Weight Loss—When You Need It and When You Do Not

Weight loss is a tricky subject in America, where so many young girls (and boys) are turning to anorexia, bulimia, and other eat disorders. While weight loss can be a very good and necessary thing, it can also turn into something horrible that affects millions across the nation and can even cause death. Knowing when you need to lose weight and when you do not is important in the fight against both your personal poor health and the terrible disease that are sweeping across the United States.

You can know that losing weight is often a very personal option. However, if you are more than 20 pounds overweight, losing the pounds is important for your health. Look at the recommended weight for someone of your size as a start. However, because everyone’s bodies are different, because of fat and muscle ratio to body weight, you should really see your doctor if you feel like you need to lose weight. A doctor can confirm this or put your mind to rest by telling you that your weight is normal. This is the best way to make sure that you are being healthy.

There are also times, however, when you definitely do not need to lose weight. First, if you aren’t as thin as your favorite actor or model, that doesn’t mean you need to lose weight. Often, models and actresses are airbrushed in photos to look more toned and they have personal trainers that work with them for hours every day in order to help them stay in shape. If your body weight is normal, you do not need to lose weight, even if you are a pants size bigger than your ideal celebrity.

Your also don’t need to lose weight just because you gain it. People gain weight for a number of reasons, and this is especially common during puberty and for the few years after. If you gain weight check out the rest of your body—are you going through a growth spurt in height as well? Also, don’t worry about gaining weight when you are lifting at the gym. As you tone your muscles, you will look better, but because muscles are heavier than fat, you may actually gain weight.

Lastly, you don’t need to lose weight simply because someone else makes a rude comment about your looks. People are cruel, but everyone has a different body make up. If you are happy with your weight and it is within the normal range for someone of your age and height, than chances are that the rude comment is stemming from other issues, not because you actually do need to lose weight. Be happy with yourself and eat a healthy diet and you shouldn’t need to worry about losing weight.

Why is Weight Loss Important?

If you are happy with your weight, you belong to the minority of people in the world, but should be applauded for your positive outlook on your life and your body. However, weight loss still may be needed. Many people who are overweight say that they are happy with their bodies, but the fact remains that weight loss in order to achieve a healthy weight is very important. There are a number of reasons you should consider weight loss, even if you don’t mind having a few extra pounds.

First a foremost, if you are overweight, you are at risk for a number of diseases. The main health risk you will probably experience is heart disease, which can lead to a heart attack. Many heart attacks are deadly. Heart disease develops when you heart has to work extra hard to pump the blood to the body, which causes it to become fatigued. This can occur simply because you are overweight, or can be a result of high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Along with heart disease, having high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels can also put you at risk for a stroke. Strokes occur when blood, and therefore oxygen, cannot reach the brain. This can happen due to high cholesterol. When you have high cholesterol, the fatty deposits build up on your artery walls. If a piece of this plaque breaks off and travels to the heart, it causes a heart attack, and traveling to the brain causes a stroke.

Being overweight is also bad for women who wish to become pregnant. When you’re overweight, the hormones in your body are changing, and if you don’t get the right nutrients you may find that your body does not produce the right chemicals for the hormones needed to ovulate or carry a child. Even if you become pregnant, being overweight puts you at risk for a miscarriage or health problems with the baby.

Beyond the health world, being overweight can also affect your daily life. You may find it difficult to purchase clothing in your size or you may find that the clothing that does come in larger sizes is more expensive. This is simply due to the manufacturer need more material to make the same article of clothing. Problems extend beyond shopping when doing things like visiting theme parks, where you may not be able to ride all of the rides, or using public transportation, where you may feel crowded in seats made for smaller people. Losing weight, even if you are currently happy with your own weight, is always a healthy and smart option, until you reach a normal weight.

Hot Stuff: Warming Up

When you have to fit an exercise routine into your already busy schedule, you might be tempted to simply skip the warm up routine, even though you’ve heard horror stories about people getting injured while working out. Three words: don’t do that. When you skip your warm up, you are not only putting your body as risk for personal injury, but you are also making the workout more difficult and less effective. For the best results, it is important to warm up every time you work out.

Warming up doesn’t have to eat up the time you allotted for exercise into your day. In fact, a decent workout only has to be 5 minutes long to do its job. It doesn’t have to be boring either—you can mix up a number of great moves to make your warm up as fun as the rest of your exercising. Remember that a good warm up gets all of your muscles moving, even if you don’t think that you’ll be intensely working out a set of muscles on any particular day. Warming up is also important regardless of if you’re doing cardiovascular exercises or lifting weights.

