Top 8 Common Causes of Obesity


A healthy mind in a healthy body! This is what every person wants to possess; but sometimes, due to negligence or lack of awareness, many people suffer from ailments such as obesity, diabetes, high BP, and so on.
In most of the cases, the process of obesity started a long ago and gradually assumed an ominous form, as seen now. Let us try to evaluate the various causes of obesity and the suitable remedies for the same.
Obesity is seldom known to be caused by genetic factors except in some rare instances; it is triggered more by factors such as:
i. Poor choice of food items
The menu of your food items should have a balanced proportion of greens, sprouts and a little bit of your favorite spicy items if you can't completely remove them from your platter. If you have not paid attention to the calorie aspect of the food items, you consume, then start today. Choose items based on the calories your body needs per meal.
ii. Sluggish lifestyle
If the amount of calories you take in is more than what you spend, then the excess amount is converted into fat and stored in the body. This is further worsened if you lead a dull life, or so to say, your lifestyle is slow and inactive.
iii. Slow metabolism rate
Your body might react slowly to the process of burning enough calories to prevent unnecessary weight gain.
iv. Other medical reasons like arthritis or hypothyroidism
A malfunctioning thyroid gland or an inactive lifestyle due to ailments like arthritis can contribute to weight gain.
v. Depression or a high level of stress
In extreme cases where a person suffers from stress, he/she can succumb to addictions like uncontrolled eating habits, smoking or drugs. These can lead to weight gain.
vi. Insomnia
If you suffer from insomnia and get very little sleep, you can gain weight by partaking food due to the cravings induced by certain hormones.
vii. Some medications
If you are under medication for a different ailment like diabetes or you use contraceptive medicines for a prolonged period of time, then weight gain is very likely to become a headache for you.
viii. Pregnancy
Even though gaining a few pounds seems to be natural during pregnancy and lactation, some women might find it difficult to regain their old shape. The weight gain may stay with them permanently.
Knowing about the causes of obesity is the first step in evaluating your health as on date and alleviating your life in a healthy manner.
You can easily kick out all of those unwanted collections of fat in your body by following a strict diet regimen. This will help you not only in weight loss but also improving your self-esteem and confidence by regaining your hour-glass figure you were proud to possess a few years ago!

Superior Weight Loss Advice


There are many overweight and even obese people in the world who really wish that they could lose a few pounds but for one reason or another never quite reach their weight loss goals.
Here are a few simple weight loss tips which just might help;
1-Write it down - even on the bad days when you've had a moment of weakness and eaten something which has made you feel guilty - write it down. If you get into the habit of writing everything down you will really begin to understand what you are actually doing. You might be surprised at just how much you actually eat and how often you give in to temptation, only then can you do something about it.
2-Don't ban all of your favorite foods - we're only human. If you like to eat takeaways, then treat yourself every now and then. The best idea is to save up the calories and, then you will feel like you've really earned the treat. Sticking religiously to boring food is a sure way to failure. You can also tweak many of your favorites with ingredients which make them lower in fat - replace butter with low- fat spread; olive oil spray is another fantastic friend for those who are trying to lose weight.
3-Stick a picture on the fridge - some people use a photograph of themselves when they were at their heaviest but that doesn't work for everybody. Others prefer something like a holiday photograph of somewhere they'd love to visit just as soon as they'll look good on the beach.
4-As soon as you've dropped a dress size treat yourself to some new clothes - okay, so you might not have reached your goal yet and still have a couple of sizes to go but this will at least remind you of how well you've done and help to stop you from going back to your old ways and clothes sizes. Give your larger clothes away to a charity shop so that they're gone.
5-Don't forget that losing weight starts in the kitchen and getting fit starts with exercise - but combining the two can really help to speed up the weight loss process. Don't get stuck in a boring exercise routine because variety really is the spice of life. Swim, walk, run, dance, go for a cycle ride, play tennis with friends, just do something.
6-Don't beat yourself up about the bad days, and don't give up. Everybody has the occasional bad day but don't let that be an excuse to give in. If you start afresh every morning that will help to sort out that problem. Just for the record, everybody has bad days... you are not alone.
7-Measure things - not just your weight, but measure your food on the kitchen scales and the amount of alcohol you give yourself at home. It really is very easy to fool yourself and you may be surprised at how generous you are being with the portion sizes. Generous portion sizes equate to generous amounts of calories, remember that.
There are plenty of subtle ways which can really help you to achieve your weight loss goals - it is just a case of finding out what works for you.

