Stay Fit and Avoid Weight Gain While Traveling

6 ways to avoid having your next business trip ruin your fitness routine

We hear a lot of pleas for help at this magazine, and not all of them come from the interns we occasionally dangle out the window by their ankles. In fact, the most common cry we hear goes something like this: Hey, Men's Health! I have no problem eating right and working out when I'm home. But whenever I travel, I turn into Camryn Manheim. Anything I can do? 

To which we'd like to answer: Heck, yeah.

There's a boatload of reasons traveling sabotages even the most disciplined man's eating and fitness habits. Your schedule is disrupted. You're surrounded by gobs of unhealthy food. Your barbells are replaced by a dorky suitcase on wheels. But here's the thing: If you learn to recognize these potholes—and avoid them—you can actually return from your next trip leaner and healthier than when you left. So grab your bags. It's time to learn the new rules of the road.

The Airport Expands Your Gut

Today, traveling means waiting. And waiting? That means eating. Not only are you within striking distance of the airport food court, but also the normal aggravation you endure when traveling fires up your body's stress hormones—actually making you crave those sugary, high-calorie foods you find at the airport. 

The result: A couple of hours in an airport terminal can easily turn into a couple of thousand extra calories in your diet. For instance, munch a Classic Cinnabon while you're waiting at the gate and you've ingested 700 calories. A Starbucks blueberry crumb cake? Another 800 calories. Worst of all, those high-sugar, high-carbohydrate foods are the least satisfying when it comes to reducing your hunger—and the best at spiking blood levels of insulin, a hormone that stimulates fat storage.

Solve the problem: Pack more than your clothes "These days, the food you put in your carry-on bag is every bit as vital as the clothes you put in your suitcase," says Pamela Peeke, M.D., Ph.D., author of Fight Fat after Forty. 

So pack travel-friendly foods like snack packs of StarKist Tuna Salad and Crackers, beef jerky, and low-calorie meal-replacement bars, powders, and ready-to-drink shakes like Meso-Tech (muscletech.com). 

But don't buy just any energy bar. "Instead of your typical carbohydrate-heavy endurance bar or snack, look for one that provides a minimum of 20 grams (g) of protein. It'll be more satisfying," says Dr. Peeke. 

The Flight Makes You a Blimp

It's no secret that airplane air is drier than George Hamilton's skin. (With a relative humidity of less than 10 percent, the cabin is twice as arid as the Sahara Desert.) But most travelers don't realize that breathing dry air can turn you into a blimp. "Dehydration due to airline air is a major cause of fatigue, and fatigue gives you a reason to eat," says Dr. Peeke.

Solve the problem: Start drinking and flying Keep your appetite in check with a solid liquidation plan. Drink 8 ounces of water before your flight. More important, bring one 16-ounce bottle of water for every 2 hours you'll be in the air, and down it all before you land.

As for airline food, follow this three-step process when you can: Pass on any food with "pas" in its name—pasta and pastries, for instance; make sure a protein dish (chicken, beef, or fish) is your main entree; and request seconds of any fresh vegetables they serve. 

Snacks? Ask for nuts or fruit instead of pretzels and chips. And choose 1 percent milk as your beverage of choice (other than water). Its perfect combination of protein (8 g), carbohydrates (11 g), and fat (2 g) will fill you up and keep you that way better than nearly any other snack.

Working Out is Hard Work

At home, fitting in your workout is simple—it's a regular part of that monotonous, my-soul-is-dying rut you call a life. But things are less predictable on the road, and missing a workout can make your belt feel tighter. A review board for the American College of Sports and Medicine found that, on average, men need to exercise at least 200 minutes a week just to maintain their weight.

The Hotel "Gym" Is a Joke

Many business travelers say it's nearly impossible to find a hotel with a decent gym. Too often, the "state-of-the-art exercise facility" the brochure crows about is a supply closet with a 15-year-old NordicTrack. 

