Tomatoes!

Bright red in color and round in shape, tomatoes are not only look appealing, but also very tasty to eat. Many people thought that it's in the veggie group, when it's actually a fruit.

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Besides its freshness, tomatoes are rich in antioxidants, which are effective in fighting those free radicals. The antioxidants in tomatoes fight them by adding an electron into the free radicals, neutralizing them and stop the chain reaction of the free radicals that disrupts the health. One of the antioxidants tomatoes is lycopene. Lycopene is an important antioxidants that can help prevent the formation of cancer cells, like prostate, rectal, stomach, and throat cancer.

Lycopene is a part of the "pigment family" called carotene. Carotene is a natural component in fruit and vegetable colors. For example, beta carotene is an orange pigment in carrots.

Our body does not produce lycopene, therefore it needs a supply of lycopene from the foods we consume. Tomatoes actually contain more lycopene than other fruits, such as carrots or watermelon.

Nutritional Content in 100 grams of Tomatoes

• 27 mg of phosphor
• 360 mg of potassium
• 0,6 mg of iron
• 11 mg of calcium
• 23 mg of vitamin C
• 0,06 mg of thiamine (vitamin B)
• 1 g of protein
• 1000 iu of vitamin A

Health Benefits from Tomatoes
Except its merit in preventing the formation of cancer cells, tomatoes also have 5 other important benefits for our health, and they are:
1. Prevent the Premature Aging
With its high content of antioxidants, tomatoes can prevent premature aging from free radicals. Tomatoes also contain citric acid, which can make our skin looks fresh and cleaner.

2. Lower the Blood Cholesterol
The nicotinic acid in tomatoes can help you lower the high blood cholesterol, therefore preventing any heart disease.

3. Maintain the Blood Sugar Level
Tomatoes also contain important mineral, chromium. Chromium is useful in maintaining the stability of the blood sugar. Therefore, tomatoes are good for diabetic people.

4. Lower the Effects of Smoking
Tomatoes are highly recommended for smokers. The chlorogenic acid and the coumaric acid in tomatoes help smokers fight carcinogens, the dangerous substance in cigarettes which can cause cancer.

5. Maintain the Bone Health
Besides chromium, tomatoes also contain other important minerals such as calcium and vitamin K. These two nutrition are important in repairing the broken bone tissues while preventing the osteoporosis.

Start consuming tomatoes today, and get ALL the health merits!

5 Best Post-Workout Meals

During a workout, our body needs enough nutrition as its fuel to create the energy. These energy will wear off eventually after the workout, right? Therefore, we need more healthy food to recharge the lost energy. If our body lost its energy for too long, it can cause muscle spasms and catabolism.

Here are 5 best post-workout meals you can consume after a workout:
1. Chicken Breast with Veggie Mix
100 grams of skinless and boneless chicken breast contain about 29 grams of protein, which can help the recovery and muscle developments after a workout. Meanwhile, a mix of vegetables contain many kinds of vitamins and minerals that are essential for our immunity.

2. Eggs and Avocado
No doubt that eggs contain enough protein, especially in its whites. Egg yolks contain phosphatidylcholine which can be useful to prevent the accumulation of fat and cholesterol in the liver. Yolks are also rich in choline, which can increase the heart, brain, and membrane cell functions. One egg contain about 300 mg of choline and 315 mg of phosphatidylcholine.

Avocado also have high nutritional value. It contain at least 11 vitamins and 14 minerals. It's also rich in protein, riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), potassium, and vitamin C (vitamin needed for body recovery).

3. Salmon, Spinach, and Yam (Sweet Potato)
Salmon are rich in protein and Omega 3 fatty acid. The protein in a salmon is good for muscle growth, while the Omega 3 fatty acid are useful to reduce muscle damage after a workout.

Spinach are high in iron, an important mineral for muscle formation. Iron is also an important component in hemoglobin, the part in our blood that distributes the oxygen throughout the body.

Sweet potatoe (yam) is one kind of complex carbohydrate, which are also equipped with easy-to-digest vitamins and minerals. It's also a good energy source, especially after a workout.

4. Tuna and Brown Rice
Potassium and essential fats in a tuna helps control the blood pressure. The Omega 3 fatty acid can also help prevent rheumatic, while the selenium are useful in detoxifying process, especially in the liver.

Brown rice are high in fiber, which helps in indigestion and are suitable to be consumed after a workout. It won't increase the blood sugar, thus reducing the risk of diabetes.

5. Whey Protein
Besides the fact that it's good to be consumed before a workout, whey protein are also good to be consumed after a workout. Whey protein are a protein supplement in the form of a milk, making it easier to be absorbed. Research indicates that whey protein can fasten the muscle recovery process and maximizes the muscle formation after a workout.

Those are the 5 best post-workout meal that you can consume after a workout. The right meal after a workout can really get you faster to the results you've been fighting for!

5 Things to Get Rid of for a Healthier Life

Health is our most important asset. It's only natural that we have to try to keep it and let go of the unhealthy habits. Some people might not notice that some of these habits are not supposed to be preserved. In this post, I will share some of the unhealthy habits that can really ruin our health.

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1. Smoking
Smoking is the main cause for lung cancer and other kinds of diseases. The best thing you can do is by stop doing it. But still, one does not simple stop smoking, especially when they've became addicted to nicotine. However, the simplest thing you can do to reduce your smoking habit is exercising, until you're used to not smoking any more.

