5 Key Weight Loss Details - Important Facts You Need to Know

Information is power. This is an important concept that you need to keep in mind if you want to be successful in your quest to lose the fat. In the area of fitness and weight loss, myths and misconceptions abound. Many times, what has popularly been believed turns out to be the exact opposite of what is really true and often runs counterproductive to your weight loss efforts. Thus, it is important that you educate yourself thoroughly before embarking on any fat loss regimen so you don't waste precious time doing things that do not work or put yourself in dangerous situations that can often cause injury and pain.
To help you in this regard, here are five weight loss facts to keep in mind:
1. Severe calorie restriction won't make you lose weight. In fact, it does just the opposite. When you are constantly hungry, your body will switch to "survival mode" and conserve calories and fat in order to be able to help the body cope. To do this, it will deliberately slow down metabolism and as a result, your body will also burn calories more slowly. When you can't sustain your severely restrictive diet, you will have to go back to your previous meal intake, but since your metabolic rate has already slowed in response to your prior mistaken attempt at starving yourself thin, most of what you eat will be converted as stored fat. This makes you gain more weight instead of losing fat.
2. The healthiest weight loss goal that you should strive for is one to two pounds a week. There are so many diets that promise a weight loss of ten pounds in a week's time. While this is possible, it comes at the expense of your health and is never sustainable. That is why there is no such thing as a healthy and sustainable quick weight loss program. For weight loss to occur for the long-term, it has to be gradual and should involve no overly restrictive diets that can wreck your body systems out of whack.
3. Muscle weighs more than fat. Dieters sometimes wonder why they don't register any significant change in the weighing scale after a period of faithful adherence to an exercise program. That's simply because your fat has been converted to muscle and muscle weighs more than fat. So instead of buying a new bathroom scale, check yourself in the mirror or try putting on your baggy pants and you'll notice that it has wonderfully grown way too large for you.
4. Making lifestyle changes is the only way to a sustainable weight loss program. What does a lifestyle change mean? It means committing to healthier eating habits and working out regularly. It means managing your stress, keeping yourself hydrated and getting enough sleep. Simply cutting down on your favorite foods won't let you lose weight. Rather, it will only make you crave for them. So eat healthy balanced meals and give in to the occasional calls for chocolate. However, make sure that you do not binge on them and do work off the excess calories afterwards.
5. You can speed up your metabolism. Eat more frequent meals and foods that naturally burn fat. Exercise. All these will help speed up your metabolic rate so you can lose more weight.

Improving Your Immunity - 10 Ways to Boost Your Immunity

The golden rule: immunity should not be too strong nor too weak.

Here are some tips that will boost your immune system without the aid of drugs:

1. Help other people

According to scientists, psychologists, providing attention and supporting others, we strengthen the immune system. The body produces compounds that stimulate the metabolism (Psychologists call this self-satisfaction). According to experts, "exposure therapy" is very important to us - hugs, handshakes stimulate the activity of T-cells that detect and destroy harmful microorganisms.

2. Listen to music

While listening to your favorite music, just stimulates the immune system. It often happens that your favorite music for one is annoyance for another way out is simple - listen with headphones and enjoy. While listening to music stimulated the same brain centers as during meals or sex. Experts say that people who play musical instruments or compose music, immune cells have higher activity.

3. Get rid of the noise

Moreover, it is harmful to the ear, any unpleasant sound cause muscle tension, spasm of blood vessels and digestive disorders. Studies have proven that consistent work in terms of noise contributes to a surge of adrenaline and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Sound of an alarm (siren) is among the most harmful sounds.

4. Learn to see beauty

Lifespan optimists on average 12 years longer than pessimists. According to scientists from renowned clinic "Mayo" in the U.S. Morose and nervous people, and those who are under constant stress, as a rule, have weak immune defense. Of course, the negativity should be present in person, but sometimes you need to wear "rose-colored glasses" and thus can increase their positive potential, and therefore immunity.

5. Eat properly

In fasting, the body starts to produce stress hormones. If you lose even one kilogram per week, your body will be a sharp decrease in the activity of T-cells, which determines the harmful microorganisms and foreign cells. Immune stimulators help you cope more quickly with a cold, strengthen the body and boost immunity.

6. Laugh often

Genuine laugh increases the level of antibodies and stimulates the activity of leukocytes. It has been proven that watching comedies enhances immunity at the molecular level. Laughter improves blood circulation, improves digestion, stabilizes pressure and reduces muscle tension.

7. Train your brain

Even the card game stimulates the immune system. The brain stimulates the release of those responsible for planning, memory, abstract thinking and initiative that makes the body relax, keeping his tone.

8. Move more

Regular moderate exercises are able to mobilize the body's defenses and increase the activity of leukocytes. But do not overdo it, since large weight may trigger the development of chronic fatigue syndrome.

