All about Insomnia

Insomnia is a sleep disorder characterized by chronic problems  falling asleep, staying asleep or only sleeping for several hours and being wake unable to fall back to sleep. It  is typically followed by functional impairment while awake. Both organic and non-organic insomnia constitute a sleep disorder.

It can be caused by another disorder, by changes in the sleep environment, by the timing of sleep, or by stress. Researchers do not know exactly why people need sleep, but we do know that lack of sleep can kill. Humans deprived of sleep for long periods begin hallucinating and develop other mental problems.

Important hormone production is regulated during sleep; in children, human growth hormone (HGH) is released during deep sleep. Insufficient sleep can affect hormonal balance in adults as well. Getting enough deep sleep and they do know that people can go longer without food than without sleep.  During sleep the subject’s Sleep metabolic rate and energy consumption are reduced.  The cardiovascular system also slows down during sleep as blood pressure drops as well as

Insomnia can be caused by another disorder, by changes in the sleep environment, by the timing of sleep, or by stress. Its consequences - sleepiness and impaired psychomotor performance - are similar to those of sleep deprivation. If this form of insomnia continues to occur from time to time, the insomnia is classified as intermittent.
Acute insomnia is the inability to consistently sleep well for a period of between three weeks to six months.
Chronic insomnia lasts from months to years.  Insomnia occurs 1.4 times more commonly in women than in men.

If you suspect you have a sleep disorder, a sleep specialist can confirm if your suspicions are correct – and make a careful and detailed medical evaluation to find the source of your sleep problem.
A doctor or a sleep specialist can diagnose your sleep disorder based on a number of factors, including:
• A description of your symptoms
• Your age
• Your gender
• Your psychological history
• Your medical history

Insomnia can be caused by the following habits and conditions whick risk factors for developing a sleep disorder:
• Poor sleep environment (e.g., too noisy, too brightly lit, too hot, or too cold)
• Excessive use of caffeine, alcohol, or certain medications and drugs
• Smoking or chewing tobacco
• Illness
• Obesity
• Anxiety, depression, or another mood disorder
• Stress, such as the death of a loved one or job pressure
• Unhealthy or irregular sleep routine
• Early or late-night bedtimes
• Traveling between time zones
• Daytime napping
• Shift work with a rotating schedule

 

 

How to Stay Motivated in Your Exercise Program: Six Secrets

We all know how easy it is to put off exercise, especially if you have a busy life, but here are six key ways to keep yourself motivated:

1. Track your progress.
Find a method to track how many miles you've walked, how many calories you've burned or how many steps you've taken. Consider making a wall chart with milestones written out along a line. Make a check mark each day when you make progress toward your next milestone. You can even create a little character of yourself to move along the line. Each day, you can see how far you have to go until your next milestone, and how far you've come.
You can also track your progress on a simple calendar. Mark off the days that you complete your exercise routine. You'll be motivated as you get to the end of the month and you see how well you have done with your plan. Several of the best online diet programs have an online component where you can track your progress, alongside your intake of food and water.

2. Reward yourself.
Once you've reached a milestone on your chart, or checked off a certain number of days on your calendar, be sure to reward yourself with a non-food reward. Buy yourself some new music on iTunes to exercise to. Treat yourself to new workout clothes. Enjoy a movie out with your spouse. Reward yourself in ways that really matter to you, and you'll be more likely to make an effort to work out more.

3. Give yourself a break.
If you miss a day due to illness or a busy schedule, don't beat yourself up about it. You won't get anywhere by putting yourself through a guilt trip. If you end up getting down on yourself each time you make a mistake with your exercise program, you'll probably get rid of your program entirely. Just plan to make up for a missing session on another day.

4. Mix up your exercise routine.
One of the main reasons that people stop exercising is out of boredom. While your exercise program may be exciting and fresh when you first start, even the most fast-paced workout DVD can get boring after a while. Mixing up your routine will keep you interested enough to want to keep working out. In addition, changing your workout from time to time will help you lose more weight and get more fit. Over time, your body gets used to the same repetitive motions and figures out ways to make the exercise easier. By introducing different types of movement, you'll keep your body guessing and get more from your exercise.

