How to Choose the Right Fitness Tracker For You

Fitness Trackers have gained skyrocketing popularity. With the high demand of wanting more out of them, they have come a long way in development. What used to be having fun with counting steps has turned even the pickiest techno-geeks into tracking enthusiasts. You’ve probably overheard a few conversations where someone blurts out “I just got my 10,000 steps in!”  Much more than your basic step counter they are the gadget of the future. Understanding what you need in a tracker and what’s available are key to purchasing the best options for you.

Technology is a Journey

Here’s some things to consider that will help guide you to the right product.

Are you a beginner to the fitness arena and would just like something simple that is a good guide or are you and extremist that wants all readouts possible?
Most people are in between and want a tracker that does most of the basics. Finding a tracker that is mid priced will cover most of what you need.

What are you going to be using the Fitness Tracker for?
If you enjoy tracking steps, sleep and some fitness and health readouts your lower end of spectrum will work great. If you are a runner or are sport specific, you may have to look towards the higher functioning trackers for meaningful data.

How are you going to use the Fitness Tracker?
If you are using it every day and recharging drives you crazy, pay a little bit more and get a bigger battery life. You may want it as your primary watch so you don’t have to have separate gadgets. Combining them will make your life easier.

Do you need it to connect to extra gadgets?
Sport enthusiasts need to know how far they’ve gone so connecting to an external GPS would make sense. Some of the higher end trackers have built in GPS and heart rate monitoring features without having extra gadgets and chest straps.

How much do you want to spend?
Take a look at the price ranges for all fitness trackers from highest to lowest. You will be able to judge what a moderately priced tracker means.

What Monitors can Track

Take a look at the list below and see what’s important to you.  Don’t worry if you have no idea what some of the items on the list are. Most likely you don’t need that  data just yet and will end up paying higher prices for something you don’t need or use.

• Step tracking
• Stress tracking
• Smart alarms
• Sleep Insights
• Sleep Stages via heart rate
• Automatic exercise detection
• Rep counting for gym exercises
• Heart rate variability stress scores
• Continuous 24/7 heart rate monitoring
• Dedicated run and swim tracking
• 25 day battery life
• 50m water resistance
• Incoming call alerts
• Sports modes
• VO2 Max data
• Guided breathing exercises
• Built-in GPS
• Pairs with a smartphone
• iOS and/or Android
• Third party apps

Things to Consider about the Design

Fitness Trackers can be cute, sexy and clever. Finding the right one for you has to include ease of use.  Switching bands for smaller wrists for example, or being able to connect to a smart phone if you can’t read the screen will take out the frustration of not wanting to wear it. Do you like wearing wrist bands or would that drive you crazy? Consider how you would like to wear it and pick a design that works for you.

• Screen you can see
• Fashionable/Sleek designs
• Adjustable
• Wear on the wrist or as a clip
• Easy to wear

One of the best places to look for ideas is by reading people’s reviews of some of the products.  Pick a few trackers that you think might suit you and just start reading. You’ll hear from others how they’ve used the technology or even if they think it’s useful. Then pick some of the more advanced products and read their reviews.

source https://www.healthy4lifeonline.com/how-to-choose-the-right-fitness-tracker-for-you/

What is MCT Oil?

MCTs or Medium Chain Triglycerides are fatty acids of a particular length, as the name implies. MCT oil is an oil built up on one or more of these medium chain triglycerides, and it is a clear and tasteless liquid at room temperature.

Medium Chain Fatty Acids vs. Long or Short Chain

All fats are made of carbon and hydrogen, but they vary in length. By definition, “Short Chain” fatty acids have 5 or fewer carbons, medium chains have 6-12 and long chain fatty acids have more than 12.

Medium Chain Triglycerides are viewed to be readily absorbable and beneficial fats, and rather than being metabolized through digestion like most other foods, these fats are processed in the liver. MCTs provide fast and lasting energy and are quickly absorbed by the body.

