Food Guide Pyramid - Grains and Sweets

The Food Guide Pyramid shows us what is the best way to organize our food consumption.
Grains
Grains is one of the most important things you need to combine in your daily menu, but don't overreact! You don't need to much of it. Try to make at least half of your grain servings whole grains, such as 100% whole-wheat bread and brown rice. For a day you need to eat roughly that: 1 slice of bread, ½ cup of cooked cereal, ½ cup of rice or pasta and 1 cup of cold cereal.

Fats, oil and sweets
This kind of food is the most unhealthy group of all, and you need do try to eat as less as you can fats, oil and sweets.

Healthy eating

Healthy eating doesn't mean that you need to eat only fruits or vegetables. It means that you need to eat all kinds of food, but in the correct quantity. Actually, you need more than 40 different nutrients for good health, and no single food supplies them all. Your daily food selection should include bread and other whole-grain products, fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meat, fish and other protein foods. How much you should eat depends on your calorie needs.

Burn extra calories with weight traning

Everyone should know that muscle weighs more than fat.
If you want to maximize your calorie burning during weight training, increasing muscle helps you lose weight and strip that fat. Increase repetitions rather than increasing weight to build strength without bulking up. Take very short rest periods between sets - about 45 seconds, to speed up metabolism and also burn more calories.

Know Your Heart Beat

One of the biggest scientific advances in physical fitness is the development of commercial heart rate monitors. You now no longer have to be one of the top athletes in the world to train with a heart monitor. For less than $200, you can buy a device that clips to your bike (or is worn like a wrist watch) that will provide you with accurate data on your pulse.

Why is this important? Because if you are not training hard enough, you will not progress in your fitness. The heart rate monitor will show you if you need to work harder. First, calculate your maximum heart rate. It is usually 220 minus your age. So a forty year old will have a maximum heart rate of 180 beats per minute (BPM). If your heart is not beating at least 80% of the max, (in our example 154 BPM), then you need to work harder.

On the other hand, training at too high a level is also bad for you. As you approach your maximum heart rate, your muscles become unable to process the lactic acid being built up. Muscle fatigue will set in and destroy any improvements you have made in your fitness. Once again, using the heart rate monitor make sure that you are not working out at more than 90% of your maximum (in our example 162).

So the key really is to work out between 80 and 90 percent of your maximum heart rate. The only way to monitor this is buy putting on a chest strap with a monitor and checking the readout once per minute. It may sound like a lot, but it will dramatically improve your fitness and get you ready for the next big race. The best thing is that today these monitors are relatively inexpensive.

Yoga breathing

Breathing is a vital element if you want to be engaged in healthy yoga.
Practicing yoga breathing, or breath control in yogic terms exercises, are the link between the physical and mental disciplines of yoga. By developing control of your breathing, you can bring about beneficial changes in your body and mind. Yogic breathing cleanses the body, calms and relaxes the mind, and serves as a perfect warm-up for practicing yoga poses. In coordination with yoga poses, the breath unifies mind and body, balances opposing energies, and helps the body relax deeply and safely into each pose.

The Stimulating Breath

The Bellows Breathing Technique (also named The Stimulating Breath) is a yogic technique, that can be used to help stimulate energy when needed.
You can try this technique by following these steps:

*While sitting in a comfortable up-right position with your spine straight ,with your mouth gently closed, breath in and out of your nose as fast as possible.
*The rate of breathing is rapid with as many as 2-3 cycles of inspiration/expiration per second.
*While doing the exercise, you should feel effort at the base of the neck, chest and abdomen. The muscles in these areas will increase in strength the more this technique is practiced. This is truly an exercise.
*Do this for no longer than 15 seconds when first starting. With practice, slowly increase the length of the exercise by 5 seconds each time. Do it as long as you are comfortably able, not exceeding one full minute.
*There is a risk for hyperventilation that can result in loss of consciousness if this exercise is done too much in the beginning. For this reason, it should be practiced in a safe place such as a bed or chair.

