Nonitage

It’s become increasing clear that diets don’t work. Most of the popular diets that people have tried over the past few years focused on restricting or even eliminating whole food groups. People lost weight on these diets and then, of course gained the weight back. Now there is a small and hopefully growing trend towards lifestyle diets.

Lifestyle diets focus on how one lives and then proposes easy to implement changes to help people to lose and most importantly keep weight off. This is very important because yo yo dieting is dangerous and may cause some serious health threats. A study done at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center by Dr. Ulrich found that the women who yo yo dieted the most had a lower number of natural killer cells. These killer cells are the cells in your immune system that aim at viruses.

The statement above does not mean that people should not try to lose weight. Obesity contributes to many disease states and is being considered as a separate risk factor when health care professionals evaluate heart disease risk. What this does mean is that people need to lose weight by making small changes that fit into their lives. Here are some principles that people can follow to make small changes in order to achieve permanent weight loss:

Plan Ahead

Portion Control

Fill Up With Fiber

Take 3 Deep Breaths And Drink Water

Balance Your Choice

Cheat

Plan Ahead: Eating mindlessly with no plan is like driving to a new destination with no directions. You need to have a plan for eating at home, work and while traveling or eating out. Fill your refrigerator with fresh cut vegetables and fruits so that they’re easy to get to. If you have to keep high fat and sugar foods in your home, put them somewhere where it’s difficult for you to get to and stay away from that food. Better yet, don’t have it in your home in the first place. Buy pre-cooked lean protein, low fat high fiber cereals or low sodium, low fat frozen dinners so that there is always healthy food around.

Portion Control: This is one of the most important areas of any lifestyle diet. Some people refuse to eat “rabbit food” and have lives that socially revolve around food that isn’t good for weight loss. These people will do best by significantly reducing their portions. Start by leaving a third of what you normally eat on your plate.

Fill Up With Fiber: Fiber is an essential part of weight loss because it makes you feel full and helps you with elimination. When purchasing cereals, check the label for a fiber number of over 5 grams. This will be under the carbohydrate section. You can also get lots of great fiber from fruits and vegetables.

Take 3 Deep Breaths and Drink Water: When you are about to binge and are eating out of emotion as opposed to hunger try this: stop and take 3 long and slow deep breath, exhaling as slowly as possible. Then drink a big glass of water and wait 10 minutes before you go for that binge. You just may skip it.

Balance Your Choice: This step has a small learning curve, but try to have a bit of a protein and a carbohydrate with every meal. This will help to control your blood sugar levels and insure more adequate nutrition.

Cheat: Everyone needs a break and if you stop eating all the foods that you enjoy, you will resent your eating habits and binge. Therefore, plan one day per week, it could be a special event where you allow yourself some of your favorite foods. Try to still be aware of portions when you do this.

Renee Feldman MA: http://www.eatrighttips.com
Renee is an Exercise Physiologist and Instructor certified by The American College of Sports Medicine. She was one of the first personal trainers in the United States. She was a champion competitive bodybuilder and dancer. Through her company, No Time Fitness, Inc. she will soon be releasing her first workout videos. Her new weight loss program, “Eat to Cheat” was the inspiration for this article.

Overview:

The term obesity strictly denotes a substantial excess of body fat. However, it is very difficult to measure fat content directly in living people and so some measure of weight in relation to height is usually used to indicate an individual’s degree of fatness. In the past, weight-for-height tables were the most common way of assessing people’s weight status. Of late, the Body Mass Index (BMI) has become the usual routine way of measuring fatness. When tested on groups of ordinary adults, BMI is found to be a surprisingly good predictor of body fat content. In some studies, it is almost as good as several of the sophisticated laboratory methods of measuring obesity.

The BMI is the weight (in kilograms) divided by the height (in meters) squared. Obesity is an enduring disease, which means there is continuous widespread accretion of excess fat in the body. Obesity is known to be a precursor to many health problems, particularly cardiovascular disease, hypertension, arthritis and diabetes. Because of the negative health and social implications of obesity, people often seek weight loss programs. Though, there are several weight loss programs, the best weight loss program remains, exercise combined with low-calorie whole foods diet and lifestyle changes. However, choosing the ingredients for an ideal diet in today’s marketplace requires a healthy dose of skepticism, diligence, and a certain amount of fortitude to resist slipping into old convenience patterns.

