How to Change Your Mindset to Lose Weight

Wanting to lose weight and finding the motivation to lose weight are two completely separate ideas. Although you may want to achieve a healthier weight, you might find it hard to change your mindset. In order to get yourself moving and start a weight-loss program, you need to find personal motivation and discover why you truly want to slim down.

Step 1

Weigh yourself first thing in the morning to find out your current weight. Compare this to what a healthy weight for your height should be. You may discover that you are at a healthy weight, overweight or more overweight than you suspected.

Step 2

List the reasons you want to lose weight. Think about how you feel when you go swimming, being able to be active with your children or feeling more confident about yourself. Dig deep and look for the personal reasons you want to have a healthy weight.

Step 3

Consider how being overweight can jeopardize your health. People who are overweight are at a higher risk for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. These are life-threatening diseases that can be prevented with weight loss.

Step 4

Get support from your family and friends. Share your goals with people you trust to build you up and help you along the way. Ask if anyone wants to join you during workouts for added support.

Step 5

Develop a plan based on your goals. Write down the time, place, duration and activity you want to perform each day for exercise. Seeing a plan can help you to believe it is achievable and manageable.

Step 6

Think of ways to reward yourself for losing weight. Make small goals for every 2 to 5 lbs. you lose and one large reward for when you reach the finish line. You could treat yourself to a new article of clothing, a day at the spa or your favorite treat or go to a movie.

How to Practice Healthy Habits

The U.S. spent close to $3 trillion on health care in 2012, according to the National Health Expenditure Account. This is over 18 percent of the gross domestic product, and the Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, predicts it will grow to 25 percent by 2025. By 2082, the CBO says half of all money generated in the U.S. will be spent on health services.

But there is something that can be done. The American Medical Association reports that 75 percent of all health care costs are used to treat preventable chronic conditions. This makes striving for health a matter of personal and community responsibility.

Step 1

Adopt one new healthy habit at a time by breaking a major health goal into steps. For example, there are five parts to the process of creating a healthy body mass index, or BMI, for life -- a wise goal for the 72 percent of Americans who are overweight or obese: getting seven hours of sleep each night; calculating your target number of calories; investing those calories in healthy, nutrient-dense foods; walking 10,000 steps, or 5 miles, daily; and integrating more movement into all parts of your life. Each one of these is a separate habit, and it takes three to four weeks to make a new behavior a natural part of your life.

Step 2

Frame your goal in a positive way. Change is more effective when you are moving toward what you want rather than away from something you fear. For example, you're much more likely to brush and floss daily because you want to attain a beautiful smile than you are to do the same action to prevent gingivitis and the heart disease that it causes. In the same way, don't try to lose weight -- rather, aim to recreate a svelte, lean, body with a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9.

Step 3

Write down your goal in very specific terms. Imagine mountain climbing without knowing where the summit is; there would be no place to stop at the top and celebrate your achievement. The same is true of health goals. For instance, determine the weight you want to achieve and when, at a safe weight loss rate of one pound a week. Visual people might find that it helps to have a picture that symbolizes your healthy goal posted where it can be seen throughout the day.

Step 4

Immerse yourself in planning for goal achievement as a way of optimizing the results you'll attain. According to Dr. David Krueger, psychiatrist and professor of health coaching, the more you take control of designing your own strategies for reaching a goal, the more likely you are to succeed. Rather than joining a diet group, in which others have done the work of planning for you, research nutrition using sources you trust and create an eating plan that you can live with for life.

Step 5

Try using a coach. Professional health coaches work with clients to facilitate health goal achievement . Having a certified health coach provides you with a source of sound medical knowledge who will help you set attainable goals and serve as an accountability partner in a relaxed, nonclinical way. And that's good for the economy too. A study of 174,120 insured Americans, published in the September 23, 2010, issue of the "New England Journal of Medicine," concluded that health coaching provided a 10.1 percent reduction in annual hospital admissions. The participants, who used the services of a health coach in short, phone-based sessions, averaged 3.6 percent lower total annual health care costs than those who did not utilize this service, making engaging a coach a fiscally prudent health strategy.

Exercising with arthritis: Improve your joint pain and stiffness

As you consider starting an arthritis exercise program, understand what's within your limits and what level of exercise is likely to give you results.

Exercise is crucial for people with arthritis. It increases strength and flexibility, reduces joint pain, and helps combat fatigue. Of course, when stiff and painful joints are already bogging you down, the thought of walking around the block or swimming a few laps might make you cringe.

You don't need to run a marathon or swim like an Olympic competitor to help reduce the symptoms of your arthritis. Even moderate exercise can ease your pain and help you maintain a healthy weight. When arthritis threatens to immobilize you, exercise keeps you moving. Not convinced? Read on.

Why exercise is vital
Exercise can help you improve your health and fitness without hurting your joints. Along with your current treatment program, exercise can:

• Strengthen the muscles around your joints
• Help you maintain bone strength
• Give you more strength and energy to get through the day
• Make it easier to get a good night's sleep
• Help you control your weight
• Make you feel better about yourself and improve your sense of well-being

Though you might think exercise will aggravate your joint pain and stiffness, that's not the case. Lack of exercise actually can make your joints even more painful and stiff. That's because keeping your muscles and surrounding tissue strong is crucial to maintaining support for your bones. Not exercising weakens those supporting muscles, making your bones more prone to breaking.

Check with your doctor first
Talk to your doctor about how exercise can fit into your treatment plan. What types of exercises are best for you depends on your type of arthritis and which joints are involved. Your doctor or a physical therapist can work with you to find the best exercise plan to give you the most benefit with the least aggravation of your joint pain.

Exercises for arthritis
Your doctor or physical therapist can recommend exercises that are best for you, which might include:

Range-of-motion exercises
These exercises relieve stiffness and increase your ability to move your joints through their full range of motion. Range-of-motion exercises involve moving your joints through their normal range of movement, such as raising your arms over your head or rolling your shoulders forward and backward. These exercises can be done daily or at least every other day.

Strengthening exercises
These exercises help you build strong muscles that help support and protect your joints. Weight training is an example of a strengthening exercise that can help you maintain your current muscle strength or increase it. Do your strengthening exercises every other day — but take an extra day off if your joints are painful or if you notice any swelling.

Aerobic exercise
Aerobic or endurance exercises help with your overall fitness. They can improve your cardiovascular health, help you control your weight and give you more stamina. That way you'll have more energy to get through your day. Examples of low-impact aerobic exercises that are easier on your joints include walking, biking and swimming. Try to work your way up to 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week. You can split up that time into 10-minute blocks if that's easier on your joints.

Other activities
Any movement, no matter how small, can help. If a particular workout or activity appeals to you, don't hesitate to ask your doctor whether it's right for you. Your doctor might give you the OK to try gentle forms of yoga and tai chi. Tai chi may improve balance and help prevent falls. Be sure to tell your instructor about your condition and avoid positions or movements that can cause pain.

Tips to protect your joints
Start slowly to ease your joints into exercise if you haven't been active for a while. If you push yourself too hard, you can overwork your muscles. This aggravates your joint pain.

Consider these tips as you get started:

-Apply heat to the joints you'll be working before you exercise. Heat can relax your joints and muscles and relieve any pain you have before you begin. Heat treatments — warm towels, hot packs or a shower — should be warm, not painfully hot, and should be applied for about 20 minutes.

-Move your joints gently at first to warm up. You might begin with range-of-motion exercises for five to 10 minutes before you move on to strengthening or aerobic exercises.

-Exercise with slow and easy movements. If you start noticing pain, take a break. Sharp pain and pain that is stronger than your usual joint pain might indicate something is wrong. Slow down if you notice inflammation or redness in your joints.

-Ice your joints after exercising. This can reduce swelling and pain. Use a cold pack on your joints for 10 to 15 minutes. Trust your instincts and don't exert more energy than you think your joints can handle. Take it easy and slowly increase both the amount of time and intensity of your workout.

