More People Than Ever Want To Get Fit

I was watching the news this morning and sports wear, the clothes you exercise with, is taking over the casual clothing market. We all know that exercising has been shoved down our throats for the last couple decades but it hasn't been until recently that more people of all ages are actually taking exercise seriously. You can go to the "Y" or any health club and you can see people of all ages. So why is being thin gotten so popular?

We know people are working longer now, and the competition for jobs is getting much harder. It's no secret that today the slim and trim people are doing better in the job interviews. They just look like their a more serious applicant. They look like their a harder worker. Your perception is a big part of a job interview and if you give the perception that you're a harder working employee than you might have the advantage.

We still have a majority  of overweight adults  but this might be the last generation. I think in twenty years you will see a big change in what we eat and how we take care of ourselves. Young people are adopting this new lifestyle and some of the over 40 group are all in. It's not that fast food is on the way out, but all food will be changing. I thing that finely all of us realize that we need more from the food you're eating. A new trend has started with younger adults and instead of looking for comfort food they're looking for healthy food. I'm not saying that comfort food is on the way out, but I thing in years to come we will see less of it.

When we get comfort food and other fried foods out of the schools and replace it with healthy food and healthy snacks that's when you'll see a difference in the way young people look at food in general. That's where we have to start making a change in eating habits. The government had a good idea when they wanted to change the food in schools but they didn't know how to implement it. Those changes have to be done on the local level. Parents have to get involved and demand change and then you'll see results. We also need to teach physical education again. Elementary School in particle stopped physical education due to budget cuts, so parents are finding outside activities for their kids and it's expensive and time consuming and most kids can't join in. Most of the schools in the suburbs have gym classes and other after school sports but inner city school have often been forced to cut out those programs.

Learning good health like diet and exercise has to be taught in schools from the earliest age if you want to create healthy habits that the child will care with them for life.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Dr Oz Says "Skip Breakfast", What?

Of Course, this is taken out of context. Read the whole thing.

Dr. Oz Says “Skip Breakfast!” 

Should We?

Jan 17, 2020

In a video-taped interview this week with Fox News, Dr. Oz admits that doctors don’t learn much about nutrition in med school. I wondered then, how did he discover this remarkable “new” idea of skipping breakfast? He learned this dietary concept through Hugh Jackman. A terrific, talented and one of my favorite actors, but hardly an expert on physiological nutrition.



Dr. Oz went on to claim the average person eats continually over a 17 hour day. Very few healthy people I know eat “continuously.” If consuming potato chips at 11pm is a habit, then we have a counseling problem.

I do agree that eating before bedtime is not beneficial to sleep. Sleep releases beneficial growth hormones – lack of it leads to mental deterioration, internal stress and illness.

“I think for 2020, the first thing I’m going to do is ban breakfast,” the celebrity doctor recently told TMZ. “I don’t think we need to eat breakfast. That’s an advertising ploy.”
Well that settles it doesn’t it? If that bastion of newsworthy journalism, TMZ broadcasts it – then it must be true.

Dr. Oz goes on: “Unfortunately, a lot of the dogma that we were fed for decades came out of advertisements. It wasn’t really based on the truth around our health.”
Well that’s true – advertisements are meant to manipulate the public into purchasing their product; but let’s break his statement down.

Never did the doctor clarify what a healthy versus unhealthy breakfast is. Eggs contain countless nutrients which I’ve written about, whole wheat French toast is better than white. There’s a huge distinction between sugary Honey Smacks with a quarter teaspoon of fiber and 5 teaspoons of sugar and Shredded Wheat with a quarter teaspoon of sugar and two teaspoons of fiber. Add a banana, berries and cinnamon for nutritious fructose and added fiber because fiber also allows the body to rid itself of toxins through bowel movements.

Thankfully Mark Wahlberg (who wakes up at 2:30am and eats breakfast at 3:15) and Dietitian Kristin Kirkpatrick, the manager of wellness nutrition services at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute respectfully disagreed with Dr. Oz’s finding.

In response, Dr. Oz shot Mark down, “Well, powerful medical literature and lots of athletes support me and show that intermittent fasting flips the switch so it bolsters your physical and your mental performance.”

