As an active kid, you climbed trees, played in the sand, and ran around like there was no tomorrow, all the while sweating up a storm and becoming gritty and grimy in the process. To scrub away all that day’s grit and grime, your folks made you take a bath at night before you were ever allowed to touch the covers of your bed. Your parents of course knew the value of a nice hot bath, even if you always fought against them.

As adults now, your parent lessons having sunk in, you always make sure that before hitting the sack at night you scrub your body clean. But there’s one thing that many parents neglected to tell you to clean that is equally if not more so important than taking soap and water to your body, and that is cleaning the inside of your body.

Keeping your innards clean may sound strange, but its benefit are amazing. It promotes a longer and healthier life, more energy and vitality, clearer and fresher looking skin, and much, much more.

So how do you go about cleaning the insides of your body? Well if you haven’t cleaned it out in a couple of years, you should try a cleansing. By performing one, you clean out all those impurities that have been accumulating throughout your entire body. This cleansing is extremely useful to all organs of your body and especially your liver.

Why the liver? Your liver can be viewed as your own personal waste disposal plant. One of its prime responsibilities is collecting and removing from your body toxic substances. Because of the chemicals found in many of the foods your eat and beverages you drink, the efficiency at which it does its job may decrease, so flushing it out helps to restore it back to prime working condition.

On a personal note, I had my first cleansing about a year ago. After which, an acne problem that I’ve suffered through my entire life cleared up and has been gone ever since. Before then I had been taking medication prescribe by my doctor and trying a host of other home remedies.

It’s good to perform a cleansing at least once or twice a year. To give your body a good scrubbing everyday, all you need to do is watch what you eat. Whole foods that are full of fiber are nature’s natural body scrubber, as fiber helps you to easily eliminate waste from your body.

Foods such as whole grain breads, leafy vegetables, and beans are great sources of fiber and of course you have your fruits such as apples, which I believe really do keep the doctor away.

So the next time you take a shower to scrub away all of life’s grit and grime, let that be a reminder to give your innards a good scrubbin’ too. Trust me. Your body will thank your for it.

Because of the high value most societies place on physical beauty, many are willing to do just about anything to get their body there, including fad dieting. Fad diets are sometimes quirky, but effective. Their promise of quick weight loss is just too tempting for many of you to pass up. Even though they may deliver on their promise, their is a price to pay.

Because many of them have you drastically cut your calories to levels as low as 800, as is the case of the Cabbage Diet, they reek havoc on your metabolism or your metabolic rate. Your basal metabolic rate is a measure of how many calories you would need if you were at rest all day. Whenever your intake of calories is severely low as is the case in most fad diets, your body goes into starvation mode. This is a state where you body slows down in order to conserve energy.

If you can put up with the diet long enough to reach your weight loss goal, you first of course revel in your accomplishment. However, because it’s not realistic to expect to continue to eat such a low amount of calories the rest of your life, you eventually start eating more. Because your metabolism has slowed down, that excess food is stored on your body as fat. When your metabolism catches up with your new eating habits, you’ve found that you have regained all of your weight back and in many cases, more. Undeterred, you say to yourself, “I did it before, I can do it again.” Hopefully the word “yo-yo” is popping into your head, because as long as you participate in this type of fad dieting, you’re going to go back and forth with your results.

So What should you look for in a diet that avoids these pitfalls? There are, at a minimum, just two. First, ask yourself does the diet require you to consume low calories as described above, If they do, run. They are not a long-term solution and are unhealthy to boot. You don’t need to victimize your body to get the look you want.

Second, ask yourself if this diet is something that you could see yourself doing the rest of your life? The reason that you became overweight in the first place was because of a lifetime of poor eating habits. Fad diets do not address this. They just help you lose weight quickly without seriously taking into consideration how to maintain it. A good weight loss program not only helps you to lose weight, but it also helps you to lead a healthier lifestyle. As such, it encourages a lifestyle change, not a quick fix of quickly losing a few pounds.