5. Work out with friends or family.
Exercise is a lot more enjoyable when you do it as a group. The best way to stick with a program is commit to another person to work out together. You can motivate each other to keep going. It won't be as easy to skip a workout session if you have promised someone else that you'll work out.

6. Try behavior modification
A subliminal or non subliminal audiotape or CD (such as Think Right Now programs from Mike Brescia) may be able to help your mind and spirit work alongside you to help keep your body moving each day. If this is something you think might work for you, check out the current offerings from Hay House, as well. This publisher specializes in self help and personal empowerment titles, seminars, and programs.

Dieting Safely - Tips To follow

More and more people want to know how to diet safely. They are getting overweight, or are simply unhappy with their present weight. The idea of dieting may seem like a no-brainer if you'd like to lose a few pounds, but it may actually hurt you more than help you. Dieting safely is no walk in the park, and you'll need to think of a few things before actually taking the plunge.

Do you really need to diet?

You may think that you're a few pounds overweight, but you might actually be at your ideal weight without knowing it. If you'd like to make sure, check with your doctor or dietitian. If he thinks that you need to lose some weight, he'll tell you how to diet safely.

Dieting safely means starting small.

Don't try crash diets – they're not a safe way to diet. Individuals who try fad diets often lose a few pounds before gaining them back (and more). If you'd like to diet safely, make sure you start with the easiest step – such as swearing off 90% of your soda intake. Safe dieting means taking things slowly.

Here's a safe dieting tip to remember – a can of soda has ten teaspoons of sugar in it. So swearing off your soda intake is a great way of starting to diet safely.

Watch what you eat.

Dieting safely also means watching what you eat during mealtimes. The most fattening ingredients out there are refined carbohydrates and sugars. You'll need to cut down on donuts, cake, and soda, and eat at least five servings of fruits/vegetables each day to avoid getting hungry. Eat slowly – the brain often takes 12 minutes from the first bite to tell you that you're full. Taking a break before the second helping can help you eat less.

However, this doesn't mean you'll have to swear off all bad foods. To diet safely, you're allowed to treat yourself every once in a while – just remember to offset your guilt pleasure soon after.

Watch when you eat.

Another safe way to diet is to eat at least two snacks between meals so that you'll eat less during mealtimes. It's advisable to keep a few vegetable sticks or a piece of fruit handy in case you get a case of the munchies while you go. Eating more frequently, but in smaller servings, has always been a great way to diet safely – you'll burn more calories that way.

Safe dieting also means exercise.

Any diet, even one that's safe, won't help you lose much weight unless you match it with exercise. Your target should be at least an hour of good exercise for five days a week. This is, of course, very difficult to get used to. Just like dieting safely, start slowly and gradually increase the workout intensity as the days go by.

Finally, take it easy on yourself.

Dieting safely means you'll need to forgive yourself every time you give in to a craving. Everybody trips up every now and then. When you fail to stick to your safe diet, brush it off and get back to it as soon as possible – that's the key. Remember that any food, no matter how fat or how sugary, can fit into any safe diet – the key is to balance it out with more of the healthy stuff.

To find out more on this subject Diet Safely Reviews

"Losing Weight the Healthy Way"

Almost 108 million Americans were overweight or obese in 1999. Until now, obesity continues to be a serious problem and is predicted to reach epidemic levels by the year 2020.

One way to prevent this scenario is to make people aware of the risks of being overweight or obese.

Here are some diseases that you are putting yourself in risk of if you are carrying a lot of extra pounds:

1. heart disease

2. stroke

3. diabetes

4. cancer

5. arthritis

6. hypertension

Losing weight helps to prevent and control these diseases.

The quick weight loss methods which have spread like fire these days do not provide lasting results. More often than not, dieting methods which involve dietary drinks, foods and supplement or pills do not work. If they do, the results are just temporary.

It is better to rely on a healthy weight loss option which will provide lifetime results. You have to set realistic goals and not expect to lose a lot of pounds in a short span of time. Uncover the Easy Weight Loss Program.

Here are some tips on how you can lose those unwanted pounds the healthy way:

1. Do not starve your self.

The key to a healthier way of losing weight is: Do not diet.

