Healthy turmeric

The world of herbal medicine has many treasures that we offer to keep an iron. An example of a medicinal plant that many of us barely know is turmeric that we will analyze in depth to see the benefits it provides.

Turmeric is a plant native to Asia that has been in use for centuries to cure various types of diseases affecting the population. Is a star in medicinal plants currently used to prevent diseases that can affect our quality of life. It is important to bear in mind that turmeric may be the perfect herb for its applications that go over below.

Since ancient times its main use has been designed to combat any kind of discomfort and gastrointestinal problems, from diarrhea, cramping, tenderness ... But not only its use has focused on the digestive system, but it is a good ally of the attacks of arthritis , as it helps us to mitigate the effects of this disease due to the diuretic and draining the body you have.

Another common use is given to turmeric has long been the energizing and natural tonic, which makes it an ideal supplement for people who suffer from exhaustion or low energy. Its great medicinal effect is due to its high antioxidant content is substances that make it an ally to protect our cells from the degenerative effects of the environment.

Antioxidants are precisely those that give turmeric a grass highly recommended in the prevention of certain diseases such as cancer. For this reason, your intake is recommended at any time, whether or not we sick and that as a preventive is very appropriate. It is generally recommended to consume turmeric to prevent cancer of the breast, skin and colon.

But its effects are not only here, but their consumption is associated with the prevention and control of heartburn, prevention of gallstones and kidney. Its cleansing effect is beneficial for the body because it regulates the levels of bad cholesterol that affects our arteries, it is also an effective remedy against inflammation. Recent studies have concluded that there may be an important way to prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

Its properties make it excellent for relieving symptoms such as arthritis, rheumatism and osteoporosis, has some underground stems or rhizomes, which are used in alternative medicine to improve liver function, protect against toxins and lower cholesterol.

Turmeric is highly recommended to reduce pain especially in people with musculoskeletal problems, and also is an ally to prevent formation of clots in the blood, improving circulation and preventing arteriosclerosis.

It is a natural anti-inflammatory, for the prevention of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, the smooth proper liver function and reduces blood glucose levels by helping the body to produce anti-cancer substances.

It helps eliminate cancerous substances, is an excellent antioxidant, with greater power than vitamin E and helps in controlling tumor growth, and neutralizing the factors that could accelerate its growth abuse. In the East is primarily used in cases of flu and colds, infections and diarrhea, urinary incontinence, those with asthma and bronchial mucus excess, consuming it for their benefit expectorant properties.

Is a medicinal plant backed by science.

Almonds for improving memory

In order to improve memory, almonds should be eaten daily. However, usually the only add to our recipes for special occasions. Eat at least two almonds a day greatly improves memory and the health of our brain in general. This food rich in protein and vitamin E may even increase your intelligence quotient (IQ) and improve your mood.

Almonds provide the brain with necessary nutrients that improve brain power and ability to memorize things. This nut contains phenylalanine, and has been shown that this substance works in conjunction with our cognitive processes and promotes healthy neurological function. This chemical passes easily through our bloodstream to the brain and stimulates the production of hormones that naturally stabilize the mood as epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine. These same hormones also help reduce pain in the body and mental exhaustion. Although studies are still about, it is considered that almonds may also help treat some symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

Almonds are another element that increases brain activity called riboflavin as well as the L-carnitine. This is important for the brain because it helps make it possible to metabolize acetyl-L-carnitinatransferasa which supports the metabolism of choline. Our brain uses choline to prevent any neuronal degeneration. The L-carnitine found in almonds and other nuts also help to release acetylcholine, which is essential for good memory. Riboflavin as L-carnitine are present in almonds, which stimulate the brain's neural activity and favors the creation of permanent connections between between neuronal cells, resulting in a more optimal functioning of our memory. It should be noted that although these effects are not instantaneous, they may be noticeable after 3 to 4 weeks of starting daily consumption of almonds.

Studies show that adding almonds to the daily diet can help increase satiety and prevent weight gain. Almonds can also do wonders for the health of your heart, as it has been shown to also reduce levels of bad cholesterol (LDL). All without dangerous pills, only a handful of almonds a day. In addition to benefits in memory almonds have also shown effectiveness in treatment of heart disease, obesity, blood pressure, to name a few. Likewise, highly recommended for pregnant women, as the consumption of this food promotes the proper development of the nervous system of the fetus and remain optimal brain function of women. Also happen to be an ideal snack for kids, because while receiving essential nutrients, promotes a mind-brain development appropriate in a key period of brain development.