The fatty acids below are all classified as Medium Chain Fatty Acids (MCFAs):

Caproic acid also called hexanoic acid (C6-six carbons)
Caprylic Acid, also known as Octanoic acid (C8-8 carbons)
Capric Acid, also known as Decanoic acid (C10-10 carbons)
Lauric Acid, also called Dodecanoic acid (C12- 12 carbons)
MCT oil can be a mixture of one or more of these types of MCFAs and is typically extracted from coconut or palm oil, which are both abundant natural sources. MCFAs are also found in human breast milk, goats milk, cheese, butter, and other types of dairy.

Whether consumed in the whole form from coconut or palm oil or in a concentrated MCT form, these triglycerides have any benefits.

MCT Oil Benefits

The unique structure of medium-chain fatty acids make them beneficial in many ways:

Easier to Digest:

MCTs don’t need bile salts to be digested and can pass straight through the digestive system to the blood stream without being changed by conversion like long chain fats. This makes it easier to digest and utilize than long chain fatty acids.  Because they are so easy to absorb and use, MCTs are often a good choice for those who struggle with digestive problems, fat absorption or lack a gallbladder.

Excellent Source of Energy

Since MCTs are processed in the liver, they are absorbed quickly and provide fast and sustained energy. MCTs, move indifferently via the hepatic portal system to the liver without the need for a longer digestive process. Unlike nearly all other foods, MCTs do not require energy to be absorbed, stored or used in the body, making them an almost perfect source of natural energy.

Support Hormones

Since fats are needed for proper hormone creation and balance in the body, MCTs may offer unique benefits for those struggling with hormone imbalance. There is also research implying that medium chain fats may be beneficial for sustaining a healthy weight by helping balance hormones and improving insulin sensitivity.

Gut Health

MCTs have antiviral plus antibacterial qualities, and there is some evidence that they may help balance gut bacteria and combat pathogenic bacteria. They also offer the digestive method a break because the body so readily utilizes them. When used with a healthy diet and other ways to support gut bacteria, MCTs may help improve gut health over time.

Immune Health

The same antiviral and antibacterial features make MCTs beneficial for immune as well. Healthy fats are essential for the proper immune role, and since MCTs can be more easily used by the body, this may be especially beneficial for those who have trouble absorbing fats and who struggle with immune function.

MCT Oil vs. Coconut Oil

This is where things get interesting. MCT oil is obtained from Coconut oil and Palm oil, which is considered excellent natural sources of Medium Chain Triglycerides.

With the emerging demand of MCT oil, many coconut oil companies possess that coconut oil is naturally high in MCTs, but there are some important caveats! MCT oil companies like to boast that their products are “more concentrated” than coconut oil (which is also true), yet it also doesn’t include one useful form of MCT.

Here’s the deal

It depends on the individual type of MCT that you are trying to consume. Coconut oil is high in certain types of medium chain fatty acids, while straight MCT oil is a better source of others.

Maybe you’ve read that coconut oil is 62% MCT oil. It is, yet not necessarily in the same form, you would find in MCT oil. That 62% is made up of a combination of the four types of MCFAs posted above. All of these forms are beneficial, but when a person buys an “MCT oil,” he or she is typically trying to apply Capric acid (C10) and Caprylic Acid (C8) to there diet.

The MCFA composition of coconut oil is largely from lauric acid (C12), which some biochemists argue is not a real medium chain fatty acid since it acts differently in the body. It is also tremendously beneficial, but for different reasons.

Lauric Acid: The Real Story

Lauric acid is the idea that coconut oil organizations claim that coconut oil is better than MCT oil. It is also the reason that MCT oil companies argue that MCT oil is better than coconut. And they are both right, but for different reasons.

Oils ended as “MCT oil” contain either a combination of Capric and Caprylic acid or just thought Caprylic acid, making them a faster and more valuable source of energy. They often don’t include Lauric Acid (C12), which acts like a sequence long chain and medium chain fatty acid in the body, making it slower to digest.

