Setting goals for your diet plan is as essential as exercising. Have you ever seen a football team make it to the Super Bowl without certain well-defined goals. Every sports team from pee wee to the pro sets goals and not just long-term goals.

This process of setting goals is very important and critical for you losing weight. The goals you set define what you need to do to lose weight. It becomes your road map to looking and feeling good on any diet plan. Use the goals as a model of different needs and activities, in other words make it your guide to losing weight and keep it off.

When you decide to lose weight you cannot mentally grasp what it would take to lose 40 pounds or more. Your mind can accept losing two pounds a week and understand the different steps it would take to achieve this goal. If you said I want to lose 50 pounds and stopped their how would you meet this goal and how long would it take. What about after you have achieved this goal do you go back to eating what got you obese. No you plan a maintenance program.

When you sit down to decide what goals you need to lose weight, take your time and do it in pencil at first. Get a piece of paper and set up three (3) groups or columns. Put a heading on them such as Daily/Weekly Goals, Intermediate Goals and long-term goals. Start with your long-term goal, Is it a weight amount you need to lose if you are not sure this is the time to make sure that you have the correct amount. Decide what your ideal weight should be and go from their. You know what you weigh now so do the math and come up with something you can live with.

After you have decided the amount of weight to lose it is time to figure a time frame that will be a doable. Take the amount of weight you need to lose and divide it by 2 pounds a week. This will be the number of weeks that it should take to lose your weight. From there you can plan Intermediate goals.

The intermediate goals are goals that can be like sign posts on a road or highway. They are designed to keep you going ion the correct direction. These goals can be hitting certain marks at certain times and giving yourself a reward for achieving these goals. It can be a dinner out a bottle of wine you like it can be anything you choose as long as you have attained the goal. Set these goals as possibly monthly goals but always make them attainable but goals that force you to work at them.

The daily/ weekly goals should be planned for a month and should be able to be used every month. You want to lose 2 pound every week, set this as your goal and then outline what you will do daily and then weekly to meet this goal. Be specific in your goals, write what and how you will attain these goals for the week. Explain as a goal how often and even as to what you will do to lose weight. Do not be afraid to map out your exercise program as part of the goals you set to lose weight and keep it off.

Plan for success and do it in a way that you can be mentally prepared and be understanding about how you are going to get their. Leave nothing to chance when it comes to your diet and health.

No, no, I’m not saying that all you have to do is stop eating and you’ll cure colitis and lose 15 kilos. What I am saying is that by losing weight you will positively effect two unhealthy problems of your body at the same time. We are talking about your body bulk and the health of your colon. You’re getting 2 for 1 (two great benefits for the price of one).

Yes, it’s a direct result of what you eat and what you don’t eat that both colitis and weight gain happen.

BUT, and here’s the great news: It doesn’t have to be a pain in the butt. It CAN and should be fun… and when you see the results you’ll wonder why you didn’t do all this simple stuff years ago.

Chances are, you’ll not go back to your old ways. That doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy your food. In fact, you’ll enjoy it more than you ever did before.

And you’ll be rid of all those horrible colitis symptoms AND be slim. More importantly, you’ll feel so much better. Your self-image will improve which will give you a great self-confidence boost. Not only will you feel like a new person, you will be a new person. The new confident, healthy, slim you, ready to tackle things you hesitated to before.

As a matter of fact, I found that prior to developing severe colitis symptoms, I would put on weight. This was due to bad lifestyle habits such as overwork, sitting for 12 and 15 hours a day, going to bed late, eating heavy clogging foods, pigging out on steaks and burgers, troughing on biscuits, chocolate and snacks. On top of that, whiskey and strong black coffee. And zero exercise. Unless you call walking 25 yards to and from the car each day exercise.

No wonder my system rebelled. Bottom line: I would put on weight. I’d run out of holes on my belt. I’d be buying new trousers, jackets, shirts. Nothing fitted.

