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Healthcare Articles

The Weight Loss Plateau – What is it and How to Get Around It

If you listen to some experts you will find that there is a way that the body works where you get to a certain place in any weight loss plan and you are not able to lose any further weight. This is known as the weight loss plateau and can be a serious detriment to people trying to lose weight beyond a certain point. In this article I’m going to talk with you further about how to go beyond that weight loss plateau and lose that extra weight.
The human body is able to achieve just about anything, even things that are outside of the realm of things that science can understand. There is a willpower that athletes and highly trained individuals have which can take that person beyond an extreme point. This can even happen in the average person, for example, if they experience a severe accident of any type and are unable to walk. Those people are usually able to get to the point where they can walk again by going beyond what is normal. Many people look at these actual physical reactions to the body’s predicament as unfavorable. They consider the weight loss plateau as one of these situations, but it can be overcome.
In normal vocabulary a ‘plateau’ describes a situation where you cannot go beyond a certain point. In weight loss this plateau is a situation where your body is not able to lose further weight because you have reached the end, for the last tolerance that your body can achieve; for the method that you’re using to lose weight. Normally what happens is that your body adjusts its own metabolic rate to the situation that you have developed (using the weight loss, and/or exercise program that you’re working with). Many times you will find that diet plan will not even tell you about this plateau, because they don’t want you to know that you might get to that point. But there are ways that you can counteract your own body’s tolerance for the plan that you are working with to go beyond the plateau.
Your body and its metabolism likes to work within a pattern of natural adaptability. Your body likes to stay within that pattern, and when you change that pattern your body will adapt and try to maintain this new pattern that you present to it. So once you have followed a diet plan for some period of time, your body has adjusted to that, and eventually your body will fall into that pattern. Your body will not want to adapt or go further in achieving weight loss using that plan. So what you need to think about doing is tricking your metabolism, but without doing any harm to your body. What you will do is tell your metabolism that it’s time to follow a new pattern, so that you can lose further weight.
What are the best ways for tricking your body’s metabolism safely so that it will follow a new pattern and let you lose more weight? Here are some valuable ways that you can do that:
1. Adjust the time period between when you eat. As your body’s internal clock and digestive system gets changed, to follow this new eating pattern, it will again trick your body’s metabolism, allowing you to lose further weight in the diet or meal plan that you are working with. You can use anything such as changing the actual schedule of when you eat, or by adding more smaller meals. The main idea here is that your tricking the body into burning this food off faster because it’s happening at a different pace and you are then able to overcome the plateau.
2. Try adding strength training to your exercise program. As you are increasing the amount of exercise, the difficulty of exercise, or you are changing your exercise. These new movements are targeting different muscle areas which are causing your body to re-adapt to these new changes and your body will be busy adapting to those changes. It will lose track of the old pattern that it used to follow, allowing you it to switch to a new pattern, where more weight loss can begin. So changing up your exercise regimen: including strength training and/or adding strength training may do the trick.
Just keep in mind that one of these ideas might work for you and not for someone else, or that you may have to combine each of these two techniques to get beyond the plateau. Try one at a time to see if you can go beyond your plateau. If you cannot, then think about combining them. The most important point is to find a method that works for you; that works well, and consistently for your metabolism. Once you find …

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Healthy Nutrition

How to Care for Your Baby’s Hair

Caring for your baby’s hair is an important part of her regular grooming. However, it can sometimes be an arduous task since a lot of babies do not like having their hair washed, brushed and cut. Washing hair may be the most difficult of all since a baby tends to squirm, cry and move her head about when her head is washed.
Fortunately there’s a way for you to make the process a lot easier.
Washing your baby’s hair
• For younger babies, ask your doctor about the right bath products to use. You may also ask him or birthing center personnel to show you how to properly wash the hair.
• Use a wet washcloth with warm water to gently rub your baby.
• For older babies, you can use a mild, tear-free shampoo. But first, untangle the hair using a wide tooth comb to prevent further tangling her hair during bath time.
• If you are bathing in a big tub, cradle your baby’s head in one hand. Gently lather up with one hand while supporting her firmly with the other. If you are using a reclined baby tub, simply wet the hair and lather it up with tiny amount of shampoo. Rinse thoroughly until no lather appears when you rub your baby’s hair. Avoid drying your baby’s scalp by shampooing on two to three times a week.
Combing your baby’s hair
• For younger babies use a soft bristled brush since they generally do not have much hair yet.
• For older babies, you can use either a soft bristled brush or a small toothed comb, depending on the amount of hair your baby has. If she has fine, wispy hair, a brush will make her hair shiny. If she has long, thick hair, use the comb to remove tangles.
• Gently comb from roots to ends.
• If your baby has thick, curly or long hair, divide it into sections. Start with the part closest to the neck first then work your way in sections towards the top of your baby’s head.
Trimming your baby’s hair
• When your baby is old enough to have her hair trimmed, choose a time when she is in her best mood.
• Sit your baby on a high chair or booster seat. If you do not have a seat, ask your partner, relative or friend to hold your baby in his or her lap.
• Drape a cape or towel over your baby’s shoulders.
• Give her a toy or play movie to distract her during the process.
• Gently wet your baby’s hair.
• To trim her bangs, take section of hair between two fingers and run them down to the point where you would like to cut it. Your fingers are your guide in creating a straight cut across.
• The same step goes for cutting hair at the back and sides.
• Talk to your baby to gently encourage her during the hair cut.
Lastly, avoid pulling the hair into tight ponytails or braids as this can cause bald spots. Also never, use a hair dryer as this can damage your baby’s hair.…