9. Learn to relax

Stress in the body produces hormones cortisol and epinephrine, which lowers immunity. Therefore, often during exams, in the presence of frequent conflicts in the workplace or other problematic situations, people more easily fall victim to a cold or the flu. If you regularly relax (meditation and aerobics), you can relieve stress and strengthen your immunity.

10. Sleep in complete darkness

Only in total darkness in the human body can produce sufficient amounts of the hormone melatonin. This prevents many diseases. Some studies claim that enough amounts of the hormone melatonin reduces the risk of breast cancer. Even the faint light from the face of wall clocks or a street lamp may cease to produce sufficient amounts of melatonin.

How to Do Parkour

Learn how to do parkour and you will be able to run up 8ft walls, leap across gaps, vault over rails, fly through your environment, and take drops up to 10ft with the same amount of impact as a normal person doing a jumping jack (it's been scientifically proven).

Learn how to do parkour and if you are ever put in a critical situation where you need to escape from four thugs trying to mug you, catch someone who just stole your girlfriends purse, and etc., you will know exactly what to do, you won't be scared, and you will succeed.

Master the dicipline of parkour, and it will be a joke when people try to chase after you, you will almost hope some one tries to steal your bag because the real life chase would be so much fun and easy.

Another good thing about parkour is that it is a great way to stay in shape, it works your whole body and builds efficient muscle. So whether you are a guy or girl, trying to lose weight or get extremely cut, parkour will get you there. It's also a lot of fun! Once you get started you will quickly become addicted and it will actually change the way you look at the world around you (most traceurs, including myself, will tell you this first hand).

MISCONCEPTIONS OVER PARKOUR

Parkour has recently gotten very popular on television and in film. They show guys doing death defying jumps and enormous roof gaps across buildings.

This is NOT how parkour is!

Most of your training is spent in a low to ground safe environment. You start off small and gradually build your way up. It takes years of training for the big jumps that you see on television and they are not performed often.

We traceurs only perform a risky move when we are either put in a critical situation or have trained on that specific move and are 100% confident in the jump. If we are not feeling it for what ever reason we do not do it.

The last thing you want to do is severely injure yourself or die.

Some people think we are hoodlums that damage property and have no respect. This could not be any further from the truth. Traceurs respect their training areas, more so than the normal person. The architecture and obstacles almost become a part of us, the last thing we would want to do is harm the training spot that we use. We don't want to damage property or harm anyone we just want to be able to move freely in our environment.

HOW TO GET STARTED

Parkour is a very physically demanding discipline. Always consult a physician or doctor before you begin training.

No matter what age you are or physical level you are you can train parkour. It's all about starting off at a level that is comfortable with you and building your way up.

Parkour is also very inexpensive to get into. Ha all you really need are some comfortable workout clothes and some running shoes.

The best places to train parkour are usually parks, college campuses, downtown city areas, and any other location that has a variety of obstacles

Here are the three steps to getting start!

STEP #1- Learn all the basic movements

You need to learn all the basic moves, what they are and how to do them. Here's a list of the basics-

Basic Landing, Parkour roll, Dive Roll, Precision, Stride Precision, Plyo jump, Crane, Wall-run, Cat Leap, Tac, Cat to Cat, Lache, Turn Vault, Speed Vault, Kong Vault, Diving Kong Vault, Double Kong Vault, Dash Vault, Reverse Vault, Kash Vault, Underbar, Balancing, Cat-Balance

STEP #2- Conditioning

You need to condition your body for parkour as well. Most parkour conditioning is performed with just your body weight. Conditioning goes hand in hand with training the basics to parkour. The stronger and more coordinated your body get the faster, easier, and more powerful your movements will become.

A lot of times the parkour movements themselves will be added into the conditioning routine. You will want to condition about 3 times a week and involve a mix of specific workout routines.

STEP #3- Start Training

You have to get out there and start training. Start off small and gradually build up. So start by practicing a small precision jump, from one line to another on flat ground. Then when you get comfortable and successful with that, try jumping back and forth to lines at different lengths. Then move to jumping back and forth to raised up objects, such as two curbs. Then build up to two ledges. Then to two rails.

That is how the cycle goes. Learn the basic moves, condition, and then train at a small level and keep increasing as you get stronger and more comfortable.

THE BASIC LANDING

Here's the steps to the basic landing to get you started.

You must learn the basic landing before you learn any other moves or else you will not know how to land out of the movements and if you're jumping off of something you will risk injuring yourself.

STEP #1- LAND ON THE BALLS OF YOUR FEET

You ALWAYS want to initiate the landing on the balls of your feet. You NEVER want to land flat footed or on your heels.

When you land flat footed or on your heels your body will act like a stiff board and will not be able to absorb any of the landing. All of the force and pressure of the jump will go straight into your joints and back. If you do this off of a medium to high impact jump you will injure yourself.

