WHY EXERCISE?

Age old question… should I or shouldn’t I exercise? And why?

The majority of people do it as a mean to reduce weight.

But in a recent study, researchers took a group of sedentary, overweight men and women over an 18 months period, and trained them to run a marathon. The men lost just a few pounds, and the women in the study, averaged no change to their weight. One reason may be that people tend to increase their caloric intake as they increase their exercise. Proper diet and exercise go hand in hand when it comes to weight loss. Do not think that because you just ran 5 miles, you can sit on the couch, eat an entire deep dish pizza and wash it down with a large milkshake. This will not promote weight loss.

But exercise by itself has tremendous benefits, much more than just weight loss.

Here are a few:

· It increases your energy levels: the more energy you use, the more you have.

· It improves the quality of your sleep: exercise helps you get to sleep more quickly and to achieve a more restful sleep.

· It helps combat chronic disease: exercise helps improve your circulation, your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and has been linked with delayed onset of dementia.

· It improves your mood: it reduces the tension associated with anxiety and promotes relaxation. It also produces endorphins which allow you to feel a sense of power and control over yourselves that allows you to persist with activity for an extended time. Endorphins have been shown to control feelings of stress and frustration, and to reduce symptoms associated with eating disorders. Endorphins basically give you a natural high.

· Exercise leads to the release of certain neurotransmitters in the brain that alleviate pain, both physical and mental.

· It is a Powerful Anti-Cancer Strategy. More than 200 population-based studies have linked exercise to your risk for cancer. More recently, a 2009 study showed that men with stronger muscles from regular weight training are up to 40 percent less likely to die from cancer. These findings suggest that muscle strength is just as important as staying slim and eating healthy when it comes to offering protection against deadly tumors. One of the primary reasons exercise works to lower your cancer risk is because it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risk. It's also been suggested that apoptosis (programmed cell death) is triggered by exercise, causing cancer cells to die.

· It helps to slow down the effects of aging. Exercise keeps your muscles strong, which can help you maintain mobility as you get older. Aerobic exercise also keeps your mind sharp. At least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three days a week seems to reduce cognitive decline in older adults

· Exercise is an important way to manage diabetes. Not only can exercise help you achieve beneficial weight loss, but every time you exercise, it helps to lower your blood sugar and helps your cells accept insulin more efficiently.

· Numerous studies have shown that regular, moderate-to-vigorous exercise can help prevent or delay the onset of osteoporosis by increasing your bone density.

If none of this motivates you to take the first step toward implementing a regular fitness regimen, I don't know what.

If you don’t know where to start you can seek professional advice. But quit procrastinating. Get off that couch and get moving… it’s a great way to start. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at the time!

Be smart, stay healthy!!!

GRASS FED BEEF

GRASS FED BEEF

Most people think that beef is just beef. It isn’t always so. A cows diet can have a profound influence on the nutrient content of its products, be it milk or meat.

· Grassfed products tend to be much lower in total fat than grainfed products. For example, a sirloin steak from a grassfed steer has about one half to one third the amount of fat as a similar cut from a grainfed steer. If you eat a typical amount of beef (66.5 pounds a year), switching to grassfed beef will save you 17,733 calories a year—without requiring any willpower or change in eating habits. If everything else in your diet remains constant, you'll lose about five to six pounds a year.

· Although grassfed meat is low in "bad" fat (including saturated fat), it gives you from two to six times more of a type of "good" fat called "omega-3 fatty acids." The health benefit of Omega are numerous and worthy of an entire blog itself. Stay tuned.

· The meat and milk from grassfed ruminants are the richest known source of another type of good fat called "conjugated linoleic acid" or CLA. When ruminants are raised on fresh pasture alone, their milk and meat contain as much as five times more CLA than products from animals fed conventional diets.

Health benefits of CLA:

· Promoting fat loss

· Fighting cancer

· Increasing your metabolic rate

· Promoting normal thyroid function

· Delaying onset of diabetes, and improving management of adult-onset diabetes

· Helping maintain normal cholesterol levels

· Helping maintain healthful triglyceride levels

· Enhancing your immune system

· The meat from the pastured grassfed cattle is four times higher in vitamin E than the meat from the feedlot cattle and, interestingly, almost twice as high as the meat from the feedlot cattle given vitamin E supplements.

In humans, vitamin E is linked with a lower risk of heart disease and cancer. This potent antioxidant may also have anti-aging properties. Most Americans are deficient in vitamin E.

Enjoy your beef but choose wisely.

Be smart , stay healthy

STRAWBERRIES

Fresh strawberries are in season and they are delicious! Just in case you need more reasons to eat those ripe, red, juicy delicious fruits here are a few facts about them.

Strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin C, manganese, dietary fiber, iodine, potassium, folic acid, vitamin B5, vitamin B6, vitamin K, riboflavin, omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium and copper. They also contain significant levels of phytonutrients and antioxidants, which fight free radicals.

Here are a few health benefits to eating strawberries:

· Anti inflammatory: The phenols in strawberries also fight against many inflammatory disorders, such as osteoarthritis, asthma and atherosclerosis, by inhibiting the enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX) in the same way that the drugs aspirin and ibuprofen do. Strawberries, however, do not carry unwanted side effects like stomach and intestinal bleeding.

· Healthy eyes: The Archives of Opthalmology recently published a study in which three or more servings of strawberries (and other fruits) per day can decrease the possibility of contracting age-related macular degeneration by over one-third.

· Anti-cancer: The combination of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents found in strawberries is well-known to fight against the onset of many different forms of cancer. Thanks to the vitamin C, folate, and the flavonoids quercetin and kaempferol that they also contain, strawberries are a delicious defense against potentially cancerous cells.

· Cardio vascular health: Strawberries have also been linked with effecting blood vessels, platelets and lipoproteins positively, which can reduce the risk of coronary heart diseases.

· Bone health: Manganese is also great for the bones, helping in bone building and maintaining proper bone structure. The potassium, vitamin K, and magnesium in strawberries are also important for bone health

· Alzheimer’s Disease prevention: the antioxidant qualities of strawberries may also be beneficial in reversing the course of neuronal and behavioral aging. Due to their positive effects against anti-neurodegenerative diseases, strawberries are helpful in slowing the onset and reduce the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

· Diet: One cup of strawberries contains over 13% of the RDA of dietary fiber, yet only 43 calories. The dietary fiber in strawberries helps to keep digestion regular, as well as lowers blood pressure and curbs overeating.

Choose strawberries that are plump, firm and free of mold and have a deep red color. Unlike other fruits, strawberries do not continue to ripen after they are picked, so be sure to choose the ripest, reddest strawberries, as they will provide the best taste and the highest nutrient density.

Use them in smoothies, salads, oatmeal or just plain straight out of the carton. They are awesome!!!!

Tame your monster!!!!

To help tame the sugar monster, use Stevia or Xylitol as your sweetener instead of sugar

Stevia: zero calories, zero glycemic index and zero carbs

Xylitol: looks and tastes just like sugar but 60% lower glycemic index