You've seen the name everywhere. Hoodia Gordonii has taken the weight loss world by storm. Being touted as the next miracle weight loss pill, Hoodia is now being put into everything from multivitamins to Trimspa.

But does Hoodia work?

Considering the debacle that was Ephedra, consumers are right to be cautious about this new weight loss pill. Does Hoodia actually work to help you lose weight? Does it really do what the pill manufacturers say?

Well, Hoodia has been shown to have some specific effects in the area of weight loss. But there are certain things you should know before running out to buy the latest Hoodia pill from your drug store.

Here are 3 ways Hoodia helps you lose weight and 3 other things you should know to make Hoodia work best for you.

#1) Hoodia Makes You Physically Less Hungry

Pure Hoodia contains a molecule scientists called "P57" which, they believe, is responsible for making you feel full.

Normally, when you eat food, this food turns to glucose. When the glucose in your body rises it eventually signals to your brain (the hypothalamus) that you are full.

It is believed that "P57" molecule in Hoodia mimics the effect that glucose has on your brain, telling part of your brain (the Hypothalamus) that you feel full. Consequently, you are physically less hungry.

One of the first studies of Hoodia Gordonii was done in the UK on obese patients. Half of the volunteers were given Hoodia Gordonii, the other half were given a placebo.

The subjects were allowed to do nothing but read, watch television and eat. After 15 days it was found that those taking Hoodia had reduced their calorie intake by 1000 calories a day. Despite having unlimited access to food, the Hoodia subjects lost weight without feeling hungry.

#2) Hoodia Turns Off The Desire To Overeat

Some people have reported that not only does Hoodia make them feel full, but it also shuts off their desire to eat.

As many of us know, we can feel physically satisfied but still eat for a variety of reasons like emotions, timing and social influence. In fact emotional eating is actually responsible for more overeating than physical hunger.

Hoodia can help some people lose weight by quenching this desire to eat and breaking the emotional attachment to food.

By quenching this emotional attachment to food, Hoodia can help the individual to develop new emotional coping skills that don't include using food for comfort.

Note: Hoodia may not have this effect on everyone, however many people have reported having less of a desire to eat after taking Hoodia.

#3) By Turning Off Your Appetite Hoodia Allows You To Start Making Positive, Healthy Food Choices

How many times have we planned to eat healthy and then that old, ugly hunger rears it's ugly head and demands food NOW. We end up reaching for anything that's fast, easy and usually unhealthy.

By turning off your appetite, Hoodia allows you to start to make positive, healthy food choices. It takes the pain out of building new healthier eating choices. Since you probably don't want to be on Hoodia forever, this is a great way to lose weight and transition your eating to a healthier, lighter diet - with less pain and deprivation.

So those are 3 ways Hoodia Gordonii can help you lose weight. Does that mean that it will? Not necessarily. In order for Hoodia to help you achieve your weight loss goals there are several factors you must consider:

1) Make Sure You Buy From A Pure Source.

Unfortunately, there are scam artists who are taking advantage of the current demand for Hoodia by packaging fake Hoodia, fillers or even sawdust - and then selling it as Hoodia.

Look for genuine South African Hoodia from a seller who displays both a C.I.T.E.S certificate on their website along with Lab Assays and testing of their Hoodia pills. If you're not sure about which Hoodia brand to buy, do more research until you feel comfortable with your decision.

2) Make Sure You Are Taking Enough Hoodia.

The correct dosage varies depending on whom you talk to but most people start with about 400 mg three times a day before meals. They then increase the dosage up as high as 1000 mg three times daily until they find the dose that works for them.

Also, give it several days for the Hoodia to take effect before you increase your current dose.

3) Make Sure You Consult Your Doctor Before Taking Hoodia or Making Any Change To Your Diet or Exercise Routine.

This one is a given but surprisingly many people don't do it and it can result in you wasting your time and effort for no good reason. If, for example, you have a medical condition that makes it hard to lose weight, Hoodia may not work for you as you'd hoped. Talk to your doctor before trying anything new.

So those are 3 ways Hoodia works to help you lose weight and reach your goals. Hoodia does work. Make sure you follow these suggestions and you'll be well on your way to weight loss success with Hoodia.

Vienna Miller is a contributing writer to Hoodia Review - a website giving you the latest information and tips about Hoodia Gordonii.

For more Hoodia weight loss tips visit

Warning: Side effects may include increased energy, better mood, mental clarity, renewed health, and incredible self-esteem.

Whether you're struggling with that last stubborn 10-20 pounds or considering gastric bypass surgery, this article is for you! You can achieve your beautification goals naturally and easily with the simple advice found in this article.

The problems many of us have encountered in losing weight have not been because we didn't understand the basic physics of eating less and exercising more. It is because, no matter how hard we try, we have not been able to follow through. Cravings get in the way, and the sweets and fatty fried junk foods become irresistible.

It becomes a vicious cycle, we eat junk and then we find we don't have enough energy to exercise. By overeating and exercising less than we should, weight loss becomes very difficult. The first thing to do is address the issue of cravings - and not through some artificial appetite suppressant.

Cravings are often a sign. The body is telling you something is out of balance. Cravings can be a signal of the early stages of a vitamin deficiency. The body can compel you to overeat as it seeks vital nutrients it is lacking. It's ironic that we can eat so much and get so little nutrition while seeking to fill the gap by eating more lifeless, dead and nutrient depleted foods.

Ensuring that your body receives all the proper nutrition it needs makes weight loss far easier.

Getting the right nutrition with your diet can seem difficult. Your body needs a whole rainbow spectrum of nutrition, and you may only like red, orange and green.

Don't despair - there is a quick and easy way to make sure you are getting all the nutrition your body needs to help eliminate your cravings. You need to eat and drink powerful superfoods!

Superfoods contain vital nutrients and powerful antioxidants. The number one superfood, according to Dr. Nicholas Perricone, is the Acai berry, which is a little known fruit of the Amazon rainforest. Number two is garlic.

Another very powerful superfood is Yerba Maté, a South American plant beverage. Like Acai, it contains many vital nutrients and antioxidants – in fact, it contains pretty much everything you'd see in a daily multivitamin, and then some more! Plant nutrients such as this are best ingested in their live natural state, making it a far superior source of nutrition than any vitamin supplement.

Yerba Maté has even been used as a food substitute due to its rich nutritional profile. It helps to eliminate feelings of hunger and gives the sensation of having had a full meal. Yerba Maté has been recognized for helping to lose weight.

Now that you are ingesting live superfoods such as Yerba Maté, garlic, and the potent Acai berry, you have addressed your body's full spectrum of nutritional needs virtually effortlessly with a few simple foods. Your cravings are decreased and you are eating less, and more healthily. You also find that you have a lot more energy. This in turn helps you to exercise!

Exercise regularly, incorporating stretching, aerobics, and strength training. There are many various combinations you can tailor for your needs, such as Yoga, Tae Bo, and Pilates, or a traditional gym routine. Having incorporated superfood nutrition you will be amazed at how much more you can do than before. You will also notice enhanced results of the exercise you do, as superfoods like Acai and Yerba Maté will also help to increase your metabolism.

Now your cellulite will start to disappear! The combination of eating less and exercising more plus the powerful antioxidants help your body to detoxify and flush out the junk stored in your fat cells. As you stop eating junk, lose weight and tone up, your cellulite will naturally disappear.

While you're losing weight, it's very possible you will lose some fat from your bust! You'll want to restore the fat - in the right places of course! Don't resort to plastic surgery, you can save a lot of money, risk and danger by doing this yourself the natural way.

You may have heard of natural breast augmentation. It actually does work, as long as you are using the right product. Apply a powerful nutraceutical breast augmentation cream for 1-6 months. You can develop your breasts to the size you want them. Most women experience an increase of 1-2 cup sizes with the right product such as this:

Follow these simple steps to meet your beautification goals and find yourself healthy, glowing, stronger and more beautiful than ever before, inside and out.

Carina MacInnes is a writer and health expert who recommends an easy way to bring the superfoods Acai and Yerba Maté into your diet with this potent liquid nutrient: - Visit now to learn more about the amazing benefits of superfood nutrition.

Most people think that you can't possibly eat Indian food, if you're on a slimming diet. That's a fair statement if you always eat Indian food in restaurants, because many traditional Indian recipes involve either deep frying or the use of ghee (clarified butter). However, if you cook Indian food at home, it can easily form part of a weight loss regime, just the same as any other food. You just need to follow a few simple general rules.

- Avoid altogether recipes which involve deep frying.

- If you need to seal meat before braising it for a curry, use a good non-stick pan and a spray bottle with sunflower or vegetable oil in it. Lightly spray the surface of your pan with oil and that should be enough to prevent the meat from sticking while you brown it.

- If a recipe includes cream or coconut cream, substitute plain yoghurt and another flavouring to replace the coconut.

Tandoori recipes are great as part of a low calorie or low carbohydrate diet. Just marinade some fish (cubed or whole), chicken (cubed or in pieces) or prawns (shrimp) in a mixture of low fat plain yogurt, ground turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin, crushed garlic, grated root ginger and a little chilli powder (or to taste) for at least an hour. If you're using cubed meat, thread onto skewers. Grill or barbeque with a medium heat until done. Serve with mixed salad and wedges of lemon to squeeze over. If your diet isn't too severe, you can also have a pitta bread, a baked potato or some boiled rice with this.

Curry dishes are fine too (preferably fish or chicken). If you use a recipe which has just a spice and water base or a tomato base, it certainly won't do your calorie intake any harm but be sure to keep the oil you use for frying onions, spices or whatever, to an absolute minimum.

