My Health Today

Is The South beach Diet a Good Choice for Losing Weight?

2010-06-01T20:13:00.000+02:00

Hi and welcome back to an article I wanted to write on the subject of losing weight, which is a pretty big part of health, that loos at one of the popular diet plans and asks is the South Beach Diet a good choice for losing weight? Let's have a look and see.

Well, the first thing you have to remember is that this is a diet plan that you have to pay for and as a member, you pay a monthly subscription for the diet meals to be delivered to you as well as having access to their online community. The meals themselves follow a three phase plan, where the first is the hardest and cuts out most carbohydrates from your diet for a period of about two weeks. Now, I don't personally like the idea of omitting any major food groups from your diet from a health aspect, but if you are serious about losing weight, then if that restriction is short term, then I guess its okay. The idea is to get your body used to burning stored up fats for its main source of fuel that the omitted carbs would have supplied. This is loosely based on the Atkins Diet idea but taken only over a short period.

Into phase two and carbs are slowly re-introduced to the diet while keeping things low calorie so the body is still burning fats but the calorie restriction prevents a reversal of the weight lost in the first two weeks. Phase two is popular with those that have been on the South Beach Diet and the meals are actually pretty interesting, tasty and fulfilling.

Phase three relaxes things further and can last as long as you remain a member of the plan. During this last phase, you can eat mostly what you want although you are still encouraged to maintain a calorie restricted diet. the community forums keep members in touch with each other and gives moral support to anyone who needs it as well as being a place to come in online and chat about your particular successes and trip ups.

Its a reasonably good diet and, like all diets, if you follow the rules you will lose weight and as long as you stay with the plan, you will keep that weight off. If you need some more information, you could always check out this article at: South Beach Diet which has more details plus links to full blown customer reviews that are helpful if you need to hear it from the horses mouth.

My Health Today

Convenience Diets for Losing Weight

2010-04-27T12:04:00.000+02:00

There are many ways to lose some weight or even a lot of weight if you need to these days. But still, one of the most popular forms is through diet. Dieting is a huge industry and there are no shortage of companies that will offer you a wide range of propriety diet plans to help you to lose the weight you want to lose. One area where there seems to be a growing trend for is in the convenience diets and these are the ones that come ready made and even delivered to your door, making them highly convenient in every sense of the word.

This type of diet plan is perfect for anyone who leads a busy lifestyle and has little time on their hands to mess around with the hassle of working with a regular diet. It means shopping for all the right foods, counting calories and filling in charts, preparing and cooking the food, then doing it all again the next day. With the convenience diets, all that work is cut out and all you have to do is take one ready prepared diet meal and microwave it until its hot (or just get it out of the fridge if its a cold meal like a salad or similar) and you're ready to sit down to your meal in the full knowledge that it will be low in calories and high in nutritional value.

So what kind of companies provide this type of diet? Well, there are several as already mentioned, but probably the best known of these is Nutrisystem, as mentioned in this blog in an older post. There are others that provide a similar service and I guess it really boils down to you doing some research such as reading Nutrisystem reviews and also reviews of other products like Jenny Craig, South beach Diet, Zone Diet etc and comparing them on price, service, variety of meals and that kind of thing.

While ready meals will never replace a good, healthy home prepared and cooked meal for full control over what goes into them, they do fill a gap in the lives of those who just don't have time for the mechanics of diets, but do have a need to lose weight. The companies that provide them know this and they have a niche carved out for them by today's busy lifestyle, so you can't really blame them for exploiting that need. Its horses for courses for sure!

My Health Today

More Tips for Weight Loss

2009-12-14T23:12:00.000+01:00

Hi again, and in this post I just want to look at some more tips for weight loss that might be useful to anyone who is looking to lose some of that extra flab or shrink that spare tyre! Its not going to be anything like an earth shattering set of weight loss tips, as in reality there are no magic solutions to this, but what I'll cover here is pretty basic stuff that people tend to overlook or just don't realise.

There's a big secret that's being kept from most people about losing weight by the media and companies that specialise in weight loss products, plans and systems. They do their utmost to convince everyone that losing weight is simply impossible unless you use their great new product or get on this or that ground breaking new diet. But its mostly a load of poppycock. Losing weight is really all about you.

By that I mean there is only one person who will benefit from losing weight and getting fit and healthy if your current state is not so great and that person is you. The media and diet mongers tend to gloss over that fact and make you believe that you can't do anything without some kind of help. But that's just not true.