Great, I can recruit just as many athletic directors and dietitians who would declare the opposite. But the response of “Oh yeah, did not,” “Did too,” is kind of childish isn’t it? Even if 5,000 men are wrong, they’re still wrong! (old Chinese saying.)

We are all uniquely created. I don’t eat breakfast immediately either – I like to be awake. I don’t measure portion sizes anymore – after measuring several times, usually you’ll know how much is normal.

I DO eat for nutrients. My morning begins around 7am with two cups of coffee, creamer, cinnamon and turmeric, an hour later, ¾ cup of quality yogurt, walnuts, berries and milled flaxseed. About 1/2 to 1 hour later, whole grain cereal and a half banana. At lunch I’ll have variety: a small salad, a half sandwich or planned-overs from the night before. Dinner consists of 3-4 ounces of meat with 5xs more veggies. A small dessert is eaten about 2 hours later. Sometimes in the afternoon I’ll eat a square of dark chocolate.

For my dietary advice I will go to The Great Physician. He lovingly created us individually according to Psalm 139 and Jeremiah 1:5. In Exodus 16:21, God ordered the Israelites to gather manna every morning. Even God believed in breakfast! I’ll cast my lot with my LORD. I believe God’s smarter than any man.

I copied the above from another blog I read when I can. Everyone loses weight differently, but losing weight does have a lot to do with calories and when you eat those calories. A popular method of losing weight today is to consume all your daily calories in a small part of your overall day. In other words, some people try to restrict eating and drinking calories to 8 hours in the middle of the day and consume nothing the other sixteen hours except water. This is popular with those people who skip breakfast anyway. Others will only eat one meal a day and consume nothing except water the other 23 hours. I have even heard that some people will eat normally 3 days a week and "fast" the other 4 days. I believe you have to experiment and do what works for you.

In reality, we all consume too many calories and don't get enough nutrition from the foods we are eating. So how do you get enough nutrients? You eat whole foods. Fresh produce, fresh meat in small amounts, more seafood and consume all your calories in just part of your day. Don't be a "grazor", someone who picks on food in small quantities all day long.

Your body needs time to do other functions besides digesting food. We might think our bodies are good at "multi-tasking" but if you have too much body fat the way you're eating has to change. You are creating your body fat because of the way you eat and things you eat.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.

Why Keep A Food Log

A cookie here. A bowl of pasta there. A handful of veggies drenched in ranch dressing. We think we know what we're taking in nutritionally, but reality is often pretty far off base. If you have trouble keep weight off, there's usually a simple reason why. 

Most of us that watch the scale often know pretty quick that we're gaining weight. Gaining weight, if your not a body builder like those people on Venice Beach in California, probably means your increasing body fat. And if you're like most of us when we want to lose weight, we cut back on food. That's wrong. Most of us don't overeat, we just eat the wrong things. 

In particular, calorie intake when dining out -- which, let's face it, most of us do more often than we should -- is usually grossly underestimated. Even so-called "healthy" meals can get derailed in a hurry, thanks to poor nutritional choices. Salad dressing is the number-one source of fat in [many] women's diets, which attests to how many women turn a good salad into a cardiac disaster. Most restaurant salads with dressing are about 800 calories, some can be even more, like a Chef Salad, Taco Salad, or a Cobb Salad.

When it comes to diet, we do a lot of things right, but most of us manage to make some serious blunders. Keeping a food log can help us get back on track, and it's not as difficult as you might think. See if any of these excuses sound familiar:

But... I don't understand what the point of a food log is. You know those contests where people fill a huge jar with jellybeans and you guess how many the jar holds, but you're wayyyyyyyyy under? That's pretty much what happens when it comes to "eyeballing" your calorie, fat and sodium intake. We think we know what we're consuming, but we're usually light years away from reality. A food log will help you keep track.

But... I don't have time to keep a food log. Back before the World Wide Web, my dad had a book full of foods and their calorie content. He painstakingly researched and recorded each and every meal and added up the calories himself. Let's all raise our voices in thanks for apps that now do the work for us. (I particularly love My Fitness Pal.)

