Archive for November, 2009

Lose Weight With Home Treadmills

Do you want to get ripped and improve your physical appearance? If so, you need to learn how to improve your cardiovascular fitness. You can do so with fitness treadmills.

Home treadmills are very affordable these days, so there is really no excuse for not engaging in cardiovascular exercises. First, let’s explore the benefits of improving cardiovascular health.

When you engage in any kind of cardio activity, you raise your heart rate. The more intense the exercise, the faster your heart will beat, and the more fat you will burn. Ideally, you must get your heart rate to at least 60% of your maximum heart rate for your exercise to be effective. Therefore, a leisurely walk in the park doesn’t count as cardio exercise. You must remember to work out intensely.

Some people believe that they burn more fat by exercising at moderate intensity. This assumption is incorrect. The body does use up a higher proportion of fat for energy when you exercise moderately. But when you exercise intensely, the total amount of fat that you burn will always be more than moderate exercise.

Based on this understanding, always get a treadmill that allow you to get an intense workout. If you are on a tight budget, you can always start with a manual treadmill. A manual treadmill cost less than $200. Although you are providing all the energy, it still helps you achieve your goals – which is to break a sweat and burn fat!

Many modern treadmills are designed for the homeowners who live in small apartments. Space is always a concern because some treadmills can be rather bulky. Fortunately, most home treadmills come with folding functions. You can fold up the machines to save space when you are not running.

If you have some spare cash, you may wish to invest in a higher end treadmill. Higher end home treadmills cost about $1,000. At this price, you will be able to get a high quality machine. The treadmill should come with MP3 support and built-in speakers. These are additional features though. It’s good to have them, but they are not a must.

Before buying the treadmill, make sure you access the motor and the performance of the running belt. High end treadmills should come with motors that provide at least 2.0 continuous horse power. That should provide a top speed of 10mph and an adjustable incline from 0% to 10%. The maximum user weight should be around 300 pounds.

The best way to assess a treadmill is to make a trip to your local fitness equipment store. Don’t just buy based on what you see on the brochure. Some machines look good on paper, but they are not reliable. They break down after a few months.

When trying out the treadmill, you must feel comfortable using the machine. Does it make too much noise? Is the treadmill shaking too much when you are pounding on it? If you don’t feel comfortable using it, the specs don’t matter. Just don’t invest in it. Go try out other fitness treadmills.

Read more about fitness treadmill and how to choose the best home treadmills.

The Power Of Foods

Dr. Gregg Hoffman
River North Chiropractic

Certain foods are powerful. They cast a spell over the most well-meaning dieter, and cause logical people to overeat until their sides hurt. They occupy your thoughts to the point of obsession as you try to ignore a plate of cookies. And when it’s all said and done, they accumulate on your body in the most obtrusive way as a result of dozens of unused calories. Why does food hold such power? And, most importantly, how can you control your eating?

The End of Overeating

David A. Kessler, MD set out to answer these pressing questions in his instant bestseller, The End of Overeating. Despite being a pediatrician, a former FDA commissioner, and former dean of the medical schools at Yale and the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Kessler struggles with his weight. Observing the current obesity epidemic, he knew that he wasn’t alone. Dr. Kessler, with the insight of some of the brightest minds in medicine and science, discovered the following three reasons that most of us are compelled to overeat.

An Irresistible Combination Rewires Your Brain:

Think of your favorite treat – most likely it can be broken down into the basic building blocks of sugar, fat and salt. This combination is known of as the ‘three points of the compass’, a combination that has been shown to literally alter the biological circuitry of your brain. Sugar, fat and salt give food a high hedonic value which gives you pleasure. This pleasure reinforces you to return to your favorite foods time and time again.

The Food Industry Targets You:

Everywhere you go you’ll see the clever work of the food industry, tempting you with highly palatable creations. Food has become a science and your taste preferences the guiding light. The food industry has one goal – to get you hooked. By constructing food items that are high in sugar, fat and salt they know that you will come back time and time again.

Conditioned Hypereating Becomes a Way of Life:

Humans are conditioned to seek more reward. When readily available, hyper palatable food become our reward a pattern of hypereating quickly emerges. Dr. Kessler describes the cycle: “Foods high in sugar, fat, and salt, and the cues that signal them, promote more of everything: more arousal…more thoughts of food…more urge to pursue food…more dopamine-stimulated approach behavior…more consumption…more opioid-driven reward…more overeating to feel better…more delay in feeling full…more loss of control…more preoccupation with food..more habit-driven behavior…and ultimately, more and more weight gain.”

Breaking the Cycle

The good news is that you don’t have to remain trapped in a cycle of overeating. The following three tips will put you back in control.

1. Set Your Rules:

In order to resist overeating in today’s tempting food environment, you must eat by a set of self-imposed rules. Predetermined rules take away the need to make food decisions in vulnerable moments. Dr. Kessler thinks these rules should be, “simple enough to fit with your busy life, but specific enough to remove uncertainty from the food equation.”

