Wednesday Video - Does eating before bed make you fat?

There are many theories behind weight gain along with many answers. One of the things that everyone agrees on, though, is that eating before going to bed will make you fat.


But is it really that simple? So in this short video (from ASAP Science) we tackle the weight loss question: "Will Eating Before Bed Make You Fat?"

Monday Muscle - The Hidden Truth To Muscle Building

Some of you have probably heard of this, but I would bet a lot of us (Myself included) don't apply it like we should.

It is not some secret arcane formula, I'm not telling you to go sacrifice a goat under a new moon or anything. People DO know about it, but so few people actually use the knowledge.

Are you ready to learn the Truth?

The Hidden Truth to building muscle? REST.

I know, it might seem a little obvious. But think about it! Most people put so much emphasis on working out, they completely ignore reccovery. You need to remember that muscle is formed out of the gym, not in it. A large majority of weight lifters could actually be OVERTRAINING because they do nothing but work out, and totally ignore resting. Refrain from making this mistake yourself! Resting is vital.

Use These Four Tactics to Avoid Overtraining:

Now, you know the Truth is; but how can you apply this in your everyday life?

#1 Get plenty of sleep! 

Good quality sleep is essential

I know with how busy people are these days this one can be hard, but it is incredibly important. You NEED sleep, more so than the average person if you continounsly work out hard. Eight hours of sleep is of course best, but at least get Six. I would not recommend less than that.

#2 Improve Your Diet! 

Get extra protein into your day; this is possible in any number of ways, a good thing to do is to get a good protein mix, and drink it once a day. There are many different types on the market, pick one that works best for you.

#3 Stretch, Stretch, Stretch! 

Stretching helps loosen you up. Stretch before, stretch after. You'll be less sore, get the bloodflow going, and avoid the after session cramps. All very good things, for such an easy thing to do.

#4 Vitamins. 

This one probably seems similar to our #2 Tip, but is just as important. Get a good multi-vitamin. They've been shown to lead to better recovery, and let's face it: How many of us are actually getting the vitamins we need in our daily lives? Especially with how rushed we are during the day.

I know this all might seem obvious to many of you. You may be right, or it could be the little bit you need to get over the Wall. Are you always tired or sore? Those are signs you're not getting enough rest! So take a break, drink a shake, and rest up so you can get back to building muscle, or losing weight.

Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/build-muscle/the-hidden-truth-to-muscle-building

Fat Loss Friday - Sleeping Trouble? Tips To Help Cure Insomnia

Sleeping well is essential for fat loss. A disrupted sleeping pattern plays havoc with the natural rhythms of the body and can sabotage the most well laid plans for weight loss. This article can help get your sleep back on track.


Are you unable to sleep?

Worried about sleep?

Have your normal sleep patterns been disturbed? Because insomnia is often caused by worry, exhaustion, or emotional stress, there are many natural things that you can do to help you feel better and starting to get the sleep your mind and body need to maintain good health.

Tips To Help Cure Insomnia

1. Start Writing Everything Down

If there are things on your mind like your to-do list for tomorrow or worries and concerns that you have been having, then write it down.

Writing has a therapeutic effect that can help calm obsessive or intrusive thoughts and assist you to unwind.

2. Change Your Bedtime Routine

Your bedtime routine is what you do about an hour or so before bed. For example, you may get a glass of water, head to the bedroom, put your pyjama’s on and brush your teeth. During this routine, your mind can start to become anxious about the inability to sleep for the next 8 hours. This mental stress can cause your blood pressure to rise, and your body can start to have a hard time relaxing. In essence, your bedtime routine can be causing your insomnia.

Try changing up your bedtime routine. Put your pyjamas on a few hours before bed, brush your teeth before you even head to the bedroom. Create a different routine so that your mind doesn’t say “Oh, oh. I’m about to try and go to sleep!”

3. Make Sure Your Room is Dark.

Light is what tells our mind that it is time to wake up. When your room is full of light, it can be very hard to convince yourself that it is not time to be awake and; therefore, you can have a harder time falling asleep. Even a small amount of light can have this effect on your mind. Remove all lights from your room, no matter how tiny they are. If this is impossible, get yourself an eye mask to block out the light.

4. Keep Your Room Quiet

Just like light, noise tells us that we have entered the daytime, and it is time to wake up.

Keep your room quiet and relaxing

If you have any sources of noise such as a ceiling fan or snoring spouse, you may want to try to tackle those issues.

5. Don’t Use Your Bedroom Like a Hotel Room

Do not use the bedroom for daytime activities like working, watching TV, or eating. This can cause you to associate your bed with the daytime and not allow your brain to turn off for the night.

