Blog – Page 19 – Coach Chrystal's Eat Move Live

Is it a Real Food?

Those who are looking for the best nutrition advice have often heard that the healthiest way to food shop while at the supermarket is by purchasing foods mainly from the perimeter of the store, while skipping the shelves that line the aisles because the perimeter is where (most of) the real food resides. We could even take this further by saying that the best way to grocery shop is at your local farm, skipping the supermarket all together!

But what is meant by real food anyway? Read more “Is it a Real Food?” →

Body Science

Muscle

Muscular tissues are formed of elongated cells called muscle fibers. They use ATP, a chemical compound that is produced through cellular respiration (which we will likely cover at a later date in detail), to generate force. Muscular tissue produces movements, maintains posture, generates heat and provides protection. We have three different types of muscular tissue in our bodies, skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle. Read more “Muscle” →

Body Science

Fat (Adipose)

Culturally, we sensationalize fat. Fat’s bad. Fat’s good. There’s skinny fat, and there’s just fat, fat. There are countless fat-reducing diets and there is a sociological push to embrace ones own fat. We shouldn’t comment on persons fat, while at times a doctor must in order to offer the best possible care. But a doctor who prescribes fat reduction is often considered cruel and/or cold – sometimes even lazy, because it seems that that’s the only answer he or she will give no matter what the person’s complaint or ailment. And far too many of us are obsessed with fat. Even the thinnest or most fit of us will see fat in the mirror and sleep with a scale under our bed. Read more “Fat (Adipose)” →

Body Science

Things to know about calories & Calories

A calorie is actually a unit of measurement, sort of like a pound measures weight or centimeter measures length. What calories measure are the units of heat energy required to raise the temperature of a single gram or a kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius. If calorie is written with a lowercase ‘c’ as in ‘cal.’ the unit measured is 1 gram of water. If calorie is written with an uppercase ‘C’ as in ‘Cal.’ the unit measured is a kilogram of water. Read more “Things to know about calories & Calories” →

Body Science

Exercise & Bone Growth

Systematically applying mechanical stress to your bones increases the strength of them. On a cellular level, your bone tissue adapts to the mechanical stresses you place on them by increasing the mineral salt deposits in them and through producing collagen fibers. Removing mechanical stress weakens bony tissue though the exact opposite processes. Read more “Exercise & Bone Growth” →

Body Science

Posture

The only bad posture is one you stay in for too long. We are dynamic beings and our bodies adapt to the forces we place on them. The health and fitness community has spent way too much time blaming poor posture for every ache and pain we experience, when in fact posture or structural abnormalities are common, and it is not abnormal at all to see what we qualify as poor posture in perfectly healthy people who have no complaints about pain or discomfort. Your bony structure at birth was not the same as the bony structure of the guy next to you. Add to that the fact that the forces you have placed on your body throughout your lifetime of physical activities or inactivity are unique to you, and your body has adapted to be strong and robust where you have taught it to be, and it means that you may look a little different from your best friends or family members. Remember that bones are living tissues, forever breaking down and rebuilding themselves; adapting to be your very own unique skeleton. Read more “Posture” →

Body Science

Bone

Bone provides support and protection to your body. It produces blood cells, and stores both minerals and triglycerides. We like to think of our bones as hard, static, solid, unmoving or unchanging pieces to our skeleton. But believe it or not, your living bone tissue is forever growing, remodeling and repairing itself (or in other words, breaking itself down and building itself back up). It is not stagnant or static at all, but is forever changing inside your body. Read more “Bone” →

Nutrition

Hunger

Any successful, long term nutrition plan must consider hunger. Most diet pills available are appetite suppressants, for the reason that hunger is the simple, yet powerful driving force behind most diet failure. Hunger is complex; involving psychological factors; nerve firing and brain mapping habits, as well as physiological factors like hormone production and suppression – which can be influenced and even damaged by the quality of foods we eat. Hunger is also influenced by physical factors; the size of an individuals stomach or the amounts of nutrients available either due the quality of foods ingested, or the quantity of nutrients that are able to pass from the stomach and intestines, into the blood where they can then be transported to other body tissues where they are needed. Physical factors too, can be influenced and damaged by the quality and quantity of foods we eat. Read more “Hunger” →

Body Science

Blood, Cardiovascular System & Obesity

Blood
Your blood is a fluid connective tissue. Its plasma is combined mostly of water with a wide variety of dissolved substances including nutrients, wastes, enzymes, plasma proteins, hormones, respiratory gases and ions. It also contains red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Red blood cells transport oxygen from the lungs to body cells, while removing carbon dioxide from cells to the lungs for exhalation. Blood carries nutrients from the gastrointestinal tract, and hormones from the endocrine cells to other body cells. Blood also transports heat and waste products to various organs for elimination. White blood cells and platelets are some of the building blocks of your immune system, aiding in defense against foreign bodies (viruses and bacteria, for example), and tissue repair. Blood acts to protect by clotting, which creates a barrier against excessive loss from the cardiovascular system after injury, and white blood cells are involved in immune responses. These immune responses include injury recovery, allergy response, and phagocytosis (or consumption and destruction of dead cells and other noxious substances). In addition, several blood proteins like antibodies, act to protect us against disease in a variety of ways. Read more “Blood, Cardiovascular System & Obesity” →

Fitness

The Deadlift

Why it’s Functional

The deadlift is a simple yet unrivaled movement that will increase your strength from head to toe. It doesn’t matter what your goals are: increasing metabolism, build strength or muscle tissue, or improve over all athletic performance, the deadlift will help you reach that end all the while helping to maintain functional independence as you age.

Fun Fact: The Deadlift was initially named the Healthlift – which may be a better-suited name for it. Read more “The Deadlift” →

The things I've learned...

Is it a Real Food?

Muscle

Fat (Adipose)

Things to know about calories & Calories

Exercise & Bone Growth

Posture

Bone

Hunger

Blood, Cardiovascular System & Obesity

The Deadlift

What are you waiting for?