4 Wonderful Food Facials to Nourish Your Skin

It’s not easy being skin in a world that’s full of toxins. Not only does your skin have to battle toxins, but the sun can cause damage as well. Most people really don’t give the job that their skin does a lot of thought.

It’s just there. They start to notice it whenever there’s an outbreak, an infection, or a rash that pops up. And you might not realize the toll that your eating, sleeping and lifestyle habits can take on your skin.

While genetics do come into play (and so does age) when it comes to how your skin looks, there are some simple facials you can use to rejuvenate your skin and make it shine with that healthy glow.

Why Use Food Facials?

Food facials are natural and don’t contain ingredients that can harm the skin. They’re relatively inexpensive and easy to whip up right in your own home.  Plus, food facials are always jam packed with good-for-your-skin ingredients like antioxidants.

These antioxidants don’t just fight off stuff that can damage your skin, but antioxidants are great at restoring skin that’s been damaged. If you’ve suffered damage from toxins, the sun or irritants, a food facial can help repair the cell changes you’ve encountered.

Food facials can offer you a ton of benefits that will help you see the difference when you look in the mirror. For one, they can help tone the skin. When you use a food facial, the ingredients in the mask work to tighten the pores.

As the pores are tightened, your skin feels and looks firmer. Your skin undergoes a lot of stress just during a normal day, much less any days that you’re doing additional things that can impact the health of your skin.

When you go through your day, the things that you do can impact the pH balance of your skin. If this balance is upset, you’ll see it.  When the pH balance isn’t right, your skin can become too dry.

It can also become too oily. You might notice red patches or areas of flaky skin. The balance must be kept between a certain pH balance and something as simple as washing the hands can change the pH balance for your hands.

In the shower, the shampoo that you use can leave a residue on your skin that can upset the balance. Though most products are pH balanced, not all of them are.

You can tell if you’re running into a problem with your skin’s balance if you start to notice that after exertion or after being in warmer temperatures, your sweat has a stronger, more distinctive odor.

If you notice that, it’s a sign that the alkaline is off kilter. Some people might not think keeping the skin balanced is a big deal. But one of the things the pH level does is help to prevent bacteria from entering the body through the skin. If the pH balance is off, your skin can become an open door for bacteria.

The Honey Facial

Honey is a natural facial that can work wonders for your skin. It’s loaded with antibacterial ingredients, so if there is bacteria lurking on your skin, honey can fight that for you.

These antibacterial properties can help prevent acne flare-ups as well as other skin infections. It’s also full of antioxidants which can keep cell damage at bay and since your skin is exposed to so much that can cause damage, you definitely want this.

But that’s not all that the antioxidants in honey can do if you use it as a facial. These little gems are some of nature’s best weapons for helping you fight the battle against aging skin.

You end up with younger looking skin, thanks to the anti-aging properties of honey. Plus, honey is great to use for hydrating the skin - so after you use it, you’ll notice that you have that refreshing glow to your face.

Because it can hydrate the face, it works wonders to put an end to dry skin. When you use a honey facial mask, your skin will go through a deep cleansing because honey is known to open up pores.

That means that if you’re struggling with clogged pores, honey can put an end to that. And unlike the chemical facials that you can buy at the store, honey doesn’t upset the natural pH balance of the skin.

So you won’t have to worry that you’re going to end up with dry or oily skin after using it. Some people have struggled for as long as they can remember with problem skin or common skin irritations, so they avoid using facials.

But because honey is all natural and soothing, it can be used even on problem skin. Anyone can use honey as a facial, regardless of the skin type. You want to make sure that you use raw honey and not any kind of processed honey.

The processed types of honey aren’t good for the skin. Because these types have undergone processing, the majority of the health benefits that honey was had is long gone.

So it wouldn’t do you any good to use processed honey. It’s best to make sure that the honey is warmed before you attempt to apply it. You can do this one of two ways.

You can gently warm it a little at a time by putting some in a glass container that you place into a sink full of hot water or you can warm it in a pot. If you do warm it in a pot, you need to make sure that there aren’t any hot zones left in the honey before you use.

