Tag Archive for: #wonderfullyfit

Vitamin-rich Fruits You Should Consume Daily

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At a time when many people focused on eating well and reducing weight by improving their diet, the importance of eating fruit is well researched and documented. For those who want to lose weight, many of these fruits provide plenty of Vitamin C, a known fat burning vitamin.

In the past, this has led to the development of popular fruit based diets like the grape fruit diet, but there is no requirement to restrict other nutrients to lose weight and fruit forms and essential part of all good weight loss plans and should form part of any healthy lifestyle. Vitamins are essential for normal body function.

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They affect metabolism, human growth and development and a healthy immune system. They are only required in minimal amounts, and the body either stores or excretes excess amounts in the urine.

Fruits contain many vitamins and provide most of the total daily requirements. . Eating 2 pieces of fruit per day, together with other foods, reduce or eliminate the need for oral vitamin supplements. Eating the fruit whole and not juiced is also the better alternative, to provide the other benefits of the fiber rich whole fruit. Vitamin deficiency is a serious condition, which can lead to major health problems if they are not corrected.

Many fruits are like a multivitamin supplement, they contain many different vitamins. The following list of fruits each contains approximately 10 essential vitamins and should be consumed regularly. Apples, avocadoes, bananas, berries, cherries, cantaloupes, grapes, figs, dates, guava, kiwi fruit, oranges, lemons, limes, olives, peaches, pears, nectarines, pineapples, plums, tomatoes and watermelon. The list is not complete and most fruit will provide very high numbers of vitamins.

Fat soluble vitamins like Vitamin A,D,E and K, are stored in the body for periods lasting as long as 6 months and don’t require the same daily intake requirement as the water soluble vitamins like Vitamins B and C. Despite containing similar groups of vitamins, not every fruit contains the same types of vitamins. The amount and type of vitamins that each fruit provides is variable.

The fruit providing the highest levels of water soluble vitamin content that should be included in the diet daily are berries including blackberries, raspberries and blueberries, oranges, bananas and apples. Tomatoes and avocadoes, though often eaten as vegetables, are fruits and are excellent choices of vitamins that can be eaten daily.

More Items That Work Like Kettlebells

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Looking to get into incredible shape and improve your functional strength? Then there are actually few things that will be more effective than a kettlebell workout. There are many reasons for this but the biggest factor is that a kettlebell workout involves training with multiple different angles and multiple different speeds.

The weight is constantly swinging around and constantly changing position and your body needs to constantly adapt to those changes in order to train. This works the smaller supporting muscles that other workouts just can’t hit and the result is more functional power and a better physique.

kettlebell

But the kettlebell isn’t the only tool you can use to do this. If you’re looking to get a truly functional workout, then actually there are several things you can deploy to get the job done. Here are some great examples…

Indian Club Training

The Indian club is a tool that looks like a weapon, a set of skittles or perhaps juggling pins. Essentially, you hold them at one end and then swing and move them around in your hands.

The reason this works so well, is that, as with training with a kettlebell, you are holding a handle that is removed from the weight itself. This then means the angle of the resistance will change as you build up momentum and it means that you can train muscles that might otherwise be hard to reach.

Hammer Training

Another great way to train your body is to use a simple sledge hammer! Just take the hammer and hit something like a car tire. This will use all the torque motion in your body and also require a lot of cardio endurance as well as the basic strength.

Moving Bricks

Take a pile of bricks and then simply move them to a new pile. This involves twisting, picking up each brick and then turning to the side to drop it behind you. Again, you’re training your obliques through the twisting and torque motion but you’re also using your grip and biceps to lift the bricks.

Climbing

When it comes to using your body functionally and as you’re supposed to, there are few things better than rock climbing. Rock climbing allows you to train your grip as you hang onto the walls, your lats, your biceps, your legs and more. What’s more, is that the high stakes and psychological challenge ensure that you are highly engaged with what you are doing and that you are thus more likely to be mindful of your training and more likely to engage more of your body and mind in what you are doing.

Swimming

Swimming is another surprisingly powerful form of functional training that utilizes your entire body moving in synchronous motion. The great thing about swimming is that it allows you to build more strength, more size and more cardio endurance – but also that it allows you to improve your muscle control, muscle fiber recruitment and functional range of movement.

