Healthy Fitness Ideas

Açai berry emerged from the mists of the Ama­zon rain for­est and spread over the inter­net faster than a kudzu vine.  A quick googling of “Açai” and “weight loss” pro­duces mil­lions of web pages pro­mot­ing “acai berry detox,” “acai burn,” “acai pure” and “acai berry edge,”  promis­ing quick weight loss. Some of the adver­tis­ing claims “450% more weight loss than diet­ing and exer­cise alone.”  Acai  pro­mot­ers allege that acai berry’s fiber and fatty acid con­tent give it the unique pow­ers to “burn fat more effi­ciently, process food more quickly, cut down on crav­ings, and boost metab­o­lism.”  The other claim is that acai detox prod­ucts  “cleanse” your sys­tem of fat and rid your body of “toxic buildup.”   Dr. Oz,  Oprah Win­frey and Rachel Ray once men­tioned the health ben­e­fits of acai on their pro­grams, but are today suing some acai pro­mot­ers for mak­ing false endorse­ment claims.  In  another tell­tale sign that the Acai mania has peaked, the Fed­eral Trade Com­mis­sion (FTC) recently obtained a tem­po­rary injunc­tion against one of the largest acai berry sup­ple­ment pro­mot­ers, which allegedly bilked con­sumers out of more than $30 mil­lion in 2009  through decep­tive adver­tis­ing and unfair billing practices.

Is There any Sci­ence Behind the Acai Berry Hype?

The greater the hype sur­round­ing a weight loss prod­uct, the health­ier your level of skep­ti­cism should be.  There is some research show­ing that Acai berries con­tain dietary fiber, are rich in antiox­i­dants (antho­cyanins) and are one of the few fruit sources, (besides avo­ca­dos) of  monoun­sat­u­rated fats (MUFAS).  Antiox­i­dants are  com­pounds that pro­tect against oxi­da­tion, or cel­lu­lar dam­age caused by free rad­i­cals, and they have been shown to be effec­tive in help­ing to pre­vent some dis­eases such as mac­u­lar degen­er­a­tion. Antiox­i­dant activ­ity is mea­sured in ORAC val­ues.  Fresh acai berry has a 5,500 ORAC value, while freeze-dried Acai berry has a 102,700  ORAC value.  These ORAC val­ues are higher than other fruits, but lower than the ORAC val­ues of com­mon spices like cloves, cin­na­mon and oregano.  Drs. Steve and  Susanne Tal­cott did the first human stud­ies involv­ing acai in 2008.  In the  study, 12 peo­ple who con­sumed acai pulp and acai juice showed sig­nif­i­cant absorp­tion of antiox­i­dant antho­cyanins into the blood and antiox­i­dant effects, com­pared to those who con­sumed apple sauce or a ple­cebo.  Dr. Tal­cott stated that “acai is nat­u­rally low in sugar, and the fla­vor is described as a mix­ture of red wine and choco­late, so what more would you want from a fruit?”   In June of 2008, Texas A&M Uni­ver­sity filed a  patent appli­ca­tion based on the unique phy­to­chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion of acai oil, cit­ing  the  Tal­cott research.

Beware Anec­do­tal Acai Weight Loss Stories

There isn’t a shred of  sci­en­tific evi­dence that acai sup­ple­ments, or other antiox­i­dant foods,  pro­mote weight loss.  What about all those tes­ti­mo­ni­als from peo­ple who tried acai and lost weight?  That’s not sci­ence, it’s more likely to be the  power of belief and expec­ta­tion.  Anec­do­tal evi­dence is infor­mal, word of mouth evi­dence that has not been sub­jected to rig­or­ous sci­en­tific scrutiny. It ranges  from your friend telling you, “This worked for me,” to the ancient wis­dom of a peo­ple that has been using local plants for heal­ing dis­eases.  Belief and expec­ta­tion can cause phys­i­o­log­i­cal changes in the brain that can inter­act with drugs, chang­ing their effects.  Mor­phine, for exam­ple, is a pow­er­ful painkiller.  But it becomes even more pow­er­ful if your doc­tor solemnly walks in, announces that he’s going to give you mor­phine, and injects you. Your beliefs play a role in the drama, and the same holds true for weight loss supplements.

