You put yourself through a strict exercise regimen and you rarely deviate from your fasting diet, so why is it that you’re not reducing excess poundage? Time like this makes you wonder if you’re just genetically susceptible to gaining weight and there’s absolutely nothing you can do to change it. The key to weight loss is to dissect the causes of weight gain and consult your doctor or dietitian to prevent diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, especially if your body has been showing signs of metabolic syndromes, such as increased blood pressure, low levels of good cholesterol and excess fat around your waist. Read on for the most common causes of weight gain and determine which one is yours.

Sluggish Thyroid

If you often experience muscle pain, fatigue, dry mouth, and skin, then chances are you have an underactive thyroid gland, which basically means your hormone is out of whack and messing with your waistline. When your thyroid gland is not producing enough hormones to regulate metabolism, you gain weight due to water retention and suffer from a low energy level.  It’s better to get it checked out if you’re chronically drowsy and fatigued for no reason. The solution for the underactive thyroid gland is to take supplements that contain iodine to restore your metabolic functions.

Insulin Resistance

Insulin is strongly associated with weight gain as it is a hormone that is essential in regulating energy and fat storage. When you eat more carbohydrates than you need to maintain a healthy weight, it triggers your pancreas to release insulin which induces our fat cells to absorb excess glucose and leads to weight gain. Diabetes and obesity usually stem from insulin resistance, which means absorbing excess glucose by virtue of impaired insulin sensitivity. The best way to prevent insulin resistance is to be mindful of what you eat and cut down your carbohydrates intake.

Leptin Resistance

Produced by the body’s fat cells, leptin is a hormone that signals satiety to our brain and prevents us from starving or overeating. When your leptin signal isn’t working due to a condition known as leptin resistance triggered by increased free fatty acids or inflammation, your brain will trick you into thinking that you’re starving and lead to unhealthy overeating. If you have love handles and abnormal fatty deposits, then you’re probably leptin resistant. There’s no easy way or shortcut to reverse leptin resistance, but what you can do is maintain a healthy lifestyle by avoiding processed food and eating more fiber to improve gut health.

Dehydration

Another surprising cause of weight gain is dehydration. If your stomach always feels bloated after eating, chances are you’re dehydrated! Most of us mistake the feeling of thirst for the feeling of hunger. You may have experienced mild lightheadedness and fatigueness after meals and confused the thirst with the hankering for desserts. A study found that drinking more water can prevent water retention and accelerate weight loss by suppressing our appetite.

Are you feeling stifled by the sizzling heat in the hustle and bustle city, or bored of always being cooped up at the gym and pounding away on the treadmill? Then it’s high time you dug out your sexy bathing suits and hit the beach with your buddies. If you’re more of an adrenaline junkie or daredevil than the type who like to spend whole day frolicking on the beach, then check out the heart-pumping and pulse-raising water sports below that are sure to help you torch calories as you relish the summer fun.

Stand-Up Paddleboarding

Endorsed by many celebrities like Gal Gadot aka Wonder Woman, paddleboarding has been known as a full body workout that fires up all your muscle groups when you engage your core, back and hamstrings to balance on the board and your arms to skim the water with an oar. You can also try doing yoga on the paddleboard to hone your balance and bring clarity to your mind. Unlike surfing, waves and choppy water are not the best conditions for stand-up paddleboarding.

Surfing

It goes without saying that California is the surfing mecca of America. Don’t be deterred when you see experienced surfers gracefully performing surfing tricks and maneuvers. For starter, you can try practising simple movements like burpees and planks that mimic the pop-up move of surfing and hone your stability. Or you can try practising skateboarding to hone board-body technique. The muscle memory you build on skateboard can be carried across to your surfing session.

Rafting

When someone mentions rafting, the first thing that springs to your mind might be those wooden slabs or branches bundled together with thick strings. Well, that’s called Huckleberry Finn which is a traditional form of rafting. The popular form of rafting these days is inflatable boat made of thick rubber that can be done on a tranquil lake or river with gears like helmets and vests. There’s nothing quite like rushing down the turbulent river with your buddies when taking in the view of serene nature along the shore. One of the most popular rafting destination is Colorado River, the stretch passing through the famous Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Cliff Diving

Are you a self-claimed daredevil? Then I dare you to scale the height of a magnificent cliff and jump off from the craggy summit to prove how audacious you are! Sometimes life is about taking a leap of faith. But remember to find amateur-friendly destinations and seek out the professionals before you take the leap. Cliff diving is an adrenaline packed activity that can help you torch 600-800 calories each time you scale the cliff. We highly recommend you to do more research before you go. It may seem like there’s no technique required but if you miscalculated the distance to propel your body, you could easily break a rib or two by hitting the rocks!

