Healthy News

You don’t need to join the gym to get fit. Ok, so you don’t love exercise either so it isn’t just about going to the gym but working out at home can make exercise a bit more bearable. A lot of people would prefer to work out in the privacy of their own home. There are a lot of things you can use at home to help you get fit but not everyone has room for a Bowflex (even though the new Bowflex is smaller) a treadmill or a regular size elliptical machine. Don’t dismay, there are some great portable workout equipment options as well. Check out some portable workout equipment, buy a yoga mat and some resistance bands, plus a stability ball and a rebounder and you can set up a workout space that helps you get fit and toned.

Another idea is to buy some workout DVD’s. Wear a pedometer so that you can see how many steps you’re taking a day. Each step you take is a step closer to a healthier you!

Some people are weight obsessed but in actuality, having a scale in your home is a very good idea. It’s shown that people who weigh themselves on a regular basis are at less of a risk of becoming morbidly obese than those who choose to go the ostrich route (aka putting head in sand) and not get weighed regularly.

Weighing yourself at least weekly can help you stay within five pounds of your goal weight as you’re less likely to binge beyond a specific amount. While many will gain weight over holidays, having a scale can help you get back on track as you are able to track your progress regularly.

Whether you’re on the road to weight loss or in maintenance mode, a scale for your home can be inexpensive and can even be personalized to your specific goals and body mass index.

Fluctuations

Do realise that your weight can fluctuate up to five pounds throughout the day due to factors like hydration, etc and that fitness can be about more than just the number on the scale too.

If you have been struggling with repeat yeast infections you probably want to know what you can do to change your lifestyle and reduce the likelihood of reinfection. Yeast infections are not just a nuisance, they can be hazardous to your help and some studies suggest they can eventually lead to Cancer.

Here are three things you can do to reduce your problems with yeast.
1) Diet
2) Exercise
3) Supplements

Diet: Garbage in, garbage out so reduce refined white foods and sugars. Increase your fruit and vegetable intake and and avoid eating junk food.

Exercise: Exercise increases your body’s oxygen levels and pH level which can naturally keep your good and bad bacteria levels harmonious. Sweat also helps your body rid itself of toxins.

Supplements: You can take things like antibacterial herbs like garlic and oregano as well as probiotic yogurt and prebiotic cheese. Apple Cider Vinegar is also known to help fight yeast infections.

Yeast infections can involve much more above and beyond a vaginal discharge so it’s important for you to learn more about the illness when you suffer from repeated yeast infections which could also be a sign of an underlying health problem with your blood glucose levels or your immune system.

If you want to start exercising but aren’t ready to (or can’t for some reason) join the gym, there are some great things you can do at home to burn calories, increase strength and rev up your metabolism. Here are some things to do:

-Exercise videos or shows. Thirty minutes a day can be a great way to start and there are loads of 30 minute programs on tv that offer exercise like yoga, pilates, aerobics or dancercise.

-Get A Pedometer. Make an effort to set milestones for how many steps to take a day and walk around your neighbourhood. This can help you get flexible and get moving. Many people also do mall walking as well.

-Buy home exercise equipment. A treadmill, a bike, an exercise ball and a trampoline along with steps mentioned above can all contribute to a stronger, healthier, trimmer you!

If you’re interested in reducing your belly, you need to do more than sit ups. Here are several things you can do to take your tummy and shrink it.

-Diet. Eat well. Reduce junk food and increase your overall fruit and vegetable intake
-Yoga and Pilates. Yoga and pilates can do wonders for you in terms of strengthing your core.
-Supplements. A good fish oil supplement can help you reduce cortisol which can deposit around your mid-section
-Cardio can help burn fat. Running and aerobics are great for your health and wellness
-Weight training increases your metabolism and can make a huge difference to your body shape and tone.
-traditional ab exercises. They won’t do it all on their own but crunches and sit ups can definitely define muscle in this region!

We often don’t think about what we eat in terms of math but keeping track of your calories consumed and calories spent can be very helpful in terms of changing your lifestyle. Try tracking for a week and see how you feel. You will probably become very aware of the caloric value of food and the fact that actual serving sizes are a lot smaller than you think.

Websites like fitday.com and others offer free calorie counters where you can input what you’ve eaten and what exercise you’ve done to see if you’re burning the calories you eat. This can be a valuable tool for planning for weight loss as well. For instance, if you plan to eat at a restaurant, you can log your planned meal ahead of time if you know what you plan to order. This can help you stay on track or realise you might have to spend an extra thirty minutes on the treadmill tomorrow.

