So here I am in beautiful Goa on an adventure to discover how the East approaches health and wellbeing, in particular, how they manage stress and stay so calm and happy.

I must admit that, although I am fairly fit and healthy in many ways, a peaceful mind has still eluded me. Recently, I became exhausted, adrenal fatigue they told me, which would also explain why I gained a stone in weight when i had changed nothing.

My diet was healthy, and I did more exercise in a day than most people did in a week. It just didn’t seem to make sense. Ok, I knew a little about the cortisol connection to weight gain, however, it is something hadn’t experienced first hand.

As I started to study more about this stress response, and research the people who had come on Fit Farms, it became more and more evident that the body’s biochemical reactions to our lifestyles was a huge factor in many weight problems.

Most of the men and women I speak to with weight issues, it’s not as simple as that they just started eating more, or stopped exercising. It’s a much more complex issue, and the weight is just a symptom of something being out of balance. This may be a lifestyle factor, a demanding job, or one the road all the time. It may be an emotional issue, we are dissatisfied with our lives, and as we have been brought up to reward with food, we are using food to give us pleasure. It may be the type of food itself that is causing the problem, as so many people rely on stimulants, most notably sugar to get them through the day.

Stress and other factors throw the body out of balance. This now seems to have reached epidemic proportions in Westrn society.

Through my own experiences, being let down and disillusioned by Western medicine, I have over the years looked outside of the norm for the answers. I healed my fractured spine with The Alexander Technique, and I believe that our health is in our own hands.

This time I wanted to find a cure, an antidote for stress, and what better way to learn that discovering it for yourself.

I had a feeling that yoga and meditation are a crucial element of this, and where better to learn than in India. So here I am, taking this journey, ironically after one of the most stressful weeks I have had at work in a long time.

By keeping this diary, and just sharing my experiences, I hope that my learning will help others take responsibility for their stress, and their health, and do something about it.

Without our health, we have nothing.

By FitFarms Editorial

Aging is a natural process of human development. However, leading researches show that diseases and health problems are denser in older age brackets. It becomes imperative to ask, is aging really a part of human development?

Fitness is commonly defined as the holistic summation of the overall health of individuals. This naming convention ties up with the common connotation of how to become fit such as doing regular exercise, enrolling in boot camp, religiously following a diet plan and even on scoring pounds of weight loss.

Typically, scientific researches especially on medicine and demographics put emphasis on the physical health of individuals. However, the birth of more comprehensive approaches in scientific research gives the same weight on other non-physical aspects of health such as psychological, emotional and even sociological health studies. The new comprehensive aspect of scientific research on health gave birth to the common definition of fitness. Read more…

By FitFarms Health and Fitness Editorial

Planning to lose weight? You’re not the only one. Weight loss is simple enough, conceptually. After all, it’s simply a function of burning more calories than you take in. It should be as simple as having a proper diet and getting enough exercise. However, as we all know, it’s usually never as simple as these sounds. Most fitness programs fail well before target weights are reached. Those who succeed also typically eventually gain back the weight they’ve lost. Keeping it off may even be harder than losing it!

Many attempts at weight loss are often met with cynicism precisely because most fail to stick to their planned regimen. It often takes an enormous amount of willpower to be able to carry through with a fitness plan. This isn’t usually because dieting and exercise are physically difficult- most do not necessarily have a problem with the physical aspects of exercise. Rather, it is often the mental aspect that stymies most fitness programs.

Knowing this, it’s important to know that eating the right food and doing the right amount of exercise aren’t the only things to consider when you’re planning to lose weight. You will need to have some sort of strategy to cope with the psychological aspects of your diet plan. Fortunately, there are many ways to do this without relying purely on your innate willpower.

An Easy Way

Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to join a fit camp. It’s been proven that weight loss programs tend to be more effective when done in groups. The spirit of competition often gives participants the motivation they need to keep working towards their goals and to maintaining their target weights afterward. A fitness or weight loss camp takes this concept to a whole different level by pushing the concepts of fitness camp into higher gear. Read more…

More than ever, children have been shifting their playtime activities from the outdoors or pretend games that their parents grew up with, to those situated in more virtual arenas like on their computers or video game consoles.

However some according to an article in the New York Times, parents, psychologists, scientists and educators are now pushing for a movements towards play. They propose that “most of the social and intellectual skills one needs to succeed in life and work are first developed through childhood play.”

