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I am going to try and do one of these every day. Was supposed to be two minutes but how do you explain something like cortisol and stress nexus in 2 minutes PLUS a tactic to overcome it? LOL

I am going to try for one of these little Vlogs every day - this took nearly an hour before I got it ok and it still isn’t professional (yet).

Anyway now to work on an in depth explanation of how cortisol makes you fat and more importantly what to do about it …

Live long. live well

Most of us lose our mind when it comes to weight loss.

I want to discuss a simple mehtod of using our mind instead to ensure weight loss success.

I bought a course many years ago from a bloke named Stuart Lichtmann which opened my eyes to the way our minds work, and how we can trick them into producing positive results.

I recently rediscovered it, because I saw this video and it pricked my conscience a bit. This bloke was fat, then thin and has gained back. And is now on the way back to being thinner again. And he gives a lot of good reasons why his life as a fat bloke sucks.

You will empathise if you are or ever have been in the same situation whether you are a baby boomer man or woman …

So anyway, I went and dug up my old affiliate site and code and put the site up here. The book is really badly named (maybe I should create different graphics) , but the psychology it forces you to use on yourself is brilliant. What’s more it works, and applies in ANY area of life and the success you want to achieve, including business.

Sign up for the free course and do the exercises before you buy it. I guarantee you will never regret it.

Like everything in life, tools are only good if you use them.

Live long. Live well.

Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) helps enzymes which process fuel in the body. Some food sources of ALA are spinach, broccoli, potatoes plus kidney heart and liver meats. ALA is also an important signaling chemical that regulates body weight.

An Oregon State Universtiy study found ALA supplements helped prevent hardening of the arteries in mice. It worked by reducing inflammation, triglycerides (blood fats) and obesity. This article explains how those mechanismas work. From this it was concluded ALA supplements might help prevent heart disease and obesity.

In other studies, rats given ALA reduced their food intake and lifted meatbolic burn. The ALA rats were 20% lighter than their controls.

ALA is a powerful antioxidant and protects from free radicals which are produced as a result of metabolism. These are linked to cell membrane destruction and immune system breakdown. ALA also improves bloood sugar control, thus increasing insulin sensitivity in people with diabetes.

ALA has promise as a supplement, but there have not been any large scale human studies to date.

Well this isn’t about health or fitness but it is about visibility. I installed a few plugins to my WP blog and am now testing them. You might even see an automatic Twitter update too.

The Plugins I installed allowed me to display the last few Twitter tweets, auto updates of blog post headings to my Twitter account, easy post meta-tags and descriptions, tag cloud, a greeting that asks you to subscribe to my feed and the Seesmic video comment widget, which allows you to post video comments without having to login to any sort of account including my blog.

Ok enough for now - I have to go find something relevant to my blogs content philosophy to publish now

Live long. Live well.

Adding Web 2.0 Friendly Plugins to my Blog 

It was reported today that the State Government is giving community prizes of up to One Million Dollars each year for the best suggestion to combat the “obesity epidemic”.

The money is to be used by the winners to create some sort of community facility like a pool to get people slimmer. Maybe a school auditorium full of Wii fits will do the trick?

What happened to proper food and exercise? Turn off the TV, computer and Playstation, and drag the kids down to a park or beach for a few hours with a hamper full of salads, fruit and good protein sources…

As far as building community swimming pools - well how are you going to convince an overweight woman whose self image is already suffering - to put on a swimming suit and parade in front of the neightbours at the local pool?

Live long. Live well.

    Stress has a direct affect on abdominal fat storage and accumulation. Stress involves an arousal mechanism which lifts production of chemicals like cortisol.

    When we experience stress, one of the first steps our body takes is increase the production of adrenaline and quickly release it into the bloodstream so you respond to stress effectively. When this happens, fat cells thru out the body, and especially in the abdominal area, relsease fat into the bloodstream so it can be quickly converted for energy if needed.

    If you eliminate the stress, all is ok. But if the stress is chronic, the fat isn’t used. However, for some reason it gets redeposited in the midsection, despite wherever it came from in the first instance. The reason why is it’s stored near the liver so the liver can convert the fat into energy as fast as possible. Since the stress hormones are telling your body it is still in danger, it stays ready to combat that with the flight or fight response.

    Research  proves that if you destress, the liver uses this stored midsection fat during its normal course of business, and doesn’t force the body to redeposit the fat in the blood stream back into the abdomen.

    One of the best ways to manage chronic stress is exercise, the more vigorous the better. Exercise with the attitude that you are not doing it to lose weight, but to live your life joyfully and to get as much as you can out of it.

Live long. Live well.

Further reading …

Why Don’t Diets Work? Discover a Healthy Weight Loss Alternative
American Chronicle - Beverly Hills,CA,USA
But before that change can be seen physically through healthy weight loss, it is important to identify the harmful psychological patterns that permeate our …

Phoenix Gilman Shares Diet Information for Weight Loss and …
Natural News.com - Phoenix,AZ,USA
In this excerpt, Phoenix Gilman shares on maintaining serotonin levels in ADD, ADHD and weight loss. Phoenix: This whole thing with ADD, ADHD, if people and …

What to do when weight-loss hits a plateau
OCRegister - Santa Ana,CA,USA
Why so long to lose so little? Because I want those pounds gone for good. I want to know I’ve changed my eating and exercise habits permanently. …

Hi and Thanks for reading …

I just posted an article here about how stress causes you to hang onto fat, no matter how hard you exercise and how little you eat.

Amazing how our body works against us when it is actually trying to save itself from harm.

Live long. Live well.

What is a politician doing on a health and fitness blog?

