With the acai berry diet, you will very first and foremost be improving your immune system. This will cut down on the colds and flu that wipe your body out. It will also enhance your bone and muscle strength, so you’ll be able to be physically stronger. Your energy will improve and your cholesterol will decrease. These little berries are able to do all of those things you have been attempting to do for years with out success. They will even help you sleep better, stave off diabetes and work to enhance the function of your heart. Adding acai berries to your diet is among the very best issues it is possible to do to enhance your overall health.

It’s not uncommon for people to race through their sets in order to get
done sooner. Although this could benefit power development,
hypertrophy might be sacrificed. For instance, if two individuals were to
perform the same number of repetitions, but one completes the set in 6
seconds and the other takes 60 seconds, is the training effect the same?
Obviously not! Tempo is a training parameter that is quite often
neglected. You can calculate total time under tension (TUT) of a set
simply by multiplying tempo (add all 4 digits) and the number of
repetitions performed.

The problem with tempo prescription is that cadence tends to vary
among individuals and also between reps and sets. (Generally, the
count speeds up as you fatigue!) For this reason, I recommend that you
purchase a metronome – the Robic SC-700 Sports Chronometer
available at Creative Health Products is a good choice. Set the watch to
60 beats per minute so that it beeps every second and try to keep the
cadence uniform throughout the entire range of motion.

John Paul Catanzaro is a certified kinesiologist and professional fitness
and lifestyle consultant with a specialized honours Bachelor of Science
degree in Kinesiology and Health Science. He owns and operates a
private gym in Toronto, Ontario providing training and nutritional
consulting services. For additional information, visit his website at
www.BodyEssence.ca or call 416-292-4356.

Food, it does the body good. It is the fuel that improves performance.

Most clients always want to talk about food and meal preparation. The problem is they never want to prepare.

Most of them look at preparation as ordering from a menu in a restaurant or at the drive-thru.

Take a deep breath. Relax. Let me open up a whole new world called meal planning.

If you are even remotely serious about your health and fitness, then you must make good choices about what you are putting in your mouth.

I am a firm believer in not restricting my clients or my readers so severely they loathe the thought of sitting down for a meal. I am of the mindset you can still eat what you enjoy and be fit. You may have to learn to eat a few new things, however.

I don’t want to overwhelm you in one sitting. So, let’s begin the New Year with my top 7 “Hip-Bits” for improving the fuel you are putting into your “tank.”

7) Lets begin with sweets.

I actually have a friend who eats dessert first. She orders a dessert first at a restaurant. Now, according to her she does this to control the amount she eats. When she goes out, she focuses on what dessert she wants, then orders and eats it first…usually about half of it. Hey, works for her.

I like part of this strategy. I think you should have certain sweets you crave or are your “targeted sweets.” Then you can pick certain nights to have them. This way you know you will get that favorite cookie, ice cream or piece of pie. If you are trying to lose weight you are going to need to be a little picky about what sweets you eat and how often you are eating them.

Have “dessert night or nights.” You could even plan at the beginning of the week what dessert will be on which night.

This will give you a sense of control and allow you to indulge your sweet tooth at the same time.

6) Eat slowly.

This is one I really need to work on. In the past I would be done with my meal before my wife finished saying grace…just kidding. I did eat fast though.

You will eat more if you eat fast. Your brain will not “decide” it is full until you have inhaled everything on your plate.

Enjoy the experience. Have a conversation with someone at the table. Savor the food and the moment.

Set a time limit. You have to eat for 20-25 minutes, for example. Try this, it works!

5) Plan your next meal after you are done eating.

First of all, you are full.

You are most likely in the kitchen and can take a survey of what you could potentially eat.

Now, you may have already planned your next meal, but maybe you want to tweak it based on what you just ate.

If you ate too much or decided to go with the cookie at lunch, you will need to adjust the next meal anyway.

4) Figure out the difference between being hungry and wanting to eat.

