Healthy B.P.M.

I loved this article on how to stay trim without using the D-word(Diet I mean). The word diet is so restricting. It limits your intake of food…the reason we want to make all that money. All we want is good food and a good house and a good life. When you limit yourself, you are inviting unhappiness.

Check out what B. Elwin Sherman has to say about eating healthy. He thinks that you can accomplish your weight goals if you eat sensibly and eat less crap. And of course you have to Exercise,Exercise,Exercise. And stay away from dieting resources, blogs, books………..now I wouldn’t recommend that:)

dieting resources, diet blogs, diet

There are so many dieting resources on the internet that it’s hard to go wrong on a diet. Besides Healthy B.P.M:), we have tonnes of interesting blogs that give the wannabe dieter a wealth of information:

Iateapie.net does regular health food reviews and helps you count those calories.

We all know about The diet blog. This delightful blog keeps you posted on all the diet happenings in the news.

CarbWire is an online magazine and provides accurate information on everything low-carb.

Calorie counter lab gives dieters information necessary to lose or maintain weight at the click of a button.

This link gives you more dieting web resources.

Are there any more blogs or web pages that you want to spread the word about? Please comment.

diet, diet blogs, nutrition, calories, obesity

Sometimes the weight can be embarrassing. Think about it. Overweight exercisers have to deal with joint pain, flabby thighs and heavy chest. It’s difficult to focus on your exercise when you still haven’t dealt with your self-perception issues.

Especially for women, gym wear and swim wear are really problematic. Try to get the loosest gym clothes that you feel most comfortable in and wear a swim dress instead of a swimsuit. Spandex leggings help if you are on the heavier side and prevent thigh chafing . For a heavy chest, a supportive sports bra helps. In case of men, stick to loose-fitting clothes.

Avoid jumping and other vigorous exercises and start with simple workouts that include walking,swimming and cycling. Tone your body before you get into the serious workout as that way you avoid unnecessary injuries.

This article is a godsend for people who have these kinds of problems.

obesity, swim wear, spandex, sports bra

Osteoporosis happens when your bones become brittle. Surprisingly this affliction is becoming commonplace even among young women. Indications of possible bone disease include missed periods, extreme thinness, rapid weight loss, extreme dieting,obsession with weight loss and excessive exercise.Osteoporosis shouldn’t be taken lightly as there is the constant threat of fracture and spinal defects.

Calcium supplements help; make sure your doctor advises you to have it. Calcium foods primarily include milk, cheese, yogurt and all other dairy products. Make sure you get enough sunlight for sufficient Vitamin D quotient. Remember that using too much sun screen and staying indoors too often has aggravated the bone density problem among adolescents.

Read this interesting article for more.

This article tells you about the dangers of excessive exercise.

calcium, osteoporosis, fitness, nutrition

Asthma occurs when your air passages suffer inflammation,making your breathing difficult.While some diets trigger off breathing difficulties,others help you deal with your asthma.

Some diet triggers are:

-Additives benzoates(E210-19), sulphites (E220-8) or gallates (E310-12)
-Cider, wine, and beer
-Foods containing yeast or mold like as bread and blue cheeses
-Foods, drinks and snacks that contain colorings E102, E104 and E110
-Cow’s milk, cereals especially wheat, eggs, fish, soy, and nuts (especially peanuts)

Your doctor can help you identify what your diet trigger is. Foods that can help you with your asthma include these.

-Two cups of coffee help you when you have an asthma attack.
-Hot foods like chillies,garlic and onions help to dilate air passages by thinning the mucus that creates so much distress.
-Foods that have an anti-inflammatory effect and aid in prevention of asthma include onions and fatty fish(which contain Omega 3 fatty acids).
-The magnesium in dried figs and sunflower seeds helps too.

The article here will be extremely useful for the enormous number of asthmatics out there.

Eating a healthy balanced diet complete with plenty of fiber is what an asthmatic needs most. Read this.

asthma, Omega 3 fatty acids

Here’s a new non-invasive way of getting rid of fat- LipoDissolve. If you have a BMI of 30 or less you can have this injection. This method targets unwanted body fat in difficult places like your stomach, arms, and thighs.

