Losing Weight Quickly And Safely: Can It Be Done?

Losing weight does not come easily for anyone. Whether you are fifty pounds overweight or twenty, losing the weight is not an easy thing to do.
While most people choose to go on a diet because they think that they need to look better, the real motivation for losing weight should be about being healthier overall.
The problem with many diets is that they take too much time and are too complicated. There is a large amount of planning involved when it comes to meals. In addition, even when following the diet strictly the weight does not come off very quickly at all.
In fact, most of the time a person will only lose one or two pounds a week when they first start a new diet. This can be disheartening and lead to the oh-so familiar yo-yo effect.
When someone steps on the scale and sees a two pound weight loss when they think it should be more, they are likely to spiral out of control and quit the diet and begin their poor eating habits again.
Healthy Weight Loss
What many people do not realize is that losing one to two pounds a week is the healthiest way to lose weight. Losing this much (or little depending on the way you look at it) sets reasonable expectations and leads to achievable goals.
If you are carrying quite a bit of extra weight, these numbers can be increased slightly but in all likelihood, striving to lose more than two to three pounds per week is a surefire way to:

1. Burn muscle rather than fat
2. Become discouraged and give up

Let's get scientific for a second. One pound of body fat equals 3,500 calories. If you didn't know this I bet this is quite a shocker - you can actually measure how much you should be eating based on your own weight loss goals.
Very broadly said, having a 500 calorie deficit per day will let you burn about one pound per week (500 x 7 = 3500). Neat huh?
To lose weight faster it is important to increase the amount that you exercise.
Diets for Fast Weight Loss
When trying to lose weight quickly it is important to make sure that you are eating healthy. Starches and added sugars should be eliminated from the diet. In addition, avoiding fat from dairy and meat will help increase weight loss as well.
Some of the foods that should be considered when trying to lose weight include:

• Fruits
• Veggies
• Soy products
• Egg whites
• Fish
• Shellfish
• Lean meat
• Skinless chicken breast
• Non-fat dairy food

It is important to eat a lot of vegetables as they will help you feel full. Drinking water will also help you feel full. All tempting foods should be removed from the home when you are starting a healthy weight loss plan.
Make sure that you only eat from a plate when you are sitting at the table. Do not graze from the fridge or grab unhealthy snacks. If you need a snack try to make it a fruit. Make sure that you keep busy so that you do not start eating just because you are bored.
It is important to make sure that you do not get discouraged when dieting. Allow yourself some of your favorite "bad" foods on a weekly basis. Having a cheat day can help keep you on track the rest of the week.
Problems with Diets
One of the biggest problems that people have when dieting is tracking their calories and exercising enough. When first starting out this can seem daunting, but once you get the hang of it, counting calories becomes second nature.
If the majority of your diet is fruits and vegetables, the calories that you are taking in are minimal and you should begin losing weight quite quickly. However, eating this healthy can be quite difficult for some people and may lead to failure.
Whatever happens you need to realize that this is a difficult and time consuming process and that you are the key to your success.
Rather than be overwhelmed, follow your plan by setting small, but achievable goals which you are able to meet and focus on them one at a time.
When you meet each goal write it down in a weight loss diary. If there is ever a time you are feeling unmotivated or unsure of yourself - look back to your plan and your logs to realize just how far you have gotten.
The road to weight loss begins with a single step that you motivate yourself to take and transforms into a difficult and never-ending journey of discipline, motivation and self-improvement.

