Count Down To Fitness Success and Keeping Your Motivational Drive Alive

motivationYou can use many ways to motivate yourself to stick with an exercise or diet program. One of the most difficult things you have to face is trying to keep that motivation over several weeks so you see your finished goals at the end.

Within several weeks people hit a setback or a snag and start slipping back towards bad habits. You lose motivation and that focus you need to succeed. One technique that works and that is suggested by the Truth About Abs Download is called the contest countdown calendar which works for many types of fitness goals.

Get a desk or wall calendar with the weeks displayed horizontally across the page. Make sure there’s a space for each day where you can write. Set a goal and put a deadline on it then take out your calendar and count backwards for the deadline of your target goal to the present day.

Put in workouts for around 3 or 4 months which is a good length to have. This will keep you focused and you’ll get more motivated as each day passes towards the deadline that you’ve set. You need deadlines because these are the key to great success. You can’t afford to put off your training or you’ll scramble near the deadline and you won’t see any real success.

When you take on fitness goals you need the deadline to gain that motivation you need to get past difficult times in your workouts. You can’t cheat or make it up, you have to work hard. You need to take action to meet your fitness deadline and see the results you want. If you put it off like the exam you won’t get very far.

If you scramble to meet your deadline at the last minute you’ll be training far too hard and you might injure yourself. You might try some crash diet program and gain weight once you stop. But if you set goals and follow them each day towards your deadline you’re not only working hard but you’re accomplishing something. You can’t put off your training if you expect to see real results. Count the days to your deadline and see those real results.

Put your goals on paper and review them each day. Know how many days you have until your deadline is reached and stay focused. Your mind will help you work hard because it’s keeping that motivation going. You’re going to be on schedule and on track towards success. You’ll hit your deadline hard and it will feel good because you’ll have real results you can see.

Use the deadline method to focus yourself on your goals. You’ll see real steady progress this way and you’ll have plenty of motivation to keep it up. Stay honest and use these very simple but effective techniques to weight loss in your life.

Make Your Morning Cup of Joe Healthy

coffeeDo you love coffee? Is it part of your morning routine? If so, you’re not alone. Over 75% of the country wakes up each morning with some form of coffee.

Unfortunately, most of those people aren’t reaping the full benefits that a cup of coffee can provide. Many of them are loading their coffee with sugar, artificial sweeteners, flavored creams and more. These additions can cause the caloric value of a cup of coffee to skyrocket from a few calories to several hundred.

Today, I’ll show you a few ways to make your coffee healthier (and I’ll show you what to avoid).

There has been a lot of conflicting misinformation regarding coffee over the last 20 years or so. “Experts” have warned that the level of caffeine is bad or that there are chemical compounds that are unhealthy for you and so on. In reality, coffee is loaded with antioxidants and other super healthy compounds. There are so many of these, in fact, that any suggested negative effects of coffee are quickly outweighed.

Did you know that for many Americans, coffee is their primary source of antioxidants? It’s true. This is mainly due to the fact that the majority of Americans don’t eat enough vegetables and fruits and, therefore, don’t get a high level of antioxidants. Even though coffee is a great source of antioxidants, you should still try to diversify your antioxidant providing sources by consuming high levels of fruit, vegetables, green tea, dark chocolate, wine (in moderation) and other foods that are high in antioxidants.

So, now that you know that coffee can provide high levels of antioxidants, here are some additional tips to help you increase the benefits and reduce any negatives of your morning cup of joe:

1. Avoid artificial creamers! These things are not good for you at all. They are made with hydrogenated oils and corn syrup. There’s nothing natural or healthy about them. If you need to add a little cream to your coffee, then opt for the real stuff. It’s not man-made and it actually provides vitamins. If you can afford it, try to get organic and/or grass fed cream as these types have even higher levels of vitamins and healthy fats.

According to the Truth About Abs Free Download, you can even kick the health benefits up another notch by using coconut milk in place of cream. You can generally find cans of coconut milk in the Asian section of your grocery store. When you want to add it to your coffee just open the can and pour the desired amount in (you will need to shake the can pretty vigorously to help mix up the milk). This is a great tasting and healthy option for adding a little flavor to your coffee.

