Fat and inch loss can be a frustrating and even devastating topic. That’s because it’s so hard to lose weight and keep it off. Diet after diet fail, we gain the fat back and lose muscle in the process. It’s tough to accept failure and success in weight loss seems out of reach.
That being said, I am very excited to bring you some information today that can change the past. If you are sincerely trying to lose weight and have struggled to be successful at it, I hope that you will learn something that can help you. There is real science behind real solutions, and so many good things to share about a topic that is very important to many of us.
We want to look good – that’s one reason to lose weight. However, today, in many cases the problem is more about health. We NEED to lose weight to be healthy – because overweight and obesity is making us sick.
The good news is that we really do have better options now.. that will WORK FOR US.. and keep working for us. I hope that you are ready to receive this information and take the action you will need to reach your goals. Feel free to leave a comment (we welcome them!) and also contact me anytime to discuss personally anything you read or hear on this site.
What’s the secret to successful weight loss?
How many times have you tried to lose weight, simply by trying to cut down on calories?
And if you did lose the weight, how long did you keep it off?
Have you gone on more intense diets and lost significant weight?
Did you gain most or all of that weight loss back – and with a few extra pounds to boot?
If any of these are familiar, would you like to know why it is so hard to lose weight AND keep it off?
If you prefer to listen to this presentation in audio form, click for the mp3 file that will load in a new window:
We should all be thankful for many blessings in life. People in our lives are right up there at the top. Also important is our own self, and our physical bodies that are our own responsibility.
Do you ever feel like you have little control over what happens in your daily life? Some weeks things can spiral and there are more challenges than easy, happy times. Relationships may be a struggle to manage although there is help for that (not the focus of this blog). In one area of my life I know I have control and just this week I tested that.
This week I read an article in Ladie’s Home Journal about a woman who is living the reality of a lot of women at the present time. Out of work. Issues to address everywhere she turns. Complete overload.
Even without the added challenge of being out of work, people are just plain too busy. Most of the time we are too busy to even think. I mean the kind of thinking that doesn’t involve our next task, or destination, or meal to prepare. Continue reading Prayer Benefits: Slow Life Down & Take Time to Pray
We know A LOT more about nutrition health and wellness today than ever before.
We also are more sick, more overweight, more obese, and have more health complaints than ever before.
Why is that?
Did you know?
The percentage of overweight children in the United States is growing at an alarming rate, with 1 out of 3 kids now considered overweight or obese.
Overweight and obesity in adults puts people at increased risk for chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and some forms of cancer.
9 out of 10 Americans don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, and that means they may not be getting enough of the right nutrients.
Recently I read that Spring Fever is a physiological and psychological shift in the body’s response to changing seasons. I know that here in the north east, it is always such a welcome feeling. After a long, cold winter, any signs of spring feel absolutely wonderful. This year we have even had a taste of summer-like sun and temperatures in late March/early April (and we are thankful!!).
We did have a breeze today, but it was warm air blowing
Spring fever is discussed in stories, love poems, and of course every day conversation. Feelings associated with spring fever are: restlessness, excitement, even increased energy; and so it is related to our health in both the head and the body!
It seems that people most affected by the feelings of spring fever are those who live in places where winter is cold and the warmer air is such a welcome relief, and even a hopeful sign of good things to come.
A while ago I wrote about Seasonal Affective Disorder. Doctors have stated and people who suffer from it know that there is definite improvement in symptoms when spring arrives.
If you would like to read more about the body and how it is affected by spring fever, here is a Spring Fever article at suite101.com.
According to Wikipedia, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), also known as winter depression or winter blues, is a mood disorder in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the winter or, less frequently, in the summer, spring or autumn, repeatedly, year after year.
Exercise, eating well balanced meals, and staying active in social groups, can all help with the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Natural nutrition supplements, including St. John’s Wort and a high quality B-Complex source, have also produced some great results.
St. John’s Wort has been used for many years to help with mild depression. Results can be measured in a short time and so you can be the judge of whether it will work for you. As with all natural nutrition supplements, you have to choose a brand that you can trust the quality, safety, and efficacy because they are not regulated by any governing body – and so there can be a lot of ineffective products out there. St. John’s Wort can be combined with inositol that is found to be at lower levels in people with the ‘blues’. A 100% money back guarantee is also a great incentive to give it a try.
