Are you ready to lose some weight? Perhaps you’re surfing for the magic pill that will vanish your weight away. Maybe you’re simply searching for the right information to help you lose and keep the weight off. Whatever the case, here’s some surefire tips to help you with your weight loss.
1. Do your homework. As you start your weight loss plan, take the time to carefully evaluate your situation. What caused the weight gain? Pregnancy? Inactivity? Overeating and binging? Emotions? There are many triggers in our lives that will cause us to gain weight. Some can be prevented or eliminated, some can’t. It’s important as you begin your weight loss to understand and come to grips with the cause of your weight. Be honest with yourself. Don’t cheat on this one. Obviously, you want to have your weight loss become permanent.
In order to keep off the weight in the future, you may have to make some lifestyle changes to stay slim. Don’t give up before you start. There’s usually more than one solution to any weight gain reason. Just remain open-minded, and be willing to change to get the results you desire. Don’t hesitate to read and learn as much as you can about weight gain. It’s really easy to understand, and you may be surprised at what you learn.
2. Avoid Hidden Calories. Here’s an over simplified version of weight loss and weight maintenance… if you eat more than your body needs, you gain weight. If you eat less (reduce calories) than your body needs, you lose weight! While it sounds simple enough, just eat less ….Right? Basically that’s true. Yet, there are other things that come into play as one is trying to lose weight. One common mistake many people make as they diet is the fact they don’t really understand how much is provided by the food they are eating. This is especially true with eating out and eating snack foods and beverages.
A serving as defined by the scientific communities on weight loss and a serving that your local restaurant provides is most often very different. For example, one serving of bread is typically one slice. Yet, the average bun in a fast food restaurant is actually almost three servings. A single serving of French fries is 15 fries. Just take a guess at how many servings are in a “Biggie” French fry container.
Also, don’t be fooled into thinking just because a bag of popcorn is small, that it’s a single serving. The same thing goes for beverages. The bottle may contain16 oz. Yet, the serving size may be 4 ounces. Pay attention to actually how many servings of food and beverages you are actually consuming. The amount may surprise you.
I’ll give you an example, my son-in-law who’s 28 was had put on several pounds. His favorite cola is Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew has higher sugar content than most other cola’s. He didn’t have a clue as to how may calories he was consuming by drinking 3 or 4 24 oz bottles a day. When my daughter told him, he was amazed. He replaced the cola with water and went from a 38” waist to a 34” waist in about two months. Be careful, you may be consuming more than you think.
3. Consider Diet Pills Carefully. Maybe one of your diet buddies has decided to buy diet pills, or maybe you've seen or heard a commercial for diet supplements promising easy fast weight loss. If so, please evaluate CAREFULLY! Even the most natural-sounding diet pills or weight loss supplements can be useless for weight loss, or dangerous, or both. Diet pills are very tempting things if you want to lose weight, especially if you have tried several conventional weight loss plans without success. The side effects and dangers of some diet and weight loss pills can vary enormously because many of these pills contain a cocktail of ingredients and because dosage instructions may be inadequate. Possible side effects include: nervousness, tremor, diarrhea, bulging eyes, racing heartbeat, elevated blood pressure even heart failure.
There are some instances when diet pills can be helpful. Usually these are indicated in the truly obese person. For the person wanting to lose 5 or 10 pounds, they usually aren’t necessary. So you may ask, how does the diet pills work to cause weight loss, while I continue to eat the same amount? In recent years, it seems everyone has the PERFECT answer to help with your weight loss. There are almost as many weight loss methods and diet pills available as there are people who want to lose weight.
There are diet pills that stop your hunger so you eat less and burn more fat. There are diet pills that cause the body not to metabolize all the food you eat, so it’s passed out of your system and not stored as fat. There’s combination of these two. As you begin your search for the perfect diet pill, be careful as some can have harmful effects on your body.
Diet Pills work by shifting levels of brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) that control satiety (fullness) and desire for food. Some also slightly increase your metabolic rate - the rate at which your body burns calories.
Examples of weight loss diet pills include:
Diethylpropion hydrochloride (eg. Tenuate)
Mazindol (eg. Mazanor, Sanorex)
Phendimetrazine tartrate (eg. Bontril)
Phentermine hydrochloride (eg. Adipex-P, Ionamin)
4. Monitor/Increase Your Activity - Regardless whether you’re taking diet pills or not to help with your weight loss, it’s still important to maintain a regular exercise program. This is beneficial not only for your weight loss, but also for your overall health. In many ways we in the developed country have a much more sedentary lifestyle than our bodies need. Obviously it’s easier for us than in the era when people had to be very active simply to survive, yet it’s not necessarily healthy for us not to be active. Start and maintain some sort of exercise plan no matter what your age. Especially for the middle-aged and older people exercise play a very, very important role in the quality of health and staying within normal weight ranges.