You Need To Be Wise If You Want To Lose Weight

Common sense and an approach that considers the realities in your life are far more likely to help you lose weight than some fancy diets, exhausting workouts or those miracle pills. All these are far more likely to have you parting with your hard- earned money, thus reducing the weight of your purse.
A Simple Common Sense Approach to Weight Loss
Examine your present lifestyle, eating habits, diet constituents, and physical exertions. Make a complete list of everything, sit yourself down, and go through it critically. Do you have a regular routine, or one which keeps you awake at all odd times? Do you eat in front of the television or computer, and are rarely aware of what you eat? Do you eat a lot of fast food? Are you drinking too many colas or other fizzy drinks? Is your exercise routine one that is sporadic?
A "yes" answer to all or most of these questions is a sure sign that you need to get more control over your life, diet and exercise routines, if you are to benefit yourself in any way, in attempts at weight loss.
Making Those Changes
Human beings are meant to work for eight hours a day, sleep for another eight hours, and have eight hours left over for leisure, social activities and other things. Ensure that you make for yourself a routine that enables you to work correctly, sleep adequately and relax sufficiently. This itself will get your body into a rhythm that will enable all your bodily systems to work correctly and this can help weight loss.
Switch off that television or your computer and see that you take your meals at the dining table. If in the office, find an outside area where you can eat your sandwich in piece, away from the computer or telephone. Eat slowly whenever you do so, making sure to bite correctly. This will enable your gastric juices to work efficiently to digest your meals. See if you can stop going back for refills.
Fast food contains a lot of refined carbohydrates, fats and salt. All these help you to put on weight and are best avoided. A simple brown bread sandwich carried from home can give you far better nutrition. Carry along some fruits or nuts and nibble on them whenever you feel hungry. Cut out the fizzy drinks and colas. Reduce your intake of coffee especially if you are used to taking cream and sugar in it. This can reduce the intake of sugar, which can in turn help you to lose weight. Ensure that you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and avoid the heavy red meats. Switch over to brown bread.
Make exercises a part of your daily routine. Consider this as important as eating or going to work. This does not have to be anything elaborate and can be something as simple as walking, jogging or cycling. Gym routines can always help, but need sufficient motivation. Making a habit to climb up stairs, walk down to the supermarket and avoid using your car wherever you can.

Ten Reasons to Add the Pool to Your Fitness Over 40 Exercise Plan

1. Swimming is a Major League Calorie Burner
How many calories will you burn? If you weigh 150 pounds, you'll burn an average of 260 calories per half hour of moderate swimming as opposed to 140 calories for a half hour of low impact aerobics. Swimming is a great calorie burner. Some scientists believe you will burn additional calories because your body has to work to keep your body temperature up, which is an extra bonus.

2. Pool Workouts are Easy on the Joints
If you've got ankle, knee or hip issues, you'll want to take it easy on running, walking, aerobics or even using the elliptical machine. You can swim for hours, though, because swimming is a no-impact sport. Just be sure not to overuse your shoulders by switching up which stroke you use.
3. Water Offers Resistance
The water offers natural resistance, making it a perfect muscle toner. Try your dry land calisthenics in the pool and see how much harder it is to do them in the water. It's like adding a resistance band to your routine!
4. Cool Water Counters Swelling and Bruising
If you've overdone another form of exercise and have swollen joints, you'll find the cool water brings down the swelling.
5. Pool Workouts are Refreshing
You won't feel sweaty during or after a pool workout!
6. Swimming Challenges All Parts of Your Body
Depending on the stroke you choose, you can work your upper or lower body equally. Most swimming strokes, when performed properly, also require you to naturally tighten your abdominal muscles, resulting in a core workout as well. Take a class to learn how to properly perform several swim strokes and then vary your routine. Try kick boarding (including deep kicks) for an amazing lower body workout.
7. Pool Jogging and Walking is Tougher Than it Looks
You might feel like you're moving in slow motion, but even marathoners use pool walking and pool jogging as training techniques to gain speed and endurance while protecting their joints.
8. Masters Swim Groups are Incredibly Inspirational
If you join a masters swim group, you'll meet a bunch of dedicated swimmers who love the pool and love to inspire others. The comradeship is rewarding and the workouts challenging. Masters swim groups are perfect ways to take get inspired to take solo swimming to a higher level.
9. Water Aerobics Classes Tone and Burn Calories Simultaneously
As you can imagine, water aerobics classes both burn calories and tone your muscles, all without getting disgustingly sweaty.
10. Pool Workouts Can Be Adjusted to Suit Any Fitness Level
Not in great shape? Or looking for a greater challenge? The pool is perfect for any level of athletic ability, since swimming is one of the most adjustable forms of exercise there is. You can swim at whatever pace works best for your fitness level and fitness goals, and you can choose swim strokes or swimming aids (kick boards, paddles, flippers) to support you or to add to the challenge as desired.

