Fat Kills You

The organic movement, which started with organic food, is moving to the bedroom in a big way. “The bedroom? ” you say. Yes, my dear, the bedroom, where organic mattresses and organic bedding are becoming an important new trend in the quest for a healthier lifestyle.

The organic bedroom trend is motivated by some very recent disturbing discoveries about the petroleum-based foam mattresses most of us sleep on every night. Studies of household dust have confirmed that your mattress is likely one of the most significant sources of cancer-causing chemicals in your home. The average mattress consists of petroleum-based foam covered in petroleum-based polyester fabric. During its 10-year average lifetime, a foam mattress loses up to half its weight, and the lost weight goes on your bedroom floor in the form of toxic dust and in the air in the form of formaldehyde gas which is a by-product of the foam breakdown. Those dust bunnies under your bed could be a real threat to your health, unless you use an organic mattress which does not break down into these toxic by-products.

The foam mattress story gets even more scary. The average petroleum-based foam queen-sized mattress is soaked in about a pound of fire retardant chemicals called PDBEs, which have already been banned in Europe, but not in North America. PDBEs are chemicals which are similar to the banned PCBs, and they build up in the body like DDT and PCBs. The PDBEs are used because they are the simplest and cheapest way to conform to United States mattress fire resistance codes. They are also promoted by the chemical industry, which recently sponsored tightening of the mattress fire resistance codes, which will cause even greater quantities of PDBEs to be used in the manufacture of mattresses beginning in 2006. While these new codes will save an estimated 27 lives a year from fires, these new regulations play Russian roulette with the future health of the 285 million Americans that sleep on these petroleum-based foam mattresses. Those calling for a ban on PDBEs say the greater danger is not the lives lost in fires, but the potentially millions of cases of cancer caused by exposure to these chemicals over the coming decades.

The solution to this problem is to remove petroleum-based bedding from your home, and this has spawned the burgeoning organic bedroom movement. The cornerstone of this trend is the organic mattress, which is the same kind of mattresses our ancestors used before the rise of the petrochemical industry after World War II. It is also interesting to note that current cancer rates are more than 5 times higher than before World War II, when everybody was sleeping on organic mattresses by definition, because there was no petrochemical industry during those times.

Examples of an organic mattress include:

1. Organic cotton and wool batting innerspring mattresses with an organic cotton fabric cover. Wool is naturally fire retardant and meets all US fire codes.

2. A Natural latex mattress, whose foam is made from the latex sap of the rubber tree and which require no fire retardants because natural rubber does not burn well.

3. Luxury organic mattresses which use combination of all three materials, organic cotton, wool, and latex, to produce maximum comfort mattresses that rival any non-organic mattresses.

4. All organic cotton mattresses. Although cotton does not burn well, it requires a doctor’s prescription because cotton does not meet US fire resistance codes.

Organic mattresses also have comfort advantages over traditional petroleum-based foam mattresses. They wick away moisture from the body much more thoroughly than clammy polyester and man-made foam, stopping night sweating and cutting down on problems like athlete’s foot and jock itch. Wool also regulates body temperature very well, which is important for a restful sleep. Natural latex foam and wool are resistant to dust mites, which cause allergies in many people, and organic cotton and latex foam are both hypoallergenic materials. Organic mattresses are also considered a must for people with chemical sensitivities.

Major North American manufacturers of organic mattresses include Vivetique/Crown City Mattress, located in South El Monte, California, Royal Pedic, headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, and Obasan, located in Ottawa, Canada. Retailers of organic mattresses include a variety of local mattress stores who carry products from these manufacturers, and nationwide web retailers, like Dax Stores, which often have the best prices for these mattresses.

Mark Sweiger is a freelance reporter on home and garden topics and ecological news, and he can be reached via email at msweiger@NOSPAMearthlink.net. He is a definite believer in the value of organic sheets and organic mattresses (see http://www.daxstores.com/organic-bedding.html and http://www.daxstores.com/organic-mattresses.html for a further introduction to these).

Weight loss can be one of the most difficult things to accomplish. Today’s media and the marketplace can sometimes make the effort of weight loss even harder. Like it or not most societies in the developed countries are heavily motivated by the media. Television, radio, newspapers, direct mail, and the Internet all contribute heavily to our beliefs, our attitudes and ultimately our actions. So, when it comes to weight loss, how do you determine the right solution for your situation? Who do you believe and who do you discount?

