I’m sure you have already heard or read about this in the news, but just in case you haven’t.

Salmonella has been found in jars and cans of peanut butter which has caused food poisoning in 289 people to date.

The FDA (food and drug administration) has made an advisory and voluntary manafacturer recall of the ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘Great Value’ brands of peanut butter with product codes that begin with the numbers 2111 imprinted on the lid. Great Value brands are sold throughout the country by Wal-Mart.

If you have an affected can or jar you have been advised to:

* If you are currently ill with diarrhea, visit your doctor or other health-care provider for a diagnosis and treatment. Keep the peanut butter at room temperature in a plastic bag, and make sure to store it where no one will inadvertently eat it.

* If you are diagnosed with Salmonella Tennessee, continue to save the peanut butter until a state or local health official contacts you to arrange to have it tested by the state Public Health Laboratory.

* If you are not ill and have peanut butter that fits the recall description, throw it away immeadiately.

The manafacturer ConAgra Foods is offering full refunds to consumers who throw away suspect peanut butter. To learn more, visit their website at http://www.conagrafoods.com/ or call toll-free, 866-344-6970.

To learn more about Salmonella visit http://www.cdc.gov/

It will interesting to see how this outbreak gets explained, these large food manufacturers have a massive responsibility to us the consumer, lets hope its not all swept under the rug…. again!

So, you want sexier legs? I don’t blame you, in a recent survey 38% of men questioned, answered that their wives/girlfriends legs were their best asset.

What can you do to improve the looks of your legs? Well it may actually be easier than you think. Follow these simple tips to get your legs in great shape.

1. When you are at the mall, do you use the elevator or take the stairs? Surprisingly taking the stairs will normally get you where you are going, quicker than taking the elevator. Plus the movement of stair walking trims and tones every muscle in the legs.

2. Walk more, if you can spend 30 minutes walking at a pace that is a touch faster than your normal ‘fast pace’, make sure that you breathe properly while doing this simple exercise. The effects of this can be astounding if adhered to day after day. In 10 days you should be noticing a difference.

3. Skip, just like a boxer in training. If you try this and struggle to do it with a rope, try it without, mimic the action and jump up and down while moving your wrists. This will do wonders for your whole body and will shift excess weight from almost everywhere. Within 2 weeks, if you can, move onto skipping with a rope.

4. Stretching, if you are lucky enough to still be able to touch your toes, then do it! 30 times a day! This is a great way to keep your legs muscles toned and trim.

5. Squats, make sure you stand with your feet shoulder width apart and when you bend your knees, keep your back straight. Body weight squats will be great to start with, do as many as is comfortable for you, but aim to be doing 100 at a time within 2 weeks.

6. Toe raises, you can either do these on a step, the stairs or even on a sturdy hardback book. Balance yourself on the edge so only your toes are resting on the step, then push up as far as you can and stretch your calf muscles to the extreme, a really great exercise losing fat on ’fat calves’.

7. Sprinting for short bursts, read another article I have written about ‘Tabata workouts’, are these types of workouts the future of fitness? Read more here, Tabata Workouts

If you do follow these tips, then you are going to have your man drooling over you in no time!

This is a fantastic book, which if you are approaching, or in mid life will really help you cope with the stresses and pain that so many of us feel when going through our ‘change’. The book is 240 pages of pure gold that has helpful advice for men as well as women.

Judith Wills is one of the UK’s best-known and most knowledgeable nutrition and diet experts. She was editor of Slimmer magazine for over 10 years and now has a regular column in the magazine, as well as regularly writing for magazines including Prima and Woman.

With twenty years’ experience in the field of diet and healthy eating, coupled with her own life as a wife and mother, gives her unique insight into the average family’s concern with diet and health, which comes across excellently in all her work.

Click here for more info: Mid Life New Life

This is a fantastic article about the ups and downs of a normal woman trying to lose weight, it shows the problems that is faced by everyone trying to diet and how finally to succeed ’the light gets switched on’.

“I can describe Jean Finman in a word — gorgeous. Well, actually that doesn’t quite do it. She’s not just gorgeous — she’s drop-dead gorgeous.

The best part about Jean is that her outer beauty also exactly reflects her inner beauty, even in the middle of raising five small children.

Other than her movie-star looks, Jean is like so many of us.

She grew up struggling with weight.

