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More Content Coming Soon!

Hey everyone; we have some great news!

WordPress support was amazing and apparently there was a very easily installed plug-in that allows us to use the classic format. (Yay!) This means that we’re back on track and should be producing normal content. We appreciate everyone’s patience and now we don’t have any excuses for a lack of content or poorly formatted articles!

Hopefully, all of the other systems are working and we don’t have any further issues with uploading photos, tags, categories, etc. 

Stay hungry and fit!

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Rest Well: The Importance of Workout Recovery and Rest Days

The most important part of your workout comes after you leave the gym. Here’s everything you need to know about why it’s important to rest well after a workout.

 

The CDC recently reported that only 23% of Americans exercise regularly. Despite the undeniable health impacts of exercising, keeping fit for most people has only remained a new year’s goal that never actualizes. On the flip side, a significant number of those who work out hardly rest well.

Proper work out recovery is equally important as the workout. Yet, most fitness enthusiasts feel guilty when they have a day off the gym. You should take it easy on your body and rest well.

If you’ve been visiting the gym, you need to allocate the rest days. Keep reading to know why you need to rest well after working out.

Prevention of Muscle Injury

Workout stresses your body. Illustratively, weightlifting and other forms of weight exercises cause your muscles to have micro-tears. Without proper recovery, your tissues will swell and feel inflamed over time.

Rests reduce injury by preventing overuse. A day of rest can rejuvenate your muscles’ functionality. Pushing exercises too hard causes injuries.

Muscle injuries will necessitate you to have more rest days than you anticipate. It is essential to have planned rest days to deter muscle injury.

For Healthy Sleep

Regular exercise is one of the most recommended ways to improve sleep. Similarly, resting promotes healthy sleep. You need to know how to balance training and rest for a good night’s sleep.

Over-training keeps your body on high alert or restless. If your heart rate is unusually fast when resting, you’re probably over-training. You’ll notice that the alertness keeps you from falling asleep.

All forms of workout increase adrenaline and cortisol. These energy-boosting hormones are ideal when produced in moderation. With constant and vigorous training, the body overproduces hormones.
Consequently, the quality of your sleep deteriorates. But when you rest well, hormone production can normalize. The balanced hormones will allow you to sleep soundly through the night.

Mental Health

Recent research showed that people who exercised at least three hours a week reduced the possibility of depression by 17% as compared to their inactive counterparts.

Several studies have confirmed the positive impacts of workout on mental health. Yet, there’s a notable gap in research relating to the mental effects of inadequate rest after workouts.

Physical burnout paves the way for mental fatigue. If you’re mentally tired, chances of performing dismally throughout the day are high. Besides, you might experience fluctuating moods.

Your mind needs to rest. Make mental adjustments and convince yourself that it’s essential to rest. While at it, sleep enough, hydrate, and have nutritious meals.

Rest Energizes Muscle Cells

Moderate and high-intensity exercises require a significant amount of energy. The workout depends on glycolysis energy, leading to the depletion of glycogen levels. Resultantly, one feels drained and sluggish.

Having considerably low glycogen levels can have adverse effects on your system. The body might start using protein for energy instead of muscle repair. The confusion in body functionalities affects your overall well-being.

You can’t ignore the importance of rest day in energy replacement. If you’ve been feeling sluggish, rest might be the best solution. Ensure that you take enough rest before embarking on the next weightlifting session.

Performance Improvement

Athlete workout and any strenuous form of physical exercises leave you fatigued. If you don’t rest well after the workout, your typical routine becomes impossible. In fact, you might be unable to continue your training regimen with the initial vigor.

Sufficient rest ensures that you remain active throughout the day. It is essential to know about the key elements of effective post-workout recovery. The information will guide you on what to do on rest days.

Resting will prevent fatigue and increase your energy levels. Besides, you’ll have more successful workouts. Moderate workout and adequate rest will give you more fulfilling results than endless days in the gym.

Impacts on the Immune System

Physical exercise has been one of the highly recommended alternatives to medicine. It reduces the risk of several diseases, such as diabetes and cancer.

Excessive exercise can stress the immune system. The result is increased susceptibility to infections. While the research on the topic has been debatable, cases of increased upper respiratory tract infections have been notable among endurance athletes.

It is crucial to understand your tolerance levels. Regardless of your high fitness goals, you ought to know when to stop. Fitness should not override your immunity.

The cumulative training impedes immunity. For that reason, adequate rest is essential. When you rest well, you can resume your vigorous exercise.

Work Balance

If you fail to rest well, your output in your business or office won’t be desirable. The fatigue can make you spend a whole day on your desk in futility. Exercise shouldn’t lower your productivity.

Not unless you work in a fitness center, the time you spend working out shouldn’t outdo your time at work. Excessive workout and reduced recovery time will affect your resourcefulness in the workplace. Finding a balance is more fulfilling and it will help in your physical and financial growth.

Improve Your Social Life

Working out without resting makes you too fatigued to socialize. On your rest days, you can spend time with your family. Engage in other activities such as baking.

