Posts Tagged ‘health’

Beat The Summer Heat With Crock Pot Cooking

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

When the weather outside heats up, the kitchen can be a terrible place to be. There are lots of things you can do however, when it comes to cooking a nice home made meal that does not require traditional stove top or oven cooking.

Learn to utilize some of the less heat-creating equipment in your kitchen, such as the crock pot, in order to truly overcome the summer heat and keep your cool while preparing a nice hot meal for friends and family.

So, how does crock pot cooking actually help overcome the heat? Simply put, the crock pot in and of itself gives off far less heat when cooking than an oven or stove top. This is the first and possibly the best reason to make the most of the crock pot in your summer meal planning.

You should also take into account the fact that by not heating the house by using your stove top or oven you are also reducing the load on your air conditioning (or other cooling methods) so you are not requiring it to work overtime in order to make up for the additional heat that other cooking methods introduce.

This makes crock pot cooking a win-win situation as the costs involved in using a crock pot are far less than the costs involved in operating a stove or oven. Whether electric or gas, your stove and oven are serious energy users. Add to that the fact that you are not increasing the temperature in your home by traditional means of cooking and you are using even less electricity.

Regrettably, the general consensus has been that crock pots are meant for comfort foods and hearty winter meals. The truth is that the crock pot should be one of your best loved and most often utilized cooking techniques. When it comes to cooking with a crock pot, the options are almost limitless. Almost anything that can be baked can be made in the crock pot and many, many more wonderful and tempting meals and treats as well.

Benefits of Crock Pot Cooking

In addition to the cost advantages written above, when it comes to crock pot cooking there are many other advantages that are worth mentioning. First of all, the bulk of the work involved in crock pot cooking takes place early in the day when you are fresh rather than at the end of a hectic work or play day.

The result is that you are less likely to forget an ingredient or make some other mistake, which can easily happen when trying to cook after a hectic day.

Second, many great crock pot recipes include the vegetables that ensure that we get the nutrients we require. So often, when preparing a meal at the last minute, vegetables and other side dishes are left out for the sake of expedience. Crock pot cooking, on the other hand, is a meal in one pot.

Another good reason to use a crock pot for your summertime cooking is the simplicity of washing up. Unlike conventional cooking with several pots and pans, most crock pot meals are completed in one pot. This clearly reduces the hardware needed to be washed up or loaded into the dishwasher (or if you are the same as me - both) afterwards.

So, you spend less time cleaning up, just as you spent less time slaving over a hot stove. Well, make that no time slaving over a hot stove and once the washing up is done, you can get back to enjoying the sun set, mucking about with with the dog or kids, or just waiting for the first stars.

While there will never be a method of cooking that suits everyone, crock pot cooking comes pretty close. So, if you have a crock pot collecting dust somewhere in the back of your cupboard it is time to get it out, dust if off, and dig up some great summertime crock pot cooking recipes.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the 2 quart crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

Is Fasting For Fitness A Good Idea?

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

A lot of people do not understand their bodies. That much is obvious because they believe that fasting will help them become fitter. They feel certain that their bodies will feed off their surplus fat and that they will lose weight as a consequence. They also seem to imagine that they will automatically end up with more muscle, just in the right places too. Some take up fasting for fitness because they think that it will rid them of the toxins in their bodies.

Another belief that these fasters have is that they are will be able to flush out all of the toxins in their bodies by drinking plenty of water at the same time as not eating food. Even if this is true, it would be a long procedure that would mean that you would have to fast for at least five to seven days though in order to conclude the detox process, although it is still not clear scientifically whether fasting is the right approach for those that desire fitness.

There are many other paths to fitness that do work well though. For instance, you can cut back the amount of food that you consume. Cutting back is not fasting, it is dieting and it is not only far more effective, it is also far less painful. This, together with drinking lots of water and increasing your amount of physical exercise will help you to become fitter.

If you drink a lot of soda like cola or lemonade, which are full of sugar, like a lot of kids do, or lots of cups of sugared tea or coffee, like a lot of adults do, then just replacing those drinks for water or weak tea will help you lose weight fairly rapidly even if you do not make any other changes to your diet or your amount of activity.

