How to Turn Everything Into a Game and Get Better at It

Have you ever wondered why it is that we enjoy games so much? And have you ever wondered why it is that you dislike your job so much? What is the difference between pressing buttons on an Xbox and pressing buttons on keyboards?

 

The answer may surprise you: it actually comes down to your effort and how much you care.

 

You care about games and you make the effort because you want to get better at them and because there’s constant variety and plot progression to keep things interesting. This makes you try harder in order to progress and that in turn gives you the feeling of reward that makes the gameplay satisfying.

 

From a neurochemical perspective, this essentially boils down to the release of dopamine. Each time you attempt a level or challenge, you first visualize it happening in your mind’s eye. When you then attempt it for real and this then goes to plan just as you visualized it, this will in turn result in you getting a release of the reward hormone dopamine. This is actually highly addictive and that can be enough to make you want to try again – which is why it’s so hard to put down that game of Angry Birds! That release of dopamine and serotonin will also help to reinforce the neural connections required to perform the task again. This strengthens your likelihood of doing the same thing again in future with perfect technique and generally improves your technique and ability.

 

When we don’t care about the outcome though, we don’t have this trial/reward loop and as a result, it can end up feeling like a dull slog. To change this then, all you need to do is to start taking things more seriously and actually focus on what you’re doing.

 

The Most Basic

 

Let’s say that you have to write something by hand. This is a mundane task and something most of us won’t pay much attention to.

 

So instead of simply doing it absent-mindedly then, you should instead try to really focus on doing it as perfectly as possible. Try to let the pen flow perfectly as you write and to write with the most perfect handwriting you can muster. Visualize it happening as you do.

 

Simply paying attention to your writing in this way and making it perfect will then be enough to ensure that you are more engaged and that you get the release of dopamine when it goes well. You’ve turned the mundane into a game. Why? Because the brain loves learning and improving.

 

Everything You Need to Know About Panic Attacks in Order to Stop Them

It’s one thing trying to improve your ability to control your own stress response so that you can combat anxiety and improve your health. But it’s quite another when you experience serious panic attacks that leave you crippled and that prevent you from engaging in normal activities.

 

But in fact the tools you will use to achieve both ends are similar. The difference is just that panic attacks might require a more intense and a more focused approach.

 

And in either case, understanding the biology behind the experience can be a fantastic tool to help you take control more effectively.

 

Let’s look at what panic attacks are and how you can take them on head-to-head.

 

The Basics of Panic Attacks

 

When you experience any kind of stress, it’s because your sympathetic nervous system is releasing specific hormones and neurotransmitters into your system. Specifically, these are:

 

- Adrenaline (epinephrine)

- Noradrenaline (norepinephrine)

- Cortisol

- Testosterone

- Estrogen

- Dopamine

- Serotonin

 

When these occur together, your experience of pain is dulled, you become more attuned to your senses, your thoughts are focused, your strength increases your muscles contract. Your heartrate accelerates significantly and more blood and oxygen are sent to your muscles.

 

But the thing is that this increases your overall strength your reflexes and your ability to fight or run. This is a useful response in the right context.

 

The problem is when you misinterpret these signals and cause a panic attack. What happens in this case is that you notice yourself get anxious and you become worried that this is going to cause you embarrassment or make you faint (perhaps because you have previous experience with panic attacks). You begin to hyperventilate and this combined with the elevated heartrate causes chest pain. And some people mistake that chest pain for the signs of a heart attack.

 

All this makes you more anxious and that in turn means you ramp up the response even more. Your heartrate increases more, you get more anxious and eventually you might even start to get dizzy from all that oxygen.

The Solution

 

The solution then is to recognize that you’re having a panic attack but not to give it any power over you. And the way you do this is to try and detach yourself from it and essentially continue to go about your normal business. Of course, this is easier said than done but as soon as you stop letting it control you and as soon as you aren’t afraid of panic attacks, you’ll find they end a lot more quickly and eventually they can stop happening entirely.

 

Cognitive behavioral therapy can help with this, as can using the technique known as AWARE which is simply a set of steps to remove yourself from the experience and to avoid being afraid of the stress.

