The answer is:  While the issue of being overweight and obese receives plenty of lip service, the facts show the problem is worsening.

 Perhaps these commentaries are adding to the cacophony.  But, if the few of you, who are willing to take this information to heart, take action the project has value.

 Frankly, why anyone could possibly confuse fast, convenient and packaged products, masquerading as food, with the “real stuff” is mystifying. 

 Also, these commentaries were intended to dispel the amorphous picture of health that has been concocted by advertisers to sell products.  Health is not an emaciated person cavorting on the beach; nor the slogan “Big is beautiful.”  Health is arising to greet the day – not dreading the hours you’re awake.

The situation is bad enough when people choose, knowingly or unknowingly, to commit dietary suicide – but, when they condemn their children to shorter lives, with more suffering, it must change.

 And, don’t confuse these writings with some projection of gloom and doom – or worse yet, a call for action from a governmental agency – they are a plea to your better senses.

 Please, stop teaching your children your bad dietary habits and, if you can, change your ways, too.  It is easier to lead by example than to brow beat your kids into eating something you don’t eat.

 Time is the great equalizer.  When you begin dreading the hours, you can’t say you weren’t advised.

 Here is a good place to start changing the way thing are in your life.

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 Introduction

The unvarnished truth is:  there are at least 4 generations of adults, who are facing an early grave – and taking their children with them – because they are overweight or obese!

 And, for most of them, death will be preceded by an extended period of suffering brought on by Diabetes, Coronary Disease, Heart Attack, Stroke, Failing Joints and/or Cancer.

 Discussion

“The U.S. could be facing its first sustained drop in life expectancy in the modern era,  . . . but this decline is not inevitable if Americans — particularly younger ones — trim their waistlines or if other improvements outweigh the impact of obesity.” (The New England Journal of Medicine, March 17, 2005.)

 The authors report that, unless steps are taken to curb excessive weight gain, younger Americans will likely face a greater risk of mortality throughout life than previous generations.

 “Over the next few decades, life expectancy for the average American could decline  . . . unless aggressive efforts are made to slow rising rates of obesity.” according to a team of scientists supported in part by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

 “This work paints a disturbing portrait of the potential effect that life styles of baby boomers and the next generation could have on life expectancy,” reports Richard M. Suzman, Ph.D., Associate Director of the NIA for Behavioral and Social Research.

 Indeed, Suzman notes, obesity may already have had an effect. The sharp increase of obesity among people now in their 60s, he suggests, may be one explanation why the gains in U.S. life expectancy at older ages have been less than those of other developed countries in recent years.

 According to the NEJM report, studies suggest that two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese.  One study cited by the authors indicates that the prevalence of obesity in U.S. adults has increased about 50 percent per decade since 1980.

 Additional research has shown that people who are severely obese live up to 20 years less than people who are not overweight. Some researchers have estimated that obesity causes about 300,000 deaths in the U.S. annually.

 In addition, obesity is fueling an epidemic of type 2 Diabetes (which also reduces people’s lifespan.)

 “These trends suggest that the relative influence of obesity on the life expectancy of future generations could be markedly worse than it is for current generations,” Olshansky and the authors conclude in their report.

 “In other words, the life-shortening effect of obesity could continue to rise … in the coming decades, as the people who are now at younger ages carry their elevated risk of death associated with being overweight or obese, into middle and older ages.”¹

People, who are overweight, or obese, should not need another lecture.

What they need is a reliable, affordable way to lose weight.

 Here it is … “To change the way things are, you change the things you do.”

 Treat Your Body With Respect:

 Eat three meals each day

• Eat breakfast - and make sure it is nutritious not something you pick up on the way to work!
• Eat copious quantities of vegetables (5 –7 baseball-sized servings, differently colored)
• Reduce meat consumption to about the size of a deck of cards – once a day – red meat once a week.
• Reduce snacks – between meals and at work-breaks.  Eliminate them completely, once you have overcome your addiction.  The University of Michigan, Integrative Medicine Department explains why.

Rule to Live By:  If you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it.

 Exercise moderately for about 10 minutes each, morning and night.  Walking is hard to beat!

 Get Organized

• Multitasking means you are doing several things, at the same time, poorly.
• Leave your problems at home.
• Leave your work at work.
• Go to sleep at a reasonable hour.

 Grow Up

• Find the discipline to change your ways.

Rule to Live by:  You’re the culprit – not a victim

• Stop teaching your kids the same mistakes.

Rule to Live By:  If you don’t buy it, they can’t eat it.

Fix What You Have Broken

People who are overweight, or obese, manifest some or all of the following situations:

• Malnutrition
• Mineral Deficiency
• Irregular Bathroom Habits
• Suppressed Metabolism manifesting as lack of energy and/or irregular sleep with diminished cellular regeneration and detoxification.

