Health & Wellness Tips

We occasionally come across some ideas in the area of health and wellness that we think some classmates might enjoy exploring further.  Some ideas are seasonal, while others might be good for you all year long.  At each of the separate ideas below there is a link to another website.  You can "click" on the "idea" for further exploration.  Hope you enjoy this page and come back often! 


 Attention Men and Women Over Age 50 Struggling to Lose Weight...

Discover How The "Health Foods" You're Eating Every Day Are Making Your Fat Cells SICK...

- The 3 reasons you should NEVER eat wheat -- Yes, even "whole wheat."

- The 3 reasons you should NEVER use Vegetable Oils...

- The TRUTH about sugar... You can't just "burn off" sugar...

Find out how to repair your damaged digestive system and start melting away your embarrassing belly fat, while also increasing your energy and fighting joint pain.

For A VERY Limited Time You Can Claim Your Copy Of "The Fat Burning Kitchen" For FREE!!

http://www.theinternetguide.com/nov23.html

 

Forgot to Work on Your Healthy Lifestyle?

25 Ways You Could Get Back on Track Today

Don't Give Up on Your Goals!

When you feel like getting back on track is overwhelming, try one (or more) of these small steps each day.

1. Try a short workout. Even five minutes is better than nothing. For ideas browse our video library or workout generator.

2. Try a new recipe. Cooking healthy foods can be fun and it never has to be bland.

3. Eat a healthy breakfast. Your morning meal sets the stage for the rest of your day, so start if off right! Get lots of breakfast ideas here.

4. Drink your water. Try to aim for 8 cups each day and you’ll feel the difference!

5. Look at Motivational SparkPages. Seeing how others overcome similar struggles and obstacles can be a great source of motivation.

6. Track your food today. No matter how it adds up, you’ll learn from it.

7. Update your SparkPage. It’s a visual way to track your ups and downs, but also your progress.

8. Share your goals. Whether you post them on the Message Boards or share them with a friend, you’ll be more accountable.

9. Exercise for 10 minutes. Jump rope, march in place, or do some crunches. Small amounts do add up to something big!

10. Find a buddy. Get support from friends, whether you need someone to listen or a mentor to give you ideas and encouragement.

11. Take a walk. Don’t worry about how long or far you go—just get out there!

12. Create a motivational collage. Include pictures of your goal and reasons why you want to get there.

13. Go shopping for some healthy foods. Use this shopping list for ideas.

14. Check the nutrition facts before you go out to eat. That way, you can make an informed choice.

15. Ride your bike. Even a leisurely ride has benefits for your body and mind.

16. Work in the yard. Gardening and yard work is a great way to add activity to your day.

17. Take the stairs. Even if this is the only thing you do all day, you’ll feel stronger for it.

18. Rack up those SparkPoints! You earn them for every healthy task you do on the site—talk about motivating! Aim for a certain milestone, such as 100 points, and then reward yourself with a SparkGoodie!

19. Listen to an inspirational song. Better yet, make a playlist of them so you can turn to it whenever you need a boost.

20. Re-start your SparkPeople program. Sometimes it’s easier to get back on track when you have a clean slate.

21. Measure your portions. It’s a simple way to learn how much you’re eating.

22. Eat a piece of fruit. Even if 5-9 servings of fruit and vegetables sounds impossible to you, one is doable.

23. Slow down during meals. You’ll be less likely to overeat and more likely to enjoy your meal.

24. Play! What kids call “play,” we often call “exercise.” Play a sport, a game, or use the playground equipment to bring the fun back into fitness.

25. Learn something new. Sometimes simply taking a quiz or reading an article about nutrition, fitness, or health can change your mindset and get you back on track.

In tennis, losing one point isn’t the end of the world. It happens to the best of them. In fact, if you can consistently win a few more points that you lose, you may end up in the hall of fame. With healthy eating and exercising, as long as you’re consistently out-stepping your steps back, you’re ahead of the game. If you expect perfection (and many of us do), you’re setting yourself up for disappointment and guilt.

You CAN get back on track today. Even if you’re moving slowly, you’ll be moving in the right direction!

 

Need more reason to make fitness a habit?
You hear all the time that exercise is good for your health and your heart. Here's more motivation to start getting fit: If you're inactive, you're almost twice as likely to develop heart disease as people who get moving on a regular basis, reports the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Regular exercise naturally decreases the LDL (bad) cholesterol levels in your blood while increasing your HDL (good) cholesterol levels. It also lowers blood pressure and helps with blood sugar control, not to mention that exercise strengthens the heart and cardiovascular system so that it is more efficient. Exercise does not have to be strenuous to offer benefits. Any activity that gets you up and moving, from gardening to walking, can benefit your ticker.

What to Ask Your Doc Before You Start Exercising
 

   
   

 

This Week's Tip

10 keys to conquering high cholesterol
Heart disease is a scary thing. In the face of dire risk factor statistics and horror stories about cholesterol, you can easily get rattled. You might feel overwhelmed by the whole cholesterol question, and feel like you face uninformed life and death decisions every time you sit down at the table. But reducing your risk of heart disease is not an impossible task. All it takes is a few simple adjustments.

Your cholesterol level is determined by several factors, including your genetic makeup, your diet, and certain lifestyle choices. You can't do anything about genes passed down from Grandpa Charlie, but you can change your future with a few new, heart-friendly lifestyle choices.

Take Control with These Tips
 

More Tips for a Healthy Heart

This Week's Tip

Quiz: Are you making heart smart choices?
Do you think you know all the ins and outs of keeping your heart healthy? Test your knowledge about the most important muscle in your body with this ticker-related test!