The most common weight loss strategy is dieting. However, dieting alone seldom proves successful in the long term, particularly if an individual is morbidly obese. The success rate for this supposedly best weight loss program stands a dismal three to five percent. Furthermore, significant numbers of dieters die as a result of anorexia or its complications - they literally starve themselves to death. Other allegedly best weight loss program is use of medications or drugs to control or treat obesity. Most of these slimming-pills work by making a person feel less hungry or making the stomach feel fuller soon. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not recommend the use of drugs in the treatment of obesity, as they are found to cause serious heart valve problems.

At levels that are achievable by untrained and especially by overweight individuals, exercise alone is unlikely to be effective in producing substantial weight loss. It needs to be combined with a reducing diet. It must also be said at this point, that in most studies that have looked at the contribution of exercise to weight loss programs, the conclusion has been that exercising has led to only a modest increase in weight loss as compared to dieting. However, when longer-term outcome has been assessed, the evidence suggests that an exercise component increases the chances of long-term success. Once people have lost weight and relaxed their diet, they are less likely to regain weight if their ‘best weight loss program’ includes an exercise element. Remember, keeping lost weight off is even more of a challenge than losing it in the first place.

Summary:

Devising a diet and exercise program is not difficult but keeping to it is. To increase the chances of success, a best weight loss program should ideally take account of factors such as: your likes, dislikes, food intolerances, your pattern of eating, your food preparation skills, your need to fit your diet in with the needs of others, your amount of leisure time and your ability and willingness to incorporate more physical activity in everyday living. The best weight loss program that takes account of these factors and is tailored to your circumstances should have the best chance of success. You may therefore be the “best man” to design your best weight loss program.

Wray Burns is author & owner of http://www.weight-loss-that-works.com a website aimed at providing help & information for people looking to lose weight and improve their fitness.

Let’s face it, diet and exercise programs just take too much
time and are always difficult to follow for the average person.
You have to be really committed to keep on top of some of these
programs. Perhaps you have tried different programs but simply
lost your motivation. I, like you had started all kinds of
programs in the past but just lost interest in them, for the
most part because they were really hard to become a part of my
life. Some were probably great programs, but my daily life
situations combined with some hard to break routines made me not
as motivated or committed as I should have been. Make no
mistake, my intentions were good but my mind and heart were not
as committed as they should have been. With each failed program,
I slipped deeper and deeper into complacency that it was alright
to be a little overweight. If only I had at the very least, a
small victory, a pound or two lost, it could have been a turning
point that would have motivated me further and spurred a greater
commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Well, if you can relate to
what I have written, what I am going to tell you about is for
you.

Today, I do have a regular exercise and diet program that I
follow but this article isn’t about that. This article is about
how I lost weight by simply making a few small changes in my
every day choices. I put together this simple program mostly by
trial, error, accident and revised it with information I later
obtained as a result of a natural personal training regimen I
follow. I have followed the plan I am going to tell you about
and have lost weight with it. Believe it or not, just by
changing what I ate for breakfast and snacks, I lost five
pounds! It worked for me and it can really work for you as long
as you stay with it for 4 weeks.

This is not a strict diet or exercise program but simply a list
of choices, options if you will, that you can choose on a daily
basis. Your mission is simply to choose a minimum of any three
of the options listed and stick to them for every day for at
least 4 weeks or preferably more. If you choose more options,
the quicker and the more weight you will lose. How much weight
you actually lose will depend on your own body and the options
you choose.

No matter what you do to try to lose weight, it all comes down
to two things. What you put in your mouth and how much exercise
you get. If you reduce what you put in your mouth, but not
exercise you will lose weight. If you exercise but still eat the
same, you will lose weight. If you reduce what you put in your
mouth and exercise, you will not only lose weight but you will
lose more of it, faster and will be in better health to keep it
off.

This method is really simple, but like anything you have to be
willing to really want to make a change in your life. All that
you have to do is select at least three of the options from the
list of items below, stick to them for at least four weeks and
see the difference. Of course, if you choose more options you
will lose more weight at a faster rate, but the success of the
program rests on how easy it will be for you to maintain the
options for at least a four week or more period. Some of the
options may not apply to you or you may already be doing them,
so you cannot select these as an option under the program.

Here are your options. Select at least three that you can live
with for the next four weeks.

* Stop using or adding salt to your food.

* Stop using or adding sugar to your food (this includes adding
sugar to your coffee, tea and cereal).

* Replace carbonated beverages (soda, pop) with water or low
fat milk (skim or 1%).

