Health Beauty & FitnessHealth, Beauty, Fitness Tips

Regardless of what the popular culture makes you believe, weight loss is not as mysterious as it seems. The process is boiled down to simple math as you have to burn more calories than you actually consume. But if it’s so simple why there are so many people with excessive weight problems? Sometimes, the process of loosing weight becomes so hard and with no real effect that it makes people think about radical measures like extreme diet, special medications or widely advertised gadgets that promise amazing results in the TV ads. In reality, there’s a little secret that can help you achieve the right effect without struggle – make small but gradual changes every day. Don’t focus on short-term goals and results, the longer you are going to your weight loss, the better.

The rules of losing weight

In order to lose a pound of excessive weight (which is usually fat) you have to burn about 3500 calories in excess to the amount of calories you usually burn when performing daily activities. That’s a big amount of calories and burning it in a single day is of course not the brightest idea to think of. The right way to do this is to take it step-by-step everyday and performing things that can help you burn this excessive amount of calories over a longer period of time. Here’s a step by step overview of how to get the whole thing on track and working for you:

1. Define your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). The BMR represents the amount of calories your body requires for normal everyday functioning. Take it as a minimum requirement for the amount of energy you have to get with food every day. Remember, that it’s nearly impossible to calculate the exact number and you will have to adjust and estimate the number within a certain range.

2. Define your level of everyday activity. You can use a special calorie calculator to define how much energy you use while doing ordinary things throughout the day (walking, sitting, lifting weights, etc.). This could be helpful for registering your progress, and you can also wear a heart monitor to keep track of how much energy you are burning at any moment.

3. Monitor the amount of calories you consume with food. There are many sites and applications that help you keep a journal of what you eat and calculate the exact amount of calories consumed with foods and drinks each day. Accuracy is encouraged, and make sure that you have the information on nutritional values when you’re eating out.

4. Do the math. Sum up your BMR with the daily activity calorie burn and subtract the amount of food calories. The resulting number will give you a clear idea of where you’re going now. If the result is positive you will gain weight as you eat more calories than you actually burn. A negative number is what you need because it means that you are actually loosing weight.

How to achieve results?

You have two variables that you can experiment with (it’s hard to adjust your BMR because it’s a constant number). You can decrease your everyday calorie consumption with food. Some people use drugs like Acomplia to suppress their appetite and achieve substantial results. Or you can increase your everyday calorie burn by being more physically active (work out, running, swimming, cycling, etc.). The best way of course is combining the two techniques. Many doctors suggest using both Acomplia (or similar appetite suppressants) and increasing physical activity for the best result.

Written by Chicagohealers.com practitioner Ian Wahl, DAc, LAc, CH -

Did you know that over 90% of people who report heartburn or indigestion claim it is related to some food or drink they have consumed? In fact, over 40 million Americans experience heartburn or indigestion or acid reflux at least once a week. Over 60 million report it at least twice a month. And those are the people who report their symptoms to a doctor. That doesn’t include the millions of Americans who suffer in silence chewing tens of millions of antacids daily. So the chances are, you know exactly what I am talking about.

Heartburn is known by many names—indigestion, GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease), Acid Reflux, Pyrosis. It is characterized by a burning sensation felt in the chest that can extend up to the neck and throat and is usually made worse by bending or laying down. While it is normally caused by sensitivities to foods, it can be symptomatic of a hiatal hernia, gastritis (an uncommon inflammation of the stomach lining), scleroderma (a rare autoimmune disease of the connective tissue), or a symptom of smoking. But most of the time it starts as a reaction to something you eat or the side-effect of a medication. And if not taken care of, the body sets up a reaction cascade that can create a chronic sensitivity to any food, even to your own body’s biosubstances. So, is heartburn a symptom of a problem or is it a disease?

In the year 2000 alone, the pharmaceutical industry sold over $96 billion dollars in drugs to treat digestive-related conditions; many of those drugs produce adverse side effects. Most Americans believe the commercials and advertisements that tout the effectiveness of antacids and other over-the-counter medications to reduce the symptoms of heartburn or acid reflux. However, according to Tom Cramer of Health Publications, prolonged use of antacids creates kidney stones and causes constipation. And anyone who listens to TV ads knows the potentially devastating side-effects of prescription drugs.

I am often asked how to prevent heartburn or indigestion. The easy answer is to only eat foods you can tolerate without feeling full or without giving you gastrointestinal problems. However, that is a limited solution to an already existing problem. Let’s look at the etiology of a food sensitivity that can ultimately lead to heartburn or chronic GERD.

