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Saturday, April 30, 2011
To Don't List: 8 Overrated Health Fads
Everyday habits can make a big difference in your ability to live a healthy lifestyle. Protect your heart by avoiding these 17 practices. Read More
Friday, April 29, 2011
10 Ways to Walk Off Fat Faster
Everyday habits can make a big difference in your ability to live a healthy lifestyle. Protect your heart by avoiding these 17 practices. Read More
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Magic Yoga Moves for a Trim Tummy
Watch Kristen McGee, Health’s contributing fitness editor and yoga guru, show you how to get a slim waist without ever doing another sit-up again. Then continue reading for even more magic yoga moves for a flat stomach. 
1. Sit on a mat with knees bent and feet flat on the mat. Inhale and engage your abs as you lift your legs up—calves should be parallel to the mat with knees still bent. Hinge your torso back so it’s about halfway between the floor and upright; balance on your sitting bones. 
2. Maintaining your balance, exhale and extend your legs so your body forms a V. 
3. Inhale as you slowly lower both your upper and lower body toward the mat; pause with torso and legs still slightly lifted. 
4. Exhale as you lower your upper body all the way down and raise your legs straight up so your feet point toward the ceiling (your body should form a 90-degree angle). 
5. Inhale as you bend your knees and hug them to your chest. Exhale as you rock back up to sitting with knees still bent, feet on the floor.
Magic yoga move: No more muffin top
Score a slimmer, stronger middle with this tiny-waist routine.
Does it seem like no matter how many crunches you do, your muffin top remains? Here’s the deal: Crunches work only the top layer of your abdominal muscles. To totally trim your waist, you need to target both the deepest front layer of muscle (the part that acts like a girdle to hold your tummy in) and the side muscles (called obliques).
My favorite sequence to do just that is Boat to Canoe to Reclined Staff. Another belly-blasting bonus: Yogic sequences like this help you tune in to your internal signals, making you more likely to eat better (and stop when you’re full) so you’re less likely to pack on the paunch.
Go through this sequence three to five times at least three times a week, then lie on your back and rest for a few seconds with your hands on your belly; feel it sinking down in toward your spine. While you rest, picture yourself with a svelte middle—and a smile, naturally.
How to do it:
1. Sit on a mat with knees bent and feet flat on the mat. Inhale and engage your abs as you lift your legs up—calves should be parallel to the mat with knees still bent. Hinge your torso back so it’s about halfway between the floor and upright; balance on your sitting bones. 2. Maintaining your balance, exhale and extend your legs so your body forms a V. 3. Inhale as you slowly lower both your upper and lower body toward the mat; pause with torso and legs still slightly lifted. 4. Exhale as you lower your upper body all the way down and raise your legs straight up so your feet point toward the ceiling (your body should form a 90-degree angle). 5. Inhale as you bend your knees and hug them to your chest. Exhale as you rock back up to sitting with knees still bent, feet on the floor. Thursday, April 28, 2011
6 Power-Walking Must-Haves
Everyday habits can make a big difference in your ability to live a healthy lifestyle. Protect your heart by avoiding these 17 practices. Read More
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Wednesday, April 27, 2011
31 Ways to Energize Your Workout
Drinking water is a great way to replace the fluids you lose when working out, especially if you sweat a lot. But it’s fine to experiment with other options, too. Green tea may give you extra pep if you feel sluggish, coconut water has cramp-preventing potassium, and chocolate milk can help your muscles recover after a run. ...read more >
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Did You Gain Weight This Winter?
If saying bye to winter's layered clothes has you noticing an extra inch or two underneath, you're not alone. It's easy to put on pounds during those cold months. Take our poll and tell us about it! Monday, April 25, 2011
Shape Up For Summer With <i>The Biggest Loser</i>'s Cara Castronuova
To lose up to 12 pounds in 4 weeks, do Cara's workout and follow her simple diet plan: Aim to eat around 1,300 calories per day (roughly 350 calories each for breakfast and lunch, 300 calories for dinner, plus three 100-calorie snacks), making sure to munch on something every three hours to stay satisfied and curb cravings. Fill up with complex carbs (think: whole grains), fruit, veggies, and lean protein. Keep an eye on your portion sizes (visit Health.com/portions for a handy guide). Also, be sure to drink at least eight large glasses of water or seltzer per day, adding a squeeze of lemon or lime juice or a splash of cranberry juice for refreshing flavor. Cara's shape-up-for-summer meal plan
(Here are some options for each meal of the day)
Breakfast:
• One serving steel-cut oatmeal topped with small sliced banana, a sprinkling of berries, and a drizzle of honey or dash of raw sugar on top. Add 3 scrambled egg whites cooked with a cooking spray and broccoli or spinach.