As a child, she was always surrounded by sweets — they were just a part of her everyday life. Special Tupperware containers filled with cookies and goodies sat in the cupboard.

Jean helped herself anytime she wanted. And her weight showed it.

It wasn’t like Jean hadn’t tried to get her weight under control before. She had done the diet thing many times over in her lifetime but without permanent success.

Pounds disappeared; pounds reappeared. Sound like a familiar ride that all of us want to hop off?

When we first met, Jean told me that she felt “fat, ugly, and tired.” As I looked at that face, I sort of got the fat and tired part, but ugly? How could a face like that ever feel ugly? I wondered if she ever looked in the mirror – no kidding!

That was 9 months and 16 pounds ago. I would love to say it’s been easy for Jean. Quite the contrary, she lost 10 pounds the first month — yeah; gained back 10 pounds by the third month – ouch! Can you feel Jean’s pain when those pounds boomeranged back?

By the 5th month, she had gained another pound and the 7th month, she was down 2 pounds—a grand total of 2 pounds down from her original weight. Big sigh. Seven months, two pounds down.

Who wouldn’t just give up after all that effort without any results? Most anyone, but not Jean. She just kept putting one foot in front of the other, even when it felt like slogging through quick sand with no end in sight. Such a lonely and demoralizing haul this weight loss struggle.

Then something happened. Only Jean could describe it well. I guess you could say something clicked in Jean’s brain. What is it that makes that magical switch flip in our brains, the light go on, and somehow we get on track? Who knows.

At night, sometimes Jean would get this real sense that if she didn’t lose weight she was going to die of a heart attack. Her weight had crept back up, and she felt bloated, fat, and miserable. Her pattern was the same most of her life — she would slip back to eating sweets, especially when stressed, hating herself with every bite.

She asked herself, “Why am I doing this to myself? I don’t want to die. I want to be here for my kids.”

Something clicked for Jean.

Recharged and refocused, Jean lost 14 pounds in the last two months. She eats fruit for breakfast, salad or a veggie wrap for lunch with hummus, avocado, red pepper, lettuce, and tomato.

For dinner she starts with a salad first (fill-up on the best-for-you foods first) and eats cooked vegetables and sometimes beans. She makes sure she is full and satisfied. For snacks, she eats nuts and seeds.

Mochas, an almost daily treat and extra calories for Jean, are now pleasant memories. She no longer eats any animal products, dairy products, sugar, or salty snacks — another temptation for her.

Jean says she doesn’t feel hungry or deprived. In fact, she feels great. Amazingly enough, her cravings for sugar are gone, even though the sugar stuff is still in the house. She loves the feeling of sugar not having power over her.

Now when Jean is stressed, rather than over eating the bad stuff, she over eats the good stuff—like a veggie wrap! (Remember, eating vegetables is like eating air when it comes to calories.) Way better choice, don’t you think?

As well as Jean is doing right now, do you think that Jean thinks she is home-free from the trap of conditioned taste buds and lifelong habits? Not at all.

In fact, Jean just wrote me and “confessed” a slip-up. Big deal! So Jean “slipped-up.” If you are a human being, you slip-up—it’s just part of being human. Just expect that to happen and go on from there.

The only real slip-up is to give-up, and I know that is something that beautiful Jean would never do. Her body, her life, and her children mean too much to her.

I don’t know about you, but it is not the rich, famous, and powerful people in the world that I find inspiring. I draw inspiration from the Jean Finmans in the world—extraordinary, ordinary (yet not ordinary at all) individuals, who are perfectly themselves, with all their strengths, struggles, complexities and layers of being a human being.

Jean’s inner strength, courage, and commitment, as well as her willingness and openness to share her heart, her soul, her victories, and her frustrations, give you and me the inner strength and courage to be perfectly ourselves in our own journeys through life.

Aren’t we so blessed to have one another to give a helping hand along the way?

Thank you, Jean, for your helping hand. Your beauty, inside and out, graces our lives with light and hope”.
by: Dr. Leslie Van Romer

About The Author
Dr. Leslie Van Romer is a motivational health speaker, writer and lifestyle coach. Visit Dr. Leslie at Http://DrLeslieVanRomer.com for practical direction, hope and inspiration.

Eat plenty of this” “Don’t eat that”, this is all we hear lately. So what foods can we eat safely?

