Showing posts with label Everyday Wellness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Everyday Wellness. Show all posts
Natural Ways To Get Rid Of Pimples Overnight Fast

Natural Ways To Get Rid Of Pimples Overnight Fast



1.) Apply a Cinnamon and Honey Mask to Get Rid Of Pimples
Cinnamon and honey have natural antimicrobial properties. Together, they make a killer combination to destroy pimples. You need just one teaspoon of cinnamon and two tablespoons of natural honey. Preferably, you should use Manuka honey. This unique brand of honey, from the Manuka forest in New Zealand, has amazing healing and pain relieving properties. Mix the cinnamon into a paste then blend in the honey. Rinse your face and pat it dry. Then apply the paste to the blemishes and leave it there overnight.

2.) Whip Egg Whites to Get Rid Of Pimples
Egg whites provide a cheap, easy and quick way to remove pimples. They also eliminate scars. Egg whites contain vitamins and amino acids that help to kill pimples and re-build your skin’s cells. Separate 3 egg whites from their yolks. Whisk them properly and allow them to settle for 3 minutes. Apply the whisked egg whites to the pimples using your fingers. Wait for it to dry then repeat this 4 times. Then leave the final mask for 20 minutes, rinse off and apply a suitable skin moisturizer.



3.) Apply Orange Peels and Juice to Get Rid Of Pimples
The ascorbic acid and vitamin C in oranges make them a potent cure for pimples. And they are very easy to use. Simply rub the peels on the pimples and dab them with the orange juice. Before you do any of these, make sure you wash your hands thoroughly to prevent the transfer of bacteria to your skin. You may also wash your face with warm water to open up the pores. Use different pieces of orange peels for each spot you want to treat. You may apply the orange juice with cotton buds. Leave the juice on your face for at least 1 hour before you wash it off.

4.) Use Neem to Get Rid Of Pimples
Neem oil and neem powder are powerful natural treatments for pimples. They have powerful antibacterial properties. You can get them to buy online or at the local organic or natural food store in your area. Rinse your face with warm water to open up the pores of your skin. Use cotton buds to daub the oil and apply it directly to the pimples. You can also mix the powder with a small quantity of water to form a paste and apply it to the spots. Leave the paste on throughout the night so it can penetrate the skin destroy all the bacteria in the pimples.



5.) Blend Strawberries and Honey to Get Rid Of Pimples
Strawberries contain a very important ingredient called salicyclic acid. This is the primary active ingredient is several commercial formulations used to treat pimples. Salicyclic acid stimulates the epidermis (the upper layer of the skin) to shed its cells faster. So the clogged pores open up and the bacteria get neutralized. This substance also encourages the development of fresh skin cells and the subsequent closing of the pores to prevent fresh infection.

Rinse your face with warm water. Then wash at least 3 strawberries thoroughly to remove all the dirt on them. Mash them carefully without allowing them to become watery. Add two teaspoons of honey and blend them. Add the mixture to your skin and allow it to stay for 30 minutes before you rinse it off.
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The Most Common Weight-Loss Blunders

The Most Common Weight-Loss Blunders


1. Focusing on what you can’t eat.

“So many people embarking on a weight loss journey focus on what they can’t have—[such as] no sugar, no alcohol, no dessert, no bread, no cheese. I like to tell my readers to focus on what they can have and tally up all the filling and nutritious superfoods out there.”

2. Adopting an all-or-nothing attitude.

“[Don’t] eliminating foods you love. Too many people who are trying to lose weight develop the all-or-nothing attitude. This way of thinking can be detrimental in the long run. Instead of depriving oneself of foods they love, they should learn how to incorporate them into their diet in a healthier way. For example, love pasta? Instead of adding a creamy high fat sauce, add lots of veggies, grilled shrimp, and toss in olive oil and garlic. Can’t live without bread? Well, you shouldn’t have to. Make a healthy sandwich for lunch on 100 percent whole grain bread with grilled chicken, avocado, lettuce, and tomato.”

3. Replacing meals with liquids.

“Green juices and smoothies are very popular right now, and a lot of people will use these as meal replacements. Unfortunately, oftentimes these beverages aren’t made up of the right mix of nutrients. Green juices lack fiber and protein, which are key nutrients in keeping you full and helping you meet your nutrient recommendations, and smoothies are typically loaded in sugar from juice, sweeteners, or too much fruit, and can be really high in calories from oversized portions of healthy fat sources like nuts and seeds.”

