10 Tips To Lose Weight

The holiday season is almost over now. With all the good food and feasting. It is time again to lose some weight. Some of you might be regretting now and thinking you should not have eaten too much. Looking at the extra pounds you had put on, some of you might be looking for some quick fixes to solve the problem. If you are looking for quick fix here, then you are looking at the wrong place. These are some sensible tips that you may find useful for yourself.

The Holiday Season is upon us. This time of year we have the habit of indulging ourselves. Food is an important aspect of our celebrations. It is therefore obvious that we make wise food choices. Of course, this is easier said than done. Especially when we see some of the food that is available that is made by our family and friends.

In the majority of cases people will not be concerned with those of us watching our weight. Because of this they are less inclined to prepare healthier versions of their recipes. At this point it becomes our responsibility to both stick with our diets and to watch what we eat. It is obvious that the variety of dishes that we are presented with will be very tempting.

What follows are 10 eating suggestions that will help you with your weight loss program.

1. The first one is to stop eating when you are full. At this time of year this is something that many people do not do. This is especially true of those people that believe in cleaning their plates. I do not believe in wasting food, so take only what you can eat comfortably. At the point that you feel satisfied you should just stop.

2. Get into the habit of walking, especially after eating. Walking may be the best form of exercise. It can be a very good cardiovascular exercise, particularly in the colder weather.

3. It is important not to count calories incessantly. I never cared for this form of dieting. Also, it drives the people around you nuts. There already are enough stress factors this time of year. The smartest thing to do is to watch what you eat as opposed to keeping track of the calories.

4. Watch your sweets. Avoid eating too much fat. I am not fond of artificial sweeteners. I believe that they cause more harm than good. If you are at a holiday celebration, just try to indulge in a small amount of sugar.

5. Eat 3 good square meals as opposed to several smaller meals or continuous snacking. I realize that this is contrary to what many articles and experts say. Eating regular meals, sitting down to eat, eating quality food and chewing well are what is important.

6. Realize what your eating limits are and do not cross them. This is very important if you have changed your diet and are trying to lose weight. You know better than anyone else what you can and cannot eat. It is true that most of us enjoy splurging at this time of year. It is really a matter of making up your mind and sticking to your guns.

7. Opt for the best food choices. At every family function there ought to be some healthy food choices. Choose the plain fruit and vegetables as opposed to the cake, cookies and pies. Stay away from the dips.

8. It is best to eat in moderation. Choose the healthiest foods, sit down when you eat and chew your food extremely well.

9. If you choose to drink, do so in moderation. Remember that many holiday drinks are loaded with sugar. Your best choices might be water, unsweetened tea or coffee.

10. Eat whole grains. Very few people realize that whole grains are biologically the stable of our diet. Stay away from white bread, cake or anything with processed flour. These food will put the pounds on very quickly. Instead, it is best to eat whole grain or multi grain foods.

There are always more things that you can do to help your weight loss. It is important to remember that converting to a healthy lifestyle is something that you should practice the entire year.

About the Author: Kathryn Soloff is the co-publisher of http://www.natural-remedy-dot-com.com/ and provides additional advice, tips and hard to find information on Losing Weight @ http://www.natural-remedy-dot-com.com/losing_weight/

10 Tips To Reduce Migraine Headaches

Migraine is a condition that is quite common among people. Most probably you may have friends around you who are suffering from migraine too. Until now, there has been no cure for Migraine. However, if you are familiar with your daily habits, activities and diet, you may know what are triggering a migraine attack and thus reduce the frequency of migraine attacks for you. I hope that these tips, from an email I received, may help you or anyone, who you know, is suffering from migraine.

Migraine headaches must be one of the most debilitating illnesses on earth. If you are a sufferer you will know what I mean. The frequency and severity can vary from person to person but many people still loose 2 or 3 days a month to migraine. Yes, that is lost money in your pay cheque or lost quality leisure time with family and friends.

That intense throbbing pain usually at one side of your head and often accompanied by nausea and/or vomiting completely knocks many people of their feet. The lucky ones may get some warning a few days before such as cravings for certain foods like sweets and chocolate or general lethargy. In such cases if you can recognise these warning signs it may be possible to eliminate the cause or start treatment before the onset. Other people will have what is known as an 'aura' for a short time before the migraine kicks in. The most common symptoms of the 'aura' are flashing lights in front of your eyes or zig zag lines disrupting your vision. More disturbing symptoms which can occur are numbness down the side which is effected my the migraine or speech difficulties i.e. slurring etc.