Healing properties of sesame, flax sunflower seeds

Phytotherapy has studied in depth the benefits that consumption of sesame reported to health.

Properties are quoted sesame, also known as sesame seeds, oil content derived from its seeds.

The benefits of sesame, highlights its ability to reduce blood cholesterol, thanks to its high content of lipids and essential fatty acids like Omega 3 and 6 as well as lecithin, a substance that prevents fat from sticking to the walls arteries.

But do not stop there, their properties, their high fiber content makes it a great intestinal regulator. Moreover, the sesame is a powerful energizer, especially recommended for athletes and for those exposed to stressful tasks, both physical or mental stress.

Memory loss, depression and insomnia, among other nerve problems also benefit from the consumption of sesame seeds. In addition, its high content of iron and calcium, gives excellent properties in cases of anemia and certain bone diseases like osteoporosis. Sesame or sesame seed is a widely used, thanks to their properties to keep the body healthy. Incluiso if your goal is to lose weight, you consume, both oil and sesame seeds, as both ways have benefits, especially weight-loss diets.

Sesame Seed: A handful of sesame seeds mixed in yogurt or other preparations, you bring all its weight loss benefits.

This important oilseed contains many ingredients needed for a healthy diet. We recommend consuming ground or whole bean roasted in the shell. Contribute 85% of unsaturated fatty acids that help dissolve the bad cholesterol. Rich in calcium in 100 grams of sesame seeds, may have hata 1500 mg of calcium easily absorbed, surpassed those of milk provides only 120 mg. Also contains iron, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc to help prevent male infertility. Has 22% of protein rich in essential amino acids. Lecithin provides a great nutrient for brain cells and optic nerves. Because of its high calcium content, you should consume during pregnancy and menopause and osteoporosis

Sesame oil: A spoonful of sesame oil, added to salads or other preparations, you also benefit from its weight loss properties. Many practitioners or herbalists indicate that the consumption of seeds no contraindications because they attack a variety of conditions in the most natural. We continue to the benefits of sesame (sesame seed), pipes or sunflower seeds, and anise. All these help prevent diseases and help the body's vital functions.

However, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds (sesame seeds) have certain levels of unsaturated fat, calories and protein and why experts advise eating them in moderation.

For all these reasons, add sesame seeds, flax and sunflower in a balanced diet can be an ideal strategy to prevent and alleviate many disorders.

Wonders and properties of flaxseed oil

Those who believe that the birdseed was only for "birds" they do not know the properties and multiple benefits of this nutritious seed. Canary grass seed is more nutritious and powerful on this planet. It is rich in vegetable protein, high-quality, mind you, about six tablespoons of flaxseed oil has more protein than two or three kilos of meat, but also bird seed proteins are not harmful and difficult to digest, but are very good amino acid uptake stable .

Properties and nutrients in the canary


• They have a powerful ability to recharge enzyme.
• Excellent source of antioxidants, which prevent aging and premature wear of the skin.
• High content of plant proteins.
• Enzymes of this wonderful little seed are ideal natural remedy for swollen internal organs like the liver, kidneys and pancreas: the canary in a pancreatic regenerator very powerful, so
• Help to eradicate diabetes significantly (in a very short time), plus
• Eliminates cirrhosis by increasing the count of hepatocytes in the liver and by the way, of course, what desinflama.
• Recharge kidney enzyme, helps eliminate excess fluids.
• Prevents arteriosclerosis.
• Helps in cases of gout, edema, gastritis and stomach ulcers.
• Ideal for hypertension.
• Contains lipase, an enzyme that helps to purify harmful fats in the veins, arteries, or simply fat deposits, thus serving as an extraordinary remedy for obesity, cellulite, swollen abdomen, and so on.
• Provides muscle tone.
• It is a very good appetizer.
• Helps burn fat, lowers cholesterol. Very good food for weight control diets or to lower cholesterol.
• Has emollient properties.
• A great remedy for kidney and bladder disease (cystitis), because it kills bacteria in the urinary tract.
• Refreshing.
Form of consumption of birdseed

You can take and, as such, in salads, yogurt or in smoothies and even in soups or gravies.

