More than ever now there seems to be people with ailments and sicknesses that doctors can not cure. Even doctors claiming to be the best in their field cannot relieve their suffering.

It's obvious today's society is in need of a radical change.

Years ago I was very much in need of such a change. I was in terrible shape adn seemed to catch every little thing that came along. I felt miserable most of the time. And with little or no no energy I would feel my body growing weaker each and every day. I saw doctor after doctor but no one could tell me what was wrong with me.

I decided I try like many to self-heal myslef and tried everything I could get my hands on; herbs and vitamins, tonics and cleanses, massage, acupuncture, Reiki, Rolphing, Tai Chi, all promising optimum health. But it's when a friend invited me to partake in a hot-yoga session that my health and life eventually changed!

So what is Hot Yoga you ask? Well although Yoga may be a common phrase around the households of the world, rarely do people really know what it is.

Yoga has many different types and practices, and the one that really impacted my health is ?Hot Yoga?. This is the nickname for Birkram yoga. This type of yoga was named after its creator, Bikram Choudury. The reason it is called hot yoga is because this form of yoga is practiced in hot rooms where the rooms are normally at an average temperature of 115 degrees Fahrenheit. This form of yoga focuses on balancing and stretching and is also used to create pressure in your body. This pressure is created by blocking the circulation and blood flow in your body with your stretching and then feeling the blood rush through your veins with the release of your stretch. You can feel your veins being flushed out and cleansed. This is one of the main points of hot yoga.

Hot yoga has 26 different poses for you to practice. And the reason that this is performed in a hot room is so that your entire body is warmed up which allows you to work deep into your muscles and tendons. This helps to heal and exercise your body inside and out. This type of yoga, like many others, is great for decreasing any chronic pains that you may have and even maintaining the health that you already have. With hot yoga you can reduce stress, lose weight and much more. You will find yourself in great physical and mental health by practicing hot yoga.

People tend to imagine yoga as something that is hard and painful, but you'd be surprised at how different it is to practice yoga in a hot room. The heat allows you to go deep into the yoga pose and saves your body from feeling any pain. You begin begin with the standing poses, backbends, forward bends, and then twists and once you reach the last of the 26 poses you feel like you have accomplished something amazing, which you have. Each of these poses are done twice and held for a certain amount of time. Depending on whether you are a beginner or a professional with yoga, these times will differ so that you do not injure yourself and you are familiar with the process. Each of these poses does not only work your muscles and limbs, but it also works on your organs and nervous system. Because hot yoga promotes sweat it's the perfect way to eliminate your inner toxins!

There are a few tips that you need to be aware of before you begin your hot yoga practice. This type of yoga includes an extreme amount of sweating. This means that it would be best for you to wear as little clothing as possible and clothing that you would be comfortable sweating in. Also because of all this sweating, it is important to drink plenty of water before beginning your hot yoga session.

If you are searching for your hot yoga studio there are a few things that you should look for. There are many hot yoga studios that are not certified by Bikram himself. This means that they are not authentic and may not follow the proper procedures. Before you sign up for any classes, you need to ensure that the studio has been certified by Bikram. This will ensure that you are getting the proper instruction that you require. Hot yoga is a great alternative method of healing and can help you make that healthy connection between your body, mind and soul. Yoga of all kinds can help you achieve this connection, but hot yoga does this in a more obvious and powerful way.

If you're already interested and curious about Yoga and are looking to start I highly recommend you try the cleansing power of Hot Yoga!

Fuel your mind, body and soul and come get the facts on your health and wellness, nutrition and weight loss, stress and anxiety management and self improvement at Health And Wellness Center

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Anybody who tells you that you won't lose weight if you don't eat is nuts. If you go without food long enough you'll die, of course, but you'll get awfully thin first.

So what about fasting to drop some extra pounds before your wedding? There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, as long as you don't go too long. It's hard to tell exactly how long that is, and when you start seeing negative effects differs for each person.

A smarter (and safer) strategy is to cut your caloric intake significantly, while still eating.

Maybe you've heard of negative calorie foods or diets. There's really no such thing, but the effect can be that your body has far fewer calories to burn, and ends up overdoing it a little. That means your net calories from those foods are negative.

Fruits are good for this. Substitute fruit for some of the other stuff you eat that has lots of calories. Don't dunk the fruit in caramel dip first! You can eat your body weight in apples and still lose weight, especially if they take up the stomach room donuts usually fill.

Either fasting or cutting your calories way down is definitely a crash diet. Don't do this too often. You probably can't keep it up, which means you're going to cheat, which will keep you from losing weight at all. That defeats your purpose.

Always remember, it probably took you years to build up to your current weight. It at least took you months. It's probably going to take just as long, or longer to lose that weight. Expecting to be thin overnight is like expecting to win the lottery. It happens sometimes, but the odds of drowning in your own bathtub are much higher.

Copyright by Roy Miller

You probably know Roy Miller as an online marketer, and creator of http://www.resale-money-machine.com . But he also struggled with his weight for 20 years...until he figured out how to lose weight, and keep it off forever.

Roy created the Get Thin For Life System. If you liked this article, visit Roy's website to learn about how to lose weight now, and keep it off forever. Just for visiting, you can pick up a free copy of his report called Why Fad Diets Fail: The Shocking Truth From A Physician.

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Move over low carbohydrate, here comes the next craze -- the glycemic index. As attention to the Atkins and South Beach diets wanes, watch out for the next wave of diet books featuring the glycemic index. Indeed, just googling the term shows a variety of books already exist that promise health benefits, including type 2 diabetes control and the ever elusive weight loss miracle.

Just how does the glycemic index work? Should we add another diet book to our already burgeoning libraries?

The Glycemic Index Promise for Diabetes & Weight Loss

The glycemic index is simply a measure of the effect a carbohydrate-containing food has on blood sugar levels. The theory - emphasis on theory; this isn't proven -- is that foods with a higher glycemic index cause blood sugar levels to rise more than foods with a lower index, thereby increasing insulin secretion, which then causes blood sugar levels to drop. Theoretically, that leads to false hunger, causing us to eat more than our body really needs. Hence, struggles with weight and, for people with diabetes, blood sugar control.

A number of studies have looked at various aspects of this promise. For people with diabetes, several studies do suggest that paying attention to the glycemic impact of foods may have a positive effect on A1C levels (a measure of blood sugar control). Studies of the effect of the glycemic index on weight gain are inconsistent; some show a potential effect; others don't. A recent study of 32 healthy 'overweight' adults with normal glucose tolerance, however, showed that those who had high levels of insulin secretion and ate a low glycemic load diet lost the most weight.

The Problems with Using the Glycemic Index for Weight Loss &/or Diabetes Control

The glycemic index, however, has a number of practical problems. For one, it fails to truly categorize foods according to their impact on glycemic effect because it doesn't consider the amount of a food that we tend to eat at one time. A good example of this is a carrot versus a Snickers bar.

In the low carbohydrate diet craze, carrots gained a bad reputation due to their glycemic index. They rank 92 on the scale, which runs from 0 to 100. By comparison, a Snickers bar has a glycemic index of only 68. So does that mean Snickers are better choices than carrots for type 2 diabetes and weight loss? No. Because the amount of carbohydrate eaten at any one time is an important factor. If you take into account how much carbohydrate you eat in each carrot vs. each Snickers bar - which is the basis for a calculation called glycemic load - carrots rank as 7 and Snickers as 23. To get as much carbohydrate from carrots as one Snickers bar, we'd have to eat about 8 carrots in one sitting.

The concept of glycemic load, then, appears to better to assess the effect of individual foods on blood sugar levels. Still, experts agree that this concept has more utility for research on how populations of people eat, not for individual diet planning. One reason is because glycemic load is based on measures of the glycemic index, and the measures themselves are highly variable according to, among other things, individual response, where a food is grown, how ripe it is, its physical form (whether it's whole or ground, for example) and how it is prepared.

For example, rice from Italy has a glycemic index of 102; in Canada, it's 72. Tables of glycemic index often reflect an average glycemic index, which can be useful for studies of what an entire population eats. When it gets down to individuals, obviously the variations can make a big difference. To further complicate things, fat and protein also affect the glycemic response, resulting in a lower glycemic effect when a food is eaten in combination with other foods rather than by itself.

What to Do

Clearly, trying to determine the effect of a food on blood sugar outside of a laboratory is fraught with complications that would make eating a low glycemic diet an exercise in frustration. That is, if you keep looking at single foods. But if you look at the total diet, there are some words of wisdom to make smart eating a reality.

Choose among a wide variety of whole foods, including whole grains, beans, vegetables, fruits, lowfat dairy products and protein foods. Most likely, you'll automatically be eating a lower glycemic diet as a result. Refined foods - those with fiber removed such as white bread and fruit juices - tend to have a higher glycemic load. What's more, they're lower in all the vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and other substances that make for healthy eating.

If you do want to eat a food with a higher glycemic index, eat it in combination with a protein food. For example, saltines with peanut butter for a snack.

If you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes or high insulin levels, work with your dietitian to determine if some foods have a higher glycemic effect for you. This may involve checking your blood sugar levels after test meals.

So save your money - skip the latest book promising easy solutions for type 2 diabetes and weight loss by using the glycemic index. First, it isn't easy; second, it's not necessarily accurate. Try spending your money instead on something that really helps you feel better - like a massage, facial, manicure, pedicure, personal training session, and the like.

Marsha J. Hudnall, MS, RD, CD is director of health communications and senior nutritionist at Green Mountain at Fox Run. For over 34 years, Green Mountain at Fox Run has been a women's weight loss retreat and spa. Green Mountain's unique weight loss program has offered women lifelong solutions for weight management through lifestyle and behavioral change. Learn more about our Mastering Type 2 Diabetes and Prediabetes, offered in concert with the Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School.

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These are not the reasons we do Lactate Threshold Training.