But... I already eat healthy. Keeping a food log isn't only about the obvious culprits, like calories and fat. Most people unknowingly put away far more sodium than they realize in a given day, and we often overestimate our fruit and veggie consumption. A food log can be a wake-up call to improve habits we didn't even know needed fixing.

Fruit and Vegetables should be 3/4 of every meal. When watching calories, never drink anything with calories. You might not realize it but half the calories we consume come from drinks. If your gaining weight it's all about the calories. You can't exercise away a bad diet. Keeping a food log with an App is the quick easy way to keep track of calories. 

Someone was telling me, you can find an App that tells you the calories in any item on any menu. If I find the App I will post it. 

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Getting To A Healthy Weight

Getting to a healthy weight is about changing your lifestyle. Changing what you eat and how you eat. It takes planning to make a lifestyle change. You can’t just make small changes. You have to go all in and start from scratch by first designing a menu you can stick to.
You want to eat fresh. Think about that for a minute, fresh veggies, fresh fruit, frozen is o.k., but frozen without any sauce or syrup. You don’t want to buy any frozen foods that are already prepared and ready to heat and eat. When it comes to meat, poultry or fish be careful of the frozen packages. Read the labels to see if there are any added ingredients. Sodium is your enemy when you’re on a diet. Sodium and sugar or fructose (a chemical substitute for sugar) are two ingredients commonly used in frozen foods and both are not good for your diet.
I know it might cost extra but you want to buy any meat or seafood fresh and of the highest quality. I know you're thinking about your budget; Americans overdose on meat, for some reason we think we need to eat meat at every meal. The truth is seafood should only be eaten 3 times a week in small quantities like 4 ounces, poultry 1 time a week in 4 to 6-ounce quantity, and red meat which includes pork 1 or 2 times a month in 4-ounce quantities. That’s all you need. All meats contain animal fat, even if you can’t see the fat like you can on poultry it’s there and it goes straight to your stored fat area.
If you cut back on the meat you’re eating the cost of groceries shouldn’t change, even if you’re spending more on the meat you buy. In fact, eating fresh and only snacking on fruit, nuts, and seeds should be saving money. Also, drink mainly water, you can flavor it with lemon. Hot or ice tea (no sweetener), or black coffee (no sweetener) non-diary creamer is o.k., check the label for the calorie count.
When you get serious about losing weight you want to stop smoking. If you drink alcohol you want to cut back. Personally, I had to stop all beer and wine when I got serious. After you lose the body fat and get to a healthy weight, you can drink alcohol in moderation. Two drinks a day for a man, one drink a day for women. I don’t know why, that’s what all the books say.
Also if you're going to get to a healthy weight you want to "manage your stress." I understand that most of us have no idea how to do that and some of us don’t realize they have any stress. I was in my own business for 30 years and I know I had stress but I loved stress. Dead-lines, dealing with employees and tax management, I could handle it. Men especially like to be busy and until they have more than they can deal with, they don’t realize the stress they have. The reason I mention stress is that most people manage their stress by eating. Being busy causes a person to become hyper. Then when you want to slow-down, you’ll take a break and that’s when most of us will look for something to eat. It happened to me.
I learned to walk, when I stop working and want to think or just take a break, I’d get up and walk. I might walk for 10 minutes or more until I’m calm and have thought through the situation. When I’m working from home, I use a stationary bike for a break from writing. You might think that writing isn’t stressful but anytime you have to produce work in a certain amount of time, that’s stressful. Learning to manage your stress without eating is a big part of living healthy.
Research shows you can improve your health just by losing between 5% to 10% of your weight. Then depending on how much weight you have to lose, You probably will continue. It does get easier. Losing say, that the first 10% will give you more energy and you’ll feel it. That makes the next 10% easier because you’ll feel better and have more energy so your activity level will increase and you’ll burn more calories just by being more active.
Often when a person becomes overweight they lose the will to be active, therefore they burn fewer calories. That’s the downward spiral you can fall into and the slowing-down is so gradual you don’t realize you're slowing down. Have you ever wondered why an overweight person can eat less than a thin person but not lose weight? The thin person burns more calories naturally. They may not even work out, but they still burn more calories than someone overweight.
If you're someone who has been overweight for some time and has tried dieting, dieting restricts the amount of food you're eating and it’s not healthy. Forget those diets and change to a healthy meal plan. It will take some work on your part. You need to do some research and find a meal plan for yourself. The trick is to eat fresh. No processed foods, no already prepared foods, you make the food yourself.
If you don’t know where to start, you might think about "Weight Watchers”. A beginner, they know how to motivate you and keep you on the right track. You don’t have to stay forever, but you want to stay long enough to learn how to lose and how to keep it off. Don’t buy the food plan, you don’t have to and there are no pills involved. It’s a support program. They teach you how? If you're not a self-starter, this might be the way to go.
If there are no Weight Watchers near you, look online for a location near you or use the “online program”.
E-books are the easiest and cheapest way to learn about any subject without groping through hundreds of websites looking for the material you want.
My first e-book is “HowBadDoYouWantToLoseWeight” and it sells for $2.99 on most online bookstores like Amazon.com, BN.com, iBook, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, and Gardner books in the U.K.
My second e-book is available in the same stores. And on smashwords.com.

