Limited mobility is a problem that affects many Americans, and not just in older age. Mobility in the joints lessens over time, but other factors can lead to poor mobility, often leading to stiffness and discomfort. Treatment options to improve mobility are available from Florida Well Medical Group – our skilled team will help you achieve a greater range of motion.
Poor mobility may develop due to a range of factors, mainly including:Continue reading
Taking walks comes with a number of physiological and psychological benefits. Regular morning walks help you shed excess body fat, keep your blood sugar under control, ease your stress levels, and improve your immune system. And when you make walking your daily routine, it helps you burn calories which will keep you in shape. Based on a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise in 2010, an official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, research professionals used pedometers to monitor the steps of 1,136 US adults. The study showed that US adults walk fewer steps than those in Switzerland, Japan, and Australia. In fact, these three countries have fewer cases of cardiac disease and obesity reported than America. Considering this, here are three easy ways to make your walking more beneficial:
According to a study at the Michigan State University in 2011 that included 5,900 adults and 2,710 pet owners, 60 percent of the participants who walked with their dogs met typical workout requirements. Another study by researchers at the University of Western Australia found that seven out of 10 dog owners who walked their pets managed to get 150 minutes of physical exercise each week. Out of 10 non-owners, only four could manage to get the same exercise.
Listen to cheerful music while walking to take your exercise to the next level. Fitness professionals in the country recommend creating playlists that match with the duration of your workout. So,instead of looking at your watch, enjoy some upbeat music while walking around the block.
If you love technology and modern gadgets, why not use a walking app on your smartphone? These applications will help you monitor your steps based on the data you provide. And when you meet your fitness goals, you will not only feel healthy but will also get a sense of achievement. Consider using a pedometer while walking because research shows that people who wear it walk approximately 2,000 steps daily. Increase your target over time instead of aiming for 10,000 steps on the first day.
There are many ways to help you stay fit and in shape. Walk daily, have fun, and make your workout a little challenging to achieve the desired results. If you have any further questions about walking and how to keep yourself fit, consult one of our Florida Wellness Medical Group professionals today.
Do you want to lose belly fat, reduce weight, and stay slim? We have news for you. Ditch rigorous exercises and deprivation diets to see some great results. Research suggests that taking small steps instead of big ones give you beneficial results in the long run. According to a study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, it was proved that people who made little changes to their diet or exercise routine every week shed four times more fat (during a 120-day program) than those who adhered to normal weight loss and exercise guidelines. So, if you want to see some great numbers on the scale, follow these baby steps to achieve your fitness goals:
Wake up 15-20 minutes earlier in the morning to find time for some light cardio exercises such as jumping rope, jogging, jumping jacks, or a brisk walk in the park. These physical activities will keep your heart healthy. You can walk to your office if it is within walking distance. However, if you travel by car, consider parking your car a little farther from your office.
Never skip breakfast, or else your hunger pangs later will entice you to make poor diet choices like eating a burger or pizza. As we all know, fast food isn’t good for our health and can potentially cause high blood pressure, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. Include more complex carbs such as brown bread, eggs, and lean proteins in your breakfast to give you energy as well as keep you feeling satisfied until lunch time.
Alcoholic beverages and sugar are harmful to both your health and your sleep quality. If you want to see a receding waistline or sleep soundly at night, limit or stop altogether your sugar and alcohol consumption. The results will surprise you.
Stay away from after-dinner snacks if you want to control your calorie intake. Drink water after dinner to keep feeling full. You will feel your tummy lighter when you wake up in the morning. Limit watching TV in the evening as you may start craving snacks while sitting idle. Instead, take a walk or play a board game with your family; call friends or relatives to catch up with them; or complete some household chores.
Eat healthy and follow a healthy lifestyle to lose weight. Aim for little steps instead of giant leaps to achieve impressive results. If you have any questions, consult with one of Florida Wellness Medical Group’s health and nutrition experts today.
An active lifestyle is the key to staying fit and happy. If you have a demanding career, however, then you know that maintaining a good physical activity level (PAL) is easier said than done. Have you ever wished to deduct a few hours from a normal work day so that you could have some time to exercise? Well, you are not alone. Ask your friends, and most of them will tell you that they can hardly squeeze in any time for exercise. What if you could sneak some movements into your everyday routine without hampering your work or personal engagements? Well, we can tell you five ways to do just that.
