When you walk into the gym and step on the treadmill, you probably have one thing in mind: You want to lose some body fat. It may be 5 pounds or it may be 25 pounds; whatever that number may be I’ve got some advice for you: Step off of the treadmill. Listed below are just a few of the many upsides heavy weight lifting has for weight loss and essential health.

Weight Lifting Burns More Fat Than Cardio
While cardio has been found to be essential for good heart health, it can also burn muscle along with fat which is something you don’t want to happen.

This negative effect happens because the more muscle your body has the more fat your body burns. For every pound of muscle you gain, your body naturally burns an extra 35-50 calories per day, just by obtaining muscle! Therefore, a weight lifting session continues to burn calories even after your workout is over with where as cardio stops burning calories the second it’s over with.

“The more lean muscle mass an individual has the more calories burned at rest, therefore resistance training helps to burn fat while developing a lean, toned physique,” said Kalene Smith, certified personal trainer, lifestyle coach and owner of GoTimeTraining.com.

When you look at from in this perspective, one of the last things a woman wanting to lower her body fat should want to do is get rid of the muscle she already has.
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By Janetha Gallegos

The scale is a funny thing. Many of us fall victim to letting a number dictate our mood. A single, solitary number can control our whole life. I was a victim to the scale. A few years ago, I’d step on the scale multiple times a day. That number flashing back at me could make or break my day. Looking back, I realize how ridiculous that was. It was a joke!

These days, I truly think the number on the scale is a joke. Let me explain why.

A couple years ago I broke up with the scale. I’d realized my unhealthy addiction to weighing myself and so I gave it up—cold turkey. It had been over two years since I weighed myself when my husband asked if I would go get my body fat checked with him. He didn’t want to go alone—not because he was scared, but simply because he wanted some company. But me? I was terrified. I didn’t know how much I weighed and I did not want to know. But I also wanted to support him and not make him think I am a crazy person who is deathly afraid of weighing herself. (Dramatic much?)
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Tim Ferriss is the author of the best selling book The 4 Hour Body and a self-proclaimed human guinea pig. He’s tested many health and fitness theories on his own body to be able to provide fully researched and proven advice for some of our biggest health complaints. He shared some new and very interesting things he has learned on Dr. Oz’s show recently.

Ferriss covers the spectrum of human health. From metabolism to mood, he offered some great insight and very unique remedies to our biggest issues.

The 5-minute deep freeze is the method Ferris advised as a metabolism booster. The deep freeze is a cold shower ranging from 5 to 30 minutes. The cold temperatures are said to activate brown fat, the fat-burning tissue that burns energy to keep us warm. Shivering in the cold shower indicates that energy is being used to keep the body temperature up, therefore boosting your metabolism.

Millions of people are taking prescription antidepressants to keep their serotonin levels high and keep their moods positive. Ferriss explained that 90% of the body’s serotonin is produced in the gut so eating fermented food such as kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage) and its healthy probiotic bacteria will help serotonin in your gut move to the brain. Lacto-fermented food such as sauerkraut or plain yogurt can also aid in increasing serotonin levels and increasing mood.

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Aimee E. Raupp is the author of Chill Out and Get Healthy– a no nonsense guide for women on improving their health now. As well she is a licensed acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist with a masters of science in Traditional Oriental Medicine. For more information visit AimeeRaupp.com.

Eat fat to lose fat

Yes, you heard me: eat fat to lose fat.

“But, isn’t fat is bad for my health? And, doesn’t it cause heart disease?” I hear you say. The answer to both is no.

For many centuries, cultures (like the French) have been eating high fat diets and, oddly enough, they have much lower rates of obesity and type II diabetes than we do here in the United States. You see, what happened was back in the 1950’s some scientists ran a small and very poorly designed study looking at the incidence of heart disease and the dietary habits of different nations. Somehow (after leaving out a great bit of data) these researchers determined that Americans hearty full-fat diet caused the most heart disease. And, voila now American’s eat a low-fat diet because their doctors recommend it.

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By Abra Pappa for NutritiousAmerica.com

I am asked more frequently about cellulite in my practice than any other health concern. It is the plea from women everywhere, the curse of generations. “Why me?” I have spent hours in session hearing the cellulite lament.

Thanks to the media’s use of airbrushing we are bombarded with unrealistic images of women with perfectly smooth legs and not an ounce of cellulite. One can feel like they are all alone on cellulite island, like the only woman in the world that has “orange peel” skin (I refuse to liken cellulite to cottage cheese, I refuse!) In this era of “false” perfectionism it is difficult to embrace our imperfect selves, and really, really difficult to embrace our cellulite. I always encourage my clients to release the negative focus on those dimply thighs. It’s amazing how cellulite begins to disappear when you magically stop drawing attention to it. That is a great first step toward feeling better about your and your body, we are all imperfect in the most perfectly beautiful way.
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