It takes tremendous motivation and conscientiousness to get a shredded physique. There’s no way you can just hammer away on the treadmill and expect to shred pounds overnight. In order to achieve consistency with your diet and exercise regimen, it’s important to keep track of your calories intake and the fat-burning activities that you’ve done throughout the day. But don’t worry, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have to measure your blood sugar level or take notes of the labels of everything you eat. There are many apps that help us track weekly progress and stay motivated. The number shown on your scale doesn’t reflect the change in your body composition or measure how much fats you’ve burned. It’s high time you ditched the scale and installed below weight loss apps!

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal is one of the most popular apps that provides a detailed breakdown of your calories and nutrients intake after you insert the food you consumed throughout the day, with a barcode scanner for packaged food and a database of 3,282,000 different kinds of food to choose from. It also generates report of your total consumption of macronutrients. Another great feature is a forum that allows fellow users share their successful weight loss journeys and personal struggles.

Yummly

Founded by Dave Feller, who understands the pain point of not being able to filtering a recipe by excluding a specific item. Deciding what to eat can be nerve-wrecking when you have dietary restrictions and Yummly has got it covered. Yummly tailors a list of recipes that suits your taste buds based on your dietary preferences and cooking abilities, etc. It also features an unique filtering searches for users to filter out the unwanted ingredients to create a recipe that best suits their needs.

BioForce HRV

We all know a friend who’s a gym fanatic and would measure everything from their blood pressure, heart rate to carb grams. Well, tell your friend that the latest trend is tracking your heart rate variability (HRV). Too much fluctuation in the rhythm of your heartbeat could be an indicator that your body is overexerted. BioForce HRV is a device that gives a solid metric for you to factor into the decision of how much and what types of workout you should do.

HappyScale

Designed to make your weighing-in experience more pleasurable, HappyScale displays your weight change with a smooth trend line and takes the fluctuation out so you can see the progress you’ve made. It also breaks down your weight loss goals to make them more attainable, and predicts your weight based on your current lifestyle habits.

Fooducate

Grocery shopping can get overwhelming and Fooducate has got it covered. Featuring a “nutrition scanner” that generates a detailed information on the nutrition facts and ingredients of the items on the shelves, Fooducate is a nutrition tracker that helps you to discover things manufacturers don’t want you to notice.

Adopting healthy eating habits is touted as the best way to make lasting changes in weight and body composition. But besides food choices, there are some other components that come into play when trying to get a slim body, in which your exercise regimen affects your weight the most. Exercise regularly can help you burn calories, destress, get a better physique and boost metabolism. Sounds amazing right? Check out below heart pumping and pulse raising workouts we’ve rounded up for you to get drenched in sweat.

Inverval Training

Known as one of the most popular workouts, interval training is touted as the best for weight loss. Interval training like indoor cycling a form of exercise that fires up your muscles and keeps your heart rate elevated. The more muscles you engage in a session, the more calories your body burns for energy. If riding on a stationary bike doesn’t float your boat, you can try high intensity interval training that is sure to make you break a sweat and lose weight faster. It sounds ostensibly like a strength based exercise, but actually it leans more towards cardio. It’s the type of exercise that helps you burn calories even after workout. The best part is you can tailor your training to your liking, such as incorporating weight training into it if you want a sculpted physique.

Weight Training

Lifting weight doesn’t just help you build your endurance and muscle strength, it’s also one of the most effective means of ditching weight. It has been scientifically proven that it can increase resting metabolic rate, which means your body will continuously burn calories in your sleep post workout. If you combine it with high intensity interval training, the “afterburn effect” will even be greater. Don’t worry about getting too bulky or stocky from resistance training because the muscles you gain will spike metabolism and eventually stimulates weight loss.

CrossFit

Perfect for those who are bored of the traditional regimens, crossfit is a fast-paced strength and conditioning workout that is consistent with the benefit of high intensity interval training. It consists of varied functional movements that incorporates the best aspects of weightlifting, gymnastics, running and rowing, etc. The format can be varied from pull ups, kettlebell swings, jump squats to rope climbs. It’s an intense, calories-burning workout that is sure to burn calories fast.

