Thursday, February 27, 2014

Reducing Workout Soreness



Many people have a misconception about working out. Sometimes this misconception hurts their weight loss goals. This dangerous misconception is the idea that every workout will always cause uncomfortable muscle soreness and tightness. This soreness can disrupt sleep patterns and prevent collagenweight loss products from working correctly as well as simply reduce motivation.

But how are those extremely fit people at the gym working out every day? Why is your health nut friend not walking hunched over with a limp after his run on the treadmill? It could be one of two things: either they’ve gotten over the hump of soreness or they know exactly how to prevent and relieve it.

Why Do We Get Sore?

When we work harder than we’re used to or starting up new activities with new muscle groups we end up getting sore. This soreness is caused by micro-tears in the muscle fibers. These tears are also part of the reason why our muscles get bigger after working out. It’s at this point that they are allowed to heal and adjust. Eventually, if you continue working out regularly and doing similar exercises, you’ll get used to the movements and delayed onset soreness will cease to be a problem until you push yourself to the next level or change your routine.

How Do We Get Relief?

Getting relief from next day soreness is fairly easy. If you’re sore the next day it’s best to simply wrap a bag of ice in a towel and press it on the painful area. This will give you some relief for a while unlike heat, which will just relieve the pain while the heat is contacting the area.

You can also take some anti-inflammatory medication, such as Ibuprofen, from time to time to relieve pain. While this works well infrequently, taking them too often can prevent your muscles from repairing themselves correctly over time.

How Do We Prevent It?

As they say, prevention is the best medicine. Luckily preventing, or preemptively reducing, muscle soreness is extremely easy.

Warm Up

If you’re hopping on a treadmill for a run, walk first. If you’re doing some heavy lat pulldowns, do some lighter reps first. All you need to do is warn your muscles that you’re about to push them. Once your body is alerted to it you can work out, not get as sore, and reduce your risk of injury.

Hydrate

This one goes without saying but water is a fantastic lubricant for muscles. It is also vital for muscle repairing and growth. Just like putting WD-40 on a squeaky hinge, giving your muscles water will significantly reduce soreness and injuries.

Protein

Protein is necessary for building muscle and expelling energy so it makes sense that you would need it in order to make quick muscle repairs immediately after a workout. Making sure that you have the protein available to develop your muscles is also vital if you’re using supplements like Lose andSnooze weight loss.

If you make sure to use these strategies, you will be able to avoid a lot of the pain and tightness associated with working out. If you reduce those then you will be able to stay more motivated for a fitter, leaner you!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Reading Your Nutrition Labels



Aside from just using great supplements like Lose andSnooze weight loss, there are other actions that you should take to increase weight loss such as lowering your caloric intake, making sure you’re getting the right amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, keeping your cholesterol in check, and monitoring how much of each nutrient you’re getting. Although this may seem like a daunting task, it’s really very simple. Reading the nutrition labels on the food you buy can be one of the quickest and easiest ways to make healthier decisions for you and your family. After all, that’s what it’s there for.

Serving Size

Pay close attention to the serving size of the product that you’re buying. Not every serving size is for everyone. For instance, many cereals have a serving size of one-half to one cup. How many people actually eat only one cup of cereal when they have a bowl? Although the serving size is calculated in a specific way by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) it will seem arbitrary for your purposes as it differs from product to product and brand to brand. To account for this it’s good to estimate how much of a product you usually eat and calculate the rest of the nutrients from there. For example, if you usually eat twice the amount on the package, multiply everything by two.

Percent Daily Value

The “percent daily value” on a food label isn’t the recommendation for everyone. In fact, it’s not the correct recommendation for most people (unless you’re a 5’8” 130-pound male that is 25 years old that is somewhat active, then it’s pretty close). The percent daily value is calculated by the FDA for those with a 2,000-calorie diet. Again, not everyone has this so it is best to find your own calorie recommendation and adjust accordingly.

More About Recommendations

The recommendations get even more confusing when you realize that the recommendations are not goals. Some of them are maximum recommendations and some of them are minimum recommendations. Once you’ve reached 100% of your “recommended” fat and sodium content for the day it simply means that the FDA is saying that they recommend you don’t go any further.

On the other hand, with carbohydrates, fiber, and the vitamins and minerals (sometimes listed at the bottom of the nutrition box) the “recommendation” means that they recommend you eat at least 100% of the recommended value.

Not All Fats are Created Equal

Finally, it’s important to know what kind of fats and cholesterol you’re getting with your food, since not all of the labels will tell you what you’re getting yourself into. You’re more likely to get a specific breakdown of fats instead of cholesterol on the box, but what do all of those weird words mean?

Monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and Omega-3 fatty acids are usually from places like canola oil, nuts, and legumes. They’re generally good for you and can help you lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.

Saturated trans fats, usually found in animal products, are not as good for you but still necessary for various bodily functions. It’s also important to take the good with the bad in regards to saturated trans fats because it’s difficult to get all of the nutrients you need without eating animal products. It’s possible, but more difficult.

And that brings us to the lower rung of fats you should eat: hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats that act more to preserve the food than to preserve your body. They’re usually found in shortening or stick margarine. Need we say more?

