Apr 07
Owen JonesUncategorized Abdomen, advice, Age Group, Alterations, Aro, Bloating, Change Shape, diet, Eating Habits, Excess Weight, exercise, Fact That Some People, family, Female Hormone Estrogen, fitness, health, Heart Disease, Hormonal Changes, Low Estrogen, Menopausal Symptoms, Menopause, mens issues, nutrition, other, outdoors, Ovulation, recipes, Risk Of Heart Disease, Supplements, Uncategorized, Water Retention, Weight Gain, women's issues, Younger Women
Studies of women aged fifty and over reveal that most women in this age group are convinced that their weight gain is connected with the menopause in their judgment. If you take into account the fact that some people might be using this as an excuse and that others may not have made allowances in their diet for decreased levels of activity due to lifestyle alterations, it is still difficult to account for why women in this age group have a tendency to put excess weight on different parts of the body, especially the stomach, whereas any weight gained in younger women tends to be on the hips.
In fact, the reality is that hormonal changes do have a role to play in this phenomenon, although the process is not completely understood. At menopause a woman stops ovulating, her monthly menstruation periods come to an end, and her body produces much lower levels of the female hormone estrogen, which is responsible for the ovulation process.
Low estrogen has been shown to cause weight increase in animals and it is almost definitely the reason why women’s bodies change shape. While women of childbearing age store fat in the lower body, after the menopause they store it on the abdomen instead, like men. This leads to a greater risk of heart disease.
At the same time, both men and women tend to find muscle turning to fat as they grow older and the metabolism slows down. This means that if you do not adjust your eating habits, you will most likely find that your weight increases. A person of 60 just does not need as many calories as a person of 40.
Hormonal therapy with estrogen is sometimes prescribed to control menopausal symptoms. Many women will be astonished to hear that studies have shown that hormonal therapy does not result in weight increase. Some women experience bloating and water retention in the early stages of hormonal therapy but this is usually temporary.
Hormonal therapy can reduce the risk of heart disease by preventing the changes in storage of body fat around the abdomen and lowering cholesterol. On the other hand, hormonal therapy has been linked with an increased risk of breast cancer in some studies.
If you find that you are gaining weight around the menopause, there are several things you can do.
Firstly, you should eat a healthy, low fat diet with plenty of fibre and avoid sugar.
Secondly, you have to take regular exercise. As people get older their physical activity levels naturally go down. Work frequently becomes less physically demanding, there are no kids to run around after, we take less active holidays and do things more slowly. Thirty minutes of reasonable physical activity every day will help to balance out the effect of this.
Thirdly. you must preserve your muscle strength and mass. Use weights for arm muscles and walking or cycling for your legs.
Fourthly, try not to get worried about the alterations to the shape of your body. If you are not too overweight, but simply have a thicker waist and slimmer legs, then don’t worry.
As usual, you ought to consult your doctor before commencing any exercise routine, if you have any medical conditions or if your fitness levels are low. Your doctor can also help with symptoms of the menopause and weight increase.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with how to lose weight online. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?
Apr 06
Owen JonesUncategorized advice, Calorie Count, Cardiac Issues, cardio, diet, Dietitians, exercise, family, Fashionable Clothing, fitness, Food Intake, Fresh Fruit And Vegetables, Fruit And Vegetables, health, Healthy Weight Loss Diet Plan, Meat And Fish, mens issues, nutrition, other, outdoors, Rapid Movement, recipes, Rule Of Thumb, Sleep Apnea, Style Diet, Sugar Rush, Supplements, Three Quarters, Uncategorized, Weight Loss Diet, Weight Loss Diet Plan, White Meat, Whole Grain Cereals, Whole Wheat Bread, women's issues
If you decide that you want to keep to a traditional style diet, as a rule of thumb, you ought to find a weight loss plan that is rich in fresh fruit and vegetables; low-fat dairy products; white meat and fish; whole grain cereals and plenty of drinking water and by that I mean at least eight to ten 250mm glasses a day.
Being heavy can cause a lot of other issues, in addition it being a problem in its own right. Obesity makes rapid movement, stretching and reaching difficult. Surplus sweating can be an embarrassment and it can result in chaffing. The range of fashionable clothing available can be constrained too. In addition to these problems, studies have shown that being overweight invariably leads to health problems such as hypertension, cardiac issues, sleep apnea and diabetes.
The only solution to this bundle of problems is to lose those spare pounds around your waist by embarking on a healthy weight loss diet plan and following it faithfully. I will give you a few general pointers below to help you slim down and decrease the risk of spending your latter years running in and out of hospital.
Nearly all of the traditional weight loss diet plans proposed by dietitians and nutritionists start with the simple exhortation to reduce your food intake to the quantity you require to carry out your every day routine. The problem is that it sounds easy, but it is one of the hardest things to do. It takes a lot of willpower on your part. However, you could start by eating and drinking three-quarters of what you normally consume. Once you can handle that, reduce the percentage again.