There are many triggers which can bring on an attack. In this day and age probably the most common cause is stress in the work place, the feeling of being constantly placed under pressure can cause great anxiety thus fuelling the migraine.

Certain foods may also be to blame such as cheese, chocolate, alcohol - red wine in particular, and processed or canned foods which often contain monosodium glutamate. On the other hand lack of food can also act as a trigger.

Strong smells such as perfume, paint, stale smoke or being in a stuffy atmosphere often contribute.

To be truthful it takes more than one of these factors to trigger an attack and the combination is unique to each individual.

Before you can think about how to tackle the symptoms, prevent or reduce the severity of attacks it is important that you work out what the combination of factors is that may bring on the headache. Try keeping a diary of foods consumed, dates when you felt under increased stress, and so on to gradually build a picture or pattern of events leading up to attacks.

For women (who incidentally are more likely to suffer from migraines than men) it is important to keep track of your monthly cycles as hormonal changes in the body before and during your monthly period are often the trigger. The contraceptive pill and hormone replacement therapy can also sometimes increase the occurrence of migraine.

So, you have established the cause what do you do now?

There are a great many 'over the counter' drugs designed to relieve the symptoms, both pain and nausea, however in sever attacks these may not be enough. Prescription drugs from a doctor may be more effective and can usually be tailored more to suit individuals.

However, lots of sufferers these days would rather not take drugs but rather try other methods usually aimed more at prevention rather than cure.

There are a few things you can try. Here are some examples:-

1. Try different methods of relaxation for instance; yoga or meditation, going along to one of these classes may turn out to be fun! Alternatively you can teach yourself these techniques using books or DVDs

2. Ensure you get enough sleep most people need between 7 and 9 hours per night.

3. Take some form of exercise for example walking or swimming - nothing too excessive because too much exertion can bring on a migraine!

4. Set aside at least one hour a day just to do something you enjoy which will relax you such as reading a book, watch your favourite television show, do some gardening - fresh air can work wonders after a day at the office!!

5. Eliminate foods from your diet completely which you have established act as triggers for the headaches. Have some fun trying out recipes using alternatives.

6. A gentle massage can be very effective and other more alternative treatments appear to help in some cases such as acupuncture.

7. If you have an attack try lying in a darkened room and place an ice pack at the back of your neck - for others a hot water bottle may be more effective.

8. Apply gentle pressure to the painful areas of your head and if possible sleep.

9. There are herbal medicines that can be taken as preventative measures such as feverfew and butterbur or supplements containing magnesium and vitamin B2. If you suspect or are pregnant or breast feeding do not use any of these items without professional advice.

10. The most important thing to remember when trying to prevent or reduce migraine attacks is to eliminate one or more of the contributory factors - the triggers.

Do Away with Migraine through Hypnosis

5 Reasons Why You Should Start Practicing Yoga And Meditation

Some of the benefits of practising yoga and meditation. I believe that there are numerous benefits. These are just some of the benefits for your reference.

The practice of yoga and meditation has become increasingly popular in the past few years, but I am sure that there are many people who are still asking themselves, “What’s in it for me?” So, if you have been wondering whether it would be worth your time to start practicing yoga and meditation, I would like to give you five good reasons why it would be a very worthwhile activity for you.

1. Yoga and meditation will improve your health

Yoga postures put gentle pressure on the internal organs of the body and help them to function properly. In particular the postures help your digestive system to work smoothly and thus avoid problems such as constipation, acidity and indigestion, which are common conditions that can lead to more serious problems later on. Meditation and deep relaxation can be just what you need to lower your blood pressure. Thus, yoga postures plus meditation is a great combination for maintaining and improving health.

2. Yoga and meditation will help you to overcome bad habits

What’s a “bad habit?” It’s something that you are doing continually, and something that you know is harming you but you can’t stop it. Are you smoking now? Maybe you thought it was good when you started, but you would now like to stop. The trouble is that it is not so easy to quit smoking or a similar habit once it has become established.

This is where yoga and meditation can help you out. The yoga postures help you to become more relaxed and mentally balanced. Meditation can help you to concentrate your mind and build up your will-power. Once you become internally balanced and have a stronger will power, it will become possible for you to break any habit, even one that you have been troubled by for many years.

3. Yoga and meditation will help you to lose weight

Obesity is one of the biggest health problems of the modern era. Our lives have become more sedentary and our food sources have changed over the last 100 years and this why many adults and even children are now overweight.

Although this is a life-style problem, it is something that can be dealt with. The surest way to lose weight is to get more exercise and to control what you are eating. This is of course, easier said than done. But yoga and meditation can help you out. There are some yoga postures that are helpful in weight loss programs. Similarly, the mental strength that you can get from both yoga postures and from meditation can help you to gain a better control over your diet and this can result in healthy and permanent weight loss.

