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Health Facts

Losing Weight Safely Over Time

When it comes to weight loss there are a lot of products that claim to provide quick results with little to no effort on your part. These are the types of products that should be avoided if you are serious about losing your excess weight. The types of products that are most effective are the ones that take more time to help you take that weight off.
Losing weight over a short period of time makes you more prone to gaining that weight back after you have reached your targeted loss goal. The only safe and effective way to lose weight is to lose it over a longer period of time at a steady rate.
There are a couple of different products that help you lose weight within this safe period of time. These products are most generally prescription products that actually encourage eating. A healthy diet is an important part of making these products work to your favor.
One type of these products eliminates the majority of the fat from the foods you consume by quickly flushing it from your body. Because these types of products flush the fat out so quickly, they encourage a change of diet and a limit to the amount of fats in each meal. These products generally come with some type of food guide and recipes that have been tested for their fat content. The only problems reported for this type of product are related to a slip by the dieter in the recommended fat intake.…

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Health Facts

The Key to Natural African Hair Care – Moisturize, Moisturize, Moisturize!

The key to healthy Black hair and growth is moisture. I just recently changed my moisturizing regiment, because while I religiously moisturized my hair, it was still very dry. I found that although I was frequenting African hair care vlogs and blogs like Curly Nikki, I wasn’t truly paying attention to what contributors were writing about. I think because my hair had grown 5 inches in 6 months (when previously I hadn’t achieved any growth due to breakage) and I completely repaired the damaged sections of my hair, I thought my moisture regiment was on point. Boy was I wrong!
First, I would mixed around three tablespoons of coconut oil and one table spoon of olive oil together and heated it up in the microwave (not too hot). I would then wet my hair, soaked it with the hot oil and put on a heat cap for about 30 minutes. Next, I would co-wash (wash with conditioner) the oil out of my hair, spray in Hawaiian Silky leave-in conditioner and let my hair air dry. Once it was dry, I would moisturized my scalp with my Jojoba mix, which consists of 5 drops of Rosemary, 2 drops of Lavender to one tablespoon of Jojoba oil. I then separate my hair into 11 big sections, twist each section, put on a satin bonnet and I’m done.
With this regiment, I didn’t comb my hair much, once a month at best. I found that detangling with my fingers while co-washing worked just fine. Its common knowledge in the natural African hair care community that our hair isn’t supposed to be combed or brushed too much and not combing worked for me when I grew my hair out over the winter.
My hair would only remain supple for ONE day on this regiment. It would literally be dried out on the second day even after re-spritzing with the leave-in. I do co-wash two to three times a week, one because I can’t stand that frowsy hair smell and two, washing allows me to get some moisture. Although some may consider 3 co-washes a week a bit much for dry hair, its the only way I can get that suppleness back.
My hair had always been super, duper dry and I just thought I had to live with that fact and do whatever I could to keep it moist for as long as possible. After sticking with this treatment for eight months I realized there should be something I could do to stay moisturized, so I started researching again. I spent a couple of hours on Curly Nikki as opposed to just browsing for a few minutes and low and behold, I came across a post from a sista with baddest Afro I have ever seen in my life! One of the first things she wrote about was how dry her hair is and she went on to outline her moisture regiment.
When she co-washes, she uses around five different types of conditioner together and she doesn’t rinse it out! Further, if she feels her hair is getting a little dry between co-washes, she’ll spritz in more conditioner! I first thought that all of that conditioner would cause a lot of build-up and eventually be damaging, but the truth is everything the mainstream teaches us about natural African hair care is backward. We can basically do the opposite of what other people do with their hair, especially in the case of conditioning. After all, her hair is incredible! She’s maintained this regiment for the better part of six years and her hair is gorgeous, so all of that conditioning must be working!
As I researched on, I came across a post about sealing with oil. The post described how sealing locks in what ever type of moisturizer you are using and aids in keeping your hair moisturized. I’ve never sealed my hair. I figured since I hot oil treated my hair, oiled my scalp and used a very rich leave-in, I didn’t need to put in any more oil. However, it was still very dry between co-washes, even when I added more leave-in, so whatever I was doing wasn’t working and my hair was telling me it was time for something new.
So, when co-wash day rolled around, I dove right into this sista’s moisture regiment. I co-washed with Garnier Fruictis Triple Nutrition and Suave Almond and Shea conditioner. I repeated the co-wash three times and on the third time, I didn’t rinse it out. To seal it, I mixed Shea butter and coconut oil together until the consistency was a little thinner than normal Shea butter, but not too oily. After my hair dried, I coated it liberally with the mix, but I didn’t saturate it. I didn’t use the Jojoba oil mix …