Bet­ter Juice Choices than Açai Berry Juice

If you’re inter­ested a detox juice pro­gram and want to get more antiox­i­dants in your diet, try these ready-available antioxidant-rich juices instead of açai berry juice. There’s no free trial offer, but also no auto­matic billing of your credit card.

Veg­etable Juice.  Drink­ing your daily veg­gies is a pain­less way to include pow­er­ful antiox­i­dants and dietary fiber to your diet. The lycopene in tomato juice appears to reduce the risk of prostate can­cer.  Beet juice may help reduce blood pres­sure. Veg­etable juice is also loaded with dietary fiber that can help you feel full and con­trol hunger.

Prune Juice.  The orig­i­nal detox rem­edy, high in potas­sium, Vit­a­min E, cal­cium and iron.  Prunes have a lax­a­tive because of the high fiber con­tent and high lev­els of sor­bitol, a stool-loosening sugar. Prune juice is high antiox­i­dant activ­ity ( 2,036 ORAC value) and calo­ries (180 calo­ries per 8 oz.)

Pome­gran­ate Juice.  A rich source of antiox­i­dants, includ­ing antho­cyani­dins, proan­tho­cyani­dins (flavonoids) and ellagic acid. (2,341 ORAC value). The antiox­i­dants in pome­gran­ates  appear to pro­tect brain func­tion, lower cho­les­terol lev­els, which con­tributes to a lower risk of heart dis­ease and stroke.  Con­sump­tion of a lit­tle more than 8.3 ounces of 100% pome­gran­ate juice reduced carotid artery thick­ness by 35 percent.

Blue­berry juice.  A good source of vit­a­mins A and C and B1, beta-carotene, potas­sium, zinc, iron, cal­cium and mag­ne­sium.  Blue­ber­ries and are rich in fiber and con­tain antho­cyano­sides (6,552 ORAC value), an anti-bacterial pig­ment which has a ben­e­fi­cial effect on blood ves­sels and the treat­ment of vari­cose veins. The antiox­i­dants in blue­ber­ries appear to improve  mem­ory and motor skills and seem to reverse age-related declines in bal­ance and coordination.

Cran­berry juice.  Cran­ber­ries con­tain proan­tho­cyani­dins (865 ORAC value) that can pre­vent the adhe­sion of bac­te­ria such as E.coli, which is asso­ci­ated with uri­nary tract infec­tions, and the bac­te­ria asso­ci­ated with gum dis­eases.  Cran­berry juice is known for pre­vent­ing kid­ney stones and speed­ing recov­ery from uri­nary tract infections.

Con­cord grape juice. The same flavonoids (2,377 ORAC value) that made red wine a health sen­sa­tion are present in pur­ple grape juice.  The antiox­i­dant polyphe­nols, resver­a­trol, and antho­cyanins have been shown to pre­vent the oxi­da­tion of so-called bad cho­les­terol (LDLs, or low-density lipopro­teins) that cause plaque in artery walls.  The pur­ple flavonoids in Con­cord grapes seem to help re-grow the neu­rons involved with mem­ory, cog­ni­tion, and bal­ance.  Another pow­er­ful grape juice  is 100% dark pur­ple mus­ca­dine grape juice, very high in resveratrol.

Leave it to mod­ern sci­ence to tell us exactly what we’ve always sus­pected, but don’t really want to know for cer­tain. A recent sci­en­tific study, pub­lished in the Amer­i­can Jour­nal of Epi­demi­ol­ogy warns those of us who sit most of the day that we are putting our very lives in jeop­ardy. A recent sci­en­tific study, pub­lished in the Amer­i­can Jour­nal of Epi­demi­ol­ogy warns those of us who sit most of the day that we are putting our very lives in jeop­ardy.  It turns out that it’s actu­ally health­ier to be pound­ing the pave­ment than sit­ting at your desk and fret­ting about hav­ing too much work and too lit­tle time.  While some prior stud­ies showed a cor­re­la­tion between obe­sity and dis­eases like type II dia­betes, few researchers have looked at the ill effects of the butt-in-chair, hands-on-the-keyboard, socially-networked-24/7 lifestyle that ubiq­ui­tous broad­band inter­net has made pos­si­ble. The not-so-startling con­clu­sion is that the longer we sit, the sooner the Grim Reaper will likely visit.  So how can we reduce the time spent sit­ting and still get our blog­ging done?

