Archive | October, 2009

Discover New and Better Ways to Lose Fat

by Rod Macbeth on Oct 16. 2009 in Uncategorized

Despite the $50 billion spent on weight loss each year in the US alone, there is no magic diet, no diet pill, or exercise routine that is guaranteed to make you lose weight. Most diets fail and people are becoming more overweight and more frustrated by the minute as obesity rates have triple since the 1960′s.

Only 2-6 percent of all attempts at losing weight are successful. And ever worse, the average person ultimately gains 5 pounds over and above his/her starting weight for every diet he or she goes on. We clearly know this now – dieting does not work.

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10 Easy Tips to Eat Your Way to Lower Cholesterol

by Rod Macbeth on Oct 15. 2009 in Nutrition

Do you have high cholesterol and need to lower it? That is no surprise considering how many people have high cholesterol these days. To help lower your cholesterol, here are 10 tips you can get started with today.
As with anything health related, diet and exercise are the two crucial components. What you eat is critical to lowering your cholesterol levels, so that is what is included here.
One thing you should know is the difference between LDL and HDL cholesterol. Simply think of HDL as “healthy” and LDL as “lousy.” HDL can actually help carry cholesterol out of your blood vessels while LDL allows it to deposit inside your artery walls.
The good news is that you can change your cholesterol for the better. Here is how to do just that:
1. Have a nice sandwich on whole wheat bread or a pita with some lean turkey and lots of fresh veggies. Skip the hot dogs, bologna, and salami, and hold the Mayo. All of those are highly processed and filled with fat and cholesterol.
2. Fish, like salmon, is good. Look for wild red salmon varieties, which are very high in Omega-3 fatty acids (good fat.) Also, flax seed is a good source of Omega-3s.
3. Avoid Trans fats! Not only do they raise the lousy LDL cholesterol, they can also lower your HDL levels! Stay away from foods like margarine, shortening, and processed foods containing partially hydrogenated soybean oil.
4. Go ahead, go nuts! Look for walnuts mainly but also try almonds, macadamia nuts, cashews, and pecans. Nuts are high in fat, but it’s the good kind. (Also, use natural peanut butter instead of the normal kind which contains unhealthy Trans fats.)
5. Limit desserts and try to eat only the healthier ones like angel food cake, graham crackers, Jell-O, and fat-free frozen yogurt.
6. Eat foods that are high in fiber. Examples include whole wheat bread, oatmeal, fruits, vegetables, beans, and some cereals. (Look for the boxes that say “may help lower cholesterol.”)
7. Use the grill. If you’re going to have steak or burgers, grill them at home and use lean meat. This practice avoids the grease, is fun, and the meat tastes great.
8. Find a new salad dressing. Most of them are full of Trans fats and cholesterol. Olive oil is good, and maybe add vinegar or lemon juice. Also, skip the bacon bits, croutons, and egg yolks.
9. Go overboard on fruits and vegetables. They contain no cholesterol and they have lots of nutrients like antioxidants.
Here are some examples: green peas, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, oranges, mangos, papaya, pineapple, tomato, garlic, onions, spinach, water chestnuts, bananas, apricots, blueberries, and kiwi.
10. Avoid fast food like french fries and anything else from the deep fryer. Those foods will raise your cholesterol like crazy, so stay away from the burger joints if you can.
11. Bonus tip: Use spices like pepper and oregano to add flavor to your dishes. They are a healthy alternative to other toppings like Mayo.
That was easy, wasn’t it? Just make some of these changes and get plenty of exercise like walking, jogging, swimming, or playing basketball. You will have lower cholesterol in no time!

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10 Beliefs You May Need to Change to Lose Weight

by Rod Macbeth on Oct 14. 2009 in Uncategorized

10) No, you won’t end up looking like some Hollywood star.
We only get one body and we are stuck with it even it we don’t like it. But you can always make it look great. Concentrate on making a healthy strong and fit you instead of wishing you looked like someone else. You don’t have to be perfect to be attractive and a strong, fit body as well as the self-confidence it brings can make any person attractive.