9 Super Foods To Help Weight Loss


Eating some foods can actually help you to lose weight. Eating more and losing weight has got to be a great choice for anyone who is trying to lose a few pounds, so here are some of the super foods which can actually help with your weight loss goals.
1. Apples - the perfect snack on the go. Apples are seriously good for you and can help with weight loss problems. They are also packed with antioxidants which can help to combat the "apple shape" or an excess of belly fat. If you want to lose weight you can start by munching an apple every day.
2. Steak - just so long as it's lean this can also help you to lose weight. Organic beef is the healthiest variety of them all. Steak should be grilled or broiled and served with plenty of crisp salad or veggies.
3. Eggs - and I mean all of the eggs - the yolk and the white, just leave the shell. Poached, boiled, omelets and scrambled eggs all make the perfect way to start the day but if you don't have the time to cook in the mornings make a tortilla on the weekends and eat the slices throughout the week.
4. Kale - is another super food which can help you achieve your weight loss goals. There are only 34 calories in a cup of raw, chopped kale but plenty of calcium, iron and fiber.
5. Oats - are another super food which can help you to lose weight and make the perfect breakfast. All types of oats are healthy but steel-cut and rolled varieties are the best of the best. They make a great alternative to breadcrumbs when you're making meatballs.
6. Lentils - help to flatten the belly, and that's a fact. There are loads of different types of lentils but the yellow and red ones are the quickest to cook. They blend in with lots of different dishes thanks to their mild flavor yet can add plenty of texture and substance to lots of different meals.
7. Salmon - is great for your heart and great for your waistline. They are a brilliant source of Omega 3 which, among other things, helps to build muscle and the more muscle your body has the more calories it naturally burns. Wild salmon is the best choice if its available with fewer pollutants.
8. Blueberries - all berries are good for you and blue food is good for you so blueberries are double good for you when you are trying to lose weight. Why not think a little differently at breakfast time and instead of sprinkling a few blueberries onto your cereal simply sprinkle a little cereal onto a bowl of blueberries before adding the low- fat yogurt or milk.
9. Avocado - some people worry about eating avocado when they are trying to lose weight because of the fat content but they really shouldn't, avocado really is a fantastic food for weight loss.
There are other foods which are also great for anyone who wants to lose weight but this is just a small sample of foods which you can eat more of and still lose weight - fantastic.

How To Eat Healthier To Improve Your Life


How To Eat Healthier
When women are young they tend to not think about weight gain.
They spend their younger years running around and not having a care in the world. As they get into their teenage years they start to notice that they are putting on excess fat. This is because they do not run around as much and therefore do not burn up as many calories. This is the time of your life that you need to learn how to eat healthier.
What steps should people take to lead a healthier life?
Nutrition is vital to a healthier lifestyle.
This has to be learnt. The first thing to concentrate on is getting your protein, carbohydrates and fats in the correct proportions. In order to eat in the right proportions to stop you from putting on extra weight you should aim for:
  • 50% carbohydrates
  • 30% protein
  • 20% fat
The protein carbohydrate fat ratio is not set in stone but it should be stuck to as close as possible.
Let us begin with carbohydrates.
There are basically two types of carbohydrates. Bad ones are things like sugar. Sugars give you a quick burst of energy but any excess sugar is stored as fat which is bad for your health. Sugar should be avoided as much as possible. The other type of carbohydrate is called as good carbohydrates and these are basically known as starch. Starch is a form of energy of energy that keeps you going throughout the day. These come from things like rice, bread, pasta and cereal. Be careful when eating cereal though because a lot of them contain high amounts of sugar.
What are the best protein sources for your body?
Some of the best protein sources include: chicken, fish and for vegetarian's quinoa and grains.
Finally we come to fat.
There are two types of fat. The bad fats are called saturated fats and the good fats are called unsaturated fats. Examples of bad fats are things like: cookies, sweets, butter, cream and fatty meat. Examples of good fats are things like: nuts, oily fish, olive oil and pumpkin seeds.
Make sure that you avoid the bad fats as much as possible.
This article is only intended as a rough guide to what you should be eating.
If you follow the general principles contained on this article you will be going in the right direction of how to eat healthier.
Read other people's weight loss stories. Do not forget to click on the link to other pages near the top. http://www.weightlossstory.co.uk/

