What you’ll need for this one is:

1.    250 ml skimmed milk
2.    1 banana
3.    1 medium size mango
4.    1 tablespoon peanut butter

Blend together all the ingredients. You can add a few ice-cubes to chill if it is too hot and to get a silky, satisfying smoothie. Decorate with mango slices, if you like.

Enjoy!

Eating habits are the most important for metabolism. After sleeping, our body needs its “fuel” which is food. The most important is not to skip breakfast- if you do, you slow down metabolism, and your body struggles against losing weight. On your table in the morning it is good to have: green tea, proteins, calcium, and even black chocolate! Eating your breakfast, you do yourselves good and that is something you mustn’t forget!

Sleep well! Many researchers proved that 32% of women that sleep less than 5 hours have weight problems. Also, if you sleep less levels of hormone ghrelin, the hunger hormone, increases. Your dinner should be at least 2 hours before going to bed. If you are hungry, drink a glass of lukewarm water or herbal tea, without sugar, honey or any sweetener. That would trick your stomach. Also, avoid drinking alcohol before sleep, don’t exercise in the evening, or if it is your only time when you can exercise- make sure that it is at least 2-3 hours before going to bed. Air you bedroom well before going to bed. TV, computers, lap-tops etc. must go out of your bedroom. You need silence during your sleep. Your dinner should consist of proteins or fiber. Don’t misunderstand me- you can eat “sweet” dinner. The most important is that you know how to combine food types so that they would be easily digested and used.

The best exercise rate doesn’t exist- every person has its own pace. I like to do it 3 times a week, it suits me the best. I must point out that I’m a mother of 2 yrs old boy and that my day is very fervid- if I exercise more, I lose weight too much and that is something I don’t want. So, find out your best pace and follow it. But for getting any results, it mustn’t be less than twice weekly. An American study showed that after 45 minutes cardio training, metabolism burns extra 190 calories! Best cardio is running and riding bike.

Make your muscles stronger. It is known that muscles burn out more calories than fats do. It is not for sure how much more, but I recently found this fact: muscles burn out between 30 and 100 calories a day per kilo, while fats burn only 4 calories! Scary, isn’t it?! The best you can do to make metabolism faster is to drink water. Drinking 500ml of water a day you speed metabolism for 30%.

So don’t tell me it is impossible to speed up metabolic process! I start my day this way: after I get up, I first drink a glass of water, and then I eat a fruit-an apple or banana or whatever I have in the house. An hour later, I have my breakfast, and than my day goes by its pace. Nothing is impossible if you really, really want it! We all do want to be healthy and pretty, don’t we?!

1. GRANOLA: this muesli type is the perfect combination of fibers and omega-3 fatty acids and thus ideal for starting the day.
2. INTEGRAL BUN: we all know it is healthier than white-flour buns and breads, and it gives us more energy, but it is also easier digested and you won’t feel “full” and yet hungry. If you add a teaspoon of peanut butter to it- you’ll be fed by lunchtime.
3. YOGHURT WITH PROBIOTIC CULTRES: it is rich in proteins, calcium and B2 vitamin, and probiotics enhance digestion. It is much better than fruity-yoghurt because it doesn’t contain added sugar except for natural lactose.
4. TOMATO JUICE: it is rich in lycopene that protects our heart and cardiovascular system, and fights cancer. Having no sugar, it is better than fruit juices and less caloric (only 28 kcal/glass).
5. BERRIES: full of antioxidants, contain very small amount of sugar, ideal for snack, and all kinds of such fruit are soooooo rich in taste.

I hope I helped a little to those who are willing to involve themselves in such a creative and funny and very, very useful process of improving their own health.

Ingredients:

1. 100 g pineapple,
2. 100 g grapes,
3. 1 small orange,
4. 1 small apple,
5. 1/2 large mango,
6. 1/2 large banana.First, juice pineapple, grapes, apple and orange. Then, whiz in a blender with banana, mango, and a couple of ice cubes which will give you super sweet smoothie! If you need a decoration,you can do it with a wedges of orange, strips of mint,or other thing you like. I like it decorated with pieces of pineapple,’cause that’s one of my favorite fruits, because of bromelain which improves digestion and is excellent in fighting cellulite! So, girls, go for this smoothie! Also, bromelain helps with excessive inflammation, coagulation of the blood, and certain types of tumor growth- these all may all be reduced by therapeutic doses of bromelain when taken as a dietary supplement,but why not trying with pure, healthy pineapple fruit?!

