The Busy Fitness Pro

Posts Tagged ‘health’

The importance that exercise plays in the health of the individual is now universally recognized. Everyone should be incorporating exercise into their life as a regular part of their life routine. As true as this is, there are special reasons why regular exercise helps those in recovery lead a healthier life. Exercise improves a person’s outlook on life and raises their sense of well being. This eliminates any desire to reach for a drug to artificially improve how you feel in life. Many people have used drugs in the past to compensate for negative feelings. However, if you greatly alleviate, or even totally eliminate these negative feelings, your need to compensate for them with drugs will no longer exist. This is exactly what happens to most people when they embark on and carry through with a program of regular exercise.

When you hear the word “exercise” do you think of it as something that is pleasant or unpleasant, as fun or work? How you feel about exercise plays a role in how often you will do it? Have fun when you exercise because if you are having fun when you exercise, you will automatically find it more pleasant. Focus on how good it feels to move your body. Remember also, if life makes you stressed and tense, exercise automatically releases stress and tension and gives you more energy. You can’t help feeling better about life and yourself too. So think of exercise as a wonderful way to make yourself feel better in just a short amount of time.

If you’re feeling stressed and down, exercising will pick you up and make you feel better and more resourceful. And by releasing stress, you will no longer be drained of energy from stressors and tension creating situations that occur in your daily life. What did you do in the past when you had a stressful day? Did you hurt yourself by doing unhealthy things like overeat, drink, smoke or worse? Now you will be making a conscious choice to do what makes you healthier, while achieving the exact same goals of relieving your daily stress and making yourself better, with fun exercise. You’ll have made a new commitment to yourself to treat yourself better by respecting your physical being and becoming healthier and healthier.

Later on in this article I will discuss an often neglected aspect of the health promoting qualities of exercising, but first I want to discuss what types of exercises are best for you.
The most valuable exercise and the most valuable piece of equipment for doing this exercise is obvious, but usually not known by most personal trainers, who often seem to have a particular favorite regardless of the individual they are advising. It is, to put it succinctly, any exercise that you will enjoy doing regularly. People often ask fitness advisors what piece of equipment they should buy to work out on. Well, the correct answer is the one you will enjoy using and thus will use consistently and regularly. For example one person might enjoy a rowing machine in their home, while another might enjoy a treadmill. While, again, another might enjoy using a climber or stair-like workout piece of equipment. People have different tastes, and that must be recognized and acted upon. Just because your friend has an exercise bike at home, doesn’t mean you should get one instead of say, an elliptical trainer that you would find more fun.

Often people are being advised to “watch television when you work out,” I, on the other hand, typically advise my clients, to “work out when you watch television.” When you are listening to your favorite music, you can also work out at the same time. If you have time to watch your favorite TV shows or again, if you have time to listen to some of your favorite albums, then, right there, you DO have time to work out, which can be done at the very same time. You probably have noticed that there are television sets in fitness centers. This strategy can easily be applied within your home. So have the equipment right there in your television room, and get on it whenever you watch television. In fact, a sedentary life style created by people spending hours sitting in front of a TV can be totally turned around, so that watching TV becomes the thing that propels you along the new path of getting a lot of exercise into your life. You don’t even have to go to a gym, you don’t even have to go outside, and you don’t even have to set aside extra time, just do it while you are watching your favorite TV programs in your own home.

Of course, you can also get good exercise and fresh air at the same time with an outside exercise such as walking, jogging or biking. However, you should only do these if you enjoy them. Since running can leave some people with wear and tear injury because of its impact nature, walking is more highly recommended because it is much safer.

It might surprise some of you that I believe that strength training is equally as important to good health as aerobic exercise. Doing aerobic exercise can improve the strength of your muscles, but only up to a certain point because a particular aerobic exercise will provide only so much resistance, so that after awhile, you are only maintaining the muscle you have already developed and not building any more muscle. The value of strength training for the health of every individual is becoming more and more recognized in the fitness world. It is now accepted that working out with heavy resistance provides benefits far beyond just being stronger and looking better.