6. No More Caffeine After Breakfast!

It’s very common to have a coffee in the afternoon, but some people are not able to sleep if they have coffee (or any caffeine drink) after the morning. Depending on the person, the effects of caffeine can last for a long time after it is ingested, and if you have a hard time sleeping then it is best to cut it out altogether.

7. You Could Be Going Against Your Natural Rhythm

If you have to get up early for your job, then you have to go to bed early to get a good amount of sleep. Unfortunately, if your body goes against that rhythm of early to bed and early to rise, then you are trying to force your body to do something it doesn’t want to do. If you feel as though you are more of a night owl, then you may want to find a job that allows you to work in the evening or night and go to bed when your mind and body are actually ready to go to bed.

8. Try a Foot Bath

This may seem a little unconventional, but it is a home remedy that can work to cure insomnia. A hot footbath before bed can draw blood away from the head and help relax you for sleep.

9. Drink Caffeine Free Tea

Many people find that a warm class of Chamomile or lemon tea help them relax and actually promotes tiredness at night time. Chamomile has been used as a natural treatment for anxiety, sleeplessness and depression for a long time.

10. Take Up Reading

There is nothing better to take your mind of your worries and cares than a good fiction book. Find a book that gets your imagination going and helps you to forget real life for a while. After a chapter or two, you may find yourself starting to drift off into a dream-filled slumber.

The above ten tips are natural ways to help you when you are not able to sleep. Choose the ones that work best for you, and remember that a healthy life requires a good amount of sleep. It is very important to try to cure insomnia before your health starts to suffer.

http://articlemobi.com/sleeping-trouble-tips-help-cure-insomnia/

Wednesday Video - Lose Belly Fat By Sleeping?

Is it really possible to lose belly fat and get those 6-pack abs by sleeping? The short answer is .....Yes.

BUT it depends on the type of sleep. In this short video Mike Chang explains how sleep can help you lose more belly fat

Monday Muscle - How to increase testosterone levels naturally

Testosterone is what makes men “men”. Although women also produce testosterone generally it is on a much lower level. The interesting thing is that “normal levels” of testosterone can range from 348ng/dl – 1197ng/dl. This means that some men can naturally produce 3x more testosterone and still be considered normal. If you are interested in fitness and increasing muscle, you need to be on the high end of that range… and here’s HOW:


Tip 1.) Lose the excess body fat: As your waist size goes up, your testosterone goes down.

The more fat you have on you body the more aromatase you produce, which will causes your body to convert testosterone into estrogen (the “female” hormone and this is one of the reasons behind the development of “man boobs” or “moobs” in overweight men)


Tip 2.) SLEEP! A lack of quality sleep can dramatically diminish the amount of testosterone your body produces, thereby reducing muscle growth and fat loss! Research has demonstrated that the amount of sleep you get is associated with morning testosterone levels. Researchers at the University of Chicago recorded the sleeping patterns of healthy men and found that participants' testosterone levels increased the longer they slept... generally it is recommend that you get 7-9 hours of sleep per night to optimize the testosterone response.


Tip 3.) Don’t completely avoid cholesterol: Testosterone is derived from cholesterol, so it should come as no surprise that if your diet is lacking in cholesterol, you're also more than likely shortchanging yourself when it comes to the muscle-building hormone.

Try incorporating small portions of lean red meat, whole eggs or seafood like shrimp or lobster.


Tip 4.) Add Multi-Joint movements to your workout routine: Essentially, the more muscle mass you stimulate, the more testosterone you'll secrete. A recent study conducted on trained subjects showed that squats stimulated a greater testosterone response when compared to leg presses. Stick with multi-joint exercises like squats, bench presses, and deadlifts—as they are prime examples of the kinds of compound lifts that'll help significantly jack up your testosterone levels!


Tip 5.) Limit Your Alcohol intake: Happy hour can wreak havoc on your manly hormones. In a recent Dutch study, men who drank moderate amounts of alcohol daily for 3 weeks experienced a 7 percent decrease in their testosterone levels. Limit your drinking to one or two glasses of beer or wine a night to avoid a drop in testosterone.

So there you have it - 5 tips to boost your t-levels inside and outside of the gym.

Monday Muscle - Five tips that help you find time for exercise

Only about 30 percent of adult Americans report that they have regular physical activity during their leisure time; and about 40 percent of Americans say that they dont have leisure-time at all, to do the physical activities.

All in common agree on the fact that regular exercises help the person in terms of health and long life. But, most of the people do not focus on exercise. The most common reason people give for this is that they, do not have the time.

Lack of awareness also puts regular exercise at a lower priority. This article may help you change your priorities and find time for exercise.

