Archive for the ‘Healthy Lifestyle’ Category
Sunday, August 21st, 2011
Seeing as how I post personal comments now and then, just wanted all the regular readers to know that I went camping in the NH White Mountains. Went to Jigger Johnson campground. Did some swimming in the Swift River. Ended the trip with a visit to Clarks Trading Post and the infamous Wolfman. This is why I haven’t posted in a week.
It was good times, and now I’ll get back to blogging about fitness.
Be sure you take care of yourself by scheduling in some down time. This could include watching a movie, playing a game, or going on vacation. Your vacation might include camping in a tent, RV, or lean-to; staying in a cabin, motel, or hotel; a cruise, a visit to your local theme park, or back packing across Europe.
Taking a vacation can rejuvenate your spirit, decrease stress and cortisol, and help your muscles to recover from months of endless resistance training. Taking one full week off every year, or even every 6 months, will do wonders to help your body recover from the rigors of intense fitness.
Tags: camping, nh, Personal, vacation, White Mountains
Posted in Healthy Lifestyle | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
A couple days ago I posted the first 5 reasons you are not losing weight. Here are 5 more reasons you are not losing weight. Check out the first article if you missed it: 10 Reasons You Are Not Losing Weight Part 1
Peep these second 5 five items in my list of 10 possible ways you could be sabotaging your diet.
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Tags: build muscle, Diet, dieting, fat loss, food, gain muscle, lose fat, lose weight, meal planning, meals, muscle gain, nutrition, sabotage, weight loss
Posted in Diet, Healthy Lifestyle, Nutrition Tip | 3 Comments »
Monday, August 8th, 2011
A Simple Diet Reminder
Everyone likes a good diet post once in a while. Something to remind us about those small dietary habits that ultimately sabotage our efforts to look good naked. This is one of those posts.
You want to drop a couple dozen stubborn pounds of fat. You know what to do and how to do it. You figure in about 2 months you can complete your transformation by eating healthy foods but fewer calories, and adding an extra hour of exercise each week. On paper and in your brain it all makes sense. But how’s that working for you?
Typical Diet Progress
Let me guess. After two months of eating fruits and veggies, and hitting the treadmill with fierce dedication, you step on the scale and find that you’ve lost a whopping… 2 pounds. What could possibly have happened? Would could have gone wrong?
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Tags: Diet, dieting, fat loss, food, lose fat, lose weight, meal planning, meals, nutrition, sabotage, weight loss
Posted in Diet, Healthy Lifestyle, Nutrition Tip | 3 Comments »
Thursday, July 21st, 2011
How to Workout in 100+ Degree Heat
Weather experts have predicted that it’s going to get up to 105 degrees today, where I live in southern NH. Those crazy temperatures have prompted me to write this quick note about exercising in the summer heat.
If you are dedicated to fitness, that means you are exercising even when it’s 110 degrees outside in the middle of summer. Unfortunately, that level of dedication can get you into trouble if you don’t make safe decisions. The kind of trouble that can put you in the hospital or worse.
Here are 3 mistakes that people commonly make when they exercise in the dead heat of summer.
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Wear proper clothing
Cotton is your summer nemesis. When you exercise, cotton clothing will hold sweaty moisture, which can cause chaffing and rashes. Cotton socks swell with moisture, causing them to lose their shape, which can lead to blisters – the deadly enemy of lower body training. Sweaty clothing also weighs you down, making exercise harder, which causes you to sweat more. It is a dangerous cycle.
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Tags: deydration, exercise, fitness, health, Healthy Lifestyle, heat stroke, skin, summer, sun, sun poisoning, tips, workout
Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Kids, Medical | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
A study by Canadian researchers has deflated the hopes of lifetime bachelors every where. 4400 subjects; some single, some married, some widowed; participated in the study, so it is seems pretty legit. The researchers determined that the married men are officially healthier than single men. Why?
When asked why, male participants in the study gave credit to their wives. Wives are really good at reminding us about doctor appointments, making sure we take medicine, resting when we are exhausted, getting medical help when we are hurt, and don’t forget that sex is a major anti-stress technique.
