Healthy B.P.M.

“I don’t have time to exercise.” is something that almost everyone says. It’s not an excuse. It’s a practical problem that has to be overcome since you need your health to keep going. “Too busy to exercise” is a great post on how you can take those necessary mental steps to motivate yourself to exercise. In his Practical Personal Development Blog Alex writes:

“A technique that I use while I am doing my running is I stop concentrating on my present self and create an image of a different me. In my minds eye I picture me with the perfect body. I see every muscle moving in synchrony and as I flex my stomach I see the perfect abs harden. I visualize a body that is a perfect machine and would not tire no matter how long I run.”

Time saving tips is a great article that helps employed people, stay at home moms ,and students to achieve their fitness goals. You have to make a conscious effort in the mornings or when you get back from work. You could join a gym or indulge in an exercise program that suits your pace.

What kind of time-saving measures do you recommend?

weight loss, exercise, fitness

I came across a really interesting post by Praveen at his blog Tao of Simplicity. Check out his post on Present Moment Goal Setting. Now is the moment to change your lifestyle. I’m a zen freak myself and I’ve found the simplicity it advocates to be the most sensible and most difficult thing to do.According to Praveen, any ambition, including weight loss, begins now. If you postpone it, you are wasting time and falling deeper and deeper into trouble.

I’ll tell you why. If you can’t stop gorging on junk food and give up your sedentary lifestyle now, you are likely to start gaining weight. When you do, you are inviting high blood pressure,diabetes and joint pain. As you grow older, all that muscle mass weakens and you will be in more pain if you are obese. Then you won’t be able to have a happy old age and you will detest those moments with your family when the only language that talks to you is pain. Check this link for more:Lose weight now, move better later.

So now when you see all those foods stacked up in the supermarket you could stop yourself from impulse buying. You could start eating sensibly and exercising at least thrice a week NOW. It will improve the quality of your life.

diet, middle age, high blood pressure, old age, tao, zen, weight loss

Couples can get closer through their diet plans. I loved this story about how Julie and Kevin decided to tie the knot after they realized how much they shared the same goals when it came to losing weight and even living life. Engaged couple lose pounds, find each other on diet website is a story that really caters to Valentines Day.

The good thing about couples dieting is that when you are in love it’s even better if you share the same goals. Now if your diet is driving your partner crazy, we have a completely different scenario. To avoid conflict it would be a good idea to read “Your diet is driving me Crazy”. It offers a solution to all those food-related conflicts that can spoil your relationships.

Valentines Day, weight watchers, diet

Valentines Day is a great concept. It’s great to have one landmark day when everyone celebrates their love for each other. But how many of us really love our own selves, are proud of the way we look and celebrate our own achievements? I’m not saying we have to be foolishly narcissistic and blind to our own shortcomings. If that’s the case, we’ll never improve. We have to be able to appreciate our selves and not succumb to self-pity and cynicism. Self-appreciation helps weight watchers too since the moment you give up on yourself, your body will not respond to your efforts.

This Valentines Day, think about how much you love yourself and how much you criticize your own efforts. Are you being unfairly hard on yourself? Do you look at your self as a trivial atom in the universe? Do you underestimate your own ideas and abilities? Do you take criticism in an unsporting way and wallow in self-pity ? Attitudes like this lead people to make wrong choices such as indulging in eating disorders. You could be unhappy with the way you look or the way you live. But the only way to have a productive life is to be positive about yourself first.

How to love yourself is an art and the most successful people in the world ar often people who love what they see when they look in the mirror. They like the sound of their voices and they believe in their ideas.

Check out some tips on how to appreciate yourself better.You could start making decisions without relying too much on others and stick by your decisions. If you are unhappy about your weight, embark on a sensible diet and exercise plan that works for you. Keep a journal and record all your positives. Forgive yourself and try to get on with your life even when you make mistakes. Often people tend to be too hard on themselves. Treat yourself the way you should treat others- with compassion.

Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines Day, weight watcher, compassion

Hunger pangs are a normal way of our body telling us it’s calorie-consumption time. What the D-word(or dieting) involves is how to suppress those hunger pangs. What kind of foods do you have when you are suddenly starving, say when you come from work? Do you gobble potato chips or gorge on ice cream thinking that it’s okay since you’re really hungry and you’ve worked hard enough to burn all those calories? Well you’re wrong there. Having potato chips just adds a 1000 calories so easily. You have to find foods that act as hunger suppressants.

Diet pills help but as we all know stopping diet pills brings the weight back. Then what kinds of foods help? Five appetite control foods that suppress cravings without adding calories is a great story outlining which foods you can safely have while staying away from adding calories at the same time. Having a big bowl of apples and stir fried vegetables(using water as a base) really helps you feel full and limits your calorie intake. Have you tried drinking a glass of water when you are hungry? It really kills your appetite. Having fiber supplements help too.

What no-calorie foods work for you?

diet, diet pills, appetite suppressants

There are some great carnivals on the web. Carnival of Healing #72: Nourish Your Body, Heal Your Soul is a great place if you want to find out more about fitness and health issues.Lots of tips and lots of interesting blogs to discover. Check it out!

carnival of healing, health, inspiration, healing

I read an article that pertains to how a house that you live in can make you put on the pounds. Suppose you are the romantic kind of person who keeps your dining room dimly lit, filled with scented aromatic candles, you may be creating more chances of gaining weight.

Now that Valentines Day is around the corner,I had to warn you about all those dimly lit dinners. You don’t realize how much you eat in an atmosphere like that. You end up eating 30 per cent more than you need from impressive larger cutlery and drinking more from larger cups and glasses.Sensuous colors schemes in your eating area, which include red,gold and orange, are firey appetizers and neutral decors are believed to reduce your appetite.

So if you stick to an overall beige or neutral tone in your decor, you will be able to control your eating habits far better. That is what studies claim. Reduce the size of your cutlery and thereby the servings and turn on the lights for dinner!

I guess Valentines Day could be an exception for that one.

Valentines Day

The BloggingBoomers Carnival is now up at The Boomer Chronicles. Blogging Boomers is a weekly roundup of the top stories on the top blogs dedicated to baby boomer interests and appears every week. There are some great stories here including my blog post entitled”Past and Present“.Check it out!

http://lifetwo.com/production/node/20070207-baby-boomer-blogs

Do you want to know how fit you are or what kind of diet suits your lifestyle? I found a couple of quizzes on the web. It’s always good to assess yourself and understand your food and exercise habits.Thought it would be some weekend fun!

Which diet is best for you?

Diet Bites(a series of quizzing)

Cholesterol quiz

Heart diet quiz: This assesses your knowledge of dietary terms.

quiz

Have you ever wondered how fit your ancestors were?

I live in a city now in a small apartment with two bedrooms and a living room. My balcony is a thin strip where walking is impossible. I am busy with my children and my writing. If I choose to do my exercises I spend an allotted time every other day and restrict myself to a small space in my bedroom. Today life is about conservation of space. There are limits everywhere. We go for walks only on weekends since the city is crowded. I crave for open spaces and fresh air.

When we go out, the city is abuzz with life. Everywhere the houses emit a warm soft glow of television sets that are the centerpiece of life nowadays. Physical exercise is now an enforced reality. You don’t need much of it to get around.

My ancestors lived in sprawling houses, didn’t have electricity and so didn’t depend on television for entertainment. Life was harder but longer. Agricultural activities took place before their eyes. They knew all about farming and the harvest, things I’ve read about in Tolstoy’s books. They played continuously when they were young. And as they grew older, they lived within their means and so ate sensibly and followed simple spartan routines that are beyond me today. They walked more than I do. They slept earlier, rose earlier and many of the grandmothers in my village still sprint around at ripe old ages

What triggered off this thought was a brilliant article called Fitness has fallen since the days of Ancient Greece.

I suppose it is only natural that we have turned into sedentary beings, considering how much has changed in the world of science. But our past was more about physical endurance and fitness.

