Lose Weight With Living Foods

Losing Weight Is As Easy As 1,2,3,4 with Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy

This week’s four tips include suggestions in each of the four elements you need to work on in order to achieve your health, fitness, wellness and weight loss goals: (eating right, exercise, support and accountability).

1. Good Eating Tip
Next time you order pizza for yourself or your kids ask for half the cheese. Youll barely notice any taste loss. But what you will lose is tons of calories and a whole lot of grams of saturated fats. Pizzas doesnt have to be left off weekly menu anymore.

2. Making Exercise Safe and Fun
In order to lose weight you have to become more active. Most people do anything to avoid moving their bodies. And society is an accomplice. You can pick up food, a prescription, your clothes and your kid without leaving your car. In President Bushs new Healthier US initiative (http://www.healthierus.gov) he suggests walking for 30 minutes each day. Even if you have to break it up into 10-15 minute chunks. Not only will you burn 200-300 calories, you can walk with your family and increase your quality time as well. Move family time away from the TV and onto the street.

3. Maintaining Your Support System
If youre the type of person who feels guilty about things, great news. You can use that emotion to help you lose weight. Heres how. Exercise with a partner. But before you start make a pact that you will not let the other person down and you will pick them up should they start losing interest. Its much easier to let yourself down then another person. You wont do it, because youll feel guilty if you do.

4. Accountability Tools
A food diary is a great way to keep track of what you eating and when. Keep track of what you consume on an hourly basis throughout the day. If you do this for 2 weeks you will see exactly where those extra calories (and thereby those extra pounds) are coming from. Also, dont forget to keep track of what youre drinking.

10 Great Hair Care Tips

If you watch the tabloids, you know that even the stars have bad hair days. It just seems that when the professional stylists are out of the picture, it is inherently human to have a less than glamorous mane. But you can do your part to stay ahead of the battle by following these great tips for hair care.

1. Use a professional conditioner that is formulated for your specific hair type. While you can skimp a little on the shampoo, a good, professional conditioner is a must have. Look for products in salons that are customized for your hair type. For instance: If you have color or a perm, choose a conditioner that is for chemically processed hair. And stay away from those all-in-one shampoo and conditioner combos.

2. Choose a cut tailored to your face and body shape. The number one mistake that people make when choosing a new hairstyle is to pick a style based on popularity rather than how it will enhance their features. Always choose a new cut based on how it will enhance or detract from your facial features and build. If you have broad shoulders, choose a full-bodied cut over a close cropped head hugging doo.

3.Dont forget your UV protectants. Just as your skin gets damaged by wind and sun, so does your hair. To combat this, look for finishing products such as mousses, gels and sprays that block UV rays.

4. Keep your appointments. Did you know that your hair will split faster than it will grow? You need to get a trim every 6 to 8 weeks, even if its just a micro trim. A good hairdresser makes them good because they know what to leave on the head, not take off.

5. Leave chemicals to the professionals. There is a reason why beauticians need to go to school to learn how to handle chemicals and hair processes. You can do irreparable damage with these products even if the package says that its way easy. And even if you dont make your hair fall out, you could end up looking like a clown and paying a stylist big bucks to fix your mess. (Note: Most stylists charge double the rate for corrective color than they do for normal color processes)

6. Get color for interest and body. Every cut needs a little bit of color to make it truly breathtaking. No matter whether your taste is subtle or dramatic, you can add interest and volume to your tresses with a color process. Highlights, lowlights, all over color, gray coverage, you name it, its all good for your look.

7. Do weekly conditioning treatments. Even if your hair is extremely healthy, it is constantly on the attack from wind, sun, cold and heat. During the summer months, your hair is battered even more when it absorbs chlorine and other chemicals from your pool.

8. Get an ionic ceramic flat iron. Instead of frying your hair with a conventional metal plated flat iron. Straighten your tresses, add shine and infuse moisture with one of the a negative ionic flat irons. We personally use T3 irons for all our work.

9. Choose your styling products wisely. Avoid products that leave build-up on your hair. If you see white gunk, that means that your product is not water-soluble and may be coating your hair shaft. Build-up causes limpness, breakage and inability to curl not to mention the white flakes.

10. Did you know that if you use a towel after your shower to dry your hair you are causing split ends and adding static electricity to your hair. Dont rub the towel back and forth over your hair, scrunch the towel around your hair like your would scrunch crackers in your soup.

While all of these tips wont make you look like youve hired a personal hairdresser, they will help you look the very best that you can each and every day. When it comes to hair care, remember that you wear your hair everyday. Now isnt it worth the time, effort and money that it takes to keep it looking spectacular?

