Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and Hollywood coastlines are a great place to escape to the sandy beach for an exhilarating bike ride or a long morning run. With the temperatures rising every minute you need to remember to stay hydrated and fueled when it comes to your fitness regimen. Eating healthy in-season foods like fruits and vegetables are a great source of energy and perfect for healthy weight loss.

Here are some fresh May superfoods to eat for some healthy fitness fuel.

Hybrid Boysenberries – The boysenberry is a unique hybrid of not only the blackberry and loganberry but the European raspberry as well. Besides being delicious, boysenberries can provide you with several health benefits from their abundance of antioxidants that help to fight off free radicals that cause cell damage and promote disease.

Fresh Apricots – Dried apricots are usually available any time of the year but only fresh, juicy apricots are grown during the summer months. May welcomes the apricot with all of its health benefits and so should your healthy weight loss diet. Apricots are an excellent source of Vitamins A & C, iron, potassium and fiber to help keep you full and energized during physical activity.

Ravishing Radishes – Radishes are not only low in calories but they contain no fats or cholesterols when eaten raw. The biggest benefit the radish boasts is its ability to keep you fuller longer with its high water and carbohydrate content.

Altruistic Avocados – Although avocadoes are virtually in-season all year round, the month of May brings the celebration of Cinco de Mayo, so stores tend to stock up on their supply for customers to make dishes that complement the holiday’s festivities. Besides being the key ingredient to delicious guacamole, avocados are a superb source of fiber, potassium, Vitamin C & K and filled with heart-healthy unsaturated fats. Introduce some avocados to your palette this may, but make sure to eat them in moderation.

Dandelion Greens – These leafy greens are the perfect addition to your healthy weight loss regimen. Dandelion greens have a high concentration of folate, magnesium, phosphorus and copper. They tend to be slightly bitter and a bit peppery but loaded with beta-carotene which promotes good eyesight.

These are just a few May superfoods to add to your healthy diet. Talk to your weight loss surgeon to find out if any of these superfoods will make a good addition to your post-surgery diet.

How many times a week do you sit down for a good old-fashioned family dinner? Studies have shown that the family that dines together stays healthy together, but 40 percent of the typical family’s budget is spent on dining out. Eating fast food and restaurant meals may make things easier and take the stress off of you as head cook, but they contain significantly higher levels of fat, salt and calories than the typical meal prepared at home.

Regular preparation of home-cooked meals is the perfect way to make sure that you and everyone else in your family eats healthy each and every day. If you’ve undergone surgery for lap band in the Miami or Ft. Lauderdale area, or are considering bariatric surgery for weight loss, you can’t afford the risks to your diet that eating out several nights a week entail. Spend some quality time eating quality food together and all of you will feel the health benefits.

Eat Together for the Kids

Studies show that family meals are especially crucial for youngsters. In addition to being a great way to get in some conversation time with your little ones, family mealtimes have been shown to increase kids’ intake of vitamins, calcium, fiber, fruits and veggies while reducing the amount of junk food they eat. Children who share meals with their families also tend to have a lower BMI on average than those who don’t, and teenagers who eat with their families have fewer signs of depression. It’s important to teach your kids good eating habits young, and that can all start at the dinner table.

I’m Too Busy to Cook My Family Dinner!

Even if you’ve decided that you want to eat family meals each and every day, you might find yourself frequently uttering the above phrase. We all lead busy lives, especially when we have a family and children to look after, so pulling together a healthy, home-cooked meal every night isn’t always a realistic option. Here are some tips on how to make your family meal dreams a reality:

• Make a plan. To save time worrying over what you’re going to cook, try planning your whole week’s meals in advance. This will not only make trips to the grocery store easier—you’ll know what to buy based on what ingredients you need for each meal—it also allows you to customize your dinner schedule to fit around any activities that might prevent family members from being present. This may also mean planning one or two nights each week in which your family won’t be able to eat dinner together. Another part of your plan can be who will take responsibility for each task in the preparation of the meal—getting your family in on the cooking action is a great way to take the stress off of yourself in the kitchen and get everyone participating.
• Cook more, freeze half. If you prepare more than your family will eat in one night’s meal, you can keep the leftovers in the freezer for months. Then, on nights when you find yourself with less time to prepare a meal, you can thaw something that’s already prepared, ensuring that you and your family still get a quality meal even in a time crunch.
• Slow cook. Though it takes a long time for food to cook in a slow cooker, it keeps you from having to actively cook at night if you have time for a little prep earlier in the day. You can throw everything together for a nice stew or chicken dish, put it in the crock pot, and leave it cooking for several hours while you get other things done. Then, your family can come home to the lovely aroma of a slow-cooked meal and dinner will make it to the table right on time.