Today using heavier resistance, moving at very very slow tempos, in both directions, and quickly reaching the point of failure, when you just cannot move the resistance any longer, is considered the best form of strength training. At the moment when your body tries but cannot overcome and move the resistance any longer, your muscle will signal your body to stimulate muscle growth to increase your muscle’s strength, and also improve the metabolic functions employed in the use of your muscles, so that any future challenge can be more easily met. Maintaining a slow rate of movement in both directions eliminates the effects of momentum, and counters the effects of gravity as the weight inside the workout machine is being lowered. This system of slow training with heavy resistance creates a more intense and productive workout while lessening any potential injury to the body, both through the very slow speed of movement and the reduced number of repetitions. This is the form of strength training I recommend, both to achieve the results you desire and protect you from any injuries. Because of the large increase of the resistance you will be dealing with, this method of working out is best done only using exercise machines, rather them free weights. In addition, proper form must be maintained at all times, both to prevent injury and insure you will get a proper workout that will provide all the benefits that are intended. When people hurry through their strength training by doing many rushed repetitions instead of going slowly, and jerk the weight, twist their body, clench their teeth and hold their breath, they are doing wrong things that will only keep them from making good progress in a safe way. I want to further reiterate that no matter what type of weight training you do, it is essential that you breathe freely and never ever hold your breath.

The positive side of this increased effort from using much heavier resistance, and slower and fewer repetitions in your fitness center’s machines, is that your sessions working out can be much much shorter in duration. With this new method that is more and more recognized as the best way to train, you can be finished with your complete workout in a surprisingly short time while achieving better results than you might have experienced the regular way. Strength training this way strengthens your bones, improves your cardiovascular health, improves your flexibility, makes your joints more stable and less prone to injury, and by improving your metabolism, helps you replace fat with muscle! Your added muscle will make everything in life easier to do and make you feel more energetic, thus, raising your spirit and mood.

Some people promote weight training as the complete answer to becoming and staying fit and insist that there is no additional need to be active. The truth is that even were you to work out with very heavy weights a couple of times a week, if you aren’t staying active the rest of the week you will not be able to maintain your health. The reason for this is that an integral part of keeping yourself healthy and young is the working of your body’s lymphatic system. Unfortunately this aspect of staying healthy has not received the attention it really deserves. This system is particularly important for the health of anyone in recovery since its main role is detoxification. Most people who have abused drugs have taken in and inundated their body’s systems with toxins. It is very important for those in recovery to do all that they are able to remove these substances from their bodies as quickly and thoroughly as possible. And then, because of a need to continue to feel and be healthy to stay away from drugs, those in recovery should remain on a program that keeps their bodies detoxified and clean.

The lymphatic system is the metabolic cleanser of the body. It draws in and carries toward disposal the many substances that need to be removed for the cleansing and detoxification of the body’s systems, including toxins, dead cells, cancer cells, nitrogenous wastes, fatty globules, pathogenic bacteria, infectious viruses, foreign substances, heavy metals, and other waste byproducts that the cells give off. However unlike the blood’s circulatory system which has the heart to pump the blood through its system, the lymph system lacks a pump to move the lymph fluid with all its waste through its many capillaries and ducts toward disposal. It is absolutely vital that the lymph fluids continue to flow in order to eliminate waste from the body, otherwise the toxicity of the body will increase leading to poor health and disease. Using a set of one way valves, lymph is moved along the vessels of the lymph system by the movement and contraction of the muscles during activity. Now you understand why just working out once a week, is not enough even though that will give you more muscle, stronger bones and a better working metabolism to burn calories to become and stay thinner. Spending the rest of the time sitting in your office 9 to 5 during the day, and in front of your television as a passive and sedentary person during the evening, will not keep your lymph system properly active to promote health. Without regular exercise, the toxicity of the body would build up because of a relatively inactive lymph system.

