Tag: Fitness

If you’re trying to improve your diet, you’ll often find it’s easier to focus on the things you want to remove from your current eating habits rather than trying to add things.

And the best way to make that successful is to focus on just the smallest things that will cause the smallest change to your feeling of fullness and energy throughout the day.

Here are some very easy ways to cut calories and reduce the amount of junk in your diet!

Get Rid of Soda Drinks

One of the very best things that anyone can do for their diet is to remove soda drinks from their diet. That means no more Coca-Cola and no more 7-Up.

Why?

Because these drinks are absolutely packed with simple sugars while offering nothing healthy in return. They’ll make you feel hungry and they’ll add lots of calories while contributing to lipogenesis (fat storage).

Choose the Right Coffee

What’s just as bad or arguably even worse is when you stop by Starbucks on the way into work and grab yourself a large Americano.

There’s nothing wrong with the coffee – rather it’s the large amounts of cream, full-fat milk and chocolate sprinkles that get added.

Simply switch that morning beverage for an Americano or a black coffee/sea and you’ll instantly save yourself the damage – cutting your diet by 100-200 calories immediately.

There is a lot of research that caffeine earlier in the day is actually very good for your concentration so go ahead. But late in the day coffee can affect your sleep so better to avoid it then.

Stop Adding Sugar

Another tip is to stop adding sugar to your tea. Once again, this adds unnecessary calories and then creates hunger pangs following your release of insulin that will suck up all of your sugar and leave you shaky.

Moreover though, adding sugar to everything makes gets you accustomed to things tasting sweet. In other words? You develop a sweet tooth. And now nothing you eat is going to be as satisfying unless there’s sugar on top!

Deep Six The Deep Fryer

 

Whether or not fats are healthy for you or not it is not the important fact here. The important thing is to avoid the terrible fats that are not real food but are instead poison.

Potato chips, french fries, deep fried chicken.

A deep fryer has no place in a healthy house. Just having it around gives you the opportunity to make foods that will not help and heal you.

Share Dessert

Even when we’re dieting, it can be hard to turn down a nice dessert when everyone else is indulging – especially because we may feel as though we’re being boring or preventing others from enjoying their food.

The simple answer? Offer to share with someone! You’ll save money and calories!

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What are the best foods to gain muscle? I wrote a few posts last week that were about how to gain muscle and how to do workouts to gain muscle.

One of the things that I kind of glossed over were the foods that you need to eat to gain muscle. Lots of this may just be a recap for lots of people but it is important to know what foods help you gain muscle and what your diet should look like.

Foods to Gain Muscle – Protein

The building block of all muscles is a combination of amino acids (the building blocks of protein) and water. If you look at that as part of your diet then you need to eat lots of protein. Here I want to stress lean protein, you know fish, chicken, lean beef, not Kentucky Fried Chicken or deep fried fish.

The amount of protein that you need is about 0.5 grams of protein a day per pound of body.

This is a very contentious issue in bodybuilding circles but unless you are lifting very hard and taking muscle stimulants (steroids) then your body really does not need more protein than this.

Come back and ask again as you train for your first Mr Olympia.

So directly meats are the best foods to gain muscle.

Foods to Gain Muscle – Carbohydrates

To get that hard earned muscle you need to take in lots of carbohydrates. Even if protein is the building blocks of muscle, carbohydrates are the foods to gain muscle for energy.

Your body needs carbohydrates as an energy source and I really believe that fruits and vegetables as opposed to excessive breads and potatoes and rice are the way to go.

Everything in moderation I guess but I find that if you are eating more vegetables and fruit you are going to get more nutrients at the same time.

Your body breaks down carbohydrates into energy and in it’s basic form energy is created from glycogen. So whether you eat a piece of toast, oatmeal, apple, rice or broccoli, your body will eventually turn it into glycogen and then use it for energy.

What does not get used get stored for later in your muscles cells and when your muscle cells are saturated with glycogen then you will store the rest as fat for later.

So carbohydrates are the energy foods to gain muscle.