2. Drinking
Binge drinking is clearly ruining your health, as fun as it might be. This habit can cause alcohol poisoning, brain damage, and can also damage the cardiovascular system. To prevent those dangerous side effects, you can also substitute your white wine with red wine, considering red wine have some health merits with the right amount.

3. Eating Junk Food
Those food really live up to their name: they're junk food, literally. It contains loads of saturated fat, which can clog your artery, not to mention obesity. If you want to order these foods, choose places that provide healthier food, adding some salad to make it healthier. Try to not eat it too often.

4. Stress
Coping with stress is not an easy thing. As humans, we have many causes of stress that sometimes complicates things. The right thing to do is managing it. Pick the right way and strategy that can help you cope with your stress. Some people do their hobby, but workout can be really helpful. Doing simple exercises, yoga, pilates, or meditation can help a lot.

5. Lack of Exercise
Need I say more? Working out clearly increase your health. Cardio training can improve your cardiovascular system, while weight training can strengthen your body. The most common problem has always been with laziness. Doing some workout regularly and making it your routine can really solve this problem.

Let's face it, all five habits above are generally known as bad habits. I don't even think my explanation is really needed, right?

5 Big No-Nos about Fruit-Consuming

We all know that there are many fruits that can fulfill our needs for vitamin. For example, fruits containing many vitamin C are kiwi, apple, orange, mango, cherry, strawberry, and so on. Fruits are also known as the source of antioxidants, such as tomatoes which contain lots of lycopene or mangoes which are rich in carotene. Therefore, fruits are essential in healthy living.

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It's true, but some people are overconfident in some merits of fruit. Truth is, there are couple of things that one have to understand about consuming fruits. Here are the 5 restrictions about fruit-consuming:

1. Consume Fruit as Substitute for Vegetables
Fruits contain some organic acid and aromatic substance which can increase the appetite. Despite the fact, veggies contain more mineral substances than fruits. If you only consume fruits, thinking that it's enough to substitute the veggies, your daily nutritional need are not filled. You still need to consume about 500 grams of veggies everyday.

2. Consume Fruit as Substitute for Meals
A human body can survive with at least 50 kinds of nutrition, especially more than 65 grams of (good) fat that can maintain regeneration and organ recovery. Fruits contain more than 85% of water but less than 1% of protein. Therefore, it can't fulfill the daily need for amino and fatty acid. It's better if you don't consume fruit as substitute for your meal. You can, however, consume it as a snack. See this post for a healthy meal plan.

3. Consume too Much Fruits in Order to Lose Some Weight
Basically, fruits can't be considered as low-calorie foods. More than 80% of fruit contains fructose, kind of "fruit sugar" if I may say so. Even if fruits contain less calories than rice, people always consume more fruit than rice because it taste great and succulent. Therefore, if this happens, more calories will be consumed and  your dietary goals won't be achieved.

4. Blinded by Imported Fruits
Some people actually think that imported fruits contain better and more nutrition. This is not always true, because some fruit lose its freshness from long transport time.

5. Relying on Fruits as Sources for Vitamin
Some fruit don't contain as many vitamins as we thought it would be. But if you want to fulfill your needs for vitamin, it's not wise to just rely it on fruits. You also have to consume it from other kinds of food. You can also fulfill it by consuming multivitamin and multimineral supplements.

Yes, fruits are highly nutritional foods and are good to consume daily. However, it is also important to pay attention on how you consume it. Consume it wisely!

Choosing the Right Low-Fat Products

Obese people, or other people with high fat and high cholesterol usually have to reduce their fat consumption, and this warning usually make people consider about buying "low-fat" or "fat-free" products. However, be careful, because not all of those products are healthy products like they advertise it.

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To keep the original taste in low-fat products, producers replace the fat content with huge amount of sugar. The results are, some "low-fat" products actually contain more calories than the "regular" products! Whereas, in a diet to lose some weight, carbohydrate consumption has to be reduced, especially simple/fast-absorbing carbs like sugar - which have high glycemic index (GI) - will be stored as fat anyway.

Besides that, some of those products also contain trans-fat, which not only increase the LDL (bad cholesterol) content, but also lower the HDL (good, protective cholesterol) content. Fact is, the increasing number of obesity in our society is one of the main factors of the proliferating low-fat products. The vigorous advertisements, especially the ones in TVs, make people think that consuming those low-fat products means they consume healthy foods.

Based on the facts above, you should carefully check the nutrition facts of the product that you're going to buy. Products with 1-2 grams of sugar is enough, but above that, it's too high for those of you who's been trying to lose weight.

For your diet, choose complex carbs such as brown rice, whole wheat bread, and oatmeal. Limit your fat consumption, and choose those that are good for you, like canola oil, olive oil, etc. If you want to lower your LDL consumption and increase the HDL, you also need fiber from veggies, fruits, beans, and also oatmeal. Remember to exercise regularly too!

Diet Soda: Better Than Regular Soda?

People often consume diet soda in order to replace the regular soda-consumption, which, as we all know, contains high sugar and calories. Consuming diet soda in a reasonable amount - say, 1 can a day - is considered safe, because the sweetener and the chemicals contained in it is still within the safe limits for most people.

image credit to thefoodfarce.com

But still, diet soda is not a healthy drink for you, especially those in diet. Even if replacing regular soda drinks with diet soda reduces significant amount of calories, but a lot of research indicates that the more soda you consume - diet soda or regular soda - your appetite will grow, heightening the risk of obesity and other related diseases such as diabetes mellitus or osteoporosis.

