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A short history of Yoga

Understand the origins of your practice and learn were it all began

Yoga is a very popular exercise, especially in pop culture. We often see celebrities preaching about the benefits of Yoga and owe their slim, tones physiques to the practice of Yoga. Yoga is not something, which is new, and modern as you may initially think, it has in fact been around longer than your ancestors.

Yoga is most commonly recognized for the postures and shapes it can bend its practice into. But don’t allow yourself to think Yoga is all-physical as this is merely one dimension of this incredible practice.

In religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism the Word Yoga means ‘spiritual discipline’.

Lets begin with the definition of Yoga, Google defines Yoga as a ‘A Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation.’ Evidence of Yoga postures were found on artifacts that date back to 3000 B.C. Thought to be roughly 5000 years old, Yoga originated in ancient India with the aim of attaining a permanent state of peace and open mindedness in order to experience one’s true self of being.

Like everything Yoga has developed over time and has gained many more strings to its bow. Today Yoga has become a universal language of spiritual exercise to improve the health and spiritual well being of people who practice it.

‘The ultimate goal of Yoga is to unite oneself with the universe’

So how did Yogalates come about and what is it? Well the Yogalates method is a comprehensive exercise system, which successfully fuses the practices of Yoga and Pilates. It is the brainchild of Louise Solomon and took birth in the creative healing hub of the Northern Rivers area of NSW Australia.  Since its inception Yogalates has steadily gained popularity and an International reputation as being a method that makes the disciplines of Yoga and Pilates easily available to anyone. It is offered as classes, personalized sessions, workshops, teacher training programs, presentations, retreats and through the popular range of Yogalates DVDs available worldwide.

‘Yogalates makes the disciplines of Yoga and Pilates easily available to anyone’

Now you know a little more about Yoga and Yogalates maybe you quite fancy giving it a try! There are many classes you can attend where you will feel comfortable and at ease. What have you got to loose! For any more advice you need feel free to give us a call on (02) 6687 2031

history

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5 Body Benefits of Yogalates

Yogalates is an ever-increasing popular exercise due to its positive effects on the body and the mind alike. Yogalates allows you to practice and improve your very own limits; you can push and stretch your body while opening up your mind.

Working with your own limits is at the heart of Yogalates, everyone has different strengths and needs and Yogalates can always be adapted to the individual.

Yogalates is superb for flexibility, muscle toning and endurance. We have complied a list of what we consider some of the top body benefits of Yogalates.

Increased flexibility

Yoga and Pilate exercises and poses can be as difficult or as easy as you choose them to be. Yoga carefully focus’s on all joints in your body, even the ones you aren’t used to using. The more you put into Yoga, the more you will get out of it, it can lead to improved joins and flexibility in the back.

Massaging your body on the inside

Both Yoga and Pilates are actually one of the only forms of exercises that actively stimulate your internal organs promoting their health. As you learn to become more in tune with your own body and become familiar with it you can find yourself more able to recognize possible ailments.

Toning of muscles

Yogalates can and will help tone your muscles. This is due to the postures, shapes and poses it demands which ensure muscles are pushed and trained subsequently get stronger by supporting the weight of the body and being engaged for balance.

Detoxifying the body

Due to the stretches and sometimes demanding positions which Yogalates demand, all stimulate the muscles and internal organs, this aids increased blood flow to all parts of the body which can help the body recover faster and flush out any possible toxins which can often accumulate in the tissues.

Calorie burning & weight loss

When paired with a balanced diet and a healthy active lifestyle you will gain the most benefits from practicing Yogalates and burn those unwanted calories. Moreover, the more you practice Yogalates the more you will be able to do so don’t be afraid to try new exercises and get involved in new fitness paths!

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Yoga and your love life

Use Yoga to get back that inner spark

 The benefits of Yoga practice on your mind, body and spirit are widely accepted by many. It’s a great exercise with huge benefits to the practiser.

In recent years as interests keep on growing in the exercise, many more studies have been conducted into the practice of Yoga and other areas of our lives it can affect. Maybe your trying to get that spark back in your love life or your libido has taken a bit of a dip.

In a recent study a group of scientists at Suwon Catholic University in South Korea conducted a study on 41 women with a condition called metabolic syndrome. Patients who have this suffer from a range of conditions including high blood pressure, raised cholesterol and being over weight. Twenty women were then assigned to a Yoga course. All twenty of these women completed questionnaires to measure their levels of libido and desire and that start of the 12-week course and after.