Sit­ting is More Risky for Women Than Men

Accord­ing to the study, women who spent more than 6 hours per day of sit­ting were 37 per­cent more likely to pass away than women who sat fewer than 3 hours per day. Men who sat more than 6 hours per day were 18 per­cent more likely to expire than men who sat fewer than 3 hours per day.  Sit­ting the least and being phys­i­cally active were asso­ci­ated with a lower risk of mor­tal­ity; but sit­ting more than 6 hours still increased the risk of death, even for peo­ple who reported being physically-active. But the new study doesn’t tell us exactly why sit­ting is so bad for us.

Why is Sit­ting so Unhealthy?

The sit­ting as health threat rid­dle appears to have two likely causes. Sci­en­tist Alpa Patel, who led the 13-year study, said that extended peri­ods of sit­ting may neg­a­tively influ­ence the blood chem­istry in ways not yet fully under­stood. First, because it requires so lit­tle mus­cle activ­ity, sit­ting may increase cer­tain risk fac­tors, includ­ing triglyc­erides, HDL cho­les­terol, glu­cose lev­els, and blood pres­sure, which are asso­ci­ated with obe­sity and heart dis­ease. All those hours sweat­ing at the gym are seem­ingly negated by all those hours spent sweat­ing over the key­board. Sec­ond, sit­ting just doesn’t burn many calo­ries at all, and all those extra calo­ries add up. Michelle Obama may be on to some­thing in urg­ing us to “get mov­ing.”  Even fid­get­ing ner­vously in your chair or re-arranging the piles of paper on your desk does more for your calorie-burning than sneak­ing a sub­tle peek at the clock or day­dream­ing about your next vaca­tion. Don’t Just Sit There I’ll admit it: I absolutely hate to stand and wait in lines. But com­pared to the min­i­mal mus­cu­lar effort required to sit, stand­ing in one place is down­right gru­el­ing. To stand up, you have to tense the large mus­cles in your legs and but­tocks, and acti­vate the big mus­cles in your back and shoul­ders. If you’re like me, while stand­ing, you prob­a­bly fre­quently shift your weight from one leg to the other. All of that mus­cle activ­ity burns more calories.

Small deci­sions have big calo­rie impact

Stand­ing rather than sit­ting each day may help your body con­sume around 12 to 30 more calo­ries per hour, depend­ing upon on your weight.  Reduc­ing 30 calo­ries per day may seem triv­ial, but 30 fewer calo­ries per day means 3.1 pounds lost over the course of a year. For many of us, weight gain is a grad­ual process, a mat­ter of a pound or two per year. You can gain 3 pounds in a year if, each day, you con­sume just 30 calo­ries more than you burn.  As lit­tle as one hour stand­ing on your feet and one less hour sit­ting can actu­ally spell the dif­fer­ence between remain­ing at your cur­rent weight or get­ting fat­ter. I hear you say­ing that you no way to con­trol the amount of time you sit dur­ing the day.  But think about it.  Even if you exer­cise for 1  hour each day, the 8 hours you spend work­ing and the sev­eral hours of leisure time each day can have a big impact on weight gain or loss. You can make health­ier deci­sions through­out the day. Will you take the stairs or ride the ele­va­tor? As lit­tle as 5 min­utes of stair-climbing burns 144 calo­ries. Do you rely on email rather than get­ting up and hav­ing a con­ver­sa­tion with your co-worker? Walk­ing, even at an easy 3 mph pace, burns 280 calo­ries per hour.  When you get lunch, do you always have it deliv­ered, or could you eas­ily walk to get it? Just by tak­ing short breaks (stand­ing up occa­sion­ally to stretch or walk­ing down the hall) you be on your way to a slim­mer waist. To learn more about exer­cises that can be done any­where, any­time, read about these exer­cises you can do any­time, any­where. But what­ever path you choose, by stand­ing and walk­ing more, and sit­ting less, you’ll be health­ier in the long run.