Are we as a society obsessed with weight loss? Or, is there truly reason to take notice and lose a few pounds? While there are some people, especially females during the teenage years, who take weight loss to the extremes, for most of us losing some weight would be the healthy thing to do.

It’s no secret that "thin is in", yet turn on the news channel and you’ll see where researchers are finding more and more of our youth are obese and more and more adults as well as children are being diagnosed with the chronic disease of Type 2 diabetes, often as a result of obesity. We see hear that thin is better, yet we keep getting bigger and bigger. What’s the reason?

The reasons are many. Primarily, our activity levels don’t match the amount of food we eat. We are constantly being bombarded with quick food and lots of occasions to eat. For example, some friends invite you over. The chances are slim that there won’t be food involved. You go to a sports event. What’s on your mind besides the game? Food! Somehow, we have become conditioned to equate food with socializing. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, the amount of food we consume at these parties and events often times are a bad thing. If you are trying to lose weight, whenever you eat, remember; don’t eat more than you will be active enough to use! Let’s face it! Watching the Super Bowl on television is far less energy focused, than the guys playing in the game. They’re usually drinking Gatorade, we’re eating everything in site.

Were The Cavemen Fat?

Consider this: Our forefathers were constantly working to simply survive. The men were farming, hunting, and fishing for food. The women were busy preparing, the food, and the clothing as well as raising the children. There was constant activity without an overabundance of food. Our bodies were not designed to be sedentary. Yet, today with technological advances, and the average lifestyles we live, our activity levels have all but disappeared.

Let’s explore this a bit further? We get up in the morning, jump in the shower, drive a car or catch the subway or bus to work, grab some food at the fast food place for lunch, come home pop in a frozen dinner, plop down on the sofa, turn on the TV and our day is done. Compare that to the days of old. First off, you had to draw the water for the shower, then you had to fire the stove to stay warm and to cook( the food was hunted and grown by hand). If you left your home for work, walking was a major way of transportation,?Need I say more? Our bodies haven’t evolved to the point to where activity is not necessary. Yet, we are the least active of any society since mankind was placed on this earth. Food must be matched with activity. To lose weight, you must consume less food than the body needs. That’s about the only way you’ll burn off any fat.

Steps to Losing Weight

Enough preaching about activity. You want to lose weight and have more energy. First, I strongly suggest if you have more than a few pounds to lose, see your physician before you begin any weight loss plan. There are some medications, and diseases that can contribute to weight gain. If you know the facts before you begin you’ll be able to better determine the best method for your weight loss.

Secondly, as you think about losing weight, carefully and honestly evaluate your current situation. Is it just a few pounds, say 5 or 10 you want to lose? Maybe it’s 20 to 30? These amounts usually can safely be lost without the help of health professionals. If you need to lose 50 or more pounds, I strongly suggest you see your physician before you begin any weight loss plan.

Next, you need to evaluate why you’ve gained the weight. There are many reasons people gain weight. Some eat more than they need as a mental pick-me-up. Some eat because they have nothing else to do. Others don’t really overeat, they simply make the wrong choices of what they eat. Then there’s those of us who have put on a few pounds each year and now all of a sudden, nothing fits anymore. Whatever the case, you can lose the weight. It will take the right attitude, level of commitment and the right actions. Yes, there are plenty of diets and pills available to help you along the way. They aren’t all bad, but do keep in mind that unless permanent lifestyle changes are made, the weight will come back when you stop the diets and the pills.

Diets and Pills

There are almost as many weight loss methods and diet pills available as there are people who want to lose weight.

There are diet pills that stop your hunger so you eat less and burn more fat. There are diet pills that cause the body not to metabolize all the food you eat, so it’s passed out of your system and not stored as fat. Then there’s the combination of these two. As you begin your search for the perfect diet pill, be careful as some can have harmful effects on your body.

Diet Pills work by shifting levels of brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) that control satiety (fullness) and desire for food. Some also slightly increase your metabolic rate - the rate at which your body burns calories.

Examples of weight loss diet pills include:

Diethylpropion hydrochloride (eg. Tenuate)
Mazindol (eg. Mazanor, Sanorex)
Phendimetrazine tartrate (eg. Bontril)
Phentermine hydrochloride (eg. Adipex-P, Ionamin)

All these can be used to help with weight loss. Be careful of pills containing ephedra, or caffeine. These can have negative and sometimes even deadly effects on the body. Use with caution.

