Showing posts with label dieting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dieting. Show all posts

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

Diet Deception: The Cabbage Soup Diet


The Premise: 
The more soup you eat, the more weight you lose. Cabbage is the one super vegetable with little calories and high fat burning capabilities.

The Provisions: 
The basic ingredients of the soup include three large onions, green bell pepper, a head of celery, dark green cabbage, chopped tomatoes, onion soup mix and three cubes of vegetable stock.

The Promise: 
Weight loss of 10 to 15 pounds in seven days by following the seven-day cabbage soup diet.

The Proof: 
Rachel, 28, marketing assistant said “I tried it and lost 4 pounds. It’s really hard to just eat the darned soup day in and day out over and over! Plus, I actually gained it all back in less than a week so I don’t think this diet works unless you intend to stay on cabbage soup forever which is a fate worse than death, if you ask me”.

The Prognosis: 
First of all, there’s no such thing as “the one food” that will melt all your fat away. Whether its cabbage or grapefruit, eating only one type of food is just nutritionally unsound. Furthermore, it’s only a matter of time before your body starts craving for other types of food which will probably not be the healthiest of choices. In fact, according to an article in the Journal of Nutrition (2001), the only thing you lose in this diet is water, which you will quickly gain back by downing even just a few glasses of water.

The Pros’ Position:
“Anything that shuts out other food groups is already a warning signal for you not to try it. There are no miracle foods out there that you can gorge solely on and expect miracle results. Water is the easiest thing to lose when you want the scales to reflect a lower number pronto. But being water deficient can cause dry skin and make you look old quickly, especially if you keep dehydrating yourself often enough,” says Ana Cruz, an L.A. nutritionist and dietician who once worked for the Duke University Medical Center.

Dr. Sanirose Orbeta, a nutrinionist adds, “People who take this soup will automatically lose weight because it’s very low in total calories. One cup of pure vegetable soup doesn’t even amount to 50 calories, the equivalent of one medium-sized banana or one medium-sized apple. It’s not sustainable for the needs of the body. It’s nutritionally unsound and unsafe.



Friday, 2 March 2012

Diet Deception: The After Six Diet


The Premise: 
Not eating after 6 p.m. so that by the time you sleep, most of the body’s intake would have already been converted to energy and used up, efficiently eliminating the chances of stocking up excess calories that might turn into fat.

The Promise: Weight Loss

The Proof: 
Kathy, 26, a former national athlete said “As an athlete, I’ve never had to diet extensively. But when I got married and gave birth, it was much harder. I did the After-six diet for two months and was amazed to find that I fit in my old clothes again. You just have to have the discipline to do it.”

The Prognosis: 
The After-six diet is more of a health tip than a diet. Its two main goals are to create an eating cut-off so you take in fewer calories for the lesser amount of activities ahead of you which is sleeping; and to promote the habit of eating breakfast. We continuously burn calories every second of our lives. Logically, you burn more calories running than sleeping, although you still burn calories even when you snooze. Also, the digestive ability of the body is more efficient when you’re awake. Before your food turns into energy, the body has to transform it to useable forms of energy. By eating way before bedtime, you ensure that the food has been digested and can efficiently be used by the body during slumber.

The theory is almost sound until you figure out what exactly your bedtime is. It takes approximately four hours before the body reacts to the lack of nutrients and you start feeling hunger pangs. After two hours of digesting, your body is efficiently burning calories and by the end of the fourth hour, your stomach produces enzymes for digestion for the food, which it is supposedly scheduled to admit. But what if you sleep at midnight? Two hours would have gone by then and the enzymes in your stomach would have reacted to your stomach lining resulting to ulcers and acid build-up.

The Pros’ Position:
“If you’re not an early sleeper, don’t do it. You can develop ulcers and hyperacidity by not eating way past four hours consistently. The concept of an eating cut-off time can work only if you take into consideration your normal sleeping patterns. If you sleep at midnight, make your cut-off 8p.m. or even 9p.m. instead of 6p.m. remember, hunger is just the body’s way of conveying that it needs nourishment. Deprivation is not the key to good health. Just make sure you eat two to three hours before you sleep. That should be sufficient. Never sleep straight away after eating”, says Ana Cruz, an L.A. nutritionist and dietician who once worked for the Duke University Medical Center.

On the other hand, some nutritionists believe that this is another fad formula which they discourage because of its erroneous and unscientific reasoning. This is because the body’s basal metabolism works 24 hours and does its different functions regardless of the time you feed it. 

