Fitness - How to Develop the Attitude

During a catalogue search at my local library, I came across this title: "Fitness without Exercise - The Scientifically Proven Strategy for Achieving Maximum Health with Minimum Effort." This book by Bryant Stamford and Porter Shimer really misses the point.

After all, fitness is more of an attitude than a destination. I found another title for a book that is a better concept and is one with which I completely agree. "Walking: the Pleasure Exercise," a book by Mort Malkin. Actually, during my research at the library, more than 20 per cent of the items had *walking* in their titles when I used *fitness* as the search-word. Makes sense, doesn't it? Walking is naturally one of the best places to start creating a Fitness Attitude. For one thing, it gets you outdoors, and that's good for the fitness of your head! In addition, it uses all the large muscles in your body, it's low-impact, and it doesn't require any special equipment. It is something you are already expert at doing, and your body is perfectly designed for it. Hooray! You've got an awesome place to begin on your way to having a Fitness Attitude: Go for a walk every day.

Now, I'm going to make a confession. Even though I place a high value on health and nutrition and fitness in general, I sometimes have to really make an effort to get out the door with my walking shoes on. Today, for example, it was rainy and cold. I had a back-log of emails to answer, and had eaten a heavy lunch. It would have been really easy to make a very good case for staying indoors by the woodstove with my computer screen glowing away. At a time like this, momentum helps. I feel weird when I have to miss my daily walk because over time it's become a part of my life. It easier to walk consistently when you make it a routine, or you have a ritual to help you get out the door.

A routine will also to carry you along. Decide on a length of time for your walk, rather than setting a distance. Then, go! Some routes will become your standards, and then you won't have to plan - which is one of the benefits of a routine. Used appropriately, routines free your thoughts, so you can contemplate topics more interesting than whether to make a right or left turn at the corner. Good for you, if you use a treadmill, gym, or other walking strategy such as mall walks. Still, if you can possibly make arrangements, spend at least some of your walking time outside. Time in the open air is part of fitness as an attitude.

Which brings up the question of food as it relates to the attitude of fitness. Generally, when you are eating foods that have a good natural basis, (like salads that aren't drowning in some oily vinegar dressing, or a vegetable stir- fry that isn't heavily glazed with high-sugar sauce), you don't crave garbage non-foods like my personal favorite: red licorice. Still, the packaging of 'snack foods' and the ease and portability they afford in our frenetically paced culture means that sometimes, you're going to eat junk. Once you've established your Fitness Attitude, though, processed 'foods' stop being a staple in your diet, and that's a better fit.

As you put attention on fitness, your life will soon include the pleasure of walking daily and a natural hunger for whole foods that are nourishing to you. A Fitness Attitude isn't complicated, and you'll feel better. You simply will.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Fitness---How-to-Develop-the-Attitude&id=6954

Top Ten Obesity Causing Foods -- Psychetruth Nutrition & Weight Loss

2 Delicious Healthy Breakfast Ideas for Weight Loss

There is nothing worse than having to eat the same boring meals over and over again. The notion that healthy eating has to be boring to be beneficial is one of the biggest misconceptions and it really bugs me.

You can enjoy delicious foods and to prove it, I'm going to give you 2 delicious healthy breakfast ideas for weight loss. These meals are perfect for breakfast (regardless of what time you have it) and are very easy to make.

The first healthy breakfast idea for weight loss is a mixed nut granola recipe that really is healthy and delicious. The problem with store bought granola is they are usually loaded with sugars. On top of that, the recommended serving sizes are a lot smaller than what an average person would eat. Typically on the packets of granola the recommended serving size would be around 40g whereas in reality a bowl of granola would be anywhere from 100-150g. This can be problematic and can lead to overeating very quickly.

For the nuts in this healthy breakfast idea for weight loss you can either use mixed nuts or stick with whatever your favourite is, my favourites in this recipe are almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts.

