Perfect Wellness

Want to know why most of you have already forsaken your New Years resolutions? It is because you failed to embrace one of the most critical and elemental concepts when it comes to improving your wellness. I must warn you, this is not very exciting. It's not very sexy. In fact, most people would perceive this advice as down right boring! So, if you want something that really floats your boat, gets you pumped up, hyped and jazzed about reaching your dream of perfect health, then go to one of those self-help gurus for your fix of false hope destined to be dashed on the rocks of reality. However, if you're really interested in a formula for success that will help you meet your goals of improving your fitness, nutrition and stress management, then I've got some solid advice for you. Are you ready? Are you sitting down? OK, here it goes...embrace moderation.
Yep, that's it! I told you it wasn't very exciting, but when it comes to a strategy that can lead to lifetime wellness, embracing moderation is without a doubt the single most important concept for you to implement. The major problem for most people is their approach to wellness. Many people decide at the first of the year to rid themselves of their past bad habits and neglectful practices. Many people decide to start a fitness program by hitting the gym for a two-hour workout starting at 4:00 am. This is followed by going from a diet rich in meat and fat to a one-hundred percent raw food Vegan diet. And, what the hell, we might as well throw in some deeply spiritual mediation practices twice a day for at least a couple of hours to ensure you are also enlightened within a couple of weeks. Recipe for success? I think not! This fantasy will end the second their fist crashes down on the alarm clock ringing at 4:00 am. Oh well, there's always next year!
I know, this is an extreme example, but in truth it's not really that far off. Many people start something at the beginning of the New Year with really good intentions. The problem is they are typically trying to erase years, if not decades, of abuse and decline. Many people really think they can get in shape in just a few weeks and rarely do they think in terms of something they can stick with for the rest of their lives. We all want that quick fix and the thought of having to spend a lifetime busting butt, eating sticks and leaves and sitting on the right hand of God is simply unrealistic.
This is where moderation comes in. Moderation in our fitness goals means we are just starting out we should set reasonable and, more importantly, reachable goals. For example, a beginning fitness program could start with walking 15 minutes a day, 3 times a week. Moderation in nutrition means we start by simply eating smaller portions. The truth is by the end of the day if your calorie consumption is higher than your calorie expenditure you will gain weight no matter what you are eating. Moderation in stress management means maybe we start by just sitting still experiencing gratitude for all the positive things in our lives for 10 minutes each day. Get the picture? Make an honest assessment of what you CAN do and then just start to build gently from there.
Being reasonable, setting realistic and obtainable goals, being kind and patient with ourselves is truly the path to success. Just remember that one key word when you are tempted to get carried away...moderation.

Scale of Well-Being

There certainly seems to be an abundance of well-being scales. We have spiritual, psychological, financial, general, child, mental, quality of, caregiver, emotional and probably several more. Well-being is defined in Encarta as "a good, healthy, or comfortable state". Of course, many things can contribute to our well being. We also have what seems to be many different types of well-being indicators, such as; others well being, my well-being, New York well being, cultural well-being, American well being, our well-being, over all well being, global well-being, elderly well-being, patient well-being and professional well-being to mention a few.

Well-being is vital in our health and quality of life as well as length of life. According to a study done in the United Kingdom which followed 20,000 people with no history of stroke for around 8 years. Of those 20,000 individuals, about 600 suffered a stroke. Results from the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale showed evidence those patients were less likely to have positive mental health and well-being. The lower the scores on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale the higher the chances were of them suffering a stroke, or to suffer a fatal stroke. (Neurology, 2008)

There seems to be an increasing global interest in the concept of mental well-being and its contribution to all aspects of human life. There is an increasing demand for instruments to monitor mental well-being at the population level and the evaluation of mental health promotion initiatives is growing. "The World Health Organization has declared that positive mental health is the 'foundation for well-being and effective functioning for both the individual and the community' and defined if as a state 'which allows individuals to realize their abilities, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and make a contribution to their community'". WEMWBS (Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale) was developed by an expert panel. taking from current criteria. WEMWBS is a good measure of mental well-being with the focus being entirely on the positive aspects of mental health, and offers promise as a useful tool in monitoring the mental well-being at the population level. It should appeal to those whom evaluate mental health promotion initiatives, but it is also important that the scales sensitivity to change is established before it is recommended in this context. (Multiple (RT, 2007)

Our well-being is of importance to all, however you may choose to perceive that. If Joe Schmoe is crashing on the WEMWBS scale and then goes on a shooting spree killing 20 people, it affects us all to a certain degree. If Joe Schmoe2 goes and scores high on the WEMWBS scale and donates 1 Billion dollars to the food organization, health research, or other charitable organization it benefits us all whether directly, or indirectly. So I think it is important that we realize this, for we are all in this boat together, especially more so in this day and age. Our over all well being is more important than we may think or perceive. Today people can seem to be more cruel, self-serving egoists at best, which may not be so good for the over all well being of our global well-being, and more so, our spiritual well-being.

Today we live in a global society, and global well-being is more important now than maybe 20 years ago before we advanced to a global community. What we do in America can, and does have an impact on the well-being of Iraq, or North Korea for instance. We should take this into account when we act and react, how we do business, and other aspects of our everyday lives. If I cut down a tree in Ghana, that can affect the whole world, the same as a suicide bomber in a multicultural mall in Israel. Although those two examples may seem worlds apart in terms of consequences, the results are ultimately the same. Not that cutting down a tree is a bad thing, but cutting all of them down can result in catastrophic events of which we don't even have a clue as to what and or when. So everything we do should be given more consideration, as we do live in a global society, and global well-being is a consequence we should not ignore anymore. As we have learned, or should of learned in the past, is that when things go well, that usually translates into things going well for more and more people, and when things go bad, they go bad all over. Sort of like a snowball effect I imagine, so if we can take some of that to heart, and start to recognize that our actions affect not only us but everyone else to a certain degree, then maybe we are off to a good start in becoming a real global community, and not just so we can make a quick buck, but a true global community where we can communicate effectively and get along together. It's not just your well-being anymore, but the global well-being which we should consider. If the global well-being isn't so well, chances are ours won't be as good as it could be as well.

Well-being research continues to grow, as it turns out it does affect us in both positive and negative ways, and others well-being can directly affect us as well. So maybe the next time we want to rip some ones head off for a making a mistake, or being rude to someone for no reason at all, we should take that into consideration, for it can and does affect us as well, whether it be sooner or later, good or bad.

 

Some Dieters Regain Weight

Appetite Hormone Levels May Predict Dieters' Success

Sept. 9, 2010 -- Weight regain is the bane of many a dieter's existence. Often dieters who regain weight after losing it are viewed as failures and judged for their lack of willpower, but new research may put an end to this blame game.

Weight regain may not be solely a willpower issue.  Some people may actually be programmed to gain weight back based on their levels of two key appetite hormones, leptin and ghrelin. The new study appears in an online version of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

"This knowledge could be used as a tool to personalize weight-loss programs that could guarantee success in keeping off the weight," says study author Ana Crujeiras, PhD, of Compejo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago in Spain, in a news release.

In the new study, 104 obese or overweight men and women ate a low-calorie diet for eight weeks and were followed up with six months later. Their body weight, ghrelin, leptin, and insulin levels were measured before, during, and after the diet. 

Ghrelin is the "go" hormone that tells you when to eat, and leptin is the "stop" hormone that tells you when to stop eating.

On average, study participants dropped about 5% of their body weight while adhering to the low-calorie diet. Six months later, 55 people maintained their weight loss, while 49 regained 10% or more of the weight they had lost. Those individuals with higher leptin and lower ghrelin levels before dieting were more prone to regain weight, the study showed. 

While this may seem counter-intuitive based on the actions of these hormones, the researchers suggest that it may be a matter of some people being resistant to the effects of these hormones.

Their brains may not be getting the fullness or satiety messages that these hormones are delivering. You may have a lot of leptin, but your brain is resistant to its effects; much like people with type 2 diabetes become resistant to the effects of the hormone insulin.

Going forward,  "these hormone levels could be proposed as biomarkers for predicting obesity-treatment outcomes," the researchers conclude. "Our findings may provide endocrinology and nutrition professionals a tool to identify individuals in need of specialized weight-loss programs that first target appetite hormone levels before beginning conventional dietary treatment."

Louis Aronne, MD, founder and director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, agrees. "There is something physical going on in people who regain weight," he says.

"Resistance to these hormones is a risk factor for weight regain," he says. Aronne dubs this condition "fullness resistance" and says that your brain is resistant to signals that come from your stomach and intestines telling you that you are full and to stop eating.