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Health Department

Your Diet May Not Be Complete For a Long Time, But it Has Begun

Your diet may not be complete for a long time, but it has begun, and will continue. Your diet will succeed because you will succeed. Your will alone can make it work.
Good eating habits will not be established in a single effort. Not in one, two, or ten. Good eating habits will become habits only by your will and over the long term. Your new mantra is: Just for today I will…
Your new self will begin on a day like today. Are you ready? It will continue on days like tomorrow, as long as you remain sincerely committed to it, and to “the you” that is dormant, awaiting release. Be that person. Be the one that can do whatever she wants. You deserve it. Your future deserves it.
Everything you have ever known is past. Everything you have ever planned is past. Everything you have ever wanted is past. Everything you have ever done is past, good, bad, or indifferent. The past is gone. It is PAST.
Any plans you made, anything you knew, anything you ever wanted are all in the past. You cannot change it or alter it in any way. It is past. You do not have a need to be bound to the past, because you will never live there again.
You can only live NOW.
From now forward you can plan, want, know, and do, as a new person, not a past person. You have THIS moment. Everything else is past or future. You can make a new future this second and change it in the next second, because everything is either now, past or future, and future has not arrived. If you plan and it doesn’t get done, make a new plan. If you learn and it has no meaning, learn something else. Every instant is your current now. If you couldn’t lose weight in the past, you can in the now. If you just lost weight, then you did that in the past and can do it again in the now. As you go towards the future, which is every second of every day in front of you, you can take each now as a step toward that future.
Do you want to lose weight? Lose weight NOW, not tomorrow, not next month, not after Thanksgiving, not at swimsuit season, just now. Only lose weight now. Do not worry about when you did or didn’t lose weight. It is past. Do not worry about losing weight in the future. That, too, is not where you are. You are in the NOW, this very second. That is the only time slot you can work in. Anything else is past, or not here yet. You can’t change the past, and you can’t be sure of the future, so just fix the now.
It’s easy. Do you want a banana split? Great. Have it in the future, not right now. The same with extra fries, or supersize. It’s okay to have those, but not just now. In the future, yes, but not in the now. Right now, you will wait and have those later.…

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Health Store

The 5 Most Popular Weight Loss Ingredients You Must Know

To help you catch up on the growing trend of weight loss, I have compiled a list of the 5 most natural weight loss ingredients and nutrients that you must absolutely find in the ingredients list of your favorite diet pills.
Hoodia Gordonii
Although Hoodia Gordonii plant has only recently been recognized for its appetite suppression characteristics, this rare South African cactus has been used by the local San tribe for generations to reduce their hunger when traveling long distances in the hot desert. Scientists have recently studied the plant and located the active ingredient P57 responsible for such attribute. It has since then been marketed as a strong appetite suppressant in herbal natural weight loss supplements. Hoodia is one of the most potent weight loss ingredients.
Acai Berry
After recent research conducted on this Amazonian fruit, it has been found that this Brazilian fruit contains antioxidants, amino acids and essential healthy fats known as Omegas. It has since then been featured in many media networks, including the Oprah Show. Acai berry mainly acts as a powerful antioxidant as it cleanses the body from harmful toxins. It helps losing weight and feeling energetic as well.
Cayenne Pepper
Also known as Red Hot Chili Pepper, is a spicy vegetable used in cuisine and in natural treatments. Cayenne pepper also acts as a fat burner due to Capsaicin, a chemical compound which can burn more calories by boosting the metabolic rate of the body and naturally increasing its temperature. Capsicum is also known for many other health benefits including reduction in cholesterol level.
Green Tea Extract
It is a more potent form of green tea. Most commonly used in Chinese medicine, this plant has the ability to burn more fat by increasing metabolism. It is also rich in Vitamin C and Vitamin E. However, it is often mixed with a high quantity of caffeine in some herbal products, which makes it almost ineffective.
Resveratrol
Harvard University lately released a clinical study which shows that Resveratrol, a compound found in grapes has the ability to fight cancer, delay aging and facilitate fat loss. It is often believed that this compound, also found in red wine, confirms the French Paradox, which suggests that French people undergo less risks of heart diseases and live longer because of their indulgence in red wine. However, it must also be understood that, in order to benefit from Resveratrol, one has to drink more than 1000 bottles of red wine per day.…

