Fitness and Health Giveaway Link-up 11/13-11/19

If you have a contest please feel free to submit it to the link-up. If you just want to win some awesome prizes, enter as many as you like and tell a friend about the weekly fitness and health giveaway link-up.

An InLinkz Link-up

The 28 Day Ab Challenge For Beginners With A Bad Back

I should have produced this challenge years ago. Quite a few of my clients have requested this for themselves or for a family member or a friend. 

It is a challenge for the abs or core but for people who are suffering from lower back problems. The exercises in the 28-day challenge are the same exercises I use on my clients after they have finished with physical therapy.

If you would like to do the challenge, ask your doctor first about doing this workout plan. When you start the program and you find that an exercise does not agree with your body or it is hurting in some way, you can omit it.

Also, feel free to add an exercise you would like to do or your physical therapist gave you and it is not in the below plan. This 28-day ab challenge is for beginners but I will add a couple of advanced moves if you can do them without problems.

If you don't recognize the exercise by the name, you can just click on the name of the exercise and you will find a quick YouTube video that demonstrates the ab or back exercise. To print your own copy of the 28-day ab challenge for beginners with a bad back, I included it in a Google doc. Get it here.

I hope this 28-day challenge increases your core (abs and back) strength so you can get back to doing your daily chores. Feel free to send me an email, if you have any questions.

sheilafit10@yahoo.com

Dead Bug beginners

Dead Bug advanced

Knee to chest

Bridge learn how to do a neutral bridge

Pelvic tilt

Chair crunch

Bird Dog choose your level 1, 2 or 3

Hip rotations with a Swiss ball

Hip rotations

Modified Plank 

Plank

Cat Stretch

Piriformis stretch in a chair

Piriformis stretch supine

Hamstring Stretch with strap

Hamstring stretch without a strap

Back extensions

Try this 30-day ab challenge for beginners without back problems.

Fitness and Health Giveaway Link-up 11/06-11/12

Welcome to the fitness and health giveaway linkup. If you have a blog or Instagram giveaway submit it and feel free to enter a few. If you are not a blogger or company, enter to win some fabulous prizes.

An InLinkz Link-up

Fitness and Health Giveaway Link-up 11/06-11/12

Welcome to the fitness and health giveaway linkup. If you have a blog or Instagram giveaway submit it and feel free to enter a few. If you are not a blogger or company, enter to win some fabulous prizes.

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas With Pecans Giveaway - Sunnyland Farms Pecans

My parents were part of the Great Migration. The Great Migration is when African Americans moved away from the south of the United States. 

"The Great Migration was the movement of six million African-Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that occurred between 1916 and 1970. Until 1910, more than 90 percent of the African-American population lived in the American South." Wikipedia  Read more about the Great Migration.

My sisters and brother's holiday centered around a Southern Christmas tradition. Poinsettias filled our home, fruits like oranges, tangerines, and mandarins were in abundance and of course pecans in the shell were always included.

When my parents want a true taste of home they will buy from the source. They will not buy pecans from the grocery store but order them from Sunnyland Farms. 

Sunnyland Farms is a third generation family owned business located in Georgia. Their main product is pecans but they offer much more that. They also sell a variety of nuts, candies, cakes, and chocolates. Check out what they sell by going to their online store.


Pecans make for a tasty snack and they are good for the body. They are high in antioxidants and including vitamins A and E. Antioxidants fight and eliminate the free radicals which are responsible for causing cancers, chronic conditions such as heart disease, and premature skin aging,

I want to share with one reader a taste of my childhood during Christmas. One person will win a gift tin of raw mammoth pecans. The contest is open to anyone who lives in the United States. Good luck to all that enter and to remember to share the giveaway with friends.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Etsy 
TheBodyWorkout

Fitness and Health Giveaway Link-up 10/30-11/5

Come in and join the party. Linkup your contest and enter a few if you like. If you are not hosting a giveaway and you just like to enter sweepstakes, feel free to come in and enter as many giveaways you would like to win.

An InLinkz Link-up

The Keto Diet For Absolute Beginners

The ketogenic diet simply means a diet rich in fats but low in carbohydrates. It is recommended for a person who desires a weight loss and has been proven scientifically to help in reducing risk factors in diabetes, heart diseases, strokes, epilepsy, and more. 

The ketogenic diet is able to do all these by putting your body in a state of metabolic ketosis. While in ketosis your body uses ketone bodies for energy instead of glucose. A massive amount of ketone bodies is derived from fats, while glucose is made out of carbohydrates.

You achieve a state of ketosis when you consume more fats and burn more calories. Excess glucose in the blood can cause major damage hence the reason to abstain from carbohydrates and start moderating on diet rich in protein and fats. Ketosis usually occurs within the range of three days to one week, working religiously on a keto diet.

THE TRUTH ABOUT FATS AND CARBOHYDRATES

There are many myths on fats consumption which have been rebuffed by the emergence of scientific researches. Dozens of studies and meta-studies with over 900,000 subjects have arrived at the conclusion that fat is good for consumption. This has come at the height of a series of 'fatty' misconceptions, and which include:

1. Eating any amount of fats will make you gain weight.
2. There is only one type of fat and it causes heart failure.
3. Fat is bad for you and should be avoided.
4. Fat has no nutritional and metabolic purpose.
5. Fat is more harmful while carbs are less harmful

But in truth, fats are needed to lose weight, reduce heart failure risks, and a large quantity of which is more beneficial than a large chunk of consumed carbs. If you eat a high-carb diet, your body burns glucose for fuel. Excess glucose raises insulin which acts to drive up your weight, heart failure, and epilepsy. Whereas all that your body needs are ketone bodies for your liver to be able to burn fats for fuel.

