How to Lose Those Stubborn Last 10 Pounds

The last ten pounds can be a struggle. The scale stops budging and frustration has taken over.

The stress of it all is putting the adrenal glands into overdrive. A cortisol rush is the last thing your body needs when trying to lose the last ten pounds. Studies show chronic stress can hinder your ability to lose weight.

Plateaus Are Normal

Plateaus are normal for all of us living a healthy lifestyle. Many don't realize food intake and exercise programming require constant review and change. If the plan doesn't work, change the plan but never the goal. 

Remain positive and progressive with your fitness regardless of what the scale says. Many factors are at play when the body stops showing results. Usually, a simple review and program change are all that's required to gets things moving again. 

Things to consider: 

• Are you eating enough? The body knows when it's not getting enough fuel. If you restrict too many calories, your body will refuse to give up any fat stores. The body sees stored fat as energy necessary for life and exercise.  

• Are you being true to your nutrition program? Many fall back into unhealthy eating habits and are even in denial about it. Your body knows what you're eating and will respond with weight gain.  

• Are you exercising less? Reducing exercise will significantly affect your ability to lose weight. Energy out needs to be more than energy in to experience a caloric deficit resulting in weight loss. Take time to review your priorities and determine if exercise has taken a backseat. 

• Are you burned out? This is normal and happens to most of us living a healthy lifestyle. Adding variety to workout programs and healthy foods is important to keep you motivated. 

Learn and Move Forward

The last ten pounds can be a challenge but also a learning opportunity. You can become frustrated and throw in the towel, or change your strategy and get back on track.

It's important to take one day and one pound at a time. Feel proud of daily efforts taking you closer to your fitness goals. The last ten pounds will respond to what you're willing to do to be rid of it, or keep it. It still comes down to choices and changes.

Recharging the mental battery is a great way to stay motivated to keep going. You can do it!  

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Be well and Stay Healthy!

Simple Tips for Preventing Anxiety Disorder to Stay Ahead in the Competition

�In America, the number of serious psychological distress (SPD) patients have increased than ever before; approximately 3.4% of the US population suffers from SPD. �According to a recent study by NYU Langone Medical Center.

Since life has become much easier than it was 50 years ago, but still anxiety disorder, depression, etc. are on the rise so as the demand of the anxiety consultation & treatment services.

Surviving with the anxiety disorders is not fun, and people suffering from this type of disease are very eager to know what are the causes, symptoms and treatments for anxiety disorders. However, there are many things in our lives we want to change, but can�t; and this can also become a reason of the anxiety disorder.

Also read: Tips for preventing Alzheomer's disease naturally

What is Anxiety Disorder?

Anxiety is a term used for the mental illness that can result in fear, worry, and nervousness in people, and it can also cause threat to well being.  Usually, it develops when one tries to do something out of his comfort zone, and faces several challenging situations.

Anxiety can cause insomnia, headache, muscle pain, etc., and to avoid these, you should get anxiety consultation & treatment immediately. However, developing the skills you are lack in can also help you reduce the anxiety levels and promote wellness.

Let us take an example of giving a speech at an annual function. For some people, it might not be a big deal, while others may feel anxious when speaking in the public and expressing their ideas and views.
Anxiety disorders can affect lives of children too, causing mental depression and abnormal functioning in learning and other daily processes. To get rid of the anxiety and related problems, it is recommended to seek professional help to get reliable treatment for anxiety disorders.

Simple Tips to prevent the Anxiety Disorders

1. Stay active

It has been proved that exercising reduces anxiety levels to several folds. A daily 45 to 50-minute walk can help releasing endorphins, thus controlling the anxiety problem.

Identify the physical activities you enjoy taking part in, and make a schedule for a month. However, you can also include running, hiking, cycling, table tennis, swimming, dancing, etc. in your daily exercising routine.