B-Complex is a water soluble vitamin that is best taken at different times of the day so it remains in the body to provide the desired benefits. Water soluble means that the body will excrete what it isn’t using at the time – it does not store this vitamin. High quality B-Complex (100% money back guaranteed) supplements have balanced amounts of all 8 essential B vitamins – they work best when they work together. There is science and research that tells the correct balance, and this is not found brand to brand. It is important to do one’s homework and find a source that is safe, effective, and has high quality ingredients in the right combinations (trust your brand that it will insure this for you).
Optimal health is something I think you will agree we would all like to feel even if we don’t actively work for it. We hear some of the same recommendations over and over again. For some, it may seem like it all sounds too easy. So why are we not getting the desired results in terms of youthfulness and feeling great?
First, even though it ‘all sounds easy’ – are we doing it? Second, are we doing it consistently?
Here are 5 Basics for feeling younger, high energy, and overall wellness.
1- DIET
Limit (LIMIT – you can cheat sometimes) the following foods: saturated fats, food additives, fried foods, smoked meats, high cholesterol foods, white sugar, white flour, alcohol, fast food, convenience food, skin of meats and chicken, organ meats.
Eat more (MORE): fruits, vegetables, gains, beans, seeds, nuts, lean proteins (soy is excellent) including fish, chicken and meat (make them smaller portions than your healthier side dishes. There are many choices within these groups (rice, noodles and pasta are ok in limited quantities).
You will not only have more energy from a diet like this, but you will lose weight and be fighting off certain diseases that could be life-long challenges.
2- DRINK
This is a category by itself because today more than ever we are drinking a lot of junk. It is so easy to consume many ounces of high calorie, low nutrition drinks that are making us both fat and sick – and providing us unbalanced energy like when we have spikes and then big drops in blood sugar levels.
Drink mostly pure, clean water. Sure you want more variety and it’s ok to add a glass or two of other liquids such as coffee, tea, natural juices (without a lot of added sugar) every day. However, overall, water is the healthiest choice. Sodas and other high sugar drinks have little or no nutrition and A LOT of hidden calories.
5 to 8 glasses of water each day is a great amount to target. Hydrate throughout the day so that you feel energized and aren’t tempted to reach for the soda or extra cup of coffee.
3- Exercise
Being active can not be underestimated in terms of health benefits, such as stress relief, better heart health including better cholesterol levels, bone health, and immune system – and reducing risks of diabetes, memory loss, depression, high blood pressure, and certain forms of cancer.
Plus, even people who resist exercising regularly because they can’t find time, or have some reason why they don’t exercise ‘enough’ will say that they FEEL BETTER when they do work out. It is a fact. There are chemical and hormonal reactions in our bodies that help us feel good when we exercise. SCHEDULE it into your day and your body will reap the benefits.
Include aerobic (cardio) and resistance – weights or some other form such as with bands or sit-ups, push-ups (I find that using a workout ball for sit-ups and push-ups is much easier on my back and I do it more often if it doesn’t hurt!!).
4- MIND
Did you know that what we THINK has a tremendous effect on our health? The positive or negative thoughts that are in our heads go hand in hand with how we feel each day.
Many scientists believe that virtually all of the diseases that we get can be linked to a defeat of our immune systems. In addition, the strength of our immune systems is related to how we manage our thoughts and feelings.
From depression to anxiety to stress or even sleeplessness, how we feel in terms of happiness can have an effect on all of these. Some effort in the area of positive thinking, relaxation, and everyday good self-talk can produce dramatic results in terms of how we feel and how healthy we are.
5- Natural Nutrition
Even though we eat an optimal diet, or try to, there is a very good chance that we don’t get all of the vitamins and all of the minerals and other nutrients that our bodies need everyday to build healthy cells.
Being healthy at the cellular level means that we can fight disease, both common and serious, and feel younger and healthier. There are now long-term (20+ year) clinical studies that have proved the fact that natural nutrition supplements produce better health overall than not taking any vitamins at all.
What goes in our mouths can determine our overall good health. Having that extra insurance of nutrition can help us fight current challenges and also target better health for the future.
We get energy from nutritious foods that we eat, from daily exercise, and from feeling good about ourselves. We have control over all of these things. Each of us has the power to decide what we eat, if we will work out today, and the thoughts that are going through our heads right now. That is power! Don’t you think so?
