Yes, we know it’s not yet Easter, but its not that far away either! Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles will be making their trips to the local candy specialty shops all over the country for those special treats that are only created at this time of year. From chocolate bunny’s, to molasses coconut eggs, and don’t forget the peanut butter eggs as well as the unique treats that are common to so many local areas. Why the frantic journey to those candy kitchens at this time of year? Because we have been conditioned to get out and purchase an abundance of Easter candy to give as presents to our kids, friends and family!

Now don’t get us wrong, we are in no way saying to stop buying those candy treats, we’re not saying to cut out surprising the children with their long looked for Easter baskets. But what we are saying is to cut back the abundance of sugary goodies that nest within those baskets.

What you can do is to try to fill your children’s baskets with more toys than candy and hide the jelly beans, and chocolate kisses soon after they find them. No matter how much work you put into hiding the sugar, the kids still seem to find it and eat it as fast as you can bury it again.

At a time when tech-type activity often supersedes our children’s physical activity, and unhealthy food choices are marketed directly toward younger age groups, we as adults and parents must work even harder at improving our children’s healthy choices,” says Kurt David, an elementary school counselor and fitness enthusiast. Since you can’t be there to stop every sugary treat from getting into their hands, you can make a plan to incorporate fun activities into your Easter routine that emphasize having fun and staying active.

Below are some great Easter activity ideas to keep your kids moving this holiday.

Easter for a lot of families means having an Easter egg hunt. Whether it’s outside in the yard, a local field, that’s maybe sponsored by an organization or just hiding some plastic or even colored hard-boiled eggs around the house like we did when I was a kid. What you can do to turn this into a healthy activity that will get the kids, and maybe the adults can join in as well to find those eggs and see what’s inside the plastic ones or written on the old-fashioned hard-boiled eggs. When the kids find them, they are sure to be looking at you with an expression on their faces that screams: “What’s Up With This” or, “What’s Going On”? Where’s the candy or cash?

Easter eggs that one would normally fill with candy or money, can now be filled with pieces of paper inside with exercises written on them. These don’t have to be deadlifts and shoulder presses, you can make these activities fun. You can make these exercises unique to your home, garden or nearby park. Here are some examples of what you can put inside the plastic Easter eggs:

Hop like a bunny for 30 seconds
Jump as far as you can 3 times
10 Jumping jacks
Run backwards to the end of the grass and back
Climb up the tree
Swing from the tire swing
Touch your toes then reach for the sky 10 times
Hopscotch
Jump as high as you can 3 times
Balance on one leg for 20 seconds (both sides)

When the kids are done searching for their eggs, they should find a mix of exercises and candy in their plastic Easter eggs. As you can see from reading the list, these activities don’t really seem like exercises. They are just fun ways to get your whole family involved, moving more and having fun, together!

Now you're saying this is a great idea for the younger kids, but how do you get the older ones active during the Easter holiday season, and for the rest of the year as well? Well, instead of having them find a large chocolate bar or video game in their basket, how about an activity watch?

One that tracks their distance, the pace they're moving at, even their heart rate as they're moving and the calories they're burning up while doing these activities. Heck, it will even remind them when it’s time to move! One such activity tracker is the Garmin Forerunner 25 GPS Running Watch  For the price, it packs a lot of features into this little wrist-based monitor with a built-in GPS that when they get finished with their workout, that you create for them, they can upload it to Garmin Connect and if their friends are into getting fit, they can compete against one another to see just how well each of them are doing. And you can also keep tabs on them as well if you join the Garmin Community. How good is that to help them stay motivated while getting fit, instead of eating a couple of hundred calories of sugar?

So, now that we’ve given you a few ideas on how to keep the kids motivated, from the age of 3 all the way up to seventeen and beyond it could be a game changer for getting them motivated to move instead of playing video games or watching a couple of hours of cartoons.

It’s your call this Easter Holiday, so what is the bunny going to put in your basket? Candy or a protein bar?