This is precisely where dietary supplements fit the equations for losing weight.  And don’t scrimp!  That fancy coffee you used to drink every morning costs $6.00 – simply reinvest that money for something that will benefit you instead of the coffee house.

The objectives are:

• Fill your body with as much basic nutrition as possible to make up for the years of neglect so your body can begin healing itself.
• Eliminate the accumulated debris inside your intestinal tract and the toxins inside your body.  These are the barriers for healing and the source of frustration when it seems your weight loss program isn’t working.
• Support the two metabolisms, catabolic (daytime) and anabolic (nighttime) that power your body.

Conclusion

The issues of being overweight or obese have been studied and talked about ad nauseam.  All the warnings, contained in thousands of reports, Government programs and even prohibitions, whether national, local or in your child’s school are doomed to fail.   Why – because no one personalizes the issue.

You look at a kid who is overweight eating a snack, and see a fat kid whose parents should be doing something.  You look at your own child, in the same circumstance, and see “big bones” and deserving of a treat.  Or, you see a “muffin top”, in unsightly cloths and shake your head.  You see yourself as full figured or barrel-chested.

You make excuses for your decisions:  something quick, something easy, something nice, a nice treat, something, something, something.

Then, if you do decide to take responsibility for the mess you’ve made, you choose a short-term “fix” that once you stop:  starving yourself, exercising to extreme, weighing in, taking shots, popping pills, etc. puts you right back where you started – except your wallet is lighter.

It is your life – it is your choice.  If you want to change the way things are you must change the things you do – forever.

Implement the “Do as I do” rule.  Concern yourself with you, then move on to your spouse, then to your kids.

Stop making excuses – start taking action.  

 NUPRO has developed a weight loss center for on-line guidance and comprehensive weight management programs that many people find helpful for the quest to feel good and look great.

 ¹(Olshansky SJ, Passaro DJ, Hershow RC, Layden J, Carnes BA, Brody J, Hayflick L, Butler RN, Allison DB, and Ludwig DS, “A Potential Decline in Life Expectancy in the United States in the 21st Century,” New England Journal of Medicine, 352:11, pp. 1138-1145)

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It comes as no surprise that being overweight or obese is America’s, and the industrialized world for that matter, number one challenge.  The problem is so epidemic that teens and even young children are FAT – and not in the cute way.

This business of promoting “eat less and exercise more” isn’t making a dent in the problem.

In typical American fashion, there are committees examining the problem, academia and bureaucrats are pontificating.  Dignitaries, athletes and other notables are visiting grade schools, around the U.S., trying to convince little kids that they need to play more strenuously and consume a more healthful diet.  Clubs abound so people can “sweat off the fat together”, endure weekly weigh-ins or purchase pre-packaged meals so you can pop ‘em in the microwave.  Pharmaceutical companies are on the job, too!  They are searching, feverishly, to find anything that might stem this tide of obesity sweeping the world. (Let’s hope they come up with something safer than Redux and Phen Fen.)

The public is reacting to all of the publicity in three ways: 

• Exercising too much – stressing their bodies and tearing up their joints
• Throwing money at anyone who promises an easy diet or a magic pill
• Doing nothing

Discussion

People who are overweight or obese are consuming too much of the wrong kinds of food and beverage.  Experience shows that obese and overweight people are:

• Malnourished because their diet consists of packaged, preserved and processed and convenience food that is high in calories and lacking in nutrition.  As Joel Wallach MS, DVM, ND, a controversial, insightful author and speaker, writes in his book Rare Earths, Forbidden Cures (Double Happiness Publishing, Bonita CA, 91908): The bags of boxes, bags and cans of products, that people are buying, has less nutritional value than its packaging.
• Deficient in minerals because the closest they get to fruit or vegetables is the paper mache imitations filling the bowls on their kitchen cabinet.
• Constipated because the same food is lacking even a hint of fiber.
• Unbalanced, internally, because most of the foods they are consuming are acidic.
• Dehydrated because they drink too many diuretics like: coffee, soft drinks and energy drinks, and not enough water.

The predominately acid pH, attributable to their diet, affects virtually every function of the body including:

• Metabolism is depressed, which affects energy levels, glucose utilization and the ability to deal with stress that, in turn, contributes to thyroid issues.
• Tissue repair and regeneration is diminished because the transport of these essential building blocks, amino acids, minerals and vitamins, in short supply due to malnutrition, requires a more alkaline pH.
• Cell function is reduced because the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood depends on balanced pH.
• Cellular toxicity increases because the respiration of waste depends on balanced pH.
• Cellular, tissue and organ damage, due to the heightened toxicity levels, produces inflammation, swelling and pain.
• Fat cells are produced to encapsulate and isolate the metabolic and toxic wastes that are accumulating inside the body.

Need I go on?  The issue of being overweight or obese boils down to one question:  How often do you see a healthy overweight or obese person?

