How To Change Your General Health From Ordinary To Fabulous

Do you honestly feel in fantastic health, or would you describe your general health as ordinary? Do you look and feel trim, taut and terrific? Or do you wake up in the morning not liking what you see and how you feel? While many of us blame stress, fast paced living, and getting older for not feeling so flash, there are many simple ways you can put some zing back into your step.

Eat Right.

To maintain, or regain good health, it is important to eat a well balanced and nutritious diet. Pizzas, alternated with Chinese takeout, and a Starbucks run in the morning, do not count. Overly refined fatty and salty foods are clogging your arteries, increasing your blood pressure, and playing havoc with your weight.

Aim to consume some fresh and colorful fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. Select low fat, high quality proteins such as fish, poultry, tofu, eggs, etc. Cut any visible fat off meats that you eat. Ensure the carbohydrates that you are consuming in breads, pastas, and grains, are whole and not overly processed to ensure the maximum nutritional content.

Avoid sugary foods and drinks as that instant sugar high is quickly replaced by the dreaded sugar slump. The refined sugars in the cakes, cookies, and sweets, are just increasing your chances of gaining pounds and type 2 diabetes.


Incorporating some aerobic exercise into your daily activity will have you losing inches and feeling better. Even a 30 minute brisk walk around the block each day will provide good cardiovascular fitness, lower your blood pressure, and decrease your chances of diabetes type 2. The extra exercise will increase the oxygen traveling around your body, and you will instantly have more energy.


Your body needs good quality sleep on a regular basis to recover and heal. Recent studies have shown that those people who make a habit of sleeping less than 5 hours a night have a much higher incidence of weight gain and mood disorders. So an easy way to reduce belly fat is to make sure you are getting enough sleep.


Water contains no calories, carbs, or fat grams. Drinking water speeds up the process of eliminating nasties out of your body. Being in a perpetual state of dehydration is bad for your kidneys and shows in your skin. One of the first signs of needing to top up the water tank is feeling tired and lethargic. So when the afternoon fatigue kicks in, reach for a glass of water before you reach for yet another coffee. Caffeine, tea, and alcohol are all diuretics, which means that they are actually drying you out. Most experts recommend drinking at least 4 good sized glasses of water daily. For those who exercise, the fluid requirements are much higher.


Eat better, sleep better, workout, and drink plenty of water. 4 simple and inexpensive steps to improve your general health. You too can reinvent yourself from grumpy and ordinary to cheerful and feeling fantastic.

How Do High Protein Diets Work In Keeping Lost Pounds Off?

OK. So you have lost your love handles and dropped a dress size. Fantastic. Now you want to keep it off. There is nothing worse than losing all that weight to have it all creep back on. However, new research has shown that by following a high protein diet you can easily keep those lost pounds away. How do high protein diets work? Read on.

A recent survey was performed in Europe on 200 dieters who had managed to each lose at least 8% of their body weight. These people were subsequently placed on 5 different types of post diet eating regimes for the following 6 months. The five different eating patterns were low protein, low GI; low protein, high GI; high protein, low GI; high protein, high GI; and lastly, a balanced diet.

The high protein groups were all receiving 50% of their calories from carbs, and 25% of their calories from protein. The low protein groups consumed 12% of their calories in the form of protein, and up to 60% of their calories from carbs.

All of the people who were on the low protein and balanced diets regained weight. The average amount regained was about 4-6 pounds. However, the people on the high protein diets, regardless of the GI values of the foods they ate, regained less than 2 pounds.

Researchers concluded that for the average person, the GI values of foods was not as important as the levels of protein that they consumed. Having protein with each meal tends to leave the dieter feeling fuller for longer. Not being hungry means there is not so much inclination to cheat. Eating 3 meals and 3 snacks, all with some form of lean protein, will suppress the hormones governing your appetite.

The high protein foods used in the study were eggs, fish, meat, and whole grains. Low GI foods are useful for diabetics controlling their blood sugars and included many fresh fruits and vegetables. High GI foods were refined carbohydrates including potatoes and white breads which are quickly released into the bloodstream causing a spike in blood sugar levels.

High protein diets are an effective way to keep the pounds off after a weight loss campaign has been finished. High protein diets tend to leave a person feeling fuller and more satisfied for longer. This seems to stop excess food consumption, and the likelihood of cheating. Binge eating is also reduced. A high protein diet was defined as a diet with more than 25% of calorie input coming from protein sources.

The Health Benefits Of Juice Over Soda Pop – The Scary Statistics

The health benefits of juice over soda pop are numerous. 100% juices can be a great and convenient way to consume your daily serve of fruits and vegetables. Children who are finicky eaters can really benefit from having their fruits and vegetables freshly juiced.

Recent research has proven that you will still be receiving all of the nutrition and antioxidants that are contained in the fruits and vegetables when they are juiced.

Some parents have taken 100% fruit and vegetable juices out of their children’s diets, fearing that juice is linked to childhood obesity. Recent studies have revealed there is no link between 100% fruit and vegetable juices and childhood obesity. Researchers do add that you should provide your child with the amount that is appropriate to their age, which can range between 1/2 cup and 1 1/2 cups daily, depending on their age.

Juicing several fruits or vegetables together can be a fantastic way to ensure your children, and yourself, are receiving plenty of different fruits and vegetables in a wide range of colors.

In stark contrast, the recent statistics on soda, or pop, are alarming for everyone. Sodas and pop that contain sugars are dangerously high in sugars which are causing rotting teeth, contributing to the obesity pandemic, and increasing your chances of diabetes. A sugar alternative commonly used in sodas now is corn fructose syrup, which has been proven to affect collagen in growing animals and results in liver disease much the same as alcoholic’s liver disease.

Artificially sweetened sodas contain aspartamine which is a known neuro-toxin. The citric acid and artificial flavors contain MSG which is another known neuro-toxin, as well as being an allergen for many. The caffeine added to many sodas can result in over stimulation of the adrenal glands, and in children this can result in a syndrome known as adrenal exhaustion.

The phosphoric acid added to sodas has been linked to loss of calcium. In fact, in recent years the dramatic increase in the consumption of sodas amongst the youngsters in the US has seen a huge rise in the number of adolescent girls with broken bones and osteoporosis. (Osteoporosis is a bone condition where the bones are lacking in calcium. This condition was once primarily only seen in post menopausal women.) Phosphoric acid is also responsible for stripping the enamel off your teeth, leading to rotting teeth.