Drink Water!

This is why water is good for you. When you can you can also try using a water conditioner. 

This is a compacted electronic water conditioner. It prevents scale from forming.

It will also save you money!

• Keeping properly hydrated during exercise allows you to have a better and more productive workout.
  
• When your workouts are better, you feel and look better too!
  
• The body is 60-70% water and adequate water intake has great benefits!
  
• Flushes out wastes, transports nutrients, regulates body temperature, maintains acid-alkaline balance and support chemical processes.
• Keeps skin moist, energy levels up and alleviates some headaches
  
• Keeping well hydrated often helps to regulate appetite
• People often mistake thirst and hunger, and eat when their bodies are actually craving fluid.
  
• It adds natural moisture to your skin, giving a fresh glow today and helping the aging process tomorrow.
  
• If you get bored with drinking plain water, try lemon, lime or even cucumber slices in your water (a hot trend).
  
• An easy way to boost your fluid intake is to start the day with a fresh cup or two of water or a cup or two of herbal tea.
  
• You can also mix different types of teas for a new blend of iced teas, the bags steep if you leave in a pitcher of water in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight...
  
• Some foods that are packed with water are of course soups, plus all fruits and vegetables, but especially watermelon, oranges, apples, cucumbers, iceberg lettuce and tomatoes
  
• It is best to drink water on an empty stomach in order to avoid unnecessary dilution of digestive juices, so about a half hour before meals drink a glass of water.
  
• It is preferable to sip water throughout the day rather than to chug it because it will give your body more time to absorb it
  

Try to get into the habit of bringing a water bottle with you when you go out, whether to shop, walk or to an activity, plus water is the cheapest drink we could consume its free!

This post is sponsored by Scalewatcher.

Coffee... A Pre-Workout Drink?

A recent study carried out a test in exploring the effect of coffee and caffeine before exercise.

A group of nine men took part in five trials... one hour before each run, the men took one of the following:

• A placebo
  
• Caffeine capsules
• De-caffeinated coffee with caffeine added
• Regular coffee

Performance times were up to 10 times longer in subjects using the caffeine capsules, with no differences in times among the other trials.


Since the level of caffeine absorption was similar during the caffeine trials, researchers concluded that the coffee itself interferes with caffeine’s performance-enhancing effects.


This makes sense considering that there are literally hundreds of compounds dissolved when coffee beans are roasted, ground and extracted. Results of this research suggest that if benefits of caffeine on endurance times are desired, caffeine capsules work better than coffee


Before you make Starbucks part of your pre-workout warm-up in order to harness the effects of caffeine, be aware that simply downing a grande may not give you similar benefits found in these studies.

Summer Diva... White peach, cassis, and champagne floats...

In the summer I love a glass of champagne but how about a champagne float which doubles as a drink and dessert! Wonderful for events of any kind!

RECIPE: A refreshing dessert made part Kir Royale, part peach parfait is a wonderful summer treat and fancy dessert for your friends

For a very cool treat, layer the fruit and ice cream in frosty collins or pilsner glasses straight from the freezer. Serve with iced-tea spoons.

Servings: Makes 6. You will need:

6 medium-size white peaches, halved, pitted, each half cut into 4 wedges
2 pints peach ice cream
3/4 cup crème de cassis (black-currant liqueur) plus additional for drizzling
2 cups chilled brut Champagne or sparkling wine
To make:

1. Place 3 peach wedges in bottom of each of 6 tall glasses

2. Add 1 scoop of low fat ice cream, (you could use fat free yogurt if you prefer, then another 3 peach wedges.

3. Add second scoop and top with 2 more peach wedges

4. Drizzle each with 2 tablespoons crème de cassis or if you are trying to be extra healthy some honey or fruit compote

5. Pour 1/3 cup Champagne into each glass

6. Top with 1 scoop ice cream, drizzle with additional crème de cassis, and serve.

What a scrumptious dessert which has a touch of class!

Six tips on how to drink more water...

1. Always have cold water ready to drink – make it easy for yourself… we keep a Britta Filter in our fridge ready for whenever we feel thirsty!

2. Get fun containers you can transport water in. The larger the container is the longer it will last!

3. Change your routines… start your day by having a glass of water, order water with a meal or replace coffee with it!

4. Drink a glass before you eat this helps to make you feel trimmer as sometimes our hunger is mistaken by dehydration.

5. Add flavour to your water if you don’t like the taste, jazz it up!

6. Make it fun, decorate your water with ice, straws and cool glasses to drink from.. jazz this with lemon, lime make it a treat!

The Millionaire Cocktail

I am a girl who loves cocktails but as we all know the items they sometimes include in cocktails aren't always that great for the waistline... so if you want to feel a million dollars and sip a drink that tastes like it try this version I have discovered!...

RECIPE: A millionares cocktail blended with pureed crushed strawberries, cool vodka and fresh mint leaves, poured and strained into a delicate Martini glass garnished with a red rose petal.

Glass: Martini

Garnish: Fresh mint leaf

You will need: (makes one cocktail)

50ml rose vodka

50ml puréed fresh strawberries

2 fresh mint leaves

splash of lime juice

1. Mash the mint, strawberries and lime together

2. Add the vodka and shake over ice

3. Strain into a martini glass, and garnish with a fresh mint leaf and red rose petal for elegance!

Great for a special occasion party or simply for summer drinking!

Champagne... cheers to your health!

Red wine… good for our hearts...

White wine… good for our lungs...

All wine… good for our lips!