 

Most people will have a panic attack at some point in their lives but if you can understand what is happening and control your emotions, you’ll find it can disappear as quickly as it arrived.

 

How Anxiolytics Work and Whether You Should Use Them

If you can control stress, calm your mind and avoid anxiety then you’ll find it has huge benefits for both your body and your mind. The stress response actually makes us stronger, faster and even smarter in the short term. But over time, this can place a serious strain on the body that eventually wears you down and leaves you more susceptible to illness and other problems.

 

This is why people who experience a lot of anxiety might consider the use of anti-anxiety medications called anxiolytics. But what exactly do these do? How are they affecting your mental state? And should you use them? Let’s look at the way they work in more detail.

 

What is an Anxiolytic?

 

Anxiolytics are any drugs that reduce the stress response and to do this, they alter the neurotransmitters and hormones that the brain produces in order to encourage calmer and to act even as a mild sedative.

 

One of the main neurotransmitters that anxiolytics act on is GABA. GABA stands for Gamma Aminobutyric Acid and is a neurotransmitter that suppresses neuronal activity. That is to say that when it is released, it prevents neurons from firing. This in turn causes you to experience few thoughts and ‘slower’ thinking. It lowers the heartrate and it makes you less attuned to your surroundings.

 

GABA is one of the neurotransmitters that is affected by alcohol in fact and is responsible for some of the symptoms that we associate with being drunk. This is why some people will self-medicate with alcohol for stress or social anxiety.

 

Alternatively, some anxiolytics work by increasing serotonin. Serotonin is the ‘feel good’ neurotransmitter and this is also how anti-depressants work such as SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors).

 

The Problem

 

To increase GABA, most anxiolytics work by blocking the reuptake of GABA in the brain so that there is more of it free in the brain. When you do this over a long period of time however, it causes changes in the brain and adaptations. Specifically, because there is too much GABA, the brain stops producing as much of it itself and decreases the number of receptors. Now you need to take larger doses of anxiolytics to experience the same heightened levels of GABA and now you will likely feel even more anxious when you’re not using them. This is called ‘tolerance and dependence’ and it can lead to addiction.

 

What’s more, is that anxiolytics do not address the thinking that leads to the release of those hormones in the first place, it deals with the symptoms rather than dealing with the cause.

 

And then there are the short term, immediate side effects associated with anxiolytic use such as drowsiness and confusion.

 

So, should you stop using anti-anxiety medication? This is very easy to say but not so easy if you experience frequent and severe bouts of anxiety. You should always listen to your doctor’s advice. But just know that this medication is not a long-term solution. Focus on therapy in conjunction with medication in order to address the root cause of the issue more permanently.

 

How Your Body and Mind Are Intimately Linked Through Your Hormones

In the book Calm Mind, Healthy Body, we discuss in detail the importance of having a calm mind and we look at how controlling and calming your thoughts can ultimately improve your health by removing the stress response. 

 

But did you know that this also works just as potently the other way around? That is to say that your health can also impact on your stress levels? Even your hunger can impact on stress, which in turn impacts on hunger again. It’s a complex interplay and in a moment, we’ll see more about this works and why your lifestyle is a key factor in controlling your stress.

 

What Happens When You Eat

 

If you’re stressed right now, then one method you might be able to use to fix that is to eat more. When you eat, your blood sugar spikes. This is then in turn followed by a spike in insulin, which triggers the body to remove the sugar from the blood along with any nutrients.

 

If you’ve eaten carbs (which provide the fastest sugar spike) then you will also have tryptophan in the blood. Tryptophan is an amino acid that also happens to be a building block of the neurotransmitter ‘serotonin’. Because tryptophan can cross the brain barrier and because it gets left behind by the insulin response, this then leads to a sudden spike in serotonin in the brain and you feel very good.

 

This is why you feel in a good mood after you’ve eaten! 

 

What’s more, is that serotonin eventually converts into melatonin, the sleep hormone. That’s why everyone always falls asleep after Christmas dinner!