So test it first before you apply it to your face. You need to warm the honey until it’s smooth enough for you to be able to easily spread it. Honey that’s a cooler temperature will be thick and not as easy to work with.

If you heat it on the stove, don’t put the pot it’s in directly on the source of heat. Instead, put a pot within a pot to heat it with water in the lower pot. Let that water boil and as soon as it does, remove it from heat and test the temperature of the honey.

If it’s cool enough, then put it on your face in a very thin layer. You want to leave it on anywhere between 10-15 minutes. Rinse your face completely when you’re finished.

Avocado Facials

Not only are avocados tasty, but they’re also fantastic to use as a facial. You’ll find that avocados are packed with skin boosting benefits. They’re known to roll back the years that take a toll on the skin.

So if you’re looking for younger skin, this is the mask that you want to use. If your skin has been having problems with the pH balance, an avocado facial can help to restore that.

It’s known to treat dry skin as well as skin that has lost its luster. This food is packed with antioxidants and minerals that help hydrate the skin. Using an avocado for your facial gives you a surge of skin healing vitamins.

These vitamins contain helpful boosters that get to work fixing what life has damaged on the skin of your face. When you use it, the avocado properties go deep into the skin to make sure that you’re not losing moisture as quickly as you have been.

A lack of moisture is one way that your skin suffers and you end up with red, dry or itchy skin. If you’ve been using expensive creams or lotions in an attempt to moisturize your face and they haven’t worked, it’s because these over the counter treatments don’t make it past the first layer of skin like an avocado facial can.

And one of the biggest bonuses with avocados is that they contain retinol. This is what helps to stimulate your body to produce collagen. When your body produces collagen, your skin ends up looking younger, smoother and the problem areas are effectively treated.

Plus, avocados are known to fight things like free radicals that can cause a lot of damage to the skin. If you’re someone who’s experienced sun damage, using an avocado facial mask can help restore the cells that were damaged.

To make this revitalizing mask is easy and convenient. Choose a ripe avocado, cut it in half and take out the pit. Place the insides of the avocado in a dish and use a whisk to stir it until it’s smooth.

Gently put the mixture onto your face lightly, but don’t rub it in. Place it on the face until all the areas are covered. Set a timer so that you can remove the mixture after about 15 minutes of use. When you’re done, rinse your face with warm water.

Mango Facial

Mangos are not only delicious, but they contain a wealth of vitamins. They’re loaded with the important B vitamins including B6. The minerals in the mango are part of a healthy diet - not just for you to eat - but for your face as well.

Because the fruit contains Vitamin C, it can help fight skin irritations or the overproduction of oil and other issues that can lead to an acne outbreak. Not only can this fruit help you be able to say goodbye to acne, but it also minimizes the damage left behind by scars.

The Vitamin A in the mango is an antioxidant. Any fruit that contains an antioxidant is known for helping to restore a youthful vitality to the face. Not only that, but the mango helps promote the growing of new cells that can boost your body’s collagen production process.

Plus, it helps restore the firmness of the skin tone, so that any wrinkles look smoother. For this reason, the mango is often referred to as an anti aging food. The fruit is a combination skin healer in that if you have skin that’s too oily, the mango works to help clear the pores.

If you have skin that’s too dry, the mango helps hydrate the skin. So it’s great to use for people of any skin type including those with sensitive skin. If you’re someone who likes to have fun in the sun, using a mango facial can also help keep the damage that the sun’s ultraviolet rays can do to your face at bay.

Making a mango mask is super easy, but you need to be careful that you don’t get any of the peel into the mixture. The peel of the mango has urushiol, and if that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same chemical that gives poison ivy its itchy, painful reaction when you come in contact with it.

So if you’re someone who has a bad reaction to poison ivy or poison sumac, you’ll need to be extremely careful with this fruit. You can use mango as the only ingredient in the mask or it can be mixed with other natural food items.

