[Juri] Body Shapes

Hello everyone, it's Juri ~

I've said I would have written a post about body shapes and here I am!

First of all: have you read the post about somatotypes? If you haven't run and read it, because this will help you to understand better this one.

I decided to write a post about this topic because many girls/women complain about their body, wishing a total change of that. Often this change is impossibile, because you wish something your body can't reach. 

I hope this post will be helpful to you to understand what are your limits, what are your possibilities. Everyone can be beautiful in his own way, but learn how is really important to stay healthy!

The first body shape I want to analyze (following the order in the image above) is the reverse triangle body shape (also known as the apple body shape), that is typical of endomorphs and mesomorphs. A person who has a body shape like this usually tends to gain weight above the waist or bottom, and in fact the chest and the stomach are large. Hips and legs are slim, shoulders are wide: the top half of the body of an "apple" is indeed bigger than the bottom one.

Then there's the triangle body shape (also known as spoon or pear body shape), that is usually connected to the mesomorph somatotype. Unlike the reverse triangle, the "pear" tends to gain weight below the waist, in the lower part of the body. Instead, the upper part of the body in small, with small chests, narrow shoulders, flat stomach and great abs, while hips are wide.

The hourglass body shape tends to be endomorph or mesomorph, as the reverse triangle. The upper body and the lower body are well-proportioned: shoulders and hips are almost the same size and the waist is really defined. The hourglass tends to gain weight all over the body, especially in the hip and chest area.

The rectangle body shape (also known as banana shape or ruler shape) is usually characteristic of the ectomorph somatotype. Who has this kind of body tends to be waif-like and slim, with shoulders, hips and waist of almost the same size; the indentation at waist is very little. Rectangles tend to put on weight in stomach and bottom, while maintaining slender arms and legs.


Obviously, you don't have to take this information literally. We are all different, and no one fits perfectly in a model. As I said in the post about somatotypes I am mainly mesomorph but, guess what? I am a rectangle! It's true, I have some ectomoph characteristic, but I still remain a mesomorph. So, remember, read these articles with attention and don't try to find the body shape with all the features you have, but with the most similars to yours! 

As you can see, all the body shapes are beautiful, and so you are beautiful. Appreciate yourself is really important to reach your goals, so work on your body shape and make it always better, without trying to change it! Maybe it could be difficult at the beginning but, trust me, you will feel really better if you start loving every part of your body. And if you feel better, you will reach your goals better ~

See you in the next post ~ Remember to smile always and to never give up, because nothing is impossible if you believe in it ♥ 

[Juri] Somatotypes

Hi! It's Juri here ~ 
Today I want to tell you something about the body types! 
Workouts should depend on our own body type, so it's really important to learn its characteristics. Before we start talking about our own workouts and diets, Gabriella, Momo and I, would like to give you the largest possible amount of informations about body structures, so you'll be able to choose the workouts and the alimentation more suitable to you. First of all, there are mainly three types of body: the endomorph, the ectomorph and the mesomorph. 
As you can see in the image below, they're really different in shape, and so they have different qualities.

The endomorph has an underdeveloped musculature, strong bones, and generally a protuberant abdomen and a wide waist (it depends on your shape). He easily accumulates fat, due to his slow metabolism, so he has difficulties in losing weight. Anyway, the endomorph has a good muscle growth and a great digestive capacity.

The endomorph, for its ability to endure work and its need to burn calories, must train a lot to get an improvement in his physical form. It's necessary for the endomorph doing 5/6 workouts per week, because it's difficult for him to reach overtraining seeing that it fails to work at high intensity. The endomorph is a very strong athlete and then raises big loads, but hardly he's able to give his best. If we compare the loads of an endomorph with loads of the other somatotypes and their body weight, we see that the endomorph has less relative strength. His training should provide a good dose of cardio activity (30/ 40 minutes) in each session. The strength training should be developed with many exercises and many series using fundamental exercises that complement each other. Hitting the muscles in different ways allows you to stimulate them to maximize their potential for growth and encourages the consumption of fat, especially the intramuscular route. It typically takes 3/5 exercises per muscle. The rest between sets should be short, a maximum of one minute, firstly because this must hold high the pace of the workout to burn calories, secondly because failing to develop high intensities doesn't need big recovery, and thirdly because of his nature endomorph has high resilience. The endomorph can even train each muscle 2 times a week.

