Why you should eat chocolate this morning?

You love chocolate. You deny it all the time because it affects your waistline. You crave for it until you can’t handle it anymore and end up eating entire chocolate bar you were trying hard to ignore. There is a solution to end this crazy, unhealthy cycle. Just eat chocolate for breakfast.

Yes! You read it right. Here is why.

DEAL WITH YOUR INSATIABLE SWEET TOOTH

To deal with your insatiable sweet tooth, giving into your cravings can actually curb them, and have a little taste of chocolate.

HOW CHOCOLATE REDUCES WEIGHT?

A study was conducted that showed a group of people who ate 600 calorie breakfast. They included dessert and had lost an average of 40 pounds per person than the low-carb breakfast group.
The thought is that cutting sweets entirely as the low carb group creates a psychological addiction to those foods. Allow yourself a piece of cake, a cookie, or some chocolate at the beginning of the day when your metabolism is high. This will allow you to feel, you aren’t deprived even when stuck to a reduced-calorie diet. It’s not what you eat but how much matters the most.
A slice of cake in the morning will help you feel less deprived and allow you to stick to your diet more faithfully for the rest of your day. Stick to one slice and skip after-dinner dessert. Get chocolates at affordable prices by using Thorntons discount codes on Pouring Pounds.

IMPROVE YOUR COGNITIVE ABILITIES WITH CHOCOLATE

A study showed that eating chocolate regularly improved cognitive abilities as participants performed better on tests that involved memory and abstract reasoning abilities.

CHOCOLATES LOWER THE RISK OF STROKE AND HEART DISEASE

Not just this, two bars of chocolate a day (100 g) lower risk of stroke and heart disease. A chocolate has protective properties against cardiovascular disease.

Go ahead and grab a piece of chocolate from your fridge. Don’t feel guilty about eating chocolate for breakfast anymore!

Men: Are You Taking Care of Your Health Properly?

Be the man who takes care of his own health. You should not be the man whose mother or wife has to convince to take care of his health. When you are healthy, you work well, become smarter and stay away from stress. If you can plan for your outings so well, why cannot you follow a healthy routine? Don’t you want to live longer? Here are simple steps to inculcate in your daily routine. 

1. Eat healthy: 

Eat! You should eat at least 3 meals a day to meet the nutritional requirements of your body. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Just because you are running late for the office, doesn’t mean you will skip your first meal. Choose fruits over burgers and pizzas to stay healthy. 

2. Exercise: 

Practice yoga or perform stretching, running or hit the gym every day. Do not be lazy and let your heart race faster and pump more. Even if it is just a 20 minute thing you have planned to do every day, you can still end up being healthy. Exercise at least 4 times a week. Your body will thank you for it!

3. Meditate: 

Sounds boring? Practise it for just 7 days first and see the difference. There are many interesting techniques to meditate that you will find on the internet. Chant a word that brings peace to your mind for 20 minutes continuously and you will stay alert all day long. Breathing techniques can also be performed. Let your mind experience that silence where it is away from everything happening around you.

4. Cleanse your eyes and face more often:

The pollution levels have increased and it is time to use your face wash more often. Do not let the soil particles get into your pores. Wash your eyes thrice a day. Let them relax from the computer and phone screen for a while. 

5. Sleep: 

Take proper sleep for 7-8 hours every day. Do not let lack of sleep be the reason for your dark circles. Proper sleep ensures that your mind stays alert and fresh during the daytime. Remember that sleeping for more than 8 hours is also harmful for the body. Follow a daily sleep routine and stick to it. Your body will start signalling you to sleep and wake up at the same time thereafter. You will also become an early riser soon when you feel better each day with the above mentioned steps.

If you are one of those who just scrolled the list and didn't read it well because these were the usual ones, go back and read to know what important information you have missed in those points mentioned above. 

Let people come to you to know about your routine because they want a healthy life, one like yours.

Did you know the natural ways to delay ageing?

