Since elective surgeries have resumed, more patients are seeking help at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute for a wide range of conditions, from peripheral artery disease and complex valve repairs to minimally invasive cardiac bypass surgery, the specialty of Joseph McGinn, M.D., the Institutes chief of cardiac surgery. He is relieved to see patients avoid delays in their care.

With any planned surgery orprocedure, we must weigh the risk of delay against the benefit of movingforward, Dr. McGinn explains. In some situations, it may not be safe to delayfurther.

Taking proactive steps can increasepatients chances of recovering safely and returning to good health. In mostcases, full recovery after a heart procedure takes a few weeks; more complexsurgeries may require several months.

Here are some guidelines to helppave the road to recovery during these extraordinary times:

Avoid Exposure

Following surgery, the body is morevulnerable less able to fight off infection, including COVID-19. Coronavirus isspread mainly from person-to-person through tiny droplets in the air whenpeople cough, sneeze or even talk. The best way to prevent infection is toavoid exposure to the virus in the first place.

As you recover, remember to:

Stay at home as much as possible. Avoid public spaces, especially if they are crowded or enclosed.

Cover your mouth and nose with a face mask if you must be around others, and stay at least six feet away.

Wash your hands often, either with soap and water for 20 seconds or a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol.

Cut Down on Caregivers

Having someone at home with you inthe days and weeks after surgery can be very helpful. Still, its best to limityour caregivers to one or two people.

If possible, its best for yourcaregiver to be someone youre already in frequent contact with, such as aspouse or adult family member.

Caregivers should follow guidelinesto prevent the spread of infection, including wearing a mask outside the home,washing hands frequently, distancing from others and avoiding crowded publicspaces where they might be exposed to the virus.

If your caregivers go out or are exposed to others, you may wish to ask them to wear a mask at home when they are near you. Deborah Birx, M.D., coordinator of the White Houses coronavirus task force, recently suggested wearing face masks at home can prevent transmission of the coronavirus to vulnerable individuals in a household.

Keep Your Circle Small

Visiting someone who is convalescingis a normal custom, but these are not normal times. Every visitor who comesinto your home increases your risk.

Unless they already share yourhousehold, avoid close contact with other people even if you know them wellor they are family.

Maintaining distance doesnt justapply to those who appear sick. Be wary about getting too close to anyone. Somepeople, including children, are asymptomatic carriers, which means they notshow signs of carrying the virus and can pass it on to you unknowingly.

If you do get visitors, do nottouch, hug or kiss them. Do not shake hands or bump elbows. Wave and greet themfrom a distance.

If you do allow visitors, keep alist of their names and when the visit occurred. This will help with contacttracing if someone becomes sick. Memory alone can be unreliable.

Stake Your Space

Especially if you live in a multi-generational household: Those who share your home may be going out for various reasons, such as work or errands. As much as possible, stay in a specific room and away from them. If possible, use a separate bathroom.

If you need to be around otherpeople (or even pets), wear a mask or covering over your nose and mouth.

Avoid sharing personal householditems, such as dishes, drinking glasses, cups, eating utensils, towels, orbedding with other people in your home.

Frequently clean and disinfecthigh-touch surfaces such as phones, remote controls, counters, tabletops,doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables.

Know the Trouble Signs

Keep an eye out for symptoms ofCOVID-19 and post-surgical complications. Dont be afraid to seek medical helpif things seem out of the ordinary. If you are showing any of these signs,consult your physician or seek emergency care:

Feed Your Recovery

Watch for Stress

Heart surgery can bring on arollercoaster of emotions. This is normal. Concerns about COVID-19 may add toyour stress and anxiety. Take breaks from social media and news coverage, whichcan increase distress. Instead, stay connected with family and friends viaphone and video chats. Rest, relax and do something you enjoy. If recommendedby your care team, go for walks outside. If you start to feel overwhelmed,share your feelings with people you trust.

Tags: COVID-19, Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute

See the rest here:
Paving the Road to Recovery During COVID-19: Seven Steps to Keep You Safe After Heart Surgery - Baptist Health South Florida

By Marvin Charles 21h ago

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Cape Town - Their owners will be arrested if restaurants not comply with the curfew, Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane says.

