7 tips for a healthier life

Sleep

We all need our beauty sleep to feel alive and well, but sleeping enough – and on regular hours – are more important than that. Many important functions rely on regularity, and sleeping hours are an important part. Different people have different needs, but most require 7-8 hours sleep to be fully functional. One, or a few days with less sleep is fine, but if you loose out on those precious hours too long, it will affect you.

Eating

What and when you eat is essential for your health. Eating much fast food, candy, too much meat or sugar can – and will – affect your health. Just as with sleeping, regularity is very important when it comes to eating. Regular meals will actually help you loose weight, besides keeping you sharp much longer. No more dips in blood sugar, causing you to eat that candy bar.

Nutrition

Eating healthy comes with other advantages, but for those who doesn’t – adding some greens to your diet will help you stay young and healthy. Greens with bright colors (red, orange, green and yellow) are packed with good vitamins and minerals of all kinds. If you feel you don’t get enough, try some vitamin supplements.

Emotions

Your emotions are an important part of you and your health. Keeping them tucked inside you can cause serious stress symptoms later in life. The body needs to release its tension some, if you do not let it – it will backfire. Everyone knows laughter prolongs your life, but few know crying to be equally important. An easy way to get in touch with your feelings – or at least pretend you are – is to watch movies. Sad, exiting or funny; iot doesn’t matter. The body will respond to those emotions in a similar way it would to true feelings. So, make it part of your daily routine to watch a funny video.

Exercise

This has been talked about for ever. We all know exercise is good for you in so many ways. Yet many people still sit around all day, doing nothing. This is perhaps the biggest threat to public health; Lack of exercise. You do not need to go to the gym twice a week to be exercising, just getting up and moving a bit will go a long way. Finding something fun – yet physically challenging – is the best way of ensuring enough exercise. If its fun, its easy – and who knows, you might get some laughter out of it.

Vacation

Travel as much as you can afford. There are few things more relaxing than vacations, and relaxation is just what the doctor ordered. When you relax, your body relaxes and you give it a great opportunity to mend itself.

Stop dieting

If you have a serious weight problem, seek professional help. People who are constantly dieting rarely get enough vitamins, minerals OR energy for the body to recover. There are ways of loosing weight without eating shady diet pills or starving yourself.

Technorati Tags: Healthy lifestyle, Healthier life, Exercise, Sleep, Laughter, Crying

Fast weight loss – Too good to be true?

Many argue diet- or weight loss programs offering fast weight loss to be questionable and consider them "too good to be true". While this is true with most diet pills and magic weight loss formulas, research shows that loosing weight fast is an important part of long lasting weight loss.

Most scientists agree the most important factor for lasting weight loss is a change of lifestyle. This change may sound like a walk in the park, but don’t be so easily fooled, old habits are hard to get rid of.

Many aspects of the lifestyle contribute to a person’s overweight. Changing just one, or a few, won’t be enough. More often than not, you need a complete change in lifestyle.

The most important reasons for overweight are;

Your diet

What you eat is, of course, the single most important factor when gaining weight. If you eat more than you spend, you will gain weight. Some people can eat more and fattier foods than others, it’s in the genes. Focusing on eating food with less fat, more fibers and nutrition as well as fruits and vegetables is a must of you want to loose weight. When you eat is also important. Eating just before bedtime isn’t the best idea while regular meals will help you keep your weight.

Exercise

Just sitting in front of a desk all day won’t burn much fat. You need to get more active in your daily routine. Just increasing your daily, physical activity the slightest will have a great effect on you and your weight. It is better to exercise lightly and often, than it is to work out hard at the gym twice a year. Any actual exercise is better than the greatest intentions.

Smoking

Smoking will kill you! It’s as simple as that. In the long run, smoking will cause many diseases, but in the short run it’ll make you fat and lazy. There are reasons you rarely see an athlete smoke, it’s disastrous for you and your health. There are several places online with a quit smoking program, if you are a habitual smoker – quit today.

Alcohol

Most people enjoy an occasional drink now and then, but if these occasions become more of a daily routine, you will gain weight. Alcohol has many negative health aspects and its rich in calories. And, with a hangover you rarely get any exercise, a pizza and a diet coke is a more likely scenario.

