Menopause And Weight Gain

Studies of women aged fifty and over show that most women in this age group are positive that their weight increase is connected with the menopause in their judgment. If you take into account the fact that some people might be using this as an justification and that others may not have made allowances in their diet for decreased levels of activity due to lifestyle alterations, it is still hard to account for why women in this age group tend to put surplus weight on different parts of the body, in particular the stomach, whereas any weight gained in younger women tends to be on the hips.

In fact, the reality is that hormonal changes do have a role to play in this phenomenon, although the process is not completely understood. At menopause a woman stops ovulating, her monthly menstruation periods end, and her body produces much lower levels of the female hormone estrogen, which is responsible for the ovulation process.

Low estrogen has been shown to cause weight gain in animals and it is almost certainly the reason why women’s bodies change shape. While women of childbearing age accumulate fat in the lower body, after the menopause they store it on the abdomen instead, like men. This leads to a greater risk of heart disease.

At the same time, both men and women tend to find muscle turning to fat as they grow older and the metabolism slows down. This means that if you do not adjust your eating habits, you will probably find that your weight increases. A person of 60 just does not need as many calories as a person of 40.

Hormonal therapy with estrogen is sometimes prescribed to control menopausal symptoms. Many women will be astonished to hear that studies have shown that hormonal therapy does not result in weight increase. Some women experience bloating and water retention in the early stages of hormonal therapy but this is usually temporary.

Hormonal therapy can reduce the risk of heart disease by preventing the changes in storage of body fat around the abdomen and lowering cholesterol. On the other hand, hormonal therapy has been linked with an increased risk of breast cancer in some studies.

If you find that you are gaining weight around the menopause, there are several things you can do.

Firstly, you should eat a healthy, low fat diet with plenty of fibre and avoid sugar.

Secondly, you need to take regular exercise. As people get older their physical activity levels naturally go down. Work frequently becomes less physically demanding, there are no kids to run around after, we take less active holidays and do things more slowly. Thirty minutes of moderate physical activity every day will help to balance out the effect of this.

Thirdly. you must preserve your muscle strength and mass. Use weights for arm muscles and walking or cycling for your legs.

Fourthly, try not to get worried about the alterations to the shape of your body. If you are not too overweight, but simply have a thicker waist and slimmer legs, then don’t worry.

As customary, you ought to seek advice from your doctor before starting any exercise program, if you have any medical conditions or if your fitness levels are low. Your doctor can also help with symptoms of the menopause and weight gain.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with how to lose weight online. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight? This article, Menopause And Weight Gain is available for free reprint.

Tips On Lake Fishing.

Lake fishing is fairly akin to river fishing, or slow-flowing river fishing anyway. The kinds of fish in rivers and lakes tend to be the identical, which means that the tackle, bait and lures will be the similar too, although you may require a longer fishing rod, say, a beach-casting rod to cast your bait further out into the lake. Lake fish will frequently mature to a larger size than river fish, so your line should be more robust too.

Lake fish conventionally been classed under three broad headings. Namely, game fish, food fish, and bait fish. Bass, trout, pike, pickerel, muskellunge, perch, etc., are recognized as game fish because of their sporting importance. Carp, suckers, some of the catfish, yellow perch, etc., are though of as food fish.

This latter group is not considered to provide the sport that the so-called game fish do, but they do have a genuine economic and sporting value. The third kind are the minnows and tiddlers that can be used as bait for the first two classes.

It is not simple to descibe the right technique to cast long distances, but it does come nuturally to quite a few fishermen. However, if casting does not come effortlessly to you, you will need to watch other lake or beach fishermen. If you are not happy doing that, you will be able to find a video on the subject. However, the best method to learn how to cast is to go down to the beach , watch an expert at work and try to do the same.

