Healthy B.P.M.

Right now no one has the time to keep fit and do exercise. So when you hear about people taking their pets out for a session of dog yoga, you are surprised and amused. What do pet lovers come up with these days?

Gentle stretching, dog massage and doggy props to ease those postures seem to calm the pups down. Think about you and your dog destressing in a yoga class. Instructors believe it’s partner yoga in that you spend more time with your pet and you bond. It’s also fun.

That’s what we think. Wonder about the dog:)

Cute article:
Man’s best friend does downward facing dog

dog.pet, yoga, dog yoga, fitness

I just can’t figure out how to eat with chopsticks. So this one is for me.How do you do it? It’s healthy and the most sensible way to have noodles.

I found a step-by-step instruction kit on the web:

-You pick up the first chopstick with the middle finger and thumb. Stiffen your hand for a firm grip. So the broad end of the chopstick lies on the part where your thumb and index finger connect. The narrow end of the chopstick is supposed to rest on the tip of your ring finger.

-Grip the second chopstick with your index finger. Place your thumb over the second chopstick. The idea is to have a comfortable grip. The narrow tips of the chopsticks should be even with each other to help prevent them from crossing or being unable to “pinch” the food.

-Hold it steady. You hold the first chopstick steady and move the second (top) chopstick by moving the tip of your index finger up and down while the thumb remains relatively steady.

-Practice opening and closing the chopsticks and don’t stab your food. Never pass food with chopsticks as this is considered bad manners.

chopsticks, health, diet, Chinese

Yesterday Brick O’Neil from EncouragingHealth told me that his fitness guru was Susan Powter. Remember her slogan”Stop the insanity”? Says Brick:

“She had a saying that has always stuck in my mind. She said that people have to do three things in order to be healthier, lose weight and generally feel better about themselves.

Those three words? Eat, Breathe, Move ”

What caught my attention was the importance given to breathing.I once went for Art of Living classes and there my teacher told me ” Neel,you’ve got your breathing all wrong.” And I sat in class thinking that we automatically inherited the knowledge of breathing.

For starters, our breathing is too shallow and fast. We are in a hurry and so we’re mostly oxygen starved and that’s where the fatigue comes from. We’re stressed out and indoors much more these days. All this changes the way we breathe.

Breathing through the nose..not through the mouth… is important. When we do deep breathing our entire body benfits. Blood circulation improves as does metabolism. It’s the best way to destress!

Read this detailed article Importance of Breathing for more breathing facts.

health, breathing, ypoga, pranayama, Art of Living

There’s a lot of interesting diet and health web sites out there.

Here’s one called FitDay. It’s completely free and some features include:

-Tracking your foods, exercises, weight and goals
-Viewing your calorie intake, nutrition, weight Loss and more

With a free online account, all you have to do is enter your daily foods and exercise and you’ll get an appropriate analysis. If you opt for the PC version you don’t have to do it online.

Now is entering all your meals into a software package easier than keeping a food diary? Once you get into the swing of things and set achievable targets, it may be a tech-savvy kind of way to get fit. Plus you get the information you’ve added analyzed which is something you won’t bother to do if you keep a food diary.

Check it out.

free online diet journal, diet, weight loss, calorie counter, health

I loved Jimmy Moore’s (in the 30-in-30.blogspot.com blog)fantastic post on the intuitive knowledge of children when it comes to dieting. When I read All I Really Need To Know About Diet I Learned In Kindergarten, I was thinking that’s absolutely true. When you are a kid you never finish your meals. You never eat more than you need to and you eat several times in a day. You only eat when you are hungry. Moms don’t seem to understand that and try to get their kids to eat the entire meal. Kids eat in smaller portions and they play enough to get all those calories incinerated!

Kids have a lot of in-built wisdom. They never do too much of anything though we may think that they do(why some kids are obese is a different issue altogether). I think they are more tuned to their body’s needs than we are. Maybe we have to start listening to ourselves a little better.