Also you can prepare a nutritious and powerful enzyme birdseed milk as follows:

Canary seed milk

Soak five tablespoons of flaxseed oil in pure water the night before. In the morning, remove the water they were soaked, and put the birdseed soaked in a blender, you can add soy milk and fruit to taste or simply blend and birdseed's milk sweetened with honey (no sugar), which is a nutritious milk and energy to start the day (morning) and to finish it (at night, drinking hot). It is very important not to sweeten the milk with white sugar, which is very harmful and irritating to your body, besides destroying the enzymes and the powerful effect of this milk. Avoid refined sugar whenever you can, and if you have small children not used to the milk sugar or candy.

Botany Flaxseed


The canary is a cereal belonging to the family of Poaceae, the genus of grasses. Comes from a herbaceous plant, measuring a little over a meter tall, has three or four cylindrical and hollow stems and reeds, fitted with knots apparent and leaves similar to those of wheat, arranged in long, narrow pods. The bush has small flowers in spikes, clustered bunch inside which removes the fruit or seed called birdseed, various colors and wrapped in a husk. There are about 4,000 species of bird seed, plant-dominated grasslands, steppes and savannahs.

Lemon and its benefits

General Characteristics of Lemon healing

While it is a fruit acid flavor are so many properties that this small flaw, it becomes a virtue after meeting the nutritional and medicinal benefits bestowed upon us.
Lemon took first place the fruits enter curative, preventive and vitamin contents, making it a great eliminator of toxins and a powerful bactericide.
It has plenty of vitamin C which strengthens the body's defenses to prevent disease, especially respiratory ranging from a simple catarrh, hoarseness, tonsillitis, to pneumonia, bronchitis, congestion, influenza, pleurisy, asthma, etc.

Vitamin C or ascorbic acid disinfectant has great power and also has antitoxic action against microbial poisons and drugs. Together with vitamin C is the vitamin P helps tone the capillaries and blood vessels. It is also called capillary permeability vitamin, because without it blood capillaries become fragile and break easily jeopardized, causing small hemorrhages.

Helps heal wounds of all types, indoor and outdoor applications.

Lemon is rich in minerals including highlights potassium, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus (also contains sodium, iron and fluoride).
Potassium, for example, is an essential element for life and beneficial for the treatment of hypertension. It has some B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, PP).
Vitamin B1 (thiamine) prevents and cures beriberi disease whose symptoms include paralysis, edema and heart failure. Additionally involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates.

Vitamin PP (niacin) warns against the rough skin, pellagra. Disease manifested by inflammation of the skin, poor digestion and mental disorders. This vitamin is necessary to preserve the health of the skin, gastrointestinal tract and nervous system. It is a fruit that could be defined as a medicine for excellence and serving as curative in over 150 diseases.

Anywhere in the body where toxins are either in the blood, organs, tissues, once ingested the lemon goes to combat and expel dissolving their accumulations.
In cases of gastrointestinal poisoning from eating spoiled food or bad food combining or slow digestion and the liver and gallbladder ailments, the lemon acts normalizing the functions altered by neutralizing toxins and helping to eliminate them.

It is also a major consumer of microbes and the best guard against infectious Illnesses. In cases of fever helps to eliminate it, excreting toxic oxidizing and have not been properly neutralized and removed. With the exception of rheumatic fever. Lemon is good in cases of hypertension, arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (activating blood circulation), in cases of diabetes helps prevent complications in the arteries. Prevents the formation of kidney stones and may even dissolve slowly.
Like any drug consumption is directly linked to physical conditions of each person as if it is a great ally of health also its consumption should be restricted to situations particularized, that an individual may be suffering from being in these cases the consumption is not indicated.

For example is contraindicated in cases of demineralization, softening, anemia, rickets, bone fragility, inflammation of the gums, loose teeth and badly decayed, sores in the mouth and throat, cracks on the tongue, skin wounds, age elderly or frail children, insomnia, acidosis, acid sensitivity, chronic constipation, inflammation of the prostate, inflammation of the womb, bladder or esophagus. As long as the menstrual period, diseases of the nerves.

