5 Simple Steps to Losing Weight
If you are carrying around a few (I use that term loosely) extra pounds like most of us are, you all know all the reasons why we should take the weight off. It will reduce stress on our heart, reducing the chance of heart disease, cancer, possibility of diabetes; feel better, look more attractive, etc.
There are 101 reasons why, but it can be a real pain to finally get that weight off. You push really hard, make a little progress, get side tracked, and bam you are heavier then you started.
It’s maddening. Enough with that hassle, I have put together 5 simple steps to actually losing weight and keeping it off. These steps can be applied to anything, but we are focusing on weight loss here.
1. Know What You Want
2. Know Where You Are
3. Track Your Results
4. Make Course Corrections
5. Being held Accountable
Now all your extra weight will effortlessly melt off. Yeah right! A simple list of 5 items is not going to do it, so let me explain the intricacies of the 5 items and where the hang up normally occurs when applied to losing weight.
1. Know What You Want
This one is dead simple. Most people that want to lose weight have an idea of how many pounds they would like to lose or how they would like their body to look.
I think we can safely say if your body started looking the way you wanted it, you would know, even if you didn’t have it completely mapped out and detailed.
2. Know Where You Are
This is the big trip up. It is almost always overlooked and is the number one reason for the up and down Yo Yo effect we experience with losing weight. We are unhappy with how our body feels and how it looks and it is painful to zoom in and get an accurate picture of where we are. Unfortunately, we have to know where we are, to be able to accurately judge the results we are getting.
You are on a trip to San Diego, California. You would like to start your trip from Phoenix, Arizona, but you really don’t know where you are. No problem. You get an Arizona/California map and find that a simple 6 hours trip west on interstate 8 will get you to San Diego.
6 hours later, you have no clue where you are and it is definitely not warm San Diego. You feel defeated and you want to give up! Do you blame the car? The stupid maps? San Diego? Yourself?
Now what if I told you, you were actually in New Your City, not Phoenix, Arizona. A 6 hour car ride west from New York City will never get you to San Diego.
If you took the time to accurately find out where you were, you would have been able to choose the appropriate means to get to San Diego and have an expectation as to how long it would take.
This is the same with weight loss and our personal physical condition. In our minds, we think we are starting in a different physical condition then we really are. When the results don’t follow the illusion in your mind, we get upset.
3. Track Your Results
This is conceptually simple. If we have no clue as to WHAT we are doing, how do we know what is working? It might be a simple to do, but is also simple not to do. In the end, most people never track their results.
4. Make Course Corrections
We love to do this one. We have it hands down. It is like step 1 of knowing what you want. We try the new food diet, the super sit up machine, and the cardio hip hop power energy yoga fat burner class.
We might be great at switching it up, but without knowing where we are starting from and a history of tracked results, we have no clue as to what we should change or even which direction we should go.
5. Being held Accountable
No, not accountability! That is an evil word. I don’t want someone to know what I am doing, or more importantly what I am not doing.
So, why do we resist accountability, your secret weapon to weight loss? Because it works! If you know someone is going to be watching, you would follow through or at least feel very uncomfortable not following through.
Accountability when used wisely is the ultimate turbo booster to your weight loss. Since you are going to be accountable anyway, you might as well get something out of it.
Using accountability up front, you can achieve the body of your dreams. If you let your body hold you accountable, it will throw on fat in places you don’t want it to be.
The biggest obstacle to weight loss is not taking any action. It doesn’t matter how good the plan is, it is worthless if you don’t follow it. So what do I do now?
First and foremost get Accountable.
Forward this article to someone you respect and care about and tell them I want to be accountable to finally taking off my extra pounds. When they agree to support you, start working through Steps 1 – 5.
Founder of Accountability Buddy | Fracka Future
If you want to simplify the 5 Simple Steps to Losing Weight, check out Accountability Buddy. With 5 minutes of setup, it can keep you accountable, reminds you of your commitments, starts figuring out where you are, and tracks your progress. Stop the struggle and start achieving. For a 14 Day Free Trial Go To accountabilitybuddy.com/weight.html accountabilitybuddy.com/weight.html
Expert Beauty Tips To Survive The Holidays In Style
Now mater how frantic your schedule is this holiday season you can celebrate the holidays in stunning style and avoid the season’s must common beauty problems with the following expert beauty tips. Looking gorgeous for all the seasons festive has never been so easy.