Don't overdo it
You might notice some pain after you exercise if you haven't been active for a while. In general, if your pain lasts longer than an hour after you exercise, you were probably exercising too strenuously. Talk to your doctor about what pain is normal and what pain is a sign of something more serious.

Tell your doctor if your exercise causes:

• Persistent fatigue or increased weakness
• Reduced range of motion in your joints
• Joint swelling
• Continuing pain

If you have rheumatoid arthritis, whether you should exercise during general or local flares is up to you and your doctor. Consider working through your joint flares by doing only range-of-motion exercises, just to keep your body moving.

Exercise programs for people with arthritis
Check with your doctor about exercise programs in your area for people with arthritis. Hospitals and clinics sometimes offer special programs, as do local health clubs.

Keeping Motivated for your Fitness Goals

If you have set fitness goals, you should now be some way into your new programme. You may be feeling virtuous and seeing the benefits already; but for many of us, this is the time that we ‘flag’ as we find the new regime too difficult and are tempted to give up. If you are feeling like this, the following pointers may help you to stay on track and reach 66 days – the average time it takes to form a new habit, according to new research by Dr Phillippa Lally and colleagues at the UCL Health Behaviour Research Centre.

1. Remember the importance of nourishing food, and adequate sleep.

Nutrient-rich food containing slow-releasing carbohydrates, healthy fats and proteins helps to give you energy and supports your muscles; refined, sugary or junk foods deplete your energy and provide little in the way of vitamins and minerals.

Good sleep and rest is necessary to recharge and restore the brain and body, to make sure you are ready for the next workout.

2. Turn perceived failure into real success

If you have just gone straight home from work when you were supposed to go to the gym, do not declare yourself a failure and give up. This is the exact moment when you can prove how dedicated you are by going to the gym next time. It is all too easy to use our perceived failures as an excuse to give up.

3. Don’t set your goals in stone – you can re-evaluate them

If you find it hard to stick to a goal, then ask yourself why. Do you need to re-evaluate your goals or make changes to your schedule?

If you keep missing the gym on a Wednesday it may be because you always get to bed late on a Tuesday, leaving you too tired to go to the gym the next day – when would be a better time?

4. Focus on what you have achieved

It is important to notice when we have managed to achieve something, no matter how small. We often notice what we have not done, but not what we have already accomplished.

It really is about making those small changes – so notice when you make them!

5. Motivate each other

If you have a fitness buddy, you can recognise each other’s achievements. Sometimes we find it easier to recognise what our friends have achieved than what we have.

6. Make your life easy

If you are struggling to do something, there are often steps you can take to make life easier for yourself.

For example, if you find that you forget to take your supplements you could get yourself a supplement holder with a compartment for each day of the week. Then you will only have to open one container to take your vitamins and minerals.

Too tired to cook in the evenings after getting back from the gym? Then buy yourself a slow cooker, throw all the ingredients into it in the morning and come home to a house full of yummy smells and hot food ready to be eaten straight from the pot.

Never have time to eat breakfast before work? Keep breakfast things at work; or soak sugar-free muesli, nuts and seeds overnight in milk (or a milk replacement) in a water tight container, and carry into work the next day.

7. Remind yourself why you are doing this

If you enjoy making things, make a collage of why you want to become healthier – use text, pictures and motivational quotes. Keep it somewhere where you will see it to remind yourself daily of why you started doing this in the first place and why you want to keep going. Or write reminders on sticky notes and put them on the fridge.

8. Have fun!

Enjoy the process, this is something you are doing for yourself and should be fun.

If you find you are getting bored of your usual workout or bored of eating the same foods then change. Find new ways to exercise that appeal to you and different cookbooks you like the look of, this will help to keep you interested and remain motivated.

Try This Trend? Blood Testing to Achieve Optimal Health

It's dinnertime and all you want is a huge bowl of peppermint ice cream. But why? Is it due to PMS, blood sugar swings, food cravings, illness, or perhaps just a susceptibility to crafty advertising? That’s the tricky thing about our bodies—figuring out what is actually going on inside them takes a weird mash-up of science, voodoo, and cosmic luck. One of my greatest fantasies (ready to find out how truly geeky I am?) is to have a computer screen attached to my brain that would tell me exactly what's going on inside my organs at any given time. While so far that's not a scientific reality, I did get one step closer to living my dream when I got to try out a new service called Inside Tracker that analyzes your bloodwork and then recommends an optimal nutrition and exercise plan tailored to you.

Professional athletes have been using these types of tests (generally based on blood tests and questionnaires) for a long time, but they've recently gained popularity among regular health-conscious people. Some gyms, like Lifetime Fitness, even offer their own in-house version. But what do they offer that your regular doctor can't? The difference is that your doctor is mostly interested in diagnosing dysfunction in your body, and being "not sick" is not the same as being "healthy."

Inside Tracker and other types of voluntary testing aren't for diagnosing disease but rather for helping people achieve optimal health and maximize their athletic potential by showing them how to get critical measurements within "an optimized zone for your special cohort: age, gender, race, performance needs."

All you have to do is go get your blood drawn at a local lab and within a couple of days, you'll get your results, along with recommendations about how to improve your numbers. The basic test examines your folic acid, glucose, calcium, magnesium, creatine kinase, vitamin B12, vitamin D, ferritin, total cholesterol, hemoglobin, HDL, LDL, and triglycerides. You are then given recommendations on which foods and supplements to include in your diet and which to avoid. The end goal is to help you tweak your diet and exercise routine to get the most out of your performance.

Do these tests work? At the very least they provide you with more information to talk to your doctor about specific health concerns you may have. My results were very interesting, and while my numbers revealed I am very healthy, there were a couple of red flags that popped up. I'm glad I know about them now before they started to cause any illness. Did it make me a better athlete? The jury's still out on that one!

Change Your Lifestyle By Weight Loss

Some people lose weight by strict dieting for a short period. However, as soon as their diet is over, they often go back to their old eating habits, and their weight goes straight back on. Losing weight, and then keeping it off, needs a change in lifestyle for life. This includes such things as:

• The type of food and drink that you normally buy.
• The type of meals that you eat.
• Your pattern of eating.
• The amount of physical activity that you do.

Top tip: ask family or friends to help and encourage you to keep to a healthy lifestyle. Consider a lifestyle change for the whole family.

Before you start

Motivation is crucial
To lose weight and to keep it off, it is vital that you should be motivated, really want to lose weight, and want to improve aspects of your lifestyle. No weight-loss plan will work unless you have a serious desire to lose weight. You may not feel that being overweight or obese is a problem to you. So, you may have little motivation or desire to lose weight. That is fine, so long as you understand the health risks.

Top tip: write down the reasons why you would like to lose weight. Keep referring to this list to motivate yourself.

Set clear goals with a realistic timescale
Based on the recommended rate of weight loss explained above, set yourself a clear weight loss goal with a realistic timescale. Some people aim to get down to a perfect weight. However, this may be a lot of weight to lose for you and you may get fed up about poor progress, and give up. So, you may find it helpful to break up your weight loss goal. For example, you may wish to set yourself a goal to lose 4 kg over the following 4 to 6 weeks. Once you have achieved that goal, you can set yourself another, etc.

For most people, you can start to get health benefits by losing even just 5-10% of your starting weight. For example, if your starting weight was 100 kg, losing 5-10 kg in weight will produce some health benefits for you, even if you are still not at your ideal weight.

Top tip: aim to lose weight steadily, around 0.5-1 kg per week. For most people, health benefits can come from losing the first 5-10% of their weight. This is often about 5-10 kg.

Set yourself an action plan
In addition to setting yourself realistic weight loss targets, it is also helpful to set yourself an action plan. Be realistic and consider what you feel will have the most impact on your weight. For example, if you currently have a piece of cake every day, your action plan could be to reduce this to twice per week only. Your action plan might start with three main goals, and once you have achieved these goals, you can reset your action plan and think about other changes you might be able to make. The idea is to make small, gradual changes that you can stick to for life.

