Falling Short of Goals

Remember, goals are not inflexible roadblocks meant to make you feel badly about yourself. If you don't accomplish a goal exactly on schedule, so what? You can't predict what life is going to throw your way — but you CAN choose the way you react to situations that come up. That is where your power lies. If you fall off the wagon, just get back on —  no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Ways to De-stress

When you are stressed out at night and can't sleep, get up and write down all the things that are bothering you and how you might fix them. This gets the problems off your mind and calms you down because you know you have a game plan. Some other ways to de-stress include learning to meditate, getting a massage, taking a vacation, and most important, exercising! Whatever you do, please do not take any over-the-counter "adrenal support" supplements ― you could actually do more harm than good. De-stress naturally instead!

Stick with Strick!

Resist becoming lax about calories just because you exercise, and resist becoming lax about exercise just because you’re cutting calories.

Control Panic

Women are twice as likely as men to have panic attacks. If you have panic disorder, talk to your doctor about medications that can help and avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can bring on an attack or make the symptoms worse.

Hate to Workout

When you're trying to lose weight, you can't change just your eating habits. You have to work out to maintain your muscle mass, too. This ensures that the calories you do consume go toward rebuilding and repairing your muscles. If you restrict calories without working out, once your diet is over, you're in big trouble. Your body is smart; it tries to think about long-term survival and wants to hold on to all the calories it can. When you starve yourself, you're making your body think it's going through a famine, so it does everything it can to conserve calories — including cannibalizing your muscles for fuel. Without those muscles, your metabolism is slower. Muscles are crucial to keeping that metabolism humming, so keep yours strong!

Avoid These Foods for a Reason

The list of foods that lower levels or inhibit the actions of the appetite-regulating hormone leptin includes many of the foods you should avoid for other reasons. Foods high in saturated or trans fats may block leptin from reaching the brain. Alcohol is no friend to your leptin levels, and animal research suggests that high-fructose corn syrup causes leptin resistance. Steer clear of these foods! Also, eating a huge dinner can delay leptin release, so you want to be sure to spread your calories evenly throughout the day.

All or Nothing

If you haven't already done so, it's definitely time to kill the all-or-nothing attitude. One great way to do that is to get real regarding setbacks. We are all bound to have lapses on the road to health and wellness, so it's critical that we learn how to handle small failures positively, to minimize their long-term destructive effects. One setback is one setback -- it's not the end of the world, nor is it the end of your journey toward a better you!

Change Your Self-Talk

There are plenty of things in the world to get you down without YOU being one of them. Instead of picking on your "problem areas," think about how you're going to make your body better. Stop focusing on how you hate your arms or how gross you think your butt looks. Instead, make it a goal to improve that butt! Learning to be your own coach is what is going to propel you toward ultimate success.

For a Fit Mind and Body

1. Stay hydrated.

2. Watch what you eat.

3. Eat six meals at regular intervals.

4. Eat breakfast like a king and then reduce portions through the day till your last meal, which should be like a pauper.

5. Stay active: it could be anything from going to a gym to indulging in a sport - anything you like.

6. Take the stairs wherever and whenever you can.

7. Invest in a good pair of sneakers.

8. Your meal should be a balance of proteins, carbohydrates and essential fats.

9. Must have a multi- vitamin supplement once a day.

10. Have six cups of green tea a day since its an anti-oxidant and fat burner.

11. For anykind of cardio-vascular activity you do weight training is important. For strengthening of the joints and muscles as well as fat burn.

12. Gym gear is important. For people who exercise. Wear comfortable gym attire.

13. Post exercise a massage is important. To relax the mind and body.

14. Think good thoughts - keep your mind clear.

15. Dance. Be a free spirit and enjoy life.

16. Sleep eight hours minimum.

17. Smile more often. A happy mind is a fit mind.

Reward Your Feet

Use your thumb to massage your toes in circular motions. Then move to the ball of your foot and gradually work your way down to the heel, applying pressure with your fingers and the palm of your hand.