   Hope you’ll like this sweet treat Enjoy it this summer!

1.    The Atkins Diet: is low-carbohydrate diet. It is based on limited consumption of carbohydrates to switch the body’s metabolism from metabolizing glucose to converting stored body fat to energy. This diet is no good because body loses water and your muscle-mass, while the amount of body-fats remains unchanged, or it may grow. This diet lacks in fruits, cereals, fibers, and vitamins, so there’s the risk from osteoporosis.

2.    The Blood Group Diet: according to its creator, we should eat only foods that is compatible to our blood group, but there’s no scientific proofs for this. To be precise, blood group has nothing to do with the ability of body and metabolism to burn calories from fats in our body. Depending on your blood group, during the diet you won’t be permitted to eat foods rich in antioxidants, vitamins or minerals, which can’t be of any good to your health. We all know the basic rules of healthy living, don’t we??

3.    Cabbage Soup Diet: The most common diet among people I know and the most strict of the diets I heard of. This low-fat, high-fiber diet can help you get into shape for a special occasion, but it is not a long-term eating plan, like the previous diets I mentioned. This diet obviously endangers our organism because the daily caloric intake is only 1000 kcal, which is far away from sufficient for normal body functioning. While on this diet, your body must live on fibery and watery foods, so you’ll constantly be hungry. Also, since there’s no fats and proteins, and with the small intake of minerals and vitamins, weight loss with this diet means the loss in water and muscle mass and not the fats.

Hope I helped to some of you who were on there ways to start a diet. Once more, my favorite advice: embark on a healthy eating and not on a new diet.

It is essential to accept the idea of changing your eating habits, lifestyle habits to be precise- meaning healthy eating, exercising, accepting yourselves as you are- because if you don’t love yourselves now, you won’t love yourselves when you lose weight either. I know changing your habits is not easy. Everyone who decides to take such steps should be very, very patient. Patience is essential! And determination! The way to good looks is rocky! You’ll have ups and downs and the only way to reach your goal is believing in yourself! Numerous life decisions have to be made to succeed in losing weight.

So, what you eat is very important, but it is also very important HOW MUCH you eat. This is a rule and it should be applied even when you eat salads, fruits or veggies! Instead of eating huge portions, treat yourselves whit smaller but more frequent meals- golden rule is: 5 meals a day, including 3 main meals plus 2 snacks. Nutritionists and doctors proved that we are less likely to nibble this or that when we have smaller but frequenter meals.

As far as “magic weight loss pills”, I need to ask-does any of you guys REALLY believes in such things??? For me, it is utter nonsense! I know people who think this way: “If it is sold in a pharmacy, that it can’t be harmful.” Ok, even if it isn’t harmful, it is not proved to be beneficial! If you are likely to try such products, I recommend talking to your doctor first. Another thing is that people who would try losing weight with “magic pills” are lazy to exercise, and almost all these products have notice on their packages that if you would like to lose weight you must exercise and change your eating habits, so… why pills then???

One of the main mistakes of people who would like to lose weight is skipping breakfast! And this simply mustn’t be done! To put it this way- our metabolism is activated when we eat, so the earlier we have breakfast, the earlier our metabolic processes will start. Experts advice having breakfast one hour after getting up, and every next meal on 4-6 hours from it, and 2- 2½  regarding snacks. general advice is- don’t eat anything 4 hours before you go to bed. It is also wrong to eat fruits in the evening instead of dinner when you want to lose weight. It is because, in most cases, it is not one apple, but much, much more, and thus you take in 200kcal of sugar that goes directly in your blood system, and that is how fats become.

And, to bring to a pint my story: if you want to lose weight, 80% of the process depends on food you eat, and 20%  on your exercising. But, in most cases these 20% do the job. Also, the type of exercises is important. It must be aimed, regular, and that we enjoy in it. Start with aerobic exercising, walking, swimming or riding a bike, and do it at least for 20 minutes continually, because only this way we lose calories from fats and not from our muscles.

Did I mention water? 8 glasses of water a day, or more if you like

Ready in 10 minutes, prepared in less than that- I think this is all you need to assure you to try this one!

For 4 persons, you need:

•    8 tortillas,
•    4 apples, peeled (half of an apple per tortilla),
•    grater,
•    ground cinnamon,
•    honey,
•    tooth pickles (16 pieces).

