Focus on Flexibility
In addition to aerobic exercise and strength training, a well-rounded fitness routine will include stretching. Stretching regularly helps increase flexibility, improve your range of motion, and relieve stress. Find out how to get the most from your stretches while avoiding injuries. Six Tips for Proper Stretching Target major muscle groups. It's important to give your whole body a good stretch on a regular basis. Include stretches for your calves, thighs, hips, lower back, neck, and shoulders, as well as the muscles and joints that you use most often (for example, stretch your arms and wrists regularly if you type at a computer ...
Emotional Eating and Weight Gain
For many people, emotional eating is at the root of their inability to lose weight. Emotional eaters, or people who turn to food to deal with emotions, tend to take in far more calories than they need because they're using their emotions, rather than their body's natural hunger, as their guide. Emotional eaters also tend to reach for foods that are high in fat, sugars and calories instead of healthier alternatives. How can you stop emotional eating and the resulting weight gain? Identify Why You Eat The first step to solving a problem is to clearly identify it. Keep a food journal ...
Balancing Your Exercise Routine
Getting regular exercise is an important part of any weight loss plan. As you begin to ease into a new fitness regimen, there are five different types of exercise that you'll want to include in a balanced routine: aerobic exercise, strength training, stretching, core exercise, and balance training. Aerobic Exercise Aerobic exercise is often referred to as a cardio workout or endurance activity. The goal of aerobic activity is to get you breathing faster and more deeply, which boosts the oxygen levels in your blood. A good cardio routine will get your heart, lungs, and blood vessels pumping more efficiently. Over the ...
Dietary Fiber: Essential for a Healthy Diet
A diet that is rich in fiber will promote digestive health, prevent heart disease, and boost weight loss. Men should be getting at least 30 grams of fiber per day, and women need at least 21 grams of fiber. How can you boost your fiber intake for optimal health? Seven Tips for Getting More Fiber Into Your Diet 1. Start the day right. Choose a breakfast cereal with at least 5 grams of fiber per serving. Look for cereal varieties with "bran" or "fiber" in the name. You can also add a few tablespoons of unprocessed wheat bran to your cereal for a ...
Vitamins, What Are They and What Do They Do?
Decades of aggressive advertising have convinced many Americans that they need to take a daily vitamin pill to remain in good health. Yet, few people can accurately describe the role vitamins play in a healthy diet. Vitamins are essential biochemicals needed in very tiny quantities to catalyze metabolic reactions. For example, Vitamin K starts the process that allows blood to clot, thus preventing a person from bleeding to death if they are cut or severely injured. Many of the B vitamins are needed to synthesize body proteins and burn calories. Key functions vitamins perform can be divided into three main areas. Energy ...
Low-Fat Cooking Skills
Fat is a very concentrated form of energy. Ounce-for-ounce or gram-for-gram, fat supplies 2.25 times as many calories as carbohydrates or protein. Learning ways to limit your fat intake from foods you purchase and in the foods you cook for yourself can significantly improve your ability to manage your weight. Advances in cookware technology, food science, and processing techniques and improved reduced-calorie recipes make it easier than ever to prepare tasty, fat-reduced foods. Ingredient Selection Purchase high quality, low-fat ingredients like seafood and lean cuts of meat and poultry, seasonal fruits and vegetables, herbs, seasonal vinegars, and reduced fat marinades. The acronym FiRST (Filet ...
Social Dining Skills
Sharing a meal is one of the oldest and most popular ways to socialize. With the holiday season on the horizon, invitations to food-oriented events are bound to multiply. Developing a strategy for coping with social eating is key to maintaining your weight loss goals. How you handle dining out will be determined in part by what stage of weight loss you are in and the method you are using to lose weight. If you are following a full formula meal replacement diet, you will need to be creative to find ways to stick to it, despite the many food distractions. ...
Focus on Flexibility
In addition to aerobic exercise and strength training, a well-rounded fitness routine will include stretching. Stretching regularly helps increase flexibility, improve your range of motion, and relieve stress. Find out how to get the most from your stretches while avoiding injuries. Six Tips for Proper Stretching Target major muscle groups. It’s important to give your whole body a good stretch... [Read more]
Emotional Eating and Weight Gain
For many people, emotional eating is at the root of their inability to lose weight. Emotional eaters, or people who turn to food to deal with emotions, tend to take in far more calories than they need because they’re using their emotions, rather than their body’s natural hunger, as their guide. Emotional eaters also tend to reach for foods that are high in fat, sugars and calories instead... [Read more]
Balancing Your Exercise Routine
Getting regular exercise is an important part of any weight loss plan. As you begin to ease into a new fitness regimen, there are five different types of exercise that you’ll want to include in a balanced routine: aerobic exercise, strength training, stretching, core exercise, and balance training. Aerobic Exercise Aerobic exercise is often referred to as a cardio workout or endurance activity.... [Read more]
Dietary Fiber: Essential for a Healthy Diet
A diet that is rich in fiber will promote digestive health, prevent heart disease, and boost weight loss. Men should be getting at least 30 grams of fiber per day, and women need at least 21 grams of fiber. How can you boost your fiber intake for optimal health? Seven Tips for Getting More Fiber Into Your Diet 1. Start the day right. Choose a breakfast cereal with at least 5 grams of fiber per serving.... [Read more]
Modern Laparoscopic Surgery
Laparoscopic surgery, sometimes called minimally invasive surgery (MLS), keyhole surgery, or band aid surgery, refers to surgical procedures performed in the abdomen through several small incisions (roughly a quarter to a half inch in length) rather than the one larger incision (typically 6-8 inches in length) used in traditional operative techniques. In order to perform a laparoscopic procedure, the... [Read more]