One very good exercise that is fun and can be done while watching television or listening to music is rebounding. Running or jumping up and down in place on a rebounder burns calories effectively. Using one of these mini-trampolines is remarkably gentle on ones joints and avoids the wear and tear of other similar activities, and it can burn as many or even more calories as other similar activities like running and jumping rope.

But more importantly, in regard to our present discussion on detoxification during recovery, this bouncing activity, running or jumping on a rebounder, effectively moves and recycles the lymph within the lymphatic system. In the end, it is very effective for detoxification and for continuing to keep your body in a cleaner less toxic state.

Those of you who have not been exercising and keeping your body in the best of health are going to be surprised and delighted with how much better you will be feeling and enjoying life when you have a stronger body and you are getting a lot of health enhancing exercise.

Technorati Tags: Addiction, aerobics, Drugs, exercise, health, Recovery, Toxins, weight training

If you’re one of the approximately 67% of Americans that are wired into the internet, there’s a good chance that sometime in the last 24 hours you’ve received at least one spam email promoting the latest and greatest diet pill or weight loss program. These diet products promise fast weight loss results, often without any effort or exercise. The never-ending promise of a weight loss pill that actually works keeps us hoping for eventual success.

At the same time, we’re continually inundated with news of the most recent diet and how this time it’s really going to work for us. The South Beach Diet, the Zone Diet, the Atkins Diet, the Low Carb Diet, the Cabbage Soup Diet, the Mediterranean Diet, the LA Weight Loss Diet, the Weight Watchers Diet, the Diabetic Diet, the Low Cholesterol Diet, the Prescription Pill Diet, the 3 Day Diet, the Low Fat Diet, the High Protein Diet, the Maker Diet, the Liquid Diet, the Grapefruit Diet, the Fad Diet, the Blood Type Diet, the GI Diet, the Vegetarian Diet, the Vegan Diet, the Detox Diet, the Dash Diet, the Candida Diet, the Gluten Free Diet, the Hollywood Diet, the Negative Calorie Diet, the 1200 Calorie Diet, the Raw Food Diet, the Phentermine Diet, the High Fiber Diet, the Macrobiotic Diet, the Science Diet, the Lemonade Diet, the Scarsdale Diet, the Diverticulitis Diet and the Fat Flush Diet are all examples of diet plans that promise to help us achieve quick weight loss.

Crash diets, weight loss pills and get-thin-quick gimmicks are more prevalent than ever, yet two-thirds of our population is still overweight. Even more startling is the fact that approximately one-third of the people in our country are clinically obese.

With all of these ‘solutions’ available to us, why is it that obesity trends have been alarming enough to prompt the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) to label obesity a national epidemic? Why are we still, as a nation, getting fatter? It’s certainly not because we’re not trying.

On the contrary, as a nation we’re trying harder than ever to lose fat through diet and other weight loss products. As reported by CNN on 1-14-05 “Americans were expected to spend more than $40 billion in 2004 on weight control pills, gym memberships, diet plans and related foods, estimates Marketdata Enterprises, which studies the weight loss industry.” Furthermore, statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that 80 percent of overweight individuals and almost 87 percent of obese individuals are trying to lose or maintain their weight.

As reported by mygoals.com, 80 percent of Americans made a New Year’s resolution in 2005. A whopping 26 percent of those resolutions were to improve overall health and fitness, making this the top category for self-improvement. This year was no anomaly, either, according to Amy O’Connor, deputy editor of Prevention magazine: “Fifty-nine million people every year resolve to lose weight.”

So, is there a healthy diet product out there that will actually work? More than likely, the answer is yes. Although there is quite a bit of fraudulent weight loss merchandise on the market today, there is also (somewhere out there) a diet program and weight loss plan that will work for us. The challenge is to find that diet product or diet plan.

