Your health first

The Greatest Weight Loss Secret

What is the greatest weight loss secret?

Is it lowering your food intake?

Is it increasing your exercise?

Is it a new magic pill or diet drink?

There is a fellow down the hall from my office. For several months now he has been trying to convince everyone he sees that this new magic, all-natural pill has helped him lose 30 pounds in less than 2 months. He claimed he has lost over 90 pounds total. What he fails to say is that over 60 of that came from lap-band surgery. Then he gained some of the weight back and now uses these pills to help him go on a starvation-like diet.

Another friend of mine and his wife are telling everyone that together they lost a combined 105 pounds in 3 months. He lost 55 and she lost 45. They found a doctor that gave them some kind of injection and they lived on a 500 calorie a day diet... another form of starvation.

Of course you don't have to watch much TV or listen to the radio very long before an advertisement for some new and miraculous cure for obesity comes on. The irony is that none of those magic ingredients are nearly as powerful as one simple reality:

What is the greatest secret to weight loss? It is this simple... "if you can see it you can be it"

Do you remember the old story about putting fleas in a jar? The story goes that if you put a bunch of fleas in a glass jar and screw the lid on they will start trying to jump out. Now, fleas are supposed to be extraordinary jumpers and could normally jump right out of the jar were it not for the lid. After a day or so, you can remove the lid and the fleas will jump but only to the top of the jar and not beyond. That's because they have become conditioned to only jump so high and, I suppose, prevent themselves from being injured by hitting the lid (which has now been removed).

We do that exact same thing. Over the years we have created imaginary barriers that we perceive to be limits to our success. Unfortunately, many of these barriers were put in place before we were 6 years old. But the point is, they are imaginary... not real. But, just like the fleas, we perceive them to be real and thus they limit our ability to move past them.

So, what does this have to do with your losing weight? It's everything! One of the most neglected elements in weight loss is actually seeing yourself at your ideal weight. When you can paint a mental picture of yourself at your ideal weight, you will have essentially won the battle.

Why do people buy magic pills and potions and spend millions of dollars on gimmicks to lose weight? It's because these things promise to break the barriers that are keeping you from losing. And, they work, at least temporarily. However, when you can break your own barriers when you remove you own "lid". You will reach your ideal weight, without the aid of pills and potions and can you can maintain it forever! See it, be it.

How do you paint the picture and destroy your mental barriers?

I am going to share a technique used by Natalie Ledwell as part of her MindMovies.

You sit down in a comfortable place. You close your eyes and begin to take deep, relaxing breaths.

Get as relaxed as you possibly can. Your arms and legs feel warm and a bit heavy.

With your eyes still closed begin mentally counting backwards from 10 to 1. As you count down, feel yourself relaxing deeper with every number.

Now, picture yourself in a beautiful place. Maybe on a beach or in a meadow. Wherever you can feel nature. You feel safe and totally at ease. You notice your surrounds. What are you hearing? What do you smell? Is it warm? Is there a breeze gently blowing? Just savor the peace and beauty of this place.

Now as you are in your safe and beautiful place, imagine 2 pictures appearing in front of you. One is very large and positioned directly in front of you. The other is much smaller and positioned in the upper left hand corner of your view.

Stare at the larger picture. It is you at your current weight. As hard as you try, you can't lose weight. You try to eat less. You try to exercise. You try to do all the right things but you are still heavy and can't seem to do anything about it. You are a failure. You feel all alone and not even worthy to be slender. Feel this pain. Feel this heartbreak. Face this picture head on.

Now, notice the smaller picture. It is up in the left hand corner and much smaller than the one in front of you. But it's different. It is a picture of you and you are at your perfect weight. You are happy. You feel younger than you have in years. Your friends are showering you with compliments. You are active, doing the exciting things you have always wanted to do. You look incredible.

Now, in an instant, switch the pictures with a snap. The picture of you at your ideal weight is now in front of you and the "old you" is in the background.

The old picture keeps trying to come back and dominate your view but every time it does, snap it back so that the "new you" remains in front of you. Keep snapping the "new you" picture to the foreground until it is all that you are conscious of.