5. Develop a Plan for Maintenance. Even if you’re taking diet pills to help with your weight loss it’s important to keep in mind, that once you stop the pills, unless you maintain a balance between your activity level and the food you eat the weight will come back. While it may take some time to become accustomed to a change in diet and activity, the rewards are well worth the time and effort spent to reach and maintain a healthy weight.
About the Author
Hilda Maria is a freelance writer with 5 children who knows the importance of a balanced diet for them.
She enjoys providing useful knowledge about weight loss and regular exercise to her readers as well as to her children.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Herbal Detox For Health
Detoxification is a way of assisting your body to rid itself of the toxins stored in your tissues.
How to detox for a healthier lifeDetoxification is a way of assisting your body to rid itself of the toxins stored in your tissues. Detoxification can clean the body of accumulated toxins helping us to regain energy and to function better; we need to remember that detoxification is not one single event but part of an ongoing process. Gradual change is better than a sharp short shock when it comes to detox. This involves eating more healthy, less processed foods, cutting down or eliminating fast foods, caffeine, refined sugar, alcohol and drugs. An organic diet, drinking lots of water and getting regular exercise all help to facilitate the detox process. Herbs offer a short and reasonably gentle way to aid detoxification. Many herbs not only detox but also stimulate the metabolism and increase blood flow to vital tissue, for example, antifungal herbs prohibit the growth of yeasts that can cause candida, and anti-oxidants help protect against free radicals. People nearly always mention fasting when you detox. This is not always beneficial or needed. Fasting does not mean refraining from eating or drinking and it does not have to be depressing or austere. I would not recommend fasting for longer than 24 hours, and during this time you must drink as much fluid as possible. Anyone thinking of fasting must be in good health. It not recommended for young children, the elderly, the chronically ill, those suffering from a serious disease, anyone addicted to drugs or alcohol or who has been exposed to dangerous chemicals. In any of these cases consult a qualified health practitioner first - the same goes for pregnant or breast-feeding women. When we detoxify we need to take life more gently, it is a time to reflect about the emotional and physical reason that may have caused the toxins, it's a time to confront these reasons and make the changes necessary to stop future toxin build up. This is a time to treat your body and relax your mind. Take a massage, do yoga, have a sauna, mineral baths or an herbal wrap -all of these help with the detoxification process.
Herbs to use for detoxing Natural Laxatives and diuretics
While you are fasting it is important to keep your kidneys working well as they are extremely important in the process of eliminating toxins. Juniper berries (Juniperus communis) strengthen and detoxify the kidneys, bladder, and urinary tract. As a word of warning do not use juniper berries long term but from time to time and when you may have a kidney infection it works extremely well as a cleanser. Nettle (Urtica dioica) is an extremely good diuretic as is burdock root that is very similar to the nettle in its gentle diuretic actions. Psyllium husks and seeds (Plantago indica, P. ovata and P. psyllium) are good gentle natural laxative. It is also adaptogenic and makes a good treatment for Irritable Bowel syndrome. Liquorice root -"the great harmoniser" in Chinese medicine, is mildly laxative and good from nourishing the adrenal glands. Alfalfa sprouts are also a good all round laxative.
Detox the liver
Milk thistle (Carduus marianus syn. Silybum marianum) and dandelion root (Taraxacum officinale) help to cleanse and strengthen the liver. Milk thistle contains silymarin, which is believed to help with liver regeneration as well as being an antioxidant, while Dandelion root also helps remove waste from both the liver and the gallbladder. Milk thistle is a natural antioxidant.
Lymphatic system
One function of the lymphatic system is to remove waste from cells, many people believe that cellulite is a symptom of inadequate lymphatic drainage. The following are the best herbs, in essential oil form, to stimulate the lymphatic system and draw toxins out from under the skin. Basil (Ocimum basilicum), thyme (Thymus vulgarus but use carefully as it can be irritating to the skin), celery (Apium graveolens), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), grapefruit (Citrus paradisi), and lemon (Citrus limon). Blend three of these different oils, for a total of fifteen to twenty drops, in one ounce of carrier oil and use for massage or skin brushing.
I work with the Green Directory http://www.guidemegreen.com and the Ethical Directory http://www.getethical.com to promote a greener and healthier lifestyle. I also promote eco friendly Jobs and Employers at http://www.jobs.guidemegreen.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
