Hi, I am Dollie Gary, from Rochelle Park. I am a housewife as well as a nutrition specialist by profession. I love to spend free time reading articles about health and fitness.
Breathing is a bit of a no-brainer, literally. You inhale and exhale all day long without giving it a second thought. But here’s the weird thing about your breath: Unlike other automatic functions, like your heart beating, you can also choose to control it and breathe faster or slower than normal. And by doing so, you can have a pretty big impact on your mental health.
“Your breath connects what you’re thinking and how your body feels,” says Belisa Vranich, a clinical psychologist and author of Breathe: The Simple, Revolutionary 14-Day Program to Improve Your Mental and Physical Health. “And it goes in both directions.” In other words, not only does your breath speed up when you get stressed, but breathing quickly can actually bring on feelings of stress. It works the other way too: Slow your breathing down and make your breaths deeper and you will start to quickly feel more relaxed.
“When people purposefully try to calm down, they credit things like the candle they lit or the mantra they repeated, and those things help,” says Vranich. “But the real impact is because they made you slow your breathing, which is what really relaxed you.”
Breathe This Way
If you haven’t thought about your breath in a while, chances are it’s relatively shallow, which isn’t great. “I call it hover breathing, because you’re taking tiny sips of air in and letting tiny sips of air out,” says Vranich. “It’s one reason why yawning feels so good—you’re finally taking in lots of oxygen!” The other mistake: You’re expanding your chest when you breathe as opposed to your belly and sides. Change your breathing to be deep and expansive low in your torso and you’re already well on your way to feeling more relaxed. If you’re ready for something a little more specific, try these three techniques Vranich recommends to help you feel more peaceful in no time.
Walking Breath: The next time you’re walking down the street, try timing your inhales and exhales to your steps. Inhale for two steps and exhale for two steps. After a few rounds of that, switch to inhaling for two and exhaling for three. “Exhaling for longer than you inhale stimulates your vagus nerve, which activates your parasympathetic nervous system,” says Vranich. “That is what calms you down.”
4-4-6-2: This pattern gets gradually slower as you go, which makes it pretty powerful at relaxing you. Inhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale for six seconds, hold for two. Keep repeating this pattern but as you go on, start counting slower and slower.
Mouth-to-Nose: Start with three mouth-only breaths (mimic yawning). Then do three breaths where you inhale through your mouth and exhale through your nose. Last, do three breaths inhaling and exhaling through your nose only. “You’ll get a lot of oxygen when you do the yawns,” says Vranich. “And when you switch to your nose, you start getting nitric oxide, which is inherently relaxing.”
As a country, we are far too sedentary—for many reasons. The emergence of new technology like smartphones and streaming video services has meant we’re spending more time on the couch seeking entertainment instead of engaging in physical activity. A lot of us have been working from our makeshift home desks too, spending eight hours (or more) sitting in front of a computer each day.
Despite improved guidelines for movement and more awareness in the past decade, a JAMA study published in 2019 showed that Americans are not getting more active. Sedentary behavior is actually on the rise. But could a slight adjustment to how we “rest” actually help our overall health? That’s what researchers set out to discover.
David Raichlen, PhD, a professor of Human and Evolutionary Biology in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California, recently led a study on the sedentary behaviors in a hunting-gathering society to compare to that of industrialized nations. His team worked with Hadza, who are hunter-gatherers of Tanzania. “They agreed to wear accelerometers that measured posture and helped us measure time spent sedentary,” he tells Fitbit. “We also observed their resting postures and measured muscle activity in different postures using electromyography.”
Interestingly, Raichlen’s team discovered that the Hadza were sedentary roughly the same amount of hours per day as Americans—with one distinct difference. “They spent their sedentary time in postures that elicited light levels of muscle activity, like squatting and kneeling,” says Raichlen.
The goal was to examine the roots of the “evolution of human inactivity,” which carry tons of negative health consequences. Sedentary behaviors carry an increased risk of heart disease, type-2 diabetes, cancer, and death from all causes. By contrast, the Hadza are relatively healthy and do not carry the same level of chronic conditions we see here in the United States, even though they are inactive quite a lot.
It might have to do with the squatting and kneeling, says Raichlen, who suggests that while “humans were likely sedentary for long periods of time” in our evolutionary past as hunter-gatherers, “our bodies did not evolve in the context of complete muscle inactivity” like sitting in chairs and lounging on couches. “Instead, we suggest that sedentary behaviors during much of human evolution occurred with light levels of muscle activity. It is the lack of muscle activity during chair sitting that may carry negative health effects, so chair sitting may represent an inactivity mismatch with our current behaviors.”