Yes, it’s true. Normal household work helps burn a good deal of calories. Depending on the type of housework, vacuuming the house, mowing the lawn, or washing the car by hand can burn over a thousand calories per day. Reaching, twisting, stretching, lifting— everything burns calories.
Did you know that standing periodically can help you burn almost 50 calories per hour. Get up often from your desk. Stand while talking to others. Instead of talking over the phone or chatting over the Internet, walk up to a colleague to deliver your message. Stand while presiding over a meeting or giving a presentation.
Can the simple act of sitting help you burn calories? The answer is yes, but you will have to say goodbye to your office chair and practice sitting on a stability ball. The ball’s instability will make you constantly put efforts for staying steady. The result? You burn 112 to 165 calories per hour and also get toned abs and limbs.
Leave the car in the garage – just walk to the supermarket to buy your daily groceries. It may not be intense, but it can be very effective to kick start your metabolism for the day.
Don’t sit for more than one hour at a time. Set an alarm for every 50 minutes. Every time the alarm goes off, leave the seat and walk around for a few minutes. This little effort will make both your circulation system and metabolism run on top gear.
If there is a will, there is a way. If you truly want to incorporate some movements in your everyday routine, you CAN do that. Our tips just showed you the way. If you need more guidance, get in touch with one of the health experts of Florida Wellness Medical Group to learn what lifestyle changes you should adopt to stay healthy and feel better.
Do you indulge in a high-protein and low-carb diet? Do you eat raw foods or green smoothies because you think they are healthy? We have news for you, experts believe that these food items may not be supercharged with health benefits after all. Here are three things that you must keep in mind, especially if you are trying to control your weight:
Be it protein shakes, bars or brownies, the latest health trend is to gorge on food rich in protein. But, when you’re sweating it out at the gym, you need carbohydrates as well because carbohydrates give you energy. You must stay away from protein snacks that have artificial fillers and unhealthy sugar alcohols. Ditch the high-protein/low-carb food items and switch to healthy carbohydrates such as oats, brown rice and quinoa to maintain an attractive waistline. Eat proteins like skinless chicken, fish, eggs, lean meat, nuts or legumes as part of your daily meals.
Besides milk, vegetables or fruits, a smoothie is usually loaded with chocolate, honey, syrups, and peanut butter. These ingredients make your so-called ‘health drink’ unhealthy with additional kilojoules. It’s not even good for your teeth as research shows that it results in enamel erosion, especially if consumed between meals. Make your smoothie healthy with leafy greens, fresh fruits, skim milk, yogurt and seeds. Avoid adding syrups, coconut water or too many fruits in your smoothie. It’s not good to add too much fat and sugar. Drink your smoothie at meal times and not between meals.
Large portions of bananas, grapes, or carrots might do more harm than good to your waistline as they contain more sugar than you need. Enjoy raw food occasionally but not all the time. Eat them in moderation, as snacks, and not as meals.
Eat healthy, nutritious food that’s good for your waistline. Avoid eating things just because they are in vogue. If you have any doubt, consult with our experienced food, nutrition and wellness consultants right away. They will help you stay fit and lose weight through lifestyle changes and exercise.
Metabolism is a set of life-sustaining bio-chemical processes that facilitate the conversion of food to energy. The rate differs from one person to another and is the deciding factor for a number of health conditions. For instance, the rate at which your body converts food to energy (and burns calories) can directly affect how you lose or gain weight and how much you are at risk for metabolic disorders such as diabetes and heart diseases. Although it depends to a significant extent on your age, genetic pattern, and body size, you can actually speed up this process. All you need to do is make a few positive lifestyle changes. Here are five ways you can give your metabolism a natural boost:
Wear loose clothing and use only light sheets for covering your body while sleeping at night. Sleeping in a temperature-controlled environment will help you activate your brown fat deposits, a kind of ‘good fat’ that actually burns calories to produce body heat. Brown fat also helps you burn other fat and increases your metabolic rate.
Chuck note: advising readers to set their air conditioners to such a low temperature is not a feasible piece of advice.
Stress may not only cause you to binge on the wrong kind of food, but also slows down your body’s ability to burn calories. Studies have shown that people, especially women, tend to burn 104 fewer calories (per day? Per week? More information needed here) when stressed out. This deficit may translate into a weight gain of more than 10 pounds (over what period of time?) More information needed here). Stress speeds up the release of cortisol, the hormone associated with the slowing down of metabolism, which increases your risk for obesity in the long run. Spend more time doing whatever you love to do to lower the stress level.