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Department Of Health

The Futility of Anti-Obesity Campaigns: Unwelcome Facts About Reality

INTRODUCTION: Few lifestyle topics attract more words than nutrition and within the topic of nutrition, the obesity issue gets a lot of if not most of the attention. Whether the focus is weight loss, optimal health or some related nutritional issue, this seems to be the case.
Historically, nutritional advice and solutions offered for problem states have been more complex than need be. The science behind fundamentals of wise dining is clear. Key principles are neither mysterious nor uncertain. No additional rain forests should be sacrificed for more books (and dissertations) on optimal nutrition.
A sound understanding of wise dining invites an overview of foundation realities. These include unconventional explanations of why so many Americans are fat, what foods make the most difference for better and worse, the pace of body change, misplaced fears about terrorism and the downside of polite public service messages about obesity. Brief summaries on these matters will demonstrate the futility of obesity campaigns as not launched by public health authorities. This essay offers a few unwelcome facts about reality versus how obesity is currently addressed. These observations are based upon findings from multiple recent scientific findings, including a detailed long-term analysis of factors that influence weight gain conducted at Harvard University over the course of two decades. The Harvard research, known as the Nurses’ Health Study, involved 120,877 nurses, doctors, dentists and veterinarians who, at the start of the research period, were healthy, not obese or otherwise suffering from any known medical problems. Every two years, the study subjects completed detailed questionnaires about their weight, eating and other habits. The findings were published in June 2011 in The New England Journal of Medicine.
WHY THE UNPRECEDENTED OBESITY? While genetic inclinations may account for weight gain for some, other factors are usually more consequential. Americans who were lean and mean in their youth gain weight over the years little by little and bit by bit. This occurs for other than genetic reasons – influences that are largely social, economic and cultural. All these determinants are reflected in one key bottom-line fact – calories taken in are out of proportion to calories expended. Translated into simplest language, it comes down to this: Too much food and too little exercise is guaranteed to make you fat, eventually. “Eventually” usually sets in by middle age and gets worse after that.
If the obesity epidemic could be explained in a sentence, that sentence would be something like this: “We exercise way too little but the diets we favor constitute an even ‘weightier’ problem.”
FOODS FOR BETTER, FOODS FOR WORSE! Comprehensive studies done at Harvard University, referenced at the end of this commentary, suggest what most wellness promoters have advocated for decades, namely, that exercise and nutrition are the foundation variables for effective weight management. However, other factors affect both in dramatic ways, especially sleep, the company kept, alcohol intake and other lifestyle factors, particularly excessive TV and self-abuse. (“Self-abuse” means smoking, not masturbation.)
I was delighted to find that moderation in all things was shown NOT to be a good idea and the same can now be said, with supportive evidence to back it up, about dieting and other simplistic notions, such as counting calories and avoiding “fatty” foods. The guiding phrase that governs these issues always has been and remains “it depends.” Short, spiffy-sounding rules mean little out of context with other variables, which make a key difference concerning health and weight gain over time for better or worse. In medicine, there are no magic bullets – and the same applies to nutrition concerning weight management.
Some foods (e.g., potato chips, potatoes, sugar-sweetened beverages and red meats) are really, really bad. While the best course is to largely avoid the real stinkers, if your taste buds are undisciplined and you simply can not resist putting serious crap in your mouth, at least take remedial steps to mitigate the damage. Such steps include extra exercise in the days before and after such reckless indulgences, and loading up on the best foods (e.g., fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and yogurt) prior to and after going on a junk bender.
REALTY CREEPS UP, NEVER LEAPS ON, YOUR BODY. Fat does not happen overnight – or in a week or a month. However, it’s sneaking up on you if you are not active. By the time you realize its gaining, it has already settled in your stomach, thighs and ass – and it’s nearly too late to do much about it. Making a comeback to normal, or better yet, a fit and functional attractive body is a hard road. You can do it, others have done it but it’s just so much easier and more rational not to let reality sneak up on you in the first place. Reality, of course, is …

