Healthy Body Yoga - Yoga With Adriene

If you've never tried yoga before, give this a go this weekend.  Enjoy.

How To Lose Belly Fat The Fastest - Zumba Dancer Workout For Beginners S...

Get ready for the weekend - get in shape and have some fun!

The Importance of Living a Healthy Lifestyle As a Family

By Monica Fraser

The importance of living a healthy lifestyle for maintaining general good health and preventing chronic diseases has been well established. A healthy lifestyle is quite simple to achieve - one does not need to do anything "crazy" to adopt a healthy lifestyle. I will say that a certain amount of independent thinking is required to separate truth from fiction in most modern health advice currently being delivered.

The most important thing you can do is eat well. Avoid toxins in your food as much as possible and consume plenty of fresh fruit, veggies and whole grains; exercise moderately a few times per week; avoid smoking, including secondhand smoke; and avoid gaining too much weight (which should come naturally if you eat right and exercise). While it is not always possible to eat all Organic food - the EWG recommends 12 fruits and vegetables that should be organic because of their higher levels of pesticide residue. Avoiding environmental toxins as much as you can is an important part of achieving a healthy lifestyle.

Our modern lifestyle is very convenient - but it can also be extremely unhealthy. Most of us eat too many processed foods and too few fruit and veggies; we rarely exercise; and when we develop chronic conditions such as diabetes, we rely on conventional medications to make us feel better - but these medications often have devastating side effects. Instead of accepting the importance of living a healthy lifestyle for us and for future generations, we continue with our bad habits - then take potent, toxic medication to treat our inevitable symptoms.

Of course, not all aspects of living a healthy lifestyle are in our control. We are going to be exposed to certain environmental toxins whether we like it or not. But many of these factors are absolutely in our control. Whenever we can, we should be responsible and make the right choices. 

This is why it is so important to be sure you eat well as the key factor in achieving a healthy LIFESTYLE.

I say "lifestyle" because what I know is that "eating well" can sometimes be something a person does with resentment because they feel "sacrifice" is required to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

I remember when people who ate poor foods used to joke with me and say I was not really living because I chose not to eat pizza and drink beer - and I always replied "how much LIVING can you do when your body is recovering from what you put in it?

Shifting from an Unhealthy to a Healthy Lifestyle

The reason I discuss the healthy lifestyle tip of simply EATING WELL on my blog is because it has been so effective for my health.

It was not always like this though. I remember when I was addicted to a chocolate bar each day and I always had headaches or an infection or illness of some kind.

In addition to excessive sugar cravings (eating a chocolate bar each day) I also suffered from many unhealthy symptoms that were challenging to resolve through traditional medicine: Frequent headaches, Skin problems (ie. eczema, acne, hives, Bloating, Gas, Bad Breath, Weak or brittle hair and nails, Fatigue and lethargy, Excessive stress, Candida overgrowth, Yeast infections, Food or Environmental Allergies, Anxiety or depression, Diarrhea, Constipation, Memory loss, Mood swings, Frequent colds or infections, PMS or bad menstrual cramps, Bladder infection, Loss of sex drive...etc

Ughhh! No fun at all!

Years later, I LOVE good food and I am rarely sick. Eating well is the perfect way to get in tune with your body and really get back to basics of what your body needs. It challenges you to give up the vices that you take for granted, break your addictive eating habits and start again from the beginning. Eating well is a healthy lifestyle choice that gives you clarity on what your body really needs, not craves and becomes the foundation for all other healthy lifestyle choices.

An important thing to remember with eating well is to really examine your root philosophy for adapting more healthy foods into your lifestyle.

This is SO IMPORTANT!

If it's simply to loose a few pounds - I personally feel that this is not enough of a motivator and you will set yourself up for "failure" however, if you choose to eat well to enjoy a better quality of life, to do things you have not done in years and to not get sick anymore, then this is a wonderful motivator that will likely last!

So, getting really practical, eating well obviously involves making a few changes to the foods you prepare and enjoy.

