Though the adage coined by American nutritionist Adelle Davis about how one should: “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper” comes with caveats these days, Davis’ primary point is still heeded by nutrition experts.  That point is, namely, breakfast is important and there will be some side effects if you’re skipping it regularly.

When you start your day with a balanced breakfast—one that has plenty of protein, healthy carbs, and the right mix of vitamins and minerals—your body tends to work at its best. Essentially, you set yourself up for ideal physical health, mental acuity, and stable energy levels.

On the other hand, when you skip breakfast, you may be inviting in a host of problems in both the short term and long term. Here are some side effects you may not know about skipping breakfast.

RELATED: Eating Habits to Lose Abdominal Fat As You Age, Say Dietitians

You know how you can delay eating for hours on some days without feeling all that hungry, but if you have even a little morsel of food, you suddenly feel famished for more? That’s because eating revs up your metabolism for the day, according to a study in The Journal of Nutrition. They concluded that eating breakfast as the largest meal of the day prevented weight gain.

And starting it up early is a good thing, as your body is most efficient at secreting insulin, digesting food, and other processes early on in the day after a good night of rest. Delaying eating means delaying starting up these healthy processes and therein reducing their efficacy at subsequent meals.

A healthy breakfast can not only give you the energy and nutrients your body needs to launch itself into the day, but it can also stabilize blood sugar levels to stave off feelings of hunger and associated irritability throughout the day, says Mary Stewart, RD, LD, founder of Cultivate Nutrition, in a recent Yahoo article. By not eating breakfast you could be setting yourself up for failure later in the day, making it harder for you to make healthier choices due to blood sugar fluctuations.

Studies overwhelmingly find that eating a majority of one’s daily calories in the morning is the best way to shed pounds or maintain a stable weight, reports Life Hack. On the other hand, eating larger meals closer to bedtime is correlated with gain weight.

And the same can be said for eating a number of smaller meals and snacks later in the day, too: it’s far better to do the bulk of your eating early. A study at San Raffaele Rome Open University concluded that timing was. even more important than what was being eaten. The study of 18 women showed that those who consumed most of the day’s calories in the first half of the day lost more weight and had improved insulin sensitivity.

The stronger and more energized your body, the stronger and more energized your immune system. A healthy breakfast can foster a robust, healthy immune response when you come into contact with any manner of bacteria or virus. As we previously reported, “Periods of fasting appear to trigger damage to the cells and the body needs to be fed food regularly in order to maintain healthy levels of immune cells that fight infections and improve the action of fighter cells (T-cells) in the body,” explained Tehzeeb Lalani, a nutritionist with Scale Beyond Scale.

You can file this one in both the “decidedly unexpected” and “definitely unwelcome” columns, but habitually skipping breakfast can lead to hair loss, says The Health Site. That’s because an insufficient infusion of protein in the morning curbs your body’s ability to produce keratin, the building block of your hair (and nails). Without a protein-rich breakfast in the morning, you may well, be leaving more hairs on the pillow at night, and growing less to replace them.

A study of women 18-45 years old showed increased cortisol levels among breakfast skippers. Cortisol is often called the “stress hormone,” says the Mayo Clinic. And while cortisol can be a vital natural chemical, increasing glucose content in the bloodstream and enhancing your energy levels, sense of awareness, and even your body’s ability to repair damaged cells, an excess in everyday life can leave you feeling fatigued, irritable, confused, depressed, and, quite simply, stressed.

“By having breakfast, you refill the liver glycogen levels so that the cortisol levels can decrease. If you don’t eat breakfast, then cortisol levels will continue to increase to maintain blood glucose levels eventually causing insulin resistance that makes you more hungry throughout the day,” said Dr. Barry Sears, president of the non-profit Inflammation Research Foundation, in a previous article.

