Monday, 1 February 2016

Weight loss tips



Many doctors now believe that when it comes to your health, your waist measurement is important.

While knowing your body mass index (BMI) is a good way to decide if you're overweight, it doesn't tell the whole story.

BMI is a measure of how healthy your weight is for your height. You can work out what your BMI is by using our BMI healthy weight calculator.

If you have a high BMI, you're likely to be carrying extra fat. But your health could be at greater risk depending on where you store that fat.

Having a large amount of tummy fat (compared to fat around your bottom or thighs) makes you more likely to develop diabetes and heart problems.

A healthy waist circumference for men is less than 94cm (37 inches), and for women it’s less than 80cm (32 inches).

Losing weight and keeping it off isn’t easy, but it has many benefits. You may only need to make small changes to your lifestyle to maintain a healthy weight.

Why lose weight?

Obesity causes 9,000 premature deaths in England every year and reduces life expectancy by an average of nine years.

It's also linked to serious health problems and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancers of the breast, colon and prostate.

Most people who are overweight can blame their excess weight on eating more calories than they burn.

That means there are two main options if you want to lose weight: eat less or do more physical activity. The best way to lose weight is a combination of the two.

Weight loss tips

You can reduce your risk of obesity-related health problems by losing weight through eating more healthily and doing more physical activity.

There are many articles to help you attain a healthy weight in our lose weight section.

You can cut down on calories by making simple healthy food swaps in your everyday diet.  

It’s not just small changes to your eating habits that can make a big difference. Getting more physical activity also helps you shed the pounds. You can do it in just three short bursts each day with these ten-minute workouts.

Even if you're well on the way to your target weight, there'll be plenty of temptation to overindulge. See our tips on how to avoid the diet danger zones.

One excuse for choosing a quick, fat-laden supper is that healthy eating is expensive. Learn how to eat well on the cheap, saving the pennies as well as calories.

Two-thirds of dieters regain all the weight they've lost within four years. For advice on how to stop piling the pounds back on, read about how to lose weight for life.  


If you are worried about your health have a look at the Man MOT, a confidential online surgery where you can talk to a GP anonymously.




Sunday, 25 October 2015

Wednesday, 7 October 2015

Healthy Mind, Healthy Body

A healthy mind can lead you to a healthy body - and a much happier life.

“By changing our minds, we really can change our lives,” asserts Dr. Coral Arvon, Director of Behavioral Health and Wellness at the Pritikin Longevity Center in Miami.
Writes Dr. Barsky: “We ‘burn’ with anger, ‘tremble’ with fear, feel ‘choked up’ with sadness; our ‘stomachs turn’ with revulsion. Everyone tends to experience unpleasant emotions as unpleasant bodily symptoms and thus to feel physically distressed when emotionally distressed.”
That’s the bad news, teaches lifestyle experts like Dr. Coral Arvon, Director of Behavioral Health and Wellness at the Pritikin Longevity Center in Miami, Florida.
The good news is that we have the power to change negative thoughts and feelings into positive, rational, motivating thoughts, and in doing so, help create a healthy mind in a healthy body.
This transformation, which is part of emerging fields in psychology focused on mind-body health, is very important because it can greatly boost our chances of achieving what we want in life, including a fitter, healthier lifestyle.
“By changing our minds, we really can change our lives,” asserts Dr. Arvon.
The Healthy Mind and Body Connection
Mind-body medicine originated more than 4,000 years ago, when physicians in China noticed that illness often followed periods of frustration in their patients’ lives. Today in western societies like the U. S., medical professionals also share the view that emotions, life events, and coping skills can have a very strong influence on health.
Healthy mind-body medicine is now part of exciting new fields such as psychoneuroimmunology and behavorial cardiology.
Don’t let personal obstacles hold you back. At Pritikin, you'll clear a path to wellness and weight loss. Behavior Change Program.
Psychoneuroimmunology focuses on the relationship of our thoughts and emotions to our brain chemistry and immune system.
Behavioral cardiology is the application of psychological and social factors in the assessment and reduction of cardiovascular risk. It is an important field for a number of reasons, including reducing recurring heart attacks, helping patients recover sooner, and improving family support.
Chronic stress can make us fat – and sick
It is the long-term consequences of an anxiety-filled existence that are particularly troubling. Over time, chronic emotional and psychological stress can:
·         Promote fat storage
·         Retain salt in the body
·         Destroy the body’s resistance to cancer, infections, and illness
·         Cause infertility and sexual dysfunction
·         Exacerbate diabetes
·         Deposit cholesterol in blood vessels
·         Accelerate heart rate and increase blood pressure, and thicken blood so it clots more readily, which makes you more prone to suffering a heart attack or stroke

