The DASH Diet Can Help Lower High Blood Pressure, Help With Weight Loss and Amp a Healthy Lifestyle

With its emphasis on eating a variety of foods and getting the right nutrients in the proper amounts, the DASH diet can help with many health issues. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, but it can help with much more than that. It is a proven diet plan to lower blood pressure. By lowering blood pressure it can help with heart disease, strokes, diabetes, weight loss, liver disease, kidney disease and help teach you how to live a healthy lifestyle.

Several books have been released to go along with the diet. The D.A.S.H. Diet Weight Loss Solution is a new bestseller that assimilates the diet with a weight loss program. The D.A.S.H. Diet Action Plan along with The Everyday D.A.S.H. Diet Cookbook are resources to help you use the diet in your daily eating and cooking habits.

This diet has been so highly applauded because it includes guidelines that doctors already recommend. Guidelines such as eating less processed meat, sugar, saturated fat, cholesterol, and transfat. Nothing that you haven't heard before, but they put together in a new way that is more accessible and fit more easily into your life.



There have been recent studies on the diet supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. One study was on the effects of eating a varied, healthy diet, such as the DASH, versus eating a typical American diet on blood pressure. The results showed that following a diet like DASH, with healthy food, fruits and vegetables, and low-fat dairy can lower blood pressure. DASH also helps you reduce red meat, sweets, and fatty foods. It is worth noting that participants in this study lowered their blood pressure even without restrictions on salt intake. In another study, they did impose sodium limits. Those participants lowered their blood pressure even further.

The D.A.S.H. Diet works to lower your blood pressure in several ways. First, by replacing high salt, highly processed foods with healthy alternatives like fruits and vegetables. A diet high in sodium has been linked to high blood pressure, which can contribute to heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease and stroke. Many sources suggest keeping your daily sodium intake to 1,500 mg per day or less. This equals about 2/3 teaspoon of salt. Use salt-free seasonings and look for salt substitutes.

DASH is also rich in nutrients such as fiber, calcium, potassium, and magnesium, deficits of which are linked to hypertension. 98% of all Americans suffer from a lack of potassium. Sources of potassium are beans, legumes, nuts, dairy products, fruits and vegetables.

The diet recommends daily servings of 7-8 of grains, 4-5 of fruits and vegetables, 2-3 of low-fat dairy, and no more than 2 of servings of lean meats. And also weekly servings of 4-5 portions of beans, seeds, and nuts.

It is easy to get to these suggested servings by making a few simple changes to your diet. You can raise your veggie intake by adding them to salads or soups, having cut or bite sized vegetables as snacks, and increasing the veggie to meat ratio in your food. You can choose whole grain versions of bread, cereal, and pasta. Add nuts into your cereal, yogurt, or salads. Have dried fruit and nuts for snacks. Substitute low-fat milk in smoothies and coffee. Use low-fat yogurt and cheese for breakfast, snacks, or on salads and vegetables.

The DASH diet is a healthy, high-fiber diet that can help, not only lower high blood pressure, but also high cholesterol. Its a healthy weight loss diet and it helps you get healthy by choosing a healthy lifestyle.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Debbie_Benson/380143

Dumbbell Weight Training For Weight Loss

When people are trying to lose weight, they quite often overlook the dumbbell as a viable tool for achieving their goals. Including dumbbell weight training as part of a diet and exercise plan is an excellent strategy for achieving weight loss dreams.

Strength training isn't necessarily about lifting huge amounts of weight all at once. Every repetition with a decently weighted dumbbell burns off lots of calories, particularly when done over a period of time. The trick to losing weight through strength training comes not from how much you lift, but how often you lift it. Look to find a comfortable spot where the amount of weight you are lifting causes a burn, yet you can still press out three sets of eight repetitions. This will get the calories burning and your body going down that weight loss path!



Some people try to lose weight by doing cardio alone or just strength training. The best way to get an evenly toned, well-balanced body is to combine the two disciplines. This way, you can get the rapid calorie burns of cardio combined with the strength and muscle building of a dumbbell session. Increased muscle mass helps sculpt the body and boosts metabolism, which in turn helps fight fat.

For a good weight-loss strength workout, you need to ensure that the entire body is worked. It is vital to focus on technique and stability as these will ensure you burn more calories than you will if you rush through the program. Take it slow and steady and do as many repetitions with the dumbbells as you comfortably can before resting. Rest for a couple of minutes between sets.

A good sample exercise program would include a series of exercises using dumbbells, such as horizontal chest presses, incline flies, preacher curls, and dumbbell lunges.  Combine these with 20 minutes of cardio, plus abdominal crunches and push-ups for a well-rounded workout.