Yes, 2019 is just a few weeks old and you made the commitment to get more physical for the New Year. Maybe the goal is to get in better, healthier shape, or lose some of that extra baggage you’ve been carrying around for a few years. In order to accomplish this, you’ve decided to put one foot in front of the other, at a quick pace by taking up running. Well, Good for You! But, do you know what you're getting yourself into?

Running is a sport, just like any other sport that you may watch on tv. But running is a personal, individual, one that basically pits you against yourself. Every time you lace up your shoes, you're going to be competing against your last time out, the distance you ran, how long it took you, how well you ended up. It’s all about how well your body is performing this time out, against the last time you set off, out the door.

Like any new endeavor that you want to commit to, you need to really commit to it! It must become a habit to you, a part of your life, that if you don’t do it, you’re going to have that nagging feeling hanging around you for the day, knowing that you missed your appointed time slot and that somehow you need to make it up!

Starting a new habit of any kind is hard, especially when it’s one you kind of dread can be a little scary. But the trick is, don’t go all in at the start and swear you’ll run six days a week if you’ve barely run before. Create a schedule and stick to it. Another specific that can set you up for failure is don't set unrealistic or hard to attain goals when starting out! This again is just going to set yourself up for failure. You can get to your ultimate goal, but you need to pace yourself and gradually build up your body's stamina and endurance to help you to get there and reach those goals. Most people that take up a running regimen fail because that want to reach that 5-mile mark without breaking a sweat.

First things first, running is probably one of the easier, more cost-effective sports to take up. After all, you basically just need a good, comfortable, while a supportive pair of running shoes. The outfits can come later but you need good running shoes to start, not a fashionable running outfit so you look good out on the road or trail!

The most surefire way to get the right shoes is to head to your local specialty running shop. They’ll put you on a treadmill and analyze your stride to match the right fit and style with how you naturally run. Listen to them, again, color and style do not mean a thing if you’re not wearing a supportive pair of shoes that can go the distance with you so that you’re not injuring your feet when your pounding that pavement, or mountain trail, if that’s the type of running you’re going to be doing. And if you are, then make sure you tell the shoe specialists that so they can fit you with the right terrain shoes for your run.

Remember up above we talked about goal setting? One of the best ways to keep you honest in making sure you really are attaining those preset goals of your is to track them. In order to track them, you need to monitor your daily runs and the best way to do that is with a good, reliable GPS enabled smartwatch/activity tracker. As the saying goes, the only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday. Now with technology getting better every day, you can measure this for real.

One brand of GPS watches that I like is from Garmin, and their slogan really sums up what I mentioned above. Their slogan is "Beat Yesterday" which with a personal sport like running, that’s really what it’s all about, right? Some GPS watches save your previous times for routes and workouts, giving you the chance to race a previous you. This way you can clearly see your improvements and get motivated to push yourself that little bit harder on every run.

A good beginner running watch that fits this to a "T" is the Garmin Forerunner 35 GPS Watch. Which is a simple, easy to use GPS watch that tracks your steps, calories burned, the intensity of your run and can upload this data to an online community with its free app called Garmin Connect. With the aid of which you can summarily track your progress and if so, inclined can share this data with your running friends and see how you're doing against others. Which provides you with a little more of a competition against others instead of just against yourself. Which sometimes can be a great motivator to push yourself further, thus increasing your personal best! And unlike some other GPS watches, the Garmin Forerunner 35 also comes with a wrist-based heart rate monitor that monitors your heart rate without the need for a chest strap and lets you know just how well you're maintaining your heart rate rhythm while running and also at rest!

And the reliable GPS, which Garmin is known for quickly acquires satellites to track distance, speed, and location without requiring the use of your cell phone, so you have more portability without the need for a strong cell signal.

