Breathe Magazine

Kelly Turner, an ACE-certified personal trainer, shares useful tips and takes on the latest fitness trends (you guessed it) every Friday.

For those of you that know me, I’m not a big advocate of eliminating foods from your diet; I find that it’s either unnecessary as it causes you to miss out on vital nutrients, or it’s too restrictive, causing you to eventually rebel and eat too much in the long run. Most foods (even treats) [...]

Carbohydrates are the body’s ideal fuel for most bodily functions. They supply the body with the energy needed for the muscles, brain, and central nervous system to function properly. The brain actually relies exclusively on carbohydrates to function. 
Which is precisely why I cringe when people say they are going ‘low/no carb.’
Carbs are found in fruits, [...]

If intensity is the key to results, then your comfort zone is your worst enemy.
Your comfort zone comes in many forms: doing exercises you are familiar with, training methods you are used to, the same time every week, pushing yourself just as far as you think you can go, or as far as you went [...]

Mid-workout energy slumps happen to even the most committed exercisers. You start out good and energized, when all of a sudden your energy plummets and you have to drag yourself through the rest of your workout. There are a lot of things that you do that can affect your energy, taking the proper steps will [...]

Most people think that running is a more intense version of walking, and that running offers a better cardiovascular workout.  Therefore, if you don’t run, you are not in good shape, are lazy or cheating yourself.  Not so.
I don’t run.  I hate running.  I have the cardiovascular endurance, I just don’t enjoy it.  I have [...]

An estimated 18 million adults use herbal supplements in one form or another and that number continues to increase each year. We are a society plagued by the need to have results quickly, which is leading us to pop magic pills to get results.
Even if you don’t take diet pills or stimulants, those “natural supplements” [...]

It’s hard enough to eat right and find time to workout consistently, but when you don’t have a good support system, it can make it that much harder. Just like how it’s easier to have that second helping of dessert when all your friends are, its easier to skip your workouts in favor of sleeping [...]

I love when you get diet advice that says things like “make easy swaps to cut calories, like having a salad instead of your regular fast food meal.”
How is that an easy swap?  Because you are still having lunch?  Something tells me that someone who routinely has fast food isn’t going to be satisfied by a [...]

Most people view eating right and exercising as an exercise in willpower.  Many people also think that willpower is something you are born with: some have it and some don’t. 
Willpower is a mental muscle- the more you use it, the stronger it gets.  You can’t expect to just be able to resist your biggest culinary [...]

It’s officially 2010, which means if you are like most Americans, your resolution is to lose weight.  You will finally do it.  But what’s different about this year? What is actually going to get you to your goals when you’ve never been able to do it before?
If you want to change, you have to [...]

Holiday time is here again, and no matter what you celebrate, you are bound to be bombarded with cookies, candies, pastries, dips and cheese. Oh, the cheese.
What’s the big deal? It’s the holidays, let’s celebrate! The problem is, most Americans gain 1-5 pounds over the holiday season and never lose it.
You can indulge, and have [...]

Keeping track of your progress can be a great motivator to achieve your fitness goals. The most common ways people judge fitness progress is by their weight, body fat percentage and BMI.
Weight is the most common number people track, but it is often the least accurate and most discouraging. Your weight fluctuates throughout the day, [...]

If you woke up one hour earlier every morning for a year, what would you get?   365 hours, 45 days, 9 8-hour work-weeks. Crazy isn’t it? So when people say they just don’t have time to workout, what they really mean is, they haven’t MADE time to workout.  No one just randomly has an hour [...]

Most people check the nutrition facts on a food, and make their decision whether to eat it or not based on that. But just as important as calories and fat, are the ingredients inside your food. Here’s what some of those ingredients are and what they mean for your food.
Hidden Sugars:Sugar isn’t the only word [...]

Eating and exercising should be fun and pleasurable, but for most people it is the cause of guilt, confusion and remorse. I firmly believe that information overload from magazines, T.V., and online sources, coupled with lack of basic knowledge of nutrition and fitness, scares people away from doing what they need to do to get [...]