Posted on December 14, 2016
Shedding Light on the Bodybuilder’s Building Block
Okay, we need to talk.
Let’s talk about the quintessential protein source we all know and love – discover the science behind them, and dispel the misconceptions some fearmongers have made about it.
See, eggs have been, fairly or unfairly, considered fatty, cholesterol-rich, and therefore unhealthy – due to same misconception of cholesterol as being all that is evil in this world.
The fact of the matter is, a medium-sized egg would contain about 212 mg worth of cholesterol – pretty much the same compared to other animal-derived foods that are commonly eaten (well, save for the exception of ox brain, which is delicious, but deadly). So, it does seem a lot considering that the guidelines for what constitutes a healthy diet recommends us to stay under a daily threshold of 300 mg of cholesterol.
I’ll bet my bottom dollar that if you go talk to your doctor right now, he would say you can only have one egg per day.
But why? Let’s see the ways.
Hints, Allegations, And Things Left Unsaid.
Eggs have unfortunately become the victim of the misinterpretation – whether willingly or inadvertently – of studies made (in a questionable manner, may I add) which generated a shitstorm of fearmongering about the evils of cholesterol which lasted until just a few years ago. This came only after scientifically-based studies dismantled, piece by piece, this fear and this myth that cholesterol was the root of all that kills.
While it will take some time before common opinions change into a more favorable light when it comes to cholesterol, and in turn that of the humble egg’s perception as a cholesterol-laden food, at least it’s a start.
The Unquestionable Truth About Cholesterol.
Here’s a truth bomb: the cholesterol content found in eggs was found to not have any adverse effect on cholesterol levels in the blood. While it’s true that cholesterol levels in the blood indeed come from your diet, they are most importantly regulated through the liver’s production…they can only weakly affect your blood cholesterol levels, much weaker than what was previously bandied about as truth.
Furthermore, eggs DO tend to raise HDL cholesterol levels – the good kind, that is. A Harvard study shows that moderate consumption of eggs are not correlated with heart disease or heart attacks.
And thus, they are one of nature’s most nutritious foods – in the end, it’s just a large cell with a lot of membrane and nutrients needed to survive.
Pure, Unadulterated Nutrition.
Eggs have so much macronutrient and micronutrient content, apart from the high-quality protein they already have – vitamins A, E and D, with the latter present in quantities that make it one of the most important sources, with extremely high bioavailability than the other forms of vitamin D come with. Iron is found in a good supply, and so are zinc and choline.
Shame on those who remove the yolk due to its fat content – the yolk is extremely rich in phospholipids and lipoproteins, as well as myelin, which aids the body’s blood coagulation and inflammatory responses. Need I say more?
So yes, you can go all Rocky Balboa and knock down those eggs in the morning – they are, undoubtedly, every bodybuilder’s building blocks.
Add to that some lifting and cardio/muscle exercise using that machine from Home Rower – check them out at http://www.homerower.com/ – and you’ll be all ready and in tip top condition before you know it.
Updated on August 8, 2016
Five Tips to Become a More Interesting Speaker
Speaking in front of an audience, whether you have two people listening to you or hundreds and thousands, you have to know how to stay interesting to get your message across. You may be saying very important things and you can go on and on for hours; but if you’re doing the same thing over and over again and you’re not doing anything special, your audience can either leave, be bored out of their minds or even fall asleep. You need to know how to catch your audience’s attention and maintain their interest while you’re on stage or wherever you are while speaking.
Here are some ideas on how you can become a more interesting speaker. Now these aren’t the only existing tips but these worked for many other speakers. Hopefully, these work for you too and who knows? You might just be the most in-demand speaker soon!
1. Make use of visual aids.
When you speak in front of a crowd and you expect to do so for more than 10 minutes, expect their attention to be divided some time in between your speech. They will listen to the tone of your voice going on and on and they will just stare at your face. Pretty soon, they can get bored or lose interest so they check on their phones, go to the restroom, talk to the person next to them, etc. Use visual aids to add something more to their view other than your face. A PowerPoint presentation, a video or even a few posters will definitely help.
2. Do something out of the ordinary.
What do speakers usually do? They speak. Do something extraordinary to break the ice. Be more than just a speaker. Sing. Dance. Recite a poem. Wear something crazy. You can even try riding the Phunkeeduck, which is considered one of the best self balancing hoverboard today.
