How to look slim fast

Need to impress someone ? Going on a date or an interview? Here's a great video for those who needs to look slim fast. Enjoy ....

Summer Secret Diet

It's summer time in most parts of the world and one thing great about this is the abundance of delicious and nutrient packed summer fruits and vegetables. Foods that is not only great for the body but helps you to lose weight as well. So here is a great article by Janice Mcdonald I came across the other day that's really super. Enjoy...

The sun is shining, temperatures are rising. Summer is the time to shed layers of clothes, as well as some pounds. You could opt for a stringent diet regime, but what about simply enjoying all the wonderful foods the season brings? You'll still slim down, and do wonders for your health.

It's a natural trend to eat lighter during the summer, and you can easily do so without feeling deprived. If you follow the U.S. government's 2005 dietary guidelines of four-and-a-half cups of fruits and vegetables and three servings of fat-free or low-fat dairy each day, you'll be getting plenty of naturally low-cal foods that are high in fiber, calcium, and important nutrients.

"Fiber helps in weight control because it promotes a feeling of satisfaction or satiety," explains Registered Dietitian Cheryl Orlansky, of the Computer Science Corporation. "High-fiber foods, eaten consistently, prevent that rebound effect of feeling full one minute and looking for something else to eat the next. It also helps modulate blood sugars by slowing down the digestion of sugars to prevent a quick surge into the bloodstream."

Much of summer's bounty has extra nutritional benefits you may not be aware of. Fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants and other phytonutrients that may slow aging, protect against cancer and stroke, improve blood pressure, and keep your heart healthy. And just about all are low-calorie, so your waistline stays in check, another big health benefit.

Ready to slim down with summer foods? Start your summer "diet" with these.

Tomatoes and Peppers for Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Lycopene
These powerhouses of nutrition are members of the fruit family, though thought of mostly as vegetables. Tomatoes and bell peppers of all colors deliver large amounts of vitamins A and C. A medium tomato, for example, is low in carbohydrates and has only has 35 calories but gives you 40% of the vitamin C and 20% of the vitamin A you need for the day.

Tomatoes have other benefits, too. "Consuming a diet rich in tomatoes has been shown to decrease the risk of prostate and other digestive tract cancer," says Emily Abercrombie, RD, LD, a clinical nutritionist at Atlanta's Emory Hospitals. This is because tomatoes and processed tomato products have high levels of a nutrient called lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that gives some fruits and vegetables their color.

Lycopene may prevent as well as treat several types of cancer. Research suggests it also may help prevent the LDL "bad" cholesterol in the bloodstream from being converted to oxidized LDL that can form plaques in arteries and increase the risk of heart attacks.

Peppers have antioxidants too, such as beta carotene, which can help boost the immune system and prevent the cell damage that comes from free radicals, a natural byproduct of our bodies' normal functioning. Studies show damaged cells can lead to a number of diseases, such as cancer and heart disease.

Peppers also have plenty of vitamin C, even more than tomatoes. Just a half cup of the green, yellow, or red varieties have more than 230% of your daily vitamin C requirement. Keep some pepper strips on hand for a tasty calorie-controlled snack. A half cup of fresh peppers has only 20 calories.

Nothing says summer like the colorful array of berries that start showing up in your produce section at the grocery store. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries satisfy your sweet tooth and are rich in nutritional bonuses, such as vitamin C. Strawberries have the most vitamin C of any member of the berry family.

Andrea Dunn, RD, LD, of The Cleveland Clinic, says, "Berries are rich in a substance called ellagic acid, which acts as an antioxidant, helps the body deactivate specific carcinogens, and slows the reproduction of cancer cells. Berries may also help prevent urinary tract infections."

Abercrombie adds, "Berries are a good source of fiber, which in turn help in lowering cholesterol." She also notes that studies with blueberries show they can help improve memory.

Berries in general are convenient to eat, tasty, and easily eaten by themselves or mixed with yogurt for
smoothies. Their per-serving calorie count can be as low as 45 calories. You can cook them, too, though that tends to break down the antioxidants. A "cool" way to preserve them? Pop them into the freezer, and eat them frozen for a refreshing snack.

Not so long ago, yogurt was considered something only health food junkies ate. Now, it is a dietary staple for many who enjoy the taste, convenience, low calories, and, yes, health benefits.

Yogurt can even help you slim down, according to recent studies showing a low-calorie diet that includes three servings of dairy a day can help promote weight loss. Orlansky says yogurt is very appealing to those wanting to lose weight because of the protein/carbohydrate combination it offers.

"These nutrient combinations can help stave off hunger," she explains, adding that, "Yogurt contains about 30% of the recommended daily value in calcium and should be added to the diet since most American adults are not drinking milk."

