Welcome to Our premiere health club, Cleans Balance And Build Fitness. We have been transforming body, mind, and spirit for nearly a decade. Our state of the art facility is like no other. Our experienced trainers and state-of-the-art fitness equipment are only a few of the things that make Main Street Fitness so unique. Our spacious club, incomparable amenities, and comfortable atmosphere makes getting fit a truly inspiring adventure.
We offer a wide range of private and group classes, all professionally designed and led, that target your unique needs. You will not be lost in a crowd. Our class sizes are limited and offered frequently, enabling our professional trainers to spend the time necessary to maximize results. We offer private classes in weight-training, nutrition, and cardiovascular endurance. Our group classes include Pilates, aerobics, yoga, jazzercise, step, hip-hop, and tai-chi. New classes are added all the time. Cleans Balance And Build Fitness features a complete state of the art facility. However, we do not rely on equipment to make us the leader in fitness. We understand that knowledgeable courteous staff is essential to your, and our, success. Our trainers have all been educated and certified in their respective fields of expertise. We don't just hire anyone that looks fit. We require a deep knowledge of physiology and fitness, as well as a friendly and understanding demeanor. Our trainers are not here to judge you; they are here to support you on your journey. Strengthening Body and Mind for
Texters Wanted. Eric Schmidt, Google CEO says, Yes, Mobile marketing will be a bigger business than the PC-web.”., Amero SMS Mobile Marketing offers a no cost newsletter that keeps you on the cutting edge of this New Texting Revolution . More Green Business opportunities below from $99 up, a turnkey Green home business with money back guarantee. Opportunity to make unlimited money. Limited Time.
This site is still being worked on by volunteers, so check back often. Excerpts from our blogs. The best way to keep informed is our text up date and newsletters. Sign up here. www.TextersWanted.com
The GREEN TEXTING AND MOBILE MARKETING REVOLUTION is HERE ! One of the leading Global Green consultants believes he has hit the mother lode Gold mine in the emerging Mobile SMS market.
Wicoup Mobile Media
Amero Advertising and Marketing, SMS Mobile Texting Division
George Ingvar Hopkins
Independent Representative
3333 Bowers Ave, Ste 130
Santa Clara, CA 95054
408 592-9270, 650 543-0138, 415 321-1039
ingvar@texterswanted.com, http://YES.mywicoup.com
http://wicoup.com/affiliates/yesyesyes/signup
DESCRIPTION DETAILS
Wicoup SMS Business Opportunity
Thursdays, 2010, 7pm
MIlpitas
Embassy Suites Hotel
901 East Calaveras Blvd, Milpitas, CA 95035
Now YOU Can DREAM AGAIN
SMS Career Fair Aug. 13/14, 6-8pm / 9am-5pm
www.TextersWanted.com <http://www.TextersWanted.com>
The SMS industry is about to explode and we need interns, part time to full time, trainers, sales, marketing, corporate types to climb to insane earning potentials. There are opportunities if YOU want them, it’s YOUR choice. Limited time. Google CEO: this industry is 4-6 times bigger than Google. IBM CEO: takes control as experts predict 300 B market. Green products and services that YOU can help make a difference in the world we leave for our children. Success stories are everywhere. The Perfect Opportunity has NOW Arrived, Your new Life story!! You have every right to become wealthy. What issues can money solve for you? Freedom this Way, Opportunity Calling! This is YOUR once in a lifetime Opportunity… Bi-Linguals ~ help open the world.YOU owe this to yourself & Your family Call Today, Everyday you wait, YOU are losing money. We have weekly meetings on how small business can utilize this emerging technology and cut their marketing costs by 50% with demonstrated results. After those that want to review the product, we show the international opportunity of this new 300 Billion dollar plus industry. The top corporate international leader will be there to talk and answer any questions. Many are already making 6 figure plus at corporate. Now the small business sector has opened and the opportunities are endless. A product/service that every business or org. can benefit from using. G.I. Hopkins
408 592-9270
Advertising & Marketing commission to salary opportunities
Intern, Part time to full time, trainers, corporate leaders
international marketing 6 figure +++ potential
Texters Wanted provides high school and college students with an intern/commission no charge training, corporate type salaried positions, Advertising Business Opportunities
G.I. Hopkins
408 592-9270
www.GiHopkins.com <http://www.GiHopkins.com>
www.GiGreenGuru.com <http://www.GiGreenGuru.com> Wicoup Mobile Media is the Premier publicly traded mobile marketing company in the US today. Mobile marketing with 4 Billion plus potential users, is NOW the next Big Wave & will be incorporated into virtually every business, organization and association to keep up with consumers and clients in today’s technology-driven world. see complete ad online.
Mobile Web Search Engine and Language Translator About Us Wicoup Mobile Media is the Premier publicly traded mobile marketing company in the US today. Mobile marketing with 4 Billion plus potential users, is NOW the next Big Wave & will be incorporated into virtually every business, organization and association to keep up with consumers and clients in today’s technology-driven world. Americans Do It Five Billion Times a Day. No, it's not Breathing - It’s Text Messaging Wicoup has patent pending on a Mobile Web search engine and language translator in 23 languages. Communicate with consumers in their language and in their community.
Founders with Wicoup receive 100 shares of stock. Starting a business has never been easier or less expensive. Training and customer service are key.
• Wicoup Products grow as your business does.
• There are no long term agreements and no set-up fees.
• Find out who your customers are and reach out to them with a valuable offer which will build loyalty.
• It’s simple, easy and it works!
<http://YES.mywicoup.com> Do you think the Google Corporation has been accurate in the past with predictions?
“The next big wave in marketing is the mobile internet. Yes, mobile marketing will be a bigger business than the PC-web.” Eric Schmidt, Google CEO
Publicly Traded and Patent Pending
MOBILE MARKETING with CELL PHONES
WORLDS FIRST WIRELESS SEARCH ENGINE
WORLDS FIRST TEXT DELIVERY in 23 LANGUAGES
WORKS with ANY CELL PHONE or SMART PHONE
URGENT and TIME SENSITIVE OFFER!!
STOCK OWNERSHIP for FIRST 5000 FOUNDERS!!
PRE-LAUNCHED “07-30-10” ALL SYSTEMS GO!! Become part of the future with Wicoup. http://wicoup.com/affiliates/yesyesyes/signup <http://wicoup.com/affiliates/yesyesyes/signup>
My name is George Ingvar Hopkins. I’m looking for entrepreneurs that want to be part of the next big wave of the future, that’s here NOW!! WiCoup already has many MAJOR NAME BRAND National Corporate accounts using their text advertising to deliver millions of special offers and coupons that GET OPENED and GET RESULTS!! Now they are launching our WiCoup M*L*M Company so they can have a huge sales force to help them reach millions of small local businesses, to large national corporate accounts, with our Patent Pending Text advertising products.
Why Text Message advertising over Print advertising? Text Advertising is FAST and EFFECTIVE!! Over 95% of Text Messages are opened, usually in less than 5-minutes!! Our Text Message advertisers have reported that our service only costs them about 1/3 of normal cost of print advertising, and the return on investment is typically about 500% greater than print advertising!! That means MORE SALES and MORE NEW CUSTOMERS aware of your business, for LESS MONEY!!
The secret to SUCCESS is simple. It’s taking massive and immediate action when you spot something HOT!! WiCoup is by far the HOTTEST product driven company I have ever seen!! The beauty of WiCoup is that it does not interfere with what you are already doing. Our technology can be used for your personal pleasure, to promote ANY M*L*M Company you may be currently working, or any traditional business.
Consider the following Points…
• Patent Pending: WORLDS FIRST CELL PHONE WIRELESS SEARCH ENGINE!!
• Patent Pending: WORLDS FIRST TEXT DELIVERY in any of 23 LANGUAGES!!
• WiCoup Patent Pending Technologies work on virtually all Cell Phones, including Non-Smart Phones!!
• New Frontier in Advertising!! Virtually ZERO Competition!! First Mover Advantage!!
• Our Text Service is F*R*E*E to end users, only advertisers have to pay for the services.
• A staggering 95% of all “TEXT” Messages are OPENED, usually in less than 5-Minutes!!
• Our Parent Company, Madison Avenue Media Inc., is publicly traded.
• The Executive Team of Madison Ave Media, Inc. is built from the largest companies in the world, such as IBM, Dean Witter, Satchi & Satchi, HCA, and many more.
• Current clients using our Text Advertising include many Household Name Major Name Brand Companies.
• WiCoup is OPEN in USA only now!! WiCoup has plans to aggressively open other countries in the months and years ahead.
• WiCoup is allowing the first 1,000 people who make a $399.99 advertising/product purchase to become WiCoup FOUNDERS. Additionally WiCoup offers shares of Stock to each FOUNDER.
• WiCoup has NO Annual Fees or Website Charges!! FYI: Most M*L*M companies charge a $29.95 to $49.95 Annual Fee when you join….then many also charge $10.00 to $15.00 per month for your personal marketing website!!
• Uni-Level Comp Plan with 8 Levels of 5% Per Level. Stay fully qualified to earn on ALL 8-Levels of the Uni-Level with a LOW $49.00 per month in personal activity.
• Unlimited Earning Potential from the 8-Level Uni-Level!!
• In Addition to the Unlimited Earning Potential from the 8-Level Uni-Level, we can ALSO earn up to an extra $20,000.00 per month from the WiCoup Leadership BONUS!! See the following 3 examples…
• Potential to earn an unheard of $3,000.00 per month in Leadership BONUS income with an organization of only 150 active customers!!
• Potential to earn an unheard of $8,000.00 per month in Leadership BONUS income with an organization of only 400 active customers!!
• Potential to earn an unheard of $20,000.00 per month in Leadership BONUS income with an organization of only 1000 active customers!!
• Bi-Weekly Pay Now!! In the near future this will change to weekly pay.
Every single person/business will want to use WiCoup to "Advertise" and to be "Advertised". Any person/business who spends $49.00 or more per month to do "Text" advertising, is also automatically placed in the WiCoup National Wireless Search Engine data base. http://wicoup.com/affiliates/yesyesyes/signup <http://wicoup.com/affiliates/yesyesyes/signup>
“Realtor” EXAMPLE #1: If you were a Realtor who lived in Spokane, Washington, and someone in the Spokane, Washington area did a search for Realtors on our Patent Pending WiCoup Wireless Search Engine, it would automatically pull up Realtors using WiCoup to advertise in that local area. If you were 1 of the 3 closest Realtors advertising in that local area, the search would pull up YOUR CONTACT INFO as a local realtor.
“Realtor” EXAMPLE #2: Another way a Realtor can benefit from being an advertiser with WiCoup is by you putting your unique "Text Code" in all your real-estate advertisements. IE: You could put your personal unique WiCoup "Text Code" on a FOR SALE SIGN you post out in the front of a property. Then let's say 25 people who view that sign/ad, "TEXT" you for a meeting or more information on that property.... You capture their contact info…. a month goes by with no sale and the owner drops the price $50,000.00 on that property.... now in about 1-Minute Flat you can send a quick "TEXT" message to ALL 25 of those potential buyers that were looking at that property, and tell them the price just dropped by $50,000.00 a few minutes ago!! This could be the difference between a sale and no sale!!
“Restaurant” EXAMPLE #1: If you owned a Mexican Restaurant in Dallas, Texas, you could send a "TEXT" message (from the WiCoup 60-Million Double Opt-In “Text Message” Data Base) to as many people as you wanted nationally, or in your local Dallas, Texas, area offering everyone a "Buy One Meal Get One Free" Text Message Coupon!! Now all of the sudden here come the hungry customers.
“Restaurant” EXAMPLE #2: If you owned a Mexican Restaurant in Dallas, Texas, and someone in the Dallas, Texas area did a search for Mexican Restaurants on our Patent Pending WiCoup Wireless Search Engine, it would automatically pull up Mexican restaurants using WiCoup to advertise in that local area. If you were 1 of the 3 closest Mexican restaurants advertising in that local area, the search would pull up YOUR CONTACT INFO/COUPONS as a local Mexican Restaurant.
Texters Wanted !! Yes, mobile marketing will be a bigger business than the PC-web.” Eric Schmidt, Google CEO., Amero SMS Mobile Marketing director says do not miss this opportunity
.
Said when asked is the next big wave in marketing the mobile internet?
Our Mobile Media source , it has recently been reported to be the Premier publicly traded mobile marketing company in the US today. Mobile marketing with 4 Billion plus potential users, is NOW the next Big Wave & will be incorporated into virtually every business, organization and association to keep up with consumers and clients in today’s technology driven world.
Our Mobile Media source has patent pending on a Mobile Web search engine and language translator in 23 languages. It can also Communicate with consumers in their language and in their community.
Founders stock. Starting a business has never been easier or less expensive.
Training and customer service are key.
Our Products grow as your business does.
No long term agreements and No set-up fees.
Find out who your customers are and
reach out to them with a valuable offer which will build loyalty.
It’s simple, easy and it works!
Email …
Yes Yes …Yes responed Eric Schmidt, Google CEO
when asked if -“The next big wave in marketing is the mobile internet.
Yes, mobile marketing will be a bigger business than the PC-web.”
Do you think the Google Corporation has been accurate in the past with predictions?
Invest your life in the future of a Hot Texting business
Thank you
Your partner in Success
Ingvar
TextersWanted.com
=========================================
Texters Wanted. Eric Schmidt, Google CEO says, Yes, Mobile marketing will be a bigger business than the PC-web.”., Amero SMS Mobile Marketing offers a no cost newsletter that keeps you on the cutting edge of this New Texting Revolution . More Green Business opportunities below from $99 up, a turnkey Green home business with money back guarantee. Opportunity to make unlimited money. Limited Time.
“Publicly Traded and Patent Pending”
“MOBILE MARKETING with CELL PHONES”
“WORLDS FIRST WIRELESS SEARCH ENGINE”
“WORLDS FIRST TEXT DELIVERY in 23 LANGUAGES”
WORKS with ANY CELL PHONE or SMART PHONE
URGENT and TIME SENSITIVE OFFER!!
STOCK OWNERSHIP for FIRST 1000 FOUNDERS!!
PRE-LAUNCHED “07-30-10” ALL SYSTEMS GO!!
My name is George Ingvar Hopkins. I’m looking for entrepreneurs that want to be part of the next big wave of the future, that’s here NOW!! WiCoup already has many MAJOR NAME BRAND National Corporate accounts using their text advertising to deliver millions of special offers and coupons that GET OPENED and GET RESULTS!! Now they are launching our WiCoup M*L*M Company so they can have a huge sales force to help them reach millions of small local businesses, to large national corporate accounts, with our Patent Pending Text advertising products.
Why Text Message advertising over Print advertising? Text Advertising is FAST and EFFECTIVE!! Over 95% of Text Messages are opened, usually in less than 5-minutes!! Our Text Message advertisers have reported that our service only costs them about 1/3 of normal cost of print advertising, and the return on investment is typically about 500% greater than print advertising!! That means MORE SALES and MORE NEW CUSTOMERS aware of your business, for LESS MONEY!!
The secret to SUCCESS is simple. It’s taking massive and immediate action when you spot something HOT!! WiCoup is by far the HOTTEST product driven company I have ever seen!! The beauty of WiCoup is that it does not interfere with what you are already doing. Our technology can be used for your personal pleasure, to promote ANY M*L*M Company you may be currently working, or any traditional business.
Consider the following Bullet Points…
Ø Patent Pending: WORLDS FIRST CELL PHONE WIRELESS SEARCH ENGINE!!
Ø Patent Pending: WORLDS FIRST TEXT DELIVERY in any of 23 LANGUAGES!!
Ø A Patent Pending Technologies work on virtually all Cell Phones, including Non-Smart Phones!!
Ø New Frontier in Advertising!! Virtually ZERO Competition!! First Mover Advantage!!
Ø Our Text Service is F*R*E*E to end users, only advertisers have to pay for the services.
Ø A staggering 95% of all “TEXT” Messages are OPENED, usually in less than 5-Minutes!!
Ø Our Parent Company, Madison Avenue Media Inc., is publicly traded.
Ø The Executive Team of Madison Ave Media, Inc. is built from the largest companies in the world, such as IBM, Dean Witter, Satchi & Satchi, HCA, and many more.
Ø Current clients using our Text Advertising include many Household Name Major Name Brand Companies.
Ø WiCoup is OPEN in
Ø WiCoup is allowing the first 5,000 people who make a $399.99 advertising/product purchase to become WiCoup FOUNDERS. Additionally WiCoup offers shares of Stock to each FOUNDER.
Ø WiCoup has NO Annual Fees or Website Charges!! FYI: Most M*L*M companies charge a $29.95 to $49.95 Annual Fee when you join….then many also charge $10.00 to $15.00 per month for your personal marketing website!!
Ø Uni-Level Comp Plan with 8 Levels of 5% Per Level. Stay fully qualified to earn on ALL 8-Levels of the Uni-Level with a LOW $49.00 per month in personal activity.
Ø Unlimited Earning Potential from the 8-Level Uni-Level!!
Ø In Addition to the Unlimited Earning Potential from the 8-Level Uni-Level, we can ALSO earn up to an extra $20,000.00 per month from the WiCoup Leadership BONUS!! See the following 3 examples…
Ø Potential to earn an unheard of $3,000.00 per month in Leadership BONUS income with an organization of only 150 active customers!!
Ø Potential to earn an unheard of $8,000.00 per month in Leadership BONUS income with an organization of only 400 active customers!!
Ø Potential to earn an unheard of $20,000.00 per month in Leadership BONUS income with an organization of only 1000 active customers!!
Ø Bi-Weekly Pay Now!! In the near future this will change to weekly pay.
Every single person/business will want to use WiCoup to "Advertise" and to be "Advertised". Any person/business who spends $49.00 or more per month to do "Text" advertising, is also automatically placed in the WiCoup National Wireless Search Engine data base. www.TextersWanted.com
“Realtor” EXAMPLE #1: If you were a Realtor who lived in
“Realtor” EXAMPLE #2: Another way a Realtor can benefit from being an advertiser with WiCoup is by you putting your unique "Text Code" in all your real-estate advertisements. IE: You could put your personal unique WiCoup "Text Code" on a FOR SALE SIGN you post out in the front of a property. Then let's say 25 people who view that sign/ad, "TEXT" you for a meeting or more information on that property.... You capture their contact info…. a month goes by with no sale and the owner drops the price $50,000.00 on that property.... now in about 1-Minute Flat you can send a quick "TEXT" message to ALL 25 of those potential buyers that were looking at that property, and tell them the price just dropped by $50,000.00 a few minutes ago!! This could be the difference between a sale and no sale!!
“Restaurant” EXAMPLE #1: If you owned a Mexican Restaurant in Dallas, Texas, you could send a "TEXT" message (from the WiCoup 60-Million Double Opt-In “Text Message” Data Base) to as many people as you wanted nationally, or in your local Dallas, Texas, area offering everyone a "Buy One Meal Get One Free" Text Message Coupon!! Now all of the sudden here come the hungry customers.
“Restaurant” EXAMPLE #2: If you owned a Mexican Restaurant in Dallas, Texas, and someone in the Dallas, Texas area did a search for Mexican Restaurants on our Patent Pending WiCoup Wireless Search Engine, it would automatically pull up Mexican restaurants using WiCoup to advertise in that local area. If you were 1 of the 3 closest Mexican restaurants advertising in that local area, the search would pull up YOUR CONTACT INFO/COUPONS as a local Mexican Restaurant.
Step #1: Go to My Link to “Register” for F*R*E*E: http://wicoup.com/affiliates/yesyesyes/signup
NOTE: The “Registration Button” is at VERY TOP of PAGE!! During Registration you will be asked to create your USERNAME. The USERNAME is YOUR WiCoup “Website URL”!!
Step #2: If you are ready to make your purchase now, go to your website URL you just created and select the “Text Package” you want. This is a ONE TIME PURCHASE!! You can set up an auto-ship later if you wish to make monthly purchases!! NOTE: The FOUNDERS “Text Package” is at the VERY BOTTOM of the page!!
Step #3: When prompted during the purchase process enter your LOGIN INFO which is your EMAIL ADDRESS and your PASSWORD!!
Step #4: At the end of the “Text Package” purchase CHECK OUT will ask you to “Select a Payment”. Just CLICK on “PayPal IPN” and then CLICK on SUBMIT!! This will then pull up the TeCoup PayPal payment page. You can select Visa, Master Card, American Express or Discover on the left hand side of the page for payment… or you can just choose to pay with your PayPal account if you have one.
Please feel free to call me with any questions you may still have after you review the website.
Daily Conference Calls will be starting shortly…I may be one of the presenters on the Conference Calls…
Your Partner in Success,
George I Hopkins
http://wicoup.com/affiliates/yesyesyes/signup
WiCOUP Independent Rep
WiCOUP Founders Group
1-408-592-9270
G.I. Hopkins is searching for individuals that want to intern, find a place in our Green family at our Green Social Site, individuals that are strong networkers to take this emerging green technology to the world. Check www.HelpAmericaGoGreen.com and www.AABCTS2010.com
The New Texting Revolution has begun. The question is who will become the next TEXT AVATAR? You must get started and the longer you wait the less profits you can make. Go for it with your hair on fire.
The chatter is: Green Advertising and Marketing are here NOW and the opportunity to make bank in the GREEN TEXTING AND MOBILE MARKETING and PUBLIC RELATIONS is here today. If you need information fast, search “Texters Wanted or Texter Jobs or for the do-it-yourselfer TXTTOOLS IN A BOX TM and MOBILE TOOLS IN A BOX TM. This is the future, knowledge is power and still more information is at the Cell Coupon Store and at 411 Local Coupons.
Mobile telephone ads are projected to sell billions of local cell coupons and cell telephone ads.