Three Steps

Whatever method you choose to help you lose weight, here’s three steps that will help.

Evaluate your situation and reasons behind the weight gain honestly. Sometimes it’s difficult to accept the true facts about why we’ve gained weight, only by realizing and accepting the truth can you being to deal with it using a positive attitude.

Make sure your attitude is positive about the changes you make. Don’t dread the changes or say things like I hate not eating the cake?. Instead whenever you have one of those kinds of thoughts think about how much happier you will be with your new slimmer body.

Visualize the positive effects your good actions are having. Get a mental image of the "new you." Whenever you’re tempted not to be active or to eat the wrong things, picture the "new you" you will be if you overcome the temptation.

Don’t believe the magical ads. You can’t keep doing the same things, and expect something different to happen. You can use products to assist you with weight loss, but ultimately you must be in control for the weight to stay off without taking the diet pills.

Hilda Maria is a freelance writer with 5 children who knows the importance of a balanced diet for them. She enjoys providing useful knowledge about weight loss and regular exercise to her readers as well as to her children.

Have you been surfing the web trying to find a way to lose weight? Are you looking for the perfect solution to your weight loss desires? If you have done much surfing, I’m sure you’ve found thousands of sites offering to provide you with the BEST weight loss solution. Are they all the BEST? Do they all work wonders? Will you never have to worry about weight loss again?

Before you spend lots of hard earned cash on weight loss pills and potents, and hours and hours trying to find the perfect solution to your needs? Let’s examine some basic facts about why we gain weight and why we lose weight. Don’t despair, there are some truly good products available to help you lose weight. But, before you go out and start buying diet pills, there’s a few basic facts you need to understand.

Usually overeating causes weight gain or being obese, but in rare cases (about 1%) excess weight gain is a symptom of another disease. Three of the most common diseases that can cause weight gain are hypothyroidism, Cushing’s syndrome and depression. Certain medications, notably anti-depressants, steroid medications, certain high blood pressure drugs, and seizure medications can also cause increased body weight. A doctor can determine if any of these conditions are responsible for your weight gain.

Weight gain and weight loss has basically three components; 1) nutrition (the food you eat) and 2) Stored energy (the amount of fat in your body) and 3) level of activity (what you do each day). Everything we eat is either a) used for energy b) stored as fat for future needs or 3) eliminated from the body through wastes. Another factor that has a heavy impact on the amount of weight you gain is your metabolism or the rate at which your body processes the food you eat. Not everyone has the same rate of metabolism.

Everyone’s metabolism is just a bit different. I’m sure you know people who can eat whatever they want, whenever they want it and yet still don’t seem to gain weight. Then there’s those who seemingly can just smell food and gain weight. Their rate of metabolism is what makes the difference. The person that can eat anything and still maintain a healthy weight has a higher rate of metabolism, than the person who gains weight easily.

The amount of energy produced by food is measured by calories. A calorie is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree centigrade at atmospheric pressure. It’s easier to think of in terms of the food you eat being converted to energy. For example, something containing 120 calories has more available energy than something containing only 50 calories does.

The key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is to have balance among all three components. This balance is achieved by not taking in more calories than you are using. Calories are used continuously throughout the day, even while you are sleeping. All your cells in your body require energy to function. This energy comes from either the food you eat or the fat cells you have stored. Whenever you’re using the energy from the fat cells, you’re in the process of losing weight.

Eating a healthy diet and increased activity level is the most effective way to lose weight and keep it off long term. By eating fewer calories, and exercising more, you’re using the best combination for stable weight loss. Regular exercise will increase muscle mass. Increased muscle mass requires more energy, and increases your metabolism. By combining these effects with eating less food, your body will burn the stored fat for energy and the weight will come off.

There are some instances when diet pills can be helpful. Usually these are indicated in the truly obese person. For the person wanting to lose 5 or 10 pounds, they usually aren’t necessary. So you may ask, how does the diet pills work to cause weight loss, while I continue to eat the same amount? In recent years, it seems everyone has the PERFECT answer to help with your weight loss. There’s almost as many weight loss methods and diet pills available as there are people who want to lose weight.

There are diet pills that stop your hunger so you eat less and burn more fat. There are diet pills that cause the body not to metabolize all the food you eat, so it’s passed out of your system and not stored as fat. There’s combination of these two. As you begin your search for the perfect diet pill, be careful as some can have harmful effects on your body. Diet Pills work by shifting levels of brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) that control satiety (fullness) and desire for food. Some also slightly increase your metabolic rate - the rate at which your body burns calories.

