Nutrition: Healthy Eating Tips

Healthy Eating

EASY TIPS FOR PLANNING A HEALTHY DIET AND STICKING TO IT

Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, and keeping yourself as healthy as possible– all of which can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and using them in a way that works for you.

Healthy eating begins with learning how to “eat smart”—it’s not justwhat you eat, but how you eat. Your food choices can reduce your risk of illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, as well as defend against depression. Additionally, learning the habits of healthy eating can improve your health by boosting your energy, sharpening your memory and stabilizing your mood. Expand your range of healthy food choices and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a satisfying, healthy diet.

Healthy eating tip 1: Set yourself up for success  

To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big drastic change. If you approach the changes gradually and with commitment, you will have a healthy diet sooner than you think.

• Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of color, variety and freshness—then it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.
• Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart.  Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking.  As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.
• Every change you make to improve your diet matters. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet.  The long term goal is to feel good, have more energy and reduce the risk of cancer and disease. Don’t let your missteps derail you—every healthy food choice you make counts.

Think of exercise as a food group in your diet.

Find something active that you like to do and add it to your day, just like you would add healthy greens, blueberries or salmon. The benefits of lifelong exercise are abundant and regular exercise may even motivate you to make healthy food choices a habit.

PS: Article Courtesy: Helpguide.org

Nutrition: Nutrition Chart & Daily requirements for energy

Check out the this Link to understand your daily requirements for energy

http://www.healthynutritionguide.info/nutritionchart.htm#zapotrzebowanie

Workout: Easy Exercises You Can Do At Home

Here are some simple exercises you can do to start with

Cardiovascular Exercises:

1.      Walking

• Walking is the simplest, cheapest and easiest form of cardiovascular exercise.
• It is the best starting point for anyone who is just starting to exercise.
• It is very low impact and is extremely convenient.
• Start slowly, then gradually work up to walking longer and faster.

2. Jogging/Running

• This is a step up from walking. It is harder and puts more impact and stress on the body.
• If you are just starting an exercise program, work through fast walking before moving up to jogging.

  

3. Cycling

• Riding a bike is an excellent, no-impact form of cardio.

  

4. Swimming

• Swimming involves all the major muscles of the body.
• It is no-impact and is very useful for injury recovery

Resistance Training Exercises:

1. Chest

Wall Push-Ups

• Stand facing a wall with your feet about 1 to 2 feet back from it.
• Place your hands on the wall just outside shoulder-width apart.
• Bending only at the elbows, lower yourself forward towards the wall then push yourself away from it.
• Keep your body stiff and straight during the movement.

2. Back

Standing Rows

• These are done from a standing position.
• Loop a towel around a vertical pole or column or another fixed object so that the ends of the towel are pointing towards you and the towel is wrapped around the far side of the pole.
• Have your feet close up to the pole and lean back gripping on the ends of the towel and keeping your body stiff and straight.
• Row yourself up with both arms.
• Keep your back arched and row with your back.

3. Shoulders

Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Presses

• Use something around the house for weight, e.g. soup cans or milk jugs with water in them.
• From a seated or standing position, hold the weights just above your shoulders.
• Push them up overhead slowly.

4. Legs

Bodyweight Squats

• Place your feet about shoulder width apart.
• Keeping your torso vertical and a slight arch in your lower back, start the movement by bending the knees.
• Go only as far down as you feel comfortable when first starting out. If you can go down until your thighs are just below parallel, do so. This is the full range goal.
• Using leg power, push yourself back up to the start position. Use your grip on the bar only for balance unless you absolutely need to pull yourself up.
• As you get stronger with squats, don't use the bar anymore. When you can do good, full-range reps without the bar, you can start using weight.
• For weight, use two duffel bags (evenly loaded) or two milk jugs, etc. Hold them at your sides and squat.

5. Abdominals

Abdominal Crunches

• Lie down flat on your back with your knees bent and your feet on the floor.
• Hold your hands wherever you feel comfortable (on your chest or beside your head - just be sure you don't pull on your head).
• The typical crunch is taught by instructing you to simply roll your upper torso forward. This is fine to start with.
• To increase the effectiveness of the crunch movement, push your chest and head up towards the ceiling pushing your lower back flat onto the floor.
• Your anatomy will automatically cause you to follow a crunching pattern.
• Hold at the top of the movement for a second and squeeze hard.

6. Biceps

Dumbbell Curls

• Stand with your knees slightly bent, arms at your sides, holding your resistance bags or two dumbbells in your hands.
• The curl movement happens only at the elbow. With your upper arm pinned at your side and bending only at the elbow, lift the weight up to shoulder level.
• Your palm should be facing forward all the way up and all the way down.
• Squeeze hard at the top then lower slowly.
• Do the same with the other arm, alternating back and forth.

7. Triceps

Bench Dips

• These can be done on the edge of a chair or bench.
• Sit on the side edge of a flat bench or the front edge of a chair.
• Place your hands on the edge of the chair right beside your glutes and grip the edge.
• To start with, your feet should be flat on the floor about two feet in front of you with your knees bent.
• Move yourself off the chair so you are now supporting yourself on your hands.
• Bend your arms, dipping your body down. Go down only as far as you feel comfortable, being careful not to bounce out of the bottom.
• Push back up, squeezing the triceps.
• It is important to keep your back close to the edge of the bench as you do these to minimize shoulder stress.
• When you're done the set, push yourself back onto the chair.