Finish off your workout with a nice hot sauna or bath to stretch out and relax your muscles.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Ty_Hartwell/200223

How to Build Muscle and Get Ripped: 3 Tips to Get You Started Quick

Do you want to know how to build muscle and get ripped quick? The time for feeling lost has come to an end.

You can finally relax knowing that this article will help answer your questions on this hot topic at hand.

Scroll down further to take in the real tricks to making this happen for yourself in a short amount of time.

Tip #1: Isolation Will Be the Answer
You need to incorporate isolation exercises into your routine starting now! These are specific movements that only focus on one particular muscle group.

There are other movements out there called compound exercises. These are great for hitting several muscle groups at a time but will not give you the definition you may be looking for.



Isolation exercises allow you to focus centrally on one and improve it over time. You can hit this hard once or twice a week and then let it rest.

Your body will rebuild and improve itself.

Tip#2: Slow Digesting Carbohydrates Will Make Your Fate
Your diet will be a major asset to your training overall. It is important that you make some key changes to result in a better body.

One of the best changes you can make is switching from starchy and fast burning carbohydrates to slow natural burning ones.

What does it all mean? This will move you from eating foods that only provide quick bolts of energy over to foods that provide long lasting steady energy.

Tip #3: Look into Protein Shakes and Creatine Supplements to Enhance Results
One of the best options for helping you along the way are protein shakes. These are basically like meal replacements.

They allow you to get all of the nutrients that your body needs in one simple liquid serving.

It is recommended that you take no more than 2 of these a day. You should take one an hour or so before your workout routine.

Then take another one about 12 hours later. This is all part of how to build muscle and get ripped.

There are also creatine supplements which will allow you to pump out more repetitions for your work out. These should be taken an hour or so before you do your routine.

You should do your proper research to pick out one that is best for you. You may have to test a few options before you find the right one.

While this is a good start. There is much more you should look at before taking on such a task.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Heath_Erickson/833201

Bodybuilding Workout Routines For Mass Muscle Building

There are many bodybuilding workout routines for mass muscle building, all of them have their uses and it is important to know which muscle building routines you can use. There are two great sayings in the muscle building world which are: "everything works, but nothing works forever" and "a workout is only as good as the time it takes your body to adapt to it".

These sayings are great and are fundamental to building muscle in the gym. Doing the same workouts, especially if you have been training for some months now, will not give great results, (this is maybe why you are reading this). Changing your muscle building routine every few weeks will ensure you keeping building muscle and do not have any muscle building plateaus. So let's look at some bodybuilding workout routines for mass muscle building.

Bodybuilding Workout Routines For Mass: Volume Training
Image: Graeme Weatherston / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Volume training is probably one of the most popular and effective bodybuilding workout routines for mass muscle building. As the name would suggest, the workouts use a higher volume of training per muscle group, using rep ranges of around 8-15. The higher volume breaks down muscle tissue to promote growth and also gets a good muscle pump. Which some people argue is essential for building muscle.

Bodybuilding Workout Routines For Mass: Strength Training
Strength training is another fairly self explanatory style of training from the name. Strength training workouts are another great style of training as generally stronger muscles are bigger muscles. Just look at the size of some of the guys in strongmen competitions for evidence. Strength training can also give muscles a firmer denser look and feel, (providing that body fat levels are low enough). This is a fairly unknown fact as a lot of people think that doing high volume gets the "toned" look, most people are striving for.



Bodybuilding Workout Routines For Mass: Supersets & Tri-Sets Workouts
I have placed supersets and tri-sets workouts together because they are very similar. These are great bodybuilding workout routines for mass, as they can increase the intensity and density of your workouts. They are workouts were the exercises are performed back to back without rest. For example: a superset could be a set of barbell bench presses, followed by a set dumbbell fly's, then rest before doing another round of exercises. These style of workouts can help you through muscle building plateaus due to the complete change in intensity.

Bodybuilding Workout Routines For Mass: Density Training
Density training is a rather unused bodybuilding workout routine for mass, yet it can be very effective. The idea is to do more work in same (or less) time period and therefore increase the density of your work. One of the simplest ways to increase the density of your workouts is to reduce the rest periods between sets. Density training can be great for muscle building plateaus, as you do not have to increase the weight on the bar, because the reduced rest periods acts as a form of progressive overload.

Bodybuilding Workout Routines For Mass: High Frequency Training
High frequency training has received a lot of press in recent years and has earned its place among the best bodybuilding workout routines for mass. The idea as the name suggests, is to increase the frequency that you work a muscle group. This is subjective to what frequency you are doing at present, but a high frequency routine could be classed as around four full body workouts a week. The amount of work you do on each muscle is lowered for individual workouts, but the extra workouts increases the volume. The main saying here for your muscle is to "stimulate not annihilate".