The Reality Diet

If you're concerned that a weight-loss plan could be an unproven fad diet, do some research and look for the science behind the diet’s claims. A better solution is to work with a nutritionist to create a diet that's realistic for you.

Avoids Injuries

Keep in mind that most of these injuries are caused from lack of conditioning and poor health in the first place. As you get healthier you should begin to feel those sore knees getting better with every workout.  No matter what, don't give up!  As long as you are watching what you eat and following the tips mentioned above you will continue to get healthy and lose weight. You may not be moving at the most accelerated pace, but you are moving forward, not backward. That’s something to celebrate!

Get Portions in Check

Americans have completely skewed ideas about portion size. No other country on earth offers portions as enormous as the ones here. Honestly, go anywhere else in the world and order a meal. You'll see the difference.  Here are a few techniques you can use to keep your portions under control — whether you are in eating in or at a restaurant.


If you're at home, use smaller plates. This creates the illusion of eating a bigger serving.


If you're at a restaurant and you know the portions are going to be huge, ask the server to put half your meal in a doggie bag before it even hits the table. This saves you money as well as unnecessary calorie overload.


Share an entrée with your dining partner.


Make a new rule for yourself: Always leave something on your plate. This reminds you that you are in control of the food, not the other way around.


A little bit of empowerment can go a long way!

Drink It Black

Without cream or sugar, coffee contains zero fat and only a couple of calories. What's more, coffee drinkers may have a lower risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer.

Let it Out, Carefully

Go ahead and express your anger; it's actually healthy. But remember that you have a choice about how you handle it. If you tend to blow up, anger management therapy can help you gain control over your emotions and react more appropriately.

Balancing Act

Studies on fatigue show that resting too much can cause you to feel tired. Conversely, doing too much can also make you feel tired. It's important to balance periods of rest with periods of activity.

Bring a Plant to Work

Studies have found that viewing nature has a relaxing effect on the body and can even lower blood pressure.

A Natural Antidepressant

Not convinced that those dead lifts can lift your mood? Check this out: A growing body of research suggests that exercise can relieve symptoms of depression, including sadness, irritability, stress, fatigue, anger, self-doubt, and hopelessness. It's unclear exactly why, but researchers think that exercise's effect on endorphins and other mood-lifting neurotransmitters may be at play. Exercise also lowers your levels of the stress hormone cortisol and helps you to sleep better. Okay, I think that's enough reasons to work out ― now get to the gym and start feeling better!

No Motivation

Having a vision of the future affects your behavior now. You can't achieve success if you're not moving toward something. Think about your ultimate long-term goal, and then break it down into less overwhelming mini-goals. Then find some incentives to help you stay the course.  The key is to let your daily actions be governed by your game plan for a new you. Keep that game plan in the forefront of your mind when thinking and writing about that future, so you can let it become real. There's no deadline. Just commit to the process and take it day by day.

Feel the Burn

Not only do high-intensity workouts burn more calories per session, they also trigger higher post-workout metabolism rates and fat afterburn. This means you'll continue to burn calories and fat for longer AFTER your workout too. How great is that? Having sung the praises of high-intensity sessions, I have to say it's also true that carb calories become fat calories after a while anyway, so when it comes down to it, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. Forget the notion of a fat-burning zone. There is only one moral of the story: Burn as many calories as possible whenever you work out.

Don't Let It Fester

It’s human nature to avoid unpleasant topics and circumstances, but if you're concerned about a brewing situation, whether at work or at home, address it early to keep things from becoming more serious.

Take a Stretch Break

Get up and stretch the muscles in your neck and shoulders. Relax your arms and roll your shoulders. Gently roll your head from side to side, feeling the muscles in your neck and back stretch and relax.

Go Vegetarian Tonight

The American Heart Association recommends a diet that is low in saturated fats and trans fats. Cholesterol and saturated fats come primarily from meat, so why not try a vegetarian meal?