Do you often suffer intense headaches in the afternoons? It could be the fact that you’re not eating a proper breakfast. According to Tata Health, when you forgo breakfast in the morning, you invite in hypoglycemia later, and this is a biological process wherein blood sugar levels drop and blood pressure increases. And, this sudden elevation in blood pressure can cause debilitating headaches.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

According to Life Hack, it takes a good three hours for a human body to digest foods, so if you compensate for a skipped breakfast at the start of the day with a larger-than-usual dinner at the end of the day, you will almost surely go to bed with undigested or semi-digested food in your system. And that can lead to discomfort and bloating, interrupted sleep, acid reflux, and perhaps even some odd dreams, reports News.

There are all sorts of acute problems caused by skipping breakfast, such as headaches and sugar cravings but the insidious side effects of missed morning meals can have much larger, longer-term effects on your health as well. In fact for some people, habitually skipping breakfast can dramatically increase the likelihood of the development of Type 2 diabetes. Chronically increased insulin resistance and hormone imbalances caused by improper breakfast practices are the culprits.

READ MORE: The 3 Best Breakfast Habits to Keep Your Brain Sharp, Dietitians Say

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When it comes to weight loss or maintenance, of course, what you eat is crucial, and some research suggests when you eat is important, too. But a new study in Scientific Reports suggests another big component of your eating habits can help: chewing food more slowly.

To determine the potential effects of slow chewing, researchers asked 11 healthy, normal-weight men to go through three trials: drinking liquid food normally every 30 seconds, drinking liquid food but keeping it in their mouths for 30 seconds before swallowing, and chewing food for 30 seconds before swallowing.

All three approaches resulted in the same level of fullness, but it was the slow chewing that turned out to be unique, because it increased what’s called diet-induced thermogenesis, or DIT. This refers to how much heat is generated in the body after eating and how it affects your metabolic rate. A low level of DIT tends to promote weight gain, while a high level has the opposite effect.

Even though it might seem like a minor action, increased chewing among participants elevated their DIT and the researchers noted that the difference per meal or snack might be small, but the cumulative effect done every time you eat could be substantial.

Related: The #1 Best Juice to Drink Every Day, Says Science

Although the study has limitations based on its small sample size, it’s not the first to make the connection between slow eating and weight loss or maintenance. For example, a clinical trial published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that increasing the number of chews before swallowing reduced meal sizes in part because people ate for longer, and that led to eating less.

Another study in Frontiers in Psychology suggests there may be a mental component as well. In that research, participants who paid more attention to chewing showed a change in their brain’s reward circuits, which led to less impulsive eating behaviors.

Another benefit to slow eating is becoming more mindful about what you’re eating, and simply enjoying the taste more, says New York-based dietitian Vanessa Rissetto, R.D., co-founder of Culina Health. She says it can feel overwhelming to try to eat every single bite with mindful attention, but like a meditation exercise, start with a modest attempt.

For example, try being mindful of your next three bites of food. As you work the strategy into your eating more often, you’re more likely to get to that other big question around food, which can help you improve your eating habits in order to achieve your weight loss goals.

“Are you eating because you’re actually hungry, or it because you’re bored, stressed, or tired?” says Rissetto. “Are you feeding into that habit loop where a sugary item makes you feel good, so you just grab one because you’re on autopilot? Understanding why you’re eating makes a big difference.”

With that much awareness, it can lead to healthier eating habits without feeling deprived along the way, she adds.

For more, check out The Best Dinner Combinations for Faster Weight Loss.

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Whenever the conversation moves to the topic of stress, someone inevitably starts talking about meditation. When that happens, one of two thoughts enter the listeners’ minds; they either think, “I keep hearing that can be helpful, but haven’t really tried it,” or “That’s something monks in robes do when they sit on top of mountains for days at a time.”

Like so many things, meditation is a tool that, when used correctly, can make a huge positive difference in not only your stress levels, but in every aspect of your life. However, it’s never going to help you at all if you either, a) don’t try it for a long enough period of time to make a difference for yourself or b) think it’s something only monks in robes do when they sit on top of mountains for days at a time.

As someone who has been meditating (for real) for about a year, there is one thing that has changed dramatically in my life that I can trace directly back to my meditation practice. That thing is always driving with a full tank.