If you use it as the only ingredient, just peel the fruit and place the pulp into a bowl. Make sure you mix it so that it’s a creamy consistency so that it spreads easily across the face.

Put the mask onto your face and leave it on for about 10 minutes before rinsing with warm water. If you decide that you want to mix it with another food item, you can mix it with avocado for additional helpful benefits to your skin.

If you’re experiencing a skin flare up, you might try mixing the mango with honey since honey can soothe away irritants because of the anti-inflammatory properties it contains.

It can also be mixed with yogurt. If you want to focus on a strong exfoliating ingredient, then add a couple of teaspoons of plain oatmeal.

Lemon Juice Facial

Like fruits, lemon juice is packed with a ton of helpful minerals and vitamins that are good for your skin. Because it’s very acidic, some people might find that using lemon juice on the face tends to sting the skin.

If this is the case with you, you’ll find it helpful to mix the lemon juice with just a little bit of water so that it’s not as acidic. Your face goes through a lot in life and your skin takes the brunt of living.

The face especially can fall prey to the harshness of things you have to deal with in life. You can end up with scars or areas of the skin where the skin tone is no longer even. You can develop skin irritations and as you grow older, you might start to notice certain dark areas known as age spots have cropped up. Using lemon juice as a facial can help with all of that.

It alleviates the pigment changes in the skin that make scars more noticeable and it lightens age spots. Because it’s loaded with antibacterial properties, it can be used to treat common skin problems - including minor rashes and acne.

It can be used as part of a regular facial routine to keep acne from developing. The skin on your face can become coated with a build up of oil the skin secretes as well as other things and when you use a lemon juice facial, the ingredients strip away the build up, which leaves you with younger looking skin.

Because lemon juice is an exfoliant, it will promote the growing of new skin cells, which makes your skin look revitalized. It’s also beneficial for those who have oily skin because the lemon juice cleanses and tones oily skin.

If you have dark places on your skin - or an uneven skin tone, you’ll want to use a lemon juice facial because the juice from lemons is widely known to lighten dark areas on the skin.

Even though it’s acidic and you might think the opposite, lemon juice can moisturize skin. Plus, it can tighten wrinkles and lessen the appearance of fine lines.

To make a lemon facial mask, you can use it straight or you can mix it with water. Some people will put the juice into a spray bottle and spray the mixture directly onto the face.

But the lemon juice can also be mixed with honey. If you choose to mix it with honey, add a tablespoon of raw honey for every half of lemon that you use. Put the mixture on the face, taking care that you don’t get it into the eyes.

Leave it on a minimum of 15 minutes, but the mask can be left on as long as a half hour if your skin can tolerate the acidic nature of the lemon juice. You might want to build up your time with this food mask, since it does have the ability to alter the color of your skin, brightening it as it works topically.

There are many foods that you can use in facial masks. For instance, bananas moisturize your face. Vinegar can tighten up sagging skin. Mayonnaise is a wonderful cleanser.

Don’t ignore anything in your fridge or on your shelves. Look to see if it can be used as a facial mask. For example, even yellow mustard acts as a fantastic stimulant, but not everyone can tolerate it, so you have to do a test spot beforehand. 

Tabata Workouts For Beginners (with Infographic)

Just because Tabata workouts are gold standard for Olympic trainees doesn’t mean that they are not suitable for beginners. In fact, Tabata workouts are a great way for a beginner with no money, no equipment and very little time to really get fit. The main thing you need is an ability to push yourself—and a stopwatch.

Timing is key for a Tabata workout, timing, and the ability to go full-power for 20 seconds at a time. Can you do it? If you can, you’re well on the way to a much trimmer, fitter and healthier you.

Cost In Time: 4 Minutes Per Day

(plus 10 minute warm and 5 minute cool down)

One of the best things about Tabata is that it is very flexible. You can choose from a variety of exercises, including, using machines, like exercise bikes, treadmills and elliptical machines.

When you choose your type of Tabata workout, take into account your comfort level with the exercise in question, your current fitness level, and also consider just what you want to achieve with your workout, specifically, what muscle groups would you like to target?

