Stop smoking in 10 steps!

1 - Choose a day to stop smoking and point it on the agenda. If it is a day with a special meaning for you, it will be even more effective.

2 - Tell your friends and family that you will quit on that day. By doing this you will have the support of the persons to you, it will also make you feel more pressure to keep that decision.

3 - Remove ashtrays from your home and other objects associated with tobacco. Wash curtains and, if you can paint the walls, eliminate the odor of tobacco in the environment of your home. So you will have more reasons not to pollute it with smoke.

4 - As the scheduled date approaches, gradually reduce the number of cigarettes you smoke, smoke up until about 5 cigarettes a day. Stop smoking at home and at the car.

5 - Buy less tobacco, hide it in places where you need a lot of work to get it, as upon the furniture, or the trunk of the car, if you usually smoke while driving. The urge to smoke is higher in the first seconds, the time it takes to get tobacco, if it is away from you is the time for the impulse to pass.

6 - If it's too hard this fall in the number of cigarettes because of a high level of dependence, consult your doctor! Chewing nicotine gums or nicotine patches, as well as a drug, bupropion, can help in your case.

7 - Make a list of reasons to stop smoking, write the date that you decided to stop, sign it and keep it always on you’re pocket. Commit to yourself! Review the list whenever you have the temptation to light a cigarette, even at the stage that is only to decrease the number of cigarettes per day and date indicated on the sheet has not arrived yet! Make a mark on that sheet anytime you were able to avoid smoking a cigarette after an intense desire.

8 - Make a healthy diet, stop smoking can make you gain weight because smoking takes away the flavor from the foods, or because the food compensates for the stress caused by smoking cessation. Use sugarless gum to keep your mouth busy. Eat healthier food, especially fruit, now everything will taste better!

9 - Make exercise, now that you have a greater cardio-respiratory capacity, smoking is no longer poisoning your blood, you will breathe better, it will be easier to run and do aerobics! Stay in shape. Exercise reduces anxiety caused by the lack of nicotine.

10 - Put the money you save by quitting smoking in a clear bottle, so that you can see it well. After 3 months break the bottle and take a vacation or a weekend with the money that you saved to commemorate the target of 3 months without smoking.

If you were unable to do it on the first try, try again, see your doctor, find out the benefits to your health and also to your economies. Never give up, a failed attempt can be seen as a learning experience for a successful attempt.

GOOD LUCK!

10 ways to reduce the calories of your meals inside or outside home!

1 - If you want to eat pizza, replace the bacon or sausage for chicken.

2 - Eat your salad without croutons, if you're at home, instead of using just mayonnaise to flavor the salad, use yogurt seasoned with a tablespoon of mayonnaise and oregano.

3 – When arriving at the restaurant, ask to take the bread, butter, cheese and other entries from the table!

4 - Do not add rice and French fries, opt for one of them and add vegetables!

5 - Replace the dish meal for a dessert plate and fill it at will!

6 - Always start your meal with a soup.

7 – Put the biscuits or chocolates on a plate instead of eating directly from the packaging!

8 - Use cinnamon instead of sugar to flavor the coffee!

9 - Use more herbs and less fat and salt to season your food!

10 - Drink water or skim milk instead of fruit juice or soda.

Fruit, which to choose?

If you want to lose weight choose fruit with low calories for example:

Watermelon

Blackberries

Lima

Peach

Papaya

If you are going to do some sport, you will need to choose a fruit that gives you energy for your workout, choose:

Banana

Grape

Fig

Avocado

If you want a fruit that protects your heart choose one rich in anti-oxidants that reduce the formation of atherosclerotic plaque (atheroma), that cause heart attacks:

Strawberries

Raspberries

Blueberries

Blackberries

To prevent a cold or flu, the ideal is a fruit rich in vitamin C:

Orange

Kiwi

Papaya

Grapefruit

Manga,

Pineapple

Strawberries

If you feel tired and pale, anemic, especially if you are a woman with heavy menstruation, fruits rich in iron are the your choice:

Mulberry

Plum

Strawberry

Quince

What is the best order to lose weight? Doing first the strength training (weight training) or cardiovascular training?

If you make the first strength training (weight training) and then the aerobic training, this order is more effective to losing weight, since for the strength training the body obtains energy from its reserves of glycogen. This way when you begin the aerobic exercise, after the strength training, the glycogen reserves are greatly diminished, and the body get the energy it needs more quickly from the reserves of fat, once that aerobic exercise requires more energy (burning more calories), this order of training becomes more effective weight loss.

Why is that exercise is good for your bones?

With increasing age, especially in women after menopause, there is a large reduction in bone density that is called osteoporosis.

Despite being a natural evolution that occurs in our skeleton as we age, physical exercise and a balanced diet, enriched with milk, yogurt, cheese and other foods rich in calcium, are very effective at preventing the deterioration of our bones.

Exposure to sunlight is very important for the health of our bone mass, since it is through vitamin D, synthesized through sunlight that is possible to use calcium from food to remodel our bones.

