Sunday, March 30, 2014

Foods For Life

Foods can help us find energy, weight loss, concentration and a host of other aspects of our lives. Energy and concentration seem to slow down as the day goes on. Here are 10 foods to help you maintain your focus when you need it most. We usually become sluggish and tired in the early afternoon.


Foods can help us shed pounds and keep the weight off. Try these foods to keep you from adding weight. Start your weight loss first thing with breakfast. Although I prefer alternatives, if you eat cereal, use the ones that help with weight loss.




Metabolism and lack of energy can be fixed with food. These foods will supercharge your metabolism.


Foods can cure cancer and other diseases. No small claim that comes from using the right foods for what ails you!

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Beating Breast Cancer

A healthy lifestyle that includes exercise, nutrition, sleep and overall wellbeing, can cut half of all breast cancers. The key is to start this lifestyle as early in life as possible. This is great news in the breast cancer fight research.


Education is everything and education about breast cancer is essential in order to defeat it. And men aren't totally immune from this cancer.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Vegan Diet

Vegetarian and Vegan diets have been long tooting their own horns about the total health benefits of eliminating anything animal from your diet-or as I call it, your nutritional program!






Having a meatless diet does have its benefits. Still one should educate themselves before switching to a total vegan diet. There are a few things to consider before switching to a vegan diet.


Although we should strive to eat more fruits and veggies, we are still omnivores.


The bottom line is that vegetarian and vegan diets are beneficial for health. They do help in both the losing and maintaining of a healthy weight. Iron, B12, and protein are the toughest daily nutritional needs to get on a vegan diet, but they are not impossible.


If vegan and vegetarian diets work for you, then by all means continue. I still believe as omnivores we need meat in our diet, even if it is limited to a couple of times a week.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Health Notes

Regardless what the findings have yet to determine, I believe e-cigs will eventually be proven to be unhealthy. For now, the best argument against them is that they influence young people to smoke. Well if you use e-cigarettes because they are healthier than cigarettes, strike one comes if you use the Nicotine E-Liquids with your smokes.



To live long and prosper it may depend on your personality. Do you have what it takes? Then it is never too late to start and at least add years to your life.




Spice Power is a potent way lose weight, fight dementia, become smarter and happier without drugs. Spices have been underestimated in their potential benefits to our overall health.




There are too many fitness myths floating around out there. I have been a fanatic that at one time was going to the gym 5 days a week. Your body needs rest and recovery time to recuperate and rebuild itself.


Speaking of gyms, I have a personal observation that I see at the gym. As I get on my soapbox to ramble about fitness priorities with the use of common sense, I hope I will inspire people to get their fitness priorities straight!


The problem involves men more than women. But, ladies, lets not look away if it applies. I see too many people that should be working on their weight, but instead lift weights to build muscle around the fat that is crushing their organs. Get it?


One's overall health relies on their waste sizes. From Dr. Oz: A waist size over 35 inches in women and over 40 inches in men greatly increases the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and more.  If this applies to you FORGET THE MUSCLES and work on YOUR BELLY! So start with slimming exercises, fat burning exercises, toning exercises, and finally see if you can pass these three fitness tests.


I have found that most of my health problems could have been cured by the foods I eat! Imagine if you can get natural energy.





Monday, March 24, 2014

That's Life!

When we are young we see ourselves as indestructible. We know it all by the age of 18. We really have no perception of what the future holds and come to the conclusion that we will not see old age. I'm talking about my generation which still holds true in today's world.




Nowadays you hear how people are healthier at 30 than they were at 20, and healthier at 40 than they were at 30, and healthier at 50 than at 40, and you get the picture. My question would be when did you find your "real" fountain of youth? When did you wake up to the fact that you can live a better life with a healthier lifestyle if you just change your ways?




That time is when your body started healing itself!




The real thing you can't change about your life is heredity. What you inherited from your parents, grandparents and so on, that you have no control over. Diseases, longevity, addictions, are a few that come to mind. I, for example, being from the Mediterranean region, have inherited thalassemia. The sad part is that my doctor didn't find this until my late 40s and I had it all my life. This may be a future topic!




So yes, I am healthier today than I was 10 years ago and I have overcome some major obstacles that have set the path for my overall health. I quit smoking, started eating better and getting into shape, and I've also maintained my body.


 


There are ways to live healthy and add years to your life. Since you can't really change the heredity part, there are other ways to live long and have good health!



A factor that might not be considered when it comes to all aspects of our lives are our hormones. Some may need a  hormonal reset to start seeing benefits in the whole body.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Prepare For Summer

For those seasonal health fanatics that want to be in shape for the summer, now is the time to start. Although I keep in pretty good shape year round, I can still stand to lose a few extra pounds and exercise more.




The best place to start is by detoxing your body. Detox doesn't have to involve elaborate detox diets to rid toxins from your body. The simple ones are more effective and can help with the overall detox of the entire body.




The next step is to develop an exercise routine that will involve aerobics, strength, endurance and calorie burning. Weight loss is a combination of all of the above!


If you are having a hard time building muscle, maybe you're making one of these mistakes that are slowing down your progress. Come to find out that not all plateaus are created equal. Depending on your fitness goals, you can now breakthrough a fitness plateau.


Although fitness is the priority to getting summer healthy, nutrition plays a role, too. Before going crazy with organic only foods, know the myths. Aside from that summer health, we should prepare for our lifetime through our diet and lifestyle.