Nonetheless, lake fishing is enormous fun and the beginner will rapidly learn the correct method of lake fishing. Consequently, I have put a few practical tips here to help you learn lake fishing more quickly.

i]. Try to take up a smooth, whip-like cast. However, if you crack the whip too hard, you will certainly shake off a great deal of bait, flies or lures..

ii]. Timing is the all-significant factor in both the back cast and forward cast.

iii]. Study the lifestyle of the fish that reside in the lake that you intend to fish. All fish have both similar and dissimilar habits, so either obtain a book or video or join a club to learn more.

iv]. The majority of fish like some sort of cover, either for themselves or because their prey will like it there. Be careful of weeds, reeds and submerged logs or you will lose heaps of line and tackle..

v]. The same as I said previously, lake fish tend to be bigger, because food is copious and there is lots of room. A large bass, for example, can easily weigh 10-12 lbs, so make sure that your rod and line are up to the job. A rod of seven feet six inches to eight feet in length can take these sizes of fish.

Lake fishing is not so really different from other kinds of fishing, so if you put a little energy into learning the techniques and fish involved in lake fishing, you will soon master the skill and turn into an expert at lake fishing.

If you are keen on fishing and would like to read more, please pop along to our website called http://fishing.the-real-way.com

What Is The Atkins Grapefruit Diet?

The Atkins Grapefruit diet is a diet plan, not endorsed by the estate of Dr. Atkins, that hopes to play on the fame of the grapefruit diet and the Atkins diet name. However, a closer look at this diet shows that it may not be all it claims to be.

First off, it’s pretty difficult to find information on the Atkins grapefruit diet plan. Clever people know that when someone is perpetrating a deception, or a con, they will often gloss over the facts. This is what the Atkins grapefruit diet seems to do in an attempt to get people to associate it with two supposedly effective diets.

Is the Atkins Grapefruit Diet part of the Atkins Diet or support by the late Dr. Atkins’ company? The answer is a resounding no, not only is there no mention of the Atkins Grapefruit Diet on the Atkins web site, but there is no fruit of any sort allowed in the list of allowed foods in the Atkins diet Induction phase either.

The induction phase includes the following foods: fish of all kinds; all fowl such as turkey and chicken; any shellfish; any meat such as beef or pork; eggs cooked in any style including fried; cheese; vegetables; herbs and spices; fats and oils; low carbohydrate beverages including diet soft drinks.

Please, notice one thing – that fruit does not feature on that list at all! Yes, later phases of the Atkins diet do allow small amounts of fruits such as cantaloupe and lemon juice, and the pre-maintenance and maintenance phases do even allow small quantities of grapefruit, but when judged in comparison with the amount of Grapefruit recommended on the Atkins Grapefruit Diet there is a huge difference.

The Atkins Grapefruit Diet suggests a cup of grapefruit juice or a cup of grapefruit sections, with 8 and 18 carbs respectively. Even the most liberal phases of the Atkins diet recommends limiting intake to below 8 carbs per day, when it comes to grapefruit. That’s a direct contradiction from one plan to the other.

Most sensible people would turn to the Atkins website itself the moment they heard of the Atkins Grapefruit Diet and when they found no reference of that diet on their site, a red light would flash and an alarmbell would ring.

In general, remember this: any diet that relies too heavily on one food, such as grapefruit in a grapefruit diet, is unhealthy for any but extremely short periods. The Atkins Grapefruit Diet is not associated with the Atkins diet, and may interfere with the results of the Atkins diet in its early phases.

Do you need to lose those excess pounds real fast? Well, take a free look at The Atkins Diet, by going to our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan This article, What Is The Atkins Grapefruit Diet? is available for free reprint.

How To Reduce Stress To Improve Your Personal Life

Stress can reveal itself in various ways, but one of the most common issues it results in is continuous tiredness – a feeling of tiredness and unwellness. It is lethargy, general fatigue, exhaustion, lassitude and ambivalence. Basically, you feel too tired to care less.

This mood is debilitating, because the longer it goes on, the worse it gets and depression is just around the corner. Stress is the cause of millions of lost work days every week and has become the origin of many serious illnesses in the West.

The major causes of stress are financial, emotional and work-related. Everyone worries. Even millionaires worry about money – much more than you would think. All families worry, parents worry about their children and children worry about other children and we all worry about our jobs and children worry about school and their homework. We also all worry about upsetting people and having had arguments or about having been a bit sharp or impolite with someone recently.

