Workout: One-On-One Training with Jackie

Fans of the deliciously soapy Bravo reality series Work Out may need to be reminded just how fine a personal trainer Jackie Warner is. This disc is that reminder, containing a fast-paced and comprehensive fitness routine that ranks among the very best. Warner is personable as she trains--and she doesn't stint on doing the moves herself. She's designed the workout in three chunks, upper body, lower body, and core/abs, which can be done separately or combined for a full hour heavy-duty routine. Because there's little rest between moves, the whole workout seems to fly by, but there's no denying its overall intensity. Warner combines tried-and-true moves (crunches, squats) with some new twists (just try to do that "butterfly" crunch and not feel it deeply the next day). And she's upbeat without being perky--though a viewer could be forgiven for grousing when Warner chirps "I could do these all day!" during Sumo squats. She also gives great attention to form, often working with one other trainer so it feels as though the viewer is getting a one-on-one session too. There are modifications for both beginning and advanced exercisers, so there's no excuse not to jump in. The hour will be over before you know it. -- A.T. Hurley

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Acne - 5 Hints How to cope with it

Disease that affects a large number of adolescents and many adults can interfere with social life and leave a mark for life. 

What is it?

Acne is a disease of genetic predisposition whose manifestations depend on the presence of sex hormones. Because of this, the lesions begin to appear at puberty, a time when these hormones begin to be produced by the body, reaching the majority of adolescents of both sexes.

The disease not only affects teenagers, but also can persist into adulthood and even appear at this stage, more frequently in women. 

The disease manifests itself mainly on the face and trunk areas of the body rich in sebaceous glands. Symptoms vary from person to person, and, most of the time from small to medium intensity. 

More than those obvious red bumps on their faces, there are effects of acne that cannot just, be healed by any cream or acne solution and that is the emotional scars left by acne. 

1- Find a good dermatologist 

Benign cases of acne are usually short-lived, disappearing with simple precautions regarding nutrition and hygienic cares. A doctor should treat other cases that are more difficult. The disease should not make progress because it can leave scars. In this case, adolescents may suffer emotional once they are very sensitive in relation to their personal appearance. May be appropriate to use some psychotherapy sessions but that decision should be taken always with doctor's approval. 

2- Avoid the sun. 

Medications for acne can cause adverse reactions in the sun. Minimize sun exposure and infrared lamps, until you know what kind of reaction it causes because it varies from person to person. 

3- Diet 

Although diet did not participate in the cause of the disease, it may have influence in the course of acne in some people. Patients who have acne and realize aggravation of symptoms after eating them should avoid foods like chocolate, animal fats, peanuts and milk and its derivatives.

4- Hygienic Care 

It is not advisable to touch in the face with the hands. One should avoid the extraction of pimples, blackheads, or white spots through the fingers, as well as the unconscious act of picking at scabs. If the skin is washed with too much energy or dry with a dirty towel, may become inflamed on areas that are more sensitive. 

5- Treatment 

Treatment of acne should be supervised by a dermatologist, who is the professional trained to indicate the ideal drug for each case. Do not use medicines indicated by lay people or have a condition similar to yours. They may not be appropriate for the skin type. The treatment duration is long, usually is never less than six months, so patience. 

It is important to know that some people get better with certain medications and others do not. Therefore, doctor may need to replace your medication if the initial treatment is not being effective for disease control. 

You can fight a crisis of acne with prescription free drugs. However, do not mix treatments. If you are using an OTC medication should put it aside if you have the advice of doctor to use another. You should not use both simultaneously. 

Thanks for reading. I hope you find the suggestions helpful. 

Jose Zozimo

Warming Up

When you have to fit an exercise routine into your already busy schedule, you might be tempted to simply skip the warm up routine, even though you've heard horror stories about people getting injured while working out. Three words: don’t do that. When you skip your warm up, you are not only putting your body as risk for personal injury, but you are also making the workout more difficult and less effective. For the best results, it is important to warm up every time you work out.