She urged businesses in the tourism sector to comply with regulations, including the curfew. We hold regular engagements with the restaurants on this. Everyone must comply with the curfew; the consequences (of non-compliance by a restaurant) will be that the manager and the owner will be arrested, she said.

Under the rules for level 2 of the lockdown, travel between provinces and use of beaches and parks are permitted. Our road to recovery as a sector has begun; we will in the coming weeks consolidate inputs received on the Tourism Recovery Strategy before we submit our plan to Cabinet, Kubayi-Ngubane said.

Our intention is to start as soon as possible with the implementation of the recovery plan. We are mindful that this is critical as tourism is one of the pillars for the broader South African economic recovery and growth.

The regulations for accommodation include establishments keeping occupancy rates at 50% in reception and breakfast areas, and on-site use of alcohol is permitted in licensed restaurants and bars, with the curfew starting at 10pm.

For weddings, venues must comply with the limit of 50 people in attendance. Also permitted to open are amusement parks, family entertainment centres, zoos, aquariums, science centres and nature and game reserves and national parks.

Tourism has been the hardest-hit sector during the lockdown, with over 600000 jobs under threat. Tourism Business Council of SA chief executive Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa said: We want patrons to know that coming to establishments is safe.

The idea of being out and about again may seem daunting; however the protocols ensure a great, uncompromised experience, with appropriate safety processes embedded ... Patrons now have the option to look for establishments displaying the Travel Safe Eat Safe decal, indicating they are adhering to these ... protocols.

Cape Argus

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Restaurant owners warned about being arrested if they disregard the curfew - IOL

A Parsee is no more a representative of Indians, than a Nestorian Christian would be of Ottomans.

The Spectator

Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinyar Patel writes in this splendidly researched, elegantly written book, made at least two whistle-stop tours across most of India. Neither of these tours touched the South but there is no mistaking the fact that he was a respected figure across India.

The great Tamil poet Subramania Bharati wrote a four-stanza poem on the occasion of Naorojis 80th birthday: the Grand Old Man of India, Bharati said, battled with words rather than with weapons. (A few years later, Bharatis weekly, India, published in exile from Pondicherry, carried Naorojis portrait on its front page.)

Dinyar Patel, Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism, Harvard University Press, 2020.

A more apt encomium could not have been paid: for Naoroji ripped apart the legitimacy of British rule in India with his searing polemics founded on statistics from British reports themselves using the strategy of the turning of defence witnesses.

As Patel points out, despite the ravages of time and the apathy of our record-keepers and archivists, that some thirty thousand documents from his collection have survived themselves tell a tale of the indefatigable work that he did with his pen and his tongue.

His untiring work prompted one contemporary observer to remark: Here Mr Naoroji paused to perform an operation known as breathing, which, I am informed by medical friends, is a process that human beings cannot safely neglect for any length of time.

The foremost pioneer and proponent of the drain theory that Indias poverty and British rule were causally linked Naoroji has not been the subject of a biography since Independence. The Publications Division of the government of India only republished an abridged version of Rustom P. Masanis 1939 biography in its Builders of Modern India series.

To students of Indian history Naoroji is known by the title of his 1901 compilation of writings on the drain theory, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India and as someone who had the unique distinction of presiding over three sessions of the Indian National Congress.

The art of biography in India is a neglected child of both history and literature, and Patel deserves praise for thumbing his nose at the vagaries of academic fashion to write this extensively researched and well-paced book. Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism not only extends our understanding of early Indian nationalism but also throws light on the world of Victorian Britain and the intellectual and political currents that fed into it.

Patel traces Naorojis life in three phases. Born more than three decades before the Great Revolt of 1857, Naoroji belonged to the first generation of modern educated Indians in Western India centred mostly in Elphinstone College. Brought up on a diet of liberal thought it did not take long for Naoroji to see through the hypocrisy of the British. In the first phase of Naorojis career, he was for some time the diwan of Baroda state.