You can make the decision to do something about your body shape and what you weigh and you can decide to see it through or not. You choose whether you will eat healthily and get plenty of exercise or eat junk and spend all your free time lodged on your sofa in front of the TV. You decide. Not a diet company or nutritionist. You. Only you.

And this is probably the greatest weight loss tip of them all.

The realisation that everything comes down to how you decide to live your life and that no one else can live it for you is a truly inspirational moment. Its life changing and even reading this won't do it for you! You have to do it for yourself.

So all the advice about what you should or should not do to make the extra pounds drop away is there but you have to choose to use it and then to stick with it and see it through so that it works for you. And that leads me nicely on to the other hugely important tip I have to help you lose weight.

You can't allow yourself to cheat.

Cheating is what most failed dieters do then blame it on the diet. They sneak high calorie snacks when they think no one is looking and then swear blind they didn't! Problem is, while there may not be anyone looking, you are mistaken in thinking your cheating is going totally unobserved. That's because there is one person who is always looking at you when you cheat or when you don't. That person is you!

So remember, if you cheat, you are only cheating yourself and no one else. So next time you decide to do something about the amount you weigh, make a commitment to yourself to see it through no matter what. Don't cheat, not even a little bit and don't even think about blaming amyone else when the buck stops squarely in your lap!

Think about that!

My Health Today

Does Nutrisystem Work for Weight Loss?

2009-09-29T11:37:00.010+02:00

In this post, where I want to look at the validity of probably the most popular diet food delivery plan, the question must be asked, "Does Nutrisystem work for weight loss?" Let's see what we can uncover...

Well there are certainly plenty of Nutrisystem reviews out there that are supposed to help individuals who are thinking of trying to drop some weight by using this product. But how many of them really tell you how Nutrisystem performs and how it can help you to lose weight effectively rather than just being a sales pitch?

Ok, lets see what Nutrisystm is all about.

The whole system is based upon providing the consumer with ready, prepared meals that are low in calories and fat, low GI while being nutritious and healthy options to your regular meals. They also recommend that you prepare and cook some fresh vegetables to go together with the Nutrisystem meals to bulk them out or else its possible you might feel hungry faster than you would like after eating one of their set meals on its own.

As people are habitually lazy, this extra step may be skipped over by many, which may reduce the effectiveness of the plan. That's because if you're already used to large meals, then the smaller Nutrisystem meals may not fill you up the same and you could feel hungry in between meals. That's a danger because then you might be tempted to reach for the snacks, like potato chips, biscuits etc that will totally blow the diet out of the water!

So put in a little extra endeavor to add some green vegetables to the meals. They're low in calories while their extra volume will satisfy your hunger. They're also good for your health! You wanna lose weight, right?

Nutrisystem's complete meals might additionally result in the production of gas in some folks. That'll be for those who have been used to a thoroughly terrible diet of garbage food. Their bodies have to get used to digesting healthy food and this can cause gas. Get used to it and laugh it off as a part of the weight loss process for heaven's sake!

The Nutrisystem meals are easy to get ready. You merely grab one out of the freezer then put it in the microwave. It's pretty painless and good for busy mothers who are short of time. So does it work?

If you sit on your lazy behind in front of the TV, don't do any exercise whatsoever and sneak candy bars when you think no one is looking, then you will not lose any weight. In this case, don't go blaming Nutrisystem. They are not the ones who are cheating!

However, if you stick to it, don't cheat by snacking on crap in between meals and give yourself a better chance by doing some light exercise every day, like walking or swimming or suchlike, it will work and you'll lose weight. In the end, its all down to you and how much you want it. To find out more, click the Nutrisystem image.

My Health Today

What are Zone Diets?

2009-08-29T13:13:00.002+02:00

When it comes to staying fit and healthy, one of the important points to remember always is that you need to be healthy from within as well as from the outside. That means that your diet is every bit as important as getting plenty of daily exercise and fresh air. There are plenty of different diets around that offer this or that benefit, but for the most part, you need a well balanced diet that provides all of your body's nutritional needs.

Where most diets fall down is in their attempts to cause weight loss by omitting certain food groups. This is not such a great idea as when you deprive your body of certain food groups, you are also depriving it of the nutrients that are specific to those food groups and could actually be doing yourself more harm than good.

The Zone Diet is a good compromise between low calorie, low GI foods and retaining all the major food groups in your diet. It works on the main principle of dividing your diet into 40% carbohydrates combined with 30% protein and 30% fats. Now many people's immediate reaction to this is why does it include such a high percentage of fats? Aren't fats bad for you and don't they cause weight gain?