Faster Emergency Medical Treatment
On average, married men who are victims of a sudden heart attack, arrive at the hospital 30 minutes quicker than their single counterparts. Not only can that fact explain why men are healthier, it could explain why married men have a longer lifespan than bachelors. A 30 minute delay in treatment for a heart attack, quite often means the difference between life and death.
Interestingly, the wives don’t even have to be present to elicit this caregiving effect. Some study participants noted that even if their wives were not present, they would hear the female voice of reason telling them to seek medical attention immediately.
It is unfortunate to note that there is no difference in the time it takes women to get to the hospital, whether they are married or not. Come on guys! Pick up the slack!
Women Will Find the Answers
Wives also ask lots of questions. You would know this if you ever got ‘lost’ on a road trip with a female. Married women reportedly ask their own doctors for advice on behalf of their husbands. After all, isn’t pretty much every wife also a nurse? You kind of have to be a nurse when you have a pack of young children and one really big really hairy ‘kid’ to take care of on a daily basis.
This post is an excuse to post a picture of a super sexy wedding dress (yes, obviously it is the dress that is sexy), which you can see at the top of the page. But I also want to take a moment to say, “Thanks!” to all the wives out there who remind us that good health is sometimes more than benching and squatting triple bodyweight.
Resources:
Effect of marriage on duration of chest pain associated with acute myocardial infarction before seeking care
Tags: bachelor life, bachelorhood, bachelors, health, Healthy Lifestyle, marriage, married, men, wife, wives, women
Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, News of the Day, Research | 5 Comments »
Thursday, July 14th, 2011
Why You Can’t Stay Lean When You Get Off Your Structured Diet
We have all heard of The Atkins diet, The Warrior Diet, The Paleo Diet and every other nutritional plan that promises to burn fat, build muscle, and allow you to achieve your physique related goals with minimal effort.
They make big promises, sound good in practice, but fail to deliver. Even if you do reach your goal, after you discontinue the diet, the fat piles right back on and you are back where you started.
What a waste of time.
Why does this happen?
It’s really simple. The proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” comes to mind…
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Tags: atkins, Diet, dieting, fat loss, food, lose fat, lose weight, meal planning, meals, tips, weight loss
Posted in Diet, Healthy Lifestyle | 4 Comments »
Sunday, May 15th, 2011
I get plenty of questions in various comments throughout the website, but I also get comments and questions via the Project Swole Contact Form.
Generally I address those questions through e-mail, but often I do not have the time to reply to each and every question personally.
From now on I want to take a more proactive approach to answering Your Health Questions by posting them separately in the blog. This way we can be sure that everyone benefits from the Q & A.
Hayden Gray wrote:
“HAHA! Diet soda in plastic can decrease testosterone levels? HAHAHA!
Because of what the plastic is made out of? Oh, so if i drink water out of plastic my testosterone levels will drop. Most stupid thing ive ever heard. And if you think you’re right, where is the scientific evidence?”
Response:
Keep in mind that it’s pretty easy to avoid diet soda in plastic containers, simply by drinking is out of a can or glass. Regarding the safety of plastic containers, I have this to say:
Some people do agree with you about plastic containers, but facts are facts – using plastic containers will increase your estrogen levels thanks to Xenoestrogens such as PCB, BPA and Phthalates. The also reportedly decrease testosterone, specifically in young kids and pregnant mothers.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090326100714.htm
https://www.facebook.com/notes/faggiano-chiropractic/effects-of-palstic-products-on-testosterone/203842699650612
https://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1289/ehp.8451
https://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1289/ehp.7713
https://missourifamilies.org/features/nutritionarticles/nut244.htm
https://tnation.t-nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_senior/high_levels_of_bpa_
And look, here’s evidence that pregnant women shouldn’t use plastic containers because it can damage their child’s reproductive organs.
https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2002/110pA703-A707schonfelder/schonfelder-full.html
Tags: BPA, estrogen, PCB, Phthalates, plastic, testosterone, Xenoestrogens
Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Medical, Research, Your Questions | 2 Comments »
Monday, April 11th, 2011
Eating 5 or more meals a day is great for weight gain, but not so good for weight loss, and is not optimal for good health.
