Well-being is optimal physical, emotional and spiritual health. This is something of a new concept in medicine but the idea is now gaining ground and is workable thanks to breadth of knowledge we have in each of these area. Well-being is simply a question of balance, rather like a constantly fluctuate.

 

There are three motives for which we live; we live for the body, we live for the mind, we live for the spirit. No one of these is better or holier than the other; all are alike desirable, and no one of the three--body, mind, or spirit--can live fully if either of the others is cut short of full life and expression. It is not right or noble to live only for the spirit and deny mind or body; and it is wrong to live for the intellect and deny body or spirit.

 

We are all acquainted with the loathsome consequences of living for the body and denying both mind and spirit; and we see that real life means the complete expression of all that we can give forth through body, mind, and spirit.

 

Whatever we say, no one can be really happy or satisfied unless his body is living fully in every function, and unless the same is true of his mind and his spirit. Wherever there is unexpressed possibility, or function not performed, there is unsatisfied desire. Desire is possibility seeking expression, or function seeking performance.

 

We often measure wellbeing as happiness or satisfaction with life. The search for happiness is often confused with the pursuit of pleasure, but wellbeing is about more than living ‘the good life’; it is about having meaning in life, about fulfilling our potential and feeling that our lives are worthwhile.

 

Well-being is not only about a healthy body, it also encompasses mental and emotional well-being. Maintaining a good level of well-being can therefore be quite a challenge.

 

To maintain your well-being you will have to be vigilant and prepared to change. Listen to yourself and your body and do not rely on a health regime that is inflexible.

To actively enjoy a way of living that keep body, mind and spirit in good health, it helps to learn more about your body and treat it, as it deserves to be treated.

When you have sorted out your personal well-being, you are likely to be little less inclined to envy the possessions, wealth, or health of others. Once you feel secure, confident, healthy, well adjusted, and focused, you can branch out with ease and assurance.

Always remember to keep aware that your being is made up of there parts, mind, body and spirit.

The old adage "use it or lose it" is truer than ever. People who maintain a vigorously active lifestyle as they age gain less weight than people who exercise at more moderate levels, according to a first-of-its-kind study that tracked a large group of runners who kept the same exercise regimen as they grew older.

The study also found that maintaining exercise with age is particularly effective in preventing extreme weight gain, which is associated with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and other diseases.

The study, conducted by Paul Williams of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), followed 6,119 men and 2,221 women who maintained their weekly running mileage (to within three miles per week) over a seven-year period. On average, the men and women who ran over 30 miles per week gained half the weight of those who ran less than 15 miles per week.

"To my knowledge, this is the only study of its type," says Williams, a staff scientist in Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division. "Other studies have tracked exercise over time, but the majority of people will have changed their exercise habits considerably."

The research is the latest report from the National Runners' Health Study, a 20-year research initiative started by Williams that includes more than 120,000 runners. It appears in the May issue of the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

Specifically, between the time subjects entered the study and when they were re-contacted seven years later, 25-to-34-year-old men gained 1.4 pounds annually if they ran less than 15 miles per week. In addition, male runners gained 0.8 pounds annually if they ran between 15 and 30 miles per week, and 0.6 pounds annually if they ran more than 30 miles per week.

This trend is mirrored in women. Women between the ages of 18 and 25 gained about two pounds annually if they ran less than 15 miles per week, 1.4 pounds annually if they ran 15 to 30 miles per week, and slightly more than three-quarters of a pound annually if they ran more than 30 miles per week. Other benefits to running more miles each week included fewer inches gained around the waist in both men and women, and fewer added inches to the hips in women.

"As these runners aged, the benefits of exercise were not in the changes they saw in their bodies, but how they didn't change like the people around them," says Williams.

Although growing older and gaining weight is something of a package deal, it isn't the same in everyone. The lucky few remain lean as they age, most people pack on several pounds, and some people become obese. The latter group is particularly at risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. Fortunately, Williams' results show that maintaining exercise can combat such extreme weight gain.

"Getting people to commit to a vigorously active lifestyle while young and lean will go a long way to reducing the obesity epidemic in this country," says Williams.

Another paper published in the journal Obesity by Williams and Paul Thompson of Hartford (CT) Hospital found that runners who increased their running mileage gained less weight than those who remained sedentary, and runners that quit running became fatter.

"The time to think about exercise is before you think you need it," says Williams. "The medical journals are full of reports on how difficult it is to regain the slenderness of youth. The trick is not to get fat."

The skin can reflect the general health and well being of the person.

The beauty industry spends a small fortune on the development of products aimed at giving men and women a youthful glowing complexion.

There is no doubt that many products do have a place in the well being of the skin but the easiest and the best way to keep your looks is to take up an exercise regime.

This is now medically proven

Regular workouts are now part of the medical professions’ formula for keeping the skin supple and youthful looking.

The skin is the largest organ of the body and should not be forgotten when exercising.

When you start your workout you should warm up to get the circulation moving around the body and that includes the skin as well as the muscles. Warm ups prevent possible injury from strains.

You will probably have noticed that when you exercise hard your face turns more and more rosy.

This is caused by the heart rate rising and the circulation increasing. This draws the blood to the surface of the body taking nutrients to the skin cells and helping to rid the body of toxins.

Health experts agree that stress levels are reduced significantly by exercise. The adrenal glands start working to produce less testosterone hormones such as DHEA and DHT. And that in turn will have a less adverse impact on the skin.

People who are prone to stress related spots and pimples will find that when they adopt an exercise program, the overall benefits will be a clearer complexion as the pores become unclogged due to the increase in sweat produced.

This will also help to control acne flare-ups, which affect many young people today.

Don’t just take up exercise for the sake of your body.

Take a look in the mirror after a long day walking in the mountains or just a good hike or maybe a long bike ride.

The fresh air and stimulating exercise will make your complexion glow with good health. You will look and feel much better than you did before you started out that morning.

