~'*My late night Snack*'~

After a long night out, dancing and drinking ... Energy depleted, cautiousness low and potential cravings high.

You drag yourself through the car door and focus on your way back home...

Although the fact that, a lonely gurgle in your belly has been eagerly awaiting the famous hot dog sandwich with extra-cheese and your friends preceded you into the bakery for a quick late night mankoucheh. You're still holding up for your healthy resolutions.

You're not planning to sleep hungry though, because in the event where you do so, you would only see yourself twisting by the blankets and getting no sleep!

You're wondering, how to satiate your hunger with the least amount of calories and definitely without messing up the kitchen.
Your thoughts might be scary but never as fruitful as they might get now!

A Banana is all that you need!

Despite being erroneously called fattening and too high in sugar, a small banana only contains about 100 calories, which is not much more than a medium apple. It doesn't only save many empty calories from your old late night snacks, but also provides you with essential vitamins and minerals such as Potassium, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Tryptophan.

Bananas are rich in Tryptophan, an amino acid that is converted into the calming and sleep-inducing brain chemical Serotonin. They are also considered a natural remedy to hangovers along with water. They are a good source of dietary fiber and regulate blood pressure.


In times of recession, snacking on a banana late at night, is much cheaper and healthier than any junk food item. Nevertheless, I can guarantee that ,whenever you’d detect the alluring smell of hot dogs or Manakeesh, you'd get a tiny tear in the corner of your eye. As bad as they were for you, you will miss your friends. However, you will definitely feel lighter and much healthier without them !

~'*Pop in your favorite music and let your treadmill roll*'~

When the pop group Abba sang in the late 70’s “Thank you for the music”, the studies showing the benefits of listening to music weren’t completed yet. Today, you will be singing “Thank you for the music” for increasing the positive effects of your commitment to exercise, serving as a distraction from the pain and discomfort of your workout, enhancing your feelings of pleasure and making you burn calories faster. Now that you’ve renewed your subsciption at the gym, you still have to do one simple change-select the best music that’s playing while you work out and make sure to use the proper headphones rather than earphones!

The ‘best’ music isn’t high-energy, fast-paced dance music, as many workout trainers have assumed.The ‘best’ music for working out depends on the taste of the exerciser. In one study,headed by a sports psychologist, who had 15 students each do four workouts on exercise bikes. The first one was done with no music, the second to slow music, the third to fast music, and the last to music that they picked out themselves. In every single case, the students worked harder, longer and faster when they were listening to their favorite music. The results on all the other tracks were mixed, but when students were listening to their own choice of music, they pedaled faster and harder, and worked out longer than with any of the other three selections of music.Therefore in order to please different tastes, a selection of different styles of music, that you might not have heard about, has been suggested!

Global Underground refers to a series of electronic music compilation albums which reflect the performances of high profile DJ’s in venues from around the world.The music featured is mostly progressive house, but there are some house, trance, and breakbeat releases.It is highly recommended to be listened to while running on the treadmill.

La voile Rouge refers to a series of electronic music compilations that you would want to hear on a Saturday afternoon on a St. Tropez beach. Whether you’re jogging or simply walking on the treadmill or pedaling on the humble exercise bike, tune on any voile rouge album.

Saint-Germain-des-Prés café series is a showcase of current jazz flavors fusing together elements of electro-jazz, nu-jazz and whatever buzz words are flying around for the music at this time.If you’re in the mood of chilling while lifting weights or working on the elliptical cross trainer, listen to Saint-Germain-des-Prés café.

Terry’s café Terry Lee Brown Jr. obviously knows a thing or two about putting together a fine slab of house. Deep, sexy, and packing plenty of funk, Terry's Café, has all the qualities of a great workout in an underground gym! Truly dancable but also laid back, that´s the musical formula that makes the Terry´s Café series ideal for your workout.

Celia Cruz will take you away on an exotic island with its Latin music remixes. “La vida es un Carnaval” (from the album Exitos Eterno),is a song that will strongly motivate you and force you to continue your workout even if you’ll be exhausted and sweating like a pig!

Desyn Masiello has something quite seductive in his style, something that almost makes his music exclusively suited not only to the club atmosphere but also to your harsh workout sessions.While you can certainly group this into the large spectrum known as progressive house,there isn't a single house CD that is going to move you as Desyn Masiello’s ones. Full of funky, infectious beats, with basslines and disco melodies to keep any gym floor in a frenzy!

~'*Drinking coffee before working out*'~

He was my cream, and I was his coffee. And when you poured us together, it was something.It was… a cup of confusion. Considering all the past concern about possible health risks from drinking coffee, newer reports of coffee’s possible protective effects are showing that we don’t necessarly have to say no, to that hot or cold cup of joe.

Most of us start our morning with a cup of coffee.There are many positive aspects to it and its primary ingredient, caffeine. Caffeine prevents sleepiness and sharpens your thinking by blocking the action of the neurotransmitter adenosine. It can lift your mood by affecting another neurotransmitter, dopamine. It also “revs you up” by promoting the release of adrenaline. Also,a recent study suggests that a couple cups of coffee before a tough workout may lower the chances of sore muscles later on.That cup of coffee that many gym rats, bikers and runners swill before a workout does more than energize them. It kills some of the pain of athletic exertion.And it works regardless of whether a person already had a coffee habit or not.

Caffeine works on a system in the brain and spinal cord (the adenosine neuromodulatory system) that is heavily involved in pain processing, says University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Robert Motl. And since caffeine blocks adenosine, the biochemical that plays an important role in energy transfer and thus exercise, he speculated that it could reduce pain.

Our average daily consumption of caffeine is about 280 milligrams, or the equivalent of two and a half 6-ounce cups of brewed coffee a day, but we can get coffee in so many other beverages, as well as sweets, coffee-flavored foods and over the counter and prescription medications that many of us are consuming.

Coffee Serving Size Caffeine Content

Coffee (drip) 8 oz 130 mg

Coffee (instant) 8 oz 95 mg

Espresso (depending on brand) 1 oz 50 mg

Decaf (drip or instant) 8 oz 3 mg

Iced coffee blended drink 16 oz 130 mg

Other Beverages Serving Size Caffeine Content

Classic and Diet Coke 12 oz 46 mg

Pepsi and Diet Pepsi 12 oz 36 mg

Chocolate Milk 8 oz 8 mg

Tea Serving Size Caffeine Content

Black Tea (3-minute brew) 6 oz 35 mg

Instant Tea 6 oz 25 mg

Green Tea 6 oz 25 mg

Sweets Serving Size Caffeine Content

Haagen Dazs Coffee ice cream 1 cup 58 mg

Hershey’s special dark 1.5 oz 31 mg

chocolate

Baking chocolate 1 oz 25 mg

Meanwhile, the current research could prove encouraging for a range of people, including the average person who wants to become more physically active to realize the health benefits.At high doses (defined as anywhere between 200 and 800 milligrams), we can see negative effects even in “low risk” adults, which include nervousness, anxiety and rapid heartbeat.Thus, be a moderate coffee drinking individual and espresso yourself while working out!