The injection contains Phosphatidycholine and Deoxycholate(substances also found in the body), and benzyl alcohol.When the chemicals are injected the fat actually swells up,gets inflamed and bursts. Six injections over six months and there go your fat cells. Side effects include feeling hot in the injected area and experiencing swelling there.

The treatment is expensive and doesn’t dissolve visceral fat ie. fat around your organs.You have to be over 18 to do it and a BMI of over 30 doesn’t qualify for this injection. I don’t really know how much someone with a BMI below 30 need this series of injections. What do you think?

Read this article.

LipoDissolve, BMI

Do you know that that what you eat and how you feel are related? If your diet lacks key nutrients there are more chances that you could be struck by the depression. Although a balanced diet is supposed to contain all required nutrients, experts argue that food can lose its nutritive value due to toxins in food and water, that the air that we breathe is polluted and that it can impact our nutrient requirements and that agricultural practices can impact the toxin content in our food.

Teenagers who don’t eat adequately have more chances of suffering from dysthymia(a kind of long-term depression) and studies have shown that low-income women who hardly eat can suffer from depression.Too little polyunsaturated fatty acids, antioxidant vitamins, folate, and vitamin B-12 in your diet could lead to depression.

Read this article for more.

depression, nutrients

If the average woman spends an average of 31 years on a diet, then women must be spending an average of six months dieting every year.Read this article.

As a result women admit dreaming more about food while they are watching their weight. And more and more women scrap their dieting plans after they start them. The funny thing is that dieting hasn’t changed obesity demographics….it’s only increased it.

So much for one-stop fad diets.

obesity, fad diets

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) happens after a workout,especially if you are doing a new exercise or overstraining yourself. It generally takes two days to wear off.It’s not as severe as acute muscle tear but you have to take it easy all the same.

DOMS happens when there is microscopic tearing of the muscle fibers.It is eccentric contractions that cause the most DOMS. Eccentric contractions happen when muscles lengthen,for example when you run downhill or lower weights.

Studies have revealed that coffee helps in easing DOMS related problems. Caffeine supposedly blocks the activity of adenosine,a chemical that activates pain receptors in cells.The effects of caffeine are reportedly stronger than painkiller effects.

While caffeine may ease post workout pain,one must keep in mind the side effects of caffeine consumption like palpitations,insomnia and an upset stomach. Also regular coffee drinkers may not feel the difference just as much as they are desensitized to caffeine.

Read this article

coffee, caffeine, DOMS

I have mentioned the benefits of coconut oil earlier on but I was very excited by what Mike Furci on BottomLineFitness had to say about the benefits of coconut oil and I wanted to spread the word:

“There is an array of positive research published in the last few years showing the significance of coconut oil. Coconut oil is classified as a “functional foodâ€? because of its health benefits that go far beyond its nutritional content. In fact the coconut palm is so highly valued by Pacific Islanders as a source of food and medicine that is called “The Tree of Lifeâ€?.

Coconut oil is the most saturated of all fats. Saturated fat has three subcategories; short chain, medium chain and long chain. Coconut oil contains approximately 65% medium chain fatty acids (MCFA). Although recognized for its health benefits many centuries ago, it wasn’t until 40 years ago modern medicine found the source to be MCFA. Remarkably, mother’s milk contains the same healing powers of coconut oil.”

I really found that impressive. Where I come from, people live on coconut oil(coconut oil in curries,coconut paste,coconut based sweets) and some of them were trying to quit the habit, but replacing coconut oil with sunflower oil is a big mistake. Sunflower oil is loaded with Omega 6 fatty acids, an excess of which increases bad cholesterol.

Mike continues:”The saturated medium chain lipid lauric acid, which comprises over 50% of coconut oil, is the anti-bacterial, anti-viral fatty acid found in mother’s milk. The body converts lauric acid into the fatty acid derivative monolaurin, which is the substance that protects adults as well as infants from viral, bacterial or protozoal infections. This was recognized and reported as early as 1966.

And unless you’ve been in a vacuum, you’re aware that the U.S. has what’s called a weight problem. As a matter of fact, if you’re born in this country your chance of being overweight is greater than 60%. Another one of the great benefits of coconut oil, specifically the medium chain fatty acids (MCFA), it contains, is its ability to increase energy expenditure. In other words, it increases your metabolism.

