Oct 12

Depression: 6 Tips for Eating Well When Cooking Feels Impossible

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If you’re feeling down, preparing a meal can feel like a major task. Experts share their best tips for making meal prep easier and choosing foods that will help lift your energy and mood.   For people with depression, fueling their body with high-quality nutrition can literally help change their life for the better, according to a slew of studies. Not surprisingly, research shows people who consistently eat healthy foods by, say, following the Mediterranean diet (which is centered on plant-based foods, olive oil, and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids from fish) often have better mental health than people whose diet is centered on red meat and processed foods high in saturated fats, sodium, and added sugars. But nourishing your body when you have depression can be easier said than done, especially if your mood or energy is low to prepare even one meal, or if you don’t have an appetite at all. When you’re struggling with depression, it’s not uncommon to have no initiative to shop for food, prepare a meal, or clean up afterward, says Amy Gorin, a plant-based registered dietitian nutritionist in Stamford, Connecticut. “Some of the primary symptoms of depression — loss of motivation, poor concentration, difficulty […]
Oct 11

How to train your brain to truly enjoy exercise, according to science

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Yes, you can mold your mind to extract more pleasure from activity.   Truth: They woke up like this. Some people really are more inclined to find joy in exercise. But! You can rewire your brain to join that ‘love it’ group, research shows. When experts measured the electrical connectivity in the brains of people who are recreationally active, they found that those who perceive themselves as being highly tolerant of physical effort had greater levels of ‘remembered pleasure’ afterward, according to the new study by Florida International University. Meanwhile, those who said they were not as tolerant had a certain amount of ‘anticipatory dread,’ or negative feelings, before the work even started. The good news is that you can teach yourself to be more accepting, physically and mentally, of movement—which will help you feel excited about exercise in general and crave it more often. By trying some (or all!) of these tactics, you’ll likely notice benefits immediately, says study lead Marcelo Bigliassi, PhD. To extend the effect, keep efforts ongoing, so subtle changes compound over time. Onward!   1. Add appeal to the flavour of exercise you already like. Let’s say you don’t mind weight lifting but definitely don’t […]
Oct 10

Push, pull, legs workout: An exercise routine that targets muscle gain

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Looking for exercises to gain muscle and strength? Then follow the push, pull, legs workout routine that targets different muscle groups on separate days. Your strength training goals may include increasing your strength and gaining muscle. But doing the same exercise every day will get monotonous and make you hit a plateau. It will also not target all the muscle groups, so you will need to consider a more specialised workout routine. Push, pull, legs or PPL method is a training routine that divides workouts into three categories. Each muscle group gets trained separately, on a different day. One day you can focus on your chest, shoulders, and triceps. The next day you can perform exercises for your back, and biceps. Then the following day, you can work on your lower body, which includes the hamstrings, calves, glutes.   What is the push, pull, legs workout? Strength training is not all about building muscle and strength. It may help in prevention of type 2 diabetes, enhance cardiovascular health, promote bone development, and may be effective for reducing low back pain, as per research published in Current Sports Medicine Reports in 2012. Splitting your strength training routine by focusing on different […]
Oct 09

7 Tips for Clean Eating

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If you’re wondering what clean eating is, consider this your guide to eating more whole foods and less processed ones. Here are our best tips to help you start eating healthier—recipes included. You may be familiar with the concept of clean eating, but its precise definition might still be unclear. For us, clean eating involves prioritizing the consumption of the healthiest choices within each food category while minimizing intake of less nutritious options. This entails emphasizing whole foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean proteins and beneficial fats while reducing consumption of refined grains, additives, preservatives, unhealthy fats, excessive added sugars and salt. It also involves steering clear of heavily processed foods containing ingredients that may be challenging to pronounce without assistance from a laboratory technician. Some clean-eating plans call for eliminating many food groups—coffee, dairy, grains and more. We don’t believe in being that restrictive. Not only will you take away some of the enjoyment of eating, but there isn’t much science to back up any benefits. You need to find a clean-eating style that works for you. If you only take a few steps toward eating cleaner—cutting back on highly processed foods, for example, or eating more […]
Oct 08

6 Calming Self-Care Activities for People With Anxiety Disorders

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Exercising regularly, filling your plate with nutritious foods, and other strategies can not only ease your symptoms, but they can help your treatment work better, too. Alongside treatments like talk therapy and medication, lifestyle management strategies — including self-care — can help people with anxiety disorders feel better. Self-care is any activity that helps you keep up your mental and physical well-being. In general, a solid self-care routine can help you curb stress, lower your risk of illness, and boost your energy. For anxiety disorders in particular, self-care can actually help make your treatment more effective. “Self-care is crucial for individuals with anxiety disorders as it serves as a fundamental tool to manage and alleviate symptoms,” says Joel Frank, PsyD, a clinical psychologist in private practice in Los Angeles. Here are six expert-backed self-care activities that can help keep your anxiety symptoms at bay.   1. Exercise Regularly It’s well-known that exercise can do a lot of good for both physical and mental health — and anxiety is no exception. “Exercise and physical activity can be powerful tools for treating anxiety,” says Dr. Frank. Research backs this up. One study showed that regular exercise may help improve symptoms among people […]
Oct 07

