Health Care

by: Barbara Morris

Can't figure out where to start to improve the quality of your lifestyle? Here are some simple things to help get started. If you can follow the suggestions for a month, you will be well on your way to reducing belly fat AND establishing an anti-aging lifestyle.. It's not difficult – if you really want to do it. Remember, these are baby steps, but you have to start some place.

1. Check your fridge. If you use butter, you can use less by diluting it half-and-half with olive oil. Let a bar of butter soften to room temperature. Beat it smooth and gradually beat in an equal amount of olive oil. It will be runny but will set up to a soft spread in the fridge.

2. Rethink the mayo. If you can't live without it, make your own with olive oil. Then you will really have something worthwhile to spread on bread or to make a salad.

3. If you eat peanut butter, buy Smart Balance peanut butter for it's omega- 3 content. If you are not taking an omega-3 supplement, you should.

4. Keep a gallon bottle of water on the kitchen counter or at work. Drink at least half of it every day. Having it in plain sight will help you drink more of it.

5. Check your pantry. Don't restock chips, cookies, soda, toaster pastries, sugary breakfast "cereals" (a misnomer if ever there was one!) It's just as quick and easy to scramble a couple of eggs for breakfast as it is to wait for a pastry to toast. I know how tough it is to get rid of the nutritionally bankrupt junk, so do it in small steps if you can't do it cold turkey.

6. Substitute whole grain bread for white bread. Beware of "wheat" bread – it's probably not whole wheat. If possible, go to a whole foods market and get some real whole wheat bread. In my area, I can buy incredibly good whole grain bread from Alvarado Street Bakery. You can buy it online, and if you do, put it in the freezer the minute it arrives. Because it's "live" and preservative free, it will get moldy very quickly if you leave it out. I particularly enjoy the Alvarado sprouted whole grain bread.

7. Having a whole foods market nearby makes it easy to cut down on processed food. If you make a trip a couple of times a week you can get all the super-fresh veggies and fruit you will need to provide a healthier diet for your family. For protein, focus on chicken – preferably baked or roasted. I use a lot of ground turkey – you can prepare it so many ways. If you work and are pressed for time, many whole foods markets offer excellent take out.

You will notice I did not mention fish. I rarely buy fish because it's so difficult to get good fish. If I can't get wild salmon or other fish that hasn't been farm raised, I don't bother. I would never eat shrimp because it causes too many intestinal problems. There is another way to get the benefits of eating fish – in fish oil capsules. True, you run the risk of contamination there as well. But I think I'd rather opt for the capsules than supermarket fish that looks like it's seen better days, and probably has.

8. Skip fried anything as much as possible. And you certainly won't need your deep fat fryer anymore, so throw it away. (Well okay, give it away. But you won't be doing anyone a favor.)

9. If you are an emotional eater, eat unbuttered popcorn or dry roasted nuts, such as almonds or cashews. You can flavor popcorn with garlic salt or any seasoning of your choice. Or try spritzing on garlic flavored olive oil. Drink green tea to wash it down. Most commercial green teas are bitter or tasteless but I have found some very tasty teas at Clipper teas.

This should be more than enough to help you start to live a healthier, anti-aging lifestyle. Start with at least one step and add others as you develop a system.

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Barbara Morris is a pharmacist and author of Put Old on Hold. Visit her web site, http://www.PutOldonHold.com and sign up for her free content-rich newsletter and receive a complimentary copy of special report, "Thirteen Diva Tested Tips for Fabulous Skin."

source:searchwarp.com

by Nicholas Bowen

The increasing rate of obesity among men, women and children are causing alarm bells to ring across the world. Medical science has devoted much research into coming up with ways and means to counter this lifestyle disease. Stomach bands are one such efficient method for weight loss. It is guaranteed to enable you to lose that excess baggage around your stomach that could lead to life threatening diseases if not controlled. Competent surgeons perform this surgery, usually by using laparoscopic techniques, to implant inflatable silicon stomach bands in the abdomen of the patients. The stomach bands then form a smaller stomach bag which fills quickly with much smaller amounts of food.


The lifestyle that we are leading today induces unhealthy eating habits in the individual. It is surprising how by just controlling the input of calories we consume we can achieve amazing weight loss. The stomach bands are an example of this process. Whenever a person consumes a high level of fats in the food, the fatty tissues accumulate in the stomach. The stomach increases in size and also interferes with the regular metabolism of the body. Stomach bands when surgically placed inside the abdomen can regulate the amount of food that is consumed by the individual. It also has an outlet that slowly releases the food into the stomach and intestines. The patient then experiences fullness after eating a much smaller quantity of food. This results in dramatic weight loss.


The term 'couch potato' was also invented to describe a typical category of people who lay on the couch all day watching television, eating junk food and with the minimum movement possible. Obesity could be a strong possibility for these individuals. The advent of numerous television channels, video games, shopping malls with special entertainment zones, etc. has resulted in even the children hardly indulging in outdoor games. The high level of stress and increased work pressure hardly leaves any time for the harried individual to consume a healthy meal. As a result junk food or 'comfort food' finds their way into the stomach resulting in obese individuals with bulging stomachs. As the stomach is highly elastic it expands and shrinks with the amount of food and drinks consumed. Stomach bands could be the most effective solution that is required for weight control.


Stomach bands require a surgery that consumes very less time and involves minimum invasions which do not interfere with your digestive system or the intestinal tract. The regular eating process can be started within a short while and the food habits change automatically as the stomach bands start their work. Once the consumption is automatically curtailed and you consciously adopt a healthy eating habit, losing weight and maintaining your ideal weight becomes an easy task. The surgery is a very common procedure for weight loss in obese patients as the chances of anything going wrong is very rare. A healthy lifestyle with balanced diet and regular checkups by the experienced doctors can ensure an obese person who undergoes surgery for stomach bands, a new slim look that not only raises the confidence level but drastically cuts down the health risks.

source: www.goarticles.com

About the Author

He advises obese people about the best methods of reducing weight depending on their health and body condition. One of the reference sites he mentions regularly for information about weight loss surgery, gastric band, and stomach bands and stomach band techniques and Gastric bypass,Gastric Banding is www.gastricband.com