For vegetarians or those trying to cut down on meat because of its relatively high calorie content, Indian cooking is ideal. There are so many recipes for vegetables and pulses which are really tasty that you won't even know you're on a diet!

Don't forget paneer (Indian cottage cheese), which can be cooked as per the tandoori idea above, or in a spicy sauce. If you can't get paneer, try substituting tofu.

Here's to a slim new year!

For all your Indian cooking needs why not visit my Asian Food Online Store.

Liz Canham is the webmistress of Asian Food and Cookery and Travellers' Tales.

Does it seem like no matter how little food you eat, you never lose a pound? You start your day out with an apple, eat vegetables for lunch and have a tiny dinner. You have all week, but you're still the same weight. Why?

It seems to be the first thought in someone's mind when they decide they're going on a diet: I need to eat less. The general rule is eat less and exercise more. In all actuality, this will do nothing but cause you to gain weight and become fatigued. When you eat less your body believes that it is being starved and will hoard every fat cell it can. It will do whatever it takes to keep these fat cells and no matter how many calories you burn, you won't lose weight. Your metabolism slows greatly. Your body is in starvation mode.

People who start these diets will quickly end them when they realize they aren't losing weight and they will return to their normal eating habits. Because the body still thinks it is in starvation mode, it will hoard all the fat cells of which there is twice the amount being eaten now, and the dieter will actually gain more weight back than they lost. This will prompt another diet and the process begins again. This is called a "yo-yo diet."

The number way to avoid yo-yo dieting is to see a nutritionist. They will create a proper diet plan tailored to your needs and they have all the know-how to create a healthy and safe diet. Diets are not about eating less, they're about eating better. A nutritionist will help you balance what types of food you're eating, when you're eating and how much you're eating.

The second way to avoid yo-yo dieting is proper exercise. It is recommended to visit a personal trainer in order to receive a personalized workout plan to properly introduce you to regular exercise and muscle building. It is also imperative to ignore diet pills at all costs.

Eating better, not less, and exercising properly will lead you to weight loss!

Dana Goldberg is the owner of Lose

Weight Free Tips. Do not get engaged in a battle of willpower. Lose weight tips through self-knowledge, pleasant activities and self help.

If you are getting into bodybuilding then you need to understand that what you eat is just as important as what you exercise. In other words, you can lift as many weights as you like but if your muscles are not getting the fuel they need to grow, you are wasting a great deal of effort.

Protein is a MUST for Bodybuilders

With just a little research into an effective bodybuilding diet you will quickly discover that enough protein is one of the most (some say the most) important parts of your nutritional intake. In short, protein is the building block of lean muscle - a lack of protein means your muscle building potential is much lower.

There are many opinions on how much protein your body needs each day and it may depend on your bodybuilding goals. Typically you might consider taking around 1 gram of protein per pound of your body weight each day.

Check the Food's Nutritional Info Before You Buy

There are plenty of foods in your local supermarket or grocery store that contain a useful amount of protein. Today's regulations that ensure food product manufacturers display the nutritional content of their product make choosing your groceries a breeze. However, before you go running off to buy every high protein food you can find, a certain amount of care must be taken. Take the time to read through the food's nutritional information table in it's entirety. Not only are you looking out for the protein content but you also need to consider fat content, sugar content, carbohydrates, and so on. If your goal is to grow lean muscle then it is a good idea to avoid too many products high in simple sugars, calories and refined carbohydrates.

Recommended Quality Protein Sources for your Shopping List

You are now ready to hit the supermarket in search of quality protein food sources. These are foods that are high in protein but not so high in other elements that will hinder your lean muscle targets (i.e. calories, carbs, etc.):

MEATS: If you enjoy eating meat then generally 3 meats are recommended. The favorite is chicken (the number of recipes you can find on bodybuilding forums show this). Chicken is very lean and cheap. Similarly, turkey is actually slightly leaner then chicken and has higher protein percentage. Lean beef (look for cuts that are really red without any visible fat when possible) is another great source of protein.

SOY: The vegetarians amongst you will no doubt be aware of the protein content of soy products. Soy beans are pulses and so they contain a good helping of protein. Soy beans are used to make soy milk, tofu and many meat substitutes, many of which taste like the real thing. This not only helps vegetarian bodybuilders but also people with a lower tolerance for dairy products.

MILK/DAIRY: 'Skimmed' or 'fat free' milk is another good source of quality protein and can be consumed as it is (think homemade shakes or in your breakfast cereal) or in so many dairy foods. You need to take care with which dairy products you choose but there are always options for the dieting conscious. You can eat fat free versions of your favorite yogurts, ice-creams (watch out for other ingredients), cheeses (cottage cheese is always highly recommended), and more.

EGGS: Raw or cooked, eggs are another staple in a lot of bodybuilder's diets. Many people will avoid the yolk of the egg and simply eat the white, discarding some quality protein. It's true that the yolk of an egg contains most of the calories but it also contains most of the eggs nutrients as well as some protein. Why not save a few of the yolks!

FISH: Fish is an important source of protein and many bodybuilders live off cans of tuna. In fact I knew one guy who would mix in a can of tuna with his cereal every morning - not really my idea of a tasty start to the day.

AND MORE...: There are plenty of other foods high in protein such as nuts (good for vegetarians) pulses (another good source for vegetarians), cereals, and so on. Take some time to research other foods on the internet - there is a massive amount of information on websites, forums, newsletters, and so on.

Is Protein All I Need to Focus On?

No. Protein, although a vital part of a bodybuilder's diet, is not the be all and end all. Bodybuilders also need the energy to physically perform their exercises and this comes mostly from carbohydrates, or more specifically, complex carbohydrates. This is a subject of another article so watch this space. You need both a higher protein intake to 'rebuild' your muscle and the appropriate complex carbohydrates to fuel your workouts.

Build a high quality protein source shopping list then hit the grocery store!

Adam Zahler has built a site about using Whey Protein Powders in Bodybuilding. The site is a free resource with information on using commercial supplements in your own bodybuilding recipes. Visitors to the site can find recipe ideas and also share their own recipes for making protein shakes, protein bars and other more.

Hypnosis is a naturally occurring altered state of consciousness in which the critical faculty is bypassed (mind in the conscious mode) and acceptable selective thinking established. Wow! That's a lot of technical jargon! Simply put, this means that the reasoning, evaluating, judging part of your mind (conscious) is bypassed.

You've seen the stage acts where a hypnotist selects someone out of the audience and when he claps his hands, the unwilling participant struts around the stage clucking like a chicken. You've also seen movies where the hypnotist waves the pocket watch in front of the subject as he utters, "you're getting sleepy … very sleepy." Hypnosis is a little more than what Hollywood or Vegas make it out to be. Below is a brief overview.

Hypnosis deals with the subconscious. Have you ever driven to work or home or anywhere, arrived at your destination but then had little to no recollection of the drive? Your reasoning, evaluating and judging parts of your mind were still intact and functioning (read: you safely arrived at your location) but your cognizant mind was bypassed. Hypnosis feels very much like that. It's the same or similar feeling as when you day dream. People under hypnosis know exactly what they are doing.

What about control? Many people fear being hypnotized because they falsely believe they will have to give up control of their mind. Not true. Think about when you are so engrossed in a movie and you find yourself in tears. If you've ever watched Saving Private Ryan, the Titanic or the Passion of the Christ you know this scenario all too well. During these movies you were so involved that you actually felt emotion. You were literally in a hypnotic trance. Most importantly, though, you still had the power to emerge from that state if desired.

Your mind may be guided by a movie, self-hypnosis tape, or hypnotist, but you still have the power to resist. If you fully believe and acknowledge that you have the power to resist any control of emotions, then hypnosis is nothing to fear. Unfortunately, some people seem to give up partial control of their minds because they misunderstand who has the power. Unquestionably, someone can be fooled into believing that he has given up control in some forms of stage hypnosis or other experiments. That is likely what often happens in stage shows. But just because someone was tricked doesn't mean it is right or that it will happen to you that way.

Think about it. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis. You are the one who allows your mind to be placed into deep states. You are the one who has the power to resist any unwanted suggestions. It's really a misnomer when people say they were hypnotized. What they really mean is that they allowed their mind to be hypnotized or they allowed a hypnotist to give suggestions that they chose to follow.

Just remember that no one controls your mind unless you first grant permission!

Visit the Self Hypnosis Forum today to find more information!

Have you been hanging around the buffet table for far too long? Do your jeans snap open when you do a simple twist? Have you ever had any part of your body jiggle when you walk? It is an incredibly frustrating situation when your body does not look (or even feel) the way you would like.

While some might opt to take the dangerous turn of acquiring eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia to hasten their weight loss progress, there is a safer and far more pleasant feeling method of achieving weight loss. Exercising at least 30 minutes a day may even be enough to do some significant positive change to your appearance and weight even in just a matter of one to two months. Couple this with the right kind of diet, but never deprive yourself food such that your body is legitimately hungry all the time.

Unfortunately there are people who would really like to lose weight but are either too lazy or impatient for them to make healthy lifestyle changes. It is important to note that while some doctors prescribe weight loss pills or diet pills to their patients, this doesn't mean that just about anyone could buy them from any drug store or pharmacy and just pop them in their mouths.

1. Think Before You Act

Before buying diet pills, you must first go to a registered physician or a registered dietician for them to be able to assess your weight and your body mass index (BMI) among other health related information that concerns yourself. These doctors would really have to know your family's medical history like if your family tends to lean towards the healthy side or are there any cases of cancer, high blood pressure or heart attacks in your family.

