Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

How to Keep A Food Journal


Though exercise and weight training are very important factors for increasing your fitness and losing weight, you absolutely cannot outwork a bad diet. Your body needs certain nutrients to thrive, and it needs them in the right quantities to create the physique you want. A food journal can help you to understand exactly what’s going into your body, leaving you better equipped to plan your workouts and calorie goals.

When you write down everything you’re eating each day, you automatically become a lot more mindful about food. It’s easy to snack away on junk all day without really thinking about it, but when it comes time to write down every single thing you’ve eaten you might be shocked! This alone is motivation enough for many people to lose weight.

What To Track In Your Food Journal

Food Journal

How to Track your eating in a Food Journal

If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s important that your food journal shows that you created a calorie deficit for the day – that is, that you ate fewer calories than those you burned off through exercise. If you’re trying to build muscle, on the other hand, you’ll need to eat extra calories. Although you might think you can track this mentally, a journal is far more effective.

If you’re into bodybuilding then you’ll also want to keep track of your macronutrients throughout the day. When working out your bodybuilding aims, you’ll know how many proteins, fats and carbohydrates you should eat each day. A journal will ensure you’re keeping on track. If you’ve made progress, or are suffering from a lack of progress, then you can even look back through your food journal to try and find out why.

So, on a most basic level you should include the name of the food, the size of the portion and the number of calories it contained. You can also include details of protein, carbs and fats, and you can make use of a digital kitchen scale or a smartphone app if you want to note down more detailed stats.

If you’re an emotional eater then you can also use the food journal as a place to note down how you feel when you eat certain foods. This will leave you more connected to your emotions and in a much better position to understand the triggers that cause you to eat more than you should.

Yes, a food journal does take effort. However, if you start a new weight loss or diet goal without keeping track of your progress, the chances are strong that you’ll just give up without really trying.


Related Blogs

  • Related Blogs on Fitness
Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Smoothies for Weight Loss



Trying to lose weight can be very difficult for many people. When you’re on a diet, you have to watch what and how much you eat. People often find it hard to prepare a meal that provides the right nutrition without going overboard in terms of calories. If you want to incorporate good nutrition into your diet, smoothies for weight loss can provide a healthy and balanced diet without unneeded calories.

How Does a Smoothie for Weight Loss Work?

Smoothies for Weight Loss

Smoothies for Weight Loss

To get the most weight loss benefit, start your day with a smoothie breakfast. We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. A good breakfast jump starts the metabolism and helps your body burn more calories throughout the day. Many people make the mistake of eating a breakfast that is high in quick burning carbohydrates. This leads to hunger pangs and snacking very early in the day. The right breakfast smoothie recipe will curb hunger pangs while providing the body with the ideal amount of fat, proteins, fiber, and carbohydrates.

A smoothie recipe for weight loss contains the right balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates. The recipe should include whole fruits, yogurt and whey protein. Fiber from fruit helps to fill you up while eliminating the extra calories. With the right balance of nutrition, carbohydrates are metabolized more slowly to prevent a sugar rush followed by a sugar crash.

A healthy smoothie for breakfast is important because it sets the stage for the day. If you make healthy food choices at the start of the day, you are more likely to eat healthy the rest of the day.

Fruit Smoothies for Weight Loss

Smoothies are often made with a combination of fruits. High in fiber but low in calories, fruits are ideal for weight-loss smoothies. If you want to add fruit juices to your smoothie, make sure it has no added sugar. You may want to mix yogurt or tofu to give a creamy consistency. The protein and small amount of fat in yogurt and tofu also make you feel full longer.

There are many different fruits that you can add to your smoothie, including mangoes, berries and bananas. A banana and strawberry smoothie tastes delicious. You can also try other fruit combinations. Experiment with different fruit smoothie recipes and you’ll never get tired of the same diet foods.

