Proteins are the basic building blocks of any living being. Proteins are made up of essential and non essential amino acids, both of which are equally important in building up the muscles and cells in a body.
There are many people who go for regular work outs. It becomes very essential in these kinds of people to have a proper amount of protein in their diet. Regular gym goers and people who regularly work out generally tend to go for protein supplements like energy bars or protein shakes.
The main advantages for going for a protein shake is to recover faster from the tiredness of work out, to maintain lean muscle due to consumption of proteins like whey protein which are low in fat and carbohydrates but rich source of proteins. It also helps in acting as a meal replacement therapy, in the sense that if you regularly take protein shakes in your meal you can easily skip that one time meal since the protein shake itself provides you with enough and more calories required for that particular time of the day.
There are different ways to make a protein shake, but the below mentioned will be the best and easiest way to make a shake for your balanced meal. The blender must be off when the milk is poured into the jar. The whey protein powder must be added to the milk and the milk and protein must be blended in the jar for about 15-20 seconds.
Once the milk and the protein powder are blended, the blender must be turned off and any fruit of your choice must be added. The fruits added may be bananas, raspberries, strawberries etc that would give a good and refreshing flavor to the shake.
The ingredients must then be blended nicely in the jar in medium speed or a greater speed so that all of them get mixed thoroughly and the fruits are completely bended with the milk. A tablespoon of virgin coconut oil can be used to give a coconut flavor to the shake. Coconut oil increases the metabolic rate and tends to help in achieving weight loss at a faster rate. It also helps in reducing certain risks associated with cancer and other cardiovascular risks.
Flaxseed oil can also be used in the shake due to different roles of flaxseed in daily diet. Flax seeds are rich in omega three fatty acids and hence play major role in reducing cholesterol, blood pressure and arthritis.
The shake is now ready to drink with a wonderful flavor of your choice. The shake must be had after 15-20 of your workout since it is in this time that the body requires protein to a maximum extent.
The protein shakes must usually be made with simple but strong flavors to mask the taste of the protein as such. The flavors can include fruity flavors like bananas, raspberries, strawberries etc or flavors like chocolate, vanilla, honey nut and crunch or roasted almonds.
The protein shakes prepared can be for various purposes. It can be used by some to gain weight or by some to lose weight. People who go for protein shakes for gaining weight tend to use 2% or whole milk with extra protein powder in the recipe mentioned since that would help in gaining weight.
People who are on a diet to lose weight tend to use skim milk in the recipe since that helps in building lean muscle.
People who are allergic to dairy products can use soy milk. Soy milk is also an alternative for people who tend to go on a low carbohydrate and cholesterol free protein shakes.
Care must be taken that the fruits used and the milk used must be fresh ones, since if not they might harm your body. Natural fruits or nuts whatever used must also be rich in protein since that would increase the energy you get from your shake. It is always better to go for natural flavors rather than using artificial or synthetic flavors since they may cause harm to the body at a later stage in life because of the synthetic chemicals used for flavoring.
Thus by using all the natural ingredients available in your fridge all the time, a great protein shake that would boost your body can be made.
Friday, October 16, 2009
How to Make a Protein Shake
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Fat Burning Cardio Workouts with Heart Rate Monitors
When it comes to weight loss the first thing many people think about is that they have to do tons of cardio. Many people spend hour after hours counting the calories burned on their treadmill. Others are using a heart rate monitor to stay in their fat burning zone for hours hoping the fat will burn away. One of the number one questions I get is "I do 6 hours of cardio a week and can't lose a pound." With proper hear rate monitor training, a person can optimize their workout to raise their metabolism and burn more fat not just during your workout, but all day long.
To understand heart rate training, we first have to understand how our bodies produce energy. We have two major processes that produce energy within our bodies. First, our aerobic metabolism utilizes oxygen combined with carbs and fat to produce our long lasting energy and the energy you are using to read this article. Your second way you produce energy is anaerobically. Your anaerobic metabolism creates energy for short durations of intense activity. Your only source of energy for your anaerobic metabolism is carbohydrates in your blood stream or carbs stored in your muscle cells. So aerobic burns fat and carbs, and anaerobic burns carbs only.