Conceal under eyes bags – Place a small dot of contour cream or powder on the puff area under the eye and blend thoroughly. Next using a thin makeup brush or a Q-tip apply highlighter directly in the crease under the puffy area and blend. Now cover with foundation and set with face powder.
Reenergize flat lifeless hair – Flip your hair over and spritz a volumizing spray on the underside roots, flip hair back over and apply volumizing spray on top roots. Next using a hair dryer set on low blow bottom roots for a minute then do top roots for a minute.
Disguise blood shot eyes – Use dark blue eyeliner and mascara. The blue will bring out the white in your eyes and dilute the red.
Go from office to party – To easily take your makeup from work to party all you need is a glittery eye shadow, a lip gloss, eyeliner for touch up, and face powder with a large makeup brush. To take your wardrobe from work to party you need to start with a simply black dress or top and bottom combo that will work for the day with a business jacket or one of this seasons popular sweaters and which can be transform to party wear by simply adding one of the following items; glittering earrings and necklace set, a gold or sliver cardigan, or try one of the season’s hot velvet jackets.
Rejuvenate your complexion – Before going to bed remove all makeup and thoroughly cleanse your face. After cleaning your face massage your skin with a vitamin enriched moisturizer for about 3 minutes to nourish your skin, stimulate blood circulation and create a healthy natural glow.
Eileen Hammel is a Nationally & Internationally Recognized Image, Style and Beauty Expert Ms.Hammel is President of Smarter Image,and Smart Skin Care – Smart Cosmetics by Smarter Image. smartskincaresmartcosmetics.com/ smartskincaresmartcosmetics.com/
Reciprocal Maintenance Meditation, the Ending of War, Creation of Immortality, Gurdjieff Part 2 of 2
Gurdjieff died in 1949, about the same year as Ramana Maharshi.
Gurdjieff essentially synthesized ancient esoteric teachings and made them approachable and applicable to the lives of rational Western individuals. His concepts and methods are still seminal in the spiritual work of the west.
A seeker will find in his teachings an immeasurable treasure, the essence of so many other teachings, both spiritual and psychological, on the inner life.
This Gurdjieffian extraordinary system of thought, which ranges from the most intimate, psychological insights to a grandiose cosmology linking the individual with the universe, is a synthesis of practices and teachings known as The Fourth Way.
Then there is the man himself. Gurdjieff was the archetypal Master, beaming with extraordinary psychic powers developed in secret schools and monasteries somewhere between the Caucasus and the Himalayas; brutal soul-shattering insights; marvelous humor which was both ribald in the extreme and breathtakingly penetrating.
Gurdjieff also had a capacity for love that was matched only by his ability to express rage. He was a master hypnotist, a master actor, a master healer.
Those who encountered him often had opposite ideas of who he was, usually as a result of his own intentional behavior.
Like many Masters, Gurdjieff sometimes gave the impression of being a charlatan or mad to arrogant egotistic individuals, while to others he was the most enlightened man they would ever encounter.
His radiant energy, the Buddhafield of the Master, always acted on people’s negative energies to send people with a lot of it away, and attracted people with a lot of good, positive Soul energy.
In such a way, as with all Masters, Gurdjieff consciously separated the evil weeds from the good grain!
This powerful Master Gurdjieff, with eyes that pierced to the depths of the soul was also an old man whose pockets were full of candy for the children.
He worked by many methods, to bypass the mind he worked with dance, Gurdjieff said, “I am a simple teacher of dance”. Devi Dhyani has given performances of “The Sacred Dances of Gurdjieff” in order to radiate her Buddhafield more strongly, to throw out the bad and energise the good.
And when he explained the theory of the evolution of substances like hydrogens, carbons and oxygens in Ouspensky’s book, “The Fourth Way”, Gurdjieff was just tricking him, taking a very long winded intellectual theory to say to intellectual Ouspensky and to anyone else reading it, to bypass the mind, “You need the radiation of a Master to quicken your evolution!”
