Jun
30
Bye-Bye, Dry! (Bath Remedies For Flakey Skin)
Filed Under Healthy Living, Skin Care | Leave a Comment
Those living in a cold and cruel clime would have to agree with me that, no matter how many months of winter one can get used to all their lives, dry skin is still something one would want to scratch out of the list for a Winter Wonderland experience. With Jack Frost nipping at your nose and elsewhere, frost bite is just the tip of the iceberg (pun unintended) for skin-conscious folks. So, short of moving to Florida or elsewhere with a friendlier tropical weather, what can one do to keep dry skin at bay? Read on for DIY tips while taking a bath.
First, you should disabuse yourself of the notion that baths in the winter time ought to involve hot water. Lukewarm water is better, and soaking yourself for about fifteen minutes ought to do it nicely. Immerse yourself longer, and you’ll end up looking like a real prune–all wrinkly and with a not so nice blotchy colored skin. Afterwards, moisturize yourself to retain the water from the bath. Here’s a tip to lock in the moisture faster: towel dry but keep skin damp, and then apply moisturizer or body lotion. This ensures water entrapment better than if you totally dry yourself off.
While we’re on the subject of bathing, remember that a lot of soaps contain lye. It’s what makes soaps cleansing ingredients, and in humid weather, what makes your skin feel refreshed. But this very ingredient can be the bane to already dry, flakey skin. The best bet for winter bathing would be liquid soaps, or those with superfatty substances like cocoa butter, cream, lanolin, or coconut oil. Nix the super-clean, shower-fresh feeling for the meantime. Your skin will thank you for it come the chilliest nights of the year.
And those things that you eat that are proven nutritious for you inside will also prove the same on your outer covering…try oats in the bath. Oatmeal has been around for thousands of years, and no, they weren’t packaged in tins before, either. It was used primarily to soothe skin almost 4,000 years ago, and the wonderful thing is, you can still get the same benefits today in your own tub. Simply pour 2 cups of colloidal (meaning ground to fine powder) oatmeal in your tub of lukewarm water, and then immerse yourself in it. This would be the wet equivalent of cornstarch powder soothing summer rashes. Plus, you can use oatmeal as a loofah substitute. Just tie some colloidal oatmeal in a small hanky, dip it in water, squeeze out the excess, and then use as a washcloth all over your body. Aaaaaah!
Jun
27
Glow Up! (Healthy Food For Great Skin)
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Here’s excellent news for those who just can’t do without their breakfast cereal in the morning—you’re going the right route to ensure that your skin is getting the best nutrition! At least 3 ounces of cereal, along with rice, crackers, pasta, or wholewheat bread, are part of the food pyramid approved by the USDA Food Guide for a balanced diet. You’ll be getting your recommended vitamins and minerals, plus all the antioxidants that come with them, to protect your skin from things like sun damage and free radicals.
Said antioxidants can also be found in many fruits and vegetables, specifically the dark green and orange ones. Biotin, a well-known B vitamin, is actually what helps form the basis of skin, hair, and nail cells; and Vitamin A, which helps maintain and repair skin tissues, are both found in fruits and vegetables. If you don’t consume these on a regular basis, you might notice lacklustre hair or brittle nails or even bad skin. So make sure your fridge is stocked up on the freshest produce to keep you looking and feeling young. Nix the fizzy drinks and the high-fat snacks and the lard-smeared meals. Not only can they worsen certain skin problems, but they can also wreak havoc on your weight-loss plan!
Another sure-fire way to keep aging at bay is to drink, drink, drink.
Not alcohol, but water!
Water keeps the skin hydrated, while alcoholic beverages dehydrate you big time (anyone who’s ever had a hangover and felt that their brain was as dry as a fossilized sponge would agree with me).
Jun
24
Although an unorthodox way to lose weight at best, ballet is actually a very good example of resistance training. This is because a ballet dancer uses his or her own weight with every move on the barre or floor, or even during “airborne” moments. So if you’re considering an out-of-the-box way to get sinewy and graceful, and shed pounds at the same time, consider taking up ballet. Yes, even as an adult!
