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Exercise and Health

July 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By Pedro E Checo -

How many times are you going to have to endure the constant barrage about exercise and how it helps every aspect of your health and well-being? Well, one more time – from me. Yes, I know you’re sick and tired of it, but if you do what you’ve been told to do, you WON’T be sick and tired all the time!

Benefits? Let me count the ways…

1. Lowers blood pressure

2. Decreases your blood sugar level-read risk of diabetes.

3. Decreases cholesterol levels.

4. Makes you look good, feel good.

5. Improves sleep, endurance, mental sharpness

Advances world peace… well, alright, maybe not but you get the picture. What a lot of folks don’t know is that regular exercise contributes to a lowering of your metabolic rate, which in turn continues caloric breakdown even if you’re NOT exercising! But before you reach those lofty heights, you have to start. What to do? Well, I’m glad you asked.

Actually, WHAT to do doesn’t matter. What is important is DOING whatever you decide is the best exercise for your needs. Whether it be racquetball, basketball, badminton… performing the exercise is, by far, the most important thing that you can do.

Granted, 1 hour of intense swimming followed by resistance training will get you more than 30 minutes of brisk walking. But for the purposes of good health maintenance and cardiac health, those

30 minutes you spend walking are more than enough.

Having a choice of exercise is good, but to be fair, you have to be cognizant of the different benefits each type will bring you. Aerobic exercise is your typical running/walking/jogging variety and anaerobic involves some sort of resistance training, i.e., weight lifting, calisthenics, etc. Ideally, a combination of both should be employed to give you the maximum benefits. As a bonus, consider that resistance training continues to burn calories several hours after you’re done! And no, ladies, you will NOT become “musclebound” if you decide this is something you’d like to try.

Now that we’ve decided that exercise is great and jogging is what calls to you, we have to decide how long and often to do this. Remember, baby steps at first. Don’t try to get in shape by next Thursday!

Rather, think of this a marathon instead of a sprint that you will be involved in for the rest of your natural days. Because of this it is imperative that you get checked out by your physician PRIOR to starting, especially if you have any existing medical issues like high blood pressure or if you’ve been a couch potato for a long time and you in the “middle-age” range. Once you get the green light, then go for it – slowly!

Remember, you get out what you put in. Although any exercise will give you tremendous benefits, the more intense and/or lengthy the endeavor, the more calorie burning/cardiac conditioning you will see. Example: walking at a brisk 4-5 miles an hour will net you about 400-450 calories/hr; swim for an hour and you’ll lose 600-650 calories/hr. Keep in mind that there are 3500 calories in each pound, so, again, don’t expect to see results tomorrow. But see results you will as long as you keep at it.

Lastly, please warm up and cool down appropriately. Do NOT stretch PRIOR to exercisecold muscles do not take well to this. Instead, do whatever you’re planning on at a much lighter intensity for 5 minutes or so to get the proverbial blood pumping. AFTER you’ve finished working out, THEN cool down with some total body stretches.

So, where’s the down side to all of this?…still thinking. That’s right, there really aren’t. So what are you waiting for? Go get healthy!

I’m Pedro E. Checo, MD, FACP board-certified in Internal Medicine with over 21 years of experience in the care of the Adult patients. We’re delighted you have chosen us for your Adult healthcare needs.

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When Low Self Esteem Leads to Intractable Obesity

May 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By Nick Arrizza, M.D. -

Obesity has become one of the of the more challenging of health conditions around the world. Although there are many approaches to dealing with it few, in my view, ever address its unconscious driving forces; poor self image and low self esteem. These two emotional factors initiate and perpetuate the tendency towards obesity.

They are also exacerbated by the condition thereby setting up a vicious negative spiral from which many find it impossible to extricate themselves. Doing so means having the courage to face the deeper emotional roots of poor self image and low self esteem and permanently release them from the unconscious mind and body. So what are these deeper emotional roots?

Well, this is akin to asking why anyone would ever have a poor self image or low self esteem. Many of you might think it’s because of all of those societal messages that subtly and not so subtly invalidate your inherent attractiveness as a human being. Well here you would only be partly correct. The problem actually began well before you were ever exposed to those messages.

You see, many individuals, carry negative memories from early life in the unconscious mind that they identify with and with which are associated negative messages about who and how attractive they are. These memories consist of traumatic events as seen through the eyes of a child that essentially leaves them feeling unwanted, unloved, neglected, bad, ignored, invalidated, defective, deficient, inadequate, useless, and ugly and so on.

