Yoga for Weight Loss

When the majority of people think about yoga, the first thing that pops to mind is certainly not yoga for weight loss. The general view of yoga is that it's so slow and relaxing that the reason for the yoga mat, is so that you had something to fall asleep on mid position. The odd truth is that it is actually pretty effective for weight loss.

Now it's certainly possible to use yoga as a way to relax and many people do. It's also possible to use it to increase flexibility, tone and strengthen your core naturally. And while these things are great, if you make a few changes to your standard yoga set (namely speed it up and get that heart rate going) and you can do all of this and use your yoga session for some pretty effective weight loss.

Now I never promote any of these stupid gimmick weight loss products or methods. There are so many rubbish methods kicking around the bookshelves and internet these days. The beauty with using yoga for weight loss is that it comes with the additional benefits, it can cost nothing to do and it's also easier than a lot of methods out there.

Now before you start trying to do the splits I'd like to point out a few things before you get carried away with the idea of yoga for weight loss. Firstly it's no silver bullet for losing weight. You should combine it with other exercise techniques and (above all else) healthy eating. The best combination of getting fit and healthy for me personally was Ashtanga yoga and swimming.

You also need to pace yourself when learning yoga. Many instructors and guides will show you how to scale down positions until you are ready. You can cause some surprising damage to yourself if you overstretch your abilities to early. Learning yoga for weight loss still requires you to learn yoga properly to start with. Yes, this is slower but it's that or you'll tear something and do you really want that trip to the doctors?

There are loads of yoga for weight loss DvD sets around the internet not to mention guides and books lining the place, To be honest you don't need to do too much to get started, it's not one of these lose weight quick scams that wants all your money. Get yourself a few video guides to get the idea and make some space on the living room floor.

If you have the time and money I would highly suggest you join a yoga class, you should easily be able to find one in your area. Once you have the basic idea and you've increased your flexibility you can start to speed up your sessions and hold your positions longer with less breaks. That's all it really takes to convert a normal relaxing yoga session into a yoga for weight loss workout.

If it sounds like something you'd like to learn more about, whether you have previous experience with yoga or you're new to the idea of yoga for weight loss then I'd suggest taking a look at [ http://tinyurl.com/paam6ql ] for loads of guides (including some great video guides!).

Yoga for Weight Loss

Read More

The Age Erasing Diet

Food does much more than satisfy your taste buds and silence your growling belly — the right eats can help you look great, feel fantastic, and stay sexy for decades to come. Eat to stay young by following these five commandments of long-lasting health and beauty. 


Age-Erasing Law No. 1 Shop For Color 

Antioxidants are those chemicals in foods that give tomatoes their bright red sheen, broccoli that lush green color, blueberries their range of blues, and eggplant its deep purple skin. More important, they're the compounds that keep lines from creeping onto your face and cholesterol from clogging your arteries. And they take the prize when it comes to stiff-arming the aging process. These nutritional superheroes neutralize cell-damaging free radicals, which have been linked to everything from wrinkles and age spots to cancer and heart disease. "In addition to staving off the visible signs of getting older, antioxidants can go as far as to actually reverse age-related cell damage," says Bonnie Taub-Dix, R. D., a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. What's more, research also points to a compelling connection between eating foods that are loaded with antioxidants and living a longer, healthier life. 

Because different antioxidants tackle different aging concerns, your best bet is to get a variety of them. The easiest way to accomplish that is to eat fruits and vegetables of many colors, as each hue signifies a separate health benefit. For example, the antioxidants in berries help maintain cognitive and motor functioning, those found in pomegranates have been found to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, and broccoli and brussels sprouts contain compounds that help prevent breast cancer. 


Age-Erasing Law No. 2 Fatten Up 

Monounsaturated fats found in olive oil, fish, nuts, and seeds have been shown to lower the risk of a host of age-related diseases: arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and even Alzheimer's. So if you still have an aversion to the 'F' word, it's time to get over it. Your appearance will benefit, too: The more omega-3's (mostly found in fatty fish like wild salmon) you consume, the more you reduce your risk of age-related skin damage. 