-> Repeat Business:

The diet and weight loss industry is a huge money making machine. According to Marketdata Enterprises, the annual revenue for the diet industry was over $30 billion dollars in 1990. A 2005 report by Stanford University documents that the consumer diet industry is now approximately $44 billion and growing. With all this money flowing around, haven’t we as a country spent enough to fix the obesity problem once and for all?

How can the diet industry keep making more and more money, year after year? After all, $44 billion dollars is a lot of cash! The answer to that question is simple: repeat business. “98% of today’s dieters gain the weight back in 5 years. 90% of those individuals end up gaining back more than they lost originally, due to the body’s panic and efforts to stabilize metabolic rates over the long term” (Source: Stanford University; stanford.edu).

How do the diet-promoters get all that repeat business? The diet industry is a very unique enterprise in that, when it fails someone, they rarely blame the product. We are hard-pressed to find another business where, if the product doesn’t work, we blame ourselves. All too often, after giving up on yet another diet program, we find ourselves thinking “Well, I guess I’m just not a good enough dieter.” The tendency is for us to believe that we failed the diet rather than the other way around.

Apply this same logic to the automotive industry, and it soon becomes clear just how faulty this line of reasoning really is. What would happen if we take our car in to the mechanic for repairs and when we returned to pick it up he told us that although we still had to pay the bill, he was unable to fix the problem? Would we willing pay the bill anyway and just say “Oh well, I guess it’s just a bad car?” Of course not! That would be ridiculous! But that’s exactly what we do when it comes to diets.

-> One Size Does Not Fit All:

What we need to realize is that there is probably a weight loss product or weight loss plan out there that will work for us, but it may not be the same one our friends or co-workers used. To find the best weight loss program for us, we absolutely must realize that one size does not fit all. What worked for our sibling or spouse may not work for us, and what works for us may not work for them.

It’s probably safe to say that any diet supplement has helped somebody, but it’s also true that no weight loss drug or plan has helped everybody. Each person has a unique metabolism and very individual nutritional needs, so no single plan will work for everyone.

-> How To Find The Right Weight Loss Diet:

Some fat burner products on the market today do indeed work. Others are a complete rip-off. How do you tell the difference? Where do you go for accurate and reliable weight loss information?

First and foremost, talk with your doctor. Your own personal physician is likely to be honest with you and provide you with the facts. In addition, he or she can help you decide which weight loss supplement may be right for your personal situation.

There are also quite a few reputable organizations that provide accurate information on fat loss. Some of the better resources include:
* American Cancer Society – www.cancer.org
* Centers For Disease Control – www.cdc.gov
* Diet Scam Watch – www.dietscam.org
* Calories Per Hour – www.caloriesperhour.com
* Harvard Medical School – www.health.harvard.edu
* Mayo Clinic – www.mayoclinic.org
* Shape Up America – www.shapeup.org
* Calorie Control Council – www.caloriecontrol.org
* President’s Council On Physical Fitness – www.fitness.gov

When seeking a healthy weight loss plan, it’s important that no food be strictly forbidden. There should not be any (or many) foods that we avoid completely 100% of the time. Why? Because that sets us up for failure! For example, if fudge is one of our favorites and we force ourselves to NOT eat fudge at the holiday party, then for many of us what we’ve done is set ourselves up for a binge fudge-festival.

Avoiding our favorite foods entirely is a too much self-deprivation for most people, and this sets us up for binge-eating. That’s a recipe for disaster!

A much better approach is to enjoy foods in moderation. Watch those serving sizes! Enjoy and savor one piece of fudge! It’s better to enjoy one piece of fudge and then stop than attempt to deprive ourselves entirely, only to end up eating the whole pan.