To underscore this point, the probability of succumbing to one of the top 5 killers of adult Americans:  Heart Disease, Stroke, Chronic Respiratory Disease, Diabetes and Cancer, is significantly reduced when people lose weight.

Conclusion

People who are overweight or obese do not need another lecture about their weight.

They need a reliable, cost effective method to help them achieve their objective – lose weight.

That help can be a dietary supplement.  However, there is a misconception that simply revving up metabolism will solve the problem.  It many situations, it is a minor component and it may even exacerbate an already complicated situation.

The different facets of the issue:  nutritional and mineral deficiencies, regularity and internal balance, day time and night time metabolism are, more often than not, the source of the perceived lack of energy experienced by most people who are overweight or obese.

Frankly, dispelling the misconception about “revving things up to lose weight” is difficult to overcome because many people want a quick fix for their weight dilemma, and may not be willing to invest the time and effort to undo the harm caused, either knowingly or unknowingly, by their own choices.  Unfortunately, there is little that can be done to change their perception and its likely outcome.

There are people who recognize that thier weight gain occurred over time and, consequently, it will require time to reverse the situation.  Furthermore, they know there is a direct correlation between magnitude of their situation and the level of intervention that is required to address it.

** It is helpful, for these people, to embark on a regimen of specific dietary supplements, depending on their particular needs, that addresses nutritional deficiencies such as:

• a natural supplement to support day time metabolism (and energy), control appetite and cravings and support glucose utilization and/or a natural supplement to support night time metabolism, cellular regeneration and repair, sleep and nightly detoxification
• or both
• adding a protein supplement, fortified with a nutritional complex (or quality multi vitamin)
• and/or a trace mineral complex to address nutritional deficiencies
• and/or a natural supplement to address regularity and in some cases a natural laxative to help get things started.
• Or weight loss systems that combine complimentary natural supplements to take the guess work out of losing weight.

 ** If this is all too confusing, here is an easy-to-follow chart to help lift the fog.

Of course, drinking adequate amounts of water, adding moderate exercise, to match your physical capacity, and eating better will round out the equation for healthy weight loss.

Losing weight is simple, but it isn’t easy.  For more information, read this report.

Visit the NUPRO Weight Loss Center for insights regarding healthy weight loss.

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Managing Weight is Simple - Just Not Easy.

If it were, everyone would be thin.

Since we are not, here are some tips that successful people use to lose weight. Feel free to share them with others so they can benefit, too.

Your desire to become the person you’ve only imagined and a weight management supplement may be the catalyst for helping you achieve your long-term weight management goals.

SUCCESSFUL WEIGHT LOSS TIPS

TIP NO. 1: TAKE A WEIGHT MANAGEMENT DIETARY SUPPLEMENT.
Used with common sense exercise and moderate changes in your diet, weight management supplements are an indispensible part of any weight management program.  Choose good quality weight management products, kits or program to help you achieve your weight management objectives.

TIP NO. 2: DRINK 8-10 GLASSES OF WATER EACH DAY
To begin with, you should drink a glass of water in the morning first thing, before you eat.

This is probably the easiest, and the healthiest glass you will drink all day and it will help you remember to drink water all day long.

For some people, this is a problem because water doesn’t really “taste” like anything. Drinking water 8 to 10 times each day gets easier the more you actually do it. It is simply a matter of conditioning your taste buds, and yourself, so that it becomes easier to do.  Once you get started, you will begin to crave water.

If you really cannot bear the taste of water, try using a water purifying pitcher or filter. You can also add a few drops of lemon or lime juice to your water – but no sugar or sweetener! Ice also helps.

TIP NO. 3: EAT BREAKFAST
Do not skip breakfast. If you need to go to bed a little earlier so that you can get up 20 minutes earlier each morning – do it!

Breakfast is so important to your good health and to weight control because it increases metabolism – your body’s fat burning mechanism.   This recipe for The Perfect Breakfast is, well, perfect.

And, it will help you stay on track the rest of the day. You are more likely to binge on something sweet and in the “bread” group if you skip breakfast. You can always keep a couple of hard-boiled eggs in the fridge or some high-fiber, low starch fruit around.

TIP NO. 4: EAT AT LEAST 3 MEALS AND 2 SNACKS EACH DAY
Eating more meals to lose weight sounds wrong, doesn’t it!  Eating more often will increase your metabolism … just like eating breakfast.

Eating regularly also helps you curb your bad carbohydrate intake by making sure that your snacks are planned and occur at regular intervals throughout the day.

It takes a minimal investment of planning time at the grocery store and at home each morning before you head out for the day to make some healthy food choices and prepare a few healthy snacks and meals.

Confused about what meals you can prepare? Tanya Willis’ recipes for 10 healthy meals is a great start – and preparing and eating healthy meals saves you money.

TIP NO. 5: EAT SLOWLY & ENJOY YOUR FOOD
You will feel full and more satisfied if you take the time to savor your food and chew it slower.

