Fit Tip: What to Eat Before & After a Workout.

Hi everyone, it’s Allison here! When it comes to eating healthy and working out, I rarely fall off the bandwagon. Some of my favorite things in life are leafy salads, green tea, sweaty spin classes and hot yoga. And I rarely miss my 6am workout before heading into the LC offices during the week. But despite being a bit of a health nut, there is one habit I have yet to break…

I’ve never been one to eat before a workout. In fact, I usually just have a few sips of coffee then head straight to the gym. Yes, I know this isn’t the best habit, but I didn’t know just how bad it was until I recently did some research. According to Livestrong, you can maximize your workout as well as your energy throughout the day if you eat the right foods pre sweat sesh. Making sure our bodies get enough nutrients before and after a workout actually helps to keep our immune systems functioning and our blood sugar levels more stabilized throughout the day. Basically, this means that if you’re like me and you tend to exercise on an empty stomach, you’re not fueling your body correctly.

I talked to Lauren’s trainer, Jarett Del Bene, who gave me some great tips to try and foods to eat before and after a workout. Here’s what he recommended…

• If you workout in the morning…“You need to eat within 30 minutes of waking up so you can jump-start your metabolism.” Try having a few bites of oatmeal or half a banana—having something is your system is better than nothing.
• If you workout in the afternoon…“Eat a light snack if you are hungry before your workout.” Jarett recommends power foods like a small bowl of oatmeal, a banana, apple slices with peanut butter or muscle milk.
• After your workout…
  “Eat within 30 minutes after your workout so your body doesn’t start burning muscle.” It’s important to fuel your body with some form of protein, so grab a handful or almonds or whip up a protein shake. Then, eat small meals every 3 hours throughout. Even If you’re not hungry, you should at least have a small snack. This will prevent you from waiting too long to eat and then overeating because you feel starving.

Livestrong also recommends avoiding foods that are high in fat and anything spicy before working out to avoid feeling sluggish and getting an upset stomach. It’s also extremely important to make sure you are hydrated before you hit the gym. Try to drink two to three cups of water a few hours before you workout and remember to bring your water bottle with you. Then hydrate throughout the day to replace all the H20 you lost while sweating it out.

No matter how you look at it, you should be eating and working out to feel healthy and good about yourself. Take a hint from this Beauty Note post and remember that being healthy is beautiful.

http://laurenconrad.com/blog/2013/01/fit-tip-what-to-eat-before-after-a-workout/

The Best Time to Eat Carbs.

The types of carbohydrates you choose are important, yes, but when you eat them matters, too.

Low-carb diets have always been controversial: some experts say they're too high in saturated fat and therefore bad for your heart, while other research suggests that reducing starchy and sugary carbohydrates could not only boost weight loss, but actually reduce your risk of heart disease. 

One thing all diet pros seem to agree on, however, is that certain types of carbs are no good, no matter what. Science shows that eating added sugar and processed grains like white flour, specifically, can spike your blood sugar and promote fat storage. But a lesser-known carb fact? When you choose to eat carbohydrates can also alter how your body responds to them.

Here, Lose Weight Here authors Jade Teta, ND, and Keoni Teta, ND, founders of Metabolic Effect, sharefour carb-timing strategies that can help you reach your weight-loss goals:

Eating All Carbs Post-Workout
Carbohydrates are a major stimulator of the muscle-building and fat-storing hormone insulin. After a workout is a great time to include carbs because exercise is an insulin mimicker. Just the act of contracting your muscles increases the number of glucose receptors on muscle cells. This is the same thing insulin does.

So eating most of your starch after a workout allows for increased glucose uptake by muscles, which increases glycogen storage and muscle protein synthesis without much insulin. This accentuates the muscle-building impact of insulin and deemphasizes its fat-storing effects. Translation: It’s the best of all worlds. Do keep in mind, though, that overloading on carbs post-workout immediately slows down fat burning.

Eating All Carbs in the Morning
Insulin sensitivity is highest in the morning, after your overnight fast, and lowest in the evening, after a full day of meals. This means that generally, there is less negative impact from eating starch in the morning compared with the evening. This morning approach might also cause some adjustments to your leptin curve, making it peak in the early evening instead of the middle of the night which canhave benefits in reducing hunger in the evening (leptin is the hunger hormone that makes you feel full and satisfied). 