According to Raichlen, “squatting and kneeling lead to higher levels of muscle activity than chair sitting,” which in turn “increases muscle metabolism, helping reduce biomarkers of cardiovascular disease.” Overall, keeping those muscles a little bit active during your day might be beneficial.
When it comes to movement, you absolutely don’t have to go for an intense run, a long bike ride, or an hour swim to derive benefits. Even two to four miles of walking per day, roughly 4,000 to 8,000 steps, can be beneficial for overall health, reducing your risk of obesity, heart disease, and cholesterol, while improving immune function and joint aches. Just 30 minutes, or 10 minutes of walking three times a day, and you can be well on your way to better health.
So, the next time you sit down at your computer to go to work, or queue up Netflix, remember to break up your downtime with a little light movement. Try kneeling or squatting, if you want, but that might not be realistic for everyone. It’s okay to try just walking around your living room or using a taller countertop as a standing desk. Raichlen thinks that’s the biggest takeaway from his study; simple movements can lead to big gains. “Our bodies are not well-suited for long periods of muscle inactivity,” he says. “It is best to find ways to have more active muscles during the day, which may include breaking up periods of chair sitting with standing or walking.
Your alarm clock didn’t go off and now you’re late for your 9 AM Zoom meeting—we’ve all been there and have experienced short-term stress to some degree. But what happens when our stress response won’t stop firing? Though short-term stress can be useful, in today’s world it’s not uncommon for many of us to live in a continual, jaw-clenched state with our adrenals in overdrive.
“Most people are overstressed and undernourished, which leads to chronic wear and tear on our system, a reduced ability to adapt in positive ways, and more episodes of mental health and balances such as anxiety, depression, and burn out,” says Dr. Heidi Hanna, chief energy officer of Synergy Brain Fitness, senior researcher with the Brain Health Initiative, and a fellow and advisory board member for the American Institute of Stress.
To put it simply, stress is a reaction that occurs anytime there is a greater demand on our energy across multiple areas than what we have the capacity to give in the moment. And though not all stress is bad, carrying around heavy emotions, trauma, guilt, and resentment wreaks havoc on our bodies and wellbeing, which can lead to long-term consequences.
Good Stress vs. Bad Stress
Short-term stress, also known as acute stress, can be positive and even healthy. It can help with any event or emotion that makes you feel frustrated, fearful, angry, or nervous such as a dangerous situation or meeting a deadline.
“Acute stress actually enhances much of our ability to navigate short term challenges and changes effectively, including things like improved immune function, increased heart rate, enhanced oxygenation to the body, improved memory, focus, and attention, and so on,” says Hanna. “However, when a real or perceived threat continues for longer than approximately 30-minutes, or we are unable to take some appropriate action to resolve it, the chronic stress reaction cycle takes over.”
Chronic stress, which is long-term and perceived by the brain as ongoing, turns stress that was initially helpful to harmful, “as we cannot maintain such high levels of energy output for long periods of time without rest, recovery, and repair,” says Hanna.
How Does Stress Get Stuck In The Body?
Everyone deals with chronic stress differently and oftentimes we attempt to push these unwanted feelings out of our awareness by forcefully denying and repressing them. But the longer we bottle them up, the more likely it is that they’ll manifest in some form in our physical bodies.
“The mind and the body are intertwined,” says Dr. Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, Vice President for Health Promotion, Professor and Dean of the College of Nursing at The Ohio State University. “For example, when the mind perceives stress, the body’s fight or flight response kicks in. In chronic stress, hormones are secreted that have adverse effects on the body’s cardiovascular, neurological, and immune systems.”
In order for our body and mind to stay healthy, the emotions and energy within must be in a constant “flow”. When stress and emotions aren’t worked through properly, this energy has nowhere to go and literally gets stuck, intensifies, and stagnates inside the body. In more serious cases, it can lead to diseases such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.
“A lot of this has to do with the rewiring that happens in the brain and nervous system, and the chronic overuse of our adaptability processes such as immune function that fatigue over time,” says Hanna. “We can see this in changes to the structure, function, and chemistry in the brain and body. Including inflammatory markers that will often stimulate anything that is already wrong in the body. Again, it is important to note that these are healthy processes that we need to survive and thrive but not if we are overusing them and under recovering from them due to our chronically elevated stress states.”
Where Can Stress Get Stuck In The Body?
Whether it appears as stiff joints, tension, blockages, increased inflammation, digestive discomfort, reduced immune function or other symptoms, “unmanaged, chronic stress can absolutely get stuck in our body in various areas including joints, tissues, and organs,” says Hanna.