Other research also finds that consuming more than 1 can of carbonated drinks a day will increase the risk of metabolic syndrome as much as 40%. Metabolic syndrome is the main cause for heart disease and diabetes.

There are still a lot of healthier drinks around. The best one there is, is of course regular water, 8 glasses a day. For some variations, instead of drinking carbonated drinks, you can also consume juice, low-fat milk, of green tea. Bottoms up!

High-Quality Sleeps for You!

In the previous post, I've stressed that it's important to have enough rest for your workout to get your results. However, some people still can't get the results even if they have enough sleep. It simply means their sleeping quality is not good enough. There are many tips and suggestions on how to improve your sleep quality, though.

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Here are some "good habits" for better quality of sleep:
1. Do some workout regularly. Have some time to workout everyday. Any simple exercise will do.
2. No caffeine after 7 PM.
3. One hour before you sleep, don't do any work or activity that needs you to think hard and concentrate.
4. Adjust your room temperature to be cooler.
5. Turn off the lamps in your room. Research indicates that even the dim light from digital alarm will disrupt the sleep. Nowadays there are a lot of glow-in-the-dark things, which also disrupt the sleep.
6. Tidy up your bed. A messy bed will definitely mess up with your sleep.

If you have trouble sleeping, try to do some of these tips:
1. Take a slow and deep breath as long as you can.
2. If you have many things in your mind (ex. planning your your vacation, making a shopping list, concerned about your medical diagnosis, etc.), write it down. This usually helps a lot.
3. Pamper yourself with body lotion. Besides the fact that it relaxes you, if you have trouble sleeping because it's too hot, body lotion will cool you down.
4. If your feet is cold, wear socks. Some people even wear this because it calms them down.
5. Relax. Do simple stretching if you need to.
6. Some people claim that warm milk contains melatonin and tryptophan, natural supplements that can help you sleep. However, a glass of milk does not contain enough of those substance to actually help you sleep. But still, it can be quite a relaxing drink.
7. Yawn.

If you have some trouble sleeping, just think of it as an extra time off your daily schedule. You can use that time to do some chores that you haven't done, like tidying up your books or something. The next morning, you'll feel glad because you feel like you achieve something even if you just started your day.

Try to apply those simple tips to have high-quality sleeps and get ready to face your day!

Two Body Weight Training for Women

A lot of women - and men, apparently - are not interested to do body weight training, thinking that the body weight training they can do is only push-up or sit-up. In this post you'll discover two best body weight training besides push-up or sit-up, which not only will help you get the ideal body, but also increase your strength.

Plank is an effective training to help you train your body core stability, while strengthening your abdomen, lower back, torso, and legs. Here are two plank training that you can do:

Walkout Plank
To make your body fit and strong enough to train a harder training like push-up, you have to have a strong core muscles. The core muscles are the muscles that are essential in your daily activities, such as standing up,  sit down, lying down, facing down, and many more. This is why you have to strengthen the power and stability of your core.

Walkout plank is one of the best training you can do to train your core. This body weight training is also known as plank to push-up. To do this training, start by assume your body into downward facing-dog yoga position.

image credit to yogajournal.com

After that, while keeping the legs straight and the abs tight, walk the hands out as far as possible (usually up to the push-up position). Then, still keeping the legs straight, walk the feet back up to the hands.

image credit to health.msn.com

Static Plank
Just like walkout plank, this training is very effective. The difference is that walkout plank is more dynamic than static plank, because in static plank you have to hold a plank position within a certain period of time. This training will increase your core's strength,

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To get the maximum results, make sure you do it with the right technique and motion to prevent injuries and strengthening your body.

Blame It on the Alcohol. Really?

When I mentioned alcohol, most people will immediately think about partying and get drunk. But is it really that bad? Are there any benefits of alcohol for our health?

image credit to universal-healthcare.org

Like any other things in life, it's good when you have enough. Consuming the right amount of alcohol can give you some health benefits. Fact is, alcohol can lower the risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, gallstone, and diabetes.

On the other hand, if you consume too much alcohol, it will definitely increase the risk of:
- pancreatic, mouth, throat, and liver cancer
- swelling of the pancreas
- dying of heart attack
- high blood pressure

Unfortunately for some people, alcohol is a big no-no. For those of you who had some stroke (from hemorrhaging), have liver or pancreatic illness, or in the middle of a healing process, ALCOHOL IS A BIG NO.

So you can see that alcohol is actually a double-edged sword for your health. About 355 ml of beer and 150 ml of wine twice or thrice a week is good for you.

Got Milk?

Having a smooth and healthy skin is every woman's dream. However, many people - men and women - have some trouble with their skin. This is why a lot of cosmetic products claim to fix those problem, making your skin smooth, shiny, and healthy. But do you know that drinking milk daily is effective to make your skin healthy and smooth?

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A lot of skin problems came from stress, unhealthy lifestyle, smoking, ultraviolet radiation, and other kinds of solution, making our skin dry, even cracked. Drinking milk daily is one of the many ways to keep your skin healthy.

Naturally, milk contains vitamin A and D, which smooths your skin. Besides that, other important mineral in milk such as iron, calcium, and copper also have some 'cosmetic' function for you, making your skin healthy and supple.

The protein, calcium, and iron in milk that we consume everyday will also slow down the aging process, while brightening it. This is why, for hundreds even thousands of years, milk is known as women's beauty secret for its benefits of making skin smooth, wrinkle-free, and brighter.

