As the weather continues to get warmer and the clothing gets smaller, there things other than extra pounds that one may want to hide. Don’t let those varicose veins get int the way of sporting shorts or the new bathing suit by using these natural treatments!
Varicose veins are much more common in women, leading some experts to believe that the disorder may be related to hormones. The culprit may also be wearing high heel shoes, which cause the blood to pool in the calves. Men aren’t immune to varicose veins, however. They’re much more noticeable on women, since women tend to shave their legs, yet varicose veins can cause painful throbbing and cramps in both genders.
Causes
Besides the possibilities mentioned above, varicose veins are thought to be caused by standing, sitting, or lying down for long periods of time—in other words, lack of movement. Sitting or lying down for long periods of time causes the blood to pool toward the feet. Ultimately, as a result of this pooling, the heavy, swollen veins protrude, forming varicose veins. There may also be some connection with the health of your blood vessels and arteries and capillaries.
Preventing Varicose Veins:
Here are a few ways to help prevent varicose veins:
Getting Rid of Varicose Veins:
Bikini season is almost here so many of you out there may be looking to lose a few pound to look your best in that new swimsuit. To help, this post begins a series dedicated to healthy, long term weight loss. Enjoy and leave your thought is the comments
Weight Loss vs. Weight Control
Maintaining a healthy weight is a two-part process: weight loss and weight control. It’s the latter we struggle with more
than the former. If someone offered you a smart, sensible guide to eating, exercising, and understanding how the body works; one that would keep you at a healthy weight that you could follow for life, would you take it? Of course you would. So remember that healthy weight loss begins with understanding the intricacies of the human body…understanding how and why we get fat. Most diet plans focus on their isolated, pet issues, whether it’s a low-carb diet, buying an all-in-one piece of workout equipment, or filling up on liquids. But none of these address the core underlying issues. They rarely educate the consumer or speak to all the possible factors that play a role in weight loss. No two people are the same and therefore, weight loss cannot be addressed as a one-size-fits-all remedy. Identifying the culprits that cause excess weight and choosing the right approach for your body type and lifestyle can make all the difference.
First, let’s address weight loss. You’ve heard it before—eat those fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Though practically a dietary cliché, it’s still golden rule number one in maintaining a healthy diet, which will lead to weight loss. What to minimize in your diet? High fat foods, processed foods, trans fats, and sugar. While these guidelines are staples for a healthy food plan, they’re still only part of the picture.
Once you’ve developed a habit of swapping Twinkies for almonds, and you notice weight loss, your next step is to maintain that desired weight. This requires lifestyle changes. But it’s not as drastic as you may think. Often, it’s what you’re NOT eating that’s making you fat and unhealthy. Rather than focus on dieting, starvation and all the things you need to STOP doing…try the simple approach of ADDING a few basic practices. The first, last and best secret to help control your weight is to add more healthy nutrition to your diet. Even if you don’t stop all the bad eating habits right away, just adding super nutrition from nutrient-dense foods, you’ll be well on your way to a healthier, slimmer you. One of the easiest and most reliable ways to add high levels of nutrition to your diet is to take a green superfood drink once or twice per day. Boku Super Food is the one we’ve created from what we believe is the best formulation on the market.
Sometimes it’s necessary to reverse some of your long-held beliefs about health. For example, many people feel that they get enough nutrition from their food and shouldn’t need any other supplements. Others believe that their vitamins are taking care of their supplemental needs. These are both beliefs that stem from lack of information. Our foods today largely come from industrial farms that load the soil with chemical fertilizers and pesticides that end up in your food and your body. Many vitamins and supplement products are chemically produced in laboratories and are often derived from questionable sources. Studies have shown that many vitamin products pass through the body irtually unchanged and unabsorbed by the body. In other words, the body recognizes these products as waste matter!
After nutrition, the next big part of weight control is committing to a regular exercise program. Thirty minutes a day or more is ideal but don’t avoid exercise if you can’t stick to that schedule. The person who has only 15 minutes a day to exercise will have gotten his blood pumping for 105 minutes a week, which would make a marked difference in weight compared to the person who didn’t exercise at all. The same principal applies to physical health as it does to financial health: A little bit done over a long time has the ability to create compounded interest and big returns! That’s why we recommend taking a little Boku Super Food and getting a few minutes of exercise every day over many years.
Finally, you may want to become more of a label watcher at the supermarket. The information in later sections will make you a savvy consumer but the key is to be diligent and watchful because it’s easy to misread labels. For example, a common mistake is looking at how many calories are in a serving but then neglecting to notice that the manufacturer defines a serving as one cookie, not three. Observing ingredients such as fats, carbs, protein, and calories must become second nature in the fight against flab. The secrets of healthy weight loss are about knowledge, understanding the various weight loss options and making sensible decisions.
Juliana Sproles BōKU® Boot Camp Instructor
Any BōKU® fans or fitness enthusiasts in the Ojai, CA area are welcome to come to our own Boot Camp to work out with us!
Our fitness Boot Camp takes place at Soule Park from 8-9am Monday through Friday. Be prepared to work and sweat while gaining strength and endurance and having a great time!
Mike Adams was a guest of BōKU® Boot Camp during his recent California visit and called it:
“An amazingly fun way to get some good exercise as you start your day.”
Summer will soon be upon us, the weather is warming and it’s time to show some skin. Most people understand that they must use caution when exposing their skin to the sun, while also getting enough unhindered UVB exposure for vitamin D production. However, there has been a lot of debate over the safety of common sunscreen lotions, and with good reason. Most sunscreens that you will find in stores contain ingredients like parabens, oxybenzone, octinoxate, cinnamates, and homosalate and other chemicals that can have ill effects on health such as actually promoting cancer!
Even some of the more “natural” sunscreens natural UV blockers that are micronized or nano-sized to make them more transparent on your skin. The trouble is that these are non-reactive while on the surface of the skin, but the tiny nano-particles may enter the skin, the effects of which are still unknown. This article details a study that found that nano particles of zinc oxide are twice as toxic to colon cells as larger particles if accidentally eaten: http://www.physorg.com/news189862905.html. Does that sound like something you would want on your skin?
Fortunately, there are safer manufactured sunscreens. Both Badger Sunscreen SPF 30 Face Stick and Loving Naturals Sunscreen, SPF 30+ contain Non-nano zinc oxide and have earned scores of 0 on the Environmental Working Group’s Safest Sunscreens List. You can see the entire list here: http://www.ewg.org/cosmetics/report/sunscreen09/Beach-Sunscreens
If you want complete control over what goes into your sunscreen to make sure it is truly all natural you can always make your own at home! Just purchase zinc oxide and/or titanium dioxide in cream or powder form. Make sure it’s not nano or micronized, and DO NOT inhale the powder, it’s best to use a mask and gloves while handling them. Add a tablespoon of one or each to about 8 oz of olive, sunflower, jojoba, eucalyptus or other oil, feel free to mix them and add any essential oils you wish and add 1 oz of emulsifying wax. All of these ingredients are available online from cosmetics or soaping suppliers like this one: http://www.camdengrey.com/
Of course nutrition plays a large role in sun protection as well. Eat foods with plenty of antioxidants like fruits and berries; foods rich in carotenoids like tomatoes and red bell peppers and watermelon; and drink plenty of tea especially green tea for natural internal sun protection.
