5 Ways To Lose Weight For Summer Without Going On A Crazy Diet

It’s that familiar time of year. Everything is about “getting ready for bikini season,” and the pressure is on to slim down and tone up.

When I used to obsess over my weight and constantly diet, I used to have a love-hate relationship with this time of year. On one hand, I loved it, because the possibility of losing weight and showing up on the beach looking toned and skinny sounded exhilarating. Every year, I’d tell myself, "This will be your year. This year you’ll finally be able to lose the weight.”

However, after a few exciting weeks on a fresh, new diet, I quickly began to hate this time of year. The calorie counting got annoying and confining, the miles on the treadmill became dreadful, and constantly watching what I ate became overwhelmingly stressful.

And that’s always when I’d fall off the wagon. All of the foods I'd been denying would come flooding back in, I would pig out, feel bad about myself, and search for a new diet to start on Monday.

After years and years of going through pre-bikini season like this, I decided to do things differently. Obviously diets weren’t working. They made me feel like I couldn’t have any fun, had a horrible impact on my self-esteem, and were proving to be unsustainable.

So here are my tips for how to slim down without going into crazy diet mode. You don’t need to diet in order to have a fabulous summer and feel amazing in your skin!

1. Focus on reducing emotional eating.

Rather than focusing on every single calorie that you put in your body, if you focus on reducing emotional eating and overeating, you’re going to naturally cut down on the amount of food you consume. Most of us eat when we aren’t hungry, and therefore we eat more than we need. Focus on how often you’re eating when you’re bored, uncomfortable or stressed and work on finding other ways to cope with these feelings other than with food.

2. Add IN healthy options instead of taking OUT unhealthy food.

We don’t do well with removing foods from our diet. We feel restricted, those foods feel forbidden and all we want to do is stuff our faces with whatever food we aren’t “allowed” to have. Instead, make it a point to add IN more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Having pizza? Great, but get a salad too. These foods will help fill you up so that you naturally refrain from eating as much of the less nutritious food.

3. Make exercise fun and reconsider your “why.”

We tend to duck out on exercise plans when they feel boring and like a chore. The more we can make our movement interesting and fun, the more likely we are to stick with it. Change up your workouts, get outside, try a new class or get a group of friends together to move. Also, reconsider your “why” for exercising. If you’re working out to look hot in a bikini, that’s not an empowering reason because it sends a message to yourself that you’re not enough right now. Instead, reframe exercising with a more empowering “why.” Do you want to exercise so that you can run a 10K with your boyfriend? Do you want to feel strong in order to keep up with your kids? Hone in on an empowering “why.”

4. Have more fun.

This one is pretty simple. Have more fun in your life on a daily basis, and food won’t matter quite as much. You’ll naturally eat less without even realizing it. Think back to a time when you were having a blast — maybe on your wedding day, on a vacation, or when you lived abroad. Many clients tell me that during these times they’ve “naturally lost weight.” Focus on having more fun and enjoyment in your life, and food won’t need to play as big of a part.

5. Make it social.

When we start slimming down for the summer, we tend to withdraw from social activities. Happy hour? No, I can’t do that — I need to go to the gym! The problem with feeling the need to diet and exercise all the time can make our lives boring. Instead, create community around your goals. Go for morning walks with a friend, get your girlfriends together for a healthy dinner party, or commit to taking real lunch breaks twice a week with a co-worker (real lunch breaks = more pleasure = less food needed!)

Source: www.mindbodygreen.com

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How To Get Started Teaching Private Yoga Lessons

So many yoga teachers are attracted to teaching private yoga lessons — and for good reason! Private yoga sessions allow yoga teachers to deepen their instruction and the art of designing truly customizable practices for their clients. They also help develop a skill set that differs from group-led classes, and enhance the possibility of teachers reaching more students and growing their bottom line. The best part, though, is being able to deliver transformative one-on-one sessions and connect with yogis in a profound way.