 

What Happens When You Get Hungry

 

But let’s say you haven’t eaten for a while. What happens then? 

 

Well, you now have very low levels of tryptophan in your brain and this in turn increases cortisol, there is no way to impact a single neurotransmitter in isolation; levels of one will always impact on levels of the other.

 

Cortisol then replaces serotonin and this increases the production of ghrelin, the hunger hormone. That’s what makes your stomach start to rumble. It also increases stress and triggers anxious thoughts. This is why we get ‘hangry’ and why you’re ‘not you when you’re hungry’.

 

Other Things That Impact on Your Mood

 

There are plenty of other ways we can impact on our levels of neurotransmitters and hormones too though. 

 

For example, when you wake up first thing in the morning you will have been fasting all through the night. At this point your serotonin levels are incredibly low and you have high cortisol making you stressed. At the same time, the light from the sun also increases the release of cortisol which wakes you up (stress hormones are stimulatory whereas relaxation hormones tend to be sedative). Cortisol removes melatonin from the brain and also widens the veins via nitric oxide.

 

Then there are other things you can do: exercise for instance is well known to increase serotonin and other endorphins and boost the mood. It’s time to stop thinking of your brain as an isolated thing!

 

The Basics of CBT for Eliminating Stress

Whether you have normal levels of moderate anxiety, or you experience large amounts of stress leading to panic attacks and health problems, CBT is the number one tool for dealing with it. CBT stands for ‘cognitive behavioral therapy’ and is the preferred tool for therapists trying to deal with all manner of different psychological disorders.

 

This is partly because CBT has a huge amount of evidence supporting its effectiveness. But what also makes CBT so useful is the fact that it is portable and affordable. CBT involves teaching techniques which can be learned even remotely over the internet. This means you can teach yourself the techniques and be incredibly effective at controlling your emotions and your stress responses.

 

How it Works

 

The basic idea behind CBT is that we ‘think ourselves’ into our mental states. Associations and conditioning partly affect our emotional response to stimuli but so too does what we think.

 

For example, when you’re afraid of talking in public, it’s probably because you are thinking of all the things that could go wrong. You maybe think ‘people will laugh at me’, or ‘what if I stutter’ or ‘what if I faint?’. Thinking these things, and visualizing them as we tend to do, can be enough to trigger the release of hormones or other hormones and this then makes us panic and possibly even causes us to make those mistakes!

The trick then is to change those thoughts so that you no longer believe those things will happen. And if you can do that, then you can completely remove the fear and the response. 

 

Cognitive Restructuring

 

The way you are taught to do this in CBT is through something called ‘cognitive restructuring’. This is a set of tools that you can utilize in order to ‘reprogram’ your thoughts and change your beliefs.

 

One example of this is something called ‘thought challenging’. Here, you simply challenge the negative thoughts that are causing you to be stressed or afraid by looking at how realistic they are. Would people really laugh at you if you stuttered? In all likelihood no, they would be sympathetic. Are you really likely to faint? Probably not.

 

Another very useful tool is something called ‘hypothesis testing’. Here you don’t just convince yourself that your fear is unlikely, you actually prove it to yourself to make sure you really believe it.

 

So how might you do that? One example is that you might put yourself in the situation you are afraid of and see what happens. So in this case, that might mean giving a speech in front of people and then purposefully stuttering to see if people react badly. Just remind yourself: it really doesn’t matter what they think. Now let yourself stand there and try to reduce stress. When you see that there is no negative outcome, you’ll remove the stress entirely.

 

Finally, CBT also incorporates meditation, exposure therapy and other known techniques to give you a powerful tool set for overcoming stress, phobias and more.

 

What is Meta-Cognition?

Meta cognition simply means thinking about thinking. This simply means being aware of how your thoughts work as well as being aware of what your thoughts are doing at any given time. 

 

This is split into two different ideas: metacognitive knowledge (knowledge of your own thoughts) and metacognitive regulation (control over your own thoughts using various strategies).

