Healthy Food Diet: 7 Day Clean Eating Challenge

Do you feel like your diet needs a fresh start? When life happens and you abandon healthy food in favor of whatever is nearby or comes out of a packet or pouch, it's time for a "clean" break. That's why we're bringing you SHAPE's 7-Day Clean Eating Challenge. While a clean eating diet plan may seem challenging, our plan is manageable and the payoffs include skyrocketing energy, weight loss, better control over your appetite, and even better-looking skin.

Just follow these 5 simple rules and try our clean eating meal plan:

1) Eat only whole foods. That means eating oats and blueberries rather than a blueberry muffin. When you eat packaged foods, only buy brands that contain “real food” ingredients--ingredients you easily recognize, can pronounce, and would use to make a “from scratch” version in your own kitchen. If a food contains even one ingredient that makes you think “huh?” skip it, at least during the clean eating challenge.

RELATED: For a super healthy and delicious snack, watch Heidi Klum make homemade hummus and kale chips, then try the recipe yourself.

2) Keep meals simple. Delicious, healthy food doesn’t have to contain a lot of ingredients. Keep your meal ingredients to a minimum—just be sure to include a source of whole grains, lean protein and healthy fat at each meal. For example, veggies and shrimp stir fried in sesame oil over a bed of brown rice seems restaurant quality but can be whipped up faster than takeout.

3) Eat slower. Put your fork or spoon down between every bite, and focus on the flavors and textures of your food.

4) Eat on a regular schedule. Try not to let more than about 4 hours go by between meals or snacks. Steady meal timing helps regulate your digestive system, blood sugar and insulin levels, and appetite.

RELATED: When you do your food shopping for the week, be sure to avoid these grocery store fat traps that can make you gain weight.

5) Listen to your body. Eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full, meaning satisfied, not stuffed. The recipes here intentionally don’t provide amounts. That’s so you get used to relying on your hunger and fullness cues to tell you when to stop and start eating

Each day eat three clean eating meals and one snack.

DAY ONE SAMPLE DIET:

THREE CLEAN EATING MEALS AND ONE SNACK

BREAKFAST

Cook old fashioned quick cooking oats using organic skim or soy milk. Top with a sliced apple and garnish with chopped walnuts.

RELATED: For more morning meal ideas, try these 8 "dinner foods" you should eat for breakfast.

CLEAN EATING LUNCH IDEA

Toss baby spinach with balsamic vinegar and salt-free dried Italian herbs. Top with a scoop of chilled red quinoa and cannellini beans (canned, drained and rinsed beans are OK) and sliced avocado.

CLEAN EATING SNACK IDEA

Drizzle a little honey into a container of nonfat Greek yogurt, fold in a sliced mini banana and garnish with sliced almonds.

DAY ONE CLEAN EATING DINNER IDEA 

Saute onion, halved grape tomatoes and chopped green bell pepper in extra virgin olive oil until slightly tender. Add chicken breast or organic tofu to heat through. Serve over whole wheat penne.

DAY TWO CLEAN EATING DINNER IDEA

Lentils and quinoa with mint and lemon saute chopped red onion, minced garlic, celery and red bell pepper in extra virgin olive oil until tender. Add lentils (vacuum sealed or canned, rinsed and drained are both OK) to heat through. Serve over a small scoop of cooked quinoa and garnish with fresh mint and juice from a fresh lemon wedge.

RELATED: Have a healthy meatless dinner on the table in no time by making one of these 10-minute vegetarian meals.

DAY THREE CLEAN EATING DINNER IDEA

Tuna Lettuce Wraps with Basil Pesto and Couscous

Fill large outer romaine lettuce leaves with a mixture of drained chunk light tuna canned in water tossed with basil pesto, minced sundried tomatoes and whole-wheat couscous.

RELATED: When you don't have time to hit the grocery store, whip up one of these healthy and delicious meals you can pull from your pantry.

DAY FOUR CLEAN EATING DINNER IDEA

Mexican Salad with Corn, Avocado, Beans, and Lime

Mix mashed avocado with minced onion, tomato, fresh lime juice and cilantro. Toss with torn romaine to coat leaves. Top with a small scoop each of frozen, thawed corn and black beans (canned, drained and rinsed are OK).

RELATED: Keep homemade salads low-cal by skipping the bottle and making your owngreen goddess dressing.

