5 Anxiety Cures That Your Doctor Won’t Tell You About. By Josh Meyers www.anxietymentor.com Today’s doctors are, in many ways, more skilled and more knowledgeable than they ever have been. Unfortunately they are also in a hurry. If you’re sick and need a prescription, they have just enough time to go over the dos and don’ts and move on to the next person. If however, you are struggling with something subtler and more complex like anxiety, they will try to fit you into the same mold as the rest of their patients. You will most likely get a prescription for an SSRI (Paxil, Prozac, Lexapro, etc.), hear about the side effects, and get an appointment to be seen in 6-8 weeks. The problem is that this strategy doesn’t work for most people. So here are some other things to think about that your doctor doesn’t have the time to explain to you, or just doesn’t know about. #1 Exercise: the pharmacy in your body. Most drugs only work because there is a natural version of that drug that your body already makes. One of the best ways to tap into the drug store in your body is through exercise, but you need to get ready to feel a little burn. This means aerobic exercise that has your heart rate up around 85-90% of maximum. If you go to a gym or have a heart-rate monitor you can easily calculate this. If you don’t, just slowly increase your effort until your breathing would keep you from getting out more than two words per breath. There are many positive chemicals that are released during exercise, one set of these is known as endorphins. We have these chemicals to help us continue an activity that causes us pain. So to get these chemicals flowing we need to feel moderate discomfort for 5-15 minutes. The good news is that they can last for hours afterwards! #2 Stimulants are a killer, and they are everywhere. If anxiety is your problem, then cutting out the caffeine is going to help. That means coffee, sodas (many), tea (black, green, chai), and most of the “energy” drinks. All of these things contain high doses of stimulants and most of the “energy” drinks combine high doses of caffeine with other stimulants like Taurine, Ginseng extract, Guarana and the like. We don’t really understand these newer stimulants and we really don’t know what they do when mixed together. The bottom line: Stay away. #3 Diet matters. If you struggle with excessive anxiety then you should be watching your blood sugar. When you let your blood sugar get too low your body uses some of the same chemicals to raise your blood sugar that are involved in the feelings of anxiety. Ever wonder why you get the shakes when your blood sugar is low? Eating smaller meals, but eating more often will help to regulate you blood sugar. Avoid excessive sugar in your meals to help even more. #4 Nutrients can help. Specifically, calcium and magnesium can have as powerful an effect on anxiety as some of the most effective drugs. Here in America we study drugs, patent drugs, and sell drugs. In Europe they are more willing to study things that would never turn a profit if proven to work, and they have found that simple nutrients can have a powerful effect. #5 Simple breathing exercises can offer big rewards. You don’t need to be a yogi, or a monk to get the benefits of breathing. All you need to know is that if you learn how to take a calming breath you limbic system (that part of your brain that is causing the problem) can’t help but calm down too. 10-20 minutes each day can be enough to stop anxiety in its tracks. When it comes to anxiety there is more to know than what your doctor will tell you, believe me I know. I have spent years of my life struggling with extreme anxiety as well as learning how to cure it. On a daily basis I put these ideas and more to work in my own life as well as in helping the lives of others. I make myself available to everyone 24/7. For more ideas or to reach me directly go to www.anxietymentor.com. Bio: Josh Meyers is a practicing Psychologist who lives in Southern California and focuses primarily on anxiety disorders. He teaches from both the knowledge gained in his schooling as well as his vast personal experience with anxiety/panic disorder.

So what does mean “fitness” and what stands for “aerobic” after all? Under the word fitness we should understand the state of wellbeing of a person. Your physical fitness is formed by a set of many different body capabilities like endurance, strength, flexibility, and coordination. Fitness is not only the physical health, but also mental health of a person along with self awareness and emotional satisfaction. So now we see that in general fitness is a state when mind, body and soul are in touch one with each other and what is more - souls do fit the bodies and live in harmony.

The term aerobic along with the exercise was invented by K. Copper from the U.S. Air Force in 1969. All his thoughts were documented in his book called “Aerobics”. All the data from the book became the baseline for all aerobic fitness programs that are based on oxygen consumption equivalency.

Talking about the term “aerobic” I can say that it is the most important factor of physical fitness. The origin of this word is Latin and the meaning is following: “aero” means oxygen (air), and “bic” is for bio (life). So any physical activity that requires the intake of oxygen could be called aerobic exercise. All aerobic fitness exercises must maintain increased heart rate and that is why such activity is almost the same as cardio exercises. There are also obvious reasons for this: exercises strengthen lungs and heart, increase cardiac capacity and use body fat and carbohydrates and the fuel (energy source).

