Lose Weight And Keep It Off!

Besides winning the lottery, there may not be a more universally shared goal than losing body weight and keeping it off.1 If this is a goal you are after, you may not want to read the rest of today’s piece! That is because brand new research has pointed out that the odds of going from obese to a normal weight and staying there – are vanishingly slim.2, 3 For men, the odds are 1 in 210, and for women the odds are 1 in 124. That’s less than 1% – no matter what gender you are.

So how do we beat these (very depressing) odds? Quite simply, by following a Paleo diet! By consuming foods that are high in satiety and nutrients, we keep hunger at bay, and our body and brain happy.4, 5, 6, 7 Satiety and nutrition are both absolutely vital if long term, sustainable weight loss is one’s goal. As has been seen in scientific studies, a Paleo diet works better than even condition-specific diets (like those seen in patients with diabetes).8 One study sums it up thusly: “The Paleolithic diet might be the best antidote to the unhealthy Western diet.”9

Combining a great diet with a smart exercise routine (like CrossFit) is a great recipe to start stacking these odds in one’s favor.10 As the CrossFit Games are in full swing, we get to see professional athletes at their absolute peak – hopefully inspiring us to spend less time on the couch and more time at the gym. But you do not need to be a CrossFit Games competitor to enjoy a healthy exercise routine. If you are sedentary, just start walking around your neighborhood every day after work. Get your head in the game with baby steps, you’ll feel the difference.11 Once you’ve mastered that, you can progress to higher feats of fitness.

Erickson, Kirk I. et al. “Exercise Training Increases Size of Hippocampus and Improves Memory.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108.7 (2011): 3017–3022. PMC. Web. 27 July 2015.

And even more than exercise, make sure you get plenty of sleep! This overlooked factor allows many to work extremely hard, eat right and still not keep the pounds off. Scientific researchers have known this for years.12 Sleep is an important modulator of neuroendocrine function and glucose metabolism.13Both are usually disrupted when a person becomes obese, so getting them back in line requires eating well, exercise, and plenty of shuteye!

Sleep loss has also been shown to result in metabolic and endocrine alterations, including decreased glucose tolerance, decreased insulin sensitivity, increased evening concentrations of cortisol and increased levels of ghrelin.14 Bottom line: With all of this at play, our chances of losing weight and keeping it off are very slim! We want our body to be insulin sensitive, cortisol lower in the evening, and to express low levels of ghrelin (a key hunger hormone).

Beccuti, Guglielmo, and Silvana Pannain. “Sleep and Obesity.” Current opinion in clinical nutrition and metabolic care 14.4 (2011): 402–412. PMC. Web. 27 July 2015.

Patel, Sanjay R., and Frank B. Hu. “Short Sleep Duration and Weight Gain: A Systematic Review.” Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) 16.3 (2008): 643–653. PMC. Web. 27 July 2015.

Finally, sleep loss leads to decreased levels of leptin (one of the main satiety hormones) and increased hunger and appetite.15 So, the longer you go without sleep, the hungrier you get. Stop the cycle by hitting the pillow earlier.

With our world in an ever-increasing obesity pandemic, think of all the healthy ways you can lose weight and keep it off.16, 17, 18, 19, 20 Put your mind to it, don’t let anything stand in your way, and you’ll be on your way, to a leaner, healthier you!

Article Source: http://thepaleodiet.com/lose-weight-and-keep-it-off/

Here Is A Timeline Of What Happens To Your Body When You Quit Smoking

Originally seen on SimpleOrganicLife| If you’re smoking a cigarette right now, I have good news for you: if you don’t ever pick one up again, your body will go through amazing transformations within minutes of finishing your last one.

We all know the negative health effects of smoking cigarettes, but what really hits home is when you look at how your body begins to heal itself right after you stop smoking:

1. 20 minutes after your last cigarette, your blood pressure and pulse will lower and return to normal. The temperature in your hands and feet increase.

2. After 12 hours, the carbon monoxide level in your blood will lower and return to normal. Blood oxygen begins to increase. You’ll feel more alert, sleep better, and be stronger.

3. After 24 hours, your risk of heart attack drops significantly.

4. After 48 hours, nerve endings begin to regrow and your sense of smell and taste will return.

5. After about 3 months, your circulation will improve, walking will be easier, and you’ll cough less. Lung function will be markedly improved.