There are so many benefits yogis and yoga teachers can derive from working on a one-on-one basis, but still, one of the most common questions I hear from my mentor clients, in social media circles for yoga teachers, and in private conversations with new and seasoned yoga teachers is, "How do I get started teaching private yoga sessions?"

Like all things new, there can be a learning curve when setting out to teach truly remarkable one-on-one sessions. You’ll find the three steps below are great starting points and wonderful topics to revisit as you are developing your private sessions. Before you read on, the best piece of advice is to just start with one person, one private lesson, and use each opportunity as a point to grow your offering and your business.

1. Figure out who you are serving.

It’s an honorable thought to think that you can help everyone (most yoga teachers have had this thought more than once), but the truth is, you just can’t.

Get clear about your who. Who are you trained to work with? Who do you enjoy working with? What types of people, with what types of problems are you jazzed to work with? The more specific you can get about who you should be serving, the easier it is to speak to them and market to them.

Your call-to-action step: Sit down and come up with some adjectives that describe your dream private client. Give yourself some time to really mull over the question and let it evolve. Once you have some buzz words, think more about who this person is — what they like, where they hang out, what problem they are suffering from that you can solve.

2. Come up with a system for success.

Systems lead to success. One-on-one sessions vary greatly from lesson to lesson and person to person, but you can create a system for before, during, and after that allow you to be professional and consistent and a master of your time.

Begin to outline the steps you take before you meet a new client, while you are with your client, and the things you do after and how you follow-up. These steps are the keys to delivering an excellent offering and can take the stress out of what to do when.

Your call-to-action step: Start your lists small — get a few ideas of things you’d like to do before, during, or after your sessions and jot them down. Think back to the steps you’ve seen others take or of the things you’ve had come up if you’ve taught a few private yoga sessions. This too will evolve as you, your business, and your teachings do.

3. Invite your perfect-fit clients to join you.

You're probably already teaching yoga in some capacity. And it’s likely that your dream one-on-one client is represented in your current student demographic (these people are gravitated toward your message, after all!). What better way to let them know of your new private session offerings than to invite them yourself!

Your call-to-action step: Think about your current students and their needs and then approach them individually to discuss one-on-one sessions. You don’t need to be slimy or sales-pitchy, just tell them the truth — you have a valuable offering that you think they could benefit from immensely, and you’d love to introduce them to it.

There is an art, a science, and a unique skill set to teaching private yoga, but with a strong foundation in place, an eager and can-do attitude, and an awareness of what it takes to deliver potent and professional private lessons as part of a sustainable yoga teaching business — you can get started.

Yoga teachers, weigh in: what was the hardest part when you started teaching private yoga sessions? If you're in the before stage, please share: what is the number one roadblock in launching your private yoga lesson offerings to the masses?

Source: www.mindbodygreen.com

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7 Simple Yoga Poses To Keep Your Body Happy On Airplane Rides

1. Utkatasana (Chair Pose)

Big toes together, small space between your heels. Knees bend, low belly engages and tailbone lengthens toward the ground. Arms extend overhead for a small lift in heart's center. This one's a basic. I mean, do you really want to put your butt on that bathroom seat anyway? Plus, it helps to bring blood flow back to your legs and warm up your upper back.

2. Ardha Chandrasana (Standing Side Bend)

Stretch out the cramped muscles around your rib cage and side abs from compressed sitting and tight space breathing. With all of the circulated air and germs flying around, I know I breathe shallower on a plane. Standing feet hip distance apart, grab opposite wrist with hand. Lengthen the spine up on the inhale, exhale move into the side bend. Keep length through both sides of the ribs while doing so.

3. Anjaneyasana (Low Lunge)

Take this one into the aisle! Those hip flexors will thank you for giving them some counter love and opening them up after hours of being compressed and shortened in a seated position.

4. Anuvittasana (Standing Backbend)

Feet slightly separated, soft bend in the knees, place hands at lower back or grab opposite elbows behind you. Lifting up through the breastbone, draw elbows in towards one another for a gentle heart opener and a quick jolt of energy (one of backbending's signature benefits).