The bottom line is: The key to healthy and scientific weight loss and weight maintenance program has no easy formula. Healthy lifestyle changes, good food choices, sustained and regular physical activity, attitudinal and behavioral modification will give us a healthier body.




Sunday, 29 January 2012

The Ways To Improve Our Health

Picking a healthy lifestyle can benefit us in numerous ways. It offers an enhanced energy and helps to makes our body to always feel in tune. It is imperative to discover ways on how we can improve our health.

Picking a healthy lifestyle can do well to a person in numerous ways. It will make a person’s body to feel more in sync and provides an enhanced energy.  So it is always imperative that we classify ways on how we can improve our health.

The following are the ten actions that we can execute to ensure that we get a best possible nutrition:

1. Always look at what you eat. Our meals must include healthy balanced food on a daily basis. Identifying our nutritional requirements and not indulging ourselves too much or even too little can show the way to a more well-balanced healthy lifestyle. There are a number of resources to seek advice from in order to find out our body's needs and requirements.

2. Hit the Sack.  When we are deprived of sleep, our body starts to blackout. We need to make sure that we always feel rested from obtaining a sufficient amount of rest or sleep. This will permit our body to do its role at a consistent and best possible speed every day.
 
3. Vitamins and supplements are big help. We need to pay attention to where our diet feels deficient. Once we have determined this, then we can start to balance it by taking vitamins and supplements.

4. Do Exercises. We should work out no less than four or five times a week. Doing exercises or working out helps our body to build more muscles, lose some weight and can help us to avoid getting illnesses and diseases.
 
5. Be at war with addictions. Stay away from under or over eating. This can effortlessly interrupt our nutritional balance and can cause severe problems.

6. Keep on learning. There is numerous different description of health improvement.  Health Improvement not just means diet, but there are some approaches that can be an element of your daily life. We need to keep studying and researching to decide on what are and are not efficient to help us in maintaining and improving our health.

7. Continue to be motivated. It is effortless to start working on our health improvement and it is as well easy to stop once we don’t see any abrupt results. A key feature on improving our health is by remaining steady and motivated in all our activities. It is very vital to make health care as our priority every single day.

8. Get your accurate body measurements. Knowing our body mass index taken, as well as discovering where we need to center our efforts with the aim of improving our health can assist us in staying motivated in improving our health.

9. Building networks or connections. A network consist of not only of those that can supply us information, but also aid and assist us in structuring and maintaining health.

10. Seek Advice. There are a range of health care nutritionists and providers that can help us. If we are hesitant about the essential steps to take, be connected with the right person to find out what we need to do.

We can help ourselves to live a more rewarded life by constantly working towards our health improvement.  By identifying what we need to do and by following the above steps, we can be certain that we will achieve a superior energy and nutrition.

Thursday, 29 December 2011

Get Great Complexion by Exercising

As what we have we listened to all the time, doing exercises can do great for our body. Exercise can help out our physique to stay trim, get toned muscles, and assist us as well to enhance our body energy.  But what we perhaps are not aware of is the piece of information that doing exercises can truly help us attain the complexion that we have always been wanting.

It's factual that doing regular exercises can help us nourish the skin all over our body with enough supply of oxygen, nutrients and fresh blood.  Also, the improved blood circulation and blood flow as a result of a work out can help our body to secrete toxins and enhance the condition of our body’s different vital organs, including of course our skin’s epidermis.

Most of us think that production of sweat can be a cause of an acne break out.  But the truth is, sweating thru exercise will do well for any type of clogged skin, because it can help to encourage washing out of skin’s impurities from its epidermal layer and to clean out our skin’s pores.  Also, doing energetic exercises can in fact correct our body’s hormonal imbalances which triggers the formation of blemishes, thus decreasing the probability of getting a skin outbreak.

The physical activities that we like to do will assist to reduce the stress that we might come across on a daily basis and will help to prevent the production stress-related break out. Activities such as biking, boxing, aerobics, yoga, spinning, running,  pilates, etc. , are just some of the activities that you can get involved with which can help us achieved great complexion.