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3 Simple Steps To A More Restful Sleep

by Rod Macbeth on Oct 13. 2009 in Uncategorized

Picture this: It’s 5:27 PM. You’re hungry after a busy day at work, itching to get home to see your family, and now you’re stuck in traffic. Frustration sets in. But you’re used to it since this is an every day occurrence.
So you finally stroll into your house at 6:04 PM, your 2 young children are clamoring for your attention, and they’re hungry too. You pop some frozen dinners in the microwave knowing full well they’re not healthy, but also knowing that you just don’t have time to think, much less cook. After a quick dinner consisting of Salisbury Steak you’re day’s not even close to over.
Now it’s time to do laundry, read with the kids, and of course a day’s work left over from the office. When do you have time to rest? At night you keep telling yourself.
But every night it’s the same old story. You flop into bed past 1 AM and close your eyes. Your mind is still racing from the day that just passed and the busy day ahead. So you toss and turn, hoping that you’ll be able to get at least a little shut-eye before your 6:00 AM wake up call (an annoyingly loud alarm clock you’ve had for 15 years).
And the next day it starts all over again. You’re tired at work, you don’t have time to eat, you’re stressed, and you can’t get out of the vicious cycle.
So what do you do?
First thing’s first: take a deep breath. You’re probably stressed out just reading this far.
To get a more restful sleep tonight do the following:
1) Get a notebook and take 5 minutes right before laying down to free write. What you want to do is get every thought from the past, present, and future out of your head and on paper where it’s safe and secure. This will free the clutter from your head and allow you to rest easier.
2) Get a new alarm clock that wakes you up gradually with classical music. This will do absolute wonders for your morning routine. What you want to do is set the alarm to go off 15-20 minutes earlier than you usually wake up. It will turn on very quietly and slowly bring you out of your slumber.
3) Add a few very healthy snacks to your daily routine. One of my favorites is a 2 oz pre-packaged bag of baby carrots. They taste good, they’re good for you, and they take no prep-time. When you’re hungry at work or on the way home, munch on these. Another great snack is raw almonds. Eating healthier works amazingly well to help you sleep better.

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Dieting Is Not The Best Option To Lose Weight

by Rod Macbeth on Oct 12. 2009 in Uncategorized

What if you were to discover some new ways that will steadily awaken your natural hidden fat burning machinery to slim you down and tone you up far easier that you ever thought possible? A weight loss system that becomes so automatic, that you cannot fail to get results?

You just might be thinking that it sounds too good to be true. And, you could not be blamed for thinking this way after all, literally hundreds of weight loss/diet programs of one sort or another are available. You probably have tried some of them, and more than likely they probably did not produce the results you would have liked them to.

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The Versatile Antioxidant Vitamin

by Rod Macbeth on Oct 11. 2009 in Vitamins

Slice an apple into half, and it turns brown. A copper penny suddenly becomes green, or an iron nail when left outside, will rust. What do all these events have in common? These are examples of a process called oxidation. If the sliced apple is dipped in a lemon juice, however, the rate at which the apple turns brown is slowed. It is because the Vitamin C in the lemon juice slows the rate of oxidative damage.
Since its discovery 65 years ago, vitamin C has come to be known as a wonder worker. Because of its role in collagen formation and other life-sustaining functions, Vitamin C serves as a key immune system nutrient and a potent free-radical fighter. This double-duty nutrient has been shown to prevent many illnesses, from everyday ailments such as the common cold to devastating diseases such as cancer.
The water-soluble vitamin C is known in the scientific world as ascorbic acid, a term that actually means without scurvy. We depend on ascorbic acid for many aspects of our biochemical functioning; yet human beings are among only a handful of animal species that cannot produce their own supply of vitamin C. Like these other animals, including primates and guinea pigs, we have no choice but to obtain this nutrient through food or our daily diet.
Vitamin C can enhance the body’s resistance from different diseases, including infections and certain types of cancer. It strengthens and protects the immune system by stimulating the activity of antibodies and immune system cells such as phagocytes and neutrophils.
Vitamin C, as an antioxidant, helps reduce the activity of free radicals. Free radicals are by-products of normal metabolism which can damage cells and set the stage for aging, degeneration, and cancer. It shouldnt come as any surprise that vitamin C is being used for cancer treatment. In large doses, Vitamin C is sometimes administered intravenously as part of cancer treatment.

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Lose Weight With These 17 Hot Tips

by Rod Macbeth on Oct 10. 2009 in Uncategorized

Some $30 billion dollars is spent on weight loss each year as people desperately search and mistakenly believe ‘the answer’ to looking and feeling good is losing weight. This may be a popular belief but it is totally false as the majority of the big weight loss spenders are losing their money, not their weight.