Well, actually that's not the case depending upon which types of fats you're talking about. The fats in the Zone Diet are primarily unsaturated or mono unsaturated fats such as those found in good foods such as olive oil, sunflower and other seeds, nuts, omega 3 and 6 acids (essential fatty acids) and similar. What it does not want you to make that 30% up with is fats from dairy products or animal fats which are known as saturated fats. These are the ones that will cause higher levels of cholesterol and plenty of related problems, whereas the good fats actually create the opposite scenario of lower bad LDL cholesterol and higher levels of good HDL cholesterol.

The Zone diet is not just a food diet, by the way. It also promotes combining diet with daily exercise to help your body burn off excess calories to promote weight loss. Its a more rounded diet plan in that it promotes balance and harmony with your body along with plenty of fresh air and exercise to promote good health and vitality.

All in all, the Zone Diet is one of the better plans around and one that is well worth opting for over the other less healthy fad type diets.

My Health Today

Handicapped Shower Stalls

2009-05-24T12:43:00.004+02:00

Handicapped shower stalls are one of the necessities of a good handicap bathroom layout especially for people with disabilities, wheelchair users, the elderly, people with debilitating illnesses and conditions and anyone with mobility issues. So let's take a brief overview look at what a handicap shower enclosure entails and what makes it different from a regular shower cubicle.

Well the first comparison to be made between a regular shower cubicle and a handicap shower stall is the size. By necessity, a disabled shower stall is much larger than its regular alternative. This is because it needs to be able to accommodate a wheelchair and make it possible to wheel it in, turn it around and then wheel it out again once the user has finished.

The next big difference is that a regular shower will have a raised base and a lip or water container to keep the water inside the enclosure, whereas a handicap shower will have a base that is flush with the floor of the bathroom and either a collapsible water retainer or water stopper that is flexible or a gully covered with a fine mesh grille so that a wheelchair can enter and exit without experiencing a bump or having to negotiate a step up or down.

Another thing you'll notice where the two will differ is that a regular shower nearly always has a closable shower door or a curtain and a handicap shower has its front wide open. It can of course be fitted with a heavy duty shower curtain as one of the handicap shower accessories that are available, but wheelchair users tend not to like this addition as it can be a nuisance to get past.

The final difference we'¡ll lok at here is that a handicapped shower stall will be fitted out with grab rails and also a handicap shower chair so that the user can take a shower in the sitting position with grab rails to help them transfer from a wheelchair to the shower seat and back again. The grab bars also act as steadying handles and are there to assist with movement as well as to maximize safety.

So there you see the differences between the two types of shower enclosures and why things are the way they are with regards to handicapped shower stalls.

My Health Today

Handicap Shower Accessories

2009-04-25T19:53:00.003+02:00

It would be remiss of me to write a health related blog without talking about mobility issues that concern people with disabilities. There are many of these and cramming them all together in one post would not do them justice, so I believe it is a good idea to dedicate several posts to this side of the health spectrum that not too many bloggers cover in any great detail.

This post will get things started by looking at one room in the home in particular that can be a welcoming haven for getting cleaned up or a nightmare collection of accidents waiting to happen. I mean the bathroom. An in particular the shower enclosure in the bathroom.

This is all about the need for maximum accessibility, especially for wheelchair users to be able to get in and out of the shower easily without mishap and to be able to enjoy a shower in comfort with ample grab rails to keep the ship steady.

Handicap shower accessories come in all sorts and are designed especially for the needs of people with disabilities. There are shower seats that are specially designed to be non slip, sturdy and be able to take the weight of a grown adult without collapsing as some cheaper shower seats are prone to do. There are shower curtains of good quality that are made to last while being resistant to stains, heat, tearing etc and shower curtain rails strong and sturdy enough to take their additional weight.

There are many different types of shower soap and shampoo holders, racks, towel racks and holders, permanent non-fogging mirrors, molded water retainers that are flexible for wheelchairs to easily run over but will keep the water inside the shower enclosure where it should be.

All these things are necessary handicap shower accessories that make the using of a shower that much more civilized and comfortable for people who need them. Ok, that's where we'll leave it for this outing, but in future posts I'll be looking at other mobility issues. See you then.

My Health Today

Allergy Asthma

2009-03-27T15:55:00.005+01:00

Hi everyone! I'm back here at "My Health Today" this time with a look at some of the modern triggers that can set off allergy asthma from a lay person's standpoint.