2. Risks Associated With Diet Pills

Hereditary illnesses are an incredibly important reference point for registered doctors and registered dieticians. They need to know this information so they can prescribe to you the correct pill. In addition, some people can have allergic reactions from weight loss pills or a multitude of side-effects.

A popular diet pill that has been around for quite some time called Xenical. This diet pill acts by draining the excess fat through constant bowel movements. This may be a little gross or inconvenient for some (especially those people who are always on the go) but with the proper diet and exercise this weight loss pill promises to help you shed off at least twenty pounds in just a matter of two months. People who have used this weight loss wonder have had nothing but praise for this drug. However, they testify that it was incredibly inconvenient, not to mention a foul smelling experience. Doctors are actually praising this drug for another reason, it also lowers the risk of high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Other diet pills, however, are not as great for our bodies. The notorious Bangkok pill, which has been circulating all over the world, promises significant amounts of weight loss in just a mere 2 weeks. A lot of people fall prey to this unhealthy weight loss drug because it's a lot faster than the other weight loss drugs and doesn't require you to go the bathroom every now and then. There are three sets of pills that one must take everyday, these diet pills are labeled as breakfast, lunch and dinner (which contains several more packs of diet pills) and you have to take one or two from each of these packs and take these weight loss pills after every corresponding meal. The weight loss effect from these Bangkok pills are indeed drastic but they are banned and considered as illegal due to their extremely high chance of causing heart attack or stroke.

For more great diet pills related articles and resources check out

The world today is based on work. You work for someone else. You work for yourself. You own your own business and you work at that. You own someone else's business, and they work for you. You're a mover and a shaker, and people everywhere work because of you and your influence.

Work work work work work!

Do you like to work? Do you enjoy commuting every single day, wasting hours and hours of your life behind the wheel? Do you love your boss? Do your co-workers inspire you to become a better person? Can you even IMAGINE your life without that job to hold you together?

Well, luckily, you don't have to! Utilize all of the following concepts as a reminder that no matter what, whatever happens, NEVER EVER QUIT YOUR JOB!

College - Go through 4 years of high school wanting to do nothing but get drunk, do drugs, and have sex. Be denied all of that by your entire society. Now pay $20,000 to $40,000 per year, move into a dormitory unsupervised where you can indulge in as much sex, drugs, and booze as you want to, and then be expected to focus on your career goals. This makes sense, right?

Job Hunting - This one is simple. You can't get a decent job because you don't have any experience. You can't get any experience because you don't have a decent job. Repeat.

Payroll - You make plenty of money, right? In fact, you wish you could give some BACK to your employer every week. After all, they have been generous enough to give you a job, the least you could do is add some of your own pitiful salary to their already fat bank accounts.

Management - Your boss could not possibly be any smarter or more in touch with you and your fellow coworkers. In fact, it's a miracle that your boss is only a manager, and doesn't actually own the whole company. He or she is, in fact, your very Guiding Light. Don't do anything to jeopardize that valuable resource!

Day Shift - Here's a question: Whose bright idea was it for almost every person in America to go to work at exactly the same time, to go to lunch at exactly the same time, and to leave at the end of the day at exactly the same time? Your life would NOT be easier if you were allowed to telecommute, set your own hours, or perhaps think of your own resourceful way to get your job done every day. Stick with day shift, and pass the road rage, please.

Co-workers - Now here is a lovely idea. Take a whole bunch of people who have absolutely nothing in common except their need for a very small paycheck, force them into situations that they hate, and ask them to get along, smile, and be team players. Don't forget to give a wink and a nod to Greaser Bob at the office who may actually not even own a shower, or to Perfume Pam who thinks that personal aroma products are to be doled out in serving sizes, not in spritzes.

Benefits - Thank the Maker that you can work between 50 and 80 hours each week for the privilege of paying hundreds of dollars of the money that you make working 50 to 80 hours each week for a benefits package that doesn't cover squat in case you end up in the hospital and have to stay for 50 to 80 hours each week. Was that a run-on sentence?

Pension Plan - Here is another gem of today's society. Work for the same company for the 40 years needed to retire in order to earn a pension plan that gives you a small weekly percentage of the money that wasn't enough for you to live off of in the first place.

In conclusion, it seems that we have clearly demonstrated that getting and holding on to a corporate position is DEFINITELY something that you want to to do.

However, if you think that any or all of the above rings very true and you just want OUT, then by all means, take the leap. The ridiculous scenario illustrated above will still be there later if you decide to go back to it!

Aaron Potts continues his one-man crusade to teach the world that the corporate mentality simply does not work! If you want to shed your corporate chains and make a true difference in the world - oh, and make some great money in the process - email Aaron at unitedplanet@

I recently was prompted to publish an article dealing with health related issues involving our choice of diet, and particularly with regard to the very unhealthy diet which we tradiitionally have in my part of the world, namely Central Scotland in the UK.

I expained that I was motivated to publish that article after seeing a very graphic billboard showing two giant grey hands sqeezing the life out of a human heart. I complimented our Health Authorities for the very effective campaign which they have been running for some considerable time, which has been entirely aimed at raising public awareness of important lifestyle changes.

This has illustrated that we can very easily make simple changes to greatly improve our health, and prolong our lives.

To follow on that theme, I want to demonstrate in this article, that sensible excercises can also play a very important part in overall health, as well as helping to speed up weight loss, for thise who may be afficted with that problem. One secret to shedding unwanted pounds is not a mystery, simply put, you must speed up your metabolism by sensible exercise.

I have outlined some very effective steps below to achieve results in just seven days.

How many times have you gone to sleep at night, swearing you'll go to the gym in the morning, and then changing your mind just eight hours later. This is probably because when you get up, like most of us, you don't feel like exercising! It can be a big enough struggle just getting to work on time nowadays.

While this can happen to the best of us, it doesn't mean that you should drop the ball altogether when it comes to staying fit. What people need to realize is that staying active and eating properly, are critical for long-term health and wellness.

You may well have heard the saying that an "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

The more you know about how your body responds to your lifestyle choices, the better you can customize a nutrition and exercise plan that is right for you. When you eat well, increase your level of physical activity and exercise at the proper intensity, you are informing your body that you want to "burn a substantial amount of fuel".

This translates to burning fat more efficiently for energy. In other words, proper eating habits plus exercise equals fast metabolism, which in turn, gives you more energy throughout the day and allows you to do more physical work with less effort.

The true purpose of exercise is to send a repetitive message to the body asking for improvement in metabolism, strength, aerobic capacity and overall fitness and health. Each time you exercise, your body responds by upgrading its capabilities to burn fat throughout the day and night. Exercise doesn't have to be intense to work for you, but it does need to be consistent.

I recommend engaging in regular cardiovascular exercise four times per week, for 20 to 30 minutes per session. You can actually achieve this by simply taking a brisk thirty minute walk. You should also undertake to do some resistance training four times per week for 20 to 25 minutes per session. This balanced approach provides a two fold benefit, incorporating aerobic exercise to burn fat and deliver more oxygen, and resistance training to increase lean body mass and burn up more calories.

Here is an effective sample exercise program.

Warm Up - Seven to eight minutes of light aerobic activity intended to increase blood flow and lubricate and warm-up your tendons and joints.

Resistance Training - Train all major muscle groups. One to two sets of each exercise, then rest 45 seconds between sets.

Aerobic Exercise - Pick two favorite activities, they could be jogging, rowing, biking or cross-country skiing, whatever fits in with your lifestyle. Perform 12 to 15 minutes of the first activity, and continue with 10 minutes of the second activity. Cool down during the last five minutes.

Stretching - Wrap up your exercise session by stretching, breathing deeply, relaxing and meditating.

When starting an exercise program, it is important to have realistic expectations. Depending on your initial fitness level, you should expect the following changes early on.

From one to eight weeks - You will feel much better and have more energy.

From two to six months - Lose inches while becoming leaner. Your clothes will begin to fit more loosely, and you will be gaining muscle and losing fat.

After six months - Start losing weight quite rapidly.

Once you make the commitment to exercise several times a week, don't stop there. You should also change your diet and eating habits. Counting calories or calculating grams and percentages for certain nutrients is impractical. Instead, I suggest these easy-to-follow guidelines:

1. Eat several small meals (optimally four) and a couple of small snacks throughout the day.

2. Make sure every meal is balanced, and incorporate palm sized proteins like lean meats, fish, egg whites and dairy products.

3. Fist-sized portions of complex carbohydrates like whole-wheat bread and pasta, wild rice, multigrain cereal and potatoes, and fist-sized portions of vegetable and fruits.

4. Limit your fat intake to only what's necessary for adequate flavor.

5. Drink at least eight 8-oz. glasses of water throughout the day.

6. I also recommend that you take a multi-vitamin each day to ensure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

I do know that sometimes life just gets "in the way", but looking after yourself is just so so important. Take time out for it, you will feel so much the better!

Marie Gordon is Author and Publisher of "Your Fastest Way To Permanent Weight Loss" the complete solution to all your weight loss problems. You can find out more by visiting

The Zone Diet works on the principle that 100,000 years ago, we were meat eaters, and our metabolism is designed to handle the demands of a meat-based diet.

Madonna, Demi Moore, and Jennifer Aniston swear by the results of the Zone Diet, which was created by Barry Sears, PhD. The Zone Diet contains 40% carbohydrate, 30% protein, and 30% fat and is known as the 40-30-30 plan.

As the food industry evolved, more carbohydrates have been introduced into our daily diet, thus causing an imbalance in our metabolism to burn fat. The reason for our extra weight can also be attributed to the many grains and starches in our diet (pasta, rice, breads, and potatoes). The Zone Diet's approach calls for a return to the diets of our ancestors where meat, fruits, and vegetables are the main dietary foods.

