Celebrity Health

Steps To A Beautiful Summer Body By Adopting A Healthy Lifestyle

2006-10-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

Steps to a beautiful summer body by adopting a healthy lifestyle

There are more than 20 proven health benefits to regular exercise, including better heart health and sleeping patterns, a lower risk of osteoporosis and better control of high blood pressure. exercise is an excellent de-stressor and slimming aid as well as giving you a healthy lifestyle. cardio exercise, an exercise that increases your pulse rate makes you breathe faster and work up a sweat, will help burn fat and make you fitter. exercise, particularly resistance training, builds muscle, which will increase your metabolic rate to burn more fat.

Set yourself realistic short- term and long-term goals regarding exercise. You may dream of running a half marathon or just being able to walk 5km at a brisk pace in a few months time. Start by setting small monthly goals, and then weekly goals. Bear in mind your current fitness levels when you set goals. Consider other exercise options like swimming, mountain biking, dancing, hiking or canoeing if running, walking, cycling or gyms don’t appeal to you!

According to scientific data, it’s best to lose between 0.5kg and 1kg week, and to do this by following a balanced diet. You can lose five to 9kg of body fat in 2.5 months. Yes, you will loose more weight following a fad diet, but within weeks you’ll be fatter than ever.

Set aside time to exercise. You need at least four half hour sessions a week. Decide when suits you best whether it is mornings or afternoons. Then stick to it – you will get the best results if you do cardio exercises at least three times a week, and muscle training at least twice a week.

When the going gets tough, it’s harder to drop out if you’re accountable to a partner, so why not get a friend on board – you will be surprised how many people want to go the gym, but will not go alone!. Each time you visit gym increase your time by three minutes a session at the beginning of each week. Walk or run at a pace at which you’re able to talk to your buddy without being out of breath. Apply this ‘slow start’ principle and gradually increase in intensity of exercise. Forgive yourself if you miss a session, and get back on track as quickly as possible and keep striving towards your healthy lifestyle.

1. Every day eat two fist-sized fruits and three to five fist-sized portions of veggies.

2. Try to eat red meat only three days a week and fish or chicken four times a week.

3. Limit fried food, salami and pastries to one fist-sized portion a week.

4. Have only two tablespoons of butter or oil a day.

5. Limit all desserts and sweets to a golf-ball-sized portion a week.

6. Use skimmed milk and fat-free yoghurts.

7. Have no more than a golf- ball-sized portion of cheese a week.

8. Although nuts and avocados are healthy, they’re also rich in fats. Limit your intake to a handful of nuts and half an avo a week.

Get the whole family a Healthy Lifestyle - feel and look great in a few simple steps!

Lose Weight Fast - The 3 Most Important Tips To Success

2006-10-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

There are three reasons why most people cant lose weight and this applies to about 90% of people who embark on a diet to lose weight fast.

The three tips below are applicable to any diet, will help you lose weight fast and allow you to enjoy ANY Food you like.

There easy to do and will make your dieting a pleasure rather than a chore.

1. Be Realistic!

Healthy dieting takes time and this applies to ANY diet so don’t crash diet not only is it unhealthy it will make you ill and even more importantly when you stop the pounds will pile back on even quicker.

Take it in simple steps but use this diet to get the fastest results when you start and get you motivated – The cabbage soup diet.

It lasts only 1 week and is the fastest way to get started. It should only be used for 1 week then you can switch to any healthy diet you wish that is balanced i.e. you get all food groups

2. Starving yourself is not the answer!

Your body will only lose a few pounds a week and starving yourself will not make it any quicker or depriving yourself of any of the major food groups.

You need to eat 5 meals a day 3 main and two snacks and make sure you never skip breakfast to avoid hunger pangs later in the day.

While you need to eat 5 meals a day you need to keep in mind portion control, how do you do that?

Well lets consider say rice tuna and vegetables as a meal the size of each portion should be the size of your fist. This is a simple way to achieve portion control

So try the above and make sure you eat 3 meals per day and snack on as much fruit or vegetables as you wish.

3. One Day a week do the following

Follow your diet for six days a week and then on one day forget about your diet and eat whatever you want.

There is logic here and it’s the psychological impact on your mind.

If you overeat once a week you remove the one reason many diets fail, which is when choice is removed from you want it even more and don’t stick with your chosen diet.

By allowing yourself one day off from your diet you can say:

I will stick with the diet and I can still have the foods I really want i.e I have a choice.

So won’t this defeat the object of dieting No it wont, and there are 3 reasons why:

1. It makes NO Long term difference

You will have been eating sensibly on the other six days and one day won't make much difference.

2. It Teaches you better eating habits

By overeating and having treats you will perhaps realize that that your body has adjusted to better eating habits.

This day may not be the pleasure you thought i.e. when every day was a free day, or you don't actually want to eat as much as you thought before you came to your free day.

3. It gives a choice.

By giving us choices we are more likely to stay with the diet we have chosen.

Remember: To gain weight you have to eat a lot

Gaining weight is a long term process and you won't undo the good you have done on the other six days by having a free day. What you will do is give yourself the choice and make sticking with a diet less onerous.

No one wants to be told they can't have the foods they really enjoy, the free day gives you choice (the major reason most diets fail) and helps you stick with sensible eating longer term.

So on your free day if you fancy a Big Mac or a pizza go ahead and don’t feel guilty dieting should be a pleasure and not a chore so don’t feel guilty.

If you follow the three tips above you will be able to lose weight in a healthy fashion and reach your ultimate weight while enjoying any food you want. Try it and see!

FOR MORE FREE ADVICE

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Lose 10 Pounds Quick The Right Way

2006-10-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

Rather than trying to accomplish unreasonable milestones, try taking baby steps with your weight loss regimen. Instead of saying you want to look like a supermodel within a year, set a reachable goal of 10 pounds at a time for example. It is a lot easier to lose 10 pounds fast than it is to lose several shirt or dress sizes.

If appropriate, try to join a support community of other like-minded families who want to get rid of weight. Not only will this help keep you focused, but it's a lot more fun as well! If an activity is more fun you will be more likely to partake in it. Otherwise if it's all work and no play we tend to procrastinate.

I've seen this time and time again, consumers who get very pumped up in the beginning and vow to follow through with their selected weight loss regimen. The fact is this motivation quickly subsides sooner or later, and all your work will have been for nothing.

At any rate if you are trying to shed 10 pounds or 50 pounds, you need two things, diet and exercise. Going with only one route without the other will not provide you with the ultimate vitality levels- which is what you are trying to go for in the first place. In terms of diet, it's advisable to seek a consultation with a nutritionist to see what is the best diet regimen for you.

People may avoid this because they think it is an unnecessary cost, but think of it this way, you either see an expert, or you have to try and become the expert yourself- wasting tons of time and money on resources and books in the process while failing to shed any weight in the process.

After you've crafted your diet regimen, find some physical activities that you can do for fun and is user friendly to where you live. For starters, you can go jogging around the block a few times a day while listening to some music.

Quick healthy weight loss related products and services are to be had at the author's portal.

http://www.ez-poundsoff.com/quick-healthy-weight-loss/

Caution! Chinese Weight Loss Medicines: Bogus and Detrimental to Health

2006-10-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

diet pills like Phentermine, Adipex, Xenical and other drugs of their kind can doubtlessly provide you relief from the shackles of obesity but it would be absolutely foolhardy to assume that each and every diet pill can provide the same relief and is at par with the fda approved weight loss medications.

Recently the Food and drugs Administration of USA issued a warning throughout the world against chinese weight loss medications, Chaso (Jianfei) diet Capsules and Chaso Genp. This warning has been issued by the fda as a precautionary measure to save people from falling prey to the effects of these medicines after several Japanese citizen died and some other fell ill through the intake of these pills.

Incorporating a diet pill into the system which is not fully effective or in which the potential ingredients necessary for working against the extra kilos in your body don’t exist in equal amount will absolutely be of no use in your war against obesity. But if the weight loss drug you are going to pick up from the market and administer into your system contain certain toxic materials then it is nothing but your health which will be subjected to immense harm. These products have been proved to be detrimental to health for the ingredient named aristolochic acid being found in them. As soon as the results of these medications became visible, fda issued a nationwide alert beseeching people to

abstain from using these products and inviting destruction to their own health.

The weight loss enthusists who indulge in the selling and marketing of bogus weight loss

medications are people with brains and so whenever they determine to fill the market

with unlicensed and ineffective drugs and sell them to the customers as genuine weight

loss medicines they do it very skillfully. So it is up to you and you alone to avoid being

cheated and keep yourself at a safe distance from these potentially disastrous weight loss

medicines.

But how to achieve it? By simply opting for an F DA approved diet pill. With a diet pill
approved by the Food And drugs Administration, USA, you no longer be at the risk of

being cheated. The proper guidelines regarding drug usage and new discoveries relating

to weight loss drugs are published by fda on its official website which further enables

you to adopt a cautionary and effective approach while starting off with your weight loss
regimen.

Leave harmful medicines like the aforementioned chinese diet pills behind and accelerate your weight loss process with anyone of fda approved weight loss drugs, Phentermine being the most popular. Along with proper dieting and regular physical exercises, your Phentermine usage can help you to inch your way towards a life free from obesity.

Finally, caution is the keyword while you begin with any weight loss medicine or any other drug. Tread along with a carefully planned approach and only then you would be able to metamorphose your weight loss dreams into reality.

Earnshaw Peters is a well known writer on weight loss, obesity and the diet pill Phentermine. You can get hold of all his work on these topics simply by paying a visit to the website www.phentermine-effects.com

10-Minute Fat Loss Workouts

2006-09-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

Last week I helped Men's Health magazine on a piece about getting workouts done fast. Personally, I think you can get a great body-changing workout done in minutes.

How fast?

I'm talking 10-minutes.

By now, I'm sure you're asking...

How do you lose fat in only ten minutes?

What about the rule that it takes 20 minutes of cardio before you start burning fat?

Well, first of all, as I have said before, the whole idea of a fat-burning zone or a magical fat-burning time period just doesn't fit with the common sense approach to fat loss.

People can lose fat without doing any cardio at all - so its clear that you don't have to workout for at least 20-minutes with your heart rate at 60% of your maximum heart rate. Fat loss is far simpler than that - and I'll show you some basic workouts below that crank your metabolism and help you burn calories when you are not exercising.

Second, the results of your training occur outside of the gym rather than during the workout. That's why the before-mentioned "increased metabolism" is so important. If you put the right "turbulence" on your muscles in 10-minutes, you can change your body - without even thinking about doing cardio.

So let's look at the first fat loss in a hurry workout - a 10-minute bodysculpting workout. Let's say you only have 10 minutes to do your workout today - what should you do?

In this case, you need to combine a warm-up, strength training, and interval training all into one. So our efforts are best put forward on bodyweight training.

And you don't have time for isolation work. Instead, you need to hit three "hot zones" on the body for maximum metabolism boosting: push muscles, pull muscles, and legs.

By doing so, you'll hit all the other muscle groups at the same time. So you'll do a circuit of soemthing like:

1A) Prisoner Squats (advanced option: 1-Leg Squats)

1B) Pushups (advanced option: Spiderman Pushups)

1C) Inverted Rows (advanced option: Pull-ups; easy option:
Stick-ups)

In the first round of this circuit, you'll go through it easy.
Perform 25% of the maximum number of reps you can do for each exercise. So if you can do 20 pushups, do only 5 in the first warm-up circuit. That's a warm-up circuit.

Then you'll do as many circuits as you can in the remainder of the 10 minutes. Just go back-to-back-to-back on these 3 exercises. You can rest after the rows/pull-ups for 30 seconds if necessary, but that's it.

You'll be pleasantly surprised with how you feel at the end of the 10-minutes. And your metabolism will be elevated for a much longer period than if you trained in the fat-burn zone for 10-minutes.

Okay, now here's another option, moving into some dumbbell work. The following superset trains the entire body, and focuses on the 3 hot zones.

1A) DB Squat (8 reps per set)

1B) DB Chest Press (8 reps per set)

Use light weights for one warm-up set, and then do as many sets as possible in 10 minutes for the rest of the workout.

In any case, if you find yourself with another 10 minutes, you can up the fat-burning ante by doing 10 minutes of intervals. This too is far more effective for fat loss and fitness than 10 more minutes in the "so-called" fat-burning zone.

Do 3-5 minutes of exercise-specific warm-up.

Then do your intervals for 30 seconds followed by 30-60 seconds of rest. Repeat 3-6 times. Then cooldown.

Okay, now let's get greedy and assume we have 30 minutes for our workout. We'll be close to getting maximum results with this "marathon" duration workout.

First, hit up the bodyweight circuit mentioned above. Do this twice, nice and easy. That will take 5 minutes off the clock.

Then move into your strength supersets. Following the lead above, you'll look to train the entire body with only 2 moves. It's not always easy, but fortunately you can do 2 supersets in this workout. The strength training will take about 15 minutes as you'll do 3 sets of 8 per exercise with no extra rest between sets - just long enough to switch exercises.

1A) DB Split Squat (If you have a barbell, use it instead of DB's)

1B) DB Row

2A) DB Romanian Deadlift

2B) DB Incline Press

Then finish with intervals. For this workout, try another program. Start with a warm-up, then do each "work" interval for 45 seconds, and rest 60 seconds between each interval. Do 4-6 rounds and finish with a cool-down, of course.

I could go on and on with these fast fat loss workouts...and of course I do, in the Turbulence Training e-book.

I'll follow up on this article in the future, passing along some of the exact Turbulence Training workouts that I use with my clients to get the most results in the least amount of time.