Constantly Snoring? You Could Suffer From Sleep Apnea

Sleep is very important yet many take it for granted. It is recommended that one gets at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night in order to live a healthy life. Lack of sufficient sleep doesn't just make you feel tired during your waking hours; it is actually a risk factor for numerous serious conditions like diabetes, obesity and even heart failure. There are various conditions that can make it difficult for one to get sufficient, quality sleep a good example being sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is a disorder that affects one's breathing pattern when asleep. It causes a person to stop breathing or breathe very shallowly for a few seconds or even minutes, repeatedly for the entire duration of sleep. The pauses in breathing usually occurs multiple times every hour, and as a result, the affected person moves from deep to shallow sleep consequently affecting sleep quality.
Shallow sleeping is not good as it hinders the body's natural repair process. As a result, when you wake up every morning feeling tired. Sleep apnea is a chronic problem which makes most people to suffer from chronic exhaustion. The following are some of the symptoms of this sleep condition.
Waking up with a headache: due to multiple pauses in breathing during the duration of sleep, the body is denied sufficient supply of oxygen. The problem also causes an increase in blood carbon dioxide level. As a result, the heart is forced to work harder in order to restore normalcy; this of course means that blood pressure increases which in turn causes a headache.
Trouble paying attention: If you don't get sufficient sleep then your brain won't be able to repair fully, and as a result, you will have trouble being attentive at work, in class and other environments.
Irritability: Insufficient sleeps translates to insufficient rest. If your body is not well rested, then you will find it hard to relax and consequently even the slightest of provocation will get you all worked up. Lack of sufficient rest may also affect libido and cause depression.
Heavy snoring: this is caused by blockage of the air passage.
Waking up with a dry mouth and/or sore throat
Waking up in the middle of the night gasping for air
Clearly, sleep apnea can affect one's quality of life; the good news, however, is that treatment is readily available and in most cases it is pretty effective. Dr Poss has the necessary expertise to treat moderate conitions. Being a dentist, he uses various oral appliances to tackle this problem. CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) is one of the most common treatment approaches. In this case, one is required to wear a mask that allows for continuous delivery of oxygen throughout the duration of sleep.
The mask is, however, quite uncomfortable, and this is why Dr Poss has alternatives a good example being custom-made snoreguards. If you are in need of sleep apnea treatment, then it would be a good idea to visit him so that he can assess, and consequently, provide you with a custom solution.

Cell Phone Radiation Is Dangerous To Your Health

Everywhere you go you see a familiar sight: a very large number of people with a cell or mobile phone by their head engaged in what has become a daily ritual - chatting away for minutes or even hours at a time on the latest, trendiest new cell phone.
But have you considered for a moment the long term consequences of mobile phone radiation on your body and in particular your head and brain? This report takes a look at some of the research in order to give you a better answer to that question.
Cell Phone Radiation Danger
New research reports that using your mobile phone for only 4 minutes will increase the temperature on the side of your head by up to 7 degrees Fahrenheit. This is scary! Can you imagine how much it can heat up your head if you were to use a mobile phone for an hour!
Cell phone radiation levels have in many studies been found to be dangerously high. And it is this radiation that can and does lead to increased risks to the user of the cell phone.
For example, a Swedish scientific team at the Karolinska Institute conducted a study (2004) that suggested that regular use of a mobile phone over a decade or more was associated with an increased risk of particular type of benign brain tumor (acoustic neuroma).
The increase was not noted in those who had used phones for fewer than 10 years.
Mobile Phone Radiation is in my opinion a health hazard, and cell phone radiation has the potential to cause you long term harm unless you look into some form of cell phone radiation protection.
Cell Phone Radiation Facts
This is something to take seriously! Don't let yourself be the test subject in a huge experiment by the cell phone manufacturers - they don't care about your health, they are only interested in selling you're their latest radiation producing device!
There is more evidence to support my point of view that cell phone
In 2007, Dr. Lennart Hardell, from rebro University in Sweden, reviewed published epidemiological papers and found that:

• Cell phone users had an increased risk of malignant gliomas.
• Link between cell phone use and a higher rate of acoustic neuromas.
• Tumors are more likely to occur on the side of the head that the cell handset is used.
• One hour of cell phone use per day significantly increases tumor risk after 10 years or more.

Author, lecturer, and electronics engineer, L. Lloyd Morgan, hit the nail on the head when he said:
"Exposure to cell phone radiation is the largest human health experiment ever undertaken, without informed consent, and has some 4 billion participants enrolled."
To me this is worrying stuff, and it is something to be concerned about. I believe that the key points to take from all this research are:

• Mobile phone use does increase your chances of brain tumors
• It takes at least 10 years of repeated mobile phone use before tumors will appear
• Age is important - using a mobile phone before 20 yrs of age significantly increases your chances of developing a brain tumor.