Category: Diet and Health

Health care

Speculating about health and fitness seems to a popular pastime these days. Every one has become an expert. Giving advice, propagating theories and postulating on probable outcome of certain regimen is something that lot of people feel well qualified to do. There is a lack of proper professional guidance in a lot of cases and hence the failure of attempts to attain healthy fitness. Most people find exercising monotonous and bore of it quickly if they don’t get results instantly. What does not engages their interest, because drudgery and abandoned sooner than later.

The proper way to attain good physical health is to find a form of exercise that suits our lifestyle. If you can get up early and go for a jog, walk or swim in the morning, it is the best thing to do. Doing some physical work early in the day gives a powerful boost to the metabolic rate of the body, making us burn more calories during the entire day. It also awakens our senses and gives a lift to the mood increasing the feeling of wellbeing. If you are too busy or lazy to find time for your daily dose of exercise in the morning, do not despair. Any time during the day works too. Or even in the evening. You can save on fuel by walking home from work. This will not only help you unwind from work but also would provide the opportunity to burn off those extra calories and purge the system of accumulated toxins. Then there will be no need for chivalrous to people praise you on your slimmed and improved looks. The compliments will be genuine.

Written in response to the following;

Health

Word of the day challenge;

Monotonous

RDP;

Speculate

Your daily word prompt;

Chivalry

#Keepitalive

#FOWC

#RDP

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Three Things Challenge PL#16

 

 

A beautiful plate of fresh salad sprinkled with herbs and grated cheese can be a replacement for lunch any day of the week. I love the pre-prepared boxes available in most grocery stores, all ready to eat with a small plastic ford thoughtfully provided in the same package. I specially love those which have a small sachet of nuts to spread on the top. This gives more nutrition to the salad and also satisfies the palate with adding a crunch to the meal. Another easy and nutritious snack/ lunch replacement are the yogurt packs, with fruit and crunchy nuts etc included. I do have some reservations about the sweetened yogurt as the sugar content is quite high.

Round off this meal with a cup of either hot coffee or tea or you can get a drink of cold water or soda. I really don’t get sodas as the caloric count of soda is very high and the carbonated drink makes it the ideal vehicle to be absorbed rapidly into the bloodstream and rise the glucose levels. Even diet sodas are not free from their own harmful effects.

When watching calories it is best to stay away from hot food, at least during mid-day meal because hot food like paninis, pizzas of burgers cause an increase in appetite and we eat more than required.

 

 

 

 

Written in response to;

3TC

filter, keepsake, salad

Keto friendly Almond flour bread

I have said that I will post some keto friendly recipes on my blog.

I got this recipe from Allrecipes.com, but modified it to get the best results.

So here it is;

Almond flour Bread

Ingredients;

Almond flour——-1 1/2 cups

Flax seed flour——-1/3 cup

Eggs————————-4

Coconut cream/ coconut milk——-1/4 cup.

Olive oil——————————————2 tablespoons

Baking powder——————————-2 teaspoon

Salt————————————————–1/2 teaspoon

Directions;

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, or 175 degrees C.

2. Grease a loaf pan, 4x 8 , lightly with butter or olive oil

3. Mix all the ingredients and whisk lightly.

4. Pour into the prepared pan and sprinkle sesame or sunflower seeds.

Bake for 20- 25 minutes and check by inserting a tooth pick in the middle. If it comes out clean, take out the pan and let it cool naturally. One it is cool, loosen the edges with a knife and gently lift it out of the pan. The baking time can vary, and can take longer in some cases. Please check after 20 minutes.

The bread should be stored in the refrigerator till it is consumed.

This bread tastes good on its own. But you can toast it in the toaster and make a sandwich with cheese and butter, combined with the meat of your choice.

I wrap my bread in cling film to keep it fresh.

Hope you guys enjoy it.

Perfect keto recipe.