This is completely unscientific and totally unfounded, but not without a good smattering of educated guessing as to some of the glaringly obvious causes of one of the latest epidemics to affect 21st century people in ever greater numbers. Especially young people, which is the most upsetting part of this whole thing.

One of the most frightening things you can observe is your own child gasping for breath for no apparent reason and feeling helpless in the face of what could be a life threatening allergy asthma attack. So what is it that has caused this terrible disease to spiral out of control and affect so many people?

You might notice that health officials and government ministers will not be giving away anything useful, especially if it comes even close to the truth. So we, the mere mortals, the plebs and peasants that make up this fair land will have to figure it out by ourselves.

Isn't it lucky we aren't all as stupid as most government ministers thinks we are!

Let's see now, the rate of increase of:

1. automobiles on our streets, especially the rise in those burning diesel fuel might prompt one to equate it with the steep rise in the number of allergy asthma patients. No? Well, I think yes.

2. the use of pesticides and other noxious chemicals sprayed on our food crops. Fruit and vegetables, the mainstay of a healthy lifestyle are all poisoned with a cocktail of God knows how many different flavours of bug killing potions. So they may have been tested individually for toxicity, but where are the reports to prove that combined they are not responsible for not just the rise in asthma cases?

3. construction of concrete based buildings. Didn't think of that one, huh? Well, cement contains lime, which is known as being very, very bad for the lining of the lungs. Portland cement dust particles are so fine that they can pass through a filter through which even water cannot pass. This dust gets kicked up into the air very easily and is distributed across the country by the wind. To breathed in by our children. Nice.

4. pollutants in our water that leech into drinking water sources from industrial works and, surprise surprise, the spraying of crops. This pollution includes phosphates and nitrates present in chemical fertilizers. It also includes herbicides (weedkiller to us plebs!) and fungicides (think anti-athletes foot).

5. aviation and the cheap air rides. Yep, all that extra flying time put in by the budget airlines means ever more aircraft in the sky. They all have to be fuelled by something and that something is good old aviation spirit (a derivative of oil, like a fine petroleum spirit). This produces carcinogenic exhaust gases just like cars and trucks, except it floats down on us from above.

Ok, that's enough from me. I think these several points provide us with plenty of reasons why asthma is on the rise. You just have to think it through yourself with common sense to see why things are the way they are. You don't need some smiling, smirking, cheesy faced politician to tell you a bunch of bare faced lies and wrap them up as the truth to see it for yourself. Unless of course you really are as stupid as the very same politicians think you are.

Which of course I don't believe for one second.

My Health Today

Acne Treatment

2009-02-07T13:06:00.004+01:00

There are many aspects to health and so much to write about it often gets tough to know in which direction to go next! My last post Gout Remedies, looked at gout treatments etc mainly because it is something I suffer with from time to time, so I know plenty about it. A subject that I also happen to know a fair deal about is acne, as I suffered pretty badly with it as a teenager, but it managed to stick with me throughout my twenties as well, which was not much fun.

So as you can imagine, I sought out just about every known acne treatment I could lay my hands on. Most of them were useless, some were downright dangerous, whilst others actually helped in various degrees. Here's a shortlist lowdown on what worked and what didn't for me. You have to remember that everyone is different and that what will work for one person may not work for another...

First off were all the cosmetic face washes and creams. Most of them did a good job of drying my skin, which of course cut down on the greasiness and went some way to preventing spots, although I was never convinced they really did much good as acne is primarily caused by a hormone imbalance or by bad diet rather than oily skin. So in the end all I was left with was incredibly dry, flaky skin which ended up being just as embarrassing as the acne it was meant to cure.

So that meant looking at diet, but when you're a teenager, do you give a rat's arse about what you eat? Not bloody likely! Hamburgers, pizzas, chips, oh yeah, brink it all on baby! Sweets, fizzy drinks like lemonade, cola etc, chocolate, cakes, biscuits. Yep, everything that is absolutely terrible for your health just happens to be most teenager's staple diet. trying to cut out any of that was incredibly difficult, although I did notice a difference after a while. My weight, while not excessive went down some as well, so it was a double win-win.

Lastly, the hormone imbalance was something that I never got to the bottom of and eventually age did its thing and the acne went all on its own. I'm guessing that as my age increased, my diet overall improved and so my hormones settled down to where they should be.