Then the colitis kicked in and would begin to lose weight. A lot of weight. Quite quickly. That was worrying. Worry leads to stress. Stress puts even more strain on an already overburdened system. Stress usually results in eating more. Comfort eating. And so the noose tightens.

Good at first. Later… not good. Too much weight would come off. I’d look lean, then gaunt, then painfully thin. And pale. And very ill. Not good an a fairly light frame of 5’10″. I’d go from 10 stone to 13 stone and then down to10 stone again in just 3 months or so each way. Something wrong. Seriously wrong.

What I found was that when I changed my lifestyle the colitis problem and the weight would adjust to it’s correct level as it is now, 11 stone exactly. That’s 70 kilos or 150 lbs. I reckon that’s about right and it remains constant. As does the condition of my colon and digestive system as a whole. You also can look forward to being able to both eradicate colitis and correct your weight all in one by following simple commonsense principles of sensible diet, daily exercise and effective relaxation. Less bread, more broccoli. Less wine, more water. Less stress, more relaxation. The results of these simple practices can be simply astounding, but only if they are continued on a day to day basis.

The bottom line is that life should be enjoyed to the full and this is more likely when good health is enjoyed. Napolean said that ‘an army marches on it’s stomach’. By that he probably meant that a healthy gut produces a healthy army that would function as it should. It is the desire of most people to enjoy good health and that could be said to begin with a healthy colon. An efficient digestive system together with a comfortable body weight means that normal healthy activities can be enjoyed to the full. Therefore life generally is more enjoyable too.

I can’t think of anything better in life than to go on vacation, eat anything you like but still shed some weight.

I did exactly that and discovered an easy method utilising a few fundamental principals, here are the details.

I went on a vacation to China and Singapore for two weeks.

The food and drink is inexpensive and I knew it was destined to be a major calorie banquet at every sitting.

Pre-Planning is a crucial part leading up to the holiday so it doesn’t turn into a food indulging catastrophe.

My basic strategy was:

• Eating guidelines must be very easy to do (don’t get complicated on holidays!)
• Have very few guidelines,
• Food intake needs to be less than the exercising for parts of the day and generally adopted over the week
• I would like to consume and drink anything I loved and not miss out,
• Walk just about everywhere, even carrying shopping should be incidental exercising

Pre-Vacation

The actual week leading up to the vacation I choose to intentionally over-train with a weights based program called Visual Impact,

It’s the exact same program I applied to get into shape earlier this year, it was perfect because it focuses on building a lean muscular body like you see on action dudes in Hollywood movies.

Over training was so I could make use of the next two weeks as a recovery week.

All I did was the large lift workouts like dead lifts, bench, rows and squats, these burn the most calories.

In the evening I did a bit of jogging about 6 kms.

I decreased my food consumption in the final couple of days.

I decided I would adhere to a structure of every two days eat breakfast in the morning then fast till 4pm, and in the afternoon resume eating normally once again.

I make use of intermittent fasting all year round it makes it easy to maintain my weight regardless of whether I’m on vacation or not.

On the 3rd day I would consume normally during the day after which return to the day-fasting for the following 2 days.

To provide you with understanding of my daily menu it went similar to this:

- Breakfast daily!

I ate anything on the buffet:

Cereal, natural yogurts, dried fruits &nuts, omelettes, boiled eggs, Chinese pork or custard buns, fruit, pastries and lots of coffee, bread, peanut butter, noodles, Indian fried breads, curries and rice.

I approximated every breakfast was more than 1500 plus calories and I’m an average size person, my normal intake is about 2,500 calories.

As you can imagine my wife was astonished each time we sat down.

When it was a fast day, throughout the day I would only drink coffee or water, occasionally sneak a beer in.

On the regular eating day I usually wasn’t that hungry immediately after the significant breakfast so I would consume something light like sushi or chinese bun usually with a beer or two.

- In the afternoon I would begin eating again and afternoon tea I would find a custard cake and have two with a coffee.