Tips to find time for exercise
1. Wake up early

If you wake up early, you will be adding more time to your day. This provides you the opportunity to find time to do exercise. It's not really hard to wake up a little early that you are used to. It is little bit hard until you get habituated. Afterwards once you feel the difference and the gain you will have more of a reason to continue waking early and doing exercise. There are many benefits in waking up early and doing exercise - you will feel more energetic and fresh for sure.

2. Limit your time spent on TV & Online
Track the time you spend on TV, online & mobile games for a few days. Then you will come to know how much time you are spending on those things.

Then, try to limit the time you are spending on TV & online, for example: if you are spending 3 hours, reduce by 1 hour and assign that to exercise. You don't really need to sacrifice your joy anyway.

3. Cut down low priority things from daily routine and allot that time for exercise
For most people who cannot find time, it is not really about time, it's about the priority they are giving to exercise. If you feel that exercise is more important and shouldn't be avoided, then you can adjust the time for it. Make the list of things you do daily. Divide the items into following 2 categories:

Important things that are highly essential to you (Job, Family)

Enjoyment/Less Important Activities (Movies, Parties)

Try to include exercise in the list of important things. Then, you will automatically find time for exercise.

4. Stay motivated by the benefits
Motivation is the best way to find time to do something. You might know that exercise has many benefits. Always keep in mind that the exercise will protect you from many health issues, keeps your body in shape and boost your brain power. Once you start doing exercise regularly, you will get motivated by the changes in the body. All you have to do is, go to gym regularly and maintain the motivation and fitness cycle.

5. Socialize at the Gym

This is one of the best passive motivation to find time for exercise. We don't need any motivation to spend time with friends. Find some friends at gym. As you do workouts with friends, you can enjoy the workouts without feeling it as hard. This also motivates you to go to gym regularly, to meet friends.

Hope the above tips will help you manage time to do exercise. If you still do not get motivation to find time to exercise, read the following quote by Edward Stanley, a British statesman - Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness. Take this quote and paste it somewhere in your room, for sometimes fear motivates better than anything else.

http://www.articlesnatch.com/blog/Five-Tips-That-Help-You-Find-Time-For-Exercise/6600859

Weight loss tips from weight lifters

Weight loss tips and fitness tips are a focus in many people’s lives. Many people focus on how to make a lot of money and how to improve their appearance. When it comes to image improvement, top on the list of many people’s goals is how to lose weight.

If losing weight is a goal in your life, here are some things you should keep in mind:

- Start with diet

Most people think that the less they eat, the better they look. Just as you cannot build a good house with flimsy materials, you cannot build a strong and lean body without the right diet. Weight lifters always emphasize the importance of eating right to build and maintain lean muscle among their fitness tips and weight loss tips. Eating well while working out will ensure that you attain a healthy well-toned body, strong bones, and clear skin. In this way, you will not lose weight and look like a scarecrow but you will look healthy and feel energetic.

- Food Portioning

While it is important to eat right, the way you portion your food matters. Ideally, weight watchers eat small portions of food throughout the day. It’s common for weight watchers to have six small meals spread out throughout the day. This meal plan should be three main meals and three snacks between main meals. Your food portions should contain some lean protein, complex carbohydrate, vegetables, and fiber. Ensure you include a source of healthy fats such as avocado, oily fish, and olive oil among other sources of healthy fat.

- Drink lots of water

Plain pure water is important when you need to lose weight. Water helps to flush out toxins from the body. It helps prevent dehydration when working out. Most important, it can boost your metabolism by up to 3 percent.

- Do circuit training

One important workout that helps people lose weight according to weight loss tips is circuit training. This form of training will not only help you lose weight, but it will strengthen your body and improve your endurance. It is a great way of getting slim while strengthening the body and building lean muscle. The best thing about circuit training is that you only need to set aside small sections of your day to do it and maintain your fitness. A circuit training session of 30 minutes every day can do wonders for your body.

- Get enough sleep

According to fitness tips, sleep is an important tool when it comes to losing weight. Regardless of how good your diet is and how much you work out if you don’t sleep enough, it's useless. Inadequate sleep leads to storage of fat in the body due to certain hormones that are released in the body when we don’t have adequate sleep. During sleep, your body repairs worn out tissue in the body. It also regulates the production of hormones that aid in fat burning. Best of all, if you sleep well at night, you don’t have time for late night snacks.

These are a few weight loss tips from weight lifters to follow so as to attain the perfect body.

