BEWARE: Top 15 Additives in Foods

1-methylcyclopropene This gas is pumped into crates of apples to stop them from producing ethylene, the natural hormone that ripens fruit. Commonly known as SmartFresh, this chemical preserves apples for up to a year and bananas up to a month. Sulphur dioxide serves the same purpose when sprayed on grapes. Artificial Colors Researchers in the early 1900s developed many artificial …

Avoid That Dreaded Christmas Weight Gain

Avoid That Dreaded Christmas Weight Gain Losing the Christmas load isn’t easy. Here’s how to avoid piling it on in the first place.    A bite of a mince pie here, an extra helping of pudding there… It all seems so innocent at the time, But.. If you ate just one mince pie every day on top of your daily …

No Pills Necessary: Beat depression with exercise and a good diet.

Depression Everyone feels sad from time to time, but depression is characterised by prolonged feelings of sadness, dejection and hopelessness. One in five women and one in eight men will experience depression at some point in their lives. Depression is a complicated illness, which can involve a number of contributing factors such as genes, environment, lifestyle, brain activity, psychology and …

Measuring your success

There are many ways to measure your success in a fitness program but most people tend to focus on the numbers they read when they step on the scales rather than seeing the clearer picture that some other measurements can give you. This article will cover some of the alternatives. Photos We all live in the age of social media …

Battling Food Addiction

    Food addiction  is like any other addiction whether that be drug or alcohol addictions. Addicts feel the need to eat as a form of comfort or enjoyment. In return, the excess food causes weight gain and lowered self-esteem, which make you feel worse. so to feel good again we eat again, and so the vicious cycle continues… The …

Using the Mind Muscle Connection to Maximize Your Workouts

Certain individuals have claimed to rely greatly on the power of their minds in order to achieve maximum muscle hypertrophy .Arnold for example used to picture gigantic mountainous peaks while performing bicep curls. Creating such a larger than life image in his mind served as a  motivational tool for establishing mind-muscle connection, and remaining completely focused on the muscle at …

The 3 Energy Systems easily explained

During exercise your body relies on three basic energy systems: the anaerobic a-lactic system, the anaerobic lactic system, and the aerobic system. Depending on the sport you play, you may rely on one system more than the others.     The anaerobic a-lactic (ALA) system, also known as the ATP-CP, or adenosine triphosphate – creatine phosphate system, provides high bursts …

Superfoods: Black Rice

You already know that brown rice is a nutrition powerhouse compared to white rice.  But you can do even better.  Discover the benefits of black rice. Brown rice is rich in fiber, vitamin e compounds and cholesterol lowering antioxidants. Those benefits are all contained in the brown bran. What’s wrong with white rice? Brown rice is produced by removing only …

6 Biggest Gym Beginner Mistakes

1. EGO LIFTING This is by far the biggest mistake i see in beginners and also in some regular gym goers. Trying to lift with your ego, letting all form go to ruin in the attempt to try and either outlift the person next to you or impress the opposite sex. Now this is mainly a guy thing  but here …

How many Calories do i need to eat if i want to lose/gain weight?

The first thing you need to know in your quest to lose/gain weight is your BMR– your energy expenditure at rest (the number of Calories you’d burn if you stayed in bed all day).Once you have this figure you can calculate how many calories your body requires to maintain its current weight using another formula. Then from these figures you …