If you find you are ravenous at night, first increase your protein intake. If that doesn’t work, try this approach with your carbs. The morning strategy works well if you prefer a morning workout or if you’re dragging during the day. It also works if you wake up craving pastries and coffee.

Eating Carbs When You Crave Them
If there is a particular time of the day you tend to crave starchy foods, there are two strategies to try. The first is to have your carbohydrates before that time -- to beat the carb craving, essentially. For example, let’s say you crave sweets or bread at 3:00 p.m. almost every afternoon. Ask yourself about your meal at lunch: Did you skip carbs or overload on them? This will tell you a lot about an approach that can work for you. 

Perhaps you need to trade in the gigantic burrito for a salad at lunch. Or perhaps you want to add a bit of starch to your tossed salad and chicken breast. Or maybe you want to save your daily carb allotment for that late afternoon snack so you can relax and attack the craving head-on.

Eating Carbs at Night
Carbohydrate intake is believed to trigger the release of serotonin, a relaxing brain chemical that can aid sleep, in the brain, though the discussion on this topic has sparked some controversy. Essentially, insulin pushes most other amino acids into the tissues, leaving tryptophan with less competition to cross the blood-brain barrier and raising serotonin in the process.

Eating starches at night can also lower cortisol and catecholamine levels, which can be elevated at night in people who experience insomnia. This strategy also works well for those who work out in the evening and/or crave starch at night. It might also help curb cravings the next morning.

http://www.fitbie.com/lose-weight/carb-timing-tips-weight-loss?ocid=Soc_Pinterest_LoseWeight_CarbTimingTipsWeightLoss#_a5y_p=3486117

Do healthy lifestyle workplace programs benefit employees and employers equally?

The recent boom in work-related wellness programs has swept across the nation in terms of major corporations embracing healthy lifestyle campaigns in order to reduce employee costs and increase company profits. From including more exercise equipment and rooms, to improving dining conditions, to group fitness activities, corporations like PepsiCo, Hershey and others have embraced this idea for change and improving company morale. Recently, through the publication of a RAND study, this movement has been called into question, forcing businesses to reevaluate just how much their new “healthy lifestyle campaigns” are either helping or hurting the company as a whole.

RAND recently released the study in the January issue of the journal of Health Affairs, stating that those who encourage companies and workers to adopt healthier lifestyles “may not reduce health costs or lead to lower net savings.” This seemed surprising to companies who have long-thought that improving the healthiness of its environment would automatically translate to at least some positive cost-saving results; however, apparently things are not that simple. The study which the comment came from was surveying PepsiCo and its wellness program for seven years. The program of PepsiCo’s is known as the Healthy Living wellness program, which includes health risk assessment, on-site wellness program and screenings, a “complex care” manager and a nurse advice phone line.

“Workplace wellness programs have the potential to reduce health risks and to delay or avoid the onset of chronic diseases as well as to reduce health care cost in employees with manifest chronic disease,” researchers wrote.  “But employers and policy makers should not take for granted that the lifestyle management component of such programs can reduce health care costs or even lead to net savings.”

Lifestyle management can be a very vague terms when actually analyzing the suite of services which can compose said program, however Pepsi’s was specific in nature. The program included weight and nutrition management, fitness, stress management and smoking cessation. These programs were reported to not have impacted total costs like disease management which had more aggressive costs due to needing more aggressive forms of intervention, like regular meetings with nurses and healthcare providers.

Researchers are still positive that the study is helpful to increase numbers of companies actually offering these programs, because they do improve quality of the workplace and life of the employee. Pepsi’s wellness program saved nearly $4 in healthcare costs for every $1 the company invested in its efforts to improve overall wellness. Researchers also reported that the company’s disease management program lef to a 29 percent reduction in hospital admissions— which does save money after all.

“The PepsiCo program provides a substantial return for the investment made in helping employees manage chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease,” said RAND natural scientist Dr. Soeren Mattke, a lead author of the study for the nonprofit organization known for its health research. The study was funded by PepsiCo.

