You need to eat something

while it's good to mind what you eat in order to lose weight, you must be careful not to get too concerned about your eating. If you obsess too much about the calories you're taking, you can develop a serious eating disorder, such as anorexia or bulimia. Dozens of people, mainly girls, continuously post their experiences on the Web talking about how they can go on days without eating much, or eating and then throwing up. YouTube has thousands of so-called 'Thisnpos', advertisements made by people with these disorders trying to convince themselves - more than anyone else - of the apparent 'benefits' of being skeleton-thin. A lack of self-confidence, and constant comparison with role models that don't necessarily portray a real or healthy weight, just make things worse.

Obviously, these people need help. Eating disorders may lead to serious health problems and even death. If you're overweight, establish positive goals for yourself, combining dieting with exercises. And always have medical supervision. Depending on how much you end up losing, how fast and your general perception about yourself, you could shift from an overweight problem to an even more serious one.

Walk here and there

Do you want to know of an easy way to slowly start getting more exercise into your life? Do you take public transit to and from work? Then things might be quite simple to start off for you.

If you take the bus, streetcar or subway to work, try leaving a few minutes early to spare you some time during your trip. Then, get off a few stops before where you would usually get off, and walk to your destination. A few minutes here and there certainly don't seem like much, and can even make you feel like you're moving faster than traffic at rush hour. Sometimes you may even walk faster than your bus depending on the traffic congestion on the streets.

It may be difficult for you to do this in the morning if you are usually late, but on the way back home you might feel more at ease with the thought of taking some 20 or 30 minutes longer to get home, only to walk a few blocks at the start or end of your trip.

Quite soon you'll start noticing the difference, and may surprise yourself wanting to walk longer distances day after day. Take advantage of this new found disposition and enroll in other activities to help kick sedentarism out of your life.

Five tips for getting your home organized

Have you ever wondered how much time you spend a day looking for something you forgot where you left? Or how many times in a week you think about postponing something to do at home, that can 'wait until tomorrow'? Well, it's time you got yourself down to it and organized your home once and for all. With some useful tips, you'll be done in no time. And being organized will even save you precious time in the future, a time that can be used to do more productive, or enjoyable things by yourself or with your loved ones.

Step 1: Create a list

If you want to be organized and tide up your place, the first thing you'll need is to create an organized list of the things you want to do. After all, without a list you could start on the wrong foot, being disorganized about your organization objectives. After you finish your list, be sure to rank the items that need to be organized in order of importance and set up a realistic timeframe to achieve each goal. This will not only make things easier when you're actually working on the tasks, but also keep you excited about the tasks and the completion of each of them.

Step 2: Think about how to do it

Now that you know what you want to organize, think about how you are going to do it before you actually start moving the first box. This might be unnecessary to some, but it's quite easy to lose your focus while doing the task and abandon it for minutes or hours while getting distracted by an old picture, shirt or other object that you had 'lost' and had no idea where it was. By knowing what you have to do you can concentrate on the task at hand and finish it sooner. Also, if you have a detailed plan you have a better idea of what you're going to get yourself into beforehand. If you don't make a plan, you may be surprised by the amount of work that might be involved once you start, and be more inclined to abandon the task before getting a chance to finish it.

Step 3: Sort and separate items

Once you have started the process itself, sort out the things you want to organize, and try to separate them by groups, depending on their function, origin, colour, value, ... Whatever works for you. Just make sure you're consistent throught the process, or else you're never going to remember which criteria you chose in the sorting process in the first place! Also, while you're sorting, make sure to check if the item should indeed be in the room. Just like you shouldn't keep pans in your bedroom, take the picture books out of the kitchen. Unless you're extremely short on storage space, each room should store only things that are going to be used in that room.

Step 4: Find a destination for each thing

As you're going through each room, this step should come right after the sorting process. Once you know everything you have in a room, you should stop and think of what you're going to do with it. If it's still relevant to you and useful in the room you're at, separate and store the similar items into separate boxes, drawers or other containers that make it easy to retrieve items later. If you have trouble remembering what each box or drawer is for, draw a scheme separately or put stickers on the boxes themselves. If something hasn't been used in a long time, perhaps it's time to think if you really need it, and donate what you won't use. Clutter doesn't get rid of itself without your help, and now is the time to get rid of it!