What is it?
When muscles contract vigorously for long periods, the circulatory system begins to lose ground in delivery of oxygen (necessary for energy production). In these conditions the breakdown of glucose is converted to lactic acid. As the lactate is produced in the muscles, it leaks out into the blood and is carried around the body. If this condition continues, the functioning of the body will become impaired and the muscles fatigue very quickly. This point is often measured as the lactate threshold.

Why Do We Do It?
The aim of the training system is to saturate the muscles in lactic acid, which will educate the body's buffering mechanism to deal with lactic acid more effectively. Thus raising the anaerobic (lactate) threshold. It's not the lactic acid that causes the burn in the muscles as you exercise, but the hydrogen ions released as the lactic acid leaks out. An elevation in blood lactic acid levels is a major trigger of growth hormone (HGH) release. Increasing HGH, is beneficial for gaining muscle / lean tissue and reducing fat.

Aging: Many of the physical and personal changes that are associated with the aging process are directly related to the age related decline in Human Growth Hormone, HGH. Many of the 'acknowledged symptoms' associated with 'maturing' are directly related to hormonal demise. In 1996 the US FDA approved HGH for treating symptoms associated with adult hormonal demise. The FDA approved that medical signs and symptoms of HGH demise are parallel with the conditions associated with the progression of aging: Fat gain, muscle loss, loss of energy, poor sleep, skin changes, bone density loss, libido issues .. all HGH related. Increasing HGH has a on our skin, body composition, muscle tone, mood, energy, sleep quality, and bone density.

Metabolism: Fat utilization requires HGH! Low blood sugar triggers the secretion of HGH to utilize fat for energy. The best time for HGH stimulating exercise is in the morning after the all night fast. If you cannot exercise first thing in the morning, time meals so that you have several hours ( 2 - 3 ) to burn off the blood glucose from the meal, before you workout. A relatively hard, planned and synergistic workout will result in up to a 250% increase in HGH secretion.

Posture and Alignment: The constant total body movement (infinite & constant movement variations ) results in a constantly changing center of gravity. You instinctively assume a personally optimum posture and naturally fine tune the muscles of grace, balance, alignment and posture.

Taking a week off from training every 8 to 10 weeks is very important for overall recuperation. Many people have a psychological barrier to taking time off from training. They feel like they are going to shrink. Not so. In fact after your week off for complete recovery you will usually come back stronger and energized.

This program is based on the research published by the recognized leaders of HGH and AntiAging Research: Dr. Donald Rudman, Dr. Ronald Klatz, Dr. Mario DiPasquali, Sandy Shaw and Dirk Pearson. Renowned doctors, authors and scientists with findings published worldwide. New England Journal of Medicine, several best selling scientific / technical medical books and a multitude of magazine articles. Dietary Recommendations

Eat a high protein / lowish carb and fat meal 15 - 45 minutes after exercise. Five to Six small meals per day spaced 3 1/2 hrs apart.

Protein
No potential problem with consuming 1 gm of protein per pound of body weight per day. Whey protein is inexpensive, low fat, low carb and convenient for a high protein shake.

Animal Protein, Lean Beef, Skinless Chicken , Turkey Eggs. A wonderful, nutritious food!

Fish
Good Oils. More good OIL not just more fat. 20% - 30% of total calories. Specific Essential Fatty Acids are needed for most of the bodies hormonal functions. Olive, Sunflower or Canola oil for salads & cooking.

Trim the fat out of the beef & pull the skin off the chicken and turkey.

Lower Carbohydrates.

Raw fruits & Vegetables are nutrient dense & fiber rich.

Processed grains are mostly useless, non nutritious calories with minimal fiber.

More Raw Fruit & Vegetables.

Way Less Sugar.

Less bread & pasta. Use whole grains when you do enjoy the grain products.

Eating five or more servings a day of fruit and vegetables lowers your chances of getting cancer. Persons with extreme weight loss requirements ( more than 50 pounds ) obviously have different needs than the average weight conscious person. Persons striving for a 5% body fat and rippled abs probably also have different goals than simply enjoying a healthy life. Recognizing that food is a sensual thing and to enjoy eating is certainly a simple pleasure. However being intelligent in sensual pleasures is certainly not an unheard of concept today. Fast food is a luxury. I eat fast food. I enjoy ice cream. Thank God I don't particularly like doughnuts.

Dr. DiPasquali's diet allows you to low carb for 5 or 6 days per week and binge on what ever you want for one or two days. This will make sticking to a diet easier and will eliminate the over whelming cravings that can dominate your sub conscious hunger center.

This 'breaking' of the 'low carb' diet will also serve to 'reset or raise' your basal metabolism. Cooking for Good Nutrition and Weight Control

Choose methods of cooking that will retain flavor, color and nutrients. Steam instead of boiling vegetables. Avoid cooking at high temperatures (except for quick stir-frying) and long cooking times. Both extended heat and liquid can destroy or leach out valuable nutrients.

Add vegetables whenever possible to ensure your five-a-day intake. Experiment with more veggie variety in salads, try new vegetable mixes, include some shredded vegetables in casseroles, and add different vegetables to soups and stews. Use chopped red or yellow peppers to pep up the flavor. Try vegetable salsas and fruit chutneys as accompaniments to meat or poultry in place of heavy gravies or sauces. When you use oil, select olive, sunflower or canola oil. Drain off visible fat while cooking, blot pan-fried foods on paper towels to absorb extra grease.

Deborah Caruana RN, AAHRFP, NASM, ACE
email: deb@vitalsignsfitness.com
web: www.vitalsignsfitness.com

DEBORAH is a highly respected authority in personal training for overall health and fitness, with more than 22 years of experience and success. Her credentials include...

Currently licensed Registered Nurse specializing in Rehabilitative Nursing

Medical Exercise Therapist: certified by AAHFRP, an internationally recognized physical rehabilitation certification

Maternity Specialist Pre & Post Natal certified by Maternal Fitness

Personal Fitness Specialist: certified by NASM, an internationally recognized certification

Yoga Teacher

Professional Health Member, National Organization of Fitness Instructors (IDEA), a leading membership organization of health and fitness professionals

Deborah Caruana RN, AAHRFP, NASM, ACE
email: deb@vitalsignsfitness.com
http://www.vitalsignsfitness.com for fitness needs including personal training, books, vitamins and supplements, and information resources.

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The CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) of South Africa patented a native plant, growing wild in the Kalahari Desert, as an aid to weight loss programs. Hoodia Gordonii, as the plant is called, suppresses hunger. The San tribe, who live on the fringes of the Kalahari Desert, used it for thousands of years for that purpose. CSIR isolated a molecule, named P 57, as the active agent that created the feeling of fullness.

P 57 initiates glucose and induces the nerve cells in the hypothalamus, the midbrain, to fire signals that give a feeling of fullness. P 57 is about 10,000 times as effective as glucose. CSIR struck an agreement with the British company Phytopharm to test, develop and market the product. Phytopharm did the only serious clinical study and published its results. In a double blind study, P 57 reduced the intake of calories by 1,000.

P 57 is not a chemical stimulant like Ephedra or Phenfen, but a natural food. During clinical studies, there were no side effects reported. The fact that Hoodia Gordonii products are classified as a food and not a drug is indicative of the safety of the product. Supermarkets are selling it as a food supplement.

Any harmful effect from Hoodia products is caused by misuse. People with eating disorders force themselves to eat because of the hunger. But now they can pop a pill and go about without discomfort. That would prove to be very dangerous to their health. Another safety hazard is the adulteration of Hoodia. As the plant is in short supply, adulteration by the suppliers is rampant. Some manufacturers, knowing this, attempt to make their product effective by adding stimulants like ephedrine and caffeine. This may create unspecified side effects.

The only clinical study done by Phytopharm was not a long-term one, so the long-term side effects are still an unknown factor.

Hoodia provides detailed information about hoodia, hoodia and weight loss, hoodia cactus, hoodia diet pills and more. Hoodia is the sister site of Ordering Phentermine Diet Pills.

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Recently a woman went public in her online diet community with her decision for gastric bypass surgery. She was asking for fellowship and support from fellow dieters. What she received was a public cyber-stoning from hostile opinionated and poorly informed sanctimonious people.

I was a bit taken back by the arrogance of some respondents: that if Lisa simply had the willpower she could lose the weight.

Lisa has 170lbs to lose. In the last two months she has lost 7 pounds and a poster told her that was wonderful progress ? she should just keep doing what she?s doing and lose the remaining 170 lbs. It would take Lisa, losing 3.5 lbs/month, 48 months to lose her weight. That is without setbacks or life?s little disruptions. That?s 48 months of maintaining a rigid diet/exercise program while seeing little progress. Few people can accomplish that. Take a look around, there are a lot of obese people struggling just to get by, yearning to be in any body besides their own fat one.

In the same forum another poster had the nerve to write Eat Less: Exercise More. Calories In = Calories Out. Really? Thanks for the help with the math.

Another threw in the cheesy slogan: Grit Determination + No Excuses = Goals Reached and Dreams Becoming Reality.

Guess what folks? Catchy phrases and simple math don?t cut it when a person is morbidly obese.

I do not personally know Lisa, nor do I know her state of self-esteem.

I can tell you with heartfelt sincerity that when I had 150 pounds to lose I was in such a spiral of despair and hopelessness that nothing short of surgery worked for me. My acts of self-sabotage and self-destruction derailed every conventional attempt to lose weight. I did not have the self-esteem or courage to muster any grit determination. I was on the train to hell and getting there by way of obesity.

I needed help.

Surgery opened a window for me: for once in my fat life I was succeeding at weight loss. My weight came off and I was empowered by the success of it. I sought fitness as a way of life, not evil torture. I embraced the art of cooking healthy balanced meals. I started taking care of myself. Surgery and the occasional resulting discomforts is a small price to pay for self love and self acceptance, not to mention health and wellness. Without weight loss surgery I can only shut my eyes in horror at the sad life I may have had. Low self-esteem and poor health never equal grit determination.

