(Guide to a Healthy Lifestyle)

Week of August 19, 2007

Table of Contents

* Lack of Exercise is Dangerous to Your Health *

* Unusual Weight Loss Plan *

Electronic technology has really exploded in the last 20 to 25 years. Cell phones have made their world debut and have become almost a necessity. Gaming technology has made a tremendous impact on American society. It has almost become a form of recreation. The World Wide Web, more commonly known as the internet, has become a necessity. It has proven to be a godsend for hundreds of thousands of work-at-home moms and dads. And now with the advent of surround sound and high definition television (HDTV) and 24/7 cable and satellite, Americans are watching a lot more programming.

This technology has negatively influenced good health as much as bad nutrition has. Though not bad or dangerous in and of itself, the misuse of technology has turned Americans into sick and weakly couch potatoes. Time that was formerly used for outdoor activity and play is now spent indoors surfing the web, watching 24/7 television, or talking incessantly on cell phones.

A sedentary lifestyle doesn't allow for the muscles of the body to get strong and fit so that they can operate efficiently. Neither does it allow for efficient oxygen flow. The result is sluggishness and weakness and a sick body.

But this doesn't only affect the physical body. We are affected mentally too. The mind and intellect will not be as sharp as they should be. And it is inevitable that stress will weaken the immune system. With a weakened immune system, the body is at the mercy of disease.

Susceptibility to disease is not only an environmental and nutritional issue. Lack of exercise plays a large role too (Read...) The human body was not designed to be inactive.

Before technology gave us labor-saving devices and leisure gadgets, everyday life involved activity. Think back 100 years. People walked, climbed stairs, carried heavy loads and packages, and this is not even counting their day jobs. This activity bred fitness. We now have machines to do all of this for us. But we haven't compensated for the fact that machines have removed physical labor from our lives.

We don't play anymore. Neither do we take time to exercise. We allow our gadgets (cell phones, electronic games, the internet, and 24/7 TV) to distract us. In our increasingly complex society we need to play and we need to exercise. Correcting the nutritional part alone will not erase the obesity epidemic. Neither will it reduce cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and other chronic illnesses which are plaguing society.

When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s we played. Calories did not get a chance to be stored as fat. Of course there were no cell phones, 24/7 TV, internet and electronic games back then either. Children today are not playing like we did. Sedentary lives are killing parents and their children.

The excess calories that are taken in throughout the day have to go somewhere. Whatever is not used to perform automatic body functions and for repair, growth, and fuel are stored in fat cells. We can see this happening on a global basis, and not only in America.

The obesity epidemic is not confined to any one country, but is worldwide. World population in general is eating much more than it needs to eat, and not burning off these excess calories through exercise.

Calorie burning activities can be incorporated into anyone's schedule. Begin by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. I can almost guarantee that you will have the stairwell to yourself. Next, park your car further away from mall entrances.

While you will almost never find a parking space close to a store, you will in the areas furthest away. Use store entrances where you have to push or pull the door in order to enter. All of these seemingly unimportant steps require effort and muscle. This is a great start on your road to good health through fitness.

A successful weight loss program means a lifetime commitment. The only way that can happen is when you have acknowledged that a healthy lifestyle is the only way to achieve weight loss. When a healthy lifestyle has become your objective, you will take the same road to keep the weight off as you took to lose it.

This approach is in contrast to a diet. A dieter's only desire is to lose weight. When the desired weight has been reached, the dieter usually falls back to the very same habits (lifestyle) which put on the excess weight in the first place. A healthy lifestyle on the other hand continues to lead you once you have lost 'x' amount of pounds. You by-pass the yo-yo dieting cycle typical of the dieter. Read...

Dieters never succeed in their quest to lose weight. At some point they get discouraged, fall off the wagon, and regain an additional amount of weight on top of what they lost originally. Or they reach their weight-loss objective but soon pick up their old eating habits again. Before long they too regain their original weight in addition to a little bit more.

A healthy lifestyle guarantees you not only a healthy body weight, but a body that has a strong immune system. This body is not susceptible to chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, etc. You are not focused only on weight loss, but total health too. Read...

