Tips On How To Diet The Healthy Way

When it comes to dieting you will find all kinds of crazy and faddish diets on the market today. In addition to the many diets there seems to be every kind of diet aid you can imagine. From shakes the diet industry has evolved to include everything from candy bars and pudding to pills and patches. Each item makes the claim that it can help you drop those unwanted pounds quickly and easily. Well I can tell you for a fact there is very little easy for must of us about dropping a few pounds.

If you would like a few tips that should make your weight loss goals a little easier to achieve then perhaps the following tips will help you out.

Drink Plenty of Water

There really isn't enough that can be said about the importance of drinking water in an effort to reach your fitness goals. Water hydrates the body first and foremost but water is also an important way of tricking your body into believing it is full. Other drinks do not work nearly as well as water in this endeavor and many drinks, even fruit juices, contain empty calories that you can ill afford when dieting.

Another great thing about drinking a lot of water while dieting is that it helps your skin retain its elasticity so you can avoid some of the 'loose skin' look that often accompanies massive weight loss. As an added bonus drinking plenty of water will have your skin looking radiant and beautiful as well.

Set Goals

Having goals is one of the most important things you can do when working to loose weight. Try to make sure that your goals are aggressive but can be achieved. If you are frustrated early in the dieting process by unrealistic goals you are much more likely to give up. However, challenges are always going to inspire us to achieve greater things in life. If you can find a 'weight loss partner' in order to have a little friendly competition for the weight loss totals for a week or a month then you are going to be far more likely to accomplish your goals than if you keep them quietly to yourself.

Eat More

Did you read that twice? Yes, eat more healthy foods that are high in fiber. Eat more vegetables and fruits-fill up on these foods that are good for you and you will not be inclined to binge on calorie laden junk food.

Move!

While this seems a little too simply stated for most, getting up and moving is one of, if not the absolute best way to burn calories. The simple truth is that you are not going to lose weight unless you use more calories than you consume. The more activities you enjoy that burn calories, the more likely you are to shed those unwanted pounds and meet your weight loss goals.

Some great activities that actually burn calories include the following: gardening, golf, dancing, playing volleyball, walking, jumping rope, playing hop scotch with your little ones, and playing tennis. I mention these activities because you can trick yourself into believing that you aren't really exercising while burning calories. Even cleaning house requires movement and energy and if you dance around a little to some good music in the process you might burn a few extra calories.

Dieting, when successful can help restore self image and self-esteem in people who are otherwise beautiful people inside and out. The steps above are not the only things that are involved in the dieting process but they can help you reach your weight loss goals particularly when combined with a diet plan that you feel confident you can follow. Be sure that on those days when will power is non-existent that you do not derail your diet efforts all together by giving up. The most important thing you can do when dieting is to go back to dieting once you've strayed.

Benefits of Meditation

"Select a clean spot, neither too high nor too low, and seat your- self firmly on a cloth, a deerskin, or kusha grass. Then, once seated, strive to still your thoughts. Make your mind one-pointed in meditation and your heart will be purified................................"

These words originate from the Bhagavad Gita, one of the best known and most influential of the Hindu scriptures. This book provides an entire section on the practice of meditation which is central to the Hindu way of life. It is also an important part of other eastern religions, Buddhism and Zen but it also has its place in Christianity and Judaism. However meditation does not require adherence to any of the faiths and religions that advocate it.

The benefits to be gained from meditation are many. Those people who meditate regularly believe that it leads to a significant lowering of tension and negative emotions. At the same time meditation can increase efficiency at work and deepen the sense of inner calm.

This feeling of well-being will bring a number of physical benefits. Regular meditation will eliminate or reduce stress, ease migration and tension headaches, reduce blood pressure, benefit the the heart and reduce the pain of menstrual cramps.

What we seek to achieve through meditation is a state of passive alertness that transcends the day to day level of thought and distraction. This 'higher level' of consciousness can be achieved by every person and does not require a knowledge of religious or spiritual teaching. Meditation is a straightforward way of freeing the mind, forgetting about everyday stresses and focusing upon mental relaxation.

