Health Care Zone

I Need to Lose Weight without Feeling Hungry

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sun, 13 May 2012 09:01:00 +0000

“I need to lose weight but I’m sick of feeling hungry all the time,” is a common statement made by individuals who follow fly-by-night diets. If your diet leaves your stomach rumbling every hour on the hour, it’s time to make a change. I used to think that losing weight meant starving. It took me a while to accept the fact that I could actually eat heartily and still drop weight.

The time I spent starving in the name of losing weight was miserable. When I did manage to shed a few pounds, I would gain it all back in a matter of weeks. Sometimes I’d even gain a few extra pounds. Talk about depressing!

What I learned through years of research (and trial and error) is that when you follow a healthy eating plan, you can chow down until you’re full, and still see amazing weight loss results.

What Are Healthy Foods?

Healthy foods are not created in a factory of processed to death. If the food is dried, canned, frozen or filled with ingredients you can’t pronounce, stay away from it. Examples of healthy foods include fresh fish, naturally raised meats, legumes, seeds, organic poultry, organic whole eggs, raw nuts, and fresh fruit and vegetables.

How to Make Healthy Meals More Filling

There’s nothing more dismal than dealing with hunger pangs all day. If your meals aren’t satisfying you, this is exactly what’s going to happen. Here are some tricks to make your meals more filling:

Add a source of quality protein and a source healthy fat (yes, fat) to each of your meals. Doing this makes meals more satiating and curbs hunger. Sources of healthy protein include natural meats, organic whole eggs, organic poultry and fish. Sources of healthy fat include avocados, fish, beans, raw nuts, coconut oil and olive oil.

Load your plate with veggies. It helps to divide your plate into three sections and fill the larger section with veggies. Leave the other two sections for meat and other foods. Veggies are full of fiber, so they expand in the stomach, digest slowly and keep you full longer.

Drink a glass of water before each meal and throughout the day. This will help you feel full faster and reduce hunger.

Examples of Healthy, Filling Meals and Snacks

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, 1/3 cup of oatmeal with cinnamon and a small pear.

Snack: 1 medium apple, 1 cup of cucumber slices and 1 oz of raw nuts.

Lunch: 4 oz ground turkey, 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice, 8 oz carrot sticks, and a small green salad with vinegar and olive oil dressing.

Snack: 2 tablespoons of almond butter, 2 slices of rye crisp bread and 8 oz of celery sticks.

Dinner: 5 oz broiled halibut steak, 1/2 cup of green beans sautéed in garlic, small baked sweet potato and a small green salad with apple cider vinegar and olive oil dressing.

Diet plans that leave you hungry all the time (or even some of the time) are evil. Why not scrap the diet altogether and eat healthy instead? If you do it this way, you can eat delicious, filling foods and still lose weight.

Enough with the yo-yo dieting! Watch this video to find out how The Diet Solution Program helps me when I need to lose weight.

How to Eat Great and Lose Weight

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sun, 13 May 2012 08:50:00 +0000

Snacking on dried out rice cakes and wilted lettuce leaves is no way to spend your mealtimes. You don’t have to eat bland, boring foods just to trim up. It is possible to eat great and lose weight all at the same time. If you choose quality foods and have a willingness to try new things, you can get down on delicious meals and shed pounds too.

Choose the Right Foods

You can’t possibly lose weight if the foods you use to prepare you meals are unhealthy and loaded with calories. When you avoid processed nonsense and stick with fresh ingredients, you can’t go wrong. Anything boxed, frozen, jugged or canned is considered processed and has no place in a healthy diet.

Foods that should be staples in your healthy meal plans include fresh fish, naturally raised meats, organic poultry, organic whole eggs, raw nuts, fresh herbs, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Natural foods are better for you because they are low in calories and filled with plenty of nutrients your body can use.

Also, natural foods aren’t loaded with a laundry list of additives that contribute to weight gain, diabetes, cancer, hypertension and other health problems.

Experiment with Recipes, Flavors and Cooking Methods

I love grilled chicken, but if I had to eat if every day, I’d go bananas—I imagine you would too. Free yourself from the bondage of humdrum, tasteless meals by experimenting with recipes. Thumb through cookbooks, surf the Internet and use your imagination to whip up meals you can’t wait to sink your teeth into.

When you come across recipes that have unhealthy ingredients, simply swap the bad ingredients out for healthier ones. For instance, if a recipe calls for milk, you can replace this ingredient with coconut or almond milk. Also, don’t be afraid to switch out spices and seasonings to add a new flavor to a dish.

Vary your cooking methods to keep things fresh and give food a different taste. For instance, if you always broil your steak, try sautéing it, or covering it with olive oil and dropping it on the grill. All of these cooking methods are healthy and easy to master.

