Mental Tips To Help You Drop Pounds

Mental Tricks to Help You Drop Pounds
SELF.com
By Lucy Danziger, SELF Editor-in-Chief
Fri, Jan 16, 2009

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthieryou/7869/mental-tricks-to-help-you-drop-pounds/

Wouldn't it be nice if you could wave a wand to erase the extra weight on you? That wand may not exist, but there are tricks that can help you slim down magically by tapping in to the power of your mind. Try these simple strategies from our 30-day Jump Start Diet and--abracadabra--you'll be showing off a sleeker physique in no time.

Pat yourself on the back: Women who view themselves as heavier than they are have a harder time maintaining weight loss after a year, according to a study in Eating and Weight Disorders. Rather than obsessing about thighs that are larger than you’d like, zero in on an area that makes you proud, say, your toned shoulders or killer calves. Love your body and it will love you back, by staying in the shape you desire.

Hop off the anxiety train: Stress is the uninvited crasher that shows up to your weight loss party and kills the mood and your resolve. Tension and anxiety increase your levels of cortisol, the hormone that encourages your body to hold onto dangerous tummy fat. Plus, I don't have to tell you what types of food you seek after a tough day. (If you're like me, it's ice cream, a high-fat, high-calorie choice that soothes the brain.) But rather than retreat to the freezer, hightail it to the gym or take a simple stroll to help you unwind. Your body will thank you!

Let go of guilt: So you ate a brownie. You're human! Forget about it and get back on your healthy eating track. Aiming to be a flawless eater 100 percent of the time is unrealistic, and chastising yourself for caving to a craving can lead to total loss of weight loss resolve. One small slip won't make you suddenly balloon, but letting that trip-up mushroom into days or weeks of overindulging might. See a sample menu that'll help you eat healthy all week.

Cut the emotional cord. Try not to label foods as good or bad and define yourself by the food choices you make on any given day. Make an effort to disentangle the relationship between eating and emotions, so you will be happier, healthier and more in control of your diet. When a craving strikes or you get the urge to overeat, stop, count to 10 and ask yourself if something is bothering you--and what steps you could take to deal with that problem. Chances are, the need to nosh will pass. See how a nutritionist keeps the balance on the Eat Like Me blog.

Slow down: There's no prize for cleaning your plate the quickest. In fact, there's a penalty: You'll likely consume more calories because it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to recognize that you're satisfied. Allow yourself to chew each bite completely before swallowing, and eat your meal in small courses rather than stacking your plate sky-high.

Iodine May Be The Critical Mineral for Weight Loss

Iodine May Be the Critical Mineral for Weight Loss, Energy and Beauty

(NaturalNews) Iodine may just be the most overlooked mineral, yet its importance to overall health and well being cannot be overstated. Iodine is critical for the formation of thyroid hormone in the thyroid gland. People who have difficulty losing weight even though they eat small portions of health promoting foods may be short on iodine. Iodine deficiency can lead to dull and brittle hair, balding, lack of skin tone, low energy levels, difficulty dealing with environmental temperature change, poor concentration, constipation, depression, and extreme fatigue.

Why many people are iodine deficient

Health conscious people expect conventional produce to be grown in soils deficient in essential minerals. They may be surprised to find out that organic produce is also often lacking sufficient amounts of iodine. Adequate intake of iodine was once a recognized problem that was solved by adding small amounts of it in the processing of table salt. Once this was done, the obvious symptoms of severe iodine deficiency disappeared from view, and little further thought was given to matter, though sub-clinical symptoms remained. Today's health conscious consumers have lowered their salt intake and now fail to get even that small amount of iodine in their diets. Many people have replaced processed iodized salt with sea salt, an obvious healthy alternative, except that sea salt does not naturally contain a significant amount of iodine.

Iodine has many actions in the body

A shortage of iodine can cause changes to the thyroid gland that directly lead to poor function of metabolism and immunity. Iodine deficiency promotes free radical damage in the thyroid gland that puts the gland itself at risk. Iodine blocks various compounds from binding to and accumulating in the thyroid gland, such as fluoride, perchlorate, and goitrogens. Environmental pollution significantly aggravates an iodine lack and displaces iodine in the body.

Iodine is in high concentration in the ovaries and breast tissue, acting as a buffer to the growth stimulating effects of estrogen and as a promoter of proper estrogen metabolism. Iodine assists the functioning of hormone receptors throughout the body, helping hormones communicate more effectively. Thyroid hormone governs the rate of other hormone formation, and thus governs sexual function.