Breathing exercise

Breathing exercise can help you in two ways: the first is that it takes pressure off your heart and will let the maximum amount of oxygen into the body. The second is that it will clears your mind and makes you more relax. There are some exercises you can try.
One of them is that: You should place your right hand on your abdomen and the other hand on your chest. Breathe deeply. Breathe like this for 2 minutes. As you breathe in, count to 4, hold for 2, and release your breath in 4 counts.

Diabetic diet

People who suffer from diabetes often use a special diet that contains dietary fiber, especially soluble fiber, but low in fat (especially saturated fat).
Patients may be encouraged to reduce their intake of carbohydrates that have a high glycemic index. However, in cases of hypoglycemia, they are advised to have food or drink that can raise blood glucose quickly, followed by a long-acting carbohydrate (such as rye bread) to prevent risk of further hypoglycemia. Recent studies have shown that a vegan diet may also be effective in managing type 2 diabetes.

Bad Effects of Shallow Breathing

Some people use only the upper part of their lungs. Others breathe only with the lower part and with the diaphragm, leaving the upper structures of the lungs inactive and collapsed. The habit of shallow breathing, which does not allow the lungs to be thoroughly permeated with fresh air, accounts in a measure for the fact that one-third of all deaths result from diseases of the lungs. To one individual perishing from food starvation, thousands are dying from oxygen starvation.

Correct Breathing

Proper breathing is necessary in order to maximize the aerobic value of the exercise and the enjoyment. Improper shallow breathing simply causes one to tire out faster, adds stress and reduces the comfort level. The correct breathing technique is similar or the same as that practiced in many of the martial arts and many other exercises.

Pilates - Breathing

Pilates breathing is a posterior lateral breathing, meaning when inhaling you breathe deep into the back and sides of your rib cage. At the same time as you exhale you feel the engagement of your deep abdominal and pelvic floor muscles and maintain this engagement as you inhale . It should be properly coordinated with movement. Each exercise is accompanied by breathing instructions.

Necessary Health Tips

Any person have to keep his body in a good health condition. In this post you'll find the basic and important actions you can do for keeping your body in a good shape.

Quit Smoking
Just recently, we've seen a surge in smoking in adolescents and teens. Could it be the Hollywood influence? It seems the stars in every movie of late smoke cigarettes. Beware and warn your children of the false romance or 'tough guy' stance of Hollywood smokers. But before you'll act this way - check yourself, and quit smoking. It's for your best.

Avoid Excessive Drinking
While recent studies show a glass of wine or one drink a day (two for men) can help protect against heart disease, more than that can cause other health problems such as liver and kidney disease and cancer.

Move More
Make it a daily challenge to find ways to move your body. Climb stairs if given a choice between that and escalators or elevators. Walk your dog or chase your kids. Anything that moves your limbs is not only a fitness tool, it's a stress buster. It doesn't have to be an hour in the gym or a 45-minute aerobic dance class or some kind of fitness lesson. But that's great when you're up to it. Meanwhile, move more.

These tips aren't easy, but if you'll follow them, your health condition will be improved.

Timely Vaccinations - Canadian Example

Traveling outside of Canada might require several vaccination procedures. Your travel destination, the total length of your stay and the state of your routine immunizations create a list of travel vaccinations for you personally. It can take several weeks for an immunization to kick in and develop a confident security shield against preventable diseases. Consult a travel health clinic or your family physician 5 to 7 weeks before your trip to give a chance to take effect for the vaccines or immunizing agent.

You can get exposed to infections abroad depending on the style, location, and duration of travel. Exotic meals and beverages may cause one of the most common illness- travel diarrhea, which, in some serious complications, may lead to serious intestinal disorders or even to a cancerous bladder!

Types of flu viruses as well as flu vaccines differ all over the globe, and change every year. However, the Canadian vaccination is usually a fairly typical one, and offers a lot of protection against catching either flu and travel diarrhea or some kind of meningitis. Travelers, who want to feel secure and confident about their upcoming trip, should visit a doctor or a travel clinic at least two months before departure. This will give time for the slower-acting vaccines, like hepatitis vaccines or influenza shots, to take effect. However, some fearful diseases, such as meningitis, have to be vaccinated against at birth.

