Category: Siphiwe Baleka

#TruckTechTuesday: Healthy Lifestyle Apps for Truckers

Posted on November 3, 2015 by - #TruckTechTuesday, Siphiwe Baleka, trucker fitness, trucking fitness apps

Happy #TruckTechTuesday, Trucking Nation! We all know how hard it is to stay in shape when you’re constantly on the road. According to trucker fitness guru Siphiwe Baleka, the life expectancy of truckers can be 10 to 15 years shorter than the U.S. average. We here at ExpressTruckTax want you to live long, prosperous lives, so let’s have a look at some apps that will help you on your fitness journey.

New App: Active Trucker

Anything that makes it easier for truckers to keep active is a big help. Baleka has released an app that does just that.The app is called Active Trucker, and provides 10 different exercises that take only 15 minutes or less. These are workouts that you can do by the side of your truck at either a rest area or a truck stop. Each exercise builds on the previous ones, and they gradually increase in complexity and intensity.

You don’t even need to change clothes for these workouts. The app is designed to make trucker fitness as easy as possible. You can also add friends and family to the app, so that they can see when you’ve worked out, and offer you support and encouragement.

My Fitness Pal

My Fitness Pal is an automatic calorie counter and diet planner. It contains the nutrition information for over 2 million foods, and includes a feature that allows you to scan the barcode on any food label and get its nutrition facts that way.This app allows you to keep a food journal, and track nutrient and vitamin information as well.

Rolling Strong

This app is designed especially for truckers. In the free section there are location services for clinics and self-check health locations, as well as access to an extensive digital library that contains recorded wellness seminars. The members section gives you access to clinics for monthly health screenings, an on-the-go nutritional guide, and access to member only discounts.

These are only a few of the apps available today that can help you stay healthy on the road. There are many others designed with trucker wellness in mind. So don’t be afraid to explore them and let us know what works best for you.

We’d Like to Help

We here at ExpressTruckTax hope these apps will help you find ways to maintain healthy living. As always, we’re here Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. to answer your questions over the phone at 704.234.6005 or by web-based chat. You can also reach us at any time via email at support@expresstrucktax.com.

5 Tips on How to Begin Your Wellness Journey

Posted on July 2, 2015 by - #wellnesswednesday, Siphiwe Baleka, Tony Blake, trucking news, wellness

The best thing about deciding to live a healthier lifestyle is that you get to decide what that means for yourself. You get to choose what to change, how to eat, and how to exercise.

But maybe you aren’t sure where to start your wellness journey. We’ve got some tips for how to get started and how to change your habits over time. Because it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.

5 Tips on How to Begin Your Journey:

Believe in Yourself

The first step in beginning your wellness journey is to believe in yourself. Now this probably sounds like a total cliche, but trust me, if you don’t believe you can do it then you won’t make it very far.

Talk yourself up every day, realize that you’re so much stronger than you think you are and just do it! Because every single day is another step on your path to becoming a healthier person. And it matters, it really, really matters because your health is so important. 

Eliminate Bad Habits

It takes 14-21 days to beat a bad habit, but once you’ve beaten it you’ve accomplished something great. Out there on the road it’s so easy to find yourself eating fried, sugary, and salty foods that are so bad for you. You don’t have to change your eating habits overnight, but you do have to make a choice. 
Try eliminating one of those bad things and switching it out for something healthier. Switch from milk chocolate to dark chocolate, from ice cream to yogurt, from fried chicken to grilled chicken, or from french fries to apple slices or baked sweet potato fries. There are so many ways to make a change in yourself. All you have to do is start small and keep on trucking.

Water Is Your New Best Friend

Lose the juice and the soda and switch to water. This might seem like a huge change, but you can take your time with this one too. If you’re not a big fan of water or need a lot of caffeine to keep you going, try moving to a drink that has less calories and sodium (perhaps a diet soda). 
Then you can switch from that to carbonated or flavored water. Eventually you’ll learn to love it because drinking water will make your feel better! You’ll be less thirsty, increase your circulation, flush toxins out of your body, and it will even improve your skin.

Dance, Dance, Dance

Being cooped up in a truck all day doesn’t give you much time for exercise, but it doesn’t have to be that way. There are little things you can do to improve your mobility inside of your cabin. Maybe you have a song you like to dance to, crank it up and do a little dance in your truck! 
And any time to have a moment to stop, take some time to do some stretching to get your blood flowing, Not only does stretching help with your circulation, it also makes you feel so much better. You can also make it a point to walk a little further every day, every time you have a break. Eventually you’ll begin to feel like a new person!