Bear in mind that doing exercises may not be a miraculous treatment for everything, since our skin may still have breakouts once in a while though the acne will surely be less severe and will only last for a much shorter time.
                                                    
Exercising is also good for other skin conditions that may perhaps not have to do with the existence of acne. Our skin’s losing its elasticity or may become thin and less flexible and is something that we for sure we’ll encounter as we age.  This can be an issue for most of us as we grow old. As we get older, our skin starts to lose its collagen, which will make us appear exhausted. And as most of us are not aware of, doing physical activities or exercises can certainly help in promoting the development of collagen in our skin, which will brighten up and stretch our facial skin and will make us look and feel more youthful and livelier.
And if we are worrying about our wrinkles, we should try to consider relaxing after we exercise. This has a result of making our muscles and facial muscles, become softer. This means that our facial lines will come into sight less obvious, and will assist in contributing to a more youthful appearance that we want to achieve.
             
By doing exercises we can achieve a better toned muscle, smaller waistline, softer skin, less blemishes, and taken as a whole, younger and fresher look.  If we want to add or change our complexion, we should never be indecisive to exercise.  Because exercise will help us feel livelier and will enhance our body.  And all we need to do is take a bit of a break of our schedule to do some exercises in order to attain a great skin complexion.

Monday, 5 December 2011

Vitamins 101 for your Health



‘Vitamin’ was derived from the root word ‘vitamine’ which means vital amine. So what does it do? Vitamins are very powerful natural compounds that can be found mainly in the food that we consume. These are essential to all of us because they assist the cells in our body and tissues to perform their essential functions. To keep it simple, vitamins are what our body needs in order to grow.

Vitamins have two types. First, there is the water soluble vitamin which is commonly known vitamins of which the ascorbic acid or the we call vitamin C is the most common. Another one is the fat soluble vitamins which are also being called as hormones. It was believed a long time ago that all the kinds of vitamins only belong to one single group called the B complex since they all are coming from the same source but this was later categorized as vitamins that are different from each other. 

Some of these vitamins are Inositol, Choline, Vitamin B9, B5, B3, B1, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, etc. Others are being known by their biological names such as thiamine for vitamin B1 and Biotin for Vitamin H. 

These vitamins are important component of the balanced diet that we have. Some people with persistent diseases are being advised to take different vitamin supplements by their respective doctors. However, there are people who need to watch out their intake of vitamins like women who are pregnant or those who are suffering from a bowel disorder because bowel disorder hinder the absorption of the fat soluble vitamin in the body. While the patients suffering from anemia need to be given with dose of vitamin B12 because of their body’s deficiency from this vitamin. 

To assist our body to function efficiently and stay healthy, we need to take these vitamins on a normal basis. Vitamins assist our body organs to carry out their individual functions. Without the presence of these vitamins, it is for sure that our body will become weak and sick and will suffer from vitamin deficiency diseases. Most of the time, there are sufficient amount vitamins present in our food but if we will not eat a balanced diet, these external supplements like vitamins will do the work for our body.

It is very useful and compulsory for our body to take vitamins. However, as what the old saying goes, “excess of everything is bad”. Vitamins taken in excess can be a cause of harsh damage to our body. For example, our body needs just around 400 to 800 units of vitamin D/day. If our body exceeded this amount, too much calcium will be absorbed by our bloodstream, which will harm our kidneys. In addition, supplements in no way can substitute the healthy diets, so it is still better to take vitamin-rich diet than to take supplements or vitamins.

Lastly, we should not take vitamins by gathering different information from here and there. We have to consult a Doctor. It will not hurt to consult one. Remember, little understanding is a dangerous thing.



Wednesday, 16 November 2011

The Importance of Health Fitness



Exercising and working out is a great way to always look and feel better in getting a total wellness for our body. The physical as well the mental well-being of a person always depends on it. One good thing about exercising is that it can help a person lessen the chances of getting heart diseases or even diabetes. It is also good in the reduction of various effects of depression and getting rid of different stressors.
Getting the mental and physical benefits of health fitness are always well worth all the hard work. It will make certain that you are able to live a happier life and is always in good shape. Now, I have one great question for everyone. Do you want to just live your life or do you want to enjoy life and take pleasure in your existence? The choice will depend on you.

Discovering different activities that will develop your current fitness level is what Health Fitness entails. Everyone has a different existing level of fitness. It varies from person to person. It can be brisk walking for 10 minutes. For some, it can be jogging an extra 1 mile. It can also be a hardcore weightlifting. So the point here is you have to begin your fitness level and you must only make an assessment to where you want your health fitness level to be, say next year or next two years. Ensure that you set realistic goals that are very tough but are still attainable.


Improving your health fitness can involve too many ways. You yourself can select and participate to different activities that you will surely enjoy. It is a good way to be healthy while getting a self motivation aside. If you love and will take pleasure in playing basketball, then let yourself be engage in that sport maybe twice a week. And if you hate gymnastics then do not force yourself to do it. Find other exercises that will promote a healthy heart but that will keep you motivated and enjoyed.
      