The moves you do for a warm up shouldn’t necessarily be difficult or make you break a sweat. The main goal of the warm up isn’t to become a part of your workout, but simply to slowly move muscles that you haven’t really thought about all day to wake them up. Good moves, therefore, include things like jogging in place, doing jumping jacks, lunging, and jumping rope.

A good warm-up can also including slowly stretching your muscles in a variety of ways, although this is usually more effective for a cool-down. Also consider exercises that work on balance and form in order to prepare you for the exercises you will be doing in the workout.

If you’re really short on time, why not try warming up before you even get to the gym. Slowly jog or power walk to the gym, park as far away as possible and lunge to the door, and take the stairs instead of the elevator. That way, when you get to the gym to workout your warm up routine is already half way done.

A good workout always builds in intensity. This is the best way to shed pounds and maintain a healthy weight. Weight loss workouts are only risky if you don’t warm up, because otherwise your body will respond to prevent injuries. Although you may be tempted to skip this step, that is never a good idea.

Joining the Perfect Gym

If you want to lose weight, you need plenty of diet to make sure that you’re burning fat and building muscle. One of the best ways to do this is to join a gym. Gyms come in all shapes and sizes, and there may be a number of gyms in your area. Joining a gym can be expensive, so it is important that you careful consider all of the gyms near to your home in order to pick the very best one possible to meet you weight loss and exercise needs on a daily basis.

The first things you should consider when you are looking at gyms are the trainers. If you’ll be taking a class or working with a personal trainer, you’ll want to be sure that you’re working with someone who is experienced and will teach you the best habits possible. Unfortunately, there are no set qualifications for trainers in the United States, so you should check out gyms that do require training programs of their trainers.

You should also look at the equipment available for your use and the hours the gym is open. A gym that only has one treadmill may not be the best choice, since you may find yourself standing in line for equipment during peak hours. You also may find that your exercise schedule is disrupted if the gym is open odd or short hours. It is very important to find a place that will allow you to have a great workout at a time of day that is convenient for you.

Cleanliness should also be of concern. All gyms should provide a tour of their facilities at the very least, or a free trial to check out the gym’s space on your own. If a gym is dirty, you could be susceptible to illnesses as they spread among members at the gym. They should provide a cleaning crew to make sure that the locker rooms are clean, as well as provide antibacterial products to wipe down the machines after workouts. Organization is important too—you don’t want to be tripping over weights that are ling on the floor or feel cramped in a sweating high-volume area.

Lastly, you should check out prices. Some gym memberships are by the year while others charge your credit card or send you an invoice every month. Do what works for you. You may end up spending hundreds or thousands of collars on your gym membership, so it is important to find the gym that best suits your needs. Look at the ones closest to your home, but also consider those a bit farther away if they seem better to join.

All About the Atkins Diet

Over the past few decades, the Atkins diet has really hit the diet world with full force. This health phenomenon is based on The Atkins Diet, a book by Dr. Robert C. Atkins. His concept for weight loss is that we need to be concerned with the carbohydrates we eat, not the fat. Many people have found great success using the Atkins diet. However, it is not for everyone. Before you start the Atkins diet, or any kind of diet, talk to your doctor to make sure it is a good idea for you.

When you’re on the Atkins diet, there will be little calorie counting, but say good-bye to junk foods and processed foods. You will also be eating few carbohydrates and many foods high in protein. The theory behind the low-carb diet found with the Atkins diet is that by reducing your intake of these foods, you will enter a phase in your body called ketosis. During ketosis, your body will burn fat in the body for fuel instead of using the foods in your diet, which will in turn stop insulin production, which will in turn prevent more fat from being stored.

There are four main stages to the Atkins diet: induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance, and maintenance. During the first two weeks, you are in the induction stage. During this time, many people report losing 15 pounds or more, simply because carbohydrate intake is cut down to 20 grams every day. The only carbs you can have are low-carb vegetables, and even then they are very limited. The second stage, known as ongoing weight loss, will let you have 25 grams every day. You will then move on to pre-maintenance, in which you can try out other foods to see what carbohydrates you can add into your diet. After you’ve reached your weight loss goals, you may eat all good carbs, but the premise behind the diet plan is that you won’t want to eat these foods. Choosing healthy carbs will become a way of life.

As with any diet, you’ll have to exercise in order to lose weight. Healthy lifestyle changes, such as quitting smoking, are also important. Many people have called into question the safety of the Atkins diet due to its severe methods, and some say that the plan only makes you bounce back to your original weight as so as you hit the maintenance level. The key is to find something that works for you and your weight loss goals and that is healthy for your body.