 Facts speak for themselves

 

A study by a group of Belgian investigators assessed the effects of aerobic exercise on various psychological dimensions, including well-being.

The first objective of this study was to compare the changes in physical self-concept, global self-esteem, depression and anxiety after participation in one of two 16-week psychomotor therapy programs for nonpsychotic psychiatric inpatients. The second objective was to study the relationship between changes in these variables.

One hundred and ninety-nine inpatients were randomly assigned to either a personalized psychomotor fitness program, consisting of aerobic exercise and weight training, or a general program of psychomotor therapy, consisting of different forms of physical exercises and relaxation training. Physical self-concept was evaluated using the Dutch version of the Physical Self-Perception Profile at baseline, after 8 weeks, and after completion of the 16-week interventions. At the same time points, additional variables of global self-esteem, depression and anxiety were assessed by means of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory and the Trait Anxiety Inventory, respectively.

After 16 weeks, both groups showed significant improvements in all outcome measures (p values ranged from 0.01 to < 0.0001), with no between-group differences. In both groups, the improvement in physical self-concept was correlated with increased global self-esteem and decreased depression and anxiety levels (p < 0.01). The results suggest that both psychomotor therapy programs are equally effective in enhancing physical self-concept. The relationship between improvements in physical self-concept and enhancements in global self-esteem, depression and anxiety supports the potential role of the physical self-concept in the recovery process of depressed and anxious psychiatric inpatients.

For many people, their views on sport and exercise were formed during school PE lessons and early involvement in youth sports. Often, what they're left with is the impression that only strenuous sport and exercise is beneficial for health.

In fact, there's a well-established and growing body of knowledge that shows mild to moderate physical activity is the best way to health. So instead of asking how much exercise is good for you, perhaps you should be asking how little you can get away with.

Health vs fitness

In order to find out how much exercise is enough, you need to be clear about what you want to achieve. Do you want to be fit or healthy? It's easy to confuse the terms as they're often used interchangeably to mean the same thing. But in fact they are different in both physiological and psychological terms.

Fitness has been defined in relation to a concept called physical work capacity, or how much work the body can do. A person's fitness can be determined in a laboratory by looking at how much energy they can produce on a cycle ergometer when cycling at a specific heart rate, or on an athletic track by looking at how far they can run in a set time. Fitness can also be understood in relation to a number of components including endurance, flexibility, strength and power. You need to be fit to play many sports, including football, hockey and tennis.

Health, on the other hand, is a broader concept that includes being free from and resilient to disease, mental and spiritual wellbeing, and the quality of our social relationships. Normally, being fit and being healthy go hand in hand, but this isn't always the case. For example, you can be very fit, through playing football for example, but suffer a major health problem such as alcoholism.

Understanding the difference between fitness and health is important because the level of exercise you need to be healthy is less than that needed to get and keep you fit.

Training for fitness

Many people want or need to be fit because of the job they do (eg, police officers), the sport they play (eg, basketball) or the body shape they want to achieve (eg, through resistance training).

If you want to be fit, you normally need to follow a structured training programme. Such programmes often take place in specialised facilities such as leisure centres and may be supervised by an exercise leader. Examples of fitness training include circuits, running and weight training.

One of the key variables in achieving a high level of fitness is the intensity of the exercise programme. If you want to be very fit, you may need to exercise at a moderate or high intensity. In achieving fitness goals, most people also become healthier. However, if you don't want to be fit but just healthy, you don't have to exercise as hard.

Active for health

If you want to reduce your risk of suffering from coronary heart disease, obesity or mental health problems, research indicates you should be physically active. To achieve these health benefits doesn't require the same intensity of training as becoming fit. You can simply build physical activity into your daily routine, either as a form of 'active commuting' (walking or cycling, perhaps) or in the comfort of a health club. The main message is that it doesn't have to be hell to be healthy.

Some people are put off becoming more active because they think they have to work out at a high intensity, compete with others or wear a designer tracksuit. None of these things are necessary.

Top active living tips:

• Use the stairs instead of the escalator or lift at work.
• Park your car in the parking bay furthest from the supermarket.
• Don't use the remote control to change TV channels.

The scientific principles of exercise

To understand how much, or little, exercise you need to do to meet your own health or fitness goals, it may be helpful to consider the following scientific principles behind most tailored exercise programmes.

 

Frequency

This relates to how many times a week you need to exercise in order to become fitter or improve or maintain your health. To be healthy, experts recommend being physically active on at least five days out of seven.

This might sound like a lot, but don't forget that our bodies have evolved over four million years to hunt. With our biological inheritance, it's not surprising that to keep in shape we need to be active on most days.

Intensity

Exercise intensity can be measured in a number of different ways. In a laboratory it can be measured through gas analysis, looking at how much oxygen the exerciser is taking into the body and delivering to the working muscles. In the gym it can be measured using a heart rate monitor, which records the heart rate at different workloads. It can also be estimated using the Borg scale, which asks the exerciser how hard they perceive they're working.

The intensity at which you work can be described as either strenuous, moderate or mild. What constitutes a strenuous, moderate or mild exercise workload for you will depend on your current state of health and fitness. If you're an Olympic 10,000m runner, jogging one mile in nine minutes would count as mild activity. For most people, though, it would be strenuous or impossible!

As exercise scientists have discovered more about how the body responds to exercise programmes, they've discovered that for health purposes, mild to moderate levels of physical activity are all that's required.

For many of us, this means brisk or purposeful walking. Again, what brisk means will depend on your current state of health or fitness, but it definitely doesn't mean race walking as you'd see at the Olympics. It's a pace at which you feel you're making good progress while still being able to hold a conversation.

Duration

This is the length of time you need to spend being physically active in any one session. According to much of the research conducted over the past 20 years, you need to be active for up to 30 minutes, five days a week in order to benefit your health.

