Tips, tricks, hints, or suggestions. No matter what they´re called, they help you to enhance the quality of life. Here is a collection of our best tips.
Tempted to grab the Curry Puff at your snack time? Paused. It is heavily loaded with 246kcal, 16g of fats, and Trans-fats. Equivalent to calorie of 1 Chinese bowl of rice! Quickly swap that fattening puff with 20 almond nuts of 120kcal instead. You save yourself of 126kcal! And you are feeding your body with calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and other minerals! Still craving for fats? Take Chitosan Trim before your sinful indulgence. It binds and dispels the fats, for effective control of your fat intake.
A cup of bubble tea to quench your thirst and you are loading your body with calories, fats and sugars! Bubble tea contains flavourants, sugars, with minimal nutritional value. The chewy black pearls are made from tapioca and sugar. With one added serving of the pearls, the calories of your bubble tea boosts up another 100kcal. Prefer the milky taste? It adds another 70kcal. For a calorie-sensible treat, get plain bubble tea without milk and choose Nata de Coco instead of the pearls. Best of all, head to the nearest convenient store for a low-sugar soy milk instead!
Research shows omega-3 fats help keeping heart, joints and brain healthy. The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for omega-3 fats in the UK is 450mg for adults and 200mg for children. Recognizing the health benefits of omega-3, a lot of foods are now fortified with this healthy fat. But, are they sufficient to supply the need? To reach the recommended daily amounts, an adult needs to eat 5 omega-3 enriched eggs daily! A 6-ounce salmon has 100 times higher omega-3 content compared with fortified yoghurt. So, go get the salmon or tuna instead!
Simply knowing when to eat and what to eat can help you hit your weight target. Research shows that a big breakfast eater has greater satiety than a huge dinner eater. Split most of your calories for the daytime rather than stocking it up for the late meal. Eat at a slower pace with at least 15 chews for each mouthful of food. Fruits and vegetables have higher water and fiber contents, which provide have appetite-controlled properties. Papaya and strawberry are a great snack during craving. And you can serve lettuce and spinach with your main meals for better appetite control!
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) burns 9 times higher than conventional exercise. It stimulates body to convert fat store into energy effectively. For beginners: warm up, start 30 seconds intensive phase, follow by 90 seconds rest. Repeat 6-8 times. It takes 15-20 minutes. HIIT can be applied during cycling, running, and rope skipping, and so on. For obese or older adults, it is best to do it with the monitoring of professionals to avoid overloading yourself. Not enough time for exercise? It is not a valid excuse anymore!
No time for gym? According to World Health Organization, physical activity does not necessarily means running a marathon or playing competitive sports. It can be walking children to school or taking a brisk stroll in the park. Studies show that increasing daily walking steps is associated with a decline in the body fats, reduced waist girth and improved resting heart rate. Keep your daily steps no fewer than 7,500, as it helps avoid tummy fat accumulation. Use stairs but not elevator, alight two bus stops early, it all adds up to the steps taken per day.
Nothing is more exciting than doing your exercise and shopping at the same time. A research on shopping pattern shows that shoppers spent up to 86 minutes in shopping mall per visit. An 86 minutes of brisk walking can use up 500kcal! That is ¼ of the daily calorie intake of a normal weight adult! Incorporate brisk walking during your shopping spree for the extra calories burnt. A weekly shopping trip can help you lose 1kg in 4 months time, simple by walking faster in the mall!
There are simple exercises that you can do on your office chair without being noticed! Stretching relieves muscle tensions, especially for back and shoulder due to prolonged computer usage. Sit on a swivel chair. Lift your feet slight above ground. Support your body with both hands on the table. Twist your lower body to the left and right, keep your upper body straight. This helps to strengthen your back muscles. Stands up every hour for walk around. Best still if you can spare 10-min of your lunch time for whole body stretching or a short walk.
One pound of fat is approximately to 3500 calorie. Cut down 500kcal per day gives you 1 pound of fat lost per week. Cut down 250kcal per day by simply by skipping one slice of bread (75kcal), one tablespoon of peanut butter (90kcal), and three tablespoons of rice (90kcal). The rest of the 250kcal, you can burn it off easily with simple exercises: 15-min walk to office and 15-min back from office (95kcal) plus 20-min jogging. Set your weight target sensibly with the math! Remember not to push yourself too hard as it may cause lost weight rebound!
How is it that the Japanese are one of the slimmest people around? Their slimming secrets: Seaweed & Walking. The Japanese have been eating seaweed for centuries. Seaweed is added to many Japanese foods such as sushi, soup and even as garnishing on their rice or noodles. Not only is seaweed high in fibre, it is also rich in nutrients and contains Fucoxanthin, a fat-busting substance. In addition, Japanese office folks walk a lot everyday during their commute as most of them take public transport that requires them to walk 30 minutes or more to the train station and changing trains. We too can emulate the Japanese lifestyle by putting in additional time for walking, be it to the supermarket, an after-dinner stroll or exploring the city on foot during weekends.