Other than these main reasons, people worry about stalkers, paedophiles, the economy, the environment, war, terrorism, burglars, muggers, drunken drivers, foreigners, immigration, the decline of the educational establishment, the moral decline of the nation and a thousand other things.

There are several kinds of stress. There is long term stress and short term stress; acute and mild stress; there is bad stress and even good stress. Long term stress derives from life. Most parents never stop worrying about their children; short to medium term stress can come from job or and financial insecurity, although by their forties or fifties, many people have this stress nailed. Younger people are inclined to worry more about money.

Mild stress can come from driving in traffic and acute stress could develop if you suspect you are about to be attacked or mugged. Some of these are bad stresses, but some are there to help you get through a situation too, so you could say that they are good stresses.

When driving through traffic, stress will keep you alert, which you should be to help avert accidents, but the best examples of good stress are given by actors and top business people. Most good actors will say that they have to have that tension or stress before going on stage in order to give a good performance.

You can decrease stress by managing, planning and setting goals. These three techniques will bring some order into your life, which is helpful because stress often forms out of chaos – when things are so much on top of you that you do not know what to do next.

Therefore, if money is the cause of your stress, draw up a budget and make plans for the payment of your bills the day after your cheque clears every month. If you have to get a second job, do not pick one like your day job, do something totally different like dog-walking, mowing lawns or working in Wimpey’s.

If your difficulties come from relationships, study them to see whether they can be managed better. Are your kids running wild? Is your spouse never at home? Is your Mum ill? There are things you can do, even if you do have to seek advice or counseling.

Setting meaningful, attainable goals is a way of raising your spirits. These can be on any level you like, big or small. If I have a long essay to write, I may promise myself a toffee after every 1,000 words. If I have a larger task on, I may promise myself a slap-up meal on Friday, when it is finished. Having short term, achievable goals like that helps lift my spirits. Call it bribery, if you like, but it works.

If work is your trouble, try education. Go to night school, meet new people who are interested in what you are interested in, get some new credentials and get out of your rut. All of these methods will help reduce your stress and get you back on your feet.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects , but is presently concerned with the symptoms of stress. If you are suffering from any kind of stress, please go over to our website now at Stress and Heart Disease

The Traditional Use Of Dairy Produce: Part 4 – Eggs (cont.).

Preparation Of Foods: Dairy Produce.

Eggs: Part Two

Poaching: boil 40mm water in a frying pan; add a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of vinegar. Crack egg into cup, inspect and tip into water. Turn down the heat. Gather the white around the unbroken yolk with a spoon and simmer for 3-4 mins. Lift out with a fish slice, drain and serve on hot buttered toast.

Scrambling: beat eggs well; add salt, pepper and a dash of milk. Melt enough butter to cover the bottom of the pan. Cook eggs slowly, stirring continuously. Cook in a basin floating in boiling water, if preferred. Serve when almost completely set, in about 5 mins.

Fried Eggs: Melt enough fat to easily cover the bottom of the shallow pan. Tip the egg(s) in gently and gather the whites around the yolks. When the white has set, baste the yolk to taste and remove whole with a fish slice.

Baked: lightly grease a fireproof dish and slide the eggs gently into it. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and butter to taste. Bake in a medium oven and serve in the same bowl after the whites have set.

Omelette: buy a pan and keep it only for omelettes! The base should be smooth and clean. Allow two eggs per serving; beat lightly and add salt and pepper to taste. Melt enough butter to cover the bottom of the frying pan. When the butter is hot, gently tip in the eggs; as it sets, raise up the handle and draw the set mixture up towards the handle, allowing the liquid egg to run down onto the hot pan. When all the liquid is set, tilt the pan back and roll the omelette over. Serve immediately on a hot plate. It can be filled with almost anything, before being rolled over.

Pouring Custard: beat 2-3 eggs for every one pint of milk lightly. Heat the milk and pour gradually over the eggs; add sugar and flavouring to taste; cook in a double pan or jug and hot water until the required consistency has been reached. If it is not to be served immediately, pour a thin layer of water onto it to stop a skin forming.

Baked Custard: proceed as above and then pour the custard into greased dish; sprinkle with nutmeg; and place dish in water to halfway up its sides. Bake at 350 F for 35-45 mins; test by inserting a knife – it should be clean on removal.

