When it comes to diet & exercise, most of us are absolute geniuses at finding reasons why it’s too hard or “not right for us.” If you’re overweight but the picture of health, you may be able to get away with this.

If you’re not, there are no excuses for ruining your health. You need to stop making excuses and start making progress. Here are 7 steps to do so.

1. Start Small. The best way to do this is to start small. Don’t try to scale a mountain on your first day. By taking the time to gradually change your diet and add in short exercises, you’re setting yourself up for victory instead of failure.

While it may not seem like you’re doing a lot, you’re taking the first steps on the road to health. Those first steps are the hardest, but it will get a lot easier.

2. Remove Soda. Instead of going on a crazy starvation diet, start small by cutting out 1 useless food a week. For example, start with soda. You can easily lose 10lbs in 2 weeks by removing soda from your diet.

Look at all of the foods you eat or drink that have a lot of calories. Target these first and start removing them one by one. As you successfully get one out of your life, move on to the next one.

3. Exercise No Matter How Little. For exercise, starting small can really pay off, especially if you’re not in the best of shape. Start by taking one small lap around the block, walking at a slow pace. The next day, make it two laps, etc:

You may not be doing much at first, but again, you’re building that foundation. The key is to keep moving forward and keep adding more until you’re doing more than you ever thought possible.

4. Add More Exercise To Strengthen Exercise Foundation. Let’s look at your health like a building. It’s already been leveled and now you’re going to need to start from the ground up.

If you rush the foundation and sloppily put it together, the whole structure is going to come tumbling down effectively. By taking the time to lay those bricks one by one, you’re building a foundation that is going to last the test of time.

5. Remove Problem Foods To Strengthen Diet Foundation. The same applies to your diet. By slowly removing your problem foods, you’re putting down bricks that will help you change your entire lifestyle.

Instead of trying to quit everything at once and put your foundation together in a rush, take the time to do things one at a time. You’ll be much more likely to succeed.

6. Strive for 90% Success With Diet and Exercise. Why 90%? It is difficult enough to achieve to avoid avoid cheating AND it is lenient enough so that you can forgive yourself for mistakes.

7. Fix Your Foundation Before Building Your Skyscraper. One of the best reasons to start small is that if you do have a setback, it’s a lot easier to get back on track.

Returning to our building analogy, if you have a brick that crumbles, but you haven’t added on a new row on top of it, it’s a lot easier to fix that brick and then continue.

Lay your foundation the right way and look at every brick as your own personal victory on the way to building an impressive structure.

These easy tips will make it much easier to lose weight. They are all very simple lifestyle changes that are easy to implement. These should be used to supplement a healthy eating plan, not replace it. Be sure to exercise regularly to maximize your weight loss results.

1. Open your curtains or blinds first thing when you wake up. Bright light jumpstarts your metabolism.
2. Get some exercise within the first hour of being awake.
3. Have a healthy breakfast with high quality protein.
4. Go for a 10-minute walk within 30 minutes of eating a meal. It will make your body burn the calories twice as fast.
5. Chew sugar-free gum. Even small movements such as chewing will keep your body constantly burning more calories.
6. Park as far as possible from the store when you go shopping.
7. Sit in a rocking chair if you watch television.
8. Breath long and deep instead of short and shallow.
9. Drink lots of ice water throughout the day. The water decreases your appetite. The ice causes your body to work harder to keep your body temperature normal.
10. Drink green tea.
11. Sit up straight. It will strengthen your back and abdominal muscles.
12. Keep the temperature cooler and don’t use sweaters or an extra blanket. Your metabolism uses more energy to heat up your body temperature.
13. Eat starchy carbohydrates as early in the day as possible and don’t eat any with dinner.
14. Have fresh fruit for dessert after dinner to stabilize your blood sugar.
15. Don’t skip meals. When you skip meals, it triggers production of a hormone called ghrelin, which causes overeating.
16. Stretch and take regular breaks at work. Even a 30-second stretch will help.
17. Eat healthy snacks such as fruit, low-fat cheese, vegetable sticks or protein shakes. Click Here for a List of Healthy Snacks. 
18. Eat dinner as early in the evening as possible.
19. Get up and wash the dishes right after dinner. You will burn calories and not be tempted with leftovers.
20. Get deep rest between midnight and 3:00 a.m. Click Here for Tips on Getting a good Night’s Sleep.