Milk also contains lactic acid, which have the role to moisten the skin naturally, while lifting the dead cells in your body, recovering it to make your skin prettier and healthier.

Therefore, if you want a smoother, brighter skin, start drinking milk daily!

Stop Smoking, Start Training!

Let's face it, smoking is not easy to let go of, even if its dangers are well-known. However, if the few of you have some troubles stopping, start doing some simple exercises. Turns out, sports play an important part for the effort to stop smoking. Research indicates that smokers who do some workouts regularly have twice the success rate to stop smoking than smokers who do not do some workout regularly.

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Cigarettes act as stress-reliever for a lot of smokers, and when they don't smoke, they can feel their stress level increasing. Fact is, working-out is the best stress-reliever and can replace your smoking addiction to relieve your stress. And for those who doesn't do workouts regularly, don't worry, because a research by Dr. Adrian Taylor and his team indicates that simple exercises such as walking around for 5 minutes can decrease your desire to smoke.

According to him, anything that can distract a smoker from smoking help decrease the urge to smoke. Meanwhile, sports will trigger the body to produce the hormone called dopamine that can decrease the nicotine dependency for smokers.

Other research also indicates that the higher your workout intensity, your success rate to suppress your smoking addiction is higher. You can do other workouts with higher intensity for 20 to 30 minutes 3 or 4 times a week. Do any sports you like, like jogging, cycling, swimming, tennis, basketball, etc.

However, this research also states that to quit smoking needs combination of sports and other techniques to stop other smoking habits. But still, there's no harm in trying their suggestion from those experts, because doing sports and other physical activities regularly are not only reducing the smoking addiction, they are also good for your health and fitness.

Gaining Weight the Right Way

In losing some weight, the usual advice is that the calorie intake has to be smaller than those that are out. If the calorie intake is more than what the body needs, the body will store the excess calories as fat. However, if the calorie intake is equal than those that are out, our body won't gain or lose some weight. But is it that simple?

There are some articles on the internet that explain about the BMR to count the daily calorie needs to maintain weight. More than the BMR rate, we'll gain weight; and less than that, we'll lose some. However, the fact is different.

For example, a thin person with 50 kg in weight and 175 cm in height eats 2500 calories a day. If he's not losing or gaining some weight, then we can assume that 2500 calorie intake is equal than those that are out. Let's say he wants to gain weight, and do what people usually do: eat more, especially before he sleeps (because as we know, this is considered to be "forbidden" for those who wants to lose some weight), eats ice cream and chocolates as desserts, then goes to sleep. It's quite clear that the calorie intake is more than 3500 calories a day, yet he still complains that his body is still thin (by now he can be regarded as a person with ectomorph type of body, which is a body that has fast metabolism, which makes them hard to gain weight).

Then what about the above theory? Why is he not gaining any weight even if he increases his daily calorie intake for more than 40%?

First, you have to take into account that human's body always tries to keep its fat level point in a balanced and stable condition. This also happens in ectomorph type of body, where they have low level of fat and unable to store big quantities of fat.

It's also known that it's better to not eat a lot at the same time, because our body will only absorb a few, and the rest will be stored as fat. However, for those with ectomorph type of body, they can't store fat, thus their body speed up their metabolism to dispose the new "fats" that are supposed to be stored.

This is the concept of Fat Level Point, where the body will always try to maintain the fat level in its stable condition. Some call this as the condition where the fat people find it hard to lose weight, and the skinny people find it hard to gain weight. With this concept, it's clear that eating more is not the solution to gain weight ideally.

Those with ectomorph type of body can only gain weight by enhancing their muscle mass (not their fat, because it won't work). To add some muscle mass, they have to lift some weight with medium or heavy weight. They also have to eat right for their muscle recovery.

Even for those who wants to gain weight, they also have to eat 5 or 6 times a day with medium portions. That meal plan is necessary so that the food intake will be optimally absorbed. Medium portions will make sure the excess calories won't be stored as fat and get disposed by the body.

In the next post, I'm going to share a quick guide to gain weight in a healthy way :)

Recovery Time after Each Training

There are a lot of questions that usually come from gym newbies that I have shared in the previous posts. For example, I've shared about how much weight you have to lift, resting time between each set, and now, I'm going to share about the suggested amount of recovery time after the workout.

People usually start to workout when they want to shape their body. The reasons are various, some want to lose weight, some want to build their muscles and get buff. However, in achieving our goal, we tend to want to get the fastest results. We thought that the harder we train, the faster we'll get to that goal.

Like many aspects of our lives, doing something excessively is not always good. It's the same with workouts. Training harder won't get the best results, only increase the accident risks.

When we train, we're stressing our muscles that it creates tiny rips in our muscles. When we rest, our body will repair those rips, making our muscles stronger. This process will be repeated over and over again until we reach the goal of our training. Therefore, enough rest and nutrition is as important as the workout itself.

image credit to tascha.ch

Always rest your muscles for at least 24 hours. But that doesn't mean that if we train our chest muscles today, we can't train our back the next day. What I mean is, the same muscle group should not be trained constantly, because it won't get the chance to recover. Therefore, if you do full body training in one workout, it should not be more than 3 times a week.

However, if you train one muscle group in one training, then you better arrange your training schedule. For example, if you train your chest on Monday, train your legs on Tuesday, shoulder and back on Wednesday, then train your chest on Friday. You can see in that example that that way, you're training your chest and giving it a couple days to rest.

