October 6, 2025

Is Heart Rate Training for You? By Jason Saltmarsh

April 9, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Would you like to run longer and faster with less effort? Heart rate training can help you reach that goal. A heart rate monitor provides real-time biofeedback during your workouts to help you stay in the optimal training zone. Consult your physician to determine your specific target heart rate zones as they vary based on fitness goals, medications and state of health.

Determining Your Maximum and Minimum Heart Rate
To find your target heart rate zone, you’ll need to know your maximum heart rate and your resting heart rate. Then, you can determine several training zones between those two extreme values. The idea is that you use the heart rate data during your workout to stay in the intended heart rate zone. Some people choose to run by pace per mile speeds, while others by their ability to carry on a conversation. Heart rate training is based solely on BPM (beats per minute).

The American Heart Association recommends a method for identifying your maximum heart rate. Their method is to simply subtract your age from 220. For example, if you are thirty years old, you get the following: 220-30=190.

Determining your resting heart rate by taking your pulse for one minute just after waking up, or while sitting down relaxing. Athletes usually find their resting rate is around 60 BPM.

Determining Your Heart Rate Training Zones
Variety is the spice of life and the cure for ‘lazy’ running. Runners aren’t lazy, but their approach to training may be if they’re doing the same thing, at the same effort, day after day. To see improvements, you’ll need to mix things up and challenge yourself in a variety of ways.

The advantage to heart rate training is that it’s based solely on your own biofeedback. External measures such as pace per mile do not interfere with your results. For example, if you run a flat 6 mile course on a cool day at 8:00 pace, how does that compare to running 6 miles on a hilly course under a scorching sun at 8:30 pace?

Final Thoughts
Training principles remain the same no matter what method you use. A blend of long and short, easy and hard, fast and slow, and plenty of rest will keep you fit and healthy. Heart rate training offers you an exact measure of effort and gives you the certainty of knowing that you are training at your intended level of exertion.

 

Jason Saltmarsh is an competitive masters runner at distances ranging from 5K to the half marathon. In November 2013, he raced his first 26.2 at the iconic New York City Marathon. Jason’s goal is to share with others the benefits and joys of running, fitness and healthy living. For more information, please visit saltmarshrunning.com

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Log it!

April 2, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Get Fit Quick Tip

Log your workouts! Logging can be as simple as a check-mark on your calendar or as detailed as making note of all specifics. Logging your workout provides visual reinforcement of your efforts! You’ll increase motivation by seeing how far your fitness has come.

 

Check back often for your useful and practical healthy living and fitness tip! Our Get Fit Quick tip will always be easy to remember and you’ll be able to implement it the very same day. Our tip will be so clear and concise you’ll be motivated to forward it to all your friends and family to inspire them to live healthy and fit as well!

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Is your alarm set?

April 1, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Introducing…our Get Fit Quick Tip

Let’s be honest, we don’t always have time to read an entire article offering several ways to add health and fitness into our day. Enter, our new feature that will offer an article-at-a-glance approach, one easy and practical tip to live healthy and fit! This is a tip that you’ll easily remember and be able to implement the very same day. Our tip will be so clear and concise you’ll be motivated to forward it to all your friends and family to inspire them to live healthy and fit as well!

Here’s our first one to get you started:

Set the alarm/timer on your smart phone to signal a Stretch-Break every 2 hours during your day. Taking scheduled stretch-breaks during your day will decrease physical tension and clear your mind. The result: you’ll feel better and think better. Start now!

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Find Fitness Support on Twitter

March 31, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Find Fitness Support on Twitter! Follow us via @HealthyWayMag and join us every Monday:

Where: On Twitter at #HealthyWayMag
When: Every Monday at 5pm(Pacific)/8pm(Eastern)
WHY: Gain motivation, find fitness support, pick up workout tips, learn about new workouts…just to name a few!

THANK YOU to our March Fitness Chat Sponsors. Check them out and learn how they can help improve your fitness and healthy living efforts:

Photo Finish Frames. Frame your most treasured race or sporting gear memorabilia with their ready-made framing kids. Each kit is hand-made with high quality materials. Each frame also includes a free diamond engraved brass or silver placard. Find more product information on Twitter @fotofinishframe.

