That’s right, aching muscles – they are either experienced right after a workout or even 2-3 days post-exercise.

Before you give up on exercising entirely, though, think about the fact that in most cases, aching muscles are normal.

The Physiology Of Post-Exercise Muscle Aches:

Dr. Gabe Mirkin, the popular Sports Medicine physicist and radio talk show host, explains that muscle soreness is due to the damage to the muscles themselves, not lactic acid buildup in the muscles as we used to believe.

Studies making use of biopsies have shown damage and bleeding of the z-band filaments which hold the muscles together.

This occurs when muscles contract and they slide over each other.

To Continue Or Not To Continue Exercising:

If your muscles feel sore the day after you work out and you continue to exercise despite the pain, chances are you’ll still have that pain the next day.

Doctors recommend a workout on the first day, pausing when you start to feel the burn. After a while, pick up the pace once more again exercise until you feel the burn.

Stop the regimen once your muscles begin to feel stiff.

The next day, it would be good to rest or if you must, continue working out that day at a slow pace.

What doctors suggest is to get a hard workout one day, rest for 1-7 days after that, and then go for another until-the-burn workout.

This is the way professional athletes train.

For instance, high jumpers don’t go for the high jump all throughout the week. Sure, they do sessions daily, but they jump for height as rarely as once a week.

The Exercise Advantage:

Women who keep finding ways to keep fit seldom experience muscle ache after their workouts.

Moreover, even if they do, they tend to recover pretty quickly.

On the other hand, newbies feel any of the following symptoms, aside from aching muscles: headaches, feelings of energy loss, and low-grade flu.

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS):

This pain does not occur right after the workout is over, but 8-24 hours later, and ends within 3-7 days.

There is an increased risk for DOMS when you overexert yourself, or when you engage in a change in activity, such as from low-impact exercise such as working out on an elliptical to a high-impact activity, like running.

There are no surefire ways to prevent DOMS, but you can try the following to help relieve the pain:

• Stretch before and after exercising, but do so slowly. Hold the positions for 10-30 seconds.
• Always warm up before your routine.
• Don’t shock your muscles when you change an activity. Perform changes over several weeks if possible.
• When you’re doing weight training, start with small weights and work your way up in order to prevent excessive tearing of the muscle fibers.

Have a great workout,

M. Jamal

P.S. How often do you experience muscle aches? Do they hamper your workouts?

Wondering if a healthy meal can really pack much flavor?

Well, I just came across a post which you’ll want to check out. It presents “5 Small Meals With Big Flavors”

Nutritious meals that are simply delicious.

I knew I had to share this with you after reading comments like:

“Hmmm those small meals with big flavors are a great idea. For the longest time I have been trying to lose the remaining 5 pounds of my 20 pound fight, but they just won’t away. I think I will try this and see how that works for me. :)”

And…

“All of these look amazing! I’m not sure which one I want to try first. I try to cook healthfully but sometimes it’s tough.”

Well, check it out (see it here) and let me know what’s your favorite pick ‘-)

M. Jamal

P.S. If you’re into grills yet worried about nasty HAAs and HCAs… (unhealthy substances resulting from high heat of grilling meats)… then you ought to see this…

It goes into:

• A simple way to reduce HCAs by 80% revealed by Kansas State University (plus, you probably already know this improves flavor. Now you got another reason to try it.)
• A quick way to add flavor to your grills, use any of these 3 ‘Simply Organic’ ingredients.
• 8 quick tips for healthy, tasty grills (yet I don’t agree with the ‘microwave’ tip)

Have a look, click here.

M. Jamal

Gone are the days when “healthy” meant “no sugar, no salt, and no flavor.”

Now, you don’t have to struggle through your meals just to detox. Here are a few creative ways to make your healthy meals tastier and more appealing.

1. Think of your favorite foods and look for the healthier alternatives.

   For instance, if you are fond of the sumptuous goodness of meaty sausages, you can try Italian-style vegetarian sausages instead.They only contain 3 grams of fat per link but can compete side-by-side with all-meat sausages in terms of flavor.

2. If you just can’t say no to meat, make sure that you get the leanest cuts.But if you can’t buy them without the fat, then trim the fat off as much as possible before cooking. Ground beef or lamb can be replaced with ground turkey, although the taste would differ.
3. The fats in oil can wreak havoc to your diet.

   Although olive oil is high in fat, it is much healthier for your heart than those founds in animal oil, margarine, or butter. In addition, olive oil adds a wonderful flavor to your dishes.

4. When sauteing veggies, sprinkle a little salt. This will bring out their juices and will then require less oil to cook.
5. To keep salt to a minimum, take advantage of the availability of fresh and dried herbs and spices in the market today.

   Herbs add a lot of flavor without putting your health in jeopardy.Veal, for instance, is tender and tasty and can be made even more delicious when seasoned with marjoram, ginger, oregano, bay leaf, or curry powder.