Green Texters are needed for the emerging GREEN SMS MOBILE MARKETING opportunities. Green consultants are saying that this new emerging market could be the Greenest thing that has happen to planet earth. It is a BIG deal…millions of tons of paper, inks from oil, millions of barrels, leaching into water systems reduced fewer toxins in our food supply; this is very very BIG for Green. It will take armies of individuals in every community to train and inform individuals. We need your help, contact these people today.
V.P. of Amero SMS Mobile Marketing division, Invar said, this new paradigm shift in the Global Digital Coupon Market and Advertising is the SMS Economic Stimulus Plan we have been waiting for. The Patent Pending SMS Mobile Marketing Platforms combined with Network Mobile Marketing will empower small business & organizations in 2010. Savings by reducing costs per customers or clients. The demand for this will likely create a new wave of many new multi millionaires.
Millions of Cell Mobile phone Coupons are already being used across America by large Corporations. Wholesale Texting and do-it-yourself Textable Coupons are the new Direct Sales Coupons that will provide many Text Savy Cyber Texters instant Mobile Online Profits with their own Texting Home Business Opportunity.
The experts are projecting a trillion dollar industry in the Mobile Marketing Opportunity arena. Time will tell. Many are chasing the Texting Money Tree in the form of Home Texting Business. Some refer to it as Mobile Marketing Madness or SMS Mobile Mania. However you look at the numbers concerning Text Message Search Engines, Text Marketing King, Amero’s SMS mobile Text Message V.P., Ingvar says Cell Mobile Marketing Certification and SMS Mobile Marketing Training and will be mandatory according to provider’s requirement.
Mobile Marketing intern positions are available nationwide. Safe Text Training is available on line through Safe text school. Become an Eyeball Avatar otherwise known as a Mobile SMS Consultant that provides cost effective fast results with Local Cell Coupons. Train in your underwear?
Amero Mobile Marketing Certification is required by Amero Ads and Amero Local Guide to provide seem less cost effective compliant SMS Cell Coupons through mobile telephone ads. Cell Mobile Marketing is the next GOLD rush where the tool salesmen became wealthy, not the miners. The future Advertising Tools in a Box TM and Text Tools In a Box TM will provide the secrets to mine the gold from a market potential 4 times the size of a Google size company, said Ingvar VP Sales director @ Amero SMS text message division. In 33 years in business, I have never seen an opportunity the size of this golden opportunity. Here today, gone tomorrow.
Worried about being scammed? Check out mobile marketing scam for information. Knowledge is power. Protect yourself by searching everywhere, checking back as our www.NewScienceofMarketing.com and new information is added daily. Sign up for the updates, do not get left behind.
Coupon Tools In a Box TM provides Green TXTADS and Messenger Tools In A Box TM was designed for the do it yourselfer. General Ad Tools In a BoxTM and Marketing Tools In A Box TM bundled with information from On Line Tools In A Box TM. Anyone can strike it rich and make money in mobile marketing. Got the Itch, Get cell mobile marketing certification. Check out www.SMSTextingScam.com or Coupon Ripoff. They are similar but the more information you can find the better decision about a job, just-over-broke. Additionally more information is at SMS Mobile Marketing Agency or the Mobile Money Makers Store.
Many will get rich in SMS Mobile Texting so if you do TXT LINGO or you are a high school texter or college texter you can reap dollars and build money now PLUS residual income by learning the secrets to mobile marketing and how to get mobile marketing training certification. www.TexterWanted.com
Text messaged coupons are here to stay. If you are just looking for a deal to mobile web search, shop and save by text marketing. A Diva Texter or Text Master Marketer can make more money in one month than most Americans earn in a year.
Is this a wakeup call for me? See how mobile Texters fit into My Zip Marketing, LOCALZIPB2B and LOCALZIPB2C to Local Shop and Buy.
My friends just got cell phone and SMS tools at the TXTSCHOOLSTORE and MOBILEMARKETINGTOOLSINABOX TM. If you feel like a Home Business Avatar and want a hot texting business as texters are wanted and a TEXTMARKETINGGURU can combine opportunity tools in a boxTM and digital data from my cell phone ads.
Find out if you can TXTEYEBALLS to SHOPBYHOME with SMS the fastest growing industry where texters are wanted. What? Yes Txters communicate differently.
Remember,… Study, Act Fast, get MYTEXTTOOLS a report that is about using Money Making Tools In A BoxTM as more Texters wanted signs are everywhere.
The TESTSCHOOLSTORE should fill in more details to mining gold in GREEN Texting & Mobile Market Public Relations.
Good Luck
Bless,
Ingvar
P.S. My Area Marketing provides local services and trades & talk & see marketing. If you want to be a LocalB2B, or looking for a 411 information career, get information below.
=============================================================
Texters Wanted. Eric Schmidt, Google CEO says, Yes, Mobile marketing will be a bigger business than the PC-web.”., Amero SMS Mobile Marketing offers a no cost newsletter that keeps you on the cutting edge of this New Texting Revolution . More Green Business opportunities below from $99 up, a turnkey Green home business with money back guarantee. Opportunity to make unlimited money. Limited Time.
This site is still being worked on by volunteers, so check back often. Excerpts from our blogs. The best way to keep informed is our text up date and newsletters. Sign up here. www.TextersWanted.com
The GREEN TEXTING AND MOBILE MARKETING REVOLUTION is HERE ! One of the leading Global Green consultants believes he has hit the mother lode Gold mine in the emerging Mobile SMS market.
G.I. Hopkins is searching for individuals that want to intern, find a place in our Green family at our Green Social Site, individuals that are strong networkers to take this emerging green technology to the world. Check www.HelpAmericaGoGreen.com and www.AABCTS2010.com
Amero presents to you the wonderful world of mobile SMS marketing and how you can benefit just by texting. The newest revolution, text advertising, will bring a green perspective to marketers that may be just starting out or those who are experienced. Mobile text advertising eliminates the need for paper and ink that are used for coupons which seem to just be thrown away. By switching to this new technology that is available in 23 different languages businesses of all sizes can reach a wider range of customers in your local community, but if there aren’t any “green” texters then how are people going to be able to know about this new technology and how are businesses going to know to switch from out dated coupons? Well that’s where Amero Mobile Certification comes in!! By joining the Amero team you can become certified in new science marketing and become an expert on textable coupons. Now that the cell phone ads are being used and exploited for their marketing and money making potential I would advise everyone young and old, Mom or Pop, to become a wanted texter that understands the text lingo and that is text savy. All texters are wanted for this new and ready to boom market. Moms? Do you need money to put your kids thru college? Well here is your chance to make money even if you are a stay at home mom. You can become a master text marketer from your own home by going through mobile marketing certification training at a location near you! This is no mobile marketing scam that will just take your money while leading you on thinking that you will make money eventually. This is the here and now and in order to make the money you desire you will need to become a text master by becoming certified in texting of all sorts. Al certification is free but you must act now because this offer is limited and the doors to the sms mobile marketing training schools will close soon. High schoolers, do you want extra money to spend when you hang out with friends or even save enough to buy your own car? This offer is an exceptionally easy task for most teens because I know that many of you do text in class and everywhere else you go so don’t be shy. This may be the only mobile marketing opportunity you will ever get. You can make huge mobile online profits just by joining the new texting revolution and texting to thousands of people at one time. You can even have your own home texting business and make more money than your parents and teachers! This mobile marketing madness is providing texter jobs for everyone and this is your chance to start a hot texting business and become a texting guru before you even finish high school. Learn all the secrets to mobile marketing while becoming mobile marketing certified and having a texter job! Have you ever noticed how most jobs don’t allow you to text during work? Well now you can become a part of the Amero mobile marketing agency and have a job texting to all sorts of people. Google’s CEO even said that “mobile marketing will be bigger than the pc-web.” Do you believe that? Well here is a fact to ponder. There are over 6 billion mobile phones and almost all of them have texting capabilities. Just think if you to profit from a % of this market. With the training you will receive once you sign-up you have the possibilities of making a lot more than most can dream of making. If I told you how much some of the individuals are getting paid, you would not think it is possible. Think again. Bi-ligules have an even bigger opportunity if they can bring the technology to their homeland. Reservations for mobile marketing training are literally being devoured so join me in becoming one of the next text Kings… or Queens by going to www.texterswanted.com today.
Welcome to Our premiere health club, Cleans Balance And Build Fitness. We have been transforming body, mind, and spirit for nearly a decade. Our state of the art facility is like no other. Our experienced trainers and state-of-the-art fitness equipment are only a few of the things that make Main Street Fitness so unique. Our spacious club, incomparable amenities, and comfortable atmosphere makes getting fit a truly inspiring adventure.
We offer a wide range of private and group classes, all professionally designed and led, that target your unique needs. You will not be lost in a crowd. Our class sizes are limited and offered frequently, enabling our professional trainers to spend the time necessary to maximize results. We offer private classes in weight-training, nutrition, and cardiovascular endurance. Our group classes include Pilates, aerobics, yoga, jazzercise, step, hip-hop, and tai-chi. New classes are added all the time.
Cleans Balance And Build Fitness features a complete state of the art facility. However, we do not rely on equipment to make us the leader in fitness. We understand that knowledgeable courteous staff is essential to your, and our, success. Our trainers have all been educated and certified in their respective fields of expertise. We don't just hire anyone that looks fit. We require a deep knowledge of physiology and fitness, as well as a friendly and understanding demeanor. Our trainers are not here to judge you; they are here to support you on your journey.
Strengthening Body and Mind for Nearly a Decade
Our patient, motivating staff will help you get the results you want!
Important Health information Adult Asthma Symptoms Adult onset asthma symptoms almost always come as a surprise the first time you get them. Everyone is on the lookout for asthma symptoms in children, but people often miss it at first in adults. Adults with shortness of breath, wheezing, or coughing sometimes panic, completely unsure of what is going on with them. Occasionally, they even falsely assume that they are having a heart attack! The reality of the situation is that adult asthma symptoms are things that you should get checked out at the doctor no matter what they signify. Shortness of breath, wheezing, a tight feeling in the chest, and excessive coughing can all be signs of many different diseases, one of which is asthma. Only your doctor can tell you for sure whether or not you are developing adult onset asthma. Nonetheless, there are some good indications to tell whether or not a particular condition is a symptom of adult asthma. Think about what triggered it. Did it come about as the result of exercising? Did it happen after eating a certain food? Does it happen when you suddenly breathe in really cold air by going outside on a winter morning? All of these can be signs that you have developed asthma. There are many different treatments for asthma out there and, like most chronic conditions, it usually requires a combination of things. One of the most neglected asthma treatments is diet. Having a diet that avoids things that trigger adult asthma symptoms is important, but it is not enough. Eating a lot of greasy processed foods will often put you at a greater risk of asthma, so it is important to eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, as well as grains of all sorts. Of course, medicine is also an important tool in treating adult asthma symptoms. Most of the time, doctors will prescribe an asthma inhaler or two. When I used to have childhood asthma, my doctor prescribed a maintenance inhaler which would stop me from getting relapses, and an inhaler that I could use in case of a sudden onset of severe symptoms. This is a pretty typical approach, but there are a lot of different ways that you can go about treating adult asthma symptoms. There are even natural asthma treatments out there consisting of various different herbs that will counteract respiratory conditions. It all come down to finding what works best for you. ---------------------------------- Aloe Vera Products I first learned about Aloe vera products in Israel many years ago. When I was there, I was impressed by these giant, bizarre looking plants that were growing everywhere. As an experiment, I broke a leaf off of one of them and saw this green ooze coming out of it. When I asked what it was, my mom responded that it was the aloe vera plant. She told me that it was good for cuts and scrapes of all kinds. I had occasion enough to test it while I was there. I enjoyed clambering around on all the old ruins, and I ended up with more than one scrape. Every time I had a scrape, I would simply get a fresh leaf of aloe vera and rub it On the cut. It would always heal quickly. Although aloe plants are beautiful, they are sort of impractical if all you want is the healing gel of the plants. After all, they take up a huge amount of space and take quite a while to get going. That is why there are so many aloe vera products on the market. There must be thousands of them. There are skin creams, lotions, and even nutritional supplements. The aloe vera plant sure has achieved fame! Most aloe vera products incorporate other things besides the plant extract. Aloe vera extract is extremely useful for healing, but it is even better in combination with some other elements. When it comes as skincare cream, it usually has some kind of astringent. This helps to remove some of the grime from the skin. Then the aloe can be applied more effectively to soothe and replenish. I even had aloe vera juice once. It wasn't bad, although I wouldn't really drink it if it didn't have some health benefits. It was supposed to be good for digestion and I had the chance to try it out. I was having an upset stomach and happened to be at a store that sold it. I don't know if it was just because of my expectations or the actual aloe vera products, but the stomach problems I was feeling cleared up almost immediately. It was certainly worth remembering for next time I had stomach problems. My favorite aloe vera products, however, are the ones that incorporate the most pure extract from the plant. I'm not very elaborate with my skin care lotions. I mostly only use them when I have a cut or some kind of abrasion. Aloe cream works great for that. ------------------------------------------ American Food when most people think of American food, they picture pretty basic offerings. “American as apple pie,” the phrase that has been uttered millions of times in this country, comes to mind first, but soon after is followed by hamburgers, french fries, chicken dinners, and meatloaf. All of these are quite popular American foods, even if they are simple fare. But they are only one aspect of our native cuisine. America is one of the greatest countries in the world, and we have developed one of the greatest and most varied diets on the planet. Of course, many of the most famous American foods are comfort foods. Southern food, for example, is distinctly American. There is nothing in my mind more American than collared greens, barbecued ribs, red beans and rice. Those creole cuisine standbys perfect thing to pick you up when you're feeling blue or to give you energy to go on when you have a lot of work ahead of you. Nonetheless, there is American food that is quite healthy for you. As a matter of fact, America is quite a center for health food cuisine. Although most do not people think of macrobiotic food as particularly American, it really has found a home here. There are vegetarian restaurants specializing in locally grown delicacies all over this country. We have taken vegetarian and vegan food to another level in this country. We have made food that is delicious, nutritious, sustainable, and locally grown in a way that no one else has done in recent times. This is something for us to be proud of. And of course, you can't discount any of the other regional cuisines as well. Californian food is a distinct variety, separate from Southern cuisine, East Coast gourmet food, and anything else you can think of. Just by adding some cilantro, avocados, and a particular West Coast sensibility, you can completely change up a meal. Still, for me there is no more perfect American food than the humble hamburger and french fries. Everything that has been done to improve it – including adding bacon, avocado, grilled onions, barbecue sauce, and whatever else – has really brought our country's simple dishes to a whole other level. I'm not saying that we have the best food in the world, but we are close to the top. There are few countries whose cuisines can compete with us on an even playing field. We simply blow the competition away time after time with our cheddar cheese and apple pies. ------------------------ Do You Need Help With Anger Control? What makes you angry? Some people can answer this question rather easily, but the answers are not always as simple as they may seem. The anger you feel when something goes wrong is often a mask for something else. You have to dig a little deeper to find out what is really going on, and why you have triggers for anger that don’t seem to make any sense. This goes a long way towards anger control if you really put some time and thought into it. Controlling anger is not only good for you, it is good for those that you love. Some have a short temper, and they often blame it on heritage or say it is a family trait. This is often not true, though the same problems can radiate through a family over the generations. The root is usually the same. We often unknowingly do the same things that were done to us, and that can lead to anger control problems. We seem angry that someone cut us off, or that our children won’t stop talking, but this is usually something that comes from a far deeper place within us. Anger control is often about mind over matter, but it is not always that easy. Some can talk themselves down by counting to ten and thinking about things, or by walking away and coming back at a later time. I know that when I think I need anger control is mostly when something wants to pop out of my mouth spontaneously. I have learned to stop the words from coming out at all. I then step away and think about it, only to find that I really don’t want to say it in the first place. This type of controlling anger has worked well for me in many cases, though it is not perfect. Finding out more about anger in general, and what some of your specific triggers might be, can help you in your personal quest for anger control. However, when the root of your anger is something that is dark and troubling, you may need to find a therapist to help you single out what is causing your pain and making you lash out. When you know this, you can then fight it to change your life for the better. There are also some really good books on anger control and finding your peace again. These can be a great investment when therapy is not an option. ------------------------------------- Anger Disorder Ever since I was very young, I have had anger control problems. I have tried anger management courses, therapy, and many other treatments, but up until recently I had no success. One of the strange things about my anger disorder was that it never seemed to respond to anything and didn't seem to have any particular source. I had no abuse in my past, and had always had a loving and supportive family. Most people with serious anger disorders have something in their past that caused it. Sometimes it is a single traumatic relationship or incident of abuse. Other times, it is something that took place over years and years. Sometimes it is a form of post traumatic stress syndrome, while other times it is practically a learned behavior. For me, however, it seems to be none of these things. I eventually realized that my anger disorder might have more biological roots than I had suspected. Anger disorders can be tricky things. In my case, it seemed to lie at the crux of several issues. First of all, I have a lot of trouble sleeping. Sleep disorders and anger often go hand-in-hand, since the brain becomes depleted of neurotransmitters due to lack of sleep. There is some research that even says intermittent explosive anger Is a purely biological phenomenon. For me, however, it seemed to be even more complicated than this. One of the problems with my anger disorder was that I also had depression. In addition, I ate poorly, didn't get enough exercise, and had a family history of emotional illnesses. It did not take a genius or someone with a serious in neuro-chemistry to see that I had many different risk factors that could go hand in hand to create an anger disorder that wasn't explainable by any single one of them. Fortunately, there are many different treatments for anger disorders. Our society has come up with many different psychiatric chemicals, and almost all of them can be used to treat anger and depression. Antidepressants helped me a great deal, and anxiety medications also helped. Within a few months of trying out different medications, I was able to find a regime that really cut down on explosive anger problems. I wouldn't say that it cured me, but along with meditation it gave me the ability to cool my head and not lash out in anger at the people around me. I can't tell you what a relief that has been both for me and for my loved ones. --------------------------------- Everyone has a problem with dealing with anger at some point in their lives. Sometimes, it is a shouting match, but other times it is something more serious. For people with anger management issues, keeping the rage under wraps can be a daily struggle. Despite all the anger management resources, there are still thousands upon thousands of people who can't control their rage. Sometimes, it comes out as road rage. Other times, physical violence. Even irrational, angry words can deeply hurt someone, ruining a friendship. Managing anger is one of the most important things that you can learn to do. If you have problems with your emotions, you owe it to yourself and your family to get it under control. The best place to start in my opinion is with anger management books and videos. Sometimes, it can be hard to admit that you have a problem at first. If you aren't convinced that you have difficulties keeping anger under control, it might help you to read books by people who are. Many of the biggest experts in anger management had problems with anger themselves. A clinical background can help you to understand anger issues, but sometimes there's no substitute for experience. Reading these books can really give you some perspective. It can let you know that you're not alone and show you where to get help. There are many different ways to get anger management help. A lot of people really enjoy support groups. An anger support group is just like a support group for any other problem. It allows people to share experiences, swap ideas back and forth, and pool their resources. It makes everyone accountable for their behavior. When you are on your own, you can deny your anger issues all you want. When you are with your anger support group, however, they know you. They can tell when you are not taking responsibility and dealing with your anger. Of course, if you really want to effectively manage anger problems, you are probably eventually going to have to go to some kind of counseling. It doesn't have to be therapy. There are many different kinds of anger management treatments. Psychotherapy is focused on finding the underlying causes of anger. Behavioral therapy, on the other hand, is much more practical. It focuses on strategies that you can use when you see yourself getting angry, and ways to break harmful behavior patterns. ------------------------------- Looking For Anger Management Courses? We are all angry at one point or another. Anger is something that is natural emotion that comes up even when we try to never spend a moment feeling it. Most feel anger now and again when things don’t go right, or when it is obvious that someone else has ruined our day or even our lives. However, there are times when anger is out of control, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why it occurs. Some are angry all of the time, and that indicates that something else is going on. This is when anger management courses might be a great idea. I have heard that anger is usually a cover for something else that someone is feeling, but anger is easier to use and much easier to deal with. I don’t know how true this is, but it does make a lot of sense. If you are deeply hurt by a betrayal by a friend or spouse, you may feel hurt, heartbroken, and disappointed, but you instead display anger. Anger is easier to go with and can mask other feelings that we don’t really want to show anyone else. Anger management courses can help someone show their true emotions rather than lashing out in anger. Courses for anger management are sometimes a part of a criminal punishment. It can be obvious to everyone that someone has anger issues, but the person lashing out has no idea. When that anger leads to a crime, anger management courses can help that person control some of those feelings by working out the true root emotions that may be going on. You don’t have to commit a crime to want anger management courses though, you may know you have issues, even though it may take you a while to come to the conclusion that you need help with your feelings. You will find that anger management courses will make your life better, but will even more greatly affect those around you. Your friend and family will notice the difference in you, and they will be happy to see that you seem much more relaxed about some matters and enjoying your life rather than lashing out against it. You can look for anger management courses near you. You may think they don’t exist, but you will probably be surprised to find they are closer than you think. You can also ask your doctor or therapist to give you information about courses for anger management if you can’t seem to find them on your own. ------------------------- Finding Anger Management Programs Before It Is Too Late A lot of people don't bother to find anger management programs until it is too late. Many times, they simply don't understand that they have a problem. It is amazing how strong denial can be in some folks. I speak not as a psychiatric expert, but as someone who has gone through an anger management program myself. You see, I didn't take an anger management course when I should have – when I first started having anger control problems. Instead, I waited until it was too late. I got into a big fight that was basically my fault. My emotions ran away with me, and I beat someone up at a bar. I was out of line – I know that now – and it necessitated an anger management course. There are many types of anger management programs, and if you seek one out you'll have the luxury of choosing. If you don't, however, you will be basically assigned to one by the court. I was lucky. The anger management program I went into was good. The counselors were very supportive, and the instruction was very hands on. I don't do well with lectures – I can't really sit there and listen to someone speak for hours. This anger management program was different, however. It focused on using a few simple tricks to diffuse anger, and figuring out how to apply these tricks to our own individual lives. It was way deeper than just giving us anger management tips. Good anger management programs coach you in every step of the application of techniques to defuse anger. We would all share what triggers us and then practice situations that model the ones that made us angry in the first place. Although it wasn't a substitute for real life experience, it did give us the tools to deal more constructively next time