Beers, Calories and Carbs

Guinness gets a bad rap. I've heard many people say that they can't drink too much because it's such a heavy beer. Yet I was once told that Guinness has less calories than the most popular non-light beers on the market.

This led me to do a little research. I was surprised to learn that Guinness also has the second to lowest carbs and the lowest alcohol (that part was a bit disappointing I admit). So maybe it is possible after all to enjoy a full-bodied beer and (somewhat) avoid the dreaded beer gut.

This article was originally published by Stephen Bailey in mensfitness.com

How To Open Clogged Ears Naturally?

A blocked ear is known by many names such as a closed ear, clogged ear, and plugged ear. It is a condition that affects both adults and toddlers alike. The most common reason for an ear block is an ear infection or some sort of impediment in the ear canal. The leading cause of blocked ears or an ear that is closed is a build-up of wax within the ear. While trying to get rid of ear wax, one sometimes tends to push the wax further into the ear canal instead of cleaning it. 

Causes:
While travelling by flight, you could experience an ear block when the plane takes off and lands; this is due to the variation in pressure between the air that is present inside the middle ear and external ear. Air on the inside of the middle ear is linked by the Eustachian tube to the back of the nose. Air on either side of the Eustachian tube should always be at identical pressure. When a plane takes off or lands, the outside air pressure varies, which puts pressure on the eardrum, and, in turn, causes pain and a blocked ear. Other reasons that could lead to a blocked ear include colds, ear nerve block, flu, infections, otosclerosis, and unusual growth in the middle ear bones.

Symptoms:
There are various symptoms that arise along with a closed ear canal. The most common symptoms that occur along with a closed ear are as follows:

• Discharge from the ear 
• Ear bleed 
• Feeling faint or loss of balance 
• Loss of hearing abilities 
• Severe ear pain 
• Tinnitus, where you feel a ringing sensation in your ears 

How to open Eustachian tubes due to blocked ears naturally?
Many people prefer to open Eustachian tubes due to blocked ears by using alternate means other than medicine and medical procedures. The most natural way to get rid of blocked ears is by using home remedies. Be extremely careful while choosing home remedies as a treatment option as you could infect or injure your ear further. It is best to consult your doctor over which method is most suitable for you as the ear is a very sensitive organ. Some of the home remedies you can try are as follows.

• Options for ear drops include baby oil, glycerin, hydrogen peroxide mineral oil, and olive oil. Oils can be used twice a day. Use an ear dropper to pour the solution into your ear, and this should help soften the wax within your ear. Use a clean ear bud to clean your ear. 
• Yawning or chewing gum help ease excess pressure on your ears. 
• Certain breathing and jaw exercises in consultation with your doctor should help open up blocked ears. 
• If your ears are blocked because of sinus problem, refrain from blowing your nose too hard and keep your mouth open while blowing it. 
• Frequent swallowing helps ease pressure on your ears. 
• Have a warm water bath for 10 to 15 minutes; this will help alleviate blocked ears as the steam helps relax the clogged wax in the ear. 
• Do not neglect blocked ears as negligence could lead to the infection worsening. Visit your doctor who should be able to help you relieve any ear congestion. 

What is ear block lidocaine?
Ear block lidocaine is a kind of anesthesia for an ear block that helps minimize the pain. Since lidocaine has the same effect as anesthesia, it numbs the area of the ear that is hurting you. An ear block anesthesia is available at all pharmacies and you do not require a prescription to buy it. Despite this, one should be careful while using it as it is a strong drug and should be used with caution. Overdose risks are high, which is why it is preferable to consult your doctor before starting to use lidocaine.

How to open blocked ears with a medical procedure?
Most often when you are suffering from a blocked ear, it could lead to extreme pain and discomfort. You can consult your doctor on how to open blocked ears for relief. If the ear pain is terrible, your doctor may use a curette to remove the wax in your ear. The curette is a curved instrument that gives easy access to ear passages where wax may be blocking it. Another method that your doctor may adopt is to use a rubber bulb syringe that is full of warm water. With the help of the syringe the doctor washes out the excess wax from your ear. A cochlea is another option used to open blocked ears. This device is a small tube in the shape of a snail that helps test ear function through sound vibrations. If wax build-up is a chronic problem that occurs often, your doctor may prescribe some ear drops that should help get rid of the wax. Follow the advice by your doctor carefully while using eardrops as excessive use of them can irritate the ear lining. Do not self-medicate and use ear drops without a doctor’s recommendation.