View the original article here

Healthy Diet Mistakes

Trying to eat healthier? Great. Just avoid these 9 common diet mistakes.
One of the happiest days of my life was when I found out that chocolate (yes, chocolate!) was actually good for me. The rich, creamy candy I'd been surreptitiously snacking on since I was a kid was packed with heart-healthy antioxidants.
I gleefully loaded up my shopping cart with bars and bags of chocolate -- dark, of course -- and gorged myself silly.
Then I came to another realization. Dark chocolate, though undoubtedly healthy in small quantities, happens to also be loaded with sugar and fat. I owed my thighs a sincere apology.
The problem is, there is no quick fix when it comes to healthy eating.
"A healthy diet relies on a lifelong commitment to eating the right foods and eating the right way," says Sari Greaves, RD, nutrition director at Step Ahead Weight Loss Center in Bedminster, N.J., and an American Dietetic Association (ADA) spokeswoman.
Even if you already knew that, you may still go astray when you try to eat healthier.
Here are a few of the most glaring diet mistakes people make, and how to fix them before they derail your healthy eating plan.
One diet promises that you can lose 10 pounds in a week by eating as much as you want -- as long as what you're eating is cabbage soup. Or grapefruit. Or cookies.
Bad idea.
If you go on an extreme, short-term diet, "you're setting yourself up to be very hungry and then bingeing," says Marjorie Nolan, MS, RD, CDN, CPT, a registered dietitian in New York and national ADA spokeswoman.
By cutting out entire food groups, you're also prone to nutritional shortfalls and boredom. Eventually, you're going to crave the foods you're missing.
"Even when the diet works...it doesn't teach you how to maintain your weight loss. It's just a gimmick to restrict calories," Nolan says.
Some of the one-food diets can also have unpleasant side effects. Grapefruit acts as a diuretic, which can lead to dehydration, Nolan says. It can also make you gassy and can interact with some drugs, such as those that treat high blood pressure and abnormal heart rhythms.
Fix It: "The bottom line is, if a product or diet sounds too good to be true, it probably is," Greaves says. She advises steering clear of any diet that promises fast results.
"Weight loss should be a gradual process in which you lose no more than half a pound to 1 pound a week by eating a well-rounded diet," Greaves says.

The Healthy Slow Cooker

A winning combination of healthy eating and convenience.
Here's an ideal combination: a tasty meal, nutrition for good health, and the convenience of a slow cooker. The Healthy Slow Cooker offers more than 100 delicious, nourishing recipes that are healthy and contain key nutritional, health and wellness information. Along with a complete nutrient analysis, each recipe will feature: - An icon denotes vegan friendly recipes - "Mindful morsels" that highlight particular nutritional elements - "Natural Wonders" that provide an a overview of a dish's healthful benefits
For example, Indian-Style Chicken with Puréed Spinach provides 400% of the daily requirement of Vitamin K, and cumin in the recipe improves digestion. Here's a small sampling of the tantalizing array of recipes: - Creamy Polenta with Corn and Chilies - Moroccan-Style Lamb with Apricots and Raisins - Ribs 'n' Greens with Wheatberries - Winter Vegetable Casserole - Cranberry Pear Brown Betty - Indian Banana Pudding
For diabetics, the book features a separate section of useful advice and nutrition guidelines.
Price: $24.95
Click here to buy from Amazon

Selling Renewable Energy Credits

Selling renewable energy credits is a new and interesting market. Here is some information about selling renewable energy credits and a basic understanding of the market.

Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are frequently referred to as Green Tags, Renewable Energy Credits, and/or Tradable Renewable Certificates (TRCs). RECs represent the environmental and economic value of electricity produced from clean, renewable, emission-free energy resources that will never be depleted and are safe for our environment. A REC is not actual energy, just the right to say that you have offset the production of dirty power with clean power.

Producers of green power should consider selling renewable energy credits as well as the power itself, which will increase their profits. Other parties can buy RECs if they need to satisfy regulatory requirements or improve their corporate appearance. When RECs are sold, the organization buying the RECs obtains the right to claim environmental advantage.

Selling renewable energy credits allows energy users across the country to support alternative energy generation. RECs contribute to the growth of the renewable power sector, and with buyer support will continue to help make alternative power even more cost competitive.

In areas which have a REC program, an alternative energy provider (such as a wind farm) is credited with one REC for every 1,000 kWh or one MWh of electricity it creates. The average residential customer uses about 800 kWh per month. A certifying organization gives each REC an exclusive identification number to make sure it isn't sold twice. The green energy is then fed into the electrical grid (by law), and the complementary REC can then be sold on the open market.

Several certification and accounting associations attempt to ensure that RECs are legally sold and correctly tracked. The Climate Neutral Network, Green-e, and the Environmental Resources Trust's EcoPower Program certify RECs. If you are interested in selling renewable energy credits, start with your local electric company or one of these organizations.

There are two main markets for selling renewable energy credits in the United States - compliance markets and voluntary markets. A policy called the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is responsible for creating the compliance markets. Renewable Portfolio Standard requires electric companies to supply a predetermined percent of their electricity from renewable sources by a specific year.

For example, California electric companies must provide 20% energy from renewable sources by 2010. Electric utilities in these areas with RPSs must demonstrate compliance with their requirements by buying RECs. In the California sample, the electric companies would need to hold RECs equivalent to 20% of their sales.

Want to help companies and property owners go green? Sell your RECs on the voluntary market. Voluntary markets allow customers to purchase renewable power, generally out of a desire to go green. Most commercial and domestic purchases of RECs are voluntary. Alternative power providers can sell their RECs to voluntary buyers, usually at a lower price than compliance market RECs.

Detractors indicate a flaw with this system. It is argued that it does not necessarily replace dirty energy. Since some alternate energy resources, most notably wind resources, are irregular and unpredictable, their production does not replace an equivalent amount of other sources, per kW of capacity. However, they do replace on a per kWh basis, electricity from combustion sources, thus reducing greenhouse gases and undesirable byproducts.

Weight Loss Pill

Study Shows RIsks Increase in People Who Already Have Heart Disease

Sept. 1, 2010 – People who take Abbott's weight loss pill Meridia have a higher risk of nonfatal heart attack and stroke, a company-sponsored study shows.

The increased risk was seen only in patients with underlying heart disease. When the FDA learned of the study results last January, Meridia use was restricted to patients without known heart problems.

The European regulatory authorities went further. They banned the drug, known generically as sibutramine and in Europe as Reductil.

Later this month, an FDA expert advisory panel will meet to decide whether Meridia should remain on sale in the U.S.

The researchers reporting the study, W. Philip T. James, MD, DSc, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues, including researchers from Abbott, say the drug should stay on the market as long as it isn't sold to people with heart conditions.

The editors of the New England Journal of Medicine disagree. In a strongly worded editorial, they call Meridia "another flawed diet pill." They note that in return for offering a weight loss of under 9 pounds -- less than 5% of the body weight of the overweight participants in the study -- the drug had a one-in-70 chance of causing a heart attack or stroke.

People with underlying heart problems had an even higher one-in-52 risk of heart attack or stroke. And the New England Journal of Medicine editors note that many people who are overweight or obese have undiagnosed heart problems.

Since "the modest weight loss with [Meridia] did not translate into clinical benefit," the editors say, "it is difficult to discern a credible rationale for keeping this medication on the market."

James and colleagues find that among 10,744 overweight or obese people with heart problems or type 2 diabetes, 4.1% of those taking Meridia and 3.2% of those on placebo had nonfatal heart attacks. The nonfatal stroke rate was 2.6% in the Meridia group and 1.9% in the placebo group.

Importantly, they suggest, Meridia did not increase the overall death risk or the risk of death from heart disease and stroke.

Meridia "should continue to be excluded from use in patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease," James and colleagues conclude.

The Truth About Belly Fat

What's the best way to trim your tummy?

Having a flat belly or so-called "six-pack abs" is a dream of most adults. If you're middle-aged, have ever been pregnant, or sometimes indulge in too much food or one too many beers, you probably have a spare tire you'd like to get rid of. So what's the best strategy for banishing belly fat? Is it as simple as adding certain foods to your diet, or doing particular exercises?

WebMD turned to the experts for answers on belly fat -- and the best ways to lose it.

Don't despair; you can lose that spare tire, experts say. But there's no secret formula.

"There is no magic bullet, diet plan, specific food, or type of exercise that specifically targets belly fat. But the good news is belly fat is the first kind of fat you tend to lose when you lose weight," says Michael Jensen, MD, a Mayo Clinic endocrinology specialist and obesity researcher.

Whether you're an "apple" shape with excess belly fat, or a "pear" with wide hips and thighs, when you lose weight, you'll most likely lose proportionately more from the abdominal region than elsewhere.

"Ninety-nine percent of people who lose weight will lose it in the abdominal region before anywhere else -- and will lose proportionately more weight from the upper body," says Jensen, also a professor of medicine.