Knowing what you’re eating is extremely important to maintaining a healthy balance in your body. Supplementing your weight loss with collagenweight loss products can allow you to lose weight more quickly and easily, but it will always start with you and your healthy habits. No supplements in the world will help if you subsist solely on cookies.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Health Benefits of Weight Loss


There are many benefits to weight loss due to a healthy lifestyle including exercise, healthy eating habits, and supplements such as collagenweight loss products. You’ll look better, feel more confident, and be healthier overall. There are dozens of amazing health benefits to losing weight and feeling great. Here are just a few.

Reducing the Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a chronic condition that causes you, for any number of reasons, to stop breathing, breathe in a very shallow manner, or breathe irregularly while sleeping. When your airway is obstructed during sleep, your blood oxygen level drops resulting in your brain pulling you out of deep sleep. Oftentimes this condition is accompanied by snoring, frequent waking, and general fatigue during the daytime hours.

By losing weight you may be able to reduce the obstructions in your airway while you are asleep thereby reducing the effects of your sleep apnea and, in rare instances, eliminating sleep apnea altogether.

Preventing or Helping Arthritis

Osteoarthritis causes your joints to become stiff and painful. This is caused by a breakdown of cartilage due to overuse. Just like rubbing a mortar and pestle, vigorously together weight can cause joints to grind together more than necessary, accelerating the speed of degradation.

By removing some of the weight from your joints, it can significantly decrease the weight that you’re putting on your joints. Even a few pounds can drastically change the way your bones and joints feel. Obviously, it won’t reverse the degradation of your joints but it will lighten the load on those joints.

Lowering Cholesterol

Cholesterol isn’t bad by itself and we need both LDL and HDL cholesterol to survive. Both of these types of cholesterol gets into the body through the food we eat and is developed naturally in the body. Where there is too much LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream, you can put yourself at risk for heart attacks and stroke. By maintaining a healthier diet and losing weight, you can lower this risk, lower your LDL levels, and raise your HDL levels so that they are healthy.

Reversing or Preventing Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes can be caused by several different factors but two of them are weight gain and a poor diet. By changing your diet, adding supplements such as lose andsnooze weight loss, and dropping some weight, you will be able to lower your blood sugar and make yourself feel great. When you are considering losing weight for your diabetes it is especially important to talk to a doctor beforehand as your medications and diet may need to be monitored frequently and changed often.

Lowering Blood Pressure

Blood pressure, basically, is how hard your heart has to work to pump blood through your body. There can be many reasons for this, but one of them is significant weight gain. If you develop high blood pressure, you are at significant risk of developing further cardiovascular problems including stroke and heart attacks.

When you lower your weight, your blood pressure can also go down due to the pressure being off of your veins and arteries but also because your diet is likely better. This reduces the chance of significant cardiovascular complications in the future.

Developing healthy habits does a lot more for your body than make you look good and feel stronger. It can have real, measurable impacts on your body and your health.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Foods Low in Fat and High in Protein



There are plenty of high protein foods on the market. The problem is that many of them also are high in fats that you may be trying to reduce. From a health standpoint, eating more fats than proteins isn’t usually the healthiest option. And, when it comes to your looks, you’ll never get a ripped, hard body if there is an extra layer of fat that you simply can’t get rid of. While collagen weightloss products can help stimulate muscle growth and fat loss while you sleep, it’s in your best interest to jump start that process with a healthy diet that has a good amount of protein in it. But what foods are there with high protein content but low fat?

Turkey Breast

Turkey breasts are amazing sources of protein with very little fat. In fact, the ratio of protein to fat can be around 15-to-one. Using it as a replacement for many of your favorite, fatty meats, can really throw your weight loss progress into overdrive. Consider, for instance, that you can replace many meats in turkey meatloaf, turkey sandwiches, and turkey burgers for a much healthier option.

Egg Whites

While eggs are barely higher in protein than in fat, egg whites are protein gold mines that contain a nearly negligible amount of fat. Conceivably egg whites can reliably replace eggs in nearly any breakfast recipe for a huge boost of protein (and energy) while weeding out almost all of the fat.

Salmon

Salmon, while not boasting the otherworldly protein to fat ratios as the previous two, packs a protein-filled punch. Salmon inherently comes with a few other nutritional benefits such as being low in sodium and high in potassium (for a fish). However, it also comes with various culinary benefits, such as being an amazingly versatile food that is perfect for breakfast in dishes like eggs benedict, lunch sandwiches, or dinner plates where it can simply be prepared by itself and accompanied by some hearty veggies.

Edamame

Edamame isn’t just a sushi restaurant staple any longer. Edamame is a delicious food that you can easily pick up from your local grocery store, prepare with any number of spices, and eat. They’re even easy to bring with you for an on-the-go snack. While tasty and easy to transport, edamame is also a snack food that has almost two times as much protein as fat.

Chicken Breast

Everyone knows about the wonders of the chicken breast with a significant amount of protein with very little fat. Everyone also knows about how versatile this staple food is. Why don’t people love to eat it? It likely comes down to just preparing it plain next to boring, lifeless vegetables. The next time you make chicken, make sure to elevate the flavors with some seasonings (like sprigs of rosemary) and incorporate vegetables into the meal instead of just having them as required eating. You can love that chicken breast again if you put the effort in.