The Zone Diet suggests that you need the right ratio of carbohydrates to proteins and fats in order to control the insulin in the bloodstream. Too much of the hormone (insulin) can increase fat storage and inflammation in the body (conditions that are associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease). Sears asserts that by using the Zone Diet, you are actually optimizing the body's metabolic function. Through the regulation of blood sugar, you allow your body to burn excess body fat.

Although you are not prohibited from any particular food group, it is best to avoid food with high fat and carbohydrates such as grains, starches, and pastas. The ideal sources of carbs are fruits and vegetables and for monounsaturated fats olive oil, almonds, and avocados are recommended. The Zone Diet claims to use food as a drug for overall good health, weight loss and prevention or management of heart disease and diabetes.

Sears says that you can test to see whether you are 'hormonally' correct by eating following the Zone diet and see how you feel four hours later. To simplify the Zone Diet, fill one-third of a plate with low-fat protein, and then two-thirds with fruits and vegetables.

Celebrities and some health experts say that the Zone's recommendations do not stray far from the USDA's (United States Dietary Association) dietary guidelines and therefore are advocates of the Zone Diet. Others argue that the Zone Diet has flawed ratios but Sears argues that the Zone diet is a low-glycemic-load diet that has adequate protein. .

A critic of the Zone diet such as the AHA (American Heart Association) classifies the Zone Diet as high protein and does not recommend the Zone Diet for weight loss. They contend that the Zone Diet has not been proven effective in the long term for weight loss. The AHA issued an official recommendation warning against diets like the Zone Diet. They believe that the Zone Diet is hazardous as it restricts the intake of essential vitamins and minerals present in certain foods. The AHA also contends that the protein ratio in the Zone diet is too high even if the minimal fat ratio is good. Robert H. Ecker M.D of the A.H.A. finds the Zone Diet's theory on insulin flawed and argues that there is no scientific proof that the hormone insulin plays a big role in weight regulation.

For more information about the Zone diet and weight loss, visit Zone Diet and Weight Loss

Motivation is one of the key variables for the equation that yields long term weight loss success. The question is how do you maintain the motivation to attain the ultimate goal? Regardless if your weight loss goal is 20 pounds or 100 pounds you must change your thinking to change your behavior and writing makes that happen.

Weight loss really does begin in your head. Every successful athlete understands that his thinking process is either working for him or against him. The same holds true with weight loss. If your internal dialogue is negative, your results will eventually manifest the same result! You can't degrade yourself to a healthy new you! You must change your thinking to work for you, to build your resolve, and to maintain that all important motivational factor.

Writing is an exercise that will help your mind change its thinking! It allows you to process the negative emotions and helps to instill the positive changes. Start with these simple exercises:

1. The Negative Emotions Daily Dump: Many success coaches advocate writing out your negative thinking on a daily basis. Simply spend approximately 15 minutes writing out all the frustrations, bad feelings, and discouragement. This helps you to process these bad feelings out of your system so that you can make room for positive affirmations. Do not reread the entries and do not keep them. Write it out, and then throw it out. We call this the Negative Emotions Daily Dump.

2. Affirm Your Goals: Prepare a list of affirmations that will help your subconscious work with your conscious brain to make those all important behavioral changes. Then write your affirmations at least twice a day. Write them once after you have written your Negative Emotions Daily Dump. Don't do the Negative Dump without filling it with the positive affirmations. You should always end with this. Write the second set of affirmations either right before you go to bed or first thing in the morning. Read your affirmations several times a day.

3. Understand your Motivations: In order to stay motivated you must understand your real reasons for losing weight. In other words, understand why YOU want to lose weight. Not why your spouse or friends want you to lose weight but why losing the weight is important to you. Do you really want more energy? Do you just love skinny clothes? Do you want to participate in an activity that would be easier if you were slim and healthy? Write these motivations out in detail so that you can solidify them in your head and they can continue to motivate you through the entire weight loss journey.

4. Accountability: Keep a food diary. Keeping a food diary has been proven time and time again to increase your weight loss success by as much as 50%! A food log is your accountability factor. It keeps you honest with yourself.

5. Visualize: Visualize yourself enjoying the portions of your weight loss program that you are currently struggling to do. For instance if you hate the cardio portion of your day, start seeing yourself loving it. See it as ""your time". It can be your time to read while you're on the stationary bike. Or your time to watch all those movies you feel guilty watching any other time. Once you begin to visualize positive feelings about a certain activity the easier that activity will become.

6. The Pat-On-The-Back: Keep a written log of your weight loss success. By writing down your weight loss on a weekly basis you are validating your efforts and giving yourself a pat-on-the-back. This will go a long way to keeping you on track.

Keep in mind that if you are utilizing the assistance of a personal fitness trainer or weight loss professional that they may use techniques to help you face your self-defeating habits. This might feel harsh and negative, however it isn't. Honesty is necessary to motivate change and this is different than running yourself down! Sometimes we have to hear the hard words to make the hard changes. Keep in mind that these professionals are seeking your ultimate success. Your success is their success. Let's face it, the weight gain started with you and to change that behavior you may have to deal with some uncomfortable feelings. A good trainer will help you feel cared about while still insisting that you deal with your bad habits. It's a good thing to be pushed past your comfort zone to becoming a better you!

Writing is the new "exercise" that can make all the rest of your weight loss efforts including good nutrition, exercise, and resistance training work for you because you will be working with these principles instead of against them. You will start seeing these weight loss techniques as a positive and permanent part of your life, instead of a temporary device. That will result in faster results that last forever!

Dr. Fit, Sidney E. Reeves, CFT is a nationally recognized personal fitness trainer. Dr. Fit has been helping overweight America understand and change their self-defeating habits while learning the important elements of good nutrition, exercise and positive change. He has launched a website to compliment his daily fitness show at where members receive all the tools to lose weight permanently. Join Dr. Fit as your fitness trainer today at http://WritingForWeightL

Exercise is a must for combating obesity. According to research, increasing physical activity helps in reducing gastrointestinal symptoms in sufferers of obesity. The study, published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, found that a high body mass index (BMI) and physical inactivity both contribute to symptoms of Gastrointestinal (GI) problems such as stomach pain, diarrhea, constipation and irritable bowel syndrome in people suffering from obesity.

Another study has found that a high BMI, a common measure of obesity, is associated with worsened symptoms of irritable bowel, diarrhea and abdominal pain. Therefore any form of exercise is beneficial for overweight people as it has been observed that those who incorporate some form of physical activity into their routine life suffer less from these symptoms as compared to those who are inactive.

Weight loss is a must for the potential reduction of GI symptoms. It could mean the difference between leading a normal life or leading one filled with constant discomfort. Obesity, which is defined as a BMI of 30 or higher, has become a major health problem in the United States with an estimated one-third of adult Americans considered obese. Weight loss is the best method to curb this dreaded ailment of obesity.

Weight loss can be attained by a variety of means such as diet pills, weight loss surgery, dieting and exercise. Amongst these methods, diet pills are the most effective means of weight loss as they make weight loss a reality without requiring any changes in our lifestyle. So if you dream of having a perfect figure then you can go ahead with these appetite suppressant pills such as phentermine after consulting your doctor to attain maximum benefits from it. If you desire to remain fit and fine for a longer duration then compliment your life with a proper diet and some form of physical exercise. It will change your life for the better.

Peter is an associated editor to the website It is committed to provide visitors with complete information on weight loss, diet pills, and online prescription drugs like Phentermine, Didrex.

Bariatric Surgery Things You Should Be Aware Of

When all other measures fail to control morbid obesity, weight loss surgery is a source of hope to the overweight. American doctors perform weight loss surgery over 140,000 times a year.

The oldest form of weight loss surgery is the most familiar, stomach stapling. In this 30-year-old procedure, most of the stomach is sliced and then stapled shut.

After the procedure, only a small pouch remains. Shrinking the stomach so it can only hold half a cup of food makes it easier to feel full.

In fact, most people who have weight loss surgery feel full after eating the amount of food that you could put on a coffee saucer. It becomes impossible to eat more than two quarter-cup servings (about 50 grams altogether) of anything at a single meal. Weight loss follows calorie restriction.

The newer and now more common form of weight loss surgery, the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, also makes the stomach surgically smaller. In this procedure, however, the stomach is not dissected and stapled shut.

In this newer form of weight loss surgery, the stomach is cut and sutured, or sewn, and the intestines are moved so that the end of the stomach is connected farther down the intestine.

This procedure leaves a smaller stomach that fills more quickly. It also leaves a shorter length of intestine to absorb fats (and other nutrients) from the smaller amounts of food that are eaten.

With this form of weight loss surgery, you don't just eat less. Your intestines absorb less of the food you do eat. Roux-en-Y bariatric surgery produces quicker and more significant weight loss than just stapling or banding the stomach.

There's also a third approach to weight loss surgery, the lap band.

The benefit of the lap band is that the weight loss surgery to install it can be laparoscopic, that is, done through an incision as little as one inch (25 mm) wide.

Lap band surgery can even be an outpatient procedure, with the patient going home the same day. After lap band surgery, many patients go back to work in three to four days and resume all normal activities (except eating) within a week. The other gastric bypass procedures require a minimum of four days in the hospital and six to eight weeks before resuming an active lifestyle.

Another advantage of lap band surgery is a much lower risk of infection. Lap band surgery goes around the stomach, not into the stomach. The bacteria in the stomach do not leak into other parts of the body, and the risk of infection is greatly reduced.