Sample Recipes to Help You Eat Great and Lose Weight

Healthy French Toast:

2 slices of Sprouted Grain, Spelt or Rice bread
1 tablespoon of real butter
2 whole organic eggs
maple syrup
cinnamon

Directions: Mix the eggs in a bowl. Dip the bread in the egg mixture until it is completely coated on both sides. Heat a pan on low to medium heat and add the butter. Once the butter is melted, add the egg coated bread and cook each side for 3 to 4 minutes. Sprinkle the toast with cinnamon and serve it with 2 teaspoons of maple syrup.
Baked Chicken a la Isabel (one of my creations)

1 whole baking chicken
extra virgin coconut oil
your favorite Italian spices (I use thyme, parsley, oregano, garlic powder, sea salt and pepper)

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in a small pan and melt it over low heat. Mix 1 to 2 teaspoons of each of your spices in a small bowl and pour in the melted coconut oil. Mix all the ingredients together. Let the spice and coconut oil mixture cool.
Rub the spice and oil mixture under the skin of the chicken with your hands. Once the chicken is completely coated, place it breast side down in a glass baking pan and pop it in the oven. Let the chicken cook for 1 to 2 hours until it’s done.

There’s nothing boring or tasteless about the above recipes. If you’re creative and are willing to experiment with new recipes, you can chow down like this everyday and look fantastic doing it.
Your dream of permanent weight loss is just a reach away. Watch this video to find out how The Diet Solution Program can help you eat great and lose weight.

Foods to Avoid in Your Healthy Meal Plans to Lose Weight

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sun, 13 May 2012 08:41:00 +0000

People get excited about a lot of things, but I have never in my life met anyone who’s thrilled about being overweight. I have however, met folks who are sick of the up and down rollercoaster of so-called healthy meal plans to lose weight. Rather than deal with more dieting disappointments, some of these people conclude that living “large” is simply in the cards for them.

Throwing your hands up in defeat and deciding to spend the rest of your days (unhappily) overweight is no way to live. A decision like this can beat your self-esteem into the ground and shave years off of your life. C’mon, you owe yourself and your loved ones so much more than this.

There’s no magic formula to losing weight – if there were, everybody and their mama would be slim. The best way to achieve successful weight loss results is to know what types of foods to keep out of your diet.

Just Say “No” to Processed Foods

Processed foods are cheap, convenient and easy to prepare. Unfortunately, these foods are bad for your health. Of course, you’d never know this by watching those hyped up television ads. Since manufacturers aren’t going to give you the dirty on the ingredients they use in processed foods, I’ll gladly do it for them.

Let’s start with trans fat. This ingredient lowers good cholesterol, raises bad cholesterol, and can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. Considering heart disease is one of the leading killers of men and women, trans fat is one ingredient you want to steer clear of.

If you’re wondering where that double chin came from, the high fructose corn syrup used in some of your favorite processed foods may be partially to blame. This ingredient has been getting a lot of press lately because it is believed to be a major player in the rising obesity epidemic.

Don’t even get me started on the chemicals manufacturers use in processed foods. If I tried to name some of these chemicals, I’d be tongue tied for days. Besides, you’d probably think I was reading the label on a can of bug spray instead of the ingredients in your favorite microwavable meal.

Send Sugar Packing

The average person consumes about 150 pounds of sugar per year. When you think about the fact that sugar is in almost everything, it’s easy to eat tons of this stuff without even realizing it. So what’s the big deal? There isn’t enough time in the day for me to tell you about all the damage sugar can do to your health. However, I can give you a quick rundown.

Sugar contains nothing but empty calories. When you eat this stuff, a large portion of it gets stored in the body as fat. If your goal is to slim down, being heavy-handed with the sugar isn’t going to help. This is not even the worst of it. Sugar can also depress the immune system, feed cancer cells, contribute to heart disease, raise your risk of osteoporosis and make you look decrepit.

Give Artificial Sweeteners the Boot

Before you run out and stock your fridge with a bunch of those zero-calorie diet drinks, there’s something you should know. The artificial sweeteners used in diet drinks and other low-calorie products are lab-created. Yep. You heard me right – mixed up in a lab like something out of a Frankenstein movie.

These chemical sweeteners can cause or contribute to a laundry list of neuropsychiatric disorders and chronic illnesses – depression, anxiety, migraines, mood changes, panic attacks, vertigo, memory loss, Alzheimer’s, brain tumors – should I go on? And if you think you’re going to shed a few pounds using artificial sweeteners, think again. These sweeteners stimulate your appetite and make you eat more food.

When you’ve tried diet after diet and not one of them delivers results, it can certainly make you want to give up. But you owe it to yourself and to your family to live the healthiest life possible. Processed foods, sugar and artificial sweeteners are the main culprits of weight gain. When you eliminate these foods from your diet, you greatly improve your chance of losing weight.

Make dieting disappointment a thing of the past. Let the Diet Solution Program arm you with the tools you need to create effective healthy meal plans to lose weight and live healthier.