And why is that? "Visceral fat, the kind tucked deep inside your waistline, is more metabolically active and easier to lose than subcutaneous fat under the skin, especially if you have plenty of it," explains Penn State researcher Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, RD.

And the more weight you have to lose, the more quickly you're likely to start losing your belly fat, experts say.

"People who are significantly overweight may see quicker results in their belly than someone who has less to lose in that area, such as a postmenopausal pouch," says Georgia State University nutrition professor, Christine Rosenbloom, PhD, RD.

A recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that a calorie-controlled diet rich in whole grains trimmed extra fat from the waistline of obese subjects.

Study participants who ate all whole grains (in addition to five servings of fruits and vegetables, three servings of low-fat dairy, and two servings of lean meat, fish, or poultry) lost more weight from the abdominal area than another group that ate the same diet, but with all refined grains.

"Eating a diet rich in whole grains while reducing refined carbohydrates changes the glucose and insulin response and makes it easier to mobilize fat stores," says study researcher Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, RD, a distinguished professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State University.

"Visceral fat is more metabolically active and easier to lose than subcutaneous fat, especially if you have plenty of it and the right conditions are met, such as the ones in our study."

View the original article here

Buy Natural Health Supplements - Natural Tonics for Health and Wellness

Buy natural health supplements? When looking to buy natural health supplements and natural tonics for health and wellness, chances are you'll find your options are limited in local stores. Online, there are many possibilities. However, an important question is -- how to know which natural tonics for health and wellness are legitimate ones that provide specific health benefits?

Ideally, vitamin and nutrient requirements would come totally from your diet. The problem is -- many people make poor food choices every day. And even with a well-balanced diet, studies find that nutrient values of foods have been declining for decades because of soil depletion.

When looking to buy natural health supplements, leading the list should be the daily vitamin/mineral/nutrient supplement that is the basis of your supplement program. And all daily supplements are not created equal. Two important natural tonics for health and wellness should be considered these:

o High-Quality Daily Vitamin/Mineral/Nutrient Supplements - a daily high-quality, broad-spectrum anti-aging natural supplement helps fill in the dietary gaps that everyone will have. Few persons obtain the minimum recommended servings of 5-9 cups of vegetables and fruits per day, for example, and thus do not obtain the health benefits associated with these vital foods.

And taking one of the cheap one-a-day vitamins is probably a waste of time and money. When considering to buy natural health supplements, vitamins and minerals are just the beginning. The body needs and will use a wide array of anti-aging natural tonics for health and wellness substances -- amino acids, antioxidants, bioflavanoids, neuronutrients, herbal extracts, enzymes and other nutrients such as L-Carnosine, alpha lipoic acid and acetyl L-Carnitine and so on. And these nutrients must be in the correct proportions to each other based on the latest research.

o Omega 3 Supplements - from heart and brain health to depression treatment to pregnancy health, Omega 3 benefits are too good to ignore if you are interested in health. Three of the top Omega 3 food sources are cold-water fish, grass-fed (not grain-fed) meat and eggs. Omega 3 oils provide DHA and EPA in a natural form that your body can easily assimilate. No conversion is required by the body as is required for flax oil, for example. Most of the clinical studies on Omega 3 benefits are based on fish oils from consuming fish and fish oil supplements.

In addition, other natural tonics for health and wellness to consider when you buy natural health supplements with specific health benefits proven by clinical studies are:

o Natural Cholesterol Lowering Supplements - the most effective is policosanol which comes from sugar cane. Its cholesterol-lowering abilities are published in over 80 clinical studies, which are more studies than for most prescription drugs. Policosanol significantly lowers total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol without the side affects associated with the statin drugs.

o Arthritis Supplements - there are nutrients that have been shown to reduce inflammation, swelling and stiffness. Aiming to achieve long term pain relief by targeting the cause, not just the arthritis symptoms, should be the goal of arthritis natural tonics for health and wellness.

o Sexual Enhancement Supplements - many sexual problems (and health problems) are related to nutrient deficiencies. In men, for example, men with impotency problems also suffer from cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes or are taking prescription drugs which commonly cause sexual dysfunction problems. Restore your general health and your sexual health will automatically follow.

Is it possible when you buy natural health supplements that you can slow the aging process? Yes! Numerous clinical studies have shown and are still finding the health benefits of many of these nutrients. You can try to come up with your own supplement plan and take many different supplements individually. However, to buy natural health supplements and design your own supplement program is not the best way. It's easy to end up with a dozen or more individual substances to take daily, which is both a hassle and expensive. And if certain substances are out of balance, they can combine to produce other unwanted compounds that can be harmful.

There are manufacturers that provide advanced nutritional products in one broad high-quality daily supplement. Nutrient quantities are combined according to the latest research, and individual ingredients are linked to relevant clinical studies and benefits. Learn as much as you can before you buy natural health supplements about the natural tonics for health and wellness you'll be taking every day.

Copyright 2005 InfoSearch Publishing

Read more about women's vitamins and supplements and vitamins for men. David Buster is VP of InfoSearch Publishing and webmaster of http://www.safemenopausesolutions.com - a website of natural health articles, reliable sources of natural health supplements and related resources.

Has Wellness Been Hijacked?

Wellness is a great concept. It brings happiness into health and encourages a truly holistic approach to life. Wikipedia defines wellness as a healthy balance of the mind-body and spirit that results in an overall feeling of well-being. It sounds like exactly what every one is looking for. But when you start to talk about corporate wellness, or workplace wellness, all life goes out of the concept. Total solutions, disease management and health screening do not inspire visions of enjoying life and living it to the full. They start from the assumption that sickness is here to stay and needs to be discovered, managed and controlled but can never be healed.

The wellness industry is growing phenomenally fast. Wellness guru, Paul Zane Pilzer, has labeled it the next trillion dollar industry. But wellness has two different faces. On the one hand there are the small businesses - people working from home or in small centers selling all kinds of wellness products and services at a speed of growth that is escalating rapidly. On the other hand corporate wellness is also exploding but in a very different direction.

The baby boomers who are driving the popular wellness revolution have been described as the first generation to refuse to accept the inevitability of death. They are actively looking for ways to prevent aging, stay healthy into old age and enjoy themselves more than ever before after retirement. This is a radical departure from current notions of old age, which are often dominated by pictures of sickness, frailty and suffering.

The corporations have been largely forced to take on wellness. This is partly through legislative pressure, with many countries introducing laws to make companies liable for stress-related sickness in their employees. It is also financially motivated, as research has repeatedly shown the enormous costs of absenteeism (and increasingly of presenteeism as well).

Whereas the baby boomers are actively looking for new solutions and new lifestyles the companies are struggling to organize largely traditional and mainstream health systems, such as doctors, nurses, insurance and screening systems. The problem is that the traditional health system does not have solutions for the problems that people are handling.

Nobody ever went to see a doctor to get happy, because a doctor doesn't have any clue how to make people happy. And many stress-related health problems are described as chronic diseases, which means that they last for a very long time - or maybe for the rest of your life - because there is no medical cure. Counseling is a common offering in companies for emotional problems, but whilst it may provide a useful pressure valve it is not a powerful treatment for stress, unhappiness or depression.

Imagine walking into a company where the employees are happy, healthy, full of inspiration, fit, love working, have meaningful family lives, active social lives, and enjoyable relationships at work and in their community. That kind of company would be a pleasure to work in and bound to be successful because people would be working to their optimum capacity.

So can we create a system of true wellness that will serve the development of the companies and their employees and will pay for itself because of the benefits that both sides will gain?

First of all we have to face the fact that we can't place all the responsibility into the hands of the current health system. Absenteeism, stress, depression, the very roots of the wellness revolution, have not been solved by the current system. If they had been we wouldn't have this revolution, we would all be much more well. So we need to look elsewhere for solutions.

We also cannot rely on makeshift feel-good wellness offerings, such as the on-site massage team which visits the office once a month or the wellness day that raises awareness for a little while but leaves most people unaffected. They are easy to organize but have little or no real effect on employee wellness.

Corporate needs are different than individual needs and many of the new small wellness businesses that are springing up simply don't have the capacity to serve the corporate market. However it is in the best interest of both companies and employees to find and develop systems of health and wellness that really work - that benefit people to be happy, handle stress, love working, and to have enough energy to go home at the end of the day and enjoy their family and social life. So far the corporate world has hijacked the concept of wellness and turned it into a modern version of occupational health. It is time to raise the vision and find out how to make truly healthy, happy workplaces where people thrive.