Fast weight loss as motivation

Changing too much at once may be overwhelming, so make sure you have your mind set on it. Loosing weight fast will boost your moral, and this is exactly what researchers tell us; fast initial weight loss motivates people to change their lifestyle. Changing your life without seeing any results makes most people’s intentions fly right out the window, where seeing results from an early stage will help you fulfill those same intentions.

Some weight loss programs are using this method in their programs, with some very good results. Staying with the program is important even after the initial weight loss; inspiration and motivation are important to achieve long lasting weight loss – make sure you keep yourself motivated.

Technorati Tags: weight loss, motivation, healthy living, health tips

Fitness myths - Don´t let them stop you

Women going for higher fitness levels often never dare try out weight lifting as a way to achieve this. Read on to understand why this behavior is mainly based on misconception and myths.

Women who lift heavy weight will eventually look like bodybuilders! This is just not true. To get man-like muscles, one has to be training for many, many years with very heavy weights or for some reason have larger quantities of the male hormone testosterone than what is considered normal for a woman. Some testosterone is definitely needed to build muscles and higher fitness, but female levels are naturally so low that there is little risk of getting massive muscles. Hence there is no reason to hold back or take it too easy in the gym.

Many repetitions with lighter weights result in skinny thighs! This is also a false statement. On the contrary, more repetitions with less weight actually build more muscle endurance. In this case the size of the muscle fibres does not increase nor do the size of them. The most common difference is a more tight feeling of muscle fitness and contact. But if you are going for a more firm look and want the muscles to show you have to decrease the fat and increase by increasing the weights. However, more repetitions with fewer weights can have a positive improvement on your poise, as it strengthens tendons, nerves and muscles if exercised with such movements.

Machines are always more effective! This is a general misconception. A machine often only trains one or few muscles at a time. The back, legs or other parts of the body are usually supported which means there are many muscles that don not need to work support and stabilization and are not trained. Fitness training that concentrates more on balance and stability will always be more efficient. These are functional exercises that will help build the nervous system and everyday movements used in a normal life.

If you stop training your muscles will turn into fat! This is just as wrong as the previous statements. Is just doesn’t happen even though many can detect in the in the body feel and fitness. When the muscles are not trained they get smaller and the body burns less fat. Many put on more fat when they stop exercising but this is not the muscles but new fat that is put on. If you are a fitness freak and stop training on and off you should reduce you calorie intake to avoid a dramatic weight gain.

You can train yourself to longer muscles! This is untrue as well. This is a misleading way of describing how this works. In reality the muscles do not get longer as this eventually would make them not fit to the skeleton and the rest of the body. The real reason is that it strengthens and makes them more flexible which results in a much better posture. With a better posture you will look taller and slimmer and in better fitness. At the same time the exercises are not focused on pure strength, but more on coordination and stamina.

Technorati Tags: Fitness myths, Weight lifting, Heavy weight, Fitness training

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More green stuff in your diet – increased nutrition, vitamins and well being

Many health and diet columns praise greens but few have any imagination beyond mentioning salad and spinach. There and plenty of overlooked super healthy vegetables within the same category and there any many reasons to wolf them down because they are packed with nutrition and healthy ingredients. So skip the diet pills and read on for some tips and reasons on why you should go greener.

Vegetables are usually divided into two categories; fine vegetables and rough vegetables. Leaf vegetables belong to the fine category. The line between the two categories is distinguished by the amount of fibres they contain. Rough vegetables contain between two and three times more nutritious fibres than fine. In spite of the lower amount fibres in fine vegetables they are extremely healthy. This is because they contain many other favourable substances. Read on to learn about the four most important ones.

Chlorophyll is what makes leafs green. It also contains the mineral magnesium and is chemically reminiscent of haemoglobin. Haemoglobin is present in meat and your blood, where it binds and transports oxygen. The difference is that haemoglobin is based on iron and not magnesium. Because they are similar, a diet containing a lot of green leafs help prevent the cancerous effect meat can have on the lower intestines. This is why it is important to eat a lot of greens if you are a meat lover. Chlorophyll also prevents damage on the cells’ DNA molecules when they are attacked by cancerous substances in the form of Alfa toxins. DNA damage can be prevented by fifty five percent by an intake of one hundred milligrams of chlorophyll three times a day. This equals a little more than half a cup of chopped raw spinach every day. All you have to look for everyday is the colour; the greener the leafs, especially dark green, the more chlorophyll they contain.