Until then, train hard, train safe, and train better than everyone else in the gym.

Sincerely,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

P.S. Is a lack of time stressing you out?

"No time to exercise" is the #1 reason most people don't exercise consistently. In fact, a lack of time stresses most people out for many reasons - whether it's a lack of time to prepare good food, exercise, or be with your family.

That's why I created Turbulence Training to be the most efficient and effective fat loss program out there.

The warm-up is applicable to your workout, not some 5-minute waste of time on the treadmill.

The strength training supersets shave minutes off your wait time.

And the intervals cut your cardio in half, or more.

"I think TT is awesome. I have seen a serious change in my overall body composition. In 12 weeks I've gained a lot of muscle and have lost about 10 lbs, but inches are flying off."
Gordon M.

"The TT workouts are excellent! You have literally changed my life! I got completely burned out on single body part training and long periods of cardio. It just isn't conducive to my life given that I work full time and have a spouse. I'm already lean but I want to maintain a high level of health and have a fit, athletic look. I have to admit that I was skeptical because the workouts were so short, but even after the first workout my skepticism disappeared in a hurry. The time flies by at the gym and the workouts have eliminated a lot of stress because if I got stuck at work and couldn't get to the gym for "leg day" it would mess up my training schedule for the rest of the week. I also like having the option to do some body weight circuits plus I have a full range of dumbells and a ball at home so I can get my workouts in at home."
Janet M

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Losing Weight, Without Losing Energy

2006-09-20T04:31:00.000-07:00

If you need to lose weight, aim to lose body fat, rather than decreasing your muscle or 'lean body mass', or dehydrating yourself. If you control your food intake, you can lose weight in a sustained and controlled way. Ideally, you should aim to lose 0.5 - 1kg (1-2 lb) per week and, by eating a balanced diet, you should remain in good health.

If you are muscular and worry that you weight more than indicated on the weight / height charts prepared for the general public, be assured that muscle weighs more than fat. You may seem overweight compared with the average - but you may not need to lose any weight. If you are certain that you need to lose weight, it is best to tackle the problem in the off-season.

Guidelines to Losing Weight

- Eat less food that is high in energy and low in food value (e.g. alcohol, biscuits, cakes, chocolates, cordials, ice-cream, pastries, potato and corn crisps, snack foods, soft drinks)

- Never skip meals. You are more likely to binge if you are hungry or tired. If possible, eat small meals frequently

- Use low-fat dairy products instead of full cream varieties.

- Trim all visible fat from meat before cooking. Remove skin from chicken. Eat more fish.

- Use alternative, low-fat sources of protein such as cottage cheese and pulses (e.g. lentils).

- Grill and steam food rather than frying it in added fat. Roasts should be placed on a rack in a baking dish, so that any melted fat drips away during cooking.

- Avoid crumbed or battered foods.

- Cut down on butter and margarine on bread and toast and avoid gravies, dressings and sauces containing fat.

- Use herbs, spices, lemon juice or tomato juice to flavor your food, instead of fat.

- Make soups, casseroles and stews a day ahead. Allow them to stand overnight, and skim off any fat from the surface. The flavor of these dishes often improves with standing.

- Keep nutritious, low-kilojoule (calorie) snacks, such as carrots, celery and nutritious dips, ready in the refrigerator for when you are hungry.

For more bodybuilding articles, resources, tips and cooking recipes from around the world:

http://www.101bodybuilding.com

http://www.herbs-spices-recipes.com

http://www.101cookingrecipes.com

How to Sleep Off Weight Along with your Hangover

2006-09-20T04:28:00.000-07:00

You can lose a pound a day with no ill-effects.

You will feel fitter, brighter, healthier and more energetic too.

How? By using the biology that hibernating animals use.

Grizzly bears are brilliant at it. Hedgehogs are pretty good and badgers are excellent. They exploit their own clever biology to make the best of winter. Like them, we can use those long, dreary, depressing winter months to make our bodies work better! You’ll come to the spring a couple of stone lighter, feeling great and looking younger - positively blossoming in fact.

It’s for sure. Cast iron guarantee. You can take off a pound a day if you follow this simple lifestyle regime. You don’t need to join a gym or sweat yourself to a standstill. You don’t need to quit eating carbs or never touch butter again.

In fact, all you need to do is work with your own body instead of against it.

If you’ve ever felt you’d just like to bed down in a comfortable burrow for the entire winter, then please read on because in Scotland, we’re absolutely certain we’ve just come up with the ultimate lifestyle regime: The Hibernation Diet (Mike and Stuart McInnes with Maggie Stanfield, Souvenir Press £7.99).

Like so much in life from the blue mould on bread that led Alexander Fleming to discover penicillin to the GI diet’s recognising how foods that take longer to digest are more sustaining and less fattening, The Hibernation Diet is so obvious no one has spotted it.

“The biology has been staring us in the face for ages but nutritionists just haven’t noticed it,” says co-author and pharmacist, Mike McInnes. “They just don’t want the boat rocked and we’ve confronted that comfort zone. We’re encouraging the body to use its built-in fat burning mechanisms. We’re saying optimise your own system because the precision engineering of the human body is magnificent!”

When animals bed down for the winter, they prepare themselves. They get that nice burrow just right and make sure the environment is cosy and comfortable, but before all that housework, they fatten up. They lay up lots of store cupboard goods to live off for the cold season. The difference between them and us is that they store the food on themselves, within their own bodies.

For months, while they breathe nice and slowly and steadily and don’t have any exercise at all, they live off that stored fat. We all learned it at school, but maybe we didn’t think about the message that smart nature has for us.

There’s a whole lot of biochemistry going on of course and we don’t want to bore you or blind you with science. Besides, there’s no need. The main pillars of The Hibernation Diet are simple:

• HONEY: The food of the gods. Right from that old mathematician, Pythagoras, back in 580, we’ve known this was special stuff. Thing about it is that it’s the only food that perfectly combines glucose and fructose molecules in exactly the right way to provide fuel for your brain by fuelling your liver.

With your brain happy and well nourished, the rest of your body can get on with doing all those essential maintenance and repair tasks like rebuilding your skin, bones, hair, nails, muscles, organs, nerves, blood and so on. And what does it use to do all that hard work? Yes, your fat stores! But only so long as your liver and brain are happy. Read on…

• HEALTHY EATING: Yes, we know you’ve heard it before, but deep fried Mars bars and fish and chip pizzas are not the road to good health and a slim stature. Eat what you like but don’t narrow your options and do make sure you get a good balance of essential foods.

• HIBERNATION: We’ve already explained why hibernation matters but there’s another vital component: Sleep. When we sleep, like the animals, we live off our fat stores but only so long as our livers and brains are well fed. Hibernating isn’t the same as sleeping but there are common factors.

That clever bear goes into a special winter mode where he stores up special fuel to keep his brain fed and we humans can be just as smart if we fuel ourselves up at night so as to use our fat stores for energy. None of us is ever more than a few minutes from a coma. Our bodies have a very finely tuned and highly efficient chemistry and if we upset it, we are literally risking our lives.

Our brains are our biggest fuel consumer and it’s the organ that must keep going to keep us alive. We can shut down digestion, warmth, exercise, speech and a host of other non-essential functions, but without brain function, we’re dead in seconds. So making sure we keep our brains fed during sleep is as vital as making sure we get quality sleep in the first place. It’s by fuelling your liver up with honey before bed that you can do this. Only then can we use our own human biology to burn fat stores for our own recovery.

• HORMONES: Complicated things, hormones, but essentially, there are useful ones and dangerous ones. The dangerous ones stress us out, make us panic, sweat, have nightmares and feel wiped out in the morning.

We produce these adrenal hormones when our brains go into a panic about fuel: ‘Feed me!’ yells your brain. ‘No fuel!’ responds your liver because you’ve not eaten anything since tea-time. ‘Get some now!’’ orders your brain, so you start pumping out adrenal hormones to go and break down your muscles so as to release usable fuel for your liver to feed your brain.

It doesn’t make for relaxing sleep and it means you can’t burn up your fat stores to do all those nice friendly repairing and maintaining things to do with building new skin and bone.

• HEROIC RESISTANCE: You can help the process along with resistance exercise. This means you choose to take up some gentle resistance pushing and pulling. Not pounding the treadmill till you’re red in the face and sweating (which won’t burn more than half an ounce of fat an hour), but gently and repeatedly moving weights which will increase the speed at which you can burn your fat stores at night without producing stress hormones.

It’s not essential, but it will help things along and is well within the do-ability factor of anyone regardless of their overall fitness level. Lifting a can of beans out of the cupboard is a good start. Yoga, Pilates, cycling and floor exercise are all resistance work because they use your own body weight to work your system.

Most of the quack diets we’ve all been so consumed by are based on cutting out certain foods or food groups. The Atkins Diet excludes carbohydrates. The Combination Diet insists on us eating only certain types of food together. Macrobiotic diets cut out entire food types. Even the GI approach involves cutting out certain kinds of food.

We say take it with a pinch of salt! Our bodies need a variety of different kinds of food within a balanced diet. We aren’t advocating a burger and chips a day, but nor are we saying you can never enjoy a takeaway. Instead we’re telling you to work with your own body, not against it. Your body is your best friend and if you treat it kindly, it’ll never let you down. If you abuse it, then it’ll go off in an understandable huff!

So make sure your liver is fuelled up night and morning with a tablespoon of honey, eat sensibly and your body will do the rest for you.

Make the project more successful by building in some resistance work. It will still work without it, but 20 minutes three times a week will double the rate at which you burn fat up overnight. The book provides simple, no-gym exercises or you can use Pilates, Yoga, cycling and swimming as alternatives.

FED UP!
Keep that liver and brain happy with a tablespoon of honey night and morning. You can take it straight from the pot, in a hot drink or built into a smoothie or yoghurt-based drink. The book includes suggestions for these. You should drink two litres of water each day.

There are more menu choices in The Hibernation Diet but these will get you started.

Breakfasts

200ml Apple juice

120gm Muesli sweetened with one tablespoon of honey

200ml Semi-skimmed milk

200 ml Tomato juice

200gm Porridge made with 200ml semi-skimmed milk

One Tablespoon of honey

One Poached egg

Two Rashers of lean grilled bacon

One Slice of wholemeal bread, toasted

200gm Mixed fruit salad of apple and orange

One Tablespoon of honey

One Slice of whole meal bread, toasted

One Egg, poached or scrambled

Mid-morning

Choose from:

A small handful of nuts/seeds/dried fruit

A piece of (any) fruit

A few wholegrain bread stick snacks

A multigrain bar containing honey

Lunches

Make your own sandwiches! It’s cheaper and healthier. If you can nap somewhere for 10 minutes, you’ll find it transforms your afternoon.

Choose from:

200ml Fresh orange juice

Two Slices of wholegrain bread with tuna filling and side salad of grilled mushrooms, rocket and cucumber

One Piece of fruit of your choice

200gm Fruit salad of apple and orange segments

120gm Basmati rice with lean ham and salad of tomatoes, kidney beans and raw sliced white cabbage

One Multigrain bar (no added sugar)

200ml Fresh squeezed juice of any variety

Two Slices of wholegrain bread with lean chicken and grilled bacon with a salad of leaves, cucumber, tomatoes and 4 fresh dates

Blue time one: As you finish work

This is the time of day you are probably at your lowest ebb. It’s well worth having a little top-up on the way to the train, as you walk or in the car.

Choose from:

A small packet of dry roasted peanuts

A banana

A handful of mixed raw vegetables

Two crispbreads with low-fat cheese or honey

Grated carrot with a small handful of nuts and raisins

Sliced tomatoes with olive oil and black pepper

Sliced up apple with a small piece of low fat cheese

Blue time two: At home

Depending on how long it takes you, and certainly if you’ve an hour or more of a commute, then it’s worth your while repeating the Blue time snack now. You’ll be amazed how much more energy you’ll have. Rather than flopping on the sofa with a drink, you’ll feel brighter, happier and more convivial!

Dinner time

Your evening meal should be rich in vital nutrients and contain lots of fresh fruit/vegetables but it should never leave you feeling heavy and bloated. Be careful about portion size. Most of us eat far more than we need. Get a walk and/or perhaps some resistance exercise a couple of hours after you eat.

Choose from:

200ml Freshly squeezed fruit juice

150gm Organic salmon steak, grilled with a little olive oil and seasoning

150gm Fresh noodles mixed with a chopped fresh red pepper and black olives

Salad As much as you like of mixed fresh salad leaves, tomatoes, celery, cucumber, radishes, spring onions

One Avacado pear filled with 100gm of fresh prawns and low-fat
Caesar dressing sprinkled with basil leaves

One Baked potato filled with mushrooms and onions chopped finely and fast fried in a pan using spray oil

Salad As much as you like made up out of fresh, seasonal salad
ingredients with an olive oil and Balsamic vinegar dressing

200ml Freshly squeezed fruit or vegetable juice

150gm Roast organic lamb loin chops with roasted cherry tomatoes

150gm Couscous mixed with chopped green peppers, broccoli and carrots

One Low-fat yoghurt with 3 chopped apricots added

Bed time

One or two tablespoons of honey in the hour before you go to bed. You can have this as a hot drink with lemon and cloves, add it to mint or camomile tea, spread it on a slice of toast or a couple of crispbreads or add it to a pot of low-fat plain yoghurt. The book has lots of recipes for alternative drinks.

At night, you will sleep restfully – you should keep your room free of pollutant lights such as LCDs – and your body will be busily burning up your excess fat and carrying out all that essential maintenance and repair.