- Dinner would normally be fish, rice and heaps of vegetables and beer. In northern China they use a lot of oil in their cooking so it was always fried or the stir frys were oily but still tasted good.

- Supper after such an oily and chili dishes we always needed something sweet so it was a cake, buns, chocolate with a couple glasses of wine.

So that was a typical day of eating!

As you can see I really didn’t hold back.

The Holiday Workout Plan

Every morning I would do some exercise.

Having some hotel gym weights available I was able to organise a version of my weights program.

I split it up into 1 day of weights, 1 day of cardio training and kept that pattern throughout the whole holiday.

Weight Days (shorter rests kept my heart rate up so it was also like a bit of cardio).

Day 1) 3 sets x 11 reps (90 sec rest)

• Bent over Dumb bell rows
• Push ups
• Dumb bell curls
• Smith Machine Squats

Day 2) 3 sets x 9 reps (90 sec rest)

• Dumb bell Split Squats
• Smith Machine Military
• Press Chin Ups (I used the smith machine frame)
• Dips (I used the stair master support handles)

Day 3) 3 sets x 7 reps (90 sec rest)

• Smith Machine Deadlifts
• Smith Machine Incline Barbell Press
• Pull ups
• Hammer Curls

Cardio Days:

All other days were just cardio days which i used body weight circuits.

5 rounds of the following circuit with 45 seconds rest in between rounds.

• 60 jumping jacks
• 20 Spiderman push ups
• 20 Dumb bell Split Squats each leg
• 20 bunny jumps
• 60 second wall squat
• 60 second plank
• 20 jumping burpees
• 60 second high knee running on the spot

THE BIG SECRET

Now for my really big secret on how to go on holidays, eat as much as you want and still slim down!

Is to Walk… Ok not that exciting huh?

Walking nearly expends as much energy as jogging, it just takes longer to get there.

Guaranteed, when I go on holidays I have always seemed to come back leaner than I left I couldn’t work it out.

But it had to be walking, it’s what i do more on holidays than when I am at home.

I was walking anywhere near 12,000 -18,00 steps per day, that’s 6 miles (10km) to 9 miles (14km) per day!

I avoided public transport where possible, I didn’t use any escalators or lifts.

If you add in the fasting, weights and cardio it meant I was using a lot of calories per day that was offsetting my holiday food diet.

I started out and finished with the same weight of 71 kgs (154lbs).

I didn’t slim down but considering how much I ate I probably did at some stage over the 2 weeks.

But anyhow the details aren’t that important as long as you got the idea and how you can make it work for you.

Summary:

1. Pre-plan the week with some intense exercising before leaving and drop your calorie intake.
2. While on holidays keep active either with weights, body weight circuits, cardio or all three, daily if possible.
3. Make sure you walk everywhere,

I hope this helps to make your vacation less worrying about falling off the diet track but eat and drink anything you want remember you are on holidays!

There are hardly any weight losing diets that allow drinking wine. Also all official guidelines point out that a woman shouldn’t drink more than 1 or 2 and a man shouldn’t drink more than 2 or 3 glasses of alcoholic drinks per day. On the other hand… most people are aware of the French paradox, being: In certain regions of France and in some other mediterranean countries, people drink half a liter of wine at lunch, half a liter of wine at dinner, eat food with lots of saturated fat and hardly suffer from heart problems or other blood-vessel related illnesses! There are of course more specific details about a mediterranean diet than just drinking wine. For instance using more olive oil than in other styles of cuisine! And maybe the use of certain vegetables and fruit are part of the reason why these people live healthier. Drinking alcohol is also easily associated with a beer-belly and being fat. But most alcoholics are not fat! On the contrary.