In addition to the low fat content of coconut milk, it’s healthy for you because it’s full of saturated fats known as medium chain triglycerides. These MCTs have been shown to increase your metabolism and also improve your immune system.

Finally, coconut milk and coffee is just super tasty. It is easily the healthiest option when it comes to adding creamer to your coffee. I always encourage guests at my house to try their coffee with coconut milk and they almost always tell me that it’s the best cup of coffee they’ve ever had.

2. Don’t add artificial sweeteners or sugar! Instead of adding these gut busting ingredients, I occasionally sweeten my coffee with a small amount of honey or maple syrup. These are two ways to add real and natural foods to your coffee and avoid adding the artificial crap. Most of the time, I just drink my coffee black because that is the healthiest way to drink it.

If you’re out and getting your coffee at a coffee shop like Starbucks, make sure that you avoid all of the artificial sweeteners, syrups and flavored crap that they add to their drinks. Yes, peppermint lattes taste great but they are LOADED with junk that will make you fat. If you must have one of these drinks, order it “skinny” or non-fat. If you don’t you could be adding 300 – 500 calories to your day in ONE drink.

In addition to the huge caloric content these drinks offer, the added sugars cause a huge spike in your blood sugar which is not good for you.

3. Add cinnamon! Cinnamon is a super-food and one that you should try to consume everyday. In addition to adding it to my daily bowl of oatmeal, I add a small amount of cinnamon to my coffee. It gives it a nice flavor and helps me lower my cholesterol and keep my blood sugar in check all at the same time.
ground cinnamon
In addition to cinnamon I occasionally add a small dash of cocoa powder. I always use the unsweetened type. This gives my coffee a nice chocolaty flavor and gives me an antioxidant boost. If you’ve never added cocoa powder to your coffee, I suggest you try it out and see if you like it. I, personally, think it’s great.

My mornings always start with a cup of coffee (or espresso) and a bowl of oatmeal (with cinnamon, honey, flax seed and blueberries added). I rarely have a second cup because I don’t like to get too jittery. However, in addition to drinking about 1 gallon of water each day, which is what the Truth About Abs Download recommends, I also continue loading up on antioxidants by drinking several cups of green and black tea throughout the day. This helps me get a large number of antioxidants from many different sources.

Finally, I strongly suggest that you drink coffee made from organically farmed beans. Non organic beans are known to be loaded with pesticides and other crap that you don’t want to put in your body.

I hope you enjoyed these tips today and that you will try some of these suggestions to make your coffee as healthy as possible.

Pistachio Nutrition

Do you like pistachios? Do you wish you could eat them more often but choose not to because they are too fattening? Did you know that pistachios are actually loaded with healthy fats that help you burn fat and lose weight? It’s true! Contrary to popular misconceptions, pistachios are actually very good for you and can help you lose weight.

At some point in your life you probably ate some of those oddly-colored, reddish pistachios that would turn your fingers red. Do you remember eating those? I sure do. I ate a ton as a kid and that’s what I always associated with when I thought of pistachios. I thought there wasn’t any way I could eat pistachios and lose weight. Fortunately, I read the Truth About Abs Free Download and discovered how wrong I was.

Not only can I eat pistachios on a regular basis but I can actually use them to help me burn off my belly fat.

The Truth About Abs Free Download

We all know that walnuts, almonds and pecans are awesome for you and should be a part of your diet. If you have trouble getting those nuts in because they aren’t your favorite, then you’re in luck! Pistachios can be switched in for those other nuts giving you a healthy and tasty alternative.

Did you know that a single one-ounce serving of green pistachios is loaded with over thirty minerals and vitamins? From reading the truth about abs free download, I discovered it’s true and it’s a great reason to add these tasty super-nuts to your diet.

Eating nuts is a great way to get a good amount of minerals that you might not normally get from your body. As people eat more and more processed foods, they are having a harder time consuming the proper amounts of vitamins and minerals that they need on a daily basis. Just a small handful of nuts each day will help you address this deficit.

