How Much Coffee Should I Drink A Day? - With Canada even joining the giant coffee train with Tim Horton’s 24oz size and coffee drinking throughout the world generally being out of control you have to ask yourself how much can you drink every day and keep the habit healthy?

How Much Coffee Should I Drink A Day?

How Much Coffee Should I Drink A Day?

The health benefits of coffee have really been coming out recently with claims that it is good for keeping diabetes, dementia, Parkinson’s, heart disease and more at bay. It’s thought to help with dieters by suppressing hunger and keeping you regular. The caffeine is the main known element of that but a number of minerals such as magnesium, chromium and antioxidants.

If you drink it black or just with a little milk and only drink a couple of cups a day then it could well be doing you some good. But like anything there is likely a limit and it is possible to cross that healthy threshold!

Addiction and other issues related to caffeine are the things to watch out for, as well as drinking so much that you just pee yourself out in public or worse! For some people caffeine even causes constrictions of the throat and heart, something I suffer from a little myself if I consume too much caffeine.

A great article from the BBC followed up with some details after a teenager was taken to hospital due to an espresso overdose, she had shakes, was laughing and crying and heavy sweats along with burning up! She only had seven espresso coffees.

The article talks about how much caffeine is safe. It says that a normal cup of filter coffee contains roughly 120mg of caffeine, Instant has roughly 75mg and espresso roughly 107mg.

Caffeine can be lethal with it being about 90mg per two pints of blood for an average person. Luckily that is around 200 instant cups per day. That doesn’t mean that you can drink as much up to 200 as you want, obviously before it becomes lethal there are always other side effects.

Coffee could be affecting your sleep and you could even be addicted, two very unhealthy things. Some say anymore than 6 cups a day is enough to get you hooked and if you have trouble sleeping at all then the coffee could be the culprit and you may be drinking too much.

A slow withdrawal may well be needed and bringing yourself down to an amount somewhere around 2-3 regular sized cups a day.

Personally I can see and believe coffee is healthy. It feels good to drink 1-2 cups a day but with the absolutely huge sizes available now it is easy for anyone to get addicted and even overdose.

I think people really need to track what they are drinking and curb it if it seems excessive. It is easy to grab a coffee and seemingly healthier than a soft drink or any sugar filled beverage.

How much coffee do you think is healthy?

Related: Make Good of Bad Coffee!

Thanks for reading.

Ryan Gosling Boxing – Actor Ryan Gosling openly admits to taking ballet class, but when he’s really getting into shape for a film he turns to boxing. Well, films where a boxer’s body is necessary anyway.

Several months ago Gosling was spotted coming out of a gym with boxing attire. Then it was reported that he rejoined the Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn for the movie Only God Forgives. He headed to Bangkok to learn Muay Thai boxing for his role. Gosling stated on the experience:

“It’s sparring basically. They don’t really use weights. Nicolas is doing it as well. It’s very hard. They have people training around me and they could all beat me up.”

Ryan Gosling Boxing

What is Muay Thai fighting? A combat sport that:

 ”…is referred to as the “Art of Eight Limbs” or the “Science of Eight Limbs” because it makes use of punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes, thus using eight “points of contact”, as opposed to “two points” (fists) in boxing and “four points” (hands and feet) used in other more regulated combat sports, such as kickboxing, boxing, and savate.”

As far as staying fit goes, Gosling might be onto something. Regular boxing/sparring burns approximately 461 calories and hour. Muay Thai, as  it uses more of your body is said to burn several hundred more.

Boxing, martial arts– these are great hobbies to have as they keep you lean and healthy. Other fun hobbies that can help keep you in shape include:

Skiing: 346 calories burned an hour on the slopes.

Cycling: Burn up to 500 calories an hour.

Skateboarding: You burn 230 calories an hour skateboarding.

Dancing: You can burn up to 500 calories an hour dancing, so hit the clubs!

