Dec
10
Food Journal?
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Keeping a food journal can be a big help especially if you are going on a diet or you already are on a diet. People tend to forget about some of the things that they eat on a day to day basis. For instance I don’t even remember what i had for lunch yesterday. Anyways by keeping a food journal you can keep track of everything that you put into your body. This will allow you to see how much you’re actually consuming, how many calories a day you are in-taking, and what you can do to change your diet.
In a food journal you should keep track of:
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How much you ate
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What kind of food you ate
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The time you ate the food
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Where you ate the food
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If you were with someone or alone
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Activity that you were doing while you ate the food
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What kind of mood you were in while eating the food
All of these things can play a big role in messing up your diet. For example when some people get in a bad mood or they are just bored they tend to eat more even when they’re not hungry. Along with how much of something you eat.. many people don’t realize then when you are eating it takes your brain anywhere from 20 minutes to realize that your stomach is full. People don’t realize this so they just eat and eat and eat until they cant eat anymore and then once the brain realizes that your stomach is full you’re stuffed and feel like if someone would poke you in the tummy you might blow up! That’s why its a good idea to eat nice and slow.
Dec
10
SURGERY VS. DIET AND EXERCISE
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Getting surgery to lose weight to me just seems crazy and unhealthy. Yeah you might look awesome when you are done and everything is all healed.. but your not getting the benefits of diet and exercise. I think that the lazier people are the more they would think about getting surgery to lose weight. Its like they’d rather sit on the couch for 4 hours a day than go to the gym or just exercise for 2. How lazy can someone be?
Now keeping the weight off, that’s a different story when it comes to non-surgical weight loss and weight loss that required surgery. Its been shown that both groups gained back similar, small amounts of weight but in different areas. At the end of the year the non-surgical group ate less fat 27% and the group that had the surgery ate about 37% The surgical group also ate more fast food.
The surgical group didn’t do things naturally so therefor they were not getting the benefits that you would from regular diet and exercise and some of them experienced higher levels of depression and stress which are two things that diet and exercise can help reduce. The surgical group lacked physical activity after the surgery helping not to keep the weight off, and still left them at risk for all the health problems that can be avoided by regular diet and exercise. I think that if you are going to spend money to get surgery.. you should at least look at it as a head start to weight loss but you start exercising and eating healthy to make sure the surgery was worth it in the years to come instead of just rely on surgery every-time you get ‘fat’.
Nov
17
SUPER FOODS
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Food can have a big effect on the body over time. Effects that can be both good and bad.
Certain foods can help boost your energy, combat stress, improve your skin, reduce your blood cholesterol level, and generally decrease your risk of disease. The only thing is knowing what kind of food these ’super foods’ are.
Illness, stress, and aging are some of the things that people are fighting everyday. Some of the foods that will help you fight stronger are asparagus, lean beef, milk, yogurt, blueberries, cottage cheese, oats, tomatoes, fish oil and many more. Each of these foods has different characteristics that will help you. For example asparagus contain folic acid which helps regulate our moods, and oats are high in fiber and nutrients that will reduce your risk for high cholesterol. For those fighting stress yogurt and cottage cheese is a great choice because it contains high quality protein and calcium which helps stress by regualating your energy levels throughout the day.
Super foods are easy to incorporate into your daily diet. You can make it fun and make different recipes that include some of these super foods. For example you can make a smoothie with ice, blueberries, yogurt and banana. This gives you many different super foods in one tasty smoothie.
If you are one of those people that doesn’t really have time to prepare foods to eat, a good idea would be to prepare your meals in advance when you do have time. By preparing your foods ahead of time you can put the leftovers in the freezer or refrigerator for a later time.
Try something new and do something good for yourself and your body.
Nov
14
REDUCE STRESS
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Diet and exercise is just one of those things. There is so much it can help relating to your body and mind, such as reducing stress levels. There are plenty of changes that can be made by those under stress. One of the most important changes is to eat a healthy balanced diet. The best nutrients to eat are B vitamins, vitamin B6, and vitamin C.