Of course there are a lot of types of aerobic fitness exercise. All of them build up your endurance and stamina. Forms of exercise include the following: running, swimming, cycling, long distance skiing, power walking, rowing, use of different exercise machines (bikes, treadmills, and others). Actually all aerobic fitness exercises must be performed at high level of intensity and for a long time period. That is why running is considered as aerobic fitness exercise, but sprinting is not. Regular aerobic fitness exercise gives you a lot of health benefits. They are united in a group called “aerobic training effect” and give your body the following: strengthen muscles that are involved in respiration, strengthen heart muscle (that improves blood pumping efficiency), increase the number of red blood cells in the organism. In addition jogging or rope jumping may stimulate bone growth and reduce the risk of osteoporosis. The digestive system is fed more regularly and is cleaned more effectively.

Because of the very close connection between the mind and the body, mental fitness may now be seen to be in many ways equivalent to physical aerobic fitness. People that are in good aerobic condition tend to be more optimistic, more self-confident; more determined and, generally, have a higher energy level and of course a greater lust for life.

The group of aerobic fitness exercise may be divided into two major sub-groups – pre-choreographed aerobics and freestyle aerobics (exercise is linked to dance and choreography).

Want to use aerobic exercise to keep healthy? So did I, and so do I! But when I first came upon the idea of aerobic exercise the only option was jogging, although I think ‘aerobics’ or really aerobic dancing was just coming in. Not for me. So I joined the band of people who went around jogging up and down the road.

I learned that you needed to exercise every other day from the original exponents of the idea of aerobic exercise, and so that’s what I did. I used to be quite good at doing it every couple of days, except when travelling on business or on holiday.

Jogging for aerobics for a while -

Then I stopped doing it for a while, and took it up when I realised I was getting out of shape. Eventually, I got fed up with jogging. It is not much fun. Now if you are a really long distance runner, you get a kick from running – it’s a natural high. But I can’t say I got that.

Then, I heard that you can damage your joints, especially the knees, with too much jogging on concrete, so I gave it up – except at times of stress when I found the exercise helped calm me down! Of course, if you can jog on grass or heathland that will be OK, especially if you don’t do it too much.

Then I started swimming regularly

Later I tried swimming. Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise you can take, as it exercises nearly every muscle in the body – and is definitely aerobic. I found I soon got bored with pounding up and down the pool, probably because I am not a good swimmer and use too much energy doing it.

So I gave that up, too! Next came cycling, and when I started I was living in a very hilly area, so you could not go more that a mile without coming to a steep hill and getting your heart beat up suitably. Despite those hills I enjoyed cycling – always have I suppose, ever since my first proper bike gave me some real freedom at thirteen years old.

So now I cycle every two days. Although it is fairly flat where I live there just enough hills for this to qualify as aerobic exercise. I enjoy it, and it keeps me fit. Of course you need some other exercise as well – and this can be walking occasional swimming or whatever.

So, to keep fit do some aerobic exercise. Try one you think you will enjoy, and if that doesn’t work, try another. Cycling, power walking – preferably in a hilly area – jogging, swimming, roller blading, many sports and lots of other forms of exercise qualify as aerobic. The minimum according to the experts is that you exercise for eight minutes with your heart beat up about 40%. You can achieve the same result with a lower increase for a longer period, so choose something that you enjoy as your form of aerobic exercise.

Six Pack Abs Secrets

In order to get six pack abs, you have to burn off your abdominal fat — it really all comes down to this simple fact. Yet many abs training tapes and devices concentrate on toning your abdominal muscles rather than burning off the layer of fat covering them.The truth is, you can work out your abs as much as you want, but until you get rid of that fat, your six pack will remain hidden.So how do you get rid of abdominal fat? Is there a way to target that fat and burn it off quickly?Unfortunately, despite many claims to the contrary, there is no known way short of liposuction to spot target abdominal fat.In fact, you are genetically predisposed to gain and lose fat in certain areas and in a specific order. Generally, you will burn fat in the reverse order in which you gain it — in other words, if your abs are the first area to gain fat, they will generally be the last area in which you will be able to burn it off.But despite the near-impossibility of spot targeting abdominal fat, you can burn it off and get sick pack abs by being persistent and combining specific training methods with dietary changes.What type of training is best to burn off stomach fat? The answer might surprise you, for it isn’t long hours of running, jogging, or even swimming. Instead, the best exercise to start burning fat isn’t necessarily aerobic exercise at all.While it can be helpful to incorporate aerobic exercise into your routine, especially some form of mixed intensity running or elliptical training, an even better way to jump start your body’s fat burning engine is to start on a resistance training program. In other words, you’ve got to hit the weights.I’ve found that the most effective and least time-consuming form of resistance training is slow lifting. Doing fewer reps and sets at a much slower pace can yield as much as 50% faster muscle growth, and this muscle growth can lead to increased fat burning.So to burn off that stomach flab and reveal your six pack abs quickly, consider starting a slow lifting program combined with appropriate dietary measures, including carb restriction and increased consumption of quality protein. This combination of weight training and a reduced carb diet can yield very impressive results and can get you that six pack at long last.

