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It’s time to start a Healthy life: A 7 day program

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How many times have you gone to sleep at night, swearing you’ll go to the gym in the morning, and then changing your mind just eight hours later because when you get up, you don’t feel like exercising?

While this can happen to the best of us, it doesn’t mean you should drop the ball altogether when it comes to staying fit. What people need to realize is that staying active and eating right are critical for long-term health and wellness — and that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

body

The more you know about how your body responds to your lifestyle choices, the better you can customize a nutrition and exercise plan that is right for you. When you eat well, increase your level of physical activity, and exercise at the proper intensity, you are informing your body that you want to burn a substantial amount of fuel. This translates to burning fat more efficiently for energy.

In other words, proper eating habits plus exercise equals fast metabolism, which, in turn gives you more energy throughout the day and allows you to do more physical work with less effort.

The true purpose of exercise is to send a repetitive message to the body asking for improvement in metabolism, strength, aerobic capacity and overall fitness and health. Each time you exercise, your body responds by upgrading its capabilities to burn fat throughout the day and night, Exercise doesn’t have to be intense to work for you, but it does need to be consistent.

I recommend engaging in regular cardiovascular exercise four times per week for 20 to 30 minutes per session, and resistance training four times per week for 20 to 25 minutes per session. This balanced approach provides a one-two punch, incorporating aerobic exercise to burn fat and deliver more oxygen, and resistance training to increase lean body mass and burn more calories around the block.

Here’s a sample exercise program that may work for you:

  • Warm Up — seven to eight minutes of light aerobic activity intended to increase blood flow and lubricate and warm-up your tendons and joints.
  • Resistance Training — Train all major muscle groups. One to two sets of each exercise. Rest 45 seconds between sets.
  • Aerobic Exercise — Pick two favorite activities, they could be jogging, rowing, biking or cross-country skiing, whatever fits your lifestyle. Perform 12 to 15 minutes of the first activity and continue with 10 minutes of the second activity. Cool down during the last five minutes.
  • Stretching — Wrap up your exercise session by stretching, breathing deeply, relaxing and meditating.

When starting an exercise program, it is important to have realistic expectations. Depending on your initial fitness level, you should expect the following changes early on.

  • From one to eight weeks — Feel better and have more energy.
  • From two to six months — Lose size and inches while becoming leaner. Clothes begin to fit more loosely. You are gaining muscle and losing fat.
  • After six months — Start losing weight quite rapidly.

Once you make the commitment to exercise several times a week, don’t stop there. You should also change your diet and/or eating habits,’ says Zwiefel. Counting calories or calculating grams and percentages for certain nutrients is impractical. Instead, I suggest these easy-to-follow guidelines:

  • Eat several small meals (optimally four) and a couple of small snacks throughout the day
  • Make sure every meal is balanced — incorporate palm-sized proteins like lean meats, fish, egg whites and dairy products, fist-sized portions of complex carbohydrates like whole-wheat bread and pasta, wild rice, multigrain cereal and potatoes, and fist-sized portions of vegetable and fruits
  •  Limit your fat intake to only what’s necessary for adequate flavor
  • Drink at least eight 8-oz. glasses of water throughout the day

I also recommend that you take a multi-vitamin each day to ensure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

I suppose that’s all I can think of for now. I should extend my thanks to a doctor friend of mine. Without him, I wouldn’t be able to write this article, or keep my sanity.

Enjoy life, we all deserve it.

Why the Kettlebell is the Only Weight Loss Tool You’ll Ever Need

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Want to get into lean, slim, toned and sexy shape? The only tool you’re ever going to need to complete this goal is the kettlebell.

Let’s take a look at why this is the perfect solution for those particular training goals and what you need to do to make it happen.

kettlebell

Enter: Resistance Cardio

The first huge advantage that training with a kettlebell has is that it allows you to use what is known as ‘resistance cardio’. This basically means that you’re combining resistance training (this is the term used to describe training that requires muscular force to push or pull a heavy object) with cardio (any exercise that continues for an extended period and thereby gets your heartrate up and helps you burn fat).

