This is a guest post by Dr. Robin Baradarian who blogs at NYGI Care.

Do you often find yourself with a bloated, uncomfortable feeling around your midsection long after you’ve had a meal or snack? It’s all too common for many, as gas pains, constipation, and diarrhea seem to spring up out of nowhere.

The first place to look is your regular routine. Don’t try to overanalyze what you have eaten recently, but focus on the trends that you seem to stick with. Write it all down and review it before taking the next steps.

Here are the things to consider:

1) Evaluate what you typically eat for breakfast. Many of us settle for bagels, egg and cheese sandwiches, and quick, filling holdovers before lunch. If you find that on a typical morning you are eating predominantly processed food, meats, cheeses, and starches make a note of it. If you also find that simultaneously you are going without grains, fruit, and fiber on most mornings also mark it down. If you skip breakfast entirely mark it down as well.

2) What do you normally eat for lunch? Do you bring your own lunch, or do you typically order out? Eating a caloric, heavily processed lunch should be regarded as a red flag if you’re feeling stomach discomfort. For people who don’t eat breakfast it can prove to be too much food for your stomach to process after such a long stretch of dormant digestion.

3) If during dinner you realize that ordering out pizza, Chinese food, etc is becoming a habit and the emphasis has been taken away from freshly prepared foods, vegetables, and grains you should flag that as a probably cause of your discomfort.

What we’re getting at with these simple breakdowns of the major meals you might consume during your day, aside from coffee, smoking, alcoholic beverages, is thinking of things that you might perceive as normal or routine, but are in actually detrimental to your health. The buildup of heavily processed foods, foods lacking fiber, and foods high in fat and cholesterol can cause your digestion and metabolism to slow down considerably, leaving deposits in the intestines that can bulge, cause pain, and only build on themselves.

So before you go for the comfort food think about what will provide you with the most abdominal comfort. You’ll be amazed to find out how good you’ll feel because of a small, nutrition-focused lifestyle change. Be in good health!

By Dr. Robin Baradarian for Healthy Lifestyle Blogzine

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Want To Get Healthy?

Many people are interested in getting healthier, which is a commendable goal for anyone to have. If you have wanted to start living a healthier lifestyle, but you don’t know where to start, try not to be overwhelmed. It’s really much easier than people believe. All it takes is a decision to start living more consciously overall, and a refusal to participate in those activities that are known to be destructive. Chances are you already know which activities you would be better off without, but sometimes people need to be reminded. If you want to start living a healthier lifestyle, simply follow the five steps below to get yourself on the right track.

1. Get rid of the junk food.

Most people are not aware of how damaging junk food is to their overall health and well-being. The fact is that junk food is packed so full of sodium and preservatives that there is almost no possible way that it can be something positive for your life. The basic rule for food is, if you canít pronounce more than half of the ingredients, you most likely can live without that particular food. When you scrap junk food and replace it with fresh fruits and veggies, you will feel better and you will probably drop a few pounds as well.

2. Start an exercise regimen.

When you move your body, studies show that your mood increases. Therefore, how could you not be exercising? Lack of exercise is the cause of many ailments including heart disease and obesity. If you want to start getting healthier, try getting 30 minutes of exercise every day. This does not have to be difficult exercise. It can be as simple as taking a walk for a couple minutes before and after work. Find time in your day to exercise and you will start to have more energy and feel better.

3. Drop the weight.

Do whatever you can to drop extra weight that you are carrying. The risks of heart disease and diabetes go up significantly the longer you are obese or overweight. Therefore, one of the best things you can do for your body and yourself is to drop weight. Talk to your doctor and get yourself on a plan to drop your extra pounds in a safe and controlled way. Often, this will simply mean altering your diet and getting more exercise, as mentioned above.

4. Participate in group events.

Walks, runs and bikes that support causes are not only good for that cause, but they are also good for those people who are participating. Find a group of friends that you can attend these events with so that you have a support system. That way, you will be exercising, but enjoying every minute of it.

5. Start taking vitamin supplements.

Supplement your diet with essential vitamins and minerals to give yourself that extra boost you need in order to feel better on a daily basis.