It is also possible to damage your body if you take on on a demanding exercise regime only relying on body fat to keep you going. Your body almost certainly will not be able to supply enough energy to fuel such a change, because your metabolism will be too low.

Someone going about it in this way, can become very weak and dizzy. It is not a good idea to risk injury because you have not given your body all the fuel it needs to accomplish the tasks you are requiring it to do.

It is best to consult a physician before you make any changes to either your diet or your fitness program. Confer with your doctor about your thoughts on fasting and fitness. They will be able to inform you whether they feel it is something you can try or whether it is simply too dangerous.

Fasting is all right if you have do it for religious reasons, but do not attempt much physical exertion. Ask a Muslim how he or she feels during Ramadan! Fasting for long periods can lead to high blood pressure and even liver damage. So, be very careful before trying to fast yourself fit, there are much better ways.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with lose weight fast and safe. If you have an interest in losing weight, too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

Crock Pots

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

In the USA, most people call these electric cookers crock pots, whereas in the Great Britain they are normally called slow cookers. Crock pots by Rival, DeLonghi, Hamilton Beach, Cuisinart and Toastess are particularly good examples of advanced crock pots. Some of these crock pots are programmable, which allows the cook more flexibility that the slow cookers of twenty years did not.

The first crock pots had only an on/off switch and no temperature control. This meant that the recipes you could prepare with them were restricted, if you used your crock pot for cooking food while you were out of the house or work for eight hours or more. Modern slow cookers like those crock pots mentioned previously have changed all that. Nowadays, modern crock pots are programmable.

These modern crock pots are very versatile and with the finest of them, you can set the temperature that the slow cooker should operate at and the length of time it should cook for just like a microwave oven. For example, you could program a modern slow cooker to cook at, say, 180c for an hour and then 100c for two hours

Most people do not appreciate the features that modern crock pots have. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of individuals who still believe that slow cookers are only any good for cooking rice, boiling soup or preparing cheap cuts of meat like scrag end of mutton. This is just not true any more, although manual crock pots were capable of more than that as well. Modern variable slow cookers can be used to make bread, cheesecake, custards and even sponges.

In fact, it is a good idea to get away from the old fashioned concepts people have about slow cookers and try to see them as an oven, which does not need a pot to cook in. Try the recipe underneath and see for yourself.

BANANA BREAD

1 3/4 c flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/3 c shortening 2/3 c sugar 2 eggs, well beaten 1 1/2 c banana, well mashed, overripe 1/2 c walnuts, coarsely chopped

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the electric beater on low, fluff shortening in a small bowl, until it is soft and creamy. Add the sugar gradually. Beat in the eggs in a slow stream. With a fork, beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture, ? the bananas another 1/3 of the flour mixture, the rest of the bananas and then the last of the flour mixture. Fold in the walnuts. Turn into a greased and floured baking unit or a 2 1/2 quart mold and cover.

Place on a rack in your crock pot. Cover the crock pot, but prop the lid open with a toothpick or a twist of foil to let the excess steam escape. Cook on HIGH for 4 to 6 hours. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Serve Warm.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching the crock pots by Rival. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

Menopause And Weight Gain: Is There A Connection?

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Studies of women aged fifty and over show that most women in this age group are positive that their weight increase is connected with the menopause in their judgment. If you take into account the fact that some people might be using this as an excuse and that others may not have made allowances in their diet for decreased levels of activity due to lifestyle changes, it is still hard to explain why women in this age group tend to put excess weight on different areas of the body, especially the stomach, whereas any weight gained in younger women tends to be on the hips.

In fact, the reality is that hormonal changes do have a role to play in this phenomenon, although the process is not completely understood. At menopause a woman stops ovulating, her monthly menstruation periods end, and her body produces much lower levels of the female hormone estrogen, which is responsible for the ovulation process.