TAAFDWhat I discovered about pistachios when reading the Truth About Abs Download was that they are loaded with nutrients and minerals such as manganese, copper, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium.

Manganese is good for you because it helps with your skeletal and connective tissues. It is also key to your reproductive systems, growth and fat and carb burning. This means that eating pistachios can help you burn fat.

Copper is also required for healthy connective tissue and it is loaded with enzymes that control and regulate biochemical processes within your body.

Dentists love phosphorus because it helps build strong teeth and bones. It is also a critical nutrient to consume when battling osteoporosis.

Potassium helps regulate the acidic levels in your body, build muscle and metabolize carbs.

Magnesium is great for your heart and for keeping your blood pressure low.

But that’s not all that is great about pistachios!

They are loaded with B vitamins! B vitamins are great for building muscle, maintaining a good mood, transmitting nerves and keeping your immune system healthy.

Additionally, according to the Truth About Abs Free Download, they are very high in protein which is why they are such a satisfying treat.

Want antioxidants? Pistachios have them! They actually rank in the group of foods with the highest levels of antioxidants. This includes blueberries and spinach! Consuming a high level of antioxidants ensures that your immune system stays high and that your body is effectively able to fight free radicals.

Bad eyesight? Pistachios can help. They have a good amount of lutein which helps to prevent eye diseases and the degeneration of your eyesight.

What about fiber? I learned in the Truth About Abs Free Download that a serving of pistachios has as much fiber as a single serving of healthy oatmeal! This keeps you full longer which will stop you from grazing later.

All nuts are good sources of fiber. In addition to helping with your digestive system, fiber helps regulate your blood sugar, fight cancer and keep you full. The population today doesn’t get nearly as much fiber as they need and adding a serving of pistachios each day will help you reach your fiber minimums.

Pistachios are loaded with healthy fats too. Because of the powerful levels of healthy fats, protein and fiber in pistachios, it’s easy to eat a small amount and feel satisfied. Obviously, you don’t want to eat a whole pile of pistachios due to their high caloric value but, due to all of the things we just mentioned, it is very hard to overeat these treats because they fill you up quickly. Also, the work involved with eating them means that you eat them slower and, therefore, can’t fill up on them as quickly.

When you choose to purchase pistachios at the store, follow the advice of the Truth About Abs Free Download and look for organic, unsalted nuts. These tend to be the healthiest and the tastiest.

Just remember, adding pistachios to your diet is a great way to add a ton of additional nutrients, proteins, vitamins and healthy fats. Try to eat a small handful each day. You’ll love the fact that you get to feel like you’re cheating on your diet while actually filling your body with one of the healthiest foods available.

For more information about pistachios and other great diet foods, check out the truth about abs download. You’ll find tons of great information on pistachios and all of the foods that you should be eating in order to lose weight, build muscle and live a healthy life.

Egg Yolks & Nutrition

The Truth About Abs Free DownloadThere has been a lot of debate and confusion recently over whether or not you should eat egg yolks or just stick with the egg whites. While reading through the Truth About Abs Download I came across some interesting information.

People have been taught that the egg yolks are loaded with fat and cholesterol. This has led to people eating egg white omelettes, boiled egg whites and a number of other egg dishes that eliminate the yolk. Unfortunately, what these people don’t know is that they’re missing out on the best part of the egg.

You see, all of the vitamins and flavor are in the yolk. It is packed with nutrients, minerals and antioxidants. You’ll find vitamins A and B as well as other minerals such as lutein and folate. By getting rid of the yolk, you’re eliminating the part of the egg that has the most health benefits.

As far as egg whites go, they have almost zero nutrition when compared to egg yolks. The egg whites just provide healthy protein but no vitamins. However, the protein provided by egg whites isn’t as useful without the egg yolk. This is because the nutrients provided by the yolk help to break the protein down so that your body can more readily absorb it. By eating just the white, you’re missing out on the protein because the yolk isn’t there to help out. This was one of the eye-opening discoveries I learned from The Truth About Abs Download.

