Tag: Advice

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Weight-Loss Mistakes That Could Make You Pile On The Pounds

weight-loss, mistakes, weight-loss mistakes, diet, food

Losing weight is easy, right? You just need to start increasing the number of workouts you do each day and start eating a bit less. That’s it, isn’t it? Well, in actual fact, it might not be as simple as that. There are a lot of mistakes that some people make without even realizing it, and these mistakes could lead to them actually adding on a few extra pounds. Depending on the mistake, that extra weight gain could even occur if you have increased your workouts and decreased your food intake.

Thankfully, it can be very easy to spot these mistakes and make the necessary changes to your lifestyle that are needed to get in better shape. Here are some of the most common mistakes when trying to lose weight – make sure you don’t make them yourself!

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Doing Too Much Cardio

There are lots of people out there who believe that doing a lot of cardio workouts is the key to losing weight. True, the more you sweat and get out of breath, then the more calories you will be burning. However, just sticking to cardio isn’t good enough, as your body will become used to it, and it won’t be quite as effective as you would have hoped. So, it’s important to know how much cardio to lose weight is necessary. Generally speaking, two to three sessions should be enough. However, you need to make sure that you are also doing at least two strength sessions each week as well. Strength training is another effective way for your body to burn calories, and can also turn all that fat into muscle.

🎶 #HIIT me with your best Cardio🎶 I’m throwing in some light hand weights for this cardio blasting session 💦💦💦 All of these exercises can be done on the floor if you don’t have a step bench accessible. 👹Do not break between the 2 exercises in the circuits . ————- Circuit 1: burpees - 30 secs Squat jumps- 15 secs - - Circuit 2: side lunges - 30 secs Steps ups and down - 15 secs - - Circuit 3: travelling skiers - 30 secs Toe taps - 15 secs ————- Perform as many rounds as possible! Have fun!😅 👆🏻note: do you have a good eye for detail? Noticing anything different in a couple of the videos? Write your observation in the comments below 😊 . . . #hiitworkout #hiittraining #hiitcardio #exercise #fitspiration #fitnessjourney #fitness #homeexercises #cardio #momstrong #runnersofig #momswholift #fitnessworkout #fullbodyworkout #functionalfitness #strongwomen #igfitness #workoutideas #gains #homeworkouts_4u #cindyyufitness #fitmomsofig @workoutvideos__ @home_workouts_dailyx @home.exercises @hiitmax @gym_videos @gymresident @gununegzersizi

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Not Eating Enough Calories

If you ask anyone about what you need to do to lose any excess weight, I’m sure that they will tell you that it’s necessary to reduce the number of calories you eat every day. This is true to some extent, but you shouldn’t follow a too restrictive diet, or else you could actually find that your body stops burning off any fat. That’s because not eating enough calories will drastically slow down the metabolism and will also lead to muscle loss.

food, cooking, diet

Image credit: Pexels

Opting For Diet Foods

These days there are a lot of “diet foods” that say they have zero calories or fat in them. These may look very tempting when you are doing your grocery shopping in the supermarket as you will still be able to eat some of your favorite treats and not feel guilty about it. However, these foods are often highly processed, which isn’t good for the body. As well as that, all the highly calorific sugars are often replaced with chemicals and additives that are harmful for the body in various ways. Ideally, it’s best to stay away from these foods and stick to natural unprocessed foods that have the complete range of nutrients that your body needs.

Overestimating How Many Calories You Burn

When you come away from a very productive workout session, you will no doubt feel very out of breath and sweaty. They’re both signs that you worked super hard! And that means that you will have burned off a whole bunch of calories, right? Well, unfortunately, it can be very easy to overestimate just how many calories exercising actually does burn off. As a result, lots of people end up thinking that they burned off more than they did, and they don’t alter their diet accordingly. Generally speaking, most hard thirty-minute workout sessions will burn off between 200-300 calories. So don’t make the mistake of thinking that you burned off 800 and go away to treat yourself to a big meal!

weight-loss, mistakes, weight-loss mistakes, diet, food

Image credit: Pexels

Forgetting To Eat Enough Fiber

People know that it’s important to eat a good mix of both whole-grain carbohydrates and protein so that their body has all the necessary nutrients for energy and to aid recovery. However, you also need plenty of fiber in your diet as well, and this is something that many people often forget about. A diet rich in soluble fiber can actually help you feel a lot less hungry through the day as it reduces the appetite. So, you will find that you are less likely to overeat. Not only that, though, but lots of fiber in the diet can actually reduce the amount of calories that are absorbed by the body. So that means that you won’t be taking in as many calories, even if you are following a calorific diet!