It has been a long time that our society, viewed doing exercises as something awful that we always have to stay away from it. And spinning the entire situation into something that is positive will do great help in achieving very promising health fitness goals.


Now, how many among us take some time to meet our own needs on a normal basis? I guess, not all of us. We have our families and career that make us busy as a bee. You then should take some time to find value in yourself for at least once a week. Grab this opportunity to do something, new things for yourself. You can simply soak in bubble bath yourself or read a very interesting book. Try as well to take a pastime that you will enjoy or will let you learn new skills. A quality time like this will surely help you get relaxed and relieved stress. It is one great importance of health fitness.

This isn’t all about exercise either. Proper way of eating also plays a vital role in health fitness. You for sure will feel very sluggish and irritable if you will consume large amounts of carbs and sugar. They will provide you a momentary boost of energy but not for so long. Consuming fresh fruits and veggies will help you sustain your energy levels all day long. This will let you consume fewer calories but you feel full all day long.

Health Fitness is an essential issue that most of us need to focus our interest on. Because it influence both our physical and our mental well-being. As a final point, it gives us the chances to be the healthiest we can be.

Sunday, 6 November 2011

Overall Health: Fitness and Dieting



If we are to talk about having an extended and a healthy life, two components are needed to be considered. We have to consider fitness, and of course, diet. For sure many of us think that these two are just the same and cannot stand alone from each other, but reality check, they can be. It can be possible to still have an ideal healthy diet that comes with an improper fitness practice. Likewise, it is also not impossible to be very physically fit and buff but still satisfying a savory eating habits.

I always remember the line from a song by Jimmy Buffet “Fruitcakes” when the lady is crying for this line, "I treat my body like a temple…You treat yours like a tent", in cases I visualize that all the human in the world who are into the process of garbage in, garbage out plans on their diet and are extremely willing and wanting to attain the weight loss success of those people, celebrities and sports figure advertising different diet products.

Is it achievable to take away extra pounds by dieting alone? To be totally honest, yes it is. Though it may be very difficult but still, it is doable. It is also within one’s capabilities to be fit physically yet still have small extra pounds present in their body. And in totality, we are what we eat. It reflects to who we are as a person. By consuming a rich fat but with low substance diet, our bodies for sure will lack the fuel that is essential in burning our body fat. Simultaneously, by not providing our bodies with the essential tools it needs in building muscles, the weights we are lifting will no longer matter and will become useless.

So how can we get the best possible fitness and diet results? 

The answer is we can achieve the optimum results when fitness and a healthy diet work mutually rather than independently. Bring into play your usual fitness activities to shed extra calories and utilize your diet in order to greatly deliver your body with the nutrients and fuel that it needs in building more muscles. A lot of times in my life, I’ve been informed that a pound of muscle is less than a pound of fat upon weighing the two. Though this may not be correct at all, regardless, a pound is still something; a pound of muscle take up less space in the body than that of fat. And with that in mind, I would then be composed of muscles rather than fats.
Diet by itself does not help in muscle generation and that is something you will do well in remembering your efforts. 

You must also realize that as you are building more muscles you may be shedding inches and still not showing an enormous deal of progress on the weighing scale. It is extremely imperative that you instill this in mind during the whole weight loss course. Progress should not me measured by the scales alone or you will achieve deceptive results. The issue is that far too many people do just this and get bothered and give up when in reality without their knowledge, they are actually making progress. Please do not allow yourself victimize by the scales. Get a mirror, look at it and try on your tight jeans, and assess your waistline. Measure your improvement by how you feel with your body after climbing a trip of stairs and not by how many pounds fell of the scale this week.
And by including body fitness as being a part of your diet practice, you yourself is allowing your entire body to take away extra calories that you may have eaten during the entire day This means that if you would want to have some cheat meals during the day, you can still make up for it by burning additional calories than the normal in the evening. This should not be happening often but an intermittent occurrence for sure isn't going to make or break your diet plan

Everyone should also look at these (dieting and fitness) as a relationship that is something like a ball and glove. For sure you can still play the ball without having the glove, but it will work a lot better if you have and is using both. Diet and fitness when come together can produce very incredible results for weight loss for those who are taking them both sincerely. The thing that we should always keep in mind is that neither works as well without the other and neither will deliver results unless you are very eager and wanting to do the work. And to attain the best promising results, you must make this as a priority in your life.