Proper heart rate training has three distinct training zones each designed to challenge your metabolism to become faster and more efficient which leads to burning more fat. Most people only exercise in one of them. When we train in the same zone everyday our body adapts to that workout and we stop getting the weight loss and fat loss we are after. To optimize your fat burning results we want to do each zone's workout once a week.
To create your optimal fat burning heart rate zones we have to find your anaerobic threshold. Your anaerobic threshold is the point at which your physical activity becomes so intense that your body is unable to produce enough energy aerobically. Your anaerobic metabolism kicks in to produce more energy to continue the activity. During intense cardio workouts both your aerobic and anaerobic metabolisms are producing energy to keep you moving. Online personal training website Liveleantoday.com utilizes a customized online profile to find your anaerobic threshold and create your fat burning heart rate zones. If you have the ability, the best test for your anaerobic threshold is a treadmill test where you are hooked up to an oxygen mask connected to a metabolic cart. The most common place to get this test done is at certain universities around the country.
Fat Burning Zone
The first zone (zone 1) for optimal fat burning cardio consists of working out at a moderate intensity level. You want to workout at an intensity that you can sustain for long periods of time, greater than 30 min. consistently. With training, it is good to work up to consistent cardiovascular exercise for 60 min. The goal in zone 1 is to train your body to burn fat efficiently. Don't be so concerned about how many calories you burn during the workout. A proper fat burning zone workout trains your metabolism to burn more fat by efficiently training your body to release more fat out of your fat cells all day long while you are not exercising.
Anaerobic Threshold Zone
For the second zone (zone 2), we want to train as close as we can to our anaerobic threshold. A measure to find this point is the highest constant heart rate you can sustain for 15-20 min. The goal of zone 2 is to train your aerobic metabolism to burn energy as fast as it can. Your metabolism then adapts and you burn more energy 24 hours a day. Zone two is the workout that I see that every exerciser skips. Most people either spend all their time in the easy zone 1 or do high intensity training all the time which we are going to talk about next. Working out at the moderately high intensity in zone 2 is essential to training our aerobic metabolism which is our major source of energy all day.
High Intensity Zone
The third zone for optimal fat burning cardio is training at high intensities (zone 3). Another name for this zone is interval training. Interval training is where we workout for short burst of time, 1-3 min., and then walk or rest for short bursts of time, and then repeat the high to low sequence again. Zone 3 workouts train your body to produce energy greater than it has ever done before for short durations of time. It is more important about the rate of burning energy than total calories. Which means the faster you go the more calories you burn in a short period of time the better. One key to interval training is you have to be able to repeat the same speed and heart rate for each interval. Often people train to hard for the first interval and though their heart rate goes up they slow their speed down with each interval. Zone 3 workouts are considered the most efficient way to raise your metabolism and burn more fat. You actually burn 100% carbs during the workout as a source of energy. People that do consistent interval training on a weekly basis burn more fat 24 hours a day, even on days they don't exercise.
Each zone has key aspects to your total fat burning program. An optimal program consists of workouts in all three zones each week. Every person's heart rate is going to be different for each zone. Liveleantoday.com uses it customized profile to create the individualized heart rate zones to optimize your fat burning workouts. Heart rate zones between people can vary by over 20 beats, so training at your friend's zone doesn't work. Start training at all three zones each week and start burning more fat 24 hours a day.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Plane Crash Interrupts Wedding Reception Video
Plane crashes and interrupts wedding reception as it makes emergency landing
Monday, August 3, 2009
Hawaiian wedding dresses
This is the reason why it is important to conclude all the wedding arrangements with proper planning and attention. Most of the people take latest wedding trends seriously so that their marriage would become a memorable event.
If you are keen to conclude your marriage in an extraordinary way then why not you should try Hawaiian wedding dress? It is not necessary that you are marrying on the shores of Hawaii. But wearing a Hawaiian outfit will make the memorable event more special.
