This eZine (No. 139)

Nutrition:	Is It All in Your Mind?
Supplements:	Research on Antioxidants for Better Health
Wellness:	Healthy Body Maintenance

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Is It All in Your Mind?

By: Dave Osh

Have you ever asked yourself why do we fail so many times trying to adopt new healthy lifestyle?

How come with all the accumulated physical and mind knowledge, only a few really make their way to transform their body, their mind and their life?

Many books have been written about mind transformation and physical transformation. But even those with very catchy titles such as “mind over body” have missed the symbiotic relationship between body and mind.

Yes! Your mind directs your body to wherever you want. But your body needs to collaborate. Usually it doesn’t. Like most human beings, your body resists change. Actually it fights back to reverse any change you apply and if you don’t play it right, in most cases, the body wins the battle. You lose it.

Here is one example. You decide to lose weight by completely cutting off ice-cream and deserts. You are very determined to stick to your decision. “It’s easy”, you tell yourself. “I don’t go for a crazy diet.” ”I don’t starve myself.” “I’m just cutting the deserts”.

You do well for a few days and you’re so happy. But then you have a party at the Johnsons on Saturday. You swear you’re not going to taste any of the cakes or the muffins that will be served. You’re doing so well. But then something happens at 11 PM. You even remember the exact moment that your stomach sends you sharp pains. You ignore it and grab another veggie. But the more celery and carrot you dip into the cheese, the more your sugar craving signals build up.

You decide to trick your body. You cut yourself just a “small” piece of cake. You say to yourself, “I will get satisfied tasting a small bite and stop these painful cravings”.

Can you continue the story? How many times has it happened to you? How many more “small” pieces did you end up “tasting”? It happened to me many times until I found a way to break this vicious cycle.

Is it all in your mind? Why do many ambitious, self controlled, successful people who have proved their will power in many other situations, fail to achieve their desired healthy life style?

It’s simple! Our body’s mechanism is stronger in most cases than our mind’s wishful thinking.

The only way to win this war is to manipulate your body. It’s not easy if you don’t know the technique, but it’s doable if you discover the way to break the vicious cycle.

The solution is not in your brain. It’s in your pancreas. Can you believe it? This overlooked organ controls your blood sugar level by secreting insulin to your blood stream and “injecting” the blood sugar into your cells.

Whenever you eat – especially when you eat carbohydrates – the food is converted to blood sugar (glucose), and your pancreas cranks up its production of insulin. The insulin sends the blood sugar into your cells, and your cells use it for energy. When your blood sugar is high, your body hates to waste all that fuel. So whatever it can’t use right away for energy, it stores as fat to be used later.

It’s not your mind that makes you crave these foods. It’s your blood sugar that makes you overweight. Find out more about the impact of blood sugar in the article “It’s not your fat. It’s not your carbs…It’s your blood sugar!"

The problem is much more than the peaking of blood sugar that causes you to gain weight. When blood sugar drops sharply, and it usually does drop sharply, insulin levels drop sharply as well.

It is this “craving” mechanism that your mind cannot handle. This insulin drop is the signal that drops you off any diet you are trying or any new lifestyle you are implementing.

What you need to do is replace your “high Glycemic Index” foods with “low Glycemic Index” foods without changing your rest of your eating habits (for example: sweeten your cakes and deserts with Xylitol instead of sugar).

Article Source: http://www.bodyformind.com/db

About the author:
Dave Osh is the author of "Perpetual Wellbeing - 4 Steps to Ageless Sex-Appeal" and the revolutionary Anti-Aging Fitness Program "Change Your Body and Be Admired".

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Research on Antioxidants for Better Health

By: Tara Smith

Free radicals are highly unstable molecules that are naturally formed inside our bodies by the process of oxidation. They are normal by products of everyday functions like digestion and physical activity. Free radicals also come from outside sources, such as smoking, environmental pollution, and synthetic chemicals that are added to our water and food.