Written by Elise Degrass. Elise writes about Massage Therapy for MassageTherapy.net

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By Greg Crawford

You may have been that young thin girl that could eat whatever she wanted and not exercise, but as the years go by and the birthdays tick away, and you enter that dreaded ‘middle age’, changes start happening.   When the body begins to age, hormone levels maybe more volatile than the stock market and your metabolism slows down.   In addition, you probably have spent many years taking care of everyone else; your children, spouse, parents, in-laws and your career.  Lots of your focus is on everyone else but lots of stress is on you.

So unless you have lived a full life of fitness and eaten a diet of sound nutrition, which many women in this category probably did not do since  fitness was not very popular in this generation, than you may be running into a slew of problems.  Perhaps you’re overweight, and/or taking medications for medical issues such as high blood pressure and cholesterol,  depression and diabetes..  Or you may suffer from shortness of breath and just plain feel lousy.

Well I’m here to tell you you’re not alone and that you don’t have to continue living this way.  There is a solution to the problem which will make you feel better, lower that cholesterol and blood pressure, and lose that weight.  Now I must tell you, this solution is not a diet, it’s not a workout, “It’s a Lifestyle”!

Ok, so I am a man and may not fully understand what you’re going through, but I can tell you the story of my client Karen. I worked very closely with Karen to achieve what she has accomplished and played an intrical role in her journey.  It is important to look back on what it took for her to go from unhealthy, stressed out and overweight to very fit, motivated, happy and healthy middle aged woman.

Let’s start by telling you about Karen.  Karen is a 57 year old career woman who is married with grown children.  Karen works in a corporate setting, is a senior executive and experiences lots of stress.  In December of 2008 Karen joined the health club where I was working and was assigned to me for her complimentary fitness consultation.  Well like many women Karen’s age she had never before joined a gym.  She was about 30 to 40 pounds overweight, had high cholesterol and blood pressure, just learned of some major breathing capacity issues and was just plain feeling lousy.  Normally during this initial consult I would weigh you and take a body fat % measurement, but at the time the body fat % was not necessary and would have really made it an unpleasant experience for Karen.  And let’s face it, she knew her exact weight.

So from here we dove into the reasons she decided to finally take action and do something about how she was feeling.  Karen basically told me that she reached that point where she didn’t want to die young and unhealthy but to start living and feel good.  I took her through a beginner’s based session which consisted of some basic foundational exercises and then scheduled her for her follow up session in three days.  Two days later Karen calls telling me she was having trouble walking from muscle soreness from just a few basic leg exercises and that she was thinking of canceling and give it up.

Well I talked Karen into still coming back in and assured her that we would take it slow.  I can remember thinking that she was going to be one of those chronic cancellers; well boy was I wrong!  From then on Karen came to every session ready to go and yes we took it very slow in the beginning.  But little by little Karen started showing signs of improvement and was getting stronger.

Now don’t get me wrong, many days I had to sit with Karen and talk about staying the course and not to give up during those times Karen felt it was just too hard to do at her age.  One of her early on favorite sayings was that ‘she could never lose weight at her age’.  And when you say those words enough, they become true.  So, it’s real important that we all have someone to talk to for motivation to keep it going especially in the beginning of a new lifestyle change.

I can tell you it is hard at times but the rewards are priceless and it will get better!  And the rewards for Karen are that she lost a total of 40 pounds over a 6 month period and lost about 9% body fat in 12 weeks ( oh yes we now are measuring body fat %,  She got down to 21% body fat which is considered very good for a woman at that age).  Karen has increased lean muscle and went from doing only 3 modified push ups to 25, she can leg press 300lbs. and went from being out of breath walking just 10 minutes to running in her first 5k race.  Karen also went back to her doctor and was surprised at the dramatic drop in cholesterol, lowered blood pressure and wants to reduce her medications dramatically.  Today Karen lives a new lifestyle, feeling happy, healthy, and energetic.  Karen has a brand new outlook on life!

Ok its time for me to outline what it took for this woman at her age to get these results and why you can do it too! I’m going to break it down into 4 categories:

1. Psychological
2. Time management
3. Exercise
4. Nutrition

Psychology

• Find your trigger point (your pain). What is it that is really painful to you where you are going to finally say “I’ve had it”!  I can’t take how I feel or look and I do not want it anymore!  For Karen it was that she didn’t want to feel like she was getting closer to death and that she wanted to start living.
• Make a plan to move away from the pain
• Take action!! This is the hardest part.  You have to act like Nike and “just do it”!  Don’t think of all the reasons why you can’t do it, figure out the reasons you can do it. Do not wait a day longer and like other important things in your life take action.
• Seek help. Sit down and talk to a fitness professional, meet with a nutritionist, and try to surround yourself with positive people.
• Stay motivated by making SHORT term goals. For Karen it was simple things like the first time she could actually wrap the smaller bath towel around her and actually tuck it.  Or going from 3 push ups to doing 20.  And then there was when she went out and bought and wore that nice pair of jeans again.