Keep in mind that you need to maintain a healthy diet, since your running, you’re going to need to eat the right amount of foods, some rich in carbs, fiber and of course protein. But knowing when to eat and what can be another topic for us to write about. Let’s just say you don’t want to eat a big meal before a run. A bagel, or a bowl of oatmeal, or a banana will do just fine. After all, you don’t want your body trying to digest a heavy amount of food when it should be working on breaking down what you’ve ingested into fuel, energy!

So, now that you have a few basics, go ahead and get those proper shoes, dress appropriately for the weather and strap on your Garmin Forerunner 35  and get out there and run!

We all know that exercise is necessary for everyone if they want to maintain a healthy body, and mind! Humans were made to be active. Not sedentary which has become a major problem with todays society. Years ago, and we mean years ago, most people worked at menial jobs, which took a toll on their bodies, along with working a minimum 10 hours each day and for some 12 hours were the norm. This was all done with eating a minimum calorie diet, which was watched over by the person in charge of the household, at least the running of the home, and yes, we mean the mother. Who worked longer hours than most of the family, getting up early to make sure everyone had a hearty breakfast, using as much as could be spared or dolled out from the family larder. The good thing about this was everything was made fresh that day. Not too many things were made ahead of time. That means, warm, freshly made bread out of the oven or on top of the stove. Fresh eggs and milk and large helpings of grain cereal like oatmeal. It may have not been a large variety of foods, but it was something that got everyone through the day and saw them through till their next meal.

Today, everyone is running around, trying to fit more things into their day. Answering or sending emails and texts, making calls or answering them all with the pretense of being more productive. But this change in lifestyle comes with a price. Most of us, are doing all of this sitting down. From their desks, workstations, on the way to or from a job or just heading out the door to a quick lunch, usually eating something that's high in carbs and loaded with salt and or sugar. If they're thinking about their waistline they may go and grab a protein shake. Then after work, they might defeat the purpose of that shake by having a few high-calorie drinks. 

One of the other downfalls of this new age society is that most of us have become sedentary and are not moving or expending large amounts of physical energy in performing their daily work-chores. Those of us that want to be healthier head out to the gym, either before work begins, during a lunch break or getting a little sweaty after work, before they head for home.

What most of us do not realize that if we are looking to burn more calories. Moving more doing cardio exercise burns more calories and pumping some iron creates lean muscle mass which when at rest allows your body to continue to burn calories, which is always a good thing. You just want to make sure that when you do hit the gym, you want to make sure you're getting the most out of your workout.

That's why your heart rate is so important; to get in an effective workout, especially with cardio, your heart rate needs to be elevated from its resting state to reap the heart-healthy and calorie-burning benefits. This is why heart-rate monitors are so popular. Using a good, accurate heart rate monitor like the Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smart Activity Tracker  

Track steps, distance, Sleep and more. With help from Elevate™ wrist-based heart rate technology², Vivoactive 3 lets you monitor key aspects of your fitness and stress to show how your body responds under various circumstances. For example, it’s able to estimate your VO2 max and fitness age — 2 indicators of physical fitness that can often improve over time with regular exercise. It also tracks your heart rate variability (HRV), which is used to calculate and track your stress level. Vivoactive 3 can make you aware when physical or emotional sources cause your stress level to rise so you can find a way to relieve the pressure.

As we said before, you want to get the most out of your exercise time and the best way to do this is to exercise at your maximum heart rate! Turns out there's a simple formula you can use to find out your max heart rate and how to get into the fat-burning zone. Determining your max heart rate is as simple as taking 220 minus your age. So, if you're 30, your max heart rate is 190 beats per minute.

To get into the fat-burning zone, you need to be at 60 to 70 percent of your max heart rate during exercise. Since each person's heart health and activity level is different, one person could reach his or her 60 percent after just a minute of exercise, while others could take longer (or shorter) to get there.