Boxing

There’s nothing like putting on some badass gloves and whacking the punching bag to take the edge off your stress. Not only does it help you build your upper body strength, it also helps build your core strength when you rotate for punches. It is an intense, challenging and fun workout that fires up more muscles and burns more calories than any other traditional regimens.

If you’ve been slogging away on the elliptical for hours every day in hope of getting a chiselled physique but still not seeing the result, then it’s an indicator telling you that it’s time to tweak your workout routine. Did you know that 20 minutes of high-intensity interval training is more efficient for burning fats than steady pace cardio? And it’s definitely more fun and adrenaline pumping than other traditional regimens.

Weight Loss & Improved Metabolism

High-Intensity interval training refers to a cardio exercise that alternates between intense anaerobic exercise period and less intense recovery period. It’s been scientifically proven that HIIT burns more calories compared to other traditional regimens. All the intense exertion makes your body burn more fats for energy instead of carbs. HIIT also revs up metabolism when you push yourself to the limit where it’s hard to breath, which eventually helps you burn more calories post-exercise. Ideal for those who want to keep the blood sugar level in check, HIIT increases glucose metabolism as well as insulin sensitivity, which means a lower chance of getting diabetes, obesity and heart disease, etc.

Tailor Your Training

If you want to fire up more muscles and fully capitalize on the benefits of HIIT, you can incorporate strength and conditioning workout into it – You can do barbell deadlift as many as possible in 15 minutes with 2 minutes rest between each movement, and add weights incrementally. The key is not to rush it but focus on your breath and form. If weight lifting doesn’t float your boat or sounds too daunting to you, then just do as many burpees as possible in 30 seconds and rest for 10 seconds, then repeat for 5 minutes. If you’re looking to strengthen your core muscles and get chiseled six packs abs, then do crunches, situps, and hanging knee raise and rest after a half burpee in each round. Whichever way you choose, you’ll build endurance and a body of toned muscles!

It Saves Time & Money

The best thing about HIIT is that it doesn’t require a fully stocked gym and you can do it remotely at no cost. But if you prefer to be surrounded by a bunch of gym rats to keep your motivation high, then signing up for a group HIIT class is an option. HIIT is all about putting forward all your energy towards a short period of training, which means you can just squeeze a bit of time (like twenty minutes) out of your busy work schedule to get it done. You can always look up the tutorials online instead of paying for an instructor too.

Feel like having the whole weight of the world on your shoulder, and in need of a spiritual cleansing to reconnect with your inner child? There are so many meditation classes that we’re spoiled with choices. But instead of meditating in a confined room with a group of people, you can just go to a tranquil beach to get away from the hustle and bustle, and make use of the digital wellness apps that guide you through your spiritual journey anywhere at no cost. There has been a surge of digital wellness apps due to raising awareness of mental health and well-being, and we’ve rounded up the best five for you to dive into.

Headspace

Headspace is hands down the best meditation app with streamlined, uncluttered homepage and great curation of guided meditation programs that cater to both beginners and advanced meditators who don’t need structured sequence of meditation class. It also features a personalised progress page, reward system and buddy system that allow users to connect with each other.

Calm

As soon as you open the app, you’ll be greeted by the soothing auto sound effects of crackling fireplace, rainforest drizzle and cricket chirping noise. It offers a wide range of guided meditation and individual exercises, like a breathing visualization and sleep stories combined with 25 relaxing sounds to fuel your life with positive energy. You can start with a 7 days of Calm or opt-in for the premium subscription to unlock more mindfulness programs like Commuting and Emergency Calm.

Insight Timer

Most of the meditation apps provides a timer for you to meditate to an intermittent bells, but if you want to tap into a deeper level of spirituality and consciousness, then Insight Timer is your best bet. It is a free app that features more than 4000 guided meditation from over 1000 teachers with topics revolving around self-compassion, stress reduction and connection to the nature, etc. With the transparency of users activities, Insight Timer offers a sense of community. You can set your location and see what the other meditators nearby are listening to.

Aura

Aura knows that our moods always fluctuate due to many external factors so it provides a new, personalized three-minute meditation everyday based on our emotional state and stress level. Designed to mitigate stress and anxiety, Aura encourages users to keep a gratitude journal and constantly think of things that we’re grateful for. It also features life coaching sessions to help us reach our life goals daily.

Stop, Breath, Think

Before you dive right into meditation, you should get a sense of what spiritual cleansing and mindfulness practice really mean. Stop, Breath, Think provides the gateway to mindfulness and self-care by covering topics like the neuroscience of mindfulness, and physiology of stress.