About half of U.S. employers with at least 50 employees offered a wellness program while more than 90 percent of companies with more than 50,000 employees offered a wellness component, according to an earlier RAND study.

http://www.healthcareglobal.com/hospitals/678/Do-healthy-lifestyle-workplace-programs-benefit-employees-and-employers-equally

Four Strategies for Promoting Healthy Lifestyles in Your Practice.

When practices promote fitness as the treatment of choice for all patients, good things happen.

Promoting healthy lifestyles is a challenge for many primary care practices. Although most patients understand the importance of physical activity and healthy eating, many seem unable to change their unhealthy behaviors to reduce weight and improve chronic conditions. Medications often take a predominant role in the treatment of these patients, even though medications alone are rarely completely effective for chronic conditions, and lifestyle changes have been shown to significantly reduce morbidity and mortality rates for most chronic diseases.1 In addition, patients can feel embarrassed and ashamed of their situations, and physicians can feel pressed for time, causing them to avoid the very dialogue they need to embrace in order to facilitate a breakthrough in improved health.

There is a better way.

Overview of the AIM-HI program

The Americans in Motion-Healthy Interventions (AIM-HI) research study,2 conducted by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) National Research Network and the AAFP Americans In Motion program, involved 21 practices whose clinicians and office staff were encouraged to use AIM-HI strategies and educational tools, discussed below, to improve their personal fitness levels and to promote fitness as the “treatment of choice” for all patients. Fitness was defined using three domains – physical activity, healthy eating and emotional well-being. The research found improvements in three areas:

SELF-REPORTED EATING BEHAVIORS

• 41.8 percent of patients reported an increase of at least one-half serving of healthy foods per week at 10 months.
• 44.8 percent of patients reported a decrease of at least one-half serving of unhealthy foods per week at 10 months.

SELF-REPORTED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

• The number of patients who reported physical activity of at least 20 minutes per day, three days per week increased by 10 percent from baseline to four months.
• The number of patients who reported physical activity of at least 20 minutes per day three days per week increased by 10.1 percent from baseline to 10 months. (While this is only a slight increase over the previous measure, it shows that the improvements in physical activity seen at four months were maintained at 10 months.)

TOTAL BODY WEIGHT

• 11.8 percent of patients lost 10 pounds or more from baseline to 4 months.
• 17.8 percent of patients lost 10 pounds or more from baseline to 10 months.

All data are from patients who completed 10-month research visits. Of the 610 patients enrolled in the study, 62 percent remained in the study from baseline to 10 months.

The four strategies

The AIM-HI approach to fitness promotion involves the following strategies.

1. Create a healthy office. The first step in fostering a healthy office culture is encouraging family physicians to be fitness role models. Most patients already view their personal physician as a role model, and they perceive physicians who practice healthy personal behaviors as more credible and better able to motivate them to make healthy lifestyle choices.3 These physicians are also more likely to provide fitness counseling to their patients.4

Getting physicians involved raises personal awareness of fitness issues among office staff as well and encourages all members of the practice to “walk the talk,” make simple changes in their own lives and share their personal journeys with patients. As physicians and staff members meet personal fitness goals and incorporate the AIM-HI concepts and tools, changes become evident to patients.

It can be helpful to identify a champion to lead these efforts in your practice. That person can facilitate an initial staff meeting to express the importance of personal fitness and the desire to improve fitness among physicians, staff and patients. Since all members of the practice will need to buy into the program, use a collaborative process. Your practice may want to form a committee to assist the champion in launching and establishing this change.

Several practices in the research group issued staff challenges and created support teams to kick off the program. They also created fitness success posters highlighting staff members who had achieved significant milestones in reaching fitness goals, such as getting off medications, reducing blood pressure and glucose levels, losing weight and improving emotional well-being. Posters were placed strategically throughout the clinic to stimulate healthy internal competition and alert patients to the new fitness culture.

