Are you one of the 255 million people a year filling prescriptions to the tune of 19 billion dollars annually? This is just in the United States alone. Many do this instead of looking for ways to lower cholesterol naturally.
What do you know about the drugs you are currently taking? Are you aware of all the side effects? Some of them you can’t even feel.
I like to ask people, “What Do You Know About Pharmaceuticals?”
Let’s take a moment to take a look at statins for instance. Over the age of 45 years 1 in 4 americans take statins. That’s 25% of the population, that’s incredible. In fact it horrifies me that some doctors think this is a “miracle drug”. They joke that they would like to see it injected into the water supply. The only problem I see is that statement is it’s NOT funny. We should find ways to
I was surprised to find out statins are routinely prescribed for people over 45. Some of whom only have a slim chance of developing heart disease. I decided to educate myself on the side effects. It concerns me because my parents take statins.
First I wanted to look at the risk reduction and I was surprised to find that taking statins only lowered the POSSIBILITY of having a heart attack by 25% to 30%. The fact is that long term users are 50% more likely to develop diabetes. Another reason to
In my mind the pro’s do not out weigh the cons. I decided to continue digging and this is what I found.
Statins caused these side affects
Short term memory loss
depression
mood swings
liver disfunction
kidney failure
cataracts
muscle myopathy…..Chronic muscle pain.
Continue reading “Lower Cholesterol Naturally”
On any day that you Actually eat, that my friend is an exercise day.
Got it? Eat, exercise. now, I don’t mean that you eat and exercise. You have to plan out your day properly. If you even just PLAN on eating you get your exercise done EARLY as possible. Any one Planning on eating today?
I get this all the time……”I just can’t seem to get it done after work”…..I say get up early and get ‘er done! Before your brain starts to reason with you why you absolutely can’t get it done. You ever heard that voice before? Yea, I know you have!
GET UP EARLIER for crying out loud. If you are lucky you will will be 1/2 way to 3/4 through the work out before your brain wakes up and starts to give you all the reasons you CAN’T work out.
By that time you can slam the door on the negative thoughts and finish up in style!
You know what I found out? It took me years of teaching, being at a gym, talking to the clients. I found out…….
That voice with the reasons why not, get stronger throughout the day. ya ever notice that one?
It takes the will of a super hero to get to the gym on some nights after work. The car wants to head for the barn so you have to fight that AND the voice of reasons why you shouldn’t take time on your self. You get to the gym and you burn say 300 to 500 calories?
Okay, So…..Does anyone have any idea of how many calories equals a pound?
3,500 calories.
That sounds like a lot of calories. I think it is, I consume maybe half of that. Are you aware of what you consume?
We have this little burger joint in Portland. The receipt has calorie information and I was very surprised to see that a meal with 2 burgers, small fries and medium soft drink equaled 75% of a 2,000 calorie diet. What if you did something similar to this 3 times a day? and then you snacked, had an extra pop, had desert after eating….get my drift? Do you think you would exceed the 3,500 calories???
By the way…I have a rule, NEVER eat food that is delivered or can be delivered through a window.……there are exceptions but very few……
So now we talked about calorie input. Understand although I am into fitness and I believe it is very important, 80% of everyone’s health is nutrition.
So we go to the gym, we are literally trying to work our ass off! We tell our self we will do what ever it takes no matter what, even if we don’t like it……
That’s a story for another Blog!
Stay well my friends and stay tuned. Another blog is on it’s way!
Find out where those Extra pounds come from
We Human’s today evolved from a species that lived in an environment in which food was not abundant. We had to hunt and forage to find sustenance and it wasn’t always guaranteed.
Food that is cheap, abundant, tasty but lacking the correct nutrition that takes absolutely no physical effort to obtain has upset the balance we have within our bodies to be able to know how much of the Right foods to eat. This balance within the body is the very existence of our beings.
In recent decades the population has bloated to a point that lean people are a minority. Scientist are trying to figure out why and about all they have figured out is that there is no easy answer. It is a combination of Biology, physiology, genetics, and environment, they all need to be counted to a certain degree.
In an environment of unprecedented food excess and a steady diet of pizza’s, doughnuts and hamburgers can trigger in some the same cravings as a drug addict. Some people may think that is a lack of willpower or self control, these could be reasons but it is much more complicated than that.
