Archive for the ‘nutrition’ Category

It’s time to start a Healthy life!

January 30th, 2011 Jan Tallent

First off, let me admit that I am NOT a health professional. I am, however, a very healthy person.

I read a lot of health related articles and have some clients in the health services profession.

I do a lot of health and weight loss transcriptions and also proofread and edit quite a few medical documents.

I take the best of the advice I can find and work it into my own “health” regimen.

This said, I also am a big fan of PLR content, or Private Label Rights articles that I buy with the rights
to use as my own.

Here is one that I think is really very good. Let me know what you think in the comments
if you have an opinion or some tips you want to share.

“The Way to Wellness” – It’s time to start a Healthy life: your 7 day program

How many times have you gone to sleep at night, swearing you’ll go to the gym in the morning
and then changing your mind just eight hours later because when you get up, you don’t feel
like exercising?

While this can happen to the best of us, it doesn’t mean you should drop the ball altogether
when it comes to staying fit.

What people need to realize is that staying active and eating right are critical for long-term health
and wellness — and that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The more you know about how your body responds to your lifestyle choices, the better you can customize
a nutrition and exercise plan that is right for you. When you eat well, increase your level of physical activity, and exercise at the proper intensity, you are informing your body that you want to burn a substantial amount of fuel. This translates to burning fat more efficiently for energy.

In other words, proper eating habits plus exercise equals fast metabolism, which, in turn gives you
more energy throughout the day and allows you to do more physical work with less effort.

The true purpose of exercise is to send a repetitive message to the body asking for improvement
in metabolism, strength, aerobic capacity and overall fitness and health. Each time you exercise,
your body responds by upgrading its capabilities to burn fat throughout the day and night.
Exercise doesn’t have to be intense to work for you, but it does need to be consistent.

I recommend engaging in regular cardiovascular exercise four times per week
for 20 to 30 minutes per session, and resistance training four times per week
for 20 to 25 minutes per session.

This balanced approach provides a one-two punch, incorporating aerobic exercise to burn fat
and deliver more oxygen, and resistance training to increase lean body mass and burn more
calories around the block.

Here’s a sample exercise program that may work for you:

* Warm Up — seven to eight minutes of light aerobic activity intended to increase blood flow
and lubricate and warm-up your tendons and joints.

* Resistance Training — Train all major muscle groups.
One to two sets of each exercise. Rest 45 seconds between sets.

* Aerobic Exercise — Pick two favorite activities -jogging, rowing, biking, cross-country skiing
or whatever fits your lifestyle. Perform 12 to 15 minutes of the first activity and continue with
10 minutes of the second activity. Cool down during the last five minutes.

* Stretching — Wrap up your exercise session by stretching, breathing deeply, relaxing and meditating.

When starting an exercise program, it is important to have realistic expectations.
Depending on your initial fitness level, you should expect the following changes early on.

* From one to eight weeks — Feel better and have more energy.

* From two to six months — Lose size and inches while becoming leaner.
Clothes begin to fit more loosely. You are gaining muscle and losing fat.

* After six months — Start losing weight quite rapidly.

Once you make the commitment to exercise several times a week, don’t stop there.

You should also change your diet and/or eating habits,’ says Zwiefel.
Counting calories or calculating grams and percentages for certain nutrients is impractical.
Instead, I suggest these easy-to-follow guidelines:

* Eat several small meals (optimally four) and a couple of small snacks throughout the day.

* Make sure every meal is balanced — incorporate palm-sized proteins like lean meats, fish, egg whites
and dairy products, fist-sized portions of complex carbohydrates like whole-wheat bread and pasta,
wild rice, multigrain cereal and potatoes, and fist-sized portions of vegetable and fruits.

* Limit your fat intake to only what’s necessary for adequate flavor.

* Drink at least eight 8-oz. glasses of water throughout the day.

* I also recommend that you take a multi-vitamin each day to ensure you are getting
all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

None of these are drastic or hard to achieve.

We only live once and we deserve to enjoy it!

If you like the idea of using Private Label Rights articles that you can edit and use on your own sites
or make reports or even an eBook from, the link embedded in the words Private Label Rights above
will take you to a package with 600 of them ready for you!

Posted in common sense, healthy living, nutrition, weight loss Tags: , , , 2 Comments »

Understanding Leptin…A Key to Unlock Your Metabolism

November 8th, 2010 Jan Tallent

When you are in the weight loss game, getting leptin on your team is essential.
This powerful hormone is produced in fat cells and is a primary force in weight management.

Communicating directly to your brain, this hormone surveys the state of your internal affairs
and instructs the brain as to when you are full and how much fat is in storage.

When working properly, all is well. You eat until satisfied and excess fat is burned up with ease.

Unfortunately… things do not often work as they should. And when leptin stops working,
food cravings, overeating and a sluggish metabolism are the result.

I recently had the great pleasure of interviewing Dr. Jennifer Dyer, endocrinologist,
on the subject and am re-releasing the recording on my new Healing with the Experts site.

If you are struggling with hunger and feel like giving up, listen to this interview right away.
Dr. Dyer provides strategies to help make your leptin work better so that losing weight isn’t so hard.

To access the call, go to HealingWithExperts.com.

A Little About Leptin

As I mentioned above, fat cells produce leptin and one would think that extra fat cells
producing extra leptin would equal a sense of being full most of the day.
However, just as insulin resistance occurs, so does leptin resistance
and the brain no longer “hears” the “I’m full” signals and urges the body to eat more.