When you look at the nutritional breakdown of the egg, you’ll see that over 95% of the vitamins and minerals are contained in the yolk. The yolk also contains all of the vitamins that are fat soluble: vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K.

So, you know that the yolk is healthy but what about all of that cholesterol? Well, here’s the answer to that misconception:

When you consume foods like eggs that contain dietary cholesterol in high amounts it causes your body to lower its natural production of cholesterol. You see, your body already produces cholesterol naturally but when you eat eggs it will lower that production of cholesterol in response to the cholesterol you’ve ingested. Inversely, if you don’t eat enough dietary cholesterol, your body will produce more.

Additionally, eating eggs has been shown to increase your levels of healthy cholesterol, also known as HDL cholesterol. This improves your cholesterol score overall.

According to The Truth About Abs Free Download, another common misconception that people have is that high cholesterol is a disease. It’s not. It’s a condition that can cause other diseases such as heart disease and stroke. Cholesterol is actually an important, naturally occurring compound in your body that should be monitored but not necessarily lowered. You can have a high cholesterol score but if your HDL score is high, then you may actually have great cholesterol.

Now that you know that whole eggs are better than just egg whites, let’s consider the calories. There are only about 90 calories in an egg. When you consider the nutrient density of the egg, that is a pretty small amount of calories. This high level of nutrition will also help keep you feeling full longer which will reduce the amount of calories you consume over the course of a day. This means that eggs can actually assist you in burning off that unwanted belly fat.

Furthermore, studies have shown that eggs that come from organic and free range chickens tend to have higher amounts of nutrients than their factory farm produced cousins. While free range eggs may be a little more expensive, they are worth it for the nutritional punch that they pack.

I hope that this article has helped clear up the misconceptions about egg yolks and their health benefits. Whole eggs offer such a wide variety of health benefits that they should be included in any diet that isn’t vegan. So go out and get yourself a dozen free-range eggs today and start enjoying your breakfast again! For more information, I suggest you check out The Truth About Abs Free.

The Truth About Energy Drinks

As you have probably noticed, the energy drink industry has exploded over the last 10 years. It seems like Red Bull came on the scene and then a thousand impostors followed suit. Now there are a few top brands (Red Bull, Monster, etc) that get the majority of the business.

With the explosion of this industry comes a few questions related to these drinks and their affect on the body:

    1. Do these drinks help you lose weight or do they cause you to get fat?

    2. Do these drinks actually increase your energy?

    3. Are these drinks good for you or not?

    4. What is the formula that supposedly gives you energy?

I did a bit of research through the Truth About Abs Download and I was surprised at what I discovered. Let’s break it down.

Of what ingredients do these energy drinks actually consist? Generally speaking, the majority of them consist of nothing more than soda water mixed with caffeine, taurine, high fructose corn syrup and whatever “flavorings” and fake vitamins they decide to include. By adding these “vitamins” the energy drink companies are hoping you’ll be fooled into thinking that they’re actually selling a healthy product.

Aside from the soda water and caffeine, these drinks contain some ingredients that are not so friendly to your waste line. As you may or may not know, high fructose corn syrup is not something you want to put into your body. It is a manmade corn sweetener that is cheaper than sugar and more damaging to your body than sugar. High fructose corn syrup will make you fat. It’s as simple as that. Not all energy drinks use HFCS but, for the most part, they all use a cheap, manmade sweetener that will blow up your gut. Always check the ingredients.

Even the “sugar-free” or “low-sugar” options are generally loaded with manmade chemicals that you shouldn’t be putting in your body. They may not cause you to gain weight but do you really want to put artificial chemicals whose sole-purpose for being created was to help companies make money by replacing real, natural ingredients with cheap manmade chemicals? I didn’t think so.

Another gripe the Truth About Abs Free Download has with so called low calorie drinks is that they give people the impression that, because they’re low calorie, they can be consumed as often as you please. This leads to tremendous amounts of over-consumption of these products which, regardless of what the labels say, will lead to weight gain over time. All that really matters, according to The Truth About Abs Free Download is that you avoid these artificial products whenever you can. They are bad for your body and will lead to weight gain.

