Simple Tips and Exercise Plans to Lose Weight

There are several ways to lose weight fast and melt away your fat instantly. However, most of them leave you unsatisfied as one realizes that shortcuts to lose weight are not sustainable in the long run. Weight loss is a combination of a well-formulated diet plan and a rigorous exercise regime. If you are wondering how to lose weight here are a few simple tips for weight loss and exercise plans to lose weight and reduce those inches.

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Should You Consider A Hydrafacial?

One of the latest non-invasive facials that work to clear the skin and bring out its natural radiance is the hydrafacial. This treatment works to minimize fine lines, wrinkles, mild acne, hyper-pigmentation, clogged/enlarged pores, dark spots and oily skin.

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Everything You Need To Know About Blood Tests, X-Rays And Injury Care

Not all injuries and medical issues have symptoms that are easy to diagnose. Sometimes the symptoms are invisible. In order to understand the kind of injury or ailment you are suffering from, physicians conduct various types of diagnostic tests. Blood tests and X-rays are the two most common tests that are carried out. Here is everything you need to know about these tests.

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Importance of Medical Billing Solutions

If you intend to pursue a career in medical billing and coding, you need to understand the elements of this process and how to optimize revenue cycle for your company. With the changing rules and regulation, along with HIPAA guidelines, it is important to facilitate accuracy and quality ensured practices for the best results.

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This Plus-Size Model Is Showing Us How Incredible Body Diversity Can Look

20 GIFs That Perfectly Describe Going for Your First Run in a Long Time

Happiness, Health, and Healing - A Natural Foundation for a Healthy Mind

Today, more than ever, we are plagued with a myriad of stress and factors that can make any person suffer issues from simple anxiety to clinical depression. Children, finances, physical health, church, work, school, neighbors, family, friends, and our own minds and decisions can play a role in how we think, act, and live. Many find themselves in a constant whirlwind of simply trying to "keep up" and even know that they are doing a poor job of doing so. How do I know this? Well, I counsel many people and share in their personal lives in order to help them manage stress and find ways to nutritionally aid in dealing with these issues. Also, I have "been there, done that" and I have a hypothetical purple heart or two myself from many battles and factors that have contributed to my own stress.

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I Worked Out in a Menstrual Disc, Then Threw All My Tampons Away

Let’s be honest: When it comes to dealing with period blood, the options on the market aren’t all that inspiring. Or at least, they haven’t been for the last decade or so. Between pads and tampons—or, sure, a panty liner on a blissfully light day—it’s not like we’ve had a bevy of choices available. Which is pretty damn shocking given that, for a significant percentage of the population, this is a repeat occurrence that happens about every 28 days.

But as soon as workouts come into the picture, those options dwindle even further. Some ladies may be cool with wearing pads and panty liners, but come on—they’re not exactly comfortable when paired with tight leggings, nor do they move with your body as you blast through box jumps, burpees, and bear crawls.

So that leaves tampons, really. They’ve been my go-to for as long as I can remember even having a period. But I’d be lying if the stories about toxic shock syndrome (TSS) didn’t make me a little nervous. I’m definitely guilty of leaving a tampon in longer than I should, and sometimes that’s all it takes for a life-threatening bacteria to take hold. (Though let’s be clear: Only 50 percent of TSS cases are menstruation-related.)

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Plus, tampons can throw off the pH balance in your vagina, and even cause yeast infections for some women. That’s one of the many reasons why menstrual cups and discs have been on the rise and, maybe not-so-coincidentally, tampon sales have dropped. FLEX menstrual discs, for example, have grown four times in sales since its launch in October 2016, and Softcup has grown about 58 percent in retail channels from 2015 to 2017. More proof: From 2016 to 2017, the market share of traditional menstrual brands—think Tampax, Kotex, and Playtex—dropped two percent year over year, whereas alternative products like The DivaCup increased 133 percent, according to industry reports.

Discs have been praised over and over because you can have mess-free period sex, but could they hold up to the sweaty, bloody mess that is a week’s worth of intense workouts? I grabbed a box of FLEX discs—which are circular, with an inset plastic catch for menstrual blood—to find out.

The first time I put one in, my only thought was, "Oh, f*ck."