You won’t be dreaming about being slimmer and fitter. You’ll be doing it. You’re already on the road to working with that magical machinery that is the human body instead of fighting it.

It’s the beauty of our own biology we’ve been ignoring!

Visit www.hibernationdiet.com

The Hibernation Diet is published by Souvenir Press at £7.99 and is available from main bookshops or online at www.amazon.co.uk

Maggie Stanfield is an international journalist and author with extensive knowledge of health and wellbeing. Contact her at: maggie@writtenwords.eu

Diet to Fight Cellulite - Stop Cellulite Forever

2006-09-20T04:27:00.000-07:00

Cellulite is hardened fat cells that have been trapped in the body’s network of muscle tissue and fiber. This tissue and fiber is constantly flushed by cleansing fluids through the day and the result is a very ugly bloated look. Diet to fight cellulite should include extra intake in fruit, vegetables, wholegrain, and beans. Reduce your consumption of coffee, tea, sugar, salt, and alcohol. Also avoid as much as possible taking processed and refined food that contain excess fat, sugar, or salt such as chips, chocolate, etc.

Fast Is Not Easy – Fast is Not Permanent

There are many gyms, weight loss experts and therapists who claim to have the wonder diet to get rid of cellulite in the body. No matter what they claim, one must remember that cellulite cannot go away overnight. It seems that it has come to stay. It can be gotten rid of completely and permanently too with the right diet to fight cellulite coupled by the right amount of exercise in the right quantity.

A general rule is that you should give cellulite the number of months of exercise as the number of years you have taken to develop the deposits. Trying to take some shortcut route to get rid of the fat will lead you nowhere. Many people may succeed in riding themselves of the cellulite deposits but only to find it back where it was in the first place. Only this time it never took so long to develop.

Cellulite deposits can be lowered or done away with completely with the right nutrition through diet and the right amount of exercise. Such a routine will, over a period of time, definitely reduce the cellulite deposits by metabolizing the fat stores for energy. The cellulite volumes will be considerably reduced if not completely eliminated.

Diet Is the Best Way

Your diet should consist of a lot of fiber and whole grain foods. This provides the system with plenty of roughage needed for the system to clean itself. In addition to this fresh fruits and vegetables do not allow the formation of fat tissue. Consumption of alcohol in any form causes the cellulite deposits in the body to increase dramatically. It is the case with stress as well. . Many people take to eating when they are stressed out. Some meditation in such cases has proven to be a great help to reduce food intake for those wanting to reduce weight.

With all said and done, following a good fat free diet and drinking plenty of fluids in addition to walking briskly for at least thirty minutes every day will bring the results you are looking for. It is equally important to stick to this routine if you do not want the cellulite deposits to return.

Plan your diet to reduce cellulite effective. Read more information on cellulite
diet here. Learn how diet and exercise can be done in smart cellulite treatment. Try also adding cellulite cream to make your skin smoother and finer.

Weight Loss Supplements

2006-09-20T04:26:00.000-07:00

Looking for a quick fix from a miracle weight loss drug will probably do more harm than good to your weight loss goals. A good weight loss program may include natural weight loss products or meal supplements in the form of nutritional shakes, however it is to the dieter’s peril that a weight loss diet is

There is no such thing as sustainable fast weight loss, and as such you should try to get as much weight loss information as possible before embarking on any plan of action. As a consumer it is vital that you try to determine the honesty behind a weight loss product’s marketing strategy. If a product offers a 100 percent success rate, they must be lying. It is perhaps best that you get all the information on a product and then consult your doctor or dietician in order to get a qualified opinion.

You should be especially suspicious of a marketing campaign which complains of the medical profession snubbing the product. Appetite suppressants and hormone injections are seldom recommended my medical experts, as their effect is questionable and they come with risks of their own.

Meal replacement shakes are becoming more and more popular. When exploring this avenue of weight loss, again you should make sure of your product. Some products may seem to be highly effective, and weigh loss may occur, but it is very possible that it is not fat that you are loosing, but rather water. For more detailed information on meal replacements you should consult a dietician. Any product with too much sugar and too little carbohydrates will be damaging to your diet.

Prescription weight loss drugs usually rely on appetite suppression, although there is a drug known as Xenical which interferes with the body’s ability to absorb fat, reducing the fat intake of the body by up to 30 percent. The side effects of this drug include cramping, flatulence, discomfort of the intestines, diarrhoea and leakage of oily stool.

Appetite suppressants such as a drug called Merida act by increasing certain chemicals in the brain which reduce your appetite. This drug can cause increased blood pressure and raise your heart rate, so is not advisable for those suffering from heart problems. Other side effects include headaches, constipation, insomnia and a dry mouth.

Probably the best approach to losing weight is to adjust your eating patterns, but the easiest way to lose weight and maintain a healthy body is to make space in your life for fun activities which give you exercise, such as hiking, running, cycling or going to gym. If you have a medical problem which affects your metabolism then it is best to consult a doctor and dietician in addressing the problem.

All the info you could need on Weight Loss Supplements

Ten Weight loss and Diet tips

2006-09-20T04:25:00.000-07:00

There are many products on the market which promise fast weight loss, but at the end of the day it is through a healthy lifestyle and eating pattern that you will be most successful in losing excess weight. The following list of helpful healthy diet tips will hopefully help point you in the direction of your weight loss goal.

Remember that there is no easy answer as promised by those punting “free fast diet tips,” or “secret celebrity diet tips revealed for the first time!” Rather the best diet tip may be to be patient and eat responsibly; it takes time to lose weight if you are going to do it in a sustainable manner.

Ten Tips:

1. Done responsibly, losing 11 lbs will take about two months. It you lose weight too quickly you will lose muscle as well. Loosing weight too quickly can also fool your body into thinking that it is starving, which will slow down the metabolic rate and make it harder to lose weight, and easier to gain weight when if give in to a craving.

2. Eat your favourite foods, just cut the portions down if you find them to be damaging to your diet. At the end of the day, all things are good in moderation.

3. Eating at a more leisurely rate also helps. Try chewing your food for longer, giving your body the time to acknowledge the incoming food. If you eat quickly you sometimes stuff yourself before your body knows that it is actually sufficiently replenished. In other words, if you eat slower it will take less food to satisfy your hunger, and you will be less prone to overindulgence.

4. Plan your meals, never allowing chance to dictate your diet. This will keep you on top of things, lessening the chance of eating badly on the spur of the moment.

5. By making small changes to your daily diet you can cut off 1 000 kilojoules per day, resulting in the loss of 0.55 lbs per week.

6. Eat more fruit, as fruit contains usable carbohydrates packaged in fibre, which serves to level your blood sugar levels and helps resist unnecessary fat storage. Try fruit and yogurt as a snack.

7. Reducing the amount of fat you use in preparing your meals gives you an allowance for taking in more healthy fat, like light olive oil in your pasta sauces. Try to bake, boil or steam your food instead of frying it in fat and oil.

8. Vegetables are good; it is very difficult to eat too many vegetables. They provide vitamins and are full of fibre, so they satisfy your hunger with fewer kilojoules.

9. wo cans of cool drink add 1200 worthless kilojoules to your day’s intake. Try drinking water instead, even the seemingly healthy fruit juices are full of sugar you don’t really need.

10. Eat the most important meal of the day; breakfast. Yes, here is a diet tip that the American National Weight Control Registry finds to be about the only diet tip which is consistent amongst their database of rock-stars who have lost weight and maintained their new bodies for three years or more.

Everyone would love some Diet Tips that really work, different tips will work for different people.

Hoodia, Fat and Calories - The Unique Weight Loss Connection

2006-09-20T04:22:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest questions in this industry continues to be, What Are the Most Effective Diet Pills? To avoid being highly subjective when answering this question, we give you the following facts:

According to the highest professional sources in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, no diet pills or nutritional supplements can guarantee that you will lose weight. Here is why. Losing excess body fat is a complex matter that involves a myriad of factors such as heredity, body composition, stature, gender, age, and personal habits. Yet, the most important three factors for hopeful weight loss candidates are:

One: Finding the motivation to begin, progress, and maintain successful fat burning lifestyle habits.

Two: Knowing exactly which fat burning exercises to perform and exactly HOW to perform them.

Three: Gaining bona fide nutritional knowledge, understanding it, plus enhancing it on an ongoing basis.

Suffice it to say that thousands upon thousands of people can benefit from getting professional assistance with these matters. This is not because of weakness or indifference, but simply because of the prolific, yet simple statement you are reading above. That is, WEIGHT LOSS IS A COMPLEX MATTER.

And the latter includes your personal investigation into why and how nutritional or weight loss diet supplements are supposed to help you and exactly when they will do it.

It takes some serious know-how to lose body fat. Losing weight also takes increasingly heightened awareness. Lastly, to lose body fat triumphantly for both the short term and the long term, you must couple technical expertise along with your emotional power!

If you're trying to improve your appearance, performance, or body fat percentage, today is going to be a very helpful day for you because Better-Body.Biz has investigated your requests and created customized, win-win solutions for your body fat worries.

See www.Better-Body.Biz/Hoodia-Fat-Calories-Special.htm for more detail.

In the meantime, you can make your weight loss attainment even easier and far more practical by reassessing it periodically. For example, consider what a normal fat burning goal should be. Why are most people shocked to discover that HUGE amounts of weight loss eventually turn out to be a big waste of time? This primarily stems from lack of knowledge and awareness about how the body processes saturated fat.

Weight Loss Diet Surprise

There are more than seven steps that food must follow before you have the slightest chance of metabolizing it. Do you know what these steps are? If not, find out as soon as possible because virtually every body fat procedure you adopt WITHOUT this knowledge can be purely wasted effort.

Surprisingly, you only need to lose about one single pound of body fat every week! Small amounts of fat loss, not huge CHUNKS, is the proper way to get dependable, reliable, and safe weight loss success. Ironically, your body already knows this, but your mind may still be stuck in a very doubtful stage. One of your new body fat goals is to change or undo that frozen, knowledge-voided state.

Body Fat and Calorie Control Success

In successfully training hundreds of individuals to lose body fat and become much better performers who actually feel better and look better too, I cannot help but notice a developing body fat awareness pattern. In the beginning, individuals are slightly reluctant to accept, believe, or attempt to learn new weight loss ideas because of the personal connection they might have with issues of personal comfort and lifestyle adjustment.

However, after giving one or two supervised ideas a whirl, noticeable body fat changes begin to occur. And, these are changes that the candidate continues to own for themselves because it is THEY who make the necessary modifications. Such alternations become part of a new and beneficial lifestyle pattern.

Want to know one of the best diet secrets?

Body fat needs a good WHOOPING every once in a while. And, the absolutely best way to BEAT body fat is by improving your knowledge about it. For example, saturated fat is a very smart enemy. It already knows how to attack, where the best places are to hide on your body, plus exactly when the right time for expansion and growth exists.

YOU MUST SLEEP, but saturated fat almost NEVER takes a break. Considering this fact, there is no wonder why you may wind up being slightly overweight. It only means that body fat has the advantage over you. Yet, who says you cannot turn the tables around?

Dependable Body Fat Solution
In summary, here is your body fat solution...

A - Heighten your awareness of saturated fat's operation.

B - Acquire expert assistance, if and when you cannot perform these actions on your own, because certified weight loss consultants also possess training and supply you with assistance in psychological, motivational, and emotional factors.

C - Realize that losing excess body weight involves at least the three following factors, and get started on dealing with all three in some way, shape, or form:

One: Toning up your muscles to improve metabolic fat burning activity.

Two: Eating foods that do not counteract your success, plus, consuming them OFTEN enough to cause weight loss impact.

Three: Leaning, knowing, and applying the differences between aerobic, high intensity interval training, and targeted heart rate training exercises to maximize fat burning application and activity.

Hoodia Body Fat Mission

And what about Hoodia Gordonii? You notice the emphasis in this writing lies upon KNOWING, KNOWLEDGE, and AWARENESS.

Here is how Hoodia Gordonii fits into your weight loss picture...

Given that a nutritional supplement is merely a backup to your own dietary patterns, the single-most important thing for you do is change those patterns, if they are negative ones.

Hoodia is a smart supplemental choice for a weight loss candidate hoping to lose body fat. Hoodia Gordonii assists with the fat burning procedure by allowing you to eat a lesser food AMOUNT. And, consequently, fewer calories taken into your body certainly translates to easier calories output.

This is the hand-shaking process relationship that you must become aware of... your calories in must begin to match (or better yet, EXCEED) calories out. Sometimes it comes down to mater of actually counting calories. Yet, many Hoodia Gordonii users report satisfaction without having to count calories because of the appetite suppressing and thirst-quenching characteristics of Hoodia Desert Burn ZA 750 capsules or Hoodia Gordonii Desert Juice (that's pure Hoodia Gordonii in liquid form).

The recent success of the Hoodia Burn Fat Mission gives more people an acute awareness of Hoodia Gordonii diet pills possibilities.

Make no mistake that simply taking Hoodia Gordonii without adhering to smart, proven, and even traditional weight loss principles will boost your weight loss success.

Even with Hoodia Gordonii on your side, weight loss requires some effort on your part. Are you willing to supply that necessary effort? If yes, then Hoodia Gordonii remains one of the most effective weight loss diet pills in the world because those who report Hoodia body fat success are also using proven weight loss dieting techniques.

Hoodia Gordonii comes from pure South African Hoodia cactus plants. This provides an all natural, botanical source weight loss dietary supplement with only positive side effects. Especially encouraging for users is the publicly available documentation on its efficacy and usefulness, plus its manufacturing and distribution details.