Yogurt is made by curdling milk with purified cultures. That means that in addition to protein and calcium, it is high in live active organisms called probiotics. These can boost your immunity, prevent yeast infections, and keep your gastrointestinal tract healthy.

Flavored, plain, or low fat, you can eat yogurt as a snack or as the protein source at a meal. Yogurts make a great dip for fruits and vegetables and a delicious dessert topping instead of ice cream. For the best of smart and tasty eating, combine low-fat yogurt and fresh berries for a summer smoothie.

Protein- and Fiber-Packed Beans
The benefits of beans or legumes are as wide as the varieties available. Peas, lentils, black beans, butter beans, lima beans, garbanzo beans (also called chickpeas) -- and that's a very short list. All are nutrient-rich and great sources of fiber, iron, and protein.

These small, tasty treasures can help you feel full longer, while curbing your appetite for foods that are high in fat. They have little or no fat themselves and are usually inexpensive as well. Most are good raw and can be easily mixed with other foods to add flavor, substance, and color.

"Substituting beans for animal protein in a meal can lower calories, saturated fat, and provide zero cholesterol," says Orlansky. She adds they are "particularly high in soluble fiber, which helps blood cholesterol levels."

Cleveland Clinic dietitian Andrea Dunn also notes that most beans are an excellent source of folate. Adequate amounts of folate may help keep the heart strong and are important for expectant moms, since studies show folate helps reduce certain birth defects in a growing baby.

The calorie count for a 4-ounce serving of beans ranges from about 65 calories for frozen peas to 115 for boiled black-eyed peas. The highest count, with just 160 calories, goes to Borlotti beans.

"Time to tango with the mango," Dunn says of this not-well-known summer treat. Mangoes have been a staple of people's diets in Southeast Asia and India for more than 4,000 years.

Mangoes have some big advantages over other fruits. They contain more fiber than most, which helps you curb your appetite. They are low in calories (about 95 for a medium fruit), fat, and sodium, contain no cholesterol, and have more beta carotene than any other fruit.

"Not only a source of one-fourth your vitamin A for the day, the mango is also a great source of vitamin C," Dunn explains, adding that it provides about 76% of your daily vitamin C needs in just one cup and is a nice alternative to oranges.

Mangoes are also high in carotenoids (like beta carotene) and bioflavanoids. These powerful antioxidants are good for a healthy immune system and help repair the cell damage that can lead to disease, such as cancer.
Potassium is another benefit of eating mangoes, which are loaded with this important mineral. Your body needs potassium to help regulate blood pressure and heartbeat, but many people don't get enough.

Last but Not Least, Wonderful Water
Probably the most important "food" of any diet is water. In fact, it's essential. It may have no nutritional value, but it is a catalyst for a majority of bodily functions, including digestion, metabolism, and cell function.
Water is also key for helping those trying to lose weight. It curbs hunger pains, especially when it's included in foods such as fresh vegetables and fruits.

"Research has shown that water-containing foods like fruits and vegetables and soups are encouraged for weight control because of the water," Orlansky says. "The water increases the volume of the food and lowers the amount of calories." Another reason water helps with weight loss is that if you don't get enough water, your body will try to hold on to what it has so it can continue to operate. This will leave you bloated and the only way to get rid of the excess water is to take in more water.

The adult human body is 60% water and on average, loses about one cup or 8 ounces per day from normal activity. On the upside, a typical daily diet includes about four cups of water in the food you digest. Still, nutritionists advise drinking eight glasses of water daily to keep your body functioning like a well-oiled, or hydrated, machine.

Until we met again in the next issue of Look Great Feel Happy, have a wonderful day in the sun and remember to try out the summer secret diet. Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables to boost your immunity system to get that extra protection agaist the swine flu that's spreading fast now.

Tips for a lean,sexy, physique body

One thing I know about summer is the great weather. It's also the time for beach and lots of fun in the sun. For those of you who wish to go to the beach but worry how you would look like in a bathing suit. I've got the just the article for you to get that lean, sexy, physique. It's an article by Jason Yun on nutrition and exercise to make you look incredible and delicious. Enjoy....

Fitness and nutrition are not rocket science. Although some people make it out to be. There's a lot of misinformation out there that seems to be confusing a lot of people. I'm going to bring it back to the basics and keep it simple.

Here are my top 2 nutrition and exercise tips to look better naked this bathing suit season:

NUTRITION TIPS FOR A LEAN, SEXY, PHYSIQUE:

1. Wake up and eat. Repeat every 3 hours.

The days of eating 3 square meals are gone. They really never should have been. What they did to a person's metabolism and fat burning ability was reduce it to an almost non-existent function. Look, in order to burn fat and burn it all day long you need to eat a minimum of 5 times a day and every 2-4 hours. The more times you eat will actually be more beneficial to you. It's what's known as the Thermic effect of food. You burn calories every time you eat.