The majority of people who try to lose weight use very unhealthy methods that have devastating effects on the metabolism (the body’s engine). In fact, 98% of those people who do manage to lose some weight soon gain it back and end up with a damaged metabolism which makes future weight loss efforts near impossible.

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3 Blunders To Avoid on Your Weight Loss Journey

by Rod Macbeth on Oct 09. 2009 in Weight Loss

There are times on your weight loss journey when progress can come to a halt. Days or weeks can go by without you seeing movement on the scale, and it can get downright frustrating. After working with thousands of clients, Ive noticed certain patterns that can cause this weight loss stoppage. Here are 3 of those patterns.
1) Eating more than you think you are.
Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Zone Delivery Service, and other diet systems have one undeniable benefit to them they define for the average person how large an actual serving is. Most of us underestimate the volume of food we eat (and consequently, underestimate the number of calories we consume in a day).
By fixing in your head what a serving size or portion of food looks like, we can better estimate (and consequently, evaluate and calibrate) the amount of food we eat at each meal. Keep in mind, when it comes to weight loss, you need to take in less calories than you burn each day.
Two good rules of thumb:
A portion of meat (3 oz.) is the size of a deck of cards. A portion of carbohydrates (1 cup) is the size of a tennis ball.
Please remember to fill up on non-starchy vegetables they are full of nutrients, have very little impact on blood sugar, and contain little in the way of calories.
2) Not eating frequently enough.
It is a social custom to eat three square meals a day. While this may do for social purposes, for weight loss, you will want to aim for more frequent feedings. It is recommended that you consume a minimum of 5-6 small meals each day. By doing so, your body gets the signal that food is abundant, and there is no need to conserve energy.
Additionally, frequent feedings maximize your metabolism, as your body is constantly busy, burning calories by digesting your meals. By not letting too much time pass between meals, you stabilize blood sugar levels since they never really get the chance to drop. By keeping your blood sugar stable, your hunger levels are minimized, decreasing the chances that you will be tempted to overeat at your next meal.
3) Choosing to drink your calories instead of eating them.
This is a very common problem among those attempting weight loss, due to the abundance of healthy diet smoothies, protein concoctions, and weight loss shakes. There are 2 factors to keep in mind when relying on these liquid meal replacements.
First, many of the liquid diet shakes on the market and all fruit smoothies have an abundance of sugar in them. This causes an immediate surge in energy followed by a huge crash due to the release of insulin to control the blood sugar rise. This dramatic shift in blood hormone levels (particularly insulin levels) is something you want to avoid, both for health reasons and for weight loss.
Secondly, most weight loss shakes are devoid of fiber. Fiber is one of your most precious allies when you are dieting. It helps you feel full and blunts the rise in insulin levels when all that sugar hits your bloodstream. While fruit smoothies do contain some of the fiber from the pulp of the fruit, a better strategy would be to eat the actual fruits contained in the smoothie.
Lastly, the amount of calories that can be concentrated into a shake or smoothie is far greater than the equivalent volume of actual food. A 16 oz fruit smoothie may contain as many as 600 calories, and will not fill you up all that much! On the other hand, eating 600 calories of fruit will prove to be much more than the typical person can manage in a single sitting (at least, I personally dont know anyone that can eat more than 2 pounds of bananas at a single sitting!).
Think about it- when making major dietary changes, you want to get the most out of your calories. Wouldnt you rather fill up, rather than drink something and be hungry again soon after?

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Why Do We Struggle With Our Fitness?

by Rod Macbeth on Oct 08. 2009 in Uncategorized

Improving our health with participation in a proper exercise program shouldn’t just be something you do when the weather is warm and summer is approaching. It should be part of a much bigger picture of your life journey where your strength and fitness is so important it is ‘something you become’ not just ‘something you do’ whenever you have an urge to do something physical.

If you are always struggling to “get” fit it becomes a mountain that you never seem to reach the top of and always seems to be just out of reach. Making the leap from “doing fitness” to “being fit” is what is all about and where the true benefits are.

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7 Reasons You May Not Be Losing Weight

by Rod Macbeth on Oct 07. 2009 in Uncategorized

If your weight loss progress has slowed to a stand still take a look at some of the most important reasons why this may be happening.

1. You are not doing a proper exercise program – The new way to lose weight is to increase your metabolism (your body’s engine) to burn off unwanted body rather than trying to starve it off. The only type of exercise that will do this is strength training exercise. When your muscles are toned they will burn more calories every minute of the day and night which will help you get results.

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