Equipment Useful at Home

Equipment useful at home

Working out at home is probably a lot easier than going to the gym, but how do you know what fitness equipment you will need? If you’re interested in working out and would rather use your own equipment, here are some workout equipments that are useful to have in your home.

There are so many choices and variety of equipment to have in your home. There are weights, weight machines, cardio machines, exercise balls, abs machines, bikes, or if you have the space you can create a home gym. Think about what your budget is, how much room you have in your home and also what you enjoy doing. Buying workout equipment can cost a lot, but it is probably a lot better than buying a membership to a gym. You have to realize you will have this equipment forever and whenever you decide to work out it is convenient for you and benefits you. You don’t necessarily need all of this equipment in your home. You have to think about what you enjoy doing, what you will use in your home, and what will be worth having in your home.  

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Some great useful equipment to have in your home is the treadmill and the bicycle. If you like to run, jog, or walk it is a great piece of equipment to have. Especially in the winter when it’s really cold outside you can run, jog, or walk on this equipment in your home where it is nice and warm.  These pieces of equipment are my favourite.  If you enjoy working out your abs, you make prefer an abs workout machine. Therefore, it all depends on what you enjoy doing in the end.

Arm Workouts

It is somewhat difficult to work out your arms without weights, so if you do not own weights, you can use anything from your house; cans of soup or even water bottles.

Simple weight lifting is the best. If your just looking to tone your muscles, then just lifting simple things such as cans of soup or water bottles will do the trick. To the side, arm curls, and up infront of you are all ways of lifting weights. This allows you to tone different muscles in your arm and not only do just one. If your goal is to have very muscular arms, it is difficult to do this without heavier weights, or even a dumbell at home.

Another trick would be push ups, although some people find them very difficult to do. Start off by doing what you are able to do, and slowly build up the number of sets and reps that you do as the weeks progress. This will slowly build up muscle, and strengthen your arms.

Abs Workout

Abs Workout

Why go to the gym to work out your abs when you can do it in the comfort of your own home! To get ready for the summer and show off your beach body, we’re going to give you some easy workouts for your abs that you can do in your home and that are quick, easy, and fun!

You can get started with just your basic crunch to work out your abs, but here are some other workouts that you can try.

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One thing you can do is try the Bicycle Exercise. To get started with the bicycle exercises you have to lay flat on the floor with your lower back pressed to the ground and place your hands beside your head. Slightly lift up your knees and go through the bicycle pedal motion.  Make sure that when you maintain the pedaling, your left elbow is touching your right knee, and your right elbow is touching your left knee. Continue to alternate sides and do about 1-3 sets of about 12 reps.

If you like doing crunches, then another workout you can try is the Vertical Leg Crunch. This exercise is very fun yet effective. To get started on this workout, you need to lie down on the floor and extend your legs straight up with your knees crossed. Your hands can be placed on the floor or you can have your hands touching your head.  Lift your shoulders off the floor, reaching your chest towards your legs. Repeat for about 1-3 sets of about 12 reps. This abs workout is just like doing crunches although, with your legs up in the air instead of being on the floor.

Try out these workouts while you’re at home watching television! They are easy, fun, and very effective. If you continue to do about 1-3 sets of about 12 reps a day, your beach body will be ready for you in no time. Enjoy!

Leg Workouts

Working out every part of your body is very important. I am going to focus on just your legs for this blog post, and excersizes that you can do without equipment.

1. Running - Running is a great workout for not JUST your legs, but your whole body. A quick run before your workout can get your heart rate up and burns lots of calories. It is a great warm up.

2. Squats- Squats work out almost every muscle in your legs. To do these, keep your back straight, hands at your side, and slowly lower your body by bending at the knees. Raise yourself up and exhale. Your feet should be approximately shoulder width apart. As these get easier over time, you can start making your reps longer.
- do not allow your knees to extend over your toes
- keep your abs contracted

3. Leg Curls- Sitting straight on a chair, lift your legs to where they become parallel to the floor,and then lower them again. This will eventually get easier over time, and when this happens you can put weights around your ankles to add more weight.