Hopefully, you no longer make these weight-loss mistakes!

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Build healthy habits with Evernote

Nowadays, there is pretty much an app for everything you imagine.   Visit Google Play Store and then tell me if I´m wrong. But more doesn´t mean better, and a different app for tracking each one of our habits may result overwhelming or counterproductive.
Instead, using a single and versatile app, like Evernote to track your habits may be the right solution in many cases.
As you know (or should know), Evernote is a note-taking app. A digital diary, in a few words. You can use it as your journal, day planner, to keep things that inspire you (like articles, images and social media post) by using Web Clipper, as your to-do list or done list, to take class notes and help you with your homework, plan your travels or your wedding, write a novel, record meetings, save business cards and, as you have seen on this blog, record your workouts or keep your recipes collection.
Keeping everything organizing in the same place saves you lots o time and help you to be more productive. And when it comes to building a new habit the last thing you want is the need to get used to a new app because it doubles your work.
As each note is a blank canvas, you can create whatever you need. That´s why Evernote is great to build new healthy habits or get rid of unhealthy ones.
Let´s not forget that to make sure your goals are clear and reachable, each one should be:
Specific (simple, sensible, significant).
Measurable (meaningful, motivating).
Achievable (agreed, attainable).
Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based).
Time-bound (time-based, time-limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive).
For instance, the healthy habit #1 is drinking more water. You can easily keep track of your daily water intake with Evernote. How?
1 – Create a new notebook (Click on File -> New notebook) and name it My water intake. Click OK.
2 – Click on your new notebook and create a New Note (Ctrl + N) and name it Water intake. You will use this note as a template and this will save you a lot of time.water intake 1
Let´s say you don´t drink any water at all and you plan to drink 6 glasses of water every day. That´s a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound goal.
3 – Type numbers from 1 to 6 and then add a checkbox next to each number (Ctrl + Shift + C). Why would you put checkboxes? To mark them every time you drink a glass of water. This ensures you don’t miss a single one.water intake 2
4 – Duplicate this template as many times as you need (Right-click on the note -> Duplicate Note). water intake 3
I recommend you to rename each duplicated note with the date and keep the first one as your template. It will take you seconds to create and rename the notes you will use in a week.
water intake 4
Let´s go a step further and suppose you drink too many sodas or beers and you want to reduce the consumption of these drinks by replacing them with water.
Using the same notes, you can keep track of what you drink every day and be conscious if you´re going in the right direction.
Just repeat the step 3 for sodas and beers and voilá! You will be able to easily check the days you did right, the days you did wrong (and also write your comments/excuses why those days didn´t go well), and keep yourself accountable and focused on your goals.
water intake 5
Access your water intake notes on your mobile device by adding a shortcut. An icon will appear on the main screen of your device making your notes just a tap away.
With your note open on your phone or tablet, tap on the menu button (the column of three squares) and then select Create Shortcut.
water intake 6
Your shortcut will appear on the main screen of your mobile device.
water intake 7
You now have a completed and easily accessible habit tracker! Any updates made to a note are synced across all devices once saved.

These guys could help you in so many ways:

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Fitness advice: Propioception, your first fitness goal

Once you start exercising, your first goal should be to improve your

Proprioception

From Latin proprius, meaning “one’s own”, “individual”, and capio, capere, to take or grasp, is the sense of the relative position of one’s own parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement. Proprioception, simply put, means “sense of self”. Proprioception is the capacity of the body to determine where all of its parts are positioned at any given time, and it plays an important role in the world of sports.
The International Association for Dance Medicine defines proprioception metaphorically as the sixth sense, extending the classical five senses to include the body. This body sense is more than just a feeling of movement. It is intimately tied to our feeling of muscle tone, perception of effort and, most importantly, our perception of balance.
A professional athlete has a high degree of proprioception awareness, just watch this:

While one’s proprioception may not mirror a professional athlete’s, working on your proprioceptive skills will make a difference in your day-to-day activities. There are a number of exercises to train your proprioception.

Balancing Exercises

Good exercises for proprioception development would be activities that challenge balance and equilibrium. Balance exercises help your body and brain to control the position. You can improve proprioception using a balance board, a Swiss ball, a Bosu or/and a medicine ball.

Strengthening Exercises

As you build strength in the muscles, the brain begins to understand the request of this strength more and more. As strength builds, it helps improve proprioception awareness with the mind and body and also allows you to continue/hold a movement or action longer in proper form.