a bad situation came up. All anger management programs can do, after all, is teach you some useful techniques. Applying them is your responsibility. I've heard mixed things about anger management programs, but I can tell you that the one I went to was top notch. Things still anger me sometimes, but I am able to see that this anger is an irrational response on my part. I can tone it down and take a break until I feel better. Then I can approach the situation more constructively so that I don't take things too far. I no longer let my emotions get the best of me. It feels nice to be in control. ------------------------------------ Anger Management Worksheets I did not know that I had any anger control problems until I was required to take anger management worksheets and fill them out at work. It wasn't part of the standard program, although at the time I thought it was. You see, our boss was carefully screening people based on psychological profiling. I work in a very high stress field, and my coworkers routinely burn out and even occasionally become aggressive. Getting anger counseling and stress anxiety treatment for people in need of it before things got too late was just a matter of common sense. Besides that, our insurance company demanded it. What I didn't know was that the anger management worksheets and I have been asked to fill out meant that I was already believed to have anger issues. We had multiple screening problems – one for general purpose profiling of the workers, a second one for people who raised red flags, and a third one designed to get help for those who the boss already knew needed it. I was in the second group – I had shouted at some coworkers a few times in the past month, and generally been a stress case. I don't know what I said in those anger management worksheets that the experts found so alarming, but the first thing I knew I was in an anger control program. I knew that controlling anger had been a problem with me when I was younger, but I didn't realize that it still was. Apparently, however, I've seen as somewhat of a ticking time bomb. In the program I was in, I could get some help before it was too late. The program was not what I had expected. It was actually pretty hands-on, and very practical as well. Basically, they taught me a lot of anger release techniques that I could use when I got mad. It started with the classic count to 10 approach, but it built up to much more sophisticated ideas. By the end, I felt like an old pro. I knew how to control my emotions almost as well as some yogi from the east! If you are nervous about filling out anger management worksheets in your workplace, don't be. It can be kind of scary to have your boss trying to peer inside your head, but ultimately it can help to. An anger management worksheet can be the first step to getting the support you need. ------------------------------------------ Anxiety Panic Attacks When I first started coming down with anxiety panic attacks, I handled them in the worst way possible – I closed down. Although most of my family wanted me to go to an anxiety support group, there was no chance of me agreeing. I was just too stressed out about too many things in my life. Instead, I shut myself inside and refused to come out of my house for a month. I was sick, ashamed, and deeply unhappy. I could see no way out of my problems – they seemed completely insurmountable. What I did not realize was that I had a disease. I had thought of anxiety support groups as something to be ashamed of, but they were not. I did not realize that going to an anxiety disorder support group was not only normal, but necessary if I wanted to get over my condition. Sitting alone by myself, I would only continue to get worse. You see, an anxiety support group is one of the most crucial parts of anxiety disorder treatments that there is. Without it, you might find yourself completely shutting down and becoming less and less aware of the outside world. When I went to my anxiety support group meetings, they forced me to come out of my shell – at least for an hour. I would get to share my story with other people who had the same problems that I did – people who understood. I couldn't say that the anxiety support group solved all of my problems, but it did give me the impetus to begin to solve them myself. Going to anxiety support groups is much easier than you might think if you have never been to one before. You see, everyone there is coming from the same place. No matter how uncomfortable or awkward you feel in the anxiety support group, no one is going to look at you strangely or give you a hard time. They all know what you are going through, because it is something that they have gone through themselves. I know some people who have anxiety disorders and think that they don't need an anxiety support group. Some of them claim that anxiety support groups actually take away from their ability to rely on inner strength to carry them through anything. I think they should think again. Support groups for anxiety help you, but they do not coddle you. They simply encourage you to stand on your own. ---------------------------------- Aveda Institute New York The beauty industry offers good career prospects and training is all-important. One of the most respected providers of training in this field is the Aveda Institute New York. It is part of the network of teaching establishments and other branches include London, Toronto, Vancouver, and Berlin. The Aveda organization also includes salons, spas and health clubs. When looking for new staff, these outlets look to graduates from the institutes first. The teaching curriculum is of the highest standard and the Aveda Institute New York, located in SoHo, helps to foster a good reputation. There are over 6,500 salons, spas, retail stores and institutes under the Aveda umbrella, represented in more than 20 countries. The institutes are spread throughout the United States and also operate in the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany and Puerto Rico. Students learn the skills required to cut and color hair, and to offer beauty treatments such as waxing and facials. They can also learn the art of massage and how to apply make up. All these specialties are taught by qualified and experienced instructors. There are many opportunities in the beauty industry, whether students aspire to be stylists, colorists or even manage their own business. The curriculum contains the know how of developing a salon business and retailing products. Students practice in a salon environment, which helps to prepare them for the real world of work. They also learn in the classroom with demonstrations, lectures and workshops. The Aveda Institute New York, along with the other institutes, also has an Experience Center, which serves as a retail store for students to practice their retailing skills. The institutes provide a friendly, relaxed atmosphere where hard work and study produces rewards. It's not all work, however. The Student Lounge provides a place to socialize and relax. The Aveda Institute New York provides a blend of theory and hands on experience. Students graduate as confident individuals, ready to embark on satisfying careers. The institute has open house days for candidates to visit and have a look around. There are opportunities to find out about the financial assistance schemes in operation, for those eligible. One of the best things about enrolling is the chance to live in one of the most exciting cities in the world, with all its opportunities for culture, sport and sightseeing. Students are supported from the first day and enjoy their time in one of the most well equipped training establishments in the Big Apple. --------------------------------- Bacteria and yogurt kill off yeast infections in a hurry! When you think of yogurt, it's probably in the context of a healthy, tasty snack or light lunch in your lunchbox. Usually, we like to think there are no bacteria in the food we eat. In the case of the combination of this particular bacteria and yogurt, it's actually good for you and is a natural remedy for yeast infections. There are both good and bad bacteria. The bacteria contained in yogurt is, as you might have suspected by now, the good kind. Furthermore, not all yogurt contains these good bacteria, called acidophilus. The type of yogurt with fruit already in the carton does not contain acidophilus. Yogurt also is one of the few foods that contain Vitamin K, which helps reestablish the balance of bacteria and aids in proper digestion. Look for the naturally made brands of yogurt which are labeled 'live culture' and 'plain' flavor. Now, why you would want to forego the sweet fruit in order to obtain bacteria and yogurt? The bacteria in live culture yogurt acts to restore the correct balance of flora and fauna in your body. How does this balance get out of whack? One way, well known to women, is to take a round of antibiotics, necessary to knock out some infection. The only problem with antibiotics is that they kill off all the bacteria, both good and bad. The result is the hated yeast infection, due to the bad bacteria overwhelming the good. Yeast infections cause some embarassing and uncomfortable symptoms in women's private areas! Physicians are well aware of this syndrome, and the traditional medications to get rid of the yeast infection are messy ointments, suppositories and the like, many of which must be used for about a week before the yeast imbalance is corrected. Any woman will tell you it's a less than enchanting remedy. As if the many side effects of antibiotics aren't enough! Here's where the beneficial effects of bacteria and yogurt come into play. Just when you're ending your round of antibiotics, start eating some live culture yogurt. You want to include it with every meal, if possible. If you enjoy the plain yogurt, use it as is. If not, put some into a smoothie recipe or dress it up with a little fruit in a bowl. Flavor it with pomegranate, cherry juice or Torani(TM) syrups, which come in lots of tasty flavors. Add some shredded coconut or whatever suits your taste. If you start this regime right away, you may never even get the dreaded yeast infection. If you do get some symptoms, they'll be short-lived. The bacteria and yogurt remedy is natural, it works, has no bad side effects, is inexpensive and tastes good. What's not to like? -------------------------------------------------- Body Cleansing There is a lot to be said for watching what we use on and in our bodies. Toxins can make us sick, but most of them will just make us feel run down over a long period of time. These toxins can cause more problems than people think, and are not always things we think of as poisons. When you feel down, lethargic, and like you are tired a lot, you may have a seriously medical condition, but it might also be that you need something simple like a body cleansing to clean out your system of all of the things that have crept in over the days, weeks, months, and even years. How you choose to do a body cleansing is up to you, but you should really think about what you are doing and what the side effects could be. Some think they are going to drink fresh water for a period of days without putting anything else into their body. While a fasting body cleanse like this can do something to help flush out toxins, you are not eating food, and that is going to make you very weak. It may not do enough to warrant how weak, dizzy, and unproductive you are going to be during that time. There are some products out there that claim to help with a body cleansing. It’s hard to really determine what works and what does not. Realize that you may feel better after going through what you find, but that might not be because you have cleaned out your system. It might be that what is included in the treatment has a feel good effect, and is good for your body. It is always good to do a lot of research into anything for a body cleansing to be sure things are safe, and that you are not introducing even more chemical toxins into your body. For the best advice on a body cleansing technique, you probably want to talk with your doctor about your concerns. Some don’t believe in it, and others think it can do a lot for your overall health. They will always, no matter what, come up with safe solutions for you if this is something that you really want to try. They may also want to see if you really have a problem with toxins, and if something more serious may be going on. We can get poison in unexpected places and we usually don’t realize what has happened. ------------------------------------------ Brain Injury When I was eleven years old, my family was in a serious car accident. I managed to walk away with a mild concussion and a few stitches. My father had some serious injuries, but my mother – well, she died twice that day. The heroic efforts of everyone who aided in helping us that day managed to bring her back to us each time that she left us. She remained in the hospital for almost an entire month, having suffered a severe brain injury. She did manage to recover, though the doctors were not sure of how severe the extents of her brain injury would be. We weren’t sure if she’d be able to talk again or even function as she once had. Her brain injury kept her in a coma for fourteen days. When all of the tests were finished and the results were in the hands of the doctors, we finally knew what would be in her future. The accident had caused significant trauma to her brain. Parts of her brain were no longer able to function and some of her senses had been altered. She was left without being able to taste or smell; those parts of her brain would not be able to recover. Her brain injuries still impact our lives, even twenty years later. Not only were two of her senses stolen from her, but some of her memories were as well. Life for her, after such a severe brain injury, was not easy. It required a lot of medical assistance and patience from so many individuals. It is estimated that 1.4 million people in the Unites States will suffer from a brain injury each year. Some of those individuals are treated and released. Some of them have brain injuries that result in death. Falling and automobile accidents are the leading causes of head and brain injuries. It isn’t easy to recover from a traumatic brain injury. Some injuries, such as a mild concussion, are easily forgotten in no time at all. But, ask anyone who has been affected by a traumatic brain injury just how easy it is to move on, and they may tell you a different story. What is important to know, is that if you are caring for someone or helping to care for someone who has become a victim of a brain injury, there is help out there for you. There are many others who share the same stories that you do; there are means of support. Don’t be afraid to reach out to them. One of the best places to find that support and understanding is through the Brain Injury Association of America. They are a wonderful organization and have helped many people through some troubling times. Whether you choose to reach out for support or not, know that you are not alone. ------------------------------------------ Breaking Bad Habits Breaking bad habits can be really difficult – much harder than you would think. Whenever I try to break bad habits, I am always surprised by how difficult it is. Whatever the bad habit is – be it smoking, sleeping in too late, eating fatty food – it seems like it should be pretty easy to do away with. When you visualize it, you imagine yourself stopping right away and never doing the habit again. In reality, however, it doesn't really work out this way for most of us. When most people are breaking bad habits, they have a long period of relapse before they can actually stop doing whatever they want to stop. The thing that you have to understand is that most bad habits serve some psychological function. People who overeat, for example, usually do it as a way to compensate for feelings of inferiority, anxiety, or some other issue. The same thing goes for smoking, drinking, and many other habits. Then again, there are also those bad habits that are simply too enjoyable to be easy to break. Who doesn't like having a nice desert after dinner? Who doesn't like sleeping in instead of getting straight to work. These are just some of the obstacles that you have to face when breaking bad habits. It may seem kind of lame, but when breaking bad habits you have to really take it one day at a time. Don't start never smoking again, simply decide to not smoke today. Make the same resolution every day, every hour, or even every minute if you have to. It may take tremendous amount of work, but eventually you will persevere. The key is to not think ahead when you are changing something. Just think of the moment and you will succeed. If you plan ahead, the task of breaking bad habits may seem insurmountable. If you only think about the current minute, however, it is comparatively easy. Whenever I am trying to break a bad habit, I would start off by getting up early and sitting some meditation. This is a great way to clear your mind before the stresses of the day begin in earnest. Breaking bad habits is not something you can do at night. It's hard to get a realistic perspective when you're going to sleep, and anyway you don't really want to be thinking about things that could stress you out. If you want to get a fresh start, get an early start! --------------------------------- Calorie Content Of Foods In every dieters life comes a moment when he or she has to start looking at the calorie content of foods. No longer is it enough to simply try to cut meal portions down a little bit and to cut out those sweets. This works for a while, but once you get closer to your ideal weight, you have to up your standards a little bit. You have to eat better and better if you want to keep losing weight. Keeping track of the calorie content of common foods is the best and most obvious way to do this. In my house, we have a calorie chart on the wall. We have had it ever since 1996 when I first went on my very first diet. Back then, I was completely optimistic. I thought that dieting would be an easy thing that would be over in six months. I figured that I would be extremely healthy foods until I lost all of my weight, then get back on a normal meal plan. I didn't realize that dieting and exercise are a lifetime program. You can't simply do it for a little while and expect it to stick. I only really started counting the calorie content of foods last year. Before that, I was pretty sporadic about it at best. The thing with counting calories is that you have to do it constantly or you should not do it at all. If you only count the calorie content of food that you should be eating and ignore the snacks, you are doing yourself a disservice. You will be convincing yourself that you're eating a healthier meal plan than you are, resulting in a stagnant diet or even actual weight gain. You might as well not start at all if you're going to do something like this. It is ultimately extremely counterproductive. Looking at the calorie content of foods doesn't have to be entirely accurate, however. If you want to know the exact calorie content of foods, after all, you need to eat only processed and prepackaged foods that have been laid out and measured for you. Nevertheless, with common foods, a calorie counter chart will help you come up with a good estimation. As long as you weigh out the different ingredients in food, you can always be within a few percentage points of correct. The important thing is to keep track of things and do your best. ------------------------------ Calorie Counter Anyone who is trying to lose weight, or who may be trying to be sure they aren’t putting back on the weight they just lost, should have a tool to help them. Though self control seems like the best tool, there are other things that may help. One thing that many find helpful is the online calorie counter. These are great because they not only count and help keep track of calories, they also help with other nutritional information as well. That means a person will know what they are putting into their body, and how well they may be doing in regards to their goals. There are many free sites that have a calorie counter out there, and these usually have a more involved version that does even more. They all count calories though, as long as you are putting in the correct information. They often have long lists of foods that you can simply choose from the menu and then add how much you had. The calorie counter can instantly show you what you ate and what your total is for the day thus far. Some are surprised at home many, or even how little they are really taking into their bodies. If you are on a low carb diet, for example, this type of calorie counter can be even more helpful. This tool will help keep track of calories consumed, but will also allow a dieter to keep track of each and every carb they are putting into their body. This means they will have more control over what they are eating, and they will know when they have had too much or when they have to cut back on certain things that may be putting too many carbs into the body. These also keep track of protein, fat, fiber, and many other important things. There are many different calorie counters out there, and trying out a few of them might be smart to be sure you have one that works the best for you and your needs. The ones that work well are great, and if you pay the small fee for upgrade, you are going to think you have struck gold. Whether you want to pay or not will be up to you, but remember that when you pay for something you are more likely to use it, and that means your calorie counter will be more effective. -------------------------- Do You Need Calorie Trackers? If you are in a room with ten people, at least half of them are going to tell you that they are on a diet. One some days, it might be sever or even eight of them. There are many different reasons for dieting, like heart conditions, high cholesterol, and diabetes. Others are on the seemingly never ending quest to get back to their high school jean size. Whatever the case, dieting is everywhere, and many fail because they aren’t quite sure what they are doing. In this case, calorie trackers might be a good idea. The best types of calorie trackers are the ones that you can take with you. Some come in small, portable sizes that you can use throughout your day with little trouble. These only work if you actually input every single thing that you eat and drink. You may think a few calories here and a few there are not going to make much difference, but if you put all of them in your calorie trackers, you may see that you are very wrong about that. You can get up to 500 extra calories a day just from nibbles and some other small things we all do. You may also want to use calorie trackers that you can download onto your computer. These are great, but not quite as portable. If you use this, you have to have some other means of keeping track of your calories throughout the day. If you have a notepad on your cell phone, you can always keep notes there. If you don’t have any type of electronic device that you can use, a small notebook is a great idea. Throw it in your purse or briefcase so you have this means of tracking calories with you all day. You can then go home and put the information into your computer. No matter what type of diet you may be on, you may need to know more about your day than just the calories that you are ingesting. Many calorie trackers can give you more than just that number. It can track almost anything in regards to nutritional content for many foods. That helps greatly when dealing with a medical condition, or a diet that might restrict certain types of food when trying to lose weight. Most people use calorie trackers very well for the first few weeks but then they slack off. Find the right motivation to keep using them and that will make all the difference in your quest for better health. ----------------------------- Cancer Information When your doctor tells you that you may have cancer, one of the first things you will do is to look for cancer information. You may be too stunned to ask your doctor any questions at first, so you may get the urge to look online. Though there is a lot of great information out there, you do have to be careful about what you read and where you find the information that will be relevant to your situation. Even with cancer deaths going down year after year, people still hate to hear that this might be what is going on with their bodies, and when you are scared, bad information can scare you even more. The best cancer information comes from a medical professional, and also comes when you know what you are looking for. You can find information on cancer in general, but if you think you have breast cancer, or your doctor thinks that you may have colon cancer, you should make sure you search for that particular type so you get the most accurate cancer information for your case. Don’t be confused by looking at too many different sites. Find one you know is done by a doctor, or a team of doctors, and print out what you find to show to your own doctor. Another thing to consider when you are looking for cancer information is that this changes all the time. You might find something that is old, and is no longer valid. Check out the dates on the information to see how timely it is, and discard anything more than five years old. Information from within the last five years will be the best, but even that can be old. Research for cancer is ongoing, so something new might have disproved something once thought to be true. You can also find books in the library that are full of cancer information, but as with online information, make sure you are reading something current. You can also look in periodicals for medical journals, and other magazines with the latest cancer information, and also look for articles in your local paper. Though you should get most of your information from your doctor, there might be times when you can’t get a hold of them, and the urge to find out more will be overwhelming. Just use caution when decided what information might be valid. ------------------------ Carb Counter Anyone who is on a low carb diet will need a good carb counter, at least when they first start out. When carbs are restricted, a person has to narrow down what they are eating and know about every single carb they are ingesting on any given day. If they go over by as many as five carbs for what they are supposed to eat, they could mess up their program. This is something that is more important in the early stages of low carb diets, but it is always good information to have handy. The only problem is that many of these counters are different and have different information. If you are on the Atkins program and you have purchased the book, you have one in your hand already. That is, if you have gotten the latest version of the book published in 2002. The carb counter in in the front of the book. This one can be torn out and taken anywhere. There is a more extensive listing of each food and how many carbs in the book as well. These can also be found online. Many of the individual carb counter can be downloaded and printed out. The problem is that many places online have a carb counter of sorts, but they all give different information. This is true for many foods as well. Though a food with less than one carb per serving does not have to list that it has carbs, some nice companies will mark the product as less than one carb rather than zero carbs. Others are not as honest, and that can hurt a good low carb program. If there is ever a question the smart dieter must assume there is one carb and count it as such, especially when there is conflicting information. When it comes to having a carb counter, each person has to make their own decision about what to have and what to skip, and how to count the content of carbs. It is not something that is an exact science anyway, but even a carb counter that is a little off on some foods is better than not having one at all. Many who try to do low carb without really counting each carb they ingest while doing the program often have problems losing weight, and it is usually because they are eating more than they realize, and many of those carbs are hidden ones. That is why having a counter is great because all of the guesswork is taken out of the process. -------------------- Cayenne Pepper Diet When I first heard of the cayenne pepper diet, I thought that it was part of a weight loss program. After doing a little research into the subject I found that this is actually a great detoxifying treatment that just about anyone can use. If you want to try a good body cleanse, then you might want to consider this approach. The cayenne pepper diet is full of surprises, though. First of all, it really isn’t about the pepper. The cayenne pepper diet is mostly about the citrus and water that you ingest over the course of the program. The recipe that is used in this body cleanse is pretty simple. You need fresh, and I mean fresh, squeezed lemon or lime juice, dark maple syrup, cayenne pepper (of course) and water. That was the first surprise that I found. The maple syrup was a real shocker because I figured that you would want to avoid sugars when doing a cleansing program like the cayenne pepper diet. However, the dark maple syrup is helpful in giving you energy while completing the detoxifying process. The lemon was of no real surprise on the cayenne pepper diet because it is such a useful tool in cleaning out your body. However, the lime was a pleasant surprise that I embraced. When you