Monitor your current food intake
It is helpful to know how much you normally eat. Try keeping a diary, writing down everything that you eat and drink over a week or so. Include even the smallest of snacks. Are there times of the day that you tend to snack more? Are you eating three meals a day? Are there some snacks that you don't need? You may find it helpful to discuss your diary with your practice nurse, your doctor or a dietician. The simple fact is that, to lose weight, you must eat less than your current food intake (see above).

Top tip: don't forget the drinks. Some drinks contain lots of calories, including alcohol and some fizzy drinks.

Increase your physical activity levels
It is recommended that all adults should aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on at least five days of the week. However, if you are overweight or obese and are aiming to lose weight, if possible you should try to do around 60-90 minutes on at least five days of the week.

Moderate physical activity includes: brisk walking, jogging, dancing, swimming, badminton, tennis, etc. In addition, try to do more in your daily routines. For example, use stairs instead of lifts, walk or cycle to work or school, etc. Avoid sitting for too long in front of the television or a computer screen. Take regular breaks whilst working. The good news is that you don't have to do this physical activity all in one chunk. You can break it up into blocks of 10-15 minutes. See separate leaflet called Physical Activity for Health, which gives more details.

Top tip: build your exercise levels up gradually. If you are not used to physical activity, try starting with a 30-minute brisk walk every day and then building up from there.

How Much Protein Is Right For You?

Fitness types often recommend megadoses of protein, sometimes as high as three to four grams per pound of bodyweight. On the other hand, the medical establishment argues that most of us take in more protein than we need. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, has a recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 160 pounds, your RDA for protein is 58 grams. Eat a 12-ounce sirloin steak, and bam, you’ve met your goal for the day.

The problem with both of these estimates is that neither really describes a realistic need. The meathead bodybuilder protein portion might work if you want to look like Lou Ferrigno (although no one needs anywhere as much as three to four grams per pound of bodyweight). For the rest of us, it’s a touch much. And the USDA’s recommendation? The organization describes that as “The average daily dietary nutrient intake level sufficient to meet the nutrient requirement of nearly all (97 to 98%) healthy individuals in a particular life stage.” Basically, it’s enough to make sure you won’t die.

What we really need is a standard that tells us how much protein we should eat based on our own individual goals and aspirations. I prefer to call this the optimal intake level. And while that number might not be so high as the figures quoted in the pages of those magazines I used to read, it’s certainly greater than the recommendation from the USDA.

Protein: Finding Your Optimal Level

Suppose you want to lose weight. That means you should probably follow some simple guidelines like eating less sugar. But research also indicates that eating more protein can help you towards this goal.

Scientists at the University of Illinois designed a weight-loss program in which one group ate the RDA for protein, while a matched group ate two times the RDA recommended amount. Both groups also exercised. The RDA group lost 12 pounds of fat in 16 weeks, while the higher-protein group lost nearly 20 pounds during the same time period. The RDA group also lost two pounds of muscle. This suggests that you need more protein during a weight-loss program, both to lose fat and to preserve your muscle.

“But wait,” protein naysayers will bark. “Won’t eating all of that protein jeopardize your cardiovascular system? It’s bound to clog your arteries.”

To put that concern to the test, researchers pooled together a group of subjects with high blood pressure and less-than-ideal cholesterol, and tested the impact of adding more protein to their diets. (The OmniHeart study) No one was allowed to gain or lose weight during the test, so any changes couldn’t be chalked up to the benefits of dropping a few pounds. Some subjects ate a diet with 18 percent of their total calories coming from protein, which is pretty close to the USDA’s recommended amount. A second group upped their protein intake to 28 percent.

What happened?

The higher-protein group showed better health across the board. People in that group had greater decreases in blood pressure, LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. What’s more, their estimated 10-year risk of heart disease decreased compared to those on the lower protein track. Had these subjects been allowed to lose weight, the results may have been even more dramatic.

So what is optimal? If you go by science, about 30 percent of your calories should come from protein. At that level, you won’t have to worry about deficiencies, and you’ll know you’re getting enough of the nutrient to lose fat while also improving your heart health. Have some protein at each of your meals and snacks, and you’ll hit the target with ease.

Protein and Energy

Allow me to pause our protein discussion to talk about your blood sugar. When you eat a meal, your body breaks down carbohydrates into individual sugars and dumps them into your bloodstream. It doesn’t matter if those carbs come from broccoli or biscuits. Your body needs energy, and this is how it’s produced. The result is an increase in your blood-sugar levels.

Now, your body is very particular about blood sugar, just like Goldilocks was particular about her porridge – it wants your blood-sugar levels to be just right (70 to 99 milligrams per deciliter, for those of you interested in numbers).

When you eat a big meal, your blood sugar increases a lot. This makes your body freak out. Your pancreas responds by releasing the hormone insulin. Insulin’s job in this case is very simple: Get the excess sugar out of your blood. It does this by going “door to door” throughout your body, knocking on the entry points of muscle and fat cells to see if they’ll open and take in some sugar until blood levels return to just right.

If your body overreacts, your pancreas will release too much insulin. That insulin will knock on too many doors, pulling too much sugar out of your blood. Now you have a new problem: hypoglycemia (hypo = low; glycemia = sugar). You’ll start to feel tired, or hungry, or perhaps both. You get tired because your body’s most immediate energy source, the sugar in your blood, is suddenly depleted. You want to eat because low blood sugar is one of your body’s most powerful hunger signals. Your body will crave carb-rich foods to get your blood sugar back up again, even if you just ate.

Here’s how protein plays into the equation. Protein can help displace those carbs. The amino acids that form the building blocks of protein provoke a much-lower insulin response than the one triggered by a high-carb meal. So consuming more protein will have a less dramatic affect on your blood sugar.

Protein also triggers the release of a hormone called glucagon. Glucagon is the yin to insulin’s yang. While insulin takes sugar from your blood and pushes it into muscle and fat cells, glucagon gets your fat cells to release stored fat into your bloodstream, where it provides fuel for your muscles, brain, and everything else that uses energy. Meaning that of all the types of food you can eat, protein is the most efficient for your body: It controls insulin and helps incinerate fat.

A Better Burn
When we talk about about burning calories, we tend to focus on exercise. But our bodies are constantly using energy throughout the day and night. Even when we’re sleeping, we’re still breathing and pumping blood. Our brains are dreaming. We’re still digesting food and finding places to store it. And not all foods are digested equally.

The components of food—protein, carbohydrates, and fats —require different amounts of energy to digest and process, just as different types and intensities of exercise burn more or fewer calories. Scientists call this metabolic cost the thermic effect of food (TEF). Protein has a much higher TEF than carbs or fat. That is, simply eating more protein means your body is burning more calories during the process of digestion. In some cases, doubling your protein intake will bump up the number of calories you burn throughout the day. That’s one reason why protein, all by itself, helps you lose weight.

The Building Blocks of Muscle

During digestion, your body breaks down protein into individual amino acids. It uses them in many different ways, putting them together like a child combines Legos to build a castle. (Fortunately, your body does this in a more consistent way than your average elementary schooler.) These castles are your muscle tissue. To build them, you need an adequate supply of building blocks.

But imagine that the Legos did more than just stack on top of each other – they took part in your castle construction by telling you when to build your towers and walls. That’s what the amino acids in protein do. They aren’t just inert pieces of food waiting to be broken down. They actively signal your body to build muscle.

The most important amino acid in this process is leucine, which is found in just about every protein-containing food you’d ever eat. But in order for leucine to optimize and maximize your ability to turn protein into muscle there needs to be a certain amount present—a protein threshold, if you will. Scientists estimate that this threshold is about 30 grams of protein. You can build muscle with less than this amount or more, but this dosage is what research has found is ideal for optimal functioning.

Once built, muscle is metabolically active, meaning it burns more calories than fat even while you’re at rest. (It scorches through a lot more when you’re active.) And the more muscle you have, the more effective and efficient you become at every activity, which helps you burn more calories.

