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lose fat

Health

Green Tea – Part 1

February 18, 2014
green tea - part 1

Green Tea – Part 1

Green tea – it’s become a major player in the health and fitness world, and for good reason. There are many benefits to drinking green tea, although unfortunately, most of green tea’s benefits have been highly skewed by the fitness industry in their quest to market green tea as the ‘miracle fat loss drug.’ Green tea extract fat burners, dieter’s green tea, the list goes on.

Green Tea - Part 1

Source: www.myessentia.com

Now that’s not to say that green tea can’t help you with losing weight, and adding to your health and quality of life; quite the opposite in fact. Green tea DOES have many health benefits, and I wanted to give you guys the cold hard facts about green tea. Without further ado, here is my green tea – part 1 post.

So to start my research off, I decided to look at a few academic studies that have been done on green tea and its weight loss, and other health benefit links. Let me just say that reading scientific articles are n o t fun. Sure, they have really interesting content but sheesh, the language … the language! Everything is epicatechin this, supernatant that … which is exactly why most people just accept the health benefits of green tea with little to no research into it. And I definitely don’t blame you guys!!! However, someone has to do it AND give you all an honest and real summary of green tea’s health benefits soooo here goes nothing 🙂

There have been scholarly articles written about green tea since the 1970s (as far as i could tell), and a whole bunch in the last decade. What is so special about green tea, and various other tea’s is this ingredient: C A T E C H I N S

EGCG’s belong to a group of compounds called catechins, Catechins are a type of flavanol, which is essentially a naturally occurring antioxidant (which can, but not neccessarily, help prevent cancer). Catechins include several different compounds, and in green tea these are:

E P I G A L L O C A T E C H I N
E P I C A T E C H I N G A L L A T E,
E P I G A L L O C A T E C H I N G A L L A T E (EGCG)

Phew, what a mouthful!!!

Okay guys, you still with me? Okay, awesome!! Let’s continue.

The EGCG is the thing we wanna focus on, because out of the three compounds given above, EGCG is the big daddy, and the compound that is you find the biggest amount of in green tea.

Sorry for the chemistry lesson guys! After reading several different articles (not all of which are posted below), here is a round up of the health benefits of green tea:

  • Can help in fat and weight loss due to its ability to increase energy levels, and fat oxidation (obviously if you are eating a terrible diet and not exercising, it won’t help much)
  • Can help regulate blood glucose levels (important because crazy all over the place blood sugar levels can make you crazy hungry .. I’ll talk more about blood sugar levels in another post)
  • Studies have shown promising results in using green tea in the fight against various types of cancers (does NOT mean that drinking green tea will 100% prevent cancer)
  • Can help keep your breath clean (lol)
  • Can be helpful in making you feel less bloated (this is just from personal experience, and this probably just happens because you are running to the bathroom so much!)

Alright guys, I am going to end part I there. I think that’s enough information for one day. Stay tuned for part II where I will talk about how much green tea you should drink, and my own personal experiences with green tea. It will be a much lighter blog post and not as intense as this one I promise 🙂

I hope you all enjoyed this post, and please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for a new post!

Honestly Yours,
Alice

Key sources:
Green Tea and Theamine: Health Benefits – Raymond Cooper
Going Green: The Role of the green tea component EGCG in Chemoprevention – Laura Schramm
Emerging Evidence for Tea Benefits – Carrie Ruxton
Nutrition and Health Info Sheet – Karrie Heneman and Sheri Zidenberg-Cherr
Nutrient Data Laboratory US Department of Agriculture. USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of
Selected Foods. US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, 2007 (chart)

Beauty, Health

Crazy for Coconut Oil

February 11, 2014

Wow, so the most hits I have had on a blog post so far has been on the one about facial oils. Since a friend of mine pointed out that I had not included coconut oil, I decided it was time to explain why. Coconut oil is great as a facial oil, but I chose not to write about it then because coconut oil can also be used for a variety of things, completely unrelated to skin!

crazy for coconut oil edit

Coconut oil first starting blowing up because it has a ton of health benefits, as well as being gluten-free (celiacs rejoice!) and sugar-free (people trying to lose weight rejoice!). It was shunned for a long time by the health community due to its high content of saurated fats which was said to be linked to heart disease. A lot of new research has emerged that has refuted this by saying that it does NOT lead to heart disease or high serum cholesterol. Another study was conducted which found that adding coconut oil into an individuals diet seems to promote a reduction in abdominal fat. With all research though everyone, be sure to place it in context. These studies are not saying that MASS QUANTITIES of coconut oil will benefit you, they are simply implying that there are health benefits to using coconut oil. So be sensible, and use coconut oil sparingly as it is high in calories which means that if you eat 6 tablespoons a day, you are eating an extra 700+ calories. Make it fit within what your body needs (most people are recommended to keep the percentage of fat they eat to 20-35% of total calories).

Anyway, here is a list of some ways you can use coconut oil 🙂 You should be buying organic (if you can) virgin cold pressed coconut oil because it contains no hydrogenation.

1. Coconut oil can be used in cooking. Use a teaspoon, or table spoon of cold pressed coconut oil in place of your normal cooking oil. It can also be used in fun ways such as in smoothies, in your morning coffee, or as a butter replacement in baking. I LOVE baking with coconut oil and love the taste, but it is not for everyone. It is also amazing spread on toast with some mashed up berries.