Worst of all when an individual complacently accepts as truth and identifies with these internally stored messages they are left with no other option but to dislike who and what they are. Negative feelings of low self esteem, poor self image and low self worth become constant painful internal emotional threats that must be parried and pacified in order to feel comfortable, at ease and peaceful.

The need to keep these painful feelings at bay leads to the adoption of numerous strategies, i.e. often classified as addictions, all of which attempt to suppress, bury or distract one’s self from feeling and becoming incapacitated by the negative feelings. The individual who learns to use food as a pacifier at an early age may continue this compensatory approach to the internal pain eventually culminating in obesity.

This strategy which attempts to bury emotional discomfort also leads to a partial desensitization to the physical discomfort of the obese condition itself. The awareness of this discomfort which is supposed to act as a self regulatory mechanism then fails. Sadly the approach to coping with the emotional turmoil is also untenable because the emotions don’t go away they only go underground temporarily. What’s more they become accentuated by the emotional repercussion of being obese.

So the individual is faced with a growing onslaught of negative emotions as well as the health problems of the obesity that result. So what is the solution to breaking this cycle?

Well it becomes imperative to completely erase the original early unconsciously stored negative memories behaving as what I call “emotional landmines” and which drive the internal emotional turmoil. In other words one must permanently diffuse the negative emotional charge that emanates from these memories. The only way to do that is to completely eradicate the memories themselves. So what does that mean?

Well it effectively means one must effectively “erase the past” as it is stored in the person’s consciousness. Although there are many modalities that attempt to simply decrease the emotional charge of such negative memories it has been my experience that that alone will not yield permanent results. It’s much like the metaphor of the weed growing in the garden, unless one pulls it from the root it will simply re-grow.

Over 10 years ago while working as a psychiatrist I learned this sad fact and it completely changed my view of many of the “therapies” I had been employing until then. It also sprouted a powerful new insight as to how one could completely and permanently erase negative memories from the mind/body. This new insight evolved into a powerful new coaching modality that is able to challenge many of the beliefs we have about why the past cannot be erased.

It turns out that negative memories, while stored in a person’s mind/body tend to deplete them of what I call their Life Force Energy. This is experienced in many ways but one of note is a deep feeling of emptiness that individuals desperately need to fill in order to avoid feeling like they are going to fragment or disintegrate emotionally. Individuals with obesity simply happen to choose food as their solution to this inner feeling of emptiness.

Unfortunately the only thing that will fill it is their depleted Life Force Energy. It turns out that this process as it erases the offending negative memories from the mind/body it causes a spontaneous return of this vital energy to that mind/body. The individual experiences this as feelings of wholeness and completeness. In other words the driving force for all the over eating disappears thus breaking the cycle.

Now, I must give a simple word of caution here. This process, albeit simple and straightforward doesn’t happen all at once rather it is an evolutionary journey to wellbeing and happiness. This is because such individuals often have many negative memories of early life that must be erased. So in effect what is experienced is a progressive accumulation of self empowerment, self esteem, enhanced awareness and self control. As they begin to feel “filled in emotionally” their need to fill themselves with food externally disappears.

Nick Arrizza MD, a former Psychiatrist and Medical Doctor is an International Life, Executive, Organizational Tele-Coach, Author of Esteem For The Self: Restoring the Divine Holographic Energy Field With The Mind Resonance Process® (MRP) and the developer of the powerful Mind Resonance Process® (MRP).

A Free 1 Hour Introductory MRP Telephone Consultation is available upon request. (You will be asked to cover your own long distance telephone charges)

Email: drnick@telecoaching4u.com
Web Site: http://telecoaching4u.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Arrizza,_M.D.
http://EzineArticles.com/?When-Low-Self-Esteem-Leads-to-Intractable-Obesity&id=4727459

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Making Good Health Decisions

September 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

By Tim Frymyer -

I’m always amazed at how people will do just about everything except that one thing that will help them out the most. For example, when I was in school, people would develop these elaborate ways to cheat on exams instead of just studying. If they spent just half the time studying that they spent trying to come up with a full-proof way to cheat, they would passed rather easily. I find this true in the workplace as well.

Many times I hear employees complain about their boss or their administration. Why? Well probably because they’ve been asked to do more with less. As a result, many employees respond by doing less, just to make a point. Perhaps they find one little road bump in their day and decide that is the one event they’ll use to “stick it to the man“. However, if they would just buckle down and decide to be more efficient, they’d probably exceed their bosses expectations and come out of it with a raise or even a promotion.

