Exercise Tips - Burn Calories

For many of us it is hard to getting fit and even more staying in fit, it is hard enough to get up of the couch. But are there any ways to make exercise a way of life?

Some Facts First

Exercise can be grouped into three types:

• Flexibility exercise

Such as stretching, improve the range of motion of muscles and joints.

• Aerobic exercise

Like walking and running, focus on increasing cardiovascular endurance.

• Anaerobic exercise

On the order of weight training, functional training or sprinting, increase short-term muscle strength.

Aerobic Exercise

Generally a minimum of 20 to 30 minutes per session and four times a week. Once you have base training behind you, consider adding interval training to make your aerobic exercise more effective.

Anerobic

Anaerobic exercise is exercising at high intensity levels for shorter periods of time. An example would be running 8 all out sprints during your workout, each followed by a period of 30 seconds or more recovery time. It is recommended for anyone who is in top condition.

Strength training
Streangth trainging strengthen and condition the musculoskeletal system, improving muscle tone and endurance. So when you build muscle, you burn fat even while you are relaxing. Strength training workout should be done a minimum of 2 days a week.

Strength training is important and should not be overlooked. Even if you are looking to lose weight, keep in mind that muscle burns fat. That means you do your strength training routine and continue to burn fat later in the evening. This is one of the keys to developing 6 pack abs.

The Tips

1.      Take easy, start slow and if you haven't worked out in a while start with a walking program of about 20 to 30 minutes, 3 days a week. Each session, add a few minutes to your workout to progress each week.

2.      Schedule your workouts each week.

3.      Tell your friend, spouse or significant other into working out with you.

4.      Make food choices and ask yourself how you will make your life healthier.

5.      Give yourself a massage when you reach your goals, or maybe some new workout clothes. Reward yourself!

6.      Set goals.  Long term goals are great, but are so far away we often forget why we're working so hard. 

7.      Eat regularly throughout the day so you don't bonk during your workout. 

8.      And again reward yourself!

 Other Good-to-know facts:

Calories burnt per hour:

Exercise:

Walking - 185 kcals/hour
Brisk walking - 360 kcals/hour
Swimming - 340 kcals/hour
Aerobics - 340 kcals/hour
Cycling - 300 kcals/hour
Yoga - 250 kcals/hour

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Posted in: Exercise,Weight Loss

Natural Skin Cleansers And Moisturizers

Do you want a beautiful skin with only natural products that you can find in your kitchen and medicine cabinet?

Then try these natural ingredients:

1. Witch hazel
2. Honey
3. Lemon Juice
4. Shea butter
5. Jojoba
6. Algae (polysacchride)
7. Olive Oil 

What is natural skin care? 

It is the care of the skin, which is the largest organ of the body, using naturally-derived ingredients. Examples of these are herbs, roots, essential oils and flowers combined with naturally occurring carrier agents, preservatives, surfactants, humectants and emulsifiers, for example natural soap.

1. Witch hazel 

Extracts from its bark and leaves are used in aftershave lotions and lotions for treating bruises and insect bites. It is also used in treating acne. The liquid you can find in the shelves of drug store is an herbal extract with exceptional cleansing, soothing, and healing properties.

To make your own witch hazel astringent; mix 1 cup of witch-hazel with 2 tablespoons of alcohol (or whine vinegar 1/4 cup) and apply it to your skin with a cotton ball. 

2. Honey

Honey naturally attracts and retains moisture. It is a natural source of antioxidants. 

To make your own honey skin lotion;  mix one teaspoon honey, one teaspoon olive oil, and ¼ teaspoon lemon juice, rub on dry skin, and rinse off after fifteen minutes. 

3. Lemon

Lemon juice has a variety of uses for natural skin and beauty treatments. Here are some of the ways you can use lemon as a natural skin product;

1. For brighter and softer skin

- use fresh lemon juice (ecological if possible) on any area of your body, except aroung your eyes. You can also add 1/2 cup of fresh juice to your bath water. The lemon juice fades freckles and age spots by applying lemon juice on the areas before going to bed at night. Over the course of a weeks it will cleanse the skin and lighten its color. If you're a bit sensitive to lemon juice then dilute it with a bit of water.

2. Removing blackheads

- can easily be done with lemon, because it is a naturally exfoliate. Cut the lemon in half then rub it directly on your face (be careful around the eyes) before going to bed. You can also mix the lemon juice with two tablespoons of rosewater to make it more fragrant. Repeat the procedure until blackheads are gone.

3. Moisturizing mask for dry skin

- mix equal amounts of  lemon, honey, and olive oil . Apply the mixture to dry areas on the skin and allow it to dry thoroughly for about fifteen minutes. Rinse with warm water.

