A Basic Introduction to CBT

If you’re looking for a way to stay calm in a tense situation, for a way to be focussed when all you want to do is relax or a way to control your anger – then CBT is something you should definitely consider.

CBT stands for ‘Cognitive Behavioral Therapy’ and is essentially a set of tools used for psychotherapeutic interventions when treating anxiety disorders and other psychological conditions. This also happens to be the preferred method of therapy among most health institutions today.
The best bit? As well as being highly effective and proven in countless studies, CBT is also very simple to teach and can even be explained ‘remotely’. Here we will take a look at what CBT entails, why it’s so powerful and why it’s very much worth learning.

How CBT Works

CBT is essentially the natural evolution from behaviorism. Behaviorism is a school of psychology that views all of our behaviors and beliefs as being learned responses that have been trained via conditioning. Behaviors that have been rewarded become reinforced and we perform them more often. Behaviors that have been punished become less common.
CBT takes this principle and adds an additional cognitive element – showing that we can actually reinforce a behaviour through the way we think. If we have anxious thoughts about an action for instance, then we can find ourselves actually enforcing that association to the point of even developing a phobia. We don’t actually have to experience anything bad – our belief and predictions alone are enough to create the association!
The same can also work in reverse though and if you logically break down your fears, explain to yourself why you shouldn’t be afraid of them then eventually you can completely remove those phobias.

An Example
So how might this work?

A good example is a social phobia, which can be created through the maladaptive belief that you’re going to embarrass yourself, that you’re going to faint or that perhaps you’re in some kind of danger. It is your job then to remove this association through CBT using techniques such as ‘thought challenge’. Thought challenging involves assessing just how realistic a fear is in a logical way and often you’ll be able to disprove your own fears to yourself.
You can then formulate these new thoughts as positive affirmations and actually talk yourself up before big events. Eventually, this can be enough to complete remove the phobia or anxiety – and it’s something that anyone can practice alone at home!

Introduction to natural liver detox

We live in a world that is chockfull of toxins be it in the air we breathe, our food, our water… so much so that their entrance into our bodies has become unavoidable.

Exposure to these toxins requires that all of the organs in your body work in synergy to maintain homeostasis – meaning everything needs to be in a certain balance in order to function optimally. If the function of one organ or system goes awry, the others will also be affected.

Your liver and kidneys play a vital role of filtering toxins out of your body, but your liver has an additional function of breaking down the present toxins in order to expel them from your body.

This enzymatic process occurs in two phases – breaking down the toxins and bonding these broken parts to other molecules that destroy the toxic substances and expel them from your body through sweat, urine and fecal matter.

When the liver becomes overburdened or overworked due to chronic exposure to toxins via the environment, diet, smoking, alcohol use, lack of sleep and poor stress management, it can slow down and cause a back-up of toxins in your system. This can impact many other systems and organs in your body resulting in various symptoms.

The following are just a few common symptoms of an improperly functioning liver:

• Weight gain/difficulty losing weight
• Fluid buildup in the belly or abdomen
• You bruise easily
• Painful gallstones
• Chronic itching
• Yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice)
• Kidney failure
• Muscle loss
• Loss of appetite
• Unsightly skin conditions and liver spots
• Spider-like veins in the skin
• Low energy and frequent weakness (fatigue)
• Mental confusion as toxins build up in the blood
• A weakened immune system, leaving you unguarded against sickness, disease and infection

After reading the many potential consequences of a toxic liver, you may be wondering how you can support your liver to make sure it is functioning at its optimal level.

Many people think that by just making a few tweaks to their diet they can counteract the effects of toxic buildup. It is true that following a nutrient dense diet will support your liver and can help however it doesn’t have the same impact as cleansing/detoxing.

A cleansing program takes it a step further by helping eliminate the stored toxins therefore allowing your liver to reboot and rejuvenate.

Click Here to discover the 25 page eBook

“Natural Liver Detox Basics”

Your Dad Bod Can Ruin Your Life

Dad Bods are obvious – whether it’s in the summertime or in the dead of winter. These are the men with the bodies that can range from carrying a little extra pouch of fat around the tummy to having a stomach that sticks way out over the belt.

