Exercises to look younger

Like they say, age gracefully. No matter how old you are, would you like to have wrinkles, age spots, uneven and sagging skin? Definitely not! Everyone wants to hide their age as much as possible, and celebrities are more ‘at fault’ in this regard than us. Look at Demi Moore and Cameron Diaz-do they really look their age?

Time was when anti-aging tools were the prerogative of the celebrities. Not so any more! Today anyone can use them! In fact, I will tell you of a simple way to look more beautiful and hide your age.

You already know that exercises can help you lose weight and become fit. However, do you know that there are also special types of ‘facial exercises’, which would help you fight against aging? If you do these facial exercises regularly, you will look several years younger! In this article I will tell you about them.

1. Neck exercise: Tilt your neck backwards and then in a roundabout way. This is a great exercise for quickly shedding the extra pounds from your face; plus your blood circulation would also improve with this exercise. Make sure you do not move your neck in a jerky way or in any awkward position as it can cause neck injuries.

2. Jaw exercise: Open and drop your jaw, then open and close your mouth. Do this at least 20-25 times. This is yet another way to get rid of facial fat, particularly the fat around your chin and neck! For best results, jaw exercises should be done early in the morning.

3. Smiling: Not the half-heated smiles; I mean, smiling with a wide open mouth - smiling like that can help you get rid of facial fat.

4. Other things: While these facial exercises can work on their own, there are other things you need to take care of. For example, you need to watch your diet! If you can survive only on juices then there is nothing like that! Fruit juices are good for your health since many of them are rich in vitamins! A strict fruit-juice diet would help you achieve a glowing skin quite fast.

If you cannot survive on a juice-only diet then you can eat vegetables and fruits. If possible, eat fruits and vegetables in their raw forms; if not, you can boil them! Junk foods are obviously a strict no-no. Sugar and salt intake should obviously be reduced and regulated.

Looking young is not all that hard! You don’t need to buy the latest and greatest cosmetics or go under the knife in order to look beautiful! Just follow the four simple tips I outlined above and relive your youth.

Secrets of successful diets

Why do some dieters suffer the endless frustration of losing and then gaining weight again and again, while others lose weight and keep it off forever?

And wouldn’t you like to belong to the latter group instead of the former?

Here are some surprisingly easy things that successful dieters do - and you can easily adapt these good habits yourself.

1.) You know that old conventional wisdom that goes “The scale doesn’t matter when you’re dieting”? For a long time experts scorned the idea of frequent weigh ins, pointing out that the scale can be inaccurate because of fluctuations caused by water weight.

However, it turns out that weighing yourself every day is actually an excellent motivator for dieters. A study in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine found that dieters who weighed themselves every day lost the most weight, and kept it off more successfully, compared to a group of dieters who did not weigh themselves regularly.

2.) Write down everything that you eat. The mere act of writing down everything that you eat is a motivator that helps keep you on track and makes you less likely to binge, fitness experts say.

3.) Find an exercise that you like, even if it’s just taking your dog for a mile long walk, or bicycling, or tennis - and do it at least a few times a week. It will speed up your weight loss, make you healthier, and dieters who also exercise are the most successful at keeping the weight off.

4.) Plan ahead. If you are going out to dinner with friends or to a holiday office party or even to the movies, what are you going to do when hunger pangs hit? Make sure that you’ve eaten a filling, non fattening snack or meal beforehand and decide what, if anything, you will eat at the party, movies, or whatever, before you go.

5.) Schedule the occasional indulgence. If you know that you get to eat a small ice cream sundae once a week, or one brownie, or half a cup of pasta, or whatever you are craving, you are much less likely to binge. You can also make sure that’s a day when you add in some extra exercise.

Pilates Slims Your Silhouette

Pilates promotes a longer, leaner body line just as yoga does, because it involves stretching, bending, and twisting the body while developing core strength. But Pilates is not particularly aerobic, so if you are looking for a big calorie burn, use Pilates as an adjunct exercise to running, walking, biking, or using a fitness machine at the gym. Pilates plus aerobic exercise makes for a comprehensive fitness plan, since Pilates increases strength and flexibility and can prevent injuries and improve athletic performance in the same way as regular yoga practice. Many athletes find the emphasis on core body strength in Pilates helps them in their other sports.