 

In theory, learning to better control your own thoughts can help you to improve your self-knowledge and to tap into the full potential of your brain at any given time. Let’s look at how you can do that.

 

Some Things You Didn’t Know About Meta Cognition

 

Firstly, what would be a good place to start with meta cognitive knowledge? A good place to start would be with the biology that underlies the way your brain works. By understanding this, you can know what’s actually going on inside your brain at any given time when you experience certain things or do certain things.

 

This means learning about the role of neurotransmitters and hormones and how they impact on your emotional state and also your ability to focus, to remember and to relax.

 

It also means learning about the nature of thought itself. This is a subject people don’t discuss that often but it’s filled with interesting titbits. For example, a Sapir Whorf hypothesis states that we think in ‘language’ and that by changing the language we think in, we can actually upgrade our thoughts. For example, if you could think with shorter words, you might be able to think faster. Likewise, choosing certain language could potentially impact your emotions, so changing your vernacular could be a good strategy.

 

But then there are others that say language is unimportant. More important is the way we visualize what words mean or even feel what they mean by feeling what it would be like to enact a particular story we’re listening to for example. This is called ‘embodied cognition’ and it’s another very compelling school of thought.

 

How to Regulate Thought

 

Once you understand the nature of thought and how thoughts lead to learning, associations and the release of hormones and neurotransmitters, it can be useful to start thinking about the tools you can use to harness that knowledge.

 

One great example is CBT. This is ‘cognitive behavioral therapy’ which is a set of psychotherapeutic tools that are used to give people more control over their thinking. Self-hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming are similar examples of frameworks and tools for changing your thoughts. Likewise, so are different approaches to psychology such as psychotherapy.

 

Meditation is likewise the practice of controlling thought and also of being able to distance yourself from your thoughts.

 

There are various ways you can directly and indirectly impact on your emotions too. One example is ‘priming’ which basically involves watching films, listening to stories or engaging in activities you know will stimulate certain emotions just before you try and use them. Another is to use power poses or facial feedback to try and trick your body into acting the emotion you want to feel.

 

Can Nootropics Make You Smarter?

When it comes to changing your mindset in order to change your life, you probably think of things like ‘the gratitude attitude’ or maybe meditation. You’re probably aware of mindfulness and of CBT.

 

But what if you could simply flick a switch and completely change the way that your brain works? What if you could become smarter and cleverer overnight? Wouldn’t that be the ideal?

 

This is what we see in the film Limitless. The main character Eddie Mora takes a single tablet and suddenly gains access to latent power of his brain. He becomes smarter, wittier, more charming, more creative – and in no time at all he has written a bestselling novel, made a huge amount of money on the stock market and run for political office.

 

This is what science would call a ‘nootropic’ and the shocking part is that they’re real…

 

What Are Nootropics and Do They Work?

 

Of course, the reality is nothing like the movies. There is no pill that can make you smarter. But what some nootropics claim to be able to do, is to make you a little more alert, to boost your memory and perhaps to help your motivation.

 

These work in a variety of ways and they take many forms. For instance, one of the most popular types is something called modafinil. Modafinil is a drug used to treat narcolepsy but it has also been used by fighter pilots and top CEOs in order to help them need less sleep and work longer and harder. This works by affecting a neurochemical called orexin, which regulates our sleep wake cycle.

 

Others might work by stimulating our fight or flight response through dopamine or adrenaline. Others meanwhile appear to enhance brain plasticity to increase learning. Some simply give the brain a bit of an energy boost to help you feel less tired.

 

So, do they work? The answer is simple: it depends! Some nootropics work well and really can give you a boost in focus. Others don’t really have much effect, while others still might actually be bad for you and cause headaches or even addiction!

 

The key is to finding the best ones by reading around and doing the research. But suffice to say that normally the best ones are the natural ones and the ones with the milder impact on the way you feel. Stick to these and you’ll reduce negative side effects – but just know that nothing can turn you into a genius overnight. 

 

Physiology and Your Mood

If you want to get the most out of yourself and your life, then it is crucial that you learn to control your mood. Your mood will affect your ability to focus, your enjoyment of any and all activities and so much more.