In essence what you got to know as myths of fats are actually what you should have held in mind against carbohydrates, and vice-versa. Fats are staging a comeback in a new world of improved scientific researches.

WHAT TO EAT AND WHAT NOT TO EAT

Basically, the keto diet is a switch from foods high in carbohydrates, low in fats, to the contrary. So it is more like a choice, a dietary preference of one at the expense of another.

When trying a keto diet, foods rich in carbohydrates should be avoided for foods low in them. Here are some of the foods to avoid for the keto diet:

• Sugary foods: smoothies, cakes, ice-cream, candy, etc.
• Grains or starches: rice, pasta, cereal, etc.
• Fruit: all fruits 
• Beans or legumes: lentils, peas, chickpeas, etc.
• Alcohol: all alcoholic drinks
• All processed foods

And here are some foods not to avoid:

• Meat: red meat, steak, sausage, chicken, turkey, etc.
• Seafood: salmon, trout, tuna, etc.
• Avocados: whole or freshly made
• Eggs: all eggs
• Vegetables: vegetables that grow above ground

AVOIDING THE KETO FLU AND WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU CHEAT

Many people cheat for many reasons, prominent among them is the keto flu. By cheating, I mean having to go back on high-carbs after renouncing. What happens to someone who cheats depends on how fat-adapted he is. Some people lack the patience to go on carbs strike and so have to revert. The punishment is that they are forced to start all over again when the target is not met.

Keto flu occurs to keto dieters due to a low level of sodium and electrolytes. The symptoms associated include:

• Fatigue
• Headache
• Nausea
• Irritability
• Cough
• Sniffles

But the keto flu can be avoided by adding more sodium and electrolytes to your diet. This can be done by adding more salt to your food, drinking soup broth and eating plenty of bacon.

BENEFITS OF THE KETOGENIC DIET

Some of the benefits of the ketogenic diet include:

1. Weight loss
2. Reduction in fats
3. Reduced sugar level
4. Better levels of good cholesterol
5. Elimination of blood glucose spikes 
6. Reductions in blood pressure
7. Consistent energy levels
8. A significant adjustment in eating habits

7 Steps You Should Follow Before Starting the Keto Diet

Starting a keto diet can be quite difficult especially when you are new to it. Trying to limit your carb consumption and rather turn to one that helps you burn fat could be a herculean task. This is more so because a keto diet is very different from the kind of diet you are used to. 

Keto diet has been known to reduce cases of diabetes as it puts the body in a condition called ketosis. However, knowing the things to do before you begin your first keto diet could make the whole processes bearable. Here are therefore the 7 steps you should follow before starting your first keto diet.

Know what’s allowed and what isn’t

The first thing to know when starting out on your keto diet is knowing what food items contain carb and the ones that do not. Knowing this will help you to avoid carb-containing foods in your keto diet pursuit. For instance, fruits are very heavy with carbs. So, if you are a frequent fruit lover, you may want to cut down on them to reduce your carb. 

It is also good to know that not all protein contains food are absent of carbs. Beans for example, despite being a protein food, also some measure of carbs. Your best bet is to stick mostly with fatty foods like meat, butter, oil, and fish.

Become closer to with fatty foods

Now that you are just starting on your keto diet, it is very advisable that you become closer to fatty food. If you have not been cooking with much oil, then start doing so, even as you eat more meat, consume more butter, and fishes. Build your food regime with more fat containing food items. 

Source for more keto-friendly recipes

Go online and browse through many keto teaching websites to get more recipes so you do not get easily tired as you exhaust your list of known keto food items. Having more recipes to prepare a keto friendly meal makes the staying on a keto diet more bearable and even enjoyable.

Bulletproof coffee is one of the drinks you should be taking

There are many keto friendly drinks out there. One of them is the bulletproof coffee. This coffee is made when coconut oil and butter are commixed and added to coffee. However, if you have a heart diseases history, you should reduce the addition of coconut into your coffee when making the bulletproof coffee. If you are not sure you do, please consult your doctor.

Bring your family along on your keto journey

Letting your family know you are on a keto diet would not send them into a sudden shock when you refuse to eat most of the family foods. They would understand already that you are keto dieting. When your family is aware of your keto pursuit, you get some form of a support system when it seems the keto journey is seeming more difficult than you thought.

Expect some side effects

You will definitely experience some of the side effects of a keto diet. Some of the very common ones are the ‘keto flu’ and some weakness in your limbs. The ‘keto flu’ is generally used to refer to that period of adaptation your body goes through when you are just starting out on the diet.

After the keto diet, what next?

You should have an after-plan after your keto diet is done as you are not meant to stay on the keto diet forever. It is also not a permanent weight loss plan. So get an after-plan in place and ready. 

This is most of the information you really need to get you started on the keto diet. However, if you find it too restrictive, you might want to try The South Beach Diet which is low in carbs the first two to four weeks of the plan.