Inserting a menstrual disc is not like inserting a tampon, which you basically stick straight up, and comes with a nice little string you can pull like a ripcord when you need to get that sucker out. Because the FLEX is round, you have to squeeze the ends together like a taco, push it as far up the vaginal canal as you can (ideally so it’s up against the cervix), and let go so it settles into place.

That process was very foreign to me, and I may or may not have freaked out about being able to take it out. Which is exactly what I tried to immediately do, setting off another wave of panic because the instructions tell you not to remove it standing up, and I bet you can guess exactly how I was positioned when I learned that valuable piece of information. A bit of advice: It’s helpful to read the pamphlet ahead of time (or just watch the video).

I eventually inserted the disc correctly, though, and pushed through my removal fears. (Side note: It was totally easy to take out once I was sitting). And, honestly, it instantly felt more comfortable than a tampon. As I walked to my first workout of the week—a Spin class, which usually helps alleviate my cramps—I didn’t really notice the disc. Lauren Schulte, CEO of The Flex Company, says that’s because it’s made of a different material—a medical-grade polymer blend—that uses your body heat to mold to the shape of your vagina, creating a custom fit. That alone makes menstrual discs impressively different from cups—most cups come in various sizes, and it’s a trial-and-error process to figure out the one that’s right for you.

Next up was yoga class. I was having a particularly crampy day, so I was hoping some light movement would help me feel better. With the FLEX inserted, I flowed through a series of twisting poses and was impressed with how well the menstrual disc moved with me, and that there were zero leaks. I’ve had problems with leakage while doing yoga in the past, so this was a welcome improvement.

Other workouts yielded the same results that week—running and boot camp, if you’re wondering—but the disc really proved itself a winner over the weekend, when my husband and I set out for a four-mile hike up Breakneck Ridge. It’s crazy steep and requires some scrambling, so it can take around four hours to complete roundtrip, plus the three-hour roundtrip drive to the trailhead. Usually, that means I have to put in a fresh tampon before we start—which means using the not-exactly-clean bathrooms at the trailhead or popping a squat in the wilderness. But menstrual discs can be left in for up to 12 hours, and since my flow was lighter, I put it in before driving out and didn’t worry about it until we got home that evening. I think they definitely win the award for Most Convenient.

At the end of the week, I asked myself: Would I use menstrual discs again? Hell to the yes. I won’t say I’ll never use tampons again, but these babies have officially become my new go-to.

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19 Whole30 Soup Recipes That Make January Way More Tolerable

53 Healthy One-Pot Meals So You Spend Less Time Cleaning, More Time Eating

7 Ways to Be Calmer, More Mature… and More Productive

11 Paleo Recipes That Make Breakfast-for-Dinner a Regular Thing

7 Applegate Products That Make the Whole30 a Whole Lot Better

Falling Off The Low Carb Wagon

Why do so many people fall off a low-carb diet? To sum it up, one word - bread. Who can resist a warm crusty piece of bread with butter? Tough, but you can. Does following a low-carb eating style mean you can never eat bread again? No, but you will want to stay away from bread and other high carb foods while on a low-carb, optimum protein weight loss program.

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Is Talc Harmful?

When most people think of talc, they probably envision talcum and baby powder. Since talc is very soft and easily carved, one might also think of sculptures in soapstone. In fact, these uses of talc are quite minor compared to its wide variety of applications.

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Do You Want to Be Fattened Like a Farm Animal?

I'll take a wild guess and assume that no one would like to be fattened up like a farm animal, and maybe a few readers would be insulted by such a suggestion. But I am here to tell you that, that is exactly what is happening, and under the guise of eating a healthy diet. If you think about any animal, such as cow, sheep, chickens etc, they are not fattened with fat. In their best environment they eat grasses and chickens like bugs.

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17 GIFs That Capture What It's Really Like to Quit Smoking

What You Should Know Before You Bleach Your Hair

Coloring hair is a common practice in the beauty industry. Lightening the hair requires bleach or products that have a bleaching effect. Bleaching drastically changes the composition of your hair and requires changes to the way you care for it.

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No More Excuses In Your Health

My whole life has been me making excuse one after the other. I'm starting to think excuses are me trying to lie to myself. Yes I said it.

