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.)

How to Use Reflexology

10:27 AM    No comments

The art of healing with reflexology has been around for centuries. Reflexology is one of the many forms of alternative treatments that are successful with treating everyday stresses as well as life threatening diseases in a natural way. Reflexology is the art of using your feet to heal not only your pain and illnesses but your entire body as a whole.

Reflexology is a gentle and painless therapy that causes the body to return to its natural state. Once you have completed this type of therapy, you find that your body works more naturally and has reached its own healthy balance.

Reflexology is meant to work on pains such as: migraines, back pain, sleep disorders, arthritis, stress related conditions and sports injuries. This type of therapy is not one that claims to cure you, it claims to sooth and ease your pain. Reflexology can be, and in some cases should be, used along side of conventional medications. This does not create any unwanted side effects.

It does however increase the speed of your healing. This type of therapy can be used to relieve your pains as well as to maintain your healthy condition. Once you have successfully finished a session of reflexology you will find yourself wanting to continue even once your illness or pain is gone.

Once you have made the decision to give reflexology a try, it is important to find a reliable and qualified practitioner to trust your reflexology sessions with. Reflexology is growing in popularity, which makes the search for the perfect practitioner that much easier. The practitioner that you choose should have the appropriate qualifications as well as a personality and demeanor that you can feel comfortable with.

 If you do not personally like your practitioner it will make it difficult to trust this person with your reflexology sessions. Once your practitioner has been chosen, you need to take the opportunity to make your first appointment immediately.   

At your first session your practitioner will try their best to find out as much as they can about your present and past health conditions. This is the most important part of this type of therapy. Learning about the patient is vital before beginning a therapy such as reflexology. In this first session you will experience your first therapeutical session with your feet.

Each person responds differently. That is why it is so important to learn about the health history of each person. This background helps the practitioner decide on the preferred method of treatment. A treatment session can last up to an hour. Once your pain is pin-pointed, the practitioner will be able to use your feet to work your inner organs.

Following your first treatment, you will find that your body will react in many different ways. The way your body responds is important to report back to your practitioner. Most people after their first treatment feel completely relaxed and in a state of well being. 

Reflexology is growing every year in popularity. Its ability to perform such alternative healing with such power is evidence enough that reflexology is an effective way to maintain your health as well as achieve a healthy state.  

0 comments:

Post a Comment