Health and Diet During Holidays

Holidays are a perfect time to enjoy and chill out with families and friends. Parties with wide variety of food on display tempt one and all to indulge in mouth watering delicacies. If you are the kind who swears by a fitness routine, you might tend to enjoy less of yummy foods and spend more time worrying about the increasing waistline. You can still stay healthy and fit by savoring all the delicacies. Little of planning, a dash of goal setting and dose of old fashioned discipline and control over your self will let you enjoy the holiday season without any worries. Let me list down few ways wherein you can follow your diet and stay in great shape too.

- Holidays are just an excuse to go off track from your fitness program. The mindset of people is that since we follow our fitness regime all week / month / year long, we can indulge in gorging over those cakes and ice creams. Aim to stay on track with your fitness program this and all other holidays. By skipping workouts, eating more, exercising less one tends to gain weight. It’s like going back where we started off from. Make a decision to stay in shape with all the food around you.

- Holidays are a hectic time. All premeditated schedules can go haywire. To stay on track, create a work out time table listing down all the parties, dinners and so on. Keep the time table at such a place where you are forced to look at it every day. This serves as a reminder to stick to your time table religiously.

- If you think you would like to lose 25 lbs during holidays despite enjoying parties, set a goal much before and start working towards it. Goal can also be to gain few kilos also.

- With so much lip smacking, gorgeous food all around, you will feel tempted to just give your fitness program. Keep one day aside where you can treat your self to all your cravings and give in to all your bingeing. Stick to your fitness program rest of the days. And don’t feel even one iota of guilt while satiating your self. Schedule your day to cheat on fitness routine when you have major event lined up.

- If you skip one day of exercise, don’t despair. Get on with it the next day. Nothing goes waste. One day of holiday in your fitness schedule should be a motivating factor for you to get back on your fitness regime.

- If you have planned a big dinner, you might tend to skip either morning or afternoon meal. Avoid changing your eating pattern. Treat the big dinner party at night just like regular dinner time and eat how much you would eat normally.

- Control food portion size in holidays. Eat your favourite foods in moderation. Overindulgence will show around your waistline.

- One always has choices, no matter where you are. Make the best possible choice based on the alternatives available in front of you. If it’s impossible, eat a small portion than a big one.

- Drink 8 – 10 glasses of water daily. Drink few glasses of water before dinner to control your appetite and not kill those hunger pangs. If you just drink and not eat a well balanced meal, you will bloat. Drink water throughout the day to maintain a steady state of hydration.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com-By: Kevin Pederson

How to Double Your Energy Levels In Three Days

Are you often tired, lethargic and feeling older than you should? Do you want to get more done and have the non-stop energy of a 7-year-old child? With this report, you'll learn two easy ways to double your energy levels within the next three days.

Whenever I'm shopping or out walking in NYC, I notice, I'm always the fastest person by far. Everyone does things so slowly.

I literally move twice the speed of the average person and I don't use any stimulants. I'm not trying to impress anyone, I just have so much energy, that my body wants me to use it.

What Bodily Process Wastes The Most Energy?

Digestion uses up the most energy out of all your bodily functions. You're brain is the next biggest user of energy. What you eat can make a tremendous difference in your energy.

Certain foods are difficult to digest, the more processed, cooked, and complex the food, the more energy it takes to digest. What happens after eating a big holiday meal?

You get so tired that you start falling asleep in the middle of the afternoon. That's because you ate so much food and so many different combinations of foods that all of your remaining energy is used up for digestion and you don't have enough energy left to stay awake.

Raw Fruit Is The Ideal Energy Food

Fruit is predigested fuel or simple carbohydrates. Your body requires the least energy to digest them compared to any other food. The former director of nutrition for the US Olympic Team said "Fruits are miracle foods for athletes."

Fruit provides your body with its ideal and preferred source of fuel, which is sugar. Every cell in the body is fueled by sugar. After sugar the body prefers fat and the least efficient fuel source is protein.

The simple sugar from fruit is completely healthy. Most people don’t know that your body cannot use complex carbohydrates or starches. Those starches first have to be broken down into sugar. This breaking down process depletes energy from the body.

Fruit is the most nutritious food on the planet. A diet rich in fruits and leafy green vegetables supplies you with virtually all of your nutrient needs, even protein and the essential fatty acids. We all know that fruits and vegetables are the healthiest foods on the planet. Why not eat more of them?

Action Plan

Make fruit your morning and lunch meals and watch your energy levels soar through the roof. Eat as much fruit as you need to feel full. You'll have to eat much more than an average person eats. By lunch I've already eaten 8 to 10 bananas.

What Is The Second Energy Boosting Technique?

In high school, I started using an exercise that made my energy levels scream. Combine this exercise with eating more fruit and your energy levels will soar through the roof.