Foods to Avoid in Your Healthy Meal Plans to Lose Weight

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sun, 13 May 2012 08:33:00 +0000

Is it possible to put together a simple and healthy meal plan? One that is not going to be complicated and hard to follow?

Yes. It is possible and I will show you how. The healthy meal plans below will help you achieve your health goals while simultaneously shedding fat off your body.

Here are 3 healthy meal plans you can get started on right now.

Breakfast

Protein should be included in every meal throughout the day and breakfast is no exception.

Make sure to include organic eggs, cottage cheese, raw nut butter or smoked fish as one component of your healthy breakfast.

Carbohydrates should also be included in the form of oatmeal, sprouted grain bread, fruit and/or vegetables.

3 great sample breakfasts are: Oatmeal with almond butter, topped with fresh berries and a bit of Stevia to sweeten. 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 slice sprouted grain toast and ½ grapefruit Smoked salmon over sliced tomato and 1 green apple

Lunch

The same rules apply as breakfast. An easy way to ensure that you always have a healthy protein available for lunch is to pack leftovers from dinner the night before. Leftover hamburger, chicken legs or wild fish are all great to include in a salad or over vegetables.

3 great sample lunches are: Baked Tilapia over sautéed spinach, green salad with chick peas (oil and vinegar as dressing) followed by ½ cup of pineapple. Leftover chicken legs with ½ sweet potato and broccoli. Lean hamburger over portabella mushroom and brown rice. Cooked vegetables or a green salad. 1 orange.

Dinner

You can really be creative with dinner. Look for recipes that are quick and easy and modify them with your own healthy ingredients as needed. Again, always remember to include protein and carbohydrates.

3 great sample dinners are: Mexican salad: Ground beef over shredded lettuce and tomato, guacamole and brown rice.

Grilled Salmon over asparagus, green salad (oil and vinegar as dressing) followed by a fresh fruit salad. Buffalo meat balls over rice pasta with sautéed broccoli.

Snacks You never want to let your body get too hungry. Hunger often leads to binge eating of unhealthy food and makes sticking to a healthy eating regimen much more difficult.

It’s important to keep snacks handy so you never experience hunger or a blood sugar low without having a healthy option nearby. 3 great snacks are: 2 Tbsp almond butter on ½ apple Trail mix made up of walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds and dried fruit (no sugar added) Cottage cheese and pineapple

Incorporate just a few of these meals into your daily eating regimen and you will see an incredible difference in your weight loss results.

Following simple and healthy meal plans like these is the first step in achieving your health and fitness goals. To get started right away on your own fat loss goals , download these Simple and Healthy Meal Plans right now.

Simple Exercise To Get Rid Of Belly Fat

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:14:00 +0000

If you're craving for data on exercises that may assist you scale back your belly fat, you are already on target. However, don't fall into the incorrect read that build many representatives abs exercises each day to resolve your downside. it'll not happen. With this sort of exercise you have got your six pack, however are going to be hidden below a layer of abdominal fat and no-one is aware of it's there. Yes, it together with yourself.

The best thanks to scale back belly fat is to perform a full body exercises to get rid of excess fat round the body. we are able to focus on your coaching and anticipate a location in far more than fat in there. Not operating. Your goal now could be to require regarding 100% fat (men and desires his six pack abs visible) or V-day (for girls who need a flat stomach).

The most effective coaching

There are plenty of excellent full-body exercises you'll be able to do to burn fat, however most of the announced (and effective) is that the squat. this is often as a result of the squat exercise additional muscle teams below a significant load of different exercises additional load. Thus, it's terribly effective means of promoting changes in body composition (muscle gain and fat loss), and therefore the hormonal response (such as growth hormone and testosterone).

You are able to add additional weight, like dumbbells or barbells whereas doing squats, however if you are not conversant in them nevertheless, simply using your own body weight is that the best resolution. it'll still provide you with higher results and faster than spending several hours on a sports machine whereas boring low intensity cardio.

How to do a squat properly ancient weight

You can do normal weight squat before being along with your legs slightly wider than the width of the shoulders. Place every hand behind your head and keep your elbows back. Then, begin the movement by moving the hip and back "seat" could be a virtual seat.

Pushing the boundaries. Squat as deep as you'll be able to, keeping the lower back soaked during a neutral position. Ideally, the method of reduction of the hip ought to take regarding two seconds. Hold a second, then come to beginning position.

Another possibility: the employment of extra weights

If you select to use extra weights, variety of the way to do: come dumbbell squats, squats front squats and overhead. the sole distinction here is that the location of the bar. within the back squat, the bar is on the higher back. front squats, the bar is placed on the shoulders before the top. For overhead squats, you retain in your head throughout the session bar.