There are other similar fruits. At the same family owned the lime, grapefruit and grapefruit with characteristics very similar to lemon. The amount consumed depends on the individual and its organic constitution. For example, strong people tolerate it more than the elderly and children. The more obese than thin. Falls better in summer than in winter (cold slows their elimination through the skin). Depending on these factors can take from from small doses of half lemon juice to get aa take the juice of three lemons daily those who tolerate it well.


Some suggestions on how to apply

    * For headaches apply slices of lemon over the painful area, replacing them with others as they are being heated.
    * When there is muscle pain, sciatica, back pain, leg pain and spine massage with lemon juice to the affected area.
    * For the feet when tired or swollen. Foot baths with water and lemon juice.
    * In cases of indigestion, it can be combined with chamomile tea. If liver problems are combined with bold or dandelion.


General Characteristics

Calorific value:

They have very low calories (40 per 100 grams).
Also need to know that when you consume bottled or canned maintains vitamin C, vitamin P and potassium, but not the biolavonoides that are present in the shell and skin.
Juice concentrates are four times more calories and nutrients. Soft drinks flavored with lemon, prepare, usually with water, sugar and artificial flavors.

Choosing:

The color should be bright yellow and firm skin, bright and fine texture. When the skin is thick has less flesh and less juice, but lemons are larger.

How to conserve:

Fresh and well kept at room temperature up to fifteen days.
In plastic bags in refrigerator up to five weeks.
If five minutes are immersed in hot water is extracted more juice.
And as a final tip, you can take the juice with a straw for his passage is direct and does not alter the acid sensitivity of the teeth.


Lemon healing

The lemon mixed with garlic:

It is recommended in cases of inflammation, scarlet fever, serampión, scurvy, beriberi, nervousness, poor appetite, calcination of the arteries, worms. The lemon mixed with onions and giving rubs the juice is very effective against dandruff and hair loss. Served with steam baths and drinking the juice of 3 to 4 lemons, be used against the bites of mad dogs, snakes and spiders itching.

The crust of lemon in hot tea:

Toning the stomach and expels gases also can be added for greater efficiency aniseed. To expel the worms from children over four Anor lemon juice given in doses of one spoon with four or six of castor oil and eight to sixteen of sapota juice, to take a quarter of every day.

The lime used and then squeezed juice associated with almond oil is a very effective ointment for the liver and against other irritations.
In cases of hemorrhages from the nose will absorb a mixture of lemon juice and four parts water.

When dieting becomes dangerous

It is often said that starting a diet is the easiest thing of all about it. Beyond that there are a number of questions which need to be answered. Not least of these is the question of how to stick to a diet, and how to come off a diet without reversing everything you have done before. Some people have found that once they begin a diet, they enjoy the feeling of losing weight so much that they begin to compete with themselves, losing more and more weight until they are actually medically underweight and malnourished. This is particularly common among young girls, but is by no means limited to them.

It is sad but true that in many places where weight loss is coveted – some clichés which are nonetheless often accurate would be girls’ schools, drama schools and gymnastics academies – there is an unwritten list of tricks which allow people to get some extra weight loss above and beyond what they have achieved through diet. This can become quite horrifying, with some of the tricks quite familiar (the well-known one being to make oneself sick so as not to gain calories from food consumed) and others actually close to genius in how twisted they are. A dieting short cut, quite simply, does not allow you to lose weight safely. 

As time goes on and more people become familiar with the tricks used, it is to be hoped that the number of people suffering from eating disorders falls. Whatever one’s reason for losing weight, it is not worth dying for.

The Best Reward Is The End Result

As a dieter, there can be times when it seems like all of your good effort is futile. Cravings strike us all, even those of us who are not depriving themselves of anything, but when they strike in the middle of a diet it can feel like insult is being added to injury. It is sensible as part of a weight loss plan to build in some room for manoeuver, because however well-made a plan is there will always be some scope for difficulty. When there are disappointments (and there will be) then you have to take them as experience and move on.

Trying to deprive yourself of a certain kind of food for a prolonged period with no immediate reward can be quite depressing. For this reason it is sensible to have room in your diet for the occasional treat. If your estimated time to get to a target weight is – for example – six weeks, then it can be sobering to think “I cannot eat chocolate for six weeks.” If you allow yourself a treat every week, then it becomes a lot more manageable, and although it requires willpower it will not demand nerves of steel to keep it up.