As anyone who has battled obesity realizes, the battle is mental as much as physical. Sadness, disgust, frustration, self-hatred and many other negative emotions accompany obesity. Bad health encourages a bad frame of mind and a bad frame of mind causes illness and disease.
Continue reading “Humans, Hard-Wired For Fat”
All my life I had a family doctor that was our family doctor. He knew the entire family and our history. He retired about 10 years ago and then I got a true taste of what it’s like to have a doctor that really had no interest in me as a person.
I came to the ugly realization that my “new doctor” was in the “business” of being a physician.
Over the years it has astounded me the lack of caring I have experienced by this “doctor” and his staff.
I didn’t think very much about it until I had a minor medical emergency and my doctor accomplished two things in my visit with him.
1. To scare me to death needlessly with something he couldn’t be sure of.
2. To make me feel even more like a number than I was before and inefficiency with the staff that made me not totally trust what they were telling me.
This led me to a different doctor that I was referred to that was fantastic and it made me realize that I didn’t have to put up with my new doctor and it started me on a search to find a new physician.
My point here is that we need to take charge of our own health.
Continue reading “Ayurveda, The Key To Health & Wellness”
Are you a weekend warrior? Training for marathons, playing basketball with friends or just doing wild and crazy things. You won’t be able to do those things if you don’t take care of your body. Your performance can be increased for more fun, less tiredness and more competition. It’s not hard to do and many of the things we do on the weekend can be enhanced in much the same ways.
I’ve worked with a lot of weekend warriors, and there is one thing I tell all of them: you won’t get the best performance out of your body or have the most fun you could have if you limit your exercise to your weekly activity. by only exercising on the weekend you actually increases your chances of injury.
Here are some simple tips that I’ve found work for pretty much everyone. These tips will allow you to improve your performance and stay in the best possible shape for your weekend-warrior adventures.
Stretching.
No matter what sport you’re into, your body will perform better if you continue to have your full range of motion. Supple muscles simply work better. I’ll be happy to give you advice on stretching exercises to enhance your performance at your chosen sport, or else you can look up Yoga stretches online. Just be sure to follow this simple rule: do not continue stretching into pain. Pain means you’re doing damage, and that won’t help your performance at all.
Weight training.
Weight training improves our bodies’ overall performance by making us stronger and increasing our endurance. Even if your sport depends on speed – like competitive running or swimming – you need strong muscles to make that speed happen. Weight training also improves our bone density and keeps our bones strong.
Cardio work.
Cardio work is the ultimate means of improving your performance by increasing your endurance. There are a lot of possible cardio exercises you can try, from dancing to kickboxing. The point here is that you can’t expect your body to perform its best on weekends if you’re not working on your cardio fitness at least one or two times a week in between competitions. Strengthening your heart is a great way to increase your performance.
I know that these tips may sound as though I’m trying to take your weekend fun and turn it into a chore and we don’t like chores. But that’s not the case! Any of these activities that you can do during the week will improve your weekend performance and make your weekend activities more fun for you.
You don’t have to decide to devote your life to fitness to achieve improved performance. Even if you spend a total of three hours a week on some combination of stretching, cardio, and weights, you’re going to see a measurable improvement in your ability to enjoy your weekend activity. You will also feel better and more fit and there is nothing better than that.
Now, if you do want to go all-out – for example, if you want to improve to the point you’re running 10ks instead of 5, or you’ve decided that, just once, you’re going to be able to dunk that basketball – of course you’re going to need to work harder. The more effort you put into anything, the more you’re going to improve.
But if you just want to enjoy what you’re doing on the weekends more and perform a bit better, just scale the exercise tips I’ve given you to a level that will help you meet that goal. You can improve performance and your health with any additional amount of exercise than what you are doing right now. Continuing to exercise during the week can be a challenge with work, family and a million other things that can get in the way.
That your doctor will tell you before you get stiff and can’t touch your toes that you need to keep your flexibility as you age in order to lead a healthy life is a real stretch. If your doctor told you before it was almost too late it would be really helpful.
I taught fitness classes for 25 years of varying nature. I taught from age 2 1/2 all the way to 90 years old and one thing I always did was talk about the importance of flexibility.
Many people would ask my advist after their doctor told them that they need to work on flexibility with different stretches. Many of those students could only reach about mid shin when they reached for the floor.
