Weight Loss: 2012

Eat a Rainbow of Foods

If the old axiom “you are what you eat” is right, then why not eat a vibrant assortment of foods? Our eye is naturally attracted to deep green of landscapes and the rich red of roses, then why do we eat a mottled gray colored diet? French fries, hamburger, and an artificially flavored drink. Oh they try to spice it up a little bit, throwing in a flimsy slice of tomato or a sorry excuse for lettuce, but overall a gray and brown meal—how exciting. We eat this stuff because it tastes good. However, its taste is artificially altered because chemicals are added which can cause addiction and cravings, also it tastes good because it is loaded with as much fat, salt, and sugar as they can manage. A test to discover if what you are eating is truly good can often be based on color.

Vivacious and natural reds, blues, greens, and yellows can indicate an abundance of nutrients within. Perhaps it comes from evolution. Maybe the ancients ate the foods that attracted their eye and in time human bodies developed a need for their nutrients. Maybe in 4,000 years our bodies will be able to survive off fat and sugar and artificial chemicals alone. But don’t hold your breath.

For whatever reason, our bodies need an assortment of vitamins and minerals to perform all functions. Each nutrient has specific tasks within the body, and without them problems arise. Colorful fruit and vegetables are known for their density of nutrients.

Dark green vegetables are infused with antioxidants which destroy dangerous free radicals that enter our body through the air and environmental agents. They are also brimming with vitamins A, C, and K, folate, iron, calcium, and fiber. Some of the best dark green foods include spinach, broccoli, and romaine lettuce.

Red colored plants have an important nutrient named lycopene. Lycopene is one of the top ten anticancer carotenoids (or the pigments that create color in plants). Good red foods are things like raspberries, cherries, beets, strawberries, and tomatoes.

Blue or dark purple plant foods such as blueberries, blackberries, grapes, or plums also have anticancer qualities. They contain a pigment called anthocyanin as well as vitamin C, fiber, flavonoids, and antioxidants.

Orange and yellow foods are very unique in their properties. These types of foods actually reduce the effects of aging. They promote healthy eyes, joints, and work with calcium to create strong bones. So make sure to have a variety of apricots, carrots, peaches, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes to your diet.

Also look for white (mushrooms, onions), pink (grapefruit), black (black beans), and dark red (kidney beans) colors.

Filling your life with all these colorful, tasty fruits and vegetables will spice up your life in a healthy way. Even with all this smart eating, we sometimes miss out on needed nutrients, because let’s face it, it’s hard to fit in all these colors and the other food groups (also important, don’t forget about them!) on a daily basis. So add a daily multivitamin to your day to make sure all your bases are covered. Eating healthy is the best way to get vitamins and minerals, but supplementing good eating with a multivitamin is the best way to go. Spice up your life and make your body happy by making smart, exciting choices about what you eat.

Source: www.articlecity.com
Author:Gerald Fitz

Setting Goals for a Healthy Life

Setting goals is a great way to make a positive change in your life. If you want to succeed at reaching your goals you may want to try these simple ideas.

Think about it. Imagine your goal every day. If you want to lose 100 pounds then you need to imagine yourself doing it. Imagine yourself at your goal weight. Imagine all the great and healthy foods you can eat to get there. Imagine yourself exercising and moving more, to increase your calorie burn. Don’t just think about it when you set the goal, but keep it foremost in your mind. Your thoughts are one of your most powerful tools in your effort to reach your goal. Using positive affirmations can also condition your brain to better health. Saying things such as, “I am fit, strong and healthy” and “I love the extra energy I get from exercising” in front of the mirror every morning and night will help program your brain and make those things a reality.

Write it down. If you don’t write your goal down you are only wishing. If it is written down one time, that is a good start. If you write it down 10 times a day, and doodle it in the margins of your papers it will be reinforced and become a driving force and make reaching your goal easier.

Tell your friends and family about your goal, and they will encourage you in the attainment of it. If you keep it all to yourself, you have no accountability and won’t feel compelled to fulfill it. It is easy to think, “I need to exercise every day” but there is a different dynamic when your best friend or family member is asking, “Did you exercise today?”

Give yourself a reward for making progress. If your goal is to lose 20 pounds, celebrate when you lose the first five. It is motivation and encouragement to do more. It is also positive reinforcement for continuing on in your plan of action to making this goal a reality.

Give yourself a break! You don’t have to be perfect at reaching your goal. If you are making progress towards it, slip up, but then get right back on track then things are going in the right direction. Contrast that to making progress toward your goal, slipping up and then giving up because you weren’t perfect. In the first instance you are right back on track. In the second your goal will never b e attained because you quit. Allowing yourself to be human and make mistakes makes reaching your goal possible. No one can be perfect all the time or keep to their plans of action at all times.

Be patient! Goals take awhile to reach. It isn’t going to happen overnight. Setting mini goals on the road to your larger goal will help make it seem more possible. Starting small is a great idea. If you plan to drink more water, you can slowly add it in and stop drinking sodas and juice and over time you will have changed that habit. Same goes with exercise. Start with today. Exercise one time today. Then slowly add days until you are working out the number of days you desire. Setting mini goals is a great way to advance on the dream in a realistic manner and seeing all the successes you have had can be a great motivator.

Use all the tools at your disposal! Join a gym. Join a team. Have a walking buddy. Pre-cook your healthy meals and have them ready to heat and eat. Take a multi-vitamin to be sure you are getting in all the nutrients your body needs. Read motivational literature. Talk to your friends and set up rewards for milestones. Work with a dietician. Get a personal trainer. Take essential oils. Bulk up on protein and add whey supplements to add muscle mass. Drink green tea to boost your metabolism. Get plenty of sleep. Drink plenty of water.

Taking it a step at a time and doing many little things can help you to reach your goal.

Source: www.articlecity.com
Author:Gerald Fitz

Losing Weight with the Right Attitude

Merriam’s -Webster Learner Dictionary defines Attitude as a feeling or way of thinking that affects a person's behavior.

You may have thought about the exercise and diet when planning to lose weight but have you considered the attitude. Research shows that a positive attitude can help strengthen and energize the body and thoughts such as negative thinking, stress and fear have the reverse effect.