5. Uttanasana (Gentle Fold, or Rag Doll)

Give your lower back and tight shoulders a rest here, hanging forward with bent knees and hands on opposite elbows or lightly touching the floor (depends on how clean that floor is, I guess).

6. Parivrtta Utkatasana (Chair Twist)

Wring out and reawaken that spine! Keeping an emphasis on your breath with this one, like in all twists. From a chair pose, take hands to heart center. As you inhale, lengthen the spine out; as you exhale, move into the twist placing your elbow over opposite knee. Out with the stale air, and in with the new!

7. Standing Figure Four

This one's a bonus posture. Definitely don't attempt this one during any turbulence! From a standing position, feet hip distance, cross one ankle just above the opposite knee. Keeping your lifted foot flexed (toes curled in towards your shin), stay standing or bend into the standing leg to whatever degree you find comfortable. Optional: interlace hands behind the small of your back and extend your arms with heels of palm together for a sweet shoulder and chest opener. Hint: Try this one on land first before attempting in the air.

Source: www.mindbodygreen.com

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Weight Loss Juice Recipes

If you think that only foods are important for you weight loss, think again. The studies shown that not only a proper and healthy food it’s important for a diet, but also the fact that we have to take care about the quantities of sugar that we eat. So, for an effective weight loss you have to choose the proper drinks that will help you to lose weight and to hydrate you, and not to increase the body fat. Because the drinks are important in your diet, I will present to you some weight loss juice recipes that will help you to lose weight.

What you should take into consideration is the importance of what you eat and drink. It is true, you have to choose foods that will help you to control and decrease your weight, but don’t forget about this big “detail”; drinks. Sometime an uncontrolled drink diet can harm you very bad and more than this can increase the body fat. Renounce at the soda and try to bring in your daily diet the weight loss juice recipes.

Weight loss juice recipes will help you to fulfill the purpose of drinks, but with the advantage of not ruining your diet. If you do not know how much harm is done to your body by the sodas, look on the product’s label and you will see the big quantity of the sugar. You will see that some drinks have 400 gr of sugar inside.

This weight loss juice will hydrate your body, will bring minerals and vitamins in your body and will have a nice taste in the same time. You do not need to drink sodas from market, you any have to prepare these weight loss juice recipes in your home from fresh and natural ingredients.

o Weight Loss Juice Recipes No. 1 – Green Lemonade

Ingredients for this weight loss drink

Apples – 2 medium (3″ dia)
Cucumber – 1 cucumber (8-1/4″)
Kale – 4 leaf (8-12″)
Lemon – 1 fruit (2-1/8″ dia)
Spinach – 2 cup

Directions to prepare the weight loss juice

Process all ingredients in a blender, shake or stir and serve in a glass and decorated with a leave of mint and one slice of lime. This juice recipe for weight loss will be perfect for you, your family and guests. You will do a nice impression with this drink and also will lose weight in the same time.

o Weight Loss Juice Recipes No. 2 – Green Breakfast

Ingredients for this weight loss drink

Apples (green) – 2 medium (3″ dia)
Carrots – 3 medium
Cucumber – 1 cucumber (8-1/4″)
Grapes (green) – 15 grape
Pepper (sweet green) – 1 medium (approx 2-3/4″ long, 2-1/2″ dia)
Spinach – 2 cup
Tomato – 1 medium whole (2-3/5″ dia) Directions to prepare the weight loss juice

Directions to prepare the weight loss juice

Process all ingredients in a blender, shake or stir and serve in a glass and decorated with slice of carrot and spinach. This juice recipe for weight loss not only that will help you to lose weight but have also medical benefits, such as improving digestion, prevent colon cancer, pain relief, decrease the level of cholesterol.

o Weight Loss Juice Recipes No. 3 – Dr. Oz’s Green Drink

Ingredients for this weight loss drink

Apples – 2 medium (3″ dia)
Celery – 3 stalk, large (11″-12″ long)
Cucumber – 1 cucumber (8-1/4″)
Ginger – 1/2 thumb (1″ dia)
Lemon (with rind) – 1/2 fruit (2-3/8″ dia)
Lime (with rind) – 1 fruit (2″ dia)
Parsley – 1 bunch
Spinach – 2 cup