Solve the problem: Make reservations without reservation Lack of decent workout space might be the most common travel problem, but it's one of the easiest to solve. Try these tips:

Book the right hotel. Visit fitforbusiness.com. The site rates the top hotel workout facilities in 280 cities around the world and provides a list of hotels that offer free access to local health clubs.

Use your room. Try the go-anywhere workout on the next spread. It's the best we've seen for mimicking a free-weight program.

Find a gym nearby. Use the Men's Health Gym Finder to locate fitness clubs, health centers, gyms, and sports groups wherever you are traveling.

If all else fails, swim. Even if the hotel pool isn't big enough for laps, just tread water for 14 minutes. Research shows that's enough activity for a 180-pound man to burn 200 calories.

Booze? You Lose

Frequent business travel can drive a man to drink—especially if he's on an expense account. That's okay occasionally, but if you make heavy drinking a nightly habit, you'll max out your pants faster than you do the company credit card. "Besides being packed with extra calories, alcohol compromises your willpower. So you're less likely to stick to your eating plan," says Althea Zancosky, R.D., an American Dietetic Association spokeswoman in Philadelphia.

Indeed, toss down four or five drinks and you're logging the caloric equivalent of a slice of cheesecake and an 8-ounce sirloin. Worse, you'll be more likely to order the cheesecake.

Solve the problem: Put a governor on your alcohol intake—and your appetite  Remember, you're on business, not vacation, so drink as you would at home. When you're out with clients or business associates, make friends with Tom Collins and Bloody Mary. Each has fewer than 130 calories.

Take control of your food intake by ordering lean meats—chicken, fish, steaks with "loin" in the name. They're rich in protein, which makes you feel full while you're eating. And they're not easily upsized. Round out your meal with a house salad and a side of vegetables. 

Minibars Create a Mega-You
Hotels may be the worst diet trap since Thomas Jefferson introduced french fries to the American colonies in the late 1700s. Room service offers high-calorie, restaurant-quality food delivered straight to your door and charged to your room, no cash needed. And the minibar isn't an amenity, or a "bar" at all. It's an evil little fat-making refrigerator with prices that make the $1.25-per-local-call charge seem cheap. 

Solve the problem: Sabotage the system. Make room service and that damnable fridge work for you, instead of against you. 

Don't open the room-service menu. "You're more likely to eat what you should if you're not sidetracked by a slew of exotic choices," says Elizabeth Somer, R.D., author of Food and Mood. Instead, simply order a grilled chicken breast, salmon steak, or sirloin with a side of steamed vegetables. "They'll be happy to make it for you."

Make a preemptive order. Once you've settled in, place an order for a plain turkey sandwich, no chips, with the mayonnaise on the side. Then tuck it away in the refrigerator in case you feel the need to feed later that night (or don't have time to stop for breakfast the next morning). 

Create your own minibar. Ask the concierge for directions to the nearest convenience store and pick up easy-to-eat-foods like yogurt, fruit, and lunchmeat. When you shop for your own snacks, you'll be more likely to choose them over the ones supplied by the hotel. 

Source: https://www.menshealth.com/weight-loss/a19538322/stay-fit-while-traveling/

10 FOODS YOU SHOULD NEVER EAT

In the spirit of balance, in today's video we're looking at the top 10 foods you should AVOID like the plague!!! 

How many of these do you eat on a daily basis?

Has this video inspired you to make any changes to your daily eating habits?

Let us know in the comments below!

THE BOILED EGGS DIET: Lose 10 kg In 2 Weeks!

I absolutely LOVE eggs! I probably eat around 3,000 eggs a year, because they're so low in carbohydrates and so high in quality fats and protein!

How many eggs do you eat every year? Do you need to get more in your life? 

And I'm not talking about Creme Eggs!

THE HEALTH COACH REVOLUTION

TO CHANGE BEHAVIORS THAT LEAD TO CHRONIC DISEASE, DOCTORS AREN’T ENOUGH

Posted by: Team Tony

This article was contributed by special guest Chris Kresser – see full bio below.

