How Crohn’s Disease Affects People Who Suffer From It
June 30, 2009
How Crohn’s Disease Affects People Who Suffer From It
by: Sarah Jenkins
Crohn’s Disease is a difficult disorder for those that suffer from it, both physically and mentally. This disorder causes inflammation of the intestines, which can be very painful, as well as other physical side effects that can be wearisome emotionally.
In the list of physical side effects associated with Crohn’s Disease there are diarrhea, abdominal pain and cramping, ulcers, intestinal bleeding, loss of appetite, and malnutrition. Basically, what takes place is the intestines swell; as a result, certain areas of the walls develop sores which bleed; the inflammation is painful as well as the ulcers that form. Because during the swelling process excess water and salt are released, sufferers experience diarrhea as the body tries to expel extra fluid.
All of the physical characteristics of Crohn’s Disease are painful and challenging. However, dealing with the pain of a chronic illness is often detrimental to one’s mental state as well.
Misconceptions regarding the cause of Crohn’s Disease also fuel the emotional distress of sufferers. For years, people have been inaccurately told emotions play a role in Crohn’s Disease and other inflammatory bowel disorders - either that it was a figment of their imaginations or brought on by mental unstableness; neither of which are true.
How to Become the Type of Dieter who Succeeds
June 29, 2009
How to Become the Type of Dieter who Succeeds
by: Janice Elizabeth Small
Are you the kind of dieter who starts full of enthusiasm embracing a new plan on day 1 yet falling by the wayside a few weeks or months later?
Or are you a dabbler - someone who tries a bit of this plan a bit of that and never really gets anywhere?
Or are you someone who gets to your target weight, more or less keeping to your diet, and then ditches it with glee only to put all the weight back on again?
It doesn’t matter what type of dieter you have been in the past, you can be successful from now on, but you will need a change in approach. After all, if the ways you’ve tried to lose weight and keep it off in previous attempts haven’t worked for you, chances are they never will.
How do the people who succeed at losing weight actually do it?
Among my coaching clients I have established four factors that make a huge difference (and you don’t even need a coach to put them in place). You become the type of dieter who loses weight permanently by:-
Dieters : When Moderation Doesn’t Work
June 28, 2009
Dieters : When Moderation Doesn’t Work
by: Janice Elizabeth Small
If there’s one habit which will make you lose weight more than any other it’s reducing the amount you eat by eating only when you are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied rather than stuffed.
You can usually lose weight with this habit no matter what type of foods you eat - because we are generally eating far too much of everything these days.
The temptation to eat too much is everywhere. Standard portion sizes have grown out of all proportion to our needs so that the mini muffins of today were the standard size of a few years ago. A “tall” coffee is the smallest size you can get. Snack foods come in multi-packs and jumbo bars. We get mounds of food served up to us in restaurants and we are generally serving bigger portions at home too. You simply get used to indulging in an amount of food you can do without.
The Importance of Nutrition and Lifestyle
June 28, 2009
Eating healthy and taking care of yourself is essential to obtain optimal wellness. Most people roll their eyes or moan when confronted with these ideas, but, in reality, taking care of yourself is not as hard, time consuming, expensive, or dull as most would have you believe. In fact, once people decide to choose a healthy life, they notice more energy, increased self-confidence, more time to do things that really matter, and they spend less time in the doctor’s office or hospital. It is less expensive to buy organic foods and shop for most items at a health food store than it is to buy candy, soda, chips, pizza, alcohol, and cigarettes.
Not only do people consume less food on a healthy diet (you really can’t just eat one Pringle), they help their bodies to become stronger and more able to fight disease, which makes their health costs lower as well. The foods are not dull or tasteless either. It does depend on what you like, but, in general, unprocessed and whole foods right from the garden (or produce section) are the tastiest and most satisfying. If you don’t like fresh snap peas, maybe you’ve not had them done right!
Top 10 Tips to Stay Motivated for your Exercise Program
June 27, 2009
Top 10 Tips to Stay Motivated for your Exercise Program
by: Janice Elizabeth Small
1. Know your Reasons
Think about why you want to exercise and write down every reason you can think of. Explain in full detail what working out is going to do for your life and your health. And reread your list whenever your motivation needs a boost.
2. Set Daily and Weekly Goals
Although it’s good to think big, don’t just set yourself a long-term goal because it can seem too distant from where you are now. If you have a daily or weekly challenge then you have something to achieve and motivate you right here, right now. Make sure your goals are just a little bit stretching - doing too much too soon is a prime cause of injury and exercise drop-out.
3. Track Your Progress
Keep a log of all your workouts. It’s amazing how quickly your fitness will improve and seeing your progress in black and white will help spur you on to keep going. Even in the early days when the going is tough and you might not have noticed any changes in your body and fitness levels an activity log gives you something to be proud of.
10 Things You Must Know About Fat Loss
June 26, 2009
10 Things You Must Know About Fat Loss
by: Gary Matthews
Ever wondered why there are so many diets around out there and people are just getting fatter and fatter. We now know that fad and repeat dieting don’t work, so what does!
