Why do you need to lose some weight

Are you one of those very few people who are very much happy or let's just say satisfied with your weight? Well, Congratulations! However, weight loss still may be needed. Many people who are overweight say that they are happy with their bodies, but the fact remains that weight loss in order to achieve a healthy weight is very important. There are a number of reasons you should consider weight loss, even if you don’t mind having a few extra pounds.

First a foremost, if you are overweight, you are at risk for a number of diseases. The main health risk you will probably experience is heart disease, which can lead to a heart attack. Many heart attacks are deadly. Heart disease develops when you heart has to work extra hard to pump the blood to the body, which causes it to become fatigued. This can occur simply because you are overweight, or can be a result of high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Along with heart disease, having high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels can also put you at risk for a stroke. Strokes occur when blood, and therefore oxygen, cannot reach the brain. This can happen due to high cholesterol. When you have high cholesterol, the fatty deposits build up on your artery walls. If a piece of this plaque breaks off and travels to the heart, it causes a heart attack, and traveling to the brain causes a stroke.

Being overweight is also bad for women who wish to become pregnant. When you’re overweight, the hormones in your body are changing, and if you don’t get the right nutrients you may find that your body does not produce the right chemicals for the hormones needed to ovulate or carry a child. Even if you become pregnant, being overweight puts you at risk for a miscarriage or health problems with the baby.

Beyond the health world, being overweight can also affect your daily life. You may find it difficult to purchase clothing in your size or you may find that the clothing that does come in larger sizes is more expensive. This is simply due to the manufacturer need more material to make the same article of clothing. Problems extend beyond shopping when doing things like visiting theme parks, where you may not be able to ride all of the rides, or using public transportation, where you may feel crowded in seats made for smaller people. Losing weight, even if you are currently happy with your own weight, is always a healthy and smart option, until you reach a normal weight.
However, weight loss still may be needed. Many people who are overweight say that they are happy with their bodies, but the fact remains that weight loss in order to achieve a healthy weight is very important. There are a number of reasons you should consider weight loss, even if you don’t mind having a few extra pounds.

First a foremost, if you are overweight, you are at risk for a number of diseases. The main health risk you will probably experience is heart disease, which can lead to a heart attack. Many heart attacks are deadly. Heart disease develops when you heart has to work extra hard to pump the blood to the body, which causes it to become fatigued. This can occur simply because you are overweight, or can be a result of high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Along with heart disease, having high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels can also put you at risk for a stroke. Strokes occur when blood, and therefore oxygen, cannot reach the brain. This can happen due to high cholesterol. When you have high cholesterol, the fatty deposits build up on your artery walls. If a piece of this plaque breaks off and travels to the heart, it causes a heart attack, and traveling to the brain causes a stroke.

Being overweight is also bad for women who wish to become pregnant. When you’re overweight, the hormones in your body are changing, and if you don’t get the right nutrients you may find that your body does not produce the right chemicals for the hormones needed to ovulate or carry a child. Even if you become pregnant, being overweight puts you at risk for a miscarriage or health problems with the baby.

Beyond the health world, being overweight can also affect your daily life. You may find it difficult to purchase clothing in your size or you may find that the clothing that does come in larger sizes is more expensive. This is simply due to the manufacturer need more material to make the same article of clothing. Problems extend beyond shopping when doing things like visiting theme parks, where you may not be able to ride all of the rides, or using public transportation, where you may feel crowded in seats made for smaller people. Losing weight, even if you are currently happy with your own weight, is always a healthy and smart option, until you reach a normal weight.

Organic-Learn to read the labels

Whenever you are buying your groceries like maybe meat, milk, fish. It can be a little tricky. There are so many signs that are posted there saying "organic" and other stuffs, but how would you really know the difference, Knowing the meaning of those specific names, will actually help you in your buying decision. If you are going to spend or save on something worth buying or maybe not.

The term natural is always associated with vegetables and fruits, Honestly this is just a marketing strategy to tell you to purchase their products, Fruit and vegetables are natural right? Well, Unless it’s a new kind of food that has been developed and processed, the product is natural. But are you looking for Organic?