Fat is always bad for you, right? Wrong—though trans fats raise cholesterol levels and increase your risk of heart disease and stroke, “good” fats like polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats actually regulate the rhythm of your heartbeat and decrease the levels of cholesterol and inflammation in your body. These kinds of fats, which are most often found in plant sources like nuts, olives, flaxseed and avocado, are actually very good for your body when eaten in moderation.

If you’re a patient of lap band in the Miami or Ft. Lauderdale area, making the right dietary decisions can be a challenge—it’s important to get enough of the fats that are important to your body’s health while avoiding the bad ones and staying within the limits of your post-surgical dietary guidelines. Of course, you should always seek your doctor’s guidance before making any changes to your diet—ask Dr. Bass or Dr. Cohen about how different kinds of fat affect your body and your diet.

Here are some ways to get the good fat and ditch the bad:

• Avoid vegetable oil. Though olive oil is full of monounsaturated fat, corn and canola oils are full of omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-6s aren’t inherently bad for you—in fact, you need a certain amount of omega-6s for a healthy body. But omega-6s and omega-3s perform a balancing act in your body, and because the vast majority of pre-packaged and processed foods are chock full of things like corn oil most of us end up firmly out of balance, with omega-6s present at a ratio of as much as 20:1 over omega-3s. Bringing down your omega-6 levels while raising your omega-3 levels will help you get that ratio under control.
• Eat more fish. Salmon, sardines and other cold-water fish are great sources for omega-3 fatty acids and pack a protein punch that can be helpful in your diet.
• Try omega oil supplements. One way to add omega fatty acids to your diet without taking up too much space is by trying a dietary supplement. Common kinds include fish and flaxseed oil supplements, but they can be found in tons of different flavors and forms, giving you a wide range of options.
• Eat real butter. Yes, you read that right. Butter is frequently demonized as dietary devastator, but the vast majority of fats in butter are the monounsaturated kind. To maximize your butter’s healthiness, buy organic and avoid the residual hormones and antibiotics that come from your typical mass-farmed cow. And of course, don’t go overboard—anything that’s good in moderation becomes bad in excess.
• Forget about “non-fat.” Tons of non- or low-fat food items are purportedly healthier, but actually end up being worse for your body. Most fat-reduced items end up being packed with sugar to amplify their taste. Especially in foods like yogurt, the higher fat, lower sugar versions can actually end up being healthier for you, as studies have shown that most dairy fat is good for the body.

Miami and Ft. Lauderdale are filled with venues to accommodate myriad styles of dancing. Whether you’re looking to just have some cardio fun or actually join a fitness dance class, dancing is an enjoyable way to help keep you in shape after bariatric surgery and maintain weight loss long term. Not only is dancing a great way to burn calories and tighten up, it can provide you with a variety of health benefits.

Dancing can boost your stamina, fortify your muscles and enhance your heart health.

Besides dancing’s obvious ability to get your heart pounding, it also has several unique health benefits traditional cardio cannot provide for you. An exercise physiologist breaks down physical activity into five categories: cardiovascular stamina, flexibility, muscular stamina, body structure and muscular power. Regular cardiovascular exercises such as running may be able to give you one or two of these benefits, but dancing has the potential to give you all of these benefits and then some.

On top of these perks, dancing can improve your balance, agility and coordination as well as develop your power, reactivity and speed—as long as you’re not slow dancing. To really get a good workout from dancing make sure your activity level is somewhere between a five and seven on a scale, where one is standing still and 10 is your maximum exertion level.

You don’t have to be an expert to enjoy dancing.

Dancing is also beneficial in that anyone can do it. You don’t have to be a professional dancer to enjoy dancing for fitness. It involves a variety of moves and motions anyone can adjust and adapt to depending on their level of expertise. In contrast to traditional cardio, dancing is free-flowing which allows your body to adjust to the tempo and rest whenever you need a break.

Many people don’t count “fun” as a factor when it comes to their fitness routine but being able to enjoy physical activity will help keep you motivated and help you avoid a fitness plateau. The benefits of dancing don’t stop at the physical level, it can also improve brain activity.

Dancing can enhance…

• Mind functionality
• Nervous system functionality
• Overall well being
• Flow and expenditure of energy in the body
• Confidence

If you are looking for an energetic and out-of-the-box approach to your fitness regimen, give dancing a shot. Dancing can provide you will all of the benefits typical cardio exercises can when you’re trying to keep weight off after bariatric surgery. Who knows, you may even find you really enjoy it and want to make it a regular hobby. Just make sure your weight loss surgeon says your body is fully recovered from surgery before beginning.