By using a movement like the kettlebell swing for 70 repetitions for example, you’re going to be forced to lift the weight while also repeating a rapid movement that will mean you have to burn calories stored as fat.

When you combine these two different training modalities, you are building muscle and you are burning fat at the same time. This is great for getting an attractive body because you’re not going to simply become skinny (or worse, ‘skinny fat’). Rather, resistance cardio will allow you to tone and burn at the same time. The fact that you’re engaging muscle means the muscle will be protected from deterioration as you’re training.

Moreover, resistance cardio will allow you to burn more fat in a shorter space of time than you could otherwise. This is because you will be forced to apply more effort in order to complete the movement, thereby taxing your system more and burning through more calories!

The Benefits of the Kettlebell Swing

The other great thing about building muscle while performing a cardio workout, is that the more muscle you add, the more you increase your metabolism. If you have lots of muscle, you will burn more calories even while you’re sleeping! At the same time, each workout that causes muscle damage will trigger the release of anabolic hormones like testosterone and growth hormone that actually increase the rate of fat loss.

The kettlebell swing is a particularly useful move because it targets the entire posterior chain – the muscles in the legs and back involved in jumping. These are some of the largest muscles in the body and thus this results in a massive flood of hormones and a lot of effort on your part.

And finally, for women who are looking to get toned buttocks and legs, the kettlebell swing is ideal because those are the exact muscles that it trains. This is the same combination of muscles as those used in squatting and if you do a Google search for ‘women who squat’, you’ll see that they are famous for having particularly round and firm glutes. If that’s the look you’re going for, then there are few moves better than the humble kettlebell swing!

Health of Body and Health of Mind

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What does it really mean to be healthy? If you are fit and can do all your work reasonably well, then does it mean you are healthy? Is fitness health?

Most people equate health with health of body. This is not exactly wrong, because until some years ago, that was the concept and meaning of health that we had in mind. We thought that health of body means that you are healthy. People believed that if you are free from disease, it meant they were healthy.

body

But, these are old notions. In today’s world, it is not just enough to be free from disease to be healthy. The view has definitely widened.

Today, health has various aspects to it. Experts speak about the physical, the mental, the spiritual and even the social aspect of health. Health is no longer just absence from disease, but you have to be free from any mental, psychological and social disorders too to be counted as healthy.

Think about a criminal. A person who does something against society does so because they are not well in the mind. Though they may not have any disease hounding them, they are definitely not healthy. They need to be cured; and hence even corrective methods used by governments and law agencies are modes of treatment.

There are so many signs of ill-health that parents completely ignore in their growing children. They see things like sickness and disease, but they completely ignore their mental grown and development. A child who lies needs to be corrected.

A child who finds happiness in troubling their parents and teachers needs some kind of help. These are not issues of the body; they are issues of the mind. They need to be tackled early on, because like any other disease, they can grow to serious proportions.

In the past, health was something that was individual. If you did not take care of your health, it was only you who suffered. But, with this widened definition for health, the scope has definitely increased. If you don’t take care of your health now, it won’t be just you who suffer.

Think about the child whose habits are difficult to control. Such a child probably grows up and becomes a torment to society in some way or the other.

Health and wellness do not mean the same thing as they did a decade ago. In fact, even medical practitioners include various interpersonal and social methods of treatment. It is all a part of a much larger game.

How to Get a Flat Abdomen in 30 Workouts

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You have been working out at the gym and you are looking great. You know you have worked hard and deserve the results you see in the mirror. Except for that stubborn belly fat that just will not seem to shift no matter how hard you try. Does this sound all too familiar?

Do not worry you are not alone. This is a common problem for most people. The good news is, there is a way to get a flat abdomen in 30 workouts, and you do not need gym membership to achieve it.

abdomen

You are probably watching your weight and ensuring you eat plenty of proteins, good fats and lots of fruits and vegetables, low GI foods and whole grains and fibers. No workout program will work successfully unless combined with a sensible approach to diet. The next step is to check what exercise you are doing to try to flatten that abdomen.