Also read: Swaraj, Agitation and an Intrepid Spirit: Dadabhai Naorojis Final Days

Even by this time, in the early 1870s, Naoroji had begun to articulate his ideas about the economic exploitation of India. In the subsequent years and decades, these ideas were buttressed by even better data and more forceful exposition.

This was no mere academic argument, for this was foundational to early Indian nationalism, and it must have taken much courage to articulate, as when he said, as early as in 1867: No prophet is required to foretell the ultimate result of a struggle between a discontented two hundred millions, and a hundred thousand foreign bayonets.

As Patel points out this was a period of staggering intellectual activitythat had a deep and last impact on early Indian nationalism especially at a time when there was no clear dichotomy between economic nationalism and its political variant.

In the second phase of his career, Naoroji turned to Westminster and tried to seek entry into the British parliament. After his first abortive attempt to win from Holborn he ultimately succeeded, in 1892, to win from Central Finsbury by a margin of just five votes and earning the moniker Dadabhai Narrow Majority.

Naoroji won against heavy odds. Racial prejudice was rife with no less than the British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury stooping low to publicly draw attention to the colour of Naorojis skin. As a member of a miniscule minority, his credentials to represent India were questioned. It speaks for Naorojis tenacity that he secured a liberal party ticket against bitter inner party rivalry. Naoroji forged alliances with Irish home rulers, the working class and women suffragists. Patel reconstructs the story in much detail.

Also read: Power and Dominance: The Indelible Link Between Race and Oppression

Readers may wonder if it adds any value to his story but it is a masterly exercise in delineating and understanding the underbelly of a limited democracy at work. In the parliament Naoroji, despite the indifference shown by members to his demands and arguments in the cause of India, kept up the pressure and tried to win concessions for Indians. Simultaneous examinations for civil services in both India and Britain were a priority for him. If his parliamentary efforts did not produce much concrete results at least it demonstrated to the next generation of Indian nationalists its futility and the sham of British fair play.

The chapter preceding the Central Finsbury campaign uses a huge trove of ephemeral receipts and brochures and letters to demonstrate the wide respect that Naoroji was able to command among the Indian diaspora of Victorian times not only in Britain but across the empire and even outside. Particularly impressive is the wide respect that Naoroji commanded from Bulgaria and Shanghai, the Cape Colony and Zanzibar.

The last phase of Naoroji was marked by profound bitterness but it was also the time when [h]e spoke in the bold, unfettered language of constant protest. Naoroji took racist politics head on; his horizons were global and he struck alliances not only with Irish home rulers but black activists in the US and socialists and anti-imperialists.

Also read:Celebrating the Champaran Satyagraha, a Hundred Years On

The crowning moment was his president-ship of the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1906. It could be said that Naoroji delayed the split between the Moderates and Extremists by a year, and committed the Congress to a demand for Swaraj, unqualified by ifs and buts. The Calcutta Congress session was Naorojis swansong. Naoroji was now a grand old man of 81 and he retired only when further exertion would have meant certain death. For a man who was born a full generation before the great revolt to have been relevant, even respected, until he was past 80 was no mean achievement.

Patel is evidently in awe of his subject, and one can imagine his face lighting up as he pores over the fading documents to reconstruct and interpret Naorojis life. Some years ago, in collaboration with the fastidious scholar of early Indian nationalism, S.R. Mehrotra Patel, produced an edited volume of Naorojis correspondence which will now stand as a companion volume to this engaging biography.

For all his admiration, Patel is even-handed and does not paper over Naorojis flaws. He draws attention to Naorojis soft-pedalling about British imperialism in the early part of his parliamentary tenure, calling it cloyingly moderate. Patel also points out his silence on caste, untouchability and minority representation.

When Naoroji died in 1917, after some well-deserved years of rest and quiet, Bombay city came to a near standstill with Congress and Muslim League volunteers clearing the path for the funeral hearse. Dadabhai Naoroji was a Gujarati of whom all Indians can be proud.

A.R. Venkatachalapathy is a historian.

