Prevention of Obesity and How To Stay Motivated

Gaining weight? Make prevention of obesity your target! Get motivated now!

Obesity is now epidemic in the U.S. While there are some medical conditions which can cause uncontrolled weight gain, the vast majority of overweight and obese people simply eat too much, with poor food choices making up the majority of their diet. No one would say obesity is attractive, nor healthy. Prevention of obesity is really a straightforward proposition. If you’ll forgive the pun, prevention of obesity is truly worth many pounds of cure.

People of normal, stable weight may gain a few pounds over the holidays, partaking of all that holiday cheer. Cookies, fudge, delicious gravies and a few glasses of eggnog are all it takes to get you there. However, most people shed those pounds within a couple of months, once they return to normal eating habits. It all comes down to a reduction of calories.

Prevention of obesity should become your target when you find you’ve gained ten pounds or more and it doesn’t come off. An alarm should sound off in your head when weight starts creeping on and you seem unable to lose weight. Now is the time to take action! It’s far easier to lose ten or twenty pounds than a hundred!

Other signals that indicate a prevention program is necessary include finding that your clothes are too snug. Many people have sections in their closet, one their ‘fat’ clothes, with another for their ‘skinny’ clothes. Not only is this an unnecessary expense, but a psychological trick you’re playing on yourself. It goes something like this. “Well, I guess I just have to accept it – people do tend to gain weight as they get older. What’s one dress size anyway? I still look OK.”

The trouble with this attitude is that you’re putting yourself in denial. This means you’ll not be motivated to prevent obesity, because you don’t think it’s possible. You might make a token attempt to diet, but you won’t stick with the program. This is how that weight eventually balloons to an unmanageable problem.

So, the real core issue in the prevention of obesity begins in your mind. You must be motivated. Do you want to wait until the day when some little child in the grocery tells her Mom, “Look how fat that woman is!”? That’s when it’s useless to deny the fact. Prevention of obesity involves an early start.

If you need help in getting motivated, here are a few tips. Go online and calculate your BMI. Read up on the many health problems you may well face. Heart disease, poor circulation, diabetes and joint stress damage are just a few. Dig through old photo albums to find pictures of you when you were of normal weight. Tape that photo on the frig, at eye level, along with a picture of you now. Try on one of your ‘skinny’ clothes.

OK. Now you’ve got the motivation. You should first check with your doctor to be sure you don’t have a medical condition, like a thyroid imbalance. If that’s not the case, get ready to diet. Don’t cut yourself any slack. Remember, prevention of obesity is your goal.

Losing weight always boils down to calories. How do you know how many calories you normally eat? Keep a food journal for one week. Write down every last cracker and soda that passes your lips. Get a calorie counter book. Ask your doctor to help plan a diet that’s healthy and right for you.

Motivation is the key to prevention of obesity. With a radical dose of motivation, you’ll lose that extra weight for good!

Effective Osteoarthritis Treatments That Go Beyond Pain Medications

Effective osteoarthritis treatments that go beyond pain medications

There are millions of people who suffer from osteoarthritis. This condition is painful, most commonly affecting the joints. Unlike rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis is described as a simple case of wearing out of the joints over time. While rheumatoid arthritis patients may be treated with medications, there are no conventional pharmaceutical medications which can alleviate or halt the progression of osteoarthritis. While rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic and progressive disease, with severe and lifelong complications, there are pharmaceutical drugs that can halt the progress of this disease.

Osteoarthritis is perhaps as debilitating, over the long term. The bad news for the osteoarthritic patient is that medical science has no cure. The current osteoarthritis treatments are limited to the alleviation of pain. If you are diagnosed with osteoarthritis, the standard osteoarthritis treatment is to prescribe a pain medication. Who wants to live under such a standard?

If you have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis and prescribed a pain pill as your only recourse, think again. With a good nutritional strategy, you can reap huge benefits, reducing pain within the space of a single week, eventually reversing your osteoarthritis, and improving your overall health for good.

Before we look at osteoarthritis treatment in terms of nutrition, it should be noted that, if you’re overweight, try to lose those unwanted pounds! The excess weight just puts additional and unnecessary stress on vulnerable joints. Drinking plenty of water, those 6-8 glasses a day we all know about, is also important. The water helps flush accumulated toxins from your body.