Unfortunately, Americans consume large amounts vegetable oils and are eating less saturated fat than ever. And what has this done to our health as a nation? It’s slowly deteriorated it. This fact is indisputable. We keep getting more unhealthy and our inept medical community, because the big food giants are in their pockets, keep preaching the same nonsense: saturated fat is bad, vegetable oils are good, cholesterol causes heart disease. What a bunch of crap!”

Also read Mike Furci’s Fats, cholesterol and the lipid hypothesis

Another good read here.

coconut, coconut oil, mother’s milk, Omega 6 fatty acids, Omega 3 fatty acids

One of my readers,Teresa, asked me which should be done first:cardio or strength training. Health experts are divided on that issue. It would be better if you could do cardio and strength training at two separate times in the day. If you have no time, prioritize your workout schedules. The problem with doing strength and cardio training at the same time is that if you do cardio first,you won’t be able to put in that endurance for strength training and vice versa.

Read this article.

More here.

cardio, strength training, fitness

Diet humor is making waves around blogs. The reason? Everyone likes to have a good laugh and making fun of your figure sometimes helps you to come out of your dangerous obsession with fad diets. Here are some jokes I found:

A diet is a weigh of life.

It’s not the minutes spent at the table that put on weight, it’s the seconds.

The most fattening thing you can put in an ice cream sundae is a spoon.

Sweets are the destiny that shapes our ends.

Diets are for people who are thick and tired of it.

The toughest part of a diet isn’t watching what you eat. It’s watching what other people eat.

A diet is when you have to go to some length to change your width.

Many women reduce and reduce, yet still never manage to become a bargain.

The best way to lose weight is by skipping … snacks and desert.

Most people gain weight by having intimate dinners for two…alone.

People go to Weight Watchers to learn their lessens.

Check out some more diet and fitness fun here.

Check this page.

diet humor, weight watchers

Instead of blaming technology for turning children into couch potatos, teachers have started tapping into video games as a fitness resource. Games like Dance Dance Revolution and EyeToy: Play are fun ways for kids to work out.

Dance dance revolution has players dancing on a series of lighted panels; so you are literally dancing on your feet. Eyetoy,via a mounted camera, puts the player on screen.The games are pretty hard and take up a lot of energy. Kids love the interactive process and all the hi-tech wizardry associated with it.

Read this article.

Another article to fuel your interest here.

dance dance revolution, eyetoy, couch potato

There are many fun ways for you to stay fit. I mentioned skiing in one of my posts. Another sport that offers you a great deal is golf.Fitness is an essential component of the game and contrary to the claims of golf being primarily a mental game, golf needs a high level of fitness and endurance. This game has no age limits and is a great way for senior citizens to stay agile and develop friendships too.

Consider the game. Playing a round of 18 holes takes around four hours and don’t forget the clubs you have to carry. So before you take on golf as an activity make sure that you are fit. Playing golf requires strength training that targets specific muscle groups like the arms, wrists, back, trunk, legs, hips and ankles. Walking helps too. Before the game, make sure that you warm up to avoid any chances of injury.

Check out the Ultimate Golf program, which combines exercise with training for golf. Tone your body with the swing!

golf, swing, fitness, skiing

Adults who have kids are more likely to eat fatty foods than adults who don’t. This is based on a University of Iowa study. The study doesn’t make a correlation between having kids and eating food but matching your food habits to those of your kid’s.

Kids are influenced by advertisements and they make their choices based on ad campaigns and on eating habits of their peers. So the soccer mom who has so much to do stocks her fridge and cupboards with ready-to-cook processed foods, junk food, cookies, hot dogs…..and she ends up having all that too. As a result, parents of kids who live on junk food consume an average of 2 gms of excess fat on a daily basis. This can lead to obesity-related problems and heart disease.

It’s a vicious cycle. Kids should have more access to healthy foods like fruits and vegetables and parents should put in that extra time to prepare healthy meals. You may not have the time to make sensible meals and may prefer junk food as a faster option. But remember, it takes ages to lose weight, so your time saved is your time wasted.

Read the article here.

junk food, soccer mom