The same concept is true in healthcare. How many times do you see people at a fast food restaurant, who are overweight/obese, and they’re getting the #5 Combo value meal, with a diet soda. Is that person really trying to lose weight? Is that person just trying to put on appearances? Maybe they just like the taste of diet soda over regular soda. Regardless of the reason, it speaks to my point. Why would they value size a combo meal and get a diet drink when they could have just had a healthier meal at home? Now I know there are a lot of extenuating circumstances as to why people do what they do, but this article is primarily addressed to those people who are trying to get something for nothing. In the end, they actually make their health and personal financial situation a lot worse off.

Okay then, what would be a prime example of this person? Since I am a respiratory therapist, let me bring you some of my personal experiences with patients.

1. One gentleman told me he drank Dr. Peppers because they were fairly cheap to buy. The local grocer had them on sale all the time. So he was being fiscal in his selection of a beverage, which I cannot argue with. However, he has difficult to control diabetes. Because of his economic selection on the soda, he was making another economic selection regarding his health. He routinely had to visit his physician for his out of control blood sugars, he was missing work, and his pharmacy bill was through the roof. Suddenly that little money he was saving at the grocer doesn’t look like much of a savings. Because his diabetes was so poorly controlled, he began to have a host of other symptoms that come along with it. These required additional trips to the doctor and pharmacy too.

2. Now lets look at a lady who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and complained everyday that she couldn’t get her work done like her peers did, but she felt she deserved a better raise, despite having the worst productivity in the office. Part of the reason she had such poor productivity was because she took 4-5 smoking breaks during her shift. Each break lasted about 20 minutes. That means she was trying to squeeze 8 hours of productivity into just over 6 hours. This meant she was always rushing around and giving sloppy work. So not only did she have poor productivity, but she was making a lot of errors in the process. Her response to management was that she needed those smoking breaks because the job was too stressful. I can see why, unfortunately, she couldn’t. This woman is at risk for losing her job because of her decision to buy cigarettes. She hadn’t quit yet, because she thought cigarettes were cheaper than the treatment to get her off cigarettes (which, of course, is not true). So instead of owning up to her limitations, she ends up making excuses.

3. Lastly, we see a man who was morbidly obese. He is 6 feet tall and weighs about 420 pounds (that’s my best guess). He is constantly taking work off because of his bad back and knees. I think we all know why he has these problems. After several cortisone injections he finally decided it was his weight that was causing his joint and back pain. He had a lap band surgery and lost about 150 pounds. We were all very proud of him in the office. He was making real headway. Then something happened. We noticed how his lunches were becoming bigger. Then we noticed him taking snack breaks during the day. Then we saw him go into the bathroom to “purge” himself of what he had just eaten. In no time at all, he was back up past his pre-surgical weight. Now he’s once again getting those injections and taking time off from work. He might as well taken several bags of money and threw them out the window.

What is my point in sharing these stories? Well, I guess I just wanted to peel the scab off a little and show everyone the ugly truth behind our decision making. We love to complain, we love to blame other people for our situations and we don’t like personal accountability. As a result, we are bankrupting the heathcare industry, depleting our personal accounts and teaching our children some rather distasteful and life threatening habits. Every personal health decision creates an economic impact, not only on ourselves, but on those we work and live with.

For example, if people quit smoking, we’d save the US health industry $193 billion per year. Think about that for a second, $193 billion – per year!

So think about what you can do to help yourself this year. Who should you turn to for help this time? What food decisions will you make? Will you finally stop smoking?

If smoking is your challenge and you need some stop smoking information, then we can help with that. Were you diagnosed with some disease like COPD or diabetes? If so, there is just a ton of information out there. Maybe you just need to visit your doctor and talk about your health decisions. After all, every life has a “lifestyle” – what’s yours like?

Tim Frymyer is a licensed respiratory therapist who is dedicated to keeping the public up to date on the latest stop smoking information.

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Improving Your Overweight Teen’s Self-Esteem

September 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

By Lynn Siprelle -

While there are many factors that go into a weight problem, self-esteem is one of the most complicated. Low self-esteem can lead to overeating and idle-inducing depression, which can lead to weight gain, which can lead to even lower self-esteem. It’s a vicious cycle. What can a parent do to help?

The most important thing you can do is to let your teen know what you DO like about him, and what he is doing well. Be generous, but always authentic, with your praise; teens have a sensitive “sincerity meter” and they can tell when you’re not being truthful.