are on a really restrictive program like the cayenne pepper diet you welcome as much change as possible. I liked that I could switch between lemon and lime for a different taste every so often. I was also surprised by how little pepper was used in the recipe. Since the program is called the cayenne pepper diet I figured that this would be the main ingredient. However, you just use a small pinch of the supplement in the concoction, especially at first. The amount of pepper increases as you follow the program. The results were pretty surprising as well. The cayenne pepper diet is not a weight loss program but I did lose weight. How couldn’t I on such a restrictive plan? I was pretty surprised that I wasn’t exhausted during the cleansing plan. I had plenty of energy to spare. The unpleasant surprise was that I had a terrible headache all through my experience with the cayenne pepper diet. I also found that I gained the weight I lost but that wasn’t really a concern. One must before trying the cayenne pepper diet: consult your physician. This is the most important step in the process. ------------------------ Is there a cellulite diet that works? Well, yes and no. Every woman is familiar with cellulite, whether she has it or not. If not, you don't want to acquire it. If you do have cellulite, you want it gone. Although men sometimes get this unwelcome fat, women are usually the ones to suffer cellulite. Cellulite generally appears on the thighs and buttocks, bearing an appearance and texture similar to the skin of an orange, bumpy little pockets of fat. The problem of a special cellulite diet arises because no one knows what causes it. Some say there's a genetic factor involved, which may explain why some thin people get it. You don't need to be overweight. More overweight people seem to get cellulite, which may indicate that it's simply excess fat with no where else to be. Any woman knows that the obvious objective is to get rid of it. How do you approach this particular problem if the cause is not known? Perhaps it makes sense that most cellulite diets approximate any rigorous fat reduction diet program. The thin person with cellulite may have a body which doesn't tolerate much fat in the diet. In any case, a sensible dietary approach to reducing or eliminating cellulite would be to drastically reduce fatty food intake, such as fried foods, trans fats, saturated fats, animal fats, cheese and of course, butter and cream. Other foods to cut out of a cellulite diet program are those containing excessive sugar and salt, as well as alcoholic beverages. These all add up to calories or water retention, which you don't need. In addition, fresh fruits and veggies should be eaten in abundance! Not only are these high-fiber foods, which help cleanse your body, but they contain nutrients which are specifically helpful to the condition and appearance of your skin. Some produce, such as cabbage and asparagus, require more energy to digest than they contain. Many people find that when they switch to a healthier diet, not only do they lose weight, but they start feeling a lot more energetic and vigorous. Exercise goes hand in hand with this cellulite diet regimen. Get regular exercise – that means every day – to help rid yourself of excess fat. There are many excellent creams on the market which can help smooth out the appearance of cellulite. Look for products which contain cocoa butter and vitamin E, both known to be effective with stretch marks and apparently with cellulite as well. While there may not be a specialized cellulite diet, a program which aims to reduce overall body fat may have you shopping for a new bathing suit soon! --------------------------------- Chipped Teeth When you have chipped teeth, you have to do something about it as soon as you can. My husband is dealing with it right now, and he knows that he has to get into the dentist as soon as he can, but he is stalling because we don’t have dental insurance. It doesn’t matter what it costs, he has to get the problem taken care of as soon as possible. His wisdom teeth came in unnoticed. Most people have pain because they don’t fit, but he had room. Apparently not enough room though, as they are now chipping and falling apart in this mouth. Though many chipped teeth cannot be seen, they still need to be taken care of. If the root of the tooth becomes exposed, you are going to feel a lot of pain, and there may be nothing that stops you from getting into the dentist as soon as you can. If you can’t get in, you might want to go to the emergency room to get some pain relief until you can get in to the dentist. I had a tooth broken when I was a kid, and I will never forget how painful it was when the nerves were exposed. Even breathing in and out was total agony. Chipped teeth might be breaking off when you don’t realize it, and the pieces might cut up your digestive system. It’s not a huge danger, but it can happen. This might lead to a little internal bleeding. It certainly isn’t anything life threatening, but it can lead to a few problems. Also, chipped teeth can harbor foods that begin to decay, and a toothbrush might not get them out. It might be too painful to get it out, and you could end up with an infection. If you have visible chipped teeth, you know how uncomfortable it is to even smile. Though this might be considered cosmetic, you should get them fixed as soon as you can. Bad teeth can ruin the most polished look, and no one is going to take you seriously when you have a big chunk out of one of your front teeth. You should make it a priority to get it fixed, even if it means giving up a few things to pay for it. You are going to feel better once you get it fixed, and you might even get your smile back. It’s harder than you think to keep your smile from beaming, which reveals the chipped teeth for all to see. --------------------------------------- Clayton College of Natural Health Distance learning is very popular nowadays and suits the lifestyle of many students. The Clayton College of Natural Health, based in Birmingham, Alabama offers graduation programs, master's levels and PhD programs in a wide range of courses. Alternative or complementary treatments are also popular, as people have become interested in seeking alternatives to conventional medicine. The courses are valuable to anyone wishing to gain expertise in a specific subject for their own interest or to use in the pursuit of a career as a practitioner. Clayton College of Natural Health is well known with various alumni appearing in the media. Famous graduates include the TV personality and nutrition expert, Gillian McKeith and the author and naturopath, Hulda Regehr Clark. A doctor of naturopathic medicine, Lloyd Clayton Jr., founded the college in 1980. Traditional Naturopathy is one of the curriculum choices available, along with Holistic Nutrition and Wellness and various natural health degree courses. Naturopathy is a broad subject, offering natural alternatives to invasive surgery and drugs. It includes such disciplines as herbalism, aromatherapy, acupuncture and hydrotherapy. Nutritional studies introduce the student to the benefits of organic food and a diet, rich in fresh fruit and vegetables and organically raised meat. This reflects a general move away from processed foods and foods treated with chemicals and preservatives. Students learn about the value of foods such as garlic, olive oil, sea salt, nuts, brown rice and beans. There are also many herbs to learn about, including horsetail, papaya, wild yam root and aloe vera. There are also Certificate Programs available in Iridology Studies, Herbal Studies and Healthcare Professional Studies. For those interested in nutrition for animals, there is the Companion Animal Studies program. Students are taught both theory and practice in all the disciplines and can study at their own pace. There are e-learning programs but students without a computer can also be a student. All the books and coursework is provided and faculty staff is available to answer any queries or to offer advice. Clayton College of Natural Health staff includes doctors of naturopathy, a chiropractor, counselors, a master herbalist and massage therapists. Students are encouraged to feel part of a community at the Clayton college of Natural Health and a web site is designed so that they can communicate with one another. There are quizzes and recipes posted and a student's book club. The entry level to the college is a High School Diploma, G.E.D or equivalent. ------------------------------------------ Colon Cleansing Products to Consider Maybe you've already noticed, but there are definitely a lot of holistic products currently gracing the market. One of the major aspects of this arena are colon cleansing products. This means that you've more than likely come in contact with these remedies at some point or another, whether it was online or in a drugstore. However, you might be wondering what it is that makes treatments such as these so popular. That's fairly simple. People are becoming more and more in tune with their bodies and how they function, or possibly how they fail to function properly. With all the common health issues and illnesses these days, it's only natural for folks to seek out colon cleansing products and much more that aims to assist the body and make you feel better. Probably your primary resource for colon cleansing products and information on the colon itself is the Internet. If you honestly have no idea what or where your colon is, then let's address this issue first. The colon is basically a part of your intestinal tract. As food passes through the intestine, the colon absorbs liquid from the food and the rest of the solid matter is passed out when you use the bathroom. It may not be a pretty sight, but it's how the body functions. Now, as far as colon cleansing products go, these are intended to clean out that intestinal area of any clinging matter, debris or unwanted toxins. Basically something that a decent amount of fiber is supposed to do as well. This way you can stay regular and feel normal. Do you need to invest in colon cleansing products? This is an excellent question. A good start may be acquiring a colonoscopy. This way a medical professional can examine your colon up-close and personal, and then determine if there is any fecal debris or unwanted matter stuck in your colon area. If there is, then one of the more highly recommended colon cleansing products or treatments may likely be beneficial to you. Many of these treatment processes can be accomplished at home simply by taking an oral supplement for several days. Just be sure to check out some online consumer reports prior to purchasing any colon cleansing products that do not offer valid clinical evidence/support. ----------------------------- Why You Might Need A Complete Carbohydrate Food List There are many diets out there, and it can be confusing to choose the one that is right for you. Most have tried many diets, only to fail, and that means they are looking for something different than they have tried before. A diet should never be a short term endeavor, but rather, a lifestyle change that sticks. That means choosing something you can live with far into the future. Most think of low carb diets when they want something different, but there are more diets than just that one that concentrate on that issue. For all of these eating plans, a complete carbohydrate food list will help you on your way. Atkins is not the only eating plan that limits carbs or has a system that controls the type of carbohydrates that you put into your body. There are many that want you to eat the right carbs, and having a complete carbohydrate food list is one of the best ways to be sure that you are getting the right foods in the right amounts. Though some eating systems are planned out right down to the last detail, some give you more freedom to choose what you want to eat, when you want to eat it, and a list of foods contain good carbohydrates is an essential part of getting it right the first time. What you will find on a good complete carbohydrate food list would be the carb counts for each food, as well as calorie content, and information on where these foods fall on the glycemic index. This is what tells you what carbs are good and which are the ones you should eat in moderation or avoid all together. You want the carbs that have the least impact on your blood sugar, and a good list of these carbohydrates should give you that information in a clear and orderly manner. The last thing you want is a list you can’t read or that leads to a lot of confusion. You may be able to find a complete carbohydrate food list by looking around online, but many of these are going to be incomplete. This will be especially true if you like foods that most would not consider common. You may have to find somewhere to buy a list that is more complete, or find a good diet center that has a great complete carbohydrate food list that you can keep in a handy place. Don’t rely on this list when you are making your meals, but rather, use it when you are planning your menus each week and writing your grocery list. Your food list will let you know what to put into your cart and what to leave in the store to avoid the temptation. ------------------------ Counting calories is the bottom line on weight loss If you're on a diet, or thinking of dieting to shed those extra unwanted pounds, you have several choices and methods. Unless you have a medical condition which relates to your weight gain, the surest way to lose weight and keep it off is counting calories. Medical conditions such as diabetes, thyroid or other endocrinogical disorders require that you consult with your health care provider for safe weight loss. Counting calories is the way to go when your overweight condition arises from a too healthy appetite or plain overindulgence. The many fad diets and programs which supply you with pre-portioned meals may help you reach your goal, but these diets typically involve complicated menu planning or a hefty price. Counting calories is reliable, easy and much less expensive. Common sense tells you that when choosing the calorie counting method, you also need to include foods from each of the food groups. A properly balanced diet ensures adequate nutrition. Barring a medical cause, when you gain weight, the usual culprits are too much food and poor choices. For example, large portions of fatty meats, more than the occasional candy bar, frequent fried indulgences along with the heavy use of sodas are a sure recipe for gaining weight. If you salt your food heavily, it's most likely it's just a habit your palate can be weaned from. Salt causes you to retain water and is unhealthy for your heart. Try a salt substitute, or look up some of the many herbal saltless mixtures. Before you start your diet, pick up a good nutrition reference guide. Such books give you a complete picture of calories, carbohydrates, fats, fiber and protein content of foods, along with figures on vitamin and mineral content. These guides also tell you what each nutrient does to support your total body health. This information becomes meaningful in the counting calorie context and can serve as inspiration to both weight loss and better health. For example, let's say you suffer poor night vision. You also dislike orange and yellow vegetables as a rule. When you learn that these vegetables contain high amounts of vitamin A and that night blindness can be remedied with sufficient vitamin A, you may get creative with those carrots, also low in calories. When counting calories, you'll find you can trick your appetite by eating meals in separate courses. This encourages more leisurely eating, better digestion and a feeling of fullness with a smaller portion size. You also tend to enjoy your food more. When it comes to sweets, if they are your nemesis, you can allow yourself a few, so long as your nutritional needs are fulfilled first and you do not exceed your calorie count for the day. Disallowing any sweets is the downfall of many a dieter's plan, because you feel deprived and discouraged. Counting calories is the easiest way to lose weight. You just have to be honest when you're counting! ------------------------- Curry - Spices Have you ever been completely blown away by something you ate at a restaurant, and wanted to know what gave it that taste? Sometimes, the answer is surprisingly simple. A lot of people spend a lot of time learning the basics of cooking, but never really master spices and seasonings. In my opinion, this is a shame. Herbs and spices can make a huge difference when you are cooking, and they are quite easy to use. If I remember correctly, my fascination with spices started out the first time I tried Indian food. I was raised in a small New England town, and there was very little Indian cuisine to be had. The first time I had curry spices, they completely blew me away. I think it was garam masala curry, but at the time I had never had anything like it. Of course, the heat in the curry spice had an immediate reaction on me. I thought something was wrong with me – I had never had something so spicy before, and was unprepared for the feeling. But once I got over that, it was the flavor of the curry spices that truly impressed me. They were amazing! The cook was kind enough to tell me about curry spices, and point my way to an Indian grocery store. I immediately picked up some curry spice of my own, and set off to experiment. When I first got it, I was putting it on anything and everything. I had never had anything like curry spices before, and I was determined to experiment with the flavor as much as possible. I didn't use a lot of subtlety in my cooking either, and my wife – normally a big fan of anything that I put together on the stove – soon remarked on it. She was sick of eating food that was so hot and spicy that she could barely get it down! After a while though, my tastes matured. I knew that using as much spice and curry on the food as possible wasn't the ideal cooking method, and I developed a more nuanced approach to cuisine. Soon, I was using the curry spices moderately – conservatively even. Not only did they add flavor to my food, but they also inspired me to do more investigation. I wanted to learn more about all the wonderful spices there are, and how to use them in cooking. I was able to improve my cooking tremendously with just a few simple ingredients. -------------------------- Your daily food diary is a discovery in progress Do you feel at the peak of health? If not, why not? We all have some health problems in life, ranging from simple frustrations to life-threatening conditions. When you're young, you may not make a connection between the food you eat and how you feel. As age progresses, you're more likely to question how the foods you eat may impact your overall health. When you were twenty, a load of french fries didn't seem to make a whit of difference in the way you felt. Now, at fifty, those french fries may hit your stomach with a big plop of indigestion. Still, the young are no exception to food discomfort. Perhaps you're lactose intolerant or allergic to nuts. When you're young, you're better able to weather poor food choices and may be entirely unaware of allergies that will come back to haunt you in your later years. A daily food diary can save you many a heartache and a dozen visits to the doctor. Even if you're not plagued with adverse health conditions, keeping a food diary can expose dietary weaknesses. Let's say that you love peanut butter sandwiches, but every time you indulge in peanut butter, your stomach becomes upset. Perhaps your body is telling you, "I need protein." However, the peanuts have their way. Your body gets the protein it requires but your stomach and digestive system rebels. Whether you're young or old, your food diary gives you the means to monitor what you eat, while comparing the effects of your food menus versus how you feel after eating a meal. Your daily food diary should form a journal. Make a column for the date and time, the food item and amount, with a column for notes. Snacks count. So often, we eat without thinking. The pounds come on and we wonder why. Here's how to keep a daily food diary that's useful. When you're honest with yourself, the daily food diary itemizes every little thing. What about foods you crave? Keeping a daily food diary allows you to eat as you normally do, while, day by day, revealing those foods you eat too much or too little. Keep a keen eye on calories and nutrition. Both good and poor eating patterns will soon show up in black and white. Keeping a daily food diary can help you zero in on allergies, fat weaknesses or simple cravings that affect your health today and tonorrow. The daily food diary may well expose just where you're going wrong. If you've been feeling poorly but don't know why, take your diary with you to your next doctor's appointment. It's likely your doctor will pick up some clues. =------------------------------------------ Detoxification Diets There are hundreds of different diets out there, and many people try quite a few before they finally find something that works for them, even if they don’t end up sticking with the programs. There are low fat and low calories diets that rarely work, and there are low carb programs like Atkins or South Beach. There are others with prepackaged foods that are a mixture of the two. On top of those, there are special diets for some medical conditions, and there are also detoxification diets that are meant for something else. When you hear the word ‘diet’ you probably think of losing weight. A diet is actually what you eat no matter if you are losing, maintaining, or not caring at all either way. Detoxification diets, on the other hand, are special diets meant to cleanse toxins from the body for better health. If you think about all of the illnesses that are out there right now, many of them may have something to do with toxins in the body. Some will go on detoxification diets to get foreign things from their bodies in hopes of avoiding many diseases. When you think about what you eat, you might think you are doing well. However, you should take a look at what really goes into many of the foods you buy. There are many things used for preservatives and even taste or texture that are not food items. These chemicals are foreign to the body and the body does not know what to do with them. When you go on detoxification diets, you are trying to rid your body of any of these things that come from your foods and other places in your environment. Detoxification diets aren’t something that always lasts forever. Most do them for a few weeks and then try to modify their regular diet to keep the toxins out. This might mean buying foods from natural stores, and making sure fruits and vegetables are fresh and organic. It costs more to eat that way, but the savings may come in the form of good health and reduced medical costs. Think about what is on a label before you buy it if you want to keep these things from your body, and encourage your family to do the same. Also remember that drinking plenty of water each day is a great way to keep the body clean no matter what type of eating plan you are using. ------------------------------- A diet to lower cholesterol need not deprive your taste buds! Patients with high cholesterol are now more common than those with good cholesterol readings. We are constantly enjoined by our physicians to monitor our cholesterol readings, with good reason. High cholesterol levels of the bad sort and low cholesterol levels of the good type lead to artery blockages and heart attacks. Our dietary habits play a big role in keeping bad cholesterol levels under control. In addition to medications which reduce cholesterol, a proper diet to lower cholesterol levels is essential. It can be discouraging to be on constant alert with what we can and cannot eat. We may regard a strict diet as depriving us of the normal enjoyment of eating. This need not be the case. You can enjoy your food, perhaps more than before you got the bad news, with a diet to lower cholesterol. People of the Mediterranean regions seldom suffer from high cholesterol. You may well ask why. The secret to their good heart health lies in the consumption of heart healthy foods. Olive oil has no cholesterol and is a mainstay in the fats consumed. Fish, with a high content of the antioxidant Omega-3 fatty acids, also contribute to lowered cholesterol levels. Fresh garlic is included in the tasty Mediterranean diet in copious amounts. Entrees, salads and whole grain breads slathered with garlic and fresh produce play a major role in a diet to lower cholesterol. Bruschetta, an Italian favorite, is often composed of a garlic, olive and diced tomato mixture spread on the bread. It is a fact that garlic, given a prominent place in the diet to lower cholesterol, is as effective as pharmaceutical medications in reducing bad cholesterol. Some studies have shown garlic to be even more effective than the pharmaceuticals! If you must adhere to a diet to lower cholesterol, the Mediterranean menus are certainly no punishment to your palate. The proof in this pudding is that Mediterranean populations rarely have high cholesterol levels and the death rate from heart attack is one of the lowest in the world. Would you ever imagine that pizza would be an excellent addition to a diet to lower cholesterol? Unlikely, if you are eating a pizza prepared in the American way. A Mediterranean pizza is prepared with olive oil and much lesser amounts of the fatty meats we use. Olives are frequent additions to the Mediterranean style pizza, as are fresh tomatoes and low fat fresh mozzarella cheese. The Mediterranean diet uses small amounts of fatty meats, instead favoring lean meats such as pancetta and lamb. Meats are used judiciously, more as flavoring than bulk. Pasta dishes emphasize the pasta, drizzled with olive oil and small amounts of meat, vegetables and seasonings for sensational taste appeal. If you must adhere to a diet to lower cholesterol, take a page from the normal Mediterranean diet and get healthy! --------------------------- Good Dog Health There are some that think a cat or dog is going to be an easy pet. Though there is some truth to this, it can be hard when your pet develops problems that may leave you puzzled. If you get a new dog or puppy, you want to know all that you can about dog health and what to watch for if you want to know when to seek medical attention for your pet. There are some common things that indicate problems, and knowing these means quicker and more effective treatment for your furry friend. What is easy is that some are things that would startle even those that do not know what to look for in pet health. One of the biggest indications that dog health is not what it should be would be missing or thinning fur. Though many cats and dogs lose some hair or experience some thinning as they age, this should not happen to a younger dog. When that happens, you may see spots where no fur is there at all, or that the skin under the fur is becoming visible through the fur when it was not that way before. These can signify mange or other skin conditions that need treatment. If you notice this, it is in the best interest of your dog to take him or her in for attention. Other obvious signs that dog health is not what it should be would be fluids coming from areas where it shouldn’t. Some dogs drool, and that is something that you learn about though the early days of owning your pet. However, some dogs do not drool that much, and if they begin to do so out of no where, there could be problems with dog health. This also goes for any new discharge that comes from the nose or the eyes. These things require attention if they go on for more than a day or two. The most important thing about dog health is that you take it seriously. You can look around online for more information, and you can find some great advice, but you do have to think of it as a reference. Some information online is not correct, and that means your best and final advice should come from your veterinarian. Use what you find online as a guide, as you can learn a lot from some sources, but your dog health is much too important to leave to chance. ------------------------- Drunk Driving Accidents There is nothing wrong with going out and having a good time with friends and a few drinks. What is not right is getting into any type of vehicle and driving home when you have had more than one or two. Those that are impaired by alcohol often think they are fine, and that is why it is common to hear about drunk driving accidents. Those who have been drinking often get upset when someone suggests they should not be driving, and it can be hard to get their keys from them. Sadly, some establishments will serve people when they are clearly unfit to drive, and don’t say a word when they walk out the door with car keys in hand. On an even sadder note, many drunk driving accidents near me have been underage kids. This was a huge problem in my high school. Each year, without fail, and accident would claim the lives of some of the children in our school system. There are two problems with this. The first is that someone who is of legal age is buying alcohol for minors, and the other problem is that the minors may not know enough about driving while intoxicated, and what drunk driving accidents are all about. Though some drunk driving accidents are only harmful or fatal to the person driving the car, teens tend to have more than one passenger with them. That means the fatalities can pile up. They may run into friends, and that means they could engage in reckless racing while drunk, which in