Archive for July, 2009

Our nature has abundant herbs that has medicinal value and often is used in traditional or alternative healing. Many of herbs are used to cure some basic illnesses such as skin diseases, simple fever and even cough. There are also natural herbs used for weight loss and have been used by many who prefer natural products. Not just alternative or traditional medical practitioners but scientists in laboratory testing have tested these herbs.

The chemical content of certain herbs makes them a good and effective way to help reduce weight. There are studies which show that the herbs are good sources of raw materials and ingredients to make weight loss drugs that are fast becoming one of the obsessions of many people. The natural herbs used for weight loss have been developed to address the needs of those who want to avail of weight loss products that come from natural rather than synthetic sources. This is in response to concerns of many who have weight loss concerns whose body chemistry are not adaptable to unnatural medicines.

Also natural herbs used for weight loss is recommended to those who want to try products that do not have side effects. As you know, most of the synthetic products have the tendency to have side effects on users as compared to the natural and herbal products. Due to this, many people are more attracted to buy natural weight loss products and feel safe using the product. The products though they come from herbal sources still have to undergo the same process that ordinary weight loss products do.

Among the natural herbs used for weight loss, cascara, andelion, ephedra, glucomannan, guarana and guar gum are the most commonly used herbs today. Cascara is considered as a strong stimulant laxative and is used commonly as ingredient in various herbal weight loss products. Glucomannan is used as a weight-loss aid as it delays the absorption of glucose from the intestines. Guarana on the other hand is an effective stimulant of the central nervous system and used as a weight loss product because of its diuretic effects to the body.

There are also Chinese natural herbs used for weight loss such as penta, which has the ability to lower cholesterol level and break down its deposits on the vascular walls. The beauty behind natural products is that you are safe from side effects. However, you must beware of unqualified persons selling natural herbs and claiming medicinal or therapeutic effects to the body. You do not want to leave the natural wonders of nature in the hands of unqualified persons. It is important to order your herbal supplements from reputable sources.

Anthony Thedford has been writing information articles for years. For more information on weight loss, please visit our website http://www.infosearchlive.com/weightloss/Weight-Loss/Weight-Loss.php.

Tags: stimulant laxative, guar gum, herbal weight loss, natural herbs, herbal sources

I’d like to explain an important concept that most online trainers (even the “gurus”) don’t “get”…

Have you ever heard that ‘nutrition is common sense?’

Have you ever thought about why the United States has an epidemic of overweight individuals and kids that are out of shape? Or that most people talk about how in their younger days they were able to do this and that. Yet these people are only 30 years old?

Most people think nutrition is common sense. But these people are completely wrong.

You see, common sense isn’t specialized knowledge, but just native good judgment. Many times common sense is when it comes to many things in life are learned behaviors from parents, teachers, mentors or coaches. We get at lot of this common knowledge thru what we see as well. Driving on the right of left side of the road is common sense in your country. You get this from what you see.

The REAL four biggest problems when it comes to nutrition and common sense is that:

1- You learn what to eat from T.V. How crazy is that? I don’t think I’ve seen a good commercial about just eating right. It’s always about diets, points, fad diets, crazy workout stuff or fast food. Many kids get plenty of T.V. They don’t understand why sugar cereal isn’t part of a complete breakfast.

2- You learn what you see at home. If you were a witness to a lot of healthy eating habits (fruits, vegetables, moderate portions) then you probably got a lot of your good eating habits from your parents or guardians.

3- You learn to finish everything that’s put in front of you. Does it matter if your hunger was satisfied half-way thru the meal? Or have you been told it was rude not to eat everything. You start to learn that finishing what’s in front of you is more important then if you are hungry or not.

4- You learn nutrition at school. Some schools have good programs. Many do not. The only exposure most school children receive is the food pyramid. And then it’s off to lunch period where they are served fish sticks and a variety of other unhealthy items. Only a few schools have a very healthy lunch option. It’s pretty rare. You learn more about ancient Egyptians then you do about how to put together a healthy meal and what the heck is a complex carb.

This is an important concept — so let me break it down and explain it in detail.

Most things we learn are common sense. It’s common sense not to touch a hot stove. Why? Somebody told you or you tried it and your body responded by telling the pain receptors in your hand that it didn’t like that.

You learned the stove was hot and not fun to touch. Common sense. It didn’t require any specialized knowledge.

