Weight loss is often associated with strict diets that could be depriving your body of essential nutrients and vitamins. In order to lose weight, your body must be in a calorie deficit but green tea may help assist in your weight loss journey. It has been linked to weight loss for several years but when is the best time to drink the worlds healthiest beverage?

Green tea has been said to be the worlds healthiest beverage due to its antioxidant properties and benefits associated with the tea.

It can improve fat burning when exercising as well as boosting calorie burning when at rest. The green tea is packed with a compound called catechin which is a highly powerful antioxidant.

Research suggests that this antioxidant can help speed up the metabolism which may help fat burning and help you to keep off the lost weight in the future.

Unlike dieting, incorporating green tea into your diet daily may take longer to see weight loss results but there are certain times you can drink the beverage to help boost these results.

READ MORE:Keto diet plan: Best foods to lose belly fat in just 2 weeks

The beverage can be consumed in many different ways including hot, cold, in a powdered form and some slimmers even like to add a splash of milk to make it creamy.

Experts suggest that drinking green tea in the morning may help kickstart your metabolism for the day and provide your body with healthy nutrients for energy boosting. This will also help you focus and concentrate and is an all round great drink to start your day off with.

However, research suggests that drinking green tea may be especially beneficial just before exercising.

One study consisting of 12 men found that consuming green tea just before exercising increased fat burning by 17 percent compared to that with a placebo.

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Another study found that drinking three servings of green tea the day before working out and another serving two hours before exercising increased fat burning during exercise and at rest.

However drinking too much of the drink may do more harm than good for the body and so in order to burn more calories, green tea should only be consumed around two to three times daily.

When making green tea, it is recommended to boil the water and then leave it to cool down for 10 minutes before pouring over the tea bag or loose leaves. This is because boiling water could kill the teas catechin, the chemical which can help drive weight loss.

Others may find that drinking green tea at bedtime could help calm the body and prepare it for a good nights sleep but for weight loss, in the morning or before meals is the best option.

While there is no solid evidence that drinking green tea can suppress hunger, many people who consume green tea daily have explained that they feel less hungry throughout the day.

This will help to show weight loss results quickly as your body will immediately be in a calorie deficit because you will be eating less throughout the day.

Further research suggests that drinking the healthy beverage may also help burn belly fat, one of the hardest places to lose weight.

Compounds in the healthy drink increases the level of hormones in your body that tell fat cells to break down fat. This then releases fat into your bloodstream and makes it available as energy.

Therefore not only does green tea help you burn more fat, including belly fat, it will also provide you with more energy, helping you feel more energised and motivated to reach your weight loss goals.

Green tea comes in many different forms with added flavours and one healthy way to drink green tea is to consume matcha green tea. This is available from most supermarkets and has fat burning properties.

Matcha is made from green tea and is the purest, highest concentrated form of the beverage.

Experts suggest having a cup of matcha green tea right in the morning when you wake up or later in the evening but not on a full stomach.

It is made by taking young tea leaves and grinding them into a green powder, this powder is then mixed with hot water to make it frothy.

This form of green tea also has many benefits including weight loss and boosting fat burning during exercise and at rest.

The rest is here:
Green tea: Best time to drink healthy beverage for quick weight loss results - Express

Christina Anstead is getting back to work. The Christina on the Coast star revealed that shell soon return to filming her HGTV show. Plus, she announced a premiere date for additional season 2 episodes of her reality series, which focuses on her Southern California design business and life with her three children and husband Ant Anstead.

RELATED: HGTVs Christina Anstead Shares What Keeps Her On Track With Diet and Exercise During Quarantine

Christina on the Coast premiered in May 2019 and has become a hit for HGTV. Season 2 of the Flip or Flop stars solo show premiered in January 2020. Now, a third season is in the works.

I officially start filming for Season 3 this month, Anstead wrote in her July 1 Instagram announcement. Fans can expect 13 new episodes to air sometime in 2021, the 36-year-old revealed.

Anstead who was formerly married to her Flip or Flop co-star Tarek El Moussa had some additional good news for fans. More season 2 episodes of Christina on the Coast are set to air in August.

