How To Lose Weight

Archive for April, 2009

[flickr]tag:fitness(,2)[/flickr]
The biggest threats of terror we face globally are right on our own doorstep, right in our own backyard. They do not make bombs, hijack airplanes or take hostages. But they kill in record numbers that make 9/11 pale in comparison, in terms of large volumes of deaths.

These killers that are more serious, determined, more stealthy and deadly than any terrorist group the world has ever encountered. But World governments are hell-bent on focusing on fighting terrorism; while a silent epidemic of obesity and other “lifestyle” diseases are killing millions of people. Global terrorism is a real threat but poses far less risk than heart disease, cancer and diabetes that account for 60 percent of the world’s deaths.

These “big three” terrorists kill more than 2,600 Americans per day, creating sorrow and sadness to families every day of every week. The World Health Organization estimates that 388 million people will die from chronic illness over the next decade and this is not likely to improve unless urgent action is taken. This action can only come from governments and big business to avert millions of premature deaths due to chronic disease.

The extensive medical services that will be needed in the future to care for this epidemic of sick people will be unaffordable to even the richest nations in the world. Health care systems in developing countries will be overwhelmed sending economies to the wall. These facts are causing many governments to simple ignore this looming threat. It is well known that these diseases are preventable, how is it that we have allowed ourselves to become so unhealthy?

It doesn’t help much that our modern technology driven society has removed most physical activity from our lives. We have access to food, shelter and heat without us hardly having to lift a finger. How can it be that we have created these labor saving devices but have neglected to consider that our bodies need this “work” or “manual labor” to stay healthy? When this essential movement is removed and not replaced with intentional physical exercise we begin a downward spiral of declining health.

Without the physical “work” to maintain strength, between 300-500 grams of muscle tissue is lost per year. This change in body composition not only siphons away our strength, but lowers our metabolism and weakens our immune system exposing us to disease and illness.

Up until recently the scientific and medical communities has taken muscle strength and mass for granted. The steady loss of muscle as one gets older didn’t even have a name until 1988. In the coming years, sarcopenia is predicted to be one of the biggest health problems the world faces. It is suddenly a very hot topic in aging research as it has a devastating effect on the quality of the last 10 -20 years of a person’s life.

One of the toughest problems facing public health officials is how to get the nearly 70 percent of the world’s population who don’t regularly exercise to start moving.

By now everyone knows exercise is good for them, but many don’t realize it’s a matter of life and death. In other words do it or die!

Within developing countries, shifts to urbanization, non-manual labor, high calorie foods, and higher levels of inactivity and sedentary living are all contributing to this growing problem. Unless we can re-design an environment and develop a lifestyle that systematically restores exercise to our daily routines, this burgeoning, self inflicted world health problem will continue to increase.

Do you want to discover the secret to rejuvenating your body and improving the quality of your life? Download ebook “Fat Loss For Keeps” here: lose fat Closely guarded weight loss secrets! Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who coaches clients to look and feel younger.

[flickr]tag:fitness(,2)[/flickr]
The really good news is you are going to live well into your 80’s, 90’s even topping 100!

But, consider for a moment, what about the quality of your life and health? It has been predicted only 3 out of 10 people will be healthy enough to really enjoy these golden years, will you will be one of them?

By the time the 21st Century arrived much of the physical demands of our daily lives had been replaced by automation. Modern life today sees many of us ’sitting’ and hardly moving for long stints during the day, every day. Our bodies pay the price: the stiffness of joints, the weakening of muscles, the decline in our energy level and the increased risk of disease. We are often quick to blame this on the aging process but instead these changes are a direct effect of inactivity and the sedentary lifestyles that we are living today.

In the last century, another 30 odd years of life expectancy has been added to our lives. For some these years are not a time for happiness and well-being. Although people are living longer in the industrialized world, they are also getting chronically ill at a much earlier age. It seems modern medicine can prolong life; but seems far less able to promote healthy aging.

For many people this downward spiral of declining health, the muscle and joint pain and the subsequent disability is happening at younger and younger ages – thirties, forties, fifties. For most of us exercise is something we should do, but we choose not to, continuing to live our lives without any disease preventing exercise. We can live like this for many years, or even decades while experiencing a gradual and barely noticeable decline in overall health and physical functioning.

For our bodies to become and remain healthy they require the stimulation of challenging physical activity to replace the “work” they have been designed to do. This is the primary way our bodies renew every living cell each day. In other words we are still hard wired for hard manual labor and our bodies don’t know we no longer need to do it.

Our bodies have responded with the loss of our muscle mass and strength as it is no longer needed, the old “use it or lose it” scenario. Our modern world now faces an epidemic of overweight and obese people, sky rocketing levels of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other life threatening illnesses and conditions, all of which have been labeled “lifestyle diseases” as they are considered to be premature and preventable.

