Now that the holidays have come and gone, let's answer this question with a straight answer: Yes, weight loss is really that important!
If you feel you're at your ideal weight, congratulations! You belong to the minority of people in the world and should be applauded for your positive outlook on your life and your body.
However, you still may need to lose weight. In truth, many people who are overweight say that they are happy with their bodies; but this does not necessarily mean they are healthy. Weight loss is important in order to achieve a healthy weight.
There are a number of reasons you should consider weight loss.
First and foremost, if you are overweight, you are at risk of contracting a number of diseases. The number one health risk is heart disease, which can lead to a heart attack.
Many heart attacks are dangerous. Heart disease develops when your heart has to work extra hard to pump the blood in your body, causing it to become fatigued. This can occur simply because you are overweight, or can be a result of high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
Having high blood pressure can also put you at risk for a stroke. Strokes occur when blood, and therefore oxygen, cannot reach the brain. This can happen due to high cholesterol. When you have high cholesterol, the fatty deposits build up on your artery walls. If a piece of this plaque breaks off and travels to the heart, it causes a heart attack, and traveling to the brain causes a stroke.
After the holidays with all the binge eating, it's wise to consult with your doctor or a qualified health practitioner and find out what your ideal weight is. If it's lower than what your weight is now, lose those extra pounds.
Start the New Year right by setting a goal to lose weight. It's not only good for you health wise, but good for self-esteem and having a positive outlook for the year!
You probably heard the song, "What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love." For me, that's not entirely the truth.
Love is the motivation. What the world needs now is healing; the kind of healing that first succors inner pain.
Inner pain is getting hurt by criticisms, negative attitudes, rejection, discouragements, quarrels, disappointments and much more.
People get hurt everyday, including you and me. Yet, what makes it worse is that we tend to try to nurse our emotional wounds first.
When we seek to heal our inner pain first, we actually magnify the pain, become self-centered and become useless to others and ourselves.
Yet, we can actually bring healing to ourselves when we first seek to be a healer unto others!
How can this be so?
One, we are able to release our inner pain by tending to the pain of another. To focus only on our own pain is to keep it locked in to fester. When inner pain festers, it turns us into bitter and resentful people forever carrying emotional excess baggage.
However, when we tend to the inner pain of others, our own inner pain seeps out to be replaced by compassion. When we focus on the pain of others, we begin to realize that our own hurts are really quite small and manageable.
Two, we can learn from the pain of others. A great part of bringing succor to others is to listen to them. Many times you'll discover that lending a listening ear to someone will already heal that person.
By listening, we can discover the root of that person's pain and thereby learn the root of our pain.
By listening, we open ourselves to the pursuit of wisdom. To pursue wisdom is to bring us to the path of inner change. Inner change can effectively deal with inner pain.
Thirdly, what we release ultimately returns to us. When we heal others, the healing returns to us. When we listen to others, others will listen to us. When we care for others, others will care for us. When we release compassion, compassion returns to us.
When we seek to be a healer, we not only build an environment of healing, we inadvertently build a community of healers.
You can be a healer. All it takes is the willingness to be one.
You've heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It's true! So there are consequences of not eating a healthy breakfast.
Before that, however, we need to know what comprises a healthy breakfast.
Look for breakfast cereals that provide at least 6 grams of fiber per serving. Add nonfat milk and turn that bowl of fiber into a tasty meal with bananas, berries, or apple slices.
Prepare whole-grain or pumpernickel breads for toast with trans-fat-free soft margarines or cholesterol-lowering spreads that contain plant stanols.
Keep sugar intake less than 10 grams per serving. Avoid hash browns, bacon, croissants and other fast-foods breakfast because they have too much fat or salt in them.
Allow eggs on the breakfast table but one egg a day is sufficient.
Now, for the consequences of not eating a healthy breakfast.
For one, missing a healthy breakfast triggers unhealthy cravings during the day.
Secondly, not eating a healthy breakfast can actually lead to weight gain. According to Harvard Men's Health Watch, missing a healthy breakfast was associated with a fourfold increase in the risk of obesity.
This is because our metabolism works slower at night when we sleep. When we don't "wake up" our metabolism to its normal state with a healthy meal, we prevent a protein called, leptin, from causing our bodies to function normally. This includes losing weight.
Thirdly, you not only risk obesity with skipping a healthy breakfast, but you also risk other diseases. High-fiber cereals can help reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even intestinal polyps and colon cancer.
In this hustle-bustle world we live in, the first thought at the beginning of the day shouldn't be about skipping breakfast to have more time. Rather, it should be about making more time to have a healthy breakfast.
The consequences of not eating a healthy breakfast can leave a permanent health disorder and may even land us in the hospital instead of our place of work.
It was on January 6, 2004, when I received the news about my wife's condition. She was at the moment in the recovery room after a radical mastectomy. Her surgeon came out of the room and approached me. The tumor was malignant and she needed to go through chemotherapy.
The news was, to say the least, devastating. But it was the impetus to my and my wife's transformation into advocates of healthy living and natural alternatives of treating body malaise.
My wife is very active today and continues to do pretty much of what she used to do before her surgery. We had researched and found effective alternative breast cancer treatment. Along the way we've also discovered natural health boosters.
This is what this site is all about.
We're constantly researching and writing about alternative breast cancer treatment as well as natural ways to shield your health.
For instance we've learned that our body is capable enough of fighting all kinds of disease. We just need to help it along by feeding it with the right kind of nutrients which can be found in fruits and vegetables. Add to this a few powerful health supplements and our bodies will be able to withstand onslaughts of free radicals and toxins that are in the environment.
Unfortunately, much of what attacks our bodies are found in traditional pharmaceutical products. This is the reason why doctors are listed as one of the ten causes of death in the US. Yet, western doctors continue to peddle pharmaceutical products that do more harm than good. Read all about in an excellent book, "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer: How Hormone Balance Can Help Save Your Life."
Pharmaceuticals are a big business and will certainly always exert influence to stay that way, although some are now quietly exploring the alternative route.
Natural health supplements can be found everywhere. It's just a matter of finding out what's right for you.
Hopefully this site will help make shorter your learning curve.