Time Management

• Invest in a good day planner and get organized!
• Schedule your meals and workouts around your busy schedule.
• Make and keep appointments with the professionals that can help you achieve your goals.
• Don’t try and spend hours and hours in the gym just to burn calories. Don’t do more, do it better.

Exercise

• Do at least 2-3 days of strength training.
  • For every pound of muscle you’re burning 50-60 more calories a day at rest.
  • Muscle will allow you to store more carbs instead of converting to fat.
  • It’s empowering to feel strong and your body will feel tighter and more firm.
• Perform interval training for your cardiovascular exercises. Changing intensity levels from high to low intensities will keep you engaged and allow you to burn more calories throughout the day.
• Walking at a good pace on an incline for 35-45 minutes is probably the best and lowest impact form of fat burning cardio work, especially for beginners. As you get more conditioned, make sure to progress your cardio workouts every 6-8 weeks by increasing speed or incline %.
• Pick a day where you do something fun and different as a workout to keep you motivated and will enjoy.
• Make sure you stretch at the end of every workout.

Nutrition

• Eat breakfast! You haven’t eaten all night so you need to kick start your day with fuel and nutrients. Eat a small portion of carbohydrates like a bowl of oatmeal or an orange with a protein like eggs or a high protein cereal with some low fat organic milk.
• Have a protein shake with a small amount of carbs in it after your workout. Within 30 minutes of a workout is the most crucial time to put these nutrients into your body to start the recovery process of what you just worked.  Your body is like a sponge so you will not get fat but use these important nutrients.
• Do not go more than 3 hours without eating something small or putting something of value into your body. This will keep your metabolism moving and keep your body from thinking its starving thus storing fat for survival.
• Eat to perform! Too many times we eat strictly for pleasure.  Think about eating so that your body is supplied to perform well during exercise and recover when broken down with the right balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
• Eat fruits and vegetables when you can and stay away from processed and refined foods that not only add no nutritional value but also drain you of the nutrients in your body used to digest, recover, and repair.
• Drink lots of water!!

Karen no longer diets.  She decided to follow these simple rules and the weight came off.  Her weight lose was healthy, no starving, no crash diets.  Just follow the basics.

You can find out more about Greg Crawford’s Program and get up to date content to help you achieve your healthy lifestyle goals at http://www.its-alifestyle.com

Greg Crawford is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and owner and operator of “It’s a Lifestyle“.  Greg graduated from Towson University with a bachelors of science in Exercise Science where he also played football as a defensive back.  He has been in all health club environments and also interned as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at The University of South Florida. Greg holds certifications with the NSCA(National Strength and Conditioning Association), USAW(United States Weightlifting Association), and WKA(World Kickboxing Association).  Greg brings 10 years of experience changing people’s lives in health and fitness.

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When you decide to go for a cosmetic surgery, it certainly isn’t an easy decision. You have to consider a lot of pros and cons of the matter. In fact, since it is a decision of a lifetime, you should be able to justify your stance and not regret it later on. Here is a guide which will enlist the things you should know before going for cosmetic surgery.

Affordability

The first thing that you need to know before going for cosmetic surgery is whether you will be able to afford it or not. The cost of cosmetic surgery depends on the procedure you are going to use and on what area. Also the cost varies from patient-to-patient according to its medical conditions

Time

Once you know you can afford the surgery make sure that you have enough time to run to the clinics for your check ups and pre and post surgery. There will be a number of visits required before your surgeon makes sure that you are ready for the surgery so you should have enough time.

Right Reason

You should have a valid reason for opting for a cosmetic surgery. It has been seen that people feeling about their looks and considering it a major reason in their relationships and endeavors prefer to get cosmetic surgery and these are the ones who tend to regret later on. Thus make sure you have the right reason to get cosmetic surgery done.

