Have you ever felt tired and stressed out from work and by the time you get home you see your three children running towards you asking you to play basketball with them? You refused and promised them that you will after you take you rest.

Instead of disappointing your children, why not say, “yes” after all? You will be surprised by the amount of energy you will have after that 30-minute activity.

Did you know that by exercising at a moderate pace for only 30 minutes, you would feel a lot better, mentally? It has been proven that this improves the appetite and sharpens your style in problem solving. Not only that. You will also feel that it is easier to sleep at night if you do moderate exercises even for only 30 minutes every day.

What are the benefits of regular exercise? It promotes self-discipline and has a positive impact how you perceive life. Exercise helps in lifting your spirits and getting you out of any depression. For first timers, it can be done for 15 minutes for 2 to 3 days a week. You can increase the time you spend once your body gets tuned up for it.

DON’T you ever force your body! If you get hurt, then stop. You can take a break from exercising for a few days and then you can start again but you need to start from day 1.

Here are some moderate exercises you can do and enjoy:

1. Do the Walking. Make use of your surroundings. You can walk your dog, with your partner or child. Encourage your family to do the walking exercise daily and you will find yourself burning calories while enjoying the surroundings and getting enough sunlight that is also good for your body.

2. Discover the wonders of Yoga. Yoga is one effective exercise that energizes not only your body but also your soul. You may want to learn even the basic yoga positions that are not too complicated but proven effective. A five-minute yoga exercise can perk you up and recharge your body with the energy you lost for the whole day. You relax and at the same time you stretch!

3. Engage yourself into sports. Play basketball, football, baseball, tennis or badminton. Many doctors have recommended sports as an effective way to stay fit and healthy. Sports can also be done in moderation. Do not take it seriously. Shooting basketball with a friend is one moderate exercise that is also considered a sport.

4. Join exercise programs at work. If you still do not have exercises programs at work, then why not start it? You can talk to your boss about it and start with your colleagues. You do not only lose calories but it is also one good way to bond with them. This can be done 30 minutes, 3 times a week.

5. Exercise while doing household chores. Gardening, raking leaves, lawn mowing, doing the laundry, vacuuming and car washing are effective moderate exercises at home. Make use of these chores to sweat and burn calories. Instead of using machines and gadgets to perform these chores, why not do it with your hands and lose some fats?

Making exercises as part of your daily routines will surprise you of how much calories you will lose. Doing these moderate exercises of the same amount every day can burn 150 calories up to 1,000 calories a day!

The nutrition label located on each and every food item,
will tell you all the information about that food. For
some however, this information isn’t exactly that reader
friendly. Fear not, as it’s actually easier than you
think.

Serving Size
This size is based on the amount people eat. Similar
food items will have similar serving sizes, thus making
it easier to compare 2 foods of the same category.

% Daily Value
This indicates how food will fit in a 2,000 calorie
diet. This will help you to understand if the food
has a lot, or just a little of the important nutrients.

The middle section
The nutrients you’ll find listed in the middle section
are the ones that are most important to your health.
This information can help you to calculate your daily
limit of fat, fiber, sodium, and other nutrients.

Vitamins & minerals
The percent daily value found here is the exact same
as the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance for vitamins
and minerals.

Now that you know what the nutrition label actually
means, it’ll be a lot easy to eat healthy. Eating
healthy is a great thing – especially when you use the
nutrition label to assist you with your food choices.

Living a life of health and fitness is hard but it is not impossible. In fact, with discipline and commitment, you can actually change your habits and finally get rid of those habits that affect your health.

Below are some of the things that we feel are important parts in the road to a better and healthier you. Read on and see if you have any of them or are doing most of them.

1. Serious commitment: If you really want to change your life and get rid of habits that you have for so long been doing, you’ve got to want it real bad. You need to really commit on it to ensure that you will see the plan through. There are a lot of people who start eating healthy and living healthy who will fall back to their old ways after some time. Don’t be like those people. Starting and stopping will only serve to deflate your spirits and make you believe that you can never really do it. Start when you feel that you really want it bad enough and you can really do it. Will power can be really amazing. It can make miracles.

2. Support system: Changing old habits whether foregoing with a bad diet or quitting a vice, is hard but when done with people who live and support you, the task can be easier and more manageable. This is the reason why diets and programs for quitting alcoholism and smoking have support system programs within their organization. People who share your experiences whether or not they are undergoing the same things as you are will help encourage you to continue with the goals that you have set.

3. Avoid temptations: Without the will power to avoid temptations, your plan to change will constantly be derailed. It is important that you remain in control when it comes to the changes that you want to do for yourself. But this however is not something that is easy to do. There will be lots of instances when you will be truly tested and most people will fail the test. They will go back to their old habits once, and then twice and then thrice until they completely forgo with their plans for a healthy lifestyle.

To avoid this, you should first stay clear of the temptations. If you have friends for instance who influence you to not eat and not live healthy, don’t go with them for the meantime especially if you know that you will only be tempted when you are with them. You should also avoid going to places that you know will tempt you to go back to your old ways.

