Health & Fitness by Joe Tscholl

When it comes to summer time and health and fitness,  the majority of headlines for articles like these highlight something about how to get your body swimsuit ready. Suddenly summer hits and it’s all about getting prepped to expose our bodies to the outside world — or at least that’s the case if your readership is made up primarily of Minnesotans, where nine months out of the year we are tuned into an instinct we seem to have been born with: keeping their bodies covered, warm, and safe from the c-c-c-cold.

All of a sudden it’s time to switch gears, and it’s often before we feel ready for it. From parkas to bikinis in a matter of days? The media adds to the pressure by asking if people are “swimsuit-ready!”

It’s too much to process, and we often relinquish another summer by the water to next year, when we are in better shape and more ready. Snap Fitness is here to encourage you to not let another summer pass by without enjoying it. Seize the moment; don’t let the size of your waistline determine the level of your happiness.

 

And so to help you on your way, we wanted to give you four very doable tips or suggestions to keep you feeling your best this summer:

1. Develop an alkaline diet. What is this exactly, you may ask? Currently, the North American diet is creating a myriad of health problems, largely because it is primarily acidic in nature. Acidic foods include meat, dairy, sugars, alcohol, processed foods, saturated fats and caffeine. Sound familiar? Well, it may be slowly killing you. When eating or snacking this summer, choose instead more alkaline choices such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, green teas, lemon water and canola oil, and raw honey, raw sugar or stevia as a sweetener. Limit your intake of meat, dairy, alcohol and processed foods.

2. While diet is important to your health, so is exercise. Getting just 30 minutes of exercise in three to five times per week will not only drastically improve your overall heart health, it will also give you more energy and a more positive outlook on life. The biggest thing here is to do something you enjoy so you will stick with it!

3. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! It’s been said that every day we lose up to two to three quarts of water through urination, sweating and breathing. Water is essential to cell function, digestion and pH balance. Limit your intake of caffeine and alcohol, which dehydrate the body.

4. Lastly, avoid spray-on sunscreens and anything higher than an SPF of 50+. While spray-on tans are still legal, the FDA has expressed doubt in regards to their safety due to inhalation risks and the ease with which users can apply too little or miss a spot entirely. Sunscreens with an SPF higher than 50+ still may not protect the skin from UVA rays, and so while they may suppress sunburns, they often provide a false sense of security leading people to stay out in the sun too long.

Happy summer!

Joe Tscholl is the owner of Albert Lea’s Snap Fitness and is also a personal trainer there.