The Most Important Meal Of The Day!

Why is breakfast the most important meal of the day? Well the name "breakfast" gives us a good clue "break" - "fast". You are in essence breaking the fast you have been on whilst you were sleeping. It's the longest period your body and brain go without food. You could have gone 8-12 hours since you last had any food. Your blood sugar levels will be down and you will be in a catabolic state. That's why you're more likely to become tired in the morning. Most people think it's down to not having enough sleep which sometimes is the case but your lack of energy is down to the lack food in your body.

Having a couple more hours worth of sleep can sometimes be the worst thing to do because that's another few more hours that your body will go without replenishing it's energy supplies!

Don't Skip Breakfast!

Avoiding breakfast will not help with your losing weight goals. If you are skipping breakfast your body will store the fuel rather than burn it off because it's unsure when the next meal is going to arrive. Studies have shown that people tend to accumulate more body fat when they eat fewer, larger meals than when they eat the same number of calories in smaller, more frequent meals.

When you are eating breakfast as part of a healthy lifestyle. Your body knows it will be getting refuelled so will use the energy rather than storing. Breakfast is actually good for weight loss and will help you maintain a healthy weight if that is your goal. You will notice how much better you will feel by not skipping breakfast.

Missing Breakfast Could Cause Serious Health Problems

US doctors have proven through their research that skipping the first meal of the day increases the chance of becoming obese, developing diabetes and even having a heart attack. Their study showed that eating a healthy breakfast including such foods as whole-grain cereals every morning are likely to see benefits to their health.

The BBC reported that DR Mark Pereira and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School analysed the eating habits of 1,198 black people and 1,633 white participants. Overall, 47% of whites and 22% of blacks said they ate breakfast every morning.

They found that people who ate breakfast every day were a third less likely to be obese compared to those who skipped the meal.

In addition, they were half as likely to have blood-sugar problems, which increase the risk of developing diabetes or having high cholesterol, which is a known risk factor for heart disease. The researchers believe that eating first thing in the morning may help to stabilise blood sugar levels, which regulate appetite and energy.

They suggest people who eat breakfast are less likely to be hungry during the rest of the day and are, therefore, less likely to overeat. "Our results suggest that breakfast may really be the most important meal of the day," said Dr Periera. "It appears that breakfast may play an important role in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease."

What Is The Ideal Healthy Breakfast?

A healthy breakfast should always contain some protein and fibre. The protein can be in eggs, low fat meats, dairy, beans or a protein shake. The fibre can be in the form of whole grains, fruits or vegatables. A great example of a healthy breakfast could be something like a hard boiled egg, a banana, a bowl of whole grain cereal and a glass of orange.

Avoid white breads, pastries, syrups and sugary cereals because these are digested quickly and will leave you feeling tired and hungry again within a few hours. A breakfast containing protein and fibre will satisfy your hunger until your mid morning snack.

Start Your Day The Right Way

Remember it would be better to get up 30 minutes earlier and eat a healthy breakfast than to remain in bed. The breakfast would be so much better for your body and brain than missing breakfast and having that 30 minutes extra in bed. Get into the habit and before long you will see the difference.

If you would like to read more articles about eating healthy, burning fat and building muscle please visit http://www.stripfatbuildmuscle.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Jarvis

Simple Healthy Tips for Busy People

"Health is wealth"

A healthy person is equal to a happy and wealthy person. The reason being he can enjoy all the joys of life without any physical pain, on the other hand a wealthy person with lack of health can hardly enjoy all the joys of life.

In this fast and competitive age we hardly get time to take care of our health and rarely give importance it. We focus on our health when it gets affected due to some diseases or accidents. We cannot prevent unexpected accidents but we make sure our body is strong enough to handle any disease or bypass unexpected accidents.

Following are some of the simple health care tips that will help you remain healthy for longer:-

Get quality sleep-

Getting quality sleep is very important for your mind and body. It is important to sleep for at least six hours every night. Lack of sleep makes you weak and more prone to sickness, studies has shown that sleeping for few hours every night might even reduce your concentration power. Following tips can help you sleep quickly.

