Healthy Food To Stock Up On For A Hurricane

Celebrity Courtney Smith On Her Atkins Diet

How To Become A Morning Exerciser

Exercising in the morning will jump-start your metabolism and keep you feeling energised all day!

Statistically, people who exercise in the morning are more likely to stick with their routine. Morning exercisers also burn more kilojoules, eat less junk, and feel more energised throughout the day.  And these are just some of the benefits of working out in the morning!

1. Slowly Start Moving Up Your Bedtime
Working out in the morning is counterproductive if you’re not getting enough sleep (numerous studies have linked a lack of sleep to everything from weight gain to an increased diabetes risk, not to mention low energy and fatigue), and trying to wake up early if you aren’t fully rested is even more difficult. Your strategy: First, decide what time you’ll need to start waking up to make your workout happen, and then calculate what your new ideal bedtime should be (most experts recommend 7-8 hours of sleep each night for best health and weight-loss results). If you usually hit the sack at midnight, don’t expect to start falling asleep at 9 p.m. right away. Start going to bed 15 minutes earlier each night until you gradually reach your ideal bedtime (and remember, the hours you spend in bed are not the same as hours spent sleeping, so be sure to allow yourself some time to unwind and fall asleep too). In the meantime, you can still fit in a morning workout! Use this “sleep transition” period to focus on shorter, targeted workouts.

8 Simple Steps To Eating The Mediterranean Way

1. Eat lots of vegetables. From a simple plate of sliced fresh tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and crumbled feta cheese to stunning salads, garlicky greens, fragrant soups and stews, healthy pizzas, or oven-roasted medleys, vegetables are vitally important to the fresh tastes and delicious flavors of the Med Diet.

2. Change the way you think about meat. If you eat meat, have smaller amounts – small strips of sirloin in a vegetable sauté, or a dish of pasta garnished with diced prosciutto.

3. Always eat breakfast. Start your day with fiber-rich foods such as fruit and whole grains to keep you pleasantly full for hours. Layer granola, yogurt, and fruit, or mash half an avocado with a fork and spread it on a slice of whole grain toast.

4. Eat seafood twice a week. Fish such as tuna, herring, salmon, and sardines are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and shellfish including mussels, oysters, and clams have similar benefits for brain and heart health.

5. Cook a vegetarian meal one night a week. Build meals around beans, whole grains, and vegetables, and heighten the flavor with fragrant herbs and spices. Down the road, try two nights per week.

6. Use good fats. Include sources of healthy fats in daily meals, especially extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, olives, and avocados.

7. Enjoy some dairy products. Eat Greek or plain yogurt, and try small amounts of a variety of cheeses.

8. For dessert, eat fresh fruit. Choose from a wide range of delicious fresh fruits — from fresh figs and oranges to pomegranates, grapes and apples. Instead of daily ice cream or cookies, save sweets for a special treat or celebration.




Reference : Oldways

Switch On Your Fat-Loss Hormones

Struggling to lose weight? Learn how you can optimise your body’s natural weight-loss weapons.

1) Ghrelin: Ghrelin is your hunger gremlin. It is produced in your stomach and, like many fat-loss hormones, works with your brain to signal that you are hungry. Reducing kilojoules, in an effort to lose weight, causes an increase in ghrelin. Even after 12 months of a reduced-kilojoule diet, research shows that ghrelin levels stay elevated. In other words, your body never adapts to eating less and constantly sends the “I’m hungry” signal, which is why maintaining weight loss is often harder than losing it in the first place.

What to do: Intense exercise decreases ghrelin levels, making it a key component to fat loss and weight maintenance.

2) Leptin: Leptin is a type of hormone called an adipokine that is released exclusively from fat cells. Leptin interacts with your brain to get your body to eat less and burn more kilojoules. The more body fat you have, the more leptin your fat cells will release. However, too much body fat leads to too much leptin being released—a condition called leptin resistance. When this occurs, your brain becomes numb to leptin’s signal.

What to do: To maximise leptin sensitivity, get adequate sleep and pack your diet full of antioxidant-rich berries and green and red vegetables. Losing weight also enhances leptin sensitivity and gives you some momentum, as the more weight you lose, the more effective leptin will become in your body.