The endomorph tend to accumulate fat and gain weight, so he must pay attention to calories and especially carbs with high glycemic index (he tends to develop insulin resistance). This subject should try to have a constant caloric intake slightly less than its requirement. The muscles in these people grow equally well with a few calories, it's enough to have an adequate protein intake. The ideal intake for this body type might look like 25% carbs, 35% proteins and 40% fats.

The ectomorph has a fragile structure, thin bones, long limbs, surface areas developed, underdeveloped musculature, extremely low levels of body fat. He is ong-limbed and thin. Thanks to these qualities, people with this kind of body have a hyperactive metabolism, so they will find difficult to accumulate fat and weight and to make muscles grow. Ectomorphes have also problems in digestion, and generally catabolic trends.

The ectomorph is suitable for endurance sports more than strength trainings. Its body needs long recoveries, therefore training days must be absolutely less than those of rest ( you must train 2/3 times a week ). It is not brought to accumulate fat, so he doesn't have to do aerobic activity more than once or twice a week (it depends on train days), because this removes the already scarce energy recovery capacity of this athlete. Workouts for this body type should be short and based on the basic exercises. The ability of these individuals to build muscle are closely related to the development of strength. Ectomorph should forget high-intensity trainings: these types of training do nothing on him, but only overstress his body and slow down his progresses.

To have good performances, a diet with 55% carbohydrates, 25% protein and 20% fat is recommended. 
The ectomorph needs to push his body to the anabolism dabbing as much as possible the effects of catabolic hormones. For these reasons, it is recommended the use of omega 3 fatty acids, phosphatidylserine, acetyl-carnitine and glutamine to counteract the production of cortisol. It is important, after the workout, go quickly to restore internal balance by integrating with branched, antioxidants (carnosine and / or vitamin C), small quantities of glucose and fast absorbing proteins.

The mesomorph is the athlete's body for excellence. He's suitable for physical activity and has a good muscle strength, an active metabolism, thick skin, broad shoulders and narrow hips. He easily grow in muscles and change in weight. His muscular system is developed, as the skeletal system and the connective tissue. He has little body fat.

The mesomorph could train in any way, so get results anyway. He can do everything without any problems or overtraining, nor fat accumulation. His hormonal profile is brought to anabolism. His ability to train with high intensity and his high muscularity allowed him to lift incredible weights. He has an excellent recovery so he can workout a lot, but the high intensity workout that is able to develop , however, involves the need of a long recovery. Therefore for this somatotype is optimal a training frequency of 3/5 days per week. The cardiovascular workout serves to the mesomorph not so much to burn calories but rather to maximize the capacity to train with weights or carry out specific intensity training. Basically aerobic work allows him to express the maximum in anaerobic training so it is ideal for this subject play 10/20 minutes of aerobic activity everytime he trains. The rest between sets of exercises should be discreet (90/ 120 seconds) as his ability to train intensely require further recoveries.

The mesomorph, because of its favorable hormonal profile, could eat anything and develop muscle mass losing fat simply by exercising regularly. However, even for these people some dietary recommendations may be useful to accelerate results. Carbs for these athletes are not a problem: they can assume a high glycemic index without risking much of gaining weight; in fact after training they are absolutely suited to promote anabolism, their high sensitivity to insulin pushes sugar muscle and fat cells. The mesomorph to maximize the results still need a high-protein intake, about 33% of the total caloric needs. Assuming then about 50% of calories from carbohydrates remains a 15/20% from fat.