SO happy to announce the next 5 episodes of #christinaonthecoast will air on @hgtv August 6th and they are now all 1-hour episodes, she wrote.

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It may appear that we are social distancing but we actually prefer to stand 10 feet apart! . For the last episode of season 9, I had a goal to find the nastiest, most disgusting house I could possibly find. . Based on her face, I accomplished my goal! This house has feces, urine, rats, mice, flys, nats, termites, cockroaches and a few dead birds. . As you can see, shes standing in the original pink carpet that has been covered with furniture for 30 years. . My favorite part about flipping a disgusting house like this is the horrific look on Christinas face!!. . Are you ready to see the all new season of Flip or Flop coming out October 2020??

A post shared by Tarek El Moussa (@therealtarekelmoussa) on Jun 26, 2020 at 6:31pm PDT

RELATED: Christina Anstead and Her Ex Tarek El Moussa Come Together to Support Their Daughter in the Sweetest Way

Though Anstead and El Moussa split in 2016, they continue to collaborate professionally (and co-parent their two kids). HGTV viewers can see them in action on the upcoming season of Flip or Flop. New episodes begin airing October 15. From the sound of things, the flips will be wilder than ever.

This season has 2 of the most disgusting homes Ive ever walked and if you have seen the turkey episode, thats saying a lot, Anstead shared on Instagram. (In the turkey episode, Anstead and El Moussa bought a house where someone had left a raw turkey out on the kitchen counter for months, leading to some pretty disgusting smells.)

El Moussa confirmed that for the last house of the new season, his goal was to find the nastiest, most disgusting house. He shared a series of photos from the property on Instagram, and it looks like he hit the mark.

Based on [Ansteads] face, I accomplished my goal! This house has feces, urine, rats, mice, flies, gnats, termites, cockroaches and a few dead birds, he wrote. As you can see, shes standing in the original pink carpet that has been covered with furniture for 30 years. My favorite part about flipping a disgusting house like this is the horrific look on Christinas face!!

In addition to her work as a designer and television personality, Anstead is now a published author. Her first book, The Wellness Remodel, was co-written with nutritionist Cara Clark and focuses on rebooting your life by changing your approach to diet, exercise, and mindfulness. Its inspired by Ansteads own efforts to remake her life after she faced a series of health problems and personal struggles. She hopes it helps other people learn to listen to their bodies, she told Parade.

If your instinct is telling you that something is off, thats when its probably time to try to figure it out, she said. I hope our book will offer some strategies to help you reset a bit!

Continued here:
Christina Anstead Reveals She's Getting Back to Work on Her HGTV Show - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Its no secret that stress is bad for your health, but did you know that getting worked up could make those workouts less effective?

Its all to do with your hormones, and how the stress response causes your body to act up.

Nutritionist Libby Limon explained: Stress hormones, particularly cortisol, signal the brain to lay down or hoard fatty stores. This is driven by evolutionary and biological rationales.

When youre getting stressed out and anxious - something many Britons have felt during the last few months due to the coronavirus crisis - your body can work against you.

If the body is in a stressed state, it means that it needs to conserve energy by storing it as fat so it can deal with the cause of the stress, explained Libby.

Chances are, a lot of this will be stored around your middle, which is why belly fat can be so hard to lose if you're stressed.

READ MORE:Weight loss: Woman lost more than seven stone with this slimming plan

Libby recommended making sure youre prioritising your emotional wellness at the same time as focusing on your physique, in order to better achieve your weight loss goals.

Finding a way to switch off and relax, as well as working through any problems is important, Libby advised

Everything from regular walks to gardening or being in nature, yoga, exercise and meditation to reading are good for this.

However, while managing your stress levels by taking time out is key to keeping those hormones in check, you may also want to look at the very foods you are eating.

While you may be trying to cut down on calories, its important to remember that theyre not all created equal.

From a dietary perspective if you are trying to lose weight, be mindful of not just how many calories you consume but also what those calories are made up of, warned Libby.

The very foods you eat could affect your cortisol levels - so your stress can affect your diet and vice versa.