 

But of course, controlling your emotions is easier said than done. This is something we would all like to do no doubt, but if it were that easy then we would all be happy all the time!

 

There is a secret to doing this though that many people miss. And while it may be impossible to guarantee that you’ll ever have complete control over the way you feel, it can sure make a big difference and help to give you a lot more control.

 

How Your Body Affects Your Mood

 

The missing key that so many people overlook is physiology. In other words, your body and your physical state.

 

What are our emotions for? They’re to drive us toward desirable things and to keep us away from things that could potentially harm us. When we feel scared, this motivates us to seek a safer shelter. When we feel disgusted, this prevents us from wanting to eat gone off food.

 

At a deeper level though, being hungry also impacts on your emotions and motivates behavior. When you are hungry, you will usually have low blood sugar. This in turn releases cortisol the stress hormone, along with ghrelin. This is why we get hangry! Conversely, when you eat, you produce serotonin which puts you in a good mood. This then converts to melatonin and makes us sleepy.

 

Being ill causes inflammation through pro-inflammatory cytokines and these suppress activity in the brain, creating brain fog and depression.

 

Feelings and emotions are different. You feel hungry, you feel tired and you feel ill. But these create emotions such as stress, anger and sadness.

 

The Takeaway

 

So, what are we getting at here? What is the practical takeaway from all this advice?

 

The moral is that it isn’t all about your thoughts and your lifestyle. If you’re angry or if you’re sad then it may not be due to you having a bad day – you may just be hungry or ill!

 

Then there’s the fact that our hormones tend to change on a cycle. Keep all this in mind when you are trying to manage your mood and make sure that you set yourself up with the best possible chance of a happy, positive day!

 

The Importance Of Breathing For Confident Speaking

If you don’t get your breathing right then it is going to be a real challenge for you to speak with confidence. Fortunately, there are a number of things that you can do to breathe correctly when you are speaking no matter what situation you find yourself in.

 

In this article, we will discuss the importance of breathing properly so that you can be more confident with your words. There are plenty of resources online such as YouTube videos that will show you how to breathe properly. Most people do not breathe properly especially when they speak so this is worth your while paying attention to.

 

Learn to Breathe using your Diaphragm

 

The most confident speakers use their diaphragm to breathe. They do this because they know that it will make them feel the most confident when they are speaking. It is a lot easier than you may think to learn to breathe using your diaphragm and it should not take you long to master this technique.

 

At the end of the day, breathing using your diaphragm is just a matter of paying attention to the way that you inhale and exhale. When you are inhaling you will want to ensure that your stomach rises. For exhaling, you need to make sure that your stomach falls.

 

Breathing from your diaphragm will make you feel a lot calmer and will enable you to focus more on what you are saying. Once you have mastered breathing using your diaphragm you will be able to speak from your diaphragm as well. 

 

Speaking from your diaphragm will add a level of confidence to your voice that your audience will certainly pick up on. So, start practicing breathing using your diaphragm today so that you can be more relaxed when you are speaking and also add the right inflection to your voice that your audience will appreciate.

 

Relax your Throat with a Jaw Massage

 

Having a relaxed throat when you are speaking is very important. Your words will be a lot clearer and easier for your audience to understand when your throat is relaxed. Massaging your jaw regularly will help you to relax your throat and this is an easy thing for you to do.

 

For the best jaw massage, you need to open your mouth a little. This should be just enough so that you are able to part your teeth. Hold this position and then use your fingers to gently massage your outer jaw.

 

When you first try to massage your jaw, you may find that it is a little painful to do this. Be sure to persevere here as the regular massaging of your jaw will encourage your mouth to open wider. With your mouth open wider, there will be an increase in confidence with your voice.

 

Slow down your Breathing

 

It is a natural thing to be nervous before you have to make a speech or hold an important conversation with someone. As you progress with your confident speaking then this should happen less often but it will always be there.

 

When you are nervous you are going to breathe much faster. This will not help a confident delivery. You need to learn to slow down your breathing so that you can deliver your words in a confident manner. Speaking too fast is never a good idea.