Then it hit me…

Neither should nutrition. It doesn’t require any specialized knowledge to eat correctly. But yet it’s not common sense.

The reason most people get it wrong is because they were never taught!

They received a lot of information from T.V. which was promoting diets and fast food and sugar cereals.

Their parents didn’t learn either so they passed that onto their children.

There’s a pressure to finish everything that is put in front of you (don’t be wasteful) ignoring the absence of the hunger feeling.

The lack of sound nutrition in most schools. You learn how to read in school. You learn how to write. You learn how to solve math problems. You learn history and you learn different cultures.

I’ll bet you can guess what happened next.

You never learn the definition of a complete meal.

You start by learning that right now…

A complete meal always includes a lean protein and a natural, complex carbohydrate. The best meal of all for muscle-building and fat-burning purposes contains three things:

1. Lean protein (chicken, fish, egg whites, etc)
2. Starchy carb (potato, rice, etc)
3. Fibrous carb (broccoli, green beans, salad, etc)

And that, is the biggest benefit of having a complete meal and understanding just how simple it is to create meals with these three steps.

So watch for your next issue of this mini-course, where I’ll reveal the single most important question about how much cardio should you do.

Yours For Continued Success

Tags: healthy eating habits, fruits vegetables, good eating habits, sugar cereal, fad diets

The hardest part of a low carb diet is trying to figure out what you can eat and what is forbidden. There are tons of foods that are high in carbs that you would be shocked to learn about. You are raised to assume that any fruit or vegetable is good to eat but this is not the case at all if you are on a low carb diet. Many of your favorite fruits and veggies will have to be cut down drastically if not out completely. Having a good low carb food list can make figuring out what is allowed much simpler for the whole family.

Processed meat is always a no-no. It is filled with gross fillers that are unhealthy for one and full of carbs for another. These kinds meats are actually cured with carbohydrates and sugars.

Here are some unprocessed meats that you should be incorporating into your low carb diet:

· Fowl:
§ chicken
§ turkey
§ duck
§ goose
§ Cornish hen
§ quail
§ pheasant

· Shellfish and seafood:
§ oysters
§ mussels
§ lobster
§ clams
§ squid
§ shrimp
§ crabmeat

· Other meat:
§ beef
§ bacon
§ veal
§ pork
§ ham
§ lamb
§ venison

· Fish:
§ Salmon
· trout
· flounder
· sardines
· herring

Dairy products need to be watched because they have carbs but you can eat about 3-4 ounces each day without ruining your diet completely.

Here are some acceptable cheeses:

· Cheddar
· Cow, sheep and goat cheese
· Cream cheese
· Gouda
· Mozzarella
· Roquefort and other Blue cheeses
· Swiss

You can eat the following veggies if you keep it at 2-3 cups each day. They have phytonutrients in them, which are very good for your body.

· Alfalfa sprouts
· Daikon
· Mushrooms
· Arugula
· Endive
· Parsley
· Bok Choy
· Escarole
· Peppers
· Celery
· Fennel
· Radicchio
· Chicory
· Jicama
· Radishes
· Chives
· Iceberg Lettuce
· Romaine Lettuce
· Green Leaf Lettuce
· Boston Lettuce
· Bibb Lettuce
· Cucumber
· Mâche
· Sorrel

And if your salad is less than 2 cups you can have another 1 cup per day of:

· Artichoke
· Celery Root
· Pumpkin
· Artichoke Hearts
· Rhubarb
· Asparagus
· Chard
· Sauerkraut
· Bamboo Shoots
· Collard Greens
· Scallions
· Dandelion
· Snow Peas
· Bean Sprouts
· Dandelion Greens
· Spaghetti Squash
· Summer Squash
· Beet Greens
· Eggplant
· Spinach
· Broccoli
· Hearts of Palm
· String or Wax Beans
· Broccoli Rabe
· Kale
· Brussell Sprouts
· Kohlrabi
· Tomato
· Leeks
· Turnips
· Cabbage
· Okra
· Water Chestnuts
· Cauliflower
· Onion
· Zucchini

When it comes to cooking with oil you should be using only cold pressed olive oil. And while butter is allowed margarine is not. Margarine is loaded with trans fats which are so bad for you it is scary.

Remember that when you are on a low card diet you need to eat fats to make up for the energy balance.