High sugar foods can spike blood sugar; this causes the release of insulin, another hormone which also drives weight gain, explained Libby.

Often the body can then also rebound with low blood sugar, that drives cravings and cortisol production.

Having balanced meals which contain adequate protein (at least 20g) and abundant vegetables that give complex carbs and fibres, will help balance blood sugar, manage cortisol and energy levels, Libby added.

This approach will mean you feel fuller for longer, as you work with your bodys hormones rather than battling against them.

Whats more, if you are dealing with raised stress levels, you can change certain elements to your diet to make you feel calmer.

Even what you drink can affect your state of mind - and reaching for a mug of coffee for an energy boost could be doing more harm than good.

High doses of caffeine can make the body create even more stress hormones, which is why you may feel jittery after a few too many cappuccinos.

Switching to matcha green tea could help, however, as it contains a substance which has a relaxing effect.

Green tea does contain some caffeine, but less than coffee, revealed Dr Naomi Newman-Beinart, medical nutritionist.

But the primary reason that tea is a better choice when were stressed is thanks to its content of a natural substance called L-theanine, which is virtually unique to the tea plant. L-theanine has been found to have a relaxing effect on the mind, reduce anxiety, and help with focus and concentration. Its thought to do this by increasing alpha waves in the brain, which are associated with being calm but alert i.e. increasing relaxation without causing drowsiness.

Matcha green tea has a particularly high percentage of the wonder ingredient, so switching your morning caffeine fix to the herbal alternative such as Pukkas Supreme Matcha Green Teawill help you feel alert, but calm. For tea lovers looking for a more soothing brew, try the brands Relax Tea fusion for a dose of relaxation.

Other herbal remedies can also help; Libby recommended a natural supplement such as Link Nutrition Relax capsules to balance out your stress hormones and your mood.

It contains chromium, which is key for blood sugar balance, as well as cortisol-balancing herbs, ashwagandha and ginseng, Libby revealed.

Several studies have proven that ashwagandha can significantly reduce and regulate your bodys cortisol levels.

This article contains affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission on any sales of products or services we write about. This article was written completely independently, see more details here.

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Weight loss: Why reducing lockdown stress is the key to getting rid of belly fat - Express

Billie Jean King, 76, is best known as the 12-time singles Grand Slam winner, between the years 1966 and 1975. The former world No 1 was diagnosed with diabetes in 2014, and has revealed her concerns about the condition.

King is one of the most successful tennis players of all time.

She won six Wimbledon singles titles, leaving her joint-fifth on the all-time table.

The US athlete also won four US Open titles, a French Open, and an Australian Open title.

But, the tennis legend was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes six years ago, despite her superb athleticism.

READ MORE: Diabetes type 2 - the 'weird' itchy sign you may be ignoring

King admitted that she was binge eating for around a decade, leading up to her diagnosis.

She also has a family history of diabetes, which led to her diagnosis in 2014.

King has had to change her lifestyle to cater for her diabetes, and is making sure to exercise frequently, while cutting back on the amount of carbohydrates in her diet.

But, she's still concerned about the complications of diabetes, and is subsequently making sure she keeps her blood sugar levels in check.

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"I've been really trying to cut down on [carbohydrates]," King told Health.com in 2016. "I'm trying to pay attention to my intake. Because I love to eat. I just have to deal.

"I have an eating disorder; I was a binge eater. I don't binge eat anymore, but for about 10 years, I was being very cruel to my poor little pancreas. Then I also had diabetes in my family.

"My blood sugar is pretty good most of the time - if I'm eating right, exercising, and taking my medication.

"I'm worried about what it can do if I don't take care of myself. I know it's the leading cause of blindness and I know there are other complications."

Diabetes is a common condition that affects more than four million people in the UK, and 90 percent of all cases are caused by type 2 diabetes.

It could be caused by the body not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the body not reacting to insulin.

Without enough of the hormone, the body struggles to convert sugar in the blood into usable energy.

It's crucial that if you think you have diabetes, you speak to a doctor as soon as possible.

Diabetes increases the risk of some deadly complications, including heart disease and strokes.