However it’s not enough to think positive you must also believe it. Most of us have had past failures but they are just that “past” failures, don’t rehash them and allow them to cast doubt in your mind.

Think positive and visualize how you want to look and soon it will become a reality.

Picture yourself healthy, cut out and place pictures from magazines of healthy bodies where you can see them and post positive quotes around the house and office. For example: “Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.” ~Chinese Proverb.

Instead of a diet to lose weight consider living healthier in general. Making healthy eating choices and exercise a regular part of your day will not only help you lose weight it will also help you keep it off.

A daily routine is an effective tool in creating lasting changes in your life. A schedule consisting of exercise and healthy eating will help you achieve your weight loss goals easier. You will start to feel better about yourself making it harder revert back to your old ways.

Consistency is an important element to achieving lasting success in anything but it can be harder to stick with it some days. Create a backup plan for the days that you don’t that can help you get back on your feet and in the game again.

Thinking positive and visualizing how you want your life to be along with a healthy dose of forgiving yourself when you don’t, will lead to a happy healthier you. If you don’t then chances are you’re going to revert back to your old ways and most likely regain what you lost and possibly more.

You can do whatever you put your mind to, you may have heard of that and its true, proven time and time again. Losing weight is no different.

The thing is; if you burn more calories than you eat you’ll lose weight that’s the bottom line so try not to over think it.

Source: www.articlecity.com
Author:John Carlo

Kegelmaster-Bring A New Hope To Your Life

The wonder machine called Kegelmaster provides resistance to the pelvic floor region which, after the use for a few weeks, becomes strong enough to control the abnormal functioning of bladder. Some gynecological problems in women make their bladder sensitive which loses the ability to control the urge of frequent urination and the pelvic muscles become loose and week with urine leakage becoming a common syndrome in women suffering with this type of ailment. The loosening and weakening of vaginal muscles can occur to any woman before or after pregnancy and after menopause. In these circumstances, the pelvic floor loses its elasticity and becomes loose and week resulting in loss of sexual urge and dissatisfaction.

Kegelmaster is a simple electronic device which works on the theory of progressive resistance which, if used with good effect, makes the vaginal muscles strong and resistant to urine leakage which can occur while sneezing or coughing. This device is different from the normal electronic simulative devices which claim to be very effective.

Kegelmaster is a cost effective device providing the same result, if not better, than those electronic devices. The progressive resistance technique is commonly used by the bodybuilders who build muscles on their arms and thigh by lifting heavy objects which provide the required resistance and help in building and strengthening of their muscles. Kegelmaster also uses the same technique when inserted in the vagina before performing the kegel exercise. This was not in practices traditionally.

The new concept used by Kegelmaster is an innovative one and does not have any side effect. It tones the pelvic floor and makes them tighter and stronger than ever. The tensioned setting in Kegelmaster pushes the vaginal muscles to work harder. Strong tension setting puts extra pressure on the muscles and the muscles have to work even harder, it helps them in getting stronger and tighter after use of say 10 to 12 weeks.

If the kegelmaster is used as per the recommendation, it works wonder and produce great results which improves the sexual life of women with a new urge to live longer and happily with good health.

Source: www.articlecity.com
Author: Andrew Rivano

Cross Country Skiing Provides a Fun Workout

Have you been using an elliptical machine and ever thought how they developed it? One of the major influences on the designers of the first elliptical machines was the Nordic sport of cross country skiing. The great element that the designers took from cross country skiing is the continuous non-impact movement of the skiers. The first elliptical machines actually were just lower body, but after people wanted a complete full body workout they added the hand bars that act in the same way as a cross country ski pole.

A person that is looking for a good workout in the winter should consider getting off the elliptical machine and getting on a pair of cross country skis. The sport isn’t as difficult to pick up as downhill skiing or snowboarding. It also doesn’t cost as much as the other sports that rely on the hill and gravity to provide you with the momentum to go. With cross country skiing all that is required are a pair of skis and a path to follow that is packed with snow. Really cross country skiing is a fun way of going hiking in the winter time. Sure you could get a pair of snow shoes, but gliding across the snow is much more efficient and rewarding. There are many areas in the winter time that you can only get to with either cross country skis or snow shoes. Yet, people don’t take advantage of these items to see wonderful landscapes and winter sites.

Cross country skiing is also a challenging workout, which like an elliptical machine, isn’t as strenuous as running or riding a bike. During the summer a great way to prepare for cross country skiing is to use an elliptical machine, and to increase the amount of time you spend on building the muscles in your legs. Powerful leg muscles will help to propel you across the snow in the winter. In addition the less you weigh the easier it will be to move across the snow.

Adding protein to your diet is a great way to help your body to create new lean muscle. Lean muscle is great for helping you to lose weight, and for you to get an edge when you are participating in sports like cross country skiing. It takes a lot of calories for your body to create and to maintain lean muscle; which means that when you have lean muscle even when you are idle you are still burning fat. Protein is the building block that your body uses to create lean muscle.

A person that is actively training should get at least half their body weight in grams of protein per day in their diet. That is difficult to do with conventional forms of protein, like meat and eggs. The best way to add protein is to use a whey protein supplement. Whey protein is easy on your body’s system, and won’t cause any major negative side effects, like indigestion. Whey protein is also easier for your body to metabolize and to use more efficiently. Meaning that you are able to get better results compared with using soy based proteins. When purchasing whey protein it is important to look for whey protein isolates. Whey protein isolates contain 90% pure protein and don’t have the fats and carbohydrates that other supplements contain.

If you are sick of looking at the same thing every time that you get onto the elliptical machine, then it is time for you to find a pair of cross country skis and to see what winter has to offer. It is a great workout, and you will find a hobby that will last the rest of your life.

Source: www.articlecity.com
Author:Gerald Fitz

How to Avoid Destroying Your Diet with Your Sweet Tooth

Yet, it is very hard for people to get rid of them. Many food nutrition programs will actually allow either a cheat day per week, or a cheat item per day, in order to help their dieters to control their sugary cravings. Although that type of cheating policy isn’t ideal, it does get results. It would be better for people to learn how to control their cravings, or to substitute better items in their place.