While society is certainly more health conscience about body weight now than in the past, there’s a lot of social acceptance about having a Dad Bod. Unfortunately, this acceptance has been grounded in a mistaken belief that this form of being overweight is cute and even cuddly.

Dad Bods Aren’t Sexy

It’s widely known that a man with a six pack abdomen and nicely chiseled muscles could turn a woman’s head. Having a body that’s in shape is incredibly appealing to a woman just like a woman with a good body is appealing to a man.

But while society is clear from the plethora of magazine articles, online conversations, television shows and movies that an overweight woman is often overlooked in favor of a shapely woman, the preference doesn’t extend to men.

There is a trend that started not too long ago that spread the word that Dad Bods were in – that having that extra bit of stomach lopping over the waistband of pants was all the rage.

Because of that, a lot of men, far too many of them, adopted the mindset that being overweight and out of shape was cool and acceptable. Not only that, but they bought into the belief that women everywhere thought having a Dad Bod would rock their world.

That erroneous information seemed to be everywhere and it was based on the fact that a couple of rich and famous celebrities (Leonardo DiCaprio and Thor – Chris Hemsworth) were able to snag women despite growing a Dad Bod.

The reason the media now says women prefer out of shape men to men who are physically fit is because a woman with a man who doesn’t look his best makes her look and feel better about herself.

This trend was not based on an actual scientific study of any sort. If you’ve believed that having a Dad Bod was appealing, then you have bought into the hype and believed a lie.

Contrary to whatever information you’ve seen floating around online and in magazine articles, women don’t find a Dad Bod hot. They don’t think it’s more attractive than a man who stays in shape.

You can read one thing but reality is a completely different story. Women want a man who is in shape – one who cares about himself enough to make sure his body and his health is the best that it can be.

If you’re still believing that women do want a man who has a Dad Bod, do a little research. Just take a look at all the movies featuring heroes that women flock to, and talk about. These men don’t sport the Dad Bod. Fat is never sexy – whether you have a little or a lot.

Sporting a Dad Bod Isn’t Good for Your Health

All of the medical statistics that abound concerning carrying more weight than you should is just as true for a Dad Bod as it is a person of any size. When you’re overweight, every organ in your body is put under strain.

Food was meant to be fuel and just like fuel you put into a container, if you put too much in, it spills over into other areas. In the case of a Dad Bod, being overweight is directly linked to type 2 diabetes.

Despite what you might have heard, you don’t have to be obese to develop this disease. Even a little bit of extra weight sets the stage for this – or unhealthy habits with no measureable weight gain.

With diabetes, your body loses the ability to correctly process the glucose in your body. You begin to struggle with a variety of symptoms once you have it. You can struggle with vision problems.

An influx of floaters in the eyes is common. Tingling in the hands, feet and lips can occur due to neuropathy. You can wake up repeatedly during the night because the extra glucose in your bloodstream can cause frequent urination.

Slow healing of cuts and bruises as well as other injuries is common. So is fatigue. A Dad Bod can cause high blood pressure to develop. If you let this go, over time, it can weaken the heart.

The blood doesn’t pump as freely and you can end up on oxygen with fatigue a way of life. High blood pressure has been tied to having a Dad Bod and genetics isn’t always the culprit.

Eating pizza and greasy fat foods adds weight and drives up your blood pressure. The harder your heart has to work, the greater your risk of heart attack or stroke and the less years you have on your life span.

Heart disease is part of having a Dad Bod. One reason for that is because no amount of working out during the week helps with heart health if you have a Dad Bod lifestyle on the weekends.

Sleep apnea is common with men who need to shed weight. While you might think of this as a snoring disease and not think this condition is a big deal, it can be fatal. Machines are used to help keep sleep apnea from killing people, but the cure is to lose weight.