I always listen to my body when I eat. I do not calorie count, measure my fist, use ratio's or anything that causes me to separate myself form the food I eat.

The main reason I enjoy excellent health is because I am critical of what I eat - I choose to eat REAL food.

Because of this, I do not need expensive supplements or challenging programs to maintain my weight.

Delicious menus of real, whole foods allow me to enjoy the things so many diet plans warn against.

This sounds simple enough, but what I have learned is that many people simply do not know what a healthy lifestyle consists of, especially when it comes to food!

I try to keep things as simple as possible. I shop from the perimeter of the grocery store, eat mostly wild and free range chicken, very little meat and mostly raw organic fruits and vegetables, with beans and rice. It's not practical to list everything I eat here, but feel free to visit my blog and download your FREE Healthy Grocery List while you are here!

The Future Depends on our Health Living a healthy lifestyle, free as much as possible of toxins (in our environment and in our food) and of stress, is important to us - but it's also important for future generations. Scientists are also now discovering the impact nutrition has on our DNA! Healthy trees bear healthy fruit. A continued lifestyle of sickness will have a lasting effect on future generations and on our planet.

The results of years of living an unhealthy lifestyle are obvious. We are currently faced with a sharp increase in chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, with an obesity rate so high it's considered an epidemic, and with growing rates of infertility. The number of children diagnosed with autism, Asperger's syndrome or ADHD is alarmingly high.

We should also remember that our children carefully watch us and emulate us. If they see us act responsibly now, they will likely adopt a similar approach of taking care of themselves and of the planet when they become adults.

We must each ask ourselves if we are modeling the importance of a healthy lifestyle to our children. If we do not show them how to care for themselves, they will likely turn to the food corporations instead. How will they know the difference between real food, "food like" substances?

I keep about 6 - 8 fantastic cookbooks on hand. From these books, I create simple meal plans that I rotate each month based on about 15 simple meal ideas.

In addition to eating Delicious Food (that is real and healthy!) I suggest the following ways to help model a positive approach to food in our children:

• Young children especially learn about the world through imitation. How do you feel each day as you prepare your family's meals? Are you hurried, frustrated, and disconnected? We can show our children that eating healthy is important by the way we approach our meal times. If we are happy and engaged in making a meal, and then take pleasure in eating together we affirm that food is more than something to fill the hole but is a necessary part of a happy and healthy family life. In short, your children will imitate what they see so make sure you are placing a positive value around the activities involving healthy living.
• Involve your children in meal preparation, even once or twice a week. By discussing how good certain foods taste and by letting them help you cook you will show that it's important to take the time to prepare a healthy meal instead of throwing something in the microwave. You never know, you may inspire a future chef!
• Make a plan to eat together as a family as often as possible. By each decision you make to eat together, you are casting a value judgment on the importance of healthy living and that it involves more than just eating a few more vegetables.

We can and should make an effort to change our habits and accept the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. If society won't make changes, then we as individuals need to make them. After all, if we leave our health to someone else guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

I have absolute confidence that you can make the switch to living a healthy lifestyle and eliminating the nuisance symptoms that result from a body that is overloaded with toxins from our North American lifestyle. I was able to do this by following simple strategies, cooking from informative books that helped me switch my lifestyle over and enjoying life!

In all this talk about living a healthy lifestyle - we cannot overlook simply choosing to ENJOY LIFE!

Please visit my blog to view specific recommendations and download your FREE healthy grocery list!

Monica Fraser is a healthy mom of two small and very active children. She write about healthy lifestyle choices ranging from curing baby eczema naturally to living with purpose. You can visit her blog http://www.HealthyGreenMoms.com to view specific lifestyle recommendations and to download your FREE Healthy Grocery List!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Monica_Fraser/173375

ZUMBA® Fitness!!!

A short Zumba video - get ready for the weekend!

How to Improve Your Mental Health Through Fitness & Nutrition

By Steph Rice

Your mental health is an important key to your physical health and wellbeing. Tension, stress; anxiety and worry can all affect your mental ability and illness is often a direct result of mental and emotional stress overload.

