Donna L Brogan.com » Health

Are Your Walls Closing In On You?

Donna Brogan — Tue, 11 May 2010 19:57:31 +0000

Do you ever feel like the world is closing in on you and you have no control over it? You have your dreams and goals, just like everyone else. You feel like you are doing things the way you have been taught, like you have to be smarter than you feel, but the walls just keep getting closer and closer anyway. Well, my friend you have fallen into the hole of depression.

Depression usually refers to feelings of a lack of interest in activities that a person used to enjoy, changes in their weight and sleep habits, feeling tired all of the time, feelings of worthlessness and guilt, difficulty concentrating and thoughts of death and suicide. If a person experiences a majority of these symptoms for longer than a two-week period, they may be diagnosed with major depression.

Although depression is often thought of as being in an extreme state of sadness, there is a vast difference between depression and sadness. Humans will experience sadness from time to time. It is a part of being human, a natural reaction to painful circumstances. Depression, however, is a physical illness. There are more symptoms involved than being in an unhappy mood with no logical reason for this unhappiness. A person having a loss of interest in daily activities consistently for at least two weeks or more, representing a change from the their normal mood is depression – not sadness. This loss will impair this person’s ability to function in their daily life.

Having your friends and family tell you to “snap out of it” only causes more frustration because one can no more “snap out of it” than the diabetic can make his pancreas produce more insulin. Sadness is a feeling that passes as a person comes to term with his troubles and a sad person continues to cope with living. Depression can linger for weeks, months or even years and the person may feel overwhelmed and hopeless, unable to cope – thus contemplating ending their life.

Depression is characterized by the presence of five or more of the following symptoms most of the day, nearly every day:

Feeling sad or empty, ready to cry at the drop of a hat
Lack of interest or pleasure in daily activities
Significant weight changes, decrease or increase in appetite
Insomnia or sleeping too much
Physical ailments due to emotional causes
Fatigue or loss of energy
Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
Diminished ability to think or concentrate, indecisiveness
Recurring thoughts of death
Thoughts of suicide without a specific plan
A suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide

Depression is caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. However, a variety of factors, including your genetic makeup, your environment, your physical condition and your psychological coping resources, work together to determine whether you will develop depression or not.

There are three basic molecules which are thought to play a role in mood regulation: norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. Norepinephrine has been thought to be the causative factor for depression. Serotonin has been found to be another factor which, over the past two decades, has taken center stage thanks to Prozac, which selectively acts on this molecule. Newer antidepressants like Effexor are actually targeted at both serotonin and norepinephrine. A third substance that may play a role in mood is dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with the reward that we get which causes us to continue participating in an activity. It is also associated with addiction and its production is stimulated by drugs such as cocaine, opiates and alcohol, which may explain why depressed persons choose to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol.

What is the effect of the stress hormone cortisol on serotonin levels and depression? Are cortisol and depression related? When the body is under stress, the adrenal gland increases secretion of a hormone called cortisol. Short-term, this hormone can help aid in survival, for example by mobilizing energy reserves. Long-term elevation of cortisol, however, can have detrimental effects.

It is known that in normal people the level of cortisol in the bloodstream peaks in the morning, then decreases as the day progresses. In depressed people, however, cortisol peaks earlier in the morning and does not level off or decrease in the afternoon or evening. Although the exact mechanism that causes depression is uncertain, clinical studies suggest that chronically elevations of cortisol may induce depression by somehow affecting central neurotransmission.

In many cases, depression actually is the result of habitual negative thoughts. When bad things happen, we begin chastising ourselves. We have thoughts such as: I’m no good, I’m a total failure or Nothing ever goes my way. Because our feelings follow what we are thinking, negative thoughts like these can send us spiraling down into depression.

This concept is the guiding principle behind cognitive therapy, a type of psychotherapy developed by psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck in the 1960s. If we think something often enough, we begin to believe it’s true and our feelings usually match what we are thinking about ourselves. So if we have negative thoughts all the time, we will feel negative. The solution is to learn a way of thinking more positive, thus feeling good instead.

Did you know that stress in your life can quite literally be expressed as pain and illness? When we hold in our emotions what will happen? If one of your body systems is weakened, this is where a stress-related illness is most likely to develop. If your weakest point physically is your neck, you’ll develop neck pains. Or back pain. Or ulcers. Or frequent colds and flu. Any illness that has physical symptoms, but has the mind and emotions as its origin, is called a psychosomatic illness. Although you may be told that it’s “all in your head”, these illnesses are quite real. The aches and pains are very real, but because your doctor is looking for an actual physical cause, they are very tricky to diagnose and treat. The key is to look for a source of stress in the person’s life that the person is not coping with. By treating the underlying stress and depression, it may be possible to heal the physical problems as well.

But how do you beat stress? The first step is learning to recognize when we are under extreme stress. Learn to recognize the signs of stress unique to you. Once you know how to recognize when you are stressed, the next step is to learn how to cope with that stress. One very important way to do this is: don’t hold in your feelings. You let off steam in a controlled way or you can let the stress find your weakest point to come exploding out. Controlled is safer and healthier for you. Some controlled ways include:

talking to someone you trust,
joining a support group,
relaxation techniques,
taking a break from the situation you’re in,
taking care of your health by eating right, exercising and not smoking,
being honest with those around you,
letting go of old grudges; doing something nice for others, or
just taking some time for yourself.

The list is endless. Just learn a healthy way to vent.

We have to be willing to let go of our expectations about what we must do. We have to be willing to let go of old guilts and shoulds that are guiding our behavior. We have to allow ourselves to just be human. It’s okay for men to cry and be emotional. It’s okay for women to let someone else have a turn with the household chores. It’s okay to fall short of your goals if you’re doing the best that you can. Some of our biggest stressors actually come from within ourselves!

Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow. Better yet, never put off ’til tomorrow what you can avoid altogether!

I don’t know who coined these phrases, but they must have been depressed. The symptoms that we face, such as fatigue and hopelessness, make it so easy to say to ourselves, “I’ll just put this off until tomorrow when I feel better”. Before we know it, that deadline is creeping up on us and we’re starting to panic. What’s the best way to deal with panic? Hide your head in the sand and hope it goes away! Not really, but procrastination is an easy habit to fall into and as the panic mounts, so does the depression. The more depressed we get, the more we avoid reality.

Why do we fall into the procrastination trap time after time? Because procrastination becomes a way of coping with the emotions and physical symptoms that accompany depression. It may bring some temporary relief, but the next day the cycle starts all over again. Check out the following types of procrastination.

Self Doubt – This type of person fears failure. They second-guess themselves and delay taking action.

Discomfort Dodging – This type of person avoids activities that will cause them distress, discomfort or anxiety. This is ironic because the act of dodging the activity itself doesn’t make it go away and causes even more tension and stress.

Guilt-Driven – This type of person feels guilty for not doing what needs to be done, but rather than do the task, continues to procrastinate in order to not face up to those feelings of guilt.

Habitual – This type of person has procrastinated so many times, it becomes ingrained into their mind. The person no longer thinks about why they do it, they feel it’s just a part of their life. It becomes an automatic response to say, “This is too hard”, “I’m too tired”, or “I don’t feel good”.

Once you recognize your style of procrastination, you can take steps to stop it. One of the most important things you can do for yourself is to get organized. Do whatever works for you. Break large projects up into smaller tasks. Next time you catch yourself saying, “I will do this later”, just do it! The feeling you get when you finish will be so much better than any relief you get from putting it off.

