Fitness Routine

Yogurt is a tasty and healthful treat, but not many people realize that it can burn fat and can serve as an excellent weight loss aid. In a study by the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, it was found that women who ate three servings of yogurt each day lost more fat than a similar group who was on a lower calorie diet. The women eating yogurt regularly were actually taking in a higher number of calories and still dropping fat at a higher rate than their counterparts. One of the reasons it burns fat may have to do with it being a good source of calcium. Adequate calcium intake has been associated in studies by the American Dietetic Association with healthy BMI levels and a reduced amount of body fat. It also offers benefits in the form of active cultures that give your body's digestive tract a dose of healthy bacteria. This can not only help to pull more nutrients out of the food you eat but can also increase your resistance to various forms of food...

Champagne is surprisingly low in calories, and it has some amazing health benefits-that’s something you can toast to. In 2007 the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry published a study indicating that bubbly provides a high level of polyphenols, antioxidants that protect the body’s cells from damage and death. It has a health benefit similar to red wine. How much diet damage can it do?: There are 95 calories in a glass of champagne (roughly 4 ounces). There are approximately 570 calories in an entire bottle of champagne (25 ounces). Alcohol can make it harder to lose weight, especially if you don’t use moderation in your drinking. Drinking too heavily in general leads to extra caloric intake, which in turn leads to extra pounds, especially if the pattern repeats itself over an extended period of time. Some studies have suggested that alcohol (even the lowest calorie alcohol) slows your body’s ability to burn fat. Maybe the biggest issue with trying to com...

A sprained or broken toe is an injury that can easily sideline an athlete or postpone an exerciser’s commitment to a regular workout routine. The pain can radiate from that one single toe through the entire foot, and even spread up into your leg if the sprain or break is severe enough. Because you don’t want a toe getting in the way of your workouts or fitness goals, it is important to grant this injury the attention and TLC it deserves to heal. Unfortunately, it’s also an injury that often just needs time and proper care to get back to normal; doctors will usually just send you home with instructions to rest and commit to the subsequent care plan; here’s how to treat a sprained toe. Ice your injury. As soon as you’ve injured your toe, start a routine of applying ice. For the best treatment, minimize swelling and discomfort by icing the toe at least 4 times throughout the day, for increments of 15 minutes. Put your feet up. Elevating your foot will immedi...

Water retention can make you feel bloated, achy and uncomfortable. Weight gain due to condition can be avoided by adopting certain healthy habits and steering clear of a few that are not. How to get rid of water retention Cut out excess salt. One of the biggest causes is a diet with excess sodium. One way to avoid this scenario is to eat a well-balanced diet that is not overloaded with salty foods. Fast foods, processed meats, and “low fat” microwave meals are all loaded with salt and can cause the body to retain fluids. Clean up your diet. Eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, and foods that are not processed can help keep your body in a healthy balance. Include as much fresh food in your diet as you can, and be weary of salt content in packaged and canned foods to keep retention from coming back. Drink more water. Drinking enough fluids can also help you drop extra weight; however, plain old h20 is the only fluid that provides a real benefit in helping you flush o...

Some people steer clear of exercise because they have trouble mustering the motivation, while others avoid it because working out just doesn’t make them feel good; it literally makes them a bit nauseous. Often with nausea during physical activity, there’s something about the routine that just isn’t quite right. Here are some of the most widespread reasons people feel ill during or after a workout, and what can be done to avoid the nausea. 1. Eating too close to your workout. For most people, eating any closer than 2-3 hours before a workout can cause indigestion issues because of the undigested food that you still have in your stomach. Laying on your back with a full stomach can often cause discomfort by itself; when you add in heavy breathing and contracting your core muscles during an exercise, the added pressure can push food and acid back up into your esophagus, causing heartburn and even nausea. 2. Eating too much, or eating food with high fat content. If it...

Fruits and vegetables are essential for a healthy diet, but they can be even more beneficial to wellbeing when their vitamins, phytochemicals, sterols, enzymes, and minerals are in liquid form. With vegetable juicing, the liquid form of ingestion makes the nutritional properties more readily available and accessible for the body’s absorption. Fresh fruit and vegetable juice offers the building blocks necessary to rejuvenate and nourish the cells, improving cell metabolism, and in turn rebuilding the body’s natural defense against chronic fatigue and disease. One of the benefits of juicing is that the vegetables do not need to be broken down any further; all of the enzymes and minerals are readily absorbed into the bloodstream, giving the digestive system a much-deserved rest. Raw fruit and vegetable drinks provide the advantage of unaltered nutrient content; cooked vegetables have a changed chemical composition and are not nearly as nourishing as their unprocessed counterp...

Extra virgin coconut oil (EVCO) has a myriad of health benefits. When eaten, it can help regulate blood sugar, fight heart disease, speed up weight loss, and improve the immune system. Used topically, it can dramatically recover the condition of both skin and hair, preventing wrinkles and making your tresses stronger and shinier. One of the best things about coconut oil benefits is the fact that it eradicates the need for some of the most toxic, potentially harmful and drying “beauty” concoctions out there on the market. Look on the back of any one of your shampoo or conditioner bottles and you will almost without fail find alcohol of some sort or another as one of the main ingredients. How does adding alcohol to a product that is supposed to moisturize hydrate anything? Another common culprit in most beauty products is petroleum- despite being a known carcinogen that potentially causes cancer, it’s in almost everything. Seriously, it’s in almost everything ; t...

With the problem of childhood obesity looming, finding ways to increase our children’s physical activity levels is becoming increasingly important. Even so, lowering our children’s body fat percentages is just one small aspect of the bigger picture. Along with the multitude of health benefits, there are also many inadvertent advantages exercise and physical activity has on learning in the classroom. Exercise and the Brain In a study done by Georgia Health Sciences University, researchers had 11 to 17 year olds who were overweight commit to 20 to 40 minutes of vigorous play everyday such as jump rope, running games, and hula hooping. The activity was done every day after school for three months and the results of their fMRI scans at the end of the test period showed an enhancement in brain activity. The prefrontal cortex increased in activity while an area just behind it showed less activity, which is common for those who are rapidly developing cognitive shills. All of the ...