Did you make a New Year’s resolution this year? How did it turn out?

If you’re like most people, you didn’t get very far. In fact, a commonly cited statistic suggests that only 8% of people keep their resolutions.

There are many reasons for this, but they can be summed up this way: changing our behavior is hard, and most people don’t know how to do it successfully.

This is a huge problem, because it is now clear that that the number one cause of the chronic disease epidemic is not genetic, but behavioral – people making the wrong choices about diet, physical activity, sleep and other lifestyle factors.

In fact, a recent study found that 85% of the risk of chronic disease is due to these environmental factors. Another study found that fewer than 5% of adults engage in the top health behaviors, and only 20% of adults are thriving.

The consequences are severe:

• One in two Americans has a chronic disease; one in four has multiple chronic diseases.
• Seven of ten deaths in the United States are caused by chronic disease.
• 27% of children now have a chronic disease (up from 13% in 1994).
• Chronic disease will account for $47 trillion in healthcare expenditure by 2030 if the epidemic is unchecked. That’s more than the annual GDP of the six largest economies in the world.

Given these statistics, it should be clear that 1) chronic disease is the biggest threat to our health that we face, and 2) changing our behavior is the most important step we can take to prevent and reverse chronic disease.

WE DON’T NEED MORE INFORMATION – OR MORE DOCTORS – TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM

It’s tempting to think that we can solve this problem simply by better educating people about the changes they need to make. But it is now well-established that knowledge is not enough to support lasting behavior change. If it was, we wouldn’t have divorced marriage counselors, crazy shrinks, or doctors that smoke cigarettes!

Most people know that eating poorly, not exercising, not getting enough sleep and engaging in other unhealthy lifestyle habits is not good for them. Yet they continue these behaviors anyway, or they chase quick fixes that don’t last for more than a few weeks.

What about doctors? Shouldn’t they be the ones to lead this change? We simply don’t have enough of them to address the problem. The most recent statistics suggest that we’ll have a shortage of 52,000 primary care physicians by the year 2025.

But even if we didn’t have a shortage of doctors, most of them have neither the training nor the time necessary to support people in making lasting behavioral changes. The same is true for most other healthcare professionals, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

We could start training doctors and other healthcare providers in this area, but that still wouldn’t solve the problem. Our “sickcare” system is not set up to deliver this type of care. The average visit with a primary care provider in the Unites States is ten to twelve minutes, with newer doctors spending as little as eight minutes per visit with patients. That’s barely enough time to say hello, review the patient’s current medications, and possibly prescribe a new one. It’s not even remotely enough time to assess what behavior and lifestyle changes would be most effective for the patient and provide the support necessary for sustaining them for a lifetime.

What’s more, doctors are trained in the “expert” approach of simply telling people what to do and expecting them to do it. That might work well when someone is facing a serious, acute health crisis (like an appendicitis), but it fails miserably when it comes to long-term behavior changes like losing weight, managing stress, or adopting an exercise routine. Doctors aren’t trained to work collaboratively with their patients. This is painfully reflected by the fact that patients get to speak for only 12 seconds on average before being interrupted with advice from their physician.

HEALTH COACHES ARE THE SOLUTION

If more information and more doctors won’t solve the problem, what will?

Health coaches.

People want to feel good, avoid chronic disease and live a long life. They want to see their children and grandchildren grow up and have the energy to play with them. They want to perform better at work, enjoy their relationships, and be well enough to get the most out of life. But there’s a big difference between wanting the benefits of being healthy and consistently engaging in the behaviors that lead to health.

