Healthy Lifestyle for a woman

A woman walks into a room. She is slim and fit, her skin glows and her hair shines and she dresses well. When one of your friends says, 'I know her: she takes good care of herself' do you detect an undercurrent of criticism? Do you pick up a hint that your friend thinks that this woman in, 'taking care of herself' is selfish and spoiled  and spends more time on herself that she should?

But the thing is this: we all deserve to be fit and healthy. We all should take good care of ourselves in order to keep our minds and body fit.  We deserve to eat nutritious food and take exercise. We should spend thought and time on ourselves, for if we do not who else will? No-one can do it for us. We are responsible for our own good health.

And being healthy it is not as tricky or time consuming as you may think.

1 strange tips to keep healthy and avoid hitting the diet ‘wall’

 We’ve all been there, a new diet is going well and the pounds are beginning to fall off you then it hits. The wall. The dreaded wall, that moment that any dieter dreads when the diet seems to win and which sends many a dieter heading back to refrigerator for comfort.

But, don’t’ fret, these five strange buy handy tips will help you get over the diet ‘wall’ and back to enjoying losing weight.

1)      Pinch me, I’m dreaming

Yes, it’s hard to imagine but pinching yourself can really help keep the dream of the diet alive.

Reasons for Your Insomnia (and How to Beat Them)

Toss and turn no more! Sleep experts reveal the six most common causes of insomnia, and explain how you can finally get some sleep.

Common causes of insomnia

For Jenny Smith*, her insomnia started when her daughters were young. “I don’t know if I ever had more than a three-hour stretch,” recalls the 54-year-old Toronto speech-language pathologist. “Our youngest daughter came into our room regularly in the middle of the night until she was 10.”

These days, a different family member is keeping her awake: “My husband has sleep apnea and snores, and it bothers me when I’m going to sleep or when I wake up at night.” Smith usually clocks only 61/2 hours of sleep each night, and she pays for it by feeling zonked the next day. “I drive a lot to see clients and I get really tired after lunch,” she says. “Sometimes I have to pull over in a gas station parking lot to take a 15-minute power nap.”

Like Smith, many women just aren’t getting the sleep they need to feel rested. “Women are much more likely to have sleep problems than men,” says Dr. Meir Kryger, a Canadian physician and professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. “A large part of it is due to reproductive hormones and stage of life; even in this day and age, it’s usually the woman who ends up taking care of kids or aging family members in the night.” Women are also more likely to have depression and anxiety, which are linked to sleep disorders.

Insomnia – difficulty falling asleep or getting back to sleep or the inability to stay asleep – is the most common sleep disorder for women. It affects about 40 percent of the general population in Canada, and women are 11/2 times more likely to experience it than men, according to a Canadian survey published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

Not catching enough zzzs can have serious health consequences. Poor sleep has been linked to diabetes, cancer and heart disease and makes you more prone to weight gain by affecting the hormones that control hunger and satiety. It can hurt your mental health, too. “Besides making you irritable, sleep deprivation increases your likelihood of developing depression,” says Dr. Kryger.

Vitamins for brain health

Our brain was specially designed for an important job: to take care of the body. Of course, the brain has a plenitude of important functions, but all are there to help keep the body healthy. But something must keep the brain healthy too. Apart from physical and mental exercise, a proper nutrition and the intake of certain vitamins and minerals is the key to a healthy brain.

Can the brain survive without vitamins? The answer is NO. Let’s take, for example, the first vitamin of the B complex, Thiamine.  It is an essential nutrient for the human body, especially for the brain, and low levels of Thiamine can produce serious conditions that, if untreated, can be lethal.

Let’s see what kind of vitamins and minerals can help our brain to function properly.

Vitamin B complex

The “B complex” has a key role in energy production and brain metabolism. Its massive impact on brain health has been discovered even since 1930s, when Honekamp, a German physician, successfully treated schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and epilepsy with yeast and other vitamin B rich nutrients.

