For the first time ever, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) dietary guidelines has identified sugar as a part of our diet we should limit, prompted by an overwhelmingly amount of evidence that proves high-sugar foods, such as cookies and soft drinks, not only lead to weight gain, but they often replace the foods that really need to be eaten each day to survive and thrive.
If you eat a healthy diet and meet your nutritional needs on most days, you can still enjoy guilty pleasures like a sweet dessert or an occasional sugary soda. But, keep in mind, that no matter what form of sugar you eat - from Gummi Bears to Wheaties - carbohydrates (sugars) contain 4 calories per gram, they break down to simple sugars during digestion (except for fiber which is indigestible) and are either used for immediate energy, or stored as fat!
While you need sugars in your body to keep it running, you should pick sugars that come in the form of nutrient-rich starches like whole grains. You should also eat plenty of vegetables - which do contain sugars, but do contain an abundance of valuable vitamins, minerals, and disease-fighting chemicals.
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Have exercise misconceptions prevented you from starting an exercise program? Clear up any confusion and let these exercise tips improve your workout routine. Hopefully none of these common exercise myths, mistakes and misconceptions have prevented you from working out.
1. Common Mistake: Failure to set goals. Do you exercise without a clear goal in mind? Having a clear goal set is a critical step in exercise and weight loss success. Tracking your progress in a journal will help ensure you see your improvements, will help motivate you and help you meet your ultimate goal.
2. Common Misconception: No Pain, No Gain. Pain is your body’s way of letting you know something is wrong. Do not ignore this. When you go beyond exercise and testing yourself, you will encounter physical discomfort and need to overcome it. An example of this would be training for a marathon. It is important that you have the “base training” before getting into the advance training. The base training develops the body and gets it ready for extensive training. You need to learn to “read” your body. Is the heavy breathing because you are pushing your body or could it be the beginning of a heart attack. Exercise is important. Do it correctly and you can do it for the rest of your life.
It is normal for you to hurt after you exercise, but it must be done gradually with a good amount of rest periods to allow proper healing. There are two common problems here with beginning exercisers. You can cause long lasting damage to muscles, tendons and ligaments if you work out while you are in pain, without allowing enough rest time to heal. You might find yourself in constant and long lasting pain if you do this which means that you will no longer be able to exercise.
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