2. Make needed process changes. Conduct a brief, informal assessment of your practice by asking yourself the following questions:

• How does your practice environment currently promote fitness (physical activity, healthy eating and emotional well-being)? Identify challenges you face, and imagine what it might look like if your clinic were successfully doing everything it could do to promote fitness.
• What roles and responsibilities do staff members have in promoting fitness? This must be a team effort, not merely a physician responsibility. For example, front-desk staff can ask patients to complete a fitness inventory. The nurse or medical assistant can calculate BMI, measure waist circumference, review the fitness inventory and reinforce fitness concepts before the physician enters the exam room. After the exam, a staff member might return to the room to answer questions, help with goal setting or provide patient education. (For patient handouts on a variety of health-related issues, visithttp://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/healthy.html.)
• What tools or systems do you need to implement to support your efforts? Your practice will likely need to make process changes such as adding BMI and waist circumference to routine vital sign measurements, incorporating a fitness inventory into periodic screenings, displaying fitness-related patient education materials in your reception area and exam rooms, and adding prompts or reminders for addressing fitness with patients.

3. Get patients involved. To initiate fit-ness conversations with patients, family physicians in the research study found it helpful to capitalize on teachable moments, such as poor laboratory results, a recent diagnosis of chronic illness, new patient visits, annual visits and well-child exams. They also found that switching from an advice-giving communication style to a more patient-centered, conversational style elicited a more receptive response from patients. Physicians in the study also used motivational interviewing techniques such as the following:

• Open-ended questions – e.g., “How are you feeling about your health these days?”
• Affirmation – e.g., “You may not be at your goal yet, but look at how far you've come.”
• Reflective listening – e.g., “It sounds as though you don't feel confident about making this change but you do want to change.”
• Summaries – e.g., “Let me summarize what we've just talked about.”

These techniques have proven effective to motivate healthy behavior change in patients.5,6 (Editor's note: Look for an article on motivational interviewing in the May/June issue of FPM, and find more information at http://motivationalinterview.net.)

When initiating fitness conversations with patients, the first objective is to assess their current levels of activity, healthy eating and emotional well-being and their readiness to change. Study results indicated that addressing each domain separately is more manageable and less overwhelming to patients. An assessment like the one shown below can be helpful.

The next step is to help patients set small, reasonable goals. To address the first domain of fitness, physical activity, goals do not need to involve joining a rigorous exercise program at an expensive gym or developing an athletic, muscle-bulging body or a model's figure. Dispel these concepts, and emphasize the term “physical activity” versus “exercise,” as the latter often is attached to ideas of unattainable body physiques and unachievable goals.

Rarely does lecturing patients on the importance of engaging in 30 to 60 minutes of uninterrupted physical activity every day result in long-term health behavior change.7 Instead, ask patients what they think they could do for just five to 10 minutes per day to improve their physical activity. If the patient is leading a sedentary lifestyle, taking one flight of stairs instead of the elevator, parking the car at the far end of the lot to increase steps, or walking the dog briskly can all be part of increasing physical activity. The idea is to build confidence and capacity, while avoiding injury or a sense of failure. Patients should feel positive about the goals they have selected. Ask them how confident they are in their ability to complete each goal. If their confidence is high, write the goal on a fitness prescriptionfor the patient to take home, and note it in the patient's record so you can ask about it at future visits. If their confidence is low, work with them to select a more doable goal.

The second fitness domain is healthy eating, which involves more than just “good” dietary nutrition. Patients also need to understand the thought processes associated with their eating habits, and many will need to restore their physiological identification of hunger and learn to respond appropriately to it. In the AIM-HI program, patients were encouraged to think about why they were eating and to eat only when they were hungry. This non-diet approach allows patients to let go of rigid diet rules or strict weight-reduction diets that seldom work in the long run.8

Emotional well-being is the third fitness domain. Because physical activity and healthy eating are often tied to patients' emotional health, addressing this domain can often jump-start their motivation to tackle the others. Some family physicians may feel uncomfortable questioning patients about their emotional well-being. However, failure to do so could be a missed opportunity to inspire healthy behavior changes. Ask patients if they are feeling sadness, stress or anxiety, and help them understand possible causes, such as a broken relationship, too many activities or even a lack of sleep. Share strategies for coping, such as learning to express feelings in appropriate ways, talking to a close friend, counselor or religious adviser, using relaxation methods and taking time for self-care.