I saw tremendous improvement in many students after attending Yoga and classes specifically designed for stretching and addressing stiffness that comes with age.
Why is this so important?
You see, we only have 4 types of tissues in our bodies. These tissues are made up of cells with the intelligence to know what they are needed for.
Within each type of tissue there are different uses for instance Epithelium is our skin and it has different functions such as protecting us from the outside world, it absorbs in the stomach and intestinal lining, it filters in the kidneys and it secretes from glands.
So let’s look at Muscle tissue and the different functions it performs.
Muscles are responsible for body movement, muscles move blood, food, and waste through the body’s organs and it is also responsible for mechanical digestion.
If you notice Muscles are responsible for moving blood and blood runs through veins. The walls of your veins have the same type of tissue that your muscles are made up of.
What we all need to understand is that when you have a tissue type in the body that is affected in a negative way all of the tissue that is similar in nature will have a similar problem. If muscles get stiff all of the tissue that has the same make up will be affected.
So if we have the same tissue responsible for our muscles and our veins, what do you suppose will happen to your veins when your muscles get stiff and inflexible?
I think you got that right, your veins become stiff and hard, allowing for the sticky, gunky build up known as plaque and also allows cholesterol to block the veins due to their lack of flexibility. The real danger though is the build up of plaque. This Plaque can break free from the walls of your veins and arteries and actually cause blockage. Depending on where the blockage is it can lead to a heart attack or a stroke.
Do we want to wait until we are all stiff and “stoved” up before we start to work on our flexibility? Certainly not and the reason for that is it can be a long road back to having some semblance of flexibility if you have lost it at an older age.
Chances are you won’t get it back completely but there is definitely a chance of that happening with perseverance and determination and the really important ingredient would be dedication.
Don’t let you muscles get stiff, make sure and stretch morning and evening and you will never be sorry you took the 10 minutes to get it done, it is an investment in your future.
Make sure and join Health Pulse Magazine and they explore stretching and lengthening all of the muscles in the body in their special series, “That’s a Stretch” coming soon.
Make sure and subscribe to Health Pulse Magazine to get all sorts of health information. We have made it easy, just put your name and email in the box to the right and you will gain instant access to our latest issue
We all are comfortable in our routines, at our homes or at work. We do certain things to keep us comfortable, healthy and happy.
But what happens when you are away from home and out of your natural routine? It can be easy to ignore all of the little things that we are used to, like for instance 8 hours of sleep. Sometimes we completely loose our routine and we find our self out of whack.
You see when you allow this to happen, not only are you heading down hill to the “outta whack” place but it also takes time to come back from that place and all of that time reduces your productivity.
It is imperative that you bring some comforts of home with you when you are away, maybe some food that you are familiar with or it could be as simple as your pillow.
I had the pleasure of interviewing a friend of mine, Wayne Allyn Root. He talks about the ways he keeps him self in top notch condition and about his “healthy addictions” and how they work positively in his life.
The key here is that he refers to what he does as a habit. He has made a habit of having healthy, affirmative, positive things in his life and because it has become a habit, he doesn’t leave his habits behind when he leaves home. He continues to exercise, watch his nutrition, take his supplements, meditate and all of the other healthy habits he talks about in the video. Make sure and check it out.
We had a wonderful day on the zip lines in Jamaica and we were all able to do that because we were all fit enough to go and we were all below the 250 pound weight limit. Not only that but we were all willing to try something new and adventurous, with terrific friends and I have to tell you there is nothing better for your health.
I really appreciate the time that Wayne took to talk about his healthy habits because as you can tell, He is a very busy person, he is generous with his time and such fun to hang out with.
Wayne is the economic advisor to Wealth Masters International and lends his name to that organization because he believes in what we are doing collectively, in addition to what he tells you on the video which is impressive all in itself. He has written several books, his latest is Conscious of a libertarian and I suggest you pick it up and read it, it’s an eye opener.
Wayne is someone worth following so I suggest you find him on Face book and connect, he has some great things to say and he makes it his business to find out what is going on and keep all of us informed.
It seems that there is new information every day about the newest, the latest, the greatest diet, exercise, new past time or sport but what really doesn’t change at all is what our bodies really need.
First and foremost is good positive thoughts, wholesome nutrition, body movement and exercise, and stimulation for the brain of some sort.
