Better Body Journal Weblog dedicated to general health and fitness, as well as losing weight and keeping it off Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 57 0 9 462

Articles from Better Body Journal

Pharmaceutical Drug Companies Marketing and Policy Making 2008-05-17 16:42:55 There are a lot of new readers to Better Body Journal because of a recent story that got promoted to the front page of Digg yesterday. First off, welcome. Second off, I’d like to give a quick background on this site before we piss any more people off. Well, actually, that’s what we do here. We piss people off. We get a little rude and crude because we’re tired of the “It’s not my fault,” blame-someone-else mentality that many Americans have developed when it comes their own lives and health. A lot of people are taking the comments personally. Sorry if we hit a nerve. Like we tried to say in the previous article, we know that there are legitimate purposes for many, if not all, prescription drugs. We just want to see many of them being used as a last resort after exhausting all of the common sense, holistic techniques to treat an ailment. (more…) ...

Pharmaceutical Drug Companies Killing Middle America Legally while Robbing You Blind 2008-05-16 11:18:48 In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported(1) that drug overdoses killed 33,000 people that year. Roughly 10,000 people died in 1990 of the same causes. In 1999, it was 20,000 people. Are you seeing the trend? In 2005, drug deaths were second only car accidents (44,000 people killed) in the category of accidental deaths. The category ‘‘drug-induced causes” includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of either legal or illegal drugs, but also includes poisoning from medically prescribed and other drugs. (more…) ...

Book Recommendation: The Paleo Diet for Athletes 2008-05-11 15:41:39 If you’re an athlete, especially the type that trains for endurance, then you must check out this book. This is the first book of its kind that goes into great detail about enhancing your diet and exercise to be similar to those of our Stone Age ancestors. These were the days before food was easily accessible and filled to the brim with hormones and preservatives. This book is backed by a powerhouse of research and it can get very technical. If you have little knowledge of how we train, or how our digestive system works, then you might be referencing the web a lot to know what the book talks about. The Paleo Diet for Athletes discusses reasons why simple sugars and starches are only beneficial for our bodies in a post workout period, how glycemic load and acid-base balance impacts performance during training or competition, and most importantly, why the “typical athlete diet” is bad for recovery, performance, and health. Throughout the book, the authors referenc ...

How Free Radicals are Killing You 2008-04-16 22:20:13 You may have heard people talk about free radicals before, but do you have any idea what they are? I didn’t, but I did some research on free radicals to try to give you a “For Dummies” perspective on the topic of free radicals. Free radicals do not really affect weight loss, but they do harm your overall health. If you’re not healthy, then weight loss is kind of a moot point. In general, a free radical is any molecule that has a single unpaired electron in its outer shell. To understand why that matters, you need to go back to Chemistry 101. The atoms in your body contain protons and electrons, and these atoms make up molecules that are the building blocks of your living cells. On the outside of the atom are those little electrons floating around, looking to reach maximum stability of the atom by filling out their outer shell with its required number of electrons. Atoms with full outer shells will tend to not enter into chemical reactions. The laws o ...

Power Tea as a Weight Loss Supplement 2008-04-12 17:44:34 There’s been a lot of talk on Oprah and other television shows about the power of green tea as a weight loss supplement. This article is going to take a look at the pros and cons of using green tea, not only for weight loss but for its health benefits as well. We’ll review Power Tea as product that enhances the benefits of green tea. What is Power Tea made with? Obviously the main ingredient in Power Tea is green tea. This particular product uses organic great tea, to avoid the harmful effects of chemicals and fertilizers. It is supplemented with Guarana, citris aurantium, and Vitamin B12, all of which have their own weight loss and energy benefits that we’ll discuss in detail. A Brief History of Green Tea Green tea has a long history of use in Chinese medicine. Its benefits include the ability to treat headaches, body ache, and poor digestion. It has been said that it improves well-being and can increase life expectancy. The real benefit of green tea is ...