Try to relax yourself through meditation before you sleep

Take deep breaths and sleep

Darken your room

Choose healthy snacks such as oatmeal whole grain cereal with milk, chamomile tea or cheery as a night snack this will help you get into sleep mode easily sleep, and also help your body to fight fatigue, stress and infection

Exercise- Exercising daily is the best way to keep you healthy. Following are some of its benefits:-

Boosting your immune system

Helps you get back in shape

Improving your eyesight

Maintaining blood pressure

Decreasing aging of your body and make you look young

Increase your confidence

Helps in reducing your weight

Even ten minutes of daily exercise can produce all the above results, if you cannot exercise daily or feel it is boring then you can choose other healthy alternatives like - play game, taking healthy class such as swimming, aerobics, yoga, meditation etc. or can just walk the park every morning or evening.

Maintain your personal hygiene

Maintaining personal hygiene makes you more civilized and improved your health. Take a bath daily, do not share your towel, tooth brush, hair brush and other personal products with others. Keep your teeth clean, brush and floss after ever meal. Visit to your dentist regularly.

Have the "Attitude of Gratitude"

"Thoughts becomes things choose good one"- Mike Doodly

What we believe in our mind becomes our reality, therefore always see yourself as a healthy and happy person. Research has shown having positive thought and being grateful in life helps in increasing the immune system and improves your overall health.

Connect with Other People

Connecting with healthy people is the best way to maintain your inner happiness. Hangout with your friend often or Go out make new friends, explore new place. Try to spend

Eat healthy food

Eat loads of fruits and vegetables. Choose healthy food such as celery sticks, tomato, cherry, grapes, berries, dry fruits. All these foods are packed with antioxidants.

Drink eight glass of water every day

More than 75% of our body is made up of water. Therefore drinking water every day will maintain the water balance of your body and keeps you hydrated.

All the above tips are simple and can be easily incorporated in your busy life. Wish you a healthy body!!

For more information regarding Healthy Choice Diet please contact us to our site.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rakeshjha_Kumar_Verma

Traveling a Lot? Here Are Some Tips to Eat Clean on the Road!

All the time I get asked great questions about working out and dieting while traveling. One person asked me a question that I also had questions about at first, "I am on the road A LOT with work and it is so hard to stick to a diet while traveling so frequently. Any pointers or tips to that can help me with this?" These are things that some of you may think would be common sense or natural to do but they aren't that way until you live through travel obstacles and learn the tricks of the trade.

First thing is set yourself up for success by researching hotels that have an option for a fridge and possibly a microwave. That way you can store food and then heat it up. If a microwave isn't possible stopping at gas stations along the way or finding one close to your hotel is another way to heat up your food, sounds funny but the microwaves they use to heat up those burritos you can easily use to heat up your food. Figured this one out because I needed Stryder's (my son) frozen homemade food heated up while I was traveling for my first show. So, then I decided to heat my meal up as well. It helps if you are prepping for a show and are eating tilapia because I don't care how many times you eat cold tilapia that mystery jelly is beyond gross and you will never get used to it.

Another thing is take easily open and ready to eat food for example packets of tuna, get the ones that you tear open they easily store anywhere and you can eat it right out of the package. Good snack/meal; tuna fish on rice cakes with a handful of almonds, easy, quick and no cooking involved.

I pre-measure all my oatmeal for the mornings and put them in Ziploc baggies, they easily store and you can heat it up with the microwave but if the hotel your staying at doesn't have a microwave, do not worry figured this one out too. Every room has a coffee maker run the coffee maker with only water in it (no coffee grains) then put the oatmeal in the coffee cup they provide, add water and cover for 3-5 minutes. viola, cooked oatmeal! With the oatmeal I usually have hard boil eggs, I Ziploc a couple of them and store them in the fridge or if a fridge isn't an option I take a big lunch box and keep refilling the ice from the ice machine at the hotel.

If you are crazy like some of us you can even pack a George Foreman, shop at a local grocery store and cook your meal right in your room. Sounds crazy but it works and soon after it pretty much becomes second nature, a lifestyle.

If you have a fridge or access to an ice machine you can pretty much prepare anything upfront, it just depends on how dedicated you are. It isn't always fun to travel with Tupperware and eat by yourself in your room, especially if its cold, but if it's worth it to you, you will make the sacrifice and even save some money.

Hope these tips help and will keep you on the right path or kickstart you in the right direction.

"Fail to prepare is to prepare to fail"

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_J_Brouse

Fitness: Healthy Living As A Habit

There are so many words that are conjured up when we think of fitness. Healthy, in shape and lifestyle come to mind immediately. There is another word that needs to be there as well: Habit. Fitness and healthy living are not something that you decide to do for a weekend. They are something you do for life.