No Guarantee

There is no guarantee of how long the results would last after cosmetic surgery. Lots of people go for cosmetic surgeries again and again because they are no longer satisfied with the results. Study reveals that time the results last depend on the procedure used and lifestyle of patient. Remember results of cosmetic surgery are not permanent.

Health

In case you are suffering from heart diseases, blood pressure or cholesterol problems, you should give a second thought to the cosmetic surgery. It is important that you should complete all pre-surgery tests to ensure that your body can handle the surgery procedure.

Ability to handle criticism

Since your family and loved ones have been watching you closely you can expect mixed reactions from them after surgery so you should be able to handle compliments as well as criticism.

Choosing Surgeon

You must ensure that the surgeon as well as the surgery centre has a good track record in conducting surgeries. Ask for before and after pictures of patients from your surgeon. Check the credentials of your surgeon to assure that he is qualified to handle the surgery

Feedback

Taking feedback of people who have undergone cosmetic surgery from the same place will help you reconsider your decision and help you in making a good decision.

Expectations

Match your expectations with the reality. Cosmetic surgery should be used only for improvement and not for perfection. Don’t expect to have unrealistic changes after your surgery.

Cosmetic Harmony is a cosmetic surgery group providing the best plastic surgery experience with top Board Certified plastic surgeons in Bogotá, Colombia.

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Life sometimes reaches a point when cynicism, resentment and anger set in. When life reaches that point you become jaded and bursts of anger gets displayed at every opportunity.

Such display of anger turns people away because they think of anger as a destructive and disruptive force. But anger can actually purify you, let you live a healthy lifestyle… if you do not succumb or be enslaved by it.

Here’s what Kris had to say…

“So when I was told I had a tumor in growing in my brain, denial was my first reaction. Anger was my second. I have never felt so damn angry before!

My anger churned, boiled and curdled inside me. Lashing out and berating others during fits of anger became second nature to me. I have never been so tactless or this indiscriminate before. People who knew of my illness, particularly those who truly cared about me, tried their best to understand and let my anger boil over. And boiled over it did. That was when I started to come to terms with my condition.

Anger now took on a more positive vibe for me. It motivated me to come to grips with the reality that I am sick and that I have to find as much information about my illness for me to understand it better. This metamorphosis came to me in 5 ways.

I made the conscious decision to move out of denial

When anger no longer enrages you, you should let it motivate you to accept that something serious is taking place inside you. There can no longer be any denial that your medical condition exists.

I stopped asking “What if”

Asking the “what if” questions is a guaranteed waste of time. Would repeatedly asking, “What if I had been diagnosed sooner?” change anything? How about, “What if I was misdiagnosed?” will that make the tumor disappear? It won’t. So instead of asking, “What if…?” I started to ask “What more?”… What more is out there about this condition?

Energy from anger is now released positively

Instead of lashing out at people who have really done no wrong to me, I now channel the energy I get from being angry at finding more and more information about my condition. I made seeking answers and new knowledge from doctors and health professionals my new way of life. Urgency is the only other emotion that stops depression from creeping in.

I re-learned how to laugh

Yes, there is nothing funny about having a growing tumor in your brain, but will sulking or crying your eyes out about it make any difference?

Positive anger will provide you with a better perspective. Instead of asking why it had to be me (and why not?), I find myself asking, “How long have I had this on my brain and I never noticed? All this time that I had been laughing, walking, watching baseball while having this thing in my head?”

I convinced myself that I will find the answer

When I started looking for answers and information about my condition I found them because I never relented. Positive anger motivated and provided me with the energy and the drive to find the answers that I needed.

Anger has energized my life and the way I look at my condition. It now inspires all that I do as I take on this journey to make the most of my life.”

Kris

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By Dr. Scott Olson

Sugar cravings are awfully hard to kick. While most people shrug off sugar cravings as something mild, for those people who are trying to stay away from sugar for health reasons, sugar cravings can be a nightmare and intense. Scientists are beginning to understanding just how serious sugar cravings are with experiments showing that sugar addiction is every bit as powerful as addictions to drugs, including cigarettes, alcohol and even morphine-like drugs.

Complicated Sugar Cravings

To make matters much worse, your sugar cravings may carry-over into foods that act like sugar in your body. Foods like grains and starchy vegetables (such as bread, potatoes, rice cakes, and others) act identically to sugar in your body. So while you might be tempted to reach for a comforting slice of bread or a potato (to your body) that bread is the same as if you had just eaten white sugar. Turning to these foods when you are trying to stay away from sugar is really not doing yourself any good; it is just swapping one sugar for another.

