by admin | Apr 18, 2022 | Health
How to make a morning routine
It’s morning time again, as strange as that may sound! That lovely alarm clock has just softly – or perhaps not so gently – jarred you up from your comfortable slumber, and it’s time to get your day started.
Before you settle into your regular morning routine, try out a few, if not all, of these healthy ways to start your day. You may make the most of the time you have before heading out by doing so, and you’ll be more likely to keep to healthy living habits for the rest of the day.
Here are 5-morning routines to help you start your day off on the right foot.
- Meditation.
Meditation in the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day. It will assist you in becoming more focused, content, and upbeat. Your mind has a proclivity for jumping from one notion to the next. This is known as the “monkey mind” in Buddhism. One of the advantages of meditation is the ability to break free from regular thought patterns, particularly negative ones. This can assist you in moving from reactive state to a caring, proactive state of being. Set aside at least 10 minutes each day, first thing in the morning, to prepare yourself for the day ahead. The amazing spiritual teacher and inspirational speaker Louise Hay has a great morning meditation (available on youtube) that she suggested you listen to before you even get out of bed – how hard can it be?
- Get a large glass of water to drink. Pour yourself a big glass of water once you’ve gotten out of bed.
Remember that your body hasn’t had any food or water in 8 to 12 hours. Therefore it’s dehydrated. Add a fibre supplement that aids your digestive system, if you want to take this healthy practice even further. One spoonful in a glass of water will not only help lower your cholesterol, but the added fibre will also make you feel fuller, preventing you from overeating when it’s time for breakfast. If that’s not your thing then just add lemon to your water or apple cider vinegar to give your digestion preparation and a healthy boost.
- Eat A Healthy Breakfast.
As you probably already know, breakfast is breaking the fast and should be done wisely and well. Often considered the most important meal of the day and should never be neglected. Remember that your body has gone without food or drink all night therefore, one of the first things you should do is refuel your engine. Breakfast should be as healthful as possible. So fast fod from a drive through is usually out, plus most of those breakfast items can easily exceed 1000 calories. That’s a lot of food for a single meal. Anyway back to the healthy meal. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to swiftly prepare something nutritious to eat at home if you keep your refrigerator/kitchen/ pantry stocked with healthy options. Fruits, seeds, nuts, porridge oats, scrambled tofu, avocado on toast, fruit jams, theres so much to choose from. Don’t forget to take probiotics and digestive enzymes before you eat if you have been struggling with feeling bloated or having wind or any discomfort.
- Write A To-Do List / Journal Another morning routine to get into is to jot down a few things on paper that you want to accomplish that day while you’re resting your breakfast. Any immediate goals you want to complete that day can be added to this “To-Do” list. These objectives could be related to your job, home, children, or weight-loss attempts. Having a To-Do list gives you specific things to focus on, increasing your chances of completing them and, as a result, being more productive. It’s also a great time to just journal and write down in a separate book your thoughts and feelings without judgement, just to get things out and on paper, it has been shown to be very healing and cathartic.
- Stretch, Dry body brush and Shower – Do some light stretching, yoga or take a short walk, to open the body up, and allow the energy channels to clear and balance. Head to the shower afterward. Before showering use a soft dry brush to exfoliate your skin and get lymph moving, brushing firmly towards the heart, then shower in a warm shower and finish with a cool shower. This gets the circulation and lymph moving and also helps tone skin. Wakes you up too
- Set a high standard for yourself. Start each day to do your best and achieve greatness. You are capable of anything in your early waking moments, before sight, sound, or smell. Then your “world” pours in, and you begin to fall into routines and patterns. Having a good morning routine is beneficial, but it is insufficient on its own. It would help if you held yourself responsible for your success and happiness. Keep a gratitude diary and write down what you’re thankful for as well as what you want to accomplish that day, week, month, or year.
Begin with a little project and work your way up. You’ll learn to focus your mind on what matters most to you, and you’ll start to see how your vision of success will manifest. It will train your mind to look for the wonders of life throughout the day. You’ll start to rewire your mindset to be more positive, and you’ll start to assist others to do the same. This will also lower your stress levels, improving your overall health and quality of life.
Great morning habits will make you feel happy and energized to go out and create a successful life. Keep in mind that change occurs at various times throughout your life. First, become the person you want to be, and then the life you want to live will emerge around you.
by admin | Apr 17, 2022 | Fitness
Benefits of Green Tea
Introduction
Do you know that green tea has amazing health benefits? If not, where have you been hiding?