A Tabata workout will have you doing your all-out absolute best, so it isn’t the time to try out new exercise moves or those that are too complicated. But if all you know is pushups, your Tabata sessions don’t have to be limited by that, either.

You’ll just have to teach yourself new exercises during lower-intensity workout times, and after you’ve got them down, incorporate them in your Tabata workout.

Tabata And Running

Suppose you are a runner. Then you may want to start your Tabata adventure by doing a Tabata Running Workout; building up from what you are already good at.

Here is an example of a great Tabata workout with running.

You’re going to sprint, going as fast as you possibly can, as if wolves were after you, for all of 20 seconds.

Then pause for 10 seconds. Stopping straight out might be out of the question, but put the brakes on, walk very slowly, catch your breath, stop if you want to, but, only for 10 seconds.

Then—there are the wolves again—so go for 20 more seconds. When the timer goes off and that 20 seconds are over, you’ve got another breather, and you’ve done ¼ of your workout.

A Tabata workout is 8 cycles long; eight cycles of 20 seconds on 10 seconds off. 

And, you know what? It’ll do more for your body than an hour run at a steady pace.

Tabata With Exercise Bikes

You might not be a runner. Other exercises work just as well with the Tabata protocol. If you’ve got an exercise bike at your house, try spinning. Get on there and play a little with the pedals to warm yourself up.

Then try cycling madly for all of 20 seconds.

A 10 second break, then 20 seconds more.

Try to make sure your speed stays at least at 85 RPM for the whole high intensity time.

Stationary biking was actually the first exercise the Tabata method was tried on, and if you are consistent with it, say, four days a week, 4 minutes a day—you’ll definitely see results.

Other Tabata Moves

Bodyweight movements are also great options for Tabata, these include, squats, jump squats, jumping jacks and high knees, all of which are great Tabata workouts. 

The important thing to remember is that during your 20 seconds on you are working the hardest you can, the fastest you can, and putting everything you have into it. Your reward is your 10 seconds of rest.

Try this fun four-minute Tabata workout for beginners, from The Fitologists!

5 Timeless Health Habits You Shouldn't Live Without

Many chronic diseases are caused by lifestyle issues. People tend not to exercise as much as they should, they allow themselves to become overweight, and they eat unhealthy foods that lead to things like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and strokes.

The problem with lifestyle issues is that they are difficult to turn around. Many people try to change their lifestyle all at once, which is extremely difficult to accomplish. As a result, they often give up all of their healthy habits and resort to the usual negative health habits that they had been doing before they attempted a healthy lifestyle.

Sometimes it just takes a few days or a few weeks of trying to live healthy before the individual becomes overwhelmed and stops living healthy. They stop exercising and go back to eating processed foods and junk foods.

This is why it is better to change your health habits one habit at a time so that you don’t become overwhelmed and stop trying to be healthy altogether.

Most weight loss programs work if they are done carefully and don’t deprive the individual too much. The same is true of exercise programs. If you choose an exercise that you really enjoy or increase your physical activity more gradually, you can usually stick to the program so that you don’t become discouraged and quit exercising altogether.

The trick to health living is to begin gradually. Don’t try any trendy diet or fitness fad. If you try these things with gusto, you are likely to respond negatively and you won’t stick with the programs.

There are a few simple things you can do to live a happier and healthier life. Start with just these 5 changes in health habits:

1. Try eating one healthy meal a day. 

Even if you eat processed foods most of the time, if you try to eat just one healthy food each day, you will feed your body with good nutrition and healthy proteins. Healthy meals consist of mainly fruits and vegetables, supplemented with whole grain products, and lean meats.

It doesn’t matter how much you eat because, if the food is healthy for you, it won’t usually contain a lot of calories and won’t cause weight gain as can be seen when you eat junk foods or highly processed foods. Even so, you should try to watch your portion sizes.

