What causes Food Cravings?
Food cravings are a complex combination of emotional, biochemical and hormonal factors. Blood sugar is the predominate reason for food cravings but hormones and emotions also play their part. One theory is that our bodies are “asking us” to remedy a nutritional deficiency, but that theory doesn’t explain why most of us crave donuts and potato chips instead of kale or broccoli. Whatever is causing your food cravings, here are some sure fire ways to help you handle the urge to over eat.
1) Never Skip Meals
Don’t drastically cut your calorie intake. You need to eat enough to maintain your ideal body weight, please don’t go on any kind of starvation diet, they will only make your fatter! Eat small meals and snacks throughout the day instead of eating three large meals, this helps avoid the temptation to snack on bad foods. Eat enough protein to regulate your insulin levels.
2) Exercise Daily
Exercise increases endorphins and serotonin and that will cut down on your food cravings. Mood can have a serious effect on how much we gobble down so getting daily exercise is vital to managing a healthy weight. Try to get at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day to keep you happy and in control.
3) Get Enough Sleep
Inadequate sleep triggers food cravings. Recent studies have shown that the link between sleep deprivation and weight gain may be greater than previously thought. There are several studies that make a connection between important hormones and proper sleep. You can increase your fat burning capabilities and reduce your cravings by getting enough sleep. Try to get 7-8 hours every night.
4) Eat Whole Foods
Eating whole foods provides more vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants to your diet. If your body’s getting the proper nutrition, it’ll go a long way towards reducing food cravings.
Fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, seeds and sustainably raised meats, in their natural form and unprocessed are considered whole foods. Buy foods that are fresh rather than canned or frozen whenever possible. The sooner you consume the foods from where they originate the more nutritional value they have. Shop at your local farmers market!
5) Always Have Breakfast
Breakfast gives your body a much needed metabolism boost in the morning. Try to eat within a hour of waking up. Stay away from sugary cereals, pastries, and white breads because they’ll leave you hungry and tired within a couple of hours. Eating a breakfast high in protein and fiber will keep you satisfied the longest.
6) Mange Your Stress
Stress is a huge factor in over eating. Stressful days promote patterns of skipping meals and then overeating, which leads to a roller-coaster ride of energy peaks and valleys. Our emotions, moods and focus follow our glucose levels. No matter how tempting that candy bar is, it will only lead to more fatigue and stress. To keep your energy up and your stress level low, you’ve got to eat the right foods. Eat light and eat often.
7) Drink Lots of Water.
Maintaining a high level of hydration throughout will help stop food cravings and the urge to drink something sugary. Feeling thirsty can lead to us to eating when all our bodies really want is water.
8) Eat Good Fat
Fat is essential and it’s an integral part of every cell in our body. Fat comprises about a third of our brains. Eating fat is fundamental to our health and well being. Among its many roles, fat is crucial to maintaining adequate hormonal balance, stabilizing blood sugar, increasing immunity, supplying energy, and controlling hunger. Examples of good fat are olive oil, coconut oil, nut and seed oils and real butter.
9) Don’t Eat Bad Fat
Trans-fats, hydrogenated fats and interesterified fats (which is another high processed and chemically altered fat). These fats have been chemically restructured and our bodies can’t metabolize them. These fats build up as cellular debris and can eventually damage cells and disrupt their function. Processed fats can increase our food cravings and make us fatter. Read the label on processed foods such as crackers, chips, dressings and baked goods to make sure these fats are not in the list of ingredients.
10) Keep Your Kitchen Stocked with Fresh, Organic Fruits and Vegetables.
Start shopping more wisely. Some careful planning will go a long way towards reducing the amount of calories you consume at home when your defenses are down. Toss the junk food and restock your cupboard and fridge with nuts, cheese, fruits, vegetables, chicken, fish and other whole foods.
The bulk of your grocery basket should be filled in the produce aisle! When you get those cravings grab a piece of fruit or some veggies.
11) Stop Drinking Diet Soda
12) Wait, Think Moderation.
