Be Special

There’s more to being beautiful than wearing a killer shade of lipstick. Sure, the occasional facial, massage and hair spa can do wonders but inner and outer beauty need a little more.   Here’s how to lose fat effectively: 1. Switch Up Your Workout An hour on the treadmill daily but the love handles refuse to budge? It’s time to switch to interval training. What’s that? Sprint for 30 seconds, walk or jog for the next 30 seconds. Then repeat for the rest of your workout. 2. Eat Healthy (Most of The Time) Time to follow the 80/20 rule; eat clean (no white flour, sugar, processed food, and additives) 80 percent of the time but do allow yourself some cheats for the remaining 20 percent. 3. Keep a Food Journal Mindful eating is the name of the game. Stop that absent-minded nibbling in front of the telly. In fact, a 2008 study found that tracking your eating habits can actually double your weight loss! 4. Make Friends with Your Blender An...

Food Traps That Lurk Behind Your Desk Grabbing a sandwich on the run or snacking on a chocolate or ‘health’ bar to make up for a skipped breakfast, crunching your way through a pack of biscuits to stay awake through the never-ending con call. If you nodded yes and the waistband on your jeans seems snugger than usual, then your job is indeed making you fat. The fact is that professionals end up spending eight to twelve hours most days every week at work. Deadlines and meetings ensure you end up with very little time to exercise and breathe in the fresh air. Combine that with fatty, carb and sugar-rich chips, samosas, burgers, and chocolates to get through the stress and fatigue and no surprise that your workplace creeps up on your waistline. The trick is to identify the triggers that ruin your diet and weight loss goals and stop them in their tracks. Skipping Breakfast To Get To Work In Time Pooja Singh’s boss is a stickler for punctuality. Mo...

Could The Secret Of Weight Loss Lie In A Glass? You exercise, eat right and never miss a yoga class. Yet that little roll around your middle simply refuses to budge. You’re probably missing a trick. It’s time to try the ultimate dieter’s secret, slimming drinks .  Check out the five delicious, fat-burning potions,  to speed up fat burning so that you lose weight faster. Detox Juices Enough has been said about the cleansing and reviving effect of juice fasts. Actually, short term detox juice fasts are a sure-fire way of tackling stubborn pounds and supercharging your metabolism provided they last for one to three days. Citrus fruit —oranges, sweet lime, grapefruit and lemon—and root vegetables like beet, ginger, and carrots are great additions to a detox juice, not only because they flush out the system but give your liver some much-needed respite. The liver is one of the most hard-working organs in the body and helps to purge the body of exc...

The Six Best Foods To Power You Up: The minute you decide to take a gym membership, the advice starts pouring in; “Work out on an empty stomach.” “Never go to the gym hungry.”  “Have a protein shake, nothing more!” Whichever side of the fence you’re currently on, it’s important that you know right away that fuelling up before a workout is crucial to get the best from your workout. It’s unthinkable to run a car on empty, so why should it be any different for your body? However, just as the quality of the fuel is vital so is what you eat pre-workout.   Check out the six exercise-friendly foods: # 1 Fresh Fruits And Veggies This is the number one pre-workout food in more ways than one. Besides a host of vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals, fresh fruits and veggies have easily absorbable glucose to power workouts and fiber to keep blood sugars stable for hours as you run, sprint, dance, swim or lift weights. Don’t like ‘eating’ before a workout? ...

The trouble with dieting is that it takes too long! Agree? Sadly, slow and steady does win the race but wait, there are sneaky ways to rev up your metabolism so that you burn calories and lose weight quickly.  Presenting Eight Quick, Never Fail Jump-Starts: Drink Green Tea Did you know green tea drinkers burned an additional 70 calories in 24 hours? It may not sound like much but it totals 3 kg per year. It’s not magic, its science; thank the metabolism-enhancing antioxidants called catechins that are found in green tea.   Avoid Calories In A Glass Did you know the body doesn’t register liquid calories the way it does solid calories? So drinking a calorie-laden cup of hot chocolate won’t fill you up like a sandwich or bowl of pasta. So while the steaming cuppa has more calories than the sandwich you’ll still want another one an hour later. The trick, therefore, is to monitor your intake of wine, juice, sodas, and cappuccinos. Think...