In closing, because of the sometimes dramatic results, using fad diets for weight loss is tempting. However, if you want to not only lose the weight, but keep it off, go for what’s best for your body long term. Is it slower? Yes. But sometimes it’s worth being the tortoise if it means beating the hare.

Atkins Diet This diet allows you to eat meats high in saturated fat and requires you to cut back on foods full of essential nutrients that are naturally found in fruits, grains and vegetables. To compensate, the diet recommends vitamin and mineral supplementation.

Blood Type Diet Depending on your blood type, you could become deficient in protein or carbohydrates. For example, if you are Type AB, you would essentially become a vegetarian, denying you the nutritional benefits of lean meat such as fish and poultry.

Cabbage Soup Diet This diet is extremely low calorie - less than a 1000 calories - and is deficient in proteins and fats with little micronutrients to show for it. Critics site that much of the weight loss is from water, and therefore is not permanent.

Grapefruit Diet Another calorie restrictive diet, which is primarily how you lose the weight. Versions of the diet sometime let you eat anything you want, while others only require you to eliminate certain foods such as starchy carbohydrates. Researchers have theorized that grapefruit may assist people to lose weight by keeping insulin levels low.

Liquid Diets Liquid diets may incorporate partial or complete meal replacement. As such they may have low intakes of fiber, proteins, fats and other nutrients. They are sometimes used to treat extreme obesity, but they do little in promoting proper nutrition. The most appropriate use of liquid diets are prescribed for those who are going into surgery.

In the study using Amish participants, researchers discovered that those with the gene were no more likely to be overweight than those without the gene as long as they exercised 3 to 4 hours every day. This doesn’t mean you have to stay in the gym for that length of time though. In fact the exercises include moderate activities such as housecleaning, gardening and taking a brisk walk.

What makes this more appealing is that British scientists reported last year that more than half of all people of European descent have one or two copies of a variation of this high BMI gene. In the report, those who had two copies of the genes were on average 7 pounds heavier and were 67 percent more likely to be obese than those who didn’t have it.

So if you need further convincing of the importance of exercising to lose weight, this is it. In addition to this fascinating news, those who thought that they could not lose weight because of genetics should now feel encouraged, for as the report suggests, “bad” genetics can be overcome. In addition to proper eating habits, it will take several hours of moderate exercising for you to be successful. And as stated before, this can include structured activities such as walking and even riding a bike, or household activities such as cleaning your house or raking leaves. The important point to remember is that you need to get your blood pumping and your body moving.

The following is a list of exercises, found in 2008 Encyclopedia Britannica Almanac, that you can do that will burn 150 calories. Some activities take as little as 15 minutes, others take as much as 60. Hopefully, by knowing what you’re going to get from your time spent exercising, you’ll be more motivated to get moving and burn some calories.

Climbing stairs for 15 minutes
Shoveling snow for 15 minutes
Running 1.5 miles (10 minutes/mile) for 15 minutes
Jumping rope for 15 minutes
Bicycling 4 miles for 15 minutes
Playing basketball for 15–20 minutes
Playing wheelchair basketball for 20 minutes
Swimming laps for 20 minutes
Performing water aerobics for 30 minutes
Walking 2 miles (15 minutes/mile) for 30 minutes
Raking leaves for 30 minutes
Pushing a stroller 1.5 miles for 30 minutes
Dancing fast for 30 minutes
Bicycling 5 miles for 30 minutes
Shooting baskets for 30 minutes
Walking 1.75 miles (20 minutes/mile) for 35 minutes
Wheeling oneself in a wheelchair for 30–40 minutes
Gardening (standing) for 30–45 minutes
Playing touch football for 30–45 minutes
Playing volleyball for 45 minutes
Washing windows or floors for 45–60 minutes
Washing and waxing a car or boat for 45–60 minutes

If you are in pretty good shape, you can increase the intensity of the exercise to burn more calories in a shorter period of time or you can exercise for a longer duration to burn even more calories. Good luck and have fun.