Five Tips that Help You Find Time for Exercise

Only about 30 percent of adult Americans report that they have regular physical activity during their leisure time; and about 40 percent of Americans say that they don’t have leisure-time at all, to do the physical activities. Only about 30 percent of adult Americans report that they have regular physical activity during their leisure time; and about 40 percent of Americans say that they don’t have leisure-time at all, to do the physical activities.

All in common agree on the fact that regular exercises help the person in terms of health and long life. But, most of the people do not focus on exercise. The most common reason people give for this is that they, “do not have the time”.

Lack of awareness also puts regular exercise at a lower priority. This article may help you change your priorities and find time for exercise.

Tips to find time for exercise

1. Wake up early

If you wake up early, you will be adding more time to your day. This provides you the opportunity to find time to do exercise. It's not really hard to wake up a little early that you are used to. It is little bit hard until you get habituated. Afterwards once you feel the difference and the gain you will have more of a reason to continue waking early and doing exercise. There are many benefits in waking up early and doing exercise - you will feel more energetic and fresh for sure.

2. Limit your time spending on TV & Online

Track the time you spend on TV, online & mobile games for a few days. Then you will come to know how much time you are spending on those things. Then, try to limit the time you are spending on TV & online, for example: if you are spending 3 hours, reduce by 1 hour and assign that to exercise. You don't really need to sacrifice your joy anyway.

3. Cut down low priority things from daily and allot that time for exercise

For most people who cannot find time, it is not really about time, it's about the priority they are giving to exercise. If you feel that exercise is more important and shouldn’t be avoided, then you can adjust the time for it. Make the list of things you do daily. Divide the items into following 2 categories:
Important things that are highly essential to you (Job, Family)
Enjoyment/Less Important Activities (Movies, Parties)
Try to include exercise in the list of important things. Then, you will automatically find time for exercise.

4. Stay motivated by the benefits

Motivation is the best way to find time to do something. You might know that exercise has many benefits. Always keep in mind that the exercise will protect you from many health issues, keeps your body in shape and boost your brain power. Once you start doing exercise regularly, you will get motivated by the changes in the body. All you have to do is, go to gym regularly and maintain the motivation and fitness cycle.

5. Socialize at Gym

This is one of the best passive motivation to find time for exercise. We don't need any motivation to spend time with friends. Find some friends at gym. As you do workouts with friends, you can enjoy the workouts without feeling it as hard. This also motivates you to go to gym regularly, to meet friends.

Hope the above tips will help you manage time to do exercise. If you still do not get motivation to find time to exercise, read the following quote by Edward Stanley, a British statesman - “Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness”. Take this quote and paste it somewhere in your room, for sometimes fear motivates better than anything else.


By: Adam Sturm

Article Directory: http://www.articledirectoryusa.com

Source: http://www.articledirectoryusa.com/article/category/health-and-fitness/exercise/five-tips-that-help-you-find-time-for-exercise/

Watching TV Taught Me a Terrific Weight Loss Workout Plan!

Many years ago, while watching television (one of those prime time teen soap operas), I saw something that was so fascinating that I remember it to this day.

As a motivator for your daily weight loss workout plan, I don't think I've ever run across anything better. I can't remember the name of the show or the name of the actors but I sure do remember this!

Here's the scene, it was early in the morning, and one of the teens was still in bed, sound asleep. (Getting a good night's sleep is important for weight loss too. But that's a discussion for another time.) He was an athlete. I believe he played football or baseball on the high school team. Anyway, it was sound asleep and his alarm went off.

The vast majority of us hit the snooze button several times before we can work up the energy to get out of bed. Not him! With his eyes still closed, (indicating that he doesn't like to get up in the morning anymore than any other teen) he fumbled around until he found the off button for the clock.

No major revelations so far, but hang in there it gets better.

He hit the off button, and rolled out of bed. Note that I am not using "rolled out of bed" as a figure of speech. I mean it literally. He physically rolled off the bed and landed on the floor in a basic push-up position. Then, he cranked off a quick 10 push-ups.

Can you imagine a better way to get your heart started in the morning? Give this a shot, in no time it becomes addicting.

Let me throw in one quick aside though, be careful. You don't want to roll off the bed and hurt yourself. Feel free to get out of bed the way you normally do, and then get down on the floor for your push-ups.

None of us particularly enjoy exercising, I know I don't. What's worse, is spending all day thinking about it, trying to mentally talk yourself into getting started. It's like the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Unfortunately, the more you think about it the harder it is to get started. And we all know how easy it is not to get started at all.

But, if we just automatically do it the instant we get up, like our intrepid teen, it quickly becomes just another part of your daily morning ritual.

Quickly do 10 push-ups, then you could possibly add in some crunches or jumping jacks. Then... well, I'm sure you know the rest.