Low estrogen has been shown to cause weight gain in animals and it is almost certainly the reason why women’s bodies change shape. While women of childbearing age accumulate fat in the lower body, after the menopause they store it on the abdomen instead, like men. This leads to a greater risk of heart disease.

At the same time, both men and women tend to find muscle turning to fat as they grow older and the metabolism slows down. This means that if you do not adjust your eating habits, you will probably find that your weight increases. A person of 60 just does not need as many calories as a person of 40.

Hormonal therapy with estrogen is sometimes prescribed to control menopausal symptoms. Many women will be astonished to hear that studies have shown that hormonal therapy does not result in weight increase. Some women experience bloating and water retention in the early stages of hormonal therapy but this is usually temporary.

Hormonal therapy can reduce the risk of heart disease by preventing the changes in storage of body fat around the abdomen and lowering cholesterol. On the other hand, hormonal therapy has been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in some studies.

If you find that you are gaining weight around the menopause, there are several things you can do.

Firstly, you should eat a healthy, low fat diet with plenty of fibre and avoid sugar.

Secondly, you need to take regular exercise. As people get older their physical activity levels naturally drop. Work often becomes less physically demanding, there are no kids to run around after, we take less active holidays and do things more slowly. Thirty minutes of moderate physical activity every day will help to balance out the effect of this.

Thirdly. you must preserve your muscle strength and mass. Use weights for arm muscles and walking or cycling for your legs.

Fourthly, try not to get worried about the alterations to the shape of your body. If you are not too overweight, but simply have a thicker waist and slimmer legs, then don’t worry.

As customary, you ought to seek advice from your doctor before starting any exercise program, if you have any medical conditions or if your fitness levels are low. Your doctor can also help with symptoms of the menopause and weight gain.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with how to lose weight online. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

Answers To Diabetes Questions

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Diabetes is a continuing malady in which the individuals body is not able to accurately moderate the amount of sugar in the blood. The individuals body cannot govern the sugar in the blood due to the lacking of the insulin.

Diabetes has long and wide array of health consequences for those that bear this disease. Diabetes greatly heightens the chances of heart disease and stroke, possible blindness. Not to mention, Uncontrolled diabetes might contribute to dying.

It is approximated that over 18 million Americans have to live with diabetes, and out of 18 million it is figured that virtually one third are not mindful they suffer from diabetes.

Diabetes is easily diagnosed using a fasting blood glucose test. This test is the most accurate testing you can use. A fasting blood glucose outcome of 126 or higher is a sign of diabetes. In general a fasting glucose test is a separate part of a yearly physical for individuals, mainly adults.

Type 1 diabetes, is mostly diagnosed in teenagers.

Adult-onset diabetes is the most common sort of diabetes and is generally found in people over the age of 40. Adult-onset diabetes is most likely influenced by a poor diet and overweight as 80% of people with Adult-onset diabetes are regarded as overweight.

There are still arguments on the genetics of diabetes. If both your parents have a type of diabetes, naturally your risk is greater than if only one parent has diabetes. Adult-onset diabetes is generally linked to genetic components and other factors like poor diet and little to no exercise.

Some of the indications of type 2 diabetes are undetermined weight loss, laziness, excessive thirst or excessive hunger, habitual urination, dry skin, slow healing cuts or sores, abrupt sight changes.

If you discover you suffer from diabetes, you will be required to work real close with your health care provider in order to keep your sugar levels within an satisfactory range. You will have to start testing your blood insulin level probably at least twice a day and preserving your results in a diary. You will need to restructure your diet and pay special attention to size of your portions and meal frequency.

A diabetic diet does not necessarily mean that you cannot have foods that include carbohydrates, it just means you can’t consume them in an unlimited manner. Exercise done on a steady basis has been determined to aid and help moderate blood sugar levels. It is suggested that individuals with diabetes had better exercise about 60 minutes a day.

Dealing with diabetes can be overpowering at first, and it will take dedication on your part. Of course, millions of people experience good and active lives with diabetes.

Find out more about diabetes symptoms at our website about: diabetes 2.