Worse, because the brain senses that a famine has occurred (because it is no longer “hearing”
the leptin signals), it slows down the metabolism to conserve energy (including lowering thyroid production).

This creates a vicious cycle of lowered energy and increased hunger which create more fat cells that produce more leptin and on and on and on.

As leptin is a protein hormone, you can not boost or support your leptin levels with oral medications
as it will break down and become ineffective in the digestive system. Plus, for most people, the problem
is that they have too much leptin, adding more leptin is simply counter productive.

So don’t spend money on the leptin supplements begin sold.

The best you can do is help your leptin work better by eating omega 3 rich foods, lots of fruits
and vegetables and exercising most days of the week. Eat real food, not chemically created faux foods.
Drink adequate amounts of water and teas and use stevia or xylitol as a sweetener, if you must.

Again, the call with Dr. Dyer is at HealingWithExperts.com.

Internationally certified life and health coach Lynette Patterson, ACC
is a respected health care professional and author of Unlock Your Metabolism.
For more information, visit UnlockYourMetabolism.com
or visit her blog at UnlockYourMetabolism.com/BLOG.

thanks so much for this guest post Lynette. I just love being on your team as a Virtual Assistant
and not only do I learn so much from your great teachings, but I sincerely adore you!

Posted in healthy living, nutrition, weight loss Tags: , , No Comments »

To Go or Not to Go Herbal

September 17th, 2010 Jan Tallent

To Go or Not to Go Herbal, that is the Question …

Many people are turning to “organics” and “naturals”, otherwise known as herbals.

The rising popularity of herbal supplements has created a new health lifestyle.
But before you join the bandwagon, here are some things you need to know
about this mean, “green” dietary supplementing machine.

What is the difference between a drug and a dietary supplement?

According to the definition set by food and drug administrations in different countries,
drugs are chemicals that can prevent, prolong the life, treat other effects of a health condition,
improve the quality of life, and/or cure ailments and diseases, or alter the function of any part
or chemicals inside the body. These drugs have approved therapeutic claims. For example,
paracetamol is a drug given to bring down the body temperature in fever. Ascorbic acid
is indicated for the treatment of scurvy. Iron supplements are given to treat mild cases of anemia.

Herbal supplements are not classified as drugs, but as dietary supplements.

The main difference is that they do not have approved therapeutic claims as do drugs.
Moreover, dietary supplements could either contain vitamins, minerals, herbals, or
amino acids, all aimed to add to or supplement the diet of an individual.
They are not intended to be taken alone as a substitute to any food or medicine.

Most of the manufactured medicines we now have once came from animals and plants.
Through the years, chemists isolated the life-saving or life-curing components
and separated them from the harmful ones.

This leads to the further drug research and drug development that lead to the production
of a different variety of drugs for many ailments and conditions from synthetic sources.

But still we have semi-synthetic drugs, as well as drugs that more or less
approximate more natural composition.

Since herbal supplements are made from a mixture of crude herbs reduced into powder
or gel form, and later on packaged as tablets and capsules, there is a possibility that
life-threatening or at least body chemistry-altering components are still present,
thus the expression of concern from the medical community.

Is there a growing concern with the use of herbal supplements?

Yes. With the rising popularity of using and consuming anything herbal or organic
is the proliferation of fake herbal supplements that threaten to endanger lives.

If that’s the case, then why are herbal supplements given drug administration approvals?

One way of ensuring the safety of the people is to have all candidate drugs, food, drinks
and dietary supplements registered with the proper authority.

Otherwise, they would pose more risk with these things being sold in the black market for a hefty sum.

We could ensure the quality and safety of herbal supplements if they get proper classification
with the food and drug administration. Moreover, people may be able to file the proper
complaints in the event a worsening of health condition is proven to be linked to the use
of a particular herbal supplement.

Is using herbal supplements worth the risk?

Yes. It cannot be discounted that many who have tried herbal supplements experienced
an improvement in their health— whether this is due to the herbals themselves or due
to a placebo effect, as long as they do not worsen the condition of an individual, then
using them is worth the risk. But of course, certain things must be considered
before taking those herbal supplements:

Your doctor knows best.

First of all, clear your condition with your doctor.

Ask him/her if taking a particular herbal supplement is safe, given your health condition.
People with heart, liver, or kidney trouble or malfunction are usually not advised to take
these, or to take these herbals in minimum amounts. All substances pass through the
liver and kidneys to be processed and filtered respectively.

Kava, which is used to relieve people from stress, has been pulled out from the Canadian,
Singaporean, and German markets because it contains substances that cause liver damage.

Certain herbals such as Ephedra used for losing weight, contain chemicals with heart-inducing
effects that can increase heart rate, which in turn can exhaust the heart and cause heart attacks,
as reported in several documented cases by the American Medical Association.

Follow the directions for use.

Never take more herbal supplements than the dosage directed by the doctor or as instructed on the bottle. Each individual reacts differently to the components of herbal supplements. While it is perfectly safe for one individual to take in a supplement of primrose oil capsules, another person may be allergic to it.

No matter how the product pamphlet or the label of the bottle sounds about how it has been found to be helpful in certain health conditions, these herbal supplements are not therapeutic. So do not substitute these for the medications prescribed by your doctor for the treatment of certain diseases, or for the maintenance of blood pressure, lowering of blood sugar and cholesterol or to fight off infections.

Get this FREE Herbal Cures eBook and decide for yourself!

Posted in allergies, annoying health problems, common sense, healthy living, nutrition, OTC meds, vitamins Tags: , , , , No Comments »
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