Fitness & Wellness

Is Low Carb Actually Good For You

Published by superadmin on February 15, 2018 | Leave a response

Lately, a lot of attention has been given to low carb diets. They aren’t anything new. The Atkins diet was a low carb diet and that came out over 45 years ago. While the Atkins diet was quite aggressive and extreme, since then a variety of modifications and new diets have been introduced. The Atkins diet promoted eating high fat foods and often left you feeling horrible. The extremely low carbohydrate content forces your body to burn fat with a by product of ketones. Those make you feel bad with nausea and headache, leave your breath less than desirable and leave you lightheaded. Unfortunately, once you quit the diet the weight returns quickly.

Health risks can occur with a radical low carb diet.

When you’re not burning carbohydrates, you’re burning something else. It could be lean muscle mass. That slows your metabolism and is one of the reasons you gain weight more rapidly when the diet ends. Eating more meat than veggies can also increase bad cholesterol and leave you more prone to coronary disease. Eliminating the ketones created from burning fat can also put your kidneys into overtime and increase the risk of kidney stones.

Newer versions are “lower” carbohydrate diets with healthy foods supplying the carbohydrates.

One study showed the effect of a “lower” carbohydrate diet that had higher amounts of protein. The diet started with 50% of the calories from carbs, 15% from protein and 35% from fat with the dieters eating as much as they wanted. That tends to be more like the average diet. When they changed the allocation of protein and fat to 20% fat and 30% protein, people lost weight. That’s because the protein filled them more so they ate less. After 14 weeks the average participant lost 11 pounds with eight of those from body fat.

There are good carbs and bad carbs, just as there is good fat and bad fat.

You may already know that omega-3 fatty acids are healthy and also that carbs from cookies aren’t nearly as healthy as those from broccoli. The average American diet does contain far too many carbohydrates, but you don’t cut out an entire food group because of it. Cutting down on foods made with processed flour and keeping the pasta to a minimum won’t hurt you and is actually quite healthy. Just keep your low carb diet modified, keeping the good carbs like veggies and eliminating the bad ones, like candy and sugary products. Using this modification of a strict low carb diet provides healthy benefits and weight loss.

A healthy low carb diet can actually lower the bad cholesterol levels. The saturated fat in the diet raises the good cholesterol and lowers the bad.
Keeping your low carb diet high in vegetables, healthy fat and lean meat is the definition of healthy eating.
Modified low carb diets are easier to follow and maintain. Knowing the right type of food to eat eliminates the need for calorie counting.
No matter what type of diet you start, it will be healthier if you don’t go to extremes. Just as extremely low carb diets are bad for you, but modified ones are healthy, the same holds true for traditional calorie counting diets.

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Do You Need Supplements

Published by superadmin on February 3, 2018 | Leave a response

Before identifying whether you need supplements, let me first be clear about what that means. The very name, supplement, implies that you’re only supplementing healthy eating, not replacing it. That’s all that supplements should do. The next factors necessary to answer the question is the type of supplement, your health, age and lifestyle. While vitamin C is important to a healthy life, if you’re eating healthy, you should get an adequate amount. That’s not considering someone who’s under a lot of stress, which requires extra vitamin C or someone who smokes. There are also supplements that are supposed to help you build muscles or lose weight.

San Antonio is a sunny town, but you still may need extra vitamin D.

One of the best ways to get the vitamin D you need is to spend some time in the sun. However, today with all the push toward sunscreen, those ultraviolet rays have little chance to enter or turn into vitamin D created by the body. Sitting in an office all day with florescent light won’t build your vitamin D reserves either. For those that can’t drink vitamin D fortified milk or have a strict vegan diet, vitamin D may also be at a shortage. Vitamin D does so much for your body. It helps build stronger teeth and bones, make you mentally sharper, improve your immune system, reduce abdominal fat, provide healthier hair and heart health. The older you get, the less you create and absorb vitamin D. You might consider supplementing and a glass of fortified orange juice could be the answer.

Your age and sex makes a difference in the type of supplementation you should have.