The most disappointing thing to come of Lisa?s call for support was the lack of empathy or understanding from people aboard the same sinking ship ? all overweight, all struggling dieters, all hopelessly defeated. Should this not have been the very group to rally Lisa?s cause; to give her credit for a making a gut-wrenching decision; for having the courage to reveal her very private choice?

Kaye Bailey is a weight loss surgery success story having maintained her health and goal weight for 5+ years. An award winning journalist, she is the author and webmaster of http://www.livingafterwls.com and http://www.livingafterwls.blogspot.com

LivingAfterWLS is a no-nonsense resource for people Living After Weight Loss Surgery. Our community is growing in numbers even as we are shrinking in pounds. Together we support one another in this lifestyle, that it turns out, is NOT the easy way out.

Fresh & insightful content is added daily, check in often. To subscribe to the LivingAfterWLS monthly newsletter You Have Arrived click on http://www.livingafterwls.com and enter your details in the subscription box.

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While many people lose weight with hoodia gordonii dietary supplements, they do not work for everyone. The question is what exactly caused the lack of results for those people. Hoodia weight loss pills should work as an appetite suppressant, if they contain genuine hoodia gordonii. Research by Phytopharm (the company which owns the patent for the active molecule in hoodia gordonii) and at Brown University supports the effectiveness of hoodia gordonii as an appetite suppressant. So, how does the consumer know if the product they are about to purchase contains genuine hoodia gordonii?

Many governments in South Africa (country of origin for hoodia gordonii) have placed strict limitations on the exportation of hoodia gordonii. Manufacturers of hoodia weight loss pills must be licensed by these South African governments, if their products contain genuine hoodia gordonii. Those manufactures who are licensed will display a CITES certification on their websites or product package. Those consumers who are hoping to lose weight with hoodia should look for this certification, but beware, there are companies which say that they have a CITES certificate, but will only make it available for inspection upon purchase. One such company is being investigated for selling counterfeit hoodia weight loss pills.

Hoodia gordonii is expensive and quantities are limited. The hoodia weight loss pills sold ?off the shelf? in discount pharmacies probably contain little or no hoodia gordonii. Reputable manufactures may offer discounts and free shipping on multiple bottles, but if the price is too low, then the consumer should beware. Genuine herbs of all kinds are relatively expensive. Anyone who purchases herbs for other health benefits and wants to lose weight with hoodia has an advantage over those who are unfamiliar with herbs. They know that a quality product does not come cheaply.

There are stories on the web written by people who have been unable to get a refund on hoodia weight loss pills. These stories are written by people who say that they were not able to lose weight with hoodia. This situation is easily avoidable. Reputable companies display return information on their websites. It may seem like a lot of trouble to read this information about return authorizations and other limitations, but it is worthwhile. Only a few companies will accept returns of opened bottles if a customer is unable to lose weight with hoodia. Hoodia XR is one that does.

Reputable companies will not make claims about their products that are ?too good to be true?. Anyone who wants to lose weight with hoodia must reduce their daily caloric intake and increase their activity. Hoodia weight loss pills are appetite suppressants. They may help dieters stick to their plans and achieve their goals, but they will not work in any other way. Hoodia weight loss pills do not burn fat off while we sleep or ?melt? the pounds away as some products are advertised to do. Some may ask, ?If I have to eat less and exercise, then why should I take hoodia?? The answer to that question is, ?If you can stick to a low calorie diet and exercise regularly without feeling deprived, hungry and exhausted, then you are probably not overweight.?

In conclusion, to those who are interested in trying to lose weight with hoodia weight loss pills, buy genuine hoodia gordonii from a reputable company that sells other health supplements or herbs and openly displays their return policy in writing.

Patsy Hamilton is an editor at the Hoodia Info Blog.

For more information about hoodia weight loss pills visit the Hoodia Info Blog.

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Some of us are content to follow a standard, regimented weight loss and exercise plan. For others, inspiration is necessary. We need a vision, beyond that of a slimmer body. And that ?s where long distance walking may come in. Walking is one of the best ways to lose weight. For one thing, it?s a gentle exercise, so you?re less likely to get injured and have to interrupt your exercise regimen. For another thing, anyone can do it ? even if you have to start slow. Fitness guru Susan Powter, who once weighed 260 pounds (and now weighs about 103) started her weight loss with a simple walk around the block.

So by all means, if you need to start small, do so. Just start ? walk a couple of blocks today, a couple more tomorrow, and keep doing it ? for the long term. If your fitness level is better than that, walk more, or walk faster. Try some hills. Walk fast enough to break a sweat, every day.

Even more importantly, start thinking of yourself as a walker. Read the biographies of some of the great long distance walkers for inspiration. Fyyona Campbell, for example, was the first woman to walk around the world. (Walking around the world, by the way, is not literally possible for obvious reasons ? but if you walk the length or width of any four continents, that counts as walking ?around the world? for the purposes of the Guiness Book or World Records.) Fyyona Campbell started when she was sixteen years old. A rebellious teenager, she ran away from home and set out to walk the length of the British Isles, from Land?s End to John O?Groats. Later, she walked Australia, Africa, Europe and America, thus becoming the first woman to officially walk ?around the world?.

You may dream of becoming a long distance walker yourself ? or you may set less lofty goals. In either case, if the idea of walking long distances appeals to you, just start at whatever point you happen to be at right now, in terms of your available time or your fitness level. To track the miles or kilometers you walk, invest in an inexpensive pedometer. This will give you a real sense of accomplishment. Even if you are only walking the seawall or the track near your home, look up the miles that you would have to walk to get to the next city. Then, set that mileage as your goal. See how long it takes you to walk that distance ? can you do it in a week? In three days? Accomplish that goal, then set a new one. Can you walk the length of your province or state (or the equivalent) in the next month?

Besides giving you an inspiring goal that is more likely to keep you going in the long term, this approach to exercise gives you a unique perspective on things. As recently as a hundred years ago, going to the next city or town did entail a very long walk for most people. Of course, there were trains, and some people were lucky enough to have horses, buggies or stagecoaches, but by and large, the way that people got places was by walking. Think about that ? how did they do it? How long did it take them? How did it feel? By committing to long distance walking, you get to find out the answers to these questions for yourself, first hand ? you are literally bringing history to life!

With gas prices rising as they are, some people are using this as their motivation for walking. Try walking instead of driving, within reason. In fact, this is a way of life even today for many people in European cities, where the streets are too congested and gas too expensive to make driving a desirable option. Incidentally ? or not ? these people are seldom overweight.

Walking is something that requires little in the way of special equipment ? comfortable walking or running shoes are recommended, of course ? and nothing at all in the way of training or preparation. You just start, and then you stick to it. Find ways to make it interesting and inspiring, and then just do it.

For more great information visit Gabae Weight Loss the premiere resource for weight loss, diets, nutrition and living a great healthy life style!

Also if you're looking for more informative articles check out Gabae Weight Loss Articles.

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We all know that obesity is on the increase, we see it every day on TV and in magazines. The problem seems to be spiraling out of control. Common sense tells us that weight gain is just down to the plan and simple fact of eating too many calories and the wrong food choices but this problem can also be because of low self esteem and being in situations where you are under constant stress and use found the wrong food both as a comforter and a quick energy pick me up.

So what can we use to turn that to turn your weight gain around? What if I told you that you could make a big difference to your health from the proper breathing technique both in increased energy and relieving yourself in stressful situations?

We all know the benefits of the proper breathing technique. If you?re breathing improperly your body isn?t gaining the full benefit of the lungs and you body suffers in the same proportion. This problem gets worse when you consider that most people also don?t exhale properly and a lot of waste products and gases are left to accumulate there.

This sluggish feeling can start a vicious where the victim goes from having no energy to snacking on sugar filled pick me ups, which contain extra calories, which add to the weight gain, which add to the feeling of a lack of energy and the cycle goes on and on!

By using the proper breathing technique you can increase your intake of oxygen to the body. Because oxygen is so important, (we can live for a couple of days without food and water but only minutes without air, we can see how much our bodies rely on it) All the organs require oxygen to function properly even the process of digestion needs oxygen to process the food and burn up the waste products.

So as you can see if your bodies not getting its quota of oxygen you can never expect it to perform to the best of its abilities.

Plus the benefits of breathing exercises are that you can do them anywhere (even if you?re sitting in traffic) and you don?t have the added expense of exercise equipment or gym membership.

Visit http://www.scienceofbreath.be and claim your FREE 13 page report packed with all the best breathing excercises and start to improve your breathing technique today!

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Comment from one of our readers ...

I did find it interesting that your list of recommended books did not include any by Ornish, McDougall and others. But then I recognize that you stress the elimination of sugar while the others stress the reduction of fats. It seems to me to be different paths to the same place of greater health.

Mary Ann
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Discussion:

So much for genetics ...

My father had diabetes, my mother had diabetes and of course, you would expect that at some point, I would have it . Some would point to a genetic pre-disposition. I feel that it is much more likely a lifestyle pre-disposition. I drank a lot of cow's milk as a child and ate more than my share of boxes of 24 Clark bars from the local Shell gas station.

The Eisenhower tunnel 1974

Driving through the Eisenhower tunnel in the fall of 1974 I had this unusual pain in my chest. I thought to myself then -could this be angina? January 1975 I would self-medicate myself through a bad episode of bilateral pyelonephritis (kidney infection). Fall 1990 on an attempted 20 mile run around Lake Wawasee in Indiana, I would stop at twelve miles due to severe chest pain into my left arm, relieved by rest. That afternoon still feeling bad, I would sit and wonder what they would do if I went to an emergency room. How could this be angina? I was in year thirteen of a daily running streak and had been vegan for all those years. About three years later, circa spring 1993, I headed out for a seven mile run from Broad Ripple in Indianapolis on the beautiful canal path, only to have to stop in the first half-mile. That is the first and last run I have ever had to stop anytime in the first mile. I had severe chest pain into my throat, left arm then right arm, then the whole upper half of my body. This was accompanied by some dizziness, disorientation and an extreme uneasiness. I managed to run / walk another six miles. I would rest for a while, let the pain subside, then run till it got bad again, and then rest.

