Monday, April 23, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Boost Your Metabolism!
Get Cross-training
If you’ve fallen into a predictable pattern of biking or walking every day, try cross-training to get your body out of its rut and stimulate more muscle growth. Try running on Monday, stair-climbing on Tuesday, weight training on Wednesday, boxing on Thursday, cycling on Friday and jumping rope on Saturday.
If you’ve fallen into a predictable pattern of biking or walking every day, try cross-training to get your body out of its rut and stimulate more muscle growth. Try running on Monday, stair-climbing on Tuesday, weight training on Wednesday, boxing on Thursday, cycling on Friday and jumping rope on Saturday.
Pump up Your Heart Rate
Keeping your heart rate elevated for at least 30 minutes during your cardio routine will boost your metabolism and help your body burn fat faster. Whitmarsh recommends keeping your heart rate within 65 to 85 percent of your heart rate maximum, which you can find by subtracting your age from 220. Multiply that number by 0.65 and then by 0.85 to find this magic fat-burning range. Then, use a heart rate monitor while exercising to help stay in that range.
Keeping your heart rate elevated for at least 30 minutes during your cardio routine will boost your metabolism and help your body burn fat faster. Whitmarsh recommends keeping your heart rate within 65 to 85 percent of your heart rate maximum, which you can find by subtracting your age from 220. Multiply that number by 0.65 and then by 0.85 to find this magic fat-burning range. Then, use a heart rate monitor while exercising to help stay in that range.
Try Interval Training
Interval training — alternating high-intensity exercise bursts with lower-intensity activities — will break up a stale workout and boost your metabolism. “You’re building muscle and increasing your heart rate so it will stay elevated for a longer time after your workout, and you’ll burn calories longer,” says Whitmarsh.
Interval training — alternating high-intensity exercise bursts with lower-intensity activities — will break up a stale workout and boost your metabolism. “You’re building muscle and increasing your heart rate so it will stay elevated for a longer time after your workout, and you’ll burn calories longer,” says Whitmarsh.
Keep It Up
The last secret to boosting your metabolism is to choose multifunctional exercises that maximize your muscle gain by working many body parts at once. Whitmarsh’s top five exercises to boost your metabolism can all be done easily at home:
The last secret to boosting your metabolism is to choose multifunctional exercises that maximize your muscle gain by working many body parts at once. Whitmarsh’s top five exercises to boost your metabolism can all be done easily at home:
1. Mountain-climbers: Start on the floor in a hands-and-knees position. Lift one bent knee close to your chest. Alternate your knees into your chest by tapping your toes to the floor and back. Repeat 20 to 50 times without stopping.
2. Eight-count Body-builder With Push-up: Start at standing pose. Bring hands to the floor, jump feet back into a high plank. Jump feet out wide, do a push-up, jump feet back together, jump feet back to hands and stand up. Repeat five to 15 times.
3. Squat Into Bicep Curls and Overhead Shoulder Press: Stand holding weights by your sides. Squat down. Stand back up while doing a bicep curl. Perform overhead shoulder press, bring weights back to sides. Repeat eight to 15 times.
4. Walking Lunges While Alternating Bicep Curls and Lateral Shoulder Raises: Stand with weights in each hand. Lunge forward with right leg while doing a bicep curl with right arm. Repeat with left side. Then, lunge forward with right leg while lifting your right arm out to the side. Repeat with left side. Repeat 10 times.
5. Medicine Ball Drop-catch and Overhead Lift: Hold a medicine ball in front of your body with arms straight and legs slightly wider than shoulder width. Lift the ball overhead, keeping arms straight and engaging your core. Then, drop the ball down to the floor as you squat so your thighs are parallel to the floor. Catch the ball at the deepest part of your squat with your arms straight. Lift ball as you stand. Repeat 10 to 20 times.
Cardio Workout!
Push your self with this one - walking might seem to make this an easier cardio work out but if you put that incline right up it will be one hell of a cardio blast!