At last, sum­mer is here and it makes you want to get out­doors and go for a run. But for fit­ness seek­ers who suf­fer from sea­sonal aller­gies, the balmy sum­mer days can mean a blast of sea­sonal allergies.

Allergy symp­toms are trig­gered by our own immune system’s effort to expel a for­eign sub­stance, such as pollen, dust or ani­mal dan­der. When an aller­gen finds its way in to the body, spe­cial cells, called mast cells release his­t­a­mine and other chem­i­cals, which ini­ti­ate reac­tions designed to dis­lodge the anti­gen, includ­ing sneez­ing, and water­ing of the eyes and nose. The symp­toms of aller­gies, runny nose, itchy eyes, sneez­ing and snif­fling, can make any allergy suf­ferer mis­er­able. For me, the lead­ing OTC non-drowsy allergy rem­edy, Clar­itin (lora­ti­dine), wasn’t non-drowsy. It was sleep-inducing. And Zyrtec (cet­i­rizine) and Benadryl (diphen­hy­dramine) were even worse for me, caus­ing a brain-fog that made it dif­fi­cult to func­tion dur­ing the day. So began my quest for alter­na­tive reme­dies for sea­sonal aller­gies. Here are some all-natural allergy strate­gies that can help keep your fit­ness pro­gram on track.

Tim­ing Your Workout

Get famil­iar with the local daily pollen counts and make a note of the days when you expe­ri­ence allergy symp­toms. Then armed with that knowl­edge, along with the daily pollen counts, you can plan out­door activ­i­ties when and where you are least likely to expe­ri­ence allergy prob­lems. Con­sider indoor fit­ness activ­i­ties (swim­ming, Tai Chi or weight train­ing) when pollen counts are at the high­est. You’re more prone to allergy woes if you’re stressed or jet lagged, because a weak­ened immune sys­tem is more sen­si­tive to aller­gens. Accord­ing to the Amer­i­can Acad­emy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunol­ogy, pollen counts are high­est from before sun­rise and until late morn­ing. Adjust the tim­ing of your out­door exer­cise rou­tine and try to avoid stren­u­ous activ­ity between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. Wrap around sun­glasses can help shield your eyes from aller­gens. Sum­mer rain­storms can lower the lev­els of pollen in the air. Cooler, wet­ter weather low­ers pollen counts, too.

Breathe In Through the Nose

Breathe in through the nose as much as pos­si­ble. Your nasal pas­sages fil­ter, moisten and warm the air you breathe. Of course there can be times where your instinct will be to inhale through your nose and mouth, but it’s still a good prac­tice to favor your nose when you inhale. You don’t need to entirely avoid breath­ing through your mouth. Nose inhala­tion tends to pro­mote healthy breath­ing and slower and deeper breaths.

Min­i­mize Post-exercise Allergies

After get­ting home from out­door exer­cise, take a shower, wash your hair and change clothes. You’ll be wash­ing away the aller­gens that have clung to your cloth­ing or hair dur­ing out­door exer­cise. Shut­ting win­dows, run­ning the air con­di­tion­ing and using a Neti pot to flush the nose with saline solu­tion, can clear the nasal pas­sages of any remain­ing allergens.

