Wii Fit Success!

I did my Wii Fit workout tonight.  And for the first time I achieved a normal BMI on my body test!  Congratulations Transitions CLA, Carb Absorption Inhibitor, and Thermochrome!

The Simplest Solution

Last night, I had an experience that led me to realize that sometimes the simplest solution is the best one.  Last night, I had some chest pain which led me to believe I had some phlegm in my lungs.  Now as you've read my blogs, you know I have access to a wide variety of unique supplements and vitamin remedies.  But do you know what did the trick for me?  A hot shower and a mixture of warm milk and honey.  So while supplements are a good compensation in certain instances, and they can be beneficial, the first solution is to find options within what you use already, and then take the supplements to fill in the gap.

Why You Should Improve Your Health in This Economy

Let's face it.  This economy isn't the best economy to be looking for new ways to improve your health - when you're pinching every penny, the last thing you want to do is spend money out of your own pocket on something new.  But let's face it - this is exactly why you do want to change old habits, and yes, even spend more money on being healthy.  Shifting your eating habits to a low glycemic eating pattern will allow you to focus your body on feeling full and satisfied when it needs to be, which allows you to lose weight and thus require less food (not to mention that, if you feel full faster, you'll eat less).  Taking proper vitamin supplementation allows you to get sick less often, which is less sick time you have to take to nurse yourself back to health and return to work.  And furthermore, not only does maintaining the vitamin balance in your diet, you save money that you would have spent on preventative doctor's visits and eventually contracting diseases needing sophisticated and expensive pharmaceutical products, which all could have been prevented a lot sooner.

I can't tell you what you need, because for that, I would have to know you.  But feel free to write me at healthinthenavel@gmail.com, and I can give you a free consultation.  Or you can take this free health questionnaire.

Cleanse - complete!

I completed the cleanse last night, and now I'm starting the standard weight loss plan with the Transitions Lifestyle System. At least now I'm more sensitive to what I put into my body, so as I follow the plan, I can lean towards more low glycemic food that will allow me to burn fat.

I'll keep you posted on my progress, and in the coming weeks, I'll provide other health related topics for you.

Cleanse, Day 6

The cleanse has been difficult lately for several reasons. For one, switching to a diet of exclusively fruits and vegetables after having a diet of almost no fruits or vegetables has left me feeling hungry a lot, and I've been craving sweet tasting foods. Also the cleanse instructions said not to do the cleanse when you know you're going to have a stressful or busy week, and yet my week turned out to be just that (I worked a 54-hour week this week), and not only that, but there was a pie event at my church that I had forgotten about. So I didn't follow the cleanse as faithfully, but thanks to the Nutriclean system, I'm still managing to clean out my body of toxins.

Let this be a lesson to you - look up your schedule of social events, and don't schedule a cleanse on top of them.

Nevertheless, I could still feel a difference from when I was following the cleanse and when I wasn't. I actually felt lighter on the all fruit/vegetable day rather than the way I felt when I cheated and made myself pasta for dinner. And the pasta triggered cravings for foods that are definitely not good for me.

Perhaps there's some truth about cleanses helping you to lose weight.

Cleanse, Day 1

I know it's been a while since I've written, so I wanted to let you know what I'm up to. I just started the cleanse suggested by the Transitions Lifestyle System, and I'm combining it with the NutriClean cleansing system. Just to give a bit of background, the Transitions Lifestyle System is a comprehensive lifestyle system whose main benefit is weight loss, and keeping the weight off. And Nutriclean has a series of supplements that give a gentle full body cleanse. I figure with all the ads online about using both Açai and a cleanse, I'd better try it out.

Well, today was a challenge, given that the office had bought donuts, and walking around seeing all the good stuff from the street vendors. And my energy level was a bit lower (not surprising since I'm eating exclusively fruits and vegetables). On the other hand, my stomach was a lot more settled than when I eat some of the high starches.

The cleanse goes on for 7 days. I'll let you know more as the week goes by. :-)

Time to stop acting sick...

If you've read my blog recently, you noticed I had a monster cold recently. The way I know how bad it was is by the fact that it kept going in spite of the powerful antioxidant supplement I usually take. So I had to take a step back and take care of myself a little bit, and one of the casualties of that was my daily Wii Fit exercise routine. Well, I've got my energy back, although the sneezing comes and goes. I'm taking Vitamin C in addition to the antioxidants and the Açai supplement I've been taking lately (actually, I should be taking Vitamin C anyway, so this was a good excuse!) and now that I've got my energy, I think it's time to start the exercise routine again. With any luck, the added boost from working my body out will get my immune system going again to lick the last bit of problems my body's been having lately.