So how does it work? Does alcohol make you fat or not? After lots of studies we are now aware that eating lots of meat, cheese, eggs, fish, etc. does not have to make you fat, as long as you donot combine it with certain foods. Atkins is the most common diet that is based on this knowledge. And also eating lots of pastas, flour, bread, etc. doesn’t have to make you fat, if you don’t combine it with certain types of fatty food components. Some bread diets are an example of this. And then there is the Fullness Factor and high Fiber foods. Some foods cannot be digested by the enzymes in the stomach or intestines, so that one can eat of these as much as one wants, while still losing weight. And eating food with a high Fullness Factor makes people feel satiated, so that they eat less than normal and lose weight.

Diet land has a continuously changing landscape, but slowly but surely we are learning more and more about how to eat and what to eat. But on drinking wine and dieting not much is known. Is shows that if alcoholic drinks are not eaten with very fatty foods like cheese and meat dishes they can be taken without gaining weight at all. What is usually called a beer-belly is basically not that, but a cheese-belly or a snack-belly! And drinking wine, beer or any other alcoholic beverages only make a person gain weight if they are accompanied by pretzels, high fat snacks or other unwelcome foods.

IS THERE AN END TO THE LIFE LONG DIET?

A recent conversation I had shocked me into putting pen to paper (or rather fingers to keys) to write this article. The conversation concerned dieting, a subject that always fascinates me, as the majority of women I know are obsessed with their eating and drinking habits due to their never ending diet! My colleague rambled about the many dieting regimes she had tried and how they seemed great initially but eventually failed miserably. She sighed deeply and seemed resigned to the never ending struggle of the continuous life-long diet, an arduous chore for anybody!

However before I could offer advice or support, my colleague piped up, with hope in her voice, “Maybe I will try that hypnosis thing.” Now that was music to my ears! As a qualified hypnotherapist, I am always amazed how many people turn to hypnosis or hypnotherapy as a last resort. They will have tried every conceivable way to overcome their weight issues, smoking habits, phobias etc and turn to hypnotherapy when all hope is lost – this is their first mistake!

It is a well known fact that over 90% of diets fail and what’s worse is that 30% of people who do manage to lose the weight, put it all back on plus more, after they have worked so hard to lose it! Diets may work in the short term, but once the old eating habits are re-established weight gain is inevitable. In order to lose weight successfully, unhealthy eating habits need to be changed long term and no amount of dieting is going to do that.

Furthermore, as human beings we are driven by the ‘pleasure and pain’ principle and it governs all areas of our lives from the job we chose to the way we spend our weekends. We are driven to seek pleasure (comfort from chocolate or a glass of wine) and strive to avoid pain (the arduous struggle of eating what we really don’t want to eat and not eating what we crave!). So we ‘attempt’ to lose weight with minimal commitment as we fear the struggle and pain that it will ultimately cause us.

Of course this is not the case for everyone. Some individuals have a positive and healthy approach to eating which means that they eat what’s right for their body and this knowledge is what brings them pleasure. Pain to them would be a diet laden with fat and sugar etc.

So why do some of us struggle daily with eating healthily and maintaining an ideal weight, whilst others go through life with no conception of what a diet involves?

Well emotions play a large part in our relationship to food – the ‘comfort eater’ (compulsive eater) will eat to keep whatever negative emotions they are experiencing at bay, whether it be the feeling of not being good enough, or feeling unappreciated. How many of you, after a bad day at the office or with the kids, have taken comfort, literally in a glass of wine, some chocolate or other nibbles? And after comforting ourselves, we then feel the ‘pain’ or guilt when we have overindulged, forcing us to seek out pleasure once more to overcome this pain. And so the cycle of comfort eating begins.

Some people simply have poor eating habits which they have either learnt in childhood or adopted themselves later in life. Like any habit, unhealthy eating practices can be difficult to overcome and replace with more positive healthier ones. Poor, unhealthy eating habits literally need to be rewritten and positive, healthier ones reinforced in order for individuals to lose/maintain a healthy weight and body.