Some areas where you can feel the physical effects of chronic stress include the pelvic floor and hips, back and shoulders, jaw and neck, stomach and gut, and immune system. It can also strain the brain and nervous system, causing them to adapt in ways that may be beneficial in the short-term but are dangerous in the long-term. “This cognitive rewiring shows up in reduced strength and function of the cortical real estate in our brain that helps us to problem solve, think rationally and logically, and collaborate well with others,” says Hanna. “Simultaneously, it also strengthens and over activates the fear centers and negative emotional reaction patterns in the brain.”
How Do I Relieve Bodily Stress?
It’s vital to our mental, physical, and emotional wellness to let go of stress in order to live a healthy life. That said, the million-dollar question is: if it’s stuck, how do we release it? Luckily, there are numerous ways to deal with bodily stress.
Yoga. The combination of physical poses, controlled breathing, and moving meditation help lower blood pressure and heart rate, giving way for a great environment to release stress. “Yoga is a method of creating the conditions for something to arise in a safe and unforced way so we can sit face to face with these parts and meet them and navigate our way through them with kindness and flexibility,” says Emma Peel, a registered RYT level 2 yoga instructor with over 800 hours of study and 3,000 hours of teaching.
Exercise.Exercise is the most common way to relieve stress and help you relax later. It reduces your levels of stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol and stimulates endorphins, which are the body’s natural mood elevators.
Practice cognitive-behavioral skills.“At the base of the brain we need to calm the body and nervous system through techniques that soothe the senses and enhance a rhythmic breathing pattern,” says Hanna. “Studies have shown that breathing at a pace of about six breaths per minute, or five counts in and five to six counts out, can activate the parasympathetic reaction system responsible for our relaxation response.”
Sensory cues. Essential oils, warm water, massages, listening to calming sounds of the ocean, weighted blankets, and gentle physical activity can also help calm the base of the brain and nervous system.
Practice mindfulness. “It’s important to ask ourselves good questions especially in difficult times to engage the curiosity centers of the brain,” says Hanna. “When we get curious it reduces the pressure of needing to fix something, and allows us to see life as an experiment to be learned from.” Helpful questions can be anything from: “What am I grateful for today?” to “How might I be able to serve someone else in a simple way right now?”
At Fitbit, we want to help our community stay mindful at home during today’s difficult times by offering 40 new pieces of Premium content free in the Fitbit app. In addition, anyone new to Fitbit Premium can get a 90-day free trial of this paid subscription. If Premium is not available in your region and you have not tried Fitbit Coach yet, we are offering a 90-day free trial so you can stream video workouts on your phone or computer.
Restful sleep.Stress and bad sleep can be a vicious cycle leading to even more stress on your body as it needs time to recover from stressful events. Experts suggest adults get at least seven to nine hours of restful sleep each night.
Although the world is practicing social and physical distancing right now, that doesn’t mean we need to socially disconnect. “Studies have shown that feeling isolated is worse for our physical health than smoking cigarettes,” says Hanna. That said, practicing strategies that help us feel connected to other people can help us feel happier and in turn, reduce stress.
“Thinking about something or someone that you feel grateful for, practicing self compassion and gratitude for yourself, writing a handwritten thank you card or a kind email to someone else, and simply doing nice things for other people can all elicit a sense of gratitude, compassion, and kindness that reduces the overwhelm of stress,” says Hanna.
With many people still staying home and our daily schedules constantly changing, we wanted to take a deeper look at how this experience is impacting Fitbit users’ resting heart rate. Resting heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute when you are still and at rest. This metric can be an important indicator of your fitness level and overall heart health. Not only can it be used to track your fitness level, but it can also alert you of potential health issues such as illness, high stress levels, sleep deprivation, dehydration, overtraining, and underlying medical conditions.
What we discovered is encouraging: across the US, when comparing the baseline data from January to that of February, March, and April, we saw that resting heart rate improved—which means that it declined—for the general population, skewing more so for younger users.
In March, resting heart rate began to decline across the country; the effect nearly doubled month over month in April, when the average resting heart rate dropped by 1.26 beats per minute in users aged 18 through 29, which may not sound like a lot, but is a statistically significant change. In fact, users across all age groups saw a decline. There were no significant geographical variations.
To better understand how our users’ lifestyle behaviors may be impacting resting heart rate, we took a deeper look at measures like active minutes, sleep time, and bedtime variability. After all, at a time when people are largely stuck indoors, we’ve seen that physical activity—like average step count—has declined, which could lead to an increase in resting heart rate. However, we’re seeing the opposite, though, which is great news, but we knew there had to be more factors at play here.
We identified 3 key trends that could be contributing to the decline in resting heart rate for our users from January to April:
Step counts declined, but active minutes increased. Although step counts are down across all age groups, 42 percent of people have increased their active minutes and 31 percent have continued to maintain their same average level. This indicates that people moved from gaining incidental steps throughout the day to more vigorous walks that get their hearts pumping. For example, we may not be getting our steps in during our daily commutes, but we are going on walks and hikes to earn those active minutes and keep our hearts healthy.
