By Pat Barone
If the invention of TV remote controls and video games ushered in the couch potato lifestyle, could a similar device rescue us? Nintendo’s Wii Fit, which debuted in late 2006, has grown in popularity, but is it a brilliant rescue device for the overfed, a novelty that will soon fade in popularity, or a clever motivator that appeals to the addictive and/or competitive personality?
Betting on the fact that Americans love their TVs (the average American spends 19-25 hours per week in front of the screen!), Nintendo fashioned Wii Fit with a little competitive edge to keep your interest with the addictive qualities of a video game.
Depending on the activity you choose (Wii has tennis, baseball, boxing, bowling & golf, and the upgrade Wii Fit features weight lifting, aerobics, yoga, jogging, hula hoop, ski jumping, rhythm boxing and step aerobics), you might be holding a wand-like device about the size of a remote control or wearing wrist bands while standing on a surfboard-like balance board in front of your TV. You simulate the movements and force of whatever activity you are playing and the game console translates it onto an animated picture on your TV screen.
So, does it work?
Continue reading ‘Wii Fit: Can it Replace the Gym?’
By Simon Barrett
I am not really much of a diet fan, my weight has never been an issue, I have been a 148lbs dripping wet for the past 35 years. I eat whatever I want, when I want. But as Pamela McDonald explains diet is not merely a method for controlling weight, but has a significant influence on health and quality of life.The world is full of fad diets, most of which make me cringe. I am sure it cannot be so, but I seems to me that a popular one preaches the virtues of meats and fats, while certainly meat and fat are important aspects of nutrition, I can hardly imagine that living on fried bacon would be a good way to lose weight and promote good overall health. Likewise a steady diet of cabbage soup would likely become somewhat monotonous after a couple of days.
Pamela McDonald takes a different approach, there is no one size fits all diet, different people need different things. Although all humans are intrinsically composed of the same material, the building blocks, our genes, are subtlety different. In decoding our DNA researchers in recent years have found small inconsistencies in people’s DNA that make them more susceptible to specific health conditions.
Continue reading ‘Book Review: The APO E Gene Diet by Pamela McDonald’
NuPhedrine offers you two weight loss ingredients in one non-prescription pill. It contains the patented Advantra-Z in the extra strength concentration, combined with Hoodia Gordonii in the most potent form available. The combination of these two ingredients helps you lose weight much faster by increasing your metabolism to burn up more calories even when you are resting and suppressing your appetite. Since Advantra-Z is a stimulant, you will also notice an increase in energy. NuPhedrine can be taken with any nutritional plan you are on, irrespective of whether it is low gi, low in fat, low in carbs, or calorie restricted. It should work with all of them. But, if you intend to buy NuPhedrine to help you lose weight, please read this article first and make an informed decision.
A review of NuPhedrine will be incomplete without a reference to the history of one of the ingredients in Nuphedrine, namely Advantra-Z. Advantra-Z is a patented form of synephrine, or “bitter orange”, which is a stimulant related to ephedra. In the early 1990’s Ephedra (Ma Huang), in combination with Caffeine and Aspirin gained widespread popularity as a performance enhancer, energy booster, appetite suppressor and weight loss aid. This combination of drugs was known as the E.C.A stack. Ephedra not only boosts the metabolism, it also increases body heat and as such can be regarded as a thermogenic drug. It was reported that, with caffeine, ephedra can help people lose 5 to 10 percent of their body weight.
Continue reading ‘Lose weight faster with NuPhedrine’
Author: Sonia Devine
The other day one of my clients said to me: ‘I have a friend who tried hypnotherapy for weight loss, but it didn’t work for her.’ She was wondering why some people seemed to respond to weight loss hypnotherapy, while others did not. I explained to her that not all hypnotherapy is equal; that some therapists focus very strongly on eliminating the symptoms of being overweight, which are usually overeating, lack of motivation to exercise, sugar/fat addiction and alcohol addiction.
Many people believe that their eating patterns are simply habit, and that hypnotherapy can help them to break that habit. In some cases this is true. But in many cases, the overeating is serving a purpose. Sometimes it alleviates anxiety. Sometimes it provides comfort. It may even serve to numb emotional pain. Whatever the case, it is not the vice that is the problem, but the need for the vice.
Continue reading ‘Symptom Vs. Cause in Weight Loss’
Author: Ryan Daniels Lee
Can walking to lose weight really work? If you want to lose weight quickly, the thought of walking to get rid of that extra weight might seem improbable. After all, walking is just walking, right? Isn’t weight loss supposed to be difficult?
The truth is, the effectiveness of walking to lose weight is relative to where you are in terms of your overall health and fitness levels. When your lifestyle is sedentary, consisting of sitting behind your desk at the office and slouching on the couch in front of the TV at home, any form of exercise will cause an improvement in your health and fitness! Continue reading ‘Does Walking to Lose Weight Really Work?’
