Stress is simply a part of life. Stress can be a positive thing: It can save your life in a fight or flight situation, or it can be the kick in the butt you need to finally finish that project at work you’ve been putting off. Too much stress, however, can have a negative effect on your mental and physical health. In today’s society, where we are moving faster, taking on more responsibility and are constantly technologically connected to the demands of work and home, our lives are becoming more overwhelming, and it may be taking a toll on our waistlines.
Cortisol, dubbed the “stress hormone”, is an important hormone secreted by the adrenal glands, responsible for many functions in the body including regulating metabolism and blood pressure, immune function, inflammatory response, and releasing insulin, which maintains blood sugar levels.
Cortisol isn’t only secreted when the body is under stress, but it is secreted in higher levels during the body’s “fight or flight” response to stress (think of when something pops out and scares the crap out of you. That surge you get is your body’s fight or flight response- you either jump and run, or start swinging.) The stress we encounter on a daily basis isn’t always so obvious or sudden, but daily stress, i.e. a jam packed schedule the next day or not knowing how you are going to afford next month’s bills, isn’t immediately remedied, so your stress levels stay elevated for an extended period of time until the stressor is remedied, or more often than not, until another stressor comes along and takes over.
Just as with everything in life, too much of something is never a good thing. Elevated cortisol levels cause many physical, negative changes to the body, including impaired cognitive function, blood sugar imbalances, high blood pressure, and lower immunity, causing you to feel slow and drained of energy, or even come down with an illness.
This is why when you are stressed, you may experience redness in your face, neck and ears due to higher blood pressure, increased appetite due to out of whack blood sugar levels and just generally sluggish and irritable.
Perhaps the most frustrating side effect of elevated cortisol levels, however, is weight gain. Physically, your appetite may increase causing you to overeat, which is often referred to as stress eating or emotional eating, but of course, if you don’t eat the calories, then you won’t gain the weight- simple solution. The deeper culprit to weight gain is that cortisol can decrease your muscle tissue, which will slow your metabolism, causing you to burn less calories in a day and an increase in belly fat, which not only isn’t attractive, it carries a host of health risks all its own.
Increased abdominal fat is more dangerous to your health than fat deposits in other areas of your body. Excess belly fat puts you at risk for heart attack, stroke, high cholesterol and metabolic syndrome.
Lower Your Stress Levels with a Healthy Lifestyle
Most of your stressors can’t simply be eliminated by delegating out your responsibilities or avoiding the situation completely, so finding ways to cope with your stress is the most practical way to keep your cortisol levels down. Fortunately, the best ways to reduce stress are also good for your health.
Yoga
Practice Yoga Breathing to Promote Balance
Workplace Yoga Reduces Stress and Improve Sleep
Yoga Keeps You Calm in the Midst of Chaos
A Consistent Yoga Practice Reduces Stress
Meditation
How Meditation Can Help Conquer Stress and Extra Pounds
What is Active Meditation?
Start a Meditation Practice in Five Steps
Manage Stress with Simple Relaxation Techniques
Sleep
The Importance of Sleep for Good Health
Sleep and Relax to Prevent Diabetes
Staying Up Late Harmful to Your Health
June 14th, 2011
Dating – either as a single person or half of a committed couple – can make for a very exciting time. When you think of going on a date, most often you might envision dinner, maybe a movie, or coffee and dessert.
Alcohol intake – Hot day, cold beer. Hot day, cold mixed drink. Hot day, too tight shorts. Alcohol is high in calories and can be the silent sabotage that you don’t notice. If you are out on a date, enjoy your evening with a wine spritzer, light beer or non alcoholic cocktail. 
Whenever I ask people what their favorite way to get cardio in is, they usually mention two pieces of equipment: the elliptical and the treadmill. This is great because both offer a fantastic cardiovascular workout and work well for people of all kinds of fitness backgrounds. But how do these two pieces compare in regards to cost, ease of use and accessibility? Read on to see how ellipticals and treadmills compare and how they differ- and find the piece of equipment that is perfect for you!
Fitness Level
Has it really come to this? Well, maybe it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise since obesity is often referred to as a disease.
Mary Hartley, RD, MPH, is the director of nutrition for Calorie Count, providing domain expertise on issues related to nutrition, weight loss and health. She creates original content for weekly blogs and newsletters, for the Calorie Count library, and for her popular daily Question-and-Answer section, Ask Mary. Ms. Hartley also furnishes direction for the site features and for product development.