Squat train your ab directly, however is that the simplest counseled exercise to burn fat quick. it'll offer far better results than doing many representatives of abdominal exercise each day. therefore check that to equip with the data and exercise to urge rid of all excess fat, otherwise simply jump to an "exercise to scale back belly fat" to a different while not real tangible results.

Exercise For Women

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:02:00 +0000

A woman should not join a gym or other exercise for a firm body, tonic and trim.You participate in various long-term strenuous physical activities daily.

You can turn the music box and throw your arms over your head with your feet slightly apart and ready to build.

With arms above your head, you can stretch right then left. It is important to warm up before accession in intense exercise.

There are many exercises, the woman can work outside the home, where he finds the time. Here are some exercises you can work.

Triceps:

Triceps push down is another exercise you can do to improve the shape and size of your arm.

You need to sit on the edge of a chair or bench to do this great exercise.

Put your hands beside you on the edge of a chair with your fingers facing forward. Then lift the back of the chair, and bend down toward the floor. Gently raise the back. This is a great exercise for toning the arms.

Biceps curls:

You can perform bicep curl safely and easily. If you have not set a bar, you can get in your local sporting good store. Otherwise, you can lift the empty milk bottles filled with water. When you perform bicep curls, you want to make sure you lift weights one at a time, in a controlled motion. The descent is equally important, if not superior to lift the weight. You must perform bicep curls on the same day that you do triceps, so you evenly spread the weight-bearing exercise to your arm.

Toe touches:

Toe touches are a slender waist. To get started, keep your feet slightly apart, bouncing on his heels and shake your shoulders at the same time. When making a 04:00 to bring weapons to fall into the hand and bring them down to the ground, side, top, middle and bottom left.

Hip twists:

Hip twists may contain a foot away when you switch on the side, and leaned back, while pressing the sides, at the same time. Bring the leg back and do the same thing the other foot.

Flick-firing:

You just jumping, throwing, jumping, throwing and adhere to the routine of both bleeding. This is a teaser exercise program that will get you started. You can lose weight, tone the body, improves cardiac function and the solid body.

Push up:

Push up, your arms and shoulders. You must be at least 10 to 20 push ups every day. When you build stamina, increase in push-ups you do every week. You may have difficulty interpreting standard push up, but you can make a change to climb. To make a push to change up, just push from your knees to your arms instead of putting your weight onto your hands and feet. You can make a push in that position.

Tilt

Stand up straight with your arms over your head and legs slightly apart, swing arms on the bottom left, top to bottom on the right. To do this four times and not more than two runs pages when you're done.

Weight loss and training arm:

If you want to lose weight, you need to combine the training program of strength, a strong commitment rate for at least 4 times a week. Need to watch your diet too.

You can lose weight by reducing your meal portions and eating six small meals instead of the big day. It is the most effective way to lose weight because it stimulates your metabolism working efficiently. Instead of large meals, your metabolism is constantly providing energy and fuel for the body if you take six mini-meals.

You must maintain your exercise program to maintain good results. You can take the help of your friends or family to your exercise program effective training

Essentials Exercise For Your Health

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:52:00 +0000

The exercise is a key factor in maintaining a healthy body. Exercise is very important to prevent diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, stroke and heart failure.

Before beginning any exercise program, consult a doctor or nurse and learn with a certified trainer how to exercise safely.

Exercise strengthens bones and muscles, reducing the chances or cracking, and back injuries.

Eating unhealthy foods and physical activity is not conducive to good health. The body does not react when you eat unhealthy foods and exercising at the same time.

The rest is an important factor that you do not get enough rest, during exercise, you are exposed to hot flashes and fainting.

If the body is tired, the mind and the body does not respond and can lead to hurt yourself.

Exercise to produce a healthier life and reduce illness and ordinary at the same time helps to control weight.

Before beginning an aerobic workouts or strength, heat for five to ten minutes. Warm-up helps the body to move the state of inactivity at full effort.

Aerobic exercise is one of the best workouts that work all the muscles and tone the body.

jogging, aerobics, walking, cycling, skating, jogging, dancing and other types of aerobic exercise. Combine aerobics with weight training, which will be the construction of the mass, muscles, strengthen bones and reduce weight.

muscle strengthening exercises with weights Force, circuit training, and gymnastics. These exercises help burn fat from muscle mass and increase in the body. Strength training is a workout to lose your weight fast while building muscle. Intense weightlifting is normal for weightlifters trying to build muscle mass.

To do this, cycling and other activities at a pace slow and easy. This gives the body to increase blood flow to the muscles and joints work and prepares them for their hard work

At least 30 minutes of exercise is necessary for best results. You can do vigorous aerobic exercise or gardening can also help. If you want to lose weight, 60 minute workout is recommended. At least you can train for 30 minutes.

Stretching is essential to extend the exercise to build strong muscles and tendons and ligaments. Elongation at the end of each heat and let cool. Stretching increases coordination, flexibility and freedom of movement expands the body.