This article was originally published in yogawiz.com

6 Strength Training Myths (for Women) Debunked

When it comes to lifting weights, everyone has an opinion. One day you hear heaving heavy weights will leave you looking like a linebacker (it won’t). The next day, rumor has it that supermodel limbs are a mere 10 minutes away thanks to the Miracle Machine du jour (not in this lifetime). The fact is, those little hand weights aren’t the only dumbbells lurking around your gym. If all this conflicting information is enough to make you burn your jog bra and bag working out altogether, fear not: We sought out two of the most in-the-know pros in the fitness industry to clear up your confusion once and for all.

1. If you lift weights, you’ll bulk up. 

"It’s physiologically impossible," says Michael Wood, director of the Sports Performance Group in Cambridge, Mass., and an exercise physiologist at Tufts Research Center on Aging. The reason? Testosterone is responsible for a muscle’s bulk, and women simply don’t have enough of this predominantly male hormone to build Schwarzenegger-sized bulges. "Because muscle is denser than fat, strength training actually makes muscles shapelier," Wood says.

2. Weightlifting will get rid of saddlebags and any other unsightly bulges. 

If you buy that, rumor has it there’s a Chiseled Cheekbones Through Self-Hypnosis franchise looking for investors. The sorry truth is that there is no such thing as "spot reduction." If you have a ripple here or a bulge there, your only recourse is to reduce fat all over. The best way is with a combination of cardiovascular exercise and strength training, says Norm Meltzer, a former competitive weightlifter. Here’s why: Regular aerobic exercise burns calories and helps melt flab. Combine it with strength training (via free weights or weight machines), and you’ll beef up your lean muscle mass, turning your body into a round-the-clock calorie-burning factory. (Experts estimate you need to take in an extra 50 to 60 calories per day just to maintain each pound of muscle you add to your frame.) "Area-specific exercises can improve appearance," Meltzer says, by tightening underlying muscles. "But it’s wishful thinking that you can choose where to burn fat."

3. In order to see results, you need to work every muscle individually. 

Not only is it unnecessary to work each of your more than 600 muscles separately, you actually get a better workout (as in faster results in less time) by performing compound moves. Think squats, lunges, dips, push-ups. "Multijoint movements burn way more calories than single-joint exercises, so you get double the bang for your buck," says Wood. Another benefit: Unlike single-joint exercises (like a biceps curl or leg extension), compound moves mimic activities you’re likely to perform in everyday life. This greatly reduces the chance you’ll pull a muscle performing simple tasks like vacuuming or hauling groceries.

4. You need to eat a lot more protein if you lift weights. 

Your recent Perdue stock purchase aside, probably not. "The RDA protein requirement is .8 grams for each kilogram of body weight [1 kilogram equals 2.2 pounds]," says Wood. "With athletes, the number is only slightly higher, at around 1 gram per kilo." For a 130-pound woman, that translates into roughly 47 to 60 grams of protein a day. According to Wood, your liver and kidneys can only assimilate so much protein. Despite the pasta phobia that seems to be sweeping the nation, if you’re underconsuming anything, it’s probably healthy carbohydrates such as fruits, veggies, whole grains, rice, cereal, and juices — all key nutrients for muscle building. "Carbs are our bodies’ main source of fuel and should make up between 50 percent to 60 percent of your total caloric intake," Wood says. "Without adequate amounts, you may have difficulty sustaining a workout."

5. For maximum definition, the more repetitions of each exercise, the better. 

Au contraire, mes soeurs. "The only way you will ever see gains in strength, size, or power is by taking a muscle to momentary fatigue," Wood says. That means that you have to lift a challenging weight. "Once you can easily perform 12 repetitions of an exercise, increase the weight by 5 percent." Meltzer adds that as a part of a multidimensional approach to training, low-weight workouts aren’t entirely without merit: "Repetition builds endurance, which is important — especially if you participate in a sport," he says. In general, try to do at least two sets of each exercise and use a weight that’s heavy enough so that you can barely lift it by the end of the second set.

6. If you stop working out, your muscles will turn to fat. 

Think apples and oranges: Fat and muscle are two different substances, and one cannot, will not, and has not ever turned into the other. Less of one simply means more room for the other. "When you stop using your muscles, your body becomes significantly less efficient at burning calories, which allows the pounds, in the form of fat, to creep back on," Wood says. If, say, a 150-pound woman stopped strength training, she may continue to see the same number when she steps on the scale, but her ratio of fat to muscle will shift dramatically. Women who work out with weights can slow the 10 percent loss of strength per decade that occurs in women who don’t train with weights.