Your level of strength is the absolute foundation of your life and equals your level of health. Being physically strong enables you to do more, and be more, which means more of everything – more vitality, more energy and more out of every aspect of your life.

Wellness living requires each of us taking personal responsibility for our own well-being and implementing positive programs to improve health and quality of life. A proper exercise program that includes at least 60% strength training exercise will rejuvenate virtually every organ in your body, adding energy to your days and years to your life.

This will allow you to squeeze out as much enjoyment as possible to add to your life from those extra years you have been gifted with so you don’t waste them!

Do you want to discover the secret to rejuvenating your body and improving the quality of your life? Download ebook “Fat Loss For Keeps” here: how to burn fat Closely guarded lose weight secrets! Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who coaches clients to look and feel younger.

[flickr]tag:fitness(,2)[/flickr]
When someone asks how you are and you say “I’m fine” or “doing well” or “great”, what do you mean? Do you say that because you are not sick and because you are not sick are you really well? What is wellness anyway?

Wellness is definitely one of the new buzz words in health, and it means taking responsibility for your health. It means that you are considerate to your bodies needs, and that you choose a lifestyle that supports, maintains, and increases your health and is a whole lot more than simply being “not ill”.

Wellness means a healthy balance of the mind-body and spirit that results in an overall feeling of well-being and is an ongoing process throughout your life. Being well suggests good health, strength, fitness, aliveness, and energy as well as an inner sense of well-being. It is also a way of living that improves and strengthens your immunity to reduce the risk of major disease and illness.

The current “health care” system could better be called an “illness treatment system” treating symptoms and diseases after they occur. This system is dependant on sickness to survive; therefore, it must insure that there is plenty of sickness to keep it busy. It has nothing to do with health and fosters a culture of medical dependence and irresponsibility for one’s own well being.

This “sickness” business is reactive; no one really wants to be a customer of this system until they are forced to when stricken by illness. However at this stage the human body has already arrived at a broken down state and it may be too late. Wellness cannot come from drugs, hospitals and doctors.

The greatest health challenge our society faces today is the fact that 60% of people in the world has at least one illness and many have multiple chronic conditions with the majority of the population being overweight or obese.

Sadly, incredibly powerful, money motivated forces are not helping people to take control of their own health and are actually encouraging them to gain weight and become unhealthier to continue to feed the “sickness” system. Where are the voices of outrage about this? Do you care?

This has to be changed before it is too late for the sake of our own lives and our children’s. A new focus on wellness, not sickness, is essential for a 21st century health system. Without our health, little else in life can be accomplished. But health is not a given right – and wellness means becoming more proactive and taking responsibility for ones own health and well-being and finding and practicing solutions to ensure this.

People are voluntarily becoming customers of this new revolution – to feel healthier, become stronger and fitter, to reduce the effects of aging, improve the quality of their lives and to avoid becoming customers of the sickness business.
This new way of wellness is a philosophy of life and is a conscious decision to follow a healthy lifestyle that includes a proper exercise program that uses strength training exercise as the main component. This ensures the metabolism is keep running right to keep body weight in check and strength and energy levels high. It will also help distress and calm you making you feel really good, all helping maintaining wellness.

Wellness can be achieved individually through simple lifestyle changes like proper exercise and eating well using natural whole foods as opposed to processed foods. This double whammy will quickly put you on track with your lifestyle to ensure your long term, all round wellness.

Do you want to discover the secret to rejuvenating your body and improving the quality of your life? Download ebook “Fat Loss For Keeps” here: Fat Loss Diet Closely guarded Fat Burning secrets! Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who coaches clients to look and feel younger.

[flickr]tag:acupuncture(,1)[/flickr]
The origins of ancient Chinese medicine lie in the belief system that our human body has the capacity to heal itself. Since ages, the borders of Chinese medicine practices have been expanded to achieve one of our most persistent health objectives of losing weight.

Chinese medicine usually perceives obesity as dampness of the body. This dampness is in relation to the body’s incapacity to transform and transport fluids properly, and is caused by the failure to burn off or eliminate the body’s moisture. Since this primarily affects the lower and middle parts of the body, the resultant effect is gaining weight in such areas.

Traditional Chinese medicine usually uses foods and herbs that can drain the dampness from the body. Usually many herbs are collectively used in a synergistic way to aid this weight loss process. Diagnosis by a Chinese medicine practitioner such as a licensed acupuncturist includes tongue diagnosis, health history, and pulse reading.

The basic individualized method of treatment is to balance the patient’s personal pattern of disharmony. This kind of approach is both effective and safe, since it deals with the personal metabolic reasons of the individual for being overweight.

Such a treatment ensures customization according to the patient’s body system and requirements using specific modifications in Chinese herbs, lifestyle, and diet plan.