Exercises While Closing the Eyes

You can gain the ability to inform and trust your muscles to perform different exercises with the eyes closed. This enhances the communication between the brain and the muscles so that you are able to perform activities properly without watching the movement take place.

Plyometric Movements and Drills

Exercise involving coordination and movement patterns enhance the kinesthetic awareness. Vertical jumps, running figure-eight patterns, change of direction drills and crossover walking help to establish the connection between muscles and nerves. As you are asking the body to perform certain movements, it trains the brain to respond to these movements.
It is always important to seek expert training support whenever possible. Work with a fitness professional or physical therapist with these types of exercises as they will be able to individualize a program for your specific needs, whether elderly wanting to gain a better sense of balance and basic day-to-day functions or an athlete wanting to enhance performance and prevent injuries.
Do you need help to achieve your fitness goals? I still have some available spots.
Do you think any of your friends should read this? Please, share on your favorite social network.
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Reblog: Ways to Support Your Favourite Bloggers Without Spending a Cent — lifexperimentblog

Greetings all 🙂 Today I would like to discuss a topic that I know has occurred to many of us, at one point or another. It’s actually something I’ve been wondering about myself for quite awhile. You see, I’ve come to realize that, although I don’t have the disposable income to purchase through affiliate links, […]

a través de Ways to Support Your Favourite Bloggers Without Spending a Cent. Please Share! #bloggers — lifexperimentblog

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My top tips to inspire happiness w/ The all of it blog

Hello!

Today I´m very excited about this post. This is my first collaboration post, ever! I´m collaborating with my friend Sareena, the awesome blogger behind The all of it blog. Fortunately, she has more experience than me in this sort of post, and working with her was an absolute pleasure.

She showed up with a lot of topics and we choose happiness. Happiness is a familiar topic for me, not because I am a very happy person, but because I studied philosophy. Back in the day, I decided to study philosophy because I needed to understand what it is needed to be happy. Happiness is a fundamental concept in philosophy and I already had to write about it for several teachers. I never imagined that I would write about happiness again. I really enjoyed writing this post, revisiting old Greek authors, old pieces of advice, realizing which ones worked for me… A million thanks, Sareena!

In philosophy, happiness translates the Greek concept of eudaimonia, and refers to the good life, or flourishing. Aristotle stated that the happy life is the good life, that is, a life in which a person fulfills human nature in an excellent way. Since man is a rational animal, human happiness depends on the exercise of his reason. Happiness is not pleasure, nor is it virtue. It is the exercise of virtue. Happiness depends on acquiring a moral character, where one displays the virtues of courage, generosity, justice, friendship, and citizenship in one’s life. These virtues involve striking a balance or “Mean” between an excess and a deficiency.

From Tales to Adorno, all philosophers have reflected on happiness and good life, so we have a wide variety of opinions on what´s happiness and how to be happy. Exploring philosophical, cultural and historical variation in concepts of happiness is the best way to realize that happiness is a fuzzy concept.

Psychology reduces happiness to a mental or emotional state of well-being which can be defined by, among others, positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Since the 1960s, happiness research has been conducted in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including gerontology, social psychology, clinical and medical research and happiness economics. In my opinion, it´s pretty interesting how science tries to probe and translate to cold scientific language things that philosophers and poets said thousands of years ago.

“The physician heals, Nature makes well” Aristotle

Spend time outdoors. Recent studies show we spend too much time enclosed in buildings and vehicles. Up to 90% of the time, we´re inside.  This is not just unhealthy but unnatural.

By definition, a jail is a place for the confinement of people accused or convicted of a crime. If you haven´t committed a crime, why do you confine yourself? How are you going to be happy if you´re punishing yourself by locking yourself? Happiness is outdoors!

Go outside and enjoy nature, earth and sky, lakes and rivers, beach and mountain. Time outdoors will improve your mood, self-esteem, creativity as well as your vitamin D levels. Also, many studies have found that regular exposure to nature helps to reduce mental fatigue and relieve stress reducing cortisol levels.

Make being outside a ritual, try gardening, find a trail, go to a local park or just sit outside quietly and appreciate the natural beauty around you! Notice the scents, sights, and sounds as you sit quietly and focus on the moment.

“A healthy mind in a healthy body” Juvenal

Exercise. Science can´t explain how it works yet, but exercise brings feelings of euphoria and general well-being. Endorphins, Serotonin, Norepinephrine, it´s not clear what causes these feelings.