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10 Easy Steps to Gorgeous, Radiant, Younger-Looking Skin

The stress of being on top of everything can take a toll on our skin and nothing looks worse than tired, dull skin. If you want to look and feel your best, you have to find time to follow a skincare routine. These 10 easy steps will help you achieve your best skin ever in no time.

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7 Sweet Potato Desserts That Won't Kill Your Resolutions

Discover How to Lose Weight With a Personal Trainer in the Best Gym

There are many factors to take into consideration when you wish to lose weight-and one of the biggest is willpower. It is easy to decide one day that you will lose a hundred pounds and sign up in the nearest gym, but actually doing it is another matter. The weight loss process is an uphill climb that makes people want to quit in the middle.

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The 21 Stages of Spin Class, in GIFs

How to Actually Make Friends at the Gym

9 Ways to Use Everything Bagel Seasoning in Every Meal

29 Warm Dinners That Take Only 30 Minutes to Get on the Table

Secret to Healthy and Beautiful Hair - Expensive Shampoo?

Can an expensive shampoo really make your hair 'the beautiful hair ever'? You invest that hard earned money in a product, thinking that finally you can have healthy hair. Really? Let's find out.

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13 GIFs That Capture Your Crazy Workout Enthusiasm in the New Year

How Your Home Could Be Making It Harder to Lose Weight

Sometimes, it’s best to consider our problems in reverse: Let’s pretend we’re trying to pack on the pounds, in as unhealthy a way as possible. How could we create an environment that would make weight gain easy? We could...

• Have unhealthy snacks at the ready—filling the cupboards, crowding the fridge, and hanging out on the counter.
• Keep all the big serving dishes out on the dinner table as we’re eating, making seconds super easy to access.
• Stuff our exercise clothes in the back of the closet.
• Join a gym that’s out of the way.

But the problem is, most people already have their environments set up this way.

Then they wonder why it's so hard to make any progress. Far too often, we lose battles to our environment but place the blame on our lack of willpower. This is when some parents roll their eyes. "But I have kids," they say. "It's not fair to get rid of everything they like to eat."

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I agree! (I have kids too—although only one of them is of snacking age.)

Here are just a couple of things I’ve found that make all the difference:

All of my kid’s snacks are in one part of the cupboard. I don't have anything I regularly eat near his snacks, so the only time I open the cabinet is when I'm getting him a snack. Out of sight, out of mind.

I have plenty of healthy, "mindless" snacks ready to go for me to eat. Being around food can make us feel hungry, so one of the easiest ways to avoid eating something indulgent is to eat something else that’s good for you. So when my kid is snacking, I'll eat some carrots, celery, or peppers that I've already cut up.

I don't allow myself to take a peek. Why slay the dragon when we can avoid it? When the kitchen at home (or work) is filled with all sorts of temptations why look in there? If you don't want to slip... don't go where it's slippery.

I keep the good stuff hard to get to. If I must keep something in the house that's tempting for me (yup, that’s ice cream and chocolate chip cookies), I’ll make it harder to access. Specifically, I'll wrap a few plastic bags around it. This gives me a chance to catch myself. This is known as a "pattern interrupt." I make it hard to do the things I don't want to do.

I control the environments I'm entirely in control of. It's surprising how many people keep candy in their desk yet hope to stop eating it. If you don’t want to eat candy, don’t have candy around. And if you must, make it difficult to get to.

Eating healthfully is hard enough, and so is exercising. Make it easier on yourself: Join a gym that’s close by and make it extra-easy to get to your workout gear by packing your exercise clothes the night before. You don’t get bonus points for having heroic amounts of willpower—one of the easiest ways to change your behavior is to change your environment.

Adam Gilbert is the founder of MyBodyTutor.com, an online program that solves the lack of consistency faced by chronic dieters. Sign up for his free mini course on weight loss, and follow Adam on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Why Resolutions Aren't BS

What an Expensive Hangover Cure Taught Me About Drinking

On a recent Sunday morning, I eased my way through the door of an unassuming gray building. Oversized aviators masked a feeble attempt to block out the bright autumn sun and hide my under-eye circles. A tanned, peppy receptionist cheerfully checked me in. She gave me the once-over and made an educated guess: "Are you here for the Recovery IV?"