Examples of weight loss diet pills include:
Diethylpropion hydrochloride (eg. Tenuate)
Mazindol (eg. Mazanor, Sanorex)
Phendimetrazine tartrate (eg. Bontril)
Phentermine hydrochloride (eg. Adipex-P, Ionamin)

Phentermine is the most popular diet pill supplement on the market today. Phentermine is the generic name for ADIPEX-P and IONAMIN and it’s available in immediate release or time-release formulas. Immediate release pills enter your blood stream as soon as you take them and the opposite time-release capsules release their medication into your body over an extended period of time, around 8 or 12 hours.

What is the difference between Phentermine diet pills and Xenical diet pills? Phentermine is an appetite suppressant and Xenical inhibits fat absorption into the body. Since these two drugs work completely opposite, Phentermine and Xenical diet pills may be used in conjunction with each other for individuals who are seriously obese and are looking for the most effective drug treatment program available.

Always discuss your weight loss options with your doctor before taking any form of supplements or diet pills. Some weight loss pills react with commonly used over-the-counter medications and may have deadly side effects for users with certain health conditions.

Hilda Maria is a freelance writer with 5 children who knows the importance of a balanced diet for them. She enjoys providing useful knowledge about weight loss and regular exercise to her readers as well as to her children.

Green tea has been used as for medical remedies in China since ancient times. It was said to have many health benefits and be a remedy for many ailments. It is also said that the Japanese owe their slim figures to green tea.

Today, scientist in Asia and the west are providing scientific evidence that green tea is a benefit to our health. An anti-oxidant call EGCG that is in green tea is the main cause of this.

Green tea has been shown to do many things including:

- Inhibit the growth of new cancer cells and kill existing cancer cells

- Promote weight loss helping the body burn up to 10 percent more body fat.

- Increase energy expenditure up to 4 percent.

- Prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol.

- Reduce the risk of colon, breast, and lung cancer.

- Boost the immune system.

- Have an anti-inflammatory effect making it a good supplement for those with arthritis.

- Help in the prevention of tooth decay.

Green Tea Differs from Other Types of Tea

What makes green tea different from other tea is the process in which it is made. Made from the plant of Camellia sinensis, the leaves are steamed after being removed from the plant so that oxidation of the leaves is prevented. By doing this the leaves remain green and active substances that are contained in the leaves keep their healthful qualities.

Side Effects of Green Tea

There are no reported harmful side effects in drinking green tea or taking green tea extract capsules. Thus making green tea one of the best supplements available.

Use of Green Tea

There are 2 ways of supplementing your diet with green tea:

- Drinking green tea: 2 to 3 cups daily.

- Green tea capsules or tablets: 2 capsules or tablets of green tea extract daily.

Josie Anderson is a personal trainer in SC, USA and is the owner of http://www.weight-loss-program-101.com providing weight loss resources to help with many weight loss goals.

It has long been said that caffeine is not good for building strong bones. In fact, drinking more than three caffeinated beverages a day is listed as a risk factor for developing Osteoporosis (porous bone).

But a study reported in “The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition” indicates that the tea may be helpful for keeping bones strong. A study done at the University of Cambridge in England examined the tea drinking habits and bone densities of over 1200 British women age 65 - 75. The researchers found that “tea drinkers “had stronger bones than “non-tea drinkers.”

The tea-drinkers in the study had a 5 percent higher mean bone-mineral density than non-tea-drinkers. This could mean a 10 percent to 15 percent decline in fracture risk! These results are very different from those found among coffee drinkers.

The researchers said that perhaps antioxidants in tea are key players or it may be the flouride found in tea. Flouride has a positive effect on bone.

Researchers from National Cheng Kung University Hospital in Taiwan also found tea to have beneficial effects on bone. The surveyed 1,037 men and women age 30 and older who had bone density tests about their tea drinking habits. Most of the habitual tea drinkers consumed green or oolong tea.

Those who had been drinking tea for at least 6 -10 years had a hip-bone density 2.3 percent higher than in non-habitual tea drinkers and those who drank tea regularly for more than 10 years had a hip-bone density was 6.2 percent higher than in non-habitual tea drinkers.