Sarah McCrum

Sarah McCrum is Director of the Academy of Potential Education, with a special interest in developing education to prepare people for a future that is likely to be very different from today.
sarah@potentialeducation.org
http://www.therejuvenationcentre.com/
http://www.potentialeducation.org

Health And Wellness

Achieving a state of good health and wellness means living a higher quality of life and experiencing a peace that goes beyond what material wealth and external situations can offer. The state of health and wellness is priceless yet available to rich and poor alike. Health and wellness is the food for a complete life. Only materialistic gains don't determine peace and consistency in life. A proper health and wellness is attained when you relinquish all your needless qualms and achieve serenity. Wellness cannot be achieved superficially neither can it be tagged. A healthy life helps human to achieve wellness which is the real wealth of life. Good health and wellness inspires you to lead a hale and hearty life and thereby encourages you to leave all your anxiety, tragedy and disease behind you. Health and wellness encourages you to get geared up to accept every altercation sportingly that our prolific life offers. Achieve presence and peace of mind with a good cognitive and mind-body health. Take care of your health with natural diet, exercise, prevention, natural remedies, soothing sleep and other relaxation tools.

The main criterion to accomplish a good health is to have a balanced diet. An alarming survey has shown that in America, obesity is rampant, diabetes is epidemic and chronic disease is sky rocketing. This is caused due to excess intake of calorie consuming food like soft drinks, desserts, sweets, alcoholic beverages and salty snacks. Americans get plenty of calories but less of nutrition. No magic formula will trim away the extra pounds and keep them off. A balanced healthy diet can only do the wonder. Think smart, eat right and move more- these are the three plans of actions to be emulated if you wish to maintain a fitness regime. A healthy diet which means eating right recommends substituting fat-free or low fat milk with whole milk and save about 65 calories for each 8 ounce serving. Sometimes products labeled low fat can be high in calories. For example, low fat yoghurt can be high in calories. You can opt for fat free, low sugar added yoghurt instead for a fraction of calories. Don't forget including high fiber food in your diet. Eating right will not only keep your health sculpted like a star but will also ingrain oodles of vigor in you. All of us today had to undergo heaps of anxiety in our professional as well as personal life and this inevitable stress eventually trims down our health thereby affecting our mind. To lead a healthy life and acquire wellness, a good health which comes from an impeccable diet is the basic requirement. High fiber foods such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables take some time to digest but this makes you feel fuller for long and will combat you from indulging into any unhealthy junk food. Include plenty of fruits in your diet since they add volumes to your health and also prevents you from taking any other calorie consuming drinks. Cut your favorite candy bar into bite-sized pieces. Buy that candy bar, slice it into pieces and then freeze it for sometime before you eat. This will dilute the surfeit sugar consumed by those candies and will make it a healthy food. While eating out, consider having two low calorie appetizers instead of an entrée. Eating right will help you feel contented and occupied without splurging on calories. Make your own diet chart and keep those palatable items in individual fresh packs. It is a time saving as well as a handy formula to keep up a good health.

Good health determines a balanced mind, body and soul. Foods those are rich in fiber throws in to a good health ardently. It helps your colon work better, reduces the risk of heart disease and cancer and it is associated with low cholesterol levels. Men over 50 years of age should intake 30 grams of fiber per day and women above 50 years should have 21 grams per day. Good health is not always about eating right. It has a wider meaning. To endorse good health, you need to coddle into some healthy physical exercises along with a proper diet. Exercising not only rejuvenates you inside out but also has a cleansing effect both physically and ethereally. All the waste matters and toxins in our body get eliminated through sweating when we do the exercises. Besides, blood circulation and respiratory system are greatly improved by regular exercises. Yoga, dancing, martial arts, sports, jogging, mountaineering or brisk walking if practiced regularly, will add immense value to your health and wellness. Good health also includes combustion of ill addictions such as tobacco, powerful liquor or any other drugs that can be life-taxing. Certain places are known to be superficially grimy like hospitals, funeral parlors, cemeteries, etc and weak persons are advised to take a shower after they pay a visit to such places. Visiting sea beaches confer a sedative effect on mind which is a significant factor in good health as sea water has a natural cleansing effect on the energy body. Emotional and mental hygiene is also a vital stipulation of good health. An emotional and mental hygiene mean having positive feelings like kindness, happiness, joy and enthusiasm which has a beneficiary impact on one's emotions and thereby contributes a lot to health. Negative thoughts on the other hand lead to some acute health problems like migraine headache, acute sinusitis, hyperthyroidism, cholesterol, infected kidneys, constipation and many more such diseases. Thus, to gain a good health, not only you have to keep up a healthy diet but also a proper health and wellness regime along with good thoughts to keep yourself all geared up to enjoy life freely.

We all are wisely aware of our health and wellness and also how a little vigilance can avert us from getting infected to some malignant diseases like Aids, breast cancer and diabetes. Various health and wellness campaigns are held to make us sentient of the various safety measures to be taken to shun such maladies. Among all these diseases, breast cancer is one of the scariest diseases. It's a malignant tumor in breast. Several breast cancer awareness campaigns are being set up every year to pass on the note of different prevention procedures of breast cancer to women so that they can combat it on the preliminary stage itself. For more than 20 years, National breast cancer awareness month has educated women about early breast cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment. 1st October to 31st October is the national breast cancer awareness month. Mammography screenings are a women's best chance to detect breast cancer early. Combined with a few treatment options, mammography can actually help bring down this virus to a great extent, thereby affirming a healthy life and these issues are elucidated clearly and elaborately in the breast cancer awareness campaigns.

AIDS stands for "acquired immune deficiency syndrome". AIDS destroy the whole immune system in the body of an individual which helps us fight back the ailments that our health endures. But if the immune system is eradicated then it will not kill the individual at the first shot but will make his body nil in resistant power. AIDS usually roots out from physical intimacy if the other person is infected with it, it might get transmitted from sharing similar needles and also any kind of blood transfusion. AIDS awareness campaigns are being set every year to deliver a range of safety measures that should be taken in order to thwart it. All these AIDS awareness campaigns actually notify you as to how you should go about these prevention procedures and claim for a healthy life. Besides, there are many AIDS awareness hotline that help you to fight with all these malignant diseases and save your health and wellness. 1st December is recognized as World's Aids Day.

Other health awareness issues also include lung cancer awareness, vegetarian awareness, diabetic awareness and hypertension awareness series. Separate awareness programs are held to combat all these malignant diseases and with your little endeavor towards your health and wellness, you can keep yourself far away from these nerve wracking maladies and claim for a healthy life along with wellness.

Health and wellness determines the entity of your life. We offer the maximum part of our life to our job, career, family and other attributes but hardly do we confer a good amount of time to ourselves which includes our health and wellness at the result of which we tend to get into this pool of diseases recklessly. And again, apart from taking care of our health and wellness by eating right and maintaining a balanced diet, it is very essential to take care of all this dreadful diseases and it's our liability to obtain our prevention measures. Health and wellness is the food for life and we human cannot actually afford to grant negligence on such matters if we aspire to live a healthy and successful life.

Robert Swayze writes on Encouragement, Inspiration and Motivation. He writes for Inspirational Ecards at 123Greetings.com. He is an active blogger and writes at his blog on Inspirational and Encouragement Wishes

Holiday Diet Tips

Trim the trimmings to survive seasonal parties without gaining weight this year!
Holiday spread: It can mean those tempting goodies on a festive buffet table -- or a seasonal expansion of waistlines and hips.
But be of good cheer! A few holiday diet tips show you how to stay trim while enjoying the seasonal trimmings!
Substitute: Cook up good taste with fewer calories this year with smart substitutions. Use fruit purées or yogurt in place of butter or other spreads. In holiday recipes, two egg whites can take the place of one whole egg. Cooking with cheese? Use a reduced-fat brand -- you won't even miss the calories.
Eat! Skipping meals in preparation for holiday dining leaves you famished for all the wrong things. So eat a little protein and fiber before the holiday party. Think an egg on toast or yogurt and a piece of fruit. Now that you're fortified, you're ready for the seasonal festivities!
Love it: Once the celebrations begin, be picky. If you can get that delicious party treat during the rest of the year -- resist! Enjoy the foods you really crave -- tasty tidbits that come just once or twice a year.
Balance your party plate: Don't forget to slip protein- and fiber-rich goodies like shrimp, whole- grain crackers, and fruit kabobs beside thin slices of those favorite desserts.
Walk away: Once you've served yourself party goodies, walk away and talk with friends. You'll not only catch up with your pals, you'll naturally pace your eating, too.
Drink up: Enjoy nonalcoholic drinks between alcoholic beverages. You'll stay hydrated and still be part of the holiday revelry.
Factor in fun: Celebrate with more than food during the holidays. Get everyone active indoors with charades or dancing. Or grab friends and family and take a walk -- even if it's doing laps at the mall on sale day. Outside, the sky's the limit, from horseshoes and sledding, to building snowmen and snowball fights.
Move: Your exercise routine isn't on holiday -- you are! Even if you can't get to your usual workout haunts, you can still make exercise a priority. Aim for at least 30 minutes most days by walking around town, jogging up hotel stairs, renting a bike. Burn those extra calories, don't store them!
Try a few of these holiday diet tips and you can help keep that seasonal spread where it belongs -- on the table and off of you!

