My First Blog Post

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

Secret Key to Weight Loss : Change your Lifestyle

Due to the enormous amount of information about diet universal on the internet, people who want to lead healthy lives end up being confused as to which diet will help them achieve their goals – mostly weight management.

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The pendulum of which “diet” works keeps swinging back and forth. People try changing to different diets but only a few are lucky to find one that helps them to successfully manage their health. Click here to purchase the product

Diet debate almost dying

Every now and then, people trying to reduce weight through dieting confess “cheating on their diets”.

The major reason for failing to keep up with a diet plan is that the plan is not parallel to the person’s lifestyle.

Often, lifestyle is the best partner when it comes to eating and living healthy. A diet that goes well with your lifestyle is easy to maintain.

The realization that lifestyle comes before diet is triggered by the knowledge that the body is not a machine that efficiently produces output according to the input.

Body systems are integrated in such a way that improvement of the whole depends on how well all the systems are coordinated. For example, a person desiring to reduce weight may take healthy food always but fail to handle emotional distress.

According to research, stress leads to weight gain in some people. Having a lifestyle that supports the well-being of the entire body is the only way to achieve healthy living.

Researchers suggest that lifestyle comes before diet

World-renowned researchers like Bradley Appelhans of the Rush University Medical Center and Sherry Pagoto of the University of Massachusetts Medical have suggested an end to the diet debates that are so frequent in weight management circles.

In their journals, they write that different diets are equally good as they are bad in helping one lose weight. They support their case that lifestyle changes can collectively handle diet and other aspects of healthy living.

Nutritionists’ case studies

The Benefits of Eating Six Small Meals Each Day

Starving yourself is not a healthy way to restrict how many calories you consume. Research now shows that eating 6 smaller meals a day can help you achieve your summer weight loss goals, as opposed to the traditional thinking that 3 complete meals a day is best. You can seriously put your health at risk if you limit your calorie consumption too drastically.

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Small Meals Each Day
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More and more people are victims of a “roller coaster diet” while trying to lose weight. Diet plans that restrict your calories decrease your body’s metabolism, and as a result your body will experience starvation. When this occurs, your body doesn’t use a lot of calories, and that leads to extreme hunger.

To increase your body’s metabolic rate, you should eat 5 or 6 smaller meals each day. Your metabolism will increase, and thus burn more calories all day long. You can further increase your metabolism by eating foods high in protein during your 6 meals.

Eating regularly will boost your metabolism due to the thermic effect of food.

You need a lot of calories to digest and absorb food, creating the thermic effect.

Different foods have different percentages of thermic effect, ranging from 3 to 30 percent. High protein foods have a 30 percent thermic effect. Some examples are turkey, salmon, and tuna. By simply digesting, 30 percent of the calories in these foods are burned. 20 percent of the calories found in fibrous and complex carbohydrates are burned during digestion. Some examples of these foods are corn, broccoli, green beans, and spinach. Foods with a very low thermic effect include refined carbohydrates and fats. This is the reason why dietary fat is stored so easily.

Your level of hunger will diminish while your energy level rises when you eat 5-6 smaller meals each day. You will also be able to maintain balanced blood sugar levels, which will help prevent hunger.

You can develop muscle to increase your metabolism. By eating regularly, you can maintain insulin levels which produce amino acids into your muscle’s cells, thus promoting muscle growth. Eating every 3 hours will yield a steady output of insulin. This is good for muscle growth and storing glycogen. As a result of eating healthy foods regularly, your summer weight loss goals will be easier to accomplish, and your body will be able to process vitamins and minerals more effectively.

The trick is to make sure you have a constant eating schedule. It might be difficult at first, but planning your meals will be well worth it. To prevent cravings and hunger, it’s good habit to feed your body foods that are rich in nutrients. A summer weight loss plan including a diet of healthy fats, vegetables, fruit, and lean protein is the best way to go. Eating such a diet with 5-6 meals each day can accelerate your muscle growth. It can increase your energy level, increase your metabolism, and you’ll burn half of the calories by eating regularly, and store very little fat.

Combine your diet with strength training and cardiovascular exercise to make it even more effective! Using these three methods, you’ll be on the fast track to burning fat and accomplishing your summer weight loss goals.

Check out these amazing green tea 

Different Yoga Poses and Asanas

Classical yoga has developed over time to include many different styles for a range of situations, needs and preferences.  However, the majority of Yoga styles still fall neatly into either the therapeutic or the meditative category.  Both categories have many hundreds of different Asanas, (poses or positions) and all of these are designed to benefit both the body and the mind.

5 Prayer Position:

Yoga takes the five ‘prayer’ positions and uses a corresponding yoga position to activate the seven chakras in the body.  A Chakra is a type of energy field or is sometimes thought as a key position in the flow of energy throughout our body.  Each different type of Yoga and each different Yoga position will have a different chakra as its core emphasis.  All of these positions, which we tend to think of nowadays in Western Yoga as exercises, were in fact originally the preparation for the Yogi to enter a state of meditation.