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Torn between being offended and being ashamed, I just nodded before filling out the necessary paperwork. I’d attended a wedding the night before, and the joy that once came with an open bar was now replaced with the feeling that my skin was made of paper, my mouth was filled with cotton, and my head had become the new home to a relentless woodpecker. The Recovery IV was a last-ditch effort at becoming a fully functioning human again before I headed to my babysitting job, where I’d wrangle a headstrong seven-year-old with a penchant for running up and down stairs shirtless while shout-singing Taylor Swift songs.

(That is to say that a solid hangover cure was very, very necessary.)

Recovery IV services have recently made their way to wellness clinics around the country and have become the Cadillac of hangover cures, putting your old ibuprofen-and-hydrate ritual to shame. While services vary from clinic to clinic, most hangover IV treatments promise to rid you of headaches, nausea, and dehydration through an intravenous drip of fluids, medications for pain and nausea, electrolytes, and vitamin additives (usually a Vitamin B complex for boosted energy).

Too good to be true? Maybe. Many experts are skeptical about whether this treatment actually works, or if it’s just another case of the placebo effect being phenomenally effective. After all, the success stories for IV treatment are mostly anecdotal, with no research to back them up. In fact, one study gave 34 fibromyalgia patients either a Myers’ cocktail IV treatment (a popular mix of magnesium, calcium, B vitamins, and Vitamin C) or a standard solution with no vitamins; regardless of whether they received the extra vitamins or not, all patients reported feeling better after the "treatment" (and hey, a regular saline drip certainly does wonders to help dehydration).

Of course, binge drinking can have long-term effects on your health that aren’t flushed out with a bag of fluids. After a wild night out, you’re at a higher risk of heart attack or stroke for the next week. You might also be increasing your risk of cancer, liver disease, and dementia… the list goes on.

But sometimes we overindulge, and for those mornings after, desperate times call for desperate measures. The big benefit of an IV hangover treatment, according to Dina Pavilonis, M.D., of Green Circle Wellness in Chicago, is that an IV drip allows the nutrients and fluids to skip past your digestive system and go straight into your bloodstream, speeding up your recovery time.

"Typically, vitamins and minerals are given orally, and must be naturally processed by the stomach, liver, and intestines," Pavilonis says. "But as soon as your infusion starts, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients are circulated through your bloodstream and delivered to cells, where they are immediately available for use."

All this, for only 30 minutes of your time and about $150. Yeah, it costs a pretty penny to feel better fast. By the time I was signing the receipt, I thought, Is this sticker-shock or that fifth vodka-soda rumbling in my stomach?

The current hangover I was staring down was something I hadn’t faced for quite a while. Sure, I had a standing Thursday night date at my college’s preferred bar throughout undergrad, and once I moved to Chicago, the siren song of Wrigleyville and playoff hockey occasionally led to one too many whiskey shots on a weeknight. But gradually, my outings with friends began to revolve around workouts and brunch instead of pregaming and partying.

My boyfriend and I settled into our comfortable (OK, somewhat boring) Friday night routine of watching Shameless and snacking on take-out sushi. And these days when I do go out, I’m usually so terrified of the looming doom associated with hangovers in your late 20s that I’ve become a hydration-obsessed Cinderella, only able to consume water after midnight.

And yet, here I was: hooked up to an IV, shelling out $150 for the promise of a miracle hangover cure because "one more drink" + "it’s a special occasion" + "free alcohol!" = a day full of misery at this point in my life.

I felt weird and a little ashamed, but the truth is, yeah it totally worked: For the rest of the day, I had no headaches and no nausea, and I went to the bathroom about a million times (thanks, extra hydration!).

Still, as I held my arm out for the nurse to remove the IV 30 minutes later, I knew that the kind of bacchanal night that necessitates a Recovery IV just isn’t part of my lifestyle anymore. In the future, I’ll be turning down the all-nighters and rounds of shots. Give me a few beers at the neighborhood bar on a Sunday afternoon or splitting a bottle of wine with a friend on the couch instead. Boring? Maybe. But at least I’ll have an extra $150 in my pocket.

Kristen Geil is a Chicago-based freelance writer who focuses on health, wellness, and happiness. She recently hosted a donut and wine pairing tasting party and it was the best night of her life. You can find her on Instagram and Twitter @KristenGeil.

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