The answer ...

I would have to wait until July 5th, 1997, to get my answer. On June 23 of that year I fell and broke the fifth metatarsal in my right foot. I managed to run the next day, but it was very painful. However, the fracture healed very rapidly. While at work on Saturday July 5th, I had one of the Radiology techs at St. Anthony's hospital take a film. I was right about the fracture as I had suspected. Being a Radiologist trained to look at the whole film, I as usual, examined the whole film. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Atherosclerotic vascular calcification of the Monckeberg variety (diabetes), in my right foot. I expected to see that in films of other people, especially at VA hospitals, but never in my own foot.

The last six pack of Pepsi and late night box of Mike and Ikes ...

That was the end of my almost a six pack of Pepsi every day habit. That was my last late night box of Mike and Ikes. How could this be happening to me, a running vegetarian. I had been a great fan of Dr. Dean Ornish, the black sheep Cardiologist who now is not quite such a black sheep, who advocated a low fat vegetarian diet to reverse heart disease. I pulled his book out of my library and reread it and I quote, There is no proven relationship between sugar and coronary artery disease. Something here is not quite right.

Sudden death from heart attack in diabetics

I remember from my medical school days the old adage that approximately 50% of all people dying with their first heart attack with no prior history of coronary disease, would turn out to have adult onset diabetes mellitus. How can you explain that the days after my anginal episodes I would run normally with no angina as I still do mostly in the 26th year of my running streak? Significant obstruction of any of the major coronary vessels would not go away the next day. Why do so many people with diabetes die with unexpected and undiagnosed coronary disease?

Coronary arteries and arterioles

Coronary artery disease that we talk about is usually that which we can diagnose. To make the diagnosis, contrast is injected into the coronary arteries and then rapid sequence images are obtained. However, modern imaging techniques can only measure the larger vessels. To date, there is no way to image the extremely small vessels (arterioles) where the oxygen and nutrient transport takes place. There are basically two types of atherosclerotic changes. Those that occur around areas of normal turbulence, ie wherever an artery bifurcates, there will be some turbulence from boundary layer separation. I associate that type of change with animal protein and fat ingestion. Then there is the sugar induced calcification that involves the entire artery. It is systemic and generally speaking if you have it anywhere -you have it everywhere.

Stiff pipes ...

What does the calcification of the arteries and arterioles do? It causes the artery or arteriole to become stiff, rigid and non-compliant. This becomes a rather significant problem whenever one ingests a large fat load, especially some of the bad fat loads that are out there today. The normally compliant arteriole can expand to let the larger fat molecules pass. The stiff, diabetic and non-compliant arteriole cannot accommodate the larger fat molecule and voila ... it becomes blocked. Does this cause angina? You bet! It blocks oxygen and nutrient transport as surely as a permanent lesion in one of the larger arteries proximal to the arteriolar level. There is however, one major difference -once the fat clears, if you survive, the blockage can be gone.

Don't be half-right ...

Before my first severe episode of angina I had eaten some fat (olive oil on toast) that I had never had before. About twelve miles into that run I had severe angina. The day before the worst episode in Broad Ripple, I had eaten a vegan scone in Bloomington, that was loaded with all kinds of bad fats. Most diabetics who die with their first heart attack usually have eaten a big meal, just before the heart attack occurs. Dr. Ornish is definitely right about eating low fat. But, that is only half of the equation. The other and very much the larger half, is NO SUGAR -PERIOD.

Thank you for your time.

Copyright ? John Mericle M.D. All Rights Reserved

The MericleDiet and sugar ...

The MericleDiet is the only Sugarfree diet plan today. The integrated system to cook once a week or so, maintain a refrigerator stocked full of everything from complex carbohydrates like rice and potatoes to lower glycemic index foods like beans and salads, makes it easy to transition away from all the ubiquitous sugars and sugar substitutes that are in almost all processed and packaged foods. Also, the MericleDiet is the only diet that is 100% Organic. I had to make it sugar free for myself, vegan to reduce the risk of cancer and organic to find any real nutrition.

For more information click on the link below.

http://www.DrMericle.com

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Did you know your colon is weakened by the build up of toxic material found in the foods that you have eaten over the years? Many processed foods, such as milk, enriched and bleached flour and sugar, as well as packaged foods filled with preservatives contain toxic elements that slowly build up in the intestine.

This build up causes a hardened impacted glue to form within the intestines, decreasing the body's ability to absorb nutrients, lowering ?metabolism? rates and causing unhealthy weight gain. When the body cannot absorb the nutrients in food properly, energy levels are lowered and the risk of serious illness is dramatically increased.

Certain detoxification supplements target the toxic build up in the intestine, breaking it up and flushing it from the colon. Once these detoxification processes have been completed you will have more energy, an increased feeling of over all wellness and a lower risk of potential illness. I will tell you how you where to go to get started on cleansing your colon soon, but first, let?s look at some more information about how a congested colon is impacting our societies health!

Findings published in the January 15, 2002 Journal of the American Medical Association state that at least 47 million American adults - or more than one in five - have ?metabolic syndrome?, a disorder that often includes a beer belly, high blood pressure, poor cholesterol readings and high blood sugar, according to a disturbing new study. A ?beer belly? is not just from drinking beer, it is usually formed from undigested food in the lower intestines!

Metabolic syndrome has been recognized since at least the 1920s, though it has been called different things over the years. Though experts say the syndrome may be caused by a combination of genes and lifestyle factors, lifestyle - including overeating and a lack of exercise - are probably the most important factors, said Dr. Earl Ford of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who led the study.

''When you consider that 50 to 60 million Americans have hypertension, about 60 percent of adults qualify as overweight or obese, and there are 16 million Americans with diabetes, I knew the number would be fairly large,'' Ford said. Metabolic syndrome greatly increases the risk of diabetes, heart attacks and stroke.

The CDC reached its estimate by using the first-ever specific definition of the syndrome developed by the National Institutes of Health. The definition could help doctors identify and treat patients by getting them to lose weight, eat better and get more exercise.

According to the NIH definition, metabolic disorder is present when a patient has any three or more symptoms: a waist measuring at least 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women; levels of triglycerides - fats that circulate in the blood - of at least 150 milligrams per deciliter; HDL levels of less than 40 mgs in men and less than 50 mgs in women; blood pressure of at least 135/80; and blood sugar of at least 110 mgs.

Dr. Margo Denke, a professor of medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said ''This is one syndrome that is exquisitely lifestyle-sensitive - it's an area where we can get people to pay attention and if they do pay attention, they?re big rewards,'' she said.

Obviously big rewards include more than just losing weight here. A long and high quality life is the biggest reward you can receive when you apply the TRUE information we bring to you through the HYBN newsletter. Keep after it, we believe in you! For more information and products about weight loss through colon cleansing, visit my website and look on our product page.

Thomas Von Ohlen is a clinical nutritionist and developer of Plasma Pro software for doctors. In his 15 years in private practice he has helped thousands of people, from all over the world, achieve their health goals through education and product recommendations. His FREE newsletter is available at http://www.healyourbodynow.com

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It is not recommended to lose more than 1 pound per week for healthily weight loss. The reason for this has do to with the issues which quick and drastic weight loss can have on your body's metabolism and muscle mass. When you lose a lot of weight quickly, you really need to strictly monitor where this weight is coming from. Is it water weight, body fat or muscle mass? The majority of the time, it unfortunately comes from lean muscle mass and this is exactly what will cause serious issues with your metabolism. Muscle is your body's most potent and active tissue for burning calories and body fat. Its basically your body's furnace which you want to always keep burning hot. When someone loses a lot of weight, which usually comes from crash dieting or some other unhealthy way of dropping the weight, the body's lean muscle mass is cannibalized and you lose some of your biggest power tissue for keeping a lean body.

The worst thing is when the person finally decides to get off the diet and start eating again. Their calories go back up, but since their BMR (basal metabolic rate) is lowered and they have lost muscle mass, the end result is they pack on the body fat very quickly! Ever heard of the term yo-yo dieting. This is the reason why tons of people have issues and hard times with their weight loss plans.

Try and focus on creating a max 500 calorie deficit per day which equates out to an overall 3,500 calories per week (1 pound of body fat). Create this overall 500 calorie deficit through a 250 calorie drop in your diet and another 250 burned with an exercise routine. This is the healthiest way to lose body fat while keeping your muscle mass and having your body run at an optimal level. It will also provide you with a much better plan to permanently keep the weight off forever!

Our FREE Weight Loss Analysis will assist anyone looking to safely lose body fat while maintaining lean muscle mass:

http://www.shapefit.com/weight-loss-analysis.html

Kris Bierek is a fitness specialist for the health and fitness site http://www.ShapeFit.com where you can find FREE fitness tools like fitness newsletters, dieting tips, weight loss help, exercise questions and a free fitness analysis to help you get into the best shape of your life!

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Americans have their French fries, the British have their chips, Latin America has its papas fritas, and the French have their pommes-frites.

We love them. The potato, that most ubiquitous and perennially popular vegetable, is simply sliced into strips and deep fried. The fast food chains have managed to create total consistency so that fries at a McDonalds in Kalamazoo are identical with those offered in San Francisco, Atlanta, Moscow, or Madrid. They are the ultimate finger food, easily consumed behind the wheel, standing in the subway, or walking down the street. Some of us choose to add ketchup, or vinegar, or salsa, but they also taste great just as they are.

The civilized world has a giant addiction to the lowly tuber. It is hard to conceive of the centuries of eating that took place before potatoes were brought back to Europe from the New World and became a staple of every country's cuisine. What did the poor eat before potatoes made their appearance? Bread? Grains? Vegetables?

The advent of the potato changed our diets forever. It was easy to grow, plentiful, and cheap. The flavor was mild, marrying well with almost anything we chose to eat with it. Its texture changed depending upon how it was prepared. And how many ways we invented to cut it, cook it, and use it with every meal imaginable!

