Showing posts with label Summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summer. Show all posts

Friday 10 December 2021

Lose Weight For The Summer


What's the best way to lose weight for the summer? Nutritionist Anne Collins offers practical advice on personal motivation, food tastes and cravings, what to eat, how much exercise to take, and other pointers to keep you focused on your diet and improve your shape for the summer.

 

Being overweight in the summer heat is no fun. And exposing a fat stomach or fat thighs isn't exactly pleasant when everyone else around you is wearing gnat-sized beachwear and drizzling oil onto wasp-like abdomens. In fact, for people carrying excess weight, summer can be an unpleasant trial involving countless opportunities for embarrassment and discomfort. So let's take a look at how you can reduce some of your fat and make next summer a happier experience. But first, a warning.

 

Summer Weight Loss Trap

 

One guaranteed way to fail is to look for a "short cut" weight loss method or diet. You know what I mean: the type of program that promises "a fast effortless way to reduce weight". In my experience, none of these diets or pills actually work, and the medical evidence is quite clear: the maximum rate of sustainable fat loss is between 1 and 2 pounds per week, perhaps a little more if you are obese. Besides, if a brilliant scientist did manage to concoct a formula for rapid effortless weight reduction, overnight he would be more famous than Einstein. He certainly wouldn't be peddling his program in 30-second TV infomercials or mail-order advertisements. So for the sake of your sanity as well as your financial health, don't waste time on weight loss methods that make extravagant claims. If you don't believe this, think of any of your overweight friends who favor the short-term "lose 20 pounds in two weeks" type of approach, and ask yourself why they are still overweight.



Three Month Summer Diet Plan

 

You can't lose much weight in a week or two. You need about three months to make a significant impact on your body shape. Remember, the human body is interested in survival, not cosmetic appearances, and since rapid weight loss is a prima facie symptom of disease not good health, the only guaranteed way to improve your body shape is to adopt a gradual approach of healthy eating and increased exercise. In three months, you can lose about 26 pounds - more than enough for most overweight people to experience noticeable health improvements as well as a much leaner body. And by reducing your weight gradually in this manner, you have far less chance of weight regain, so if necessary you can continue losing more with less danger of incurring a weight loss plateau or other obstacle.

 

You Need A Motive

 

No one likes to change their habits. So if you want to change your eating and exercise habits, you need a strong motive - something to keep you dieting and exercising when boredom sets in. Whatever motive you choose, it must be something more powerful than the urge to eat tasty high calorie foods in front of the TV!

 

A Good Motive For Summer Weight Loss

 

Anything that commits you in advance to achieving your weight loss goal, makes a great motive. So be bold. Book an expensive beach holiday, or buy some gorgeous clothes to fit the body you want to have at the end of your diet program. Both these actions require you to succeed, and therefore provide constant motivation along the way.

 

Men And Celebrities Have Better Motivation

 

In my experience, both with private clients as well as dieters who belong to my weight loss forum, men and celebrities exhibit the strongest motivation. Men, I suspect, because typically they have a narrower range of daily tasks and responsibilities than women. Celebrities, because typically they have a powerful commercial motivation to maintain their physical appearance. I offer weight loss help to a number of celebrity figures, some of whom are regulars on my forum, and I am always impressed with their ability to make short-term sacrifices to further their longer term goals. I guess that's why they achieve so much.

 

Be Positive About Short Term Sacrifices

 

Whether you're trying to lose weight for the summer, save money or pass exams, an important piece of the motivational jigsaw is your ability to be positive about making short term sacrifices. The choice is fairly simple: you can focus on the "deprivation" involved in giving up certain foods, or you can focus on the benefits you will get by not eating these foods. Sadly, many dieters focus on feeling deprived. After a while they see their diet as a burden, a bore, an evil necessity. This is why so many of them quit. They can't "see" the benefits that weight loss will bring them. If you want to improve your body shape for the summer, you must avoid this trap and appreciate the longer term benefits you will receive by making short-term adjustments to your lifestyle.

 

The Good News About Improving Your Diet

 

Many of our tastes, food cravings, and general attitudes to food are strongly influenced by what we eat and drink. I know countless mothers with families who have reported astonishing changes in their personal and family eating habits after less than three weeks of improved eating. Point is, the average modern diet is loaded with sugar, fat and sodium, all of which condition us to want more of these items. But if you can break out of this dependence on junk-ingredients for even 2-3 weeks, you'll notice a huge difference in your tastes. Which brings me to healthy eating.

