Justifying What You're Eating

Do you find yourself justifying what you're eating? For example:

• I've had a hard day at work
• I deserve a treat now and then
• I didn't eat any breakfast
• I must have burned loads of calories when I was at the gym

It could be that you're giving yourself an excuse to eat unhealthy food.

Is it an excuse or a reason?

Children And Food

The authoritative Cancer Project says: "Avoid using food as a reward. Offering food as a reward encourages children to disregard their hunger cues—leading to overeating later in life. Celebrate good behavior with a fun outdoor activity or in some other non-food way.

Live Long, Live Well

In a study presented at the International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm 2010, researchers tracked more than 5,000 military conscripts starting at the age of 20 until up to the age of 80.

They found that at any given age, an obese man was twice as likely to die as a man who was not obese and that obesity at age 20 years had a constant effect on death up to 60 years later.


If you're a young man, you may not be that worried now about what happens to you when you're 60, but along with the obesity goes increased chances of some cancers, breathing problems, back problems, diabetes, arthritis, depression and much more. You could be obese and be perfectly health and then one day drop dead, but it's not that likely. You are much more likely to suffer ill health and restrictions in your pleasure in life long before you reach 60.

Feeding Your Heart

Karen Knowler, the Raw Food Coach, says: “When the heart is hungry the hand tends to reach out, and down the chute goes the ‘love’. For real and long lasting weight loss, all areas of life need to be looked at. How happy are you at home, in your relationship, in your work, in your everyday life? How emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically fulfilled are you? As long as you feel empty inside you will likely have a tendency to fill it up with something, anything, and that, more often than not, will be food.”

Lose Weight With A Food Diary

A food diary can help you eat better. Often writing down everything you eat means you end up eating less. Several studies have confirmed that keeping a food diary helps you lose weight. A study from Kaiser Permanente’s The Center for Health Research (USA) shows how important this is.

“The more food records people kept, the more weight they lost,” says Jack Hollis PhD, a researcher at KPCHR and lead author of the study published in the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. “Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records. It seems that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories.”

Dealing With Cravings

Duke University Diet & Fitness Newsletter says: “Try thinking of cravings as ocean waves. Just as a wave recedes after it peaks, a craving will recede if you do not feed it with your thoughts or actions. Instead of giving in to a craving right away, give it some time to pass. Distract yourself for a few minutes by reading or writing in your journal, taking deep breaths, going for a walk, talking about how you feel, or using such positive self-talk as "This urge won't last forever, and I am in control. I am feeling uncomfortable, but I can wait this out." Remember, bingeing might make you feel better for a short while, but you will feel better in the long run if you find a healthier outlet instead.”

Maintaining Weight Loss

The US government Centers For Disease Control says:

“To maintain your weight: Work your way up to 150 minutes of moderate‐intensity aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous‐intensity aerobic activity, or an equivalent mix of the two each week. Strong scientific evidence shows that physical activity can help you maintain your weight over time. However, the exact amount of physical activity needed to do this is not clear since it varies greatly from person to person. It's possible that you may need to do more than the equivalent of 150 minutes of moderate‐intensity activity a week to maintain your weight.”

Helping Overweight Children

Helping overweight children can be very difficult. There's a web site that has lots of resources for parents and kids - do check it out. There's also an excellent book written by Dr Robert A Pretlow called Overweight: What Kids Say.

Cancer And Weight

A study published in the British Medical Journal (November 2007) links cancer to body weight.

Researchers examined the effect of body mass index (BMI) on both cancer incidence and death among 1.2 million women aged 50 to 64 over five years for cancer incidence and seven years for cancer mortality. 

An increasing BMI was associated with a significant increase in risk for 10 out of 17 specific types of cancer. Similarly, risk for death also increased with BMI for most types of cancer.

Arm yourself with facts like this to give you yet more reason to lose weight and keep it off.

Breakfast and Weight Loss

Studies have shown over and over again that people who eat breakfast in the morning routinely think more quickly before lunch, have lower stress levels throughout the day, and actually eat less over the course of the day.

Research conducted by Heather Leidy, assistant professor specialising in appetite control at the University of Missouri Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, found that overweight ‘breakfast skipping’ teens who eat a protein-rich breakfast feel fuller longer and are less hungry throughout the day compared to when they skip breakfast or consume a normal breakfast. Even more interesting, she said, are brain scan findings illustrating that eating a protein-rich breakfast reduces the need to snack due to food motivation and food reward urges.

Natural Help For Pets And Farm Animals

If you have pets or farm animals, you can use homeopathy for simple, everyday problems. We have a new homeopathic kit available.

This kit doesn’t take the place of advice and treatment from a properly qualified veterinarian, but can be used for minor ailments for all your animals. 

24 Remedies, 30 Potency and the SOeSsence Flower Formula in liquid form. Includes an explanatory booklet, so you'll know how to use them.

Aconite, Arnica, Apis, Aco/Ars/Arg-n, Arsenicum, Belladonna, Cantharis, Cocculus, Drosera, Euphrasia, Gelsemium, Hyp/Cal, Hepar sulph, Ignatia, Ipecacuanha, Merc corr, Ledum, Nux vom, Pulsatilla, Rhus/Ruta, Silicea, Sulphur, Symphytum.

Buy the homeopathic pet kit>>

Touch Your Toes For Artery Health!