Two factors can help to improve your mental wellbeing; the first one we are going to look at is fitness. Unfortunately too many people still think that fitness just improves your physical side. This is untrue as exercise can have such a positive effect on the mind and is especially effective in treating depression.

A survey carried out by the charity Mind found that 83% of people with mental health problems exercised to lift their mood or to reduce stress. Six out of ten of the people said that exercise helped to improve their motivation, 50% said it boosted their self-esteem and 24% said it improved their social skills.

I'm sure you have heard of the exercise high that people feel from doing physical exercise, this is because the brain elevates your mood by releasing serotonin and endorphins which help reduce feelings of anxiety, stress and depression. The main benefit of exercise is that you feel better instantly, where as if a person is put on a course of medication it may take weeks to actually kick in! Sleeping is a major problem for people who suffer from depression and regular exercise has been proven to aid sleep. It also boosts energy levels which again is something people with depression lack.

Another area to look at is nutrition. People are aware that a healthy diet is paramount in reducing the risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes but it is also extremely important for our mental health.

Eating four to five small meals a day will keep your blood sugar levels regulated. When they drop, low moods; irritability and tiredness are experienced. Always include protein with each meal as recent research suggests that a component of protein, the amino acid tryptophan has a very important effect on the brain where it can influence your mood.

Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables throughout the day including whole grains and natural foods.

Stay away from processed food and high sugar foods as they can cause a quick surge of energy in the blood sugar levels which wears off very quickly and this is then followed by a crash leaving you feeling low and tired.

Although exercise and nutrition are extremely important and can aid recovery, a physician should always be consulted as the number one priority when severe mental health problems are concerned.

Steph Rice is a Certified Personal Trainer and a Certified Nutrition Advisor.

Steph is best known for being the No1 Womens Motivational Fat Loss Expert; helping hundreds of women across the world achieve their fat loss goals with amazing results.

Please visit [http://thesexyflatstomachsolution.blogspot.com/] for further information and to sign up for your free download, The Fastest Fat Burning Solution Known to Women

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Steph_Rice/320984

Fitness & Health Motivation, Life Hacks + DIY Inspiration Board

Some quick tips for you to try at home

20 SIMPLE LIFE HACKS & DIYS FOR MOTIVATION HEALTH & FITNESS!! PERFECT FO...

Take a look at these simple tricks!

5 Expert Insider Steps to Begin Transforming Your Health & Body Today!

5 Expert Insider Steps to Begin Transforming Your Health & Body Today!

By Heather Dube
While yes, our team is born in a world of intense high athletic goals such as bodybuilding, it is not our goal to support people to become bodybuilders - FAR FROM IT!;-) So you can relax now!! But it IS our goal to share with you why the lessons from our experience of mastering human health & the body, & how developing a bodybuilder "mentality" for your own life can literally skyrocket you into a level of personal health you never thought possible, while showing you the shortcuts in how to get there! Sound good? Heck, it sounds GREAT to us, because we already know how it can CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

If you are serious about stepping into your greatness of feeling & looking great, take 3 minutes & glean our insight, because this is the single-most MISSING LINK that we see people repeatedly leaving out of their game plan to great health & why they continue to fail at achieving quality health for their lives.

When you have had an experience of taking your mental, emotional & physical self to the level that bodybuilding competition requires, as a coach for others it then allows you to see potential for your clients that they could never envision for themselves without you by their side AND TAKE THEM THERE, and that is the beauty of the gift that we REJOICE in offering others in order to achieve optimal health, energy, & joy for their lives. But to get there...to create a successful transformation of your health & body, you HAVE to begin INSIDE with our 5 MUST-HAVE Steps! Yes, that's right - the focus begins in the MIND. Time & again we see this process work, and it's our UNIQUE coaching psychology method that sets us apart, & why we are capable of producing jaw-dropping results with the level of motivational mentality we provide. You can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you fail to develop the DESIRE & MINDSET to IMPLEMENT it, you will never succeed.