We read all of the time how this benefits that and that help this and so on and so forth but if you really want to get down to the nitty gritty it seems to be a nutrition issue. What to eat, when to eat it, what combinations are good and how much.
Lowering intake of sugars will certainly help you to loose belly fat. The reason for that is belly fat is closely related with blood sugars and insulin.
However there are ways that you can do more.
When measuring biochemical changes in our bodies, scientists look for alterations in the metabolites. Some of these metabolites help us to stabilize our blood sugar and burn fat, to stay brief. While studying exercisers they found changes in more than 20 different metabolites.
What that means is that being in optimum weight and exercising 4 to 5 times a week helps us maintain healthy glucose and insulin levels because of the sensitivity of our insulin receptors.
In order to enjoy good health it is essential to maintain healthy insulin levels. In doing this we prevent all sorts of disease such as diabetes, heart, cancer you name it.
So even if you appear to be in good shape and don’t exercise you are putting yourself at risk.
The good news is that if you are out of shape or over weight, you can regain your health it just takes longer depending on how far you have to go and how determined you are to get there. It isn’t an easy road so the best thing to do is watch it and don’t let it get out of control.
If you are really out of shape it’s nice to know that even 10 minutes of brisk walking will lead to beneficial biochemical changes and they last up to an hour. So what if you were able to take several 10 minute brisk walks throughout the day? You could accomplish a lot.
If you are already in good shape, chances are you go for a good “steady state” work out several times a week, but what would you say if I told you there was a better way to get results?
What if I told you that you could CUT BACK on the time you work out each week and get better results than what you are getting?
You would be interested wouldn’t you?
Stay tuned and we will talk about this more next time, we will make some changes and see how it works for you.
For now check out the importance of weight training here
to find out more about us make sure and visit us here
Don’t let the thought of meditating the “right” way add to your stress. Meditation takes time and patience to learn so getting stressed about it will just disolve all of the benefits that you are looking to gain.
You can make meditation what ever you need it to be. More relaxed or structured, what ever works for you is what is right for you. Some people build meditation into their daily routine. For example, they may start and end each day with a half hour or an hour of meditation, But all you really need is a few minutes of quality time for meditation.
Tips to practice meditation on your own
Here are some ways you can practice meditation on your own, in ways that work for your own personal needs. Take a few minutes or as much time as you like to practice one or more of these meditation methods:
* Breathe deeply. This technique is good for beginners because of the natural function of breathing. Focus your attention on your breathing. Concentrate on feeling and listening as you inhale and exhale through your nose. Breathe deeply and slowly. When your attention wanders, gently return your focus to your breathing.
* Scan your body. When using this technique, focus your thoughts on different parts of your body. be aware of how your body feels, pain, tension, warmth or relaxation. Combine body scanning with breathing exercises and imagine breathing heat or relaxation into and out of different parts of your body.
* Repeat a mantra. You can create your own mantra, whether it’s religious or not.
* Walking meditation. Combining a walk with meditation is an efficient and healthy way to relax. You can use this technique anywhere you’re walking – in a tranquil forest, on a city sidewalk or at the mall. When you use this method, slow down the pace of walking so that you can focus on each movement of your legs or feet. Don’t focus on a particular destination. Concentrate on your legs and feet, repeating action words in your mind such as lifting, moving and placing as you lift each foot, move your leg forward and place your foot on the ground.
* Engage in prayer. Prayer is the best known and most widely practiced example of meditation. Spoken and written prayers are found in most faiths. You can pray using your own words or read prayers written by others. Check the self-help or 12-step-recovery section of your local bookstore for examples. Talk with your rabbi, priest, pastor or other spiritual leader about resources.
* Read or listen and take time to reflect. Many people report that they benefit from reading poems or sacred texts silently or aloud or listening to inspiration music, and taking a few moments to quietly reflect on the meaning that the words bring to mind. Listen to spoken words or any music you find relaxing or inspiring. You may want to write your reflections in a journal or discuss them with a friend or spiritual leader.
* Focus your love and gratitude. In this type of meditation, you focus your attention on an object or being that you hold above reverence, interlacing feelings of love and gratitude into your thoughts. You can also close your eyes and use your imagination or gaze at representations of the object.
So as you can see there are many different types of meditation and maybe what works for you isn’t even listed here. We are all individuals and so we have individual needs.