Thus, you can use Hoodia Gordonii as your primary weight loss supplement, burn body fat in an efficient, practical, and wise way, plus control calories with utmost precision by combining smart, time-tested, proven, and endorsed weight loss principles. This comprises the unique weight loss connection between Hoodia, fat, and calories.

Kenneth G. Dockins, body fat specialist, is an American Council On Exercise Certified Lifestyle & Weight Management Consultant, possessing over 17 years experience in diet, exercise, fitness, and health. Alternative Nutrition Therapy research advocate for endurance exercise program design and weight loss attainment. See Hoodia Fat Caloires Connection for additional weight loss supplement detail. Temple University Kinesiology graduate. American Heart Association AED and CPR Certified Healthcare Provider - Basic Life Support.

Your Guide To Herbal Weight Loss

2006-09-20T04:21:00.000-07:00

Health is wealth, so goes the saying. But too much health brings hell wrath!

Well, health doesn’t mean belly pouring out or plump checks; rather fitness with stamina and disease free body is what marks a healthy body. The lethargic living of present day and a number of diseases are due to a fetish gain of weight. This is called “obesity” which is a result of extra proportion of fat in your body. The problem of obesity takes its roots from your wrong eating habits and you cannot get rid of it even after starving for four days!

Nearly 119 million of Americans are either overweight or obese. Obesity is the major reason behind many diseases related to heart, diabetes and blood pressure problems. Thus these people are really conscious for losing “extra” weight. To get rid of the corpulent accumulation of fats these people can go literally to any heights!

The most popular method tried so far has been the herbal weight loss program. The herbal weight loss program includes many supplements like patches for skin, intravenous injections, oral pills, herbal tea and many other herbal products.

The herbal medicines are extracted from the natural herbs and clinically prepared in the form of medicines. They are genetically engineered to reduce the fats by either burning them down in body metabolism or throwing out of the body as excretion products in organic forms. These medicines intervene with the metabolism of the human body and burn the extra calories. Now with so many products marketing and increasing business has raised certain questions in the use of these herbal weight loss medicines.

· Are they really effective?

· Do they pose harmful side effects?

· Are they better than simple home remedies?

The answer to the first question is that they are effective to some extent. Many people have got good results in many countries with these herbal weight loss solutions while some other people have even complained about their incompetent nature. Things work out different in different bodies. We can try to alter natural processes but nature too is stubborn sometimes. Hence herbal medicines which particularly suit your genes work better for you indeed.

Secondly many people say that herbal medicines are not chemical in nature which is rather a ridiculous comment. Every living object is organic in nature and organic products simply mean chemical combination reaction products.

Anything which is made from herbs doesn’t mean it is not toxic or is free of side effects. The extracts of the herbs may sometimes cause some allergies in some people. Now why cannot we digest grass? Simply because, our digestive juices cannot digest cellulose!

So try those herbal medicines that have recommendations by the FDA or other recognized clinical certificate. They are harmless and they are effective in their ways.

Combined with some other home remedies, the herbal methods will work wonders to fight obesity. You can include abs stretching and exercising, yoga and good eating as a part of your life to have early results. For example, honey mixed with lime cuts down fat; vegetables like cabbage, tomatoes help in better in synthesizing fats. Avoid bad habits like smoking and junk foods intake. These practices are easy to implement and body friendly for weight loss.

Whatever product you choose to lose your weight, make sure they don’t contain ephedra and are without any caffeine or harmful stimulants. Otherwise herbal products are safe to use and they are effective in losing body weight.

You can also try herbal tea which has been more effective not only to lose body weight but also to ensure a healthy way of living. Simple use of herbal weight antidote either in the form of pills or injection or patches won’t work for you. So judicially combine some physical exercises and sports to your daily activities.

Try to walk a mile every day. If it is not possible always, try at least three-four days a week. Maintain a healthy diet intake, free from saturated fats and take more fruits and vegetables to keep the nightmare called “obesity” at bay.

http://www.thelosspill.com/ & Herbal Weight Loss provides detailed information on weight loss, weight loss tips, herbal weight loss and more.

Sugar Lovers Beware

2006-05-17T06:26:00.000-07:00

It would be fair to assume that almost everyone on the planet loves sugar and sweet foods. Processed sugar is in many products and is a key ingredient for baking. It seems that everyone has a sweet tooth for some sugar food in one way or another. Most people know to limit their intake of processed sugar, however, what most people don’t know is that sugar is one of the worst ingredients to put into your body. The chemical reaction of sugar in the body acts as a poison. Studies show that sugar has drug like effects in the body.

Processed sugar has many harmful effects throughout the body and can cause major imbalances in the organ systems. You could say that sugar tends to throw off the homeostatic balance of the whole body by increasing the production of adrenaline by many times. In essence, sugar stimulates the nervous system by inducing a flight or fight response.

This is obviously not a healthy process. This intense reaction of the body increases the production of cortisone, which suppresses immune function and can lead to other health disorders.

The daily intake of sugar leads to many other imbalances and malfunctioning of the bodily processes. High sugar consumption leads to an overly acidic body and in turn will cause the body to strip nutrients from its reserves to counterbalance this effect. This can eventually cause the body to take calcium from the bones and teeth since calcium is the primary mineral used to neutralize high acid in the cells. Osteoporosis and arthritic conditions can result from this continued process.

Sugar and its Link to Weight Gain

Excess sugar consumption will eventually effect every organ in the body. Primarily, sugar is stored in the liver as glucose. Since the liver’s capacity to store sugar in this form is limited, the liver will start to expand almost like a balloon with continued daily sugar intake. When the livers’ capacity has been filled, the excess glycogen (glucose) is returned to the blood in the form of fatty acids (fat). The fatty acid compounds are then taken to various parts of the body and are stored as fat deposits in the buttocks, belly, breasts and hips since these are the most inactive body parts.

The consumption of excess processed (refined) carbohydrates has the same effect on the body. Eating foods with refined white flours and other enriched products can cause the same physiological effects. Consuming excess pasta, rice, chips, pretzels, and other high processed carbohydrates can lead to fat deposits on the body.

Many people do not understand how eating excess pasta or rice can cause weight gain since these foods has very minute quantities of fat and calories in them. The secret is…it is not that important how much fat or calories a food has. The real key is what biological effect does a food have in the body.

When the inactive body parts have become filled with fat then eventually the excess fatty acid deposits will become stored around major organ systems such as the heart and kidneys. This leads to the degeneration of these organs and in turn will cause poor health. This can result in poor immune response, poor circulation, high blood pressure, and can even impact brain functioning.

A False Energy High

Too much sugar intake gives one a false sense of energy. When you eat a sweet food, your energy will go up, however, it only feels that your energy is going up. In fact, this false energy is really your body being stimulated via the flight or fight response that I spoke of earlier. After this reaction has worn off, your energy levels will come crashing down as most people experience every day after they have eaten a high sugar food.

Most children that have ADD can completely heal themselves just by eliminating processed sugars in their diets. Children eat way too many processed sugars. The behaviors and bodily responses that these children feel are the flight or fight responses of their nervous systems. All forms of processed sugars such as nutra sweet, cane juice, corn syrup, brown sugar, splenda, powdered sugar and others have the same effect on the body. The chemical structures of these compounds are very harmful to the body and should not be consumed on a frequent basis.

Fruit sugars are very healthy for you. The monosaccharides (simple sugars) in these natural foods are in a structure that are beneficial to your cells. Fruit sugar has a much different effect on your body than does processed sugar. Fruit sugars nourish and energize the body naturally. This is true energy as compared to the false energy one gets from processed sugars. Your cells require the simple sugars in fruits consistently since they serve to fuel the body with the best substances. Make sure you consistently eat many fruits a day. I would recommend eating 4 to 5 pieces of different fruits a day for better health.

The True Bitterness of nutra sweet & sucralose (splenda tm)

What you are about to discover is information that has been known for quite some time by various health organizations. Please take this information seriously because there are agendas in place to hide this truth and to use it against you.

Aspartame (nutra sweet) is actually worse to consume than sugar. This technical name includes the following brands of sweeteners- (equal, nutra sweet, spoonful and equal measure).

Be advised that these compounds are very powerful and can cause severe biological effects in your body. To say that they are toxic is an understatement. The manufacturer of these compounds knows of the dangers in consuming regular amounts of aspartame substances. As I have already said there is an agenda for putting these compounds into various products.

If you want to know the true agenda then research it for yourself. I am not one who attempts to prove anything to anyone. I challenge you to do your own research and see if you can prove what I am saying wrong. In trying to prove me wrong, you will prove me right.

The Breakdown of Aspartame

Aspartame is a volatile substance, meaning that it breaks down very readily under normal storing conditions. Primarily, all aspartame compounds break down into methanol (alcohol), which is a known neurotoxin. The methanol in time then will break down into formaldehyde that is a highly reactive chemical that is damaging to the cells and genetics of the body.

This process can cause a number of neurodegenerative diseases such as alzheimers, lupus, multiple sclerosis (MS), and parkinson’s disease. The methyl alcohol that forms from aspartame is thousands of times more potent than the alcohol found in a normal alcoholic beverage.

Reactions to aspartame products include the following: headaches, nausea, depression, fatigue, heart palpitations, slurred speech, breathing difficulties, memory loss, seizures and even death. Consuming high amounts of aspartame can also increase your cravings for carbohydrates. I explained earlier that consuming high amounts of empty carbohydrates (refined flours, pasta, rice, chips) will lead to weight gain.

Primarily, the effects of aspartame chemicals in the body seem to alter key hormones thus creating imbalances in neurotransmitters and blocking other hormone precursors.

So, why haven’t you heard about these dangers before now? Let’s see…the diet industry is a trillion dollar market to many organizations. Obviously, they don’t want this secret information to get out to public ears if you know what I mean.

Aspartame & Children

Children love to consume sweets on a daily basis. Many of the food products that these children are consuming have aspartame sweeteners in them. I would advise all parents to get their kids off of aspartame food items. These foods are not healthy for them. There are plenty of healthy alternatives for any of the items that they enjoy.

Email me and I will give you loads of information. Many kids are diagnosed with ADD and other mood disorders. Many of these conditions are being classified as hyper, behavioral problems and others when in fact these children are being affected by the foods they eat. Look at a normal child’s food intake for an average day and you will find that they eat way too much sugar and items with aspartame compounds and other chemicals in them.

This daily consumption of these sweeteners has a harmful effect on their nervous system and therefore becomes expressed as mood disorders and behavioral problems. Take these kids off sugar and these sweeteners and watch them improve.

Pregnant Mothers & Aspartame

If you or anyone you know is pregnant then I would say just stay away from these dangerous sweeteners forever. Make sure you read labels and make it a conscious intent to have the whole family keep clean of these products. It will help your whole family out I assure you.

If you are pregnant and consume aspartame foods you will only be hurting the development of the child. Doing so can cause neurological imbalances and other cellular damage. You are also hurting yourself. It is not worth the price just to have your diet soda. Please educate yourself more on this topic for it can save your health and the baby’s health.

Products to Stay Away From

If you drink diet soda then are you most likely consuming aspartame. Most diet sodas and many other beverages are sweetened with one of the aspartame sugar substitutes. STAY AWAY FROM ALL PRODUCTS THAT CONTAIN THE VARIOUS FORMS OF ASPARTAME! These include aspartame, nutra sweet, splenda, spoonful, equal. Read your labels and throw away all items that have these compounds in them. Take responsibility for your diet. If you choose to continue to consume aspartame after reading this chapter well then you are the one to pay the consequences.

What Will I Use To Sweeten My Drinks & My Food

Relax! I know you enjoy sugar and do not want to give up great tasting foods and beverages. You don’t have to. There are some great natural sugar alternatives that I feel taste better than sugar and the other toxic substances mentioned earlier.

To sweeten your drinks you can use Stevia. Stevia is a natural herb that is actually hundreds of times sweeter than regular sugar. It has no fat, carbohydrates or calories and is perfectly suitable for people with diabetes, low carb diets and people with candida and other parasitic conditions. Stevia does not cause spikes in blood sugar and has a nourishing effect on the body. It has been used for centuries among various cultures.

You can get stevia at any health food store in the dietary supplement section. There are 2 products: 1 is a liquid concentrate- I recommend this for sweetening beverages like teas and shakes. The other is a ground up version and is in powder form. I recommend this for foods like cereal or oatmeal.

Agave syrup is an awesome food product. You will love this sweetener guaranteed. It is a compound similar to honey only that it comes from a cactus plant in the desert. I believe that it tastes better than honey and can used on pancakes, cookies and to sweeten baked goods. Try it and see! You can find this at most health food stores. If they don’t have it then ask them to carry it.

Rice syrup is also a good sugar alternative. It can be used in various ways and has a pleasant taste.

Date Paste is very sweet and can be added to baked goods and pancakes, waffles and cookies.

Fruit Juice Concentrates can be used to sweeten baked foods as well.

Barley Malt Syrup is another great alternative.

Honey – old time favorite for many, can be used also in various ways from sweetening drinks to sweetening baked goods. Use only organic varieties.

I would say to just buy some of these sweeteners and see which ones you like. They are all healthy to consume on a daily basis and you will feel the difference. You will not miss regular sugar believe me. Your body will thank you I assure by eating natural sugars. If you want some recipes on how to use these sweeteners then let me know via email.

The Truth About Sweet-N-Low

There have many reports that state Sweet-N-Low can be carcinogenic when used frequently. I remember when I was a child I heard that this can be a harmful compound to the body. The truth of the matter is that Sweet-N-Low is not harmful to your body. The chemical structure of this substance does not have any damaging effects to your cells as do the sugar substitutes mentioned earlier.

