When I first started my weight loss program I began with a fast. I have fasted for 2-7 days on a few different occasions. The reason that fasting can be such a great way to start a weight loss program is because you can see results immediately.

It will also make it very easy to stick to your diet for the first week. After not eating for a few days, your food will taste better. This is a great time to go a few days eating only fruits and vegetables. This can easily turn your two day fast into a 7 day, full body cleanse.

Fasting can make you look much thinner in only a couple days. You may not lose a significant amount of weight, but it will look like you have. It can make your waist noticeably thinner and clear up blemishes or skin problems.

Although I do not think fasting is to be used specifically for weight loss, I think you can do it to get your body ready for a healthier way of living. Use it as a way to cleanse your body out and get rid of all the toxins clogging your system.

I suggest drinking fruit and vegetable juices while fasting. I have read that you should do a water fast, but it can be a miserable experience if you have never fasted before. So stick to natural juices.

One of the better results I saw from my fasting experience was that I have more self control over my eating habits. I have always been a binge type of eater. After my fast, I felt like I could restrain myself easier. It is probably a mental attribute. I mean if I can go without eating for 7 days then I can sure keep myself from eating something I shouldn’t.

So although I don’t think you can use fasting as a diet or weight loss program, I do feel that it can be a great start to a proper weight loss diet and exercise program. I think it is definitely something that everybody should do at least once a year.

If you have any health problems you should consult a physician before starting any weight loss program. And, if you absolutely cannot go without food then simply try going a few days eating vegetables and fruits only. This will give you most of the same results as the fasting will. However, I recommend the fast over the fruits and vegetables because of the confidence and control you will begin to enjoy as a result.

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1. Do not read newspapers.
Newspapers publish negative stories near the end of the year. Stories focused on death, destruction, doom and despair abound around the Holidays. During the week between Christmas and the New Year, stories highlighting the worst tragedies of the year appear daily until January.
Stop reading the newspaper during the holidays and reduce the negative input to your brain.

2. Turn off your television.
End of the year stories about hardship and violence overtake your senses during the Holidays. When visitors come to your home, make sure you turn off your television and keep it off. News television broadcasters are fighting for your holiday guests’ attention as they promote despair, war, death and destruction with many headline news interruptions. Television will diminish your festive holiday spirit.

3. Say good things about others
My Mother always says, “if you can’t say anything nice about others, don’t say anything at all.” However, when you find yourself in a conversation and a relative says, “Remember Uncle Phil?” ” He was an alcoholic” Respond with ” yes, Uncle Phil was an alcoholic and he was the most charitable person, I have ever met.” Connect your friend’s negative statement about Phil with a positive one.

4. Get physical exercise
People forget about exercise around the holidays. In most parts of the world, the weather is cold and the sky is dark. Make sure you are exercising daily and sending more oxygen to your brain cells. The result of exercise will improve your health as well as your attitude.

5. Breathe deep and relax.
Practice the following breathing exercise to relax your body and mind. Breathe deeply and relax. For 3 minutes each hour take a short mental vacation. You can engage in this exercise while you are standing in the checkout line at the supermarket or purchasing holiday gifts. You can complete the exercise at home or at work. Take three deep breathes and relax. As you inhale, concentrate on calm and peaceful thoughts. As you exhale, concentrate on pushing any tension out of your lungs.

Focus on positive images of the Holidays. Focus on laughter, love, excitement and hope.

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Introduction

Optimum health is essential at all levels, from the individual to the society we live in to the environment around us. We have to start thinking of wealth not just in terms of possession of money and properties but also the possession of mental, emotional, physical, social and spiritual well-being.

Mental Health

The truth is mind is the forerunner of all states.

With a proper mindset, a poor man can still be happy. Conversely, if the mindset is not right, no matter how much material possessions you may have, you may still be a very unhappy person. Thus, Gandhi said, “The world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not enough for even a single person’s greed.”

So a healthy mind is one that possesses a mindset that can lead to happiness and contentment with self and the world around us. It provides clarity of thoughts, good insight and the ability to see things through an unbiased mind.

To be able to see things through an unbiased mind is no small feat. It is extremely difficult to note or observe the unfolding of events and phenomena without judging. We habitually associate emotions or feelings to events, and allow such emotions to direct our actions. Our likes for certain things and dislikes for others are closely associated with our emotions.

Emotional Health

It is our emotions that lead us to act impulsively at times. Thus a high level of self-awareness in this area is extremely useful. In fact, it is essential to our well-being. After all, things and relationships that may take us years to build can be destroyed in a moment of anger.