Keeping Fit for Life

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It seems the issue of health and wellness is well known among children, men and women and everyone wants to keep fit. Have you realized how people go the gym of late, seems that business is really booming but I think you don’t have to spend a dime in the gym well unless you need to tone your muscles after losing weight and have a fabulous body that will be people’s envy.

All you need is to eat healthy and enjoy these fruits of your graceful work.

keeping fit

Keeping fit helps you develop a psychological framework that conquers depression. You see when you’re obese or plump in the manner of having excessive fat in your body you will get depressed and continue to eat in a very unhealthy manner, since most people succumb to eating when depressed and this is a risk of shortening your life .It should be able to help you counter most health problems like high blood pressures and cardiac arrests.

People believe that by starving themselves, the amount of fat in their bodies is reduced and some even end up being anorexic but that is not the case. If you again maintain a healthy lifestyle, your metabolism will be increased and do all the work for you by finding a natural way of burning the food that you eat so you do not have to starve or worry about what to eat.

You will be more flexible and active since having a fit body means that you also have an energetic body therefore you can perform any task without having to tire quickly.

A high percentage of us have an ageing phobia and so more plastic surgeries are performed and more people are heading to the shops for anti ageing creams. Why spend all that money yet you can easily withhold the ageing process, hard to believe right?

Here is the thing, when you feel old, it means that your body is tired or not in good shape but when you feel young, it means that energy is freely flowing in your body and your body is in a pretty good shape.

So by keeping fit, you will feel younger and thus ageing will not be an issue to you. It also helps you burn more calories than you take in and this is a good thing. If you can burn around ninety thousand calories a year then a daily intake of two hundred and fifty calories will not be a bother and this is another way of losing weight without starving. Keep fit, stay healthy, younger and happier.

What Being Healthy Really Means

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Health to most people means, “not being sick.” People who are ill are considered to be in “poor health.” For these people, health is simply the absence of sickness. There is another more comprehensive view however, held by groups like the World Health Organization and the International Scouting Movement that suggest that true health is not only physical wellbeing, but also includes, mental, social, spiritual and intellectual wellbeing.

In today’s society, there is a lot of emphasis on maintaining physical health, but most people spend little or no time looking after these other areas of wellbeing. If we are going to measure how healthy we are, we must consider how we are looking after the “whole of us” and not just our bodies.

health

Being healthy means taking time to consider those areas of our lives that we do sometimes neglect and finding ways to care for them. Research has shown that if we do not do this, then it will affect our physical health. Many of the reasons we say we are in “poor health” are caused by carrying too much stress, and eventually they will produce physical symptoms if we do not learn how to de-stress.

We usually care for the needs of others in preference to caring for ourselves. Self-care however, is not selfish but is a way of ensuring that our bodies are healthy in a holistic sense. We choose to go to the gym after work, which may seem to be caring for our physical body, but if it is something we want to do and we like to do, it will produce health benefits to our mental and social well-being. If we would like to study in a course that interests us as personal development, but consider ourselves too busy to enroll in a course without attempting to reschedule our time, we are not caring for our intellectual health.

Giving ourselves permission to self-care as a whole person is the first step to enjoying true health. It is not only important for us personally, it influences our roles as partners, as parents and as colleagues at work. It affects our productivity and our ability to enjoy life and to take advantage of the opportunities that life offers us.

When we adopt this holistic attitude for our lives, and in making lifestyle choices, we have begun to understand what true health really means.

How to Use Hand Balancing to Build Incredible Strength and Control

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What is missing from your current training program? Probably just about everything. When you work out normally, the problem is that you are repeating a simple range of motion to build up microtears and metabolites. This is what stimulates growth and if all you’re interested in is developing muscle size and aesthetics, then that is the perfect way for you to train.

But if you’re interested in improving your actual strength and power. If you’re interested in becoming faster and more agile. If you want to be healthier then there’s a lot missing.

strength

And what’s more, is that this type of training is incredibly boring. Is it any surprise that we struggle to stick at this kind of training when it’s so repetitive and so mundane?

The good news is that the fitness community is starting to wake up to this reality and demonstrate some solutions. One such solution is to use kettlebells. Another is to use hand balancing…

What is Hand Balancing?