Steamed Custard: as above, but cook in a steamer or pan of boiling water. Cooking time about the same.

Custard Tarts: pour pouring custard into unbaked pastry cases and bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes. A little jam can be placed in the base of the pastry case first, if desired.

For the best gourmet Traditional Welsh Recipes, please visit our website at http://welsh-recipes.the-real-way.com/ This article, The Traditional Use Of Dairy Produce: Part 4 – Eggs (cont.). is released under a creative commons attribution licence.

How To Manage Teenage Stress

Unfortunately, everyone, of all age groups, is subject to stress. It has probably always been like that, but most people would accede that life has become more demanding for everyone since the Seventies, including for teenagers and even children. It is something that we should all keep in mind when dealing with abnormal behaviour from teenagers and children.

Stress outs itself in different ways, but the same way in adults and teenagers and children, although most adults are better able to deal with stress. It is essential to be able to recognize the manifestations of stress in teenagers and children and how to deal with it.

Teenagers are in a particularly vulnerable group. They are mid-way between being dependent children and independent adults and the transition can be tricky, which means stressful.

In the West, about 20% of the population are teenagers. Do not forget that teenagers are going through immense psychological, physical, emotional and hormonal changes. Some deal with these fluctuations better than others, but hardly any teenager understands why they are thought of as stroppy.

There is so much going on in their lives that is new. In other words, they are under stress. That is not an excuse, we have all been through it and stress is not a carte blanche to behave like an idiot.

Sexual consciousness is a big stress factor that many teenagers do not how to cope with because they have never experienced it before. This makes teenage girls very vulnerable to older boys who may target them for sexual favours.

Teenage girls are usually proud of their budding breasts as a sign of their admission into womanhood, but it does not mean that they know how to cope with the stares of older men and the advances of older boys.

The compensating factor here is that more girls will seek advice than boys. Boys tend not to seek advice, afraid that they will show themselves up. Dealing with family members can be advantageous, although they may be cause of the stress in the first place.

As in all instances of stress for all age groups, it is important to work out what the basis of the stress is, because this can determine how you will deal with it. Sometimes, parents expect too much of their kids, which will stress their teenagers out a lot. Therefore, the best way to help teenagers to get over their stress is to get them to talk about it.

Teenage stress management is a very important issue and many teenagers cannot deal with large amounts of stress on their own. As a parent, you could make sure that they are not eating too much junk food and encourage them to be active in sport.

You can also be as supportive as possible when your teenager seems to go off the rails for no obvious reason without asking too many probing questions, yet listening to what they tell you. Listening is the best way of helping someone display their feelings, nosiness puts people off.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects , but is currently concerned with the stress headache. If you are suffering from any kind of stress, please go over to our website now at Stress and Heart Disease

Three Tips For Coping With Stress In A Home Business

Everyone comes under stress sometimes and for most of us that is when we are working. Having a boss is stressful enough, but at least the buck stops on his or her desk. When you work for yourself you have the stresses of normal workers, but you also have the additional stresses of complying with the law, the taxation system and the unions and the penalties can be very serious if you slip up. Ignorance of the law is no excuse as the judge will say as the gavel comes down and your cheque book comes out.

People deal with their stress in their own ways, but it is handy to note a few of the popular ways to reduce stress levels in a home business situation. A simple yet often very effective way to reduce stress is to have a relevant, but comic poster near-by for you to look at.

My Dad was a builder and on the wall opposite his desk was a poster of a monkey in overalls attempting to put building blocks on top on one another. Underneath it read: “You Do Not Have To Be Mad To Work here, But It Helps”.

It is an old one, but it was in the seventies and the whole point is that whenever he read it, it made him grin. Another poster he had was of a large tiger stroling through the edge of a jungle clearing. Again inspirational. Others might choose Kipling: “If you can walk with crowds and keep your virtue” et cetera or a passage from the Bible.

Motivational posters, pictures and mantras are very helpful, but sometimes you have to have more, because high levels of stress are considered an occupational hazard for people in business for themselves. One thing that I like to have near-by is a small fridge just for me (but I do work alone) and inside it are treats that I only touch when I need to.