His major concepts were Buffers or Energy Blockages, like the organ Kundabuffer, Mechanical people, Sub – Personalities and the Soul Personality or Essence which I have described in the first article on Gurdjieff
Yet in his third book of the trilogy, Beelebub’s Tales to his Grandson, he talked about two more interlinked concepts.. Reciprocal Maintenance is the Taoist Macrocosmic Orbit Meditation and The Affirming and Denying Influences on man.
Here is a quote, “the Most High and Most Sacred Individuals to take the necessary measures to insure the formation on the Earth of what is called the sacred ‘askokin,’ so that this sacred cosmic substance, indispensable for the maintenance of the Universe, might issue continuously from your planet.
“His Conformity also explained that this cosmic substance, the sacred ‘askokin,’ exists throughout the Universe, generally blended with the sacred substances ‘abrustdonis’ and ‘helkdonis,’ and therefore, in order to have the degree of vivifyingness required for such maintenance, the sacred substance ‘askokin’ must first be freed from the other two substances.
“To tell the truth, my boy, I did not understand at once all that he told me, it all became clear to me only later when, during my studies of the fundamental cosmic laws, I learned that these sacred substances ‘abrustdonis’ and ‘helkdonis’ are precisely those substances which enter into the formation and perfecting of the higher being-bodies of the three-brained beings—that is, the ‘kesdjan body’ and the ‘body of the soul’—and that the separation of the sacred ‘askokin’ from the two other substances proceeds when beings, on whatever planet they may be, transmute these sacred substances in themselves for the forming and perfecting of their higher bodies, by means of conscious labor and intentional suffering.
“And when I became interested in these favorites of yours and began to observe and study their strange psyche, I finally understood why and to what ends Great Nature herself and the Most High and Most Saintly Individuals are always patiently adapting themselves to all things In this connection, the following personal opinion was formed in me.
“If only these favorites of yours would seriously ponder all this and serve Nature honestly in this respect, their being-self-perfecting might then proceed automatically, even with-
out the participation of their consciousness, and in any case, the poor Nature of this ill-fated planet would not have to strain so hard to adapt herself to remain within the common-cosmic harmony.
“But to the misfortune of everything existing in the Megalocosmos, there is no honesty in your favorites in fulfilling their duties, not even toward that Nature to whom, in truth, they owe their very existence.
“As regards the absence of honesty in your favorites in the fulfillment of their duty toward Nature, I have just remembered a very wise saying of our incomparable teacher Mullah Nasr Eddin, the hidden meaning of which is borne out in the present case.
” ‘Plague and cholera are in any event nobler than human honesty, for people with a conscience can at least live at peace with them. ‘
“And so, my dear Hassein, when it became clear that there had entirely disappeared from the psyche of your favorites the instinctive need for conscious labor and intentional suffering in order to take in and transmute in themselves the sacred substances abrustdonis and helkdonis—thus releasing the sacred askokin for the maintenance of the Universe—Great Nature was constrained to adapt herself and to extract this sacred substance by other means, one of them being precisely that periodic terrifying process of reciprocal destruction.
“Here, for a correct valuation of your contemporary favorites, it will be opportune to remind you that after the organ kundabuffer had been removed from the three-brained beings of your planet, the first generations of their descendants very soon learned that a certain substance had to be transformed through them and that their assistance in this transformation was one of their chief being-duties.
“Do you remember, I already told you that the three-brained beings of the continent of Atlantis even considered this being-duty as sacred and called it ‘amarloos,’ which in their language meant ‘help for the Universe. ‘
The Central Spiritual sun sends, shines energy, Affirming Influences, to earth in different quantities at different times dependent upon astrology.
Human beings and all nature have been created to transmute those different quantities of energy through a Reciprocal Maintenance meditation and send back Denying Influences to the central spiritual sun.
Reciprocal Maintenance Meditation also evolves humanity, creating the higher being bodies of the soul and the body Kesdjan, and allows a greater quantity and quality of energy to be transmuted.
