A little over a month into 2010 many of the resolutions that you made in January probably has fallen by the wayside. When the ball dropped on New Years Eve you might have resolved to go to the gym more often or to eat less fast food on, now, in February those promises seem as stale as the fruit cake in the back of your refrigerator. You might be feeling that you still want to change a few things this year but your earlier resolutions didn’t work out; below you will find 10 tips to bring a positive change to your life in 2010:
1.) Make room for mini meditations through out your day, close the door at your office, hold your calls, and just relax for five minutes. Hubert Benson, the co-founder of Harvard’s Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine, recommends doing this a few times throughout the day. It allows you to turn everything off and recharge.
2.) With states increasing cigarette taxes and cities banning smoking in bars and restaurants there has never been a better time to quit smoking. Many employers, faith groups, and even some local governments offer resources to help you stop smoking for good.
3.) Make an effort to have a social life. Getting bogged down in the stresses of daily life is easy to do. Make a promise to yourself to hang out with your friends at least once a week.
4.) Be aware of your health. Get a physical this year, even if you had one last year you need to make it an annual event. Being proactive is the best way to maintain a healthy life.
5.) Stay positive. It sounds simple, but if you try and keep a positive outlook on life you will find that you enjoy your work, family, and life in general a lot more.
6.) Cut the calories back. This year instead of trying the next fad diet resolve to simply cut back your calorie intake.
7.) Exercise daily. That doesn’t mean become a gym rat it means incorporate some kind of physical activity into your daily routine. It could be something as simple as going for a walk through the park every day, or going for daily bike rides.
8.) Make “wellness” a verb. Don’t think of health and wellness as something to reach for, or something to achieve. Think of as the way you live your life.
9.) Cut back the caffeine. Instead of drinking a pot of regular coffee every morning switch to a 50/50 coffee or caffeine free soft drinks.
10.) Add a little “green” to your life. Mom really was right growing up, be sure to add fruits and vegetables to your meals every day.
These changes, for the most part, are easy to work into your daily life and maintain all year long.
With Mardi Gras and spring break fast approaching, you might be heading to a warmer climate where a shirt is optional attire. To prepare for this you might be putting in some extra hours at the gym, maybe going to a tanning salon, even waxing some not often seen parts of your body.
Many people suffer from a sleep disorder known as insomnia. Insomnia is caused by many different factors including stress and an irregular sleep cycle. Most people opt for the chemical method of dealing with it because it doesn’t take any effort or thought. Take a pill, go to sleep. What they don’t consider is the side effects that come from these types of pills, not the least of which is addiction.
Caffeine is classified by the FDA and generally recognized as safe and there has been no evidence produced that shows caffeine to be harmful to health. The American Medical Association holds a similar view as long as the substance is consumed in moderation.
Smoking not only affects your body physically, it affects your emotional stability. If you have been a heavy smoker and have not had a cigarette available when you wanted it, you know the feelings that lack of nicotine cause. There are many different triggers that make you want a cigarette and many of these triggers are simply habit, such as having one with a cup of coffee, having them after each meal, having one when socializing and a multitude of other reasons.
In today’s world, we seem to be moving at a lot faster pace but not getting any exercise. Our movement seems to be by computer, telephone, car, train, plane and a multitude of other fast paced modes of transportation along physical and informational highways.
We all have stress in our lives and how we deal with it will have an affect on our outlook on life and on our long term health prospects. In order to help your body cope with stress, it’s important to eat healthy meals and drink sensibly. Many people turn to alcohol and food abuse in order to try to reduce stress. This can have an opposite effect, increasing the amount of stress the person is under. A better practice is to take up relaxation techniques and perform solo exercising. Swimming would be a good exercise to relieve stress. 
