Let’s add a bit of spice.

There’s two types of people. The ones who thinks too much pepper makes a dish spicy and the ones who need literal tears to form when eating a meal. Besides adding spice and flavor, spices packs a lot of healthy vitamins and minerals. And it’s about time you start adding more spices into your meals.For flavor and for health.

What is a spice?

Okay, we all know what a spice is. It’s that magic you sprinkle on top of your food to create a flavor explosion. Spices are vegetable substances in whole, ground, or broken form. Vegetables such as onions and garlic would also classify as a spice since it adds flavor to a dish.

Healthiest spices in the world

Turmeric

The gold of spices turmeric does not only give a yellow stain to literally anything it touches but it’s also packed with antioxidants and fights inflammation. What makes turmeric so great is the substance curcumin. Turmeric has a subtle taste and when mixed in curries and stews together with other flavors you can barely taste it all. Make sure to add black pepper together with turmeric for better absorption of curcumin in the body.

Spices

Cayennepepper

Being in the chili pepper family. Cayenne pepper packs a lot of spice and also the substance capsaicin. This substance helps decrease pain, both internal and external. A lot of pain relief creams contain capsaicin, and when eaten it can help reduce joint and nerve pain.

Cinnamon

The perfect companion to your bun, the missing piece to your apple pie, and the flavor that makes up Christmas. Cinnamon isn’t only sweet, tasty, and acts as a fun challenge but it’s also a miracle spice for heart health. This jolly spices keeps blood sugars in place and lowers blood pressure by regulating LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol).

Cinnamon also has the rep of being a diabetic’s best friend, as it controls insulin levels and blood sugar. Of course, we can all enjoy these delicious benefits of cinnamon.

Spices

Ginger

Ginger shots are not trendy for nothing. Even though ginger shots are watered down with apple juice and other shit, the ginger itself provides a lot of healthy benefits. It’s anti-inflammatory, helps with headaches and nausea, lowers blood sugars, and some cases claim that it can slow down the growth of cancer cells. This still needs more research, but hey, still worth a mention right?

Garlic

Keeps the vampires at bay and any form of human interaction because of the lovely smell. Besides the vamp scare and the bad breath, garlic is a very healthy spice. Let’s call it spice since we usually add it for flavor. Garlic is great for improving your immune system, lower blood pressure, and packs a lot of antioxidants. Some people can experience allergies or intolerance towards garlic, but if you’re not one of them go crazy!

Sources

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/5-spices-with-healthy-benefits

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/health-benefits-cinnamon/amp

Linnéa KindstromLeave a comment

The body on exercise

Even the most lazy person knows that exercise is good for us. If it’s not our doctor telling us to move more it was our PI teacher at school, or our parents telling us to go outside instead of eyeing down the computer all day. Exercise is healthy. It makes it easier to manage our weight and we feel pretty good when we’re done. But do we know what exactly happens in our body when we exercise? And do we really know just how healthy it actually is? For being such a well know concept, I think we yet haven’t given it all the cred it actually deserves.

Different types of exercise

Cardiovascular/Aerobic

The beloved cardio. Some people hate it, some people love it.

Aerobic training, or cardio training is very important to us. If you’re circulating in the fitness community you’ve probably heard that “cardio is over hyped”, “you don’t need cardio to lose fat”, “strength training is all you need!”. They are not wrong, you don’t neeeed cardio to lose fat, but you do need cardio for like a million other things. Well, at least for about 4 really important things.

