➜ You need to change in order to grow. You can’t grow if you just stay where you are. You can’t grow if you don’t change the way you think and act. In fact, changing your life is a continuous process. It never ends. The moment you stop changing, you stop growing.
✔ TIP ♯1
Drink your milk. Think you’re getting a nutritional boost from your morning cereal? Up to 40 percent of the vitamins in fortified cereals dissolve in the milk. If you don’t drink the leftover cow juice, you’re not getting the fancy-pants nutrients!
✔ TIP ♯2
Ice it, ace it. Drink a few glasses of ice-cold water before and during exercise. Studies show that the cold stuff can improve endurance by about 23 percent. And ice water forces your body to expend calories warming it up, boosting your metabolism as well.
✔ TIP ♯3
Lift, damn it!. Verbally expressing emotion while lifting increases muscle strength by up to 25 percent. (Of course, it also increases your risk of being tossed out of the gym by the same percentage …) Or get someone to scream at you: You’ll be able to lift 5 to 8 percent more weight if you get verbal encouragement from a trainer or workout partner.
✔ TIP ♯4
Bribe yourself fit. Bet a colleague (like the one who’s not so secretly gunning for your job) 50 bucks that you can stick to your workout program for 6 months. Studies show that those who do achieve an average 97 percent success rate. Alternate plan? Schedule your workouts, then put $5 in a jar for each one you make. Pledge the money toward something sweet, like a new bike or a trip to a spa.
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✔ TIP ♯5
Pick the red one. Red cabbage has 15 times as much wrinkle-fighting betacarotene as green cabbage. Red bell peppers have up to nine times as much vitamin C as green ones.
✔ TIP ♯6
Spear a hangover. To reduce the severity of a hangover, order a side of asparagus. When South Korean researchers exposed a group of human liver cells to asparagus extract, the extract suppressed free radicals and more than doubled the effects of two enzymes responsible for metabolizing alcohol.
✔ TIP ♯7
Listen to your feet. If you can hear yourself running, you’re setting yourself up for injury. Pounding the pavement comes from bad form. Keep your feet close to the ground and use a quick, shuffling stride.
✔ TIP ♯8
Don’t buy wheat bread. Huh? Isn’t it good for me? Actually, “wheat bread” is often just white bread dyed with molasses to make it look dark. Look instead for “100 percent whole wheat” or “whole grain.” Even better: rye bread. Swedish researchers found that 8 hours after people ate rye, they felt less hungry than those who noshed wheat bread, thanks to rye’s high fiber content.
✔ TIP ♯9
Cheat with a dumbbell. Lift a dumbbell weight as many times as you can. Then, when you can’t complete one more repetition, use your free hand to help push your weighted hand through another rep. Once you’re at the top of the move, remove your free hand and slowly lower the weight. Studies show that negative resistance exercises like this are more effective at muscle building than standard exercises.
✔ TIP ♯10
Dry off head to toe. After a shower, you’ll prevent a chill by drying your head and neck first. You’ll also reduce the risk of anything nasty from the shower floor making its way up your body.