6. Between 1 and 9 months, you’ll have less sinus congestion, fatigue, and nearly no shortness of breath.

7. After 1 year, your risk of coronary heart disease is half of what it was when you smoked.

8. After 5-15 years, your risk of stroke returns to normal, as if you never smoked at all.

9. At the 10 year mark, your chance of developing smoking-related cancer is about the same as a non-smoker. Diet and smoking contribute to 60% of cancers.

10. After 15 years, your risk of coronary heart disease and heart attack is that of a non-smoker. Your risk of death has dropped to that of a non-smoker.

Money saved

You will also save $1000-$2000 each year when you quit smoking depending on how often you smoke, which over 10 years can add up to as much as an extra $20,000 you will have at your disposal.

Plus all of the money you will save on lighters, matches, medical bills, dental bills, medications, and any other expenses that would come from illness and sickness resulting from a compromised immune system and bodily damage from smoking.

Not to mention, you will add years to your life, and the years you do live will be filled with more energy, life, and vitality.  You will also look better, smell better, feel better about yourself and will have a better influence over people in your life who look up to you.

Best of luck on quitting! You owe it to yourself and to your amazing body that is working hard to keep you alive.

Article Source: http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/here-is-a-timeline-of-what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-quit-smoking/

Rethinking Exercise as a Source of Immediate Rewards

I was going to skip my daily swim the other morning. I had already walked three miles with a friend and taken my dog to the park for his exercise. I was really tired, my back was sore, I had a column to write and lots to do around the house.

But I knew from past experience that I would feel much better after 40 minutes of swimming laps. So in I went. And, yes, I did feel better — not just refreshed, but more energetic, clearheaded and better prepared than I would have been otherwise to tackle the day’s essentials.

Michelle Segar, who directs the Sport, Health and Activity Research and Policy Center at the University of Michigan, would say I had reframed my exercise experience, making it ever more likely that I would continue to swim — even on days when I didn’t feel like doing it — because I viewed it as a positive, restorative activity. Indeed, exercise is something I do, not because I have to or was told to, but because I know it makes me feel better.

Dr. Segar, a psychologist who specializes in helping people adopt and maintain regular exercise habits, is the author of “No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness.” Her research has shown that even people who say they hate to exercise or have repeatedly fallen off the exercise wagon can learn to enjoy it and stick with it.

Three years ago, I wrote about research by Dr. Segar and others showing that promoting physical activity to prevent or control disease, lose weight or sculpt one’s body, and prescribing doses as if exercise were medicine, wouldn’t get most people to do it and keep doing it.

“Health is not an optimal way to make physical activity relevant and compelling enough for most people to prioritize in their hectic lives,” Dr. Segar said in an interview.

Though it seems counterintuitive, studies have shown that people whose goals are weight loss and better health tend to spend the least amount of time exercising. That is true even for older adults, a study of 335 men and women ages 60 to 95 showed.

Rather, immediate rewards that enhance daily life — more energy, a better mood, less stress and more opportunity to connect with friends and family — offer far more motivation, Dr. Segar and others have found.

“I like to think of physical activity as a way to revitalize and renew ourselves, as fuel to better enjoy and succeed at what matters most,” she said.

In her new book, she describes strategies to get even the most sedentary people off their duffs, starting with ways to overcome past failures and negative feelings about exercise that make it feel more like punishment than pleasure.

Instead of the recommended half hour a day or 10-minute doses of moderate exercise three times a day on most days, Dr. Segar suggests focusing on the idea that “everything counts” — taking the stairs instead of the elevator, weeding the garden, dancing, even walking to the water cooler.

“We should count any and every opportunity to move that exists in the space of our lives as valid movement worth doing,” she wrote. She advocates adopting a food marketer’s approach to workouts: Enjoy “snacks” of exercise that can entice gradual increases in how much is “consumed.” And like the calories in food snacks, it all adds up.

Dr. Segar likens the choices to Baskin-Robbins’s 31 flavors: “There are so many options — ‘What do I feel like doing today?’ — then picking the ‘flavor’ of physical activity that feels right for that day and moment.” The neuroscience of reward has shown that this approach can foster and reinforce positive feelings about being active.

Also important is giving oneself permission to make self-care through physical activity a priority. Dr. Segar wrote: “When we do not prioritize our own self-care because we are busy serving others, our energy is not replenished. Instead, we are exhausted, and our ability to be there for anyone or anything else is compromised.”

People who make physical activity a priority don’t necessarily have more time than others. Rather, they make sure to schedule time for it because they know it enhances their performance and the quality of their daily lives. It has been shown, for example, that schoolchildren who are given exercise breaks are better able to to pay attention and learn.

