Best foods that boost your brain and memory

Your brain is the control center of your body, which makes it a pretty big deal.

It keeps your heart beating and lungs breathing and allows you to move, feel and think.

That’s why it’s advisable to keep the brain in its optimal working condition.

It is overlooked that foods you eat impact your brain’s health and can improve mental tasks, specifically memory and concentration.

Here’s a list of different foods that positively affect brain function.

  1. Nuts: Studies have shown that eating nuts can improve markers of heart health, and having a healthy heart is linked to having a healthy brain .
  2. Coffee: The two key components in coffee caffeine and antioxidants help your brain. Drinking coffee over the long term is also linked to a reduced risk of neurological diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s
  3. Oranges: You can get the recommended daily dose of Vitamin C from one orange, and Vitamin C has a huge role in preventing mental decline.
  4. Eggs: Packed with several nutrients that benefit the brain such as Vitamins B6, B12, Choline and Folate.

you can help support your brain health and boost your alertness, memory and mood by strategically including these foods in your diet.

Body-Burning moves that don’t require weights

Lifting heavy weights always seemed to be the answer to getting gains.

While weightlifting is beneficial for numerous reasons, it is not the only way to build sculpt your body and improve strength. Many people have come to realize that a home workout with your own body weight is enough.

Whether you work out at home or want to give the dumbbells a rest, here’s a list of 12 body weight workouts that will deliver results.

To see strength success, practice your routine two to three times per week. Keep reading to learn how many sets and reps each move needs. And don’t be fooled by the lack of equipment. This mix of cardio, plyometrics, and bodyweight exercises will still work you hard.

The Warm Up

It is important warm up before you start. Five minutes of brisk walking or jogging will do the job. Stretch or foam roll to minimize soreness.

Combine 5 to 6 of these exercises to make a challenging routine

1. Rotational jacks (3 sets of 10-15 reps)

2. Plank reach-unders (3 sets of 10-15 reps)

3. Mountain Climbers (3 sets of 30 seconds)

4. Step- Ups (3 sets of 10-15 reps)

5. Squat Jumps (3 Sets of 10-12 reps)

6. Burpees (start with 15 reps)

7.Standing Side Hops (3 sets of 20 reps)

8. Pull-ups (3 sets till failure)

9. Squat pulses (3 sets of 30 seconds)

10. Flutter Kicks (3 sets of 30 seconds)

11. Split Squats (3 sets of 10-12 reps)

12. Push-ups (3 sets till failure)

How long should you do this routine for?

Weights aren’t required for a body-burning workout. Mix and match these 13 bodyweight exercises to see results in just a month or two.

Remember: Eating a healthy, balanced diet is the other piece of the puzzle. While you won’t see real changes without addressing your diet, you can still be strong and powerful.

Covid-19’s impact on the Fitness Industry

Fitness businesses worldwide have been devastated by the pandemic Covid-19. Even prior to government issued restrictions on our way of life to prevent further outbreak of the virus, gyms and fitness companies were announcing temporary – yet indefinite – closure.

Around the world the closures have plunged millions working in the physical activity sector, both business owners, employees and the self-employed, into immediate financial uncertainty.

While many businesses have adjusted or frozen their memberships to retain clients, others have opted to hosting their classes online. For example, Hotpod Yoga, another fitness franchise with over 50 locations across eight countries ,announced it would close all of its studios as of March 17, while simultaneously declaring their plans to live stream classes for members to keep practicing from the comfort and safety of their homes.

Despite the very immediate threat to fitness businesses to close extinction, the digital workout market has experienced a boost with consumers flooding to online, at-home solutions and investors betting on a change in engagement.

Alcohol and your brain

While a couple of glasses of wine can aid in easing the mind after a long day, new research shows that it may actually help clean the mind as well. New studies shows that low levels of alcohol consumption reduce inflammation and helps the brain flush out toxins, including those associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

It is almost common sense that high doses of alcohol can damage the brain, as well us other organs in the body, but in recent studies we have shown for the first time that low doses of alcohol are potentially beneficial to brain health.

The research focuses on the glymphatic system which is the brain’s unique cleaning process that was first described by Dr. Nedergaard. They showed how cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) is pumped into brain tissue and flushes away waste, including the proteins beta amyloid and tau that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Subsequent research has shown that the glymphatic system is more active while we sleep, can be damaged by stroke and trauma, and improves with exercise.

The new study, which was conducted with mice. The mice that were exposed to low levels of alcohol consumption, given approximately 2 ½ drinks per day (relative to their size), actually showed less inflammation in the brain and their glymphatic system was more efficient in moving CSF through the brain and removing waste, compared to control mice who were not exposed to alcohol. The low dose animals’ performance in the cognitive and motor tests was identical to the controls.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

There are a lot of reason’s why people find it difficult to maintain committed to their diet plans. Eating healthy is not always easy, and science dictates that it’s not really our fault.