Many people may have diabetes without even knowing it, because the signs and symptoms dont necessarily make you feel unwell.

Common diabetes symptoms include having cuts or wounds that take longer to heal, having an unquenchable thirst, and passing more urine than normal.

Blurred vision, extreme tiredness, and having unexplained itchy skin could also be caused by the condition.

Sue Barker: Our Wimbledon will be broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday July 4 at 3.15pm.

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Billie Jean King health: 'I'm worried' - tennis legend explains symptoms of her condition - Express

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- In late March, Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock, Britains portly prime minister and its slender health secretary, both contracted Covid-19. Hancock had a mild case and was back to work a week later. Johnson was lucky to come out alive after a spell in intensive care.

Ever since then he has been on a mission. Johnson believes that being overweight was a factor in his contracting a more severe form of the disease, and a growing body of evidence backs that up. Ina study of 17,000 Covid-positive hospital patients, those with a body mass index of more than 30 (considered obese) had a 33% greater risk of dying than non-obese patients. A separate study of people in U.K. intensive care units for the condition found that 73% were either overweight, obese or morbidly obese.

The British prime minister once burnished his libertarian credentials by decrying sin taxes on producers of unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks, but the coronavirus has changed him. The food industry should prepare itself for the consequences.

The same connection between weight and Covid-19 has been borne out in other countries. In France, a study of people admitted to intensive care units at Lyon University Hospital, published in the Lancet, found 25% of severe cases were obese. Researchers at New York Universityhad similar findings.

Scientists are still trying to understand the connection better, but obesity seems to be a risk on various levels. Being significantly overweight puts greater strain on the heart and lungs, which makes fighting the virus more difficult. The infection enters the body through the enzyme ACE2, higher levels of which are found in adipose, or fatty, tissue (which obese people have more of).

The immune response in very overweight patients also seems to be compromised, due to the way a particular type of immune cell, called macrophages, invade the fat tissue and can sendthe bodys immune system into self-destructive overdrive. Hospital care may also be complicated by a persons size and any underlying, but as yet undiscovered, health issues.

The Covid-obesity link was observed in China too, but its a bigger worry in Britain and the U.S., where many people are overweight. Nearly 40% of American adults under 60 have a body mass index over 30. Nearly two-thirds of U.K. adultsare overweight or obese, according to the National Health Service.Obesity is prevalent in 29% of adults and one in five children aged between 10 and 11.

Critically, many of the recent Covid-19 flare-ups are in more deprived areas, and obesity rates are higher there. In Britain, the most obese country in Europe (apart from Malta), obesity is twice as high in the poorest areas as the richest ones. In the U.S., obesity has been linked to levels of income and education, and to ethnicity.

The question is what to do about that. Given the complexity of environmental, biological and psychological factors, weight isnt an easy policy area. The vast majority of those who manage to lose a lot of weight find they gain back most of it. Researchers have made progress in understanding why thats so, and the way calorie-reduction regimens trigger countervailing increases in appetite that ultimately defeat even the most determined dieters.

Cultural stereotypes and stigmas havent quite caught up with the research. If you scroll down the comments of any social media feed on the obesity debate youll find typical rejoinders with some combination of the words willpower, diet, exercise or portion control. There are accusatory glances at parents who dont monitor the weight of their children.

Johnson has certainly played with those stereotypes. When he was its editor, the conservative Spectator magazine ran an article warning people not to hire a fatty for a nanny, suggesting they were likely to be unclean, lazy and derelict in their childcare duties. Even for a magazine that prides itself on being contrarian, the piece was unscientific and grotesque.

In a 2004 newspaper column, Johnson said it was peoples own fat fault if they were obese, a view he described last week as embarrassing.In his Toryleadership campaign, he vowed to end the continuing creep of the nanny state and roll back sin taxes.Now, however, he is weighing in on the side of the interventionists, distancing himself from his oldviews. The government hasnt specified how it will act, but it is considering a range of more aggressive measures.

Story continues

One is likely to be expanding the U.K.s sugar tax. While Britain has a limited levy on soft drinks, which seems to be having an impact, there are too many exemptions.