4. Toner for oily skin

- mix two tablespoons vodka (or whine vinegar if sensitive to alcohol) , 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of witch-hazel distilled, and 1 teaspoon of water. Use cotton balls to apply the mixture to your skin then rinse.

5. Anti-wrinkle mask

- mix a few drops of lemon juice, a teaspoon of honey,  and a drop of sweet almond oil. Apply this mixture on the face and allow it to dry for 25 minutes and wash off.

Another thing about lemons is that it can be eaten with whole with its shell, but the lemons have to be ecological. It detoxifies for your body and makes your skin younger. If you don't want to eat whole lemons, you can instead mix the juice from a lemon with warm water and sweeten with 1 tsp of honey.

4. Shea butter
It is derived from the kernel of the Karite tree and is known  as a moisturizer and emollient. It is also used as a treatment for fading scars, eczema, burns, rashes, dry skin, dark spots, stretchmarks, wrinkles, and in lessening the irritation of psoriasis. Shea butter also protects against the sun's ultraviolet radiation. It is derived from the kernel of the Karite tree.You can buy it in your stores.

5. Jojoba 
Jojoba is a natural moisturizer for the skin and helps to restore the skin's natural Ph balance. Jojoba oil is also great for those with oily and acne-prone skin. You can buy it your store.

6. Algae 

Algae polysacchride is a very good natural moisturizer and removes oil from the skin. It is also an anti-aging substance.

7. Olive Oil

Why use olive oil? First of all it is rich in antioxidants including vitamins A and E, polyphenols, phytosterols and avenasterol. These neutralize free radicals and repair cell membranes. Second, olive oil contains squalene, which is a natural organic moisturizer. Squalene helps to regulate sebum which forms a coating on the skin that acts as a barrier, inhibits the growth of micro-organisms and lubricates our skin and hair. Third, it contains chlorophyll which is an anti-aging substance that promotes the healing of skin conditions and wounds.

Give it a try!

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Posted in: Anti-Aging,Mens Health,Nutrition,Skin Care,Womens Health

Sardines - Stinky Fish or a Nutrition Bomb?

We all know that eating fish is good but we often forget about one nutritious little fish, the sardine with its strong smell and taste. Is there anything good with eating sardines or do they just smell?

What are sardines?
Sardines, or pilchards, are several types of small, oily fish related to herrings, family Clupeidae. Sardines were named after the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, where they once lived in abundance. (Wikipedia)

Health Benefits of eating fish (major ones)?
First of all it's known that fish have accumulated toxins, such as mercury, dioxane and PCB. But because of the small size of the sardine it is less likely to have accumulated these toxins.
Like a lot of fish, saridines are high in omega-3 fatty acids, which adds up to the nutritional value of the fish. The omega-3 fatty acids help in reducing the triglyceride levels and play a major role in preventing several dangerous heart rhythm abnormalities and other cardiovascular diseases.
Sardines are also a very good source of vitamin D, which is beneficial for the body and also helps in treating and curbing certain diseases. Vit D is needed for formation of bone in young and keeps the bone strong in elder. Insufficiency can result in rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Together with with calcium it helps to protect older adults from osteoporosis. Vitamin D also modulates neuromuscular function and reduces inflammation. The sardine also contains a very good source of phosphorus, a mineral that is important for strengthening the bone matrix.

Sardines are a very good source of vitamin B12 as well, which promotes cardiovascular wellbeing, since it keeps the levels of homocysteine in balance, which can otherwise damage artery walls, with elevated levels being a risk factor for atherosclerosis.
Sardines contain almost zero carbohydrates but a very high protein content which helps in promoting satiety and the zero carbohydrate helps the body to keep the sugar levels stable. Apart from controlling the calorie intake and providing the body with various minerals, sardine can even enhance your weight-loss efforts, by accelerating the metabolic rate in your body and increasing the fat burning capacity of your body. Sardines consumed along with a healthy exercise routine helps in burning more calories than you actually consume.
Sardines also contain coenzyme Q 10, which is an antioxidant that helps in enhancing the physical energy of a person and also improves the cardiovascular health. Coenzyme is beneficial for people suffering from hypertension and heart abnormalities. Sardines are also an excellent source of tryptophan, which is an essential amino acid.