If you would like to get the added advantage to your diet of cutting of all sweets cold turkey, then it might be helpful to try and control the urges you have for sweets. The body is a machine, and a very efficient one at that. When the body is down on energy it is seeking out the quickest way to generate more energy. Converting sugar to sucrose is the easiest way for your body to have quick short term energy. So if you are craving something sweet that could be your body telling you that it is low on energy. There are a few ways that you can handle these energy cravings from your body. You could eat a small meal depending on the time of day. That would provide healthy substance that your body could convert into energy. Eating a piece of fruit as a snack is a productive way of providing your body with energy, while still not taking in high levels of calories.

Drinking water is another way to control your cravings for sweets. The body appetites often can’t tell the difference at first between hunger and thirst. Many times we feel hungry, when in reality we just need to drink something. Drinking water when a craving hits will allow the body to have water, which is vital for your body to use to convert fat cells into energy. In addition, many of our cravings originate in our mouth, with our taste buds. The taste buds will release items into our mouth that will enhance cravings, like those for sugary items. Drinking water is a way of diluting the taste buds and lessening the cravings for sweets.

If you can’t control the cravings, and need to have something sweet then consider a healthy alternative. A person losing weight should already be adding protein to their diet. Protein allows the body to produce more lean muscle, which burns more fat calories. Whey protein is the best way to add protein to a diet. In addition to being a helpful supplement, the actual taste of whey protein has been improved. A good whey protein supplement often comes in flavors like chocolate and vanilla. Although they aren’t meant to be taken for culinary palliate pleasure, whey protein shakes can serve to fulfill your body’s desires for sweets.

Another healthy substitution is the new healthy chocolates. These healthy chocolates are designed to give the taste of chocolate sweet, but provide energy and a limited amount of sugar. Many of them also contain appetite suppressors, which will help to control future cravings. When purchasing these chocolates be sure to find ones that actually taste like chocolate, many in the past have been awful, and be sure to find chocolates that are still relatively low in sugar, many companies still pack them full of sugar.

There are delicious items that one can prepare on any diet to keep your meals from being bland. Yet, if you simply must have something sweet, then eat smart. Add items to your diet with natural sugars, proteins or healthy chocolates.

Source: www.articlecity.com
Author:Gerald Fitz

Things that made me smile today...

I've seen this before, but when I saw it on a grandniece's Facebook today it made me laugh out loud. She's 21, has a four-year old, going through a divorce, works 30 hours a week at a nursing home, and goes to nursing school full time.

After my 13-hour work day today, I can't sleep so I was watching Jay Leno (way past my normal beditme), and he mentioned this video. Very cool and very sweet.

Still hanging in there, trying my best to get through one day at a time. Work is killing me!

Love the sunshine

My two hours of working on my sister's paperwork and trying to organize her business receipts for the tax accountant for her 2011 taxes (just got her 2010 a few weeks ago) turned in six hours! I hate paperwork!

However, I love our weather and I'm heading outside in a few minutes. I can't decide whether to get my bike down and go for a ride or go to the gym. It would my first bike ride since August 6, 2011, when I broke my scaphoid bone in my wrist and wore a cast for three months. I'm a little apprehensive about getting on a bike.

I'll let you know tomorrow if it's the gym or the bike ride. Tomorrow is definitely a picnic down by the water with my sister. I finally got the disabled parking placard last week so we should be able to find parking (I hope!).

I'm on track with the calories today and wearing my BodyMedia. It said I only slept four hours last night. That explains why I woke up exhausted this morning. Not sure how I'm ever going to fix my sleep issues.

I can't wait to go outside!

Worth the fight

I'm starting to get back in the groove, but I forgot how much time it takes to track my food. Oh my gosh! Weighing and measuring, writing stuff on pieces of paper then putting it into the computer at night. How did I do this for most of four years?

Actually, I know the answer to that last question. I wasn't the legal guardian for my sister that had a debilitating stroke six months ago. She left behind a very complicated, messy financial situation that I'm still trying to sort through and take care of things. The dust will settle eventually, but I can't wait for that day. It's that old story, if I don't take care of myself, how can I make sure she's taken care of?

Tracking my food isn't really that terrible or difficult. I use the BodyMedia software, which I highly recommend. They've even enhanced it since I used it several months ago. You can customize the table by selecting ten nutrients to dispaly from a list of 26. I love this feature.

Below is my food for today. It's certainly far from perfect, but it's an improvement over the past weeks and months. There's too much processed food, and wine for 211 calories? What was I thinking?! When I was eating the food, I thought I was being healthy. I had no idea that some of what I was eating was a really poor choice. The total calories aren't too bad, 1541, but I really need to watch the fat and sodium (processed food).

I didn't wake up early enough for the gym this morning. I only had 45 minutes to spare before I had to get ready for work. That's not enough time to get to the gym and complete a decent workout. Instead, even though it was pouring down rain, I convinced my husband to go for a walk with me. He's not a very fast walker so it wasn't my normal heart-pumping workout, but it was kind of fun. We were both drenched by the time we got home.

As I was getting ready for work I broke out in hives and my upper lip, left side, started to swell up. This is the sixth time this has happened in the past two months (sometimes it's the left side for the lip and hives, sometimes the right side). This time it didn't last long and was mostly gone by the time I got to work. It seems like each time it's less severe than the last time. Still, it's very disturbing. I feel like my body is attacking me.

On that note, I should mention the life coach/therapist I was seeing. I quit after three sessions. As much as everyone thinks I need some sort of therapy, it's just not for me. Even though I was an acquaintance with this person and really like her, I didn't feel like it was helping me. The first session I was excited and it was fun, the second session, not so much, the third session I walked out knowing I'd never go back.

I know this is going to get easier. I've been here before. Several times I've lost and gained weight. This time just seems harder than all the other times before, and I don't know why. What I do know is that it's not optional. This weight is killing me, and I'm worth the fight.

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An afterthought: I just remembered my phone has the BodyMedia app on it. I conveniently forgot. That should make tracking my food a lot easier!

Obese...

199.6

I know how it happened. I just can't believe that I let it happen. This is 100% on me. I did this to myself. There aren't any excuses for gaining almost 30 pounds in the past five months. I was 172 the beginning of November 2011, now I'm almost 200 pounds.