Exercise is essential to slow the process of osteoporosis, since it provides the necessary stimulus to the bone to continue to do the remodeling of our mineral skeleton. Strength training (weightlifting), or even moderate running, are more suitable for preventing osteoporosis than swimming.

Why is that exercise is good for the brain?

Exercise causes feelings of well-being, relaxation, stress reduction, improves memory and slows the development of dementia associated with age.

5 reasons that make the physical exercise good for the brain:

1 - The hormones that cause happiness / wellbeing, endorphins, are pumped in greater quantities when the exercise stimulates the hypothalamus.

2 - The memory improves, because at the level of the temporal lobe, there is an increase of neurogenesis.

3 - Aerobic exercise decreases the loss of gray matter, which occurs naturally after the 30 years old at the level of the frontal, temporal and parietal cortex.

4 - Its action in the hippocampus may help reduce depressive symptoms by increasing levels of chemicals whose deficiencies are associated with mood changes.

5 - The exercise minimizes the deterioration of the function that usually occurs in the frontal lobe with increasing age, including the role of driving messages between different areas of the brain.

Very effective workout plan for beginners who do not want to go to the gym.

This plan is dedicated exclusively to people who do not practice any physical activity for at least three months.

This training allows you to expend calories not only during training but mainly in the hours of rest after the workout. This happens because it will increase your metabolism. This training is based on scientific facts.

It is essential to know what to eat before training to give you the energy to do it.

The training must be performed with a regularity of at least three times a week, although the ideal would be four times a week on alternate days.

1st week - find your moderate pace

Walk with a fast pace or run moderately (depending on your capability) so that you can find the rhythm of walking that you can keep for 15 consecutive minutes without a single stop, and no major changes in speed.

The aim is to find your initial rhythm of walking.

Note: Walking slowly is much less efficient to stay in shape, since it does not increase your heart rate.

2nd week - Increase of cardio-vascular endurance:

Walk 25 minutes at your moderate pace, you had found and saved last week, keep your pace with no breaks and complete your training.

3rd week - add to your moderate pace two peaks of fast pace/running:

Program the alarm on your mobile phone to ring 10 minutes after the beginning of the training and to ring every 3 minutes after that. You can also use a stopwatch.

First 10 minutes - walk / run at the same pace of the last two weeks (your moderate pace)

the alarm sounds

3 minutes - walk / run at full speed as you can maintain for 3 minutes, trying to keep a steady pace (this is your fast pace)

the alarm sounds

3 minutes - moderate pace

the alarm sounds

3 minutes - fast pace

the alarm sounds

6-8 minutes - moderate pace

4th week - add to your moderately pace three peaks:

10 minutes - moderate pace

the alarm sounds

3 minutes - fast pace

the alarm sounds

3 minutes - moderate pace

the alarm sounds

3 minutes - fast pace

the alarm sounds

3 minutes - moderate pace

the alarm sounds

3 minutes - fast pace

the alarm sounds

6-8 minutes - moderate pace

After training:

Do stretching exercises for the leg muscles (see section stretching). Rehydrate yourself.

Rest - the rest time between workouts is a key factor!

NOTES:

In the following weeks you can add one more peak of speed of three minutes, where you walk or run at your maximum, and then, walk for more 3 minutes at your moderate, without ever stopping.

You can increase the speed of the maximum speed or of the moderate pace as your fitness improves. If you start this plan walking, you can finish it running!

Adjusting the workout to your fitness and your limits.

This workout plan is based on scientific facts:

By alternating exercises of moderate intensity with high intensity, can you pass the threshold of aerobic and reach the anaerobic metabolism, in order to form an oxygen deficit in your body, this will speed up your metabolism in the hours after the workout.

This will make you spend calories not only during training but also at rest.

Small changes in your lifestyle to stay in shape:

Small changes in lifestyle that make a big difference! If done every day, this changer have more effects in your  physical form than a sporadic intense workout.

Some examples:

Take the stairs instead of using the elevator.

Do not use the TV remote control! Stand up when you want to change channel.

On your way to work, leave the bus one stop before and walk the rest of the way, do the same on the way home.

Do your shopping in places where you can move walking, or leave the car two blocks away.

10 Rules to lose weight

1 - Do not stay longer than three hours fasting

2 - Do not eat sweets on an empty stomach or between the main meals

3 - Do not eat carbohydrates in the 4 hours before bedtime

4 - Drink 1.5 Liters (0.4 gallons) of water per day

5 – Eat soup always in the beginning of the meals

6 – Make always a complete breakfast at home

7 - Prefer white meat to red meat

8 – Do, at least, four fish meals per week

9 - Eat slowly and meals and at regular times

10 - Sleep at least 8 hours per day

Diet to lose the extra lbs you won on the vacations

The vacations are a time of relaxation. A time to be with your family, to have special dinners with you friends, and to spend long periods of rest in the shade of umbrellas on the beach or pool...