Heat the oven on 200°C.

While the oven is heating, grate half of the apple on a tortilla, on the middle part to be precise. Then, add ground cinnamon over it- I just love cinnamon, so I use it in abundance, but you can use it according to your taste. At the end, add a little honey over apples and cinnamon (I use less than a teaspoon per tortilla, and it is sufficient- but again, it all depends on your taste). Then, roll the tortilla and pin it at each end with toothpicks.

Repeat the method until you use all your tortillas. Put them in rectangular pan, and put them in preheated oven for about 10-12 minutes.

These are excellent when sudden guests pop up, they are fantastic sweet for your family, kids especially love them, and you’ll definitely amaze everyone with them! They are tastier cold than warm, even more with ice cream ball on the top!

Enjoy!

1. Some cardio is better than other – While all forms of cardiovascular exercise are better than doing nothing at all, some are naturally more effective than others, particularly when it comes to fat burning. You want to do those workouts which are naturally harder. Some examples include running, rowing, and intense aerobic classes. These will generally burn more calories per minute than many other, lower intensity workouts.

2. Hard conditions – The condition in which you do your cardio workout also plays a big role in determining how effective it will be. For instance, if you walk or run, you should include some uphill stretches in your route. If you’re using a recumbent bike or the elliptical machine, use a high resistance. Make sure your body is working hard and you will get results.

3. Do intervals – I love long distance running but I admit that it’s time consuming. If you’re after big fat loss results in a short time, interval training is the way to go.

What you do in interval training is alternate between high intensity burst and low intensity stretches all within the same workout. So, you can sprint for a minute and then run at a low pace to lower your heart rate and catch your breath. When you do this kind of back and forth switches a number of times, you get a massively harder workout than you would have had otherwise.

4. Combine cardio with strength – This is a tactic that I like to use and I think that a lot of people would benefit from. You should try combining cardio and strength in the same workout. For instance, if you’re running outdoors, why not stop every 7 – 10 minutes to do some push-ups? By combining two different workout elements, you will get a fuller and harder workout experience.

I hope that you enjoyed this guest post. I want to thank Marija for allowing me to contribute it to her lovely blog. If you want to learn more about weight loss and fitness head on over to my site and check out some of the Diet Plans Reviews I have featured there. You can also learn a lot more about healthy nutrition and fat loss by using the Truth About Abs program.

Also, I think it is really right time to share this one with you who want to save calories in this pre-summer period and stay fit for beach season, because these will give you the sweetness you crave for, but  the healthy one, so you won’t be putting on weight. These bars are excellent for breakfast, dinner, as a snack- so preparing them (in no time, you’ll see), you will actually have more free time in the days that follow, cause you won’t have to bother preparing meals and snacks. Extra tip for moms: my 16 months old boy just loves these, he is very concentrated when eating them don’t know why, suppose it’s interesting for him with all those seeds, textures… so be sure kids will love these extra healthy bars.

But, enough empty talk let’s see what we need this time:

•    2 eggs
•    250 g of muesli (I used my homemade muesli, which consists of: oat, rye, wheat, corn, and barley cereals, dried grapes, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds; but you can use any muesli you like, bought in a supermarket, I use them a lot, too)
•    ½ teaspoon of baking soda
•    2 spoons of flour (I use integral flour, but you can use whichever you use in your kitchen)
•    4 spoons of milk
•    ½ teaspoon of vanilla sugar
•    80 g of brown sugar (instead of this, I use about 80g of honey)
•    100 g of  butter (but you can use even 50 g, it’s enough!)

Stir butter, sugar and vanilla sugar, add muesli in it, then slowly add the other ingredients, and make kind of dough. I usually put a sheet of  baking paper in a pan, then I put the dough over it, then I put another sheet of baking paper over, an then I press it with another, smaller pan, to get kind of flat surface, 1 cm thick. Then I put it in the oven, an bake it for about 20 minutes on 180°C. When it is over, I let it cool down, then cut it in bars, and put them in jar for next few days.

See, simply as that! Oh, another tip: when I’m too lazy to press the dough and cut the bars, I simply bake them in cupcake paper liners- put a small amount of the dough, usually a teaspoon and a little more, in them- and that’s it! This way is simpler, and plus- your kids will be thrilled ‘cause all the kids love cupcakes.

Till my next post, stay healthy!