Want to reap the health benefits of vegan diet but don’t want to put yourself through a strict regimen of eating kale salads everyday? Then start with something simple – add more nutrients to your diet and work towards a diverse diet. Eating kale is good for weight loss but a well-balanced intake of protein, carbohydrates and fats is essential for metabolism and prevent dietary deficiency. Inculcate the food and nutrients below into your daily diet for a healthier lifestyle.

Cold Pressed Juice

The trendy buzzword ‘juicing’ may strike a chord with those who know a thing or two about cleansing, but what exactly is it? It’s used to describe the consumption of cold pressed juice made by using hydraulic press to fully extract the freshest juice by crushing the fruits and vegetables, and because there’s no heat created by the machine, it kills off the unwanted bacteria and chemicals and keeps the nutrients intact. Vegetable is the key ingredient in cold pressed juice as it contains the most nutrients and are touted to prevent chronic illness.

Medicinal Mushrooms

Known as the most studied organism and essential ingredient in many medicines, medicinal mushrooms have been scientifically validated and used for hundreds of years to aid health and ward off chronic illnesses. Try the reishi mushroom which is acclaimed for improving sleep, calming your mind and plays a significant role in destroying cancer cells. Other mushrooms like chaga can be used to boost immune system and monitor abnormal cells.

Coconut Water

It always feels good to sip on coconut water when you’re on a tropical vacation, but did you know this tasty and trendy drink is loaded with nutrients? Coconut water can help reduce cholesterol level to prevent heart diseases and it is the best substitute for energy drinks during or after workout as it contains less carbohydrates, which is good for people who need blood sugar control and it replenishes electrolytes that help maintains the proper fluid balance.

Get More Micro-nutrients

A well-balanced intake of macro-nutrients like fat, protein and carbohydrates are instrumental in giving our body energy to function but many people are vitamin deficient, which can cause dire effects on their body. Chronic fatigueness, short attention span and poor immune system could be signs of Vitamin D deficiency. Get into habit of taking micro-nutrients if you want a boost of energy level.

Grass-fed Meat

Did you know that how a cow is fed makes a significant impact on the quality of the beef? Grass-fed meat has been proven that it contains more omega-3 fatty acids and fewer calories compared to grain-fed meat. Grain-fed meat comes from cows raised in filthy confinements and fed with antibiotics whereas grass-fed meat comes from cows raised on a pasture with more care, which explains why grass-fed meat contains more nutrients and less toxins.

Metabolism  Boost,   Metabolism generally refers to the tangible and chemical mechanisms by which human beings and animals use food for both growth and vitality. The issue of weight loss is usually very difficult and your metabolism plays a very significant role as it basically lays down the rate at which you are going to lose weight. This, therefore, means that the lower the rate of your metabolism is the fewer calories your body will be able to burn while at rest during daily physical activities and vice versa. This means that for you to be able to lose weight, you will have to boost your rate of metabolism.

So how exactly can you raise your metabolism rate? The following are some of the ways of increasing your metabolism rate.

• Avoid skipping some meals. This is because when you skip a meal, your body will automatically reduce your rate of metabolism so as to prevent you from starving to death and this will in return slow the rate at which you lose weight. The only way to prevent this from happening is to eat several small meals on a daily basis which will ensure that your energy levels remain high throughout the day.
• Start doing high-intensity workouts. These are exercises which are energetic and quick which raises your rate of metabolism even after you are done working out, helping you to burn fat faster.
• Drink green tea. This type of tea has been proven to raise the rate of metabolism, enabling the body to be able to convert some of the stored fat into fatty acids. Consuming green tea is not only good for your metabolism but it is also ideal for maintaining weight.
• Spice up your meals. Spices are also known to increase the body’s rate of metabolism and peppers are some of the spices which you can use to achieve this. Peppers generally contain a substance that helps to boost metabolism and is referred to as capsaicin. The challenge of going this route is that a majority of individuals usually find it hard to tolerate such kind of spices at the amounts necessary for there to be a significant impact. However, this is not to mean that using spices is not a good option since as when combined with other ways of boosting your rate of metabolism, spices can be very useful.
• Consume a lot of protein. This is a good way of boosting your metabolism even if it is only for a few hours. Eating proteins such as beans, skim milk, lean red meat, yogurt, chicken, and eggs increases your metabolism rate as they make the body to work a little bit harder when digesting them. Proteins also help us to avoid overeating and to feel full at all times.
• Replace your cooking fat with medium-chain fat. Cooking fats such as butter are mostly plethoric which slows the metabolism. Substituting such kind of lengthy-chain fats with medium-chain fats such as coconut oil boosts the metabolism rate which in return helps in weight loss.

