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These days we need to do everything we can to help ourselves look and feel healthier. We have more work, more worries, more responsibilities — and all of this can take a real toll on how we look and feel.  But there are simple things we can do to rejuvenate ourselves inside and out.  Here are my top ten tips for looking and feeling healthier.

1.  Drink enough water

This is a big one, because there is no way to be healthy and dehydrated, our bodies need water.  Make sure you are drinking enough water throughout the day, and remember that soda, coffee, and alcoholic beverages don’t count as hydration.   Also See:  Staying Healthy And Hydrated

Another benefit of drinking water.  Drinking Water Before Meals To Lose Weight – A new study found that middle-aged and older adults who drank two cups of water before each meal consumed fewer calories and lost more weight than those who skipped drinking water.

2.  Eat more healthy foods than unhealthy foods

You don’t have to be a health nut, but at least try to incorporate healthy foods into your diet whenever possible.  Try this – For a week keep track of what foods you’re eating each day.  At the end of the week examine your list and determine if you are eating more healthy foods than unhealthy ones.  Then find ways you can replace some of the unhealthy stuff with healthy stuff.  Also See:  Getting Reacquainted With Health Food

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For every person who watches the trailer, Showtime will donate $1 (up to $25,000) to the American Cancer Society…

Join the American Cancer Society and Showtime’s The Big C in the movement to create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. In the new series on the pay-cable network, actress Laura Linney stars as Cathy Jamison, a reserved, stifled, Minneapolis schoolteacher who receives the life-changing news that she has cancer. From that moment on, she decides to make some drastic, long-overdue adjustments to the way she is living her life. The Big C premieres at 10:30 p.m. (ET/PT) on Monday, August 16 on Showtime.

You can learn more about The Big C and help the American Cancer Society save lives from cancer by watching this exclusive trailer for the show. For every person who watches the trailer, Showtime will donate $1 (up to $25,000) to the American Cancer Society to help people stay well and get well, to find cures, and to fight back against a disease that has already taken too much. Together, we can make a world with less cancer and more birthdays a reality!

I recently wrote a post about the controversial proposal of making birth control pills available over-the-counter, and in even more controversial news, on Friday the FDA approved a new (prescription only) emergency contraceptive.  This new emergency contraception is not the morning after pill, but it’s not an abortion pill either.

From The New York Times…

Federal drug regulators on Friday approved a new form of emergency contraceptive pill that prevents pregnancies if taken as many as five days after unprotected intercourse.
. . .
Women who have unprotected intercourse have about 1 chance in 20 of becoming pregnant. Those who take Plan B within three days cut that risk to about 1 in 40, while those who take ella would cut that risk to about 1 in 50, regulators say.

The controversy surrounding emergency contraceptives comes mainly from the pro-life (or anti-abortion) community, which is confusing to me because there are hopes that these medications could someday reduce the need for clinical abortions.  The main sticking point seems to be that this group of people believe that life begins the moment of conception (or fertilization), and that these emergency contraception medications “abort” a fertilized egg.

Read the full post at BlogHer Health & Wellness

Another study finds belly bulge contributes to four serious medical conditions that can ultimately lead to death.

It seems women should have a waist circumference no greater than 35 inches, otherwise they are at a greater risk for heart disease, asthma, breast cancer as well as dementia.

“Even if you haven’t had a noticeable weight gain, if you notice your waist size increasing that’s an important sign,” said lead author Eric Jacobs of the American Cancer Society, which funded the study. “It’s time to eat better and start exercising more.”

Bulging bellies are a problem for most Americans older than 50. It’s estimated that more than half of older men and more than 70 percent of older women have bigger waistlines than recommended. And it’s a growing problem: Average waistlines have expanded by about an inch per decade since the 1960s.

Although I’m not past the recommended girth, I have noticed an evolution of how my body is distributing its weight. I wrote about how I’ve noticed that I’ve been carrying my weight differently since I hit 40 (with much of it in my belly), and the difficult time I’ve been having trying to lose the last 10 pounds.

I can’t help but think that my age has something to do with my inability to get rid of those last ten pounds. At 42, I’ve been observing some strange happenings to my body. Oddly, my weight has stayed relatively the same, but how the weight is distributed on my body has been changing dramatically (I seem to be plumping up around my waist and belly, while at the same time shrinking in areas I would prefer to keep).

In this video Dr. Oz talks about how a high belly fat measurement can take up to 15 years off your life, and shows you how to measure it for yourself…

Are you concerned about the added risks to your health from carrying extra weight in you belly?

Also See:

• Healthy Foods That Also Increase Your Energy
• Tip To Help You With Dieting & Weight Loss Willpower
• How You Can Be A Healthy Living Success Story
• 10 Tips For Making Fitness Fun

*photo courtesy of Busy Woman’s Guide

Are you honest about your weight?  Although I would prefer not to be asked, when I am asked, it never occurs to me to lie about it.

It used to be that women were thought to always lie about their age and weight, but a new CDC study finds that Americans are becoming more honest (at least about) their weight.  To be honest, I didn’t even know that there were studies measuring the number of people who lie about their weight.  It seems a little odd, but who am I to judge?