If you are attempting to lose weight the two most important things you can do is to start eating right and definitely start an exercise routine. Your ultimate goal is to jump start your metabolism which will enable your body to burn more fat and in turn create more energy since the burning of calories creates energy.

Regardless of the amount of weight you’d like to lose the thing you need to focus on is increasing your metabolism. The reason for this is that when your metabolism is increased it will begin to stabilize at a higher level enabling you to burn more fat for energy at all times.

Now if you feel you need to lose a lot of weight I’d suggest that you first start increasing your metabolism by taking short brisk walks everyday. If you haven’t exercised in a while you want to start out slow so that you don’t cause injury or burn yourself out early in your quest. So start out with short walks, approximately 10 to 15 minutes per day. This will help to get the heart pumping and increase your blood circulation. This will also start increasing your oxygen intake which will increase the amount of oxygen to your entire body including your joints and ligaments. The addition oxygen helps to burn fat and increase your metabolism. Of course this is just a start and you will see some improvements, but as you get used to the increased exercise you will then want to start increasing the time and speed of your walks.

Once you start feeling your energy level and your strength increase you can then start adding some type of aerobic exercise program. Aerobic exercise will help with increasing your metabolism and help your heart muscles. Be aware that the aerobic heart rate is much higher that the ideal heart rate for burning fat, which is a bit lower in beat per minute. But you will still get the benefits of burning fat while pushing your metabolic rate much higher

Of course if you have less weight to lose your metabolism is probably a little higher already but you can still increase it, with more exercise of course. I’d suggest doing some type of cardio or aerobic exercise for at least 20 minutes every other day. I would also recommend eating 5 to 6 smaller meals throughout the day. This will give your body the continuous fuel to increase your metabolism.

The next level you want to approach is the level of strength and muscle building. This type of exercise will definitely increase your metabolism and will assist both men and women to build muscle which will allow the ability to burn fat at all times, even when you are at rest. Good or good! For all you woman don’t worry you do not need to get bulky, the weight lifting will provide toning and firming of your muscles and will help with your structure and the strength of your bones. For you men, lifting weights will start to give you more mass or just a more toned and cut look which will help you feel better about your body and yourself.

Many people do turn to supplements to increase their metabolism. This might be helpful but be careful. Make sure that you speak with your doctor whenever you start a new exercise program or if you start taking a metabolism increasing supplement. Be sure that there will not be any repercussions to your health or any conflicts with any prescription you may be taking. Also do some research on the ingredients and make sure they are good quality. There may be many supplements that work but pay attention to what your body is telling you and if the side effects create any discomfort discontinue the use of them.

The thing to focus on is that increasing your metabolism will assist you to burn fat and give you more energy. The addition of more muscle on your body will always make you look and feel better but no matter what route you take to boost your metabolism, make your health your number one priority.

Copyright (c) 2006 Douglas Alp

Aerobics: How Can It Help You?

Aerobic exercise strengthens your heart and improves the blood flow. It makes your heart pump harder by increasing your oxygen intake. You will live longer and healthier, and will avoid chronic health conditions.

Aerobics exercise helps you avoid coronary artery disease: If you had a heart attack aerobic fitness can help prevent other attacks. If you have high blood pressure, exercising can help lower it. Aerobics helps you avoid a few types of cancer as well: breast, colon, prostate and endometrial cancer. If you are a type two diabetic, aerobics helps you control your weight, reduce the probability of your being overweight, or other type two diabetes conditions.

Aerobic exercise helps you maintain your mobility, stay independent, and extend your lifespan. Regular aerobic exercise can keep your muscles efficient and strong, meaning stability on your feet as you get older. As you get older, aerobic helps your muscles stay strong, meaning you will avoid falls and fractures. People who engage in cardiovascular exercise seem to live longer than those who don’t.

You can easily lose weight if you combine diets with aerobic fitness.

(c) Project Weight Loss 2008. All rights reserved.

Too Tired to exercise?