One of the most effective osteoarthritis treatments, among nutritional considerations, relates to the proper balance of calcium to magnesium. The ratio of calcium to magnesium intake for healthy bones and joints is roughly 2:3. Americans have one of the highest rates of osteoarthritis in the world, with the average calcium to magnesium ratio an unhealthy 10:1! In these ratios, a certain hormone is triggered to remove old dead bone tissue, while its counterpart hormone, which is supposed to channel new nutrients to bones and joints, is suppressed. This results in a net loss of bone, leading to osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.

Given these facts, it’s not unreasonable to conclude that perhaps an underlying cause of these conditions is not, in fact, due to ‘wear and tear’ joint degeneration, but rather an overload of calcium and a deficiency of magnesium.

One way to address this condition is to reduce your calcium intake and take a magnesium supplement of 600mg per day. Several clinical studies have shown that magnesium supplementation at this dosage has resulted in increased bone density and significant reduction of pain in as little as nine months, even in quite elderly patients! You may experience reduced pain in just a week! Now that’s an osteoarthritis treatment we can all applaud!

Other supplemental nutrients of value as osteoarthritis treatments include the B-complex vitamins as well as vitamins A, C and E and the trace mineral zinc.

There are many conditions which reflect years of nutritional deficiencies. As we age, many nutrients are not as readily absorbed, so it’s important to monitor any deficiencies to see if supplementation is advisable. Speak to your doctor about having lab tests which can determine nutritional deficiencies.

The importance of a good diet cannot be stressed enough. Young people can get away with poor dietary habits – for a while. However, over a lifetime, the body ultimately suffers the effects. Who knows how many chronic illnesses are preventable?

Anxiety and Panic Attacks controlled with Good Nutrition

Nutritional strategies you can use to reduce anxiety and panic attacks

Anxiety and panic attacks are absolutely no fun! In fact, panic attacks can be a terrifying event. The sudden onset of heart palpitations, tightening of the chest, sweating or chills along with the sensation of not being able to swallow or breathe is the Granddaddy of stressing out. The person who suffers from anxiety and panic attacks often develops a cyclic pattern, feeling anxious most of the time and living in fear of their next panic attack.

Be sure to consult with your doctor to determine what medications and therapies may be helpful in managing your condition. While there are a number of factors that play into these disorders, including genetics, allergies and trauma-related events, there are plenty of dietary changes which may provide you with significant benefits in improving the degree of anxiety and reducing the number of panic attacks you suffer. You might be surprised at how much diet matters.

In some cases, food allergies have been discovered to be a major culprit implicated in triggering anxiety and panic attacks, so discuss this with your physician.

Try to eliminate processed and refined foods from your regular diet, including as much whole foods as possible. Processed foods include chemical additives that can exacerbate anxiety. Try switching to natural meats, that is, from animals that have not been fed growth hormones. Reduce your intake of sweets, as spikes in your blood sugar can lead to that racing sensation which is often a precursor to anxiety and the dreaded panic attacks. When you shop, check food labels for the inclusion of MSG. Many people are quite sensitive to this product, which can adversely affect your nervous system, resulting in a stressed out feeling and often, headaches. Reduce your salt intake and use a salt substitute or herbal ‘salt’. This is good medicine for your heart and helps keep your blood pressure in line. These basic changes in diet can produce substantial results.

Ask your doctor to check you for vitamin deficiencies. Deficiencies of certain nutrients can definitely aggravate your condition. Calcium and magnesium, in a balanced ratio, can play a major role in reducing both anxiety and panic attacks. Deficiencies in these nutrients can produce many of the symptoms you experience! The same is true for the B complex vitamins, which affect proper functioning of the nervous system, as well as a direct effect on your degree of stress and energy. Deficiencies in the B complex group can result in depression!

Not only does it matter what you eat, but how you eat. Anxious, stressed out people commonly eat too fast. Give your digestive system a break. Chew your food well and slow down. If you don’t chew your food well enough, you’re indirectly contributing to stress, because your body won’t be able to absorb all of the nutrients.