The new report also found that in nine states at least 30 percent of the adults were obese in 2009. The states were Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Mississippi, the highest at 34 percent. In 2007, only Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee topped 30 percent.

No states met a national goal for 2010 of limiting obesity to 15 percent. Only Colorado and the District of Columbia were lower than 20 percent, and just barely.

It did get me thinking a bit  about why?  Why are Americans becoming more honest about their weight, especially considering that obesity is on the rise?

Could it be that we are finally getting to the point of loving and accepting ourselves, even with our perceived imperfections?  That wouldn’t be so bad, maybe those Dove ads (you know, the ones using average and plus size models) are having an impact on how we see ourselves.  What ever the reason, if women are feeling better about themselves, I think that’s wonderful.  Anyway, that’s my idealistic way of looking at this story, and I think it could be true.

However, it seems the researchers have their own opinion (go figure), and it does make sense.  They believe that because of all the press coverage over the ever growing obesity epidemic (and the health problems associated with it), that Americans are becoming more aware of their weight and therefore more honest.  The benefit to this observation would be that Americans are becoming concerned about the health risks of being overweight (rather than the stigma), and are keeping a closer eye on it.  In the long run (idealistically), this change in behavior may actually prove to be the catalyst to American’s changing their eating habits from unhealthy to healthy, and that would be a good thing.  Wouldn’t it be great to go from a society facing an obesity epidemic, to a society facing a healthy living epidemic?

*cross-posted to BlogHer Health & Wellness

Is it time to start selling birth control pills over-the-counter (OTC)?

The easy answer is, yes.

But is it really an easy question to answer? No. Remember, we are living in a country where many parents are still against condoms being available to students, and where many schools are teaching abstinence only in place of sex-ed classes. I’m thinking this isn’t going to be as easy of a switch as some of these articles make it appear.

From The New York Times Op-Ed — Let the Pill Go Free:

The pill meets F.D.A. criteria for over-the-counter medications. Women don’t need a doctor to tell them whether they need the pill — they know when they are sexually active and want to avoid pregnancy. Pill instructions are easy to follow: Take one each day. There’s no chance of becoming addicted. Taking too many will make you nauseated, but won’t endanger your life, in contrast to some over-the-counter drugs, like analgesics. (There are even side benefits to taking the pill, like reduced risks of ovarian and uterine cancer.)

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Would you take a pill that promised to make you smarter?  That could help you do better on tests?  Give you the energy to be more productive?  Make you feel more alert?

It is possible, but not without risks.

What are smart drugs?

Smart drugs are really just prescription stimulants (Dexedrine, Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta) that have been used to successfully treat attention deficit disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) for many years now. However, when a person without one of these medical conditions takes these drugs, it’s basically a prescription “upper” that gives the user a feeling of being able to conquer any task, along with the ability to stay up longer to complete it.

There is another class of drugs known as eugeroics (ie: Provigil) that work to block chemicals in the brain that cause fatigue and in-turn provide the user with a feeling of alertness.  These medications were originally used to treat narcolepsy, and excessive sleepiness due to medical conditions or shift-work.

You can see why college students are gravitating to these drugs, but do they give them an unfair advantage over students that aren’t using them?

It’s important to remember that these are addictive narcotics with many dangerous side effects. Even so, students and professionals are still using them to get an edge over their competition.

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Getting Reacquainted With Healthy Food- This is a post I originally did for BlogHer in 2008, but since it still applies now, I thought I would share it here on the Choose You Blog.

For the last few weeks I’ve been making an attempt at eating healthy. And usually this is where I would tell you that I’ve failed miserably. But, I’m happy to report that I have actually been doing pretty well. I think it is in part because, around the same time I decided that I couldn’t afford to gain another pound, I got an email from Elaine Magee. Funny how we get what we need, just when  we need it.

Anyway, Elaine is the Healthy Recipe Doctor at WebMD, and she wanted to tell me about her newest book Food Synergy. Even better, she said if I wanted a copy she would send me one. The timing couldn’t have been better.

Evidence is mounting that certain components in the food we eat and drink (minerals, vitamins and phytochemicals, fiber, smart fats, etc.) interact to provide our bodies extra disease protection and a higher level of health. This advanced nutrition science is called food synergy.

Food synergy is like adding 1 plus 1 and getting 4 or 6 instead of 2; the total is greater than the sum of the individual parts (or nutrients).

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Why is it that losing weight seems to be so much harder the older we get?  I don’t really consider myself a dieter, but I do try to incorporate healthy eating into my lifestyle. In doing so I hoped to lose a little weight and get back to a healthy BMI.  It’s just ten more pounds, but I’ve been finding it difficult to even lose one.  Why is that?  Does it have something to do with getting older?  Is there a way to get past it?  I decided to take a closer look at how age affects our weight.

I can’t help but think that my age has something to do with my inability to get rid of those last ten pounds.  At 42, I’ve been observing some strange happenings to my body.  Oddly, my weight has stayed relatively the same, but how the weight is distributed on my body has been changing dramatically (I seem to be plumping up around my waist and belly, while at the same time shrinking in areas I would prefer to keep).

Read more »