The Body is a Wonderland...

beautifulpicturesofhealthyfood:

The recipe is two handfuls of baby spinach, 1 cup of chunk pineapple, 2 bananas, 1 cup of plain greek yogurt and 1 cup of filtered water. Blend well and enjoy

Conventional wisdom tells us that losing 1 – 2 lbs per week is both safe and effective when it comes to keeping the pounds off longterm. But if you’ve ever actually lost a significant amount of weight, you know that a steady loss of 1 – 2 lbs at a time is not the reality. It’s more like a steep drop down, followed by a period of plateau, then hopefully steady decline.

While on one hand we have the the National Institute of Health telling us that we should aim for 1 – 2 lbs per week of weight loss, on the other hand we have weight loss reality shows demonstrating that we should do whatever it takes to get big weight loss numbers during weekly weigh-ins. On shows like The Biggest Loser and Celebrity Fit Club, the only thing that matters how many pounds were lost each week when you get up on the scale. Imagine how entertaining the show would be if each week, contestants battled it out to see whose cholesterol had moved closer to normal? Or imagine all of the contestants on a stage, getting their blood pressure taken, as America sits on the edge of their seats. None of this is likely to happen. People like the drama of seeing weight loss contestants slim down as fast as possible. We are a nation of quick-fixes. But I would argue that the reality of weight loss lies between these two extremes. For example, I had a family member who dropped 10 lbs in two weeks just from quitting her daily cola habit cold turkey.

The DailyBurn community also contains community members who have lost weight very quickly just from logging their foods regularly. The main benefit of keeping a food log is that it brings an awareness to your eating patterns. By recognizing the volume of processed foods, sugars, and grains that the average Americans eat, people can make informed decisions regarding eliminating these foods from their diet.

Here are healthy weight loss tactics that can accelerate your weight loss beyond the suggested 1 –2 lbs per week:

• Eliminate sugar. If you cut out all forms of added sugar, including soda, snacks, pastries, and processed foods, you will lose weight faster than if you increased your exercise volume but kept these foods in your diet. For example, a 12 oz can of Coca-Cola has 39g of sugar, which is 156 calories of sugar. If you have 3 servings a day each day, you are getting 3,276 calories of sugar per week thanks to soda alone. Since you need to cut 3,500 calories to lose a pound, then you would lose close to 1 pound per week if you just cut out soda.

• Eliminate grains. Many people struggle with gluten sensitivity without even knowing about it. Gluten is a protein in wheat that makes wheat flour sticky and pliable. The high fiber content of grains like oatmeal and whole wheat can actually aggravate the digestive tract, leading to gas and bloating. By eliminating grains, many people notice that they lose additional weight thanks due to undiagnosed digestive problems.

•  Decrease sodium. Elevated sodium levels on the body can result in water retention. Most Americans get way more than the recommended 1500 mg per day that the National Institute of Health has set as a recommended daily allowance. By decreasing the sodium in your diet, you’ll eliminate water weight, which will result in more weight lost.

• Sip on herbal tea. Teas like Green Tea Blueberry Slim Life from Yogi Tea contain herbs that are traditional appetite suppressants. Sipping on tea will also distract you if you tend to be a mindless eater. Include high intensity intervals in your workouts. Increasing the intensity of your workouts will help you lose weight faster. Increasing the duration of your workout won’t.

So if you are struggling with a plateau or just trying to find some techniques that will help you see some faster results to keep you motivated. Keep these in mind!

(Source: life.dailyburn.com)

One of the most popular exercises at the gym is the treadmill. And why wouldn’t it be? Whether you’re running or walking, it’s a great way to get your heart rate up, get your body moving, and for many people, a great way to burn calories. But however you use a treadmill, there’s one extremely simple thing you can do to dramatically intensify your workout and improve your fitness: incline it!

Calorie Burn

Running or walking on an incline burns more calories than on a flat belt. Adding an incline can double the calories you burn during your workout. Also, when you exercise and then stop, your body doesn’t realize it’s time for your heart to slow down for quite some time. So spending an hour walking uphill will elevate your metabolic rate for a lot longer than an hour! Burning even more calories!

• If you weigh 150-lbs you’ll burn about 130 calories walking at 4 mph with no incline for 30 minutes. Increasing the incline to 5 percent you will burn almost 230 calories. If you can sustain a 4 mph speed at an incline of 10 percent, you will burn nearly 330 calories in the same amount of time.

• If you weigh 160-lbs and walk at a 4.0 mph pace on no incline, you will burn approximately 145 calories in 30 minutes. Raise the incline to a 5 percent grade and you will burn 243 calories in that half hour. Go up to a challenging 10 percent and burn 345 calories.

Cardiovascular Fitness

An incline provides you with the ability to increase the cardiovascular challenge of your workout and improve your cardiovascular endurance by increasing your heart rate, especially if you are relatively fit. Running or walking uphill requires more effort than flat terrains. People who prefer walking to running, or find the impact of running aggravates injuries and joint problems. incline offers a way to increase aerobic challenge and improve cardiovascular fitness without adding impact.

• Walking on an incline increases the workload, thus raising the heart rate without having to risk aggravation of injury by running.

Fat Burning

Walking on an incline encourages the body to burn a greater amount of fat than running quickly on a flat road. When you run on a flat surface fast, your body dips into carbohydrate stores for energy but on an incline your body uses fat for energy.