I'm trying to claw my way out of this mess. It's really difficult. Everything is harder at this weight. I can't cross my legs. My clothes are all too small. I don't recognize myself in the mirror. Exercise is excruciatingly painful. The StairMaster, which was my favorite cardio machine is now a machine of torture. My knees hurt, my feet hurt, and most of all, my heart hurts. I've asked myself over and over, why?

The absolute worse part of this that on top of all the other things I have to worry about in my life, I added being fat to the list.

I'm working on it. Two days in a row at the gym, and I tracked my calories today (too high at 2,205). Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

What happened to day 3, 4, 5 and 6?

My daily posting and getting back on track my exercise and dieting just went all to hell this week.

Sunday was a day with my sister, Joyce, which sucks the life right out of me. I love her, I love taking her places and doing things with her, but it's hard to be with her for a long period of time. I'm getting better with the wheelchair transfers, her odd responses to things and her constant post-stroke nonsensical chatter. I don't want to discourage her talking because sometimes I hear a word that's familiar. So I do a lot of nodding and pretending I understand when really I don't have a clue what she's talking about. It's still hard for me, and I know it's hard for her.

Then in Monday work hit me like a ton of bricks between the eyes. I still have to take a week of on-call every ten weeks. It's highly stressful. Getting called at odd hours to be told systems are down and there are flight delays and fees can't be charged to our customers is stressful.Tuesday turned out to be free checked bags day for several of our customers in several cities. It wasn't our software, but a vendor product we put into Prod that failed. Several other systems experienced slowdowns as well, unrelated to each other and it was just an all around bad Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at work. At one point I had 34 tickets assigned to me. Very unusual.

Both Monday and Tuesday mornings at 6am I was ready for the gym, grabbing my purse to head out, and the on-call phone rang. That was the end of any thoughts of the gym as I started troubleshooting and making phone calls.

My eating has been out of control too. I'm not eating candy or anything unhealthy. Just too much food. Way too much food. I often work through lunch without even a break and suddenly realize it's 5pm and I haven't eaten all day, except for a small breakfast. I know this is wrong and very unhealthy. This has been going on for weeks because all co-workers on my project do the same thing. They don't even leave their desk during lunch. Since we're all sequestered in a room to hurry up and finish the project we're on, it's very heads down coding. Very little talk, and no breaks. Sort of reminds me of prison. I can't wait until this project is over and I can move back into my little cubicle and eat carrots without people listening to my crunching.

Today I promised myself: 1.) take a lunch 2.) get up and stretch for 5 minutes every hours 3.) only work 8 hours and 4.) the gym. (which is where I'm going right now!).

Tomorrow is day 7, and I promise I'll have a better attitude and post.

I'm off the on-call rotation today, and I'm dressed for the gym, ready to go.No excuses.

Today will be a better day.

Day two and three fourths: What a day!

I haven't had a day like this in a long time. It was a series of unfortunate events.

I worked on my sister's paperwork for two hours, from 6am -8am, trying to get the Guardianship Implementation Plan and Inventory completed for the State of Alaska Courts. It's a detailed account of her life, and it's due May 28. Remember, she had and still has a complicated life. I hate working on it, but it has to be done.

Then my husband walked into my office at about 8am and asked what I had done with the coffee pot. When I told him I gave it to Goodwill two weeks ago, he flipped out. That was the start of World War III. He hadn't used it in over a year. It was collecting dust and it was in the way. It was old and gross. I'm in a "scaling down mode", so I'm giving away a lot of stuff lately. This makes him insane. He's a hoarder. We have an ongoing battle about "stuff". I'm not into it. I hate "stuff laying around, I hate clutter and knick knacks. He's the opposite. If it was up to him, he'd never throw anything away.

In retaliation, he proceeded to remove every item from the kitchen counters and walls. EVERYTHING. I didn't argue. I didn't fight. I simply don't have the energy. Actually, I like the look, even if there is an echo in there now. I asked him if we could redecorate the rest of the house like this. I like it. It looks like no one lives here. It's a good look. I think that just made him angrier. Oh well.

Then I went to my Weight Watchers meeting. They moved. Seriously, they moved and didn't tell me. I got there five minutes late, weighed in at 15 pounds heavier than my last weigh-in in December. 198.4. Ouch.

The meeting wasn't one of my favorites. We had to get in groups and talk about our most favorite possession. I don't have one so it was hard. My Kindle? People were saying their dogs or kids, which was very weird to me because I think of a "possession" as an inanimate object. It was just a strange meeting, even though it was with my favorite leader.

The leader gave us an assignment to write down on paper twenty reasons we want to lose weight (so we can use it as an anchor, which is a great idea). We're suppose to bring it with us next week. I wrote mine out immediately after the meeting. I'll share it with you in a later post. Some of things I wrote in a hurry, and when I re-read them, it made me really sad. I'll explain in a later post.

After the meeting, I went to the gym. StairMaster thirty minutes, weights forty minutes. A really good workout (and a lot harder because I'm a lot fatter). As I was leaving the gym I got yelled at by one of the personal trainers (he's a creepy old guy that flirts with all the women - I can't stand him).

This is what happened and I'm still fuming about it. This trainer yelled across the gym, in front of everyone, "hey girl, you didn't clean up your mess!". I didn't even know what he was talking about. I asked him, "mess, what mess?". He said I left my weights on the barbell, my little 5-pound weights. I had to remove 45-pound plates from my barbell before I could use it. I often have to move 65-pound dumbbells out of my way to use the benches, or multiple plates from barbells. I really didn't even think about removing my little 5-pound plates because everyone else leaves their stuff. I've never heard one of the trainers say anything to anyone about it. We had a few unpleasant words (I can't stand him!). Then an hour later this same trainer had the nerve to call me on my cell phone and leave a message telling me had a great deal for me on some personal training sessions. Are you freaking kidding me?!

Then I got home and in the mail there was the application for the disabled parking for my sister, signed by her doctor. I sent it to her doctor three weeks ago and she finally returned it to me. I never realized how important disabled parking is for someone in a wheelchair. Try getting someone that is completely paralyzed on one side out of the car and into a wheelchair in a normal parking spot with a car parked next to you. It doesn't work.