Benefits of Flaxseed

Is flaxseed the new wonder food? Preliminary studies show that flaxseed may help fight everything from heart disease and diabetes to breast cancer.Some call it one of the most powerful plant foods on the planet. There’s some evidence it can help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. That’s quite a tall order for a tiny seed that’s been around for centuries: flaxseed.

Flaxseed was cultivated in Babylon as early as 3000 BC, according to the Flax Council of Canada. By the 8th century, King Charlemagne believed so strongly in the health benefits of flaxseed that he passed laws requiring his subjects to consume it. Fast-forward 13 centuries, and some experts would say we have preliminary research to back up what Charlemagne suspected all those years ago.

These days, flaxseed is found in all kinds of foods, from crackers to frozen waffles to oatmeal. In the first 11 months of 2006, 75 new products were launched that listed flax or flaxseed as an ingredient. Not only has consumer demand for flaxseed gone up, agricultural use has also increased -- to feed all those chickens laying eggs that are higher in omega-3 fatty acids.

Although flaxseed contains all sorts of healthy components, it owes its healthy reputation primarily to three ingredients:

Omega-3 essential fatty acids, "good" fats that have been shown to have heart-healthy effects. Each tablespoon of ground flaxseed contains about 1.8 grams of plant omega-3s.Lignans, which have both plant estrogen and antioxidant qualities. Flaxseed contains 75- 800 times more lignans than other plant foodsFiber. Flaxseed contains both the soluble and insoluble types.Although Lilian Thompson, PhD, an internationally known flaxseed researcher from the University of Toronto, says she wouldn’t call any of the health benefits of flax "well established," research indicates that flax’s possible health benefits include reducing the risks of certain cancers as well as cardiovascular disease and lung disease. Here are more details:

Cancer

Recent studies have suggested that flaxseed may have a protective effect against cancer, particularly breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer. At least two of the components in flaxseed seem to contribute, says Kelley C. Fitzpatrick, M.Sc., director of health and nutrition with the Flax Council of Canada.

In animal studies, the plant omega-3 fatty acid found in flaxseed, called ALA, inhibited tumor incidence and growth.

Further, the lignans in flaxseed may provide some protection against cancers that are sensitive to hormones. Some studies have suggested that exposure to lignans during adolescence helps reduce the risk of breast cancer, Thompson says.

Lignans may help protect against cancer by:

Blocking enzymes that are involved in hormone metabolism.Interfering with the growth and spread of tumor cells.

Some of the other components in flaxseed also have antioxidant properties, which may contribute to protection against cancer and heart disease.

View the original article here

Reiki Hands of Light

This bestselling CD, loved by therapists and healers around the world, is excellent music for any kind of deep work: Reiki, meditation, massage, or relaxation. Long sonorous tones and a rhythmic underlying pulse create a gently supportive, ambient soundscape. An essential addition to any healing collection.
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Finalist: Best Meditation/Healing --New Age Voice Music Award
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Seven Types of Renewable Energy

When you hear the term renewable energy, you may be surprised to also hear that there are many different types of renewable energy. In essence, renewable energy means energy that can renew itself indefinitely. Hence unlike non-renewable sources of energy (like fossil fuels), renewable energy sources will regenerate themselves indefinitely. For example, solar power is dependent on the sun and wind power is dependent on the wind. However, neither sun nor the wind will diminish, as they will continue to be present as long as Earth exists. Hence you don't need to worry about renewable energy sources from being depleted. In addition, all renewable sources of energy are in general environmentally friendly and thus you will also be a participant in protecting your environment.

The various types of renewable energy sources are:
1) Solar Power
2) Wind Energy
3) Geothermal Energy
4) Wave Energy (From the oceans)
5) Tidal Energy
6) Hydro electrical Energy
7) Biomass energy

As you can see, the types of renewable energy that you can use are quite diverse. Of these various renewable energy types; solar power, wind power and geothermal energy can be used individually to supply power for your home. You can see many homes that have solar panels to produce electricity and hot water and you can also see homes that use geothermal pumps for heating.
However, the real salvation on the global scale depends on using these energy sources to generate electricity and other forms of energy on a massive scale. Thus in order to achieve this, there are various types of renewable energy plants all around the world. The most common type of renewable energy plants are probably hydroelectric power plans which are assembled near rivers and other flowing bodies of water.
In addition to this, wind energy plants are also becoming popular all around the world. Wind farms are constructed so that 20 or more wind mills are constructed together in order to maximize the electrical output of the wind power plant. Of course, other forms of renewable energy are also harnessed. There are geothermal distribution plants in some parts of the world and tidal energy and the wave energy are harnessed in some ocean coasts around the world.

Understanding the Dimensions of Wellness

If you're looking for a way to develop your own personal wellness, it may be difficult to find a model that fits. You want to feel better physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. You want to improve your fitness, your relationships, your career, and your ability to handle stress, anxiety, worry or depression. In short, you want to be the best you that you can be.

There are many dimensions of wellness, and the best way to describe them is using the 7 Aspects of Wellness model. The 7 Aspects of Wellness are these different dimensions-Emotional, Physical, Intellectual, Spiritual, Occupational, Environmental, and Social-that work together to create a whole and complete life. When they are in a state of balance, the 7 Aspects of Wellness build a foundation from which you can accomplish your greatest dreams.

What are the 7 Aspects of Wellness?
Emotional Wellness: Emotional Wellness is the aspect of wellness that deals with our inner worlds. When we're working on our Emotional Wellness, we address self-knowledge, personal feelings, and our ability to handle stress. If we want to truly understand ourselves, our feelings, our behaviors and our motivations, we must focus on Emotional Wellness.
Physical Wellness: Physical Wellness is the aspect that focuses on our physical health habits and obtaining optimum physical well-being. Our Physical Wellness is dependent on our diet, exercise, sleep and hygiene habits and can have a profound affect on how we feel.
Intellectual Wellness: Intellectual Wellness involves learning about and having new experiences with the world around us. It includes creative activities, expanding one's horizons, and discovering new ways of thinking about the world. Intellectual Wellness also means picking up new skills or hobbies along with learning new facts.

Spiritual Wellness: Spiritual Wellness is concerned with our search for meaning and purpose in life and our connection to whatever form of higher power we each decide to believe in. Spiritual Wellness involves discovering what we each believe and how to practice those spiritual principles in everyday life.

Occupational Wellness: Occupational Wellness focuses on finding our calling in life, coping with work stress, progressing toward our career goals, and aligning our work life with our ultimate dreams. It also involves understanding the balance between work and play for ultimate personal as well as professional satisfaction.

Social Wellness: Social Wellness is about creating healthy, intimate connections with others. For some of us, building healthier Social Wellness means overcoming interpersonal issues or social anxiety. It also means creating and maintaining appropriate boundaries in relationships, finding the balance between social life and alone time, and learning to communicate openly and honestly with those around us.

Environmental Wellness: Environmental Wellness focuses on how our environment is connected to the way we feel. Practicing Environmental Wellness means looking at how our immediate environments-our homes, offices, and car interiors-reflect our feelings about ourselves and support our Emotional Wellness. It also involves strengthening our connection to the earth and our natural environments for better spiritual, emotional and physical well-being.

Bringing these 7 Aspects of Wellness into a state of balance helps you feel better in the moment and leads you toward your ultimate wellness goals. The best part is that balancing these 7 Aspects is an individual experience for everybody. The key is to consider ways of supporting all 7 of these major life areas in some way shape or form that moves you forward toward positive change. Lack of awareness is the main reason most of us remain stuck. Learning about the 7 Aspects of Wellness and using that knowledge to cultivate awareness of our actions is the cornerstone leading a life that's both fulfilling and satisfying.