A bonus dessert recipe;

Strawberry with Greek yogurt

Strawberries. 1 cup, sliced

Greek yogurt. 1/2 cup

Heavy cream 2 tablespoons

Unsalted mixed nuts ( cashews, peanuts, almonds ) or any other nuts that you like, 2 tablespoons

You can sweeten this with a few drops of liquid stevia, or xylitol ( a couple of teaspoons) and enjoy it as a desert.

The carbs in this recipe are mostly fiber and net carbs are very few.

#Keepitalive

#Ketolifestyle

#Ketodiet

Devoted to Sun

She is a devout sun lover

Everyday a visit to the sunny beach

For her yoga practice and daily dose

Of fresh air is something that is a must

It’s written as a note to herself, in her mind

Never to miss, never to acquiesce to the laziness

And never resort to excuses for relegating this

To do it tomorrow or another day, for whatever

Else may be important, her health has the most priority

Written for the following;

Your daily word prompt;

Devout

FOWC;

Resort

RDP;

Note

Word of the day challenge;

Acquiesce

#Keepitalive

#FOWC

#RDP

My fitness tracker II

I started my walking journey three years ago. It all started when I brought my fitness tracker, Fitbit. I have to admit that I have not been able to achieve all my fitness goals. I thought that I would but I am still quite a way to my targets. These basically are my weight targets. The target that I have achieved are my walking goals.

My tracker, makes me get up and walk for 250 steps, during at least five hours a day. It reminds me that I haven’t achieved my daily steps goal. If I am a bit short on getting to my goal for the day, there is an encouraging message on my app. And similarly, if I go 25% beyond my goal, I get a well done message. These all motivational messages and prompts keep me on my toes, literally. So when I got my summary for the year 2018, I thought I would share it with you all, as a way of acknowledging the help I get from my Fitbit to achieve my walking goals and also to let people know that if I can walk that much, you can too. We just need the proper motivation.

There are numerous benefits of walking for you. Health, both physical and mental is greatly improved by taking a walk, at least five days a week. There is a boost in the mood levels and confidence of people walking daily. Walking stimulates the blood flow though the brain and you can get many new ideas and maybe solve problems irking your mind.

So put on those walk shoes, which are sitting in your closet and head out. Or if it’s too cold or hot, rainy or foggy, stay indoors and walk in the house. I walk indoor if it’s not a good time to walk outside. The aim is to walk, so do that. Whatever the weather or time.

I wrote this post a while ago, about my fitness tracker and how it helps me with keeping track of my steps, sleep and intake.

My fitness tracker

You can check out this post about walking too!

Walk your way to a better physical and mental health

#Keepitalive

#Walkingforhealth

#Healthyliving

#Goodhealth

Intermittent fasting

Definitely not the pizza, that is not what this post is about.

This post is about the way you should be eating and abstaining from food.

My post today is about intermittent fasting.

Fasting is when you don’t eat for a certain period of time. And intermittent fasting is a pattern of eating food at fixed intervals, and abstaining during the rest of the day.

There are many advantages of fasting.

1. Intermittent fasting is one quick way to get into ketosis. The body, when deprived of food for some time uses up all its stored glycogen, a form of sugar stored in liver. In absence of this source of energy, the body is forced to use fat for energy.

2. For people who find it difficult to abstain from eating at all times, the benefit from fasting are huge. When you are bound to a regimen of fasting and eating at fixed times, the caloric intake is automatically restricted.

3. Fasting helps the body to lose fat as compared to traditional low calorie diets where most of the weight loss is water and then muscle mass.

4. Fasting also improves blood sugar levels and helps regulate insulin levels. There is a marked improvement in insulin resistance as well.

5. Fasting has a beneficial effect on the human brain. When the brain is fueled by ketones, the energy providing chemical in ketosis, the mental process is reported to be quicker and thinking is clearer. It promotes brain health.

