Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Butter Fingers
I'm obsessed with painting my nails; I paint my nails about twice a week. My nail polish addiction worries me however because of all the nasty stuff like formaldehyde, DBP, and parabens that come in nail polish. So you better believe I was ecstatic when I found butter. Not the spread, the nail polish brand from London. They make nail polish that is free of toxins and comes in an array of awesome colors that last just as long as normal nail polishes. I know Ulta has it but so far I haven't seen it many other places so here's a link to my love, butter. Below is my favorite color artful dodger. Image courtesy of butter London.
butter London
Natural High: Capsaicin
I love food. Yes food is delicious but it's also powerful. Food can kill you or heal you. Everyday scientists discover new and crazy ways that foods help or harm us. I love reading about the powerful effects food has on our bodies so I'm adding a section to my blog called Natural High. Here I'm going to focus on a specific foods, supplements, herbs, vitamins, and minerals and how science thinks they work in our bodies. Today I want to talk about one of my all time favorites, capsaicin. Capsaicin is the stuff in red pepper that makes it burn. The powerful thing about capsaicin is that it makes your brain think your hot even though your not; capsaicin makes you sweat. When your hot you burn calories. I love the taste of spicy foods so eating cayenne and peppers is no problem for me. If your a weaker tongued person you can take cayenne pills. There are even "cool" cayenne pills that have less capsaicin so if you aren't used to it you won't burn your bottom. Yes thats right, not only does capsaicin burn on the way in, it can burn on the way out. So if you'd like to supplement with capsaicin I suggest starting out slow to see how it works on you. There are tons of studies that have been done on capsaicin so feel free to google it and read about it's other promising abilities (like pain relief, sinus congestion relief, and ulcer treatment).
Monday, September 12, 2011
Cardio, Cardio, Cardio!!
I get asked all the time what is the best way to do cardio (cardiovascular exercise). Well it really depends on what your doing cardio for; to burn fat and lose weight, or to improve your cardiovascular system. The level of intensity you do your cardio at will determine what type of cardio you are doing.
Heart Healthy Zone; Your at 50-60 percent of your maximum heart rate. You burn calories, lower cholesterol, and blood pressure. This is the easiest zone, pretty much just walking.
Fat Burning; This is when your at 60-70 percent of your maximum heart rate. You burn tons of calories at this zone and 85% of those calories are fat so this is your fat burning zone.
Aerobic; This is when your at 70-80 percent of your maximum heart rate. This zone improves your cardiovascular and respitory system and makes your heart bigger and stronger. Fifty percent of the calories burned at this zone are fat.
Anaerobic; Your at 80-90 percent of your maximum heart rate in this zone. You'll improve your VO2 maximum (the highest amount of oxygen you can consume during exercise) and improve you lactate tolerance which means you'll fight fatigue better.
So now you just need to know your maximum heart rate to be able to determine your cardio zones. You can go to a gym and do a treadmill stress test with a professional for the most accurate test. You can also subtract your age from 220 (for men) or 226 (for women) to determine you max heart rate. Then you multiply your MHR by the percentage of the training zone you chose. You can buy a heart rate monitor to see where your heart rate is at. You can also feel for your pulse but thats kind of difficult when your on a treadmill.
For people wanting to lose weight the easiest thing is to make sure you can hold a conversation while doing cardio. You should be breathing hard but able to talk to someone. This is the best way to make sure your in the Fat Burning Zone and not straying into the Aerobic Zone.
The best times to do cardio are first thing in the morning on an empty stomach so your body will burn your fat, not the food you just digested. When I do morning cardio I lose crazy amounts of weight pretty quickly. The next best time is right after lifting weights. When you lift weights you muscles burn your glycogen stores (sugar) so doing cardio afterwards makes your body have to burn through fat.
In my opinion you should do cardio for 45 minutes if you want to lose weight the reason for this is that your body takes 20 minutes of cardio before it starts burning fat. To lose weight I suggest doing cardio no less than 3 days a week but no more than 6. Now my disclaimer, I am not a doctor so remember to consult your doctor before starting any exercise program.
Heart Healthy Zone; Your at 50-60 percent of your maximum heart rate. You burn calories, lower cholesterol, and blood pressure. This is the easiest zone, pretty much just walking.
Fat Burning; This is when your at 60-70 percent of your maximum heart rate. You burn tons of calories at this zone and 85% of those calories are fat so this is your fat burning zone.
Aerobic; This is when your at 70-80 percent of your maximum heart rate. This zone improves your cardiovascular and respitory system and makes your heart bigger and stronger. Fifty percent of the calories burned at this zone are fat.
