Caridad Pineiro® Romance Author
NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Romance Author
NY Times and USA Today bestselling romance author Caridad Pineiro shares tips about crafts, cooking, and more!
At this time of year we tend to get a little crazy with all the holiday prep. If you’re feeling a little tense or lonely or just need a little more pep in your step, try some music.
This is one of my holiday favorites! I hope you’ll enjoy it also. Click here if you cannot see the Trans-Christmas Canon video below or cut and paste this link: https://youtu.be/4cP26ndrmtg
I have to confess to not being a big fan of green tea, but during a visit to a coffee shop with my daughter, I ended up trying matcha made with almond milk. Yummy!
What is matcha? Matcha is a Japanese green tea powder. It has more health benefits than regular green tea because you are eating the whole leaf and it hasn’t been processed so it contains more catechins and polyphenols than regular green tea. Also lots and lots of anti-oxidants according to a Wall Street Journal article.
You’d have to drink a lot more green tea to compensate for all the benefits in matcha. But matcha can be pricey. I found that a trip to my local Asian market yielded a very large bag for a fraction of the cost than in other stores.
So what benefits can you get from green tea and/or matcha? How about improved blood flow, lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol? Not enough benefits yet? How about cancer fighting properties, some help with weight loss, reduced risk of stroke, memory improvement, tooth decay, and anti-aging?
Sounds too good to be true, right? But if one little cup of day can help, I’m all for it. Just a word of caution: Check with your doctor about drinking green tea, especially if you have glaucoma like I do. Lots of mixed news about whether green tea and/or matcha are good for you or whether they increase intraocular pressure.
For more info, check out these articles:
WebMD: Green Tea Benefits
Medical News Today: Green Tea: Health Benefits
Match Source: Matcha Health Benefits
A little while ago I posted a photo of myself and my transformation. 40 pounds lost and working on losing another 30.
Of course, a large part of that is diet and anyone that tells you that you can lose weight without eating healthier has a bridge to sell you (will kids even understand that saying today?).
Exercise, while important for losing weight, is also important for improving your overall health. It’s not good to be sedentary and even the smallest amount of movement will benefit you.
When I took the first step in my transformation, it was literally a first step: walking my way to health. It’s a great form of exercise and little by little I built up to how much I walk. Today I usually do about five miles a day (if not more) over the course of the day. How do I do that? Walking everywhere I can and having my Fitbit buddies challenge me to new goals.
My favorite place to walk is the beach, of course, but anywhere will do and it doesn’t take much. Just 15 minutes a day has been shown to improve your overall health.
If you’d like to get started, here are some links with good articles on the benefits of walking!
The Benefits of Walking by Real Simple
Benefits of Walking by Arthritis.org
Trim Your Waistline, Improve Your Health by Mayo Clinic
This is Your Body on Walking by Prevention Magazine (I personally love this magazine!)
3 New Walking Workouts to Blast Fat by Prevention
Another hint for those who work in an office and sit all day: Buy a cheap kitchen timer and set it to go off every half an hour. Get up, walk around, move, squat, lift, do anything! Be Mobile. You will feel the difference in your body once this becomes a regular habit.
There are lots of reasons that breakfast is an important way to start your day. For starters, your body’s metabolism has been in a resting state since the night before and you want to jumpstart that metabolism and get it going. That in turn will burn more calories which can help you maintain/lose weight. Plus, it will help avoid snacking on foods that are high in fat and sugar.
Here are some articles for you to check out on why breakfast is so important:
Why eating the right breakfast is so important
4 Reasons Why You Should Never Skip Breakfast
Why you should eat a healthy breakfast
I started skipping breakfast and you know what I found? I was snacking more during the day and at night and losing weight was harder. So today, I’m back to eating breakfast and starting my day with a healthy bowl of oatmeal! I’ll let you know what difference it makes in my life soon!
I’m a carboholic. I admit that and falling off the carb wagon is really really bad for me. Case in point, this week. It started off last weekend with a conference, built over the week in anticipation of Easter and crescendoed on Easter Sunday. Cakes. Bread. Chocolate. Pastries. As much as I kept to eating well for most meals and not only continued with my workouts, but intensified them, the addition of carbs set me back massively on my weight loss plans.
I’m sad about it, but taking steps to rectify the problem by watching my carbs and trying to limit myself to complex carbs in small quantities. What’s the difference between simple and complex? In a nutshell, complex carbs are those that are naturally occurring in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. While they break down into simple sugars eventually, they also contain fiber and other healthy ingredients.
Simple carbs are things like refined sugar, white bread, etc. which even if they have naturally occurring sugars, lack the beneficial fiber and nutrients that come with complex carbs. You can find a more detailed and scientific explanation about the different carbs in this article by Fitday.
So what foods are complex carbs? Here’s just a few:
You can get more info on additional complex carbs and a carb calendar at MyFit.Ca.
I hope this was a helpful Tuesday Tip. You can click there to visit another good article on things to do to lose weight!
I hit another milestone today – 40 pounds lost. It took me a long time between the holidays (no pounds gained luckily) and the dreaded plateau.
Anyone who has tried to lose weight has hit a plateau and sometimes they are tough to break through. I tried lowering and raising my calorie counts. Exercising more. Even exercising a little less. Those stubborn 3 or so pounds just would not leave me.
I spoke to my trainer and we talked about my diet and it turned out that in my quest to eat healthier I had seriously eliminated fat from my diet. Both good and bad fats. He said to me, “You need to eat fat to lose fat.”
As you can imagine, I was surprised, but I took his words to heart because he has really helped me improve my overall health and fitness.
So I added back some healthy fats. Avocado. Nuts. Low fat dairy. Coconut oil. Olive oil. Eggs.
What happened? Well, those stubborn pounds disappeared in just a few days. WOO HOO.
So today’s Tuesday Tip is: Eat more healthy fats.
If you want more information on this concept and healthy fats, you can visit these links:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/557726-eat-fat-to-burn-fat/
http://www.coachcalorie.com/eat-fat-to-lose-fat/
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/how-eating-more-fat-helps-you-lose-more-weight.html
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/healthy-eating/tips/why-non-fat-isnt-the-answer/
Just a last word of warning: Watch out for foods that claim to be low fat, but just seem too good to be true. Oftentimes there is a lot of added sugar and salt or artificial ingredients to make up for the “lower fat.”
Let’s face it, gravity keeps us grounded, but it also isn’t the friendliest thing for some of our body parts. Regular exercise can help with keeping your body toned, but what about your face? Is there anything you can do to deal with the effects of gravity and aging?
Apparently there is! Check out the links to these sites and some facial toning exercises to help deal with some very common problems, including drooping eyelids and saggy skin along your jaws and neck.
Neck Exercises (and more if you check out the links at the site): http://bit.ly/20BazGi
This exercise is very similar to the “Giraffe” in the Yoga-inspired facial toning link.
Facial exercises for toning: http://bit.ly/20BaL8j
Stylecraze Yoga Exercises & videos for toning and slimming your face: http://bit.ly/20Bb03f and http://bit.ly/20Bb6I5
You may notice that some of the above links mention yoga. My sister is really into yoga, so much so that she became certified to teach. I went to one of her classes the other day and then to a different class on Saturday. In the summer months there is yoga on the beach on Sundays and I love going. I’ve never had good balance or flexibility, so age isn’t necessarily to blame for those things. I find that I am improving both with some occasional yoga classes and doing some yoga at home with a DVD.
Hope these tips helped you today!