This method is used by people who understands about recovery and trains very hard so that their body needs longer time to rest. Even professional bodybuilders rest their muscles for 5 days before starting another training. It doesn't mean that you train once in every 5 days, but with the above pattern, they give long enough rest so that their muscles are getting the maximum recovery.

There are still a lot of gym newbies that haven't understand the importance of recovery time. They thought that by training harder and more often, they'll get the results faster.

Remember, train smarter, not harder!

The Weight You Have to Lift

We see often in gyms, where gym enthusiasts, rats, or gym freak - whatever you may call it - lift ginormous weights. They usually large in size (but not ripped), and lift weight like crazy. When gym noobs (newbies) enter the gym, there should be feelings of inferiority that makes sure that they can't lift weights like those gym enthusiasts.

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"Well they've been training for years, and I just started."

This mindset is what make us lift weights that are "light enough" that don't necessarily embarrass us if, at some point, we can't lift it anymore. But are there any chance to know the ideal weight for our training?

Before we get to that, you have to remember that the first time you go to a gym, or just started going for a few times, you better get acquainted to all available equipment. The suggested reps is about 12 to 15 reps. Remember, this is so that you're accustomed to the equipment and know their functions.

After a few days of training and understanding the equipment, you will then know your strength. For example, in training your biceps, maybe 10 or 15 kg of weight is heavy enough for you, but in Bench Press you'll probably strong enough to lift 20 to 25 kg. Your understanding about your own ability is really important to monitor your training progress.

Now you know your strength, then what?

Next, you have to define your goal. I've said it before in my previous post about how long you have to rest between each set, that the weight you have to lift also depends on your goal. There are no rigid standards in defining your goal either, because it's more of an art than a science, since each body is different than the other.

For you who trains just for health reasons (or just to get fit), choose a weight, and lift it in 10 to 12 reps. Make sure you reach the failure in the 10th or 12th rep. If you can do more than 12 reps, it means your weight choice is not heavy enough. Choose the right weight for you using this guide.

Using the same guide, if you want to burn some fat, the suggested reps is about 8 to 10 reps per set, with the 8th or 10th rep as the failure point. Of course, at this point, the weight you have to lift is heavier than when you just want to get fit, right? The same thing also put into effect when you want to build your body and gain some weight. The suggested reps is about 6 to 8 per set.

The last category is for those who want to increase their muscle strength. For example, when you usually can  Bench Press with 25 kg in 10 reps, and want to lift more than 25 kg, then train with the heaviest weight you can lift with only 3 to 4 reps per set. With the heaviest weight possible, you can rest longer before starting another set.

Once again, this guide is the most basic guide, and every individual can adapt in their own way. For example, I usually choose the 8 to 10 reps to burn some fat, because I usually do some other training in one workout. Keep in mind that trained muscles help you burn some more fat :)

Gym "Slangs" for Dummies

After knowing the right way to lose some weight, there are a lot of people that starts to consider coming to the gym to lift some weight. The common first difficulty is understanding the gym terms or slangs that are usually unfamiliar for people who enters the gym for the first time.

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Let's say the instructor told you to bench press for 4 sets, with full range of motion. Or some people ask you, what is your one RM. For "gym rats", those terms are not new. But for those who just started to workout, where even going to the gym is a big thing, those terms are making them more uncomfortable to start. From this background, this article will help you know the basic terms that are commonly used in gyms.

- Strength, refers to your muscle power where your strength is measured with how many weights you can lift.
- 1 RM or One Rep-Max is the heaviest weight you can lift perfectly for once. If you can lift some more, that's not one RM.
- Endurance, refers to your muscle endurance in lifting some weight. For example, you can lift dumbbells to train your arms for 12 reps or 15 reps. In the mean time, there are others who can only lift it for 6 reps. That means their endurance is lower than you.
- Specificity, which is the commonly used term for weight-training. It means that when you want to strengthen up your arms, then you have to lift weight with your arm-muscles, and not our legs. If you want to build your shoulders, that means you have to train your shoulder muscles. That's the principal of specificity. This term is commonly mixed up with the myth that to burn the fat in your stomach you have to do some sit-ups.
- Overload. To train your muscles, increase the strength and endurance, you have to force your muscles to train more than its capacity. Increasing the intensity can be done with a few way, such as increasing the weight, adding more reps, reducing the interval from each set, and many more. If you don't understand this principle, you won't get any progress from your workout.
- Repetition or rep, is one full motion. For example when you lift the dumbbell from the shoulder, moving to the top of the head, and back to the shoulder. That one full motion is 1 repetition or 1 rep.
- Range of Motion, is full range of motion when you lift weight. If you lift the weight from your shoulder, moving up to the top of your head, and stops halfway, back to the original position, then it's only half range of motion. Some call it half rep.
- Failure, is the condition in which we can't get anymore rep. The right training is when you achieve your failure point. For example, when you have to do 10 reps, it means the failure is when you do the 10th rep. Most people think they have to stop at 10 when they can still do some more reps. What they should do is find a weight that is heavy enough, until you achieve failure or can't do more reps, right when they're at the 10th rep.
- Recovery. There are two kinds of recovery. The first is when after we lift a weight for 10 reps and need a break for few seconds or minutes before starting another set. This break is called recovery time. There's also the recovery time when we're done training 1 group of muscles. For example, after you train your chest, it needs 48 hours of recovery before you can start training again.
- Set is a set  of reps. When you lift weight for 10 to 12 reps and put down your dumbbell, that's 1 set. After 1 set, we need a break for a few seconds or minutes before starting another set which consists of 10 to 12 reps.
- Routine, is a term usually used to represent a pattern or sequence of exercise that we use. How many set, which equipment(s), how many reps, how long, how many times a week, it's called a routine for our training. It's better if you change your routine after a few weeks. Some do it after a few months. This is so that your body does not saturate, and you're not bored of doing something over and over again.