Do you understand the difference between vegans and vegetarians? I did not until recently. Vegans go a step further than vegetarians since they do not eat animal products of any kind. While vegetarians may still eat milk, cheese, and eggs, vegans do not, and their lifestyles are affected as well as their diets since they avoid leather, wool, fur, silk, down, and any products that are tested on animals.
I read in the college newsletter of my daughter’s school that the college years are a popular time for young people to make the choice to become vegan or vegetarian. It stated that their awareness is increased during this time, and also that they are associated with more people who have the same preferences. My fourteen year old niece recently made the choice to become a vegetarian and is active finding new recipes that support her eating style in a healthy way.
Vegans frequently avoid foods with animal products as ingredients, too: no refried beans with lard; no fries cooked in beef tallow; no margarine made with whey or casein (from milk); no foods made with meat extracts; and no foods with gelatin (from animal bones and hooves).
From the eatright.org web site, I learned that vegans eat baked goods made without butter, eggs or albumin (from eggs) and many avoid honey, which is made by bees. On vegan.org it stated that the transition to a vegan diet is accomplished in different ways. Some simply take out the animal products from their diet and replace them with plant foods with which they’re already familiar, and others jump right in and try entirely new vegan foods, often from international cuisines.
It appears that there is no shortage of vegan foods to help make the transition, and much of the food we eat is vegan. Personally, my favorite breakfast is a protein shake where the protein is plant based and I mix it with water or juice and sometimes a banana. The shake tastes delicious to me if I blend it in a blender with ice to make it a smoothie texture, but the real benefit is in the way that it makes me feel all morning. All the way until the next meal, a protein shake balances your blood sugar levels so that you feel energized for hours.
The internet is a wealth of information on almost any subject, and I was not disappointed when searching vegan and vegetarian terms. On vrg.org there was discussion about the fact that many vegans choose the lifestyle to support their desire for a more humane and caring world, and feel they can show responsibility with this personal choice.
Variety appears to be key to a nutritionally sound and successful vegan diet. Fruits, vegetables, plenty of leafy greens, whole grain products, nuts, seeds, and legumes are desirable choices. The websites I noted have considerably more information if you would like to research further.
To all Vegans: Enjoy Vegan Month and be sure to get all the nutrients that you need to build great health.
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For more information on plant based soy protein that is water washed and low glycemic, there is a great soy protein audio presentation under this ‘Healthy Audios and Videos‘ tab (2nd link under Audio Presentations) that discusses the benefits of soy over ‘dead protein’. Soy choices can be viewed here: SOY Supplement and SOY Meal Shake.
Featuring: Diet Soda May Increase Appetite?, Raising Good Cholesterol, Mercury widespread, Anti-Aging Stress-Free Workout.
There are quite a few Anti-Aging related pieces of news delivered, in different formats, every week. When you think about it, most every piece of ‘health related’ news is also Anti-Aging news.
The decisions we make in regard to our body – what we feed it (or don’t feed it), what we put on it, the stress we allow in our lives, the amount of exercise or rest we get on a consistent basis, what we are doing to build better health – will all help determine how we age.
Some news items I read or view hit me harder than others. Some I do further research on if it applies to me, as I am sure that you do if you think you can benefit. My readers may have missed many or all of the news or views I post here in this new Saturday column.. or maybe life at the moment kept you from absorbing the information and how it can relate to your life.
My goal is to pass along the information. You decide if it is something relevant enough in your own life to research further (even though we may find a lot of junk on the internet, Google also provides us with a tremendous amount of valuable information – over time you learn to quickly spot the good and disregard the unreputable when you search).
1) Diet Soda May Increase Appetite?
I have heard this before.. multiple times, but primarily in my natural nutrition circle of friends and news. Last weekend there was a short article in USA Weekend and I think it is going to get even more exposure. The problem is that news like this is up against a huge soft drink industry. Still, if it matters to our health we should at least hear about the issues in order to be better informed to make personal decisions.
The article talked about how drinking sugar-sweetened sodas being linked to weight gain, heart disease, and diabetes. It also stated that “drinking diet sodas with artificial sweeteners may increase appetite rather than suppress it.” I remember hearing a while back that diet sodas can make you crave carbs. There is also new research out that shows noncaloric food (diet foods) and (diet) beverages deregulate our innate ability to judge caloric intake. So either way – we crave or we simply don’t realize how much we’re eating, we may be drinking soda without calories but then eating more.