Jimmy Moore, 30-in-30, kindergarten, weight, obesity, exercise

The ups and downs of your life affect your weight.

When you get married, you usually gain weight. For one thing you are happier, more relaxed and oblivious of dieing norms. Then when you have kids, you know what happens. Maternal bliss and calories go hand in hand.

Now suppose all that happiness falls like a tonne of bricks, if you divorce the weight could actually go up. When you eat alone, you don’t tend to think about calories. A friend of mine told me how he would embark on binge eating when he was under stress- be it in relationships or at work.

When you retire, you are suddenly faced with the prospects of a day without a deadline and you make up for it by clearing the fridge, eating more than you need and resting for no apparent reason.

So every time your life is punctuated by an event, your body is affected. Looks like stress can put on the pounds rather than reduce it.

Read A lifestyle change can bust your diet

stress, lifestyle, marriage, divorce, retirement, binge eating

Some interesting reasons that you still don’t lose weight despite all your efforts:

-You exercise but don’t sleep enough.

-You don’t eat small portions; just fill the plate and gobble.

-You eat too fast.

-You don’t drink enough water; water actually helps curb that appetite!

-You’re starving.

Don’t believe me?

Read 7 weight loss mistakes for more.

weight loss, fitness, exercise, calories, obesity

The bundle of joy has arrived and suddenly you notice things about yourself that haven’t really bothered you for the last couple of months. You are fat, especially if you’ve had a Cesarean you feel really big and you want to shed it all. But wait for a few weeks before you sprint into action. Your entire body will go into healing mode after pregnancy and your wound need time to heal. If you are breast feeding your body will need those fat reserves.

What you could do after six weeks is walking, kegel exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor and light resistance training. Stay away from junk foods and try not to be glued to the television al that much. It;s not good for you or the baby.By the time your baby becomes active you will see the pounds disappear quickly!

Check out what the experts have to say on Working out After Having a Baby

post pregnancy, weight loss, fitness, exercise, kegels, walking

Have you ever thought about which exercise works for you? I stumbled upon this great resource: Battle of the workouts. Consider running vs aerobics. Running wins. Tennis vs squash? Squash wins.Yoga vs Pilates. Pilates wins but I’m personally for yoga because I vouch for long-term effects and yoga promises you nothing in a matter of weeks.

Okay so you know which exercise works but do you have the time for it? I asked a yoga teacher about how people can really make time to work out?” That’s a question that doesn’t have an answer” he said.” You have to make time if you want to stick around for a little longer:)” So what’s more important you or your job? It’s all about striking the right balance. And all I can say is that it isn’t easy but it’s a must- do.

fitness, exercise, yoga, pilates, running, aerobics.tennis, squash, motivation

I’ve been thinking about how to turn Healthy B.P.M into more than a diet and fitness blog. I’m going to deal with lifestyle issues more than I have in the past. If you want to improve your well being you have to start from scratch- from you, your surroundings, your goals…..There is so much to work on. Stress emanates from tiny cracks in your life that emerge when you neglect yourself. Either you are too busy or too burdened by ridiculous issues. That has to change. And I want to help.

When I read FItSpirit: De-cluttering can be an exercise of healthy living, I completely agreed. Thatsfit.com is an interesting blog that covers various issues and I loved the way the idea of decluttering your surroundings syncs with fitness ideals.

Now I’m no stranger to clutter. But when you think logically about what dirty dishes and overflowing laundry does to your psyche, you realize it drives you to the edge. You think differently in a beautifully kept home and in a messy house. See the difference. When you care about your surroundings you create a home, otherwise you have a house to live in.

The ancient discipline of feng shui is more than decorating; it’s an act of harmonizing your spirit with your surroundings. It creates an awareness that you are not alone and that you belong to an extended universe. Your every action sends ripples through out the universe and that’s not an exaggeration. According to feng shui, clutter destroys the harmony in your house. The simple act of cleaning will make you feel better about where you live and subsequently about who you are as well.