DAY FIVE CLEAN EATING DINNER IDEA

Seared Shrimp in Coconut Oil

On the stovetop, sear fresh shrimp in coconut oil and season with fresh grated ginger and scallions. Serve over a bed of mixed field greens and top with fresh pear slices.

DAY SIX CLEAN EATING DINNER IDEA

Spaghetti Squash with Garlic, Mushrooms, Tomato and Feta

Saute chopped onions, minced garlic, sliced mushrooms and a small, diced plum tomato in extra virgin olive oil. Reduce to low heat to keep warm. Slice a small spaghetti squash in half, remove seeds, place face down in a glass dish with a few tablespoons of water. Cover with wax paper and microwave on high for 7 to 8 minutes. Rake out strands, toss with sautéed veggies and garnish with crumbled feta cheese.

DAY SEVEN CLEAN EATING

Pineapple Chicken with a Twist

Stir fry sliced red and green bell peppers and a dash of crushed red pepper in sesame oil. Add diced, cooked chicken breast and pineapple chunks to heat through. Serve over a scoop of cooked wild rice.

Link  http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/cooking-ideas/healthy-food-diet-7-day-clean-eating-challenge/

7 tips for a healthy lifestyle

7 tips for a healthy lifestyle

Living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean hours of training at the gym and eating only salad leaves. It’s about making easy-to-manage healthy choices in your day-to-day living.

 

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Living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean hours of training at the gym and eating only salad leaves. It’s about making easy-to-manage healthy choices in your day-to-day living.

Says Dr Craig Nossel, head of Wellness at Discovery Vitality: "The trick to making your lifestyle healthier is to make small healthy changes every day, such as taking the stairs instead of the lifts, increasing your fruit by one, drinking one extra glass of water or quitting smoking."

So let’s start with the fundamental basics of healthy living: regular exercise, healthy eatingand healthy lifestyle choices:

I like to move it, move it!

Do as King Julian does and move your body. Not just once now-and-then – but every day whenever you can. Although a set exercise session is great to work into your daily routine, you can burn kilojoules in other small ways, such as:

• Walking to someone else’s desk rather than sending an e-mail,
• Parking furthest from the building and walking in, or
• Taking the stairs more often.
• Doing house cleaning or gardening
• Taking the dog for a walk or cycling with the kids instead of watching TV

We all stand together

We spend our lives sitting – at our desks, in front of the TV, in a meeting or on the phone. New research is emerging highlighting the potential risk to health from all our sitting behaviour. So break your sitting time by standing for five minutes and reap the health benefits.

Every little bit counts and it all adds up to burning more calories.

If you’re overweight, making small changes in your daily exercise routine can benefit your health. In fact one study has found that just a 10% drop in weight helped overweight people to reduce their blood pressure, cholesterol and improve their wellbeing.

Eating healthily

When it comes to healthy eating, there is an overwhelming array of theories, diet books and online information about what to eat – which is often conflicting. Although the research is still ongoing and developing, what the experts all agree on is that our diets are too high in sugar, our portions are too big and we should eat a variety of whole natural foods.

Sweet enough

From sugary drinks to breakfast cereal, it’s hard to get away from sugary foods. Often the sugar is hidden in canned goods or pre-packaged foods, or even in foods we think are healthy for us, such as fruit juice. The average person takes in about 22 teaspoons of added sugar each day. According to the American Heart Association the daily target should be no more than six level teaspoons for women, and nine for men—that’s for both food and beverages combined.

The easiest way to limit your sugar intake with one small change is to cut out sugary fizzy drinks. This alone can help you to lose or maintain a healthy weight, which in turn will reduce your risk of heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

Portion distortion

Our food and drinks portion sizes have dramatically increased over the past 30 years. In the 1950’s a chip packet was 28g from a take-away restaurant - today it’s 154g – and that’s not even the supersize, which is a whopping 196g!

Portion size increases doesn’t only include the take-away portions, but packaging of goods in the supermarket, dinner plates and glasses in restaurants and even fridge sizes! Simple ways to cut your portions include:

• Eat your main meals off a smaller plate – visually the plate looks full so you will be satisfied, but technically you’ll be eating less.
• Dish up in the kitchen, rather than have the serving dishes at the dining table – it’s much easier to have seconds when it’s right in front of you.
• Eat small regular meals (at least every four hours) so that you’re never starving – if you get to this point of hunger, it’s very difficult to stop before you overeat.