Wear loose clothing and shoes that are comfortable. Make sure your exercise shoes provide adequate support and cushioning for aerobic exercise you choose to do.

When your health and fitness goals have been achieved, it is easy to maintain. Simply to stay active and mock exercise. Try different exercises in order to boredom and work all the muscle groups themselves. different muscles become stronger and get fit in less time. This will also help you burn calories and control weight. After the relevant financial year can help to safely participate in any type of activity.

Monitoring Your Exercise Intensity

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 06:11:00 +0000

Your goal is to work your way up to an exercise level that feels somewhat hard and increases your breathing and heart rate. Your activities should not make you breathe so hard that you can’t talk to someone else; if they interfere with normal conversation, then you are likely working yourself harder than necessary. These exercises also should not cause dizziness, chest pain, or excessive joint discomfort.

You can monitor the intensity of your training by your pulse (heart rate) during any activity. Measure the beats on your wrist by lightly pressing the tips of your index and middle ﬁngers where you can feel your pulse. Count the number of pulsations you feel for a ten-second period and then multiply this number by 6 to estimate beats per minute. It is normal for your maximal pulse rate to decrease with each passing year after the age of twenty. Your expected maximal heart rate can be estimated as 208 minus 70 percent of your age. For example, if you’re ﬁfty, then your expected maximal would be 208 minus 35, or 173 beats per min- ute. (Note: if you are taking a beta-blocker, your heart rate at any workout intensity will likely be lower than expected.)

Aerobic Activities Build Your Endurance

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 06:06:00 +0000

Endurance-type activities improve your cardiovascular health, help you gain muscle, and cause you to lose body fat. An aerobic exercise is defined as any activity done continuously, increasing your heart rate and breathing for an extended period of time (i.e., more than two minutes), including dancing, swimming, bike riding, and fast walking. Although jogging and running also qualify, they are not recommended for the majority of adults over forty, as their high-impact nature may result in lower limb joint pain or injuries.

Examples of activities that range from mild to vigorous in intensity are listed in here:

Mild: Walking slowly (2 miles per hour or slower), gardening (weeding or watering), some household chores (e.g., washing dishes), walking or kicking in a swimming pool with a buoyancy belt, standing without support, shuffle board, and golfing with a cart (But most of these are too mild to be considered a part of your actual exercise program once your ﬁtness level increases.)

Moderate: Swimming, bicycling (outdoors), cycling on a stationary bicycle, gardening (mowing, raking, or hoeing), walking briskly on a level surface, mopping or scrubbing ﬂoors, golfing without a cart (walking and carrying your own clubs), tennis (doubles), volleyball, rowing, water aerobics or other aquatic classes, most chair exercises, and dancing.

Vigorous: Climbing stairs or hills, shoveling snow, brisk bicycling up hills, digging holes, tennis (singles), swimming laps, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, hiking, jogging or running, and most sports (e.g., soccer or basketball)

If you have been inactive for a long time, you’ll need to work up gradually to doing the more intense activities. Start out with the mild to moderate activities and slowly build up to doing more. We recommend that you start by doing just ﬁve to ten minutes a day of an activity that you can easily perform and then increase the intensity of your workouts until your pulse is between 100 and 120 beats per minute. Don’t be discouraged if it takes you months to go from a very long-standing sedentary lifestyle to doing some of the harder activities. As you are able, increase the time you spend doing endurance activities to ﬁfteen and ultimately twenty minutes or more. Note that this total leaves you at least ten minutes for other types of exercise to reach your thirty-minute training goal.

You should try to end up doing at least thirty minutes of total exercise on most days of the week. It is best to plan on exercising every day as you’ll likely miss a couple of days a week for various and sundry reasons. So planning on doing some activity every day will more likely result in at least ﬁve days per week. Take at least one day a week off to adequately rest and let your body repair and renew itself, but try to never miss two days in a row.

Your Exercise Plan for Better Health

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 07:34:00 +0000

You don’t have to be an exercise fanatic to reap the benefits of increased physical activity. Adding just a little activity to your daily routine can have major benefits, no matter what your current age is. Even fifteen to thirty minutes of walking each day is probably enough to gain substantial health benefits, provided you increase your pulse rate to higher than one hundred beats per minute. However, our exercise plan will require you to do thirty minutes of different types of formal exercise each day, five days a week, which is still not a lot considering the positive outcomes that you’ll experience from doing it, such as looking and feeling younger than your chronological age. Walking a small dog and stopping frequently every time it does its business—while a fun and necessary activity—would not be considered a formal program of exercise. On the other hand, carrying the dog and walking swiftly around the block for the requisite amount of time would be.