I have put together 10 fat loss tips below and if followed will make things a lot easier for you on your road to fat loss.
Lets have a look at a few:
Burn Fat: Lift Weights - Muscle determines the speed of your metabolism - the speed of your metabolism depends on how much muscle you have. That’s why men burn fat faster than women… They have more muscle. Women could burn fat faster if they had more muscle.
Women are scared to lift weights because they will get bigger muscles!!
If only this was were the case. Women do not have the hormone levels to build big muscles, however they can replace the muscle tissue lost through years of crazy dieting, irregular eating habits and age.
Yes everybody is losing muscle, every year; every decade because we are getting older, but only people who let their muscles waste away have slower metabolisms as they get older.
Crohn’s Disease and Colorectal Cancer - What’s The Link
June 25, 2009
Crohn’s Disease and Colorectal Cancer - What’s The Link
by: Sarah Jenkins
If you have Crohn’s Disease, should you be more worried about developing colon cancer? The answer, unfortunately, is yes. Many of the forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disorder (IBD) have shown an increase in the risk of colon cancer. However, having Crohn’s Disease does not emphatically mean you will develop cancer; in fact, 90% of IBD patients do not acquire cancer.
A link has been shown to exist between Crohn’s Disease and an increased chance of developing cancer; however, this risk is greatly increased if you have had IBD for an extensive period of time, such as 8-10 years, and it affects the entirety of your colon. If, on the other hand, only a small part of your colon is involved and you have not had the disease for a long period of time, you are less likely to develop cancer. Likewise, if Crohn’s does affects other areas of your digestive tract and not your colon, you are at less risk. Unfortunately, inactive Crohn’s Disease is just as likely to develop colon cancer as the active disorder. Therefore, the original onset of symptoms matters more than the frequency or intensity of flare-ups.
Planning a Healthy Pregnancy
June 24, 2009
Looking for healthy lifestyle pregnancy information? Here are some steps for planning a pregnancy with your healthy lifestyle in mind.
The most important step in planning for a healthy pregnancy is getting you healthy. This means quitting use of tobacco products, illegal drugs and alcohol. Most doctors also advise limiting caffeine intake. A pre-pregnancy physical exam is also vitally important. Your health issues and medical history, as well as family history, will all have a bearing on the health of your baby, so discuss these issues with your doctor before conception. Your doctor may suggest a blood test to screen for some types of genetic disorders, and a review of conditions that may require special care during a pregnancy, like diabetes, should be reviewed.
You should begin watching what you eat, remember, your diet will be nourishing your baby too! Eat a balanced diet and begin taking prenatal vitamins, especially folic acid, before you conceive to make sure that the developing baby will be getting all the nutrition it needs. Your doctor can prescribe these vitamins during your pre-pregnancy exam. In addition to eating well, you should exercise regularly and get plenty of rest. Although pregnancy is usually a time of weight gain, try to manage your weight to avoid complications like high blood pressure and diabetes during the pregnancy. Making healthy eating a habit prior to conception will help to control your weight gain.
Weight Loss Magic
June 23, 2009
Weight Loss Magic
by: Janice Elizabeth Small
Even if I could wave my weight loss coach’s little magic wand and make you instantly slimmer I would not do it - no matter how much you begged or pleaded. It’s not because I want to keep you overweight and make you unhappy but because I want to see you succeed - permanently.
A magic wand would simply do you no good at all! You would just be back for another wave of the wand in a month or two when you had eaten yourself overweight again. You would be there with your tail between your legs, feeling like a failure, asking “How could I let myself get into this state again?”. But without a change in lifestyle and attitude, it’s natural that you would get right back to where you were before.
In any case, I don’t have a magic wand to offer you - no one does. There is no safe and effective magic pill, potion or patch out there, no matter what the ads say, so quit putting your faith in these things and spending your hard earned cash on every so-called miracle solution.
The Macronutrient Balancing Act
June 23, 2009
Finally, dieters and healthy eaters everywhere have reason to rejoice, for there is a clear understanding of which fats, and which carbohydrates should be eaten for optimal health.
For too long, healthy eaters with a range of diet or weight loss goals were provided with confusing, sometimes counterproductive information with respect to carbohydrates and fats. For example, one the one hand, many eaters were told that carbohydrates were unhealthy causes of weight-gain, and should be avoided. Yet on the other hand, these same people were provided with carbohydrate-laden nutritional supplements, or worse, nutritional supplements that were little more than containers for low quality, incomplete protein. And as for fats? fats were seen as the enemy and to be avoided at all costs; this despite the fact that unsaturated fat is required by the body for optimal health.
But now, finally, there is clear and consistent scientific research that concludes carbohydrates and fats are essential parts of a healthy diet. After all, carbohydrates and fats are fully-fledged macronutrients, and along with protein provide the foundation for optimal body system functioning.