* Start taking a multi-vitamin every day.

* Avoid fried foods (French fries, fried chicken, fried fish,
etc.) replace with baked, grilled or BBQ.

* Avoid bagged potato, taco chips and chocolate candy, replace
with fruit and rice cakes.

* Replace white bread with 100% whole wheat bread.

* Avoid creamy dressings or sauces, even if they say “light” or
“reduced fat”.

* Avoid pre-sweetened cereals, replace with an unsweetened
whole grain cereal or oatmeal (please don’t add sugar!).

* Just say no to donuts and pastry.

* Drink 4 glasses of water a day.

* Use 1% or skim milk instead of regular or 2% milk.

* Eat portions of food that are no larger than your closed
hand. (ie. A typical dinner might be a “handful” of salad, a
“handful” of vegetables, a piece of meat not larger than your
closed hand and for desert a “hand sized” helping of fruit.)

* Reduce wine, beer and liquor consumption by half.

* Eat more bananas, apples, pears and other fresh fruits.

* Do not snack or eat a meal less than one hour before you go
to bed.

* Read the nutritional labels of the foods you buy, consider
the items with the lowest sugar or calorie content.

* Eat red meat only once a week, replace with chicken or fish
on other days.

* Avoid pork, ham, bacon, pork sausage.

* Take the stairs instead of the elevator daily (at least when
going down to the ground floor).

* Run, walk, jog or bike for at least 20 minutes once a week.

As always is the case when considering any diet or exercise
routine, you should always consult your doctor before you begin.
This is especially true if you have any medical conditions or
are on medications. Give this a try for four weeks and see what
results you get. You can do it.

Copyright © 2005-2006 Dr. Robert Ing, www.drroberting.com

Permission is granted to publish this article electronically or
in print, free of charge, as long as the article appears in its
entirety, full credit is given to the author and a link or
reference to the author’s webpage www.drroberting.com is
provided.

This group resorts to alcohol or drugs to buffer the emotional roller coaster they are riding. Sure, many of us take a drink now and then to unwind, but for some it becomes an addiction. Nobody wants to become an addict; it is not a conscious choice we make. Addiction creeps up on you and before you realize it, you can’t make it through the day without alcohol or drugs. In our minds, it is easy to justify our addiction by simply stating, “I can stop at any time.” Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen, in fact once it is realized that you may have a problem, the indulgence has become dependence.

Addiction and substance abuse can inflict a tremendous amount of suffering, not only on the individual, but also on their family and friends. Substance and alcohol addictions have been diagnosed as a disease and are treatable. There are many avenues to choose when seeking treatment, but the most effective choice is to go to an accredited treatment center. Some treatment centers, such as CirqueLodge.com, in Sundance Utah, are enlisting the aid of equine therapy in their treatment program.

What is equine therapy? Equine therapy originally started as a program that involved the use of horses in riding therapeutically for individuals with physical disabilities. The horseback riding experience provided the rider with a gentle rhythm similar to the human gait; this often helped improve muscle strength, flexibility and balance. It has also been found that individuals with mental or emotional disabilities can benefit from interactions with horses. The individual forms a relationship with the horse that can help build their confidence, patience, and self-esteem.

The North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) was formed for the purpose to promote safe, professional, and therapeutic equine activities through education and research, for people with and without disabilities. Many of us are familiar with this association; we have seen it in the news and in printed articles. Through the success of their programs, there was a need to form a new addition to the association, the Equine Facilitated Mental Health Association (EFMHA).

This EFMHA was formed for the purpose of promoting, and educating others or clinical professionals, to work with horses. They also set the standards of horse knowledge, that pertain directly to Equine Facilitated Mental Health programs. One program that has been developed, and is ever evolving, is Equine Assisted Psychotherapy.

Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP), is a fairly new field, and still in the experimental stages. Individuals learn about themselves by interacting in a series of specially designed activities with horses. EAP is not about riding horses. It’s about therapeutic activities that take place on the ground under the guidance of a licensed psychologist and an equine specialist. The therapy on horses usually is without the use of bridles or saddles. These activities promote beneficial therapeutic healing and growth, by teaching the individual how to deal, and learn about their own emotions. It helps people increase awareness as to how their emotions affect others and their daily lives.