You can use your rest days to watch sports or volunteer in community work. The experience will improve your socialization and make you look forward to resting days.

Conversely, daily fatigue can reduce intentional interaction even with your family members. The mental fatigue leads to mood swings. You might feel the need to stay enclosed in your room.

It Is Vital To Rest Well For Your Workout Program to Be Effective

The positive impacts of regular exercises are unbeatable. But when you don’t rest well, you might not gain from the workouts. Instead, you will deal with a variety of physical, mental, and social implications.

Resting well encompasses several things. It would be best if you got enough sleep, eat a balanced diet, and hydrate. By the time you resume exercise, you will be in a better physical and mental state.

Are you a fitness enthusiast? Please explore our site further for more fitness and wellness content.

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Mexican Food: Taco Daddy’s (Gretna, Lousiana)

What an absolutely delightful Mexican food experience.

A huge empty parking lot worried us at first, but soon we realized that this place must be new. There are plenty of places on the West Bank to grab Mexican food, but most of them are either grab and go with no seating or a full service restaurant. This fills a need in between the two.

There are some really nice touches for Mexican decor, such as the Dia de Los Muertos seat covers and local original artwork on the walls. The colors are crisp and the dining area is clean.

It feels like a real family business. I’m guessing the wife was serving us while the husband was cooking. Their adorable daughter was making sure everyone else was doing their job.

Overall, the value is great. We spent about twenty dollars a person and were full for hours after the meal. The queso dip wasn’t massive but it was deliciously rich and filling. It had a little kick of heat, although we could’ve taken a bit more. The salsa had a bit more heat and while it was thin, it was very fresh.

The carne asada plate really stole the show, sizzling its way on to our table. They generously gave me five (corn) tortillas to make sure I’d be able to make my owns tacos with those well caramelized onions and thin strips of perfectly cooked and heavily seasoned beef.

Carne Asada

The chicken tortilla soup that came with that entree was robust.

Daddy’s enchiladas (cheese) showed up as an ooey gooey plate of red sauce. It was just like Grandma probably makes it.

Daddy’s Cheese Enchiladas

The selection of drinks, including Jarritos and Mexican Coke, was very reasonably priced as well.

One time use plates, plastic knives and forks gave this a very family meal feeling.

I hope they do well; we’ll definitely be back to try their tacos.

Where does it fall on our list of West Bank eateries? This is probably our favorite quick Mexican spot. We’d still go to La Providencia for a more romantic meal and Los Compadres for a fun family meal, but this is right at the top of the list.

They don’t have a website but check them out on Facebook!

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Issues with WordPress

Hey Hungry and Fit family,

This is an open letter to you apologizing for our lack of content recently and apologizing in advance for an upcoming continued lack of content.

Since August 2012, we’ve used WordPress’ services for our blog. There have been some ups and downs over the years but their recent update is rock bottom.

They tried to fix a system that was far from broken. As a result, their new system is broken. It looks fancier than the old user interface, but it doesn’t work.

We can’t upload images. We can’t tag our articles. We can’t categorize our articles. We can’t preview our articles. Sometimes, we can’t save or publish our articles.

I can’t find the button that controls the articles being published to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I can’t find the function to control emailing our new articles out to readers.

Not only that, but it takes me far longer to put together content since they introduced a new “block” system. I really don’t like it. I wish we could revert to the old WordPress, which functioned much better.

Companies care about look and not function nowadays. They are taking far too long to fix all of these bugs and despite claiming there have been two patches, we haven’t seen any progress.

There may be a lack of content for a bit, while we try to find a service to use for our many websites. That is a lot of work, so hopefully, they actually fix this mess that they’ve created.

Somewhere around 1,500 articles published with little to no issues until now…

Sincerely,

Hungry & Fit

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How Stretching Before Bed Will Help Your Quality Of Sleep

Regardless of the time of day, stretching is a well-known method to relieve tension along your back, neck, shoulders and other pressure points throughout the body. It also has the capability to reduce stress levels and promote relaxation, which is key if you want to fall asleep quickly and actually remain asleep. That’s why incorporating gentle stretches into your regular nighttime routine has proven to be advantageous for your quality of sleep. In fact, one compilation study review that combined American and Chinese research shows that meditative movements can improve sleep quality and have a positive impact on a person’s physical and mental health.

Stretching also allows you to practice mindfulness as you focus on your body movements and breathing. This teaches you how to be more in control of your mind, and can help you cope more effectively when anxious thoughts creep into your brain before bedtime. Considering about 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety or anxiety disorders, stretching before bed can be a helpful way for a lot of people to catch up on their Zzzz’s.

Here are a few of the best stretches you can do at nighttime to help you relax and unwind before you tuck yourself into bed. 

Before-Bed Bridge

This pose is often used in pilates and yoga as it’s great at strengthening the core, and opening up your chest and hip flexors. It also has an array of other health benefits, as doing the bridge before bed can help evoke feelings of relaxation, improve digestion, and alleviate lower back pain. 