Don’t get in the habit of eating while standing or eating quickly. Sit down and chew. Eating slower will help you enjoy your food more, pay attention to what it is you are actually eating and get a better sense of when you are actually full.

TIP NO. 6: EAT MORE PRODUCE
If the only vegetable you have eaten in the last 5 years has been the potato, now is a good time to begin experimenting with other vegetables.

Eating lots of low-calorie, high-volume, high-nutrient vegetables and fruits crowds out other foods that are higher in sugar, fat and calories.

Move the meat off the center of your plate and pile on the vegetables. Try starting lunch or dinner with a vegetable salad (not a lettuce salad) or bowl of broth-based soup. The U.S. government’s 2005 Dietary Guidelines suggest that adults get 7-13 cups of produce daily.

Stock your kitchen with plenty of fruits and vegetables – include a few servings at every meal and snack.

Confused about what to buy at the supermarket? Harvard University School of Public Health can help – and eating healthy saves you money.

TIP NO. 7: CLOSE THE KITCHEN AT NIGHT
Establish a time when you will stop eating so you won’t give in to the late-night munchies or mindless snacking while watching television.

Have a cup of tea, suck on one piece of hard candy if you want something sweet after dinner, but then brush your teeth so you will be less likely to eat or drink anything else.

TIP NO. 8: AVOID WHITE FOODS
This is one easy way to remember what not to eat. If it is made from sugar, flour, potatoes, rice or corn – just say no. Remembering this rule of thumb will make it easier to recognize those rice cakes as an unhealthy high-carbohydrate snack.

Always look for colorful fruits and veggies to substitute for the white ones. Buy broccoli, bell peppers, green beans and peas, brown rice in moderation, leafy greens like kale and spinach, apples, melons, oranges and grapes. These foods are not only colorful they are also high in fiber, nutrients and important antioxidants. Eating colorful fruits and vegetables will give your diet variety as well as give you added health benefits.

TIP NO. 9: GO FOR WHOLE GRAIN
By substituting whole grains for refined grains like white bread, cakes, cookies and pretzels, you add much-needed fiber and will fill up faster so you’re more likely to eat a reasonable portion. Choose whole-wheat breads and pastas, brown rice, bran flakes, popcorn and whole-rye crackers.

TIP NO. 10: ADD MORE STEPS
Get yourself a pedometer and gradually add more steps until you reach 10,000 per day.

Throughout the day, do whatever you can to be more active — pace while you talk on the phone, take the dog out for an extra walk and march in place during television commercials. Having a pedometer serves as a constant motivator and reminder.

TIP NO. 11: TRIM PORTIONS
If you did nothing else but reduce your portions by 10% – 20%, you would lose weight.

Most of the portions served both in restaurants and at home are bigger than you need. Pull out the measuring cups to get a handle on your usual portion sizes, and work on paring them down.

Get instant portion control by using smaller bowls, plates and cups, because the food will look plentiful on dainty dishware.

TIP NO. 12: CONTROL YOUR ENVIRONMENT
If you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it!

Controlling your environment includes everything from stocking your kitchen with lots of healthy options to choosing the right restaurants. That means avoiding temptation by staying away from all-you-can-eat restaurants.

And when it comes to parties, eat a healthy snack before so you won’t be starving and be selective at the buffet. Before going back for more food, wait at least 15 minutes and have a big glass of water.

TIP NO. 13: 3-6′s, 2-9′s or 1-18
If you aren’t eliminating wastes, everyday, you are storing it – and those pounds of stored waste add up faster than you think.  There are estimates that people are storing 10, 20 and even more pounds of waste.

Choose a supplement to promote and support regularity.

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The answer is always:  Some can but none will.  You are probably asking yourself:  “What?”

The answer revolves around a simple concept.

All food contains energy (calories) that fuels your body along with nutrition (protein, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals and water) that feeds your body.  In a perfect world, you would be consuming a diet that creates two equations that zero out – which is the basis for the balanced diet.

The equation would be:
Energy expended = Energy consumed
Nutritional needs = Nutrition consumed produces a healthy, energetic body

An out of balance equation produces predictable outcomes.

When the energy expended is less than the energy consumed the equation is:
Energy expended + FAT = Energy consumed

When the nutritional needs are less than the nutrition consumed the equation is:
Nutritional needs + UNHEALTHY = nutrition consumed

Mathematicians are likely pulling their hair out, but the point is when you are making balanced choices, you will experience the preferred outcome.

The report on obesity further indicated that most obese people are malnourished, which would seem to be an oxymoron.  However, if you consider the amount of package, process and fast food (and their food values) that is consumed today, the findings in the report are easy to understand.

The conclusion, in the report, is that 2/3 of the population is fat, malnourished, less healthy and likely to die sooner than any generation before them.