Even an expanded sugar tax is only part of the solution, as Sally Davies, the countrys former chief medical officer, has argued. Education is needed for younger children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds who are more likely to eat packaged and processed foods and Brits also need protection from the fire hose of junk-food advertising.So far, thats been a very uneven fight. A report from the Obesity Health Alliance a few years ago noted that the government had spent 5.2 million pounds a year on its healthy-eating campaign, while confectioners and purveyors of junk food spent 143 million pounds on ads.

New interventions would no doubt be greeted with angry howls from the food industry. But some of the old arguments against taking action especially that sin taxes dont workor affectthe poor disproportionately no longer hold up. Johnsons backing for action adds political weight, and muscle, to the other side.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Therese Raphael is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Boris Johnson Has a Personal Stake in Fighting Obesity - Yahoo Finance

Lots of people shun carbs in a bid to lose weight. The idea that carbohydrates are calorific is widespread and has left people avoiding the whole food group. But should we really be switching to brown bread instead?Express.co.ukreveals how bread affects weight loss.

Carbohydrates are a wide category, including bread, pasta, beans and potatoes.

They are one of three macronutrients found in food, the others are fat and protein.

Obviously you cant eat bread all day every day, but many have taken to cutting the foodstuff out of their diet entirely.

So what is the difference between white and brown bread?Express.co.uktakes a look.

READ MORE- Veganism benefits: Should I go vegan? Will I lose weight?

No, carbohydrates will not make you put on weight if you eat them in the right quantities.

Hardly any foods contain only one nutrient and most are a combination of carbohydrates, fats and proteins in varying amounts.

They are important to your health because they give you energy and reduce risk of some diseases.

Carbs are not going to make you gain weight, unless you add butter and creamy sauces to them.

Carbohydrates actually contain fewer calories gram for gram than fat, making them a useful part of maintaining a healthy weight.

There are three different types of carbohydrates in food: sugar, starch and fibre.

The type of sugars that we tend to eat too much of is called free sugars.

They are often added to food or drinks such as biscuits, chocolate, and breakfast cereals.

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You are better off sticking to naturally occurring sugars, such as those found in honey, syrups, and smoothies.

Starch is found in foods that come from plants, such as bread, rice, potatoes and pasta.

Starch is good for you because it provides a slow and steady release of energy to keep you going all day.

Fibre is another important carbohydrate, and good sources include fruit and vegetables, wholegrain bread, and wholewheat pasta.

Significantly reducing carbohydrates from your diet could potentially lead to health problems.

Carbohydrates are the bodys main source of energy, and if you dont eat them your body will use protein and fat for energy instead.

It may be hard to get enough fibre without carbs, and fibre is crucial for digestion.

However, you should opt for healthier sources of carbohydrates such as wholegrain, potatoes, vegetables, fruit and legumes.

Brown bread is a healthier choice than white bread, according to a number of studies.

The NHS website says that wholegrain, wholemeal and brown breads give us energy.

They also contain B vitamins, vitamin E, fibre, and a range of minerals.

White bread gives you some of this too, but not as much.

Brown bread, wholegrain and wholemeal are also lower in fat.

The rest is here:
Weight loss: Is brown bread good for weight loss? - Express

If years ago what everyone wanted to lose weight was talking about going to the gym and getting pounded doing sports, now many nutritionists and sports experts have turned the tables.New trends in the world of nutrition warn that leading a healthy life is no longer (or at least not only) a matter of doing sports.Over the years and with an increasingly powerful food industry and the increase in sedentary lifestyle and associated diseases such as obesity, consumption trends have changed and there are now many people who, as nutritionists themselves report, They cannot lose weight for much sport that they do. So it is necessary to put aside junk food and start eating real food.

In this link we told you yesterday an example of a woman who had succeeded. The photo speaks for itself. The results are surprising. Once you change your diet then you do have to start exercising. And the first step is to start the house little by little and by the foundations. That is: do not face the first day a half marathon.Just do the fashionable exercise that everyone talks about and that more and more people practice.It is simple: just walk. Doing about 15,000 steps each day will suffice.