Weight Loss Diets On A Tight Budget


The struggle to lose weight is difficult at any time, but when money is tight, the obstacles seem insurmountable. Every diet appears to not only require money, but often quite a lot of it. What can you do when there isn't much room in your budget for fancy food or special appliances to prepare it?
Healthy eating doesn't have to cost a fortune. It's true that you may not be able to afford to buy all organic produce or pre-packaged nutrition bars, but if you shop carefully and choose wisely, eating healthy to lose weight is often possible without spending any more than you usually do.
Start by cutting out unnecessary food expenses, if there are any. No more $5 coffees, convenience foods, pre-packaged foods, or fast food stops. No more candy bars, chips, or soda pop. Everything needs to be made from scratch, from real ingredients.
Don't freak out! There are short cuts for those who aren't the greatest cooks or have a busy schedule. Once-a-Month-Cooking and crock pot cooking can save a ton of time.
For ingredients, concentrate on the produce aisle. If you buy conventional, fresh fruits and vegetables can be surprisingly cheap. Compare a ten pound bag of potatoes to one little box of Hamburger Helper, they're often the same price, but the potatoes produce far more food. You can put together a very cheap meal from potatoes, carrots, an onion, and a little butter or oil, and some spices.
You can also buy grains and legumes, such as brown rice, quinoa, lentils, and chili beans. They are very healthy, cheap, versatile, and filling. These take extra prep time though, so cook a giant pot of each item up, let cool, divide into marked freezer bags, and lay the bags flattened and stacked in the freezer.
Going vegetarian can definitely save a lot of money if you avoid packaged foods and gourmet ingredients. But even if vegetarianism isn't for you, you can save a lot of money by cutting back on your meat consumption just a little. Go meatless one day a week. Or instead of serving big filets of meat, try cutting it into bite-sized pieces and serving it in a yummy rice, veggies, and sauce mixture.
If you have the time, growing and canning your own food can save a lot of money. Or you can buy items in bulk, such as pick-your-own blueberries when they are in season, and freeze them in freezer bags for later use.
Salads can be time-consuming to make if you like a lot of veggies and variety in them. So spend an evening once a week chopping up all the onions, cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, etc. and putting them into labeled baggies. Then put the baggies into a plastic bin, and put in the fridge. The next time you need a salad, it will take only a minute or two to prepare, instead of ten or twenty minutes!
There are so many ideas out there for eating healthy on a diet. With a little creativity, you can come up with a diet plan that will help you chip away at those extra pounds, without making a huge dent in your budget.