By increasing the protein and decreasing the fat in your diet with these five wonderfoods, you’ll be able to take the effectiveness of your Loseand Snooze weight loss supplement to new heights and watch the pounds melt away.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Sleeping Like a Baby Through the Night


Many Americans have difficulty sleeping throughout the night soundly. Whether noises wake them up, their own thoughts, or something else it seems as though, for many adults, there’s always something to disrupt the body’s natural sleep pattern. Unfortunately, sleeping is absolutely necessary for many bodily functions to occur, including muscle regeneration, the expulsion of certain free radicals, and the repair or replacement of many white blood cells. Additionally, having sleepless nights may hinder certain foods from being digested fully and certain collagenweight loss products from taking effect. The good news is there are several strategies you can use to keep your body sleeping throughout the night.

Regularity

Just like any other activity, it’s easier for your body to do it on a schedule. If you eat at a certain time during your workday there will be subtle hints that your body will pick up on and start to become hungry during the same time each day. This happens with sleep as well. If you decide to go to bed at 10:30 pm every day, make sure it is always the time you go to sleep. Eventually you won’t even have to think about it. Before you know it, 10:30 pm will be your body’s natural bedtime. This rule also applies to times when you are waking up.

Keep Your Bedroom Electronic-Free

This will be the hardest rule for some people, but keeping your bedroom free of distracting electronics, like TVs and your cell phone, is absolutely necessary for many people to go to sleep. This is because many people will frequently mess around with their televisions or cell phones before they go to sleep and repeatedly check it throughout the night. This trains the brain to need to check it frequently in bed and sometimes can wake you up.

Eat Healthy and Exercise

Eating healthy and exercising are no-brainers for this list. Eating too much sugar or drinking too much caffeine at bad times will send your body mixed messages about whether it should be awake or asleep. While some products, like Lose andSnooze weight loss, are able to help with sleeping in some respects, making sure that you are exercising to release your body’s natural endorphins and adrenaline throughout the day will allow you to continue to sleep throughout the night.

De-Stress

Trying to use different, natural methods to reduce stress in your life can pay back in the long run and will help you get a more restful sleep throughout the night. Whether your favorite method of reducing stress is reading a book, watching a movie, yoga, or meditation, make sure you’re taking a little time out of your day for yourself.

See a Sleep Specialist

If you’re running into chronic sleep problems that are affecting your life on a daily basis, it may be a pre-existing medical condition that should be checked out by a doctor. Many times, they will test your sleep habits with non-invasive machinery that you can take home and use in your own bed. It will measure your position, whether your body is awake or asleep, oxygen levels, and many other bodily functions that can help determine if your trouble sleeping is due to some mental block that good habits can help; or if it’s an actual physical problem, such as sleep apnea.

By using even a few of these tips, you should be able to find yourself not only going to sleep quicker when you want to go to sleep, but also staying asleep throughout the night. This will, in turn, lead to more rested days and a general feeling of well-being that you wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

How Sleep Helps Weight Loss and Muscle Growth



Everyone knows that we get tired and that we need sleep. We all know that not sleeping is dangerous for several reasons, as well as generally uncomfortable. But, when you actually lay down for a nap, or a restful eight-hour doze, what is your body actually doing?

The science of why we sleep isn’t fully understood, but we know that nearly every species of animal has some version of a sleep cycle and that, without it, there can be inconvenient or disastrous effects. Although science is just now beginning to really understand sleep, there are some well-founded ideas about sleep.

Sleep Heals Wounds

There’s an old saying that “time heals all wounds.” This seems to be especially true if that time is spent sleeping. It has been found that burns and other minor injuries heal significantly faster while asleep than while awake. This also translates directly into becoming lean and cut. How? Because when wounds heal, muscles that have been worked out tend to heal as well.

When you work out there are little tears in the fibers of the muscle that need to be healed. While you sleep, just like with any other wound, your muscles heal significantly faster. Adding the extra aid of a collagenweight loss product can help as well as it promotes restful sleep and natural muscle growth

Sleep Builds the Immune System

Your immune system is what keeps your body health enough to work and play another day. Without it, everyone would be sick all the time. Depriving yourself of sleep can wreak havoc on your immune system. In studies on people it has been found that sleep deprivation can reduce your all-important white blood cells by 20%. As your white blood cells are like the guardians of your body, it’s imperative that they are there to do their jobs well.

Sleep Helps Regulate Metabolism

Metabolism is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but in essence, it means any process in your body that converts or uses energy. If you’re not using or converting energy, it gets stored in some unfortunate ways. Sleeping allows you to regulate your body’s use, conversion, and restoration of energy. Products like Lose andSnooze weight loss supplement are able to help your body spike your metabolic rate partially through the supplement itself, and partially through building muscle, which will increase your metabolic rate to significantly healthier levels.

So make sure that you’re doing everything that you can to get enough sleep. It’s just as important as exercising and eating right but there’s the added benefit of being able to sleep while you lose weight and get in shape!