Tag: Eating Disorders

The Feminine Side of Sports Nutrition

Women have an entirely different body system compared to males. That is why your, assuming you are a woman with interest in sports, nutritional needs are different too. And like men, women are also capable of involving themselves in sports.

Sports nutrition for women is also different. Women involved in sports and regular exercise have some special nutritional needs. Although the basic principles of sports nutrition for you and men are similar, you, and the other women, involved in regular sports activities do have some increased needs for certain nutrients.

This is because you are prone and at risk of dietary deficiencies. This does not mean to say that men are completely immune, only that since women have ongoing cycles inside their body, it is highly imperative for them to keep nutrients up to be able to prevent disorders.

The key nutritional issues in sports nutrition for women include calcium and iron. Weight control and eating disorders are also concerns of sports nutrition for women. You need these nutrients for their body to perform properly.

There still has been no scientific explanation for this, but it is in truth that women are very conscious of weight. So having a normal weight will give you a healthy psychological system.

Calcium is a mineral that plays an essential role in growth. In sports, muscle and mind coordination is important. It also helps in muscle contraction and transmission of nerve impulses.

Another area where it is very helpful is in the development and maintenance of strong bones. It will really play a big part in the sports nutrition for women.

Having adequate amounts of calcium during your childhood and adolescence is important for deveoping an optimal peak in bone mass by your mid twentys to your early thirtys. This will then help you reduce your risk of acquiring osteoporosis or the thinning of your bones.

Some women who are into sports are at risk of inadequate calcium intake, while some are at risk of early osteoporosis due to the absence of appropriate amount of calcium, or an irregularity of their menstrual cycle. So conclusively, sports nutrition for women should have higher intakes of calcium.

There is a list of recommended dietary intakes of calcium for sports women according to their ages. For girls with ages twelve to fifteen, they must have at least one thousand milligrams of calcium per day. For teenagers with ages sixteen to eighteen, on the other hand, should have a normal calcium intake per day, which is eight hundred milligrams. For women who are having their menstrual periods, they should also take eight hundred milligrams of calcium a day.

Post menopausal women should have at least one thousand milligrams per day of calcium, while women who are pregnant and who are also breastfeeding should have one thousand two hundred milligrams per day.

Keeping your bodys fat levels low is the aim of many female athletes. Excess fats may be detrimental to performance. However, less fat or no fat at all compromises the energy level of a female athlete. Low energy also affects your performance, so it is really important that you keep the nutrients in your body and follow sports nutrition for women for a performance of a superstar that you have long been searching to experience.

Planting Vegetable Gardens For Stress Relief

More than letting you reduce the sum of money allocated for food, there is another very beneficial effect of planting vegetable gardens that will really give your health a great deal of favor: stress relief.

We all know how stress wreaks havoc to our overall health. Aside from the more obvious fact that stress takes out joy and serenity in our lives, it is also the root of many illnesses known to man. The negative effects of stress in our lives can and will bring several problems such as: heart diseases, depression, migraine, eating disorders and many others. Having your own garden in the backyard is an easy and highly accessible method of stress relief. Since a vegetable garden is fairly easier to look after than one with ornamental plants, you know that working on your garden does not simply create additional stresses.

The weekends are perfect to unwind and make up for stressful hours during a week-long of taxing hours spent at the workplace. Different people have different ways of getting rid of stress. Imagine if you have a vegetable garden in your backyard; just don your gardening attire, step out and you can immediately get in touch with nature and put behind you the stresses of life. Now compare that to a weekend at the beach. Just the long hours of travel, heavy traffic, and the additional expenses for gas and accommodation will only add to your already stressful life.

Relishing the sunlight

Getting enough sunlight while tending your vegetable garden alone will already significantly improve your mood. Its also a great and productive way to have enough vitamin D, which is necessary for proper absorption of calcium in your body. Try to picture some of the happiest moments of your childhood; it is without a doubt that most of them were spent under the nourishing radiance of the sun.

Hours spent at the office means exposure to unnatural light. Not that it is bad to be exposed to light coming from incandescent bulbs, but the lack of being exposed to natural light of the sun is. For sure those skyscrapers are blocking out the sunlight from directly hitting your skin even as you walk to work in the morning.

Attending to the needs of your vegetable garden in the backyard is a great opportunity to get enough sunlight. However, it is best if you forego gardening from 11 am to 3 pm as the sun within this timeframe is most likely to cause you irreversible skin damage and cancer.

Surrounded with life

Being surrounded with plants alone is both invigorating and encouraging. Days and days spent indoors and at the workplace prevent us from getting in touch with nature, thus we tend to have limited means to appreciate everything thats grand and beautiful in life. Picture yourself being surrounded with plants that teem with life and growth, and their edible parts improve the appetite and nourish the body with essential vitamins and minerals.

Having your on little piece of nature can help you get rid of stress. The sight of your vegetable garden alone gets rid of stress by giving you that rewarding feeling, knowing you raised those healthy plants with your own hands. Raking, digging, weeding, pruning and harvesting all these activities done while planting vegetable gardens provide a constructive outlet for all the tensions that the body amassed during a week of stressful work.