  • Heart and lung health. Cardio is your hearts favorite lover boy or girl, or nonbinary. We don’t discriminate any genders here. Cardio strengthens your heart and lungs. Why is this important you might ask? A strong heart and lungs increase our endurance, making your body better to absorb and pump around oxygen. If you didn’t know, oxygen is a pretty big deal.
  • Lower blood pressure and diabetes. When your heart becomes stronger it pumps around the blood much easier to lower blood pressure. Cardio is also a great way to burn of excess glucose in the blood, reducing the risk of developing diabetes, or in helping individuals with diabetes.
  • Fat burning. Cardio is not necessary for losing weight(calorie deficit is) but we can’t deny the fact that it does burn calories. Studies show that people who do frequent cardio have lower visceral fat – the dangerous “inner” fat which lays around your organs. Heard of the term “skinny fat”? Visceral fat is the one to blame. Even though both overweight and underweight people can suffer from visceral fat it’s more likely for a skinny person to ignore taking charge of their health since “they don’t look unhealthy”.
  • Mood booster: a bit of a sweat feast never hurt nobody, quite the opposite! Just 35 minutes of cardio three times a week can increase your mood by like, a lot. The optimal cardio recommendation is to get in 180 minutes of cardio every week. A brisk walk is just fine but try to challenge your heart a bit to keep that little guy happy.
Exercise

Strength training

Strength. I feel like we have two teams here. One team who is all about the gains, preaching for weights and weights only. Building muscles, getting in that protein to get that lean physic all the Instagram fitspo models have. Then we have the other team. The ones who are so afraid of lifting weights, afraid to get “too bulky”. The ones who spend hours a week doing cardio.

None of these teams are better than the other, they are staying active in their own way. But, they should definitely learn form each other. And for the cardio obsessed people out there – it’s time to lift up those weights! Strength training has so many benefits beyond achieving a bomb ass physic. As we grow older we lose our lean muscles tissue year by year. The only way to keep our muscles is to use them.

  • Bone health. that strong muscles make strong bones is the typical slogan, but it should be. Weight training doesn’t only increase muscle mass, but it also strengthens our bones reducing the risk of arthritis and osteoporosis. For females this is especially important, as we tend to lose bone density as we enter menopause. Not the hottest topic I know, but a very important one.
  • Increase metabolism. Lean muscles require more energy at rest which means that you get to eat more food to maintain your weight. As we build muscle our body starts burning fat more efficiently. This process continues even after you’ve had a good pump at the gym.
  • You don’t need a gym. Most people get the image of a buff bodybuilder throwing bricks in the air when we hear “strength training”. This is thankfully not the only way to build muscle. If you are afraid to lift super heavy right of the bat, I’m glad to inform you that body weight exercise is just as effective. The important thing to think about is resistance. You want to train until or close to failure to really challenge your muscle and break down the tissue.

Flexibility

Yet again we have two types of people. The ones who dedicate a solid 15 minutes to stretching after their workout and the ones who don’t stretch for shit. If you belong to the latter (myself included), it’s about time to add in at least 5 minutes of light stretching.

Daily stretching increase flexibility which reduce injury, muscle soreness and shortness, and improves blood circulation to your muscles. Stretching has also shown to improve vein health (hate, absolutely hate that word) which makes your blood flow easier throughout your cute little body.

Exercise

Balance

Pretty straight forward here. We know what balance is and it’s important to have a good sense of it to understand where you are in space. Kinda loopy and weird way to put it, but you get the point. Balance becomes more important as you grow older as it will minimize the risk of falls and injuries. Let’s be honest, a big part in taking care of yourself is to become that cool (and hot) grandma or grandpa who’s fresh as fudge.

Easy ways to improve balance is by having a strong lower body. Simple walking or taking the stairs are underrated ways to improve balance. Yoga is another great balance training which also improves your flexibility. Most gyms also have dedicated balance boards or pilates balls. If one thing is for sure it’s that a Pilates ball will make you question everything you know about balance…

The brain on exercise

Oh, our little mushy head lump, our brain. This weird incredible thing which controls our whole existence. Talk about a power trip. We mentioned that exercise boosts our mood, but how?