Importance of Cooling Down

After vigorous aerobic exercise it is important to take 10 minutes or so to cool down gradually. Do not stop abruptly. For example, after a long run or jog, walk around and keep moving, rather than just stopping.

Cooling down properly (moving around) redistributes the blood that may have pooled in the extremities when you end your workout, and it prevents muscle stiffness because it allows the metabolic wastes to be worked out of your muscles.

How Do I Start Exercising?

Making the personal decision to begin exercise is the first step. Committing to make it a priority in your life is the next.

Often, the biggest challenge you will face is changing your lifestyle. Many of us have created bad habits over a the years and changing these requires a committed effort to consciously recognize and alter some of these patterns. Ultimately you need to change both your internal beliefs and your external environment to step you up for success.

It takes time to develop new habits, so a positive, forgiving attitude is essential. You will not become an athlete overnight, but by slowly changing your internal dialog and external situation, you will find a new lifestyle that encourages fitness.

Begin by checking with you doctor to ensure that you can safely exercise without restrictions. Once you have the ok, surround yourself with supportive people and role models. Having a support system is crucial in starting a workout program. Accountability and motivation are very important to success. Ask those who are active how they’ve set up their lifestyle to support activity. You will learn a lot from those who are doing what you want to do.

You might also consider several sessions with a qualified personal trainer to learn what to do to reach your fitness goals. Keep in mind that there is no right or wrong way to stay active. Find something that works for you whether it’s bike commuting to work, walking after dinner, joining a sports league, exercise while watching tv, or training for a marathon. There are so many options and sometimes we don’t realize how life provides many opportunities to be active – we just have to recognize them.

Physical health is often the last item on the daily agenda in trying to balance, school, jobs, relationships and all of the other demands of your daily life. However, if you make physical fitness and healthy lifestyle a priority, you will find more energy and enthusiasm for the other areas of your life.

Ideally, your exercise routine should be goal oriented, especially for new exercisers. Your goal must be realistic relative to your starting point, and measurable in a way that you will see your progress.

Healthy Eating Pyramid

We can’t look at a pyramid these days without thinking of food and healthy eating. There was the U.S. government’s Food Guide Pyramid, followed by its replacement, My Pyramid, which was basically the same thing, just pitched on its side. The problem was that these efforts, while generally good intentioned, have been quite flawed at actually showing people what makes up a healthy diet. Why? Their recommendations have often been based on out-of-date science and influenced by people with business interests in their messages.

But, there’s a better alternative: the Healthy Eating Pyramid, built by the faculty in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. Based on the latest science, and unaffected by businesses and organizations with a stake in its messages, the Health Eating Pyramid is a simple, trustworthy guide to choosing a healthy diet. Its foundation is daily exercise and weight control, since these two related elements strongly influence your chances of staying healthy. The Healthy Eating Pyramid builds from there, showing that you should eat more foods from the bottom part of the pyramid (vegetables, whole grains) and less from the top (red meat, refined grains).

What Are the Specific Benefits of Exercise?

Psychological and Emotional Benefits

Aerobic exercise is linked with improved mental vigor, including reaction time, acuity, and math skills. Exercising may even enhance creativity and imagination. According to one study, older people who are physically fit respond to mental challenges just as quickly as unfit young adults. (Stretching and weight training appear to have no such effects.) Both aerobic and nonaerobic workouts have been shown to reduce depression. According to one study, exercise was as effective for improving mood in people with clinical depression as some common forms of psychotherapy. Either brief periods of intense training or prolonged aerobic workouts can raise levels of important chemicals in the brain, such as endorphins, adrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine, that produce feelings of pleasure, causing the so-called runner's high. One study found that teenagers who were active in sports have a much better sense of well being than their sedentary peers; the more vigorously they exercised, the better was their emotional health. In one study, regular brisk walking cut in half the incidence of sleep disturbances in people who suffer from them. It should be noted that exercise in the evening, however, can cause sleep disturbances. Rhythmic aerobic and yoga exercises may be particularly helpful for combating stress, anxiety, and sleeplessness.