Another way to address emotional well-being is through a food and activity journal in which patients record what they eat each day and how they feel. This can help patients understand how their emotions play a part in what they eat, and it can teach them not to reach for food in order to deal with stress or other emotions. Patients should also be encouraged to set small, achievable goals related to their emotional well-being, such as spending five minutes each morning in prayer or meditation or having lunch with a friend once a week.

http://www.aafp.org/fpm/2011/0300/p16.html

FAT is the key to living longer: Previous diet advice was WRONG, say experts.

A DIET of “real food” containing plenty of natural fat could be the key to living a long and healthy life.

Scientists advise eating whole foods not low fat products

Families have been told for three decades to cut their risk of heart disease by avoiding fatty foods like meat, cheese and cream.

But now scientists say the advice followed flawed trials – none had involved female patients – and “should never have been introduced”.

There is no direct link between fat intake and death from heart disease, they say.

Writing in the British Medical Journal today, lead researcher Zoe Harcombe says: “If I were in charge of public health policy I would have three words (of advice), eat real food.”

Heart specialists now say eating foods with natural fat such as nuts and fish could actually protect against cardiovascular disease.

They say families should instead shun low-fat foods which are often packed with sugar and partly responsible for a spike in obesity rates.

Researchers say existing diet advice followed tests on a small sample of unhealthy men from decades ago, none of which involved women.

Responding to the British Medical Journal report, London-based consultant cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra said: “Current dietary guidelines are not helping the obesity problem and, to some degree, are contributing to it.

When the world was commanded to cut fat out, the food industry switched to ‘tasty’ sugar to bulk out its products

Tam Fry

“I tell my own patients to eat whole foods and consume more fats from olive oil, nuts and fish, for which there is good evidence heart attack and stroke are reduced.

"My advice would be to avoid anything that is ‘low fat’, which is often loaded with sugar, and processed foods.”

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, added: “The real tragedy with fat was that when the world was commanded to cut it out, the food industry switched to ‘tasty’ sugar to bulk out its products. By doing so it truly fostered the roots of today’s obesity epidemic.”

The BMJ study was conducted by researchers from the University of the West of Scotland and American cardiovascular scientist Dr James DiNicolantonio.

They looked at trials between 1965 and 1978 which examined the effect of fat intake on heart health.

Researcher Zoe Harcombe said: “The original randomised controlled trials did not find any relationship between dietary fat intake and deaths from coronary heart disease. The present review concludes that dietary advice not merely needs review – it should not have been introduced.”

Guidelines on fat intake were introduced in the 1980s. They currently suggest limiting overall fat consumption to 30 per cent of energy intake, and saturated fat to 10 per cent.

Britain’s obesity rate in 1972 was 2.7 per cent but now it has rocketed to 25 per cent of adults.

Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England, said: “This paper is not critical of current advice on saturated fats but suggests the advice was introduced prematurely in the 1980s.”

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/557220/Avoid-low-fat-products-packed-sugar-eat-natural-fat-instead

10 Simple Exercises That Will Strengthen Your Willpower!

“Is there a way to strengthen someone’s willpower?”

That was the question on researchers' minds as they learned more about how the science behind this human virtue. Through many tests, they had discovered thatwillpower is like a muscle - it gets tired from overuse and requires food to replenish.

So, if it does act like a muscle, can it also be strengthened?

After several studies, we have our answer! With the right practice, willpower can be strengthened just like any other muscle in the body.

Fair warning: like all practice, these workouts can be challenging. After all, you will be exerting your willpower in the same way that you would exert your legs on a run. Butthey are scientifically proven to get you results. 

So although it will be difficult in the short-term, eventually it will be easier to say no to temptations, make it to the gym and stick with your long-term goals!

1.    10 MINUTES OF MEDITATION

Meditation will give you the fastest results of all of the willpower workouts listed. Bymeditating you are training the brain to focus and resist the urge to wander. Research shows that after just 2-3 days of practicing meditation for 10 minutes, your brain will be able to focus better, you will have more energy, and you will be less stressed. [1]

To get started with 10 minutes of meditation, check out this article.  It will provide you with all of the benefits of mediation as well as simple exercise designed specifically for beginners.