Citing a “paradox of self-care,” Dr. Segar wrote, “The more energy you give to caring for yourself, the more energy you have for everything else.” She suggests viewing physical activity as a power source for everything else you want to accomplish. “What sustains us, we sustain,” she wrote.

To those who feel they are neglecting family to fit in exercise, she suggests taking them along. The routine can help foster a culture of physical activity at an early age. When my brother and I were young, my father took us on his weekend walks. He taught us to swim as preschoolers and launched a lifetime of enjoyment in the water. Now in our 70s, both of us continue to appreciate what physical activity brings to everything else in our lives. We feel like slugs when we can’t exercise.

Even those with the best intentions often set themselves up for failure by establishing rigid exercise goals. They try to do too much, and when they can’t keep it up they give up and chalk it up as another exercise failure. In place of a performance goal, Dr. Segar suggests setting a “learning goal” — learning to be flexible and cutting yourself some slack when needed.

Consistency trumps quantity when trying to establish a lifetime of fitness. When a last-minute task cuts into a planned workout, you should not skip the session altogether. Even 10 or 20 minutes of activity is better than none.

It also helps to anticipate challenges to your exercise routine, using an “if-then” exercise tool. If, for example, you are too tired after work to go to the gym, think about a replacement activity you might enjoy, like taking a sunset walk alone or with a partner, friend, child, dog or even a neighbor’s dog.

Or, in the future, go to sleep and get up a half hour earlier to fit in physical activity before life’s demands get in the way.

Article Source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/20/rethinking-exercise-as-a-source-of-immediate-rewards/?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

The Top 5 Health Benefits Of Dark Chocolate

Almost everybody likes chocolate. It is usually thought of as a sinful decadence, something we eat when we are choosing to indulge. Chocolate is also synonymous with happiness; do you ever notice people who are eating chocolate always seem happy to be doing so? There’s a good reason for that! Chocolate has been shown to actually raise serotonin levels (the happiness hormone) within the brain. I should clarify here though, there is a huge difference between regular old, overly processed milk chocolate, and dark chocolate that has little or no milk added and significantly less sugar. The best quality dark chocolate has cocoa percentages ranging from 70 to 99%.

Here are the top five benefits of dark chocolate.

1. High Levels Of Antioxidants And Minerals

Did you know that chocolate has one of the highest levels of antioxidants of any other food in the world? Yes, it is definitely a superfood. Antioxidants help to protect the body from free radicals that can cause cancer. Dark chocolate is also loaded with minerals such as: iron, magnesium, copper, manganese, fibre, phosphorous, zinc, and selenium.

2. Relieves Stress

As mentioned above, dark chocolate helps to increase levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which acts as an antidepressant and can lower levels of stress. A study performed by scientists in Switzerland determined that the chemical compounds found in dark chocolate play a key role in improving the stress levels of people who are prone to high stress levels. According to the study, eating 1.4 ounces of dark chocolate daily for two weeks can actually reduce stress hormones. If using dark chocolate to lower stress in your life, make sure it is 85% cocoa or higher.

3. Lowers Cholesterol

The cocoa in dark chocolate has been shown to reduce the “bad” cholesterol (LDL) levels in the blood – which can clog up the veins and inner walls of arteries – allowing for proper arterial function.

There has also been evidence to suggest that dark chocolate can increase the “good” cholesterol (HDL) levels in your body. Low LDL combined with high HDL levels can significantly reduce the risk of cardiac arrest and heart disease.

4. Improves Brain Power

A study conducted at the University of Nottingham determined that consuming dark chocolate can boost the blood flow to the brain for up to three hours. In turn, this improves short-term memory and alertness for short periods of time. Apparently, the cocoa can also help to improve concentration, response time, and memory recall. You should definitely consider eating some dark chocolate while studying for a test and right before taking one!

5. It’s a Delicious Healthy Treat

Dark chocolate (between 75-99%) is something you don’t have to feel guilty about eating. It is actually good for you, and as mentioned above, has numerous amazing health benefits. Meaning, you can eat it and know you’re doing your body a favour! Just be careful not to overdo it because many brands do contain a lot of sugar. Remember, the higher the cocoa percentage, the less sugar it has.

Have you ever had 99% cocoa chocolate? Now that is intense!  You can eat the dark chocolate in bar form, or use cacoa powder or cacoa nibs in smoothies or baking.

Enjoy, much love!

Article Source: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/07/23/the-top-5-health-benefits-of-dark-chocolate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Collective-evolution+%28Collective+Evolution%29