Lap band surgery is much less painful than the other procedures. And since pain in the muscles is so much less, patients are very unlikely to develop pneumonia or other breathing problems.

The disadvantage of lap band bariatric surgery is that not everyone can have it. The FDA at one time required that recipients of lap band bariatric procedures be at least 18 and no more than 50 years of age. It's also utterly essential not to be allergic to the material used to make the band.

And if you overeat after you have a lap band in place, the effect is a little like pulling a napkin through a napkin ring. Too much food can stretch the band so that it damages the stomach. Lap band surgery is easier, but requires more discipline.

There is no form of weight loss surgery that is a complete cure for obesity all by itself. Lifetime attention to diet and exercise are still necessary. But successful weight loss surgery can give you the boost you need to regain control of your life and become truly, lastingly, healthily thin.

The Promise and Potential of "Fat Surgery" When Diets Fail

When all other measures fail to control morbid obesity, weight loss surgery or "fat surgery" is a source of hope to the overweight. American doctors perform surgical procedures to make weight loss easier well over 100,000 times a year.

The oldest form of fat surgery is the most familiar, stomach stapling. In this well-established procedure, most of the stomach is sliced and then stapled shut.

After this form of fat surgery, only a small pouch of the stomach remains connected to the esophagus. The newly resized stomach can only hold half a cup of food.

Having a smaller stomach makes it easier to feel full. In fact, most people who have fat surgery feel full after eating the amount of food that you could put on a coffee saucer. It becomes impossible to eat more than two quarter-cup servings (about 50 grams altogether) of anything at a single meal. Weight loss naturally follows.

Stomach stapling is the oldest form of fat surgery, and you can probably find a physician in your area who has a lot of experience doing it. In fact, you should only consider physicians and hospitals who have performed at least 100 operations. You don't want your doctor's training to be performed on you.

Other procedures are little harder to arrange.

The newer form of stomach reduction, the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, also makes the stomach surgically smaller. In this procedure, however, the stomach is not dissected and stapled shut.

Instead, after the stomach's size is reduced, it is reattached to the small intestine at a lower point.

Roux-en-Y fat surgery leaves a smaller stomach that fills more quickly. It also leaves a shorter length of intestine to absorb fats (and other nutrients) from the smaller amounts of food that are eaten.

With this form of fat surgery, you don't just eat less. Your intestines absorb less of the food you do eat. Roux-en-Y bariatric surgery produces quicker and more significant weight loss than just stapling or banding the stomach.

There's also a third approach to fat surgery, the lap band.

The benefit of the lap band is that the weight loss surgery to install it can be laparoscopic. The entire fat surgery can be done through an incision as little as one inch (25 mm) wide.

Lap band surgery can even be an outpatient procedure, so you can go home the same day. After lap band surgery, many patients go back to work in three to four days and resume all normal activities (except eating) within a week. The other forms of fat surgery require a minimum of four days in the hospital and six to eight weeks before resuming an active lifestyle.

You may be asking, "Why just shrink the stomach? Wouldn't it be simpler just to surgically remove all the fat?"

This procedure, called lipectomy, actually exists. Liposuction has the same effect.

The problem with both lipectomy and liposuction is that high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugars don't go down just because fat is removed from the body. Only the process of dieting seems to have this effect.

There is no form of fat surgery that is a complete cure for obesity all by itself. Lifetime attention to diet and exercise are still necessary. But successful weight loss surgery can give you the boost you need to regain control of your life and become truly, lastingly, healthily thin.

Author is marketer for sites such as :

Bariatric Surgery

Bariatric

I must admit that I don't usually write articles with such a chilling headline, so I feel that I should give a little background on a relatively innocent experience which prompted me to write this piece.

I would also say quite candidly that there is nothing really new in the main context of it, in fact most probably, everyone is concious of these facts in some way or another.

What I really do wonder though, is just exactly how many of us are actually making any real attempt to seriously look after ourselves, healthwise that is!

I live in Central Scotland in the UK, and according to statistics, we have one of the highest mortality rates from such things as coronary heart disease, strokes, obesity, etc, etc, and I often wonder why this should be the case!

Of course many things are contributory factors to this, and I am no medical expert, but there is one very important factor involved which I have studied extensively, and that is diet!

In Scotland we are renowned for our love of deep-fried foods such as fish and chips, pies, takeaway meals, our alcohol consumption, and so on. Every region of the Western world has its favourite "goodies" I suspect, so I am sure that you get the picture.

I must hand it to our Health Authorities however, because for some considerable time now there has been an extensive and on-going campaign of Health Education, including some excellent TV and Radio ads, outdoor billboards, and similar such things.

It was one of the latter that really caught my eye recently, so much so, that I can't quite get the image out of my mind. It is a large billboard, which contains a graphic picture of a human heart with two giant grey hands sueezing the life out of it. Very very effective,(at least I thought so),my congratulations go to the person who devised it!

This was the spur that prompted this article, and as I said at the beginning, there is nothing really new in it, but I think it bears repeating nonetheless. Life is a precious gift, and although we are not immortal, there are many many things that we can do to prolong it, and preserve our health.

As far as diet is concerned therefore, here are some of the important ones again:-

Cut down on the fat,and cut down on the carbs.

You've heard the popular advice on weight loss diets. Cut thefat! Cut the carbs! Cut the calories! Eat a balanced diet! But how can you cut though all of the confusion, and eat a diet that is balanced and healthy. Not always easy is it! Here is some advice from nutritional science,which might help.

Cut down on the junk fats.

Most people do not need an ultra low fat diet, but most of us could improve our diet by cutting out the junk fats. These are processed fats, hydrogenated fats, polyunsaturated oils that have been heated, and fats that are combined with junk carbohydrates. Processed fats are those fats most likely to put on flab and clog your arteries. We do all know this don't we!

Cut down on the junk carbohydrates

The majority of people do not need an ultra low carb diet, but unfortunately, many people who do go on a low fat diet continue to eat highly processed foods. They switch from processed high-fat foods to processed low-fat foods, and then when the food manufacturers create low fat foods, they tend to replace the fat with junk carbs.

These can actually pile on the pounds, because basically junk carbs are low-fiber carbs, like sugar, fructose (and all the other *oses), flour, cornstarch, fruit juice, and such. Yes, fruit juice is a junk carb too you know!

After all, how much fiber is there in fruit juice. Virtually none, simply because it's yet another junk carb. You would be better to eat the whole fruit instead, with its fiber intact.

Cut down on the junk calories.

Most people do not need an ultra low calorie diet, but just think what your diet could be like if you dropped the processed fats and the low-fiber carbs. You would then be eating mainly natural proteins, with lots of vegetables plus whole fruits, and the odds would be that you would be eating far fewer calories as well. That's the kind of calorie cutting most of us should be doing!

Make every attempt to eat a balanced natural foods diet.

By natural foods, we mean those kinds of foods that would have been eaten by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. They would have had lots of whole vegetable foods giving them vitamins and fiber for instance, and also moderate to small portions of meats, fish, seafood, and other animal and protein foods. These they would have grilled, stewed or baked, not deep fried! They would also have eaten small portions of fresh whole fruit in season, which is the diet on which the human race evolved!

So the next time you're about to order a meal with fries and a sugary soda, stop and think about how it could be improved. Replace the fries with a salad for example, and the soda with a mineral water say. It would probably surprise you, how much significant progress you have already made towards a healthier balanced meal.

Just simple sensible changes can work wonders!

When you are at home, look for recipes that use whole fresh foods, with a minimum of processing. Try and make sure that your meals include natural unprocessed foods, with lots of healthy vegetables, both cooked, and raw when in salads. Avoid processed fats and processed low-fiber foods.

Here is a little simple menu that I often use and enjoy.

Grilled fish with steamed green beans and peppers. Large mixed salad, dressed with small amounts of olive oil and,vinegar or lemon juice. Then a fresh fruit platter to finish off! A healthy balanced diet can actually be that simple you know!

Life is there to be enjoyed, but moderation in all things is the watchword in my opinion. I do hope this article has given you some food for thought however!

Marie Gordon is Author and Publisher of "Your Fastest Way To Permanent Weight Loss" the complete solution to all your weight loss problems. You can find out more by visiting

It's vital that the bariatric patient keep an eye on sugar grams in food!

About 97% of all bariatric surgery patients learn to become very familiar with what is known as the "dumping syndrome", which is a way the body tells you that you ate something that you really shouldn't have eaten. "Dumping" shows up in many forms from sudden fatigue, to nausea, to vomiting, and even diarrhea. When the "dumping" comes, take note of what you most recently ate, and do your best to avoid it again.

Many things can cause dumping. Foods containing too much grease, fats, carbs, and sugars CAN make you "dump." But the biggest culprit in this short list (yet so many foods have these elements in them), is SUGAR and SUGAR ALCOHOLS.

What exactly are "Sugar Alcohols"?

Basically, Sugar Alcohols are artificial sweeteners or "anything that serves as a sweetener in food but cannot be labeled as a sugar since it isn't pure sugar."

Sugar Alcohols may not add calories (as real sugar does) to your body, BUT they DO ACT like sugar in the sense they will make the bariatric patient DUMP as if they partook of real sugar. On average, the bariatric patient cannot tolerate more than 12 grams of sugar PER MEAL. Beyond 12 grams of sugar will almost always cause some type of dumping, be it mild or severe. This is why it is essential to add up both the sugar AND the sugar alcohols that are being consumed per meal.