Anaerobic; Your at 80-90 percent of your maximum heart rate in this zone. You'll improve your VO2 maximum (the highest amount of oxygen you can consume during exercise) and improve you lactate tolerance which means you'll fight fatigue better.
So now you just need to know your maximum heart rate to be able to determine your cardio zones. You can go to a gym and do a treadmill stress test with a professional for the most accurate test. You can also subtract your age from 220 (for men) or 226 (for women) to determine you max heart rate. Then you multiply your MHR by the percentage of the training zone you chose. You can buy a heart rate monitor to see where your heart rate is at. You can also feel for your pulse but thats kind of difficult when your on a treadmill.
For people wanting to lose weight the easiest thing is to make sure you can hold a conversation while doing cardio. You should be breathing hard but able to talk to someone. This is the best way to make sure your in the Fat Burning Zone and not straying into the Aerobic Zone.
The best times to do cardio are first thing in the morning on an empty stomach so your body will burn your fat, not the food you just digested. When I do morning cardio I lose crazy amounts of weight pretty quickly. The next best time is right after lifting weights. When you lift weights you muscles burn your glycogen stores (sugar) so doing cardio afterwards makes your body have to burn through fat.
In my opinion you should do cardio for 45 minutes if you want to lose weight the reason for this is that your body takes 20 minutes of cardio before it starts burning fat. To lose weight I suggest doing cardio no less than 3 days a week but no more than 6. Now my disclaimer, I am not a doctor so remember to consult your doctor before starting any exercise program.
Going No 'Poo
No I'm not boycotting pooping, I'm saying good-bye to shampoo and conditioner. I read about the no 'poo movement years ago and was intrigued. I have super oily hair so if I go for more than three days without washing it I look like a big oil spill. However I know that washing your hair is bad for it, not to mention all the scary chemicals and preservatives in shampoo, so I've tried everything to wash it as little as possible. I've tried dry shampoos, baby powder, wearing it up, wearing hats, etc. Nothing has really worked so I'm putting my foot down. Now your sitting there saying, "but Teagen if you don't wash it your just going to get greasier and greasier!" Your right, to a point. When you wash your skin to often it produces more sebum (the oily stuff your skin makes to keep it soft and healthy). So to keep your face and scalp from to producing more sebum you need to leave the sebum you have alone. I tell people with acne to wash their faces with really gentle cleansers so as not to strip off to much natural oil. When you shampoo your hair you strip your scalp and hair of sebum so your scalp just produces more, its a vicious cycle. The no 'poo method eliminates shampoo. There are hardcore no'poo-ers that only rinse their hair with water and there are those who use baking soda as a 'wash' and apple cider vinegar as a 'conditioner'. They both work because after 2 weeks to a few months (depends on the person) your oil has a chance to reach the ends of your hair and you scalp resets, producing less sebum naturally. No 'poo-ers claim that their hair is shinier, has amazing texture, and styles really well. I'm taking the plunge and going no 'poo. I will be using baking soda and apple cider vinegar as needed. I will also be brushing my hair a lot with a boar hair bristle brush to help move the oil down my hair shafts. If you want to try for yourself here's how your supposed to do it.
Mix anywhere from a tablespoon to a teaspoon of baking soda with water then rub this mixture really well all over your scalp using circular scrubbing motions. Don't put this on the ends of your hair. If your hair gets to dry use less baking soda.
Next rinse the ends of your hair with a mixture of two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and water. This is your conditioner so don't rinse your scalp.
There are lots of variations of this that include adding honey, lemon, or chamomile but I'm sticking to the basics for now.
Here's a great website full of info
No-poo
Mix anywhere from a tablespoon to a teaspoon of baking soda with water then rub this mixture really well all over your scalp using circular scrubbing motions. Don't put this on the ends of your hair. If your hair gets to dry use less baking soda.
Next rinse the ends of your hair with a mixture of two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and water. This is your conditioner so don't rinse your scalp.
There are lots of variations of this that include adding honey, lemon, or chamomile but I'm sticking to the basics for now.
Here's a great website full of info
No-poo
My new glutes workout
Just Plain Beautiful
This blog has been a long time coming. I originally wanted to write a fitness blog but that would get boring and tedious so I've decided to write a blog about being beautiful. Now before you you think my ego is enormous let me explain what I mean about being beautiful. First of all my name is Welsh and it literally means beautiful, so this blog is about me. Secondly I think life is incredibly beautiful. Thirdly beauty can be inside and out so striving to be beautiful in every aspect of your life is a worthy devotion. My name is Teagen, this is my blog about my life and my drive to make every day more beautiful.
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