How To Reduce Bulky Cheeks

10 Awesome Weight Loss Tips For Busy Women

1. Have an eat out strategy

Eating out is one of the main reasons many career women say they’re carrying extra kilos, but if you make healthier choices, frequent business lunches need not derail your weight loss efforts. In her diet book The Wall Street Diet (Hyperion), nutritionist Heather Bauer says you need to determine a dining out strategy before you hit the restaurant.

• Decide in advance: Will you have a cocktail, a piece of bread from the bread basket, or a light dessert such as sorbets?
• Check out the restaurant’s menu ahead of time (most are available online) and pick a simple dish, such as a lean steak, grilled salmon, or a chicken salad.
• Ask for any sauces and dressings to be served on the side, and always opt for vegetables or a baked potato instead of chips.
• Business lunches can be distracting because you’re focusing on the conversation, not on how much you’re eating, so remember that restaurant portions are generally much larger than what you actually need. Don’t feel pressure to finish your meal; eating more than you need is just as wasteful as leaving some left over.
• Another useful tip is to order fiddly food, such as prawns or mussels. Having to pick them out of their shells will slow down your eating, and research shows the slower you eat, the less you’ll consume.
• Eating with chopsticks may do the trick too, so sushi or Asian dishes are a good bet (but opt for veggie stir fries rather than creamy coconut milk curries).

4 Ways to Stop Stress Fast

Is stress affecting your body? The answer to this question is a big “YES! The number-one complaint that I am hearing these days is: “I am under so much stress and it is causing me to overeat. I am storing fat around my midsection; what can I do to de-stress myself so that my body doesn’t suffer?”
First, we all need to get in touch with our bodies so that we can recognize what it feels like to be relaxed and how it feels when we are stressed.
 The first thing I like to ask a person is are your shoulders (trapezoids) up by your ears? When we are stressed, our shoulders rise up to ear level; it causes your shoulders to slump over, and allows gravity to take over and continue to pull our bodies toward the ground. This ages our bodies more than you can imagine. Bad posture makes us look much older than we really are, and it can cause headaches among other things.

If we can all learn to relax, we will solve our eating/stress problems at the core level where they need to be addressed. If work or life is making you so stressed that you can’t seem to relax, there are solutions out there for you that can help you feel better right away so that you can navigate your way through what needs to be done.

4 Ways to Stop Stress Fast

Stress check. Not sure how stressed you are? Perform a posture check to see if your shoulders are visiting your ears or if your breathing has become shallow and quick. Try taking a deep breath and tell your shoulders to “wilt” or “relax”. They will relax just by the power of suggestion and your breathing should slow down. If you are very tense, this may take multiple breathes. If you are super tense, this may take time, so be patient and don’t give up. It is well worth the trouble, and you will not only feel better, you will look fitter too.

Food That Flush Fat from Your Body

Did you know that certain foods can actually work to naturally fight body fat? Learn how to really make your diet work for you.

You don’t always have to subtract foods from your diet to achieve results. In fact, by adding these foods to your meals, you’ll help your body blast fat so you can shed stubborn pounds.

Chia Seeds
Chia seeds are super high in soluble fiber which, in addition to filling you up, has cholesterol-lowering properties and prevents the absorption of fat.  For a hydrating metabolism-boosting beverage, try a chia seed cocktail. Add chia seeds, a slice of lemon and a dash of agave to distilled water.

10 Foods NOT To Eat

Weight Loss Guide for Busy Women

A healthy weight is essential for disease prevention and overall health. Between work deadlines, family responsibilities and other everyday activities, busy women may find it difficult to schedule gym workouts or prepare elaborate home-cooked meals. By making a few simple changes in eating and exercise habits, busy women can lose weight with time and energy to spare.

Eat Breakfast
Breakfast plays an important role in weight loss by preventing mid-morning hunger and providing energy for physical activities. Even if you don't have time to cook breakfast every morning, you can still squeeze in a healthy breakfast. Try nutritious and convenient options like a fruit smoothie made with low-fat yogurt or oatmeal topped with dried berries and almonds. Even something as simple as a handful of whole wheat crackers or a low-fat cheese stick can help keep you full and energized until lunchtime.