This might sound like a lot at first, but don't forget that you're only working at mild to moderate intensity. You don't have to run or do strenuous aerobics for half an hour; you simply have to walk.

If you haven't done much activity for some time, it's important to build up to this level over a period of weeks. This might mean starting with a walk of just five minutes.

If you're not sure how hard you can work or are worried about any health problems you may have, talk to your GP or practice nurse for help and advice. They might even refer you to a local leisure centre to work with an exercise professional - just be sure to check their qualifications first.

Putting it all together

The recommended physical activity guidelines from a range of expert bodies (including the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence in the UK and the American College of Sports Medicine) suggest that to improve your health, you should build up to being physically active at a moderate intensity for 30 minutes, five days a week.

A little goes a long way. The key message to take home is that any physical activity, no matter how small, is better than none.

We're increasingly living in a world where physical activity has been taken out of our lives. We have domestic appliances to wash and dry for us, cars to transport us and desks at which to sit and work or study.

One of the first lessons we learn at school is to 'sit still' - and we see nothing unusual in spending hours sitting or lying down while pictures move on a box in front of us.

Given these huge societal and cultural influences that have stopped us from moving, any physical activity is a health gain. There isn't a magic amount of exercise you need to do to get a benefit, the key is to make an effort and persevere. As soon as you move, you win!

The zone is the intensity of exercise that safely produces the results you want. If you exercise below the zone, you risk not getting results. If you exercise above the zone, you risk not being able to continue your exercise or, worse, you risk injury. The zone is the perfect intensity level at which to perform your cardiovascular exercise -- between 70 percent and 80 percent of your maximum ability.

How do you know when you're in the zone? There are essentially two ways: taking your heart rate and monitoring your level of perceived exertion. I prefer monitoring perceived exertion because there are a number of shortcomings in using your heart rate to monitor your exercise intensity.

First, your heart rate doesn't always directly reflect how hard you're working or how much oxygen you're consuming. A number of factors beyond your control can throw this relationship off, such as your emotional state, what you're thinking, medications you're taking, the temperature and the altitude you are in and your caffeine consumption. This could mean that although you're exercising at your prescribed target heart rate, you may be working either too hard or not hard enough.

Second, the formula to find your range (220 minus your age multiplied by 75 percent and then plus or minus 5 heart beats) is only an estimation of your heart rate and is accurate for only about a third of the population.

Third, obtaining an accurate maximum heart rate requires a maximum treadmill test and most people do not want to incur the cost and inconvenience of doing this.

Finally, have you ever taken your heart rate during exercise? Even if you're one of the lucky people whose target heart rate can be accurately calculated by the formula, trying to measure it during your workout can be next to impossible. You have to stop exercising, find your pulse and count the number of heartbeats all in a matter of seconds so your heart rate doesn't slow down too much. Many people couldn't find their pulse even if they were given an hour to do it!

You can see why I prefer perceived exertion, a method that requires you to pay close attention to your body and what's happening to it. Perceived exertion is a subjective rating of how hard you're working during exercise, which is based primarily on your breathing. You simply evaluate -- using a scale from zero to 10 -- how hard you're working based on how short of breath you are. Your optimum zone is anywhere between a seven and eight. I want you to exercise consistently at level seven when you first start out. Later, you can stay at seven or move up to working at level eight, if and when you're ready.

What you should be feeling at each level
Level 1: This is the feeling you would experience at rest. There is no feeling of fatigue. Your breathing is not at all elevated. You will not experience this level during exercise.

Level 2: This is the feeling you would experience while getting dressed. There is little or no feeling of fatigue. Your breathing is not elevated. You will rarely experience this low level during exercise.

Level 3: This is the feeling you would experience while slowly walking across the room to turn on the television. There is little feeling of fatigue. You may be slightly aware of your breathing, but it is slow and natural. You may experience this right at the beginning of an exercise session.

Level 4: This is the feeling you would experience while slowly walking outside. There is a very slight feeling of fatigue. Your breathing is slightly elevated, but comfortable. You should experience this level during the initial stages of your warm-up.

Level 5: This is the feeling you would experience while walking to the store. There is a slight feeling of fatigue. You are aware of your breathing, which is deeper than that of level four. You should experience this level at the end of your warm-up.

Level 6: This is the feeling you would experience when you are walking somewhere and are very late for an appointment. There is a general feeling of fatigue, but you know that you can maintain this level of exertion. Your breathing is deep and you are aware of it. You should experience this level in the transition from your warm-up to your exercise session and during the initial phase of learning how to work at level seven or eight.

Level 7: This is the feeling you would experience when you are exercising vigorously. There is a definite feeling of fatigue, but you are quite sure you can maintain this level for the rest of your exercise session. Your breathing is deep and you are definitely aware of it. You could carry on a conversation, but you would probably choose not to do so. This is the baseline level of exercise that you should maintain in your workout sessions.

Level 8: This is the feeling you would experience when you are exercising very vigorously. There is a definite feeling of fatigue, and if you asked yourself if you could continue for the remainder of your exercise session, your answer would be that you think you could, but you're not 100-percent sure. Your breathing is very deep. You could still carry on a conversation, but you don't feel like it. This becomes the feeling you should experience only after you are comfortable reaching level seven and are ready for a more intense workout. This is the level that produces rapid results for many people.

Level 9: This is the feeling that you would experience if you were exercising very, very vigorously. You would experience a definite feeling of fatigue, and if you asked yourself if you could continue this pace for the remainder of your exercise session, your answer would be you probably could not. Your breathing is very labored. It would be very difficult to carry on a conversation. This is a feeling you may experience for short periods when trying to achieve a level eight. This is a level that many athletes train at, and it is difficult for them. You should not be experiencing level nine on a routine basis and should slow up when you do

Level 10: You should not experience level ten. This is the feeling you would have with all-out exercise. This level cannot be maintained for very long, and there is no benefit in reaching it

 

Forget so-called “energy drinks.” A new analysis by University of Georgia researchers finds overwhelming evidence that regular exercise plays a significant role in increasing energy levels and reducing fatigue.