2. Drink a glass of water before each meal. 

Water is perhaps the best liquid you can drink. When you decide to drink a glass of water before meals, (an 8-ounce glass is enough), you will feel fuller before eating, and you won’t eat as much at the meal that follows a drink of water.

3. Be active during lunch. 

Even if you are given a half-hour to eat, it usually doesn’t take that long to eat your meals. Try eating your meals and then take some time to exercise. You don’t have to work out excessively but you should be able to take a brisk walk. Not only will this energize you but also it will help burn off the calories you just ate and will aid in the digestive process.

It really doesn’t matter what type of exercise you do as long as you choose something reasonable that will help you feel better after eating your lunch. Exercising during lunch also helps decrease the stress of your job and will make the rest of your day go easier.

4. Try a Meal Replacement Bar. 

This involves eating a healthy protein bar as a snack instead of junk foods. Most meal replacement bars contain a lot of good nutrition and fiber. They are also not as calorie-rich as you would think. They help stave off hunger pangs that are so typical of the mid-afternoon time.

Keep a stash of these protein bars in your desk at work or in your purse or brief case so you can grab one whenever you feel hungry. It will keep you from going to the vending machines and eating poor food choices. Try eating a meal replacement bar that is high in fiber and that has at least 10 to 15 grams of protein per bar.

5. Exercise regularly. 

If you have a gym membership, try going there at least 3-4 times per week. Choose an activity you enjoy and make the most of it for at least a half hour per session. This will help energize you, may build muscle mass, and will help you lose weight by burning off excess calories.

Pairing Cardio With Tabata For A Complete Weekly Fitness Regimen

Tabata is an intense training methods that really delivers results. The Tabata protocol is an exercise regime where you workout in short, twenty second bursts of extremely high intensity.

These high intensity intervals are separated by ten-second rest periods, and you do eight of them for a classic Tabata exercise workout.

Be forewarned, Tabata is not for the weak or faint at heart. It is really intense, pushing yourself to the absolute max, with non-stop aggressive reps for each and every one of the 20 second intense intervals.

Tabata Moves

For the best all round results, you want to choose an exercise that targets several major muscle groups. Burpees can really get your heart going, and so can jump squats or even jumping jacks.

You don’t need to limit yourself to only one exercise, but, since you want to fire up your muscles up to their maximum ability and each exercise works out slightly different muscles, you may want to do a complete four minute Tabata workout with the first exercise, and take a little break before going on to the next. Or if you’re only up to one session, do one day and another the next.

Let’s suppose you decided to do high knees, which are, exaggerated walking/running in place where you bring the knees up to waist level every time you take a step-- and you’ve got some small weights you’ll bring up over your head as you bring up your knees, just to make sure your upper body is working too.

Set up a stopwatch so you’ll be able to easily track ten and twenty-second sessions. When time starts, go as fast as you possibly can. If it seems too easy, change out your weights for something a little heavier. You need to be exerting yourself as much as humanly possible.

Don’t lose your form, though—exercise without proper form will deliver you very little real benefit. If you find you’re just flailing your arms and legs, you need to slow down a little and may need to work on fluency with your chosen exercise before you work on making it Tabata intensity.

After twenty seconds, give yourself a ten second break. Ten seconds where you just stand there, gasping for breath if necessary. Then you go on with twenty seconds more of the high knees with that overhead lift.

If we follow our natural tendencies, the first twenty seconds may be pretty radical, red hot stuff. We’re motivated; we want to get healthy in just five minutes a day, and we’re fresh and excited to be doing this.

By round three, we’re feeling just a little bit less energetic. Our speed and intensity is tapering off. By the time we come to round seven and eight, were just going through the motions.

If that’s you and your workout, you’re not doing Tabata. For Tabata you need to keep yourself at the highest intensity through all 8 repetitions. It’s not the natural rhythm your body will be trying for.

But if you’ve got a little will power, you can push yourself to it. Remember, when the four minute bell rings, you’ll have completed the workout and be well on the way to a healthier you.