4. Lunges- stand in a split stance with one leg forward and one leg backwards. Slowly bed the back knee to the floor, but in the process keep both legs at a 90 degree angle.
- Keep your front knee behind your toes
- Keep your abs contracted

Healthy Snacks

Healthy Snacks

When eating snacks one thing to remember is watching how much you put in your mouth. If you think that because you’re snacking on fruits and vegetables you can eat as much as you want, you really can’t. You have to remember that this is your snack for the day not your meal.

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Instead of snacking on junk food like chips, chocolate, and candy, that will make you feel bloated and weigh you down, why not snack on something healthy. If you’re in the need for a snack, make sure you choose to eat something that tastes good, is healthy, but will still satisfy that quick craving. If you are a chocolate junky and love to snack on it a good suggestion would be to try dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is really good for you and still tastes good, but only a piece of dark chocolate, you need to make sure you’re only in taking a little.  

A few good snack ideas would be fruit, vegetables, and peanut butter or just peanuts by themselves if that’s what you prefer.

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Any kind of fruit is really good for you. I prefer to snack on grapes, apples, bananas, and any kind of berries. A really good idea is even to have some sliced apples with peanut butter. I love to eat that during the day as a snack! Peanut butter is really good for you because it’s really high in protein. If you don’t like peanut butter and prefer just to eat peanuts than that is also good for you. Almonds are a good suggestion and are one of my favorites.  
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Again any kind of vegetable is really good for you. The ones I enjoy to snack on are sliced carrots, broccoli, and celery. It is really up to you on which vegetable you like and would prefer to snack on.  

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Healthy Shakes & Smoothies

A great way to get your daily fruit intake quickly is through shakes and smoothies ! They are great for just drinking while relaxing at home, or for a quick, on the go, treat.

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They are very easy to make as well.

For a shake, you can often just choose a fruit; any fruit. For example, if you pick strawberries, all you have to do is put the strawberries into a blender, add some ice, and maybe a little bit of sugar to make it a little sweeter. Mix it up and you have a healthy drink right infront of you. These are often a lot thinner than smoothies though. You can change the strawberries with any fruit you would want.

For smoothies it takes a couple more steps. You pick your fruit, you add some ice, and then from there you have to decide if you want to add milk, or ice cream. If you are choosing ice cream, your best bet would be a low fat ice-cream or one without any sugar in it. This keeps the smoothie as healthy as possible! Mix the smoothie in the blender and your done. It is very quick, and ends up being very delicious.

Some options for some smoothie flavours are:
-Banana Strawberry
-Mango

-Strawberry Kiwi

-Cherry Banana

-Orange Raspberry

-Apple Pear

Dinner Meal Plan

So we have already decided what foods are good for you in the morning for breakfast and in the afternoon for lunch. Now the question is what do I eat for dinner?

Since your lunch is usually smaller when choosing to eat a salad or a sandwich, maybe add some meat to your evening meal. You don’t want to fill yourself at night so don’t completely pig out. Here are some dinner ideas that are easy to make and healthy and nutritious.

Personally my favourite meal for dinner is grilled chicken with rice or grilled chicken with vegetables.  If you don’t like chicken another great option is salmon and if you’re a vegetarian maybe you will prefer tofu. Stay away from frying your meat and bake it or grill it, which ever you prefer.  Fried food is so much heavier and in order to stay away from the greasy, sticky foods, you want cook your foods in a way that will make you feel like what you ate tasted good, but at the same time still healthy. I like to have chicken or salmon with some green beans, or broccoli. Whatever vegetables you like will taste good with your meat. Any meat is good really; it’s just a matter of watching how much you put in your mouth.  

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Another great dish for dinner, if you like pasta can be low in calorie whole wheat pasta. When you eat pasta try to have small portions though because it will fill you up very easy and remember you can’t completely cut carbs and breads out of your diet so just be careful with the portions you intake. If you don’t like pasta and prefer rice, just make sure that the portions are also not very big.

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If you decide or prefer to have a heavier lunch, then for dinner why not have a salad. You can have a bigger salad with some meat added to it and some vegetables.  Now here is a great delicious, but nutritious meal!

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Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all important meals of the day and none of them can be missed. So if you feel like you’re eating too much during one meal, for the next meal eat something a bit smaller.

You want to make sure that you’re eating all of the foods you are suppose to be eating but watch the portions and make sure you feel good about what you’re eating and know that what you put in your mouth is healthy, tasty, and nutritious.