Read the rest here:
At Last, a Biography on India's Grand Old Man - The Wire

Photo credit: Instagram/Strangerthingsdriveinto

From House Beautiful

Stranger Things is back. On the heels of the Duffer Brothers announcing two more seasons of the Upside Down thriller, Netflix is promoting the upcoming fourth season with a pandemic-friendly experience. The Stranger Things Drive-Into comes to L.A. this fall for fans of the series ready to safely explore Hawkins, IN.

Netflix has partnered with event platform Fever and Secret Cinema, an immersive theater company famous for its recreations of famous sets, to bring to life iconic locations from season three. Visitors can drive through the Starcourt mall, the Upside Down, and the underground Russian lab, according to The Verge. The UK-based production company is known for it's true to life performances from its staff of actors and will adapt their interactive plays for the drive through. The event's website touts audio and visual effects that can be experienced from the safety of your own car.

Tickets start at $59 for the hour-long interactive experience and promise familiar sights as well as "unforeseen and unusual occurrences" for new fans and series regulars alike. Visitors are encouraged to sign up for the waitlist before ticketing opens at noon on August 26th.

Ready to drive through 1985? Thrown on a Hawaiian shirt and sign up for the waitlist to score tickets to the live event here. Stranger Things: The Drive-Into Experience opens in October in downtown L.A.

Follow House Beautiful on Instagram.

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You Can Drive Through the 'Strangers Things' Sets This Fall - Yahoo Lifestyle

We proudly present part 56 of our open call, non-juried, online exhibition entitled "Artists in the time of Coronavirus!" A huge thank you to our 300+ participants! The deadline to submit has passed and we thank everyone who participated in the series. This is our last post in this series, at least for now.

Our fifty-sixth post of the series, Artists in the Time of Coronavirus includes Chau Nguyen, Juno Rosenhaus, Milicent Fambrough, William Hannum, and Clio Herbert! Thank you for sharing with us and the Philly art community!

Submissions are closed as of July 29, 2020 at 11:59 PM, and this is our final post (at least for now) Thanks for followingArtists in the Time of Coronavirus. We have a wonderful community and are so proud of being able to share everyones art.

The last few months for me resulted in lots of life change, mood swings, not to mention a newfound concern for COVIDs impact on the arts in Philly and worldwide. I miss seeing my art network. I miss walking into an art gallery and being confronted with a thought-provoking piece that shifts the space around it. Hell, I even miss doing art fairs and pop-up events, where I might feel too introverted to initiate a conversation.

Some days I like to think this is a historic moment that I would remember for years to come. Other days, I think about my increased carbon footprint, altered diet, physical fatigue, and ambiguous prospects. Then I would paint landscapes. There is something absolutely reassuring about immersing myself in a single moment in time, remembering its simultaneous tranquility and intensity, and understanding how light guides my perception of colors. These landscapes keep me going. In this act of painting is a small declaration: I am still here, observing life through brushstrokes. I am not required to be strong and outspoken all the time; I just need to live.

I am a Vietnamese immigrant artist based in Philadelphia. My visual language draws from memory, cultural roots, and landscape elements to convey frictions at the intersection of cultural identity, domestic trauma, mental illnesses, and transnational belonging. My IG is @chauspace and my website is https://chauspace.com.

I am a lesbian photographer in my late-50s living in the Mantua neighborhood of West Philly.

Waking Under Shelter was my response to the early shelter-in-place time period. Every morning for two and a half months I took a selfie upon waking. This resulted in 73 separate images which I made into a montage of nine images every week or two, culminating in a ninth and final montage containing the eight prior montages and one new central image.

Making montages out of my daily selfies was a way to share a part of myself with friends during the pandemic and also share the images with the wider community on social media in support of my photography practice.

The second image, Left Hand, is one of the 73 images in black and white.

Based on responses from my Waking Under Shelter series I began a project focusing on lesbians during the pandemic titled Visible Under Shelter: Lesbians During COVID, a virtual exhibition of lesbian lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I receive selfie submissions from lesbians worldwide which I share on Instagram and Facebook. The in-progress series is on IG @visiblelesbians. Readers can help spread the word about the Visible Under Shelter: Lesbians During COVID project by sharing @visiblelesbians and/or Visible Under Shelter with their networks.