I rushed off to a motor vehicles office that was open until 4:30pm today to submit the application. I got there 25 minutes before they closed. I waited 20 minutes until they called me up to the counter, only to tell me the application wasn't completed properly by the doctor. I'm really annoyed with the doctor. She's specializes in geriatrics. This can't be the first disabled parking application she's completed (she only signed it, didn't fill out the section that says "to be completed by the physician").

Next up Costco. I'll make this short. I threw the 25-pound bag of cat food into the trunk of my car. It caught on a corner of the box containing the brand new coffeepot (for my husband). It split the bag open right down the middle and filled my trunk with pellets of cat food.

What do you think, do I have some negative energy going on here or what?

The only good things about today: 1.) I have a clean and spacious kitchen and 2.) I had a good workout (in spite of that creepy trainer), and 3.) I actually tracked my food today in the Weight Watchers phone app, every bite and right now as of almost 10pm I have eaten 25 Points (I get 27 now at my new, big weight).

Oh, last but not least, my only crown (on my tooth, not my head) has been hurting me all day with on and off throbbing. It was put on three years ago, taken off six months ago and "fixed" because it hurt, and now I'm feeling pain again.

Honestly God, can you cut me any slack here?

Day 2: It's Saturday! I love Saturday!

My favorite day of the week is Saturday. I like to stay at home on Saturday and do house stuff. I actually find joy in mindless household chores. My latest thing is spring cleaning.

I've been organizing my closets, bookcases and even tackling the garage, one box at a time for the garage. It's filled with 24 years of junk, including boxes that haven't been opened since we moved into this house twelve years. I'm scaling down on the stuff. I detest useless clutter, and I want it out of my life.

Maybe seeing the 73 years of stuff at my sister's 3,800 square foot house triggered something in me, or maybe a few of those Hoarders shows, of maybe it's because I feel like it's the only thing in my life where I have control.Regardless of what caused this sudden "I've got to get rid of this stuff", it makes me feel better about my surroundings.

I started with the bathroom closet last weekend. I got rid of at least 50 bottles of hair products, and three hot roller sets, along with a truckload of other stuff (lotions, old makeup, and just stuff). I mean honestly, who needs four hot roller sets, three curling irons, two flat irons, and about 50 of those Velcro rollers (that I don't even use anymore). Now I only have one hot roller set, one flat iron and one curling iron. The stuff I kept (about 1/4 of what was in the closet) are in containers with drawers, and there are labels on the drawers. I love it! I can find anything in seconds.

I'm reading a great book that's really helping me with the de-cluttering process. I bought it at the Half-price bookstore a few years ago, but it's still available on Amazon. "30 Days To A Simpler Life" by Connie Cox & Cris Evatt. I highly recommend this book if you are feeling overwhelmed by clutter, and if you've ever watched a Hoarder show and thought, "hmmm, if I don't do something that could become me!".

Usually on Saturday I have a list of at least 15 chores that I think must be completed by the end of the day. I never get through the list.

Today, things will be different. Five must do's on my list:

1. Update my Guardian activity log for my sister. I keep a notebook and write down every penny spent, every phone conversation about my sister, and every chore or activity involving my sister Usually I transfer that information into an Excel spreadsheet at the end of the week. It's for the Alaska court system for when they complete a review on me at the end of the year. I normally do this once a week. I haven't done it for a month. A must do.

2. The gym for a minimum of a one-hour workout. A must do.

3. Weight Watchers meeting, 10:30am. A must do.

4. Clean out under the bathroom sinks in the master bathroom (huge vanity with lots of junk under the sinks). I don't even know what's under there, other than a few rolls of toilet paper. The goal is to clean it out, throw away as much as possible possible.

5. Work on the guardianship implementation plan and inventory for my sister. It's twelve pages of detailed information on her life. It's due by the Alaska Courts by May 28. I've been working on it, but I'd really like to complete it soon. One of those things that's hanging over my head.

Not a lot of fun stuff on the list, other than cleaning out underneath the cabinets under the bathroom sinks. That probably sounds sick and twisted, but I love getting rid of stuff. It makes my heart feel lighter.

Tomorrow is sister day, Titanic in 3D. I can't wait to see how that goes. She was an avid about going to the movies once a week before the stroke. I'm curious how she'll respond tomorrow. Hopefully, she'll understand what's going on. At least she'll be out of the house, which she seems to enjoy. I'll let you know how it goes.

Okay, back to my list.

Making a comeback

I'm stealing this idea from Tony. Good ideas are worth stealing, right?

I've been gone for far too long. I've been immersed with post-stroke sister issues and job pressures and marital problems. Somewhere along the line, I lost myself. Everyone and everything else in my life has been more important than me. I miss me. I know that sounds silly, but honestly, I often feel surreal, like I'm watching my life go by, standing on the sidelines, but I'm not in my life. Does that make any sense? Re-reading that sentence makes me sound a tad bit crazy. Perhaps I am.

I want my life back and the only way I know to do it is to take it back. Go back to doing the things I enjoy, back to doing things that are good for me. Perhaps that makes me selfish and self-centered, but I want to enjoy life. As far as I know, this is the only life I'll have on this earth. I don't want to waste it with worry and stress and misery. I want to laugh, to be happy, and to enjoy every minute.

What makes me happy? One thing is that I like blogging. I like reading other blogs about people like me, that struggle with their weight, and figure out ways to fight it. I like leaving little comments on their blogs. Therefore, taking the idea from Tony, I'm committing to 90 days of blogging. This is day one.

I wish I'd weighed this morning, but I didn't. So I'll go with yesterday's weight. 195.6. It's scary close to 200 pounds. I could be there by Monday if I don't do something drastic.

My plan for the weekend is a visit to Weight Watchers, and the gym Saturday and Sunday. Of course there's a sister visit in there too, probably on Sunday. I promised to take her to a movie, I'm thinking Titanic in 3D, but I'm not sure. I remember that movie made me cry my eyes out at the end, but it was/is a good movie. And I'm sort of in love with the new 3D stuff.