2. Coconut oil can be used for your hair. This is not one I have tried personally just yet (quite happy with my serum), but I have heard from various online and in person sources that it has done wonders for their hair. Michelle Phan recommends using some as a hair moisturizer by leaving it in your hair for 30 minutes (or overnight!) and then rinding it out and shampooing and conditioning your hair as normal.

3. Coconut oil can be used as a make up remover. Yep, I use either coconut oil or one of my facial oils as a natural make up remover and it is fabulous. And what a good way to moisturize the area surrounding your eyes!

4. Coconut oil can be used as a moisturizer. It is great for particularly dry and cracked areas, such as the elbows. I also use it on my hands during the winter to protect the skin of my hands from getting gross and crackly. And this is a weird tip .. but if you moisturize some coconut oil into your feet, put some socks on and go to sleep, I swear you will ahve the softest feet in the world!!

5. Coconut oil can be used to make body scrubs. I have used it to make a brown sugar body scrub by using a ratio of 1parts coconut oil to 2 parts brown sugar (so for example mix 1 cup of coconut oil with 2 cups of brown sugar). You can also find other body scrub ideas here and here 🙂

6. Coconut oil can be used to make deodorant. Isn’t that wild?! Learn how to make a natural coconout oil deodorant here.

7. Coconut oil can be used as a massage oil. Kind of speaks for itself. If you want to give your significant other (or friend who you lost a bet with) a massage, simply warm up some coconut oil and use it in place of a normal massage oil.

8. Coconut oil can be used for oil pulling. I know right, what the heck is oil pulling? Well, oil pulling is seen as a natural way to whiten your teeth, and to boost oral health by cleaning gums and removing bacteria .. pretty cool huh? What you need to do is put 1-2 teaspoons in your mouth (let it melt first, in or out of your mouth) and then literally just swish it around for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes is up, spit it out into your trash can. Let me know how this goes for you!

9. And last but not least, coconut oil can be used as a natural lubricant 🙂 I got told this by a friend who had it tried and tested, much to her satisfaction lol.

we love coconut oil

I hope this was helpful and enlightens you as to why there is so much buzz over coconut oil. Let me know if you try out any of the suggestions above! Thank you so much for reading, and please leave a comment or subscribe if you enjoy the posts.

Honestly yours,
Alice

Academic Sources
Coconut Oil Consumption and Coronary Heart Disease – Kaunitz, H. and Dayritz, C.S. Columbia University, New York
Effects of Dietary Coconut Oil on the Biochemical and Anthropometric Profiles of Women Presenting Abdominal Obesity – Assuncao et al, 2009.

Fitness

Glide your way to toned

January 14, 2014

If I’m right, the area’s women tend to be most concerned about are the abs, legs and butt. Am I right?

Of course there are other area’s we all want to be perfectly toned and slim, like our arms, backs and etc, but the three mentioned above are what I always hear women complain about. How can I tone my legs? How can I tone my abs? How can I look like a Victoria Secret model? How can I tone up fast? All valid questions. I have quite a petite frame and although I have never been fat (although I was definitely overweight as a middle schooler), I have always been on the lookout on how to shed some extra body fat, and tone up those problem area’s. I mean come on, apart from Victoria Secret models, who doesn’t want to lose a little fat and tone up a little?

Glide your way to toned

Glide your way to toned workout

Although a number of factors come into play when shedding body fat and toning up, I am going to talk about an awesome, little, and portable piece of equipment that has given me a whole range of new exercises to do, and has really helped tone up my stomach. I am still on my fitness journey and am nowhere near my ideal body yet, but man oh man, I am so happy to have discovered this baby!

Glide your way to toned workout

Ta-da, super sliders! Super sliders, commonly known as furniture sliders, are what they say they are. They literally help you slide around heavy objects, like furniture … and human bodies! You guys probably think I am nuts and are wondering how on earth I use furniture sliders to tone my abs, legs and booty. I will explain that in a moment, along with a few exercise demonstrations right after I explain how I discovered them.

I first came across the concept of using sliders when I heard about Valslides, which are the creation of celebrity fitness trainer Valerie Waters. I thought they were a great concept, and a new and fun way to really push your routine that extra mile and challenge your muscles in a new and different way. However, as awesome as Valslides are, they are not cheap. They are around $30 dollars for a set and frankly, I was not willing to pay that much for something that seemed like quite a simple product. I did some intensive Google searching and came across a forum which recommended Super Sliders as a substitute for Valslides. They were only $10 from Lowes so I decided to buy them because even if they didn’t work out, $10 won’t break the bank. Let me just say that I am SO happy I did. Not only did they look exactly like Valslides, I actually got 2 pairs instead of 1 🙂 Now they’re a regular part of my workout routines and have been a fun and quite difficult little addition.

The following are my favourite slider moves. Let me know how they work out for you guys, and if you want more moves or even a whole workout utilizing them, then please let me know. For any followers who are located outside of the U.S wanting a super slider, I would be happy to send them to you. If so, please leave your email address below so I can contact you about it.

Honestly yours,
Alice

P.S. If any of you have any advice or experience with video editing, I would love to hear how I can make my video’s better! I am hoping that the more I make, the better I will get, so please bear that in mind when watching the above video 🙂