When you see a protruding midsection staring back at you in a mirror, you remind yourself again of your need to lose some weight, especially around your belly. In fact, if you could just lose around the belly, that would make you happy. Unfortunately belly fat can be the most difficult to lose if you don’t understand how you got it in the first place. Here’s some facts and advice to start you along the way.

Belly fat, also known as central obesity, has been shown to be the most dangerous type of fat. It is associated with a higher risk of heart disease, hypertension, and insulin resistance. In fact, it is insulin resistance that is believe by many health professionals to be the primary cause of belly fat accumulation.

What exactly is insulin resistance? Insulin resistance is the condition that occurs when your body insulin receptors become resistant to the effects of insulin. Insulin is the substance that carries glucose throughout your body. If some of your cells become insulin resistant, excess glucose occurs. Your body senses this and starts to produce excess glucose. In the worse case scenario, you can develop type 2 diabetes.

According to Anthony Haynes in his book Insulin Factor, 80 percent of the population has some degree of insulin resistance, 22 to 25 percent having full blown insulin resistance.

The increase in insulin leads to more storage of fat, much of which is stored on your belly. So if you want to get your belly fat down, you need to manage your insulin levels.

Exercise is a great start, as it provides a means to burn some of the excess fat. However, to efficiently gain control over it, you need to eat healthy. In a nutshell, this means cutting out refined sugars and over-processed foods. These types of food are primarily made of simple carbohydrates. When you digest a large amount, this causes your insulin level to spike. In contrast, by eating complex carbohydrates, you get a gradual rise of insulin.

So, if you want to lose that belly fat, you need to work on controlling your insulin levels. By starting to eat healthy and getting off your rear-end, you’ll be making the first steps necessary towards dropping pants sizes.

You have probably heard by now of green teas amazing benefits for weight loss. Who would have thought that such a refreshing beverage could be so beneficial. Because of it’s benefits, tea lovers around the world have a legitimate reason to enjoy a fresh cup of tea.

But, how exactly does green tea benefit weight loss? Well, the three main benefits are that it increases your metabolism, decreases your appetite, and that it helps stabilize your blood sugar.

Green tea is able to increase your metabolism because it contains an ingredient called epigallocatechin-3-gallate, EGCG. EGCG kick-starts an astonishing fat-burning effect known as thermogenesis. Thermogenesis is just the process of producing heat and when heat is produced energy must be consumed, i.e. calories. EGCG also has the added benefit of being an antioxidant. Since antioxidants have been shown to target free radicals that destroy body cells, which is a cause of premature aging, you get your own little fountain of youth.

EGCG also has been shown to reduce insulin. Insulin is secreted from your pancreas and regulates the storage of glucose from the carbohydrates you digest. High insulin levels tells the body to start storing glucose as fat to your fat cells. EGCG found in green tea lowers the levels of insulin in your body which in turns allows your body to better utilize its energy sources.

Another important ingredient in green tea is L-theanine, an amino acid. Neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin sends signals to your brain effecting your appetite, causing you to eat more. L-theanine has been shown to the reduce the levels of these neurotransmitters, therefore decreasing your appetite and allowing you to lose weight.

So instead of grabbing a bottle of coke, try green tea and lose some weight at the same time.

Well, the truth is that the methods that will allow you lose the weight at its most rapid rate is not healthy for you. If you want that, then there are tons of sites out there that promote diets that will do that for you. The only problem is that you will end up having to practically starve yourself. You will lose weight fast, but the toll it will put on your body will make you wonder was it worth it.

So, instead of those types of tips, I’m going to give tips that, even though they may not have you losing 5 pounds a day, they will allow you to lose weight as rapidly as possible in a healthy manner. In the long run, your body will thank you for it.

Tip 1. Eat six small meals a day. The idea behind this practice is to speed up your metabolism. A faster metabolism translates into you losing weight more rapidly.

