Viewing entries tagged
diet
With people in the Mediterranean living on average 3 years longer and remaining more active in their last decade of their lives than in the rest of Europe, it is no wonder many people move there. But the next best thing might be to start with the Mediterranean Diet! Find out why.
It is all very well having the perfect training plan, but what you eat before, during, and after you run can make or break your training. Eat too little and you’ll run out of energy to finish. Too much and you’ll find yourself running to the bathroom. Mid-run fuel—from sports drinks, gels, gummy bears, etc.—helps you sustain energy to finish the effort.
Snacking is not necessarily a bad thing. Snacking helps to fill the void between main meals and fuel those who lead especially active lifestyles, particularly those in training. The important thing to remember is to choose wisely when snacking and building meals, including proteins, fibre and other nutritionally valuable foods to keep you full and to boost weight loss.
Post workout you need food to help you recoup lost energy and to help you recover. These recipes are a good place to start.
If you are looking at beating your personal best you need to look at your training, your race day planning, your fitness and of course your fuel. What you eat before you start your run can have a significant effect on your performance which is why you should consider including these foods.
When working on a fitness plan with clients I advise setting short term goals as well as long term ones. The end goal may be a few stones away for example and this may be demotivating at times. When it comes to successful weight loss even shorter goals are key to success. Those most successful on a weight loss journey are those who take it day by day and make small yet significant changes to their everyday habits.
The media tells us to run away (fast!) from fats and to do our best to eliminate or at least reduce them from our diets. The insinuation that you can never lose weight or get fit when you have fat in your diet is as ludicrous as supposing that all fats are the same. Some fats are not only good for you, they are essential in maintaining a healthy body and may actually help you achieve that much sought-after flat belly!
Your thyroid is important, very important actually as its "job" is to regulate more or less all of the major metabolic functions in your body. It is responsible for regulating sensitivity to other hormones, controls new protein building, controls how fast/slow your metabolic rate is, calorie burning and that's just the beginning.
Back in the 1970's a rather damning (and somewhat flawed as it turns out) report coming out of the MIT gave nitrates and nitrites a bad name. These two compounds natural occur in the human body and largely in vegetables. In a knee-jerk reaction to this report the FDA of the day cut the allowable levels of nitrates and nitrites allowed In food products. This especially had a knock-on effect on the reputation of cured meats.
Fats are the work of the devil, they should be shunned, avoided, banned from your diet... or not. While the old thinking suggests that all fats are bad, particularly for anyone engaged in an athletic routine personal trainers like myself, alongside labs full of researchers will tell you that not all fats are created equal and that people do indeed use them to boost their athletic performance.
Nutritionists, health and fitness experts and many more interested parties have long-since debated whether cutting down or eliminating meat from our diets is the best choice for our short and long term health. As it turns out there are pros and cons to both plant-based diets and meat including ones. One of the main problems with the modern diet is the reliance on too many refined carbs, processed foods, artificial ingredients and a lack of adequate fruit and vegetable portions.
The chances are that you've heard the phrase "eight glasses a day" more times than you can actually remember. In actual fact, while it is good to have a goal of some sort to stick to research suggests that this standard amount might not be "right". If not eight glasses though, how much should you be drinking?
Generally speaking the less healthy and fit you are the longer it will take your body to recover, particularly after exercise. While a sweeping statement such as this does not necessarily fit everyone's specific recovery rates it tends to be the general way of things. With this in mind it makes sense for people to improve their fitness levels in order to recover quicker (and better). Some believe that a break from working out is best for optimal recovery which is not always correct. I find that recovery is often an after-thought for many in training as it gets in the way of whatever training timetable they have in place and goals they have in mind.
Move over lotions and potions, the best way to slow down and manage the natural process of aging is to look to your diet and how you choose to live your life. Overall a well-balanced diet, decent activity levels, cleaner eating and similar are what you need to be looking at, alongside adding these foods into your diet for maximum anti-aging power. Packed with nutrients and proven to keep you younger for longer from the inside out why wouldn't you enjoy them?
There are many reasons to adopt and enjoy a low carb (read as low carb NOT no carb) diet. What some are concerned about however is that with the proven popularity of the low carb diet has arrived a high protein diet to "compensate" for the loss of the energy carbohydrates offer. Could too much protein be bad for your health?
If you were to run a survey which asks people which part of them they would most like to see toned or reduce the chances are the majority would point to their stomach. Men and women alike are looking for a more defined abs look and to reduce or eliminate that belly fat. Many people believe that in order to burn that fat off and work on defining their abs you need to be doing crunches, sit ups and similar stomach focused exercises.
Nuts have featured heavily in many diets as the years have gone on, offering a quick energy boost and being hailed as a significantly healthier snack than some alternatives. This is fine however a snack portion and really going at the nuts are two different things. Have you ever, after a nut binge, found that your digestive system seems to be sluggish (at best), and that perhaps your stomach seems upset with you?
Every now and then there is a new and trendy product that hits the health and nutrition market that becomes the must-eat or must-drink product. This is the product that you see on all of the adverts, in all of the shop windows and all of the health magazines. Fast forward a few months and there is a brand new must-have product that is bigger, better and promises more than the last.
The NHS, the media, your friends and family; everyone is keen to tell you that exercise is good for you. This blog is a little more specific. Did you know that as well as the obvious benefits of exercising regularly this type of activity may also boost your gut health? Studies from Ireland that have recently been released have reported that exercising effectively and regularly help to increase and support the diversity of your good bacteria naturally.
Ayurveda medicine is the Hindu traditional medicine system that is much respected on a global level. While many would consider Ayurveda an alternative medicine method more recent scientific studies have backed up many of the findings that practitioners advocate. One common kitchen ingredient that features highly on the Ayurveda hit list of go-to remedies is ginger. This earthy spice has been used for many years in many different ways with a great number of reports backing up claims that ginger does indeed help with health and well-being.