Mixed Granola Serves 1

Ingredients
• 200g rolled oats (Gluten free )
• 10g organic butter, melted
• 120g chopped mixed nuts
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsps. minced fresh ginger

 Method
 1. Preheat the oven to 300°F/150°C.
 2. Thoroughly combine rolled oats and melted butter in a mixing bowl. Transfer to a large baking dish and spread out evenly.
 3. Bake for 45-55 minutes, stirring every ten minutes, until oats are lightly coloured. Add nuts, ginger, and vanilla 20 minutes into the baking time and stir in thoroughly.
 4. Serve or store in a covered container. Will keep, refrigerated, for up to two weeks.

 Special Breakfast Eggs Serves 1

 Ingredients
 • 2 organic eggs, beaten
 • a handful of frozen or fresh peas
 • a handful of (7 or so) chunky and juicy tiger prawns
 • hymalayan rock salt, ground black pepper
 • handful of chopped coriander
 • coconut oil

 Method
 1. Heat a frying pan with butter or coconut oil.
 2. Add the beaten eggs and let them cook as you scramble them.
 3. Add the peas and prawns, salt and pepper to taste.
 4. Mix it all well until eggs are cooked.
 5. Serve hot sprinkled with coriander.

This is one of my favourite healthy breakfast ideas for weight loss because there's a sense of class and sophistication about this recipe. It's high in protein and healthy fats and is perfect way to break your fast. Enjoy and if you try them do let me know if you liked them or would recommend any changes to them. Thanks for reading.

These are some of the meals I eat and recommend my clients to eat while on the wonderful lifestyle of Intermittent Fasting. How would you like: better control over your hunger, an easy way to lose fat and build lean attractive muscle, increased insulin sensitivity, reduced inflammation, increased growth hormone, a super efficient way of eliminating toxins, the freedom of being able to eat whatever you want without any guilt?

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Like It Or Not, You ARE a Role Model

This one may hit a little close to home for many of you, but that's the point. I would hope that every parent wants to be a great role model for their kids.

We want to teach them manners, bring them to church with us, be careful what we say in front of them, and of course not smoke or drink in front of them.

One thing I've learned from being a parent is that my 4-year old boy copies just about everything I do, whether I like it or not. Anything I do in front of him, it seems like he is immediately trying to repeat it until he gets it just right. For example, the other day I wadded up a piece of paper I found on the ground and threw it in the trash can about 10 feet away. As simple of an accomplishment as that was, he was mesmerized by it and attempted the same shot for what seemed like a dozen times until he made it in the trash can himself. It doesn't stop there though; he wants to walk like me, talk like me, and basically be me in every way. He has even gotten to the point of sitting in our recliner, crossing his ankles, and putting his hands behind his head... just like daddy.

Anyone reading this who is a parent knows exactly what I mean. So whether you realize it or not, you ARE a role model for your kids. They will copy their parents' behaviors, good or bad.

So why is it that we think our kids won't also copy how poorly we treat our bodies? If eating fast food and other types of junk on a daily basis has become a habit, your kids are much more likely to follow that same lifestyle. And why is it that we talk about and want our kids playing outside more and staying as active as possible, yet we may not have exercised ourselves in years?

I guess often times we want them to do as we say and not as we do; but nothing works better than leading by example. A recent study came out showing that 50% of kids with overweight parents will become overweight themselves, compared to 13% of non-overweight parents. So it's no surprise that the childhood obesity rate will continue to rise as long as America's adult obesity rate is rising (which it is, at an alarming rate). To me, this isn't an issue of whether or not it's acceptable to be overweight as a child, or about body image, or about any other excuses people like to come up with these days... it's about the health of you and your kids. Childhood obesity has been linked to numerous health problems such as joint pain, pre-diabetes, and even cardiovascular disease. In fact, obesity is one of the leading causes of cancer today, and that number is continuing to rise.

Being overweight as a child means having a much greater chance of being overweight as an adult. Bottom line is, at the end of the day, how your kids end up treating their bodies is greatly affected by how you treat your own body.