 

Concept of Microworkout to Bring Work-Life Balance

A microworkout is a tiny spell of exercise that lasts just 1-5 minutes. It is often spoken about in conjunction with the term “kaizen.” Kaizen is the Japanese word for “improvement,” which has been co-opted to mean “making tiny changes to a process in order to yield huge results.” The philosophy is that a small action, when repeated daily, can add up to something profound.

 

This is the concept of the microworkout. While many people attempt to start 4-hour training programs to no avail, working out for just 5 minutes a day is far more achievable. Will the results be as great? Not to begin with no, but the point is that you’ll use this as a way to form new positive habits that you can then use to introduce hardcore training.

 

Likewise, you can use microworkouts two; three, or five times a day and that way distribute your training throughout the day. The result is that you exercise a fair amount, but in a far more palatable manner. Moreover, your metabolism stays rose throughout the day, and you don’t undergo those long, unhealthy periods of uninterrupted inactivity.

 

But there’s a similar concept that is even more effective. That is to train as a part of your daily routine. In other words, you’re turning your regular activities into microworkouts. For example, that means you’ll be performing calf raises on a curb while waiting for the bus, doing curls while carrying bags, or even doing tricep dips on the couch while watching television.

 

This type of training completely solves the issue of time. You don’t have to “fit in” your exercise, because you’re doing it at the same time as something you already would have done.

 

Better yet, it takes the idea of continually exercising throughout the day even further. This is actually how the human body is evolved to train. We are not intended to go through long periods of complete inactivity.

 

But can it be as effective? That depends on your approach and your goals. For weight loss, calorie burn is calorie burn no matter how the activity is distributed. 

 

For building and toning muscle, cumulative damage over a short period of time is often needed. That said, there are quick ways to accomplish this (such as with eccentric isometrics) and by understanding these concepts you can work effective training into and around your regular routine.

 

Importance of 10 Minute Full Body Workout

Kaizen means making small changes that can add up to big improvements in your life. In fitness, that often means using small workouts that can be just as impactful, but require a whole lot less time and effort. The result? You’re far more likely to do it and to stick to it.

 

This workout will train your full body and it only takes ten minutes. And you just need a single dumbbell. So if you have a few spare, why not give it a go now? And it takes just three movements:

 

Exercise One: One Handed Dumbbell Squats

 

To start, you'll be performing 10 squats with a dumbbell hanging in front of you. Keep your arm hanging down the middle between your legs, squat directly downwards and then push up through your legs.

 

Exercise Two: Dumbbell Swing

 

Now, while still squatting, you're going to start swinging the dumbbell directly upwards. This is essentially the same as a kettlebell swing with the obvious difference being that you're using a dumbbell, not a kettlebell. The movement is excellent for your legs, for your core and for your shoulders and it's also brilliant cardio.

 

Exercise Three: Half Burpee

 

Now you're going to put your dumbbell down and perform half burpees. This means you start on all fours and then jump forward with your legs close to your hands and then out into press up position. In other words, this is a burpee without the jumping part at the end. This is another great one that involves cardio, that trains the abs and that works the pecs and upper body.

 

Completing the Workout

 

To complete this workout, you're going to perform ten repetitions on each exercise. Once you've done that, you're going to switch immediately to the other side and do another round. Then you're going to pause for fifteen seconds and go again!

 

The astute among you may have noticed that this doesn't target every muscle group. Sure, there's no bicep curl in there and nothing for your rear deltoids. However, these are highly compound movements that will have an anabolic effect. Meanwhile, the whole body is working in unison through each of the exercises. When you combine these factors, you have a workout that involves the whole body to at least some extent and which encourages growth for that reason. Sometimes you don't need to target a body part precisely in order to trigger growth – you just need to shock the whole system into action.

 

So don't rely on this workout and if you only have one dumbbell… buy another! Use this as something a bit different though and as a lesson in creating training with low resources. No excuses!