Tip 2. Stop drinking sodas. Known as liquid candy by some, sodas have been linked as a major cause for obesity. Because of the high sugar content, they quickly raise your blood glucose. This, of course, signals your body to start storing fat and you don’t want that.

Tip 3. Exercise in your fat burning zone. By elevating your heart to a certain level, you burn more fat than muscle. A light jog or fast pace walking can get you there. Go for 30 minutes to an hour for the best results.

Tip 4. Exercise in the mourning and the afternoon. To burn weight as rapidly as possible, dieting alone will not do it. It takes exercise as well. Since you want to burn those love handles off as fast as possible, try exercising twice a day. The more energy you expend, the faster that excess weight will vanish.

Tip 5. Make use of every opportunity to burn calories. For instance, take the stairs instead of the elevator. When you go to the store, park far away. When you’re watching tv, instead of just sitting there, walk in place. Do anything that will burn those extra calories.

Like I said before, these weight loss tips won’t have you losing pounds every day, but they will have you losing it quickly and safely as possible.

The promise of fast weight loss catches our attention every time. It’s not surprising though, as we all want a quick fix to our problems. In a world of instant dinners, instant coffee, delivery pizza, and fast food, why not be able to lose weight just as fast.

Hope as we might, we know that it takes time to lose weight, unless, of course, you’re willing to let a doctor suck it out. For the vast majority, that’s not an option or something we are inclined to try. What you need to do is remind yourself that you didn’t put on all those pounds overnight. Depending on how overweight you are, getting there may have taken you weeks, months or even years.

Instead of looking for a fast and easy way to lose weight, you need to look at how you got there in the first place. The easy answer is, of course, overeating, but it’s more complicated than that. According to researchers studying obesity, eating not only has to do with providing nourishment to your body, but also satisfying a psychological need.

For the most part, when you eat, you eat for pleasure. However, researchers used dopamine inhibitors, the hormones secreted when we feel pleasure, to block the pleasure participants felt while eating a meal. Surprisingly, after the dopamine inhibitors were administered, they continued to consume just as much food as before the inhibitors were administered. This suggest that there’s more to eating than just pleasure.

What the researchers concluded was that eating is also behavioral based. What can we garner from this? Well, regardless of whether pleasure is felt or not, we have become so accustomed to eating a certain way that it’s not just the pleasure of the food we’re missing, but the behavior that goes alone with it. What does this suggest?

Well for one thing, instead of just looking for a fast and easy weight loss method, you also need to become more aware of the need to change your behavior. If you’ve been on an unsuccessful diet before, the reason that you started back eating the stuff that got you fat in the first place may not be that you miss the taste of the food, but you miss the very act of eating it.

Think about it. Everything you do on a regular basis, you go about it practically in an unconscious manner. When you brush your teeth, you don’t have to think about how to get the cap off the toothpaste or which side of the brush to use. Because you’ve done it for such a long time, you could do it in your sleep. But if you would change from toothpaste to toothpowder, or from a toothbrush to a cloth, things would seem out of whack.

The same can be said of the foods you eat. Having a burger and fries have become second nature to you. Your mind expects it and views this as normal. However, order salad and soup and unconsciously your mind is saying: “Whoa! What’s going on here?” “Where are my burger and fries?” You may go ahead and eat the salad and soup and you may even feel nourished and full, but in the back of your mind you’re still thinking about that burger and those fries you didn’t get.

That lingering thought finally gets to you and you not only indulge yourself, you go on a binge.

So what is the solution to this? It has long been known that to get accustomed to a new behavior, therapist, coaches and anyone involved in personal development recommends role playing. For instance, you may have used role playing to perform a mock interview for your job; you may have used it by imagining yourself meeting and greeting people at a dinner party; or you may have used role playing before you had to give a speech. Examples of role playing are endless.