• Two slices high-fiber whole-wheat toast, each with an egg on top. Add a grapefruit or an orange.
• A low-calorie yogurt (under 120 calories per serving), plus one serving of high-fiber cereal with one cup skim milk or soymilk.
Lunch:
• A large salad of mixed greens, broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes, and string beans; add 3 ounces of grilled or steamed chicken on top. In place of salad dressing, squeeze a lemon or lime over the salad and lightly salt and pepper. Add a slice of whole-wheat toast and a small banana.
• A 4-ounce serving of white steamed fish with steamed veggies on the side. Add a serving of quinoa and a small banana.
• A two-egg omelet made with spinach and broccoli. Add a serving of brown rice and a small banana.
Morning and afternoon snack:
• Low-fat yogurt topped with mixed berries.
• String cheese with a few whole grain crackers or a slice of light whole-wheat toast.
• 10 almonds and a small apple.
• A few slices of low-sodium turkey or chicken breast, plus celery or carrot sticks.
• A cup of grapes with a serving of low-fat cheese
Dinner options:
• 5 ounces steamed white fish with a large plate of steamed veggies.
• 5 ounces steamed chicken with a large plate of steamed veggies.
• 5 ounces lean pork with a large plate of steamed veggies.
Evening snack options:
• A cup of fresh veggies or celery/carrot sticks dipped in a half-serving of low-calorie Ranch salad dressing (40 calories or less).
• A handful of almonds.
• A piece of string cheese.
• A low-fat yogurt.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Belly Burner Diet
Eat complex sugars present in vegetables and fruits on the effortlessly digested ones found in bread, cereal as well as pasta. Fruits and vegetables obviously consist of fiber. An increased soluble fiber ingestion doesn't just aid regulate Your digestive tract, yet may also help you stay full. Simple carbs actually often interfere with weight reduction attempts and even promote putting on weight.
Healthy Fats
Harvard University Medical School information that staying away from trans as well as fatty foods and as an alternative ingesting monounsaturated and unsaturated fat may help with reducing extra stomach fat. These types of healthful fats are simply inside grapes, almonds, pines, hazelnuts, flax seed, plant fibre acrylic and also olive oil. Reasonable intake of the wholesome fat at every dinner also may help avoid snacking in between meals since fat provide satiation in order to meals.
Physical exercise
Do not squander your time performing spot workouts such as sit-ups to get rid of Your abdominal fat. Although sit-ups as well as crunches will establish you stomach muscles, they will not burn fat. Rather, perform full-body exercises that want several muscle mass hiring. Participate in not just cardio exercises such as operating as well as rowing but additionally include strength training. Full-body strength training as well as fitness can help you burn fat, reduce your overall body fat and help to keep deep, stomach body fat off.
Misconceptions
Going on an extreme or serious caloric diet, beneath 1,200 calories from fat for females and also 1,500 calories for guys is not going to help you to get gone stomach fat. Rather, these diets will certainly push your body in to malnourishment setting, decreasing Your own metabolic process and actually creating your system to keep a lot more fat. These types of severe diets Only offer preliminary weight loss; nevertheless, the body weight which is misplaced is liquid. When your body starts shedding fat regarding energy, additionally it is burning up muscle, that makes up about Thirty percent of the pounds misplaced.
Belly Burner Workout
The actual Cow to Cat (refer to it as the particular Curl and Crunch if you like) functions your stomach muscles much like The belly crunch; it is calming in your spinal; it extends as well as fortifies Your spine; and it works your legs as well as buttocks. The reason why the actual uncommon name? Because inside the very first part of the exercise, You stretch out Your torso making it appear to be the large, wide encounter of a cow. In the 2nd part, when you spherical Your back, you look just like a Halloween kitty.
Wear your ankle weights for this exercise. When you're ready, follow these steps:
1. Begin high-low-jack with your legs directly below your body and your arms straight beneath your shoulders. Make sure your hands are dispersed extensive for help and also balance. You look just like a desk within this position.
2. Breathing in to some count of four, decrease your tummy lower while you move your back 1 os at the same time right into a total stretch out together with your chin up. This is actually the cow placement. Keep your body parallel in this action (and through this kind of exercise).
3. Breathing out with a rely of four, round Your back again and tuck in Your chin when you raise the right leg toward your upper body. This particular, the kitty position, will be the starting position. Appear into Your waist line or perhaps your knee. Move Your tailbone down as well as draw your stomach inside and up as you try this part of the particular exercise.