Also read: 16 best exercise to reduce belly fat fast

2. Go social

Talking with others helps people feel good and reduce stress. Try meeting and spending time with your close friends. However, you can also schedule a lunch date, engage in your favorite activity with your loved one, take a long walk or watch a movie on the weekend. Thus, staying connected with others is a natural treatment for anxiety disorders.

3. Have a good night sleep

Not able to sleep properly at night is also a reason of anxiety. Thus, before you go to bed, relax your mind and body by doing light exercises, or listening to smooth music.

Most of the anxiety patients can�t sleep thinking of the previous or next day work schedule. If you feel the same, prefer thinking of your achievements, reading online quotes about being happy, or do some light exercises.

4. Avoid caffeine

Most of the anxiety patients agree with the fact that they have a lot of stress in their lives, and caffeine is a substance that increases levels of stress hormones, heart rate, and BP. Thus, eliminating caffeine products from your daily diet plan can help you prevent from anxiety attacks.

5. Make a clean eating meal plan

Eating healthier is one of the common phrases people usually heard from doctors when getting the anxiety consultation & treatments. Fried and acid forming foods, alcohol, coffee, refined sugar, etc. contribute to anxiety disorders, and you should avoid consuming these. However, eating more green vegetables and avoiding burgers can help you keep your anxiety levels low.

6. Monitor your anxiety levels regularly

Rate your anxiety level on 1-5 scale. Prepare an excel sheet, and note down the situations when you felt more, moderate, and less anxious in. Keep track of the things on regular basis; identify the activities that help you lower the anxiety levels and try adopting them as habits.

7. Take short breaks

When working on lengthy documents, it is necessary to take time outs at regular intervals. This not only helps you stay relaxed, but improves your productivity levels as well. Even doctors during the treatment for anxiety disorders advice patients adopt a habit of getting short breaks after every 2 to 3 hours.

8. Deep breathing

Whenever you feel anxious, try practicing deep breathing. Simply inhale and exhale through the nose for 10 to 20 minutes on daily basis, and it will surely help you make a difference. However, reciting certain sentences like ALL IS WELL, I AM FINE, I AM THE BEST, and etc. can also help you feel good.

Anxiety is just like a chain in your feet, which doesn�t let you stay ahead in the competition. If you want to cope with anxiety, you need to observe the problem, and take small steps (as discussed above). However, if you still face the problem, you can seek the professional help or visit the doctor for anxiety consultation & treatment.

The Main Causes of Acid Reflux

The acid reflux is a common disorder that is related to the valve that exists at the entrance of our stomach. This is generally a muscle ring and is most commonly known as the lower esophageal sphincter (LES). The normal process consists of the LES closing as the food goes through it. If the LES has the delayed or inconsistent closing and opening time, it may make the acid to move into your esophagus. If this symptom is occurring more than twice a week that means you are most likely to be suffering from the acid reflux disease. This is also known by another name Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Both the names are equally popular in different parts of the world and are used widely. The main Causes of Acid Reflux are briefly discussed in this article for further information.

Why does it happen?

There are really a huge number of reasons that could make it to the Causes of Acid Reflux. The main reason that makes you suffer from this disease is a stomach abnormality that is called hiatal hernia. In a normal body, the diaphragm will help to keep the acid within your stomach. But in case you are suffering the hiatal hernia the acid is being moved to your esophagus. This movement of acid can produce a lot of symptoms of the acid reflux to occur.

Also read: 5 reasons you feel bloated after eating

The other most common Causes Of Acid Reflux are:

• Smoking on a regular basis
• Pregnant women are more likely to suffer
• Taking the blood pressure medications
• Depending on some of the muscle relaxers
• Regularly taking alcohol
• The high amount of caffeine can also lead to it
• Having a large amount of spicy or fatty food can also lead you to sufferance
• Having snacks close or just before your bedtime
• Bending at your waist or lying on the back after taking a heavy meal
• Being obese or overweight
• Lying down right after you take any meal
• Eating chocolate, mint or garlic in extreme amounts on a regular basis

Also read: 5 foods that can calm the symptoms of GERD

What to do about the acid reflux disease?