4. Eating too few calories.

“The biggest pitfall I constantly see my clients falling into is the calorie counting trap. Many women come to me struggling to follow a 1,200 calorie per day diet and ask me what would help them to feel more full during the day. My answer is always to eat more! We live in a culture that is so obsessed with calorie counting that oftentimes we are depriving our body of the very nutrients that will actually help us not only to live healthier, but lose more weight. In my practice I try and help my clients transition from counting calories to counting nutrients because at the end of the day, what you eat is just as important as how much you eat.”

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Tips to Manage Post-Run Hunger

Tips to Manage Post-Run Hunger

Running is an easy way to be active, as all it really takes is a pair of shoes, and you’re ready to go. For this reason, many people desiring to lose weight often try running as a way to accelerate the process.

As a sports dietitian, I often work with beginner runners looking to improve their fitness and hopefully lose weight. I often hear a story from this crowd that makes many of them question whether they should be running at all. As they run more miles or more frequently, their overall appetite increases. This can create a sense of panic as new runners try to manage their hunger and keep on track with their weight-loss goals. Perhaps you’ve experienced this interesting phenomenon and also wondered what the heck was going on.

Well, there’s actually a lot going on in our bodies, and knowing how to handle our hunger requires us to understand it first.

Appetite and hunger are regulated by hormones. One main hormone, ghrelin, stimulates appetite and food intake. Others like PYY initiate satiety and tell your brain that you should stop eating. These hormones fluctuate throughout the day to stimulate and halt hunger based on levels of glucose in the bloodstream, the amount of food (or lack thereof) in the stomach and altered physiological states like stress. Exercise also impacts appetite hormones. It is well-known that ghrelin is suppressed during and immediately following exercise. This explains why you rarely feel hungry while running or right after.

Why Running Makes You Hungry

This article is about an increase in appetite, so clearly the story doesn’t end there. A lot of research has focused on just this issue and explored what causes appetite to change in relation to exercise. Here are two of the key reasons why your appetite may be more intense after a run:

Exercise Adaptation

When you first begin a new exercise routine, it’s going to be challenging for your body and require more effort to perform. Running is no different, and, therefore, beginner runners burn more calories as the body adapts and becomes more fit. Research has found that appetite and food intake may increase after moderate to intense exercise to make up for this large expenditure of energy. Running in and of itself may be causing the increase in your appetite.

Cutting Calories

Reducing calorie intake has also been connected with a compensatory increase in appetite related to changes in hormones. It’s almost like your body knows you are eating less and tries to tell you to eat more. One study found that a higher appetite was reported 4–8 hours after exercising in a fasted state than when exercising after a meal. Since many people run first thing in the morning on an empty stomach or cut extra calories to try to lose more weight, they may be experiencing an increased appetite because their body desires — and truly may need — more energy.

Tips to Manage Post-Run Hunger

While these findings could be discouraging, don’t worry! With a few tweaks to your eating plan, you can help ensure that post-running hunger does not hinder your weight-loss goals. Troubleshoot your hunger with these tips:

Don’t restrict calories too much when starting a running program. Not only is it potentially not a sustainable plan, but it could be causing an increase in your appetite that is difficult to manage. Make sure you are:

Getting adequate calories throughout the day.

Running with a little fuel in your system by eating a snack 15 minutes–2 hours prior or a meal 2–3 hours prior. Refueling after your longer runs (about 45 minutes or more) if it’s going to be more than 2 hours before your next meal or snack. (Try my favorite Chocolate Tart Cherry Recovery Smoothie.)

Eat every 3–4 hours during the day to keep energy levels up. When you go longer than 4 hours without eating, glucose levels in the blood can drop significantly and trigger your appetite hormones. Your brain will signal you to crave foods high in energy and fat to fix this problem, which makes it really difficult to say no to sweets and treats.

Incorporate high-fiber foods into your meals and snacks. Fiber can slow the emptying of food from the stomach, which means you will feel fuller (or more satisfied) longer. Choose a serving of raw veggies, fruit, whole grains, legumes or nuts at each meal or snack to provide a boost of fiber.

Stay hydrated. As the warm summer months approach us, even a short run can deplete water levels in your body. Since thirst can sometimes feel like hunger, staying on top of your hydration can help ward off fake hunger signals.