Most people think that to lose belly fat you need to do exercises that focus on the abdomen.

Isolated exercises do not work and have limited results giving you that flat stomach you desire. This means your routines do not need to include unpleasant crunches and expensive equipment. The most effective way of removing the fat is by combining interval cardio training to burn the fat, with resistance exercises that focus on the big muscle groups in the buttocks, back and thighs. These are your fat burning muscle groups and by working them you will burn the belly fat and tighten your abdominal muscles at the same time.

Remember quality not quantity is the key to fast abdominal fat loss. A simple workout routine that you should do for 30 days may look like this.

Use an exercise bike or tread mill if you have access to them, or otherwise try skipping or running and do interval cardio exercises by interspersing a period of 2 minutes of fast paced cardio that raises your heart rate, with 4 minutes of rest and continue this for approximately 20 minutes (burn calories and raise heart rate).

Follow up cardio training with 15 reps of exercises such as squats and lunges with free weights repeated twice each session.

Once the principle of cardio and large muscle group activity is the focus, learning how to get a flat belly in 30 workouts is simple.

Top Kettlebell Movements For Complete Home Workouts

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The kettlebell is often heralded as a fantastic training tool thanks to its ability to train the body in a less conventional manner that involves more of our supporting muscle groups and challenges balance and focus at the same time.

This is only one advantage of the kettlebell though. What’s just as impressive is just how versatile the tool is – allowing you to train every muscle group in a vast variety of different ways. In fact, a kettlebell is versatile enough to provide an entire body workout and can be a ‘home gym’ all on its own!

kettlebell

Here are some kettlebell movements that demonstrate this nicely:

Kettlebell Curl

The kettlebell curl is a movement that works similarly to a regular curl and targets the biceps. The difference is that the center of gravity is lower down, thereby altering the angle and changing the direction of the force.

Goblet Squat

Something that is very hard to do when training from a home gym is work the legs using squatting motions. Squats are widely regarded as some of the most functional movements and are particularly popular thanks to their ability to engage lots of large muscles in the posterior chain. The problem is that they require a large, heavy and unwieldy squat rack and bar! Or do they?

Using a kettlebell, you can hold the weight against your chest and then squat from there. This moves the weight forward slightly but is otherwise effectively the same movement as any other squat!

Straight Legged Deadlift

The deadlift is another movement lacking from most home workouts and once again, the kettlebell comes to the rescue. A deadlift can be performed as normal, simply by squatting and grabbing the handle with both hands.

Likewise though, you can also train similarly while keeping both legs straight and bending only at the back to hit the erector spinae. This works better considering the slightly lighter and taller nature of a kettlebell.

Turkish Get Up

Now for something entirely unique. The Turkish get-up is a movement that requires you to lie on the floor next to your kettlebell and then simply stand up with it. This is much harder than it sounds and involves a complex sequence of movements that train the muscles in unison.

Kettlebell Swing

This is perhaps the king of kettlebell movements and involves performing a squat like motion while swinging the kettlebell behind yourself between your legs and then up in front of yourself. The key is to use a continuous motion and to use your hips to thrust the weight forward rather than engaging your legs or back too much.

Kettlebell Clean and Press

This movement is good in all kinds of ways and involves squatting down to grab a kettlebell in on hand, then throwing it up to lean against the shoulder, standing up and pressing it over head. This trains a huge range of different movements but what’s perhaps most effective of all about it is that you are training on just one side of the body – meaning you need to work very hard to maintain balance and to stabilize yourself.

Give Your Health the Importance That It Deserves

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Health is not a fad that will be over anytime soon, it is something that we are reminded every now and then, the commercial breaks, a short visit to the doctor, the leaflets given to us on the streets; seems like a lot of people are catching up with this health awareness issue. Even with all that information that we get do we ever follow it to the latter, do we really watch what we put into our mouths?