Their health begins with following their parents' lead, and using them as role models. So for the sake of your children, make sure you're a good one.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Like-It-Or-Not,-You-ARE-a-Role-Model&id=7448192

Ideal Weight for Healthy Living

Usually our idea of ideal weight is dictated by the images of the beautiful shapely bodies of models and celebrities. The size zero bodies of beautiful women may look attractive on magazine pages or on television screen. However, when you realize the harm that these women do to their health while creating the skinny body, you will be forced to reconsider your concept of ideal weight.

What is an ideal weight? An ideal weight is one that keeps you healthy and fit. Health professionals do not emphasize on the term ideal weight, instead they focus on healthy weight. While diet and physical activities primarily contribute to the body of a person, there are other factors such as age, race, genetics, family history of body weight, environmental factors, behavior and metabolism rate that help to determine the body of a person. Body weight vs. Body Mass Index The ideal weight varies according to the stature of a person. Therefore, while measuring the body weight, it is necessary to take into account the height of a person.

While the weighing scale displays your body weight, to determine the amount of fat in your body, you must calculate your body mass index (BMI), which is defined as the weight, measured in kilogram or pound, divided by the square of height, measured in meters or feet. The body weight is considered healthy, when the BMI is between 19 and 24.9. People whose BMI is below 19 and above 24.9 are considered underweight and overweight respectively.

How to attain ideal weight To attain the ideal or healthy body weight you need a healthy diet and regular physical activities. Balancing energy consumption and energy expenditure is prerequisite for attaining the healthy body weight as well as for maintaining it. You gain weight when your energy expenditure is less than your energy consumption.

By increasing the level of physical activities you burn the unused calories that are stored as fat. A person is underweight when the amount of calorie intake is less than the amount of calorie used during physical activities. To attain the ideal body weight, an underweight person should slowly increase calorie consumption.

A healthy lifestyle will help you to maintain a healthy body mass index. A diet containing sufficient whole grain, fruits, vegetables and moderate amounts of animal protein is considered beneficial for health. A balanced diet combined with regular physical activities will keep you healthy and happy.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Ideal-Weight-for-Healthy-Living&id=7249019

Weekly Diet Plan

Most people think that diets are a way to lose weight quickly so they deprive their bodies of things that it needs and end up miserable and hungry. Most diets are considered fad diets, such as low carb diets, atkins diet, slim fast diets, no fat or low fat diets and on and on and on.

The problem with these are they never last and they don't provide you with results that you want and you end up frustrated having to start all over with something new.

You can't deprive your body of certain things and think you're going to feel fantastic while you're doing it.

This article is here to provide you with information about working a good diet into your life one week at a time. Metabolism describes the body's ability to burn fat. So the higher the metabolism, the more calories you burn.

So let`s improve it! This is easier than you might think. Drinking more water helps a lot, but the major keys to raising your metabolism are as follows. While, this approach to weight loss is most natural and healthy, it is not easy.

This is the reason that companies invent and produce diet pills and supplements in order to make it easier for people to lose weight and up their metabolism. One of the most popular categories of these pills, are fat blockers and fat binders. They work by reducing the amount of fat that your organism assimilates from foods. Fat blockers (the most well-known example is Orlistat, marketed as Xenical) in particular, inhibit the lipase enzyme in the intestines which breaks up fat making it ready for digestion. As a result, the fat cannot be absorbed by the organism so it passes freely through the bowel. Fat binders work by binding to the fat molecules, again making it unabsorbable by intestines. Fat blockers and binders have very nasty side effects (among them are uncontrollable foul-smelling anal discharges. Removing fats from your body in this way is not natural and therefore unhealthy.

Can you actually lose weight and still eat at the same time?? Yes. There is more to it than just eating. It depends on the foods you eat, which is completely obvious. The name of the diet is calorie shifting. The way it works is when you eat different forms of calories on a day to day basis it prevents your metabolism from going into auto-drive and instead stimulates it to be much more active. It gets right to the root of the problem, it changes the way your body responds to food, so effectively you end up with a more responsive metabolic response to everything you eat. This causes significant weight loss through eating normal sized meals and as a result allows your body to continue burning fat even once you stop the diet, because your metabolism becomes much more active overall.

