Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Ten weight lose myths

So much is said about losing weight that it can be hard to sort truth from fiction. Here's the truth about 10 common weight-loss myths.

1. Starving myself is the best way to lose weightCrash diets are unlikely to result in long-term weight loss. In fact, they can sometimes lead to longer term weight gain. The main problem is that this type of diet is too hard to maintain. Your body will be low on energy, causing you to crave high-fat and high-sugar foods. When you finally give in and eat those foods, you will often eat more calories than you need, causing weight gain.

2. A radical exercise regime is the only way to lose weightNot true. Sensible weight loss involves making small changes that you can stick to for a long time. That means building regular physical activity into your daily routine. Adults between 19 and 64 should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity - such as fast walking or cycling -every week, and those who are overweight are likely to need more than this in order to lose weight. To shift 450g (1lb) a week, you need to create a calorie deficit - that is, more calories used than consumed - of 500 calories per day. This can be achieved by eating less, moving more, or, best of all, a combination of both.

3. Slimming pills are effective for long-term weight lossNo, they're not. Slimming pills alone will not help you keep the weight off long term. They should only be used when prescribed by a doctor.

4. Healthy foods are more expensiveIn fact, healthy foods are not necessarily more expensive than their unhealthy alternatives. You'll typically pay more for a high-fat, high-salt ready meal than you would if you had bought fresh ingredients and made the meal yourself.

5. Foods labelled ‘low fat’ or ‘reduced fat’ are always a healthy choiceBe cautious. Foods labelled 'low fat' have to meet legal criteria to use that label. Labels such as 'reduced fat' do not have to meet the same criteria, and can be misleading. A reduced-fat snack should contain less fat than the full-fat version, but that doesn't automatically make it a healthy choice: it could still contain a lot more fat than, say, a portion of fruit. Low-fat foods also sometimes contain high levels of sugar.

6. Margarine contains less fat than butterMargarine and butter contain different types of fat. Margarine is usually lower in saturated fat than butter. But it's more likely to contain hydrogenated fats. Hydrogenated fats, also called trans fats, may be more harmful to health than saturated fats. To lose weight, and for heart health, reduce the amount of saturated and hydrogenated fats you eat. If oil in margarine has been hydrogenated, this has to be listed on the ingredient listing on packaging, so check labels carefully.

7. Carbohydrates make you put on weightEaten in the right quantities, carbohydrates will not cause weight gain. A 2003 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that dieters on the best-known low-carb diet, the Atkins diet, tended to lose weight not because they ate fewer carbohydrates, but simply because they ate less overall. Eat wholegrain and wholemeal carbohydrates such as brown rice and wholemeal bread, and don't fry starchy foods when trying to lose weight.

8. Cutting out all snacks can help you lose weight
Snacking isn't the problem when trying to lose weight: it's the type of snack. Many people need a snack in between meals to maintain energy levels, especially if they have an active lifestyle. Choose fruit or vegetables instead of crisps, chocolate and other snacks that are high in sugar or saturated fat.

9. Drinking water helps you lose weightWater does not cause you to lose weight, but it does keep you hydrated, and might help you snack less. Water is essential for good health and wellbeing. Sometimes thirst can be mistaken for hunger; if you're thirsty you may snack more. Drink around two litres of fluid a day.

10. Skipping meals is a good way to lose weightSkipping meals is not a good idea. To lose weight and keep it off, you have to reduce the amount of calories you consume, or increase the calories you burn through exercise. But skipping meals altogether can result in tiredness and poor nutrition. You will also be more likely to snack on high-fat and high-sugar foods, which could result in weight gain.

Ten minute workouts

Adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity every week. But you can reach this minimum target by doing three 10-minute sessions, five days a week.
Physical activity provides a wide range of health benefits, including a reduced risk of heart disease and stroke, maintenance of mobility, control of body weight and increased mental wellbeing.

But for many of us, finding the time to fit exercise into a busy schedule isn’t easy. If you find it difficult to spare time for physical activity, don’t give up. You can achieve your weekly minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity by splitting 30 minutes of activity each day into three sessions of 10 minutes.

Moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity means an activity that causes your heart rate to rise, and you to break a sweat: for example, fast walking or cycling.