“A lot of times when people are fatigued the last thing they want to do is exercise,” said professor Patrick O’Connor, co-director of the UGA exercise psychology laboratory. “But if you’re physically inactive and fatigued, being just a bit more active will help.”

Health professionals encourage regular exercise to prevent or improve symptoms of conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity, but the scientific evidence on whether exercise increases or reduces fatigue had never been reviewed quantitatively. O’Connor, kinesiology professor Rod Dishman and lead author Tim Puetz, who recently completed his doctoral work at UGA, analyzed 70 randomized, controlled trials that enrolled a total of 6,807 subjects. They found strong support for the role of exercise in reducing fatigue.

“More than 90 percent of the studies showed the same thing: Sedentary people who completed a regular exercise program reported improved fatigue compared to groups that did not exercise” O’Connor said. “It’s a very consistent effect.”

The study, published in the November issue of the journal Psychological Bulletin, quantified the magnitude of the effect of exercise and found that it was stronger than the treatment of fatigued people with drugs such as the narcolepsy drug modafinil. Specifically, the researchers found that exercise increased energy and reduced fatigue by 0.37 standard deviations when compared to control groups, whereas participants in a previous study taking modafinil had an improvement of 0.23 standard deviations.

Puetz notes that their analysis found that nearly every group studied – from healthy adults to cancer patients to those with chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease – benefited from exercise. He acknowledges that it may seem counterintuitive that expending energy through exercise would increase feelings of energy and reduce fatigue, but he points out that previous studies have shown marked increases in the levels of energy-promoting and mood-enhancing neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin in the brains of animals that are placed in regular exercise conditions.

“We live in a society where people are always looking for the next sports drink, energy bar or cup of coffee that will give them the extra edge to get through the day,” Puetz said. “But it may be that lacing up your tennis shoes and getting out and doing some physical activity every morning can provide that spark of energy that people are looking for.”

 

We’re all looking for that magic pill. You know - the one that we can take and lose weight without really trying!

What would you give up to be skinny? How about your health? Well, some of the methods of weight loss may cost you exactly that. Before you decide that the way to lose weight is to follow one of the below regimens, take a second look. Do your research and be sure that you understand the risks
Are you considering one of these dangerous weight loss methods?

*Prescription diet pills

Amphetamines are available only by prescription, and most doctors are leery of handing them out these days. While they do suppress appetite, you learn nothing about healthy eating, you don’t change your eating habits, and you are likely to gain the weight back the moment you stop taking them. In addition, they can be habit forming. The side effects include high blood pressure, heart arrhythmia, sleeplessness, hallucinations and delusions.

*Ephedra

This all natural Asian herb is found in many herbal remedies and weight loss powders. It has a powerful appetite suppressant effect, but has been implicated in over 70 deaths.

*Phentermine Fenfluramine-phentermine (fen-phen)

Fen-phen was a popular weight loss supplement in the 90’s until it was implicated in deaths due to heart-valve damage. Phentermine alone is still sold in many weight loss aids. The side effects include headaches, dizziness, heart arrhythmia, high blood pressure and insomnia.

*Laxatives

One of the popular home remedies, used for purging. Regular use and abuse of laxatives can result in low potassium, arrhythmia, and pancreatic damage.

*Artificial Sweeteners

Aspartame, the most commonly used artificial sweetener, has been implicated in multiple lawsuits alleging damages that include blindness, seizures and brain damage.

*Smoking

Afraid you’ll gain weight if you quit smoking? The National Institute of Diabetes says that you’d have to gain 100-150 pounds to match the health risks you invoke by smoking. Instead, set up healthy strategies to help you deal with food cravings and put down the cigarettes.

*Purging

Like laxatives, purging by forcing oneself to vomit or taking emetics can have very damaging effects on health. Depletion of nutrients like potassium and vitamins, damage to the esophagus from stomach acids, and esophageal rupture are all possible side effects.

*Diuretics

Taking diuretics encourages your body to rid itself of fluids - including vital electrolytes. The depletion can lead to dehydration, and cause your body to start retaining water, starting a vicious cycle. Repeated or prolonged use of diuretics can lead to kidney damage and serious electrolyte imbalances, which may result in kidney or heart failure.

*Herbal Remedies

We have a tendency to equate ‘herbal’ with ‘harmless’, but say nutritionists, this isn’t always the case. Remember that many medications are derived from herbs, and because of the lack of regulation, dosages of active ingredients can vary widely from one manufacturer to another. Below is a list of some of the most common ingredients found in herbal weight loss powders, along with cautions about their effects in certain conditions.

Ephedra (ma huang, ephedrine, ephedra extract, epitonin, ephdra sinica and sida cordifolia) should not be taken by people with heart, thyroid or kidney disease, or with hypertension

Cascara and Senna should not be taken by people taking diuretics (both are often found in herbal weight loss teas)

Selenium and Capsaicin should not be taken by people with bowel or digestive disorders

Kava should be avoided by people with mood disorders who are taking mood altering medication, and people with Parkinson’s disease.

Gingko biloba, licorice root, and dong quay should not be taken by people who are taking blood thinners or anti-coagulants.

While weight loss is a worthwhile goal, guarding your health is an even more important one. Be sure that whatever weight loss method you choose it won’t lead to other serious medical conditions.

Your Personal Trainer home.

Your pants are a bit tight, you can't seem to stop eating junk, and you're tired all of the time. It's time to get healthy and lose weight. Combined with a more sensible diet, an exercise bike can help you achieve the results you want.

Ugh, the Diet.