Food journaling can also help you nutritionally. You can see whether you’re getting recommended values of particular vitamins and minerals as well as see what your fat to protein and carb ratio is. Holding yourself accountable by actually acknowledging what you eat is a huge step in automatically eating better and being more health conscious.

I have written recently about the problem with trying to eat fast food when dieting . It’s harder to change your lifestyle habits when you eat junk food because it inherently creates the craving for MORE junk food.

Planning = Success in Dieting

But, some careful planning can be helpful and help you get away with it once in a while. Today, most fast food chains have websites with their nutritional information. Some restaurants even have complex tools to help you calculate your meal and plan. If you know you’ll be going to a restaurant for a meal, it’s wise to check their website first. By looking at their menu and planning ahead of time you can decide what you’re going to eat. This works out much better than toiling over the menu when you have a waiter standing over you who doesn’t really know if the alfredo sauce is made with cream or milk or how many calories are in the salad dressing.

Even a trip to a coffee shop like Tim Horton’s can be planned. They have a nifty Tim Horton’s nutrition and calorie calculator that can help you plan your whole meal ahead of time.

If you want to improve your health and your diet, a quick and easy way to do it is to reduce the amount of white foods you eat.

Take out white bread, white pasta and white rice and remove as much of the sugar from your diet as you can.

Try some more brown foods and get some more colour on your plate from fruits and vegetables. Enough with the white and beige diet! Colour is equal to fiber, to vitamins and minerals.

Trade:

-White bread for whole wheat, pumpernickel or multigrain

-Trade white rice for brown rice

-Read labels and opt for foods that don’t have more than five ingredients on the list and make sure one of those five ingredients is not sugar, glucose, fructose or corn syrup.

White, bleached foods can not only cause you weight gain but can also create unhealthy cravings as well as cause yeast overgrown in your body. The switch may seem challenging at first but it won’t be long until you prefer whole wheat’s nutty flavor or stop missing all that sugar in your coffee. Have a healthy day!

The new Special K challenge is advertised on television telling you to exercise and add cereal to your diet in order to get healthy and lose some weight. You don’t have to eat just Special K during this challenge but it is a very low cal cereal and the new varieties have enough sweetness that it doesn’t feel like you’re depriving yourself of a bit of a treat. It is now available in several flavours plus you can purchase cereal bars as well in order to satisfy you between meals.

A 1500 calorie per day diet for a few weeks can definitely help you lose some weight. If you’re sedentary today, you can start the exercise bit off slowly with walking, with rebounding, low impact aerobics or walking on the treadmill.

Here’s a sample diet:

-cereal with milk and fruit for two meals

-1 healthy regular meal each day with reassonable portions

-2 x 100 calorie snacks during the day

*as much fruit and vegetables as you want.

Tip: If you’re worried about buying a gym membership and not using it, consider buying passes to let you try the gym out several times. Gyms have sales people looking to pitch you and many gyms have locked in memberships and loads of fine print which could cost you money whether or not you use the facilities for a long time (up to a year) so consider shopping around for a good gym by visiting at least two or three before making a choice.

Our pH level can tell us a lot about our health. If your body is too acidic with a pH of below 6.5 you can be more prone to illness and disease. If your body is above 7.5 there could be a problem as well. The ideal levels fall between 7.0 and 7.5 and this suggests your body is slightly alkaline which is the optimal health condition..

How do you test your pH?

You can have your pH tested at a doctor’s office or with a natural health practitioner but you can also buy pH paper and test at home either with saliva or with a urine test.

How do you improve your body’s pH?

If you don’t like the numbers you see, there are several things that can help, namely:

·        Exercise

·        Diet

Increase your alkaline food intake and remove your acidic foods plus exercise regularly to increase the oxygen in your body.

Here is a list of some alkaline foods and acidic foods that fall high on the list of being very acidic or very alkalizing:

Acidic

Beer, bread, artificial sweeteners, sugar, white flour, soft drinks, tobacco, pasta

Alkaline

Lemons, watermelon, cantaloupe, figs, grapes, asparagus, parsley

Apple cider vinegar and bee pollen are often recommended to those looking to achieve a better pH as well.

You can find very detailed lists of alkaline foods online to help you make wise food choices to support your body’s pH.