More and more people are joining this trend. And it is a way of exercising without you noticing it excessively. In fact, several viral coach challenges are circulating around the network that try to improve the lives of their followers.What does it consist on? In that you get a smart phone or an activity bracelet and count the steps you take. The goal is for you to exceed 15,000 each day. If you succeed, put a mark on the calendar and start introducing small actions that can lead you to move more and (therefore) burn more calories.

Keep in mind that moving (in this link you can read how beneficial it is, for example, doing it after each meal or each dinner), will make your body activate and burn more calories. If you do more than 15,000 steps a day (or even reach 20.00)you can subtract 4,000 calories.A challenge at the height of a few for which up to groups (both women and men) that go out throughout Spain periodically to walk together have already been formed.

But this is not the only action you can do. Quite the contrary. Moving and walking has to be a complement.In fact, scholars assure that if you add to this, for example, a renunciation of alcohol or ultraprocessed, the changes in your body you will begin to notice before. And that is the last of the keys that nutritionists transmit: losing weight is a matter of time. You have to be patient because the results are not achieved in a moment or a minute. Every effort has its rewards.

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May 16, 2020

May 16, 2020

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Weight loss tricks: The exercise that sweeps the nets and what you should do to lose weight and subtract calories without starving - Explica

Posted on May 15, 2020

Words by Donna Torres, General Manager of SMB Sales & Operations UK & EMEA, Xero

In the current climate, many of us have found ourselves in different working environments with the majority of people working from home. With our home and work spaces becoming the same place, its more important than ever to ensure you take steps to create some separation and avoid burnout a common issue faced by small business owners.

Here are six ways to help avoid burnout:

Often a business is the result of a life-long passion, so its easy for that business to become a fundamental part of your everyday routine. This makes it difficult to separate work life from home especially when both now exist in the same location.

Try to keep to normal working hours, and avoid working late into the evening where possible. Its vital to ensure a distinction between your working day and your time to relax, otherwise youre more susceptible to burnout. Working after hours can actually make you less productive too, as youre less able to switch off when it counts. Small things like clearing your work space away at the end of the day will make a big difference.

Prioritising your wellbeing should be just as much a part of your daily routine as a to-do list is. Physical and emotional burnout can sometimes be tracked back to elements of your lifestyle, such as diet, exercise and sleep.

Rest is crucial. It might be tempting to stay up late working on something but without the right sleep, your week is not going to be as productive as it could be. Exercise is also important, even if its just once or twice a week or going for some short walks in the day to get some space away from your screen. There are a number of great workplace apps such as Unmind who can help business owners and their employees with their wellbeing.

Time management in a small firm can be difficult, especially when you are first starting out. Xero research revealed that the main triggers for entrepreneurs stress are staff management (42%), admin (35%), feeling personally responsible for the success of the company (31%) and filing taxes (19%).

When youre overwhelmed, everything on your to do list might seem like it needs to be done ASAP, but in reality most of the time tasks can be split into urgent and important. Prioritising tasks is key to focus the mind. Apps like Wunderlist and Todoist can help you to prioritise, set reminders and share your work load with colleagues whilst working remotely too.

Always be realistic with how much you can accomplish in one day. If you commit to doing too much in an unrealistic time frame, it is likely that you will feel more burned out.

Entrepreneurs are always worrying about cash flow and profit and loss sheets especially at the moment. If you have a comprehensive bookkeeping system set up, you will feel more in control of your finances.

Cloud accounting software can be used from any device all you need is an internet connection. It gives you an up-to-date snapshot of how your business is doing, giving you the insights you need to make the right decisions for your company. The time consuming accounting tasks are automated, and anyone from your team who needs to can access information and collaborate on activity.

Although were not able to go abroad at the moment, that doesnt mean you should go without a holiday. Book a day or two of annual leave if possible to switch off.

And if thats not possible, try to schedule some down time every day, the same way you would a meeting. Whether its getting out on your daily walk or run, or listening to your favourite podcast, ensure that youre getting away from your desk and taking your mind off work.