Cravings are your body’s way of telling you that you need something; the only problem is that many of the foods we eat confuse this natural craving mechanism and make us think we want something that we don’t.

Where Are The Comfort Foods?

In a way you are stuck: your body is telling you that you should be eating foods that aren’t good for you and many of the traditional comfort foods are full of sugar or act like sugar in your body. What do you turn to when you want something comforting?

Here is what works:

• Sugar cravings come from eating sugar. Sounds silly, but the more sugar you eat, the more sugar you crave. I call this the “sugar magnet”, once you put something sweet into your mouth, more wants to follow. Avoid cravings by avoiding all sugars and foods that act like sugars.
• Your brain is where your cravings come from and it senses you are full when you eat a variety of foods including a good protein source. In order to beat your cravings, make hearty meals that are centered around a protein and include high nutrient vegetables.
• Eat often. Contrary to popular opinion, eating often actually boost metabolism and can help you control weight, even though you are eating more frequently.
• Keeping your blood sugar low will also stomp out sugar cravings. There are three types of foods that slow down the absorption of sugar into your body and they are fats, proteins and fiber. Include proteins, fats and fiber in every meal.
• Think about vegetable and protein soups; these can be very warming and comforting.

Kicking and Comforting

Kicking a sugar habit and finding comforting foods can seem like they are opposite goals, but they really have the same goal: taking care of you. While you might be tempted by sugary snacks when you need something comforting, high sugar snack often make you feel much worse. Feed your body what it really needs by giving it the vitamins and minerals it is truly craving.

Dr. Scott Olson is a Naturopathic doctor, expert in alternative medicine, author and medical researcher. Spurred on by his patients’ struggles with sugar addiction, he was determined to discover just how addictive and harmful sugar can be and ways to overcome that addiction. The result of that study is his groundbreaking book Sugarettes, which details the addictive qualities of sugar and the harm that sugar does to our bodies. You can read his blog at www.olsonnd.com

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By Wesley McDermott

In this article I will be talking to you about a simple tip that was used years ago for explosive muscle growth, but for some reason it’s not used as much these days and it should be!

This popular weight training technique was used by muscle building enthusiasts long before you where lifting and even walking for that matter. For it not to be used as much now is a real downer and people are missing out on the results it can bring them. So, follow me and read on below to start seeing more in your muscle building efforts.

In weight training, in order for the muscle to grow and develop, there needs to be a high tension and stimulus placed on the muscles (well durrr!). When the muscles are overloaded with more tension than they were put through the last time round the musculatory system requires your muscles to undergo hypotrophy, or increase in mass. Therefore, resulting in an increase in both muscle size and strength.

The larger the force of tension put on your muscles, the larger more they muscle tissue is stimulated. So in order for your muscles to get the best possible chance of growth, you need to implement a good stimulating technique into your weight training program.

Now, that’s enough of me babbling on, I guess you wanna here this old super powerful technique this whole article is about.

Well….Have you ever heard of the negative lift? Or eccentric contraction training? It’s a weight training technique that places a huge demand on the muscle, even more so than just lifting a conventional weight. This increased amount of stress on the muscle is what is responsible for delivering increased results in muscle growth.

An eccentric contraction or negative contraction is the lowering position of a lift. When you lift a weight, the strain on the muscle is less than that of when you lower the weight. The increased tension on the muscle when lowering is because the muscle fibres are lengthened and the strain on each individual muscle fibre is increased. Thus, resulting in an increase in muscle growth potential.

Another example of this is included in a bench press. When you lift the bar up to the point of full extension, and then you begin to lower it again, trying not to let it come down too fast and smack you in the throat, this is what is known as an eccentric contraction. The longer you take to lower the bar the more muscle fibres are stimulated, and the chance of muscle growth are increased.

The human muscles are a wonderful thing, they can lift up to 40% more weight during the negative motion (or eccentric contraction) than they can do during the positive muscle contraction. The positive contraction of the lift is when there is a shortening of the muscle fibers. In other words, the concentric contraction (which is the positive contraction) is when you undergo lifts such as curling, pressing, or pulling down resistance.

That 40% of extra weight which can be lifted on a negative contraction increases your weight training intensity, and places a higher stimuli on the muscles. Therefore, resulting in optimum tension and stimulus for maximum muscle growth and development.