Bottled water isn’t any better for you than tap water in American cities-and even the bottled water industry won’t argue the point. But what about the new “enhanced” waters containing vitamins and herbs? Their snappy names and lists of additives do imply health benefits beyond the goal of staying well-hydrated. Unfortunately, the science behind them is weak, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group for information on nutrition. So before you load the cooler with pricey vitamin-enhanced waters, consider filling up empties at the tap instead. There are better ways to relax, get refreshed and boost your immunity than by downing the enhanced waters below:

1. Calming Waters?Coca Cola’s VitaminWater B-Relaxed Jackfruit-Guava contains several vitamins B and theanine, a natural ingredient in tea, along with 125 calories’ worth of sugar per bottle. According to a Coca-Cola spokesperson, theanine levels of 50 mg to 200 mg have been shown to stimulate the “production of alpha brain waves, which are associated with a relaxed state of mental alertness.” A 20-fluid-ounce bottle contains 50 mg of theanine, compared to 20 mg in a cup of tea. Coca-Cola also notes that the vitamins B in its product help the body fight stress. However, there is no evidence those vitamins are experienced as calming, says CSPI. And according to the most recent study of theanine, reported in the journal Psychopharmacology, it also does not affect mood. (Theanine does counter temporary rises in blood pressure caused by caffeine.) Buyers note: Despite the name, the product does not contain actual jackfruit or guava, only flavors.

2. Can Water Stave Off Colds? Coca Cola’s Dasani Plus Defend + Protect contains zinc and vitamin E, two substances that play a role in immunity. However, according to the CSPI, research suggests that taking vitamin E boosts immunity only if it is consumed in very large amounts by older people who are deficient in the vitamin. Some evidence suggests that zinc lozenges may shorten colds. But that doesn’t mean drinking zinc in water will, says CSPI, and, as Coca-Cola points out, there aren’t any studies “using water fortified with zinc to determine the effect on colds.”

3. Getting Tough on H20? Pepsi-Co’s Sobe Life Water Challenge Your Life provides taurine, sometimes touted as a muscle strengthener, and ginseng, believed to boost alertness. The science: Participants in one study took 20 grams a day of taurine for seven days, and did a pushup test before and after. Taurine didn’t make them any better at pushups. As for ginseng, the evidence that it boosts alertness is inconsistent, says CSPI-in fact, it appears to reduce alertness under some circumstances. Dosages count. But the Sobe label doesn’t say how much taurine or ginseng is in its product, and Sobe did not provide the information to Newsweek when asked. A spokeswoman says, “We allow customers to decide what ‘challenge’ means to them.”

4. Fiber Water? Pepsi-Co’s Aquafina Alive Satisfy does contain maltodextrin, which qualifies under the government definition of fiber. However, it’s a soluble fiber, so it won’t keep you regular like the fiber in grains and beans.

#1: A slug’s life

When the only body part you move in your job is your mouse finger, you just have to take fitness into your own hands. Do you have to train for a marathon to lose some weight? Not at all, according to Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic. He found that the time spent sitting was more likely to correlate with weight gain than the lack of vigorous exercise. You can keep slim, according to Levine, by walking slowly (about 0.7 mph) two to three hours a day.

Although few of us can stroll around the neighborhood that long, several companies have developed workstations with treadmills attached so you can pseudo-walk while you check your e-mail or debug code. It all makes CNET’s Mike Yamamoto wonder if there’s a conspiracy to tether workers to their desks. (You can download several tools from TechRepublic to help you evaluate and manage your weight, including a body mass index [BMI] calculator.)