Does the thought of performing a certain task fill you with anxiety? When you feel this way breathe deeply and exhale. You will notice after each breath that your heart rate is actually slowing and you are feeling less tense. Now, do one of those tasks from the list you should have made and have been putting off, no matter how small that task. The very act of accomplishing something will ease your anxiety.

When you have accomplished a task, mark it out on your list with a pen. It gives you visual confirmation that you are getting somewhere and also gives you a psychological boost. Sometimes I feel as if I’m getting nothing done, but when I look over what’s marked out I see I’ve actually done quite a bit. I’m just constantly adding new tasks.

Remember, if something can go wrong, it will. Allow yourself more than adequate time to finish each task. If you do not need all the time you’ve allowed, you will be able to progress ahead of schedule. This will be a psychological boost to you also. Don’t panic if you get behind schedule. If you’ve allowed yourself extra time each day, you will simply shift everything forward until you catch up. The key is to leave yourself room to be flexible.

What if you really don’t have time to finish everything? Get creative. Request extensions on deadlines, get help from friends and relatives, delegate tasks to others, drop non-essential items from your list or just hire outside help. I haven’t found a situation yet that couldn’t be solved somehow once I let my expectations change about how it should be.

Be sure to schedule time for yourself after you have accomplished the things that you need to get done. Knowing that you have finished your tasks will also make it easier to relax and enjoy your leisure time.

Depression is a bad thing when you have it but if we work really hard – it can be defeated.

If you don’t like who you are and where you are, don’t worry about it because you’re not stuck either with who you are or where you are. You can grow. You can change. You can be more than you are.

Zig Ziglar

If you liked this post or have anything to say on the subject, I would appreciate hearing it. This has been a particular problem for me my whole life. Sometimes it seems hopeless but I know it can be handled. There are seldom, if ever, any hopeless situations, but there are many people who lose hope in the face of some situations.

Please, leave me a comment and let me know what you think on the subject. Have a great day.

Stress Symptoms Affecting Your Life?

Donna Brogan — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:28:36 +0000

Stress symptoms may be affecting your health, even though you are not aware of it. In your mind, that headache, forgetting things more often, or not being able to do the things today that you used to be able to do are not necessarily due to getting older or illness. Yes, stress symptoms can affect your body, your feelings, your thoughts and even your behavior. If you recognize these common stress symptoms, you MUST take steps to manage them.

Other potentially serious health problems can be to blame for these stress symptoms too. If you have taken steps to control this stress, but the symptoms still don’t go away, see your doctor right away.

Stress Management

Evaluating how you deal with stress is the first step in effective stress management.

No wonder you are stressed! You have more things to do everyday and not enough help. So what happens? When you get home you take it out on your family. You feel like crying all the time. You don’t know how you will get through the day. So how do you handle it? Some people can take things in stride. My husband is one of those people. Nothing seems to bother him. His favorite saying is “Let’s not rush into anything”. Others get anxious at the first sign of trouble. This is more like me. I am somewhat of a perfectionist and if things don’t seem to go just right I lose my cool. Other people may fall somewhere between these two ways of reacting to stress. That is because they feel more confident and prepared to handle things that may come up in those day-to-day events.

Here are some coping behaviors – which one are you?

Do you tense up? Muscle tension, upset stomach, shortness of breath, headache or other physical symptom.
Do you reach for something to eat? Even when you aren’t hungry?
Do you get impatient? Do you pace the floor, twitch nervously, have trouble concentrating or falling asleep at nigh?
Do you get angry? Stress may be the cause of a person having a short fuse, especially when you are under pressure. You may find yourself arguing with a friend or loved one, sometimes with very little provocation.
Are you reduced to tears?
Do you give up?
Do you have negative thoughts? You automatically expect the worst and magnify the negative aspects of a situation?
Have you started to smoke again, turned to alcohol or drugs?
Do you rely on a single coping technique? Crying, expressing your anger, exercising, confiding in someone – these are coping techniques.

Once you identify how you cope with stress symptoms, you can begin to think about alternative strategies. Changes won’t happen overnight but you can learn to deal with those stress symptoms.

Thanks for joining me on my journey through stress. I hope you have learned something from me and I would love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave any ideas of your own or your way of dealing with stress.

I would love to share with you – feel free to subscribe to my weekly newsletter or connect with my optin offer. Either way please comment, retweet and join my Google Friend Connect. Have a great day.

Are You Able To Control The Stress In Your Life

Donna Brogan — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:51:16 +0000

As promised here is Part IV of my 5-part series on stress. I hope you enjoy my post and will leave a comment with any other ideas or advice you may have. Thank you and enjoy your day.

Have you ever walked into the next room to get something, and then wondered what you came to get? Or maybe you have forgotten a certain word you use all the time - you can picture it in your head, but you just can’t think of it. Researchers and scientists are conducting studies that say this kind of memory loss, and even Alzheimer’s, is due to poor nutrition. Are you able to control the stress in your life, because this is so important to the health and well-being of your life.

As a person ages, a healthy level of antioxidants is essential to balance out the negative effects free radicals have on your body. Free radicals increase in the body by exposure to things like pollution, household chemicals, cigarette smoke, and pesticides. Stress is also a major cause of free radicals, along with having an infection, and even when we exercise.

Stress and overeating are very close to each other. When you are stressed you sometimes forget to eat or eat when you aren’t even hungry. You eat all the wrong things not thinking about the consequences or even caring for that matter.

Managing Stress

Stress comes in many forms and affects people of all ages. We can’t predict stress in people. It isn’t because you have a stressful job that you have stress in your workplace, just as a parent of one child may have more stress than a parent of more than one child. The degree of stress in our lives depends on individual things such as our physical health, the quality of our relationships, the number of commitments and responsibilities we have each day, the amount of other people’s dependence upon us, the amount of support and kind of support we receive from friends, family and co-workers. It is also determined by the number of changes in our lives or traumatic events that have recently occurred.

Stress isn’t always bad. In small doses, it can help you perform under pressure and motivate you to do your best. But when you’re constantly running in emergency mode, your mind and body pay the price, making it time to take action to bring your nervous system back into balance. Your body doesn’t know the difference between physical and mental threats. When you’re stressed out because of your busy schedule, an argument you had with a friend or spouse, a traffic jam, or overdue bills, your body reacts to that specific thing and tells you it is time to take action. Now!

What If We Don’t Take Care of Stress

Long-term exposure to stress can lead to serious health problems. Some of the things that may happen from not taking care of these symptoms are high blood pressure, susceptibility to flu or colds, the increase of heart attack or stroke, and definitely the speeding up of the aging process. If stress is not taken care of properly and as soon as possible, it can even lead to anxiety and depression.

Each of us needs to determine what causes stress for us and how we respond it. Start a journal and write down when something makes you feel down, how you reacted to it and what you did to deal with it. Keeping a stress journal can help you find out how much stress you can handle and then you can take steps to reduce it and handle it better.

Stress can be hard to deal with by yourself and it is okay to seek help if you need it. Talk with your doctor about what you are feeling and how it is affecting you. There are specialists that can help you find ways to know what is happening with your feelings. Those persons can also help you think about ways to reduce stress in your life. The important thing is to realize you have stress and deal with it as soon as you can.

If you liked this post I would love for you to retweet it or leave a comment and let me know what you think. Stay tuned for part 5 coming soon. Have a great day.