Staying up-to-date with the latest fitness fashion trends is an easy way to keep you motivated when it comes to staying active. So let’s take a look at what’s trending in the world of fitness fashion and whether it’s worth the hype…

Compression clothing may just look like tight workout gear but in fact it can provide you with a few health benefits.

If you’ve been to the gym lately to get fit after lap band or gastric bypass surgery, you may have noticed that everyone is wearing suspiciously tight clothing—it’s not just a coincidence. Fitness fiends everywhere are donning compression garments in attempts to improve their workouts.

Compression clothing has been used in the medical field for years to apply pressure to the body and support underlying tissue when needed. By increasing pressure on the tissue, these medical garments improve circulation in patients with low blood pressure, improve conditions of spider veins and even support wound healing. But what are their benefits beyond the medical field?

The fitness industry has recently adopted compression clothing as a means to improve muscle recovery and physical performance. Many manufacturers say compression gear can reduce exercise-related discomfort, increase performance and muscle recovery. Although some of these claims may be true, it’s important to not look to compression gear as a quick fix to slim down. Exercising is all about how much effort you put into your workouts, not about what your clothes can contribute.

So is compression gear worth adding to your wardrobe?

Experts believe it’s a toss-up. Studies show compression gear can help improve workout recovery and blood circulation during some exercises but it’s not going to have a significant effect on physical performance or make your workouts any easier. Some studies even present the possibility that perceived performance boosts could be the results of a placebo effect.

All in all, if you’re looking to buy some new workout gear to keep up with the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale fashion scene, make sure you’re buying them for their abilities to reduce muscle fatigue and improve circulation. Don’t look to these garments as a solution to make your workouts any easier. As with any physical activity, you will get out of the exercise as much as you are willing to put into it. If you want weight loss results, you will have to make sure you’re working out to the best of your ability. If you want to improve your circulation and see results, then trying compression gear could be beneficial—as long as you’re still giving it your all when it comes to your fitness routine.

Staying active after weight loss surgery can greatly improve your probability for long term results. Although there is no such thing as magical workout gear that can help you lose weight, there are garments like compression clothes to improve certain aspects of physical fitness. Talk with your weight loss surgeon to see if compression gear could be a trendy addition to your fitness wardrobe.

If you struggle with weight loss, you know—it can be incredibly stressful. The battle with obesity is more than enough to make anyone emotional, and unfortunately, stress and high emotion make almost all of us crave the foods that are worst for us, that have the most potential to derail any otherwise perfect weight loss plan. After lap band surgery, it’s crucial to stick to your diet plan if you’re to be successful, and stress eating is one thing that can throw even the most determined of us off track.

So how do we effectively avoid stress eating? Generally avoiding stressful situations whenever possible will, of course, help reduce your chances of giving in to stress eating. However, it’s impossible to completely avoid stress and negative emotion in our lives, and though dealing with the emotional core of these issues can be complex and difficult, these strategies will help put the brakes on your stress eating straight from the get-go.

• Distract Yourself. If you get the urge to run for the fridge for an unhealthy treat, force yourself instead to do something else you enjoy and leave the idea of eating behind entirely. Getting out of your home can help, so try going for a walk or bike ride to clear your head. Or, engage your brain in ways that don’t involve food—call a good friend for a quick conversation or pick up an intellectually-stimulating book, article or movie.
• Figure Out Food Triggers. If you can figure out what factors in your lifestyle are most likely to cause you to overeat, it makes preventing stress eating all the easier. You may find yourself slipping up in your post-surgical eating plan when confronted by a big project at work or have too much going on at home—whatever it is, finding out what most affects your emotional eating will help you adjust your eating patterns and stay wary when triggers rear their ugly heads.
• Ditch the Unhealthy Stuff. One very simple way to avoid unhealthy emotional eating is to just avoid keeping unhealthy foods in your home. If you have a big chocolate cake sitting in your fridge, what do you think is most likely to call out to you when you’re feeling stressed out? Instead, keep some healthy snacks around. Next time you’re feeling frustrated or stressed out, reach for some raw nuts instead of candy—their natural protein, carbs and healthy fat will fill you up without being detrimental to your health.

Next time you’re feeling emotionally-overwhelmed and want to raid the pantry, ask yourself—am I hungry or just stressed out? This question and the tips above will help you arm yourself against stress eating and keep it from causing your weight loss plans to backslide.