 

The Value of Setting Daily Life Routine for Weight Loss

When people want to lose weight, they will typically focus on a few “big” things. That means their diet for instance, and it means the amount they exercise. Most of us will then conclude we need to exercise a little more, and eat a little less. Thus, we end up lifting weights or running a few times a week, and eating bland fat-free meals in the evenings.

 

But very often, this doesn’t result in the kind of results that you want to see. And why is that? It comes down to the fact that you will very often miss out on what actually matters more: the details. This is the “kaizen” approach – making small changes in order to see huge results.

 

Why Workouts Often Don’t Work Out

 

Here’s the problem with going for a run or lifting weights: that is 40 minutes three or four times a week. That’s maybe 160 minutes per week.

 

There are 10,080 minutes in a week. That is a tiny splash in the ocean!

 

And if you aren’t seeing the weight loss you want to, then there is a good chance that the other aspects of your life aren’t particularly active. Maybe you sit in an office at work. Maybe you drive to and from that office. And maybe your evenings are spent sitting on the couch watching TV.

 

Either way, you aren’t really moving much. Meaning you isn’t burning many calories and your metabolism is slow.

 

Simply adding a little exercise and eating a few less calories isn’t going to result in a body transformation when your lethargy is endemic! 

 

This is where kaizen comes in: the process of focussing on the small details that add up to a LOT. For example, maybe you could start walking to and from the bus a stop further? That might only be a 6-minute walk but when you do it both ways, five times a week, it becomes 60 minutes of extra activity!

 

Likewise, you could decide to take the stairs instead of the lift, burning an extra 5 calories each time, you do. That might add up to 40 a day, and 200 per week (assuming your lift is in your office and you use it at lunch).

 

Maybe you decide to take up one physical activity in the week – like a game of ball with the dog. Maybe you choose to get up 5 minutes earlier and stretch.

 

And it’s these small changes throughout your day and week that add up. And THAT is how you see a body transformation.

 

How To Eat Healthy And Be More Successful

Eating Healthy food and having well balanced diet is one of the most important part of your life that can help you a lot in maintaining health, fitness and happiness. This is a common sentence that you might have come across many times in your life. But, how many of us realize its actual importance and incorporate a diet regime wherein we are eating right?

 

Even though we are trying hard we are not able to get it right.

 

This might be because we do not know how to eat right or we are not putting efforts in the right direction. Some of us are failing because we cannot control our mind to listen to the alarms. Yet, some of us are failing because we are not seeing the results of our efforts thus leading to depression and more bad eating habits.

 

So, how does one eat right and manage to live a life of good health and fitness?

 

Exercise Self-control to Avoid Over-Indulgence

 

Eating right can be correlated to both over eating and starvation.

 

You should not be either over eating nor should be starving yourself to death fearing gaining of weight. You should train your mind to eat right and avoid both the extremes as both can be harmful. If you are overeating, it leads to obesity and if you are starving yourself, the body might not be receiving adequate nutrition and this will lead to deleterious effects.

 

Eat Small Sized Meals

 

It is best to divide your meals correctly and eat in small proportions through the day. The ratio of eating should be correct so that the body is getting the right nutrition while it is not subject to starvation.

 

Eat Wholesome Foods

 

Whole foods are a great source of nutrients and dietary fiber which are very important for good health and fitness. So, it is best to use more of whole foods and less of processed or canned foods in your diet.

 

Avoid Junk Foods

 

Junk foods contain lots of unwanted calories that the body will tend to store as fat as this cannot be utilized by the body readily. So, even though you might have a tendency to gobble up these junk foods, it is necessary to exercise control and avoid junk to eat right.

 

Good Protein Intake and Reduced Fats

 

A good protein intake is essential for the body as this will help in the maintenance of the body and in muscle build-up and repair.

 

Watch the intake of fats and reduce fat intake although it is not good to go total zero as this too can have bad effects on health. In addition, the body should receive good intake of vitamins and minerals. So, make sure to include foods that are rich in these to meet the requirements of the body.

 

It is not easy to plan to eat right. One should have the determination to eat right and stick with it. Unless you do this, no matter what you try in terms of achieving fitness, you will fail.