Iodine is essential for proper brain development and cognitive ability. There have been many studies showing the importance of iodine during gestation when cognitive potential is formed. A mother with adequate iodine levels will be more likely to produce a child with superior brain development.

Recent research documents the importance of proper iodine levels

A study reported in the September edition of Endocrine Review noted that iodine is critical for the biological effects mediated by thyroid hormone. Iodine containing enzymes important to the action of the thyroid were also found to increase or decrease thyroid hormone signaling in a tissue-and temporal-specific fashion, independently of changes in thyroid hormone serum concentrations. It was clear to the researchers that these enzymes play a much broader role than was once thought, with great ramifications for the control of thyroid hormone signaling during vertebrate development and metamorphosis, as well as injury response, tissue repair, hypothalamic function, and energy homeostasis in adults.

The September 3 edition of Cancer Causes and Control reports a review of literature focused on risk factors for thyroid cancer. The researchers found that at present, the only recognized measures for reducing thyroid cancer risk are avoiding ionizing radiation and iodine deficiency, particularly in children and young women.

The European Journal of Nutrition, August edition, reports it widely accepted that the rapid rate of growth of the brain during the last third of gestation and the early postnatal stage makes it vulnerable to an inadequate diet. A deficiency of iodine during this critical period in brain development is associated with reduced intellectual ability.

The August 12 edition of Medical Hypotheses reports the World Health organization showing iodine deficiency to be a worldwide health problem. As iodine status is based in median urinary iodine excretion, even in countries regarded as iodine sufficient, a considerable part of the population may be iodine deficient. Iodine deficiency traditionally results in hypothyroidism, goiter, and cretinism. Researchers hypothesized that iodine deficiency may also give rise to subtle impairment of thyroid function leading to clinical syndromes resembling hypothyroidism or diseases that have been associated with the occurrence of hypothyroidism. They described several clinical conditions suspected to be linked to iodine deficiency, including obesity, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), psychiatric disorders, fibromyalgia, and malignancies.

Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, August 6, reports that the trace elements iodine and selenium are essential for thyroid gland functioning and thyroid hormone biosynthesis and metabolism. While iodine is needed as the eponymous constituent of the two major thyroid hormones T3 and T4, selenium is essential for the biosynthesis and function of small numbers of selenocysteine containing enzymes that control thyroid hormone turnover.

The August 1 edition of Lancet reports that 2 billion individuals worldwide have insufficient iodine intake, producing adverse effects on growth and development due to inadequate production of thyroid hormone. Iodine deficiency is the most common cause of preventable mental impairment worldwide. The researchers recommended iodine supplements be used to remediate deficiency.

The Alternative Medicine Review, June edition, reports that iodine deficiency is critical in pregnancy due to the consequences for neurological damage during fetal development as well as during lactation. The safety of therapeutic doses of iodine above the established safe upper limit of 1 mg is evident in the lack of toxicity in the Japanese population that consumes 25 times the median intake of iodine consumption in the United States. Japan's population suffers no demonstrable increased incidence of autoimmune thyroiditis or hypothyroidism. Studies using 3.0 to 6.0 mg doses to effectively treat fibrocystic breast disease may reveal an important role for iodine in maintaining normal breast tissue architecture and function. Iodine may also have important antioxidant functions in breast tissue and other tissues that concentrate iodine via the sodium iodide supporter.

Determining iodine deficiency

Due to the fact that iodine deficiency can have serious consequences, it is important for people to use iodine supplementation if they are not regularly getting adequate amounts from food. Good food sources of iodine are dairy products produced from cattle fed iodine-supplemented feed and salt licks, iodized salt, seafood, saltwater fish, seaweed, and kelp. It may also be found in asparagus, garlic, lima beans, mushrooms, sesame seed, spinach, chard, and summer squash. Some foods block the uptake of iodine into the thyroid gland when eaten raw in large amounts, such as cabbage, kale, peaches, pears and spinach.