turn creates even more victims. This is why so many parents worry when their kids go out with friends, and why kids need to know what they are doing when they get their license. Parents should adopt a ‘one strike and you are out’ policy when it comes to doing anything harmful in a car, or when they are caught drinking whether in a car or not. Though there are some programs in schools that deal with teaching kids about drinking and drunk driving accidents, parents have to do more. It is essential that all children learn about these things before they are allowed to get a drivers license. That means talking with them about feeling okay but really being impaired, and also showing them pictures of others their age that have been in drunk driving accidents. These can be hard to look at, and are very troubling, but they are the best way to send a strong message about driving when they or their friends have been drinking. -------------------------------- During - Pregnancy There are many things you have to worry about during pregnancy, but you can’t drive yourself crazy with worry. Some moms-to-be are very laid back, and others panic with each new development. Each reaction is normal, and is a reflection on how you are normally. If you know you panic quite easily, you better find a doctor that doesn’t mind being on your speed dial. If you want to find a way to calm down, you have to take some time to find out many of the things that can happen during pregnancy, and that might help you be calmer about the entire affair. You can learn the basics of what happens during pregnancy, and most people will do this. There are great books out there, and you have plenty to choose from when you go to the book store. There are other books that can outline the things that can go wrong. Be very careful with these books, and don’t let them spook you. Instead, use them as a guide for things that you want to watch out for during pregnancy, and then know what to do if something comes up That way you aren’t going to panic, but you will know when you should call your doctor. There are a lot of aches and pains that happen during pregnancy, and that might be one of the first things you should read up on. You should know where to expect the pains, when they might occur, and what they mean. I remember my sister-in-law freaking out when she had sharp pains in her hips, and as it turned out, they were quite normal. They were just one of many things that she was freaked out by while pregnant that turned out to be normal and natural. There are other things that happen during pregnancy that you have to worry about, but you should not let them get the best of you. These things are mental in nature, but can be brought on by the rush of hormones in your body during pregnancy. You can become depressed while pregnant, and you can also suffer from post partum depression. Make sure you and your partner both know the signs so that you can get help when you need it. Neither condition should go unchecked. Depression is a serious matter, and there are two people at stake while you are pregnant. Don’t let yourself or our baby down. ---------------------------- Catching The Early Signs Of Pregnancy Everyone woman, whether trying to get pregnant or not, should know a little something about the early signs of pregnancy. This is because there are so many things in our modern world that can hurt an unborn baby, and we have to know as soon as possible so we can stop doing those things. Smoking, drinking, and even some foods can have an adverse affect on a baby, and the sooner they are stopped the better. Ideally, the only time pregnancy would happen would be when a couple is actively trying, but that is not always the case. One of the first early signs of pregnancy that most notice is when their periods are late. There are many times in a woman’s life when this may happen when they are not expecting, but when it happens, it is good to take notice. It could be that stress has caused late ovulation, and therefore a late period. It could also be a condition like polycystic ovarian syndrome, which can mess with the timing of a woman’s period. Know your own cycle as best as you can, and that could help you determine if a missing period is one of the early pregnancy signs that you should take seriously. Perhaps the best way to decide if a missing period is one of the early signs of pregnancy for you is to look for other ones. A missing period alone may not mean much, but if you add things like a nauseous feeling, or a bit of fatigue, you may have to run out and find out if you should start stocking up on diapers. Not every woman has morning sickness, but many find they have at least some trouble with it. Very early on the nauseous feeling can start, but it might not be very noticeable. Feeling run down and tired is another good early pregnancy sign, especially if paired with the other two. For some women, one of the early signs of pregnancy for them is a gut feeling. They just know. Some may get that feeling but ignore it, but when that feeling is overwhelming, there is usually a good reason for that. It can be easy for someone to dismiss all of the above for a while, and explain each sign away as something else. No matter what, the most definite of the early signs of pregnancy would be a positive pregnancy test. The ones you buy in the store are very accurate. If you get a positive, see your doctor for confirmation. Once you know for sure, you’ll probably look back and recognize all of the early signs that you missed or dismissed. ------------------------ Electric Toothbrushes: Keeping your teeth clean and cavity free can often be a challenge in the world we all share. After all, there are only hundreds of sweet temptations lurking around every corner. Naturally we all enjoy some sugary foods or beverages on occasion. However, if you indulge in sweet treats and snacks, you have to be able to clean your choppers really well on a daily basis. That's just the basic rule that goes along with eating. This is the reason the phenomenal electric toothbrush was invented. Now days it's much easier to keep those molars and incisors clean and shiny. So, what are you brushing with these days? If it's a manual toothbrush, you may want to consider a change. You won't have a great deal of difficulty pinpointing an electric toothbrush that suits your needs. In fact, there are many of these new-age brushing machines found in drugstores across the country. Two of the more popular models are the Braun Oral B electric toothbrush, which functions with a compact round head that twists back and fourth in a circular motion, and then there's the Sonic model electric toothbrush, which will likely cost you a bit more. This design works more similar to a traditional toothbrush and incorporates a pulsating bristle head. If you didn't already know, these electric toothbrushes can cost you anywhere from 65-150 dollars, Then again, you're likely to encounter lower prices and better deals online. Therefore it's wise to exhaust your shopping resources prior to actually purchasing an electric toothbrush from a local retailer. If you are interested in testing out an electric toothbrush, but have no desire to fork out 65 bucks or more for one of the high-end ones, you can always give the Crest or Colgate versions a shot. These are generally sold in most local drugstores, and will only cost you about 6-8 dollars. They do not require replacement heads, but they do run off of AA batteries. Once the electric toothbrush is worn out, you simply dispose of it and purchase a new one. This is a wonderful alternative for those who lack the cash to buy one of the more expensive electric toothbrushes. --------------------------- Electronic Toothbrush Brushing your teeth can be a hassle and a very tedious task. Also, it takes a lot of work to scrub and attempt to get every corner of your mouth. Regular toothbrushes can miss spots and cases of gingivitis or tartar can occur in your mouth. An electronic toothbrush will plough through these situations and leave your mouth a lot cleaner than any regular toothbrush could ever match up to. It would take almost double the strokes and double the time brushing with a regular toothbrush to get the same feeling as with an electronic version. Let’s face it; no one has that much time in their daily routine to spend in their washroom, slaving away at their teeth, hoping they are getting rid of all the plaque. With an electronic toothbrush, you know you are getting that super clean feeling every time you brush. These inventions are inexpensive as well and many different companies make them. They also come with new heads so you don’t have to keep buying an entire new toothbrush. The refills are also inexpensive so a regular toothbrush won’t find its way into your bathroom again. It’s a great idea to buy a different head for every family member so you can all use the same base. This really does cut down on cost. Since these toothbrushes are so strong, you’ll also eliminate the trouble of flossing. Regular toothbrushes aren’t backed by battery power so it’s all up to you to try and scrub in between those teeth. An electronic toothbrush is battery powered, usually by two AA batteries, so it will rid your mouth of any lingering bacteria, even in between your pearly whites. If buying batteries is a problem for you, these toothbrushes do come in chargeable form, so as soon as you’re done using it, charge it up and it’ll be ready for the next time you need to brush. There are plenty of benefits to using a device like this and they are probably not what you would expect. Of course you know you are getting that dentist clean feeling but as well you are getting fresher breath. An electronic toothbrush removes all small food particles in your mouth, leaving nothing behind. Another benefit is that you avoid any problems of brushing too hard and irritating your gums or causing bleeding. One of the most surprising benefits is that an electronic toothbrush is best for arthritis patients. They don’t have to put any strain on their hands, arms, shoulders or other joints as they work away at brushing their teeth. It’s perfect for anyone, of any age to get that brilliant, clean, smile that everyone always desires. There’s really no logical reason not to go out and buy one today. --------------------------- An Emergency Action Plan for Your Business Sometimes, you don't know how badly you need an emergency action plan until it's too late. Fortunately for our community, a recent spate of tornadoes that threatened but did no real damage has given just the impetus we need to do some much needed planning. Avoiding a tragedy with a little preparedness seems like a very timely and smart proactive approach. In a post-September 11th world, it's become clearer to many business owners that an emergency action plan is a necessity for the times in which we live. Thankfully, many of us will never have to face the horrible fallout of terrorism in the workplace, but severe weather is something that's a real threat no matter where we are. The recent tragedies in Myanmar and China are perfect examples of Mother Nature's fearsome power. When my boss put me in charge of our company's brand-new emergency action plan, I knew I had a good bit of learning to do. The federal government has some superb resources available for both businesses and individuals when it comes to crafting a specialized emergency action plan. I found that websites run by both OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and the Homeland Security Department are great places to start. Even someone new to this type of planning can formulate a basic response using the guidelines offered by these agencies. The most crucial aspect of any successful emergency action plan is communication. Does your facility have some sort of early warning system? Can employees quickly and easily find out if and when severe weather, for example, is imminent? That's the first and most important step in implementing a safety protocol at work. Just as important to a successful emergency action plan is the information available to first responders, such as fire and rescue units. I recommended that our company provide the local fire department with schematics of our building so that nothing would take them by surprise. The web offers a myriad of resources for businesses looking to be pro-active in this arena. I found resources ranging from free downloads of emergency action plan or (EAP) software to photoluminescent evacuation maps that can be read even when there's no power. Pre-packaged EAP kits, complete with disaster gear, equipment, food, and water are available for purchase and would go a long way towards making emergencies more manageable. We can't control the weather, or the future for that matter, but I'm glad that our company is taking steps to do what it can to keep us safe by creating a well thought-out and practical EAP. --------------------------- Emergency Supplies For Your Home You may already know that you need to have some sort of emergency kit in your home, even if you have yet to go out and get one put together. You should also have something in your car or truck if you can, as you never know when you may get stranded. Those that live in northern climes should really think about this, as getting stuck in the snow is a common occurrence. Whatever the case, you should learn how to personalize your emergency supplies so that you have just what you need without adding things that won’t do you any good in an emergency. One of the best way to pick out emergency supplies is to think about what you may use through the course of a day that you can not do without. This would, of course, mean food and water, but there are other needs that have. If you take medications, for example, you have to rotate extra meds into your emergency supplies. You should always make sure they are fresh, as having a supply that has been in your kit for a while may mean the meds have lost their effectiveness. Any other medical supplies you use should also be included. Don’t forget to think about hygiene items when putting together your emergency supplies for your home. You should have contacts and contact solution if you have vision problems, along with a pair of glasses. Just as with meds, rotate them so they are always fresh. You should be sure to include things like soap, baby wipes, and hand sanitizer as well. Toothbrush and toothpaste are important in any batch of emergency supplies, but there are some people that forget those two things. For women, things like tampons and sanitary napkins should be included with emergencies supplies both in the home and in the car. When it comes to emergency supplies for the car, you should include things like oil, transmission fluid, cat litter, emergency flares and/or reflective triangles. The spare tire should be inflated and in good shape, and the jack and tire iron should be kept with the tire. Don’t forget about numbers for your insurance agent and those that you would call in an emergency. You should also be sure to have food, water, and blankets. This may seem like a lot to keep in your trunk, but you will be grateful if the need arises to use them. ------------------------- Your farmers market offers good prices and fresh, quality produce The farmers market has been around a long time. Shoppers in the know have patronized these markets for years, because of the quality, variety and economy of the available produce. Other shoppers haven't yet taken advantage of this alternative to grocery store produce, thinking it's too time consuming to add this extra stop on shopping day. You might now want to reconsider. Whereas the supermarket produce may have been picked a week or more ago and have traveled hundreds of miles, the farmers markets offer the very freshest produce, locally grown and picked just hours before you purchase. Many valuable nutrients are lost from produce within a day or two of separation from the vine. Nutritionally speaking, the fresher, the better. Another advantage in buying freshly picked produce is that these fruits and vegetables are truly vine ripened. You'll certainly taste the difference. The variety of produce you'll find at the farmers market far surpasses any supermarket, giving you the opportunity to try new varieties of lettuce, heirloom tomatoes and other new taste treats. When you begin to frequent the farmers market, you'll notice new items to work into your menus each week. Most of this produce is grown on small, family owned farms, many of whom practice organic gardening methods. This is a real plus for you. In addition to the great taste and added nutritional value, you're helping to support people in your own community, rather than a large corporate conglomerate from another state. We've all noticed the spike in grocery prices, much of it attributable to the cost of transporting products from the place of origin to our local stores. The products at the farmers market don't have this overhead, so you're getting superior food at prices that beat the typical supermarket. These produce market's goods are not confined strictly to fresh fruits and vegetables. Many of these markets carry items such as nuts, dried fruit and bulk granola-style cereals. Every now and then, you'll see things like garlic presses, nut crackers and salad spinners at good prices. Perhaps as important as the superior nutrition and value, you've got to love the social aspect. Once you start making the farmers market a regular shopping spot, you'll see other regulars with whom you can stop and chat. "Did you try that acorn squash they had last week? These oranges look really nice!" Pretty soon, you start making new friends, among both customers and sellers. After a short while, you wouldn't dream of buying your produce anywhere else. ------------------------------ Fish Oil Supplements There is a lot of talk today about the importance of getting enough Omega-3 in order to improve our cardiovascular health. Although Omega-3 is found in fish, you would have to consume it in rather large quantities in order to get the same amount you obtain from daily fish oil supplements. I am not a big fan of seafood beyond that of cod, haddock, and salmon, so obviously it means I have to take fish oil supplements in order to obtain the benefits of the Omega-3. But I'm willing to do this since it's important at my age to look closely at my cardiovascular health in order to assure a long and productive life. I began looking into the feasibility of fish oil supplements when I began to suffer from early signs of arthritis. I felt I was too young to suffer from the effects of arthritis, so I made the decision to find out more about the benefits of Omega-3 to see if it might help. I also spoke to friends of mine that I knew had begun using fish oil supplements for various conditions and found they were very happy with the results. That doesn't mean Omega-3 is going to work for everyone and do all of the things that it should, but the people I talked to definitely noticed a difference in their overall health after they began taking this nutritional supplement combined with others. One thing I was worried about was how much money I'd have to spend on fish oil supplements. I'd heard that this product could be very expensive, which would be bad news for my wallet -- particularly since I'd have to take the pills regularly in order to experience the benefits. However, once I started shopping for fish oil supplements online, I saw that the price hit wasn't going to be as bad as I thought. I found websites where I could buy these health products at a cost that is substantially less than I would pay in most retail stores. In addition, these online stores had more varieties and brand names to choose from, so I was able to find a supplement that was exactly right for my needs. If you want to improve the health of your heart, you have to begin with your diet. It's very important to include fish oil supplements as part of your daily intake of dietary products. I think the choice to increase my consumption of Omega-3 was a wise one, and I'm looking forward to seeing an improvement in my overall health. ----------------------------- Folk Remedies It becomes a habit to reach out for painkillers whenever we have an ailment. However, a lot of people have turned away from conventional medicine and are looking for a more traditional alternative. Folk remedies have many supporters and appear to work for a lot of people. Some of the methods using food items, spices, plants and herbs have been around since ancient times. Modern medicine has saved many lives and helped to end suffering but some people believe that it is foolish to dismiss folk remedies out of hand. Sometimes old treatments combine well with today's drugs. It is advisable however, to get advice from a responsible source, such as a qualified herbalist, especially if suffering from a serious condition or if pregnant. Many claims are made for the restorative value of Apple Cider Vinegar and it seems to be very fashionable at the moment. Some people use it to lose weight because it breaks down fat. It is generally good for the skin and is used to treat a number of conditions, including sore throats, tiredness, gout and acne. Turmeric is a spice used in Indian cooking. It is largely used for coloring and is the ingredient that gives curries that lovely, golden color. It also lowers body fat and is used as a cure for diarrhea, indigestion, arthritis, coughs and bruises. Diarrhea sufferers add a teaspoon to a glass of warm water. It can also be taken in capsule form or as Turmeric Tea. Garlic is a very popular ingredient in folk remedies and can be taken as Garlic Tea or chopped fresh garlic. Garlic Capsules are a best selling commodity in health food shops. It's used as a preventative measure for colds or to relieve symptoms and a treatment for bronchitis and stomach cramps. It's also said to be successful in lowering cholesterol levels. In the heart of the Deep South in Louisiana, molasses is used in folk remedies, namely Black Strap Molasses. The high proportion of minerals make it a general tonic and it's taken for specific problems such as constipation and arthritis. It's also used to treat anemia because of its iron content. Some people claim that it prevents graying hair and can even turn gray hair back to its original shade! The recommendation is to take one tablespoon early in the morning. Tea Tree Oil is suggested as a cure for gingivitis, acne and cuts and bruises. ------------------------- Do You Have a Food Addiction? You don’t often think about food being an addiction, but for some people, this is something that they live with every single day. What makes this an odd addiction is that we all need food to survive, so it’s not like you can just stop eating or even wean yourself from food. You have to have it. Often, the addiction comes from the feeling that certain foods give when consumed, and those feelings fill something that a person cannot seem to get anywhere else. A food addiction is like any other though, in the way that it can be very harmful to the person who has the problem. Some food addiction might be to one type of food. Some think they have a sugar addiction, which means they cannot get enough of anything sweetened with sugar. Some have a carb fixation, which means they go with high carbohydrate foods almost exclusively. This leaves them with high blood sugar and then the ensuing crash, along with never having the ability to feel full. That means they eat even more. Weight gain and diabetes are going to be common for those with that type of food addiction. Food addiction is often something that is there to fill an emotional need that has not been filled. Someone who has been abused or comes from a home with very little affection may get comfort from eating food. This becomes something they have to have, and it turns into a food addiction. They may also equate any event in their life with a reason to eat, and that means they always have an excuse to feed their food addiction. You may have a food addiction if you cannot seem to stop gaining weight and you know it is because you can’t stop eating. You may eat anything, or there may be one type of food that you cannot get enough of. A good therapist can find out why you have your food addiction, and can then help you clear up the underlying problem. Once that problem has been filled and solved, your addiction to food may very well go away. This is something you can try on your own, but if you have little success, there is no harm in going out for some outside help. You may even find books on the subject, or special diets that can help wean you from the foods that cause you the most problems. ------------------------------- Food Allergy Recipes Figuring out food allergy recipes can be pretty daunting when you are first diagnosed with food allergies, but if you keep in mind a few simple principles, it is eminently doable. I usually think of it as involving several stages. When you are first starting to cope with food allergies – particularly allergies to classic staples like wheat, yeast, eggs, and things like that – your food allergy recipes should be pretty basic and stripped down. Basically, it is easier to avoid food you are allergic to by eating much simpler dishes. Basic grains, lightly cooked vegetables, and lean meats are the best friends of someone having to deal with food allergies. As you get more adept at negotiating your allergies, however, you can take your cooking up to another level. Food allergy cooking recipes basically involve a lot of alternatives, and you will have to vary them depending on what allergies you have. Wheat is one of the easiest ones to deal with. For most people with wheat allergies, there are plenty of alternative ingredients that work just as well. Spelt is the most common one, but kamut is also a viable grain for many types of allergy food baking. If you are allergic to yeast or eggs, however, you'll have to work a little bit harder on a food allergy recipe. There are many different egg alternatives including bananas, gluten, and other, more exotic ingredients. Basically, it depends what you are trying to cook. With yeast, you can often use baking powder as a substitute in your food allergy recipes, but you'll have to very the proportions somewhat. Fortunately, most food allergies Involve less crucial ingredients, and these can be easily avoided. One of the things that you can do is to keep a lot of things that you want to eat canned. Then, when you have an idea about a possible alternative ingredient,You can try it out and note the results. Allergies are, unfortunately, probably something you will be dealing with for a while, so finding useful food allergy recipes is crucial. Still, with patience and persistence, you can come up with an allergy friendly version of basically anything that you want to eat. It can help a lot to have a community to help you out. Knowing other allergy sufferers as well as health food experts can really give you the resources to plan out a healthier, more complete, and more delicious meal plan. ------------------------ Picking out the right food and wine : Picking out the right food and wine is absolutely crucial if you want your date to go well. I have been reading Food and Wine Magazine for years now, and I have to say that it has improved my romantic life more than anything else. Don't get me wrong – I like to have the right wine list to mpress my friends when they come over for dinner. I also like to be able to show off when I'm going out with colleagues to fancy restaurants. Nonetheless, the real importance is making the right impression on a date. I used to not worry about food and wine, stylish clothes, or any of that. I figure that if I met the right woman, she would see through to the real me without me having to worry too much about the trappings of success. I did have some successful dates, and some meaningful relationships too, but in general they were few and far between. I didn't really realize it at the time, but the big problem was that I wasn't making the right first impression. Sometimes, I wouldn't even be able to get a date. Other times, I just wouldn't seem like anything special on the first date. Once I started brushing up on food and wine, as well as learning about stylish clothing, things started to change for me. Nowadays, my best trick is cooking a delicious, homemade meal for a date. Usually I will have a red or white wine list with dinner, allowing her to pick what bottle we open. Then we will have chicken Alfredo, seafood pasta, or some other similar dish. I do my best to make everything perfect. Even if it doesn't come out just right, girls noticed the effort. It impresses them, and makes them want to make more of an effort to get to know you. Good food is also a great way to start a conversation. Obviously, having a good dish will be a good conversation starter, but it can also lead to other interesting topics. Everyone likes to learn about how to make new recipes, where to buy the freshest produce and ingredients, and what other people do in their spare time. Paying attention to food and wine allows you to have things to say about all of these topics. That way, you can make the right impression right away. You don't have to worry about first dates of first impressions anymore. You'll have it in the bag. ------------------------------- Using food portion sizes creatively to cut food intake Those who wish to lose weight are constantly chided over food portion sizes. You are told to weigh a three or four ounce portion of meat and pretend it's satisfying. Adding insult to injury, you're supposed to like it. If you're a guy accustomed to eating that big steak, you're