The All-Day Protein Diet

I recommend consuming lean protein throughout the day. Here are some quick and easy ways to work this essential nutrient into every meal.

*BREAKFAST: eggs, egg whites, lean breakfast meats, Greek yogurt, smoothies with protein powder.

*LUNCH OR DINNER: salmon, chicken breasts, extra-lean ground turkey, extra-lean ground beef, turkey or chicken sausage, lean beef (top round, shoulder roast, skirt steak), tuna, cod, tilapia, shrimp, tofu.

*SNACKS: Nuts and seeds, roasted edamame beans, protein bars (pick bars with at least 10 grams of protein and no more than 30 grams of carbs), protein shakes.

4 Ways to Make Fit Happen—Every Day

A funny thing happens when you fill a room with endorphins, ambition, and fitness buffs: you become majorly motivated. That's how we felt after #FitBlogNYC Meet & Tweet, an annual event where we unite the best in the fitness biz to talk exercise, food, and more. Here are some fitspiring highlights from the day.

Make Time for Fitness (It's Easier Than You Think)
Short on time? #BeenThere. Consider what's going to give you the most bang for your exercise buck. "Work out smarter, not longer," says celebrity trainer Holly Rilinger, who recommends resistance training with minimal rest in between sets, even if you only have 20 minutes. We suggest these strength-building workouts.

Forget the Haters

Oh, you love marathons, but your husband thinks distance running is a waste of time? Then, he doesn't need to run one. Whether it's CrossFit, yoga, or weight lifting, the best form of exercise is the one you stick with. "There are a million ways to work out—find something that has passion behind it," says Rilinger.

Don't Overdo It

While a certain degree of muscle soreness is normal the day after an intense workout, it shouldn't prevent you from sticking to your normal routine. "If you can't walk up the stairs, it might be too much," says Marci Goolsby, MD, assistant attending physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in the Women's Sports Medicine Center in New York City. "The important thing is to stay mobile."

Do What You Love

"If you want to do something, you do a good job," says Carla Hall, co-host of ABC's The Chew and owner of Petite Cookies. This applies to your workouts, your career, and your cooking: find something you love, go all-in, and do it right.

How To Reboot Metabolism

I'm living proof that you can't judge a metabolism by its cover. You and I could be the same height and weight, have the same BMI, and even fit into the same J Brand jeans, but have wildly different flab-to-muscle proportions, making one of us the calorie-burning equivalent of a Bic lighter and the other of a blowtorch.

Metabolism, simply put, is the total number of calories your body burns each day. Sixty-five percent of those calories are used up for 24-7 functions like breathing and circulation­ — the top burners are your brain, liver, heart, and kidneys — with another 10 percent devoted to the process of digesting the very foods that may have given you that muffin top in the first place. The remaining 25 percent of the calories you burn can be chalked up to the physical activity you do in a day — not just Spinning class but every move you make, including standing in line or tweeting your latest DEXA scan results.

You've heard it before: The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. In fact, lean tissues, including organs and muscles, on average burn 14 calories a pound a day, while fat only burns about three calories per pound, Dr. Heber says.

Simply put, whether you're Kate Moss or Kirstie Alley, it's the absolute amount of muscle in you that determines the overall speed of your resting metabolism — the amount you burn just sitting around — and some of us are born with an edge in the amount of muscle fibers we've got. But don't blame bad genes for your extra flab. "It's your environment — that is, food and activity — that is extremely important in ultimately determining your weight," says Andrew G. Swick, PhD, director of obesity and eating disorders research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis.
And there's plenty you can do to not only add muscle but also maximize your metabolism along the way.

Workouts for a Faster Metabolism

Metabolism slows over time, but it doesn't do a sudden nosedive as you sit watching the American Idol finale. "Metabolism drops off 2 to 4 percent every decade as we tend to lose muscle mass," Dr. Heber explains. So, if as a twentysomething you burned 2,000 calories a day, fast-forward 10 years to your mid­thirties and you could be burning as few as 1,920 calories a day. Doesn't seem like a big difference until you do the math. Just 80 extra calories a day translates into eight pounds over a year, unless you pick up the slack with exercise.

"You can maintain your total energy expenditure as you age by combining strength training and aerobic activity. You'll probably need to do more of both," says Miriam Nelson, PhD, director of the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity Prevention at Tufts University in Boston. Nelson's studies in the 1990s found that a twice-weekly regimen of eight to 12 resistance exercises increased women's strength by 75 percent in one year, meaning they gained more metabolism-stoking muscle fibers. Most of those gains were in the first 12 weeks.

Even better, every workout you do will give you a metabolism boost, not just during it but also afterward. One study found that a 50-minute weight routine delivered an additional afterburn of 14 calories. Between sets, add cardio bursts or shorten the rest, and that afterburn spikes — to the tune of 25 calories following a quickie 19-minute circuit session, according to the same study.

Not only that, but "high-intensity interval training is a quick way to ramp up your body's ability to use fat as a fuel," explains Jason L. Talanian, PhD, assistant physiology professor at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts. In a study Talanian conducted, women who did interval workouts on a stationary bike, similar to Spinning, burned 36 percent more fat when they switched back to a steady ride the following week. The speed bursts sparked a 20 percent increase in the amount of mitochondria in the exerciser's muscle cells, making it easier for the women to metabolize fat for fuel rather than carbs.

To net the afterburn uptick, "push your speed for 30 seconds when you walk or run, and then return to your usual pace for 30 seconds," Peel says. Over the course of a month Peel has me increase the ratio so I get 30 seconds of slowdown time for every minute of intense exercise.

What to Eat for a Faster Metabolism

Having a lab test indicate you're made out of jelly could send a girl off on a juice-cleanse bender, but that would actually slow your metabolism. "If you're on a very low-cal regimen — in the 400- to 800-calorie-a-day range — metabolism falls by 15 to 20 percent," says David Nieman, PhD, professor of exercise science and director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Eating less than 900 calories a day also prompts your body to burn muscle tissue as well as fat, which lowers your metabolic rate even more.

Stick with the 1,200- to 1,500-calorie a day range, Nieman suggests, and you'll still slim down without taking such a big bite out of your metabolism. "What's more, about 90 percent of the weight you lose will be fat," he says, sparing more of that calorie-burning muscle.

Another metabolism no-no that women are guilty of is ditching meals, Neiman says. "If you skip meals, you put yourself on that path toward fasting, which signals the metabolism to slow way down," he explains.

Meanwhile, Dr. Heber warns me to get more protein to help preserve the lean mass that's my metabolism workhorse. He recommends the higher end for me: 100 grams of protein a day from such foods as white meats, fish, egg whites, and soy, ­starting with breakfast. "Studies show that people who eat a high-protein breakfast control their hunger longer and their weight better," says Dr. Heber, who is the author of sensible diet books, including What Color Is Your Diet? I promptly replace my cornflake habit with egg-white omelets and the occasional whey-powder-injected pancakes.

"Think of your body as a Ferrari," says trainer Ghadery when I tell him I've turned over a new leaf with protein. "You don't put cheap gas in a vehicle like that."

Measure Your Metabolism

"Normally when people lose weight that is muscle, their metabolism goes down; it's one of the factors that causes them to gain weight back," Dr. Heber explains. "By exercising, you maintained 97 percent of your resting metabolism. If you hadn't exercised, you would have lost 20 pounds, but up to half would have been lean mass."

Back at the University of North Carolina, Swick and other scientists are homing in on identifying the different genes responsible for energy expenditure, as well as phenotypes of people who don't gain weight from overeating, in the hopes of identifying the variables that make us fit as opposed to fat.

So the blueprint for a perfect metabolism is in the works, but I won't be sitting around for it. I've already learned my lesson: No more running low on muscle.