Well what I have compiled here is not so much a list of foods but a general guide to do’s and dont’s.

Base your meals on starchy foods. Starchy foods such as bread, cereals, rice, pasta and potatoes are an important part of a healthy diet. The key is however, is to eat wholegrain whenever you can, wholegrain foods contain more fiber than white or refined starchy foods.

We also digest wholegrain foods much slower so they make us feel full for longer, in turn suppressing our appetites. Approximately, starchy foods should make up about 30% of the food we eat, they are a good source of energy and the main source of a range of nutrients in our diet. They also are a good provider of Calcium, Iron and B vitamins. But what about fat? Well gram for gram starchy foods contain less than half the calories of fat.

Eat plenty of Fruit and Vegetables. You can choose between fresh, frozen, canned, dried or juice but of course ideally fresh is best. Remember though, potatoes count as a starch food not a vegetable. It is recommended that you eat between 5 to 8 portions of fruit and veg a day, 1 portion = approx 80g

Fish is really good for you. Especially oily fish, they are high in certain types of fats, called omega 3 fatty acids, which are proven to keep hearts healthy. Ideally though 4 portions is the maximum that a healthy adult should have in any one week (a portion = 135g).

The only exception to this, is for females who are planning on having a baby in the future, they should eat no more than 2 portions a week. Good fish: Salmon, Mackerel, Trout, Herring, Fresh Tuna, Sardines, Pilchards and Eel. Not so good fish: Cod, Haddock, Plaice, Coley, Canned Tuna, Halibut, Skate, Sea Bass and Hake. Why fresh but not canned Tuna? Some canned fish can be high in salt.

Cut down on saturated fat and sugar. There are two main types of fat, saturated and unsaturated. Saturated fat can increase the amount of cholesterol in the blood, which increases the chance of developing heart disease.

Eating unsaturated fat actually contributes to a lowering of blood cholesterol. Unsaturated fats include: Sunflower oils, rapeseed oil, olive oil, avocados, nuts and seeds. Saturated fats include: Sausages, hard cheese, butter, pastry, cakes, cookies, cream and coconut oil.

Cut down on salt. It is approximated that 70% of us eat too much salt on a daily basis. The maximum that we should eat is 6g a day. For young children, that should be reduced even further. It is not the salt that we add to our food that is the problem, it is the salt that is already in some of the processed foods we eat. We are almost certainly eating more than we realize.

On food labels you will find that salt is often listed as sodium. One of the main problems with eating too much salt is that it can raise your blood pressure and people with high blood pressure are three times more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke than people with normal blood pressure.

Marcia.

The idea of waking up early and starting the day at or before the sunrise is the desire of many people. Many highly successful people attribute their success, at least in part, to rising early. Early-risers have more productive mornings, get more done, and report less stress on average than “late-risers.” However, for the unaccustomed, the task of

“This is a fantastic article on the benefits of arising early and not staying in bed until midday”!!

So you are thinking about 10 day diets and wondering do they really work?

Can you really lose weight using 10 day diets, or is this just marketing hype put out by those companies who want to sell you their latest wonder diet pills or diet systems.

Well I guess I might be biased but as the author of one of the most popular 10 day diets on the internet, I can tell you with absolute certainty if you follow them, they really can be massively effective and transform your life in more ways than one.

Imagine this, you are due to go on vacation and you need a 10 day diet that will help you lose weight before you go away. Truth is, the only difference between a 10 day diet and a two week diet is just time, nothing more, so if you spend 14 days on the diet you will lose that little bit more weight.

I know most women often recognise they want to lose weight initially for an occasion, it might be for a forthcoming party, a vacation, a wedding and there are of course dozens of other reasons you might want to go on a 10 day diet.

But for our example, we will assume you are going on vacation to Hawaii or maybe it’s your honeymoon, lets assume after completing your 10 day diet plan you have lost 6-8 pounds what would this really mean to you ….?

I am guessing that you will feel a whole lot sexier and probably your partner will be up for giving you some serious love and romance when they see the ‘new look’ you, in a slinky dress or sexier bikini or swim suit.

If you are single, you are probably going to be fighting the guys off when you sit on the beach, or lie down on a sun lounger by the pool.

But that’s not all, because you are going to feel that much happier and so much more confident, the chances of you having much more fun on vacation and all because of simple 10 day diet or even a two week diet, increase 10 fold!