In its simplest form meditation is nothing more than allowing the mind to concentrate upon a simple repetitive sensation such as the running of a fountain or repeating a word over and over again. Any of these and more can be used as something onto which the mind concentrates so strongly that problems and anxieties disappear. When described in its more refined and mystical guise, it is a means to a state of self fulfilment, being completely at one with the universe.

Meditation is not a time consuming process nor is it a form of self-hypnosis. If done correctly it is a life saving experience during which any preconceived opinions and ideas fade, the intellect and senses are refined and the ability to concentrate is improved.

Meditation has existed for several thousands of years but it was only in the 1960's that it became popular in western culture and today many thousands of people benefit greatly from its effects. Meditation slows down the heart rate and reduces oxygen and carbon dioxide production. It also raises levels of skin resistance to pain or to an electrical current, which tends to be lower when we are stressed and anxious. This indicates an increase of muscle relaxation and can be explained for phenomena such as lying on a bed of nails or walking through fire.

During meditation there is also a reduction of activity in the nervous system and an increase in blood circulation. This slows down the metabolism resulting in the body achieving a hypometabolic state. This is a different state than what the body experiences during sleep or while under hypnosis and is best described as deep and prolonged relaxation.

Meditation has also be shown to have a major effect on the way that the brain works. During meditation the brain produces a balanced pattern of both alpha and theta brave wave rhythms. This may indicate that while in a state of deep relaxation the brain is better able to find a balance between its logical and rational and creative and imaginative sides. This results in more healthier, productive and fulfilled individuals. If it is practised regularly meditation will help to fight depression, reduce hypertension, and relieve anxiety, migraine and psychosomatic illness. Concentration, memory and creativity are also improved through regular practice of meditation.

Regular practice of meditation is also of benefit to people who have difficulty in sleeping and suffer from low energy levels. The quality of sleep will improve when meditation is practised regularly and most meditators testify to feeling less tired during the day, needing less sleep at night and waking up feeling more refreshed.

When starting to meditate it is important to find a quiet, peaceful place and to use this place regularly. Soft background music, incense or low lights are helpful in creating a conducive atmosphere. There are two stages involved in the process of meditation. Firstly comes physical relaxation, where the focus of attention is on the body and tension build up is tackled and when the body is relaxed the clarifying and emptying of the mind can begin.

Basic Elements of Ayurveda

Ayurveda is the most ancient and traditional science. The basic principles of Ayurveda deal with the natural way of living a healthy life. People are understanding how difficult is to survive in today's world without any disease. In that case Ayurveda teaches the perfect way of leading a healthy life. The knowledge of ayurveda is divided into eight parts. Hence it is also known as Ashtanga Ayurveda. These are as follows: Kaya, Bal, Graha, Urdhwa, Shalya, Dhanstra, Jara, Vrishan. According to Ayurveda's basic concept of human body there are seven body types. They are as follows:
Mono-types (vata, pitta or kapha predominant),
Dual types (vata-pitta, pitta-kapha or, kapha-vata), and
Equal types, (vata, pitta and kapha in equal proportions).
Every individual has a unique combination of these three Doshas. To understand the uniqueness of every individual is the very basis of Ayurveda. According to Ayurveda all humans are governed by three vital principles, which regulate and control the biological functions. They are Vata, Pitta and Kapha. According to Ayurveda, doshas are of vital importance because they are responsible for coordinating, guiding and directing all the structures and substances of the body. Proper understanding and knowledge of the doshas give us the understanding of the functioning of the intelligence that commands the dhatus (body tissues) and malas (waste products) and gives the body its vast functional capability. The theory of three doshas is the basic foundation of Ayurvedic science and its diagnosis and treatment modalities. The main functions of the following three doshas are as follows:

All motions, transportation and electromagnetic activities are controlled by vata. Whereas Pitta represents fire principle and is concerned with process of conversion, consumption and other chemical changes taking place in the living body. Kapha is the principle of water and as such every living cell is pervaded by it in order to perform their functions. Each of the three doshas has its own unique characters, which are contrary to each other so as to maintain the equilibrium.