Author: Margaret Paul, Ph.d.
If you are a junk food junkie or you often don’t eat well and are unconcerned with health and nutrition, why is this? Everyday we read about or see on TV how sugar, soft drinks, many kinds of fats, fried foods, factory farmed foods, devitalized, packaged and processed food, pesticide laden food, and other kinds of junk food cause illness. What causes you to ignore the research and go right on eating badly?
Continue reading ‘Feeling the Effects of Food’
NutriSystem, Inc. regards itself as a leading provider of weight management products and services and developed its solid reputation in the weight management industry over the last 35 years. It offers clients a wide range of prepackaged and home-delivered meals, making it the ideal weight loss program for busy career women or home executives with too much to do and too little time. And then, of course, it offers a great alternative to fattening take-out foods for those that simply don’t enjoy spending time in the kitchen.
This proven program uses the “good carb”, or low GI (low Glycemic Index) concept in conjunction with heart healthy ingredients and natural fiber to provide customers with nutritious, healthy and balanced meals. Portion control is a key feature of the program, and is easily enforced through the ready made meals. Customers simply decide on a meal plan, order their meals on-line or via telephone, and have their food delivered to their doorsteps. Vitamins and dietary supplements can also be ordered in the same manner. Currently NutriSystem meal deliveries are only available for customers residing in the United States and Canada.
The weight loss journeys of customers are well-supported by offering services such as free on-line and telephone counseling. These well-trained and knowledgeable counselors are available to clients 24 hours of a day and 7 days a week. In 2004, NutriSystem Inc. acquired Slim and Tone, a global franchisor of women’s express fitness centers, allowing NutriSystem to offer an integrated solution (diet and exercise) for successful weight loss. A professional and innovative website ensures that customers do not lack for resources or inspiration. NutriSystem’s already integrated approach has been further expanded to also take care of the mindset changes required to help customers reach their goal weight and then ensure that the necessary lifestyle changes are made to keep the weight off.
Continue reading ‘NutriSystem – an effortless way to lose weight….’
Dr Barry Sears, a biochemist, first popularized the Zone diet in his 1995 book, “The Zone”. While this diet has not been developed specifically for weight loss, it is probably more well-known for its weight loss benefits than for any of the other advantages it promises, all thanks to solid media exposure. The popularity of this diet reached its peak in the late 1990s, slipped a bit, and then made a comeback recently following the endorsements of Hollywood A-listers and models such as Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sandra Bullock and Cindy Crawford.
The Zone diet is often classified as a low-carb diet, but Dr Sears describes it as a moderate carb, moderate fat, and moderate protein diet, and regards it as superior to low-carb diets due to the improved hormonal responses. He goes on to say that the Zone diet can not be regarded as a protein rich diet since you never consume more low-fat protein during any meal than you can fit on the palm of your hand.
Many scientific studies are finding that weight management is a lot more complex than simply balancing calorie intake and calorie usage. The Zone approach suggests that inflammation precedes obesity. If that is true, any obesity problem can only be addressed by resolving the underlying inflammation.
Continue reading ‘An overview of the Zone Diet’
One cannot help but be astounded by how easily and effectively government agencies, large food corporations and the media succeeded in leading us to believe that a particular view of our nutritional needs is indeed a fact of life. This subtle “brain washing” was (and still is to a large extend) so effective that it subconsciously impacts all of our decision making regarding our family’s nutritional needs. It is, in fact, ingrained in our very fabric of being.
With many of us still finding it extremely difficult to even consider the idea that a diet high in fat can be good for you, it is interesting to remember that the idea of a low-fat diet only really took hold in the 70’s. Up until then, the generally accepted wisdom was that fat and protein were the foundations of good nutrition, and that carbohydrates were responsible for making you fat! Of course the low-fat dogma turned this age old wisdom on its head and carbohydrates suddenly became the most important source of food depicted at the base of the famous Food Guide Pyramid!
Continue reading ‘Long live the Atkins Diet….’
I found my own response to the book “The Gabriel Method” as published by Jon Gabriel (2007) quite surprising. Somehow the book, and thereby the method, failed to live up to my expectations. This reaction is even stranger in light of the fact that, based on my own research and experience, I wholeheartedly agree with most of the key messages in Jon’s book.
The book just failed to grab my attention, and I found myself drifting off time and time again while reading it. I had to force myself to finish it. Although it’s probably just a case of different strokes for different folks, it is worth noting that one of my friends, who incidentally bought her book at the same time as I did, ended up with a very similar experience.
Having read extensively on the topic of health and general wellness for some years, I have come across most of the views expressed by Jon. After hearing most of them so many times before, it may have affected my experience of the book negatively. It could very well be that someone reading self help and/or diet books for the first time may find this book absolutely engrossing.
Continue reading ‘The Gabriel Method didn’t float my boat’