You may seem happy and feel that you are losing those unwanted flabs on your belly and thighs by skipping meals. But remember that this would not last long. Your body cannot tolerate having insufficient food to fuel the energy that you use up everyday.

If you get used to skipping one or two meals a day, your stored calories will be used up instead of the energy that should have been provided by your meals. So if you just eat one huge sandwich in one day, it will end up straight to your problem area (i.e. highs, buttocks, hips).

2. Start your day right.

Mothers always say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Have a healthy meal in the morning to jump-start your metabolism.

Your food intake after you wake up will be used to burn fat all day long.

3. Eat small, healthy meals frequently.

Five small-serving snacks per day is better than three hearty meals. Eating more frequently, and in small servings, can prevent over-eating. This will also increase your metabolism and make calories burn faster.

4. Decide on how much weight you want to lose.

Keep your goals realistic. In the long run, it is virtually impossible for you to lose 40 pounds in 2 weeks. Have a mindset that you want to eat healthy to stay healthy for the rest of your life.

Once you have decided on a weight loss plan or program, stick to it and make sure that you follow your own set of dieting rules.  Uncover the Easy Weight Loss Program.

5. Drink lots of water.

Your body needs sufficient water to burn fat and keep your cells hydrated and healthy.

6. Avoid too much sugar.

Plan your meals around lots of fruits and vegetables, some bread, rice or pasta for that carbo fix that you need, plus lean meat and protein rich-foods. Sweets, sodas and pastries should be once-in-a-while indulgences only.

7. Watch your fat intake.

Fat is not the culprit to being overweight. You need this to keep your weight at the proper level.

There is such a thing as healthy fats. Olive, peanuts and canola oil have them. Tuna, salmon and mackerel have omega-3 fats which is good for the heart.

8. Exercise.

Leave your car if you are only going a few blocks from home, take the stairs instead of the elevator, jog, cycle or skate. Use these activites and other home chores if you are too lazy to go to the gym and take exercise classes. Make sure that you do this regularly and you will not even notice that you are already shedding pounds with these mundane activities.

It does not matter how much weight you plan or need to lose. What is important is that you set realistic goals for yourself.

Go slow. If you have already lost 5 or 6 pounds, give yourself a break then try to lose the next 5 pounds.

Eat healthy, drink lots of water, have enough sleep and exercise. This will give you a higher chance of losing weight and improving your health, which would result to a new, healthier you.

Uncover the Easy Weight Loss Program.

Overnight Weight Loss

The rise in the number of fast foods joints that have a lot of saturated fat in the meals, the use of a lot of refined sugar in sodas and other processed foods and eating food with less fiber have all contributed to the fact that there are more people than before who are classified as either overweight or are obese.

A lot of other factors cause this to happen such as genetics, overeating and as people age; the metabolism slows down making it harder than before to burn the food that was just consumed.

The rate that a person loses weight is commensurate to how it is gained. Rapid weight is not good advisable since it leaves the person with lose skin and the only way to get rid of that would require surgery.

Weight loss depends on the condition of the person which includes weight, health, calorie-intake, age, gender, lifestyle, stress level and routine.

Being overweight does not necessarily make a person unhealthy. It just makes the person a bit unfashionable. Studies have shown that people who are a bit overweight live longer than those who have normal weight.  Uncover the Rapid Weight Loss Program.

There is no quick or overnight solution for quick weight loss.

Nutritionists and other health experts will say that a person’s weight with proper exercise can actually help lose a certain number of pounds per week The best way to do this is with a low calorie diet and an exercise plan.

The first thing a person needs to do is to choose a diet program designed by a dietitian or another health professional. The patient has to be evaluated before any program can be made. The program usually consists of an eating plan and an exercise program that does not require the use of supplements or one to purchase any expensive fitness equipment.

The best exercise plan should have cardiovascular and weight training exercises. This helps burn calories and increase the muscle to fat ratio that will increase ones metabolism and lose weight.

A good diet should have food from all the food groups.

This is made up by 2 things. The first is carbohydrates. The food that a person consumes should have vitamins, minerals and fiber. A lot of this can come from oats, rice, potatoes and cereals. The best still come from vegetables and fruits since these have phytochemicals, enzymes and micronutrients that are essential for a healthy diet.