Use Organic Pesticides Instead Of Chemicals

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Although people are aware of the health dangers of pesticides, there is almost 1 billion pounds of these dangerous pesticides used in the United States each and every year. The worst part is these numbers are not lowering.

Even though our food is washed before getting to the grocery store and many people will still rinse the vegetables when they get them home, there are still trace pesticides that people consume, and this is causing some rather large health issues.

These pesticides are also causing health problems with the farmers and there workers. Every year there are over 10,000 pesticide related illnesses reported, and this is only the ones that have been reported. Even the EPA says that this is becoming a major issue.

Larger still are the hazards to pets. According to the American Society for the Prevention of cruelty to animals, there are over 30 thousand pet poisonings caused by pesticides each and every year. These numbers are produced by the animal poison control center.

I am sure you have done this once or twice yourself. You walk out into your driveway and see grass or weeds growing up through the blacktop. So you either run to the kitchen and grab your weed killer from under the sink or you go to the nearest store to buy some and you start spraying it around.

The use of pesticides has been proven to be the cause of, or a contributing factor of many diseases like birth defects, different cancer’s and even Parkinson’s disease. With all the problems with pesticides, people still use them

One big problem is that the government doesn’t require the same type or standards of testing for home pesticides as they do for commercially grown food. So they can get away with adding “inert ingredients” that have never been tested for possible health issues.

So knowing that these chemical pesticides are bad for you and your pets may not be enough so look at this on a planetary scale. These pesticides contaminate our water, soil and air, which means we are killing our own planet. Look at it this way. These pesticides are killing off honeybee’s, if we end up killing off all the honeybee’s, our way of life will be gone. The consequences can be disastrous

The best bet for you and your neighbors is to learn how to combat pests without the use of chemicals. This will help you health and that of your pets and neighbors as well. And not to mention “Mother Earth”.

For more information on organic pest control visit our website, and we will help you with your termite treatment.

The Rapid Weight Loss Myths

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to be slimmer just to have a sexier body. Many people have moulded their bodies to make them look more healthy and more desirable. However, there is no way to attain this new appearance in a day of two. The problem is that most people do not want to wait, they want it now.

This can lead to these people making rather rash and, it has top be said, rather silly decisions. They are not willing to wait and they are not willing to work for what they want. This is why so many people turn to rapid weight loss diets. Some ‘guru’ brings out a new fad diet and a good percentage of the ‘I want it now’ crowd jump on the band wagon. Only to be disappointed again within the year or less.

Speed diets or rapid weight loss diets tend to put out great advertising copy that is very hard to resist. However, all diets, no matter which one you choose, Weight Watchers, Atkins or fad diet, depend on overweight people making lifestyle changes in order for them to work permanently.

There is a very apposite saying: if you always do what you always did, then you will always get what you always got. That says it all. You can lose weight with all but the stupidest of diets, but if you go back to your old ways when you hit your target weight, you MUST slowly, but gradually creep back to your old weight.

If you give your body more calories than it needs, it will store them for when it does need them. The problem is that that day never comes for too many people, because they never exert themselves. This is especially true of fad diets like the ‘cabbage water’ diet. Yes, you will lose weight on it, but you would lose weight by fasting whatever you did. For a while, and then you might get sick. For a diet to work, it has to be flexible and enjoyable enough for you to be able to stick with it for the rest of your life. Make no mistake, dieting is long-haul.

Many rapid weight loss programs actually only squeeze the water out of you. Just like a wet sponge. But a good dieter maintains his or her grip on that sponge, not letting it soak up water again. The problem with short term dieting, is that you let go of the sponge underwater.

This is why serial dieters first lose weight and are delighted; then finish dieting, go back to their old weight and become depressed. In that state of depression they are suckers for the advertisers of the next latest craze diet. In other words, they are being manipulated and literally squeezed dry, but of their cash too.

These silly rapid weight loss programs also include fat loss pills. They are not making you lose fat, well, maybe a tiny amount gets washed out with all the surplus water you are carrying. They are only diuretics under another name. How many pills would I sell if I called them diuretics? How many more would I sell if I called them miracle fat loss pills?