Please be advised that the negative weight training technique is proven to increase muscle fiber damage, and in turn intensify muscle soreness. This extra muscle trauma is the result of higher intense and more targeted muscle training. Along with this increase of intensity comes shorter training times and increased speed of the muscle growth process.

Building the muscle you want is easier than you thought, as long as you utilize the negative repetition. Introduce it to your weight training program now so you can increase the speed of which you build muscle mass.

About Wesley McDermott

Wesley is an avid bodybuilding enthusiast and he has been writing articles and teaching hard gainers and beginners how to gain weight and build muscle naturally for years. You can check out his site at www.weightgain4you.com

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By Greg Christian
Chicago’s Conscious Caterer™ and pioneer of Organic School Project

Consider buying local food directly from farmers. It takes a little more planning and you will need to be a little more flexible about what you are going to serve as it will need to depend on what is available at the market. Go to the farmers market and put together a local vegetable tray and now you can buy all kinds of meat and cheeses there. If you can talk to the farmer, pick up a story about the farm that you can share with your guests at the party.

Another good place to start being green is using real plates and glasses even if the plates don’t match, use real plates and dishes – instead of disposable.

Buy local beverages at the grocery store, you can get locally made beers, wines and often sodas.

Pay attention to everything you buy – the more we go away from plastic bottles the better.

Recycle and compost. You don’t have to be a gardener to compost, I bring my compost to work or donate it to a neighbor who gardens. If this seems far out, ask yourself where is “away” when you throw things in the garbage. Ask yourself, “how can I have less waste at this party than the one before?” Remember there is no “away.”

Do the best you can and have fun!

TIPS ON CATERED EVENTS OUTSIDE OF THE HOME:

Green Weddings, Parties, Events – hiring a caterer, hotel, restaurant the questions to ask are:

1. Can you buy local foods for my event? Then just be silent and let them answer. If the sales person says no, ask to see the chef, don’t ask -do you- ask can you or would buy local food for my event? One of the gifts chefs have is that we are creative folks, the reason food comes out good is because we are creative and we have made this 1000 of times, ask them to use their creativity to use local for your event. It is a yes or no.
2. Often there is criteria parking, capacity, locations of bathrooms and bars etc. that are on your list to help you choose a caterer, hotel, restaurant. Add do you recycle, do you compost, buy local, have a social responsibility or sustainability guidelines for your company that I could see, to your list of criteria.

Ask in a nice way. You want to ask these questions honoring all the people you are questioning. Don’t come at this righteously. Be in your heart. If you are not in your heart you are in the way.

About Greg Christian Catering and Events

Greg Christian, recognized as Chicago’s Conscious Caterer™, has been catering fresh, gourmet cuisine for the past 16 years. In addition to healthy, sustainable cuisine, Greg Christian Catering is committed to on and off-site composting and recycling. The newly launched “Greening of Events” service program will practice water conservation, offer re-usable living botanical centerpieces and donate un-served foods to local food banks.

Additionally, Greg Christian Catering and Events offers natural, healthy, organic sustainable menus, invitations printed on recycled paper, biodegradable service ware, eco-friendly cleaning supplies and numerous other details that help transform Chicago corporate meetings and parties, weddings and special events into green events.

For more information about Greg Christian Catering and events, please visit www.gregchristian.com

ABOUT OSP

Launched in 2005, OSP is a non-profit organization that provides youth with a mindful foundation for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle through school-based wellness programming initiatives. OSP strives to combat youth health epidemics, such as childhood obesity, early on-set type II diabetes and asthma, through a holistic approach to education and food service systemic change. For more information on the Organic School Project, please visit www.organicschoolproject.org

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TheHairStyler.com Hair Feature
By Roy Caccamo, THS Hair Consultant

Bridal occasions require some effort to achieve success, with proper planning a key ingredient. Bridal hairstyles are the same; they require thought, consideration and a solid plan. There are many important factors to consider when choosing a bridal hairstyle.

The length and texture of your hair will determine what can actually be achieved. Next, your bridal hairstyle needs to complement the gown you will be wearing. For example, if your gown is low cut off the shoulder, you should consider choosing a bridal hairstyle where some hair falls down onto your shoulders so not to leave that area bare. You can still consider an upstyle, but you should make sure that some hair is down, even if it’s only a little, to soften the style.