Panic Attacks: How to Prepare

If you suffer from an anxiety disorder, panic attacks may be a part of your life. Even with proper medication, many patients suffer from panic attacks. Although predicting when a panic attack will happen may be a bit tricky, you can take steps to prepare for these panic attacks in order to take back control of your life.

The first step to taking back that control is to learn to breathe. When a person has a panic attack, often they feel so overwhelmed that they forget to simply breathe properly. Many doctors, therefore, advocating safe breathing practices in order to help calm anyone having a panic attack. In fact, if you’ve ever had a panic attack in public, someone may have tried to get you to breath into a paper bag. This may or may be a good method for you, but the fact is that you should know and practice your breathing exercise before you are panicking. Have a plan—learn calming breathing techniques and practice at least twice a day.

Other relaxing practices may also be able to help your panic attack. Of course, you might find it difficult to even consider meditation when you’re having a panic attack, but by learning this relaxing procedure, you can use some of the same calming techniques that help you to meditate to help you calm down.

Another great way to prepare for a panic attack is to simply know your triggers. Do you have a specific phobia? Is excess stress your downfall? Do certain situations seem impossible for you? When you know what triggers panic reactions, you can do your best to avoid or minimize these situations.

You should also be medically prepared for a panic attack. When you go outside of the home, take with you a list of emergency contacts, which should include your doctor’s number, your local crisis hotline, and members of your personal support systems. You can use these phone numbers yourself if you feel a panic attack starting, or another person will easily find this information in your purse or wallet if you are not capable of helping yourself.

Also take with you a bag to help you feel comfortable and calm down during a panic attack. A crucial part of the bag is any medications you may be taking, along with instructions on taking it. You can also include any items from home that will help you feel more comfortable. This can include herbal tea, a stuffed animal, religious items, photos, rubber bands to snap on your wrist, mints, hand cream, money, a puzzle book, and anything else that may help you relax, stimulated your brain, or distract yourself. Remember, comfort is key.

Understanding OCD

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is one of the more widely known types of anxiety disorders, but in actuality, few people understand how it works. People with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, aren’t crazy. They simply have persistent behaviors that upset their daily lives. OCD ranges from very mild to severe, and some have even suggested that everyone has OCD, but it is simply a matter of controlling your thoughts and actions so that you can live a normal life.

OCD, as its name implies, has two main components—the obsession and the compulsion. The obsession is usually a fear or desire, such as the fear to contamination or the desire to be perfect. The compulsion is the repetitive behavior that is a result of the obsession. For example, someone with the fear that a loved one will die may feel a compulsion to always count everything to a certain number. They irresistibly feel as though their loved one will somehow die if they do not count to this number. Obsessions and compulsions can sometimes be relieved with rituals, which may help to temporarily relieve the stress.

Although many people will joke that they “have OCD” when they are nit-picky about cleaning or do something odd, sever OCD is truly no laughing matter. A person who suffers severely from this conditions will probably not be able to work, go to school, live alone, drive, or even go out in public.

OCD is chronic, although many people try to hide their symptoms from others and stop the compulsions at the very least. Most people with OCD understand that they are being irrational, but they just can’t help it. What causes OCD to develop in the first place? While many originally thought it was due to childhood environmental conditions, it is now reported that a specific neurological problem may be the cause. More than one factor is probably at work here and although there are treatments, there are no known cures to OCD.

Getting help, however, is very important. With medication, behavioral therapy, and counseling, patients with OCD can truly start to lead somewhat normal lives one again. Talking to your doctor about your OCD concerns is the first step to controlling your life and health. At the very least, talk to a friend. He or she may be able to help you take the right steps toward treating your OCD. This disorder can be devestating, but with a little hard work, one can overcome OCD.

Anxiety Disorders: What are They and do I have One?

There are a number of stressful medical conditions affecting Americans, but one of the broadest topics is anxiety disorders. Millions suffer from anxiety disorders to some degree or another, and the specific disorders vary greatly from person to person. Anxiety orders grow progressively worse without treatment, so if you think you may be suffering from one of these illnesses, see your doctor immediately.

One of the most common kinds of anxiety disorders is panic disorder. This disorder is one in which the person have unexpected panic attacks repeatedly. These have a range of intensities and can be controlled with medical care and behavioral control. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is also very common. With this anxiety disorder, the sufferer had uncontrollable and unwanted urges to perform a certain task, such as brushing their hair a certain number of times.

There are also types of anxiety disorders that do not have to do with genetic conditions. The most readily available examples of this are from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) victims. These anxiety disorder patients have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of an event that was extremely stressful, such as a car wreck or a military battle.