Many people think they are making the better decision by choosing diet soda over regular soda, however the truth is that neither have ingredients that are good for us. They are loaded with artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, high-fructose corn syrup (sugar sweetener with little or no nutrition and lots of calories), caffeine, or other chemicals.
Who likes to read information like this on a soda label: “not a significant source of fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron.” Last, (see link below for source of part of this information) if this news has you not wanting to drink any soda that you have around the house, it doesn’t have to go to waste. “According to numerous household cleaning Web sites, soda can clean your toilet, eliminate rust from a car bumper and remove grease from clothing. We’re not kidding!”
Sources: USA Weekend, October 23-25, 2009, and http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/the-truth-about-soda-soda-bad-you.html?pageNum=1.
2) Raising Good Cholesterol
There is an Ask the Doctor column in my local newspaper. One reader asked this week how to raise his good cholesterol (HDL). He stated that even with regular exercise and other healthy lifestyle choices he practiced that his HDL had not been improved. He wanted to avoid medication (I don’t blame him with the side effects they have – to me it’s worth researching natural alternatives if not a life-threatening issue).
The doctor replied that high levels of good cholesterol help protect people from heart disease and that men should target levels of 40 mg/dL or greater and women, 50 or higher. He said that exercise needs to be somewhat rigorous in order to affect the good cholesterol levels, and that substituting better oils like olive, soy or flaxseed over butter can help increase HDL.
The man also reported that he drinks a glass of wine almost every night. The doctor stated that red wine is another HDL booster. Other natural (lifestyle) choices discussed were to stay away from trans fats and saturated fats, avoid refined carbohydrates (white sugar and flour), and eat better food choices like walnuts, peanuts, almonds, tuna, mackerel, and trout.
Meds were discussed briefly, and primarily pointed out that cholesterol meds can bring up HDL but if the person was taking a statin drug, he or she would have to be prescribed a med that didn’t interfere.
3) Mercury widespread – reported in Government Study
Our local newspaper alerted me to this mercury study and I would think it is accessible in your favorite news site online. The bottom line is that no fish can escape mercury pollution. This is an issue of concern because on the one hand we are told we should eat more fish because it is healthy for us. On the other hand we have the issue of contaminants in our fish. If we eat too much, will we lose the health benefits by creating a problem that didn’t already exist?
The federal study tested fish from about 300 streams across the country. Mercury was found in every fish sample, and that finding shows how widespread pollution of this toxic substance is. The article also said that previous research showed mercury in fish from Canada, isolated areas of Alaska, and in fish that live in the deep ocean.
What can we do if we want to get enough of the benefits of fish without eating too much fish? We can take a natural fish oil supplement that is tested to be pure – many doctors are recommending fish oil supplements to their patients for different health benefits like heart health, inflammation due to various health issues, cholesterol regulation, as well as brain, vision, and joint function. It is important to do your homework before choosing a brand of fish oil or any natural nutrition product. All products are not created equal, they are not regulated, and it is up to the company to provide their quality assurance that the amounts on the label are in the bottle, that the formulation will be absorbed in your body, and that the ingredients are pure.
4) Exercise: Anti-Aging Stress-Free Workout
There are enough forms of exercise ‘out there’ that I should be able to feature something different, and of value every week. Maybe you will see something new to you, or an updated form of something you did in the past and liked, or an exercise that will motivate you to be more consistent with a daily program.
Today I am featuring Dr. Oz with the mini trampolines. I actually have one of these in my basement and enjoyed using it in the past. Not sure why I stopped but this video has sparked me to get down there and get moving!
(There might be a message come up that says the video is not available – give it a few seconds and the video will start playing – not sure why it does this.)
Regular exercise is good (GREAT) for your Anti-Aging health!
College Drinking.. it’s a reality. There is under-age drinking, excessive drinking, and reckless consequences happening on college campuses across the country. Those facts can be associated with up to 75% of college students. It’s not good for their health, and it may not be good for their future.
The good news is that 25% of college kids don’t drink. We hope that those numbers will increase, or at least that kids start to drink less and study more.
A very special thanks to Ken Healy for the valuable information he provided us.
Welcome! Living healthy so that you live longer and have the best quality of life your whole life long starts at birth and continues throughout your life.
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Optimal health is something I think you will agree we would all like to feel even if we don’t actively work for it. We hear some of the same recommendations over and over again. For some, it may seem like it all sounds too easy. So why are we not getting the desired results in terms of youthfulness and feeling great?
