10 Tips for Eating and Exercising

Food and exercises go hand in hand!

Depending on what and how you eat, you can maximize the effects of your exercises. In this respect, we’ve compiled a list of 10 tips for eating and exercising:

1. Don’t exercise on an empty stomach

It is a common misconception that it is better not to eat anything before exercising as this will cause you nausea and cramps. While it is recommended that you don’t stuff yourself right before exercising, you do need energy in order to fuel your activities. The ideal situation would be to consume as much energy as you take in, thus keeping everything in balance.

Also, note that exercising on an empty stomach does not burn excess fat more quickly; it may just force your body to start using proteins as fuel and cause muscle atrophy.

2. Don’t skip meals

Skipping meals, especially breakfast, may cause low blood sugar. When you wake up, most of the energy you got from dinner is gone, so exercising before taking breakfast may cause problems mentioned in the tip above. If you want to exercise in the morning, you can eat a smaller breakfast packed with nutrients and energy.

3. Know when to eat

In order to reduce any stomach discomfort during your activity, it is better to let the food to fully digest before exercising. Depending on the person and the size of the meal they had, the time needed could vary between half an hour (a liquid meal or a small snack) and more than four hours (high fat food).

4. Plan your meals and exercises

As suggested by the above tips, planning your meals and exercises is extremely important. Plan your day in advance, think about the type of exercise you will do, how much effort it requires and eat a proper meal for it, taking into consideration the time needed to digest it.

5. Know your energy sources

Carbohydrates are the fuel that keeps the body running. Eating foods high in carbohydrates and low in fat will improve your performance. Good carbohydrate sources include vegetables, baked potatoes, bread, cereal, fruits, pasta, rice.

Protein is not the best choice in providing energy for the body, but they do have an important role in developing and repairing your muscles. Good protein sources are: chicken, salmon and tuna, yogurt, cheese, milk, eggs.

Fat takes more to digest so it is better to avoid it before exercising. However, you shouldn’t exclude it from your diet. Taken in smaller amounts, vegetable oils, nuts or fatty fish that provide the body with unsaturated fats that are good for your exercises.

6. Drink plenty of water

Water is essential for the body. While making physical effort, your body produces heat that is eliminated through perspiration. While perspiring, you lose water and electrolytes like potassium, calcium, sodium and chloride.

In order to stay well hydrated during your exercises, you need to replace the fluids lost. In most cases, water is the best fluid to dink when exercising. It is recommended that you drink about 2 cups (0.5 liters) or a bit more 2 or 3 hours before your exercise. You should also drink water during and after your exercises.

However, if you are a pro athlete and the amount of effort you put in your exercises is considerably high, you should try a sports drink that will also replace the electrolytes that you lose.

7. Avoid some foods

Avoid fatty food like fries, fat-rich meats, potato chips, doughnuts and candy bars right before exercising as they will take more to digest and may cause you discomfort. You should also avoid caffeine as it only helps by acting as a stimulant to the nervous system but may have serious side effects and cause dehydration.

Stay away from sweets as well. They will cause a sudden rise in insulin resulting in a drop in blood sugar levels.

8. What to eat before exercising

Carbohydrates will quickly give you enough calories for you to burn during your exercises. Possible foods you may include are: bread, fresh fruit, pasta, baked potatoes, energy bars and yogurt.

9. What to eat while exercising

It’s not recommended to consume food during exercises. If you need extra fuel, you can have an energy bar, some fruit juice or sports drink. Most importantly, don’t forget to hydrate yourself by drinking plenty of water. You can avoid the unwanted muscle cramps if you just drink a mouthful of water every 10 or 15 minutes.

10. What to eat after exercising

Don’t eat a heavy meal during the first hour preceding your exercises. If you’ve made considerable effort, you can have a nutritious snack with carbohydrates and protein after your exercise: nonfat yogurt or ice-cream, apples with low-fat cheese or two whole bread sandwiches with thin slices of turkey.

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Best 10 Benefits of Running

Most of us know that exercises have a very good influence on our health. Of all exercises,running is one of the most common and most recommended one for staying in shape and boosting our health.

I thought it will be interesting to create a quick list with the most important 10 health related benefits of running. Here is the list:

1. Weight Control

Most people start running because they want to control their body weight. You start loosing weight when you burn more calories than you assimilate, thus making your body turn to the fat it has stored in order to compensate the energy deficit. Running is considered to be one of the most effective exercises when it comes to burning calories. In fact, a typical runner who takes running seriously can burn up to 500 calories in less than an hour.

2. Building Up Your Bones and Muscles

There is a very strong connection between the development of our muscles, bones and effort. Muscles and bones will grow depending on the efforts required of them. By sitting at your desk all day, your bones and muscles will get weaker in time. A very good solving solution for this problem is running, because this exercise is highly demanding on your bones and muscles. Running will trigger bones to become more dense and will also help build muscle tone.

3. Heart and Blood Benefits

In response to running on a regular basis, your heart will be more healthy and your blood pressure will lower. Running also lowers your cholesterol level and reduces the risk of blood clots and heart attacks.

4. Relieving Stress

It’s a proven fact that running lowers stress level. Speed running can also release anger and frustrations and can calm you down. Running long distances can help you find solutions to your problems or, even better, can make you forget about them for awhile and clear your mind for a few moments. After a running session you’ll feel better, be more optimist and have a better morale in general.

5. Building Up Self-Esteem

People who exercise by running have shown to be more confident in their own strengths. After constantly surpassing the limits of your own body, you will get stronger with every run and your self-esteem will build up. Results like loosing weight, stronger muscles or better health in general, after maintaining a rigorous running exercise program, will also make you feel better about yourself.

6. Slowing Down the Aging Process

As mentioned above, regular running exercises will make your bone and muscle structure stronger. Those who live a sedentary life will have a weaker skeleton and muscle loss, thus making them more susceptible to various diseases. Having strong bones and muscles becomes more important as you age and both will leave a mark on your looks.

7. Willpower

Running is not easy. It can be a very painful experience, especially for newcomers and that is why most people drop it after a few runs and fall to their old habits. By surpassing that pain and the temptation to just stay comfortably in your house and postponing the running session for tomorrow, you earn the determination and willpower to succeed in other areas of your life.

8. Boost Body Immunity

Running increases the number of lymphocytes, also known as white blood cells which are essential to your immune system. It also reduces the risk of diseases like breast cancer, osteoporosis and diabetes.

9. Better Coordination

Surprisingly enough, coordination does improve with running. Some people may be reluctant to acknowledge it, since it’s such a simple sport, but running involves coordination especially on hard terrain with small obstacles like rocks and tree roots. Experienced runners who use trails as their rout, learn how to avoid stumbling and tripping on such obstacles.

10. Sleep Better

How much and how well we sleep has a lot to say for our health. After an intense exercise like running, your body needs to recover and repair itself. It is vital that you don’t overexert yourself as this will cause a lot of damage to your body. By keeping this in mind and exercising regularly you will feel more relaxed and you will sleep more soundly and profoundly. Runners usually fall asleep quicker and stay in a deep state of sleep longer than people who aren’t very active.

Hopefully these 10 reasons will be enough for you to get your eyes of the computer, put on a pair of sneakers and go out for a quick run. Go for it!

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