So many people go wrong here. Forget fad diets, forget starvation. Slow and steady wins the race. Try changing one thing about your diet. Limit yourself to one soda a day. Stop skipping meals. If you always clean your plate, start leaving one or two bites. A total change in diet is work. If you go for a radical change, you are setting yourself up for failure. You'll be surprised how well small changes work.

The Right Bike Determines Your Success

This is a critically important part. There are literally hundreds of exercise bikes available. You have to be honest with yourself to discover the one that will work best for you. If you talk yourself into some fantasy world where your exercise plan is going to work this time even though there's nothing different, you're going to be disappointed. If you think ahead, you will buy the right bike for your needs. You will end up with a successful long-term exercise routine.

Think back to your last exercise routine attempt. Why did you stop? Did you suffer an injury? Did you get bored? Was it just too hard to do every day? Was it hard to find the time? Answer these questions truthfully. If you don't figure out where you went wrong, you won't be able to come up with a solution.

Avoiding and Working Through Injuries

If an injury caused you to stop working out, how did you sustain your injury? Becoming physically fit is supposed to help you prevent injuries, not cause them. There is an exercise bike for someone who has been injured working out. It's called a recumbent exercise bike. It's the kind found in a lot of health clubs. It has a large, bucket seat, and you sit back and low to the ground. It is perfect for people beginning a new exercise routine. It's also very good for back problems as it forces you to keep good posture. It puts no pressure on your joints, and you can keep working out even if you have minor injuries.

Overcoming Boredom

Did you get bored the last time you tried to workout on a regular basis? If you did, you are likely to get bored again. With exercise bikes, the solution is usually a bike with several different levels and riding programs. You can get bikes with different difficulty levels. This means that when it becomes too easy for you to pedal, you simply move up to the next level instead of having to ride longer (which just isn't likely to happen for the person who is easily bored). You can also get different programs. Programs give you variety and goals. They make you pedal harder, simulate conquering hills, and even sprinting for short periods.

Riding programs might not be enough for you. You might need a bike that you can hook up to your television that simulates riding through different courses. You can take a leisurely ride through a park or compete with other computer riders on a difficult obstacle course. These bikes might cost more up front, but if you don't invest in a bike that will let you sustain your workout, you're wasting money on anything less.

The coolest thing for game addicts who get bored is an interactive bike that plugs into a Sony Playstation or Playstation 2. It makes over 50 games interactive. Whatever is happening on your bike happens on the screen in bike, car, and similar games. There are all types of similar bikes available.

If you plan on listening to music or watching TV while you cycle, be sure to pay attention to features that will make the exercise bike quieter. It's also a good idea to get a quieter bike if you live with other people. For all you know, your workout time is going to be 5AM or midnight. A quieter bike won't disturb other people in your home.

Don't Try to Be Lance Armstrong Yet…

People beginning exercise programs are sometimes too ambitious. It's good to be excited, but you have to remain realistic. If your last exercise program failed because it was just too much work, don't make the same mistake again. Fight the urge to overdo your first workouts. It is critical to your long-term success that you start out slow. If you go from no exercise at all to 5 to 10 minute exercise bike workouts with little resistance, you are much more likely to avoid injury, soreness, and most of all, early feelings of defeat. If you aim too high - expecting to go from a sedentary lifestyle to 45 minute workouts immediately, for example - you are setting yourself up for failure. When you don't reach your unattainable goal, it is more likely you'll quit altogether to alleviate the feeling of failure that much sooner.

The perfect bikes for people who get a bit over-excited are exercise bikes with built in riding programs. You simply start out at the lowest level, and the bike determines your workout. You program in a small goal (10 minutes, 50 calories, or .25 mile) and when you reach that goal, your workout is over.

Finding the Time

You do have time to burn fat and calories on an exercise bike. No matter how intense your schedule is, there are people busier than you who find time to make an exercise routine work. They are not better than you. They don't have more than 24 hours in a day. They simply figured out how to make it work. You can, too.

It can be as simple as the time of day you chose to workout in the past. There is scientific evidence that people who are "morning people" or "night owls" are physically different. Different people have energy at different times. Think about when you work best. If you wake up without an alarm clock ready to go, you should exercise first thing in the morning. If you are a night owl, you should consider working out at night. You might find that you are one of the people who tire yourself out enough with a night workout to sleep like a baby.

You Can Do This!

Losing weight is not a punishment. You are smart enough to know how to eat a little better and become more active. If you are honest with yourself, you will choose the proper bike. You want to look forward to the workout itself. Don't get caught up in which bike burns more calories. Find an exercise bike you will enjoy riding. Figure out the time of day that's best for you to exercise. Make it like getting dressed or bathing - it's just something you do every day. You don't have to train for the Tour de France. You just have to get on and do something every day. Ten minutes a day will yield results. Bookmark this article for future motivation, find your exercise bike, and get busy!

Your Personal Trainer home.

Yes, it’s always the same… You look in the mirror and you say to yourself “Oh yeah, it’s OK! Could be worse…” and then a tiny little voice in your head starts whispering “C’mon… Darn it! That’s awful! There’s at least the weight of one big, juicy watermelon too much!” And then, maybe you say to yourself “Yes, I know… but, after all, it isn’t so bad…” and maybe you plan to change your eating habits and to exercise more… or to begin with. And the best is, you are really willing to do it but then this great meal crossed your way and besides, no one who would be in his right mind would have rejected this little, yes almost tiny piece of delicious chocolate cake in the afternoon… and so, days go by and nothing really changed, except your weight but not in the way you wanted…

After some time you think maybe you would be too weak to lose weight or that being overweight might be your destiny, that the weight would be a part of you and that you would never be able to lose it forever. You even proof this to yourself. Maybe you followed countless diets, tried to exercise but, either you stopped after a short period of time or you lost some weight, only to put it on again later.