3. Tell real life stories.
Say something about yourself. Tell a story about a friend or a “friend” who is made up in your mind. Make sure it’s an interesting story and related to your speech. Here’s an example – when a priest gives his sermon after the reading of the Gospel, he can go on and on and talk about the Gospel and what’s written inn the Bible. If you’re a regular church-goer or if you read the Bible, you probably already know everything he’s saying. So to make his sermon more interesting, the priest relays true stories that occurred at more recent times. This makes his sermon more relatable to the people listening to him.
4. Be interactive.
Ask questions that require a response from your audience. Instead of talking to a blank wall, remind yourself that you are talking to people who are capable of responding. Let your audience be part of your “speech” by interacting with them. Prepare some jokes, talk about celebrities, etc. Things you shouldn’t do are joking about from political and religious topics though because you’re never sure if a member of the audience has different beliefs, unless of course if politics or religion is the topic of your speech.
5. Do your research and be prepared.
It doesn’t matter how great or spontaneous of a public speaker you are. You must never take the microphone without being prepared. Eve
Posted on May 1, 2016
How to Start Building Your Own Cooking Website
Whether you’re a chef, a stay-at-home mom, a dad who loves cooking or just anyone at all who wants to give the kitchen a try, you have all the right to create your own cooking website. Who knows? Your website might just be the next big thing on the Internet!
List Down Your Ideas
A great website starts with great ideas. You can either focus one aspect such as baking cupcakes or cooking all kinds of pasta. You can also have a general cooking website that discusses how to make and cook all kinds of dishes, cakes, pastries and desserts!
When you already have that million-dollar idea, then you can begin thinking of what your website should be like. Will you have a blog? A tab for recipes? Weekly videos? The possibilities are limitless and you can do practically everything you want.
Get Ready with Your Material
Now building a website is the easiest part. The more challenging part is coming up with your material. Your ideas are only as good as they are when they’ve already been done. Come up with at least a few weeks’ worth of posts for your launching. Perhaps 5 or more blog posts, a couple of videos, 10 recipes, etc.
Take a little
You also need to get your kitchen ready so it’s presentable. Remember that if you want your website to be popular and successful, you need to be unique and original. You have to use your own photos and videos so most likely, your kitchen will have a lot of exposure. Besides your kitchen, your own physical appearance is something to take into consideration – how do you want to come across? Begin remodeling or at least repainting or thoroughly clean your kitchen area. Perhaps it’s time to put your handmixer aside because for demonstrating cooking, stand mixers are best. Did you know that kitchen tools and equipment such as a stand mixer come cheap when you buy online? It’s not like these cost thousands of dollars like they did in the past. Pans, pots, utensils, chopping board, knives, etc. should also look nice and picture-ready.
Start Building Your Website
Perhaps you should ask yourself how much you are willing to invest on your website—time and effort-wise. There are free website building tools such as WordPress and Blogger (Blogspot). You can start using these tools for free for now and if in the future you decide that you are willing to spend more money on your website, then perhaps you can hire a professional web developer to help you out, purchase a URL and pay for hosting services. All these sound so technical and complicated but after weeks or months of building and working on your own website, you will get used to it.
Promote Your Website
Make use of social media. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are only some of the avenues you can make use of when you want to promote your website. Tell your friends to check out your site and share the link to their friends if they like it. Soon enough, when you’ve made enough money from ads and sponsors, then you can start paying for sponsored ads that will increase website visits.
Posted on April 24, 2016
How to Solidly Prepare for a Winter Storm
When you live in a city that’s prone to winter storms, you are probably already used to this time of the year and you consider this type of weather as nothing to worry about. However, if you’re looking for ways to prepare for a winter storm as a first-timer, the first thing you should do is to teach yourself how to stop panicking. Above all, you need presence of mind and there’s no room for panicking. After all, many have survived the winter season and numerous winter storms so with proper awareness and preparation, you should be fine.
So what exactly do you have to do to prepare for a winter storm? Read on and find out.
1. Stay aware.
You need to know what is going on at all times and you can stay aware by tuning into the news on the radio or on TV. You can also check online for updates on news websites, Twitter accounts, etc. Stay in touch with neighbors, relatives and other family members and always be aware how they are or where they are so in a worst case scenario, you know where to start looking.
2. Conserve energy and be ready with batteries.
You need a lot of batteries for your flash lights, radio, etc. As much as possible, do not waste valuable energy. Even if there’s still electricity, do not waste your mobile phone’s battery on unimportant things such as games or browsing entertainment sites. This is not the time for that. You want your phone to still have power once you need it.
3. Make sure your car is winter-proof.
Your car should be winter-proof and its engine should have an anti-freeze feature. Check this with your mechanic before winter. Your car should be ready to move you and your family in case a winter storm gets worse.