If you're looking for ways to fit more activity into your day, try these 10-minute workouts:

Home exercise workoutsBurn calories, lose weight and feel great with our 10-minute home workout routines.

  • Exercise your heart and lungs with a 10-minute home cardio workout.
  • Get into shape with a 10-minute home toning workout.
  • Burn fat from your tummy, hips, thighs and bottom with a 10-minute legs, bums and tums home workout
Play with the kids
“Go bike riding, play football or use a trampoline,” says Professor Ken Fox from Bristol University’s Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences department. Finding time every weekend to do something active with your kids helps to keep the whole family fit.

Skip yourself fit
Skipping is good for the heart, bones, flexibility and co-ordination. And it's not expensive: all you need is a skipping rope, a pair of trainers and a safe space. Depending on the intensity of your workout, skipping will typically burn between 70 and 110 calories in a 10-minute session.

Swap the sofa for cyclingIf you don’t fancy braving the gym or the traffic, why not set up a stationary bike in front of your TV? Pedal away in front of your favourite shows, and before you know it you’ll have done 10 minutes. This works just as well if you prefer using a treadmill for fast walking or jogging. For a 60kg person, 10 minutes of moderate-intensity cycling will burn around 60 calories, and 10 minutes of fast walking will burn around 50 calories.

Take the stairs You’d be amazed how many staircases you can take in during the day, and choosing to use them rather than a lift can help you burn calories as well as toning up your legs and bottom.

Get walking
Fast walking is one of the easiest ways to fit
 a bit of exercise into your day. Stride around
 the block in your lunch hour, walk the kids to
school or take the dog for a walk. Try using a
 pedometer to keep track of how many steps you do.


Dance the night away Energetic dancing, whether at a class or home alone with your headphones on, is great fun and good exercise. If you enjoy what you’re doing you’re more likely to stick with it and exceed your 10-minute target. If you do join a class, you’ll find exercising with other people a great way to keep motivated. For a 60kg person, 10 minutes of energetic dancing burns around 65 calories.

Park and walk
If you have to drive to your appointment, you don’t have to miss out on exercise altogether. When you park, leave the car further away than usual from your destination and walk the rest of the way. If you’re shopping, leave your car in the space furthest from the shops, and you’ll benefit from the added bonus of carrying your bags back to the car park.

All quoted rates of calorie burning will depend on your weight and gender.

Saturday, 4 February 2012

The faith in old trees

better teas, in which case men like Wu and Hu were, in fact, destroying good teas by chasing after yields.

I think the situation here might be a bit analogous to organic food – oftentimes, organic food can indeed taste better, not necessarily because it is organic, but also because it is farmed with more care and attention from the farmer, whereas the industrially produced stuff gets relatively less care and comes out not tasting as good. Yet, if all the farms in the world go organic, then a lot of people will starve, because the yield from such farms tend to be lower, with more losses and less production because of the very nature of the farming method. Likewise, winemakers often advertise when they use old vines for a wine, labeling it vieilles vignes for example, to let us know that it is made from old vines, with the implication that this makes better wine. Tea makers are also doing that, most notably with puerh but also increasingly with other types of tea, telling us that this or that is made with old tree teas. But old tree teas don’t produce as much, which, of course, is part of the reason why they are more expensive.

I suspect that this day and age, especially after the ravages of collectivization, there are very few old tree teas left in many of the major tea producing areas in China. What’s left are likely to be destroyed, unless held in private hands, so comparison between the two tend to be difficult, if not impossible. With puerh, I think it is safe to say that there’s a difference between old tree and non-old tree teas. Whether that difference is good or not, however, is really up for debate, as different people have different theories. Old trees, however, command much higher prices, even as raw leaves. It does, then, feed back into the self-fulling loop because if you were a tea processor, and you have a kilo each, one of which costs a lot more to procure, you’re likely to put more care into processing the bag that cost more. This, in turn, may result in better tea simply because you were paying more attention, thus fueling the speculation that old tree teas taste better, thus further driving up the prices. Of course, this is all speculation, but it is nevertheless worth thinking about. After all, Wu and Hu noted that there were quality issues that are distinct from yield issues; it’s too bad that they didn’t say what kind of quality problems there were with such teas.