A craving generally lasts only 8 to 14 minutes. If you are truly hungry this advice is not for you…go eat! But if you’re craving that 3rd piece of pizza, just wait it out. Refusing to give in to a craving will feel somewhat uncomfortable but it will pass, it means the difference between success and failure in maintaining a healthy body weight.
13) Eat Organic
Eating organic provides our bodies with the nutrients it needs and wants. I know I would rather have my food grown in live soil, full of micronutrients, than dried up, chemical laden soil. Most industrial agriculture is pretty scary. Foods grown in rich earth gives us more of the nutrients our bodies need, keeping all our systems in balance, including the endocrine system which help with cravings.
14) Eat Enough Protein.
Inadequate amounts of protein can result in cravings in between meals. Include eggs, yogurt, milk or nuts at breakfast for a protein boost. For the rest of the day try to incorporate some meat, fish, tofu, beans, cheese or chicken into every meal.
15) Eat a Healthy, Sweet Treat
It’s okay to give into a craving for something sweet. Have a protein shake, whole wheat toast with jam or honey, fruit or yogurt.
16) Eat Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate is believed to release brain chemicals that aid with fighting depression and it satiates our appetites, reducing food cravings. Independent studies show that dark chocolate has tremendous health benefits. People with food cravings may benefit from the healthy flavanoids and antioxidants found in dark chocolate. Flavonoids also help relax blood pressure and balance certain hormones in the body.
17) Beware of Alcohol
Not only is alcohol filled with empty calories, it can increase your appetite. It is hard to tell when your body is full after you become a bit tipsy. Alcohol also relaxes that willpower of yours, which makes you even more likely to go for a second helping.
We are all feeling it. Everyone I know has been affected by this economic crisis and there’s nothing we can do except ride it out. So what’s the best prescription to get you through these ailing times? Exercise! It doesn’t matter why you feel stressed out, there’s no better way to deal with those negative thoughts than working up a good sweat. 
All exercise, but particularly weight lifting and interval training can significantly reduce stress, anxiety and depression. Intense bursts of excursion that leave you breathing hard, are the most effective for relieving worry. Exercise also helps you sleep better and a good night’s sleep is vital to managing stress.
Everybody understands that humans weren’t designed to sit around all day. Our bodies and our brains need that boost of hormones that our bodies release during exercise (epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine to name a few) and exercise regulates the stress hormone cortisol which can make us feel miserable. Based on the bodies physiological responses to exercise, it’s obvious that this is precisely how we were designed to 
manage stress. We spent millions of years evolving to be in constant motion, I find it surprising that exercising 30-60 minutes a day can provide all the movement we need to thrive and stay happy. With such a small amount of time required to dramatically improve our quality of life, it’s amazing that so many people make excuses not to.
You may feel powerless in terms of your home life, your finances, or your politics, but there is a way to add a silver lining to almost everything we experience. Our brains have given us a natural gift for coping with stress and we should all be taking advantage of it!
The best way to improve muscle strength, power and endurance is with dumbbell exercises. Building up strength with the use of weights is a great way to maintain lean muscle mass and increase the bodies metabolic rate. Nothing will keep you looking and feeling better than resistance training. Being strong will give you the energy you need to maintain a active lifestyle.
Dumbells can be used for every muscle group and the versatility of exercises for any body part is nearly limitless. This keeps the muscles guessing, a much needed combination to eliminate plateaus and keep lean body mass growing. Dumbbells allow your body to follow a natural range of motion, unlike machines, which restrict movement. When you workout, you want the movements to be fluid and dynamic. It’s best to change the angle of attack – sometimes even mid exercise. The more ways you change up your workouts, the more your muscles will respond.