Everything Goes Better When You Smile

Donna Brogan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:07:30 +0000

Hi this is Donna Brogan back with you, as promised with Part III of my series on stress. I really hope you are receiving some meaningful help from these posts. Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know any ideas you may have.

What Stress Means to You

Stress is something that is in everyone’s day-to-day life. Dealing with it is the harder part of your day. You can reduce stress by taking your day one step at a time, not making too much of the things that happen. Relax, breathe deeply, smile – these are things that can make your problems seem less intense.

If not avoided, stress can lead to health risks and even mental illness. It can affect your relationships with family and friends and can even create a risk to yourself. It must be taken care of immediately. Thinking positive will reduce the risk of being stressed out. Worrying about things we can do nothing about is also a leading cause of stress.

Stress is preventable and manageable. It is the number one health problem for most people. Although stress itself is not a cause of death, the side effects from it can be. So many things cause stress in daily life. It can appear in the body in many ways and in many forms. Stress is brought on differently in every person and for some people it is a debilitating disease that can ruin an entire life.

Preventing Stress

Some of the reasons for stress can be work, family, a terrible or sudden loss of a loved one, an ended marriage or relationship or problems in health and diet. Stress can come from anything and take over a person’s life very quickly. It is important for people to learn to prevent stress in their life.

One way to do this is to follow a good diet. You need to make sure that you are filling your body with healthy foods that will support your mental and physical health. The more junk that you eat, the more weight you gain and the less energy you have. This will not only make you feel bad about yourself, the way you feel and look, but may cause a person to become depressed because of these feelings.

Having a good exercise program is another important factor in relieving stress. Exercise can make a person feel better, both about the way they look and feel about themselves. You will be burning calories and helping your body becomes stronger and healthier.

There are medications that can be prescribed by a doctor along with vitamins that can be used to help a person deal with the things in their lives that are keeping them from fulfilling their greatest potentials. These vitamins are going to help with the support of the mind and help people to maintain a better outlook.

One of the best things I can think of to take away those feelings of depression is a good motivational or personal development person. There are so many CD’s and books on the subject. Some really good authors are: Joel Osteen (my personal favorite), John C. Maxwell (great for personal growth), Stephen Covey, and so many more. Some very special people always ready to help with motivation and personal development are Katie Freiling, Eric Goldstein and Kary Rogney.

Most of all you need a great support system. This means that you should have the help that you are going to need from your friends and family. You will want to have someone to lean on when you are in need of that support. You will be able to manage your stress better and feel more confident in finding a way out of it. All of these things can make you believe in yourself and feel better about yourself. Soon you can be on your way to a new life

Therefore, as long as you try to keep a positive attitude and seek help (if you can’t handle the situation yourself) you should be able to sit back, and enjoy a stress-free lifestyle. Life can be so much fun, and enjoyable without stress. So take these few tips and create those dreams and learn how to follow them. Life can and will be good.

So thanks for being with me again and I will talk to you soon in Part IV. Remember, I won’t mind a bit if you decide to retweet this or leave a comment. I look forward to hearing what you think and having you share anything you can to help on this subject. Have a great day.

Why Are You Stressed – Home or Job?

Donna Brogan — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:32:31 +0000

I hope you enjoyed Part I of my 5 part series on stress. Here is Part II. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. I would love to know what stress you may be dealing with and how you handle it.

So many people have stress-related illnesses. How can anyone not have stress with all that goes on in the world today. We constantly are dealing with something, whether it be with our job, home or family member.

Worrying is one of the major causes of stress. It is hard not to worry. If you have noticed, that is the first thing a person will say to you – don’t worry. What do I say back? ” Easier said than done”.

People worry about their future a lot. We need to be focusing on the present, then there is no need for that worry. You also need to let go of the past and concentrate on the good things that are in your life now. Life is way too short to worry it away. You can’t enjoy life if you worry or stress over things every day.

A good way to reduce stress with your children is to do things together as much as possible. Fun things. This will keep not only you, but your children from having health issues in the future.

The best way to reduce stress for yourself is to go out with friends, have a good time, don’t think about things while your out and about. For awhile just relax. Get involved in some type of exercise, meditation, reading a good book. Anything that takes your mind off your troubles for awhile.

There are certain times in life where stress can’t be avoided. Having a loved one in the hospital, losing a family member, etc.. Those types of things are unforeseen, but you usually have other things going on that need your attention too, so concentrate on those things and it will seem like, for the moment, that the stress is not so bad.

Whether you have a job away from home or you work at home you will have stress on the job. Do the best you can at your own pace, things will get done. Don’t worry about what other employees think about you. Avoid conflict wherever and whenever possible. Focus on your job and let them focus on theirs. If you work with several other people, be nice and focus on the job at hand even though they may not have the best attitude. Handle the situation the best you can and let it go. No stress needs to be involved.

With the economy in the shape it is today, there are so many things to worry about. Finding a job, making ends meet, putting food on the table – just relax, laugh a lot and pray a lot. Things will be okay. Put on your positive face and think good thoughts. Things will turn around.

“Let’s fight for our happiness by following a program of cheerful and constructive thinking”

Dale Carnegie

So, let’s try setting some goals for ourselves. For one day try to be happy – happiness comes from within ourselves.

Think of only what today is not what you want it to be.

Start taking care of you – exercise, eat right, maybe even spoil yourself with a massage or soothing bath.

Try to learn something new and useful today – no matter how small this knowledge may be.

Help someone without letting anyone know about it.

Be extra nice today. Get dressed up, act courteously, praise only – no criticism today.

Live for today only, not worrying about the future.

Spend one-half hour for you, thinking about God and how he has created a good person who is capable of doing great things – that being YOU!

Finally, do not be afraid to be happy and to see the beauty around you, and to believe that those you love also love you.

ACT HAPPY AND YOU WILL FEEL HAPPY!

Again, if you liked this feel free to comment below. Any ideas you have will be greatly appreciated. Have a great and happy day.

Is The World After You Or Can You Handle It?

Donna Brogan — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:19:23 +0000

STRESS that is! Can you handle what comes your way or do you need to seek help? I would like to share a 5-part study of stress with you. I hope you will benefit from this series, either for yourself or maybe for a family member or friend. Please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think and how stress has affected you.

Exactly what is stress?

That is a very hard question to answer because there are so many kinds of stress and the entire body and mind can be affected in so many different ways.

Stress is usually considered the buildup of anxiety and pressures. There is only so much pressure that one person can handle and stress will occur when the person has had their fill of it. Now if you are a believer – this is where people will say “God won’t give you any more than you can handle”. Well, how many people really believe this when they are the one going through the stressful situation? I am here to tell you that I have personally been in this position and know, for a fact, that this is true. At the time I wasn’t so sure that I would get through the stressful problem but I did.

Stress is not necessarily a dangerous thing. It is only a problem when the person who is under a great deal of it can no longer function and is letting it get the best of them. It is very important that help be received immediately whether by counseling or medications.

Many people have stress because of their job. Some people bring their work worries and troubles home with them. This can mean that they are having a hard time dealing with pressure. They may start to have mood swings or be depressed a lot. Depression is one of the major symptoms of stress and can be a danger to the person themselves as well as hurting the people who are close to them.