If you eat every 3-4 hours throughout the day, you won’t be “starving” all the time.

You will realize you are fueling the body, that you are diligently working out and this food is feeding your muscles, brain and nervous system.

3) Three meals and 3 snacks a day.

That is, Breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a snack in between. If you stay up and “play” on the computer late at night, a light snack that is “protein laden” is o.k.

Stick with the protein and carbohydrate ratio you will see in the next “Hip-Bit.”

Planning your next day’s meals after your last meal of the day is fun. I recommend writing them down, but you can at least get an idea in your head.

2) 2.5 to 1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. (2.5 grams of carbohydrates for every 1 gram of protein).

For example, a meal would have 25-30 grams of carbs and 10 grams of protein.

Proteins are basically meat, fish and nuts. Carbohydrates are basically breads, pastas, fruits and vegetables.

If you are exercising on a daily basis, your muscles will need fuel in the form of protein and carbohydrates.

Don’t be afraid of the carbs; they will help with recuperation and your energy needs.

1) Change your mindset about eating.

Food is fuel for the body, it makes it go-just like gas for a car.

If you put in the wrong type of fuel or don’t put in enough fuel, your body will not operate properly.

Look at food as the fuel to help you reach your fitness goals. Feed it well.

Bonus: Drink plenty of water.

Your entire body is made of water. It is a great fuel for the body.

Water helps you eliminate wastes from the body.

Water will help with your energy levels by keeping you hydrated.

If you exercise daily, I recommend drinking 0.5 to 1 ounce of water for every pound of bodyweight.

Eating can be pleasurable. Just give it a little thought.

Have fun with your meal planning in 2006!

The Pro-Form 765i interactive trainer treadmill also comes with its own 5 Star Burn and Tone Kit. This handy an eight-week regimen of diet and exercise, offers regimented guidance on strength conditioning, recipes, and meal plans, as well as CD and flip chart workout programs.

The Pro-Form 765i interactive trainer treadmill protects your joints with its air chamber cushioning concept. It also folds away easily when not in use – a great feature for apartment dwellers.

Four rotating displays let you know your total calories as well as fat calories burned, your countdown for workout time, speed, and pulse rate. The Pro-form 765i interactive trainer treadmill also offers a cooling fan, and a holder for a water bottle or other accessories.

You can keep an eye on your heart health during your workout as well, not only by keeping a grip on the treadmill’s EKG heart rate monitor pulse sensors, but also with its two pulse-regulator workouts. These handy preprogrammed regimens determine the optimum heart rate and pulse for your individual workout and then adjust the incline and speed of the treadmill to keep you always in your pulse safety zone.

They surveyed almost 15,000 people and determined that only half of those who include exercise as part of their program incorporate enough exercise to be effective. So, maybe the half that wasn’t exercising enough is doing it at higher intensity levels for those shorter exercise sessions. Then it’s plenty effective.

I doubt the subjects used in the study were doing high intensity training, but it’s what you should consider doing. Especially if you have a tight schedule and not a lot of time to exercise, it’s a great solution. 20-30 minutes is all it will take.

Guess what one of the greatest intensity factors is when it comes to strength training? There are a few key ones, but momentary muscle failure is at the top of the list.

This means pushing the muscle to the point where another repetition cannot be completed in good form. Then once you’re done with that muscle group, you move to the next one. And the best way to do this is by lifting slow!

The great thing about it is that you can pick any exercise in your gym to do it with. Or you can even do it with your own bodyweight using exercises like pushups and do it from the convenience of your living room.

I’ve recently begun training some new clients and so they’ve done High Intensity Training (H.I.T.) a few times. One of them is a seasoned exerciser and told me this morning that he’s not felt his muscles work this way before. He loves the challenge of pushing himself during a workout as well as how it saves him so much time.