This is the key. Allowing yourself to get used to a diet, you will realize that it really is not all that bad, and you may even find that you enjoy it in a way. Losing weight is a process that makes demands on you – but those demands are worth meeting. Good luck, and congratulations on taking action.

How to mix vegetables

The vegetables should form an essential part of our diet. The problem is that not always know how to combine or what vegetables are better at mixing. The following article will give some tips.

As if the vegetables are raw or cooked, combine in different ways. Moreover, not all vegetables are well together, so it is necessary to identify appropriate mixtures. Here we present them.

Cooked vegetables

Eggplants, peppers, Italian squash or zucchini and tomatoes, are perfect together. Try jumping into the wok or steamed. Are delicious. Carrots, potatoes and eggplants are also very well mixed.

Remember that with the cooked vegetables you can also make cream soups. Spinach and broccoli are very well together in the same way as the pumpkin or squash and carrots.

Raw vegetables

Raw vegetables can not be combined as are cooked. For example: Italian squash eggplant, in any way. The key is to bet on those vegetables that are equally rich raw and cooked, as is the case of carrot or tomato.

The carrot is excellent with red cabbage and white. Raya thin sliced carrots and cabbage. Mix, add a handful of raisins and flavored with lemon. Delicious. Tomatoes, radishes, avocado (avocado) and corn (maize), also make an excellent blend together.


Tips to enhance flavor

In the case of cooked vegetables, what usually happens is that they lose a little flavor. To emphasize it, seasoned with spices and herbs, like rosemary, basil, oregano, cumin, etc. The onion and garlic supplements also pose you can not forget in your preparations. Finally, fresh herbs such as parsley, chives or cilantro are a great idea to highlight the flavors.

For raw vegetables, dressings commitment based dressings, olive oil and lemon. Balsamic vinegar with olive oil and a touch of mustard, is in an ideal mixture for seasoning salads. Lemon juice combined with one tablespoon of honey and sesame, is perfect to highlight any mixture of raw vegetables.




Vegetables with exotic mixtures

The vegetables can not only mix with vegetables, there are other ingredients that are very good with raw vegetables and cooked. For example, apple cabbage is excellent with both cooked and raw. Raisins, walnuts, grapes and grapefruit, also represent very good elements to combine with salads, especially the greens. The red fruits such as raspberries, strawberries and blueberries, add a touch acid preparations and fresh cooked vegetables.

Everybody Is Different

When you hear that someone has lost a great deal of weight in a short space of time, it is often tempting to follow in their footsteps and go about doing the same thing via the same method. This is often followed by negative results – inevitably the outcome of this will be no small amount of fury and upset over the wasted time, money and effort that went into trying to get the right figure. The truth is that sometimes what works for one person will not work for the next, because there are differences from one person to the next, and a radical fad diet plan may have different effects for different people.

Losing weight quickly is about finding the best way for you to lose weight without endangering your health, and while for some people a diet where they only drink fruit juice, or any other extreme diet, might work there are always more people for whom it does not. The process of losing weight is necessarily complicated – the dangers inherent in making a major change very quickly mean that you need to consider things carefully. Although the waiting time may be a drag, it is a way for your body to get used to the change, and makes it far more sustainable.

Whatever you hear about how a celebrity lost all those pounds in order to play a certain role in a particular film, you need to apply your own judgement to the story. Are they telling the whole truth and nothing but? It is better to follow your own way, as you know you can sustain that.

Are You Fit?

Fitness refers to ability of the body to function with vigor and alertness.  Nutrition refers to the nurturing of our body, in our ability to keep it healthy and functioning as it is supposed to do.  Our ability to provide the body with all the necessary food, vitamins, and minerals so that we continue to thrive in our daily life processes.  But do we know if we are really fit?  How do we tell?

First, you might want to look at your exercise habits, if there are any.  If there aren’t any exercise routines to examine, no fitness.  Everyone, no matter what their age, benefits from exercise.  It keeps our bodies conditioned, our mental sharpness working at top speed, and thanks to the physical aspect, we get a boost to our cardio health, extra calorie burn, and more oxygen to those cells!