Some people have too many problems at home. It may be a bad relationship with a partner or child. This can cause a person to lose sight of what they are doing, making them think they can’t manage one more thing in their lives – these people need to take time out for themselves and relax – even if it is just going for a short walk to get away from things. An example is:

I have a dear, dear father living with us. He is 86 and I have learned so many things from him in the years he has been with us. But he has been diagnosed with scoleosis and cannot walk or stand for long periods of time. This makes it hard for him to do even little things – without going into all the details – I just want to say this can be an added stress to daily life and when you have so many more things on your plate, well, let’s just say it can become very stressful. The hours in the day are gone before you know it because you have spent your day changing DVD’s, getting lunch, giving medications, etc. Believe me when I tell you this can be very stressful. Not that I would change things and send him to a nursing home, but I have learned to handle this stress and so can you.

It is very normal for people to have some form of stress. It is something that we all have had to deal with and we eventually get through it. However, there are some that cannot work past it and this can lead to more problems that may become very serious for them later down the road. This will include a person’s emotional and physical health.

When a person has too much stress, they must find help from a source that they can trust. This can be a professional, a spouse (if they are not the cause of the stress), or a very dear friend. It is important to get things under control as soon as possible so that the person will have a chance for a happy and healthy lifestyle. There are ways to control stress and to get away from those stress-related problems. But the first thing that must be done is to recognize when you are under too much stress and then get help immediately.

I hope this has given you some insight into how challenging stress can be and if you or someone you know has a problem, maybe it will allow you to understand how important it is to manage it as soon as possible. It usually does not just go away by itself and I really believe that there is no cure for stress, only a way of managing it.

If you have any other ideas or just want to share please comment below. I look forward to all comments. If you haven’t already would you please join my google friend connect so we may all stay in touch. I will be back with Part II soon.

Is Gastric Bypass Surgery Just A Way To Avoid Exercise?

Donna Brogan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:24:42 +0000

For people consumed with losing weight, surgery may seem like an easy option. Gastric bypass surgery has helped a number of people and has come to light in recent years due to a number of celebrities receiving this procedure. Although a gastric bypass surgery may seem like an easy way to shed unwanted pounds, it is actually a very serious weight loss method and is not for most people. You should only consider gastric bypass surgery if you are very significantly overweight and need to lose the weight for medical reasons rather than for cosmetic reasons.

Learning How To Maintain A Healthy Lifestyle

Donna Brogan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:08:05 +0000

Diet and Exercise

I can’t stress enough how important these two things are to live a happy and long life. If you want to see your children and grandchildren grow up, and be able to spend time with them in a productive way, you MUST learn to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Nutrition and physical activity combine for us to have healthy bodies. Exercise is going to give us fitness along with four major things:

flexibility
strength
muscle endurance
cardiovascular health.

Diet on its own is not going to be able to give you this. You need to have the physical part as well. One thing to remember is that a bad diet can affect the way that your fitness training goes even if you follow the best type of exercise plan that you can.

You need to put a healthy diet and a lot of exercise together to stay as healthy as you can. The average amount of exercise is 20 minutes per day at least three times a week. This will help to strengthen your cardiovascular health. 3500 calories must be used in a week by doing any sort of physical activity. This will benefit you and your heart as well. It is a good idea to speak to your doctor first to find out what exercise plan is going to be best for you and your body.

The energy nutrients that are stored, glucose and fatty acids, along with a few amino acids, enter into the bloodstream during exercise in order to provide you energy. This means that the body will respond to exercise by adjusting its fuel amounts.

There is also a way to use diet to control high blood pressure. Doctors are also finding out that exercise has a role in keeping blood pressure from ever increasing. By reducing sodium, creating weight loss, limiting alcohol use, sticking to a low fat diet, along with the increased amount of physical activity, a person can control their hypertension.

To build muscle in the body proteins are used. This is true when the body is at rest after exercise or any other type of physical activity. There is research that has shown that athletes will retain more protein and use more of it as fuel for their body.

The American Dietetic Association has said that one gram protein per kilogram of body weight is recommended for people that do not exercise at all. For athletes, the amounts are going to be higher. It should be considered that athletes also need more carbohydrates as well. If they do not take in enough carbs, their protein will be used up for fuel and there won’t be anything left for muscle building after exercise is done.

There is increasing evidence that weight bearing exercises such as walking, dancing, and running are very good for achieving good bone health. Swimming can also be included as a good exercise. These exercises alone cannot make your body healthy. You must have proper calcium and other vitamins and minerals. Diet can help keep your body working good and in the right mode for the rest of your life.

Family Dieting

It is true that it is hard to diet on your own. You can turn to things like exercise classes, support groups, and even a partner. Some like to go to special health clubs to get the help that they are looking for. But wait, you may be forgetting an important thing, you have your family there with you to lean on and get great support from.

Families will come together to work through just about anything. They can work through tragedies and successes, disappointments and happy moments, so why not involve them in the dieting process as well. Be sure to check with your doctor first before involving your family members in a group diet.

One of the best ways to get over temptation is to create a healthier environment. When you get the junk food out of your sight and out of the house, you will be able to feel better because it won’t be tempting you anymore. I am sure you have heard the expression “out of sight out of mind“.

Getting your whole family involved, will not only help YOU diet but will help everyone in the household get into shape and live a healthier life. At first, there may be some resistance to this idea. Just think about it, if everyone can pull together and get this moving in the right direction the benefit for everyone will be great. It can even pave the way for some great bonding within the whole family.

Finding diet and exercise activities that everyone can participate in can be a challenge, but it will be worth the time and effort. Cook together as a family and giving your children the special skills that they will need to make healthier choices for their diet will be so gratifying. You can learn to cook healthier and find the good tasting and nutritious recipes that are going to be easy to make and see that they can be fun as well.

There are different books and videos that are helpful towards children and available for learning about the food pyramid and other health concerns. These books and videos are also a great place for adults to start the learning experience. You can encourage your children to ask the doctor or the school nurses any questions that they may have. You can incorporate eating healthy in your child’s science project too.

Get outdoors and play some games. Choose your favorite sports and get down to business. This is fun for everyone and when the kids and the adults are having fun together as a family, everyone is growing together and getting healthier at the same time.

Family dieting can be fun and good for everyone’s health. Children that learn how healthy habits can help them from early on are less likely to make unhealthy choices in the future like smoking or drinking alcohol. Work together as a family in the battle of the bulge. EVERYONE WILL BENEFIT FROM THIS.

Dining Out

Dining out when you are on a diet is very stressful. This is especially true for people that love to eat. It may seem like torture and make a person not want to stay on their diet. There is no reason why you have to give up dining out all together. Remember that a diet is going to boost your health and some restaurants have a section for dieters. When you are going out to eat at a restaurant the menu may get you all worked up and could be a temptation. You need to relax and think about eating your favorite salad or soup before turning to eat the main entrée.

Sometimes you have to watch though what type of soup and salads you are eating. Some are rich in calories and can leave you feeling even hungrier than you were before. Choose a salad with lemon and always ask for the dressing on the side. This way you can control the portion. I like to dip a forkful of salad into the cup of dressing. This way you get plenty of taste but not so much dressing. Try soups too, like a broth or vegetable soup and ask for a cup instead of a bowl.

You can make your meal healthier by ordering a side salad instead of the fries that most likely come with the meal. You can also order low fat cheese when ordering a burger or better yet, no cheese.

The sauces for a lot of people are hard to resist. They are a large source of fat that you may not even notice. A good idea is to remember that the creamy sauces are worse and ask for these to be on the side if at all possible. This will help to not eat more sauce than you need for that particular dish.