2.    WORK ON YOUR POSTURE

When testing if willpower could be strengthened, researchers asked a group of participants to work on their posture for a 2-week period. Every time they caught themselves slouching, they were to correct themselves by sitting up straight. This simple practice vastly improved their perseverance on various willpower tests like this one. [2]

To get started, simply correct your posture every time you catch yourself slouching at work or at home. It sounds extremely simple, but it takes willpower to sit up straight. Every time you do, you’re essentially doing “one rep” with your willpower muscle.

3.    KEEP A FOOD DIARY 

The same study also found that those who kept a food diary improved their willpower. Most of us don’t log all of the food we eat, so it takes willpower to keep track of it all. Any similar logging of information will also work, but I recommend a food diary because of all of its benefits listed here. [2]

To get started, I recommend downloading the MyFitnessPal App. It’s a simple food diary app that has a huge database of foods and nutrition information. Just keep the diary for 2 weeks, and it will increase your ability to resist temptations!

4.    USE YOUR OPPOSITE HAND 

Using the same methodology as with posture, researchers conducted further studies that tested other corrective actions. One that worked particularly well was to use your opposite hand. Your brain is wired to use your dominant hand, so it takes willpower to use the opposite. [3]

To get started, select a chunk of the day to use your opposite hand. It doesn’t need to be any more than an hour in order to get results. And from personal experience, if you aim for more than an hour, you will unnecessarily tire out your willpower muscle.

5.    CORRECT YOUR SPEECH

Another test that the researchers conducted was to change subjects’ natural speech. This includes resisting the urge to use swear words, or to say “hello” instead of “hey”. Again, it takes willpower to consciously go against your instincts. It doesn’t matter how you correct your speech, as long as you change your natural speech habits. [3]

To get started, select a chunk of the day to practice and choose the words you will change. Personally, I tried not using contractions (using “do not” instead of “don’t”, etc.) during work hours and it worked very well. Like all exercises listed above, doing this for just 2 weeks can vastly improve your willpower!

6. CREATE AND MEET SELF-IMPOSED DEADLINES 

Anyone who remembers their college days, remembers what it was like cramming for a test or doing a last minute paper. Your willpower gets taxed as you try to tune out distractions and become hyper-productive. Using this same principle, researchers found that by creating self-imposed deadlines you can work your willpower in the same way.

To get started, simply pick a task on your to-do list that you may have been putting off. Set a deadline for accomplishing it, and make sure you adhere to it. The participants who followed this process for 2 weeks not only got their old to-dos done, but also improved their diets, exercised more, and cut back on cigarettes and alcohol. [3] 

7. KEEP TRACK OF YOUR SPENDING

In the same way most of us don’t track the food that we eat, many of us don’t track our spending either. Even if you don’t cut back on spending – which would also be a willpower workout – researchers found that simply keeping track of where your money went will improve your willpower. [4] 

To get stated, try using a budgeting app like Mint. Mint can connect to your bank account, credit cards, etc. and automatically track your purchases. By simply reviewing this on a regular basis, you will see increases in your focus and ability to resist unrelated temptations like sweets.

8. SQUEEZE A HANDGRIP

For the truly determined who want to increase their perseverance, you can squeeze a handgrip until exhaustion. If you’ve ever squeezed one before, you know that it gives you a deep forearm burn. So it takes willpower to keep squeezing. [5]

To get started, simply get a handgrip like this one, and squeeze it with each hand until you’re exhausted. Willing yourself to continue squeezing even when it hurts will increase your perseverance on other challenging tasks.

9. CARRY AROUND SOMETHING TEMPTING

Again, for the truly determined out there, you can increase your ability to say "no" by carrying around something tempting with you all day. Researchers tried this with participants by teaching them how to resist cravings, then giving them a Hershey’s Kiss to carry around with them. Those who resisted the Kiss were much more capable of resisting other temptations in their lives as well! [6]

To get started, first learn how to resist a craving. This will be hard, so your will want to know how to deal with the craving. Then carry something small but tempting with you.It doesn’t need to be for an entire day, but for long enough that you will be truly tempted. By consistently saying "no", you will increase your ability to resist other temptations and ignore distractions!