For suggestions as to what rules you should adopt, let’s turn to another authority on eating, bestselling author of ‘In Defense of Food’, Michael Pollan:

  • Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
  • Pay more, eat less. Look for quality of food over quantity.
  • Eat meals. Cut out snacking, stick with structured meals.
  • Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does. Gas stations are great for fueling your car, but the food they sell are not suited to fuel you.
  • Try not to eat alone. Eating can become mindless when alone, leading to overeating.
  • Eat slowly. Eat foods that have been prepared slowly – that means no fast food.

2. Make Negative Associations:

When was the last time you peeled a lemon and ate it whole? Probably never. That’s because your taste buds have a negative association with the sour taste. Our taste buds have traditionally been our guide when it comes to food selection, but this must change for you to successfully avoid overeating. Since the food industry purposely crafts food items to please your taste buds (not waistline) what tastes good can no longer dictate what you eat. It’s up to you to create negative associations with unhealthy food – despite their pleasing taste. Here are some negatives to focus on:

  • Those extra calories will accumulate around your waist.
  • Your health will suffer.
  • You will become more disappointed with your appearance.
  • You’ll feel sluggish.

3. Give Yourself a Real Reward:

The bottom line is that we eat unhealthy food as a reward, even though it causes more harm that good. It’s time to give yourself a truly beneficial reward – exercise. Exercise is a healthy reward that will not only release endorphins into your system, but will also give you the benefit of weight loss and improved health.
I truly believe that you can overcome your pattern of overeating with healthy eating and regular exercise. Call or email today to get started on a program that will truly change your life.

Wonderful Weight Loss suggestions To get Rid Of The Additional Kilos Quickly By Taking Fat Blockers

At no time did I have trouble relating to my weight as I was from a household that did not have issues concerned with weight. Our mum used to make food for us three times a day that we used to feast when we gathered together. As both parents used to be employed, lunch was only taken in in the home by the children. For breakfast and dinner, the full household would be together at the table and eat the food that mostly contained fruits. This is not to say that we didn’t eat sweets. Every Saturday, dad used to give us money that we would use to buy sweets from the sweet shop.

My mom was short and my dad was very thin, yet high in stature. We were really active and used most of the time diving, riding bicycle or playing outdoor games that involved leaping and sprinting. In reality, these were the times when cyberspace and TV was not popular.

I am at the moment 52 years old and as my age is going up, my metabolic rate is reducing. My food craving is as before and I have acquired almost 8 kilograms lately. This change seemed to affect me from all directions and I was getting uncomfortable. Its certainly I have to get something done to lose some weight but it is not easy to make changes to your way of life after reaching 50 years of age. So I need a quick to follow unfolding like fat blockers to prevent fat consumption. I had to adjust my sitting instance as well to make room for my protruding tummy. My clothing even got inflexible and I began feeling awful about myself. I figured out that I had become overweight excessively.

One morning I reached a conclusion that it was more than necessary and I should take control of everything. It was important for me to take advice out there and perform things that help me to get me out of this problem. All this I needed to do to stop myself from feeling overweight and awful. The main issue with us is that we get allured to tasty food items and we don’t identify that it make us overweight and also influence our lives in an adverse fashion.

To achieve something, it is always important to keep a mindset. Just by thinking that you want to get rid of weight because you are really overweight will not help you to accomplish anything. The most important thing is to have a mindset and set up a scheme as to how you will be achieving weight loss. Wonderful strategies to start is by bringing a wonderful written material on diet and nutrition and prepare hearty balanced menu for you three times everyday. If you find it hard to choose which types of ingredients will make up a hearty menu, it is commended to consult a nutritionist. If you discover it to be tough to determine which types of food items will comprise balanced menu, it is advisable to consult a nutritionist or you have to get fat binders to incorporate up to 28% of the fat in the food items you take in. Additionally, walk for approximately one hour everyday.

Every now and then you must be converged on attaining your goal. You have to be able to change contradictory anticipation in assured one. Life is sweet and you can make it excellent by being hearty.

Lose Weight Quickly

For any weight loss program to be successful, you need to have the right diet. You may fail if you fail to plan properly for your diet. Spend as much time as you can when planning for your diet. You may want to adopt the following approach.

First, always have very clear goals. Be specific – how many pounds are you going to lose? How long do you think you need? Be ambitious, but keep your plan realistic.

With clear goals, it’s easier to work on how to reach those goals. It’s a simple numbers game at this stage. If you burn more calories than you take in, you are going to lose weight. Continue to work hard and keep the pounds at bay. Keep that in mind.

Make a list of all your favorite foods. Make a quick search for the amount of calories that each food contain. Add up the numbers and find out how much calories you are taking in each day. It also make more sense to take smaller meals, but in higher frequency. As an illustration, take 5 meals per day instead of 3 big meals.

