Saturday, September 29, 2012

Do the plank - Great Abs Excercise

Do the Plank !

The Plank is a great abs exercise which is really effective.
Its one of the 10 best abs exercise out there and it not only helps you to get the abs you desire but it also helps the strengthen your back muscles.

Its harder to do than crunches but its definitely worth the effort!
It will help you to reach your dream abs much faster than just crunches or your other daily work out.

Here’s how you do it:
1.Get into push up position

2. Get your hands together and push you r elbows to the side.

3. Keep your back flat so that you are in a straight line from your head to your heels.

4. Contract your abs and tilt your pelvis.

Hold this position 30 -60 seconds ( depending on your strength)

Repeat 3-6 times

Check out this video on you tube to if you want to see how its exactly done.

 

How to do the Plank - Video

In the beginning it might be a little hard, but you will see that soon you wont find it that hard anymore and you can increase the time you do the Plank.

 

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Vitamins - what you need to know!

Missing vitamins - How to find out what you are missing and what to do about it!

Vitamin supplements are a great way to get the vitamins your body needs when you are unable to get enough of them by your food intake.
Especially if you are following weight loss regime, its a good idea to use vitamin supplements as we tend to miss out on important vitamins during that time.
If you arent sure if you miss vitamins and dont want to take a supplement without being sure that you really need it than there are ways to find out if you are missing certain vitamins.


 How do i know if im missing certain ?

The easiest way is of course to make a blood test. Y ou will know right away which vitamins you are missing.

But there are other ways too, how you can recognize in daily life if you lack vitamins

Iron - Feeling tired, fatigue a lot.Very pale skin and pale lips canbe an sign for less iron too. Most woman are low in Iron due to the blood loss the experience every month. If you are a vegetarian and dont eat enough green leaf vegetables you probably have a lack of iron too.

calcium - muscles cramps are a clear sign that you are missing calcium.

vitamin c - If you get sick a lot (cold, flu, herpes,..) than you are probably lacking vitamin c.

Vitamin B ( 12+6) - If your nails and hair  suddenly start to break easily, its a sign of missing vitamin b 12 and 6 ( probably also omega 6 fatty acids). Another indictaor for this is if your skin becomes dry.

Vitamin A - Many people have a lack of vitamin A and dont know about it! A indicator that you are missing vitamin A is when your vision becomes disturbed, especially if your nightvision gets a lot worse. its also indicated by anicreased danger of infections, which a indictaor that goes for many vitamins and its hard to know which vitamin you are lacking just by this.

What can i do?

You can get a supplement that contains the vitamin you suspect you are missing.
Or you can get a vitamin supplement that covers many vitamins.
I suggest you that you get a supplement that covers a big range of vitamins for the case that you miss another vitamin too.
Personally i use centrum vitamins. I was missing a few vitamins and so i decided to use this supplement to avoid any health problems that could follow from a lack of vitamins.
I got the advice to use centrum from a lot of people ( mostly doctors) as tehy told me this supplemtn is trustable and not a waste of money like so many others.
The person who is the lcosest to me and gave me the advice to use this supplement too is my mother. She had a lot of problems with having infections and getting sick a lot. now since 1 years she is taking centrum multi vitamins and she has been sick only once or twice during this time which is a great change.






Wednesday, September 12, 2012

No more excuses - Cardio training you can do at home- at any time!


 

 

Its not always possible to go for a run or to visit the gym. Many people have this problem and some use it as an excuse to not work out at all.

Its not a valid excuse!

You can work out, at home and at any time!

I can assure you this from my own experience.

I’ve lost 13 kg by changing my diet and working out at home. In all that time I never went to a gym or did any kind of exercise outside the home. Why u ask?

I have a baby and I live in a place where people would look at you like an alien if you go out for a run. Not to mention how they would stare if I decided to go inline skating around the block!

So even if I managed to steal some time where I give my baby to my husband, I wouldn’t not enjoy working out outside the apartment.