Finding the Silver Bullet

This is the precise population that is searching for silver bullets; natural, pharmaceutical or medical, to substitute for their judgment.  Writing from my perspective (I’m not a Medical Doctor or Pharmacist), these people should balance the equation by choosing whole food, drinking water, exercise and rest.  All of the excuses in the world will not change the inevitable outcome.

The good news is that, once they are doing the best they can, supplements can help fill the gap in the equation.

Some Can But None Will

In the final equation, you must change the things you do to change the way things are.

How healthy are you?  Take the Test

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Here are two questions for you to consider:

• If eating is so simple, why are there so many people who are overweight?
• Why are so many people experiencing declining health over time?

We know, for example, the biology of science, Senescence, is showing that your body is fully capable of rebuilding a perfect replica of itself, cell by cell, every 7 years.  By producing 300 billion cells every night that are programmed to die, it replaces all of the 750 trillion cells that make
up your body.

Every minute of everyday your body assembles and disassembling all sorts of:

Enzymes to:

• digest your food
• operate your body
• fire nerves
• fire metabolism
• repair and replace damaged tissue

Amino acids to produce:

• hormones to start and stop different functions
• neurotransmitters to operate your brain
• immune cells to protect your body
• blood and lymph cells to carry substances around the body
• repair and replace damaged cells and tissue
• and, there’s even more – suffice it to say – the scope is enormous!

Here’s the rub:
the only way your body can do any of this is if the food you are eating contains the “stuff” the body needs to accomplish the tasks.

This business of eating the food you “like” virtually guarantees that your body won’t get what it needs to rebuild a perfect replica of itself – let alone carry on all of its minute by minute activities that keep you focused, active and healthy.

There are two thresholds, energy and nutrition, that must be met or your body ceases to operate efficiently – the perfect replica starts to become less perfect.

Carbohydrates

Your body burns carbohydrates, fat and water to create energy. The main dietary source to energize your body is carbohydrates.

• If you eat too few, or the wrong kind, you will run out of energy before you run out of day.
• If you eat too many or you are eating the wrong kind – you will get fat.
• If you hit the threshold, you will breeze through the day.

The “wrong” ones are easy:  white flour products, vegetables that grow underground, sweet fruits, sugar and sugars that added to packaged food.

• If you cannotburn these simple carbohydrates within two hours your body will turnthem into fat.
• And, you willget hungry because you need energy again.

The best carbohydrates come from whole grains, vegetables that grow above ground and fleshy fruit.  The Harvard School of Public Health provides guidance to help you select the “right” carbohydrates.

Fat

Fat has been painted with too broad of a brush so, people avoid it at all costs – this is a big mistake!  Granted, there is a “wrong” kind that can turn into plaque and body fat if you eat too much of it.

But, the “right” kind is essential to your body – that’s why they are called essential fatty acids.  Essential fatty acids keep your heart and arteries flexible, fight inflammation and support metabolism.   Harvard, once
again, explains the details if you want more information.

Water

Research has shown that within 10 minutes of drinking a pint of water, the metabolism increases by as much as 30 percent.  Other drinks did not show the same effect.

If you drink too little water and you may be at risk for headaches, muscle cramps, dizziness, constipation and other nasty symptoms.

If you drink an adequate amount of water you gain some great benefits such as a clearer mind, more energy and even help your body metabolize body fat.  

The second threshold is nutrition.  The tissue of all plants and animals are made up from building blocks, called Amino Acids.  Your body disassembles the plant and animal tissue then reassembles their Amino Acids, along with minerals to produce your tissue.

Protein
Protein provides the building blocks your body uses to create all of its cells, tissue and fluids are amino acids – they come from protein.  The source for protein is plant and animal tissue.  If you eat too many of the wrong kinds you will plug up digestion, the heart, arteries and your brain.  If you eat too few, your body will start to gradually deteriorate.  If you hit the threshold, you will be blessed with perfect replacement cells that maintain an efficient, perfect body.

The “right ones are easy:  vegetables, fleshy fruit, fish, poultry and limited
meat from vertebrates (beef and pork).  The Harvard School of Public Health provides guidance concerning meat and plant protein.

Minerals

Particular minerals like calcium have received lots of attention, so, there isn’t much to say about it and the other minerals for which a recommended daily intake has been established.

BUT (and there is always a but), most authorities fall silent when it comes to an entire category of minerals called trace minerals.  Also known as electrolytes, this obscure collection of water-soluble minerals are, in fact, essential for your well being.  They are co-factors in virtually every activity of your body.

The assumption is: you will receive sufficient amounts of these important nutrients when you consume fruits and vegetables.

This assumption is wrong in two ways:

• most people do not consume enough vegetables and even if you do consume the recommended 9 servings of vegetables and fruit
• the soils, on which the plants are grown, have long-since been depleted of these elements due to commercial farming practices.

In fact, this is one area were you must rely on a dietary supplement to support your body’s requirements.  They are marketed as Colloidal Minerals and/or trace minerals, typically liquid and a must if you plan on staying healthy.