As soon as you pass the age of thirty, other types of physical activity become more important as well, particularly exercises that help you maintain your balance and improve your posture. So your exercise plan will include working on five important types of activities during the week: endurance, resistance, balance, posture, and flexibility. On any one day, you can choose to focus on just one area or a combination of areas. Try to be practical with what you do; choose a few exercises instead of a long list, and vary what you do on a regular basis to get optimal benefits and to stay motivated to continue with your program.

While a block of planned exercise done regularly is undeniably important for staying younger, you also need to concentrate on increasing your daily movement doing anything, your so-called spontaneous physical activity. By doing so, you can even more dramatically improve your well-being and levels of physical and mental fitness. We will discuss the simple means by which you can increase this informal component of activity .

Exercises More, Think Better!

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 07:25:00 +0000

Exercise has payoffs for the mind, too, as it can improve feelings of overall well-being, along with reducing stress and depression. Many people who feel lethargic or drained all the time are generally just out of shape. Exercising makes you feel tired while you’re doing it, but its longer-lasting effect is the reverse: it enhances your overall energy levels.

Likewise, movement lowers your mental stress. Just getting up from your desk and work when you’re stressed out and going for a short walk can clear your mind, improve your mood, and enhance your productivity when you return to the task at hand. Studies have also shown that exercise is an effective remedy for mild to moderate depression and possibly major depressive disorder as long as the activity is continued over time.

What’s more, it appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia that have recently begun appearing at earlier ages in many adults, even well before retirement age. For older individuals, exercise clearly improves brain function. For example, in a study of 1,740 adults over sixty-five years of age who were followed for more than six years, individuals who exercised three times a week were a third less likely to develop dementia. However, even in younger individuals, regular exercise is associated with less brain atrophy, or shrinkage, and even as little as six months of regular aerobic training can reduce your rate of brain loss.

Any activity increases blood fl ow and oxygen delivery to your brain and results in a reduced cell loss in the part of your brain called the hippocampus, which is the region associated with memory and spatial navigation. Not only can activity delay or prevent dementia, it may be able to restore some of what you’ve lost mentally.
Thus you need to exercise to keep from losing your brain, but also if you’ve already lost some of it.

How Physical Activity Improves Your Life

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 07:20:00 +0000

Simply expending energy through any physical activity, including leisure time activities, will make you feel younger, look better, and live longer. It will even make you lose some fat while gaining more muscle, causing you to look more physically toned and younger than other people your age. An even more pressing reason to become active, though, is to reduce your risk of not feeling good during your lifetime. Inactivity, not aging, is the real reason many of us experience declines in energy and health as time passes.

Studies on men and women between the ages of thirty-five and sixty have shown that simply being more physically active during leisure time keeps heart disease and other life-shortening health problems at bay. Moreover, people who are active in their forties through their sixties (the new “middle age”) end up being more active and independent after they reach retirement age. Being regularly active even reduces your chances of getting colds and other viral illnesses by boosting the ability of your immune system to fight off disease. Thus, both of us believe that exercise is an eternal youth elixir when it comes to optimizing quality of life by keeping your body healthier and disease-free.

Becoming physically fit is more than worth it for numerous other reasons, many of which are listed in Table 1 For starters, it can greatly enhance your energy levels, reduce your risk of certain cancers (e.g., colon, prostate, and breast), help lower your blood pressure, prevent or reverse heart disease, reduce depression and anxiety, prevent thinning bones (osteoporosis), reverse prediabetes and new-onset type 2 diabetes, and dramatically lower your risk of developing diabetes, even if you have a strong family history of it. If you already have diabetes, being active can help you control your blood sugar and prevent diabetes-related health problems.

Brain/Emotions: Enhanced feeling of well-being, improved memory, prevention of dementia, decreased brain atrophy, reduced depression, and better sleep.

Metabolism/Hormones: Enhanced metabolic rate and energy levels, greater libido (sex drive), improved immune system function, more effective blood glucose use, and diabetes prevention.

Heart: Prevention and possible reversal of heart disease, lower blood pressure, and stronger heart muscle.

Muscles:Higher energy levels, better tone, more muscle mass (and prevention of loss over time), increased strength, endurance,flexibility, and balance, and heightened glucose storage.

Bones:Greater bone mineral density and prevention of thinning, reduced symptoms of arthritis, and less likelihood of bone fractures and falls.

Cancer:Reduced risk of colon, prostate, and breast cancer (and possibly others).

Longevity:Increased length of life and better health

From a metabolic standpoint, it’s always better to be fit, no matter what your body weight is. Exercise enhances your body’s sensitivity to insulin, which usually results in better blood sugar control, as well as a lower risk of both heart disease and high blood pressure. Regular exercise can also alleviate severe arthritic symptoms that can make daily living painful. It even helps you sleep better, which is especially important since sleeping too little (e.g., only five hours a night) can increase your risk of gaining weight and getting diabetes.