The results were published in the journal of sexual medicine demonstrated a significant improvement in the group of women who completed the Yoga course but little or no change in the other group. Moreover this study also found that blood pressure dropped significantly in this group also. These findings may be due to the fact that balance, breathing and control involved in the practice of Yoga can improve the health of blood vessels and bolster blood flow.

Moreover Yoga with its positions breathing techniques can also activate your vagus nerve, which actually helps boost levels of key feel-good chemicals in your brain, including serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins. Yoga’s deep breathing and meditation components have also been shown to ease stress and anxiety.

Use the practice of Yoga and take it into the bedroom or other areas of life.

Yoga can help you relax, become stress free and come to better decisions, all in all allowing you to communicate better with yourself and other people in your life. When you are more open minded and better at communicating this will open many doors and highly benefit you and your partner in your physical, psychological and emotional relationship.

Yoga makes you open to trying new things

As Yoga can push your boundaries physically and mentally you can begin to learn to apply the techniques to all areas of your life to enrich it in some way. Especially the bedroom, Yoga will make you more accustomed to trying new and more adventurous things and your body will be more than capable to experiment.

Confidence is sexy

The more you practice, eat healthy and meditate the better you will feel and look. When your feeling great your confidence will go through the roof and this confidence will radiate from your every pore. Not only will you look and feel sexy but others will notice it too. 

love-yoga

love

Online Yogalates offers all official Yogalates DVDs for members to watch, the whole award winning series of 8 DVDs. Plus the new release DVD9, exclusive for online yogalates website.

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Cleanse Your Mind With Meditation

 We all have our little routines, our daily scoop of cleanliness, fitness and exercise. We always go to great lengths to ensue we always brush our teeth, wash our faces, moisturise with our favourite cream and take regular baths and showers with an array of beautifully smelling soaps and perfume to feel like we’ve really cleaned and cleansed our bodies.

How often though do you give your mind the same treatment? Do you set aside time each day to meditate and really cleanse your mind of its thoughts? It gets tired too you know so why not make it a priority.

Firstly, why should you meditate?

Well, meditation has a number of great benefits such as relieving stress and anxiety a better memory and banishing those troublesome thoughts. Recent studies have demonstrated that after a meditation session the overall difference is that our brains stop processing information as actively as they normally would. So practicing on focusing our attention and being aware when it drifts can help to improve your focus and thoughts when you are mediating and when you are not.

Life can get very complicated and cluttered and our minds can often feel the brunt of this. People can often assume meditation is difficult but it doesn’t have to be, all you have to do is be open to letting go. There are plenty of videos you can watch online to help you along and get you started if you are new or need a push in the right direction.

Get started today

Don’t let anything else hold you back from meditating and give it a try today! Watch a video on you tube, do some extra reading, whatever it takes for you to give it that first shot at incorporating it into your every day routine. Try and remember that you’re doing yourself a favour and by getting meditating into your every day life you are highly benefitting your mind. 

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Juice your way to a happier healthier you

 Great ideas for the working Yoga lovers

 The great thing about Yoga is that you can do it virtually anywhere; in the comfort of your own home, at a class, outside or anywhere that takes your fancy. In this day and age it can be tough trying to get everything right, we all know it can be tough trying to eat healthily and continue your exercise regime. Many of the people we meet who practice Yoga have the same thing in common; a busy life style and often ask us how they can make fast healthy snacks, our answer to this is juice!

When you’re on the go, tired or just too busy to start cooking why not make a juice and reap all the benefits of having a healthy nutritious meal. If you haven’t got a juicer already investing in one will be one of the best decisions you can make. Below you’ll find some of our personal favourites.