Making Out: Women’s Health reported that a hot and heavy make out session can burn 238 calories per half hour.  Why? Because the heart pounding, sweaty anticipation of what’s going to happen next… which burns 144 per half hour.

Beyond boxing, there’s plenty of fun ways to burn extra calories. Granted I’d like to do all of what’s mentioned above with Ryan Gosling, but hey, I’m willing to wait on buying that tandem bicycle.

Ryan Gosling Boxing

Related: Lose Weight by Drinking Water

Ryan Gosling Boxing

Eva Longoria Drinks 3 Liters of Water – Actress Eva Longoria’s slim figure is apparently due to the fact that she drinks 3 liters of water a day. This sounds silly and somewhat excessive– after all there are 4 cups of water in a liter and 4 liters in a gallon. Could Ms. Longoria’s water drinking habits actually be happy or is this some sort of silly weight loss fad?

I started doing a little research. I know that as a whole, staying hydrated is important, but how much is too much water?

Eva Longoria Drinks 3 Liters of Water

According to Health.com, Eva Longoria might be onto something. It turns out that we really should be drinking a good amount of water:

“Unlike other vital nutrients, water doesn’t have specific daily requirements. Just like everyone has different caloric needs, a person’s water intake is affected by age, weight, activity level, and environment. The Food and Nutrition Board at the Institute of Medicine offers a ballpark estimation: Women should drink approximately 2.7 liters (about 11 cups) and men approximately 3.7 liters (more than 15 cups) of total water a day.”

Okay, so 2.7 liters for women and 3.7 liters for men. A lot more than I’m currently drinking, but does it really help people stay slim?

Experts say yes. CNN recently reported on a study where obese men and women were asked to drink two 8 oz glasses of water before every (healthy) meal. After three months the participants lost an average of 15.5 pounds each.

Why is this so effective? Well, it fills your stomach before you eat so you’re less likely to scarf down a huge meal. Beyond that it makes people less thirsty for sugary drinks like soda.

Beyond keeping the pounds off, water has other incredible benefits. Drinking your 2.7-3.7 liters a day can:

- improve digestion

- protect your joints, tissues and spinal cord

-  flush waste and toxins out of your body

- regulates mineral and vitamin metabolism

- help you think more clearly (students who drank more water during an exam did better)

- reduce your risk of colon cancer

- give you more energy

- reduce your risk of heart attack

So, yeah. If you’re looking for a cheap way of losing weight and feeling better as a whole, consider following in Eva Longoria’s footsteps and start drinking more water throughout the day. Getting your 3 liters might just improve your health as a whole.

Eva Longoria Drinks 3 Liters of Water

Related: Lose Weight at Work

Eva Longoria Drinks 3 Liters of Water

Healthy Travel Tips – I have done it, we have all done it! Travel can be a great excuse to throw all notions of health out of the window and splurge and veg out big time! How do we all stop this happening?

Healthy Travel Tips

Healthy Travel Tips

Eating out, drinking too much alcohol, splurging on chocolate, not exercising and more. They are common traits of many a time spent travelling, be it short term for work or long term for vacation, the excuses are always the same ranging from being low on energy to enjoying yourself because you are on vacation.

The thing is, even if you relax from your normal health routine a little, you will pay for letting your health go secondary. Here are some tips.

Alcohol consumption – If you find yourself biding time at the hotel bar or meeting with some fellow travellers the likeihood is the beer or wine will flow heavier than you kidded yourself into thinking. Try and limit and pre-set what you will drink or at very least make sure you drink a glass of water between every alcoholic beverage.

Find a supermarket – A fast food joint is an easy excuse but find a supermarket and self-prepare at least some of your meals whilst travelling. Just some healthy looking wraps, lettuce and sliced deli meat can make a nice lunch time meal if you don’t have cooking facilities.