4. Be ready with shovels or a snow blower.
If the winter storm is so bad, you will have a difficult time getting rid of all the snow with just a shovel. It is best if you are equipped with a snow blower so that in case you need a walkway or to rid of your driveway of snow, then the snow blower will be able to do so. According to Snow Shift, you can also use rock salt and other products that can help melt ice.
5. Be ready with necessary supplies.
Aside from batteries, you should have enough food and drinks available in your home because you’ll never know if the roads will be inaccessible during a winter storm. Better yet, have a set of supplies as well including warm clothing and blankets in your car should you need to leave.
6. Keep communication lines open.
You should always have your landline and mobile phone lines ready and open. Especially if your house is located in an isolated area, make sure that you have several communication options. Get prepaid SIM cards from different networks available so in case the cell site of one mobile network fails, you still have other options.
References:
http://www.dmv.org/how-to-guides/winterize-car.php
http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/winter/beforestorm/supplylists.asp
http://snowshifts.com/buying-guide/
Posted on March 26, 2016
How Your Physical Appearance Can Help Boost Your Career
They say that if you want to be the boss, you have to dress the part. You have to look like a boss. If you continue coming to work every day looking like you just got out of bed, how can you expect everyone to see that you’re deserving to be the next supervisor or manager or even a CEO?
We all have that one example of the woman who comes to the seminar at 9AM just like everyone else. While you and your colleagues still have wet hair, coffee in hand because you missed breakfast, she looks so prim and proper with her perfectly ironed suit, makeup on point and presentable hair. How can she have all that time in the morning? Isn’t she tired from yesterday’s work? Does she have anything else to do? Yes, she does. But she makes it a point to look amazing for work every single day.
Take Your Time to Prepare for Work
If your work starts at 9 and it takes at least 30 minutes for you to drive to the office, find a parking space and ride the elevator to clock in on time, then you shouldn’t wake up at 8 trying to rush with a 5-minute bath and drive-thru coffee. Your day should start early. We’ve heard so many success stories and CEO advice saying that those who landed high positions in their job are the ones who wake up an hour early compared to the rest. They are the ones who would need an extra 30 minutes in the morning to exercise and another 15 minutes to have a hearty breakfast. They make their hair look sleek and classy as they iron it with a hair straightener. They would need a few more minutes to dry their hair because then you won’t get your hair burned. You might ask why these people would even take that extra 15 minutes that they could have used to sleep instead just to use the hair straightener. Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and what’s inside is better than the outside, but looking great does quite a job in making one a remarkable and impressive person.
Why Do You Need to Look Good for Work?
When you go on a date, you take hours to prepare. You might even go to the salon just to get your hair and nails done. You want to impress someone that’s why you tried to look good. It’s the same thing when you apply for a job or when you’re meeting the parents of your significant other for the first time. You have to put your best foot forward. Why not do the same for work?
You are as good as the way you dress. Colleagues will respect you because you look amazing every day. Though your work ethics, skills and talents are as important as well, looking great makes a huge difference too. Would you still respect your boss if he came to work looking like he’s just going to the mall for a stroll while the rest of you took time to prepare wearing suits? We guess not. Many of us don’t get the chance to make an impression with the way we talk or how we work; but you can show that you stand out if in a room of a hundred employees, you’re the best dressed! At least on that part, you already showed how important your job is and you’re willing to prepare for it the best way possible.
Posted on February 25, 2016
How to Resist Food Temptation When You’re on a Diet
When you’re trying so hard to lose weight and you have a deadline to beat such as summer is just right around the corner or your best friend’s wedding is happening in a month or two and you barely fit into you’re maid of honor gown, then you have to be strict with your diet and exercise routine. You can’t just expect to shed pounds when you’re sitting on the couch and munching into your second bag of chips. Losing weight is hard work and you need a lot of determination and motivation.
The most challenging part about losing weight though is being on a strict diet. While the rest of your family is enjoying that juicy steak your mom cooked for dinner, you opt to have salad instead and quietly slip back to your room with such an unhappy tummy. You have another glass of water in the bar as you watch your friends transform into a crazy bunch as they enjoy their third bottle of beer. You have two choices: you can give in and just get a huge part of that steak and drink two bottles of beer straight or you can be happy with what you have. The first choice is probably the easier way to go but how can you possibly achieve your goal when you choose to give in?
