TrampolineHealth.com
Stretching
Making sure you stretch before a trampoline workout or any type of workout is a great way to be sure you do not injure yourself. Even if you are not doing an exercise routine consider stretching several times a day for blood flow and ease of muscle tension!
Balance Your Diet
A healthy diet is one that helps maintain or improve general health. It is important for lowering many chronic health risks, such as obesity, heart disease, hypertension and cancer. A healthy diet involves consuming appropriate amounts of all essential nutrients and an adequate amount of water. Nutrients can be obtained from many different foods, so there are numerous diets that may be considered healthy. A healthy diet needs to have a balance of macronutrients (fats, proteins, and carbohydrates), calories to support energy needs, and micronutrients to meet the needs for human nutrition without inducing toxicity or excessive weight gain from consuming excessive amounts.
Drinking Water
1. Drinking water enhances fat loss
Water is an essential nutrient. All chemical reactions in the body depend upon it. If you’re trying to lose weight, this can’t be ignored. You won’t be able to lose weight without water to flush out the by-products of fat breakdown. When there isn’t enough water to dilute the body’s waste products, kidney stones may form. When the kidneys aren’t working to their full potential, the liver must step in and help. Once this happens the liver can’t optimally perform its other important functions. As a result, burning fat has to wait.
2. Combat ailments by drinking more water
In many cases, fatigue, headaches and back pain may be caused by dehydration. If you suffer from an afternoon nod off, try drinking more water at lunch. If you or your children complain of frequent headaches, the amount of water you’re drinking could be responsible. And, muscle spasms are also caused by not being adequately hydrated.
3. Drinking water can reduce hunger
Experts say that hunger pangs are often misinterpreted cravings for water. Try drinking water before your regular meals and see if it helps you cut down on the amount of food you eat. It really works as an effective appetite suppressant. Avoid counting tea, coffee, sodas and juices in your fluid intake. Coffee and tea contain caffeine which has a diuretic effect and makes you lose water. Sodas and juices are too sweet—because the body must dilute them, they cause more dehydration.
4. Look younger - drinking water hydrates your skin
When the skin is properly hydrated, it looks plump and more radiant. Water will keep the toxins flushed out and help you to cool off through perspiration. Muscles need to have enough water to make them look full too. Deprive yourself of water and you’ll see the difference in the mirror.
Are you dehydrated?
Just how do you know if you’re getting dehydrated? If you have a dry mouth, produce less urine, have very dark urine and/or feel dizzy or faint you probably need water, quick. Drink at least 8 glasses a day. Experts now recommend even more, up to 12 glasses a day. To be more precise, drink ½ ounce per pound of body weight. If you exercise or are very active increase the number to 2/3 ounce per pound. Try monitoring your water intake closely for the next month. When you drink enough, you’ll look and feel better.
The Omega-3 Group: Super Healthy Fats
The omega-3 group: Super healthy fats
We should all be increasing our intake of healthy omega-3 fatty acids, which we need for body functions like controlling blood clotting and building cell membranes in the brain. We’re still learning about the many benefits of Omega-3, but research has shown this fatty acid can have a positive impact on:
Cardiovascular disease. Epidemiologic and clinical trials have shown that omega-3 fatty acids decrease triglyceride levels, the growth rate of atherosclerotic plaque, and the risk of arrhythmias. They also can slightly lower blood pressure.
Liver cancer. Omega-3 fatty acids may be an effective therapy for both the treatment and prevention of human liver cancers.
Depression. Omega-3 fatty acid DHA reduces symptoms of depression probably because it increases gray matter in the brain.
Dementia. Eating fatty fish, high in omega 3, lowers the likelihood of developing “silent” brain lesions that can cause memory loss and dementia.
Types of omega-3 fatty acids
The three key members of the omega-3 family are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA); eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA); and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The best sources are fatty fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies, or sardines, or some cold-water fish oil supplements. Canned (albacore) tuna and lake trout can also be good sources, depending on how the fish were raised and processed.
You may hear a lot about getting your omega-3’s from foods rich in ALA fatty acids. ALA is the most common omega-3 found in American diets and is found in abundance in flax seeds and flax seed oil, as well as walnuts. While your body may be able to convert ALA into EPA and DHA, you can’t be sure – only some people have the ability to do so. Thus, to insure you get enough of these vital nutrients, it’s prudent to include fatty fish or fatty fish oil supplements in your diet. But, if you eat no fish or fish oil, getting just ALA is better than nothing - your cardiovascular protection may still go up, though not nearly as much as with fish oils.
Some people avoid seafood because they worry about mercury or other possible toxins in fish. Most experts agree that the benefits of eating two servings a week of these cold water fatty fish outweigh the risks.
Dark Chocolate!
Dark Chocolate Lowers Blood Pressure
Dark chocolate -- not white chocolate -- lowers high blood pressure, say Dirk Taubert, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Cologne, Germany. Their report appears in the Aug. 27 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
But that's no license to go on a chocolate binge. Eating more dark chocolate can help lower blood pressure -- if you've reached a certain age and have mild high blood pressure, say the researchers. But you have to balance the extra calories by eating less of other things.
Antioxidants in Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate -- but not milk chocolate or dark chocolate eaten with milk -- is a potent antioxidant, report Mauro Serafini, PhD, of Italy's National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome, and colleagues. Their report appears in the Aug. 28 issue of Nature. Antioxidants gobble up free radicals, destructive molecules that are implicated in heart disease and other ailments.
"Our findings indicate that milk may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants from chocolate ... and may therefore negate the potential health benefits that can be derived from eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate."
Translation: Say "Dark, please," when ordering at the chocolate counter. Don't even think of washing it down with milk. And if health is your excuse for eating chocolate, remember the word "moderate" as you nibble.
The Studies
Taubert's team signed up six men and seven women aged 55-64. All had just been diagnosed with mild high blood pressure -- on average, systolic blood pressure (the top number) of 153 and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) of 84.
Every day for two weeks, they ate a 100-gram candy bar and were asked to balance its 480 calories by not eating other foods similar in nutrients and calories. Half the patients got dark chocolate and half got white chocolate.
Those who ate dark chocolate had a significant drop in blood pressure (by an average of 5 points for systolic and an average of 2 points for diastolic blood pressure). Those who ate white chocolate did not.
In the second study, Serafini's team signed up seven healthy women and five healthy men aged 25-35. On different days they each ate 100 grams of dark chocolate by itself, 100 grams of dark chocolate with a small glass of whole milk, or 200 grams of milk chocolate.
An hour later, those who ate dark chocolate alone had the most total antioxidants in their blood. And they had higher levels of epicatechin, a particularly healthy compound found in chocolate. The milk chocolate eaters had the lowest epicatechin levels of all.