In the figure above, we can see that users who increased their median daily active minutes experienced a larger decline in their resting heart rate.
Sleep duration increased. As shared in our data story about global sleep patterns, we know that sleep duration has increased during shelter-in-place. In fact, 45 percent of people have increased their sleep time, while 30 percent have maintained their average sleep duration. This is great news, especially because not getting enough sleep can have a negative impact on resting heart rate. Not getting enough sleep is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
On average, users who increased their sleep duration the most experienced a larger improvement in their resting heart rate.
Bedtime variability decreased. During normal times, people (particularly young people) tend to go to bed later on the weekends, often leading to social jet lag, which can impact heart health. Not only are people going to bed earlier on the weekends since they are no longer going out, but they are also going to bed later on the weekdays, leading to a more consistent bedtime. In fact, our data shows that over 40 percent have reduced their bedtime variability by at least 15 minutes.
On average, users who decreased their bedtime variability the most experienced a larger improvement in resting heart rate from January to April.
We also observed that users who exhibited multiple healthy behaviors saw a larger decline in resting heart rate. Here is an example:
For all age groups, the users who increased their active minutes by more than 30 minutes a day and slept an additional hour experienced a larger decrease in resting heart rate than the ones who made only one of those two behavior changes
What other factors could be at play here?
One factor that could have played a role is seasonality—the typical lifestyle changes that go hand-in-hand with the changing seasons. Resting heart rate is known to have a minor seasonal trend, with slightly higher rates in January and slightly lower rates in July. In order to quantify the impact seasonality had on the observations we made, we picked another cohort of users from January 2019 and observed them through April 2019, and found that the improvement in resting heart rate in 2020 is 2.4 times bigger than that of 2019!
We would have expected active minutes to increase and bedtime variability to decrease from January to April anyway, but the differences we’ve observed in 2020 so far are more dramatic than last year. What is the most striking? Behaviors like sleep duration and step count do not follow the typical seasonal pattern this year. Generally, sleep duration decreases, and step count increases in April compared to January. We saw the opposite this year, with users sleeping more and taking fewer steps in April.
Overall, our findings on resting heart rate were hugely encouraging—and we’re happy to see our users are adapting their behavior and still prioritizing their health and fitness. During these trying times, we’d say it’s definitely something to celebrate.
Feeling tense while working from home? Haven’t gotten your ergonomic desk setup to speed just yet? Step away from the keyboard, take your eyes off the screen, and spend a few moments focusing on your body. A quick stretching break could be just what you need to feel reinvigorated. In fact, studies have shown that taking a much-needed pause canhelp boost your productivity(and act as a great alternative to downing an extra cup of coffee when theafternoon slumphits). Perform all of the stretches below, or pick one or two, to target any part of your body that feels tight or out of whack.
Cat-Cow Stretch
Targets:back, chest
While this stretch is typically done on all fours, you don’t have to be on the ground to lengthen and contract your muscles. Perform a modified version of the same gentle, spine-stretching sequence from your home desk to help ease your body back into proper posture.
Directions:
Scoot down towards the edge of your chair so that your back isn’t resting or being propped up by the back of the chair.
With your hands resting on your knees, inhale and hinge slightly forward allowing a small arch in your lower back. This is cow pose.
On your exhale, round your spine and tuck your chin into your chest. This is cat pose.
Flow between those two poses, pressing your chest out and arching your back dramatically for the “cat” pose, and then breathing out and pulling your belly button in towards your spine as you arch your back into “cow.”
Trunk Rotation
Targets:obliques You don’t have to be off the clock to make time to work your core. Squeeze in a seated oblique twist with this movement that engages your core while challenging your stabilizer muscles.
Directions:
Sit tall in your chair as you gently rotate your trunk and shoulders to one side. Grasp the outside of the corresponding leg to lean deeper into the pose.
Hold, then repeat in the opposite direction. Each time, turn until you feel a slight stretch in your trunk.
Chest Stretch
Targets:Pectoral muscles Open up your chest with this chair stretch that also hits your arms.
Directions:
Sit on the edge of your chair with your feet hip-distance apart and firmly planted on the ground.
Reach your hands back to grasp the back of your chair, palms facing you.
With a straight back, draw your bellybutton in towards your spine. Press your chest forward and keep your gaze straight ahead.
Hold this stretch for 30-60 seconds.
Shoulder Stretch
Targets:deltoids (anterior, middle, and posterior) This stretch keeps tension at bay by rolling your shoulders and mindfully relaxing your upper body.
Directions:
Sit up straight with your hands on your thighs.