That's the basic terms that people usually use in gyms. By now, you should understand the "language", and not feel inferior to ask around and start training. Remember your diet after the training to get the maximum results :)

Wrong Confidences to Burn Fat

For some time, going to Gyms has become a new trend for teenagers and adults, men and women, in their effort to get a better, ideal body. Some want to gain weight, some want a toned body, and lots of them want to lose weight. However, too much information creates some "myths" about training and workout to burn fat.

Some of them are:
1. Going to gym, do the cardio for 30 to 45 minutes, then lift some weight.
First and foremost is to do cardio to burn fat, thus do it first while I got the energy, for 30 to 45 minutes. Get some rest, and lift some weight so I can get a "bonus" of a well-shaped body.

The above statements are 99% of what people think when they want to lose some weight. But the truth is, cardio in the beginning of the workout won't burn fat as much as we thought it should be. Think what you want, but that's just not what happens.

Fact is, cardio in the beginning of the workout burns our blood-sugar until it almost run out if we do it for 30 to 45 minutes. The weight-lifting afterwards only needs blood-sugar, thus make us feel limp and out of energy. If the weight-lifting needs sugar, but the sugar is used up on the cardio, what will happen? Our body will take the proteins as the "new sugar" for energy supply. Problem is, protein are taken from your muscle. Shaping your muscles by taking the protein from your muscles is like destroying your own body.

Lift some weight first, then do the cardio for an optimal fat-burn. You'll get hungry after the first 10-15 minutes of cardio. This is good, because it means your body is burning the fat as you do it.

2. Running in treadmill can burn fat.
If cardio can burn fat, then the harder we train then more fat will be burn. Fact is, running doesn't burn much fat. The faster we run, our body needs "fast energy", which is the blood sugar. The fat-burning process (which converts fat into energy) is a timely process, but running needs energy fast. Our body automatically ignores the fat and burn the blood-sugar instead. If we run out of blood-sugar, yet still runs, then our body will take more protein from the muscles for its energy.

To burn fat in treadmill, you only need to power-walk, with the target heart rate of 65%. Do it about 45 minutes everyday, and you'll lose some weight gradually.

3. The sweatier we get, more fat will be burn.
This myth are engraved in the minds of those who want to lose some weight. They think that workout can burn fat, and working out so hard can make them sweat more. This is why some people just do anything to get sweaty.

Well that's just ridiculous isn't it? If burning fat is that easy, then we can just lying around at a park in the middle of the afternoon when the sun is at its highest. I'm sure we'll get sweaty in 10 minutes or so, right?

Sweat are produced by the glands under our skin to keep our body temperature. It's not a standard fat-burning results, because when we workout in a really cold place, we don't sweat, and yet we will burn some fat. Working out until you get sweaty can be very satisfying, but don't make it a benchmark of how much you burn your fat.

4. Weight-lifting only trains the muscles and are not necessary to lose some weight.
You can ask the women around you who ignores their weight-lifting training when they want to lose some weight. Fact is, the fat-burning process actually occurs in our muscle cells. The more we train our muscles, it's faster to burn the fat. If you want to lose weight, either you're a man or a woman, it's better to get used to weight-lifting.

Fact is, to lift some weight our body needs the energy inside our muscle cells called the ATP. The ATP will run out when we train, thus we feel exhausted. After the training, when we're resting, our body will produce more ATP. This process uses fat as its fuel. Turns out, weight-lifting can burn more fat - not only when you train, but after the training too.

5. Sit-up can thin down the belly (I don't do much sit-up, that's why my belly is plumpy)
I heard people say things like doing sit-ups 100 times a day, but their belly is not getting thinner. Seriously, a sit-up is a training to train your abdominal muscles, and got no relations whatsoever to burn some fat in your belly. Muscles and fat are two different things, thus sit up won't burn the fat in that region. Imagine a fat person who manages to lose a lot of weight. You'll see that their plump cheeks get thinned down too. But that doesn't mean that he/she trains her cheeks, right?

6. Signing-up and coming to gym is burning my fat (I don't know I'm still fat)
When you pay attention to some friends who want to get thin, losing a few kg of fat in their body, the first thing they do is going to a gym, sign-up, and start working-out. Without a clear goal, they train their body by cycling or running in a treadmill, then walk around to try out the equipments. After 3 to 4 weeks, they won't feel any changes in their body. They insist that they've trained, burn some fat because they've "worked-out" in a fancy gym.

Well, yeah, they do workout (and it's better than just sleeping and lying around all day), but what they do is not enough. They don't try hard enough in lifting those weights. Some even say that they're old and not as strong as the youngsters. Whatever it is, there's always a reason that stands in the way of their effort to lift heavier weight, or training more intensely.

You have to decide on a goal. Three to fours weeks in a gym without any changes means what you do is wrong. Find an instructor, a personal trainer, anything to fix that. Try to make some effort to get the results! You can also check this post for some tips to start losing some weight.

