Variety and Moderation

Why are people so scared and made uncomfortable when they are approached with the word diet? I believe this is the case because many people have convinced themselves that dieting means giving up all the foods that they love and that they will have to eat undesireable tasteless foods to see minimal gains in their goals for weight loss. Others are made uncomfortable when approached with the word diet because they have probably been on a few diets in the past and have failed miserably.
The word diet is not made to invoke fear into anyone, and is not ment to make people feel bad about themselves. It is simply a word used to show a collection of food groups that are best for a healthy food resource. There is no reason why any person can't eat whatever they want to as long as it is in variety and in moderation. That is what is most important, moderation. Too much of anything is too much. If a person wants to lose weight and decides that they want to change their diet and start eating healthier foods, this does not mean that they will never taste cake again, just assuming that cake is one of their favorite snakes. There is no reason why, in moderation ,they can eat their favorite foods, they just have too remember on a regular basis to eat healthier foods.

Getting Past Training Plateaus

Any serious strength trainer will eventually, and continuely, hit plateaus in there training growth. A plateau, in training terms, simply means when the body seems to slow down in the quick paced fashion of gaining muscle and strength. The body is a tricky machine, and many people do not give the human body as much credit as it deserves. The body continuelly gets used to workout routines and the shock princepal is gone. The shock principal is what makes the body work and grow, but once the body gets use to a workout routine, there is no more shock because it will know what to expect.
All too often you will see people in the gym working out with the same routine, on the same days, using the same weight, doing the same thing. They don't understand why they are no longer getting the results that they desire, or even once were getting. It is truely so simple to get past these plateaus, but in no way easy. If you feel like you might be in a plateau in your gains, or feel like you might be nearing one, adding simple changes to your routine might help you more than you know. Simple changes such as set numbers, number of repetitions, workouts performed, breaks between sets, how many exercises performed per body part, and even on the day an exercise is performed can all help dirastically in getting a person get through their strength training platoues.

The Incredible Edible Egg

To the average athlete, one food stands alone. The egg should truly be an athletes best friend. Eggs are the best natural source of protein that can be found. Also, they are very nutrient dense and energy dense with lots of vitamins, protein and fats. One egg contains over six grams of protein and several important nutrients, which is good. Eggs are very essential for us to eat, but this is often over shadowed by the fact that eggs are often thought of as too high in cholesterol. Unfortunately, on the other hand, one egg also contains about 212 mg of cholesterol. This bad rap that eggs get truly causes many people to stay away from them. The cholesterol is an easy to take care of. Just don't eat the yoke. All the cholesterol of an egg is located in the yoke, all the white part is protein. So I recommend, if you feel like your aren’t getting enough protein, or you just want to eat healthier foods the egg would truly be a good choice.

Sodium

When the average person hears the word sodium, they automatically think 'bad'. There are many risks in too much sodium, as well as many benefits in receiving enough. Even though sodium gets a bad rap, it isn’t completely and totally bad for you. There are many necessary functions that sodium plays a large role in. One example is that it is essential for muscle contraction. Another reason why it is helpful is that it helps to protect you from sun stroke. The unfortunately thing is that most Americans get far too much sodium and don't know when enough is enough. One of the biggest risks for getting too much sodium is high blood pressure. Don't feel as though sodium is your enemy, quite the opposite, it is essential to the physical over all health of your body. Excessive amounts of sodium, on the other hand, can be detrimental to one's health.
Some ways to cut your own sodium in take are to stay away from eating salty foods, especially snacks like chips and pretzels. Also, watch how much salt you are dowsing your food with. A good way to be more observant on this issue is to poor the salt into your hand first to see how much salt you are going to poor on your food.

Benefits of Stretching

There are many physical and health benefits to regularly stretching your body and muscles. This is one of the most over looked and under appreciated aspects of physical fitness. Flexibility is essential to living a fully rounded physically active life. Some of the reasons why stretching is so over looked is because simply, most people find it as a hassle and it is not really fun to do.
This being the case though, there are far more reasons why a person should practice regular stretching routines. Some examples of why are relief from pain, increased energy levels, increased flexibility, better range of motion of the joints, greater circulation of blood to various parts of the body, relaxation and stress relief, enhanced muscular coordination improved posture, and grants greater sense of well-being. These are a few reasons for why, if you are not, you should include stretching to your regular routine.