Archive for September 23rd, 2009
September 23rd, 2009 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
Welcome back!
Cholesterol is a fat that the body produces and is actually need for us to be able to function healthily. The problem with cholesterol however is that due to the change in our diet in recent years, we are now consuming too much fatty foods and therefore creating too much cholesterol.
Having too much cholesterol in your body is detrimental to your health and increases your risk of a heart attack or stroke.
When diagnosed with high cholesterol, before issuing medication, doctors sometimes advise the patient to lose weight as this will reduce the amount of cholesterol in your diet.
If you are going to attempt to reduce your cholesterol, you need to be reducing the overall amount of fats that you eat on a daily basis. The only good fats for you at this time are the
omega 3 and 6 fish oil for cardiovascular health. It has been recommended that no more than thirty percent of your daily calories come from fat. This means that if you are eating 1,250 calories a day, you should not be eating in excess of 42g of fat.
There are three main types of fats. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats can actually help lower your cholesterol and these are usually great alternatives to saturated fats. Fish is an important low calorie meal that also provides you with the required fish oil for cardiovascular health.
If you don’t like eating fish or you tend to eat on the run most working days and don’t want to stop to cook your meals, just take the capsules of fish oil for cardiovascular health.
Certain fibres can also help lower your cholesterol. The best type of fibre can be found in oats and pulses, as well as in some fruit.
Here is an example diet plan for reducing cholesterol:Breakfast: Grapefruit, half a cup
Piece of fruit (Apple, banana)
Egg white, quarter of a cup
Wholegrain cereal
Whole wheat toast 2 slices
Lunch: Homemade vegetable soup
A lean hamburger
Wholemeal bread roll
Salad
Fresh fruit salad
Dinner: Fruit juice
Steamed skinless chicken breast
Brown rice
Broccoli
Wholemeal bread roll
Salad
Low fat yogurt
If after you have lost weight you still have high cholesterol you may be prescribed statins which is a drug that helps to reduce your level of cholesterol which helps prevent the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
However, there has been some concerns about whether this drug is linked to cancer, and although the risk is minimal and out weighed by the benefits the drug offers, prevention is better than cure, and so start lowering your cholesterol now.
Along with your diet change remember to include some fish oil for cardiovascular health in your daily food plan. This is one way to help your heart without needing to take possibly dangerous medication.
September 23rd, 2009 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
The weight loss market has been saturated with rapid weight loss programs like meal replacements, diet pills and diet shakes for years. We have all seen them on the shelves in the supermarket and watched the young, thin and happy people sell them to us through our T.V. But how do we know if they really work?
One of the rapid weight loss wonders that is currently on the market, and has been for a number of years is the diet shake. Initially, when this style of dieting was marketed, it was deemed as a wonder cure for those in search of their perfect body.
Yet, not many people succeeded. Why? Well, because although the diet shake was nutritionally balanced, the very first shakes tasted vile and were not enough to sustain you throughout the day.
So why are they still on the market and what has changed? Well, as Warren Tattersall of The Health Success Site said, after the initial welcome into the dieting world in the 1980’s, the health and nutrition companies decided to improve these diet shakes to make them much more tasty and user friendly.
The nutritional balance was addressed and after research, it was found that by increasing the amount of protein in the rapid weight loss program diet shake, the dieter would feel fuller for longer, allowing them to summon the will power needed not to stray from the path of rigorousness and slimness.
The protein also helped to boost the rapid weight loss seen as the body had to work harder to process it, boosting the metabolism.
The flavours were expanded from the disgusting to the sublime and now you can get any flavour you could possibly want in a shake, from strawberry to mint choc chip. This all makes the dieting process easier to swallow (sorry, couldn’t help it!).
So, what do you need to know before beginning your diet using these shakes?
Well, it takes a while to get used to not eating solid food for breakfast and lunch. But other than that, they are relatively cheap, (considering what some people pay for the perfect body) easy to sort out, handy to take to work and you can decide to a certain extent how you take these diet shakes.
Some people are terribly conscious of calories and so chose to mix their diet shakes with water. One way to continue burning calories while you sleep - yes, it’s true - you can burn calories while you sleep if you mix your night time shake with proteins like soy milk or add protein powder, as the additional protein will keep your body working hard whist you are resting. Who doesn’t want to get thin whilst they do nothing?
To review, rapid weight loss program diet shakes do work, but only with your commitment and willpower. They are nutritionally balanced and give your body everything it needs to get slim and slender, all you need to do is get your mind on board and before you know it, you will have the body to die for.
September 23rd, 2009 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
I suppose I’m biased. But I love homeopathy. It’s my all time favourite alternative medicine. It’s so deep, so far reaching. And I love to tell others how I healed myself or members of my family, using it.
My dogs like to jump up and bite at my horses tails. Normally, I’d let the animals sort it out themselves, but the horses had become so used to it, they had stopped reacting. So their tails were jagged and short, making lousy summer fly swats.
The idea was I would encourage the dogs to jump up at the horses tails, then command them to stop doing it.
Of course, the last laugh was on me.
The dogs refused to co-operate and the horses didn’t like all the commotion at their rear end. I ended up with a nasty kick to my fore arm.
The fore arm has little flesh, but a lot of bone and tendons. It doesn’t take much to get in deep.
My first reaction was to reach for my treasured bottle of homeopathic Arnica. Although the pain disappeared and no bruising developed, thanks to Arnica, the swelling just kept gradually creeping up my arm.
And I couldn’t carry anything heavy, or twist my arm.
I had to look at other remedies.
The remedies which best follow Arnica, when Arnica fails to completely cure a soft tissue injury, are Bellis perennis and Calendula.
Both are in the same family of plants.
Bellis perennis is the best remedy for a contusion and for any deep bruising or trauma.
A few doses of homeopathic Bellis perennis and the swelling subsided and my arm was back in full working order within a couple of days.
Homeopathy is so brilliant for injuries. The only areas that need extra help is in the setting of a broken bone and the stitching up of a large, open wound. There are remedies which will cover just about every other condition.
But homeopathy isn’t just limited to injuries.
Deep, chronic conditions can be healed, too. Conditions such as hormonal disturbances, migraines, internal organ weaknesses and a whole host of other conditions.
I confess I know little about other alternative medicine modalities, and they all have their place. But I find homeopathy to be just the most rewarding modality to use, the most easy to show others how to use in the comfort of their own homes.
Its depth and breadth is surely hard to beat.
Homeopaths don’t categorise conditions. To treat someone successfully with homeopathy, you need to know the individual symptoms of that person at that time. For instance, a soft tissue injury pain is likely to be an aching pain. This indicates Arnica.
Whereas a nerve injury is likely to have a shooting pain. This indicates Hypericum, the top nerve injury remedy.
And to treat someone successfully using homeopathic remedies, it helps to know the cause. I well remember reading of a homeopath treating a man with severe stomach pains. He had suffered the pain for years, trekking from one doctor to the next, all to no avail. Finally he tried homeopathy. When he told the homeopath that the pain had developed after a kick in the stomach from a horse, Arnica was prescribed and completely cured the problem.
Other alternative medicine modalities can be incredibly useful for musculo-skeletal problems, but it’s often the homeopathic remedies that cure the problem for good.
While it may be difficult to pack say, an alternative medicine practitioner, into a cupboard at home, it’s easy to store a first aid kit. Having a homeopathic first aid kit can prove it’s weight in gold, when you count how many times you can turn to it for every day conditions as well as emergencies.
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