If you think your current weight is ideal for your height, then ballet is best to maintain that weight. Studies show that ballet dancers who dance and do barre exercises for roughly ninety minutes lose over 350 calories. Everything involved in a ballet class, from using your pointe shoes to stand on your tippy-toes, to doing a pirouette, to a plie, and just about everything in-between, is a great example of resistance training. So the next time you see a seemingly sylph-like ballet dancer doing those moves as if effortlessly….think again! It takes the strength of an industrious dock worker to make everything look seamless.
Also, the secret to those long, lithe, lissome bodies underneath the leotards and tights is a disciplined and balanced diet consisting of (yes) carbs, fat, protein, vitamins, and minerals. Fatty foods should be avoided before a session on the dance floor because you may get indigestion problems (not a flattering thing to have when you’re bent over and a partner is planning to lift you in the air…well, you get my drift). Carbs and protein are vital to obtaining glycogen, the stored glucose in a human body that translates into energy during exercise. An excess of such, of course, turns into fat. So moderation is always the key.
Now, back to ballet. Even if you’re in your late twenties or early thirties or any other “‘ties” for that matter, there are adult ballet classes you can enroll in. Beginners classes are encouraged for those without an iota of ballet experience, and a lot of dance schools offer a tailor-made program for certain age groups and fitness levels. Barre work comes after you learn the basic ballet steps, and this is where your serious toning up and flexibilty may occur. I say “may” because an hour of regular ballet classes usually spells turned out legs and strengthened arms and a torso, but everything may go to seed if you don’t warm up and do your ballet stretches regularly. As mentioned above, it’s discipline, discipline, and discipline all the way.
If you keep at it and make ballet a part of your daily habit (not necessarily in a dance studio, mind), you can fully expect great posture and grace, as well as a unique cardiovascular fitness scheme to cherish and be proud of.
Jun
12
So.
Does your arm wiggle long after you’ve stopped waving goodbye to someone? Does the slightest wind make them flap like sails on a boat? Do you have excess flesh in your arms to mold into roughly the same size of a newborn baby?
Flabby arms have become, and pardon my term here—the “butt” of jokes simply because they look so out of place on someone’s body. Even in the most sedentary lifestyles, arms still have their share of workload and must therefore be more toned in comparison to the rest of one’s bod such as, and just to cite randomly here, the legs or abdomen. Everyday we carry things, push doors, lug around bags, exert some effort to our biceps, etc. So a lot of us might find those flabs’ appreance a tad bit unfair.
The answer is embarking on specific toning exercises to really get rid of those fleshy wings. You can either ask your gym instructor to focus on strengthening and toning your arms, or you can do some simple exercises yourself at home if you don’t have a gym membership. If you find that your triceps need extra work (i.e. the part that wiggles most when you wave your arms), do some push-ups. At the same time, you’ll also be working out your chest and shoulder areas, creating a streamlined look in your whole upper torso. For starters, you can go easy and do wall push-ups by placing your hands on a wall and pushing your upper body away from it. You can repeat this fifteen times in a set, and do a number of sets you’re initially comfy with. Once you find your strength increasing, you can graduate on to traditional horizontal push-ups on the floor.
Here’s another DIY (do-it-yourself) tip that could work with what you have at home. Get a couple of 32 oz. bottles, fill them up with water, and grasp one each with your hands. With your belly tucked and your back straightened, bend your knees slightly while keeping your elbows close to your sides, and raise and lower the bottles in a smooth pace. Don’t try to do this modified bicep curls routine quickly for fear of muscle injury or stressing your joints.
Or you can always participate in sports that require a lot of arm work, such as tennis, badminton, rowing, or even boxing!
Jun
9
Yes, You Can Eat As Much As You Want! (And Still Lose Weight)
Filed Under fat burning | Leave a Comment
But before you go and raid the fridge, let me warn you now that this is no fad diet. As with all things that should work properly, an ounce of discipline is needed. Otherwise, you can go all out on the eating and chewing if you so choose.
This is called the Scarsdale Medical 14-Day Diet. It allows the dieter to eat as much as he or she likes, unless otherwise indicated. It’s best for those who need to lose weight for a targeted period, such as if you need to attend a special occasion or plan to hit the beach in that new swimsuit. This is because the Scarsdale Diet is basically a low-carb and low-calorie weight loss diet system that is structured to be effective within two weeks.