We baked it in its skin or roasted it in bite-sized pieces. We boiled it whole or mashed it into a creamy mush. We grated it and fried it for breakfast. We made soup of it and made it a key ingredient in stews. We made pancakes out of it. We sliced it, riced, it, and diced it. We put it into bread, rolled it into dough, and created America's favorite snack, the potato chip.

But the masterpiece that captured us all was deep frying it. Thick, country-style chips, shoe strings, curly and spicy -we loved them all: golden and crisp and perfect.

French fries now make up 25% of our children's intake of vegetables. Fast food nutritionists attempted to substitute healthier alternatives which were peremptorily dismissed by the majority of their customers. Fries remain the accompaniment of choice for all fast food: burgers, hot dogs, chicken, fish, roast beef, and ribs. We simply cannot get enough and never, ever, seem to tire of the little crunches of pleasure.

The innocuous potato, relatively low in calories and packing its fair share of vitamins and minerals, has been transformed into a culinary weapon of mass destruction. Disfigured by saturated fat into a caloric and artery-hardening horror, the French fry may be the deadliest peril we face on a daily basis.

Just a few orders of fries a week can increase our weight by ten pounds a year! Over a decade, that's a hundred pounds, over a lifetime, an awe-inspiring figure. With 60% of us overweight, half of that figure actually obese, we must look to our dietary intake to find the cause. As diabetes and other weight-related conditions mushroom, we know in our hearts that lifestyle changes are needed.

We go on diet regimens, drink liquid meals, fast, cut out sauces, and have our stomachs stapled. We join gyms, buy home exercise equipment, and follow along with television fitness shows. We blame the additives in our food, the hormones in our meat, and the fat in our salad dressings. We forsake the carbohydrates and sugars that our bodies can't process and opt for high fiber breads and low fat milk.

We refuse to believe, because we don't want to believe, that a seemingly harmless, crisp little addition to our meal can pack such a lethal wallop.

But I just nibble a few, you wail, And not every day. It's not the single meal intake that leads to an explosion. It's the cumulative total, day after day, year after year, that plants the time bomb within our system. It is the additive effect of repetitive use that eventually reaches critical mass and our physiology implodes.

Imagine, if you will, that not one fry was sold or eaten over the course of a year, anywhere in the United States. With just that change alone, the collective national weight loss could exceed a billion pounds!

The poor potato is ill-equipped to perform as a deadly weapon. It offers us enjoyment and variety and taste and health. But we have taken its honest goodness and distorted it into a slow killer. With every bend of our elbow to pop its sweet flavor into our mouths, we lay down fat on our hips, our stomachs, our arteries, and our pancreas.

Let's save ourselves and save the potato. Much as we hate to admit it, the French fry is something that has to go, before we do.

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently published a psychologically-based weight control e-workbook, Diet with an Attitude which develops mental skills towards the goal of permanent weight control. She can be reached at http://www.DietWithAnAttitude.com. She provides support and guidance in use of the workbook through her regular blog, http://dietwithanattitude.blogspot.com

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Bariatric surgery, derived from the Greek word baros meaning weight, is designed to reduce obesity indirectly by restricting the amount of food calories a person can digest. Some bariatric operations (eg. lap band) achieve this by reducing the size of the stomach size. Other operations (eg. roux-en-Y gastric bypass) go one step further. As well as reducing stomach volume, they also reduce the length of the small intestine. This constitutes a more permanent alteration of the digestive tract and makes it more difficult for the patient to cheat.

How To Qualify For Bariatric Surgery?

According to the National Institutes of Health Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults, you may be a candidate for obesity surgery only if: (1) you have a body mass index (BMI) of 40+ (about 100 pounds overweight), or (2) your BMI is 35+ and you suffer from severe weight-related health problems such as hypertension, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, heart disease or severe sleep apnea.

Are You a Suitable Candidate for Bariatric Surgery?

Meeting the above criteria does not guarantee your eligibility for weight loss surgery. Most bariatric clinics operate a screening policy and only approve candidates who are (a) ready to make appropriate long-term behavioral changes; and (b) committed to long-term (even lifelong) medical follow-up. This is because weight loss surgery can only be successful if you are willing to change your existing eating and exercise habits, on a permanent basis.

What Are The Main Types of Bariatric Operation?

There are two main types of obesity surgery: gastric banding and gastric bypass. These operations may be performed using traditional open surgical techniques, or minimally invasive laparoscopic techniques using instruments connected to video monitors, which allow the surgeon to see inside the patient without having to make large incisions. Patients who undergo laparascopic surgery suffer fewer perioperative and post-operative health complications, and typically remain in hospital for 2-3 days, compared to 4-5 days for open surgery. They return to work within 2-3 weeks, compared to 4-6 weeks for traditional surgeries.

Gastric banding is sometimes referred to as restrictive surgery. This is because it works by restricting calorie intake only. During a gastric banding operation, the surgeon shrinks the stomach from melon to egg size using special staples, or a silicone band. These procedures are more easily reversible as they do not fundamentally alter the anatomy of the digestive system. The drawback is, patients find it easier to cheat. Thus stomach banding is not as effective for weight reduction as stomach bypass. Examples of gastric banding procedures include: adjustable gastric banding such as lap band, and vertical banded gastroplasty.

Gastric bypass, sometimes called malabsorptive surgery since it restricts the absorption of calories and nutrition, is a two stage process. First, the surgeon reduces the size of the stomach. Second, the first part of the small intestine (duodenum and jejunum) is bypassed. This causes food to pass much more rapidly through the digestive tract and significantly reduces the amount of nutrients and calories that can be absorbed. So even if patients overeat, they will absorb less. As a result, weight loss after gastric bypass is typically greater than after gastric banding. Examples of stomach bypass procedures include: roux-en-Y, biliopancreatic diversion, and duodenal switch.

What Can You Eat After Bariatric Surgery?

As a bariatric patient, you must expect a drastic change of eating habits following your operation. In general, due to the small size of your new stomach pouch, you will feel full after only a very small amount of food. Over-eating or eating too fast can cause extremely unpleasant nausea, referred to as dumping syndrome. The typical post-operative diet regimen comprises four stages. Immediately after surgery, you may ingest clear liquids only. After 2-3 days this broadens to include any liquids. After about 2 weeks semi-solids may be consumed, leading to a low-fat solid diet after 5-6 weeks. Progress depends upon the individual circumstances of each patient.

What About The Problem of Loose Skin?

During the 12-24 months following a successful bariatric bypass or banding operation, you may lose as much as 50-80 percent of your pre-operative excess weight. As a result, you may develop a significant amount of loose skin. In addition, as your weight loss may not occur evenly throughout your body, you may suffer from unsightly pockets of excess fat. Generally speaking the only solution for these problems is plastic surgery. Common procedures include: tummy tuck, thigh-lift, panniculectomy, breast-lift, male breast reduction, arm-lift and neck lift. Liposuction is not generally considered to be a weight-related procedure as it only removes fat. It does not excise loose skin or tighten loose muscles. One point to note, is that, unlike bariatric surgery, this type of plastic surgery is not covered by medical insurance as it is deemed to be a cosmetic procedure.

What is The Cost of Bariatric Surgery?

The costs of bariatric surgeries vary according to the surgeon, the type of procedure performed, and the range of support services offered. Basic prices range from $25,000 to $35,000.

Is Bariatric Surgery Covered By Insurance?

Medical insurance coverage varies by state and insurance provider. Several states have passed legislation requiring insurers to offer weight loss surgery for patients, providing it meets health criteria laid down by the National Institutes of Health. However, getting insurance approval by yourself can be a time-consuming process. Ideally, work with your surgeon/doctor and get him/her to explain to your health insurance provider that the proposed surgery is not a cosmetic procedure but an operation which will help you minimize major health problems later in life. Once your insurance company understands that the surgical operation is a money-saving procedure, they often agree to provide cover. Some bariatric clinics claim an 80 percent success-rate for obtaining insurer-approval in this way.

David Johnson, LLb., is the senior researcher at http://www.bariatric-surgery.info which offers a range of information about gastric banding, stomach bypass and other weight-related surgeries to more than 2 million unique visitors per year.

Bariatric Surgery
Gastric Weight Loss Surgey

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Well, to begin with, there isn't really any one Mediterranean Diet! There's a whole swag of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The basic Mediterranean Diet has common characteristics even if the sourrounding countries differ in culture, language and recipes to some extent.

* an extensive intake of fruits, vegetables, bread and cereals, potatoes, beans, nuts and seeds

* olive oil is a source of mono-unsaturated fat - common to the Mediterranean area

* some dairy products, fish and even poultry are consumed in sparing to moderate amounts, and some red meat(not much)

* eggs are consumed in low to moderate amount say 1 to 4 eggs a week

* fortunately wine is acceptable but in low quantities ie. 1 - 3 glasses per day

A good question to ask is - Does a Mediterranean-style diet follow American Heart Association dietary guidelines?

Mediterranean-style diets are often close to US dietary guidelines, but not exactly.

People who follow the average Mediterranean diet eat less saturated fat than those who eat the average American diet. In fact, saturated fat consumption is well within US dietary guidelines. More than half the fat calories in a Mediterranean diet come from mono-unsaturated fats (mainly from olive oil). Mono-unsaturated fat doesn't raise blood cholesterol levels the way saturated fat does.

The incidence of heart disease in Mediterranean countries is lower than in the United States. Death rates are lower, too. However there are some who feel this may not be entirely due to the diet. Lifestyle factors (ie. more physical activity and extended social family support structures) may also play a part. At this stage this is just a theory. However the research tells all - the diet has existed for umpteen years.

If you would like further proof of the mediterranean diet benefits resulting from research and qualified researchers you could try visiting http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/348/26/2599 or http://my.webmd.com/content/article/67/80070.htm. Both of these sites give good 'food for thought'(excuse the pun).Olive oil plays a central role, but it is not alone, says Dimitrios Trichopoulos, MD, PhD, of Harvard School of Public Health.