Be Aware and Do Not Deprive Yourself
Trying to lose weight is challenging indeed but when you decide to go on a diet, this doesn’t mean you should be unhappy! You should not go hungry and you shouldn’t just bear the sound of your stomach grumbling while others are enjoying a box of pizza they just ordered. What you need to do is research. Find out enjoyable food alternatives that can feed your hungry tummy and satisfy your cravings at the same time. Make preparing your food enjoyable as well, like shows. Your diet food can be delicious food too and no one should stop you from eating what you want—except you have to make sure your food intake is healthy and regulated. Don’t eat more than what you’re supposed to have.
You can also try cooking for yourself. When you exerted a lot of effort into cooking the food you’re going to eat, you might as well eat it rather than feeling sorry for yourself that you’re not having those fries from McDonald’s that your friend is munching on. Search healthy recipes online, ones that you would actually enjoy. Find yourself a great food proscessor through mrsfoodprep.com and experiment on a thousand sauces, soups and a whole lot more that are super delicious yet won’t add another inch to your waist (see http://www.mrsfoodprep.com/recipes/).
Stay Away from Temptation
The most effective way to resist temptation is by staying away from it. While there may be times that you just have no choice but to face temptation, try your best to avoid it as much as you can. If you happen to walk by your favorite pastry shop every single day on your way to the office, try passing by a different route. It might be the longer way but the extra walk could help shed some pounds too. Give that club hopping invite a pass for now and just stay at home with your family.
Look for things to do, don’t sit around. Pick up your hobby you forgot about, go to the gym, read a book or start cleaning your home thoroughly. Clean the windows, rent a carpet cleaner and clean up the place. You’ll notice after a while, you haven’t been thinking of food the whole day!
Remind yourself constantly why you want to do this and how better life can be with a fit and healthy body. If you’re fully motivated and inspired, beating that temptation will be a lot easier.
Posted on January 1, 2016
How to Stay Awake During a Seminar
Unless someone forced you into attending a seminar, you are probably attending one for a reason. Some seminars cost a lot of money because this is your chance to learn about new things or widen your knowledge on a certain subject. Even if you did not pay for it yourself, in cases such as when the company you are working for paid for the seminar, you should make most out of the knowledge you can get from the seminar.
Let’s admit it though. Even if a seminar tackles subjects that you’re interested in, if you have to spend hours or even days sitting down just listening to several different speakers, you can get really sleepy. It’s not like you are bored out of your mind but more like the setup could be quite dragging. However, you need to stay awake because this is the only time you can learn about these topics. If you fall asleep, you might miss an important subject and you might even find yourself in an embarrassing situation too!
If you’re attending a seminar soon, it is best not only to prepare your mind to absorb all the lessons you can learn but you must also make sure you won’t fall asleep. Here are a few tips you can take into consideration.
-
Sleep for 7 to 8 hours the night before.
When you lack sleep, you will most probably feel sleepy the next day. 7 to 8 hours is ideal for most adults. You don’t want to sleep less than that the night before a seminar; you wouldn’t want to sleep over 8 hours as well. It has been proven many times that when you oversleep, you actually feel tired and sleepy throughout the day.
-
Bring coffee with you.
There are coffee mugs or flasks with cover that can retain heat for hours. If you own an espresso machine, brew some coffee. If you don’t, you can take a look at Espresso Gusto. Make your coffee at home and place it in that container that you can take with you. Otherwise, make sure that the place where the seminar is offers coffee—preferably really good ones made through a good espresso machine too. -
Drink water.
Don’t dehydrate yourself. Drink water because aside from coffee, water can also awaken your senses. However, don’t drink too much water or you’ll find yourself running for the restroom every once in a while which will make you miss most of the seminar too.
-
Take down notes.
Write down important details discussed through the seminar. This keeps you moving and your mind won’t be overloaded with too much information. When you write things, you can come back to it later on in case you don’t absorb the information now.
- Try to be involved in the discussion.
If the seminar speaker asks for volunteers or tells the attendees to ask questions, ask. Try to be involved in any way possible. - Sit in front or close to the front.
When you’re sitting up front, you have to stay awake. You will be forced to stay awake.
Motivate yourself and remind yourself why you’re in this seminar anyway.
Always remind yourself why you’re attending this seminar. By doing so, you won’t want to miss any part of it just because you’ve fallen asleep.
More information at:
http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/science-sleep
http://www.reducestressnow.net/motivation/
http://www.espressogusto.com/
Updated on December 24, 2015
Why You Should Clean Your Carpets At Home
Carpets are the best and the most used flooring material that you will find in each and every home. This is because they are not expensive and spruce up the appearance of your home. While they may be beneficial for the appearance and decoration of your home, they have the potential to be dangerous for your health if they are not cleaned properly. Also, you wouldn’t want a dirty carpet at your home because it will make your home look poorly maintained. You should take great care of the carpets that you have in your home, otherwise you will be prone to many adverse effects on your health. Below are some of the major reasons why you should consider cleaning your carpets at home.