So here’s the food schedule you can follow if you’re serious about shedding pounds in 14 days’ time:
BREAKFAST EVERY DAY:
One half grapefruit -if not available, use fruits in season. Fresh fruit is always recommended, but if there is none, frozen or canned can be used as long as they are packed in their own juices. NEVER go for those in syrup, not even “lite” syrup or it will defeat the whole purpose of dieting the Scarsdale way.
One slice of protein bread or wheat bread, toasted, no spread or cheese, please.
Coffee or tea (no sugar, cream or milk, no honey)
MONDAY
Lunch:
Assorted cold cuts but should be lean, and with all the fat trimmed off. That means no sausages, bologna, bacon, or salami. Chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish or veggie protein are encouraged substitutes.
Tomatoes - sliced, broiled, or stewed
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
Dinner:
Fish or shellfish, any kind
Combination salad, any greens and vegetables as you wish
One slice protein bread toasted
Grapefruit - if not available, use fruits in season
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
TUESDAY
Lunch:
Fruit salad, any combination of fruits
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
Dinner:
Plenty of broiled, lean hamburger
Tomatoes, lettuce, celery, olives (limit 4), cucumbers
and/or Brussels Sprouts
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
WEDNESDAY
Lunch:
Tuna fish or salmon salad (oil drained off)
with lemon and vinegar dressing
Grapefruit, or melon, or fruit in season
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
Dinner:
Sliced roast lamb (again, can be substituted with lean turkey, chicken, etc.), all visible fat removed
Salad of lettuce,tomatoes,cucumbers,celery
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
THURSDAY
Lunch:
Two eggs, any style (no fat used in cooking)
Low-fat cottage cheese
Zucchini, or string beans, or sliced/stewed tomatoes
One slice of protein bread, toasted
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
Dinner:
Roast, broiled or barbequed chicken (skin and visible fat removed before eating)
Plenty of spinach, green peppers, string beans
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
FRIDAY
Lunch:
Assorted cheese slices (preferably lowfat)
Spinach, all you want
One slice of protein bread, toasted
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
Dinner:
Fish or shellfish
Combination salad (any fresh vegetables desired, raw or cooked)
One slice of protein bread, toasted
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
SATURDAY
Lunch:
Fruit salad, any combination of fruits
[substitute lunch recommended]
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
Dinner:
Roast turkey or chicken
Salad of tomatoes and lettuce
Grapefruit or fruit in season
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
SUNDAY
Lunch:
Cold or hot turkey or chicken
Tomatoes, carrots, cooked cabbage, broccoli or cauliflower
Grapefruit, or fruit in season
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
Dinner:
Plenty of broiled (grilled) steak, all visible fat removed before eating; any cut of steak you wish- sirloin, porterhouse, London broil, etc.
Salad of lettuce, cucumbers, celery, tomatoes (sliced or cooked)
Brussels Sprouts
Coffee/Tea/Diet Soda/Water
Repeat for second week and watch the pounds drop off.
Important things to know about this seemingly rigid diet:
1. Eat until you are satisfied, not stuffed.
2. You can use all the herb, spices, or seasoning you like when cooking, and all the grated onion or parsley you want.
3. Not all veggies are allowed in the Scarsdale Diet. No-nos are corn, peas, potatoes, lentils and beans (except green ones).
4. Snacks between meals are allowed, as long as they are carrots/celery sticks or low sodium veggie broth.
5. Projected calorie intake must not exceed 1000 daily.
Good luck and happy dieting!
Jun
9
Kick Out The Jams: One thing to considering before taking weight loss supplements
Filed Under Healthy Living, weight loss | Leave a Comment
The problem of overweight has taken hold of more than half of the adult contingent in America. Of course, almost all of these people wish to trim off a couple of pounds from their body, but most of them want to skip the difficult part of working out and dieting. Hence, it’s not surprising that they opt to use weight loss supplements as a way of shedding off unnecessary pounds. They want someone else to lose weight for them.
Despite the reliance of people on weight loss pills, nobody can deny that the supplements sell very well. Below are some of the factors that people must look into before taking medication to solve their weight issues.
The main objective why people use weight loss is to look attractive and attain a sense of confidence in their physical appearance. It really does help if a person looks in accordance to what society deems as appealing, so losing weight is advantageous in a psychological sense. They won’t have to deal with the prejudice and bias against being called “fat”.