You’ve had a long, taxing day at the office and you’re ready to head home and collapse in front of the T.V. You promised yourself you’d do a thirty minute workout but feel too exhausted to even think about it. Does this sound like a familiar situation? Two of the most common reasons people give for not working out are lack of time and fatigue. After all, a long day taking care of family or working at the office takes time and energy. Unfortunately, you still need exercise for both fitness and relaxation. What can you do to motivate yourself when you’re too tired to work out?Too tired to exercise: Have your iron levels checkedIf you already exercise and find you’re approaching your daily workout with excessive fatigue and lack of motivation, see your doctor and have your iron level checked. Your doctor can do a blood test called a ferreting level which measures your body’s stores of iron. Aerobic exercise can cause slow depletion of iron levels with iron being lost through sweating and through leakage of small amounts into the gut with sustained movements. Plus, it’s not uncommon for women of child bearing age to be iron deficient. If you’re iron deficient, iron supplementation may make all the difference in your energy levels and your attitude towards exercise. Too tired to exercise: Exercise when you awaken in the morningIf you feel tired and less motivated to exercise in the evening, try setting your alarm thirty minutes early and get your exercise session out of the way before the day starts. An early morning exercise session can help to energize and motivate you for the rest of the day. Plus, you can look forward to an evening of relaxation knowing you’ve accomplished your goal. This can be a simple solution to the problem of being too tired to work out. Too tired to exercise: Do it anywaySometimes the best cure for fatigue is a vigorous exercise session. Have you ever noticed how you can walk into the health club exhausted but after thirty minutes of motion you feel energized and invigorated? There’s nothing like exercise to get your blood flowing and zap fatigue. If it’s difficult for you to get motivated to make that trip to the club, promise yourself a small reward after you finish your session if you follow through. Just make sure it’s not a jelly donut!Too tired to exercise: Lighten up your workoutOn nights that you’re too tired to work out, follow a lighter, less rigorous routine. To motivate yourself to take the first step, tell yourself you’ll only exercise for ten minutes. After ten minutes have elapsed chances are you’ll feel so invigorated that you’ll want to keep going. Too tired to exercise: Change your exercise formatIf you feel fatigued with a lack of motivation towards exercise on a particular evening, change your workout entirely and substitute something fun. Instead of walking thirty minutes on the treadmill at the club, take your dog for a brisk walk or do thirty minutes of stretches while you watch your favorite T.V. show. You can get back on schedule the next time you exercise and the variety will be good for you both physically and mentally. Give these tips a try and soon you’ll no longer need the old excuse of being too tired to work out. Plus, you’ll look and feel like a new person.

If you’re worried about lowering your cholesterol level you’re not alone. Changing your diet to lower cholesterol is usually the first step in cholesterol maintenance, before medicines are added. People who have high cholesterol may be able to lower their cholesterol levels with these simple lifestyle changes:

Step 5) The School of Medicine at Stanford University did a study consisting of 377 men and post-menopausal women, with high cholesterol. First they put them on a low-fat diet, and then had half of them to do aerobic exercise, and the other half did no form of exercise at all.

After one year, the exercising group had significantly reduced their cholesterol levels – while the sedentary group showed no such reduction in their cholesterol. So the 5th step is to add aerobic exercise to your lifestyle.

Step 4) Did you know that the average person makes about 75% of their blood cholesterol in their own liver, while only about 25% is absorbed from food. So you should be able to further reduce your cholesterol with dietary changes.

A low-fat diet with no trans-fats will lower your cholesterol anywhere from 8% to 20%. There are several very good low-fat diets – the Dash Diet, Mediterranean Diet, the South Beach Diet, Ultra metabolism Diet, and Weight Watchers Diet are all great diets to reduce your fat and trans-fat intake. All of these diets have either online programs or manuals and books to provide step-by-step instructions and menu plans. So your 4th step is to add a reduced fat diet.

Step 3) One of the reasons your body produces Cholesterol is a self preservation tactic. Your arteries develop cracks and stress fractures as a natural occurrence. Your body must patch these cracks and fractures or you will bleed to death.

The substance of choice for your body to use is Collagen. However, if the raw ingredients needed aren’t present in sufficient quantities to produce this miraculous elixir, cholesterol can also be used instead.

So to keep your collagen production at its peak, rather than giving your liver a reason to produce additional cholesterol, give your body plenty of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Your 3rd step is to add vitamin C (ascorbic acid) to your diet.

Step 2) 60 recent heart bypass surgery patients were divided into groups. The first group had no dietary restrictions, while the second and third group had one white or one red grapefruit each day.

The second and third group had significantly lowered cholesterol levels while the no grapefruit group showed no reduction. But the red grapefruit group also had a reduction in their triglycerides. So step 2 is “Eat Red Grapefruit”, which will incidentally help with step 3 as well.

