Photo Source: Rawfoodworld

Instead of grabbing a coffee for a boost of energy before your workout, you should be grabbing raw cacao. Raw Cacao is the unprocessed form of chocolate. It might sound a bit funny, but its health benefits are serious business – serious business that you should get in on. It’s a stimulant, but unlike coffee, it will not cause inflammation or a caffeine crash.  It is the greatest source of magnesium you can obtain from a whole food, and also contains the highest amount of antioxidants. Raw cacao triumphs over processed cacao because the latter form has lost most of its nutrient benefits. It can be bought in powder or whole nib form. Instead of buying a cup of coffee everyday, you can just nibble on these or put them in your smoothies. Save time, save money, and save your health!

Raw Cacao has been shown to…

• Lower blood pressure
• Improve circulation
• Promote cardiovascular function and health
• Improve digestion
• Neutralize free radicals
• Enhance physical and mental well-being

Cacao is a source of:

• Magnesium
• Calcium
• Zinc
• Iron
• Copper
• Potassium
• Sulfer
• Manganese
• Flavonoids
• Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B9, and E
• Oleic Acid
• Protein
• Fiber

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Source: iTunes Store

When it comes to losing weight, it’s all about a mathematical equation. You have to burn more than you eat. It’s simple but it can be complicated when you can’t keep track of what you eat. It’s not practical (or cool-looking) to carry around a food journal. That’s why food tracking apps are so beneficial – you always have them on you. Best of all – most of them are free!

So whether you need to track what you’re eating or just want to gain some more nutritional info, I highly recommended getting an app!

1.  MyPlate Calorie Tracker

This app is perfect for general calorie tracking. It was designed from LIVESTRONG.com, Lance Armstrong’s health and fitness website. Its best features are its simple design and its integration with the website for support groups, forums, and more! It’s easy to add physical tasks and food to get a glance at your eating to exercise ratio.

2. MyFitnessPal

This app’s biggest advantage is that it has the largest food database out of all iPhone calorie apps with over 3,000,000 foods! This includes meals at popular restaurants. You can also enter ingredients and serving sizes for your own recipes and then save them as meals to avoid wasting time entering the same dinners in time after time. It’s super easy to adjust portion sizes and edit your food diary. The app allows you to track exercise, graph your results and even scan a barcode for easy food entry!

3.40·30·30

Most apps track the amount of calories but what about the composition of your total consumption? This app ensures that you track not just your nutrition – but also the balance of nutrition. It can quickly and efficiently calculate the percent of protein, carbs and fats in each meal! Several popular diets recommend that your eating should consist of 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat! These quantities of macronutrient groups are essential to building muscle and losing fat!

It doesn’t really matter what app you decide to download – what matters is that you become more conscious of what you eat and how much. These apps are extremely beneficial and easy to use! There are #NoMoreExcuses!

The post The 3 Best (and Free!) Food Tracking Apps appeared first on OctaSlider.

During the day:

• Wake up at the same time every day, whether that’s 5:30 or 8:30. This ritual will help maintain your circadian rhythms and make it more likely you’ll fall asleep at the same time every night, too. Do not be one of those people who allows bedtime and awakening time to drift.

• As soon as you wake up, “get into some sort of daylight situation really quickly, even if it’s just stepping out on a balcony,” suggests sleep expert Joyce Walsleben, R.N., Ph.D. Bright light suppresses the production of melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone in your brain

• Exercise can promote good sleep. Vigorous exercise should be taken in the morning or late afternoon. A relaxing exercise can be done before bed to help initiate a restful night’s sleep

• If you need to make up for a few lost hours, opt for a daytime nap rather than sleeping late. This strategy allows you to pay off your sleep debt without disturbing your natural sleep-wake rhythm, which often backfires in insomnia and throws you off for days.

Before bed:

• Establish a regular relaxing bedtime routine. Do it every night. With time your body will see that these actions are a sign that it is soon time to sleep and your brain will trigger the release of sleep inducing hormones.

