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Weight Loss Exercise

Sleep, Rest and Relaxation and health | sleep and rest



Sleep, rest and relaxation are a very important part of your daily ritual. I know that in the past I have gotten reved up with many projects and before long something has to be let go and it is usually the sleep that I need for a while. Don’t do it! As your sleep and rest start dropping you lose focus and can be lured into bad habits, sugar, coffee, and bad food. The worst thing about a lack of rest is that your body will not have a chance to heal from your earlier workouts, this can be very bad as you not only will feel sore longer but it will also suck your optimism for your new lifestyle.

How Much Sleep to Get

How much rest is enough? You probably already know this. I myself do not wake up with an alarm clock or clock radio anymore. I am fortunate to have a flexible start time and know that I will not sleep in past 8:00 in the morning. Try going to be earlier in the evening for a few nights and see when you wake up. In the fall and winter I always tape the TV shows that I watch so that I can get a chance to watch them when it is convenient to me not when it is convenient for the TV networks.

Another thing that pro bodybuilders do is have a nap in the afternoon, a nap can be great in cleansing your mind and letting you learn to relax better but you will probably find as I do that it si almost impossible to do except maybe on the weekends.

You can probably see from the tone of this information that I am delivering here that you must stop treating sleep and rest as something that takes away from something and instead learn to treat it as your own personal time, something a little more sacred than just something unavoidable that has to be done.

The Effects of Sleep

According to leading sleep researchers, there are techniques to combat common sleep problems:

  • Keep a regular sleep/wake schedule
  • Don’t drink or eat caffeine four to six hours before bed and minimize daytime use
  • Don’t smoke, especially near bedtime or if you awake in the night
  • Avoid alcohol and heavy meals before sleep
  • Get regular exercise
  • Minimize noise, light and excessive hot and cold temperatures where you sleep
  • Develop a regular bed time and go to bed at the same time each night
  • Try and wake up without an alarm clock
  • Attempt to go to bed earlier every night for certain period; this will ensure that you’re getting enough sleep

According to sleep researchers, a night’s sleep is divided into five continually shifting stages, defined by types of brain waves that reflect either lighter or deeper sleep. Toward morning, there is an increase in rapid eye movement, or REM sleep, when the muscles are relaxed and dreaming occurs, and recent memories may be consolidated in the brain.

No Hitting the Snooze Button

The experts say that hitting a snooze alarm over and over again to wake up is not the best way to feel rested. ‘The restorative value of rest is diminished, especially when the increments are short,’ said psychologist Edward Stepanski, PhD who has studied sleep fragmentation at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. This on and off again effect of dozing and waking causes shifts in the brain-wave patterns. Sleep-deprived snooze-button addicts are likely to shorten their quota of REM sleep, impairing their mental functioning during the day. (New York Times, October 12, 2004)

Certain therapies, like cognitive behavioral therapy teach people how to recognize and change patterns of thought and behavior to solve their problems. Recently this type of therapy has been shown to be very effective in getting people to fall asleep and conquer insomnia.

According to a study published in the October 2004 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, cognitive behavior therapy is more effec


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Weight Loss Exercise

How To Change Your Eating to Lose Weight

How To Change Your Eating to Lose Weight

Change Your Eating to Lose Weight

The way you eat can have just as much to do with your weight gain or weight loss as what you eat. By changing a few things regarding how you eat, you can actually save calories and feel fuller. These techniques are easy to follow and will not draw a lot of attention to your weight loss process.

1. Chew your food slower. Many times you eat fast and hurriedly. This can cause you to eat more calories than you actually think you are eating. My chewing your food slower and taking smaller bites, you can make yourself feel fuller and lose more weight.

2. Eat off a dark colored plate. Yep, even the color of your plate can make you hungrier or fuller. Use a cool or dark colored plate to cause your mind to relax and enjoy the food better, hence causing you to eat less and slower.

