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Everyone knows that water is vital for our survival, yet it can also be critical in helping people lose weight.  When beginning a weight loss program, many people fail to incorporate enough water into their diet, causing them to lose the benefits that water can provide. It has been said that water is a natural way to counteract hunger pains.  When you drink water, you tend to “feel full” quite quickly.  It also flushes out your system, allowing your body to rid itself of harmful toxins.  Water can also boost your energy level and improve your metabolism, allowing you to consume calories more quickly. Research indicates that hunger and thirst may be inextricably linked.  That means that at times, you may think that you’re hungry, while actually you’re thirsty.  Drinking water during those periods can help you to feel satiated without expanding your waistline. You might be wondering, however, how much water is...

At Lifestyle Health Retreats (LHR) we understand the value that yoga has to enrich your life no matter what your current fitness level is. Yoga has been practiced for more than 400 years and is a system of exercises which are very easy and effective at increasing your overall health and well-being.  Yoga instructors and students alike will often use phrases like "being in harmony with oneself" and indeed this is a primary goal of yoga, to achieve a unity of body, mind and spirit.  Yoga will teach you how to stimulate internal organs including the prostate, which is practically never exercised by any other discipline.  It will teach you how to apply pressure upon glandular areas of the body and it will combine this with meditation and breathing techniques that will grant you the ability to turn your concentration inward to examine your feelings and thoughts. There are a number...

At Lifestyle Health Retreats (LHR), we understand that carrying excess body weight is becoming the norm rather than the exception.  Lifestyles are increasingly sedentary, people’s diet is becoming increasingly processed and fatty and food contains more and more calories, additives and preservatives.  While controlling diet and exercise are widely recognized to combat weight gain, many do not realize the benefits of yoga for weight loss.  Yoga is a discipline designed to make the body strong and flexible and enhance the overall health of the digestive system as well as the hormonal and circulatory systems.  It also assists us in controlling mental stress and achieving peace and clarity of mind.  Yoga also has strong spiritual benefits which allow you to becoming more content with yourself. This mental component is often neglected in a physical approach to weight loss, but it is critical and should not be overlooked. Yoga is based on...

Jennifer, a middle-aged single mother with one six-year-old daughter, has been skipping sweets for a few weeks now.  She’s also become a stickler for portion control.  She feels as if she’s eating less than ever, and she’s been diligently exercising for an hour at a time at least four days a week.  Yet, she hasn’t lost a single pound.  The question is, “Why?” This is a dilemma which affects dieters the world over.  They think they are taking the steps necessary to lose weight, but nothing seems to be happening.  In essence, they are trapped in a dieting rut and they don’t know how to free themselves.  As a result, many people become frustrated and depressed and may then engage in binge eating. Cookie Cutter Approach- One of the problems with diets is that they are often standardized. As a result, they don’t take into consideration your individual physiology and metabolism. They...

How do you know if you are an emotional eater?  Ask yourself some key questions:  Do I tend to eat when I’m worried?  Scared?  Sad?  Do I find that eating lifts my spirits?  Am I spending more time eating than engaging in other activities I enjoy?  Do my binges come after I’ve suffered disappointment?  Am I turning to food in order to deal with the death of a loved one…a divorce…or the defeat of my favorite team?  If the answers to any of these questions is “yes,” you may be overeating purely for emotional reasons. Sandra found her weight ballooning 60 pounds after her separation from her husband.  While part of the weight gain was apparently tied to the medication she was taking, the rest appeared to be the result of what can be described as emotional eating.  In recent years, greater attention has been focused on the problem of emotional...

At Lifestyle Health Retreats (LHR) we recognize yoga as a powerful tool for balancing health and improving wellness. Yoga is an ancient art that has been refined and modified by many great teachers across the ages.  It now comes in so many different styles and techniques and different people may find different versions of yoga more suitable for them.  This is because yoga is a very personal exercise routine with strong emphasis on looking within oneself in order to achieve personal balance and wellbeing.  Regardless of which individual version of yoga you practice there are a number of things that apply to yoga universally rather than to individual branches of the discipline. You will find that much of your time performing yoga is spent in a sitting or lying position, however the beginning of a yoga session is usually a standard standing pose.  The standing pose is the most natural position...

At Lifestyle Health Retreats, we understand that there is a good deal of confusion when it comes to the benefits and limitations of both carbohydrates and proteins. Many people think that eating huge amounts of carbohydrates will make one obese. The truth however is that carbohydrates are essential in making you gain or lose weight. Carbohydrates are metabolic primers and they are needed in order to burn fat. Carbs Carbohydrates are one of the best sources of energy for the body. The muscles, the brain and the complete nervous system particularly need them. Carbohydrates are broken further into glucose, which is used by the body to release energy. Excess glucose will change into glycogen and then kept in the muscles as surplus energy. It may happen if the body has higher glycogen than it can store. In that event, it will be converted into fat. Many dieters stay away from carbs...

By Melissa Richter If asked, most people say they would like to be happier. Yet happiness is an elusive concept that cannot be easily defined. It’s easy to get stuck in life and feel powerless to move ahead. It does not matter if your goals are health and fitness driven, career and relationship driven or if you simply desire to live a more authentic life. Almost anyone can benefit from these simple tips, that can help you shift thinking, move into action and starting cultivating a happier existence. 1 – OWN IT Take responsibility for your own happiness. Let go of the fantasy that someone is going to rescue you, or save you. Stop blaming, and start forgiving. Do it for your own sake, not necessarily for the one’s you feel hurt by. This is the first step we must take in order to set ourselves free to begin to heal. We forgive...

When you make the decision to get healthy and get in shape, you are making one of the biggest decisions of your life. At Lifestyle Health Retreats we know that this decision to improve your life and embrace fitness and wellness begins with this process. While exercising is the number one way to lose weight, most people forget that nutrition plays the second largest role. In order to maintain optimal fitness, you will need to fuel your body will the necessary foods to aid in weight loss. There are literally thousands of diets out there that claim they are the best and that they will help you lose a certain amount of weight. In reality, diets don't work. It's actually up to you to lose the weight and keep it off. Everyone’s body is different and loses weight differently. If your confused by everything you have been reading and hearing about...

How Heart Healthy Are You? How important is a healthy heart to your overall fitness regimen? At Lifestyle Health Retreats realize that not many people stop to think about the health of their heart on a regular basis. Although we intuitively understand that the heart is one of the most important organs in our bodies, it is easy to take heart health for granted, A vital part of holistic health and wellness is to be conscious of what is going into our bodies regularly and minimizing consumption of things such as alcohol, and foods high in sugar and fat which can be detrimental heart health. When shopping for foods, it's important to pay attention to the levels of saturated fats and sugar levels in the foods you are purchasing. Foods high in fat and sugar over time can build up in the hearts arterial walls. This is also known as plaque. You...

At Lifestyle Health Retreats (LHR) we promote a holistic approach to healthy living that include, proper nutriton and exercise. We understand that sometime you want to focus on burning off unwanted stomach fat, but don’t know the best way to approach the problem. There are countless ways to lose stubborn stomach fat, and we have compiled a few simple tips to help burn off that fat and keep it off. 1. To get started, there are two types of fat that you should know about. There is subcutaneous fat and that is the fat that we can see, and visceral fat is the fat we can’t. People store fat in different ways. Unfortunately for most, especially in women, the fat is stored in the most unwanted place and that's on your stomach. The first step is exercising for weight loss. Any and all types of aerobic exercise will facilitate fat loss...