Losing Weight and Keeping It Off in a Healthy Way


Due to the quick-paced lifestyles practiced by most people today and the up-sized meal culture, it has become very challenging to lose weight and to keep it off. If you are like most people who have tried to lose weight and failed, you may have lost faith in the effectiveness of diets for yourself. Perhaps you are right about the ineffectiveness of traditional diets, particularly in the long run. There are however, several other very effective techniques that you can use to lose weight, make sensible eating choices and establish a healthy association with what you eat.
Get started with the right choices
There is no magic solution for everyone to lose weight permanently. However, there are a few guidelines that can help nearly everyone. Instead of looking for a short-term diet, think about a permanent change in your food choices and lifestyle. For consistency in your efforts, find a support group, which could be friends or family, or a structured weight watchers program. Set short-term objectives, such as losing one or two pounds per week. This will make your weight loss process healthy and not drain your body of muscle and water. Maintain a journal to keep track of what you eat and every pound or inch that you lose. The key is to find the system that works for you and staying committed to it.
Avoid common hazards
Commercial and quick-fix diet plans generally fail as you feel deprived when complete food groups are eliminated in these programs. Completely cutting out carbs or fats from your food intake is unhealthy, as it creates a nutritional imbalance. Diets that require eating pre-prepared foods can work for a while, but maintaining the same weight becomes impossible as soon as you get off the plan. When you reduce your food intake drastically during the diet plan, your body's metabolism slows down temporarily and bounces back as soon as you start eating normally, therefore, you may gain weight more rapidly after the diet.
Use your determination to stop emotional eating
Many of us eat more for stress relief and comfort, than due to hunger. Comfort foods are generally ones with high calorie count, resulting in more pounds. Understand the hazards of emotional eating and learn to stop yourself. Identify the triggers that cause you to overeat and stock up with healthy foods for such situations. Some people eat more when they watch tv while eating, when bored or stressed, or even to celebrate. Now gradually change your eating strategies for these situations. Make a list of things to do when you are on the verge of an emotional eating scenario. You could take a relaxing bath, go for a walk, listen to music or even take a nap to relieve stress.
Think about what you eat
Most people eat mindlessly while working, on the run, or while watching TV. We end up eating more food than we need to. The irony is that we don't actually enjoy the food very much, since we aren't attentive towards it. Deal with this by actively being attentive towards what you eat. Choose healthy foods that you can enjoy eating and get pleasure from each bite. You will lose weight and have more success in maintaining it simply by being aware of what you eat. Avoid watching TV, working, using your phone or computer, or even driving while eating. Take smaller bites and chew longer, savoring each texture and smell. Eat smaller portions at each meal and increase the frequency to five meals a day.
Adopt a healthy lifestyle
Insufficient sleep causes exhaustion, which impairs judgment and results in poor choices. Get sufficient sleep, approximately eight hours at night. You will burn more calories while sleeping instead of watching television. Get some kind of exercise routine into your routine. You could go for walks with a friend, jog with your favorite music, do simple exercises at home, get an exercise video or register at a gym. Make smart calorie burning choices such as using the staircase instead of the elevator or walking to the nearby grocery store. Drink less of alcohol, soda or coffee and more of water. Water helps in food digestion and curbs hunger too. These healthy lifestyle choices will help you in losing weight and keeping it off.

No Time For Yourself?


Do you ever say you have no time for yourself? There is a reason I ask. I have had a few interesting conversations over the past few days on the subject of no time for yourself. It has actually really blown me away because in one situation the individual I was chatting with has a huge health issue and yet proclaimed proudly they there was no time so eating processed, packaged, GM, sugar filled junk food was OK!
Let's get clear on a few things first. Each and every person on earth has the very same 86,400 seconds per day. Doesn't change for anyone. How we use that time is what is different for each of us. The choices we make with our time is where the real story begins.
I was going through some of my papers this morning and found this saying, If you don't take care of your Health it will go away! Not sure who wrote this however it really resonated with me in thinking about this post today. Taking care of your health is an activity that requires putting some effort into. It is about creating some new skills that will take you in a direction that will lift up your health rather than the direction that got you to poor health in the first place. The no time for yourself attitude will never get you to improve the skills for better health.
Learning about eating as a strategy for my better health has really forced me out of the no time for yourself syndrome. I had to create time to eat real food at each and every meal. If I was going out to work, going somewhere social I had to take time to make something to bring with me so I wouldn't be caught short and make bad choices that would negatively affect how I felt.
Has there been challenges in moving from a no time frame of mind to taking time to do what is best for me. Yes and these have been skills that I have been practicing for some time now. Learning over years how to adjust to get what is important so I don't get caught short and having to eat something that will do more harm than good.
What skills might one need to improve on?
Planning real food meals - if feeling like you have no time then planning, shopping, cooking a number of meals at one time may be a solution
Practicing cooking skills - take some cooking lessons - will help you improve this essential skill and it might be fun
Reading labels - I don't purchase much in boxes or packages yet when I do I read labels
So we all have 86,400 seconds in each day. Saying you have no time for yourself is a decision. You are saying yes to activities that may not serve you especially if gluten free living.
How do you see the no time for yourself question?
Wendy Bottrell
Health/Fitness Coach For Gluten Free Living
http://wendybottrell.com