Take a resistance band, yoga matt and running shoes – At least having a resistance band and a yoga mat will help you feel the pressure to do some exercise, even if half heartedly, in your hotel room. Better yet, go running. You may reluctant but being in a new place don’t be surprised if what you think will be a sluggish drag round the block becomes an hour long exploration of the local area. You may love it enough to get out and do it every day whilst on travelling.

Keep hydrated – Dehydration often manifests itself as hunger. Just drink a little more than you feel you need but at least 9 glasses of water per day. Keeping a full bottle of water with you at all times will help.

Your Healthy Travel Tips?

So that was a roundup of some of my best tips, maybe you have some to share?

Related: Work Out Tips At Home

Thanks for reading.

Benefits of Power Naps – The idea of getting your head down for a nap during the day isn’t exactly anything new. The Spanish are well known for their “Siesta’s” which is effectively an afternoon power nap and meditation has been used in Eastern cultures for many many centuries to get the mind and body in order.

Benefits of Power Naps

Benefits of Power Naps

Power napping became a popular a tool for high stress workers who have problems with getting a full nights sleep but it’s slowly becoming accepted for all kinds of people and studies and research is showing that it may be a very beneficial thing for us all to build into our lives.

What is a power nap?

A power nap is a short nap taken outside of a normal sleep pattern. It’s thought that these short naps can revitalise a person and help right a sleep deficit or even improve alertness for people who have had a full sleep pattern. Various studies have tried to establish the optimum amount of time for a power nap to be most effective. The nap has to happen during the phase I or II of sleep, if it’s goes beyond that you may wake up groggy and more tired than you began, not good! 15-30mins seems to be the best accepted time but everyone is a little different so it pays to test out yourself.

The Benefits of Power Naps

So I touched on the benefits a little but let’s bullet point them here for everyone who was too bored to read my drivel!

• A power nap can help fix a sleep deficit which is built up over many nights of lost sleep.
• A power nap can increase alertness and motor skills.
• It can decrease stress and irritability.

If you are just feeling tired, burnt out and not into the day in general then a nap may well help going towards curing those feelings and allow you some kind of reset. Even if feeling extremely stressed coming back to a task after taking the time out could mean you work at the tasks quicker and save the 15-30mins you spent on the nap.

The caffeine power nap….

I had to include this idea that I read on the Wikipedia article for the Power Nap about increasing the efficiency of a power nap. The effects of caffeine takes around 15-30minutes to work and conveniently that’s about the amount of time it takes for a good power nap. So the idea is, drink a cup of coffee and then take a power nap immediately after. If it works for you, you will wake up feeling extra alert and ready for action!

So do you take power naps or are you thinking of doing so? I personally have not tried it properly but after writing this article certainly will be giving a go in the hope that it will increase my productivity.

Related: 25 Ways to Lose Weight at Work

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments. - Benefits of Power Naps

Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_nap

Lose Weight at Work

- Always walk the stairs (even if 25 floors up!)
- Drink black coffee, no sugar. It’ll take a week or so but you will get used to it.
- Don’t have fatty snacks in your drawer.
- Have some plain popcorn and a unsalted nuts on hand to kill food cravings.
- Get up and walk around at least once an hour.
- Learn some desk stretches and do them many times throughout the day. Yoga Journal has some excellent ones here.
- Get some dumbbells, do arm curls when no one is looking!
- Get an Underdesk cycle trainer and pedal away calories all day every day.
- Make your own lunch and make it healthy.
- Drink water at after work drinks.
- Go for a 45minute walk at lunch.
- Join up to a swimming baths close to work and swim for 20-30mins every day before. This will do more than just help you lose weight it will grow focus during your work day.
- Drink at least 9 glasses of water every day. Keep a BPA free water bottle filled with water on your desk at all times.
- Be positive every day. Depression and stress can lead to weight gain. If you feel stress just visualize that in the grand scheme of things none of it really matters!
- Read on the move. Got reports to read? Stand up, take a clip board and read them whilst walking around the office, walking outside, up and down the stairs (be careful not to trip) and don’t sit still unless you have to!
- Start a weight loss pool! Get everyone to put in $2-$5 a week, then at the end of the week have a weigh in and give the winnings to the person with the biggest loss. Keep it tracked on charts on the noticeboard.
- Get the bosses to arrange activities for extra curricular meetings and team building instead of just getting fat in the pub! Paint ball, white water rafting or even just a jog in the park.
- Volunteer for any moving or lifting. If anything is delivered that needs staff help run down to the delivery truck and help out. If offices need rearranging or anything needs shifting volunteer. It’ll give you a few minutes rest and you’ll get a reputation as a helpful guy.
- Say no to communal office snacks! This is hard but people often pass around chocolate and cookies. A birthday donut here and then is fine but not a daily habit!

