Tips to Avoid Weight Gain During the Holidays

1. FILL UP ON MORE SENSIBLE FOODS
Foods that are high in fiber or water fill you up quickly and help keep you from overindulging on the "bad" stuff. Take an extra scoop of vegetables and fruit when filling your plate, and by the time you finish, you won't have room for the other foods which are higher in calories and more likely to cause you to gain weight.


2. EAT SMALLER PORTIONS
No doubt, everything at the table looks good, and it's all you can do to keep from filling your plate 2-3 times so that you can sample everything. An easy way to combat this urge is to simply take a smaller portion than you normally would of those dishes you're most interested in, especially belt-bursting desserts. Split a piece of pie or cake with your spouse, child, or another family member who may be watching his or her waistline.

3. DRINK AROUND, DURING, AND BETWEEN MEALS
Drink a fair amount of water or other unsweetened beverage before each meal, as well as during and between them. The liquid in your stomach will help trick your mind into not feeling as hungry, which reduces the tendency to gorge yourself on potentially fattening foods.

4. POSITION YOURSELF AWAY FROM THE SNACKS
If you take a seat within an arm's reach of the snack table, you're going to have a tough time keeping yourself from unconsciously grabbing handfuls of party mix, candies, and the like and picking at them all day. By sitting on the other side of the room, getting to the snacks involves a conscious effort into getting up and walking over to get at the snacks.

5. TAKE AN EXERCISE BREAK
If the weather permits it, go out and take a quick walk around the house or block. If your celebration is taking place in a colder climate, you'll be more inspired to quicken your pace and burn a few extra calories in the process. If the weather is bad, do 10-20 squats, stretches, or other brief exercise each time you go to the restroom. You only want to do just enough to elevate your heart rate, but not break out into a sweat. Chances are, no one will know what you're doing, and you won't have to feel self-conscious about trying to maintain your figure.

Finally, if you still manage to put on a few extra pounds, don't stress over it. If you've been following a sensible diet and exercise plan, the chances are good that any weight you do gain is going to come off shortly after the holidays are over.

Human Body Part 3

RENAL SYSTEM

The body’s excretory system is made up of a pair of kidneys and ureters, urinary bladder and urethra. Kidneys do most of the work; the other structures transport or store urine.

The kidneys are bean-shaped organs, about four inches long and weighing only five ounces. They function as extraordinarily efficient chemical treatment plants, cleansing the blood of urea and other toxic wastes while maintaining the proper balance of fluid, salts and other blood components. They are also instrumental in maintaining blood pressure.

The renal arteries branch off the abdominal aorta and carry a prodigious amount of blood. Each day, up to 500 quarts of fluid circulate through the kidneys. After it is cleansed, most of this fluid is returned to the bloodstream; only two to four pints are excreted as urine. This waste material collects in the central portion of the kidney – the renal pelvis – and from there it passes into the ureter, a long, narrow tube that carries the urine to the bladder. A normal adult bladder can hold about one pint of liquid, but when it is about half full, it begins to send nerve signals of an urge to urinate. Voluntary muscles in the pelvic floor control bladder function; when these muscles drop, the sphincter that controls the bladder opening relaxes and urine flows into the urethra. The female urethra is about 1.5 inches long and carries only urine; the 8 inch male urethra transport both semen and urine.

RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

Of all the substances needed to sustain life, oxygen – an odourless, colorless and tasteless gas – is perhaps the most critical because it is essential for all stages of metabolism, the various biochemical functions that maintain the body. Without oxygen, cells begin to die within minutes.

With each breath, oxygen is taken into the lungs and carbon dioxide and other wastes are expelled. Although you can deliberately hold your breath for a short period, breathing actually is an automatic process controlled by the brain’s respiratory center. When performing quiet activities, a person takes about 14 breaths a minute, but the respiration rate may be slower during sleep or mediation and higher during exercise or other activities that demand extra oxygen.

Air is inhaled through the nose or mouth and passes through the larynx, or voice box, into the trachea, or the windpipe and then to the bronchi and bronchioles, air tubes that branch off the trachea. These tubes are lined with millions of cilia, hairlike strands that beat rhythmically to keep dust, germs and other airborne particles out of the lungs. The cilia also help clear the lungs of mucus produced by the mucous cells lining the bronchial tubes.

The bronchioles terminate in clusters of alveoli, tiny, balloon-like air sacs that are responsible for ensuring that the blood has a steady supply of fresh oxygen. Oxygen exchange takes place on the surface of the lungs 700 million or so alveoli, which, if flattened out, would almost cover a tennis courts. The air sacs are elastic, expanding during inhalation and deflating partially as air is exhaled. If alveoli lose their elasticity, as is the case in emphysema, stale air becomes trapped in the sacs and the body becomes starved for oxygen.