People of today are always on the go, and we only decide what we are going to eat when its a bit too late to say no to what is readily available. Typically what is quick and accessible are foods that are unhealthy and highly processed. Another factor is that these types of food are delicious.

Our taste buds have been engineered to crave high-calorie, high-fat foods (that we used to need for energy-hunting, gathering, exploring), and now we’ve created food that tastes even better than nature’s, which makes lettuce a hard sell when compared to a juicy burger.

Where diets can complicate life, intermittent fasting may simplify it. Where diets can be expensive, intermittent fasting can be free. Where diets can take time, fasting saves time. Where diets may be limited in their availability, fasting is available anywhere. And as discussed earlier, fasting is a potentially powerful method for lowering insulin and decreasing body weight.

Intermittent fasting simply means that you fast for the majority of the day, and set a window of time when you are allowed to eat. Once you get over the initial adjustment of breaking into a new eating schedule, you will find that this way allows your body to work at an optimum level.

Our earliest ancestors were hunter-gathers. They would spend the day burning energy to attain their single meal that would power them to the next day. It is proven that the average hunter gatherer had better muscle to fat ratios than the average person today.

Here are some benefits of intermittent fasting:

  • Weight and body fat loss
  • Increased fat burning
  • Lowered blood insulin and sugar levels
  • Possibly reversal of type 2 diabetes
  • Possibly improved mental clarity and concentration
  • Possibly increased energy
  • Possibly increased growth hormone, at least in the short term
  • Possibly an improved blood cholesterol profile
  • Possibly longer life
  • Possibly activation of cellular cleansing by stimulating autophagy
  • Possibly reduction of inflammation

The only restriction involved is fasting for a period. The longer the fasting period, the higher the benefits. This is not starvation! What makes intermittent fasting effective is its sustainability. There are not restrictions on the food you consume. Automatically, your daily caloric intake drops down with this type of set up. The most common types of fasting done are the 12-12 (12 hours of fasting and 12 hour window to consume food), the 16-8, and for those who are more bold, you can opt to do a 18-6. During hours of fasting the only permitted intakes are water, black coffee (without sugar), or any zero calorie beverages.

Healthy Boundaries in Dating

Boundaries are an important part of living a healthy, happy life, especially when it comes to your romantic partner. It is undeniable that can be very exciting, and clearly defined/healthy boundaries can keep a relationship healthy instead of turning into something toxic and counter productive.

Before you can set healthy boundaries, you must comprehend what boundaries are, why they matter, and how to establish them.

There are several types of boundaries, from personal to emotional to psychological. Setting strong personal boundaries are not a total solution for your relationship woes. In actuality, they’re more of a side effect of having a healthy self-esteem and a general low level of neediness (co-dependence) with people around you. Here are a few simple ways on how to maintain them.

Designating days of the week to spend time with your significant other is an example of setting boundaries. Similarly, turning off your phone and other electronic devices for the sake of having personal time is another way of taking care of yourself. It’s up to each person to think about and set healthy boundaries in their life, especially when dating.

Boundaries in relationships work both ways: they create emotional health and are created by people with emotional health. Not everybody is so lucky. They are something you can start working on today with the people close to you and you’ll begin to notice a difference in your self-esteem, confidence, emotional stability, and so on. Ideally, the best time to set boundaries is from the beginning of a relationship. This also requires consistency on your part if you are the needy type. Believe it or not, people find boundaries attractive!

When someone fails to set boundaries, nothing good happens. At the very least, it can cause a fair amount of unnecessary stress. Furthermore, it makes assessing one’s personal needs a lot more complicated. Everyone involved may end up feeling either neglected or suffocated as a result. People do not enter relationships to be controlled or dictated, but without healthy boundaries this is inevitable.

How your financial gains can help your physical gains.

No matter the time of year, it’s never a bad time to set new goals and work toward a better you. Two of the areas that most of us like to improve are finances and health.

This may come as a surprise to many people, but there is a strong correlation between being “financially fit” and being “physically fit” .

So, if you are considering setting health/ fitness goals it might be wise to start with your getting your finances in order. Recent surveys conducted by TD Bank have highlighted how one affects the other.

TD Bank found that 81% of respondents stated that their “other goals” were easily met when their finances are in order.

When you start to think about these results, you can see how they make sense. Firstly, it’s very distracting when your finances aren’t in order. When you are worried about debt and bills and what’s going to happen with your money, it’s hard to work on other areas of your life, and not just your physical well-being.

In most cases today, fitness comes at a price. It is a massively lucrative industry. Therefore, having extra cash to invest on your fitness brings you that much closer to attaining your ideal physique. There is a well known saying “you get what you pay for”, and this most certainly applies in this instance.