Phobia also fall under the category of anxiety disorders. People can fear a number of things, including small spaces (claustrophobia), spiders (arachnophobia), or any number of other things. Phobias are usually irrational and very intense and proximately to the feared item or being placed in the feared situation will usually cause a panic attack.

Many people suffering from an anxiety disorder are simply diagnosed with GAD, or Generalize Anxiety Disorder. GAD is a condition in which the person is experiencing anxiety and worry in levels higher than typical, but they are not having panic attacks or experiencing other medical conditions.

Anxiety disorders can affect all people, regardless of age, economic status, race, religion, or gender. The good news is that the medical treatment for these disorders is getting more and more influential every day. The key is to catch the anxiety disorder problem before it begins to ruin your life. A doctor can than help you treat your condition in order to help you regain or maintain in control of your life. It is absolutely crucial to see a doctor. Each anxiety disorder is different, and each specific disorder is different within each person experiencing it. If you truly want to do what is best for your body, see a doctor about anxiety disorders at the slightest inclination that something is wrong.

More than a Worrywart

Everybody worries from time to time, but if your worrying extends to interrupt your daily life and cause debilitating anxiety, you may have Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or GAD. While people with GAD may start out by worrying about simple things, this disorder can easily take over a person’s life and cause other medical problems. If you think that you have GAD, you should see your doctor immediately and talk about your various treatment options.

People with GAD worry about normal things like money, healthy, relationships, and jobs. It is normal to worry about these things, even on a daily basis. However, if you have GAD, you will find that this worry is constant and excessive—and in many cases, irrational. People who are diagnosed with GAD are often so distracted and consumed with worry that it is impossible to think about or do anything else. From the moment a patient awakes to the moment he or she falls asleep, worry is a part of life. Often times, the worry has no foundation.

Medical professionals do not yet know what causes GAD, so treatment and diagnosis can sometimes be difficult. There are a number of symptoms stemming from GAD which include nausea, difficulty breathing, muscle tension, headache, restlessness, fatigue, sleeping problems, a change in appetite, and sweating or hot flashes. If you are experiencing some of these symptoms and find yourself worrying often, you should see your doctor for help with what could be GAD.

Treatment for GAD begins with ruling out other anxiety disorders. Therefore, it is crucial for you to be very specific about your symptoms. Treatment that works well can than include both therapy and medication. Every person worries in a different way, so every person needs different treatment as well. You should work together with your doctor to find the best form of medical treatment for your specific GAD situations. Work with your own body’s wants and needs.

No matter why you’ve developed GAD, there is help. Most people suffering from GAD do not know that there can be help. If you are constantly consumed with worry, talk to your doctor immediately to find out how medical treatment can help you. From having enough money to pay for bills to getting that job promotion, you may feel as though there is always something to worry about. In a normal life, you may think about these things once or twice a day, and a doctor can help you achieve this, even if you have GAD.

Anxiety Disorders and Depression

Anxiety disorders is an umbrella category that covers a number of disorders, such as panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social phobia, specific phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, all of these medical conditions can lead to even more health problems and emotional problems, so you may need treatment in a number of areas. One medical condition that may develop is depression. While many people carelessly use the term depression to describe an intense sadness, depression is more than just a day or being upset about something. Depression can truly stop your from living your life. If you are worried that you may be developing depression in addition to other medical conditions surrounding anxiety disorders, see your doctor immediately.

There are a number of symptoms associated with depression that you may experience. Some clues to you that depression may e a problem include loss of appetite, increase in appetites, having no sexual energy, muscle aches and pains, inability to concentrate, feeling afraid or confused, being easily angered, not caring about things you used to love, not being about to pinpoint why you feel sad, hating yourself, and thinking about death often. If you are experiencing three or more of these symptoms on a daily basis, you should see your doctor and talk to him or her about depression right away.

Depression can also lead to thoughts of suicide in the worst-case scenario. If you have thought about killing yourself, even one, you should get help right away. Tell someone you love or call 9-1-1 or a local hotline for support. If you cannot do these things, drive to the local emergency room of a hospital near you, go to your doctor or therapist’s office, or, at the very least, go to a public place. Give yourself some time to think about things before making any decisions.

Remember, depression is a real medical illness. Over 20 million Americas suffer from depression at some point another, and it can affect any age, gender, race, religion, or ethnicity. You can find great treatments to help you with your depression, from medication that inhibits certain receptors in the brain to therapy to help you talk about the things that are making your depressed.

In the end, it is simply important to realize that you can feel better and there is help. Having depression is nothing to be ashamed about, and modern medicine makes it possible for you to overcome your depression and your anxiety disorders in order to live a healthy life.