Make sure your teen knows that her weight is not who she is. There is more to her than the numbers on the scale.

If she has always wanted to try a new activity but is waiting for the magical day when she’ll be “thin,” encourage her to go ahead and do it anyway. Don’t let your teen put off life waiting to lose weight; it’s counterproductive.

Teach your teen to use positive statements about himself, and to avoid negative ones. “I’m a good friend” is an example of a positive statement. “I’m so fat, everyone hates me” is an example of a negative statement. You would never talk to your teen like that; don’t let your teen talk to himself like that.

The absolute WORST thing you can do is to ridicule or shame your teen into losing weight. It doesn’t work. It makes things worse. We cannot emphasize this enough. All you are doing by using those tactics is destroying your relationship with your teen, and damaging your teen’s already-fragile self-esteem. All that does is feed into the vicious cycle we talked about above.

Instead of talking to her about fat or thin, encourage your teenager to focus on behaviors which will promote a much healthier weight. Talk to your family doctor, and he will help to set realistic goals for your teenager with regard to body mass index, and the weight they should be based on their age, height and general health.

Being overweight does not always lead to a lifetime of low self esteem, but your acceptance of your teen’s weight problem is critical.

An excerpt from Teen Weight Loss [http://www.thenewhomemaker.com/teenweightloss], an ebook on helping your teenager lose weight.

Lynn Siprelle is the editor of The New Homemaker (http://www.thenewhomemaker.com)–a secular source of news and support for stay-at-home parents and caregivers since 1999. The New Homemaker covers parenting, homeschooling, elder care, managing money, home cooking, healthy living, crafts and more, and hosts one of the most caring, supportive and FUN communities on the Internet. Come join the conversation!

© 2002-2007 Lynn Siprelle, some rights reserved under Creative Commons, Attribution-No Deriv 3.0: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/

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When Low Self Esteem Leads to Intractable Obesity

August 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

By Nick Arrizza, M.D. -

Obesity has become one of the of the more challenging of health conditions around the world. Although there are many approaches to dealing with it few, in my view, ever address its unconscious driving forces; poor self image and low self esteem. These two emotional factors initiate and perpetuate the tendency towards obesity.

They are also exacerbated by the condition thereby setting up a vicious negative spiral from which many find it impossible to extricate themselves. Doing so means having the courage to face the deeper emotional roots of poor self image and low self esteem and permanently release them from the unconscious mind and body. So what are these deeper emotional roots?

Well, this is akin to asking why anyone would ever have a poor self image or low self esteem. Many of you might think it’s because of all of those societal messages that subtly and not so subtly invalidate your inherent attractiveness as a human being. Well here you would only be partly correct. The problem actually began well before you were ever exposed to those messages.

You see, many individuals, carry negative memories from early life in the unconscious mind that they identify with and with which are associated negative messages about who and how attractive they are. These memories consist of traumatic events as seen through the eyes of a child that essentially leaves them feeling unwanted, unloved, neglected, bad, ignored, invalidated, defective, deficient, inadequate, useless, and ugly and so on.

Worst of all when an individual complacently accepts as truth and identifies with these internally stored messages they are left with no other option but to dislike who and what they are. Negative feelings of low self esteem, poor self image and low self worth become constant painful internal emotional threats that must be parried and pacified in order to feel comfortable, at ease and peaceful.

The need to keep these painful feelings at bay leads to the adoption of numerous strategies, i.e. often classified as addictions, all of which attempt to suppress, bury or distract one’s self from feeling and becoming incapacitated by the negative feelings. The individual who learns to use food as a pacifier at an early age may continue this compensatory approach to the internal pain eventually culminating in obesity.

This strategy which attempts to bury emotional discomfort also leads to a partial desensitization to the physical discomfort of the obese condition itself. The awareness of this discomfort which is supposed to act as a self regulatory mechanism then fails. Sadly the approach to coping with the emotional turmoil is also untenable because the emotions don’t go away they only go underground temporarily. What’s more they become accentuated by the emotional repercussion of being obese.

So the individual is faced with a growing onslaught of negative emotions as well as the health problems of the obesity that result. So what is the solution to breaking this cycle?

Well it becomes imperative to completely erase the original early unconsciously stored negative memories behaving as what I call “emotional landmines” and which drive the internal emotional turmoil. In other words one must permanently diffuse the negative emotional charge that emanates from these memories. The only way to do that is to completely eradicate the memories themselves. So what does that mean?