This is you. Feel yourself smiling as you feel so alive and happy. It's a beautiful picture.

With this picture firmly planted in your minds eye, start wiggling your toes and fingers. Bring yourself back to consciousness, alive and feeling refreshed.

Try spending 10 minutes a day painting your own mental picture of yourself at your dream weight. I think you will be very impressed with the result.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7853804

5 Tips to Stay Fit and Healthy

Everybody wants to stay fit and healthy, or at least most people do, no matter how young or old they are. Whether you need to be fit and healthy because you are a world known athlete, or because it makes you feel good about yourself, bear in mind that it is never too late until it is.

The Best Health Tips

Thousands of books have been published and millions of articles have been written about weight loss as everyone seems to be singing the same mantra. It gets difficult for the reader to assess the credibility of the various weight loss programs that can be found both offline and online. Therefore, no more space or time is going to be wasted in writing down another version of the best weight loss diet. Here, you are only going to find the best health tips that you can rely on.

The health tips mentioned here are logical and they work best with everyone (excluding people with serious illnesses and those who are on high medications). These tips are simple advices to make your life a healthy one and are about ways to exclude harmful elements from your life. So let's begin,

· One of the best health tips that anyone can give you is to correct your eating and sleeping routine. You might not believe it to be important as long as you are completing the 8-hour count, but it is true. There is no harm in late-night partying once in a while, but you must try to build up a daily routine where you go to bed on time to get a fresh start for the next day.

· Secondly, drink plenty of liquids. The liquids that are referred to here are water and fresh fruit juices or smoothie and not the artificially flavoured concoction found in tetra-packs. Our body is mostly water and as such it can be rightly named as the primary fuel of the body. Once you start drinking the required amount of water, you are going to note that you have become more agile and that you don't tire so easily. Moreover, it is also going to fill up the space in your tummy, leaving out less room to put in the junk. But there is another significant benefit of drinking good amounts of water and that is that it allows and facilitates the flushing of toxins from the body which can become the number one cause of fat storage.

· Thirdly, you must remember that you should treat your body with fresh food substances instead of going for the processed and ready made ones. Consider it as a bar of standard, the fresher and more organic food, you eat, the more benefits you gain and if you go for packaged and tinned foods to which many chemicals have been added then you are going down the line to destructive health. So, consume more fresh fruits and vegetables and go for beans, nuts and lentils instead of opting for boxed cereals and microwave meals.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7641508

How to Protect Yourself from Breast Cancer

Do you fear breast cancer? Many women do because it is such a killer! Surprisingly, men are not immune to this disease either.

If you received a diagnosis of breast cancer just 20 years ago, your chances of being a survivor would have been much less than they are today. That's because of the marvelous advance of medical research.

5 Benefits of Water

Whether your fitness goal is weight loss, muscle gain, or just trying to become more healthy overall, you must first make sure that your nutrition plan is complete. You determine your caloric intake, calculate the amount of grams of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats you need, and from there, most people would assume the job was complete. Before you label the job complete, remember to consider one more detail in your nutrition plan:

Top 10 Healthy Lifestyle Tips

Living a healthy lifestyle doesn't have to be hard. It just takes the motivation to change our bad habits into good, healthy ones. Below is a list of 10 healthy lifestyle tips to get you started. Once you start, you can come up with more healthy choices that work for you.

o The first thing is to eat a balanced diet. Eat more fruits and vegetables and get rid of the high sugar, processed foods. Along with eating better is getting the right nutrients in the system.
o So the second thing is to take vitamins and minerals to help your body work properly.
o The third tip is to quit all those nasty unhealthy habits. Smoking, drinking, drugs, chewing tobacco, whatever your vice may be quit now. You are in charge of your health and living a healthier lifestyle means getting rid of the things that may kill you.
o The fourth thing to do is exercise. Exercise makes you feel good and can motivate you to get other things done as well.
o Along with exercise, number five is making sure you see a doctor each year for an annual physical. This is more important in women, but men should be seeing a doctor every 2-3 years to make sure there are no big health concerns.
o The sixth is to surround yourself with a strong support network, or a group of people who will be there for you and participate in a healthy lifestyle as well.
o Your family and friends can help you with the seventh tip, have fun and enjoy life.
o Eighth tip is to create a good balance between work and play.
o The final two tips are to accept yourself for the unique individual you are and love what you do. If you can accept yourself, the good and the bad, it will show in all you do. Your job is something you will be doing for at least the next 20 years, so you should love it. If you don't keep looking until you find something you do love.