Now if you eat junk every 2-4 hours that won't help anything at all. You can't out train bad nutrition. You can go to McDonald's and eat a value menu and pack away 1000 calories in under 10 minutes. You'll spend a lot of hours in the gym trying to burn off 1000 calories!

So what do you want to focus on when you do eat? That leads us into the tip #2:

2. Think fibrous foods and lean proteins when it comes to foods.
When it comes to stubborn body fat the first think you want to reduce is your total carbohydrate intake. So try and think about fiber before anything when consuming carbs. Fibrous carbohydrates have a very high Thermic effect and fill you up a lot better than carbs without fiber in them. So focus on vegetables, fruits, and whole wheat or oats. You also want to cycle your carbohydrate intake down as you progress throughout the day. So the most carbs you would consume would be at breakfast and then you taper them off as you go throughout the day.

You also want to get lean protein. Protein builds lean muscle and muscle is huge when it comes to a fast metabolism. Protein also has the highest Thermic effect over any type of food. So concentrate on lean chicken, turkey, beef, eggs, milk, fish, and game.

EXERCISE TIPS FOR A LEAN, SEXY PHYSIQUE

1. Incorporate full body interval, weight training into your routine.
This is the kind of stuff that gets your metabolism, strength, and fat burning operating at full capacity! No joke! Body part splits are simply a joke and a complete waste of time unless you are a bodybuilder. Whole body routines will get the most out of your workouts in the least amount of time.

And when you add interval training to the mix you'll be burning the fat all day long, and your energy will be skyrocketed. One of the best intervals you can do is a 50-10 5-exercise split. So you basically exercise as hard as you can for 50 seconds and then rest for 10 and then go again with another exercise for 50 more seconds. It's intense. An example would look like this:

Exercise #1: Dumbbell Squat

Exercise #2: Dumbbell Overhead Press

Exercise #3: Dumbbell Stiff-Legged Dead lifts

Exercise #4: Dumbbell Renegade Pushups and Rows

Exercise #5: Squat Thrusts
That circuit is killer! Just make sure to pick a weight that is light enough to get through the circuit, but heavy enough to give a challenge.

2. Change it up!
People that don't like to exercise are not going to exercise if it is boring. And doing the same thing day in and day out for weeks or months or even years on end will get boring pretty quickly. Plus you will stagnate a lot more quickly. The body is very smart and will adapt to something you do over and over again. And if there isn't some kind of change it simply won't be stimulated enough to entice new gains.

A change can be something as small as changing your rest period between sets or rounds. It can be a change in weight, change in reps, change in exercise order, or change in a combination of such.

But I like to change it completely around. Exercises, time, rest, number of sets or rounds, weight, everything. I also like to change the implements. Variety is the key to keeping your body guessing and always growing and getting stronger, faster, better at long and short intervals.

This is basically what bootcamp training is. And why I love it so much. Using equipment like kettlebells, medicine balls, sleds, dumbbells, punching bags, barbells, sandbags, body weight, sledgehammers keeps it interesting. Don't be a mindless zombie in your training. Next time you train find a new exercise to incorporate into your training and do it. New exercises always hit the body in a different way. And different is what the body needs to be challenged, and improve.

Give it a try!

How to Get Six Pack Sexy Abs

I know lots of people would love to get great looking abs. Well defined sculpted abs or a six pack abs for guys. Here's one of my favorite tips to get six pack abs especially for guys out there to try. It's a short article by DietitianJess, from ehow.com


Step 1

Resistance training or weight training, is the key to building lean body mass. If you want get rid of the ab flab, and reveal the muscles buried beneath, you need to incorporate resistance training into your exercise regimen. Muscle burns fat, each extra pound of muscle you put on burns an extra 50 calories per day! Replace five lbs. of fat with 5 lbs. of muscle and you could burn an extra 250 calories everyday just standing there!

Step 2

In addition to resistance training, you must also add a moderate amount of cardio to your weekly workout. Consider alternating one day of resistance training and one day of cardio. Remember, resistance training builds muscle, and continues to burn calories for up to 5 hours after your workout. In numerous studies, resistance training tops cardio for overall fat loss, which is your key to obtaining six-pack abs.

Step 3

Nutrition is another huge factor in your fight for fabulous abs. In order to build muscle you must include adequate protein in your diet. Usually the average of 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight is the standard. After resistance training, it is important to consume protein within 45 minutes. This will ensure that your body burns fat for fuel, and not muscle. There are many myths about how to build great abs out there, but the real truth is; resistance training to build muscle, which burns fat, moderate cardio and adequate nutrition.

However if you're in a rush like most people, here's a simple video of a 6 minute abs workout you can do at home using your sofa or couch. You can do it during the commercial break while watching your tv show.



So till the next issue of Look Great & Feel Happy, try out the workout consistently for that well defined sexy abs. Have a wonderful day.