You’ll swear that you were taking uppers. Your body will beg you to exercise it more. The great thing is that you don’t have to drink coffee or take any stimulants to get this boost.

The other day I had so much extra energy; I decided to run sprints in my house. This was after I already did a great workout earlier in the day. I ran back and forth, from room to room. It was great fun, constantly changing direction, accelerating and stopping on a dime. I had more energy than a five year old.

This exercise is a specific way of doing aerobics. I’ve found that jogging for instance, which is an aerobic exercise, won’t give you this energy increase.

The key is to do exercises that keep you in the aerobic heart range, that build muscle and use all of your limbs in one exercise session. The exercise system I used in high school was Heavy Hands.

These days I use another exercise routine that gives me better overall results and I don’t need any equipment.

Owners of my Lightning Speed Fitness Program have already seen this in our member's only forum.

Here is the exercise routine post from the forum.

Lightning Aerobics

Another great way to do cardio is to do a whole calisthenics routine in a special way. I call it Lightning Aerobics. You can use any bodyweight exercises to get a similar effect.

Start by doing a strenuous exercise like the Lighting Speed Exercise (LSE) or pushups. As soon as you get winded, take a short break until your heart rate is back in the lower to middle aerobic heart range (50 to 85% of your maximum heart rate) and then switch to another exercise. You have to watch that your heart rate doesn’t get too low or too high.

You must stay within the aerobic heart range throughout most of the routine. It’s ok to go above it for short periods. If you’re into the anaerobic heart range for too long though, you are going to be very sore the next day.

Today's routine. 20 minutes

Three Sets of:
1. Pushups: 20
2. Lighting Exercise (LSE): 50
3. Jumping Jacks: 50
4. Jumping Lunges: 10
5. Superman Pushups: 10

Plus an extra set of pushups at the end and 10 mountain climbers.

I had so much energy today. My body was simply dieing to exercise.

Later on, I did a set of 20 Burpees. Man was I winded after that. Then I did several sprinting sessions in my house. I did a couple of handstand pushups, Hindu pushups, Superman pushups and two more sets of 50 LSE's.

Doing Lightning Aerobics is important because it dramatically increases your energy levels by oxygenating every part of your body. Once you start using these techniques you're body will beg you to exercise it on a regular basis. You'll finally have enough energy to play and run for hours with your children or those of your friends.

Regain your youth and energy with these strategies.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com-By: Roger Haeske

How Can Achilles Tendonitis Be Prevented

Injuries to Achilles tendon are quite common and mainly found in sportsmen or women associated with running sports. The sports that have most chances of inflicting Achilles injuries are football, basketball, tennis, cycling, running and walking. This injury is caused by twisting or turning of the ankle or foot beyond known range of movement. It is normally a rupture or strain of the Achilles tendon.

The Achilles tendon facilitates you to point the foot downwards, allowing you to run, jump or stand on your toes. Despite being the strongest tendon in the human body (it can withstand a 1000 pound force), the Achilles tendon is ruptured most often due to the pressures put upon it in competitive sports. Achilles tendon is afflicted by two kinds of injuries - Achilles Tendon Rupture and Achilles Tendonitis.

Achilles Tendon Rupture is a tear (or complete shearing) of the Achilles tendon, and occurs due to a sudden or unexpected force.

Achilles Tendonitis, on the other hand is a simple inflammation of the Achilles tendon, and is cause by excessive wear and tear of the Achilles tendon caused by excessive training over long periods of time.

Cause: Achilles Tendonitis is caused by lack of conditioning in most cases. In the event that the tendon and the muscles connecting to it are not conditioned, it will result in a weakness of the tendon making it prone to injuries.

It is important to remember that, while conditioning one should remember not to put too much strain on the tendon in a short period of time. This will degenerate the tendon over time and would lead to inflammation and pain.

Lack of warming up and stretching is also a major cause of Achilles tendonitis. The other contributors could be ill-suited footwear, uneven ground for training and wrong positioning. Highly arched feet or flat feet also contribute to Achilles tendonitis.

Prevention: Achilles tendonitis can be prevented by following some simple rules while training –

- Proper warm up: A proper warm up is necessary to begin any training session. This would not only ensure that all your body muscles are flexed and conditioned, it will also ensure that your Achilles tendon is up to the strain.

- Plyometric Training: Lower leg and ankle joint can be conditioned by these exercises that involve hopping, jumping, skipping, bounding and similar activities.

- Balancing Exercises: These exercises greatly contribute improve your body’s proprioception – The ability of your body to know where the limbs are at any given point of time. They involve exercises that involve balancing.

- Stretch: Stretching is a very important part of the exercise regimen to keep your muscles conditioned. Stretching lower leg and ankle would greatly contribute to strengthening the Achilles tendon.