Hand balancing is the forgotten art of… well… balancing on your hands. Simply put, this involves performing movements like hand stands, like planche and like v-sits. The beauty is in the way you transition between these movements and the various different variations you can eventually pull off to demonstrate not only muscle power but also muscle control, balance and precision.

Those who become truly adept at this kind of training will eventually learn to do things like clapping handstand press ups, planche on just two fingers and all kinds of other fantastic feats.

This can also be combined with bar work, as demonstrated by a lot of ‘street workouts’ found on YouTube (look up ‘Bar Starz’ or ‘Bartendaz’). This then incorporates more pulling movements like muscle ups, like one armed pull ups and like levers.

Why It’s Amazing and How to Get Started

So what is so good about this form of training? Well, for starters, this type of training encourages you to be much more present psychologically and to really stay focussed on what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. To perform well at this, you need to concentrate hard and this strengthens the ‘mind muscle connection’.

At the same time, like kettlebell training, this form of training forces you to use smaller supporting muscles in order to hold your body at different and less expected angles.

Finally, this kind of training is fun and highly rewarding. Not only do you get a huge amount of reward out of being able to pull off these movements but you also find there is inherent reward in being so engaged with the movements themselves.

So how do you get started?

Actually, it’s very easy. All you really need to get started with type of training is a set of push up stands that will make hand balancing easier for beginners. A pull up bar is also a great tool. As you become more confident and skilful, you can then progress to training with things like parallel bars (cheap and easy to comeby), gymnastic rings and more advanced tools.

4 Weight Loss Supplements for Fast Weight Loss Success

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Weight loss supplements are always known to be able to provide a little boost to your weight loss campaign. Exercises and a proper balanced diet can help in losing weight but most of the time, you will need weight loss supplements to push you through a plateau.

In this article, you are going to learn about the four supplements that you can add to your weight loss plan. However, the results may vary from person to person. Also, you must consult your doctor about taking these supplements if you are underage, pregnant or taking other forms of medication.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Used by the ancient Egyptians and passed to us today after some long centuries, apple cider vinegar is popularly known for its weight loss effects. The most desirable benefits of taking apple cider vinegar as a weight loss supplement is that it does not bring along any negative side effects. Children and elders can even consume them for the health benefits.

Apart from being able to help you to lose weight, apple cider vinegar is also able to improve the condition of a person facing certain ailments or illnesses.

Hoodia

Hoodia gained popularity in the weight loss industry as a great and effective appetite suppressor over recent years. Imported from the Kalahari desert, it has been turned into weight loss pills and supplements. Although it can bring weight loss results within a short period of time, one is not recommended to use it for long term fitness maintenance plan.

Prescription Diet Pills

If you want the safest diet supplements in the market, then you should go for prescription diet pills. Regulated and tested by the FDA, prescription diet pills are known to have little to no side effects to human body. Fat burning, appetite suppression and carbohydrates blocking are some of the major functions of the pills.

These pills are normally inexpensive. Trial offers and test samples are also being given away to consumers by health companies manufacturing these pills. You should take advantage of these offers before spending any big money on them.

Propolene

Propolene is being used widely in supplements and pills for weight loss. Its common functions include suppressing our diet and fat burning. It forms a fiber mass once it reaches our stomach, stimulating our brains that there is no hunger since the stomach is filled. If you are looking forward to lose a large amount of weight or fat, propolene is the ingredient that you should be looking for when buying weight loss supplements.

Peak Pilates

How a Senior Workout Will Improve Your Health and Well-Being

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Regular exercise is a vital part of healthy living as a senior. It not only helps keep muscles in good condition, exercise also strengthens the body. Working out is also a fun way to meet new people, and a terrific method of weight loss.

Just like workouts designed for younger generations, senior workouts are beneficial to both the mind and the body.

senior

Senior workouts can be simple. There is no need for complex and difficult movements. There are some workout programs designed specifically for seniors, with slow-paced exercises that gently increase the heart rate and strengthen muscles gradually. Building and strengthening muscles makes the body stronger, and a strong body is the best protection against injuries from slips and falls.

There are a wide range of workout programs available for seniors. Most gyms and fitness centers offer senior exercise programs, as well as many senior centers. Home gym equipment can also be used, or one of the many exercise videos on the market. Some of the best exercises for seniors can be performed at home or at the park with no gym membership and little equipment.