It is bonkers how beneficial green tea can be. The ability to lose weight, possibly prevent cancer, promote healthy teeth, and lower cholesterol, makes this tea, truly a miracle worker. In recent times, the benefits of green tea have been widely reported in the media. In most cases, green tea enthusiasts base their opinions on personal experiences with the beverage, but it seems to be accepted globally that this is a healing tea.
China has long consumed green tea due to its miraculous properties.
In China, green tea is used to treat a wide range of ailments, from headaches to cancer prevention. Green tea has many health benefits, which are being revealed through various health studies.
In what ways can green tea benefit your life?
Four of green tea’s most significant benefits can substantially change your life.
- Weight Loss – The First Health Benefit of Green Tea
As a result of the high polyphenol concentration in green tea, fat is oxidised, and thermogenesis is encouraged.
During thermogenesis, the body burns calories. Due to green tea’s energy boost, which raises the metabolism, more weight may be lost than normal.
Compared to most other beverages consumed in the morning, green tea contains fewer calories than most others. In comparison to green tea, daily calories are higher if coffee is consumed daily as most people’s morning drink.
By switching from coffee to green tea, you might reduce your waistline significantly.
- Having healthy teeth is the second way in which green tea benefits you.
Due to one of its ingredients, fluoride, green tea is said to help keep teeth clean. Bacteria that cause plaque are killed by fluoride in the mouth due to its antimicrobial properties. According to Dentists, fluoride helps to maintain healthy, cavity-free teeth and prevents general tooth decay. Consuming green tea has been shown to improve tooth health significantly.
There are however a number of studies about fluoride, opposing its benefits and you may want to read around that if it concerns you, or just ensure that you do not drink too much green tea in that case. You may feel though that the other benefits of green tea outweigh the fluoride content.
Unlike coffee, which discolours teeth with a yellow tinge, this will not stain the teeth like that.
- Green tea is believed to help prevent cancer as its third benefit
Various studies have proven that green tea is an effective way of preventing free radical damage to the body. Cancer and ageing are caused by free radicals. The polyphenols found in green tea constantly monitor free radicals to prevent them from being formed into unstable oxygen molecules, in a process referred to as oxidation.
Upon oxidation of cells, proper tissue is damaged and has been related to ailments such as cancer, heart disease, and strokes. In addition to preventing premature cell division and inflammation, green tea polyphenols have been shown to destroy most cancer-causing agents.
- Green Tea has a fourth benefit – it lowers cholesterol
High cholesterol sufferers may find relief from the effects of green tea.
Bad cholesterol is often linked to heart attacks and green tea may be able to reduce this high risk. During the circulating process of LDL cholesterol in the body, heavy deposits may be formed in the arteries. When a person drinks green tea, their levels of bad cholesterol, such as LDL cholesterol, drop. This is due to the various catechins present in green tea which are able to lower blood cholesterol levels.
Further, the catechins improve the body’s overall health by maintaining a healthy ratio of good to bad cholesterol.
Benefit of Green Tea Conclusion
If weight loss, cancer prevention, healthy teeth, and a low cholesterol level do not convince you that green tea is a miracle worker, you must be working with some pretty powerful spells.
A couple of cups of tea a day may help significantly decrease the risk of developing a few other health problems too. Currently, the only side effect is possible excess caffeine, resulting in increased heart rate and blood pressure but one would have to drink a lot of tea for that. However, like anything with caffeine, it’s important to just be mindful not to overdo it.
The use of green tea extract has provided a solution to this problem. It is possible to take green tea tablets with all its benefits. I certainly love my morning cuppa with a dash of lemon, so let’s see if this is enough to convince you to start drinking green tea every day from now!
Disclaimer
Article for entertainment and information purposes only and is not meant to treat cure or diagnose. Please see your doctor if you are suffering from any of the above or associated issues.
by admin | Apr 16, 2022 | Diet
4 Foods To Keep You Fuller For Longer
Have you ever consumed a couple of consecutive big meals just to feel hungry 40 minutes later?
Well, if this has happened to you, odds are you are not selecting the right foods with the appropriate satiety index. In this article, we’ll explain the importance of high satiety foods, and we’ll also give you a list of our 4 best picks in that category!
So, Why Is Satiety Important?
The modern-day market offers a variety or rather, an abundance of food products to choose from. However, the thing is that the tastiest foods also happen to be more processed AND least satiating. With poor nutrient profiles, these processed products simply satisfy your taste cravings, but hardly ever help you meet your actual nutritional needs.