Let's say the food label says the product has 2 grams of sugar and 14 grams of sugar alcohols. Does that mean it's safe? It is NOT safe because when the sugar alcohols act just like sugars, in essence, you are consuming 16 grams of "sugar-action" because you have to ADD the two together since they react in the body the same way. Some "diet" foods claim to be low in sugar – TRUE – but then they contain 22 grams of sugar alcohols. This is okay for non-bariatric patients, but a sure "dumping in the making" for us!

What exactly is "Sugar"?

Chemically, sugars are carbohydrates. As the body digests food, carbohydrates (except fiber) break down into sugars. We can find sugars in a variety of forms. Sugars just aren't used to sweeten food: they are also used as natural preservatives and thickeners. Sugars are added to foods during processing and preparation. The body cannot tell the difference between "natural" sugars and artificial sugars because they are the same in regards to chemical breakdowns.

"Incognito" Sugars

Watch out for these sugars in disguise! Some are obvious while others are tricky:

• Brown sugar

• Corn sweetener

• Corn syrup

• Fructose

• Fruit juice concentrate

• Glucose (dextrose)

• High-fructose corn syrup

• Honey

• Invert sugar

• Lactose

• Maltose

• Molasses

• Raw sugar

• Table sugar (Sucrose)

• Syrup

If you find these things listed on food labels, remember this: the product is likely to be high in sugars if one of the above-mentioned shows first or second in the ingredients list. If several of these are listed, then the product most-definitively will be too high in "sugars" for the bariatric patient and will cause dumping.

Also, fruits contain "natural sugars". And fruits, unlike packaged foods, don't have convenient wrappers on them revealing any sugar values within them. This is where we have to "know" how much sugars are in the fruits we eat. Pineapple is one of the highest natural-sugar fruits out there, and grapes are pretty high too. Fruits are good for our system, if taken in moderation. But too much of the "natural" sugars can also cause an ill effect.

If you haven't developed the FEAR OF SUGARS by now, then you might be doing yourself an injustice. It is important o know how sugars effect you personally so you can learn how to eat anywhere with confidence. When you begin to understand how sugars affect your system, you can then attend any social event and know what is okay to eat and how much of that "party" food you can safely eat without causing an embarrassing and inconvenient dumping episode. When you're dumping, attention is naturally drawn to you because others genuinely care and will inquire about why you're not feeling well. If you don't want this kind of attention, then get your Sugar Intake Safety Zone down to a personal science for you so you can always relax and enjoy your food.

Meloney Hall successfully lost 170 pounds in 19 months after a gastric bypass bariatric weight-loss surgery. She is dedicated to helping others achieve their goals along their weight-loss journey. Visit her website at for more information on the RNY procedure and how it can cure morbid obesity.

This "Bed-Dancing" concept often gets a few chuckles… but I want you to stay with me on this one as I explain exactly what it is (and isn't) and how you can incorporate this in your exercise routine today.

I'll begin by expressing how essential Bed-Dancing was in my life right after I had the RNY gastric bypass bariatric weight-loss surgery: VERY ESSENTIAL. That's shooting straight from the hip!

Definition of Bed-Dancing: "the exercise activity that incorporates established exercise movements while positioned on your back in the bed to minimize the stress and strains on joints and muscles when a person is morbidly obese." This is the best brief definition I could come up with since I am nowhere near a Webster genius.

Right after my surgery, I knew that it was important to MOVE MY BODY and begin to exercise. The biggest benefit I saw at the time was that it increased my blood circulation that was necessary to help my surgical wounds to heal. This was my main motivation. And when I weighed 317 pounds, there was no way I was "eager" to incorporate an exercise routine because my body was so large, and my arthritis so painful, I just could not bear putting such stress on my joints and muscles at that heavy weight.

I had a master plan to put on my favorite "high-spirited" CD (Latin music makes me feel like dancing), put on my sweats, and I went into my bedroom as I announced to the household, "Don't bother me for one hour….no matter what," then shut the door. As I began to "dance" to the tunes, OH MY GOLLY… I couldn't last more than five minutes! My incision hurt, my joints hurt, and I collapsed on my bed, falling deeper in disappointment that I could not see myself achieving an exercise routine.

But soon, as the Latin CD kept spinning, I found myself "moving" to the music while I was in bed… WOW… I then thought, "Hey, I can DANCE on my BACK!" So with legs and arms in the air flailing like a floppy fish… I discovered how someone who weighed 317 pounds COULD exercise… but not the traditional way… but by Bed-Dancing! Thus, the birth of my newly-found method launched me into a very SUCCESSFUL exercise routine that I could do often without putting stress on my joints!

But be cautious when you talk about Bed-Dancing to others… they automatically begin to chuckle at what you call the standard "bed activity" now. (blushing yet?)

What you need for Bed-Dancing:

• A bedroom with a bed and a bedroom door that you can shut so you can bed-dance in private. Be sure to announce to the household that this is YOUR TIME and they are capable of getting along without you for at least the length of a CD. If not, they are far too dependant on you!

• A CD that excites you into "dancing". A CD is better over a cassette tape or radio because you can "program" your music selection to skip, repeat, or play at random your tunes according to what you want to dance to.

• An exercise outfit such as sweats, t-shirt and shorts, or even your slip. Since you'll be behind closed doors, you can wear whatever you want. However, when you actually have an "outfit" set aside for exercise, the mind gets in gear and stays more focused on what you are telling it to do… and that's EXERCISE.

• An attitude to do Bed-Dancing. This is vital too. Keep you movements simple but aggressive, meaning that you aren't making complicated moves with your arms and legs, but rather you are making the simple moves in a forceful and deliberate way much as a tap dancer or ballet dancer uses simple moves but with controlled and deliberate body disciplines.

So as you can see, the equipment you need for Bed-Dancing is minimal and low cost since you already have most of what you need as these things are probably already around the house. If you lack in a dancing CD, go get one… most cities have "used" CD shops. And as for your exercise outfit, you can find sweats at your local thrift store. And if you like Bed-Dancing in your "unmentionables", that's okay too…. Whatever works for you!

Bed-Dancing helped me begin my "serious" exercise routine which eventually morphed into exercising on my feet and even to full-fledged real dancing again as the pounds fell off! I still Bed-Dance occasionally to get me "started", then I'm up on my feet and going to town!

Meloney Hall successfully lost 170 pounds in 19 months after a gastric bypass bariatric weight-loss surgery. She is dedicated to helping others achieve their goals along their weight-loss journey. Visit her website at for more information on the RNY procedure and how it can cure morbid obesity.

Weight loss is synonymous to good health. Our health is a big asset which requires proper care and nurturing. A healthy diet pattern with a mix of regular exercise leads to a fit and trim body. Possessing a good physique gives us inner and outer confidence whereas an obese physique makes us dull and pessimistic. Apart from this, obesity or overweight breeds other diseases and makes our existence uncomfortable and unpleasant. Apart from causing physical torture, it often results in emotional suffering which is one of the most painful aspects of this ailment.

Most of us have this notion that obesity is just a cosmetic problem but in reality, it's a health hazard. A person with excessive weight is twice as likely to die prematurely as compared to an average-weight person. This is because obesity has been linked to several serious medical conditions such as diabetes and strokes. A weight increase of 11-18 pounds doubles the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in comparison to individuals with normal weight.

Diabetes and overweight is interrelated and due to this factor a term diabesity has been coined to signify the close association between obesity and diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is one of most prominent ailment found in obese people. This form of diabetes reduces body's ability to control blood sugar. The most alarming factor about this disease is that it is a major cause of early death, heart disease, stroke, and blindness. Overweight people are twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes compared to normal weight people.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. In type 2 diabetes, either the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin. Insulin is necessary for the body to use sugar. Sugar is the basic fuel for the cells in the body, and insulin takes the sugar from the blood into the cells. The chances of its occurrence can be reduced by losing weight and exercising more.

If you have type 2 diabetes, losing weight and becoming more physically active can help control your blood sugar levels. Increasing your physical activity may also allow you to reduce the amount of diabetes medication intake. Losing a small amount of weight can also reduce your chances of developing heart disease or a stroke and make your body ailment free. One of the easiest methods of weight loss is diet pills. Diet pills such as phentermine have helped millions of people in overcoming obesity so make it a part of your life for the benefit of your health.

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For African American males, smoking may be a serious problems because the last researches have estimated that the cancer death rate for black men it is about 40 per cent more higher than for white men and remain very higher than others ethnic groups in the United States.

For black men, cancer according with the new cancer's studies clarifies that is tobacco smoke the first cause of this disease; death cancer for African American males is about 35 per cent higher in males than females today.

National Cancer Institute reported that four of ten cancer death in black men in United States could have been related to this disease; in 2000 the rates have been dropping but remain higher than the other ethnic groups especially white groups.

Some areas of United States have strongest tobacco-control programs, like higher cigarettes taxes, antismoking education programs, and penalties for selling tobacco to minors, but the government and others no-government organization is still working in this illness.

There are a lot of studies and researches, but always it is important to mention that today the people know and have more information than 10 years ago for instance; and the government is constantly educating the new generations in tobacco cancer.

By the way, Reiki is an alternative therapy treatment that might be used in cancer and other diseases with interesting results, this one works with energies and could be very useful if Reiki is applied for Reiki Masters or Practitioners, research in your locality for further information.

Article written by Hector Milla; editor of a website about alternatives therapies like Reiki and others, they have recently published a free online guide with weight loss tips, visit at , Thanks for reproduce this article in you web site or ezine keeping a live link.

What's the greatest threat facing our civilization? (No, it's not the Islamic jihad.) It's obesity. Due to its attendant health and economic costs, scientists predict that obesity alone will topple economic and social structures, induce a wide range of dire diseases, and drastically cut short Americans' life spans.