Age-Erasing Law No. 3 Sip Red Wine 

Drink one glass of red vino (preferably with a meal, so your body absorbs it more slowly) four to five days a week. The habit has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack, diabetes, and other life-threatening illnesses. Part of the credit goes to the alcohol, which helps soothe inflamed arteries, but red wine — especially pinot noir — is also full of flavonoids, another class of powerful antioxidants that come from the skin of red grapes. Not a big wine fan? Pour yourself a glass of Concord grape juice. 


Age-Erasing Law No. 4 Drink Green Tea 

Packed with potent antioxidants called catechins, green tea may be the single best age-defying substance you can put in your mug. Sipping just one cup a day will decrease your chances of developing high blood pressure by 46 percent; drink more and you'll reduce your risk by 65 percent. What's the best of the best? A study in the Journal of Food Science discovered that of the 77 U. S. brands tested, Stash Darjeeling organic green tea is the winner, delivering 100 catechins per gram. 


Age-Erasing Law No. 5 Eat Less 

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have discovered that women who stayed closest throughout adulthood to what they weighed at 18 had a 66 percent lower risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and gallstones than women who had put on 11 to 22 pounds by middle age. 

Unfortunately, as you age it gets harder to keep those extra pounds off. "If you keep the physical activity and the food the same, you will put on a pound or two per year," says Walter Willett, Ph. D., chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and one of the lead researchers of the study. Despite your best efforts, a hormone that helps maintain muscle mass is depleted as you get older; that's why the scale still creeps up, even when you do the same kick-ass workout you were doing five years ago. 

The other half of the equation is to put less on your plate: Studies have shown that rats following a calorie-restricted diet live 30 percent longer than rats that eat normally. Reducing the amount you eat may help you live longer and prevent the problems related to extra weight — heart disease, high blood pressure, physical limitations — that are also associated with getting older. Low-cal living also keeps you away from the dangers of yo-yo dieting, especially the skin stretching that can make you look years older (think jowls — definitely not cute). Of course, noshing on less doesn't mean depriving yourself of delicious foods. So eat right and stay young! 

The Age Erasing Diet

Read More

Fad Diets

According to the United States Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health,fad diets include "the promotion for profit of special foods, products, processes, or appliances with false or misleading health or therapeutic claims."

Fad diets are generally used by consumers to shed a great amount of weight in a short period of time. They are usually based on the erroneous belief that a particular food or food component can cause rapid weight loss or cure a disease. Another tenet of fad diets is that certain foods are harmful and therefore should be avoided completely.

Fad diets usually result in a short-term weight loss—but most people gain the weight back after discontinuing the diet. The American Dietetic Association (ADA) has established a few guidelines to help evaluate the reliability of fad diets. They suggest that consumers avoid diets that claim weight loss can be achieved in a very short period of time; that imply that weight can be lost without any physical activity; or that rely on undocumented studies.

The most reliable way to lose weight safely and maintain weight loss is by eating a variety of foods and exercising consistently. Dieters who follow the guidelines set by the ADA, which include eating a variety of foods, balancing food intake withexercise, choosing a variety of fruits and vegetables, limiting saturated fat andcholesterol, and keeping total fat intake to a moderate level will have a healthy lifestyle—which when adhered to will ultimately aid in weight management. Many fad diets, for example, counsel dieters to eliminate certain foods or to eat one specific food for a long period of time. This approach does not promote healthy eating habits, nor does it augur well for permanent weight loss.

Fad Diets

Read More

Steps to a Gluten-Free Diet for Improved Mental Health

For people with gluten intolerance, good physical and mental health requires a complete diet change. At first it can seem impossible because so many foods contain gluten.

But the popularity of the gluten-free diet is now making life just a little simpler for people with celiac disease and gluten sensitivities.

The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness website includes a plethora of information about gluten-free foods. They even have some recipes for people who can’t consume gluten, ranging from coconut chicken soup to spinach pesto, to chicken and asparagus pizza.

The website celiac.com also has a “safe gluten-free food list,” which includes items like corn, eggs, fruit and milk. Some oats are acceptable to eat, but it depends on whether or not they’ve been contaminated with gluten in processing.