 

Think Healthy Eating Not Weight Loss

 

In my experience, one of the most effective weight loss strategies is to focus on healthy eating. I'm not saying you shouldn't stand on your weighing scales, just don't measure progress exclusively by what the scales say. Be aware that it's just as important to enjoy your food and feel good about your change of eating habits. And any diet you hate is guaranteed to fail, no matter how much weight you lose, because as soon as you achieve your goal, you will revert to your old eating habits and regain every pound lost.



The Top 10 Healthy Eating Habits

 

In a nutshell, a healthy diet involves: 

 

  • More home-cooked food, less eating out. 
  • More fresh fruit as snacks. 
  • More fresh vegetables as snacks and with meals. 
  • More beans as sides or in stews. 
  • More dense chewy bread, less refined white breads and bread snacks. 
  • More fish, skinless chicken/turkey, less red meat. 
  • Smaller servings of red meat, larger servings of vegetables. 
  • Eating low fat dairy foods. 
  • Adding less fat in the form of butter, mayo, sour cream, to the food on your plate. This is a huge source of excessive calories. 
  • Stocking up with healthy snack foods to keep hunger at bay. If you fill up with healthy nutritious calories, you won't want the junk foods that hunger makes you eat. As far as weight management goes, hunger remains Public Enemy Number One.

 

Exercise Provides Wonderful Indirect Benefits

 

Exercise does burn extra calories and therefore does help to widen your calorie deficit. But it's direct effect on weight loss is typically quite small. In fact, it's not uncommon to gain weight when you start exercising. The real weight reduction benefits of exercise are indirect ones. It raises our metabolic rate, helping us to burn calories at a slightly faster rate, and improves our mood, which typically reduces our need for comfort-eating. However, don't overdo your exercise workouts. I've lost count of the number of dieters who started exercising too vigorously and burnt out within 3 weeks. Ideally, start with 45 minutes/day of any physical activity you can easily manage, and very gradually increase the duration and intensity. Listen to your body at all times, and be sure to loosen up beforehand and wind down afterwards.

 

See Yourself As You Want To Be

 

If your goal is a waistline you can proudly display in the sun, then don't wait until it happens to "see" it. Visualize it from the moment you start dieting. Visualize yourself walking along a beach, or lying next to the pool with a perfectly flat stomach. Whatever your ambition for your weight or body, get used to visualizing it in the greatest possible detail. Because "seeing it" is the first step to making it come true. As they say, one picture is worth a thousand words.

 

Very Overweight? Just Visualize The Benefits!

 

If you have a lot of weight to lose (100 pounds+), you may not think that losing 26 pounds in three months is particularly worthwhile. If so, ask yourself this question. What's the alternative? No matter what method you choose, you won't lose weight any faster, so it's only a question of when you start and how long it's going to take. I can answer the last question right now. Losing 100 pounds takes about a year - typically a little longer to allow for disasters along the way. Fifteen months would be a more realistic time span to reduce weight by this amount. This is nothing. Just visualize yourself walking down the street 100 pounds lighter, and tell me that eating healthily for 15 months is too high a price to pay for such a wonderful prospect.

 

Your First Priority - Get Support

 

If you really want to lose weight for the summer, your first priority is to find support. Join a diet-group at work, or a fitness class, or go to weight loss meetings. Or join an online forum. Losing weight on your own is perfectly possible, providing things go well and your scales keep saying nice things. But when difficulties arise, as they surely will, having the support of real people can make all the difference between success and failure. If you experience difficulty finding support, try my own weight loss forum. It's great fun and very inspirational.



Tuesday 21 September 2021

5 Tips for a Healthy Summer Skin


All women want to have radiant and healthy skin. Now, when summer is coming, the desire to have beautiful and moisturized skin is even stronger.

 

You know what can happen if you have exposed your skin under the sun for a long time? Premature aging, dryness, burns and deep-tissue damage that can cause diseases as serious as cancer.

 

However, there are many ways to have healthy skin even in very sunny seasons. With the next 5 tips, you will be able to enjoy a great summer without worrying about the damages that your skin might suffer.