Since Asian tea drinkers do not use milk in their tea, these results can not be attributed to any calcium found in milk. So, tea drinking may be a pleasant and easy means of strengthening your bones.

This article was written by K. Lindemann Ph. D. of http://www.osteopenia3.com

Permission is given to reproduce it in whole or in part as long as the author and the url of the web site are included.

If you’ve been working out with weights for any length of time, you know the importance of supplying your body with frequent feedings of quality protein so that your body will be able to have the necessary building blocks to build muscle in the shortest amount of time possible.

How much protein should you be consuming each day? Well, that debate has been raging for many years. Eventually, the mainstream will accept what those in the bodybuilding community have known for a long, long time.

In order to increase muscle mass, you should be consuming at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. This is a good starting point. However, this is the same thing you need for fat loss. You need to eat more protein to burn fat.

After awhile you may gradually increase your protein intake, monitoring your progress as you go, to determine if a higher protein intake allows you to make better progress.

Personally, I make better progress when my protein intake is somewhere between one and 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight, spread out over 6 meals per day.

The above paragraph may not be new to any of you. What you might not realize, however, is that protein is also extremely important when dieting to burn off excess body fat. You definitely want to eat more protein to burn fat. Eating more protein burns calories and helps you lean out.

Yes, it’s important to keep your protein intake high when dieting to make sure that you don’t burn off any muscle tissue in your quest to get ripped or lean.

But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about taking in protein to burn fat in order to boost your metabolism and burn more fat, in addition to helping preserve and build your lean muscle tissue.

Eating more protein to burn fat was confirmed in a study published in the American Journal of Physiology. One group was fed a high protein diet (just over one gram per pound of bodyweight per day) while the second group consumed a protein diet near equal to that of the RDA.

The group eating the high protein diet burned more fat than the group consuming protein near equal to the RDA. One reason for the ability of protein to burn fat could be an increased “thermic” effect. The thermic effect of the RDA group was elevated 16% after eating.

However, in the high protein group the thermic effect increased 42% after eating, almost 3 times that of the RDA group.

This thermic effect of digesting your food peaks approximately one hour after eating. Spreading your daily caloric intake over 6 meals a day, eating every 2 to 3 hours, helps to take advantage of the increased metabolic rate that accompanies eating.

In other words, the more oftern you eat, the higher your metabolic rate, i.e. the number of calories your body burns each day.

In addition, by adding more protein to each meal, you also increase your metabolism. Your body requires more energy (i.e. calories) to process protein than it does carbohydrates. Let’s review some simple changes you can make right now in your nutrition program to rapidly increase your body’s ability to not only build muscle but burn fat also.

1) Eat 5 to 6 smaller meals per day, as opposed to 2 or 3 larger ones. This will ensure that you supple your body with the nutrients necessary to build muscle, as well as increase your resting metabolic rate.

It will also prevent your body from kicking into “starvation” mode, which can happen when you go too long between meals. If this happens, your body will start burning muscle for energy and increase your body fat stores, as well as slowing down your metabolism. All of these are things you want to avoid.

2) Eat a high protein diet consisting of at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. This helps ensure that your body has the protein available to increase maintain a positive nitrogen balance, which can lead to an increase in your muscles mass.

It will also increase your metabolic rate, allowing you to burn more body fat than a low protein diet, without as large a decrease in your daily caloric intake, which will also help avoid the “starvation” mode discussed in the previous paragraph.

Try these simple changes in your nutrition program to help you rapidly increase your muscle mass, burn off unwanted body fat and achieve the ripped muscular body that you’ve always wanted.

Gregg Gillies is the founder of http://www.buildleanmuscle.com and has contributed articles to Ironman magazine as well as being a regular contributor to Body Talk magazine. He publishes a free newsletter availabe at Build Muscle and Burn Fat. He is the author of two books, also available at his site.

Resistance is NOT futile! When it comes to changing your body for the better quickly and permanently, nothing comes close to good old-fashioned weight training.

The shape of your body is determined by three things: muscle, bone and fat. While there’s really nothing you can do about changing your bone structure, there is a whole lot you can do about muscle and fat. This ratio of muscle to fat is commonly known as your body composition.

And what is the fastest way to change your body composition? Weight training. Why is it so effective? Because it builds muscle.

Muscle is the key to changing your body. While fat certainly gives your body shape, muscle is what gives you the shape you actually WANT!