Try to make every calorie count. By that, I mean, if you are going to eat 200 calories, make certain that they are contained in food that will do you good and keep you feeling full. A bar of chocolate will give you a blood-sugar rush for 20-30 minutes, but a doorstep of a cheese and salad sandwich made from whole wheat bread washed down with a glass or two of water will give you plenty of fibre and vitamins and fill you up for a couple of hours.
It is always a good idea to keep a diary of what you eat and when. This way you can compare days and weeks and see what works best. It also helps if you are reducing your consumption in stages. Mark what you eat with the number of calories in that portion. If you do not know accurately, estimate it. Writing something down is better than nothing.
The next part is the part I don’t like – exercise. Regular exercise. The good news is that it does not have to be too much. Two thirty minute walks a day is quite helpful. Once in the morning and once in the evening. Or walk in your lunch time and after your evening meal. If you like, frequent visits to the fitness center are even better, but they are also easier to miss or give up altogether.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with lose weight programs. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?
Mar 31
Owen JonesUncategorized Adult, Advert, advice, Atkins, Body Time, Bottom Line, Butterfly, cardio, Chrysalis, Counting Calories, Counting Carbohydrates, Decent Food, diet, exercise, family, fitness, health, Hormones, mens issues, nutrition, other, outdoors, Philosophies, Poisons, recipes, Revolutionary Change, Suggestion, Suits, Supplements, teens, Time Of Life, Uncategorized, Weight Loss Programs, Weight Watchers, women's issues
No one has to read a study or a report to know that there are a lot of overweight or obese people in the USA and the UK. You can blame this on the food being sold or a lack of understanding, but the real bottom line is that you are the one who is putting that stuff into your mouth.
Most people do not think about it, but everyone has a choice whether to eat decent food or not. If you are seriously overweight, then you chose to allow yourself to get yourself into that state. No one else, you!
Nevertheless, there is always a way out and it is never too late. There are thousands of weight loss programs, so you should be able to find one that suits you. I made that sound easy and it should be, but people still have trouble choosing one.
My suggestion is to read the weight loss advert aloud to yourself or a friend. Does it sound laughable? Then it probably is. Dump it. The bottom line is that you can only lose weight by expending more energy than you consume. Having said that there are a couple of ways of achieving that.
The two basic methods are either counting calories or counting carbohydrates, that is Weight Watchers or Atkins. Start by going to their web sites and reading about their philosophies. Choose the one that suits you and stick to it.
One note that I would like to stress here for teens is that at your time of life your body is going through a revolutionary change. You are metamorphosing from a child to an adult and your body is filling up with hormones, you only had a little of before.
Let the change finish, before you start worrying too much. You were a bug, now you are a chrysalis and soon you will be a butterfly. Just wait and your body time to sort itself out.
There really is not much you can do to stop what your body has to do. Spots mean that you have poisons in you and your body wants to get rid of them. Help it by not putting any more junk into it. Keep your skin clean and make sure that everything that touches your skin is clean too. Hands, hair, pillow cases, et cetera.
Exercise! Now is the time to embed an exercise routine into your way of life. Exercise raises your rate of metabolism which helps you burn calories more quickly. If you can burn calories quickly, then you can allow yourself more treats.
The other point about exercise is that if you do not establish a discipline for exercise when you are young, then you will find it harder when you have your next bodily change in your forties or fifties.
The bottom line is not to worry too much about what you look like now, you are a chrysalis. Help your body out by eating healthily and take up a sport you enjoy and stick to it.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with lose weight fast and safe. If you have an interest in losing weight, too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?
Mar 26
Owen JonesUncategorized acne, advice, Alternative Medicine, beauty, cosmetics, health, how to, nutrition, other, pimples, self help, skin care, Supplements, Uncategorized
There are various kinds of acne, named according to how or why the acne started. Some of the kinds of acne are: acne conglobata (chronic boils); acne fulminans (an extreme form of conglobata); acne cosmetica (caused by cosmetics); acne keloidalis nuchae (from shaving); acne medicamentosa (caused by starting or stopping a medication); acne rosacea (redness on the face); baby acne; hormonal acne; cloracne and the common variety, acne vulgaris (also known as ‘puberty spots’). In this article, we will concentrate on acne vulgaris.
Acne vulgaris could be described as: ‘an inflammatory disease of the skin, caused by changes in the pilosebaceous units (skin structures consisting of a hair follicle and its associated sebaceous gland). Acne lesions are commonly referred to as pimples, spots or zits’ (according to Wikipedia).
Acne is most usually found in white Western teenagers, although it is to be found in every country in the world, so there could be a genetic weakness to it. It is possible that it could be an abnormal reaction to fairly average levels of testosterone. For most sufferers, outbreaks of acne last only until the age of twenty or so, probably only a few years or at the most ten. For other people, however, it may be a life-long affliction. It usually appears on the face, upper-chest, upper-arms and back. However, an occasional spot does not constitute acne.