Still I wanted to loose weight and so I did my best to find something I could do at home.

If you want something, there’s no reason to stop u!

You can do a lot of different exercises at home.

Such as working out with the help of fitness DVD’s. There’s a wide range of them available and many of them are really helpful.

I love the 30 days shred DVD’s from Jillian Michaels as they really push you to your limit.

Still my choice of exercise at home is much more simple.

It’s Running.

I’m sure you ask how I do that at home?

Well I simply run in place. Its so easy to do and doesn’t need anything special.

You can do it while watching TV and you can do it at any time you like. It doesn’t matter if theres snow and rain outside, in your house you can still run!

Start to change your life today and start exercising!

People who exercise regularly have a way lower risk of diabetes and other dangerous illnesses!

Doesn’t convince you?

Exercising makes you happy, it really does.

It increases the production of the hormone that is actually responsible for a good mood.

Its also increases you ability to concentrate. So if you are working and feel like you just cant go on and your concentration is totally off, just take a quick run and you will see it will be much easier afterwards!

Even just 15 min a day can make a huge change in your life.

Simply start with running 15 min and increase it week by week. Your health will get better and so will your Mood. Try it out!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Coffee Facescrub - home made

There is a great variety of face scrubs available in stores.
Many of them pretty pricey and promising anything you could think of.
The main purpose however is to remove dead skin particles and to animate the skin to renew itself.

Itdoesnt need much to make a greatface scrub at home.
As you can read in a previous post, all it takes is sugar and optional some oil.
Now theres another ongredient you can add.
Its especially helpfull when yur complexion isnt bright because of less sleep or stress

The ingredient is Coffee
The Caffein that coffee contains is great against tired looking skin.

This is how you do it yourself:
1/2 teaspoon coffee instant powder
2 Tablespoon sugar
optional: 1 teaspoon oil ( only for dry skin)

Just mix it 2gether and you are ready to go!

Wash your face and than use the scrub on your wet face.
Its especially usefull before applying face masks or lotions.



Monday, September 3, 2012

Using facials at home

Using Facial at home is a great thing when you cant go to a spa or get a treatment somewhere else.

I mostly do facial myself. For once its hard to find good face mask in the supermarkets here in cairo and second I don’t get to go to a spa here.
So I make face masks out of ingredients like yogurt, mango, banana, honey or other things we have at home.
But since my skin became pretty bad the last week I decided to buy a Face mask I found at the local supermarket.
From time to time they do offer good beauty products, but its not something you can rely on..
By luck I found a face mask that seemed interesting and that was fitting to my skin type - oily skin. Anyway I can be used for oily and normal skin, just not useful for dry skin I guess.
Its from Bangalore a country I never before bought anything from.. at least not that I know of.


The face mask is called purifying Neem Mask and contains Fuller’s earth, Turmeric and Neem.
I have no idea what Neem is but as long as it works I don’t really care.
Its supposed to deep cleanse and purify the skin. It 75 ml and therefore can be used many times.
 I have had 3 facials from it till now and its still nearly full.

 
After applying the face mask, it has to stay on your skin for 10-15 minutes. In that time it will dry and feel a bit strange, but not bad. After that you can easily wash it off with cool water.
I didn’t expect too much when I bought it but it actually worked pretty well. Right after using it, my skin felt really nice and clean. In the long run it really helps to clear the skin.
The problems I had with my skin are nearly gone after using the face mask for 3 times in the last 1.5 weeks.

I have to say I didn’t have skin problems before and I guess I just got them from eating less vegetables and fruits and way too much junk food, around Eid. The reason my skin got better will also be because I start eating more healthy again, but I’m sure the facial played a factor in it too.

I paid about 26 Le which is about 4.5$ I guess that a pretty good price since it can be used many times. In Germany I used to pay 1 Euro for a Face mask I can use only 1 time. I’ve also seen more expensive face masks here in Cairo but I wont pay too much money for a 1 time facial.

  The complete name of this item is Himalaya Herbals - Purifying Neem Mask