Water

Did you notice that water is in both thresholds?  Water is your body’s principal chemical component, making up, on average, 60 percent of your body weight.

Every system in your body depends on water.  Water flushes toxins out of vital organs, carries nutrients to your cells, plumbs your body to protect vital tissue and provides a moist environment for ear, nose and throat tissues.

Possibly the most important thing you can do for your body is to keep it hydrated.  The biggest mistake most people make is to believe beverages count toward hydrating the body.

Water is . . . water!  Beverages:  coffee, tea, soda and juice are liquid food.  So, don’t get caught in that trap.

Drink at least 8 – 8oz. glasses of water everyday – more if it is hot, cold or your are sick.   There is no substitute for water and it is free from your tap and, if you let the water sit overnight in an open container, all of the chlorine will dissipate.  Fresh, clean, free water.  What could be better? 

You make the choice then you will experience the consequences.

• Too many simple carbohydrates – you will get fat.
• Too much exercise – you will tear up your joints.
• Too few minerals – your body can’t work right.
• Too little protein – your body will deteriorate.
• Too little water – metabolism slows down, you will become a husk, plus your body can’t clean itself.

Let me make it simple:  today’s choices are tomorrow’s consequences.  Too many people, me included, have been sugar coating the facts for too long.

• If you are not healthy, you have bought your own trouble.
• If you are neglecting your body but not experiencing the signs of neglect now, you have agreed to a layaway plan to experience
  those same sign of neglect – later.

You are paying, every day, with the choices you are making about convenient, fast food and adhering to a false paradigm that there is some special person or some magic bullet that can fix what you are breaking.

• The special person who can change the consequences is YOU.
• The magic bullet is the “stuff” you are consuming – everyday.   

You can change the way things are by changing the things you are doing.  The arguments that it is too expensive or you don’t have the time won’t hold water.

You either make time for health or spend time being sick.  The latter is very expensive in both money and the quality of your life.

• Start with an action plan to meet the thresholds your body needs to stay healthy or get healthy.
• Assess what you are eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner – everyday -  to care for the needs of your body.
• Fill the gap in your diet with the best nutraceutical supplements you can buy.  Know this: the better you do with the foods you are eating – the fewer supplements it takes to fill the gap in your diet.
• Do your best.  It is not practical to expect to “eat right” everyday.  There is a principal in health that you can take to the bank:  It is not
  what you do occasionally that hurts, it is what you do everyday.
• Splurge once in a while.   After all, life is worth living.  But, get back on the wagon as quickly as possible. 
• Health is a journey.  You can choose to accept the fact that you are in charge of your own health or cling to the false hope that someone orsomething can fix what you have broken.

It’s Your Life – It’s Your Choice.

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There’s always someone who is willing to tell you why you’re too heavy, isn’t there! Can’t you hear ‘em right now! You eat too much! Just stop eating so much, start exercising and the pounds will melt away.

Everyone knows someone who lost a lot of weight eating less and exercising more – don’t they. What can you do when that doesn’t work ?

Don’t stop eating ! It may be the worst thing you can do to yourself.

There are four reasons why otherwise healthy people are overweight:

• metabolism
• digestion
• prescription drugs
• dietary choices

Metabolism

Metabolism is the body’s engine.  During the day, catabolic metabolism provides the energy for all of the components of alert, waking hours activity. The function, use and overuse of the various components of body during waking hours stresses and damages tissue.

During sleep, anabolic metabolism provides the energy to replace the 300 billion cells that have worn out as well as any tissue that has been damaged and stressed during the day.

Calories are the measurement of the energy potential of food. Fats and carbohydrates have an energy potential of nine calories per gram; protein has four. Researchers estimate that 60% to 70% of all calories are used for metabolism.

The body’s metabolic furnace has a thermostat that regulates the use of the calories. It moves the “temperature” up and down depending on the need for energy and the availability of calories. Also, it establishes a set point for stored energy (fat) by considering the frequency and quality of the food we eat it controls the storage of fat – putting away energy (calories) in case of famine (periods of low calorie intake).

People with a low metabolic set point, besides being overweight, experience low energy levels and reduced alertness. Often, they are just as tired in the morning as they were the night before.

Missing meals or eating low quality food triggers two responses: reducing basic metabolism (both daytime and nighttime) and increasing fat storage.

Trying to lose weight by skipping meals and/or dieting is like creating a personal famine. It is effective because the calories are taken away faster than the body can reestablish a new set point. However, the body will ultimately establish a new lower metabolic set point that matches the lower available calories.

When you stop starving yourself, the body perceives that the “famine” has ended and begins to establish a new set-point. However, because you have started eating again, you are adding calories faster than the thermostat can adjust, you will gain weight. Worse yet, sometimes the body fails to increase the set point which results in significant fat storage from a modest increase of calories.