I think this is all excellent advice and I would recommend moving around whenever you can and eating healthily as two of the most important tips for losing weight at work.

Check out some of the fat-fighting foods that you can eat for breakfast and lunch at work. They’ll really make a difference!

Lose Weight at Work

Lose Weight at Work

How Many Calories in Fast Food – Fast food gets a bad rap because of its bad nutrition, high calorie content and generally ill effects on the body. I do think the bad rap is well earned but of course any balanced diet could find room for a treat here and there.

How Many Calories in Fast Food

How Many Calories in Fast Food

I don’t think there is much use in looking at the actual nutrition value in most fast foods, especially if you are going to be using it solely as a treat and although I don;t believe calories are quite the best way to measure diet it can help with regulation.

So, knowing how much calories are in your favorite fast food treats can help you plan them in once or so in the week or month. Some things may be lower than you think (but don’t allow you to put them in more because of that) and some things way higher! lets take a look at a few popular choices.

McDonald’s Big Mac – 576 calories

McDonald’s Medium Fries – 380 calories

Burger King Double Whopper – 900 calories

KFC Chicken Breast – 360 calories

Taco Bell Bean Burrito – 370 calories

Pizza Hut Medium pepperoni Pan Pizza – 1 slice 290 calories

Dunkin Donuts Boston Cream Donut – 240 calories

Wendy’s Ultimate Chicken Grill Sandwich – 370 calories

Subway 6″ Veggie Delight Sandwich – 230 calories

This sample of fast food calories was sourced from Caloriecount.about.com. You can go there, type in pretty much any fast food and get some calorie information on it.

Do you use fast food as part of a balanced diet?

Related: Hot Dog Stuffed Crust Pizza Pizza Hut

Thanks for reading - How Many Calories in Fast Food

Sperm Donation in Canada – If you are interested in donating sperm in Canada to help many families who need a donation it could be a great thing to do, it won’t earn you any cash but you’ll feel great. So how do you go about it?

Sperm Donation in Canada

Sperm Donation in Canada

Basically Canadian law means that you can only get paid expenses for donating sperm and as far as I am aware the child can find your identity at 18, if they want. You are not going to have to pay child support though!

To become a sperm donor you need to find a trusted clinic and work with them. It is likely they will test your blood multiple times and work with you in question and answer sessions over a period of up to 60-months before being accepted as a donor.

After that you will be invited to start donations in the clinic within their guidelines. It is very professional and not at all seedy. They work with you to make you comfortable and encourage you to engage with them and learn more about the whole process.

I think you’ll agree it is a noble thing to do that helps many families.

So o start you just need to search for a local clinic. One such clinic in the Toronto area is ReproMed, you can read through their Q&A and possibly even contact them if you have anything to ask.

So, are you looking to donate sperm or have you ever done it before?

No Regrets Outlook Age – Emotions can build up and if you don’t keep them in check they can cause serious problems down the road. Regret is an especially powerful emotion that needs to be processed, packaged and stored away correctly otherwise it can really haunt us. A recent study brings some evidence to back that theory up!