Why Bodybuilders Are Fat

So what happens if you do not eat enough of those foods to gain muscle, carbohydrates and then workout? Well your body when starved will take in energy by breaking does the fat that it can find and the muscle that is available so you have to be careful to not undereat or you will lose that hard fought muscle mass.

This then is the battle of all people that are trying to gain muscle so most bodybuilders in the off season will allow themselves to gain a bit of fat so that they know that they are easily taking in foods to gain muscle and that their body is not breaking down.

During a precontest phase for 12 weeks or so a bodybuilder will raise the amount of protein in their diet and then start doing extra cardio to burn off fat. The trouble is, and the already know this, is that during and aggressive loss phase you will lose muscle along with fat as your body breaks down both for energy.

What About Eating Fats?

Fats are a necessary evil in your system. Actually, some fats are an essential foods to gain muscle.

There are nutrients in fats but mostly your body will not be able to break down most fat into glycogen as it is far easier to have your body break down carbs and protein into glycogen instead.

So your body just stores that fat as fat after partially breaking it down.

So now you know all the basics of what you need to eat and why and you should also be able to figure out what kinds of foods are making you fat as well as the foods to gain muscle.

Remember, protein is the building block of muscle so make sure that you are taking enough in or your body will not be able to heal and build the muscle that is going to increase your metabolic furnace.

So What Does This All Mean For Foods To Gain Muscle?

Foods to gain muscle as you can see are all kinds of foods but it is critical to eat lots of them as well as to make sure that your body is getting all nutrients so that there are no stumbling blocks of missing foods to gain muscle.

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No one likes to think about defending themselves against an attacker. However, statistics show you are probably going to have to defend yourself, and possibly your family, against some type of physical attack or confrontation at some point in time.

Fortunately, anyone can learn basic self defence techniques, men and women, young and old alike, regardless of their level of fitness.

Just about anyone can perform the following 8 basic self defence moves, and everyone should know them.

Self Defence Moves for Men Women

1 – Practice Situational Awareness

The best defence is prevention. Attackers are almost always looking for vulnerable targets.

Don’t make yourself vulnerable. Be aware of your surroundings at all times.

Thread your keys in between your knuckles when you are walking to the door of your home or car. Stay in well-lit, populated areas when you can.

Very your daily routine so you do not become predictable. Being aware of your environment 24/7 can prevent an attack from happening in the first place.

2 – Aim for Sensitive Body Parts

This is not a time to be civil. The person attacking you certainly isn’t. Aim for the groin, legs, knees, ears, neck, throat, nose and eyes.

Hit them, scratch them, claw them, punch them, stab them. You must inflict injury before your attacker has gained full physical control over you.

3 – Scream and Yell

Drawing the attention of others will stop many attackers looking for easy prey. Scream, yell, and get loud.

4 – Palm Strike To the Nose

If your attacker is in front of you, drive the heel of your palm up, under and through your attacker’s nose.

If you are attacked from behind, you can swing your elbow from the side, or smash the back of your head into his nose.

Most attackers never meet with any resistance. This move shows that you are not a victim, it causes severe disorientation, and blurs vision.

5 – Knee Kick

It only takes about 9 to 12 pounds of pressure to break someone’s knee from the side. The knee is an ideal self defence target.

If someone grabs your arm, turn your body to the side, and kick the side or front of the knee just above the knee. Drive-through, as this helps push you away from your attacker and hopefully incapacitates him.

6 – Finger Pull

Your attacker can come at you for a number of angles. If he or she gains control of you, and you can reach his or her fingers, grab one or more and bend them backwards.

You can snap or break a finger quickly this way, and just as quickly turn the tables on your attacker.

7 – Neck Chop

The vagus nerve is located just below the ear on the side of the neck. Even a weak blow here can deliver intense pain, and sometimes muscle spasms. A strong blow to this area can cause loss of consciousness.

8 – Comb Rake

If you can get your hands on your comb, you have access to a powerful self defence weapon. The teeth on your comb act like the serrated teeth of a knife blade.

Rapidly raking them across your attacker’s skin anywhere on his or her body cuts just like a knife.

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