You can find B vitamins in meat, whole grains, eggs, brown rice, fish, potatoes, milk, etc. You can find vitamin B6 in everything I just listed. Vitamin C is a giveaway. You can find vitamin C in orange juice, citrus fruit, and different vegetables. Along with diet you should stay away from too much salt, sugar, caffeine, alcohol and fat.
People tend to feel stress differently. Some people may feel it in their necks, upper and lower back, and some people might carry stress so routinely they don’t even realize it. You may sometimes think that you are relaxed, but you’re not. Because the body somehow forgets what its like to relax.
A good way to help relieve stress is to get your heart pumping. Just get out and do something. You can walk, jog, do aerobics, kick-box, basically anything, just try to aim for about 30 minutes a day. So start a routine and a healthy diet and you will start to notice that the things that used to stress you out before wont stress you out nearly as much. You will finally start to feel what its like to be relaxed and trust me its the best feeling in the world.
Nov
10
A Blog About a Blog
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I read an article called The Health Risks Of Obesity Have Been Exaggerated. This article basically explains that obesity is not the major cause of health problems such as heart disease and high blood pressure. The main cause of these diseases are caused by an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise.
This is basically saying that a person who rarely exercises and eats unhealthy foods is less healthy than a person that is overweight and exercises regularly and eats healthier.
I agree with this because this isn’t the first place that I’ve read about this. Also if you check out my other blogs there is other information that pretty much leads up to this.
People link clogged arteries with fat. So therefor they think that the more fat that someone has on their body the more they are at risk. This isn’t true, fat people are no more likely to have clogged arteries than thin people. There is no relationship between body weight and clogged arteries. In fact studies at the University of Tennessee have found that having a clogged artery actually decreased as body weight increased.
Again people are stuck on the thought that being thin is good and that thin people are “healthy.” Its about the lifestyle that you live not the type of body that you are presenting.
Poor diet and lack of exercise is what leads to obesity and that’s what gets you.. It has nothing to do with being physically obese. The actual problem is the poor diet and the lack of exercise. This is something that gets mixed up quite a bit.
Nov
6
GIVING US BETTER CHOICES.
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If people were asked “What do you think the most unhealthy food is?” I think a majority of people would say “Fast food.” Restaurants like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Burger King, Arby’s, and the list goes on and on.
A few years ago it was impossible to find healthy food items at fast food restaurant chains. Now many restaurants are responding to consumer demand about good health and proper diet. Fast food restaurants are noted as being unhealthy therefor due to consumer demand they are starting to expand their selections of food. Fast food restaurants are now starting to provide healthy alternatives.
Chick-Fil-A is one of the many restaurants trying to go a little bit healthier. Instead of using formed chicken they use whole chicken breasts for all chicken selections. They also fry their foods in peanut oil which is naturally free of trans fat. Another example is McDonald’s, which was once considered one of the worst when it comes to fat and calories. Now they offer foods such as salads, breakfast wraps, grilled chicken sandwiches, fresh fruit, and low fat ice-cream. One of the first was Wendy’s they were among the first restaurants to have an alternative to french fries. At Wendy’s they give you the choice between a baked potato or a side salad, which are both great alternatives.
So the next time you want a quick and fast meal maybe you should think a little bit healthier and take a look at the healhty menu. You never know, you might find something good on there!
Oct
28
Truth About Diet Pills
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If you think that diet pills are an easy and fast fix for a few extra pounds- Well, you’re wrong.
Diet pills will help you shed a few pounds; the only thing is that it’s nothing permanent. The way that diet pills work is that they decrease your appetite which like a dominoes effect will then decrease the amount of calories you intake. As soon as your calorie intake is decreased the speed of your metabolism also decreases. Once your metabolism is reduced, weight loss holds back. So basically you’ll notice that your weight will not decrease like it was doing before, basically proving that the weight-loss is only short term. Basically you’re just not eating as much as you used to because the pills are telling your body that you are full when in deed you are not.
..And if you’re thinking “Well then I’ll just switch pills.”- That’s a bad choice.