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Health Facts

How to Add Volume to Your Hair

Hair that lacks volume is often referred to as fine, limp, flat or dull. This can be due to many different reasons: lack of moisture, improper diet, poorly chosen hair products, and a multitude of other reasons. To be able to add volume to your hair, one must follow a strict hair care regimen, use proper shampoos and conditioners, and consider making changes in diet. There are many at-home tips and remedies that can also help to add volume to your hair.

Hair Care Regimen

Wash your hair as needed: Washing daily is generally not recommended, but if you insist it is probably ok during colder weather when humidity is low. But when the weather warms up, you should wash it only 2-3 times each week. Also, warm water should be used instead of hot water, which tends to dry out the scalp.

Regular trims: Trimming the spit ends of your hair will make it appear thicker; therefore, a regular trim is necessary. Short, layered hairstyles help to create the illusion of volume and provide better manageability.

Use of Proper Shampoos

Use volumizing shampoos: These types of shampoos add moisture and fullness to the hair.

Use clarifying shampoos: To add volume to your hair, any build-up must be removed via a clarifying shampoo. This type of shampoo should be used twice and then rinsed out. This treatment should be completed every so often to prevent future build up in the hair

Dietary Changes

Consume foods that are protein rich, such as beans, fish, eggs and spinach, to contribute to healthy hair. Drinking between 8 and 10 glasses of water every day hydrates the hair as well as the scalp which removes excess oil that can cause hair to become flat.

At-Home Tips and Remedies

Vinegar rinse: Hair products or excess oil can build up in the hair. A vinegar rinse performs a deep cleansing and gives the hair life and body. The vinegar will strip the hair of any type of buildup, stimulate the scalp and encourage the hair to have more body.

Egg mask: Eggs contain a large amount of protein which helps to thicken strands. The mixture (2 to 4 eggs, A� tsp olive oil, A� tsp lemon juice) should be applied and massaged into the scalp and pulled through the hair, left on for 30 minutes, and rinsed out with cold water.

Baking soda: Baking soda attaches to oil and dirt to cleanse the hair and add body. Simply add 1 tablespoon to your shampoo, and massage it into the scalp. Rinse with warm water and shampoo your hair once again.

Proper use of a blow dryer: To quickly add volume to your hair, use your blow dryer on a cool setting. Slide your fingers in your hair and lift it up approximately 2 inches away from the roots. Pull the hair in the direction opposite of the way you want it to lay, and dry the underside of the hair. This should give it more volume and vibrancy when you release.…

