Category: Weight Loss Exercise

Portion control is critical to anyone who is trying to successfully count their food intake. The person who thinks he or she can visually determine 6 ounces of meat or half cup of ice cream probably is not doing all that well on the diet.

Successful eating plans require food scales, measuring cups, and no guesswork.

For most, it’s impossible to visualize a serving size, especially if the dieter measures by hunger level versus by a scale.

Why Worry About Portion Control?

Portion control is essential. That half-cup of ice cream, if not measured, could go from 120 calories to 400 calories with one “just a bit more” scoop. Consider bagels or muffins, which were once a safe 100 calories.

Today’s supersized breakfast breads can blow anyones entire calorie count before lunchtime.

A dieter must cut back on the quantity of food eaten. That’s not easy in a country in which the perception is ingrained that large portions of food are desirable and small portions make one feel cheated.

The types of food being served can determine portion control. If dinner is a platter of spaghetti with meatballs, cook just enough for the number of diners being served. If the side dish is steamed vegetables, feel free to cook extra. The larger the portions that are served, the more people will eat (whether they are hungry or mindlessly eating).

How to Portion Food Correctly

1. Measure your food! Always!
2. If you don’t have a scale on measuring cups, consider these measurements:

•   ½ cup is the size of an ice cream scoop
•   1 cup is the size of a tennis ball
•   1 ounce of cheese is the size of a domino

3. When serving a meal, serve from the stove, versus large serving platters
4. Reduce the size of your dinner plates. Smaller plates make for smaller portions.
5. Break down your purchases into single serving packs. For example, instead of freezing an entire package of ground turkey, divide it into individual portions and freeze then individually.
6. When eating out, check the menu for portion hints. If the offering is a double chicken breast, anticipate taking half home. If the baked potato is jumbo, ask for a take home box immediately. If it’s a 12-ounce steak, anticipate cutting it in half.
7. Increase the visual portion sizes on your plate by decreasing the high carbs and replacing them with more vegetables.
8. Looking forward to dessert? Cut the treat in half by sharing.
9. Turn off your television. Controlling how much you eat requires paying attention. If you’re watching television or playing computer games, you are more likely to mindlessly eat.
10. Think visual. The more food that is in front of you, the more you are likely to eat. Consider the reaction to dining on a platter of pasta versus a single serving of pasta. You can feel full with the single serving of pasta whereas you will feel stuffed and guilty with the platter of pasta.
11. Don’t eat out of a box or bag. That popcorn should be served in a small bowl, not consumed by the fistful from the bag.
12. If available try a restaurants tasting menu. It’s fun, it offers variety, and it’s portion control.
13. Read nutrition labels: Determine the amount of food in a serving and then measure it out.
14. Don’t trust your eyes. Measure everything.

Our minds are skewed by the bounty of food that is available. Some steak houses offer a whopping 18 ounces prime rib. Faced with that large slab of beef, some diners forget that 18 ounces of meat could feed a family of four at their kitchen table. Instead, the meat eater thinks: “It is in front of me; I will eat it all.”

I know that there are lots of ways that we have opportunities to overeat so following these portion control tips are really key to getting the right amount of food, being satisfied eating, and not overeating.

Are these great tips for you? I know that there are lots of tricks that help me with portion control and I think I have covered them all here.

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I know how many of us feel about tennis elbow. We have all heard of tennis elbow and usually don’t really pay attention until it hits us, then we really car how to get rid of tennis elbow.

A couple of years ago I had been struggling with a tendon or ligament problem in my lower arm for a couple of weeks and actually I got a cortisone shot which to my surprise cured it.

Cortisone or Brace – How to Get Rid of Tennis Elbow

The cortisone shot helped me but I worry that it was only masking the problem so I am sure to stretch and strengthen these muscles as well as wearing a brace for part of the day. finally I was also icing my arm to try and get the tennis elbow problem to go away.

Tennis season is in full swing, and while this country club sport may seem leisurely, if not played correctly, it can be detrimental for joints and muscles  inlcuding tennis elbow. ChicagoHealers.com Dr. Mark Sobor M.D. provides the following symptoms and solutions for treating tennis elbow:

Tennis Elbow Cause

• Symptoms of Lateral Epicondylitis (Tennis Elbow)

Tennis Elbow or lateral epicondylitis, is a pain or inflammation of the outside part or (lateral side) of the elbow.

As a repetitive use injury, where individuals use their wrists and forearms, almost anyone can acquire this condition. Tennis elbow’s origin is due to muscle spasms in and around forearm, supinator and extensor muscles.

• Take your hand and turn in out as you would hold a bowl of soup; this best represents in the action of the supinator muscles of the forearm.
• The action of the extensor muscles of the forearm can be represented as a backhanded hit in tennis.

• Using these muscles when they are not properly stretched, strengthened, or warmed up will cause muscles to go into spasm.
• When muscles are in spasm, they become tight, less mobile and will pull causing constant tension on tendons. This eventually causes inflammation and pain.

Treating Tennis Elbow

Make sure your forearm and shoulder muscles are conditioned properly before use, whether it is tennis you are playing or simple sweeping the floor.

When it comes to tennis, proper hitting technique is important so that there isn’t an overstraining of muscles when hitting the ball. Consult a tennis trainer to make sure you are hitting the ball correctly.

Stretching and strengthening the arm regularly before and after playing sports.

• See below for sample stretching techniques.
• Specific acupuncture techniques locate key trigger points in and around the forearm, which successfully release muscles spasms, and instead of steroids use homeopathic injections to inflamed tendons and muscle spasms that decrease pain and inflammation in tissues and joints.

Tennis Elbow Stretches

Stretching and Strengthening Techniques

• With your arm straight out in front of you and palm facing downward, take the opposite hand and push down on your fingers and apply pressure until your fingers are pointing back towards the ground. Apply gentle tension until the fingers are pointing back towards you.
• Soft tissue releases help by applying pressure to the muscle at the same time it is being stretched.
• A massage can help reduce the muscular tightness and reduce the tension on the tendons.

Just as an update, I did get rid of my tennis elbow with icing, rest, and wearing a cuff on the top of my lower arm for a few days. I have gone back to doing some weights and my arm is stronger now than it has been in a long time now that the tennis elbow pain is gone

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Serotonin is a compound that most persons have heard about and we all want 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

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.

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