Website: https://www.junorosenhaus.com/IG: @junorosenhaus + @visiblelesbians

I am a contemporary artist and writer from San Antonio Texas.Instagram handle @milicent210

Hi, my name is William Hannum and Im an artist working in Philadelphia. Last year I moved to the area to start working here, as it seemed like an affordable and rigorous environment for artists. So far I absolutely love it! My main focus is sculpture, and recently I have been working on projects involving 3D printing and fiberglass, which I use to create large honeycomb forms. To finance my work (and life) I started a business in Philly doing home repairs and improvements. With the onset of social distancing, that contractor work has completely dried up, but Im hopeful Ill be able to weather the financial situation with some of the government aid. Now I have lots of time to do my artwork, but its a tough time to be buying the necessary materials. Once everyone can safely gather again, I would love to put together a show with another Philadelphia artist or two!

If you would like to support me by buying a smaller work on paper, please reach out and I will send over some images!

Email: williamtaylorhannum@gmail.com

My current body of work deux focuses on the dichotomy between our need for connection and fear of vulnerability. The work reflects an understanding that we each have our own set of personal armour built up over time through our encounters with others, with the intention of keeping us safe. The pieces are activated when worn, their relationship to the wearer exposing this frictive dualism.

The two pieces shown were completed in February just before shelter in place was implemented and wearing a mask in public was mandated. The heightened necessity for human connection during shelter in place continues to further contextualize the importance of this work for me. I find myself continuously asking: How can we navigate these boundaries (both personal and social) to fulfill our inherently human need for connection?It has been inspiring and comforting to read all the other posts from this project. A welcome reminder that we are not alone.

artist website http://www.clioherbert.com

3D print, artist, boundaries, Chau Nguyen, Clio Herbert, collage, coronavirus, covid, covid-19, February, Fiberglass, global pandemic, honeycomb, IG, Instagram, Juno Rosenhaus, language, Lesbian, mantua, Milicent Fambrough, philadelphia, philly, photography, sculptor, sculpture, shelter, transnational, vietnamese, Visible Under Shelter, visual, Waking Under Shelter, weather, west philly, William Hannum

More here:
Artists in the time of Coronavirus, an ongoing virtual exhibition, Part 56 - theartblog.org

Jennifer Keelanleft her wheelchair at the bottom of the Capitol building steps. She was eight years old, the youngest person participating in the"Capitol Crawl." She stuffed a pamphlet into the pocket of her pinstripe jeans. She intended to hand it to a member of Congress, urging them to pass theAmericans with Disabilities Act. As she dragged herself up the steps she exclaimed,"I'll take all night if I have to."

There was anger in her voice and it is an anger that I, and many other disabled scientists, can relate to.

The ADA prohibits discrimination against disabled people. Yet here we are, thirty years after its passage, and disabled scientists still don't have access to our work and learning spaces. And when we say we don't have access, we mean that quite literally.

At UC Davis, there is an outdoor teaching area that may appear unremarkable to most. But it caught the eye of Megan Lynch, a Master's student in Horticulture and Agronomy. She took a picture and posted it on Twitter, asking able-bodied folks to #SpotTheAccessibilityFail, a hashtag she created.

Uneven stones, a small step, a faded map - all barriers that prevent disabled people from using this space. "It was not designed with the idea that horticulture students at a public university would include disabled people, Lynch said via email.

Administrations treat the ADA as if it is the gold standard for accessibility. But disabled people know that it mandates only the bare minimum and most campuses fail to meet it.

Lynch isn't impressed. She has had trouble getting anyone at UC Davis to care about disability inclusion, even her union. So she foundedUC Access Now, a campaign for universal design, accessibility, and inclusion for disabled people on the University of California campuses.

This campaign is important. But as Lynch says, "It's hard enough to survive as a disabled student without adding on unpaid DEI work in the form of activism." It isn't the responsibility of disabled scientists to break down the barriers meant to exclude us.