 

1.    Sleep more

 

If you want to start taking good care of yourself, you must start with the basics. How much you sleep is of great importance for all human beings, since, in this way, you will avoid signs of tiredness on your face and dryness of your skin. In addition to that, sleeping enough and during the hours you're accustomed to helps you avoid the increase in fat, because lack of sleep changes your metabolism, and your body's cortisol is increased by the stress of not having slept.

 



Always remember that, before sleeping, you must remove all of your make-up in order to avoid premature aging, and your face will thus not look stressed, and you will be able to sleep like a baby all night.

 

2.    Apply facial masks

 

Easy and practical, natural face masks that can be applied at home save many women by giving them a healthy and smooth skin in a matter of minutes. There are masks for those who have oily skin and dry skin, and masks that treat either kind of skin, like the masks made out of strawberries (+ olive oil and sugar), which serve to exfoliate and moisturize the skin.

 

Another very recommended way to take care of your skin is to periodically make moisturizing masks. That is also highly recommended if you have oily skin. Undergo professional exfoliations to remove impurities and show off a clean and smooth skin in the summer.

 

3.    Undergo deep facial cleansing

 

Deep facial cleansing is performed in specialized centers. This method, as its name suggests, is a cleansing that purifies and revitalizes the skin. This type of treatment manages to delay the appearance of wrinkles on the face, and also lighten, tone and smooth your skin, eliminate blackheads, close your pores, revitalize your face, decrease the appearance of tiredness of your skin, and reduce acne.

 

4.    Undergo express facial cleansing

 

The difference between this treatment and the previous one is that it is more used to hydrate and give that shine that all healthy skin must have. This treatment will help improve the appearance of your facial skin, remove dead cells, promote the generation of new cells, heighten the pH balance of your skin and help you keep it healthy and radiant.

 

5.    Get a double chin reducer

 

A lot of people try to look sensational during the summer, and here is a procedure that should not be ignored, if you have an undesirable double chin.

 

Chin reducer, in addition to reducing the localized fat on your neck, helps make your skin firm and eliminates toxins through the lymphatic drainage offered by the treatment. Not only will you relax through the massages, but you will also improve your health and your skin.

 

These 5 tips will help make the skin on your face look smoother and more beautiful. Each treatment will also require proper daily nutrition and hydration, as those will help any treatment work much faster. Feel refreshed and ready for the summer with the best care for your skin!

 

Monday 20 September 2021

Ideas for Reducing Attic Heat


Attics get very warm in the summertime. So what’s the best way to beat that heat? Many companies want you to believe that there is only one solution to fixing the temperature in your attic. However, no one product will necessarily make your home more energy efficient. Here are six different ways to reduce the temperature in your attic and save you money.

 

1. Try using a thermostatically controlled roof mounted ventilator. They will help to keep your attic much cooler in the summertime. The thermostat will usually start at 95 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the temperature that the attic fan usually starts at.  

 

2. Using insulation only keeps the attic's heat from traveling through your home. Nevertheless, by adding powered attic fans, you will draw more air into the attic. While it does help to reduce the heat in your attic, putting these fans in your attic costs more because of the loss of conditioned air. The air you lose from the attic is then drawn into your home from the outside, which will cause your cooling bill to go up. 

 

3. Radiant barrier: This coating material gets sprayed onto the outside of your roof to help reduce the amount of heat that is radiated into your attic. The radiant barrier is shown to reduce about 68% of the heat that is being radiated into the attic. This will keep your attic cooler, which will reduce the cooling load on your home. 

 

4. Continuous ridge vent: This vent runs along the entire ridge of your roof. It is placed at the highest point of your roof so that the hot air rises to get out. However, for best results you must have sufficient vents to allow for the free airflow. The biggest downside to this type of cooling system, though, is that you must install it when you are installing either a new roof or building a new home. This type of venting wouldn’t work properly on an already existing roof. 

 

5. Standard “turtleback” vents: These are the most common vents and are very effective when enough of them are installed. Turtleback vents can be placed on an existing roof and allow for greater airflow, when properly installed. 

 

6. Check for restricted vents. Your vents can get clogged from dirt, rust, or insulation that was blown in from the attic. Make sure they are all open and will allow for the maximum amount of air to pass through. 