  • Dopamine kick. Why do we feel so great after a nice pump? It’s all about dopamine, baby! When we exercise we stimulate the hypothalamus, the part of the brain responsible for hormone production. In the case of exercise, our hypothalamus goes cray cray on releasing the feel good hormone dopamine. Exercise is definitely one of the best happy kicks there is.
  • Brain cell growth and brain plasticity. Who knew that while working that junk in your trunk your are also supporting new brain cell growth? So don’t come here and tell me fit people aren’t smart! Exercise has this wonderful effect of pumping oxygen around our body, and this also includes the brain. More oxygen to the brain stimulates new cell growth and brain plasticity – forming new connections and neurons in our brain.
  • Reduce risk of disease and inflammation. As we age there’s unfortunately a higher risk of catching an “age related” disease such as dementia or Alzheimer’s. Exercise might have the effect of battling these diseases as it improves the formation of new brain cells and plasticity. Besides this, exercise helps regulate other underlying factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

Sex it up

Now let’s get into the saucy part which everyone loves – sex. Exercise will significantly improve your sex life. Not only does your stamina increase with regular exercise, but as a man you’re less likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction. And for us females exercise and specifically strength training makes the pelvic floor stronger leading to pretty sweet orgasms. Do I even need to give another reason to sweat it out?!

Exercise and sex

So, by now I hope I haven convinced you even more to why you should put on those training shoes and get a good sweat on. What matters in the long run is what you do consistently. It’s better to walk 10 minutes a day than doing nothing. What’s your reason for training more?

Sources

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389

https://www.health.harvard.edu/exercise-and-fitness/the-4-most-important-types-of-exercise

https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/stretching-may-improve-blood-vessel-health

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/easy-ways-to-improve-your-balance

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-exercise-affects-your-brain/

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2019.00066/full

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-brain-plasticity-2794886

https://www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/2018965/how-exercise-protects-the-brain-against-depression-and-anxiety/amp/

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/312628

https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/articles/gray-matter-vs-white-matter-322973

Linnéa KindstromLeave a comment
scales and measuring tape on white floor

Fast weight loss successfully.

You clicked, I baited. Sorry guys, this headline is a total click bait and what you’re about to read about fast weight loss might not be the truth you want to hear, but probably somewhere already kinda know. In this post we will talk about how to actually lose weight fast (and sustainable), how out body uses energy, and put an end to fad diets.

Fitspo, gym bros, and eating disorders.

If the fitspo culture has thought us anything about weight loss is that we’re willing to do anything besides working out and eating healthy. Fat burners, keto diets, calorie restriction, and juice cleanses are just a few examples of this. The fact that our favorite gym bros on Instagram are promoting these diets is not making it any better. Maintaining a healthy weight is important and there is nothing wrong with wanting to shred a few pounds (as long as it’s within a healthy range for you). It becomes a problem when social media profiles (who first of all lives in a bikini-fitness prep all year around) starts giving unrealistic advice to the everyday public on how to achieve these goals. Not to mention how normalized it is for young people do have full blown eating disorders and getting praised for it!?

The different ways your body burns calories.

Before we start talking about the right approach to sustainable weigh loss we have to understand how our body burns calories. When we talk about energy expenditure we tend to lump them into four categories.

BMR.

Your BMR, or basal metabolic rate is the amount of energy you exceed by literally living. You can lay in bed all day, binge watch Netflix and your body would simply just burn these calories. By breathing, keeping our heart beating, and thinking. Clutch or what? What most of us don’t realize is that 70%, aka the majority of our daily energy expenditure comes from our BMR. How much you burn is completely individual. Factors such as age, sex, height, weight, and muscles mass will determine your. You can get a rough estimate by using a BMR calculator. Emphasize on rough estimates! 

TEF.

TEF, or thermic effect of food is the calories you burn while digesting the food you eat. Yes you heard me, you actually burn calories by eating food! Different types of food require more or less energy to digest where protein and fiber require slightly more calories than sugar and fat. TEF stands for around 10% of our daily energy expenditure. It’s like having your cake and eating it too. Almost. 

NEAT.

NEAT – non exercise activity thermogenesis, or in simple English all the movements you do throughout the day which doesn’t include a “scheduled workout”. This includes literally every movement you do. From walking, to typing on your laptop, or doing the little pee dance when you need to pee but someone is occupying the bathroom. Pretty neat, huh? (major pun intended). 

Exercise/physical activity.