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Tea Company Websites And Online Tea Stores: Consistent Navigation Schemes, When To Have Separate Websites



Notice that this is a completely different header...the footer on the page, incidentally, is also completely different. This confuses viewers of the website, and also slows them down. People used to exploring the store section of the site may return to the site by typing in the URL, rishi-tea.com, only to find an unfamiliar header. Similarly, someone who wanted to click one of the links on the homepage's header may have trouble finding it once they click through to the rest of the site. In the case of Rishi Tea, because most people viewing the site will view both the homepage and the store section, most users will actually encounter this inconsistency.

I think, unless absolutely necessary, it is best to avoid this sort of inconsistency. Sometimes having different toolbars is necessary in different parts of your site, but I think that it is generally better to have a common, base toolbar that is the same on the whole site, and then add additional toolbars to other sections of the site, rather than having a completely different toolbar.

As a side note, I really like Rishi Tea and I think their website is actually quite good: easy-to-use and informative. I'm picking on them in part because I like them as a company and want to draw attention to a company that I feel good about supporting.

Do not build a separate website for your "store":

Not all tea companies sell directly through their website; some brands, like most of the tea brands owned by Unilever and other large companies, have strictly informational websites. However, most tea companies sell tea online. And, if you do sell tea online, through a company-owned online store, then by all means, sell your tea on your main website and do not build a separate site for your store.

Why? People will come preferentially to your company's main website, and you will lose sales if your store is compartmentalized in a separate section or hosted on a separate domain, and not fully integrated into your site. Many people will visit your site and may not even know that you sell things online. Here's an example of a company that separates its store in a way that I think is likely causing them to lose a lot of potential sales. The following screenshot is from the homepage of Equal Exchange, a brand of fair-trade goods that sells tea, among many other products:



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Friday, 27 January 2012

Colon Cleanse Weight Loss - Best Recommended Way Posted By : Jhon Napier

Views: 186 view(s) Colon cleanse is the best recommended way for attaining faster weight loss goal. It flushes out harmful toxins from body and helps in maintaining good health condition. Lack of exercises, unhealthy lifestyle, over intake of alcohol are some important causes for accumulation of toxins. Symptoms shown by body in need of colon cleansing vary from one person to other. Over accumulation of toxins in body induce several health risks like headache, over body weight, low energy and fatigue. At present, it can be done in versatile forms as per the wish of person. Colon therapy done by colonic irrigation, by taking powdered or liquid supplements are main types of cleansing of colon performed for weight loss. This natural way for restoring good health promotes the efficiency of digestive system and eliminates extra mucoid plaque clogging in colon.

Colon cleansing intended for weight loss is a widely suggested technique for promoting over all well being. Rejuvenating skin cells, faster absorption of nutrients, faster fat burning, increasing energy level and enhancing over all metabolic activities are highlighting benefits of having colon cleansing. Process of colon cleansing is simple and easy to follow. If colon is not cleansed in proper time intervals, intestinal walls will get accumulated by waste materials and lead way to problems like cravings for food, poor concentration and low energy level. Doing a right cleansing of colon helps in ceasing all these troubles. Following natural colon cleanse for weight loss is a best way to get rid of belly fat. It purifies internal system and increase absorption of nutrients so that body can gain more fuel from smaller amounts of food.

It is one among the best detoxification programs making you slim and fit. Today, there are lots of cleansing supplements available in market boasting weight loss. Choosing the right one among them is an effective way for detoxifying your body. Aloe vera, flax seeds, garlic extract, peppermint and cascara sagrada are some key ingredients added for the production of cleansing products. Proper cleansing of colon helps in bringing back your energy. If you need guidance, never hesitate to consult a health practitioner. For achieving faster fat loss, it is advised to avoid consuming junky foods. Processed foods, canned foods and caffeinated beverages are some main villains promoting overweight problems.

Weight loss by using dietary supplement is a safe mode of treatment done for regulating overweight or obesity problems. Lemon cleanse or master cleanse is a fine example of colon cleansing for weight loss. People undergoing weight loss treatment by master cleanse are advised to intake ten glasses of lemonade drink per day in regular intervals of time period. This herbal tonic is a blend of lime juice, grade B maple syrup, cayenne pepper and pure water. Following master colon cleanse for ten days help in easier trimming down of waistline and controlling body weight. Eliminating the risks of colon diseases, preventing constipation, providing fair skin and silky hair are other benefits of doing colon cleanse weight loss program.