Want the insider view to our winning approach to learn how to transform your own health & body? We're here to offer you the scoop because it's our desire to support you fully to achieve authentic, preventative health from the inside, out in your lifetime. So where do we begin? There is a prolific spiritual author named John Maxwell, maybe you've heard of him, maybe you haven't - but he writes of numerous spiritual topics & speaks on how we create TRUE transformation for our lives. Below we adapt his words for our article today because it's a brilliant synopsis of just why & how we work with clients to coach them through mastering their personal health, as there are so many levels to the process.

When we discuss transformation of the physical body, to be successful we cannot deny that mind, body & spirit are woven tightly together in our being & therefore EACH needs to be considered - not just one. Often people when wanting to conquer health or healing goals immediately BEGIN at the physical, they think weight loss, nutrition, exercise...but that is their first step to failure because they're joining the race before they've even laced their shoes!! When we fail to address mind & spirit in the health process we eventually lose the vision of why we're addressing the physical in the first place & sadly fall off course when interest wanes, times get tough, or we lose our way because the how-to's become unclear or appear out of reach. But if we start INSIDE & work OUTWARDS friends, GAME ON!!

Our 5 Expert Insider Steps to Transforming Your Health & Body

So these 5 KEY STEPS must be addressed in order to achieve a complete & SUCCESSFUL health & body transformation, and they must also be achieved in order as follows...

1. When you change your (health & body) thinking, you change your (health & body) beliefs.

If you think what you've been taught is healthy by the mainstream media is where your learning stops, then don't expect to achieve great illness-free, authentic preventative health because they don't teach proactive health approach, they teach reactive wait til you get sick & then act health approach. Begin to change your thinking to change your belief system about your body and health potential.

2. When you change your (health & body) beliefs, you change your (health & body) expectations.

Once you begin to expand your thinking, start to also seek out experts in areas of health & body who have shown & continue to show PROVEN ABILITY TO CREATE TRANSFORMATION RESULTS in their own health & body that you would like to emulate. Begin to sponge knowledge from them vs. what mainstream media claims leads to great health results, & you'll in turn raise the bar on what you expect from your own health. You'll see your new mentor/s are just ordinary people too like you, who decided to blaze their own health path about the quality of health they wanted to achieve for their life by taking the road less followed for their own health in life, and YOU CAN TOO - if you follow in their footprints.

3. When you change your (health & body) expectations, you change your (health & body) attitude.

Once your mind becomes opened by experts to your new health possibilities, you'll have a renewed attitude & confidence about your abilities & empowerment around your personal health & begin to realize that anything you put your MIND to, your BODY can achieve -with the right tools in your toolbox. And THAT is exciting!

4. When you change your (health & body) attitude, you change your (health & body) behavior.

Now that you come to the table with a revitalized health attitude of possibilities & an arsenal from your health mentor, your entire being & behavior begins to shift because your mentor connects you with your own personal ability to achieve great results for your health, and as that continues to happen over and over, your self-efficacy GROWS & GROWS around your capabilities to manage your own personal health, as you transition into your own personal mini-health-expert!

5. When you change your (health & body) behavior, YOU CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

Now that you've achieved health & body mastery, you will begin to see an entire energetic, mental & emotional shift in your life that FAR EXCEEDS the physical. Yes, you will look & feel great, but the ways optimal health radiate outwards to all facets of your life will be astounding, as you attain a personal joy in life through health that you've never experienced before. No pills, no roller coaster of energy, no food cravings, no more blah approach to life, no more hiding from life within your own body,...you emerge a renewed person, ready to take on your full potential in this life.

This list is the perfect example of why health coaching with experienced experts not only WORKS, but offers you AMAZING, permanent results you could never envision or achieve on your own. With the support of your coaches seasoned & proven mentality of success in health & body transformation, you develop a similar mindset, outlook & body of knowledge in order to reach external goals of physical health & body success!

"Want to learn how to easily & effectively "Transform Your Health & Body From the Inside, Out!"™ so you can spend less time on your health, while getting incredible results to look & feel better than you did in your 20's...despite aging, pregnancy, thyroid or health challenges? Check out our website, [http:///www.youandimprovedcoaching.com], for free resources & to sign up for your free health strategy breakthrough session."