You have started getting the signs of ageing. You want to delay your ageing process, feel more vibrant, boost your energy and look younger! The ageing cannot be stopped but can be delayed by few years. The things we do to ourselves are correctable and the hormonal levels can be modified. The top age repellents are as listed below:

Tea Breaks: Green tea has lots of antioxidants to detoxify your body, and reduce dark circles and wrinkles. The flavonoids have excellent antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic properties and enzyme altering activities. It has natural antibiotics that help in building immunity to keep minor ailments away. 

Laugh Out Loud: Laugh loud and reduce a stress hormone, cortisol and enhance endorphin levels. Lack of stress equals fewer lines and wrinkles. Don’t forget to get your daily dose of laughter.

W for wrinkle and W for water: Get rid of your ugly wrinkles with the devil in your own kitchen. Water digests, absorbs and transports nutrients along with eliminating body wastes as well.  Detoxify your skin and improve skin turgidity to keep wrinkles at bay.

Move your muscles: Strenuous muscle work like doing daily chores, carrying a bucket, hammering a nail and much more helps to keep muscle ailments at bay. Strengthen your core muscles with this simple step.

Go Citrus Shopping: Get more than an apple to keep the doctor away. Bite on sweet lime that is loaded with isoflavones that are known to reduce hot flashes in women and increase the bone mineral density. Keep your skin glowing with citrus fruits as they act as a sun blocker.

Sunscreen: The UV rays penetrate into the skin and damage elastic fibres allowing wrinkles to develop. Always wear sunscreen and cover face and hands which are most frequently exposed. Avoid sun rays when the rays are strongest. Don't have one? Buy your sunscreen lotion using voucher codes on Pouring Pounds.

All done! Prevent ageing with these tips and control how old you look. 

Wake Up Early-Calm and Refreshed

If it was a perfect world, everyone would have been waking up early-calm, refreshed and all set to tackle the day each morning. But we have hectic morning routines which are a success if we are able to make it up to time. Waking up early has many advantages. It gives you time for productivity and leisure along with making your days less stressful.

Do not snooze your alarm in the morning and wake up early to enjoy a healthy breakfast. You can also put the considerable amount in your appearance then. Waking up early is not easy but we can achieve it and make mornings the best part of our day. This is your time to relax and check in within yourself.

                       

Image Credits: everydayhealth

1. Get more sleep

Schedule 7-9 hours of sleep into your day and stop compromising your health for success. It increases your memory consolidation, helps you with better weight and heath management, heightens mood and concentration, and lowers blood pressure and stress levels. 

2. Keep your screens away

Dim the brightness of your phone before you go to sleep and restrict all screens at least an hour before you sleep. Setting an alarm shouldn’t be your last thing.

3. Go to sleep when you feel tired and create the right night routine

Do not wait too long and see how your body responds. Your body will tell you the time when it is exhausted and not in a condition to stay awake anymore. Do not trick your body at that time. It is bad both in a short and long run. Read books and sip lavender tea at least 30 minutes before you sleep. Get used to this ritual. Clean your environment before you go to sleep. It will be easier for the mind to understand it is time to sleep. Get up at the same time every day. 

4. Don’t press snooze and move quickly out of bed

Wake up when you are in the least deep of sleep. Use Apps like Sleep Time to help you for this step. As you made the place relaxing last night, you need to get away from it as quickly as possible. Get up and get going, the moment you wake up.

5. Workout in the morning

Yoga or quick jog will help you relieve toxins, increase productivity and make you eat healthily. So, is it not good to work out in the morning and stop making excuses anymore? 

6. Expose yourself to natural light

Get a dose of Vitamin D in the sunlight and fresh air. This will somehow help you reduce the symptoms of stress and regulate all the chemicals.

7. Have something to look forward to

Have something to do even if it is a dinner. It will make you feel excited like Friday evenings. Catch up with yourself in the early morning. Make your accomplishment list and start your day with calmness, mindfulness, and gratitude. 