As I have been advocating since the beginning, everyone must find a median to suit their lifestyle to become healthy. It must be something they can live with and will stick to and can't only be to get healthy-"er" when it suits us. Summer is coming and we all want to be in great shape and optimal health. When we finally achieve our "ZEN" this will come easy to us year round.



Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Getting The Most From Workouts

I try to talk to the common man in a way they can relate to. I talk to the couch potato, the weekend warrior, the gym fly, the many people from the unhealthiest to the healthiest. I give you a sort of bottom line to health from research, personal experience and the knowledge of my years.


The verb factor of health is exercise. We all need an active verb in our lives because we can not become sedentary or our health takes a nose-dive.


At the very minimum one's activity must include 10000 steps a day which equals approximately 5 miles. Remember people's height and length can vary the distance of their steps. Overall the 10000 steps, whether a giant or a little person, is the minimum you can possibly do for your health.


Regardless of your exercise level, whether you're a beginner or a veteran, you can never know everything about fitness and exercise. Times are a changing" in everything from technology to cooking. You can never know it all and nobody is an island.


At the gym, I would do exercises that I would later find were ineffective and possibly dangerous, especially on machines. I wrote about these before in this blog, and today I am still being enlightened.


Here are ways to get the most of your workouts.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Protein Power For Workouts

Protein is the building block that shapes, strengthens, and nourishes the muscles of the body. It is used as both a pre and post workout supplement. I consume protein about an hour before I workout and within a half hour after a workout.




Protein can help with weight loss, energy and a be used as a meal substitute. Most people are getting protein through protein bars. We should educate ourselves when it comes to protein bars. Other protein supplements come in the form of protein shakes.




When it comes to working out, protein can also be consumed in food. Food may actually be better than the supplements. It is our bodies' natural fuel that nourishes our bodies naturally.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Return Of A Contagious Disease

Although measles was once practically eradicated, it is making a comeback. The problem seems to be the drop in the people who are receiving the MMR vaccine.  This is mostly due to the anti-vaccine movement. They believe it causes autism which is totally false.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Health Journal 9

Now your healthy nutrition can be put on autopilot at Eat This Much. You just put how many calories you want to consume in how many meals and it will generate a variety of meal ideas. It can also take in account the various 'diets' that are out there.






A new study has found that you increase your cancer risk and shorten your lifespan if you get high animal protein during middle age. In your senior years, the opposite is true.




So how is that Daylight Saving Time/Spring Ahead going for you? It is funny how the hour-ahead time is increasing over time and nobody notices. It is all about time and making society more productive. Don't believe me? A few years back DST went from April to October. Now it's from March to November. Although I may be proven wrong on timelines, we have lost at least 40 hours of sleep per time change. But we are ever changing to suit our needs. Employers look at it like a weeks worth of work, and as warped as that sounds, it is a productivity issue. The only advantage of DST is that it stays 'lighter' longer in the evening. Still DST is a time to approach with caution since workplace injuries rise at this time.


Your weight loss attempts may be getting sabotaged by your coworkers and loved ones. As hard as it is to believe, your friends may be your enemies!

Monday, March 3, 2014

Back To Fitness

I hope you have some idea by now on an exercise routine. Remember to shake things up every two or three months by changing a couple or most of your routine exercises.



An overlooked and neglected but important exercise routine should focus on Core-Strengthening. This is a must as you get older because it can strengthen muscles in the core which can result in better flexibility. My favorite core exercise involves the use of kettlebells.




Women's training style can be the same as men's without becoming as muscular as a man. There are after all myths about women and strength training. There are good reasons why women should lift weights. Like any exercise routine, we each must find what works for our individual need.


So what is the king of all exercises? The Deadlift may very well be the best exercise for the overall body. The key is to do it right!




I would spend a half-hour in the gym at the most. Now I have upped it to 45 minutes to an hour. The reason is that I am doing my sets and routines slower and maybe I'm onto something. There still are effective 15-minute workouts. It would be a 5-minute workout for me in the earlier days!


We should learn the basic difference between exercise and physical activity. Each one contributes to one's overall physical fitness.







Sunday, March 2, 2014

To Be OR Not To Be

You think you're doing the right thing and you see the results. Suddenly what you were told was the right thing arrives with a few flaws. How many studies have said that coffee is bad? Then came that coffee was good, then bad, then good, then bad, and so on.


When I switched from white bread to whole wheat, I began to feel better and even began to lose weight. Now they say that wheat, even whole wheat, isn't as healthy as first thought. And the controversy goes on.


My point is that what you may have been told about the benefits of foods may be debunked in the future. I say that if it works, keep doing it.


Having said that, we have come to another controversy because fish oil isn't as heart and brain healthy as first thought. This applies especially to the supplements.


The real key to healthy nutrition comes in the final paragraph:


Says Tufts’ Lichtenstein, “The important point to focus on is it’s the whole diet and not just one component that can be put in a pill. I think current guidance to consume at least two fish meals per week, with the exception of battered and fried fish fillets, is still the best advice we can give people.”


It is the overall nutrition that will lead to a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

The Silent Killer

Hypertension or high blood pressure is often referred to the silent killer since there are no real symptoms. It affects 1 in 4 people and unless treated, can lead to a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and even death.








Anyone who needs to control their blood pressure may be given medication, but they should also develop healthy habits. They should also find alternatives to sodium.



A good healthy nutrition plan to control hypertension is the DASH Diet.




More on high blood pressure can be found here.