Do we cautiously follow the recommended balanced diet? It really needs a lot of effort to be able to eat wisely and this can be achieved by setting goals to a healthy life.

healthy

That desire should come from you, being forced to keep fit will do you no good because in other’s presence we will follow the whole diet thing but behind their backs we will do exactly the opposite. Trying to keep fit is not such an easy task especially if you are used to throw in just about anything into our stomachs and if we are not strong enough then we tend to go back two steps behind after making a step of progress. If you have a strong desire to make a difference then believe me you will go far with it.

They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away but that does not mean that by just eating an apple you will be healthy; you have to take in a balanced diet. Don’t you think by keeping a healthy lifestyle, you would keep the doctor away from you for the longest period ever and no more scary visits to the hospitals which many of us loathe or no more fears of being diagnosed with ‘incurable diseases?

So how do you keep a healthy lifestyle? You first have to believe that you can truly do it or else you will not go far. You have to set your goals right, put them down on paper and make sure you are able to beat the deadline.

You have to ensure you take a balanced diet containing the carbohydrates, proteins and the vitamins not forgetting the roughage or water. You should also exercise from time to time to ensure you don’t have excessive fat in your body system.

Avoid the canned food and opt for fresh food, ditch the red meat and go for the white type of meat and also avoid fried and baked food as much as they are sweet, they will lead you to a premature death. With the gradual change that you make, your life will change too and get better in terms of health.

How to Get Rid of Cellulite

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If you are a woman, it is highly likely that you have had, do have or will have cellulite at some stage in your adult life. 90% of all women develop it and contrary to popular belief, it has nothing to do with obesity. Many women who develop the condition have a healthy range BMI (Body Mass Index).

Cellulite is created by pockets of fat trapped beneath the surface of the skin producing the all too familiar dimpling of the skin that some describe as like orange pill in appearance. Although it is predominately a female condition, some men do develop the condition. It occurs predominately in the areas of the body containing the largest number of fat storage cells, mainly the abdomen, buttocks and thighs.

cellulite

A good diet and regular exercise will not stop cellulite formation; however, it does improve its overall appearance. It tends to be more obvious in overweight women. Women around the world spend money and time trying to eliminate or prevent the problem, but most find it extremely difficult to remove.

There are different treatments, which have had different results for different people. The major treatments are as follows:

Eliminate Body Fat

Although body fat does not cause cellulite, it does make it look worse. Losing weight and exercising will improve overall health and metabolism and will improve the appearance of the problem areas. Caffeine, alcohol and smoking increase the chances of developing cellulite. Reducing intake of these may help.

Creams and Massage

There are varieties of creams available that state they treat and reduce cellulite. Some are available through pharmacies and others through specialist beauty products. Health stores sell some herbal creams. Massaging these into the skin is probably the reason they work if you see any improvement, as there have been reports of temporary improvement of cellulite after deep massage. Its long-term effect is debatable.

Cosmetic Surgery

Cosmetic surgery provides limited results as the liposuction removes cells from deeper levels than where the cellulite occurs. It provides minimal improvement.

Cellulite Stockings

Comparatively inexpensive, these stockings do not cure cellulite, but they improve the appearance of badly effected buttocks and thighs and many women use them esthetically, with immediate improvement while wearing the stockings.

It is important to discuss appropriate treatment plans with a doctor who can advise the best individual treatment approach.

Grip Strength-The Hidden Crucial Factor in Kettlebell Training

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If you want to become amazing at kettlebell training, then there is one thing you need to develop more than anything else and that is grip strength. A firm and powerful grip is precisely what will enable you to lift heavier kettlebells for longer periods of time, not to mention the best way to ensure that you don’t accidentally launch them through the window in your local gym…

Meanwhile though, building amazing grip strength will benefit you in areas that extend far beyond the reaches of the kettlebell and this is actually one of the biggest reasons to take up this kind of training in the first place.

Grip Strength

By taking up kettlebell training, you’ll be able to build forearm and grip power that will translate to improved performance in just about every aspect of your life.

