New Happenings this Week
As women age, fat is more likely to build around the midsection, rather than the hips and thighs. Too much belly fat can increase your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Fortunately, there are simple ways to fight belly fat. Besides, there's a growing body of research showing that the fastest way to burn off the fat from your belly is with a combination of weight-training and aerobic exercise. To learn more check out this week's on Belly Fat linked to early death- How to fight it.
Hot Fitness Tip of the Week
Keep your weight training short and sweet. Training Workouts do not need to be long to be effective, in fact, if they are too long, they are counter-productive. The goal of weight training is to go into the gym and stimulate muscle growth, not to annihilate the muscles. By stimulating them with progressive overload, you are forcing them to respond and adapt to this progressive overload. Anything more is futile over training. Try to complete your workout in less than 45 minutes. This short time period will ensure you do not over do it, it will ensure intensity. It's much easier to focus for 30-45 minutes than it is an hour. The growth-assisting hormones secreted in your body actually peak after about 30 minutes of weight training and then begin to decline rapidly. So try to keep it quick and intense. No total body workout. Choose one or two muscle groups, train them well, and leave under 45 minutes.
Words of Inspiration
What's Important to You?: If someone asked you to name the most important things in your life, what would you list --your family, your faith, your health, your special friend, your integrity, your career? It is a question that very rarely gets asked of us by other people. Yet, every day life asks that question. And every day we answer. The answer is not in words, but in action. The actions you take on a daily basis speak louder than any claims you might make as to the most important things in your life. The way you spend your time, the things to which you give your attention, and the areas to which you commit your resources, present a clear and undeniable picture of your true priorities. Are your priorities what you think they are? Look at your actions. Look at your results. Look at the life you've built for yourself. Does your reality agree with your vision? Success and fulfillment come not from what we think would be nice, but from what we actually do, hour after hour, day after day. Your life at this moment is an accurate representation of the things that have truly been important to you in the past, of whatever you have been committed to achieving. With that in mind, ask yourself --what's important to you now?
Suceess Quote
All men and women are born, live suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live. -Joseph Epstein
Healthy Recipe
Stuffed Tomatoes with Feta and Pine Nuts: Ingredients:3/4 cup instant brown rice, 1 Tbsp. pine nuts, 4 large, ripe tomatoes, 1 green bell pepper, seeded and minced, 1/2 cup yellow squash, finely chopped, 4 Tbsp. feta cheese, crumbled, 1 tsp. minced dried onion (or onion flakes), 1 tsp. dried oregano, 1 tsp. dried basil, Salt to taste, 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, Direction: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat shallow baking pan with cooking spray. In small saucepan, bring 1 cup of water to boil. Add rice, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 10 minutes, until liquid is absorbed. Meanwhile, in small skillet, toast pine nuts over medium heat for 2 minutes until golden brown, shaking pan frequently. Set aside. Slice off stem end (top) of tomatoes. Using a spoon, gently scoop out pulp. Finely chop pulp and place 1/3 cup of pulp in large bowl (discard any remaining pulp). Add rice to pulp along with toasted pine nuts, bell pepper, yellow squash, 2 tablespoons of feta, minced onion, oregano, basil, salt and black pepper. Mix well. Stuff rice mixture into tomato shells. Transfer tomatoes to pan and top with remaining feta cheese. Bake 20 minutes, until top is golden. Serve hot or at room temperature. Nutritional Information: (per serving) 149 calories, 4 g total fat (2 g saturated fat), 24 g carbohydrates, 5 g protein, 4 g fiber, 126 mg sodium. Courtesy: AICR (American Institute for Cancer Research)
Belly Fat linked to early death - How to fight it
Belly Fat linked to early death - How to fight it: As women age, fat is more likely to build around the midsection, rather than the hips and thighs. Too much belly fat can increase your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Now an important new study links belly fat to early death. Researchers followed about 360,000 Europeans enrolled in one of the largest, longest health studies in the world. They found that people with the most belly fat had about double the risk of dying prematurely as people with the least amount of belly fat. Death risk increased with waist circumference, whether the participants were overweight or not. Specifically: Men and women with the largest waists (more than 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women) had roughly double the risk of premature death as men and women with the smallest waists (less than 34 inches for men and 28 for women). Each 2-inch increase in waist circumference was associated with close to a 17% increase in mortality in men and a 13% increase in women. Waist-to-hip ratio also strongly predicted mortality. The most important result of the study is the finding that not just being overweight, but also the distribution of body fat, affects the risk of premature death. Since visceral fat is buried deep in your abdomen, it may seem like a difficult target for spot reduction. As it turns out, visceral fat responds well to a regular exercise routine and a healthy diet. Fortunately, there are simple ways to fight belly fat. Besides, there's a growing body of research showing that the fastest way to burn off the fat from your belly is with a combination of weight-training and aerobic exercise.

weight loss surgery is worth the cost to you, personally, you will want to take a number of factors into consideration.

One of the many factors that you will want to take into consideration, when determining if surgery is worth the cost for you, is your weight. You will find that many surgeons require that you are at least eighty pounds overweight to undergo surgery. With that in mind, you may be able to find a surgeon who will make an exception, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should opt for surgery. If you are able to try to lose the weight on your own, through the use of exercise, eating healthy, or diet pills, you may find it more affordable to do so.

Your health is another factor that you should take into consideration, when trying to determine if surgery is right for you. surgery is commonly referred to as a lifesaving medical procedure. Those who are severely obese put their health at risk and may experience an early death. If you are severely obese, your physician may recommend surgery. If that is the case, surgery is more than worth the costs, as you cannot put a price tag on your health and wellbeing.

Your ability to set goals and stay with them is another factor to consider, when determining if surgery is worth the cost to you. surgery may help you lose weight right away, but the surgery alone will not help you lose weight. With a reduced stomach pouch, which is how most surgeries work, you must limit the amount of food that you eat. If you do not do so, you may gain your weight back and possibly endanger your health. If you do not think that you can follow all of the instructions given to you, following a surgery, surgery may not be the best option for you.

The above mentioned factors are just a few of the many that can help you decide if surgery is right for you or if it is worth the cost. As a reminder, it is important that you take the time to first consult with your doctor. Not all individuals are candidates for surgery.