Do you take in more calories than your body needs?  Are you supplementing your vitamins and minerals to make sure you are getting your recommended daily allowances?  If you’re not making the most basic of efforts to take care of your nutritional needs, you aren’t a fit individual.  You may not look sick, you may not have any noticeable symptoms of ill-health, but you’re not the fit and toned individual you could be.

What about the stress levels in your life?  Do 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 the number on contributor to heart attacks and strokes, since they manage to speed up the affect of the real culprits.  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.

Fitness requires us to examine more than just our exercise routine.  The mere definition of fitness refers to the body’s ability to meet physical stresses. That includes coping with our day to day life, getting from the beginning of the day to the end, without being worn completely out. In order to be truly fit, we find ways to rid ourselves of built up stress, the kind that begins to affect our muscles, muscle tone, and composition.  Massages are the best cure for ridding our bodies of the stress buildup that can occur, even with exercise regimens and detract from our overall fitness. 
Exercises that demand total body involvement are the best for maintaining and improving your level of fitness most effectively. Running, swimming, jogging, dancing, cycling, and very brisk walking are some of the more popular total body involvement exercises.

There are so many occasions to stop and question our efforts at maintaining optimal health, that we usually don’t even take the time to begin the examination. But it is beneficial to our overall health, the quality and quantity of our life, to make every effort to be fit, healthy, individuals.

Fitness of the Body

Bodily fitness is being able to deal with and handle the daily stresses of life, good physical and mental health, especially when maintained by proper diet, exercise, and habits.  Nutrition refers to the nurturing of our body, in our ability to keep it healthy and functioning as it is supposed to do.  Our ability to provide the body with all the necessary food, vitamins, and minerals so that we continue to thrive in our daily life processes is a part of overall fitness.  Fitness refers to the condition of good physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Fitness of the body occurs when all the body processes, physical and mental are functioning as the peak levels. What does it take to achieve complete body fitness? It requires more than simply taking a trip to the gym, or a walk in the park.
  
Many factors come into play when we consider our body’s fitness. The daily intake of food, vitamins, and water are absolute necessities, and most often the items thought about.  What about the conditioning of our body to deal with life each day?
  
Does our physical exercise have anything to do with the fitness of our body? Absolutely.  For one condition without regard to the other, is not a complete whole.  The body includes all of our physical processes, our mind, and our physical being as a whole.  When we give thought to the fitness of the body, most often we contemplate our physical condition as it applies to our cardiovascular needs and our weight.  But our bodies are much more than heart and a nice figure.  What about all of our other organs?  Are they fit? How do we maintain a fitness of the entirety?  Daily physical exercise that benefits the body as a whole, taking time to rest and restore what has been depleted from our body over the course of the day, and making sure that we adequately supply our entire body with the nutrition necessary for healthy function.
  
If we use our resources wisely and educate our selves about the things our body needs to maintain fitness, over the course of our life, it isn’t a difficult thing to attain. But you cannot abuse your body for years, and then hope for immediate results in trying to attain overall fitness.  It didn’t become unfit overnight, and it won’t become fit again that quickly.
  
Proper attention to the physical needs of each part of your body results in the fitness of the whole.  Every part of your physical body exists to work in unison with another part of the body.  Two hands are necessary for optimal functioning of the limbs, two feet, two eyes, etc.  The physical body is designed to work better than any machine invented to date.  It is more complex and powerful than any piece of equipment we have on the market.  It takes more abuse than believable, and continues to operate, even without the daily requirements being met, for several days.  It is a fascinating machine, as machines go.  But it is an even more fascinating subject, when we choose to care for our bodies as the temples they really are.  They house our mind and soul, and when the body is fit, it does its job tremendously well.

It’s not all about dieting

Many people hear the term “weight loss” and immediately think “diet” – so interconnected are the two terms that it is often as though it were impossible to lose weight without a radical change in eating habits. But there are other elements necessary to a successful weight loss plan than just changing your diet – and in fact it may be that you are not eating anything you shouldn’t but rather you are gaining weight due to something you are not doing – exercise, for example.