Why Weight-Lifting is Necessary for Women

I've known quite a lot of woman in my life who say that they don't want to lift some weight, because they are afraid their muscles will get too big like the body-building guys. This is sad, because they still don't get why they have to lift some weight.

We can all have the debate about how men and women are equal beings, but in terms of physical things, we are different. An extreme example is when a man and a woman trains in a gym with the same weight, eat the same amount of proteins, and trains as long. What will we get? The man will get more muscular than the girl. This is because guys produce more testosterone than girls do, which will make the muscles get bigger, about 100 times more than girls. You can imagine the difference right?

image credit to epicfitnesstraining.com

Besides that, because of the genetic differences, it doesn't matter how hard you train your body, women's muscles can't expand and bigger than men. Instead, women's muscles will condense or tightens when trained, even with the heaviest weight.

Women have more fat than men. When you train your muscles, as it condense and tightens, those fat will diminish. The fat will be burned in your muscles, therefore, the more muscles you have, it means your "fat-burning stoves" will multiply, and this is exactly what you want, right?

Let's see how many overweight girls in the gym. They immediately jump into the treadmill, every time. They do it everyday, and will only lose 1 to 2 kg without achieving their dream weight. This is because they don't add weight-lifting into their training.

Therefore, girls, don't be afraid to lift some weight. Besides tightening you body, you will also burn more fat, and therefore, get sexier body ;)

How to Read Nutrition Facts

Prepare yourself, folks, this is gonna be another long - yet important - post.

In this post, I mentioned about reading nutrition facts. Well nowadays, food producers have to include the ingredients and the nutrition facts in their product. Those facts are a tool to help you choose the food that is good for you. This is why in this post, I will share the knowledge of reading these facts.


Reading the Ingredients
The ingredients list gives your the information of the foodstuffs, seasonings, and chemicals in that product. The ingredients are written in order of their weight. The most-used ingredient is the first in the list, and the least-used ingredient is the last. Avoid foods that state fat, oil, and sugar (or derivatives of those) as their most-used ingredient. And also, if you never heard of the ingredient, or you're having a hard time mentioning it, it's most likely chemicals, or unnatural foodstuff.


Reading the Nutrition Facts
This table will give you more details on the product. You will know the contents of that product, therefore you can choose the healthiest ones. When you compare some foods, make sure you compare them with the same amount of portions.

image credit to duniafitnes.com

1. Serving Size: shows you the recommended portion or serving size. If you're not used to measure or weigh food, measure it to a standard portion. If you eat less or more than the recommended portion, then the information on the Nutrition Fact will have to be adjusted to know the nutrition you consume. For example, if you eat it twice the size of the serving suggestion, then all the nutritional value will have to be multiplied by two.

2. Calories: shows you how much energy you'll get from one portion of that food. You have to remember that the number of portions you eat determines the calories you eat. For example, if you eat two portions of food, it means you consumes twice the amount of calories that are stated in the Nutrition Facts. One of the measurement that you can use as a base to assess whether it's high-calorie or not is from this:

• 40 calories = low
• 100 calories = average
• 400 calories or more = high

3. Calories from Fat: shows you how much calories that comes from fat. Every gram of fat worth 9 calories. It should be no more than 30% of calories a day that comes from fat. Therefore, it's best if you consume no more than 3 grams of fat or 30 calories of fat per 100 calories of food.

4a. Total Fat: shows you how much good fat is good fat (monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat) and bad fat (saturated fat and trans-fat) in a food. As stated before, it's best to consume fat no more than 3 grams per 100 calories. When you compare foods, see the sum of total fat, saturated fat, and their calories for each serving. Choose the one with the least amount of fat.

4b. Saturated Fat: bad fat or saturated fat can be found in many kinds of food such as butter, margarine, fat from beef and pork, full-cream milk, eggs, coconut and coconut oil, and also in fast-foods. It's better if you avoid or limit the food that contains saturated fat. The daily consumption of this kind of fat should not be more than 10% of the calories that you consume in a day (less than 1 gram per 100 calories).

4c. Trans Fat: trans fat are also bad fats that forms in the cooking process. This kind of fat commonly found in commercial food products and have to be avoided in diet.

5a. Cholesterol: the number of cholesterol shows the total amount of cholesterol, which consists of good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL) for each serving. It's better if your cholesterol consumption is not more than 300 mg a day. Choose the product that have the least amount of cholesterol.

5b. Sodium: shows the number of sodium in each portion. It's better if the consumption is not more than 2.400 mg a day. Choose the product with the least amount of sodium.

6a. Carbohydrate: shows the sum of carbohydrate in foods, including simple carbohydrates and sugar, and also complex carbohydrate and fibers. When your food contains carbohydrate, it's better if that carbohydrate contains many fiber.

6b. Dietary Fiber: shows the amount of fiber in each serving. This can be found on complex carbohydrate such as wheat and grains, fruits, vegetables, and beans. Try to consume 20 to 35 grams of fiber each day. The higher the amount of fiber in a product, the amount of sugar is lower.

6c. Sugar: this shows the amount of carbohydrates for each serving from sugar. The best way to choose the least amount of sugar is by looking at the total amount of sugar and the total of amount of carbohydrate. The closer it is the value to the total amount of carbohydrate, it contains less fiber.

7. Protein: shows the total amount of protein for each serving. It's highly recommended to keep the balance of protein, carbohydrate, and fat in food. If the food you choose does not contain protein, add another food with protein in it.