Health & Body Mastery Mentor Heather B. Dube' is a Nutrition Counselor, Health Coach, Personal Trainer & Figure Bodybuilding Competitor, as well as the Founder of youandimprovedcoaching.com.

© 2009 You & Improved Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Heather_Dube/285956

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3434253

Amazing Health & Beauty Tips That Will Improve Your Life l 5-MINUTE CRAFTS

Try these to get some quick results

How to Achieve Health and Fitness

By Adrian Joele

Many people are in search for health and fitness, but what are really the essentials for health and fitness and how do you achieve good health and overall well being?

When you have a closer look at the concept, it all boils down to the following four components, which are crucial for healthy living.

They are:

*1 Good Nutrition

*2 Regular Exercise

*3 A Good Night Sleep

*4 High Quality Nutritional Supplementation

If we choose to make good nutrition - including supplementation - and an active lifestyle a daily habit, we could add 5 to 15 healthy years to our lives.

Healthy living means: keeping a balanced, healthy diet, avoiding smoking, excessive use of alcohol and toxic chemicals, taking regular exercise, a good night sleep and supplementing our diet with high quality nutritional supplements.

I will describe in more detail the above mentioned four components for healthy living.

First of all: Good Nutrition.

You probably heard it before: "You are what you eat." Although I like a more accurate definition.it is better to say: "You are what you can get out of your food."

Good nutrition is fundamental for good health.

The human body is a complex system that requires a full spectrum of nutrients for optimal health.

What do we mean by "good nutrition"?

Good nutrition means: eating the right food that contains all the right carbohydrates, protein, fat, fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and trace elements, based on your body type.

A second factor that determines good nutrition is our body's ability to absorb the nutrients from the food that we eat. The nutrients have to be in a form that the cells can accept them, and the cells have to be in optimum condition to be able to absorb the nutrients. This is called bio-availability.

These are the keys to successful nutrition and two often overlooked facts. That is one of the reasons most nutritional supplements miss the mark, they don't address the cellular condition of the body.

You may think that regular exercise, a positive mental attitude, while applying the golden rule: 'everything in moderation' the key is to good health. However, if you understand the damage caused by processed foods, it will motivate you to change your diet, if you are aiming for a high level of health and freedom of degenerative diseases.

Acid-alkaline balance. We should consume acid- and alkaline-forming foods in the right ratio's. This is not hard to realize, when we know that, generally speaking, fruits and vegetables are alkaline-forming and the rest is mostly acid-forming, with a few exceptions. You can read more about acid- and alkaline-forming foods in my article.

The Australian diet contains nearly one-and-a-half times more acid-forming food as it does alkaline-forming food. This ratio should be the other way around. The problem with eating too much acid-forming food is that it builds up toxic waste products, and is the cause of most of our health problems. A diet that contains insufficient fruit and vegetables is missing vital antioxidants, beta-carotene, vitamins and minerals. They are most important to prevent oxidation, caused by free radicals, which are the main cause of heart disease, stroke, cancer and other diseases.

We also need a sufficient amount of antioxidants, to counteract the formation of free radicals, caused by our stressful lifestyle, pollution in air and water and malnutrition. Oxidative stress has shown to be the root cause of over 70 chronic degenerative diseases.

Every day, the DNA in each cell in your body faces about 10, 000 attacks from cell-damaging forces known as free radicals, which are unstable oxygen molecules that have lost an electron. Free radicals are naturally produced as your body turns fuel to energy, but you also get them from pollution in air and water, stress, smoking and radiation from the sun.

These volatile molecules cruise around your body trying to stabilize themselves by stealing electrons from other molecules. When they succeed, they create still more free radicals, causing a sort of snowballing procession of damage.

Free radicals don't just occasionally pop up here and there. Up to 5% of the oxygen that each cell uses is converted into free radicals.