Slowly, this bad thing of waking up early will be worth it in the end. Make sure that you keep the same routine for weekends as well. 

Warm Weather Cheat Sheet to Stay Cool

It’s summertime! The sunshine is all set to inspire you to tone up, lose weight and get in shape. Summer has opened a load of potential activities like going for bike rides, long walks, jogging, running, and swimming.  Maximise your performance while working out in the heat without wilting away. 

1. Drink lots of water

                                 

When you feel you want water, you are already dehydrated. Because the sun will cause your body to sweat more, and even a mild exercise will make you dehydrated; always keep a water bottle with you. Stay hydrated! Drink water an hour before workout. Even if its swimming, water aerobics or surfing, you will still need water. Keep one on the shore or side of the pool. Do not forget to rehydrate yourself after a workout.

2. Don’t eat more proteins before your workout

                         

Too much protein elevates your basal temperature and makes you feel hotter. Why not use that protein bar after your workout to rebuild muscle? Do not let yourself get a heat shock.

3. Do get outside

                        

The sunshine is not going to last forever. Make the most of it before it is dark and cold again. Sweating will help you release toxins from your pores and you will also get a dose of Vitamin D.

4. Don’t race in thin air

                       

Even jogging can cause altitude sickness when done at a high-elevated city. Our body experiences a difficult time in adjusting to decrease in oxygen and the change in air pressure. This can lead to dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, fatigue, and confusion.

5. Give your body time to adjust to summer

                                

It takes 12 to 14 days to acclimatize to warmer weather. Take your workouts down a notch when the summer starts to climb. Do fewer workouts and save your endurance for a cooler day. Do not let yourself push through heat exhaustion; else it might lead to potentially life-threatening heatstroke. Replace fluids by drinking water to relieve yourself, if such symptoms exist.

Keep refreshing your body with healthy products!

Dealing With The Stress Of Monday Blues

It’s Monday and you are feeling blue for finding yourself to the same desk and working on same excel sheet and doing everything you have been doing every week. Now, you are counting seconds before the weekend hits! All of us are beaten up on Monday except our Marketing Head. Half of the workplace is bummed up like you can imagine. It is a known fact that people are more stressed on Monday than any other day of the week. 

                  

Minimize the effects of Monday Blues with the following methods:

1. Have something forward to look to for Monday:

Weekends keep you going till Friday. Your time pass fast knowing about he plans that you have made for this weekend and you have something to look forward to. Now, why not plan for Monday to keep yourself with full of energy and excitement? Sooner, it will become the Monday that you will long for. 

2. Go into open:

Get out of your house on Sunday or just be outside for a while as it would help a lot. Sunlight stimulates our feel good hormones and helps us deal with the blues.

3. Wake Up Early:

It’s always our laziness and not Monday that drag us down. Don’t allow your body to expect leisure on Monday as it was the case on Monday. Don’t miss your breakfast and rush. Instead start them on a happy note by getting up early. Be energetic, plan for a workout and keep yourself energetic. 

4. Socialize: 

If you are an introvert and order keeping yourself most of the time, you need some social contact at least once in a week.  Engaging in conversations stimulates our brain. It needs to function optimally and for that you will have to socialize before dicing straight into the work the moment you reach. You will get all the motivation to start work with enthusiasm. Even a simple chat about weekend will wake up your senses and mind ahead for the day ahead.

5. Realize that it will be over soon: 

You are only affected in the morning. Tell yourself this is not permanent. Only this conversion of negative thought into a positive one will fuel up your body ad senses. Do not dwell on it.

Create a positive dominant thought that will master your mind throughout the day. You need yourself fearless. Stay less attached to it so that you don’t feel affected by it. Have a great careers ahead. Cheers! 

3 Best Healthy Smoothies Recipes- Feel Young, Happy, and Energetic

Smoothies have always been an excellent way to look young and beautiful. Top up on vitamins and give your skin, body and mind a boost of love. All the healthy smoothies ensure that you get the right intake of vitamins. Flushing out toxins and feeling happy is now way easier than before with these simple and easy healthy smoothies. Boost your mood and make your skin glow by mixing the ingredients together and enjoy!