Early Morning Energiser

For a natural boost of energy in the morning or before your Yoga routine, why not mix yourself a scrumptious energiser juice. Not only will this tingle your taste buds and revive your senses it will pleasantly surprise you with how easy it is to make. All you need to make an ample serving is:

  • 2 Apples

  • 2 Pairs

  • 2 Sticks of celery

  • 1 large orange

  • 1 sweet potato

Hello Hydration

When you haven’t quite drunk enough and your feeling a little dehydrated then a cold glass of Hello Hydration is for you. This juice will give you that boost you need before, after or during your Yoga practice. Again this is nice and simple to prepare taking just a few minutes before you can enjoy the rejuvenating juice, which consists of:

  • 3 Apples

  • Half a cucumber

  • 2 Sticks of celery

  • 1 juicy orange

  • 2 handfuls of romaine lettuce

Fatigue Fighter

Fatigue can rear its ugly head sometimes at any point. If your feeling tired out from the days events or exhausted from your work then treat yourself to this empowering juice. All the ingredients carefully selected to help fight fatigue this juice can give you that life you may need. To make the Fatigue fighter you will need:

  • 1 Cup of fresh spinach leaves

  • 2 Tomatoes

  • 2 Sticks of celery

  • 2 Pealed carrots

  • Half a green pepper

  • A small handful of parsley

The Detoxifier

Maybe you’d just like to feel cleansed on this inside and outside. This is a great simple and detoxifying juice than can be enjoyed on any occasion you choose. Its tasty, light and extremely refreshing to the senses with kick. All you need for this delicious delight is:

  • 4 Apples

  • A generous handful of strawberries

  • 1 lime

Do you have any favourite juice recipes you’d love to share? Please comment below.

Online Yogalates offers all official Yogalates DVDs for members to watch, the whole award winning series of 8 DVDs. Plus the new release DVD9, exclusive for online yogalates website.

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How to eat your way to a healthy mind: Top 5 foods

 Yoga practice improves your body and mind, so make sure you are eating the right things to enhance and improve your practice

 So, you’re here maybe because you love the practice of Yoga, your passionate about improving your practice or possibly because you are totally new to it? Whatever your reason may be, everyone can benefit from the points in this post. What’s different about Yoga is it is not just a focus on the physical body, but the mind and soul too so its important you nurture all components. Whilst your body becomes, fitter, healthier and more ample so does your mind as you learn to explore your inner tranquillity through focused meditation.

As you begin to enjoy your better more improved self, as many of our readers do, you tend to want to keep on improving, especially with what you consume. You are what you eat after all, so continue to improve you body and mind with foods that will replenish your brainpower and nurture your inner self.

Oily fish for effective omega-3 fats

We have all heard how great fish is for you, but do you know why? EPA and DHA are 2 of the most effective omega-3 fats and both of these can be found in oily fish. Great examples of such oily fish include salmon, kippers and sardines to name but a few. These fatty acids are essential for great brain function, general well being, and the heart. Low DHA levels have in fact been linked to being at a higher risk of developing memory loss and Alzheimers.

The small but mighty blueberry

This super fruit is packed full of antioxidants which can help protect against cancer and heart problems, but that’s not all. The mighty berries have been found to lead to improved spatial learning and memory. Sometimes not the most palatable berry on their own, why not try adding them to your breakfast cereal or blending them into a healthy juice.

Anyone for a cup of Green Tea?

A small alteration to your drinking routine can have huge changes. Due to the actual way they are processed, the tealeaves in green tea are supposed to be richer in antioxidants. There are many, many benefits of drinking green tea, especially as part of a balanced diet and Yoga regime. Some of these benefits include weight loss, lower cholesterol, a healthier heart and many more. Drinking green tea will make you feel great on the inside and out!

An apple a day…

There’s a reason for the saying ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ Apples contain a super source of quercetin, an antioxidant that protects your brain cells subsequently keeping your mental juices actively flowing! Be sure to stick to your apple a day and eat that skin too because that’s where you will find most quercetin.

Spinach…Not just for those growing muscles

The tasty leafy green can be eaten naturally as it comes, cooked or in salads. To reap the benefits spinach has to offer which include vitamin E, vitamin K and folate, it’s suggested you eat a cup full of the tasty leaves a day. A neurology study revealed ‘eating three servings of leafy green, yellow and cruciferous vegetables a day can delay cognitive decline by 40 per cent.’

Above you have our favourite 5 super foods for the mind. Why not try selecting one and incorporating it into your eating and drinking routine, then being to add more to your balanced diet and exercise routine.

What’s your favourite mind food? Do you have any recommendations? We’d love to know!

Online Yogalates offers all official Yogalates DVDs for members to watch, the whole award winning series of 8 DVDs. Plus the new release DVD9, exclusive for online yogalates website.