Having quality control is very important. Restaurants will bring you a larger portion than what you need most of the time so you can always ask for a child’s portion. There is a saying in dieting, “always leave a little on your plate“. Get in the habit of doing this even at home.

You can also share your meals with your dining partner, or take the rest of the meal home for the next day. You do not have to go off your diet just because you are dining out. Keep it under control and you will have no problems dining out and can continue eating foods that are good for you, and tasty at the same time.

How to Get Picky Eaters to Eat Healthy Foods

When you have children, one of the biggest challenges is making sure that your child eats all of the food that he or she needs to grow into a healthy adult. Healthy eating is important from birth!

Get your children to help you in the kitchen. Children as young as three and four love to help with simple things like stirring and pouring, while older children can learn to crack eggs, measure ingredients, and teens can even help to cut vegetables and cook entire meals.

This is a good time to start teaching your child about nutrition and what is good and bad for them. Children love to eat foods that they have helped to cook. Make sure you let them know how proud of their accomplishments you are. Tell them how good it tastes (even if it isn’t the best thing you have tasted).

Another great way to get a child to eat healthy foods is to look for kid-friendly options. For example, if your child isn’t getting enough dairy foods, try low-fat string cheese. It is a healthy snack option that is also very fun to eat! Crackers come in kid-friendly shapes. Some cookbooks have great recipes for children to fix.

If you are extremely worried about your child getting enough of the proper nutrients he or she needs for daily life, you can find vitamin supplements to help your child’s diet. A number of brands makes vitamins that come in fun shapes and sizes so that you can convince your child to take them. There are drinks and other enriched foods you can give them in order to make sure they get all of the nutrients they need.

The bottom line is that you need to make sure that your child is staying safe and healthy, no matter how picky they may be. If your child refuses to eat a specific food, they may just simply not like that food, and you should provide another choice. NEVER force your child to eat a food they really do not like.

However, if your child is just refusing lots of foods, you must be firm about eating nutritious foods. This could lead to more serious eating habits in their teen years, such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating . We will talk more about these later.

Be sure to educate yourself about what your child really needs and talk to your pediatrician in order to find out the proportions and types of foods that your child should be eating.

Healthy Shopping

Healthy eating starts with one key activity – healthy shopping. When you head to the grocery store, it is easy to pick up lots of foods that are bad for our bodies without even realizing it. Shopping for a healthy diet can be difficult if you do not know how to do so, but with these tips, you should find it easier to do the next time you head to the grocery store.

1. Have a plan before you ever leave your house. Use the sales fliers to check out the great products that are on sale and take an inventory of your pantry and refrigerator to see what foods you need to purchase. Make a list of all the foods you’ll need and stick to that list. Allow yourself one or two compulsory buys, but otherwise stay to the ingredients you’ll need to cook healthy meals for the rest of the week. Before you leave, review your list and take out any unnecessary junk food.

2. Shop for a week at a time, or even longer if you have a large freezer. When you have to run to the grocery store every day, you are more likely to pick up junk food items every time you make a trip, and before you know it, your snack supply will be overflowing. You can shop for a week or two in advance by taking a day to plan meals for the week and packaging fresh product to be frozen.

When you’re shopping, it is also important to read the label. Try to avoid purchasing brand name items simply because they are brand name or purchasing store brand items simply because they are less expensive. Actually look at the product’s nutritional value and try to get the most nutrients for your money. When you eat higher quality foods, you’ll feel more full and, in turn, eat less, so this really is the best way to bargain shop.

If you are shopping just for yourself, you should also consider picking up a basket at the door instead of getting a shopping cart. If you have a small basket, you simply won’t have room for chocolate brownies and ice cream with your load of other foods, so you’ll pass them by.

3. Don’t forget to consider drinks into your healthy shopping plan. Most people don’t realize it, but sodas, punches, and beers can have many empty calories and are generally bad drink choices. Instead, look at the labels and choose diet drinks, water and sports drinks, or natural fruit juices.

With these tips, healthy eating and healthy shopping should be much easier!

Dear Diary

When you’re trying to lose weight, one of the smartest and easiest steps you can take is to keep a food diary. A food diary is just like what it sounds – a notebook in which you record your daily food intake. You can track a number of things in your food diary or you can keep it simple, but in either case, this is a great way in which to help yourself stick to a weight loss plan.

There are several types of information you can record in your food diary. First, consider just listing your daily menu. This will help you actually see what you eat on any given day and notice patterns of unhealthy eating that you never considered before. Some like to also record calories, protein, fiber, fat, and other nutrients. Portion size may be recorded as well. If you truly want to use a diary, you can also list the reasons you’re eating other than hunger, the cravings you experience, and your feelings about your diet on any given day. It’s your diary, so do what is right for you.

When you start a food diary, keep in mind that you don’t have to keep a traditional journal by the bed with a lock and key. You can use whatever kind of recording and writing tools you like best. For some people, the traditional journal or just a plain notebook works fine. You can also keep a food diary on your computer. Simply open up a word processing program and keep the icon on your desktop. Others like to use Excel or other data entry programs, because they use formulas which help when it comes to adding totals at the end of the day. You can keep your food diary on a laptop, phone or slip a notebook into your bag during the day – whatever works best for your lifestyle.

Remember to update your food diary every day and review it at the end of each week in order to track your progress. You may wish to note in your diary when you hit certain weight loss goals or when you gain weight in order to look for causes. You can show your diary to professionals to make sure that you are staying healthy as well. Food diaries work great for many people, so you should consider starting one today in order to lose the most weight possible.

Important Things You Should Know About Healthy Living

Donna Brogan — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:24:19 +0000

Do you know the important things you should know about healthy living, such as how to handle your food while preparing it, how to help your family enjoy certain foods, how to get your family involved in the every day style of healthy living? How about the pitfalls of dieting, certain diseases caused by dieting and very important dieting along with exercise? Well read on and find out all these things and much more.

Diet and Exercise

Nutrition and physical activity combine for us to have healthy bodies. Exercise is going to give us fitness along with four major things: flexibility, strength, muscle endurance, and cardiovascular health.

Diet on its own is not going to be able to give you this. You need to have the physical part as well. One thing to remember is that a bad diet can affect the way that your fitness training goes even if you follow the best type of exercise plan that you can.

Another idea is 3500 calories must be used in a week by doing any sort of physical activity. This will benefit you and your heart as well. It is a good idea to speak to your doctor first to find out what exercise plan is going to be best for you and your body.

There is also a way to use diet to control high blood pressure. Doctors are also finding out that exercise has a role in keeping blood pressure from ever increasing. By reducing sodium, weight loss, limited alcohol use, a low fat diet, along with the increased amount of physical activity, a person can control their hypertension.

The American Dietetic Association has said that one gram protein per kilogram of body weight is recommended for people that do not exercise at all. For the athletes, the amounts are going to be higher. It should be considered that athletes also need more carbohydrates as well. If they do not take in enough carbs, their protein will be used up for fuel and there will not be anything left for muscle building after exercise is done.

Family Dieting

Families will come together to work through just about anything. They can work through tragedies and successes. You should involve your family in the dieting process as well. Be sure to check with your doctor first before involving your family members in a group diet.

One of the best ways to get over temptation is to create a healthier environment. When you get the junk food out of your sight and out of the house, you will be able to feel better because it won’t be tempting you anymore. You have heard the expression “out of sight out of mind“.