Take the thought with you that Meditation time is your time and it is valuable so schedule it in and make sure that you don’t miss it. It will improve you overall health and lower your stress levels.
Our bones are alive, in fact, your bones are continually remolding. The way you eat and exercise has a lot to do with the way your bones remold.
Collagen is a glue like substance made up of vitamin c and water and this makes up the structure of our body such as skin, bones, teeth, blood vessels, cartilage, tendons and ligaments so that includes all connective tissue in our body.
Calcium is a mineral that is stored in the bones so that it can be used whenever it is needed for many of our body’s vital functions. Our bones are made up of a combination of these two substances, Collagen and Calcium.
Our bones give off calcium and as they do that new bones are molded. The body always needs calcium so it will take it from your bones if the supply is low. This determines how the bones are remolded. Bones remolded with less calcium will tend to be brittle so eating a diet high in calcium is you first order of business.
As we get older bone production slows down. Our bones start loosing the ability to reshape new bones, over time the bones become less dense, brittle and more at danger of getting a fracture.
We have all hear of osteoporosis, that is the disease that accelerates the loss of bone tissue but natural aging is a culprit as well. Osteoporosis is most noticed by a humping over in the back, it can be slight or it can be quite severe.
The good news is that the rate of bone loss can be minimized by regular strength training. Lifting weights and Yes, that includes Pilates. During a mat work out you utilized your body weight for resistance and the equipment utilizes springs to allow for resistance.
Find out about resistance training, click here
The discipline of Pilates gives you the same benefits of a weight training. In addition to exercise make sure you get good amounts of calcium.
Study after study shows that you can slow the rate of bone loss just by walking and adding a resistance training to your exercise program along with good nutrition. Nobody wants to walk around with a stooped back or be susceptible to fractures.
The best thing to do is to build the bone density in your 20’s, 30’s and 40’s with exercise and good nutrition.
Did Joseph Pilates create the fountain of youth? You can be the judge of that but he did live a healthy life well into his 80’s. You too could grow old with Pilates, as us boomers get older it is more fashionable to grow old gracefully.
Find out more about Pilates by clicking here
You have heard of Sick and Tired I’m sure but how about sick and Eating?
Americans are eating their way to obesity and all of the illness that comes with it.
We have heard so much recently about Health Care Reform and how all of the unecessary proceedures and tests, the greed factor and the lack of major competition are such an issue that will make reform very difficult.
Even the most thoughtful and efficient plan that Obama can come up with is going to be up against the rising tide of diet related disease.
So if the Government thinks that it’s going to be tough to get insurance to come around, how do they think they are going to go up against the agricultural quadrants?
The USA spends twice as much per person as most European countries on health care and that can be directly related to diet induced diseases such as diabetes, hypertention, high cholesterol, and the various cancers that have been linked to the western diet. We know it is because we are fatter.
one tenth of all health care spending is spent on obesity or the results of it.
The American way of eating is really the issue here. The president would like to see more healthy foods served in schools and his wife planted a garden on the white house grounds this summer.
Reform in the food system will need to be figured into the new health care plan but everyone is treating the problem like it doesn’t exist.
As long as our bad habbits are charged to the future there will be little notice. There will be lots of money made in the fast food industry coming up here and if the government takes over our health care then they will be paying for treating the diseases that the fast food caused. So in essence the government will be subsidizing both the treatment of type 2 diabetes and the consumption of high frictose corn syrup.
Insurance companies think it is more profitable to pay to treat a disease than to prevent it. When the playing field gets leveled and insurance is affordable, and “pre exisiting conditions” are not acceptable grounds for being turned down for insurance the relationsship between the medical and insurance business with the food industry will need to undergo a tremendous change.
When these new rules start, Health Insurance conpanies will soon discover they have a huge interest in reducing the rate of obesity and diseases linked to diet.
It won’t take long for the insurance company to figure out that they will spend more than $400,000 in a life time of a person who has diabetes. It would be $6,600.00 per year if they have a healthy client, so it will be in their best interest to educate and regulate (so to say)
This should be very interesting to watch as our Health Care debate heats up.
Are you one of the ones that are educated?
click here to find out why we over eat.
We were so impressed by the crowds at this years Race for the Cure.