Can You Think Your Way To Thin?

It's true that your attitude is 90% of the battle to reach your goal. That's true for any goal your trying to reach. A student would never finish College unless they had the right attitude. You have to want to reach the goal and you're willing to do what it takes and you're not going to give up. Those are the people that win and that's the attitude you need if you want to lose weight. So, losing weight is a mind game per say, but you have to be willing to do the work. Read this post from MedicineNet; they have some good ideas.

Can you really think your way thin? It’s obviously not that simple, but there are little mind tricks you can use to bolster your efforts to lose weight. Try these smart ways to put your brain to work for you:

1. Imagine Yourself Fitter. You’ve undoubtedly heard about the power of visualization. And when it comes to exercise, an important part of any weight loss program, your imagination can be an effective motivational tool. One small study published in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology in 2010 found that adults who imagined their future selves -- either as slimmer and fitter or out-of-shape and inactive – were more apt to stick with their exercise routine. So whether it’s hope or fear, choose whichever motivates you to keep moving.

2. Tweak Your Attitude

You may occasionally catch yourself thinking things like, “There must be an easier way,” or “I wish I could have potato chips instead of carrot sticks.” When this happens, cognitive behavioral therapy expert Judith Beck, PhD, author of The Beck Diet Solution, suggests countering those thoughts with an “oh, well” attitude. In other words, say to yourself, “I may not like this, but I’ll accept it, do what I have to do and move on.” A shorter version? “I want the potato chips but I’m going to skip them. Oh, well.”

3. Focus on the Habit, Not the Calories

You’re really not hungry, but that 100-calorie snack is only … 100 calories. Will it bust your calorie count for the day? Not likely. But here’s the problem: When you cave to that urge to nosh, it doesn’t matter if it has 20 calories or 200. Eating when you’re not hungry reinforces the habit of giving in to temptations, according to Beck. Instead of focusing on calorie count, stop and think about why you’re reaching for food. Are you bored or upset? Is it time for your favorite show and you always eat in front of tube? Whatever the trigger, go for a walk, work on a hobby or call a friend --anything that distracts you from feeding a bad food habit. 

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

About Low-Carb Diets

Another great post from Hungry-Girl website.

Carbs can be downright confusing: Some sources claim that eating carbs can hinder weight loss and cause weight gain; others say carbs are a diet essential.

There are rumors out there that eating carbs can be detrimental to your diet. Low-carb diets have gone through periods of being super popular for weight loss. But here’s the deal:

Reality: Carbs Don’t Make You Gain Weight; Excess Calories Do

Carbs don't cause instant weight gain, but starchy carbs do have a tendency to be calorie-dense. And if you eat too many calories, you’ll probably put on weight, whether those calories are from carbs or another nutrient. Sure, it’s a problem if your diet consists only of carbs, but it’s also problematic if you’re skipping them completely. Carbohydrates play an important role in your diet; they provide energy to your body. The name of the game is balance: The USDA recommends that 45 to 65 percent of an adult’s daily calorie intake comes from carbs, with the remainder of calories coming from a mixture of protein and fat.