When you’re not meeting your nutritional needs, well, your body keeps asking for more food by sending hunger signals, until you actually give the body what it needs. That is to say that processed foods are NOT inherently fattening but instead, they make you eat a lot more which therefore leads to inevitable weight gain.
Being satiated for the longest time possible after each meal is important, as that means you have met your nutritional needs and your body has the resources to work with for the goal of sustaining healthy function.
What Actually Brings Satiety?
Every sensation or bodily signal in the body is closely related with the balance of certain hormones. Specifically for appetite and satiety, leptin and ghrelin seem to be the two predominantly involved hormones. The macronutrients you get from food, that are most effective in inducing the feeling of satiety, are protein & fat.
For this reason, it is of prime importance to meet your daily protein and fat needs, as they will play an essential role in how hungry you feel throughout the day. Remember that a hungry mind won’t be able to focus on other, also important tasks you have.
Stay satiated!
The 4 Most Satiating Foods
Now without further ado, let’s have a look at the most satiating foods you can easily find in your local grocery store!
1. Beef
As we mentioned, protein and fats from whole food sources are amongst the most satiating nutrients you can give to your body. Beef and other red meats happen to be abundant of both nutrients, so including them in your nutrition plan is a good bet! If you always wake up hungry, and that oatmeal & coffee breakfast full of sugar can’t satiate you, well, try a morning ribeye steak!
It works.
2. Nuts
Cashews, almonds, walnuts and other nuts are so dense in energy that just a 100g of them can keep you full for hours on end.
Additionally, these tiny bites are full of essential fatty acids and other micronutrients that will not only keep you full, but also provide your body with the nutrients it needs.
Don’t be nuts, eat nuts.
3. Eggs
If you are trying to establish a nutrition plan that is nutrient-dense enough to keep you full and healthy, eggs cannot be ignored! Eggs are good as a standalone meal, or can be made an addition to a bigger meal, to make it complete! Furthermore, they can be enjoyed in a variety of forms, such as an omelette, scrambled, or even over some rice in japanese style!
4. Potatoes
Though protein and fats are the most satiating macronutrients, the food with the HIGHEST satiety index contains mostly carbohydrates… That’s right! Potatoes are, in fact, the most satisfying food a human can eat!
Try for yourself – Get a beef steak and cook up some potato mash and you will be full for at least 3 hours.
Final Thoughts
One of the most important aspects of your nutrition plan is to make it actually satiating! If you constantly feel hungry, you are not using the right nutrition plan, regardless of what anyone tells you. Make sure to include these 4 foods presented in this article and let us know how they affected your satiety and energy levels!
by admin | Apr 15, 2022 | General, Health
How To Train Smart
“Hey bro, I found this sick Dwayne Johnson workout on the internet and I’m about to try it out today, I’m so pumped!”
If you’ve heard this in the gym, odds are you’ve stumbled upon someone who does not really know what to do with their training plan and is, well, experimenting.
Which is not bad, really!
However, much like anything, training is precise mathematics and you need to understand each variable and factor affecting the end result and create your plan based on that. And so, if you are over those celebrity workouts and are ready to get in the best shape of your life, keep reading!
Training Fundamentals
To find out what the best training regimen for you is, you have to first and foremost understand the backend of your workouts.
A workout can be measured using 3 main variables:
- Intensity
- Volume
- Density
Essentially, intensity shows how close you are to your maximum strength capabilities – The heavier the weight, the higher the intensity.
Volume measures the total amount of weight lifted in kilograms or pounds – To calculate volume, you take the working weight and multiply it by the number of sets and reps (100 kg x 10 reps x 2 sets = 2000 kg total volume)
Density measures your volume, relative to the total time needed for its completion including rest times, and is measured in kilograms per minute (i.e 2000 kg volume completed for 2 minutes would be a density of 1000 kg/minute)
Ok I’m Confused, Why Do I Need This?
Understanding the different training variables presented above is essential for being able to create the correct training stimulus. Let’s have a look at the variables and how you can set them up for certain results.
Intensity
The level of intensity, or in other words, how close you get to your maximum strength capabilities, will determine the recruitment of muscle fibers, as well as the stimulus for certain adaptations. (i.e strength gains, bulk muscle growth)
| Intensity (%) |
Description |
| 0-35% |
This is the warm up zone, you don’t want to be here for too long if you’re trying to grow muscle! |
| 40-60% |
On here, more and more muscle fibers get recruited – This is a good zone to go through before your heavier working sets |
| 65-80% |
This is the intensity zone where you can do moderate to heavy weight sets for 6-15 repetitions, until failure.