Having said that, there are several methods to shed excess weight. The one I discuss in this article is called the reverse diet. This diet is a little unorthodox as you shall see.

Americans have been brought up to eat three meals a day--breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I have no idea how this originated. Breakfast is usually eaten anywhere from 7 AM through 11 AM; lunch is generally taken anywhere from 12 PM to 2 PM. Dinnertime can range from 5 to 6 PM to maybe 8 PM.

The typical American breakfast is usually the smallest meal of the day. Lunch is medium-sized while dinner is the largest meal of the day. The longest time between meals occurs from dinner the night before to breakfast the next morning. The number of hours between the two are usually 8 or more.

Breakfast literally breaks the fast between dinner and breakfast. Common sense would dictate that breakfast be the largest rather than the smallest meal of the day. Since dinner is the last meal of the day, eaten just before retiring for the evening, it should be the smallest meal of the day.

The essence of the reverse weight loss plan is to reverse the typical American meal strategy. After fasting 8 hours, your body's fuel reserves are low. They have to be replenished. You also need additional fuel for the day ahead. It defies logic to eat the largest meal of the day just before going to bed. You are not going to burn it off. And what the body doesn't need for fuel, repair, and to run automatic functions such as breathing, it stores as fat. Read....

Of course you will still include two snacks between meals. This will keep your metabolism humming along burning calories. It'll also keep you from getting hungry. One way to implement this nutrition reversal is to eat for breakfast what you usually eat for dinner, and to eat for dinner what you ordinarily eat for breakfast. There is no law that says that you can only eat meat and potatoes at dinner.

Keep in mind that in addition to meal reversal you are adding two snacks in between meals. So even though the size of your breakfast will be what it is normally for dinner, portions will be scaled down. This plan is not a license to overeat by any stretch of the imagination.

Be cautious of portion sizes. Remember your objective is to lose weight while getting healthy. You still have to reduce the number of calories you are taking in. Limit your meat to organic chicken and turkey breasts and fish. Eat plenty of organic fruits and vegetables. Eliminate processed foods. Include sweet potatoes, brown rice, and whole grain bread and cereal if you so desire. Use extra-virgin olive oil instead of canola, safflower, peanut, corn, sunflower, or soybean oil.

Instead of swapping typical dinner meals for typical breakfast meals and vice versa, you might want to eat your regular breakfast and dinner meals. If so, just increase your food intake for breakfast and reduce your food intake for dinner.

This is another dietary approach to weight loss you might want to try. It was devised by Tricia Cunningham who tried every other diet in existence without success. Her weight reached 292 pounds. The nutritional reverse approach allowed Tricia to lose 162 pounds and keep it off for 7 years.

Keep in mind that a healthy lifestyle must include exercise as well as a nutritional plan. There is no successful nutritional plan in the universe which will allow you to get around exercise. You must also incorporate portion control and avoid the standard American diet (SAD) of processed snack and junk foods. Eat only whole, natural foods.

This plan may or may not work for you. It has worked for a number of people. The essence of any nutritional plan is to eat 5 to 6 small meals per day, use portion control, and eat whole, natural foods which include fruits and vegetables, and exercise.

The title of this manual is from the famous saying of Hippocrates in 400 bc. The full quote is “Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.” Hippocrates is known as the father of modern medicine. The foods which constitute the standard American diet (SAD) lack the ability to supply essential nutrients, let alone be medicine for a sick body.

Whole foods such as wheat and other grains, and fruit are processed to such a degree that dietary nutrients and fiber are removed. Examples are white rice, white bread, and fruit drinks. These processed products are inadequate to supply the human body with the nutrients it needs just to sustain itself. Even though the majority of Americans are eating more than enough calories, they are empty calories.

People are literally starving themselves to the point that the body is highly susceptible to attack by disease. Their immune systems are undernourished and not capable of fighting chronic illnesses.

By following the information given in this manual you will slowly nourish your body with the wholesome nutrients it needs to maintain, repair and build itself. Instead of calorie dense foods you will be consuming nutrient dense foods. You will put yourself on the road to strength, vigor, and vitality–no matter what your age. Price: $21.95.

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