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Health Facts

The Perfect Combination To Help You Lose Weight

So I have to exercise to lose weight? The real answer !
The only way to slim-down is to combine exercise with a nutritional program that works for you. It is best to eat foods that are protein-rich and combine them with natural vegetables that will help give you natural energy while maintaining muscle tone. So, any combination of protein and vegetables will work. The foods you must avoid are all sugars and starch. Now, if you must, only engage in eating brown sugar, brown rice, wheat pasta, and wheat only if you must.
You must combine healthy eating with an exercise program that works for you. Depending on your physical capabilities, you must choose the right exercise that will help you burn fat. The best way to lose weight and burn fat is to take in fewer calories than you burn while exercising. There are many different exercises to choose from and the key is to find the exercise combination that is right for you. For instance, you can combine a weight program with cardio. Personally, that is the combination that worked for me. At first, I started with more cardio than weights…probably 75%/25%. Then as I started to lose weight and reached my ideal weight, that ratio changed to 50%/50%. I now maintain myself with an even combination of weights and cardio coupled with healthy ‘s the only way folks!
Of course, there are many other exercises to choose from. Believe it or not, Yoga is one of the most fat-burning exercises you can it’s not just for women. The right combination for you will depend on what motivates you. It is O.K. to just walk as a form of exercising but you will not lose weight unless you burn more calories than you consume. That is the Secret. Find the right combination of exercise and nutrition that works for you. Remember, losing weight doesn’t happen overnight but if you lose just one pound a week, in a year, you could lose fifty pounds! Just find the right programs and commit to them.…

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Health Facts

Visualising Success and Achieving Your Goals

The law of attraction states that we attract into our lives anything that we give attention to, whether it is positive or negative. I can assure you, that when I look at every situation that has happened in my own life, both negative and positive, I have been involved someway or another. If I have wanted something to happen, I have worked hard to visualise it when I lay in bed before I go to sleep and more often than not, it eventually happens. Visualising Success is a great way to achieve your goals.
So when it comes to achieving your goals and dreams, creating a vision board is a wonderful way to turn your emotional and subconscious dreams into a reality.
A vision board is a visual representation of the things that you want to achieve in your life. You basically need a cork board or pin up board. On this board you should add pictures. Pictures of places you want to go, things you might wish to buy. You should write down your goals and dreams and place them on this board. The concept of the visualisation board is that you are surrounding yourself with images of the things you desire and the goals you hope to achieve.
You should position this board in a prominent place in your home. A place where you will see it every day and be reminded of what you want to achieve.
Start by sitting down quietly and writing down all the things you want to achieve, both short term and long term. We only want to place positive things on our vision board so do not include anything negative that may create self doubt. Once you have made your list, start searching through magazines for images that represent your dreams. Cut them out and place them on your board. Write down positive affirmations and also place these on your board.
For example, perhaps you want to lose weight. Write down a positive affirmation like” I will choose healthy food and nurture my body” “I deserve to be healthy and slim”. Then place an image of an outfit that you can see yourself in when you achieve your goal weight right next to your affirmation. Visualising your success and seeing yourself slimmer certainly encourages you to stay focused.
Maybe you have always wanted to go on a family holiday to an exotic location. Well, find an image that evokes an emotion associated with this holiday and place it on the board.
Being able to really visualise and feel your dreams coming true is what makes this process so powerful. This vision board is a reminder of all you can achieve if you replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts and a reminder to replace procrastination with positive action. Visualising success is a great way to achieve your goals. Create one today and embrace the positive effects this can have on your life.…

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Health Facts

Beat Headaches and Flu With the Power of Nutrition!