Warming up doesn’t have to eat up the time you allotted for exercise into your day. In fact, a decent workout only has to be 5 minutes long to do its job. It doesn’t have to be boring either—you can mix up a number of great moves to make your warm up as fun as the rest of your exercising. Remember that a good warm up gets all of your muscles moving, even if you don’t think that you’ll be intensely working out a set of muscles on any particular day. Warming up is also important regardless of if you’re doing cardiovascular exercises or lifting weights.

The moves you do for a warm up shouldn’t necessarily be difficult or make you break a sweat. The main goal of the warm up isn’t to become a part of your workout, but simply to slowly move muscles that you haven’t really thought about all day to wake them up. Good moves, therefore, include things like jogging in place, doing jumping jacks, lunging, and jumping rope.

A good warm-up can also including slowly stretching your muscles in a variety of ways, although this is usually more effective for a cool-down. Also consider exercises that work on balance and form in order to prepare you for the exercises you will be doing in the workout.

If you’re really short on time, why not try warming up before you even get to the gym. Slowly jog or power walk to the gym, park as far away as possible and lunge to the door, and take the stairs instead of the elevator. That way, when you get to the gym to workout your warm up routine is already half way done.

A good workout always builds in intensity. This is the best way to shed pounds and maintain a healthy weight. Weight loss workouts are only risky if you don’t warm up, because otherwise your body will respond to prevent injuries. Although you may be tempted to skip this step, that is never a good idea. 

  

The Macronutrients of Nutrition

Nutrition can be a confusing subject for the ordinary person. Of course we have all heard about vitamins and minerals, antioxidants and fiber, complex carbohydrates and sugars but how does it all fit together?

Well to start with, our bodies require certain amounts of macronutrients to survive. There are a few people who focus on one nutrient over another and they consume more of one and less of the others but in general we all need some of these nutrients and a healthy diet consists of a good balance of the all three macronutrients.

The macronutrients are protein, fat and carbohydrates. Protein and carbohydrates both provide 4 calories per gram, while the more dense fat contains 9 calories per gram. A calorie is at its most basic description the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of 1g of water 1 degree Celsius. While that is a rather confusing definition for most of us it is easier for us to just know that a calorie is just a measurement that we use to determine the energy content of food.

Due to this discrepancy of 5 additional calories per gram, it was believed for a few years that the fat in our diet was the main cause of the fat on our bodies. It has since been proven that this all too simple explanation is not quite true. The fat on our bodies is caused by a number of different factors including the eating of too many calories altogether be they from fat, protein or carbohydrates.

Protein is the building blocks of the tissues in our bodies and it is essential to all of the processes within our cells. Protein can be found in animal tissue, dairy products and eggs but also vegetarian sources such a beans, legumes and especially soybeans.

Carbohydrates are the main energy source of our bodies. A simplistic explanation of carbohydrates is that they convert to sugar in our bodies, which in turn provides the energy that we need. Carbohydrates can be further broken down into simple carbohydrates, which include sugar, candy, white flour and more and complex carbohydrates, which include whole grains and vegetables. Simple carbohydrates break down in our bodies at a very rapid level, causing energy swings and increased hunger while complex carbohydrates break down slowly which gives us sustained longer-term energy.

Fat was long misaligned as being bad for our health but that is not completely true. The saturated fats and trans fats are destructive to our bodies but there are also essential fats that we need to maintain good health. Those would include the monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats such as olive oil, peanut oil and canola oil and the fats found in nuts and seeds, avocados, olives and the acai berry. The bad fats are the saturated fats such as the fat found in animal products and the "fake" fats or trans fats that are created by hydrogenation.

The macronutrients of protein, carbohydrates and fat are the building blocks of nutrition and all of the rest of the positive nutritional factors, like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and more are found within one of these three macro nutrients.

Karen Lynch recently discovered the acai berry and she is very excited about the potential of this new superfood. She has been avidly studying the health benefits of the acai berry.