Obviously, these body types are generic: in fact there are also the intermediate somatotypes. To be honest, is almost impossible to find a pure somatype in nature. For exemple, theoretically, I'm a mesomorph, but I have also characteristics of an ectomorph: I hardly gain weight and, as I build my muscles in a short time, I also lose them in that time. However, the mesomorphic component is the prevailing one in my body.

So you don't have to try to find the somatotype with all your qualities, but you have to understand what one is the proponderant in you. It is really important to eat well (nutrition, as you see, change from a person to another) and to train well! Don't trust the friend who tell you he have discovered a miraculous diet, it is a totally wrong thing: it might work on him, but it's not sure it'll work on you. Personally I couldn't live without a generous amount of carbs, while Gabriella is ok eating mostly proteins. I would collapse following her diet, really. 

I hope to have helped you with this post! I'll write another post about the body shapes associated with each kind of somatotype (triangle, apple...), so stay tuned to have more informations about your body ~

Have a good day, and remember to smile and be happy even for the little things ♥

[Momo] Tasty Falafel

Hello guys, Momo here! Today I'm going to show you how to cook Falafel. They are basically balls made of chickpaea flour, so they are totally ok for vegetarian people. Plus chickpea flour is naturally gluten free, so if you are celiac you can serenely eat them! Remember to check the ingredients of your flour to make sure it doesn't contain any traces of gluten. Let's start!

Falafel

Ingredients:

 Chickpea Flour

 Hot water

 White Yoghurt

 Oregano

 Chives

Oil

Pour 160 g of flour in a bowl together with approximately 250 ml of hot water. Blend everything until you get a pretty uniform mixture. Then let it stand for about 15 minutes.

Pour a thin layer of oil in a pan and put the mixture into it. Shape it as you like, but remember that the mixture is rather liquid!

Cook the small balls for about 3-4 minute each side. Then serve it with a sauce, this way they are even more tasty! I used half a can of yoghurt with a bit of oregano and chives.

Enjoy!

[Gabriella] First post on #pancake day!

Hello and welcome on this pretty new website dedicated to healthy foods, recipes and how to be fit.

We made this blog to help other people to develop a healthy lifestyle; we are 3 writers as you can see in the header of the blog and we have different point of view on how eat healthy and how to be fit.

So, today is the 4th march and it's the PANCAKE DAY! Are you excited? Because I AM!
Pancakes are usually prepared with some ingredients that makes them not healthy at all, like butter or oil BUT today i wanna show you my own personal pancakes recipe, super healthy with low fat!

FLUFFY & LIGHT PANCAKES
(1 serving)

The ingredients to make this little bad boys are:
- 30gr of flour
- 100ml or less skimmed milk (i used the WeightWatchers Milk of Parmalat)
- 1 tbp of baking powder for sweets
- artificial sweetener like stevie or dietic (without aspartame!)
- 1 egg

The process is so easy so don't be afraid!
1) First of all, put the flour with the baking powder in a bowl and mix them up with a spoon
2) Add the egg and mix all together
3) Now it's time to add the milk, put a little bit of milk in the bowl, PAY ATTENTION: you want a creamy texture not too liquid and not too pasty, i didn't use all the milk, i added a little bit of it to find the perfect texture and i was done!
4) Add your sweetener and mix all again!
5) Grease a pan with the help of oil and scottex (this is a tecnique to use less oil on the pan!)
6) Now it's time for cooking! Warm up your pan and put in a spoon of the pancakes' mixture, wait one minute and control your pancake, try to flip it to the other side and let it cook another 50sec. When it's cooked and slighty golden remove it from the pan and put it on a plate.
7) You're done! Put your pancakes on a plate and decorate them with a little bit of maple syrup!

This pancakes have 220 calories for serving, 31gr of carb - 5,6gr of protein and 0,3gr of fat. Isn't fantastic?!

Enjoy this little babies and don't forget to follow this blog for more informations e recipes to how have a healthy lifestyle and eat healthy!

Have a good #pancakeday with your family & friends!

Gabriella♡