So before you plan your travel, plan immunization schedule with your family physician.

Physical exercise

Physical exercise is bodily activity that maintains or develops physical condition and overall health. It is often practiced to strengthen muscles and the cardiovascular system, and to hone athletic skills. Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system, and helps prevent diseases of affluence such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity. It also improves mental health and helps prevent depression. Physical exercises are very importent for people who want to maintain their fitness.

Physical fitness - body composition

Body composition in physical fitness is used to describe the percentages of fat, bone and muscle in human bodies. The percentages of fat is of most interest because it can be very helpful in judging health in addition to body weight. Because muscular tissue takes up less space in our body than fat tissue, our body composition, as well as our weight, determines how lean we appear.

pilates exercise

Pilates exercise can transform the way your body looks, feels and performs dramatically if you will effort.
Pilates develops a strong "core" - center of the body. The core consists of the deep abdominal muscles, and the muscles closest to the spine. The exercises develop core control, integrating the trunk, pelvis and shoulder girdle.

Pilates can help you to:
*Builds strength without "bulking up"
*Increases flexibility and agility
*Develops optimal core control
*Creates flat abdominals, slender thighs and a strong back
*Is a refreshing mind-body workout
*Is challenging yet safe

About Pilates

Pilates is one of the fastest raising forms of exercise in the world.
Developed from the rehabilitation techniques of Joseph Pilates, Balanced Body Pilates is a safe, sensible exercise system using a floor mat or equipment, that will help you look and feel your very best. No matter what your age or condition, it will work for you. Pilates improves core strength, flexibility, agility and economy of motion. It can even help alleviate back pain and other chronic ailments. Piltes is a very challenging form of exercise, and thanks to that each person that would find some time for Pilates exercise, will enjoy that.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy expended while you are resting in a neutrally temperate environment, when the digestive system is inactive, which requires about twelve hours of fasting in humans. The release of energy in this state is sufficient only for the functioning of the vital organs, such as the heart, lungs, brain and the rest of the nervous system, liver, kidneys, muscles and skin. BMR decreases with age and with the loss of lean body mass. Increased cardiovascular exercise and muscle mass can augment your BMR. Illness, previously consumed food and beverages, environmental temperature, and stress levels can affect one's overall energy expenditure, and can affect one's BMR. The Basal metabolic rate is measured under very restrictive circumstances when a person is awake, but at complete rest. An accurate BMR measurement requires that the person's sympathetic nervous system is not stimulated.

Teenagers Diet

In nowadays, diets are used among teenagers. They don't understant the principle of dieting. So for making them to understant, here you some information about Teenagers Diets.

Since teenage years are times of curiosity, teens often turn to available resources for answers about their bodies. Unfortunately, when it comes to finding these answers the media has taken over as the number one resource. Television and magazines bombard youth with images of perfection, and teens often feed into these impossible standards. The Diet for Teenagers Only teaches them about true health and beauty.

Running

Running is defined as the fastest method for an "animal move" on foot. It is defined in sporting terms as a gait in which at some point all feet are off the ground at the same time. Running is both a competition and a type of training. As a sport, it is split into events divided by distance and sometimes includes permutations such as the obstacles in Steeplechase and hurdles. Running races are contests to determine which of the competitors is able to run a certain distance in the shortest time. In nowadays, competitive running events make up the core of the sport of athletics.

Dieting Information

Here you some dieting information that could help tou to start the program correctly. When you are choosing a diet plan or weight loss program, make sure it is safe. Make sure that it contains all the recommended daily allowances. The plan is to cut calories and not important food groups. A diet should not lose more than a pound a week, because quick weight loss usually means a gain in weight over time. Before stating any diet you should consult a doctor or nutritionist who will be able to advise you on a suitable diet and weight to aim for and of any health risks.