That’s where health coaches come in. Coaches are trained in a number of disciplines that support people in making lasting change. These include (but aren’t limited to):

• Positive psychology, which leverages people’s strengths (rather than focusing on their weaknesses) to make changes
• Motivational interviewing, which helps people to link behavior changes to their deepest needs and goals (e.g., “I will change my diet because I want to live to see my grandchildren graduate from college.”)
• Habit formation and reversal, which supports patients in making positive habits, or breaking negative ones

Coaches are also trained to work with patients in a more collaborative way, rather than with the expert approach that is common in medicine. In the expert approach, the “authority” assesses the problem, delivers advice, recommends solutions, and in some cases, teaches new skills. In the collaborative approach, the coach acts as a partner or ally, encourages clients to discover their own solutions and become their own advocate and supports them in developing the skills they need to embrace new behaviors.

This collaborative approach empowers the client to become the primary driver of change. It also builds confidence, self-awareness, and self-actuation – all of which are crucial for long-term change, since the client will likely not work with the coach for the duration of his or her lifetime. To use the old analogy, the doctor gives the patient a fish so she can eat for a day, whereas the coach teaches the client to fish so she can eat for a lifetime.

Not surprisingly, studies have consistently shown that coaching interventions improve health outcomes for several chronic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer. This is not a small effect. In fact, some research has shown that applying evidence-based principles of behavior change can increase the chances of success by over 1,000%!

A visit with a health coach is often more affordable than a visit with a doctor, whether the client is paying directly or the insurance company is covering it. This is critical, because more frequent visits are required to support effective behavioral change.

Along the same lines, the barriers to entry to become a health coach are significantly lower than to become a doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant. This is also important, because we’ll need at least ten times the number of health coaches than doctors in order to make a significant dent in preventing and reversing chronic disease.

COACHES AND DOCTORS WORKING TOGETHER: THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS

I’m not arguing that health coaches will replace doctors. Doctors and other licensed clinicians will always be required to order lab tests, analyze those results, diagnose disease, prescribe treatment and coordinate care. Health coaches aren’t trained to do those things, just as doctors aren’t trained to support behavior change.

I’m advocating for an approach that utilizes the professional that is best trained and suited for each particular need: health coaches to support diet, lifestyle, and behavior change, and doctors to practice medicine.

What would this look like in practice? Imagine the healthcare population as a pyramid:

The top 5% of the pyramid – those experiencing acute or emergency problems that require intensive care, often in a hospital or specialized setting – are best served by conventional medical intervention.

The 25% of patients in the middle of the pyramid – those dealing with fairly significant chronic health challenges – will likely require the ongoing support of a licensed clinician (ideally practicing Functional Medicine) but would also benefit from working with a health coach to implement the recommendations of the licensed provider.

The 70% of patients at the bottom of the pyramid – those with less severe chronic health problems, or those who are generally healthy – might be best served by working primarily with a health coach, with occasional visits with a doctor for labs, check-ups, etc.

This approach would not only be more effective for preventing and reversing chronic disease, but it would also save us an enormous amount of money. Given that we spend nearly $4 trillion on healthcare each year, if utilizing health coaches could reduce that by even 25% (which is entirely reasonable) that would save us a trillion dollars a year. That’s no small thing, since some estimates suggest that the United States will be bankrupt by the year 2035 if healthcare spending continues to increase at its current pace. And since medical expenses are the number one cause of individual bankruptcy, using health coaches in this way could have a significant impact on each American’s pocketbook as well.

The writing is on the wall: chronic disease is destroying our quality of life, shortening our lifespan, bankrupting our country and threatening the health of future generations. It’s clearer than ever that our “disease management” system, which was designed to address medical emergencies and other acute conditions, is not prepared for the challenge of chronic disease. We desperately need a new solution – one that is affordable, timely and suitable for the task at hand. In short, we need a health coach revolution!

ABOUT CHRIS KRESSER

Chris Kresser is the author of Unconventional Medicine: Join the Revolution to Reinvent Healthcare, Reverse Chronic Disease, and Create a Practice You Love, a book for healthcare practitioners and the general public that proposes a bold solution to the chronic disease epidemic. He is also the founder of Kresser Institute, an organization that trains healthcare practitioners in applying Functional Medicine and an ancestral diet and lifestyle in their practices; the creator of ChrisKresser.com (one of the top natural health websites in the world); and the New York Times best-selling author of The Paleo Cure. His new book Unconventional Medicine will be released on November 7th.