A good diet and nutrition program will also help us keep in mind the cost of the foods we eat. We’re not talking about dollars and cents here, but the FITNESS cost of the food. When picking up that fudge, keep in mind what it will cost to enjoy it. When picking up a plate at the buffet table, let’s take a moment to pause and think to ourselves: “The cost of this fudge will be an extra _____ minutes of exercise…..is that worth it to me?” Maybe. Maybe not. That’s for each of us to decide on our own.

The point is that we should be conscious of our food decisions. No foods are forbidden entirely, but we do need to watch our portion sizes and carefully consider the cost of each food. Any good weight management program will incorporate these concepts and also will be approved by your doctor.

-> How To Find The Right Weight Loss Supplement:

Perhaps even more so than with weight loss diets, when searching for weight loss supplements it is critical to rely on the advice of your physician. The careful and supervised use of weight loss diet pills, combined with a sensible diet and regular exercise, can lead to quick weight loss and even easy weight loss (or at least easier than you expected).

Beware, however, the supplement scams on the market. It seems that every time we turn around we are blasted and bombarded with the latest, greatest, new and improved treatment for obesity. The gimmicks just keep coming. The sad truth is that few of these products work. Even fewer will result in real, permanent and lasting fat loss. A very few of the weight loss gimmicks on the market today are not only a consumer rip-off, but they are also quite dangerous…..even deadly.

As an example, consider the prescription diet drug Meridia. Does it help you lose weight? For some people, the answer is yes. For others, the answer is no. Can it kill you? The answer to this question seems to be a nervous ‘maybe’. “The consumer group Public Citizen had petitioned the Food and Drug Administration for a ban, citing Meridia users who died of heart problems as young as their 20s and 30s. Even before Meridia was approved for sale, the FDA knew it could increase users’ blood pressure, the group contended.” (Source: cnn.com)

This week the FDA again refused to ban Meridia, even though whistleblower David Graham (an FDA drug safety officer) testified to Congress last fall that his agency was allowing five unsafe medicines to stay on the market, including Meridia.

Another example of a dangerous weight loss drug is ephedra. Ephedra was banned in the United States last year, in part due to numerous deaths attributed to this popular weight loss supplement. On April 14 2005, a federal Judge in Utah reversed the short-lived ban on ephedra. Within minutes, spammers were filling our email boxes with messages to BUY BUY BUY before ephedra was banned again.

Yes, ephedra will help some people lose weight. Yes, ephedra is safe for some people in low doses. But there is that little nagging fact that people have DIED and that their deaths have been attributed to ephedra use…..

Yet another example of a dangerous diet drug is steroids. For whatever reason, some people have decided that anabolic steroids are the best way to lose weight. Despite the well-documented and serious side-effects of steroid use, the lure of easy weight loss has caused many to throw caution to the wind. Perhaps the most concerning trend is steroid use among our teenage population: “Teens also listed steroids, growth hormone, amino acids and other potentially unhealthful products among those they’d tried in the previous year.” (Source: cnn.com)

There do exist, however, some diet supplements that work and are also quite safe. Again, it is never a good idea to begin any supplementation program without first seeking the advice and approval of your doctor.

Three popular and dependable fat loss products designed to help you lose weight fast are ChromeMate, Lipotropic Plus and Super L-Carnitine.

Chromium helps insulin metabolize fat, turn protein into muscle and convert sugar into energy. ChromeMate, a unique form of niacin-bound chromium, is designed to optimize energy output. It accomplishes this by increasing the amount of glucose available for energy production nearly twenty-fold. It also is the “master” nutrient for controlling blood sugar, which in turn curbs sugar cravings. What’s more, a study at Auburn University showed that ChromeMate reduced LDL cholesterol by an average of 14%. In fact, ChromeMate has been awarded a patent for lowering cholesterol.

The Lipotropic Plus Formula is scientifically-engineered to assist in the breakdown, distribution and burning (oxidation) of fatty acids. The active ingredients actually accelerate the fat-burning process by breaking down fat cells into smaller particles (emulsification) to be used for fuel during exercise.

