Month: December 2021

Fiber – Are You Eating The Right Types?

Not all fiber is created equally; however, many people are unaware of this fact. By eating whole wheat toast or a bowl of cereal in the morning, many of my patients believe that they are getting the right kind of fiber for their diet. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case.

There are different types of fiber-some natural to your diet, and some unnatural. Surprisingly, the fiber one gets from consuming grain products is unnatural to your diet. In fact, research has indicated that the fiber from grains found in many breakfast cereals could be increasing your risk of getting diabetes. The following information will provide you with the insight needed to maintain a healthy diet, rich with natural sources of fiber…

Types of Fiber

All fibers can be grouped into two different categories: “soluble” and “insoluble.” Soluble fiber binds with fatty acids in your body. Because of this it stays in your stomach for a longer period of time, allowing sugar to be released and absorbed more slowly. Moreover, soluble fiber helps lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, reducing your risk of heart disease. Insoluble fiber, on the other hand, helps move bulk through your intestines. In doing so, insoluble fiber helps you stay “regular” and helps prevent constipation. Furthermore, it helps to move toxins through your colon more quickly.

Natural Fibers

According to Dr. Al Sears MD, “the quality of fiber started going down around the time our native ancestors began harvesting cereal grains.” Grain products have only been around for a few thousand years, and are not our original source of fiber. The mainstream medical approach is largely misguided- instead of eating a lot of cereal or taking grain-based laxative products we should be consuming fruits, nuts, vegetables, and legumes. Sears states, “Nature has given us all of the natural fiber we’ll ever need.” Instead of reaching for that box of cereal opt for one of the following:

Vegetables: Vegetables should be our number one source of fiber. To ensure that this is the case, be sure to eat vegetable skins and edible seeds. Vegetables with the most sources of fiber include broccoli, spinach, squash, cabbage, asparagus, and Brussels sprouts. Be sure to eat them along with high-quality protein at every meal!

Nuts: Eating just a handful of nuts a day, will provide you with loads of fiber! Almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, and Brazil nuts all contain high amounts of fiber.

Fruit: When eating fruit, leave skin on if you can. Like vegetable skin, fruit skin is very high in fiber. Berries, pears, apples, mangos, and oranges are all high-fiber foods. Yum!

Legumes: Green beans are one of the best sources of fiber. Eat them raw, or cooked for a snack packed with fiber!

Remember, it’s important to drink plenty of water if you want to get the most benefit from your dietary fiber. Also, try to eat fiber-rich foods periodically throughout the day-eating it all at once may lower its benefits.…

What’s On and What Should Be OFF – TV, America and Obesity

The average American spends roughly three hours a day sitting in front of the TV set, a.k.a. the boob tube. The three hours watching television amounts to about half of their leisure time.

Addiction by definition can be a psychological dependency for any number of things, i.e. gambling, alcohol, cigarettes, and yes, television also fits into the addictive model. Addiction is characterized by spending an unusually large amount of time with a substance or activity and giving up social activities to participate while reporting withdrawal symptoms when attempting to stop use.

Children should not watch more than 15 hours of television a week according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. However, many children press this suggested ceiling and watch television roughly two hours a day and more.

American TV addiction may be one of the core reasons so many Americans are overweight. Excessive television viewing takes away from physical activity. If half of the leisure time is taken by TV viewing, it leaves little time for physical activities.

TV is part of American culture. Since its introduction in the 1930’a TV has become an American icon. Programming has boomed, as has the number of television households in America – almost 116 million of them with over 219 million television sets.

American’s should tune out half of their TV. We are becoming a nation of obese people. Some 30% of Americans are overweight. There is a direct correlation between being overweight and watching TV.

Let’s get started with week one. Watch your regular shows for a week and recording the amount of time you spend in front of the television set. Also record what you eat while you watch TV. Now make a list of all outside activities you enjoy or would enjoy had you not watched TV. Don’t list watching TV programs as activities – that’s cheating.

Now for week two, it’s time to cut your TV watching in half; be selective. For half of last week’s TV viewing time participate in one of those activities you listed. If you haven’t listed any activities start with this simple program, go for a walk for the half of the time you watched TV the previous week. Continue this program for a month. You’ll be surprised what you’ll see, how much better you’ll sleep and how much less you’ll eat.

