You Don't Have to Skip Carbs to be Thin

Remember when you were at a party and your "sweet tooth" was finding it hard to resist the foods because you were trying to avoid foods that have carbohydrates in it? You must have heard the myth that to lose weight you should avoid carbohydrate rich-foods.

Carbohydrates are one of the three main energy-producing substances that our body needs. It comprise mostly of the foods that is usually available on the table. Without them, the body will have difficulty in doing the tasks needed on a daily basis, the body will have a sensation of starvation and the body will soon feel weak and sick. Our body needs carbohydrates, but we just have to choose the good carbohydrates. Most of the time,  we indulge in white breads, pasta, white rice and sugar. These are bad carbohydrates. Too much of these contribute to the culprit in gaining weight. However, we don't necessarily need to avoid carbohydrates to be thin. We just have to choose the good carbs.

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Do you know that vegetables and fruits are carbohydrates?  And so are the beans, grains and nuts are also sources of carbohydrates. These are the kind of foods that helps sustain our energy because these are the good carbohydrates that contains the much-needed phytonutrients to support our immune system .  You can eat as much as you can of the vegetables, which are good carbohydrates, and never to worry about gaining weight because the fiber content of the vegetables supports a better elimination.

So to be healthier and thin, don't skip the carbs,
choose the good carbs and enjoy a full healthy meal.

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Here's to your weight loss success!

How Stress is a Threat to Your Weight

Most have tried diet pills, weight loss machines, slimming teas, detoxification programs but losing weight seem to be a struggle forever, and this contributes to their stress, creating an additional culprit to weight gain.

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As defined by Hans Selye,MD.,Ph.D, "stress is a nonspecific response of the body to any demand".  In the Wikipedia dictionary , stress is defined as a failure to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats, whether actual or imagined.

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Stress therefore, can be coming from anywhere. it is the body's reaction to change such as environmental conditions, social scorn, physical and emotional issues. Being overweight is such a huge stressor itself.
Stress affects the hormonal balance in the body therefore also affects the body's ability to lose weight. In the event of stress, the body release a hormone called cortisol. This hormone is responsible in regulating the physiological responses associated with stress.
During long periods of stress, the body releases more cortisol, decreasing the body's sensitivity to leptin, a hormone that is responsible in giving signal to your brain that you are full. When this happens, there is a tendency that you will crave for more sugar, therefore you tend to eat more, adding more calories and pounds retained. This is also the mechanism that happens to most people who craves for chocolates, cakes or anything sweet when they suddenly encounter an emotional stress (now understand your brokenhearted friend and your anxious mom).

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Consider relaxation techniques such as massage and meditation as a part of your weight loss regimen, so you lessen the release of too much cortisol when you see a plateau on the weighing scale. Soon, the pounds will start to fall off again.

Here's to your weight loss success!

Weight Loss Holidays

In this season of food feast, reunions, parties and holiday vacations, it is but tempting to indulge in any kind of foods especially in those nutritionally-devoid but deliciously-prepared meals. What usually matters is the bonding moments created in the space of excitement and delight  while having the fun and spirit of the season. However, on top of these, you should still need to be mindful  largely on your health . Know the nutritional  values of healthier food choices and spare yourself sometime to be a little bit healthier.
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Fresh raw living foods has been known for its great benefits to health. There are many nutritional experts that have written books , have talked about and  spread the good news about raw food.  During the holiday season where gaining weight is usually the unlikely reward, you have the option to treat yourself healthily without spoiling the massive food fun on the occasion.
Here's a list of the value you can get from eating raw fresh plant foods:
1. It has enzymes that gives more life to the plant. Enzymes are catalyst that speeds up the chemical reaction. We normally have enzymes and it helps in all body metabolic  processes. Eating foods rich in enzymes helps to boost our immune system
2. It has very low calories makes it ideal for those who are on a diet
3. It contains high fiber thus makes you feel full longer thus lessen the cravings for more foods
4. It helps to detoxify. Because of its high fiber content, it promotes better elimination.
5. It contains more nutrients than cooked foods. Cooking foods destroys the enzymes and lessen the nutritional value of foods.
6. You'll find more valuable nutrition in raw plant foods especially in green leafy vegetables such as chlorophyll, and the mineral magnesium. These contributes largely in promoting  good health. 
You really have a choice to be healthier.
Here's to your healthy holiday feast!

Your STEPS To Weight Loss

Here's a scenario: It's coffee break and the cafeteria is just two floors down from your office, and the elevator door is just right next to your office doorsteps. What would you choose to do, use the stairs in going down or the elevator?

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Chances are, in usual cases, many would use the elevator. Many wants the quick ways, right? Who wouldn't want it?. No sweat, no extra effort. But if you want to lose weight, you'd better be committing to yourself to walk your way a little bit, choose to have an extra effort so that you'll get every chance to sweat and every little chance to burn calories. In the long run, you'll reap the benefits anyway.