Cut Portion Sizes
Reducing the amount of food you eat at each meal is an easy way to lose weight. Sharing a meal with a friend, skipping dessert and taking home part of your meal for later can help reduce portion sizes when dining out. Putting foods on smaller plates and eating more slowly are good ways to adjust to smaller portion sizes at home. To prevent overeating when snacking, take only a small portion and avoid eating directly from the bag.

10 Healthy Eating Guidelines

1. Eat plenty of vegetables and fresh fruits
2. Food should be served as close to its natural state as possible to maximise nutrients. Try and enjoy at least 50% raw vegetables and fruit every day.
3. Use cooking methods like steaming, baking, grilling, sauté or stir-frying and eliminate deep fried foods
4. Try not to over cook or reheat vegetables as this causes greater nutrient loss. 
5. Cook with lots of fresh herbs and spices not only for taste but for their health and medicinal  properties. This will also allow you to use less salt. A high salt intake can contribute to high blood  pressure. 
6. Avoid processed foods which are high in preservatives, flavour enhancers such as (MSG / E621), sugar + artificial sweeteners, saturated + trans fats, salt + non-nutritive ingredients that are linked to disease and poor health.
7. Eat small amounts of healthy anti-inflammatory oils such as extra virgin olive oil, avocado, macadamia nut, linseed, almond and walnut oils. Avoid trans fats and hydrogenated oils.

The Basic Of Losing Weight

Failed diets and out of control obesity may lead you to believe that losing weight is difficult but it is quite easy, at least on paper. The only thing you need to do is keep the calories that you burn greater than the calories that you eat.

Failed diets and out of control obesity may lead you to believe that losing weight is difficult but it is quite easy, at least on paper. The only thing you need to do is keep the calories that you burn greater than the calories that you eat.

Your first step is to figure out how many calories you are burning each day. There are a few formulas that have come out over the years that estimate how many calories you burn per day based on your sex, age, weight, height and physical activity. When using these formulas, keep in mind that the number you get gives you an estimate not a number that never changes day to day. It will fluctuate.

Safe weight loss is considered 1-2 pounds per week. While it is possible to lose more, it is extremely unhealthy to do so. So how many calories do you actually have to cut out of your diet? One pound of body fat equals about 3500 calories. If you want to lose one pound in a week, you need to cut 3500 calories out of your diet per week. While this might sound like a lot, per day it comes out to a 500 calorie deficit.

Your next step is to ask yourself how you want to get rid of any unwanted weight. You can cut 500 calories out of your diet per day, or increase the amount of calories you burn by 500 calories per day. A combination of these two methods is the best way to go.

The Miracle Noodle Craze

Miracle Noodle Soup

Calorie-Free 'Miracle Noodles' Are The Latest Diet Craze
A virtually tasteless gelatinous mass doesn't sound that great, does it?
 
That's why they call it the miracle noodle instead. This latest diet-food craze is being used as a replacement for traditional noodles and rice in some American homes, but originally came from Japan. They are called shirataki.

Yummy Or Gross?

Shirataki is produced in warm subtropical regions of Asia made from a plant that goes by many names and kind of resembles a yam. The plant is then ground into a powder and made into a gelatin like substance.  Naturally this gelatin is white colored but because hijiki is added it gains a rather unappealing grey hue.

Although the healthy nature of Konjac is well known in Japan, its general lack of taste relegates it to simply adding texture to dishes like sukiyaki.  It’s hardly considered a food that stands on its own.  Depending on the dish it’s either added in its slab form or in a thin noodle form called Ito Konnyaku (Thread Konjac) or Shirataki.

These noodles are calorie-free, all natural. They have barely any flavor, similar to a rice noodle. They are available in many different styles: angel hair, fettuccine, even as a 'rice' substitute. They don't need to be cooked, really just rinsed off. They can be used in warm or cold dishes, from pasta salads to Ramen.

Why You Got Fat.....