There are positive and negative emotions. Positive emotions such as love, compassion and joy should be cultivated, while negative emotions such as fear, anger and hate need to be eradicated.

When asked about this, a wise sage of India once illustrated with a story:

An old man said to his grandson, “Boy, I have two tigers caged within me. One is love and compassion. The other is fear and anger.”

The young boy asked, “Which one will win, grandfather?”

The old man replied, “The one I feed.”

At times, it may seem that we have no control over our emotions. This is not true. The truth is how well we manage our emotions depends on how aware we are of our emotions, particularly on the arising of our emotions. The earlier we are able to note the arising of our emotions, we better we can manage them.

More and more researches are showing that our well-being is closely linked to our emotional and mental health. Our body’s immune system is generally enhanced by positive mental outlook and emotion. Conversely, it is depressed by negative mental and emotional states. Thus, stress, worry, anger and fear are some states that may lead to physical illnesses such as hypertension, cardiac diseases, peptic ulcers, depression and a host of other ailments.

Physical Health

To maintain an optimum physical well-being, therefore, requires us to focus not only on our body but also our mind and emotions.

On a physical level, our body can be kept healthy through adequate sleep and rest, proper nutrition, regular exercises and a healthy environment that is free from pollution.

Spiritual Health

Throughout the ages, wise men have consistently informed and taught us that we are essentially spiritual beings.

Although medical science has not been able to reveal to us our spiritual nature, there are many indirect evidence that we would be foolish to ignore. Stories from people who had gone through a near death experience (NDE), or dying people with heightened nearing death awareness, or simply a cure from an ‘incurable’ disease all suggest that there is more to life than just the physical state.

Major religions of the world all based their teachings on the belief that we are essentially spiritual beings. According to these teachings, our physical existence is secondary.

While it may be true that we should focus our life more on our spiritual nature than our physical nature, it would be difficult for the majority of people to do so, at least not immediately. Things cannot change overnight. Mindset, however, can, and that is perhaps the best place to start.

Financial Health

However, on a more mundane level, most people are still stuck on how to survive from day to day, where to get the next cheque to pay for the house installment, so on and so forth.

Practically, therefore, we need to look into ways to achieve a financial state that would theoretically free us from the constrain of ‘forced’ work. This is where the concept of financial freedom is so attractive. According to this concept, one should strive for a state where we have one or more than one source of income that can be generated passively, that is, even when we don’t work.

This is what Robert Kiyosaki termed as ‘passive income’.

According to him, passive income can only be achieved by becoming an investor or a business owner, not a sole proprietor or an employee. To become an investor or a business owner, you must spend the time and money to acquire financial intelligence. Unlike IQ or EQ, you can acquire financial intelligence through self education.

To get a financial health check-up, consult an accountant, a banker or a financial planner you can trust.

Healthy Relationship

“No man is an island, entire by itself.”

As a medical doctor, I am in a unique position to confront and comfort dying patients. One of the most important thing that I have observed is that dying people do not ask about their money or possessions. Instead, they focus their remaining energy and strength on trying to heal wounded relationships. It is as though there is an inherent need to get a proper closure to a relationship.

Thus, forming and cultivating a healthy relationship is important for our well-being. Unfortunately, this is something we often ignored until it is too late. If there is any forgiving to be done, or the need to be forgiven, leaving things to the last minutes may end up with an unfulfilled desire for a closure.

Knowing this now, shouldn’t we spend more time and effort in improving our relationship with our loved ones, especially with our parents, spouse, children and siblings?

About The Author
Tim Ong is a medical doctor and author of the online “Build From Within” newsletter series. He is also the webmaster of The Self Improvement Site (http://www.theselfimprovementsite.com), Klinik Ong (http://www.klinikong.com) and Caring For The Terminally Ill (http://www.caring-terminally-ill.com). You may sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.theselfimprovementsite.com/signup.html.

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• No Cure. Antibiotics, designed to knock out bacterial infections, do nothing when it comes to treating a cold.
• None of us are safe! No matter how strong and healthy we are, an occasional cold will reduce us to whimpering, sneezing, coughing versions of our former selves.

So, what do we do? Lay back with a box of tissue, pop a couple of cold tabs and wait it out? Not necessarily! Doctors who specialize in self-care medicine say that there is a lot more that we can do to get through a cold comfortably, and possibly more quickly! Here is some of the best advice that experts have to offer on the subject.

