Top Ten Reasons To Add Strength Training To Your Daily RoutineWritten by Monique Rider
1. Strength training tones, builds and firms your body. Using any type of resistance (bands, weights, water, etc.) tones and builds muscles. For certain exercises, even body weight can accomplish this. The muscle will become firmer and skin around muscle will tighten. This produces a more sculpted look.2. Strength training burns body fat. The higher your muscle to fat ratio, more muscle on your body. The more muscle on your body, more fat you'll burn because it takes more calories to maintain muscle. 3. Strength training builds strong bones. Bone density can be increased by strength training. Therefore, reducing risk of Osteoporosis. 4. Strength training can be done with very little equipment. Most people think they need expensive equipment to begin a strength training program. Not true! All you need is a set of hand held weights or several sets of weights. 5. Strength training is fun and motivating. You may not feel motivated to begin a program at first, but after a few weeks of strength training, you'll notice a more sculpted body. Then your motivation will build and you'll want more of that same result. When performed in a group setting, strength training is even more fun and motivating. 6. Strength training helps rid us of mental and physical stress. Due to level of concentration needed when strength training and endorphins that are being released during exercise, stress levels are greatly reduced and you'll have a clearer head! 7. Appetite is improved due to strength training. You learn to listen to your body and feel what it needs. After a session of weight training you may be hungry but it's not usually for "junk food." The body usually begins to crave whatever it needs to replenish energy after a strenuous workout. You'll find yourself heading for fruit, yogurt, or protein.
| | Five Myths About The "NMP" (No Meat Or Poultry) Eating StyleWritten by Melanie Jordan
Are you being held back from choosing a healthier lifestyle because you believe one of many myths about going meatless? Many people who could greatly benefit from going what I call "NMP" (no meat or poultry, yes to fish, dairy products and eggs), whether full-time, or from time-to-time, do not do so because they are misinformed. That's too bad, because eating more of a plant-based diet, is being pointed to more and more as a great way to maintain good health or lessen severity of illness or disease when it does strike. So let's dispel some of those myths right now!Myth 1: A diet without meat and poultry is boring and hard to stick with. Not true! Forget everything you've heard about going meatless either full-time, or from time-to-time. I follow an "NMP" eating style full-time, and I regularly eat delicious food like cheeseburgers, chicken parmesan, tacos, BLTs and chicken caesar salad (in their non-meat/poultry versions of course). Myth 2: When you go "NMP", you have trouble getting enough protein. The trouble with "Typical American Diet" is that most people think protein means just red meat, poultry, pork or fish. There are lots of great ways for someone who follows "NMP" eating style to easily get essential protein that they need to be healthy. For example, some great sources of protein without meat and poultry include: fish, soy-based meat and poultry substitute products, high-protein pasta, beans, nuts, fat-free and low-fat dairy products and eggs (ideally just egg whites) and vegetable- based protein powders. Myth 3: Any food that I find in my natural foods/health food store is healthy. Just because an item is available for sale in a natural foods/health food store, does not mean that you can assume it is right for you. A frozen food entrée may have too much fat, salt or sugar even if it does not contain meat or poultry. There will still be white bread and white pastas, when whole grain would be healthier. A baked item could have partially-hydrogenated oil (trans-fat) in it. Nothing demonstrates better fact that you still have to be on your guard at a health food store, than fact that such major chains as Whole Foods Markets and Wild Oats Markets sell Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
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