Joan Almon, executive director of the Alliance for Childhood, notes that recent years have seen a lack of imaginative play because “adults are a little fearful of children’s play”, perhaps because there’s always the opportunity for messes or bruises. One proponent of restoring children’s play thinks that some disorder is a natural part of playtime, and children should have the space and freedom to do create it.

In the article, it’s admitted that this isn’t easy especially for adults who cherish their peace and quiet and many parents have been reluctant about to embrace the concept. Some parents who are even willing to “impose” time off from the television or computer on their children find that their kids will need them as playmates -which would be fine, if they didn’t have everything else like dinner and chores to worry about.

Still, the article suggests it’s worth a try if only to get your kids to stretch their arms and legs, and use their own imaginations. Once parents are able to teach their children how to play imaginatively, the kids will eventually start directing their own playtime. After all, if generations of children did it before, why wouldn’t it be possible for kids these days to create their own worlds? All they need is encouragement.

To learn more about how to get your child playing, visit the New York Times Health and Nutrition section to read the full article entitled “Effort to Restore Children’s Play Gains Momentum”.

By FitFarms Health and Fitness Editorial

Losing weight these days has been quite easy as various and wide approaches are developed and modified. Essentially, proper diet and physical exercises contribute in a most important way in losing weight. This time, let us dive deeper into different forms of exercises that would aid us in our plan to lose and shrug off these stored fats.

Physical exercise is any activity that involves and maximizes the use of the body. This activity enhances our overall health and wellness and physical fitness. Furthermore, it boosts the immune system and prevents the development of physical diseases and even the mental health problems. As it promotes health and wellness, it has been considered greatly as an approach of burning fats and losing weight. Let us take into consideration what types of exercise best suit your disposition.

The most common and one of the effective ways of losing weight are the cardio workouts, short for cardiovascular workouts, referring to the heart. These have been considered as one of the best ways to improve the feelings of well-being over the entire body. Its main benefit is weight loss as it involves the use of the large group of muscles like running, walking, rowing, and biking. Cardio workouts strengthen the level of endurance of the heart and increase the heart rate to burn calories and promote weight loss. Read more…

How many times are you trapped in resisting to eating more? Oftentimes we struggle in refraining to eating a lot yet in most situations we cave in to our cravings and eventually give up our desire to live a healthier and fitter lifestyle.

If you are always in this kind of situation, then perhaps reading the “Why eating a lot feels so darn good” by Madison Park in CNN Health can be enlightening.

The article presented some reasons as why eating a lot can be an addictive behavior. Are you keen to read the complete article of “Why eating a lot feels so darn good”, then click it here.

It is quite a long list but definitely you have been guilty of consuming one or more of the fattiest foods in the states, right? If you are not sure, then go through the article of Sarah Klein in Health.com entitled “The 50 Fattiest Foods in the States”.

It is really very educational article. It is interesting to know the details of these rich fat foods and hopefully after reading this article, it will dissuade you from eating more such food.

Curious to know more about the “The 50 Fattiest Foods in the States”, read more here.

How many of us thought that keeping a healthy diet is expensive? Are you guilty of this notion too? Or do you wish that you can afford the personal trainer and chefs of famous celebrities to help you stay fit and healthy?

Well, here is the good post to read. The article of Tina Haupert in Health.com entitled “How to Eat Healthy Without Breaking the Bank” will definitely give you some enlightenment on staying healthy but economically.

To learn more, you can read the rest of the article “How to Eat Healthy Without Breaking the Bank” from Health.com.

Are you practicing a low-carb diet? This is quite one of the most commonly used diet method to lose weight but the question is, is it really safe?

The article of Roni Caryn Rabin in New York Times entitled “Nutrition: Risky Additions to a Low-Carb Diet” features the potential risks involved in such type of diet as reflected in the result of a study.
So, before you slash significantly the portion of carb in your daily diet, think again.

Perhaps reading the article “Nutrition: Risky Additions to a Low-Carb Diet” from NYTimes.com can clear some of your doubts or myths.

Some health enthusiasts keep one day in a week for indulgence, a day for their favorites but forbidden foods which are oftentimes high in calorie and fat content. Others overeat for certain season of the year like Christmas until New Year and then punish their selves with strict diet and rigid exercise.

If you are on the same situation, then think again. The article “Short-Term Overeating Could Make Long-Term Weight Loss Tougher” by Alan Mozes in Business Week tackles about the potential difficulty of losing those accumulated weight.

Read more about “Short-Term Overeating Could Make Long-Term Weight Loss Tougher” from Business Week.