Handana. Handana is an innovative sweatband worn on your hand. They offer a variety of colors and sizes to fit every athlete and every workout outfit! The high performance soft fabric wraps around like a fingerless glove to make wiping easy-you don’t even know it is there until you need it. Follow them on Twitter for details @myhandana.

Jessica Matthews. Fitness expert, college professor, yoga teacher, fitness writer, trainer, group exercise and health coach. Sign up for her free 30 day challenge for healthy living, wellness and fitness ideas. You’ll be inspired to live a happier and healthier life! Find more information by following her on Twitter @fitexpertjess.

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Health and Fitness Blogs to Follow, the final in our series

March 20, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Here’s the final installment in our series, Health and Fitness Blogs to Follow. Often in reading about what motivates others to stay healthy, how they overcome setbacks, ideas how to balance family and fitness, we will find the answers to our own healthy living challenges. Consider adding this one to your list of blogs to follow:

Motivated after her first race in August of 2012, Evelin started her blog, EvelinRuns. As a runner, and after following other blogs about running, “I saw it as a chance to share my story and connect to other passionate runners out there” explains Evelin. She continues “it has been a wonderful way to share motivation and inspiration with others, but also to be inspired by other runners!”

Fellow runners will be empowered after reading about her journey of logging miles, as well as reading gear and race reviews. Posting 1-3 times each week, simply put, Evelin writes about her love of running. Check out one of her favorite posts and you’ll reap the benefits of her enthusiasm.

If you’re looking for weekly motivation to lace up your running shoes and head on out for a workout, sign up for her automatic feed here. You’ll enjoy “getting to know more about what life is like as a Swedish runner living in beautiful and sunny Hawaii” as Evelin says.

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Health and Fitness Blogs to Follow…NEXT!

March 13, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Are you looking for fitness and healthy living motivation? Here’s the fifth in our series, Health and Fitness Blogs to Follow…

“I wanted to share my passion for fitness nutrition and healthy living” explains Jana, creator of the blog, Bananas for Balance. She launched her blog in July of 2013 and posts 4-5 times each week. In her blog, you’ll find everything health, fitness and wellness-related.

Bananas for Balance is for everyone, but especially for those “who have a love of fitness and nutrition or people looking to start healthy habits.” Jana says her favorite post thus far is When Happiness Becomes a Choice.  In this post, Jana shares part of her personal story. So, if you need a little inspiration, this is a must-read.

If you’re a runner, you’ll especially enjoy a section on Jana’s blog, called November Project. Started in Boston and now expanded to fifteen cities, they are a free fitness group. “No official membership, just show up” encourages Jana. She shares her experiences with the group and various workouts. Your fitness will be motivated!

So if you want to get excited about your fitness and healthy living, be sure to sign up for her automatic updates here! Connect with Jana on Twitter @NanasforBalance and Facebook at Bananas for Balance.

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Making Meals Happen by Kristen Yarker

March 10, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Two Foundational Steps for Making Meals Happen

Do you dream of having the family come together at the table every day? Are you at a loss about how to make it happen? If so, then you’re not alone.

Here are my two foundational steps for making meals happen:

1. Think Beyond Dinner. Don’t get fixated on dinner being the meal that your family eats together. In many families, it’s breakfast where people come together to eat and connect. It’s a fantastic way to start the day. Another great strategy is a bedtime snack/second dinner concept. This works well in families where one parent works later or gets home from their commute too late to eat dinner with (especially younger) kids. In this scenario, the parent who is home earlier makes dinner and eats it with the kids. When the later-arriving parent gets home, the kids join him/her at the table. The later-arriving parent eats warmed-up dinner and the kids eat their bedtime snack. This way everyone is eating together at the table and connecting.

2. Plan Your Schedule with Eating Together in Mind. As the saying goes, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. There’s another saying that’s true too: “you can’t have it all”. This next piece of advice may sound harsh, however I’m sharing it in the attempt to be of service – to give some tough love. Many parents have told me that they can’t eat dinner together because the kids’ activities extend over dinnertime. Having this schedule means that you are choosing ballet and soccer as priorities over eating dinner together. Determining your family’s priorities is your choice. If you choose ballet and soccer that’s OK, own your choices! Determine your values, set priorities and then make your schedule to align with it. The problem comes if your schedule isn’t a match with your priorities. If it’s out of alignment, then make changes. If it is in alignment, then let go of the guilt of not being able to have it all.