Yoga and aerobics programs are excellent for seniors. These programs are offered at many gyms and fitness centers and are often designed just for seniors. There are also a number of videos available with senior yoga and aerobics workouts. Yoga is a great workout for stretching and extending the body, and is extremely relaxing as well. An aerobic workout, on the other hand, increases the heart rate and strengthens various muscles throughout the body.

Strength training workouts for seniors are equally beneficial and usually only require two to three days of working out each week. These workouts build and strengthen muscles, reducing the chance of injury from a fall, and improve balance. Some strength training programs focus on the entire body, while others target a specific set of muscles, like the arms or legs.

Walking is a terrific senior workout that can be done anytime and anywhere with no special equipment. Walking is a great way to spend time outdoors, it is also a wonderful workout for the heart. Brisk walking is the best way to strengthen muscles and raise the heart rate. To preserve energy, seniors may want to alternate between fast-paced, brisk walking and an easier stroll. Walking workouts can even be used by seniors who may have trouble walking by only going short distances, using a walker if needed, and by taking lots of breaks.

Not all senior workout programs involve exercise mats and stretching. There are many fun and enjoyable ways to stay active. Swimming, golfing, and even dancing are all ways for seniors to stay fit. There are many ways to make senior workouts exciting. Planning group fitness activities is a great way for seniors to interact socially as well as exercise.

Before beginning any type of senior workout program, always consult with a doctor first. Safety should be the primary concern, so follow the doctor’s orders and adhere to any necessary precautions he may recommend.

How to Use a Chair Like a Kettlebell

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What does the recent popularity of the kettlebell teach us about training? For many, this may seem like nothing more than an interesting new tool for us to work out with. In reality though, the kettlebell simply sheds a light on a different approach to working out. By using tools other than dumbbells, you are not in fact cheapening your workouts – you’re actually making them that much richer and more powerful.

The less ‘conventional’ the type of tool you train with, the more you are able to keep your body guessing and the more you are able to keep developing new muscle control, new awareness and new power. The kettlebell’s effectively lies not in the fact that it is a kettlebell but in the fact that it is an unusual shape and size and this forces us to adapt.

kettlebell

So what else might you be able to use to train? Take a look around your home and you should find that practically anything can become a powerful training tool!

How to Turn Your Chair Into a Powerful Training Tool

Take a standard dining table chair for example. This has a shape and size that makes it quite unwieldy and very unbalanced – perfect for the type of training we’re interested in.

A simple way to use this, would be to grab the back of the chair at the top with two hands. Now, hold the chair over your head and proceed to press it. This is a simple shoulder press movement, with the added challenge of the awkward angle and weight that forces you to adapt.

Better yet, you can use this to perform something akin to a tricep extension mixed with a front raise and bicep curl. In this same starting position – legs pointing toward the ceiling and hands gripped onto the top of the backrest, allow the chair to drop down behind your back so that your arms are bent over your shoulders. Now extend using your triceps, so that the chair is back to the starting position. Then lower your elbows and extend your arms, so that they are pointing out straight in front of you.

To bring the chair back, curl it using your biceps and then pull your elbows up so that they are pointing to the ceiling and the chair is behind your back.

This is a highly complex movement that will train the shoulders, the triceps, the lats, the biceps and more, all while requiring forearm strength, balance and control in order to keep the weight steady.

And of course that’s just one potential move. How about swinging the chair around your head in a ‘halo’ motion?
And the chair is just one example. The point we’re making here is that any item in your home can be used for training. And actually, the more unconventional and awkward it looks, the better it’s going to be for your training goals!

Get creative and think outside the box. Your gains will thank you!

3 Ways a Good Weight Loss Supplement Can Help You

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In the traditional way of thinking, a weight loss supplement was supposed to play a ‘supplementary’ role to diet and exercise in the loss of weight endeavor. A person who was looking to lose mass was usually advised to enlist the help of a supplement for loss of weight, of course in addition to a diet that was conducive to their mass loss goal, and, ideally, a good exercise regime. The combination of diet, exercise and weight loss supplement was in most cases guaranteed to deliver loss of mass.