Because all of your organs are affected by weight, you can develop fatty liver disease. This causes inflammation, insulin resistance and scarring of the liver. The main cause of this is being overweight. It’s progressive and can lead to cirrhosis of the liver – which will shorten your life.

Belly Fat Is Dangerous

Though there are plenty of jokes about having a Dad Bod belly, the truth is that it’s not really anything to joke about. While all fat can be bad for your health, belly fat is especially dangerous.

This is because your belly fat isn’t simply surface – it goes all the way to your organs with what doctors call visceral fat. Think about a sink that gets clogged with thick deposits of grease and you’ll have an image of what this visceral fat is and what it does to your organs.

This fat has a gel-like consistency that clings to your organs. It’s not as simple as having fat. The cells with this type of fat are responsible for causing you to carry around the dad belly, but they do much worse damage that just making you look overweight.

It’s inflammatory and toxic and most people don’t realize how dangerous it is. This kind of fat prevents your body from being able to function the way that it was meant to operate.

Not only can you develop repeated inflammations, but it can cause diseases that are autoimmune in nature. Like being overweight in general, it can lead directly to type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance.

Having a Dad Bod with belly fat causes your body to have a lower metabolism, which can make it more difficult to have energy and to lose the excess weight. Heart disease and belly fat are health scare buddies.

If you have belly fat, you’re a walking heart attack just waiting to happen. Strokes are more commonplace when you have belly fat than when you don’t. Your hormones are affected when you sport a Dad Bod with belly fat.

When the neurotransmitters are out of whack, you can experience a variety of mood swings and even spiral into depression due to the hormone imbalance. Arthritis is common for men who have belly fat, too.

Struggling to sleep or developing other sleep disorders is also common. Some men struggle with sexual dysfunction. When you have belly fat, it puts you at a much higher risk of developing problems with your mental abilities.

You can begin to show signs of cognitive decline earlier in life. Dementia (as well as Alzheimer’s Disease) have both been linked to belly fat. Cancer can be a direct result of belly fat.

For men, this means you stand an elevated risk of developing prostate or colon cancer. Belly fat also causes earlier deaths in men. So it’s not so cute and cuddly when you start looking at the invisible effects.

Out of Shape Dad Bods Can’t Keep Up

Once you put on the weight, develop a Dad Bod, and get out of shape, your energy levels plummet. It takes a greater effort to move an object that weighs more – and that includes your own body.

In the past, you might have been able to charge up the stairs, taking them two at a time. But now, you get winded easily and prefer taking the elevator over the stairs. It’s easier and doesn’t take the same toll on your energy.

Out of shape Dad Bods develop problems with movement overall. When you carry that extra weight, life can hurt a whole lot more than you remember. Before you developed a Dad Bod, you could easily bend down and pick something up.

You could squat to get something or kneel as long as you needed to when making home repairs, if you had to. But now that you have a Dad Bod, bending over feels like a workout.

Squatting cuts off the circulation to your legs and kneeling for any amount of time means a struggle being able to stand up again. Because a Dad Bod doesn’t happen instantly, the weight creeps on and men slowly adjust to looking heavier.

When they see themselves in the mirror, they don’t think about all the weight they’ve put on. They think they don’t look “too bad.” Regardless of whether or not you have a healthy body self-esteem, being overweight isn’t good for your health.

Having a Dad Bod is a thief that robs you. It takes from you financially because you’ll be sick more often than before. That means paying for more medication and visiting the doctor more often than when you weren’t overweight.

It robs you of time. When you’re overweight, it takes longer to get things done. You feel the need to rest more often. Your energy drive is lower than it’s ever been in your life because the weight is draining you.

No matter how overweight you are, imagine if you had to carry that same weight in sacks of rocks every day, everywhere you went. You couldn’t take it off at night. That’s what being overweight and out of shape is doing to you.

It’s dragging you down. Robbing you. But most of all, more than financially and in your energy, being out of shape with a Dad Bod is robbing your family. You can’t keep up with them.

Instead of joining in when your kids are running and on the go, you have to sit it out. You end up becoming more sedentary than your family. Your bad health choices become theirs, too – whether you realize it or not.