Well it seems that Gordon Brown has taken up the services of a personal trainer. He obviously knows the lead up to his re-election (or not) is going to be gruelling and he will need as much energy as he can get. Working with a personal trainer is the best way to get fit short and long term.

I applaud him for showing some leadership in that regard.

However, this article in the Telegraph, despite it’s sarcastic and class driven tone, has a couple of very interesting points to make, more about its author and his expereinces with personal training than Gordon and his…

The author lost a lot of weight under the guidance of a personal trainer in under 8 weeks. He was pleased and proud of himself…

BUT

after 12 months he says he put it all back on again.

Sound familiar???

See traditional personal training has shortcomings - you (the client) become dependent on the trainer actually being there when you train. You are not really taught to train on your own. University studies show time and again that only about 4% of people who take up a fitness program stick with it if left to themselves.

This is where Fitness by Phone® is a proven superior system to any other weight loss or fitness method out there. We teach you to become your own “personal trainer”, so inside 6 months, you are in a lifelong habit of making healthy food and exercise choices and acting on them.

Go here and see if you qualify for our weight loss and fitness system. You’ll be glad you did.

Live long. Live well.

Rick

One of the best vids I have seen in a long time. True to the philosophy of Fitness by Phone®

Have a great life.

Rick

Well it seems the scientists have come up with yet another “easy” way to lose weight.

Being the natural sceptic that I am, I did a little investigation. See I know what it is like to be overweight. Even though I was never touching on obesity like some of my clients, those extra 10 kilos made life pretty uncomfortable for me. And it is human nature to want to do anything in life the easy way if we can get the result we want…

So the thought of taking a pill and losing weight AND getting exercise at the same time without actually having to do any movement- well…

Who wouldn’t be instantly attracted to that?

You remember the last couple of weight loss supplements that were the “next big thing in weight loss” - Ephedra and Alli.

Well it seems they were not without their difficulties as explained below…

“The Federal Trade Commission today announced three enforcement actions against direct marketers of weight-loss products containing ephedra. The two settlements and one complaint, filed in U.S. district court, target deceptive efficacy, safety, and “no side effects” claims for weight loss supplements containing ephedra (also known as Ma Huang). The FTC actions challenge false advertising claims that the ephedra supplements cause rapid, substantial, and permanent weight-loss without diet or exercise, and that “clinical studies” or “medical research” prove these claims. The FTC also challenges claims that the ephedra weight-loss products are “100% safe,” “perfectly safe,” or have “no side effects.” Resources for consumers, businesses, and the press are available at www.ftc.gov/dietfit. The FTC has the following tips for consumers who are interested in weight-loss products or programs:

    * Products and programs that promise quick and easy weight loss are bogus. To lose weight, you have to lower your intake of calories and increase your physical activity.

    * There are no miracle weight-loss products. Be skeptical of products and programs that claim they can keep weight off permanently. Be skeptical about exaggerated claims.- Copyright Federal Trade Commission June 2003

According to the FDA, ephedra can cause nausea, irregular heartbeats, insomnia, and nervousness (http://ageless.com/ephidrine.htm).  In Texas there have been two deaths linked to ephedrine products.

The Metabolife label has a long list of different diseases or problems that should be advised before taking Metabolife.  Another FDA report stated that ephedra can also cause high blood pressure, tremors and headaches, seizures, heart attacks, strokes and in extreme cases like in Texas, death.

So much for Ephedra… How bout Alli

“Alli is the reduced-strength version of orlistat (Xenical), a prescription drug to treat obesity. It’s approved for over-the-counter sale to overweight adults 18 years and older. Alli is meant to be used in conjunction with a low-calorie, low-fat diet and regular exercise.

What are the side effects?

You may experience bowel changes when taking Alli. Ads and marketing materials refer to these changes as “treatment effects.” These side effects can include:

    * Gas with an oily anal discharge

    * Loose stools or diarrhea

    * More frequent bowel movements

    * Hard-to-control bowel movements

These bowel changes result from the undigested fat going through your digestive system. You can limit the side effects by eating a low-fat diet.

When shouldn’t you take Alli?

Don’t take Alli if you:

    * Are at a healthy weight

    * Are taking cyclosporine

    * Have had an organ transplant

    * Have problems absorbing food

The drug also may pose risks for anyone who takes blood-thinning medication or has diabetes or thyroid disease.

Orlistat decreases the absorption of certain fat-soluble vitamins — for example, vitamins A, D and E. If you’re taking Alli, you need to take a daily vitamin supplement (at a time different from when you take Alli) to prevent potential nutrient deficiencies.” - Copyright Mayo clinic Staff June 11 2008

Now it has been proved that a low fat diet is actually dangerous to your long term health, and that we need certain fats to be able to function healthily. I don’t know about you but the thought of not absorbing fat and vitamins is a bit scary. So much for Alli. And you notice the common thread here - diet and exercise still required for success.

This newest miracle pill, AICAR,  has “worked” on mice and is possibly years away from being fit for use with humans. Even if it does everything claimed.

The mouse tests were all about skeletal muscles and endurance, not about the drugs’ safety or ability to mimic the many other benefits of exercise, such as improving cardiovascular health and making some types of cancer less likely. That won’t help you get your life and figure back in the meantime will it?

If you want to play Russian roulette with your health - fine. Take a pill, eat whatever you like and don’t exercise. If the side effects don’t permanently damage you (or perhaps kill you) then the subsequent obesity, type 2 diabetes and other health problems surely will.

Look, there is no shortcut here.
Correct eating and exercise are still required to lose weight unfortunately.

Fitness by Phone® has the only healthy weight loss program with a 100% money back guarantee (to my knowledge). We have a ten year success track record to back up that guarantee.

So fill out the form to see if you qualify.

Live your life

Rick