Let me explain.

Breath = fuel.

When we talk about meditation, what we’re really talking about is focusing on the breath. Learning to focus on your breath helps to quiet your mind (and all those runaway thoughts that tend to live there!).

To your body, oxygen is like gas is to a car; without it, nothing runs. But the way you manage your fuel (breath) determines how well your vehicle will drive, how far it will go, and how smooth a ride it will be. For example, if you put one dollar of gas in the tank and drive, you have to keep stopping and you are constantly worried about running out of gas; that can get exhausting quickly. But if you fill your tank and just drive, you don’t have to worry or constantly be focusing on running out of fuel and getting stuck, and you certainly don’t have to keep stopping to refuel.

Just like these two different driving experiences, your breathing can be choppy and quick or full and relaxing. Meditation simply teaches you how to go through each day with a full tank.

It’s odd to think about how so many people are breathing wrong; that they pay no attention to their greatest fuel source — the one that can give them exactly what most of them are looking for…calm.

“Breath is the link between mind and body.” – Dan Brule

The secret is in the exhale.

When someone else is really stressing out, what do you tell them to do? You say, “Take a deep breath.” Why? Because, if they are stressed, they are most likely breathing high and shallow in their chest; that’s fight or flight breathing. Hence the word “deep” to get them to breathe in a way that begins to calm them by lowering the breathing into their bellies. You help them refocus on their breath instead of their thoughts.

That’s important because most people spend all of their waking hours focusing on their thoughts…and those are usually the very things that are stressing them out! But your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. So, if you are focusing on thoughts, you aren’t taking deep breaths (filling your tank) and if you are focused on your breath, you aren’t in your head focusing on your thoughts (which are usually causing much of that stress).

Here’s the secret…start with the exhale, not with an inhale. Try this right now; take a big breath in. You probably noticed your shoulders go up and your chest lift and fill. If so, you just breathed in a way that promotes and maintains stress and anxiety. In order for you to learn to get your breath down lower (get oxygen into the bottom part of your lungs instead of just the top part), take another breath, but begin this time with the exhale.

Here’s how: exhale all of your breath until there is no more to push out, and just let the breath come back in naturally.

You probably noticed the breath coming into your body “lower” than before. Congratulations! You just took a “deep” breath. THAT is breathing that promotes calm. If you breathe like that for several breaths in a row, you will send a message to your brain and body that everything is ok, and it will not kick you into fight or flight. 🙂

The result of simply taking a couple of deep breaths whenever you feel stressed is that you can instantly begin to lower your stress levels in the moment. You are in control because you are filling your tank. It’s a little thing that makes a big difference!

Meditation teaches you how to drive with a full tank. Make it a habit and it will be there for you in any moment you need it. Your full tank will allow you to keep going while others are stopping (again) to refuel and it will train your body and brain to be in control of you regardless of the situation, who is in the room, or what is being said.

Calm is a superpower and if you haven’t put this tool in your toolbox, you are missing opportunities every day to be less stressed and more in control of you.

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Stress-relieving activities may not be sufficient to capitalize on time and energy. Becoming a productive being will demand a self-care routine that combines physical, mental, and emotional health. Breathing exercises and nature walks are a few ways of mental relief tactics that can work for anyone.

There are other ways of achieving effective self-care without overwhelming our bodies. The secret is to make ourselves the prime factor in any aspect of production. Below are reasons why self-care is our secret weapon to productivity. Don’t just leave yet: we’ve saved the best for last.

Self-Care May Boost Physical Health

Physical health tops our list of reasons why we should be keen on the importance of self care for productivity. For instance, how can players be expected to perform at their peak if they are exerting themselves during training? A whole week of training with more than 3 games is an overwhelming routine, and self-pampering does not always result in our expectations.

When we work in a stressful environment, our body muscles tense as a defensive mechanism. Unfortunately, constant stress will not relax our physique, and the muscle tension may result in headaches, back pain, and overall body pain. Before turning to medication, try out self-caring techniques that can positively impact our mood.