Team Tony

Team Tony cultivates, curates and shares Tony Robbins’ stories and core principles, to help others achieve an extraordinary life.

Source: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/health-vitality/health-coach-revolution/

Memory: How to Sharpen It

Memory is the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc. Alternatively, it can be defined as the mental faculty of recalling or recognizing previous experiences. It is essential in our everyday lives. We would not be able to function in the present without relying on our memory.

Human memory involves three components:

1. Encoding - Encoding is the first step to creating new memory. It allows information to be converted into a construct which is stored in the brain. It is a process that begins with perception through the senses. The creation of memory begins with attention. A memorable event causes neurons in the brain to fire more frequently, making the experience more intense and increasing the likelihood that the event is encoded as a memory. Emotion tends to increase attention.

2. Storing and retaining information - Storing and retaining is the more or less passive process of retaining information in the brain, whether it is the sensory memory, the short-term memory or the more permanent long-term memory. The more the information is repeated or used, the more likely it is to be retained in long-term memory.

3. Recalling - Recalling of memory refers to the subsequent re-accessing of events or information from the past, which have been previously encoded and stored in the brain. In common parlance, it is known as remembering.

However, memory is malleable and it tends to decay with age. So, one can stay sharp by learning about the science of recollection.

The human brain has an incredible ability to reshape itself when it comes to learning and memory. The brain's natural power of neuroplasticity enables us to learn and improve our memory at any age.

Ways to sharpen memory -

The following are some of the important ways to sharpen memory:

Exercise your brain - Memory, like muscular strength, requires one to "use it or lose it." The more one works out one's brain, the better one will be able to process and remember information. To strengthen the brain, one needs to keep learning and developing new skills. The activity has to be something that is unfamiliar and out of our comfort zone. The activity should be challenging one. An activity, which allows starting at an easy level and works our way up as our skills improve, pushing us to continue to stretch our capabilities, is more suitable. However, we should choose activities that, while being challenging, are still enjoyable and satisfying.

Do physical exercises regularly - Exercise reduces stress hormones. Perhaps, exercise plays an important role in neuroplasticity by boosting growth factors and stimulating new neuronal connections. Aerobic exercise is particularly good for the brain, so we should choose activities that keep our blood pumping. On the whole, any physical exercise that is good for our heart is great for our brain. A year of regular aerobic exercise can up the size of an adult's hippocampus by 2 percent, says research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The researchers have also found that regular strength training can boost short¬ and long¬ term memory performance and attention. Physical activities that require complex motor movements are particularly beneficial for brain building.

Go for the joe - The researchers have found that caffeine blocks inflammation in the brain, specifically adenosine receptors, which can start a chain reaction that begins the mind's cognitive decline. The amount of caffeine we drink depends on the strength of the coffee and the size of the cup. One should not exceed the limit of drinking three cups of joe of standard size daily to derive the benefit. On the contrary, consuming more coffee than this may negatively affect mental health.

Develop healthy sleep habits - Over 95% of adults need between 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep every night in order to avoid sleep deprivation. Even skimping on a few hours makes a difference! Memory, creativity, problem-solving abilities, and critical thinking skills are all compromised. The research shows that sleep is necessary for memory consolidation, the key memory-enhancing activity occurring during the deepest stages of sleep.

Make friends - Humans are highly social. We're not meant to survive, let alone thrive, in isolation. Relationships stimulate our brains. In fact, interacting with others may be the best kind of brain exercise. Research shows that having meaningful friendships are vital not only to emotional health but also to brain health. Researchers have also found that people with the most active social lives has the slowest rate of memory decline.