I'll keep you posted on the results. :-)

More urgency for preventative care

My last post talked about the need for preventative care for the uninsured. Well, it turns out that the uninsured aren't the only ones that need to worry.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090224/ap_on_go_ot/health_costs

Folks, the need to take better care of ourselves is even more and more critical. And yet, I know how much harder it is to do so these days. This morning on the subway, I listened to a doctor talk about the need we have to sleep, and yet, how we don't get enough of it. Some of that is lifestyle, and some of that is the nutrients we get in our diet.

Interesting thing is that we don't get enough magnesium in our diet. Magnesium helps you get to sleep at night, so by all means, get more of it! And then, if you have problems staying awake during the day, the solution to that is B-vitamins. Lay off the caffeine! (Did you know that caffeine is used to kill lame horses?)

Here's to your health!

Surviving un-insurance

Have you had a chance to read this article? If you haven't, read it, then come back. If seeing Michael Moore's Sicko hasn't convinced you, (and I'm still in touch with reality to know that there's a good number of you out there), then I'm sure this will help you see that there's a health care crisis. Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait until we get past the current economic crisis for our good friends in Washington to start considering H.R. 676 again, so how do we handle the situation in the meantime?

That's where self-education comes in. And self-care.

1) Maintain your weight. Learn the right way to eat and exercise to keep your energy up so your body can fight disease and get done what you need to get done.

2) Antioxidants - they do a great job of overcoming environmental factors. They can overcome allergy and cold symptoms and help you heal from injuries faster.

3) Vitamin supplements. The FDA will insist that they don't cure or treat illness, but they can still do a lot, and then let your body do the rest. Your body can actually do a lot when it has the right help. But make sure it's the right help.

Hopefully, this will help you need the doctor less often. Otherwise, write me back, let me know what specific problems you're having, and I'll see if I can solve them for you.

Curing a cold?

I've had this cold to deal with for a few days. It's not often that I get sick, so when I do, it's really big. Fortunately, I've been able to mitigate the impact of it. I used to just overdose on Vitamin C when I got sick, and I still do, but I've also taken up the antioxidant trend. Living in New York with all sorts of pollutants, who knows what's getting into my system?

I moved here almost four years ago, and I'll never forget developing a hacking cough so bad that I was told to go home from work and rest. Now, since that never happens, I figured I definitely needed to see a doctor, and having no insurance, I went to the cheapest doctor I could find, shelled out the $150 office visit fee (if I hadn't been working, it would have been only $30), only to have the doctor tell me it was an allergy. I asked him if he was sure, since I had never heard of a coughing allergy, but he was certain. Allergies were something I was used to, but not like this.

Fortunately, I had the good fortune of learning about free radicals - where they come from, what they do to your system, and how to deal with it. And thanks to an isotonic form of pycnogenol, I've been able to stem the tide of free radicals that have exacerbated my allergies in the past few years. I drink a shot of it on the first sneeze, and almost instantly, allergy symptoms are gone!

I also have been taking an açai supplement for the past couple weeks (inspired by the "two weeks to a flat stomach" ads), and it's boosted my energy, but I looked at the side of the bottle, and sure enough, it said it also promotes a positive immune response.

And, of course, there's good old fashioned Vitamin C. :-)

In any case, I'm almost got this out of my system. I'll give you the final update in a couple of days.

The beginning

So why are we here?

Turns out I noticed that there are some problems with health care today. I mean, with health care costs continuing to skyrocket, doctors being able to spend less and less time on you as their patient, we're becoming more and more beholden to the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical companies. Except are they really helping you?

Well, okay, they might be helping some of you, in which case, congratulations. But if it's not, or you're looking for something better, well, I think I've found a few ways to do it. And here's my way of finding out.

Over the next few weeks, months, and years, I will be documenting my efforts to help you lose weight, improve your eyesight, reverse the effects of autism, debunk the myths of psychiatric "illness" (and find remedies to those, too), and how to solve common problems like headaches, colds, and allergies. And do it with combinations of supplements and video games. (Who would have thought?)

Of course, that's just what I'm thinking of as I'm writing this right now sitting in the lobby of Landmark Education here in New York at 317A W. 33rd St. In other words, I'm sure I'll come up with other cool stuff to share with you as the blog goes along.

Oh, while you're at it, check out a similarly named blog at http://healthinthenavel.blogspot.com/ all having to do with women's health and pregnancy.