   Poultry is spiced up with thyme, tarragon, sage, rosemary, paprika, oregano, marjoram, and ginger. As for fish, its flavors can be enhanced with the use of dill, lemon juice, marjoram, paprika, or pepper.

   

6. Instead of having calorie-packed pastries for dessert, go for fresh fruits.

   If your favorite fruits are not in season, their canned alternatives are the next best thing. Choose those that are packed in light syrup or fruit juice.

   Since they’re canned at their best, you’ll still get that fruity goodness that’s perfect for capping a meal.

7. Try vogue Asian ingredients.Asian foods are making waves globally.

   This is because most dishes, particularly Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, are diet-friendly but still have that irresistible exotic flavor.

   Here are a couple of these ingredients.Nam Pla, or Thai fish sauce, which is made from fermented salted fish. It gives off a pungent and briny aroma to your dishes and can also be used as a dipping sauce.Hoisin sauce is made from fermented soybeans. It has a dark brown color, is sweet, and gives off a flavor similar to five-spice powder. It’s used for glazing meats, spicing up stir-fried dishes, and as a dipping sauce as well.

8. Stock up on mushrooms.

   Like herbs, they’re now more accessible and come in more varieties.

   Fresh mushrooms last only a few days in the refrigerator, so fill your pantry with the dried kind for when you need to flavor soups and stir-fry dishes.

   Some say mushrooms are an acquired taste, because their odors range from pungent to woodsy to fragrant. But with the wide variety you’ll find in supermarkets – button, shiitake, abalone, Black Trumpets, Portobello, and a host of others – you’ll ‘acquire’ the taste for them soon enough.

M. Jamal

It can happen that you’ve religiously worked on burning off extra calories through regular exercise, and this may have worked for you for several years.

However, did you know that you’ll reach a point when no matter how much you diet and exercise, you may have a hard time maintaining your weight?

That’s because losing weight is not as simple as correlating it with your metabolic rate.

A number of other factors affect the process by which the food you eat is converted into energy. Age, for instance, causes metabolism to slow down by 5% each decade.

As you grow older, your muscle mass diminishes and your metabolic rate dips accordingly.

But should you allow yourself to be defeated by the aging process?

Of course not.

There is a lot of hope for figure-conscious women to still increase their metabolism rates. Below are six simple and easy ways to do so:

1. Take Small But Frequent Meals:

   Crash diets generally fail to work because instead of speeding up your metabolism, which is a guaranteed method to shave off excess pounds, it even slows down in order to conserve energy.

   In the process, your body also tends to accumulate fat to be used as an energy source.

   When you take small portions of food at regular intervals, say, 6 meals a day every 3 hours, your body will soon realize that there’s no sense in storing fat since there’s a regular supply.

   (For more on this be sure to check out my earlier blog post Video: Why you shouldn’t cut back on calories for weight loss? )

2. Exercise On A Daily Basis:
   
   This eats away at the fat lingering in unwanted places. Running, swimming, or doing 15-minute sessions on your elliptical or treadmill if you can’t venture outdoors can all help activate your metabolic rate.

   (And… if you’ve missed these simple exercise videos earlier… check em out:
   10 Resistance Band Exercises You Can Do At Home
   3 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Walking Exercise
   3 Simple Office Exercises for Busy Women

   you’ll find plenty more by searching past blog post, simply scroll to the top of this page & enter a topic in the search box — right-hand-side)

3. Have Metabolism-Boosting Drinks:
   
   Drink lots of water as it increases metabolism and is also an appetite suppressant.

   (For more about the magic power of water check out: Dr B. Discovers The Root Cause Of Most Pains And Diseases In An ‘8 Minute Lucky Accident’)

   Both green tea and coffee contain caffeine which speeds up your heart. The faster your heartbeat, the higher your metabolism rate.

   However, if you are not keen on the occasional cup of Java, go for green tea which is said to contain epigallocatechin gallate (ECGC) – a powerful antioxidant. Thus, not only will green tea help improve your metabolism; it can help prevent cancer as well.

4. Eat Metabolism-Boosting Foods:
   
   Fruits and vegetables, as we know, are packed with nutrients and fiber.

   The more nutrient-dense your food is, the more your body has to work to digest it and extract its precious nutrients.

   Apart from aiding metabolism, fruits such as oranges and grapefruit are rich in Vitamin C which has been shown to facilitate the burning of fat.

   Cereals, pasta, and bread from whole grains are rich in fiber and improve metabolism by slowing down insulin release. Lean beef, pork, turkey, and chicken, as well as salmon and tuna, are excellent protein choices.

   Proteins are harder to digest than carbs or fats and having them in your daily diet would keep your metabolism active.

5. Take advantage of the “after-burn effect” and lift weights when you can. Did you know that a single weightlifting session can improve your metabolism for up to 2 days post-workout?
   
6. Have A Medical Check-Up:
   
   Metabolism is affected by your thyroid gland activity.If there is some deficiency, you’ll be carrying excess weight no matter how much you follow the other tips. Ask your doctor about herbal dietary supplements that are formulated to improve your thyroid gland activity.

