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Can’t curb the Cravings?

Don’t know how to control dreaded cravings? Be sure to read on….

Green tea has a long history of health benefits and its qualities are significantly more effective than black tea.

Both teas come from the camellia sinensis plant but green tea leaves are steamed rather than fermented like black and oolong teas. This prevents a powerful anti-oxidant, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), from being oxidized and therefore diminished.

Antioxidant Properties

High amounts of catechins polyphenols, particularly EGCG, are present in green tea. And EGCG has twice as much resveratrol as red wine, making it a powerful weapon towards lowering cholesterol, inhibiting blood clots and negating the effects of a fatty diet.

EGCG is also used to treat diabetes and is reported to have glucose-lowering effects. In addition glucose can cause a person to feel hunger and by controlling insulin levels, you control appetite. Try drinking a mug of green tea at the first hunger pain and you are well on your way to managing your appetite.

Thermogenesis

Thermogenesis literally means heat generation. Green tea increases thermogenesis in the body, becoming a potent appetite suppressant and increasing fat oxidation, helping the body to use fat as an energy source. This means the body is preferentially burning fat over protein.

Green tea also raises the body’s metabolism, increasing the rate at which calories are burned. In a recent study, green tea burned more calories than those given a placebo. This can help with weight management and fat loss.

Add to its thermogenesis benefits, green tea also has energy-boosting properties, which makes it a perfect breakfast tea or mid-afternoon pick me up.

Other Possible Health Benefits Documented

There are many other conditions in which green tea is reputed to be helpful:

Killing cancer cells, while leaving healthy cells untouched
Treating Rheumatoid arthritis
Lowering LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol)
Preventing thrombosis (blood clots) which causes heart attacks and strokes
Addressing cardiovascular disease by inhibiting abnormal formation of blood clots
Preventing infection
Improving impaired immune function
Stopping certain neurodegenerative diseases (such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s)
Treating multiple sclerosis (MS)
Preventing tooth decay by killing the bacteria that causes dental plaque

When you compare the heath benefits of green tea with the harmful effects of regular and diet soda / soft drinks, coffee and other damaging sugar-riddled

energydrinks, it is easy to see why green tea has a long and successful history of benefiting the drinker.

Adding Green Tea to Your Diet

Green tea has become so popular that it can be found in mainstream grocery stores as well as petrol stations and convenience stores. There are many flavors and varieties of green teas so you will be sure to find a combination of flavours you’ll enjoy.

Consider also adding green tea water to some cooked foods. Adding tea to a pot of boiling pasta will affect the flavor in a fresh new way. Toss that same pasta with pine nuts, pesto and a dash of olive oil and you have a healthful dish with many antioxidant properties. Challenge yourself to find new and exciting ways to add green tea to your diet!

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Having the Right Attitude

Successful people in any area of life all have one thing in common – they have a winning attitude.

Many people appear to have the right attitude for achieving nutrition goals such as weight loss, however lurking at the back of their minds is an inner resistance. This self doubt erodes the ability to bring about constructive dietary changes and leads to a lack of effort and self discipline that is necessary for nutrition success.

The inner resistance can often be heard as a little voice in the background…the one right now that’s saying “what little voice?” We need to consistently send ourselves positive messages that keep us on track and provide reassurance rather than sabotaging our thoughts with negative ones such as “this is too hard”, “nothing is working” and “I can’t be bothered”.

So why do most people have difficulty maintaining a winning attitude? It’s because…

maintaining a positive attitude towards nutrition is not easy.

Many people find maintaining a positive attitude difficult because they are unable to direct thoughts and energy into achieving nutrition goals when there are so many other areas of life to think about. In other words, many believe that we are unable to have all aspects of life working for us because we simply can’t fit everything into our busy schedules or that it’s just not possible. If this is something you relate to, I’m here to say that:

it’s absolutely possible to have everything in life working for you, including being powerful in the area of nutrition!

Eating doesn’t have to be hard.

Clearing your mind of all the nutrition hype, misconceptions, myths and fallacies is the crucial first step towards becoming someone who is powerful in the area of nutrition.

A simple technique you can start trying to achieve nutrition success along with everything else that’s going on is to focus on the end result that needs to be achieved rather than stressing about how you’ll get there. Having some basic understanding of how to achieve your nutrition goals is required however and we will help you learn these techniques during the course of your training.

Strategies that can provide powerful access to maintaining a positive attitude towards nutritionand invoking emotions of what it would be like to already have nutrition success include:

Visualising yourself with the body composition you desire or with an abundance of health and vitality;
Going shopping as if you were buying clothes you will wear once you have reached your ideal body shape
Finding images of people that are finishing an event that you would like to complete and place them in a scrapbook or on the fridge so you can see them regularly.