5 Reasons You Should Be Taking Fish Oil

Turns out the cardiovascular benefits of fish oil may just be a fisherman’s tale after all. According to the New York Times, at least two dozen studies of fish oil were published in leading medical journals from 2005 to 2012, nearly all of which focused on the pill’s ability to prevent cardiovascular events. All but two found fish oil had no benefit to heart health. (Find out more about what you should now about heart health).

However, fish oil is now the third most widely used dietary supplement in the United States—about 10 percent of Americans take the pill believing the omega-3 fatty acids will bolster their heart health—according to the National Institutes of Health. So, should we just flush ‘em down the drain? Of course not. Just because fish oil may not live up to the touted heart health benefits, doesn't mean there aren't other reasons to take them. You can also get the omega-3's in these foods if supplements aren't your thing. To prove it, here are five other ways you can benefit from fish oil.

BOOST MEMORY

18- to 25-year-olds who consumed fish oil pills every day for six months boosted their working memory by 23 percent, according to research published in the journal PLoS ONE.

IMPROVE MODERATE TO SEVERE ACNE

A 2012 study from California State Polytechnic University Pomona found evidence that fish oil can improve the severity of acne. Participants supplemented their normal acne-fighting regimen and typical diets with 3 grams of fish oil per day. After 12 weeks, the acne symptoms had greatly improved for 60 percent of the volunteers.

BOOST EYE HEALTH

A 2009 study from the National Eye Institute found that participants who reported the highest level of omega-3 fatty acids in their diet were 30 percent less likely than their peers to develop macular degeneration during a 12-year period.

HELP MUSCLE GROWTH

A 2013 study from the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology found that fish oil can improve the anabolic effect of exercise by promoting more lean muscle growth, function and quality.

REDUCE IMPACT OF AIR POLLUTION

A 2012 study suggests fish oil can help protect your heart against air pollution—good news for city dwellers, and great news for city dwellers who run on highly-polluted streets. Researchers gave 29 middle-aged adults three grams of fish oil or olive oil every day for four weeks. Then they exposed them to two consecutive hours of unclean air, after which their cardiac responses were measured. The participants who were given fish oil didn’t experience as negative an effect to their white blood cell activity. The fish oil protected the participants against the harmful cardiac effects associated with air pollution exposure.

It may not boost your heart health, but the supplement does yield benefits for your brain, lungs, skin, and muscles.

Mental Concepts of Yoga Training

Most modern yoga practitioners learn about the deeper ideas that comprise a traditional yogic practice fairly gradually. Most become familiar with certain principles but still only regularly practice asana (poses), pranayama (breathing), and limited forms of dharana (mantras) or dhyana (meditation). Clearly, restricting our practice to the poses themselves along with some combination of meditation and deep breathing leaves out a great deal of the internal elements of yoga training. To find out the deeper affects of practicing all 8 limbs of yoga, read on!


Although modern yoga practice primarily focuses on the physical practice of postures accompanied by meditation and breathing techniques, traditionally, yoga involved much more than that. For example, Patanjali writes in his ancient text, the Yoga Sutras, that yogic practices are comprised of eight limbs. Thus, the modernized version of yogic methodology that most people are familiar with has actually been simplified a great deal. This can easily be seen in what comprises Patanjali’s eight limbs: Yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi.

The first two limbs comprise moral and ethical values while the next two, asana and pranayama, relate to the body through physical postures and breathing techniques. The next four limbs all have to do with the mind. Many students find pratyahara, the mental withdrawal from the five senses, to be particularly interesting since it combines the external and the internal in a unique way. Dharana and dhyana represent concentration and meditation while samadhi culminates in a heightened form of meditation.

Mental Concepts

Ultimately, most modern practitioners learn about the deeper ideas that comprise a traditional yogic practice fairly gradually. Most become familiar with certain principles but still only regularly practice asana, pranayama, and limited forms of dharana or dhyana. Clearly, restricting our practice to the poses themselves along with some combination of meditation and deep breathing leaves out a great deal of the internal elements of yoga training.

Although the Yoga Sutras are not the only ancient text that expounds on ideas behind yogic philpsophy, many yoga schools turn to it for its basic information on the mental concepts of yoga. It teaches that in combination with the ethical and physical disciplines of yoga, the yogi’s mind must learn to shed awareness of external factors, which is hard to do with all the sensory input we are used to. After achieving a withdrawal of the mind from the senses, the mind must learn to concentrate. However, this is not the sort of concentration that, say, studying for a test would require; instead, the student must turn that concentration internal. Often, this is done in combination with asana as the student holds a pose and concentrates on what is going on inside the body during that pose.

Eventually, the student will begin practicing meditation but must constantly fight his or her own wandering mind. With the daily onslaught of quick-succession media images that today’s students face, it has become quite a struggle for us to discipline our minds to the art of meditation. This is probably one reason that the mental concepts of yoga do not get as much attention with the practitioners of today. However, as yoga becomes more widespread and better understood, we can expect for these aspects to become more of a regularly taught as part of the yogic disciplines.

Just the Facts - About Weight Loss

So many people are fighting obesity today, and despite the many success stories, countless books, endless magazine articles, it seems weight loss, dieting and slimming remain a problem and concern for so many people. If you are struggling with weight control and want to take control of your health problems, too, its important to recognize that healthy weight loss is possible, but requires commitment, dedication and perseverance. Instead on focusing on slim-fit jeans, think about how you want to feel when you can walk up a hill without being breathless, or if you'd like to be able to chase after your grandchildren without worrying about a heart attack! If you're serious about getting healthy and gaining a better lifestyle through weight control, do read on for some tips on gaining a healthy lifestyle. 

1. Concentrate on creating a HEALTHY LIFESTYLE, not just a short-term diet - you are aiming for long-term health and a gradual, healthy weight loss. Fad diets cause yo-yo weight loss, which in the long term affect your metabolism and self-confidence.

2. Watch what you eat – 3 healthy meals & 1-2 small snacks is the maximum each day
It's very easy to fall into the trap of constant snacking. Often we don't eat for sustenance, but because we are bored, stressed or just have a snacking habit. Learn to replace empty calories in snack foods with healthy nutritional snacks like nuts and fruits. Keep a water bottle handy, and drink from it all day to stave off hunger pangs.

3. Get up and move (walk, hula hoop, do aerobics or swim) for 30 minutes a day. No excuses!
Exercise not only ensures you burn excess calories, but helps keep your blood circulated, your skin hydrated and your mind active. If you can't find the time for 30 minutes of activity, sneak in 10-15 minutes any time you have the chance, all the small bursts of activity add up!

4. A healthy lifestyle plan, including times for meals, amount of water to be consumed, and type of daily exercise, has proven effectiveness.
Knowing what you have to do in advance helps you be prepared for the natural disinclination to do exercise or choose the healthy food for lunch. Deciding what food you will eat each day, what times to eat, what activity you are going to do, will help you to feel in control of your life, and better enable you to stick to it.

5. Eat in moderation instead of calorie counting. Choose wholesome, unprocessed foods and smaller portions, eating slowly and enjoying the meal.
Calorie counting can be very effective for some dieters, but most people find it too much hassle to keep writing down and working out the calories in every singe meal, snack, drink, etc that they eat. Often, it also makes they overly concerned with every food choice that they make, to the point that meals become depressing and inconvenient, causing them to abandon their efforts altogether. Instead, eat well, but in moderation, choosing smaller portions of food you really enjoy.
Dying for fried chicken? Make it an occasional treat, and pack half away for later. Can't resist the curry? Don't cover your plate with a large serving, but leave plenty of room for healthy accompaniments like vegetables and fruits. Can't refuse the birthday cake? Ask for a small sliver or share with a friend, and take your time eating it.

Drinking plenty of water, both before and during the meal will help you to slow down and eat less, too. Take the time, savour the taste, feel and texture of the meal as you eat it, giving your stomach time to register fullness, and the brain time to enjoy the meal so you can eat less, yet feel satisfied.