It's among the divine mix of several factors that, when used in combination, help provide strong evidence of something that is very important -- eating the proper diet can significantly reduce your risk of early death. He and researchers from Greece studied some 22,000 adults, aged 20 to 86, from all regions of that country; most previous studies tracked only older people who were more likely to die during the study. The participants answered detailed questionnaires about their eating habits throughout the four-year study. Then they were rated on how closely they followed the key principles of the Mediterranean diet.

Sticking to the Mediterranean diet cut the risk of death from both heart disease and cancer. For every two points higher on this 0-to-9 scale -- with top numbers going to those most closely following the Mediterranean diet -- the death rate dropped by 25%.

The findings by Trichopoulos may also help explain why Asians, who typically use these other cooking oils, also have lower disease and death rates. Although they rarely use olive oil, they traditionally follow other principles of the Mediterranean diet -- lots of produce, legumes, nuts, and minimally processed grains, with little saturated fat.

The message remains the same, and is consistent with other findings: A diet lower in saturated fats and higher in monounsaturated fats, and potentially, polyunsaturates, will result in better health outcomes, says Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, of Tufts University and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association.

If the main message that Americans get is to just increase their olive or canola oil consumption, that's unfortunate because they will increase their caloric intake and they are already getting too many calories. What they need to do is eat more fruits, vegetables, and legumes and fewer foods rich in saturated fats.

Some of this information has been referenced from The New England Journal of Medicine, June 26, 2003. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, MD, PhD, professor of epidemiology, Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston. Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, senior scientist and director, Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory, Jean Mayer USDA Human

Nutrition Researcher Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston; spokeswoman, American Heart Association.

So in a nutshell, there is sound evidence that the Mediterranean Diet can help reduce heart disease, cancer, weight gain and of course reduce the risk of early death. However, it would be a mistake to think this outcome is based on the use of Olive Oil alone. The diet is diverse and allows for taste and creativity which is often lacking in most other diets. This alone warrants further investigation from those who seek a healthy, easy diet that has flavour and is fullfilling. Remember too that just as in all worthwhile diets, moderate level exercise should not be overlooked.

Author Ray Darken - Ray often writes for and works with The Mediterranean Diet. If this link is not working you can paste this one into your browser safe-and-easy-weightloss.com or if you'd like more news and broader access to diet and nutrition information try Diet Reviews & Tips. If this link isn't working, you can paste this one into your browser diet-reviews-and-tips.com

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As we have all read in the newspaper and heard from the media we have a health crisis in our country. The population is bigger than it ever has been, weight that is.

Some individuals struggle with their weight on a daily, weekly or monthly basis feel self defeating and choose the excuse syndrome to rationalize their weight. Believe me as an occupational health nurse I have heard just about any excuse possible. However, the bottom line is that your inner health is the most important. Once you have achieved inner health your physical appearance (hair, nails,skin and body) will improve too.

We have to educate others on the vital importance of maintaining a healthy height/weight ratio. Height/weight ratio,also refered to as BMI (BODY MASS INDEX). There are several charts available on the internet for to plot your BMI. A BMI of 29 or less is what your target should be.

Being overweight(BMI 30-33)or obese (BMI 34+) can cause dangerous health problems that can and will impede your quality of life and life span. Ask yourself some simple questions:

Do you want a life free from the financial worries of increasing healthcare cost? Do you want to live longer and without the worries of dependent care? Do you want to eventually retire and have a hassle free retirement and enjoy the things you always dreamed of?

There are many preventable illnesses that plague a large population of people that a healthy height/weight ratio could prevent? Yes, some illnesses are acquired through a poor gene pool called genetics but we have so many more resources than our parents did and available research that has proven these statements to be true. Heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, arthritis,high blood pressure to name a few can be prevented and at the very least manged more cost effectively. I love the quote Dr. Vicor at the CDC said, genetics loads the cannon, but human behavior pulls the trigger. Another words, you have the power to help yourself. Get help from a support group such as friends, family, coworkers and/or licensed professional.

Negative emotions have been a conmmon denominator that I have seen throughout my professional career that lends itself to self defeat. Reflect on your inner layers such as self-esteem or lack of it and the pessimist. Are you unhappy, sad, angry, jealous or worried about finances? These seem to be some of the negative emotions most people will verbalize. Be honest with yourself. Do you think you are worthy of good health? Do you wnt to be more financially secure? Do you want to have quality of life and not be dependent on anyone for self care.

Research has shown that people are living longer, but with more serious preventable illnesses. Do you want to be one of these statistics?

There are strategies that are easy to implement once you deceide mind,soul and body to achieve optimal height/weight ratio, proper nutrition from the 5 food groups,10,000 steps a day and last but not least time for You. You need to take care of You before you can take care of anyone else. You can do anything you put your mind to. Take charge of you health today!

Patricia McGowan is a RN, BSN, CSHE. She has been an occupational health nurse for 13 years and critical care for 8 years. She is a co-author of Invest in Yourself, Health is the New Real Estate and soon to be published Invest in Yourself, A Woman's guide, The Secret of Youth Lies within You. She is a motivational speaker gives seminars and certified in health ergonomics.

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You can do anything that anyone else has done. You can have anything that anyone else has. You can be anything that some else already is.

How? Because they already have accomplished it so you know it can be done. The variable is how hard you are willing to get the same results someone else has.

I am not trying to say be like someone else here. I am saying that if there is something you want to have or be in this lifetime, make a study out of what other successful people have done to get it.

Make a habit out of studying successful people and begin doing what they've done or what they advise. Sure, there are going to be some limitations and some setbacks.

You will probably not be able to play pro baseball or basketball if you are in your 50's.

You may not be able to be president of the United States if you've failed to graduate school.

That does not and should not mean you do not set lofty goals for yourself.

The habit of study comes after accepting responsibility and thinking about what it is you want to achieve with your body and health.

In order to achieve great fitness and weight loss results, you must bridge the gap between where you currently are and where you want to be.

What this means is, you have to find a way to get from where you currently are (or are not) to where you want to go.

It's the same principle as using a roadmap. You use a map to get from Point A to Point B without blindly driving around trying to find your destination.

Learning to bridge the gap from where you are to where you want to go can be done more easily if you model, or copy, after someone that has already achieved some of the same things you want to achieve.

For example, say that your best friend recently lost 20 pounds and looks great. Why not ask them how they did it and then, providing they lost the weight in a reasonable manner, copy what it is they did.

Two things must be figured out when you are trying to bridge the gap between success and failure.

First step in the process is you must ask yourself Where am I currently at in my fitness endeavors?

Does anything even need to change? Am I overweight? What do I weigh? What is so emotionally painful with being overweight?

What are my alternatives? If I do not do anything right now to change, do I want to spend another week, month, or year like I am right now?

Take a peek into the future? Where do you see yourself in 6 months to a year if you continue heading the in same direction you are heading now. Will your health be negatively affected or just your self-esteem.

What is it I am doing in my workout routine that is not producing results. What is it in my nutrition that is not working? If everything that needed to be done was getting done, I would be seeing better results, so something is not working for me.

After you determine where you currently are, you know must then find out where it is you want to go.

What do I want to weigh? How do I want my clothes to fit? How much energy would I like to have? What size do I want my waist to be?

If I change for the better right now and start implementing a proper fitness program, what will I feel and look like in 6 months or a year. What size will I be or what brand new clothes will I be able to fit in.

What is it I would be ultimately happy with achieving in the realm of fitness and weight loss. In crystal clear terms, what do I want to achieve.

When you find that answer, that is going to be your destination.

To achieve fitness and weight loss success, you must bridge the gap that lies between where you currently are and where it is you want to end up.

When you determine where it is you want to end up, you need to make certain choices and certain decisions about how it is you will get to your destination.

The quickest way to get there is to follow someone else who has already achieved what it is you want, model after someone that has figured out what works and what doesn't.

This could be a friend, family member, or personal trainer.

In this case, it will be learning and copying some of the steps in this book.

There are certain no matter whats when it comes to losing weight, gaining muscle or strength, or any other fitness goal you may have.

Much like certain principles or laws, like the law of gravity, these no-matter-what's will work 100% of the time, whether you like it or not.

If you do certain things, than you will achieve weight loss, no matter what. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant, they will work.

You can have anything you want in life if you copy others that have achieved what it is you are looking for. If you want to learn about the stock market, read a book by Warren Buffet. If you want to learn a new language, pick up a Spanish book.

I am going to help you with weight loss success. Not because I know everything, but because at some point, I had to make the same choice and I know the end result of that choice. Experience of others can save you a lot of time.

It's not what you know or do that matters, it's what you know and do that produces results. Weight loss is 80% behavior. It comes back to the choices that we make, or do not make. So, in order to lose weight effectively and permanently, you must change your behavior, or those things that cause you to gain weight in the first place.

In fact, often the only thing that distinguishes successful people from unsucessful ones is direction.

You only get what you ask for in life, so ask for more. There are specific reasons behind why you either cannot lose weight or why the weight does not stay off. Until you uncover those reasons, weight loss will be minimal, at best.

It has to do with the choices you make each and every day. If you are stressed out from work, do you chose to workout or run to get rid of tension or do you plop down on the couch and eat an entire bag of Doritos.

The choices you make dictate the life you lead.

I do not like to offer my clients a Band-Aid approach to getting in shape. I want results to last. I am one of these people that want to know why both how and why something works. Other people are just happy knowing that it works.

But it only works as well as you want it to work.

So begin studying how others have achieved their goals and you too, can copy their success and achieve what you want to achieve as well.

Lose weight and build muscle in less time. Personal trainer and natural bodybuilder Shawn Lebrun shows you, step-by-step, exactly how: Visit Shawn Lebrun Fitness

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What do you do about the scale? If you weigh yourself everyday you will likely see your weight bounce up and down, and on up days you can get discouraged.

That is why many trainers will tell you to ignore the scale. They will tell you that what is really important is how fit you are, and not how much you weigh.