Focus on this zone if you want bodybuilder-like muscle growth! |
| 85-100% |
In this intensity zone, you can do 1-5 repetitions with a really heavy weight.
This is known as the powerlifting zone and mainly results in maximum strength gains.
If you are training in the bodybuilder intensity zone, do include this powerlifting one every now and then. |
Volume
One of the interesting things is that in terms of muscle growth, it doesn’t really matter if you will train in the 65-80% intensity range or the 85-100%, as long as volume is equated.
However, the 65-80% range allows for greater volume to be put out, more easily, due to its less strenuous nature. Below is a volume cheat sheet, which can help you determine the number of sets depending on your training experience.
| Training experience |
Volume (per muscle group, per week) |
| Beginner/novice |
~5 Challenging Working Sets |
| Intermediate |
~10 Challenging Working Sets |
| Advanced |
15-20+ Challenging Working Sets |
Note that a “challenging working set” implies a working set that is taken close to failure (1-4 reps in reserve).
What About Density?
Though many people pay attention to the weight (intensity) and the number of sets and reps (volume), no one really cares about density.
And let us tell you this – Density is important when you are trying to achieve the highest volume of greatest quality possible in your workout, because density is dictated by rest times. For instance, if you do a set of 5 reps using 100 kg and only rest 1 minute, odds are that you will only get 3-4 reps on the next set.
On the other hand, if you take 2-3 minutes of rest between each set, you will be able to sustain sets of 5 and thus, your quality volume will be greater. Spread that density, both in your workouts and in your entire training plan!
Here’s a rest times cheat sheet:
| Intensity |
Rest Times |
| 0-50% |
1 minute |
| 60-80% |
2-3 minutes |
| 85-100% |
4-15 minutes |
Take-Home Message
On the back end of your workouts, are different ratios of the 3 main training variables which we discussed in this article.
Now that you have an idea about these training variables and how their different ratios create different end results, let’s hop onto part two of this article series, where we’ll talk about understanding your goals and actually creating the training plan!
See you there.
by admin | Apr 15, 2022 | Mind
3 MONEY MAKING BOOKS YOU SHOULDN’T MISS
Powerful Wealth Books: Unsplash
Having a financial plan can be overwhelming at times, so we put it off before we are even motivated. Nonetheless, we’re here to help you find the motivation you need to get started.
Educating yourself is one of the easiest ways to get ahead, whether you intend to be an entrepreneur or simply want to improve your financial acquaintance. Reading is one of the most effective ways to discover something new, and finding a pleasant book to read is one of the best ways to discover new things.
There are so many wonderful books on making money out there, from investment books that tell you about saving and spending to inspiring tales about ordinary millionaires.
These 3 books are a must-read for anyone who wants to further their financial knowledge.
1. MONEY MASTER THE GAME
By Tony Robins
This influential novel, written by motivational speaker Tony Robbins, is a perfect motivator to get you serious about your finances. In Money Master the Game, Robbins details seven actionable actions you can take to ensure your family’s financial independence through interviews with iconic investors including Warren Buffet and John Bogle.
The steps in this book will show you how to set up a savings and investment strategy to make your money work for you, as well as how to set up a lifetime pension portfolio to help you save for retirement, and take complete charge of your financial choices.
2. RICH DAD POOR DAD
By Robert Kiyosaki
This famous book’s theory is something that most of us can relate to. You ought to act and think like a millionaire. Robert Kiyosaki explains how his two father figures perceived money in various ways.
Though his biological father suffered financially for much of his childhood, Kiyosaki’s business tutor taught him important money lessons that made him become the financial tycoon he is today.
Rich Dad Poor Dad not only provides you with plenty of useful money-making tips, but it also provides you with lots of inspiration to get moving on your net worth.
3. THE EVERYDAY MILLIONAIRE
By Chris Hogan and DAVE RAMSEY
It’s hard to imagine so many millionaires started as regular people like you and me. Reading the success stories of these ordinary millionaires would provide you with plenty of inspiration to pursue your own goals of making more money for your family.
Authors Chris Hogan and Dave Ramsey interviewed more than 10,000 millionaires in the biggest survey ever undertaken on US millionaires to obtain insight into their financial journeys. Many readers would be surprised by what they discovered: creating wealth has little to do with the amount of money you make (Book).
CONCLUSION
The path to accumulating wealth and achieving financial independence is basically to make more profits. Surround yourself with tips and education from these best money-making books to achieve your financial goals even more quickly.
At the start, it’s normally takes lots of courage to take action, so arm yourself with a lot of knowledge, and if you can, find a mentor.