The second is fat which can come from mono and poly saturated food sources rather than animal fats. Since fat contains more than double the number of calories in food, this should be taken in small quantities to lose weight.

All diet plans are designed to make the person induce reduced amount of calories into the body. This does not mean that the person has to eat less. It just means that one has to eat smart by choosing the foods that have less calories. This makes it possible for someone to lose weight without the need to eat less.

During the course of the program, the person should still consult with the doctor and other health experts to monitor ones progress. There will be times that it is essential to modify the diet plan to further lose weight.  Uncover the Rapid Weight Loss Program.

It is up to the person already to stick to the program to see that it works.

Uncover the Rapid Weight Loss Program.

Finding an Effective Cellulite Removal Treatment

Cellulite is something that is almost impossible to prevent. You can exercise diligently, eat low-fat foods, remain within your ideal body mass index, and still be plagued with unsightly dimples. After trying all of the cellulitetreatments sold at your favorite pharmacy,investing in the seemingly finest cellulite remedies that you can find online, performing all of the cellulite treatments you could unearth, you are still left with cottage cheese dimpled thighs, buttocks, and stomach. What are you to do? Nothing is helping, and all you want to do is is discover a cellulite product that is effective. The remedy for you may be to use a medical cellulite aid. This kind of anti cellulite treatment is much more effective (and pricey!) than the over the counter anti cellulite treatments or home treatments. Now comes the hardest part: which medical anti cellulite remedy is for you? There are varied types of clinical cellulite products. There are deep tissue massages, they might work, but are really not permanent solutions. The Endermologie machine works by raising the skin to deliver a intense, subdermal massage to the underlying fattylayers. This is highly acclaimed. In addition, there is localized, superficial liposuction. Liposuction is a somewhat controversial treatment, as a client with an inhospitable skin type could end up looking worse after the treatment than before! In addition to the previously mentioned procedures, there is also an anti cellulite remedy in the medical community known as soft tissue augmentation. This is when fat is injected into localized areas, such as the dimple of cellulite. It will push out the dimple, giving it a smooth appearance. Mesotherapy is much like this type of liposuction as an anti cellulite therapy. The only problem with mesotherapy is that the chemical injected is uncontrollable, and it is possible for it to spread after it is injected. Your anti cellulite remedy may wind up giving you more bumps than you had before you had the treatment! There are countless different types of anti cellulite therapies treatments available through the medical community. In reality, the most reliable way to determine what is the most effective anti cellulite remedy for you is through trial and error. This may be very expensive when using a medical anti cellulite product, so be sure that you study many consumer reviews and clinical reviews on each anti cellulite treamtment prior to using it. You do not want to pay a large amount just to wind up with no visable results, or sometimes, looking much worse.

All About Saunas

Sauna bathing is an ancient past time although the activity is quite popular in the modern world as well. Let's explore the history of saunas and learn how they work

The purpose of a sauna is to provide wet or dry heat sessions that promote both relaxation and perspiration. This takes place in a small room where bathers remove their clothing and assume a comfortable position while the hot temperature (greater than 80 °C) penetrates their pores. A sauna bath is not only relaxing but also generates profuse sweating. In fact, the sauna’s popularity can be attributed to its many health benefits such as stress reduction, detoxification of the body, an improved immune system and other positive changes.

”Sauna” is world that developed in ancient Finland and means a traditional Finnish bath. The first known saunas were essentially the lowest points dug in a slope in the ground mainly used as dwellings during winters. At the time the sauna included a fireside where stones were heated to very high temperatures. Afterwards, water was thrown on to the hot stones thus producing steam and heat.The heat would be so strong that often people would undress when this was done.

Over time the sauna evolved to include a metal woodstove with a chimney. Although the temperature was generally set somewhere between 70 and 80 °C, a traditional Finnish sauna could sometimes get as hot as 90 °C. Steam vapor was also generated by spraying water onto the heated stones. The steam vapor and high heat caused bathers to sweat a great deal.