Your Dad Bod Health Gets Worse Over Time

It’s only a little bit of weight. You don’t look any different than the rest of the dads on the block. Kicking back, having a weekend to eat and drink like you want, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Each man has a body frame. This is the support system or foundation for which everything else in your body must fit and work. Your particular body frame is built to support a healthy weight.

When you pile on the pounds, just like the foundation of a house can show stress and start to crack, so can your body. It won’t be able to support the extra weight without something giving.

Sometimes, that’s an organ such as the heart and you have a heart attack when the body reaches the limit that the heart can take. Other times, it’s a knee that gives way from being subjected to having to support more weight than it could safely carry.

There are always health consequences for carrying around excess weight. You’ll develop aches and pains. Having stomachaches is common. So are backaches. So are shoulder and muscle aches in your calf muscles.

Miniscule tears in the muscles that support the arch of your foot can occur. Bone spurs can develop. These are caused by inflammation, which can be caused by the visceral fat you carry in your belly.

Injuring tendons is common – so this slows you down. Your Dad Bod, that you might have thought wasn’t “too bad” – is now biting back. Over time, your health is the payment your body extracts for not giving it all you’ve got.

If you don’t take a stand now and get rid of your Dad Bod, you’re only going to feel worse over time. You’ll miss out on energy you could have had. Tiredness will become a daily part of your life.

You won’t rest as well. Getting up and taking part in life instead of just dragging yourself from work to your home will become a major undertaking. The power to stop all of this from happening is yours, though.

When you eat a healthy diet, exercise and change your Dad Bod into a healthy bod, you can stave off health issues, improve your energy and be able to experience an active lifestyle with those you love.

Find Fun Cardio to Burn Off Your Beer Belly

If you’re trying to exercise and burn fat, it can get very boring – very quickly – especially if you’re just staring at a wall walking on a treadmill. Luckily, there are many fun alternatives to basic walking and running that can make cardio enjoyable.

First, depending on where you live, you can go on a hike. Most places in the U.S. are a short to medium drive away from a nature trail. This is a much better alternative to walking on a treadmill, because you can actually see different things.

This experience is also nice and quiet, and should be relaxing. There are also different difficulties of trails you can go on. There are very easy ones that are just a flat walk through a field and maybe some woods.

There are also ones that are hard, which may involve some steep angles and light rock climbing, or even actual mountain climbing. This makes it a great thing to get involved in because you’ll never really get bored of it.

You could also choose some kind of transportation. Rollerblading and biking can be great ways to get in shape while also getting around. Rollerblades are a relatively inexpensive means of transportation, generally going for just under $100.

This is a pretty good price, especially when compared to something like a bike, which usually goes for $200-$300 minimum. If you can find a skating rink near you, you can practice with them, and these rinks usually have open (all skate) nights.

You can also try water sports. If you live near a lake, river, or the ocean, you can get into kayaking, canoeing, and even surfing. Kayaks generally cost about as much as a bike, and then you have to get a paddle, which is about $20.

It may also be wise to pay about $25 for a life vest, in the event that your kayak flips, which may happen if you’re new or off balance. Canoes are very similar, but generally much more expensive.

If you’re just looking to get into paddling, it’s wise to start with just a kayak out on a lake. Eventually you can move up to more dangerous waters, such as rivers and the ocean. Surfing and diving are also good options.

Surfing can only really be done at the ocean, so if you live near a coast, this is a good option. Surfing helps build abdominal strength, and can be pretty tiring. Diving can be done just about anywhere, including a pool. Swimming in general is a really good cardio exercise if you do it vigorously and is great for keeping your joints from feeling too much pressure.

Keep Healthy Fats in Your Diet to Maintain Muscle

There’s a common misconception that fat in foods is what causes you to get fat. This isn’t really true. There are certain types of fat that are bad for you, but plenty are good for you – and even required.

Getting healthy fats in your diet is a very key part of maintaining muscle. The unhealthy fat that most people are familiar with is the saturated fat. Saturated fats are found in foods like cakes, butter, lard, bacon, fatty meat, and all that other unhealthy stuff.