This article was originally published on rd.com

Best and Worst Flowers for People With Allergies

Does plant pollen trigger your allergies? Don’t worry. By making smart choices, you can rein in the pollen your yard produces and still enjoy gardening.

Many flowers, shrubs, trees, and grasses produce very little or even no pollen. And some species produce pollen only in certain plants. For those, all you need to do is to make sure you have female plants -- the ones that don't produce pollen.

This list will help you know what garden plants and flowers to avoid because they can trigger allergies. But even better than that, it can help you find plants and flowers that are safe to put in the yard despite your allergies.

Worst Plants for Allergies

You can expect more plant pollen and seasonal allergies if you put any of these plants in your yard.

Flowers/herbs

• Amaranth (pigweed), chamomile, chrysanthemums, daisies, goldenrod, ordinary sunflowers.
• Shrubs/vines
• Cypress, jasmine vine, juniper, wisteria.

Trees

Alder, ash (male), aspen (male), beech, birch, box elder (male), cedar (male), cottonwood (male), elm, hickory, red and silver maples (male), mulberry (male), oak, olive, palm (male), pecan, pine, poplar (male), sycamore, walnut, willow (male).

Grasses

Bermuda, fescue, Johnson, June, orchard, perennial rye, redtop, salt grass, sweet vernal, timothy.

Weeds

Cocklebur, ragweed, Russian thistle, sagebrush.

Best Plants for Allergies

You'll have fewer plant pollen worries with these plants that produce little to no airborne pollen. So you can enjoy working with them and watching them grow.

Flowers

Begonia, cactus, chenille, clematis, columbine, crocus, daffodil, dusty miller, geranium, hosta, impatiens, iris, lily, pansy, periwinkle, petunia, phlox, rose, salvia, snapdragon, thrift, tulip, verbena, zinnia.

Hypoallergenic sunflower seeds

All these grow 5 to 6 feet tall -- and the pollen is too heavy to be spread easily.

Apricot Twist (apricot with gold center), Infrared Mix (dark crimson, ruby, golden-reds), The Joker (showy red-and-yellow double blooms), Pro-Cut Bicolor (stunning mahogany and yellow with black centers).

Shrubs

Azalea, boxwood (if clipped often), hibiscus, hydrangea, viburnum.

Trees

Apple, cherry, Chinese fan palm (female), fern pine (female), dogwood, English holly (female), Bradford pear, crepe myrtle, hardy rubber tree, magnolia, pear, plum, red maple (female).

Grasses

St. Augustine.

This article was originally published on WebMD..com

Gluten-Free Protein Crepes

These simple, grain-free protein crepes can be sweet or savory and also make a great gluten-free wrap substitute!

INGREDIENTS

Makes four very large crepes or two servings, perfect for sharing!

• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 2 tbsp. ground flaxseed
• 2 eggs
• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda

DIRECTIONS

• Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. You can coat your pan with cooking spray if it needs it.
• Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend them until thoroughly combined. Alternatively, you can combine the ingredients in a large bowl and use your immersion blender to blend them.
• Pour the batter into a hot skillet and swirl it around to create a large, thin circle.
• Let the crepe cook until bubbles in the batter begin to pop, gently easing up the sides every few moments, about three minutes or less. The crepe is pretty delicate at this point, but you will get the hang of it!
• Flip the crepe (it should be slightly golden) and cook the other side until it's firm when touched, another two minutes or so.
• Fill and enjoy!

This recipe was originally published in FitSugar.com

Drinking and Exercise: How Alcohol Affects Your Body

Alcohol in your system is detrimental to any kind of fitness activity (except maybe on the dance floor). Here's how booze wreaks havoc on your regimen.

1. Slower Recovery

Hard workouts drain the glycogen stores (carbs stored in the liver and muscles) and leave your muscle tissue in need of repair. "Pouring alcohol into your system as soon as you finish stalls the recovery process," says Tavis Piattoly, R.D. High levels of alcohol displace the carbs, leaving your stores still 50 percent lower than normal even eight hours later, according to one study. Sip or snack on a combo of muscle-repairing protein and carbs (think low-fat chocolate milk or peanut butter on whole-wheat crackers) before tipping back.