6. Contrary to general belief, going without food make the body healthier. The body in absence of fuel, turns towards itself, consuming the sick and cancer prone cells. This rids the body of a lot of threats and toxins and promotes longevity. Some doctors have claimed success against cancer on this as well.

What is intermittent fasting; Or IF

Intermittent fasting is described as a way of eating when you follow a fixed pattern of consuming food.

1. Skipping a meal; The easiest type of IF is skipping a meal. You can either do away with breakfast, or merge it into an early lunch, making one meal out of two. The other option is to skip lunch or have it later, combining it with dinner.This way, you can have the benefit of IF, without too much trouble.

2. Daily window; An other way to do IF, is to improve upon the skipping of one meal by prolonging the time between the last meal of the day and the first one on the next day. It would mean a gap of 6-8 hours between the two main meals of the day, leaving 18-16 hours when you are fasting. It may seem difficult but if you are sleeping more than half of this time, it’s quite easy to accomplish.

3. Alternate day fast; Fasting on alternate day is also quite doable. Eat regularly one day and fast the next day, choosing either the meal skipping or the daily window method.

4. 24 hour fasting; This should not be done in the beginning as it is hard on a system not used to fasting. This can be attempted after consulting a doctor. Eat a good high quality meal, rich in calories and the eat the same time next day. It is also known as one meal a day or OMAD.

What can we have while fasting;

Water, it’s very helpful in maintaining the fast and overall a feeling of well-being.

Green tea can be taken provided its free from sugar and any other additives which can have calories.

Lemon and water mix can be consumed.

Tea and coffee, black, without milk, cream whiteners or sugar. But don’t drink too much of them as they can kick you out of your fasting state.

If you want to know about foods you can consume on Keto diet, you can find all the information here;

Foods allowed in Ketogenic Diet

Waiting for your feedback and comments.

#Keepitalive

#Ketogenicdiet

#Intermittentfasting

Fresh air no despair

It is after the holidays and I am re-blogging my post that about the beneficial effects of exercise on us.

Stepping outside into the fresh air, you instinctively take a deep breath. Just to take in all that wonderful  fresh air. Going for a run or jog in the fresh air has an uplifting effect on us. Exercising and doing workouts releases a brain hormone, called endorphins.

What are Endorphins? These are chemicals released in brain when we exercise for a certain amount of time at a certain intensity.

Also known as feel good hormones, endorphins are great mood elevators. After about twenty minutes of exercise of moderate intensity, our brain starts to release endorphins. This is the cause of a euphoric feeling or the runner high.

These chemicals are produced in our brains to relieve stress and pain. The euphoric and analgesic effect are the main reason why people become addicted to exercise, running or jogging. These chemicals also have a sedative effect and that’s why a good run ,walk or workout gives us a good night sleep.

Endorphins not only have a relaxing effect on our bodies but also trigger a positive and uplifting mental outlook. It chases away the anxiety, despair and depression.

Psychologist and psychiatrist also recommend physical activity for a certain time every day to keep depression and anxiety at a minimum.

So let’s put on our running/ walking shoes and go out to enjoy the fresh air that is going to blow away the cob webs from our minds , chase away the blues and energize our body and brain. It will also stimulate our thinking and bring fresh ideas about writing!

So, Endorphins, anyone?

Let me know how you like my post.

Waiting for your feedback and comments.

#Keepitalive

Photo Credits: Google

Lost

“Hey! You have lost some weight” said my friend who hadn’t seen me for some time. “Yes” I answered a bit smugly. It was no mean achievements, loosing thirty five pound in six months. I was very proud of myself.

“But how did you do it?” She was incredulous. After all I had been overweight since a long time, trying different “diets” and giving them up in disgust as nothing would work after first few weeks.

“You see I have started on this new lifestyle, they don’t call it a diet because one has to change one’s eating habits for life to achieve success ” I told her. “And what is this lifestyle called?” She was still skeptical.

It’s called ketogenic lifestyle. Now I had caught her interest. She had heard of this keto diet, as people were calling it, and wanted to know the details.