Step 5: Keep it up

After you have finished organizing all your rooms, you'll notice your life will become a lot easier, and better. You'll waste no time finding things and will be quite happy with yourself in knowing exactly where everything is. You may even feel better for having donated stuff that was no longer useful to you but which will probably serve someone just fine. However, after you finish, you must police yourself to keep it up. Unless you want to see all your work lost in a couple of weeks of months, you must continue to reevaluate your tasks consistently, putting new objects where they belong, along their older and similar counterparts, and getting rid of things you stop using. By doing this, you'll keep your home organized and be able to enjoy all the benefits that such organization brings to your life.

Reduce your stress with yoga and meditation

If you're feeling too anxious, nervous or stressed lately, you can perhaps try to do something to get rid of these symptoms. Usually, the answer to free yourself from them lies within yourself, our your inner power.

If you learn how to meditate, relax, drive yourself away from the problems that worry you and just think of good things, or nothing at all for a few moments, you may be giving your body the break it needs to fully restore its energies to face the stress and worries of your normal life. And in that sense, yoga can be a powerful tool to fight these things that are making you miserable.

And even better, with yoga you learn how to see things differently, ultimately being prepared to better deal with the moments of stress when you have to face them. By learning how to deal with these situations, you can regain the control of these moments, accepting your limitations and thinking of ways to better deal with them. Ultimately, you will be more confident about the different possible outcomes of these stressful moments, and be less stressed about them.

There are different yoga levels and exercises that can help you achieve that. Some exercises teach you how to relax from a busy day at work, school or home. Others teach you how to use your body to build strength and energy to ultimately gain more confidence to deal with certain situations.

It's not always easy dealing with certain situations. No matter what you do, there's always some stress involved. But if you're properly prepared to deal with certain things, you will certainly increase your chances of limiting the negative effects stress may have on your life. Go ahead and give yogga a chance. start practicing. You'll be surprise at how much you can achieve with simple steps that will eventually have the power to improve your life significantly.

Careful with certain fitness myths

I guess we've all been there. We hear a tip from a friend, then another and may even get a so-called expert tell us about it. Sooner than you know you may be following all sorts of bad advice during your daily fitness routine. Be extra careful about what you hear and even more so about what you want to start doing to your own body. Check with your doctor and phys ed trainer before starting any kind of new exercise, to make sure its good and appropriate for you.

But a starting point is reading about the top 9 fitness myths that usually get people in trouble. For instance, did you know that running on a treadmill puts just as much pressure on your knees as running on asphalt? Using ab-machines look great on TV, but do they really make you get rid of belly fat? Not all that looks good on TV applies to the real world.

Don't forget to warm up before exercising

So you think baseball pitchers go to the bullpen to warm up just for fun, because they were bored sitting at the bench? Well, think again. Warming up before you exercise is almost as important as exercising itself, and it can lead you to a more productive, not to mention pain-free, experience.

Stretching and taking it easy at first allows your muscles to slowly warm up and get to the flexibility levels required for them to function properly during the exercise itself, which can be more vigorous and demanding, depending on your age and physical conditioning. Failing to warm up appropriately can not only lead to a more painful experience while exercising, but also strains and muscle pulls.

Then, while exercising, learn to see the signs your body is showing you of its limits. Especially when you're first starting a new exercising routine, your body will tell you when it's time to slow down or stop. The pain will generally be concentrated on those areas you had not been working on for a while, and which are being asked to do extra work in the new type of exercise you have been undertaking.

And if even after a while this pain doesn't go away or at least lessens up somewhat, check out with your doctor or a physical trainer to make sure you're not doing an exercise in the wrong way or putting too much pressure on a vulnerable part of your body. Better be safe than injuring yourself in the process, which in turn could lead to months of physiotherapy to fix the damage done.