The governing fatty acid in coconut oil, on the other hand, is lauric acid, which contains 50% of the entire fat content. Coconut oil also contains a very nominal amount of Caproic Acid (C6), about 6% Caprylic Acid (C8) and about 9% Capric Acid (C10).

So coconut oil is an excellent source of MCFAs, but the amount depends on if you think Lauric Acid (C12) a medium chain triglyceride or a long one. If you ask a chemist, and you may be told it is a medium-chain fatty acid. If you ask a biochemist, and you may be told it is a long-chain fatty acid. Either way, it’s beneficial.

Lauric acid is naturally antimicrobial, antibacterial and antiviral. It is wonderful for the skin, and it has even been considered for its possible ability to help with critical acne for this reason. Coconut oil is the richest natural source, followed by human breast milk, which contains up to 20% of its saturated fat content as lauric acid. Also a side note to nursing moms: some studies have shown that consuming coconut oil helps improve the lauric acid content of milk produced.

While in digestion, lauric acid is converted monolaurin, an essential element for optimal immune function. MCT oil doesn’t contain lauric acid. While the Caprylic and Capric acids in MCT oil have some antiviral and antibacterial properties of their own, they don’t include lauric acid and won’t help the body produce monolaurin.

Long story short:

To have fast and lasting energy concentrated MCT oil is more beneficial
For Lauric acid and its immune benefits, coconut oil is the superstar
Coconut oil and MCT oil are both useful in their ways, and I use them both in different ways. Coconut oil is typically cheaper and supports the immune system, while MCT oil is tasteless and provides faster energy.

source https://www.healthy4lifeonline.com/what-is-mct-oil-2/

Informing Your Partner Who The Man Is

It doesn’t matter if you are in a straight or gay relationship, there’s always the gender role that makes one partner act as the man in the relationship. For heterosexual partnerships, that role is unmistakably clear, although there are role reversals that allow a woman to wear a dildo belt and penetrate the man from behind. But that’s more in the fetish department. Among gays, there’s always one who will act the part and do the anal penetration to his partner with his erect tool.

The key to any of these relationships at the physical level is the erect penis. Now, it becomes problematic to a large extent if the male gender role in a heterosexual or gay relationship can’t get the natural penis up long enough to matter. For men who couldn’t get it up, it’s time to do something about his male enhancement problem.

Understanding the Problem:
Erectile dysfunction is the medical term of male impotence and can have physiological, mental and emotional roots. The immediate cause is physiological. Any disruption in the arousal process starting with the stimulus to the brain though penile manipulation, the relaxation, and engorgement of the corpora nervosa and the ability of the membrane around the erectile tissues to keep the blood until orgasm is reached can cause impotence.

Mental and emotional problems have been known to impede the process. Ongoing prescriptive medication can also lead to impotence.

It is good to know that in general, male impotence can be overcome with natural treatment and some of the simplest changes in your lifestyles. Drugs like Viagra can do the job but they are not lasting cures and their prescriptive potency is known to lead to unwanted health side effects like vomiting, stomach pains, nausea, headaches or even risk damaging internal organs with frequent regular use.

In addition, conditioning the mind and getting rid of thoughts that create emotional distraught even if repressed in the subconscious can cause male impotence. Here are some things you can do:

Exercise regularly:

Bring your circulation and heart beat busy enough to improve blood flowing through your body. A sedentary lifestyle working on your computer everyday can make things bad for your penis.
Get into the right nutrition with the right foods and diet supplements of vitamins and minerals to regulate the body.

Detoxify the body simply by taking in more water.

Life begins at 40. You are not too old for anything. There’s a lot of experience behind you, not so much from your career as from interpersonal relationships of the practical kind.

You have life lessons and philosophical knowledge not to suffer the same issues often associated with impulsive and wrongful decisions common when we are young. You still have the looks but now honed with the maturity that can command attention and even be sexy to many women looking for security in a relationship.

But all that can be ruined with a simple biological failure – male impotence, or failure to get an erection. It probably won’t be problematic if you had, by this time, chosen a life of celibacy.