Every disease has its own results and consequences on our bodies and must not be ignored in the first place. It is not vital for you to simply oversee any difficulty or health disorder that you are facing. The Reflux Disease Causes sounds to be common and a simple one but can have its own worse effects on any of the body. That is why you are recommended to go for an early medical visit if you encounter any of the symptoms or Causes Of Acid Reflux in yourself or any dear one. It can really cause a lot of adverse effects if not taken care of at the right time or ignored for too long. The disease must not be taken lightly and is to be treated with proper care and medication. You can always check out a number of online sources for any kind of help in this matter.

Cleaning Up Your Nutrition For Results

Achieving fitness results the right way will require good nutrition. Although exercise is important, nutrition does play the largest role in getting fit and maintaining your health.

Eating Right is Easy

Eating right for results isn't complicated as many people believe. This line of thinking has much to do with fitness products and supplements marketed as the only way to lose weight, get fit, and increase muscle size. Wrong!

Let's put these myths aside and take a simple look at what really is required nutritionally.

Food Journals:

It may be helpful to use a food journal for a short time until you have adopted how to eat right. Food journals are shown to keep you on track and enable you to repeat healthy weeks. This part may sound like a burden to start, but it really is quite simple.

Forget about charting calories, grams, weighing food, etc. for now and probably won't be necessary later. Keep your journal simple and you will enjoy the process of learning. As long as you're eating healthy throughout the day to support your body and physical activity is the goal. Your journal may look something like this:

• Water intake for the day: 2 quarts
• Meal 1: 1 slice seeded toast, 1/4 to 1/2 avocado, 1 boiled egg
• Meal 2: large greens and fruit blended shake  
• Meal 3: large green salad topped with grilled chicken breast, balsamic vinegar
• Meal 4: sliced apple with 2 tbsp peanut butter
• Meal 5: grilled salmon with lots of veggies
• Meal 6: yogurt topped with raw nuts

Dump the Junk Food

Eating right will require cleaning out the junk food. This is difficult especially if you struggle with tossing out food. If it helps, box it all up and donate to a food kitchen or church. You can do this!

Take a day and go through your refrigerator and pantry. Remove all processed, packaged, frozen dinners, pastries, white products, etc. Unhealthy food products contain a lot of trans fats, high-sodium, and chemicals you really don't want to be ingesting. A short list includes:

• sugary drinks, sodas, and some sport drinks
• white bread
• refined vegetable oils (corn, soybean, cottonseed, canola)
• margarine
• pastries, cakes, cookies
• boxed crackers and chips
• low-carb meals and bars
• yogurt high in sugar and chemicals
• processed gluten-free products
• ice cream, candy, candy bars, and some protein bars
• processed meats (salami, pastrami, deli meats, hot dogs, etc)
• processed cheese (American, cheese in a can, etc)

Eat Clean for Results, Fitness, and Health

Getting fit for life requires eating cleaner which is just another way of saying you are eating healthy. You have taken the steps to remove all processed foods from your house and now ready to replace those with real whole foods. 

Let's go shopping! The best way to stay on track at the grocery store is to first eat a healthy meal, and stick to your written list of items. Having healthy food at home will also reduce eating at restaurants and fast food chains. This keeps you in control of your food intake and is the goal of adopting a healthy lifestyle.

We all differ in nutritional likes and that is great because there is a wide-variety of nutrient-dense food for everyone. You will want to include all the macros in your nutrition which just means eating a balance of lean proteins, carbohydrates, and healthy fats.