Now, let’s discuss caffeine and what it does (and doesn’t do). Caffeine doesn’t actually provide what is technically considered energy. Scientifically speaking, energy can only come from fat, protein and carbs which have calories. This goes back to the common understanding that to lose weight you need to consume fewer calories than you burn. What caffeine does is stimulate your nervous system which provides that “boost” or “lift”. This increased alertness and heart rate seem like energy but they are really just an elevated sense of awareness.

If you want to get caffeine to increase your “energy” you should seek out natural forms of caffeine such as coffee or tea. Green tea is an especially healthy provider of caffeine and, in the Truth About Abs Free, Mike recommends adding it to your daily diet. The antioxidants alone are worth drinking this great beverage.

Taurine and the synthetic vitamins that are included in these drinks are the next ingredients we’ll discuss. Taurine is an amino acid that comes from meat and other proteins. Additionally, it occurs naturally in your body. You don’t need to take it in artificially.

The “vitamins” that they add to these drinks literally run right through you. Your body doesn’t have time to absorb them and you piss them out. If you want vitamins, eat fruits and vegetables. The benefits are much greater.

So, if you’re going to follow the advice offered in The Truth About Abs Free Download, you will stay away from these energy drinks. Natural, whole foods are much better for you and, if you’re serious about your health, it will be an easy decision for you to avoid these drinks and the damage they do to your belly.

Burn Fat by Eating Vegetables

As I was reading through the Truth About Abs Download I came across some information that was brand new to me: there are vegetables that can actually help you burn fat. These veggies are loaded with specific phytonutrients which will enable you to burn stomach fat.

I’ll try to explain what I learned about these specific veggies and compounds from The Truth About Abs Free Download as it was quite an eye-opening read for me.

truth about abs downloadWhat I learned is there are chemicals and compounds within our food chain and the surrounding environment. These may be herbicides or pesticides. They may also be petrochemicals. Petrochemicals come from all sorts of places but specifically from manmade sources. They can come from plastic, makeup, cleaners (both industrial and household) and pollution (water and air). The scientific name for these chemicals is “xenoestrogens.” These xenoestrogens react with your body in a negative way and cause you to store extra fat around your belly. Expose yourself to enough of these xenoestrogens and you’re looking at serious health problems.

What happens when you’re exposed to these xenoestrogens is they cause an effect that is known as estrogenic. This estrogenic effect causes hormonal imbalances in both sexes. Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible for us to avoid these xenoestrogens due to the fact that they come from sources we encounter daily. Regardless of whether you’re male or female, these xenoestrogens can have a highly negative effect on your body. Over time, continued exposure to xenoestrogens can cause your body to store excess abdominal fat as well as increase your risk for cancer and other diseases.

So, how do you counter the destructive effects of these xenoestrogens? The answer is by eating a specific type of vegetable.

The Truth About Abs Download taught me that vegetables that are from the cruciferous family are extremely effective in ridding our bodies of these manmade toxins. These vegetables help cleanse your body of the toxins and burn stubborn stomach fat.

Which vegetables are cruciferous?

According to the Truth About Abs Free Download cruciferous vegetables are cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, kale, bok choy, brussels sprouts and others. They contain phytonutrients that fight the estrogenic compounds contained in xenoestrogens. This reduction in belly fat is just one more reason to eat your broccoli.

If you are serious about losing belly fat and getting healthy, choosing a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables is a step in the right direction. The Truth About Abs Download provides you with many more great tips and strategies like this one.

Check out The Truth About Abs Download today and see how you can really start to burn fat and gain muscle. If you follow Mike’s plan, you’ll be on the road to six pack abs before you know it.

Good luck and good eating!

Truth About Abs Download: Wu-Tea Facts Revealed

If you’ve been following all of the new diet fads/crazes over the past few years then you’ve surely noticed all of the marketing that’s been done to promote wu-teas, slimming teas, green tea diets, etc. These teas all claim to be able to miraculously cure your weight problems just by drinking a few glasses a day. Like many diet fads out there, drinking tea to lose weight seems too good to be true. As they say, “if it seems too good to be true, it usually is.”