Well it effectively means one must effectively “erase the past” as it is stored in the person’s consciousness. Although there are many modalities that attempt to simply decrease the emotional charge of such negative memories it has been my experience that that alone will not yield permanent results. It’s much like the metaphor of the weed growing in the garden, unless one pulls it from the root it will simply re-grow.

Over 10 years ago while working as a psychiatrist I learned this sad fact and it completely changed my view of many of the “therapies” I had been employing until then. It also sprouted a powerful new insight as to how one could completely and permanently erase negative memories from the mind/body. This new insight evolved into a powerful new coaching modality that is able to challenge many of the beliefs we have about why the past cannot be erased.

It turns out that negative memories, while stored in a person’s mind/body tend to deplete them of what I call their Life Force Energy. This is experienced in many ways but one of note is a deep feeling of emptiness that individuals desperately need to fill in order to avoid feeling like they are going to fragment or disintegrate emotionally. Individuals with obesity simply happen to choose food as their solution to this inner feeling of emptiness.

Unfortunately the only thing that will fill it is their depleted Life Force Energy. It turns out that this process as it erases the offending negative memories from the mind/body it causes a spontaneous return of this vital energy to that mind/body. The individual experiences this as feelings of wholeness and completeness. In other words the driving force for all the over eating disappears thus breaking the cycle.

Now, I must give a simple word of caution here. This process, albeit simple and straightforward doesn’t happen all at once rather it is an evolutionary journey to wellbeing and happiness. This is because such individuals often have many negative memories of early life that must be erased. So in effect what is experienced is a progressive accumulation of self empowerment, self esteem, enhanced awareness and self control. As they begin to feel “filled in emotionally” their need to fill themselves with food externally disappears.

Nick Arrizza MD, a former Psychiatrist and Medical Doctor is an International Life, Executive, Organizational Tele-Coach, Author of Esteem For The Self: Restoring the Divine Holographic Energy Field With The Mind Resonance Process® (MRP) and the developer of the powerful Mind Resonance Process® (MRP).

A Free 1 Hour Introductory MRP Telephone Consultation is available upon request. (You will be asked to cover your own long distance telephone charges)

Email: drnick@telecoaching4u.com
Web Site: http://telecoaching4u.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Arrizza,_M.D.
http://EzineArticles.com/?When-Low-Self-Esteem-Leads-to-Intractable-Obesity&id=4727459

Filed Under: Emotional Health, Health, Weight Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Obesity Self-Esteem Cycle

July 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

weightBy Nick Arrizza, M.D.

We all know that obesity can trigger feelings of low self esteem. The converse is also true i.e. feelings of low self esteem can trigger over eating behaviors that can exacerbate obesity.

In short, if one is caught in such a cycle, the Obesity-Self Esteem Cycle, it can become a powerful negative vortex that can destroy one’s health, relationships and life.

The reason so many diet strategies fail is that they do not take into account the second half of the cycle I mentioned above.

Although self esteem can be negatively affected by obesity this is not the only factor that drives it. The most significant impact on one’s self esteem in my view originates in one’s history of experienced emotional trauma which is stored in the body at many levels. So addressing the obesity issue alone via diet and exercise will be insufficient to address these contributors to one’s low self esteem. As long as these are still present they will drive the second half of the cycle.

These deeper emotional “scars” must be addressed directly and in my view released permanently to help fully restore one’s self esteem. When this is done this will automatically break the Obesity-Self Esteem Cycle by eliminating emotional driving forces that bring self esteem down.

As a result, the individual will no longer feel badly inside and will therefore no longer feel a need to have to “soothe” themselves with food to make the “pain” go away.

A new process which releases negative beliefs and emotional trauma has been shown to effectively end the Obesity-Self Esteem Cycle.

If you’d like to learn more about it or experience a free interactive audio clip kindly go to the web link below where you can quickly download it and begin to transform your life.

A Free 1 Hour Introductory MRP Telephone Consultation is available upon request. (You will be asked to cover your own long distance telephone charges)

Nick Arrizza MD, a former Psychiatrist and Medical Doctor is an International Life, Executive, Organizational Tele-Coach, Author, Keynote Speaker, Trainer and Facilitator. He is also on Faculty at Akamai University in Hawaii. He is the CEO and Founder of Arrizza Performance Coaching Inc. and the developer of the powerful Mind Resonance Process® (MRP).