If your gown has sleeves and even a collar, definitely look at upstyles that will show it off best. If you would like to wear your hair down, just be sure to choose a bridal hairstyle with lots of body and bounce, or consider a half-up, half-down look.

Another important factor to consider is face shape and body shape adjustments, where height and width can be added or minimized to suit your profile, as well as your partner’s profile. If you are tall and thin, you should keep away from high tight upstyles that will add more length to your profile, and you should look for curls that are always softer in texture, due to their round shape.

If your gown is plain and simple in design, you should consider more detailed bridal hairstyles to create an interesting overall appearance. The opposite applies if your gown is very detailed.

Other points that require proper planning include the length of your neck, the size of your ears, as well as the height of your hairline. If all this seems complicated and confusing to you, don’t despair, because now you can see for yourself what you would look like with various Formal and Bridal hairstyles.

You can upload a waist high photo of yourself with your gown on, and then try on all of the Formal and Bridal hairstyles to see which you like and what suits you best. You can also print out your favorite bridal hairstyles and take them to your stylist for thorough consultation and advice.

To view a Bridal Hairstyles demo click here then choose “Formal/Bridal” from the Hairstyles Category.

Download your free printable bridal shower invitations – no purchase necessary!

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By Dr David Robinson

Just last week another “expert” from another media publication was on a news morning show touting myriads of “Do’s” & “Dont’s” for “weight loss” and espousing people to first ask themselves numerous questions to determine if they are really “ready” to undertake lifestyle changes.

Why complicate making healthy lifestyle changes and bring psychology into it to determine if you are “really ready” to make such changes? This would scare most people away from even ever thinking about the subjects again!

From TV to radio to the internet, you are bombarded with every conceivable way to “lose weight” and every manner of “the newest, best way” to live a healthy lifestyle. All this stuff coming out of the walls must be spinning your heads. And I can’t say as I blame you. Every time you tune into your favorite electronic gismo, there’s some new “magic” product. It’s overwhelming. Even I am getting frustrated at this point! But, the alternative to NOT making such changes seems just a tad ominous: Don’t change and suffer from chronic illnesses and maybe even die early.

So let’s simplify and clarify. First, once and for all, dump, ditch, scuttle, scrap, banish, delete and for evermore get rid of the terms “weight loss” and “lose weight” from your vocabulary. Listen very closely. “WEIGHT LOSS” IS AN OBSOLETE TERM. FAT LOSS is proper… while maintaining (or gaining, if desired) lean muscle. You wanna turn heads? Then shock-n-awe your friends and family with results from making healthy lifestyle changes. This takes time but the results are LASTING. Lifetime.

Second, I have always and will always advocate lifestyle changes be done with two things in mind: K.I.S.S (KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID) and D.I.G.S (DO IT GRADUALLY STUPID)

So let’s get down to the bottom line. The aspects of living healthy should be started in a SIMPLE manner. If you begin them GRADUALLY and build upon them, they will LAST a lifetime. For the sake of repetition – and start DOING not just reading – here is a condensed list:

1. Proper Nutrition & Proper Supplementation. Follow the Harvard School of Public Health’s “New Food Pyramid”. Follow the Daily Value for all vitamins, minerals, amino acids and for good measure get a whole/green foods supplement.
2. Proper Exercise/Fitness. This means getting a physical exam to get clearance from your doctor to begin and – here I go again, breaking from the pack – getting a fitness center membership and consulting with a fitness trainer, who is usually found in a fitness center or through referral from someone you know. Again, start gradually.
3. Proper Sleep. Get 6 hours sleep per night absolute minimum. 7 hours sleep is preferable and 8 hours sleep per night is optimum.
4. Mindfulness/Meditation. Learn about this if you need to. Start a program of regular meditation/mindfulness, gradually (there’s that word again) working up to 30 minutes per day.
5. Recreation & Downshifting. Start to get into a hobby or interest and make a point of participating in it on a regular basis. Need I say, start gradually and build upon the time you spend to several hours each week? Also learn to slow your pace down by delegating chores to someone else; say “No” if it means saying “Yes” will cram your schedule; rise ½ – 1 hour earlier each morning; leave in time to arrive on time.

Just how is K.I.S.S. and D.I.G.S. accomplished?