The Reasons You Can’t Reach Your Goals

Have you ever wondered why some people are so successful and others are stuck wading through a sea of mediocrity? What is it about them that allows them to make the jump from average to awesome? As we examine today, that something is very small, very subtle, and very hard to accept…but once it’s been engrained in your mindset, it will help you unlock your fullest potential.

It’s something we all hit. From the wildly successful to the abysmal failures, no one is immune. It is the reason most people fail to reach their goals. The difference between the wildly successful and the abysmal failures of course, is how they deal with it. And how you deal with it is simply the product of your mindset.

But let’s back up a second – what the hell am I even talking about, and more importantly what is, “it”? If you’ve ever attempted to lose weight, you’ve experienced “it”. If you’ve ever tried to increase your bench press, you know all about “it”. If you’ve tried to pass a tough class, get better at shooting a basketball, or cook meals your family doesn’t want to feed to the dog under the table when your head is turned, you’ve experienced “it”.


“IT” is the feeling that the efforts you’re putting in aren’t doing you any good. Have you been stuck on a certain weight, or plateau for a while now, and feel like you’ve “maxed out” your progress? Does each gym session feel as if it’s not making a difference – as if you could go to the gym, or not go to the gym, and nothing would change? This is what I’m talking about. And this feeling is the reason so many people burn out, abandon the set course, quit, and ultimately fail.

It’s understandable after all. Who wants to kill themselves in the gym, or maintain a strict diet, if in the end it’s not going to make one lick of difference. “Screw it, I’m not losing weight anyways.” Ever have that thought?

When confronted with this feeling of helplessness, most people will do one of two things:

Get so frustrated and completely quit altogether.
Jump from plan to plan or diet to diet, looking for the one that “works”

Obviously if you’re simply quitting, you’re failing. Not much more needs to be said there. For the impatient group that is constantly jumping from one thing to the next, failure comes because nothing is given enough time to work. This leads to a very important concept in all of this – and something very successful individuals realize…

Your efforts are going to deliver diminished returns – know this, expect this, prepare for this.

Going from coach potato to someone with an average fitness ability is going to come quickly. Recall the TV show, The Biggest Loser for a second. Ever notice how much weight these people lose at the very beginning? Dropping 10, 20, or 30 pounds in a given week isn’t completely uncommon. That’s because they’ve got a LONG way to go. As you progress, making noticeable changes takes more time and effort.

More Work, Less Return

Four years of training didn’t teach him to double-check his shoelaces were tied.

Those that forget this very important fact are the ones who feel as if their efforts are useless. Your efforts aren’t useless, the results are just more minute; harder to recognize. Nonetheless, consistent and sustained efforts will eventually lead to noticeable change. Whether it’s a gradually improved physique or an ability to shoot a basketball better, the work you put in is contributing towards that goal, even when it doesn’t seem like it.

Think about this – at the highest of levels, the difference between an Olympic champion and a last-place no-namer can literally be separated by hundredths of a second. These people work years to make up a few hundredths of a second. Remember THIS the next time you “only” lost half a pound in a week, or increased your bench press by a “measly” 5 pounds.

This all boils down to mindset. How you deal with the diminishing returns of your efforts will become the greatest indicator of your successes. Do you get frustrated and disappointed your progress has stalled, or do you focus on the fact you’re slowly but surely pushing the ball in the right direction? This is what separates the physical specimens you see walking around the gym from everyone else. I admit, great genetics helps too, but let’s not lose sight of the point at issue.

Have Some Faith
What I’m telling you to do, is simply put faith into the science behind what you’re doing. If you started off on our Total Body Blitz workout and have now progressed to something like our HIIT Training Plan, but are getting slightly annoyed your progress isn’t moving along as fast as you’d like – take a step back, take a breath, trust the science behind what you’re doing, and recommit yourself fully. Keep at it, and over time, you’ll gradually notice the results of your sustained efforts.

This is where one big caveat that comes into play however – trusting the science won’t do you a bit of good if it’s bad science. Sticking to any plan isn’t going to work if the plan sucks. Or the diet sucks. Or your study habits suck. Be mindful of where you’re getting your information. Make sure it’s a trusted source and not a fly-by-night personal trainer or “nutrition expert” dishing out shoddy recommendations. Assuming you’ve weeded out the nonsense and have found something of worth, revert back to the previous paragraph and simply put your faith in the system as it has been designed. No more jumping from one game plan to the next – pick one that works, follow the plan, and be consistent.

That’s it. That’s all I’ve got for you today. It really can be that simple. Overcoming the “burn out” feeling or desire to bounce from one thing to the next is what’s going to unlock your true potential and help you realize your dreams. I admit, easier said then done. There are times even I question what I’m doing, or wonder if I should mix things up. Fortunately, I’ve been able to put my head down and continue to do work, and that’s why I’ve been able to achieve the things I have. Once you figure out how to do the same, you’ll truly understand the meaning of “the sky’s the limit”.

Are You Struggling To Control Your Diet?

So many people across the world struggle with making the best decisions regarding their diets. Although they are the people that often need to pay the most attention to their diets, people with chronic conditions such as renal failurecontrolling your diet, diabetes, and hypertension often have the hardest time with their struggle to eat healthy. Some of this stems from simply being stressed out by the restrictive nature of many diets to control these chronic conditions. Others simply do not know how to build and stick to an effective meal plan.

Talk To Your Doctor

Have a discussion with your physician or nutritionist about what foods you both can eat and should stay away from. Often, your doctor may have a list that you can keep to help you cut down on the guess work involved. It is a good idea to take notes during your conversation, and remember to focus not only on what you cannot eat, but also what you can and should eat. It is always best to start with your doctor because your situation may differ than other people, and depending on what stage of your disease you are in, you may have more or less restrictions.

Remember Your End Goal

That is: You want to feel good and live a long and healthy life. You might be surprised by how much your diet impacts your entire life and well-being. You cannot just rely on medications to make you better, you have to make changes for yourself as well. Every bite of food that you put into your mouth gets broken down, processed by your kidneys, and the byproducts are filtered through your entire body. Controlling your diet can not only help you feel better, but it could help you slow or even stop the progression of many chronic illnesses, including chronic kidney disease. You have the potential to effectively stop the progression of your disease and never reach end stage kidney disease if you take care of yourself properly.

Plan Effectively

A successful diet almost always comes down to effective meal planning. Planning out your meals and executing it in an organized fashion can help you stick to a healthier diet almost 100% of the time. Of course, everything depends on you, but you can benefit from a meal plan so much. Meal planning helps you know what you are going to eat ahead of time, purchase all of the necessary ingredients, do prep work ahead of time, and be ready for each and every meal. It takes the guess work out of the ubiquitous questions like “what’s for dinner?” and “what can I eat tonight?”. It starts with researching great recipes that fit into your diet plan, mapping out what meals you plan to eat and snacks, shopping according to your ingredients list, and follow through. After all the work you put into your meal plan, you are always more likely to follow through.

Controlling your diet, especially with chronic conditions like kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension, and more, is an important part of living the best and longest healthy life. Not only could it keep you around longer, but your comfort and quality of life are severely impacted by your diet. Following these tips for getting your diet under control will help you get on the road to healt. 

5 Things need to know Before Started Running

There are countless benefits you’ll encounter when you start running including feel stronger and more empowered. But the miles aren’t easy and there are countless hurdles you’ll come across, yet you keep going. From selecting the right sneakers to dealing with aches and pains, one woman shares her top five tips she wished she’d known before she picked up her new habit. So you can have comfier, strong miles…now.
When I first got into running, I experienced everything from painful blisters to chafing to unsupported bosoms—no wonder I hated it. I wish someone had sat me down and told me these basic tips and tricks to help smooth my transition from non-runner to runner. If you’re just starting out on your own journey pounding the pavement or treadmill belt, here are things you should know about running.

It Gets Easier
As with most things, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. To strengthen your muscles, acclimate your heart and lungs, and increase your endurance, run at least three times a week. Start off with a doable distance such as two miles. Once that distance feels good, gradually increase your mileage. The key is to move at a comfortable pace for a reasonable amount of time. If you do too much too soon, you could end up with an injury or a deep hatred for the sport.