Nutraceuticals are helpful to establish or reestablish a higher day time metabolic set point. The benefits are controlling appetite, craving, increasing energy, alertness and, because these herbs increase day time metabolism, caloric demand increases and the user experiences weight change.

Night time metabolism is important too!  A nighttime Nutraceutical combines amino acids, the building blocks for new tissue, with herbs to establish a higher night time metabolic set point.

Lose Weight While You Sleep
Nighttime nutraceutical supplements address night time metabolism creating an increase caloric demand to support the repair and replacement of cells and tissue which leads to a more toned body,which,  in turn, burns more calories and the user experiences weight change.

Plus, there is a sculpting effect” that tones and reshapes the body – your cloths will fit better and as an added benefit is the user will arise refreshed and energized in the morning  Learn more about a Nighttime Weight Management Nutraceutical supplement.

Digestion

Digestion, often overlooked, may cause people to be overweight. Digestion is not magic – it is a process for turning food into substances that people need to live – sugars and fats for energy, proteins to sustain the body. The very substances that sustain and benefit the body that, when poorly digested, become toxins that can poison your body.

People with inefficient digestion, besides being overweight, describe themselves as pear shaped, with a distended abdomen.

They experience a bloated feeling after they eat, usually accompanied with gas. Poor digestion may contribute to periodic bouts of constipation and diarrhea. Food sensitivity and heartburn are other aspects of inefficient digestion.

Digestion is an intricate dance between substances called enzymes, stomach acids and intestinal microbes. One partner preparing food for the next with one goal … optimal health. It is an orderly process:

1. Digestion begins when you chew the food. Chewing shreds the food in smaller and smaller pieces then mixing it with saliva, which is actually an enzyme called amylase, begins a process which liquefies the mixture of food.
2. After a resting period to allow the food to fully liquify, the liquified food is treated with stomach acid.
3. The prepared liquid is neutralized and delivered to an army of friendly microbes to be converted into nutritional substances which are passed through the intestinal wall to support the body.

Essential ingredients for the liquification process are food enzymes which are contained in all of the raw, uncooked food. Processing and cooking neutralizes these essential enzymes which sets off a chain reaction in the digestive system.

1. Shredded food is partially liquified, more stomach acid is produced to compensate, the higher than normal acid mixture is partially neutralized.
2. Microbial action, that converts the food you eat to the nutrition to support your body and your health, is diminished because the microbes are especially sensitive to acidity (some strains of intestinal microbes may be completely destroyed).
3. The mass of undigesting food moves slowly along the intestinal tract and begins to spoil. Sugars and starches ferment, fats become rancid and proteins decay.
4. The person puffs up because fermentation fills the body with carbon dioxide. The abdomen distends when important organs swell because they are being bathed in the poisons spilling out of the rotting material in the intestines.

There are two distinct requirements to restore digestion:

1. introduce essential enzymes that are lost when food is processed or cooked
2. restore friendly microbial balance.

Nutraceutical enzyme supplements, when taken at mealtime, provide the food enzymes essential for the liquification of the food.  Learn more about an enzymes Nutraceutical supplement.

An exciting breakthrough in the industry is the ability grow and prepare friendly intestinal microbes than can be reintroduced into the body to help restore microbe populations lost because of agricultural residues, antibiotics and dietary choice.  Learn more about a probiotic Nutraceutical supplement.

Prescription Drugs

Prescription drugs may cause people to be overweight. Birth control, hormone replacement, blood pressure, heart, diabetes, and anti-depressant medications often contribute to weight gain. It is important to read all of the materials and follow all of the instructions that accompany the prescription. The pharmacist provides you with a document that you must read. It describes the drug and the negative side effects that other people have experienced when taking the drug. The paper instructs you to notify your doctor immediately if you experience one of the side effects. Your doctor has options that may be more appropriate for your needs. If you need a prescription drug, take it as instructed by you doctor.

There are drugs that are elective, notably birth control and hormone replacement therapies. Most of the prescribed drugs in these categories warn users that other people have experienced weight gain when using the drugs. Do not be surprised if you gain weight. Because these drugs are elective, you must decide if you want to be heavy, or not. Investigate other options.

A case in point is hormone replacement therapy. A long term study of a frequently prescribed drug sponsored by the Institute of Health (a part of the Federal Drug Administration) to verify the effectiveness of this drug was discontinued because of safety concerns in mid 2002. For years, menopausal women have been taking this pill prescribed by their Gynecologists. The warning about the side effects were there all along, few people paid attention. This impact of this study has women clamoring for alternatives.

Alternatives have existed for quite some time. Supplement formulators have developed herbal supplements that smooth normal hormone fluctuations for women of child bearing years and help ease hormone transition during and after menopause. Learn more about a Nutraceutical supplement formulated for the special needs of women. Dietary Choices

Dietary choices are huge factors to consider for controlling weight.