Pregnant women, the elderly and adolescents are more predisposed to iodine deficiency. More women than men are short on iodine. In addition to low thyroid functioning, symptoms of iodine deficiency include depression, weight gain, weak heartbeat, extreme dry hair and skin, swelling of the legs, decreased ability to concentrate, muscle cramps, puffiness or swelling of the eyes, and chronic aches and pains. Fatigue is a common symptom, characterized by the urge to fall asleep when not active. Hypersensitivity to cold, or cold hands and feet is another frequently reported symptom. When the metabolism is not up to par, there is less energy and heat produced.

Supplementing iodine

The best known iodine supplement is kelp, which offers iodine as well as other minerals in a whole food form. Iodine from kelp is naturally in the form of potassium iodide, which is not soluble in water and may be difficult for the body to use. According to health guru Byron Richards, this form of iodine has been shown to congest the thyroid gland when taken in high doses. Kelp is readily available online or in health food stores.

Richard's company Wellness Resources produces an iodine product called Iosol that is made with iodine extracted from kelp and made into pure iodine crystals. In this process the iodine is unbound from the potassium. The crystals are combined with ammonium iodide, a form that readily dissolves in water. The result is an iodine supplement with high bioavailability.

Both kelp and Iosol supplements are highly affordable.

video: raw food weightloss

Aging and Weight Gain: How NOT To Get Fatter As You Get Older

Aging and Weight Gain: How NOT to Get Fatter as You Get Older
by www.SixWise.com



You may remember your childhood years fondly as a time of bike rides, endless summers, and visits from the tooth fairy. Among these many pleasures from your younger years was also a seemingly endless metabolism -- and with it the ability to eat as many hamburgers, ice cream sandwiches, French fries and slices of birthday cake as you pleased without gaining a pound.

There's good news: weight gain as you age is NOT inevitable.

Sadly, as you get older, you lose this ability to burn off the calories as quickly, therefore holding on to those cupcakes and cheeseburgers far longer than you'd probably like to, and often in places you surely don't want to, such as your belly, hips and thighs. This begs the question -- why do we get fatter as we get older, and more importantly, can it be avoided?

Aging and Weight Gain -- Inevitable?

While there is no question that we tend to gain weight as we grow older, the big question still remains as to why this weight gain occurs and whether or not it is inevitable. There have been many studies devoted to discovering the causes of this weight gain.

One such study was conducted by Monash University researcher Dr. Zane Andrews, a neuroendocrinologist with the university's department of physiology. This study uncovered that one of the reasons the scale creeps up as you get older is that appetite-suppressing cells are attacked by free radicals after eating -- and this degeneration is more significant following meals rich in carbohydrates and sugars.

People between the ages of 25 and 50 are most at risk according to Dr. Andrews, as the neurons that tell people in this crucial age range not to overeat are being killed off. This reduction in appetite-suppressing cells could be one explanation for the complexity of adult-onset obesity.

What is also a factor is that the modern diet has become increasingly filled with sugars and carbohydrates, which is leading to premature cell deterioration.

Another reason that we gain weight as we get older is that muscles turn to fat as we age, decreasing our muscle mass and increasing body fat. This happens at around 30, when both men and women experience an up to 40% reduction in both muscle and bone mass.

This change, which begins at age 30 and reaches a plateau at about 60 or 70, coincides with a decrease in our physical abilities, affecting reaction time and rate at which we perform tasks. This causes many people to become less physically active, which sabotages their efforts to remain slim, as exercising and maintaining an active lifestyle are crucial to keeping an elevated metabolic rate and winning the battle of the bulge.

If you're between the ages of 25 and 50, eating a lot of carbs and sugar may deteriorate your appetite-suppressing cells.

Studies have shown that both men and women experience these changes similarly. However, women tend to have more difficulty with the weight issue, particularly after menopause, which occurs between the late-40s and early 50s. Around this time, about 60% of women experience some sort of weight gain, usually about a pound a year, most of it accumulating around the stomach. This is particularly frustrating for women due to the fact that the hormonal and metabolic changes that occur during menopause make it difficult, if not impossible, to shed this weight.

Another explanation for growing heavier as we grow older is simple genetics. If you're lucky enough to have a mother or grandmother who was naturally slim, even in their golden years, you might stay that way too. However, if you have relatives who got heavier as they got older, then chances are you may too.

A Weighty Issue

While staying slim is certainly more difficult as you age, for many weight gain is beginning in the younger years. There has been a steady increase in obesity rates among Americans over the last 20 years, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). In fact, Colorado is the only state in the union that has a prevalence of obesity less than 20%! And in 2007, the overall obesity rate jumped to nearly 26%, which is up from 24% in 2005.

