Thank You For Visiting Our Blog, FEEL BETTER AND LIVE LONGER!

The purpose of our blog is to share what we have learned about nutrition, weight loss, fitness, and health, in order to help you find ways to feel better and live longer. It is amazing how much our diet and lifestyle affect our health and well-being.

Did you know that you can reduce your risk and even prevent many diseases and health conditions simply by making some changes to your diet? Check back often for valuable tips and information.


HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF:

For the first time in my life I have found weight loss success. During my adult life I have tried dozens and dozens of so-called "diets" and none of them worked over the long-haul. Oh, I was able to lose weight with some of them, but once I went off of the "diet" I quickly gained back all of my weight (plus some).

I have finally learned that losing weight has to be a lifestyle change, not a temporary fix. Crash diets and all the other crazy diets will not only cause you to fail, they are harmful to your health. To lose weight and keep it off you must NOT go on a "diet." What? Why? Because we all consider a "diet" a temporary thing. For example, how many times have you said, "Oh, I will go on this low-fat diet until I lose 20 pounds." Okay, what happens after you lose the 20 pounds? Or you simply give up? You go back to your old habits and gain that 20 pounds back.

The only way you will ever be successful at losing weight, with the added benefit of improving your health, is to make healthy changes that you can live with for the rest of your life. Period. Not for a week, a month or 3 months, but for life. For me, my initial goal was to lower my cholesterol level. I had to have a blood test for my insurance coverage and my cholesterol level had to be lower than the previous year's levels or I would have to pay a much higher premium. Well, that was a pretty good incentive for me make some positive changes.

I sat down and figured out what I needed to do. I knew I had to change the way I ate and I knew I had to exercise in some form or other every day. So, I made a list and I stuck to it. It was difficult at first. To make matters worse, I am a compulsive eater. However, as the days went by, it became much easier because my body stopped craving sweets and processed foods. For the first time in my life, I was never tempted to binge because I never felt deprived.

Use the list below and make whatever changes you need to make in order for it to work for you. FYI, my cholesterol level dropped 65 points after 7 weeks, and my triglycerides dropped 70 points!
Another benefit that I hadn't planned on was that after being an insomniac since my teen-age years, I now sleep like a baby every night!

MY LIST FOR WEIGHT LOSS SUCESS:

1. Avoid "white" Foods & Processed Foods.
These foods have no nutritional value and are "empty" calories. Sweets, anything made with white flour,and anything that comes in a package with a long list of ingredients.
Always read the food labels. Stay away from those long lists of ingredients. The longer the list, the more chemicals and additives are present. These are extremely toxic to your body.


2. Drink Lots of
Water. Water keeps your body's organs hydrated and flushes out unhealthy toxins. It helps to fill you up and reduces your urge to over-eat.


3. Eat a Healthy Breakfast.
Instead of coffee and donuts, try fruit, yogurt, grains like oatmeal or whole grain toast, and lean protein. NEVER skip breakfast. By eating a large, healthy meal when you get up in the morning, your metabolism will "rev up" and you will not be hungry by mid-morning. If you skip breakfast, your
body will go into starvation mode and store calories in your body as FAT, yes FAT! So do yourself a big favor and eat breakfast.


4. Reduce Your Stress Level.
So many of us live with too much
stress. Stress lowers your immune system, making it easier to get sick. It also makes us lethargic, tired, and depressed. There are a lot of simple things you can do and a lot of ways to feel better about yourself and your life. Take a long, hot bath, read a book, listen to music, get a massage. Do something nice for yourself. Giving yourself something to look forward to is a tremendous mental incentive.


5. Move!
Oh my gosh! There are so many ways to incorporate movement into your day, even at work. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Get up every hour and walk around your floor, your hallway or your desk. Park your car in the farthest space from where you need to be. Walk or bike to work. Skate, dance, golf, jump rope, clean house, play tag. The best exercise you can do is to walk. Try to take a walk every day! The more you move, the more your metabolism will be your friend. (I walk 3 miles every day whether it is raining, snowing or freezing.)


Reduce Wrinkles

There are many simple guidelines you can follow that will help your skin stay as healthy and wrinkle-free as possible. All of these suggestions are easy and can be started immediately.

*Stay out of the sun. Too much sun eventually does the same thing to your skin that it does to dried fruit: It shrivels it up. This is especially true today, as depletion of the earth's ozone layer allows more of the sun's harmful rays to reach your vulnerable skin. If you do go out in the sun, please use a good sunscreen.

*Avoid tanning booths: They produce the very same wrinkling rays as the sun.

*Do Not Scrunch: It's okay to occasionally make a funny face, but constantly furrowing your brow, squinting, or puckering your lips will, in time, create wrinkles or make those you already have worse. How do you know if you're scrunching? Wear a piece of cellophane tape over your forehead. Every time you furrow your brow, you'll feel the tape start to crinkle.

*Keep pillows away from your face. Sleep wrinkles are wrinkles that are caused by pressing your face into the pillow at night. If you're guilty of this habit, learn to sleep on your back instead, or experiment to find a position where your face is not pressing the pillow. You may see some of your smaller lines fade away.

*Don't be a yo-yo dieter: Gaining a lot of weight can stretch your skin. Then losing weight (especially if you're older and your skin is less elastic) can result in wrinkles because the skin will not completely retract to its original size.

*Exercise regularly: People who are generally in good shape seem to have healthier, more elastic skin than those who aren't. The elastic quality that allows the skin to spring back to its original shape after being stretched is significantly better in athletes and people who are active.

*Eat right: Vitamins and minerals are important to maintaining youthful skin. Among the most important are the B-complex vitamins (found in beef, chicken, eggs, whole wheat and enriched flour, and milk) and vitamins A and C (found in fresh fruit and vegetables). The best foods for healthy skin are green leafy vegetables, carrots, and fresh fruit.

*Don't smoke: Smoking, in addition to being bad for your general health, can result in premature wrinkling around your mouth due to all those years of puckering lips around cigarettes. Smoking also tends to decrease blood supply to the small blood vessels under your skin, which exacerbates wrinkling.

*Stick with something sobering on Saturday night: Party goers and others who hit the bottle too heavily may find that while alcohol drowns their sorrows, it also brings on wrinkles. Why? Because your face puffs up in the morning after you've had too much to drink. And that temporarily stretches the skin. This swelling and subsequent shrinking can create wrinkles.

*Use a moisturizer: If you have dry skin, the use of a moisturizing lotion can hide some of the smaller wrinkles that form on the surface. It is important to dampen the skin first before applying moisturizing cream. NOTE: The best natural moisturizer is water. Drink lots and lots of it. Water hydrates your skin from within.

*Deal with Wrinkles the Oriental Way: The way wrinkles are dealt with in oriental medicine is "from the inside out". Massage your face. Using your fingertips, your thumbs, and the palms of your hands, rub every part of your face and neck. Any kind of massage will help to maximize stimulation and circulation. It can also round out the facial muscles, whose symmetry is often lost in fixed or rigid expressions.

*Don't be fooled into buying "miracle" creams: False advertising about certain over-the-counter lotions has popped up everywhere. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

*Go easy on the suds: If anything, people in our society tend to over wash. Over washing can lead to dryness, which can create temporary wrinkling. Solution? Wash less and use only extra-mild soaps and rinse extremely well. Spend more time rinsing and less time washing.

*Use a humidifier: Keeping the air in your house moist is great for your skin and may prevent the smaller, temporary wrinkles that sometimes come with dry skin.

All of the above tips will help your skin look better and be healthier.

0 comments:

Post a Comment