Nutritional Value Of Sardines(100g)

 

Nutrients	Amount
Basic Components
Protein	20.9 g
Water	66.7 g
Ash	1.9 g
Calories
Total Calories	186
Calories From Carbohydrate	2.6
Calories From Fat	94.4
Carbohydrates
Total Carbohydrate	0.7 g
Dietary Fiber	0.1 g
Sugars	0.4 g
Fats & Fatty Acids
Total Fat	10.5 g
Saturated Fat	2.7 g
Monounsaturated Fat	4.8 g
Polyunsaturated Fat	2.1 g
Total Omega-3 Fatty Acids	1693 mg
Total Omega-6 Fatty Acids	123 mg
Vitamins
Vitamin A	143 IU
Vitamin C	1.0 mg
Vitamin D	480 IU
Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol)	1.4 mg
Vitamin K	0.4 mcg
Riboflavin	0.2 mg
Niacin	4.2 mg
Vitamin B6	0.1 mg
Folate	24.0 mcg
Vitamin B12	9 mcg
Pantothenic Acid	0.7 mg
Choline	85 mg
Minerals
Calcium	240 mg
Iron	2.3 mg
Magnesium	34.0 mg
Phosphorus	366 mg
Potassium	341 mg
Sodium	414 mg
Zinc	1.4 mg
Copper	0.3 mg
Manganese	0.2 mg
Selenium	40.6 mcg

So why not give them a try?

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Posted in: Mens Health,Nutrition,Weight Loss,Womens Health

Where Does The Fat Come From? - Story of the Fat Cell Part 2

Insulin
When you eat a candy bar or a meal, the presence of glucose, amino acids or fatty acids in the intestine stimulates the pancreas to secrete a hormone called insulin. Insulin acts on many cells in your body, especially those in the liver, muscle and fat tissue. Insulin tells the cells to do the following:

• Absorb glucose, fatty acids and amino acids
• Stop breaking down:
  • glucose, fatty acids and amino acids
  • glycogen into glucose
  • fats into fatty acids and glycerol
  • proteins into amino acids
• Start building:
  • glycogen from glucose
  • fats (triglycerides) from glycerol and fatty acids
  • proteins from amino acids

The fatty acids are then absorbed from the blood into fat cells, muscle cells and liver cells. In these cells, under stimulation by insulin, fatty acids are made into fat molecules and stored as fat droplets.
It is also possible for fat cells to take up glucose and amino acids, which have been absorbed into the bloodstream after a meal, and convert those into fat molecules. The conversion of carbohydrates or protein into fat is 10 times less efficient than simply storing fat in a fat cell, but the body can do it. If you have 100 extra calories in fat (about 11 grams) floating in your bloodstream, fat cells can store it using only 2.5 calories of energy. On the other hand, if you have 100 extra calories in glucose (about 25 grams) floating in your bloodstream, it takes 23 calories of energy to convert the glucose into fat and then store it. Given a choice, a fat cell will grab the fat and store it rather than the carbohydrates because fat is so much easier to store.

When you are not eating, your body is not absorbing food. If your body is not absorbing food, there is little insulin in the blood. However, your body is always using energy; and if you're not absorbing food, this energy must come from internal stores of complex carbohydrates, fats and proteins.


When you are not eating, or you are exercising, your body must draw on its internal energy stores. Your body's prime source of energy is glucose. In fact, some cells in your body, such as brain cells, can get energy only from glucose.
The first line of defense in maintaining energy is to break down carbohydrates, or glycogen, into simple glucose (sugar) molecules. Next, your body breaks down fats into glycerol and fatty acids where the fatty acids can then be broken down directly to get energy, or can be used to make glucose.

Losing Weight and Losing Fat
Your weight is determined by the rate at which you store energy from the food that you eat, and the rate at which you use that energy. Remember that as your body breaks down fat, the number of fat cells remains the same; each fat cell simply gets smaller.
Most experts agree that the way to maintain a healthy weight is:

• Eat a balanced diet - appropriate amounts of carbohydrates, fat and protein
• Do not eat excessively - for most people, a diet of 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day is sufficient to maintain a healthy weight
• Exercise regularly

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Posted in: Weight Loss

Where Does The Fat Come From? - Story of the Fat Cell Part 1

 Fat, or adipose tissue, is found in several places in your body. Generally, fat is found underneath your skin (subcutaneous fat). There's also some on top of each of your kidneys. In addition to fat tissue, some fat is stored in the liver, and an even smaller amount in muscle.
Where fat is concentrated in your body depends upon whet her you are a man or woman:

• An adult man tends to carry body fat in his chest, abdomen and buttocks, producing an "apple" shape.
• An adult woman tends to carry fat in her breasts, hips, waist and buttocks, creating a "pear" shape. 

The difference in fat location comes from the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone. Fat cells are formed in the developing fetus during the third trimester of pregnancy, and later at the onset of puberty, when the sex hormones "kick in." It is during puberty that the differences in fat distribution between men and women begin to take form. One amazing fact is that fat cells generally do not generate after puberty, as your body stores more fat, the number of fat cells remains the same. Each fat cell simply gets bigger!
The human body contains two types of fat tissue:

• White fat is important in energy metabolism, heat insulation and mechanical cushioning.
• Brown fat is found mostly in newborn babies, between the shoulders, and is important for thermogenesis (making heat). Since adult humans have little to no brown fat, we'll concentrate on white fat in this article. See the bottom of this page for more on brown fat.