You are going to have to decide, Will a 10 day diet work for me? if you think it will why not give my diet a try.

Lose 10 Pounds In 2 Weeks

Fat Flush Diet Day 1 of 10

This is PHASE ONE OF THREE of my new cleansing plan. Honestly, I’m too tired to type much else here. Sorry! =3

McDougall 10-Day Program

A short video explaining the 10-day live-in diet and lifestyle McDougall Program in Santa Rosa, California.

Weight Loss Tips – How To Lose Weight Easily

www.the10dayeasydiet.com Do you want to lose weight? The 10 Day Easy Diet presents tips for easy and effective ways for weight loss.

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This an excerpt from the famous book that was written at the start of the last century, some of the points that are made are as pertinent today as they were then.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

‘Sometimes obesity is due to over-eating and then it may be checked by the ’starvation cure’, but usually this drastic treatment is dangerous and unnecessary. Obesity (unless the result of a definite disease) is most commonly caused by wrong eating – that is, by eating to much carbohydrate food such as starches, sugars, oils and other fats.

The average diet consists very largely of fat making foods, beginning with soup and going down through the list of gravied meats, of potatoes, macaroni, bread, butter, cream, cheeses, ending with pastries, puddings and sweets. When such a meal is eaten, accompanied by draughts of beer, or a bottle of wine, there is set up in the body a fat-producing factory and the result, especially for those who are predisposed to obesity, is inevitable.

It follows that the natural cure for obesity is to stop eating fat-producing foods. Then, slowly the body will use up the excess of fat. This process may take a number of months, the time depending upon the degree of obesity but it is a process without danger, without injury to the health, without unpleasant self-sacrifice and, also, the gradual elimination of fat leaves the body healthy and strong and so far from wrinkling or deforming the skin, restores its natural freshness and beauty.

The average loss of weight in those who have faithfully followed the method described in this book is for women about two pounds a week after the first three weeks, during which time very little decrease is noticible. For men the reduction is slightly less.

A great deal of course depends upon the temperament, the environment and the amount of exercise taken, but anyone who will honestly collaborate in the cure, should lose from twenty to twenty-five pounds in the course of the first three months. And when desired weight is attained, the rules need not be so strictly obeyed, but one who has once followed the non-fattening diet is not at all likely ever to return to oily, starchy or sugary food.

Everyone eats too much. Almost all fat persons sleep to much. From these two facts the following rules can be deduced:
“Eat less than you have been in the habit of eating” and “Sleep less”

The things you must not eat are these:

Pork, ham, bacon, the fat of any meat, bread, biscuits, crackers, anything made of the flour of wheat, corn, rye, barley, oats, breakfast cereals, rice, macaroni, potatoes, corn, dried beans, lentils, milk, cream, cheese, butter, olive oils, any grease of any kind, pies, cakes, puddings, pastries, custards, ice cream, soda’s, candies, alcohol.

It may seem at first glance that when these things are taken away there is left only a disguised kind of starvation, but the most casual inspection of the Mahdah menus will show that these fattening foods are really superfluous and that more than enough remains to furnish a gourmets table. What has been taken away is, starch, sugar, oil and alcohol-nothing else, and their removal from the diet of the corpulent person means the certain loss of obesity.

To cure obesity… DON’T
Sleep too much
Take naps
Overeat
Eat unless you are hungry
Drink with your meals
Drink alcohol
Eat bread
Take a cab walk!’

Its now over 100 years since this was written and I personally do not agree with all the points, but I do know many people who have followed this plan and some have managed dramatic weight loss, so it must work in some way or form and lets face it, this is the original ‘Atkins diet’.

How to eat and grow thin Unlimited

Give Me Five – A song about healthy eating! Lyrics Included.

To be cool dudes you have to eat five! An entertaining musical animation about the need to eat your vegetables. Created by Year 6 and performed by the Penpol School Choir. I’ve included the words of the song for you below. If you want the backing tra…

If you would like to live a longer life, consider swapping the cup of coffee or tea for a cup of Green Tea.

Green Tea

Green Tea contains more of the antioxidants that protects against heart disease and cancer than black tea and contains only about 25% of the caffeine that you would find in black tea.