10. BE MORE CONSCIOUS OF YOUR AUTOMATIC DECISIONS

A final exercise is to simply be more mindful of your decisions throughout the day. We are often so lost in thought, that our actions become automatic. Taking time to think about why you are making your daily decisions will increase your ability to focus and resist temptations. [3]

To get started, try to catch yourself in an automatic behavior and ask yourself why you are doing it. This may be questioning why you are eating cereal instead of eggs for breakfast, or it may be questioning why exactly you put 2 sugars in your coffee. Any way you can think consciously about a typical automatic behavior will increase your focus and self-control.

CONCLUSION

Like all muscles in the body, willpower can be strengthened with the right practice. Above you will find 10 practical and effective ways to strengthen your self-control, focus and perseverance. Do not try to do all 10 at once.

Think about training your willpower muscle like training for a marathon. Your first training run wouldn’t be the full 26 miles or even close to that. You would start small and gradually build up as your muscles got stronger. So choose just 1 of these workouts to add to your daily routine.

Determine which workout seems practical and effective for the goal you want to achieve and get to work. By simply following the steps laid out, you will be well on your way to becoming more mentally strong!

http://www.willpowered.co/learn/strengthen-your-willpower?utm_source=Outbrain&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=Strengthen%20Your%20Willpower

Are you looking for ways to be healthier? Here are some ways to do it!

 
 
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More and more research is showing that the key to lifelong good health is what experts call “lifestyle medicine” — making simple changes in diet, exercise and stress management. To help you turn that knowledge into results, we’ve put together this manageable list of health and wellness action steps.

We asked three experts — a naturopathic physician, a nutritionist, and a personal trainer — to tell us the top five simple-but-significant lifestyle-medicine changes they recommend.

Besides giving you three different takes on how to pick your health battles, this list gives you choices you can make without being whisked off to a reality-show fat farm — or buying a second freezer for those calorie-controlled, pre-portioned frozen meals.

1. Think positive and focus on gratitude

Research shows a healthy positive attitude helps build a healthier immune system and boosts overall health. Your body believes what you think, so focus on the positive.

2. Eat your vegetables

Shoot for five servings of vegetables a day — raw, steamed, or stir-fried. A diet high in vegetables is associated with a reduced risk of developing cancers of the lung, colon, breast, cervix, esophagus, stomach, bladder, pancreas and ovary. And many of the most powerful phytonutrients are the ones with the boldest colors — such as broccoli, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, grapes and leafy greens.

3. Set a “5-meal ideal”

What, when and how much you eat can keep both your metabolism and your energy levels steadily elevated, so you’ll have more all-day energy. A "5 meal ideal" will help you manage your weight, keep your cool, maintain your focus and avoid cravings.

4. Exercise daily 

Did you know that daily exercise can reduce all of the biomarkers of aging? This includes improving eyesight, normalizing blood pressure, improving lean muscle, lowering cholesterol and improving bone density. If you want to live well and live longer, you must exercise! Studies show that even 10 minutes of exercise makes a difference — so do something! Crank the stereo and dance in your living room. Sign up for swing dancing or ballroom-dancing lessons. Walk to the park with your kids or a neighbor you’d like to catch up with. Jump rope or play hopscotch. Spin a hula hoop. Play water volleyball. Bike to work. Jump on a trampoline. Go for a hike.

5. Get at good night's sleep

If you have trouble sleeping, try relaxation techniques such as meditation andyoga. Or eat a small bedtime snack of foods shown to help shift the body and mind into sleep mode: whole grain cereal with milk, oatmeal, cherries or chamomile tea. Darken your room more and turn your clock away from you. Write down worries or stressful thoughts to get them out of your head and onto the page. This will help you put them into perspective so you can quit worrying about them.

1. Check your food ’tude

What we eat and how we feel are linked in very complex ways. A healthy approach to eating is centered on savoring flavor, eating to satisfaction and increasing energy, rather than focusing on weight. Check your balance of low-calorie foods, nutrient-dense foods (providing many nutrients per calorie), and foods that are calorie dense but nutrient poor. Most Americans need to eat more fresh whole foods (in contrast to processed, highly refined foods). Try to add more whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and legumes into your meals. Pair these carbohydrate-rich foods with a healthy fat or lean protein to extend satisfaction.