Most of us suffer from some form of depression at times in our life. Live isn’t always easy and it isn’t always fun, it is normal to feel depressed once in a while. It’s when the feelings of despair and deep darkness take hold and won’t let go that you may be suffering from clinical depression. This is more than just the blues, it’s a feeling that affects every facet of your life, making it impossible enjoy your life and function well in society. You lose interest in things that used to captivate you, such as hobbies and friends, you feel tired and listless all the time and just getting through the day may seem like an insurmountable task. Many people that suffer from clinical depression don’t feel sadness, they feel empty and lifeless, apathetic. They may have a completely bleak outlook on life and have no interest in anything including eating and sleeping. They may suffer from self loathing and engage in harsh criticism of themselves. There are a whole host of negative feelings that come with clinical depression, even the possibility of suicidal tendencies. If you are suffering from what you believe is clinical depression, you need to get help from a professional that understands the symptoms, the feelings, and what steps to take in what progression in order to help you escape from the depression and regain control of your normal life.
The quality of food we consume has a strong effect on our body health and function. This is profoundly true with ADHD. With some people, nutrition alone can effectively treat ADHD. 
ADHD is basically an issue with attentiveness coupled with over activity and or impulsivity. Children normally have some amounts of these issues so to be diagnosed with ADHD the child will be outside the normal range for the phase of development. Many children that suffer from ADHD tend to be a disruptive influence in class. They may not be able to pay attention in class and may make careless mistakes while doing their school work, if they do their school work. They can have difficulty paying attention, not only when performing tasks, but also in play. They may also not seem to be paying attention when directly spoken to.
Many people suffering from OCD will not seek help even if they have known for a long period of time that they have a problem. Since therapy is a crucial part of treating OCD, this is detrimental to the person’s healthy life. 
Most of us have suffered from some sort of anxiety during our lifetime; many of us suffer from it much more often. Anxiety produces a large number of different symptoms. Some people become obsessive compulsive, washing their hands over and over again, even though they know they are already clean. Maybe they feel uneasy about something, don’t know why, and see that other people are not affected. Maybe the anxiety is about a certain thing like riding an elevator or crossing a bridge or even going to a social event. 
Many of us believe that eating salad at a restaurant is good for us. Sometimes we may be right but in most cases it is far from the truth. Most coffee shops serve a salad made from iceberg lettuce. This lettuce has no nutritional value, it is very basically fiber held together by water. In the digestive system iceberg lettuce has the nasty habit of turning into a slime that your body then has to break down.
We live in a fast paced world where food is often consumed while driving down the highway over the speed limit and watching for police vehicles. Fast food restaurants have figured this out and are stepping up to the challenge of providing healthier food to all of the patrons that go whizzing by their drive up service windows.
1. Your best friends are Ben and Jerry and Mr. Haagen-Dazs. Face it, we all love ice cream and if we could figure a way to live on it, we probably would.
Women aren’t the only ones that want to look their best; men are becoming more and more conscious of their looks as far as their skin, hair, and other cosmetic issues.
We’ve all been taught to believe that yogurt is very good for us and in truth; the plain yogurt has a lot to offer us including calcium, protein and even healthy bacteria. It is basically pretty good in the calorie counting department as well, however most of us won’t eat plain yogurt, we want the yogurt that contains fruit and other tasty things. Yogurt that contains fruit is another story, with the addition of fruits and other items, the calcium, natural protein and bacteria remained however it was joined by between 14 and 40 grams of sugar per serving. This tends to deplete the health value of the food.
There are a plethora of creams, oils, notions and potions out there available to help make your skin look healthy, moist and young. All of them have all sorts of ingredients, some that can help your skin and some that can harm. But there are natural ways to help your skin and they tend to cost much less than their chemical laced replacements.
Some flu vaccines as well as many other vaccines contain mercury. Mercury has already been proven to pose a serious health threat and has been removed from many things in our lives due to the risk. In times past, hat makers used mercury in their production which is where the term mad as a hatter came from. Now we are putting this dangerous substance in a needle and injecting it into our bodies. The amount of mercury contained in a normal multi-dose flu shot is shown to be 250 times higher that the legal classification of hazardous waste.
It is common knowledge that anyone going out into the sun in summer should wear sunscreen but many people don’t consider that when they go outside during the winter. Even in the winter skin is exposed to UVA and UVB rays and we are more apt to stay out in the open longer when the weather is cooler or even overcast. This exposes us even more to the harmful rays than we would be under summer conditions. UV exposure has detrimental affects on our skin in a multitude of ways. The danger of skin cancer is extremely strong with long term exposure. Short term exposure can cause aging of the skin, wrinkling and dryness. 