So how can both the comfort eater and the habit eater lose weight successfully, effortlessly and naturally and furthermore, maintain the weight loss? Most diets (especially those that offer supplements to actual meals) whilst they work in the short term do not attempt to alter an individual’s eating habits and as mentioned earlier, once we stop the diet, we revert back to our old eating habits which caused our weight gain in the first instance. So no surprises that the weight we struggled to lose, creeps back on.

If you could alter your eating habits permanently then there would be no further need for dieting or the diet industry. So we can see why some dieting methods have no interest in helping the individual overcome their poor eating behaviour, as ultimately it affects their business and their profits! However this is not the case for all diets – some diet clubs set out specifically to help us change our eating habits, offering support along the way, in order for us to, once and for all, eat healthily and maintain an ideal weight.

So if you are serious about losing weight and keeping it off, then the only way to do this is to change your eating habits. So how do you do this?

You can use one of the many dieting clubs which provide healthy eating plans and advice on how to lose weight naturally, positively and long term. Not only do you learn to adopt healthier eating patterns but you get much needed support from the representatives and other members too which is crucial, especially in the initial period when you are struggling to change what may be a life-long habit.

You can take the journey yourself – relying on your will power and determination to become a healthier, slimmer and fitter person. Ensure that you have plenty of support from friends and family along the way and if like me, you are a mother, incorporate new healthier meals into the family mealtimes, so the whole family can benefit too.

If you lack the will power to change your eating patterns and have tried and failed in the past, then hypnotherapy is an excellent way to lose weight effortlessly without struggling on and losing motivation. Hypnotherapy is a new and successful weight loss method which does not incorporate a diet and does not involve will power. So how does hypnotherapy work and why is it so much easier to lose weight by this method than it is through dieting?

Compulsive and habit eaters can both successfully and effortlessly lose weight with hypnotherapy by reprogramming the unconscious mind to adopt a healthy and positive eating pattern. However, for the compulsive eater, the cause of their overeating needs to be established first and resolved before any change can be made to their eating habits. This compulsion to overeat usually has its origins in childhood/early teens and can be something simple as associating food as a treat, when a child is rewarded with food for being good or working hard at school.

For both the compulsive and habit eater, weight loss can only be achieved by an alteration in their eating habits and hypnotherapy overwrites their old negative eating habits and replaces them with positive healthier ones. Habits are rooted in our unconscious mind and run automatically in the background without us consciously being aware of them. So in order for us to permanently alter our eating habits, this change needs to take place in the deepest part of our mind – the unconscious mind. Hypnotherapy opens up communication with the unconscious mind, enabling us to overwrite the existing eating patterns and replace these with positive, healthier eating behaviour.

Once these new eating patterns have taken root in our unconscious mind, our struggle with dieting comes to an end. We consciously chose healthy foods and smaller portions and feel less desire to eat between meals as we feel pleasantly full after each meal time.

So whatever your eating habits are, whether they involve large portions, sugary foods, snacking etc hypnotherapy can help you overcome and replace them with more positive patterns which enable you to lose any excessive weight and maintain the weight loss too.

If you have been struggling for years on one long diet, then hypnotherapy is for you. Compared to the many years battling the bulge, hypnotherapy is a quick and easy way to lose weight and usually takes six sessions. Furthermore, eating a healthy balanced diet not only helps you lose weight, but it can also help with overall health and vitality, as well as confidence too. It may even assist in lifting your mood too.

So next time you check out what diets are available on the web, think twice. Do you want short term or long term gain?

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The trick to weight loss is the right kind of foods that are taking inside your body. It is a big thing that you bring the best of your body by extending your choices for foods. Losing weight does not mean cutting a great deal of your food diet. Rather, weight loss is the science of using foods to lose weight.

It is very important to have the right kinds of nutrients and minerals that will keep your body working. But you cannot get the best of nutrients by just eating certain kind of foods or limiting yourself to a set of food diet. The best nutrients that you can bring into your body provides body support; nutrients keep your body in the right track without much problems in health.