We already know that increased meal frequency does not increase the metabolism or decrease appetite. In fact eating more than 3 meals each day can often lead to increased calorie consumption over time, because people eventually get bored and tend to begin to ignore their meal portions, which results in overeating.
Conversely, we know that fasting tends to decrease your appetite once you get past that first 6 hour fasting window. We also know that intermittent fasting lowers insulin resistance and blood pressure, and promote lightening-fast weight loss. Knowing those facts, here are a couple more great reasons to switch to an Intermittent Fasting lifestyle, for good health and efficient fat loss.
First, The Study Results
To keep you interested, we’ll talk about the research results first, then we’ll look at the studies.
New studies on periodic fasting by the American College of Cardiology have determined:
- periodic intermittent fasting seems to reduce the risk of falling victim to type 2 diabetes by 50%
- intermittent fasting also decreases your risk of developing heart disease
- HDL cholesterol increases during an intermittent fast
- triglycerides decrease during an intermittent fast
- human growth hormone (HGH) levels increase during a fast, leading to weight loss and muscle gain
- HGH increases by a factor of 20 in men and a factor of 13 in women, on average
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Tags: cholesterol, diabetes, fasting, intermittent fasting, Medical, Research
Posted in Diet, Healthy Lifestyle, Intermittent Fasting, Medical, Research | 6 Comments »
Monday, March 21st, 2011
Today we’re going to depart a little bit from perfect health and spot-on nutrition. I’d like to take a minute to discuss beer.
Beer is good. It is a man’s drink. Arnold reportedly devoured several pints of beer and whole chickens after grueling squat workouts. I’m not saying that’s how he won any of his trophies or awards, because it’s not. I can almost guarantee you Arnold didn’t touch alcohol during his contest prep.
However if you are not competing or scheduled to compete, then I have to ask you: What is the harm in having a beer or two with dinner a couple times a week?
Everything in moderation. Here are my favorite low carb, low calorie, “diet” beers.
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Tags: alcohol, beer, Diet, food, health, low-cal, low-carb, nutrition
Posted in Diet, Healthy Lifestyle | 3 Comments »
Friday, February 25th, 2011
If you have been told you have high blood pressure, with the top number (systolic) of 140 or above, or the bottom number (diastolic) of 90 or above, you might be worried, and for good reason. High blood pressure means you have a higher risk of heart attack or stroke.
Your doctor may have talked to you about taking medication to bring your numbers down. I’m here to tell you that might not necessarily be the best solution. If your numbers are low enough, you might be able to control your blood pressure by adjusting your lifestyle. If you successfully control your blood pressure with a healthy lifestyle, you may avoid, delay or reduce the need for medication.
That being said, do not stop taking, or make any adjustments to your medication unless you talk to your doctor first. In fact, you should probably talk to your doctor before making drastic changes to your diet.
Here are 10 lifestyle changes you can make to lower your blood pressure and keep it down:
- Lose extra pounds and watch your waistline
- Exercise regularly
- Eat a healthy diet
- Reduce sodium in your diet
- Limit the amount of alcohol you drink
- Avoid tobacco products and secondhand smoke
- Cut back on caffeine
- Reduce your stress
- Monitor your blood pressure at home and make regular doctor’s appointments
- Get support from family and friends
You are what you eat-or so they say. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables can be particularly important when it comes to controlling your blood pressure. What you choose to eat-and just as importantly, what you choose not to eat-may allow you to keep your blood pressure within safe limits.
Today you will learn about a proven diet for blood pressure control: The DASH diet.
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Tags: blood pressure, health, healthy diet, Healthy Lifestyle, Medical
Posted in Diet, Healthy Lifestyle | 9 Comments »
Friday, January 28th, 2011
The Fat Geek Bootcamp – From Fat to Phat
How to Change Your Lifestyle
OK, so you’re a fat guy (or girl) and you sit in front of a computer all day. In case you didn’t realize it, you are a fat geek. Or perhaps a fat nerd? Either way, those two terms can be used interchangeably for the purpose of this article. I have been one or the other, and perhaps both, at various points in my lifetime. Looking back, it was never any fun.
If you keep up your current lifestyle, only one result could be possible: you will get fatter and then you will die. This solution is neither fun nor ideal. To combat this, you should start an 8 week fitness boot camp.