Types of Health and Wellness Businesses and Their Contribution to Society

The health and wellness market is a booming industry. People are buying health products such as targeted vitamins and minerals and wellness services such as massage and acupuncture so as to ensure physical wholeness and overall good health. The motivation comes from the improved knowledge that the modern man has about his body and environment.
The public has obtained access to health education and promotion through various media, and as a result, there is a rapid transformation on how we have looked at health and wellness these last 30-40 years. A few decades ago, the house-call doctor who had a strong educational background but an equally strong intuitive knowledge went the way of the dodo, to be replaced by institutionalized "Big Health" that has proven over the years to be faceless, uncompassionate, and ridiculously expensive.
In the meantime, we as a people have been exposed to theories of health and wellness from the Far East and our own ancient times, and we've come to recognize that perhaps there's more to staying healthy than popping pills and getting broken bones set.
Health and wellness products have indeed been in demand over the last few years, and this is due in part to the exposure they have received through the media. We see health issues addressed in internet websites, magazines, books, newsletters and even on television, where Oprah's 'Doctor Oz' now has his own show, and 'The Doctors' is a common daytime panel show about health and wellness.
Health journals are cropping up, even major news magazines such as Time, Newsweek and Focus have contributed a lot of articles, editorials and special issues to nutrition and wellness.
Economists in the United States suggest that in the years to come, the wellness business will be one of the leading contributors of economic growth. In fact, in this country, the sales of this industry have already reached $200 million and will soon match the sales of the 'traditional' health care sector!
The health and wellness industry is all about selling wellness products and services which improve the health of their customers. Since there is a wide range of products and services included in this scope, we can divide them into a variety following types of health and wellness businesses. Here's a partial list:
Voluntary medicine - examples under this type are lifestyle drugs and plastic cosmetic surgery.
Wellness resources - these are the information segment of the society, or media informing the people regarding wellness products and services.
Wellness insurance - financial resources for a large number of wellness services and preventative medicines, including chiropractic care and even acupuncture.
Nutritional services and products - including vitamin supplements, nutritionist, local organic food stores, etc.
Fitness services and products - including massage therapists, spas, chiropractor, etc.
Preventative health care - treating, modifying or controlling health risk factors
Alternative health care - this includes meditation, yoga, herbalism, homeopathy, hypnosis, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, naturopathy, etc.
Health and wellness tourism - characterized by customers who would use traveling expenses to look for medical tourism hubs across the globe, offering products and services for these health and wellness seekers.
As you can see, the health and wellness industry has grown significantly, thanks to the huge support it has obtained from several other sectors. New opportunities have opened for health and wellness initiatives, whether it be on the side of selling products and services or in the dissemination of valuable health and wellness information.
The industry is indeed a huge network of products and services, all together with a common theme of being the answer to the sicknesses and diseases that are growing rampant in our society today. Many of these are caused by industries that sell unhealthy goods and commodities. All the types of health and wellness businesses have blossomed in order to come to our rescue.
Because of all of this blooming and blossoming, if you're an entrepreneur looking to start a business, a health and wellness business is an excellent choice -- the competition might look stiff, but it's an industry where the consumer is trained to be suspicious of success and look for the local, 'little guy'...which is exactly where you could fit in!
Chris is a home based entrepreneur in the fields Health and Wellness, Internet Marketing, and Leadership Coaching. He specializes in training people to market on the internet and has a health and wellness business spanning 3 continents.
You can learn more about the Health and Wellness Industry and how you could ride this trend in this article Chris has written here:
Health and Wellness Industry and its Advantages

Diet and Nutrition Resolutions

The best ways to lose weight and eat healthfully in the new year
It's resolution time again, and first on your list is to lose weight and eat more healthfully. But how exactly do you go about doing that -- and how do you keep yourself from becoming a resolution dropout once Feb. 1 rolls around?
To draw up a list of the absolute best diet and nutrition resolutions, I consulted weight loss experts around the country. Here are their suggestions for some tried-and-true -- and very doable -- behavior changes that will help you lose weight.
1. Stack the odds in your favor. We all have our own particular strengths and weaknesses. Katherine Tallmadge, MA, RD, advises playing up your strengths and making a plan to avoid getting sidetracked by your weaknesses. Don't simply wish you could do better this time -- take concrete steps to ensure that you do, says Tallmadge, author of Diet Simple. For example:
If you reach for high-calorie foods because they're convenient, make sure you have healthy alternatives available. Go grocery shopping at least weekly to stock up on wholesome foods. Keep a list so you have enough for the week.If you're a social eater, plan non-food events with your friends. Take walks, go sightseeing, go to a movie or take a hike.
2. Get the rest you need. Susan Moores, MS, RD, a nutrition consultant from St. Paul, Minn., is excited about recent research on the hormonal effects that sleep deprivation can have on appetite. Hers is a resolution you don't see often -- and one most people will welcome hearing.
3. Give yourself permission to be human. Anne Fletcher, MS, RD, author of the Thin for Life books, suggests a resolution that allows you to slip up without going into a slide. People who lose weight and keep it off know how to pick themselves up after they slip. Gained some weight on vacation? No problem. Just get right back into healthy eating and exercise to lose the extra pounds.
4. List the eating and exercise habits you'd like to change, and select one to work on. Don't try to change a second habit until the first one has become a habit, says Boston-based nutrition consultant Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD. A list of habits is easier to tackle than sweeping resolutions, she says. "Resolutions imply major changes that appear doable and seem downright insurmountable by two to three weeks out, largely because most people are not ready to make a change but think they should because of the New Year," says Ward, author of Healthy Foods, Healthy Kids.
5. Choose brightly colored fruits and vegetables plus the brown of whole grains. Your diet should look like a rainbow with a complement of brown, says Connie Diekman, MEd, RD, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis and the voice of the syndicated radio show Eating Right Minute.

Enhance Wellness by Doing Something Different

Many people would say that it is absolute madness to keep on doing the same thing, time after time, expecting to get a different result or for something different to happen. Alternatively, many people, especially those in the personal development and wellness fields of varying natures, would describe it as intelligent to have a goal and be wonderfully flexible about how you go about achieving it.

It is this intelligent idea of enhancing wellness that I want to highlight today.

If what you're doing isn't working or increasing your wellness, do something else;

I was working with a corporate client recently and had been working with one of their senior managers. He had wanted his team to carry out a piece of project work in a certain way. He said to me that he had told them again and again (12 times in total), but they still weren't doing what he wanted. I pointed out that if he wanted them to change what they were doing, he might have to change what he was doing; I suggested that he be more flexible. Together, We explored some alternative approaches and things started to change.

If you are fed up with getting the same results to certain things over and over, with whatever it is that you are looking to change, use this notion to begin to disrupt your existing pattern. If you are just following the idea through in some way, by definition you are perceiving it differently and doing yourself lots of favours. You'll be increasing your wellness.

So, firstly, identify an area where you've been doing the same thing over and over hoping to get a different result. Or an area that you want to increase your wellness. It may relate to a behaviour, habit, circumstance or situation; just choose something that you want to change the outcome of.

Then secondly, clarify your goal, that is, clarify what you want to achieve. Do this by asking yourself what you want and how you will know when you have got it.

Thirdly, construct or create a list of the different approaches and behaviours you have tried already in order to achieve this goal or increased wellness. Or note down what it is that you are doing currently.

Finally and most simply, put together a nice list of some alternative behaviours you will use to achieve the goal and increase wellness. Enlist some help ifyou feel it would help. When you have compiled a good list (put stuff down on that list that may well not seem right for you, it is good to explore avenues that in the past made you feel uncomfortable from time to time). Then, of course, look at starting to do the things that are on your list; do them.

What I am wanting to get across here is the idea of being more bendy.

Your mind and your body really are a single system, so it follows that physical flexibility can often lead to greater mental flexibility. There are certain activities which can greatly increase physical flexibility, including things like Yoga, Martial arts, Dancing, Swimming and lots of other general forms of exercise.

Practicing any of these will increase your overall behavioural and mental flexibility and level of wellness. In addition, find opportunities to break habitual patterns. For instance, most mornings when I shave, I do it in a different way. This requires me to stay aware and vary my patterns. The more flexibility you have, the more flexibility you can bring to situations involving others. Often, when people are seeing me for reducing their weight, I might suggest that they look at the doing things like swapping their knife and fork hands around for a week.

So, go ahead and identify a habitual pattern and change it to enhance your wellness. Especially if it is something you are not entirely happy about.

Here is a list of some things that you can do to interrupt your existing patterns and increase your wellness, you can be as creative as you want with these things.

-Eat a food that you never usually eat

-Go for a walk at an early hour in the morning

-Watch a TV show you would never usually watch

-Take a different journey home from work

-Take a cold shower

-Answer your phone with the opposite hand to usual

-Laugh and smile for no reason

The sooner you start doing this, the more fun you'll have with it. Then often, the higher your increase in wellness. So many people I encounter, know all this stuff or read it and still don't do these things and wonder why they are not getting what they want. Do soemthing different today and you'll be amazed how your wellness rockets.

Copyright 2005 Adam Eason. All Rights Reserved.

Adam Eason is an author, consultant, trainer and motivational speaker in the fields of hypnosis, NLP, personal development and human potential. His website is filled with information, stimulating articles, resources and uniques products.

Adam's bi-monthly free ezine is packed with modern, innovative psychological tips, techniques and strategies; all those who sign up receive an instantly downloadable, unique hypnosis session to enjoy in the comfort of your own home.