Type the word diuretic into a engine and find out more about them. They are all around you in mild healthy forms. A diuretic will essentially cause your body to lose more fluid than was in the diuretic. Tea is a diuretic, for example.

This list of these dopey dieting aids to rapid weight loss goes on and on, but someone must be buying them and you can bet your bottom dollar that it is the sad, depressed dieter who let go of the sponge.

Slimming soap! Slimming soap is being advertised as being a rare Eastern remedy for corpulence. Well, let me tell you, I live in the East and I have never seen it here. Asians are slim because they do a lot of physical work and do not come under the pressure to eat junk food that Westerners do, although that situation is changing rapidly too.

Magnetic weight loss earrings, I ask you! Even being drunk without a present for your wife ten minutes before Christmas Day is not a good enough excuse to fall for this one, surely? The advertisers say that the secret of this set of earrings is that they are magnetic.

Well, if you believe this, why not get a pair of $1 children’s toy magnets or even a pair of fridge magnets and put one in each hip pocket? Two? Well, after all, you would not want to lose weight from only one side, would you? You would be lop sided.

Just remember, when you are looking for a rapid weight loss diet: there ain’t one ( that will work for life). If you are putting on weight, then your lifestyle is wrong and it is up to you alone to change it.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with how to lose weight online. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

Watch Out For Your Knee

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

The important key in order to have a healthy lifestyle is to keep moving and moving. Being mobile and being fit helps to tone your muscles in a fit fashion and keeps you in the loop with everything beneficial to your health. Of course, proper balance is still key to everything. Balance also benefits your knees.

Keep yourself fit. And thin. At least at a size that you would not consider obese. Other than your heart that would suffer from all the extra pounds that you unnecessarily carry around, you would also experience a lot of stress in the knee area. For something a few inches tall carrying a load that exceeds a hundred pounds or more every day, it’s understandable that the first thing to fall down would be the knees.

Shoes are also one factor that can make or break your knees. If you’re a guy, then you should just find the comfiest shoes that are available. Make sure that you feel the pressure beneath your heels, and not on your legs. For girls, keep anything short to a one-inch heel. Anything taller and it will start straining your heel, your legs and then your knees. The padding on the heel is important, make sure that the pressure from all that standing is focused on your heels and not on your knees.

Common sense here but avoid anything that requires strenuous amounts of knee-destroying exercises. Impossible squats are some of them, and just imagine subjecting your knees to more stress and strain after a day’s walking and standing. The only time your knees will see rest is when you are asleep or sitting. The little things that we do everyday accumulates and ends up destroying our knees.

Improper body posture, retroactively affects your knees as well. When you notice that your knees are quivering, it means that the stress of the weight of your upper isn’t balanced at all in distribution. Some of it goes to your femur, while others to the lower leg. This hastens degeneration of your knees. Seeing a doctor immediately is advised as this could become critical in the later years of your life. Keep a healthy diet and avoid calcium-leeching activities like smoking and drinking soda. This could prevent your legs from becoming more deformed.

To find out exactly how millions are relieving their knee afflictions, visit knee-relief.com which is about improving knee strength.

The Best Methods To Shed Weight

Friday, February 19th, 2010

If you make your mind up that you want to follow a traditional style diet, as a rule of thumb, you ought to find a weight loss plan that is rich in fresh fruit and vegetables; low-fat dairy foodstuffs; white meat and fish; whole grain cereals and plenty of drinking water and by that I mean at least eight to ten 250mm glasses a day.

Being heavy can cause a lot of other issues, in addition it being a problem in its own right. Obesity makes rapid movement, stretching and reaching difficult. Surplus sweating can be an embarrassment and it can result in chaffing. The range of fashionable clothing available can be constrained too. In addition to these problems, studies have shown that being overweight invariably leads to health problems such as hypertension, cardiac issues, sleep apnea and diabetes.