"The assumption that no one with a disability could ever possibly do [horticulture and agronomy] is part of what keeps the field so inaccessible." Abled people refuse to change and that is why there are so few disabled people in science, Lynch said. And she is right.

It's time to show up for disabled scientists. To fulfill the promise made to us thirty years ago.It's time for change.

You can follow UC Access Now on Twitter at @AccessUC and read their Demandifestohere.

[Ed: An earlier version of this article misused the term "able-bodied" in the 8th paragraph.This has been replaced with the appropriate term, "abled." The distinction is important as there are some disabled people who are able-bodied. Dan Samorodnitsky, Senior Editor]

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A new shapeshifting species of tardigrade with spiky eggs stumps scientists - Massive Science

My husband is a big guy that likes to eat, so normal diets do not work for him.By simply following a low-carbohydrate meal plan, he lost 21 pounds in 3 months and has kept it off.Eating this way shouldnt even be called "dieting,"as you're not restricting food intakejust carbs. Its all about choosing wisely.

Strictly counting carbs or weighing foods isnt necessary.Nothing is off-limits, just starkly lower the serving size of starchy carbs.Eating low-carb, not no-carblike the Keto or Atkins dietis easy and doesnt have the nasty side effects like bad breath from ketosis. One of the hardest parts of starting a diet is figuring out what to eat every day, so Ive designed a week-long meal plan for someone starting a low-carb diet.

*To calculate the number of carbohydrates in the food, simply take the carbohydrates per serving minus fiber and minus halfof any sugar alcohols.

One or 2 fried or boiled eggs (there's only about 1 carb in an egg, so if you're hungry, its up to you how many you want to eat), 2 pieces of bacon, and coffee or tea (black or with sugar-free creamer and or sugar-free sweetner).

Half an apple with 1 or 2 tablespoons of peanut butter.

Turkey or ham and cheese sandwich on low-carb bread.Sara Leehas a great low-carb sandwich bread called Delightful and it comes in multigrain or whole wheat7 carbs a slice. Feel free to put lettuce, sprouts,or cucumbers on your sandwich, if that's what you prefer.Low-carb dieting also allows for lots of mayonnaise and mustard!

Shake and Bake oven-baked chicken (whichever pieces you want to eat) and a salad with a low-carb dressing like ranch, blue cheese, or various light dressings.

One piece of low-carb toast with peanut butter, coffee, or tea.

Breaded chicken patty sandwich with buffalo sauce and blue cheese crumbles (if you dont like blue cheese, you can do cheddar) on a piece of low-carb bread.Use iceberg lettuce for the second piece of bread on top, and carrotsand celery sticks with ranch on the side.

A two-thirds serving of veggie chips (Terra brandis delicious!). You can also have a dip such as French onion or queso.

Grilled or pan-made steak (however you do steak) or fish or salmon if you do not eat beef.Green beans with baconand a salad with low-carb dressing.Low-carb garlic bread spreadbutter, garlic salt, and parmesan cheese on low-carb bread.Coat pan with olive oil or butter and bake at 400F for 5 minutes.

Breyer's CarbSmart ice cream (you can find at King Soopers).

Half an apple cut up with equal slices of cheddar cheese, and coffeeor tea.

Lettuce-wrapped burger fromFreddys Frozen Custard and Steakburgers and a small order of cheese curds!

Fried or baked (your choice) chicken salad with boiled eggs, cucumber, carrots, bacon bits, sunflower seeds, low-carb dressing, and 1 piece of low-carb garlic bread.Make a big salad!

Scrambled eggs with sausage, veggies, bacon or ham (or all) and cheese, and coffee or tea.

Low-carb proteinbar or a small bowl of mixed berries with whipped cream on top.

Chicken wingsyou choose the flavorcarrots and celery with ranch dressing to dip.

Beef or chicken tacos in low-carb tortillas (La Banderitataste like full-carb tortillas and have the same texture) with tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, and sour cream. Half an avocado cut into strips and salted, green and red pepper cut up as a side.