The Problem with Weight Loss Product Commercials 2008-04-11 16:54:08 There are thousands and thousands of weight loss products out there in America. Anytime you see commercial on television, there’s a 90% it’s going to be a car commercial or a weight loss commercial. Most of these commercials promise instant results with pounds of fat lost and you looking like a model. The problem with most of these commercials is that they do not tell the truth, or are very good at leaving out things you need to know to make a product effective. They want you to think it’s easy, but it’s not that easy to lose weight. There are two types of weight loss commercials: those that promote diet products, and those that promote exercise machines or routines. Each type of commercial usually neglects the other. And that is the problem with weight loss marketing… losing weight is balance of both diet and exercise. You can work out for an hour a day on your Chuck Norris Total Gym, but if you’re eating a Value Size Number 5 from Burger ...

Energy Drinks for Athletes – What’s the difference? 2008-03-08 15:45:34 Many people use energy drinks to get an extra kick for a few hours in their day. They’ve become incredibly popular over the past few years. Red Bull started the energy drink craze, through some very clever guerrilla marketing, and then many, many copycats followed. Regular people (non athletes and those who don’t train) use energy drinks to stay awake at work, or to party with at night (Red Bull and Vodka anyone?). Since this site is geared towards fitness, we’ll get into which energy drinks are best for athletes and people who stay active. Everyone gets tired. Whether you’ve had a long night at the office or are becoming fatigued from training, sometimes we all need a boost to get us through our workouts. But not all energy drinks are the same. Some energy drinks give you a boost from a whole lot of sugar, while others are made specifically optimized for athletes Red Bull, Rockstar, and Others – Not recommended If your goal is to lose weight or tr ...

NutriSystem – Not for Everybody, but Great for Most 2007-08-13 21:26:18 If you’ve watched TV for any amount of time, you probably know that a lot of athletes love NutriSystem. From Dan Marino to John Kruk to Don Shula, retired athletes are lining up to promote NutriSystem to get rid of that permanent post-season weight they’ve put on over the past few years. Is Nutri-System really the solution to weight loss that grown men have been looking for? Well, let’s break it down. What is NutriSystem? It’s a pre-packaged diet plan designed to help you lose weight by providing you with the meals you’ll eat for however long you’re on the program. Food comes delivered to your door, and your daily diet will consist of 3 meals plus snacks. NutriSystem will average out to about $10 bucks a day, so that’s probably cheaper than what you’re paying now for food. Why does NutriSystem work? There are two underlying philosophies behind NutriSystem that allows it to work well for most people. Portion control and the gly ...

5 Pieces of Necessary Exercise Equipment to build your home gym for Under $30 2007-05-02 20:32:49 You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to build your home gym. If you want to, and if you can, that’s fine. For most regular people looking to lose weight and tone up, a gym membership and the open road is pretty much all we have. But there are a few inexpensive pieces of exercise equipment out there that should be a staple of any home gym. They’re simple and relatively cheap, but they get the job done. For the most part, if all you had was the following 5 pieces of exercise equipment, you could build yourself into quite a hardcore animal. The Ab Wheel – $7.75 Providing the most bang for the buck out of all these items, the ab wheel will build core strength unlike anything you will every come across. Surprisingly, every gym I have ever been to does not have an ab wheel lying around. The principle is simple: a handle bar attached to a wheel. For beginners, you get on your knees and roll out slowly. If you collapse on the floor, well you got some work ...

Yes, I’m still here. 2007-04-30 21:18:17 In what seems to be the recurring theme of Better Body Journal, I post and update for a few weeks, then other things get my attention in life, and I end up neglecting the goals I set forth for myself. It’s not that I’m unmotivated, but over time I lose track of goals that I set for myself because I can’t focus on them. I guess there are a number of things to combat this which I should look into if I want to make anything out of Better Body Journal. Swole for Summer Update. Fall Seven times. Stand up Eight For a while after I stopped updating this website, I was still dieting, exercising, and taking pictures with the intention of providing updates, but at a more seldom rate. Then about a week or two ago I fell back into the old habits of fatness and debauchery and stopped altogether. Matter of fact I haven’t been to the gym in like 3 weeks until today. So, Swole for Summer is back on track but of course I really have to haul some ass if I want to reach my goals. The fa ...