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The power of saying ‘Thank You’

Be grateful for the things you love and you shall receive them in abundance

In this post we are going to bring to your attention a secret. Contained within The Secret are a series of teachings, which can allow you to obtain happiness and well being through positive thinking. The Secret was brought to our attention by author Rhonda Byrne who studied the ways of The Secret and used it to better her lives and others around her eventually writing it all down in a splendid book.

In modern day society, we as humans can often take for granted everything that we have without realising how lucky we are to have everything we have in our lives.

We are all guilty of looking at other people and thinking ‘ I wish I had that’ or ‘they seem so much happier than me’ or there’s the horrid sin of jealousy that creeps in and eats away at our very core. All of all these negative emotions and outlooks are preventing us from seeing our own joys and our own happiness. You will never find happiness or positivity by constantly looking at everyone else’s lives and comparing.

The key to living a happy and enriching life is looking around you and saying a genuine ‘Thank You’ for what you have instead of looking around you and wishing you had all of these so called amazing things.

It is thought the universe is more of a complex thing than you imagine, and you can actually live any life you choose, it is you in fact whom have complete control over your own destiny, even celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey speak openly about this and their practicing of this positive way of thinking. Feeling surprised? This is where The Secret comes in. In a nutshell The Secret teaches that what you put out into the universe you will receive back in abundance. So give out positivity and you will receive it, give out negativity and you will receive it. For example when you start a new exercise class, be it Yogalates or a tennis class, telling yourself ‘its too hard I can’t do this’ is the incorrect way of thinking and a sure way to failure. Telling yourself ‘I’m going to get better at this and become a better person for doing so’ will allow you to achieve all your goals.

The Secret’s teachings are also very similar to the fundamentals of Buddhism that focus on the path to liberation by focusing on being the best human being you can possibly be. Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama stated in his teachings “If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another”. This statement is not only relevant to Buddhism but also the practicing of meditation, Yoga and The Secret.

Your challenge

If you really want to actively try and shape your future exactly how you’d like it then start small with a few simple challenges. Grab your diary or a piece of paper and make a list of 10 things you really love and enjoy about your life. This can include anything from favourite movies, bands and friends; absolutely anything you love and look at this list ever day and be thankful.

Practice your daily rituals such as meditation and Yoga as these will help you understand and practice methods from The Secret more. If you are rushing to work, the usual negatives just seem to snow ball; you cant find your bag, every light is red, you spill your coffee, all of these happen because you are dwelling in the negativity so turn it around. Wake up and be happy you have life and the choice to do whatever you desire with it, tell yourself every day that today is going to be the best day of your life, and if you keep putting this out into the universe it will always respond with ‘your wish is my command’.

dalai

Online Yogalates offers all official Yogalates DVDs for members to watch, the whole award winning series of 8 DVDs. Plus the new release DVD9, exclusive for online yogalates website.

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Top 10 tips on getting started with green living

 So you’ve been enjoying your exercise routines and are doing well with your healthy eating, so what could be the next step in feeling more at one with the world you are in? Protect it. Protecting our beautiful worlds resources couldn’t be more important and will also help you feel more at one with it.

There are many small and big changes you can adapt too to help make the world and your life a better place, preserved in its current beauty for many future generations to come.

So what can you do to start your green journey? Follow the starter tips below to help get you started.

  • Dwindle down your paper mail. One thing technology is doing for us is digitalizing our mail. Where you can opt out of paper mail bills with your banks, water, heating, electric etc. and view your statements online so you are saving paper wastage. Spread the word! Once you’ve done it, let everyone else know by email and get more on board!

  • Organize a charity event. Knowledge is everything and educating people is the key. Why not have a look online at conservation charities and pick one you are fond of and organize a charity event? It can be a yard sale, a bake sale or even a sponsored sporting event. Anything will help raise awareness.

  • Set aside a little spare cash. Just give. If you’re a little stuck with where to start then why not begin with some reading and become a member of The Rainforest Alliance. You can make a one off donation of any amount you choose or make regular donations.

  • Reduce your carbon footprint. Do you drive everywhere? Could you walk instead? Can you get the bus or train? Consider all possible options instead of taking the car everywhere. Maybe you can lift share instead. All of these small factors can significantly reduce your carbon footprint.

  • If you don’t know what it is, don’t put it on your skin. Start with looking at your shower gel, do you know what all the ingredients are? The likelihood is that you don’t, and the other likelihood is that it’s not great for you or the environment. Try switching to an eco-friendly or organic wash. Our personal favourite is the Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap range.