Green Smoothies

One of the best smoothies for weight loss is a green smoothie. A green smoothie may not be everyone’s favorite drink but it is amazingly nutritious and has a very low calorie count. You may want to consider mixing leafy greens with a fruit smoothie if you are trying to lose weight. Spinach or kale can be combined with bananas and berries to make a good-tasting smoothie for weight loss. If you are not a fan of green smoothies, combine them with a strong-tasting fruit to mask the taste of the greens.

How to Make a Healthier Smoothie

Green smoothies and fruit smoothies are the most popular choices for weight loss. You can make your smoothies more nutritious by adding fat-free milk or unsweetened fruit juice. Smoothies are rich in many different nutrients and fiber but are much lower in calories, fats and sugar.

  • Smoothies for Weight Loss


Smoothies for Weight Loss

Related Blogs

  • Related Blogs on Added Sugar
  • Related Blogs on Breakfast Smoothie
Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Increase Serotonin Naturally



Serotonin is a compound that most persons have heard about and we all wan t to increase serotonin naturally. It’s what is known as a neurotransmitter, which is a compound that allows the brain to deliver chemical messages. Some other common brain neurotransmitters are acetylcholine and dopamine. If neurotransmitter levels are low, especially in the case of serotonin, it can cause a person to feel terrible. Complex emotions like attitude, mood, disposition toward contentment, mental focus, memory and others are all linked to neurotransmitters in the brain.

Serotonin Deficiency Symptoms

Increase Serotonin Naturally

Ben Mester Increase Serotonin Naturally

A deficiency in one or more neurotransmitters can cause the onset of depression, lack of motivation, memory loss, and lack of focus. So being sure that you’ve got a good supply of the building blocks the body needs to create these neurotransmitters is very important.

Serotonin and other neurotransmitters though are very complex compounds, and the body needs lots of different building blocks to be able to make them. Not only that, but a person’s lifestyle also affects the manufacturing and release of neurotransmitters. So if you are looking to boost your levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters naturally, you will most likely want to approach the situation from multiple angles.

How to Increase Serotonin Naturally

The main and most important contributor to Increase Serotonin Naturally is diet. Like I said before, neurotransmitters are complex compounds and the body requires lots of building blocks in order to build. So being sure that you’ve got a nice balance of veggies, proteins, fruit, and complex carbohydrates can help ensure that you are getting the correct building blocks. Also, be sure that you are getting a good supply of Omega 3 essential fatty acids into your diet. These are brain foods which boost overall brain function, and have been shown to be very deficient in most diets. The Standard American Diet is horribly deficient in a variety of essential nutrients. The foods we typically eat are usually void of nutritional elements.

Your lifestyle is also very impactful. With neurotransmitters, it’s important to not just keep adequate production levels, but also to have consistent release. The body may have an adequate supply of serotonin on hand, but might not be releasing a lot of it into the blood stream. There are specific habits and routines that you can try that could help encourage your body to both produce and release more serotonin.

Exercise and raising Serotonin Levels

Another way to increase serotonin naturally is exercise. But before you go complaining that you don’t have the time, money, or motivation to get into a habitual exercise routine, know that even taking a short sunset walk everyday can be enough to get more serotonin into your blood stream. And if you don’t have time or motivation for something as simple as that, then there’s really nothing more I can tell you.

Without at least a minimal level of exercise or activity, it’s difficult to get the body to produce and release enough serotonin to feel good. Aside from that, sleep too is very important. If you have lots of stress in your life or if you aren’t getting adequate sleep at night, it’s tough for your brain to maintain a healthy level of function. Sleep is very important in the realm of neurotransmitters. People who don’t sleep well are often groggy, fatigued, lacking mental clarity, and suffering from memory impairment.

Natural serotonin boosters can be very powerful at helping your body make and release serotonin. If you’re trying to find serotonin supplements or dopamine supplements, you must first know that the body cannot absorb them through pills. It must create them itself.

Now that you know how to increase Serotonin naturally it is up to you to get the diet and exercise right as well as sleeping and resting enough.


Related Blogs

  • Related Blogs on American Diet