bound to end up feeling deprived as you view the dinner plate with this tiny piece of meat, lost amid a seemingly giant expanse of empty plate. As the centerpiece of a diet plan, this approach doesn't usually work out. If you are such an aspiring dieter, take heart. Here are some ways to creatively and satisfactorily use the food portion size to actually realize weight loss. For one thing, we Americans are used to piling the entire meal on one plate. This is, psychologically, a recipe for failure. It's somewhat like going to the fancy New York dinner house, where the prices are high and the food portion sizes are terribly small. The visual effect of such a plate is at best, discouraging. "That's it?" Already, your stomach is growling at you, letting you know this won't cut it. You wolf down these miserably miniscule tidbits attempting to masquerade as a meal. Unsatisfied, you hit the mini-mart on the way home and fill up on chips and some cookies. This is no way to lose weight. Another approach to food portion sizes works out admirably. Instead of a single-course meal, divide your meal into three or more courses. Begin with an appetizer. A dessert cup, containing an abundance of salad shrimp doused with a flavorful cocktail sauce on a bed of hearts of Romaine lettuce is an inspiring beginning. Consume this enticing dish slowly, garnished with good conversation. Take a break between bites. Enjoy this simple dish. Kick back before continuing. So far, your calorie count is minimal. Your stomach acknowledges the fine taste and substance. Now, have a bowl of soup, with a side of garlic bread. Dip the bread in your soup and appreciate your dinner partner's conversation. Yes, that's good. Your appetite is slowly being satiated, diminishing that feeling of deprivation. So far, these food portion sizes have not contributed much to weight gain, and the nutritive value is outstanding. Here we come to the third course, that little piece of meat. Although the food portion size is small, your mind and appetite are in the right place. That chicken breast, grilled to perfection and graced with just the right amount of creamed caper sauce, becomes a treat rather than a trial. Devour it slowly and savor all the flavor. By the time you've consumed your dinner, you're both satisfied and relaxed. On a diet like this, you will lose weight. Play it again, Sam! ---------------------------- Foods High In Vitamin K When your mother told you to eat your greens, she was giving good advice. Leafy green vegetables are one of the foods high in Vitamin K, particularly the dark green varieties such as kale and spinach. The human body needs this vitamin for blood coagulation and for bone metabolism. Brassica, including cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, and sprouts are another important source. Watercress and lettuce also supply the vitamin. The body doesn't store the vitamin in substantial amounts, so a daily intake is necessary. The recommended daily amount is 80 micrograms for male adults and 65 micrograms for female adults. Foods high in Vitamin K also include kiwifruit, avocado and parsley. Dairy products, including milk and eggs, and cereals are another source. Alfalfa is high in Vitamin K and is often used in herbal medicine. It also contains Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E. Lesser quantities are found in oils such as Soybean Oil. Vitamin K activates three proteins that are advantageous to bones. Every age group can benefit from the vitamin, from growing children to the elderly. Since its discovery in 1939 by scientists from Denmark, there are have been many studies into the merits of Vitamin K, how much we need and its effects on different groups of people. Elderly people were found to be less prone to bone injuries like hip fractures when eating foods high in Vitamin K, which strengthens bones. However, studies have shown that the general population doesn't get the recommended amount especially with regard to children and people from the age of 20 to 40. This perhaps is not surprising as so many people rely on fast food and ready meals, instead of preparing meals from scratch, using fresh vegetables. Some people who take regular doses of anti-biotics or are on a long-term course of them may develop a Vitamin K deficiency. Foods high in Vitamin K will help to redress the balance. After consulting a doctor's opinion, it may be appropriate to raise the Vitamin K level with supplementary vitamin tablets or liquid nutritional supplements. Patients taking Coumadin (Warfarin), which is an anti-coagulant, should also consult their doctor as very high levels of Vitamin K can affect the treatment. The best advice is to eat a balanced diet with everything in moderation. Vitamins and minerals are a vital part of the dietary routine and foods high in Vitamin K are so important in achieving that balance. So, remember to eat your greens! -------------------------- Feeling poorly? Try a free colon cleanse recipe for relief! It's really no wonder that today's hectic pace and daily stress takes its toll on all of us. You may have a variety of little complaints that you take with a grain of salt, attributing the cause to too much work. Let's say you get stress headaches on a fairly regular basis, need to use the killer deodorant to suppress some strong-smelling perspiration and every time you eat pizza, it's guaranteed heartburn. You also suffer bouts of allergies, per the season. Most people with these symptoms will probably not even consult their doctors with any of these rather ordinary complaints. However, there is a school of thought that posits that every one of these problems may indicate a buildup of toxins in the colon, a simple accumulation of living in modern society. The idea seems worthy of consideration when you consider that there are a number of free colon cleansing recipes available on credible websites. The theory used to support colon cleansing as a remedy is that, over a period of years, unhealthy foods and the environment itself, results in the deposit of toxins in the colon and a buildup of what's been termed, mucoid plaque in the intestines. The presence of these toxins leaves your body at a disadvantage in a number of ways. It's been suggested that these toxins may be linked to arthritis, psoriases and depression, as well as a long list of common ailments. From bad breath to body aches, a colon cleansing may relieve you. Most schools of thought in the alternative health field accept that toxicity in the colon may bring on all of these conditions. Some also believe that more serious diseases, such as Chrohn's and celiac disease, might be aggravated by toxicity of the colon. There are many free colon cleanse recipes on the net, so how do you know which one might work for you? How do you know that the ingredients given are safe to use? There are two ingredients which are absolutely safe and effective. The first is psyllium husks which provide the fiber and bulk your colon requires to effectively sweep the colon free of toxic buildups of waste. Probiotics are the other thoroughly reliable and safe ingredient you should look for in any free colon cleanse recipe you intend to use. Probiotics encourage a flourishing population of the naturally occurring, good bacteria in your digestive system, helping keep your colon clean. If you've done some research on your own and discovered a website you find credible, with a free colon cleanse recipe, print it out. Take it to a naturopathic physician or Master Herbalist. These experts can tell you all the particulars, pro and con, for each of the ingredients in the proportions given, as well as the types of ailments these ingredients will help. That free colon cleanse recipe, with an expert's approval, may make you feel like a million! ---------------------------- Save Big with Free Grocery Coupon Websites I love to eat and I love to save money, so finding ways to do both was my first priority in a successful shopping experience. That's why I was thrilled to discover lots of free grocery coupon websites that helped me to save a ton of money while still enjoying all of my favorite foods. These money savers were easy to find and even easier to use, since I could simply click and print for the specific items I wanted. I used to spend an exorbitant amount of time searching through circulars for discounts to use at the store every week. Sunday afternoons were often spent up to my elbows in scissors and newspapers clippings as I prowled through the fliers in my Sunday paper, looking for the bargains. I even had a very intricate filing system to help me find the discounts I was looking for, but it took a whole lot of time to maintain every week. When I first learned about the availability of free grocery coupon websites, I couldn't believe how easy it was to save big bucks at the market. There are so many free grocery coupons online, I spent the better part of an evening surfing the sites and printing my savings. The next day, I took the slips to the store with me and presented them to the cashier at the end of my trip. Then I could simply sit back and watch my total amount go down, down, down! I found that I could use a free grocery coupon at any store that accepted these types of discounts. They worked just as well as my Sunday flier discounts, but without the Sunday afternoons spent searching, clipping, and filing all the different slips. This system allowed me to select only the savings that I would actually use to print, cutting down on the amount of paper and clutter in my house. Of course, I haven't really touched enough on the money savings that I have enjoyed on my total bill each week. While one dollar here and fifty cents there may not seem like a big deal, when you can take in multiple dollar-off savings every week, it does add up. And I have found so many free grocery coupons for products I actually use that it is very easy to collect a number of them to bring to the store each week. I am an absolute believer in using free grocery coupon websites before every shopping trip, and I would encourage anyone who loves to eat and save money to give this system a try as well. Happy savings! --------------------------------- Learning About the Human Body Children have a hard time understanding how their bodies work inside because it is not something that they can see. They learn a lot -early on- by looking, touching, and smelling things. When they don’t have access to the inner workings of the human body, things within can be a mystery. As adults, we understand why things may bleed, and as long as the bleeding is minimal, we rarely freak out about it. However, to a child, blood can be something very scary indeed. The more they know about how the body works, the less they will have to fear when something minor happens to them. I know that my daughter screams her head off when even the smallest amount of blood comes out of her body. This has made her losing her teeth a very trying ordeal. I know most of her fear comes from not understanding how the human body works. She does not understand what blood does, why we have it, and even why it can come out of the body at certain times. The human body relies on blood for many things. She knows we do need it to live, and perhaps that is why she freaks out so much when it appears that it is coming out. There is a certain survival instinct that goes with the fear, but some bleeding is normal and aids in healing. Other aspects of the human body are also a mystery to the young. They may not understand why they eat, and what happens inside when they do. They don’t understand why they feel hungry, and what food really does. If they can learn about the roles of food and water within the human body, they can try to make better food choices. This may not be apparent at first, but it can help them out in the long run. That, along with your good example, can lead to a healthier life as they age into adulthood. The human body does much more than the examples above, and most parents know the basics. Some children are naturally curious about the body and what it does, while others may not give it much thought. It is naturally easier to teach the curious child about the human body, but it should be mentioned on occasion to those that seem to have less interest. If they can have at least some understanding of how their bodies work, they may want to take better care of themselves, and they may be more at ease when something strange happens. ----------------------------------- The Complexity Of the Human Brain If you have inquisitive children, you may find yourself answering a bunch of questions about just about everything and anything. Some things are very easy to talk about, and some subjects can be uncomfortable. On top of that, some are so complex that you are not sure what you should say, and you hope they can learn what they need while in school. One of the most complicated things that we have is the human brain. Trying to explain how it works is awfully hard, and many parents have no idea where they should start. The human brain moves and controls the body. That can be a good place to start because it is easy to understand. The brain sends electrical pulses out to muscles when we want them to move. There are involuntary movements like heartbeat and breathing, and then there are things we wish to do, like walk, lift a spoon, or scratch an itch. The human brain controls all of those things almost instantaneously. Children can understand the brain sending out signals to get the muscles to do what we want and we don’t really have to think about it too hard for common motions and movements. One thing about the human brain that most children will want to know is about why we dream. This is a thing the brain does while we sleep, though no one can really seem to agree on why it happens. The human brain can not store the knowledge and experiences it has gone through that day until a person has slept. While we sleep, the brain is busy filing these things away. It never stops and it never rests. Dreams can be a results of the jumbled things from our day, and may even be a way to keep us entertained while we sleep. When it comes to issues of metal health, children often can not really understand what depression and things like mania are all about. This is because their experience with these is (hopefully) limited or non-existent. All you can say in these cases is that there are times when things in the human brain are not working right or are out of balance. When that happens, it can affect the mood of a person, or can make them do things they would not normally do. You can try to find kid friendly explanations on the Internet to help you out with such subjects that leave you lacking for a simple way to explain. ----------------------- What's your ideal weight? You may be pleasantly surprised! In America, so many people obsess over their weight. True, obesity is on the rise, but food addictions work both ways. People with food addictions may eat too much or far too little. Perhaps the weight issue has been pushed way too far. Kids in grade school are developing anorexic, bulimic and overeating tendencies and this type of obsession is not healthy, not for kids or adults. So how do you arrive at an ideal weight figure that matches reality? One dictionary definition of ideal reads as follows: “...a conception of something in its most excellent form...” If we are to arrive at a definition of ideal weight, it only follows that we need to address whose conception this is and what defines a most excellent form. There's the rub. Some group of supposedly qualified people have come up with a formula that proscribes both the conception and what is most excellent. Take for example, the 'blood type' diets. There are medical doctors who insist that you should eat only foods which are compatible with your blood type. The purported science involves something about how your blood type determines your body chemistry's reaction to food. Not being a medical doctor, I can't prove or disprove this theory, but it sounds like there's a lot of hooey here. Yet, this theory has quite a large following of people desiring to lose weight and cure a variety of diseases. The point is, even if a select group of experts says something is true, it doesn't make it so. When the body fat index charts came out some years ago, people started consulting their doctors and the many websites which compared your height and weight in a one-size-fits-all modality. Height and weight were the only criterion. Therefore, a person who's 5'6” and weighs 135 pounds might be classified as overweight. Perhaps this individual has a large bone structure, or is an athlete. Muscle weighs more than fat. I remember hearing that a certain very fit NBA basketball star would be considered obese under this particular formula. The person in question was quite obviously a tall, muscular and lean guy. This case makes me suspicious of the entire premise. When you consider that every individual is different, it's difficult to make a case for such a simplistic model of an ideal weight. Instead of imposing paranoia on the general population, the medical community should give their individual patients guidance on nutrition, the importance of exercise and a personal evaluation on that patient's ballpark ideal weight. If you want to make this evaluation yourself, study up on nutrition, exercise regularly and take an objective look in the mirror. While your best friend may be just your height but weighs ten or fifteen pounds less, your ideal weight may be right in hand. If you feel good, are energetic and eat right, you may just be at your ideal weight. ------------------------- Tips To Improve Sperm Count Having a baby is something that many couples hope to do, and some have no problems when it comes to achieving this dream. However, there are other couples that find they are having problems with conception, and they may not have any idea why. When this happens, both the man and the woman are tested for fertility issues, and then they can go from there. If the problem resides with the male, it is usually something that has to do with a low sperm count. In this case, men will want to do all they can to improve sperm count. Most men are shocked when they find out they have to improve sperm count, and they see it as a short coming. This is really not constructive, and not true. A sperm count has nothing to do with being a real man. In our modern world, there are many factors that are out of our control that can contribute to the problem. There are also many innocent things that men do that may be causing a low count, and those are the things that can be changed to improve sperm count. Rest assured it has nothing to do with manliness, but rather, modern life. Some believe that toxins in foods can contribute to problems with low sperm count and even sperm motility problems. Many men can try to eat more natural and even organic foods to see if that does anything. It might take a while to see results, but it can work. Other things that can help improve sperm count would be wearing loose underwear and staying out of very hot baths and hot tubs. Those can both affect the sperm. Instead, wear boxers for underwear and stick with moderately warm bathing and relaxing environments. There are other things that can be done to help the sperm count improve, and it is always a good idea to talk with the doctor about what will work the best. At times, these things don’t make a huge difference, but don’t let that worry you too much. In that event, there are many simple fertility procedures that can be done to help the sperm get where they need to be when they can’t seem to get them there on their own. When those don’t work, there are more complicated things that can be done, but don’t think your dream of a family is out of reach just because of a low sperm count. If you can’t improve sperm count on your own, there is always someone out there who can find a way around it. ------------------------------ Taking iron supplements? Why you should take a close look at this nutrient! Have you been feeling tired? Diagnosed with anemia? We know that iron-poor blood can cause both of these symptoms. However, iron supplements should not be taken lightly. While a carefully managed dose can treat these conditions, there's much more than meets the eye. Did you know that excess iron can result in death in children, aged 6 years or under? This is also of concern if you're pregnant or breastfeeding. Although vitamin and mineral supplements can make us healthier, too much of a good thing can lead us down the road to disaster. Iron supplements deserve to be eyed with caution and requires a discussion with your physician. Considering the many dependencies and interactions of iron, different forms and how your body metabolizes iron, you're well advised to consult your doctor before self medicating. For example, if you have ulcers, intestinal disease or colitis, you may suffer more severe symptoms if you add iron into the mix without consulting your physician. Older folks may have a vitamin B12 deficiency which causes anemia, not a lack of iron. Are eggs and milk a regular part of your diet? These foods decrease your body's ability to absorb iron. Do you consume coffee or tea on a daily basis? Taking an iron supplement within the hour, before or after, may wipe out the benefit of your iron supplement. Other conditions which require strict supervision by your physician, before taking iron supplements, include kidney or liver disease, arthritis, heart disease, asthma and allergies. Before you visit the supplement counter, take a look at a well balanced diet. Include red meat, liver, legumes, nuts, dried fruits such as peaches and apricots and vegetables like asparagus and artichokes. These foods are rich in iron. If you take supplementary iron, leave a window of one hour before, or two hours following, eating these foods: cheese, eggs, milk, coffee, tea, spinach or whole grains. If you are vulnerable to heartburn or calcium deficiencies, space out your intake of these supplements so that they are at least 1-2 hours on either side of a meal. Elderly patients do not absorb iron as well as younger people. While you may be iron-deficient, you still need the counsel of your physician to determine the right form and dose to correct your deficiency. Iron supplements can invigorate you, but there are just too many caveats attached. It's understandable that fatigue, shortness of breath and a susceptibility to infection may make an iron booster an enticing solution. If your physician approves an iron supplement, you may find that this supplement produces a stain on your teeth. Try brushing with baking soda or hydrogen peroxide to remove such stains. There are certainly legitimate uses of iron supplements, but you need to be informed in order to use them wisely and safely. ---------------------------- Do You Have Irritable Bowel Syndrome There are some things that seem just too gross or personal to talk about, but when they affect your life, you may want to find a doctor to help you out. There are many out there with Irritable Bowel Syndrome that have no idea what is going on. They may have problems with this that make it hard to live normally, but they think it is just the way their body is. While that is true, they may not know that there are things they can do to make the situation better, and even ways to modify habits to stop some of the more serious symptoms. In short, Irritable Bowel Syndrome is something that affects the latter phase of digestion. Most think of it as something that results in loose stools, but that is not always the case. IBS can also cause someone to have severe bouts with constipation, and it won’t have anything to do with eating the wrong foods. Irritable Bowel Syndrome can also cause problems with excessive gas and cramping, and those things are equally annoying and embarrassing. If you have problems with your digestive system, you should ask your doctor if you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. You may notice that your emotions have something to do with your bathroom habits. You should know that this should not be very common. If you find you have to use the bathroom six or seven times before leaving for something that you find exciting, you may have a problem that can be helped with medical intervention. Not all problems with IBS come with emotional trauma or excitement, but it is something that is a telling sign. When you experience cramping when you have a bowel movement, or if you notice that eating the right foods still leave you feeling stuffed up and unable to go, you should talk with someone about Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It is certainly not pleasant to talk about with anyone, but once you find some relief you will be glad that you sought help. Life should not be about worrying where the bathrooms are located on your next road trip, but rather, about enjoying the moments that mean the most. When you find your system is working as it should be, the entire dynamic of your life can turn around, and you will realize how much Irritable Bowel Syndrome affected your life and even your relationships. ----------------------------- Junk - Food : When I was young, I didn’t know much about junk foods simply because my mom never gave them to us. On a rare occasion she would give my brother and I a bowl of chips to share, but for the most part, we didn’t eat many things that most would consider junk. However, there are hidden things in foods that can make them junk, and most moms and dads have no idea what they are giving their children things that might not be the best for them. Junk food is described as something that has little to no nutritional value. These are usually the things that people like to have the most. They are usually full of refined carbs, and are nothing more than sugar made into various forms, or enriched items that really aren’t as good as they claim to be. When you are eating things that have little value in the nutritional department, you are eating what many consider to be junk food. It is getting harder and harder to find anything that is not junk these days, unfortunately. There are some parents give their children nothing but junk food, and that is only going to end in pain and illness. Those children may very well grow up to be obese, and they aren’t going to know how to make good choices later on. Junk food is fine for a treat once in a while, but the entire day worth of meals should not be composed of these items. My daughter eats less junk food than most kids, and that is because I raised her to think fruits are a special treat. She still thinks that way today, and would rather have blueberries than a popsicle. Would she like some chips? She might, but she’ll pass if there are some fresh strawberries in the refrigerator. There is some junk food that you may be interested in, and it won’t hurt your figure one bit. There is a clothing line with this name on it, and I have to admit most of what they have to offer is rather cute. If you are looking for this type of junk food, feel free to indulge. You can find this stuff online, though I’m not sure where it is sold locally. If you want some cute, breezy items to add to your wardrobe, you may want to have a look at what they have to offer. Best of all, there are no empty calories involved. ------------------------------------------- Day - Spas Taking a break from a busy lifestyle and being pampered in relaxing surroundings is a welcome treat for many people. There are numerous treatments and facilities available and Los Angeles day spas offer some of the best around. There's so many to choose from and they suit every budget, all the way up to the luxury establishments where you may rub shoulders with celebrities. The Le Petite Retreat really is a retreat into another world of fountains, flower arrangements and aromatic scents. This is one of the luxury Los Angeles day spas that offer different kinds of massage treatments, including Deep Tissue, Swedish Deep Combo, Pre-Natal Pregnancy and Jade Stone. Some of these treatments can be part of a couples package, to be shared together with a partner. Hydrotherapy Bath sessions take place in a copper bath and are designed to help with arthritis and headaches. They include a warm lavender bath and a ginger, eucalyptus and peppermint bath. Other treatments include facials, waxing, scrubs and detox. The Puff Beauty Studio offers facial treatments, including an Organic Facial that uses exclusively pure ingredients. The beauty store sells less well known brands, difficult to hunt down elsewhere. The skin care studio gives advice on applying make up. Another of the Los Angeles day spas available is Verabella. Its specialty is gourmet food facials, some of which involve chocolates, champagne and caviar! There is also a skin care studio and non-invasive facelifts are on offer, using the latest non-surgical technology. Once a month, the Skin Haven Studio holds a Spa Lounge day, which is an opportunity to try out treatments in a social gathering with your friends. The all in cost includes a glass of wine or champagne, spa treatments and snacks. There is also the chance to buy designer goods at wholesale prices. Treatments are typical of Los Angeles day spas and include hand and foot treatments, reflexology, mineral make up makeovers, massages and exfoliating treatments. These days are very popular and you have to book ahead. Burke Williams Spa in West Hollywood is a relaxing environment with subdued lighting. Hair care and skin products are for sale and the amenities include a steam room. Treatments include a Pure Relaxation rub down, Deep Tissue Massage, Aromatherapy and Eucalyptus Body Wrap. Once