Yo[u]Value | Online Self Help and Improvement

There is a staggering number of people in the United States of America who are overweight. Obesity is a disease that affects about a third of adults age 20 and over in the United States, which amounts to more than 72 million people. About 33.3 percent of American men and about 35.3 percent of American women are obese. The number of overweight and obese Americans has increased almost continuously since 1960.

There are a number of dangerous health problems that overweight people are prone to:

• high blood pressure
• type 2 diabetes
• heart disease
• stroke
• gallbladder disease
• cataracts
• age-related macular degeneration (AMD)
• breast cancer
• prostate cancer
• colon cancer

Even lesser known health risks of being obese include:

• asthma
• complications with pregnancy
• infertility
• Parkinson’s disease

You don’t have to be skinny to reduce these risks. If maintained, even weight losses as small as 10 percent of body weight can improve your health.

According to the Rand Corporation, almost 7 million adults were morbidly obese in 2005 which is defined as having a body mass index of 40 or higher. Body mass index (BMI) is a good indicator, because it correlates pretty well with the amount of body fat a person has. BMI is a formula that calculates the ratio between height and weight:

To measure your BMI using inches:

(pounds of weight / [inches of height]2) x 703 = BMI

For example, if your weight is 170 lbs. and your height is 5’6″ (66″), then the calculation is:

(170 ÷ 662) x 703 = 27.4

To measure your BMI using meters:

kilograms of weight / meters of height2

For example, if your weight is 75 kg and your height is 162 cm (1.62 m), then the calculation is:

75 ÷ 1.622 = 28.6

The following is a small table that outlines the BMI ranges and their correlating weight status:

Below 18.5 – Underweight
18.5 – 24.9 – Normal
25.0 – 29.9 – Overweight
30.0 – 39.9 – Obese
40.0+ – Morbidly Obese

So, what can we do about this? Exercise? Diet? Those words are far easier to think and say than they are to do. After I did my BMI calculation, I found that I was just a little bit overweight according to the BMI table above. I am willing to bet that I am about as equally unexcited about dieting and exercise as someone who is overweight or obese. However, the facts don’t lie. Too much weight means risk of poor health or even death. Not to mention, society has never taken very kindly to the overweight and the obese. It’s not right, but it is certainly reality. Even with all these bad things, it is still hard for us to go through the pains of exercise or the dissatisfaction of diet foods and, as if there needed to be more bad news, it typically costs more to each “healthy” than it does to eat the cheap food and junk food.

The things we have in our control for losing weight are what we eat, how much we eat, the type of activity we do, and the amount of activity we do. If you can’t eat healthier foods, you can change the amount of the food you eat. If you are overweight or obese, it is possible to lose a significant amount of weight simply be decreasing the amount that is eaten. This is true to a degree. In some cases, eating less can actually cause you to gain weight because your body things it is starving and tries to store fat.

Ok, so if we don’t change the type or amount of food, we can make it a habit to be more active, but what are the best activities to do? I suppose it mostly depends on what your life allows for. Some prefer walking or running. Some get exercise tapes to watch and workout to.

Ultimately, we can narrow this down to two basic things; eat better and be more active. But, even if we make it that simple, it is still hard to get started and even harder to stick with it.

I recently found a website that might be a big help to many people. This guy has figured out which foods can actually burn fat. Some of these foods you would never guess to be fat burning foods. He has also devised exercises that are easy to do and stick with. It does take at least a little bit of will power on your part, but he even has ways to make it easier to stick with a plan for a healthier, leaner, and more sculpted body.

There are free video presentations at http://www.gettabettabody.info for men and women. His name is Mike Geary and his system has been used by over a quarter of a million people all over the world. Go take a look and see if it is right for you.

Until next time, good luck and I wish you well.

Stress can be a killer.  No, literally, stress can not only increase your chances of getting sick and have negative mental and physical side-effects, but it can actually bring you to your end before your due time.  There are a number of ways to relieve stress and there are many good resources both online and offline.  However, you don’t need to go and buy a bunch of books and you don’t need to consult a therapist.  That stuff costs money and money tends to be a root cause to stress both directly and indirectly.