A recent research shows that while many people started an exercise program to lose weight and improve their appearance, they continued to exercise because of the benefits to their well-being. Physical activity is an elixir of life, not a punishment for bad numbers on the scale. Give yourself 30 minutes a day to take care of your body, and you´ll see awesome improvements in your mood.

“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best” Epictetus

Enjoy time with friends. There is no better way to spend our time in this world than doing activities that we like with people we like. Recent studies about friendship and happiness have found:

  1. Friendship is the single most important factor in determining a person’s happiness.
  2. Those who considered friendship very important were more satisfied in every category from their health, their personal achievements, their safety, their relationships and their lives as a whole.
  3. For married people, their level of happiness is significantly dependent upon the intensity of their friendships.
  4. Single people who think of themselves as being extremely happy and who believe friends are important are happier than married people who do not think friends are very important.

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything” Plato

Not just music, but arts in general. Make more art. In 2010, researchers analyzed more than 100 studies about the impact of art on your health and your ability to heal yourself and published the results in the American Journal of Public Health.

From five visual arts studies mentioned in that review (visual arts includes things like painting, drawing, photography, pottery, and textiles), the researchers described the impact that visual art activities had on the patients:

  1. Art filled occupational voids, distracted thoughts of illness.
  2. Improved well–being by decreasing negative emotions and increasing positive ones.
  3. Improved medical outcomes, trends toward reduced depression.
  4. Reductions in stress and anxiety; increases in positive emotions.
  5. Reductions in distress and negative emotions.
  6. Improvements in flow and spontaneity, expression of grief, positive identity, and social networks.

The impact of art, music, and writing can be seen in your physical body as well. In fact, this study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine used writing as a treatment for HIV patients found that writing resulted in “improvements of CD4+ lymphocyte counts.” In other words, writing actually impacted the cells and improved their immune system.Build something. Share something. Craft something. Make more art. Your health and happiness will improve!

Build something. Share something. Craft something. Make more art. Your health and happiness will improve!

“The happy man is the one who has a healthy body, a wealthy soul and a well educated nature” Thales

For many, formal education ends after secondary school or university. Of course, adults learn things outside of formal education such as how to manage their finances and make a success of their personal lives. Many will learn new skills in the workplace, and some do courses as part of their professional development. Continuing to learn well into adulthood is beneficial to health and happiness. Never stop learning!

These are my tips for you: enjoy time outdoors, with friends, take care of your body, express your creativity, and never stop learning. What are Sareena’s?

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Are you moving enough?

I work all day, running around on errands. What are the simple ways to make sure I am moving enough for the day?

I am honored to have been invited along with other experts to answer this question at The Diabetes Council.

Are you looking for tips that fit your busy schedule? This article is specifically for you.

Experts Share How You Can Keep Moving With A Busy Schedule

 

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New study: Effects of energy drinks

There is a new study on the effects of energy drinks and the conclusion is not good news. Peveler, WW, Sanders, GJ, Marczinski, CA, and Holmer, B. have been published their study to determine the effect of 3 different energy drinks on cardiovascular and performance measures. It is important to recognize the difference between these new products and traditional soft drinks such as coffee, tea, sports drinks (such as Gatorade), sodas, juices, or flavored water.

“Fifteen recreational runners completed 5 trials. The first trial consisted of a graded exercise protocol. The 4 remaining trials consisted of 15-minute economy trials at a treadmill. An hour before subjects ingested 1 of the 3 energy drinks or a placebo. HR, BP, VO2, and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were recorded during the 15-minute trial.

Fifteen-minute systolic BP readings were significantly lower in the placebo trials in relation to the 3 energy drink trials.

  • There were no significant differences in diastolic BP and HR.
  • There were no significant differences found in VO2 or RPE measures.
  • The findings show no performance benefits under the conditions of this study.
  • However, there does appear to be a significant increase in systolic BP.”

Translated, performance is not a reason to drink energy drinks. Caffeine and taurine will not enhance your performance. Your heart will beat faster and this may induce you to think you´re performing better. False impression.

Actually, if you take a look at a previous study (John P. Higgins, Santi Yarlagadda, and Benjamin Yang. Cardiovascular Complications of Energy Drinks), there is no reason at all to drink these beverages. This study concludes that energy drinks are “associated with complications not only patients with underlying cardiovascular conditions but also in young people.”

It would be a disaster if doing sports, trying to perform better, you get serious health issues because of a bad choice. Choose traditional: water, juices, sports drinks, and enjoy the process of a healthy living.