The only resolution to this bundle of problems is to lose those extra pounds around your waist by starting on a healthy weight loss diet plan and following it faithfully. I will give you a few general pointers below to help you slim down and reduce the risk of spending your later years running in and out of hospital.

Nearly all of the traditional weight loss diet plans proposed by dietitians and nutritionists start with the simple exhortation to reduce your food intake to the quantity you require to carry out your every day routine. The problem is that it sounds easy, but it is one of the hardest things to do. It takes a lot of willpower on your part. However, you could start by eating and drinking three-quarters of what you normally consume. Once you can handle that, reduce the percentage again.

Try to make every calorie count. By that, I mean, if you are going to eat 200 calories, make certain that they are contained in food that will do you good and keep you feeling full. A bar of chocolate will give you a blood-sugar rush for 20-30 minutes, but a doorstep of a cheese and salad sandwich made from whole wheat bread washed down with a glass or two of water will give you plenty of fibre and vitamins and fill you up for a couple of hours.

It is always a good idea to keep a diary of what you eat and when. This way you can compare days and weeks and see what works best. It also helps if you are reducing your consumption in stages. Mark what you eat with the number of calories in that portion. If you do not know accurately, estimate it. Writing something down is better than nothing.

The next part is the part I don’t like - exercise. Regular exercise. The good news is that it does not have to be too much. Two thirty minute walks a day is quite helpful. Once in the morning and once in the evening. Or walk in your lunch time and after your evening meal. If you like, frequent visits to the fitness center are even better, but they are also easier to miss or give up altogether.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with lose weight programs. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

Tips to Succeed When Working With a Personal Trainer

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

As a personal trainer, my clients will ask me, “How often should we meet?” This is a good question and one that takes some careful consideration because everybody’s needs and wants are different. Most of what personal training is about is instruction, support, and accountability. Here are some things to consider when deciding how often to see your trainer: How experienced are you? How fit are you right now? Do you tend to fall off your exercise schedule? What can you afford?

If you are totally new to exercise, schedule 2 or 3 appointments a week for at least 3 weeks. The beginning of a new attempt to start exercising is a critical time. Most people fall off in the first month due to injury or lack of motivation. Think of all of the people who make new years resolutions to get in shape. You know as well as I know that the odds are not with them that it will last. If this sounds familiar, you have to break the pattern!

If falling off your exercise schedule is a pattern for you then I suggest having once or twice weekly appointments with your trainer indefinitely. Here’s why: An appointment with your trainer once a week makes you accountable and that’s good. I have clients that I’ve worked with once or twice a week for 9 years and counting! Before they started working with me, their exercise came in waves. Not now. I keep them on track. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had clients say to me “I never would have worked out today if we didn’t have this appointment.” Be honest with yourself, there’s no shame in admitting that you just won’t do it on your own but then do something about it. Trainers understand.

If you are at a pretty good level of fitness but you do the same exercises all the time, having an appointment once a month to spice up your routine is a great idea. Here’s why: Have you heard people talk about the need to ‘confuse your body’? What it basically means is that you don’t want you body to become too comfortable. This happens when you do the same thing all the time. Ideally, you should be challenging your body and ‘confusing’ it by doing different exercises with different levels of exertion. This is the best way to optimize your exercise. So, if you find yourself bored in your routine or not challenged but motivated enough to do it on your own, you would greatly benefit from a once a month appointment. The new material will keep you challenged and engaged.

Of course when you’re trying to figure out how often to see a trainer budget is going to come up. The two of you can talk about what you have to spend and they will help you to get the most out of your money. It’s the trainer’s job to assess the situation and make suggestions about what they think will be helpful. The two of you can then decide together how you will move forward.

Remember you don’t have to sign on for a package of sessions right away. Take your time in deciding if you have picked the right person and if you want to keep working with them. It may seem like a lot of money but if you re lucky enough to find a trainer you enjoy and you’re getting results, I am confident that it will be worth every dime!

Choosing the correct Denver Personal Trainer can make or break your resolution to get in shape. We can be your fitness confidant and sketch a personal workout plan that is best for you. Visit www.filettifitness.com today for more information.