And on the other hand, there are diet programs and diet books that focus only on the scale, and sell you on quick weight loss based on nothing but the scale.

Which way is right? Scale or no scale? They both have some truth in them. Let?s sort it out.

We tend to be focused on the scale, because it is such an easy thing to measure, and it is easy to compare the numbers. You read that your favorite celebrity lost 25 pounds?you can easily understand that. You read, ?Lose 15 pounds in 2 days!? Who wouldn?t want that?

The scale gives us a number that we can use to compare ourselves to others and to set goals for ourselves. It is simple.

But if you think about it, the reason we are so intent on the scale is not because we really are so interested in numbers, but because we are interested in looking good. We want to be lean. We want to be sexy. We want our clothes to fit, and we want to be appealing to others.

And we know that when we lose weight we get these things. So we get hooked on the scale. But the scale is just one part of it.

What is really important is not just your weight, but how much fat you have on your body, and how much lean mass you have.

You can lose weight but instead of losing fat you lose muscle. This happens all the time with quick weight loss diets.

When you are done, you don?t look as good as you thought you would. Your arms are still flabby. Your belly still sags. You still don?t look good in a bathing suit and you are still embarrassed about your body.

You lost muscle and you are out of shape.

This is what causes people to lose weight rapidly but then gain it back. You lose some fat, but you also lose your muscle mass.

Here is the most important part: Muscle burns up calories. Muscle burns up fat. And since you don?t have as much muscle to burn up calories, you gain the weight back faster than ever.

See, even if the scale improved, you didn?t accomplish what you wanted. So even though it is harder to measure, what you really want to know is how much lean body mass you have as well as how much fat you have.

If you became really lean, really firm, with sleek, strong muscles, and you saw your trim abs in the mirror, the strong arms, and the sexy butt, you wouldn?t care what the scale said.

On the other hand, the people who are the most successful in weight loss, in taking the weight off and keeping it off forever, are people who have a weight loss goal and who actually reach that goal.

Not the people who lose some of their excess weight, or who get almost to the goal. No, the people who keep the weight off are people who actually reached their goal weight.

Many people can lose some of their weight and get part way to their goal. But the vast majority gain it back. But those people who have a goal and reach that goal are much more likely to keep the weight off.

So you see, there are two sides to the weight loss coin. There is more to losing weight and getting the body you want than the scale. And on the other hand, having a goal and reaching it will dramatically increase your odds of staying lean forever.

So what do you do? The best way is to make the scale part of your plan, but not the whole plan. Weigh yourself regularly, and keep a chart of your weight, but watch only the long-term trend, not the daily ups and downs.

Make the scale one part of your weight loss plan. Keep at it and you will see. You can get the body you want.

Copyright 2006 Dan Curtis, M.D.

Dan Curtis, M.D. is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of South Florida. He is the author of Dr. Dan?s Super Weight Loss Plan. Sign up for his free newsletter: Dr. Dan?s Super Weight Loss Tips, Tricks and Secrets. http://www.superweightlossplan.com/newsletter/

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All successful weight loss programs rely on one common denominator; calorie restriction.

What is calorie restriction? Calorie restriction is an effort to reduce the amount of calories one consumes in order for the body to achieve a negative energy balance. This is simply a person reducing food consumption to the point that they are burning more energy than they are consuming. The body is then forced to use stored fuel (muscle tissue, glycogen and body fat) in order to survive. The burning of these stored fuels is cause of the weight loss phenomenon.

How does a person achieve this negative energy balance through calorie restriction? First a person must have an idea on what a calorie is. A calorie is a measure of heat. Food is the fuel our body needs to generate heat. If the body is not getting enough fuel from food consumption then the fuel must be found elsewhere. That fuel is found in our body fat.

The best analogy for this process is gasoline and an automobile. Cars run on gasoline. Without gasoline, a car is useless. We drive our car and fill up with gasoline when we are getting low on fuel.

What would happen if we put 18 gallons on gas in our car if we only burned 16 gallons? We would have extra gas left over. That extra gas has to go somewhere so it goes into storage for when we only have 14 gallons available but we need 16 gallons.

What would happen if we never tapped into our gas reserves? The surplus would keep growing and growing causing a need for larger storage tanks.

The human body works in the exact same way. The surplus fuel (food) is turned into stored energy (body fat) and the only way to reduce how much fuel is stored in reserve is to limit new consumption of fuel (food). This is the only way that the human body can body fat. A caloric deficit must be established so stored energy (body fat) can be burned to keep us alive.

How is a calorie deficit achieved? The simplest answer is to eat a fewer number of calories then it takes to fuel your basal metabolic rate. The BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the measure of energy a person needs to subsist. People can figure out their BMR by using any of the numerous BMR calculators that can be found online.

Once the BMR is calculated a person can then have a goal to shot for. If the BMR is 2500 calories a day, they a person should shoot to try to eat fewer the 2500 calories a day for a consistent period of time.

How can a person effectively create a caloric deficit? Part 2 of this article will address this issue.

W.S. Evans (Bill) is one of the millions of people who have battled a life long weight problem. Bill has a passion for helping others battle their weight problems by sharing what he has learned with his struggles with obesity. Bill's struggle can be viewed on his blog called My next 60 pounds. Bill's blog can be found at http://billgetsfit.blogspot.com.

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The culture of being beautiful is an old mannerism with humans, though it has got more to do with the fairer sex. Every age, region, culture and tradition has its own essence of beauty. Right from the earliest period of history, different standards and parameters of beauty have been closely guarded and zealously maintained by different generations. But one thing is for sure; the image of an ideal beauty is something that is hard to come by.

The western society seems to be deeply engrossed with the thoughts of a perfect body size and ideal weight. Everyone in the society, men, women and even the adolescents are influenced by the pressures around them to adhere and conform to some ideal parameter of body structure and figure. And it was a serious issue among the women. The ideal figure tends to be one that is most difficult to attain in that particular period of time. On occasions when there are a lot of people maintaining the ideal shape, the yardsticks for the ideal figure would change in such a way that it is something extraordinarily harder to attain.

The ideal shape a woman changes with the tide of time. Different eras of history have seen various ideal shapes of women. Body consciousness, with an essence for fashion and style became noticeable among the masses since the Victorian Age. Victorian women loved a fleshy, plump and full-bodied structure. In order to accentuate their hips, they had a practice of wearing tight corsets on their waist. A tight and slim waist gave them a ?full-buxom, wide buttock? look. In spite of health complications with the use of the corset, women indulge in the practice just to be trendy. It set a precedent to the present culture of women giving up everything (health and otherwise) just to make a style statement.

With the onset of the twentieth century, slender became the in-thing. Having an athletic figure with an ideal height of around 5?4? and a weight of twenty stones was the epitome of women?s fashion statement in those days. However, from being athletic, the fashion went to another extreme of cultivating a washboard profile or a flapper-thinness in the 1920s. The hourglass figure of the Victorian Age had a complete reversal here. Women looked as if they had no breast. But in the late 1950s, Marilyn Monroe set the record straight with a heavy bust line. Pamela Anderson further glorified it in the 1990s with the silicon-embedded cleavage in the Baywatch serial.

In the recent past, being slim and slender has held sway in the fashion and modeling circles. With the entry of Twiggy in the modeling scene in the 1960s, it?s hot and happening to have a pencil thin figure or a prepubescent boy look. And thinner goes the fashion trend, as the weight of an ideal beauty queen that was just 8% less than an average woman in 1975 is 23 % less now. But these days, the ideal slim body needs to be well toned with a sporty fitness.

With the invasion of the mass media in the private lives of the people, maintaining an ideal shape has become second nature to the womenfolk. Sometimes, you see the ideal figures through TV, magazines and billboards more frequently than you see your friends or family members that the ideals begin to look normal and their figure easily attainable. But the stark reality is that people undergo silicon implants and liposuction to fine-tune and shape up their hips and buttocks.

The future looks bleak if the present trend continues. What would come of us if the quest for animated anorexics and gravity ?defying breasts continue? Phentermine is the answer to all our prayers. It is the medical world?s best bet to keep you in shape, though it doesn?t mean that everyone taking Phentermine could sashay down the ramp.

The author is a freelancer who writes on beauty, fitness, anxiety, depression, stress and other related topics. Visit http://www.buy-xanax-online-now.com to know more about anxiety disorders and http://www.phentermine-effects.com to understand the nuances of weight loss and diet pills.

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What is a fad diet? Walking the less resistant way seems to be a part of our nature. Of course most over-weight people want to get rid of their excessive pounds yesterday, if possible. Many more or less serious weight loss e-diet or online diet makers know this and try to take advantage of a person's various diet needs. The weight loss diet industry is so big and competitive that dietary sensations can seem necessary to stand out from the crowd. This is what we call fad diets.

Fad-diets often promise to bring instant weight loss. Most fad-diets are not diets for life. They are normally short time diets, not balanced at all and are not designed for obtaining a sustainable weight loss. What a crash diet might do for you however, is get you started with your dieting. A fad crash diet might be the flying start of the weight loss proccess that you need. If you only use fad diets as starters, like a catapult for changing your eating and exercise habits permanently, it shouldn't do you any harm. If you decide to start up a fad or any diet for that matter always consult your physician first. I take no responsibility whatsoever for any health damages it may cause you.

Don't over-exert yourself whether it be exercise, working and other things that may require an effort.This might be too stressful on your system even if you're feeling fine during the diet. If you get an acute attack of hunger during the dieting, drink a glass or two of water. It will fill up your stomach and remove the worst hunger feeling. Another tip is to suck on ice when you're dieting.

If you haven't yet built up your will power, stay away from social activities like going out dining with friends, birthday or wedding parties with lots of food and alcohol when dieting. Since the duration of most fad diets are very short, it should be possible to avoid such situations. Try to limit the period of dieting to maximum 7 days at a time. Most of these fad diets are not meant to be kept for longer periods of time. Non balanced diets will not supply you with the nutrition your body need to function normally.