Just a thought.

fitness, nostalgia

I love to explore alternate fitness methods. Remember Pole Dancing for fitness? Another interesting new fad is the stiletto salsa. Fitness classes are now encouraging young women to use their high heels on the dance floor and combining ballet techniques with fitness workouts help in strengthening your calves, hips, quads, and hamstrings. If you learn how to dance on your heels you actually gain alignment, balance and confidence. According to fitness instructors heels help your calf muscles.

You’ll love this article- Stiletto salsa:The latest fitness craze.

I’m not really sure about how far heels are healthy on your back. Before you do go for a class I guess you have to know all the facts.Orthopedists have issued warnings about heels. Problems that heels can cause include corns, calluses, hammertoes, osteoarthritis, chronic knee pain, sprained ankles and back problems. Read this for more.

But if you are dying to dance on your prized high heels and want to impress that special someone, a little practice won’t cause much damage. I would never advise you to wear high heels on a continuous basis but once in a while it would be fun!

stiletto salsa, high heels

Martial arts is a great way to get your kids into the fitness mode. The cardio and strength workouts prior to the disciplined ‘kathas’(sequence of movements) that entails karate help a child’s overall development and helps in boosting confidence levels. Self defense techniques are motivating and I personally feel that every child should learn how to defend himself or herself. That will improve overall health, fitness and confidence levels.

This article gives you a different take on karate and fitness. Don’t expect to be a Bruce Lee with karate sessions thrice a week. There’s a lot more to Bruce Lee’s chiseled body. He spent a large amount of time on heavy physical work outs. For him exercise was a way of life and martial arts a discipline that he worked on endlessly.

Read this to find out how karate is being used as method to instill discipline and fitness.

karate, Bruce Lee, fitness

Acupuncture is becoming more and popular when it comes to weight reduction strategy. By using needles, acupuncturists try to restore vital energy levels. The idea behind acupuncture is that an imbalance in energy creates disharmony and subsequent discomfort in the body. By balancing the qi or energy, health can be restored. Needles and even herbs, electricity, magnets and lasers can help stimulate acupoints along the “meridians”( channels through which energy passes) in your body.

For obese patients, acupuncture helps control binge eating and has been used for patients who have been unable to control their appetite even after gastric bypass. Be aware of acupuncture treatment before you opt for it. Weight control ear staples are not sufficient; make sure you get an appointment with a good acupuncturist.

This page is a good guide.

Read the article Acupuncture for controlling diet

acupuncture, obesity

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes problems with social interaction, leads to repetitive behavior and causes communication problems. I found an interesting read on the connection that diet has with autism. The story starts with an autistic child Mathew Sebastian who had seizures and various other autism-related problems. When he was put on a gluten- and casein-free diet, he experienced relief that none of his anti-seizure medication provided him.

One explanation for this is the theory that autistic children have problems with metabolizing certain foods that contain gluten and casein. Examples are wheat, rye, milk and other dairy foods. This treatment works only in some cases, however. If you have an autistic child, you could discuss changes in your child’s diet with your doctor and nutritionist.

Read this article.

Read more about the gluten-free diet.

autism, gluten

The news is filled with stories on the H5N1 virus having emerged in England for the first time. With a death toll of almost 2000 turkeys, Bernard Matthews is not taking any chances and now thousands of birds face the prospect of culling, virus or no virus.

The Food Standards Agency advises consumers to stay away from needless paranoia. Since the virus does not yet transmit from human to human and can be killed by cooking well, there is no need to panic. While preparing poultry, make sure that you keep your hands and the utensils that have come into contact with poultry clean, by using soap and warm water. In affected areas, control measures are surely being taken.

Read this page for any clarifications you may have with regard to avian flu.

This link gives you anything and everything about the bird flu.

The worst part is the number of birds who will get culled. Think about it. So much death inflicted to prevent further death. A terrible Catch-22 situation. At this rate, we have will all have to go vegetarian and a good ethical thing too.

bird flu, ethical eating