There’s a lot of complicating factors as to why this occurs…
One reason is that the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas create a negative hormonal response in the body that increases fat storing hormone production and increases cravings for more sweets and refined carbohydrates in the time period after consuming the diet drink.
Another reason is that people may subconsciously think that because they are drinking a diet soda, that gives them more leeway to eat more of everything else, hence consuming more calories overall.
I’ve said this all along, but the bottom line is that if you’re serious about your health and body, soda of any kind (and artificial sweeteners in anything for that matter!) should be avoided at all times, except for very rare occasions when you can’t avoid them.
So what is a good alternative to diet sodas?
The best alternatives are good old water with lemon or unsweetened iced teas… you have plenty of options with teas - green, white, black, oolong, red… be creative in making your iced teas and you’ll enjoy it more. Plus you’ll get a more diverse array of antioxidants.
I just add a little of the natural non-caloric sweetener stevia to my iced teas and I love them.
Some examples for lower abs are as follows:
The reverse crunch (using the slant board) - with your hand holding the bars and your legs straight on the floor, raise your knees to your face, while bending your knees, until the fetal position. Then slowly drop your rear end until you touch the board and repeat the exercise.
Leg lifts (performed on the Roman Chair) - Start with your back on the back support and lift your knees/legs to its highest point. Feet should not be allowed to swing behind your rear end at its lowest point for safety and momentum purposes.
Hanging leg raises (performed on the cable machines) - Start by hanging from the middle pull up bar on the cable machines. The hanging leg raise is probably the most result producing stomach exercise since it is generated from the lower abs and then incorporated the upper abs at its peak. It begins by having your feet lift over and above your waist until it reached approximately where your hands are holding on. Remember to keep you body from swinging back and forth. This will cause you to use more stomach muscles and less momentum.
Then proceed to your upper/middle abs to get that desired burn.
The Ab Roller, which is great for upper abdominals and obliques, is great to start with since it promotes safety and immediate results. Exercises utilizing the ball and floor mats are great ways to end a stomach workout. The utility ball allows for maximum stretching to hit all areas of the mid-section.
Since your stomach is considered your smallest muscle, you are able - and recommended to - train them up to 6 days per week. A cardiovascular work out which consist of constant aerobic activity which last for more than 30 minutes at your 80% target heart rate is extremely beneficial and necessary to achieve that ever desired six pack.
Great abs are only obtained through hard work, perseverance and proper form. They are the central point in which your motion begins and ends. In the end, great abs will give you the needed support for your workout and your life.
Take The Low Approach To Great Abs
Everybody wants a six pack, including you. It is probably the most sought after goal and hoped result of working out. Working toward great abdominal muscles, not only looks great, but cuts your risk of injury and improves your performance in everyday life. Not only are rock hard abs a symbol of fitness, but strong and flexible abdominal muscles help trim your waist and end back pain. Two very important health goals of many who enter an exercise facility. It allows you to move from side to side with stability and control. Men and women want to walk on the beach and show off all their hard work by exposing their abs. From what has been seen in gym and health facilities, it is most worked on muscle group or it is the most neglected. What category do you end up falling into? There are many ways in which you can work you abdominal muscles. There is scientific sequence to effectively shaping and creating great abs.
Most people are stronger in their upper to middle abdominals compared to their lower abdominal muscles. It is recommended that you work your lower abs first since you are freshest and have the most energy to get the most out of your stomach. The abdominal muscles react and provide optimal results visually when performed to failure. Failure occurs when the muscle is thoroughly exhausted and the exercise can no longer be executed. This means you can not do one more painful repetition. Your mid-section should be worked in this manner all the time.
New here with some questions
Hi…..
I post on the Bowel Disorder (re-section surgery) and Knee and Hip Boards (2 total hip replacements), and here I am with some questions for you all.
Seems I’m falling apart here!
I’ve had back issues for a long time…however, nothing as severe as what’s been happening lately. I know I have degenerative disease…was told that years ago. Also some bone spurs….was told that by the anesthesologist trying to insert the spinal for my last hip surgery. Haven’t had an MRI…yet.
Symptoms: I simply cannot walk any sort of distance without my left leg cramping up with a burning pain on the outside of the calf. Not down the buttock into the front. Sometimes the pain seems confined from the knee to the foot. The scary part is the foot goes numb and, along with the severe pain, the leg gets numb….like there’s nothing under me to hold my weight. I sit or lean to get the weight off my leg and can continue to walk a little…until it starts again.
Rash
I have been having symptoms for a while. Only came up with low normal b12- 280 and ferritin 12. No anemia. Also positive RA factor and negative on everything else. I have developed a rash in various spots on body that is very itchy, scaly, and lasts 2 days goes away and then shows up somewhere else. Could this be lupus? Ned crp, ana , sed, and anti-ro. Let me know your thoughts.
Update on PM Doc (oxy generic vs brand)
Hello all and Ty again for the answers to my previous post “Question about my pain meds”.
I was very honest with my Dr. today on how my Oxycontin 20mg every 8 hours was going and how i Hated the TEVA brand. He said that realistically there should be no differance but there is a chance. He then wrote the RX for Brand name only (now to see if WC will pay for this).
He also upped my Lyrica to 450mg total per day now 150mg x 3 per day to help with my SEVERE leg/thigh/groin pain. I will fill my post dated RX tomorow so I will update in a day or 2 on the results of name brand and how it works for me.