Folic acid is a vitamin B which is present in many leaf vegetables. Folic acid is an important vitamin for the brain. If you add a lot of it to your diet you will be able to keep your head sharp and prevent the increasing memory loss as you get older. Folic acid keeps the level of homocystein in your blood on the lower side. Homocystein increases the loss of brain cells and keeping the levels low helps improve your general brain functions.

Green leaf vegetables also contain high levels of omega-3. Omega-3 is an essential acid, even more so if you do not have a lot of fish in your diet. Several researches have shown that a regular intake of omega-3 prevents heart and vascular diseases. It is probably important for everyone, fish eater or not, to remember to include omega-3 in their diet.

Vitamin K is also highly present in many green leaf vegetables. Vitamin K can probably decrease the deterioration of the skeleton, and is also able to bind the proteins in the skeleton which are responsible for the build up of calcium. Vitamin K is also a contributing factor when it comes to the blood’s ability to clot properly. This means that a lack of vitamin K hinders the effect blood thinning medicines have.

Technorati Tags: vegetables, healthy living, nutrition, vitamins

Toning and weight loss using weights – also for women

Most people will recognize themselves in their struggle toward weight loss; everyone wants to be in good shape, slim and firm in body, but not necessarily built like a bodybuilder. This is a very common perception among women. It is a pity because most would be able to achieve results they dream of if they only trained hard with the right mix of techniques and equipment. This article will try and kill the macho myth about weight loss and toning through weight lifting for women.

Maybe you are going to the gym right now, but don not feel the results are coming fast enough. Exercising with weights is an excellent form of training for both men and women to develop that strong feminine or masculine body, the thing is to do it the right way.

Women have a lot to learn from the men here, you are supposed to sweat and tire yourself for real for the weight loss and toning to take place. Most women are afraid to grab for the heavier weight and often train to lightly. Anatomically there are obviously great differences between men and women, but that does not mean our muscles should be trained in the same manner. You do not have to worry about looking like a bodybuilder with large bulging muscles. It is all due to the hormones; men have twenty to thirty times more testosterone than women, and will hence build muscles a lot quicker. In addition, women have genetically more fatty tissue than men and their bodies have a lower percentage of muscle tissue.

Therefore there is no reason why women should hold back in the gym and not push it to the max. On the contrary, it is very important for women wanting greater toning and weight loss to use weights to stimulate muscle growth. This is in essence what drives your body to burn fat and get more shaped. Women can and should also build their bodies and there is a natural physical limit to it, so go for it.

Three great principles developed in America are important for you to remember when it comes to weight lifting. The first is Use IT or Loose It: If you do not keep your muscle power constant it will vanish over time. In other words you have to maintain it. The second is The Specificity Principle: You only get good at the exercises that you actually do. If you train a lot, but very one sided, you may have many weak areas in your body. The third principle is called We Are All Different because your genetical composition plays a part. Even though everyone can build muscles the results and time frame until results show themselves will vary greatly. You might feel stressed if your training partner develops a lot faster than you do, but do not fret; keep it up and the results will come eventually.

As always, you have to make sure your diet is healthy and nutritional as well. Building muscles in combination with a lot of cardio training to loose weight is very tolling on the body. Important also is to get a good night sleep every night, these things are intertwined and none can be negotiated.

Technorati Tags: weight loss, lifting weights, working out, fitness

Loosing hair?

Are you like me; you’ve never thought about hair loss and always had thick, lustrous hair and then all of a sudden you start noticing (or someone very helpful informs you) it is thinning out. At first you start blaming your new shampoo, the humidity or the weather in general before realizing that hair loss is a fact. Goodbye shallow beautiful women, goodbye perfect vacation pictures with the wind in your hair. But you know actually, it’s really not that bad after all. When hair loss sets in for real and you start accepting it there are still some advantages (as long as you accept it and don’t start using the infamous comb-over). No more getting red eyes from shampoos, no more expensive visits to the hair dresser or barber. All you need is a good hair trimmer – do not skimp on this – and your set. Think of Vin Diesel, Bruce Willis and Sean Connery, do they seem to suffer any major setbacks from their hair loss?