This is the type of fat that you should avoid all together. There is practically no dietary benefit to saturated fats – they just harm you. Even worse for you than saturated fats are trans fats.

Trans fats are mostly artificial, and these are extremely bad for you. It’s recommended that these make up no more than a small percentage of your calories – as in less than about 5%.

Trans fats are most commonly found in fried and baked goods, such as pizza, cookies, fried chicken, doughnuts, etc. These should be avoided in all ways, shapes, and forms. Unsaturated fats, however, are pretty good for you.

Most animal fat is saturated, but the one meat that has unsaturated fats instead is fish. Fish is actually a really good lean meat, and doesn’t contain any harmful fats. Other examples of foods that contain unsaturated fats are nuts, olive oil, and sunflower and flax seeds.

It’s important to note that you can be fooled into thinking that saturated fats and unsaturated fats both provide similar amounts of calories and therefore must be similarly beneficial in health.

In reality, the unsaturated fats are much better than saturated or trans fats. The health benefits of unsaturated fats are plentiful. First, it helps reduce heart disease. Unsaturated fats also help lower cholesterol, which is pretty harmful to your body in high levels.

Their most important function is that they help maintain your body’s cells and keep them supplied with nutrients. This means that the muscle you put on will stay there when you consume unsaturated fats.

Unsaturated fats should completely replace saturated and trans fats in your diet. Your diet should consist of mostly protein, then carbs, then fats. It can be easy to confuse the different types of fats, however, if you don’t know which ones are good and bad.

Make sure that when you consume your fats, that you only consume unsaturated – and not trans or saturated fats. Be wary of any diet plan that puts out a blanket statement for you to avoid all fats.

Start Strength Training Carefully to Firm Up

When you first get into weightlifting, it’s not really expected of you to know proper form and everything. That’s why if you’re new to weightlifting, you should take things slow and learn how to lift properly.

Otherwise, you could injure yourself. Some exercises are very simple when it comes to form, but a bit more complicated when picking weights. This usually applies to machines, because they only really move one way and have an arbitrary weight number.

However, one of the most common free weight exercises also falls into this category – the barbell bench press. Bench pressing is a simple motion. Just make sure you take it easy and don’t slam the bar on your chest.

But picking out how much weight you should put on it can be a hassle if you’ve never done it before. Start with the bar alone, which weights 45 lbs. If that was easy, try 20 lbs on each side.

Then slowly increase until you find it hard to do. If you found it difficult, either stick with the bar until it gets easier or try a 5 lb plate on each side. Most exercises for a beginner are not only difficult in form, but also in weight selection.

A good example of this is the squat. Squats are great leg exercises, but rely heavily on form. A good squat means you have both feet pointed straight forward and at shoulder width apart, go low, and come back up.

Your legs should bend slightly outward, and you should almost look like you’re trying to move your butt back into an invisible chair. This isn’t one of the most dangerous exercises for beginners, though.

The most dangerous exercise for beginners it seems is the deadlift. A deadlift means you have a barbell with weights on it on the ground, and you go down and pick it up before placing it down again.

This exercise requires you to have a straight back, knees bent, and for you to lift with your legs and not your back. Failure to do this will result in serious back problems, and you may even injure yourself with the actual bar.

Many people try to lift heavy weights just so they look good in the gym and ignore form. These people are most commonly referred to as Ego Lifters. Not only does “egolifting” do you no good, it’s also dangerous for you and possibly the other people in the gym.

If you feel embarrassed because you’re not lifting as much weight as the guy who has been at it for three years, don’t worry. Nobody’s actually looking at you or making fun of you – especially because they were once in that position. Make sure your lifting is clean and at a respectable weight, or you may never lift again.

The Best Proteins to Help Combat Your Dad Bod

One of the key parts of gaining muscle is protein. If you don’t know where to start, it can be a bit confusing when trying to figure out what protein to buy. Fortunately for you, here’s a quick list of the best proteins on the market.