You Don’t Have to Wear Two Sports Bras

If you’re well-endowed, running can be painful. I wore two sports bras for the longest time because I couldn’t find one that prevented the uncomfortable bounce. A cheap cotton sports bra just won’t do. You might have to spend $50 or more, but it’s worth it when you only have to wear one bra you trust.

Don’t Skimp on Gear

For my first run, I picked up a $25 pair of sneaks and a pack of cheap cotton socks and wondered why I had screaming blisters. You don’t need a ton of gear, but what you do need, you shouldn’t skimp on. Spring for a trusty pair of well-fitting sneaks ($60-$120), a good pair of wicking socks ($10-$15), a super supportive sports bra ($30-$70), a seamless tank to prevent chafing ($20-$40), and a lightweight pair of running shorts to avoid wedgies ($20-$40). Technical gear specifically designed for running makes a huge difference and could make or break your new running career.

There Are Apps to Chart Your Run

I often drove running routes in my car to figure out mileage until my hubby introduced me to the wonderful world of iPhone running apps. The GPS not only keeps track of your distance, but it’ll also chart your workout time, pace, calories burned, and elevation and give you a map of your run. Being able to track your workout might motivate you to keep going so you can beat your personal records.

Running Outside Is Harder Than the Treadmill

My power was out one morning—meaning no treadmill time for me—so I decided to run outside instead. It was so much harder! The real hills, the uneven terrain, the wind, the sun, the heat—it all makes running tougher than it already is. But I’ll tell you, once I started running outside, I saw a huge improvement in my strength and endurance. I even lost the five extra pounds I could never quite shake, and my muscle definition was noticeable to others (“Damn, look at your calves!”). I know people are in love with their treadmills, but I wish someone suggested I run outside because the difficulty made me a better runner.

Why Breakfast is Important

If you were to go 6 to 9 hours during the day without eating you would be feeling very hungry but if you think about it, this is what you do during the night. If you don’t have breakfast then this ‘fast’ may continue for several hours longer.

Although this rest from food gives your digestion a well-deserved rest, delaying food for so long may lead to overeating when you do decide to eat and cause you to choose sugary foods instead of more balanced options to give you that instant energy hit.

You may also find you play ‘catch up’ with your calories leaving you eating far more than you should late at night, when it is more likely to be stored as fat then used for energy.

Remember – research shows that people who eat breakfast are more likely to maintain a healthy weight than those that don’t.

* Low blood sugar levels that may accompany bouts of fasting can cause symptoms of:
Paleness.

* Shakiness and trembling.

* Lack of energy, as a result you will feel fatigue, weakness, and have poor coordination.
* Increased hunger

* Irritability, anxiety, agitation

* You may also have excessive sweating /perspiration.

* Problem in concentrating

* Confusion

The brain in particular may perform better with the instant source of energy it gets from food (eating), so if you want to be working at your full potential then eat breakfast!

Breakfast ideas – for when you have NO time in the morning

Eat your fruits/vegetables nuts and seeds and still get to the office on time!

If you are too busy to make breakfast in the mornings buy a blender that is very easy to use and clean such as the Nutri Bullet.

The great thing about this type of blender is its design. The blender’s container is removable and doubles up as the cup you drink your smoothies from. The blender’s blade is also removable which makes it super easy to clean as there are no ‘hard to reach’ bits.

Why blending rather than juicing can be quicker and healthier:

* You are able to blend whole fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and so retain all the fibre

* When you juice you have to clean up the pulp (extracted fibre) which is fiddly and messy
When you juice you have to ‘feed’ through the produce which takes longer than blending it
* The Nutri Bullet can be blended with water, not fruit juice, making the smoothies much lower in fructose than smoothies made with fruit juice or juice by itself

*You can add nutrients rich foods such as spirulina, maca and barley grass when you blend and nuts and seeds which will give you essential fats

So you now you have some great ideas to get you started, if your still not convinced then why not try eating Breakfast for one week and see how you feel.

How bodybuilding supplements can be a smart choice ?

If you are really serious about making an impressive physique then you should consider HGH and anabolic steroids. A wide variety of bodybuilding supplements that work contain HGH (Human Growth Hormone). This is a natural hormone that gets formulated within the brain’s anterior pituitary gland. This is one of the helpful & tough hormones, it really plays an important role in enhancing the levels of vitality, vigor and endurance.

This helps in making the skin firmer and helps in localized growth of the bone density. It is obvious that with so many brands available, making a right choice gets intricate. But, MusclePharm is one brand that will help you in making your dreams true. 

Things to consider

For the beginners, making a right decision can never be an easy task. They explore various brands but when it comes to make a final decision, they end up being confused. There are so many things that should be known before making a decision, let us discuss them:

* Pre-workout shakes play the role of power beverage including stimuli ingredients like caffeine. When these are consumed before a workout, it helps you to get refreshed and competent. 

* A supplement should only be considered when you are completely satisfied with the weight gain modus operandi. There are various supplements which help gain weight and improve your eating abilities.

* If you have chosen supplements for muscle recovery, make sure that it includes Vitamin C. This is important for you as it includes antioxidants. It also plays an important role in healing muscles post-workout and cutting down the pain in the muscles. 

* Supplements containing protein powders can prove very useful for you. As a bodybuilder, you require high calories and protein. Owing to this, the majority of the fitness enthusiasts makes use of protein powder that assists them in developing healthy body mass and strength.

You should also consume multivitamins, even though it will not help you in the muscle building process. You can easily find various multi-minerals and multivitamins combined in one single supplement, but it has to be of high-quality. 

These will not have any effect on the muscle building process directly, but they provide the body with the essential nutrients that is required by the body. It has been found that most of the bodybuilders mainly focus on amino acids, protein and other popular high performance supplements, but forget the importance of minerals and vitamins.


Natural supplement for bodybuilding

These supplements are available in both synthetic and natural forms. Natural ones are formulated using herbs. As for the synthetic ones, it contains minerals and vitamins which are formulated synthetically, they are mixed in order to form a final product that is capable of fulfilling the essential nutritional requirements of the body.

So, it’s important that you are aware of bodybuilding supplements side effects (if any) and if you have any doubt regarding the supplement, make sure you consult your physician beforehand.

Easy ways to incorporate exercise into your daily routine

The key to bringing exercise into your daily life (especially if you’re not doing any at the moment) is to start small and build it up over time. In this way you will little by little incorporate into your lifestyle, and over time it will become habitual and you will come to miss it if you don’t do it.

As a species we have become very sedentary – in the western world at least – with many of us sitting at a computer all day, some of us even eating our lunch at our desks and only moving to go to the toilet. We are also often very stressed and tense, which may result in high cortisol levels with no outlet to release the stress, which can add to fat around the middle.

For thousands of years we moved a great deal on a daily basis, especially to hunt and gather food. We moved location following the seasons and in order to access available resources. As we developed farming methods and became more industrialised we moved less still. And now modern technology means that many of us are hardly moving at all, in comparison to how we were ‘designed’ to move. As a result of our lack of movement, people’s health is suffering, our fitness is reduced, stress isn’t being released and diabetes is on the rise as are the other ‘western lifestyle diseases’ such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.

So the bottom line is we all need to move more! Walking the dog on a daily basis isn’t enough, as unfortunately if you do something regularly, your body gets used to it. We need to raise our heart rates for an extended period of time, ideally on a daily basis. And it’s very beneficial to vary what you do.

There are many ways you can incorporate exercise into your daily lifestyle. The following are some ideas to try:

* As you wake in the morning and are lying in bed spend 5 minutes stretching your body.

* Keep a yoga mat or towel handy in the bedroom or lounge room and on rising spend 5-10 mins stretching you could try practice 5 ‘salutations to the sun’, if you are able and this is something you would like to try, which is a yoga asana that will stretch and activate your body. This can be done at any time of day, when you have a free 5-10 minutes.