So what’s the deal with these teas? Do they actually work? Will you lose weight? Let’s dive a little deeper…

After doing a little research on some of the more popular teas out there, I’ve come to the conclusion that most of these teas are basically just oolong tea with a pretty package.

According to wikipedia, oolong tea is a traditional style of Chinese tea. It is produced through a process that involves drying the tea leaves out under intense sunlight and creating a high level of oxidation before twisting the leaves and packaging the tea for consumption. There’s a little more to it than that but, essentially, oolong is a style of tea and was never developed specifically to aid in weight loss. However, as we all know, marketers are always looking to exploit the next product about which Americans know nothing and sell it as a weight loss miracle cure.

The good news is that oolong tea, like all tea from tea leaves (green, black, earl grey, lipton, etc) is high in antioxidants AND, like all products with caffeine, it will provide a temporary boost in your metabolism. However, you’d have to consume tremendous amounts of tea before you could actually raise your metabolism enough to make a difference. At that point you’d be in danger of overloading your kidneys and causing them to fail. Never a good idea!

So, should you consider adding tea to a diet whose goal is to lose weight? According to the Truth About Abs Download, the answer is, “yes”.

Green tea, black tea, oolong and any of the teas that are made from tea leaves (not chamomile, lavender, sleepy time, herbal teas, etc) are excellent sources of antioxidants and should be a part of any balanced diet. The levels of antioxidants are similar to that of blueberries and spinach. Add to that the fact that they do slightly increase your metabolism and teas are an important component to your daily diet.

However, if you’re looking to tea to provide you with miracle weight loss, you’re looking in the wrong place. These so-called fat burning teas are just scams. You’d be better off purchasing tea in bulk from CostCo or your local grocery store. Don’t waste your money on the weight loss teas at GNC or other vitamin stores and definitely don’t spend your money on the online tea scams that seem to be everywhere.

If you really want to lose weight, I suggest following the Truth About Abs Download program and incorporating tea into your daily diet. The antioxidant properties alone are worth the addition of this great drink.

I love to brew up a double strength cup of green or black tea and then pour it over ice. It’s a great, refreshing drink, and it sure beats drinking soda (which we all know is one of the worst things you can put in your body).

For more info on teas, weight loss and how to live a healthy, productive life, I recommend you check out the Truth About Abs Download today. It’s an awesome program and, if you follow it, you’ll notice amazing gains in your physique and life in general.

How to Refuel After Your Workout

One of the things I really love about the Truth About Abs Free Download is all of the information that Mike Geary includes regarding exercise nutrition. He discusses nutrition pre-workout, during your workout and post-workout. As I continue to read through and follow his system, I must say that I’ve really benefitted from his information regarding post-workout nutrition.

In the past, I would go to the gym, workout really hard and then go home. I’d usually drink some water, take a shower and then think about refueling my body’s depleted energy stores. By the time I finally got around to eating, it had often been longer than an hour since I quit working out. What I didn’t realize was that this was hurting my body’s recovery process.

You see, your body is craving nutrition to help it rebuild and repair the muscles immediately after a workout. What I was doing was depriving my body of this nutrition and, in effect, stunting my recovery and growth. Once I started following the Truth About Abs Free Download, I realized the damage I was doing and immediately changed my habits.

So, what did I learn from the Truth About Abs Free Download and how did I alter my habits? I learned that immediately following an intense workout, your body goes into a state referred to as catabolic. This means that your glycogen is depleted and your cortisol is raised. These factors break down your muscle tissue in a negative way. I was letting this happen without even realizing it.

I didn’t realize that if I would just consume something that digested quickly like a smoothie or a ready-made shake I could stop this breakdown of my muscle tissue and promote muscle repair.

So, what I started doing, thanks to info I learned in Mike’s the Truth About Abs Free Download, was start consuming pre-made protein shakes that I purchased at my local vitamin store as soon as I finished my workout. I was looking for something that had 3 or 4 times the amount of carbs as protein. This is the recommended balance of carbs to protein for optimal recovery post-workout. I would just carry one of these with me to the gym and, as soon as I got in my car, I would drink it.