Roll your shoulders toward the front and then up to your ears, drawing them back and down while squeezing your shoulder blades together.
Repeat for 10 repetitions before reversing direction.
Neck Rotations
Targets:neck, trapezius You don’t have to be in yoga’s “ragdoll” pose to experience the release that comes with letting your head weigh down and your neck roll. Help relieve neck and shoulder pain with this desk-friendly modification.
Directions:
Sit up straight with your hands resting on your thighs.
With your head tilted back and gaze towards the ceiling, rotate your head clockwise.
Continue until you’ve made a full rotation, dropping your chin to your chest at the halfway point.
Repeat counterclockwise. That’s one rep. Repeat 10 times.
We’ve all been advised to stay as active as possible during COVID-19. Physical wellbeing facilitates emotional wellbeing. Venturing outdoors responsibly and within the local guidelines is important, and encouraged by health officials. Personally, going out for my daily runs is really helping me get through this crisis.
Technology can play a part. With the release of the new Charge 4, Fitbit has also made some really exciting updates to its app. One feature I am particularly enamored with is the new workout intensity map. After syncing the GPS data from my tracker, the workout intensity map provides a detailed breakdown of the different heart rate zones I passed through along the way. I can also toggle over and see my pace displayed on the same map.
What’s particularly useful is the heat map overlay, which displays the corresponding color of the workout intensity, or what zone you are in, during the workout. Blue refers to when you’re below zones (such as during your warmup), while yellow corresponds with fat burn, orange with cardio zone, and red occurs when you hit your peak.
This allows me to visualize and improve upon my performance when navigating different terrains, like hills or sand. The pacing map overlay is displayed in blue and green (low pace and high pace) and the average pace for the duration of the run is also displayed for easy reference.
While all this may sound a bit complicated, using the app is anything but. The workout intensity map is intuitive, easy to use, and dare I say it, even fun. Having your workout stats displayed visually is much more motivational than columns of numbers.
If you are able to get outside and exercise, please do so (again, responsibly of course). If technology like this can help you stay motivated and engaged, use it to your benefit. Together we will weather this storm. And the healthier we remain, the better off we’ll be.
When tested by a Fitbit editor, she was off to a fast start, reaching peak heart zone before finishing her first mile. You can see she took a break to walk around mile two, and her heart rate came down to the fat burn zone.
Workout intensity map available in the Fitbit app for all activities using built-in or Connected GPS.
Whether you’re unwinding from a stressful workday or relaxing after a sweaty living room workout, the key to healthy eating success is keeping it super simple. So don’t overthink it! Just grab a handful of ingredients you were able to find, and round them out with a fewpantry staples. You can put on a pot of brown rice or quinoa while you’re hopping in the shower and slipping into sweatpants. Slap a lean protein, like salmon, chicken breasts, or flank steak, straight into a skillet. And of course, don’t hold back on the colorful veggies, whether it’s easier to slide a sheet pan into the oven or drop dark greens directly into your pasta.
These healthy dinner ideas call for five ingredients or fewer so you can get something delicious on the table, stat. Please note: olive oil, salt, pepper, and herbs and spices don’t count, because you should always have those items on hand.
Feeling tense while working from home? Haven’t gotten your ergonomic desk setup to speed just yet? Step away from the keyboard, take your eyes off the screen, and spend a few moments focusing on your body. A quick stretching break could be just what you need to feel reinvigorated. In fact, studies have shown that taking a much-needed pause canhelp boost your productivity(and act as a great alternative to downing an extra cup of coffee when theafternoon slumphits). Perform all of the stretches below, or pick one or two, to target any part of your body that feels tight or out of whack.
Cat-Cow Stretch
Targets:back, chest
While this stretch is typically done on all fours, you don’t have to be on the ground to lengthen and contract your muscles. Perform a modified version of the same gentle, spine-stretching sequence from your home desk to help ease your body back into proper posture.
Directions:
Scoot down towards the edge of your chair so that your back isn’t resting or being propped up by the back of the chair.
With your hands resting on your knees, inhale and hinge slightly forward allowing a small arch in your lower back. This is cow pose.
On your exhale, round your spine and tuck your chin into your chest. This is cat pose.
Flow between those two poses, pressing your chest out and arching your back dramatically for the “cat” pose, and then breathing out and pulling your belly button in towards your spine as you arch your back into “cow.”
Trunk Rotation
Targets:obliques You don’t have to be off the clock to make time to work your core. Squeeze in a seated oblique twist with this movement that engages your core while challenging your stabilizer muscles.
Directions:
Sit tall in your chair as you gently rotate your trunk and shoulders to one side. Grasp the outside of the corresponding leg to lean deeper into the pose.