With no agonizing, soul sapping thought at all, your daily weight loss workout plan will be done before you even realize it. Then for the rest of the day you don't have to worry about it. You'll be just that much happier and healthier.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Beckwith

How to get better sleep

Getting quality sleep is vitally important for being healthy. Lack of sleep can cause many problems including weight gain. If you find yourself struggling to get better sleep try these tips (although done for comic effect they really work!)

The Hunger Games

I am now 2 weeks info the fast and guess what? I still don’t feel hungry. Even the thirst has vanished. I wasn’t expecting this. After all the fasts this year are about 19 hours long here in Manchester and yet......

It seems it truly is mind over matter. It’s strange that every year this happens, almost as if a switch is flipped inside me that says “time to fast so no point in being hungry or thirsty”. Of course it helps that the weather this time has been kind as well. Although there have a few hot days, overall it has been fairly pleasant. In addition the rest of the household is also fasting so that too helps.

The only downside has been the lack of energy. Although I am moving around as much as usual, or some days more than that, it just seems more difficult. Getting up in the morning to start the day is also much more difficult.usually these have been the days when I have missed the alarm for the pre-dawn sehri and have had to leap out to get something in me before the fasting begins. This is approximately at 2:00am so I get generally about 2 hours sleep before waking, eating, prayers and then hope to get my head down for a couple of hours before the day properly starts.

But the hunger is totally abated. Maybe it is the fact that at iftar (the time at sunset when the fasting is over for the day) I am eating more than usual. This has been the same in the past, however, so something else is going on. Strangely I feel hungry in the minutes just before the fast breaks, maybe because I know that I will be eating soon.

It is always these last few minutes which are the hardest anyway as the stomach prepares to gladly receive the food which is on its way!

Liquid intake has been more than adequate as shown by the fact that I don’t feel thirsty at all. I am also drinking more plain water (hurray) so that cannot be a bad thing. The only exception to this is with the sehri where I am drinking a chilled drink of fruit flavour dextrose powder mixed with water. The reason is to top up my glycogen levels in my liver ASAP. Cool grapes straight from the fridge also make a delicious dessert. This has meant that my urine is almost colourless, which is the true sign of hydration. In normal circumstances you need at least 3 colourless urinations per day to show you are adequately hydrated. This is a lot more reliable indicator instead of the assertion to drink X glasses of water (what size?) or X amount (which depends on how big/old/sex you are) and so forth.

Sipping the water helps me to hold onto more of it. So after my meal and as soon as I wake at 2:00am I tend to sip instead of gulp. Every little helps as they say!

2 weeks down, another 2 to go.

The time of yawning

Are you tired? In need of some quality sleep? Well spare a thought for those who are fasting during the month of Ramadan and how their sleep is faring. Come with me and see how I am definitely NOT sleeping like a baby!

I naturally like my sleep but during this month it is being severely disrupted. Falling asleep has come naturally to me (most times) and I am lucky that it wasn’t a problem like it is for some. My father was the same and could literally fall asleep any time, anywhere. He could even catch a nap standing up! Now while I haven’t been able to match that I did have my routine down so that a few minutes after my head hit the pillow I was blissfully in the land of nod. This used to annoy my wife no end!! She would be awake and I would be sound asleep.

During Ramadan, however, it’s a different story. I am almost always constantly tired and yawning. Having to get up in the middle of the night, for all intents and purposes (at 2:00am), in order to eat and pray has severely disrupted my fine routine which was practiced and down pat. Now by the time the prayers are finished I find that my mind is racing and I am wide awake!

Added to this is that due to the late meals the night before it is not easy getting food down at this time in the morning. By the time a fast ends here it is around the 9:40pm mark so it is only a few hours later that breakfast is consumed. Difficult.

Plus sleeping on a full(ish) stomach is uncomfortable which add to the lack of quality sleep. All of this leads to the fact that by mid-morning I am struggling to stay awake. The yawning starts and carries on.

The best I can hope for is to catch up on a short nap during the day. Even with this break, however, by the time the evening meal is consumed I am ready to go straight to bed before my alarm breaks my sweet slumber. This is disturbing me more than the lack of food and water.

The thought of leaving my cosy bed is getting difficult. Just yesterday when my alarm went off I fell into the deadly trap of thinking “just 5 minutes more”. From previous experience I know that it never works out like that. The 5 minutes easily turns into 5 hours. Steeling myself I got out of bed to face another day.

I can only hope it gets easier. Knowing my luck though, will mean that just as I get used to this routine it will all be over. Then my sleep will be disrupted further as I will be getting up in the middle of the night!