cut up the butter into little squares.

Add them to the tops of the potatoes

Now, decide whether you want to do cheese or cinnamon. If cinnamon, add cinnamon and honey to the potatoes. If cheese, add salt and pepper along with the cheese to the potatoes.

I did some of both. Now, set your oven to broil and place the potatoes in the oven for 5-8 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the butter and cinnamon start to bubble. Take them out and allow them to cool for a bit before trying to eat them!

They smelled so good at this point!

Place them on a plate and enjoy!

I made these for my family for lunch and we all loved them! My personal favorite was the cheese one but the cinnamon/honey ones were really tasty too! If you try these let me know what you think!

Keep it Healthy and Safe!

H.Banana

Get Ready for Ski/Snowboarding Season

Sure, it is still fall right now, but its never to early to start getting ready for the ski/snowboarding season. If you are planning to go to the slopes this year, or you just want to get in shape for winter, Listen Up!
My family and I are going on a ski trip this holiday season, and I don't want to come off the slopes sore, so I am going to start getting ready them now! I have been searching Pinterest for a while now, and I have found several workout and tips for getting ready for the ski/snowboarding season. Here are a few of them:

Yoga for Snowboarding

Exercises Every Snow Boarder Should Do

Get ready for the ski season

And lastly my favorite : Prepare for the winter ski season

I will be trying Snowboarding for the first time this year, and I'm super excited. Have you ever snowboarded? Which do you like better, snowboarding or skiing? Let me know!

I believe that its important to be in good shape for any sport to avoid injury and soreness. I hope that these workouts keep me from getting too sore, and help me preform better on the slopes! Sometimes I just do the exercises alone (Depends on which ones) and sometimes I pair them with a cardio session or something like that! Remember to have fun with it, Stay Safe and within you abilities, and that progress is progress no matter how small or big!

Keep it Healthy and Safe, and let me know if you found this post helpful!
H.Banana

Coffee Cake in a Mug

Some times I get the cravings for something sweet, but I don't all ways have time to make a whole batch of something, so why not make a single serving in a mug??!
This recipe I found on Pinterest, and for the link to the website see my recipes page.

Ingredients:
1tbsp butter softened but not melted

 1tbsp truvia

 1 egg

 1/8 tsp baking powder

 A few drops of vanilla

 2tbsp almond milk or heavy cream

 1/4 cup almond flour
(I added a dash of cinnamon to mine)

For the topping:

1tbsp butter softened

 1tsp truvia

 2tbsp almond flour

 Dash of cinnamon

Cream the butter and Truvia together in your mug. Then add the egg and mix well.

Add the rest of the ingredients  (except for the ingredients for the topping) and mix it all together.

Now, mix up the topping.

Add the topping to the top of the mix and pop it in the microwave. The recipe called for 1 and a half minutes but I had to add another minute.

I must say that it doesn't look anything like the picture on the website, but I have never made a mug recipe and it turn out exactly the same.
My little brother loved this little coffee cake! He kept asking for more!

Let me know what you think it you try this recipe!

Keep it healthy and Safe!
H.Banana