Don't give low-calorie and diet foods to children

If you have a child who's a bit above the ideal weight, resist the urge to give her (or him) low-calorie foods. A new study shows that eating low-calorie foods at an early age may mess up the body's way of associating eating to getting enough calories, leading to a potential overeating disorder in the future - which in turn can cause these children to become obese after reaching adulthood. If a child is eating a plate-full and the body perceives it's not getting enough calories out of it, it will send a signal to the child saying that it needs more food. Later in life, the signal may be already bonded so strongly to the eating habits of the person that it will keep demanding food even after a plate of regular, full-calorie food.

If you're worried about the weight of your child, try offering some healthier foods, like vegetables and fruit, that are satisfying and nutritious. Also, encourage some physical activity, preferably by joining in yourself to keep everyone excited about it.

And just remember that you shouldn't try to fool your child's body with diet and low-calorie foods. You may just achieve that deception, leading to an overeating disorder.

Secret foods: Avocado

If you're in a fiesta partying spirit, don't forget to include guacamole as a dipping sauce for your corn chips. Sure, it's a fast food rich in calories, but it's still a healthier option than other types of dips.

Being primarily made of avocados - if made from scratch, at least, can't say much about pre-packaged powder mixtures -, the guacamole will carry on many of the healthy benefits of this fruit originary from Mexico and Central America. There's a monounsaturated fat in avocado that may help to lower bad cholesterol levelsm, while increasing the amount of good cholesterol. At least, that's what studies have shown so far.

Potassium and folate are also found in abundance within this green pear-shaped food, also helping in promoting good health for the heart and blood circulation. It may even help in the absortion of carotenoids from other vegetables, thus increasing the potential health benefits of other foods as well. Finally, ongoing research also seems to suggest that avocados may help reduce the risk of breast and prostate cancer.

So what are you waiting for? Get ready for some green creamy fruit delight.

Five things that will reduce your stress level

It's undeniable that, in today's world, the level of stress and lack of time make it extremely hard to lead a healthy lifestyle. But if you start targeting one thing at a time, you may be able to undertand your lifestyle better, and tackle the areas that need work in order for your general satisfaction levels to improve.

With a few steps, you can start reducing your stress levels right away, achieving a healthier and more satisfying daily routine in no time at all.

Here are five things that can help you reduce your stress levels right now:

1. Park your car
Traffic is one of the main sources for stress. Park your car and take public transit instead. If possible, it's even better to walk. If you're walking you can appreciate life at lower speed, while getting the chance to exercise at the same time. On public transit you don't have to worry about the traffic, being able to read a book or newspaper, chat with other people or even catch up on some lost hours of sleep.

2. Avoid arguments
By this I don't mean any kind of arguments, just those that serve no purpose but to create the perfect recipe for a fight, especially with friends and loved ones. Before engaging in an argument, try to see what are the possible benefits of it, if any at all. Will the other person change his or her point of view, and even if they do, will it make a whole lot of difference? Try to learn to respect the difference of opinions, and save your energy for those arguments that you feel are really difference makers.

3. Chew
Have you stopped to see how long it has been taking you to eat your meals? Are you really eating and appreciating the food, or just hurrying to get it out of the way so that you can move on to do other things with your life. Start treating meal times as important parts of your day, and take your time to chew on what's in your plate. Not only will you feel calmer and more relaxed while you're at it, but it will also help improve your health - since you will be able to absorb more nutrients from your food and also give your body time to concentrate on the task at hand, digestion.

4. Worry only about things you can do something about
What's the use of sweating, getting nervous and stressed over your team's chances of advancing deep into the playoffs. Sure, it's nice and a good pastime, but it won't really make a difference to the team if you're suffering or not in front of the TV. Relax and treat it as it is, a game. If you think your fandom will really have an impact, try at least to make yourself heard or noticed, by going to the arena or stadium and supporting the players.

5. Don't suffer in anticipation
If you're nervous about an upcoming project, deadline or event, don't suffer too much in anticipation of it, thinking about what could go wrong. Try to think positively instead, and make sure to get prepared to do your best to reduce the chances of anything going wrong. Everything may just go well in the end, and if you worry too much in advance you'll have been stressed about a projected future that never really materialized.