• Enjoy a nice herbal tea before bed, but avoid stimulants such as caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol. While alcohol is well known to speed the onset of sleep, it disrupts sleep in the second half as the body begins to metabolize the alcohol, causing arousal.

• Associate your bed with sleep. Be sure to fully reserve the bedroom for rest, sleep and sex. Other activities must be done elsewhere. It’s not a good idea to use your bed to watch TV, listen to the radio, or read.

• Try to avoid emotionally upsetting conversations and activities before trying to go to sleep. Don’t dwell on, or bring your problems to bed.

• Put your phone and laptop away before bed. The glow from the LCD screens tamper with the mind’s ability to  produce the proper hormones for sleep and relaxation.

Throughout the night:

• Sleep is greatly affected by the how hot or cold you are during the night. The ideal temperature for sleep is 69 degrees fahrenheit. Knowing this, try and find a balance between clothes and bed covers. Ensure room is well ventilated with proper airflow to remove fumes and used air.

• Although 8 hours of sleep is recommended, each person is different. Find your own magic sleep number for how much time you need to commit to rest and stick to it. Quality sleep is always better than quantity.

• Noise has an incredibly bad effect on your heart and waking up many times during the night puts your body under a lot of stress. Try and keep your room quiet by wearing some earplugs. You can get earplugs that only cancel out certain sounds so that you can still hear your alarm or a baby monitor on your bedside table.

• Ensure that at night your sleeping area is dark, yet that there is adequate exposure to natural light for when the morning comes. Light exposure helps maintain a healthy sleep-wake cycle.

The post Health and Sleep Hygiene appeared first on OctaSlider.

Photo Source: Sleepwarrior

You’ve heard about all the health benefits of normal green tea. Matcha green tea is like green tea on steroids. People may say to take everything in moderation, but that doesn’t really apply to matcha. In fact, drink as much of it as you can.

History:

While normal green tea is made by steeping the leaves in hot water, matcha green tea is a powder. It sits in the shade t in the months prior to harvesting the leaves and is then steamed, dried, sorted, de-stemmed, and lastly, finely ground. So instead of drinking the water resulting from steeped leaves, matcha green tea drinkers ingest entire leaves. Don’t worry, it tastes delicious, though maybe not at first…it’s an acquired taste.

Health Benefits:

Not only does matcha green tea taste great, but the health benefits are phenomenal in power and numbers. Compared to conventional green tea, matcha has 137 times the EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), which is an antioxidant that kills off free radicals: molecules that wreak havoc on your cells and cause age-related diseases, heart attack, stroke, and cancer. Matcha helps combat inflammation, oxidation and aging, lowers cholesterol, and detoxifies the body. Studies show that drinking matcha green tea increases the body’s fat-burning rate by 27-33%, and that exercising immediately after matcha consumption results in burning 25% more fat. That’s right; it’s perfect for athletes. Moreover, matcha is known for its stress-relieving and relaxation-promoting properties. This is because it contains a high level of L-theanine, an amino acid which induces alpha-wave activity in the brain. This is ideal for learning and helps matcha drinkers attain sustained mental clarity while counterbalancing nervous jitters that would come from coffee. Last but not least, matcha green tea is packed with a large amount of fiber, which helps digestion and stabilize blood sugar levels. So whether you just need a morning pick-me-up, want to maximize your workout, lose weight, or just drink healthily, matcha green tea is your best friend.

You can order some online, or find it in most tea stores such as David’s Tea, Teavana, Tealish, The Tea Emporium, and others depending on your area of residence.

Pro Tip: Matcha green tea goes great in smoothies!

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Photo Source: Insightfoods

I say greek yogurt, you say protein! If you’re not living under a rock, you know that greek yogurt has been invading the yogurt section at the grocery store for the last few years. And for good reason. A quick google search yields results singing praises about this superfood. Greek yogurt is thicker and creamier than conventional yogurt. It’s the perfect post-workout snack for athletes and weightlifters because it contains 2-3 times more protein than normal yogurt. A serving contains, on average, 17 grams of protein. It also contains much less sugar. While normal yogurt can weigh in at upwards of 10 grams of sugar (crazy, right?), greek yogurt revolves around 6 grams. With so many brands putting out greek yogurt, each one claiming its the best, be sure to check the label on yours.