Start with those healthy lifestyle choices and see how you feel in the next few weeks. You should feel more energized, motivated, and positive.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2631818

7 Good Tips To Prevent Getting Cancer

To keep it short and sweet lets just say there is TONS of evidence to show where the increase in cancer is coming from. This article will tell you the latest facts and tidbits to help you prevent getting cancer.

1. To prevent getting cancer watch what you expose yourself too! Toxic molecules called free radicals have been proven to damage or mutate our cells at the molecular level. To prevent getting cancer avoid these toxic molecules as much as possible. Common sources are:

-House hold chemicals

-pesticides on your food

-air pollution

-stress

-increased sun exposure

-partially hydrogenated oils

-and everything else that doesn't seem natural to your body.

2. Watch what you eat! Diets rich in fruit and vegetables provide your body with very important antioxidants, which have been shown to prevent free radical damage. On the contrary bad foods which are loaded up with chemicals, preservatives, and processed garbage will weaken your body and increase your risks of disease.

3. Eat Organic Foods. Organic has much less risks of being contaminated with cancer causing molecules.

4. Reduce your stress and relax as much as possible to help prevent getting cancer! Stress has been proven to release a toxic hormone into your body that scientists have named "the death hormone" as it has devastating effects on other cells in your body. Do Yoga, Exercise, meditate, all proven things to help lower stress, ease anxiety, and promote an all around sense of well being.

5. Be emotionally healthy! Your emotions take a toll on your physical body if you store lots of emotional pain and baggage. Express whatever might be causing you pain and suffering and you will reduce risks of being prone to physical and mental disease.

6. Take a high quality nutritional supplement to help prevent getting cancer. High quality supplements have been proven to boost nutrient protection in the body and can add crucial defense where you might need it. Make sure it is a high quality supplement, and not some cheap industrial made manufactured vitamin which has very poor nutrient quality.

7. Be more Aware! Paying attention to all these things and living a more aware lifestyle will help prevent getting cancer. Watching over yourself and making sure you are making healthy decisions, and reducing exposure to cancer causing risk factors will make a huge difference in your life.

It's simple enough that anyone can do it, and these 7 highly effective tips could be the difference between you getting cancer or the other 1 out of 2.5 people in North America who will get cancer in their lifetime. Yea it's that bad. And to prevent getting cancer we all have to start taking our health very seriously. Be more aware in your life and you are taking the first crucial step!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/398094

How to Protect Yourself From Colon Cancer

Colon cancer is a very rare occurrence in those people whose main diet is vegetables.

Those who are always including large amounts of meat in their diet are at higher risk than the former.

Colon cancer prevention therefore calls for a lot of whole grain, fruits and vegetables in one's diet. 5 servings daily is what the American Cancer Society puts as the ideal quantity of these healthy foods.

It can however be very difficult to pin point which diet components one must focus on to prevent such diseases. Consumption of fats for instance will increase your body's bile production which will improve your cells rapid growth.

Fiber rich foods are always recommended when one needs to improve their bowel movement. These foods will also have the benefit of decreasing the negative effects that hail from carcinogens and bile acids.

Oat bran is one of the most highly recommended dietary components for preventing colon cancer as it is very rich in fiber content. It has even more fiber than fruits and vegetables.

25 grams of dietary fiber every single day is recommended for reducing the risk of contracting colon cancer. These 25 grams can be taken from your bread, beans and cereals.

Bile acids and fatty acids can be dissolved by consumption of calcium. A recommended amount of calcium is 1000 milligrams daily. For your antioxidants that also prevent risk of colon cancer, you will get them from vegetables and fruits as well.

Exercise always improves the body in one way or the other. 30 minutes of physical activities daily will make sure that you improve the movement of waste through and out of your body. You will also have a healthy flow of blood to your colon.

