If you’re trying to lose weight, food cravings can be a major obstacle. You know all the rules for healthy eating, but it’s hard to resist when you get a craving for something sweet or salty. You may think that cravings just mean you miss your favorite junk foods, but actually they are often an indication of a nutritional deficiency or other medical issue. Cravings can occur for a number of reasons, such as stress, …
The negative effects of sleep deprivation
Lack of sleep affects our productivity, mood, and energy. This can lead to problems in our personal and professional lives. Even beyond these problems, a chronic lack of sleep is actually dangerous to your health. Numerous studies have found that people who regularly neglect their sleep are at a higher risk of many different health issues. If you’re not getting a solid seven to eight hours per night as recommended by the National Sleep Foundation, …
How blue light disrupts your sleep
Many factors can disrupt your sleep. Busy jobs, stress, sleep disorders, hormones, and even dietary habits can affect how well we are able to sleep. But there’s another huge culprit when it comes to poor sleep quality today: our electronic devices. When you stare at a smartphone, tablet, computer, or television, you’re staring at different light wavelengths. One of the most prominent is blue light — and this blue light could be responsible for disrupting …
6 best anti-aging foods
Americans spend millions of dollars on the latest skin care products that promise to erase wrinkles and give us plump skin and a youthful glow. While skin care and sun protection are important, it’s also worth a closer look at what’s going inside our bodies. The health of your skin is a reflection of your internal health. In fact, experts are continuing to discover how our diets affect the aging process. Certain foods can be …
Is diet soda bad for you?
For years, we’ve been told that cutting back on calories will help us lose weight. This concept of calorie restriction is at least partially responsible for the popularity of diet soda and other zero-calorie drinks. In fact, many people drink diet soda in place of water because they enjoy the taste and assume it’s equally healthy because both contain no calories. Unfortunately, losing weight is not as simple as cutting calories. And, just because a …
7 ways to rejuvenate and detox your body
Every day, we are all exposed to toxins. Pesticides are in our food and the environment, pollution is in the air, and chemicals are in many products we use. This means that our bodies need to get rid of these toxins to help us avoid illness and keep our systems running at an optimal level. If you’ve been feeling sluggish or wondering if your health needs a little boost, you may have wondered if you …
How much caffeine is too much? (And 7 reasons to cut back)
Are you addicted to caffeine? These days, it’s common to joke about how we need our venti cappuccino before we can fully function in the morning, or a 3pm soda to make it through the rest of the day. At certain levels, caffeine can be helpful. But drinking too much can be detrimental to your health. So how much caffeine is too much? Caffeine is a stimulant, or a substance that increases the body’s alertness …
6 types of drinking water to help you stay hydrated
Hydration is vital if you want to achieve optimal health and weight loss. Obviously, the healthiest way to hydrate is by drinking water. Water has no calories or sugar, so you can drink it whenever you need it. Seems like simple advice. Water is water, right? Yes and no. As long as the water is safe to drink, yes, you can stick with plain tap water to stay hydrated. But, for many people, this can …
How much water should you drink every day?
Drinking enough water is one of the most important things you can do for your overall health. In fact, at Garcia Weight Loss, hydration is one of the cornerstones of our health plans, along with nutrition, regular physical activity, and supplementation. We simply cannot stress how important it is to keep yourself hydrated, or list the countless health problems related to chronic dehydration. The human body is made up of about 65% water. Water is …
Should you drink less soda? 10 reasons to cut back
If you’ve got a soda habit, you’re not alone. At least half of Americans drink it every day. You probably know that soda contains sugar, which isn’t helpful if you’re trying to lose weight. But beyond this, there are a number of reasons to drink less soda or even cut the soda habit for good. 1. Soda will send you way over your sugar limit High consumption of sugar causes a number of health problems, …