Weight loss and good health

Weight Loss tips

Tip #1 Eat an apple 5-10 minutes before your meal. An apple can help curve your appetite.

Tip #2 Use a smaller plate. When you use a smaller sized plate it will make you take smaller portions.

Tip #3 Always eat at least one large salad a day and eat it entirely before the rest of your meal.

Tip #4 Drink plenty of "iced-water". Drinking cool water will get your metabolism going. Sipping on water throughout the day will also curve your appetite.

Tip #5 Make yourself eat at least one salad a day for a meal. Lite dressing, no blue cheese or Ranch, minimal meat.

Tip #6 Let plant food (phytonutrients) be the main dish. Try to eat ¾ - 1 pound of a combination of lettuce (Romaine – has excellent nutrients), spinach, broccoli, ice berg lettuce, etc. per day. Eat as much as you want.

Tip #7 Eat as much fruit as you want. (Eat a banana and an orange daily).

Tip #8 Drink green/white tea daily. Drink one or two cups a day.

Tip #9 Eat more small meals/snacks. Eat nuts, seeds (sunflower), trail mix, raw almonds through the day.

Oil Health tip

Researhers have found anticarcinogenic properties in monounsaturated fat. Olive oil as well as flax oil is not only great for the heart but can also deter cancer.

Toxins health tip

Saunas (sweating) help clear toxins from your body. It's one of the best (and easiest) ways to rid your body of toxins.

Cinnamon tip

Just half a teaspoon of cinnamon can reduce blood sugar levels, a new study has found. The effect, which can be produced even by soaking a cinnamon stick your tea, could also benefit millions of non-diabetics who have blood sugar problems but are unaware of it.
Not only does consuming cinnamon improve the body's ability to utilize blood sugar, but just smelling the great odor of this spice can boost brain activity!

Cherries

Cherries help prevent and fight cancer in the body. Cherries are a great source of antioxidants which can help repair damaged cells.

There are two types of cherries, tart and sweet cherries, both containing anthocycnins. Generally, tart cherries have been found to have higher concentrations of phenolics and anthocyanins than sweet cherries.

Cherry juice, and especially tart cherries, can be used to relieve the pain and inflammation of: gout, arthritis, and muscle pain.

How much to take?

Many people seem to benefit from consuming two tablespoons per day of tart cherry juice concentrate. Cherry juice concentrate can be found in most grocery and health food stores.

In Japan, fishermen round up and slaughter hundreds and even thousands of dolphins and other small whales each year.

Metabolism

No matter how you look at it, losing or gaining weight always boils down to calories digested versus calories burned. The key factor to managing your weight is to monitor the number of calories you take in, and make sure you are “burning” the appropriate number of calories to maintain or lose your desired weight.

If you want to lose weight, then you have to increase the calories burned off and this requires exercising.

Here are some tips on how to “rev up” your metabolism:

Do you have a drinking glass? Ice in the refrigerator? Great, you have everything you need to start burning off fat right now effortlessly. Go to your refrigerator; fill your glass with ice and cold water, and begin sipping. As simple as this action may seem, your body will be responding in two very significant ways:

Your body is spending extra energy to warm up the ice-cold water inside your body. So drink 6-8 glasses a day.

It takes approximately 6 hours for your body to consume all your calories in a single day. When the time span without food exceeds the time span with food, your body will store fat as much as possible to keep your body functioning. This storage process slows the metabolism and increases your percentage of total body fat. You’re much better off eating 5-6 small meals throughout the day. When your body knows it’s going to be refueled every three hours or so, it perceives no need to store fat and, therefore, burns calories at a faster pace.

Eat more protein. Low fat, high quality protein can increase your metabolic rate by as much as 20%. The best sources of protein are chicken breasts, turkey breasts, lean ground turkey, swordfish, orange roughy, haddock, salmon, tuna, crab, lobster, shrimp, top round steak, top sirloin steak lean ground beef, buffalo, lean ham, egg whites or substitutes, trout, low-fat cottage cheese, wild-game meat. If you are a vegetarian, your best protein sources are tempeh, seitan, tofu, texturized vegetable protein, soy foods and veggie burgers.

Eat low fat, high fiber snacks. Eating light snacks throughout the day reduces the urge to eat large portions at traditional meal times. An added benefit is that “smart snacking” increases your energy and metabolism, triggering an energizing process that produces heat and burns calories. Your best choices for snacks are fresh fruits and vegetables, including apples, bananas, oranges, carrots, celery or radishes.

Exercise

Commit to a specific schedule. When you fail to plan you plan to fail. Don’t try to haphazardly fit your workouts into your schedule without any rhyme or reason. Don’t think you’re guilty? If you’ve ever told yourself “I’ll workout as soon as I get some time”, you were in direct violation of this key principle.

In order to set yourself up for success, you will need to take the time to literally write your workouts into your weekly schedule. In order to be effective, you will want to be following your exercise program at least 3 days per week.

As soon as you wake up in the morning, do a routine set of exercises. Take 5 to 10 minutes and try to break any kind of sweat.

Always, before you take on any new exercise program, consult you physician, especially if you have a medical condition.

Suggestion: Sweating is one of the best ways to “detox” your body

Do sit ups, push ups and stretch

Walk fast for 10 minutes. If you can’t walk outside set up an oval track in your home where you have some long stretches (20+ feet) where you can walk at a brisk pace and get your heart rate up.

Try to do any activity that will make you perspire a little.

“Rebounding” for 3-5 minutes is an excellent way to “break a sweat” and get the circulation going.