Fruits can give you the needed nutrient requirement that you need. If you can eat five kinds of foods a day, you are assured to have an almost complete nutrient need. However, choosing the right kind of fruits for your weight loss program is an important matter that must not be disregarded.

The benefits of fruits for weight loss:

The low level of calories in fruits help your body to control its weight for the best. Yes, the lesser calories your body intakes, the better your way to success in losing weight. With fruits, your body will have the right kinds and supply of vitamins and minerals without giving you a problem of weight gain.

On the other hand, the load of vitamins and minerals in your body will give you a far better energy to use for body exercises. Doing exercises can greatly help your body to lose weight but you need the energy to do it. Instead of depending on fats and carbs for energy, vitamins and minerals in fruits can help you that much.

Moreover, with fruits you will be assured to have a perfect body health. It will reduce the risk of cardio vascular problems. It will enhance your body and give you a stronger immune system to fight harmful radicals from the environment and other factors.

Here are some practical tips to gain the advantages of eating fruits:

Instead of eating junk foods, it is good to have a slice of apple a day. It is a great way to suppress your appetite for other foods. Or instead of satisfying yourself with ice cream, it is good to eat fruits alone without the fatty dairy products that are added to the ice cream.

If you really want to drink some sweets, it is good to go for low- sugar fruit juices that you can get in the market. Fruit juices contain fiber and acid which helps to digest food. It will be a great help for your body to lose weight. You should not go for beverages and wines.

The craving for food will always be there. You need to add fruit factor to you diet. Say, if you can’t stop yourself in eating meat, then try to eat yogurt or granola. It is a big thing to complement fatty foods with healthy fruits snacks or fruits.

Losing weight can be very hard to reach. But if you know what foods to eat and what to avoid, you will surely make things easy. It is very important for you to make things for the best by extending your best way in eating fruits as part of your diet.

When you narrow it down, weight loss, and as a result, health, is a pretty simple concept. There are good foods and bad foods. How do you tell the difference?

The bad foods come in wrappers and have been manipulated by many before it reaches your shopping trolley. The good foods are the ones that the fruit & vege grocer and butcher sell. Sometimes with a smile if you’re lucky.

So, if things are so plainly obvious to us (and don’t say you didn’t know – it’s all over the TV!) why do we struggle to resist the temptations and give in to our nagging hungry needs with a mars bar or a packet of cheesels, too much bread or wine?

I am very familiar with how tough it is. 15 kilos ago I would see the good foods on the shelf, and then the bad food next to it and the little voice inside said “you will feel SO much better after you have eaten the bad stuff, it’s just what you need”. This is usually at about 3pm. And before you know it, I was crying in the bathroom with the shame that I’d broke that diet – again. Sound familiar?

There are 4 main reasons that we eat and as you read through these points, think about the times and reasons that you eat. Recognising this can put a big red stop sign between you and that piece of cake.

1. Fuel.

The first and most obvious is that we eat to fuel our bodies to get through our day. Our bodies are very good at telling us when we are hungry. “Time to stop and chow down”, it says because we need nutrients and vitamins to power on.

Tip: Sometimes thirst can be confused with hunger so always make sure to drink lots of water and those hunger pains can generally be kept at bay.

Tip: Invest in some good nutritional supplements, it will give you a boost of everything that your body is crying out for.

2. Emotional.

I don’t need a psychologist to tell me that I eat when something goes wrong, or when something goes right! Sometimes our emotions are a rollercoaster and we just want the fairy floss to go with it.

Tip: Even a small matter can bring on the need to “fill the void”. A great way to stop the mechanical trek to the fridge is to do something else. Walk around the block, write an email to a friend, look up some old photos that make you laugh; anything to distract yourself. You will be amazed at how it can work.

3. Social

“Come on, it’s only a pizza. I made it myself, you have to try it.”

“Well I had to eat it, it would have been rude not to.”

How many times have you heard it and said it? We are social creatures and our society has brought us up to connect food with social gatherings.