While these numbers are distressing enough, what is even more alarming is the rate at which America's children are joining the ever-growing ranks of the obese. Perhaps due to poor diets and more time than ever spent in front of video games, computers, and TV sets, American children are heavier than ever, putting them at risk for diseases typically reserved for adults, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.

To help address this crises, the CDC has launched a campaign called "Healthy People 2010," which seeks to decrease the number of obese Americans down to 15% by the year 2010 through a program of nutritional education and motivating people to get out and exercise more. In addition, many states such as New York have banned the use of dangerous trans fats in restaurants and require them to place calorie and fat information in all their menus.

Schools across the nation have begun to take vending machines off campuses and many have banned sugary foods such as cupcakes and candy from parties. And many campaigns, such as Boston's Metrowest Community Healthcare Foundation , have been established with the goal of educating parents about the severity of the problem and encouraging them to get their children away from the video games and out exercising, as well as eating better foods. This advice, while good for children, will also help parents to establish healthier lifestyle habits and hopefully keep to a healthy weight even as they get older.

Taking a Load Off

While weight gain is more likely to happen as you get older, it is not inevitable. There are many things you can do to help fight off those extra pounds. Staying active is key. While it may be tempting to forego physical activity as you age and perhaps your body starts to ache a bit more, exercise is crucial to not only staying slimmer, but to living longer and healthier lives.

The more physically fit you are, the easier it is to fend off disease. Regular exercise not only boosts your immune system, but it's good for your mental well-being too. The endorphins that are released during exercise even help stave off depression and anxiety, common problems faced as we grow older.

Along with exercise, you may also need to reevaluate your diet as you get older. Changing eating habits is never easy, especially if they've been engrained over several decades, but it is necessary if you want to maintain a healthy weight. While it's never good to eat that extra slice of pie on a regular basis, it is particularly important as you get older to avoid these "danger" foods and replace them with foods that cater more to the body's changing nutritional needs. If you are unsure of how best to tweak your diet, there are plenty of nutritionists that are willing to help construct a diet plan that will fit your needs.

For most of us, staying slim is no easy task, especially as we grow older and our bodies start to change. However, getting older doesn't have to equal getting heavier. Taking a few simple steps can help increase your odds of staying slim well into your golden years.

Recommended Reading

What Really Causes the "Beer Belly" in Men and How to Get Rid of Your Gut

Aging Gracefully: Enjoy a Vital, Fulfilling Life Regardless of Age

Sources

Science Daily August 2008

CDC: U.S. Obesity Trends

TheBostonChannel.com

Flavor Enhancer MSG Linked to Weight Gain & Obesity

Source: The Flavor Enhancer MSG Linked to Weight Gain, Obesity

(NaturalNews) For the first time in a scientific study, the use of monosodium glutamate (MSG) has been linked to weight gain in humans. For years, studies have shown that the flavor enhancer, MSG, is associated with weight gain in animals, but this study, by the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, has shown that this association applies to human health.

Researchers at UNC teamed up with their counterparts in China to study 752 healthy men and women between the ages of 40 and 59 randomly sampled from three different rural villages in north and south China. The majority of participants prepared their meals at home without the use of commercially processed foods and 82 percent cooked with MSG. The other 18 percent did not use MSG. Of these men and women, three groups were formed based on the amount of MSG they regularly used. The average MSG intake was one third of a gram per day.

The researchers found three times the rate of overweight people in the high MSG-use group compared to the non-users. The use of MSG in the other two groups was positively related to body mass as well. Overall, the groups that used MSG had a higher occurrence of overweight individuals (BMI of 25 or greater) than non-users.

The findings were consistent with data from animal studies in past years.

The researchers were not led astray by such factors as physical activity and total calorie intake; they kept these in mind and controlled for them before finalizing the relationship of MSG with body mass.

It has been difficult to study the potential effect of MSG on humans because most people consume MSG as an ingredient in processed foods, which pose their own problems to health. This study, by choosing participants in rural China who use very little commercially processed food, was able to study the effect of MSG without this interfering factor.

Natural News has many informative articles about MSG and the foods in which they are found (http://www.naturalnews.com/msg.html) .

Source:

Association of Monosodium Glutamate Intake With Overweight in Chinese Adults: The INTERMAP Study
(http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/vaop/...)