tried, these treatments can become addictive and a weekly visit to Los Angeles day spas will be required. After a visit, clients feel invigorated and ready to face the hectic world outside again. ----------------------- Low-carb-bar Anyone who wants to restrict carbohydrates knows how difficult it is to fill the void that many carbohydrate-intense foods fill. A low carb bar is a simple solution to this big problem for dieters. There are so many options when it comes to this supplemental food and you will notice that you aren’t missing the carbohydrate rich foods that your diet is lacking. How many times has a low carbohydrate diet left you looking at a pile of lean meats and vegetables with no satisfaction? Sometimes nothing but a filler filled with carbohydrates will do. Protein-packed foods just can’t take the place of filling breads, pastas and potatoes that many of us crave. A low carb bar is the ideal solution to this craving. The design and nature of the low carb bar is the secret behind its success. You feel as if you are eating something that is absorbent in nature, like breads and pastas but you are actually adding to your precious protein intake that is crucial to the success of your weight loss plan. There are some things to consider when adopting a low carb bar into your weight loss diet plan. The first thing that comes to my mind is taste. I have eaten some meal replacement bars that tasted like chalk. The low carb bar is notorious for tasting more like cardboard than carbohydrates. However, there is a handful of supplemental bars that are really tasty and worth a try. I don’t care what anyone tells you. Size does matter; at least when it comes to a low carb bar. Dieters feel denied enough when on a weight reduction plan. When you are faced with a pitiful little low carb bar you actually feel more denied than ever no matter how good it tastes. The feeling of denial often leads to overeating. You may find that one low carb bar isn’t enough since it is so small. This leads to the consumption of two or even three bars in one sitting. This isn’t good for anyone. A good low carb bar will taste great but it will also be adult sized. When it comes to getting rid of those nagging cravings for sweets nothing comes close to a well made low carb bar. You can expect to spend about a dollar for each snack but it is far better than spending a buck on junk food that you will later regret. ------------------------ Low-carb-fast-food When I started on a low carb diet, I was a little bit dismayed at the difficulty I would have maintaining it. Everyone wants to be able to cook and eat healthy food, but for some of us it is just not an option. I might have time to prepare a nutritious low carb dinner now and again, but in general my Atkins diet food will have to be consumed on the go. In my job, I am always driving everywhere. Unless I could find low carb fast food, there would be no way I could stick to the diet. When I first started the Atkins weight loss diet, I figured that there was no way I could find low carb fast food. After all, fast food is all about burgers, tacos, and other meals with a high starch content. A burger and fries, in my opinion, is the best meal when you're on the go, but there is no such thing as a low carb big Mac with cheese! What I didn't realize at the time was that low carb diets have been around for so long that the fast food industry has adapted. Believe it or not, you can find low carb fast food! Sometimes, it is just a simple matter of modifying an existing meal. Many restaurants will allow you to order a burger without the bun, often substituting cottage cheese or some other proteinaceous addition. Other ones actually have a whole low carb menu dedicated to people who are trying to cut out carbohydrates from their diets. It is true that low carbohydrate food definitely limits your meal options at many restaurants – particularly fast food ones. The first time I went to McDonald's after switching to a low carbohydrate diet, I was in for a real disappointment. I have absolutely adored their hamburgers and french fries for years, and being unable to eat them was a major blow. There was one thing that I wanted there, and I couldn't have it. Still, I was able to compromise with myself, making up for the absence of bun and fries by adding bacon onto my cheeseburger. All in all, I still got a yummy meal, and I was able to stick with my diet. After that, I wasn't shy about asking for low carb fast food. If you have dietary restrictions, you have to be willing to speak up. The servers will certainly honor your requests. ---------------- Low -carbohydrates- food- lists How to use low carb food lists to your good health advantage The low carbohydrate diets have been quite popular, both with people wanting to lose weight and others with medical conditions requiring the restriction of carbs. There are many low carbohydrate food lists out there. Some are better than others with respect to giving you the information you need for proper nutrition and management of your condition. Dieters, without other health problems, are less likely to run into trouble using a low carb food list which simply lists the number of carbohydrates in any given food. However, people with diabetes need a more comprehensive breakdown of the nutrient content in order to properly manage their diet. Here are a few pointers which should help both dieters and diabetes patients get the maximum benefit out of a low carb menu plan. Fiber is necessary to everyone's good health and proper digestion. Complex carbohydrates, such as are found in vegetables, break down more slowly than simple carbohydrates, such as sugar. Crash dieters often try to eliminate carbs from their diet altogether, which results in a lack of fiber, ending in chronic constipation. You should know that the low carbohydrate food lists which state only the carb content are misleading. In order to calculate the total carbs, you need to subtract the fiber gram content from the total carbohydrates. For dieters, it's better to eat your veggies. You burn more calories digesting the fiber. You can take a fiber supplement if you wish, but you may as well enjoy your veggies. The end result will be basically the same. Diabetes patients, with extremely high blood sugar readings, can bring about a radical reduction in blood sugar in fairly short order by eliminating carbs altogether for a short period of time. In this case, using a fiber supplement for this time period may be advantageous. Once your blood sugar readings approach a normal range, reintroducing a judicious choice of carbohydrates is recommended. A complete reference type nutrition guide is your best bet. Low carbohydrate food lists do not usually give you a complete rundown on the nutrients. A low carb cookbook which includes guidance on menu planning can provide invaluable information for dieters and diabetics alike. Spreading your carbs out throughout the day allows your body to metabolize those carbs over a long period. If you try to avoid any carbs all day so that you can have a couple of baked potatoes for dinner, this is not a smart move. Your body is hit with a high count of starchy carbs all at once. Although you may have only consumed half of your daily carb allowance, your body will experience a blood sugar rush an hour after consumption. If you're trying to restrict your carb intake, for whatever reason, educate yourself on all aspects of nutrition, get a good nutrition reference book and consult with your physician. This plan spells success for you! --------------------------- Low- carb- success- stories for Diabetes type II patients If you have type II diabetes, you know that your carbohydrate intake must be strictly monitored in order to get your sugar readings under control. Typical guidelines for the diabetic patient require that you restrict your carbohydrate intake to 195 or less per day. The booklets your doctor provides give carbohydrate counts for many common foods, but these booklets can be confusing. For example, vegetables are generally loaded with carbohydrates. One medium sized potato yields 30 carbohydrates, while a single slice of bread weighs in at approximately 15 carbohydrates on average. Meat, cheese and other dairy products are carbohydrate free. You've got to watch out for soda and juices for sure. Trying to put together menus which are nutritious and beneficial to the diabetic patient can be a daunting prospect. You've got to figure out how to eat right and keep those carbs within your daily limit. Many diabetics become so frustrated, trying to adhere to the carb and sugar intake guidelines, that they basically give up. Even when you stick to the rules, your sugar readings are disappointing. There seems to be no way out. Here, we take a look at how to beat the odds. Here are some low carb success stories that will show you how to take a proactive approach and give you a new approach that produces results. Type II diabetes is a disease characterized by the body's inability to manage and regulate insulin. Straight sugar and carbohydrates both are metabolized improperly. Your heart and kidney function are at risk. You might well get your diabetes under control by using a radical approach to food. In the case of type II diabetes, low carb success stories begin with an initial elimination of carbs. In one case, the patient hadn't a clue that he had diabetes until he was scheduled for surgery for an unrelated problem. Hospital tests revealed his sugar reading approached 500, a critical reading indeed. Following the administration of medications to reduce the blood sugar, surgery was successfully performed. This man returned home with the admonition to restrict his carb intake to 195 per day. He had been a lifelong soda drinker and a meat and potatoes diner. Now equipped with a sugar meter and sugar tests four times a day, he decided to cut out carbs and sugar completely. Although his menu was a bit boring, the result was a low carb success story to the Nth degree. One month later, his blood sugar readings were that of a normal person! To make up for the lack of fiber, he used an OTC fiber supplement. He added vitamin supplements to get the necessary nutrients not furnished in his diet. Capsules of cinnamon and turmeric helped reduce his blood sugar. This is truly the mother of low carb success stories. He gradually reintroduced carbs, in judicious amounts, into his diet. He's no longer considered diabetic. You can do it too. --------------------- Low-fat-diet Should You Try a Low Fat Diet? There are hundreds of diet plans out there, and one of the biggest problems that some have is deciding which one will work for them. We all have different eating habits and problems, and those will dictate what works best for us and what will fail. Some like to eat a high protein and high fat diet, and that seems to work well for them. Others want to go with the low fat diet, and they find this is the best thing that they ever did. When deciding if a diet low in fat is right for you, you have some things to consider. There are many that fail on a low fat diet because the rules are very confusing. We do need some fats, so cutting them out completely is actually bad for you. When on this type of diet, you have to find out what the good fats are, and then incorporate them into your eating plan, even if you severely limit the amounts. Without good fats you could start to feel weak, and you may even compromise your health in the long run. What you should also remember about a low fat diet is that you should not make too many substitutions for your missing fat. What this means is that you should watch out for items that are low in fat, but may be high in calories otherwise. You can find low fat diet cookies, and they will be low fat, but they also have a lot of sugar to make up for the loss of taste. Fat tastes good, and without it, many foods are bland. Unfortunately, adding more sugar seems to be the best option for replacing that lost taste. What your labels so you are sure of what you are eating. Always talk with your doctor about your low fat diet plans. They will probably have some good advice for you, and will recommend that you take up some sort of exercise. By adding activity to your new diet plan, you up your chances for success substantially. They can also warn you about some bad side effects of your low fat diet, and can also tell you if perhaps your health is not good enough for you to stay on one without consequences. If you fail, or your doctor warns you from this type of diet, don’t fret, there are many more options out there that may work better for you anyway. ------------------------- Low- Fat- Soups to Keep You Warm and Healthy in the Winter Come the winter time, we need to stay warm. Hot chocolate warms us up but it is also full of sugar. That sugar gets stored straight to fat and that isn’t what we are looking for. We can drink tea, but usually people fill that with sugar too. Having some soup keeps us warm and allows us to stay healthy too. However, some soups have a lot of salt in them as well as fat. It is important to check the labels or better yet to make your own low fat soups. Making your own homemade version of this comfort food allows you to add whatever ingredients you want and to make the soup as salty as you prefer. You can also have control over the amount of fat as well. You want the soup to fill you up as it keeps your body warm but you also don’t want it to store any unwanted fat on your body. Soups low in fat will help to keep your body in great shape during the cold weather. There are loads of recipes that you can use and even add to. There are delicious ones such as broccoli soup, country chicken soup and many other low fat soups. Many people have their recipes posted online as well as all of the nutritional information so you know what you will be eating. Maybe you will gather ideas from the Internet and make your very own recipe for soups that are low in fat. The great thing is that you can freeze it and serve it again later. You can make big batches of low fat soups and be able to freeze the rest and enjoy it another day. It stays fresh for a long time and all you have to do is reheat it. This makes dinner a lot easier on some cold nights when you just don’t want to cook. You would rather get cozy on the couch then stand around and cook. Letting your homemade soup simmer on the stove is just what you need. We are all trying to eat healthy and live better lifestyles. It can seem like a lot of work to make your own low fat soups, but it’s not at all. Once you find a recipe that you like you can easily adapt it to fit your family’s taste buds. Soup with some whole wheat bread makes a great winter time dinner or lunch. It’s incredibly satisfying knowing you are eating something that is not only good for you but it also tastes great. ----------------------- Meal-ideas If you are a working professional, you probably know how easy it is to get stuck in the same routine with cooking. You might not even have time to cook at all – you would not be alone. There are millions of households in American today that simply eat by thawing something at the last minute, throwing something together, or getting take out several times a week. With a few simple meal ideas, however, you can come out of your eating rut and start to eat like a real gourmet! Eating is important, affecting every aspect of your life. Not only does it affect your longevity by determining your diet, but it also affects how you enjoy your time while you are here. A good meal can be a great opportunity for family bonding, so having the right meal idea can bring you and your family together like never before. A lot of the time, people find meal recipe books to be a little bit overwhelming. I know that i used to. There are so many meal ideas, after all, that it can be hard to choose. The old conventional wisdom that says that choice is a good thing is not always true. Sometimes, it is better to get just a couple meal ideas and choose from between them. That is why I like to do recipe searches on the Internet. Often, you can find a site that will pop up a random recipe in response to your query. Some of them even rate their recipes, so you can use the most popular meal idea to cook for your family. Of course, the best meal ideas are delicious and nutritious at the same time. It is easy to cook really good food that is full of fat, cholesterol, refined carbohydrates, and other unnatural or unhealthy elements. Cooking a really healthy meal, however, can take some planning. Nevertheless, it is a lot easier than you might think. Some of the most healthy meal ideas that I know of are actually stir-fry meals. Stir-frying is a great way to quickly and healthily throw together a bunch of different ingredients to make something that is delicious, speedy, and good for you and your whole family. You can always experiment, coming up with new meal ideas as you find out what works and doesn't work. All in all, it is a great way to make a great meal. ---------------------------- Medical - diagnosis With a medical diagnosis of serious consequences, you always want a second opinion If you go to the doctor with a broken arm, there's not much question about the diagnosis. Even a layman can look at the x-ray and see that that arm is broken. However, if you go to the doctor with a variety of seemingly unrelated symptoms, your physician will likely order a battery of tests to determine what the problem might be. The resulting medical diagnosis may indicate that you have a thyroid disorder. There are certainly medications to treat the thyroid, but before you simply accept this medical diagnosis and start taking the medication, you should always get a second opinion. If your doctor is a General Practitioner, ask to be referred to an endocrinologist. Some physicians may feel miffed that you don't trust the diagnosis, but it's your health we're talking about here. The tests required to reach such a diagnosis are complex and the thyroid is just one gland in the human endocrine system, with interacting and dependent functions. If you sense that your physician may feel insulted, you can smooth over the conversation by letting your doctor know that you'd like to understand as much as possible about your condition before proceeding with treatment. While you're waiting for your appointment with that endocrinologist, do some research on your own to find out all you can about your particular condition. This is easy to research on the net. Look for medical sites that will educate you on the function of the thyroid and the health implications you are facing. Look into the available medications and possible side effects. Find out what tests are performed to determine how to arrive at a medical diagnosis. Take a look at some alternative medicine sites and see what you can find out from a holistic perspective. Find out about foods that may help or worsen your condition. By the time you go to your appointment, you should be far more knowledgeable and have a prepared list of questions for that physician, enabling you with a greater degree of confidence on your best course of action. There's a famous study which was conducted some years ago which makes the point. A group of patients with a set of complex symptoms were each seen by two different conventional physicians for an examination and medical diagnosis. These same patients were then sent to Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners. The diagnostic methods of these two types of physicians are worlds apart. The vast majority of all of the doctors arrived at the same medical diagnosis. However, in a few cases, the diagnosis was different. Further investigation was required to determine the correct diagnosis for these individuals. Doctors can make mistakes, have gaps in their knowledge base or simply lack the latest information. For a condition that's serious, always get a second medical opinion. ---------------- Natural Cures For Asthma One of the reasons that natural cures for asthma – or any other serious condition for that matter – often don't work is because of a problem with the Western philosophy of medicine. In the Western tradition, You take a pill and you get better. The medicines are all very powerful, and they're designed to handle the problem on their own. Although they can often cause side effects and complications, many people prefer them because of their power. With natural cures for asthma, on the other hand, treatment is more complex but often better in the long run. A natural cure for asthma doesn't involve simply taking one herb and having it make everything better. Natural cures for asthma involve a complex process. You might take natural asthma treatments, but you also have to exercise, eat a healthier diet, and even sleep more regularly to treat the condition. In short, you may have to make substantial changes to your life. You see, asthma is a type of inflammation, and inflammations are complicated. They are triggered by allergies, fatty foods, artificial ingredients, and all kinds of immune reactions. Natural cures for asthma can help reduce inflammation, but they don't take the place of eating a healthy diet and trying to eliminate the other factors that trigger asthma. Eating anti-inflammatory foods is every bit as important to naturally treating asthma as taking anti-asthma herbs. One of the best natural cures for asthma is simply exercising. This has to be done in a cautious way, as asthma is often triggered by exercise. If it is done right, however, exercise can be a great part of the solution. Exercising helps prevent immune system overreaction, strengthens the body, purifies the blood, and in general works as a panacea. It is something that everyone needs to do throughout their lives, since lack of exercise is at the source of many different conditions. One of the most popular natural cures for asthma – at least until it was banned – is ephedra. Ephedra is a natural stimulants and bronchodilator. Although there are other asthma medications that are more powerful, Ephedra has the advantage of being all-natural. In some states you can still get it, and it can also be ordered off of the Internet. It is quite an effective treatment, and one that I have used many times for asthma flareups. Combined with exercise and proper nutrition, it can work wonders for your health. ----------------------- Fun With Obstacle Courses When there is nothing to do on a rainy day, or when it seems like the same old backyard games are not going over very well, you may want to try something new with your kids or even with your friends. Though not all games are about thinking, some are about thinking and activity, and those can be the most fun. When you are looking for something that is challenging both physically and mentally, you may want to come up with some outdoor or indoor obstacle courses. Each are a bit different, but they are a great way to eat up some time in a fun way. What is great about obstacle courses is that they can be anything that you want, though you do have to worry about safety. However, most of the games and obstacles that you are going to come up with for our backyard and for your living room are going to be rather safe anyway. Just think about what you are going to do before and after each section of the obstacle courses to be sure that they are going to line up and run through in a safe manner. As long as it is safe, it is going to be a lot of fun. When you make obstacle courses for your backyard, you can use what you have. Think about going over, under, and around things with both bodies and objects like balls and even hoops. Be sure you have a way to get from one to another, and be sure that the course makes some sort of sense. You can have a criteria for how to go through the course, and how to score it if you want to have a game of it. Obstacle courses can be a fun whether a game or whether or not you just have everyone run through it as everyone wants. If you want to do obstacle courses inside, you should make it more simple. You won’t have the room that you have outside, so that means you have to use a bit more imagination. You can use whatever you have in the house, or you can drag some things in from the garage. You can make something small in the living room, or you can have something that runs through the house. Just remember that you have to put some thinking into it when inside, as the obstacles won’t be as physically challenging as the ones you have outside. ------------------------ Oily - skin - treatment Sometimes you probably hate your face! Hey, don't feel too bad about this. I think we all go through these phases at times. The problem is our faces are delicate organs. They're not like the skin on your back or leg. No sir; the face is much more delicate. Your mug likely requires constant care and attention. At least if you want it to look half-way decent. This goes double for those who grapple with oily skin. Once you hit puberty, you mug is probably breaking out on a regular basis. This is clearly the downside of oily skin and hormones. So what you need now is an oily skin treatment regimen. In order to get your greasy T-zone under control, you must know how to cleanse and treat it. So put down that harsh bar of deodorant soap and pay attention! First and foremost, when you're dealing with oily skin, don't make assumptions. Just because your face is oily, doesn't mean you need to cleanse it six times a day with some harsh product. This is actually the last thing you want to do. Irritating it will only lead to more breakouts. Your first move should be to acquire an oily skin treatment such as Proactive Solution, or specific products from Neutrogena. Many drugstore brands now offer oily skin treatment products to assist you in your battle. Most likely you're going to follow the directions of the facial cleanser you choose and wash your mug in the morning and before bed. Yes, I only said twice. Cleansing more than this will likely just dry out your skin. This is never good. Once you've cleansed, there are a number of products to select from. If you went with the Proactive kit, you will follow the cleansing process with a toner and finish with an acne fighting moisturizer. This allows your complexion to clear as the day goes on. The product will battle the acne and help minimize your pores. Part of the battle involves diet. What you consume is a major oily skin treatment. Eating loads of vegetables and lean meats will definitely assist you in clearing your complexion. This is called treating from the inside out. Avoid fast food, greasy foods and sugary snacks. All of which can upset your pores and lead to more breakouts. And finally, if you can't seem to find an oily skin treatment that works for you, see a dermatologist as soon as possible for assistance. --------------------- Pregnancy- Due- Date When you find that you are pregnant, one of the first things you will do is ask about your pregnancy due date. Though these are pretty accurate, they are not as accurate as you might think. You can never depend on your baby arriving on the due date, and many women find themselves frustrated when their pregnancies go beyond the special day. If more people understood how the due date was calculated, they would understand why sometimes a pregnancy goes longer than what the doctors expect. Most doctors still use a wheel to calculate pregnancy due date. This is fine if you are a woman that has a perfect 28 day menstrual cycle. Perhaps perfect is the wrong word. Each woman is different, though it has been drilled into our head that a 28 day cycle is what you should have. However, this is simply not the truth for most women. The pregnancy wheel assumes that you have ovulated on the 14th day of your menstrual cycle, and it calculates your pregnancy due date according to that information. This is why many times a baby does not come near the due date. I have a 35 day menstrual cycle. This means that if I were told a pregnancy due date based on the old pregnancy wheel that my due date would be incorrect. Most doctors do not bother to ask about the length of your menstrual cycle before they calculate your pregnancy due date. This is why when they give you a day, you should always use it as a reference rather than when to expect the arrival of your new little baby. If you expect a baby to come exactly on your pregnancy due date you will probably end up being very frustrated when you go over by a week or two. If you have a menstrual cycle that is longer than the average 28 day cycle, make sure you talk to your doctor about this when they set your pregnancy due date. If you have a shorter or longer cycle, you should let your doctor know that you think the pregnancy due date they are giving you is off. If you ovulated on day 21 as opposed to day 14 of your cycle, this will shift your due date by an entire week. If your doctor won’t listen to you, and says that that really doesn’t matter, just keep the change in your mind. You may be surprised to find that you indeed go at least a week past the pregnancy due date your doctor gave you. ------------------------ Quick-weight-loss-diets Have you noticed some of the statistics that are being released regarding the issue of obesity in our country? It is at the highest level ever. The real concerns are the children. The number of obese children is higher than any other time on the history of this country. There seems to be a number of factors including that lack of home cooked meals and not eating at a dinner table together as a family. We have complicated our lives so much by being so busy that many young families do not know how to cook nutritious meals and they do not have time to even if they have the skills. Kids eat