Younger women who are menstruating, pregnant or lactating may need to supplement their iron. If they’re of birthing age, supplementation of folate is important. B12 is also important to boost energy levels. Older women tend to be at risk of magnesium deficiencies, which can cause muscle cramping, high blood pressure, low energy and hormone problems to name a few. Older people, whether women or men, tend to absorb fewer vitamins, even if they eat healthier, which makes supplementation more important.

Don’t expect supplementation to perform miracles.

You can’t eat junk, live a sedentary lifestyle, burn the candle at both ends and expect a pill or supplement to make a difference. NOTHING will ever replace a healthy diet, regular exercise, staying hydrated and sleeping for good health. Since not everyone is the same and circumstances change, sometimes supplements help. You’re better off drinking a smoothie made of whole foods like veggies and fruits, than using some of the supplement powders. Nobody regulates many of the “miracle” supplements for body building or weight loss, so you’re often paying high dollars for something that does no good.

If you eat healthy, most of your nutritional needs should be met. Always check with your doctor before reverting to any form of supplementation. Some interact with other medications and make them less effective.
While some nutrients are water soluble and won’t accumulate in your body, but just make you have expensive healthy urine, others are fat soluble and accumulate. Too much of those can cause health issues.
Fish oil, a supplement for Omega-3 fatty acids, has a large stock of studies showing its benefit for heart health.
If you’ve been ill, are over 50 or are pregnant, supplementing your diet with vitamins and minerals could be just what you need. Your doctor should always be consulted.

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The Best Low Carb Foods

Published by superadmin on January 24, 2018 | Leave a response

There’s nothing that beats eating healthy and making smart choices when it comes to food for losing weight and keeping it from returning. However, once in a while you want to get a head start on weight loss and lowering the carbohydrate intake is one way to do that. The best low carb foods are those that contain a lot of nutrients and taste good. They can become part of your normal eating pattern even after you shed those extra pounds and will help you prevent those pounds from returning.

Low carbohydrate foods are both good for your health and the dieter.

There’s a lot of good reasons to limit your intake of carbohydrates. One is that you’ll feel fuller because low carbohydrate foods don’t spike your blood sugar, only to drop it later. Instead, it helps it stay on an even keel. That balanced blood sugar level helps diabetics, while also helping prevent heart disease. Low carbohydrate diets have also been proven to be more beneficial in weight loss efforts than other types of diets. Low carbohydrate diets contain lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, which is good for everyone.

Say no to pasta and yes to healthy vegetarian alternatives.

You’ll love the yummy taste of spaghetti squash and won’t want to go back to regular noodles. Not only is it lower in carbohydrates, it offers dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium and potassium. Zucchini noodles as an alternative also offer those same benefits. They’re both lower in carbs and calories, too. I love spaghetti squash baked and then mixed with a tablespoon of butter and roasted garlic, but using a spaghetti sauce on top is also a great way to enjoy your pasta without any pasta or guilt. Add a turkey meatball or two and a salad and you have a great meal.

Try something new with an old food you’re sure to love.

Have you ever heard of lamb’s lettuce? Maybe you’ve heard the term mâche. While it once was considered a weed, it’s now a hot culinary delight. This small plant grew in fields with cereal crops, so it’s also known as corn salad. It has a juicy tender leaf that has a slightly nutty flavor. The French serve it with vinaigrette and add roasted beets or hard boiled eggs. You can serve it with thinly sliced broccoli, sunflower seeds, onions, extra virgin olive oil and spices. Add a side of lean marinated steak and you have a delicious low carb meal.

Honey-soy glazed salmon with mushrooms and peppers create the perfect low carb meal that’s fit for a king. It’s nutritious and delicious.
Pizza crust from cauliflower is a low carb option that tastes even better than regular pizza and has more nutrition.
Hungry for a snack. Consider a low carb option like zucchini Parmesan chips. Everyone will love this option.
Grilled shrimp and mango on a bed of baby lettuce and couscous is a yummy meal whether it’s on the barbecue grill or stove. It’s also a delicious low carb option and extremely healthy too.