According to one of the guru’s of strength training, Wayne Westcott PhD, “The primary intent of high-intensity strength training is to fatigue additional muscle fibers during a more demanding exercise set. Based on the research studies reviewed, it appears that one good set of resistance exercise is as effective as two or three sets for providing a sufficient strength stimulus and producing significant strength gains.”

If you’re a busy professional and don’t have a lot of extra time to spend exercising then increasing the intensity of your strength training is a great solution to bring you excellent strength gains in half the time.

Relieving Stress with Exercise

Research has proven that relieving stress with exercise is one of the best ways to improve your overall health. Regular exercise provides an amazing array of anti-stress benefits to the human body — including reduced muscle tension, improved cardiovascular functioning, increased blood oxygen levels, and reduced cholesterol and triglyceride levels, just to name a few.

Relieving stress with exercise also, of course, burns calories and helps to reduce body fat. Since most other anti-stress ‘remedies’ (especially pharmaceutical drugs, alcohol, and overeating) cause you to gain weight it’s obvious that exercise is the best option.

Control Cortisol, Lose Weight

But, besides burning calories, there’s another reason relieving stress with exercise helps you to reduce body fat. Exercise produces chemicals that help to lower cortisol production. Cortisol is a “stress hormone” that has gotten a lot of press lately because many new diet products claim to block it.

While the effectiveness of these products has yet to be proven, there is little doubt that controlling cortisol levels is a very important factor in weight loss and long-term weight control — not to mention optimal health and fitness. Relieving stress with exercise is an absolutely fool-proof way to lower cortisol in the body.

Elevated cortisol levels are fully or partially responsible for everything from sugar and carb cravings to overeating to low energy levels… and more. Experts also believe that high cortisol production increases the amount of “toxic fat” stored on your body — this is the abdominal fat that may trigger cardiovascular disease and inflammation-related health problems.

Summary

Relieving stress with exercise is, without a doubt, the best way to deal with your physical and mental tension. Not only will regular exercise reduce stress levels, it will also help you control how much cortisol your body produces. This, in turn, will help you to avoid food cravings, reduce dangerous abdominal fat, and basically feel much better. So, next time you feel stressed out, get up, get out, and start relieving stress with exercise!

Health insurance is a kind of protection that provides payment of benefits for covered sickness or injury. Included in health insurance are various types of insurance such as accident insurance, disability income insurance, medical expense insurance, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance.

Before sign the health insurance policy make sure that you have read thoroughly the benefit’s section. Take note of any health care service that is not covered by your health insurance policy. Also, pay specific attention to how the health insurance policy is worded. Sometimes, health insurance companies hide the health insurance coverage exclusions within the definitions of words.

For instance, a health insurance company may define the term ‘emergency’ as anything that is life threatening condition that cannot be reasonably treated by a primary care physician. Whereas, your definition of ‘emergency’ may be anything that requires quick medical attention.

Clearly, there is conflict for the two definitions. If you find yourself in an emergency situation where you incur a broker arm, for instance, your insurance company may deny coverage for emergency room treatment of a broken arm for the reason that the broken arm does not fall under the life threatening category.

Therefore, you should read over carefully the health insurance policy definitions, paying close attention to the seven key words:

medical emergency medically necessary accidental injury experimental or investigational pre certification pre-existing condition, and reasonable and customary

These words and any words that are open to interpretation should be regarded with wariness. Find out how your health insurance company defines each of these.

Finally, find the section describing the procedures you must follow in order for your insurance company to reimburse you. These policy conditions or prerequisites are typically worded in a positive tone. Read through each condition carefully, make notes and call your health insurance company with any questions.

You should also compare health insurance contracts before you sign one. In order to compare exclusions, take two policy contracts and find the exclusions sections. If you want to compare a number of health insurance contracts then you could use an online service.

After you obtain your free quote for the health coverage you desire, apply for it online, and you’ll obtain all the information that you’ll need to compare exclusions of each health insurance policy (though sometimes this will require more research.)