Thighs, Hips and Gluts
Dumbbell squats
Dumbbell lunges
Reverse lunge
Splint lunge on stability ball
Dumbbell deadlifts
Dumbbell step ups
Wall squats, with stability ball and dumbbells
Single leg squat with dumbbell & Dead lifts with dumbells
Bosu Ball Squats
Bosu Ball Lunges
Calves
Dumbbell donkey calf raises
Calf raises on a dumbbell
Chest
Dumbbell bench press
Dumbbell incline bench press
Bent-arm dumbbell pullover
Dumbbell flys
Dumbbell incline flys
Dumbbell push up with rotation
Back
Dumbbell shrugs
One-arm dumbbell rows
Twisting Dumbbell Row
Bent over two-arm dumbbell rows
Dumbbell hyper extensions
Stiff legged dumbbell deadlifts
Shoulders
Arnold dumbbell press
Front dumbbell raises
Dumbbell lateral raises
Dumbbell upright rows
Bent over dumbbell rear deltoid raises
Biceps
Alternating hammer curls
Cross body dumbbell hammer curls
Concentration curls
Alternate incline dumbbell curls
Triceps
Tricep Kickbacks
Seated dumbell tricep extensions
Dumbell tricep extension
Close grip dumbbell press
Forearms
Reverse curls
Dumbbell wrist curls
Abs
Weighted crunches
Renegade dumbbell rows
Side bends
7 awesome compound exercises with dumbbells;
Dumbbell swing, front squat and press, hang clean, hang clean and press, single arm hang snatch, single arm hang clean and the single arm clean and press
To demonstrate all of these, watch these great instructional videos from Athlete365
Fat Tuesday’s here! This is a day to let go and binge on sugary cocktails, beer and some very fattening traditional ‘Fat Tuesday’ treats like Paczki and Jambalaya.
It’s ok to indulge yourself a few days a year as long as you are thinking of the big picture, because that’s what it takes to keep you toned and trim even when you give into temptation. Here are some fun facts to remember that make days like ‘Fat Tuesday’, no big deal.
Muscle burns 50′x more calories than fat. When you replace 5 pounds of fat for muscle, you’re burning an extra 250 calories a day at rest, or 1,750 a week, or 7,000 a month, or 84,000 calories a year! Some quick math… that translates into 24 lbs. Just imagine if you replaced 10 lbs of fat with muscle, you would be burning nearly 50 lbs of fat worth of calories a year.
So who care about a few indulgent days, enjoy!
Obama has challenged Americans to get up and move! He reportedly only missed one workout in the last 2 years. Now if he can manage to keep fit as a dad, a senator and while running for President of the United States…YOU have no excuses! He makes working out a priority by getting up early and doing 45 minutes of cardio one day and weightlifting one day, alternating.
He does it all!
Obama plays basketball….
Obama golfs….
Obama does pull ups!…..
Bowls?…….ok
Obama body surfs…
Obama pitches……
Obama rides his bike…..
The total amount spent on health care in US last year was $2.4 trillion, that’s $7,900 per person! In large part, this is the cost of our sedintary lifestyles and poor eating habits (and broken health care system). Anyone can come up with an excuse not to exercise. Soloflex wants you to stop making excuses and get to it. No one can afford remedial healthcare. Everyone can afford prevention.
1. Cross Fit
CrossFit workouts may not be for everyone but you’ll get serious results! The CrossFit philosophy of functional training (natural and compound ranges of motion) incorporates using your body weight, kettle bells, weighted balls, pull up bars, rings, ropes and barbells. CrossFit workouts are similar to Olympic and gymnastic training, the Boston CrossFit blog has some kick ass videos showing how to get the moves right. Check out the website, there is a new challenging workout posted daily.
2. Body Weight Workouts
Body Weight Workouts. You can get a hard body fast with NO equipment! A lot of people don’t have extra space in their homes for equipment or want a good workout on the road…. no biggie because you can get an awesome workout with nothing but your own body weight. If you can’t do push-up, start on your knees. Use a chair or bench under a pull up bar to get started if you can’t already do one, help your self up and slowly let yourself down, it’s the negative portion of the exercise that will grow your muscles and provide the strength gains you need to allow you to do a full pull up without assistance. This prison workout is another great free body workout.