  Burn Fat

When seeking to lose weight, one of the things that you must do so as to ensure you are successful is to burn fat. This is however not an easy task as it does not matter whether you are burning fat so as to lose weight or you are doing it so as to improve your general health, this is a challenging task. So which are some of the most effective and easiest ways of burning your body fat?  Before you start this process it is important for you to keep in mind that you do not have to go to the gym in order for you to lose fat. The following are some the most effective and easy ways of burning fat;

• Beginning your day with exercise. This is for those people who do not have the time to go to the gym. If you fall under this category, you should make sure that work out the first thing in the morning even before taking your breakfast either by going for a run or doing some aerobics or any other type of work out available to you. It has been proven that a morning workout is very effective as it can help you lose almost 20 percent more fat that when exercising after taking your breakfast. For those people who are free to go to the gym, they should start strength training. This is the type of training that helps to build your muscles increasing your strength in the process. This most of the times involve weightlifting and it does wonders.
• Including vinegar in your diet. Vinegar has many health benefits which include controlling the sugar in your blood, among many others. Vinegar has been proven to help in the burning of body fat; therefore, including it in your meals is one sure way of burning that unwanted fat.
• Consuming more healthy fats. Eating more natural healthy fats such as olive oil, fish oil, nuts, and avocado also helps to lose fat. These healthy fats help you to recover faster from your workouts enabling you to build muscle faster and they also help to improve the condition of your heart.
• Increasing your protein intake. This is perfect as it will increase your rate of metabolism, helping you to maintain your muscle mass in the process which enables you to continue burning fat. Also, consuming foods which are high in protein helps to reduce your appetite, making the body to burn more fat.
• Getting enough sleep. Studies done all over the world have shown that those who get enough sleep are able to manage their weight more easily compared to those who don’t. Therefore, you should always ensure that you get at least seven hours of sleep per night as staying up late at night results in increased appetite which puts you at risk of eating more than required.
• Eat more vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, and seeds. These are some of the foods which have a high amount of soluble fiber which helps you to feel fuller and for longer periods which helps to stop fat from accumulating in your body.

To nourish is usually defined as to make food available for individuals or even other living things such as pets so as to ensure they are healthy and most of all to make them grow. In humans, for example, babies require lots of good healthy food for them to grow as without that they will be weak and they will not make it to adulthood. Flourishing, on the other hand, means to succeed or to grow strongly and fast. Therefore, when anything, be it a human or an animal is said to have to be flourishing, it simply means that it’s growing properly and in good health, since it’s in the ideal conditions.

It is therefore clear that it is impossible for us as humans to flourish without nourishing first. So how do we ensure that we are nourishing so that we can flourish? Having a healthy diet is one of the first things you can do so as to nourish. Consuming whole foods such as a lot of fruits, wild fish, eggs, vegetables, and healthy fats such as nuts are the key to the best health you can possibly have. Also, eliminate or reduce the intake of refined sugar and salt which are bad for your health.

Consuming these whole foods while in their natural unprocessed state is the best thing you can do for your body as it will ensure that your body is in constant supply of nutrients it requires so as to flourish. It will also help you to improve your general appearance, it will make you feel much better, and will help you to live much longer as your body will be healthy enough to be able to fight most of the diseases. Eating healthy is the first thing you do so as to nourish to flourish but it is definitely not the last.

This is because for us to flourish fully, we must be able to attend to our bodies, spirit, and mind. Eating healthy ensures that our bodies have the right nutrients they deserve but our mind and spirit also require to be taken care of and one way of doing that is by ensuring that you have a positive attitude and keep out stress. Some of the things that you can do to ensure that you are nourishing your mind and spirit include;

• Spending some time in nature. This is essential because nature has a way of making us relax, and if you are relaxed it means that you will be without stress which is harmful to your health as it brings your immune down.
• Exercising regularly. This is one way of ensuring that your body and spirit are nourished as exercising basically engages both the body and mind. There are very many ways of exercising so you simply choose the one suitable for you.
• Being able to listen to your own thoughts even for a few minutes can do wonders to you. The stillness that comes with meditating takes over your mind, body, and soul, helping you to be able to let everything go.