Sensitivities to foods are a physiological error where the body reacts negatively to a harmless substance. In other words, your immune system perceives something harmless as being dangerous and reacts by sending signals in the form of symptoms, such as heartburn or acid reflux. How does the body make these inappropriate associations? It happens when your immune system is under stress, such as during physical stress, emotional stress, illness, pregnancy, or over-exposure. Current research suggests that many medications and hormones, such as progesterone and the hormones in birth control pills, also contribute to the increasing incidence of acid reflux and heartburn. Your body is always looking for the culprit causing its “discomfort”. I liken the body’s response to fuzzy logic—your immune system is under stress and starts making inappropriate associations. Once this process begins, it builds upon itself and, over time, can create a painful, and even dangerous, chronic condition. Thus, I consider heartburn, GERD, and acid reflux to be symptomatic of an underlying immune system error message—not a pathological disease state. The immune system has become over-sensitive and over-performs.

Regardless of whether it is a symptom or a disease, what do I do once I have it? Conventional medicine offers three solutions:

• Avoid contact with the offending foods

• Take medications, over-the-counter antacids, or proton-pump inhibitors, such as Prilosec or Nexium

• Surgical procedures, when recommended by a gastroenterologist

All of these are palliative, temporarily symptom reducing, and do not get to the root cause of heartburn or GERD. Avoiding foods is limiting and doesn’t always work for chronic GERD. Medications have side-effects and are not effective for everyone. Once on medication for acid reflux, heartburn or GERD, it must be continued indefinitely. And surgery should always be a last resort.

What about herbal remedies and natural cures?

For centuries, if not millennia, chamomile, peppermint, and ginger have been successfully used to sooth the symptoms of heartburn and indigestion. Other common-sense natural remedies include sustaining a normal, comfortable weight; avoiding strenuous exercise right after a meal; eliminating alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine; eating healthy by avoiding fried foods, fatty foods, and acidic foods. Also, eat smaller and more frequent meals; do not lie down or go to sleep for three hours after eating. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate—and drink water, not juice or sports drinks. If your heartburn is worse at night, try sleeping on your left side as this will elevate your stomach and reduce your symptoms.

What if I can tolerate spicy, fatty, or acidic foods without symptoms, but other foods or medications cause heartburn?

Some people are not adversely affected by the foods that commonly cause reactions. If you are one of those, keep a food diary for a week. Jot down what you ate and note when you begin to experience your heartburn symptoms. Within one week you should have a good idea of the foods or medications that affect you.

If you’ve tried every suggestion above and taken over-the-counter and prescription medications all to no avail, it is time to seek out a specialist in natural allergy treatments.

When you have tried something over and over again without the results you are seeking, it is time to make a change. If you are sick of being sick, there is one other natural therapy that gets to the root of the problem. Consider retraining your immune system to accept as harmless those foods, or food components, that are making you sick. It is time to get to the root of the problem—and to get well and stay well.

Advanced Allergy Therapeutics, or AAT, eliminates the symptoms of allergies and sensitivities (including heartburn and other gastrointestinal problems) without side-effects. It is painless, safe for all ages, effective and economical. It retrains your immune system to properly distinguish between harmful and harmless substances and stimuli. And it eliminates the symptoms of heartburn, GERD, indigestion, and acid reflux without avoiding foods and without taking supplements or pharmaceuticals.

Unfortunately, there are no magic bullets to eliminate everyone’s heartburn or acid reflux symptoms. There are numerous websites touting remedies or dubious “equipment” you can purchase for quick-fix solutions. They rarely, if ever, work as touted. The age-old natural remedies described in this article do work. But even they are not 100% effective for everyone. However, if you are willing to consider a more modern approach and take a leap of faith, you will undoubtedly experience remarkable, and for many, permanent, relief through AAT, Advanced Allergy Therapeutics. When you are ready to change your life, find the AAT practitioner closest to you. Stop suffering and start enjoying life. For more information on Advanced Allergy Therapeutics, see www.MidwestAllergyRelief.com .

ChicagoHealers.com mission is the education and advocacy of natural medicine and a holistic lifestyle.