Keep stress in check - Stress is one of the brain's worst enemies. Over time, chronic stress destroys brain cells and damages the hippocampus, the region of the brain involved in the formation of new memories and the retrieval of old ones. Studies have also linked stress to memory loss.

Eat brain-boosting food - A diet based on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats (such as olive oil, nuts, fish) and lean protein will provide lots of health benefits. Such a diet can also improve memory. For brain health, it is significant that it's not just what we eat, it's also what we don't eat.

Improve skills to memorize - We can take practical steps to support learning and memory by the following:

• Paying attention,

• Involving as many senses as possible,

• Relating information to what we already know,

• Focusing on understanding basic ideas for more complex material,

• Rehearsing information we've already learned,

• Using mnemonic devices to make memorization easier.

The bottom line is that human memory tends to decline with age but, on the contrary, it is malleable due to brain's remarkable power of neuroplasticity. We can sharpen our memory by taking appropriate measures, which are within the reach of everyone but they need to be practiced regularly and effectively.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dr._Pran_Rangan/2322082

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9811875

How to Cook Healthy Food! 10 Breakfast Ideas, Lunch Ideas & Snacks for School & Work!

Eating healthy can be a real challenge in today's fast paced society, especially for professionals and entrepreneurs with busy schedules! Check out these quick healthy meals for breakfast and lunch and let us know which ones you fancy trying out!

Incorporating Heart Healthy Habits in Life

According to the American Heart Association, heart disease remains the No. 1 global cause of death with 17.3 million deaths each year. That number is expected to rise to more than 23.6 million by 2030.

The Heart Foundation suggests that cardiovascular diseases claim more lives than all forms of cancer combined and coronary heart disease is the most common type of heart disease, killing nearly 380,000 people annually.

Many of us are well aware of these facts about heart diseases but still we do so little for the health of our tickers, which keep working grudgingly for us despite being subjected to our neglect. Caring for our tickers requires attention to many aspects of our life. By adopting the following heart healthy habits, we can add years to life besides staving off financial burden.

Heart healthy habits:

Exercise regularly - Our heart is a muscle that needs to be worked regularly to stay strong and healthy. Though any amount of exercise is better than no exercise, we must aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity (e.g., brisk walking) every week or 1 hour and 15 minutes (75 minutes) of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity (e.g., jogging, running) or a combination of both every week.

In addition, we need muscle strengthening activities that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest shoulders, and arms) on 2 or more days a week.

Eat healthy - We must choose foods low in saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium. In addition, we must eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, fiber-rich whole grains, fish (preferably oily fish at least twice per week), nuts, legumes and seeds and try eating some meals without meat. Further, one should limit sugar-sweetened beverages and red meat. If one chooses to eat meat, one should select the leanest cuts available.

Quit smoking - Smoking is a major cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and causes one of every three deaths from CVD. The risk of CVD increases with the number of cigarettes smoked per day as well as the numbers of years they were smoked. Smoking cigarettes with lower levels of tar or nicotine does not reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease.

Avoid second hand smoke - People are more likely to develop heart disease if exposed to second-hand smoke at home or work. According to the American Heart Association, exposure to tobacco smoke contributes to about 34,000 premature heart disease deaths and 7,300 lung cancer deaths each year. This is because the chemicals emitted from cigarette smoke promote the development of plaque buildup in the arteries.

Practice dental hygiene - It has been found that bacteria in the mouth, involved in the development of gum disease, can move into the bloodstream and cause an elevation in C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation in the blood vessels. These changes may, in turn, increase our risk of heart disease and stroke.

Have regular and adequate sleep daily - A 2011 European Heart Journal review of 15 medical studies involving almost 475,000 people found that short sleepers had a 48% increased risk of developing or dying from coronary heart disease (CHD) in a seven to 25-year follow-up period. Interestingly, long sleepers, those who averaged nine or more hours a night, also showed a 38% increased risk of developing or dying from CHD. Lack of sleep doesn't necessarily cause heart disease but it really increases the risk factors for heart disease.