You must intake plenty of water. He must drink water regularly and at least 12 liters/day Reduction in salt is necessary. It is impossible for most of the people to eliminate salt from their diet but it has to be avoided as much as possible.

You must eat small portion of meals in a day but it should be eaten frequently. So instead of eating two or three big meals, eat five small meals. You want to eat a little something every two to three hours so your body never has a chance to go into "store the fat" mode. When you go too many hours without eating, your body starts to think it is starving and goes into a so called survival mode. When it does this, it holds onto and stores all the bad fats in the body because it doesn't know when it's going to get fed again. You must eat high nutrition food that must include protein, vitamins and should avoid junk food, as it will result in bad health, and weight gain.

Look out for programs that teach you shortcuts and don't teach long term sustainable healthy eating. Who cares if you lose 10 pounds one month if you gain it all back the next month because you didn't learn anything. This is a lifestyle change that can be done in a weeks time. After a week, it will be natural to eat less, more often, and you will no longer have to think about it.

While it seems somewhat counterintuitive, eating more often is the secret to weight loss in some respects. Obviously this does not entail running out and eating everything you want. Instead, smaller portions of certain foods more often, spread throughout the day is the course to take. In this way, it's actually healthier to eat five smaller meals where you eat to contentment than to gorge yourself at 3 or less and many diets are based on this.

You will see results and feel better and healthier as a result of your diet.

http://goarticles.com/article/Weekly-Diet-Plan/4040121/

3 Tips on How to Use Honey Instead of Sugar

While honey and sugar have similar caloric content, honey has a lower glycemic index, more nutrients, and is considerably less processed. In addition, honey is sweeter than sugar, so the amount of honey required is less than you would use for sugar.

For those who want to minimize their intake of processed foods, honey is the better bet, and raw honey is the best option. However, substituting honey for sugar in baking recipes does present a few challenges. If you'd like to do some baking using honey in the place of sugar, you're probably wondering how to make the substitution, what amount to use, and what other alterations you need to make to your recipe to get the desired result.

The good news is there are only some minor changes to be made in order to pull off successful baking with honey. The resulting baked goods will look and taste just as good-if not better-than the same recipes made with ordinary sugar.

Below are three important tips you will need to follow if you plan on baking with honey:

1. Use Less Honey Since honey is much sweeter than ordinary sugar, less is needed to get the same effect. I recommend using 2/3 of the amount of honey as you would sugar; so if your recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar use 2/3 cup of honey in its place.

2. Reduce Liquids Honey contains water, and if the amount of liquid in the recipe is not adjusted the final result will suffer. I have found that using 80% (or 4/5) of the liquid works out well, and sometimes I add a little extra flour of baking soda as well. This will ensure that your confections will rise correctly. Honey comes with the added benefit of keeping your cakes fresh and moist longer as well.

3. Adjust Your Oven Temperature Breads and cakes made with honey will usually turn out better looking than those made with sugar. This is because the honey allows them to brown more easily and develop beautiful color. You will want to lower the oven temperature a bit to avoid over browning. If your recipe calls for 375 degrees, knock it down to 350. Choosing Honey For Baking For best results with baking choose a clear, mild honey like blossom.

The clearer your honey is the better, since clear honey is more neutral in flavor, and will not overpower the other flavors in your recipe.

Working with Honey There are a couple little things you can do to make the honey to sugar conversion easier. Start by greasing your spoons and measuring cups with a bit of butter to prevent sticking. Another option is to heat your utensils with hot water. This will also keep you from wasting honey!

With these simple tips you can create delicious baked goods without using processed sugar. Once you make a recipe with honey you will see just how easy it is, and you will never have to go back to using regular sugar again.

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