Pairing Cardio With Tabata

What happens when you pair the Tabata protocol with some intense cardio? You get a great weekly combination, a fitness regimen that will really fire up your cardiovascular system, yield optimal fat burning results and get you squarely on the road to a healthier you.

Tabata is an extreme workout and so it is not recommended for everyday use. Typically 3 or 4 times max per week is best.

So, a good strategy is to do your regular cardio on the other 3 or 4 days, and rest for one.

So a typical schedule might be, Monday, Wednesday and Friday Tabata.

Then Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday an hour on the treadmill, maybe 20 minutes of HIIT, some bike work or any other cardio that you enjoy and don’t forget to add some muscle toning on those cardio days as well.

This type of aggressive combination will yield fantastic results in transforming your body to a lean mean fat burning machine, and as long as you stick with a healthy diet, you will see truly amazing results.

Now go do it!

10 Easy Fitness Tips For Beginners

If you’re thinking of starting a new fitness regime, use these 10 tips for beginners to make sure that you reach your goals.

1. Make Your Workout Worth It

If you want to get the most out of your workout, you need to remember that around 80% of the results that you get from your workout actually come from just 20% of your workout.

That means that in an hour’s session, only 12 minutes of the workout will contribute to the bulk of your results. You need to make those minutes really count. Use compound movements that work more than one muscle group at a time to really make the most of your time.

2. Remember To Eat Healthy

Any body shaping goals can only be achieved by eating a healthy diet. If you’re going to the gym so that you can go home and eat a double triple cheeseburger with a 2-person serving of French fries, you won’t do your body any favors.

You should make sure that you eat in moderation, and remember that if you’re burning off more calories, you will need to eat that little bit more so that you have enough energy. Balance your nutrition and avoid faddy diets.

3. Change Your Eating Habits

You need to make sure that you eat properly as well as eating healthily. Eating properly includes eating at the right times of the day. Skipping breakfast is a really bad idea and you shouldn’t eat too late in the evening either. Speak to a personal trainer about what would work for you so that you can achieve your goals.

4. Plan Out Your Routine

To make sure that you know just when you’re going to be working out and when you can look forward to some downtime, you really should come up with a plan. Remember to include rest days and be realistic about how much time you can make free.

Remember to stick to your schedule as much as possible so that you don’t slide into the habit of skipping the gym and make your targets achievable.

5. Make A 100% Commitment

You need to remember that your body transformation needs complete dedication from you. You can’t skip a day or two here and there, because you feel as though you deserve it. Plan when your rest day will be and stick to that. Even if you have a vacation planned, check out the local gym, and make sure to take an hour out of each day to continue to work out. Keep up with the healthy eating too.

6. Don’t Let Preconceptions Put You Off

It’s easy to look at a female bodybuilder and suddenly panic if you’re a woman who is trying to lose weight and develop a petite and slender figure.

The reality is that it is virtually impossible for women to bulk like that; it requires a particular plan and effort. If you stick to a plan that your personal trainer has given you, you won’t go wrong.

7. Keep It Simple

You should remember that you are only starting out with fitness. In order to avoid injury and to avoid putting yourself off continuing with your training, you should make sure that you familiarize yourself with the basics first.

Start off with some shorter sessions and then expand your workout as you become more confident and as your fitness, levels start to rise.

8. Prepare For Your New Routine

Make sure that you make yourself available to workout and have a rough plan of how you would like your workout to go. You need to come up with some realistic goals too, so if you want to have 6-pack abs, aim to achieve some muscle definition within 6 months or if you would like to lose 2 stone, make sure that the timeframe that you set yourself is achievable. If you don’t know what your targets are, no personal trainer will be able to help you.

9. Remember Cardio

So you want to get 6-pack abs, bulging biceps, and strong legs? You can’t get those things by just lifting weights. You must remember that while you’re working out, you should fit in a good amount of cardio.

If you’re already carrying excess weight, you need to make sure that you burn off the fat by doing frequent cardio and eventually the muscle will start to show through.