Resistance Training Principles on How To Build Muscle With Cardio

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The natural bodybuilder, powerlifter, and fitness coach has 3 top tips.   You’ve probably been told by someone during your fitness journey that doing cardio will rob you of the hard-earned muscle that you’ve amassed by lifting heavy weights. But are those ‘experts’ right? Does building muscle mean that you can’t enjoy a weekly run or even warm up on the step machine on leg day? Fortunately, Jeff Nippard has broken it all down with three important tips that mean you can crush cardio and still pack on muscle so long as you follow his three principles to build muscle with cardio. When it comes to the long-held assumption that combining conditioning cardio work with resistance training kills muscle gains, “Probably not,” is Nippard’s frank answer in a recent Instagram post. And, as a competitive powerlifter, he should know. But why do so many people feel this way? “Early science said that, since weight lifting is anabolic, and cardio is catabolic, then cardio will burn your muscle away,” explains the Canadian coach. “But, since then, higher quality long-term research has shown that you can balance cardio with weight lifting as long as you do these three things.”   Perform Longer […]
Oct 06

10 Essential Lifestyle Health Tips For Seniors

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Age is just a number. There is no denying that things that we could do in our teenage or 20s or even during our 30s are impossible for us to do in our 50s. With time, our skin starts aging, our hair turn grey, and our whole body also starts weakening. Getting older means nothing is the same as before, but if you are someone who has maintained a healthy lifestyle throughout shall be less worried about aging. It is essential to lead a healthy lifestyle for long life. Adopting a healthy lifestyle minimizes the risks of getting venerable to many diseases that come with age and keeps our minds and body active. We can say that just the way we make our homes safer with commercial gas safety certificates and equip them with all electronics to make our lives easier.   Essential Lifestyle Health Tips For Seniors In the same way, we shall incorporate a healthy lifestyle to stay active when we grow old. If you are above 50 or about to turn 50, this content is specifically written for you. The content discusses the ten essential lifestyle habits that senior citizens shall add to their lifestyle to stay […]
Oct 05

What You Need to Know About Rest Days for Your Workout Plan

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You might have heard that you need to go hard every day for success. You heard wrong.   TAKING A NO days off mentality to accomplish your fitness goals might have short term benefits, but likely wind up putting yourself at risk of injury in the long run. That type of mindset is an antiquated concept of old-school gym culture as useful these days as a rusty barbell. You can pick it up and try to give it a few reps, but you’ll be better off with a newer, more modern approach. Rest days are not for the weak. That can be hard to swallow if you love training, and if you have big-time goals you’re working hard to achieve. If that’s you, you’re wondering exactly how many rest days do you really need to optimize your recovery? What if you’re training for a race or pushing for a PR? Taking time off when you have a goal staring back at you can be difficult—so how long should you break before you get back into your workout plan? How many rest days are needed in a week of training? Here, Kurt Ellis, C.S.C.S., owner and coach at Beyond Numbers Performance, […]
Oct 04

A 7-Day Workout Routine To Help Meet Your Fitness Goals

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A well-balanced workout schedule can help you reap the benefits of physical activity, such as boosting your mood and helping with sleep.1 The key to an effective workout plan is to challenge your body and engage your mind by adding various cardio, full-body, stretching, and weightlifting exercises. Though general physical activity recommendations for adults include aerobic exercises and strength training, your workout routine also depends on your fitness goals. Read on for a sample weekly workout schedule by Jacklyn Romano, CPT, a certified physical therapist based in New Jersey, and Sharon Gam, PhD, a certified personal trainer and health coach.   The Sample Workout Schedule Romano and Gam designed this seven-day workout plan to help you develop a regular exercise routine. Here’s what each day of the schedule entails:   Monday: Cardio Tuesday: Lower body Wednesday: Upper body and core Thursday: Active rest and recovery Friday: Lower body with a focus on glutes Saturday: Upper body Sunday: Rest and recovery   The CDC has recommended that adults aim to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week. This amount of time equals a minimum of 30 minutes per day, five days per week. The second part of […]
Oct 03

No, You’re Not Too Busy to Live a Healthy Lifestyle

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Can’t see the forest for the trees? These lifestyle tips will help reframe your perspective on prioritizing your own health.   Where did the time go? Many of us find ourselves asking that question every single day. Managing a hectic life felt challenging before the pandemic, but for a lot of people juggling tasks became even more difficult since the onset of the crisis. The majority of workers (60 percent, reportedly) felt that coronavirus affected their work-life balance. And when life began opening up, society seemed to swell back to the previous pace and beyond. So when are you supposed to be taking care of yourself? More people are talking about self-care, mental wellness, the importance of exercise, clean eating, and doing things that bolster our immunity. But where is the time to do any of that? Laurie Watkins, author of Go from Stressed to Strong: Health & Fitness Advice from High Achievers, says it’s a myth that there aren’t enough hours in the day to achieve a healthy lifestyle. “It’s a myth because each of us have developed personal habits as we’ve aged through life. Though each habit means relatively little on its own, over time, the meals we […]
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