Simple habit changing tips:

Substituting healthy habits for unhealthy ones rewards us with good health and better quality of life. Still many find it difficult to incorporate healthy habits in their life as sooner or later they revert back to unhealthy lifestyle, thereby losing all the beneficial effects they had. Like any other health habit, heart healthy habits need to be followed throughout life.

The following tips will help us to incorporate heart healthy habits in life:

• One has to make a decision and do conscious efforts to stick to the commitment. 

• One has to discover triggers and obstacles that need to be overcome otherwise one will set oneself up for failure. 

• One should devise a plan and review it from time to time. 

• One should employ visualizations and affirmations, relating to habits to be changed because they program the subconscious with the right mindset for establishing a new habit. 

• By enlisting the support of family and friends, we can steer away the temptation that may thwart our efforts. 

• One should find ways to reward oneself because they make us feel good, even if it's just temporarily. They will help keeping us motivated to stay on the track.

The bottom line:

Our awareness about the heart disease as number one cause of death worldwide has risen. Nevertheless, many still lack the adequate knowledge of those heart healthy habits that need to be incorporated to keep our ticker strong. What's more, though many do make efforts to adopt them, they fail to continue with them and are thus unable to derive benefits from them.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dr._Pran_Rangan/2322082

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9840967

How to make healthy eating unbelievably easy | Luke Durward | TEDxYorkU

After breaking his leg, undergraduate student Luke Durward used his time to return home and mentor his little brother on healthy eating. While illustrating his brother's dramatic transformation, Durward shares the obvious secret that is repeatedly overlooked by unsuccessful dieters.

What do you think? Can eating health really be so easy when we're surrounded by constant temptation? It's so hard to get high quality food at a reasonable price these days! 

How to Live A Healthy Lifestyle While Having Fun

Eat Vegetables

There are so many great vegetables out there that I love! If you are someone who doesn't like veggies get creative and make the veggies fun that you eat. Some of my very favorite veggies are banana squash, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, broccoli & asparagus. All these vegetables are so yummy and can be used in cooking in many different ways. The key is to find some vegetables that you enjoy and use them in fun ways that your family will enjoy.

Find Physical Activities You Enjoy

Finding physical activities that you enjoy is key to living a healthy lifestyle while enjoying it. When it comes to physical activities I love to try new things. It's so exciting when you find an activity that you enjoy that you have never tried before.

A couple years ago my husband wanted me to try mountain biking up a canyon that is close by our house. I was a little nervous as I had never done anything like that before. However, after trying it I realized how much I loved it. There is something about being up in the mountains & going for a ride.

Another thing that I really enjoy is hiking up in the mountains with my husband. This past summer we made it a goal to try a new hike every week. It was so fun to discover new places we had never seen before while exercising.

If you aren't one for nature or don't live near mountains, another thing I have grown to love is running. There is nothing I love or cherish more than the night runs I have with my husband where we have some one on one time to talk about life while enjoying some exercise.

When it comes to physical exercise you just need to find what makes you happy and do it. If you are enjoying what you do you will be more likely to get out and exercise than if you don't.

Have an Idea of How Many Calories You Are Taking In

Another way to live a healthy lifestyle is to count calories. Now I'm not saying go to extremes counting calories everyday. But you need to have a good idea how many calories you are taking in each day so you don't over eat. There are many ways to make counting macros easy and many helpful sites on the web that can teach you how to do so.

When I first started counting macros I used an app called myfitnesspal on my phone. This got me used to counting how many calories I was taking in each day and once I got the hang of it I just started counting them in my head throughout the day. It doesn't matter what you do, just figure out the best way to count your calories that is easy and do it.

Living a healthy lifestyle doesn't have to be a hard thing and if you do it right, living a healthy lifestyle can be a lot of fun. Go out and find some vegetables, physical activities & even a counting macros app you love and start living your type of healthy lifestyle. Begin today by getting off the couch and find something you love.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Amy_Mower/2478936

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