4. Inhaling to some depend of four, raise your correct leg directly at the rear of A person while you raise your face . Spread Your own foot wide, and lift your lower leg in order to cool degree. Imagine that you're demanding your ft . right into a walls. Don't kick or swing action Your own lower-leg; transfer that gradually to work the actual muscles of one's buttocks. Keep the foot aimed toward the ground if you can. Feel Your again mid-foot ( arch ) while you try this area of the exercise.
5. Exhaling to some depend of 4, go back to the actual beginning position. Take care not to decrease your head; lower this gradually into your chest. Focus on Your lung area draining and your tummy compressing when you exhale.
The extending as well as contracting of your abdominal muscles can help you tone and form them.
Repeat this exercise 6 to 8 occasions along with each and every lower-leg, take a rest, and then carry out 6 to 8 much more reps along with each and every leg.
Wear your ankle weights for this exercise. When you're ready, follow these steps:
1. Begin high-low-jack with your legs directly below your body and your arms straight beneath your shoulders. Make sure your hands are dispersed extensive for help and also balance. You look just like a desk within this position.
2. Breathing in to some count of four, decrease your tummy lower while you move your back 1 os at the same time right into a total stretch out together with your chin up. This is actually the cow placement. Keep your body parallel in this action (and through this kind of exercise).
3. Breathing out with a rely of four, round Your back again and tuck in Your chin when you raise the right leg toward your upper body. This particular, the kitty position, will be the starting position. Appear into Your waist line or perhaps your knee. Move Your tailbone down as well as draw your stomach inside and up as you try this part of the particular exercise.
4. Inhaling to some depend of four, raise your correct leg directly at the rear of A person while you raise your face . Spread Your own foot wide, and lift your lower leg in order to cool degree. Imagine that you're demanding your ft . right into a walls. Don't kick or swing action Your own lower-leg; transfer that gradually to work the actual muscles of one's buttocks. Keep the foot aimed toward the ground if you can. Feel Your again mid-foot ( arch ) while you try this area of the exercise.
5. Exhaling to some depend of 4, go back to the actual beginning position. Take care not to decrease your head; lower this gradually into your chest. Focus on Your lung area draining and your tummy compressing when you exhale.
The extending as well as contracting of your abdominal muscles can help you tone and form them.
Repeat this exercise 6 to 8 occasions along with each and every lower-leg, take a rest, and then carry out 6 to 8 much more reps along with each and every leg.
Ways to boost your metabolism
Your metabolism — the energy your system expends sleeping — is generally based on Your genetics, yet brand new studies have shown you can technique your body in to burning up calories more efficiently.
Here are the most effective metabolism enhancers:
Stoke your system with B nutritional vitamins as well as magnesium
* B vitamins: B vitamins are usually important players in DNA synthesis, the central nervous system, metabolism regarding carbohydrates, fatty acids and also protein and energy manufacturing. Inadequate numbers of B6, B12, vitamin Bc, vitamin B1 as well as nicotinic acid can leave you feeling despondent and also fatigued, gradual the body’s metabolism and improve your risk with regard to long-term diseases. Get the bulk of your B’s coming from meals, in which these people pair up with other minerals and vitamins for any complete synergy associated with action. Meals high in the actual B’s consist of: spinach, don't forget your asparagus, coffee beans (navy, soya, dark beans), melon, broccoli, seafood, poultry and also eggs.
* The mineral magnesium: The mineral magnesium can be a vitamin needed by each cell within your body and is used in greater than Three hundred biochemical reactions in your body, such as correct muscle mass, neurological and center function, necessary protein synthesis and metabolism. The National Institutes associated with Health reviews that most Americans usually are not acquiring sufficient the mineral magnesium inside their diets regarding optimal health. Improve your ingestion associated with large magnesium mineral food items to provide Your metabolic rate a boost. Live green together with your veggies. Vegetables for example kale supply magnesium because the heart from the pigment compound includes the mineral magnesium. Other superb causes of the mineral magnesium consist of: flatfish, crazy such as walnuts, cashews as well as peanuts, soybeans (edamame), whole-grain cereal products, oatmeal, as well as legumes including black-eyed pea as well as lentils.
Treat right
Snacking might help stir up your power by giving your system an energy boost. Eating healthy treats, in snack-size portions, can help you avoid the over hungry-overeating syndrome that always contributes to overweight and may make you feel lethargic. Be sure to consist of healthy carbs as well as proteins in each snack such as: peanut butter as well as banana, trail blend, hummus and also infant carrots, or perhaps a great apple company together with low-fat Cheddar cheese. The protein/carbohydrate combination help regulate blood sugar, energy as well as feelings regarding satiety.