1. Happiness Juice

Create a blend of joyous ingredients that will lift your mood and make you feel happy. You will feel a rise in your energy levels at a steady rate. This will help you to relive mood swings, making you feel elated and uplifted.

Ingredients: 5 Strawberries, 5 Raspberries, 1 slice of Melon, 1 Banana, ½ cup of Coconut water, Ice cubes and Chia Seeds.

2. Pick me up juice

It is suitable for mid-afternoon to make you feel energetic. The cinnamon helps to regulate blood sugar levels and strawberries are responsible for helping your skin glow. Blend and enjoy these ingredients to boost your energy level.

Ingredients: 1 Apple, 5 Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, zest of Lime and I tsp. Cinnamon

3. Get a glowing skin with this smoothie

Replenish your skin with lost ingredients that will help your skin heal from the inside. You will get Vitamin A, B, C and K and this will add glow and make your skin clearer.

Ingredients: A handful of spinach, 1 Apple, 2 tsp. of Chlorella Powder, a handful of Kale, the zest of Lemon, Orange juice, and stick of Celery.

Enhance your natural beauty rather than covering up with make-up with these healthy smoothies. 

How Skipping Rope Helps You Everyday?

There is a reason why athletes skip rope every day. It’s like a cornerstone of their workout. Skipping rope is an incredibly efficient way to burn calorie, get conditioned. You will have more fun with this workout than going to the gym and getting on a cardio machine for hours. We always want something that can help you stay healthy. This is a cost-efficient way to stay fit. Another advantage is that you don’t have to go to the gym or some place to perform it, even your own room would suffice.

Here Are The Easiest Ways To Destress While Working

The work is stressing you, you have a meeting in next five minutes and you aren’t able to focus. But what if you end up doing all things wrong even after trying to fix it? Yes, you need detachment right now or just a walk to give yourself an adrenaline push. This is the perfect time. Don’t worry about you wasting the time. It would increase your overall productivity and so there is nothing to worry while trying methods to relieve yourself. Take a minute or two out of your work and try practising meditation or some other such technique known to calm you and your senses.

Reduce Work Stress with These Proven Healthy Options

Your work is piled up and you feel as if life at office isn’t easy anymore. Excessive work could only bring more stress. You would have been in those situations when you feel you won’t be able to do it on time. Stop these negativities inside you. It’s not doom and gloom, though there are plenty of foods that are good to help you reduce stress. In the long run, these foods will help you relieve tension, stabilize blood sugar levels and better your emotional response. Reach for these foods whenever you feel stressed.

Foods that Help Reduce Nicotine Effect

If a person is addicted to smoking, it is because of the chemical called Nicotine. One of the most addictive chemicals ever known, Nicotine can act as a stimulant to block nerves, raise heart beats, blood pressure and formation of stroke.

Irrespective of warnings and awareness, it is almost impossible for smokers to quit smoking. There have been instances where people quit smoking but resume after a while. We have realized that quitting smoking is tough but reducing the effects of nicotine is easier.

Here are 8 important foods which when consumed can help reduce your body’s nicotine level.

1. Broccoli

With high levels of Vitamin B, B5 and C in your body, the metabolism rate gets improved. This encourages your body to respond optimally to problems. Broccoli helps in raising the level of Vitamin B, B5 and C. High level of Vitamin C protects the lung from toxins.

2. Ginger

Ginger, the natural vegetable cum medicine, helps you get rid of any symptoms caused due to smoking. Consuming raw ginger can help reduce toxin levels in the lungs and blood.

3. Spinach

Spinach has been used to fight nicotine since ancient times. The folic acid content in the spinach helps your mental wellbeing as well.

