Functional and Mental Performance, Prevention, Health and Great Look through Fitness an Wellness
June 18th, 2008 Milan
If you drink soda, commercial fruit juices and other sweet drinks (like Gatorade) and energy drinks, and you want to improve your health, loose weight and generally feel good, than:
Don’t drink your calories!
How to do that? Switch to water, unsweetened mineral water and herbal teas. They are best for your thirst and health.
The only time you should drink fruit juice is when you freshly squeeze it from real fruit, like oranges, grapefruit, pineapple and other fruits and vegetables.
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June 16th, 2008 Milan
Nuts
They contain mono unsaturated fats to keep your arteries clear. They also contain levels of precursors of serotonin to boost mood.
Eat 1-2 ounces a day; an ounce is about 11 walnuts or 23 almonds.
Fish(especially wild salmon, whitefish, catfish, flounder, mahi mahi)
They contain artery-clearing omega-3 fatty acids.
Eat 13 ounces a week(or 3 servings about the size of your fist).
Tomato juice
It contains folate, lycopene, and other nutrients to keep arteries young.
Get 7 ounces a day of it.
Olive oil, nut oils, fish oils, flaxseed, avocados
They contain heart-healthy mono-unsaturated fats.
25% of daily calories should be healthy fats.
Real cocoa-based chocolate
It increases dopamine release and provides flavonoids, which keep arteries young.
1 ounce a day of dark chocolate(to replace milk chocolate).
Fresh fruits and vegetables
They contain vitamins and antioxidants for healthy arteries.
Eat 7 servings of various colors vegetables and fruits every day.
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May 22nd, 2008 Milan
I bet you’re an oatmeal eater. It’s quick and easy to prepare, and its distinct nutritional makeup stabilizes blood sugar and satisfies your hunger. It’s the perfect power breakfast for the active women and men.
But there’s a difference between the sugar-laden sweet varieties and the fitness-friendly ones.
use these checklist to get the best box of oatmeal:
- Look for at least 3 grams of fiber per serving
- Make sure each serving (1/2 cup) isn’t more than 200 calories
- Check fat; there should be less than 3 grams
- Put back any variety with more than 300 mg sodium
Here are my oatmeal cooking instructions:
I put about 1 cup of 100% natural whole grain rolled oats:
- serving size - 1/2 cup
- dietary fiber per serving - 4 g
- calories per serving - 140
- sugars - 0 g
- total fat - 2.5 g
- saturated fat - 0.5 g
- sodium - 0 mg
to 350 ml of whole milk (you can use fat free milk),
and i I cook it for about 3 minutes.
I pour oatmeal on the plate and ad small pieces of bananas, walnuts and some chocolate on top of it.
This is quick, healthy and nutritious breakfast.
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May 8th, 2008 Milan
For a long time, eggs were thought to increase heart disease risk because of their high cholesterol content. But researchers stopped blaming the dietary cholesterol as a culprit in heart disease, instead pointing to saturated fat.
Eggs:
- eggs are light on saturated fat (one egg contains less than 2 grams)
- American Hearth Association has OK’d up to 7 eggs per week for people on low-fat diets
- eggs are perfect protein source, containing all 8 essential amino acids
From Women’s Health and Wellness, 2003:
Eggs are near perfect, healthwise. They offer such good-for-you nutrients as protein, essential fatty acids, significant amounts of all vitamins except vitamin C, and a wide variety of minerals, including calcium, iron, and magnesium. Plus, research has shown that egg yolks contain lutein and zeaxanthin, two antioxidants that may reduce the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration, a condition that can cause blindness. Best of all, eggs are more versatile in the kitchen than five-star chef. If there is an egg in the fridge, you’ve got a meal - what could be more stylish than hat?
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May 3rd, 2008 Milan
If you are not a competitive athlete who trains 2 - 3 times a day, meal with mixture of carbohydrate, protein, and fat is effective way to replace muscle glycogen after exercise. Although emphasis is usually placed on carbohydrates, in practical terms, consuming a balanced meal ensures the availability of all substrates for adequate recovery.
For athletes who are training 2-3 times a day or who do not have long periods of time to recover, however, immediate consumption of carbohydrate in the form of foods or supplements may be beneficial.
Data suggest that high - glycemic index foods consumed after exercise replenish glycogen faster than low - glycemic index foods.
Studies on glycogen repletion after complete depletion emphasized carbohydrate consumption immediately after exercise.
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May 3rd, 2008 Milan
Glycogen is found in small amounts in human tissue as a temporary source of stored energy. It is not present to any large extend in the foods we eat. When the glucose from carbohydrates enters the muscles and liver, if it is not metabolized for energy, it is synthesized to form glycogen.
2/3 of the glycogen in the body is stored in skeletal muscles; the remaining 1/3 is stored in the liver.
