Bride's Hands & Feet

Fat Facts

All fats found in fresh whole foods are good, healthy, and sometimes vital. It is wise to include a full spectrum of fats in your diet, which will work hard to keep you healthy and young-looking. This, of course, is not the message we have been getting in the popular media, and because of this we have built up an unhealthy guilt complex and fear of fat.

Certain fats are indeed bad for us, but luckily it is easy to spot them. Trans fatty acids have been linked to raising "bad" cholesterol (LDL) and lowering "good" cholesterol (HDL); they are also suspected of being behind that "stubborn fat" that won't leave no matter what we do. They are the result of processing oils through hydrogenation. You can spot the presence of trans fats in a product because hydrogenated fats have to be listed in the ingredient panel of food. By adding up all the fats listed in the panel and then subtracting that number from the total listed, you will come up with the amount of trans fats in the product. However, the easiest thing to do is just avoid anything that has any hydrogenated oil in it.

Rancid fat is the other bad fat -- fat that has been mutated by oxygen, heat, moisture, and light. This fat is full of free radicals and can contribute to all the health and aging problems associated with them. At first you might think that it would be easy to avoid this one. Just reading the word "rancid" tends to make our noses wrinkle in disgust; however, we have been conditioned to accept rancid fats. The reason that dollop of butter is salty is to help preserve it and to cover up the rancid taste. Yes, butter is good for us, but rancid butter is not. That flax oil in the refrigerator is liquid gold to some, but if it is rancid, it is worse than useless. We have to retrain our noses and taste buds to discern fresh good fats from rancid bad ones. This is one reason for using unsalted rather than salted butter.

This retraining can be done by finding stores that sell their stock quickly, store their products properly, and rotate their stock on the shelf so that no old products linger there. Also check the expiration dates on products to help you find the freshest product.

Remember that the best fats come from fresh whole foods, so try making your own butter from some fresh, pure whipping cream. Add a bit of salt to taste, if you prefer it salty, and memorize the taste to compare with commercially prepared butter. If that is a bit too much work, just find the freshest frozen unsalted butter you can, and taste that. When dealing with vegetable oils, try grinding the seeds up and then smelling the fresh aroma. Again, if this is too much of a bother, just get a good smell of the oil when you first open the bottle or tin and memorize that fresh scent. As soon as you notice that the smell is off, get rid of it.

For Girl

Models in Bridal look...

Get yourself insured and drop the stress

Stress can creep into our lives from so many different directions, such as work, relationships, physical health and especially those scenarios that seem to be out of our control completely. As a massage therapist or bodyworker, you most likely know all too well the effects that stress can have on a person’s health and overall wellness.Regardless of the source of one’s stress, the consequences can range from headaches and negative changes in mood to tense muscles and decreased performance at work. These are only a few of the symptoms of high levels of stress in a person’s life. Obviously, it is important to keep stress in check whenever possible.

For folks in the field of healing touch, one of the main sources of stress may be the business side of massage therapy and bodywork. There are a few simple ways to take much of the stress out of running a business, and restore precious peace of mind. One such method is taking the time to sign up for a solid massage therapy liability insurance program. Such an insurance policy will require a minimal annual fee, which is usually only a couple hundred dollars. For this reasonable price, you will effectively be providing protection to your practice in the case of an array of unexpected scenarios—those scenarios that seem to be out of your control completely.

Stop Smoking

Stop smoking programs are designed to help smokers recognize and cope with problems that come up during quitting. They also provide support and encouragement in staying quit. The ideas for framing such programs came from the, experiences that had to the physiatrists who had to treat the people, who becoming mentally ill out of the trial to quit smoking.

While in hearing, it doesn’t sounds to be a serious matter, it needs a lot of efforts to quit, and there is lot of physical and mental problems associated with it.

Studies have shown that the best quitting programs will include either one-on-one or group counseling. There is a strong link between how often and how long counseling lasts and the success rate. In total, the more intense the program, the greater the chance of success to be away from Smoking and lung cancer .

Titan Killer? Exciting new fitness equipment news!

I know many of you have been waiting to hear an update regarding the Titan. Not long ago I spoke with Brian Butler (President of Fitcore) to get an update. We had a very good conversation, however Brian indicated that he is no longer hopeful that the issues between Fitcore and the manufacturer of the Titan will be resolved.

I have been waiting to see where things were going to wind up with the Titan before saying anything, but now I feel that the timing is right to let you in on something that I am very excited about. By the way, Brian knows that I'm going to be working with a new company, and he has given me his full blessing and best wishes as JSF moves forward.

Those of you who have been visiting JSF for any length of time are aware of how I operate: I don’t endorse anything I haven’t seen or used, and even then I will not give a positive endorsement unless I am confident the product or service will be delivered with consistent quality and results. So, I want to stress that this is very early information, and at this point I have had no "hands on" time with this new equipment. Please keep this in mind as you read the next few paragraphs...

There is a product on the horizon that--based purely on what I've seen on paper and rendered in 3D software--will best the Titan in every possible way. Of course I will have to put this new machine through many weeks of testing in my own gym to see if it is as good as it appears to be. If this machine delivers on everything I've seen so far, I would go as far as to say that it is a Titan killer.

I hate to leave you in suspense, but this is as much information as the manufacturer will allow me to divulge at this time.

You can be sure that if this product lives up to my high expectations I will try to negotiate some of the best prices around for JSF forum members.

Exciting things may be on the horizon for those of you who did not have the opportunity to purchase a Titan, and for those looking to upgrade. I will be releasing additional details as they become available to me.