Nobody is perfect. No, not even you. We all suffer wear and tear, we are all slowly ground down by the inevitable friction that daily living exerts upon us. Constant aggravations, deadlines, stress, being yelled at by our boss as they pound the wall with their fist, pounding the wall with our own fist as we in turn yell at our interns. It’s brutal out there. And the toll is taken on our bodies, our minds, as evinced by such common and debilitating maladies as headaches, cold/flu symptoms, joint pan and general ennui and despondency. How to combat these minor ills? How to shore up the bulwarks against the depredations of the daily grind? You can actually make a real difference through what you eat. Avoid certain foods and focus on others, and you might find your day suddenly all that much better. Let’s take a look at a couple of the most common afflictions, shall we?
Let’s start with the worst, that nagging pain around your eyes or the dull heartbeat based throb in the back of your skull. HEADACHES. How can you ameliorate that pain? For one thing, try eating more OMEGA-3 fats, like flaxseed, walnuts, fish and soy. Also, try gobbling down some magnesium-rich foods like spinach, artichokes, broccoli, tomato juice, whole grains, green beans and cashews. Another good source of headache-relief are RIBOFLAVINS, a B vitamin that can reduce migraine frequency. You can get yours in the heart of spinach, broccoli (notice this one has already been mentioned twice now!), mushrooms, eggs, milk (sounds like an omelet recipe), clams and oysters. And for good measure, throw in a dose of black or green tea and apply peppermint oil to your temples. Voila!
Now, to avoid headaches, skip the following: red wine, aged cheese, smoked fish and figs (all of these contain TYRAMINE, an amino acid that causes the constriction of blood vessels to the brain). Avoid MSG (monosodium glutamate), or food that’s high in nitrates (hot dogs, salami, cured meats and fermented and pickled foods). Also! And finally! Avoid like the dickens anything sweetened with ASPARTAME. You see that on the label, just turn and run.
The other big pain in the patootie are FLU/COLD SYMPTOMS. Especially with all this swine flu going around, it pays to be careful and to eat right. What to do? The old tried and true still works: cook yourself a vegetable broth over a slow heat so as to leak all the nutrients out into the soup, and be sure to use garlic, leeks, onions, mushrooms and barley (good sources of allicin and beta-glucan). Then, kick it up a notch and increase your intake of zinc by chowing down on whole grains, chickens, beans, nuts, and shellfish. The old mainstay of VITAMIN C is always welcome, so eat red bell peppers, snow peas, tomato juice, kiwis, mangos, oranges, grapefruits, strawberries and butternut squash. ALL AT ONCE. Just kidding. Get some VITAMIN A while you’re at it (carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and beef liver). GLUTAMINE will also get your body humming happily, so find some milk, brown rice, beets, spinach, cabbage, eggs, soy, chicken or fish.…

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Health Facts

Tips And Advice For Coping With Diabetes

Commonly referred to by some as simply the “sugar,”? Diabetes can wreak havoc on lives, causing amputations, blindness, heart disease, and even death. If you have diabetes or simply want to know more about the subject, you can read the article below and learn some great tips from the experts.

Vinegar helps to keep blood sugar spikes at bay for diabetics who eat it during a meal. Some people actually recommend drinking it straight before you eat! I like to sprinkle it on a salad, or douse my vegetables in it. It’s also great for marinating meats! It’s extremely versatile.

Hospitals will often have Diabetes clinics for local patients to attend, and they will have great advice for you. They’ll give you tools to track your blood sugar, nutritional information for your diet plan, and even exercise tips. They can also be a great support group for you and will answer any questions that you might have.

A dip in blood sugar is NOT an excuse to raid your fridge for goodies. Pick up some glucose tablets or small candies and take ONE OR TWO until your blood sugar is back in line. Eating a slice of cake will just make your blood sugar skyrocket, leading to a need for medication and weight gain.

Allowing your blood glucose levels to reach dangerous lows may over time impair your ability to think clearly. In order to prevent this from happening to either yourself or a diabetic child, blood glucose levels should be monitored frequently. Your brain uses glucose for energy and nourishment, and depriving it of glucose can have a significant and long-lasting impact on it’s ability to process information and respond.

Pressure on your feet can cause major damage to a Diabetic, so be sure to buy shoes that are exactly the right size and have cushioning for your feet. There are even special shoes made for Diabetics that have specific features which are of benefit to sensitive feet like yours.

Healthier

If you want to eat healthier to help overcome your Diabetes, but you just can’t stomach fish without some pops of flavor on it, try capers! They’re like olives in their flavor, but smaller and zestier. You can sprinkle them on any type of fish, I like to also add some slices of Spanish onion, and they take the place of sauce.

You can make a sandwich into a lettuce wrap, or even use it on a burger as a bun, but have you thought of doing a hot dog wrap? If you buy preservative-free hot dogs for a once-a-month treat, wrap them in a piece of lettuce to make them a bit healthier!

Although diabetes can result in blindness and a loss of limbs and death, it never has to get to that point. As long as you’re following tips like the ones you’ve just read in the article above, you should be able to manage your sickness without complication. Always learn about different ways you can cope with diabetes.…