I received the May issue of the Weight Watcher magazine in the mail last night. I forgot I'd sent in for my free subscription. I had purchased a Weight Watcher cookbook in 2010, and it came with a coupon for a free year of the Weight Watcher magazine. I sent it out in the mail two weeks before it expired back in December. Getting it in the mail last night triggered a feeling of "I've got to do something about my weight, and do it right now!".

So I'm back, and I'm making a comeback too. I'll be back every day for the next 90 days (probably more), come rain or shine, come stress on top of stress, no excuses, I'll be here. I'll be reading your blogs again. I'll even leave comments! I already feel happier.

I should have done this a long time ago

Therapy. I should have done therapy a long time ago. I tried a few times, but never liked the therapist. In the past twenty years I've seen three therapists, one session each. They all gave me books to read and lots of homework. I often thought, I'm paying you, you should have read the books and then give me the Cliff notes.

The therapist I'm seeing now is also called a "life coach" and specializes in helping people deal with stress and anger. I've known her for about ten years through Toastmasters (which I haven't attended in over two years). I've always liked her and enjoyed her company. It turns out she's an amazing therapist, and better yet, she sees me on weekends so I don't have to leave work for a "doctor" appointment every week.

After only two sessions, I'm already developing the tools to deal with my life. I feel so much better. No hives last week for the first time in five weeks. Although I did have what I guess would be called an anxiety attack on Thursday night.

I was at the gym at 6pm. I had experienced a terrible visit with my sister on Wednesday afternoon, when I visited her during her physical therapy session. I don't want to relive it, but she was filled with anger and frustration. It was awful and I left in tears. I've heard of this behavior from her before, but I had never witnessed it. To see my sweet, beautiful sister act like a bratty two-year old was more than I could handle.

The anxiety attack started while I was on the elliptical, thinking about what had happened the day before with my sister. Suddenly, I couldn't breathe. I was determined to get in at least thirty minutes on the elliptical, but my breathing got progressively worse. I realized I was in trouble. It was like an asthma attack, which I haven't had in over 20 years. It was a feeling of impending death, of my own death. And the unreasonable fear that I couldn't explain or define. I was scared, but I didn't know why. Death? I don't know. The two were intertwined.

I quickly left the gym and sat in my car for thirty minutes, practicing breathing techniques for relaxation and trying to calm down. I didn't know if I should call 911 or my husband or just drive myself to the nearest emergency room. I had my heart rate monitor on, and usually after a workout my pulse will go from 145 to 56 in a couple of minutes. Even though I was sitting still, my heart rate stayed at a steady 100 or more for a full half hour. Finally, I calmed down, started breathing normally and my heart rate returned to normal. It was a very scary experience. Although I will say, I still had my sense of humor about my life. As I drove away, I thought, "well, guess the night workouts don't really work for me!". Followed by a lot of laughter (my therapist said I'm definitely not depressed...I should be, but I'm not).

Today, during therapy, we decided I should take the weekend off from my sister. I still feel wounded from Wednesday. As the therapist explained, this is not my sister as I knew her. My sister before the stoke would never scream at me and slap my hand as I tried to help her. This is my sister with brain damage. I have to accept that I will never have my sister back the way she was before the stroke. As heartbreaking as that is to say, I know it's true. We can't communicate, she doesn't really even know what's going on most of the time. I am in the process of accepting her for who she is now, and love her the best I can. I have to stop criticizing myself for not doing enough. I've done everything I can to help her, and I've given her everything I can give. I have to tend to me, to my needs, to myself.

Weight this morning, 195.6. Workouts this past week: 3. My tribute to this being a weight-loss blog.

What Is There I Can Say Regarding Detoxification Diets

As you can see, detox diets have become part of the diet craze and that is why more and more people searching on the internet for them are increasing.

There are various words that you were heard of such as toxins, detoxification, cleansing and purifying and all of these relate to detox diets.

Firstly let’s talk about toxins. These are harmful chemicals which can affect the way your body works. You will find them all around you, they are in your food you consume, the water that you drink and the air that you breathe and also in your body (they are the waste products of metabolism). However, although your body is able to remove most of these toxins from it, there are some which are stored within your body’s fat. These toxins stored within your body and combined with stress can affect the way your body works in many unpleasant ways, such as weight gain, headaches, feelings of fatigue and weakness, a feeling of heartburn, complaining of sore muscles and skin and joint pains

Although these symptoms will fade when you start a detox diet, you may find that you feel some discomfort in the first few days, but this is the body reacting normally to a change in diet. You may also find that you suffer from headaches or sore muscles at the beginning, but this is because the toxins are being released quicker in to your body than it can react to remove them. However, these symptoms should not occur again if you detox on a regular basis.

So why is a detox diet an ideal way to help with weight loss?

The reason why a detox diet is so good with weight loss is because the process releases and then expels the toxins stored in your body through the elimination organs such as the intestines, liver, lungs, kidney and skin. The whole idea of a detox diet is not only to cleanse your body of toxins but it is also a nutritious dietary plan which not only cleanses the body, but also helps to improve your metabolism.

There are recommendations now being made for being to use detox diets to help improve a person’s resistance against diseases, mental state, and digestive problems as well as strengthening those organs which are involved in the detox diet. Detox diets can help to prevent serious diseases such as Cancer, ADD, ADHD, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and many chemical sensitivities that people are becoming prone to, as well as being able to treat heart disease, fibromyalgia and autoimmune disease.

So what sorts of foods should you take in a detox diet.

Many detox diets recommend that you should consume foods that are especially beneficial to your health and essential if you wish to lose weight. Such goods that come into this category are organic foods and lots of fruit and vegetables. You should also drink lots of purified water (preferably at least 2 litres a day), cut back on all those processed foods you like and if you do smoke then quit and give up alcohol as well.

What you should remember is that detox diets are very restrictive as to what is acceptable and you should follow it to the letter. Detox diets are safe but you should consult your doctor before you start one.

The types of detox diets that are around today are as follows:-

1. Fasting. This is where you only drink water, juices or broths (soups) or the eating of one certain kind of food for a specific time period. This one allows your body to start burning fat off for the energy that it needs.

2. Nutritional Supplements. All you do during this diet is to take nutritious powders, vitamins and specific packaged protein snacks.