Discover What Fitness Is Really About

Would you like to really know what it really means to be Fit ? Well, I will go straight to the point, and I am sure you will be surprised.

Fitness is a lifestyle. It's about having a certain mindset, a certain attitude towards yourself.
Yes, it's about having the body and health you want, but it's first and foremost loving yourself
deeply from the inside. It's about knowing who you are really. True fitness is about growing mentally, physically and spiritually. So, Fitness is not something that comes quickly. It's the result of a complete transformation of your inner being and the sum of daily positive and healthy habits.

The 3 main components of fitness are healthy eating, adapted exercise and fine tuned supplementation : Eating several times a day (5 to 6 times idealy), the right portions (use the size of your fist) and the right nutriments are prerequisites(i.e non-processed food,fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, not cutting out carbs, drink enough water, add lots of whole cereals,having proteins and complex carbs at each meal, etc). Always eat high quality and fresh food (forget about prepared or packed meals). Remember that nutrition is 50% of your physical shape.

Another thing you might not know, is that your glycemic level has a direct effect on how your body stores fat : the higher the glycemic level, the more fat you will store and the more you will weaken your metabolism. So keep eating low glycemic foods and lean proteins (egg whites, poultry breast, fish). Try to eat 15% essentials faty acids, 35% proteins and 50% carbs. All this will help train your body to use food and not store fat.

Another thing to know, and this is very important, is to know that we are all unique individuals; what this means, is that not all people have to train the same way. You must train according to your body type. And then combine three different types of trainings according to your body type.

Fitness equals working on the internal aspects and external aspects of yourself. Usually, you only think about the external aspects. But you have first to become the person inside that you desire to reflect on the outside. That's why the work on the "inside" part is the key to success, and why usually diet plans fail.

Personal growth and attitude are essential to succeed in fitness. The "spiritual" part refers a lot to true happiness,I mean the real feeling of peace and love from the inside out.

To help you on your way, I will give you some tips to start from: first, let's talk about habits : you will not reach fitness in one day and the new lifestyle it requires will not come in one minute either. You have to install new positive habits each day.You have to be mentally prepared and this takes some time and work!Once you are truly committed to fitness, you will experience three phases you must master :

one is the motivation phase, where you will be super charged with energy and happy to undertake what you decided to. This phase is usually the easiest one;

the second phase is the discipline phase, where your motivation starts to fade away. This is the most critical part. Your body hasn't yet accepted the new habits, so it tries to keep you away from going forward. In this phase, you must be disciplined and not listen to your negative or restraining feelings. You must hold onto your vision, as you not yet see the results you are waiting for. Just control your mind and keep going, whatever your thoughts are;

the third phase, is the rewarding phase : here you start seeing your first results...and your motivation comes back! It's a sign your body has accepted your new programming. Your feelings are now positive and you enjoy your new state of being.

It's all about patience and having strong faith in what and why you undertake what you envision. New habits don't come quickly, but think about the rewards they bring! One key factor to stay motivated and to manifest what you truly desire is to strongly believe in yourself and your potential. You can make it! Practice daily positive affirmations, imagining yourself in the new situation and enjoying this future state (i.e feeling healthy, full of energy, having a beautiful body, etc.). Put all your energy and intention into your fitness and it will come you back!

I hope you enjoyed to learn a little bit more about real fitness, and hope this will serve you to
become really fit, full of energy, vitality and happiness. Now you should have the clues to
live a balanced life grow physically, mentally and spiritually!

Effective Herbal Treatments for Menopause

People today are becoming increasingly aware of how effective herbal remedies can be for various medical conditions from migraines to skin conditions. Many women have found that using an herbal remedy to deal with their menopause symptoms are a better choice than the prescription drugs a physician might offer. Women have many different choices when it comes to herbal remedies. The key is learning which ones work best and which ones provide the best relief for your personal set of symptoms.