Consider a Wellness Program

Are you stuck in a health rut? Do you need some expert advice and support to help you make a breakthrough with your health? If so, you may benefit from taking part in a wellness program. In this article wellness coach Wesley Smith explains how wellness programs work to support you to get over your current health challenges and back onto the path of feeling good. Is it time you made some health supporting changes in your life? If you are ready to make some changes then you may be ready for a wellness program.

What is Wellness

Wellness is feeling healthy and happy. Wellness is having the energy to put into those things that are meaningful in your life. Wellness can mean discovering what brings you meaning and satisfaction. Finding wellness means overcoming chronic health problems and making lifestyle changes that support your health goals.

Set Your Goals

A wellness program starts with helping you to clarify your health goals. Reaching your goals is going to require you to make changes to your current lifestyle and that's why it's important to make the connection between the goals you want to reach and why you want to reach them. This may sound obvious but it is a crucial step to helping you sustain your effort throughout and beyond the program. It's exploring the reasons why we want to do something that creates momentum. Take the goal of having more energy for example, having more energy is a great goal, but the crucial question is what are you going to do with that energy? Would having more energy mean you are no longer exhausted in the evening after work so you can do something you enjoy like an art class or a catch up with friends? Would you like to have more energy so you can keep up with your children or grandchildren? Would you like to go bushwalking, play sport, get fit again? Can you see how it's the activity that is associated with having more energy that you can get excited about. You need to find your own personal examples that speak to and inspire you, so that the effort required to stick with your health supporting choices is able to be sustained. So step one is to define your goals within a time frame (for example 12 weeks) and then elaborate on how each goal will benefit you and use specific examples that really mean something to you and will inspire your sustained commitment to reaching your goals.

Assess Your Health

The next step is to get a clear assessment of your current state of health and what factors are underpinning your current health issues. If you understand what's happened with your health then you have insight into what needs to change. It's also helpful to understand your health strengths and weaknesses, which may include discussions about the state of your nervous system, immune system, endocrine system, the underlying health of your vital organs and your emotional and mental health. At this stage its really helpful to have a good wellness coach who can objectively see your health issues and has the experience to be able to help you prioritise what you have to do next. When you start out in a wellness program, it's important to see progress to sustain your motivation and belief that you can be well. Its the wellness coach's most important role to be able to see where you are stuck and give you relevant and personally meaningful advice that sets you back on track to your goals. Without that insight we can end up wasting a lot of time and effort and without the benefits we're hoping to achieve. In other words, a good wellness coach can see where you are stuck and show you how to get unstuck.

Individual Health Report

In a wellness program, following on from your initial consultation, you will receive a comprehensive individual health report, which sets out your health goals as you have defined them, goes into detail about your current health status, the health issues that need to be address and the changes you need to make to to meet the goals that you have set. The health report allows the wellness coach to cover more than you can cover in a one hour consult, its also beneficial to have all the information in a written for so you can go over it again and again.

Supporting Therapies

A wellness program also involves a number of treatments with specialist practitioners which may include a combination of acupuncture, massage, nutritional and herbal medicine consultations. These session are important to support the changes you are making in your lifestyle. For instance, if you are not sleeping well then the appropriate therapies will re-establish a regular sleep pattern. Change requires effort so having more restful and regular sleep can give you the boost you need to set you on your way. Treatment sessions are the extra support that helps ensure you make progress and don't fall back or get stuck. You have the opportunity to discuss your experiences and to have your questions answered.

Cultivating Wellness

A wellness program also includes learning how to cultivate wellness. A wellness program needs to do more than solve your current health issues, its should set you up for life by teaching you how to continue to improve your health once the program is over. You know the saying about how if you give a mean a fish he has a meal for a day, but if you teach him how to fish he has food for life. The same principle applies to wellness, a good wellness coach will support you through helping you cultivate a healthy lifestyle as well as teaching you specific health promoting activities which may include nutritional principles, breathing practices, relaxation techniques and energy cultivation techniques that are relevant to your needs. That way you have the capacity to sustain your wellbeing beyond the program. The program is designed to help you get well, be well and live well.

I hope this summary has helped you understand what a wellness program is and whether you could benefit from having some support to reach your health goals.

Kind regards,

Wesley Smith

If you would like to find out more about wellness programs please visit http://www.livewellnaturally.com.au/wellness-programs/ or if you would like to talk with a wellness coach you can contact the author at wesley@livewellnaturally.com.au

Wesley Smith is a health educator, wellness coach and the director of the Live Well Natural Wellness Centre in Canberra which brings a range of natural therapies together including Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine and Massage. The centre has a particular focus on providing natural fertility support, solutions for all kinds of pain relief including some of Canberra's best massage therapists as well as health education including wellness programs and seminars. For more information please visit http://www.livewellnaturally.com.au

How Well Are You?

Wellness is a general term that is used of good physical and mental health, especially when maintained by a balanced diet, exercise, and good habits. A well balanced diet provides our bodies with good nurture - which incidentally is where the word nutrition comes from. We need to provide our bodies with all the necessary food, vitamins, and minerals so that we will thrive in our daily life, with all the stresses and strains this modern world imposes on it. But do we know if we are really well? How can we tell?

Do you exercise? If you haven't any exercise routines to examine, no wellness. Everyone, no matter what their age, benefits from exercise. Exercise keeps our bodies conditioned and keeps us sharp mentally. Physical exercise is good for a healthy heart , burns those extra calories and gets oxygen to all the vital process cells.

Another good indication would be an examination of your eating habits. The old saying that we are what we eat is ever true and if our eating habits are unhealthy and we do not provide our bodies with the nutrition needed then we are not going to be healthy individuals at the end of the process.
Do you eat more calories than your body needs? Do you supplement your vitamins and minerals to make sure you are getting your recommended daily allowances? If don't follow these basic nutritional needs, you won't be a well individual. You may not look sick, you may not have any noticeable symptoms of ill health, but you're not the truly well individual you could be.

Now on to the topic of stress which is now recognized as one of the greatest sources of attack against the state of wellness. Is your work in an environment with high levels of stress? Is your personal life a source of comfort or does it add to your stress levels? Do you engage in some form of stress-relieving activity? Stress is one of the main reasons for heart attacks and strokes, speeding up the effects of all the other contributory factors. Stress is basically an out of control situation for most adults today. We manage to schedule every moment of our free time, and leave ourselves with no time for quiet reflection, or time to deal with life's unexpected emergencies.

Stress brings us to the next two topics of health abuse. Smoking and drinking are often used to offset the effect that stress has on our nervous system. These solutions however do not provide any real help. If you smoke, drink, or lose sleep to excess, you're not the well individual you could be. Smoking, drinking, and loss of sleep work to our detriment, and it takes extreme discipline to stop. Smoking fills our body with carcinogens, and works to keep us tired and lethargic.

It is imperative to maintain ourselves as healthy individuals that we all make time to take a step back from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and evaluate exactly where we stand in our overall wellness, so that we can recognize areas where we need to improve the care that we give to our body and mind.

Enjoy a healthy body and mind now - [http://www.healthy-body-and-mind.com]

New Genes Linked to Obesity

Research Reveals Genes That Affect Obesity and Where the Extra Fat Goes
Oct. 11, 2010 -- Your genes may influence how you look in your skinny jeans.
Two studies have identified 18 new genes linked to overall obesity and 13 more that influence whether your weight goes to your belly or to your thighs.
The findings come from the Genetic Investigation of Anthropomeric Traits (GIANT) consortium and appear in Nature Genetics; if validated, they may play a role in how obesity is categorized and treated.
In the first study, researchers conducted an analysis of 46 studies of 123,865 people and identified 18 new genetic regions associated with body mass index (BMI). They also confirmed 14 regions that had been noted before. Some of these genes affect appetite control and others may play a role in metabolism.
The more obesity genes a person had, the greater their risk of being obese, the study showed. Individuals who carried 38 or more BMI-associated genes weighed 15 to 20 pounds more, on average, than those who had fewer than 22, the researchers report. Still, these variants explain only a small fraction of the overall variation in body weight because many other genetic and environmental factors also contribute to obesity risk.
In the second study, researchers analyzed 32 studies of 77,167 people to identify genes associated with hip-to-waist ratio, which is a measure of body fat distribution. Belly fat is a known risk factor for type 2 diabetes and heart disease, while fat stored in the hips and thighs may actually be protective against diabetes and high blood pressure.
This study yielded 13 novel genes, and of these, seven genes had a more pronounced effect among women.
"We know that 50% of our predisposition to weight is genetic and our study is trying to uncover the underpinnings of this," says Elizabeth K. Speliotes, MD, PhD, MPH, an instructor of medicine and gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellow at the Broad institute in Boston.
The new findings may help explain why blanket recommendations about exercise and eating right just don’t work for a lot of people, she says.