Web Site: http://telecoaching4u.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Arrizza,_M.D.

http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Obesity-Self-Esteem-Cycle&id=111333


Filed Under: Emotional Health, Health, Intellectual Health, Physical Health Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Shopping Game

March 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

clothesBy Irene Conlan -

I’m going to Mexico next week – to La Paz to visit my brother who has a winter condo there. It’s a beautiful, peaceful place and I love my visits there.  But getting ready is something of a challenge because I literally have nothing to wear. I have lost over 90 pounds in the past six months and nothing – and I mean nothing – in my closet fits anymore. What a joy! But since they don’t allow nude people on the beach I decided I’d better go shopping.

So yesterday I went out on a shopping adventure. I started this spree early so there weren’t many shoppers in the store. I like to browse for a while and then make my selections for the fitting room. A very nice clerk was helping me, giving me space to browse. She got a phone call and another clerk took over. I was looking at some blouses that I really liked but the clerk decided to tidy up the rack at that moment. Everything I would reach for she would grab, mumble something about how people don’t put things back correctly and hang it in it’s correct place according to size and color. After about three tries to look at one of them closer I decided to move on and let her finish rearranging the rack.

She followed me. She was very sweet but over-solicitous and my “browsing” became impossible.

No matter what I took of the rack for a closer look, she urged me to try it on and then  insisted that it was just right for me. It became a game for me when I realized she would tell me I looked good in the most ill-fitting outfits.  I discovered that what fit my body in one place didn’t fit in another and that I was several sizes simultaneously. What an interesting dilemma. I tried on slacks and capris and shirts and tee tops and came up with nothing. I opined that I had lost “the game.”

I got dressed in my own clothes, thanked the clerks for their assistance and started to leave the store. A younger clerk who had been watching “the game” asked me if I needed clothes for something special. “I’m going to Mexico to sit on the beach” I told her and she went into action. “Oh, let me help you,” she said, “I love doing this.” She headed toward a rack on the other side of the store. She found things we hadn’t seen, that I liked, and that fit.

There were times when all three women were finding things for me and giving me suggestions. I told them they made me feel like a princes – they actually made me feel quite special and it felt good.”The Game” became fun and successful.

We found several things that were just right. When I checked out, the manager gave me a nice discount that made “the game” even better.

On reflection it was interesting to me how different things are when you’re seriously overweight contrasted with when you can wear smaller sizes. I’ve been in that store before only to be ignored and leave empty handed. I like their clothes but I don’t like the way they treated larger women – and I saw it happening to others (They are one of the few stores in town that carry a nice line of clothing in plus sizes as well as regular sizes).

A great deal of attention is being given obesity these days – by the government, by the news media, and by reality programs such as The Biggest Loser. As one who has “been there” let me tell you that losing weight is one of those things that is “easier said than done.” I tried every diet that came along and gained on it. After fifteen years of searching for something that would help me, I found it. I had been told by one doctor to forget about it because people my age can’t lose weight. (How’s that for negative reinforcement?) and six months later I found a doctor that said, “I can help you.”

She has, indeed, helped me and I am more than grateful. I am successful.

In the past I have experienced the disgusted looks of people who have never had a weight problem and I have endured their unkind remarks. People with a weight problem already feel bad enough, they don’t need disparagement heaped upon them, too.

I had gained weight after a bout with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and grew from a size 6-8 to a size 18 in a matter of months and just continued gaining. When I started gaining I was eating the same way that had kept me a size 6 – 8 and no diet or exercise program made a difference. After a few years of doing everything I knew to do, I gave up trying. I finally leveled off and for the past two years gained no more. Maybe the timing was just right.

I feel like I have a brand new life. I’m not finished yet but the end is in sight. I have my health back. That part of me that was in pain has recovered and I feel good about how I look.

If you are reading this and you have a weight problem, take heart. Don’t give up. If you are seriously committed to losing weight and regaining your health there is someone out there who can help you. You can’t always do it alone so keep searching. There are more and more programs available to help you. One of them will work for you.

If you are reading this and you don’t understand the enormity of the problem (no pun intended) then try to understand the hell that many obese people are in. Have compassion and some kind words. If you clerk in a store, help them as you would help someone in a size 4 – with dignity and respect.Most obese people want help and many already dislike themselves intensely.  Don’t add to their pain.

So, in parting, let me say, Ladies of “the game” I thank you for your service. And now, off to La Paz!