Water from the faucet is just so bor­ing and un-cool. But is Vit­a­min Water, with its kalei­do­scope of col­ors, trendy names like “endurance,” “power-c” and “vital-t” and celebrity-driven adver­tis­ing really a bet­ter choice? Vit­a­min water is pitched by Jen­nifer Anis­ton, LeBron James, 50 Cent, Kelly Clark­son and Shaquille O’Neal, among oth­ers.
Vit­a­min Water’s par­ent com­pany, Glaceau, (owned by Coca-Cola), mar­kets Vit­a­min water by pro­mot­ing its sup­posed nutri­tional ben­e­fits, urg­ing con­sumers to “hydrate respon­si­bly. “ Is there really any nutri­tional sub­stance behind all the mar­ket­ing siz­zle?
The Cen­ter for Sci­ence in the Pub­lic Inter­est (CSPI) doesn’t think so. CSPI has filed a class-action law­suit against Coca– Col for mak­ing what it says are decep­tive and unsub­stan­ti­ated claims on its Vit­a­min Water bev­er­ages. The suit alleges that Vit­a­min Water’s web­site, mar­ket­ing copy, and labels inac­cu­rately claim that Vit­a­min Water is healthy, say­ing, for exam­ple, that “bal­ance cran-grapefruit” has “bioac­tive com­po­nents” that pro­mote “healthy, pain-free func­tion­ing of joints, struc­tural integrity of joints and bones” and that the nutri­ents in “power-c drag­on­fruit” “enable the body to exert phys­i­cal power by con­tribut­ing to the struc­tural integrity of the mus­cu­loskele­tal sys­tem.“

But let’s look at the nutri­tion label on a bot­tle of Vit­a­m­in­wa­ter. How does Vit­a­m­in­wa­ter com­pare to to soft drinks like Coke and thirst-quenchers like orange juice?

At the out­set, one 20 oz. bot­tle of Vit­a­min water has 2 and ½ serv­ings. That means you would have to gulp down less than half the bot­tle to get the nutri­tion ben­e­fits (and calo­ries) on the label. At the out­set, one 20 oz. bot­tle of Vit­a­min water has 2 and ½ serv­ings. That means you would have to gulp down less than half the bot­tle to get the nutri­tion ben­e­fits (and calo­ries) on the label If you’re thirsty, and down the whole bot­tle, then you have to mul­ti­ply each num­ber on the label by 2.5. Here are the nutri­tion facts and ingre­di­ents from a bot­tle of “charge” Vitaminwater:

Serv­ing Size 8 fl oz; Serv­ings per Con­tainer 2.5

Calo­ries 50 Total Fat 0 g. Sodium 0 mg. Total Car­bo­hy­drate 13 g. Total Sugar 13 g. Pro­tein 0 g. Vit­a­min C 60%; Vit­a­min B3 10%; Vit­a­min B6 10%; Vit­a­min B12 10%; Vit­a­min B5 10%, Zinc 10%, Potas­sium 60 mgs. Ingre­di­ents: vapor distilled/deionized water, crys­talline fruc­tose, cit­ric acid, veg­etable juice (color), nat­ural fla­vor, ascor­bic acid (vit­a­min C), nat­ural fla­vor, vit­a­min E acetate, mag­ne­sium lac­tate (ele­crolyte), cal­cium lac­tate (elec­trolyte), zinc picol­i­nate, monopotas­sium phos­phate (elec­trolyte), niacin (B3), pan­tothenic acid (B5), pyri­dox­ine hydrochlo­ride (B6), cyanocobal­amine (B12).

As an elec­trolyte replace­ment drink, Vit­a­min Water com­pares poorly to brewed cof­fee, which pro­vides 124 mgs. of Potas­sium per 6 oz. serv­ing. Orange juice is a bet­ter choice than both, pro­vid­ing 450 mgs. of Potas­sium per 8 oz. serv­ing, 3 times as much Potas­sium as a whole 20 oz. bot­tle of Vit­a­min Water. That same glass of orange juice pro­vides 130% of the RDA of Vit­a­min C, Vit­a­min B3 10%; Vit­a­min B6 10%; Vit­a­min B12 10%; Vit­a­min B5 10% and Zinc 10%. If you choose cal­cium and Vit­a­min D for­ti­fied orange juice, you’ll obtain these addi­tional nutri­ents as well. And then there’s the cost fac­tor. Ama­zon sells Trop­i­cana Pure Pre­mium Orange Juice with Cal­cium and Vit­a­min D, No Pulp, 128 oz. for $6.79. That’s about 40 cents per 8 oz. serv­ing. Ama­zon also offers a 6-pack of “revive” Vit­a­min Water — 20 oz. for $18.00. That’s $1.20 per 8 oz. serving.

