Learn to Love Your Body!

Published by Ranaesheart

Motivation is an ever-present need when implementing the change to a healthier lifestyle. Today I have elected to share some extremely personal information in an effort to provide you with some very important reasons to continue on this path you’ve chosen.

My employment with the American Red Cross came to an end in the middle of May, along with a thousand others nationwide. A 200 million dollar deficit predicated this massive layoff that affected most of my coworkers and many who dedicated their lives to this noble institution. We felt displaced and found ourselves polishing up our resumes.

When the notice came of our impending departures, and the resulting termination of our health insurance, scheduling routine annual exams suddenly moved to the forefront of our “to do” lists. One such appointment was to my family practitioner. The visit included a routine blood draw and came with the added benefit of seeing the look of amazement on his face as he noticed the large weight loss since my last visit. (By the way, that is a really fun aspect of the physical change, seeing someone who hasn’t seen you in a long time and watching his or her reaction!)

So last week I received the test results of my lab work and I was thrilled! Not only all normal, but better than normal!!!

Weight: 185 lbs Total Cholesterol 189 (Normal range 165-199) HDL 77 (Normal range 35-59; doctors say anything above 50 is good - 77 is Great!) LDL 90 (Normal range is less than or equal to 129; cardiologists are recommending below 100) Triglycerides 111 (55-199)

I remember my old values being out of range, especially the triglycerides, so I called the doctor again. Here are the old results for comparison purposes.

Weight: 290 lbs (Highest was 330 lbs) Total Cholesterol 218 (Normal range 164-200; abnormal) HDL 80.9 (32-96; within normal range) LDL 94.7 (90-190; also within normal range, but new values are better) Triglycerides 214 (30-200; abnormal)

Many times we focus on the physical appearance of weight loss and mentally we compare ourselves with others. Unrealistic images and touched up photos of movie stars and models bombard our senses and we tend to develop a false picture of what it “looks like” to be healthy. For most of us, we are not and never will be a size zero. The truth is, the average size woman in the United States is a size 14, the size at which “plus sized” clothing begins.

The point is, the most important reason we should lose weight is to move to a healthy lifestyle!

As I excitedly shared the results of my blood work with my mom, she informed me she had noticed many changes in my health. Not being quite so in tune, I asked her to share what she had noticed.

These are her observations and they’re shared to encourage you to look beyond the physical aspects.

Sleep apnea has resolved itself and a CPAP machine is no longer required.

Breathing difficulties are no longer and issue and inhalers are a thing of the past.

With less weight on my frame, there is no longer the pressure on my bladder and bladder control issues are no longer existent.

The knee pain is gone and my knees are stable! It is no wonder they had trouble. Can you imagine carrying a 146-lb person on your shoulders day in and day out? I get tired carrying an infant or a toddler for short periods of time and I get to put them down!

My blood pressure is in the normal range with the medication half of the previous doseage. We are now assessing whether it can be eliminated all together.

The heart health benefits are shown in the blood test results above and my risk for cardiac disease has greatly improved.

While I did not have any issues with my blood sugar, it should be noted that had I continued on the same path, statistics show it would only have been a matter of time before Type II diabetes developed. (It can be precipitated by obesity.)

Let’s stop thinking about outside appearances and focus on the inner working of our bodies. Try comparing it to shopping for a car. Would you want to purchase the car owned by a mechanic who had meticulously cared for the motor? Or, would you purchase the one whose owner participated in the pleasure of many long road trips but failed to perform the routine maintenance?

You see, if we do not choose to love our bodies and treat them in a kind and caring manner, we stand to lose our health. If that happens, we stand to lose everything that is near and dear to our hearts. Without your health, you won’t be able to participate in activities, your longevity is threatened and your life may become burdened with the cares of tending to the needs of your health.

By making health the No.1 reason to eat nutritionally and exercise regularly, you preserve your body to participate and enjoy all that life has to offer! You will be alive to enjoy the love of your family and friends and that is truly where our treasure lies! The Choice is Yours!

Find More Weight Loss Tips And Related Articles At Ranaesheart!

Diet Pill Truths for Consumers

Published by artgib

In addition to changing the way you look, excess fat can damage your health and make you feel lethargic. That’s why millions of people across the country are interested in all kinds of ways to lower their weight.

Healthy eating and regular exercise are the two activities that most health care professionals would probably recommend, but these methods take time to deliver results and they require a lot of self-discipline. For those who are interested in the fast track, there are also some oral medications that can help stimulate weight loss. These medications are commonly referred to as weight-loss or diet pills.

Diet pills can be very appealing to consumers because they are supposed to make the weight-loss process faster and easier by suppressing your appetite or boosting your metabolism. Some diet pills try even promise additional benefits like breast augmentation for women and bigger muscles for men. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of safeguards in place to ensure that diet pills fulfill all the promises they make because, unlike prescription medication, diet pills don’t need to be approved by the FDA to be sold on the market. As a result, some weight loss pills have no effect on consumers at all and others are actually harmful.