10. Use A Visual Inspiration

It is very helpful to have a visual inspiration to keep you motivated to lose weight. Try performing a Google image search to find photos of people who have a body shape and size similar to your own ideals.

Print out the image or images and display these where you will see them all the time, for example near your work desk, on your car dashboard or on the fridge. This will ensure that you have a visual goal that will keep you motivated every single day!

This is a great beginners' workout from PopSugar Fitness:

How Walking Can Help You Lose Weight

If you are facing in the right direction, then all you have to do is keep on walking to lose weight!

Everyone knows how important exercise is for our overall health, not to mention how we feel about ourselves -- which is also very important. Popular exercise plans often promise six pack abs, sculpted glutes and a lean silhouette if you work harder than you ever have and consume less than has ever satisfied you; neither of which are sustainable.

However, it is possible to get the results without the strain of intense training. Are you looking to bulk up or slim down? If you have athletic ambitions or you want to increase your strength, then weight training and strenuous aerobics will be the sport for you. But for those who want to be slim and healthy, then walking is ideal.

All Around Benefits

Not only is walking enjoyable, it is cheap and also encourages socialization.

It is great for body sculpting too. Walking melts fat off the whole body--be it the abdomen, upper arms and hips. The reason walking is fat burning is because it is aerobic. This means it increases circulation, it increases the oxygenation of cells, it detoxifies, and it increases metabolism. The areas of highest fat concentration melt away first.

Taking regular walks is really the answer to a firm and slim body. But we don’t mean the casual afternoon stroll--you can’t expect to get the benefits without achieving moderate pace. If you are going to use walking as a way to trim your body, you going to need to up your pace, lengthen your stride, swing your arms and increase the walking pace.

If you want fat to melt away, you have to raise your heartbeat and keep it raised for at least half an hour. If you do this, you will notice a slimmer and more toned physique in a matter of weeks!

Walking is low impact; it doesn’t damage the joints.

Walking is more effective against cancer and other diseases too, than extreme intense exercises. The high-intensity workouts can put stress on the body, and that can be detrimental to your health. You may have heard of strong young people dropping dead from heart attacks after a marathon or a lot of jogging. It is better to take it at an easier pace, but for longer periods. You will see your weight improve and you will reap health benefits too, for sure!

Have you got comfortable walking shoes with cushioned soles? Buy yourself good ones and do your feet a favor – you will feel like you are walking on air. You won’t regret spending a bit extra on good walking shoes.

Sedentary lives out, get the walking shoes on!

Modern home and work environments mean that we spend large parts of our day’s sitting, particularly when we have office jobs. Sedentary lifestyles definitely can contribute to weight gain and also increase your risk of health problems.

One study estimated that in order for you to maintain a stable weight, you need to walk at least 150 minutes a week – remember to keep it brisk. And if you want to increase the intensity of your walk and burn even more calories, then you can try walking on routes that have hills and slight inclines. When people cut their calories to lose weight, they can lose muscle in addition to body fat. Since muscle burns fat losing muscle is a bit counterproductive.

Muscle is metabolically more active than fat; it helps you burn more calories each day. Toning and resistance exercises, which includes walking, help to counter the effects of muscle loss by preserving lean muscle as you lose weight.

It helps to reduce the drop in your metabolic rate that occurs so often with weight loss, making your weight loss efforts easier to maintain. Walking also reduces age-related muscle loss, helping you retain your muscle strength and function as well.

An effective way of reducing belly fat is to regularly participate in aerobic exercises and that means plenty of walking. One study showed how obese women who walked 3 times a week for 50-70 minutes reduced their waist circumferences by 1.1 inch. They also lost 1.5% of their body fat too.

Apart from helping you to lose weight, walking has other benefits too. It boosts your mood, decreasing feelings of stress, anxiety and depression. It makes your brain more sensitive to the hormones norepinephrine and serotonin – it is these hormones which relieve the feelings of depression and stimulate the releasee of endorphins, making you feel happy. Get out and walk!

Walking: the most ancient exercise and still the best modern exercise. (Carrie Latet)

That’s true.