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One of the great ways to stay fit is choosing to walk most of the time. This is considered to be an exercise. If you find it a hassle to go the gym class, then schedule a few minutes, few days a week of walking. A 30-minute walking exercise a day, three times a week will already help in giving you health benefits. You start with baby steps and as you continue on increasing a little bit faster, you are already making your big STEPS to your own weight loss program.

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To get you more motivated, here are some more benefits of walking:

• Helps to speed up metabolism and supports weight loss
• It helps to relieve stress, depression and anxiety
• Helps to keep bones strong, therefore a very good preventive approach to osteoporosis
• It helps improves the body's ability to use insulin, therefore it helps to regulate blood sugar level, beneficial for diabetics
• It helps to improve sleep therefore helps to address some sleep problems
• It helps to build strength and stamina. 

Now get up and begin early the STEPS to your weight loss program.
Enjoy the walk!

JuJu Cleanse

Considering a juice diet? Recently there's a couple who came up with such a great idea of helping people achieve their goal of staying healthy through healthy juices. Health advocates who find it hard to spare more time to prepare fresh juices could find this new juice diet regimen very rewarding.  This is now popularly known (in the Philippines) as Juju Cleanse.  "JuJu" stands for "just juice".

Just Juice Cleanse, which means that through taking fresh juices, you also get the benefits of cleansing aside from its health nourishing effect on the body.

Juices come in 6 bottles of different pure fresh juices placed in a trendy-environmentally friendly bag. You can choose to have juices on a Level 1, or Level 2 or 3. As a starter, you are always recommended to do the Level 1 juice diet, and you may stay there for another day. This is being discussed with you through email or phone. That means that you are guided all through-out the cleansing process! The good thing about this juju cleanse is that it is sustainable when it comes to starting or continuing a cleansing program. It's more than like taking a vegetarian multivitamin pill, because it also gives you the feeling a satiety. Imagine yourself taking a bottle of pure fresh fruit and vegetable juice for your meal and snacks instead of taking those pills...super nourished and full...wow! What a great meal!

With the guidance of the maker of juju cleanse... you'll never get lost finding your way to a healthier body and a lighter, healthier lifestyle.

Here's to your "juju" day!

Biguerlai , slimming tea?

In an effort to slim down, some would resort to slimming teas. Think more than twice. There are some laxatives that most sexy wannabes are using with the thought that it is a slimming tea. One of these is the Biguerlai tea, available over the counter in the Philippines. It's an herbal laxative Senna (Cassia Augustifolia Vahl), which is used to address constipation in a natural approach instead of using the traditional conventional medications. Laxative increases the release of water from our own system and goes together with the waste materials that needs to be evacuated. This creates a feeling of abdominal discomfort such as gassy abdomen, rumbling feeling in the gut, and an urge of immediate bowel movement, resulting to transient diarrhea. It doesn't block the absorption of fats, especially bad fats which dieters are dreaming of, but will only hasten the release of waste matter and water from the gut. Therefore frequent use could make someone dehydrated. Be careful in deciding to use slimming teas. However, herbal laxative teas are good alternative laxatives instead of being dependent of synthetic ones.

Here's to your easy moves!

Is Colon Cleansing Really Beneficial?

Elimination. This is one of the reason why we sometimes have to use the rest room. But there are ways of elimination that a different kind of rest room is used and this is where you see some colon cleansing procedures. This is called an enema room or colonic room.
One of the strategies to help lose weight is cleansing the colon, or the large intestine. Once the body gets rid of the long staying waste or toxins, it's a lot easier for the body to do its process in losing weight. It can be done by the simple enema or coffee enema, or through the use of a colonic machine. However , it is still best to consult your physician before doing this because there are also some contraindications to this, such as: bleeding hemorrhoids, recent abdominal surgery, colon polyps or cancer, uncontrolled hypertension, and even pregnancy is a contraindication. Colon cleansing is something that helps to enhance the process of our own detoxification. This should not be done as a regular activity replacing the normal body activity of elimination through the colon.

The following are some of the many benefits of a colon detoxification:

• It helps to normalize bowel movement.
• It helps to clear up the skin from having recurrent skin conditions such as acne, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, eczema
• It helps to remove excessive abdominal bloating because of frequent gas accumulation
• It makes you feel lighter and clean
• it helps to naturally bring down high cholesterol and triglyceride levels especially if done together with a diet modification
• it's a good jump-start to a weight loss program

It is always recommended to take a probiotic (good bacteria) supplement as a nutritional support during a colon cleansing and at least one week after the colon detoxification.

Here's to your healthy colon!