Get adequate rest. Sleep deprivation is connected to higher levels of ghrelin, choosing larger portion sizes and increased food intake. A good night’s sleep could significantly improve your appetite control.

Up your sports nutrition knowledge. As your passion for running increases, so should your passion for sports nutrition. If you continue to increase your mileage or frequency of runs, nutrition will begin to play a more crucial role in your success. Work with a dietitian to perfect your individualized nutrition strategy to help you reach your running goals. Here are my top nutrition tips for runners.

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Ways to Set Up Your Kitchen for Healthy Eating

Ways to Set Up Your Kitchen for Healthy Eating



1. Keep fresh herbs and spices handy. Herbs make healthy food much more savory and flavorful, which will help you cut down on less healthy choices like salt and butter. Plus, check out how gorgeous you can make an herb garden look in the kitchen. This vertical garden by Bright Green is a living work of art.

I realize keeping things alive indoors can be a challenge for a lot of us. Growing herb plants need fresh air and sunlight to thrive. Simply keeping herb jars handy in a cabinet next to the stovetop is the low-maintenance version of this suggestion.

2.Enjoy making pretty still lifes out of your produce. This sounds silly, but it works. Put out a large platter, a fruit bowl or that cake stand you never use and play with arranging.

It will inspire you to keep the kitchen stocked with an array of colorful fruits and vegetables, and they’ll always be the first thing you see when you enter the kitchen for a snack.

3.Organize the pantry in an attractive way. Keep your healthy items front and center and make low-cal snacks easy to grab. Hide your secret chocolate stash in case of a total craving (sometimes you just have to have it), so you don’t get tempted by looking at it every time you open the pantry cabinet door.

4.Organize the fridge. Take everything out, give it a good cleaning and keep all this great food you’ve made and produce that needs refrigerating front and center.
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Top fat loss tips

Top fat loss tips

1. Complete a lifestyle diary

This includes what you eat, when you go to bed, how often you go to the bathroom and how much water you drink. This will make you accountable and aware of any bad habits outside of the gym that could be hindering your results.

2. Schedule at least two recovery sessions per week

I liken your body to a bank balance. Every training session is a withdrawal; every recovery session is a deposit. If you are always training (withdrawing) and never recovering (depositing), you will eventually end up overdrawn and injured. Recovery practices include foam rolling, contrast showers, ice baths, massages and long walks.

3. Embrace hot yoga

The hot room allows for increased range of movement (which will translate into better range in your weight training), the heat enhances detoxification processes and the twisting movements improve digestion and lymphatic drainage in addition to massaging the internal organs. Yoga is also great for stress management, and when you are stressed you will hold fat.

4. Test for food intolerances

Just because a food is ‘healthy’, doesn’t mean it’s healthy for you. If it doesn’t make you feel good, don’t eat it. Some of the most common intolerances include eggs, gluten, wheat, dairy, soy, corn and nuts. Intolerances can also be a result of eating too much of the same foods, so try and rotate your meal options regularly.

5. Support your liver and your detoxification channels using alternative body treatments

Think acupuncture, lymphatic drainage massage, Epsom salt baths, body brushing and infra-red saunas. Drink plenty of water to flush out toxins and try starting the day with a glass of warm water with fresh lemon juice.

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The 4 Stages of Sleep and Why They Matter

The 4 Stages of Sleep and Why They Matter


In scientific terms, sleep is a state of altered brain activity that is quite different from the waking state. During sleep, our brain cells work more slowly but more intensively. This shows up on an EEG (a machine used to record brain activity) as electrical activity that is lower in frequency but higher in voltage. There are also physical changes in the body such as changes in eye movement and muscular tension. Further variations in electrical activity in the brain show when each stage of sleep begins and ends. Here are doctors’ tips to sleep better naturally.

Sleep Stage 1
Our breathing and heartbeat become regular, our muscles relax and our body temperature falls. We become less aware of external stimuli and our consciousness starts to withdraw from reality. The slightest noise is enough to wake you from this stage and you might think you haven’t been asleep at all. You will no doubt have experienced the sensation of falling suddenly, typical of this stage. We spend about 10 percent of the night either awake or in stage 1. Some people twitch during this stage. Stage 1 generally lasts between 13 and 17 minutes. In effect, stage 1 is the stage during which we fall asleep and, as such, it occurs only once during a night of uninterrupted sleep.