• Vitamin C - “Vitamin C works in the body as a scavenger, picking up all sorts of trash - including virus trash,” Says Keith W. Sehnert, M.D., a physician with Trinity Health Care in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “It can shorten the length of a cold from seven days to maybe two or three.”Studies conducted at the University of Wisconsin found that cold sufferers taking 500 milligrams of vitamin C four times a day suffered from about half as many symptoms (coughing, sneezing. etc) as those not taking the vitamin.

  Best way to get it? Drink it! Orange, grapefruit, and cranberry juices are excellent sources of vitamin C.

• Zinc - Suck on zinc lozenges and cut your cold short, to an average of just 4 days! It also can help reduce symptoms such as dry, irritated throat. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for everyone, but when it works, it works!
• R and R - Take a day or two off of work, or at least slow down! Extra rest enables your body to focus it’s energy on getting you well.
• Stay Warm - Keep your immune system cozy by bundling up against the cold. This way your body can use energy to fight your cold instead of protecting you from the cold.
• Eat Lightly - Eat, but steer clear of foods that put a strain on your body’s metabolism. Eat fewer fatty foods, meat and milk products, and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Chicken Soup - A silly folk remedy? No! Researchers at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach have found that hot chicken soup, either because of its aroma or its taste, “appears to possess an additional substance for increasing the flow of nasal mucus.” Researchers say that this mucus serves as a first line of defense in removing germs from your system, so eat up!
• Liquids - Drink six to eight glasses of water, juice, tea, and other mostly clear liquids daily to keep the body hydrated and to flush out impurities.
• NO Smoking! - Smoking aggravates the throat and interferes with the infection-fighting activity of the cilia, the microscopic “fingers” that sweep bacteria out of your lungs and throat. Even if you don’t quit for good, at least stop for the duration of your cold.
• Salty Gargle - Dr. Van Ert of San Francisco advises mixing 1 teaspoon of salt into a glass of warm water and gargling away whenever your throat hurts.
• Hot Toddy - Get a good night’s sleep and clear a stuffed-up nose by sipping a “hot toddy” or a half a glass of wine before bedtime, suggests Dr. Caughron, a family practitioner specializing in preventive medicine in Charlottesville, Virginia. But don’t go overboard! More alcohol than that can stress out your system and make recovery more difficult.
• Get Steamed - Clear congestion and relieve a dry cough by taking a hot steamy shower. Or make a steam tent by draping a towel over your head above a bowl of boiling water.
• Keep Your Germs to Yourself - Cough and blow away, but do it into a disposable tissue instead of sharing them! Then promptly throw the tissue away and wash your hands.
• Medicate - If you decide to take over the counter medication, follow the instructions carefully and only take medication that addresses the symptoms that you are suffering from.

Looking for alternatives to drugs? Try these herbs and teas that contain special properties that are natural antagonists against colds!

• Goldenseal and Echinacea - “I recommend herb capsules such as goldenseal and echinacea at the early onset of a cold,” says Elson Haas, M.D. He says that goldenseal stimulates your liver, which helps to clear up infections. Echinacia clean your blood and lymph glands, helping circulate infection-fighting antibodies and removing toxic substances from the body. Try one or two capsules twice a day for up to two weeks.
• Garlic - Garlic is known for its antibiotic effect and “can actually kill germs and clear up your cold symptoms more rapidly,” says Dr. Haas. He recommends two or three oil-free garlic capsules three times a day.
• Licorice Root Tea - Dr Van Ert recommends this teas for it’s anesthetizing effects for soothing irritated throats and relieving coughs.
• Other Teas - Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime tea, or tea brewed with hops or valarian her, have natural tranquilizing effects that will help you rest. Add a teaspoon of honey, a simple carbohydrate that has a sedative effect.
• Monolaurian - Dr. Van Ert also recommends this fatty acid (available in capsule form) for it’s antiviral effect. He recommends taking two capsules three times a day with some food, for helping the immune system stay fit to battle the cold virus.

A cold may be something that we have to live with, and through, but finding ways to make the best of it will help you get back on your feet in record time.

About The Author

© Mari Peckham

Mari Peckham is the President of Peckham Enterprises and webmistress of PowerPromoPlus, your online advertising solution at: http://www.powerpromoplus.com

To subscribe to her online advertising tips, tools and techniques ezine, Advertise_Online, send any Email to: advertise_online-subscribe@egroups.com or visit: http://www.powerpromoplus.com/advertise_online.htm

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You can also use supplements to help protect you from the glues, synthetic hormones and genetically modified pseudo-foods that are found in many mass marketed products and restaurant fare. Healthy foods are also available. Know your enemy! The biggest glues that have helped transform America into the land of the sick in the 21th century are gluten, found in wheat flour and casein, found in cow dairy, the same casein that is used to make Elmer’s glue.

