Weight Watchers is a diet that has been around for 30 years. It is more of a lifestyle than a diet and offers lots of support to anyone trying to lose weight or improve their fitness
Meditation for fitness? How will this make you feel more fit? Why do I want to bring up what my mom calls navel gazing? Well for at least 4000 years people have been using meditation to center the concentration. There are other credited benefits as well.
Benefits of Meditation for Fitness
Many feel that the act of meditation lowers your metabolism to give you greater than sleep type rest. Improvement in the immune system and improved sense of well being are also reported by regular meditation practitioners.
Going through Deepak Chopra or Wayne Dyer’s work as well as many others you will find a very simple way to meditate that stays away from expensive training although getting a couple books would not hurt anyway.
The first step to meditation for fitness is to sit in a quiet place preferably on the floor with your back up against a wall. To meditate all you need to do is close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing. You can focus on your breathing coming in through your nose and down to your abdomen and then coming up and out of your mouth. This is a very simple method and should be done for 15-30 minutes twice a day, morning and night.
There are several books that will help you in studying meditation. Also you can go to several websites to learn more. Meditation.com as well as learning meditation.com are great resources.
So do not neglect meditation for fitness as it can really help you out
The Science of Meditation In the highlands of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, people look at life differently.When villagers cook, sew or plow the fields, they...
Meditation as Stress Relief? An interesting study was released a while back from West Virginia University on meditation as stress relief is getting some...
Meditation Techniques For A Happier Life Meditation refers to a state where your body and mind are consciously relaxed and focused. Practitioners of this art report...
I have been messing around with a lot of supplementation for years but this video that I have found shows a lot of the great things you can do all in one.
Thomas Delauer has been interesting for a few years although recently he seems to be doing a lot of the 6 pack abs sales videos which is a bit disappointing, but a guy has to make a living right?
In this video Thomas, and his girlfriend talk about making a Mocha type coffee that contains MCT oil and is really great tasing and go through all the reasons why it is better for you that just Bulletproof coffee. They go into great detail as to why you should be ushimself watying each of the additional ingredients for your coffee.
If you have never heard of bulletproof coffee it is the source of legend in the BioHacking world. Dave Asprey, probably the most famous biohacking guy, was on a hike in the Himalayas and pushed himself too hard, finally after exhaustion really hit he went to a small house and they gave him coffee with Yak butter and he recovered immediately – apparently Yak Butter is high in MCTs, and Dave went on to create Bulletproof Coffee
First of all, what a cute couple, second of all why did Thomas use a great mic mike and leave his girlfriend to have bad sound trying to talk at the camera.
But lots of great content and ideas in this video
Contents of the Better than Bulletproof Coffee
Anyone that is watching this video likes coffee I suspect, or they wouldn’t be watching. This coffee is pretty simple but you might not have everything you need in the house already. The extras needed are:
MCT Oil – This is the magic ingredient. MCT Oil is made from coconut oil and is actually Medium Chain Triglyerides that are able to pass the blood-brain barrier as well as able to be used as energy much more readily than any other source.
Ghee – Clarified butter which is caramelized. A great alternative to butter, which has milk solids and can be hard to digest. The healthier alternative instead.
Cacao – cacao is mostly cocoa but is not as processed, so it is much better for you. The great thing is that Cacao has all the healthy features of Cocoa but is more pure to the cocoa bean
Himalayan Salt – a type of salt that it not supplemented with Iodine but has many trace minerals and helps Keto people retain the water they may be losing from a lack of carbs that retain needed water.
Stevia – I have not used Stevia before as most people I talk to have found that it has a crappy aftertaste so I use Monkfruit instead which is sugar free but is sweet with no insulin response (good for Keto if that is your thing)
Deliciously Natural Skin and Hair Care Natural skin and hair care can incorporate such delightfully luscious ingredients that you almost feel self-indulgent using them. Fortunately, staying...
Over the years I have seen a lot of flimsy ideas of how to get a set of six pack abs. The most common scams are special machines that will do it and sometimes some kind of drink. I remember at one point Slim Fast seemed to be showing chubby people suddenly spawning a set of six pack abs.
Anyway I wanted to put this notion to rest that there is some magic to getting a six pack. Sure there is some genetics involved in sculpting perfect abs but the two most important factors are diet and exercise.
What? Did you think there was a shortcut?
Six Pack Abs Diet
The diet part is fairly simple; you need to drop any extra fat. You have probably heard this before but there is no such thing as spot reduction when you are losing weight. You will lose weight proportionately, generally, as you lose weight.