#2: SIT happens

Weight gain can creep up on you, but it’s not an emergency in itself. A much more serious hazard of office work is seated immobility thromboembolism (SIT). This problem occurs when blood clots form in the legs (deep vein thrombosis) or lungs (pulmonary embolism) in people who spend a long time sitting. People may develop these clots while on a long trip, if they don’t get out of the car or stroll around in the plane’s cabin a bit. CNET noted the risk of deep vein thrombosis increasing back in this 2003 article. More recently, results of a New Zealand study suggested that a sedentary job may double the risk of developing clots in the legs (DVTs) or, even more dangerous, clots in the lungs.

#3: So many headaches

From the flicker of fluorescent lights to the hunched-up debugging posture, the conditions of your cube farm conspire to cause headaches. Pagers, end users, and the threat of outsourcing provide additional stress to kindle a dandy migraine or tension headache. Downing Tylenol or ibuprofen several times a week can backfire by making your pain more tenacious. If you get in a pattern of frequent headaches, see a doctor to get out of the rut.

You may have tension headaches, which can be treated with massage or stretches to help relax your muscles. Migraine is another possibility. Even if you don’t have the visual disturbances (auras) that are the hallmarks of a “classic” migraine, you may have a common migraine. The good news is that there are many medications you can try to treat and prevent migraines. Although some are quite expensive ($25 or more per dose), treat the headaches aggressively. Migraines can affect your mood, your threshold of pain, and perhaps even your risk of stroke.

#4: The bobblehead syndrome

Do you nod off frequently at your desk and perhaps even have brief dreams? These episodes, called microsleeps, may indicate you’re sleep deprived. It’s natural for the human body to crave a siesta after lunch, but excessive daytime sleepiness needs to be treated. Most adults need seven to eight hours of sleep a night, so simply going to bed earlier may be all you need.

If you’re in the sack long enough but are still tired, consider your environment (a snoring spouse, a hot or cold room). Crying babies and pagers can jar you out of sleep and seriously disrupt normal sleep cycles. Sleep apnea is a fairly common but scary-sounding problem: People with the disorder briefly stop breathing, often hundreds of times a night, which disrupts normal sleep phases. Physical abnormalities that cause excessive snoring can also lead to poor sleep. So check with your doctor, who may refer you to an ear, nose, and throat specialist or sleep clinic to sort out your sleep problems.

#5: Hurting hands

Although your hands and wrists may be sore from intensive typing, there’s not a whole lot of evidence to link keyboard use to carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). A 2007 study of men who worked at video display terminals found an association of CTS with high body mass index (BMI) and job seniority — but not with specific tasks related to computer usage. Still, many conditions other than CTS can make your hands and wrists hurt, so it’s wise to check with your doctor to try to get some relief.

Severe carpal tunnel syndrome is usually treated with surgery, but many other conditions that cause hand pain don’t require such drastic treatment. Tendonitis, for example, is a fairly common cause of hand pain that may be treated with anti-inflammatory drugs (such as ibuprofen or naproxen) and splinting.

#6: Relax harder!

How is it that sitting on your chair and looking at a monitor can make your back, neck, and shoulder muscles feel like you’ve spent eight hours painting a ceiling? Your tense posture may be part of the problem. Improving the ergonomics of your work area may help take the stress off your upper body. Try not to transfer the tension in your mind to your muscles and take a break now and then to unclench.

#7. Noxious invaders

The dry air of a typical office certainly doesn’t help your immune systems ward off your coworkers’ coughs, but hey, at least you’re not sitting in a daycare center. There are hundreds of cold viruses, plus several influenza viruses each year. What can you do to stay healthy and help keep your coworkers healthy, too?

• Stay home for a change.
• Clean your keyboard, mouse and desk.
• Wash your hands.
• Keep hydrated.

No replicable scientific studies have proven that vitamin C, Echinacea, or zinc will prevent or shorten colds, but many people swear by them.

As far as gastrointestinal illness goes, remember that the most common transmission route is fecal-oral. So, for God’s sake, wash your hands after going to the restroom. Also, consider the effective, but possibly neurotic, act of opening the door with a paper towel when you leave.