Super L-Carnitine is essential for fat burning. I.B. Fritz and K.T.N. Yue, physiologists from the University of Michigan, discovered that Carnitine actually accelerates fat-burning. Without it, fat is unable to penetrate the walls of the mitochondria of the muscle cells. Carnitine is the shuttle that carries fat into your body’s furnaces (muscles) to be burned for energy. Super L-Carnitine increases the rate of fat utilization for fuel.

-> Weight Loss Exercise:

In this article we’ve been discussing weight loss diets and weight loss supplements. At this point it is essential that we add the third and most important component of overall health and fitness: exercise.

Exercise is one weight loss method that has never been banned, has never led to an investigation, and has never been been listed on a ‘whistleblower’ fraud report.

Exercise is the only path to health and fitness that virtually every doctor in the world agrees upon. Exercise is safe, effective, and brings many more benefits to our lives than diets or drugs ever will alone. Exercise is fun, invigorating, motivating and the single most powerful way to improve our life and well-being!

Yes, it’s quite possible to lose weight without participating in regular exercise. However, diet and exercise combined will help us burn fat faster than we thought possible! Weight loss achieved by regular exercise and diet will be healthy weight loss because of all the benefits we obtain from regular exercise:

1. Strengthens muscles
2. Strengthens bone
3. Strengthens ligaments
4. Strengthens tendons
5. Strengthens immune system
6. Improves muscle tone
7. Improves endurance
8. Improves strength
9. Improves self esteem
10. Improves confidence
11. Improves balance
12. Improves physical appearance
13. Improves physical performance
14. Improves glucose tolerance
15. Improves circulation
16. Improves memory
17. Lower risk of heart disease
18. Lower risk of diabetes
19. Lower risk of cancer
20. Lower blood pressure
21. Lower cholesterol
22. Lower risk of stroke
23. Lower risk of osteoporosis
24. Lower risk of osteoarthritis
25. Lower requirements for medication
26. Lower risk of injury
27. Lower bodyfat
28. Helps with sleep disorders
29. Reduces post-operative complications
30. Reduces frequency of illness
31. Prevent Alzheimer’s disease
32. Prevents muscle loss
33. Increases metabolism
34. Eases symptoms of menopause
35. Healthier pregnancy
36. Fewer problems with childbirth
37. Reduces ovulation problems
38. Prevents heartburn

Reaching your ideal weight via a healthy and active lifestyle has been found to lower health risks and medical problems in 90 percent of overweight patients. In addition to the exercise benefits listed above, fit people are eight times less likely to die from cancer than the unfit, and 53 percent less likely to die from other diseases. Fit people are also eight times less likely to die from heart disease.

Without a doubt, regular exercise is the most important piece of the puzzle and the best way to achieve rapid weight loss. Exercise is the safest way to achieve permanent fat loss, and when combined with a sound diet and nutrition program the body is turned into a virtual fat-burning furnace!

-> Conclusion:

Fast weight loss is possible if we, under the supervision and approval of our doctor, combine a sensible diet with a diet pill or weight loss pill that is safe and effective. When we combine these three fat-burning strategies it is almost guaranteed that we will experience quick weight loss results.

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Other rehabilitation services that you can acquire recently are vocational rehabilitation services. Even though the term of rehabilitation is quite well liked among people, vocational rehabilitation services are not so popular in this world. You actually need to learn about this type of rehabilitation that you may need to get help some days to come.

Vocational rehabilitation services are some of the most essential rehabilitation services that you need to consider. Dissimilar with social rehabilitation services, the vocational rehabilitation services concentrate more on getting the patient work and getting them back to living their life as they did before their injury or accident.

The Details

As paid work is very significant in the health of the patient, vocational rehabilitation services are very imperative. A proffessional will work with the patient here to be sure that they have everything they need. These include support, to get back to living their regular life and finding work that is not only going to be enough financially to get them by, but also which they are going to enjoy.