No Regrets Outlook On Age

No Regrets Outlook On Age

In the 19th April issue of Science the study was published. It looked at three groups. One was 21 healthy adults in their 20s, another was 20 depressed older adults in their 60s and lastly 20 healthy older adults in their 60s. Using a series of games the study worked on some conclusions relating to outlook and how it affects us in later age. Here is an excerpt about the study from an article in Womenshealth.gov:

The study participants were asked to play game-based tests on a computer. In it, they were invited to open a series of boxes — some held money pictured as gold, while others revealed a cartoon image of a devil. After opening each box, they were allowed to decide whether they wanted to end the game or keep trying for more money. But if a devil appeared, the game ended and the player lost all the money won up to that point. At the end of each round, all of the boxes opened to show how far a participant could have played without losing.

While they played 80 rounds of the game, the participants also underwent functional MRI (fMRI) brain scans. This allowed the scientists to monitor brain activity between the three groups.

The researchers noted that during the games, when the young adults and the depressed older adults realized they’d missed chances to earn more money earlier on, they were more likely to take bigger risks later in the game. But game results early on didn’t appear to affect the later behavior of the healthy older adults.

On the fMRIs, the researchers observed similar brain activity among the young and the older depressed groups in two regions of the brain: the ventral striatum, involved in feelings of regret; and the anterior cingulate cortex, linked with emotion regulation. The fMRIs indicated that the older healthy adults were experiencing less regret and were able to regulate their feelings more successfully.

Study author Stefanie Brassen and colleagues also noted changes on skin tests and heart rate in the young and older depressed players, but not in the healthy older players, when opportunities in the games were missed. The authors concluded that the study results suggest that healthy older adults may be better at reminding themselves that results are a matter of chance, while depressed seniors may blame themselves.

With only 61 participants in this study and me not being sure on what quantifies healthy or depressed (I guess it means diagnosed by a medical professional) I don’t think the results of this study are conclusive but they are certainly interesting.

Regret can cause anger, jealousy, depression and more from my experience. I try very hard not to have any. The ‘What if’ mentality is shallow because you never know where another path would had led. You could be dead on that path! You could have failed miserably and become terribly depressed, maybe it would have been better but you can’t dwell on something you don’t know.

Just trying to focus on where you are now and accepting the journey you have taken but learning on the experiences of the past is the best way forward in my opinion.

How do you deal with regret? Do you try and live a regret free life? Have you succeeded?

Related: Tips to Calm Your Nerves

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments. - No Regrets Outlook Age

World’s Oldest Man Celebrates 115th Birthday – I turned 30 last September, just trying to imagine living almost 4 times my age is mesmerising but for a 115 year old who just celebrated his birthday in Japan it is a reality!

World’s Oldest Man Celebrates 115th Birthday

On April 19 in 1897 Jiroemon Kimura was born in Japan. He just recently celebrated his 115th birthday officially making him the world’s oldest man according to the Gerontology Research Group. He is also the 3rd oldest verified person ever to live behind Besse Cooper and Dina Manfredini who both died in their 115th year. Unverified cases have a few people at 116 and one at 122 years old!

He celebrated the occassion at home in Kyoto surrounded by family and local media who had gathered. In great spirits he said that he didn’t know how he had lived so long but maybe it was the sun above him, as he looks up to it every day. A short video of the occasion can be seen below:

World’s Oldest Man Celebrates 115th Birthday, Thoughts…

More and more people are living above 100 even though our world as some of the biggest health problems of any generation of humans! Still it shows that with modern medicine and health knowledge we can live to a very ripe out age and in some ways this should be celebrated. Still, the growing strain this is having on the earth is starting to be seen as we grow in population at a phenomenal rate!

I hope I make it into my 90s at least, there is a lot of interesting change ahead of me to see!

Related: 106-Year-Old Reveals Junk Food Secret 

Thanks for reading - World’s Oldest Man Celebrates 115th Birthday