The most successful weight loss plans, or at least the ones which have the most immediate success, tend to be those which combine a healthy diet with a sensible but rigorous exercise plan. Exercise aids weight loss for a number of reasons – not least the fact that it burns calories and prevents unused energy from converting to fat. Additionally, exercise has a tendency to increase the metabolism. Your metabolism decides how quickly you use the calories that you have consumed. Many of us gain weight more easily because of a problem with our metabolism. This can be caused by an underactive thyroid gland, which may require medication. Some of us just have a naturally slow metabolism, and this is where exercise can help.

If anyone tells you that you need to eat less to lose weight – and you are already cutting out fatty foods left and right – then it could be that they are misleading you. Sometimes it is more of an issue with exercise – and this can easily be fixed.

Don’t expect miracles



One mistake that dieters and people with an exercise plan commonly make is becoming frustrated when their weight loss plan does not take off in the way that they had hoped. This is understandable, as it is typical when you begin any plan to want to see results quickly. The fear that arises when you have to wait for such results is that you will be disappointed – they may not appear as you wanted them to or at all, in some cases. The truth of the matter is that as part of a weight loss plan, the only results that matter are the ones at the end of the plan. Overnight weight loss can be dangerous and – possibly more realistically – it can be extremely misleading.

You will see – and perhaps be heartily sick of – disclaimers telling you that weight loss will only come as a result of extensive action involving diet and exercise. While this is not actually the whole story, the essential thing to remember is that weight loss is not a simple matter. You have to put some work in, and you have to be patient. If you do not exercise patience and caution, any weight you do lose is liable to be regained within a short period of time. It is much better to follow a specific plan and allow the results to emerge. At the end of this process is the time to judge. If you expect miracles you will only be disappointed – and this is a cue for comfort-eating.

Doctor Gerard Furlong  Doctor Gerard Furlong was trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital and successfully graduated in 1992. Since then he has had a fulfilling career working in several hospitals in England and Northern Ireland treating thousands of patients along the way.

The aftermath of weight loss

Those of us who have successfully followed a weight loss plan in the past will be familiar with a peculiar quandary. That is the issue of keeping that weight off. When we had a target to aim for the whole process seemed almost easy because there was a purpose behind it. Once the target weight has been reached, it becomes an issue of how on earth we can live up to the achievement we managed before. It seems ridiculous. Surely it should be easier to keep doing something than it is to change something? And yet, without the momentum we have created in beginning a weight loss plan, it is fiendishly difficult to stick to.

If we have slimmed down for a particular reason which no longer applies then perhaps there is no need to worry, but if we slimmed down because our size before was making us unhealthy and/or depressed then the issue changes. An incentive makes any process a heck of a lot easier. Ask anyone who has slimmed down in the past and they will tell you that it is easy to lose four pounds when you have twenty more to lose. But when you need to maintain a healthy weight, it becomes difficult not to gain pounds. The only solution to this quandary is to think about it in terms of weeks and days.

Where before your signpost was “lose ten pounds by March” it now becomes “don’t gain any weight this week”. There may be less glory in this, but the benefits to you remain the same.

Dieting tips: Throw away the scales!

Any dieter will know how it feels: once a week, possibly more, you stand before your mortal enemy - formally known as the bathroom scales. You step on, holding your breath, and squint at the digits displayed. The end result is either ecstatic joy (you've lost more weight than you thought) or deep depression (when you haven't), and the latter is almost always guaranteed to send you reaching for the cookie jar - after all, what's the point?

This love/hate relationship with scales is nothing new, but here's a radical idea: throw your scales away. Studies have shown, and internet forums can back up, that by ceasing to measure your weight loss in pounds and ounces, you can actually increase your chances of succeeding. It is all too easy to focus on a 'goal weight' and lose sight of what you are really trying to achieve.

Losing weight is obviously judged in pounds and ounces, but the point is that this is not something that needs to be measured on a weekly basis. This is because our body weight fluctuates throughout a week, often completely without any dietary intervention. So while you may see a 3lb weight loss next week and a 4lb weight gain the next, you may not have lost or gained any weight at all. Scales depend on sheer weight alone, and do not take into account muscle gain - which increases your weight - water intake or other factors.

Instead, switching to a weekly measurement of your body using a tape measure. Measure areas such as the thigh, calf, upper arm and stomach. These measurements will be a true reflection of how you are doing. Confirm these with a weigh-in every six to eight weeks, and banish the weekly scales panic forever.

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