Confession Really Is One of the Best Stress Management Strategies


Stress is a gruelling and common problem and as a result, people are continuously searching for ways to reduce their stress levels. We are always being asked to recommend stress management strategies and techniques. Every time our answer is the same; confession.
Recent research backs-up the age-old adage that confession is good for the soul. However, before you rush to your local church to confess let us consider what this means.
Talking about the soul takes us to a metaphysical minefield. So we're saying that confession is good for your state of mind.
However, whilst unburdening yourself of all the truths you have been dying to spill may indeed be good for you, I must advise a hint of caution. Many a political career has been ruined by uncontrolled encounters with the truth! Also, if you find yourself under police questioning, it is probably best to stick to the truth; though you may wish to see a lawyer first, especially if you happen to be a politician...
If I'm not advising complete confessions, what am I on about? It's all about getting your hopes, fears and worries out into the open.
Opening up is a difficult step for many people as they have to admit two big things:
1. There is a problem.
2. They should do something about it.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people don't even get to stage one. They hope the problem will disappear so that they won't have to deal with it. Sometimes they bottle it inside, hoping they can sort it out. But this often ends badly.
Once we have admitted these two things, we must try and frame them. Setting a problem out so another can understand it is a great way to focus our minds on a particular problem. If a problem is plainly set out a solution can be easier to find.
Next comes the question of who gets the unburdening...
Top of the tree are the psychiatrists. Being the most qualified they are the most expensive. That reminds me of an old joke...
"I went to the psychiatrist because I was slightly cracked and now I am completely broke!"
Then we have the counsellors. You can happily bend their ear for a modest fee whilst you air your problems. Non professionals can include family or friends, though a note of caution here, you could drive them away.
I find that the best tools you can use to unburden your stress are a pen and some paper. I use a stress journal by writing down all the things that stress me out. Rather than a shrink jotting notes at an extortionate hourly fee, I do it myself.
Here's how you do it:
Sit down somewhere comfortable with some paper and a pen. Make sure you have a few sheets of paper - you do not want to run out when in full flow. Also use a sturdy ballpoint pen rather than a fountain pen or pencil. It might get a little heated and you want it to last the session.
Write everything down that is playing on your mind or 'stressing you out'. If you have had a lousy day say so. Nobody is going to see what you have written, so let rip! Don't worry about spelling and grammar. It's not an essay so nobody is going to mark it.
If the thoughts come quicker than you can write, speed up your writing rather than slow the downloading of stress. Use abbreviations, scrawl and scribble away!
If people have caused you grief, stress or annoyance say so. Call them every name under the sun if it will help you unload.
When you've finished don't read what you have written, that's dwelling on the past. Just tear it all up and throw it in the bin. Think of it as ripping your stress to shreds. Scrunch it up into a tight ball and then throw it and your stress away. You'll be amazed how good you will feel.
It may sound mad but it does work - try it.
Lol (Laurence) Cohen is the founder and guiding light of the Picture of Health Clubs.
He has been helping to promote the Picture of Health Clubs message to unwind body and mind through their book and blog, which you can view here: http://www.pictureofhealthclubs.com/blog
Check out their book 'Are You a Physical Wreck or a Mental Washout? Or Both!' here: http://amzn.to/12s6GYC

 
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