Vitamin B complex consists of 8 vitamins, named individually: B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9 and B12. From these, the most important for the brain are:

-          B1 (Thiamine):irreplaceable for the nervous and muscular systems. Thiamine deficiency can cause Korsakoff’s syndrome (cause neural loss, thalamus damage and generalized cerebral atrophy – amnesia, confabulation, ataxia and even coma), beriberi disease and other neuropathies. Excessive alcohol use can also cause low thiamine levels (in Korsakoff’s syndrome).

-          B3 (Niacin): its main “duty” is to improve HDL cholesterol (“good cholesterol”) levels. This keeps the brain arteries away from atherosclerosis and away from stroke. It also maintains a good cerebral blood-flow, which help us concentrate and think better. Other studies had shown that niacin has a crucial role in Alzheimer’s disease prevention.

-          B6 (pyridoxine):although its main function is not in the realm of the nervous system, a particular attribute makes B6 an important asset for the brain health. This is serotonin – a neurotransmitter that has a great influence on mood and happiness. So, pyridoxine is thought to reduce significantly the symptoms of depression through serotonin production.

-          B9 (folic acid): Dr. Ray Sahelian, a nutrition expert mentioned the vitamin B9 influence on the nervous system in the following statement:"Getting adequate folic acid can make one a little more alert, and improve memory and focus. It helps lower blood levels of the amino acid homocysteine that is known to damage brain cells”.

-          B12 (cobalamin): this vitamin is among the most important nutrients for brain health. It activates the neuronal metabolism and is involved in the myelin sheath formation. Some studies on the older people showed that Cobalamin deficiency can shrink your brain faster and alter your memory. B12 is also important for vegetarians who cannot obtain proper amounts of cobalamin from vegetables (vitamin B12 is found mostly in meat). They have to use supplements to keep their B12 levels optimal.

Vitamin C

There was a myth about vitamin C and the common cold that is currently “busted” by the modern medicine. But modern medicine proved us that Vitamin C, even if it doesn’t have a real influence on us when we getthe flu, has many other important roles on our well-being. On the nervous system, Vitamin C helps producing neurotransmitters like serotonin or dopamine by converting them from certain amino acids. And, like I said previously about pyridoxine, vitamin C can be used on treating depression and other mood issues.

Vitamin D (calciferol)

Recent studies suggested that Vitamin D insufficiency is correlated with an increased risk of several diseases of the central nervous system, including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia. You can get this vitamin mostly from fish oil and sunlight, but if you are vegetarian, you must use vitamin D supplements in order to maintain a proper level of calciferol in your body.

Vitamin E (tocopherol)

Many think that vitamin E is, along with the B complex, one of the top nutrients responsible for the health of the brain. Let’s point out some of the wonder attributes and roles of tocopherol:

-          reduces the risk of stroke and Alzheimer’s disease

-          anticoagulant action especially on the arteries of the brain

-          improves memory and attention.

Magnesium

It is said that almost 10% of the population is lacking this important mineral. Magnesium takes part in a lot of biochemical processes, especially protein and carbohydrate metabolism, in nerve impulses and in stress management. It also protects the nerve cells from neurotics and the nervous system from depression, anxiety, apathy and headaches (in an article from Psychology Today, Dr. Emily Deans calls it “the original chill pill”).

HOW TO GAIN WEIGHT, THE HEALTHY WAY

Many slim people are unaware of how to gain weight in the healthy way. They have struggled all their life eating the wrong foods, performing the wrong exercises and taking weight gain pills that unfortunately end up giving them the wrong results. Others put on unhealthy weight and end up with fat and bone and no muscles. Here are weight gain tips that will help you gain weight the healthy way.