2. Eat like a kid 

If adding more fruits and vegetables sounds ominous, look to “finger food” versions that preschool kids love — carrot and celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, broccoli florets, grapes, berries and dried fruits. All are nutritional powerhouses packed with antioxidants.

3. Be a picky eater

Limit saturated fats and trans fats, and aim to eat more foods rich in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids to cut your risk of cardiovascular disease and maybe even improve depressed moods. The equivalent of just 1 gram of EPA/DHA (eicosapentaenoic acid/docosahexaenoic acid) daily is recommended. Eating cold-water oily fish (wild salmon, herring, sardines, trout) two to three times per week will provide both EPA and DHA. Adding up to 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed and eating meat, milk and cheese from grass-fed animals will provide you with a healthy dose of omega-3s.

4. Use foods over supplements

Supplements are not a substitute for a good diet. Although many health experts recommend taking a multivitamin and mineral supplement that provides 100 to 200 percent of your recommended daily value, each and every supplement should be carefully evaluated for purity and safety. Specific supplements have been associated with toxicity, reactions with medications, competition with other nutrients, and even increased risk of diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

5. Get satisfaction

Both eating and physical activity are fun, sensory experiences! In both, aim for pleasure — not pain. Pay attention to the nutritional value of the foods you choose to eat, as well as your sense of satisfaction, relaxation, tension, exhilaration and fatigue when you sit down to eat. Check in with yourself as you eat, rekindling your recognition of hunger, fullness and satisfaction when considering when and how much to eat.

1. Give yourself a break

“I spend countless hours doing cardio and never seem to lose that last 10 pounds!” is a common complaint I hear from clients. Give yourself permission to shorten your workout. Believe it or not, overtraining could be the problem. Your body can plateau if not given adequate rest to restore itself, ultimately leading to a decline in performance. Fatigue, moodiness, lack of enthusiasm, depression and increased cortisol (the “stress” hormone) are some hallmarks of overtraining syndrome. Creating a periodization program — breaking up your routine into various training modes — can help prevent overtraining by building rest phases into your regimen. For example, you might weight train on Monday and Wednesday, cycle on Tuesday and Thursday, run on Friday and rest on Saturday and Sunday. You can also help balance your program by simply incorporating more variety.

2. Think small

Often the biggest deterrent to improving health is feeling overwhelmed by all the available advice and research. Try to focus first on one small, seemingly inconsequential, unhealthy habit and turn it into a healthy, positive habit. If you’re in the habit of eating as soon as you get home at night, instead keep walking shoes in the garage or entryway and take a quick spin around the block before going inside. If you have a can of soda at lunchtime every day, have a glass of water two days a week instead. Starting with small, painless changes helps establish the mentality that healthy change is not necessarily painful change. It’s easy to build from here by adding more healthy substitutions.

3. Keep good company

You can do all the right things — but if you have personal relationships with people who have unhealthy habits, it is often an uphill battle. The healthiest people are those who have relationships with other healthy people. Get your family or friends involved with you when you walk or plan healthier meals. Making healthy changes with a loved one can bring you closer together as well as motivate you.

4. Make a list … and check it twice

Take a few minutes and write down all the reasons you can’t begin an exercise program. Then look at the basis of each reason. For instance, if you wrote, “No time” as one of your reasons, then perhaps that’s based on a belief that an exercise program takes a lot of time. Starting with even five minutes a day will have a positive effect because you will have created a healthy habit where one didn’t exist before, and that’s a powerful mental adjustment. A closer look at your list will expose those false beliefs hiding behind each excuse.

5. Sign up for an event

Let’s face it, exercising just for the sake of exercising or losing weight can get boring. Spice things up by signing up for an event like a run/walk race or a cycling ride where you can be part of a team. Doing so gives your workouts a new purpose, and it’s fun to be around others who are exercising just like you — not to mention that most events benefit nonprofit organizations, which doubles your feel-good high.

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