A less flexible body indicates arterial stiffening, especially in middle-aged and older adults. Arteries stiffen as a consequence of age and arteriosclerosis. Age related stiffness occurs when the elastic fibres within the arterial wall (elastin) begin to fray due to mechanical stress. The two leading causes of death in the developed world, myocardial infarction and stroke, are both a direct consequence of atherosclerosis. Increased arterial stiffness is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. If you’re in this age group and have difficulty touching your toes, you need to take remedial action – diet, exercise and other health changes. Read my eBook “500 Health & Happiness Tips” to get more great tips: UK | North America  and elsewhere.

Childhood Eczema and Asthma

As a child I had really bad eczema on my hands and feet. I knew no one else with the condition. I didn’t know anyone with asthma. How things have changed now with asthma, eczema and rhinitis being all too common among our children. A large international study just published online in the respiratory journal “Thorax” has shown that eating three or more weekly servings of fast food is linked to the severity of allergic asthma, eczema, and rhinitis among children in the developed world. Of course, children on a good diet can get these conditions too, but it does suggest that fast food may be, at least in part, contributing to the “epidemic” in these childhood conditions.

Goals and Priorities

Take a couple of moments to think of some of the important goals in your life. What are they? Do you feel motivated and energised by them? This is a really common idea now that we talk about how important it is to have goals in our lives that help us get up in the morning and tackle the day with zest and enthusiasm. The extremely successful industrialist Henry Ford said: ¨Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” 

So, you’ve got your goals, but are they really making a difference to your life? Think about your priorities – what are they?

5 Top New Year's Resolutions

Unsurprisingly consumer Magazine Which? has found that the top five new year's resolutions are:

1. Do more exercise

2. Lose weight

3. Eat more healthily

4. Take up or restart a hobby/activity

5. Learn a new skill

New year is, of course, a good time to start thinking about how to be healthier and happier, but it's a continuous process - not something that has a definite goal to achieve. Even weight loss is more about what happens after you achieve your goal, and not just about the goal itself.

My book "500 Plus Health And Happiness Tips" can help you along the way.

But remember to be realistic about what you can achieve. Setting yourself too ambitious targets is a recipe for disaster. But also you need to have confidence in yourself and what you can achieve. Don't get discouraged if you make mistakes or aren't always at your best, as long as the general trend is in the direction you want to go, you'll eventually achieve that new year's resolution in full.

Why Sit Ups Arent The Best Thing For Your Core

Sit-ups once ruled as the way to tighter abs and a slimmer waistline, while “planks” were merely flooring. Now planks — exercises in which you assume a position and hold it — are the gold standard for working your core, while classic sit-ups and crunches have fallen out of favor. Why the shift?

One reason is that sit-ups are hard on your back — by pushing your curved spine against the floor and by working your hip flexors, the muscles that run from the thighs to the lumbar vertebrae in the lower back. When hip flexors are too strong or too tight, they tug on the lower spine which can be a source of lower back discomfort.

Second, planks recruit a better balance of muscles on the front, sides, and back of the body during exercise than sit-ups, which target just a few muscles. Remember, your core goes far beyond your abdominal muscles.

Finally, activities of daily living, as well as sports and recreational activities, call on your muscles to work together, not in isolation. Sit-ups or crunches strengthen just a few muscle groups. Through dynamic patterns of movement, a good core workout helps strengthen the entire set of core muscles — the muscles you rely on for daily activities as well as sports and recreational activities.

For more on the benefits of strengthening your core, purchase Core Exercises from Harvard Medical School.

Trim Excess Weight And Prevent Diabetes

The program developed by PCRM will help you lose weight and get fit and healthy. Based on research by Neal Barnard, M.D., one of America’s leading health advocates, this program is designed for anyone who wants to explore and experience the health benefits of a vegan diet. Low-fat vegan—plant-based—diets are the easiest way to trim excess weight, prevent diabetes, cut cholesterol, lower blood pressure, prevent and reverse heart disease, and reduce cancer risk. They even trim our carbon footprint.There's a new run of this program now starting, so find out more here>>

Hunger And A Good Meal

A good meal ought to begin with hunger.” (French Proverb) How many times do we eat because it's that time of day or because we're bored or anxious or angry, or because the food is just there?

Get more weight loss tips from my 200 Plus Weight Loss Tips

Play Is Good For You

People talk about old age as a second childhood, and they often mean this in a critical way. But that idea may be something we should cultivate, if we consider the mounting research which shows the importance of play and stimulation for the health of seniors.

A study by a team from Rovaniemi Polytechnic in Finland followed 40 people aged between 65 and 81 over a three-month period while they regularly used swings, see-saws and climbing frames at the Santa Claus Sports Institute in Lapland. By the end of that time there were significant improvements in their balance, speed and co-ordination. Many of the participants also reported that they felt better mentally, and that they were empowered by their success in mastering the apparatus.

Small babies and children naturally seek out stimulation as a part of learning and exploring the world. People in their teens and twenties sometimes become dangerous thrill seekers. As we get older we tend to restrict the amount of input, choose what’s safe, seek out what we know, minimise stimulation. Those who look after the elderly will often seek (with the best of intentions) to cocoon their charges, giving them a regularised day with few surprises.

But research is now showing that we should be challenging people well into their twilight years, encouraging them to stay active, to have fun – to play again like children for whom every day is a great adventure.

Festivities And Your Weight

Center entertainment around non-food events such as ice skating, renting a holiday movie, or singing carols.
Offer to bring a favorite low-calorie dish to holiday parties, so you know there will be at least one "safe" item available. Arrive fashionably late and stand far away from buffets so you're not tempted to nibble constantly. Instead, indulge in conversation. From Duke University Medical Center