Directions to prepare the weight loss juice

Process all ingredients in a blender, shake or stir and serve in a glass and decorated with slice of celery and lime. The medical benefits of this weight loss juice recipe, beside the fact that helps you to lose weight are that increase the libido, helps digestions, asthma help, liver cancer prevention, etc.

o Weight Loss Juice Recipes No. 4 – Fruity Punch

Ingredients for this weight loss drink

Apples – 2 medium (3″ dia)
Kiwifruit – 4 fruit (2″ dia)
Lemon (with rind) – 1/4 fruit (2-3/8″ dia)
Lime (with rind) – 1/4 fruit (2″ dia)
Oranges (peeled) – 2 fruit (2-5/8″ dia)
Pineapple – 1 fruit

Directions to prepare the weight loss juice

Process all ingredients in ablender, shake or stir and serve in a glass and decorated with slice of pineapple and/or lime. The medical benefits of this weight loss juice recipe, beside the fact that helps you to lose weight are that helps digestions, stomach cancer prevention, breast cancer prevention, etc.

Combine the healthy foods and meals with above weight loss juice recipes and you will see that not only your body fat will be burned and you will lose weight, but also you will feel much better and full of energy.

Also, during the diet program and not only then, you should take a hunger suppressant to help you to control your appetite. Phen 375 not only that will help your to control your hunger but also to burn the stored fat and to accelerate the metabolism.

Source: www.effective-weightloss.net

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Why Happiness Is Healthy

By Dr. Mercola

The feeling of happiness – whether you equate it with optimism, joy, well-being, personal achievement or all of the above – goes hand-in-hand with healthier habits. People who are in good spirits tend to eat better, exercise more frequently and get better sleep than those who are not. This could be, in part, because leading a healthy lifestyle helps you achieve your goals, leading to happiness.

It could also be that such habits lead to better health, which in turn lends itself to a better mood and happiness. Beyond these rather common-sense associations, however, is intriguing research that suggests there's something more about happiness that makes you healthy.

Beyond its tendency to occur alongside better eating, exercise, and other healthy habits, it appears a positive mental state may have a much more direct effect on your body.

Happiness May Influence Your Immune Function and More

Positive thoughts and attitudes are able to prompt changes in your body that strengthen your immune system, boost positive emotions, decrease pain and chronic disease, and provide stress relief. One study found, for instance, that happiness, optimism, life satisfaction, and other positive psychological attributes are associated with a lower risk of heart disease.1

It's even been scientifically shown that happiness can alter your genes!  A team of researchers at UCLA showed that people with a deep sense of happiness and well-being had lower levels of inflammatory gene expression and stronger antiviral and antibody responses.2 This falls into the realm of epigenetics—changing the way your genes function by turning them off and on.

It could be, however, that the type of happiness matters. In one study, participants answered questions about the frequency of certain emotional states, covering two different categories or types of happiness known to psychologists as:

1. Hedonic well-being (characterized by happiness gleaned from pleasurable experiences, such as sex)
2. Eudaimonic well-being (originating with Aristotle, this form of happiness comes from activities that bring you a greater sense of purpose, life meaning, or self-actualization)

Interestingly, while both are positive emotional states associated with happiness, the gene expressions they produced were not identical. Those whose sense of happiness was rooted in the eudaimonic camp were found to have favorable gene-expression profiles, while hedonic well-being produced gene profiles similar to those seen in people experiencing stress due to adversity. As reported byScientific American:3

"One interpretation is that eudaimonic well-being benefits immune function directly. But [researcher] Cole prefers to explain it in terms of response to stress. If someone is driven purely by hollow consumption, he argues, all of their happiness depends on their personal circumstances. If they run into adversity, they may become very stressed.

But if they care about things beyond themselves — community, politics, art — then everyday stresses will perhaps be of less concern. Eudaimonia, in other words, may help to buffer our sense of threat or uncertainty, potentially improving our health."