Hold, then repeat in the opposite direction. Each time, turn until you feel a slight stretch in your trunk.
Chest Stretch
Targets:Pectoral muscles Open up your chest with this chair stretch that also hits your arms.
Directions:
Sit on the edge of your chair with your feet hip-distance apart and firmly planted on the ground.
Reach your hands back to grasp the back of your chair, palms facing you.
With a straight back, draw your bellybutton in towards your spine. Press your chest forward and keep your gaze straight ahead.
Hold this stretch for 30-60 seconds.
Shoulder Stretch
Targets:deltoids (anterior, middle, and posterior) This stretch keeps tension at bay by rolling your shoulders and mindfully relaxing your upper body.
Directions:
Sit up straight with your hands on your thighs.
Roll your shoulders toward the front and then up to your ears, drawing them back and down while squeezing your shoulder blades together.
Repeat for 10 repetitions before reversing direction.
Neck Rotations
Targets:neck, trapezius You don’t have to be in yoga’s “ragdoll” pose to experience the release that comes with letting your head weigh down and your neck roll. Help relieve neck and shoulder pain with this desk-friendly modification.
Directions:
Sit up straight with your hands resting on your thighs.
With your head tilted back and gaze towards the ceiling, rotate your head clockwise.
Continue until you’ve made a full rotation, dropping your chin to your chest at the halfway point.
Repeat counterclockwise. That’s one rep. Repeat 10 times.
We’ve all been advised to stay as active as possible during COVID-19. Physical wellbeing facilitates emotional wellbeing. Venturing outdoors responsibly and within the local guidelines is important, and encouraged by health officials. Personally, going out for my daily runs is really helping me get through this crisis.
Technology can play a part. With the release of the new Charge 4, Fitbit has also made some really exciting updates to its app. One feature I am particularly enamored with is the new workout intensity map. After syncing the GPS data from my tracker, the workout intensity map provides a detailed breakdown of the different heart rate zones I passed through along the way. I can also toggle over and see my pace displayed on the same map.
What’s particularly useful is the heat map overlay, which displays the corresponding color of the workout intensity, or what zone you are in, during the workout. Blue refers to when you’re below zones (such as during your warmup), while yellow corresponds with fat burn, orange with cardio zone, and red occurs when you hit your peak.
This allows me to visualize and improve upon my performance when navigating different terrains, like hills or sand. The pacing map overlay is displayed in blue and green (low pace and high pace) and the average pace for the duration of the run is also displayed for easy reference.
While all this may sound a bit complicated, using the app is anything but. The workout intensity map is intuitive, easy to use, and dare I say it, even fun. Having your workout stats displayed visually is much more motivational than columns of numbers.
If you are able to get outside and exercise, please do so (again, responsibly of course). If technology like this can help you stay motivated and engaged, use it to your benefit. Together we will weather this storm. And the healthier we remain, the better off we’ll be.
When tested by a Fitbit editor, she was off to a fast start, reaching peak heart zone before finishing her first mile. You can see she took a break to walk around mile two, and her heart rate came down to the fat burn zone.
Workout intensity map available in the Fitbit app for all activities using built-in or Connected GPS.
Let’s be honest: Nobody wants to pull out a long recipe in the middle of a crazy week. Whether you’re coming home stressed from work or sweaty from the gym, the key to healthy eating success is keeping it super simple. So don’t overthink it! Just grab a handful of fresh ingredients, and round them out with a few pantry staples. You can put on a pot of brown rice or quinoa while you’re hopping in the shower and slipping into sweatpants. Slap a lean protein, like salmon, chicken breasts, or flank steak, straight into a skillet. And of course, don’t hold back on the colorful veggies, whether it’s easier to slide a sheet pan into the oven or drop dark greens directly into your pasta.
These healthy dinner ideas call for five ingredients or fewer so you can get something delicious on the table, stat. Please note: olive oil, salt, pepper, and herbs and spices don’t count, because you should always have those items on hand.
Think of the last time you went shopping for raw meat. How long did it take you to store it in the refrigerator or freezer? Also, what temperature do you think your refrigerator should be operating at? How about your freezer? If you don’t know the answers to these two questions, don’t fret. Here are some facts about food poisoning and how best to prevent it.
Food Poisoning: Causes and Symptoms
If food ingredients aren’t handled and stored correctly, they can become contaminated with organisms like bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Eating contaminated food can cause food poisoning or foodborne illness. If you’ve ever experienced food poisoning before, you’ll know that symptoms are pretty unpleasant. They can include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. You normally start to feel sick within a few hours to two days of eating the contaminated food, and it can take five days or more before you start to feel better. If you become dehydrated it may take a bit longer before you’re back to your normal self again.