And last but not least we have exercise, which actually only accounts for around 5% of your daily energy. Like what!? This tells us that the line “you can’t out-train a bad diet” makes a lot of sense. I mean, maybe not if you’re a pro athlete and exercise like 4 hours daily. Those guys play in a different league! Your focus when exercising should be to build strength and to feel good. It should not be a tool to “burn off as many calories as possible”.

How to achieve sustainable weight loss.

Turtles don’t live until 150 years for nothing. Slow and steady wins the race and the same principle should be applied to weight loss. You have to approach your weight loss as a lifelong change. Yes, it’s cliche but it truly is a lifestyle and your focus should be on building sustainable habits. So let’s get into it. How do you do this?

Throw the scale away.

First things first, the scale does more harm than good. Your weight will fluctuate on a daily basis depending on if you had a saltier meal last night, if you’ve slept poorly, if you’re a female on your period, or if you have more muscle mass – just to name a few reasons. Daily scale check-ins will destroy you mentally and your focus should always be on how your clothes fit, body composition, getting stronger, and feeling amazeballs.

Weight loss vs fat loss.

Losing weight is easy. All you need to do is excessive cardio and cut your calories super low. The weight will drop for sure. Is it sustainable? No. Not at all, and you’re more likely to gain all the weight back – and more. Or you’ll develop an eating disorder which is even worse. Fat loss is the goal and the way to achieve this is by hitting up those heavy weights and staying in a slight, emphasis on slight calorie deficit. Resistance training should be your main focus and cardio just a tool (and also to keep your precious heart healthy). By increasing your muscle mass your BMR will also increase, meaning you can eat more food. 

Volume eating.

When dieting or trying to lose weight you need to consume less calories than you need. Slight calorie deficit is the key here and you want o aim for a 300-500 calorie deficit each day. Within your daily caloric intake you can literally eat whatever you want but it’s smart to think about the type of foods you eat to make your journey sustainable.

You want to eat as much as you possibly can within your calorie range. Remember, we are not starving ourselves here! The key is volume eating which means eating bigger volumes of foods low in calories. As you can see by the image below we want to want to eat more food for the same amount of calories. This will increase your satiety, make you feel fuller for longer, and actually not make you hate your life. Not to mention all the vitamins and nutrients you’ll get. Good foods for volume eating include: fruit and vegetables, lean protein, protein yogurts, diet sodas and candy (aspartame is not the devil, I promise), potatoes, and berries (to name a few).

Don’t eliminate food groups.

For the love of God, do not, I repeat, DO NOT restrict yourself! If you’re craving a brownie so bad you’re literally climbing the walls – eat a brownie. Eat it, enjoy it, and get on with your life. It’s better to have a piece of your craving rather than trying to “satisfy” your craving with a bunch of low calorie alternatives or a piece of fruit. You’ll just end up bingeing on a whole plate of brownies instead. Food is not only about calories in and calories out. It’s about pleasure, emotions, and social experiences.

Your mantra should be: “overtime”

What’s important to understand is that weight loss happens over time. It won’t happen in a week, or even a month. 1 kg fat is about 7,000 calories which means that you’re not going to lose it in one day. On the flip side it also mean that you won’t gain 1kg in one day either. So what if you go over your calories for a day, or two, or maybe even a week? It’s alright! As long as you get back on track again you will be fine.

It’s a lifestyle.

If yo didn’t get anything of value from this blog post I want you to leave with this one thing: It’s a lifestyle. You are working on creating the best version of yourself and create habits to keep for the rest of your life. If you’re currently following a fitness plan which you hate down to your core I want you to stop and ask yourself “is this sustainable? Can I do this for the rest of my life?” If the answer is no, then maybe it’s time to have a proper think. And finally, please don’t compare yourself to the fitness models and gym bros you see on social media. A huge chunk of it is not even real (editing, Photoshop etc) and some of these people literally don’t do anything else than workout and eat super clean all year around. As a “normal” person with a 9-5 job this isn’t sustainable. Once again, you want to create a healthy, sustainable life. And yea by the way, you’re super cute and sexy. Good bye.

Linnéa KindstromLeave a comment