Bodybuilding Workout Routines For Mass
Hopefully now you can see that there are many bodybuilding workout routines for mass muscle building. The workouts mentioned above are only a quick introduction to some of them. It is important vary your training style, not only for optimal muscle building. But also, it is nice to keep change your workouts to keep your interest and motivation up. You can look forward to fresh new training styles every week, while also packing on lean muscle.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/William_Coulter/472447

Paleo Diet - 7 Day Sample Paleo Meal Plan For Improved Health and Weight Loss

For those who don't know, the Paleo way of eating is biologically the most appropriate diet for us humans and has therefore gained a lot of notoriety due to the success people have had with following a Paleo eating plan.

So whilst the benefits of following this diet are well documented, preparing meals & knowing what to eat can be difficult which is where these paleo diet sample meal plans will help you.

Furthermore, it may be easy enough to eat a healthy Paleo breakfast & lunch dish but when it comes to preparing an evening meal you may have run out of ideas & you're just too tired to research a supper Paleo dish that you end up settling for something less healthy to the detriment of your body & health.

So to stick to the diet it is advisable to be prepared in advance & to help you here is a great paleo diet sample meal plan for you to get going with...



7-Day Sample Paleo Diet Meal Plan

Monday
Breakfast - A bowl of berries with coconut milk or have a Paleo omelet
Lunch - Big salad with your favorite protein (chicken, steak, etc.)
Snack - Apple slices with almond butter
Dinner - Slow cooker pulled pork

Tuesday
Breakfast - Paleo banana bread or have bacon & eggs with a portion of fruit
Lunch - Blanched/sauteed veggies (pre-made and reheated)
Snack - Can of tuna
Dinner - Taco pie

Wednesday
Breakfast - Coconut milk smoothie or have banana pancakes
Lunch - Soup (reheated or in a thermos)
Snack - Paleo trail mix
Dinner - Stuffed bell peppers

Thursday
Breakfast - Paleo cereal (mixed nuts & berries) with coconut milk or have Paleo muffins
Lunch - BLT wrap with lettuce instead of bread wrap
Snack - Hard boiled eggs
Dinner - Fajitas

Friday
Breakfast - Steak and eggs
Lunch - Cold cut meats and veggies (snack-like but filling)
Snack - Avocado
Dinner - Paleo fried chicken fingers

Saturday
Breakfast - Eggs and sweet potato hash browns
Lunch - Sandwich with bell pepper slices instead of bread
Snack - Almonds
Dinner - Sundried tomato bacon wrapped meatloaf

Sunday
Breakfast - Egg/veggie/meat scramble
Lunch - Dinner leftovers
Snack - Paleo trail mix
Dinner - Meat and veggie stir fry
This 1-Week Paleo Sample eating Plan provides you with a good idea of how to structure your Paleo diet.

Paleo Food List

If you want to structure your own eating plans it is worth noting the food groups that make up this healthy way of eating;

• Meat
• Fish
• Vegetables
• Fruit
• Roots
• Nuts

Finally eating like a caveman on the Paleolithic (Paleo) Diet will not only improve your health, but an important side effect of this dietary plan is dramatic weight loss.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Mike_Bravo/340302

Benefits of Breakfast Smoothies for Weight Loss

One great way of starting off your day is to have one of the various breakfast smoothies for weight loss. Smoothies are easy to prepare, are very healthy and taste great. They are a good alternative to having fast food for breakfast simply because you are running out of time. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day since it induces metabolism so that your body starts to burn at for the day. You should therefore make it a point not to miss breakfast, and smoothies can help you achieve that and avoid fast food at the same time.

Smoothies provide a good alternative for some meals and can also be used as snacks for various reasons. They take very little time to prepare as long as you have all the ingredients within reach. They are usually thick thus making you feel full for a longer time. This will reduce the frequency of your eating. You are not likely to get bored with the smoothies because you can always change the fruits and flavors you throw in the mixture everyday. A diet that includes smoothies is a good one for prevention of diabetes, obesity and hypertension.



Smoothies are also a very good way of making sure you take your daily serving of fruit as recommended. You can just blend in all the fruits for the day and you will have yourself a very healthy breakfast that also caters for your daily fruit needs. This is much better that taking multi-vitamin pills which, most often than not, do not work. Smoothies are also much healthier than processed foods which usually have up to 80% of vitamins and minerals missing. Smoothies are a delicious way of getting all the minerals and vitamins you need in your diet.