The trademark of nearly all the Hawaiian wedding dresses is that they are either made from silk or from cotton. The dresses made up of these substances are perfectly suitable for tropical weather. There is tremendous craze of Hawaiian outfit among those couples who desire beach weddings. Wedding is normally once in the lifetime event. The why not you should conclude all the ceremonies on the beautiful shores of Hawaii?
Most of the Hawaiian wedding dresses are manufactured and dispatched from the state of Hawaii to different parts of the world. These dresses are also manufactured in various other states of America but not in very high quantity. The dresses are available for both bride and groom with different unique features. You can personally visit the local merchants of Hawaii and witness the finest wedding dresses ever made.
The wedding dresses are available either in 100 percent cotton or in the combination with various other materials. There are certain dresses made from heavy silk. If as a groom your priority is to wear a casual form of dress then you can put on coconut-buttoned shirts. For brides formal and informal white dresses are readily available.
You can even order the best wedding dress via Internet. There are various sites available over the Internet from where you can make the best choice form a wide selection and that too by sitting at your home.
African American wedding hairstyles
So what is the right style for an African American bride? What hair do should she go for? Let us start with short hair.
If you have short hair then there is not much worrying to do. Depending on the length you can either straighten or curl the hair. If you have a thick curl and the length of your hair is upto your ear lobes, then it is better to keep it curly and use any stone beads.
Not a big fan of curls? Just iron the hair. That will give you the straighten look. Now you can either tie your hair into a tight bun or you can do some experiment?
If you are open to experiments then why not go for some ethnic looks. That would be something different and exciting. And when it comes to ethnic looks you have plenty of choices.
When it comes to ethnic African look the first thing that comes to mind is micro braids. There is no harm in going for this style on your wedding. And it looks good on both long and short hair. Once you are done with the braiding, you can either use hair accessory like beads and hairpins, but it is better to use some small blowers at the back of your ear.
If you do not want so many braids on your head then there are always the kinky twists. They are easy to do and take less time. As a matter of fact most women prefer the kinky twist over micro braid because many complain that hair tend to break due to micro braid.
If you wish to have something more different than that then you can try something different. You can make a ponytail on top of the hair and then make braids or twists of the hair. It is all up to the bride.
Now that the choices are endless, all you have to do is choose.
Friday, July 31, 2009
What Happened on Tonya Harding wedding night
Tonya Harding wedding night is a very interesting subject for the world to talk about. It is actually a celebrity sex tape which appeared on various online sources in the form of a pornographic “Wedding Video”. This video demonstrated her in sexual acts with her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly. Her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly who was literally not involved in the sex scandal had immediately altered his name to Jeff Stone.
All the major stills from the sex tape were published by a popular magazine Penthouse in the month of September 1994. Later on, the tape was itself released for the public. After the release of the tape in the public, Tonya Harding desperately tried to reserve herself from it.
Jeff Gillooly has already mentioned about Tonya Harding wedding night in his autobiography. He also admitted about the conspiracy to injure a former Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan. She and Tonya Harding were from the same professional background. Nancy Kerrigan was believed to be the top notch competitor of Tonya Harding. This is the reason why she conspired with her ex-husband to injure this Olympic skater.
The act of injuring an Olympic skater and producing a wedding night sex tape later on were highly controversial and criticized widely by the masses. Most of the people even believe that the tape of Tonya Harding wedding night was produced intentionally. The exact reason was not clear. Perhaps in order to divert the attention of masses from other controversies or to boost her shaking career.
After seeing the sex tape people believe that the directorial ability of Gillooly was free-flowing, letting his co-star to manage everything. All the intimate scenes were taken so clearly that there was no question about any sort of scandal.
According to most of the journalists and experts it was a pre planned tape to depict the story of love and the meaning of love making. One gentleman from the field of journalism quoted that, “Tonya Harding was susceptible and was willing to express her feelings and her body and she has done the same. We should not feel disgraceful but express sentiments for the ill-fated couple.”