8. Calves

Standing Calf Raises

• This exercise can be done on the edges of stairs, wood blocks, books, etc.
• Do both legs at the same time to start with then, as you get stronger, do them one leg at a time.
• Hold a bag in your hand for resistance as you get stronger
• Stand on the edge of the block with only the balls of your feet on the block.
• Keeping knees stiff and bending only at the ankles lower your heels down towards the floor.
• Go down until you feel a strong stretch in your calves.
• Reverse the direction without bouncing and push up as high as you can.
• Do this movement slowly to feel the contraction all the way up.

 PS : Article Courtesy Fitstep.com

BMI Calculator and Weight status chart

How to Calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index)
http://www.whathealth.com/bmi/formula.html

Please use the link to understand :-

• Formula for BMI calculation
• Weight status according to your BMI. 

Abs & Core Workout :-

This abs and core workout involves a variety of exercises designed to strengthen the rectus abdominis, oblique’s, the transverse abdominis and the erector spinae.  This is a great overall workout for intermediate exercisers who've been strength training for at least 4 to 8 weeks.  

    

Precautions
See your doctor before trying this workout if you have any injuries, illnesses or other conditions. 

Equipment needed
An exercise ball and a mat.

How To Do

• Begin with a 5- to- 10-minute warm-up of light cardio (walking in place, etc.).
• Perform 2 sets of 16 reps of each exercise with 20 to 30 seconds of rest between sets unless otherwise noted.
• Perform this workout 2 to 3 times a week with at least one day of rest between workouts
• For best weight loss results, combine this workout with regular cardio, strength training and a healthy, low-calorie diet.

Ball Crunches

Lie on the ball with hands behind the head.  Contract the abs and lift the shoulders off the ball, crunching them toward the hips without rolling on the ball.  Lower and repeat for 2 sets of 16 reps.

Reverse Crunches

   

Lie on your back with knees bent in to the chest.  Contract the abs to lift the hips off the floor.  Lower and repeat for two sets of 16 reps.  Try not to swing the legs or use momentum to lift the hips.

Long-Arm Crunch

Lie on a mat and extend the arms straight out behind the head.  Contract the abs and lift the shoulder blades off the floor.  For more neck support, place one hand behind the head while keeping the other arm extended.  Lower and repeat for two sets of 16 reps.

Bicycle

Lie on the floor with hands supporting the head and bring the knees to the chest.  Lift the shoulders off the floor and straighten the left leg while rotating the upper body to bring the left elbow toward the right knee. Switch sides, bringing the right elbow toward the left knee, and repeat for two sets of 16 reps.

Plank

Rest on your forearms and toes (put the knees down for an easier modification) and keep the hips down and back flat.  Hold for 20 to 60 seconds.

Knee Tucks

Position the ball under shins/ankles, with hands on the floor, and roll the ball in, bending the knees toward the chest as you squeeze the abs.  Try not to push back with your arms, but instead, keep all the movement in the knees.  Return to start and repeat for two sets of 16 reps.

 Back Extensions

Lie face down with hands either behind the back or lightly cradling the head. Lift upper body off the ground a few inches, keeping the head and neck in alignment. For a challenge, lift feet off the ground keeping legs straight (knees don't have to be together).  Lower and repeat for two sets of 16 reps.

P S : Article courtesy About.com  

Nutrition: The Benefits of Snacks High In Protein

Protein bars, protein shakes, even protein water—what’s with all the protein snacks these days? Well, many people are learning the benefits of eating (and drinking) snacks high in protein. Whether they have major fitness goals or are just interested in maintaining a certain weight, protein is a valuable nutrient necessary to our optimal health in many ways. Let’s talk about how snacks high in protein can boost your fitness results and what sort of snacks are best.

When you exercise and especially when you weight train, your muscles experience trauma. Tiny tears in the muscle tissue is called catabolism and the repairs of these tissues is called anabolism. In most cases, the body uses proteins to sort of patch up the tears, strengthening the muscle tissue and even causing muscle growth. Increased protein consumption can only assist this process and this is where snacks high in protein come in.

In addition to assisting with muscle repairs, snack high in protein are often lower in calories and fat. Protein is likewise said to keep you fuller longer, allowing you to avoid the munchies in between meals that can spell disaster to your diet plan. A protein rich snack midmorning and one in the afternoon can keep you away from the vending machines at work and away from the value meals at a lunchtime drivethru.

Many people mistakenly think that they will have to increase meat consumption to get snacks high in protein and this simply isn’t true. Nuts are a great source of protein, as are eggs and dairy products. Bean products like hummus are an excellent way to get more protein without tiring of the same old solutions. 

Top Five Workout Tips:- Men & Women

1. To reduce body fat, you have to do cardiovascular exercise and weight training to increase your metabolism rate.
2. You have to give a new fitness program some time to deliver noticeable results. When you start cardiovascular and strength training, you might actually gain weight. Why? During the initial stage, you are most likely put on lean muscle faster than you are losing body fat. Because muscles are compact and heavier than fat, that is why your body weight may increase slightly. However, once you have kicked start your metabolism, your weight should start dropping.
3. Like it or not, your diet is still the key deciding factor of your weight loss battle. Don’t think that just because you go to gym often, that you can eat everything you want. However, I am not encouraging you to eat less. A well-balanced diet that includes lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and lots of fruits and veggies is important. Drink water and not coffee. Drink milk and not beer.
4. Train your body evenly. Many women will spend most time at the machine training inner thighs or butt. Other body parts are not so important for them. This approach is not correct because this will cause muscle imbalances and leads to injury, poor posture, and a worse physique. Just as you train equally on your left and right sides, train equally in the front and the back.
5. Weight training does not make you huge like wrestler. Women have less testosterone that men have, which means that their bodies are far less able to build big muscles. So, do not forget to incorporate weight training in your workout routine.