The breakfast smoothie for weight loss is a very good way of fighting hunger so that you don't eat too frequently. The slow burning carbohydrates ensure that you remain full until lunch time so you avoid packing more calories by snacking in between. The conventional breakfast has quick burning carbohydrates that will make you start feeling hungry way before lunch time. A good smoothie combines the right fats, proteins and natural fibers into a healthy and delicious drink that helps in weight loss. With the smoothie, you get the nutrients you need while avoiding the calories you don't want.

Most diets nowadays incorporate breakfast smoothies for weight loss into their plans. Smoothies can also be used in place of other meals, not just breakfast. There are many smoothies available for free on the internet that you check out and try. With these you will get a wide range of tastes and flavors to pick from. If you want o enjoy your smoothie, try adding the fruits you like and be changing your ingredients frequently so that you do not get bored with one flavor. The benefits of breakfast smoothies for weight loss are many so you should take up the drink today.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/M_Edward/1197642

Dukan Diet - Lose Weight Quickly and Keep It Off Forever - New French Diet

Do you want to lose 20 pounds or more quickly? If you haven't tried the Dukan Diet, keep reading this article. Created by a French doctor Pierre Dukan, this diet has created a stir in France over the last decade and was just released outside of France.

The Dukan Diet has proven a success in people with a little weight to lose and for those who want to lose a lot of weight in a hurry. Dr. Dukan notes that our weight gain is a result of how many fat cells we have. When we overeat, we get to a certain point where the fat cells grow large enough that if we don't stop the unhealthy cycle, they then split into two creating more fat cells. This makes dieting much harder. After working with thousands of patients, Dr. Dukan developed this diet to help people with all different body shapes and sizes to be able to lose and maintain weight loss.

The Dukan Diet helps people lose weight quickly because it works to attack the problem with an intense and limited diet in the beginning, gradually working into something that you can maintain for life. In his ten years working with patients, Dr. Dukan found that this worked for people who were obese and those who wanted to drop a few pounds to get to their ideal weight.

The Dukan diet is broken up into four sections or phases: the attack phase, the cruise phase, the consolidation phase and the stabilization phase. The diet isn't easy and requires some discipline but if you do stick with it, you can lose weight quickly. The Dukan Diet isn't a quick fix plan - it's a plan for life. Dukan focuses heavily on maintenance, getting through that critical period where most people gain back any weight they've lost through quick crash diets.



During the attack phase of the diet, you eat only protein. The focus on protein seems like the Atkin's plan. However, in contrast to the Atkin's plan, this isn't fatty protein with butter and as much fat as you like. Fat is to be trimmed off of beef and other meats, skin to be removed from the chicken. The attack phase or first portion of the diet can be done for one to ten days, depending on how much weight you need to lose. To lose more weight quickly, continue this attack first phase of the diet for as long as necessary.

The second phase of the Dukan diet is the cruise phase. You will continue to lose weight during this phase but not at the rate you did in the first phase. You will be alternating your protein-only days with protein and vegetable days. Avoiding starchy vegetables is important - most green vegetables can be eaten without restriction during this period on vegetable days. During the cruise phase of the Dukan diet, you can expect to lose about 2 pounds per week. You stay in this phase alternating protein and protein/vegetable days until you've reached your weight loss goal. If you want to lose weight quickly, stay in the attack phase for a longer time before starting this second phase of the diet. Then, continue the cruise phase until you reach your weight loss goal.

The consolidation phase is the third part of of the Dukan Diet. It is this period that Dr. Dukan says is the critical period where most dieters gain back weight they have lost. During this phase, you can add back in limited amounts of breads, cheese, pasta and other foods you love in moderation. Eat lean protein and vegetables every day. You can add in one serving of fruit per day as well as limited portions of whole grains and dairy. Dukan advises five days of this third phase for every pound of weight you have lost. You don't continue to lose weight in this phase so if you wanted to lose more weight. On the Dukan Diet, it is advised that you do low impact exercise such as a walk for 25 minutes each day.

The fourth phase or stabilization of the Dukan diet is your maintenance plan for life. In this phase, no foods are forbidden but one day each week, you eat only protein. You won't lose weight doing this but it will help you to maintain by balancing out the food during the rest of your week. Similar to the attack phase, during the protein days of the diet, avoid fats and chicken skin and avoid sauces.

Does this diet sound like something you could do? If you could lose 20, 30, 40 pounds or more and maintain it for life, it might be worth it right? Dr. Dukan has many patients thrilled with their weight loss on the Dukan Diet and now that it is available outside of France, more and more people are waking up to the possibility of quick weight loss with long-term results.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dominique_Scott/620199