If you don’t find this pose helpful for easing your lower back pain, the culprit could possibly be your bed, and it may be an indication that it’s time for an upgrade. The best mattress for side sleepers with lower back pain and others who suffer from the issue is one that contains coils because they tend to be much more supportive than all-foam beds, and will help keep your spine in proper alignment. 

Low Lunge

This is an optimal stretch if you want to target your hip flexors, glutes, thighs, and groin. You can also open your chest while you’re holding this position for tension relief in your back and shoulders. Just make sure you remain comfortable when doing this pose and don’t strain yourself, or else you might end up feeling stimulated and awake — the exact opposite effects of what you’re going for. 

Legs-Up-The-Wall Pose

The legs-up-the-wall stretch is a restorative pose which means it’s essentially a resting pose, and one of its main purposes is to promote relaxation. This specific restorative stretch also eases tension in your neck, shoulders, and back while it targets your glutes and hamstrings. 

Child’s Pose

It’d be remiss not to mention child’s pose, another restorative pose that’s extremely popular because it’s a meditative movement that encourages you to meditate as you hone in on the rhythm of your breath. This relaxes your mind, body, and can be a big stress reliever after a long day on the job or watching the kids. Child’s pose also helps reduce tension in your neck, back, and shoulders. 

Lying Spinal Twist

The spinal twist is an ideal stretch for individuals who spend a large portion of their day sitting in an office chair. After about eight hours of sitting down hunched over a computer keyboard, this movement stretches out and realigns the spine, and helps improve one’s posture.

Corpse Pose 

Finishing off your pre-bedtime stretching session with the corpse pose is an effective way to get a head start on your sleep. Believe it or not, there’s a yoga stretch called the corpse pose where all you do is lay still on the ground (hence the name). It’s the ultimate restorative pose where you’re only expected to focus on your breathing, and is one of the best poses to do before bed to induce sleepiness.  

About The Author

McKenzie Dillon is a blogger and sleep enthusiast for The Slumber Yard, a reviews site that focuses on bedding products. In her free time, she likes attending music festivals, reading fiction novels and practicing yoga. 

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4 Sleep Disorders That Can Be Treated With the Power of Technology

We’ve heard many times that technology is bad for our sleep. We definitely agree that this is sometimes the case. For example, using your laptop or smartphone right before bedtime can affect the quality of sleep because of the blue light emitted by these devices. 

Sadly, research shows that around 95% of people use technology within an hour before bed.

However, technology can also help us improve both the quantity and the quality of our sleep. Scientists around the world work tirelessly night and day to develop intelligent technological solutions that can combat common sleep disorders. 

Here is a list of the most incredible ones we have found. If you suffer from any of these sleep problems, make sure to test the solutions.

Please include attribution to disturbmenot.co with this graphic.

How to Sleep Well with Technology

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4 Tips to Getting Legal Help for an Accident

Some accidents are caused by unavoidable circumstances. This still causes trauma to the victims especially if they are kids. Professional help with everything you need to know about trauma and addiction is available online. Remember, accidents can lead to trauma that affects victims for the rest of their lives. You should seek both medical and legal help to ensure that justice for the victims prevails. For fatal accidents, medical aid is offered by passersby or the police. After medical attention, you should seek legal help especially if you were not at fault. Compensation may help you deal with hospital bills and car repairs. Such traumatic experiences may also affect one’s life negatively. Legal professionals may help you to understand the measures that you should take to ensure that you are compensated appropriately.

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4 Helpful Tips That Will Keep You on Track to Lose Weight

If you want to lose weight, it is important that you have determination and willingness to follow your goal. Losing weight not just involves being mindful of what you eat and moving around. It also involves a lot of mental and emotional practice so you can maintain good habits. Habits are important when you want to achieve something because it is going to shape your path towards success. For this reason, you need to keep track of your weight loss journey so you will know if you are getting the results you wanted and to see if there is room for improvements. If you do not track your progress, you will not see a clear picture of your journey and you might end up not reaching your ultimate weight loss goal.

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5 Benefits to Legalizing Marijuana

Marijuana, pot or weed is a popular drug in many countries, but it is illegal in most of them. There are very few countries in which, the use of this drug both for medical and recreational purposes is legal. In the U.S, only a few states have made the move to legalize marijuana. However, there is a growing debate on whether to legalize marijuana or not. The debate to a large extent revolves around the supposed medicinal value of this drug. To make things clearer for you with regards to this subject, here are 5 benefits to legalizing Marijuana.  

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3 Ways Planning Your Meals Can Help You Reach Your Fitness Goals

Meal planning is an effective way of keeping track of what you eat and making sure that you are getting all the proper nutrients to stay energized and combat diseases. If you plan your meals, you are less likely to get hungry and your cravings for unhealthy foods will be reduced. On top of it, you get to plan how much money you need to spend on groceries instead of buying expensive meals spontaneously throughout the week. If you are looking to get fit, meal planning is definitely the way to do it. Here are three ways that planning your meals can help you obtain your fitness goals.

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