Now, here’s the good news: This can change! You can change your weight! You already proved it in increasing it. Now, let’s do the opposite and decrease it. Yes, it works. It’s all about your mindset. “OK” you may say, “sounds good, but please tell me how to do it! And, however, increasing it is much easier than decreasing it…”

Well, I don’t think so… There might be a reason why you keep your weight or constantly increase it. This reason why you need your weight is located in your subconscious mind. If you are overweight, and I mean any weight that you don’t want for yourself (regardless what other people might say), then there is a purpose for this weight. When diets not work then there is a reason for this. And this reason is mostly located at a much deeper level than diets are able to go. That means, when you find the reason why you keep yourself at this weight or why you increase your weight then you have the key to your ideal weight. And then, changing your weight becomes much easier because you don’t work against yourself anymore. You may not know this reason on a conscious level and it even is not necessary to know it. But when losing weight is endless difficult and becomes a struggle, then you are on a battlefield – you against yourself.

All this does not happen on a conscious level. There are many subconscious programs running all at the same time and some may produce results that you want, others don't. The key is to change the programs that produce results you don't want.

That’s the reason why diets may work for others. These people resolved the root cause for their weight without knowing it. This is possible, because all this is a natural ability anyone possesses. Once the root cause is dissolved, losing weight becomes very easy.

But what about you? Why diets did not work for you? Maybe because in your subconscious mind there is still a program running that wants to keep you overweight for a certain reason, a certain purpose. Once you dissolved this reason, your subconscious mind does not have a reason anymore to keep you overweight and losing weight becomes easy and your new body image allows you to keep the lost weight off – forever!

Here is what you might help you: changing the undercover running programs by dissolving the root cause for your overweight. How? Very easily: with Hypnosis.

“What? Hypnosis?” you might say. “Isn’t it dangerous? I don’t want give someone else power over me…” Be assured, these reactions are normal. Very few people know what hypnosis is all about. But one thing is sure: it can help you not only to lose weight on a natural and healthy way but to keep the weight off, and this for your lifetime!

If you would like to have more information about how hypnosis can help you to get your dream weight and keep it forever, visit my website.

Phil Brull lives in Belgium and works in the field of personal development and spiritual growth. As a former EMT he has seen many times people with cruel strokes of fate. Very often those people had the same underlying limiting believes which made them sick and unhappy. Phil strongly believes that anyone has the internal power to achieve every single dream. He is involved for quite some time in the ancient Polynesian Wisdom known as Huna as well as in many powerful life changing techniques.

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Weight training is an important element in fighting flab; maybe it is the most important.  If you do aerobic exercise you only burn fat during the exercise but with weight training you burn fat even when you have finished.  The body is still burning fat for up to as much as twelve hours after finishing the exercise whilst it is building the muscles worked, so you can still be burning fat while you are resting.  But that is not the end of the story.

A body full of muscle uses far more calories than a body full of fat, so you will find that you will need to eat more to maintain your weight and your muscle.   You do not need to worry that you will bulk up like a body builder, as you do not have the right makeup to do this, as a woman you will only elongate and define your muscles, and build lean muscles.

When you first start to weight train you might find that your weight will actually increase. This is because muscle is heavier than fat but as muscle is smaller so you should notice the body getting smaller even if the scales do not show an decrease in weight.

The additional benefits from weight training are:-

1. It helps to strengthen and increase the density of your bones because the act of the muscles pulling and flexing the bones helps to lay down more bone fibre.

2.  Stronger muscles helps your body to be more steady and so helps to prevent falls.

3.  It has also been found that it can fight the build up of abdominal fat by lifting weights at least twice a week. 

Finally when weight training make sure that you change your routine around so that the body can not get use to the routine.  It only takes the body about six weeks for it to learn how to work efficiently if keeping to the same routine and therefore you will stop seeing any weight or body changes.

So have fun and start weight training to lose weight and tone your body.- Weight Training To Lose Weight.

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It is now known that stress can actually stop you losing weight especially around your middle.  Stress can cause your body to secrete high levels of cortisol hormone into your bloodstream, because of your body's "flight or fight" response to stress.  Stress can be either psychological (mental and emotional) or physical.

Cortisol is secreted by the adrenal glands and is actually important for the regulation of blood pressure, the immune system and many other functions.  Cortisol can be good in small amounts but high levels can lead to an increase of abdominal fat, which can lead to heart attacks, strokes and can also increase your bad cholesterol levels and decrease your good cholesterol levels. 

High levels of cortisol can also decrease your bone density, leading to osteoporosis and loss of muscle tissue, which will also slow down your metabolic rate, and it can also increase your blood pressure along with other problems.

Each of you will react differently to stress; some of you will produce more cortisol to a particular stress while others will produce less.  It has been found that those of you that produce more cortisol will actually eat more food as well, in particular carbohydrates.

What you need to do to combat producing too much cortisol is to learn ways to relax and also to maybe change your lifestyle.

Relaxation can be achieved in a number of ways either by exercising, mediation, yoga or breathing to start with.

Maybe one of the easiest and simplest ways is breathing.  This is done by gently breathing in through the nose, gently expanding your abdomen and then gently expelling the air through your nose pulling in your abdomen at the same time.  Whilst breathing out the air you need to focus on that breath.   After several breaths in and out you should start to feel yourself relax.  You need to practice doing this exercise a few minutes a day to start with building up to five minutes in the end.  You can also practice this when you are feeling stressed or when things are getting on top of you.  Just a few minutes can slow your body down and help it to feel relax.

Life style changes can be like changing your eating habits for a healthier diet, getting enough sleep, or even organizing your time more efficiently so that you do not feel so stressed.  Also looking after your body will help your body to cope with stresses that you come across during your day.

So if you are exercising frequently and eating properly but still not losing any weight especially from around the middle then maybe you are suffering from high levels of cortisol caused by stress.  Look at ways to solve the problem and hopefully then you should see a difference in your weight and around your middle.  