fast food several days a week and are eating in the back of the car. Kids are also entertained through television, play stations and computer games, which are all sedentary activities. Not getting enough exercise and eating a great deal of pre-prepared foods causes kids to gain weight. Unfortunately over weight children grow into over weight adults. People with weight issues since childhood have a more difficult time losing weight. They are the ones that re always looking for a quick weight loss diet so that the see results to stay motivated. However with most diets the quick weight loss diet will plateau out after an initial weight loss. One of the things that I found that helped me lose weight quickly is to fast for three days prior to beginning a diet. During the three days of fasting I drink water and a limited amount of juices. This helps to detoxify your system and also shrinks f your stomach down. When you begin to eat foods on the fourth day you feel full very quickly which results in smaller portions consumed. There are many tricks for a quick weight loss diet, but the bottom line is life styles changes for a lasting loss of weight. My advice to people that are looking for a quick weight loss diet is to have several different diets that they will make a commitment to follow. Then if they get bored with the diet they are following they can switch to another diet that may allow you to eat different foods. The main thing is to allow yourself a variety of foods s that you will stay on the diet. No matter what the only way to lose weight is to use up more calories than you take in. This means that all diets must include some type of exercise to burn the calories that are consumes and to burn away the stored fat. ------------------- restaurant reviews When you want somewhere nice to eat, but you don’t want to waste your money going from bad restaurant to ever worse restaurant looking for a good place, you have the option of finding restaurant reviews to help you decided where you might like to go. It used to be that you could only find these in the newspapers, and you never really knew if you could trust a food critic or not. Though they still exist, there are better ways to find the information that you are seeking. There is something to be said for finding restaurant reviews from people who are just like you. A food critic is something of an oddity to me. Though I understand that they have their jobs for a good reason, I think that they perhaps put too much at stake. What they think is bad would be great for the normal person. They are often looking for ways to downplay how good a place might be rather than helping it to get more customers in the door. I don’t know if that is true, it’s just the impression that I get. You can always get good restaurant reviews from friends and family. They are most likely to be honest with you about a place than a food critic might be. Though this is not always the case, most friends only want to send you to the best places. You can always count on their restaurant reviews to be honest. When someone says they liked the food, and you know they like the same things you do, its probably a good recommendation. If you all live in the small same area and eat at the same places, this might not work, but in most cases, there are places they have been to that you have not yet tried. There is always another really great place to get restaurant reviews. The Internet is full of them, and all you have to do is find them. Though there are some that are written with the full intent of getting you to go somewhere, there are others that are written by real people who just want to be helpful. You may find more complaints than glowing reviews, but you can bet the complaints are real. You can usually the difference between something that has a public relations spin on it, and something written by someone who just wanted to share their restaurant review with the world. ------------------------- Lower Your Sodium Intake There are many reasons why someone may need to watch the amount of sodium in their diet. Some of the most common are high blood pressure and any other heart related problems. Though it might seem hard to cut sodium intake, as salt is a common thing in almost all foods, there are some great ways to get the same taste or boost to foods without compromising your health. Best of all, while lower sodium foods were once bland and unappealing, the food industry has come a long way in that matter. Most are just as good as their sodium filled counterparts. If you have been asked to watch your sodium intake, you have probably been giving a list of foods to avoid. This list can seem long and intimidating, especially if you are asked to follow a lower fat diet as well. Many of the most common foods that people eat are higher in sodium than most realize. Some foods are going to be off limits in their original form, but that does not mean you can’t find way around that. You can still eat the foods you love while making sure your sodium intake is within your preferred limits. For one thing, you can alter some of your homemade recipes by substitutions. These can help you lower your sodium intake with very little, if any, affect on the taste of the dishes that you love. You can use low sodium sea salt, with still contains some sodium but you will find you have to use much less of it to get that salty taste. You will have to experiment to get the right balance. You can also use things like Mrs. Dash, which is a tasteful substitute for salt. You may find that after while you learn to use many seasoning that help you lower your intake of sodium, and you will not miss the salt at all. If that is all too much for you, you can find things in the grocery store that help you lower your sodium intake without having to think about it too much. There are many great prepackaged and pre-made foods made just for someone like you. Soups are now made in lower sodium form, and things like spaghetti sauce are now being made the same way. Follow your list given by your doctor, and look around online for heart healthy suggestions you can find in the grocery store, and you may find that keeping your sodium levels down to the proper level is easier than you thought. -------------------------- The South Beach Diet Though the Atkins diet is something that works very well for many, some felt this diet was too restrictive, and they wish for some of the things that they used to love. When that happened, many turned to the South Beach Diet, as it was something like Atkins in theory, but it did allow many more foods than you could get with the Atkins way of life. This is a personal choice, but by all accounts, both plans work rather well. Those taking up the South Beach plan may indeed find that they have more options than those on other plans. The South Beach Diet is much like any other type of diet plan. You must learn about it in order to do it right and to get the most from it. You should know that some information you find is going to be right, but other might be wrong or incomplete. That is why you should be careful where you get your information on the South Beach Diet. Look for official sources, or for health and medical sites that have a good reputation. Sites run by doctors and intuitionalist are the best when you seek this type of trustworthy information. You may find that you can buy pre-made food just for those that are on the South Beach Diet. Some stores carry these meals and some do not. What you should think about is who makes these foods. If they are made by the company that came out with the South Beach Diet, you can be relatively sure that they are in line with the diet plan and that eating them will benefit you in your endeavor for a healthier life. You may also find that you can get other aids to go along with this diet plan that are meant to help you succeed. What most don’t realize about plans like the South Beach Diet is that it is not a quick fix. This is something that you have to commit to, and you should do so for the rest of your life. That means you are taking on a lifestyle change rather than just a change in eating habits that you will drop once you get to your goal. When you do that, you will go right back to the habits that had you overweight and unhealthy to begin with, and that will mean failure. Instead, think of plans like the South Beach Diet as a way to change your life for good. ------------------------ South Beach Diet Allowed Foods There are literally hundreds of diet plans and programs gracing the weight loss market now days. Obviously it can be a challenge pinpointing one that actually works for you. Well, one thing you should know right off the bat is that it's prudent to avoid all diets that involve questionable supplements. Unfortunately these oral capsules and tablets commonly contain high levels of caffeine and other stimulants. It's important to realize that these diet drugs pull water off of the muscles and organs, which is unhealthy. On the other hand, there are some diet programs that simply involve eating wisely and working out. These are the ones that you should take more seriously. The South Beach Diet is one of these. The wonderful part is that the South Beach Diet allowed foods are ones that you actually want to consume, as opposed to other weight loss plans that do not let you eat! Some of the South Beach Diet allowed foods are healthy fruits and grains, which are great for the body and digestive system. Like some other modern diet plans, the South Beach Diet places a focus on consuming lean proteins and keeping unhealthy carbohydrates to a minimum. Not that the South Beach plan doesn't let you eat dessert as well. You are allowed to consume treats on the South Beach Diet. The only difference is that the recipes are already planned out and provided for you. This way you will not have difficulty keeping track of the South Beach Diet allowed foods. You can really lose weight and eat good at the same time. That's what it's all about. Better yet, the South Beach Diet does not incorporate questionable drugs with side effects. Maybe you currently wondering where to get the South Beach Diet plan. Well, it's conveniently located online. You can attain access to the South Beach Diet allowed foods and recipes for cooking at home. You can additionally take advantage of South Beach frozen meals, which are found in grocery stores across the country. These already prepared meals make it a cinch to eat right on the go or take a meal to work for lunch. For further information regarding South Beach Diet allowed foods and details on pricing, visit the South Beach official website. --------------------------- Tips For Successful Diets Some diets work, and some diets fail, but the difference may not be noticeable at first. There are some that accidentally do all the right things, and the weight comes off for good. Others have to study up to find out the best tips for successful diets, but they eventually get it right. There are still others that can’t seem to figure out what they are doing wrong, and they worry that they simply don’t have what it takes to get down to a smaller and healthier size. It’s all about researching first, and then modifying the lifestyle. Successful diets are ones that are realistic. So many want a quick fix to lose twenty pounds quickly, and then they wonder why they fail. You can find extreme diets that might allow you to lose that much in a few weeks, but once you stop doing something that is impossible to keep up, the weight (and sometimes more than you lost) will come right back on. That is not only frustrating, but it can be even worse for your health than not losing at all. Successful diets are realistic diets, and there is no way around that. Most don’t think to do their research about what successful diets really entail. It is not all about food choices, but about exercise and well-being as well. If you don’t have the right frame of mind, or are not dieting for the right reasons, you are not going to do very well. Some successful diets work well simply because someone has the right motivation, and they know what they are doing. Researching things online or joining proven weight loss programs can often help with all aspects of getting it right the first time and keep the weight off for good. Many diets are successful simple because they are balanced. That means eating smaller portions of foods that are proven to be good for the body might be all that you need to do. You may even be able to sneak in a few treats while on successful diets as long as you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. If you don’t think you can go on your own, you can always join groups like Jenny Craig, or you can go to your doctor or nutritionist for advice. Successful diets start long before that Monday morning when you wake up and swear that this one will stick. Do the work before hand so that you can be sure it will do just that. ----------------------------- Tips On Getting Pregnant There may be nothing more exciting to a couple than planning out when they want to start their family. This is something that is not for all couples, but those that want to have children often dream of what they will be like, and how many children they want to have. Most start out hopeful, but others find out that conceiving is not as easy as they thought it would be. When that happens, finding good tips on getting pregnant can be just what they need for success. Some of the best advice can come from those that have had problems in the past. Usually, these problems have simply been that their timing was off and that they really didn’t know when the best times for sex were. Those things are easily solved and are some of the most overlooked yet important tips on getting pregnant. Another is that timing is not always everything, and at times, having a bit less sex at the right time can mean more concentrated sperm. If someone unknowingly has a lower sperm count, this is one of the best tips on getting pregnant. Other tips on getting pregnant may include what foods to eat and when to give some things up. Things like smoking and drinking can lower your chances for getting pregnant right away, and those are both things that you may want to give up. You can also try things like giving up coffee and other caffeinated items. These can have an effect on some, though they are not problems for others. Those are things you want to give up when pregnant anyway, so it never hurts to get a jump on things and stop them before you even start trying. You may also want to look into foods rich in the right types of victims to get your body into great shape before you start. You can find other great tips on getting pregnant if you shop around for some good books. Some of these are full of great information, and others are not so good. Skip through some of the reading before you buy, so you know you are getting a good book. You may want to try to find books full of tips for getting pregnant online. Look for sites that allow users to leave reviews of books, and find ones that have a lot of glowing words from those who successfully conceived thanks to the tips for getting pregnant they found within the pages of that particular book. ---------------------- Vegetarian soups provide a kaleidoscope of economical, healthy and delicious meals The cost of food is becoming a concern for most Americans. Indeed, around the world, people are struggling to put nutritious, filling meals on the table for their families. Here, we'll take a look at one of the best menu ideas to fulfill that objective. Vegetarian soups are easy to make, packed with nutrition, economical and provide a hearty and satisfying meal. Serving soup with a hearty loaf of bread or biscuits, just once a week, can substantially help you stay within your food budget. There are so many types of soups and varieties of vegetable combinations, that your family will look forward to 'soup night'. Let's take a look at some basic vegetarian soup combinations. If you're a strict vegan, and choose to use only vegetable broths, you can still achieve variety of flavor with different seasonings. For example, thyme, sage, rosemary, basil and parsleys go well with most vegetables. Cilantro adds a piquant accent that will jazz up almost any vegetable combination. You can make your own mix of seasonings, or use a single herb to bring out the flavor of a particular vegetable. Thyme adds an extra dimension of flavor to legumes and is good when a dose of garlic is added. Basil is a natural partner with tomatoes. If you use potatoes in your recipe, you've got a natural thickener in the starch. Vegetarian soups afford you more of the nutrition contained in the veggies. When veggies are served as a side dish, many of the nutrients are lost in the water in which they're cooked. Soup leeches these nutrients right into your broth. Another way to enrich your vegetable soups is to save the water from cooked veggie side dishes in a container in your freezer. When soup day rolls around, add this water to your stockpot. If you're not a strict vegan, you can gain variety in your broths with cream, chicken or beef based broths. Starting with a few tablespoons of butter an equal amount of flour and a whisk, you can make a quick roux. Add your broth base slowly, whisking all the time. Add your vegetables according to the amount of time needed to cook the particular veggie. Vegetables like zucchini require just a few minutes to cook, so add them shortly before serving. When using carrots and potatoes, add them right away to assure a tender result. Vegetarian soups are most visually appealing with a good mix of color. Combine green, orange, red and yellow vegetables for a bright tasting and attractive dish. The color of a vegetable is often indicative of its major nutrients, so a variety of colors increases the nutritive value of your soup. Although produce has become expensive, you'll be surprised at how little it takes to make a substantial, filling vegetarian soup. If you have a garden, this is not even a concern. Best of all, soup hardly requires a recipe. Toss in what you like! Bon Appetit! ------------------- Ways to Look Younger If you haven't already noticed, looking young and radiant is highly desirable. Why is this you may ask? Simply because most people have a negative outlook on aging. The body and appearance change quite drastically in many cases as people age. Generally the more it shows, the more people dislike it. Now, on the bright side of things, there are ways to look younger, but you have to be willing to make a few changes in your life. While these changes are fairly simple, they will require a bit of effort on your part. In the end, it's worth it to adopt healthy habits that allow you to look much more youthful that you actually are. It's all about how you live. One of the most crucial ways to look younger involves your diet. What do you consume on a daily basis? Eating loads of unhealthy food that's filled with fat, sugar and sodium is awful for you. Therefore it's wise to avoid these foods that make you gain weight and look older. Unhealthy foods will have a negative impact on your skin as well. Drinking lots of water is one of the classic ways to look younger. Keep your body and skin hydrated at all times and you will surely see a difference as you grow older. A second aspect of looking younger and staying healthier involves regular exercise. While some folks despise fitness routines, they're imperative for keeping your body in prime condition. The more you stick to a good fitness routine, the younger you will look. Avoiding smoking and heavy drinking is an excellent way to look younger. First of all, the toxins in cigarette smoke age your facial skin by breaking down the elastin and collagen. This leads to smoker's face. Alcohol can additionally have a terrible effect on your appearance since it's bad for your body overall. Lastly, there are more basic and simple ways to look younger, which involve daily skin care regimens. Adopt a regular facial cleansing and moisturizing routine in order to keep your skin looking radiant and moisturized at all times. This will have a dramatic effect as you age. By taking advantage of these easy ways to look younger, you will see the difference in no time at all. ------------------------ Weekly Meal Planner One of the biggest problems I have is deciding what we are going to eat each night for dinner. I have recently decided that we need a weekly meal planner to help us out, but so far I have yet to do anything about it. This is a useful tool that many families use, and there are some very specific and important reasons why some families find this a must. When there are special dietary needs in your home, this can help everyone stay on track while making shopping and planning much easier. When you are dieting, you can probably already see the advantage of having a weekly meal planner. You should be following the diet plan to the letter, and that can go out the window if you do your grocery shopping without a specific plan for meals in mind. When you use a weekly meal planner, you can have an exact shopping list with you when you go to the store. If you can stick to the list without adding anything else to your cart, you are going to find that your diet plans are going to be much more successful because you have all of the right things on hand with none of the temptations. There are other diets to consider, and those may have nothing to do with losing weight. Anyone who has had medical issues like heart disease or that has diabetes could benefit from having a weekly meal planner as well. These can help a person with these special diet conditions to choose the right foods and even to keep track of fats, sodium, or carbs. This can help someone stay on track because these diets are so easy to fall off of at any given time. A weekly meal planner can work in this case even when only one member of the family is on the special diet. You can come up with your own meal planner for the week, but you may want to try one that is online or that you can buy in a store. These are going to have the information that you need, and that leaves you with a lot less research in the way of nutritional value and safety of foods for specific medical conditions. No matter where you choose to get your weekly meal planner, the most important aspect is actually using it and using it for longer than a few weeks. When your health is at stake, this can be one very valuable tool in keeping you healthy. -------------------- Weight control: It may be easier than you think! With daunting statistics of overweight and obesity rampant in the U.S. today, it's no wonder that many of us obsess on the subject. Some people are so critical of themselves, a pound or two becomes a disaster. Others, faced with significant weight gain, may take the other road and simply give up on a svelte figure. Both of these perspectives on weight control are counter-productive. If you'd like to shed some pounds, you need to develop some solid weight control strategies. Consistency and perserverance are the name of this game. How many times have you counseled your kids with advice on reaching a goal? "Just do a little bit each day towards achieving your goal. Before you know it, you're there!" This is good advice, so take a page from your own book when devising your weight control program. If you only need to lose a few pounds, take stock of the reality. Don't fret. Cut out that extra pat of butter. Load up on vegetables and fruits. Those pounds will melt off in a week or two. On the other hand, if you've gained 20, 30 or 40 pounds, you need a more aggressive weight control program. Again, don't fret. In this scenario, you need patience and a consistent weight control program to lose weight over a period of months. When you use a sensible approach, you're far more likely to keep that weight off for good. Let's say your goal is to lose 40 pounds. Give yourself six months. After all, it may have taken years to put it on, so six months is not long to wait for a fabulous figure. This goal amounts to a weight loss of less than 7 pounds per month. If you'll pardon the expression, it's a piece of cake! Take stock of your eating habits. Where do you most often go wrong? Is your nemesis the fast food burger and greasy fries? Are you the one who wolfs down a bag of cookies when you feel stressed? Tackle the worst offenders first. Cutting out fast-food calories can easily result in a loss of a few pounds each month. The cookies are a no-brainer. Go for lean meats, fruits, veggies and low-calorie alternatives to fatty foods. Substituting juice for soda is a boon to any weight control program. The key factors in any weight control regime are moderation, consistency and a positive attitude. Weigh yourself once a week and log your weight on a calendar. Track your menus. At the end of one month, if you've lost 7 pounds, you've succeeded. Keep on truckin'. If not, by how much did you miss your goal? Look at your menus for that month. Cut back on portion sizes. Daily exercise is essential to reaching your goal. Exercise burns calories, so choose your activities accordingly. Weight control is entirely in your hands. Follow a sensible approach that works for you and you'll soon be looking good! ------------------------------ Weightlifting Supplements for Gaining Exercise and weight training has been around for quite some time now, and the reality is it's never leaving. There are always new people everywhere who're adopting to habits of weight lifting, cardio routines and weight loss programs. This is teh way we stay fit and healthy for many years to come. What is your current fitness regimen? Well, regardless of what you currently do, you may want to add some healthy weightlifting supplements to the mix. This is an excellent way to acquire more protein and get more lean muscle mass. You really can gain the extra muscle weight you desire. In this day and age this process is easier than it's ever been before. Some of the more popular types of weightlifting supplements are whey protein, muscle milk and a variety of supplement bars. However, before you begin testing the waters of weightlifting supplements, you should consider your personal goals. What is it that you're trying to accomplish in regards to your physique? How much lean muscle mass do you wish to gain and what sort of weight lifting routine are you focusing on to get their. It's important to realize that consuming weightlifting supplements alone will not make you gain major muscle mass. The supplements are merely the food to feed and repair your body. In other words, you have to do the weight lifting and then proceed to consume the whey protein shakes or muscle milk while your body is recovering. This will not only help your body heal, but it will also assist in building your body's lean muscle mass. Check out all the ingredients in weightlifting supplements before actually taking them on a regular basis. This is important because many of these new-age supplements are loaded with sugar, which is not good for you. Not only will the excess amounts of sugar cause you to gain fat, but it also creates more calories for you to burn. Check out healthy weightlifting supplements such as simple whey protein powder and Pure Protein bars that offer great benefits, but without all the additional sugar. These supplements will help you gain the lean muscle mass you're after. ------------------------- Weight Loss Camps Having to go to a weight loss camp as a teenager is no picnic. There is a stigma attached to weight loss camps in some circles that is almost as bad as the stigma attached to being fat. Nevertheless, if you are a young person who needs to lose weight fast, you should discard the stigma. Once people see how much better you look at your new weight, they will be proud of you for what you have accomplished. I went to my first weight loss camp when I was pretty young. It was actually more of a fitness camp, but my parents were definitely sending me there because I was overweight. I developed unhealthy eating habits very young, and as a result my parents wanted to solve the problem as soon as possible. Nonetheless, weight loss camps require your participation to work, And I wasn't really mature enough to see that it was in my own interests. Instead, I fought my parents tooth and nail. I did lose a little bit of weight at the camp, but it was nowhere near enough. My parents were smart enough to drop the subject of weight loss camps for the next several years. Although they tried to get me to eat healthy, I was still a little pudgy. When I hit adolescence, I went into a deep depression and put on quite a bit of weight in a very short period of time. My parents were extremely concerned, and decided to talk to me about weight loss camps again. Of course, there is nothing more depressing to an overweight adolescent than hearing people accusing him or her of being fat. I was not initially receptive to my parents talk of weight loss camps, needless to say. When I thought of a weight-loss teen camp, I pictured kids who were morbidly obese – way fatter than I was. I didn't want to think of myself as heavy enough to require special treatment. Nonetheless, soon I started to think it over and decide that it was a good idea. I knew that my friends didn't need to know that I was going to a teen weight-loss camp. For all they knew, I was going on a family vacation. It was pretty perfect timing, because while weight loss camps were in session, my parents were going to be away. As such, I could tell my friends whatever story I wanted when I came back. When I got back, however, I looked so good that I had to tell everyone the truth. They were impressed! --------------------------