Besides wasting your money on a product that doesn’t work, a few of the risks involved with buying the wrong pill include: loosing weight too fast, restlessness and seizures. For a few people, weight-loss pills can even cause a heart attack. One way to avoid these negative effects is to research a few common ingredients used in diet pills and the effects they have had on the people consuming them. For example, if you are sensitive to stimulants like caffeine, you should avoid weight-loss pills with that contain an ingredient called Guarana because one seed from that plant contains five times the amount of caffeine found in a coffee bean.

If you want to lose weight safely, you shouldn’t be shedding more than one or two pounds a week. After all, you might not need as much food as you’ve been eating in the past, but you still need enough to keep your engine running because the body still needs vitamins, minerals, proteins, and carbohydrates to stay strong and healthy; especially if you are a woman who is trying to have children. This means that a diet pill that allows you to lose ten pounds in ten days is probably a little too strong.

For more information on some of the most popular diet pills, visit Syberview.com (http://sybervision.com/reviews/reviews.php). In addition to the site reviews, real consumers have added posts on about several diet pills and their effects. The author, Art Gib, is a freelance writer.

Can Diet Pills Help You Lose Weight?

Published by RickHendershot

In the last several years, obesity has become a serious matter in the US and much of western society. The fact the millions are seriously overweight effects millions of people directly, and the rest of the country indirectly as we all have to pay for the rising health care costs of treating this population.

That makes it everyone’s best interest to find an effective weight loss method to deal with this country’s overweight and obese populations. Can diet pills help?

Before we can figure out the best manner in which to treat the obesity epidemic, we must first try to determine why this condition - now classified as a disease - is at an all time high?

One important reason for the now epidemic rate of obesity and the millions of overweight people in America is our increasingly inactive lifestyles. As people become more wealthy they spend more time chilling out and enjoying themselves, and less time doing physical labor.

People with lots of money are able to hire others to clean and landscape their homes, mow their lawns, and even play with their kids.

Also, North American society has been inundated with sedentary entertainment alternatives. Instead of riding bikes, playing tag and swimming, the new generation of kids is sitting in front of televisions, computers and playing video games. While doing so, they are eating high calorie, high fat, pre-packaged snacks with little or no nutritional value.

Because the obesity epidemic is affecting children as well as adults - and is in fact beginning in childhood - the use of diet pills as a easy solution to obesity is a non starter.

What overweight people - both children and adults - need is a change in lifestyle that reintroduces them to physical exercise and encourages them to change their eating habits.

Weight loss supplements and diet pills should not be seen as a magic solution to the problem of obesity. But they can play an important role in this process.

Shedding weight is not easy. It requires discipline, a change in diet and a major adjustment in lifestyle towards more physical exercise. Diet pills and weight loss supplements should never be looked at as a sort of quick solution.

Remember that a pound of fat has about 3,500 calories in it. No diet pill on earth (ephedrine, prescription, or otherwise) can increase your metabolic rate enough to cause you to lose even a pound of fat per week. It just isn’t possible to do.

But when combined with more disciplined eating habits and pumped up physical activity, some weight loss products can have a positive impact.

For example, certain products contain ingredients that will make you more energetic. That makes it easier to continue with an exercise regime and causes more calories to be burned during exercise.

Trustworthy weight loss authorities estimate the results when using the correct weight loss supplements will be about double the results achieved with diet and/or exercise alone.

Simply put, weight loss supplements can be effective when a person has already embraced the decision to lose weight and has made the necessary diet and lifestyle changes to make it happen.

To see how you can make the best use of diet pills and weight loss supplements visit FemNutirion.com - your best source for ephedra diet pills. Article source: Link Builder Network.

Lose Weight Naturally By Speeding Up Your Metabolism

Author: Fat Loss Centre.com

Increasing the rate of your metabolism is the easiest way to speed up the rate at which you lose weight. There are people that wonder about turning this idea into reality and often don't because they don't think it's really possible. However the fact is it is possible to speed up the metabolism in your body. There are several things that can be done to give your metabolism a boost and this article hopes to go over them so that you can understand what you can do better but first you must actually understand your metabolism.

Metabolism is defined as how much energy you have available to you at any given time through the burning of fat calories, this causes the body to be working all the time. If you are not active then this rate is usually incredibly slow. So here are some things that you can do to boost your metabolism.

*Exercise - When you do some form of exercise such as jumping up and down on a mini trampoline during those two minutes of commercials you can speed up your metabolic rate. The more you do it the more your metabolism will adjust to work faster and after a while this increase will be the normal rate of your metabolism. Any form of exercise involving strength training and cardio will give maximum benefits.

*Walking - Walking on an inclined treadmill that is set at an angle of ten to fifteen degrees or up a hill either one will help with weight loss and the large oxygen deficit that it causes will speed up your metabolism. This oxygen deficit forces the body to burn fat for its energy needs immediately.

*Water - Cold water can give a momentary boost of approximately eight to thirty percent when it is drunk cold.

You should know how many calories you take in during a day's time. You need to know this because you have to figure out how many calories you actually need to make it through your day. An easy way to do this is to take 11 times the amount you weight, 12 if you are more active. This isn't exact but it will be close. Use this figure for one to two weeks then adjust it to fit your weight loss goals and get results.