What you may find is that you have a large stomach and if that is the case of course you will lose that fat faster than you lose the fat on your legs but that is just because that is where the fat deposits will be easiest for your body to use.
As you probably know from reading other posts of mine I subscribe to the idea that people eat too many carbohydrates generally but I still do not support the Atkins diet generally but more of a Paleo style diet with no breads, rice, or even potatoes, all your carbs should come from fruits and vegetables.
I believe that you must increase your protein to at least 20% of your diet, keep fats at about 20% of the calories of your diet and then have carbs as the other 60% of the calories of your diet. If you still have trouble losing weight and fat you may be a bit sensitive to carbohydrates and you can up the protein a little.
Six Pack Abs Exercise
As for exercise, to get a set of six pack abs you will have to do two things; get in an hour of cardio a day to increase your metabolism and start really dropping the fat and secondly make sure that you do your abdominal exercises at the start of your workouts.
For cardio exercise it does not really matter what kind of cardio exercise you get but it is always best to vary your exercise so that you do not overtrain any one muscle group. I never see people speak of this in regards to cardio training but I have found in the past with my bicycling that when I am riding a lot my legs get sore but the rest of my body recovers fine.
So maybe try to alternate some kind of biking, swimming, hiking, running, brisk walking and even using a rowing machine if you have a chance. Do cardio almost every day, five or six days a week is good, seven days a week is pushing it a little too much in my eyes.
Next is the abdominal exercises themselves. There are three places to target for your abdominals, the obliques, which are on your sides, your upper abdominals and your lower abdominals. Doing abdominal exercises is something that some people believe you should do every day but I really believe you are doing well if you just do them every second day or three days a week.
Six Pack Abs – Oblique Exercises
For your obliques you can do twists. Simply sit on a bench with you body straight up and down and put some kind of a light bar or broomstick across your shoulders and then do twists twist from one side to the other as far as you can go for two sets of 100 reps.
The key is to not use much at all as gaining muscle on your obliques will widen your midsection which is not something most people want to do.
Six Pack Abs – Upper Ab Exercises
To work your upper abdominals you want to do some kind of sit ups or crunches.
I am more a fan of crunches as they are easier on your neck and mower back. Lie on your back with your legs up on the seat of a chair so that your legs are at a 90 degree angle to your body and then just lift your shoulders a few inches of the ground and then let them down again.
This should put stress on your abs and you should feel it pretty intensely after just a few reps. be sure to do this exercise slowly and for at least three sets of 30 reps.
Six Pack Abs – Lower Ab Exercises
To work your lower abdominals you need to do something that raises your legs in the air as opposed to lifting your upper body into the air.
The exercise that I prefer for this is a kind of reverse crunch that I do not have a name for. I lie flat on my back and hold something behind my head to keep my upper body stable and then I just bring my knees up towards my chest and back down to the ground again.
If you get really strong this way you can try just lifting your legs straight out and up but sadly I am not that strong.
Transverse Abdominis Exercises
Your Transverse Abdominis muscles are a set of muscles that sits underneath your core and wraps its way right around your body. This muscle is affected most I find by doing planks and side planks.
Working your Transverse Abdominis is a finishing exercise as ince you finish doing these planks and side planks you will have nothing left in your to do anymore working out. Your entire core will be spent
Get Six Pack Abs Now
If you follow this plan you will see results very quickly and depending on how much fat you have to lose you can see rock hard abs fairly quickly. The other great thing about strengthening your abs besides looking better is the fact that strengthening your core makes you stronger overall and help out with your balance and even your stamina.
Still need more help? There is a great book out called The Truth About Six Pack Abs. The book is an ebook and is only available on the internet. If you would like more information click the link and check out the Six Pack Abs book now.
I have been pretty clear that I am just working most of my body in a single workout lately but there is of course another way which is the 2 day split workout. The split workout.
With a split schedule you can do the same amount of work in one day but get twice the number of sets per workout.
As you start lifting more and more and your body gets accustomed to the workouts you may start to get tired of and start not getting the results that you were getting before.
If you are at that point than breaking up your workout may be just what you need to get to the next level.
Here is the classic 2 day split workout:
Day 1 – Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Hamstrings
Day 2 – Back, Biceps, Quads, Calves
The reason that you are doing the workouts this way is so that you do not overtax secondary muscles. If you are doing bench press for your chest for example then you will get assistance from your front shoulder muscles and triceps.