One great way to relieve stress is to find something to do that brings you peace, joy, happiness, or any combination of those.  This may seem like an easy task, but it is much harder than some might think.  For many people, enjoyment of anything can lead to feelings of guilt or anxiety.  The best thing to keep in mind, if you are one of the unlucky who feel guilt or anxiety over doing something fun or enjoyable for yourself, is that there is nothing wrong with taking some time for you to do something that you like to do.  Yes, there are people who take this a bit too far and go to the other extreme where they spend too much time on pleasing themselves which can lead to actual neglect for other important things in life.  It is important to have a little discipline and moderation with anything. 

There are other types of people who are so busy that it seems hard for them to justify the personal time out for a small piece of personal enjoyment.  It is important to remember again that stress is unhealthy.  Less stress means better health.  Better health means better life.  Taking a little time for yourself is highly important in the pursuit of a better life.

There are ways to think your way out of stress.  Many times, people suffer from what I like to call “spilled milk syndrome”.  It is easy to get caught up in the stress that comes from thinkgs you cannot control or events that have already occurred.  It is often best to work your way through a stressful situation by realizing what can and cannot be done.  For the things that are outside of your control, you must bring yourself to a point of acceptance so you can get to the next step.  The perfect example is spilled milk.  You cannot un-spill the milk.  It happened, it sucks, but unless you can go back in time to prevent it, there is nothing you can do.  You can move forward though.  The spill can be cleaned up.  You can get more milk. 

The spilled milk scenario may seem a bit childish or silly, but you can put this mentality to use for just about any stressful situation.  Identify what can and cannot be dealt with and keep on moving forward.   The reason this mentality works is because, if you let your mind become wrapped up in what could have or should have happened, you freeze.  Your mind stays focused on something that cannot be changed and this makes it difficult or sometimes impossible to recover.  many times, spending too much time focused on things that cannot be controlled or changed that it makes the situation worse and more stressful.  In the spilled milk example,  you are crying over the fact that the milk spilled and thinking about how it happened and why it happened and so on, meanwhile, the mlik is soaking into the floor deeper and wider and getting into cracks that cannot be reached.  If the part that can be dealt with is handled right away, then the significance of the problem is reduced and thus the stress of it all is reduced.  OK, enough of the spilled milk.

In short, do what can be done and accept that which cannot be done.  Stress dissolves easier when you think this way.  I hope this helps.   If you have some tips on stress relief, we would sure like you to share. 

Take care!

It is no news that we are living in rough times, but there are millions of people doing rather well despite this fact.  Regular, ordinary, plain “Joe Schmo” people are managing to keep their heads above water and many of them are doing it in the comfort of their own home.  You many have already guessed what this post is about.  That’s right… the home based business world  is growing bigger all the time.  The success rate for home based businesses is around 70%.  For those of you who are not aware, 70% success rate for businesses is staggeringly good.  On top of that, more and more resources are coming available that make it easier and cheaper to start an online or home based business.

All it really takes is to stop and think a little and add to that a little bit of research and you can find a way to make money from home.  Additionally, it is very possible to make a decent living from home.  Some online businesses are even built on top of other online businesses.  It really comes down to an age old idea that if you can find a need and fulfill that need, you can make a lot of money.  I challenge you, and it is an easy challenge, to do a little sniffing around to see what opportunities are available.  There are many different kinds of platforms specifically tailored for use by people who have a skill or talent or idea to make money with.  If you find the right platform that provides the proper foundation and framework for what you need to do, the only thing left is for you to do is do it.

One such resource is etsy.  This website gives people a platform to sell handmade items and supplies.  It has given a money making opportunity to people whom, without it, would just be dabbling with some crafty little hobby.  The variety and craftsmanship of the sellers at etsy is endless.  Each seller gets their own online shop from which they can present and sell their wares.  You may have never given much thought to magnets, but take a look at this shop called StuckTogether.  So much goes into the detail, beauty, and value of items like those found at StuckTogether and you won’t find these things just anywhere.  Each item from these lone vendors comes with a cherisable rarity.  Many items are one of a kind.  StuckTogether is just one of the many shops you can go to as a buyer to find unique gift ideas.  The items range from practical to whimsical. 