First, you should know that there are two different main types of protein: whey and casein. These are the two main proteins that are extracted from milk. Whey is generally taken right after a workout to promote quicker muscle healing.

Casein is generally taken before bed in order to keep your muscles well fed. The first brand that you should try is Optimum Nutrition, or ON as their label says. They sell really good whey protein at about $15/lb, and casein at about $16.45/lb.

These are pretty good prices from Amazon – especially for such a great product. Like most proteins, their most popular flavor is chocolate, because the other flavors are generally not as good.

Next you should check out BSN SYNTHA-6. They have a similar product to ON, at a better price – about $8-9/lb on Amazon. The only real complaint about this one is that it has many more carbs than the ON brand.

A serving of this brand has a carb-protein ratio of about 3:4 while the ON brand has about 1:8. This makes ON a better brand for post workout shakes, but BSN is still a good meal replacement.

Another brand to consider is Body Fortress. At a similar price per pound to BSN, they give you a pretty good deal for some quality protein. The carb to protein ratio on this brand is 3:10, which is better than BSN, but still not quite as good as ON.

This is the best post-workout protein for anyone who wants to get their protein at a good price. Most proteins that you find at places like Academy or Walmart will probably be fine – just chose the one with the best carb-protein ratio and try that one.

If you don’t really have loyalties to any one brand in particular, you should just try each one and see which one you like more. One shake may have a weird consistency, one may not mix very well, one may have a weird taste – but you just have to find the one that fits you.

The brands listed above are the recommended starter choices, but if you find a brand that suits you best, stick to that one. You can’t go wrong finding protein to add to your diet to weed out unwanted carbs.

What Is a Dad Bod?

The Dad Bod is a body type that affects many men today – anywhere between the ages of 16 and up. A Dad Bod doesn’t necessarily equal obesity. It equals more of an untoned body, and is a terrible fad of today’s world.

Contrary to what the name may imply, the Dad Bod affects young men as well as middle aged. These men could take the route of getting in shape, but they see this fad right now working okay for other guys, which isn’t being necessarily fit.

The Dad Bod doesn’t mean that you’re overweight or fat. A good example of someone who has a Dad Bod would be someone who does lift weights, but you never see their progress because they’ll have beer and pizza in the same day.

This doesn’t necessarily make them weaker, but they do have excess fat that, if cut down, would make them look much stronger. They may have a slight pudge in their stomach, ands slimmer arms and legs, which are soft and untoned.

The Dad Bod is bad because it promotes an unhealthy lifestyle. Whether or not the man is terribly obese, the habits will eventually cause worse weight gain and the underlying, invisible conditions like diabetes will remain a concern.

The worst part about the Dad Bod is that it promotes averageness. It tries to push the idea that being par is good and encouraged. Dad Bod people aren’t overweight, nor are they super buff.

They’re ordinary. Many have attempted to equate the Dad Bod to Leonardo DiCaprio, now that he has one – or Chris Hemsworth who the media claims looks better with a Dad Bod than as his ripped character, Thor.

You can tell if you have a Dad Bod pretty easily. You’ll have a little beer belly, an untoned chest, but you’re not weak. You might lift weights occasionally, and you’re strong like a dad, but it just doesn’t show.

The diet that comes with a Dad Bod may include beer, pizza, burgers, chips, sweets, etc. It’s essentially the body type equivalent of mashed potatoes versus a crinkle cut fry. One’s soft and lumpy – the other ripped and crisp.

The Dad Bod has become a fad today for various reasons. Most of the women who like it say that it represents someone more “natural” and they like the pressure for themselves to be fit off of them.

Although, this also makes no sense, because a truly natural human would not be drinking beer – he would drink water. And instead of pizza, he’d eat lean meat. The Dad Bod seems to represent comfort to some people, but it’s not worth the lack of health benefits that come with it.

5 Ways to Get Your Metabolism Back on Track

Metabolism is the process in your body that converts everything you consume into energy. If you have a fast metabolism, you won’t see very much backlash from eating a lot, because your body quickly converts it into energy.