Have a great metabolism-boosting week

M. Jamal

Well, I’ll share with you 6 ways to boost your metabolism in my next blog post… for today, here’s a video that covers the same topic and goes into things like:

• How to use spicy foods to boost your metabolism (at 00:20)
• Drinking an extra 1.5 liters a day of this can burn an additional 17000 calories (equivalent of 5 pounds) in a year (at 1:20)
• Try this to boost your metabolic rate for 3 to 5 hours (at 3:00)
• Foods that sabotage your metabolism – avoid these metabolic busters! (at 4:15)

M. Jamal

In most cases like these, we traditionally turn to ‘metabolism’ as the culprit.

What Exactly Is Metabolism?

Metabolism is the process by which food is converted into energy by your body.

This involves countless biochemical processes in which calories from proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in the food you eat combine with oxygen to release energy.

Each day, your body burns a certain number of calories, representing what’s called your total energy expenditure.

This is affected by three major factors:

Processing of food. About 10% of the calories are used to fuel digestion, absorption, transport, and storage of the food you eat. Generally, this percentage remains steady and cannot easily change.

Basic needs. About 66-75% of calories are used for basic bodily functions such as breathing, circulating blood, repairing cells, adjusting hormonal levels, and keeping the organs properly functioning.

The calories your body uses up to maintain itself is called your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, which is measured in kilojoules.

When you are on a weight loss regimen, it’s important to preserve your muscle mass, because this is responsible for your BMR.

When muscle, or lean mass, is reduced, your BMR is also reduced.

Men have higher BMRs (about 7,100 kJ/day) than women (about 5,900 kJ/day) and although you continuously expend energy throughout the day, your BMR is lowest early in the morning.

Physical activity.

This may pertain to any movement you perform, such as swimming, running, walking, or even going up and down the stairs. You have great control over this aspect since it is determined by the duration, frequency, and intensity of your movements or activities.

Even if the energy expended by the muscles comprise a mere 20% of the total energy expenditure, this may go up to about 50% during strenuous exercise.

The Myth About Metabolism

We’ve been told since we were small that slim people have high metabolism while those who are overweight are ‘victims’ of slow metabolism.

This is true to a certain extent, but is not always correct.

Rather, weight gain or loss depends more on the balance between total calories consumed and total energy expended.

If you have a habit of taking in more than you can burn, expect to tip the scales at steadily growing figures.

It is for this reason that the benefits of diet and exercise cannot be overemphasized.

The BMR is also influenced by many factors that work in combination with each other.

True, it’s partly affected by your genes, but you also need to take into account age, gender, hormonal imbalances, illnesses, dietary deficiencies, the amount of muscle and body fat, and even crash dieting.

For instance, going on crash diets won’t speed up your metabolism – in fact, you’ll get opposite results, as your body automatically slows down metabolism to conserve energy due to your low caloric intake.

There are, of course, several effective and safe ways to work around one’s predisposition to a sluggish metabolism to get rid of unwanted inches and pounds.

M. Jamal

It’s an essential part of feeling your best. Let’s call it ‘loving the skin your in’

Anyway, I’ve recently come across an interesting report that sheds a light on this very same topic that’s worth a look.

The “Changing Perceptions” report is all about focusing on positive body images and promoting a healthy self-esteem among young women.

It covers things like:

• Why some store’s clothing of size 16 are close to a 12 (hint: did you know that a US size 4 is a 38 in Italy?) See page 4 & table on page 5
• Proof that catwalk models and celebrities look just like us (are you dieting to ‘fit in’ or are you dying to be thin?). Plus, a simple yet powerful technique to shift your ‘self-talk’ – page 6
• How prime-time TV reprograms culture (this is crucial if you’ve got kids) and how you can spot this even in cartoon characters; Pocahontas vs. Snow White! Plus, how some advertisers exploit the “paedophilic fashion” effect - Page 7 - 8
• How some magazines have been pushing the “fashion and beauty are one and the same” concept and how it relates to ‘tween’ stores – an eye opener and another reason for the increased body dissatisfaction among women – page 9
• Think you wann’a get a sun tan (or even whiten your skin)? Think again. 6 tanning options reviewed (and their dangers) – example, is it true that Spray Tanning contains unsafe amounts of lead and arsenic? Page 10, 11
• When model’s transformation is more than just designer outfits, layers or makeup and hours of hairstyling… even models have bad days, yet this one step covers it all producing an ‘unreal’ perfect woman (part of the ‘brainwashing’ effect to believing you’re not good enough!) – page 12
• What’s worse than people’s negative comments… when everyday you cross paths with someone that’s got something negative to say about your personality or appearance… here’s how to turn the tables in your favor – page 20

You can download your report by going here (then scroll down to “Changing Perceptions Magazine.pdf”)

Have a great day,

M. Jamal