Monthly Archives: January 2020

How to Spot Mental Illness in a Teen

Mental illnesses are becoming increasingly common in teens and range from eating disorders and body image issues to post-traumatic stress and depression. Mental disorders can have serious long-term effects, so you must be able to spot the warning signs that your teen is suffering from mental illness. 

You should then be able to offer them the support and guidance they need to make a full recovery and improve their health and wellbeing. 

With this in mind, here are some useful tips on how to spot mental illness in a teen: 

Know when to get help

If you are worried that your teen may be suffering from the symptoms of mental illness, then you should never be afraid to seek professional support. Start by educating yourself on the symptoms of mental health illnesses and reach out to your teen to discuss your concerns. Keep in mind that your teen may be reluctant to discuss their feelings with you at first, or may deny their behaviors i.e. if they are suffering from an eating disorder. 

Try to be understanding and avoid coming across as judgemental. Luckily, many treatment options can help your teen recover from mental illness. This often involves a combination of medication and psychotherapy.

For instance, igniteteentreatment.com offers various treatment programs that have been specifically designed to help teens overcome common mental illnesses such as social anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, and social media or gaming addiction. 

Educate yourself on mental health

The first step is to educate yourself on the common mental health issues found among teens. Many mental illnesses start in adolescence and they can have a huge impact on a teenager’s academic performance, emotions, and social interactions. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, some common mental health disorders in teens include anxiety disorders, depression, ADHD, and eating disorders. If these conditions are spotted early, then there’s a good chance that they can be treated to prevent them from having any long-term or serious consequences. 

Learn the early warning signs 

Teenagers are halfway between children and adults and they often struggle to find themselves and feel comfortable in their own skin. During the adolescent years, it is normal for teens to present some changes in behaviors. This may involve isolating themselves from family members, lashing out, or experimenting with new activities. However, you must know when teen behavior goes beyond what is normal. 

Here are some warning signs that your teen may be suffering from mental illness: 

  • Poor academic performance or skipping school. 
  • Avoiding spending time with friends or doing activities they once enjoyed. 
  • Extreme shifts in moods. They may be extremely happy and excited one minute then sad, fearful, or anxious the next. 
  • Self-harms or has suicidal thoughts. 
  • Unexplained physical symptoms such as frequent headaches or stomach aches. 
  • Engaging in risky behavior such as drug-taking, unprotected sex, binge drinking, or other dangerous activities.
  • Unexplained weight loss and an obsession with body image, exercise, and healthy eating. 

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The Features That Make Assault Air Bikes an Ideal Fitness Equipment

The assault air bike is not an ordinary bike as you might think because it requires the use of both legs and arms. It would help if you used your arms to pump the handlebars while your legs are cycling, making this bike a full-body exercise. These assault air bikes use a fan to produce wind resistance. So, if you pedal harder and move the handlebars with much force, the opposing force intensifies. 

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Overview of the Assault Air Bike

Assault air bikes are functional, attractive, and built to last. They come with all the technical specifications and features of an air resistance workout bike. This offers users the ability to achieve better muscle tone and cardiovascular endurance without any pressures on their joints. 

This air bike-type equipment is most suitable for HIIT enthusiasts. Beginners will find this bike challenge, and advanced trainers can prevent muscle atrophy from occurring.

The fan mechanism uses air resistance placed in the middle of the air bike to make your muscles work harder.  This means the faster and harder you pedal, the higher the resistance level is generated. As such, air bikes belong to the set of equipment ideal if you are targeting a HIIT workout.

Impressive Features of the Assault Air Bike

The assault bike is a premium gym equipment compared to stationary bikes because of its capacity to provide users with the right workout results. Here are a few impressive features of the assault air bike. 

Durable and stable. Considering that the assault air bikes come with sustainable design, you can expect that it can withstand the gruelling and non-stop activities of CrossFit training. It possesses an exceptional quality for exercise equipment, suitable for endurance and strength training.  

User-Dependent and Powerful Bike Mechanism. If you want to purchase an exercise bike that uses air resistance to improve your muscles, the assault air bike is the perfect solution. It can give you different levels of resistance, which are useful in working those muscles. 

Bicycle Chain Drive System. The assault air bike has a chain-drive that provides a fantastic cycling experience. The best thing about it is that you can do your routine exercise at the comfort of your home. 

Air bikes are different from indoor cycles, stationary, and spin bikes. However, the equipment gives you the same intense feelings of an indoor bike with its slight vibration and clicking chain drive sounds. The air bike does not offer a smooth and quiet ride because that is not the purpose of this exercise machine.

 An Adequate Exercise and Fitness Program Right Within Its Console

The assault air bike comes with a console. A useful gadget often found in air resistance bikes. It includes necessary information such as watts, speed, time, distance, interval, RPM, and calories.  

If you are aiming for a healthy and fit body, assault air bikes are ideal for moderate-level to intensity workout training. If you use it and push it to the limit, assault air will not disappoint you. Also, the assault air bike comes with an affordable price for people who would like to get in shape but would not like to purchase over-the-top equipment. It gives you the best value for money and provides the right exercise results you have always dreamed of.     

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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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Easy Meals in 2020

2020 is the year to do more with less. 2020 is the year to work smarter and not necessarily harder. (Although, we are strong supporters of hard workers.) 2020 is the year to see through all the myths and make the right decisions. We’re here to help you do that. We might be a week late, but we’ve been working on our own plans for this new year. 

So, how are we going to do this? By making simple and delicious meals at home of course–without spending too much money. Here is our first recipe of the year, but this is about much more than this $7 meal for two. This is about you starting to understand how to balance the three important aspects of your diet: flavor, nutrition and cost

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