One of the greatest things about muscle is that it burns calories all day long, even when you’re lying on the couch. What this means is that the more muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn during the day and the more you’ll be able to eat without gaining weight. Sound interesting? There’s more.

Weight training stimulates your metabolism more than aerobic training such as cycling or walking. This means that you’ll continue to burn calories long AFTER you’ve completed your weight training session. The calorie-burning effect of aerobic training generally declines rapidly once you stop the exercise.

Beginning trainers, who are just starting with exercise, are often under the impression that they should stay away from weight training because they might gain weight before they start losing it.

I like to use a car as an analogy. Imagine your body is a car, your muscles are the cylinders in the engine, and your bodyfat is the gas.

With a four-cylinder car, you only burn a minimum amount of gas/fat. Weight training and building more muscle is the equivalent of putting more cylinders into your engine. As you can imagine, you’ll burn a whole lot more gas even while idling! And, just like a car with more cylinders, you’ll be a lot more powerful too!

The bottom line to you is this…with more muscle, you’ll get greater fat loss with less effort.

While it certainly is a possibility that you could gain weight before losing it, if you gauge your success solely by numbers on a scale then you’re not getting an accurate picture of yourself. Measure your progress by how you feel, how you look and how well your clothes are fitting, not by which direction the needle on a measuring device is moving.

At the end of the day, I’m not suggesting for a moment that you should eliminate cardiovascular training from your exercise routine, but, if you are struggling to lose fat and keep it off, weight training may be just the thing you need to lose that fat and keep it off for good!

For more information on resistance exercises you can do at home, go to: http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Begin/exercises.htm

For more information on weight training exercises you can do at the gym, including optimized exercise technique, tricks for improving the exercise and common errors, go to: http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Exercises/Exercises.htm

If you are interested in having a personal trainer set up a personalized weight training program for you based on your goals and designed around your life, go to: http://www.fitstep.com/Personal-training/Training/Training.htm

About The Author

Nick Nilsson is Vice President of BetterU, Inc., an online exercise, fitness, and personal training company. Check out his latest eBook “The Best Exercises You’ve Never Heard Of” at http://www.thebestexercises.com or visit http://www.fitstep.com. You can contact him at betteru@fitstep.com or subscribe to BetterU News, his fitness newsletter at betterunews@fitstep.com.

Extensive research studies show that taking vitamin and mineral supplements can potentially improve your health, protect against disease and provide you with the energy you need to live a healthy life. Although each contribute differently to your needs, vitamins and minerals work together in order to give you a balanced amount of all the components needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Here are some of the vitamins and minerals that are essential to your overall health and why they are important:

Vitamin Supplements

Vitamin A- Vitamin A helps to maintain healthy vision, keep your skin healthy and boost your immune system. In simpler terms, this vitamin keeps your skin healthy, protects against wrinkles and acne and helps fight off infections and other unwanted diseases.

Vitamin B12- This vitamin enhances muscle strength, provides energy and helps your nerves function properly. Insufficient amounts of vitamin B12 can lead to health complications such as fatigue, weak muscles and severe depression.

Vitamin C- Vitamin C serves a number of purposes including healing wounds, boosting your immune system, protecting artery linings and preventing cataracts.

Vitamin D- Vitamin D supplements are helpful for babies who are breastfed since breastfeeding does not provide adequate amounts of this vitamin. Vitamin D has also been known to help fight osteoporosis.

Vitamin E- This vitamin is known to help protect against heart disease and some forms of cancer. It also boosts the immune system and helps in healing injuries and wounds. Some studies prove that this vitamin also helps boost the immune system of elderly people.

Vitamin K- Vitamin K strengthens bones and is known to help fight osteoporosis.

Mineral Supplements

Calcium- Calcium is known to protect bones and make them stronger, but it also helps in lowering blood pressure and preventing colon cancer and PMS (pre-menstrual syndrome). Make sure you only take the recommended amount of calcium per day. Too much calcium can increase the risk of prostate cancer in men.

Chromium- This mineral assists the hormone insulin and helps it to operate more efficiently. When the insulin is functioning at the appropriate level, your blood sugar levels are lower, which is helpful to individuals with type 2 diabetes. This mineral has also been proven to help with weight loss.

Iron- Lack of iron can cause fatigue and low energy levels. Iron deficiency is usually found in pre-menopausal women, athletes and vegetarians. Although iron helps boost your energy levels, too much of this mineral may cause heart disease and can place you at higher risks for cancer.