Five things that will send you to the grave early

One of the main rules in regards to leading a healthy life is getting rid of the habits that would prevent you from doing that. So, it doesn't matter if you only eat healthy food if you still smoke two packs a day, drink 2-4s in one sitting and don't exercise. See if any of the following apply to you, and act accordingly to get rid of it. Or start paying for that vacant spot at the cemetery.

1. Smoking
Nearly half a million people die each year in the US alone due to cigarette smoking. One in every five deaths in the country could be tied to smoking somehow, and you still think it won't do you any harm. Well, think again Humphrey Bogart. The glamour of smoking from films in the earlier 20th century are a distant memory now, and fortunately the number of smokers has been dropping in the developed world. Do yourself a favor and join in the quitting, if you haven't done so yet.

2. Drinking
Alcohol consumption is the third-leading preventable cause of death in the US. It doesn't mean you should abstain completely from having a drink here and there with your buddies. As a matter of fact, a glass of wine a day has been proved to actually improve your health. Despite its benefits if consumed in (very) moderate levels, alcohol can cause very serious harm to the liver if taken in huge amounts. Not to mention how it may indirectly lead to other deaths, such as those in car crashes where alcohol plays a part.

3. Poor eating habits
What, you don't think you can die by your mouth? Think again. Each year, almost 400,000 Americans die because of a combination of poor diets and lack of exercise. Throw away the chips and burritos and reach for the greens. Don't wait until fat starts to build up on your waistline. Your arteries may have already started building up some fat before that. Go to a doctor for regular check-ups and ask for a diet from a nutritionist.

4. Lack of exercise
As stated above, almost 400,000 people die in the US each year because of a combination of lack of exercise and bad eating habits. Cancel your cable subscription and open a membership at the gym. Join running clubs or buy a stationery bike for your home. Do something, anything, but start moving now.

5. Behaving like an idiot
It doesn't matter if you think you can drive your car at 120mph, have unprotected sex, use drugs or eat at suspicious-looking diners. It may not kill you if you do it once or twice, but start doing it too often and chances are that the stats are going to catch up with you. Have some common sense and be responsible, will ya? Sorry to break it to you, but you're not Superman. You may even be healthy, but if you engage in dangerous behaviour, your health is not going to do much for you on the other side.

Hard work gives best results

If you're trying to get in shape, you know there are several paths you can choose to follow. Eat less, choose some cardiorespiratory heavy activities or do some strength building exercise. But to achieve the best results, in general the solution is to pursue a balanced approach to the problem.

Going on an extended food deprivation period will certainly make you lose weight. Water, muscles and then the hard to burn fatty cells that were probably the first you wanted to rid yourself of. In the end, you may get sick or too weak a lot sooner than you manage to actually get in shape.

You may also be tempted to try some medication or steroids to build those muscles you've been dreaming about. You may even succeed at first and look like a pro wrestler in no time. But in the long run, this approach will give you so many undesirable side effects that you'll wonder if you weren't better before, as an out-of-shape sedentarian.

Nothing in life usually comes too easily, and getting in shape is certainly no exception. In the end, the best approach is to dose a little bit of everything. It's reasonable to eat less if you expect to lose weight, but remember that even then your body still needs some essential nutrients. Talk to a nutritionist or health professional about your weight losing goals, and set up a reasonable and attainable plan so as to keep focused and encouraged.

Simultaneously, seek the advice of a doctor or personal trainer and set up an exercise plan that best addresses your needs and current conditioning. Take it slowly at first and progress gradually from there. It's usually a good idea to mix some vigorous cardio-respiratory tasks like running, bicycling or simply walking faster with some strength building activities at the gym.

Eating healthy without going broke

One of the key ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle is to eat properly. However, it's not always easy to find nutritious food at reasonable prices, depending on where you live. Not to worry. Some simple steps can at least reduce the amount of junk and litter you're putting inside your body. And save you money at the same time, which can then be re-invested in getting you to buy better quality food. Check out these "16 Ways to Eat Healthy While Keeping it Cheap". Of course, some of the tips may not necessarily be 100% accurate (such as eating more fatty meats and eggs to get healthier) and other would not apply to everyone, but the general idea is good, and shows us how cutting back on some consumption patterns of modern life can help us stay healthier body and money wise.