Take the Quiz Now

More Tips for a Healthy Heart
 
JUST  IN CASE
I hope everyone will read this as it is really important for everyone to know!
 

   1. Let's say it's 7:25 pm and you're going  home (alone of course) after an unusually hard day on the job.  
   
   2. You're really tired, upset and frustrated.  
   
   3.
 Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up into your jaw.
You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home. 
   
   4.
 Unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far. 
   
   5.
 You have been trained in CPR, but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself. 
   
   6.
 HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN  ALONE?  
Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating  improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.  
   
   7.
 However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously.
A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. 
A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.  
   
   8.
 Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and  coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood  circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it to regain a normal rhythm.
In this way, heart attack victims can get help or to a hospital. 
   
   9.
Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives! 
   
   10.
A cardiologist says: "If everyone reads this message & kindly informs 10 people, you can bet that we'll save at least one life. 
   
   
 
  

 

How positive thinking can improve your health
Optimism comes from the Latin word optimus, meaning "best," which describes how an optimistic person is always looking for the best in any situation and expecting good things to happen. Optimism is the tendency to believe, expect or hope that things will turn out well. Even if something bad happens, like the loss of a job, or an unfortunate medical diagnosis. Research shows that optimism may be good for my physical health too—optimists are sick less and live longer than pessimists.

Apparently, a positive outlook on life strengthens the immune system (and the body's defenses against illness), cardiovascular system (optimists have fewer heart attacks), and the body's ability to handle stress. So how can you reap the benefits of a positive outlook, even when you tend to view the glass as half empty?

7 Good Reasons to Smile Today                                                    

  This Week's Tip

8 sneaky habits that sabotage your heart
We all know that for optimum heart health we need to eat a healthy diet, exercise and not smoke. But did you know that the little things you do every day can have a big impact on the most important muscle in your body?We put together a list of the seven habits that may be hurting your heart. You might be surprised how these ""little"" things add up! Are you guilty of any of these seemingly innocent mistakes?
 

 

This Week's Tip

A healthy heart starts with your teeth?
Answer honestly (we promise not to tell): Do you floss regularly? You may think that regular flossing just helps keep your pearly whites in tip-top shape, but research shows that dental disease and cardiac health are correlated. Researchers believe that inflammation from gum disease allows bacteria to enter your mouth's blood vessels, travel into the coronary artery vessels, and narrow their passages. This reduces blood flow, which hurts the heart. In fact, people with coronary artery disease are 38% more likely to also have gum disease. While research is still being done in this area, it's best to keep that mouth healthy, and now you have yet another reason to floss each day. If it's not a habit yet, set a goal to floss regularly, and track it until it becomes a habit.

More Ways a Healthy Mouth Can Lead to a Healthy Body
 

More Tips for a Healthy Heart

 

This Week's Tip

5 ways to lower your triglycerides
If you're concerned about heart health, then you probably take steps to reduce your cholesterol and keep your blood pressure in check. But there's another important measure you should be aware of: your triglycerides. People with high triglycerides (called hypertriglyceridemia) often have low HDL ("good cholesterol") levels; this combination is considered by many experts to be associated with an increased risk for heart disease. So what exactly are triglycerides, and what level should you aim for?

Find Out and Get 5 Tips to Reduce Your Levels
 

More Tips for a Healthy Heart

    This Week's Tip

What, exactly, is heart disease?
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of men and women in the United States. But what exactly is heart disease? There are many health problems that fall under the umbrella of heart disease, and each one affects the heart and the body differently. But they all have one thing in common: They disrupt the heart from doing its job as efficiently as possible. Some types of heart disease are congenital and cannot be prevented; many others are preventable and even reversible (or at least treatable) through medical and lifestyle interventions.

The Meaning of Your Diagnosis
 

More Tips for a Healthy Heart

      

 

“BUT THAT'S NOT MY FAMILY…”
 
Explosions in obesity and diabetes diagnoses threaten the health of all communities and demographics. Take a look at the nationwide spread of these twin epidemics over the last 16 years. 
 
DID YOU KNOW?
A diabetes diagnosis can add over $10,000 to an individual’s annual health care costs.
 
Obesity and lack of physical activity may be key diabetes risk factors, but they can often be affected by behavioral change. As a society, however, we spend more time each year glued to our screens. We choose cheap and easy food options rather than healthy ones. And, worst of all, we’re passing these bad habits on to our kids.
 
In 2010, 12% of 9th-grade boys in Minnesota and 6% of 9th-grade girls were obese. Without big changes, many of these kids will be at increased risk of developing diabetes as adults.
 
Consider again that holiday table, this time with you seated among the guests. What are your risks, and how are your choices shaping those of your children?
 
AM I AT RISK?
Take the American Diabetes Association's Diabetes Risk Test.
 


 

Last Year's Tip

Are you adopting a diet or a lifestyle?
You've heard it so many times that you probably say it in your sleep. ""Diets don't work; if you want to lose weight and keep it off, you have to make a lifestyle change.""

But what does a lifestyle change look or feel like, and how do you know when you've made one? The way some people talk about it, you'd think there's some sort of mystical wisdom you get when you "make the change" that tells you when and what to eat, and how to stop worrying about the number on the scale. Does this mean you'll finally stop craving chocolate and start liking tofu?

The basic difference between a diet mentality and a lifestyle mentality is simply a matter of perspective. Having the right perspective may not make tofu taste better than chocolate, but it can make all the difference in the world when it comes to achieving your goals, avoiding unnecessary suffering along the way, and hanging onto your achievements over the long haul.


 

 

 

 

 



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