Beauty Fitness

Does Your Life Need A Cattle Prod?

If you're not sure what a cattle prod is, here's the goss: it's an electricity-charged rod that Australian cattlemen use to persuade cattle to run up ramps and into road-train trailers. Quickly. It's the sort of thing that can change their lives. Instantly. And it's the sort of metaphor many of us caught up in this overweight world would like to apply to our own lives. And improve them overnight.

Because, unfortunately, more than 60% of people in the Western world are way overweight - and the vast majority don't seem to have the zap required to change it. Every year statistics show that we get fatter and, perhaps conincidentally, lazier.

Within that statistic lie two categories of people - those who are trying to change, and those who are not. The first are obsessed with dieting and the second are obsessed with nothing - they just don't care. And both will fail.

That's right, they'll fail. Whether they try or not. Why? Probably because they don't really know what they want. They have either unrealistic expectations, or they have none. And they'll doom themselves to a life devoid of the good, the fun and the joy that vitality can bring.

Vitality is not about building an unattainable figure or comic-book abs. By just dropping a few pounds you can add years to your life and life to those years. It may be trite, but it is true. Deep down our experience already tells us that excess weight stresses joints, slashes stamina, and causes illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes.

The simple decision to start each day intending to eat better and exercise is enough to set in motion the events that will transform your life.

posted by Lyn Devon @ 6:28 PM |

Food Nutrition Tips

Food nutrition facts are unlikely to make the hit parade ... but they can be a whole lot healthier! Most of us don't eat the perfect diet all the time and most of us have our struggles with food. But if beauty and fitness are also a part of who we are, knowing a little bit about our health and food nutrition can help enormously.

Food nutrition can be enjoyable - a sought-after part of our routine. Those who equate food nutrition with medication for treatment of binge eating disorder or compulsive bingeing and purging are on the wrong planet. Food "cravings" are actually fairly normal at certain times - and simply being aware of that fact can kick-start your decision to live in health.

Fatigue and stress are often the culprits when food and nutrition get out of whack, particularly around bed-time. When food cravings are an option and our guard is down or stress is up, what starts out as a bedtime snack can quickly become a feeding frenzy. And most of us go to bed afterwards and wonder what happened. Perhaps surprisingly, such food bingeing is not about satisfying a food nutritional need or imbalance. It's more emotionally related.

So why not focus there to handle this threat to our good health?

A quick checklist would include:

• remove the temptation,


• get enough sleep,


• investigate alternative forms of nutrition,


• build a support network,


• identify what triggers damaging emotions,


• never skip a meal,


• exercise at least 150 minutes each week,


• check whether any medications may be stimulating your appetite, and find alternatives.

posted by Lyn Devon @ 12:29 AM |