Other great things about greek yogurt if you aren’t already hooked:

• It’s lower in lactose!
• Contains more probiotic cultures, which helps reset your digestive tract
• Keeps you full for longer (great for weight-loss!)
• Less fat and cholesterol
• Higher calcium content than normal yogurt
• Also contains potassium, zinc, and vitamins B6 and B12

Pro tips:

1. Swap out normal yogurt for greek yogurt in smoothies!
2. Mix in granola, fruits, peanut butter, or whatever you’d like in plain greek yogurt.
3. Put it in pasta sauce and add a meat of your choice! Get creative.

Greek yogurt is so versatile, tasty, and the perfect option for everyone (but especially athletes)!

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You’ve heard it before, and you’ll hear it again: drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. But it’s not so simple. Being hydrated is complicated, so I’ll boil it down.

Without water, we would die in about 3 days. In a state of dehydration, we start to age, and we egg on illness. It’s easy to become dehydrated because we lose water every minute just by sweating and going to the bathroom. For the average person, keeping hydrated is essential for overall bodily health and function. For athletes, hydration is imperative for peak performance; a lack of proper hydration can result in tired or cramped muscles, heat exhaustion, poor coordination, and a compromised ability to cool down body temperature.

Our bodies have 4 ways of regulating our bodily fluid reserves to help keep us balanced: hormones ADH (antidiuretic hormone) and aldosterone, the thirst mechanism, and our nervous system. The first three are what you should know more about. The body produces the hormones ADH and aldosterone when its body fluid reserves are low. These hormones work in ways that increase blood pressure so that more water and ions can be reabsorbed by the kidney. This process attempts to conserve sodium and potassium. When deregulated, ADH and aldosterone contribute to cardiovascular, and the latter to kidney (renal) disease.

Two ways humans can become dehydrated are through the loss of fluids and the loss of electrolytes. Electrolytes, when dissolved in fluid, tend to break apart into their component ions. The body’s 7 main electrolytes are sodium, calcium, chloride, magnesium, potassium, phosphate, and bicarbonate. An example of body function when it’s in a deficit of electrolytes is muscle weakness or cramping due to a deficiency of calcium, potassium, and sodium. On the other hand, too much sodium can cause high blood pressure. So how does one regulate electrolyte balance? Through a balanced diet. Food that is naturally high in electrolytes are fruits and vegetables, salt and sugar, nuts, bread, milk, fruit, rice, potatoes, and soups. Of course, there are many more, just a quick google search away.

For athletes and people who exercise regularly, this is important: contrary to what sports drink marketers claim, the body doesn’t require additional electrolytes from drinks like Gatorade for at least 1.5 hours. Average electrolyte loss rates by sweat from running or biking are about 1 gram per hour for sodium, and 0.2 grams per hour for potassium, which is less than one third of what the body holds.  However, the body can typically restore electrolyte loss for up to 1.5 to 3 hours! It is not recommended that athletes attempt to completely restore their electrolyte stores post-exercise.

If you’re concerned about your electrolyte intake, check out this link to see which foods you might want to add to your diet. Remember: start slowly, not all at once.

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Photo Source: Sifascorner

The superfood cinnamon is one of the oldest spices. Although some studies remain inconclusive regarding cinnamon’s health benefits and side effects, cinnamon is flavorful and can curb your daily sugar intake. It’s also delicious and easy to use!

Some studies have shown that cinnamon can…

• Lower cholesterol
• Regulate blood sugar
• Help yeast infections
• Prevent cancer by reducing the amount of leukemia and lymphoma cancer cells
• Prevent blood clots
• Provide arthritis relief
• Boost cognitive function and memory
• fight E. Coli

It is also a great source of:

• Fiber
• Iron
• Calcium

Try adding cinnamon to your coffee beverages, sliced apples or toast. Or, if you’re bored of drinking water, make this at night!