I stated previously that the important thing of any compound is the chemical structure and its biological effects once in the body. Sweet-N-Low has no negative effects once in the body. It is actually a good substitute for sugar.

So there you have it. You now know the truth about sugar and sugar substitutes. Please use this information immediately.

You Must Learn To See Through The Veils of Illusion To Get at the Truth !

Rino is a Holistic Wellness Consultant & Health Coach. He specializes in helping people with chronic fatigue syndrome to restore their health. Rino had chronic fatigue syndrome for over 4 years and healed himself through self empowerment and natural healing modalities.

Rino's mission is to educate & empower people on how to create and maintain optimum health for their entire lives.

Rino Soriano - "The Chronic Fatigue Buster" http://www.holistichealthexpert.com

Educating & Empowering People For Optimum Health

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rino_Soriano

Healthy Eating Tips for Healthy Living

2006-05-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

Eating healthy is fast becoming a way of life. American’s are living longer, however, the goal of many is not to simply live longer, the goal it is to live a longer and healthier life. Simple everyday fruit can help.

Recent studies have indicated that the antioxidants in fruit provide a whole host of health benefits: the anti-aging power of blueberries and the joint pain relieving properties found in cherries to name a few.

The multitudes of health components found in fruit are truly a gift from Mother Nature. Here are a few everyday fruits for healthy living in 2005:

Cherries – The Supercharged Fruit:

Are cherries truly fruit for a healthy you? Recent studies have revealed that cherries offer an assortment of health benefits including the ability to offer natural relief from joint pain caused from gout, arthritis and joint inflammation.

The wonder of the cherry is the anthocyanins. According to research from Michigan State University tart cherries contain anthocyanins and bioflavonoids, which inhibit the enzymes Cyclooxygenase-1 and -2, and prevent inflammation in the body. These compounds have similar activity as aspirin, naproxen and ibuprofen.

Further investigations revealed that daily consumption of cherries has the potential to reduce the pain associated with joint inflammation. Many are choosing to drink cherry juice, eat cherries or consume tart cherry pills for relief of gout, arthritis and joint pain.

Linda L. Patterson is a living testimony of the soothing affects of cherries on her joint pain. “I enjoy crocheting and lately my hands have been so painful, I couldn’t crochet for more than about 30 minutes.”, says Patterson. In an attempt to find relief from her pain, she located Fruit Advantage Tart Cherry capsules, (www.fruitadvantage.com) a supplement made from red tart cherries. “Within the first week of taking the tart cherry capsules my hands felt so much better.”, says Ms. Patterson. “I am now able to crochet without the pain in my hands.”

Blueberries – Nature’s Top Antioxidant Fruit:

Blueberries emerged as the top antioxidant capacity fruit in a laboratory testing procedure called ORAC - Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity developed by the USDA*. ORAC has become the definitive measurement of antioxidant capacity.

James Joseph, Ph.D, Chief of the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston, is working with blueberries to examine their potential to help improve motor skills and reverse the short-term memory loss that comes with aging.

"The blueberry has emerged as a very powerful food in the aging battle," said Joseph. "Given the possibility that blueberries may reverse short-term memory loss and forestall other effects of aging, their potential may be very great."

Terry Johnson, a resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan, munchies on dried blueberries for the convenience and taste. “I work behind a computer for eight hours a day and I like to snack. I began eating dried blueberries instead of a candy bar from the vending machine. Now I feel good when I snack because I am eating fruit instead of candy.”

Strawberries:

Studies have shown that strawberries can help promote a healthy digestive system and help lower blood cholesterol. A handful of strawberries can go a long way to a helping you maintain a healthy lifestyle.

According to Jennifer LaPointe, Director of Marketing for Traverse Bay Farms, www.traversebayfarms.com “many of our customers are looking to eat healthier and our gourmet fruit product fit this trend. It’s certainly better than fast food.”

Traverse Bay Farms sells Fruit Advantage Tart Cherry capsules, cherry juice concentrate and a variety of dried fruit products including: cherries, blueberries, red raspberries, strawberries. The company may be contact for additional information or interviews at 1-877-746-7477 or www.traversebayfarms.com

Andrew LaPointe is a writer, entrepreneur and consultant.He enjoys spending time with his family, writing and traveling.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_LaPointe

Try a Slow-Carb Habit

2006-05-17T06:24:00.000-07:00

Carbohydrates - found in grains, breads, pasta, and sugar, as well as vegetables, fruit, tofu, beans, and dairy - provide the body with the most efficient fuel for energy production and brain activity. They're nutritionally essential, a principle currently downplayed by the "low-carb craze".

What is important to understand is that not all carbohydrates have the same "fuel efficiency". Many carbohydrates - termed "refined" or "simple" - cause blood sugar highs and lows which can result in a period of high energy followed by a period of extremely low energy, often leaving the person craving more of the simple quick release carbs.

Examples of these "refined" carbs are regular pasta, white bread, snack foods and baked goods. The weight loss plans that advocate eating less or none of these foods are on the right track, except they tend to throw out the GOOD carbs as well. We'll call these "slow carbs", and here's why:

After you eat them, the carbohydrates in foods are broken down and released as sugar units (glucose) into your bloodstream. "Slow carbs" are foods that release glucose at a slower rate.

Typically, these foods are "whole foods"; that is, they contain the fibre and minerals that are often removed in making their refined, "quick-release" counterparts. (Such is the difference between whole wheat bread and white bread.)

Choosing "slow carbs" over refined carbs helps keep your blood sugar balanced (positively affecting your hunger level, mood and mental concentration, among other things). Fibre also promotes regularity and helps maintain healthy blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

Examples of "slow carbs" are whole grain breads and crackers, potatoes with their skin, beans & legumes, brown rice, oats, and whole grain pasta.

Here are five tips for creating a "slow carb" habit:

1. Whole Foods - Eat as close to natural as possible. Vegetables, fruits, beans and lentils are whole foods that contain all of their original nutrients (fibre, vitamins, minerals, and carbohydrates for energy).

2. Grains & Breads - When it comes to grain products such as breads, crackers, cereals, and pasta, choose "darker", whole grain varieties. This can be done in restaurants as well as the grocery store.

3. Snacking - Fruit is an excellent snack. Consuming the whole fruit provides the slow-release carbs and will sustain your energy for longer, as opposed to fruit juice, which provides the body with a quick release of fruit sugar into the bloodstream. Another great snack to try is sliced red peppers with hummus (made from chickpeas).

4. Take the time (you're worth it!) - Seeing as some of the slow-carb options take longer to cook (e.g., brown rice versus white rice), make them ahead of time, and make extra to freeze for future meals. Brown rice is very versatile; try it in soups, casseroles, stuffed vegetables, or for breakfast (warmed) with cinnamon, raisins, chopped nuts or ground flaxseed.

5. Read labels - "Whole wheat" (or other "whole" grain) should appear before any other flour in the ingredient list. White flour can be disguised as "wheat flour", “enriched flour", "unbleached flour", or "grain flour", to name a few.

Working at substituting "slow carb" foods into your lifestyle will ensure that you have ample energy, proper nutrition, and that you maintain a healthy weight. Of course it's also essential that you find some ways to be active and that you limit high fat and high calorie snack foods as best you can.

(c) Copyright 2005, Genuine Coaching Services.

Susan Baker, B.Sc.,RHN, RNCP is a registered nutritional consultant who supports individuals on their path to optimal healing through nutrition consultations, with a special interest in digestion and food sensitivities.

Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, is the author of “The Everyday Self-Care Workbook”. To receive one of her free monthly newsletters, subscribe at http://www.genuinecoaching.com/newsletter.html

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Free List of Fat Burning Foods

2006-05-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

This free list of fat burning foods will help you make the right choices to burn off more fat than you ingest by eating them. The fat burning secret to losing weight is to eat and drink until you are full and satisfied, choosing foods that burn more calories than you consume. This helps your body burn up the excessive stored fat.

This free list of fat burning foods contains mostly fruit and vegetables and if you compare it to other lists you will notice a definite trend. If you eat these fat burning foods and add a good exercise workout program to it you will increase your metabolism and burn calories at a faster rate even several hours after your exercise is done.

apples
apricots
artichokes
asparagus
beets
blackberries
blueberries
broccoli
Brussels sprouts
cabbage
cantaloupe
carrots
cauliflower
celery
cherries
chives
cod
corn
crabs
cranberries
cucumbers
eggplant
flounder
garlic
grapefruit
grapes
green beans
honeydew
kale
leeks
lemons
lettuce
limes
lobster
mangoes
mushrooms
nectarines
okra
onions
oranges
papaya
parsley
peaches
pears
peas
peppers
pineapple
prunes
pumpkin
radishes
raspberries
red cabbage
sauerkraut
scallions
spinach
squash
strawberries
string beans
tangerines
tomatoes
turnips
watermelon
A recent report from Michael Zemel, Professor of Nutrition and Medicine at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville reports, "If you compare a dairy-rich versus a dairy-poor diet you can nearly double the rate of weight and fat loss with the same level of calorie restriction." It states that the calcium in dairy products can boost weight loss by increasing fat breakdown in fat cells. Therefore, dairy products could be termed as fat burning foods. These include milk, cheese and yogurt and might be considered a fat burning secret.

The best way to approach fat burning food is to start by implementing a sensible eating plan with the help of this free list of fat burning foods and begin an exercise workout program that you enjoy and will stick with.

Copyright © 2005 Treadmill Info.com All Rights Reserved.

This article is supplied by http://www.treadmill-info.com where you will find valuable information, ratings, reviews, articles and buying tips before you make the investment in quality fitness equipment. For more fitness related articles go to: http://www.treadmill-info.com/articles_1.html

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Hair Loss - Where Did All My Power Go?

2006-05-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

They say the truth hurts and the truth is, the way you look will affect how people treat you. It may not be right, but it's the world you live in. Having a great personality is fine, but people are usually nicer to you, if they think you're attractive, then if they don't. The marketing industry feeds off the insecurities, that people have about their appearance, especially when it comes to hair loss.

Hair loss can be a traumatic event, for women and men. You can hide almost any skin problem, but it's practically impossible to hide hair loss. It's not just how others see you, but how you see yourself. No hair loss is good, but if it happens at a young age, then it can be more depressing. It can be hard on your ego, if you're 25 years old, but everyone thinks you're 50. With the lack of self-confidence, that comes from hair loss, a lot of people will stop socializing and could end up alone.

Is losing hair the problem, or is it the fact that the hair doesn't grow back. Everybody loses hair on a daily basis, but for many, there is no re-growth. Usually, about 10% of your hair is in a resting phase, which means it's not growing. After 2 to 3 months, your resting hair will fall out and new hair begins to grow, this is called the growing phase. The growing phase can last from 2 to 6 years and your hair will grow about 1 centimeter per month.

So, why is your hair no longer going through the normal resting and growth phases? There could be numerous circumstances behind your hair loss, but the most common causes are, male and female pattern baldness, this type of hair loss can occur because of genetics and the natural aging process; stress can cause hair loss, but if the stress is removed, the hair may grow back; traction alopecia, which occurs because of excess pulling on the hair, like braiding; trichotillomania, which is the act of pulling out hair, for no reason; alopecia areata, this occurs when hair falls out in patches; and chemical damage, which is common in cancer patients, who go through chemotherapy, but once the chemotherapy stops, the hair can grow back.

Is there a cure for hair loss? The real answer is no. There are a lot of products on the market, which claim to do everything, but they don't cure hair loss. The FDA has yet to certify any product as a cure for hair loss. Most of the products you hear about will not describe themselves as a drug, because if they did, they'd have to go through FDA testing and prove their claims, which of course, they can't. When there isn't a cure, prevention is the next best thing.

When you think about all the advances, that science has made, in just the last 50 years, it's rather amazing that no one has yet to develop a cure for hair loss. Finding a cure for hair loss, would have a greater impact on society, then trying to discover life on Jupiter.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Hair Loss.

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Relaxation Magic - Hypnosis, Meditation, Visualization

2006-05-17T06:19:00.000-07:00

Hypnosis, meditation and visualization are three similar processes for accessing a creative area of the sub-conscious mind. Relaxation Magic lessons use a combination of all three therapies for maximum results. With the exception of people who have mental disabilities such as schizophrenia and severe retardation, everyone can achieve the relaxed focus of hypnosis, meditation and visualization by themselves.

Within themselves everyone has their own unique solutions for solving a situation they want to work on

The way I work is to help a person first reach a relaxed state and then through visualizations find personal imagery to explore their situation. One reason I feel hypnosis, meditation and visualization are so potent for problem solving is that areas of stress can be reached indirectly through analogies and a situation can be discussed without causing more discomfort

Recent research is confirming how connected the mind is in creating and eliminating physical problems. Physicians can fix the body but the mind can create the situation again. This is why adding the mind to a health program is the optimum method for total healing.
The first step to being in control of your life is being in control of your mind. If you’re not controlling your thoughts, who is?

Meditation and visualization enable you to communicate with your physical body, to relax mental and muscle tension even regulate autonomous body systems. Documentation has been out for years that meditation masters can control their heart rate and body temperature. Perhaps we will never need to use body heat to dry wet robes in frigid weather but being in peaceful control of ourselves mentally and physically is an ideal goal.