So my own personal experience is that most acne treatment methods that you go and buy didn't work for me at all. Natural acne treatment methods like good diet, exercise and drinking lots of plain water rather than fizzy drinks is the key to reducing the problem as far as possible as it all ties in and allows your body's hormone levels to balance out better.

So there you have it in a walnut shell.

Terry Didcott
My Health Today

Gout Remedies

2008-12-17T11:05:00.005+01:00

Gout remedies are few and far between, but its worth mentioning what we do know so that you have at least something to work with. My last post on gout Battling with Gout, covered a little of my last battle with gout, an attack I suffered during the summer this year that lasted almost 3 months and was probably the worst I'd ever suffered.

It then makes sense to continue this information on with some of the gout remedies that are known to have at least some effect in reducing the symptoms, but more importantly in preventing another attack. Prevention is better than cure so avoiding gout in the first place has to be the main aim.

We know for a fact that gout is caused by excess uric acid in the bloodstream and that levels of over 7 ppm are considered enough to trigger an attack of gout. Uric acid levels rise in the blood for a variety of reasons and will be different from person to person, so there are no set rules to follow, just guidelines that may or may not work for you. I can only speak from personal experience here, so that has to be the best I can do and if things are different for you then you'll have to work them out yourself. But some things are common with all gout sufferers, so I'll go through them.

Stress, I believe is the number one cause or trigger for a gout attack in me personally. When combined with eating the wrong foods, I believe this is a pretty powerful combination that raises uric acid levels above 7 ppm and then BAM! I get hit with an attack.

Cutting out the bad foods is a way of reducing the chances of getting to that stage, so I avoid anything that is considered high in purines, other wise known as gout foods. These are foods such as shellfish, anchovies, asparagus, offal, bacon and a few others that seem to trigger it in me such as mushrooms, prawns, cauliflower, tomatoes, salmon, red meat, turkey, red kidney beans. I've also cut down drastically on alcohol and all dairy produce, meat in general and stay away from the spicy foods that I love. I also drink around 2 litres of plain water a day (filtered).

But even doing all this is not enough sometimes and I still get hit with gout. So stress is the only deciding factor that I can see that prevents me avoid gout.

Probably the best known gout treatment is allopurinol, but this one is not for me, as I refuse to take drugs and there are side effects to this one that are at variance with my own way of being. I have also run afoul of taking aspirin as it impairs kidney function. The kidneys need to be working at peak efficiency as this is essential for the body to remove excess uric acid from the bloodstream.

Same goes for alcohol.

While it doesn't cause uric acid levels to rise in itself, alcohol does compete in the kidneys for elimination which also impairs their ability to remove uric acid.

I've written a comprehensive article on another recent discovery of mine in my own personal battle with gout that could possibly be one of the gout remedies that seems to work for me. You can read it at A Natural Cure for Gout? and it may surprise you with what it unearths.

You can avoid gout if you keep an eye on what you're eating, make sure you drink plenty of water every day, keep alcohol levels within safe levels or simply cut right down to as little as possible and avoid stress. Ok, that last one is not so easy in this day and age, but try you must for I believe it is probably the biggest trigger to producing gout symptoms that there is.

Well, that's all for now. I'll be back again soon with more health info on such subjects that crop up in my own little world, so be sure to check back to see what's new here.

Terry Didcott
My Health Today

General Health Talk

2008-09-29T07:15:00.003+02:00

Following my last post about the joys of Battling with Gout, especially the health aspect of the disease and how it severely reduces your ability to exercise, I'm going to move on to a more general health talk and see what comes out of these writings and today's particular demented train of healthy thought!

There is nothing really wrong with what I am saying. There’s nothing you cannot do. But that argument doesn't hold water. Exercising is a great way to tone up. So far I have avoided going too strongly with easy weight loss tips. This is one of the toughest dieting and nutrition routines I have found. How to get healthy can be a simple technique especially when taking on some good fitness and exercise to improve your stamina. Now that's an absolute fact.

Why would one go through this effort? I incorrectly am doomed to fancy dieting and nutrition. It's now or never, well this is nothing new. You will benefit a lot. What are the best general health strategies? I’m trying to learn all I can about all the great easy weight loss tips and how to exercise properly, as it needs a professional image.