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5 Simple Tips to Avoid Obesity

January 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Plus Size Female Getting Ready to ExerciseBy Ian M Bell -

There is a great deal of nonsense spoken on the subject of obesity. There are numerous facts, figures and statistics in general as to the reasons why people are becoming more and more obese. Many of these facts are complicated – to many they are over-complicated. However, it is true that a 2006/07-health survey found that:

  • one in three adults were overweight (36.3%) and one in four obese (26.5%).
  • one in five children aged 2 to 14 years were overweight (20.9%) and one in twelve was obese (8.3%).

The World Health Organization now describes the prevalence of obesity as an epidemic. There has been a rise in obesity even in healthy and ‘Green’ New Zealand in recent decades – from 9% (males) and 11% (females) in 1977 to 20% and 22% respectively in 2003.

The fact that obesity is an expanding problem globally should make us sit up straight and take notice. But of what do we take notice? Some agencies claim that obesity is down to eating too much fast food. Others say that it is largely genetic, and that, if your parents and their parents were ‘fat’ then you will be too! To a limited extent some of this is accurate. What these ‘schools of thought’ forget, though, is that YOU are an individual, and if YOU follow a few simple and common sense rules YOU will be precisely the weight you want to be.

WATCH

1. Examine your eating habits and analyse what you are eating. This is number one on the list of tips because, if you are eating haphazardly (the wrong food), the chances are you DON NOT STAND A CHANCE of getting slim. Eat the right things for health. Salads, fruit, vegetables, fresh fruit and vegetable drinks – not fizzy, sugar-filled pop drinks. Eat honey if you must have sweet things. Reduce creamy, rich and deep-fried foods unless you know that they are cooked with healthy oils and not fat.

HABIT

2. If you are eating merely as a matter of habit you are probably not thinking at all about the things you are consuming. This will cause you to put on weight due simply to the fact that you are more than likely stuffing things into your mouth that have little or no nutrient value for your body’s health and well-being.

EXERCISE

3. Monitor also your daily exercise habit. If you don not have one already, get one! You will find it easier to lose weight and keep it off if you have at least a walking or jogging routine three or more times each week. The body’s metabolism needs exercise in order to utilise the nutrients and minerals you put into it. Good food is absolutely no use to you if your metabolism is hindered in this way.

WHAT IS OBESITY?

4. Obesity is defined as an excessively high amount of body fat (adipose tissue) in relation to lean body mass. Overweight is excess weight for height so, if you are a man six feet (1.8m) tall and you weigh 150 lbs (68kg) that is fine. By contrast, if you are a woman five feet tall and weigh the same, that is overweight. This is all pretty obvious, but what we need to be able to do as individuals is to objectively look at ourselves in the mirror and ask the question “am I overweight for my height and how can I remedy that”? The answer is in tips one, two and three.

5. Finally, once you can see that your excess flab is beginning to be shed, you will then realise just how simple it is to GET YOURSELF to a comfortable size and weight that you (and everyone else) can handle.

It is interesting to note that we generally eat as our parents eat. This is simply because it was our parents who first cooked for us and they were in the ‘habit’ of preparing the type of food their parents made for them. You can see that any hereditary connection to the weight we put on is almost certainly down to the food we are in the ‘habit’ of eating – because our parents put it on our plates, and their parents before them and….so on!

Remember, you will not show signs of weight loss until you make those all important decisions on what you can eat that will help you lose that unwanted weight. The day that someone says to you “Goodness you have lost weight” is the day you will skip with delight – literally!

I’m Ian and I write many articles on the subject of golf. Come and visit my latest website over at: http://www.1080ptelevision.org that helps people find the best   1080p television available on the market.

Article Source:  5 Simple Tips to Avoid Obesity

Filed Under: Health, Physical Health Tagged With: , , , ,

Do You Want To Be Healthy?

October 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

this is the question
By Michael Byrd –

There are 8,956 different ways to die. But, most people “choose” the same 4. Why do I say “choose”? Because the majority of our population are choosing a suicidal lifestyle that leads to early death.

As Dr. Augustus Grant, president of the American Heart Association, puts it, “Poor diet, excess body weight, physical inactivity and smoking, are modifiable risk factors that contribute to the premature death of close to 1.5 million Americans each year.”

“Last year,” according to John Seffrin, head of the American Cancer Society, “over 80 percent of all deaths in America were from 4 things – heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.” And all of these 4 diseases are dramatically affected by a lifestyle of “poor diet, excess body weight, physical inactivity and smoking.”

And Americans aren’t the only ones. Now days, the rest of the world’s population are joining us in a lifestyle that leads to early death. Even though most people are born healthy, with the potential to live a long healthy life, they’re refusing to follow the guidelines from health experts and scientists all around the world.