For people who don’t know if they’re gluten intolerant or not, it might be time to try a trial gluten-elimination diet.

“Eliminate it from your diet for no less than four weeks and then reintroduce it,” said Heather Schrock, a nutritional therapy practitioner.

“If your symptoms return, you are sensitive. It is very important that you completely eliminate it though and that is where the difficulty may lie. Gluten is hidden in thousands of food and personal care products. That's right, even gluten in your lotion can affect someone with gluten sensitivity.”

Marie-Nathalie Beaudoin, a training director at Bay Area Family Therapy & Training Associates, said in an email that there are numerous gluten-free grains that people can consume as part of a healthy diet.

For example, in order to bake bread, cookies, cakes and pizzas, people can use gluten-free flour such as tapioca, coconut, rice and corn. She added that people can now choose from some gluten-free noodles now as well.

“Changing diet may seem like a daunting task, but really, everything is out there ready to be used as substitute,” Beaudoin said.

“The main challenge is the first step: figuring out what you’ll eat at every meal. Once that transition is accomplished, the dietary change can be completely enjoyable and easy to follow.”

She also said that in order to find out if you’re intolerant to gluten, you can take a test, but you have to be eating gluten at the time so the blood test shows your body’s reaction to gluten. Or you can try the elimination diet and go off of the potential reduction of negative symptoms.

Dr. Wendie Trubow, the quality director of Visions HealthCare who has celiac disease, said in an email that sometimes people who eliminate gluten from their diets will have a “washout period” where they feel worse during the elimination time period.

However, she said it’s best for people to stick with a gluten-free diet for at least two weeks, and then reintroduce gluten for two days at every meal to see if they are really tolerant or not.

She added that people on a gluten-free diet still have plenty of food options, such as an assortment of rices like jasmine, brown, basmati and wild rice. Buckwheat, quinoa and millet are also grains that are gluten-free. She suggests putting them in a rice cooker to save time in food preparation.

There are a potpourri of websites and resources that contain gluten-free foods, recipes, and even lists of gluten-free (or gluten-free friendly) restaurants.

What are your favorite gluten-free resources, and what are some gluten-free foods you enjoy eating? Do you have any special gluten-free recipes you like using?

Steps to a Gluten-Free Diet for Improved Mental Health

Read More

Gluten free diet

A gluten free diet is a diet completely free of ingredients containing gluten, a protein found in wheat (including kamut and spelt), barley, rye and triticale. Gluten constitutes about 80% of the proteins contained in wheat and is responsible for the flexibility of kneaded dough. Those with celiac disease (CD) and dermatitis herpetiformis (DH- the skin manifestation of CD characterized by chronic, extremely itchy rash consisting of bumps and blisters), who are gluten intolerant, must strictly follow this diet.

Celiac disease is a genetic disorder that affects one in 133 Americans. The disease seems to most affect people of European (especially Northern European) descent, but recent studies show that it may also affect Hispanic, Black and Asian populations. Those affected suffer damage to regions of their intestines if they consume gluten. Oats have traditionally been considered to be toxic to celiacs, but recent scientific studies have shown otherwise. This research is ongoing and it is too early to draw any firm conclusions.

A gluten free diet may also be helpful for persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune disorders, although currently there are no high quality human trials available to support this claim.

A gluten free diet is a diet completely free of ingredients containing gluten, a protein found in wheat (including kamut and spelt), barley, rye and triticale. Gluten constitutes about 80% of the proteins contained in wheat and is responsible for the flexibility of kneaded dough. Those with celiac disease (CD) and dermatitis herpetiformis (DH- the skin manifestation of CD characterized by chronic, extremely itchy rash consisting of bumps and blisters), who are gluten intolerant, must strictly follow this diet.

Celiac disease is a genetic disorder that affects one in 133 Americans. The disease seems to most affect people of European (especially Northern European) descent, but recent studies show that it may also affect Hispanic, Black and Asian populations. Those affected suffer damage to regions of their intestines if they consume gluten. Oats have traditionally been considered to be toxic to celiacs, but recent scientific studies have shown otherwise. This research is ongoing and it is too early to draw any firm conclusions.