#8: Eye strain

Watching a backlit screen two feet away for four hours at a time isn’t really natural, is it? So it’s no surprise that people in IT complain about irritated eyes and declining visual acuity. Here are some suggestions that may help:

• Remember to blink. Yes, blinking is pretty much automatic, but some people really keep their eyes peeled when they’re engaged in work. Their eyes dry out, which is extra hard on people who wear contact lenses. A few drops of artificial tears can make your tired eyes much more comfortable.
• Change your focus. Look out the window or down the hallway — anything to get away from your two-foot focus. There are even programs designed to remind you to give your eyes a break.
• Get an eye exam. Your doctor may have more tips to help you feel more comfortable as you work. And everyone needs to be screened for glaucoma and other eye diseases anyway.

#9: Heavy lifting

If your job requires you to lift, lower, and/or carry equipment around, you might find yourself battling back pain. Maybe you spend your days installing workstations or inserting/removing computers from racks — and if you’re used to the work and know the right way to protect yourself in the process, you might not have any problems at all. But if it’s an occasional task, or if you don’t follow some basic precautions, you could wind up with a painful injury or chronic back trouble.

Despite the fact that best practices for lifting are largely common sense, people often ignore them — and often wish they hadn’t. Here are some basic recommendations for protecting your back:

• Examine an object before you try to pick it up to determine how awkward and heavy it is. Tip it a little to test its weight and make sure you have a comfortable, secure way to grip it.
• If you think an object might be too heavy for you move, find an alternative: Get someone to help you, unpack or dismantle the object and move it in pieces, use a dolly, etc.
• Don’t extend your arms when you pick up or lower a heavy object. That puts a big strain on your back.
• Watch your footing — the last thing you want to do is stumble or trip while carrying something heavy.
• Lift correctly. Keep your straight back, kneel to pick up the object, and then lift using your leg strength, not your back.

#10: Something in the air

If you work on a lot of systems, you’re no stranger to dust. Even a well-maintained machine in a clean, ventilated area is going to pull in plenty of it. And if you work on customers’ computers or make a lot of workstation calls, you’re going to feel like Tom Joad before long.

This may not faze you at all, but if you’re like many techs out there, it could spell big-time allergy, respiratory, and sinus woes. Among the suggestions from veteran dust-sensitive IT pros: Put on a dust mask before opening a case (or crawling around under a grubby workstation). And if you plan to use compressed air to blow some of the dust out of the case, definitely mask up first. You might also want to consider vacuuming that dust out rather than blowing it around — but you should use an ESD (electrostatic discharge) safe vacuum designed for electronics.

source: blogs.techrepublic.com.com

Children taking stimulants as a treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are 20 percent more likely to visit a doctor with heart-related symptoms, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Florida and published in the journal Pediatrics.

Researchers examined the records on 55,000 children between the ages of 3 and 20 who had undergone treatment for ADHD using central nervous system stimulants between 1994 and 2004. Their health profiles were compared with those of nearly two million other children in the Florida Medicaid database, making the current study the largest ever on the safety of ADHD drugs.

Children taking stimulants were 20 percent more likely than other children to visit the emergency room or doctor’s office with heart-related symptoms like a racing heartbeat.

The researchers did not find any difference in the rates of hospitalization or death from heart-related causes among children taking stimulants. But other drugs in the methamphetamine class, to which ADHD drugs Ritalin and Adderall belong, have indeed been known to cause serious cardiac side effects.

In 2006, the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee of the FDA recommended adding a black-box warning to ADHD drugs about cardiovascular risks. This is the strongest warning that the FDA can place on a drug before pulling it from the market. But the FDA’s Pediatric Advisory Committee urged against such a warning, saying that the cardiac side effects were not serious and could be easily managed by changing the size or timing of drug doses.

The University of Florida researchers noted that more than 25 percent of people who used stimulants in the study were also found to be taking antidepressants or antipsychotics, which have also been shown to affect the cardiovascular system. They said that more research is needed into circumstances that might predispose children to heart trouble, and to determine if ADHD medications can exacerbate those problems.