Sleep Stage 2
Sleep becomes deeper during this sleep stage and our muscles relax further. Physical sensations are dampened significantly and our eyes do not move. Electrical activity in the brain occurs at a lower frequency than when we are awake. About half of our total sleeping time is spent in stage 2. Stages 1 and 2 are known as the light-sleep phase. Together, they last for about 20–30 minutes. We return to stage 2 several times during the night.

Sleep Stages 3 and 4
We reach the first of our deep-sleep stages, stage 3, after approximately 20 to 30 minutes, and the second, stage 4, after about 45 minutes. Our body is now completely relaxed. We are more or less completely disconnected from reality. To wake someone from deep sleep, you need to make quite a lot of noise or shake them quite hard. Waking someone from stage 4 is almost impossible—it’s a bit like trying to wake a hibernating animal right in the middle of winter. This is the most restful part of the night’s sleep. Muscular activity decreases even further and our eyes do not move. Stages 3 and 4 make up about 20 percent of our time asleep, but this proportion decreases as we get older. Stages 3 and 4 are known as the deep-sleep phase. Is America in a sleep crisis? Here’s how our sleep debt is making us sick, stupid, and fat.

REM sleep (the dreaming sleep stage)
Between 80 and 100 minutes after falling asleep, the deep-sleep phase comes to an abrupt end, which is often accompanied by a change in sleeping position. Our sleep switches to stage 2 for a few minutes before the EEG graph makes an abrupt change within the space of a few seconds. This shows that REM sleep is beginning—our heart rate increases and breathing gets quicker. The electrical activity in the brain creates small, rapid movements in the EEG, similar to those seen when falling asleep. Our muscles are completely relaxed, but our eyes make quick, darting movements while remaining closed. This is where the phrase rapid eye movement (REM) comes from.

Men occasionally experience erections during this phase, and women may have increased blood flow to the genitals. The production of digestive juices increases. It is during REM sleep that we have most of our dreams. Here are 13 bizarre facts about dreams you never knew. For adults, REM sleep makes up about 20 percent of a night’s sleep. The percentage is considerably higher for infants and small children.

When healthy people are in a state of REM sleep, the muscles of our body are deeply relaxed. If it wasn’t for this we might act out our dreams, with potentially disastrous consequences. This is the most likely reason why the brain puts the body in this deep state of relaxation bordering on paralysis (known as atonia). However, when a person is suffering from some conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, REM atonia does not occur and people can act out their dreams.

The Sequence of Sleep Stages
Our sleep follows a specific sequence of these different stages. We complete a sleep cycle and begin a new one approximately every 80 to 110 minutes, usually around 90 minutes. A night’s sleep begins with a light-sleep phase of varying duration, followed by the first deep-sleep phase of the night and a short REM phase. In the second half of the night, we spend a relatively shorter amount of time in deep-sleep phases while our REM phases tend to be longer. The final REM phase of the night can last for as long as 30 minutes or more. And then, we wake up.

The pattern of REM sleep changes as we grow older. During the first year of life, babies spend most of their time asleep in REM sleep. From the age of four, the proportion of REM sleep falls to about 20 percent of the night. People over the age of 60 spend only about 15 percent of the night in REM sleep.

With the exception of infants, people spend most of the night in the light-sleep phase. If the amount of time we sleep is reduced, it’s the light sleep phase that bears the brunt of the deficit, ensuring we still make it to the deep-sleep phases, which have the most restful effect. This is why some people can cut their sleeping time right down to a minimum of somewhere between four and six hours, depending on the individual, without losing too much of their capacity the next day.

Nevertheless, we need to spend some time in the light-sleep phase in order to reach the deeper sleep phases. It’s not possible to access deep sleep immediately after falling asleep. Good sleep takes time.

The Purpose of Sleep Stages
Each sleep phase serves a specific purpose for the body. The primary function of both our light-sleep and deep-sleep phases is to have a regenerative effect on various processes in the body. During the REM phase, the brain is almost as active as when we are awake. We need both deep sleep and REM sleep to properly process the impressions and memories of the day. The brain weighs up the information we have taken in while awake and organizes our memories, storing any important information in our long-term memory and discarding superfluous details.

This is why a good night’s sleep is vital for our mental capacity. If you get an adequate amount of sleep the night before an exam, including several deep-sleep and REM phases, you will be better able to recall the material you have studied.
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