Asanas:

The actual positions or poses of Yoga are known as Asanas and they may seem complicated or difficult to a new Yoga student.  It’s important not to forget that all of the basic positions of Yoga are designed to improve the bodies strength and flexibility, and as these characteristics are improved it also makes the positions more comfortable and easier to settle into.  The deep stretching that is the basis of most Yoga positions is beneficial for trauma disorders, tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow amongst others.

Before you begin you may find it beneficial to attain a basic knowledge of the philosophy and theory behind Yoga, however this is not a requirement or essential to your success.  It does assist with being comfortable settling into and performing the poses associated with Yoga, and it should be remembered that if you cannot do this then you will probably not benefit from Yoga.

Common misconception about Yoga:

There is a common misconception about Yoga that it is only for the tremendously flexible who can contort themselves into weird and wonderful positions.  Chanting is often also associated with a Yoga class in people’s preconceptions.  Neither of these ideas is true.

The Yoga positions are generally quite easy to get into but they do have several different depths in many cases.  This means that a completely beginner can move into a position and still benefit from it at a great level after many years of Yoga.

There are some advanced positions that a beginner should probably not bother themselves with.  Just as you are not going to compete with top marathon runners on your first day jogging, but can still get benefits, you are also not going to be able to ease into some of the positions that an instructor is capable of.  Likewise, if you are pregnant or perhaps have an injury such as a bad back you should inform your Yoga instructor before you begin.  There are some positions that can actually be detrimental to certain conditions.  Twist exercises with a recurring back injury is one of these.

Yoga is something that is most beneficial in a comfortable environment, as the muscles will stretch better when they are still warm.  It’s important to learn the discipline to enter and leave each new pose or position slowly.  Not only does this help avoiding injury but also the movement from one pose to another is often part of the program.  Don’t hold the poses and positions longer than is natural for you either.  As you become more used to practicing the Yoga positions each day the benefits will allow you to hold a position with more ease for longer periods of time.

When practiced correctly the benefits of Yoga are many.  Lubrication of the joints, ligaments and the tendons will result directly from performing the exercises best suited to you.  Posture will increase dramatically and you will also experience a sense of well-being.  There is also a deeper spiritual level to Yoga (it actually has its own philosophy and code of ethics) that you will move closer towards and enhance each time you stretch and go through the breathing exercises.

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Bay Area Beauty Love: Benefit Punch Pop!

My idea of the perfect party punch involves strawberries, and if they aren’t in there in copious amounts (mashed or sliced, doesn’t matter to me), I’m out. There’s a Strawberry version in the new-ish Benefit Punch Pops, so YAY for me and my red berry addiction, which I blame on a childhood spent obsessing over Strawberry Shortcake (the doll, not the dessert…although I do love both). Bakery

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the boxes say “Liquid Lip Color,” when really, this new-ish line, which came out last fall, is made up of straight-up lipglosses.

*shrugs*

Slightly confusing marketing aside, the glosses are fun, functional and best of all, cute, which is what Benefit, a beauty brand based outta SF (my old stomping grounds!), does best.

benefit punch pop
Kisses…

This line of non-sticky, full-pigment glosses is supposed to be cheeky and fun and not meant to be taken too seriously. You stick one in your purse, wear it everyday for two weeks straight, and then after that, occasionally take it out whenever you do a deep dive into your bag (“Oh, so THAT’S where it went!”) and touch up with it before moving onto the next thing.

The deets

  • $18 each, available in 7 shades in the permanent line (although FYI, Benefit is known for revamping/relaunching their glosses every five minutes couple years).
  • Unscented, unflavored
  • Feels similar to a Chanel Glossimer on the lips, with medium weight and a little bit of glide (so, heftier than a MAC Lipglass, but not as slick as MAC Cremesheen).
  • Applies evenly, and stays shiny for about an hour before it starts to fade.
  • For the darkest shades, I get a maximum wear time of about three hours; for the lighter shades, about two.
  • I find the formula to be slightly drying on my lips.
benefit gogo tint pink berry
I’m wearing Pink Berry.
benefit punch pop swatches
Bold or neutral? Take your pick! (Not pictured, Pink Berry… It was in my purse!)
🙂

This is a cute and completely functional lipgloss, and while it might not revolutionize the makeup world as we know it, it’s darling enough to probably bring a smile to your  face every time you take it out. Totally appropriate for the young and the young-at-heart, and if Connor were a tween, I’d be cool with her “borrowing” the light pink one from me and keeping it in her backpack.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

BAY AREA BEAUTY LOVE: BENEFIT PUNCH POP! / ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 5TH, 2019There are 5 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: BenefitLipsMakeupProduct ReviewsKeywords: bay area beauty lovebenefit

The products in this entry were provided by the manufacturer for consideration. For information about my posting policy, please see my Disclaimer.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.