Skip 100 rotations
Run 8% incline 4 min
Skip 1 min
Walk incline 15% 4 min
Skip 1min
Walk incline 15% 4min
Skip 2min
Run incline 8% 2min
Skip 2 min
Stepper 10min - 80-90% effort
Skip 2min
Have fun! Px
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Cravings and Gateway Foods
“First Bite Warning: Foods That Make You Do Bad Things”
It’s a common slipup: After weeks of eating well, hitting the gym, and skipping dessert, you’re on track to lose those five pounds. You deserve a reward, some candy, a (non-diet) soda, or a side of fries. But hours later, the scene around you looks like “The Hangover” meets the Food Network. In the same way that some drugs pave the way for even harder ones, a weakness for a certain food can open the door to an avalanche of bad eating choices, says Gary Wenk, Ph.D., author of Your Brain on Food. Some foods are like gateway drugs,” he says. “From your brain’s viewpoint, there is no difference.” These so-called gateway foods make you feel out of control, maybe even physically unable to stop reaching for more, in part because of their addictive effect on your mind and body, according to research. But rehab is probably easier than you think.
It may seem silly to think about being addicted to food, something we’d die without, but most of us eat for a lot more than just survival. Merely looking at or thinking about a food you know you love activates the reward portion of your brain, the nucleus accumbens, the same area stimulated by drugs and alcohol. This triggers the release of dopamine, a feel-good chemical that enhances your awareness of that food (so forget ignoring it!).
And once you’ve taken that first bite, watch out. Tasting food engages all of your senses (and may be felt more intensely in women than in men, for unknown reasons). Your nervous system responds by secreting insulin (which drops blood glucose) and relaxing your stomach muscles, which makes you feel like you need to eat more to be satisfied, says Susan Roberts, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at Tufts University and coauthor of The “I” Diet.
There’s a reason this tends to happen almost exclusively with fatty and sugary foods and not, say, lettuce. The saturated fats in foods like bacon and cheese impair your brain’s normal ability to regulate appetite and cravings, so you don’t realize you’re full until you’re completely stuffed, says Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., a health psychologist at Stanford University and author of The Willpower Instinct. What’s more, that effect on your appetite can last for up to three days, the length of time it takes to flush those fats from your system. So one unhealthy indulgence can end up triggering a major relapse.
Add sugar to the fatty food, ice cream, cake, doughnuts, and you have a double whammy. High-sugar foods increase your levels of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite and increases cravings. “So you may tell yourself ‘Just one bite’ but find yourself wanting more and more, the more you eat,” says McGonigal.
Sugar also has been shown to enhance memory storage, which may explain why you want it in the first place, and so much of it on special social occasions. As a result, your brain has evolved a system of rewards that gives you a real high when you eat sugar. “The brain responds to both sugar and fat by releasing endorphins,” says Wenk. Chemically, those feel-good compounds are similar to morphine and can have a biological impact similar to a shot of heroin, including causing you to jones for another fix when the initial euphoria begins to fade.
Regaining Control
Avoiding cravings entirely is tough, given that they can be brought on by stress, PMS, or even just thinking about eating. But there’s plenty you can do to avoid skidding down the slippery slope of gateway foods.
Use Your Head
One of the best times to stop a binge is before it begins.
A 2010 study by Australian researchers found that thinking about a craving uses up mental energy, enough that you’ll struggle to do anything else or even think normally. But if your brain is otherwise engaged, you’ll have fewer cognitive resources available to conjure up mental images of brownies. So when a craving hits, try doing long division, sudoku, or counting backward, and see if it goes away.
Interrupt yourself
If you’re three bites into a pint of fudge ripple when you feel a pang of regret, try switching to a healthier snack. Once your senses have been engaged, your body is going to demand more food, but you can still decide what to give it. Sorbet or a piece of fruit can freshen up your palate, which can help put the brakes on thinking about the stuff you crave.