 

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Article by Discount Web Designer

With the ready accessibility of internet nowadays, websites are becoming the leading method of getting information about products and services. That’s why it has become vital for businesses to have an online presence via a website. People don’t go through the yellow pages anymore or look through ads; they go Everyone Needs a Good Web Designer to search engines and, more often than not, they usually go for what appears on top of the search engine list. That’s why having an experienced web designer is so important; web design is no longer just about creating a website, it’s about helping people find you online.~Because of the rising availability of internet access, more and more companies are relying on websites for their marketing. That’s because websites have become the top method of finding information on products and services before actually buying them. Most people don’t go through the phonebook or through TV ads anymore; they go to a search engine and they look for what they need. And 9 out of 10 people go for the first one that appears on the search engine list. Because of this, it has become crucial for most businesses to have an online presence via a website, making the demand for an experienced web designer pretty high indeed.~The internet has become a part of everyday life; it would be difficult to find a person that doesn’t have access to the internet in one way or another. It is quickly transforming how we run our lives and it is also changing how consumers find products and services. When most people are in need of products and services, the first step is usually to look up likely companies and businesses online. And most people often go for whatever’s first on the search engine list. That’s why it has become so important for businesses to have websites and for them to rank high in search engine results which makes having an experienced web designer important.A good web designer would know how to design a website to make it easier for search engines to find it. Also, it’s not just about search engine optimization; there’s also the content such as the graphics design, written content and videos. A business needs the website to portray just the right image that would appeal to its demographic. It also needs the website to be able to impart important information almost immediately and to encourage the visitor to take the next step, like buying the product or paying the business a visit.~As a business, you’ll need a web designer that knows all about optimizing a website for search engines to make it easier for search engines to find. Other than search engine optimization, there’s also the content to consider; whether its graphics, videos or articles, content is king in web design. Businesses always try to create just the right kind of image for its potential customers and a website should be able to capture that image. A web designer should also be able to make the important information catch the visitor’s attention and to encourage them to take action, like buy the product or sign up for a newsletter.~An experienced and skilled web designer would not only be able to create a functional and catchy website for your company, he should also be able to make the website easier to find for search engines. More than internet marketing strategies and methods, he should also have a firm grasp of the importance of content like the graphics, videos and articles. And because every business tries to portray a certain image to its demographic, a website should be able to capture this image and present it to its visitors.By creating an online presence for your business, you’re reaching out to hundreds if not thousands of people in your area that use the internet. And an experienced website designer will know how to capitalize on that to make your website a powerful marketing tool. That’s why a web designer is tasked with more than just the actual website construction; conceptualization and knowledge on effective online marketing methods should be part of the job.~By having an online presence, a business can reach out to a lot of potential customers that fit a specific demographic so that it can get the right kind of attention. And a professional website designer will know how to design a website so that it can capitalize on a business’ strengths and become a powerful marketing tool. That’s why a web designer’s job extends beyond just web development; conceptualization and design play large parts in creating an effective business website.~A business website has the potential to reach out to hundreds if not thousands of potential consumers, and because it can be directed towards a particular demographic, it can generate the right kind of attention. A good website designer will know how to focus a website to appeal to a certain niche, making the website a powerful online marketing tool. Because of the multiple facets involved in the tasks of a web designer, finding just the right kind of web designer can be a little tricky.But how do we find a good and reliable web designer that’s just right for the job? The first thing that you should look at is the portfolio. Check out the previous companies that have worked with the website designer that you are considering and see how their websites are doing. Also check out the services that the web designer is offering. Does it stop at graphic design and web development or does it extend beyond search engine optimization and internet marketing?~But finding an experienced and reliable web designer can be tricky, simply because the online community is glutted with web designers. The first thing that you need to keep an eye out for is the designer’s portfolio. Browse the previous websites that he has designed and visit them; see how these websites are doing. Try to see what services are being offered; are they just basic web development services or do they extend to online marketing and search engine optimization?~To find the right web designer for your company, start by visiting their websites. Go through their portfolios to see their past clients and check out the design and the success of these websites. Also, it would be a good idea to see the services that are being offered; do they only offer basic web development services or can they also do search engine optimization and internet marketing?If you’ve narrowed your list, try contacting the web designer you have in mind and set up a meeting. It’s highly likely that a skilled web designer will know more about what your business will need in entering the online community, so if he comes up with some interesting ideas then he might just fit the bill.~If you already have a few web designers that you’re considering, try setting up a meeting and ask them what they can do for your business. If they have a few interesting ideas and if they can give you an actual strategy and a set of goals, then you’re on the right track.~If you already have a short list of likely web designers that you’d like to work with, try setting up a meeting and see if he or she fits the bill. If he comes up with interesting ideas that would be good for your company, then you might have just found your new website designer.