Maybe you have a knack for making something.  Maybe people would find your creation useful or amusing.  Maybe someone would be willing to pay money for your creation.  Turn your hobby or craft into a money machine.  Many people have already proven it can be done and places like etsy have helped to pave the way.  The rest is up to you.  This may be starting to sound like a blog version of an infomercial.  I just wanted to throw out an idea for anyone looking for a way to make some extra money using what you may already have at your disposal.

Good luck to you and I hope this helped.

This post might be a bit hard for some people to read, but I couldn’t help putting this out on the table.  Over the span of our time as people… at least that span of time when religion and spirituality exists, God has been the name for many things.  God has always been the name given to that which we do not understand.  Early mankind had many gods.  There was one for the wind, one for the earth, one for the sun, and the list goes on and on.  Today’s mankind has a much smaller list of gods.  People have come a long long way.  We have learned so much, but still there are things that are still beyond our reach.  Science has been doing a good job of making smaller the list of things we don’t know as well as making the list of things we call god shorter as well.

I believe we are on the very brink of shortening the list of things we call God once again.  With the ongoing research of metaphysics and quantum physics and the ever growing thirst for knowledge of our purpose and our existence beyond the grave, it appears that science may have made an interesting discovery.  The idea that an all powerful and all knowing god may soon be an outdated notion of the past.  I think people are about to find out that, while there is a god, it is not exactly what it has been made out to be.

I have always noticed an interesting duality when it comes to spirituality.  On one side, there is always some sort of religion or faith of some sort.  There is usually some source of power or sources of power from which we recieve blessings and such.  There are all walks and types and flavors to choose from.  No matter how closely knit they seem to be, they are all divided in some way.  On the other side, we have almost an anti-religion or anti-faith usually found deep in the heart of science.  I have always noticed a general fear on the part of the religious that science would one day discover the truth and that this was somehow a bad thing.  I always had the impression that the fear was that there was really no god at all and then all of the beliefs held dearest to our hearts and minds would be crushed and so on and so forth.  However, I think what is happening is that both sides have been focused on the same stuff, but maybe from two points of view and now that some interesting leaps have been made in the world of science, we will be given a new understanding of what God really is.

Just like when mankind realized that there is no god of the wind, but rather weather patterns.  Knowing that didn’t change the way it worked.  There is no god of the sun, but the sun still provides us with warmth and light.  Knowing “why” something is doesn’t have to mean that its value gets reduced.  I wanted to write this article to plant a seed of thought in the minds of anyone who reads it.  It doesn’t matter how religious or spiritual you are or even if you don’t believe in any of it.  I want you to know that there is a new understanding on the horizon.  Many people are already aware of it and it will only be a matter of time before all are aware.  There is nothing to be afraid of so please don’t panic.  Some of you will read this and think, “wow, what a load of rubbish”.  That is ok.  Just because God is dying doesn’t mean he is going anywhere.  Even if you never believed he existed in the first place.  The sun was always the sun even if it used to be called God.

What do you think?  Is God here to stay or is he about to get a new name?

If you would like to get an idea of how science is answering the questions about what the purpose of our existence is, do a little search on the internet for a scientist named Thomas Campbell and his book “My Big TOE”.  You can find an 18 part lecture by him on his theory of everything (TOE) out on YouTube.  That alone is a good launch point for many other people coming together on this very topic. 

I would love to hear from you on this stuff.  Where do you think all this is headed?  I think we are in for some very interesting days to come.

This information has been circling around for a number of years now. The powers that be seem to be in a tussle over the facts about whether or not certain chemicals leak into our food and water as a result of heating or freezing the plastic containers that hold them. Plasticizers such as DEHA and another chemical known as BHP along with other chemicals considered to be carcinogens are said, by some officials, to be very costly to our health and in some cases are cancer causing agents.

An interview on NPR (National Public Radio) mentioned that Whole Foods is one of the only markets for groceries that provides their goods in packages and containers that are free of these chemicals.  I will be looking deeper into this to find out not only the validity to this, but also I will try to get a list of other food providers who offer the same.

I would also like to get more details about how dangerous these chemicals really are and how much risk are we really taking by microwaving and freezing our foods in plastic containers.  If anyone has some good resources for this information, please comment on this.

In the end, it is better and more “green” to get away from the use of platics, but our society and industries make it aweful difficult to do so.  Plastic is everywhere and it is in everything.  I would hate to think that we have surrounded ourselves with a toxic killer.

More to come on this subject…