Any lifestyle change should be done in a simple manner, making one change at a time and in a gradual manner, building upon each single change with another over a period of time. Walk before you run.

If you’re a neophyte at this (new to it), making multiple lifestyle changes all at once will overwhelm you and your body, and most probably get you frustrated and negative about such a massive shift from your “normal”. Remember, D.I.G.S (Do It Gradually Stupid). Give yourself and the body in which you live the ability to accept these changes easily and let them become lifetime habit-patterns.

Let me give you an example to start those changes with the most difficult to change: nutritional habit-patterns.

A healthy lifestyle begins with healthy fuel for the body. It’s very difficult to wean off of the great taste of the high fat and sugar foods, but those dogs are the foods that lead to fat in very noticeable areas on the body and some extremely important less noticeable areas inside the body.

I am not going to do what others in the industry do and spoon feed you (pun intended) a meal plan with what to eat each day. The really smart and simple way to transition your eating habits is to get ahold of the New Food Pyramid from the Harvard School of Public Health and follow its guidelines for what to eat.

Nor am I an advocate of counting calories or assigning points to food and counting them, far too much work. Remember K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid). Life is complicated enough and you’re busy enough already!

Let’s begin with breakfast. Start with one day a week, on Monday, by trading up to a healthy meal. For example oatmeal or high fiber, low sugar, unprocessed whole grain cereal with 1% milk or soy milk, or 1-2 slices of multi-grain, all natural toast with peanut butter, or 1-2 eggs on a slice of multi-grain toast. And 15 ounces of water with a lemon slice or all natural, unsweetened real juice. You can mix and match as you please, just be sensible with the portions and size of the meal.

The second week, add in a healthy breakfast for Wednesday, as well. Notice I skipped Tuesday? Remember, you want to do this gradually without shocking you or your body. This is a transition not shock-n-awe, not yet, anyway.

Week 3 add Friday as a healthy breakfast day. Then maintain the 3-day healthy breakfast for another week (4^th week).

Now week 5 add Tuesday as a healthy breakfast day. Week 6, Thursday and Sunday are added. Now hold that Monday through Friday + Sunday healthy breakfasts for another week (week 7).

At this point you and your body have become used to your new breakfast habit-patterns as “normal”. Transition is adaptation and it’s what the body positively responds to the best.

Guess what’s next? Lunch habit-patterns! You know what to do. For example multi-grain sandwich with meat, lettuce, tomato, easy on the mayo and cheese or a multi-veggie tossed salad with grilled chicken or low fat, low sodium soup. Add 12 -15 ounces of water. Follow the same game plan for gradually making lunch a healthy meal over 7 weeks and don’t forget to continue with healthy breakfasts 5 days a week!

Then you’re on to making dinner healthy over the next 7 weeks in the same manner.

Saturday? Splurge a little! And you’ll notice that you really won’t want too much of that old high fat, high sugar stuff you used to eat, ‘cause you’ll find out after just one Saturday, that it will make you feel rather, oh, “totally ugh!” for lack of a better term.

Want a bit of a challenge? Once you’ve transitioned into your new nutritional habit-patterns, make these 3 meals a bit smaller and pop in an extra “healthy snacks” between breakfast and lunch, and, between lunch and dinner. There’s a little secret to this. It keeps the body’s metabolism higher and helps to burn a little extra fat, both nutritional and stored. But the snack has got to be healthy (low sugar & fat)!

So, over the course of 21 weeks (5 months + 1 week), you have completely changed (transitioned into, adapted to) your new nutrition without any cravings, frustrations or hassles. And, these new habit-patterns of healthy eating have become “normal”, a part of your lifestyle.

Too slow? Again, remember, D.I.G.S. To put it into a question in order to drive my point home: How many “diets” have you been through that have had little to no results because you got frustrated or sick of it and quit? That’s the “bail-n-fail” syndrome. That’s not what happens with this program.

By approaching changes in the way you eat in this manner, you don’t get overwhelmed, you avoid cravings and you and your body have sufficient time to adapt to this new healthy fuel. This is a transition for you and your body; you’re learning and acquiring new healthy tastes and habit-patterns. You’re learning to succeed at healthy nutrition.

Exercise and fitness can be approached in the same manner. So can meditation, sleep, recreation and your daily pace. One – or maybe 2 habits if you’re industrious or not too unhealthy – at a time.

So, Monday, you start!

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