HFCS is a common additive to processed foods and beverages in the U. S. You’ll find it in a ginormous amount of products found in grocery outlets.

Some popular hiding places are breads, cereals, condiments, frozen dinners and soft drinks. Sodas contain approximately 55% fructose and 42% glucose, two of the main ingredients of HFCS.

HFCS is 6 times sweeter than table sugar. It is the sweetener that has replaced table sugar (sucrose) in the food industry in the United States.

Researchers and critics argue that it is more dangerous to our bodies than table sugar because it can contribute to diabetes and weight gain.

Dr. Richard Johnson, Chief of the Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension at the University of Colorado has published a book on the topic, The Sugar Fix: The High-Fructose Fallout That Is Making You Fat and Sick. It’s very good reading and it will open your eyes to the effects that high fructose corn syrup has on your body.

Being over 40 is such a great experience. We are at the point in life to where we can practically do whatever we want to do. Instead of thinking about ageing gracefully consider this as the time in life to LIVE. That said, here are 7 ways to age successfully.

1. Eat Clean – I know I’m on my proverbial soapbox here. But eating clean requires you to eat more fruits and vegetables, hormone free meats and to drink plenty of water. Your body doesn’t burn off calories as fast as it use to. So you have to watch your carbohydrate intake and portion size.

2. Exercise – Proverbial soapbox again. You gotta move. It doesn’t matter what type of exercise you do just do something. Dance, jog, bike, hike, canoe, take a self-defense class, or do yoga all of these will get your heart pumping. Making it fun will help you stick with it.

3. Remove Stress- A lot of people are concerned about job, children, grandchildren, retirement, and their love life during this time of life. To age successfully in this century we need to remove these obstacles. How? Do your best on your job. That’s all you can do. Our children and grandchildren should be old enough to take responsibility for their own actions. So lets allow them to do that.

Adult children should pay rent or be given a deadline as to how long they can stay in the nest. For retirement, find a counselor that can help you budget enough now so you won’t have to struggle when you decide to retire. As for your love life, get out of the house. Meet people. Try a dating service.

4. Enjoy Life – It’s time for you to enjoy life. Travel, even if it’s just to another part of the state where you live. Go out with friends. Go to a coffee shop to just have a cup of coffee. Take a book or your computer along. Join a chess or scrabble club. Whatever you like doing just do it.

5. Laugh – “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” Prv 17:22. Laughter is good medicine. It dispels stress. Find a friend or family member to get together with and laugh about old times. If you can’t find a friend, rent a comedy and laugh until you cry.

6. Socialize – There are so many meet-up groups that you can join online. There are also hundreds of social networks that are available. Think of something you’re interested in and join a group.

7. Love Who You Are- Unless you’re a twin there is no one else like you in the whole world. You are special. Don’t worry about other peoples opinion of you. They will get over themselves. You just live the best you can and love who you are.

Enjoy this time. We are “old enough to know better and still too young to care”.

Losing fat around your midsection is the key to having visible abdominal muscles. Contrary to popular belief, and misunderstanding, you don’t actually need to build your ab muscles in order to grow them – they are not like your arm or leg muscles.

Instead, doing ab exercises combined with fat burning cardio fitness will result in fat loss – especially that spare tire around the stomach that hides the muscles underneath.

ab exercises

So it goes without saying that trimming down this part of your body will have positive effects for the rest of your figure (and health).

From simple sit ups to more complex routines, regardless of which exercises you choose to do there’s one thing to keep in mind: don’t over do it.

Because you don’t need to build these muscles like you do with biceps and thigh muscles, you only need to undertake minimal targeted exercise per week on this part of the body. The good thing is that all of the other exercises you do will also benefit your abs indirectly.

Which ab exercises will give you the best results? The true answer is that most of them will. The key is to mix them up and rotate several of them throughout your weekly fitness routine.

The bicycle exercise is certainly one of the best options for both beginners and those who are already quite fit.