* As you’re waiting for the kettle to boil, or eggs to cook, do some squats, as many as you can fit in while you wait. If you’ve never done this before start with 5 per day and build up gradually. Use any opportunity you can throughout the day to do squats. This will engage your core muscles and many other muscle groups in the body and is a fabulous way to exercise and tone your body.

* You can also do squats at work while you’re waiting for something to print, or at the photocopier. The idea is to fill those ‘wasted’ minutes waiting for something with some exercise such as squats. You could also do some stretches.

*Another way to exercise while waiting is isotonic and isometric exercises. Squeeze and tighten all of your muscles in your arms, your stomach, your bottom, thighs and calves, and hold for as long as you can. This forces glucose into the muscle cells regardless of insulin. Repeat this as often as you can. For some great examples of exercises to build into your daily routine see this helpful book

* Consider walking, running or cycling to and/or from work, even if it’s only part of the way. This will increase your cardiovascular health, endurance, stamina and overall fitness. Even making changes in a small way can make a positive difference to health and wellbeing. An example would be walking to the train station rather than catching a bus. Sometimes due to peak hour traffic, you may get there in the same time or even quicker than the bus.

* Invest in a mini trampoline/rebounder which is a small piece of equipment that is relatively inexpensive. Start with 5 minutes of ‘bouncing’ per day and build up over time to 10-20 minutes. This is something easy to do indoors or outside. Rebound inside or outside, while watching TV or listening to music. This is fabulous for your lymphatic system, getting potentially stagnant lymph moving!

* Go for a power walk or run during your lunch break. Make sure you follow it with a good lunch full of protein and some good quality carbohydrates, so as to ‘feed’ your muscles after exercise.

*You’ve heard it before – take the stairs rather than the lift. If you can run up or down them rather than walk, then do so! The more flights the better. If you’re sitting at a desk all day, working at a computer, any movement you can do will be beneficial on many levels.

* Invest in a ‘kettle bell’ and a DVD instructing how to use it. Buy the smallest weight initially and start with 10 minutes, slowly increasing over time. These are powerful exercises when done correctly!

* Buy some dumbbells and keep them at work under your desk. If possible do some arm and leg exercises whilst at your desk.

*Vary your exercise to keep it interesting! Plan a long walk in a park or the country or in an unexplored area on your day off or on the weekend. Walking in nature can have a wonderfully relaxing and calming effect, and if you’re away from a big city the added bonus of cleaner, unpolluted air! You will be sure to feel invigorated afterwards.

* Consider joining a walking group. There are many groups around, and they organise regular walks to a wide range of areas, offering different levels of fitness and lengths.

* Invest in a bike and explore your local parks with a relaxing bike ride. Take a train or drive out to the country and bring your bike. Go with family, friends or even join a cycling club.

* If you have children, this is a perfect way to exercise regularly and in a varied way. It’s also very easy to raise your cardiovascular rate chasing children around which is ideal to help promote fitness and fat burning. Play football, chase them around and play ‘tag’, have running races – make up games that incorporate movement and exercise.

* Now is the weather to start swimming! Again if you’re new to it, start slowly and build up as your endurance increases. Swimming is an excellent exercise for the whole body and for your cardiovascular system.

* If you love dancing, why not take up a class, even if it’s just once a week! There are SO many options, try different styles until you find something that suits you. There’s Zumba, Salsa, Belly dancing, African dance, 5 Rhythms, Ecstatic Dance, Pole dancing, Ballet and Tap… The list goes on. And dancing isn’t limited to women, men join in – it’s a fabulous way to have fun, increase your fitness and meet new people too.

Remember after any intensive or extensive exercise to cool down and do some stretches so as to avoid injuring yourself.

Are You Taking Care Of Your Heart?

To decrease your cardiovascular risk it is crucial to keep your heart and blood vessels healthy and functioning optimally. There are many simple ways to keep your heart and blood vessels healthy and exercised. Exercise is essential for optimal heart health, so is a must for everyone! There are many foods that provide nutrients that play a vital role in heart health such as oily fish high in omega 3 essential fatty acids (EFA’s). Read on for easy and nutritious ways to keep your heart in top condition:

Exercise

We’ve all heard that it’s essential to exercise. Cardiovascular exercise increases our heart rate, blood flow and circulation, oxygen levels and more. Many of us spend hours at work or at home at a desk, then a sofa in the evening, so we’re often not moving enough! Exercise is the number one thing you can do to help your heart to be healthy. Exercise for ideally a minimum of 30-45 minutes per day, or at least 3 times a week. Walk rather than catching a bus; take the stairs rather than the lift; go for a brisk walk during your lunch break; take your child to the park and run around with them; go for a swim; do a yoga class. Bring exercise into your daily routine – your heart will love you for it!

Fish Oils

Oily fish such as salmon, sardines, mackerel and anchovies are a rich source of omega 3 EFA’s. Fish oils contain EPA and DHA, which are essential for hormonal regulation and most importantly in the reduction of inflammation. Inflammation is a component of all cardiovascular disease.Omega 3 oils play a role in the maintenance of healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Try Lambert’s Pure Fish Oil.

Blood sugar levels

Raised blood sugar levels (BSL’s) and diabetes are another major health problem that is rapidly on the rise. Too much sugar in the blood may damage the blood vessels and ultimately the heart, as well as exhausting the pancreas, which can lead to diabetes. Avoid sugar and many processed foods. Increase your intake of vegetables, fruit and whole foods. Protein in every meal will help to balance the meal and your BSL’s. Educate yourself about the Glycaemic Index of foods and avoid high glycaemic foods as much as you can.

Magnesium

Is often referred to as ‘Nature’s Tranquiliser’, as it has a calming and regulating effect on nerves and muscles. It plays an essential role in the production of energy within ALL cells, as well as the functioning of ALL muscle. The heart is the most important muscle in the body, so it needs magnesium to function properly. Increase magnesium-rich foods such as greens leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds, eggs and molasses.


Co Enzyme Q10

Is an essential nutrient for the production of energy within ALL cells. The heart needs even more Co Enzyme Q10 to function properly. Those who are taking statin drugs to lower cholesterol will over time become likely become deficient in Co Enzyme Q10, as statins block the production of Co Enzyme Q10.

B Complex Vitamins

Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) contributes to the normal functioning of the heart. All of the B complex vitamins work closely together. They work with Co Enzyme Q 10 and magnesium to help power the nerve transmission and muscular contraction of the heart. Processed and refined foods are low in B vitamins, so avoid these and make sure and consume plentiful amounts of vegetables, eggs, fish, good quality meat, whole grains, nuts and seeds.

Garlic

Countless studies have shown the positive effects that the wonder herb Garlic has on the heart and cardiovascular system. It may help reduce cholesterol levels, blood pressure, atherosclerosis, circulation and heart health. Try out Garlic supplement.

Walnuts

Are a fabulous source of nutrients including good oils, protein and minerals so enjoy a small handful per day. Walnuts also contribute to the elasticity of blood vessels.

Fibre

A healthy bowel that moves a minimum of once a day, is vital for a healthy you and for your heart. Fibre increases the bulk of the stool, whilst binding excess cholesterol and toxins for excretion. It also helps to feed the healthy live bacteria in our intestines and colon, which are vital to optimum digestion and our immune system.

Stress

The more stressed we are the harder the heart has to work as blood pressure increases. Stress is a killer, so we must try to manage our stress so that it doesn’t take over. Talk to those you trust and work through your worries – communication is important. Practice mindfulness, learning to be in the moment. Practice deep breathing often. Start to meditate for even 10 minutes a day to centre and ground yourself.

Happiness & Gratitude

Studies have shown that those who are more optimistic and positive, and who feel gratitude on a regular basis are less likely to die from a heart attack or stroke. Happiness comes from within; no one can give it to you. Start to have gratitude as often as you can and watch it grow, the result is increased happiness, which will make your heart happy.