Flat Belly Diet - Reduce Belly Fat Naturally Posted By : Jhon Napier

Views: 515 view(s) Fat can accumulate in the front of abdomen to form the apple shape body, or it can build up around the hips and thigh which is called the pear shape body. Sometimes abdominal fat is caused by stress because when person is under stress he/she releases a hormone cortisol which stimulates storage of fat around abdomen. Flat belly attracts opposite sex and the obese people are at a higher risk of getting a number of diseases such as diabetes and heart attacks. Therefore many wish to get a flat belly structure.

Mufa

The main components of flat belly diet are MUFAs which are basically the products containing mono- saturated fatty acid and it includes mainly nuts, olives, chocolates and seeds. It helps to reduce the fat accumulation around the belly and prevents obesity.

Fat can be stored in body in the form of Visceral which is stored deep inside the body which protects the internal organs or it can be stored just under the skin.

Eating a good diet helps in getting back the flat belly and one should also try to avoid a sedentary lifestyle to prevent fat accumulation in various body parts.

To reduce excess weight and to get a flat belly one should follow the following steps.

1. Increase water intake in the day. Take full eight hours of rest in the night and do not stay awake late in the night. Avoid taking soft drinks and food product high in carbohydrate and fat.

2. To prevent accumulation of fat, control the calories you take in a day. One should take calories depending on requirement because excess calories accumulate around the belly.

3. The food intake can be grouped in two categories: One is the diet with a high amount of carbohydrate which accounts for 50% to 55% of the total calories. Protein should be 15% to 20% of the total calories and fat should account for less than 30% of the total calories.

4. The fat in belly can also be reduced by burning it. One can do exercise to get rid of excess fat stored around the waist.

Some of the food products which can be taken to reduce belly fat are

Skimmed milk or low fat dairy products: An increased amount of skimmed milk should be taken to reduce fat from body. Non fat yoghurt and fat free milk can be taken to burn excess fat.

Eggs: Eggs are rich in protein and vitamin B12 it can be taken to reduce fat as vitamin B12 helps in breaking down fat cells.

Beans: Beans are good source of proteins, iron and fibers and it should be included in diet in the form of lima beans, kidney beans, white beans or navy beans.

Oatmeal: Oatmeal can be taken as it helps in reducing the cholesterol levels and it helps in increasing the immunity level of the body and curing colon cancer and heart disease.

Whole grain diet: One should take wholegrain food instead of powdered grains.

How You Can Burn Fat Fast Posted By : Randy Taylor

Views: 217 view(s) It would be amazing to figure out to lose belly fat by being able to become a fat burning machine. Luckily, it is possible to learn how to do just that. There are literally more than ten thousand adults around the globe that have been able to achieve a slimmer physique without starving themselves and without using medication or supplements. That's because they now have an understanding of which foods they need to eat in order to reduce belly fat and the right exercises for a smooth stomach.

Maybe, you have scoured the net trying to locate free programs to determine which are the best food and exercise combination to no avail. That's why the best way to lose belly fat is to look for courses that are scientifically-proven with successes from others like you. These courses are available, but they will cost a few dollars. However, take comfort in knowing that you are getting a strategy that you can adhere to that has worked for others and there is a good possibility that you will achieve results too. Since everybody has a different situation and there is no such thing as the perfect program, be certain there is a satisfaction guarantee in the event the program doesn't work for you.

Additionally, no program will work if you are not totally committed to changing your lifestyle. These fat loss solutions require a burning desire to lose weight and keep it off forever. These fat loss solutions require a burning desire to lose weight once and for all. This is the most essential pre-requisite. At first, you're possibly going to feel somewhat uneasy with some of the adjustments you may need to make. Like eating or cutting out certain foods or working on exercises when you would rather be watching television, for example. Again, these are life improvement transformations. I wish that I could tell you is that all you need to do is chew on this thing three times a day and do a some of sit ups. But, that would not work.

To summarize, the fastest way to burn body fat is to find a proven plan with reported achievements. Next, analyze the strategy to ensure that it is something you will be able to participate in. Finally, remain dedicated to the program and stay the course knowing that success will be step-by-step. Seek support from the program to help you remain on target with your goals. With these key elements, you now have the winning recipe to lose belly fat and keep it off for life.