4. Cranberries

The acid in cranberries is so effective in flushing out nicotine

5. Oranges

                                                
Here comes a friendly food. Some people do not like consuming vegetables. Nature has gift for them as well, in the name of Orange. One of the symptoms of nicotine is reduction in Vitamin C level. Orange, as a citrus fruit helps raise Vitamin C level and it also helps to reduce stress.

6. Carrot

If you smoke daily, it means you are daily losing your Vitamin A & Vitamin C. Intake of carrot helps in increasing the level of Vitamin A & C which thus increases body’s ability to defend diseases.

7. Pomegranates

Apart from reducing vitamin levels in the body, smoking also affects blood pressure, oxygen ratio in the blood and heartbeat. Pomegranates help counter attack these symptoms and improves blood circulation.

Eating these foods will only help you fight smoking problems but they do not really nullify them. For your well-being, try hard to quit smoking.

5 Efficient Workouts You Can Do in Your Room

Doing exercises is very good for health as it not only gives a good body shape but also keeps you healthy and fit. Often people get lazy or busy that they skip doing exercises. Few of the very common reasons to skip exercising are having no time to go to gym, lack of self-motivation, no guide and laziness. We have come up with 5 simple workouts guide. We assure you that doing these exercises on a regular basis can help your body get in good shape.

Crack the laziness factor with these simple in-house fitness tips

1. Jumping Rope Exercise / Skipping Ropes

A jumping rope, also known as skipping rope, is exercising equipment with a handle at two ends of the rope. You should hold the rope’s handle using your hands and swing it across your own body. When it reaches near your toes, you must make a jump. The rope then comes back again to your toes and you jump again. Do this exercise for few minutes. At the first attempt, you might not do this in a good speed but as you practice, you will start doing jumps in a decent speed.

Jumping rope exercise is a wonderful calorie burner and it is also good for your heart. It is said that performing Jumping ropes exercise for 10 minutes is equal to running 12 kilometres.

2. Chair Squats

Chair squats exercise is quite simple to perform but has a great effect on your body. This exercise is as simple as sitting on a chair and standing up again, just that the actual exercise doesn’t possess a chair. Stand straight and come to a position such that you are sitting on a chair and then get back to the standing position again. Repeat this for about 2-3 minutes. Make sure your back is straight and hands are stretched.

3. Push-ups

                                            
Most of you know what a push-up exercise is. Push-ups help engage the chest muscles, arm muscles and improve the upper body strength. People who are not used to doing push-ups will definitely find it difficult to do the actual way. In this case, do the push-up exercise by keeping your hands on the bed and feet on the floor. Once you get used to push-ups, you can start doing normal push-ups (hands and feet on the floor)

If you still want to improve, do the opposite of the basic. You can keep your hand on the floor and feet on the bed and do a declined push-up.

4. Mountain Climbing Exercise
                                           
This exercise helps engaging your chest, triceps, core muscles, shoulders, hips and hamstrings. As the name suggests, you would be replicating a movement which is very similar to climbing a mountain. With both your hands and feet on the floor in a plank position, start bringing your legs to the chest one by one. This is just like keeping your hands fixed on the floor and running. The faster you are able to move your legs, the effective this exercise will be.

5. Bicycle Crunches
                                        
While the above 4 workouts concentrates on upper body and legs, this one is for your abs. While lying on the bed, place your hands behind the head and keep your knees bent at 90 degree. Raise one of your legs such that your calves are parallel to the ground level and your thighs are perpendicular to the ground. In this instance, when you raise your left leg, lift up your upper body and touch the left leg’s knee with the right elbow and then bring back the leg and shoulder to first position. Follow the same step for your left elbow which would touch the right knee.

Bicycle crunches are easier than the normal crunches and hence this is a chosen one for a person who has just started doing exercises. Doing on the bed gives your back a good cushion and pushes you to do more than normal.

With these basic exercises which you can easily do in your own room, you now have no reasons to escape. Just remember, “Health is Wealth”. Are you motivated to start doing regular exercises?