Losing weight is all about what you gain

Many people have thought about losing weight over the years, but often seem to fall short of an actual attempt to do it. The reason why so many people think about it so much is because deep down, they know that having that extra poundage is not at all good for them. The problem is, just knowing that being overweight is bad is not enough to really push many people to do something about it. Much like wanting to quit smoking, knowing it is bad for you dont induce people to quit doing it. However, if you were to find some really good reasons to quit smoking, like your doctor told you if you dont quit, you will lose a lung next year, that might make you act and just do it.

Well, losing weight is just like quitting smoking, the more good reasons you have to do it, the more likely you are to act on it and make it happen. If you have something driving your motivation aside from just knowing it is bad for you, you are also more likely to maintain your weight loss goal once you reach it.

First and foremost, losing weight means getting healthier. When you lose those extra pounds you greatly reduce the risk or heart disease, stroke, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and joint stress, all conditions associated with being overweight. When you reduce these risks, it means you can have a much better chance of being around to see your children grow up and being around to enjoy your grandchildren. That alone is reason enough to get that weight down.

Another reason you might want to consider for losing weight is that you will feel better. As you begin to lose some of those extra pounds, you will start to notice your energy levels increasing. Being overweight by 20 pounds is like putting a 20 pound sack of potatoes on your shoulders all day. Extra body fat is nothing more than an extra burden to carry around with you everyday, so the extra weight drains your energy. For this reason, overweight people tend to be less active and this promotes more fat to collect up on them. As this continues, they become even less active and so this becomes a vicious cycle leading to obesity.

As a nice little side benefit, losing weight will make you look better, and who doesnt want to look better? Each and every one of us has a vision of what we want to look like. Most people are not completely satisfied with the way they look. They will always find something they dont like about themselves and wish they could change and for people who are overweight; this can be a great motivator to lose weight. A recent study done concluded that as early as age 5, girls who had higher body weights had lower self esteem than girls with normal body weight.

When a person loses weight, what are almost always the responses of other people who know that person? You hear things like; you look good; youve lost weight havent you? And think about how you would feel when youve lost enough weight to be able to fit into that dress or that pair of pants you wore back in high school. Now keep in mind, looking better is a great reason to lose weight but it should not be the only one.

When you have at least a few good, valid reasons to want to lose weight, it will be a lot easier to motivate yourself to get started and stay with it. Lets face it, your health, well being and self esteem are very good reasons to get rid of those extra pounds and keep them off for good.

Womens exercise: The 5 Rs Principle

This week, my gym is flooded with new faces. It’s that post-New Years craze that sends everyone to the gyms to try and fulfill that elusive but always primary goal of the New Year: lose weight and get into shape. I watched one new member make her way around through the jungle of strength training equipment last night. She moved from machine to machine doing one set here, two sets there, five repetitions here, twenty there. No rhyme or reason to it, no paper and pencil in hand, it just appeared another random attempt at a workout. What if there was a simple, straightforward way of taking a workout and figuring out exactly what should be in it? There is it’s called the 5 Rs principle.

The 5 Rs Principle can help beginning exercisers figure out what exactly goes into an effective workout. Each `R’focuses on an important element of an exercise routine that forces the beginner to look at their workouts in a holistic fashion.

RANGE of motion

Range of motion refers to how the capability of a joint to move through a prescribed set of movements. In order for a beginner to see results, each exercise should be performed from a fully stretched position of the muscle to a fully contracted position. An example: I see a lot of beginners (and people who have been around the gym long enough to know better) load up the EZ-curl bar for preacher curls and perform the exercise only lowering the bar halfway down on the eccentric portion of the exercise. Not only can this cause injury to the bicep muscle, it also doesn’t work the muscle the best way possible and limits the results of the exercise.

You’ll hear the term `range of motion’ often in reference to joint health and mobility. This is no exception in the gym. Your joints are supported by large and small muscles. In order to optimize your joint health, all the muscles surrounding the joints must be worked as well.

RESISTANCE

When you’re just starting to lift weights, how much weight to use is a huge issue. It’s unfortunate that many personal trainers will tell women to use a lighter weight so that they will “tone up” and not get bulky. This is probably the biggest myth in all of weight lifting? women who lift heavy weights will not get bulky. Don’t believe anyone who tells you this! Choose a weight that allows you to complete the exercise without sacrificing proper form but that is heavy enough that you cannot possibly perform another repetition at the end of your prescribed set of repetitions.

REPETITIONS

Another huge variable for beginning exercisers is how many repetitions to perform. Performing certain repetitions will indeed produce highly specific results. In general, low repetitions (3-8) produce greater absolute strength, medium repetitions (10-20) produce anaerobic strength endurance, and high repetitions (20-40) produce aerobic strength endurance.