3. Hydrotherapy. You detox your body by releasing the toxins out through the skin pores by taking special baths.

4. Specific Detox Diets. These usually last between 7 and 30 days but there are quick ones which last only 1 to 3 days, but there are others that last for 8 weeks.

I hope this information has provided you with a basis on which to look at detox diets as a way of helping to improve your life and providing you with a healthier lifestyle.

Source: www.articlecity.com
Author: Kerris Samson

Decode Your Biological Messages To Reduce Weight

The appetite suppressants could be resorted to regulate digestive processes.

It seems at the end of the day, there is no such thing as a magic potion to reduce that bulge or tyres of yours unless you learn to decode the biological messages transmitted by your body day in day out. Read through this carefully and you may have a solution just right under your nose.

Literally speaking it is about your nose. As you walk past the serving pans of McDonald’s at their outlets anywhere in the world, you cannot resist the whiff of those steaming, mouth-watering pizzas. The soft, mouth- melting burgers too are too difficult to overcome.

Mind you, all this transports you to an artificial world of aromas and flavours. For, the natural does not smell so good. Nature demands that food be hard enough for you to chew on and not swallow and gulp. While your teeth grind the food not only do the blood capillaries present in you gums are bringing fresh supply of blood at a greater rate (which keeps your teeth in good shape), your food too is undergoing the carbohydrate metabolism, a must in the chain of various metabolic processes that follow in your stomach and intestines.

The most important part of digestive activity in your mouth is that longer the food stays in the mouth, slower does it move towards the stomach, thus satiating hunger pangs in the due process with smaller quantities of food. This will not be the case if a taste-enhanced food stuff is chewed least and swallowed and allowed to enter without carbohydrate metabolism having taken place.

While in the stomach proteins are broken down into amino acids for their absorption. Fats are broken down into fatty acids for easy absorption of food elements. A stream of incompletely digested carbohydrate food particles interfere with the digestion of other types of food particles. The result is partially undigested food which lies in your bowels while the body is hungry for more. That’s when you top up the undigested morsels with fresh supply of food. Hence excessive intake of calories is unavoidable. The weight gain for most of us thus is easy. Regulate your digestive processes with intelligent and responsible eating.

Meanwhile cheap phentermine can help. Buy phentermine online. The appetite suppressant could be resorted to for regulation purposes.

Source: www.articlecity.com
Author: Kim Parker

Aerobic-Cardio Exercise

Benefits of Cardio Training

Being fit and healthy is the in thing. Actually, it really never goes out of style. That body is the most valuable asset you could have in your lifetime. Thus it is important that you take good care of it. Give it the proper attention it needs.

When it comes to ensuring and maintaining the health, the best option is to do cardio training.

What Is Cardio Training?

Cardio training involves any activity that requires the use of the large muscle groups of the body in a regular and uninterrupted manner. It elevates the heart rate between 60 to 85 percent of the fastest heart rate you could get.

Some of the usual cardio training activities are walking, jogging, running, aerobics, cycling, tae bo, swimming and rowing. Cardio training is considered an aerobic exercise as one is required to move from one exercise to another.

What Are the Benefits of Training?

1. Gives Energy to the Body

You can expect more energy and higher endurance after some time of regular cardio training.

2. Prevents Diseases

One could prevent heart diseases with regular cardio training. It is also helpful in preventing other variety of diseases like diabetes, obesity and even high cholesterol. The cardiovascular training strengthens the heart and the lungs. The low to moderated type of cardio exercises are required for people seeking to prevent diseases. Examples of these are walking, brisk walking or jogging.

3. Control Your Weight

With cardio training, you are able to burn more calories. This will help one who needs to lose weight. While those who already achieved their ideal body mass, the training will make it easier to control the weight.

Cardio training helps burn calories. However this generally depends on your current weight and the kind of cardio training you are undergoing. Better consult this matter with your physician or trainer, to know the proper type of training for your needs.

4. Lose Body Fats

Some people do not have problem with their weights. However, there may be some excess fats that keep bothering. Cardio training will help in getting rid of those. The activities involve the movements of large muscle groups. Regularly doing the training will make you leaner.

5. Get Rid of Boredom

Cardio training is fun. It pumps up your system. You will definitely feel more energized and on the go.

Recommendations to Better Enjoy the Benefits of Cardio Training

Cardio training is essential when you need to make health improvements. For starters, it is best to do the 30 to 45 minutes of exercises, 3 to 5 days a week. If you are aiming for weight loss, the training must be done 5 days a week. The more frequent you do it; the more likely it is that you will lose weight. However, avoid exhausting yourself too much in exercise. Avoid going beyond 45 minutes. Remember, it has to be done in a regular basis.

Start now. Walk or ride the bike around the neighborhood now. Follow that aerobics video you purchased. Set a goal and follow that goal. At the same time, modify your diet too. Eat healthy food.

As you increase in the fitness level, the intensity of the training must also increase. This is to have an area of variation and there should always be room for improvement. Implement this by intensifying some parts of the training. If you are into jogging or running, increase speed every 5 minutes for at least a minute or two. It is important that you challenge yourself, so as not to be stuck in a stump.

Avoid doing the cardio exercises before bedtime. You will have a difficult time sleeping if you do so as the energy level of the body will stay high for sometime.

If you are undergoing weight training too, do the cardio exercises right after, not before.

It is best to take a snack 30 minutes before doing the cardio exercises. Do not start with training in an empty stomach. This will not help in achieving the proper momentum when you train. At the same time, avoid indulging in large meals too before exercise. Just give your body the proper supply it will need to sustain exhausting movements.

It is good to do the cardio exercises outdoors. This way you can easily interact with nature and breathe fresh air. You can also simply enjoy going around the neighborhood as you get your system healthier by the minute. It is possible to make some friends among the people who also do their exercises.

Be consistent and stick with the training once you have started it. This is the only way that cardio training will benefit your body and your health in the long run.

Source: www.articlecity.com
Author: David Prince

Losing Weight Successfully

There are many different factors that contribute to losing weight and being able to keep that weight off. Balance is an important factor in your weight loss plan. You will find people that have been successful at weight loss do not usually deprive themselves of foods that they like. The best way to deal with the situation is to have a small portion and the craving is gone.