SENSES

Virtually everything that we perceive about our surroundings comes through information collected by the five basic senses – sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Of these, sight and hearing are generally considered the most vital; in fact, however all work in concert to provide a total picture. This cooperative process is especially apparent when you eat – odor is critical in distinguishing between foods that have a similar taste and texture. This is the reason that food seems to lack taste when you have a cold. However, when you are deprived of one particular sense, others can help compensate; for examples, you can use touch and sound to find your way in the dark.

All sensory organs are complex extensions of the central nervous system (refer Human Body Part 2), with a direct pathway to the brain, which allows instantaneous processing of information. (The eye’s optic nerve is actually an extension of the brain). The moment you touch an object, you know whether it is soft or hard, hot or cold, smooth or rough. This is because information is processed so fast, we give little thought to the complexity of what is involved. Sounds entering the ear or light coming into the eye are immediately broken down and transformed into electrical impulses that are decoded and reassembled in the brain. A similar electrical transformation takes place in identifying an odor, interpreting a touch and a recognizing a taste.

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Human Body Part 2

CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM

The adult body has some 60,000 miles of blood vessels that supply oxygen and other nutrients to every cell and carry away carbon dioxide and other wastes. The heart, one of nature’s most durable pumps, constantly circulates 8 to 10 pints of blood through this vast network. On a typical day, the heart beats more than 100,000 times, pumping out 2,600 gallons of blood. This adds up to more than 2.5 billion heartbeats over an average lifetime, with never more than a fraction of a second’s rest between each beat.

Although the heart is designed to last a lifetime, cardiovascular disease remains our leading cause of death, claiming more than 900,000 lives a year. Most of these deaths are due to heart attacks, often in the prime of life. The American Heart Association estimates that 56 million Americans suffer from a cardiovascular disorder, with high blood pressure and coronary artery disease the most prevalent.

These disorders are epidemic worldwide, concentrated mostly in developed nations. They are a relatively modern phenomenon that experts attribute to a combination of lifestyle factors (for example, eating a high-fat diet, smoking, not exercising) and heredity. Increasingly, however, researchers are showing that heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events can be prevented by adopting a prudent, heart-healthy lifestyle. 

BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM

All our movements, thoughts, sensations and bodily functions are controlled by the brain and nervous system, the most highly evolved among all living creatures and the least understood. Neuroscientists are only beginning to unravel the myriad mysteries of the human brain and many predict we will never fully understand so many of the things we take for granted: memory, language, creativity and so forth.

Taken as a whole, the nervous system is actually a complex branching network of systems with many overlapping parts and functions, all controlled by the brain and its spinal cord extension. Such automatic or involuntary, functions as breathing, circulation and digestion are directed largely by the automatic nervous system, which is divided into the sympathetic and parasympathetic components. In simplified terms, these two systems act as switches to turn organs on and off, thus maintaining a state of balance.

Superficial sensory nerves receive messages from the outside world and transmit them to the brain, where they are interpreted and sent back through the body via the cranial or spinal nerves. All this takes only a split second and often requires little or no thought. However, when something goes awry with the brain or other components of the nervous system, manifestations can be disastrous, ranging from trivial movement disorders to paralysis and dementia.

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM 

Digestion is a complex chemical and mechanical process that begins when food is chewed and mixed with saliva, which adds moisture and also begins breaking down starches. Swallowing forces a bolus of food into the esophagus, a 10-inch muscular tube that transports it to the stomach. 

Contractions of this muscular organ further pulverize food and mix it with hydrochloric acid and other powerful gastric juices. Little by little, the partially digested food passes from the stomach to the duodenum, the site of even more chemical action. Pancreatic enzymes and juices flow into this uppermost segment of the small intestine, where they break down proteins and carbohydrates. To make fats more soluble, the liver produces bile, which exerts an emulsifying action that transforms globules of fat into minute droplets.

Peristalsis, rhythmic contractions of the intestinal muscles, propels the digested food onward through the small intestine, which is lined with villi, tiny hairlike structures. Molecules can pass through these tiny projections and are then absorbed by the underlying network of blood and lymph vessels. Finally, material that cannot be absorbed from the small intestine passes into the colon. Here, fluid is extracted and returned to the circulation and the remaining fecal material is passed in a bowel movement. The total time required to fully digest a meal varies, but on average, it takes 24 to 36 hours.

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