- Footwear: To protect the Achilles tendon, place prime importance in wearing proper and well fitting footwear. Good footwear should have enough cushioning, lend stability to ankles and provide support to the leg while walking or running.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com-By: Julian Hall

How To Get Started On A Healthy Lifestyle

How many times have you gone to sleep at night, swearing you'll go to the gym in the morning, and then changing your mind just eight hours later because when you get up, you don't feel like exercising?

While this can happen to the best of us, it doesn't mean you should drop the ball altogether when it comes to staying fit. What people need to realize is that staying active and eating right are critical for long-term health and wellness -- and that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The more you know about how your body responds to your lifestyle choices, the better you can customize a nutrition and exercise plan that is right for you. When you eat well, increase your level of physical activity, and exercise at the proper intensity, you are informing your body that you want to burn a substantial amount of fuel. This translates to burning fat more efficiently for energy.
In other words, proper eating habits plus exercise equals fast metabolism, which, in turn gives you more energy throughout the day and allows you to do more physical work with less effort.

The true purpose of exercise is to send a repetitive message to the body asking for improvement in metabolism, strength, aerobic capacity and overall fitness and health. Each time you exercise, your body responds by upgrading its capabilities to burn fat throughout the day and night, Exercise doesn't have to be intense to work for you, but it does need to be consistent.

I recommend engaging in regular cardiovascular exercise four times per week for 20 to 30 minutes per session, and resistance training four times per week for 20 to 25 minutes per session. This balanced approach provides a one-two punch, incorporating aerobic exercise to burn fat and deliver more oxygen, and resistance training to increase lean body mass and burn more calories around the block.

Here's a sample exercise program that may work for you:

* Warm Up -- seven to eight minutes of light aerobic activity intended to increase blood flow and lubricate and warm-up your tendons and joints.

* Resistance Training -- Train all major muscle groups. One to two sets of each exercise. Rest 45 seconds between sets.

* Aerobic Exercise -- Pick two favorite activities, they could be jogging, rowing, biking or cross-country skiing, whatever fits your lifestyle. Perform 12 to 15 minutes of the first activity and continue with 10 minutes of the second activity. Cool down during the last five minutes.

* Stretching -- Wrap up your exercise session by stretching, breathing deeply, relaxing and meditating.

When starting an exercise program, it is important to have realistic expectations. Depending on your initial fitness level, you should expect the following changes early on.

* From one to eight weeks -- Feel better and have more energy.

* From two to six months -- Lose size and inches while becoming leaner. Clothes begin to fit more loosely. You are gaining muscle and losing fat.

* After six months -- Start losing weight quite rapidly.

Once you make the commitment to exercise several times a week, don't stop there. You should also change your diet and/or eating habits,' says Zwiefel. Counting calories or calculating grams and percentages for certain nutrients is impractical. Instead, I suggest these easy-to-follow guidelines:

* Eat several small meals (optimally four) and a couple of small snacks throughout the day
* Make sure every meal is balanced -- incorporate palm-sized proteins like lean meats, fish, egg whites and dairy products, fist-sized portions of complex carbohydrates like whole-wheat bread and pasta, wild rice, multigrain cereal and potatoes, and fist-sized portions of vegetable and fruits
* Limit your fat intake to only what's necessary for adequate flavor
* Drink at least eight 8-oz. glasses of water throughout the day
* I also recommend that you take a multi-vitamin each day to ensure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com-By: Gregg Hall

How To Reduce Over Sweating| Stop Excessive Perspiration

It is a known fact that overweight and obese people are more prone to excessive sweating as they perspire more. However, excessive perspiration can be also due to several underlying medical conditions such as menopause, psychiatric illnesses and very active thyroid glands. Excessive sweating is also known to occur to people with no known medical condition and thus the cause of heavy sweating for this group of people is unknown.

It is very distressing to suffer from over sweating and many people with this condition also suffer from low self esteem. This is because excessive sweating may cause them to have undesirable body odor, looking unkempt and dirty.

It is easier for those who are overweight to reduce excessive perspiration since it is just a matter of reducing their body fat weight. Losing weight is easy with the right combination of exercises and healthy eating habits. Many people who find it hard to lose weight and disagree with me that losing weight is easy is because they are doing it wrongly.

If excessive sweating is localized on parts of the body such as armpits, palms or the soles of feet, then treatments may be necessary to reduce over perspiration. Sometimes anti-perspirants applied to the affected body part may just stop excessive sweating albeit temporarily.

Simple and non surgical medical treatments that are known to reduce or even sometimes stop excessive sweating successfully are Iontophoresis where a low electrical current is introduced to the affected parts of the body or getting Botulinum toxin injections commonly known as Botox injections.

If you are suffering from excessive sweating and over perspiration, and since this condition is most prevalent among people who are overweight, go get a medical check up to see if you are obese. If you are, then embark on a healthy diet and exercise program and your excessive sweating condition may be solved permanently.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com-By: Chris Chew