If you’re an avid coffee lover, try to confine yourself to just one or two cups a day. The caffeine can increase your susceptibility to both increased anxiety and panic attacks.

Try making these changes in your diet, work with your doctor to devise techniques that relieve stress and see if you don’t start feeling better soon.

Turkey Recipes for Thanksgiving Leftovers

The great thing about turkey is that it can be adapted to any kind of cuisine and there are lots of turkey recipes to use up leftovers after the Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays. Turkey can be a bit bland and dry, so it can be improved with spices and glazes. The important thing to remember is to cook the bird thoroughly, right into the cavity. Allow plenty time but don’t overdo it, those juices are needed for the flavor. Don’t forget to remove the giblets! Those innards don’t have to be thrown away however; they make a delicious stock for the gravy.

Plan ahead and think carefully about the size of bird you’ll need. It has been known for people to order a huge turkey and then find that it won’t fit into the oven! It’s not a good idea to keep re-heating poultry, so try to use up those leftovers in one go if possible.

Turkey needs the flavor bringing out and herbs are ideal for this. Sage, oregano or tarragon is ideal. Some people like to pep it up with some paprika. The stuffing is probably the best thing about turkey recipes and you can experiment and find what combination you prefer. There is the traditional sausage meat with sage and onion or chestnut. Fruit stuffings add a lot of moisture, with pear, cranberries or orange. All these can be mixed with garlic and lemon. Honey glazed turkey is very tasty and the sweetness of the honey combines well with vegetables such as sweet potatoes or parsnip.

You would have to be a mathematical genius to calculate the exact amount of meat needed over a festive holiday. Leftovers are inevitable and they offer tasty meals with a bit of imagination. Turkey recipes for curries can use up leftover vegetables too. Some cumin, chili and coriander will add some zest or you could use a Thai curry paste. Soup is another idea and there is no waste with this method. The carcass can be boiled for the stock. Add some chicken stock cubes and cook up some carrots, peas and barley with the meat.

Burgers are great for breakfast or lunch, made from ground turkey meat with peppers, onions and tomatoes. Add some Tabasco Sauce for a Cajun flavor.You can top them with grated cheese or caramelized onion and serve with pineapple rings or scrambled egg. A more healthy option is turkey salad with mixed green leaves, celery, sun dried tomatoes, chutney and mustard. You could accompany the salad with a homemade pizza with turkey sausage topping. Turkey recipes can use up whatever ingredients you have in the cupboard and you’ll look forward to the next big bird!

Joy And Happiness Comes From Good Health

There is nothing more important to your happiness factor than taking proper care of your body.

There is nothing better than a good night’s sleep to make you feel better. Well, maybe a perfect diet, proportioned in fat, carbohydrates, proteins and calories. Oh, I almost forgot the benefit of a good exercise program will do wonders for your health and well-being.

Taking care of your health is an integral part of taking care of your mental well-being. It’s hard to feel happy if you don’t get proper nutrition, sleep or exercise, no matter how hard you try to keep a positive attitude. If you don’t feel rested or fueled, happiness is going to be just beyond your reach.

Take time to get the rest you need. Go to bed earlier than usual, but don’t disturb your natural rhythm too much. Eat smaller meals, but more frequently, to keep your blood sugar levels regular. Eat fresh foods; lots of fresh fruit and vegetables will help keep your energy levels up, and make sure to include some proteins for long-term energy.

Exercise tells your brain to release “happy hormones,” called endorphins. Regular exercise that makes you breathe just a little bit hard helps you to burn fat and to get the added benefit of the endorphins that give you a burst of energy and a sense of well-being.

Take control of your own body as a way of making yourself happier. By making better food choices, getting plenty of quality rest and getting more exercise is a sure-fire way of increasing you “happy factor.”

Things You Can Do To Safeguard Your Kids Health

If you’re a parent, you worry about your kids health and well-being. You want your kids to grow up healthy and happy, but sometimes it seems like an uphill battle. Besides the colds, flus and other childhood illnesses, there are other issues that are ongoing. You hear about the epidemic proportions of childhood obesity in this country. Lack of adequate exercise combined with poor dietary habits, along with too many sodas and unhealthy snacks contributes. So what’s a parent to do? Here are a few tips that help you nurture kids health and take a load off your list of worries.