Wow, what a difference this made in my recovery. My muscle fatigue was dramatically decreased – I was still sore but I wasn’t as tired or sluggish as I had been. I also found that I had more energy the next time I worked out. I didn’t fatigue as quickly.

Since I don’t always plan ahead as well as I should, I will occasionally run out of my ready to drink shakes. When this occurs, I’ll go straight home from the gym and, instead of showering first, I’ll go to my blender and throw in some fruit, milk, ice and protein powder. I’ll blend it up and immediately drink it. This is a little bit more work but it works just as well as long as I drink it within 30 minutes to an hour after my workout (ideally, I’ll get it in within 30 minutes).

As you can see, the Truth About Abs Free Download is full of great tips. This one tip alone has had dramatic results on my workout recovery. I can’t stress enough how important this post-workout meal is to your recovery. For more great tips like this one, check out the Truth About Abs Free Download today.

Best of luck!

3 “New” Superfoods You Should Add to Your Diet

As I’m sure you know by now, there are foods out there that are considered “Super Foods.” A few of the more common ones are blueberries, spinach, salmon, turkey, broccoli, tomatoes, walnuts, olive oil, etc. But, did you know that there are several other Super Foods that you may have never heard of but are just as important to your diet? Here are three of these foods that you should try to incorporate into your diet when possible.

Sprouts

Sprouts are an amazing food. They’ve been used by the Chinese for thousands of years for their health benefits. The mung bean, from China, has an amazing amount of nutrition. It has the same levels of thiamin as an avocado, the Vitamin A level of a lemon, the same amount of carbs as melon and the ascorbic acid levels equivalent of a logan berry. In addition to that great news, the mung bean sprout also has the same amount of riboflavin as a dried apple and the equivalent levels of niacin as a banana. Do you want more good news? Sprouts have been shown to be strong antioxidants and can help prevent cancer.

You can get sprouts year round. They aren’t affected by the seasons. This makes them a great all-year source of B-vitamins, beta carotene and vitamin C. Additionally, beans that have been sprouted have 2.5 times higher levels of Vitamin A than the dry beans.

Sprouts are super easy to add to your daily diet. Throw them on a sandwich, in a taco, on a salad, in a smoothie, anywhere you can use extra greens. You will benefit greatly from the addition of this super food into your daily diet. The Truth About Abs Download has a ton more information on sprouts and their benefits.

Goji Berries

Another Chinese food, Goji berries have long been known to offer liver protection, eyesight improvement, increase sperm count, bolster the immune system, improve your circulation and other healthy benefits.

You can add these berries to your diet by tossing them into a salad, cooking them into a sauce, making a juice or making a tea out of them. I love them the most in salads. They offer a bright, crunchy, acidic note that is super tasty.

Acai Berries

I’m pretty sure you’ve heard about Acai berry by now. If you haven’t, then you’ve been able to avoid the onslaught of marketing that’s been associated with this berry for the last 5 years.

That being said, they’ve been marketing it like crazy for good reason: it’s awesome for you! It’s loaded with all sorts of vitamins and amino acids. According to the Truth About Abs Download, acai contains oleic acid, palmitic acid and linoleic acid. It also contains beta-sitosterol which has been shown to lower cholesterol levels.

As for amino acids, acai has been found to have 19 of them. As for polyphenols and antioxidants, acai is bursting with them. These high levels of amino acids and antioxidants are excellent for warding off ailments such as cancer, heart disease, etc. Acai levels are so high, in fact, that they’ve been shown to be at least 10 times higher than those of cranberries and blueberries. That’s huge!

So, how do you add it to your diet? I can tell you this: don’t be fooled by all of the “Acai” supplements out there. Anyone that tries to sell you a pill claiming that it will make you skinny is a liar. There are Acai juices that you can buy. Always make sure you get 100% Acai juice if you’re going to go this route. You can also find frozen Acai berries at some of the better grocery stores. If you can get these, throw them in with some oatmeal for a super healthy super meal!