Fat tissue is made up of fat cells, which are a unique type of cell. You can think of a fat cell as a tiny plastic bag that holds a drop of fat. White fat cells are large cells that have very little cytoplasm, only 15 percent cell volume, a small nucleus and one large fat droplet that makes up 85 percent of cell volume.

How Fat Enters Your Body
When you eat food that contains fat, mostly triglycerides, it goes through your stomach and intestines. In the intestines, the following happens:

1. Large fat droplets get mixed with bile salts from the gall bladder in a process called emulsification. The mixture breaks up the large droplets into several smaller droplets called micelles, increasing the fat's surface area.
2. The pancreas secretes enzymes called lipases that attack the surface of each micelle and break the fats down into their parts, glycerol and fatty acids.
3. These parts get absorbed into the cells lining the intestine.
4. In the intestinal cell, the parts are reassembled into packages of fat molecules (triglycerides) with a protein coating called chylomicrons. The protein coating makes the fat dissolve more easily in water.
5. The chylomicrons are released into the lymphatic system -- they do not go directly into the bloodstream because they are too big to pass through the wall of the capillary.
6. The lymphatic system eventually merges with the veins, at which point the chylomicrons pass into the bloodstream.

You might be wondering why fat molecules get broken down into glycerol and fatty acids if they're just going to be rebuilt. This is because fat molecules are too big to easily cross cell membranes. So when passing from the intestine through the intestinal cells into the lymph, or when crossing any cell barrier, the fats must be broken down. But, when fats are being transported in the lymph or blood, it is better to have a few, large fat molecules than many smaller fatty acids, because the larger fats do not "attract" as many excess water molecules by osmosis as many smaller molecules would. Chylomicrons do not last long in the bloodstream before it is broken down into fatty acids.

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Posted in: Weight Loss

Food That Are Not Good For You

We’ve all been taught to believe that yogurt is very good for us and in truth; the plain yogurt has a lot to offer us including calcium, protein and even healthy bacteria. It is basically pretty good in the calorie counting department as well, however most of us won’t eat plain yogurt, we want the yogurt that contains fruit and other tasty things. Yogurt that contains fruit is another story, with the addition of fruits and other items, the calcium, natural protein and bacteria remained however it was joined by between 14 and 40 grams of sugar per serving. This tends to deplete the health value of the food.

Baked chips are healthier for you than the fired alternatives however, they are still cooked in unsaturated fat. On top of that, a potato is a potato is a potato, no matter how you cook it. Potatos are high in the glycemic index, this means that they absorb fast and are much more likely to be stored as fat.

When looking for healthy foods, don’t be fooled by advertising. Look at the base food itself, is it a healthy food that is good for you? Then look at any additives that have been put into the food, are they healthy for you? If not, you may want to just pass them by in favor of something that is truly good for you.

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Posted in: Nutrition,Weight Loss

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Disclaimer:
The information provided on this website should not be construed as personal medical advice or instruction. No action should be taken based solely on the contents of this site.
Readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and well being.
The information and opinions provided here are believed to be accurate and sound, based on the best judgment available to the authors, but readers who fail to consult appropriate health authorities assume the risk of any injuries. This website is not responsible for errors or omissions.


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Best Fast Food For Weight Loss

Fast food restaurants have figured that healthier food brings more customers and are stepping up to the challenge of providing healthier food to all people that wants to eat better and healthier food. 

Here's a list of healthier restaurants:

1. Panera Bread came in first place for their comprehensive menu offering multiple healthy choices for every meal. Panera Bread also received top honors for their kids menu.

2. Jason’s Deli, located in the Midwest, came in second. This particular deli has a penchant for organic foods and with this in mind, approximately one fifth of all of its ingredients are organic.

3. Au Bon Pain, which has been a pioneer in the idea of healthy fast foods. They serve sandwiches, soups, salads and even hot entrees made with whole grains, veggies and even hormone free chicken.

4. Noodles and Company doesn’t sound like a name you would expect to make it in a top ten healthy fast food list however this Asian food court eatery makes healthy its business, cutting out all the grease and using soybean oil in their cooking. Which puts them in fourth place.

5. Corner Bakery Café is a Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern based café that has a breakfast menu full of healthy choices. It also has healthy salads, sandwiches and soups. They use whole grains, lean meats and vegetables. They also practice portion control. T

6. Chipotle takes sixth place followed by Atlantic Bread 

7. McDonald’s takes a surprising 7th place.

9. Einstein Bagels 

9. Taco Del Mar. 

As with any menu, you will find more and less healthy items in every location.

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Posted in: Weight Loss