If Reciprocal Maintenance does not occur then,
“It was also fully proved in the theory of Atarnakh that at certain periods depending on astrology, there must infallibly proceed on earth such a definite quantity of deaths as in their totality will yield vibrations of a definite degree of power.”
The energy from these deaths, unless provided by meditation, are provided by natural causes like Tsunamis, the sacrifice of animals, or the killing of human beings through war, or as Gurdjieff calls it, periods of Reciprocal Destruction.
Gurdjieff was saying that the death or sacrifice of animals was unaesthetic. Part of Beelzebubs Tales to his Grandson was how he came down to the planet several times over thousands of years and in that time he prevented the previous practices of animal and human sacrifice, first created in Babylonian times.
Death by war or natural disasters or sacrifice is an abomination.
Without the completion of the process of Reciprocal Maintenance Meditation, lives would grow shorter and people would forget their previous lifetimes in their next rebirth. In a way, completion of the Reciprocal Maintenance Meditation leads to Immortality!
Thus the solution to the problem of war and also to evolution is the advanced meditation of Reciprocal Maintenance resulting in a process of being-duty – opening the heart, conscious labor and intentional suffering for the benefit of others.
Thus we learn and practice the initiations of Energy Enhancement – Yoga, Pranayama, Meditation, Samadhi, Samyama, the Kundalini Kriyas, Chinese Alchemical Taoism and the Micro and Macrocosmic Orbits, VITRIOL and The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, The Grounding of Negative Energies, Reciprocal Maintenance, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Raja Yoga and the Eighteen Classical Yogas of the Bhagavad Gita.
Satchidanand,
Director of Energy Enhancement, is one of the leading teachers of Meditation!
He helps people worldwide reach further than they EVER thought possible,
FASTER!!!
Menstrual Cramps – Use Vitamins, Herbs and Exercise
About half of all premenopausal women develop cramps at some point during their menstrual cycle. For most women the cramping causes mild to moderate abdominal pain for up to a few days each month. However it is estimated that up to 10% of the women who have cramps experience sever cramps. Pain medication isn’t the only answer.
Menstrual cramps are the result of uterine spasms which occur as it is expels the lining. The resulting uterine tension impedes the blood flow to the uterus, which causes more cramping. There is a relationship between the level of toxicity in your body and the severity of menstrual cramping. Smoking makes the problem worse. Chemicals in cigarette smoke constrict blood vessels including those that go to the uterus. These chemicals also add to the body’s toxic load.
Many women use pharmaceutical analgesics to relieve menstrual cramp pain. Analgesic medications can help and may be needed if the cramping is severe. However, these drugs are not free of side effects and in the long run they can make the situation worse as they add to the toxic load of your body. Fortunately, there are things that you can do to relieve the problem of menstrual cramping. Some of the things that you can do include: making changes to your diet, taking vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements and doing exercises.
What you can do for menstrual cramps
Dietary changes
The following dietary changes will help. Avoid or drastically reduce your consumption of: sugar, alcohol, salt, coffee, tea and chocolate. Removing these from your diet will help to balance your blood sugar, water and hormonal levels. These foods also contribute to the body’s toxic levels and removing them will reduce your toxicity.. Eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables whole grains, nuts and seeds, beans and pulses and unrefined cold presses vegetable or seed oils. These foods will provide you with a range of nutrients that will assist in calming your muscles and nervous system so that the cramping is reduced. They will also assist the body to remove toxins.Treat any constipation (which will aggravate cramping) by adding plenty of fibre to your diet, drinking plenty of water and getting plenty of exercise. Avoid fatty meats, processed fats and fried foods. These foods add to your body’s toxicity.Avoid additives and preservatives as far as possible, as these are also major contributors to the body’s toxic load.
Do not smoke If you smoke join a quit smoking program such as at Growerz.com. They will help you to give up smoking for good and this will greatly improve your health and will help to alleviate menstrual cramps.
Relaxation and exercise
Menstrual cramps can cause tension and anxiety which in turn make the pain worse. Exercise and relaxation are able to break this cycle. Exercise will also increase the blood flow to all areas of the body including the uterus. Choose the relaxation and exercise which appeals to you. You might like walking, gardening, meditating, deep breathing, massage or yoga.