You want to land on the BALLS of your feet and allow your muscles and joints to act naturally, bend properly, and absorb the impact. This will allow your body to act like a spring that absorbs the force and the impact and puts less pressure on your joints and back.

STEP #2- DON'T LET YOUR LEGS BEND BELOW 90 DEGREES

Do not allow your legs to bend below 90 degrees. When you bend your knees below 90 degrees you are putting too much stress on your knee joints and it means you are not landing properly. If you are landing a drop that you won't be able to absorb fully with your legs go into step # 3

STEP #3- GO TO YOUR HANDS ON A BIG DROP

If it's a big drop that you won't be able to fully absorb with your legs without bending below 90 degrees, you want to bring your hands down to the ground for extra support.

So you will lean your body slightly forward, keep your back straight, hands directly in front of you with your arms straight but with a slight bend, palms facing the ground, and use your hands to take away some of the impact.

You should almost resemble a gorilla, with legs bent and hands touching the ground. After you absorb spring up and forward.
This will allow you to keep your legs from going below 90 degrees and enable you to absorb a lot more impact.

Now this basic landing should not be used when you have a lot of forward momentum with your jump. For example, if you were running and jumping off of anything above 4 feet with a lot of forward momentum you will want to perform a parkour roll, which is an advanced landing.

You also would want to use the parkour roll instead of a basic landing if you were jumping out off of anything above 6ft. The basic landing works well for small jumps, but the parkour roll is essential for taking big drops.

If you want to learn how to run up 8ft walls, leap across 12ft gaps, vault over rails, fly through your environment, and take drops up to 10ft with the same amount of impact as a normal person doing a jumping jack, Then check out my "FREE" web site and blog!

How To Regain Our Proper Nutrition

How do we regain our proper nutritional balance? We start by replacing our processed foods with whole natural foods. It doesn't matter if you are a parent of a toddler. You can be a strong energetic 30 yr old or a senior, we all need proper nutrition. The concept of whole food is food in its natural state. Examples, of these foods are seeds, nuts, fruits, veggies, proteins, and whole grains. Now this all sounds easier than it really is. Since a good diet consists of natural whole foods and 75% of the food in our local supermarkets fall in the category of processed with some sort of additive added, you can sometimes feel that there is nothing left to eat. It is important to first realize that this is something that happens over time. Make small changes, I offer my grandchildren fruit, or the fruit cups without sugar when they are looking for a snack, and you would be surprised how willing they are to take it. Start learning to read the labels on packages
I could go into a whole list of what to look for on labels but mostly you want to try to stay away from synthetic ingredients, and that is easier said than done. We hear about organically grown fruits, and vegetables, however even they have some pesticides put on them, they have to in order to have a crop to sell, the difference is they are safer over the long period and have less than the non organic. On the down side, they are also more expensive, and in some cases considerably.
Right now I just want to reassure you that eating healthy really isn't hard, it just takes a lot of practice. The more you do it, the more it becomes a habit; I have found that after a while you do it without even noticing that you are.
As for those foods that we personally classify comfort foods I am not saying to give them up if they fall in the wrong category. Beware of anyone who tries to take my chocolate away from me when I really need it. Besides the skinny on dark chocolate is that it is really good for you in moderation, I have been saying that for the last 65 years.
With all the information out there about the diseases we face today, that is directly related to our nutrition, or can be helped by proper nutrition, it is something that can no longer be kept on our to do list. We now have to put it on our must do list now.

Is Alcohol Really That Bad For Your Brain?

When you drink alcohol the last thought you are having is "what am I doing to my brain"? There is a lot of information about what alcohol does to the liver but it is rare to hear about what is happening to the brain before, during, or after the person drinks.
So what areas of the brain are affected by alcohol? The Frontal Lobe is where our judgment and executive functioning come from; this means that after consuming alcohol there is an immediate effect on your judgment. The Limbic System is another area that is affected by alcohol consumption and this causes memory both long and short term memory loss. Other part of the brain that is effected is; the temporal lobe which is where emotion comes from and when you drink emotions become numb but even after you drink the numbness of emotion may subside and bring an overwhelming amount of emotion which may cause one to drink again because the flood of emotion is too intense, the hypothalamus controls sexual arousal and with increased amounts of alcohol your arousal may go up but performance will go down because alcohol depresses the nerve center that controls sexual performance.
For teenagers the effects are much greater because the brain is still growing. Our brains are not full grown until about age 24 for women and age 26 for men. So when a teenager consumes alcohol it may cause some lasting effects. As a teenager the Frontal Lobe is where executive functioning skills come from. Executive Functioning is what helps us make decisions; both in the moment and goal oriented type of decisions. When alcohol is used these skills can become impaired and lasting through their life.
Think about anyone you know that has drunk alcohol since they were young. Do some of their traits seem impulsive or even immature? This may be from consuming alcohol at a young age. When the brain was growing the Frontal Lobe may have been impaired which would cause decision making skills to suffer.
In my own family I have a lot of experience with this. There have been two drug and alcohol related deaths, one family member who has spent as much time in prison as he has out of it, a Grandfather who died from liver complications because of alcohol, and the most recent is a family member who drank himself to the point where he will never walk, talk normally, go to the bathroom by himself, or many of the other life pleasures he used to have. He will live in an assisted living setting where he is fully aware of what has happened and why, but he can't do a dam thing about it.
So, if you ask me what alcohol does to the brain I would tell you that it only makes you stupid in your life decisions e.g., drinking and driving, taking other drugs with alcohol, drinking until you pass out or puke, drinking games that increase the risk of alcohol poisoning, and this is just of the few bad decisions that are made. This list could go on and on because it is not just the drinking decisions that are affected it is life decisions.
We always have choices to make and hopefully the choices you are making increase the life you have. Alcohol is a depressant and so if your life isn't going so great and you are drinking, alcohol will never help you make your life better it will only cause more pain in the end. If you would like more information please contact me at http://www.repairnlife.com