The process of converting glucose to glycogen is called glycogenesis.
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April 7th, 2008 Milan
Cholesterol is a white, waxy substance.
firs the good stuff about it:
- helps determine the properties of cell membranes
- helps the smooth flow of nerve impulses through the body
- is used to produce vitamin D
- is used to produce sex hormones progesterone and testosterone
- it is important to the normal, smooth functioning of the human body
Cholesterol is vital, but that does not mean we should eat a lot of it.Body can arrange to get all the cholesterol it needs by itself.The liver synthesizes between 3000 and 4000 milligrams every day. When we eat large amounts of cholesterol, the liver produces less, and when we eat smaller amounts, the liver makes up the difference.
Keeping your cholesterol low is valuable because:
- you don’t want to get a cholesterol problem
- foods that are high in cholesterol are very likely high in unhealthy saturated fats
Is your cholesterol level high?
You can find out by getting a blood test. It is recommended that every person 30 years of age and older should have his or her blood tested for cholesterol.
The chart below shows guidelines for cholesterol:
Total Cholesterol Levels (in milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood)
Below 200 - Desirable
Between 200 and 239 - Borderline
240 and above - High
Cholesterol LDL - Low Density Lipoprotein, also labeled as “bad” cholesterol
Most of the cholesterol in the bloodstream is combined in low-density lipoprotein molecules.
LDLs play an important role as the transportation mode for getting cholesterol to cells throughout the body. Problems arise when there is more LDL than there is need for cholesterol in the cells. In such cases LDLs drop their load in wrong places - such as arterial walls.
You want as little LDL cholesterol in your blood as possible:
LDL Cholesterol Levels (in milligrams of LDL cholesterol per deciliter of blood)
Below 130 - Desirable
Between 130 and 159 - Borderline high risk
160 and above - High risk
Cholesterol HDL - High Density Lipoprotein, also known as “good ” cholesterol
HDLs move around the body too. But instead of discharging cholesterol, HDLs pick up excess cholesterol from cells and cart it back to the liver. There, the cholesterol is containerized in the form of bile acid, shipped to intestines and eliminated.
A high level of HDL protects against heart disease by pulling cholesterol out of the arteries. The more HDL there is, the better.
Normal HDL levels are 45 to 50 for men and 50 to 60 for women. An HDL level below 35 is another risk factor for developing coronary heart disease.
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March 20th, 2008 Milan
There is very little people who hasn’t tried losing weight fast, too fast through fad diets, fasting, overly restricting their caloric intake, and other such attempts at starving themselves into thinness.
There are two main problems with these approaches to losing weight.
First, they seriously jeopardize our health.
Second, such dieting are fundamentally counterproductive.
Ultimately, they don’t work:
- we loose fat, yes, but also a large measure of muscle
- we unintentionally lower our metabolism
- we set the stage for gaining fat increasingly faster in the future when we come off the diet, and thereby get caught up in perpetual dieting
- we receive inadequate nutrients in imbalanced combination
- we drain the entire body from energy
Fasting and very low calorie diets (diets below 500 calories) cause a loss of nitrogen and potassium in the body, a loss which is believed to trigger a mechanism in the body that causes us to hold on to our fat stores and to turn to muscle protein for energy instead.
Don’t use fad diets to loose weight!
No system on severe food deprivation is wise way to loose weight. Even on the total fast, because you’re loosing muscle and altering your metabolism, you’ll actually be loosing less weight in the end than if you ate 100o - 1500 calories of protein and good quality carbohydrate rich foods every day combined with exercise.
For example, weight lost on high fat, high protein diets like Atkins Diet is primarily water loss, and even that water is lost largely during the first few weeks. This weight is quickly gained back.
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March 6th, 2008 Milan
To determine your total daily caloric needs, it is first important to eat a healthy diet with adequate macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients.
Requirement for most nonathletic adults is 1,700 to 3,100 calories per day. Depending on your size and daily activity level, your calorie intake needs may be quite different. On lazy day, you may only need 2,100 calories or less. For active days you may require 3,300 calories or more.
If you are active person, trying to eat right amount of calories per day:
- weighing less than 160 pounds, start with the 2,300-calories-per-day
- weighing more than 160 pounds, start with 3,200-calories-per-day
And see how your body responds:
- If your weight and body fat start to increase, cut back 10% on the total daily calories
- if your weight starts to decrease too much, increase your total daily caloric intake by 10% (unless weight loss is your goal)
Balancing your food intake to meet your caloric needs is a daily task. Keeping track of your body weight and body composition (fat%) will help you adjust your calorie intake and achieve healthy active body weight.
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February 29th, 2008 Milan
If in 1 gram of:
- Carbohydrate is 4 calories
And you are trying to loose weight, than you should:
- substitute low fat for high fat foods
- eat fewer processed foods
- emphasize the complex carbohydrates
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