If you are trying to lose weight, regardless of which diet plan you choose, watching your carbohydrate intake can be helpful for several reasons. Benefits of counting carbs include:
Creating a gluten-free eating plan with foods that have a low glycemic index, or GI, can be a balancing act. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, barley and possibly oats that causes a severe autoimmune reaction in people with celiac disease. The starchy vegetables and grains that replace foods with gluten may have a high GI value, meaning that they can raise your blood sugar quickly after you eat them. Whether you have celiac disease or are eating gluten-free foods for other dietary reasons, you can keep your blood sugar stable by emphasizing low-GI gluten substitutes and increasing your intake of foods that are naturally gluten-free.
Strategies for Achieving Your New Year’s Resolutions By Amanda Gore
You rush around for the holidays — eat and drink too much and then find the best party you can go to on New Year’s Eve, drink buckets more, and the next morning think about what resolutions you need to make for the new year. You decide to change your life or give up every bad habit you’ve ever had or may make some other simple changes.
The new year is a fantastic opportunity to spend time (preferably a couple of hours) working on your life rather than just being caught up, running around in circles, in your life. Time is so precious that we are flat out getting the basics done, let alone thinking about our lives and how we are functioning.
By Dietitian, Juliette Kellow BSc RD
Dream job but nightmare figure? Dietitian Juliette Kellow comes to the rescue with a diet plan designed to help working women – and men – lose weight with minimum effort and maximum results…
Whether we work in an office, are constantly on the road or spend days in schools or hospitals, losing weight and working can be more than a challenge.
The great thing about walking is it’s easy to do and it can be done anywhere. It requires no special equipment. Just put on your sneakers and head outside.
You can walk in the park or you can walk around your neighborhood. It doesn’t matter just as long as you are walking.
There is a cold wind blowing outside, and the temperatures have dropped below freezing. The sidewalks and roads are covered by slush or ice, and the sky is a gloomy shade of grey. It’s hard enough to motivate yourself to get outside and exercise when the weather is sunny and warm, so how are you supposed to maintain your goal of healthy living when Winter makes outdoor activities so unappealing?
So you regularly get 8 hours of sleep every night but you still feel tired during the day. What’s the deal? For starters, the 8 hour sleep guideline is just that—a guideline.
Yes, the 8 hours of sleep standard has been routinely researched to be the number of hours of sleep that most people need. However, it doesn’t always work for everybody, and you may need to adjust it a little to get it right for you.
Too much sleep can be just as bad as too little sleep. It’s important to dial in your personal body clock so that you feel refreshed and ready to tackle the day, everyday.
To do this, figure out what time you need to get up in the morning.
Count back 7.5 hours as a good time to start getting to bed.
7.5 hours is a good benchmark because the average person goes through five 90 minute sleep cycles alternating between sleep (non-REM) and deep sleep (REM).
It’s best to wake in-between deep sleep cycles rather than in the middle of one. Waking in the middle of REM can lead you to feeling groggy during the day. If you wake during non-REM you’re more likely to feel alert and attentive as the day progresses.
Try this 7.5 hours sleep duration for 3 days. If you find yourself waking about 10 minutes before your alarm goes off, you’ve found your perfect bedtime. If however you’re still relying on your alarm clock to wake you up, try moving your bedtime back 15 minutes every 3 days until you find yourself waking just a few minutes before your alarm goes off.
Once you find your body’s perfect internal sleep-clock, stay consistent with it. The less you vary from the norm, the more alert you will be during the day and the better you will function.
If you find yourself having difficulty getting to bed on time every night, there are a few things you can do to help you get to bed quicker:
Diet and exercise can go a long way towards getting better rest at night and being more alert during the day. Balancing healthy eating choices with routine exercise can dramatically affect the way you perform throughout the day.
Foods to Avoid to Improve Sleep
If you practice the above guidelines of a healthier lifestyle and better sleeping habits but still find yourself suffering from daytime drowsiness, it may be a sign of a more severe medical condition such as: obstructive sleep apnea (OSA),anemia, thyroid problems, narcolepsy, depression, restless leg syndrome, undiagnosed heart disease, or deficiencies in key nutrients. If you think that you may be suffering from one of these medical conditions you should contact your physician or local sleep clinic immediately.