Yet the evidence is undeniable and the message is being drummed out loud and clear on a daily basis. “You can do something about your health. You can protect yourself from chronic disease.” But, what do we do instead? The majority of the population continues a couch-potato lifestyle, eating junk food, gaining weight and smoking cigarettes.

This health crisis is so severe that the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society have joined forces to get the word out by delivering a unified, clear, straightforward message.

Here’s what the scientists and experts are saying. Most deaths are not caused by unlucky genes or even environmental toxins. People, all around the world, are dying prematurely because of the unhealthy lifestyle choices they’re making every day – day, after day, after day.

Most Americans, for example, are way overfed and way undernourished. More than 60% are either overweight or obese. Yet very few are eating the recommended 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Most don’t even get a pittance of that. And, when they do eat fruits and vegetables, it’s usually in the form of unhealthy banana splits or French fried potatoes.

What’s more, the majority of Americans still don’t exercise for the recommended 30 minutes a day. Nearly 1 out of every 4 still smoke after over thirty years of health warnings. And these negative statistics are growing throughout the world.

But you don’t have to be one of these statistics. If you want to avoid the fatal four – heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer – just follow the guidelines for optimum health. Eat a healthy diet, including fruits, vegetables and natural whole food supplements. Manage your weight. Exercise regularly. And don’t smoke.

After all, wouldn’t it be nice to live to be a happy, healthy, fit centurion and then die peacefully in your sleep with a big smile on your face, surrounded by loving family and friends?

Michael Byrd has over 18 years of education and experience in the fields of physical therapy, health, fitness and nutrition. His pursuit of wellness has led him to the many health benefits of fish oil and other natural whole foods that will help you to look younger, feel better and stay healthy. Get Michael’s FREE nutritional CD while supplies last. Visit http://www.omega-3.us.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Byrd

Filed Under: Emotional Health, Health, Physical Health Tagged With: , , , ,

Let’s talk about weight loss

September 5, 2009 By 2 Comments

This is not me. I will post a picture soon.

By Irene Conlan -

This is a very personal story – my story. I have struggled with weight most of my life and in the younger years was able to keep the weight off with a bit of effort and determination. I was a regular at the gym for years and used several diet plans successfully over that time period. (The picture, by the way, is not me. I will post a picture soon).

Then I had a bout with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Before I totally crashed and had  to go to bed, I started gaining two pounds a week regardless of what I ate or how much I exercised. No diets worked. Eating 800 calories  and walking 2 – 5 miles daily did nothing. The result? I gave up. My attitude was if I’m going to be fat,  I might as well enjoy the food I eat! I didn’t go crazy with it but I stopped dieting.  My friends who know me well think I wasn’t eating enough but I continued to gain slowly over the years.

Now and then I would try again so along the way I tried several diets – The South Beach diet, Atkins, Weight Watchers, etc. They had been successful before but this time around – nothing.  They didn’t work and I didn’t stick with them. I hated the way I felt, the way I looked and my limited activities because of the weight. Several years ago I asked my doctor if there was anything I could do about it and he replied, “Forget it. At your age it is impossible to lose weight.” (Not too encouraging was it? )When anyone brought up the subject of my weight I would avow, “If anyone can show me how to lose weight, I will do it.”

When I encountered a small health problem, I chanaged doctors. This time I chose a woman internist for my primary care physician and, in the first visit, she told me I needed to lose weight. I gave her my weight history and she gave me the name of a doctor she guaranteed could help. “Yeah, right!”  I thought.

But I dutifully went to the meeting the weight loss doctor holds once a week.  Hmm. There might be something to this.  She absolutely guaranteed that if I followed the program precisely, I would lose 1/2 pound a day. Guaranteed it! Wow! I had promised myself and everyone else  that if anyone could help me I would do it,  so I made an appointment. I could at least give it my best shot.

It is a very carefully monitored program, with lab work and one-on-one visits with the doctor every two weeks.

It works!

I have lost 30 pounds in 60 days!

I look better. I certainly feel better.  And I’m absolutely delighted. I  still have a lot of pounds to shed but I WILL get there.

Dr. C. You were wrong! I CAN lose weight at my age.

And to all of you who feel helpless and hopeless because of your weight, YOU CAN DO IT,  TOO! Email me if you want to know more. theselfimprovementblog@gmail.com

Filed Under: Emotional Health, Health, Physical Health, Spiritual Health Tagged With: , ,
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