Beebleblog

Well, should we eat like an Egyptian? No, not exactly but there is a good way to measure your daily intake using a very simple shape that will remind you of Egypt. You can see in fig.1 why it is called The Pyramid and it is this shape that allows us to plan what goes on our plate throughout the day.

The pyramid is broken down into 6 sections. Starting from the lowest to the highest, we will cover what each level contains.

The Lowest Level

This makes up the bulk of your daily diet and consists of bread, cereal, rice and pasta. The Food Pyramid requires you to have 6-11 servings of this group. You may ask what is considered a serving for this type of food. A good question and they are as follows:

•    Bread – 1 slice

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We have all heard the warnings about high blood pressure and we should all be aware of the dangers that high blood pressure puts on our hearts.

What is Blood Pressure a measure of?

Blood pressure is not a measure of the pressure in the blood itself but actually the pressure the blood exerts on the artery walls.

How is it measured?

By using a sphygmomanometer (try saying that! – Beeble). This is usually the inflatable band that goes around your left upper arm to momentarily stop the blood flow. A stethoscope is then used to listen out for the first blood flow through the arteries of the arm when the air is slowly let out of the arm band. This first movment of blood is known as the ’systolic level’. The person measuring will then listen for the sound of the blood pumping through the arteries. The last sound made is measured on the sphygmomanometer and recorded as the ‘diastolic level.’ This is the end of the measurement and your arm is now released from the arm band’s vice-like grip.

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Well, of course we all know the importance of breathing in our day-to-day lives as without it most of you wouldn’t be reading this. Our lungs are used to breathing air in so we can utilise the oxygen that our cells require and expel waste gases like carbon dioxide. It is a constant job our bodies carry out 24 hours a day.

Breathing and Exercise

When exercising breathing becomes all the more important; the more efficiently we can draw oxygen in and get it to the required cells the better our results will be on our chosen piece of equipment. All in all it is vital that we get our breathing perfect to get the best results and see the changes in our bodies.

How should we breathe during cardiovascular exercise?

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What is it for?

This exercise focuses on one of the most sought after muscles: the biceps. There are not that many ways to train this muscle as the biceps’ task is quite simple. The bicep itself helps the back muscles to pull things towards you, for example in an isolated movement we use them to pick lighter objects up and place them on a table, desk or work surface. From the diagram you can see that it is the muscle positioned on the front of our upper arm highlighted in red in Fig.1. The bicep’s main job is to bend your lower arm up at your elbow. It is also used to aid the movement of bringing your arm straight up at the shoulder joint and last but not least to supinate your lower arm, which means with your elbow at 90 degrees and your palm facing down it helps turn your palm to face upwards. If you try this you should be able to see the bicep shorten.

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We have all been advised how important that it is to give up our favourite cuppa or to cut down on both tea and coffee as they are both diuretics and can affect the benefits of our official 2 litres of daily water consumption (click here to read what we have written about that subject).

What are Diuretics?

For those of you who are not in the know, diuretics dehydrate us by making us need the toilet more. Drinks like tea and coffee require our bodies to use up some of their water content while we are digesting them. The water used in this way is then waste water and we lose it when we go to the toilet, which in turn dehydrates us.

How do we beat it?

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