The following exercises will be useful as they direct the blood flow to the pelvic region. Use them, particularly, when you are in pain.
Lie flat on your back, bring your knees up to your chest and clasp them with your arms. Maintain this position for a few minutes. You can leave one leg on the floor and bring the other leg up if that is more comfortable.
Kneel down and stretch your head and arms out along the floor in front of you with your head between your arms and your elbows and forehead on the floor. Stay there for a few minutes.
Lie on your back with your legs in the air and rest for a few minutes. You can rest your legs against a wall if this is more comfortable.
Vitamin, mineral and other nutrient supplements
The following nutritional supplements will assist with increasing blood flow and decreasing the actual cramping. They are: calcium, magnesium, essential fatty acids (in evening primrose oil), edible linseed oil, vitamin B complex, vitamin C, Vitamin E and zinc. These can be obtained in a good multivitamin and mineral supplement.
Herbal muscle relaxants
Black cohosh, black haw, chasteberry, dong quai, evening primrose, kava and raspberry are herbs that are used to treat menstrual cramps. Other herbs that are also traditionally used are passionflower, yarrow and yucca. These herbs have plenty antispasmodic compounds that relieve muscle spasms and therefore also cramping. Many of these work whether used internally or externally. So you can use them as a herbal tea, add them to a baths or both. You can also use the essential oils from some of these herbs and rub these into your abdomen.
Wild yam, blue cohosh, cramp bark, black haw, and motherwort help to relax tension in the uterus and cervix. Garlic, cayenne pepper, ginger, rosemary and ginkgo biloba can be used as a circulatory tonic to ensure that you are getting sufficient blood flow to all areas including the pelvis.Skullcap, lemon balm, chamomile, lavender, or vervain can be used where there is general tension and stress. You can add hormonal balancing herbs such as chaste tree or false unicorn root.
Herbal mixtures
Two herbal mixtures that will help calm menstrual cramping are as follows:
1. This liniment is applied to sooth muscle tension and relieve menstrual cramps. All of the herbal ingredients have anti-spasmodic agents.
2 parts lemongrass 2 parts lemon balm 2 parts eucalyptus 2 parts lemon thyme 1 part oregano 1 part rosemary 1 part thyme Olive oil or unscented massage oil.
In an appropriately sized bowl combine the herbs and sufficient oil to cover them. Allow this to stand over night. The next day strain out the herbs.
Massage the oil onto your abdomen and any other areas of muscle tension. You can use the oil at room temperature or slightly warmed if you wish.
2. You can get relief by drinking by taking a tea that is rich in a compound called borneol. Borneol is a muscle relaxing spasmolytic compound. Cardamon is one of the best sources and this is followed by sage, rosemary and mountain mint.
Use any combination of the following herbs:
cardamon coriander mountain mint rosemary sage savory thyme lemongrass 1 cup of water Combine the herbs of your choice and add the lemon grass for a lemony flavour.
Place 1 teaspoonful of your combined herbs into a cup of freshly boiled water. Allow this to stand for 10 minutes and then strain out the herbs.
Allow this to cool slightly and drink. You can use this up to three times per day.
Menstrual cramping is problem for many women but there are many things that you can do to overcome the problem and so that you will not have to use potentially harmful pharmaceutical medications. You can make changes to your diet, reduce and remove the toxic load that your body is under, increase your intake of healthproductssite.com” target=”_blank vitamins and minerals, use relaxation and exercise and take herbal remedies. These changes will not only improve your menstrual cramping problems but the will enhance your total health and well-being.
Dr Jenny Tylee is an experienced health professional who is passionate about health and
wellbeing. She believes that health is not just absence of disease and seeks to actively promote
vitality and wellness through empowering others. She encourages people to improve their
health by growerz.com/landing.aspx?id=1&to=programs.aspx?progr quit smoking, safecoloncleansing.com/ cleansing their body, taking essential, non contaminated vitamin and mineral supplements (from healthproductssite.com) and many other methods, including herbal remedies. She also owns healthproductssite.com/healthy-living/ Healthy Living blog.