4. Yoga and meditation will bring you inner peace

You may be earning a lot of money and you may have a lot of social prestige but is physical or social wealth the goal of your life? Whatever material or social wealth you have, if you are not contented, satisfied and at peace with yourself then you will not be a happy person.

The goal of meditation is to help you find the inner core of your being. Who are you? Is it the name and address on your identity card? If you start meditating you will find that deep within you is a pool of infinite love and peace. This is the real you. If you can reach this place, then you will find peace and contentment; it is guaranteed!

5. Yoga and meditation will make you a wiser person

Every one of us has made mistakes that we regret. There is nothing we can do about the past. We can’t go back in time and not make the mistakes. But what we can do is to build up our capacity to see what has permanent value and what is transitory. When we attain this state of discrimination, then we will not do actions that we will regret later on.

Meditation helps a person to go beyond the “chatter” of the mind and attain a state of wisdom that will always be of help. Wisdom does not mean stuffing your mind with “facts” but it does mean to have a mind that will choose a course of action that brings about the welfare of everyone.

I have a list with many more reasons why yoga and meditation are helpful, but I thought I would start off with these five reasons. So, if any one of these items are interesting for you, then why not see for yourself, and start practicing yoga and meditation?

Yoga Weight Loss Secrets by Dada Vedaprajinananda.
Accelerate Your Progress with The Most Powerful Self-Improvement Technique on the Planet


About the Author: Dada Vedaprajinananda is a senior yoga teacher with the Ananda Marga Society. (http://www.anandamarga.org/) He is also the editor of the Life Weight Loss website where you can find more articles on health, weight loss, self improvement and spirituality.(http://www.lifeweightloss.com/)

What Women Really Want

An interesting article that I read about the increase in women choosing technology over their once best friend; diamonds. From your opinion, if you are a women, do you still prefer diamonds over technology or gadgets?

Are diamonds still a girl’s best friend? Contrary to that antiquated belief, a research study released in 2006 reveals that more than three out of four women said a new plasma TV trumps a diamond solitaire necklace. The study conducted by market research TRU for the Oxygen Network is cleverly titled Girls Gone Wired and has helped marketers gain insight into women and technology.

Given the fact that women represent roughly half the U.S. population and influence more than 73% of all purchases in the consumer electronic category, they remain a largely underserved market. There have been misconceptions that women are not technologically savvy or knowledgeable as men. In recent years, solid research has been able to debunk those beliefs and open the eyes of the consumer electronics industry.

Oxygen’s research study found that both men and women spend a majority of their waking hours interfaced with technology, with women spending 15 hours per day and men spending 17. Both women and men rely most heavily on their computers and cell phones. Roughly the same amount of men and women said they use their cell phones weekly, but 73% of women said they use their computers weekly compared to 71% of men.

Oxygen’s study also offers research that shows businesses how they should market technology to women:

Don’t talk down to women about technology: 79% of women feel comfortable using technology and are not afraid of it. Sugar-coating tech language and using ‘female friendly’ colors won’t necessarily do the trick. Women view quality and technology itself more importantly than style.

Women prefer a hands-on approach to technology: 72% of women prefer playing with the device in order to learn how it works. Set up interactive tradeshow displays so participants can experience the product for themselves. This helps spark curiosity and encourages inquiry.

Technology is the problem-solver: Women look for the lifestyle benefits that come from technology and tend to purchase consumer electronics based on their practicality. The majority says that tech products are essential to helping them organize their busy school, work and social schedules. Portray products and services as the remedy to a problem.

Presents that impress: Whether a gift is for a sister, mom or girlfriend, nothing tops the list like technology. Remember that diamond necklace? That and other luxury items such as designer shoes and handbags are getting pushed aside to make room for plasma TVs, top-of-the- line cell phones, digital cameras and iPods. 83% of women said they get excited about receiving new tech items and over a third would buy tech items for themselves.

Women are power users of tech tools and toys, and no business should miss the opportunity to cater its product and promotional message to these women. A good example is Kolobags, an online boutique for “technology fashion” that offers designer laptop bags and technology accessories that don’t compromise style.

Part of its success is derived from women’s growing demand for technology that fit their needs and taste. It is becoming pretty obvious that technology is no longer just a “guy thing.”

About the Author: Thanh Do is a student in the William Allen White school of jounalism at the University of Kansas. She is also a member of Absorbent, Ink.'s marketing team. http://www.absorbentprinting.com/

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