  • Swap your coffee for one marked ‘shade grown’. When you buy coffee make sure its marked with ‘shade grown’ as this means its good for the planet. Look for coffee which is organically grown without pesticides and seek out coffee which is Fair Trade Certified so its makers are paid a fair wage.

  • Don’t ignore litter, recycle it. If you see litter in the street, pick it up and bin it or even better, recycle it if possible. Ensure in your own home you are doing the best you can to recycle your cans, plastics and cardboards, once you get into the habit, you won’t even notice your doing it.

  • The green paw print. Consider feeding them natural and organic pet foods as these undergo minimal processing and ensure no pesticides or artificial preservatives end up in your dogs bowl. Why not switch your poo bags to biodegradable ones?

  • Make use of your garden.If you have a good-sized garden and enjoy eating eggs, why not raise your own chickens and enjoy the eggs. Home and local eggs require no factory farming, long distance travel or detailed packaging.

  • Mowing your lawn. Try swapping your engine run lawn mover with a standard normal lawn mover. Not only will you reduce CO2 emissions by 100% you will also burn plenty of calories.

So these are our simple starter tips for getting started with green living. Have you got any great ones you’d like to share with us? If so we’d love to hear them!

hands

world

Online Yogalates offers all official Yogalates DVDs for members to watch, the whole award winning series of 8 DVDs. Plus the new release DVD9, exclusive for online yogalates website.

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Hundreds of Classes

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A starter guide to eating greener

Want to expand upon your yoga practice and feel connected with the world on a new level?

 racticing Yoga or Yogalates can often go hand in hand with a complete lifestyle change. Why is this? You many be wondering, well, the answer is simple. Yoga teaches you skills and ways of living that can be used on and off the mat, it is all about feeling connected to the universe and a way people expand upon this ‘connected’ feeling is understanding the universe and appreciate it by embarking upon green living.

A great way to start with green living is begin with what you put on your plate.

Eating greener will give you more of an appreciation of how everything is connected and thrives. So here we have composed another simple starter guide to get you going with green eating.

Eat locally. Probably the most obvious start to your new eating green regime is to shop locally. Do you have a local fruit and veg store where you can buy your groceries? These fruits and vegetables will have travelled a lot less miles and wont use up and unnecessary packaging being better for the environment.

Be organic. When you can, buy food that explains it’s organic. Organic food has a smaller carbon footprint and was made/harvested without any harsh chemicals, which are bad for the environment such as pesticides and other chemical matter.

Enjoy your home cooking. Try your hand at making your own dishes. Source your food and ingredients locally and try cooking bread yourself, or something for the family to enjoy.

Re-use your leftovers. See leftovers as a great meal extra! What ever you have left save it and think of a great way to make it into another meal. As a result you spend less money on food and energy for cooking another big meal.

Start your own edible garden. If you have some space in your garden try growing some of your favourite herbs or vegetables. Just the way you like them. Practice makes perfect.

Re-use your own packaging. When you go to the grocery store take your own re-usable bag instead of taking free ones that you will throw away. Try to prioritize items that are not pre-cut and pre-packaged as this will significantly reduce your carbon footprint.

Avoid junk food. Try and avoid junk food at all costs. Not only is it usually totally devoid of any nutrients it us usually over processed containing many chemical treatments, additives and preservatives giving it a pretty huge carbon footprint.

So there you have it, a few easy steps to beginning your journey along the road of eating greener and living a life more enriched and connected with the universe.

eating-greener

Online Yogalates offers all official Yogalates DVDs for members to watch, the whole award winning series of 8 DVDs. Plus the new release DVD9, exclusive for online yogalates website.

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Pre-Exercise & Post Exercise Healthy Eating

By Guest Contributor Jason Diprose one of the UK’s most successful personal trainers and gym manager.

Before and after any exercise it is highly important that you eat the right things, not only get optimal performance out of your body and mind, but also make sure that your being kind to your body and giving it the nutrients it needs. You would not run your car without petrol so don’t run your body without food.

Avoid at all costs to exercise without eating as this is the worst thing you can do – training on an empty stomach means that your body goes into a mode known as “catabolic”, whereas it eats into it’s own muscle stores to sustain it self whilst training, thus seriously diminishing the return the participant is likely to get from the exercise session it self.