On the other hand, people lose weight for primarily health reasons. Some of these overweight people are obese and need to lose weight fast. Normally, a strict diet and exercise would do them well, but their conditions caused by their obesity needs them to lose weight as fast as possible. Hence, it is best to intake weight loss supplements in this case.
As mentioned above, weight loss pills are easy to use and are relative effective, which is why they are popular and sell pretty well among overweight people. Even a child can pop one in, no problem, but not that they actually should. However, things get a little bit complicated when dealing with the speed and effectiveness of these supplements.
Everybody knows that losing weight requires them to eat and live healthy by consuming the right food and devoting a couple of minutes exercising. But these people have lived life conducive to gaining weight, which is why they are overweight in the first place. They’re probably sneaking off to the store buying a couple of sodas and munching on some greasy chips when they’re supposed to be dedicating their time cutting their food consumption.
Changing one’s lifestyle for the better may be the most difficult thing when it comes to losing weight. Hence, if you’re not up to the challenge of kicking the old habit and changing it for the better, then even the intake of weight loss supplement won’t help you from trimming a couple of inches off your body.
Jun
9
Throughout these past couple of years, green tea has received resurgence in the modern world as a weight-loss brew. This ancient Japanese drink may be all hype, but let’s look at the facts that make green tea such work in losing weight.
According to extensive study as reported by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, green tea is believed to boost up metabolism by 4% within 24 hours after consumption due to the abundance of catechin polyphenols. These polyphenols not only increase the rate at which calories are burned by the body, but also helps in preventing the absorption of fat and regulating glucose levels in the body. With regard to the glucose regulation, green tea debilitates the movement of blood sugar after a full meal, preventing high levels of insulin (responsible for the promotion of fat storage).
Green tea is also healthy way of keeping you away from unnecessary calories. Scientists have discovered that green tea can reduce appetite, after injecting rats with extracts of green tea and seeing them consume food that is 60% less than their regular intake after a week’s worth of regular infection. The effect may be correlated to how green tea regulates blood sugar. Also, green tea works as a capable alternative to coffee. Everybody drinks coffee in order to get their motors running in the morning, but little do they know about the excess calories that they also intake also drinking their favorite brand of frappuccino and what-not. Hence, you can enjoy the vitalizing effects of coffee without the unnecessary junk by drinking green tea regularly.
The amount of green tea consumption ranges from 3-5 cups per day in order to feel its effects. The great thing about this is that people don’t necessary have to follow a strict plan or visit the gym regularly in order to benefit from its weight-loss effects. Just include the consumption of green tea in your regular activities, just like drinking lots of water. Of course, you are mistaken if you think that green tea is the cure for weight problems. It all has something to do with balancing food consumption, so do not rely solely on the green tea. Still, it definitely makes cutting down on weight much easier.
Jun
9
Save calories in your coffee mocha
Filed Under Daily tipps | 3 Comments
(
you can easily save some calories in your daily morning cup of coffee mocha.
the normal ( venti size mocha ) :
Serving size 20 fl. oz
Calories: 410
Fat Calories : 160
Fat : 17 g
now we take the same amount of coffee and replace 2% milk with non fat and remove the whip cream and we get :
Calories: 280
Calories from Fat : 30
Fat : 3g
huge difference if you ask me. and Honestly i don’t really taste a difference anymore. Enjoy your less calorie mocha or enjoy green tea
for more starbucks nutrition information check their official site http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_beverage_detail.asp and calculate yourself.
Jun
9
Bridget Jones’ Yo-Yo Diet Is A No-No For The Common Jane Or Joe
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It really isn’t fair.
Not only has Renee Zellweger earned an Oscar nomination for her fleshed-out role (pun unintended) of the chick-lit Bridget Jones diary about one British girl with an obsession for crash diets and finding Mr. Right, but she also got the plum role of Roxie Hart in Chicago a year later. Now, we all have to bear in mind that she needed to gain a lot of weight for the Bridget role, something that required, let’s see…at least 30 more pounds and 4 dress sizes up to be credible. Amazing? Hell, yeah. Even sumo wrestlers rarely achieve something in such a short time.