Vit­a­min Water does have fewer calo­ries and sugar than orange juice (110 calo­ries and 22 grams of sugar per 8 oz. serv­ing) but less vit­a­min C, potas­sium and other nutri­ents. And Vit­a­min Water is non-carbonated and does have fewer calo­ries and sug­ars com­pared to Coke:

Coke:
27 g. sugar per 8 fl oz.
97 calo­ries per 8 fl oz.

Vit­a­min Water:
13 g. sugar per 8 fl oz.
50 calo­ries per 8 fl oz.

But if you’re look­ing to replace elec­trolytes after a gru­el­ing work­out, orange juice is the bet­ter bev­er­age option. Don’t agree? Leave a com­ment below.

Stan­dard­ized extracts of pro­duced from the leaves of the Ginkgo tree, have been pro­moted for more than 30 years as an effec­tive way to improve mem­ory, and avoid age-related cog­ni­tive impair­ment, demen­tia and Alzheimer’s dis­ease. Ginkgo extract has been uti­lized in tra­di­tional Chi­nese med­i­cine (TCM) for more than 500 years, accord­ing to the Amer­i­can Botan­i­cal Coun­cil. But new research ques­tions the ben­e­fits of tak­ing Ginkgo biloba extract.

For cen­turies, choco­late has been a sweet tast­ing sen­sa­tion.  One thing that clouds the pop­u­lar­ity of this all-time favorite treat is the belief that any­thing that tastes really good must be bad for your health. For this rea­son, many peo­ple are cau­tious when devour­ing choco­lates, espe­cially those who are health– conscious.

But sci­ence has dis­cov­ered that choco­late might not be so bad after all.   In fact, there are health ben­e­fits that are asso­ci­ated with choco­lates and it can be ben­e­fi­cial for those with a love for choco­late.  This is par­tic­u­larly true if  choco­late fans pick and con­sume choco­lates wisely.

The good news is that dark choco­late con­tains over 300 chem­i­cals, many of which have been inves­ti­gated by  sci­en­tific orga­ni­za­tions and uni­ver­si­ties.   So far, this is what researchers have dis­cov­ered regard­ing the health  ben­e­fits of dark chocolate:

1.  It was found that the main com­po­nent of choco­late, the cacao, has  antibac­te­r­ial activ­ity that actu­ally helps fight tooth decay.    So much for the tra­di­tional cau­tion that eat­ing too choco­late can ruin your teeth.

2.    Choco­late is believed to be a mood ele­va­tor because it con­tains phenylethy­lamine, an amino acid that influ­ences neu­ro­trans­mit­ter lev­els and lifts mood.

3.    The aroma of choco­late actu­ally causes  peo­ple to relax and low­ers stress lev­els, due to the    fact that it increases theta brain waves.

4.    Con­trary to pop­u­lar belief, choco­late can be good to peo­ple hav­ing prob­lems with bad cho­les­terol.  The health food con­tains a kind of monoun­sat­u­rated fat, called oleic acid, which raises good cho­les­terol lev­els in the blood.

5.    Choco­late can really be good for peo­ple who are weight-conscious.  One hot choco­late cup taken before meals can help reduce appetite.

6.    Choco­late also con­tains flavonoids, which are instru­men­tal in keep­ing blood ves­sels more elastic.

7.    Choco­late con­tains chem­i­cals called that help increase antiox­i­dants lev­els in the bloodstream.

8.    It was also dis­cov­ered that men can add one year to their lives if they con­sume chocolates.

9.    Choco­late con­tains car­bo­hy­drates, which are  good for main­tain­ing a sense of well-being, because car­bo­hy­drates help increase sero­tonin lev­els found in the brain.

10.    Choco­late has been used by the Mex­i­can heal­ers to treat insect bites and bronchitis.

In addi­tion to the above find­ings, there are other research stud­ies that dis­prove  some half-truths about choco­late.  Here they are:

1.    Although choco­late can con­tain stim­u­lants includ­ing bromine and caf­feine, these are present only in tiny quan­ti­ties and con­sum­ing choco­late does not lead to ner­vous tension.