In conducting some online research it has been recently discovered that Champagne may also be good for our brains! Apparently Champagne as a source of brain protection… This beautiful sparkling wine may help protect the injuries related to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Strokes.

Champagne has a high presence of polyphenols which are chemical substances made from plants. They also act as antioxidants, which can help cells avoid death, destruction, and other nasty things like cancer.

These findings have now lead to further investigations of Champagne’s health benefits and human lifespan, specifically aging. In the past,

This spirit with a sparkling personality, we usually celebrate our good health with a glass of champagne, is know as the glass of “bubbly” so lets raise a glass today to those scientists who provide another happy drink for us to celebrate our health!

I must admit when I’m celebrating I do like the odd drop of Champs to celebrate, especially a special occasion! I love the flavours, the fizz and the class of holding the flute, and now I know it benefits my health with my birthday around the corner the Champagne will be flowing! See my tips on how to drink alcohol in a healthy way!

Lets toast the Dom Perignons, the Moet, and the Louis Roederers of the world!

Live life... Drink green Tea...

Green Tea has so many positive health benefits… it is my favourite type of tea and comes in so many varieties now a days. Becoming more popular it is now linked to burning fat, raising the metabolism, lowering cholesterol as well as preventing dieses and cancer.

They say that drinking 5 cups of green tea a day helps the body burn an extra 70-80 calories per day and comes as either de-cafe or contains about a quarter of the caffeine content in coffee at worst.

It contains the antioxidant EGCG, this not only inhibits the growth of cancer cells, and it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue, evening containing more antioxidants than fruit and vegetables.

Green tea can be served with lemon for more flavour or as the Koreans do – add honey while drinking it.

You can buy it loose or in tea bags. I always carry green tea bags around with me in my handbag just in case you go out and hit a café that doesn’t sell green tea. I recommend Clipper as you can get an assortment of your choice to reflect your tea drinking mood.

Alcohol advice!

 















What alcoholic drink is the most healthy to consume?

Well we all know that sometimes alcohol is bad for you, It can make us do the craziest of things but sometimes if you have a healthy lifestyle once in a while a nice alcoholic drink can help you to relax and unwind in moderation!

Usually research shows that white spirits with slimline mixers have the lowest kilojoules in calories, these may include:

• Vodka with soda water
  
• Gin and Slimline Tonic
• Or these spirits alone.
  

They range from 48 to 88 calories each comparing to the worst offender the pint of beer with a whooping great 182 calories per pint! That’s where the term ‘beer belly’ stems from I believe! Also alco-pops with all the sugar they equate to around 200 calories per bottle! A beer belly stems from excess alcohol calories being stored as fat, nice! A glsss of medium white wine or champagne has 95 calories, which I don’t think is so bad, so if you think about it drinking can actually add to your calorie intake in a day.



I believe if you drink in moderation for example, once a week in large amounts or twice in small amounts you shouldn’t be too badly effected, however if you swallow those pints night after night I can promise you your body will start to feel the effects!

No I am partial to a nice glass of white vino, and yes they do say it has health benefits but I limit myself on a big night out to about 4 glasses max (me being a lightweight I don’t think I couldn’t manage much more) and I may have a mid-week glass with a meal or again at a weekend with a meal. Sometimes I will even do this in place of a dessert as a treat! I also like to drink Champagne as this is also very low in calories!

If you are trying to loose weight successful weight loss depends on burning more calories than you consume. This is why people choose low calorie drinks when trying to loose weight.

The other downside to alcohol…

Ever noticed after a night out you come out of a club or bar and get the munchies!... even I am guilty of it and this is where it changes you are hungry, you don’t care what you eat and oh look it’s the chip shop! Alcohol also contains sugar so after a sugar drop you will be craving more… so you may notice the craving for chocolate too!

Not only does drinking reduce the number of fat calories you burn, alcohol can increase your appetite and lower your testosterone levels for up to 24 hours after you finish drinking! Not good for men!

I have researched into this and to summarize this is what happens to your bodies fat metabolism after the odd drink or two...

• A small portion of the alcohol is converted into fat.
• Your liver then converts most of the alcohol into acetate.
  
• The acetate is then released into your bloodstream, and replaces fat as a source of fuel.
  

The way your body responds to alcohol is very similar to the way it deals with excess carbohydrate. Although carbohydrate can be converted directly into fat, one of the main effects of overfeeding with carbohydrate is that it simply replaces fat as a source of energy.

All in all be sensible and drink in moderation!

Top notch smoothie...

If you are looking for a fat free alternative dessert then here is a simple answer... try having a smoothie, they are quick and easy to make and leave you with a healthy buzz of satisfaction.
RECIPE:


A smooth emulsion of ripe strawberries and soft banana, pureed with light Greek yogurt crunched together with cubes of ice, garnished with a refreshing red strawberry.


You will need:

• 8-10 Strawberries (save 2 for the presentation)
• 2 Bananas
• 2/3 tablespoons of fat free Greek yogurt
• 6-8 ice cubes

1. In a blender first add the ice
2. Add the chopped fruit
3. Add 3 dessert spoons of yogurt... if you wanted to add a bit more flavour you could add some desiccated coconut or honey.

4. Once blended into a smooth liquid pour the smoothie into 2 glasses.

You can spice up the presentation by putting a slot down a half of a strawberry and slotting this onto the glass.

You can even go beyond this and place a cocktail stick containing other fruit onto the cocktail stick.

This is the perfect health kick to start your day or finish it... knowing you are gaining nothing but goodness from this concoction! Better still you can drink this anytime of the day!