It improves cholesterol levels and research has shown that it may help prevent the thickening of the arteries, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

In studies, it was found that breast cancer patients who drank at least four cups of green tea a day, before diagnosis, were a lot less likely to suffer a re-occurence of the disease after the treatment.

It is reported that drinking green tea may also protect against skin cancer, pancreatic cancer and bladder cancer.

If you are going to give it a go though, how do you drink it?

Make it in hot but not boiling water, this protects its antioxidant qualities and gives it its best flavor. Brew lightly and if you use a teabag, do not squeeze.

Marcia.

Green Tea : What Is Green Tea?

Green Tea is not fermented or oxidized. Learn more about green tea with tips from a tea lounge owner in this free tea brewing video. Expert: Kim Pham Contact: www.thetealounge.com Bio: Kim Pham has co-owned the Kaleisia Tea Lounge in Tampa, Fla. sinc…

How do you motivate the whole family to keep fit? It may be reasonably easy to motivate yourself but you cannot make the other half and the children exercise when they don’t want to.

Family Fitness

So what can you do? Here are some simple ideas that you maybe able implement into your families routine;

1. How about teaming up with another family to either go walking, running or playing touch football? If you know the other family well then you could treat every time you meet as a social occasion, it will give your family the extra motivation they may require.

2. If your children are a big fan of a celebrity that has an exercise dvd (and lets face it, there are 100’s of them) encourage them to workout to it, just make sure that you join in too!

3. Be passionate, if you show passion about exercise, then your family will more than likely show an increased sense of passion too.

4. Have records for particular activities, for example set up a 20 yard obstacle course in the back yard and write down records for each member of the family. Most cell phones now have stopwatches on them, so you could get really accurate times.

5. If any of the family is in to video gaming, why not purchase a game with a dance mat, you may have seen them. This is a real fun way to keep the family fit.
90 minutes a day exercise is recommended for children to help ward off heart disease and obesity in later life. And a recent study from the University of California has found that teenage girls who exercise regularly have significantly lower levels of breast cancer in later life.

Other studies have found that staying fit and slim through regular exercise can reduce your child’s risk of contracting heart disease or diabetes in later life. It will also help to build strong bones and boost a good attitude and general well being.

So, its up to you, try and set an exercise routine for the whole family and stick to it, you will be doing your whole family a great deal of good.

Keep healthy

Marcia.

How do you motivate the whole family to keep fit? It may be reasonably easy to motivate yourself but you cannot make the other half and the children exercise when they don’t want to.

So what can you do? Here are some simple ideas that you maybe able implement into your families routine;

1. How about teaming up with another family to either go walking, running or playing touch football? If you know the other family well then you could treat everytime you meet as a social occasion, it will give your family the extra motivation they may require.

2. If your children are a big fan of a celebrity that has an exercise dvd (and lets face it, there are 100’s of them) encourage them to workout to it, just make sure that you join in too!

3. Be passionate, if you show passion about exercise, then your family will more than likely show an increased sense of passion too.

4. Have records for particular activities, for example set up a 20 yard obstacle course in the back yard and write down records for each member of the family. Most cell phones now have stopwatches on them, so you could get really accurate times.

5. If any of the family is in to video gaming, why not purchase a game with a dance mat, you may have seen them. This is a real fun way to keep the family fit.
90 minutes a day exercise is recommended for children to help ward off heart disease and obesity in later life. And a recent study from the University of California has found that teenage girls who exercise regularly have significantly lower levels of breast cancer in later life.

Other studies have found that staying fit and slim through regular exercise can reduce your child’s risk of contracting heart disease or diabetes in later life. It will also help to build strong bones and boost a good attitude and general wellbeing.

So, its up to you, try and set an exercise routine for the whole family and stick to it, you will be doing your whole family a great deal of good.

Keep healthy

Marcia.

Fun Fit Family Activities

May is Family Wellness Month. Follow us on Twitter Twitter.com Learn new ways to incorporate fun fit family activities into your family health plan. Watch more videos at diet.com or download one of our many fitness video on YouTube right to your iPod…

Fitness TV Celebrity Mother Denise Austin Promotes Family Fitness & Nutrition in mag cover story

www.familyfitnesspublishing.com Purchase download now for just 99 cents. Issue includes a cover story and video with Denise Austin and her two daughters. Make fitness a priority for your family with Family Fitness Magazine. With dozens of articles, t…