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Nutrition For Constipation

Published by superadmin on January 13, 2018 | Leave a response

If you’re finding that your bathroom trips are more and more disappointing, it can occur for a number of reasons. It might be lack of exercise. If that’s a problem, riding a bike for a half hour or so can really get your system moving and make your trip to the bathroom a success! It’s not always lack of movement that makes your movements slow and sluggish, sometimes you need better nutrition for constipation to get your elimination system eliminating and have the success you want behind the closed door.

Are you hydrated?

Water is extremely important when you want to conquer constipation. In fact, it’s important for all the organs of the body and all body processes. When you don’t have enough fluid in your system and even slightly dehydrated, the body borrows from less important organs to replenish the fluid throughout the rest of the body. That means you’ll have dry hard stool that doesn’t easily glide through the colon, which brings on constipation. Drink eight glasses of water a day. Carry a bottle with you and sip on it throughout the day.

You need fiber! Fiber! Fiber!

Is the message loud and clear. Foods that contain loads of fiber can get you going with great regularity. There are two different types of fiber, insoluble and soluble. The insoluble fiber gives your pooh bulk and sweeps the colon clean. The soluble fiber helps you stay healthier by creating a bond with toxins and excess cholesterol so you can eliminate it. That’s one reason eating rolled oats—oatmeal—can lower your cholesterol level.

Eat a natural made for human consumption Liquid Wrench, Master Blaster or WD-40 for the colon.

I’m really not suggesting you eat any of those products, since they aren’t meant for human consumption. What I am suggesting is that you eat foods high in Omega-3 fatty acid that can help lubricate the colon like WD-40 lubricates screws and bolts when they won’t come out. There’s loads of foods that contain this healthy fat. You’ll find it in flax seed, salmon, krill oil and other fish oil.

If you don’t have a fiber rich diet right now, increase your fiber intake slowly. Eating too much all at once can lead to the discomfort of bloating. Make sure you get adequate water, too.
Eat your fiber with a smile. You can increase it, while also enjoying the increase with berries. Blackberries and raspberries are high in fiber and a great snack for between meals.
Grab a prune for a snack. Not only is it high in fiber, it contains sorbitol, which is a natural laxative.
Eat more broccoli. Broccoli shines when it comes to fiber. It may be one of the reasons that eating more crucifers, like broccoli, can help reduce the risk of colon cancer.

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Is Paleo Right For You

Published by superadmin on January 3, 2018 | Leave a response

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably heard of the Paleo diet. The concept of the diet is intriguing. Simply put, it’s eating the foods your ancestors would have eaten. That doesn’t mean your grandpa who loved his fried bologna or your great grandparents. It goes back centuries to the very beginning. If we go back far enough, humans were eating like other primates, fruit, bugs and leaves. Then they evolved to hunter-gatherers and finally moved onto the concept of agriculture. Is Paleo right for you? Let’s take a look at what they ate and how it fares against today’s diet.

The paleolithic diet was better than today’s American diet in a number of ways.

Early man ate plenty of fiber, lots of protein and unsaturated fat. They didn’t eat chemicals in their food, either. They had more fresh greens and other produce that we eat today. In fact, they ate three times more. The paleolithic diet contained more vitamins and minerals, too. While we tout omega-3 fatty acid as something new and amazing, the paleolithic diet contained far more than ours does. They also didn’t have a salt shaker to season their food or any problem with trans fat.

You probably won’t eat exactly like your ancestors on a paleo diet.

There’s no doubt you won’t be living off the land and eating wild greens on your walk to work, but you can increase your intake of meat. Paleo diets include eating the whole animal approach, which includes organs, cartilage and bone marrow. Bone broth soup has become quite popular even among those not on a paleo diet. That’s because it contains a number of nutrients. Paleo diets also contain other animal products like honey or eggs. It contains fruits and vegetables, raw seeds and nuts and some added fat such as coconut oil, avocado and butter—from grass fed cows. Paleo diets don’t contain legumes or grains.

Some of the logic of the paleo diet is true.