1. Get a great night’s sleep. Making sure you get quality sleep will allow your body to perform better the next morning during exercise, as well as for the rest of the day. Take control of your sleep schedule by setting up a sleep rhythm by getting up and going to bed at the same time each day. Not everyone is able to maintain a steady sleep schedule but it is important to do what works best for you and try to stick with it. Keep in mind, the more hours you log in before midnight determines the quality of sleep you will have. So try to get to bed as early as your body will let you to make sure you get the most out of your morning workout.
2. Prepare your mind the night before. It is important to lay out your workout or training gear the night before. This means make sure you get your clothes, running shoes and other gear ready for use first thing in the morning. Getting your stuff ready in advance will help boost your motivation and save you more time for exercising the next day. Having things ready to go will also leave your mind with no guess-work to do and more space to focus on losing weight during your workout itself.
3. Hydrate before you work out. After sleeping through the night, usually at least 7 to 8 hours, your body tends to be greatly dehydrated once morning arrives. It is vital to make sure your body is hydrated before and throughout your morning workout. Try to drink at least two glasses of water before starting your workout routine—exercising on a dehydrated body could cause your body discomforts such as muscle spasms and higher heart rates that could lead to dizziness and premature fatigue. As soon as your workout is over, instantly refill your fluid levels post workout. This will help your body recover faster and keep you more energized for the rest of the day.

Early morning workouts have the ability to help you maintain long term weight loss and stay energized throughout your days. Being prepared for morning workouts will help your body move from the bed to the gym the next morning, faster and with more energy. Remember these four tips next time you’re preparing for your early morning workout regimen.

In order for your food to make that long journey without rotting there are a number of preservation processes that it will undergo. Many people do not consider the distance that their food has traveled, especially as so many meals come straight out of boxes or tin cans. However, in order for your food to be conveniently packaged with an expiration date that is a year from now, a lot of the natural nutritional value from that meal is sacrificed.

As you are focusing on improving your health and losing weight after gastric weight loss surgery in North Miami, it may be time to step away from the processed foods. There are plenty of natural, local sources of produce and meats in North Miami. All it takes is a little bit more effort and planning, and you can begin eating a locally grown diet.

The best way to cut out the middle man when it comes to your diet is to find a local farmers market. Chat with the vendors at the market and find out if they are growing the produce themselves. There are plenty of u-pick produce farms in the South Florida area. Instead of rushing through the food store to load up on processed foods, make a day of traveling to the farm and picking fresh fruit that you will eat during the week. Picking your own produce is a great way to develop a healthier relationship with your food. You may find that you enjoy eating fruit more when you have personally picked it from the tree!

Laughter yoga combines the beneficial stress management techniques that yoga provides with an intense abdominal workout that a strong laugh can deliver. This is doubly beneficial for those who are trying to lose weight with the Rose procedure in North Miami. Managing stress is important for successful weight loss, as it helps you to avoid triggers that may have caused you to overeat in the past.

How Laughing Yoga Works

Laughing lowers the levels of epinephrine and cortisol found in our blood, which are both stress hormones. This fosters a positive and helpful attitude that helps us to mentally relax and rejuvenate. Proponents of laughter yoga explain that one minute of hearty laughter is equal to 10 minutes of certain forms of cardiovascular activity. While laughter is not more beneficial than many forms of exercise, such as running or biking, it can be a great supplemental activity that can be done anywhere, anytime.

Laughter yoga is understood to help reduce belly-fat. This is because of the intense workout that truly laughing provides. When you laugh deeply for an extended period of time you are engaging in an aerobic workout for your diaphragm as well as your abdominal and facial muscles. When you combine this with the deep breathing techniques of yoga, you get a deeply relaxing activity that enhances blood flow and burns calories. Laughing doesn’t need to be spontaneous to have these health effects. Simulating deep laughter engages the same muscles as genuine laughter, and many people find that when you get together and start “fake” laughing with others, it doesn’t take long before the laughter becomes real!

The next time you realize that you aren’t going to make it to the gym, try having a good laugh about it. Spending thirty minutes laughing on your couch with your family may help you to all be in a good mood and will help you to burn calories.

In food deserts there are plenty of options of food to eat, but the food is processed and often un-nutritious. Many food deserts will have plenty of fast food options, but the food stores are smaller and lack a produce section. Instead, the shelves are often filled with potato chips, hot dogs and bags of candy. This type of environment can make it incredibly difficult to lose weight. It is important to talk to your bariatric surgeon in Pembroke Pines about ways to develop healthier eating habits, despite the lack of nutritious food options in your area.

This is an important issue for many people who are trying to lose weight in North Miami. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, large parts of Pembroke Pines and Miramar are classified as food deserts. This means that many individuals in these areas do not have easy access to healthy foods.

If you live in a food desert, there are a number of things that you can do to incorporate more healthy foods into your diet. Talk with the store owners or managers of local food marts and tell them that you want more produce. Get your community involved and let them know that if they bring in produce, you will buy it. You can also try growing your own food in your backyard, or check out local farmers markets. Living in a food desert can make it more difficult to eat healthy, especially if out of sight really does mean out of mind. However, by paying more attention to what you want on your plate you can eat healthier and lose weight.