Getting your whole family involved, will not only helpYOU diet but will help everyone in the house get into shape and live a healthy life. At first, there may be some resistance to this idea, but you can all pull together and get this moving in the right direction that will benefit everyone and even pave the way to have a bonding with the whole family.

Finding diet activities that everyone can participate in can be a challenge. However, it will be worth the time and effort.

Cook together as a family and give your children the special skill that they will need to make healthier choices for their diet. You can learn to cook healthier and find the good tasting and nutritious recipes that are going to be easy to make and fun as well.

You can also get the whole family involved in exercise. This is very important to do and helps parents bond with their children. Get outdoors and play some games. Choose your favorite sports and get down to business. This is fun for everyone and when the kids and the adults are having fun together as a family, everyone is growing together and getting healthier at the same time.

The last thing that you can do is learn about nutrition together. There are different books and videos that are helpful towards children and available for learning about the food pyramid and other health concerns.

These books and videos are also a great place for adults to start the learning experience. You can encourage your children to ask the doctor or the school nurses any questions that they may have. You can incorporate eating healthy in your child’s science project too.

Diabetics

When you have diabetes it does not mean that you have to eat bland food for the rest of your life. You do although need to learn what is going to be good for you as well as what is bad for you.

You need to create a healthy diet that will keep your life healthy and give you the nutrients that your body needs to keep heart disease away.

What is really bad for the diabetic is what would be bad for everyone else also. This would be a diet that is high in fat, salt, sugar and the over processed foods that you can find. These sorts of foods are often filled with poly-saturated fats or trans fat, which cannot be burned off through exercise will clog up the arteries.

Having diabetes can increase your chances of getting heart disease, stroke, and other heart problems that can lead to future complications.

This does not mean that you have to cut out the fat forever. Fats are healthy and necessary. It is very important if you have diabetes to know which fats and foods are good for you and which fats are harmful for you. Fats are found mostly in processed foods.

Due to the fact that they can help decrease the risk of sudden heart attack, omega³ fatty acids, found mostly in fish, are very good for diabetics. When you are working on your diet, you need to remember that you can still have some sugars and fats but in lower amounts.

It is important for diabetics to control their intake of carbohydrates because an excess of these turn to sugar in your body, thus affecting the body’s blood sugar levels. Diabetics can learn about how to count their carbs from nutritionists or many books that have been published on that subject.

When you are a diabetic it does not mean that you have to limit your diet to foods that have no taste. You can still have the foods that you want as long as you keep the portions under control.

It is about taking control so that you are not eating more than what your body can process. That is the diet that every person should follow to be healthy and happy .

Dining Out and Dieting

When you are going out to eat at a restaurant the menu may get you all worked up and could be a temptation. You need to relax and think about eating your favorite salad or soup before turning to eat the main entrée. Sometimes you have to watch though what type of soup and salads you are eating.

Some are rich in calories and can leave you feeling even hungrier than you were before. Try to take on things like a broth or vegetable soup. Choose a salad with lemon and always ask for the dressing on the side. More often than not, restaurants will give you more than just one serving size.

It is easy to have guilty pleasures with food when you are eating at a restaurant. Many of the restaurants will have options for those that are dieting but it can still be hard to pass up the tempting calories.

You can make your meal healthier with a few things. One example is to order a side salad instead of the fries that most likely come with the meal. You can also order low fat cheese when ordering a burger or better yet, no cheese.

The sauces for a lot of people are hard to resist. They are a large source of fat that you may not even notice. A good idea is to remember that the creamy sauces are worse for your diet.

Always ask for your dressings and sauces on the side. This will help to not eat more sauce or dressing than you need for that particular dish.

Having quality control is very important. Restaurants will bring you a larger portion than what you need most of the time so ask for a child’s portion. There is a saying in dieting, “always leave a little on your plate“. If you do this your dining out experience can become as safe as your home dinner experience.

How to Get Picky Eaters to Eat Healthy Foods

When you have children, one of the biggest challenges is making sure that your child eats all of the food that he or she needs to grow into a healthy adult. Healthy eating is important from birth!

If you have a child, then you also know that getting your young one to eat healthy foods is many times met with resistance. A child must be given the correct foods from the beginning and as with other teachings the child will grow up knowing the correct way to eat.

This is also a good time to start teaching your child about nutrition and what is good and bad for them. Children also love to eat foods that they have helped to cook. Make sure you let them know how proud of their accomplishments you are. Tell them how good it tastes (even if it isn’t the best thing you have tasted).

Another great way to get a child to eat healthy foods is to look for kid-friendly options. For example, if your child is not getting enough dairy foods, try low-fat string cheese. It is a healthy snack option that is also very fun to eat! Crackers come in kid-friendly shapes. Some cookbooks have great recipes for children to fix.

If you are extremely worried about your child getting enough of the proper nutrients he or she needs for daily life, you can find vitamin supplements to help your child’s diet. A number of brands makes vitamins that come in fun shapes and sizes so that you can convince your child to take them. There are also drinks and other enriched foods you can give to your child in order to make sure they get all of the nutrients they need.

However, if your child is just refusing lots of foods, you must be firm about eating nutritious foods. This could lead to more serious eating habits in their teen years, such anorexia, bulimia and binge eating ( as talked about below).

Be sure to educate yourself about what your child really needs and talk to your pediatrician in order to find out the proportions and types of foods that your child should be eating.

Could You Have A Disease Caused By Dieting?

Do you have a self esteem problem? Someone always putting you down, calling you names, telling you that you are fat? Would you really think that there could be diseases caused by dieting? That’s right, DIETING.

These illnesses are called eating disorders. There are three main types — anorexia, bulimia and binge eating. Approximately 2 million people in the United States suffer from one of these disorders. Eating disorders can affect both males and females, as well as people of any race, ethnicity, or age.

Most commonly, victims of eating disorders are teens. Many people die every year due to complications with eating disorders. If you or someone you know suffers from this problem, seek help IMMEDIATELY.

1. Anorexia - Anorexia occurs when someone is overly concerned with weight and simply refuses to eat. Someone suffering from this disease usually tries to hide it by discarding the food without anyone knowing, cutting the food into small pieces to make it look smaller, or lying about skipping entire meals.

Anorexia is dangerous because it does not allow a person to lose weight in a healthy way. Cutting fat out of a diet is fine, but not getting enough proteins, vitamins, minerals, water, and other nutrients can make your body lose muscle weight and weaken.

A person with anorexia will be more likely to participate in a grueling physical exercise in order to try to keep from gaining weight, which is their greatest fear. The excessive weight loss that anorexics usually have will cause hormonal disturbances, bad bone health and many other health problems in the future.

2. Bulimia – With this disease the patient has an overwhelming urge not to eat but won’t have the power to give up food. They will have repeated episodes of binging in a very short amount of time. The patients of bulimia are going to be very afraid of obesity and this will lead them to do self-induced vomiting in order to get the food out of their body.

Patients will also take laxatives, diuretics, do strict fasting, and dieting of any kind. Like bulimics, they will participate in hard physical exercises to prevent weight gain.

These are all going to be hard on the heart and kidney functions as well as the digestive system, throat and mouth and will be robbing the body of key nutrients needed to function correctly.

3. Binge Eating - This is a combination of anorexia and bulimia. A binge eater will, like a bulimic, not deprive themselves from food. In fact, someone who is a binge eater will eat enormous amounts of food in a single sitting, and often these foods are not high in nutritional value.

Instead of vomiting, a binge eater will then refuse to eat at all and exercise rigorously for a day or two, but then slip into a binge once again. This leads to major problems with weight.