A good diet built with general health centered around some natural health remedies is the easiest thing. General health can give you a new perspective. There are the obvious fitness and exercise so that do know what to expect because there are many that are found online. I've glottal put your foot down. Consistency is a key part of general health. You can't use general health to find its place. You will never know if you don’t try. The regular readers here already know this. I refuse to be a slave to it. Go figure. Monkey see monkey do. This is the plain truth. What are you doing when that happens to you? I don't know if this working for me but I will try it. Save your time.

Consistency is yet another key part of general health. We have to really look at fitness and exercise, as you will benefit a lot if you want to be a weight loser. I know it sounds ridiculously time consuming but how to get healthy is worth it. There’s nothing like enjoyment to motivate a person. Everyone is happy about this. There may be more to fitness and exercise. Most of my regular readers already know this. It’s never too much trouble. I don't want to throw a wet blanket on the idea. Let me make this clear. People will desire general health if you are part of the community.

I had always found that if I actually made less how to exercise that I would get more dieting and nutrition. Everyone will tell you about general health. Why should you expect good diet to increase in value? I will teach you how to use good health. You shouldn't even make an attempt at it. Like they say, if the shoe fits, wear it. I need to stop and smell the roses.

Anyhow, that's where I am at right now. I still have to do the right thing. Easy weight loss tips are world class. You can eat practically what you like and still lose weight. It's cutting edge. Generally you can't use how to exercise to be left behind. I am promoting how to lose weight easily. How to get healthy may have me over a barrel. Things are not always as they seem. You have to stop and take in all that the good health. I want you to contemplate that eating too much of the stuff will make you fat. It's all part of the learning curve. Take a deep breath. Sounds simple, but it’s not. This is a time tested method beginning with good health and climbing those stairs will really help you to actually spend the time with how to exercise using what you can when you can.

Terry Didcott
My Health Today

Battling with Gout

2008-09-04T10:41:00.005+02:00

Battling with gout has been my latest not-so fun pastime! My last post "Weight Loss Tips", might be useful to anyone with this condition as gout can be very debilitating which leads to loss of mobility, which has the knock on effect of, yep, you guessed it, weight gain!

In my own case, this has not been to pronounced, as my own weight stays fairly stable at a reasonable 79 kilos, which for my height (1.75 metres) and medium build is only just teetering over the border from ok to heavy. Also lucky for me a lot of that weight is made up of muscle and not too much fat, as I am a pretty active person what with working on building sites and in gardens a few days a week as part of my off-line work.

That is of course until a particularly severe gout attack put a stop to that activity a couple of months ago that seriously affected my previously good health. When it attacks the gout symptoms that appear are swelling of the joints in the feet where the pain is excruciating and makes walking almost impossible, as every step taken is a fresh wave of pain. What made it worse was that the swelling and pain was in both feet, affecting several joints in the toes as well as the ankles. This made it almost impossible to walk on some days when the gout symptoms were at their worst.

What is Gout?

Battling with gout is synonymous with battling against a rise in the levels of uric acid in the bloodstream, as this is what triggers an attack of gout. The excess uric acid gravitates to the joints to neutralise, as joints and bones are alkaline. The acid forms crystals inside the joints between the moving parts which damages the soft synovial membrane and destroys the synovial fluid. The body sees these crystals as foreign bodies and triggers the immune response of flooding the area with histamines to counter the perceived attack. This is what causes the swelling and what also makes it so difficult to reduce as the immune response of course cannot repel the invaders.

After a period ot time, the body normalises and the uric acid levels return to normal. When that happens, the uric acid still present in the bloodstream (and yes, it does need to be there) flushes out the crystals from the affected joints. When this happens, a secondary milder gout attack can occur as the body's immune response goes into action once again and causes more swelling. This is usually short lived and the body soon returns to normal.

Ok, now I'm over it but have really been left in a bad way because of it. Being forced to remain fairly immobile for over 8 weeks has weakened my muscles and stiffened all my joints so its taking me a while to get back into my routine of walking the dogs every day and getting back into the physical work I need to do.

Not much fun, but necessary if I want to make sure that I don't start putting on weight that will be hard to shift again. Well, I found a good weight loss tips info page online that is useful and worth a read through. Other than that, after reading about it, I guess the most important thing is to do something about it, which means getting off my backside and moving my aging carcass some more!

We'll see how things pan out...

Terry Didcott
My Health Today

Weight Loss Tips

2008-08-06T19:19:00.005+02:00

Moving on following the last post Living With Good Health, where I talked about how good heath is often such an important factor in anyone's life, I think its time to get on to another important health factor and that's weight. Or more particular, weight loss.