Some folks are lucky in that from the time they were very young, they lived a life of fitness and healthy choices. Being healthy for them as an adult comes naturally because it is something that they have done their whole lives. For the rest of us, choosing fitness as a lifestyle is a conscious decision that has required a lot of thought and effort on our part. Some of us will struggle with how to accomplish this healthy lifestyle for nearly our whole lives.

A lifestyle change requires a lot of effort. Consider the word, lifestyle. The style of your life. Generally it's not something that you can just change overnight. It's going to take some effort on your part. You will be making a lot of decisions about what to eat, what kinds of exercises to do, which health club to join and what your daily routine will include. When your goal is fitness, healthy lifestyle choices will need become habits.

A habit seems to be a double edged sword. For things that are not necessarily good for us, habits seem to come easy. Stopping by the coffee shop for that latte every morning required seemingly no effort at all. Smoking became a habit in a snap. Healthy choices can become a habit too, it's just a matter of choice and motivation.

If you do make the decision to make fitness a part of your life, you need to establish the choices that are part of fitness as part of your daily routine. In other words, you need to make them a habit. When your motivation to become healthy is strong, the habits are much easier to cement in place. This means that you need to think about what is motivating this lifestyle change. Is it something that you really want to do or is it something you are being told to do? It would be hard to argue with the fact that a healthy lifestyle is good for you. For some of us, that's good enough motivation. Others may need more incentive since this lifestyle change is a radical departure from what is normal for them.

Establishing a lifestyle change as habit may involve setting goals, seeking nutritional counseling, hiring a trainer and completely rearranging our daily schedule. If the motivation is strong, these things are easier to accomplish.

The bottom line is that if living with fitness, healthy lifestyle choices and overall good health is a strong enough goal for you, then the establishment of habits will be required and with the right motivations can be accomplished.

Vincent P. King is a freelance writer who writes articles that help consumers find affordable medical coverage. Be sure to get your free health insurance quotes today if you lack insurance!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Vincent_P._King

Smart Eating And Weight Loss

The pounds have piled up; the pants are getting too tight. It is high time to start losing off the extra weight. Planning right from the beginning makes it easier to succeed in your weight loss plans.

Keep track of what you eat and the type of exercise you do every single day. Write everything down in your journal. This gets things organized and you will be better motivated to continue on.

Cooking your own meals let you have total control over what to put into your body. No more extra oily, salty or sweet food from cafes and restaurants to tempt you and make you stray from your diet. Get some good cookbooks promoting healthy weight loss recipes, some basic cookware and you are well on your way to healthy cooking. You might be pleasantly surprised at the results.

When shopping for groceries, be sure to check the calories count and list of ingredients listed on the food packages. Do not be misled by advertisements such as natural, sugar-free and non-fried. Look at the fine prints. Every little bit counts towards your weight loss goals.

Eat smaller portions at each meal. Invest in smaller size plates to make sure you are not tempted to eat more. Less food on a bigger plate might give you the impression that you are not eating enough and end up taking more food. Just make sure you are having well-balanced meals, even though smaller portions.

The occasional deviation from your diet is no big deal. Being too strict might lead to stress and this is not good for your weight loss plans. You might get so frustrated and just give up. Stress can also lead to binge eating.

Sticking to the same old food day in and day out can be boring and uninspiring. Try healthy food from around the world right at home. Some of them can be easy to cook in your home kitchen.

Eating your main meals in front of the TV, work table or computer screen is a typical bad habit among some of us. It is difficult to be eating healthily this way and besides it is bad for your digestion. If you must be munching on some food while working, munch on carrot sticks instead.

Poor food choices, unhealthy snacks and too much fast and processed food not only lead to an expanding waistline but also clogged arteries. Taking control of the way you eat can lead to positive weight loss and a healthy body.

Do visit the site http://bestcookwareset.org and get these beautiful safe cookware as companions in your healthy weight loss diet plans.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_Li

Vitamin C: The Basics

Most of us know what Vitamin C is. It's a cheap supplement that we can take that helps with a wide variety of health conditions as well as prevent illness. Vitamin C is an essential nutrient which means that we cannot live without absorbing Vitamin C. Is one of the safest Vitamins that our bodies can take.

The Benefits of Vitamin C

There are many benefits to obtaining the recommended intake of Vitamin C. Even though it's not the cure for the common cold, it has been shown through studies that it helps minimize the symptoms and helps you get over the cold faster. Since Vitamin C is an antioxidant, supplementing with this Vitamin can help reduce cellular DNA damage. This can help you look younger, give you more energy throughout the day, and also help lower the chances of developing cancer. If you are a smoker, Vitamin C can also help protect you against the oxidative damage caused by the exposure to the smoke.