No promises are made here about losing weight; BUT, if you stick to your new routine, chances are you will lose weight. Try it. Kick the too much TV habit.

Copyright 2010 Richard Albright LLC.…

The Workout Routine – Woman’s Best Friend

Workout Routine – Woman’s Perfect Routine

The perfect routine for a woman has three characteristics. It should be enjoyable, realistic, and effective. Let’s talk about how a routine would meet these three criteria.

Enjoyable – If you start a routine that you don’t enjoy, chances are you won’t keep it your routine for long. Doing something because someone told you it is the best exercise is not necessarily the best way to go. You have to find the right exercise for you. Find your groove, so to speak. Of course, you do have to take into consideration whether this exercise is going to get you where you want to go. You might enjoy long walks around your neighborhood but will these walks get you a nice slim body?

Only if you are carrying a bid load the whole way. The right workout routine would be challenging and keep you mentally engaged. It all depends on what kind of workout routine woman you are. Maybe, in fact, you aren’t a workout routine woman at all! Maybe you like to keep things spontaneous. That’s okay, too, as long as you make sure that spontaneity happens almost every day!

Realistic – A good routine is realistic. What do I mean by realistic? Don’t set yourself up for failure. Take into account where you are now and where you want to be in the future. Right now you may only handle 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise. That’s commendable. If you want to be able to do an hour of cardio every day, don’t plan for that now.

Work up to it. Increase the time of each exercise by a minute every day. In a month, you’ll have doubled your aerobic capacity. That is a good improvement. If you set your goals too high, you won’t reach them, and that evil little thing called discouragement will be getting you down and might even sabotage your routine. It is crucial that a workout routine woman make her routine achievable.

Effective – There is a flip side to being unrealistic in your goals. You could be selling yourself short. Could you push yourself a little harder? A Workout Routine woman should examine her workouts every now and then to see if they need a little spicing up. This could make a big difference in maintaining that incline we talked about earlier.

Don’t Forget Nutrition

You could be meeting all three of the criteria mentioned above but if you don’t watch what you eat, your workouts will be in vain. So let’s change it one more time. The workout routine woman’s best friend is a perfect, adaptable routine along with healthy eating!…

Getting in Shape With a Cheap, Quick, and Fun Method

Has anyone out there ever purchased a gym membership, and never used it? I have and decided this time I was going to do an exercise program from home. I had a trampoline before that I enjoyed using, so I decided to find out if that could help reach my goal.

I was amazed to find out the many benefits. Here are a few:

It can reduce fat, and can raise the resting metabolic rate. It protects joints, and is very effective in improving coordination. NASA uses it as part of training for their astronauts, and they have said that if a person exercises 10 minutes on the trampoline, it is equal to a jog of 30 minutes.

It stimulates the lymphatic system, so can get rid of toxins in the body. The up and down motions cause the one way valves to open and close at the same time, which will increase lymphatic flow by 15 times. Your immune system is greatly improved so it helps prevent sickness and disease.

It will strengthen heart and lungs, preventing heart disease. It also strengthens every cell in your body, so it is just not certain muscle groups, it is your whole body getting a workout.

Bone density is increased, because every time you time you go up and down, the body interprets this as gravitational pull, which is effective in increasing bone density.

A cheaper way to a face lift, since every cell in your body is affected as I mentioned earlier, so your skin gets smoother and tightens more.

It is the second quickest way to losing weight, and skipping rope is the first. It can help in eliminating depression because it increases the serotonin level, and it helps in getting better sleep. It also helps to increase endorphins, which are our happy hormones that help in reducing stress.

My trampoline sits at the bottom of my stairs, so I see each time I am going outside. I do it about 10 minutes twice a day. I have used it a couple of weeks, and it is so easy, and convenient. One of the benefits I have already noticed is better sleep, and it is fun to do, so I look forward to it.…

Body Weight Exercise

Body weight exercises can help strengthen and tone muscles through resistance created by the weight of your body. They are a perfect way to tone up muscles without blowing your budget on expensive gym memberships, and they are a fantastic way to amp up your weight loss program.