3. Relax and de-stress before you eat. Many people are emotional eaters and stress will cause them to eat more. Relaxing will allow you to eat less and enjoy your food more.

4. Have some water with your meal. Feel free to drink water between bites and before your meal. This will make you feel fuller and be better hydrated.

5. Leave the room that you are eating in after eating. This way you can feel completely done eating. Dishes and leftovers can wait for a few minutes while you relax and begin to digest your food.

6. Focus on one thing at a time. Yes, it can be tempting to read the paper or watch television while eating, but this can distract you from your portion control and can even create a habit. This can cause you to want to eat every time you watch television, rather than watch television while you eat, causing you to eat more calories.

7. Designate areas of the house in which food is allowed. Not only will this keep the house cleaner, but it will also teach you to only want to eat while in those designated area. This can help to keep cravings and temptations at bay.

8. Buy salad plates and use these instead of dinner plates. These are smaller and will make whatever you put on them look bigger. This will trick your mind into thinking that you have eaten more and therefore are not hungry for more.

These little changes are simple and easy to implement but are also very effective for controlling your appetite. Such simple techniques can help you to retrain your brain and body, causing further weight loss. With such simple techniques, there is no reason not to be able to stick to your diet plan, provided it is balanced and reasonable.

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General Weight Loss Tips

Help for Sciatic Nerve Pain

Sciatica occurs when something happens to the sciatic nerve. This nerve is found in the back of your leg. It controls muscles in the back of your knee. It gives you sensation in your lower leg, thigh, and sole of your foot. Sciatica refers to bad pain, weakness, or tingling in your leg. Sciatica is caused by injury. Sciatica is not a medical condition by itself, but a symptom of another medical issue.

One natural solution for relieving the pain associated with sciatica is to see a chiropractor. Instead of only temporarily relieving the pain, chiropractors focus on correctly the underlying problem. Chiropractors offer a completely natural way to ease the pain related to sciatica. If your body is not aligned correctly, chiropractors can adjust your alignment and relieve your pain. Millions of sciatica sufferers have found relief through the use of chiropractors.

Although as the sciatic nerve continues down the back, it branches off into both legs, it is common for only one leg to be much more symptomatic. Patients have described a sensation that is similar to feeling as though their leg is on fire. A painful sciatic nerve can create discomfort that ranges from being mildly inconvenient to becoming almost intolerable in nature. The basis of the symptoms that develop as a result of an inflamed sciatic nerve are primarily attributed to some kind of irritation to the nerve, or of the nerve being pinched or impinged upon. With even a slight injury, the sciatic nerve can become inflamed, swelling can result, thus the nerve tends to become pressed and pain results. The problem with having sciatic nerve pain can become so exacerbated that the nerves and muscles that control a persons bowel and bladder functions may become affected. In such cases, the patient should immediately seek medical attention.

Treatment for sciatica is directed towards maximizing mobility and your independence. The nerve problem should be classified and treated the right way. Some people with this need no treatment, and heal spontaneously. If there was no evidence of nerve degeneration, no history of trauma, sudden onset of the pain, no difficulty moving, then conservative treatments are the most effective.

Over the counter pain medications containing acedeminophin or aspirin are often helpful in treating sciatica. The application of ice packs over the area where the pain is the deepest can often reduce the inflammation. Some people find relief by alternating heating pads with periods of ice pack therapy. Anti-inflammatory prescription medication may be necessary if the pain proves hard to manage.

A number of natural remedies and supplements have shown improvement in some patients with an inflamed sciatic nerve. In particular, Sciatol has been reported to provide relief from the pain of sciatica, as well as decrease other symptoms such as inflammation and discomfort. Natural remedies such as Sciatol are often preferred by patients in order to avoid many of the side effects that can results from using a number of the various physician prescribed medications currently on the market. Moreover, Sciatol can also provide additional support and mobility of back movement even after symptoms have been resolved.

Learn more about exercises for sciatic nerve. Stop by our site where you can find out all about What Is Sciatica.

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