S. Stammberger is the editor of Lose
Weight Free Tips. Get great weight loss tips and information on pratical, effective weight loss tactics.

Tags: fruits and veggies, low carb diet, alfalfa sprouts, low carb food list, goat cheese

Lately I’ve been receiving a lot of spam emails. It’s amazing how many of them are promising quick weight loss without any effort! One of them even promised that their new ’super tonic’ was the new Fountain of Youth…..just take their product and watch the years fade away. If you’ll excuse the expression, that’s all just a bunch of baloney. The radio advertisements promise “weight loss without diet or exercise” and the infomercials brag about the newest and greatest pill that will magically make the fat melt away…..baloney!

I’d like to ask those advertisers just a few questions: If your “magic-weight-loss-potion-miracle-in-a-bottle” is the real deal, then why hasn’t the media picked up on the story? If your product is indeed the Fountain of Youth, why didn’t my doctor recommend it? Why isn’t it being featured on CNN and all the major news networks?

The reason why the media, and the entire world, isn’t going ga-ga over these new ‘miracle’ cures is that they’re not real miracle cures.

However, I do have some BIG NEWS for you! Against all odds, after careful research and years of painstaking effort, WE HAVE DISCOVERED THE REAL FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH!!!

The only real Fountain of Youth (at least, the closest thing we’ve found) is EXERCISE! There, now you’re in on the secret too! It turns out that our doctor was right, the Surgeon General was right, the American Medical Association was right, and your old coach was right too…..the best way to help keep the body young and healthy is through regular exercise!

The human body can fail in a staggering number of ways. Yet most problems develop gradually over months, years or decades. That leaves plenty of time for action. Doctors can help, but studies show that at least 70 percent of healthy aging depends on decisions each person makes about diet, exercise, smoking and other lifestyle choices (Source: St. Petersburg physician Timothy Carlson).

Did you catch that? Let’s read it again: At least 70 percent of healthy aging depends on decisions each person makes about diet, exercise, smoking and other lifestyle choices! Now that’s what I call the Fountain of Youth!

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people make poor decisions. “Only 18% of patients are at goal,” meaning that their body weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and so on are normal (Source: St. Petersburg physician Timothy Carlson).

Guess what? Regular exercise improves body weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and so much more! People who engage in regular exercise are much more likely to be in the 18% group…..the 18% who are at their goal.

So what are we waiting for? Let’s go exercise!

Until next time, we’ll see you at the Fountain of Youth…..oops, I mean we’ll see you at the gym!

Tracie Johanson is the founder of Pick Up The Pace, a 30-minute exercise studio for women, focusing on fitness, health and nutrition for maximum weight loss. Please visit http://www.letspickupthepace.com/ for more information.

Tags: lifestyle choices, miracle cures, radio advertisements, real miracle, american medical association

Every day, in newspapers, magazines, television, and online, we are exhorted to lose weight. Alarming statistics about our national overweight and obesity rates are regularly revisited and the dangers of carrying too many pounds are trumpeted by dietitians, nutritionists, medical specialists, and the weight loss gurus on their talk show tours.

They don’t have to keep trying to convince us that ideal weight is healthier; we know that. No one has to point out that life is more fun when our activities are not hampered by fifty pounds of excess fat; we know that. The joy of accepting that we look attractive and slim doesn’t have to be hammered into our brains; we know it already!

We know the problem. We try to solve it by starting one of the thousand of diets floating through the media. We shell out our money for supplements, pills, support meetings, and online weight clubs. We know what we need to do and desperately try to follow through.

None of us start a diet intending to fail. The money and time we spend is part of a genuine effort to lose, not merely throwing away excess funds to assuage our conscience. But why is the problem getting bigger all the time when millions of us are following the advise we’re being given?

Losing weight is terribly hard. Even more difficult is keeping it off. So we yo-yo our way through life, eagerly embracing every new program that comes along, believing the promises and testimonials we read, and waiting impatiently for the silver bullet we pray will appear.

After years of recurrent failure, we start to feel hopeless. Our dreams are repetitively battered on the rocks of dozens of unsuccessful diet attempts. We begin to wonder if all the effort is worthwhile. Before we throw in the towel and surrender ourselves to a lifetime of fat, let’s look at the process of weight control and see if it’s worth giving it one more shot.