Body weight exercises often require little more than you and a bit of space. You can perform each of these exercises in front of your television or in your living room without any trouble. Since they can be performed nearly anywhere, there is no excuse for not working out when you are away from home. Here are a few examples to help get you started.

Push Ups

Push ups are a good exercise all around. Start with your arms shoulder width apart on the floor and your legs out, making your back flat. If you are a beginner, you can start by using your knees until you can build up to balancing on your toes. Contract your abdominal muscles and lower yourself to the ground slowly, and then rise up slowly. Repeat in a series of three sets of 10-12 repetitions for toned arms and back.

Plank Position

A staple in pilates and yoga, plank is similar to the push up, but instead of lowering yourself to the ground, you hold yourself in position for a count of ten. This position contracts all of the muscles as it tries to stabilize the body. This is great for working all the major muscles groups. Planks can be easy to do wrong, but when you do them right, you will feel them in nearly every muscle you have.

Chair Dips

To work on your triceps, try chair dips. Find two chairs and place them facing each other, about three feet apart. If necessary, start with these closer together and work up to this space. Start in a seated position, placing your feet on the other chair. Place your hands palms down on the chair you are seated in. Make sure you have a tight grip on the edge of the seat. Lift up and put your body weight on your hands and feet. Dip down until your arms are bent in a 90 degree angle, elbows pointed away from you. Hold this position for thirty seconds, lift up and then repeat. You can do shallow dips at first to build up your muscles, but work towards a deep dip.

Squats

Squats are a great way to build the quadriceps, hamstrings and hip flexors. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and slowly squat down like you are sitting in a chair. Make sure your knees stay parallel with your feet and do not go further out. This can damage the knee. Hold the squat for thirty seconds and slowly return back to your standing position. Repeat this exercise in a series of three sets of 10-12 repetitions to start. You can modify this exercise in two different ways: by moving your feet together so that they are side-by-side and proceed with the exercise, or by performing a wall squat. For this exercise, you place your back flush against the wall, feet shoulder width apart and away from the wall. Slowly start to slide down the wall until your knees are at a ninety degree angle. Hold for thirty seconds and repeat.

These are just a few of the many body weight exercises you can do in the comfort of a small space and a small budget. Along with a proper diet, these exercises can help you achieve your weight loss goals. However, if you find that you can’t lose those last five or ten pounds, the addition of a natural weight loss supplement may help you to get over your plateau. Natural weight loss supplements work with your diet and exercise program to help you towards reaching your weight loss goals.…

Foods That Will Make Your Skin Beautiful and Healthy

That foods do have the power to heal is not a new concept, yet a lot of people are not aware or do not have the chance to fully appreciate what eating the right foods can do to ones health. A balanced diet, one that is composed of vitamins, minerals, and proteins in all the right amounts, is very essential in maintaining healthy skin.

There is absolutely no truth in the saying that eating too much chocolates or sweets can cause pimples or acne breakouts. That eating greasy and fried foods will make your skin and hair greasy is also not true. You cannot stuff yourself with cucumbers, carrots, lettuce or grapes and expect to have beautiful skin, either. It does not mean that even if you eat loads and loads of fruits and vegetables each day, your skin will be fair, smooth, and healthy. Various other factors, such as having enough sleep, drinking enough water, exercise, and supplements, are in play to give you skin that is healthy and glowing.

Nonetheless, it pays to include in your diet foods that are specifically good for the skin, and these are asparagus, coconut oil, avocado, mango, and raw organic honey. Asparagus is highly alkaline, thus it aids in keeping the pH levels of the skin well balanced. Coconut oil is a known lubricant of the joints and the skin and has a healing effect at the same time. Avocado is said to be one of the most nutritious fruits, and it certainly is! It is packed with vitamins and all the essential nutrients that make your skin moisturized inside and out. Mango aids in blood circulation and gives the skin clarity because of its high enzyme properties, while raw organic honey can keep the skin soft and clean when applied topically.

It has to be emphasized though that for you to experience the full effects of these foods, you must embark on a healthy lifestyle.…