I also lost one of my pain pills today and was scared to tell my Dr, I didnt want him to think i popped an extra. Long story short he said no problem and that he would fill my Rx a day early and for one xtra WOW WOW WOW! This was great to have a Dr. trust me soooo much. I feel so much better about our Dr PT relationship now.
Last but not least I broke down in tears explaining to him how i miss out on so much of my life due to my pain. At that time he reffered me out to a sike Dr. that specializes in “people like us” chronic pain, depression, opiod tolerace etc…
Has any of you ever been to one of these Dr’s and has it helped you out in anyway.
Sry for the long post today!
God bless and Good day to you all!
Strengthening your trust hormones
It may be that the hormone oxytocin is partly responsible for some of these positive effects of strong relationships. Nicknamed the “trust hormone,” its presence seems to have a strong influence on the ability of women to bond, and both men and women have much higher levels of the hormone in their bloodstreams immediately after orgasm. Oxytocin causes a relaxation response and can therefore lower blood pressure; it may be responsible for the decreased rates of breast cancer in women who have breastfed.
Some of the best news about oxytocin is that it may be summoned, almost at will. When couples were instructed to sit close to one another, talk and then hug, they experienced immediate decreases in blood pressure. When this behavior was continued over time, women especially showed sustained improvement in their blood pressure nearly the same as if they had taken the best prescription blood pressure medications.
Making love to a healthier body
Some of the positive health benefits from romantic relationships are likely related to frequency and regularity of sexual activity. Besides the obvious subjective benefits (that is, pleasure) of sex, research shows that physical intimacy is an important factor in sustaining health for the long term. For example, one study revealed than men who had sex at least twice a week were half as likely to have a lethal heart attack than men who did not. Well regarded research also indicates that frequent ejaculation may be a protective factor against developing prostate cancer. Yong adults who have sex more than once or twice a week demonstrate higher levels of important immune system antibodies than their peers who had sex less than this.
If you are thinking that your relationship cannot possibly be providing these benefits, there is even good news for you! Recent research indicated that spouses can be trained to be more supportive even during periods of life and health crisis. For example, in a study of couples who were dealing with a partner’s breast cancer diagnosis; one group was given coaching to help develop emotional support skills. Another group was not given this coaching. The wives of the spouses who were given the additional help had better outcomes, specifically less distress and depression, than the control group.
How Love Keeps You Healthy
Movies celebrate it. Almost every popular song talks about the quest for it. Some people even describe it as a “natural high.” No question about it: being in love feels good. Is it really any surprise then, to find that romantic love can improve your physical health as well?
Love: the ultimate immune system
Love can serve as a protective agent against certain disease processes. Although we are not yet certain how or why this is true, research supports the conclusion that excellent relationships contribute to excellent health. For example, women in marriages they described as “good” have much less heart disease than those who experience high levels of stress in their relationships. Married people not only have longer lives, but also have lower rates of heart disease, cancer and even communicable diseases, such as pneumonia, when compared to the same age that are not married.
We also know from research that love can help fortify the immune system. For example, in one study, patients with ovarian cancer who reported having strong community ties and pleasurable relationships had a substantially better tumor site immune response than other patients with ovarian cancer who did not have this type of support.
Perhaps because of this immune system response, strong emotional ties can also support good health, even in times of stress. In another study, spouses in marriages described as “pleasurable” were able to lower their blood pressure even during a 12 month period of job stress.
Wealth gap in child critical care
Children from the most deprived homes are more likely to need an intensive care bed than their wealthier counterparts, say researchers.
The largest UK audit, studying 40,000 cases, found poor children were twice as likely to be admitted.
But the audit, published in Archives of Disease in Childhood, found their chances of survival were just as good.
However, children from affluent south Asian families were a third more likely to die.
There is clearly no inequality in the treatment children receive based on their social background
Dr Roger Parslow
University of Leeds
The study was conducted by specialists from the universities of Leeds and Leicester, using a national database that collects details of all children taken into paediatric intensive care units in the UK.
During a four-year period, data for England and Wales revealed that the average child had a one in 1,000 chance of needing critical care.
When the 40,000 were split into five groups based on a “deprivation rating” given to the communities in which they lived, those in the least deprived areas were only half as likely to be admitted as those in the most deprived areas.
Dr Roger Parslow, one of the study leaders, said that the finding that less affluent children were more likely to be admitted, was in line with other information about the impact of “health inequalities” on both child and adult health.
He added: “Even though paediatric intensive care units admit more children from poorer backgrounds, those children are not more likely to die than someone from a more affluent group.
“There is clearly no inequality in the treatment children receive based on their social background.”
South Asian mystery
However, the higher mortality among the children of wealthier south Asian families could not be explained so easily, he said, and he called for more research.
“We should be looking at these children in more detail to see if there are other interventions which may help them.”
Dr Ian Jenkins, president of the Paediatric Intensive Care Society, said that the finding that, in most cases, children from less affluent families fared just as well as children of rich families was “reassuring”.
He said: “There are lots of reasons why children from poorer families are more likely to be admitted to intensive care units.
“We know that these families tend to access health services in a different way, and it’s possible that by the time they present at primary care with a problem, they are sicker than other children, and may be more likely to need intensive care.”