3. High Intensity Interval Training
High Intensity Interval training (HIIT) is a specific kind of cardio training that incorporates short intense intervals. HIIT will give your metabolism a serious boost and burn fat for hours. A typical example time ratio is 2:1 meaning jog for 60 seconds and sprint for 30 seconds. A beginner may complete 6-8 cycles but as your fitness level improves you can increase the amount of cycles you do. I have recently cut my cardio workouts out down from 60 minutes to 30 minutes. Why? Because I know that if I push myself as hard as I can for half as long, I’ll get more out of my workout. And it’s actually made my workouts more enjoyable.
4. Plyometrics
Plyometric workouts seem to be a favorite for actors who need to pack on muscle fast. I would say that if this is the training program for people like Christian Bale and Brad Pitt … then it works!
Plyometric exercises were designed specifically to increase muscle strength and power. It’s an athlete’s workout that incorporates explosive movements in rapid sequence. Here’s several examples of plometic exercises for your lower body at light, moderate and high intensity. Examples for upper body.
5. Functional Training
Functional Training is often referred to when discussing workouts that include compound exercises, meaning exercises that use more than one muscle group. The term functional implies that it replicates our bodies natural range of motion. We highly recommend compound exercises because it’s a more efficient way to exercise and it burns more calories. A few examples would be: Squats with an overhead press, lunge with bicep curl or lateral raise, deadlift with a bent over row.
6. Training with Whole Body Vibration
Whole Body Vibration, it took me a while to get on board with this concept. I was a skeptic once too. I wish I hadn’t been such a doubter. I also love this machine now! I use it for my free body exercises and weighted exercises too, my favorites are push ups and lunges. It may seem unbelievable to you too but the studies proving it’s effectiveness just keep coming.
7. Power Yoga
Ashtanga or Power Yoga not only increases your strength, flexibility and endurance but it’s an amazing way to relieve the body and mind of stress like no other workout. Since I incorporated power yoga (ashtanga or vinyasa) to my weekly workouts I have seen huge improvements physically, but have been most impressed with a new sense of well being. It has the ability to take you to your edge physically while soothing and relaxing your mind at the same time. If you are a serious weightlifter or athlete, power yoga is a great compliment to your overall training.
8. Kettlebells
The kettlebell was introduced to me for the first time at a CrossFit gym. I had seen the videos and honestly, I was a bit intimidated. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy using them but I was wrong! The kettlebell is an awesome tool for functional and compound training. The way they’re weighted and the way the grip is positioned allows you to comfortably swing, press and pull the the weight around.
I have since bought a pair of kettlebells for my house, they’ve been great to use on my vibration platform. Unlike most weighted workouts, kettlebells allow you to move through large ranges of motion to really get the heart pumping.
If you start looking online for kettlebell instructional videos, you’ll find everything from the old school Russian routines to pregnancy workouts. You should have no trouble finding the right workout, what ever your fitness level.
9. Get Outside!
Walking may be the most basic exercise of all but it doesn’t have to be the easiest. Hiking involves truckin’ up a steep hills and moving around and over rocks and stumps. It’s a perfect way to really work up a sweat. Why not get some fresh air and beautiful scenery if you can. If a beautiful hike outdoors isn’t realistic, take a brisk walk to the park or around your neighborhood. Be creative, boost your walks by finding hills, walking faster, or go that 15 extra minutes. It’s also a workout that can be done with friends. Try to walk with someone who you know is in better shape, they’ll help you keep a faster pace.
My friend sent me this link about the 20 worst foods in 2009. I’ve always been amazed at these column’s in Men’s Health magazine and it’s certainly kept me away from a few restaurants.
It’s hard to believe that a sandwich or an individual pizza can contain more than your recommended daily intake of calories. I’m sure that seeing the calorie count on some of those foods has given people pause before ordering.