Make sure that you include lots of fruits, vegetables, and poultry in your diet list.

Your diet is central to your entire weight loss program. Many want to lose weight successfully, but they don’t know what a good weight loss diet looks like. How about a low GI diet? Such questions are swimming in their head, and they have no idea what they should do.

First, I must mention that to choose the right weight loss diet, there are several issues that you must consider. Don’t just consider the amount of calories in your diet. There is more. Most people don’t realize that they have different needs, so they need different diet plans.

We all need different energy levels each day. For example, some people do not exercise at all. Some exercise two to three times a week. There are people who live a very active lifestyle. So you see, different people need different amounts of energy to cope with the daily activities.

You would be considered successful if you can work out what you need to eat to lose weight, while at the same time, stay healthy. A moderately active person needs about 2000 calories a day to maintain the same energy levels. Do not go below this number. Taking less than that will affect your health adversely. It’s not wise to deprive your body like that.

Instead, it would be wise to plan based on your own daily needs. If you are taking 2000 calories a day, try aiming for 1900 calories a day. A better diet plan would be to try eating the same amount of calories, but you increase your activity level. This way, your muscles get a good workout, and you lose weight too.

Something interesting is happening here.

Notice that you can’t totally reduce the amount of calories you consume to zero. Your body still needs to take in a certain amount of calories. In other words, you would be better off trying to burn off fats than to just cut away the intake.

Viagra Causes More Condom Breakages

Viagra causes increased blood flow to the extremities (the ones that matter!) and the drug is administered orally about one hour before being required. It is generally sold in varying strengths, either 25mg, 50mg or 100mg strengths according to an individuals needs.

One issue to be aware of is that, in common with most drugs, Viagra can have side effects. The most well known are headaches and sometimes temporary problems with vision perception such as light perception or colour perception. The most interesting side effect with the use of Viagra and other similar medications comes with the latest usage report which shows that users of such drugs are significantly more likely to break a
condom in normal use than non users!

The American study looked at a total of 440 male volunteers who regularly use condoms and 12% of Viagra style medication users reported a condom breakage, compared with only 5% of non users. Not surprisingly the research also showed that the Viagra users had sex for longer and therefore the probability of a breakage was significantly increased!

The use of erectile dysfunction drugs increases the blood flow to those important regions and the erection is stronger, harder and lasts longer as a result. The researchers commented that this would obviously put more strain on the condom and therefore this is probably the reason why more breakages have been reported. Critics of the research say that the sample size (i.e. the number of volunteers in the study!) is too low to accurately assess the differences in breakages and that other reasons for breakage may also have an impact. These reasons might be because the condom was not the correct size, it may have been used incorrectly or it may just be of poor quality.

Although Viagra has some negative side effects, it also has been shown to reduce hormonal stress on the heart by up to 50%. It is thought that this is because the drug causes blood vessels to expand which in turn reduces the excess amount of blood required and the force required to pump it around the body. A very useful side effect here is that it can also prevent and reduce the effects of high blood pressure, which is a significant killer in western society.

Research has shown the effect to be marked and may even include a reversal of the effects of high blood pressure such as heart enlargement or hypertrophy. The findings were reported in Nature magazine earlier in the year, and the research was conducted on thirty five volunteers. The results seemed to indicate that the performance of the heart was improved by slowing down the heartbeat which resulted in an increase in blood flow, although the researchers admitted that larger scale studies would be required to confirm the findings.

Looking to buy cheap condoms

Why We Don’t Crossfit

Contributed by Roy Alfonso

Mike George Fitness System

America has always taken fitness to extremes. In the late 60s when we found out continuous movement burns fat and calories, we began having more running races. We took a 5k and added  an 8 and a 10k. Then came half marathons, marathons, triathlons, eco challenge and more.

The latest fitness craze is cross fit which de-emphasizes form and proper technique. Proponents of these workouts have often stated, “The workouts can kill you”. Unfortunately, litigation has challenged the use of these movements.

While some within the industry seem to endorse and encourage the use of these techniques, we at Mike George Fitness System emphasizes the use of proper form and technique. Consequently, we can not endorse any technique that de-emphasizes form.

Health is our primary concern. Our programs build you up, not beat you up. MGFS uses high intensity programs, once the client has mastered the basics. Form is still maintained, even in the more difficult exercises. It is not only prudent, it is a fundamental requirement to maintain safety.

We have many different programs including active rest, push and pull, structural integrity, learning, super slow, sport specific, conditioning, circuit, hypertrophy and speed/power/agility.

Crossfit takes risks. We don’t deal with risks. We at Mike George Fitness System deal with science. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Providing personal training in Chicago, Mike George Fitness System is a private facility where you can focus on your goals without worrying about anyone else. Our state-of-the-art, private facility and one-on-one personal training programs are tailored to improve your health, strength, tone, flexibility and endurance through the scientific application of progressive resistance. Call 312-943-6700 now to schedule your free consultation.