Usage Of Epsom Salt

Epsom salt is pretty much a necessity in your home. To start with, it gives you pain relief occurring because of minor injuries like sprains and bruises. Secondly, it can also act as a saline laxative or colon cleanser for sporadic constipation relief. Although it can be quite useful as a laxative, it is advisable that you should only use this remedy on a part-time basis.
To use it as a laxative, you need to pour 5 to 7 oz. of drinking water into a glass. For individuals over the age of 12, make sure that you measure 1 to 2 tsp. of Epsom salt into the glass. On the other hand, for individuals below the age of 12, 1/2 to 1 tsp is the way to go.
One of the most important things that you need to do is to squirt some lemon juice into the water so that you do not face any issues in terms of drinking. Stir the mixture in such a way so that all the ingredients get fully dissolved. After drinking the mixture, you should have a bowel movement in a matter of one to two hours. If that is not the case, you should opt for another dose.
According to experts, the mixture normally makes it presence felt very fast. Therefore, it is recommended that you take it when you are free to go to the restroom. Using this as a laxative is not ideally suited for children. Stop taking the dose if you experience side effects like abdominal pain, vomiting and nausea. The use of Epsom salt is not recommended at the time of pregnancy. Individuals suffering from any sort of kidney disease should also stay away from the use of Epsom salt as a laxative. Take the advice of your health care provider before you start taking the dosage of Epsom salt.
Recent study has come to the conclusion that the use of Epsom salt can turn out to be quite useful when it comes to the treatment of skin infection as it can have a drying effect on your skin. If you are suffering from diabetes, you need to be extra careful when using Epsom salt. This is because of the fact that when there is too much magnesium in the body, possibility of uncontrolled fluctuations in blood sugar increases. If you are using Epsom salt as a laxative, there is a good chance that you may develop swelling on the face, lips or tongue.

The Green Lipped Mussel Interactions

Green lipped mussel is a product of nature and has very scarce side effects associated to it. The more encouraging fact is that everyone can utilize the raw green lipped mussel without any hesitation and fear of side effects. This is true that there are no interactions known to green lipped mussel. This is true both for mussel extracts and for mussel in raw shape.
This is a best gift that is for people living all over the world by nature and is inhabited by the fresh waters of New Zealand. Green lipped mussel is one of the tastiest and nutrient enriched sea food products that are available in different forms to consume. First of all, it is the best way to consume this in its raw shape because this is the only way to get all its benefits directly into your body.
Processing is bad for inherent nutrients that are characteristics of this natural nutrient filled specie on the Earth. Cooking, baking and even freezing is bad and is the way to lose most of the important nutrients of this shellfish. Although there are extracts in the form of mussel oil and mussel powder that are available with the name of different products, they all are processed and in some cases chemically treated to preserve them. In this case, the side effects can be apparent or even the interactions are appearing but consuming this green lipped mussel in the form of powder, named, 'Xtend life's green lipped mussel powder' that is processes only for 30 minutes to consume almost all of the important nutrients of this shellfish.
This shellfish is recognized as the most nutrient product of nature particularly in New Zealand's fresh waters. This mussel has history that extends back to Maoris who were healthy and strong because it was a part of their daily diet in its raw form.
Hundreds of years have passed but there is no alternative found for green lipped mussel. As the time passes, new species of this shellfish are discovered and every time it has different nutrient supplements. This product is specifically recommended to ensure relieve of bodily joint pains and to get relief from inflammation. Due to lack of its interactions, this shellfish's products can be used with most of diet plans. There are many rationales for the use of this effective natural remedy for skin care, immune system in the human body and its positive impact on the circulation of blood in the body.