Where to Get Them

In fact, there are quite a few different vocational rehabilitation services out there at your disposal. The best of the best will be discussed here in detail for you to give you an idea of what is out there and obtainable to you.

California Department of Rehabilitation

California Department of Rehabilitation is your next ideal option for your vocational rehabilitation services. This place offers you their high quality services that will assist you to get back on your feet and get back to living life normally.

They work in partnership with consumers and other stakeholders. Their purposes are to provide services and advocacy resulting in employment, independent living, and equality for individuals and disabilities.

Remember that these are just a couple of examples of all that is out there and all you have offered to you. You really want to make sure that you get the right rehabilitation services for you and your needs. You may need to look around and see what are offered for you there. Additionally, you may want to speak to your doctor and also possibly a therapist if you want the best person to determine this.

Going to the right person to get advice for the best vocational rehabilitation services is very essential. They will be able to appropriately evaluate your condition and situation. Finally, you will have a chance to get the best rehabilitation that will assist you to get better.

So, what are you waiting for? Find out more about vocational rehabilitation services and have a thorough understanding about it by clicking the links here!

Technorati Tags: Advocacy, California Department Of Rehabilitation, Consumer's, Department Of Rehabilitation California, Disabilities, Equality, health, High Quality Services, Independent Living, Partnership, Patient Work, People, Proffessional, Rehabilitation Services, Social Rehabilitation, Social Services, Vocational Rehabilitation

Perhaps you’ve heard the joke about the shocking news headlines from the year 2050: “New study reveals that exercise and proper nutrition is the key to successful weight loss!”

It seems that we’re always looking for a quick and easy way to lose fat, but those darn studies and that reputable research just keeps getting in the way of our dream!

There’s always someone out there telling us we can lose fat without watching our diet and without any exercise. As much as we’d like to believe that’s true, deep down inside we know better. The ads promising that we can ‘get slim quick’ remind us of the ‘get rich quick’ infomercials we see on late-night television. Still, there’s no shortage of ‘get slim quick’ products out there.

A YaHoo search of the term “Easy Weight Loss” yielded about 10,600,000 hits.

A Google search of the phrase “Quick Weight Loss” showed about 14,300,000 recommended sites to visit.

Looking up “Easy Fat Loss” on YaHoo revealed about 4,290,000 answers.

Finally, running a Google search for “I want to lose weight but I don’t want to exercise because I don’t have the time, money or will power” will bring up about 633,000 sites. We’re not kidding!

Compare that to the Google results for “Weight Loss Truth”: only about 2,760,000.

PERMANENT FAT LOSS REQUIRES EFFORT:

Let’s face it, there really is no good way to lose fat without any effort. Successful and permanent weight (fat) loss takes some time, it takes some effort, and it certainly requires some exercise. Consider what Dr. Gabe Mirkin had to say on the subject: “There are many products on the market today that promise to help you lose weight. None will help you unless they get you to exercise more and eat fewer calories.” (Source: The Sportsmedicine Institute, Inc. – DrMirkin.com)

DON’T BE TEMPTED BY SHORTCUTS:

So is it possible to lose weight quickly? Sure, but weight loss achieved quickly and/or by ‘cheating’ will never be permanent and is usually not healthy.

Remember the phen-fen pills that were popular just a few years ago? While they certainly helped you lose weight, they were withdrawn from the market in September of 1997 after being linked to the occurrence of serious cardiac valvular disease, and primary pulmonary hypertension.

Ephedra, another weight loss pill, was pulled from shelves on April 12, 2004. After a careful review of the available evidence about the risks and benefits of ephedra in supplements, the FDA found that these supplements present an unreasonable risk of illness or injury to consumers. The data showed little evidence of ephedra’s effectiveness, except for short-term weight loss, while confirming that the substance raises blood pressure and stresses the heart (Source: nccam.nih.gov).

