Health Image

The previous post on healthy exercises for couch potatoes continued this theme and right here, we’ll go even deeper with more of the same. So here, for all you couch potatoes is a further little gem that will continue this mini series with another great easy to do exercise that you can do at work and at your desk.

There’s nothing like appearing to be doing nothing when you are actually doing something, especially when its helping to improve your health in some way. So in this one of my exercises for couch potatoes, once again you are sitting idly at your desk – or so you appear to anyone who may cast a casual glance in your direction.

This is similar to the first of the exercises for couch potatoes I showed you only this time, as you are sitting up straight, place your hands palms down on the desk straight in front of you. Now with your forearms level, press down on the desk with as much pressure as is comfortable for you. Hold it for a few second, then release.

As before, repeat a few times until you start feeling that you’ve had enough – but you must be able to feel the muscles in your arms starting to get tired just a little first.

This great exercises for couch potatoes will tone up flabby upper arms and saggy “bingo wings” over time so its well worthwhile doing these simple exercises for couch potatoes as often as you are comfortable with.

As I mentioned in the last post, these exercises for couch potatoes are not meant to be a practical substitute for proper gym training and fitness. They are merely small ways to stave off complete motionless as is typical of a sedentary lifestyle. Instead, they can be slotted into your daily routine where you’d otherwise be dong nothing at all. They therefore become a small part of a healthy lifestyle they can help you to burn a few more calories during your day and tone up muscles as well.

It might not seem like much, but when it comes to promoting a health image to be proud of, every little helps!

Health Image

No comments »

Outdoor Lifestyle for Health is a nice way to get the momentum moving with some fresh air thrown into the bargain. My last post here at Health Image, focused on one of the most important aspects to any diet, water. Now we move our attention to the great outdoors, to get some of that healthy outdoor lifestyle benefits that come from being in the fresh air and open space.

Now not everyone has their own garden, but that doesn’t completely exclude you from this post or enjoying some outdoor lifestyle pleasures, as any outdoor space will do. So even if you live in an apartment but have an outside space like a terrace or balcony with enough room to sit out on a nice day, then this is for you to enjoy a little of life’s outdoor lifestyle pleasures.

Of course a garden has more appeal as there is more space to enjoy, but a balcony can be made to look inviting and close to nature by the addition of some potted plants to add greenery and the colour of some flowers to your space.

Then you need an open space big enough to put a small outdoor table and enough chairs for you and your family to sit in and you can enjoy outdoor lifestyle pleasures with some peace and fresh air sitting outside on a sunny day. Of course, if you live in an apartment in the centre of a big city, then that diminishes somewhat as cities are rarely quiet and peaceful and the air is far from fresh, so if this is you, then you need to get out to the countryside and chill out away from the smog and noise of the city every so often.

This has a health giving effect of enabling you to relax, breath fresh air, get some sun on your body and have some quality leisure time. In your own garden you can kick a ball around with the kids, or invite some friends over for a barbecue, or just sit in the sun for an hour and chill by yourself to have the benefit of the outdoor lifestyle pleasures that we all deserve.

Getting out of the house is the whole point of this. When it comes to getting some good, honest health and fitness, a breath of fresh air often helps the process along no end. Switch off that TV, computer, Playstation or whatever else is sapping your brains out through a straw and get outside and remind yourself what real nature looks like!

Enjoying life’s outdoor lifestyle pleasures is all about having a healthy lifestyle, after all.

2 Comments »

Good, healthy water is something that everyone should consider as a part of their everyday health plan. In my last post here at Health Image, I outlined some of the huge benefits of weight loss for health improvement overall. Here I want to take a closer look at that fundamental of all natural health sources, and one the human body cannot do without for normal functioning, water.

Before we continue on with this side of our lifestyle I mentioned in an earlier post about the importance of drinking enough water after exercise.

Well, it’s not just after exercise that you need to drink plenty of water. Read on…

Our bodies are 70% water and to lose even a small percentage of that will cause us to dehydrate. Dehydration can cause so many health related problems, I really don’t know where to even begin. Certainly, many headaches are caused by not drinking enough water in the day. Many digestive problems are also the direct result of not drinking enough water. From digestive problems you can branch out to an amazing selection of related health problems and illnesses that all have their root cause in the body being in a dehydrated state for prolonged periods of time.