Perhaps people who are happy are less impacted by everyday stressors, and this ability to deflect stress is responsible for many of the gains to their health. Past research has also similarly found that positive emotions –including being happy, lively, and calm -- appear to play a role in immune function. One study found that when happy people are exposed to cold and flu viruses, they're less likely to get sick and, if they do, exhibit fewer symptoms.4

The association held true regardless of the participants' levels of self-esteem, purpose, extraversion, age, education, body mass, or pre-study immunity to the virus, leading the lead researcher to say:5 "We need to take more seriously the possibility that positive emotional style is a major player in disease risk."

What Drives Happiness? A Combination of Genetics, Experiences, and More

Defining happiness is virtually as difficult as defining how to achieve it, although there is some research to suggest that some people are naturally happier than others. In one study of nearly 1,000 pairs of adult twins, researchers at the University of Edinburgh suggested that genes account for about 50 percent of the variation in people's levels of happiness.

The underlying determinant was genetically caused personality traits, such as being sociable, active, stable, hardworking, or conscientious.6 Further, according to psychologist Nancy Segal, research has shown that the biggest predictor of happiness in identical twins is the happiness level of the other twin.7

In separate research, survey data from two million people in more than 70 countries showed that happiness typically follows a U-shaped curve. Happiness starts high, trends downward into middle-age, and then climbs back up among older people if they do not have severe health problems.8

Studies like these suggest happiness is set in stone, but there is far more to the picture than this. No one is pre-determined to be unhappy, and even those who tend to be naturally negative can decide to change their outlook and become happier. Further, there are many other indicators of happiness outside of your genes (or your age). CNN recently highlighted some of the most interesting research on what makes people happy:9

• Emotional well-being rises with income (but only up to $75,000, after which no additional rises are seen)10
• Research suggests experiences make us happier than possessions; the "newness" of possessions wears off, as does the joy they bring you, but experiences improve your sense of vitality and "being alive" both during the experience and when you reflect back on it
• Older adults tend to have a greater sense of happiness than younger adults, perhaps because they regulate emotions better, are exposed to less stress, and have less negative emotions (and perhaps a diminished negative response)

Self-Acceptance May Be the Key to Happiness (Plus 9 Other Happy Habits)

There's increasing knowledge that happiness is a goal that you can actively work toward each and every day, and one way to do that may be by learning self-acceptance. In a survey of 5,000 people by the charity Action for Happiness in collaboration with Do Something Different, people were asked to rate themselves between one and 10 on 10 habits that are scientifically linked to happiness. While all 10 habits were strongly linked to overall life satisfaction, acceptance was the strongest predictor.

Yet, when answering the acceptance question (how often are you kind to yourself and think you're fine as you are?), nearly half of the respondents rated themselves at 5 or less (only 5 percent rated themselves a 10). Dr. Mark Williamson, director of Action for Happiness, said:11

"Our society puts huge pressure on us to be successful and to constantly compare ourselves with others. This causes a great deal of unhappiness and anxiety. These findings remind us that if we can learn to be more accepting of ourselves as we really are, we're likely to be much happier. The results also confirm us that our day-to-day habits have a much bigger impact on our happiness than we might imagine."

Each of the happy habits included in the survey have been linked to a more positive emotional state. Trying to practice these in your own life is just one way to boost your own personal happiness (together they spell the acronym GREAT DREAM):

• Giving: do things for others
• Relating: connect with people
• Exercising: take care of your body
• Appreciating: notice the world around
• Trying out: keep learning new things
• Direction: have goals to look forward to
• Resilience: find ways to bounce back
• Emotion: take a positive approach
• Acceptance: be comfortable with who you are
• Meaning: be part of something bigger

Men's Happiness Leads to a Healthy Marriage

You've probably heard the saying "happy wife, happy life," but new research actually found women's positivity levels had noimpact on the relationship. Instead, the health and attitude of the husband seemed to play a greater role, with women married to men with high levels of positivity less likely to report relationship conflicts.12

On the other hand, women whose husbands scored high on measures of neuroticism and extraversion were more likely to report conflict. Overall, married individuals tend to have better physical and emotional health than people who are not married, but the benefits likely only extend to overall happy marriages. The study suggests there are quite different markers of conflict in marriage among different genders, including even declining health. Whereas women whose husbands were in fair or poor physical health were more likely to report high levels of marital conflict, the same did not hold true for men whose wives were in poor health.