A gluten free diet may also be helpful for persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune disorders, although currently there are no high quality human trials available to support this claim.

Gluten free diet

Read More

7 Foods That Sabotage Your Diet

We've followed all of the weight-loss rules, trading our lunchtime burger and fries for a salad, cutting back on snack foods and sweets, choosing fat-free over full-fat whenever possible. So if we're doing everything right, why is the needle on the scale stuck—or worse, moving in the wrong direction? 

Even when we have the best of intentions, something as simple as a healthy but oversize snack can make us gain weight rather than lose. But finding small ways to save just 100 calories a day can take off 10 pounds in a year. With help from a few nutrition experts, we've put together this list of red-flag foods and some simple strategies to keep them from undermining your weight-loss efforts. 

1. PRE-MEASURED PACKS 
Are 100-calorie snack packs a part of your stay-slim repertoire? As it turns out, these pre-portioned treats may do more harm than good. When researchers from the Netherlands gave TV-watching students either two large bags of potato chips or several portion-controlled ones, those with the smaller bags ate twice as many chips. If you find yourself reaching for a second 100-calorie bag, leave the empty pack in plain sight: Previous research has shown that people consume less food when they can see what they've already eaten. 

2. "DIET" TREATS 
Fat-free and sugar-free don't necessarily mean low-calorie. For example, one brand of reduced-fat chocolate chip cookie supplies 47 calories—just 6 less than a regular cookie. Plus, studies show that people who are overweight take in twice as many calories when they eat low-fat snacks rather than the regular versions. If you have a cookie craving, advises Katherine Brooking, RD, a New York City-based dietitian, go for the real thing—but limit yourself to 150 calories' worth. 

3. LIQUID CALORIES 
A couple of cups of cappuccino (each with 2 teaspoons of sugar) and a couple of cups of tea (each with 2 teaspoons of honey) add up to 150 calories in sweetener alone. Brooking recommends making do with less sweetener or switching to a zero-calorie alternative, like Splenda. Watch out for alcoholic beverages, too. Replace wine or beer with flavored club soda or sparkling water, and you can save big on calories. 

4. SUPER-SNACKS 
Eating every few hours is a good way to keep your metabolism humming, but it's easy to consume too many calories if you aren't careful. Snacks are the main culprits, particularly if they are too big and too frequent, explains Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, author of The Flexitarian Diet. Limit yourself to just two snacks a day, at about 150 calories each. And be wary of relying on energy bars as snacks; some deliver as many as 400 calories each. As a rule of thumb, a bar under 200 calories is a snack, Blatner says; anything above that counts as a meal. 

5. RICH PROTEINS 
Stick with lean proteins because higher-fat versions can have twice as many calories. Even if you measure the proper serving size, just 3 ounces of sirloin supplies 225 calories, nearly half of which come from fat. By comparison, the same amount of skinless turkey contains 144 calories, only 10 of which come from fat. And turkey sausage has 75% less saturated fat than pork sausage. Other lean protein choices include fish and beans. 

6. FAT-FREE SALAD DRESSINGS 
Often the fat is replaced with sugar, which means that your dressing still may be loaded with calories. Ironically, a salad without fat is not living up to its potential. "You need a little fat to absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K and other nutrients," explains Katherine Tallmadge, RD, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Instead, use smaller amounts of oil-based salad dressings; you'll get good-for-you fats rather than the saturated fat found in some creamy dressings. Look for ingredients like olive oil, vinegar, and herbs. 

7. BAKED POTATO CHIPS 
Yes, they're lower in fat. They're also high in calories but low in nutrients, with little fiber to fill you up. A better snack choice: popcorn. You'll get the salt and crunch of the chips in this whole grain, plus a healthy dose of fiber, all for about 65% fewer calories per cup. Look for oil-free microwave popcorn or brands that are air-popped or popped in healthful oils such as olive or canola. Adults who munch on popcorn consume up to 2 ½ times more whole grains than those who don't, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 

Read More