Running a small business can be all consuming. Implementing a routine which includes downtime is going to benefit both you and your business in the long-run. A brain thats allowed to switch off works more efficiently when it needs to be switched on.

Link:
Five ways to avoid burnout when your home and work environments become one - HR News

If someone has the motivation to feel ready for the day, that can change drastically if they have cold pizza and a can of soda for breakfast. If you start your day on an unhealthy note, chances are, it negatively affects the start of your morning.

On the other hand, starting off a bit healthier surely benefits the rest of the day. As a high school student who is busy with diving and academics, its not always easy to avoid the temptation of cheap satisfaction; but, Ive made a concerted effort to try.

In the morning, when my alarm blares, Id much rather hit the snooze button admittedly, sometimes I do but, I personally feel much better and refreshed when I start my morning by eating a healthy breakfast, rather than scrolling through my social media while gorging on chips.

I notice that whenever I eat either a bad breakfast or none at all, my concentration levels during school are off. I tend to fall asleep in class (dont tell my mom) or my body begins to feel weak.

My personal feelings were confirmed by Healthline, who reported children with a poor diet run the risk of growth and developmental problems and poor academic performance, and bad eating habits can persist for the rest of their lives.

This fact alone should motivate us to stop our bad eating habits even though the temptations are irresistible.

Exercising also helps my body stay in great shape. Being a competitive platform and springboard diver I attend practice every day. I do dry-land and pool training as well as conditioning and basics. My workout not only helps me stay in shape but also aids in relieving most of my stresses and anxieties.

After my practice is complete, I feel motivated to eat healthier so that I could focus on my studying, which most people probably feel. Whenever I have off days and decide not to exercise, I tend to get upset easier and my body gets heavy and bloated.

By exercising and eating nutritious meals rather than laying in bed while eating junk, my mentality and mood are impacted influencing my daily routines.

Moving away from personal anecdotes, a composed diet, as well as physical movement, is critical as our organs and tissues need proper nutrition in order to effectively function. Without nutrition and exercise, our bodies have a higher risk of getting diseases, infections or even death.

These unwise eating habits and lack of exercise also lead to diabetes and obesity. At least 2.8 million people die each year as a result of being obese or overweight, according to the World Health Organization.

According to BBC News, an 18-year-old boy tragically died from sudden adult death syndrome in 2015. He was overweight and had an addiction to junk food. Not only did he consume himself with his bad eating habits, but he also spent more than 12 hours a day playing video games.

Doctors told his mother that obesity contributed to his death, and his devastated parents spoke out with hope to help other young people avoid the same issue, according to BBC.

Due to nutrition and obesity-related diseases including heart disease and diabetes, unhealthy diets contribute to approximately 678,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Although its very challenging, it is important to face your own temptations and challenge yourself to stock up on fruits and veggies and get the treadmill going.

Ultimately, just by changing our diets and lifestyle, our lives could be saved and lifted up from our depressed and lazy bodies. This conscious decision can also impact how we act during the day and how well we concentrate during school or work.

I love to sit around eating ice cream while watching Netflix, but that cannot be a constant. Having a healthy diet overall leads only to happiness and productivity in our lives.

Read the original here:
Opinion: The importance of exercise and healthy eating habits - Los Angeles Times

Sleep, diet, exercise, and stress: these are factors known to change a persons risk of developing numerous non-communicable diseases. Such lifestyle impacts on healthbeneficial or harmfulexert much of their influence via inflammation. About 10 years ago, Matthias Nahrendorf began wondering just how inflammation and lifestyle might be linked biologically, and started thinking about how to pinpoint the mechanism in the cardinal case of cardiovascular disease.

A persons level of inflammation can easily be measured with a simple white blood cell test. White blood cells fight off bacterial invasions and repair damaged tissues, but they can also damage healthy tissue when they become too abundant. You can find them in atherosclerotic plaques, and you can find them in acute infarcts, says Nahrendorf, a professor of radiology who conducts high-resolution imaging research at Massachusetts General Hospital. You can find them in failing hearts and the brain, where they increase the risk of stroke.

By linking exercise to reduced white blood cell production, Nahrendorf shows how a lifestyle factor can modulate cardiovascular risk.