• Walking at 3 MPH on a super-incline trainer raised to between 16 and 18 percent burns 70 percent more fat than running on a zero percent incline.

Outdoor Simulation

Setting your treadmill at an incline of between 1 and 3 percent helps you better simulate outdoor conditions. The slight incline makes up for the lack of wind resistance indoors and simulates the body leaning forward during outdoor runs  If you are preparing for a hilly race, but live in a flat area, you can simulate the course on the treadmill. You can do “hills” of any length and incline—-most commercial treadmills reach 15 percent incline.

Muscle Building

Walking on an incline increases leg muscle activation. Incline treadmill walking activates the muscles of the calves, hamstrings and glutes more than walking on a flat surface. Significant strength training benefits for the legs are experienced at inclines above 15 percent.

Running Efficiency

When you walk on an incline, you not only need to move forward at whatever pace you are moving at, you also need to climb — a little with every step because of this. These “hills” improves your efficiency and skill by building strength, mechanics, power and aerobic conditioning. If you try to maintain your flat road speed on the treadmill inclines, or perform hill sprints, you will work on your ability to sustain higher heart rate levels for longer periods of time. Over time, this type of training improves your ability to reach and sustain faster workouts.

So basically, if you make a long-term change from walking on a flat surface (or treadmill) to walking up a hill (or inclined treadmill), you’ll burn extra energy with every step!

(Source: livestrong.com)

(via meinfatkampf)

(Source: secretskinny, via iruntobehealthier-deactivated20)

As though we didn’t know this already but knowledge is power.

(Source: mythinspojourney, via pudgy-to-fit)

Way to to turn it around!! Go girly

(Source: wannabefit4life, via pudgy-to-fit)

Check me. Follow me if you like what you see!

(Source: downsizemebaby)

Tell me about it…

(Source: batticus--witch)

I have been using the Lose It! app on my Kindle Fire (Android) for a week now and I think its amazing! It helps you manage your weight by taking most of the guess work out of managing your calorie needs, calorie intake vs output and food journaling. Essentially, you decide how much you want to lose and it helps you accomplish your goal! You just, enter in your current weight, age, height, gender, goal weight, and how many pounds you want to lose each week to reach your goal (up to two pounds). Based on this information, Lose It creates a weight loss plan for you and an estimate of when you’ll reach your goal. Yay! 

All you do is enter what you eat throughout the day and it does rest, keeping a running tally of your calories consumed (the app has a huge database of fresh, store-bought, and restaurant foods). Calories eaten are subtracted from your daily calorie budget, giving you a running tab of how many calories you have left in the day. You can also input physical activity and any calories burned will be subtracted from calories you consume, leaving you with a pretty  accurate reflection of your calorie intake for the day. Until you get the hang of it, which can take a few days or hours depending on how much you mess around with it, it can be a bit cumbersome but it is sooo worth it.

Besides being free, easy to use and understand, the app is great for a few other reasons

1. Its easy to add your own foods and you can quickly re-enter foods/meals you’ve had in the past (if its not on the package or menu you can find nutrition info is on the internet)
2. Its super convenient since you can use it anytime, anywhere even if you have no cell/internet connection
3. Its has a free companion website that you can use to track your progress with reports, etc

This app is not perfect by any means but it is a great tool in your weight loss arsenal. The areas that are a little problematic (for some) could be the  tediousness of logging a lot of individual foods and accurately recording calories burned through activities.

Here are my shortcuts, tips & work arounds

Exercises

• Lose It! only records duration and intensity (mostly) or workouts, not reps. This can result in a lower calorie burn being recorded than what you actually burned. Therefore your calorie budget won’t increase by as much as what you might have clocked on the cardio machine. Confused?
• Example- Your daily calorie budget is 1200 cals. You burned 200 cals on the treadmill in 45mins, yet when you put it in Lose It! it estimates your calorie as 125 cals. So instead of getting 200 extra calories, you only get 125 calories. So, if you stick closely to your calorie budget and only eat those 125 calories, you’d actually be under by 75 calories! Get it? So, you may end up losing weight a little faster. Good thing…maybe?!
• If you can’t handle it not being dead on, record a higher intensity until it shows calorie burn closer to what you actually burned (no biggie).

Food

• It can be time consuming to record your meals if you want to be really detailed but are short on time (or patience), just don’t record EVERYTHING. Example: if you eat a sandwich, record only the highest calories items like bread, meat, cheese and mayo versus lettuce, tomato, ketchup and mustard. You can always go back and add to the entry(I don’t think its necessary to add every little thing especially if the overall caloric impact will be under 50 cals for the day.)
• If you find your regular foods aren’t in the database, look up the nutrition facts online or ask for them at the restaurant so you can add them to your custom food list.
• In a crunch but can’t find what you ate, find something similar to it and use that! (No biggie). This will be particularly useful when dealing with generic food items. Ex: Use a regular boiled egg instead of a Jason’s Deli Boiled Egg or Daisy Cottage Cheese instead of Great Value (Walmart Brand) cottage cheese.

Hope this helps!

(Source: loseit.com)

I AM, I AM! Just getting started though. Please check me out as I have a lot of information to unleash.

(via craving-tiny-deactivated2012112)