Then came the age of instant gratification, and that approach to weight loss suddenly became unfashionable. People began to ask, in the spirit of instant gratification and avoidance of effort, whether it wouldn’t somehow be possible to lose mass with the help of the supplement for loss of weight alone.

supplement

This was to be expected, seeing that besides the supplement for loss of weight, the other mass loss aids (diet and exercise) were quite ‘unpleasant:’ calling as they did, for considerable exertion on the part of the person looking to lose weight.

All this led to a situation where people started looking to lose mass with the aid of mass loss supplements only. For the most part, they ended up being unsuccessful. And this led to frustration, which had the long term effect of making people to start questioning the efficacy of the weight loss supplement. Indeed, some went on to declare that mass loss supplements don’t work.

The truth of the matter, however, is that a good loss of weight supplement, properly used, can help you in three ways in your endeavor to lose mass. To be sure, it may be a tall order to lose weight with the help of loss of weight supplements exclusively. Indeed, many tend to come with a disclaimer to exactly this effect: which goes something like ‘this supplements works best when used alongside diet and exercise.’ Still, there are the three ways in which a good loss of mass supplement can help you in your endeavor to lose weight.

1. The first way through which the loss of mass supplement can help you in your endeavor to lose weight is making the mass loss faster. They call in expediting the process, and the effect, using the right way loss supplement can be rather considerable.

2. The second way through which the weight loss supplement can help you in endeavor to lose weight is by making the loss of mass less demanding in terms of efforts. This is where you may still have to make dietary modifications and exercise if you are to lose weight, but where a good weight loss supplement increases the ‘returns’ you get for your investments into the mass loss endeavor.

3. The third way through which a good supplement for loss of mass can help you in your weight loss endeavor is by keeping you motivated on the process. Many people who decide to ‘live with’ their mass problems tend to be people who attempted to lose weight and failed. A good mass loss supplement, by expediting your weight loss and ‘increasing the returns’ on your investments in that endeavor gives you at least some ‘initial results’ to celebrate, and keep you motivated to continue on your mass loss effort. Attempting to go about trying to lose weight without a mass loss supplement could mean that it may be months before you start seeing any results out of your effort, by which time you could have given up on the whole venture.

Physical Yoga Practice for Active Seniors

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An active lifestyle is one of the keys to a long life. In our elder years, it is important to keep moving in order to enjoy the wonderful essence of life. Yoga is a fantastic activity for seniors, as it is low impact, promotes overall wellness, and can be modified to suit the mobility of any practitioner.

If you have been practicing Yoga for many years, you will see your youth extended, and your ability to practice is mildly affected as you age. Even if you are well into your senior years, and have never stepped foot on Yoga mat, it is never too late to start a healthy habit (though it is important to follow your body’s own pace).

active

Yoga is especially beneficial for seniors because it caters to many of their special health needs. In some cases, Yoga is useful because it helps ease the pains caused by arthritis and limited mobility. It improves balance and stability, reducing the chance of falls.

When practiced regularly, Yoga also is known to lower blood pressure. Yoga classes, geared toward seniors, can also help them establish a sense of community with one another and adopt a better outlook on life.

If a senior is a beginner to Yoga, it is best to start off slow, and go at his or her own pace. There is no need to try to push the body to do something that it has not been trained to do before. Applying force in Yoga can cause problems, regardless of a student’s age. It is always wise to move through the poses slowly and gently. Adjust the intensity, and time, held in a pose, to meet the body’s unique demands. Some of the best poses for seniors to try are relaxing, restorative, and gentle stretching postures. The corpse pose (Savasana) is great because it promotes relaxation and healthy blood flow.

Table, Cat, and Cow poses connect one’s breathing to body movements and can be very beneficial to seniors, as well. Pose of a Child is another relaxing posture, which is good for everyone. If mobility is a big issue, Chair Yoga might be the right style to choose. With Yoga practice, at a studio or senior center, students will bring their practice home.

This is time to try some gentle postures, flows, meditation, and breathing exercises (pranayama). Each of us has different expectations from Yoga practice, and seniors are no different. Senior Yoga students tend to have a deep appreciation for being pain free, keeping the mind active, energizing the body, and experiencing complete wellbeing.

With a little help from Yoga, and a positive state of mind, each of us can get the best quality life out of our golden years. Remember, it is never too late to create a healthy lifestyle, stimulate the mind, and tone a healthier body. Yoga practice for active seniors is “the icing on the cake.”