Living Your Dreams

Setting goals is essential for living the life of your dreams. I mean, how are you going to get anywhere in this life if you don't identify your destination? Think of your ultimate goals as destinations, and your short- and long-term goals as road maps to the life you want to live. The path to get there may not be the smoothest or shortest, but it will make arriving at your end destination even that much sweeter. After all, life truly is about the journey and you should never be afraid to be 100 percent yourself.

Water!!

Importance of water for maintaining normal health:


Just as water helps a seed grow into a tree, it also helps our body. The flow of water inside and outside the cells generates energy. This energy is stored in body along with other chemical sources of energy in the body. The energy generated by the water in the cells helps transmit impulses in the nerves. Water content in the body influences the functions of the various proteins and enzymes that are dissolved in it.


Water helps maintain the moisture of the lining of the internal organs of the body. It maintains normal volume and consistency of fluids such as blood and lymph. It regulates body temperature.


It removes 'toxins' from the body
Water is essential for regulating the normal structure and functions of the skin. The body loses about four litres of water every day. It is, therefore, necessary to replenish this volume by drinking at least the equivalent amount of water every day. Inadequate intake of water can lead to dehydration.

Let Go During Lunch

Devote part of your lunch hour to a relaxation session. Take a walk, read a book, or do some knitting — the repetitive nature of this craft can be very soothing.

Menu Makeover

Before your next trip to the grocery store, take a few minutes to look through a cookbook or your favorite food magazine or Web site to find a new recipe that inspires you and encourages good health.

Get on the Right Track

Having the right mental state is so important because thought is behavior — your mind is your strongest tool, and the way you think of yourself manifests as your reality. We all know how easily negative thoughts about ourselves can lead to poor self-image, lack of confidence, hopelessness, and depression. You've heard about self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Well, if you tell yourself that you'll always be fat or that you'll never find happiness, chances are you will always be fat and you won't ever be happy. But imagine what could be possible if you harnessed your mental power with positive thoughts. Nothing is impossible for the willing mind.

Take on Take-Out

Follow these five simple take-out menu guidelines to cut calories: Skip the bread and all things fried, choose vegetable-based soups, order salads with the dressing on the side, opt for fish or skinless chicken entrées, and pile on the veggies!

Tiny Seed, Big Benefit

Studies show that flaxseed may aid in lowering cholesterol, reducing bone loss, promoting weight loss, increasing immunity, and fighting cancer.

7 Best fruits for your health

You can go on a 3-day fruit fast to cleanse your body. Just eat fruits and drink fruit juice throughout the 3 days and you will be surprised when your friends tell you how radiant you look! 


KIWI: 
Tiny but mighty. This is a good source of potassium, magnesium, vitamin E & fiber. Its vitamin C content is twice that of an orange. 


APPLE: 
An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Although an apple has a low vitamin C content, it has antioxidants & flavonoid which enhances the activity of vitamin C thereby helping to lower the risks of colon cancer, heart attack & stroke. 


STRAWBERRY: 
Protective Fruit. Strawberries have the highest total antioxidant power among major fruits & protect the body from cancer-causing, blood vessel-clogging free radicals. 


ORANGE: 
Sweetest medicine, eating 2 to 4 oranges a day may help keep colds away, lower cholesterol, prevent & dissolve kidney stones as well as lessens the risk of colon cancer. 


WATERMELON: 
Coolest thirst quencher. Composed of 92% water, it is also packed with a giant dose of glutathione, which helps boost our immune system. They are also a key source of lycopene - the cancer fighting oxidant. Other nutrients found in watermelon are vitamin C & Potassium. 


GUAVA & PAPAYA: 
Top awards for vitamin C. They are the clear winners for their high vitamin C content. Guava is also rich in fiber, which helps prevent constipation. Papaya is rich in carotene; this is good for your eyes.