Calming the mind
To guide people toward healthier states of mind, emerging throughout America are major medical centers with wellness divisions offering stress management, relaxation training, guided imagery, and cognitive therapy techniques.

Mindful Eating                                   Binge Eating

Having a hard time losing weight?          Binge Eating Out of control?

Guests at Pritikin are also introduced to and practice many of these techniques. “Add them to healthy eating and exercising,” encourages Dr. Arvon, “and you maximize your control over your well-being.”
Stress Hardiness

Attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that are linked with a healthy mind and body
A key goal of mind-body techniques is achieving an overall approach to life known as stress hardiness. Stress hardiness is associated with four important personality traits that buffer the impact of stress and improve coping. These characteristics of the stress resistant or healthy personality are identified as:
·         Commitment
An attitude of curiosity and commitment to yourself, your loved ones, your work, and the world.
·         Control
The belief that you can respond effectively to situations that arise in your life, rather than feeling hopeless and incompetent.
·         Challenge
The ability to see change as exciting and an opportunity for growth rather than viewing it as frightening and fearing failure.
·         Connection
The enduring assurance that you are understood and validated by those you are closest to.
Other attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that are linked with good health include:
Social support
Social support, explains Pritikin psychologist Dr. Arvon, is protective against the effects of stress and has been found to be associated with longevity.
Emotional disclosure
By keeping a journal or speaking with others, emotional disclosure helps people cope with events. Also, people who use these strategies have lower blood pressure and report fewer health problems compared with people who don’t.
Humor
Humor has been demonstrated to have “stress-busting” qualities and reduces the body”s physiological response to stress.
Healthful Choices
Healthy behaviors, such as developing and maintaining the Pritikin nutrition and exercise program, are crucial for optimal health.
Healthy Mind-Body Education at the Pritikin Longevity Center
To maximize emotional well-being and the ability to make positive changes, Dr. Arvon guides guests at Pritikin through a five-seminar series, entitled:
·         Healthy Mind, Healthy Body
·         New Thoughts, New Behaviors
·         Taking Charge of Stress
·         Listening and Being Heard
·         Managing Your Moods

“The seminars help our guests develop the valuable skills needed to take charge of their emotional lives,” explains Dr. Arvon. “That’s so vital because a healthy mind can lead you to a healthy body – and a much happier life.”

Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Why Do We Fall - Motivational Video



What do you guys think of this? 31,518,736 Million Views in 2 Years.
The best time to exercise to lose weight

The Best Time to Exercise to Lose Weight

According to a recent study, the best time to work out may be right when you wake up. There is some evidence that working out on a completely empty stomach — or, as scientists call it, “in a fasted state” — prompts the body to burn more fat and potentially stave off weight gain, compared to exercising at other times.

Researchers in Belgium persuaded young, healthy men to stuff themselves for six weeks with a diet consisting of 30 percent more calories and 50 percent more fat than the men had been eating. Some of the volunteers remained sedentary while gorging. Others began a strenuous, midmorning exercise routine after they had breakfast. The third group followed the same workout regimen, but before they had eaten anything.

