Month: July 2015

I will be writing a couple of articles about kidney disease over the next couple weeks and even though you may not be touched by it yourself, kidney disease is crazy popular as a diease to watch out for.

1 in 3 people is at risk today for kidney disease and 1 in 20 is currently struggling with kidney disease

The reason for this interest right now in kidney disease is because in two weeks I will be going under the knife to donate a kidney to my daughter.

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Kidney March 2013

Our Kidney Disease History

We have known for almost four years now that our daughter Taylor was going to need a kidney transplant at some point. Back a few years ago after a few blood tests and X Rays we were told that our daughter had acquired nephronophthisis, a genetic broken spot, that meant that her kidneys were just going to get worse and eventually she would have to lose her kidneys and get a donor to give her a new kidney.

I was tested once Taylor got closer to needing a kidney and since I am her dad I ended up being a good match and was healthy enough to donate to her as well.

Then two months ago as a preparation for the kidney transplant Taylor had her kidneys pulled out and has been on dialysis since. She does dialysis for 10 hours a night and then a couple extra exchanges during the day. This is not as common.

Usually a kidney transplant will just be an additional kidney added to the two that a person already has. In Taylors case though there was a real problem with her urine output being too high so she would not have had a good chance at a good outcome with one of my kidneys.

So wish me luck these next two weeks. I am starting to feel the pressure of getting everything just right.

Trying to get things right around my house, around my work, and around my family so that everything will be ready for my few weeks of bedrest after the surgery while at the same time helping my wife with the healing process for my daughter.

Wish us luck!

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Are you looking for tips to lose weight? These tips to lose weight fast will help you. Keep in mind, however, that if you want to lose and keep it off that you have to change your lifestyle.

That means following these tips consistently.

It can be difficult to change life-long habits. Starting out is usually the hardest part. Once you develop healthier patterns, they too can become habits!

5 Tips To Lose Weight

1. Eat Healthier Fats

tips to lose

The latest research on weight loss say that it’s not so much fat itself that is the problem when it comes to health and weight loss, but the kind of fat. In general, it’s a good idea to avoid trans fats, which are found in many junk foods, margarine, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and baked goods such as cakes, cookies and donuts (you can find healthier, organic versions of these products).

Saturated fats, which are found in animal products are fine to eat in small quantities, especially if they are natural or organic.

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats that are now called “healthy fats” contain essential fatty acids, especially Omega-3. These are found in almonds and other nuts, avocados, coconut and olive oils and flaxseed oil.

So, as a rule,the best tips to lose are that it’s best to avoid trans fats as much as possible, consume limited amounts of saturated fats

(note -some people still label saturated fats as “bad fats” but there is compelling research that shows that many cultures have consumed animal products for centuries with virtually no obesity or degenerative diseases -see Weston Price Foundation for more information;the problem today is that most animal products are from factory farms, which use many questionable additives)

and large amounts of healthy fats.

One Healthy Diet program is the Fat Loss for Idiots plan. Check out my Review of it

2. Exercise Intelligently

Besides diet the best tips to lose are that you need to exercise. The problem many people have with exercise is that they start out very enthusiastically and then, when that initial burst of energy wears out, they quit. If this is your tendency, you should remember that the real key to a successful exercise program is consistency.

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It’s far better, for example, to walk for forty-five minutes every day and stick with it than to be a “weekend warrior” and do strenuous exercise inconsistently. Don’t try to do too much, but make sure you get regular exercise at least three times per week.

Tom Venuto who created Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle is a great resource for this. You can read the review of his book here.

3. Pay Attention to What You Drink

Water and fluid intake can be at least as important as food when it comes to tips to lose weight. The best thing to drink is pure water.

After that, stick to pure juices (in moderation; many juices like apple are healthy, but contain lots of sugar; even natural sugar can be fattening in large quantities), green tea, which has antioxidants that may help with loss, and herbal teas.

Avoid soda as much as possible, even diet sodas –most artificial sweeteners have potential health risks. One glass of wine or beer every day is fine for most people and may actually have health benefits. Beyond this, however, alcohol can be fattening and of course can contribute to other health problems.

4. Get Some Sleep!

While we all know that you need exercise to lose fast, oddly enough, sleep can also help. Recent research has shown a correlation between sleep deprivation and obesity. Apparently lack of sleep causes an imbalance in the body which inhibits the burning of fat.

So if you have sleeping problems, you should address this. Regular exercise can help with this. Avoid caffeine or stimulants beyond the mid-afternoon. Certain herbal teas, such as chamomile and skullcap can also help with sleep.