Colour me beautiful

Choosing whole foods and cooking from scratch is a much healthier way to eat than buying pre-packaged or ready-meals which are high in fat and salt but very low in nutrients. To make sure you’re getting a variety of nutrients, vitamins and minerals into your body every day – a quick rule of thumb is to pick a variety of colours for your meals. Be the artist of your meals and paint a colour picture with a variety of yellow, red and green fruits and vegetables throughout the day.

Your body will wear a frown if your meal is all brown.

Choose life

There is nothing more damaging to a long, healthy life than smoking, which is estimated as the reason for death or disability in half the people who smoke. The dangers of smoking tobacco are so significant that it is the most important public health problem in the world, which ironically, is largely avoidable.

Smoking not only cuts your lifespan by affecting your internal organs, but it also ages you on the outside by causing skin damage. Tobacco smoking can give you wrinkles, create pucker lines around your mouth, stain your teeth and fingers, rob your skin of nutrients, break down youth-enhancing collagen and make your skin look grey. It makes you wonder how smoking is often marketed as glamorous and attractive.

It takes courage to quit smoking, as it’s not an easy journey – but it’s a brave and sensible choice. Some of the positive changes will happen quickly, while others will be more gradual, but all the changes will benefit your health and well-being.

- (Discovery Vitality press release, February 2013)

(Photo of running woman from Shutterstock)

Link  http://www.health24.com/Lifestyle/Woman/Your-life/7-tips-for-a-healthy-lifestyle-20130218

Best Workouts to Lose Belly Fat Quickly - Cardio, Abs and Obliques Workout

CALORIE BURN

136 to 204

MINUTES

17

DIFFICULTY

3

BODY FOCUS

UpperCoreLowerTotal

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Workout Details

Getting a tight and toned midsection can be difficult but it does not have to be time consuming. This 17-minute core workout is a great example of how you can get a really challenging workout in a very little amount of time.

Because getting a flat stomach is not only about working and toning your stomach we have kept this routine short and intense so you can couple it with another workout that targets the rest of the body and burns more calories like a kickboxing workout, HIIT routine, or a strength training routine. By coupling this abs routine with another workout you can drastically increase the number of calories you burn. We have also made this an ideal workout to lose belly fat by combining both abs and cardio.

Do keep in mind that just like any other muscle group in the body, you need to let your core muscles rest and recover, especially if you get them sore.

If you want to focus on quicker progress try doing this routine twice per day two to three days out of the week. If you don’t need to see quick results or you just want to maintain the tone you have, we suggest doing this workout 2 to 3 times per week just once per day. As mentioned above, this routine is intended to be coupled with other workouts to train the rest of the body and to increase your total daily calorie burn, so don’t forget to hit at least all of your major muscle groups through your upper and lower body.

If this routine’s primary focus was just the abdominal, oblique and lower back muscles, it would not burn a high number of calories per minute. We have used many full body movements to increase the calorie burn for this routine, however, as well as intervals of a simple bodyweight cardio move in between each core exercise to drastically bump up the expenditure. In this workout you can expect to burn anywhere from 8-12 calories per minute.

The following is a direct transcript of the workout in the above video with a short description of each exercise. Each exercise is done for 50 seconds straight through with a quick interval of jumping jacks between each, and only a 10 second break between each exercise to set up for the next movement.

17 Minute Abs Workout
Rolling Back Bow Toe Touch Crunch: Starting on your stomach, do a back bow then roll on to your back and do a toe touch crunch then roll back onto your stomach. Complete another back bow then roll in the opposite direction you did last time to complete another toe touch crunch ending back on your stomach in the starting position.

Alternating Side Plank Toe Touch Kick: This exercise can be done in either a full plank (from toes; harder) or a half plank (from knees; easier) This motion is similar to the previous exercise as you roll from doing a side plank on the left to a side plank on the right alternating back and forth each repetition.

Double Bird Dog Pull: From all fours (hands and knees on the ground) lift your left hand and right foot straight out parallel to the ground then pull that arm and leg in under your body crunching your abs then extend back out before letting that arm and leg drop to the ground and switching sides.