When the diet period is over, don't run to the closest MacDonald and eat 3 Big Macs with triple servings of french fries and a gallon of Coke or sit in front of your TV eating Pizza and Beer. Celebrate the end of your dieting, but not with food.

Now you can start up with a balanced diet. This crash diet hopefully gives you a flying start of a sustainable and healthy weight reduction.

Terje Brooks Ellingsen is a writer and internet marketer. He runs the website 11-Weight-Loss.net. Terje enjoys to give advice and help people with fad diets for fast weight loss like negative calorie food as a starter for severe over-weight people.

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Eating and living healthfully, of course, involves more than just counting calories, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. An active lifestyle is an essential component to a good diet. But just what is a ?good? diet? A diet that promotes good health is, first of all, a diet you can live with. It is relatively low in fats (particularly saturated fats), low in cholesterol, moderate to low in simple sugars, high in complex carbohydrates and fiber, and adequate in water, vitamins, and minerals. The caloric content of a good diet is enough to allow you to maintain a regular exercise program in addition to providing for daily activities. As much as possible, naturally occurring foods are chosen over processed foods. A healthy diet includes a variety of foods, and few foods are banned or off limits.

The hallmark of a good diet is moderation. This means keeping food portions moderate, forgoing second helpings, minimizing inappropriate snacking, and not overdoing consumption of alcohol, sodium, salt, and caffeine. Moderation means now and then allowing yourself a little bit of the less healthful things you like to eat and most of the time making healthy choices. When you are about to make a food choice, ask yourself ?Is this good for me?? If it is a healthy choice, allow yourself to enjoy it. If it is less than healthy, eat a smaller portion. Next time, make the healthier choice. For those wishing to pursue a ?non-diet? option, learning to eat in moderation is a good choice. Learning to eat in moderation is important for lifelong success with weight control.

Diets that severely restrict calories to less than 800 to 1000 calories per day affect metabolism. When you go on a very low calorie diet, your body doesn?t know you want to be a size 8. It reacts as if you are about to starve to death; so it does what it can to preserve life. The body responds to severe caloric restriction by decreasing the rate at which it burns calories. This decrease in metabolism can be as high as 30 percent, and the effect can begin within twenty-four to forty-eight hours of starting this kind of diet. Even if you lose weight on a very low calorie diet, when you go off it you can regain weight rapidly if you increase your caloric intake too quickly. Although metabolism is believed to rebound, it takes time for this to happen, making you more vulnerable to regaining the weight you have lost.

The best way to lose weight is to combine moderate caloric restriction with regular exercise. But just what is ?moderate? caloric restriction? A good guideline for most people is to reduce caloric intake by about 300 calories a day and increase energy expenditure by 200 to 300 calories per day. The actual daily caloric intake level that will produce a weight loss for you depends on your metabolism, your level of exercise, and how much weight you need to lose.

Diana is a Natural Health Consultant and weight Management Specialist. Through her personal experiences with issues such as weight loss, depression, perimenopause, pms, colon cleansing, acne, and other common ailments she started her own website called Natural Health and Herbal Remedies.

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First of all we need to find out a reason for this growing mountain of fat that is killing us.

We know now that the traditional explanation - that of overeating - is wrong. People eat when they?re hungry, and they stop when they?re full. The problem lies in hormonal imbalance inside our bodies, an imbalance that deprives us of the energy to live life to the full, and instead stores the energy as fat.

What influences human hormonal balance? The three biggest factors are: genetics, diet, and stress.

There are no prizes for guessing which one of those three is the easiest to control.

The number one nutrient that negatively affects human hormonal balance is well known - it's sugar. The health and beauty of nations is directly related to its consumption. The per capita consumption of sugar has increased fifteenfold over the last 100 years.

Ever wondered why the French remain slim despite eating far more calories than we do, with their rich, fatty cuisine? That's right, it's because they drink wine instead of soft drinks!

It's very sad that this information - backed by genuine science - cannot realistically compete with advertising budgets of big sugar and soft drink producers.

Our only hope is the free press.

For more information on how to control hormones through diet, visit http://www.dietofnature.com.

Darius Mikolajewski is an Australian author of nutrition books and natural weight loss programs. For more information visit http://www.dietofnature.com

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When people think of fasting many people think of someone like Ghandi who fasted for weeks at a time to attain enlightenment or as a form of non violent protest against an oppressive government. The truth of the matter is that fasting can be used by any of us on a limited and occasional basis both for cleansing and rapid weight loss.

If you want to make a change in your current diet, feel a need to cleanse your body, or you just want to jump start your weight loss program fasting can be a good way to go. The great thing about fasting is that you see results immediately. I am on the 8th day of a fast at the moment and have lost over twenty pounds!

Fasting is a great way to help your body to cleanse itself and should be done occasionally for that purpose alone. It will remove any bloating you may have, make your waist look smaller almost instantly, and will clear up your skin. This is one of the first things I noticed with fasting; my skin became much clearer in just the first three or four days.

I am not recommending fasting as a weight loss program in itself but more as a transitional step to lead into a more long term healthy weight loss and maintenance regimen. If you have been eating tons of junk food, heavy meats, and the like you will have toxins as well as excessive waste built up in your system. Cleansing your system first will give you much better results.

Let?s look at the mechanics of fasting. When we are talking about fasting, I am not saying go without anything at all. You must take in fluids. Your body will die in a few days without enough fluids even though it can survive for many weeks with no food, depending of course on how much body fat you currently have. Try to stick with water and natural fruit juices. Some people try to go on water alone but this can usually only be handled for a couple of days, plus the fruit juice will help with the cleansing process.

If you learn to use fasting properly and become dedicated with it you will also be able to have more discipline when you return to a regular diet and it will be easier for you to turn down foods that you know aren?t good for you. One of the benefits of this fast I am currently on is that it will prepare my body for the raw diet and am starting. I guess I should really say raw lifestyle since I intend to eat that way from now on.

Fasting is definitely something everyone should do at least once or twice per year to cleanse your body from all the built up toxins and help keep you healthy.

Glenn Freiboth is a Certified Health Advisor lives in Illinois and has helped many overweight and obese people lose weight and keep it off. Get Medifast diet and weight loss products at http://www.GetYouHealth.com

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Adherence to diet for one year, not the specific diet plan, is the most important determinant of successful weight loss. According to the results of a randomized trial published in the January 2005 issue of JAMA. When comparing Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone diets, the author recommends the low fad approach.

The Low Fad Approach

Successful weight loss is best achieved by following the low fad approach. The low fad approach to losing weight involves moderate reductions in caloric intake with increased physical activity. There is nothing fad about this approach and is supported by a few studies.

The fact that the low fad approach is backed by scientific evidence is key...the fad diets currently in the market have very little credible evidence supporting their claims.

The scarcity of data addressing the health effects of popular diets is an important public health concern, especially since patients and physicians are interested in using popular diets as individualized eating strategies for disease prevention, write Michael L. Dansinger, MD, a Preventative Medicine specialist from Boston, Massachusetts.

Dr. Dansinger goes on to say, Some plans minimize carbohydrate intake without fat restriction (eg, Atkins diet), many modulate macronutrient balance and glycemic load (eg, Zone diet), and others restrict fat (eg, Ornish diet).

So, besides the lack of evidence backing the claims made by fad diets, there is no consistency from one diet to the next within the same category of diet type. This makes it extremely difficult to study the fad diets and measure the effects on your health, let alone your chances for successful weight loss.

But there's hope for dieters...the low fad approach or Low Fad Diets.

Successful Weight Loss...The Evidence Supporting Low Fad Diets

At a single academic medical center, 160 overweight or obese adults were randomized to the Atkins, Zone, Weight Watchers (calorie restriction), or Ornish diet. The total time of the study was one year. The age range was 22 to 72 years, mean body mass index (BMI) was 35 kg/m2 (range, 27-42 kg/m2), and all participants had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes.

After two months of maximum effort, participants controlled their degree of adherence to the diet. Primary outcomes were changes in baseline weight and cardiac risk factors at one year, and dietary adherence rates based on self-report.

The percent of subjects who were able to finish the study and stick with their diets for one year were 53% for Atkins, 65% for The Zone, 65% for Weight Watchers, and 50% for Ornish. Participants who discontinued the study were assumed to have no change from baseline in their weight.

At one year, mean weight loss was 6-7 pounds for Atkins, 6-9 pounds for The Zone, 6-8 pounds for Weight Watchers, and 6-10 pounds for The Ornish Diet.

Compared to subjects that quit the study before one year, the subjects that made it to one year experienced greater weight loss. In each group, approximately 25% of the initial participants maintained a one-year weight reduction of more than 5% of initial body weight, and approximately 10% of participants lost more than 10% of body weight.

The amount of weight loss was associated with the self-reported level of dietary adherence. Basically, the longer a subject stayed on the diet that they were randomized to, the more weight loss they experienced. However, the type of diet they were on had no real effect on the amount of weight loss. The type of diet also had no effect on dropping their blood pressure or lowering their cholesterol level.

Successful Weight Loss Conclusion

The author concluded, Each popular diet modestly reduced body weight and several cardiac risk factors at one year. Overall, dietary adherence rates were low, although increased adherence was associated with greater weight loss and cardiac risk factor reductions for each diet group.

The study limitations include the inability to identify a best diet and the limited ability to exclude long-term safety risks.

Lastly, the author stated, One way to improve dietary adherence rates may be to use a broad spectrum of diet options, to better match individual food preferences, lifestyles, and cardiovascular risk profiles. I have always supported the idea of more personalized weight loss plans.

The General Clinical Research Center via the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Boston Obesity Nutrition Research Center supported this study on successful weight loss.

To Healthy Living!

Michael A. Smith, MD
Chief Medical Consultant
Diet Basics Website

The complete study can be found at JAMA. 2005;293:43-53, 96-97.

Dr. Smith is the Chief Medical Consultant for Diet Basics, a content rich weight loss web site. He is dedicated to the education of all dieters. Please visit his site at Diet Basics.

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