Where to start
When brand new at any endeavor it is always best to start at the beginning. To experience maximum results with the advanced Active Visualization Lesson spend the ten to fifteen minutes daily building your mental muscles with the beginning lessons.
Be Relaxed Anytime Anywhere and Recognizing & Reprogramming Self Defeating Behaviors lessons may be utilized without first completing the beginning lessons.
Breathe, breathe, breathe I can’t say it enough. The ultimate quickest way to relax is to breathe.

Details – Time, Setting, Clothing, Posture
What time of day is best to practice is whenever it will best fit your schedule. For beginners to make meditation a habit it is recommended to set a definite time. This way if you miss your meditation appointment you are aware of the omission and can reschedule with yourself before the day is over.

When beginning to meditate, it is good to have a routine or ritual. Routine and ritual will key the mind into what is going to follow. The routine / ritual can be simple or elaborate, whatever suits your personality.
A basic routine is deciding to relax and meditate every day at the same time and in the same setting. Meditating in the same place when starting is also helpful to develop habit and focus.
The optimum setting is one that is comfortable and quiet with minimum distractions obviously away from telephones, TV, adults or children interrupting. Some meditators have to compromise on comfort to gain quiet. I know people who meditate in their bathroom or garage to access quiet time. You might want to try several locations before settling on your favorite. If you are interrupted, just acknowledge what is happening and return to your practice when possible. Eventually you will be able to be in a light meditative state anywhere, even with your eyes open.
Ritual can be as simple as just knowing it is the time that you decided to meditate and going to your meditation place. Or, you can elaborate and use candles, incense, crystals and other background objects that aid your sensation of peace or power. I do not recommend using music during meditation as your mind will listen to the music instead of focusing. Keeping brief notes or a journal on your daily sessions is also recommended.
It is best to wear non-restrictive clothing with as much natural fiber as possible. Loosen belts, ties and if possible remove shoes and socks for some styles.
Sit however is comfortable for you. If you enjoy sitting with a pillow on the floor, go for it. It is also perfectly acceptable to sit with a straight back in a chair and let the chair support your back. (I sit in a chair with my back supported and my legs crossed under me.) Your legs do not need to be crossed and the feet can rest on the floor. Observe the position of your shoulders, neck and head. Relax your shoulders down and lengthen them straight out. Relax your neck muscles. Feel that your head is balanced and centered on your neck. Image that your head is a fish bowl and if it is tipped forward or back, you will spill water and fish out! Check if your jaw is relaxed by allowing the lower jaw to drop slightly.

Breathe through your nose. Begin each lesson observing a few breathes expanding the abdomen on the inhale and contracting the abdomen on the exhale. More detailed breathing instructions are given in the Zen lesson.
How long to meditate? A ten to fifteen minute meditation session will give you results. If you choose to meditate longer, it is because you enjoy the activity (or should I say non-activity). Greater results are not necessarily achieved by time spent in practice as much as your consistency and concentration during practice. Decide how long your meditation will be. Choose whatever works best for you to time the session. Set a timer to ring when your session ends or tell your mind to alert you when the set time has passed. Eventually your mind will know precisely when your set time is up. Do not use this method until you have perfected it if you are on a tight schedule.
During mediation and visualization you will be aware of any outer physical situation that requires your immediate attention.
Mediation is a state of heightened awareness not of unconsciousness.
Excerpt from Relaxation Magic:
http://www.lulu.com/maryannlaraia

Certification Hypnotherapy Training Institute of SD, CA Advanced Hynotherapy Diploma 1989 Basic Hypnotism Diploma 1988

Hypnotherapy KWAFC Kent WA 1990 – 1995 Private Practice Encinitas, CA 1995 – 1998 Hartford, CT 1998 – present

Related Education Chapel of Awareness Encinitas CA 1996 – 1998 Meditation classes with the focus on healing Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA 1982 Physical Effect of the Religious Experience Study of what happens physically in the body during altered states Builders of the Adytum LA, CA 1975 – 1980 Lessons on Meditation, Kabala

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Basic Meditation Exercises

2006-05-17T06:18:00.000-07:00

(Authors Note: Before reading this you should see my other articles on Breathing and Full Body Awareness)

Now that you’ve begun to develop the ability to move energy around in your body there are some things that you can do with it. The following exercises range from pretty simple to pretty complicated, but as you develop your abilities you’ll eventually find that you can do them all at once and effortlessly. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years to develop this ability, so remember what I said about expectations.

You’ll eventually be able to remember how to do these exercises by memory, and then after that you’ll get to the point where you just do them without having to think about them. In the beginning it may be helpful to have a partner read the exercises to you or you can order the CD Set that goes with this book at www.windhavenco.org.

Grounding

Grounding will always be an important skill, no matter how advanced you become, so take the time to learn this now and to be able to do it effortlessly.

Stand in the “Standing Stake” pose described above. Go through the breathing and Full Body Awareness exercises. Visualize roots growing from your feet down through the core of the earth, just like a tree. In later meditations you can add some variety by seeing the roots flow down to a large crystal at the earth’s core. Depending on the effect you want you can vary the crystals and access different energies, but that obviously beyond the scope of the exercise at this point.

As you inhale feel the energy of the earth being drawn up through your roots and up through your body and out through the top of your head. On your exhale, let that energy drop back down through your body and feel all the accumulated stress of your life flow out with it and back down through your roots and into the earth. Feel your muscles relax as the stress flows out. This is a good way to release all your stresses, fears, angers and feelings of inadequacy. Repeat this exercise for awhile, as many times as necessary to clean yourself out.

There’s nothing wrong (and a lot of benefit) to stopping at this point and just doing these exercises that I’ve gone over up to this point, until they become completely effortless. Whenever you feel yourself becoming stressed or angry learn to take a moment and ground yourself and let those feelings just flow out.

Progressive Relaxation

Progressive Relaxation is easy to do and you can do it anywhere and anytime. Assume your meditation position of choice (I like the half-lotus on a zafu) and go through all the exercises I’ve covered up to this point. Just take a moment and feel the relaxed energy that you should have after grounding and releasing all your stress. Are you ready to get deeper into this feeling?

Feel the energy that flows up through your roots and into your feet. Make fists with your feet by curling your toes in as far as you can until it hurts, then relax. Let that relaxed feeling flow from your toes back over your feet and feel them relax. As you inhale draw that relaxed feeling up over your ankles and feel them relax completely. On the exhale let any residual stress flow back out and down through the earth.

On your next inhale draw that relaxed feeling back up over your calves, letting them relax after walking all day. Draw that relaxed energy up over your thighs with the next inhale. They’re the biggest muscles in the body, so let them relax and rest now.

As you inhale feel that relaxed feeling flow up over your hips and buttocks. Feel the stress bleed away. We store a lost of stress here, so take a moment and let this area relax. Draw that relaxed feeling up over your stomach and lower back. Feel the muscles in your back relax and feel your stomach move with your inhale.

Bring the energy up over your chest and the middle of your back. Feel your heart area expand with the relaxed energy and feel all the accumulated stress in between your shoulder blades release and flow out and back down with your exhale.

Draw the feeling of relaxation up over your shoulders and neck. Feel any residual tension flow out with your exhale. Let that relaxed energy flow up and over your head. Let the muscles of your face and those at the base of your skull relax.

Just sit here and feel this relaxed body that you have. Remember this feeling as its how you should feel all the time. Tense muscles store energy, which means that your energy isn’t flowing through you, but rather sticking in certain places in your body.

When your muscles are relaxed then your energy flows unimpeded and is continually renewed, leaving you feeling much lighter and more refreshed.

---

Robert Morgen is a Reiki Master who currently holds a Black Belt in Hoshin Roshi Ryu. He's the founder of the Kundalini Awakening Discussion Group, the Druids Circle Discussion Group and the (offline) Druids Circle in Lakewood, CO. You can find more info on all these at;

http://www.robertmorgen.com

He’s also the founder and Executive Director of the Windhaven Foundation for Sustainable Living.

He writes a regular column on subtle energy for Fight Times Magazine and a twice monthly column on Kundalini Awakening at Alumbo.com.

In addition to teaching about energy work and Kundalini Awakening he donates time to teach about Renewable Energy, Alternative Building and Creating Sustainable Lifestyles in various Public Schools.

He travels and teaches as much as possible and you can find out how to attend one of his Kundalini Awakening seminars at his website.

His new book "Kundalini Awakening for Personal Mastery" (ISBN: 0977380106) is available through his website or at a bookstore near you.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Morgen

Holosync Meditation - Does It Really Work?

2006-05-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

Chances are, if you are on a quest for self-improvement, you've already heard of the Holosync Meditation CD's.

What It Is:

Developed by Bill Harris in the late 1980s, the Holosync Solution is an audio program designed to bring your brain waves to the alpha (and lower)levels automatically just by listening to the cds. According to Bill: "Holosync is a way to create deep meditation easily, precisely and consistently."

Beyond The Hype:

I thought it was about time someone talked about what it's REALLY like to use the Holosync cds. I've been using the program for 2 years fairly consistently. That means sitting down almost every day, putting on my headphones and doing nothing else for an hour. It's a huge time commitment and there were times I wondered if it was worth it.

In The Beginning:

Unlike the other testimonials you may have read, I did not experience profound changes after listening to the first cd. In fact, for the most part, I fell asleep! But that's okay, because the more I listened, the less sleeping I did. Truth be told, I still doze off when I'm starting a new level. Each new level takes you into deeper meditative states and requires an adjustment.

As Time Goes By:

Here I am, two years later, still making the time and financial commitment to stick with it. Why? Because I'm amazed at the person I've become. Over the course of the two years:

I'm calmer
I rarely get angry.
I have a more positive attitude.
I've become more spiritual.
I'm happier - negative thoughts creep in, but they don't stay.

Would I have experienced this growth without Holosync? Maybe, but I believe it would have taken much longer.

Have I reached the "nirvana" state while meditating? A couple of times I have experienced that deep all-encompassing sense of peace, but for the most part, my thoughts tend to drift. I try to start each session with an affirmation or goal statement, but often I'll end up working out a problem or thinking about other things. It seems to work anyway and I always feel refreshed and calm at the end of a session.

What About Using Other Programs?

Absolutely! I've used and still incorporate other programs into my Holosync meditation. I mentioned affirmations, but other types of releasing programs work well, even different meditation techniques can work with Holosync.

Self improvement should be a never-ending quest. You can usually gain some new insights by listening to a different point of view.

If you are interested in learning more about Holosync meditation, click on the link at the end of this article. You'll be directed to a products review site.

GiGi runs a self help products review site that includes books, audios, movies and software. Many free resources! The Holosync Solution

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=GiGi_Konwin

Past Life Regression - Without Trance or Hypnosis!

2006-05-17T06:16:00.000-07:00

Instant Past Life Regression - No Trance Required

I was in the employ of a UK adult education college at one time and was asked to do a course on Hypnosis – BUT I was not to do any hypnosis with anyone, nor hypnotise anyone because that was too dangerous and they didn’t want to take the risk. It was also something to do with the very strange regulations that exist in the UK for the use of public buildings for hypnotist performances and group hypnosis; either way, I was faced with the bizarre challenge how to conduct a hypnosis training but without hypnosis.

So what I did was to teach all the hypnotic inductions, from relaxation to guided meditation and then also rapid inductions as “self hypnosis” – I taught the class how to do it for themselves whilst I stood and watched them do it.

They got very good at it and we would then play with the trance phenomena and had a great time, until one stormy night, with Past Life Regression on the menu, the door opened and a number of principals from the college walked in and told me they had come to observe the class to make sure that absolutely no hypnosis was taking place, even by accident.

Oh dear. What was I going to do? I was in no doubt that the principals would have a fit if I instructed my class to put themselves into a near coma with the use of a set of beads each or a pendulum they were holding themselves and it was then that my unconscious mind, ever helpful and nicely riding in to the rescue with some very unusual suggestions when those are needed, invented for me “Instant Past Life Regression – No Trance Required.” Instant Past Life Regression

This is a great little game and a wonderful party trick. You can play it with anyone at all who can answer these questions even just with a nod or shake of head; it is very quick and very effective.

The only rules are:

1. Don’t think about it;

2. Answer as quickly as you can;

3. If you don’t know, just guess or make it up.

Are you ready to elicit an Instant Past Life without any form of hypnosis?

Let’s go:

* Were you male of female?

* Your job or work?

* Your father?

* Your mother?

* Any children?

* Sisters?

* Brothers?

* Your house or home?

* Where in the world?

* When in time?

* How old when you died?

* What did you die of?

For the purposes of this exercise, I just did this and these were my answers on this particular occasion:

Male, soldier, don’t know my father, mother died when I was young, might have children but don’t know any, no sisters, two brothers I remember, live with my regiment in a tent or barracks, Southern India, 1820, died age 32 of a lance wound to the chest that pierced a lung.

This set of answers, like your set of answers, is only the beginning. You can now take any part of this and refine it with further questions. As you do so, please note that more and more detail comes to light, and the rough sketch above is beginning to be filled in and fleshed out as you give more attention to detail. There comes a point in this process when there is a shift and the whole mental construct that is being created becomes very real, indeed.

Refining The Construct

Here are some questions about our unfolding character:

* How tall?

* Hair colour?

* Hair style?

* Eye colour?

* Skin tone?

* Anything striking about appearance?

* Any other identifying features?

* Clothing?

* Footwear?

* Underwear?

* Unique decorations/jewellery?

* Important possessions?

* Anything else that's important to know about?