Being unable to maintain a positive attitude towards nutrition means people simply don’t finish what they start and therefore they don’t get in shape and achieve an abundance of health

and vitality. It’s all about our ability to consistently do what we need to do…our ability to change our thinking, change our attitudes, change our habits, change our reality and ultimately, change our body forever.

Based mainly on my personal experience as a fitness and nutrition consultant, the most important traits that individuals possess who maintain a positive attitude towards nutrition are:

1. Desire

This is very distinct from hope or a wish. When moving towards a goal of any nature or purpose, successful individuals begin with an intense, burning desire for something definite. Through the somewhat strange yet powerful principle of ‘mental chemistry’ and ‘thoughts’, the word impossible and the concept of failure are not accepted and cease to exist.

A strong desire is also a powerful means of calling someone into action. When the desire is great enough, all blockages are overcome and the necessary steps are taken towards achieving the intended outcome.

In other words, if you really want to do something, you will find a way and means to make it happen.

2. Faith

Faith is one of the most powerful of the positive emotions. It is a state of mind where visualising and believing combine to influence our subconscious mind.

When you have faith in something or someone, you are fully committed and have an unwavering belief that the desired outcome will occur. Take a moment now to consider what aspects of life you currently have faith in…..

Now imagine if you had this level of faith in a sound nutritional programme…I have no doubt there would be some dramatic results and you would be unstoppable in achieving your nutrition goals.

3. Maintain the same direction

Staying on board with your nutrition programme despite having periods where you’re off track.

There are many factors that will take you off track, however the biggest problem that people face is emotional eating.

We can all relate to having our comfort foods when feeling bored, frustrated or sad and there’s no doubt this food is high in fat, sugar and calories. There’s not a lot of comfort in reaching for a carrot or apple for the emotional eater!

Here is the key to success for maintaining the same direction:

It’s not the number of errors you make but how fast you get back on track.

4. Don’t delay
The sooner you start making changes to your current eating habits,
no matter how small they are, the more likely you will succeed.
Here is a Chinese proverb that say’s it all:

“He who deliberates fully before taking a step…will spend his entire life on one leg!”

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.”

Abraham Lincoln

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Setting Goals

Goal setting is something I’m sure you’ve all heard of and have tried in some shape or form.

Most people consider they’re goal setting by simply thinking of something they want to achieve and leaving it at that. Starting with thoughts about what you want to achieve is essential, but is this really goal setting? Unless the thoughts are sustained and combined with taking action, I would suggest it’s merely dreaming or wishful thinking.

I’m not suggesting here that you should avoid dreaming or wishful thinking as this can be the source of truly remarkable achievements.

Goal setting is essentially a tool for clarifying what it is you desire or the specific outcome you want to achieve. Not only does this allow you to write down in detail what end result you are aiming to achieve, but it also provides a means for setting smaller manageable targets that confirm the path you’re on.

Effective goal setting needs to start with making a list. Write down what you want to achieve. What sort of health do you want? Do you want to reach a certain level

of body fat? Would you like a boost in exercise performance or improved recovery between training sessions? Do you want to be able to run 5km without stopping?

SUGGESTION BOX:

? Acting as a role model for family, friends or others;? Boosting vitality and energy;

? Improving immune function;

? Optimising exercise performance and recovery;

? Achieving healthy weight reduction or weight gain;

? Reducing the risk of serious illnesses such as heart disease, some cancers, diabetes and osteoporosis;

? Preventing oxidative stress and dehydration;

? To look younger and live longer;

? Protecting teeth and keeping gums healthy;

? Enhancing concentration and mood profile.

http://www.nutrifit.co.nz

Once you have a list of what you want to achieve, start clarifying each goal by creating a reason for why they are important to you. Establishing a why is the main driving force that sets you in motion. Adding a time frame to each goal is also a useful strategy for calling you into action.

Now you’re ready to determine how important your nutrition goals are in relation to other life goals you have. Take a few minutes to prioritise all goals you’re working in life right now so you are aware of what your top five goals are for the next year.

Please consider this when it comes to goal setting:

If your nutrition goal(s) do not make the top five, it’s very unlikely you will achieve them.

Does nutrition make your top 5 goals in life right now? If not, you may need to reprioritise to ensure your why is big enough for keeping the possibility of nutrition success in existence.

Placing your nutrition goals where you frequently see them together with images of the end results you wish to experience is another strategy for achieving nutrition success. Use the fridge, a notice board at home or work, a scrapbook or even develop your own screensaver on a home and/or work computer/ smartphone. You can also try sharing your goals with others such as family and close friends. This is a powerful technique because of the following:

When you declare your goals, you become more accountable for achieving them.

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