5 Fab, Cheap ways to Shape up
Whoever came up with the idea that you have to spend a lot of money to get in shape? I’m not sure, but fitness is a huge industry these days. Millions of dollars are spent each year by people on gym memberships, crazy pieces of exercise equipment, diet pills, and other things. But, you can get in shape without spending lots of bucks on gadgets that may or may not work. Here are five ways to do that.
1. Walk. You can walk through the neighborhood during the evening after dinner. In the morning, walk with your kids to school if you don’t live more than a mile away. Walking is one of the best overall exercises for your cardiovascular system and to build a strong core. In the age of cars and other public transportation, we forget that we can still use our own two feet to get around.
2. Use an exercise DVD at home. It seems that every fitness trainer in the universe wants to make a video. You can learn everything from Pilates, kickboxing, yoga, tai chi and step aerobics to ball workouts and strength training in the privacy of your own home. The best thing about a DVD is that you can stop it when you get tired and use it at 5:30 in the morning or the same time at night. The cost of a DVD will pay for itself after one or two workouts.
3. Buy a set of dumbbells. You will invest some money in order to shape up, but you recoup your expenses in no time. A good set of dumbbells include a one, three, five and eight pound weight. For men, go up to fifteen pounds. Strength training is important for bone and muscle health as well as a quicker metabolism. Work one or two different body parts each day to work your entire body in a week for just pennies a day.
4. Buy a bicycle. A decent bicycle that fits your needs for riding in the park or through the neighborhood will cost you less than $100. You can even find great used bikes online nowadays. Use your bike to get a daily workout. Add a child seat on the back to take your little one along. Instead of driving, bike to the store. It is faster than walking and comes with its own air conditioner.
5. Buy some sports toys. A football, kickball, soccer ball and basketball can be purchased for relatively little money. Give yourself and your kids a daily workout by playing a game. Quick high impact moves build bone mass and keep your weight down. You’ll have so much fun that you won’t even think of it as exercise or notice that you’ve been playing that pickup game for an hour already.
Staying in shape increases your life expectancy. Keep your body healthy and your weight down with these inexpensive methods. Now get moving!
White Tea – a good choice?
If you are a tea drinker, surely you’ve had black teas, maybe herbal teas (peppermint, ftuit, etc), but have you tried White Tea? Have you heard of White Tea?
I thought it sounded a bit strange…kind of like white chocolate, which I’m not really a fan of. But, it does have some great qualities.
White tea gets its name from the silvery white hairs on the buds. White tea buds are picked in the early spring and care is taken to pick the best leaves and buds for the tea production. Picking is prohibited during inclement weather.
There are several white tea varieties, each of a different quality. The best is Silver Needle. Other types include White Peony, Long Life Eyebrow and Tribute Eyebrow. The process to create white tea involves much less processing than either black or green tea so it maintains more of its health benefit. Drinking a daily cup or two of white tea is said to be filled with life-preserving antioxidants. Also, the tea has a naturally sweeter taste than the other types.
One of the reasons that people drink green tea is its antioxidant properties and its contributions to weight loss. White tea is filled with many kinds of antioxidants like catechins and flavonoids, so why not try it out instead of your normal green tea tomorrow?
Antioxidants are crucial in our fight against free radicals, which are produced from pollution, exposure to the sun, the foods we eat and chemicals. They attack healthy cells and cause premature aging as well as diseases like cancer. Antioxidants surround free radicals and neutralize them before they can do any more damage to your body.
White tea uses these antioxidant properties to promote health in the body. For one, the flavonoids in white tea work to prevent the growth of cancerous cells. Antioxidants boost the immune system so that invading viruses, bacteria and other organisms are defeated by immune system cells.
White tea antioxidants also protect the heart and circulatory system. They lower cholesterol levels and prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). A heart that has to pump harder to move blood throughout the body is at increased risk for heart attacks.
Catechins help by lowering the level of bad LDL cholesterol; they eliminate the formation of hard cholesterol plaques which narrow blood vessels and lead to blood clots. Strokes are a possible result of blood clots that break off and travel through the body and lodge in a vessel in the brain.
In keeping with its high level of antioxidants, white tea contains minerals that help build healthy bones and teeth. Both of these are important as we age. Women can develop brittle bones during menopause. Finally, there is less caffeine in white tea which is good for everyone.
If you are drinking coffee, a switch to white tea may be in order!
To your heatlh,
Kimberly