Self-Care Improves Mental Health

How does mental health impact productivity? Mindset is one of the fundamental ingredients of our lives. Utilizing productivity apps helps to control anxiety in the management process at work.

We all enjoy working, but operating under duress can lower our productivity. Self care for productivity will undoubtedly save the day and improve our mental health. After all, we need mental health to work and attain our objectives.

No More Early Morning Phone Scroll

We mostly spend the majority of time on our phones or in front of computers. For us to have a positive impact on productivity, we must adjust our routine. Make it a habit not to pick up a phone first thing in the morning. Instead, we should develop a morning routine in which we prioritize our mental health above electronic gadgets. Again, we should take this opportunity to do something for ourselves, even if it’s for a few minutes.

How to Make a Productive Move

Occasionally, we get involved in things that lower our self-esteem. We need to learn to let go. As entrepreneurial beings, we make lists of the objectives that need full attention. To some degree, we find ourselves lacking time for holidays or retreats, all in the name of hard work. In thus doing, we live up to the mantra, “all work, no play!”

Who said tormenting ourselves with complex ambitions is a sign of triumph? Stop what you’re doing and take a break. A peaceful lifestyle is like medicine, and letting go of a few things may just be the antidote.

“Love yourself first, and everything else falls in line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” – Lucille Ball

Enough Sleeps Means We Care

When we get enough night’s sleep, we feel invigorated and ready to tackle the challenges of the day. Sleep improves energy and concentration. So, in return, we feel more productive. On the other hand, lack of sleep leads to mental and physical disorders.

The productivity definition differs from hard work. What do we mean? We can work the whole day, but without efficiency, we’re just wasting our energy. We Americans are well known for overworking to pay the bills. Eventually, many citizens suffer from hypertension and diabetes, but we can get back on our feet through self-care techniques.

Make Sure to Establish Limits

How often do we devote our time to self-care? Turning off our phones doesn’t always imply that we’re impolite. All we desire is a few minutes, if not hours, of peace of mind. At the workplace, we can choose to decline any last-minute meeting invitation.

If our schedule reads, “go camping with the family,” go, and have fun. Should anything come up that presents a conflict of interests, simply decline the offer politely. After all, we are exercising self-health tactics that can boost production and decision-making as we build on family bonds.

How to Increase Productivity Using Self-Care Tricks

If we want to manage our time correctly, we need to get serious. It’s hard to master self-care techniques, but others may think of it as a sign of laziness. Being more productive has a lot to do with treating ourselves rather than pressuring ourselves to work more. With that in mind, consider the following ways for dealing with efficiency guilt.

1. How to Carry Out the Daily To-Do List

So, what exactly are we discussing? Let’s start by giving an excellent example of how to increase productivity ambition. We all need necessities to survive. Luckily we have them, and that’s why we’re still alive. On the other hand, we are overburdening ourselves with a list of luxurious things that are unachievable in a single day. Avoid stress and stick to the primary listing; after all, there is tomorrow.

2. Keeping Track of What to Achieve Within a Given Day

Think about this move for a moment. Here we create a to-do list with roughly 20 smaller sections. Solving half of the matter on the table is an achievement, and the leftover tasks or items will inspire the following day. That’s how to generate a productive listing.

3. Decide When to Pursue the Goal

Early preparation can heighten self-care confidence.

“He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration, “Samuel Taylor.

If we are to succeed in our goals, we need a minimum of 5 days to plan and rethink. With a deadline ahead, we can lessen the productivity guilt.

Conclusion

Most of the time, self-care has a few repercussions. The productivity guilt can make us second-guess our decision. Letting go of some things is a sign of self-care. With peace of mind, our physical and mental elements can better make wise decisions. Maximizing our time with less effort requires a change in our daily routine.

A question to our readers: How often do we abandon our goals in the pursuit of happiness? We’d love to keep the conversation going in the comments!