Kristen Yarker is known as The Dietitian Who Transforms Picky Eaters into Food Confident Kids. From introducing solids through the picky eating years, she helps Moms and Dads be confident that they’re giving their kids good nutrition today… and instilling a life-long LOVE of healthy eating. Get scientific evidence-based answers to real questions from real parents (recipes too!) by signing up for her 101 Healthy Snack Ideas at: vitaminkconsulting.com

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Health and Fitness Blogs to Follow…continued

February 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Behold, the third in our series…Health and Fitness Blogs to Follow!

The blog New York Views & Nike Shoes found its voice in the Fall of 2013 with Meaghan Ellis. Meaghan explains how her blog came to be, “when I moved to New York, I found myself taking so many pictures of my new city and telling friends and family about all the cool new workout places I was trying, so I decided to put it all down on paper (or, a computer in this case.)”

Meaghan posts about 5 days each week and describes her blogging approach as a “normal persons approach to running.” Check out one of her favorite posts to date, her half marathon race recap from December. She writes about living active and trying new workouts around the big city, New York City.

So who should check out New York Views & Nike Shoes? Meaghan sums it up, “anybody who is even mildly interested in running will be able to relate to my blog. I am not a fast runner, so you’ll read about the trials and tribulations of a slow, but dedicated distance runner.” So whether you’re a fan of fitness or simply a fan of New York City, you’ll find workout-focused posts, inspiring pictures and healthy living motivation to love on New York Views & Nike Shoes!

Want to receive automatic updates of Meaghan’s blog? Sign up here!

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Pumpkin Oat Protein Muffins

February 26, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Pumpkin Oat Protein Muffins
Serves 15

Calories: 160 kCal
Fat: 2.6g
Carbs: 28g
Protein: 7g

 

Ingredients:
2 cups oat flour
1 can pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling!)
6 tbsp honey
2 cups unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup rolled oats (do not use instant oats)
1/2 cup vanilla protein powder (I use soy, but whey or other plant based would work)
2 tbsp semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Directions:
1) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat muffin tins with light spray oil or muffin wrappers. I used coconut oil spray, and it worked nicely.
2) Mix all ingredients except chocolate in a bowl until well blended. Batter will be very thick.
3) Add 1/3 cup of batter to each muffin cup. Should fill 15 cups. Add 2 chocolate chunks to the top of each muffin, and bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned and toothpick comes out clean.
4) Serve warm and refrigerate leftovers when cooled.

Recipe by Cyanne Demchak. Cyanne is a Philadelphia-based blogger, marathoner, and at-home cook. In between long days of conference calls and business travel, she shares her love affair with running, recipes and thoughts on healthy living on RunStretchGo.com. She can also be found on Twitter (@cldem), on and Pinterest (RunStretchGo).

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Health and Fitness Blogs to Follow- our series continues…

February 20, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Health and Fitness Blogs to Follow

Our Friday series continues with this Blog highlight. Another option for a blog to follow that is sure to motivate your fitness journey…

As a lifelong writer it only seemed natural when the idea of Caffeine? Yes, Please! first entered the mind of Jeneen Olive back in 2009. Originally, she thought she would “journal the early days of motherhood” as Jeneen explains. However, she recalls “being a new mom didn’t provide much time to sit down and put my thoughts to digital paper.” Although her original intention behind the focus of her blog has shifted, her love of writing remains. When asked about the motivation behind how her blog subject came into existence, she responds “in 2012 I began running and I found that the miles allowed by creative side to reawaken.”

In her blog, Caffeine? Yes, Please! Jeneen shares personal experiences of running and fitness through logging her thoughts from competing in a 5K to her first marathon. She still considers herself a beginning runner and so she writes to help motivate those first time runners. Additionally, seasoned athletes will relate to her stories of trials and tribulations of logging miles and workouts.

So, if you’re in search of inspiration and a little humor to add to your fitness world, follow her as she posts two to three times each week. Check out one of her favorite posts thus far, entitled “A Trip Around the Sun”.

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