Why else would there be a cow on the label? Before the 20th century and the invention of steel rollers, most breads where made with a mix of whole, spouted grains. Sprouting a grain converts the sticky, acidic gluten into alkaline vitamins and amino acids. Including the outer husks increases the food’s mineral content. Sprouting grains for breads was the traditional method because it was an easy way to break open the hard seed and make the tough, outer husk useable.

The steel roller permitted manufacturers to grind the seed, separate out the mineral rich outer husks, isolate the sticky gluten and use that to make soft, acidic white bread. Why is wheat 40% of the American diet? Because it’s cheap and in it’s refined, hybridized state, it can be shaped into anything, except healthy nutrition. It is a major contributor to society’s dangerous over consumption of carbohydrates. What is made out of wheat flour? Bread, pizza, pasta, bagels, muffins and pastries.

It’s used as a thickening ingredient in all kinds of foods, soups, candies, and sauces. Wheat gluten paste makes a great glue, but do you want to eat glue? Use 100% sprouted breads that you’ll find in the freezer section. Cows are big animals with little heads. Goats and sheep have large heads and small bodies, proportioned more like humans. Cow dairy products are high in sugar and casein, both of which are sticky glues. Goat and sheep milk products aren’t.

Why do companies use such a sticky, sweet food? Because cows are big milk producers and not very picky eaters, in comparison to goats and sheep, so cow’s milk is cheap! Gluten and casein stick to the walls of the digestive system, blocking absorption and slowly degrading the health. Soy is not a good alternative. Rice Milk and Rice Ice Cream are better. For infant’s and children, goat’s milk mixed with carrot juice is a complete food and quite tasty.

Goat and sheep cheeses are better for people and sheep’s cheese is sweeter than goat’s cheese. Use the enzyme combination Proactazyme Plus #1525-0 to clean out both the gluten and casein . For stronger, short term cleaning use Small Intestine Detox #848-2. White cane sugar is a sticky, highly refined, acidic poison completely lacking in nutrition, that is designed to create sugar cravings that it can never really satisfy.

The average American consumes a cup of white sugar daily in their various foods. It’s so potent and toxic that if it were introduced today it would be available by prescription only. White sugar is added to practically everything. A couple of tablets of GTF Chromium #1801-6 daily provide the minerals chromium and vanadium. The sugar cravings are the way that the body says that it needs those two minerals that are naturally found in sweet foods, but have been removed to make white sugar. Stevia Powder Extract #1386-7 (powder) & #1381-6 (packets) is a wonderfully sweet and nutritious herbal product that can be used safely in all those foods and beverages that you would like to sweeten up. NSP’s has no bitter aftertaste.

Soy is another one of the high estrogen foods that have been mass marketed for the purpose of reducing fertility, increasing tumor and cancers and generally reducing the size of the global population. Most of it is genetically modified and it’s all much too high in estrogen to do most people any good. In China, soy was considered “poor people food”. Herdsmen wouldn’t let their animals eat soy. It was used as a rotation crop to put nitrogen into the soil, in the way that Western farmers use red clover, another high estrogen plant.

Part of America’s epidemic obesity, infertility and tumor problems can be traced back to soy. While a little soy sauce now and then may not bother you, adding it wholesale to your diet is putting trouble into your future. For women, Pro G Yam 500 #4936-5, and for men, Men’s formula #3112-7 and Sarsaparilla #620-8 are products that clean out excess estrogens and protect the body from picking them up in the foods.

Food manufacturers use fats that are cheap to produce, have a long shelf life and are difficult for the body to use. Always use olive oil, minimize canola (It means ‘Canadian oil’) which comes from genetically modified rapeseed oil. Supplement with Super GLA Oil Blend #1844-5 to feed your immune and hormonal systems and push the junk fats out. Remember, Real Men Take Supplements! (So do Real Women!)
About The Author
Excerpted from The Ten Minute Herbalist by Drs. Ralph & Lahni DeAmicis, © 2004 For more information about their books, educational programs & Nature’s Sunshine Products visit www.spaceandtime.com. This information is for educational purposes only and is not meant to diagnose or prescribe. If you are suffering from a health challenge the authors suggest that you consult a competent health practitioner of your choice who will work with you to optimize your level of health.

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