8. % Daily Values: shows the percentage of your daily nutritional adequacy from that product. Note that this based on 2000 calories diet. Generally, 5% of daily value is considered to be low and 20% of daily value is considered to be high.

9. Vitamin and Mineral: shows how many vitamins and mineral in each serving. You have to achieve 100% for all the required vitamin and mineral. You can also consume multivitamins to make sure you have enough vitamin and mineral for the day.

10. Recommended Amount(s): shows the recommended daily amount of each nutrition for 2000 calories and 2500 calories diet. If you need to consume more or less than 2000 or 2500 calories a day, the recommended amount of fat, carbohydrate, and protein also change.

11. Calories per Gram: shows the amount of calories in each macro-nutrients (fat, carbohydrate, and protein). It's better if you choose a balanced food, which contains all those nutrients.

After knowing how to read Nutrition Facts in foods, you can better the quality of the food you eat, now that you know how to choose the healthier foods :) 

Why Seafood is Good

There are many reasons as to why consuming seafood are good. Besides that it have a good taste when we process it into many variations of food, seafood are sources of high-quality proteins that are low in fat in cholesterol, and also act as sources for vitamin B12, vitamin D, magnesium, and Omega 3 fatty acid which are good for your heart and blood veins.

image credit to ocean.nationalgeographic.com

Some of the seafood, such as clams, deep-sea fishes, and crabs are delicious and high in nutrition. Clams and crabs are high in vitamin B12 that supports the nerves and brain, and also minerals such as zinc, magnesium, and potassium. Meanwhile, deep-sea fishes such as salmon, tuna, or mackerel are the best sources for Omega 3 fatty acid, that can help you prevent heart diseases.

Omega 3 is known for good fatty acid that can help reduce the the risk of getting heart disease, stroke, and many kinds of cancers. Better yet, foods that are high in Omega 3 are related to positive-mood change. In other words, fishes can be functioned as a therapeutic cure for mild depression!

Fish and seafood are also good for pregnant women for their fetus' brain growth, and also reduces the risk of premature birth. Besides that, other nutrition in fish and seafood like protein and vitamin, all are good for our health.

It's clear that consuming fish and other kinds of seafood is so good, that the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends to eat fish at least twice a week. More importantly, if you have a heart disease, AHA recommends if you have a high-Omega 3 diet by eating fish every day. Therefore, by start consuming these sea delicacies in our everyday diet also plays a role for a healthy heart.

So, got fish?

12 Easy Steps to Lose Some Weight (Part 2)

Before reading this post, you'd better be finished reading the previous post. It's important to read it first, because you need to read it in order.

6. Choose a balanced menu. Never disregard one kind of nutrition. Fat is important too, but consume healthy fats such as fat from beans, fish, avocado, olive oil, or canola oil. Use supplements such as Omega 3 supplements to help you fulfill your healthy fat requirement. Besides its role in dissolving vitamins, fat are needed to balance your the hormones in your body.

7. Eat enough protein. Some of the sources of protein are chicken, fish, beef, tofu, tempe, egg (the whites), and beans. If you want to lose weight, and workout regularly, you have to consume large sum of protein.

image credit to thomshillaw.com

8. Some people still don't understand what carbohydrate is. Carbohydrate is the main energy source for our body, which also used as spontaneous energy in our body. To lose some weight, we have to know that while our body still use carbohydrate as its energy source, then the energy from fat only serves as energy reserves. Energy reserves won't be used as long as the main energy sources is still there. Therefore, lessening carbohydrate consumption usually works in weight loss.

NEVER substitute rice with noodles, because they're the same thing (noodles are carbohydrates too.....). What you need to know is it's important to have some carbohydrates after a workout. Not only it's important, but you HAVE to consume it immediately. You can also consume it after morning workouts, but choose only good carbohydrates.

9. Know your carbohydrates. Good carbohydrates are those that are slowly-absorbed, commonly known from its glycemic index (GI). You can click here for list of carbohydrate GI. If your carbohydrate is not on the list, you can also search it here. For a good diet, eat carbohydrate with less than 55 GI. If it's higher than that, eat it after a workout. However, a really high GI foods (such as sugar) should not be eaten while you're on a diet. In cooking, use other sweeteners other than sugar.

10. Consume enough fiber. It's better if you eat apple in its fruit form rather than blending it into apple juice. The blending process destroys the fibers in apples. Eat enough veggies too. Fibers are important for your digestive system, and also helps slowing down the calorie-absorption.

11. Drink enough water. Drinking 2,5 liters of water daily is compulsory.

12. When buying foods or biscuits, take a look at its Nutrition Facts. You don't want to destroy you diet, right? You have to look at the label of the food you're buying. Don't consume high fructose corn syrup because it has a really high GI. Make sure there's no hydrogenated vegetable oil too. Hydrogenated is a process of solidifying oil, and this will destroy your metabolism. For example, margarine and butter. Avoid these as much as possible.

After reading the 12 steps, analyze your activities and foods. Have you done any of those things?

There are some people that already know how to lose some weight, yet still underestimates them. For example, drinking 2,5 liters of water everyday. Many still don't understand why they have to drink that much, or they think they drink enough, when they still need lots.

My point is, you have to stick to those steps. It's the simplest summary to help you lose weight. If you still can't lose some weight, check the steps again, make sure nothing is missed.

I hope it helps :)