Begin your day intelligent
Want to improve your metabolism? Eat breakfast every day. Reports say which ingesting breakfast may possibly increase resting metabolic rate by 10 % and reduce the risk of weight problems and also diabetes. Make certain it’s a healthy morning with whole-grain cereal and also fruit, wholemeal bread toasted and also peanut butter or nonfat yogurt along with a handful of granola.
* Speed enjoy
Interval training or speed play is a good way to increase Your metabolic process and you could make your workouts more enjoyable. Interval training workouts alternates quick jolts associated with intense action with lower strength exercise. For example; alternating runs using a gradual jog, or even running up A mountain followed by a simple alpine lope. Interval training instructs the heart as well as muscles to utilize oxygen more proficiently. A few research has found that interval training workouts changes the particular organelles (the engine such as organelles which produce vitality in cells) burning more body fat. You will likely burn more calories, increase your metabolic rate along with your level of fitness at a faster rate compared to Your outdated common exercise.
* Strength training — As we grow older we have a tendency to shed muscle, gain excess fat as well as our own metabolic process slows down as a result. One method to fight this organic process downturn has been regular durability or perhaps resistance training. Strength training encourages muscles being stronger as well as healthier, supplying the body along with helpful advancements inside power and perform. Strength training also reduces excess fat mass as well as boosts muscle tissue.
Here are the most effective metabolism enhancers:
Stoke your system with B nutritional vitamins as well as magnesium
* B vitamins: B vitamins are usually important players in DNA synthesis, the central nervous system, metabolism regarding carbohydrates, fatty acids and also protein and energy manufacturing. Inadequate numbers of B6, B12, vitamin Bc, vitamin B1 as well as nicotinic acid can leave you feeling despondent and also fatigued, gradual the body’s metabolism and improve your risk with regard to long-term diseases. Get the bulk of your B’s coming from meals, in which these people pair up with other minerals and vitamins for any complete synergy associated with action. Meals high in the actual B’s consist of: spinach, don't forget your asparagus, coffee beans (navy, soya, dark beans), melon, broccoli, seafood, poultry and also eggs.
* The mineral magnesium: The mineral magnesium can be a vitamin needed by each cell within your body and is used in greater than Three hundred biochemical reactions in your body, such as correct muscle mass, neurological and center function, necessary protein synthesis and metabolism. The National Institutes associated with Health reviews that most Americans usually are not acquiring sufficient the mineral magnesium inside their diets regarding optimal health. Improve your ingestion associated with large magnesium mineral food items to provide Your metabolic rate a boost. Live green together with your veggies. Vegetables for example kale supply magnesium because the heart from the pigment compound includes the mineral magnesium. Other superb causes of the mineral magnesium consist of: flatfish, crazy such as walnuts, cashews as well as peanuts, soybeans (edamame), whole-grain cereal products, oatmeal, as well as legumes including black-eyed pea as well as lentils.
Treat right
Snacking might help stir up your power by giving your system an energy boost. Eating healthy treats, in snack-size portions, can help you avoid the over hungry-overeating syndrome that always contributes to overweight and may make you feel lethargic. Be sure to consist of healthy carbs as well as proteins in each snack such as: peanut butter as well as banana, trail blend, hummus and also infant carrots, or perhaps a great apple company together with low-fat Cheddar cheese. The protein/carbohydrate combination help regulate blood sugar, energy as well as feelings regarding satiety.
Begin your day intelligent
Want to improve your metabolism? Eat breakfast every day. Reports say which ingesting breakfast may possibly increase resting metabolic rate by 10 % and reduce the risk of weight problems and also diabetes. Make certain it’s a healthy morning with whole-grain cereal and also fruit, wholemeal bread toasted and also peanut butter or nonfat yogurt along with a handful of granola.
* Speed enjoy
Interval training or speed play is a good way to increase Your metabolic process and you could make your workouts more enjoyable. Interval training workouts alternates quick jolts associated with intense action with lower strength exercise. For example; alternating runs using a gradual jog, or even running up A mountain followed by a simple alpine lope. Interval training instructs the heart as well as muscles to utilize oxygen more proficiently. A few research has found that interval training workouts changes the particular organelles (the engine such as organelles which produce vitality in cells) burning more body fat. You will likely burn more calories, increase your metabolic rate along with your level of fitness at a faster rate compared to Your outdated common exercise.
* Strength training — As we grow older we have a tendency to shed muscle, gain excess fat as well as our own metabolic process slows down as a result. One method to fight this organic process downturn has been regular durability or perhaps resistance training. Strength training encourages muscles being stronger as well as healthier, supplying the body along with helpful advancements inside power and perform. Strength training also reduces excess fat mass as well as boosts muscle tissue.
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