However, if you have a slow metabolism, your body will take longer to use that food you eat and turn it into something useful. There are many ways to boost your metabolism. First, a lot of it depends on what you eat.

If you eat too little, your metabolism slows down a lot. Don’t starve yourself to try to get skinny. It won’t work. You’ll just hold on to the little food you do eat, and mess up your metabolism for later.

Specifically, you shouldn’t be eating less than 1,000 calories minimum per day, or your body kicks into full on starvation mode, and you won’t see many results. Eat good sized, healthy meals.

Your body can also go into a starvation type mode if you fail to eat the most important meal of the day: breakfast. Not eating breakfast can lead to your body thinking it’s starving, because you’re taking almost 20 hours between meals, assuming you eat dinner at 6 PM and lunch at about 2 PM.

When your body falls into this panic mode, it doesn’t let go of foods, making you hold on to excess weight. Breakfast is also a great opportunity to get in a lot of protein in the morning, so take advantage of it.

Not getting a proper amount of sleep can cause your metabolism to slow down, as well. Not getting a proper night’s sleep is way more destructive for your body than you think. A lack of sleep can cause your leptin and ghrelin levels to go out of control, which control hunger levels.

This can cause you to overeat, or eat poorly, hurting your metabolism. It’s actually been shown in studies that those who sleep less are more prone to obesity. As with all aspects of health, drinking alcohol is an obvious metabolism killer.

Alcohol can tack on tons of unwanted calories and it even prevents fat burning. For men, alcohol reduces testosterone levels, which can prevent you from burning fat and getting rid of your Dad Bod. Kick the alcohol and you will see great results.

You should get some healthy fat in your diet. Don’t get this kind of fat confused with the bad fat on your body, however. Fats are an essential part of your body, just like protein and carbs. You just need to get the right kind of fats. If you consume balanced meals with fat and protein, you will heal your metabolism pretty quickly.

4 Ways to Increase Your Energy Levels

For many people, being tired is a big issue when it comes to things like exercise. They feel too groggy and fatigued to go on a run or go to the gym. However, there are plenty of ways to quickly bring back your energy.

First, you may want to increase your magnesium intake. Magnesium is an extremely important mineral, being required for over 300 of your biochemical reactions. The most important of this is the process which breaks down the glucose from the carbs you eat, turning it into energy.

If you have a magnesium deficiency, the carbs you eat may not even be good for energy, and you’ll feel consistently tired. There are a few ways to add more magnesium to your diet.

A few nuts can provide you with the magnesium you need. Eat nuts such as hazelnuts, cashews, and almonds. You can also try eating more whole grain foods, such as bran cereal.

Surprisingly, one way to increase energy is to actually get involved in some physical activity. Going on a walk when you’re “too tired” to do it can actually leave you feeling more refreshed and energized.

Once you get that blood flowing, you can enjoy the energized feeling for about two hours – and that’s from just a short walk. Walking can be done just about anywhere at any time, so there’s not a whole lot of reason for you not to go on a quick 10 minute walk.

As we know, one of the bigger causes of the Dad Bod is beer. Drinking, not only beer but all alcohol in general, will leave you less energized. You have to drink tons of water if you want to be active.

Obviously, water is a key part of your body. Your body uses water up 24/7, even if you’re just sitting down doing nothing. You can quickly become dehydrated by drinking alcohol – meaning you’ll be left with very little energy.

Finally, try getting some sun. Vitamin D is a key vitamin in energy production in your body. Vitamin D deficiency has also been linked to weight gain, depression, heart disease, and multiple forms of cancer.

It’s worth it to take a quick walk outside on a sunny day to get your body re-energized. Besides getting some sun, there are plenty of foods that are good sources of vitamin D, such as spinach, cheese and other dairy products, orange juice, and egg yolks.

Incorporate some of these foods into your diet and you’ll be feeling more energetic very quickly.  You can also give your metabolism a boost by spacing out your meals during the day, starting with an energy boosting breakfast!