However, to make this weight loss program an even more guaranteed success, the treatment regime is supplemented with an effective acupuncture program. Adding acupuncture to the weight loss program ensures reaching the traditional Chinese medicine goal of treating the unique, energetic disharmony of the person, instead of simply dealing with symptoms.

With a prime focus on food and nutrition, the Chinese medicine treatment for weight loss incorporates several practices such as nutrition therapy, acupuncture, herbology, dietary therapy, and several others.

Among these, the practice of acupuncture has achieved new attention for aiding in weight loss while still offering its formerly intended natural wellbeing benefits.

As the acupuncture practitioner inserts thin, sterilized needles in certain specific points of the patient’s body, the person’s body energy flows back into balance and he or she feels an extremely calm, relaxing sense of consciousness.

In Chinese medical schools, students are taught the application of this practice to treat many conditions other than weight loss, including physical disorders, addictions, and pain.

Being a supplement to a proper exercise program and nutrition, acupuncture aids in weight loss because of its capacity to reduce stress. Reduction in stress decreases the chances of binging on or overeating unhealthy foods. Moreover, acupuncture can locate specific areas of our body that are related to appetite control, hormonal issues, and metabolic rate, all of which have significant influences on our weight.

To start a healthy weight loss program, seek out a licensed acupuncturist at the TCM Directory.

[flickr]tag:pilates(,1)[/flickr]

We all know that we should spend less time lazing around and more time exercising, but with all the fad programs and conflicting information out there, it’s hard for a beginner to decide on the best workout. Fortunately, there is little argument among professionals that low impact, muscle building workouts are highly beneficial to beginners.

There are a variety of ways to get the benefits of low impact strength training. The most beneficial – and convenient – are resistance bands. These latex circles are highly economical and come in a wide range of resistances and sizes.

The most notable benefit of pilates band workouts how portable they are. Because the bands can be folded, balled or shoved into extremely small spaces, you can pack a band (or several|or a few|or two or three) into your case and sneak in a little exercise whenever you have a few spare moments. Since they don’t need any setup, you can fit in a short five minute workout a few times a day, without being conspicuous or frustrated.

Resistance bands are also the perfect exercise aids due to their deiverse usage. You can use them to tone nearly any muscle in your body, from your triceps to your stomach to your legs. They can be utilized in most any standard exercise, or you can use them to design exercises that are suited for you.

While weights need lifting and moving, pilates bands move with your body. This main difference makes the bands immeasurably safer than normal weights. When using the resistance bands for strength training, you dont’t need to worry about dropping or overextending a weight. The band will not go further than your body will allow. If you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation with it, you can slowly reverse the tension using your body’s movements.

The safety features of resistance bands extend beyond just the use. Anyone who has kept a few free weights around the house knows that they inevitably end up being kept under beds and causing stubbed toes, trips and falls. Resistance bands, on the other hand, are remarkably problem free. They can be easily put under a couch or in a corner without a second thought.

The fitness benefits of resistance bands are many and far reaching. The low impact exercises build joint strength without causing damage, as exercises like pushups are more likely to do. These exercises build lean, long muscles, which are more attractive than the bulky muscles created by weight training. The process that builds this muscle will also increase your flexibility and range of motion. After the muscle is built, your body can burn more calories (and stored fat) than previously.

Most fitness experts concur that the best workout is one that you’ll stick with. Resistance bands offer any easy, simple, highly portable workout option that will let you sneak in workouts when the mood strikes.

Visit Resistance Bands website for further information and product reviews.

Although cold sore is not curable, they are treatable and that is why the sufferers are looking for the best cold sores treatment. There are two kinds of treatments generally, which are the over-the-counter products or home remedies. Besides that, taking health supplements also helps in treating cold sores.

Over-the-counter products are most likely the first thing you will look for when it comes to best cold sores treatment. There are cold sore creams, liquids and ointments and they are used to reduce the pain caused by cold sores. Some also help to prevent cold sore from developing further, while some others prevent cold sores from forming. Using products with zinc and lysine is deemed to be effective in preventing cold sores from surfacing if the product is applied before cold sores are formed. Although these products do not really cure cold sore, they moisturize and prevent cracking and bleeding.

Homemade treatment of cold sores are also popular methods to treat cold sore. There are various methods which you can try out such as applying ice pack. Once you notice symptoms of cold sore coming out, place the ice pack on the area to prevent its formation. Do this 5 to 6 times per day because people claim that the ice helps to freeze the sore and prevents its development. Tea bags and tea tree oil can also be used to treat cold sore but these methods are not scientifically proven yet.

Besides that, taking supplements such as lysine and amino acids is used as one of the best cold sore treatments as they are being claimed to be able to reduce the frequency of cold sores formation. Anyway, it is advisable for you to ask your doctor’s advice before starting on any type of supplements just in case you are allergic to any of the supplements.