“I want to lose forty five pounds.” A statement like that is usual at the start of a diet. We are willing to take whatever action is needed to get started on our quest. We may try a particular program or a pill or a general cutback in food intake. Whichever approach we take, we are focused on our need to lose forty five pounds.

The first week we lose three to five pounds and we are ecstatic, smiling down at our scale as if it were an ancient genie oozing out of its magical bottle. The second and third week, the loss continues although at a slower pace. We’re still happy and enthusiastic; it is all working as it should.

Somewhere around the fourth to eighth week, we hit the first major hump. We are following our program religiously, resisting the temptation to cheat even when alone, and keeping our eye firmly fixed on that forty five pound goal. One or two weeks go by and the weight loss stops. We tinker with our program, cut our intake to the bone, force ourselves to exercise. Nothing works – the scale mockingly reflects the same numbers we’ve been staring at for three weeks.

The weeks of deprivation, physical pangs, and unfulfilled emotional cravings appear to be worthless. A little voice starts babbling inside our head: what’s the point of the physical and mental pain if it’s not getting us where we want to go? Maybe it’s not the right time or the right diet. Maybe we’re destined to be overweight and nothing we do is going to change that. Maybe our body’s quirks will thwart any diet we try.

We’re on the skids, ready to fall off the straight and narrow. Feeling desperately sorry for ourselves, we allow one little treat to ease the disappointment. One treat leads to another, and another, and another.

Suddenly, we’re back where we started, with another two to three pounds to boot. Frustrated, angry, and overwhelmingly guilty, we look at ourselves in the mirror and bemoan our apparent destiny: to spend the rest of our lives fat.

What happened? We started out with such high hopes and strong motivation. We played by the rules but the rules didn’t work. We tried, terribly hard, but our bodies sabotaged our strongest efforts. We feel worse about ourselves than when we started. Is another try even worth it?

Yes! It’s always worth trying again if we really want to succeed. It is the sum of our efforts that counts if we are to reach our goal.

Remember that goal of losing forty five pounds? We still want to do it but we need to modify our mental approach. Let’s put everything into a new perspective. Let’s restate our goal as wanting to lose five pounds per month. That equates to sixty pounds per year – fifteen pounds beyond our original goal!

Once our goal has been reframed, it lifts the pressure of “I’ve got to keep losing” and reduces the burden to a mere five pounds per month, manageable by almost all of us. Depending upon the kind of person you are, you can dive right in, jump on the diet of your choosing, and lose five pounds the first ten days. Then you just have to maintain for three weeks until the first of the next month. If you’re a procrastinator as I usually am,don’t worry about anything until the 20th of the month. Then take stringent measures to make sure you attain that five pound loss before a new month dawns.

What typically happens is that you grow impatient with this rate of loss. You decide to keep going and lose more. If that happens, so much the better, but limit the mental pressure to that magical five pounds a month. If you end up losing six or eight pounds over the month, don’t fret if the scale needle starts to stick because you’ve already exceeded your goal by 20% to 60%! Celebrate your victory with an ego-building (non-edible) treat.

The reframing of your weight loss objectives in this fashion has unbelievable psychological rewards. You are no longer mentally beating up on yourself for not moving fast enough towards that forty five pound loss elephant, but are feeling so good about yourself for meeting, or even exceeding, that five pound goal that you feel like bubbling over.

And make no mistake about it, feeling good about yourself is absolutely critical in weight loss. We who constantly wage the battle of the bulge are famous for our poor self-image and diminished self-esteem. We hate every roll of fat that pokes over our too-tight waistbands. We wince when the mirror reflects flabby arms and saddlebag thighs. We suck in our tummies until we can no longer breathe, turn sideways, and are still uncomfortably aware that the image we project bears little resemblance to the image in our minds.

We need, desperately, to increase our self-respect and our sense of self-worth. We need to nurture our self-image and self-appreciation. We need to enjoy some continuing successes that can rebuild our battered egos and keep that constant guilt and self-reproach at bay.

Changing the syntax of your weight loss goals can lead not only to a more successful weight loss campaign, but can restore your self-belief and heal the psychological damage caused by too many diet failures over too many years.

Dr. Bola is a psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic, specializing in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. She is the author of a psychology-based workbook for permanent weight control. Reach her at: http://www.DietWithAnAttitude.com/index2.html

Tags: obesity rates, magazines television, recurrent failure, alarming statistics, overweight and obesity