What you eat is as important, if not more important, than how much you eat. For example, researchers devised an experiment that caused laboratory subjects to become overweight eating a calorie-controlled diet. Each group maintained the same exercise level and ate the same number of calories. One group of subjects was fed a “super market” diet of refined and processed food; the second group received a low fat, high fiber diet. The results of the 60 week study were: 30 % fat for the high fiber, low fat group; 51% fat for the super market group’s weight.

Most people have a taste for refined carbohydrates – table sugar, milk and dairy products, white flour and starches like white rice and potatoes -  and, manufacturers know it!  If you cut your portions of these foods by 1/2 you will lose weight – and you will feel healthier, avoid energy crashes and much more.

Read the labels of packaged products at the supermarket diet. The first or second ingredient in many of the things we buy is sugar. White flour is almost as bad. While is may be disguised as enriched or fortified flour, it is a refined carbohydrate just the same. The trouble is refined carbohydrates require minimum action by the digestive tract to be converted into glucose (energy for the body). When these spikes in blood sugar occur without need for the energy, the body turns much of it into fat. The drop in glucose level triggers a hunger sensation. This sugar crash is why you eat so often.

Natural sugars, such as those in fruit, honey, molasses etc. and whole grains require more digestive action that slows the release of the glucose. The slower,time release aspects of complex carbohydrates provides a steady, time released source of energy for the body. Complex carbohydrates, eaten like they are grown, help keep you less fat.

There are other issues to consider. Water for instance. People need water – period. Not coffee, not soda, not tea – WATER! At least 8 – 8 ounce glass every day. People confuse thirsty with hungry all of the time. If people knew the symptoms of dehydration, one of which being bloating, they could avoid many of the complaints that nag them everyday.

Fat is another issue. Low fat this and that. What people need to know is animal fat is the enemy. Oils from vegetables, olive oil for instance, contain essential fatty acids that are just what they say – essential. Nuts oils have similar characteristics.

A common observation is that Americans are obese and, at the same time, they lack the essential nutrients to keep them healthy. More times than not, people mistake obesity with overeating when in fact, they aren’t eating enough . . . of the right food. Often time, when people provide the nutrition missing from their diet, is the best weight management program. willpower. Filling the gap between what you are eating and what you should be consuming, with a quality Nutraceutical supplement, helps the body lose weight and gain willpower.

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Weight management is really quite simple; there are four ways to lose weight:

1. Reduce appetite to lower food consumption and caloric intake.
2. Increase energy expenditure by boosting metabolism.
3. Activate brown adipose tissue (brown fat), which burns white fat.
4. Regulate production of the fat producing hormones (that stores fat around our hips, thighs and waistline), address insulin resistance and support healthy blood sugar levels.

Although it may seem very simple, creating a formula to address these areas for weight loss isn’t easy. NUPRO used this multi functional approach, based on proven and evolving science, as the backbone for developing our formulation to support long lasting weight management success. NUPRO has combined specific herbs, amino acids, vitamins and minerals to produce a remarkable, proprietary formula to help you achieve beneficial weight loss.

Manage Appetite and Cravings
5 HTP, an extract of the herb Griffonia simplicifolia (a relative of Carob), supports serotonin levels in the brain. Serotonin levels, supported by 5-HTP, help create a feeling of satiety (fullness) and suppress appetite. MIT researchers studying 5-HTP and its appetite suppressing benefit said, “It’s conceivable this amino acid might be helpful in diminishing overeating.” This lowering of caloric intake encourages the body to use its own fat for energy.

Manage Energy and Metabolism
Green tea and Kola nut are proven to increase energy and metabolism. Research has shown Green tea extract produced a significant increase in total energy expenditure, approximately 4%. This corresponds to an increase in the thermogenic component of total energy expenditure, about 35%–43%.

Activate the Fat Burners – Brown Adipose Tissue
Green tea and Kola nut have been clinically shown to increase energy expenditure by boosting adrenaline and noradrenaline. Increases of noradrenaline activate brown adipose tissue (brown fat) that burns accumulated body fat. In the February 2000 American Journal of Obesity, authors concluded that oral administration of green tea extract stimulated thermogenesis and fat oxidation and thus has the potential to influence body weight and body composition favorably.

Regulate Fat Producing Hormones
The polyphenol in Green tea, EGCG (epigallocatechen 3-gallate), has been shown to decrease the hormone leptin which controls fat storage and appetite, decrease insulin which controls fat storage and increase the neurotransmitter noradrenaline, a metabolsim booster.

Chromium is important for anyone trying to lose weight because of its role in managing blood sugar and the over stimulation of insulin production. Chromium helps prevent the insulin-glycogen “sugar crash” that produces the hormone that stores fat around the hips, thighs and waistline. In addition to the mineral’s effects on carbohydrate (glucose) metabolism, insulin also influences the metabolism of fat and protein.

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