"Most of these genes are completely novel, and that tells us that we really didn't understand what we were dealing with in terms of obesity, so it's not surprising that most of our recommendations to control weight don't work," she tells WebMD.  "We hope that with further work we can narrow down how these genes work and develop new ways to sub-classify obesity and tailor treatments."

"Genes load the gun, the environment pulls the trigger," says Scott Kahan, MD, co-director of the George Washington University Weight Management Program in Washington, D.C., in an email. "Even as we continue to educate people about obesity, healthy eating, physical activity, etc., ultimately we're not going to get very far until we address the root cause of obesity/weight gain in our population."

How to Set A Well Water Filtration System Up

There are basically two kinds of well water filtration systems. And at least six reasons for installing one that works in your well. Let me first give you the reasons I would list for thinking seriously about getting one of the better. affordable well water filtration systems on the market.

Althought there are six reasons, but they can be summed up in one short phrase - natural contamination. Yes, your well water is likely to be contaminated by natural causes even if you have no neighbors, farms or industrial factories for miles of your home. Because things like nitrates and arsenic can appear in your well without any human causes.

So, what are those six natural contaminants? Microorganisms are the first. Bacteria, viruses and parasites are found in wild animals or untouched soil. In some situations they get carried by heavy rain or runoff down into the water sources that wells tap in to, and climb up into the homes using that water. Sometimes you know about this immediately, because some microorganisms induce diarrhea.
Radionuclides such as uranium and radium (yes, some forms of these radionuclides are used to build atom bombs) may be present in the rocks dissolved by your well water. This is the second reason you need to look at well water filtration systems.

The gas radon is formed naturally when uranium in soil breaks down. Inhale this gas and you'll contribute to your risk of lung cancer. There's less risk when its dissolved in your well water, but a risk still exits.
Nitrates and nitrites are created on farms using fertilizers, but they also form naturally when nitrates break up in the soil. If they are carried into your well by natural processes then children who drink large amounts of baby formula are particularly at risk. They are another reason to look at the well water filtration systems on the market.

Underground rocks are rich in heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, chromium and lead. Minute traces of them will get into your well water if they are present in the rocks where your well is situated.
Fluoride will also contaminate your well water if the soil in your area is rich in this compound. It is good for bones and teeth, but some people consider it unhelpful and would want to use one of the good well water filtration systems to remove it.

So, what well water filtration systems will deal with these and the many more human-generated contaminants that frequently get into well water? In a sentence, they must keep some things out and other things in.
I suggest you make up a list of things they filter out. My personal list would include filters that block microorganisms, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and heavy metals. That's a daunting list. Because one filter will not stop all these. So you need a set of filters that will work together to remove everything that will being ill health into you home.

But I would also suggest you make a list of things that well water filtration systems must keep in the water. And in my list there would be just one item - the essential trace minerals like calcium and magnesium that are found deep under the earth where water dissolves them and brings them up to the surface. They will be in your well water, and you need them to be healthy. So make sure you don't install a reserve osmosis water purifier as part of your well water filtration system. The reverse osmosis filters block all minerals - including the healthy ones you and your children must have.

So there you are. Why you need to consider the well water filtration systems out there, and what to look for in one that will work. My web site has tips and advice on this subject and you might like to start looking there. But whatever you do next, I encourage you to make it a priority to get a system because even if your well is isolated it may well be contaminated by natural cases.

"A Better You" Your 7 days program to self-improvement

I seem to lost count on how many times I've read and heard of celebrity marriages failing almost left and right. Not that I care (and personally I don't), it seems strange that we often see movie and TV stars as flawless people, living the fairytale life of riches and glamour. I suppose we all have to stop sticking our heads in the clouds and face reality.

There are many ways to lose your sense of self-esteem despite of how trivial it could get. But whatever happens, we should all try not to lose our own sense of self.

So what does it take to be a cut above the rest? Here are some of the things you can think and improve on that should be enough for a week.

1. Know your purpose

Are you wandering through life with little direction - hoping that you'll find happiness, health and prosperity? Identify your life purpose or mission statement and you will have your own unique compass that will lead you to your truth north every time.

This may seem tricky at first when you see yourself to be in a tight or even dead end. But there's always that little loophole to turn things around and you can make a big difference to yourself.

2. Know your values

What do you value most? Make a list of your top 5 values. Some examples are security, freedom, family, spiritual development, learning. As you set your goals for 2005 - check your goals against your values. If the goal doesn't align with any of your top five values - you may want to reconsider it or revise it.

The number shouldn't discourage you, instead it should motivate you to do more than you can ever dreamed of.

3. Know your needs

Unmet needs can keep you from living authentically. Take care of yourself. Do you have a need to be acknowledged, to be right, to be in control, to be loved? There are so many people who lived their lives without realizing their dreams and most of them end up being stressed or even depressed for that matter. List your top four needs and get them met before it's too late!

4. Know your passions

You know who you are and what you truly enjoy in life. Obstacles like doubt and lack of enthusiasm will only hinder you, but will not derail your chance to become the person you ought to be. Express yourself and honor the people who has inspired you to become the very person you wanted to be.

5. Live from the inside out

Increase your awareness of your inner wisdom by regularly reflecting in silence. Commune with nature. Breathe deeply to quiet your distracted mind. For most of us city slickers it's hard to even find the peace and quiet we want even in our own home. In my case I often just sit in a dimly lit room and play some classical music. There's sound, yes, but music does soothe the savage beast.

6. Honor your strengths

What are your positive traits? What special talents do you have? List three - if you get stuck, ask those closest to you to help identify these. Are you imaginative, witty, good with your hands? Find ways to express your authentic self through your strengths. You can increase your self-confidence when you can share what you know to others.

7. Serve others

When you live authentically, you may find that you develop an interconnected sense of being. When you are true to who you are, living your purpose and giving of your talents to the world around you, you give back in service what you came to share with others -your spirit - your essence. The rewards for sharing your gift with those close to you is indeed rewarding, much more if it were to be the eyes of a stranger who can appreciate what you have done to them.

Self-improvement is indeed one type of work that is worth it. It shouldn't always be within the confines of an office building, or maybe in the four corners of your own room. The difference lies within ourselves and how much we want to change for the better.

Health and Wellness Products for a Healthy Lifestyle

Health and wellness products are aimed to promote a healthy lifestyle by catering to the physical, as well as mental and emotional aspects of health.

Health and wellness products are used to take care of the body and mind by managing stress, aiding healthy eating habits, as well as maintaining a safe environment.

When someone speaks of wellness, they are referring to what is called "alternative medicine," which deals with the state of being healthy and health-conscious.

Well Being

When determining the well being of a person, many factors are taken into consideration. Some of these factors include nutrition, disease prevention, environmental influences, as well as public health issues.

There are health and wellness products on the market that explore and achieve this sense of well-being which alternative medicine offers.

Health and wellness products are based upon the idea and practice that the body as a whole should be taken care of after the basic living necessities are in order. This concept of wellness was developed into a popular concern during the late 19th century. This came at a time when the public began to place emphasis on self-improvement.

Many early health and wellness products were considered simple items like toothpaste, mouthwash and certain cereals, which were marketed as such at that time.

Blood pressure machines, cholesterol tests and glucose meters can also be considered a health and wellness product because they monitor some of the body's overall state of health. Other health and wellness products include vitamins or items which avoid certain food elements that have been proven to lower a person's well being.

Preventive Health Care

There are some people who wish to follow a variety of preventive health care methods, including homeopathy, as well as herbal medicine, which provides an array of different health and wellness product options. These practices are considered alternative because there is no concrete scientific evidence to prove whether these methods are effective.

Jewelry

Some health and wellness products can come in the form of jewelry, such as BalanceBracelets, which are supposed to decrease pain, as well as increase energy.

To ease joint pain, some will turn to the use of copper bracelets, rings and anklets for treating the discomfort caused by arthritis and tendonitis.

Another health and wellness product utilizes magnetic therapy, which can be found in the form of bracelets, rings, necklaces, bangles, as well as magnetic wraps.

Healing Energy

Plenty of health and wellness products can be found on the Internet that embraces the concept of Reiki healing energy. There are items include transformational beeswax ear candles, which are made up of herbs, flower essences and crystals. Some people use this form of alternative medicine to increase the strength of their aura.

Other health and wellness products that are available include:

· Light Therapy Products, such as portable desk lamps that offer a person 10,000 lux of diffused light that can be used to treat seasonal conditions.

· Herbal Supplements, including kava, ginseng, noni juice and energy drinks.

· Gemstone Therapy Products, including jewelry and crystals for the purpose of healing, as well as psychic enhancement purposes.

· Colloidal Silver and Zinc, which comes in the form of a pill, is used as an immune booster.

More health and wellness information and FREE exclusive diet and health magazines, are available on our web site: http://www.net-planet.org