When it Comes to Carbs, There Are a Few Things to Keep in Mind

1. Not all carbs are created equal.

Certain carbs are better for your health than others. It’s important to limit refined carbs, which are prevalent in foods like processed white bread and cakes.
The process of refinement means the whole grains have been extracted, removing much of the fiber and nutritional value and leaving you with sugary carbs and empty calories.

A better way to fill your daily carb quota is with complex carbs, which are found in whole foods like oats, whole grains like brown rice, beans, green veggies, and potatoes. Fruits are also carbs along with nuts and seeds. Avoid bad carbs, and eat the good carbs.

I want to but in to this Hungry-Girl post and stress the point of refined carbs. Refined carbs are the enemy of any weight loss diet. These foods are not natural foods. They have been called "Franken-food". Like the monster in the story "Frankenstein" these foods are manufactured and have little or no nutritional value or simple "empty calories". Because manufacturers have been accused of feeding the public junk food many of the products like breakfast cereal and bread are now fortified with vitamins but these are chemical substitutes and there is no proof that our body can absorb them.

In the case of vitamins in bottles, it has been proven that most vitamins don't work or do very little good. The best way to get the vitamins our body needs is in the food we eat. Don't be fooled by advertising. These companies are only interested in your money.

Complex carbs are low in sugar and tend to be high in fiber. And fiber takes longer to digest than other carbs, so it keeps you satisfied and feeling full for a long time. That’s definitely true for me — if I snack on something like an apple, I’m much less likely to reach for a candy bar later in the day.

2. Even complex carbs can be calorie-dense, so watch your servings.

Always read nutritional labels, and practice portion control. One of my favorite ways to enjoy calorie-dense carbs in moderation is to bulk up the serving size with low-calorie foods like veggies: You get the health benefits of the carbs, plus a big portion and a low-calorie count!
If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebook at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.

Your Lifestyle Is Your Medicine

What is disease really caused from?

Understanding this requires thinking about the true, or “root” causes of premature death and disease. For instance, even as I write this, federal data just released indicate that diabetes has moved up as the third leading “cause” of death in the United States, behind heart disease and cancer. Yes, it's true that your lifestyle or what your eating and what your doing is what shapes you. 

What most of us don't know is that the way you live your life will determine how long you live. That means "what you eat and how active you are" will determine how healthy you are. Many of us get the part about "what we eat", but what does activity have to do with your health? If you keep all your muscles active, all your muscles will retain their strength, but if you are only using some of your muscles the other muscles not used will shrink and become flabby. Those muscles will eventually be used to fuel the body's need for energy and that will cause you to become weaker over time. Becoming weaker over time will weaken the immune system and invite illness and disease to enter your body causing premature death. When you allow your percentage of muscle mass to shrink, your body mass will become the larger body mass and then your body fat will rob you of your energy, you become less active and you will build up more and more fat. 

Not eating a well-balanced diet will reduce your energy level and will also cause you to become less active; so both, your food and your active levels are the deciding factors in your health and how long you're going to live.

But the reality is, most diabetes is type 2, and nearly all type 2 diabetes is preventable through a combination of eating well, being active, and controlling weight. In other words, type 2 diabetes is not really a cause, it’s an effect. So, too, for heart disease, cancer, stroke, dementia, most lung disease, and so on. These diseases are the effect of the way you live. All that money you spend at the doctor's office is probably caused by the way you are living your life.

The diseases we tend to think of as the causes of chronic misery and premature death are actually effects of your lifestyle.

The rest, as they say, is history.

One of my favorite studies showed that those people who didn’t smoke, ate vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and little meat routinely, were physically active, and had a healthy weight, were 80 percent less likely to develop ANY major chronic disease than those who went the other way. Just four modifiable factors could explain away 80 percent of the risk for getting ANY major chronic disease. That’s a very big deal.

Sometimes the best defense of the human body resides with the body taking action. So it's not about what medicine can do for you, it's about what you can do yourself to make your body a better place for you to live.