Not getting a good night’s sleep may increase the secretion of cortisol, which in turn affects your metabolic rate. Hitting the bed early is not enough; you need to have a sound, corrective sleep to perk up the metabolism rate.
Know what? Hot and spicy food can give you a slimmer waistline. Capsaicin, a substance found in chilies, can speed up fat loss. In addition, pungent foods like mustard, wasabi, and horseradish, which are rich in a chemical called isothiocyanate, may add to your mass of brown fat, subsequently speeding up the metabolic rate. A delicious route to flatter abs, isn’t it?
… or tea, hot or iced. Caffeine consumption can increase your metabolism, but don’t go overboard. Do not forget to avoid caffeinated beverages with too much milk and sugar.
Worried about rapid weight gain? Afraid of getting diabetes as the ‘family heirloom’? Stressed out about the health of your heart? Simply keep a tab on your metabolism and prevent your waistline from getting out of shape. Our tips will come in handy with keeping your metabolism on the top gear.
How do you define toe cramps in a word?
TERRIBLE
You wake up suddenly in the middle of the night with a piercing pain in your toe. Cuff muscles stiff, foot flexed and legs immovable. This lasts a few minutes and then everything is back to normal.
All of us know how toe cramps feel.
However, if these incidents become too frequent, then you might want to be a bit more careful and consult a doctor. In many cases, it might signify a critical medical condition in the circulatory or central nervous systems. Here are three possible reasons and ways to deal with toe cramps.
Do you exercise every day? It’s a great thing if you do. But do you maintain a schedule? Too much of a workout can put excessive pressure and stress on your muscles, causing toe cramps. On the other hand, if you do not exercise, blood circulation decreases, which can also be the reason for toe cramps. So, exercise every day, but in moderation.
Dehydration is one of the most common reasons for toe cramps. Plain water may not always be helpful, so we recommend you to drink glucose water and eat food that is rich in potassium and calcium.
One of the common reasons to have a spasm is wearing the wrong shoe. If you always prefer to wear high heels, it’s time to shift to flats on occasion. Also, you need to find the right pair that can match the structure of your body.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for toe cramps, so you need to be careful and follow the above tips to avoid it. Proper diet is essential to decrease any mineral deficiencies.
Prescribing quinine is no longer permitted by the FDA because of the efficacy and safety controversy.
Still have questions? Get in touch with us today.
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise,” goes this old adage. There is a strong connection between sleeping well and being healthy. And who does not know that the groundwork of all happiness is health? Following are just a few ways how getting your ZZZs can bring in health and happiness.
Sound sleep rejuvenates your brain cells and gives you a razor-sharp memory. Therefore, a healthy sleep pattern helps enhance your mental agility, and lets you learn, remember and act fast.
Proper amount of sleep does not only delay the aging of your brain, but also gives you younger-looking skin. This is because sleep promotes the secretion of growth hormones, which offer great anti-aging benefits.
Good sleeping habits strengthen your immune system. It also keeps certain diseases such as cardiovascular ailments, obesity and diabetes at bay, and quite obviously, good health improves longevity.
Did you know that lack of sleep might affect how you conduct yourself in public? Well, when you are deprived of proper sleep over a period of time, managing even fairly low levels of stress becomes difficult. You face more difficulties in controlling your negative emotions. Sleeping disorders such as insomnia or obstructive sleep apnea also tend to make you depressed. Sound sleep on the other hand finds you in a better mood, so that you are better prepared for facing the world.
Lack of sleep aggravates pain. On the other hand, you feel better when you are well-rested. When you are asleep, your strained nerves and muscles repair themselves, thus helping you heal faster.
There is a misconception that you tend to lose weight due to lack of sleep. In reality, inadequate sleep actually affects your metabolism and you start gaining weight. Furthermore, lack of sleep causes the level of leptin – a hormone that gives us a feeling of fullness – drop, making us binge on high-calorie food.
Focus more on what makes you happy and avoid whatever triggers negative emotions. You will fall asleep faster and get more sleep. You will wake up feeling more refreshed the following day. You will soon discover a more optimistic and more energetic you. Need a bit of guidance there? Contact one of our wellness consultants and be on your path to better health.