Now, an ideal beginner routine will probably include sets of medium repetitions, just to allow the exerciser to learn to perform the exercise correctly, with proper form and technique and to allow her to experiment with experiencing muscle fatigue at 12-15 repetitions. As she progresses, she can experiment with different set/rep schemes customized to individual goals.

An important note is that in order to achieve the results desired from performing a certain number of repetitions is that muscular failure must be achieved within the repetition ranges above. Muscular failure means that you can’t possibly push out one more repetition no matter how hard you’re trying to do it.

REST

In general, your body needs between two to four minutes of rest between sets to prepare itself to perform another set at maximum capacity. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and phosphocreatine (PC) are used by your muscle cells to contract during a weight lifting exercise. Your body needs time to regenerate these two compounds before it is ready to go again.

Unless you’re trying to develop all-out absolute strength by performing low repetitions with very heavy weight, you’re probably not going to need to wait that long between sets. Most beginners will be working within a medium repetition range and therefore do not need to wait that long between sets. One to two minutes is fine.

RECOVERY

You will not see faster or better results by working the same muscle groups day after day. As important as hard work is, recovery between workouts is even more important. Beginners should work the same muscle groups no more than two times per week, with at least forty- eight hours break between sessions. As an exerciser becomes more advanced, she will probably cut back to working each muscle group once every seven days or so.

5 Helpful Things to Do to Start Your Personal Fitness

5 Helpful Things to Do to Start Your Personal Fitness Program

The most common challenge that people I talk to face is how to incorporate fitness into their lives. They know they have to do something to get in shape but they really dont know how. It can be discouraging because of the abundance of information out there. So much that you may not know where to begin.

Our society has so many food choices that it is easy to pack on the extra pounds. Also our day to day jobs are less physical as they where 100 years ago so we have more sedentary life styles. We know there are benefits involved when we exercise and cleaning up or diet. However, most of us know dont know how or where to start.

So where do we begin? Or is the question: How do we begin?

The very first thing you need do is go to your doctor and get the approval to start exercising.Your doctor may also provide some helpful tips as well.

After you get the OK from your doctor, try these 5 things to help you get started:

Make the Choice to Start Exercising and Eating Right

Making the decision to do something provides a form of commitment you made to your self. Deciding that you need to change behavior creates new possibilities. When you say to your self I need to get in shape, it means something. You should be answering these questions in your mind: When can I work out? What exercises do I need to do? What foods should I be eating? Make your self think about the commitment you just made. Only then you can let go of the past and take steps to move forward.

Write Down What You Do

You need a reference that is realistic towards your weekly activity. Write down everything you do during the week. This should include work hours, commuting hours, nights spent with your spouse, your childs activities and anything else you can think of that you do. You should also include what you do on weekends. You should make a list for each day of the week. Heres why..

Some people set lofty goals like working out for 2 hours a day. This can be due to an old saying, More is Better. However, this is not the case. Knowing your schedule will help you set realistic goals and help you find a few hours a week to start exercising. Youll have a visual perspective on what you can and cant do with your routine.

Research and Get Information

Most people do not have enough information before they start a work out program. So how do we get the information we need? The good news is we live in the information age. Take advantage of your favorite search engine and learn a little bit about fitness and nutrition. However, do not go overboard and lose focus. Find a source of information you like and take notes. Find the simplest and easiest workouts and nutrition tips. Dont over load yourself with information.

If you have the money, hire a personal trainer for a few sessions to help you get started. Hiring a personal trainer is a great way to get started because you have made a commitment to meet someone to workout. Your goal is to have the trainer show you the basics on exercise and eating healthier. It may also be safer to learn how to perform the exercises (especially if you have not exercised for a while).

Create a Simple Plan and Set Realistic Goals

Keep it Simple! Following a simple plan while on a hectic schedule is much easier than following an elaborate plan. You should have a plan of which days you want to work out and one goal to change your eating habits for the next few weeks. For example, I will work out for a half an hour for 3 days this week. I will eat a little less each meal. Simple is success.

Execute Your Plan

Now that you have a plan, all you need to do is follow it. This is another big step. You should look at your plan every day upon waking. You need be mentally prepared for the great day ahead of you. Having your daily schedule in hand will help you achieve your goals for the day. When you complete your workout for the day, highlight it or cross it off your list. It will show you that you accomplished something for yourself. No matter what you must execute. This will be the hardest (and most rewarding) step.

I hope these things help you get started on a new life of physical fitness. Life is filled with making decisions, knowing your commitments, getting information, planning and execution. Try these approaches for yourself and you will see that having your own workout and nutrition program is not as far fetched or complicated as you think.