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All-natural drinks for weight loss are a hot topic, from the coffee with lemon juice rumor to the chia-seed-in-water trend that nutrition pros actually got behind this week. But, with all these experimental diet drinks suddenly catching buzz thanks to TikTok, there’s a unique tea that one source suggests has been a “best kept secret for weight loss” for ages.

Keep reading to learn about the Chinese tea that science has actually shown might boost weight loss efforts. Also, read up on what two dietitians are saying is the #1 best yogurt for your gut health.

For sure, you can’t believe every weight loss tip you read. So, when we saw that an Indian news source was suggesting puerh tea has some power to support weight loss, we dug a little deeper to find out if this was the real deal.

Turns out, it seems like this puerh tea (also referred to as “pu-erh” or “pu erh” tea, and pronounced “pooh-air”) could show some effect if you’re trying to lose weight.

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NDTV.com said puerh tea comes from the Yunnan district of China and is cultivated from the Camellia sinensis—the same plant as green tea, black tea, and oolong tea.

The source also notes that similar to oolong tea, puerh tea is fermented. However, puehr tea goes through an additional process after fermentation, wherein its leaves are sun-dried in a humid environment.

As for its role in helping you lose weight? Keep reading.

RELATED: 50 Best Detox Waters for Fat Burning and Weight Loss

NDTV.com calls puerh tea “China’s best kept secret for weight loss,” and that may not be a gimmick. The source explains that puerh tea “is said to block your body from producing more fat” and is regarded for its roles in digestion and cleansing the blood of toxins and blood fat (better known in the U.S. as cholesterol).

But does this hold up? According to Healthline, it really might. The outlet cites one 2011 Japanese study with 36 participants that found when it was administered over 12 weeks, puerh tea “exhibited significant effects in reducing the mean waist circumference, BMI, and visceral fat values and might be useful for weight control and prevention of obesity development (or metabolic syndrome) in humans,” as the study’s team of cardiovascular researchers concluded.

This could be due to the tea’s fermentation process and those effects on the gut microbiome—you can read more about that in One Major Effect Pickle Juice Has on Your Gut, Says Science.

Looking to see if this could work for you? Sources note that puerh tea is often sold in this “cake” form. One place to look for it could be an Asian grocery store, or you may find puerh tea online.

In the study we cited, participants drank tea made with 333 milligrams (or 0.01 ounces) of puerh tea leaves three times a day—all before they ate a meal.

For more of the latest:

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Most of us have been spending more time in our homes over the past year (yeah thanks for that coronavirus) to the point that we’re starting to get a bit fed up of staring at the same four walls day in day out. What was once our sanctuary has fast become our prison. However, it needn’t be like that.

In this article we’re going to explore some of the ways you can transform your home into a luxury wellness retreat, so that you can once again enjoy everything your wonderful home has to offer.

How Will You Finance It?

OK first things first, let’s work out what kind of budget you’ve got to play around with, as the last thing you want to do is stretch beyond your means and get yourself into all kinds of debt. That being said, there’s nothing wrong in looking into remortgaging your house if you intend to do large scale renovations, as this could be a way to improve the price of your home in future, so think of it is as an investment. There is plenty of information available online from places such as Mortgage Guys that will help you with your research.

Once you’ve sorted out your budget, it will make it a lot easier to compile a list of what you’d like to do, or the items you’d like to buy to enhance your living space. Sometimes all it takes is a few new home accessories and a fresh lick of paint to create a completely different look to your home.

Create The Perfect Environment

Go to any spa and you’ll notice that there is focus on all five of the senses (touch, smell, taste, sound, and sight) and so your home should be no different.