With the recent announcement that the food pyramid will be replaced by the new MyPlate icon, Americans are more aware than ever that it’s time to start eating their vegetables.
If You Love Red Meat:
Whether you’re male or female, healthy nails and hands are typically seen as signs of physical beauty. According to Dr. Ariel Ostad, a Manhattan Board Certified Dermatologist, changes in skin and nails can signify health problems, some of which can be helped or prevented by eating a healthy diet.
Confession: I am a coffee drinker. I can manage a french press myself. I drink it black. Despite a Starbucks in my family tree, I don’t find the coffee sold at that chain store up to my standards. I was skeptical about trying CLICK Espresso Protein Drink.
By MyDailyMoment.com Editorial Team 
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With this week’s record breaking heat, which has been blamed for five deaths in Tennessee, Maryland and Wisconsin, some experts predict an unusually hot summer for the United States.
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Rebecca Wilson practices cognitive & mindfulness-based therapies and researches health psychology and behavior change. Her website, habitspark.com, focuses on how to use positive habits to create healthy and happy lifestyles.
Bad Habit #3: Sacrificing sleep. Sleep is a crucial foundation for dealing effectively with life. We average 6 hours a night, when most adults need 8-9 hours. Lack of sleep can contribute to stress, increased appetite, cognitive impairment, and lack of energy.
One common concern I hear about dieting is how to maintain both social relationships and weight when so many social gatherings include food.
Fitness is always more fun with a friend
Are you tempted with the plans that claim for instant weight loss? Before going on any diet plan you may want to double check all the hype about such programs. You must make a note to schedule your diet and exercise plans. To lose your extra pounds, you must first get into a plan which helps your body to burn the fat cells. And this should not make you feel fatigue. 
The entire physical workout must facilitate you for weight loss rather than making you feel lazy or fatigue. If you intend to build up your muscles, you must get a plan designed for you. Start eating the right types of the nutrients to gain enough energy for your intense workouts. Your diet and exercise plan must be efficient to optimally fuel up your body so that you get sufficient energy to reach your goal. This will help you to get a visibly toned and lean body.
Tune in at 9:00 AM on Saturday, June 18 to the Oprah Winfrey Network for a Bob Greene special. Bob Greene is Oprah Winfrey’s weight loss and fitness guru, and he’s also the creator of Bestlife diet program and the author of The Life You Want: Get Motivated, Lose Weight and Be Happy.
It has become a trend to follow diet plans to reduce weight. These plans seem very easy to read or hear but once you start following them, you may notice that sometimes they are really tough. A good diet plan must be designed according to your lifestyle or flavor and all the factors of your body and health must be considered very seriously to give you those visible results. 
Every menu or the meal in your diet plan consists of the counted calories. Every bite you eat is counted for the calories. You must follow the diet chart very carefully so that you do not observe any reverse actions once you are out from the plan. A good diet plan gives the maximum benefits from the food you eat. You must make sure to start your day with a glass of plain water without any fat and flavors. This will flush out all the toxins that accumulate during the night sleep.
Anda T. writes about her weight loss struggles, victories and every day life at www.leavingfatville.com. She also runs www.greatclothingexchange.com in her spare time when not chasing a toddler, cooking, cleaning, working and trying to take over the world. 
After the disappointment in the last episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, it was a wonderful surprise to see that the administrator of West Adams High had hopefully found a loophole, so that Jamie and his kids could indeed cook for the entire school, at least as an assembly. The administrator said that the school was based on experiential teaching and preparing kids for college, so healthy eating fit right into their principles. In the mean time, Jamie continued his role of instructor, trying out different subjects beyond culinary arts.
Fat burning diets can be explained as diets that motivate your body to burn the fat still retaining your body energy. This burnt fat is utilized as the basic energy resource. This diet plan works for the people who don’t want to cut off carbs from daily eating habits, but still would like to gain the benefits of a low carb diet. Fat melting diet is efficient to reduce your cravings to munch in between the two meals. These munching habits can lead to obesity. 
Hence, it is a basic necessity to know your body abilities to gain the benefits of fat burning diets. If you have some diseases in which you are not allowed to consume too much of citric acid, then this diet may not work for you. Before shifting on this diet plan, it is suggested that you visit your doctor or the dietitian for a complete body analysis. An efficient dietitian will consider your body abilities and will plan the diet accordingly. You can reduce your body weight by burning the extra calories than you actually consume. You can do this by eating the fat cutting food and indulging in some physical activity. This burns up the excessive accumulated fat.