Lean muscle is as vital a part of Yoga for skeletal integrity as it is for an Olympic athlete in their respective event. By adhering to the following simple nutritional guidelines you will not only be able to fuel your body for a demanding workout, you’ll also find that you can increase the amount of lean tissue in your body thus reducing overall levels of body fat whilst also leading to enhanced strength, and subsequently balance and overall muscular synergy.

Perfect Protein

  • Ideal for muscle growth and recovery pack in as much protein as you possibly can.
  • Protein shakes
  • Chicken
  • Foods in the legume family are good sources of vegetarian protein such as alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, soybeans and peanuts.

Careful Carbs

Carbohydrates are a fantastic addition to any meal when used to fuel the body first thing in the morning, in the two-hour window before training and during the two-hour window after training.

They have long had a bad reputation in the health and fitness sector largely due to mis-use of the UNHEALTHY carbohydrate types when in actual fact, healthy carbohydrates are a staple part of a balanced eating plan. They are split into two types, known as refined and unrefined carbohydrates.

The simple principle is that the refined variety are man made and often digest so fast within our digestive system that they contain too much energy for our body to access in one sitting, where un-refined types digest at a much slower rate meaning the energy they contain can be accessed over a controlled period and energy levels are sustained instead of shooting up then rapidly dropping.

These are the carbohydrate types you should look out for when constructing healthy meals in conjunction with a healthy protein and fat source:

  • Rye bread
  • Whole-wheat spaghetti
  • ANY type of dry bean or pulse
  • Chickpea’s
  • Grapefruit
  • Apple’s
  • Any type of berry
  • Long grain brown rice
  • Red split lentils

If you want to guarantee safety, simply check something known as the GI scale – this measures the digestion rate of carbohydrate food types. The lower on the scale the food is from around the 60 mark and below, the slower it digests – eat everything above that level in moderation.

Glycogen (our body creates glycogen when any carbohydrate we have eaten goes through the digestion process) is actually our brains primary fuel source – no carbohydrates means diminished mental functionality including terrible mood swings and feelings of depression, lethargy and a general sense of emptiness.

Healthy fat

Much like carbohydrates, fat has gained an ill-placed reputation for being an unhealthy artery clogging substance that only damages our health and needs to be avoided at all costs.

This isn’t strictly true, now SOME fats are indeed terrible for our health and should be avoided at all costs, but the truth is that fat is utterly essential…If it’s the right type.

Fat actually plays a vital part in the formation of our immune and nervous system – if we don’t get enough of the right fat types in, we SERIOUSLY risk making ourselves chronically ill.

The effects of a low fat intake don’t just stop there either, whether it’s your nails, complexion, hair or even vision – you’d be amazed at how badly you can harm yourself if you don’t ingest healthy fatty acids as part of your eating regime.

UN healthy fats are also known as trans fats – trans fats can be found in pastries, cakes most processed food and the vast majority of ready made baked goods.

Trans fats are the prime reason fat has been given such a bad name in general (in conjunction with an incredibly higher than normal intake of saturated animal fat) – it is literally useless for your body, and when studied at a molecular level is actually one molecule away from being plastic.

That’s right – your body doesn’t know the difference between trans fat and plastic and can’t use it for any practical purpose…so if it isn’t being digested, where IS it going? And more importantly, what’s it doing to you? Check out these healthy fat types and include them in your diet regularly:

  • Nuts of all varieties
  • Olives
  • Avocado
  • Eggs
  • Oily fish

Healthy fats also increase your cholesterol – this isn’t necessarily a bad thing!
There are two cholesterol types – LDL and HDL. When we get our cholesterol checked we can often be told we have high cholesterol, but we are often not told which one we are high in.

There IS a massive difference – LDL is unhealthy whereas HDL is healthy, and the above food types increase our HDL count. You can have “high” cholesterol but actually be healthy, as long as it’s not the LDL variety.

Basing your meals on all of these food types will ensure that you are helping to not only fuel but also improve your body as part of a regular exercise program. Every meal should contain a healthy protein and fat source in moderation (according to the daily calorie intake relating to your height, weight and age) – the majority of your carbohydrates should be consumed at breakfast within the first half an hour of waking up, the two hour window before exercise and the two hour window after exercise for the best results and to ensure unwanted storage of body fat.

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