Menopause symptoms are caused when the ovaries slow their production of various hormones including estrogen. These hormone fluctuations can wreak havoc with a woman's body. Women may experience hot flashes, insomnia, night sweats, unexplained weight gain, and mood swings. Women may even experience exhaustion. It can be so difficult to contain these symptoms without allowing them to cause stress in the life.

Prescription drugs can provide some relief from these symptoms; however, there are some drawbacks to using prescriptions. Some have serious side effects that can be worse than the symptoms themselves. For example, some of the prescriptions available for hot flashes cause itchy rashes all over the body. Other prescriptions have long term health effects including devastating diseases like cancer. Treating your symptoms with a safe, natural herbal remedy is often the best way to handle menopause.

As you begin the search for the right remedy, you might be a bit surprised and overwhelmed at the number of products on the market. Choosing the right product for you can be a difficult task. There are several people you might want to talk to as you start your search.

First, consult your gynecologist. They will be able to tell you which herbal remedies are safe for you and which are not. Moreover, they can let you know which methods are working for their other patients and which have proven to be completely ineffective.

In addition to your doctor, you might talk to an herbal store consultant. They talk to a number of women who are dealing with the same symptoms that you are. As a result, they can guide you in the right direction.

One of the most popular herbs to deal with menopause symptoms is Black Cohos. This herb helps with a number of different menopause symptoms including night sweats, hot flashes, and anxiety. This herb has been extensively studied, and the studies have all pointed to its effectiveness.

Pasque Flower has also proven to be a great herbal remedy to deal with menopause symptoms by offering the same effect a mild sedative might have.

An herb combination called MellowPause might also help your symptoms. It has a soy base, and it combines the power of Black Cohosh and Pasque flower to help you fight insomnia, night sweats, hot flashes, and mood swings.

Menocore is another herbal combination that will help with the same symptoms. It contains a number of different natural herbal products.

One final product that might relieve your symptoms is Triatone. The ingredients list on this includes Black Cohos, Chasleberry, Dong Quai, Isoflavones, and Licorice Root. This product not only relieves many of your symptoms, but it also helps to give you a good sense of well being.

Back Pain At The Office

It's getting to be so bad that by Monday afternoon, you're already tired of being at the office. You're not even thinking as far ahead as Friday. Just getting to hump day is going to be challenge enough.

In reality, it's not the folks you work with who are getting you down—they're tolerable, mostly, although there is that one guy in accounting. Where do they find these people?

It's not even your boss, who, if he knew even half as much as you do, WOULD be a shoo-in for Executive of the Year.

No, the biggest pain in your neck is actually located a bit lower. And it's really what's making working where you do seem a lot worse than it actually is.

Face it. It's your aching back that's sucking the joy out of your nine-to-five existence and making you feel 10 years older to boot.

Sure, you've learned to tolerate the bad coffee, pointless meetings, and lame jokes in the course of your day. But you just can't tough it out when it comes to back pain, which can range from dull, nagging aches to those unexpected twinges that feel like you've been hit with a taser gun.

If it's any consolation, you're not alone. More than 31 million Americans have low back pain at any given time. The bad news about back pain is that it not only lives with you all day at the office but it also comes home with you at night. It may even dog your weekends.

How do you develop pain?

If you are experiencing back pain at the office, you may think that it is coming from all the sitting, standing, and lifting that you have to do. And, indirectly, it does. But it is actually more about how the body has to adapt to all the sitting, standing, and lifting than the activity itself. Let's take sitting as an example.

Because of the amount of time you spend sitting, your body must gradually adapt itself to that position. This happens in a number of ways. The first thing it must adapt to is how the weight goes through your hips and pelvis. Then, there is the way you sit—upright, slouching, or something in between. Most importantly, it's what happens to the muscles while you're sitting. For example, your hip flexors will get tight from being in a shortened position and your butt will get weak and flabby from being in a relaxed state.

That simple combination of tight hip flexors and weak glutes is called a "muscle imbalance." The result of these muscle imbalances will be postural dysfunctions of your pelvis and spine. These imbalances send both your spine and pelvis into abnormal positions, the combination of which can be devastating to a person with a healthy back and catastrophic for a person suffering from any form of back pain.

What can you do about it?

What you must also understand is that your imbalances are the result of what you do in your everyday life—your workouts, sitting, the activities of your job, and your own personal habits. I'm not going to tell you to stop going to work. But what if you changed the way you present yourself at your desk?

• Instead of sitting at your desk, try kneeling. I kneel at least 30 percent of the time I spend at my desk. I have a small foam pad that puts me just high enough to type and see the monitor.
• I sit on a therapy ball—and guess what? I don't sit still like my momma told me to. I move my hips in every direction, which means I'm working on my core balance all day long.

Action steps to take

Because you have to work and because the quality of your life depends on your career, you need to be able to make the most of your situation. Let me give you just a few tips to help you through the day:

Sitting
When I sit, I sit with my legs in all different positions—sometimes bent, sometimes behind me, other times stretched out in front or even to the side of me, keep the legs moving.

Every 10 minutes or so, I will work my body in some way—and, yes, that includes walking away from my desk. But more than that, I make it a habit to stand up when the phone rings. I also stand when I have to read something or when I'm rearranging the stack of stuff on my desk for greater productivity.

Standing
If your job requires you to stand all day long, be sure you have quality footwear and a neutral shoe insert. Our body mechanics start when our feet hit the ground. It is best if your feet are in the most neutral position possible.

One negative body pattern that many people fall into is to continually shift their weight from one foot to the other. The problem with this is that most people find eventually decide that one leg will be more comfortable than the other, and then that leg will get most of the weight most of the time. This will wreak havoc on the pelvis and spine. Better to put equal on each foot as much as you can, and learn to correct when you catch yourself shifting your weight or leaning on one leg too much.

Lifting
A third obstacle on the job can be situations where you have to lift anything over 10 pounds repeatedly. Again, it's not the activity itself that puts you in jeopardy; it's your body's inability to tolerate the stress of the weight. In other words, you should be able to lift anything you want to and not have any difficulty doing it. The problem occurs when your body is suffering from the muscle imbalances and postural dysfunctions that we talked about earlier—and you don't even know it.

So, when you lift that object and you get injured, think of it as the straw that broke the camels' back. Your body was already in a compromised state, and it just needed that last bit of stress to send you in to a painful condition.

Stress
It's an unavoidable fact of life at the office, and it can also play a role by causing your muscles to tense up, which makes you more prone to injury. Stress also lowers your tolerance for pain. In some cases, minimizing stress on the job can be a daunting task, but deep-breathing exercises, walking around the block, or even talking about your frustrations with a trusted friend can help.

In closing, I want to leave you with this message: Even though the workplace can be a hazard to your health, if you do find yourself having back pain, remember that your thoughts and your beliefs about your situation will have a direct impact on your ability to recover and how fast you recover. That's why it's critical to learn all you can about your condition and take action as soon as you can…

Do You Do Too Many Things At Once?

Does this ever happen to you? Do you feel overworked? Overwhelmed? Overtired? Most of us are busier than ever: We're doing our jobs plus sometimes the jobs of one or two gone-but-not-replaced colleagues and doing it all with less support.

'Do more with less'is the unforgiving mantra of business in industry today. Make more decisions, launch more innovations, get more stuff done, with fewer people and less resources. Cell phones, laptops, PDAs, pagers all beeping, ringing, flashing making demands on our time and our attention. It is reported by a study by the Families and Work Institute in New York of 1,003 employees that 45 percent of U.S. workers feel they are asked or expected to work on too many tasks at once. Is this true for you?

How do we do it? We become very good at multitasking. We do it everywhere largely because of technology. We can check pagers and even answer cell phones on the golf course (or in my case, the tennis court!)

Does this mean you have less time to do real work as more time is spent on task work, answering messages, shuffling papers? Do you manage to stay sane in the face of these crazy demands?

A growing body of scientific research shows that multitasking can actually make you less efficient. Trying to do two or three things at once or in quick succession can take longer overall than doing them one at a time, and may leave you with reduced brainpower to perform each task.

Research shows that multitasking increases stress, diminishes perceived control, and may cause physical discomfort such as stomach aches or headaches not to mention shoddy work, mismanaged time, rote solutions, and forgetfulness. Have you ever noticed that as you are working on one task, thoughts about another creep into your consciousness? Taken further, car crashes, kitchen fires, forgotten children, near misses in the skies, and other dangers of inattention.

The Institute for the Future finds that employees of Fortune 1,000 companies send and receive 178 messages a day and are interrupted an average of at least three times an hour. Is your head shaking in agreement?

It doesn't mean we can't do several things at the same time, but we're kidding ourselves if we think we can do so without a cost. Our brains allow us to appear as though we can comfortably multitask. We do have an excellent filtering mechanism to switch our attention rapidly from one thought to the next. At the same time, rather than lose unattended thoughts, this mechanism keeps them active in the recesses of the brain.

However, the more we juggle, the less efficient we become at performing any one task. And the longer we go before returning to an interrupted task, the harder it is to remember just where we left off. Multitasking diminishes our productivity and makes us work harder just to feel like we are barely keeping up.

Recently, the public debate over multi-tasking focused largely on cell phones and driving. On July 1, 2004, New Jersey became the second state behind New York to ban drivers from using a cell phone without a headset. Washington, D.C., has adopted a similar ban.

No one solution works for everyone. Try them all, and then choose those that work best for you:

* Better estimate the time it takes to complete a task. For instance, list the tasks you plan to complete during a four-hour period and write down how long you think each task will take. Then, time yourself. Find the percentage by which you underestimate, and adjust your expectations accordingly.
* Write things down. Offload what's on your mind onto paper. Keep a pad of paper and pen by your bedside and write those thoughts that either keep you up, or wake you up, in the middle of the night. I get my best ideas in the middle of the night and write them down so I can get back to sleep peacefully. The only caveat here is have big paper. I tend to write my thoughts one atop the other in the dark!
* Allow yourself to complete a task which is the most productive way to work.
* Remove distractions: close your door (if you have one), do not check your e-mail, and turn off the ringer on your phone, cell phone, pager, and fax.
* Schedule down time for yourself. Do something different by refreshing your system so you return to work with a clean perspective, and the ability to work more effectively.
*Remember to breathe deeply. We tend to breathe shallowly and by deep breathing we relax in spite of ourselves.

Do these sound familiar? Many are techniques for de-stressing and rightly so. Multitasking is stressful. Technology can multitask forever. Humans cannot.

I find the following fascinating since at this moment while I'm creating this article I'm interrupted by phone calls, e-mails, staff, and my mind reminding me what is left in my Daytimer to be done today!

How do we do it? Research shows that the ability to multi-task stems from a spot right behind the forehead. That's the anterior part of the region neuroscientists call the 'executive' part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. When we assess tasks, prioritize them, and assign mental resources, these frontal lobes are doing most of the work.

This same region of the brain is where we pull off another uniquely human trick that is key to multi-tasking 'marking' the spot at which a task has been interrupted, so we can return to it later. It reminds me of the Bookmark function in Word, bringing you back to where you left off in a document.

However, the prefrontal cortex is the most damaged as a result of prolonged stress, particularly the kind of stress that makes a person feel out-of-control and helpless. The kind of stress, for example, that you might feel when overwhelmed by the demands of multi-tasking.

Such stress also will cause the death of brain cells in another region:the hippocampus, which is critical to the formation of new memories. Damage there can hobble a person's ability to learn and retain new facts and skills.

When a person multi-tasks well, without errors or disastrous results, it is usually because one or more of the tasks engaged in has become automatic.
For example, I can eat lunch and read the newspaper at the same time, because eating really involves no conscious thought. I'm sure you can think of instances where you've had similar experiences. I hope you are not multitasking as you read this!