If you really want to create energy, enthusiasm, and positive forward momentum in your life then start to move your body and breathe deeply each day with focus each day and you will begin to discover that which I am talking about.

All the system in your body use energy. Pretty much everyone knows this and it often leads people to miss the boat entirely when it comes to getting themselves motivated, fit, and full of zest for life.

Of course the bodies systems use energy.

But guess what?

They CREATE IT as well!

People routinely forget this and it can lead to gross under training or simply performing the incorrect routines for that which they are after.

If you will allow me to get a little scientific for a moment oxygen in the air has a very positive charge (imagine the positive pole of a magnet). Your bodily tissues and water therein act like the negative pole of a magnet.

Now, for those of you who are scientific you will know what this means!

Wherever you have a positive and negative pole there is the potential for ENERGY to be created!

So if you wish to feel more energised through exercise go against the grain a little and use your breath and body each day to access this energy and buoyant life force within you.

Harness your breathing and body in ways that energise and that you can do each day without having to take days off to recover. Your physical activity should be uplifting and enhance you physically AND mentally.

Consider this the next time you wonder why your training is not providing you with the fulfilling and rejuvenating experience you think it should be!

© Tim Webb 2005

When you think about exercising, have you ever wondered how you can fit it into your already busy day? That is what always crosses my mind…where do I work it in? Even a 30 minutes a few times a week sounds like a lot of time to spare when dinner needs to be cooked and the house needs to be cleaned, not to mention the errands to run and the mandatory work functions to attend.

One of my coworkers, due to advice from her doctor, began to work her recommended dose of exercise into her daily routine successfully by making small shifts to her daily life. It makes sense – especially to some of us that are pressed for time already. Here is how it all began for her.

The first thing that my coworker bought was a pedometer. She wore it everyday and made it her goal to get in 8,000 steps each day. Instead of parking by the front door to the office, she would park at the other end of the parking lot. You’ve got the idea; instead of taking the elevator, she climbed the stairs. When she left for lunch, she would go three or four times as far as what she would have normally walked in a day – and work was just the start. When she went to the mall, the grocery store or any errand, she made it a point to park further away and get a little walking in.

By making this change, she was starting to lose weight and get into the habit of more physical activity by essentially changing very little of her daily routine. After watching her lead, I began to adopt some of her ideas myself. Working in the yard became less of a chore, and more of a way to get exercise – just like carrying in the groceries, or running down into the basement for something. Before, I would try to make as few trips as possible (saving my loads to the basement to be efficient), but now I am now trying to make as many as I can…and I can attest that it does make a difference!

If you are not fond of, or have time of physical activity – know that you don’t have to make a change in the routine of your life to gain a healthy lifestyle; keep your routine with a few small modifications and you are sure to get in your exercise and get on the pat h to superb health.

Whether it’s Atkins, the South Beach or some other low-carb plan, as many as 30 million Americans are following a low-carb diet.

Advocates contend that the high amount of carbohydrates in our diet has led to increasing problems with obesity, diabetes, and other health problems. Critics, on the other hand, attribute obesity and related health problems to over-consumption of calories from any source, and lack of physical activity. Critics also express concern that the lack of grains, fruits, and vegetables in low-carbohydrate diets may lead to deficiencies of some key nutrients, including fiber, vitamin C, folic acid, and several minerals.

Any diet, weather low or high in carbohydrate, can produce significant weight loss during the initial stages of the diet. But remember, the key to successful dieting is in being able to lose the weight permanently. Put another way, what does the scale show a year after going off the diet?

Let’s see if we can debunk some of the mystery about low-carb diets. Below, is a listing of some relevant points taken from recent studies and scientific literature. Please note there may be insufficient information available to answer all questions.

- Differences Between Low-Carb Diets

There are many popular diets designed to lower carbohydrate consumption. Reducing total carbohydrate in the diet means that protein and fat will represent a proportionately greater amount of the total caloric intake.