Remember organic are foods that are grown without fertilizers or pesticides or any other chemicals, You might be asking why many people are so into organic? Because it has benefits.

Here are the main benefits:

First and foremost, Our mother nature is thanking you for helping her, because no chemicals are being used to grow those plants, thus helping to protect the environment from harmful chemicals. Second, is that your helping yourself because you don't let those chemicals get into your body (through those food of course). Healthier food means healthier you.

But Organic food maybe a little pricey, So if you are in a very very tight budget, you have choices whether your going to buy organic or not. For example:
You don't need to buy organic fruits and vegetables that you can peel, like bananas or oranges, because you are actually peeling the chemicals off from the fruit or vegetables, so if you're going to buy organic, go for fruits like apples because you eat its peel. Just always make sure that you always wash your food before you eat and cook them

You probably heard or see a very tricky sign that says. no "hormones". This is usually associated with dairy products, meat products, well this is false, why? beacuse hormones are naturally produce by all animals, It is very essential to all animals, it regulates body organs, so what does " no hormones" means, Some hormones are given to the animals unnaturally, to increase the production of the milk, so if they say no hormones, maybe it means no hormones were unnaturally given to the animals.

There is this another label that tells if the animals in this meat was penned or caged, doesn't have any difference when it comes to nutritional value of the meat or the quality of it, Well. it matters with the animal rights.


All of these products may be a little expensive than the usual, but it's still up to your so learn to read the labels. and know what it means!

Why people choose to become a vegetarian?

A lot of people who are not vegetarian often asked or thought about what made vegetarians to easily give up eating meat and actually tried a new way of eating which is being a vegetarian, Actually there are various reasons with all of this questions. Most vegetarians has their own reasons and most of them has similar reasons why they started it.Most of these vegetarians say that they become a vegetarian, for one or three reasons.

The very first main reason vegetarians claim is that they kind of have problem with eating meat/ ethical problem. A lot of people disagree how chickens has been beaten, lived in very tiny cages, or the way these chicken has been slaughtered if they can't produce that much eggs compare to other chickens. Most vegetarians disagree with animals that are not in good condition or environment, like crowded cages. Or they use hormone laden feed so that these animals will grow bigger, faster and therefore produce more, Vegetarians who have these reasons has their own boundaries of course it depends on their beliefs, for an instance, some vegans doesn't take food that has yeast on it or they don't eat specific food.

there are other vegetarians that are called pseudo-vegetarians. They actually eat chicken or fish on a regular basis

Another main reason why vegetarians doesn't like to eat meat, is because meat conflicts with their diet preferences. It simply conflicts on how they eat meat. Like for example, some vegetarians just doesn't like the taste of meat, the texture of it, or maybe because they thought that meat is very high in cholesterol, it has high-concentrations of preservatives, So they don't eat meat because they don't like to.

There are still some minor reasons why they chose to be a vegetarian, I have nothing against it, It's good for your health, and you don't hurt anyone. So i guess being a vegetarian is all about choice.

Why your heart is your most important asset?

Image by Bob.Fornal via Flickr

The heart is the fist-sized muscle organ between your lungs and just beneath your fifth rib. It is vital to your overall body health and functionality because it is mainly responsible for pumping blood and nutrients throughout your body.

In spite of it's size, the heart does quite an exhausting job with all that pumping- an average adult heart pumps as much as 1,000 gallons of blood through over 60,000 miles of blood vessels, and beats an average of 100,000 times a day for as much as 70-100 years in life time.

The heart helps bring oxygenated blood into other parts of the body, which gives life to all other organs, Nutrients also travel through our blood, which improve how our organs function.

So you have to keep your heart healthy, so how are you going to do that?

Studies shows that Men who are physically active reduce the risk of dying cause by coronary heart disease by almost 50%. At a minimum try injecting 30 minute of cardiovascular everyday of the week. These cardiovascular exercise that works out your heart and your lungs- brisk walking, running, or jogging, biking aerobics or rowing to name a few.

5 Powerful Benefits of Stretching

Our body is flexible, well, it's meant to be that flexible. So you can able to reach or bend, reach anything that you drop on the ground. That same flexible body can help you reach that book at the top shelf at the library. These are just very simple activities, but if you are having difficulties doing these simple things or simple motions, I think you need to check a stretching program.