Free radical damage is thought to play a role in the accumulation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and the lining of your artery walls. This can lead to a narrowing of the arteries called atherosclerosis, which contributes to heart disease. And when free radicals damage DNA inside the cells, the results can be cell mutations that lead to cancer.

It is not all about nutrition, neither is it all about exercise. A balanced lifestyle is the key. Exercise at least three times per week. Aerobics, jogging, swimming, cycling and also include weight lifting in your exercise routine, which is important for maintaining a healthy bone-structure.

The key is to do the right exercise. Aerobics are usually recommended in the weight loss industry, the more intense the better, which is all wrong!! The problem is that aerobics exercises that raise your heart rate above 120 beats per minute, which include running, rowing, swimming, cycling and many of those fancy aerobics classes in health clubs, all strip off muscle almost as much as they strip off fat.

And as you know, muscle loss reduces your ability to burn fat and sets you up to become even fatter. Remember, muscle is the engine in which body fat is burned. You should do everything you can to maintain it for the rest of your life.

Walking is good for many health reasons, it also burn some fat and will not burn muscle. But the best exercise for fat control is wide-variety high repetition resistance training, using weights or machines.

By exercising all the muscles of your body, you burn a lot of fat. Another advantage of resistance exercises is that it increase muscle and as a result provide more muscle cells to be able to burn fat. It's a real health bargain.

Another important factor is proper pace. Don't overdo it. You can't force things to happen at once. The secret to good health is consistency and steadiness. The right amount of food and regular exercise.

The simple technique of 'deep breathing' can make a powerful contribution to feeling good and being fit and well. Our bodies need an abundance of physical and mental energy to be able to function at their best.

The energy source is food, but food is useless without oxygen, which is the key to our power. The more oxygen we deliver to our cells, the more energy we will have.

Breathing is the way we obtain oxygen and the benefits of periodic deep- breathing are enormous. However, if our breathing is shallow, we cripple the functioning of our systems. When the oxygen supply to our lungs is not sufficient, it can contribute to illnesses, both physical and mental. Posture is important for proper breathing.

The third factor of health and fitness is a good night sleep. There is nothing more beneficial than a good nights sleep and there is a great physiological need for it if the individual likes to feel refreshed and alert during the following day. Sleep is also important for your memory and learning capacity and possibly for maintaining a good immune system. But there are still many unanswered questions regarding the function of sleep.

This is possibly best explained with the fact that people suffering from insomnia also suffer from reduced concentration, reduced memory and decreased ability to accomplish daily tasks. They are also at greater risk for work related accidents and road accidents, many sick days, increased use of healthcare services and a lower perceived quality of life.

Insomnia is usually perceived as related to not getting enough sleep, which means that the person either has trouble falling or staying asleep. However, poor quality of sleep, whereby the sufferer wakes up not feeling refreshed, even after sufficient hours spent sleep, is a common complaint, especially by elderly people.

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone in the brain, manufactured by the pineal gland and secreted at night. It is quickly degraded, but by being continuously secreted all through the night, it acts like a sleep regulator and 'signal of darkness' in humans. However the natural production of melatonin tends to decrease with age. specially in elderly suffering from insomnia, the production of melatonin is decreased compared to elderly with no sleep problems.

Research has proven that melatonin, when taken in small doses of 0.1 milligram, can decrease the effects of jetlag, like sleeping difficulties and tiredness.

The fourth component is: a high quality nutritional supplements. As I mentioned earlier, most supplements do not address the cellular condition of your body. Even worse, many are in a form that is unacceptable for the cells themselves and don't contain biological available substances that are useful for the cells in your body.

People who are suffering from a chronic degenerative disease are under greater oxidative stress than normal. In this case, optimizers are important to use in order to support any existing nutritional program.

It's been scientifically proven that there are substantial health benefits in taking nutritional supplements. The benefits of nutritional supplements are scientifically verified over the past two years. Hundreds of scientific studies have proved that nutritional supplements can significantly reduce the risk of degenerative diseases.

Apart from the future benefits, eating well and exercising regularly to achieve health and fitness, also enable us to enjoy life so much more right now!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9669171