Start slowly, learn some initial lessons over the course of the 8 weeks, and be prepared to embark on a lifetime fitness plan after the boot camp is over. You will need to learn something about these important health topics:
- Lifestyle – sleeping, social interaction, work hours
- Diet – what to eat, when to eat, why to eat
- Exercise – which exercises to use, how to exercise, when to exercise
Motivational Wisdom
Let me tell you what you will not have if you are a fat geek:
- Sexy girls trying to date you
- Sexy girls even looking at you (unless they are pointing and laughing)
- The strength to pick up anything over 20 pounds without straining your back
- Visible abs
- Comfortable seating in pretty much any public place except those airplanes that offer double wides for fat folks
- Low cholesterol
- The speed to out run bullies, criminals, or anything that might be trying to mug you or eat you. If a rabid skunk comes at you, you’re toast buddy.
- A life expectancy higher than mid-50s, but then if I were you I probably wouldn’t be looking forward to that whole ‘staying alive’ thing anyway.
Yes indeed, being a fat geek is probably the worst thing you can do for your social life and for your general health.
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Tags: Diet, exercise, geeks
Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Motivation, Workout Routines | 5 Comments »
Friday, November 26th, 2010
DETOX YOUR BODY IN 7 DAYS!
Justin Woltering of JustinWoltering.com writes today’s guest post. Justin has years of experience perfecting his exercise and nutrition program. He has spent countless hours mastering training flexibility, core strength, power and speed, cardiovascular fitness, and meditation. Having trained, and trained with, powerlifters, martial artists, bodybuilders, and various athletes, Justin knows what it takes to gain muscle, lose fat, or get into peak physical condition.
I just finished a cleansing program, and I am feeling better than ever!
The meals were delicious, and these supplements allowed me to do this as naturally and efficiently as possible. This seven-day plan will cleanse your body so that you can more easily shred unwanted body fat and increase lean muscle mass.
If you are feeling lethargic, slow, bloated, or ill; or if you are experiencing problems with your digestive system, then a 7-day detox might be just what you need.
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Tags: detox, detoxification, Diet, dieting, food, Guest Post, healthy food, Justin Woltering, nutrition, protein, recipe, Recipes, Supplements
Posted in Diet, Healthy Lifestyle, Nutrition Tip, Recipes | 3 Comments »
Monday, November 15th, 2010
Attention men! This just in: you don’t need to gain 30 pounds of muscle in order for women to find you attractive.
I found this post from back in the year 2000 about a Harvard study in which college-aged men were asked to pick their ideal body from a group of images. Most men chose the body with 30 pounds more muscle mass than what they currently had.
A group of college females were then asked to choose which of the body images they were most attracted to. The majority of the women picked a body with 15-30 pounds less muscle than the men picked.
What a conundrum!
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Tags: Conditioning, fitness, gain muscle, muscle gain, weight loss, weightlifting
Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Motivation, Research | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
Today’s guest post was written by Matt Paley, the founder and CEO of Share It Fitness, which provides us with a revolutionary new approach to health and fitness. The old model of paying a trainer, or yoga instructor, or golf pro, or you name it, 50, 60, 70 dollars an hour to simply count or re-use a generic workout routine on you isn’t effective nor cost-efficient. What if you could have a dedicated professional with you, not just a few hours a week, but EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE. Motivating, guiding, advising, and supporting you in all your fitness needs. The time has come for a change in the way fitness, health, and sport instruction is delivered.
ShareItFitness.com is the answer. The ShareItFitness blog, has a wide range of health and fitness news. The information found on the blog is only going to be the tip of the iceberg in terms of what ShareItFitness will be able to offer. You can also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook for additional fitness tips. Thanks for checking us out and keep on living well.
Breaking Down the American Diet
While not a “diet” in the sense you may be thinking, the American Diet is one that millions of people follow, mostly unaware, for the majority of their lives. The bad part is, this easily followed “diet” isn’t doing us any good. If anything, it’s contribution to the high rates of obesity and mortality that we are experiencing in this country.