It doesn’t matter how you get these foods into your diet but you should definitely try to get them in. For more information about these and other Super Foods, check out the Truth About Abs Free today.

Trans Fats: The Good and the Bad

Did you know that there along with bad trans fats there are good trans fats? It’s true! It seems that all we’ve been hearing about for the last 10 years is how bad trans fats are for you with no mention of the fact that some trans fats are actually good for you.

We all know the dangers of bad trans fats: cancer, weight gain, heart disease, childhood obesity, diabetes, etc. But, some trans fats actually encourage muscle gain and fat loss. They’ve even been shown to have preventative qualities when it comes to cancer.

So, what’s causes the difference? We do!

Man made trans fats are just flat out terrible for your body. They are the cause of many of the health challenges facing our society today. They are loaded into processed food, fast food and all of the other garbage food out there. If your diet is high in trans fats, you may as well go ahead and smoke crack as well because you’re doing the same amount of damage. You can directly link the introduction of man made trans fats into the American diet and the prominence of heart disease as one of the main killers in our society.

So, let’s discuss the two types of trans fat and see where you can benefit from avoiding, or embracing, these widely misunderstood types of fat.

First, let’s start of with the trans fat that is bad for you:

These are the trans fats that are made by man. They were created in a lab somewhere and added to your food because they are cheaper to use than real, natural fats. They include but are not limited to shortening, that tub of “butter” in your fridge called “margarine” and the partially hydrogenated oils. These oils are included in the majority of junk food, fast food and fried food.

To create these oils, scientists process them with chemicals such as hexane and high heat. Then they are pressurized and have a metal catalyst added. After that, the process is finished by deodorizing and bleaching the oil. When the oil is done being processed the regulations allow a small amount of the chemical solvent to remain. This means that you’re consuming hexane which is also in gasoline. It is completely unhealthy and the consumption of these oils have been disastrous for the health of our society.

The main way these oils damage your body is that they cause inflammation within your body. This inflammation causes your body to deposit cholesterol in your blood stream in an attempt to heal the walls of your blood vessels and arteries. The short way of looking at this is: eat hydrogenated oil – increase inflammation within your body – clog your arteries. This process is directly related to the explosion of heart disease in our country.

Hopefully, the government (who has their hands deep in the pockets of the companies that produce these oils) will one day realize the damage that this product causes and enact legislation to either ban it outright or at least require that there be a warning label included on packages containing these oils outlining the dangers of consuming them. This would be similar to the warnings they put on cigarette packages.

Since the uproar about the damage these products cause began, many companies have been switching to fats that allow them to label their products “trans fat free”. However, most of these products are just replacing that oil with another highly processed, man-made oil. In this case, your best alternative is to just stay away from these processed foods. The Truth About Abs Download has a ton of additional information on this subject.

Now for the trans fats that are good for you:

So, we know that there are bad trans fats and that they are man-made. So, where do these so-called good trans fats come from? The answer is…..from nature. Shocking, I know!

These trans fats come from animals with multiple stomachs like goats, sheep and cows. These animals chew grass and then digest it slowly through several steps in each of their stomachs. These are naturally occurring fats and the great news is that you get to eat tasty meat in order to get them.

The trick is to make sure you’re eating meat that has been grass fed and not meat that comes from factory farms. Factory farming provides animals with feed that isn’t what they normally eat. This includes corns, grains and soy. This unnatural fattening of the animals lowers the quality of the trans fats that they offer. It may be more expensive but grass-fed animals provide a much higher concentration of healthy fats for your body. Additionally, since you only need 4 ounces of red meat at a meal, it really isn’t that expensive to make the switch to grass fed beef or other meat.

Additionally, some companies are trying to capitalize on the natural trans fats market by selling man-made versions in pill form. Avoid these. What’s the point of replacing one man-made product with another? Just get your healthy trans fats from appropriately portioned, free range, grass-fed meat sources. It’s that easy. The Truth About Abs Download is a great resource for more information on this subject. You can visit them here:

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Thanks for reading and keep fighting the good fight!