If you feel as though your daily diet does not provide you with adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals, taking supplements can greatly improve your lifestyle and can give you the energy and the boost you need to get you through the day. Always remember that vitamin and mineral supplements are to be used in combination with food and are in no way meant as a replacement for a healthy diet.

Health-related information changes frequently and while every attempt has been made to ensure the content in this article is accurate, you should always check with a doctor or nutritional expert before undertaking any substantial changes in diet or lifestyle.

Jeff Matson is an avid health enthusiast who owned and operated his own natural health food store. Now retired, Jeff spends his time keeping fit, walking marathons and writing articles as a contributing editor for http://www.vitamin-insight.com ? a site that offers information on vitamins and minerals.

Integrating my dark side was a fairly torturous process for me, partly because I made it harder than it had to be. Apparently I do that a lot.

One of the problems at the time was my inability to get out of my own way and I continually tried to micro-manage the process rather than giving in to it and going where it wanted to take me. Part of that was from my own misconceptions about the light and dark and my reactions to them.

Many of us spend a long time trying to suppress the various elements of our light and dark sides partially because we’re taught to believe that light is good and dark is evil as if the 2 extremes didn’t exist in all of us.

For example, a lot of healers tend to shy away from the dark side and when it does manifest it’s usually in some context that the healer may be shocked by or ashamed of. Thereafter the healer may have a negative connotation with the dark side of their being. Sometimes these connotations can come from events that happen when we’re small children or even possibly be hold-overs from past lives.

It’s important to find examples of the dark and light that can be manifested positively and enjoyably as everything has to balance and it’s unnatural for us to always be one or the other. Music, dance, theatre, movies, martial arts and sexuality are some of the ways that you can find positive examples of both the dark and the light. In reality you can find positive examples anywhere, these are some that I personally enjoy.

This is where the self awareness part of kundalini awakening comes in. You have to know yourself well enough to become comfortable with all the aspects of your personality, and to find creative ways to balance your proclivities. If you spend all day giving reiki treatments and listening to soothing new age music then take some time in the evening and pop in a suitably dark movie or some nice dark music on the stereo. If you choose the music then turn off the lights, close your eyes and do some moving meditation and ecstatic dancing. You might be surprised at what you’re able to clean out of your system this way.

What’s important here is to learn to be comfortable with your dualities, and then get beyond them. This can be a journey of self discovery that can take you places that you didn’t know you could go.

—

Robert Morgen is a Reiki Master who currently holds a Black Belt in Hoshin Roshi Ryu. He’s the founder of the Kundalini Awakening Discussion Group, the Druids Circle Discussion Group and the (offline) Druids Circle in Lakewood, CO. You can find more info on all these at;

http://www.druidscircle.info

He’s also the founder and Executive Director of the Windhaven Foundation for Sustainable Living.

He writes a regular column on subtle energy for Fight Times Magazine and a twice monthly column on Kundalini Awakening at Alumbo.com.

In addition to teaching about energy work and Kundalini Awakening he donates time to teach about Renewable Energy, Alternative Building and Creating Sustainable Lifestyles in various Public Schools.

He travels and teaches as much as possible and you can find out how to attend one of his Kundalini Awakening seminars at his website at; http://www.windhavenco.org

His new book “Personal Mastery: Develop Your True Inner Power By Awakening Your Kundalini” is now available at http://www.lulu.com/RobertMorgen.

Are you ready to lose some weight? Perhaps you’re surfing for the magic pill that will vanish your weight away. Maybe you’re simply searching for the right information to help you lose and keep the weight off. Whatever the case, here’s some surefire tips to help you with your weight loss.

1. Do your homework. As you start your weight loss plan, take the time to carefully evaluate your situation. What caused the weight gain? Pregnancy? Inactivity? Overeating and binging? Emotions? There are many triggers in our lives that will cause us to gain weight. Some can be prevented or eliminated, some can’t. It’s important as you begin your weight loss to understand and come to grips with the cause of your weight. Be honest with yourself. Don’t cheat on this one. Obviously, you want to have your weight loss become permanent.

In order to keep off the weight in the future, you may have to make some lifestyle changes to stay slim. Don’t give up before you start. There’s usually more than one solution to any weight gain reason. Just remain open-minded, and be willing to change to get the results you desire. Don’t hesitate to read and learn as much as you can about weight gain. It’s really easy to understand, and you may be surprised at what you learn.