Remember that a social occasion is about the PEOPLE you are with, not the food you are eating.

Tip: Avoiding alcohol at social events can be tough but try some soda or mineral water with lemon in a wine glass as you work the room and you feel like you are having a drink just like everyone else.

4. Habitual

After a hard day at work do you go home to a snack and relax? Or do you always go for a stroll at lunchtime and end up at the same grease pit? Perhaps the girls go for coffee every day and you have a cappuccino with a snack on the side?

Human beings love to form habits don’t we! Unfortunately some of our habits are bad for our health.

Tip: It takes 21 days to form a new habit (ie. breaking the old one). If you truly want to lose weight this year, circle your calendar 21 days from now and consciously change one part of your day and by then you will have forgotten about the vending machine altogether!

Once you can identify the reasons behind decisions you make with regards to food, you can start to be more aware of which choices are best for you.

Weight loss and management are not impossible, nor do you have to stay locked into the habits you have formed over the years. If you want to make 2008 your slimmest and healthiest year yet, it can be done.

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To lower your blood pressure, follow the DASH diet (Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension) that was made by researchers from Harvard University. Here are the basic guidelines in the program:

~ seven to eight servings of grains or grain products, such as whole wheat bread and whole wheat past (in pasta, I recommend Full Circle 100% organic Capellini, whole wheat)

~ four to seven servings of vegetables

~ four to five servings of fruit

~ two to three servings of low-fat or non-fat dairy products. Make sure you include low or non-fat yogurt – one that is not high in sugar – Dannon Fit and Healthy is an excellent choice.

~one to two servings of red meat, poultry or fish (a serving is 3 ounces).

~one serving of nuts or legumes

Here are some more tips to help lower your blood pressure:

1. Eat lots of fruits that are high in potassium, which causes your body to excrete sodium through your urine, thereby helping to control blood pressure. Researchers at John Hopkins University have found that low potassium intake was associated with high blood pressure. This goes to show that if you increase your levels of potassium your blood pressure should go down.
Foods that are high in potassium are: apricots, bananas, peaches, prunes, oranges, cantaloupe, lima beans, stewed tomatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach, catfish, lean pork, lean veal, cod, flounder, trout, skim milk and yogurt.

2. Make sure you get enough calcium and magnesium. There is evidence that these minerals may help lower blood pressure. Magnesium rich foods are wheat germ, fortified cereals, sunflower seeds, halibut, mackerel, spinach and most nuts. As far as calcium is concerned, dairy products will do the trick, as you know, and also dark green veggies. Isagenix now offers a green foods drink for those who don’t eat enough greens – you might want to try it.

3. Eat more fish. Studies suggest that large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids lower hypertension. Cold-water fish are the highest sources of these fatty acids. If you don’t like fish, or are allergic to it like I am, I highly recommend that you purchase Young Living’s Omega Blue, which contains pure fish oil and omega enhance. It is heavy-metal, PCB and dioxin free and still maintains natural Omega-3 ratios and mild flavor.

4. Watch your drinking. Alcohol is fine in moderation. This means drinking no more than one ounce of alcohol a day, the amount in a 24 oz. beer can, 10 ounces of wine, or one mixed drink. Women should only drink half of that since their body frames are smaller and metabolize alcohol slower. If you drink anymore than that, not only does your blood pressure increase, but you cause severe problems to your liver and you are at higher risk for a stroke.

5. Watch your weight. Being overweight makes you up to six times more likely to develop high blood pressure than if your weight were optimal, and especially if most of this weight is around your waist. For tips on losing weight and living a healthier lifestyle, please go to my Health4U website (see link below)

In summary, to lower your blood pressure, follow a healthy diet. Eat only wholegrain breads and pasta, eat lots of fruits that are high in potassium, make sure you get your calcium and magnesium every day, get your omega-3 oils (whether it be by eating fish or my taking a good supplement), drink alcohol in moderation, and make sure you are a healthy weight.