Why are horses used and not other animals? Horses are very social animals. They have distinct personalities and temperaments. They mirror exactly what human body language is telling them by reacting immediately to signals you may not realize you are sending. Horses are large and powerful, and their size can be intimidating to many people. Participating in an activity with a horse, in spite of their size and presence, can build confidence.

One method used in EAP; a halter is handed to a participant and the individual is then instructed go into an arena and catch a horse. Depending on the approach, the horse may back away, run, or allow the individual to place the halter over its head. It can be an easy task, or a very daunting task, it is all in how the horse interprets the participant’s body language. They may give up and walk away, because it appears to be impossible, or they try a variety of methods until they are able to approach the horse and place the halter over its head. It makes the participant stand back and access the situation. Many times it requires more than one session to accomplish this activity. Each time the individual feels like giving up, the question can be asked; how could this simple activity be compared to how people approach each other, and what are the signals your body language sends?

Another method, the participant is asked to go out into an arena without a halter, and asked to get the horse to move through a series of obstacles. This activity usually takes several sessions. If the participant is disrespectful to the horse, such as inappropriate touching or loud noises, this makes the horse fearful. When the participant makes a conscious effort, and considers what affect they are having on the horse, rather than just making demands, the horse begins to cooperate. The horse is beginning to trust and respect you. Trust and respect are earned with horses, much the same way as gaining trust and respect from people.

There is much subjective evidence on the positive therapeutic benefits of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, especially in the area of transferable social and learning skills. Depending on how the participant initially approached the horse, and by eventually learning to provide clear direction to the animal, in a calm manner, this therapy allows the participant immediate feedback, which can be discussed between the participant and a trained professional. Equine Assisted Therapy provides the individual with immediate opportunities to be aware of inappropriate behaviors, feelings and attitudes, and opens the doors to discuss a way to correct them. It is clear that Equine Assisted Psychotherapy does provide many benefits by allowing people to discover new ways of dealing with and overcoming problems. It is highly recommended to seek assistance from an accredited facility for the treatment of alcohol or substance abuse addictions. An inpatient experience at a treatment center has many advantages, allowing the individual to address their personal issues without the distractions of daily life.

This article was written by M.L. Mann sponsored by http://www.cirquelodge.com/ Cirque Lodge, located in Sundance, Utah, is a world-class residential drug rehab facility providing a private, effective and serene pathway to sobriety. Reproductions of this article must include a link pointing back to http://www.cirquelodge.com

The method know as 3d ultrasound is used during early pregnancy, it can provide 3d pictures of the fetus. Most times these ultrasound pictures are collated and joined together to produce a “4d ultrasound”.

Three dimensional scans works in a similar manner to the normal ultrasound methods except that the ultrasound pulses can be directed from multiple directions. The waves can be reflected back and captured and provide information to construct a 3d picture in much the same way as 3d pictures. 3d ultasound scanning was first developed by olaf von ramm and stephen smith in america.

It’s important to understand that sonologists all over the world always pictured 3d images of anatomy or pathology in their minds while doing 2d scans. However, until recently it was not possible to do this kind of reconstruction on on patient information using ultasound scanning. With the introduction of 4d baby scans for the first time allowed us a peek into the mechanics of thinking of a sonologist and so allowing us see the images on the ultrasound machine.

4d ultrasound imaging should utilize ultrasound energy following the same limits as conventional 2d ultrasound to create the 3d images. There is no data to suggest harm due to 3d ultasound scanning, its use in none essential situations needs to be undertaken with an understanding of the risks involved.

The method know as 3d ultrasound scanning is used during early pregnancy, it can provide 3d pictures of the unborn baby. Most times the ultrasound pictures are collected and combined and animated to make a 4d scan.

Three dimensional scanning works similarly to the normal ultrasound scanning methods except that the ultrasound waves are sent from many directions. The waves are reflected back then captured to provide info to construct a 3 d picture in much the same way as 3d movies. 3d ultrasound was devised by olaf ramm and stephen smith.

It’s important to understand that sonologists worldwide have always pictured three-dimensional images of the body in their minds whilst doing 2d scans. However, until recently it was difficult to do this type of reconstruction on on information using ultasound scanning. The advent of baby scans for the first time allowed us a view into the thinking of a sonologist and hence letting us view the images on the ultrasound machine.

3d/4d ultrasound imaging should utilize ultrasound energy following the same limits as conventional 2d ultrasound to create the 3d images. There is no data to suggest harm due to 3d ultrasound, its use in non-medical situations needs to be undertaken with the understanding of the risks.