It’s never too early to start instilling healthy habits in your kids. Demonstrate by example. For snacks and beverages, choose fruit, yogurt, cheese and crackers, and juices. If a toddler gets used to receiving cookies, candy and sodas for between-meal fare, you’ll have a hard time changing these habits later.

Other kids health issues can crop up as a result of these sugar fests. For example, tooth decay can begin early. Youngsters as young as six can become overweight, causing a lifelong struggle with weight management. So when the kids start saying how mean you are to deprive them, buck up. It is truly for the benefit of the kids health.

To encourage a habit of exercise, again, set the example. Take your kids for walks, go to the park, zoo or anywhere that walking is part of the activity. Team sports are a fun and vigorous activity which promotes good circulation and muscle development. If kids get used to being active, they’ll want to continue to do so. Consistency ultimately wins.

Another good strategy is to teach kids about nutrition. Teach them about vitamins and minerals and what parts of the body they benefit. A little boy wants to be strong and agile. If he knows that protein builds muscle while fat simply adds fat to his body, he”s motivated to go for the protein. Pre-teens can be motivated to eat fruits and vegetables if they realize that the nutrients they contain will prevent a lot of pimples, whereas those tasty fries encourage excess oil in their skin and thus more pimples. Get a good nutrition guide and you can make your own home study course that’s age appropriate. Your kids will enjoy showing off what they know to their friends. Your home kids health nutrition class can be fun for the kids, help combat peer pressure and build your kid’s confidence in one fell swoop.

Your kids health depends on you, an awesome responsibility. If you consistently make exercise a part of every day’s normal activity, encourage good eating habits and discourage excessive sweets in a low-key way, your kids will reap the benefits. Teaching your kids why certain foods are good for different parts of their bodies goes a very long way towards making them willing adherents to your cause. Kids do always ask “Why?”, right? Here’s your chance.

Your Baby Eats Well If You Eat Well During Pregnancy

Pregnancy and Nutrition

You are besides yourself with joy as you see that your pregnancy test is positive. You find yourself already caressing your stomach in hopes that your little one can feel you. The next nine months are going to be an exciting time for you and your baby. You are going to have a human life grow inside of you. It truly is a miracle.

In order to help this miracle along, it is essential for you to eat as well as you can — in terms of nutrition — throughout most of your pregnancy. The first three months might be a little difficult to eat balanced meals when you are dealing with food aversions and morning sickness. If you are one of the few lucky ones whose stomach doesn’t so much as move during your first trimester, then you can take full advantage of eating healthy right out of the gate.

Making sure you eat balanced and nutritious meals is laying down the foundation for your baby. A diet of junk food is not going to help your baby with bone development and organ formation. Potato chips will not help with brain development. Your baby and your body need calcium and vitamins to achieve all of this.

Eating well during pregnancy is going to help your baby eat well after it is born and on solid foods. As your pregnancy progresses, some of what you eat will cross the placenta and the taste will be in your baby’s amniotic fluid. Babies swallow this fluid and their taste buds are developed enough that even in the womb they are able to taste the flavors. Doctors believe that babies who are exposed to a wide variety of fruit and vegetables while in the womb have less of a chance of being a fussy eater later in life. They believe that these are the babies who will eat their fruit and vegetables without putting up any fight.

Doctors also believe that moms who drink milk through out their pregnancy have an easier time weaning their babies from formula or breast milk to regular milk. This however is only one benefit, the other benefit of drinking milk throughout your pregnancy is all the calcium you will be giving your baby’s bones. Many doctors recommend that you drink at least one eight ounce glass of milk, usually fat-free, a day. Calcium is a must-have for your baby’s bones and his teeth, even though you won’t see their teeth for at least a few months.

This isn’t to say that you have to stay away from all sweets all the time. You can indulge every now and then and thanks to cravings you may find yourself wanting sweets more often than not. You do have to keep it in moderation. Being pregnant should not be looked at as an excuse to eat whatever you want for nine months. Both you and your baby could pay a dear price if you do, so eat well during your pregnancy and that your baby will eat well too.

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