The American Diet has large amounts of sodium, sugar, simple carbs, and bad fats, which include the worst offender, trans fat. We consume these by the plateful almost every time we go out to eat. Unfortunately as Americans, we eat out a lot.
These four things are the major barriers that stand between us and a long, healthy life. If we can learn how to eat less of these bad nutrients, and more of the healthy ones, we will unlock the largest component to a healthy lifestyle. This section is going to break down the health consequences of each of the above offenders so you may have a more practical idea of what’ s going on inside your body.
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Tags: Diet, fitness, Guest Post, health, healthy food, Healthy Lifestyle, matt paley, nutrition, unhealthy food
Posted in Diet, Healthy Lifestyle | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
3 Features Women Should Look For in Performance Athletic Wear
Today’s guest post is written by Daria Holcomb. Daria is the amazingly fit and attractive founder of Fit Girl Gear, a fashion-forward online store for women.
How to Choose Athletic Wear
Our feminine curves and shapely figures may be fun to shop for when it comes to casual attire, but in the world of ladies fitness wear, we have high demands for performance & fit.
Here are some things to look for when shopping for your next gym tank top or a new pair of yoga pants.
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Tags: clothes, clothing, Exercise Equipment, fit girl, Guest Post
Posted in Healthy Lifestyle | 2 Comments »
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
Physical fitness is a great blessing of God. Human does lots of efforts to achieve the best health and fitness plans on behalf of successful planning. Physical fitness is generally achieved through proper nutrition, moderate-vigorous physical exercise, and sufficient rest. Health and fitness are compulsory to survive for a long time and to enjoy good health benefits. Health and fitness goals can be achieved on behalf of successful diet plans and wise decision making to adopt the best fitness plan.
There are numerous ideas and useful tips which can be helpful to resolve the health issues. Human being gets energy, different types of calories and kilojoules by using multiple food resources. The necessary diet plan is an important source for human beings to get better health and to remain physically fit and smart. Recommended or suggested diet plan always plays an important role to survive and to grow skins by using the best foods and drinks.
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Posted in Healthy Lifestyle | No Comments »
Monday, August 30th, 2010
Today I would like to show you some current news articles about healthy topics like Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids, the high antioxidant concentration of Black Rice, and a fun little slideshow about the Mediterranean Diet.
We just can’t take old news for granted, because studies are confirming and rejecting some of what we think we know. Myths are created and dispelled on a daily basis. Check it out.
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Tags: Diet, dieting, health, healthy food, Healthy Lifestyle, nutrition, omega 3
Posted in Diet, Healthy Lifestyle, News of the Day | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
How to Increase Productivity
I know some of you out there work 60, 70, 80 hour weeks. I know some of you also work 14,16,18 hour days. Hell, I’ve put in 36 hours straight writing computer code day and night to meet a deadline before. We all do it: we work too much!
Experts are finding out now that the best way to increase productivity, is to work less. That’s right, people who work 35-40 hours a week get the most out of their time. After the first 40 hours efficiency, speed, and quality all begin to deteriorate.
Companies that limit their employees’ working hours to 35 a week, typically have to employ less Quality Assurance (QA) testers, because their employees make far fewer mistakes. That is a multi-directional savings plan – save your employees health and save money by getting rid of half your QA staff (or just don’t hire them to begin with).
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Tags: brain, exercise, fitness, health, Healthy Lifestyle
Posted in Business, Healthy Lifestyle, Research | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
How Do I Know if I am Overtraining?
Overtraining is not good. Your performance and quality of life will suffer if you are chronically overtrained. Beware!
Navigation
How to Detect Overtraining
Physical Signs & Symptoms
Psychological Signs & Symptoms
Impaired Athletic Performance
Immunological Signs & Symptoms
Biochemical Signs & Symptoms
Contributing Factors
How to Avoid Overtraining
How to Recover from Overtraining
There are plenty of signs be aware of when it comes to your body’s signals about pushing yourself too far. Over training your body will cause you to plateau or worse – regress.
The most common sign of overtraining is the total loss of motivation to train, and exhaustion mixed with some the symptoms listed below.
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Tags: active recovery, exercise, fitness, overtraining, recovery, weight lifting, Weight Training, weightlifting
Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Weight Training | 1 Comment »