Happiness on Social Medial Is 'Viral'

Emotions are known to be contagious among people in direct contact (this is true for friends, acquaintances, and even strangers), and new research suggests they may also be contagious via social media. After analyzing over one billion status updates from Facebook users, the researchers from the University of California in San Diego found that each happy post encouraged an additional 1.75 happy updates among their Facebook friends.13 The researchers suggested social networks may be an important tool to improve mental, and thereby physical, health:14

"Our study suggests that people are not just choosing other people like themselves to associate with but actually causing their friends' emotional expressions to change… We have enough power in this data set to show that emotional expressions spread online and also that positive expressions spread more than negative.

…If an emotional change in one person spreads and causes a change in many, then we may be dramatically underestimating the effectiveness of efforts to improve mental and physical health. We should be doing everything we can to measure the effects of social networks and to learn how to magnify them so that we can create an epidemic of well-being."

Ready to Get Happy? Practice Mindfulness

Practicing "mindfulness" means that you're actively paying attention to the moment you're in right now, helping you to keep your internal focus. Rather than letting your mind wander, when you're mindful you're living in the moment and letting distracting thoughts pass through your mind without getting caught up in their emotional implications. Mindfulness can help to reduce stress-induced inflammation, and it's a strong example of how you can harness your own sense of power and control to achieve what you want in life, including a more positive, happier mental state. Simple techniques such as the following can help you to become more mindful:

• Pay focused attention to an aspect of sensory experience, such as the sound of your own breathing
• Distinguish between simple thoughts and those that are elaborated with emotion (such as "I have a test tomorrow" versus "What if I fail my test tomorrow and flunk my entire class?")
• Reframe emotional thoughts as simply "mental projections" so your mind can rest

Still, for many, happiness can be a poorly defined, elusive goal. One way to think about happiness is to define it as "whatever gets you excited." Once you've identified that activity, whatever it is, you can start focusing your mind around that so you can integrate more of it into your daily life.

Source: mercola.com 

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How Diet Foods and Drinks Can Actually Cause, NOT Prevent Diabetes

By Dr. Mercola

Many people equate eating sugar with the development of type 2 diabetes, and in an attempt to be healthier choose sugar-free diet products instead.

Imagine the irony if those diet products actually contained substances that cause an increase in fasting blood glucose levels and contribute to the onset of diabetes. Now stop imagining, because this isn't just a fantasy … it's the disturbing result of a newly published study.

Two Toxic Food Additives Common in Diet Foods May Cause Diabetes

A new study using mice as models showed that two additives often put in everyday foods to enhance flavor and reduce calories can actually cause an increase in fasting blood glucose levels, and contribute to the onset of diabetes. The toxins in this startling new study are aspartame and monosodium glutamate (MSG), and the evidence is stacked against them both.

The research showed that aspartame alone can cause an increase in fasting blood glucose levels and reduced insulin sensitivity. But when the two additives get together, they become partners in crime and cause an elevation in both weight and fasting glucose levels.

This is the first study ever to show the hyperglycemic effects of chronic exposure to a combination of these common food additives. Indeed, the consumer must exercise caution, as many mass-market foods contain both aspartame and hidden MSG – the perfect combination for diabetes development.

Researchers noted:

"Aspartame (ASP) and Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) are ubiquitous food additives with a common moiety: both contain acidic amino acids which can act as neurotransmitters, interacting with NMDA receptors concentrated in areas of the Central Nervous System regulating energy expenditure and conservation."