My own soldier was close to 6 feet tall, had brown hair that was a little curly and worn in a pig tail, his eyes were brown and he had fair skin with a slightly yellowish cast. He had had chickenpox badly as a child and the skin on his face was rough and full of little scars. A previous injury had left him with a “frozen shoulder” on the left side and he would wear a small package made of wool under his clothes around that area at all times. He was wearing dark brown trousers, boots and a black/charcoal grey (probably faded) jacket at the time of his death and an off white plain linen shirt. His only important possession was a small knife thing you use to get stones out of a horse’s hoof he was wearing around his neck on a leather band that had been given to him by a good friend when he was much younger.

As you can see, even at this second level of questioning we find some very intriguing detail, such as the knife thing – I do believe there is a name for it but I can’t remember what it might be and only “saw” the object during the exercise. We also have entry points into some other story lines here – what happened to the friend? Where did the old injury occur? – and that’s after perhaps five minutes and the most basic of questions one could ask to get to know any individual across time or space.

The Levels Of Reality

As we get more and more information, the person is taking on more and more and life. Here in brief are the levels through which the person becomes manifest and real, as it were:

Generic Information

The first level of reality is generic information to provide the base structure to a construct – who, what, where, when. At this point, your creation is still fairly nebulous and lacks personality which comes with:

Individual Information

The second level of reality which is specific information about that individual construct (person, countryside, event, creature etc) – what is unique about this, what catches your attention, what makes it stand out.

General (Overall) Time Line

The third level of reality is added with the temporal aspects – how did this come to be? What happened? What will happen in the future? This brings the creation to life and makes it very real indeed – it now has a future, a present and a past.

Specific Incidents Remembered

The more you focus in on any aspect of the time of the life of your person the more detail will be provided until you have actual associated first person memories of the events, entirely detailed and entirely real.

101 Uses For Personal Development

This basic pattern has innumerable uses.

The first is of course in the context of personal development and past life regression. Regardless of whether one might view past life regression as real memories of past lives or metaphorical re-inactments of problems in this one, either way the challenges offered need to be resolved and this is a particularly exciting and fascinating way of making real, true and lasting changes in ones life.

Even people who don't usually respond to "guided meditations" can work this pattern through to get extremely specific and associated memories, events and unfoldments to work with and to use for problem resolution.

Another major use for this pattern is of course in the context of creativity - fiction, character development, finding materials and inspiration for all forms of works of art. It is basically a foolproof generator for events, stories, situations that can provide much more material than anyone could work up or out in a single life time.

It is particularly interesting to consider this pattern in terms of Project Sanctuary events and can also be employed for developing other things besides characters, such as habitats, alien societies, objects that have never been or have been forgotten, and all manner of other uses.

Whether you are going to play it as a game at a party, use it to amuse yourself and your children on a long car journey or for serious personal development and making changes to the very structure of your personality, it is a fascinating pattern that is always interesting and begins to soften and expand the channels and pathways of your mind.

Silvia Hartmann, PhD

First published in The Story Teller 2001

The Sidereus Foundation http://sidereus.org

All Rights Reserved.

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The Benefits of Meditation: Tips and Techniques

2006-05-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

Meditation is healthy, safe and affordable. In fact it’s free. The only expense you’ll have is a meditation mat, which isn’t especially necessary-at least from my experience. Meditation has been around for 5,000 years, and was originally a spiritual component of yoga. Through the years non-yogis adopted it, intuitively sensing and connecting the practice with greater peace of mind. Personally, I can’t say enough good things about meditation. Its use has rewarded me with less worry and much more energy. But I’ve never been one for anecdotal evidence. Let’s get to the science…

Transcendental Meditation

Recently, there’s an incredible amount of science tied into the benefits of meditation. The studies are endless and cover a variety of meditative practices. On Transcendental Meditation alone (mantra repetition) there are over 500 studies. Some are more noteworthy that others. A study in the Japanese Journal of Public Health found that through Transcendental Meditation, industrial workers sleep improved and their smoking decreased. Another study conducted at the MERU Research Institute, in Buckinghamshire, England found that the length of time practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program correlated with younger biological age and younger functional age.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation, which asks us to focus on our breath to facilitate awareness of the present moment, is another widely studied meditation technique. After studying the effects of 8-weeks of mindfulness meditation on participants, a 2003 report in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine concluded: “A short program in mindfulness meditation produces demonstrable effects on brain and immune function.” Impressive, but fairly vague. To get a more committed response to the benefits of meditation we have to turn to Taiwan. In 2002 their journal Chang Gung Medicine reported that “training in MM may be a medically superior and cost-effective alternative to pain medication for the control of headaches with no underlying organic causes in highly motivated patients.”

Stress Reduction and Meditation

What causes these positive physical changes? To answer this, other research has looked at the specifics of what happens in the body during meditation. . Researchers at the Maharishi School of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, found that meditation has an enormous impact on stress reduction. When they examined a group who had meditated for four months they saw that they produced less of the stress hormone cortisol. They were therefore better able to adapt to stress in their lives, no matter what their circumstances were.

Having balanced cortisol levels is essential to mental and emotional health. Notice I say balanced rather than none. We don’t want to completely eliminate cortisol. If we did we’d be dead. Even low cortisol levels can be dangerous. Not enough cortisol is the identifying trait of Addison’s disease. John F. Kennedy had this condition, which he denied passionately during his presidency. Yet during his term he regulated his levels through hydrocortisone (synthetic cortisol). The reverse of JFK’s condition is called Cushings Syndrome.

The five most common and noticeable changes of this condition include; red face and puffy cheeks; excess fat surrounding the collar bones, muscle weakness, and hypertension. But we don’t have to have Cushing’s Syndrome to be damaged by extra cortisol. The changes we experience may be subtle variations of these. Plus, the changes caused by excess cortisol are age dependent. Young people may stop growing and teenagers can develop acne. The mature among us aren’t safe either. Since excess cortisol damages bone-tissue those over age 60 may develop fractures related to osteoporosis. So it’s evident that if we can regulate cortisol, especially through a natural process, we owe it to ourselves to try.

Other Benefits of Meditation

Regina Drueding, MD, is a meditation instructor at Life Circles in Utah, USA. She quotes the benefits of meditation as follows: “more energy, improved quality of sleep, decreased anxiety, lessened chronological aging, improved concentration, improved visual acuity, increased alertness and heightened immunity.” She writes: “Besides the benefits mentioned earlier, meditation results in improvement of hypertension, sleep disorders, headaches, heartrhythm disturbances, chronic pain – pain due to cancer, infertility and irritable bowel syndrome. Following meditation, mental and physical refreshment result – and benefits are cumulative with regular practice.”

How to Meditate

Meditation is both simple and complex. It’s like defining the color orange: When you see it you know it. Similarly, the experience of meditation is best, well…experienced. In an article in New View magazine, Shippensburg University’s Dr. C. George Boeree describes the basics of Buddhist meditation. In summary, the beginner’s technique is as follows:

1. Sit or kneel comfortably.

2. The hands are loose and open with the palms up, one atop the other and thumbs lightly touching.

3. Head is upright. Eyes may be closed or open. If open they should focus on your hands or a spot nearby.

4. Beginning meditators should count upwards to ten on each exhale. Breathe in a relaxed and natural way. Then begin again at one and repeat. Continue to breathe naturally.

5. Continue for 15 minutes.

In my personal experience, I don’t find that the specific length of time is as important as repetition and persistence. To paraphrase, 10 minutes daily beats 15 minutes once a week. This brings me to another point: We all have different personalities and as such, different meditation approaches suit some more than others. Thankfully there are many varieties of meditation. Some varieties have sub-varieties.

Mindfulness meditation is one of these versatile practices. Perhaps it’s because its essence-awareness of the present moment-is so versatile. Mindfulness in our daily life can be practiced by slowing down and attending to our surroundings. What are our 5 senses telling us? We can use mindfulness in the middle of a hectic day, such as paying attention to our breathing when stopped at a traffic light. We can also use other everyday events as triggers for mindfulness. Buckling your seatbelt? Make this a reminder to return to the present. Really think about what you’re doing and the details of the experience.

The more traditional may benefit from a more formal mindfulness practice. You may sit in the identical form as in traditional Buddhist meditation- on a chair or kneeling. However, you may also sit with your legs crossed. Your eyes are closed and your posture is both straight and relaxed while your head remains upright. Focus on your breath and allow mental chatter to float by without regard. Thoughts, emotions and sensations will come, but don’t be influenced by them. Keep focused on your breath. If you are getting involved with your thoughts don’t worry-your efforts aren’t destroyed. The key thing is to bring your attention back to breathing and continue. This can go on for 5 minutes to 5 hours. It’s up to you.

Transcendental Meditation is another popular form of meditation. Generally, this type is practiced twice daily for a period of 15-20 minutes. Again, this technique involves sitting comfortably. Yet in contrast to basic Buddhist the eyes stay closed. Each student is given a mantra and is instructed to induce relaxation through use of this mantra. Since many of either can’t or won’t go to a formal TM class, a no-fail mantra I recommend is the classic OM. In The Heart of Yoga, T.K.V Desikachar writes that repetition of "OM" enables us to maintain mental and emotional calmness, overcome obstacles and enable understanding. It is the shortest of the mantras, and is said to be suggestive of God. If you’re uncomfortable with the religious aspects of OM I suggest a word that has positive meaning for you, such as love, calm or peace. Calm is an ideal substitute, since vocally it resembles OM.

Final Word

You may never, ever choose to meditate. Yet if this is your choice it may be valuable to question why. For a long time I was reluctant because of images of the dropout hippie 60’s. Yet when I tried it the experience overcame my reservations. If you try it the same may happen to you. If it doesn’t you haven’t lost any money, and you’ve gained a new experience.

Resources:

Getting in the Gap: Making Conscious Contact with God Through Meditation (Hay House Inc., 2003)

The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh (Beacon Press, 1975)

Galina Pembroke

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Galina_Pembroke

Health Benefits of Meditation

2006-05-17T05:27:00.000-07:00

Meditation is one of the top-10 alternative therapies used by the U. S. population. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine reports that 8% of Americans use meditation as a health tool. No longer just for Buddhist monks and New-Age types, meditation is now appealing to mainstream business professionals, medical doctors and even health care companies. This is a result of the growing evidence which supports that meditation can promote physical healing.

Meditation may be spiritual for some, but the practice is not necessarily religious in nature. There are many meditative approaches but regardless of the technique, medical research indicates that the practice of meditation tends to evoke a state of physiological relaxation: blood pressure drops, heart beats slower and breathing is quieter, other biochemical changes can also occur. Scientists do not understand why the changes happen but understanding the physical effects can explain the potential health benefits of meditation.

Twenty minutes of daily meditation can provide relief for ailments such as low back pain, headaches, depression and anxiety. Suffers of these chronic conditions should attempt to incorporate the meditation practice into their daily routine. If meditation can lower blood pressure, it could be a useful tool in helping patients with hypertension. If scientists uncover exactly how meditation works to relieve these symptoms, they may be able to apply that understanding to treat a variety of other disorders.

Research on meditation began back in the late 1960s. Herbert Benson, MD, began studying the physiological impact of Transcendental Meditation on individuals. In recent years, the scope of studies has focused on how the practice can reduce symptoms of chronic illnesses from cardiovascular disease to cancer. Critics indicate some of the research is been on small study populations and has not had adequate control groups for comparison. But some studies have shown promising results.

Meditation can relax the body. Promote more restful sleep and boost the body’s immune system. This will help fight illness and better manage the symptoms of chronic conditions. Meditation can relax the mind and help us better deal with the stress of our daily lives. The popular interest in meditation and its health benefits may help drive more research in the future.

© Copyright Fitness-web.com, All Rights Reserved

Allison Preston owns http://www.fitness-web.com where she runs a health & fitness blog covering different diet, health, and fitness related topics. Fitness-Web.com also provides staff and consumer reviews on fitness infomercials.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Allison_Preston

Top Nutritional Tips To Support Healthy Hair Growth (Celebrity Health)

2006-04-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

1. Eat adequate amounts of protein.

Protein is composed of the amino acids essential for the building of new cells, including hair. Five amino acids are of particular relevance to hair growth - cystine, cysteine, methionine, arginine and lysine.

Inadequate protein intake over a lengthy period can force hair into the resting phase with shedding a few months later. It is obvious then that sufficient portions of protein rich foods should form part of your daily diet. The best sources of dietary protein are lean meats, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, soy, nuts, grains and seeds. At least 15% of your daily calories should come from protein-rich foods.

2. Eat adequate amounts of useful carbohydrates.

Carbs are an essential source of energy and help in the growth of body tissues, including hair. They are an important source of the B vitamins that are vital to healthy hair.

It is important that you concentrate on consuming non-refined carbs rather than the sugars and white flour that are so prevalent in many over-refined carb products. You should place an emphasis on consuming vegetables, fruits, whole grains, brown rice and potatoes. It is recommended that you obtain 55-60% of your daily calories from the carbohydrates found in these foods.

3. Achieve a healthy balance of dietary fats.

Fat is used in energy production and can be found in both animal and plant foods. Your body needs sufficient levels of fat to maintain good health. That fat should be obtained from a mixture of lean animal and plant sources. Roughly 25-30% of your daily calories should come from these sources.

4. The right nutritional balance is one that suits your personal circumstances.

How much of each food group you eat depends on a host of factors including age, sex, health and level of physical activity. When choosing meals and snacks, take account of the following key principles of sound nutrition:

- Eat a variety of foods.

- Apply moderation to your consumption of junk foods.

- Choose natural and lightly processed foods as often as possible.

- Do not over cook.

5. Support a nutritious diet with a few carefully chosen supplements.

Following a nutritious diet is essential for good hair health, but on its own this may not be sufficient for a number of reasons:

- Modern farming methods may deplete the nutrient quality of food.