You also need to keep in mind when starting out that you really need to first get checked out by your physician before you start exercising to the extreme. Also, when talking with your doctor, make sure you raise the question about any medication you may be taking that could raise your heart rate. Or could be a deterrent to getting an accurate read on just what your real heart rate is if you are taking medication that could make reaching that heart rate goal of your un-achievable.

Some trainers say that if you're doing steady-state cardio, such as running, walking, or cycling, you should aim for 70 to 80 percent of your max and stay there for a while. It will take around 18 minutes for your body to start using fat as fuel. If you want to do a shorter, more intense workout like high-intensity interval training (HIIT), you want to get your heart rate up to 80 to 90 percent for short bursts, then recover until your heart rate is back down to 60 percent. When you exercise at your target zone, you should feel like your heart rate is faster and your breathing has increased. A one out of 10 is resting, while 10 out of 10 feels like you need to be picked up off the floor. Using this scale, you should be at a six, seven, or eight out of 10 when you are in the target zone.

Again, taking the guesswork out of determining your max heart rate and at what intensity you have been performing at is best done with a fitness tracker like the Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smart Activity Tracker  That monitors your exertions all day long and can provide you with trackable data via Garmin Connect where you can compare your progress and if you so desire, can compete against group members of a like mind to see who is out performing who.

So, what do you say, are you ready to Crank Up your Heartrate for 2019?

Yep, it’s hard to believe but Labor Day, 2018 is just about here. In fact, it’s this coming Monday. For a LOT of people, Labor Day signals the end of summer. It’s also, for most people the day that they want to end their summer party season with a bang. This means, lots of food, from the traditional Hot dogs and Hamburgers to steaks, pulled pork, slow smoked barbecue and all those delicious sides and summertime deserts. Yes, a Labor Day cookout, family gathering or just getting all the friends together for one last summer bash puts paid to the phrase “Party Hearty”! And don’t forget all that liquid refreshment, some with alcohol, some with just plain old tremendous amounts of added sugar. Did I mention the word soda?? Always a great idea to have a cooler loaded with ice and bottled water to help slack everyone’s thirst, especially if that September sun makes you feel like its still August!

Well, having a Labor Day cookout/get-together is fine. Just keep things in perspective. Especially if you’re the one that has been trying to be fit and healthy all this year. You don’t want to blow it in one day, with trying to ingest all those summertime foods that seem to disappear once the Football season-pre-games start to appear in your tv’s schedule lineup, right?

As always, moderation is the key to everything. No one is saying that you can’t indulge in a pork-barbecue sandwich with a side of potato salad if you really want one. No sirree! But the important thing to keep in mind as your walking around that picnic table loaded with all that Labor Day party food, that keeping a reign on piling that plate full of food is something that after all the guests go home, you're going to feel pretty good about yourself.

One piece of advice on how to handle all that delicious, tempting, picnic fare, is handling it the same you would be doing at the upcoming holiday season, in regards to indulging in holiday fare. Take your plate and hit the salad items first. Selecting various vegetables and fruits prior to that potato and macaroni salads can curb that appetite down a bit. After all, remember those family members and friends that you may not have had the opportunity to see for a while. It’s easy to meander around with a plate of veggies in your hand while you catch up on everything they did over the summer. Once you’ve done the requirements of catching up with everyone, then you can head on over to the grill and select your favorites. After all, cookout foods are everyone’s favorites, I know my mouth waters when I think about sampling a nice slice of steak or savoring that sauce from a nice rib.

So, keeping things in perspective as you enjoy your food is that eating slowly, again, keeping up with all the conversations that are going on while the food is being passed along can keep you from refilling that plate, time and time again. And you’re really going to have a great time in hearing all the latest gossip from cousin Mark and hearing about your sister-in-law, talk about the savings she made in buying “Back to School” things for little Becky.