2.    Choco­late is not addictive.

3.    Choco­late does not con­tain chem­i­cals that cause acne.

4.    Choco­late doesn’t make any­one high.  You would have to con­sume about 25 lbs. in one sit­ting,  a huge quan­tity,  to expe­ri­ence any notice­able effect.

5.    Choco­late will not increase bad cho­les­terol lev­els and it actu­ally con­tains a neu­tral fat called stearic acid.

But just like any other food, mod­er­a­tion is the rule.  Choco­late has some cau­tions too, along with the many health ben­e­fits found:

1.    Peo­ple with migraines are not advised to eat choco­late as it can trig­ger a migraine.

2.    If choco­late is con­sumed with milk, it can con­tain extra sugar, sat­u­rated fat, and high calories.

Our daily meals con­tain sev­eral types of fats, includ­ing sat­u­rated, polyun­sat­u­rated, monoun­sat­u­rated and trans-fats. Some kinds of fat are essen­tial to your health, and other kinds of fat may increase your risk of heart dis­ease and stroke. You don’t need to com­pletely avoid eat­ing fatty foods. Instead, focus on eat­ing the health­ier dietary fats. So how can you tell the good fats from the bad fats?

What can be done about those prob­lem areas you want to tone or improve? Even peo­ple who are for­tu­nate enough to have achieved their ideal body weight will still have some prob­lem areas in the body. For one per­son, it might be those “love han­dles,” for another, the skinny arms, the chicken legs, or the sag­ging butt. Turn on the TV and you will find adver­tis­ers offer­ing all sorts of prod­ucts, from creams made of exotic ingre­di­ents to fit­ness gad­gets that promise to tone the arms, thighs or the abs.

How­ever, no mat­ter how good the prod­uct seems, how attrac­tive the model is, or how many celebri­ties endorse it, the real­ity is that you can­not just “spot reduce” those prob­lem areas Spend­ing money and time on just one area will not to work.

Why Can’t I Just Spot Reduce the Prob­lem Areas?

Adver­tis­ers spend mil­lions of dol­lars to pro­mote prod­ucts that promise ben­e­fits from rev­o­lu­tion­ary, secret or break though prod­ucts when in fact there really are no mag­i­cal, no-effort results to look for­ward to. But there are some sound prin­ci­ples that you should follow.

1. Healthy Diet Is Essential

Diet is an essen­tial part of any effort to get rid of the unde­sir­able body fat.. The foods that you eat have calo­ries and fats that get stored in your body, con­tribut­ing to those prob­lem areas. An unhealthy diet is the main cause for unwanted body fat.

So no mat­ter how faith and hope and money you invest in those those mir­a­cle gad­gets that promise fast results with almost no hard work, the results you seek will remain elu­sive if you keep indulging in too many sweets, fatty foods or junk foods.

2. Spot Reduc­tion of Prob­lem Areas Is a Mar­ket­ing Gimmick

It is not smart to believe those who are pro­mot­ing the ben­e­fits of spot reduc­tion efforts. The gad­gets you see in stores and on TV sup­pos­edly require noth­ing more than attach­ing a device or apply­ing them on the prob­lem areas. What about your other body parts? What about the other require­ments of the body?

In any suc­cess­ful health endeavor, you must be con­scious of your body’s phys­i­ol­ogy. You need to know what it takes to achieve your fit­ness goal. For exam­ple, if you want six-packs abs or buns of steel, you have to learn what it takes to get them, and then follow-through with a plan and remain com­mit­ted to accom­plish it.

Some peo­ple (usu­ally try­ing to sell you some­thing) will assert that if you want to improve the tone of your stom­ach or get rid of a belly, you sim­ply have to do end­less abdom­i­nal exer­cises or use the mag­i­cal gad­gets that will do the exer­cise for you. Again, you can­not spot reduce. You can­not achieve your desired fit­ness goal by sim­ply doing that one type of abdom­i­nal exercise.