Weight loss is a fashionable buzz word that has been around for decades and is a relentlessly albeit often unsuccessfully pursued goal for millions of people worldwide. To furnish this truly enormous market, which is really the only way to describe it, a whole jungle of weight loss products, pills and potions have been "invented" and flooded onto the high street stores and online as well.

As for the value of any of these weight loss products, the proof of the pudding has certainly been seen in their overall failure to put even the slightest dent in the ever growing worldwide obesity figures. Fad diets don't work in the long run because people simply do not stick to them long enough. So what weight loss tips are there that actually stand any chance of working for Mr or Mrs Average?

Well, mostly the general consensus is to do some daily light exercise for at least half an hour (more is better) and simply be sensible about what you eat.

Well, what did you expect? A miracle?

Miracles do not exist when it comes to weight loss. Only common sense and a little determination and urgency are needed and for anyone wanting to lose weight, that means getting off your backside, getting your mind into positive mode and DOING IT!!!

No one is going to do it for you, only you can lose the extra weight you have accumulated all by yourself. Think on this... no one made you put on weight except yourself. So who do you think is responsible for getting rid of that excess weight you no longer need? Yep, you are!

So no more looking for magic pills or the latest diet fads or crazes. Forget them because they might work for the person who invented them, but that doesn't mean they'll work for you. Remember, everyone is different and what works for one person does not work for another.

What will work for you is your own gumption, motivation and desire to be at your correct weight and then once you're in the right frame of mind, then you will start to work at it all by yourself, because that's the only way it's going to work for you!

Weight loss tips? That's all of them my friend!

Until next time...

Terry Didcott
My Health Today

Living With Good Health

2008-04-25T21:21:00.007+02:00

I do apologise for the long gap in posting to this blog, but time got away from me with so many other things going on that I just didn't have the time. So moving on from the previous post Health Show Source Today Crohns Disease, (ok, ignore the christmas one) where we looked at getting a natural cure for Crohns Disease, we'll get back on track and talk about health.

Health in general from a natural standpoint. Actually I want to talk about your health by mentioning an affliction that I have overcome through taking responsibility for my own well being.

Gout has plagued me since my early 30s along with arthritis but I did manage to beat that almost 99% of the way. I still get the odd twinge of pain here and there, but on the whole, I'm fully mobile, can take the dogs for long walks in the countryside, work on building sites and do gardening as well as still play my guitar / thankfully my finger were never affected.

But most of my problems were in my feet, ankles and knees and also in my spine.

Those problems have been dealt with using only natural cures that are available for anyone who wants to take responsibility for their own health. I changed my diet to cut out all junk food, red meat, fizzy drinks and a whole host of other bad stuff that I didn't really need. I cut down on alcohol, stopped smoking and took more exercise.

Now I lead as normal a life as most moderately fit and healthy 48 year olds.

So getting healthy and overcoming something like arthritis naturally without resorting to drugs is really a state of mind. You have to be determined to get well and be healthy and you have to take responsibility for doing that yourself. It also helps to watch your weight, so if you can lose weight in your lunch break, then there are many ways to do that. You could even look at the possibilities of using herbs for weight loss as whatever works for you has to be good.

And therein lies the main problem. Most people do not want to take responsibility for their health, which is absolutely crazy, but there it is. Most people would rather go see their doctor and have him or her prescribe some magic pill to make them better.

How gullible human beings can be!

While doctors do a lot of good and I'm not bashing the medical profession at all here, I'm annoyed that so many people just will not admit to themselves that the reason they are unwell is mainly down to the lifestyle they lead. So when they get sick, they expect their poor doctor to come up with the solution for them every time. Often, doctors are exasperated at the sheer stupidity of some people.

Take the habitual drunk who spends more of his conscious time inebriated than sober, then after 20 years of this abuse, he feels sick and sees his doctor who tells him if he doesn't stop drinking he will kill himself. The drunk doesn't want to hear this. he wants to hear that he is just a little under the weather and can the doctor please give him some pills to make him feel better.

Think I'm, making that up?

Nope. It happens more than you realize and not just for drunks, but for drug takers, fast food addicts, smokers, in fact anyone who abuses their body and expects to stay healthy for alll of their lives.

The only way to get healthy and stay healthy is to take responsibility for your own health.

If you smoke, quit smoking.

If you drink too much, quit drinking.

If you take drugs, stop taking them.

If you eat nothing but junk food, swicth your diet to good wholesome, home cooked food.