Or if you already have kids and that marital infidelity is no longer occasioned by a raging erection just by looking at women. But if at this time, you have yet to marry, you may have a problem. You can sweep the woman of your dreams to the altar but if you can’t get it up on honeymoon night, be prepared to get a divorce the next day.

Do the Right Thing for Male Enhancement Today

It’s all a matter of doing something about your virility now, not later. The first sign that you are losing steam, get your act right. Consider the following:

Age 40 is the time to start trimming down your fat, losing weight and regaining as much vitality as you had when younger. At around this time, most people have reached the summit of their careers which often comes with a lot of stress. These factors can diminish not only your sexual interest but also lose your male potency.

Solution: Reject all activity that can cause stress. Exercise and engage in sports that can help in losing weight and improve your blood circulation. Take the right diet supplements of vitamins and minerals to help regulate your body’s production of enzymes and hormones to regain youthful vitality. A restored vitality is often paramount to restoring your virility.

At about this time, while you may have accumulated all the experiences that can make for better decisions and a more fulfilled life, it is also the time when all the bad habits you’ve had start to take its toll. Smoking, alcohol and junk food are destructive intakes that can make you look and feel older with diminished male potency

source https://www.healthy4lifeonline.com/informing-your-partner-who-the-man-is/

Top 5 Mistakes When Wearing a Fitness Tracker

Move more, sleep better and improve your overall health. But don’t make these mistakes.

Getting a fitness tracker is exciting. Now you can track everything about your health from heart rate to movement to sleep patterns and in some cases, even being able to monitor your diabetes. We love to take health to the next level with knowledge. Let it be your coach for when to workout, how hard to workout and even how to breath. Fitness trackers are meant to create awareness around your workout, eating and sleeping patterns and correct for what you notice isn’t working. Many fall into a trap.

In an article from the Journal of the American Medical Association, results suggested that wearing a monitor device does not help people lose weight; in fact it may do the opposite compared to the people in the study who did not wear a tracker. Learning from the study we can understand the shortcomings and change the behavior to better reach our goals.

Fitness Tracker Pitfalls

Mistake: By wearing a Fitness Tracker I’m doing something good for myself.
Correction: Wearing a tracking device only gives you some feedback; however, it’s what you do with the data that will make the difference. Unfortunately, it also gives some people a false sense of security or what is known as a “health halo.” For example someone might say they were just fine eating another piece of pizza because they completed 6,000 steps today.  This justification is the psychological warfare you have to watch out for. Do you really need another pizza or are you just justifying the natural desire to have more? You have to put in the work in order to receive the benefits, and in this case it’s recognizing the pattern and correcting for it.  It’s great that you’re wearing it and make sure you aren’t justifying desires with it.

Mistake: As long as I stay within my 2000 calories, I’ll be fine.
Correction: Counting calories doesn’t do us any favors; in fact, it may do the opposite by allowing poor food choices to be justified. Eating 2000 calories of cookies and pizza sends a different message to the body than does 2000 calories of greens and protein for example. Food is information and we need quality information in order to get good results on the outside. Get to the root of the problem by recognizing the types of foods you’re eating and not the number of calories.

Mistake: The label said its natural and organic so I can eat it.
Correction: Marketing companies are smart in learning what sells. By putting key words like organic and natural, they lure consumers into thinking it’s healthy. No-added sugar juice is still sugar but it sounds better to consumers. Organic sugar is still sugar to the body. Skip the front packaging and go right to the ingredients list. Here you will be able to see if it’s truly something that will fuel your body.

Mistake: I walked 10,000 steps today so I should lose weight.
Correction: Yes, about 10,000 steps is the recommended amount of movement for health. However, there are so many other moving parts to the equation. Make sure to put this data in perspective… great, you’ve got your movement in for the day and make sure the other boxes are checked as well. Look at sleep patterns, eating patterns, stress relief and social qualities as well. All have to do with allowing the body to lose weight just as much as 10,000 steps.