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Health Food

11 Reasons Why Weight Loss is Difficult For You

Some of the most common reasons why you can’t lose weight are cited hereunder:
1. You cannot calculate — even roughly — the calories you consume. You severely underestimate them:
– you eat bigger portions than what you are supposed to
– you eat a lot of snacks while ignoring their caloric contribution
– you ignore the caloric value of many cannot even imagine that a cookie might have about 200 calories so why not eat 5-10 of them after a workout of 300 cal?
– you consume a lot of liquid calories that escape your control. Things like: smoothies, refreshments, milk shakes, juices, glamorous coffees, energy and sport drinks, alcoholic beverages, cocoa milk etc, add many hidden calories.
2. You overestimate the calories burned via various people burn 300-400 cal. and then they consume 1000 cal to replace the lost glycogen. There are people who exercise every day but struggle with obesity on a continuous basis.
3. You do not know how to calculate your maintenance caloric often overestimate it.
4 You do not get adequate sleep. As a result your ghrelin and stress hormones are elevated and you feel more hungry.
5. You are under constant stress. As above, your stress hormones — cortisol, adrenaline etc — will reach high levels together with your feeling of hunger.
6. Maybe your metabolism is impaired due to hypothyroidism or other cause.
7. You cannot control emotional use the food to feed your emotions and not your body.Learn to distinguish between them.
8. If you take drugs like steroids or antihistaminic, it will be difficult to control your appetite.
9. If you avoid breakfast it will be a daunting task to lose weight. The same is valid when most of the calories are consumed later in the day.
10. When you eat few and big meals it’s more difficult to lose weight. Try instead to eat lighter meals more frequently.
11.Whatever you do you are not going to lose weight if you consume a lot of simple,processed carbs. Minimize their consumption and you will increase your odds a lot.
To your health!
Chris Strogilis…

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Healthy Nutrition

Losing Weight Whilst Eating Out

Losing weight tends to pose a considerable challenge to those of us who have a lifestyle which involves frequent visits to restaurants. Dining out has gone from being a rarity to almost becoming a twice weekly norm for a huge number of people. And when we are not eating out, we’re calling up for a take-away and serving up food which frequently tends to be greater in both fatty content and portion size.
Losing weight becomes more difficult when your lifestyle is such that you eat in this way. Restaurant portion sizes tend to be bigger. Not only that they tend to have more accompaniments, like warm bread rolls and butter, creamy sauces, appetizers and desserts, not to mention the alcohol which you are more likely to partake in as well. Thus there are three very big reasons why eating out makes it more difficult for you to lose weight:
Larger quantities = more calories
Fattier foods = more calories
Adding alcohol into the mix = more calories
You cannot get away from the fact that if you want to lose weight, you have to consume fewer calories or burn more of calories or do both. If you want to lose weight successfully you are therefore presented with a pretty straight forward choice; you could change your lifestyle and eat out less, and order less meals to take out too. Or you can learn new ways in which to deal with this matter of dining out.
Most restaurants these days give the dieter a really good helping hand. Many of them draw your attention to their healthier options, or are more than happy to lower the fat content or provide small portions. I have always said that if you eat out a lot it should in fact be easier to lose weight; all you have to do is to learn to ask for the amount and types of food which is good for you. You don’t have to buy the food or cook it. All you have to do is order your meal and eat it! Surely that should make losing weight a whole lot easier?
But this doesn’t seem to be the case. More and more people are putting on weight and even becoming obese. Losing weight seems to become more and more difficult. The problem is not a lack of availability of low calorie food options; the problem is more centered between the ears; if you are overweight and do not want to be, and yet you do not seem able to lose weight, there is often a conflict between what you want to do (eat all those fatty, delicious, sweet food items) and what you know you should do (say “no thank you”).
To lose weight successfully you have to get your mind around how you see food, how you think about food and how you feel about food. Successful weight loss comes from within. Your own mental attitude requires a certain amount of refocusing so that you can become that slender person who automatically orders the right thing in restaurants, and says “no thank you” to the second or third glass of wine or to the dessert waiter.
This is why weight loss hypnosis mp3s are so very effective in assisting people to successfully lose weight. Hypnosis provides access to your subconscious mind, the part which knows what to do and how to do it; the part which acts instinctively and automatically. Thus if you really want to lose weight, you can get your mind around your lifestyle and habits with the help of weight loss hypnosis mp3 downloads. Losing weight becomes so much easier for you with the help of hypnosis.…