At the end of the six weeks, the sedentary group was predictably unhealthy, having gained about six pounds each.  The men who exercised after breakfast had also packed on pounds, about three pounds each, and developed insulin problems. But the men who had exercised first thing in the morning, before eating anything, had gained almost no weight and retained healthy insulin levels. Their bodies were also burning more fat throughout the day than were the other men.

Of course, the early-morning exercise prevented weight gain, which is not the same thing as inducing weight loss. But the results are encouraging for those who hope to shave off a few pounds, said Peter Hespel, a professor in the Research Center for Exercise and Health at Catholic University Leuven in Belgium and the study author.

“The optimal strategy to prevent increases in body weight is obviously to combine a healthy, well-balanced diet with a physically active lifestyle,” he said. But if you are cheating on the healthy and well-balanced diet part, “we demonstrated,” he said, “that early-morning exercise in the fasted state is more potent than an identical amount of exercise in the fed state” for maintaining healthy waistlines.

So set your alarm early tomorrow morning and do a FitStar session first thing to get the most out of your workout!
https://blog.fitbit.com/the-best-time-to-exercise-to-lose-weight/

Friday, 7 August 2015

The Amazing Truth About YOUR Fitness

By Veronique Belmar


The lives of People vary and likewise their Fitness Level. For example, for elderly persons being fit may simply be: staying strong enough to shop, cook, clean, and play the occasional game of bowling. World-class athletes, though, need to have structural exercise programmes. Why?  So that they will be able to cope with strenuous and physical demands of competitive events.

Personal Fitness tends to change throughout our lives. This Lack of Fitness can be due to: general health, weight, body type, stress levels, age, injury, how often WE Exercise, and disability. Remember that whatever your circumstances may be or have been; one can often improve their Level of Fitness. You can do so by simply doing more Exercise.

It has been well documented that people who Exercise Regularly Live Longer; than those who Live Sedentary Lives. Exercise may reduce the Risks and Severity of some potentially Life-threatening Illnesses.

Doing some exercise is better than not doing any at all. Please note that you do not need to spend all your Leisure Hours in a gym. Studies have shown that walking, climbing stairs, cycling, and other active Recreational Pursuits, help us stay Healthier and more Alert.

The Question is will YOU do some Exercise or ZERO Exercise? Will YOU Live a Sedentary or Active Life? If YOUR Health is Important to you, then, the Answer is Obvious.


Thursday, 9 July 2015

Life Saver: Your Liver, YOUR Health and YOU

By Veronique Belmar


Our Liver plays an important role in the Mechanical Digestion of Lipids; that is because it secretes Bile. What is the purpose of Bile? Bile breaks Large Fat Globules into smaller Droplets of Fat that are more easily broken down. Liver Cells have other functions, required for healthy survival. They play a vital role in the Metabolism of foods. For example, they help maintain a Normal Blood Glucose Concentration by carrying on Complex and Essential Chemical Reactions.

Further, Liver Cells carry on the First Steps of Protein and Fat Metabolism and synthesize several kinds of Protein Compounds. They release them into the Blood, where they are called the Blood Proteins or Plasma Proteins. Prothrombin and Fibrinogen, two of the Plasma Proteins formed by the Liver Cells, play essential parts in Blood Clotting.

In addition, Albumin, is another Protein made by the Liver Cells, helps maintain Normal Blood Volume. It is important to note here that Liver Cells, Detoxify various Poisonous Substances, such as Bacterial Products, and certain Drugs. Liver Cells Store several substances: Iron, and Vitamins A and D.

Did You Know that the Liver is assisted by an interesting structural feature of the Blood Vessels that supply it? The Hepatic Portal Vein Delivers Blood directly from the Gastrointestinal Tract to the Liver. This arrangement allows Blood that has just absorbed Nutrients and other Substances to be processed by the Liver before being distributed throughout the body. As a result excess Nutrients and Vitamins can be stored and Toxins can be removed from the Bloodstream.


WOW! Amazing Stuff, Don’t You Think?