Please note that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that ephedra was effective for only short-term weight loss. Does that sound like a permanent solution?

There are lots of other ’shortcuts’ out there, from laxatives to harsh stimulants. There are also some honestly good products that can help us lose fat if they are used in conjunction with regular exercise and healthy nutrition. Green tea is a good example. Clinical studies conducted by Dr. Abdul Dulloo, of the University of Geneva in Switzerland brought the conclusion that green tea weight raises metabolic rates and speeds up fat oxidation (Source: green-tea.dminternational.biz).

THE TAKE-HOME MESSAGE:

So what’s the take-home message? The bottom line is that there is no ‘get slim quick’ miracle out there. The only way to achieve permanent fat loss is by following the same advice we’ve been hearing for years: exercise regularly and watch what we eat.

Let’s watch out for products that claim we can achieve the body we’ve always wanted without diet or exercise. We know that’s not true, so let’s not be tempted by the empty promise.

Technorati Tags: Curves, diet, Dr Gabe Mirkin, Drmirkin, Easy Weight Loss, exercise, fat, Fewer Calories, Fit, Fitness, Franchise, Google, Google Results, Google Search, Gym, health, Infomercials, Late Night Television, News Headlines From, Nutrition, Phen Fen, Proper Nutrition, Reputable Research, Shocking News, Shortcuts, Slim, Sportsmedicine, Time Money, training, weight, Weight Fat Loss, workout, Yahoo Search, Year 2050

Despite its popularity, there are no published randomized controlled trials in humans to show hoodia is safe or effective in pill form.
One study published in the September 2004 issue of Brain Research found that injections of p57 into the appetite center of rat brains resulted in altered levels of ATP, an energy molecule that may affect hunger. The animals receiving the P57 injections also ate less than rats that received placebo injections. However, this was an animal study and injections in the brain are different from oral consumption, so it cannot be used to show that oral hoodia can suppress appetite in humans.
The manufacturer Phytopharm cites a clinical trial involving 18 human volunteers that found hoodia consumption reduced food intake by about 1000 calories per day compared to a placebo group. Although intriguing, the study wasn’t published or subjected to a peer-review process, so the quality of the study cannot be evaluated.

What are the Side Effects of Hoodia?
There have not been any side effects reported from eating Hoodia or from taking the P-57 molecule. Remember, for thousands of years that Bushmen have eaten Hoodia Gordonii plants with no ill side effects.
How do I Know if it’s Pure Hoodia?
There are widespread reports of counterfeit hoodia products. Mike Adams of News Target, estimates that 80 percent of hoodia products are contaminated or counterfeit. It is impossible to know if a hoodia product contains pure hoodia and the active ingredient, unless it has been tested by an independent laboratory.
We have tested the leading Hoodia Brands and have selected three products that we feel offer the safest, most effective weight loss on the market today.
Latin Name: Hoodia gordonii
Other Names: hoodia, xhooba, !khoba, Ghaap, hoodia cactus, South African desert cactus
Hoodia (pronounced HOO-dee-ah) is a cactus-like plant that grows primarily in the semi-deserts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola.
In the last few years, hoodia has been heavily marketed for weight loss and has become immensely popular.
Although there has always been a demand for diet pills, after the ban on the herb ephedra, the market was particularly ripe for the next new diet pill.
Much of hoodia’s popularity stems from claims that the San Bushmen of the Kalahari desert relied on hoodia for thousands of years to ward off hunger and thirst during long hunting trips.
They were said to have cut off the stem and eat the bitter-tasting plant.
Hoodia gordonii grows in clumps of green upright stems. Although it is often called a cactus because it resembles one, hoodia is actually a succulent plant.
It takes about five years before hoodia gordonii’s pale purple flowers appear and the plant can be harvested.
There are over 13 types of hoodia. The only active ingredient identified so far is a steroidal glycoside that has been called “p57″. Currently, only hoodia gordonii is thought to contain p57.

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