I love giving people things that will make their lives better, especially health-related items. You do have to exercise tact and make sure the gift is something they want, not just something you think they need.

Here’s what I have on my personal health and fitness wish list. Maybe you would like to compare it with yours—or may be it will provide some suggestions for hard-to-please people on your gift list.

Yoga mats, zafus

Gravity table

Pilates equipment

Massage oils, massage tables, and soothing music to listen to during massage

Meditation cushions, candles, music, and art

Essential oil sets

Flower remedy gift sets

Baskets of herbal teas

Tai chi, jazzercise or martial arts, meditation, yoga or dance classes

Vitamins and nutritional supplements

Books on alternative therapies, longevity, sports medicine, and nutrition

Skin care and body care products made with natural ingredients

Potted plants of culinary and/or medicinal herbs

I’m sure you can think of more.

Be creative, because these are the kinds of gifts that could save a life, or extend the enjoyment of life, for someone you love.

What’s on your health and fitness wish list? Almost everything I’ve listed can be ordered on line, often at great Savings—so you can please the people on your list—and buy yourself some great health and fitness items, too, and start the new year right.

It is a biological process affecting women’s hormonal systems which occur for women aged 40 to 60 years old. In this situation, women undergo hormonal, physical and mental upheavals. The visible symptoms do not manifest in all women though.

Hot flashes, vaginal dryness, mood swings, changes in sex drive, backaches, these are among the most felt and seen symptoms of menopause. From 55 to 65% of women undergoing menopause experience these symptoms.

At menopause, the ovaries start to have lower production of the estrogen and progesterone hormones. The diminishing production is automatically sensed by the pituitary gland which makes it trigger more production. Read the rest of this entry »

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Our new sister site, New Alternative Health Ideas, is a great place to explore many alternative healing modalities by watching videos.

http://www.newalternativehealthideas.com/

When this site started, we displayed health-related videos, but for various reasons we quit using them. These are better videos, and the whole new site is devoted to them. So I hope you will try it out and let us know how you like it.

Topics include

Image by ElvisHuang via Flickr

It is inevitable that you will gain weight during your pregnancy because you are eating for you and your baby. Not to mention you will gain as your baby develops and grows. The normal weight gain for pregnant women is 25 to 35 pounds. This is just an average range so don’t be afraid if you gain more or less than that.

The importance is to stay fit and healthy during the nine months you are carrying your baby or babies. You don’t want to do anything too strenuous or start a diet or follow a fad diet to keep weight gain down. Here are some ways to stay fit and healthy during your pregnancy.

Eating healthy meals is important because you are providing nourishment for your baby. Don’t cut back on calories because you are afraid of weight gain. Pregnant women should add 200 to 300 calories to their daily intake.

The quality of the foods you eat is just as important as the quantity. Eat organic foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals which will give you energy and nourishment. It is acceptable to give into cravings, but eat sweet treats or generally unhealthy foods in moderation.

To stay in shape and minimize too much weight gain you should exercise regularly. Find an exercise routine that you are comfortable with and one where you won’t overexert yourself. Read the rest of this entry »

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What you eat and what you do can influence your hormones dramatically. When this happens you can either gain weight or lose weight. Avoid these key areas to make sure you lose weight with your healthy weight loss diet. Don’t take for granted just how powerful hormones like these are in determining your weight loss success.

This one hormone that can cause so many problems is called Cortisol. Excess cortisol will stimulate your appetite and prompt more calories to be stored as fat, so it is very influential in your weight loss plan. These are 2 things you don’t want when trying to follow a healthy weight loss diet.

Cortisol also increases protein breakdown within the muscle, which means a slower metabolism and less calories burned. A key to successful weight loss is keeping your metabolism running at a fast rate so that you are always burning calories.

It decreases glucose utilization and increased insulin resistance, which means the glucose or sugars in your body are not used for energy as much as they should be. Instead they float around and eventually get stored as fat. This is strike two against your healthy weight loss diet and healthy eating plans.

One thing that directly increases cortisol is stress. Stress is the culprit in increasing cortisol levels and resistance to insulin and leptin. Stress can come from work issues, family issues, medical problems and even unhealthy foods. Read the rest of this entry »

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When combined, a healthy diet and regular exercise can go a long way in helping you to avoid becoming overweight, and as such, it can help you to minimize the risk of heart failure, stroke, and even diabetes. Even though this is common knowledge nowadays, many people find it almost impossible to give up their sedentary lifestyles, and because of this, approximately 300,000 Americans die each year from diseases related to unhealthy diets and lack of physical exercise.

Surprisingly enough, it’s actually quite easy to incorporate a healthy diet and regular exercise into your daily routine so that you can remain in good health. The following tips can certainly help you to achieve that goal:

1) Start off slowly

Essentially, this applies to exercise and diet in that just as you should increase your level of exercise gradually, so to should you start making gradual changes to your diet, rather than cutting back significantly right from the beginning. Bear in mind that your current eating habits have been in place for ages and it will take time for you to change them. Read the rest of this entry »

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Holiday stress relief could come from banishing holidays, but there has got to be at least one holiday, maybe Groundhog day, that you like.

So maybe it is not the holiday that brings stress, but the thoughts about the holidays, and if I change the thoughts, then I change the physiology in my body, which is what stress is, right, an uncomfortable physiology in my body?

(Stress physiology happens fast, perhaps four times as fast as I can blink my eyes, and has a purpose, and it is not designed to be a habit). Read the rest of this entry »