Ham-steak sandwich,a small bowl of berries with whipped cream, and coffee or tea.

Canned tuna sandwich on low-carb bread with mayonnaise, pickles, tomatoes, and lettuce. Halfa serving of veggie chips.

Drinks to choose from: diet gin or vodka tonic with a lime;glass of red wine;lower-carb beer;diet 7-UPseltzer with vodka,a lime, and a splash of cranberry.

Dont eat any bread on the table.Meat and vegetables. Check out the appetizers that dont usually include all of the starchy sides.

Bacon or sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich on a piece of low-carb bread.

Quesadilla on low-carb tortilla, black olives on side, and sour cream and salsa.

Lettuce wraps with iceberg, butter lettuce or lettuce cups, grilled chicken strips, thin carrot strips, cucumber slices, red pepper slices,cilantro, and peanut sauce (I buy deliciousHouse of Tsang Bangkok Peanut Sauce at King Soopers).

Omeletload it up with whatever meat and vegetables and cheese you like. (How to make an omelet!)

Chicken tortilla soup with a low-carb tortilla on the side.

Pot roastwith green beans and carrots.

Have you made unique and delicious low-carb meals? Any other suggestions? Let us know in the comments.

Follow this link:
Low-Carb Meal Plans for Every Day of the Week - Our Community Now at Colorado

One of the most frustrating things with trying to look great when getting ready for a wedding is to put a lot of effort into your fitness to try to lose weight and not see any results.

This can be frustrating but it can also because of things we are doing in association with our training that is not helping.

Here is a list of some of the most common faults I see. For more tips and advice email [emailprotected] with subject wedding and I can send more information to you.

You are overcompensating

Whether a hard session at the gym or a long week of having great willpower avoiding unhealthy foods, we all have a tendency to reward ourselves for hard work. However, treating yourself too much for work done can be counterproductive and even undo the hard work you are supposed to be rewarding. We frequently overestimate the calories we burn in exercise and underestimate those in our healthy diets, and rewarding yourself for this can increase the net calorie intake, halting your progress. It is important to carefully monitor what you are eating and burning to ensure that you do not unpick the hard work already done.

No lucozade or sports drinks or protein bars are needed after a training session. If you are trying to lose weight, then water and maybe a banana is your answer. A good tip is to exercise before a meal you normally have. That way you can exercise, have water afterwards, and have your meal as your food like normal.

You are not getting enough sleep

You may think that cutting back on sleep to make time for a workout is great for your health and fitness. However not getting enough sleep could actually minimise the benefits of exercise and cause you to gain weight. Not only can sleep deprivation affect exercise performance and endurance but it slows down your metabolism, increases appetite, and makes you more likely to give into cravings. Not getting enough sleep can cause an increase in ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite, encouraging you to reach for the cupboards more, while decreasing the hormone leptin that stimulates fullness.

Sleep also provides the needed recovery from both exercise and day-to-day life, and without muscle and mind recovery, your willpower and motivation will decrease. Stress is also a significant factor in the progress of weight loss. When stressed the body is in a constant state of fight or flight, increasing the levels of cortisol, an appetite stimulant. Getting adequate rest and recuperation through sleep, advised around eight hours, will reduce stress and help you control appetite.

You are drinking too many sugary drinks

I alluded to this with the first point but when working hard to keep up your exercise regime and eat cleanly, you can sometimes forget that fluids have an impact on calories. Picking up a tasty coffee on the way to work or embracing a weekend with a few alcoholic drinks can add greatly to your calorie intake without even realising it. Sugary drinks, particularly carbonated drinks, are the enemy to any diet as we generally do not associate fluids with calories.

While we all know the main calorie culprit when it comes to our drinks is alcohol, you should also consider the calories in fruit juice, smoothies, soft drinks, and many hot drinks. Substituting these devious devils can be easily accomplished; fruit juices for no-sugar cordials, putting sweetener and fat-free milk in hot drinks, and sticking to lower calorie spirits such as gin and vodka, can all help when trying to avoid drinking your calories. It is worth remembering however, carbonated drinks, even diet ones, are detrimental to diets. Even sugar free or diet sodas will affect your bodys reaction and cravings for sugar, and so it is worth remembering that despite the zero calorie label, carbonated drinks are generally harmful to your waistline and should be given a wide berth.