The act of extending to the fullest length of your body is called stretching. It involves training or stretching your limbs. Actually, stretching is very easy. You usually do it in you daily activities. You can do it anywhere, anyplace ant anytime,no matter how old or young you are.

Our muscles tightens as we aged. Range of our joint movements can be reduces. It hinders our lifestyle. that's why as we age we became less flexible. So stretching everyday or doing it regularly can be a very big factor in our health. Stretching doesn't require much of your time, It can be done daily.

Training with almost all kinds of sports is incomplete without stretching. It is usually at the beginning of every training. One of the most popular stretching in training would be the sit and reach. wherein your on a sitting position and trying to reach your foot with their hand. It is usually done for ten minutes. Just enough time to move or flex our muscles. Experts doesn't agree if you go beyond ten minutes, they say it will wear out your body not good for a game.

So what are the powerful benefits of stretching?

1. Stretching prevents injury, injury to joints, muscles and tendons. When your muscles are well flexed. They are definitely in good working order. Helps to recover fast and soreness are decreased. Lesser probability of being injured.

2. The range of one's movements increases if you stretch and exercise regularly, helping the limbs and the joints move. It helps prevents injury.

3. Your ability to perform increase as well, You can perform better and or do more things, you can jump higher without the pain, run faster or even swim with grace.

4. Stretching enhances your energy. Moving more means more energy and more energy means more or a lot of things that you can do.And being aware that you can do a lot of things can result to positive things.

5. Our cholesterol can also reduced by doing stretching. Yoga is one of the prolonged the exercise that can help reduce cholesterol, with proper and balanced diet this is very effective.

So stretch everyday, Don't just sit in front of your computer for hours. Stretch! Add it to your day to day routines,. It doesn't require much of your time. So Let's stretch our way to good health

How to maximize the use of your Home Fitness Equipment

Image via Wikipedia

It is not surprising that many individuals are now trying to lose weight and shed off extra calories. The previous holidays have put many in a disadvantage now as far as physical look and health are concerned because of the too-hard to resist delicious platters of holiday foods and glasses of caloric drinks.


To many, choosing to buy home fitness equipment is more enticing than enrolling in a gym center. It is a better choice indeed to many people who have difficulty juggling time between work and workout. It is also most ideal to people who just can’t enroll in an exercise program particularly because the local gym center is out of the way or far from the house.

On the other hand, it also has a disadvantage. Just like most people ending up not going to the gym often after signing up due to many inconveniences, having exercise equipment at home for a self-workout regimen poses the same problem. Many acquire expensive equipment only to end up not using it at all. The machine just gets stored and collects dust pile, which is a shame because it should have been more of an advantage to you that’s why you bought it in the first place.

To avoid yourself from ending up in the same dilemma, check some pointers below to help maximize your home fitness equipment

Get the right equipment

One reason that leads most people to the situation mentioned above is due to the wrong choice of equipment. Therefore, it is important that you get the right one that answers your needs so that you can maximize its use and thus will be easier for you to achieve your goal of keeping fit all year round.

Your choice can be an elliptical trainer, stationary bike, or any cardio equipment that will not only make your heart healthy but your overall physical as well. Knowing the advantages of each of the equipment available in the market will help you decide which is the most ideal to bring home.

Position the equipment at the right area in your home.

Positioning the equipment at the right location in your home will help maximize its use. Where you position it is a factor as well that affects the frequency of its use. It must be stored where you have enough space to operate and use it, and the right ambiance and temperature so it doesn’t get uncomfortable when you are working out.

Some place exercise equipment inside the bedroom especially if it is small enough to be accommodated. This gives them the advantage since they can be easily pulled out and get used at any time of the day. But if you have a number of machines, it is more advised that you have a nice room where you can put them all in and turn it into a mini gym.

And most important of all, have your goal and discipline.

Needless to say, discipline is the best weapon you can use to avoid leaving your equipment collecting dust in the corner. It is also the best passport towards achieving the desired weight and physical fitness.