The question then becomes: how do you develop the kind of grip strength that you need for kettlebell training? And why is it so important anyway?

Why Grip Strength is Crucial

If you want to improve your performance on any movement in the gym, then training your grip strength is essential. Grip strength gives you a firmer hold on the bar or weight and this in turn means that more of the force you apply will go into the movement rather than just holding onto the weight. This can also help you to last longer on movements like pull ups or deadlifts before fatiguing.

This is something that old-time strongmen knew very well and hence they would train with weights that had wider bars for instance in order to increase the challenge for their grip. This also prevented anyone from their audience from stepping up and showing them up by being able to lift the same weights. No matter how strong they were, they would normally lack that crucial grip strength.

And in the real world, grip strength is useful for: opening jam jars, combat, climbing, using tools, carrying luggage and more!

How to Develop Grip Strength

Training with kettlebells is one excellent way to develop grip strength because the weights swing. Each time you perform one of the movements, the angle will change, forcing you to tighten your grip in response and thereby keep the weights held firmly rather than dropping.

There are many more ways you can develop grip strength though in your training and these will help you to improve your kettlebell workouts as well as many other aspects of your training.

Good examples include:

  • Performing pull ups by gripping onto a rope or even a towel looped over a pull up bar
  • Performing curls with thicker bars
  • Training using a grip trainer
  • Attempting to bend bars
  • Performing wrist curls and other exercises that specifically target forearms

Another great option is taking up rock climbing and in particular, traversing. Rock climbing requires you to hold onto the small holes and jutting out rocks that you can grip onto. Traversing means climbing along the wall instead of up and this is an ideal form of exercise as it allows you to climb without a rope (you never get more than a meter off the ground) and means you are gripping onto the wall for longer periods of time while you find your footing.

Pregnancy Woes and How to Avoid Them

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Anticipating the birth of a new baby makes pregnancy an exciting time for most women. It can however also be a time when a woman must potentially deal with a variety of unpleasant conditions that may accompany a normal, healthy pregnancy.

While it is impossible to prevent them from occurring, there are ways that a woman can reduce them and control them so she can continue with her life with minimal disruption.

pregnancy

A normal pregnancy lasts 9 months and each 3-month period is known as a trimester. Different conditions are common with each trimester and the symptoms associated with each trimester often subside as the next trimester period begins. Learning how to overcome those pregnancy woes will help pregnant women feel more in control of their symptoms and enjoy their pregnancy.

First Trimester Symptoms (0-3 months)

Feeling excited about being pregnant is often mixed with needing to deal with nausea and vomiting and a feeling of extreme tiredness. The early pregnancy hormones cause these symptoms and while them can’t be prevented; there are some simple safe ways of minimizing them.

  • Eat small meals regularly to prevent a low blood sugar level.
  • Discuss drinking ginger tea with your doctor.
  • Avoid smells and foods that increase the nausea.
  • Rest regularly and where include an afternoon sleep.

Second Trimester Symptoms (3-6 months)

Nausea and vomiting usually subside during this semester and the chronic tiredness is usually replaced by a feeling of wellbeing and health. As the trimester continues and the uterus starts to enlarge, some women complain of nasal congestion, stretch marks, dizziness increased need to pass urine and constipation. Same ways to control these symptoms include:

  • Increase dietary fiber and continue to drink plenty of water.
  • Change position slowly and keep blood sugars stable by eating regularly.
  • Discuss laxatives with a doctor before they are used.
  • Use Vitamin E cream on stretch marks.

Third Trimester Symptoms (6-9 months)

The final months of pregnancy, may create back pain, general discomfort and fluid retention. These symptoms can be controlled by:

  • Wear low shoes and if necessary support stockings with a doctors approval.
  • Maintain fluid intake even with fluid retention and frequent need to go to the toilet.
  • Rest where possible. Lie on side not back
  • Hot showers can reduce discomfort.
  • Gentle exercise.