Acne vulgaris manifests itself in different many ways, including: whiteheads, caused by pores that are completely blocked, trapping sebum (oil), bacteria, and dead skin cells, causing a white spot on the surface; blackheads, caused by pores which are only partially blocked, allowing some of the trapped sebum, bacteria, and dead skin cells to slowly drain to the surface (the black colour is not a result of dirt, but is a reaction of the skin’s own pigment, called melanin, with the oxygen in the air); papules, which are inflamed, red, tender bumps with no head and pustules, which are like whiteheads, but are inflamed, and appear as red circles with a white or yellow centre.
Whiteheads do not often last long; blackheads can last a long time and pustules are what people call spots. Severe acne vulgaris is characterized by nodules and cysts. A ‘nodule’ is a much larger and more painful sort of pustule and can often last for months. Nodules are large, hard bumps under the skin’s surface. They frequently cause scarring and should never be squeezed, which could cause them to last for months longer still.
A ‘cyst’ can look like a nodule, but it is pus-filled, and has been defined as having a diameter of at least 5mm and, again, can leave scars and cause pain. Squeezing an acne cyst may cause a deeper infection and more painful inflammation which will last very much longer than if it had been left alone. Skin experts have ways of reducing swelling and preventing scarring with both nodules and cysts. It is not true that acne sufferers are not meticulous about washing.
Indeed, it is a little-known fact that, excessive washing can irritate acne. There are many, many useless ‘treatments’ in the shops and many, many old wives’ tales. However, any honest skin expert would advise you that there is no sure-fire cure for acne and that the sufferer should follow a deliberate regimen of cleaning until the acne eventually ‘goes away’ of its own accord.
Are you experiencing trouble treating acne? If you are or you’d like to find out more about acne, please go to our website called http://treating-acne-scars.com
Mar 10
Owen JonesUncategorized business, crock pots, fitness, food, gourmet, health, hobbies, kitchen, nutrition, other, recipes, recreation, reviews, Uncategorized
When the weather outside warms up, the kitchen can be a terrible place to be. There are lots of things you can do however, when it comes to cooking a nice home made meal that does not necessitate traditional stove top or oven cooking.
Learn to utilize some of the less heat-creating equipment in your kitchen, such as the crock pot, in order to truly beat the summer heat and keep your cool while making a nice hot meal for friends and family.
So, how does crock pot cooking really help overcome the heat? Simply put, the crock pot in and of itself gives off far less heat when cooking than an oven or stove top. This is the first and possibly the best reason to make the most of the crock pot in your summer meal planning.
You should also take into account the fact that by not heating the house by using your stove top or oven you are also reducing the load on your air conditioning (or other cooling methods) so you are not requiring it to work overtime in order to make up for the additional heat that other cooking methods introduce.
This makes crock pot cooking a win-win situation as the costs involved in using a crock pot are far less than the costs involved in operating a stove or oven. Whether electric or gas, your stove and oven are serious energy users. Add to that the fact that you are not increasing the temperature in your home by traditional means of cooking and you are using even less electricity.
Regrettably, the general consensus has been that crock pots are intended for comfort foods and hearty winter meals. The truth is that the crock pot should be one of your best loved and most often utilized cooking techniques. When it comes to cooking with a crock pot, the options are almost boundless. Almost anything that can be baked can be cooked in the crock pot and many, many more wonderful and enticing meals and treats as well.
Benefits of Crock Pot Cooking
In addition to the cost advantages written above, when it comes to crock pot cooking there are many other advantages that are worth mentioning. First of all, the bulk of the work involved in crock pot cooking takes place early in the day when you are fresh rather than at the end of a hectic work or play day.
This means that you are less likely to forget an ingredient or make some other slip-up, which can undoubtedly happen when trying to cook after a hectic day.
Second, many great crock pot recipes include the vegetables that ensure that we get the nutrients we require. So often, when preparing a meal at the last minute, vegetables and other side dishes are left out for the sake of expedience. Crock pot cooking, on the other hand, is a meal in one pot.
Another great reason to use a crock pot for your summertime cooking is the ease of washing up. Unlike traditional cooking with a couple of pots and pans, most crock pot meals are completed in one pot. This obviously reduces the hardware required to be washed up or loaded into the dishwasher (or if you are the same as me – both) afterwards.
So, you spend less time cleaning up, just as you spent less time slaving over a hot stove. Well, make that no time slaving over a hot stove and once the washing up is finished, you can get back to making the most of the sun set, playing with the dog or kids, or just waiting for the first stars.
While there will never be a way of cooking that suits everyone, crock pot cooking comes pretty close. So, if you have a crock pot collecting dust somewhere in the back of your cupboard it is time to get it out, dust if off, and dig up some great summertime crock pot cooking recipes.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the 2 quart crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots
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