There are expensive ice creams, connoisseur chocolates and my favourite drinks, including chocomilk, fruit-flavoured spa water and home-made iced tea and iced coffee. If i am stumped, I take a few minutes out to eat or drink something and relax by looking out of the window. Five minutes later, I feel capable to have another run at the problem.

Some people discover that playing one of the games that comes with most types of Windows for fifteen minutes helps a lot, but I prefer to stay productive so I just switch jobs for a while. Similar to most people in the West these days, I have a broadband connection that is ‘always on’, so email is coming in all the time too.

If I am having a setback with something and the answer just will not appear, I switch over to Outlook and read and reply to a few emails. I find that taking my mind off the immediate problem for a time helps me to refocus, and I have not lost any time because I have to go through the mail at some time in any case.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is presently concerned with office stress. If you are suffering from any kind of stress, please go over to our website now at Stress and Heart Disease

Golfing For Novices: Part Two

What You Should Keep in your Golfing Bag.

There are many golf bags available; some are designed for fashion, some for utility and some that combine both features. There are big bags, bigger bags and bags so big that they would keep everything I need for a long week-end vacation in one of the side pockets!

As a rule of thumb, you only need a golf bag large enough to hold your clubs, spare balls, your glove, keys, tees, spare pencils, ball markers, a ball retriever, suntan lotion, a plastic mac, and an umbrella.

It is also recommended that you carry in your bag: some tissue paper, sticking plasters and, whether necessary or not, some insect repellant.

A pack of baby-wipes comes in quite handy sometimes, especially if you’re feeling hot or you get sprayed with sand in the bunker – it can be just what you need!

Other things that could come in useful are certain drugs: for instance, antihistamine, if you are allergic to wasp stings or medication to counteract an illness like diabetes (if you suffer from it, that is). It is vital to remember to replace these medicines before their expiry date though.

You should also switch off your mobile phone before stowing it away in one of your golf bag’s side pockets to prevent it from upsetting other players. You have to be considerate to you fellow players and mobile phones on a golf course are considered a nuisance as they are in restaurants.

Knowing that you are prepared for most of the minor problems that can arise while you are out on the course will help you to enjoy your game. And the game is mostly about being relaxed. You are prepared for bee stings, ant bites, blisters and rain, so you can get on with your game safe in that knowledge!

Are you new to golf? We have some greon our website at tips for the beginner golfer on our website at Golfing Tips for Beginners Also published at Golfing For Novices: Part Two.

Complex Carbohydrates Diets

When most of us decide to follow a diet, we are filled with joy because we are eventually going to shed that unwanted weight. All we require is the necessary diet info. However a few months down the line and not only have we not lost any weight, but we are also fed up with our diet.

Why does something like this happen you might ask with consternation? Well, the answer would be that we are not eating the correct combination of foods to burn the excess fat away. Eating a diet that has complex carbohydrates foods which are healthy for you could be the answer to all whole diet dilemmas.

When you begin any of the diets, the first thing that you will be told is the diet info of what food you can eat and what kinds of food are bad for you. According to most low carb diet info, amongst the many bad foods will be many complex carbohydrates foods which you really need for your body to function well. The most sensible approach to adopt with those diets is to understand the low carb diet info behind them and use the diet food lists that they provide sensibly.

This way you will definitely lose weight, because the foods that you will be eating on your diet are the types of food that can make you lose your hunger pangs. By not desiring to eat lots of food, you will not be picking at junk food and gaining weight. According to most low carb diet information, complex carbohydrates foods for long lasting energy will release the quantity of energy that you need, slowly, throughout the day.

According to most low carb diet information, these foods also supply the necessary dietary requirements that we need for our bodies to grow healthily. You should, however, remember the low carb diet information that the best way to develop a great looking figure is to maintain a healthy balance between all of the complex carbohydrates foods in the other groups and to incorporate regular exercise into your daily regime.

When you go shopping for the foodstuff for your diet, stop a moment and look to see if the foods that you have planned for your meals, according to the low carb diet information that you have, will help you in the long run or if you will end up feeling worse than you do now. The reason is that many of the foods in these different diets don’t take your body’s health requirements into account.