 How Do You Make the Best Choices for You?

While others may use different terminology, the simple fact is that where people live the longest and the best around the world, they are firing on these six cylinders every time. They eat well, are active, tend not to smoke, get enough sleep, aren’t overwhelmed by stress, and have strong social ties. Fire on those six cylinders and the path to more years in life and more life in years is the open road before you.

But of course, firing on those six cylinders is easier said than done, for a number of reasons. First of all, no everyone knows when their body is working properly. Your body is designed to work even under poor conditions, it just won't work as good or as long, but it will always work enough to get by.

You can know when your body is working properly, by the amount of energy you have. This is the first sign that your body may have a problem. Another sign would be weight gain. If your gaining weight as an adult and there's no reason for it, your body is having a problem. These two signs are easily overlooked. We need to be aware of the health signs our body is giving us.

Verywell, in turn, is a daily source of practical information about health—including frequent guidance about these very factors, and how to put them to use in your own life.

I added a few sentences to this very well crafted article by VeryWell.com.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Don't Diet, Just Change What You're Eating

Concentrate on improving your health and the rest will work out. What do I mean? Worrying about the problems in your life will cause you to forget about the big picture, that’s really a backward way to handle the problem. Worrying about money is the main contributor to obesity. Worrying starts a spiral downward that you can’t stop. Worrying starts by causing depression. You have a big problem that you have no solution for; maybe it’s about money or maybe something with your marriage, or maybe a problem with a child.

Yes, these may seem like insurmountable problems. And these types of huge problems in your life will cause you to make changes in your routine. You’re not thinking about your health, you’re not making time for exercise or relationships, instead you’re worrying. If you’re worried about money or your job, then your worrying about how you can cut your budget and that usually starts with the food budget. Personally, I think families today spend too much on cell phone, cable TV, and high-speed internet. I think those industries will come up with cheaper solutions on their own. In the meantime, will will just have to deal with the problem. We can all cut back on services if we really have to.

Now, I probably don’t need to tell you that eating low-cost food, is simply eating food with bulk and very little nutrition.  Foods that are high in nutrition are costly. Did you know, that when you eat food that lacks nutrition, you cause the body to crave food. We can find low-cost food with nutrition like canned tuna and frozen vegetables but you have to do some research.

We all know that the grocery stores charge more for healthier foods. Buy organic fruits and vegetables at an open market and see the difference in price from your supermarket. But wait, did you know that your parents and mine were paying almost 20% of their income for groceries. As the decades past by, food got cheaper. Today the average family only pays about 10% of their income for groceries. Some studies show that price takes some of the blame for the obesity problem. Over the past few generations we have become accustom to eating manufactured foods. And while they are cheaper those foods will lack the nutrition and have more chemicals, salt and sugar then fresh foods and therefore have more calories.

Could it be that cheap food and the availability of that food is causing the over-weight problem in America. I can’t help you with your family problems, but I can tell you that letting your problems affect your health is just insane. You’re only compounding your problems. If you’re in your best health, then you’re better able to deal with your situation. Being in good health and good physical condition will help you think straight and solve those problems. I get my best ideas when I'm walking alone or meditating. Meditating is a great way to relieve stress and to stop your mind from thinking about anything, then at that moment when your mind stops thinking, that when those ideas come out.

Maybe you’re a student or adult, you need a good diet to learn, or just to think straight and to concentrate.  Research shows that students that eat a good breakfast are more alert in class. But to take that a little further, a student in better health and good physical condition will do better in school. Any change in your diet like skipping breakfast will have an immediate effect on your concentration. And the same think will hold true if you're not eating the right foods. The same thing holds true with the over 60 age group, if you’re in better shape, healthier you’re more alert, you’re vitals are better. You take less prescription drugs, spend less time in the doctor’s office and usually are happier and enjoy life more.

Don’t let the problems in your life control you. Once you lose your health, you can lose control of your life. Gaining weight will start the cycle that’s very hard to stop. Gaining weight is the first sign that you could be losing control. Get your health back, you’ll feel better, you’ll feel happier and your problems won’t seem so big. When you’re in the right frame of mind, you’ll find that dealing with life is a lot easier.