What You Need to Know About Aspartame and MSG

Many conventional nutritionists will actually recommend artificial sweeteners like aspartame as a smart choice over sugar, especially for people with diabetes, but you should know that, as a result of its unnatural structure, your body processes the amino acids found in aspartame very differently from those in a steak or a piece of fish.

Largely due to the unnaturally high ratio of this amino acid resulting in relatively dangerous levels, the amino acids in aspartame literally attack your cells, even crossing the blood-brain barrier to attack your brain cells, creating a toxic cellular environment of overstimulation called excitotoxicity. MSG is also an excitotoxin, and works synergistically with aspartame to create even more damage to your brain cells.

This is one of the major reasons why I do not recommend taking isolated amino acid supplements.

But the damage does not stay confined to your brain, as food additives like artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and MSG can lead you down a path of food addiction, obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome, while increasing your risk for numerous chronic diseases.

Consider MSG, which is added to 80 percent of all flavored foods. MSG excites the part of your brain that's in charge of your fat metabolism and storage, and has even been shown to scar the hypothalamus gland, inducing what is known as hypothalamic obesity.i So while MSG is most known for its excitotoxic properties, it's also used to fatten up mice in scientific studies. Yes, MSG is the perfect obesity drug.

Aspartame and MSG Can Make You Fat

It's speculated that the hormone leptin may be involved in weight gain, as those who consumed more MSG also produced more leptin.ii Researchers noted that MSG consumption may cause leptin resistance. The way your body stores fat is a highly regulated process that is controlled, primarily, by leptin. If you gain excess weight, the extra fat produces extra leptin that should alert your brain that your body is storing too much fat and needs to burn off the excess.

To do this, signals are sent to your brain to stop being hungry and to stop eating.

It is very important that your brain is able to accurately "hear" the messages leptin sends it, as otherwise you will continue to feel hungry and will likely continue to eat and store more fat. Leptin resistance occurs when your body is unable to properly respond to leptin's signals, which means your body can no longer hear the messages telling it to stop eating and burn fat -- so it remains hungry and stores more fat.

This will not only contribute to your weight gain, but also increase your risk of many chronic illnesses, as leptin resistance plays a significant, if not primary, role in heart disease, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, reproductive disorders, and perhaps the rate of aging itself. How does this all happen? By overexposure to high levels of the hormone, which is triggered by the typical American diet full of sugar, refined grains, and processed foods -- including those that contain MSG.

Animal studies have also shown that dietary MSG induces markers of insulin resistance,iii a direct cause of type 2 diabetes, while prior research by Ka He and colleagues found the additive may increase your likelihood of being overweight by three-fold.iv

Similarly, one reason for aspartame's potential to cause weight gain is because phenylalanine and aspartic acid – the two amino acids that make up 90 percent of aspartame -- are known to stimulate the rapid release of insulin and leptin, which are both intricately involved with satiety and fat storage. Insulin and leptin are also the primary hormones that regulate your metabolism.  So even though you're not eating calories in the form of sugar, aspartame can still raise your insulin and leptin levels. Elevated insulin and leptin levels, in turn, are two of the driving forces behind obesity, diabetes, and a number of our current chronic disease epidemics.

Why Our Food is Making Us Fat

It's likely that the cumulative effects of food additives in a highly processed diet are in large part to blame for the rising rates of obesity in the United States and other developed countries. This includes not only MSG and aspartame, which the featured study showed work synergistically to cause even more health damage, but also other ubiquitous food additives like corn and sugar.

Indeed, corn's weight-promoting property is highly prized in animal husbandry where it is used to fatten up cattle before slaughter. Corn oil is commonly used in fried foods, which are notorious for their ability to pack on the pounds. But corn's main deleterious effects come from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is used in so many processed foods that it's now almost impossible to avoid thanks in large part to the collusion between the food industry and government that serves to provide lavish subsidies to grow corn, which manipulate normal market forces.