Eating more often is one of the easiest changes someone can make in their lives. This doesn't mean to eat more literally, it means to have more, smaller meals, and you should eat four to six meals a day as opposed to the three a day you were always taught. This is due to the fact that if the body is without food for a period of more than 3 three hours it will slow the metabolism to protect itself. When you eat at least every three hours the body is constantly breaking down the food and this helps keeps metabolism going and causes it to speed up.

Sleep is essential in speeding up metabolism to loose weight. A regular sleep schedule with at least seven to eight hours a night works best to help in your efforts and make them more effective.

Metabolism is the controlling factor in weight loss and learning to control the rate of metabolism will help with the ability to lose weight. These simple suggestions will make it easier to achieve this.

Rethinking Diets, Weight Loss and Health

Author: Fat Loss Centre.com

Few topics generate more heated discussion than diet and weight loss, and for the past week, readers have posted hundreds of comments reacting to the latest diet research.
The latest study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, compared three diets. Some participants cut fat, others counted carbohydrates in a version of the Atkins diet, while others adopted Mediterranean-style eating habits. Some people declared the research a vindication for Atkins, others criticized my view of the study as more evidence that diets don¡¯t really work.
For some needed perspective, I turned to Gina Kolata, a New York Times reporter and author of the wonderful book, ¡°Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss ¡ª and the Myths and Realities of Dieting.¡± Not only is Gina well versed in the science of weight loss, but she has an unusually compassionate take on the efforts of the dieters in this recent study and all people who struggle with their weight.
¡°Every study that has ever been done, and this one included, shows that it¡¯s absolutely unbelievably difficult,'¡¯ she said. ¡°When people beat themselves up and say, ¡®I should be thin, it¡¯s my own fault,¡¯ maybe it¡¯s not your own fault. How much harder can somebody try than people in this study and look what happened. They didn¡¯t lose much weight.'¡¯
Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. ¡°Rethinking Thin¡± shows how difficult it can be for people to lose weight and keep it off. So what advice does Gina have for people who are overweight?
¡°Don¡¯t always blame yourself, and don¡¯t beat up on yourself,'¡¯ she said. ¡°It¡¯s obviously really, really hard. Don¡¯t say, ¡®I¡¯m a weak person and it¡¯s my own fault.¡¯ ¡±
Instead, Gina says some people who have tried unsuccessfully to lose weight may decide to say to themselves, ¡°I can be attractive. I can buy clothes. I can be fit. I can be healthy. I can have a good life, and I may not be skinny, but so what.¡±
Gina offers a powerful and compassionate message to people who are overweight and those who judge them. I hope you will click on the podcast below to listen to the rest of our conversation and post your comments.

Fast Weight Loss That Matters

Author: Priya S

Excessive weight in a person may be because of heredity or genetic factors which is beyond theanyone¡¯s control, it may also be a result of the person¡¯s food eating habits, life style, the nature of work and activities the person routinely engages in, etc. Except in cases of genetic disorders or heredity, generally people gain weight over a long period of time and with reasonable awareness towards your well-being there is generally no reason for you to look for ways to achieve fast weight loss.

Excess weight condition matters; so weight loss also matters. Why should fast weight loss matter? And for whom does the fast rate matter?

There are two categories of people who look for fast weight loss methods - those who are very obese and have recently become conscious of danger to their health and those who are taken in by thosevery ¡°alluring but misleading¡± advertisements showing that you could achieve mirror breaking looks and killing figure and features by following the slimming courses for two or three weeks.

Health experts agree that an average person can lose about 1 to 2 pounds of weight per week by adopting correct eating habits and doing reasonable exercises. This is a safe and healthy amount to lose; the results achieved are long lasting this way without any adverse effects. By adopting additional safe methods such as use of Proactol, a fat binder OTC product, you may be able to lose safely about 2 to 3 pounds per week; that itself would be high weight loss rate. The result you will get will definitely be satisfactory.

Many people are very keen on losing weight at much higher rate - something like 10 to 15 pounds a week. However take a moment to think. Do you gain weight at anything like 10 to 15 pounds a weeksteadily? Answer is big ¡°NO¡±. You don't because your body cannot gain weight in that proportion. And if your body cannot add weight at that rate, it will not be able to lose at that rate either without ill effects. This should be properly understood by everyone keen on loosing weight to become more attractive and fit.

By going on a starvation diet to lose weight at an unrealistic rate, all that you manage to lose is yourmuscles, body fluids - water - , your sleep and money, of course! You could do more harm to your body than good doing this. Achieving fast weight loss is violating the natural rhythm of your body. Quite often it is seen that such drastic results of weight loss achieved are equally rapidly rolled back and in fact you would gain more weight over a period of time.

On the contrary, there are those cases of extreme obesity whose need for faster weight loss may be reasonable because of health concerns. Bariatric surgery may be the only answer to the prayer of these obese patients. In these weight loss surgery techniques, called gastric bypass and laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding ("Lap Band"), the capacity of the stomach is surgically reduced or limited. This limits the quantity of food the patient is able to eat. This automatically restricts the tendency of the body to have a craving for food and also restricts weight gain. Most of the persons are able to return to their normal work after a few weeks.

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