If you like grain and beans, you’ll miss them in the paleo diet. The same is true for many dairy products. While a paleo diet contains many healthy foods and is far superior to the way the average American eats today, it’s simply not for everyone, nor is every justification in the diet true. Beans contain phytates or lectins that supposedly wipe out the nutritional benefits of legumes. That’s not true. It does wipe out some of the benefits, just as oxylic acid interferes with the absorption of the calcium in spinach. Unlike the spinach, much of the nutritional benefits of legumes benefit the body.

You may not be able to stick to the Paleo diet if you can’t handle a strict dietary plan or have a schedule that doesn’t allow you to prepare all your own meals.
While a paleo diet may not be for you, adopting some of the diet can still help. Improving your intake of fresh fruits and vegetables is a start.
Animal organs are extremely good for you, but don’t fit the taste of everyone. If you can’t “do” the livers, heart or other organs, consider at least bone broth. It’s good and healthy for all parts of your body, even your teeth.
No matter whether you opt for a paleo diet or not, eliminating processed foods from your diet can go a long way in improving your health.

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Tone Those Abs

Published by superadmin on December 29, 2017 | Leave a response

Losing belly fat requires you to lose weight all over your body, but you can tone those abs to give a flatter appearance, even when you have a little more weight than you wish to carry. Strengthening your core and abdominal muscles can also provide some great benefits, such as relief from back pain, better posture and a boost to the metabolism. Here are some traditional methods, some not so traditional ones and a few you may never have considered, which will help you look flatter and fitter quicker.

Don’t hold your breath for results.

Seriously, if you’re doing a crunch or situp, inhale on the way down and exhale on the way up for the best results. Learning to breathe properly when doing abdominal exercises makes a huge difference in your results. Also keep your rib cage closed on the way down in the crunch for the most results. Focusing on the workout will also help boost the effects of these old favorites.

Do the old favorites but with more zest.

Your muscles were made to move in lots of ways, so to get the most out of a workout, you need to work them in various positions. Do more than mere crunches or situps to make your abs flat and firm. Use ones that engage all the muscles of the abdomen and cause you to turn and twist getting all the muscles involved. Side twists, windmills and other exercises engage several groups of muscle that also need toning.

Get active!

It’s not all about a specific exercise. Sometimes daily tasks, such as raking leaves, vacuuming and mopping floors can give you a good workout. Riding a bike uses the muscles to stabilize your body, which improves muscle strength. In fact, anything that involves balance works the core muscles. Get a load of abdominal exercise and have a great looking house at the same time, paint a room or even the outside of the house and you’ll see not only your stomach flatten but your arms and legs toning, too.

Suck it up. Use isometrics to tone your muscles. Slowly pull in your abdominal muscles as you exhale. Hold and release.
Improve your posture. Walk as tall as you can. You’ll find your stomach automatically starts to disappear.
Stretch your way thinner. There was an old nursery song called “Bend and Stretch.” The first line was “Bend and stretch, reach for the stars.” Do as the song says, bend with arms outstretched to touch your toes (or as close as you can get) and then stand up and reach as high as you can.
Hold weights while doing ab toning for even quicker results.

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Tailor Your Diet For The Holidays

Published by superadmin on December 16, 2017 | Leave a response

If you’re concerned that all your hard work to lose weight will go to the wayside as the holiday season approaches, you need to tailor your diet for the holidays. That can mean a number of things. While some people say save calories before you attend a Christmas dinner and others say eat before you go, there’s a better way to do it. If your meal is a late lunch, like most people have, have a late breakfast that’s filling. Scrambled eggs with veggies and mushrooms, nut butter on toast with a tiny bit of honey and oatmeal with some nuts and fruit will do the trick. You’ll feel full for quite a long time and can dodge the hunger bullet that leads you to high calorie meals.

You don’t have to change your diet, just what you eat first.

Don’t start by loading your plate with all the food, you can always go back for more. Start first with the veggies and low calorie options. Go light on the dip, because that can add pounds. Eat a big salad, then wait for a while visiting with others or walking a bit, to give your body time to tell the brain it’s almost full. Take small portions of the main course and heavier foods, like those mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese. If you have a smaller plate for the salad, use your salad plate for the main course. It will make you think you’re eating more food.

Allow yourself a small dessert.