2. Avoid Hidden Calories. Here’s an over simplified version of weight loss and weight maintenance? if you eat more than your body needs, you gain weight. If you eat less (reduce calories) than your body needs, you lose weight! While it sounds simple enough, just eat less ?.Right? Basically that’s true. Yet, there are other things that come into play as one is trying to lose weight. One common mistake many people make as they diet is the fact they don’t really understand how much is provided by the food they are eating. This is especially true with eating out and eating snack foods and beverages.

A serving as defined by the scientific communities on weight loss and a serving that your local restaurant provides is most often very different. For example, one serving of bread is typically one slice. Yet, the average bun in a fast food restaurant is actually almost three servings. A single serving of French fries is 15 fries. Just take a guess at how many servings are in a "Biggie" French fry container.

Also, don’t be fooled into thinking just because a bag of popcorn is small, that it’s a single serving. The same thing goes for beverages. The bottle may contain16 oz. Yet, the serving size may be 4 ounces. Pay attention to actually how many servings of food and beverages you are actually consuming. The amount may surprise you.

I’ll give you an example, my son-in-law who’s 28 was had put on several pounds. His favorite cola is Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew has higher sugar content than most other cola’s. He didn’t have a clue as to how may calories he was consuming by drinking 3 or 4 24 oz bottles a day. When my daughter told him, he was amazed. He replaced the cola with water and went from a 38" waist to a 34" waist in about two months. Be careful, you may be consuming more than you think.

3. Consider Diet Pills Carefully. Maybe one of your diet buddies has decided to buy diet pills, or maybe you’ve seen or heard a commercial for diet supplements promising easy fast weight loss. If so, please evaluate CAREFULLY! Even the most natural-sounding diet pills or weight loss supplements can be useless for weight loss, or dangerous, or both. Diet pills are very tempting things if you want to lose weight, especially if you have tried several conventional weight loss plans without success. The side effects and dangers of some diet and weight loss pills can vary enormously because many of these pills contain a cocktail of ingredients and because dosage instructions may be inadequate. Possible side effects include: nervousness, tremor, diarrhea, bulging eyes, racing heartbeat, elevated blood pressure even heart failure.

There are some instances when diet pills can be helpful. Usually these are indicated in the truly obese person. For the person wanting to lose 5 or 10 pounds, they usually aren’t necessary. So you may ask, how does the diet pills work to cause weight loss, while I continue to eat the same amount? In recent years, it seems everyone has the PERFECT answer to help with your weight loss. There are almost as many weight loss methods and diet pills available as there are people who want to lose weight.

There are diet pills that stop your hunger so you eat less and burn more fat. There are diet pills that cause the body not to metabolize all the food you eat, so it’s passed out of your system and not stored as fat. There’s combination of these two. As you begin your search for the perfect diet pill, be careful as some can have harmful effects on your body. Diet Pills work by shifting levels of brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) that control satiety (fullness) and desire for food. Some also slightly increase your metabolic rate - the rate at which your body burns calories.

Examples of weight loss diet pills include:
Diethylpropion hydrochloride (eg. Tenuate)
Mazindol (eg. Mazanor, Sanorex)
Phendimetrazine tartrate (eg. Bontril)
Phentermine hydrochloride (eg. Adipex-P, Ionamin)

4. Monitor/Increase Your Activity - Regardless whether you’re taking diet pills or not to help with your weight loss, it’s still important to maintain a regular exercise program. This is beneficial not only for your weight loss, but also for your overall health. In many ways we in the developed country have a much more sedentary lifestyle than our bodies need. Obviously it’s easier for us than in the era when people had to be very active simply to survive, yet it’s not necessarily healthy for us not to be active. Start and maintain some sort of exercise plan no matter what your age. Especially for the middle-aged and older people exercise play a very, very important role in the quality of health and staying within normal weight ranges.

5. Develop a Plan for Maintenance. Even if you’re taking diet pills to help with your weight loss it’s important to keep in mind, that once you stop the pills, unless you maintain a balance between your activity level and the food you eat the weight will come back. While it may take some time to become accustomed to a change in diet and activity, the rewards are well worth the time and effort spent to reach and maintain a healthy weight.

Hilda Maria is a freelance writer with 5 children who knows the importance of a balanced diet for them. She enjoys providing useful knowledge about weight loss and regular exercise to her readers as well as to her children.