Diet

a)      A healthy diet should contain calories and proteins. Proteins such as meat especially chicken and fish, beans and other legumes, eggs, cheese, milk, yogurt, peanut butter are ideal. Calories can be obtained from nuts seeds, and fruits like avocados.  Processed meats like sausages should be limited in use. Emphasis should be laid on three heavy meals a day and eating more than usual portion. Fast foods such as sodas, chips, pizzas and candies should be avoided as they contain fat which is bad. An example of a healthy meal is a turkey sandwich served with whole grain bread, mayonnaise, tomatoes together with a fruit smoothie. Gaining weight needs one to eat foods that are not only rich in calories but also full of nutrients; this is the same thing that nutritionists would advocate for.

b)      Develop a habit of eating frequently. Besides knowing the types of foods that you need to eat, get a meal schedule. Due to the fact that gaining weight needs more calories and more nutrients, the value of your meals need to be greatly increased for purposes of muscle formation.

c)      At all costs, do not skip meals. When you skip a meal, your body will end up using your reserved fats. Get a time table so that you can eat on time. An ideal meal would include a minimum of three heavy meals and two snacks for the day. If you would like to gain more weight, during the meals, make sure that you double the amount and stick to your schedule at all times.

d)     Be consistent in the meal schedule just the same way that you would do for someone who is trying to gain weight. Follow the schedule very religiously in order to have your desired weight attained.

Supplements

Besides taking a healthy meal, there exist weight gaining supplements that will help you in achieving your objective of weight gain. It should be remembered that supplements are not replacements for healthy meals. Instead they should be with a diet plan as directed. They include:

a)      Creatine - This is a substance that occurs naturally within the muscle cells and particularly at the skeletal muscle tissue which is used for modulation and the production of cellular energy.

b)      Beta alanine - It is a naturally occurring amino acid that is non essential which is gained in the body through those foods that are greatly rich in protein like poultry.

c)      Whey protein consumption improves the body performance and helps in lean muscle gain

d)     Branch Chain amino acids for the recovery of muscles

e)      Glutamine - This usually slows down the breakdown of the muscle tissue during intensive exercises that will improve the threshold strength and have endurance elevated.

Exercises

Exercises should be done moderately. Since the aim is to build muscles, it should not be overdone since this would lead to weight loss, workouts should short and fast rather than prolonged.  Squats, dead lifts, dips are appropriate. Regular schedules of workouts should be adhered to.

Sleep

Sleep is very important when it comes to weight gain. With a proper meal as outline above, eight hours of sleep will help the body to build weight.

The Beach Body Workout

You can do it

Wouldn’t it be terrific to peel off your beach cover-up this summer and feel slimmer, stronger, and more confident than ever? We’ve got just the person to whip you into that kind of amazing shape: personal trainer—and former top boxer!—Cara Castronuova, who’s just finishing up her first season shaping bodies and minds on NBC’s hit show The Biggest Loser.

The key to getting a rocking body may come as a surprise, Castronuova says: "Above all, the secret is believing you have what it takes to be the best you can be." Once you believe you’re capable of anything, she adds, you’re on your way.

No more excuses

The next step is finding the right workout—and here it is. "This high-tempo, no-equipment workout is designed to be done anywhere, anytime," Castronuova says. "It focuses on large-muscle groups, because the bigger the muscle, the more calories required to exercise it." Add some intense fat-blasting cardio, and together, she says, "the whole routine will help turn your body into a fat-burning furnace."

To not just tone but also lose up to 12 pounds this month, follow her diet guidelines. Carve out tiny chunks of time daily to visualize the new you. "Picture yourself as healthy, fit, and strong, and it will happen," Castronuova says.

Here's the plan

Do these strength circuits—designed exclusively for Health readers by Castronuova—three times a week, every other day. "Keep the tempo up, and allow yourself minimal rest," she says. "Really challenge yourself!" In addition, do 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to intense cardio three times a week.

As the weeks progress, your intensity should increase: "Embrace that it will be slightly uncomfortable, then let that push you to work harder and take yourself to new levels."

To warm up, walk briskly, jog, or do a cardio machine for 5 minutes. Then, go through each circuit 3 times, resting for 30 seconds after each exercise.