It requires you to lie on your back on a flat surface, put your hands behind your head and bring your knee up one at a time to meet your chest, in a cycling motion.

Make sure you bring your opposite elbow to the rising knee and don’t pull with your neck, but rather your abdominal muscles.

Leg crunches are another excellent ab exercise to try. Lie on your back again, this time bring your legs straight up vertically so they are 90 degrees to the ground, keeping knees slightly bent and then by contracting your ab muscles, bring your chest up.

This will place great strain on your stomach muscles so take it easy at first! Short sets are ideal in the beginning and you can increase it from there over the coming weeks and months.

Doing good ab exercises with proper form (this is extremely important) will yield the results you need – just make sure you do them in conjunction with your regular fitness workouts such as walking and cycling in order to burn the fat that is covering your abdominal muscles.

A heart healthy diet is one that has the best interest of not only your heart in mind, but every other aspect of your body as well.

The functioning of your arteries and organs are also key to heart health, and when these are in good condition then you are less likely to suffer from any non-hereditary heart conditions.

a heart healty diet

As a rule, anything that contains high amounts of bad fats should be avoided. This means all fried and fast food, as well as most processed foods.

It goes without saying that these are not ideal items to have in your everyday diet, whether you are trying to lose weight or not. Excess cholesterol is a precursor to almost certain heart problems.

The type of fats you consume can be confusing as far as whether they are harmful or not. The American Heart Association offers information on the recommended intake of various types of fats.

They recommend that saturated fats should make up under 7% of your daily calorie intake, and trans fat should be under 1%.

There are some super foods which can contribute to the health of your heart and arteries. These include blueberries, soy protein, spinach, flax seed, salmon and oatmeal, just to name a few.
Omega 3 fatty acids are a vital nutrient required for the health of the arteries and heart. It can be consumed naturally either through oily fish, or flax seed products such as flax seed oil (an oil you can drizzle on food, but not cook with). Getting enough Omega-3 in your diet is the first step to a heart healthy diet.

A heart healthy diet is not difficult to implement and maintain. Including plenty of vegetables and whole grains in your diet, as well as a good quality source of omega-3 fatty acids will ensure you are doing everything you can to minimize your chance of suffering any serious heart conditions later in life.

The core of your body is the main structure that allows the rest of your body to move well. It consists of your lower back, abs and hips. Without a strong core you can suffer from weakness, muscle loss and eventually conditions like arthritis and back pain.

plank

There are dedicated exercises that you can do for core strengthening. Some are done on the floor, others may use a Swiss ball.

It is worth incorporating a number of different exercises into your weekly routines, in order to challenge and use each muscle rather than only focusing on a few exercises that target the same movements over and over again.

What comes surprisingly to most people is that the purpose of your core is actually to resist the movement, rather than be the prime moving device. It is there to help protect your backbone and midsection muscles.

Therefore, when you do core exercises, your aim should be to minimize movement of this important region – unlike every other training exercise which involves extensively moving and working out each muscle or body part.

Sculpting your midsection (your ab muscles) relies heavily on the strength of your core. The more you work this area, the easier you will find it to do the strenuous workouts required to achieve a truly toned body, or even just to drop the fat around your midsection (which is what hides the muscles!).

Slouching is one of the worst habits a person can pick up, particularly someone who is serious about getting in shape or losing weight.

When you train your core, you actually work to eliminate slouching as well. Keep in mind that many of us spend up to 40 (or more) hours per week in front of a computer, often slouching without noticing. Getting into the habit of keeping a strong core posture all day is as important as your workouts.

Doing some core exercises on the floor requires you to move very little, or not at all.

You need to make sure the tension is maintained in your muscles, and over time you’ll know they are becoming stronger as they’ll be able to perform each exercise for a longer period of time.

Other workouts allow you to move during the exercise. Combining both movement (V-sit ups, lunges, squats) and non-movement core exercises (superman and plank) into your routine ensures that you are covering all bases and not focusing too much on just one or two areas.