Ultimately, sugar in all forms (including fructose, date sugar, molasses, coconut sugar, agave syrup, HFCS, etc.) increases your insulin and leptin levels and decreases receptor sensitivity for both of these vital hormones, and this is anothermajor factor in premature aging and age-related chronic degenerative diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, as well as a leading cause of the climbing rates of overweight and obesity in developed countries. So while MSG and aspartame in diet foods should certainly be avoided, the answer isn't to simply swap them out for sugar-laden processed alternatives...

Number of Kids Hospitalized With High Blood Pressure Doubles in 10 Years

This startling statistic is another product of our increasingly nutrionally devoid, food-additive-laden processed diets. The number of kids treated in U.S. hopsitals for high blood pressure nearly doubled from over 12,660 in 1997 to more than 24,600 in 2006.vThe researchers speculated that the biggest factor behind the massive increase is the corresponding rise in childhood obesity.

Unfortunately, children often mimic their parents, and without a positive role model for healthy diet and exercise, may fall into the same traps that many adults are finding themselves in. But the key to remember is that swapping out your child's regular soda for diet soda is not the answer... swapping out most processed foods for pure, healthy, whole foods is.

Rising Diabetes Rates Worldwide May Have Unforseen Consequences...

Also an interesting study came out last month that showed rising rates of type 2 diabetes in Africa could actually encourage the spread of malaria. As diabetes rates rise, so do cases of hyperinsulinemia, or high levels of insulin in your blood. Insulin actually suppresses mosquito's immune systems, which means that as more insulin enters the mosquito, their imune systems become less able to fight off the malaria infection, which means they are much more likely to spread malaria among humans.

Every year, malaria results in about 1 million deaths—which is half as many people as are killed by HIV/AIDS annually. It is such an enormous problem in Africa that each African child has, on average, between 1.6 and 5.4 episodes of malaria fever every year, so the fact that it could get even worse -- because of the ill effects of eating a poor diet, which is increasing rates of type 2 diabetes -- is an alarming prospect.

Did You Know Type 2 Diabetes is Nearly 100 Percent Preventable... and Reversible Without Drugs?

It's important to understand that many of the conventional recommendations for treating diabetes are not only flawed but dead wrong, and I discussed the reasons why in this previous article. To reverse the disease, you need to recover your body's insulin and leptin sensitivities – the ones that are so badly upset by eating a poor diet. So the ONLY way to accomplish this is through proper diet and exercise. There is NO drug that can correct leptin signaling and insulin resistance...  

Adhering to the following guidelines can help you do at least three things that are essential for successfully treating, and reversing, diabetes: recover your insulin/leptin sensitivity, help normalize your weight, and normalize your blood pressure:

• Severely limit or eliminate sugar and grains in your diet, especially fructose, which is far more detrimental than any other type of sugar. Following my Nutrition Plan will help you do this without too much fuss.
• Exercise regularly. Exercise is an absolutely essential factor, and without it, you're unlikely to get this devastating disease under control. It is one of the fastest and most powerful ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance. I recommendreviewing my exercise program for tips and guidelines. It is also critical to work your way up to include some Peak Fitness exercises.
• Avoid trans fats.
• Get plenty of omega-3 fats from a high quality, animal-based source, such as krill oil.
• Optimize your vitamin D levels. Recent studies have revealed that getting enough vitamin D can have a powerful effect on normalizing your blood pressure.
• Optimize your gut flora. Your gut is a living ecosystem, full of both good bacteria and bad. Multiple studies have shown thatobese people have different intestinal bacteria than lean people. The more good bacteria you have, the stronger your immune system will be and the better your body will function overall.
Fortunately, optimizing your gut flora is relatively easy. You can reseed your body with good bacteria by eating fermented foods (like natto, kefir, raw organic cheese, miso, and fermented vegetables) or by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement.
• Address any underlying emotional issues and/or stress. Non-invasive tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)can be extremely helpful and effective.
• Get enough high-quality sleep every night.
• Monitor your fasting insulin level. This is every bit as important as your fasting blood sugar. You'll want your fasting insulin level to be between 2 and 4. The higher your level, the worse your insulin sensitivity is.

    Source: mercola.com

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