These are more than another set of statistics -- they predict things that can and will affect you, your family, your health, and your pocketbook. If you are among the two thirds of adult Americans struggling to escape escalating weight gain, (or even if you're teetering on the edge with ten persistent pounds you can't seem to lose), as a physician, I recommend that you take action to lose weight and protect your future health.

And I have good news for you. I've developed a simple plan to help you lose weight automatically based on a new scientific breakthrough.

Despite the abysmal failure of conventional medical approaches, this plan is different because it's based on recent, groundbreaking scientific research, research that I predict will totally revolutionize weight loss and change the landscape of medicine as we know it.

Many of the answers to our weight and health problems are buried in thousands of research papers. With the aid of a number of very brilliant thinkers and scientists, I've gathered and synthesized the greatest advances in medical science over the last 20 years -- advances that usually take decades to get incorporated into medical practice. Translated into a simple program that has brought easy, sustainable weight loss to thousands of people, you can access them today.

In the recent past, many pundits theorized that society-wide weight gain was due to our genes. In a sense, they were right, but genes only tell half the story. We share the same genes as our hunter- gatherer forebears who foraged in the woods and hunted wild game 20,000 years ago. What's changed is the environment within which our genes operate.

Up until modern times, man's natural environment supplied the foods we were genetically programmed to eat. But with the advent of industrialized agriculture and food production, we began eating mass-produced and processed foods that genetically program us to add pounds.

Here's how:

Food is information -- not just calories -- and food information speaks to our genes, turning some genes ON and other genes OFF. That's why it's genes, not calories, that count.

Until recently, scientists believed that the critical mechanism for weight loss was caloric intake and expenditure -- you eat little and exercise hard to lose each pound. But that's hard to do and harder to maintain, recent scientific studies reveal (and no doubt not surprising to anyone who has tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to lose weight).

Using the caloric mechanism for weight loss is a bit like manually cranking a lever to open your garage door inch-by-inch and then having to hold the door open. Wouldn't you rather push the button that activates the circuitry to open your garage door automatically?

To do that for weight loss, you have to access the master biological mechanisms controlling weight loss and weight gain. Using those mechanisms opens the door to automatic weight loss. The recent scientific discoveries I've assembled decode the instruction manual of our basic biology. At last, we can control the master mechanisms: our genes themselves.

The new genetic science (called Functional Medicine) teaches that our genes interact intimately with our environment. Every bite of food we eat, every thought we think, every stress we experience, or toxin we inhale carries a specific message to our genes, turning them on (or off), and telling them how to behave.

As a result, our genes are programmed moment-by-moment to actively create either weight loss or weight gain. Scientists have tracked exactly how all the different foods trigger the messages sent to your genes. With that knowledge, you can give your body the foods that work in your favor -- and avoid ones that don't.

For instance, for decades, people were warned to avoid fats at all costs, but now we know that the type of fat you eat is more important than the amount of fat you eat. The new science traces the biological impact of good fats, like the omega-3 fatty acids (contained in fish, fish oils, certain nuts and many other foods) and bad fats like the trans-fats contained in many processed foods.

What researchers found is that good fats turn on your body's fat burning genes and bad fats turn off the fat burning genes. When you consume EPA or DHA, both omega-3 fatty acids, they access a metabolic gateway called the PPAR receptor, to activate genes that increase your metabolism, help you burn fat, and assist you in processing bodily glucose more effectively so that foods won't get stored as fat.

It's as if the EPA and DHA opens up an extra lane on your hormonal superhighway, making for a smooth and easy route towards slimness and health. That's why, for automatic weight loss, I recommend adding EPA and DHA (both found in fish oil) to your diet, beginning today. On the other hand, unhealthy transfats (such as found in many processed and fast foods) act as a metabolic roadblock to weight loss, and if you eat them, you may find yourself crawling along at a snail's pace, going nowhere.

These are just two of the hundreds of ways that you'll learn to awaken the fat-burning code hidden in your DNA. In my new book, UltraMetabolism, due out in March, 2006, you'll discover a wide range of foods that tell your genes to shed pounds, while learning to avoid the many other foods that tell your genes to pack on the pounds. Eating the foods right for your genes allows you to literally program your body to lose weight automatically, even as you sleep!

And that is the key: be simply learning to eat the foods that ignite your body's fat burning engines, and avoiding the foods that snuff out these engines, you finally begin the process of working WITH your body, instead of against it -- something that all fad diets fail to do, which is why they all fail in the long-run.

But, because UltraMetabolism teaches a simple plan to harness your body's own powerful fat burning forces -- ones that have evolved over millions of years -- you are actually programming your body to lose weight, automatically.

Why struggle and suffer with ineffective diets when you can actually teach your body to be slim and healthy? With the simple two-step plan I've developed, you can program your body to lose weight automatically. In the first step, you eliminate all of the bad foods that slow your metabolism, make you feel lethargic and lead to disease; in the second step, you add the good foods that crank up your metabolism, boost your energy and revitalize your health.

Twenty-first century weight loss is easier than you've ever dreamed. And it's something that I am confident about since I've treated over 2,000 patients, many of whom have experienced the very same automatic weight loss that I've described here.

My message to you is simple: If you want to fit into your jeans, you have to learn to fit into your genes!

Mark Hyman, M.D.

Did you know that exercising less and eating more can actually trigger your body to automatically lose weight? Unbelievable? It's true and it's why most people fail on diets. To find out more, grab your free sneak preview of UltraMetabolism.

You think thousands of thoughts each day. You talk to yourself more than anyone else. You are your most trusted advisor and confidant. Many of the conversations that you have with yourself you would never share with anyone else because to do so would expose the "real" you. The you that is filled with self doubt, worries, sadness, guilt, hurts and disappointments.

But this is not the "real you" at all. This is the you that your ego and belief systems have constructed. These negative beliefs have been constructed by you, and accepted by you as truth. The sad thing is that nothing can be further from the truth.

Where did these false ideas about you originate? They mostly came from others; parents, teachers, co-workers, and friends. They might have planted the seed by saying something like "she is fat" and you have cultivated those comments to the point that they have become your truth.

You are allowing your entire life to be controlled by some obscure comments made years ago. Nobody has the right or power to dictate who you are. Only you know who you truly are and what's in your heart.

When you were born you entered this world without the burdens of you current negative belief system. You entered this world as a beautiful bundle of joy filled with unlimited potential and possibilities.

I'm here to tell you that you have not changed. You are still and will always be a beautiful bundle of joy with unlimited potential and possibilities.

The only difference is what you give your attention to. Let me ask you a question. If you stopped all the negative talk that you currently have with yourself such as;

- I'm too fat

- Why would anyone want to love me

- I will never be thin

- I always fail

And the list can go on and on… How would you feel ? Do you think that you would feel emotionally lighter ? Do you think that you would feel happier ? Do you think that you would feel more confident ?

Now how do you think your life would change if you were to go one step further and modify your self talk by only speaking positively about yourself. If you take some time and focus on what you like about yourself and focus on only that your emotional state will become positive to the point that you will be able to accomplish anything.

Once you begin looking for the positive things within you, you will be surprised to realize your magnificence has always been there just below the surface. You have never been anything other then that shining bundle of joy that entered the world years ago. It's easy to uncover positive aspects of yourself by asking some questions.

- What am I good at?

- Who has benefited by me being in the world?

- Who am I, what is in my heart that only I know?

- What do I like about my body?

Your goal is to feel good now. How do you feel now? If you only observe what you feel is positive about you, you will feel good, you will be happy. Decide right here and right now how you want to feel. Decide that you will always look for the good within you and appreciate that goodness.

So what does all of this have to do with losing weight? Everything!!! Your emotional state is the control valve that determines what you draw into your experience. How you talk to yourself creates your beliefs and programs your subconscious. So you need to ask yourself do you want your beliefs and subconscious programming to be based on false negative thinking. Or do you want your beliefs to be based on the truth, that you are and always have been a perfect being.

Begin today to love and nurture yourself. Allow the joy, playfulness and enthusiasm that you naturally had as a child begin to flow into your everyday experiences. Allow yourself to celebrate each and every success no matter how small. Love and appreciate yourself every opportunity you have. Do this everyday and watch your weight begin to dissolve just as your old negative beliefs about yourself begin to dissolve.

If you have any questions you can email me

at bill@

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Taking Care of Inner Health 1.

Inner health is a very important subject because 95% of life threatening diseases starts inside our bodies where we can't see what is happening. By ignoring symptoms we often allow the problem to increase until treatment becomes difficult or, in the worst cases, impossible. It is also true that one hour of prevention is far better than one year of treatment. In this article we will look at the main source of "body fuel" – the food that we eat and, more importantly, how we eat it. But before going into that subject there are other things we should not be doing:

1. No smoking.

2. No drinking alcohol to excess.

3. No taking of unprescribed drugs.

This article is written on the assumption that you abide by the three rules above.

What we eat is the starting point. There is no point in eating foods that are saturated in fat as your basic diet and complaining that you are overweight and/or feel unwell. Of course you do because this is self-inflicted by inadequate diet. A good diet requires daily intake of the five major food groups that we have covered extensively in previous articles.

Small meals taken regularly (even six meals each day) are better for you than long periods without food followed by a heavy meal.

Large, rich, meals late at night should be avoided, especially for older people. A cooked meal at midday is digested better than a late night meal.

You should drink at least one and a half quarts (1.5 liters) of fluid each day; much more if the weather is hot. If you become ill you should double your fluid intake. Water is best.