It was dark when I got up but I could see the sun coming up on the horizon and I knew it was going to be a beautiful day. Rain or shine we were on our way downtown Portland with 40,000 other people.
We put the harness and a race for the cure T shirt on our 100 pound Labrdoodle and headed to meet our team at the MAX tracks for our 7 AM train.
Lilee our Dog had never been on a Max train but she didn’t mind it at all, she likes people and seemed to have a pretty good time.
We got on the train at the end of the line, the farthest it goes from Portland. As we went along and made stops, more and more people continued to get on the train until the pup was just a little squished.
Finally the train stopped in downtown and we got off. The crowds were just as impressive off the train as on.
The Race for the Cure is always so much fun. Everyone there is celebrating life in general or in specific ways so the energy level is pretty intense.
I saw people meeting and hugging and crying, teams that were pretty “snazzed” up with silly costumes. beautiful balloons and other pets joining their masters on the walk. I saw a Cat and even a turtle in costume. (imagine that).
The crowds were overwhelming to say the least. When the race starts they actually seperate us up two main roads for about 6 or 7 blocks before both streets join, it is a complete sea of people where ever you look.
I watched the survivors come across the finish line and was totally amazed and inspired by what I saw. I saw women with only one breast or none. I saw survivors walking and in wheel chairs. I saw a survivor that was a Man. Then there were a few that didn’t look to be more than 20 years old. Everyone was happy and smiling. The support that was on the streets of Portland on Sunday September 20th 2009 was something that makes my heart swell with pride.
THEN I FOUND OUT WHY
PORTLAND HOLDS THE THIRD LARGEST RACE FOR THE CURE IN THE WORLD
reported by oregonian newspaper
We were honored to be a part of that celebration
End of Life Care, So what’s the big deal?
I live in a state where it is widely regarded that none of us are getting out of here alive. There are two things in this life you can be sure of. One, you were born. And two, you pass away.
We have experienced quite a bit of this in the past year. Not just some distant relatives. First it was our Step Dad. Then a month later my husbands only sister.
Just about a month ago it was our Mom (my Mother in law). There are all different ways of dieing. As in the case of our step Dad. He was fine one day. The next day went to the hospital at 9 AM and had passed away by 2:30 PM. He was 83 years old. The other two weren’t as fortunate. Cancer played it’s part.
It is very hard to see a loved one die of a terrible disease. When we talk about “end of life care” it really just refers to the special needs of the senior community. That “end of life” could last years.
We had an “end of life care” discussion with Mom several times. In her doctors office, a specialists office, when Hospice got involved we had the discussion several times.
It had to be addressed. If you are any type of reasonable person you realize that the end of life is inevitable.
The important part here is the word CARE. How does a person want to be cared for at the end of his or her life?
In Oregon 78% of the population has advanced directives. Meaning they have stated what they want and in the case they are not able to express those wishes then someone is named that understands and makes the decisions for them. We are forward thinking about the subject.
Honestly, thinking that we are going to face some type of “tribunal” or something when we get into our later years is laughable. However facing life and making decisions about how you want to die is a very important topic.
It could mean the difference between being on life support for years with no quality of life maybe depending on Medicaid, Or passing away peacefully at home in an environment that is not “clinical”.
Our Mom had choices to make about the level of care she would receive. From the “whole enchelada” to just comfort and pain relief. She only had one diseased lung. She understood that this was the end of her life but none of us knew how long we were referring to. Her Doctor was very caring and concerned when we spoke of her care. It was private and she made her choice be known and we honored it to the crossing of the T’s and dotting of the I’s.
The end of our life is PART of our life. It need not be unmentionable, life needs to be celebrated no matter what the stage.
Find out about Extending Longevity by clicking here
Why Yoga feels so good.
Are you looking for a self-help treatment that you can give yourself? Look no farther than a local Yoga studio. Practicing Yoga regularly revitalizes every single part of the body right down to the cellular level. Nothing quite beats Yoga as a great source of natural health care.
There are many reasons to practice Yoga. Yoga grants physical health and vitality, relief from pain and stress, emotional strength and clarity during difficult times and the list goes on and on. Of course, not even Yoga can be touted as a cure all for everything but if I find myself needing a mental or physical boost, a little Yoga goes a long way.