Originally posted at http://www.alaskasleep.com/
Having a well-planned grocery list gets you in and out of the store quickly and helps you stick to your healthy eating plan.
Organize your food shopping list and fill your grocery cart with the healthiest foods that won’t bust your budget or diet.
Maximum amount of added sugars you should eat in a day are:
Men: 150 calories per day (37.5 grams or 9 teaspoons)
Women: 100 calories per day (25 grams or 6 teaspoons)
Different names for sugar: Sugar, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), dehydrated cane juice, fructose, glucose, dextrose, syrup, cane sugar, raw sugar, corn syrup,
Other sugars fall into the same category often labeled healthy like: agave, honey, organic cane sugar and coconut sugar
50-100 Grams Per Day – This range is great if you want to lose weight effortlessly while allowing for a bit of carbs in the diet. It is also a great maintenance range for people who are carb sensitive.
20-50 Grams Per Day – This is where the metabolic benefits really start to kick in. This is the perfect range for people who need to lose weight fast, or are metabolically deranged and have obesity or diabetes.
When eating less than 50 grams per day, your body will get into ketosis, supplying energy for the brain via so-called ketone bodies. This is likely to kill your appetite and cause you to lose weight automatically.
30 to 38 grams a day – Men
25 grams a day – Women between 18 and 50 years old
21 grams a day – If a woman is 51 and older.
Another general guideline is to get 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories in your diet.
56 grams per day – for the average sedentary man
46 grams per day – for the average sedentary woman
The DRI (Dietary Reference Intake) is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, or 0.36 grams per pound.
by RACHEL NALL
You rely on your knees to support your movements during a workout. When you experience pain after exercising, you may be concerned that an underlying condition exists. Understanding why you experience knee pain after you exercise can be a matter of evaluating the types of exercises you are performing and the location of your pain. Learning when you can continue exercising with knee pain — and when you cannot — is important to your continued good health.
If you experience knee pain after exercising, take immediate steps to reduce inflammation. This includes icing your knee within 10 to 20 minutes after your workout. You also may wish to take an anti-inflammatory medication such as ibuprofen. Evaluate your footwear as well: lack of support, particularly arch support, often contributes to knee pain. Your physician or a shoe specialist can evaluate your shoes to ensure they are in good enough shape to continue exercising. If your knees continue to swell or the pain gets worse instead of better, you may need to take a few days from exercising and seek medical attention.
Your knees are the major shock absorbers of your body, absorbing the impact each time you take a step. If you participate in high-impact activities like running, volleyball or basketball, you are at increased risk for experiencing knee pain after exercising. If you experience pain in both knees after high-impact exercise, this may be a sign you need to alternate high- and low-impact activities. These include activities like exercising on an elliptical machine or swimming, which puts less strain on your knees. Incorporating these activities into your workout routine may help to take the pressure off your knees.
If a physician has evaluated your knee and determined you have not experienced a serious injury, you may wish to engage in some knee-strengthening exercises to reduce pain and restore stability to your knee. Examples of exercises include sitting with your legs extended and slowly lifting your leg about 6 to 8 inches off the ground. Repeat five to 10 times on each leg. From a seated position with your legs extended, you also can cross one leg over the other to stretch the outer portion of the knee. Hold for five seconds, then release the stretch and repeat on the opposite side. Your physician also may recommend alternate stretches to relieve tension in your knee.
There are a number of bones, tendons and muscles related to the knee, providing ample opportunity for injury. You may experience conditions like runner’s knee, which causes pain behind the kneecap, and iliotibial band syndrome, which causes pain outside the knee. Both injury and overuse can cause you to experience knee pain. If your knee pain does not subside with rest, see your physician, who can evaluate your knee for potential injury. Knee pain does not always mean surgery — your physician can recommend several conservative approaches to treat pain.
Article Source: http://www.livestrong.com/