Researchers examined the responses of 476 working adults who were surveyed about their exercise behavior and their confidence in handling work-family conflicts. Those who exercised regularly seemed to experience an increased feeling of competence that carried over into work and home roles, the study authors said. "If, for example, you go for a two-mile jog or walk 10 flights of steps at work and feel good about yourself for doing that, it will translate and carry over into other areas of life," said study author Russell Clayton, an assistant professor of management at Saint Leo University in Florida. "We found that [participants] who exercised felt good about themselves, that they felt that they could accomplish tough tasks, and that carried over into work and family life," Clayton added. The study was published in an issue of the journal Human Resource Management.

Volumes of research have shown that exercise lowers mental and physical stress levels. Just over half (55 percent) of the study participants were women. In addition, the study noted, participants worked an average of 40 hours weekly and their average age was 41. About 29 percent had at least one child under age 18 living at home.

"The associations between exercise and work-life balance are there, and they're very strong," Clayton said.

For those who don't exercise regularly, the idea of adding that regimen to a busy schedule to improve stress levels may seem counterintuitive, Clayton noted.

But he advocates the idea of "stolen moments" for exercise that add up, such as climbing the stairs for five minutes or doing jumping jacks in 30-second spurts. I do jumping-jacks first thing in the morning before I get dressed. You can do a lot in one minute and after that your blood is pumping and your awake.

You should think of exercise as a kind of investment. If you put some time into physical activity, for example, 30 minutes a day, the productivity and mental focus you're going to get out of it is going to far exceed what you put into it, from a work and family perspective."

As you can tell, exercise plays a big role in lowering stress levels in your life and will help you to become a healthier, happier person.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Can't Do Yoga, Think Again

If you think you're not the yoga type, think again. Just about anyone can do it, and it's not about bending yourself into a pretzel.

For men and women of all shapes, sizes, ages, and abilities, Yoga builds strength and balance. It's also a great way to ease stress. Yoga is the second most popular form of exercise next to walking.

"In a gym, you're really pushing yourself to go further when you're working out. In yoga, it's the opposite. The poses encourage all the range of motion that the body is designed to do," says Megan Dunne Krouse, a yoga instructor in Chicago.

Doing Yoga When You're Overweight

When Megan Garcia signed up for yoga at Smith College, she felt intimidated because she was the only overweight person in the class. She stuck with it, though, and noticed she started gaining strength, plus feeling and sleeping better, too.

Now she is a plus-sized model and Kripalu-certified yoga instructor who teaches in New York and specializes in teaching yoga to people of all shapes and sizes.

Garcia found that yoga changed her in unexpected ways. "Before I started doing yoga, I really lived life from the neck up," she says. "After yoga, I began to really feel at home in my skin. If I didn't have yoga, I can't imagine feeling so good in my body. Yoga has made it comfortable for me to sit on the floor, to twist, to bend. It grounds me in my body."

RaeAnn Banker, who owns River Yoga in Lahaska, PA, started taking yoga classes on her 42nd birthday as a present to herself.

"I was overweight, and since my mother was morbidly obese, I knew I better do something or I was going to end up just like her," Banker says.

"It took several months of driving by the yoga center before I got up the courage to go in. But once I started, I loved the classes. I was the weakest student in the class, but I kept going," Banker says. "I ended up losing 35 pounds over the next 2 years and becoming a yoga teacher. Yoga literally changed my life."

I personally started yoga at the age of 70. They were offering free classes at the senior center so I thought I'd try. I felt a little out-of-place at first, but after a few weeks, I was getting the hang of it. The instructor was older than me and most of the students were my age. After a few months, I started to lose body fat and build strength. The senior center only offers a class twice a week, but I do Yoga at home on the other days. I'm always trying to do the poses better each time. I don't have to go to class anymore. I know most of the poses but I go anyway, the instructor always adds new poses when she has time to fit them in. 

Today I'm a happier person who has more confidence and strength. I don't care how old I am, it's about how old you feel and I feel 30 years younger. If you're interested in changing your life I wrote two books on the subject.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.