This is so important that the message gets across to people everywhere because so many people do not even realize that they are dehydrating regularly and not replenishing sufficiently and then suffering all manner of related diseases and health problems that would not have occurred had they drank enough water every day to keep their level of hydration constant.

So what is the recommended amount of water to drink in a day?

That depends on where you live and what your lifestyle is, but a general rule of thumb is to drink at least two pints (roughly one and a half litres) of water per day. Obviously if you live in a very hot climate or you do heavy physical work, you’ll need to drink more water.

While you may think that it is all right to substitute this with fizzy soda drinks, or tea and coffee etc, while these will contribute to your overall liquid intake, they will do you more harm than good.

Tea and coffee contain caffeine, which acts to dehydrate you further, so whatever benefit you might get from that small amount of liquid is canceled out by the dehydrating effect they have on your body. Fizzy soda drinks contain a lot of sugar and artificial ingredients which are all bad for your body. Cola drinks also contain caffeine, and will dehydrate you similarly to tea and coffee. Low sugar, diet or sugar free drinks are even worse as they contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame that are believed to cause certain cancers amongst other hitherto unforeseen illnesses and conditions.

Don’t go arguing with me on that one, I don’t give a damn what the food industry says, it’s only protecting its own dirty backside. Artificial sweeteners are ALL bad so don’t do it if you want to be healthy – you have a choice and you can choose to say no to canned slow poison.

The only sure-fire way of staying healthy is to drink pure, still water.

If your local tap water is certified safe to drink, then it probably is but if you prefer bottled water, then do that or get a filter jug like a Brita and filter your own tap water – its cheaper than bottled and every bit as pure.

2 Comments »

Following the last post here at Health Image, in which I continued the theme on using exercise to improve your overall health and fitness levels, I’m going to move into a slightly different facet to a person’s health and look at the beauty side of health. That’s right, I’m actually going to change tack to have a look atone of the healthy ways to beauty tips that you can employ to take advantage of that better looking body!

This is going to cover some very simple healthy ways to beauty here and none of them involve any products that you buy in the stores or online. Nope, not a bit of it. Its all natural, in fact, so anyone can do it!

The first of our healthy ways to beauty that absolutely everyone can use is getting sufficient sleep! That’s right, they don’t call it beauty sleep for nothing.

Getting sufficient sleep every night works wonders for your skin’s complexion and reduces your chances of getting wrinkles sooner than you ought! When you’re young, it’s considered normal to burn the candle at both ends and stay up late at night and then get up late next day, but that is the way you’ll end up looking ten years older than you would when you get to middle age.

Sure, no one listens when they’re in their twenties because they think they know it all and why should they care about healthy ways to beauty and what they’ll look like in twenty years time? That’s a lifetime away so who cares, right?

Wrong.

You’ll get to your forties and seriously regret all those late nights you spent squandering your future good looks in your younger years. You’ll look in the mirror and see an old person staring back at you with a face full of lines and deep dark bags under your eyes if you don’t believe me.

None of that needs to happen, by the way. By taking some simple healthy options, like getting to bed earlier at least during the week and if you have to stay up late, just do it at the weekends.

The old saying, “early to bed and early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy and wise” has many elements of truth to it.

Our body clocks are set to the rising and setting of the sun, so it’s natural for us to be tired and want to sleep once the sun has set and then get a good eight hours sleep and wake up feeling refreshed at dawn. There is s more scientific fact that we get the best sleep before midnight – in fact it’s been proven that one hour’s sleep before midnight is as beneficial two hours sleep after midnight. It’s all to do with the sun, the tides and the rotation of the earth.

So by staying up after midnight every night your whole life will age you quicker than if you’d gotten a couple hours sleep in before midnight at least a few times a week.

And don’t forget, I’m talking about solar time here, not necessarily the time on your watch. If your country has daylight saving, then you are an hour ahead of the sun, so you can still go to bed at eleven pm and get two hours of pre-midnight sleep!

Here in Spain, in the province of Malaga our clocks are one hour ahead of GMT even though on the earth’s timeline we are actually a few minutes behind thanks to being only 4º west of Greenwich. So that means in summer when we have daylight saving, our clocks are almost two hours ahead of the sun, so solar noon actually occurs at just before two o’clock pm, and of course solar midnight is just before two o’clock am.

So when it comes to healthy ways to beauty, every little helps, right?

4 Comments »