Naturally, instead of concealing hair loss, you have always the choice of embracing it. A shaved head will grow stubble in the same manner and at the same rate as a shaved face. In more recent years the general public has become more accepting and forgiving of the shaved head also. It does not mean your have to be a skinhead anymore.

I now will try and simply explain the reasons for hair loss in more medical terms now, perhaps this will help you come to terms with your own baldness when you find it is extremely common and completely natural. There are also many ways of controlling and preventing hair loss to try out.

The most common type of hair loss for male humans is called androgenic alopecia. This is the general type of hair loss with receding hair line in various stages. The bald spot often seen in various shapes and forms is called alopecia areata and the most complete form of hair loss is named alopecia totalis.

The more common type of receding hair line is today highly preventable through the use of various treatments. Results may vary, however, so don’t keep your hopes up too high. Today there are also various ways of cosmetic surgery, the results of which most of the time are almost undetectable.

The psychological effects people experience vary greatly. Some people, like me, adapt to the new situation with ease while some people really start suffering from a combination of anxiety, social phobia, depression, and in some instances a change in self image or identity.

A lot of people suffering hair loss as a result of cancer chemotherapy unfortunately report issues with the way they view their body image. Usually these feelings don’t even return after a successful treatment and the re-growth of hair. Family therapy has been proven to help in such cases.

There are only two treatments for hair loss or baldness in the United States who have been approved by the FDA. These two are called Finasteride and Minoxidil and are used for both men and women. A combination of both is believed to be the most effective treatment for hair loss today not taking into consideration surgery.


Technorati Tags: hair loss, alternative health, thin scalp

Alternative health – the way it works and doesn’t

Means of alternative health have been discussed millions of times over on the internet as well as in real life. A search for alternative health on Google today generates over two hundred and nineteen million results. Not a surprise, however, as there are probably just as many ways to choose from for getting a better level of fitness, weight loss, better eye sight, curing cancer and so on. I cannot even begin to try and cover them all in one article, but I will try and go through a few of them to start with, some of the more talked about ones. Alternative health consists of all the ways of treating ailments with remedies that do not need a subscription from a doctor and are more natural oriented.

One often discussed and rather controversial form of alternative health treatment is called homeopathy. The word stems from the Greek and literally means similar suffering. The idea is to give the patient, who has symptoms of some kind of illness, a small dose of the substance which in larger quantities will make a normal person sick. Sort of like getting an influenza shot, with the big difference that the homeopathic substance is diluted so many times and in such unscientific ways that very little if nothing of the substance is left, thus rendering it useless. The remedy is supposed to remember or have learnt what the diluted substance was like and through shaking increasing the potency. The controversy comes from the scientific and medical fields, as this form of alternative health can in some cases prove to be fatal with illnesses such as malaria. The psychological effects are still being debated though; psychology is not an exact science in itself either.

Another more widely common form of alternative health is by including diet and nutrition as a remedy. Who, by know, hasn’t heard of the famous Atkins diet created by Dr Robert Atkins by now? Millions of people have bought his books and lived on his low-carbohydrate diets. Atkins has become kind of iconic and is believed to be the fuel for the whole general “low-carb” trend. Another fashion within nutrition is phytochemicals. They are the non-nutritive chemicals in certain plants which contain the means of preventing many diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes. More that nine hundred different phytochemicals have been found in food so far, and many more are being found still. The most basic nutrition tip will stand though; eat more vegetables and fruit. When in pill form, the chemicals included will never be as many as in a single serving of vegetables.

It may surprise some that massage therapy is a form of alternative health just because it is so widely used. Other forms of manual healing include chiropractic, osteopathy, aromatherapy and Chinese qigong, Qigong has been used for thousands of years in China and is now used by hospitals and is included in China’s national health plan. Currently there are over three thousand different styles of qigong being practised. The central part of all styles is learning to control your breathing while making various physical moves and stretches.

Technorati Tags: alternative health, atkins, weight loss, quigong