1. Returns Its Beauty
First of all, the most common reason why you should clean your carpets, is to bring back its beauty. A dirty carpet will not only look poor itself but will also make your home look unpleasant. Cleaning your carpet regularly will make sure that it remains in a good condition and retains its original beauty. You will also be able to extend the life of your carpet with frequent cleaning, saving money as an end result.
2. Removes Pollutants
It is obvious that many kind of pollutants are there in your home and they especially stick to things like carpets. These pollutants decrease the quality of the air in your home, making you vulnerable to many diseases. Whenever you go out, you bring in dirt from your shoes. Your pets also shed dander, the polluted particles from the outdoor come in your home through the windows and pollen also makes its way through. Overall, your carpet attracts a lot of pollutants which should be taken care of. If you are living with these pollutants, then your life could be at risk; especially if you are sensitive to allergies.
3. Avoids the Growth of Mold
Mold has the tendency to grow in humid areas, where there is excess moisture. If you are living in an area with high humidity levels, then it is certain that mold will be growing in your carpet because the carpets trap the moisture in them. This is the best condition for mold to grow and is really dangerous for your health because mold produces allergens. Persistent cleaning of your carpet will help you get rid of mold and ensure that you aren’t at the risk of getting allergies.
4. Takes Care of Dust Mites
Dust mites are microscopic creatures that are usually found in your bed, but they also reside in your carpets too. These creatures produce allergens by leaving behind their body fragments and feces. You won’t even know when you inhaled these allergens because of their microscopic size. Steam Insider suggests to steam clean your carpet once every six months because the heat will kill the dust mites.
5. Enhances the Air Quality
Of course, you are ultimately enhancing the air quality of your home when you are getting rids of pollutants and allergens in your home. You can also use an air purifier to improve the air quality but it won’t be able to do much if the home is dirty.
Important Note: The best method for cleaning a carpet is steam cleaning because it will get rid of most of the pollutants and allergens and it will also retain the beauty of the carpet. You will need to rent or purchase a carpet cleaner for this job or hire professionals because they have a carpet cleaner with them.
Updated on December 24, 2015
Tips for Mitigating Hidden Germs in Your House
We all are familiar with the fact that there are many places on our home including our body, that serve as a safe haven for bacteria but the same situation is a plight for us since germs can cause a lot of sicknesses and even though you are confident that you are taking necessary steps to ensure the safety and health of your own along with your family, there are a lot of things that you might not be able to anticipate or deal with yourself. One of the most common remedies we use to thwart germs is by washing our hands as many times as possible and especially when performing something like eating or cooking and even though this is a great technique to preserve your health and the health of your family, you can still follow a lot more methods to mitigate or eliminate the hidden germs in your house because there are places you don’t expect them to be and that is where they might harbor their existence the most and you won’t implement on any prevention techniques because you are unaware of their existence. This article serves to guide you in eliminating these hidden culprits around the house.
Brushing In the Bathroom
We all brush our teeth daily at least once to wipe off all the germs away and it’s actually one of the healthiest activities we do during the whole day but what most of us don’t realize that the toothbrush we are using to eliminate bacteria might be a source of bacteria itself. It might be shocking but it’s logical since the bacteria in your mouth are transferred to your toothbrush and if there are shreds of food trapped in the bristles of your toothbrush, this can become a nasty combination causing more trouble than you might know. Also, if you keep your brush near the toilet, you spray a myriad of germs in the air when you flush your toilet which will probably end up on your toothbrush so in order to fight this, you need to follow a few prevention techniques. I have by far the best one-piece toilet, but that doesn’t prevent germs from flying around, so the best thing you can do to keep them off your brush is to sanitize it on weekly intervals. You can use a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water in equal quantities to create a sanitizer and leave your toothbrush in it for at least 3 minutes inside it with bristles inside the solution.
Cooking In the Kitchen
It’s logical that after your bathroom, your kitchen is the most favorite place where bacteria reside because it’s a place where they can survive and thrive in garbage disposal and your sink is the most likely place that has most of the bacteria because of the moisture and food particles in it. You need follow the following prevention techniques to keep your kitchen clean and germ free. First of all you need to get rid of bacteria in your drain, in order to do this you can make it at your home just by mixing a teaspoon of bleach into a quart of water. Just pour this solution and it will kill all the bacteria that are living in your sink and the drain pipes as well.
