Health Day

Having a training diary can really make your bulking up much more efficient and most professional bodybuilders use this method to keep track of their training. If you’ve made the decision to get the body you’ve dreamed of, a training diary can help you to stay focused and maintain your motivation.

By keeping track of your training in this way you make sure that you work the muscles in the right way, that you don’t overdo the training and that you get the right amount of nutrition. To be able to see your progress in this organized way is quite an exhilarating feeling.

You’ll be surprised to note how fast you can increase the weights you’re lifting. Keeping a diary like this is somewhat like having a carrot in front of a donkey, making it fun to reach for the next level.

All you need is a notebook, unless you prefer a proper training log. Make different columns in this book to keep track on different training aspects. The main ones should be: time and date, muscle group trained, used exercise, weight lifted and number of reps and sets.

If you want you can also use a different page to keep track of your nutritional intake. Those categories could be: what you ate, time and estimated calories.

Planning is another part of your training that can make it more efficient. Take some time once a week and write down a plan on when to work out and what muscles you want to focus on. This helps you to fit the training into your daily schedule and will soon make it a part of your healthy lifestyle.

If you want to gain muscle you have to give your training the importance it deserves. You can also make a goal for each month on how much you want to increase the weights lifted. In this way you might find it easier to stay motivated.

If you do this all properly your focus will be on your achievements and the more you set your mind on muscle growth, the more you will gain. With a training diary the work out becomes a natural part of your life and the results will come for sure.

With the exception of housing, and maybe gassing up your car, groceries are likely the next biggest expense in your family’s budget. And increasingly, food is gobbling up more and more of the average Americans income.

During all of 2007, food prices rose almost 5 percent. Then, in just the first five months of 2008, food prices jumped 6.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

So, does this mean your family has to forgo meat and fresh produce, or head to the drive-thru to get a less-healthful but possibly less expensive meal?

Definitely not, said nutritionist Holly Scherer, from the University of Michigan Health System.

“If you’re buying the basic ingredients to make a well-balanced meal, it’s much less expensive to make it at home than to go to a fast food restaurant,” said Scherer.

For example, in the New York metropolitan-area, a fast food meal for four, including two adult-sized specialty hamburger meals and two kid-sized hamburger meals with fries and sodas totals around $18. At the grocery store, the ingredients for similar meals, with leftovers, would cost about $14. If meat were on sale, the cost would be even less.

But, does saving money on food mean you have to sacrifice time? Not always, said Scherer. Buying a store brand instead of a name brand can save money, as can buying certain products when they’re on sale and freezing them. Scherer said that’s an ideal strategy for saving money on meat, which can be one of the most expensive items in your food budget. Buy meat in bulk when it’s on sale and separate it into freezer bags and freeze it to use at a later date, she advised.

And having a meatless meal — using beans or eggs instead of meat — once or twice a week can also shave dollars off your food budget without draining your time.

The National Institutes of Health also suggests signing up for your local grocery store’s frequent shopper card so you can qualify for additional savings. And, the NIH said, shopping without the kids will likely save you money by cutting down on those impulse purchases.

Don’t always automatically reach for the largest container either; it’s not always the best buy. Instead, compare the unit prices for each size, and buy the size with the lowest per ounce or per pound price.

Another big area where families can save is on beverages. Use tap water instead of bottled water, Scherer said. If you don’t like the taste of your local water, buy a filtered pitcher or a filter for your faucet. Even with the cost of the filters, you’ll save money over bottled water, she said.

Another big savings idea is to buy large sizes of snacks and create your own 100-calories packs at home. A bag of chips can easily break down into a dozen or more servings, while just five or six single serving snack packs cost the same amount, giving you twice as much food for the same price.

For those a little more ambitious and dedicated to saving money, growing your own fruits and vegetables is a great way to save money, Scherer said. Plants cost only a few dollars and can grow many times that amount in fresh produce.

The most important factor in saving money on food, said Scherer, is planning. “Look at sales; make a list; a little planning really can make a big difference in how much you spend at the grocery store.”