Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

A New York Times article this week confirmed my worst fears – stress is sending Americans to candy stores in droves.¹

While at first glance this little headline, “When Economy Sours, Tootsie Rolls Soothe Souls” seems amusing, from my perspective it unwittingly brings up two important issues in healthcare today:

1. The simplistic assertion that to manage our weight, all we have to do is control calories in and calories out.

There are many factors that influence our ability to lose weight and keep it off, and this headline is an example of an important one – stress. Stress from economic crisis is doing what we see over and over again in patients at LMI — reducing serotonin and inducing carbohydrate cravings.

So what’s the harm in eating a little candy if you’re stressed? Nothing if you can stop at “a little,” but if you make that stop at the candy bowl too much of a habit, you can quickly undo weight loss and start to increase health risks.

Stress management is such an important factor for long term weight control, I have made it one of the key components of my approach to weight loss.

“This year I am going to be a size 6!” Sound familiar? “Getting more exercise,” and “shedding unwanted pounds” (in that order) are numbers 2 and 3 of the 10 most popular New Year’s Resolutions.¹ Since the most recent statistics still show that 66% of adult Americans are overweight or obese,¹ we know why weight loss is at the top of the list. But too often we make New Year’s resolutions, only to quit after a few workouts.

If you’re a carb lover, now’s the time to get a handle on how many carbs you should be eating every day. This information is not just important for your waistline. It’s also important to control the potential for disease-causing inflammation that increases with high levels of circulating insulin and blood sugar — and that may cause cancer.

That was the result of a recent analysis of 39 studies that found that the greater a person’s intake of high glycemic index and high glycemic load foods, the greater the risks of certain types of cancer (endometrial and colon).¹

Who would have thought that something as easy as drinking enough water would help you lose weight? Well, it’s true.

Every day patients come into my practice and ask me why they can’t lose weight. You would not believe the multitude of excuses I have heard from people who just can’t seem to lose the extra pounds. Their reasons include everything — being born with a slow metabolism, being fat because of the way they [...]

Despite what you see on late night infomercials, there are only three ways to lose belly fat and strengthen your ab muscles, and none of them requires $19.95 plus shipping and handling.

Believe it or not, but I’ve worked with dozens of people who lost fat and built muscle over the holiday season. That’s the exact opposite of what the typical American does between Halloween and Christmas. For most people, its far too easy during the holiday months to skip workouts and eat poorly. So here are three tips that have helped others stick to their fat loss program and will work for you too…before or after the holidays.

In only 90 days, I’ve had clients lose well over 21 pounds simply by following a simple nutrition program and using my short burst workout programs. If you’re interested in the same dramatic success, then just follow these simple tips and you’ll lose inches with each passing week in 2008.

If you want to lose fat, eat more fat.

Sounds crazy, right?

Perhaps, but it’s true. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition recently showed that eating twice as much fat led to greater weight loss!

A study released last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association led the nightly newscasts and made for some interesting water-cooler talk over the next few days. But I can tell you flat out, this study’s conclusions were way off base.