Tell me what decluttering your home or office space has done for you.

fitness, feng shui, lifestyle

There are a lot of fitness myths out there. Here are some you might want to straighten out:

Sit-ups can make you lose belly fat:Not entirely true. Just doing sit-ups helps in toning but doesn’t completely end the belly trouble.

Lifting weights can help skinny women gain weight:False. A friend of mine has tried lifting weights in her attempt to gain weight and she is terribly disappointed. Toning alone isn’t enough. Unless accompanied by steroids(I have my doubts about taking steroids unless you really have no alternative and your doctor approves), you can’t expect lifting weights to make much of a difference.

Running helps you to lose weight:Not necessarily.A complete work out makes you fit. Running is invigorating and part of the process.

Pain is a good indicator:No pain, no gain and working out to the point of exhaustion is just being foolish. Know your limits and take it a step at a time. Get a good fitness trainer to guide you. Too much soreness is an indicator of inflammation, not progress.

Check out some more fitness myths here.

And read this: Top 10 fitness myths

fitness, fitness myths, sit-ups, crunches, abs, weight lifting, steroids, running

A couple of interesting questions I came across in The Diet Detective: Exercise daily, eat right to get healthy results:

-Diet or exercise?:Has to be both.You can’t really choose.

-Six meals a day?:That’s tricky. Those six meals have to be mini meals and sensible food. If you can’t go to the trouble of preparing three healthy meals a day, six would be far too ambitious.

-Weekend exercise or daily walk?:Definitely the daily walk.Even a day without walking can cause havoc with your metabolism.

You’ll love this:12 Diet Questions Answered

diet, exercise, fitness, walking, healthy food

Ivy’s post in her blog the Between the Sheets “One more reason for the sweat” offers valuable insight on how important exercise is for a satisfying sex life. There’s a strong link between sexual dysfunction and heart disease. Most men with erectile dysfunction(ED) have more chances of having hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

Doctors believe that this could be one good reason for men to give up on being couch potatoes. Check out this great post on BottomlineFitness :”As if exercising wasn’t already important...” The connection between ED and heart disease is so strong that exercise could change your life in so many ways from making you healthier to more satisfied.

sex, exercise, erectile dysfunction, couch potato

“I don’t have time to exercise.” is something that almost everyone says. It’s not an excuse. It’s a practical problem that has to be overcome since you need your health to keep going. “Too busy to exercise” is a great post on how you can take those necessary mental steps to motivate yourself to exercise. In his Practical Personal Development Blog Alex writes:

“A technique that I use while I am doing my running is I stop concentrating on my present self and create an image of a different me. In my minds eye I picture me with the perfect body. I see every muscle moving in synchrony and as I flex my stomach I see the perfect abs harden. I visualize a body that is a perfect machine and would not tire no matter how long I run.”

Time saving tips is a great article that helps employed people, stay at home moms ,and students to achieve their fitness goals. You have to make a conscious effort in the mornings or when you get back from work. You could join a gym or indulge in an exercise program that suits your pace.

What kind of time-saving measures do you recommend?

weight loss, exercise, fitness

I love to explore alternate fitness methods. Remember Pole Dancing for fitness? Another interesting new fad is the stiletto salsa. Fitness classes are now encouraging young women to use their high heels on the dance floor and combining ballet techniques with fitness workouts help in strengthening your calves, hips, quads, and hamstrings. If you learn how to dance on your heels you actually gain alignment, balance and confidence. According to fitness instructors heels help your calf muscles.

You’ll love this article- Stiletto salsa:The latest fitness craze.

I’m not really sure about how far heels are healthy on your back. Before you do go for a class I guess you have to know all the facts.Orthopedists have issued warnings about heels. Problems that heels can cause include corns, calluses, hammertoes, osteoarthritis, chronic knee pain, sprained ankles and back problems. Read this for more.

But if you are dying to dance on your prized high heels and want to impress that special someone, a little practice won’t cause much damage. I would never advise you to wear high heels on a continuous basis but once in a while it would be fun!

stiletto salsa, high heels