Now, to dial up that Labor Day picnic a notch, after the meal, before everyone sags into their chairs, get them up and get a backyard volleyball game started. Nothing says summertime cookout fun than getting everyone moving and enjoying some fun-time memories in the making by playing some outdoor games. And with everyone having a phone nowadays, you can be sure there will be a lot of pictures taken of those last-minute saves or spikes that made your brother Harry sprawl on the ground as he misses that ball 😊

Getting everyone active after, or even before that meal, can go a long way to boosting up everyone’s metabolism, so it can go a long way of helping everyone both digest that food and even help them to burn a few calories, at the same time, of course, that depends on how active they tend to be.

And if there are going to be children at the party, which as everyone knows makes the whole holiday worthwhile! Why not get together with their parents before the holiday and order a few children level activity monitors. This way you can get them interested in being more active than just telling them to get off the couch and put the video games or smartphones away as they stay riveted to their “Candy Crush” game or “Clash of the Titans”. One kid-friendly monitor that exceeds expectations, and allows the parents to view just how active their children have been is the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 : Kid's Interactive Activity Tracker  Parents can manage their kid’s activity tracker by using the free app. Add multiple children, and see their steps, sleep, daily activities and chore data when it syncs to your mobile device.
Assign tasks and chores, set schedule alerts, find out how many reward coins each child has, access adventures, and even invite the whole family to compete in daily step challenges together, all from your mobile device.

And after the party, the Vivo-fit Jr. can still spike their interest by having them work towards continuing to be active every day with magical adventures. Every day that the kids meet their 60-minute activity goals, they advance in the kid-friendly adventure of their choice! You can choose between Mickey’s Birthday Surprise, Ultron’s Revenge: A Marvel Avengers Mission, or BB-8’s Adventure: A Star Wars Story. So, there is no reason for them NOT to be active, now and even as the season continues to change.

The main point in all of this is to be able to enjoy that Labor Day end to summer gathering, without feeling like you just dropped a bomb on your year of being good, both eating and fitness wise.

So, get your plans laid for marking off that volleyball court on the grass, lime works best for marking off the lines. I know that from experience. And then make sure you have enough fixings for those other people that are looking to eat a little healthier for the holiday. Turkey burgers, lean turkey sausages, and some whole wheat buns can help them and you out.

From All of us here at HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com, Happy Labor Day, enjoy it, We will be doing the same!

Yep, the 4th of July is right around the corner, and we are all looking forward to this day to celebrate our country’s birthday. And how do we celebrate it, well with Fireworks and Food of course! Now the fireworks part is always a crowd pleaser and I don’t know anyone who’s not a fan of great cookout food like barbeque, hot dogs, steaks on the grill and don’t forget the corn on the cob, slathered with butter, salt and other condiments of your choosing. But after all that food has been passed around and maybe passed around, again and again, you just might be feeling more than a little guilty and not looking forward to jumping on that bathroom scale in the morning.

Anyone that is trying to get a little leaner by watching what they eat, how much they eat and trying to stay away from those sweets and extra carbs that can put a whammy on your weight loss and fitness goals, know that a holiday like the 4th of July needs to be handled with some restraints. Now, by no means are we suggesting that you forgo those cook-out treats, but again, moderation is the key and knowing when to politely say NO to that extra helping of baked beans and that second slice of cheesecake.

Since trying to live a healthier lifestyle revolves around exercising and counting your calories based upon your daily activity levels, we thought you might want to know just how many calories you consume when eating that holiday or just plain backyard cookout fare. And the kicker is, just how much more you would need to exercise on top of what you're already doing in trying to become fitter and leaner!

For example:
A Cheeseburger can pack a lot of calories -- especially when they're topped with all the trimmings: cheese, bacon, ketchup, mayonnaise, etc. In analyzing the caloric makeup, it was found that a 6-ounce burger with a bun and all the toppings adds up to 700 calories. To burn this off, pick up a racquet -- because you'll need a marathon badminton session lasting nearly 133 nonstop minutes to shed that weight.

Or eating a Hot Dog: now how many of us think nothing of eating two, three or more during the course of a holiday gettogether? But, would you grab that extra hot dog if you knew you'd have to swim for more than a half hour to burn it off?