So, how can this help curve the foods you crave? The answer is it can’t. What it can do, however, is to help you establish a new way of thinking about your food. For instance, instead of eating burgers and fries, suppose you wanted to make eating salad and soup a part of your daily routine. Before you even attempt to order and eat the food for real, practice doing everying using role playing.

For instance, stand up and imagine yourself walking towards the restaurant counter and ordering soup and salad. For this to work you need to make it as real as possible. So, you need to get up out of your seat and imagine that you’re actually doing it. Yes, going over it in your imagination is helpful, but going through the physical process adds a dimension that imagination alone just can not do.

Next, act like you received your order and act as though you’re taking it to whereever you normally eat. Now sit down and go through the motions of actually eating. Yes, that means imagining a fork in your hand and raising it to your mouth. Do this for the entire meal. Once you’ve finished, repeat it at least 5 times. You may need to do it more. Remember to just have the attitude that whatever it takes, you’ll do it.

What this process does is create new memories in your mind of what is “normal.” If you do this enough, the new behavior will become second nature to you. In fact it’s kind of like preparing for a speech. If someone told you just five minutes beforehand, that you were going to have to give a thirty minute talk, you would probably freak. But if you were given a week’s notice, you would have time to prepare.

This is exactly what you need to do with weight loss. Once you get a diet plan, you normally would just jump into following it. Instead, if you gave yourself time to prepare before you actually start following it, you would have a better idea of what to expect. By applying this method, your weight loss process would be easier and as a bonus, you would probably lose weight faster as well. Now that would truly be a fast and easy weight loss program.

Hearye. Hearye. Prepare yourself for the most earth-shattering weight loss diet advice. Well maybe not earth-shattering, but at the very least dazzling. Well maybe not exactly dazzling, but we can call them astonishing. On second thought maybe we should just go with fantastic. You know what, they may not be earth-shattering, dazzling, astonishing or even fantastic, but they will get the job done, so here they are.

Drink cold water. This may seem like a minor thing, but it adds up like doubling a penny for thirty days. Since your body has to warm up the water to make it useful, calories have to be burned, and every calorie burned brings you closer to your goal. For convenience, carry your container in an insulated pouch. If you have a container with a narrow spout, you can also pick up an ice-tray specially designed to freeze water in long strips as oppose to cubes.

Add more fiber to your diet. Fiber is a dieter’s best friend. Why? When you consume fiber, no calories are added to your meal. This is because fiber is an indigestible carbohydrate. By increasing fiber in your diet, you will get that full feeling without the cost of added calories.

Eat smaller portions. Believe it or not, a portion size is not a Big Gulp soda. For drinks, it’s eight ounces; for meat it’s three ounces; for fruits and vegetable, it varies from about a half to a full cup. When you cut down on portion sizes, you automatically eliminate unnecessary calories.

Never shop hungry. Shopping when you’re hungry opens you up to those impulse buys. Things you typically could pass by, now become irresistible. That being said, you should never go grocery shopping when you’re hungry. At the very least, you should have a nice healthy snack before you go. Also, to further avoid any urge that may arise, avoid aisles with foods that will knock your diet out of sync.

Make your house into a healthy zone. Having easy access to junk food is an easy way to put a dent in your diet. To resist these temptations, empty your house of all brownies, chips, sodas, cookies and that candy bar hidden in the back of your cupboard. If you get a craving for something sweet, eat some grapes or keep some unsweetened apple sauce handy.

Refrain from heavy eating before you go to bed. When you eat a heavy meal before you hit the sack, the food doesn’t have time to fully digest. Remember, when you eat during the day, you are still walking and doing other activities. This doesn’t happen at night. Try to eat at least 2 to 3 hours before you hit the sack. Plus, go for a walk if you have the time. Just don’t try doing anything to strenuous. Some people have trouble going to sleep after a hard workout.

As I said before this weight loss diet advice may not be “earth-shattering”, but if you incorporate them as part of your diet, they’re sure to turn out useful.