These muscle would not have a chance to recover between workouts if they are getting pushed every workout. In exactly the same way if you are doing lat pulldowns you are working your biceps and back of your shoulders.
2 day Split Workout
If you want to do more sets per muscle group it is impossible unless you break your body up. As it is now I will do a total of 1 set of warmup and two sets of hard sets per muscle group.
Working the above system means that you will do two exercises instead of one and even though you should still do two warmup sets (one for each exercise) you will now be getting four heavy sets in instead for each muscle group and this is more enough for most of us mere mortals.
Of course the drawback to this kind of workout is that it then takes twice the number of workouts to get your whole body trained.
So doing this kind of system may mean doing four workouts a week instead of just two. For many people once they have reached this level though the idea of four workouts a week does not seem too much of a stretch.
When to move to a 2 day split workout
Two day split workout
So how do you know if it is time to move to this classic 2 day split workout?
Well mostly it has to do with how you feel after your workout and the next day.
Do you feel like you have gotten the most out of your workout?
Do you feel like you are recovering the next day?
Do you have more energy than you feel you should after working out?
The problem with the whole body in one workout system is that after a while your body has gotten too used to the stress on the muscles and stops getting stronger and you stop making muscle gains.
These workouts each day will be at least as hard as your one day workout was but your muscles should be absolutely spent. The nice thing is that these workouts are going to push your muscles fully so that you will start making really nice gains in muscle size and strength again.
When you are ready it may be a great time to switch to a 2 day split workout.
Splitting up your workout A split schedule is a way to change up your workout so that instead of working your body all in...
Weight Training Split Schedule Part 1 Strength training will probably be the hardest thing to get started now that you have cardio under your belt. The...
As I mentioned last week a couple of times I have been fighting with a bit of a cough and some trouble breathing. I had suffered away for a few days until my wife heard about something called Oil of Oregano.
Oregano oil is apparently quite popular as a natural antibiotic and Also as an antiviral. This means that it should help you better fight ˜bugs’ that you get. I had not heard of this essential oil previously and within 10 minutes my wife had me at the health food store and for $33.99 we bought a bottle of oil of oregano.
Why take oil of oregano?
What is oil of oregano good for? Well the initial reason that we bought it was to get rid of a sore throat that my wife and I both had and it seemed to work for that but there are many other reasons to try oil of oregano. Here they are:
Colds & Flus
Skin Conditions
Respiratory & Sinus Conditions
Digestive Conditions
Mouth Conditions
Digestive Conditions
Burns, Wounds, Cuts
Sore Muscles and Joints
Does Oil of Oregano Help?
Well initially we took the oil of oregano for our sore throats and as much as I am not a really big fan of a lot of herbal remedies when I have not researched them I have found that the oil or oregano certainly helped my throat feel a lot better the same day.
Some people are using Oil of Oregano as a way to avoid the flu and I am not so sure if this will work but it does not hurt to watch to see if that is the case.
How do you take Oil of Oregano?
First off I have to tell you that this stuff is really strong smelling. Oil of Oregano comes as a liquid with a dropper and I have been taking about 5 drops once a day over the last week. You can not take oil of oregano by itself. I have been mixing the five drops in a small cup of cranberry juice although you could really use any juice and then afterwards drinking a big glass of water.
One thing that I did notice is that when I licked the spoon that I stirred my oil of oregano and juice mixture with I found that it kind of burns my lips, it is that strong. I did not feel any problems with my stomach though as I was a little concerned that this may happen.
If you have a cut or a burn you can also apply it directly on it although I have not tried this yet myself
So I would say if you are feeling a little under the weather (not a lot, that is when you go to the doctor) then try this Oil of Oregano and let me know what you find as well.
Sore Throat Remedy A sore throat may have many causes and it is important to find the right sore throat remedy for the...
My legs are sore today I have taken it a bit easy that last week and a half or so. I had access to a...
Aloe Vera Juice for Weight Loss Aloe Vera And Its Benefits Aloe Vera is a medicinal plant known for its cosmetic and therapeutic purposes. It”s widely cultivated...
The diet part is fairly simple; you need to drop any extra fat. You have probably heard this before but there is no such thing as spot reduction when you are losing weight. You will lose weight proportionately, generally, as you lose weight.
What is oil of oregano good for? Well the initial reason that we bought it was to get rid of a sore throat that my wife and I both had and it seemed to work for that but there are many other reasons to try oil of oregano. Here they are: