Five Habits That Can Contribute To Being Overweight

Is your lifestyle contributing to your weight gain? For healthy people – weight gain is caused by simply consuming more calories than you burn. Unfortunately for most of us, our healthy lifestyle education comes in the form of a blaring commercial that is trying to convince us that eating this “lite” food or using that “miracle exercise machine” will lead to a healthy, fun, lean lifestyle! A healthy, lean lifestyle takes effort and education. Hopefully these five steps will get you started on a path to meet your weight loss goals.

• Skipping meals and then overeating when you make time to eat. Skipping meals leads to blood sugar fluctuations, moodiness, and can even lead to overeating. Eat healthy meals and snacks at regular intervals.

• Not moving your body. The body is designed to move. Period. Exercise can brighten your mood and lighten your body.

• Drinking cola or sugar drinks when you are thirsty. When your body is thirsty it is asking for water.

• Snacking on empty calories. Being fat free or low carb does not make it healthy. Empty calories (calories void of nutritional value) do nothing for your body.

• Watching an abundance of TV. A recent article stated that you use less energy while watching TV than while sitting still!

Most of us do these habits and are totally unaware of how unhealthy and destructive they can be. Of course this article is not telling you to never watch TV, or never snack – it is merely trying to raise your level of awareness of some things you may be doing that may be sabotaging your diet efforts. Observe your habits and ask yourself if they are contributing to a healthy lifestyle and an ideal weight or are they contributing to an unhealthy lifestyle and being overweight. Arm yourself with knowledge and achieve your ideal weight.

Bookmark and Share

Related posts:

  1. Are You Really Overweight
  2. Are you an emotial eater
  3. 6 Steps to Ending Bad Eating Habits
  4. Positive Imaging for Weight Loss
  5. Bust Through the Weight Loss Plateau

Goji and Weight Loss

Goji as The Asian Weight Loss Secret

In an Asian anti-obesity research, patients were given goji each morning and each afternoon. Results were exceptional with most patients losing significant weight.
Researchers at UCLA and elsewhere have demonstrated conclusively the interconnection between stress and high cortisol levels. If you can reduce stress, you will minimize or eliminate the harmful effects of cortisol.

In an animal study, it was shown that goji’s master molecule polysaccharides improved the conversion of food into energy, and reduced body weight.

Reducing stress may be difficult but for more than a thousand years, traditional Asian medicine has been successfully addressing the problem by the use of adaptogens. The term refers to certain herbs that help the body to adapt to stress. No adaptogenic herb is more renowned than the goji berry for reducing mental and emotional stress.

Beat Stress with Goji

In valleys of Tibet and Mongolia there is a special berry that the locals use and cherish so much that they honor it in special celebrations that last two weeks each year. The Tibetan variety of Lycium now known as ‘Goji’ is considered to be the Mother of all Lyciums! It grows in very remote unpolluted hills and valleys of Tibet and Mongolia, in soil so rich in nutrients that the berries are exploding with this special nurturing vitality.

Goji is the name that refers only to this Tibetan variety of Lycium berry that is indigenous to the Tibetan and Mongolian regions. Local harvesters are cautious to distinguish the Goji berry from its distantly related offspring, the Chinese Wolfberry (Lycium barbarum), pointing out that whilst the later evolved over centuries from the Tibetan Lycium berry variety, its nutrient makeup differs considerably, as do the regions and conditions within which these two different berries are growing.

Goji provides the energy reserves to help one handle just about any difficulty. In Asia, it is said that constant consumption of goji brings a cheerful attitude, and nothing beats good cheer for overcoming stress! It has been suggested that goji’s unique stress-lowering ability can help to normalize cortisol levels. If you can end the cortisol cascade, you’ll soon be on your way to a lower Body Mass Index and a healthier weight. You’ll also notice an impressive array of benefits for whole body good health, including:

-Increased fat burning
-Less fat storage
-Reduction of food cravings
-More energy
-Less fatigue after eating
-Increased fat burning
-Normal secretion of HGH, the body’s growth hormone
-Lower cholesterol and blood lipids
-Improved insulin utilization and blood sugar management
-Reduction of inflammation
-Improved immune function
-Better sleep

Almost two-thirds of Americans aged 20 years and older are overweight. More than 3 of every 10 American adults are significantly overweight – a condition termed obesity. Both overweight and obesity are associated with increased health risk for a host of chronic diseases.

The problem is not purely American. In 1995, a survey by the World Health Organization anticipated the global number of obese adults to be 200 million. A mere five years later, the number had jumped incredibly to 300 million. Justifiably alarmed, the organization has given a name to this seemingly unstoppable worldwide epidemic — globesity.

The excess weight does not necessarily come from fat. If you’re a bodybuilder, professional athlete, or just someone with “big bones,” you may be overweight but not obese.

Being obese refers particularly to those individuals whose excess body weight is a result of a high percentage of body fat. Although experts had long debated the threshold points separating normal weight, overweight, and obesity, there is now near-unanimous agreement thanks to the development of a statistical tool known as the Body Mass Index or BMI.

Fat Distribution — Comparing Apples to Pears

Healthcare providers are anxious not only with how much fat a person has, but also where the fat is located on the body. If you carry fat mainly around your waist (apple-type obesity), you are more likely to result to obesity-related health difficulty than if you carry fat mainly around the hips or buttocks (pear-type obesity).

Causes of Obesity

In scientific terms, obesity arises when you consume more calories than you burn. What causes this imbalance between calories in and calories out may differ from one person to another. Genetic, environmental, psychological, and other factors may all play a part.

Obesity tends to run in families, suggesting a genetic cause. Yet families also share diet and lifestyle habits that may contribute to obesity. Separating these from genetic factors is often difficult. And science shows that heredity is linked to obesity.

Lifestyle behaviors such as what you eat and your level of physical activity are affecting factors. Many people eat in answer to negative emotions such as boredom, sadness, or anger. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases estimates that 10 percent of mildly obese people suffer from binge eating disorder. This disorder is even more common in people who are severely obese.

Probably the most important cause of obesity is something that we all face – the everyday stress of modern life. When under chronic stress, your adrenal glands overproduce the hormone cortisol. Although cortisol is essential in normal amounts, an excess of this stress hormone can create a cascade of detrimental side effects, many of which can cause weight gain – no matter how vigilantly you diet or exercise!

Cortisol causes:

- Instigation of fat-storage and enzymes
- Alteration of protein in the body into unwanted sugar
-Halt in secretion of fat-burning human growth hormone (hGH)
- Stocking of harmful ‘apple-type’ abdominal fat
-increase in appetite and cravings for sweet and fatty foods
-progressive insulin resistance, which leads to type II diabetes, hypertension,
-cardiovascular disease, and the other health risks associated with obesity.

Bookmark and Share

Related posts:

  1. Does Weight Loss Hypnosis Work
  2. Positive Imaging for Weight Loss
  3. Oolong Tea and Weight Loss
  4. Common Myths From The Weight Loss Crowd
  5. Alternative Medicine – New Way to Lose Weight

No more back pain

I remember once when I was working a trade show, and was leaving my hotel room with my luggage. I closed the door to my room, turned the corner, and felt a sharp pain in my right knee. Fortunately there was no one in the hall. I put my luggage down, and proceeded to massage and knead the area around my knee, for maybe 5 minutes at most. I got up, and my knee was like new!
BODY ROLLING
Body Rolling is a form of body work that was developed by Yamuna Zake. It involves rolling on a special ball in a very specific way. I learned about it in 1998, and my life has never been the same. Using the ball has made it unnecessary to go to the chiropractor, and reduced my need for massage. I have attended all of the trainings available, and am a certified body rolling therapist/teacher.

Click here to learn more about Body Rolling Balls and the amazing results that can be achieved by using them.
SELF MASSAGE
Many people think that there is some magical or complicated technique required to give a massage. My experience is that anyone can learn how to use their hands in a way that will give pleasure and comfort to themselves and others.

The easiest way to learn is to sign up at a local massage school or community college for a massage basics class. If that is not possible, purchase a massage basics video. There are a few that we could recommend. Next would be a book. And lastly, just practice! On yourself is a good start, and then on a friend or lover. Just ask them to give you feedback. I’ve been giving massages for over 20 years, and I still ask my clients and friends for feedback. Every one is different, so don’t take the feedback personally. You are just trying to find the pressure and kind of touch that that person prefers. MASSAGE, CHIROPRACTIC & ACUPUNCTURE
These are 3 primary forms of Alternative Medicine. If I can’t fix the problem myself, they are my first line of help. They do cost a bit of money. In an ideal world, we would get some form of treatment on a regular basis. I’ve never forgotten the fact that Bob Hope got a massage every day! I often arrange to do trades with friends or colleagues.

Massage is good for you because our bodies love to be touched. And a good therapist can help remind the body to relax and let go of unnecessary tensions. In the past, massage was about getting the muscles worked on. The field of massage is expanding exponentially, and now there are forms of massage that work on the nervous system, the lymphatic system, the craniosacral system, and on. Start with what is available, and as you learn more, more opportunities will present themselves. FREQUENCY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN DURATION
This seems to be a basic principle; even if you were trying to learn a new instrument, the teacher would tell you that 4 sessions of 15 minutes is better than one 1 hour session. Notice how long it takes for your body to become painful. Then plan on getting a massage a bit earlier.
PROPER POSTURE/BODY MECHANICS
We live in a culture that is very mental and very sedentary. Sitting has become the dominant posture. It is also the worst possible position for the lower back, since all of the weight of the upper body is directed onto the lower back. As a result, lower back pain has become a big business.
My recommendation to you is that you try to move as much as possible. The human body was not built to stay in one position for a long time. The problem with long term sitting is that the muscles used to sit have to stay contracted for extremely long periods. If you moved around, got up, and stretched, your body would be much happier.
The next most important thing is to try and keep the natural curves of the spine in place. This requires that you keep the lower back arched, and the head aligned, as if you were a puppet, and there was a string coming out the top of your head.

Next, be careful when bending over, and when lifting objects. Use your legs for both; bend the knees rather than the torso. And keep boxes close to the body. Imagine yourself as a lever; the further away the object, the more weight imposed on the torso. AND TRY NOT TO TWIST!! Lifting and twisting is the perfect formula for pain.
EMOTIONAL FACTORS
As a Marriage and Family Counselor, I have seen the power of the mind cause pain and illness. It used to be called psychosomatic illness. Now we know that probably 90% of all illness is psychosomatic.

So if you have back pain, ask yourself some questions:
How am I feeling?
Do I have any unfinished issues/conflicts with anyone in my life?
If my pain could speak, what would it say? Who would it say it to?

Metaphysically, lower back pain is considered to have to do with survival issues, i.e., money problems. Upper back pain is more about withheld resentment, and being overburdened.
Taking care of your emotional life will have profound results in terms of all therapist
eviating pain in your body. Every experience you have ever had that has not been resolved is held in the muscles and organs of the body. If your Dad hit you when you were young, and you couldn’t strike back, that is all still sitting in your shoulders, waiting to be expressed.

I highly recommend taking advantage of the many counselors and therapist services available to us nowadays. Our parents weren’t so fortunate; they really didn’t have anyone to go to, other than maybe their priest or minister. Prevention keeps your back pain free!

Bookmark and Share

Related posts:

  1. Lose Weight-Tone Abs With Electronic Muscle Stimulator
  2. Are you an emotial eater
  3. Only 10k Steps A Day Will Help You Lose Weight
  4. How to Burn More Calories
  5. Have You Ever Seen A Fat Postman