Be Mindful of What You Consume

You don’t have to go all out and eat nothing but salads and vegetables, but you should be mindful of what you consume. If you’re eating a lot of fast food, make sure you pay attention to the calories (most restaurants will have them on their menus) in your favorite meal. 
If they seem too high, try eating just the sandwich or main entree, or substituting those calorie high french fries for something healthier like apple slices. You can still have french fries if you want to, but make sure you know what you’re putting into your body. Because monitoring the amount of calories you consume each day can help you feel less tired and lethargic and much more energetic. 
Food can give you energy, but only if you use it right!
Got some tips for how to stay healthy on the road? Or maybe you just want to share some highlights from your own wellness journey. Drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter! We love hearing from you, Trucking Nation!

#WellnessWednesday: Wellness is a Journey

Posted on June 24, 2015 by - #wellnesswednesday, Expresstrucktax.com, Siphiwe Baleka, Tony Blake, truckers, wellness

Wellness is a journey, not a destination. It takes more than deciding to go on a diet, you have to decide to change your whole life.

I’m not talking about becoming obsessive and going to the gym 7 days a week for four hours or anything like that. I’m talking about your own personal wellness journey—what you alone are comfortable with doing.

Siphiwe Baleka, an Ivy-League swimmer, was already well into his own journey before he decided to help truckers begin theirs. Instead of pursuing an Olympic Career, he found his passion was helping truckers become more active.

And he’s doing a great job at it! In fact, he’s helped thousands of truckers lose tens of thousands of pounds.

Here at ExpressTruckTax, we know trying to eat well and maintain a healthy lifestyle while on the road can be tough. But we’ve got some health tips that might be able to help!

Beat the Boredom

Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. All wellness journeys should begin here. By getting your house (your mind) in order, you can begin to focus on your body. If your mental health is out of whack, then there’s a good chance you won’t be able to focus on anything else.

Boredom is a very common experience in the trucking industry. You have to sit and drive for hours, and listening to a radio station that recycles the same songs over and over isn’t very stimulating.

That’s when overeating can creep in. Because you can’t do much else while you’re driving (you also shouldn’t be eating, but we all do it). And you need to focus your mind on something other than what seems like an endless road in front of you.

But overcoming your boredom on the road can be as easy as buying an ebook, or subscribing to Amazon’s Audible (because you may not always have time to stop by a bookstore). When you have something else to focus on—other than a bad habit of eating when you’re bored—you can retrain your brain!

Which brings us to the next stop on your wellness journey: becoming health conscious.

Be Health Conscious

Nothing is going to change unless you’re willing to change it for yourself. The second step to living a healthier lifestyle is to address the problem.

Most of the time the problem is overeating, which is easy to start doing when you’re on the road all the time. Because most of the time what you’re eating has a skewed sense of serving sizes, not to mention way more than the recommended daily amount of sodium.

To help you become more conscious of what kind of calories, fat, sodium, etc. you’re taking in per day, there’s an app for that! The app is called MyFitnessPal, and you can use their website or log your daily food intake from their smartphone app.

And MFP is set by your weight and lifestyle, so even if you’re sedentary, you can still lose weight or maintain your current weight.

Not to mention, after a while of recording your meals, you begin to notice that you automatically adapt to eat within your allotted calorie range. You begin to eat smaller portions because you realize just how much you may have been eating and you change it.

That’s why the second step on your wellness journey is making a change in the way you eat. It doesn’t even have to be a big one, it’s taking the step that counts!

Be More Active

Now, this next step is usually a red flag for people, but it doesn’t have to be scary. You don’t even have to step foot in a gym (unless you’re comfortable with doing that).

Being more active is just another step on your journey. And like everything else we’ve talked about, you can start small!

You can park a little farther away from where you need to go so you walk a few more steps. Or play your favorite song and dance a little in your truck. You can even spend a little more time walking around in a truck stop.

You won’t become physically fit overnight. And that’s not what this is about, it’s about taking small steps to become a better you. Because each small step you take helps you further along the road on your wellness journey.

And as long as you don’t stop, you’ll get there in no time!

Got some tips for how to stay healthy on the road? Or maybe you want to share some highlights from your own wellness journey. Drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter! We love hearing from you, Trucking Nation!