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Upper arm exercises are, and should be, an important area of your exercise program. Upper arm exercises will help to improve other areas of your upper body and will give you an over-all strong, fit appearance.

If you have weak or under developed arms you will have a very difficult time with any other upper body exercises.

Your upper arms, more than almost any other muscle group, will get the most positive or negative comments from people, depending of course on the over-all development of your upper arms.

For most people, both men and women, upper arm development can really draw attention to your over-all physique and can have either a positive or negative affect on your self-confidence.

If your upper arms are thin and weak, or just plain flabby you won't feel as comfortable as you could if your upper arms were firm, toned & lean.

For any upper arm exercises to work, whether it's biceps exercises or triceps exercises, you have to use a variety of upper arm exercises in different combinations in order for your upper arms to develop - regardless of what goals you have with your upper arm exercises.

For most people, both men and women, the main reason for a lack of good upper arm development is due to a lack of variation and periodization.

By incorporating specific upper arm exercises at specific times over the duration of your exercise program you will be able to not only prevent over-training but you will be affecting all the different parts of your upper arm muscles.

This leads to a much greater level of success.

The list of exercises for your upper arm muscles that you can do is almost endless. You can do dozens of different upper arm exercises with free weights, different exercises for your upper arm muscles with numerous types of machines, different upper arm exercises with body weight, and on-and-on.

You can also perform almost any exercises for your upper arm muscles in a seated, standing, incline bench or lying down position.

Unfortunately most people don't realize that a lot of upper arm exercises stress your arms in the same manner and as such, upper arm exercises that do this should not be used in the same arm workout.

A good example of a mistake a lot of people seem to make is performing seated dumbbell curls and standing barbell curls in the same workout. Both of these upper arm exercises for your biceps work your arms in the identical way.

For proper upper arm development you need to use certain upper arm exercises that hit your arms from every possible angle for full muscle fiber recruitment.

Here is a short list of the more productive upper arm exercises. There are many more than this but this will help you get started.

• Barbell Curl: Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your knees slightly bent. Grip the bar with an underhand grip (palms facing forward) approximately hip width apart and let your arms hang down at your sides.

  Always keep your elbows close to your sides.

  Flex at the elbows and curl bar up to approximately shoulder level. Return slowly and under control to the starting position.

• Close Grip Chinup: Start by positioning your hands shoulder width to slightly narrower than shoulder width apart with an underhand grip. Hang with your arms fully extended and elbows forward.

  Pull your body up until the bar is below chin level. Return slowly and under control to the starting position.

• Bottoms Up Clean from Hang Position
• Cable Preacher Curls
• Supine Bicep Curl
• Barbell Reverse Preacher Curl
• Bench Dip
• Tricep Extensions
• Bent Over Cable Extension
• Dumbbell Incline Tricep Extension
• Seated Dip
• Tricep Rope Pulldown
• Two Arm Cable Pushdown (heavy stance)

If you've ever had trouble with exercises for your upper arm muscles or any type of exercises or fitness program, there is a system for you that has been described as the most complete road map to physical success for women.

This system will not only ensure you develop the best set of arms you could ever hope to, but it will also do the same for your entire body. If you've always been an inconsistent exerciser, you may be wondering how you can change that and reach your goals.

Well this system will guarantee that you will overcome your failures forever. You will have all the information you'll ever need to give you the results you've always wanted.

If you have been exercising consistently but are not getting maximum results you will be able to finally maximize your results, immediately!

This system can bring your body to it's potential within one year. Why waste more time? Why not become a results oriented exerciser and capture the extraordinary hidden benefits too?

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Inner thigh exercises are used mostly by women and are very popular.

The main reason women are so interested in using inner thigh exercises is that they are under the false impression that isolating the inner thigh muscles will help to reduce fat and tone up their legs.

Most people, if not all, become very frustrated because they simply do not get the results they want from exercises for the inner thigh muscles and believe they are doing everything right.

Inaccurate articles in magazines about inner thigh exercises create a lot of confusion. Using any inner thigh exercises that isolate this muscle group will not burn any noticeable fat off your body and will certainly not burn any fat directly off your inner thigh muscles.

Spot reduction does not work - it never has - and it never will! This myth of spot reduction makes no sense; I'll show you why.

You don't have any control over where you on your body the fat will come off. When you do exercises for your inner thigh muscles the fat is burned off evenly over your entire body - this is a long-time proven fact.

In order to effectively lose fat, "tone up" and change your body, you must increase your metabolism. You do this by using effective exercises for your inner thigh muscles that build muscle.

Isolating, inner thigh exercises will not build up enough muscle to increase your metabolism. There are numerous different muscles in your legs that need to be worked at different angles and in most cases need to be worked synergistically.

If you want to shape your legs, any part of your legs, then you must do proper muscle building, fat burning leg exercises.

You can find more information elsewhere on this site about effective thigh exercises that are a hundred times better than any inner thigh exercises that isolate your inner thigh muscles.

Now, the attempt to spot reduce has taken many potential results away from consistent exercisers. You cannot burn fat by doing any isolation exercise or tons of cardio. You have a better chance of washing your car and then miraculously finding that your house is clean also.

Body fat burns systematically, from everywhere at once. Generally, this process starts when you lower your calories and increase your activity level.

Some people still do hundreds of sit ups, waist bends, inner thigh exercises and leg lifts thinking these areas will tighten up because of the constant burning.

I sympathize for people when they tell me, I'm really trying to trim up this waist, I m doing a hundred million sit ups a day. Or the famous girl from a popular TV show when she responded to a question some talk show host asked her.

He wanted to know her secret to a great stomach. Oh, I do a hundred sit-ups a day! - She responded. Get a clue! .

Please remember, to effectively burn fat and drastically change your body you need weights, proper nutrition and some cardio.

When you do a weight training exercise and feel a burn in a certain muscle group, what your feeling is the muscle burning not the fat burning.