Hide your triggers
Proximity to food influences how much of it you eat, says James Painter, R.D., a professor at Eastern Illinois University who studies behavioral eating. Try keeping healthy foods right where you can see them, and stash unhealthy ones in a hard-to-reach drawer, or just don’t keep them around at all.
Get back on track
Maybe you couldn’t stop yourself from polishing off the entire caramel sundae, but that’s no reason to give up entirely. We have a tendency to focus on the short-term consequences of our actions, but keeping a long-term goal in mind, say, fitting into that really cute bikini, can help you realize that you can still get there despite a setback, says McGonigal. Think of it this way: Every meal is a chance to start over and do it right.
Kill a Craving
It’s a common slipup: After weeks of eating well, hitting the gym, and skipping dessert, you’re on track to lose those five pounds. You deserve a reward, some candy, a (non-diet) soda, or a side of fries. But hours later, the scene around you looks like “The Hangover” meets the Food Network. In the same way that some drugs pave the way for even harder ones, a weakness for a certain food can open the door to an avalanche of bad eating choices, says Gary Wenk, Ph.D., author of Your Brain on Food. Some foods are like gateway drugs,” he says. “From your brain’s viewpoint, there is no difference.” These so-called gateway foods make you feel out of control, maybe even physically unable to stop reaching for more, in part because of their addictive effect on your mind and body, according to research. But rehab is probably easier than you think.
It may seem silly to think about being addicted to food, something we’d die without, but most of us eat for a lot more than just survival. Merely looking at or thinking about a food you know you love activates the reward portion of your brain, the nucleus accumbens, the same area stimulated by drugs and alcohol. This triggers the release of dopamine, a feel-good chemical that enhances your awareness of that food (so forget ignoring it!).
And once you’ve taken that first bite, watch out. Tasting food engages all of your senses (and may be felt more intensely in women than in men, for unknown reasons). Your nervous system responds by secreting insulin (which drops blood glucose) and relaxing your stomach muscles, which makes you feel like you need to eat more to be satisfied, says Susan Roberts, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at Tufts University and coauthor of The “I” Diet.
There’s a reason this tends to happen almost exclusively with fatty and sugary foods and not, say, lettuce. The saturated fats in foods like bacon and cheese impair your brain’s normal ability to regulate appetite and cravings, so you don’t realize you’re full until you’re completely stuffed, says Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., a health psychologist at Stanford University and author of The Willpower Instinct. What’s more, that effect on your appetite can last for up to three days, the length of time it takes to flush those fats from your system. So one unhealthy indulgence can end up triggering a major relapse.
Add sugar to the fatty food, ice cream, cake, doughnuts, and you have a double whammy. High-sugar foods increase your levels of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite and increases cravings. “So you may tell yourself ‘Just one bite’ but find yourself wanting more and more, the more you eat,” says McGonigal.
Sugar also has been shown to enhance memory storage, which may explain why you want it in the first place, and so much of it on special social occasions. As a result, your brain has evolved a system of rewards that gives you a real high when you eat sugar. “The brain responds to both sugar and fat by releasing endorphins,” says Wenk. Chemically, those feel-good compounds are similar to morphine and can have a biological impact similar to a shot of heroin, including causing you to jones for another fix when the initial euphoria begins to fade.
Regaining Control
Avoiding cravings entirely is tough, given that they can be brought on by stress, PMS, or even just thinking about eating. But there’s plenty you can do to avoid skidding down the slippery slope of gateway foods.
Use Your Head
One of the best times to stop a binge is before it begins.
A 2010 study by Australian researchers found that thinking about a craving uses up mental energy, enough that you’ll struggle to do anything else or even think normally. But if your brain is otherwise engaged, you’ll have fewer cognitive resources available to conjure up mental images of brownies. So when a craving hits, try doing long division, sudoku, or counting backward, and see if it goes away.