To remove harmful toxins that may be trapped in your body, you will have to get cleansing every now and then. A clean colon will find it easier to absorb nutrients from the food we eat.

Make sure you have a clean colon and maintain its function and you will always have a healthy body.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5158169

Why Honey is Good For Your Skin

You pay attention to what you are eating, checking the list of ingredients on the packets in the supermarket, and avoiding foods that contain GM (genetically modified) elements. But do you do the same for what your skin eats?

When it comes to looking after your skin, you should take the same care about what you use as you do with what you

eat. People are mostly aware that a good healthy diet is important to good health, and are aware of the saying 'you are what you eat'.

Well your skin is maybe even more important. It is the largest of your body's organs, playing a major role in your body's protection. And what you put on your skin can be absorbed into it. So just as you watch what you eat, good care should be taken over the skin care products you use and what ingredients they contain.

Honey is a great natural ingredient for skin treatments. Being completely natural, it is free from harmful chemicals that may otherwise be used. Of course some products may make use of honey and also still add other harmful chemicals it, so you should check all ingredients used.

Honey is a known humectant, which means it works as a natural mosituriser. It is hydroscopic, drawing pure moisture in to help hydrate, smooth and soften your skin. This is why it is used in so many skin and hand creams. However some of the other benefits of honey for your skin can be offset if a product also contains chemical nasties in it. So it is worth checking all the ingredients.

One of the causes of premature aging of skin is exposure to free radicals. Honey is a powerful natural antioxidant helping to counter any free radicals in your skin. Its soothing properties make it feel wonderful when applied too.

Many homemade skin treatment recipes will include honey in their ingredient list. It's use for healing and to beautify the skin has been well documented through the centuries. Even famously used by Cleopatra. Although it doesn't need to part of a recipe - it works very well applied direct onto your skin in its natural state.

In recent times a growing amount of research into honey has shown it contains natural antiseptic and antibacterial properties, although these can vary greatly in level between honeys. One that has been found to have significant antibacterial properties in some batches of it is New Zealand's manuka honey. Suitable batches of which (labeled as UMF®)are now being used for treating hard to heal wounds, burns, and other skin infections. For other honey types the more natural and raw they are the better.

How to Lose Weight Fast for Women

A lot of women fight with their weight for a lot of their life. It is quite common
for women to feel like they are in a constant battle with extra pounds. It might seem like the fight is worthless or the battle is too hard, but don't give up. There are many things you as a woman can do to help you lose weight and keep it off. Continue reading to learn some weight loss tips that can help you conquer your battle with your weight and learn how to lose weight fast for women in a week at home.

First of all, do not starve yourself. It is important that you feed your body because it needs calories to do its job. You do not want to give it too many calories, though. It is important that you find the balance between eating not enough and eating too much. In order for you to lose weight, you must take in less calories than your body uses. But if you take in too few calories, your body may go into shock and stop working properly. This will cause your body to hold on to calories that it does not need.

Another thing you need to consider is how you plan on losing the weight. You must change your diet if you want to lose weight and keep it off. Exercise is crucial, but most of your weight loss will come from the foods you eat. For this reason, you need to come up with a plan on how you plan on eating. You can follow a prescribed plan, one where you pay for them to tell you what to eat. There are also other plans that restrict certain foods. You can just make the decision to eat less and eat healthier. No matter what plan you choose or if you make up your own, it is important that it is something realistic, something that you can see yourself doing far into the future.

You may also have more success if you go on this journey with a buddy. Having someone to lose weight with can make the whole process much easier and more enjoyable. You can support each other and keep each other motivated. You can also share tips and other information that you find. A buddy is also good to hold you accountable. Chances are you will skip that piece of chocolate cake if you know you have someone that is counting on you.

Don't always rely on scales to gauge your weight loss. If you are exercising, your body is likely building muscle which weighs more than fat and this can show up on the scale as no loss at all. It is easy to get discouraged when you don't see a drop on the scale, but judge your weight loss on how your clothes fit instead.

No matter how impossible you think weight loss is, there is a way for you to lose weight and take it off. Try the tips on how to lose weight fast for women shared in this article and you can have success in your weight loss journey.