The ice creams, the intake of high calorie drinks and the lazyness are often enemies of a good shape.

Diet to lose the extra lbs you won on the vacations

Breakfast:

1 cup of skim milk, half brown bread with lean ham or low-fat cottage cheese or fresh cheese

 (No flakes or toast)

Mid-morning:

A natural or low fat yogurt + 1 / 2 brown bread with lean ham or low-fat cottage cheese or fresh cheese

or

a piece of fruit and 3 soda crackers

Lunch:

Vegetable soup (to start the meal)

+

Pasta or brown rice + grilled or roasted meat (without sauce) and a salad (seasoned with olive oil and vinegar).

or

Grilled or roast fish with boiled or roasted vegetables (without sauce) and a salad (seasoned with olive oil and vinegar).

(no dessert or fruit after the meal)

Make two snacks in the afternoon, with an interval of two hours:

Fruit with four soda biscuits or brown bread and a cup of skim milk

or

A natural or low fat yogurt + 1 / 2 brown bread with lean ham or low-fat cottage cheese or fresh cheese

1 cup of milk or tea or coffee without sugar or with sweetener and a cheese or ham sandwich, do not use butter.

Dinner:

A soup, if hunger persists repeat the soup.

The soup can be enriched with minced fish or meat.

NOTE:

Drink 1.5 liters (0.4 gallons) of water per day.

You must make two snacks so you can make a dinner so light, in this diet plan is essential to only eat soup for dinner, this has the purpose to make the five hours before bedtime a period of time with a very low caloric intake. The sleep and the regularity of mealtimes and sleep are essential to the success of this plan. Sleep will make you thinner.

Given the difficulty of maintaining this restriction to dinner, this plan is to be made in a short time, 2-3 weeks, taking the motivation that you have to lose the pounds you gained during your vacation.

What to eat before and after you work out

Before you workout prefer foods with low or moderate glycemic index (GI) because they release energy in your body in a slow and continuous way. They give energy over an extended period of time. After training you should choose food with high GI because they provide the quick energy you need to recover.

If you intend to lose weight, you should take special care to avoid sweets or other foods with high caloric value after training, because at that time if the calories provided by the food are not sufficient to the energy expenditure performed, our body will recruit and spend our fat reserves. At this moment, the metabolism is high, and the body hungry for power, ready to use everything we give him, wasting the minimum, for this reason we must be very careful with what you eat.

If you do a bodybuilding training with the purpose of gaining muscle mass is important to eat food with high content of bioavailable proteins such as meat, preferably white meat, fish or eggs. An omelet made with egg white has few calories and a high protein value.

Foods with soy and other vegetable proteins do not seem to be as effective to help us rebuild our muscle mass as animal proteins.

It is common to use supplements to ingest a large amount of protein with low calories, yet it is important to know what you are doing, and to be well informed otherwise, this resource may be harmful to your health, especially if you have kidney or liver problems or other chronic diseases.

Food with high glycemic index

Food with high glycemic index GI> 60

Pizza

Ice cream

Pineapple

Cakes

Mashed potatoes

White bread

Watermelon

Biscuits

Food with moderate glycemic index

Food with moderate glycemic index 42 <GI> 60

Peach

Orange

White rice

Carrot

Kiwi

Banana

Food with low glycemic index

Food with low glycemic index or GI <39

Peanut

Soybean

Cherry

Lentils

Bean

Yogurt

Spaghetti

Pear

Apple

Tomato soup

Brown bread

Soda crackers

The importance of eating foods with low glycemic index

To lose weight is more important to know what to eat than eat less. We have to choose foods with low glycemic index, since the amount of sugar stored as fat will be less.

For example, a yogurt has a much lower glycemic index than a cake or a snack and a brown bread than white bread, that’s made with more refined flour, which has less fiber. Vegetables generally have a low glycemic index, with some exceptions such as carrots whose glycemic index is moderate. Examples of foods with high glycemic index are pizza, pineapple and watermelon.

The fruit, when taken alone, can increase very rapidly the blood sugar, but when combined with brown bread or soda cracker, the fiber of the bread or of the cracker involves the sugar of the fruit and makes this meal healthier, with a lower index glycemic. This happens because the sugar of the fruit is released more gradually, causing a slower rise in blood sugar, and in the segregation of insulin.

But what is the glycemic index?

The glycemic index is a parameter that evaluates the hyperglycaemic effect of a food, ie the power that a particular food or meal have to raise the concentration of blood glucose after ingestion.

A food or meal with a high glycemic index rises very quickly the blood sugar and the segregation of insulin, which is responsible for transporting this sugar into the cells, where will be stored on the form of fat. It is important that we ingest foods or meals with low glycemic index to avoid weight gain. More important than eating less is to eat better.

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This site is about nutrition, exercise and anti-aging theories. Our Posts are intended to give you the knowledge needed to stay young and healthy, mainly through the adoption of new lifestyles.