Why Our Muscles Get Sore

As we grow old, People tend to complain about almost everything, especially the pains in our body, such as back pains, muscle pains and joint pains. Our muscles and bones seems to stiff more as we age. My grandma often complain about her leg and back whenever she reaches or bending over for something. She wince and i know most of grandparents do.

It is so painful that it is sure that this thing begins deeply to their bones, But the real main cause of this soreness and stiffness is because of the muscles and connective tissues and not really from the bones or joints. This is based on the research studies at the Johns Hopkins Medical School.

The frictional resistance that was generated by the two surfaces of two rubbing bones that are in the joints is negligible, even in joints damaged by arthritis.

Flexibility is the medical term used to describe the range of a joint’s motion from full movement in one direction to full movement in the other. The greater the range of movement, the more flexible the joint.

If you bend forward at the hips and touch your toes with your fingertips, you have good flexibility, or range of motion of the hip joints. But can you bend over easily with a minimal expenditure of energy and force? The exertion required to flex a joint is just as important as its range of possible motion.

Different factors limit the flexibility and ease of movement in different joints and muscles. In the elbow and knee, the bony structure itself sets a definite limit. In other joints, such as the ankle, hip, and back, the soft tissue—muscle and connective tissue—limit the motion range.

The problem of inflexible joints and muscles is similar to the difficulty of opening and closing a gate because of a rarely used and rusty hinge that has become balky.

Hence, if people do not regularly move their muscles and joints through their full ranges of motion, they lose some of their potential. That is why when these people will try to move a joint after a long period of inactivity, they feel pain, and that discourages further use

What happens next is that the muscles become shortened with prolonged disuse and produces spasms and cramps that can be irritating and extremely painful. The immobilization of muscles, as researchers have demonstrated with laboratory animals, brings about biochemical changes in the tissue.

However, other factors trigger sore muscles. Here are some of them:

1. Too much exercise

Have you always believed on the saying, “No pain, no gain?” If you do, then, it is not so surprising if you have already experienced sore muscles.

The problem with most people is that they exercise too much thinking that it is the fastest and the surest way to lose weight. Until they ache, they tend to ignore their muscles and connective tissue, even though they are what quite literally holds the body together.

2. Aging and inactivity

Connective tissue binds muscle to bone by tendons, binds bone to bone by ligaments, and covers and unites muscles with sheaths called fasciae. With age, the tendons, ligaments, and fasciae become less extensible. The tendons, with their densely packed fibers, are the most difficult to stretch. The easiest are the fasciae. But if they are not stretched to improve joint mobility, the fasciae shorten, placing undue pressure on the nerve pathways in the muscle fasciae. Many aches and pains are the result of nerve impulses traveling along these pressured pathways.

3. Immobility

Sore muscles or muscle pain can be excruciating, owing to the body’s reaction to a cramp or ache. In this reaction, called the splinting reflex, the body automatically immobilizes a sore muscle by making it contract. Thus, a sore muscle can set off a vicious cycle pain.

First, an unused muscle becomes sore from exercise or being held in an unusual position. The body then responds with the splinting reflex, shortening the connective tissue around the muscle. This cause more pain, and eventually the whole area is aching. One of the most common sites for this problem is the lower back.

4. Spasm theory

In the physiology laboratory at the University of Southern California, some people have set out to learn more about this cycle of pain.

Using some device, they measured electrical activity in the muscles. The researchers knew that normal, well-relaxed muscles produce no electrical activity, whereas, muscles that are not fully relaxed show considerable activity.

In one experiment, the researchers measured these electrical signals in the muscles of persons with athletic injuries, first with the muscle immobilized, and then, after the muscle had been stretched.

In almost every case, exercises that stretched or lengthened the muscle diminished electrical activity and relieved pain, either totally or partially.

These experiments led to the “spasm theory,” an explanation of the development and persistence of muscle pain in the absence of any obvious cause, such as traumatic injury.

According to this theory, a muscle that is overworked or used in a strange position becomes fatigued and as a result, sore muscles.

Hence, it is extremely important to know the limitations and capacity of the muscles in order to avoid sore muscles. This goes to show that there is no truth in the saying, “No pain, no gain.” What matters most is on how people stay fit by exercising regularly at a normal range than once rarely but on a rigid routine.