 

The best time to make these types of repairs to your attic is during the wintertime when it is much cooler and a lot more bearable to fix the cooling in your attic. Just make sure you think ahead before the summertime, because many people don’t think they’ll need any sort of repairs until the problem is already there. 

 

So what are you waiting for? Start saving money on your energy costs by cooling down your attic.



Sunday 12 September 2021

Cool Summer Fruits And Vegetables That Boost Your Health

 

We all crave that time of year when we get to show off some skin and enjoy being outdoors in the warm, sunny weather. However, the best part about summer is that it brings us a plethora of fresh fruits and vegetables. And they’re all filled with amazing health benefits. 

 

Read on to find out some of the healthiest foods you can enjoy this summer.


 

Watermelons

 

How can you go wrong with a fruit that’s 92% water, tastes like summer and smells even better? Watermelons help keep you feeling full longer because they’re called hydrating foods, which means you curb your hunger and eat less. It also works wonders in lowering blood pressure levels, especially with overweight individuals.

 

In addition, they contain high amounts of antioxidants, as well as vitamins C, A and B6. It has high levels of lycopene, which fights against the damage of free radicals. The best part? It’s 44 calories per cup!

 

Tomatoes

 

Rich in an antioxidant known as alpha-lipoic-acid, studies show that tomatoes help fight against high blood pressure levels. The substance surrounding the seeds contains salicylates, which prevent clotting of the blood.

 

Tomatoes also help preserve nerve and brain tissue, as well as promote the production of collagen in the skin to help keep your skin wrinkle-free while reducing the appearance of fine lines. Studies show that men who regularly consume tomato-based foods are less likely to suffer from prostate cancer.

 

Peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots (aka stone fruits)

 

Colorful, juicy and delicious, stone fruits help protect against diabetes, heart attacks and strokes.

 

Peaches contain beta-carotene, which keeps your skin glowing and bright. They also contain iron, potassium, fiber as well as vitamins A and C. 

 

Plums are rich in nutrients, as well as phytochemicals, which help reduce the risk of many diseases and health conditions. And as an added bonus, prunes help ward off bone loss, due to their high levels of potassium and vitamin K. 

 

Apricots are rich in vitamin A, which protects the eyes, and potassium.

 



Zucchini

 

Loaded with folate, potassium, and vitamin C, this versatile summer vegetable helps regulate blood pressure and contains antioxidants that protect cells from damage. A cup of shredded zucchini can be incorporated into any dish, sweet or salty.

 

And since zucchinis contain 95% water, they’re low in calories, have zero fat and cholesterol, and are rich in nutrients. One cup of shredded zucchini provides you with 35% of your daily vitamin C needs, and is only 20 calories.

 

Sweet corn

 

These delicious, yellow jewels contain natural two natural compounds, lutein, and zeaxanthin that protect your eyes from harmful UV rays. They filter out damaging free radicals that can lead to negative effects on your eyes, such as cataracts. Corn also curbs your appetite, boosts immunity, and helps control blood sugar levels.

 

Pineapples

 

High in bromelain - a proteolytic enzyme, pineapples help with the digestion process. They’re also an excellent source of antioxidants, which means they ward off free radicals and protect the body from their harmful effects, while reducing the risk of serious inflammatory diseases.

 

Cherries

 

The color of these round, succulent fruits is a clear indication of how powerful its antioxidants are and how much protection they offer against heart disease, mainly due to their high levels of pectin which helps balance blood cholesterol levels. Cherries are also great health-boosters since they contain melatonin, which is known as the “sleep hormone.” 

 

Melatonin is secreted naturally by the body during the night, but foods rich in melatonin can help induce a restful sleep. It’s also a wide-spectrum, potent antioxidant. Moreover, melatonin helps with the conversion process of turning fat cells, which collect under our skin and around our organs, into brown fat cells, which work at burning calories instead of storing them.

 


Mangoes

 

Sweet and savory, mangoes pack a great amount of fiber, iron, magnesium, and antioxidants. They also help with the digestion process as well as curb your hunger by filling you up for longer.

 

Figs

 

These summer snacks are packed with potassium and fiber. They’re also low in calories and fat.

 

Grapes

 

Like watermelon, grapes have a high water content, which makes you feel full and satiated. They also help protect against disease, such as Type 2 diabetes. They’re also packed with antioxidants and inflammatory properties, phytochemicals and vitamin C.