The real reasons behind these disorders have not been found yet. Health experts believe that biological, nutritional and psychological causes combined will lead to these disorders.

Social and environmental causes like puberty, a death in the family or any other stress related reason could lead to these disorders also.

There can be no one effective treatment for these disorders. Medication may be used to help treat depression and there is counseling that can help as well.

Having the support of family is most important. All of these diseases are dangerous and life threatening to anyone. If you are or know someone that is suffering from any one of these disorders, help must be found IMMEDIATELY.

Healthy Shopping

1. Have a plan before you ever leave your house. Use the sales fliers to check out the great products that are on sale and take an inventory of your pantry and refrigerator to see what foods you need to purchase.

Make a list of all the foods you’ll need and stick to that list. Allow yourself one or two compulsory buys, but otherwise stay to the ingredients you’ll need to cook healthy meals for the rest of the week. Before you leave, review your list and take out any unnecessary junk food.

2. Shop for a week at a time, or even longer if you have a large freezer. When you have to run to the grocery store every day, you are more likely to pick up junk food items every time you make a trip, and before you know it, your snack supply will be overflowing. You can shop for a week or two in advance by taking a day to plan meals for the week and packaging fresh product to be frozen.

When you’re shopping, it is also important to read the label. Try to avoid purchasing brand name items simply because they are brand name or store brand items simply because they are less expensive.

Actually look at the product’s nutritional value and try to get the most nutrients for your money. When you eat higher quality foods, you’ll feel more full and, in turn, eat less, so this really is the best way to bargain shop.

3. Don’t forget to consider drinks into your healthy shopping plan. Most people don’t realize it, but sodas, punches, and beers can have many empty calories and are generally bad drink choices. Instead, look at the labels and choose diet drinks, water and sports drinks, or natural fruit juices.

With these tips, healthy eating—and shopping—should be much easier!

Food born Illnesses: Prevention for Healthy Eating

Eating healthy foods will help you to boost your immune system, but what if it’s the foods themselves making you sick? Foodborn illness can cause food poisoning and a variety of other more dangerous diseases, so they are a real threat to our bodies. Luckily, there are a number of things you can do to prevent foodborn illnesses. Following safety tips when handling, preparing, and storing food is very important.

First and foremost, you should be concerned with the temperature of your foods. When cooking meat, make sure to use a thermometer in order to be sure that your meat is at the proper inside temperature.

Some meats, like beef, can be served rare safely, but proper temperatures are crucial in order to kill any bacteria that may be growing on the meat. Burgers and other loaf meats that have been ground and formed into patties, you should not be eaten rare. The bacteria may be found on the inside of the meat as well as on the outside. You are at risk if you do not cook these meats for a long period of time to kill any bacteria.

After your food is cooked, you should continue to monitor temperature. Simply put, keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Hot foods should be kept at temperatures above 140° Fahrenheit, while cold foods should be kept at temperatures below 40° Fahrenheit. The range between that is where bacteria can grow. When letting food cool for refrigeration, place in the refrigerator after no more than two hours, and when thawing meals, do so in a bowl or pan in the refrigerator, rather than at room temperature.

Cross contamination is a huge culprit when you are concerned with preventing illness. Cross contamination is basically the moving of bacteria from one dish to another. This happens when you use dirty cutting boards, don’t wash your dishes properly, and use the same utensil for all of your foods. For example, if you use a knife to cut raw chicken and then use that same knife to cut your food after it has been cooked, some of the bacteria from the raw chicken has probably remained on the knife, which can make you very ill. Make sure that you are using a clean work space and clean tools whenever you cook.

Along with using a clean environment, you should make sure that you are washing your hands regularly. Every time you touch raw foods, you should use disinfecting hand soap and hot water to make sure that no bacteria remains on your hands. Making sure that your food is safe is one of the most important parts of healthy eating, so don’t overlook this step the next time you prepare a meal.

Hate Exercising? Some Workout Tips for You

If you’re anything like me, you wouldn’t consider exercising your favorite pastime. In fact, some people downright hate exercising. However, exercising is a crucial part of a healthy lifestyle, and without it you definitely will not be able to lose weight. There are certain tips, however, for learning to love exercising, even if you truly hate it.

First, try finding some exercises that you like to do. Of course, you should work out all of your body, but if you absolutely hate doing one kind of exercise, then look for another to take its place. You don’t have to do crunches to strengthen your core muscles. You don’t have to do lunges to work out your lower body. You don’t even have to run – you can replace it with cycling or swimming. Find the exercise you like to do and your workout will seem more enjoyable right away.

You can also find other activities you like to do and make them work for your body. For example, if you like working on your garden, try doing some exercising surrounding raking or mow your yard by hand. If you enjoy the winter weather, you can try ice skating or sledding with friends. No matter what you like to do, you can find ways to get some exercise. Thanks to the introduction of the Wii and games like Dance Revolution, you can even combine video games and exercise.

Another great tip to liking exercise is to find a training partner. When you work out together, you can help one another stay motivated, even if you don’t absolutely love exercising. With a partner, you can have fun as well, trying things like tennis or challenging one another to meet certain goals. Trainers can also provide this for you, as well as show you new and fun exercises to help you avoid getting bored or feeling overwhelmed at the gym.

Lastly, try taking some classes. Exercise classes are a great way to meet new people, learn new exercises, stay motivated, and above all, have fun. Most gyms offer low-cost or free exercise classes with membership or you can check out options at your local community center or YMCA.

Staying motivated if you hate exercising can be hard, but set goals and don’t quit. You need to exercise as well as diet if you really want to lose weight. Make exercise fun and it won’t seem like such a chore.

Dear Diary

When you’re trying to lose weight, one of the smartest and easiest steps you can take is to keep a food diary. A food diary is just like what it sounds – a notebook in which you record your daily food intake. You can track of a number of things in your food diary or you can keep it simple, but in either case, this is a great way in which to help yourself stick to a weight loss plan.

When you start a food diary, keep in mind that you don’t have to keep a traditional journal by the bed with a lock and key. You can use whatever kind of recording and writing tools you like best. For some people, the traditional journal or just a plain notebook works fine. You can also keep a food diary on your computer. Simply open up a word processing program and keep the icon on your desktop. Others like to use Excel or other data entry programs, which help quiet a lot when it comes to adding totals at the end of the day. Yu can keep your food diary on a laptop or palm pilot, or slip a notebook into your bag during the day—whatever works best for your lifestyle.

Remember to update your food diary every day and review it at the end of each week in order to track your progress. You may wish to note in your diary when you hit certain weight loss goals or when you gain weight. You need to do this in order to look for causes of certain eating habits. You can show your diary to professionals to make sure that you are staying healthy as well. Food diaries work great for many people, so you should consider starting one today in order to lose the most weight possible.

An Easy Way Out of Exercising? Gastric Bypass Surgery

For people consumed with losing weight, surgery may seem like an easy option. Gastric bypass surgery has helped a number of people and has come to light in recent years due to a number of celebrities receiving this procedure. Although gastric bypass surgery may seem like an easy way to shed unwanted pounds, it is actually a very serious weight loss method and is not for most people. You should only consider gastric bypass surgery if you are significantly overweight and need to lose the weight for medical reasons rather than for cosmetic reasons.