One Leg Jackknife Crunch: As with a regular jackknife crunch start from a prone position, bring your arms and legs up over your body crunching your hips and shoulders towards each other. The only difference here is that you only use one leg at a time.

V Sit Row: Start sitting on your tailbone, then lean back keeping your back perfectly flat extending your legs away from you for balance. Hold as close to a 45° angle as you can hold then in a rowing motion extend your arms out in front of your body then pull them back to your sides keeping your elbows up at shoulder height moving in a 90° angle from your chest.

Alternating Side Star Tuck: This exercise done from a side plank position starts with a side star reach followed by a hugging motion with the same arm you just had extended. Not only do you want to pull your arm underneath you but you also want to roll your shoulders down towards the ground before coming back up flipping to your other side and repeating the motion with the other arm.

Frog Leg Crunch: With the soles of your feet together and your feet up off of the ground crunch your shoulders up off of the ground extending your arms down between your legs while lifting your legs and hips up towards your shoulders.

Mt Top Russian Twist: Similar to a regular Russian Twist, you lean back to a 45° with a flat back and rotate left to right. This difference with this version is that you bring your arm high up over your head as you come back to the center and each time you rotate off to the side you drop your arms down close to the ground.

Oblique Jackknife Crunch: This exercise takes a jackknife crunch where you lay on your back and bring your arms and legs up over your body crunching your hips and shoulders together, and adds a slight rotation through the obliques. Each time your arms come up to meet your legs you want to bring your arms off to one side of your legs or the other slightly rotating your shoulders.

Seated Torso Circles: Sit back like you would for a Russian Twist, and then draw over your tail bone. You decide the difficulty on this exercise by choosing how large your range of motion is.

Link  http://www.fitnessblender.com/v/workout-detail/Best-Workouts-to-Lose-Belly-Fat-Quickly-Cardio-Abs-and-Obliques-Workout/dj/

23 Most Useful Eye Care Tips

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One of the most attractive features of your face, the eyes is your strongest asset. They smile, they laugh, they cry and at times they are sly too. So when your eyes have so many things to do for you, it’s your responsibility in turn to make them look beautiful. The makeup you do to your eyes usually hides all your emotions. So isn’t it better to make your eyes look beautiful in a natural way? If your eyes are beautiful, they’ll speak volumes for the opposite person to understand without your saying anything at all.Eyes are one of the most powerful tools a woman can have. With one look, she can relay the most intimate message. After this connection is made, words cease to exist!

In today’s world, with the work load and studies, your eyes have lost their natural beauty. You get dark circles, puffiness, redness, itchiness, wrinkles and what not. Even after waking up in the morning, your eyes look tired and dull because of the dark circles and under eye bags. And you use plasters of makeup to cover them up. Why spoil your delicate eye area with cosmetics? We have some very inexpensive eye care tips for you to take care of your eyes.

Dark Circles:

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Don’t they make your eyes look ugly and all fatigued? You can know more about why dark circles appear here. These are the best eye care tips ever!

Eye Tip 1: Tea bags

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by dollen

Apply plain cool teabags over closed eyes. Don’t use herbal teabags, because most aren’t as effective.

Eye Tip 2: Chilled cotton balls

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Noelia >:)

Dip cotton balls in chilled water and keep for 5-10 minutes on your eyes.

Eye Tip 3: Cucumber

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Cucumbers work wonders and is easily one of the best eye care tips that we can give you!
Place two slices of cucumber over your eyes and rest for a while. Besides its cooling properties, it also helps to lighten dark circles.

Some more Eye Care tips for dark circles

Looking for a few more options? Here they are!

Eye Tip 4: Cucumber juice

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Pastilla the Mannequin

• Extract cucumber juice by grating them and squeezing them through a muslin cloth.
• Dip cotton pads in the juice for 2 mins.
• Place on eyelids and darkened area.
• Relax for 15 mins and then remove.

Continue this procedure for 2 to 3 days and you will see remarkable results!

Eye Tip 5: Tomato pulp, turmeric, and lime juice and gram flour

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Conan

• Mix t tsp of tomato pulp, pinch of turmeric, ½ tsp of lime juice and 1 tsp of gram flour till it becomes a paste
• Apply gently on eye lids and darkened area
• Let it be for half an hour
• Remove gently with moist cotton pads

Follow this for a week for best results.