Most of this information is fairly obvious. The bad options are always fast food (no secrets there) or one notch above, places like Chili’s, Macaroni Grill and TGI Fridays. These restaurants use the cheapest food available, so they have to drown it in lard, salt and sugar to disguise its quality (Macaroni Grill’s fried ravioli dessert at 1630 calories and 74 grams of fat being a great example of pulling out all the stops) yikes. Even if your only clue was the size of the plates they use, you could assume these meals = gut bomb.
Great examples of why American’s are some of the fattest people in the world:
One order of Tam’s Noodles at PF Chang’s has as much fat as 42 Krispy Kreme donuts.
TGI Friday’s pecan chicken salad at 1390 calories! This is supposed to be the healthy choice.
Worst burger award goes to Chili’s Smokehouse bacon cheese burger, with a mere 2,040 calories and 150 grams of fat.
Ahhh, what will be on next years list? No doubt it will be a shuffle of the same restaurant chains, all competing for worst place prize.
Have you also noticed that the ‘Eat That’ instead recommendations are usually just smaller versions of the same crappy, processed food? Maybe some year they’ll come out with a list of truly good recommendations. How about something fresh? organic maybe? Home cooked meal? Just sayin’
You can go with this…………………………………….. or you can go with that.
Intense weight lifting will increase the bodies production of human growth hormone. HGH has been proven to increase bone density, increase muscle mass, decrease body fat, strengthen the heart and increase blood vessel elasticity. Some studies have shown that HGH increases skin thickness, which helps eliminate wrinkles.
It is known that human growth hormone is important for attaining optimum health. Reduction in levels of HGH leads to premature aging and an entire host of other aging-related symptoms. But an increase in growth hormone should ONLY come from natural sources, your body!
Lifting weights will increase HGH, which in turn has the power to make you:
- Look Younger
- Lose fat
- Reduce wrinkles
- Improve your skin texture
- Improve your skin elasticity
- Feel younger
- Elevate your mood
- Improve your sleep
- Restore your sex drive
- Increase your overall energy
- Restore your bone and muscle mass
- Reduce your blood pressure
- Reduce your cholesterol
- Normalizes your blood sugar
- Regenerate your heart, liver, kidneys, lungs
Start weightlifting today and begin to change your biological age!
PS…here are a few reasons not to inject HGH
- Swelling in your arms and legs
- Arthritis-like symptoms
- Headaches
- Bloating
- Muscle pain
- Diabetes
- Abnormal growth of bones and internal organs
- Hardening of the arteries
Nothing has significantly helped children who are being treated for Crohn’s disease in regards to bone and muscle atrophy, except whole body vibration. This is after years of experimenting with various drugs and nutrition programs, most of which, are having little or no effect on these children’s bone and muscle density.
The reason for the lack of bone density in children with Crohn’s disease is unknown, but it is thought that steroids taken to control the disease can accelerate the problem. Until now, doctors were unsure how to reverse the effects of this devastating problem, but after years of study they have finally found that whole body vibration may be the answer. 
A new $3mm study called ” healthy vibrations” is under way and is being funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Inadequate sleep triggers food cravings. Recent studies have shown that the link between sleep deprivation and weight gain may be greater than previously thought. There are several studies that make a connection between important hormones and proper sleep. You can increase your fat burning capabilities and reduce your cravings by getting enough sleep. Try to get 7-8 hours every night.
Get busy. Many people convince themselves that they’re hungry when they are actually just bored. If you find yourself eating because there is nothing else to do, put yourself to work.
Fructose doesn’t register in the body metabolically like glucose (sugar). Real sugar kicks off a cascade of biochemical reactions that increase insulin, enabling sugar to be used for energy. Sugar also releases a hormone (ghrelin) that regulates appetite and fat storage. If you eat sugar, your body recognizes it and converts it into energy but not so with Fructose! Fructose doesn’t stimulate insulin production, leptin or ghrelin…all the hormones and chemicals that send signals to your brain that you’re satified. High Fuctose corn syrup is a leading cause of obesity.