No mat­ter how inno­v­a­tive or hyped the device is, the body fat will not just melt away just by just using a gad­get. Your par­ents and your inher­ited genet­ics is a fac­tor influ­enc­ing body com­po­si­tion. Diet obvi­ously plays a big role. Your lifestyle, active or seden­tary, affects the body shape equation.

The hard to swal­low truth is, before you can get the six-pack of mus­cles on your stom­ach, you will have to lose the the abdom­i­nal fat through sen­si­ble diet and reg­u­lar exer­cise. Doing 500 crunches a day may give you a sense of accom­plish­ment, but it will not get rid of that belly fat. Your body will not burn-up the excess fat in the prob­lem spot you are tar­get­ing. Well-planned whole body work­outs will increase your metab­o­lism and address the over­all fat to lean-muscle ratio in your body. Fat loss takes time and con­sis­tent effort, and not just exer­cis­ing to tar­get one area.

Reduc­ing fat level is only half the goal, You also want to increase lean mus­cle mass, the calorie-burning engine in your body. Even in 2009, with all the inno­va­tions of sci­ence and tech­nol­ogy, the only sure-fire way to get rid of that unwanted body fat and replace it with lean mus­cle mass is to fol­low a healthy diet and do car­dio­vas­cu­lar exer­cises at least twice each week.

When you have mas­tered the diet and aer­o­bic exer­cise com­po­nents of the puz­zle, then can you do those abdom­i­nal exer­cises and get the kind of results you want This is the only real secret to get­ting those six-pack abs.

3. There Are No Mag­i­cal Shortcuts

Mir­a­cle celebrity diets, pills con­tain­ing secret ingre­di­ents and exotic creams are detours on the road to suc­cess that will lead you nowhere. If a healthy body is your goal, you have to work at it con­sis­tently You have want it and sweat to earn it.

We live in amaz­ing times, where cell phone cam­eras and text mes­sag­ing can spread news around the globe in moments. But the human body still is bound by nat­ural laws. There­fore, your weight loss plan needs to be based upon what is nat­u­rally needed by the body. It takes a healthy diet, reg­u­lar aer­o­bic and resis­tance exer­cise and con­sid­er­able amount of effort and patience to reach the desired result.

4. Health and Fit­ness Require Commitment

At the end of the day, a healthy body is not the result of a pill or a gad­get, but rather a life­long com­mit­ment to your­self. Even if you’re sat­is­fied with your body shape now, it will not remain toned and fit for­ever if you neglect your diet and adopt a seden­tary lifestyle. Your ideal body needs to be renewed and nur­tured on a reg­u­lar basis.

This is why depend­ing upon so-called mir­a­cle spot reduc­tion devices is a path to frus­tra­tion. Hop­ing for the results you want is not enough to get them. So if you really want a healthy toned body, get started with a diet and exer­cise pro­gram. Look at your body shape from a holis­tic point of view. Improve not only the body itself, but your self-image, eat­ing habits and out­look on exer­cise as well.

5. Get Results the Old Fash­ioned Way

The bot­tom line is really that there are no short­cuts. You need to get toned the proper way. The old ath­letic adage still holds true for weight loss: “no pain, no gain.” So, don’t fall for diet and weight loss prod­ucts that seem to be too good to be true. They are too good to be true. Be a wiser con­sumer and know the real secret behind a bet­ter body. Take con­trol of your own fit­ness and diet plan and enjoy the mul­ti­tude of ben­e­fits that fol­low a healthy body.

Caf­feine boosts your energy level by stim­u­lat­ing your cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem. Can it improve your performance?

As reported by the Asso­ci­ated Press, on Fri­day, Brown County Dis­trict Judge John Roden­berg issued a deci­sion rul­ing that the State of Min­nesota had demon­strated a “com­pelling state inter­est” in pre­serv­ing the life of Daniel, a 13-year old boy, that was suf­fi­cient to over­ride con­sti­tu­tional rights of both the par­ents and Daniel to the free exer­cise of reli­gion. But what isn’t widely-reported