One Chicken Breast with #BBQ Sauce
Calories: 253
Exercise Equivalent (Cost to Burn Off the Calories): 61.7 minutes of canoeing
Fit Tip: Go skinless, and you could try lemon and pepper instead of barbecue sauce to lower the calories. Or, at the very least, compare barbecue sauces and pick the lowest-calorie brand (that is still tasty).
FYI: One chicken drumstick with barbecue sauce has 242 calories and will cost you 34.4 minutes of swimming.

Coleslaw
(1 cup)
Calories: 350
Exercise Equivalent (Cost to Burn Off the Calories): Mowing the lawn (walking with a power mower) for 59.7 minutes
Fit Tip: Use light or nonfat mayonnaise and add some green and red peppers to increase the yield while cutting calories per cup. To make it simple, you can find coleslaw mixes in the vegetable section at the grocery store.

Homemade Baked Beans
(1 cup)
Calories: 392
Exercise Equivalent (Cost to Burn Off the Calories): Golf (walking and carrying clubs) 74.3 minutes
Note: The problem is, baked beans are made with added sugar and/or molasses.
Fit Tip: You can try using less sugar (or molasses) in your recipe. You’re probably adding too much anyway. Try making your own bean salad instead. Choose your favorite beans, chop up an onion and some peppers, add a little lemon juice and vinegar for flavor, and you’ve got a nutrient-packed side dish.

Grilled Sweet Corn I’m good for two to three ears of corn at any time!
(One ear)
Calories: 90
Exercise Equivalent (Cost to Burn Off the Calories): Kayaking for 5.4 minutes
Note: With a moderate glycemic index of 56 (compared with 100 for white bread), corn provides carbohydrates for energy without excessively raising blood sugar.
Fit Tip: You don’t need to drench good sweet corn in butter. Grilled corn tastes great without any toppings.

Potato Chips
(2 handfuls)
Calories: 300
Exercise Equivalent (Cost to Burn Off the Calories): Jumping rope for 32 minutes. Now tell me! Who hasn’t had more than 2 handfuls of chips at any holiday gathering, see what I’m getting at!
Fit Tip: Slice your potatoes and put them on the grill with garlic, pepper and other spices for seasoning. Also, you can try grilling a sweet potato, which has only 112 calories.

And who isn’t imbibing in a few alcoholic beverages?
Two Beers
(12 ounces each)
Calories: 300
Exercise Equivalent (Cost to Burn Off the Calories): Taking a run at a nice pace of 4.7 mph for about 40 minutes, will have those calories put to rest
Fit Tip: Try ultra-light beer ­ do a taste test.

Seeing what you need to do in order to burn off that delicious holiday food can be a little daunting. One thing that can help you keep track of just what you need to do, how well you’re doing in accomplishing those various activities is a good activity monitor. And since your looking at using the sport of running as the main activity in your quest for becoming a healthier you a good activity monitor to consider is the Garmin Vivosmart HR+GPS Activity Tracker  The Garmin Vívosmart HR+ Smart Activity Tracker; is able to track distance, time and pace for indoor or outdoor activities. With GPS, you can get even more accurate distance and pace stats as well as a map of your activity when running or walking outdoors. In addition to tracking your runs, steps, and calories, and the Vívosmart HR+ also measures the floors climbed and intensity minutes.

Now while a good activity tracker like the Garmin Vivosmart watch can keep you aware of just how much you are doing in reaching your fitness goals. It can’t stop you from excessive eating! That is something you need to work on in order to gain control of your eating habits.

But it can be done and with a commitment to consuming just what you need in order to live a healthier life. Its really up to YOU to keep that portion size in line and stick your fork into healthier food choices. You can eat just about anything you want as long as you remember that moderation is the key!

Oh Yeah, Happy 4th of July from All the gang here at HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com