Vitamin C is also great for speeding up the time it takes to heal wounds and creating healthy new tissue when you are injured. Vitamin C also plays a part in the creation of almost everything in your body such as bones, teeth, blood vessels, skin and more.

How Much Should I Take?

The bare minimum that an adult should be taking of Vitamin C is 75 mg a day. This amount is just to keep you from developing conditions such as scurvy. Many of the benefits of Vitamin C require that you take at least 500 mg to 1000 mg a day. It is very difficult to overdose on Vitamin C so it is very safe for you to take the thousand milligrams without any side effects.

Supplementation and Food Sources

If you eat fairly healthy with your meals consisting of vegetables and fruits, you likely obtain the majority of the Vitamin C that is required for optimal health. As with most Canadians and Americans, the majority of people do not eat as healthy as we should and thus supplementation is a great way of getting the Vitamin C. Vitamin C is usually taken with an orange flavored chew-able tablet which is extremely easy to take. If you don't mind swallowing pills, you can also buy tasteless capsules.

Most people know that oranges have a high source of Vitamin C, but did you know there's many other fruits and vegetables that contain almost the same amount? Some of the fruits that have high amounts of Vitamin C include grapefruits, cantaloupe, pineapple, strawberries, blueberries or any other berry as well as oranges. If you are not too big into fruit and enjoy vegetables more, you could be loading your plate up with broccoli, cauliflower, any type of leafy greens such as spinach, as well as potatoes. As you can see, the majority of healthy foods contain high amounts of Vitamin C.

Last Words

Obtaining at least 500 mg of Vitamin C a day will help you boost your energy, help fight oxidative stress and make you feel better as a whole. A few years back I'd wake up with very low energy and once I started taking a Vitamin C supplement, I started noticing energy improvement and just feeling overall healthier and happier. So stop reading this article and get yourself some Vitamin C!

For more articles about health and fitness, please check out my blog at http://www.philswainfitness.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Phil_Swain

 

5 Best Energy Foods for Low Calorie Diets

When you hit the ground running with your diet plan, you'll probably notice a sudden dip in your energy levels.

This is normal as your bodies not consuming its usual caloric intake.

However it's more than possible to consume certain foods which will boost that battery right up and don't include any additional calories that will break your daily calorie quota.

Below are considered the best 5 energy foods for dieters to stave off the fatigue and the bingeing by curbing the cravings:

1. Salmon

Salmon is packed with healthy fats, not processed fats.

Healthy fats are essential as they provide the body with a major source of energy.

Bursting with protein, healthy fats and in this case salmon should be included in your diet plan at least twice per week.

2. Quinoa

Quinoa is relatively new to western diets but has been used for generations in South America as a staple means of protein.

Vegetarians will get their most amount of protein from this one natural carbohydrate, far more than you would from brown rice.

3. Bananas

While bananas make you feel full and will help reduce your appetite, they also contain a lot of potassium which is a micronutrient essential for propelling energy levels higher in the body.

Fresh produce in general will contain a lot of natural potassium, so be sure to consume fresh foods daily, to starve off hunger and fatigue.

4. Oats

It's blood glucose levels which determine spikes in your energy levels, from a sudden high to an onset of weariness, keeping blood glucose levels nice and steady is key to maintaining energy levels.

Oats are perfect for this as they are slowly digesting healthy carbohydrates which should not be eliminated from your diet.

Low in sugar, high in fiber, Oatmeal is a good source for getting your fix of oats and it will only take a minute to prepare any number of Oatmeal dishes.

5. Egg whites:

Have you ever noticed why weight lifters consume lots of poultry, especially eggs.

It's the egg whites in this case which are rich in protein but extremely low in calories, containing perhaps only 15% per egg white, but they are a great source of healthy fats, and are excellent at maintaining your lean muscle mass which is why they prove so resourceful for guys down the gym.

Egg whites don't just repair and rebuild muscle, they also make you feel energized after a hard session of strength training.

Bottom line:

If you want to maintain high energy levels but avoid the crashes and the cravings, a staple diet of healthy fats and carbs rich in protein are perfect for low calorie diets.

Additionally, consider using some of the latest weight loss supplements to really help you lose weight faster:

Visit: Best Weightloss Supplements to view the top 7 weightloss pills for 2013

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_R_Michaels