If you don’t eat the right foods, you can end up with various illnesses and other complications that you had no trouble with when you used to eat complex carbohydrates foods like fruit and vegetables that were part of your every day eating habits.

Remember that, according to most low carb diet info, you have to take into account the health needs of your body too. Including fantastic tasting complex carbohydrates foods that you usually love to eat anyway, make dieting fun, especially since you are not really dieting. What you are doing is making a permanent change for a healthier future.

Do you want to lose those excess kilos rapidly? Well, take a free look at Complex Carbohydrates, by visiting our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan Unique version for reprint here: Complex Carbohydrates Diets.

The Rapid Weight Loss Myths

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to be slimmer just to have a sexier body. Many people have moulded their bodies to make them look more healthy and more desirable. However, there is no way to attain this new look in a day of two. The problem is that most people do not want to wait, they want it now.

This can lead to these people making rather rash and, it has top be said, rather silly decisions. They are not willing to wait and they are not willing to work for what they want. This is why so many people turn to rapid weight loss diets. Some ‘guru’ brings out a new fad diet and a good percentage of the ‘I want it now’ crowd jump on the band wagon. Only to be disappointed again within the year or less.

Speed diets or rapid weight loss diets tend to put out great advertising copy that is very hard to resist. However, all diets, no matter which one you choose, Weight Watchers, Atkins or fad diet, depend on overweight people making lifestyle changes in order for them to work permanently.

There is a very apposite saying: if you always do what you always did, then you will always get what you always got. That says it all. You can lose weight with all but the stupidest of diets, but if you go back to your old ways when you hit your target weight, you MUST slowly, but gradually creep back to your old weight.

If you give your body more calories than it needs, it will store them for when it does need them. The problem is that that day never comes for too many people, because they never exert themselves. This is especially true of fad diets like the ‘cabbage water’ diet. Yes, you will lose weight on it, but you would lose weight by fasting whatever you did. For a while, and then you might get sick. For a diet to work, it has to be flexible and enjoyable enough for you to be able to stick with it for the rest of your life. Make no mistake, dieting is long-haul.

Many rapid weight loss programs actually only squeeze the water out of you. Just like a wet sponge. But a good dieter maintains his or her grip on that sponge, not letting it soak up water again. The problem with short term dieting, is that you let go of the sponge underwater.

This is why serial dieters first lose weight and are happy; then finish dieting, go back to their old weight and become depressed. In that state of depression they are suckers for the advertisers of the next latest craze diet. In other words, they are being manipulated and literally squeezed dry, but of their money too.

These silly rapid weight loss programs also include fat loss pills. They are not making you lose fat, well, maybe a tiny amount gets washed out with all the surplus water you are carrying. They are only diuretics under another name. How many pills would I sell if I called them diuretics? How many more would I sell if I called them miracle fat loss pills?

Type the word diuretic into a engine and find out more about them. They are all around you in mild healthy forms. A diuretic will essentially cause your body to lose more fluid than was in the diuretic. Tea is a diuretic, for example.

This list of these dopey dieting aids to rapid weight loss goes on and on, but someone must be buying them and you can bet your bottom dollar that it is the sad, depressed dieter who let go of the sponge.

Slimming soap! Slimming soap is being advertised as being a rare Eastern remedy for corpulence. Well, let me tell you, I live in the East and I have never come across it here. Asians are slim because they do a lot of physical labour and do not come under the pressure to eat junk food that Westerners do, although that situation is changing quickly too.

Magnetic weight loss earrings, I ask you! Even being drunk without a present for your wife ten minutes before Christmas Day is not a good enough excuse to fall for this one, surely? The advertisers say that the secret of this set of earrings is that they are magnetic.

Well, if you believe this, why not get a pair of $1 children’s toy magnets or even a couple of fridge magnets and put one in each hip pocket? Two? Well, after all, you would not want to lose weight from only one side, would you? You would be lop sided.

Just remember, when you are looking for a rapid weight loss diet: there ain’t one ( that will work for life). If you are putting on weight, then your lifestyle is wrong and it is up to you alone to change it.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with how to lose weight online. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

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