Herbal Remedies and Complementary Medicine

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Up to 90 percent of people turn to complementary medicine, including many potential “cures” using herbal compounds, to cure their ills as they get older. Usually they are seeking nontraditional remedies for low back pain, headaches, arthritis and other joint pain, insomnia, depression, and, of course, aging. It’s big business, bringing in over $15 billion a year in the United States alone. Treatment modalities include diet, herbs, massage, breathing, and detoxiﬁcation. Numerous herbal medicines are effective in the treatment of disease (shown in Table ) but have not necessarily become mainstream by any means.

Although herbal and other natural products may be beneﬁcial in some circumstances, they can have signiﬁcant and sometimes unpredictable side effects. The sale of herbs for medicinal use is largely unregulated. The ingredients of some herbal preparations are not listed on the packaging, and even when they are, the lists may not be accurate or complete. Companies selling herbs are not even required to demonstrate the safety or efﬁcancy of their products.

For example, certain forms of ginseng may raise blood pres- sure, and mug wort (Mother wort) causes dermatitis (skin inﬂammation). Other people have been poisoned, in some cases fatally, by taking herbal preparations containing Heliotropium when they were also taking a prescribed barbiturate. To avoid possible drug interactions, be sure your physician is aware of any herbal preparations you use.

Herbal Medicines That Actually Work

are not listed on the packaging, and even when they are, the lists may not be accurate or complete. Companies selling herbs are not even required to demonstrate the safety or efﬁcancy of their products.

For example, certain forms of ginseng may raise blood pres- sure, and mug wort (Mother wort) causes dermatitis (skin inﬂammation). Other people have been poisoned, in some cases fatally, by taking herbal preparations containing Heliotropium when they were also taking a prescribed barbiturate. To avoid possible drug interactions, be sure your physician is aware of any herbal prepara- tions you use.

Water Is Essential to Life and Good Health

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:43:00 +0000

Adequate ﬂuid intake is essential to living well and feeling your best at any age. As you grow older, you may lose some of your normal thirst sensations, putting you at risk for dehydration unless you make a conscious effort to drink more.

You need to drink at least four to six glasses of ﬂuid daily, in addition to consuming foods that contain water such as melons and most vegetables. Luckily for the coffee drinkers out there, it’s only a myth that caffeinated drinks will hydrate you less well than caffeine-free ones, particularly when you’ve been consuming them for some time.

The volume of ﬂuid found in most drinks is more than adequate to overcome the caffeine’s diuretic effect, if any is still present in habitual users, but you should probably go easy on espresso, which contains concentrated amounts of caffeine and minimal amounts of water. But keep in mind that too much caffeine can cause the bones to lose calcium, so the decaf options may be bet- ter ones for that reason alone.
Make certain to increase your ﬂuid intake when you have a fever. If you get diarrhea, try to consume ﬂuids containing calories rather than low- or no-calorie sodas. Also, remember that adequate ﬂuid intake is by far the best con- stipation cure out there.

How Much Fiber Do You Need?

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:32:00 +0000

Americans generally don’t eat enough ﬁber for optimal health. At a minimum, you should consume at least 14 grams of ﬁber for every 1,000 calories you eat each day. Thus, women need at least 25 grams daily and men 38 grams before the age of ﬁfty years.

After you reach ﬁfty, these requirements are only 21 and 30 grams for women and men, respectively, due to a generally lower calorie intake. Eating as much ﬁber as possible—even more than the recommended intakes—should be your daily goal no matter how young you are.

The only known potential downside of eat- ing more than 50 grams per day (besides going to the bathroom frequently) is that such a high ﬁber intake can interfere with the absorption of some minerals such as calcium and iron.

Consider supplementing with these minerals if you consume large amounts of ﬁber. Make sure you also drink plenty of water or other ﬂuids with it.

Will Alcohol Intake Make You Gain Weight?

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:17:00 +0000

Drinking excess calories in the form of alcohol can certainly lead you to gain fat weight, but contrary to common belief, drinking alcohol does not necessarily lead to weight gain, despite its high-calorie content of 7 calories per gram.
In fact, a Mayo clinic study of 8,236 men and women found that compared to teetotal- ers, people who had one or two alcoholic drinks a day were about half as likely to be obese. Nevertheless, it is prudent to keep the higher calorie content of alcohol in mind. Furthermore, alcohol calories should not replace those normally coming from foods that supply your body with necessary vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients.

Nutritional Guidelines for Good Health and Longevity

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:11:00 +0000

Everyone has to eat to survive, so there is no getting around this step. Your pathway to optimal health and youthful vigor via nutrition may differ from some- one else’s, depending on your individual preferences and the foods available to you. Moreover, an emerging ﬁeld of nutrigenomics is now starting to characterize how your unique genes interact with the foods you eat.