You are eating too little or skipping meals

While eating too much food is the most obvious cause of weight gain, eating too little can also hinder your ability to shift the pounds. Your body has a natural instinct to protect itself, so when it is not given an adequate amount of food and nutrients it will automatically go into starvation mode when deprived of such nutrition, causing the metabolism to slow down and the body to hoard food as fat. As a result, it will become much more difficult for you to lose weight.

Think of your body as an animal preparing for hibernation; when deprived of nutrients, the body will prepare for this shortage of food by storing any food eaten as fat. This is because when exhausted of its carbohydrate stores, its next option is to burn fat and protein. The body needs to reserve its muscle store and so will choose fat over protein as fuel.

When in starvation mode, the metabolism will slow and will store any food eaten as fats to ensure that more fats are available for fuel instead of muscle. It is therefore important to keep your metabolism high and provide your system with fuel to ensure the aversion of this starvation mode. I recommend big dinners with loads of vegetables and meat. Have two dinners a day and you will see weight fall off.

Your diet is too limited

Restricting yourself to fad diets or extreme dieting can be worse for the waistline that eating too much or too little, cutting out certain foods altogether or not sticking to a healthy diet regime can affect the rate of weight loss. The body performs most efficiently on a balanced diet, receiving all the needed nutrients and minerals it requires and so completely cutting certain areas from your diet will only hinder your progress as the body needs a variety of foods.

Cutting fatty foods and typically unhealthy foods are key to weight loss but totally elimination areas of diets are counterproductive. Fad diets and overly restrictive diets are also unsustainable over an extended period of time. Completely cutting carbs or fat may work for a short period of time but is essentially unfeasible as you can start craving certain foods which even those with unbreakable willpower will eventually give into.

You do not vary your workouts

If you have fallen into a rut with your exercise routine, you may no longer be getting the most out of your workouts. Doing the same workouts day after day can not only affect your motivation and excitement with exercise but can put your body into a sedentary regime, not producing the benefits exercise should be giving. When you workout your body will improve in its fitness and ability of whatever you are training but if you do not push yourself, increase your intensity or change workouts, your bodys effort and improvement will plateau. Exercise will become ineffective and the results will slowly begin to dissolve.

Both mentally and physically, increasing intensity and mixing up your routines can significantly change your results, particularly the combination of cardio and weight training can encourage the reduction of your waistline quicker. Weight training can not only increase muscle mass but increase metabolic rate encouraging weight loss, studies have shown that people who combine cardio and resistance training lose weight quicker than cardio alone.

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You are not drinking enough water

Water can affect weight for a number of reasons; firstly water is an effective tool in suppressing your appetite. Too often do our bodies misconstrue hunger for dehydration and so drinking a glass of water before a meal, snack or even when you feel hungry will help your body identify when it is actually hungry and dehydrated. Cold water can even speed up the metabolism and help curb the cravings for sugar and fizzy beverages, typical issues in many peoples diets. Water also ensures the proper functioning of the kidneys and digestive system, as without enough water the body uses the liver as additional support, resulting in the storing instead of burning of fat.

You do not eat breakfast

As the first meal of the day, breakfast is considered as an important part of your diet, restoring the fuel and nutrients burnt through the night. Breakfast is an important way to prepare your body for the day ahead. Although dragging yourself out of bed 15 minutes earlier to ensure you eat may sound uninviting, breakfast should be an essential part of your day. Eating a hearty meal after sleep is an efficient way to control hunger and ensure fatigue or temporary starvation does not occur, helping you resist overeating or eating fatty foods at lunch time. But breakfast also has physiological benefits; keeping your blood sugar at a healthy level, lowering cholesterol, and keeping saturated fat low.

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Get in to wedding shape by avoiding mistakes - Mayo Advertiser