I told her all about it. The highlights were to stop eating carbohydrates, if not altogether, then to bring them to a minimum. Just vegetables which are practically starch free. ” You mean to say that you had to leave all carbs, like bread, pizza and dessert.” She still couldn’t believe it, that a carb junky like me could give up pasta, breads and all other yummy carb rich foods.

As I explained to her the mechanism through which this diet/ lifestyle change works, she was finally convinced. Even to the extent to give it a try herself.

And do you have to exercise a lot, she wanted to know. I just have a daily walk for an hour or so that is enough for me.

If you want to know about Keto diet/ ketogenic lifestyle, you can check my posts about it on the following;

My keto journey 

Do’s and Don’t’s of keto

Foods allowed in ketogenic diet

Written for;

Your daily word prompt;

Lost

FOWC;

Leave

RDP;

Walk

Keepitalive

#Ketogenicdiet

#Weightloss

Recommend

“So Doctor, what do you recommend? “

The question was put to him by the father, a worried frown on his face. A set of expectant eyes were trained on his face. The rest of the family were waiting outside the consulting room.

Micheal , the doctor had his answers but wasn’t sure how the father or for that matter, the patient would take it. His patient was a seventeen years old girl.

“Well, ahem”, he said clearing his throat,”what I would suggest is that you should go for it”. The father blinked, “Are you sure that there is no other way to deal with it?”

“I have consulted with my colleagues and they all agree. This is the only option left to us”.

“You see that your daughter is very young and being so much overweight at this point just leaves us with the option of Gastric Bypass surgery”.

” I just hope that the insurance will cover the cost of this surgery ” muttered the father under his breath. “How many times I had warned her that the junk food she has been eating since she was twelve was not good for her health!”

“But kids! They don’t listen do they?”

Written for:

RDP

Recommend

#Keepitalive

Walk your way to better physical and mental health

This reads like a banner for a marathon! Nonetheless, it’s a solid fact of life.

I don’t know about you but I was always a very reluctant walker. All my family would love to go for long walks. The idea of a good Sunday would be an outdoor activity, including a walk or hiking. And among these active people, I would be trying to find excuses to stay put. Walking was not my cup of tea. I would love to lounge around and spend my time in a sedentary activities. In short I was a perfect couch potato.

So why I am advocating WALKING?

The reason is simple. Necessity! It dawned on me that if I was to enjoy even average health, I need to get off my couch and step it up. So I started to walk. I would say to myself that I need not walk for long, just 10 minuets. Gradually I increased my walk and lo and behold!! I was walking up to 30 minuets a day. Admittedly it took longer to get to 30 from 10 minuets than I care to acknowledge. But , though I was walking , it was not bringing me any joy!

I would be looking at my daily walk as a dreaded chore. Then I discovered the joy of indoor walking. And what is that? You may ask!

I discovered that if I walk inside my home, I don’t have to be dependent upon the time of day, I can do my walking any time. I wouldn’t be concerned if was raining out sunny outside. And it wouldn’t matter if it was a hot day or a cold one . I would walk around the house at a brisk (ish) pace and while listening to music on my ear buds, I could walk for up to an hour and not even realize it. The other trick was to have long conversations with friends and the time would fly. I didn’t need to put on my sneakers/ walking shoes or be respectably dressed as there was no one to see me. So now I walk daily. I look forward to my daily walk and enjoy it too.

Walking, not only is good for my health but is also a mental relaxer. I can start my walk in a stressful mood or in anxiety about something but at the end of it I am totally relaxed and happy, even.

These are my personal preferences, you can walk wherever you feel comfortable. But since I found a good thing, I wanted to share it with you !

I can enumerate many health benefits of walking but I am sure that you all know them. So if you want to live a good life and want to be independent even in your old age, it’s time to start walking.

Please let me know how you are liking my posts. Would love to hear from you.

#walkingforhealth

#keepitalive

#mentalhealth