Since many cases of food poisoning happen at home, knowing how to handle perishable food is your best defense against foodborne illnesses. Thankfully, we live during a time where two of life’s most useful inventions exist—fridges and freezers! They help to keep food safe and extend the shelf life of many ingredients.
Top Food Storage Tips
Keep hands, utensils, and surfaces clean. Wash your hands with warm soapy water before handling food. Wash utensils with hot, soapy water, and be sure to clean kitchen surfaces regularly.
Refrigerator or freeze as soon as possible. Don’t allow more than 90 minutes to lapse between shopping and chilling or freezing your food. If it’s a hot day, aim for less than an hour.
Wash fresh produce before storing it. As you get home from the supermarket, be sure to wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Make it a habit to give all fresh fruit and veggies a good wash and rub under cold running water before you pack them away.
Ensure the fridge temperature is correct. Aim for 40 ℉ (5 ℃) or below. Try to keep a thermometer in the fridge to keep track of the temperature.
Store raw meat, poultry, and fish correctly. Raw meat juices or blood can cause cross-contamination to the other foods stored beneath it, so it’s important to store them in a separate meat compartment, which is on the bottom shelf or bottom drawer of your fridge, below ready-to-eat food, and in covered containers.
Keep ready-to-eat foods covered and separate. Always keep ready-to-eat foods wrapped with kitchen foil, cling film, plastic containers with lids, or freezer bags. Store them away from raw ingredients like meats and unwashed fruit and vegetables.
Defrost food slowly. Remember to plan ahead and allocate sufficient time to avoid harmful bacteria from growing. Allow 24 hours to defrost every five pounds (two and a half kilograms) of meat or chicken.
Cook foods to a safe temperature. A general rule of thumb is to make sure that your food is cooked to at least 160 to 165℉ (70 to 75℃). A food thermometer can be handy and a reliable way to check, but if you don’t own one, you can visually eyeball uncooked food: Meat should no longer be dark red; chicken should be white, not pink; and fish should be opaque.
When in doubt, throw it out. Bacteria from raw meat, poultry, or seafood can easily spread to ready-to-eat or cooked food when touched. If you suspect that any of it has not been stored properly or kept separate from raw ingredients, throw it away.
Most of us complain about working too much, but these days we’re complaining about being home too much. As we sit in our dining room chairs, lounge on our couches, and slumber in our beds, Americans are moving less now than we normally do. In fact, recent research shows that Americans are moving 24 percent less than this time last year, while our European friends are moving 38 percent less.
That said, it’s time we kick it up a notch and do some great at-home workouts. The following workout requires no equipment and will work just as well for a beginner as it would for an advanced athlete.
I also suggest that people hit their daily step goals regardless of working out. If you can, try and do a nice warm-up walk around your block or up and down a set of stairs in your building or in your home.
For our warm-up, we’re going to do five moves that are each one minute in length:
Stationary march
Stationary run
Jumping jacks
Jumping with a phantom rope
Shadowbox
After these five minutes of elevating your heart rate and lubricating your joints, let’s jump right into today’s workout…
Reverse lunge. Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, step backward with your right leg, dropping your right knee down towards the ground. Then go back to the beginning and do the other leg. This move will target your lower body.
Reverse flies. Hinge from the hips so that your upper body is almost parallel to the ground, with your arms hanging straight down. Flap your arms like a bird flaps its wings, squeeze your shoulder blades together, then return back to the beginning. If you’re more advanced, try doing this with large water bottles as weights in both hands.
Spider plank. Start down on the ground in a push-up position with your palms flat on the ground, your arm straight, and your body rigid like a board. Next, bring your right knee up towards your right elbow then back, then bring your left knee to your left elbow and back. This spider plank is a great move for strengthening your midsection.
Beginners, try 10 repetitions of each one of these three moves and do the entire circuit three times. Intermediate, try 15 repetitions, and advanced can go ahead and try five circuits of 20 to 25 repetitions.
If you liked this workout, feel free to check out my Instagram page, @harleypasternak, for some more daily exercises you can try at home with no equipment. Let’s all join together and stay active and healthy!
Chances are, you already started spring cleaning this year—but it might have been more about scrubbing and eliminating possible germs than decluttering and reorganizing.
If your current situation finds you with a few extra hours on your hands, set aside some time this month for a more thorough spring cleaning. Now that you’re home more, you may have noticed dust on places you never noticed before, and little kids’ fingerprints on surfaces you don’t often look at. Not only will you feel good about taking any steps you can to protect your family from illnesses, but spring cleaning is good for your physical health, mental health, and just might help you hit your fitness goals this season.
“People with clean homes have actually been found to be more active, less stressed, and more focused,” says Stacy Cohen, M.D., double-board certified addiction and general psychiatrist and founder of The Moment in Santa Monica, Calif.
