Health and Fitness Blog

Fitness has to be a lifetime pursuit!

admin — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:35:19 +0000

Look around and you’ll observe a common pattern in the beliefs of people. One of them is a misconception that you have to work-out extensively only until you have achieved your fitness goals. However, as ridiculous as it may sound, fitness has to be a lifetime pursuit. Once you’ve reached your desired level of fitness, you have to continue working out. Though you no longer will required to be calorie deficient, nor will you be exhausting yourself with those intense and tiring exercise sessions. Instead you’ll be consuming calories upto maintenance level, and exercising less aggressively.

Many of those who have once dreamed of getting fit, has gone through the tough times of being labeled a “chubby”, “fat” etc. would never want to lose their fitness levels. That’s what motivates them to keep going even if they get a little bit of fat on their frames. But still there are a lot of people who don’t think there’s a point in working out all your life. It just doesn’t appeals to them as an interesting idea.

Here are few things that can motivate you to keep working out all your life:

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Dry Skin Woes

admin — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:42:57 +0000

A lot of people suffer from the problem of dry skin at least at some point in their lives. Most of the people look for external solutions such as moisturizers, but there’s more to it. I often recommend fixing things internally, i.e. inside your body. That may sound like a mechanic or an engineer’s viewpoint, but it really isn’t. When I say “fix internally”, what I really mean is to fix your diet!

What’s the cause?

Harsh weather, sun exposure, hot baths and showers, smoking
Genetics
Lack of EFA (Essential Fatty Acids) in your diet, or dehydration
Hypothyroidism (less active thyroid)
Any other illness such as diarrhea caused by intestinal parasites
Chronic Stress

There so many possible reasons, but one thing that always help, upto some extent at least, is the introduction of more omega-3 fatty acids in your diet. I didn’t mentioned omega-6, because most of the world’s population already gets enough dose of omega-6.

What’s the remedy?

1 - Fix your diet

It isn’t really very simple as it sounds, but you can either use one of the following types of dietary supplementation or introduce more food with EFAs in your diet. (mentioned below)

Flaxseed oil / Flaxseed oil capsules
Cod Liver oil bottled /capsules (recommended)

Note: Please keep the dosage at adequate levels, as mentioned on the product label.

Or you can introduce more of these food choices in your diet: (from Wikipedia)

Some of the food sources of ω-3 and ω-6 fatty acids are fish and shellfish, flaxseed (linseed), hemp oil, soya oil, canola (rapeseed) oil, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, leafy vegetables, and walnuts.

If you aren’t already drinking enough water, then make sure you drink at least 10 glasses of water daily making it to 2.5 liters.

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Warning for beginners to weight-loss

admin — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 18:37:35 +0000

You have decided to get rid of that extra fat on your frame? That’s good, but most of the beginners fall in the trap of fad/yoyo/very low calorie diets which result in some starving, hard-work, results, but soon you realize the results have been reversed on and all that hard work is lost. That can be very annoying and I can tell that as I have personally been through that phase

Never get into dieting if you don’t have much information about it

Yes, that’s right. You’ll only mess your immune system, your metabolism and lose a lot of your muscle. You should understand the following:

Muscle… ymmm.. It’s good!
Muscles help boost your metabolism system, as a pound of muscle consume at least 10-20 times more calories than fat, even when you’re resting. Muscles can be destroyed if you consume too less calories following a fad diet.

Immune system prevents you from getting sick
Everyone knows about immune system, but not many know what can be boosting it. A good balanced diet with lots of nutrition and vitamins help boost your immune system. It’s a huge subject on its own, but let’s say vegetables, fruits, protein sources (meat, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.) all boost your immune system.

You need to think and research before you act
You’re lucky to be in this information age. You’re hooked to internet and can research on almost any subject. I agree a lot of this information might be contradicting or even having no truth in it at all, but wise (use common sense!) and extensive research can help you find the truth.

Here are few things you might be interested to read, relating to fad diets:

Yo-yo diets hit immune system
Yo-yo diet redistributes toxins in the BODY

So what’s the right way?

It’s a huge topic to cover in details using one post. I promise eventually I will write a complete plan for all for you, but for now, let me list down few points that you will find helpful in dieting. Believe me, they’re true and from experience. If you are unsure, as I recommended ago, always do your own research.

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