The important thing to remember is that you need to compromise to maintain balance in your diet. If you satisfy that craving and it was high calorie or high fat, you will need to take away the fat or calories somewhere else in your diet. You could also add more exercise for the extra calories. There are options for maintaining balance in your weight loss plan.

You have a certain amount of calories that you plan on eating and you can spend them anyway you like. A calorie is a calorie and they are all going to cause you to gain or lose the same amount of weight. So the key is deciding what foods you want to spend your calories on and how many of them you want to subtract with exercise. If you look at your weight reduction plan as just numbers, it may make it a little easier for you to stay on track.

Consider these four things when you re deciding how to use your calories:

1. What healthy foods do you like? Think about what foods you really like, that are healthy. Can you work these into your diet more often, making it less tempting to indulge on something that is not as healthy and higher in calories?

2. What are your favorite foods that you do not wish to give up? Make a list of foods that you really like and that you do not feel you can live without. The best thing to do with these kinds of foods is to buy them in a single serving or to eat them out in single servings. So, if you like cookie dough ice cream it is not in your best interest to buy it by the gallon and keep it in your freezer.

3. What foods can you not be around? It is best to keep all food, which you have no control over, out of your home. It is best to avoid these foods completely as much as possible.

4. What foods can you give up and not miss? If there are high calorie foods that don’t have much nutritional value and you don’t mind not having them, give them up. Doing this will only benefit you in the end.

If you are able to put these four simple concepts into practice you will be able to balance the foods you enjoy and still be able to lose weight successfully. Give these principles a try and you may find it easier to stay within your weight loss program guidelines.

Source: www.articlecity.com
Author: Marjorie Salada

Exercise Via Swimming

Swimming is one of the most popular forms of aerobic exercise, and it is an excellent activity for anyone who wishes to get fit and stay active. Swimming exercise uses more of the overall muscle mass of the body than almost any other form of exercise, and people get an upper-body workout and a lower-body workout, unlike running or biking or other activities like tennis, where you get a good workout in just the legs. In addition, as with most aerobic exercise it is believed to reduce the harmful effects of stress.

Overall, swimming is an excellent form of exercise. Because the density of the human body is approximately similar to that of water, the body is supported by the water and less stress is therefore placed on joints and bones. Since then the buoyancy of the water protects the joints, water exercise is a particularly good choice for people who are overweight or who are prevented from taking part in other activities because of injuries or other physical limitations. Therefore, swimming is frequently used as an exercise in rehabilitation after injuries or for the disabled. It's also safe for older people and pregnant women.

For most adults, the upper body is the weakest part of the body. Swimming exercises the arms and upper body more than the legs. In competitive swimming, excessive leg muscles can be seen as a disadvantage as they consume more oxygen, which would be needed for the muscles in the arms, although this depends on the swimming style. While breaststroke generates significant movement with the legs, front crawl propels the body mainly with the arms.

Sometimes the swimming consists of swimming laps using a conventional stroke, such as the front crawl; other forms can include different forms of exercise performed in the water, such as water aerobics. Specifically, swimming and other forms of water exercise, such as water aerobics, offer remarkable cardiovascular benefits and are one of the few forms of exercise that work out the entire body. Swimming is primarily an aerobic exercise due to the relatively long exercise time, requiring a constant oxygen supply to the muscles, except for short sprints where the muscles work anaerobically. Particularly, water aerobics put a lot less stress on the knee and hip joints than running or many other aerobic activities. If you put people in the water, they don't have that pounding and compression on those joints, so they're able to exercise much more pain free. Moreover, if the water is warm, water exercise is good for people with arthritis.

Swimming and water aerobics are excellent and popular forms of exercise for the elderly, so long as the primary focus for exercise is not to improve osteoporosis.

Source: www.articlecity.com
Author: Jonathon Hardcastle

The Best Diet Is No Diet At All

When you're on a diet, you screen out a lot of the smell, taste and enjoyment of food. You focus on how much fat is in the food instead of focusing on the taste.

Dieters are constantly calculating. One piece of pie plus 20 minutes of aerobics minus breakfast equals a smaller waist and thinner thighs. These dietss are not making us thinner; they are making us fatter!

The average person who diets begins a new diet about three times a year. He or she follows a strict eating plan or eats only grapefruit or cabbage soup and, yes, does lose weight. Once the weight is lost, however, the person goes back to his normal eating patterns.

Statistics show that nearly half of those people who lose weight by dieting, regain or exceed their before diet weight within one year. Another study says that 95% of dieters regain the weight within five years.

So, why don't diets work?

1. First, because a fat cell's growth speeds up when it is deprived. Fat cells react to a low calorie diet by holding onto the fat they contain, and speeding fat growth when the diet is over.

2. Diets can mess with your metabolism. Dieting starves your body of vital nutrients because nutrition intake is connected to calorie intake. Very low calorie diets will cause your metabolism to stop burning calories. Then, when you go off your diet, it takes a while for your metabolic rate to become normal again.

3. Dieting makes you feel deprived. You may get to the point where you binge on high calorie foods. Binge eating causes you to store more fat than if you had spread those caloreis over a longer period of time.

4. Diets are only a short term solution. You may lose some weight but once you're off the diet, you gain the weight back. Change your eating and exercise habits and you will lose weight and keep it off.

5. Diets may also be bad for your health. The deprivation of favorite foods may cause stress and anxiety. You are so focused with dieting that you lose your ability to think clearly - forgetting things that you wouldn't normally forget. Lowering calories also leads to low vitamin levels which causes fatigue.

Now that you know that diets don't work, what does?

1. Eat smaller meals more frequently during the day. Instead of three large meals, opt for five to six smaller meals.

2. Move your body. Start exercising - but don't over-do it. You may keep up with an excessive exercise plan for a while, but it's likely that you'll quit after a short time. Slow down and do activities that you enjoy.

3. Motivate yourself. Why do you really want to lose weight? You can't change your lifestyle if you don't really want to. If you know within your own mind that you "can do it," then you can!

You can lose excess weight by eating sensibly and keeping your body active. Forget the diets and starting eating healthy foods.

Source: www.articlecity.com
Author: Jude Wright