Poor nutrition can make you more vulnerable to illnesses and their health complications. Good nutrition, on the other hand, can lower your risk for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and a number of other chronic health conditions. It can also help you do a better job of controlling any health problems you may

• Improve the heart-healthiness of your diet. Both French fare and a Mediterranean diet offer distinct health beneﬁts. Particularly, the latter diet with its high content of olive oil, ﬁsh, and red wine is heart healthy.

• Eat ﬁsh at least four times per week. An increased intake of essential omega-3 fats may reduce your risk of heart disease, memory loss, and other health problems. Good types of omega-3-rich ﬁsh include salmon, mackerel, sardines, and herring. (If you can’t or won’t eat ﬁsh, consider using ﬁsh oil supplements.)

• Drink alcohol in moderation. One to two alcoholic drinks per day appear to be more beneﬁcial than none, but don’t drink in excess of this amount.

• Eat at least three to ﬁve vegetables and two to three fruits a day. Choose colorful fresh or frozen produce, and eat whole fruits rather than drinking juices that lack ﬁber.

• Increase ﬁber-rich foods in your diet. Fiber lowers blood sugar levels and cholesterol. Good sources include berries, dried beans, prunes, whole wheat bread, brown rice, bran, fruit, vegetables, and nuts.

• Drink plenty of liquids. Try to drink at least four to six glasses of liquid each day, and eat foods with higher water content, like melons and vegetables.

• Spice up your foods. Onions, turmeric, black pepper,cinnamon, ginger, thyme, cumin, oregano, basil, sage, curry, and garlic all have positive effects on health.

• Eat more yogurt. The probiotic effect of yogurt with live cultures may improve your health by preventing illness and limiting inﬂammation.

• Consider using select herbal or other remedies. A limited number of herbal preparations may be effective in treating speciﬁc problems, such as ginger for vertigo and alpha-lipoicacid for diabetic neuropathy and possibly memory loss.

develop. This step will also lead you down a path to healthier eat- ing, including teaching you the importance of adequate intake of ﬁsh and moderate intake of alcohol for staying younger for longer, along with how to eat the right foods to get all the nutrients your body needs at any age.

Being Healthy at Any Age

noreply@blogger.com (Leela Reddy) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 16:46:00 +0000

Promoting good health is best when done over a lifetime, but you can still start implementing healthful practices at any time to increase your odds of longer survival and a stronger, healthier body. You can always gain some of the health promotion beneﬁts, regardless of your current age, but the sooner you get started, the better your results will likely be.

It is important to note, however, that some guidelines change as time passes, and what is appropriate for you at twenty years of age may not be when you reach forty, sixty, or older. For general guidelines to optimal health at any age, consult the sidebar that follows, which was developed by Dr. John for the Aging Successfully magazine produced by Saint Louis University and the Saint Louis
Veterans Administration.

A Guide to Optimal Health over Your Lifetime
0–40 Years

1. Exercise regularly.
2. Avoid obesity.
3. Ingest adequate calcium.
4. Eat nutritious foods, including ﬁsh.
5. Wear your seat belt.
6. Drink in moderation after age 21, and do not smoke.
7. Get your vaccinations.
8. Drive at a safe speed (once you get your driver’s license).
9. Avoid violence and illicit drugs.
10. Do a monthly breast self-exam (females, after menstruation begins).

40 – 60 Years

1. Exercise regularly.
2. Avoid obesity.
3. Ingest adequate calcium and vitamin D
4. Eat ﬁsh.
5. Wear your seat belt.
6. Drink in moderation, and do not smoke.
7. Have your blood pressure checked.
8. Get your cholesterol and glucose checked.
9. Screen for breast and colon cancer, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
10. Get regular Pap smears (females).
11. Have regular mental activity and socialize.
12. Avoid taking too many medicines.
13. Consider hormone replacement (males and females).

60 –80 Years

1. Exercise regularly, including balance and resistance exercises.
2. Avoid weight loss.
3. Ingest adequate calcium and vitamin D.
4. Eat ﬁsh.
5. Wear your seat belt.
6. Drink in moderation, and do not smoke.
7. Screen for breast and colon cancer, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and diabetes.
8. Get your cholesterol checked.
9. Have ﬂu, pneumococcal, and possibly herpes zoster vaccinations.
10. Get regular Pap smears (females).
11. Have regular mental activity and socialize.
12. Avoid taking too many medicines.

80 Years

1. Exercise regularly, including balance and resistance exercises.
2. Avoid weight loss.
3. Ingest adequate calcium and vitamin D.
4. Be screened for osteoporosis.
5. Wear your seat belt.
6. Drink in moderation, and do not smoke.
7. Have your blood pressure checked.
8. Do monthly breast self-exams (females).
9. Have ﬂu and pneumococcal vaccinations.
10. Make your home safety proof to prevent falls; if you are unsteady, use a cane and consider hip protectors.
11. Have regular mental activity, socialize, and avoid being depressed.
12. Avoid taking too many medicines.
13. Keep doing what you are doing right.