2. Packed-On Fat

When booze is on board, your body, besides having to deal with the surplus of calories, prioritizes metabolizing the alcohol over burning fat and carbs. Alcohol also breaks down amino acids and stores them as fat. "For some reason this process is most pronounced in the thighs and glutes," says Piattoly. "Excessive alcohol consumption really chews up muscle in those areas." It also increases levels of cortisol (a stress hormone), which further encourages fat storage, particularly in your midsection.

3. Disrupted Sleep

Boozing also blows your muscle recovery and performance by sapping your sleep. In a study of 93 men and women, researchers found that alcohol decreased sleep duration and increased wakefulness (particularly in the second half of the night), especially in women, whose sleep time was decreased by more than 30 minutes over the night. "Disrupting the sleep cycle can reduce your human growth hormone output—which builds muscle—by as much as 70 percent," says Piattoly.

4. Depleted Water and Nutrients

Alcohol irritates the stomach lining, which can reduce your capacity to absorb nutrients (the reason you have an upset stomach after a few too many), says Brian R. Christie, Ph.D.—not to mention that alcohol makes you pee. For every gram of ethanol you suck down, you pump out 10 milliliters of urine (that's about 9.5 ounces for two beers). As little as 2 percent dehydration hurts endurance performance. And by the way, you can't rehydrate with a dehydrating drink (e.g., beer).

Top 10 Health Benefits Of Nuts

Almonds, cashew nuts, coconut, hazelnuts, peanuts, pine nuts, poppy seeds, brazil nuts, chestnuts, flax seeds (linseeds), macadamia, pecans, pistachio, pumpkin seeds, quinoa, sunflowers seeds, walnuts, sesame seeds etc. – all of these are grouped into a single family called Nuts. 

Nuts contain proteins moderately with exception of chestnuts and fats in high quantity. Nuts benefits a lot to the over all body and are considered to be good sources of fibers and nutrients, vitamins B, vitamin E, minerals such as iron, zinc, potassium, magnesium, anti-oxidant minerals, and anti-oxidant compounds.

Try to find at least few of these nuts and take a handful of them daily. Want to know why. Read further about the Health benefits of Nuts:

1. Nuts are rich in energy and nutrients. The monounsaturated fatty acids in nuts help lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol.

2. They help in preventing coronary artery diseases, and strokes.

3. They are rich in omega-3 essential fatty acids with anti-inflammatory properties. They help in controlling high BP, fight against breast, colon and prostate cancers.

4. They also benefit in rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, depression.

5. Poly-phenolic flavonoids in nuts protect from cancers, heart diseases, degenerative nerve diseases, Alzheimer’s disease.

6. They are a rich source of potassium, manganese, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, fluoride, selenium. Manganese is a powerful free radical scavenger. Potassium controls heart rate, blood pressure. Copper helps in producing red blood cells. Fluoride prevents dental problems.

7. They contain vitamin E which help in maintaining cell and mucous membranes of the skin and protects from free radicals.

8. They contain B complex which is very essential for health.

9. But you may ask if they are good for heart’s health as they have a high presence of fat content?

It may sound strange but the answer is yes. Research says that people who eat nuts daily have a healthier heart than the people who don’t. In short 30 grams of nuts everyday can help your heart stay healthy. They;

• Help in proper regulation of blood cholesterol.
• Reduce bad cholesterol and increases good cholesterol.
• Arginine in nuts prevents from hardening of arteries by increasing its elasticity.
• Anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals help fighting against inflammation.
• Maintains healthy blood pressure due to the presence of low sodium and high potassium content.

10. For people with excess weight:

Nuts contain high fat content. So if you are already a little fat, do you need to avoid nuts? The answer is no because nuts keep you away from obesity. They release satiety hormones in the gut helping you to control appetite. You need to substitute them with low nutritious food in your diet. Replace the processed meat, cereal foods like bread, sugary snacks etc. with these handful of nuts.

Nuts Nutrition Chart

How many should I consume daily?

You should ideally consume 30 grams of nutes.

Well, it is not possible to weigh all the nuts each time at home. So here is a rough list to give you some idea on how many nuts to take per day, i.e., for 30-50 grams.

20 almonds/15 cashews/ 20 hazelnuts/ 15 macadamias/ 2tbsp pine nuts/ 60 pistachios in shells/ 10 whole walnuts/ 20 half walnuts per day can do the work for you. 

If you bought mixed nuts, then simply take a small handful of the mixture.

Which Is Your Favourite Nut?

This article was originally published in stylecraze.com