Often the Finns would use a 'vihta', a bundle of birch branches with fresh leaves, to gently swat themselves and other bathers to improve the experience. The vihta was used by bathers to gently swipe the skin in order to stimulate the pores, enhance cell production and improve blood circulation. Another benefit of the vihta was that it gave off a very pleasant scent that stimulated relaxation in the same manner that many of today’s aromatherapy products work. In fact, the vihta is still used by some individuals in the sauna.

As previously noted, a sauna is a wonderful and effective way to relieve stress. It accomplishes this in two basic ways. One is the natural relaxation you’d experience when spending time in a dry or wet sauna. The other way in which a sauna relieves stress is by releasing chemicals from the body. When your skin heats up during a bath, large quantities of chemicals that cause stress are expelled from the body. Thus, in addition to reducing the amount of chemicals in the body, the sauna bath also slows the formation of chemicals.

Furthermore, your body releases much of the toxins through the pores of your skin while you perspire. As mentioned earlier, the sauna induces sweating that ultimately cleanses the body.

Finns utilize saunas on a regular basis, and saunas are lauded thoughout Finland as the best, most natural way to cleanse oneself both in body and mind. There was a time in history when members of a Finnish family would bather together in their sauna at home. Another interesting fact about the Finns is that many Finnish women used to give birth in the sauna!

When the Finns migrated to the different parts of the globe they shared their knowledge of sauna designs and customs. They taught other cultures about the sauna’s health benefits which helped the sauna to evolve further. Eventually, this led to the development of electric sauna stoves and far infrared saunas which became quite popular. Since then various cultures around the world have been recognizing, adopting and improvising the sauna.

Quick Weight Loss Trend

If you wear a size 14 and you blow a bundle on designer size 8 dresses as motivation, you will probably end up feeling guilty, frustrated, and angry if you are not slinking around in it a month later.

In reality, you will do much better setting smaller, achievable targets for yourself. If you must try the new-clothes strategy, go down a size at a time, and do not buy anything you have to take out a second mortgage to pay for.

Because, if you continue to remorse on losing weight fast, you will end up incorporating fad diets or those that offer quick weight loss.

For most people who are not aware of this fact, there are no such things as quick weight loss diets and there is no quick weight loss for people who want to be slimmer than what their body can provide. Uncover the Rapid Weight Loss Program.

The problem with most people is that they tend to opt for nippy fixes wherein fact these things are not effective at all.

What Does Not Work

Today, there are plenty of weight-loss strategies that are guaranteed to backfire. This is because these nippy fixes instilled on certain diet plans are, in reality, not efficient because it does not employ the right principle and the right attitude in losing weight.

These rapid weight loss diet plans are known as fad diets because that is exactly what they are, just a fad. In time, when fashion is over and popularity wanes down, people will realize that the diet they have depended on is not reliable at all.  Uncover the Rapid Weight Loss Program.

To know more about these fad diets that are selling like hotcakes in the market today, here is a list of some telltale signs that would tell you not to try it even once.

Here they are:

1. Skipping meals

Does your diet plan require you to skip meals? If it does, then, it is a fad diet.

Abstain from food completely is not a healthy habit. It may even cause some serious complications or problems especially for people who are sick with diabetes.

Skipping meals will only cause a hypoglycemia, or the condition wherein your blood sugar is really low, and will probably only be effective in making you eat twice as much at the next meal.

2. Dieting without exercise, or vice versa

Exercise is crucial to the human body. It is important in the proper blood circulation and other activities of the human body system.

Therefore, diet plans that do not require you to exercise are nuisances. People are born to move.

But then again, exercising alone is not sufficient. Hence, it would be better if diet and exercise will go hand-in-hand.

3. Continuous dawdling

There is no better time to start losing weight. If you want to really lose those excess fats, you have to lose weight now.

Delaying tactics will not get you anywhere and will only make the problem worse. So, if your diet plan suggests a certain timeframe for you start losing weight, chances are, you are following the trend of fad diets.

Boiled down, it is best to rely more on the way you feel than the tale of the tape. This means that if the weighing scale tells you that you are losing weight even if it is slower than you would like, but you are feeling energetic and positive about your weight-loss efforts, then, you are just doing fine.

As mentioned and is worth mentioning all over again, weight loss is not a quick process.

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