When Nahrendorf learned that the most potent, toxic, and pro-inflammatory white blood cells live only a few hours, or at most a day, he immediately realized that the paramount questionsgiven that they die off quickly yet remain abundant in the bloodare, where and why are they produced? What is their source? Perhaps, he hypothesized, lifestyle factors regulate hematopoiesis (blood production).

To test this idea, he decided to study the effects of exercise on the production of these leukocytes in healthy mice. First, though, he consulted the scientific literature on exercise in mice. Previous researchers, he learned, had found that exercise increases production of inflammatory immune cellswhich I thought was counterintuitive, Nahrendorf recalls. When he looked more carefully, he discovered that the type of exercise used in the studies was forced and thus possibly stressful because it was induced by electric shocks. He therefore decided to test only voluntary exercise. He and his colleagues put a wheel in each mouses cage, so the animals could choose to run if they were interested.

The mice never ran during the day. That is when they rest, Nahrendorf explains. But in the dark, they ran a lot, averaging six to seven miles every night. After three weeks, the exercising mice had measurably lower levels of circulating white blood cells. Exercise, he found, had pushed their blood stem cells (cells that can produce all the different types of blood cells) into a state of quiescence: a kind of dormancy in which they generate fewer pro-inflammatory white blood cells and platelets, without decreasing the number of oxygen-carrying red blood cells. Soon the exercising mice had fewer circulating white blood cells than their sedentary counterparts, dampening inflammationan effect that persisted for weeks.

The local signals within bone marrow that induce quiescence in blood stem cells were already well known, but the fact that exercise could trigger them was not. Nahrendorf next wanted to learn the identity of the trigger linking exercise to blood stem cell quiescence. Further investigation revealed that the only receptors with enhanced activity in the bone marrow niche where most blood stem cells exist were binding to a well-known hormone called leptin; it is produced by fat cells and regulates hunger.

Leptin is like the fuel gauge in a car. When the tank is fullmeaning energy (and food) are abundantleptin levels run high. As exercise uses up the gas in the tank, this lowers leptin levels, which signal that reserves are running low, thereby inducing hunger and the urge to eat in order to replenish depleted energy stores. Nahrendorf and his co-authors speculate in their 2019 Nature Medicine paper that leptins role in regulating energetically costly hematopoiesis may have evolved to produce blood cells only when whole body energy was abundantnot when people are exerting themselves. Contemporary sedentary behavior, they continue, which increases leptin and consequently hematopoiesis, may have rendered this adaptation a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and perhaps also for other diseases with inflammatory components.

But with fewer circulating immune cells, would exercising mice be more vulnerable to infection? Nahrendorf challenged them with a protocol designed to induce infection in the blood, and found just the opposite: exercising mice had a more robust immune response, as semi-dormant blood stem cells swiftly sprang into activity and produced infection-fighting leukocytes, improving survival of the active mice as compared to those with no running wheels in their cages. Next, they investigated whether exercise would help mice with established atherosclerosis, and found that exercise was not only protective, it also reduced the size of existing plaques in the aorta.

Whether these associations would hold up in humans remained an open question. For answers, Nahrendorf turned to a study known as CANTOS, which had measured levels of inflammation in 4,892 patients who suffered heart attacks (see Raw and Red Hot, May-June 2019, page 46). When he approached the studys co-authors, Mallinckrodt professor of medicine Peter Libby and Braunwald professor of medicine Paul Ridker, he learned, serendipitously, not only that they possessed self-reported exercise levels for the participants, but also that they had tested leptin levels as well. They analyzed their raw data and found the same relationship among exercise, leptin, and leukocytes as in the mice. Data from a second human study cemented the result.

By identifying a previously unknown molecular mechanism linking voluntary exercise to reduced white blood cell production, Nahrendorf and his colleagues have highlighted how a lifestyle factor can modulate cardiovascular risk. Their discovery, the researchers hope, will point the way to wider adoption of healthy exercise regimens, and health-enhancing anti-inflammatory drugs.

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Stem cell activity linked to lifestyle - Harvard Magazine