Improving your diet is not as difficult as most people claim. In most instances it is simply a case of adjusting the balance of what we eat. Here are a few tips:

Eat more fiber in the form of fruit, vegetables and whole grain bread. In addition add two tablespoons of coarse bran to your breakfast cereal. This provides bulk, or roughage, that your digestive system depends upon to function properly.

Cut down on fat, normally taken in fast foods and fries etc. Eat more lean meat, fish. Grill rather than fry foods where possible.

Eat less sugar (This means no soda's because the average can of soda contains an equivalent of 20+ Tablespoons of sugar equivalent) Do not drink beer with meals because beer stops your body from breaking down fats. Water is the best drink followed by low calorie drinks and unsweetened fruit juices.

Walk for at least half an hour each day. Park your car at the furthest parking space from the supermarket; the exercise will increase your lifespan. If possible use stairs rather than escalators. All of these small things, together with your balanced diet, will increase your health and lifespan.

This article is copyright © David McCarthy and may be reproduced in its entirety without addition.

David McCarthy is a prolific writer of articles about health and wellness through the foods that we eat. His entire works can be found at You will also find a vast array of recipes for all types of food from weight watchers to banqueting. The site is free

A pedometer is a great inexpensive exercising tool that tracks your progress and keeps you motivated to stick to your daily workout. Let's take a look at what exactly a pedometer is and why you need one.

A pedometer is a small electronic device, about the size of a pager or smaller. The basic function of a pedometer is to track or count how many steps you take. Most models will also convert our steps into the number of miles you walked and calculate how many calories you have burned. More advanced models will save several days worth of date and some will even connect to your computer so you can chart your progress through software provided as well.

So the pedometer helps you keep track of how many steps you walked. I find that I'm much more motivated to take a little walk through the neighborhood, or park a little further when I'm running errands when I'm wearing my pedometer.

A recent study by the University of Minnesota shows that people wearing pedometers tend to walk more. The study split people up in two groups who were both encouraged to walk each day. Only one group was given pedometers to track their steps.

Those with pedometers increased their steps by about 2100 per day, or 20 minutes of steady walking, a 30% increase in daily steps. They walked almost twice as many blocks as those without pedometers. People using a pedometer also tend to stick much longer with a walking routine.

To get the most out of your pedometer, set daily and weekly goals. Start by setting a baseline number of steps. To do this, simply wear the pedometer for a few days. Don't try to aim for a certain number of steps. All you are doing at this point is measuring how many steps you take in a normal day. Calculate the average number of steps you take any given day. Next you want to start taking 500 to 1000 steps each day. You can easily accomplish this by taking a little walk around the block, parking a little further away during errand and at work, as well as walking to a college's office instead of calling him or her. Each week, or every two weeks increase your steps and additional 500 to 1000 steps until you reach a minimum of 10,000 steps per day. If you are walking to lose weight, work yourself up to 12,000 to 15,000 steps per day.

Walking is one of the easiest ways to exercise every day and a pedometer will help you track your progress and motivate you to keep walking. All you have to do is put on some comfortable shoes, clip on your pedometer and put one foot in front of the other. I encourage you to give walking and using a pedometer a try.

Susanne Myers is an avid walker herself and encourages others to do the same with her website. She provides you with great resources to walk off the weight, including articles on healthy eating and walking, low calorie recipes and product reviews. Visit to learn more and to sign up for her weekly tips and encouragements to keep you walking off the weight.

After you've had the RNY surgery, there is one thing you immediately begin to notice.. and that's what I call the "Take-Home Box Overload". This is what happens inside your refrigerator as a result of you brining home all of those take-home boxes from restaurants because you cannot finish the meal. Even prior to surgery, you couldn't often finish the meal when some restaurants serve such large portions. So packing up the leftovers after an eat-out meal seems natural to you, so you do it often.

PROBLEM ONE: The Take-Home Boxes can actually establish huge neighborhoods inside your fridge!

PROBLEM TWO: You feel you MUST NOT throw all of that food out because you have been taught from the early days of your crib that you SHALL NOT WASTE FOOD because of all the starving children elsewhere who certainly would appreciate the food you are wasting, right? Frankly, when you heard that guilt-phrase that was supposed to motivate you to gobble up, didn't you feel even MORE compelled NOT to finish eating and MAIL your uneaten portion to those starving children? I never really understood that philosophy of telling me I better eat because some poor children don't have enough to eat…. A puzzlement.

PROBLEM THREE: Because of the guilt, you decide that you'll just "snack" on the food in the take-home boxes. So you snack, snack again, snack some more, and HOORAY… you've eaten everything in the box and you didn't waste the food! OH, but you've done yourself a BAD turn!

Bad turn? How?

Let's consider that the food in that take-home box could contain 1500 to 2000 calories. So what? Well, when you eat those leftovers, you are consuming those ADDITIONAL 1500 to 2000 calories that you DON'T need in your eating routine… especially if you eat them as SNACKS and not meals. It is a DANGEROUS thing to leave those take-home boxes in the fridge when they scream at you to be consumed. Don't listen to them!

Here's what you need to do instead:

If you truly plan on eating the leftovers as "another meal portion", then you should wrap them according and place them in your FREEZER for eating LATER. You know that adage, "out of sight, out of mind?"… well, this is that basic concept. By doing this regularly, you'll be able to rotate your frozen meal portions for a better variety rather than eating the leftovers time after time. How appealing is it to eat six servings of chili in a row? It's not… so freeze the portions and eat them later.

The FREEZER is your solution to curb the "snacking" out of those take-home boxes. So use it as your new best friend, you new best meal-planner buddy, and your calorie-saver!

Getting use to the idea of tossing out food is a hard one, but it's something you have to get used to as well. The dog or cat will always be there to volunteer to eat what you can't', and the animals will show you a deeper devotion that ever imaginable! And your household loved ones often appreciate you giving them an open invitation to anything they find in the take-home boxes.

Get a grip on this early so you won't sabotage yourself with those additional calories that will creep up on you if you fall pray to snacking or through guilt-eating. As an RNY patient, you are only to consume a minimal amount of calories anyway.. so don't fall into the trap of eating more than you need. This could be a factor as to why you seem to not be losing enough weight or why you are gaining some back after awhile.

Bottom Line: Take-Home Boxes can be Dangerous… Tame them before they do you harm!

Meloney Hall successfully lost 170 pounds in 19 months after a gastric bypass bariatric weight-loss surgery. She is dedicated to helping others achieve their goals along their weight-loss journey. Visit her website at for more information on the RNY procedure and how it can cure morbid obesity.

Have you seen the movie "What the Bleep"? There is a great scene in that movie where the body-hating star breaks through to loving her body. She starts to draw hearts and love messages all over herself and relaxes into appreciation instead of loathing.

We're taught a lot of things to do to our bodies. Work it, sculpt it, starve it, push it, train it, discipline it. Most of them are not pleasant. What about loving it? What if we treated our bodies with love and tenderness?

Okay, it sounds a little sappy, I know. But really think about the idea for a moment. WHAT IF you made a decision to treat your body with the ultimate in kindness?

How would your body feel if you...

*Fed it the best, most delicious, most nutritious foods

*Gave it just the right amounts of food to feel light and full of energy

*Pampered it with fun movement

*Let it nap or rest when it was tired

*Treated it to healing massages and long soaks in warm water

*Noticed all the wonderful, beautiful things about it and overlooked its flaws

Writing love letters all over yourself is a great way to make friends with your body. It's much harder to assault your body with overeating when you know you have "I love you," hearts, spirals, "thank you," etc. written underneath your clothes.

Adopt self-nurturing as a way of life. Your body will LOVE YOU for LOVING IT. You will naturally live at your own perfect weight without effort or strain. Treat yourself well and love your body into the peak of health.

©2006 Nancy Hill has helped thousands break free from the nightmare of dieting with her ebook, "Undieting - 11 Simple Steps to Reclaim Your Body and Your Life." Sign up now to get the free Undieting Newsletter and discover how intuitive eating makes it easy to live at your ideal weight without ever dieting again.

Norman Mailer said of Marilyn Monroe:

"Her stomach, untrammeled by girdles or sheaths, popped forward in a full woman's belly, inelegant as hell, an avowal of a womb fairly salivating in seed - that belly which was never to have a child - and her breasts popped buds and burgeons of flesh over many a questing sweating moviegoer's face. She was a cornucopia. She excited dreams of honey for the horn."

And Elizabeth Hurley's opinion:

"I'd kill myself if I was as fat as Marilyn Monroe."

When I came across Normal Mailer's words in his biography of Marilyn it reminded me of the famous Hurley quote and I thought the comparison between the two views of this iconic beauty was quite poignant and sad.

Hatred of a womanly body seems to be a common situation in our culture. Women are brainwashed into thinking they need to be as skinny as possible. We diet, workout, starve ourselves, judge each other harshly, and spend our lives in deprivation and desperation.

Meanwhile, men naturally adore the lush, sexual, curvy female body. They desire the soft, voluptuous bodies we women are born into.

Our natural bodies don't require stringent dieting or starvation or plastic surgery or sculpting. We are each a perfect, unique creation and the more we accept and love our womanliness, the more wonderful life feels.

The Hurley quote used to make me angry. Now it just makes me sad that we have learned to be so shallow and so mean to one another, and to ourselves, with the thoughts we have about the female body.

©2005 Nancy Hill has helped thousands break free from the nightmare of dieting with her ebook, "Undieting - 11 Simple Steps to Reclaim Your Body and Your Life." Sign up now to get the free Undieting Newsletter and discover how intuitive eating makes it easy to live at your ideal weight without ever dieting again.