To help you to create the perfect environment at home try these ideas:

• Touch – For a really luxurious feel try mix and matching different textures together. Soft fluffy cushions, natural rugs, hard sustainable flooring all help to give a layered and multi sensory feel, which adds much needed interest to our homes. Another thing to think about is how you heat or cool your home, so that it feels comfortable all year round. If you live in a hot country, it could be worthwhile for you to invest in air conditioning from somewhere like Jackharrisonair.com, and likewise if you live in a colder country make sure your home is kitted out with the most efficient heating system to keep those energy bills down too.
• Smell – Aromatherapy diffusers placed around the home will help to create different moods. Choose something like lavender for in the bedroom to help with sleep, and something light and fresh like lemon or eucalyptus for in the bathroom.
• Taste – While you can’t exactly go round eating your home, you can grow your own vegetables and herbs, which will not only taste great, but also smell and look incredible too.
• Sound – If space allows, why not add a cinema room to your home, for the perfect unwind after a hard days work. Kit it out with the best surround sound speakers and don’t forget the soundproof walls!
• Sight – If your house overlooks some amazing scenery, such as the beach, fields, a forest, or it has a good view of the sunset, you should totally make the most of this and create spaces around it. Think about adding different windows or doors to your property that open up this scenic vista even more so. Bifold doors are great for inviting the outside in, or if you really want to go full on luxe and you have the space for it Vuelift.com have some incredible glass elevators that will take your interiors game next level.

Create A Room You Can Escape To

It’s really important to have a space that is entirely yours, that you can escape from the world, and that makes you feel relaxed and restored when you spend time in it. Where we’ve been spending more time cooped up with our nearest and dearest it’s inevitable that at times tempers may have become a little frayed. Being able to spend some time in your own company, without interruption, will benefit everybody, not just you.

Fill it with all of the things that make you happy, from home accessories and furniture, to books and artwork you love, and photos of your loved ones and the adventures you have had together. For many of us, our homes have also become our places of work, and so it is more important than ever to draw a distinction between the two and create a space that you can switch off in.

It’s about time we all learned how to fall in love with our homes again and hopefully these tips will help you to do so.

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Research is now showing that a lot of the positive gut health boosting effects we see from probiotic consumption, is actually due to postbiotics. However, it’s important to note that because this topic is so new, there isn’t a ton of robust research, but here is a short breakdown. 

As mentioned above postbiotics are bioactive compounds created during the fermentation process in the gut. However, “postbiotics” is an umbrella term that can include the following compounds: metabolites, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), microbial cell fractions, functional proteins, extracellular polysaccharides (EPS), cell lysates, teichoic acid, peptidoglycan-derived muropeptides and pili-type structures. 

One type of postbiotics, short chain fatty acids (SCFA) have been shown to potentially help lower inflammatory bowel disease risk and treat diarrhea related to IBS. A specific kind of SCFA, butyrate, is associated with improved gut barrier function, which is important for proper immune response. In terms of health and disease, SCFAs also have been targeted for their therapeutic effects related to autoimmune, allergic and metabolic diseases as well as stress-related disorders. 

More research shows that postbiotics are linked to stronger immune systems, particularly in infants. 

Postbiotics have also been linked to type 2 diabetes prevention in mice studies. In this study, researchers discovered that postbiotics help to diversify the gut microbiome, which aids in decreasing the risk of developing insulin resistance. 

How to Optimize Your Postbiotics: 

Since postbiotics are the byproduct of probiotic fermentation, in order to bring more into your microbiome, you’ll want to not only consume foods with probiotics, but also focus on specific strains of probiotics, for specific health outcomes. 

For example:

• L. acidophilus LB has been shown to be a promising intervention in the treatment of  chronic diarrhea

• L. pentosus b240 might be effective in the prevention of common cold infections

• L. plantarum strains were found to inhibit pathogens and therefore may improve immune response 

If you choose to supplement, it’s important to note that not all probiotic supplements are made equal. You’ll want to research how many CFUs (colony forming units) there are and how many different strains of bacteria the product has (hint: more is usually better).  

It’s important to speak with a GI doctor and/or dietitian specializing in gut health to determine which supplement is right for you. This document gives additional information on which strains and products may help treat different conditions.

When going for the food-first route, be sure to not only consume probiotic food but also prebiotic fiber foods. WIthout prebiotics, the probiotic bacteria will have nothing to feed on and postbiotics won’t be produced!

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