5. Reduce Stress

Stress also makes it difficult to lose fast. This is probably related to the issue of sleep deprivation contributing to obesity. While we tend to think of sleep and relaxation as the opposite of what we need to lose weight, the fact is we need both activity and rest to be at our best and for our body to burn fat.

Remember to do all these things together

So we don’t only need to get enough sleep, but we also need to be able to deal with stress throughout the day. If you have a problem with stress, try yoga or meditation. These also teach proper breathing, which is crucial for overall health, stress reduction and losing weight.

So follow these tips to lose fast and you will be sure to do a lot better in your loss goals.

I really think that to lose fast you need to concentrate on all of these things. There are a ton of articles that I have written on weight loss and muscle gain but more often than not it is the time crunch that forces people to look for tips to lose .

There are a few things that you can do to gain muscle fast. The first thing to remember is that to gain muscle fast you need to take care of your diet, you need to train correctly and finally you need to rest very well so that you can make the most of those workouts.

Gain Muscle Weight Fast

In the last article I pointed out that most people do not use weight lifting as a form of exercise although it is critical to do this instead of just cardio to help drive up your metabolism. There are a few problems though.

Most people as they try to gain muscle fast make the critical mistake of overtraining while also not eating and resting enough.

So lets look at the proper way for eating, resting and training to maximize gains and minimize overtraining in your quest to gain muscle fast.

Eating to Gain Muscle Weight Fast

Eating to gain muscle is critical. Every time that you work out you are going to be breaking down that muscle and you need water and protein to rebuild your muscle bigger and better to handle higher s. Most people eat very little protein and lots of carbohydrates, especially grains and other white carbs instead of colored vegetables.

The best way to eat is as I have mentioned lots before is to have 6 meals a day. These meals are made up of getting all of your claories in one day and then break that up into six small meals. This means that your meals are a lot smaller than you may be used to.

The next thing to worry about is the amount of protein in each meal.

Eat 20 grams or so of protein in each meal and then over time if you get really serious about becoming a serious bodybuilder then you would take this protein up to 30 or even 40 grams of protein in a meal.

20 grams of protein by the way would be something around half a chicken breast or 2 to 3 ounces of meat.

Lastly remember that if you are taking in this protein that you can not just substitute by eating a giant steak instead all at one time.

Your body can not process that much protein at once and you will just pass it unused. With the price of steak and chicken we may as well be making the most of it instead of wasting it.

Resting to Gain Muscle Fast

Rest is also critical when trying to gain muscle fast. You need to make sure that you are sleeping well and not being affected by stress as these two things are the really important actions to gaining muscle after a tough workout.

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As you may or may not know the workout that gets you strong is only the fiest part of gaining muscle. The only time that your body actually recovers and gains muscle back is during the night when you are sleeping.

If you get lots of sleep then your muscles will heal, if you sleep poorly or not enough then your body will not recover fully and your body will become overtrained easily.

Stress also is a roadblock to muscle gains. Your body is not going to recover from a stressful workout if you are not allowing yourself the recovery period.

Stress causes your body and muscles to be tight and the tightness of the muscles is a primal reaction that allows you to react quickly to the various dangers that our caveman background was preparing for.

 

So eliminate stress wherever you can.

Training to Gain Muscle

OK, I saved the biggest until last. To really gain muscle fast you of course need to workout smart and get the most out of your muscles without over-training.

Have you ever looked at a construction worker? They tend to be big with muscle and fat but considering how much they lift they are not huge as bodybuilders.

The best way to build muscle is not to just lift a lot of throughout the day but instead you need to lift a lot of in a short period of time.

Even most people training in gyms do not realize this as you will see guys doing set after set with long rest times between sets.

I can tell you that the best way to workout is to warmup your muscles and then do sets to failure. Going to failure means that you are doing a set of 10 reps or so and that at the end of that set you have nothing left to lift with.

After you have a couple of months of working out like this you will be able to use advanced strategies like stripping s, pauses, and supersets but at this point just try to make sure that you need a spot on that last rep or two.

As far as number of sets try to do two sets to failure for two exercises in each muscle group. This means that for back for example that you would do lat pulldowns for two sets to failure and the two sets of seated rows to failure.

Using this lifting strategy should also make your workouts much quicker than you would expect. Your workouts should not last more than 45 minutes total.

Whole Strategy to Gain Muscle Fast

So her you are a total strategy to gain muscle fast. As you can see there are really only three things to be aware of. Arnold Schwarzenegger once said that gaining muscle was 99% mental and I have to agree.

If you are not only aware but have conviction in your actions when it comes to getting the right amount of rest, eating the right foods at the right times and training like a superstar for your body then you are going to gain muscle fast.

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