Naturally Flavored Apple Cinnamon Water

You’ll need:

• 1 Apple of your choice
• 2 Cinnamon sticks
• 1 Pitcher

Slice up your apple, put them and your cinnamon sticks to a pitcher. Fill with water and let it steep overnight. You will be surprised with how much flavour soaks into the water!

The water can be refilled about four times before you’ll need new ingredients.

The post Cinnamon: Spice-Up Your Diet with this Superfood appeared first on OctaSlider.

Photo Source: Themedifastplan

Yerba mate tea is native to Northeastern Argentina, Bolivia, Southern Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. Traditionally, it is drunk out of a hollow gourd with a filtered metal straw. Surprisingly, it is more of a communal activity in its native lands. It is the equivalent of North Americans meeting at coffee shops. And this is tea we’re talking about (crazy, right?).  It’s a powerfully healthy drink.

Coffee may be the go-to choice to combat morning sleepiness, but it’s not half as great as yerba mate tea. Coffee has an inflammatory effect, results in delayed sleepiness (aka caffeine-crash), and with high intake, causes that jittery feeling. Besides that, what is often heard from coffee drinkers is that their body is awake, but their mind isn’t. The solution? Yerba Mate. Your body might be tired, but your mind will be wired. With health benefits to boot, what’s not to love?

Nutritional benefits include:

• 24 vitamins and minerals, and 15 amino acids that include Vitamin B, C, manganese, potassium, and zinc

• Anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and hypotensive effects

• Prevents artery-clogging

• Helpful for asthma

• A cup of yerba mate has about twice the amount of caffeine as black tea, but less than half that of coffee.

You can order yerba mate tea online or find it in stores such as David’s Tea, Teavana, Tealish, The Tea Emporium, or your local health food store.

The post In Lieu of Coffee: Yerba Mate Tea appeared first on OctaSlider.

• Routine: If you create a routine of working out, it is more likely you won’t fall off track. Waking up 30 minutes earlier will make sure that it fits in your daily schedule, instead of getting distracted by other errands that may come up later on in the day.
• Good start to the day: Exercising is a great way to start your day. You feel energized, and will be more alert than your coffee chugger coworkers when you arrive at work!
• Exercise harder: Research has shown that you don’t have the same amount of energy later in the day then what you had in the morning. Therefore you won’t work out as long as hard as you would earlier.

I choose to see it like this: I either wake up 30 minutes earlier and feel great throughout the day, or I can sleep those extra 30 minutes, and miss the extra boost of energy and satisfaction.

To make it as easy as possible to get up, I make sure I have all the ingredients to my favorite smoothie the night before so that I have something to look forward to. All it takes is a half hour doing my in-home exercise routine to give me that extra energy boost!

When do you prefer to work out?

The post Morning Workout: What An Extra 30 Extra Minutes Will Do For You appeared first on OctaSlider.

Photo Source: Healingisessential

When I suggest to someone almonds as a snack, they respond, “almonds have too much fat”. But there’s a reason why almonds are dubbed a superfood. Despite the common belief that almonds are too high in fat, most of the calories are actually from UNsaturated fat. The number of almonds that’s optimal for nutrient absorption is exactly 23 almonds, in which there are 160 calories.

Here’s a laundry list of all the things almonds are good for:

• Almonds lower the risk of heart attack. According to the Loma Linda School of Public Health, those who consume nuts 5 times a week lower their risk of heart attack by about 50%!
• Phosphorous in almonds help build strong bones and teeth (if you don’t like milk, have some almonds!)
• Potassium in almonds regulate blood pressure
• Fiber in almonds keep you full for longer – ideal for weight loss!
• Lowering bad cholesterol
• Boosting brain function and activity
• Lowering blood sugar levels and increasing insulin response after meals. This protects against diabetes.
• Improving immune system, fight free radicals and cancer (especially colon cancer, as almonds help clean out the bowels)
• Good source of Vitamin E, calcium, magnesium, and protein

Ditch the snack you’re holding and grab a handful of almonds. They’ll get the job done faster and better.

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