Gastric bypass, which is also known as stapling one’s stomach, works by decreasing the amount of food that can be held in the stomach. You lose weight because the food bypasses a part of the small intestine and decreases stomach size, which means that you physically can’t eat as much without vomiting. You also don’t absorb calories as readily, allowing these foods to leave the body naturally.

Before you choose gastric bypass surgery, you should consider all other options. First, try losing weight on your own using diet and exercise. This requires lots of will power, but is much easier and safer than gastric bypass surgery. You can also talk to your doctor about medications that could possibly help you lose weight and alternative therapy techniques, like acupuncture and hypnosis.

If you and your doctor do decide that gastric bypass surgery is right for you, start by losing some weight on your own. The more weight you can lose through diet and exercise, the easier the surgery will be on your body. You should follow all of your doctor’s recommendations at this point to ready yourself for surgery.

After the surgery, you will also need to continue diet control and exercise, complete physical therapy, and take any prescriptions your doctor tells you to take. The work you do after the surgery will help you to lose the weight you want to lose, and this work is not easy.

Gastric bypass surgery simply isn’t for everyone. Statistics show that as many as 10% of the people receiving gastric bypass surgery have medical complications, and even though these risks are decreasing with new technology, this is still a danger. Side effects could include infection, hernia, ulcers, blood clots, complications during the surgery, and even death. Make sure this is what you really need before you decide to go through with any type of procedure to help you lose weight.

More Germ Areas And The Most Germy Jobs

Donna Brogan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:31:13 +0000

In my previous post I gave information on many places we might not think of as being really bad areas for germs. This post will tell about more germ areas and the most germy jobs. Please read the following from a comment I received on my recent post – It is a great addition to my post:

September 17, 2009 by Oren Pardes:

While disinfection IS a highly recommended practice, many germs have become MORE of a problem due to our attempts to kill them. Those that survive “adapt” and become “stronger”. Rather than focus on reducing the number of germs, we need to increase our ability to resist them.

Germs (even in large numbers) are usually only a problem if our immune systems are weak. Getting the kinds and amount of food, water, sleep, exercise, sunlight, and other things that support and strengthen us is by far the most important action(s) we can take for staying healthy and protecting ourselves from getting sick.

Germs can also only infect and hurt us (and/or anyone else) if they can get into our bodies. Unfortunately, we often help them to do so – with what we touch with our hands (including ourselves). Putting our hands in our mouths is so common we probably don’t even realize it.

Here are three easy but important practices for staying healthy:

1. Cough and sneeze into a sleeve (or other fabric) rather than hands.

2. Wash the SIDES and TIP of EACH finger (and under the nails).

3. Clean faucet and door handles BEFORE washing hands OR use a paper towel to touch them AFTER washing hands. Otherwise hands are NOT clean.

Finally, the household object with the MOST germs is almost always the kitchen sponge used to clean dishes. Microwaving it on a regular basis is one way to reduce the chances of spreading germs by “cleaning”.

Thank you Oren.:-)

Now for a few more germ areas we probably do not think of :

Laundry Machines

Laundromats are hardly a place of cleanliness, but even laundry done at home is filled with germs. There is approximately 0.1 gram of fecal material in a piece of underwear, amounting to about 100 million E.Coli bacteria. Unfortunately, only a very small percent of people use really hot water to wash their clothes and then dry them for a full 45 minutes, which would kill more bacteria.

Detergent makers are now telling people that they can use their detergent in cold water. To minimize exposure to harmful bacteria, it is recommended doing laundry that requires bleach as your first load. This will disinfect the machine. Save undergarments as your last load. Do not use the same sorting tables for clean and dirty laundry since the E. coli bacteria will transfer to the table and then back to your clean clothes.

Gear Shift and Dashboard

In a recent British study, microbiologists randomly tested both the interiors and trunks of 25 cars. They found that 285 types of bacteria were present . They identified at least 10 different types of bacteria. Stick shifts, whtich harbor 356 germs per square inch, did the worst. American cars weren’t much better. The dashboard was one of the most germ-laden locations in a car because it is one of the warmest places and has ventilation on either side that can aerate spores and blow them out among passengers. The change holders, cup holders and children’s car sets were also hot spots for microorganisms.

The Most Germy Jobs

Teacher/Day Care Aide

Teachers had six times more germs in their workspace than accountants (the second place finisher) with cleaner desks but 5 1/2 times more germs on their phones , nearly twice as many germs on their computer mouse and nearly 27 times more germs on keyboards than other professionals that were studied. The dirtiest object in the classroom is the kid’s desk. They hand in papers to the teacher and during flu season also the flu germs. A teacher in Massachusetts trys to keep her students vigilant by encouraging them to eat well and cough and sneeze etiquette.

Bank Teller/Cashier/Desks

For bank tellers and cashiers, much of their jobs involve handling dirty pieces of money from all types of customers. Almost everyone knows how dirty money is but almost nobody really cleans or disinfects the desks until they start sticking to it. Workers who are at their desks a lot tend to eat there also, which increases bacteria.

Police Officer

The people that have more direct contact with people have a greater chance of getting a cold or the flu. A police officer deals with people who usually don’t have their best interest in mind and they have to enter environments that don’t have microbe safety in mind either

While public safety officers work their jobs with the safety of others in mind, they often need to watch out for needles and other potentially dangerous objects while in the line of duty. Now these officers should be wearing surgical gloves while they deal with these people.

Animal Control Officer

Farmers and agricultural workers, while working with animals, can be exposed to diseases. But animal control officers have a disadvantage because they deal with unruly animals. In addition to rabies, then can be exposed when called to clean up dead animals or animal waste. It is very important to clean up these messes because a variety of parasites can be contracted by children exposed to feces.

Of course, like germs in general, exposure to animals may not be all bad. Studies in Europe have shown that children who have grown up on farms are less likely to develop allergies, perhaps because of the greater number of bacteria that they were exposed to.

Janitor/Plumber/Sanitation Worker

As expected, janitors and plumbers encounter many peoples germs and are sometimes responsible for getting rid of them. Because of these they are at a much greater risk. Surfaces are responsible for a lot of the germs we pick up, and janitors and plumbers face no shortage of germy surfaces. If they have to work in a nursing home or hospital they need to take special care, at least wear disposable gloves.

In some professions, workers are surrounded by germs at all times. These workers should wear special clothing and it should be laundered separately and washed at high temperature with a bleach additive.

Meatpacker

When you bring meat home from the supermarket, you cook it and clean any surfaces it touched to avoid salmonella and E. coli. But what if, instead of few steaks, you were dealing with an entire carcass? This is what goes on in a meatpacking plant. And even though they wear protective clothing, it is not always enough.

Last December, a pork processing plant in Austin, Minnesota gained notoriety when 12 of its workers came down with a neurological illness that impaired their movement, in some cases leading to paralysis. Similar symptons cropped up among Indiana meatpackers in January. In February, The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention named the illness progressive inflammatory neuropathy. While the investigators didn’t know the exact cause, it appeared to be contact with pig brain tissue along with a compressed air system that was used to blow the tissue out of the pig’s heads. Even though federal legislation has been aimed at protecting these workers, thay have not always been successful.

In Conclusion

Germs live everywhere. You can find germs in the air, on food, plants and animals, in the soil, in the water, and on just about every other surface — including your own body.

Most germs won’t harm you. Your immune system protects you against a multitude of infectious agents. However, some germs are formidable adversaries because they’re constantly mutating to breach your immune system’s defenses. Knowing more about how germs work can increase your chances of avoiding infection.

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