The following short list includes healthy selections from each category and also takes into consideration vegetarian/vegan preferences:

Proteins:

• B/S chicken and turkey breast
• Salmon, halibut, tilapia, albacore tuna
• Lean beef  (90% lean)
• Greek yogurt (natural, no sugar added)
• Cottage cheese
• Eggs
• Milk (2%), almond milk, coconut milk, low-fat chocolate milk
• Lentils, dried beans, navy beans, no to low-sodium canned beans
• Peanut butter (natural, no-sugar-added), almond butter
• Raw mixed nuts
• Tofu
• Edamame
• Quinoa

Carbohydrates:

• Vegetables (broccoli, peppers, squash, asparagus, etc) 
• Leafy greens (spinach, chard, kale, etc)
• Fruits (apples, berries, mango, cherries, etc)
• Legumes (lentils, chickpeas, peas, and beans)
• Quinoa, kamut, barley, buckwheat, flax meal
• Brown rice (white rice for some athletes)
• Whole wheat, whole grain bread
• Steel cut oats
• Sweet potatoes
• White and red potatoes (baked not fried)

Fats:

• Avocados
• Chickpeas (hummus)
• Walnuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, pecans, etc (raw-unsalted, not roasted)
• Olive oil
• Salmon (Omega-3 fatty acids)
• Nut and seed butter (natural, no sugar added)
• Ground flaxseed or flax meal
• Chia seeds

You Can Do It!

Eating better is typically the biggest struggle with adopting a healthy lifestyle. I believe in keeping nutrition simple and fun. When eating right is enjoyable, you will repeat it for life. That is the goal working together over this year and I know you can do it! 

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Be well and Stay Healthy

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I Maintain a Fit Body Eating Lots of Carbs

To this day I dislike being called skinny. I have had my share of teasing as a kid and even into adulthood. Body shaming goes both ways in this life.

Love Yourself

What's important is loving yourself right where you are while working toward your goals. It wasn't until discovering how to build curves with resistance training that my life changed for the better.

I was blessed with my Dad's genetics and thankful, but it has been a challenge to put on weight including muscle. I'm also constantly hungry and seem to burn up energy faster than the average person.

I turn to healthy carbs to fuel my body and feel good throughout the day. I can feel lightheaded if I go too long without eating, especially carbs.

Some of the carbs I eat on a regular basis include:

• oats
• quinoa
• seeded whole grain bread
• whole grain tortillas
• sweet and white potatoes
• brown rice
• veggies and fruits
• 100% juice (pomegranate, green juice)

Metabolism and Gains

My metabolism seems to work faster than I can fuel my body. Some people say they can just look at food and gain 5lbs whereas if I look at food, my body wants to burn it up. I will not exercise if I feel hungry and prefer to down a healthy meal before hitting the weights. I'm definitely not a candidate for fasting to improve athletic performance or to reduce body fat.

I just so happen to be one of those people on the other side of the spectrum that works hard to gain weight. This doesn't mean I want to gain by eating lots of crap to achieve skinny fat. My goal is to maintain or increase lean muscle mass by eating healthy carbs, lean proteins, and good fats.

Genetics and Goals

Genetics do play a small role in your physical appearance, but you absolutely have the power to change things by what you eat and how you challenge your body. I work hard and eat to support my goals. I don't believe in diets nor do I teach that in my personal training practice.

Genetics may predispose some of us to obesity but that doesn't mean we're to accept it and not try to be a healthy person. The same goes for lean genetics like mine. We're all on this fitness journey together with differing body types and how they function.

Regardless of your body makeup, it's important to put up a fight for what you want and not give up.

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Health Benefits of Bananas and Banana Nutrition Composition

Banana is one fruit that almost everybody loves to eat. Maybe because of its sweet and unique blend of taste, but the most interesting part of banana is its health benefits, Maybe you often eat it as a dessert or a snack just to enjoy the taste, I will be doing more good by revealing some health benefits of bananas and its nutritional composition. This will make you love it the more, so read on.