How you look impacts the way you feel about your self and it goes the other way around too. One of the many blessings of practicing Yoga is a youthful appearance. Yoga poses tone your muscles much the same as isometric exercise When you add inner focus to Yoga stretches, there will be little or no chance of muscle injury. Toned muscles hold the posture erect, reduce the risk of injury and give you an awesome physique.
Looking to fight the battle of cellulite? Yoga can help you to do that because rather than building muscle, Yoga builds muscle tone. Yoga stretches muscles lengthwise, causing fat to be eliminated around the cells and that is what reduces cellulite. Because Yoga helps to maintain balanced metabolism, Yoga also helps to regulate weight.
You can help your self to look years younger than you are. In India, age is measured by flexibility of the body and especially the spine. The spine works as the messenger for the brain, when the spine is flexible; the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain and other organs is unrestricted. Many poses and exercises in Yoga are aimed at keeping the spine flexible by gently moving, twisting and flexing the spine in all directions.
We all know that stress will zap your energy faster than anything. Finding ways to relax and enjoy life will bring more energy. Yoga gives you tools to turn stress into energy by allowing you to recognize the stress when it begins before it becomes too large to manage because Yoga will give you a greater self awareness.
With your higher awareness will come peace of mind and that equals freedom. Freedom from the load on our minds that we often carry unconsciously, that load, you will realize, holds you back. Becoming aware of how your mind works is your first step to peace of mind.
After you practice Yoga for a while it may help you to overcome some self-limitations you may be placing on your self. When you are able to do that you will feel lighter and you will have an “acceptance” of your life as it is. You start to learn that challenges have their place in your life but they will not “rule” your life.
Yoga helps you realize your true potential and it encourages you to grow and improve towards that potential always striving to reach peace of mind.
Yoga helps you to focus on your breath. Breathing is the first thing we do when we come into this life and it is the last thing we do as we leave. However many of us are often not even aware that we are breathing.
Have you ever forgotten to breathe? There are some things in life that are so frightening, exciting, dangerous or amazing you may momentarily forget. Think about the way that you are breathing and how it relates to what is happening in your life.
Your breathe is rapid and shallow if you are afraid, or you take short sharp breaths when you have exerted your self with intense work. We take in a deep long breath when we are tired, we yawn to draw in additional oxygen. A sigh releases anxiety and if you were to stand on a windy cliff over looking the ocean you would likely take a deep long breath.
Taking the unconscious process of breathing and making it conscious is an essential aspect of yoga. The Sages of old found that as they became aware of their breathing as it moved in and out the mind could be consciously controlled. They then began to use the mind to control the breath, which happened to benefit the entire body and mind.
The ancient yogis were aware of the life energy that all things on this earth are made of. They revered the vital energy that enters on the breath. The exhale or releasing energy of the out-breath also being vital. The interplay of the two, inhale and exhale is what keeps us alive by circulating the vital life force and eliminating the used-up energy.
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Many Americans under estimate the importance of weight training.
Many Americans under estimate the importance of weight training. Not only that but they have a misconception about what weight work can mean for them. Many times when I ask someone if they do any type of resistance training they say, “oh, I hate weight work but I do it anyways.” Or,” I don’t” and they leave it at that. Many women say that they don’t want their bodies to look like a man. So there is the misconception.
Weight work need not include the “bulk up”. Some women like that on them self but it is hard to maintain for women especially (who aren’t made to look that way). It includes many hours at the gym and most likely a trainer.
What People need to understand is that first off, muscle weighs more than fat but it takes up less room. Muscle burns more calories than fat to maintain. Resistance work also increases the density of bones. This is a crucial factor for women because we tend to decrease our density as we grow older and sometimes our diets aren’t very helpful.
What is helpful for women is to lower the weight way down and do more repetitions. The reason that you do this is because with smaller weight you will not bulk up at all, you will just tone and give shape to what you already have.
You will strengthen your muscle in a different way, a way that will increase the endurance of the muscles. This will allow you to continue doing your favorite activities for longer periods of time without being tired.
The most recent testing on the human body concluded that weight training burned more calories and fat than aerobic training. That does NOT mean to discontinue your aerobics because that is exercising your heart. A strong heart is an important key in keeping your blood pressure down.
If you don’t belong to a gym, you can do simple weight training exercises at home with simple house hold items. Be aware of what the weight is and go for it.
Read our article here about weight training