Eye Tip 6: Almond oil and lime juice

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by HealthAliciousNess

• Alternate hot and cold compress under your eyes for 10 minutes.
• Then apply a teaspoon of almond oil mixed with half teaspoon of lime juice on the dark surface every night before going to bed.

This is a good beauty tip that can be tried at home for dark circles.

Eye Tip 7: Rose water

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Do they require a special mention when it comes to eye care tips? Multi-faceted and multi-talented. The rejuvenating feature of rose water can be also effective to reduce dark circles!

• Just apply cotton balls soaked in rose water on closed eyes for 15 minutes or so.

This method is considered to be one of the most popular and easiest cures for dark circles. This tip is so convenient that you can do it anywhere and everywhere even if you are on a flight. Share this beauty tip with your friends also!

Here is a detailed tutorial on hiding dark circles.

Sunken eyes

Sunken eyes are an illusion when you have dark circles all around your eyes. Try these simple eye care tips to delete them out of your life. 

Beauty tips for sunken eyes:

Eye Tip 8: honey and Almond oil

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• Mix 1 tsp of honey with ½ tsp of almond oil.
• Apply at bedtime.

You’ll see results over a period of time.

Eye Tip 9: Almonds and milk

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by HealthAliciousNess,shutterstock

• Soak 5 almonds overnight.
• Next day, first thing in the morning, peel the almonds and eat them by chewing well.
• Follow with a glass of milk.

Practicing this for 21 days should definitely help.

These tips will certainly make sunken eyes a dread of the past for you.

Puffy eyes:

Why wake up every morning with swollen and red eyes giving others the impression that you either spent the night crying or drinking? Follow these eye tips. You will certainly look fresh.

Beauty tips for puffy eyes

Eye Tip 10: Cucumber/ potato pulp with basil tea

shutterstock,cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo shared by Laurel F

• Slice or grate small raw potatoes or cucumber and blend to fine consistency. Strain juice and preserve pulp.
• Prepare a cup of basil tea and the pulp to it.
• Pour the mixture into ice tray and make cubes.
• Dab them onto puffy eyes.
• Rinse and then pat dry.

Eye Tip 11: Chilled spoon

Yes you read it right. We are talking about using a chilled spoon here!

• Place a rounded spoon in the fridge for a few minutes.
• Once cold, pull it out and hold it against the puffy portion.

This is very effective in reducing puffiness!

Eye Tip 12: Cold compress

You can make cold compress either out of cold water or bags of ice cubes. When you feel them warm up, dip either in cold water or add more ice depending what you are using.

• Place the cold compress on your eyes.
• Repeat till the puffiness drains out.

Eye Tip 13: Tea Bags

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by dollen

The natural astringents in tea i.e. tannins work wonders in reducing puffiness!

• Warp a tea bag around a tissue.
• And place them on closed eyes. 

Special beauty tips for eyes for those using computers or contact lens:

Computers play a very important role today. There is hardly any work we can do without this electronic machine. And lenses have become a part of fashion for most modern women. Like bags and shoes, they use lens as their accessory. But the harm that these two objects cause when used without care is ignored!
Here are few tips to help rest your eyes.

When you are in front of a computer:

Eye Care Tip 14: After every 20 to 30 mins of staring at the screen, look at something distant and blink several times. This improves your ability to focus.

Eye Care Tip 15: When on a computer, the number of times we blink tends to reduce. Make it a point to blink frequently to avoid dryness of eyes.

Eye Care Tip 16: Splash water on your face every time to take a break. This will not only refresh you but it will also cool your eyes down.

Eye Care Tip 17: Step away from the screen when you take a break.

Eye Care Tip 18: Fix an anti-glare shield to the monitor on your system or use anti-glare glasses when you work. You can also adjust the direction to ensure that you see the least of glare on your screen.

When you are using your lens:

Eye Care Tip 19: The first and foremost job of contact lens users is to keep their lens clean.

Eye Care Tip 20: Change your lens solution every 2-3 days.

Eye Care Tip 21: If your lens is troubling you, its time you visit a doctor at the earliest.

Eye Care Tip 22: Wash your eyes properly with cold water after you remove your lenses.

Eye Care Tip 23: You may also use 2-3 drops of rose water on your eyes for a soothing effect. Aren’t these eye tips simple and easy? They make your life better giving you a wonderful sight.

Link  http://www.stylecraze.com/articles/eye-care-tips/