Seriously, it’s the holidays and sometimes there’s food you won’t get for another year. You can eat those desserts, but in limited amounts. Cut a piece of pie in half as a portion or just get a sliver of it if you’re going to sample all the sweets at the table. Indulge in fresh fruit as much as you please. In fact, start your dessert portion with it. It will taste far sweeter eaten first than it will if it’s following a rich sugary dessert.

Get some exercise with the family.

Whether it’s before or after a meal, taking a walk is a good idea. Walking before the meal can help prevent you from snacking until everyone is there or the meal is completed. Walking afterward not only helps your digestion, it also helps burn off a few calories and gets you away from the tempting food. Again, too often grazing is the real problem. It sometimes comes from boredom, so engage in conversations with others.

There’s always carbonated drinks and sometimes alcohol at holiday celebrations. Save your calories for food and opt for black coffee, unsweetened tea or water.
Help keep the whole family fit by making a delicious dish to share that’s both healthy and low in calories.
Eat slowly. Not only does chewing each spoonful completely help your digestion and slow your food intake, it helps get the message to your brain of fullness and you feel fuller eating less.
If you find you’ve tried but failed and simply ate everything in sight, remember that tomorrow is a new day and get back to healthy eating again.

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Are Multi-Vitamins Beneficial

Published by superadmin on December 3, 2017 | Leave a response

Are multivitamins beneficial to your health or a waste of money or even worse, harmful. I have mixed emotions on this, but I will say they provide a dangerous placebo that make people think they can eat junk food and solve any damage by popping a pill. Multivitamins are not a substitute for healthy eating. That’s one of the fallacies that too many people have. Not only does it not provide all the micro nutrients you’ll get from whole foods, if you’re eating junk food, you’re also filling your body with toxins and substances that can harm you. You can’t overdose on carotene, which turns into vitamin A, but you can get too much vitamin A. (There are cases where people got an orange tinge to their skin from eating too many carrots, but nothing more lethal.)

One long term study showed multivitamins had no effect on memory and some benefits for health.

One study followed 6,000 male doctors age 65. One group had a multi-vitamin and the other had a placebo that looked exactly like it. Of the two groups, there was no significant difference in memory loss over a 20 year period, but there was a small difference when it came cancer and cataracts. It lowered the risk of each by 8 to 9 percent. However, other studies show multi-vitamins can increase your risk for cancer.

There’s no difference for those suffering from heart disease.

A third study compiled the information from 27 other studies, which followed a total of 450,000 people. While they also found a small benefit for reducing the risk of cancer, they found there was no appreciable difference for heart disease. However, all the evidence from scientific studies show that you can reduce the risk of heart disease with a healthy diet and regular exercise. That not only saves money buying useless pills, it helps you stay fitter in other ways.

If you have a nutritional shortage, you should consider taking vitamins.

While taking a multivitamin for general health may be a great deal like taking antibiotics for general health, there are some people that need to do just that. If you have a nutritional shortage, which can occur even if you eat a healthy diet due to illness or a chronic condition, then a specific vitamin is beneficial. However, for those who simply take it to be on the safe side, it can actually increase the risk of a serious disease or shorten your lifespan. While some supplements are good for a specific condition, they may increase the risk for another. Vitamin A in its natural form is known to be helpful for COPD, but may increase the risk of lung cancer.

If you’re going to supplement, consider seasoning your food more liberally. Herbs and spices are powerhouses of nutrients and won’t affect your body like manufactured vitamins.
One of the best things you can do is drink the full glass of water if you’re taking a multivitamin. The water will do more good than the vitamin.
One of my clients was a construction worker and built a building on a sewage dumping site used by the city in the past, before regulations stopped it. Not only were there hundreds of volunteer tomatoes, you could also see many almost completely undigested multivitamins on the ground. Many just pass through the body without digesting.
One huge exception is the supplementation of folic acid for women of child-bearing age. It’s proven to help prevent birth defects in babies when taken early enough before the pregnancy.