Interrupt yourself
If you’re three bites into a pint of fudge ripple when you feel a pang of regret, try switching to a healthier snack. Once your senses have been engaged, your body is going to demand more food, but you can still decide what to give it. Sorbet or a piece of fruit can freshen up your palate, which can help put the brakes on thinking about the stuff you crave.
Hide your triggers
Proximity to food influences how much of it you eat, says James Painter, R.D., a professor at Eastern Illinois University who studies behavioral eating. Try keeping healthy foods right where you can see them, and stash unhealthy ones in a hard-to-reach drawer, or just don’t keep them around at all.
Get back on track
Maybe you couldn’t stop yourself from polishing off the entire caramel sundae, but that’s no reason to give up entirely. We have a tendency to focus on the short-term consequences of our actions, but keeping a long-term goal in mind, say, fitting into that really cute bikini, can help you realize that you can still get there despite a setback, says McGonigal. Think of it this way: Every meal is a chance to start over and do it right.
Kill a Craving
- These reverse-gateway foods taste like cheating, but they’ll help you get back on the weight-loss wagon.
- Sunflower seeds: They’re packed with nutrients, and snacking on a handful may regulate your nerves and muscles.
- Eat this: A 1/4-cup serving
- Plain frozen yogurt with fresh fruit: It has less fat than ice cream but five grams of filling protein per serving. Fruit gives it more flavor, texture, and vitamins.
- Eat this: 1 1/2 cups
- Dark chocolate: Just a small portion of this antioxidant-filled treat satisfies a sweet tooth.
- Eat this: 1 oz dark chocolate with 65 percent (or more) cacao
- Pistachios: They satisfy a salt craving while delivering more natural antioxidants than most other nuts. Plus, the shells will slow you down.
- Eat this: 30 in-shell nuts
- Mini whole-wheat pretzels: Crunchy and packed with fiber to keep you fuller longer, so you won’t reach for a higher-calorie food.
- Eat this: 1 oz pretzels (about a handful)
Alcohol
It's hard to be what feels like the only person in your group of friends who doesn't drink. I understand that. When i first gave up alcohol I was faced with odd looks and flat out 'But why?' You wouldn't ask a non-smoker why they don't smoke so why a non drinker? It's almost as if choosing not to drink is incompressible to some people. My friend slowly start to accept it and while it felt odd to be sober on a night out i soon learnt to relax and have faith in my self that i was entertaining enough when I was sober as I was when I'd have a few drinks of a night out.
Over the years i've actually lost the taste for alcholo. I will on the very odd occasion have a good quality glass of red with dinner but big nights out don't happen for me anymore. It's just not worth it to me to put that many toxins in my body.
I have a couple of questions for you: Your friends were into the whole ‘drinking’ and ‘partying’ thing. Did you end up losing those friends? And if not, did you and your friends find other beneficial things to do besides drinking & partying? I have friends who are still into that phase, but I’ve totally outgrown it and now I just want to have a healthy lifestyle but I’m afraid they won’t understand.”
Unfortunately, I did end up losing “friends” when I stopped drinking. Fortunately… it was just the people who weren’t REAL friends. REAL friends support you when you decide to do something healthy and good for you.. REAL friends will be there for you when you decide to chase your dreams. It’s the ones that try to drag you back to your old, unhealthy habits, or keep you in a place where THEY are comfortable that you should kick to the curb.
For your REAL friends that stick around… just explain to them why you want to get healthy and why it is important to you. You don’t have to shut them out of your life to get healthy! Just come up with new ways to hang out that doesn’t require getting trashed.
There are plenty of fun things you can do that don’t involve drinking! You just have to get creative! Go out to coffee, go to the beach, have a picnic at the park, have a girls night with movies, do arts and crafts, get manicures and pedicures together, go on a shopping trip, find cool things or clothes at thrift stores, bake healthy protein bars, play tennis, put together a little football or soccer team and go scrimmage at the park, have a photoshoot… These are just a few options I came up with on the spot.There are SO MANY things you can do that don’t involve drinking.. I’m sure you can come up with even better ones than these! Muffintopless
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