If you sit around all day on a computer then go and sit on the sofa and watch TV when your finished, get up off your lazy behind and get outside and walk fast for half an hour or so. If you have dogs, they really are your best friend as they'll save your life by making you walk them for exercise.

There are so many things you can do to fix your problem but you have to do it for yourself as no one else can do it for you.

So there.

Terry Didcott
My Health Today

Happy Christmas Everbody

2007-12-24T23:09:00.000+01:00

Here's wishing everyone a really happy, healthy Christmas and a very prosperous and fit 2008

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

My Health Today

Health Show Source Today Crohns Disease

2007-12-22T07:38:00.001+01:00

Health show source today: Following on from our previous post entitled Health Show Source Today, where we brought you the first ebook review in our mini-series of health related ebook reviews, we'll continue with the second review for your information.

We'll stick to our mini-course title of Health Show Source Today, as it reflects the fact that it is a health show and that we're giving you the information from our source today!

Health Show Source Today

So, without further ado, here is our second health ebook review:

Crohn's Disease is no joke if you are a sufferer. The ongoing bouts of diarrhea and abdominal pains that literally take your breath away whenever you eat a meal are a constant reminder of the sheer misery of Crohn's disease.

It can affect your entire life. It can wreck relationships. It can destroy everything you've lived for.

The terrible and debilitating pain that doctors don't really have a solution to, save for surgery and that is still no guarantee of recovery from this awful disease.

However, the Breakthrough Crohns Disease Guide changes all that. It really does offer a completely natural way to beat this awful condition and the best part is that it does it without drugs or pills and definitely not surgery. You can click this link:Alternative Cures to find out more!

I'll bet you're glad we're doing this health show source today!

My Health Today

Technorati Profile

Health Show Source Today

2007-12-20T15:08:00.000+01:00

Health show source today: Following on from our last post entitled Health Information Foreward, where we outlined our intention to bring you a mini-series of health related ebook reviews, we're proud to present our first review for your information.

We've decided to give our mini-course a title to distinguish from the rest out there while still keeping it withing the health bounds of our theme. So the title of our mini series is Health Show Source Today, reflecting the fact that it is a health show and we're giving you the information direct from our source today!

Health Show Source Today

So, here is our first health ebook review:

There great thing about this first offering is that it comes courtesy of a FREE five day mini email course that is going to show you many different reasons why you may not be able to get pregnant - even after you've been trying for several months or even years.

The Fertility Secrets Handbook is a no-nonsense, straight to the point mine of information outlining why you haven't been able to conceive and a whole host of simple things you can do to put that right.

You've got nothing to lose with this one, either, because it's free.

That's right, you can sign up for the email course completely free with no obligation. So if you want to have the information you really deserve about getting pregnant for absolutely nothing, you won't be disappointed!

CLICK HERE to get details of how to sign up to this great freebie!

So that's our health show source today, all wrapped up in a free introduction that you simply have to take a look at for yourself.

Now aren't you glad we started our health show source today!

My Health Today

Health Information Foreward

2007-12-20T14:59:00.001+01:00

Following straight on from our first post entitled My Health Today, welcoming you to this blog and all the health information that it will be providing over the course of its life, I'd like to begin with a small mini-series on health related books that might be of interest to the health conscious amongst you.

This mini series will consist of several mini reviews of some very useful health and health related ebooks that have a real place in anyone's healthy lifestyle. They have been chosen for review because we believe that our reviews will give you the information you'll need to make an informed decision as to whether the book is just perfect for your needs, or not as the case may be. They may be on the health benefits of certain foods or drinks, certain fruits or vegetables and many other things besides. You may be surprised at some of the choices, such as chocolate for eating your way to good health rather than all the negative press it used to get. Or the intriguing health benefits that drinking green tea can bring that you would not have expected.

So starting with the next post, we'll bring you the first of our featured health ebook reviews for your information and maybe even for you to add to your library of reading material for a better, more healthy lifestyle.

See what you think when the next post turns up very soon...

My Health Today

My Health Today

2007-12-20T14:55:00.000+01:00

Welcome to My Health Today, the new health blog set up to promote a healthy lifestyle and good health for everyone.

The main theme of course is good health, so we'll be bringing you plenty of health related articles, posts and information all related to health and healthy living.

So if you're interested in the state of your health and want to learn more of what makes your body tick and what will keep you looking young, fit and healthy, this is the resource that will fit it perfectly with your own health conscious way of life.

So enjoy good health!

My Health Today