- High stress levels may diminish nutrients in your body.

- Dieting may affect nutrient levels.

- Aging reduces the ability of our bodies to utilize certain nutrients.

- Exercise can deplete some nutrients.

It may be sufficient to supplement with a well-balanced multi-vitamin / mineral product but a number of products are available that specifically cater for the requirements of healthy hair.

By Richard Mitchell
Richard Mitchell is the creator of the http://www.myhairlossadvisor.com website that provides information and guidance to those suffering from premature hair loss. Please go to Hair Loss Nutrition to find out more about the issues covered in this article.

Stress and Hair Loss - An Amazing Relationship (Celebrity Health)

2006-04-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

In the modern times in which we live, stress has become a part of everyday life. There is so much stress embedded even in simple, mundane, day to day living that it is almost unconceivable that stress could be eliminated from our lives. From school to work place, family to friends, the daily dose of stress every modern person encounters is terrifying and this, more often than not, tells on every system and part of the body.

Stress plays a very important role in our daily moods and feelings. You will agree with me that to be stressed up and happy at the same time is almost impossible. Stress comes with worries, anxieties, anger or even depression. No wonder stress has been associated with several life threatening diseases. Recent research has highlighted the role played by stress in diseases like high blood pressure, heart failure, stroke or diabetes. In some cases, it is even surprising to note that the relationship between stress and our emotions plays a more delicate role in causing some of these diseases, than even the conventional, established risk factors.

However, to suggest that stress can also induce hair loss could meet with utter amazement from some quarters. You want to ask; what the heck has stress got to do with my hair? Well, don't be shocked to hear this; stress really does cause hair loss and it has even gotten a medical name, to show you it's real. In medical jargon, Telogen Effluvium is the name given to hair loss induced by the sudden onset of stress.

Most people never get to realize this association because, oddly enough, the hair loss never seems to occur until after the end of the stressful event that is inducing it. It is explained that the sudden onset of a stressful event causes the hair follicles to stop hair production and relapse into a resting phase prematurely. The hair follicles remain in this resting phase for several months afterwards and during this period; an unusual amount of hair will be shed. However, for the most part, hair loss caused by stress is temporary and heals up after the hair follicles resume hair production.

If you really want to keep your hair intact, effectively managing stress could be a great thing to do. There are several ways to do this, as long as you are determined to reduce stress in your life and to live a better, stress-free life. Cutting out stress from our lives is undoubtedly a good thing, but we all know that it is almost impossible to expect to be free from stress totally. However, you can do a lot to reduce the impact of the daily stress on your body and health.

The first and perhaps most effective thing to do, is to learn the art of dissociation. Most people carry their emotions, worries, fears and anxieties on their faces and you almost always see stress in the faces of people you meet on the street. Dissociation entails freeing your mind and body from your problems and worries, at least for a short period of time, daily. Relax and forget your problems, even if just for a minute. The longer you can maintain this state, the better for your overall health. Our lives will be better without the worries we carry about. Forgetting your problems and worries allows the body to calm down and dissipate built-up stress. The longer you can maintain this state, the longer time the body has to calm down. This is not only good for your hair, it is very important for your overall health.

Another effective tool in managing stress is to find a form of relaxation that you really love and engage in it often. If you like reading, then find a lovely book and read for some period during the day or when you feel stress building up in you. If you are the movie type, then go see your favorite movie regularly. Just pick any fun activity which you enjoy and burn off that stress before your hair starts falling out.

by Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Hair Loss

20 Ways to Lose Weight (Celebrity Health)

2006-04-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

20 WAYS TO LOSE WEIGHT

1. Take it one step at a time

Start by paying attention to what you eat. Cut back on fat and sweets and add more fruit and vegetables. After you have that under control, add exercise. If you hate to exercise try it for only 15 minutes a day at first, then a 1/2-hour. Keep in mind that while you are exercising you are burning calories and not eating. Also, it will be easier if you chose an activity that you enjoy.

2. Find a friend

It is always good to have support when you are trying to lose weight. Find a friend who wants to lose weight and compare notes, weigh-in together and maybe even have a contest.

3. Use weights

Working out weights will build muscle and raise your metabolism so you will burn more calories. Also, muscle takes up less space than fat so you will be smaller ( but probably weigh more).

4. Eat fewer carbs

Don't eat as much bread and pasta and you will see a difference.

5. Set a goal

Set a deadline to lose the weight and write it down. For example, ' By Dec 14/04 I will weigh 150 lbs or less'. Put it somewhere you will see it daily.

6. Give up soda

If you drink a soda or 2 a day you are adding empty calories. If you find it hard to stop completely, cut back at first and drink water instead.

7. Grill or boil

Avoid fried meat, grill and use lots of spices. You will get used to it and probably enjoy it more.

8. Don't buy junk food

When you go shopping, don't go on an empty stomach and you will be less likely to buy junk food. Keep your home 'junk food free' so you won't be tempted to indulge.

9. Eat breakfast

Consume most of your calories early in the day and always eat breakfast. Don't eat after 8pm and not only will you avoid those added calories but you will sleep better.

10. Give yourself a treat

When you tell yourself that you can't have something you want it more. Give yourself a treat once a day ( ie. half a cookie) and you won't feel you are missing out.

11. Use smaller plates

Trick yourself into believing that you are eating more by using a smaller plate.

12. Drink lots of water

Drink water when you are feeling hungry and you will get that 'full' feeling.

13. Don't eat everything on your plate

Many times we eat just because it's there. Pay attention to when you have had enough.

14. Eat five or six meals a day

Eating more frequently will keep you from getting too hungry.

15. Plan your workout sessions

Write your workout sessions in your journal or planner.

16. Stay away from fad diets

Fad diets don't work. If you lose weight fast chances are that you will gain it back ( and more) just as fast. It takes time to put it on and time to take it off.

17. Do several workouts a day

While you are watching TV do crunches and leg lifts.

18. Measure your food

If you decide to have junk food for a snack - be sure to measure and control what you eat.

19. Keep pre-cut vegetables

...and ward off those cravings.

20. Create Good Habits

It is a known fact that when we do something twenty-one times it becomes a habit. Create good eating habits.

By Sheila Dicks
Sheila Dicks is a wardrobe and image consultant who teaches women how to look slimmer by dressing to suit their body type. Visit her at http://www.sheilasfashionsense.com to download a copy of her e-book Image Makeovers and get How to Build a Wardrobe free.

Nude Aerobics Yoga? (Celebrity Health)

2006-04-12T02:21:00.000-07:00

Nude aerobics yoga may sound vulgar, offensive and impossible but it does exists. A lot of people may not practice doing this but there are some who would really prefer doing nude aerobics yoga.

Nude aerobics yoga may imply something not applicable to some culture and society. There are some places that might not respect that kind of practice.

They say nudity is healthy natural. Those who do nude aerobics yoga say that clothes keep them disturbed and it prevents the flow of air in getting inside the body. This may be funny but they really think it that way. For them, wearing clothes is like an excess baggage.

Some can’t even carry out yoga with their clothes on. If this is the case, a lot of people will be intimidated or perhaps be interested in doing nude aerobics yoga.

Somehow, this brings some negative effects in the people or group doing this kind of practice. Some might think that they will take nude aerobics yoga for fun and for some other reasons which goes beyond imagination.

Clothes are considered an art in yoga exercises. Without clothes, where would art take place? Did they say that the body is considered the art, not mentioning nudity?

Nude aerobics yoga is believed to be a clean exercise because people believed that wearing clothes invited and encouraged the proliferation of microscopic fungi and bacteria. This is acquired in warm and humid temperature and circumstances.

When the temperature is warm, they are able to interfere with the natural body temperature of our control mechanism. This makes some of the parts hotter than the others.

People who do nude aerobics yoga can freely sweat and not be absorbed by cotton. This may sound gross but they claimed that people who perspire in clothes smell bad. Sweaty clothes are not pleasing to our nose. That is a fact. But those who perspire naturally smell better.

Wearing shorts and trousers will raise the temperature of the testicles for the male. This then results to hinder the growth of sperm and the male hormones which reduces fertility. This can also cause impotence to both genders.

Looking back to the early generation, nudity was our natural condition as they say. It was also added that nudity adds to the physical and emotional health of the individual.

The main reason why people love doing nude aerobics yoga is because it feels great. A lot of them have alleged the same reasons and they really stand for it. Nude aerobics yoga lets you articulate your natural emotions and let you speak for yourself. After all, it’s nice to feel the natural air slapping on your skin and feeling the sweat roughly come out of the inside.

At first it may be too cognizant to practice the nude aerobics yoga but once you get the hang of it, you will feel that it is nourishing and exfoliating. You will realize after that doing this exercise is not that gross as what you think. Later on you will feel its effect on your body and it wouldn’t be surprising to see that your body has changed because you have bared it all.

It is now time to change your viewpoint in life and go on a different level. After you have experienced all the styles of yoga, try the nude aerobics yoga and have that nice feel.

By Melvin Chua
© Copyright Melvin Chua, All Rights Reserved.
Melvin has dozens more related articles and tips on doing yoga at his site: doing yoga, check them out today!

Yoga for Life (Celebrity Health)

2006-04-12T02:20:00.000-07:00

No matter what your current level of fitness; you can do, and you can benefit from, yoga.

You don’t need to renounce your religion, be able to tie yourself in knots or hold your breath for ten minutes. All you need is a desire to improve your physical and mental health – and a good guru to guide you.

The word “guru” is the combination of two Sanskrit words: “gu” meaning darkness; and “ru” meaning light. Enjoy this journey from the darkness to the light.

Yoga is a wonderful and relaxing way to lower your stress, increase strength, balance, flexibility, endurance and ability to concentrate.

People who practice yoga can retain full range of motion and excellent balance into their 90’s and beyond. I can’t stress enough how valuable that is to quality of life.

To give you some idea, think of all the falls not taken, backs not wrenched and ankles not sprained or broken. With good range of motion and the balance to adjust to life’s little missteps, you are less likely to fall and, even if you do, you are less likely to suffer serious injury.

When anyone asks me how to come back to exercise after an injury or depression or many years as a couch potato, I recommend they begin walking and sign up for a beginner’s yoga class.

When a fit exerciser hits a plateau and asks me what they can do to provide new challenges and take their body to the next level, I again suggest yoga.

Yoga is one of the world’s oldest exercise disciplines, having been practiced continually for over 5,000 years. That certainly says a lot for its content.

It is interesting to note how many “new” disciplines borrow from, or are even based on, classical yoga. Floor Pilates should probably be named “Pilates Yoga”. It incorporates many classic yoga poses or “asanas” and emphasizes deep breathing coordinated with the movements, as well as development of the body’s “core” – all ideas central to the practice of yoga.

If you have any exercise experience, you might be surprised to learn how many of the moves you’ve picked up in various classes actually come from Hatha Yoga – the most common form of yoga practiced in the West.

Almost all of those stretches at the end of a typical aerobics class come directly from yoga. The child’s pose (garbh-asana) is sitting on your heels with head down and back rounded – and it is sooo relaxing.

On hands and knees, you would probably recognize the cat back (marjari-asana) and the table (svan-asana). And what about all those wonderful twists to release the spine: seated twist (matsyendr-asana); and the knee down twist (supta matsyendr-asana).

These are the same stretches orthopedists recommend for back pain linked to stress or disuse. Lying on your back, you might recognize the knee squeeze (pavana mukt-asana) and standing, the stretch tall (tad-asana).

So it seems, you can learn a lot of yoga moves by taking a variety of exercise classes. You might ask, “Why then should I take yoga classes?”

My answer is that “doing” the poses can be quite different from doing them correctly. The coordinated breathing, the sustaining of poses and the concentration that are so integral to yoga are not likely to be achieved in a general exercise class.

Yoga teaches deep diaphragmatic breathing in tempo with each movement. Focusing on breathing allows you to transition smoothly from asana to asana and helps the muscles and joints to achieve greater range of motion.

In yoga, you will never bounce or force a stretch. You will be coached to go to your point of resistance, breathe in deeply, and stretch a tiny bit further on the exhale. You relax into the stretch; never force it.

Focusing on breathing into each asana serves yet another purpose. It takes you away from your day-to-day concerns. Once you get into your yoga zone, you will be amazed at how light you feel, how relaxed and how focused. And then, ironically, when you complete your workout and come back to earth, you will feel invigorated and energized.

Anyone undergoing a life transition or under any kind of stress (whether negative or positive) can benefit from getting away from it all and into their yoga zone where they feel calm, centered and focused. It’s a lot less expensive and easier to schedule than a vacation!

Many asanas combine the stretching of one muscle and the contraction of an opposing muscle. This is why yoga is often recommended for well-muscled athletes. Muscle building alone results in imbalances between opposing muscles. To maintain flexibility, body builders should make sure they are getting enough proper stretching work.

Very little equipment is needed to begin yoga. Your clothing should be comfortable but close-fitting so that you can observe your form. As you focus on proper breathing you want to be able to see your diaphragm moving in and out. Yoga can be done barefoot but, for sanitary reasons, most people now prefer to wear yoga socks.

Likewise, yoga can be done on a bare floor but most people prefer to use a mat. It is not just for sanitation that mats and socks have become so popular. Many poses are sustained and at first may feel awkward and difficult to maintain. The non-slip socks and mat provide the optimal surface. Further, your portable yoga surface will be the same no matter where you take your class, making it easier to perform consistently and progress rapidly.

By Jean Bowler
By: Jean Bowler. For more articles about exercise for the boomer generation, visit http://www.ageless-beauty.com/exercise.html