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Winterize Your Workouts

Published by superadmin on November 23, 2017 | Leave a response

Even in a warm area like San Antonio, you may need to winterize your workouts. While a low temperature like 40 to 41 degrees is like a warm spring day to someone in Minnesota, Wisconsin or Northern Indiana, it’s still chilly when you’re not used to the cold. For people in colder climates, adjusting your workout to the winter is of utmost importance and can be crucial to your health. If you workout outside, such as running in the morning, you have to take a few precautions to account for the cold.

Warming up needs to really warm you up.

In the winter, you’ll need to do more warm up exercises to insure your muscles are thoroughly warmed and ready to begin. Warming up effectively reduces your potential for injury and is far more important in the cold winter months, even though you need to do it year around. Dynamic stretching, also known as a dynamic warm-up can get your body ready for a good workout in the winter.

Dress in a lot of light layers, rather than a few bulky ones.

Layering keeps you warmer, plus as your workout continues, allows you to adjust for body heat. If you have several light layers, when you warm, you can remove a layer. Make sure the material wicks moisture away from your skin, which makes you colder and for those in a cold climate can cause hypothermia or freeze the material to your skin. Wear a hat to retain more body heat and if it’s really cold, make sure you have gloves, cover your face with a scarf and if there’s ice where you live, make sure your shoes have good traction.

Work up to working out on really cold days.

If you don’t exercise outside while the weather is turning colder, you need to pace yourself if you suddenly decide to take up running in the middle of winter. Your body needs to acclimate to the cold weather, so increasing your outside exercise time little by little is important. For those in more frigid climates, I can’t stress this enough.

Your joints are more prone to injury when it’s cold since tendons are less elastic and tight.
Drink plenty of fluids. Your perspiration will evaporate faster and you won’t realize how much fluid you’ll lose. If you’re running, carry a bottle of water and sip it along the way.
Have reflective clothing when running outside. It stays dark later and gets darker earlier, so your normal schedule of exercise may take place after dark.
Be aware of the outside temperature and on really cold days, turn to inside workouts in the gym or even in your own home.

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Tune Into Your Body

Published by superadmin on November 17, 2017 | Leave a response

Learning to tune into your body can help you become healthier and stay that way. Some people just know when they need to change their diet or need more protein or vegetables. They’ve learned to pay attention to the subtle cues that the body offers and follow through with the request to feed it right. If you’ve ever felt out of sorts only to realize later that the reason is all the junk food and lack of fruits and veggies in your diet, you have a clue how your body communicates with you.

Learn to judge whether you’re hungry or just want to eat out of habit.

Sometimes you’re not really hungry, but you eat any how. You may find yourself substituting food to eliminate boredom. Eating mindfully means more than just knowing if you’re hungry. It’s deciphering what your hungry for and why. Do you need the nutrition? Do you really enjoy the food? Savor each bite and appreciate how it helps your body. It’s not only a way to listen to your body, it’s a way to get in touch with it so you can listen.

Is that hunger really thirst?

So many people fail to identify the difference between thirst and hunger. Sometimes, when you think you’re hungry, your body is really craving more fluid. Learn to know the difference between the two. If you think you’re hungry but you’ve recently eaten or shouldn’t be, it’s probably thirst that’s driving you. Try a tall glass of water first and wait to see if the craving is gone. Chances are, you’ll be more likely to recognize thirst easier each time you do.

Do you feel stress?

Not everyone knows when they’re stressed out, some people keep on functioning, barely realizing that the sick feeling in the pit of their stomach comes from stress. A quick way to learn what this body cue means is to do things to help offset stress and see if you feel better. Meditation can help, but so can exercise. In fact, most people find that exercising makes them feel better, but seldom realize it’s because that feeling comes from it relieving stress.

Listen to your body when it tells you that you’re tired and worked out enough. Trying to workout beyond your point of exhaustion is dangerous. Know the difference between true pain and normal muscle soreness.
Pay attention to each movement when you exercise. It helps you learn the language of the body faster.
Are you accustomed to going all night and ignoring that tired feeling? That actually slows the process of knowing your body better. Learn to rest when you’re tired or at least take a few minutes to meditate and rest your brain.
Remember the more you ignore the messages from your body, the harder it becomes to listen or understand the signal it sends.

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