Also read: Top 5 foods that reduces hunger cravings

Banana Nutrition Composition

Bananas contain lots of bioactive compounds which includes:

• Phenolic compounds
• Carotenoids
• Biogenic amines
• Phytosterols

Bananas are also rich n several beneficial nutritional components. These nutrients include (per medium banana, about 118 g):

27g carbohydrates of which 14g is in the form of sugars (5.9 g glucose, 5.7 g fructose, and 2.8 g sucrose

Dietary fiber of 3.1 g, of which 2.1g is soluble and 1g insoluble.

Fibers are a form of insoluble starch composed of multiple sugars bonded by chemical linkages, which are resistant to chemical hydrolysis within the gut. Thus, they reach the colon intact and are subjected to microbial fermentation by gut bacteria. This not only produces better stool volume by binding water but results in the formation of some essential short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) which are absorbed and used as energy sources. Fiber thus comprises not only dietary fiber which is mainly mechanical in effect but functional fiber which has a positive effect upon health. The sources of fiber which yield 5 g per serving are called excellent, and good if they give 2.5 g per serving. Under this classification, bananas are good sources of fiber.

Also read: Soluble and insoluble fibre foods suitable for weight loss

Resistant starch is slow to be digested by alpha-amylase and thus prevents a spike in the blood glucose.

Potassium content of 422 mg which is positively related to cardiovascular health

Vitamins: 33% of the RDI of B6, 11% for vitamin C

Minerals: 8% of the RDI for magnesium and copper, 14% for manganese

Protein content is 1.3 g and fat is only 0.4 g per medium banana.

Health Benefits of Bananas

After a thorough research on Banana consumption for a number of years, some of its health benefits have been discovered, and they include the following:

1. They provide energy

A medium banana contains about 105 calories, which can be compared to 144 calories for a serving potato. Banana can therefore be termed as a cost-effectiev energy source. This lovely bunch are used as a quick-dense boosts of energy for endurance workout and sports, having a glycemic index of 51.

Must read: How high GI foods increases your fat storage

2. They have antioxidant properties

The bioactive compounds in bananas include many strong antioxidants, and are thus useful in protecting the human body against inflammation and oxidative stresses. Bananas can also protect against some age-related or chronic degenerative conditions.

Also read: Preventing Alzheimer's disease naturally

3. It lowers blood pressure protect against cardiovascular diseases

Bananas are highly rich in potassium, and this is probably responsible for its ability to reduce blood pressure together with its low sodium content. Deficiency or lack of potassium, is thought to be the underlying cause of hypertension, this is because it helps to push down sodium concentration in the blood. Some research discovered that consuming some amount of bananas a day led to 10% fall in blood pressure over a week, and that 5 bananas a day was half as effective as the use of antihypertensive medication.

4. Control blood sugar levels and metabolic syndrome

It will be of great benefits for diabetics to consume under-ripe bananas rather than overripe ones, which have a glycemic index of 43 and 74 respectively, and cause the blood glucose level to rise to an average of 62 and 106 respectively. This is because overripe bananas have increased starch content compared to just sugar content in the under-ripe ones.

5. It controls body weight

Banana benefits for weight loss cannot be over emphasized. The high fibre content found in bananas makes it ideal as a low-calorie nutrient-dense food for people who are overweight. The resistant starches found in under-ripe bananas and plantains can be used as substitute for many calorie-rich starchy foods. Banana benefits goes beyond diabetes control to dyspidemia correction, and weight control. It also promotes safety and reduces total energy intake.

6. It prevents kidney tumours

Consuming about 75 or more servings of fruits or vegetables in every month is known to be effective against renal cell carcinoma by about 40%. This effect was most noticed in the case of banana consumption.

7. Protect against colon cancer

The resistant starch found in bananas may also help reduce or dilute the concentration of toxic substances such as fecal ammonia and N-nitroso compounds in the colonic lumen, but this is still under study. If the study is confirmed, bananas would play a major part in preventing colon cancer by reason of the slowly digested carbohydrate.

These are some banana facts, revealing the health benefits of bananas for weight loss and other important health issues. If you enjoyed reading this piece, kindly use the share buttons below to share this information with your families and loved ones.