If you count on diet pills for too long you’re risking damage to your health. Some diet pills can often leave you with:
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High blood pressure
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Dizziness
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Blurred vision
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Headaches
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Heart palpitations (The awareness of your own heartbeat)
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Irregular heartbeats
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Insomnia (Difficulty falling or staying asleep)
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Anxiety (Distress of the mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune)
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Depression
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Heart attacks
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Strokes
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OR EVEN DEATH
Who would want to take something with that many risks involved? Some diet pills can also cause gas, diarrhea, and uncontrollable bowl movements. Some diet pills can also lead to vitamin deficiencies leading to hair loss and dry skin. Trying to impress someone with all of that going on.. now I think that’s a major challenge!
Attractive and beautiful, right?
Oct
19
Internally Fat?
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It’s whats in the inside that really counts.
Body Mass Index (BMI) is the perfect answer to someone that would like to find out how much fat they are carrying on their bodies. It is a standard measure that divides your weight by the square of your height determining a persons percentage of body fat. The only problem when it comes to BMI scores is that it does not show you where the fat is located. In order to actually see where in the body the fat is located you would have to get an MRI. People with normal BMI scores can still have surprising amounts of fat deposits inside their body. This internal fatcan be found surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver, or pancreas. Internal fat can be very dangerous, contributing to heart disease, diabetes and even cancer. All the hidden fat that you can not see can be identified with an MRI.
Something that I think is crazy to think about it the fact that people who are obese yet active and fit have a lower risk of mortality than normal-weight persons who are inactive and unfit. You would think the total opposite right?
If you want to ACTUALLY be healthy then exercise has to be an important component of your lifestyle. In fact exercise is critical, expecially when it comes to burning internal fat. Many people just assume that because they are not overweight that they are healthy. just because your not overweight doesn’t mean that you’re not at risk for heart disease, diabetes or cancer.
Just because you cant see it doesn’t mean its not there.
Oct
15
I read a blog called Breast Cancer Prevention - Learn How to Prevent Breast Cancer. This article relates to my topic because it talks about diet and exercise being one of the easiest things that you have control over. With that control diet and exercise can drastically reduce your chances of getting breast cancer, the two words no one wants to hear.
“A strong link to breast cancer is alcohol.” So as a part of the diet regimen it would be important to limit the amount of alcohol you consume. It is also important to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and to lower the amount of fats you take in. By having a diet that is low in fat, consists of a lot of fruits and vegetables will lower two types of estrogen. Women do need estrogen to grow strong bones and mature, but overexposure to estrogen can lead to breast cancer. So having a good diet is an important thing to think about.
Aside diet is exercise. By maintaining a healthy weight along with a healthy diet can also lower the risk of breast cancer. Thirty minutes a day, three to four times a week is how much time should be spent doing physical activity. As with diet, exercising reduces estrogen levels naturally.
So when it comes down to it having a healthy diet and exercise regimen can give you some great life saving benefits.
Oct
8
Two ways up. Two ways down.
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So you find yourself on the top or bottom floor ready to work your way either up or down. This leaves you with a decision to make, how should I get there? Basically you’ve got two choices, the stairs, or the elevator. Some might take a little bit more effort, but is it really worth it?
An average American person takes anywhere from 2,100 to 7,500 steps each day. At least 10,000 steps a day is recommended to support a healthy lifestyle.
The truth is taking an elevator isn’t helping you very much. Plus an elevator involves too many steps, and not the kind that you need to be taking. Pressing the button, waiting for the elevator to arrive, waiting for everyone to get out of the elevator so that you can get in, and finally getting into the elevator and waiting for everyone else to get in as well, those kind of steps. Don’t forget you still have to press which floor you’re going to and wait for the ride up, or down. By the time you’re done riding the elevator, couldn’t you of used the stairs and of got there faster using the right kind of steps?
Walking 10,000 steps a day has been shown to help weight loss, lower the risk of heart disease, it can also lead to healthier arteries. Which are you going to take?