There were rumors flying around like gnats that Renee had to down “buckets of cream cheese”, boxes of donuts, and delivery pizzas. Don’t we all wish we can have something as great as acting to tack our slovenly eating practices to? But really, for the sake of art or not, sudden weight gain is never attractive. And I am not only speaking about the physical aspect of it (though I should, really), but what it does to us internally. This includes yo-yo dieting, or that nasty habit of going on a crash diet but gaining your poundage back after a few weeks, which is actually hazardous. Studies show that yo-yo dieters are at risk of getting gallstones and higher blood pressure. There’s also the possibility of quickly losing HDL cholesterol; the very things needed to prevent heart diesease. So really, the best thing to do after you’ve shed off those pounds with the diet of your choice would be to make sure they don’t come back full force.
Take Renee Zellweger, for instance. Flushed with the success of her Briton chubby singleton character, she needed to lose weight—fast—for her Roxie Hart role. So just imagine all the cholesterol, flabs, cellulite, and all manner of unwanted, unsightly wobbly things still attached to her Bridget Jones persona that needed purging, firming up, shedding, etc. that would eventually result in this:
Sexy, toned, and confident, Renee Zellweger has transformed her lardness to whistlebait sexiness. How did she do it? In an interview, she claims to have gone organic on most of her food choices, and going full hog (again, pun unintended) on the yoga, swimming, and hiking. And remember, she only had a couple of months allowed to do all this, and to be the dancing, singing, sexy villainess she was on Chicago. And while our blonde star has the funds to submit herself to $2500 weight loss regimen at an expensive facility, again, it’s never a good idea to go crash dieting for whatever reason. It’s best to have some discipline by writing down your caloric consumption daily, tallying them per week, and then marking those that exceeded your target calorie intake and eliminating from the diet altogehter. This is especially recommended for those who don’t seem to have the time for regular trips to the gym.
Renee Zellweger has since maintained her healthy and trimmed bod by hiking on a daily basis on the Hollywood Hills and watching the carbs. And she’s refused to take on a third reprisal of her Bridget Jones role, claiming it might “kill her” to gain so much weight again in so little time. Smart girl.
Jun
9
Everybody knows that diet is a part of an effective weight loss program. However, diet is also a bane that actually keeps people from losing unnecessary weight. This is borne from misconceptions regarding dieting, as well as problems inherent in diet programs. Below are four problems with regard to diet programs.
First, a diet program is not a be-all-end-all solution to your weight woes. As mentioned earlier, dieting is simply part of the whole process of losing weight, so relying solely on a diet program to get you in tip-top shape is definitely wrong. Normally, diet methods are accompanied by a fair amount of exercise and workout in order to make the method more effective and efficient. Hence, if your diet program doesn’t come with an exercise plan, then the diet program won’t do you any good in the long run.
Second, diet programs have the risk of backfiring on you, which would also lead you to gain more weight. There are actually a lot of factors that prevent people from being successful in losing weight by following a strict diet program. For one, the demands of a diet program entail the person to cut down on his caloric intake. Once the body has gotten accustomed to the level of calories a person has been consuming, the body begins to stops losing weight. The only way for the body to loss weight is to cut down caloric intake yet again. By continuously doing this, the body will eventually lose muscle which would slow down the actual burning of fat. Simply put, leaning of diet programs to lose weight is not the right way to go.
Third, diet programs could contribute to lowered self-esteem and motivation. The difficulty of maintaining discipline and dedication during a diet regimen is well-documented, and it’s not surprising that most people get off the diet kick as fast as the gain weight from an overnight drinking splurge. Dieting is definitely not for anyone, and people would normally feel incapable of fulfilling their side of the bargain if they can’t keep up with the demands of a particular diet program.
Last, diet programs can actually cause health complications. These programs demand people to eat only a particular food group for a program to be successful. However, once a person limits his food consumption, he is also denying himself of food groups that contain nutrients that the body needs. As an effect, the person will experience a weakened bodily state due to the deficiency in the nutrients and vitamins he receives during the weight program. At the very worst, a diet program can actually cause fatal complications to one’s body.
Now that the truth about diet programs is out, it’s now time to actually look for alternatives on losing weight. A mixture of balanced eating habits and regular exercise is a far better approach than just simply picking out a diet program out of the blue. Therefore, if you want to lose weight without the unnecessary demands and hassles, then a diet program won’t do you any good.