Step 1) A study of 14,600 men and women ages 45 to 75, recently showed the participants’ total cholesterol declined as their number of meals per day increased. Those who ate five or six times a day had the lowest total cholesterol, on average approximately 5% lower, while the highest measurements were found among those who ate only one or two meals a day. So your number 1 step, and incidentally the easiest, is to eat five or six small meals a day, rather than one or two large ones.

If you find a diet to lower cholesterol and follow these 5 steps, you should have your cholesterol to healthy levels as quickly as possible.

About the author: B.J. Gordey is the owner of Top10-diets.com. Are you looking for a diet to lower cholesterol and ways to add a low cholesterol diet to your lifestyle. You can learn a lot more about how a diet that works can help you at Top10-Diets.com.

Top Exercise Tips For Quick Back Pain Relief

A little exercise each day is a life enhancing aid for people looking for effective back pain treatment, that will have a much bigger benefit than anything else - including the best food, the best sex, and even the most exhilarating fun. The main reason people don’t do it more is that you have to take action for it to have any positive benefit for you.No doubt, if you’re like most people in need of chronic lower back pain relief, you have a to-do list as long as your arm. There’s no window of opportunity for even 15 minutes of low impact stretching and strengthening back exercises, let alone the three quarters of an hour to sixty minutes, three times a week that are needed for the aerobic exercise requisite of a normal exercise program.Here and now I’m going to empower you create the time - come hell or high water - because, again, people who have discovered chronic back pain relief everywhere recognize that regular exercise will prove to be more helpful and pain relieving to you in the long run, for relieving your back pain, than a lot of different remedies you can try.We’ll begin with the distinct lack of time you have available. Would you believe that allocating 10 or 15 minutes before you take a shower to exercise is probably even better than buying an insurance policy covering you against the next time you’ll go through all that pain and suffering due to that lower back pain?We all know that time is money, then the time you invest in exercise, which costs you nothing, it will save you the future expense (and lost time) that you could no doubt fork out to cover chiropractic, osteopathy, massage therapy, and so on - the next time your back muscles seize up and put you out of action.What’s that? You’re using so many hours each day that you’re struggling to get a good nights sleep, and your energy levels seem to be at an all time low? There’s your next reason to start exercising. As you’ll soon discover, this type of exercise, particularly regular aerobic exercise, can boost your health, well being and mood literally in a matter of minutes. You might expect that you’re energy levels will plummet, but, regular exercise actually boosts your energy levels, and can be a great aid in healing back pain.Even though it burns up calories and helps you lose weight, it won’t make you lethargic. In fact the opposite is true, exercise makes you feel more alert and alive - and because you tend to sleep better when you exercise, you will soon discover that you can get by on fewer hours sleep but feel even better than before.

Six Pack Abs Secrets

In order to get six pack abs, you have to burn off your abdominal fat — it really all comes down to this simple fact. Yet many abs training tapes and devices concentrate on toning your abdominal muscles rather than burning off the layer of fat covering them.The truth is, you can work out your abs as much as you want, but until you get rid of that fat, your six pack will remain hidden.So how do you get rid of abdominal fat? Is there a way to target that fat and burn it off quickly?Unfortunately, despite many claims to the contrary, there is no known way short of liposuction to spot target abdominal fat.In fact, you are genetically predisposed to gain and lose fat in certain areas and in a specific order. Generally, you will burn fat in the reverse order in which you gain it — in other words, if your abs are the first area to gain fat, they will generally be the last area in which you will be able to burn it off.But despite the near-impossibility of spot targeting abdominal fat, you can burn it off and get sick pack abs by being persistent and combining specific training methods with dietary changes.What type of training is best to burn off stomach fat? The answer might surprise you, for it isn’t long hours of running, jogging, or even swimming. Instead, the best exercise to start burning fat isn’t necessarily aerobic exercise at all.While it can be helpful to incorporate aerobic exercise into your routine, especially some form of mixed intensity running or elliptical training, an even better way to jump start your body’s fat burning engine is to start on a resistance training program. In other words, you’ve got to hit the weights.I’ve found that the most effective and least time-consuming form of resistance training is slow lifting. Doing fewer reps and sets at a much slower pace can yield as much as 50% faster muscle growth, and this muscle growth can lead to increased fat burning.So to burn off that stomach flab and reveal your six pack abs quickly, consider starting a slow lifting program combined with appropriate dietary measures, including carb restriction and increased consumption of quality protein. This combination of weight training and a reduced carb diet can yield very impressive results and can get you that six pack at long last.