Atkins and Protein Power diets restrict carbohydrate to a point where the body becomes ketogenic. Other low-carb diets like the Zone and Life Without Bread are less restrictive. Some, like Sugar Busters claim to eliminate only sugars and foods that elevate blood sugar levels excessively.

- What We Know about Low-Carb Diets

Almost all of the studies to date have been small with a wide variety of research objectives. Carbohydrate, caloric intake, diet duration and participant characteristics varied greatly. Most of the studies to date have two things in common: None of the studies had participants with a mean age over 53 and none of the controlled studies lasted longer than 90 days.

Information on older adults and long-term results are scarce. Many diet studies fail to monitor the amount of exercise, and therefore caloric expenditure, while participants are dieting. This helps to explain discrepancies between studies.

The weight loss on low-carb diets is a function of caloric restriction and diet duration, and not with reduced carbohydrate intake. This finding suggests that if you want to lose weight, you should eat fewer calories and do so over a long time period.

Little evidence exists on the long-range safety of low-carb diets. Despite the medical community concerns, no short-term adverse effects have been found on cholesterol, glucose, insulin and blood-pressure levels among participants on the diets. But, adverse effects may not show up because of the short period of the studies. Researchers note that losing weight typically leads to an improvement in these levels anyway, and this may offset an increase caused by a high fat diet. The long range weight change for low-carb and other types of diets is similar.

Most low-carb diets cause ketosis. Some of the potential consequences are nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and confusion. During the initial phase of low-carb dieting some fatigue and constipation may be encountered. Generally, these symptoms dissipate quickly. Ketosis may also give the breath a fruity odor, somewhat like nail-polish remover (acetone).

Low-carb diets do not enable the consumption of more calories than other kinds of diets, as has been often reported. A calorie is a calorie and it doesn’t matter weather they come from carbohydrates or fat. Study discrepancies are likely the result of uncontrolled circumstances; i.e. diet participants that cheat on calorie consumption, calories burned during exercise, or any number of other factors. The drop-out rate for strict (i.e. less than 40 grams of CHO/day) low-carb diets is relatively high.

What Should You Do? – There are 3 important points I would like to re-emphasize:

- The long-range success rate for low-carb and other types of diets is similar.

- Despite their popularity, little information exists on the long-term efficacy and safety of low-carbohydrate diets.

- Strict low-carb diets are usually not sustainable as a normal way of eating. Boredom usually overcomes willpower.

It is obvious after reviewing the topic, that more, well-designed and controlled studies are needed. There just isn’t a lot of good information available, especially concerning long-range effects. Strict low-carb diets produce ketosis which is an abnormal and potentially stressful metabolic state. Under some circumstances this might cause health related complications.

The diet you choose should be a blueprint for a lifetime of better eating, not just a quick weight loss plan to reach your weight goal. If you can’t see yourself eating the prescribed foods longer than a few days or a week, then chances are it’s not the right diet. To this end, following a moderately low fat diet with a healthy balance of fat, protein, carbohydrate and other nutrients is beneficial.

If you do decide to follow a low-carb plan, remember that certain dietary fats are associated with reduction of disease. Foods high in unsaturated fats that are free of trans-fatty acids such as olive oil, fish, flaxseeds, and nuts are preferred to fats from animal origins.

Even promoters of the Atkins diet now say people on their plan should limit the amount of red meat and saturated fat they eat. Atkins representatives are telling health professionals that only 20 percent of a dieter’s calories should come from saturated fat (i.e. meat, cheese, butter). This change comes as Atkins faces competition from other popular low-carb diets that call for less saturated fat, such as the South Beach diet plan. Low-carb dieting should not be considered as a license to gorge on red meat!

Another alternative to “strict” low-carb dieting would be to give up some of the bad carbohydrate foods but not “throw out the baby with the bath water”. In other words, foods high in processed sugar, snacks, and white bread would be avoided, but foods high in complex carbohydrates such as fruit, potatoes and whole grains, retained.