Some of the popular ways people try this type of "spot reducing" magic are doing butt exercises to make the butt smaller (wrong)! Doing arm exercises to lose the fat in the back of the arm (never)!

Doing inner thigh exercises to get rid of the soft spots on the inside of the leg (impossible)! You have a much better chance of building those areas bigger than you do of making them smaller.

Now, there is a very effective womens fitness system for you that was designed to help you lose weight, gain muscle, tone, firm, get energized, maintain great health, and literally give you every physical attribute exercise has to offer!

It will show you how to avoid useless exercises such as isolation inner thigh exercises, and teach you how to really change your physical appearance. It's well worth your while to take a few minutes right now and check it out.

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Unfortunately, spending time sitting in a chair and hunched over a computer is no way to keep yourself in shape. The same goes for an office. Here’s a few discreet ways around this problem which faces lots an’ lots of us daily. They’re quiet and will have a very small impact on your time at work.

1) Push-ups: Pushups are one of the best ways to strengthen your chest, shoulders, arms, abdomen and lower back. That’s half of your body. I’ve been told many times that if you only have time to do one thing and you want a workout, then do push-ups.
- Lie face down.
- Place your hands on either side of your shoulders, with your thumbs at the middle of your chest with you feet about shoulder width apart.
- Push yourself up off of the floor. Pause for a moment at the top and then exhale as you lower your body back down.
- Bring your chest about two inches from the floor, not all the way back down.
- Repeat.

2) Stretch: The benefits of a good stretch are many. It can improv your posture and help promote muscle symmetry. Basically, if you sit slumped in an office chair all day working at a computer you can significantly add to the natural slumping fo the shoulders that occurs with age. This is just one example of many, but you get the idea. Stretching also feels good and promotes a short term increase in circulation and alertness simpley because you are moving. There’s a great primer here on how to stretch effectively and safely in your cube or office.

3) Drink Some Water: Try and always have water near you to drink. Most people don’t know what they’re missing because they walk around dehydrated all the time and they become normalized to operating in this condition. If you’re hydrated you can think clearer, your skin will look and feel better and your mood will generally improve. Skip the soda machine and bring a water bottle to work.

4) Sit on an Exercise Ball Instead of a Chair: This will look silly, but it will also provide your core with a great “passive” sort of workout throughout the day. You see, lots of little muscles we rarely use will get used in order to keep you balanced while you work. It’s not even something you’d notice if you weren’t looking for it, but it’s there. Improved core strength is great for many reasons. It improves your balance as well as helps protect all your important bits in your torso when you’re doing strenuous activities like playing a sport.

5) Sit-ups: Oh, man doing sit-ups sucks. The reason it sucks is because you’re working a part of your body that rarely gets attention. Doing Sit-ups will help strengthen your abs which can ease back pain. Having nice abs or maybe, just not having that beer gut, can go a long way to help getting you laid as well. (And the health bennies of that are numerous.)

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Here are the cold, hard facts – whether we like them or not. The findings of 47 separate clinical weight loss research studies involving more than 14,700 people boil down to these 12 statements:

1. The reason we are overweight has virtually nothing to do with diet or exercise, and everything to do with our own unconscious motivations – which are created by our own unique beliefs and attitudes.

2. You are, by definition, not aware of your unconscious motivations. But even so, they greatly influence everything you do, and are much more powerful than your unconscious motivations.

3. So everything in your life that's working (and everything that isn't) has its origins in your own unconscious mind. This is not theory. It has been known and accepted for more than 100 years.

4. What does this mean to you in terms of weight loss? It means that no matter how strong your conscious desire to be fit and healthy may be, if this desire isn't supported by your own unconscious beliefs and attitudes, you are destined to struggle and fail.

5. Trying to overpower your own unconscious motivations with your conscious desires is called "will power." Will power is not only ineffective, it's actually counterproductive. Here's why.

6. Trying to overpower your own unconscious motivations with your conscious desires puts you into a battle against your own deepest motivations. It's like declaring war on yourself.

7. And as you may already have discovered, it's a war you can't win. It's like having your own personal Vietnam conflict going on inside you.

8. So if you have a history of struggling and failing at weight loss, you can be sure that you have some beliefs and attitudes that are silently, invisibly, and powerfully sabotaging your success.

9. Unfortunately, as long as your self-sabotaging beliefs and attitudes remain intact and unchanged, there is no way you can achieve lasting weight loss success – or perhaps any success at all.

10. Obviously, since the root cause of your weight problem is not physical, no amount of trying to lose weight through physical means such as diet, exercise, or even surgery will bring you success.

11. Instead, your constant inner war will only create more stress, struggle, and failure until your unconscious and conscious beliefs are both aligned toward success. No other outcome is possible.

12. Bottom Line: If your present self-sabotaging but unconscious beliefs and attitudes remain unchanged, your chances of enjoying real and lasting weight loss success are essentially zero.

We may not like it, but this is the reality we need to know about and deal with. If you've every wondered why your past weight loss efforts failed, or why it all felt like such a struggle, now you know.

You can try every diet plan on the planet, count carbs and calories until your eyes are bloodshot, and buy every ab flattener and butt trimmer on the planet.

But if you don't do something about fixing your own self-sabotaging beliefs and attitudes, your future will be just endless reruns of your past.

I would much rather my clients know the truth – whether they like it or not – because life is simply too short to waste precious time doing things than can't possibly get you where you want to be.

Wouldn't your time be much better invested in doing what actually works, even is it means learning a new skill or two?

I certainly think so. And you know what? So do my success stories!

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FISH oil can help people to lose weight without dieting, according to new research.

Scientists said that fish oil containing Omega 3 fatty acids, plus a little exercise, helped overweight people to shed pounds - even if their diet remained unchanged.

Researcher Alison Hill said: "We were very surprised to see it was so effective, especially since these people were still eating whatever they wanted."

The Australian team f