4. Reminders: People who are constantly being reminded of how they should proceed have better chances of making it through the program than those who are just doing it alone. This works in the same way as the support system but even better because in this instance, you have somebody who really point out to you what you should be doing. Sometimes, we go back to our old ways not because we want to but because it is something that your bodies are already so used to. So if you want to really change your ways and live a life of health and fitness, have somebody you trust and respect with you all the time.

People who are busy with their work are usually the ones who are having problems in sleeping. This is because the exhaustion and their hectic schedule keeps them from getting better sleep on daily basis. If you are one of those who are having trouble sleeping due to too much work, it is now time to reflect what might be causing these and address it properly.

One of the things that hinder people from getting better sleep is the set of foods that they eat. This is because these foods might contain ingredients and other properties that can really affect the person’s chemical balance. If you think that the foods that you are eating affects you in getting better sleep, try assessing your food intake for one day.

https://www.nationaljewish.org/health-insights/healthy-eating

What you can do is list down all the foods—including the drinks—that you have taken in for one day and make an assessment after that day. In this way, you can track down which are the foods and drinks you have taken affect your sleeping habits especially at night.

The following are just some of the list of foods that might lead one to troublesome and uncomfortable sleeping at nighttime:

1. Too much food intake. This is considered as the major culprit why many people—especially those who don’t have sleeping problems before—are having a hard time sleeping all of a sudden. Experts say that if a person have overeaten, the tendency is that the stomach will have a hard time digesting it. Too much food may also affect the how the digestive system work and may even cause clinical conditions such as ulcer if done regularly.

2. Foods that contain too much fat. Experts say that people are eating foods that have too much fat are prone to not sleeping well at night because it creates a lot of digesting work for the stomach. If one wants to get better sleep, he or she should cut down on foods that are too rich or fatty so there will be lesser work for the stomach especially at nighttime.

3. Too much spicy or acidic foods. These sets of foods can very much affect one’s sleeping habits especially at nighttime. If one eats too many sets of spicy foods especially at night, it can lead to troubles in the stomach and even heartburn which makes it harder for you to lie down and get better sleep at night.

4. Too much alcohol intake. Some people say that alcohol may help one to get better sleep but on the contrary, it doesn’t especially if he or she has taken too much of it.

5. Foods that contain caffeine. These are another set of culprits for people who are having trouble sleeping. If you are prone to not sleeping, it is best to avoid foods as well as drinks that have high caffeine content such as coffee, chocolates, sodas that are caffeinated as well as teas. To get better sleep, it is best to not consume these for a while. Or if you really cannot do without these, try minimizing your consumption even for a couple of days. Once you get your sleeping pattern back, you may go back to consuming these but only to limited content so you would not go back to having sleeping problems again.

More and more people are now going back to basics—in terms of food and health practices—because they would want to achieve prime health and fitness. With the fast-paced, technologically-driven world people are now living, who would not want to veer away from certain medical conditions and illnesses.

Experts say that because of the busy courses of people’s lives, many of them tend to forget some of the vital fragments in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, which is diet and nutrition.

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Identifying the thin line

Although the terms “diet” and “nutrition” have different definitions, they are greatly connected to each other. When defined, “diet” refers to the food and liquid intake of a person while “nutrition” pertains to the science of dealing with food and nourishment. Sometimes, many people get confused with the meanings of the two because they automatically assume that less—through diet—will not affect their health’s overall condition.

Experts say that more than the issues of food and liquid intake and the science of food and nourishment, diet and nutrition can revolve around nutritional information on various dietary supplements and the benefits vitamins and minerals to a person’s body. By making yourself familiar with latest diet and nutrition topics, trends, and tips can lead you to the renewal of your health and well being commitment inside your home.

You must remember that it’s never too late to redirect your eating habits, but before you take that drastic change, learn what are the common diet and nutrition mistakes so you can avoid them. Here are some realizations that can help you get by:

1. Don’t make careless assumption that the food choices you have are better than they actually are. Many experts believe that people who are very particular about diet and nutrition have larger tendencies of thinking and believing that their food choices are healthier than they really are. It is always advisable to eat whole, fresh, and unprocessed foods whenever possible to stay health and fit.

2. Don’t confuse yourself over carbohydrates. In some people that low carbohydrates diets are effective. But there are also those that say that there are excellent carbs that make people eat less. If you are confused, assess yourself first before cutting down on carbs totally. A consultation with a licensed dietician can help you determine how much carbohydrates does your body need and can also help you come up with a diet pattern will be good for you and can have long term effects.

3. Don’t think you’re eating too much when you’re actually not. Doctors say that one of the most common mistakes people make is that they overestimate and underestimate the amount of food their body needs. People are advised to monitor the portion sizes of your food to ensure that they are getting the key nutrients that their body needs.

4. Know when to eat and when not to eat. Experts believe that overeating and under eating may put an individual’s health at risk because it disrupts blood sugar and insulin levels. Knowing when to eat and when not can ensure that the person will get the nutrition the body type needs. Always make sure that you eat something every three hours and don’t starve before eating the next meal.

5. Don’t neglect the importance of regular exercise. There is now denying the wonderful benefits that regular exercise can do to people especially to those who want to achieve optimum health and fitness. To ensure that you stay healthy despite being on a diet, make exercise a regular part of your life can definitely contribute to your overall wellness.