Mistake: I can’t get my heartrate over a certain number because I’ll no longer be burning fat.
Correction: Just like the food we eat, rotation and moderation count! Rotating your workouts is just as important as monitoring them. Sometimes we make the numbers mean one thing when it really has nothing to do with the bigger picture. Yes, at lower heart rates the body preferentially burns fat for fuel. At higher rates it has to switch over and make the fire hotter for the greater demand. This part is true. What isn’t taken into account is affect on the body at higher heart rates. One is the after burn… Post workout oxygen consumption is higher and for longer with high intensity workouts as the body catches up and replenishes itself. So do your body a favor and rotate your workouts to incorporate high intensity, lower and longer duration and things like yoga that are a completely different kind of workout.

Keep in mind your goals and discover where you might be justifying or not hitting the target.  Use the Fitness Tracker as a discovery tool instead of a justifying tool and your goals will be closer than you think with less frustration and disappointment.

source https://www.healthy4lifeonline.com/top-5-mistakes-when-wearing-a-fitness-tracker/

Muscle Roller Sticks: Top 15 Tips That Get the Knots Out

Muscle Roller Sticks – Top Tricks You Need to Know

Rolling balls, foam rollers, PVC, tennis balls, and medicine balls remain a versatile choice for warming up, rehab and injury prevention. All have been used in the name of self myofascial release. However, consider giving this a try… the muscle roller stick. You’ll never look at a foam roller the same again.

15 Best Myofascial Releasing Reasons for using a Muscle Roller Stick

Professional athlete or weekend warrior, the muscle roller stick is great after running, weightlifting, Crossfit, MMA, WOD, Powerlifting and strength training. What ever your workout, you will get soreness and knots from your training.  Managing the soreness and those knots, lumps and aches can make the difference in getting everything out of your efforts and being able to train again the next day.

Myofascial release is a technique in which varying pressure is applied to muscles to help relax and heal muscles, improve muscle mobility and increase blood flow to the area. Pressure can be applied from another person like a massage therapist; however, they’re not always available and you’ll need something to be able to do it yourself.

Self-Myofascial release means you use anything to apply pressure to work the areas of soreness. Items like foam rollers, tennis or lacrosse balls, your thumbs or anything else can assist you in working out the knots. Without assistance, those knots and injured areas will create muscle imbalances over time. The body will try to heal itself in an attempt to compensate for the micro-injuries that occur with every training.   Add our daily habits of desk sitting, driving, lifting and TV watching and imbalances are exacerbated.

Injury prevention

Remove knots

Breakup tightness

Improve flexibility and mobility

Increase blood flow

Improves Lymphatic circulation

Stimulates the stretch reflex

Helps to relieve muscle soreness

Faster recovery

 

Target the Trigger Point

stimulate muscles

Store in different locations
Sticks are smaller and more portable for having at home, in your car, and at the office.

Choose your level
They come in various lengths and pressures. Some muscle roller sticks are fully adjustable and changeable

Use Daily
remains a go-to item for day-to-day light massage

Give your thumbs a break
with some force, so you don’t have to use as much elbow grease to knead out sore muscles

dig into tight problem spots on your legs, arms, and back.

Go Icy Hot
Toss it in the freezer or in warm water before rolling out tightness or pain

Don’t forget your Back
To hit knots in your back, wedge the stick between your body and a wall

On the Go
If you’re going out for a hike or bike ride, through it in your backpack for occasional quick sessions to relieve muscle aches and improve performance.

Work around the Knot
Muscle Sticks allow you to target your sore spots and work around them instead of directly on them. Working only the sore spots or injuries could lead to more damage to the area.

Improve Muscle Movement
Breaking down fascia and adhesions is the main reason to work the muscles. Adhesions lesson the movement of the muscle over time and can limit normal range of motion.

 

Get messages and see a physical therapist or myofascial release specialist regularly.  In between don’t lose ground by not being able to do it yourself. Get the benefits by using the muscle roller stick consistently.

source https://www.healthy4lifeonline.com/muscle-roller-sticks-top-15-tips-that-get-the-knots-out/