Here’s how spring cleaning is a boon for your physical and mental health.
Clear out the winter dust and doldrums. Using the onset of spring—and extra time at home—as an excuse to clear clutter and get organized can also help you feel less stressed.
Not only will organizing your closet help you find your favorite workout clothes faster, but decluttering may even help you shed those winter pounds. Research finds that clutter makes you more likely to stress-eat, and if the only foods you see when you’re feeling overwhelmed are unhealthy ones, you’re adding another barrier to weight loss. Put “declutter kitchen” on your spring cleaning to-dos for a faster path to a healthier body.
Clean physical clutter to improve mental clutter. Cleaning can help us gain control over our environment, says Dr. Cohen. In a world where there are so many things that are out of our control, being able to figure out those things we can control—like our physical environments—and address them, can be very liberating and empowering.
The more we can focus our attention on the things we can control right now, the more we are distracted from anxious thinking, she says. “Distraction is actually a very effective tool for treating anxiety and achieving a sense of calm,” says Dr. Cohen. So blast your favorite playlist and start tossing out excess junk in order to take your mind off your worries.
When online business coach Fabienne Raphael owned a home staging business, having her customers declutter their homes before they went up for sale was one of the first tasks she’d charge them with.
After removing a lot of their excess stuff in order to prepare the home for selling, Raphael says customers would tell her they felt less stressed. “When you come into a clear, clean and well-organized home, it’s much easier to think straight and feel more relaxed,” Raphael says.
“Chronically elevated cortisol levels . . . can wreck your sleep, mess with metabolism, and zap energy levels,” she says. “Decluttering your physical environment feels amazing and can help bring those cortisol levels back into balance.”
While you’re tidying your closet and kitchen, write a checklist about what you want to accomplish, whether that’s tossing out old workout clothes or writing down your spring fitness goals and challenges, Franzen suggests. The act of writing down any “unfinished business” usually provides immediate relief that weighs on your mind, she says.
The first items on our decluttering checklist? Ratty workout clothes, old sneakers, and junk food.
To help you stay healthy, safe, and connected, Fitbit is introducing a new tab in the Fitbit app to give our community access to helpful information, motivation, and resources about COVID-19. Starting today, users with the Fitbit app and a Fitbit account in select countries* will see a new tab on the bottom right, titled COVID-19. In this new tab, you can access tools to help you stay active and healthy from home, connect with a doctor virtually and stay up-to-date with all of the latest information from the World Health Organization in order to stay safe and informed.
Read on to learn more about the resources we’ve made available for you.
What’s New?
Connect with a doctor virtually. Not feeling well? Users in the US can get the care they need while staying safe at home by booking a virtual doctor’s visit with the PlushCare team directly from the Fitbit app.
PlushCare’s board-certified doctors can address medical needs from ongoing conditions and prescription refills to urgent issues, like screening for COVID-19. Become a member to get access to a 30 day free trial or login to your existing account to book your virtual appointment. The next available appointment is typically same-day and can be paid for with insurance or credit card.
PlushCare is in-network with most major insurers and to help make the process as smooth as possible, PlushCare will provide your copay amount in real-time. If you don’t currently have insurance, you can still book a virtual appointment with PlushCare. Without insurance, a visit costs $99 + monthly membership fee.
Stay up-to-date on the latest information. Easily access all of the latest, real-time updates from organizations like the World Health Organization to stay safe, informed, and healthy.
Stay mentally and physically healthy with tools from Fitbit
Fitbit is here to help you sleep better, eat well, move more, and manage stress with a range of tools we’ve made readily available for you at this time, including:
A 90-day free trial of Premium, plus, we’ve made 40+ Premium at-home workouts, meditations, sleep tracks, and more available for everyone to use, free of charge. Unlock it all in the Fitbit app**
New clock faces, like the Clean Cues clock face, for Fitbit smartwatches that offer a friendly reminder and timer for washing your hands
Motivational reminders to take breaths, stretch, and move, with Reminders to Move
Ways to connect with others to stay motivated as a part of our global Fitbit community
Plus, we will continue to bring you relevant and useful insights through our research of aggregated, anonymized Fitbit data to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on our community, like we did with global activity levels and sleep patterns.
Here at Fitbit, your health and wellness have always been and will always be our top priority. By using these resources, we hope we can help you stay the course of your goals, and make safe and healthy choices while at home, as we all move forward, together.
*Tab available 4/10/20 in the following countries if Fitbit app language is set to English: United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Norway, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia. Tab content may differ by country. Tab will be available soon for users in remaining countries/languages.
**Offer valid for new Premium users only. Terms and conditions apply.
Targets