There are a variety of different "superfoods" which provide essential vitamins, antioxidants, energy enhancers, macro minerals, lipotropic factors, and other key nutrients which have been known to help minimize free radical formation that speeds up the aging process and supports optimal heart, brain and immune functioning.

In light of the role free radicals play in the onset of aging and disease, it is important to ensure our diets include a rich and diverse supply of antioxidants to improve the health of our cells throughout our bodies and to protect our cells from the ravages of oxidation.

The cells of our bodies are now increasingly subject to damage from free radicals due to the high levels of environmental toxins in our diet and the reduced levels of antioxidants in our food to combat free radical damage. Most companies which make skin care related products tout the goodness of antioxidants and natural products that contain antioxidants.

A healthy level of free radicals is needed by the body in order to get rid of bacteria. Free radicals are atoms or groups of atoms that have at least one unpaired electron, which makes them highly reactive. Free radicals promote beneficial oxidation that produces energy and kills bacterial invaders. In excess, however, they produce harmful oxidation that can damage cell membranes and cell contents.

An antioxidant is a chemical that reduces the amount of oxidation in your body. They are also the cells that are stored in your muscles to help contain the damage that can occur with oxidation. Oxidative stress is being shown to be at the root of disease and aging.

As we age, free radical levels rise and yet the body falls short in producing necessary amounts of antioxidants to meet this challenge. Today, a great deal of experimental evidence supports the premise that length of life is determined by the crucial balance of antioxidants with free radicals in the body. If you find it difficult to consume an abundance of antioxidants from the recommended food groups, then taking daily supplements should solve the problem.

Staying clear of situations that cause a surge of free radicals to surge is one way of prevention and taking antioxidants as a supplementation is another. There are many situations that will increase free radical activities such as sun burn, stress, smoking, alcohol consumption, pollution, exercise workout amongst others.

The production of free radicals is a normal bodily process, and it is part of the process of breathing and living. Free radicals are normally neutralized by the body's natural defense system, rendering them harmless. However, anything that weakens the body's natural defenses weakens its ability to fight off these free radicals. Those weakening agents include environmental pollution, excess UV radiation and even excessive consumption of alcohol.

Article Source: http://www.bodyformind.com/db

About the author:
http://www.mymonavie.com/wealthontap/

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Give your children the gift of Emotional Intelligence....

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Healthy Body Maintenance

By: Hector Leon

I have always percieved the human body as a perfect container that we use to move through the material world. Our minds (the leader of the container) navigates the container (body) and makes sure that we arrive at our destination in a safe manner. Just like like any other form of mechanically driven device we have to make sure to take care of our container for reliable usage.

We normally take great care of our vehicles; we change the oil, change the anti freeze or coolant and even check the tire pressures. Without our vehicles we wouldn't be able go to work to earn a living, so we go out of our ways to perform weekly preventative maintenance to ensure that our vehicles don't break down.

Our bodies (the car) tend to take a pounding as the years go by; we work long hours, ingest large amounts of junk food, disregard good excercise and are exposed to all kinds of harsh chemicals. We take great efforts to tend to the more visible things, like our teeth and vision. Nevertheless, we never bother to take care of the subtle things.

Years go by and so one day you wake up - with bright healthy teeth - experiencing unusual discomfort and body aches, so you go to the doctor only to find out that you have some form of degenerative disease. And so you find yourself wondering why this happened thus spending countless hours visiting the doctor and popping pills that create other side effects.

Now... how can we avoid this type of scene? Very easy... routine exercise like jogging and a good nutritional diet plan. If you lack the time to ingest all the daily nutrition you need then get a liquid phytonutrient - phytonutrient beverages are an great way to get all the the daily nutrition that come from all the color fruits and vegetables.

By practicing daily preventative maintenance you can maintain a healthy body and prevent degenerative diseases that could potentially cause problems in your later years of life.

Article Source: http://www.bodyformind.com/db

About the author:
 Hector Leon, provides educational material that can help inform and encourage good health and nutrition . The author properly believes that a proper diet, exercise routine and phytonutrients can prevent major diseases.

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For your health and happiness,

Ainsley & Dave