Eye Exercises. Relax Your Eyes

How long have you been sitting by your computer today? And yesterday? And the day before? How often do you work by your pc? Every day? Answer these questions and you will see, how often and for how long you strain your eyes and risk your eye health. The more you are sitting there, the more stressed your eyes become. Sometimes you experience headaches, eyestrain or even blurred vision, right? We all are humans and we all have to earn money, even if we have to sit by the monitor all day long. And yes, we all need some rest after work. Doesn’t matter, if this rest is also spent by the screen. But, please, don’t worry. I’m not here to say, you do something wrong. I would like to help you. How? I want to share with you some eye exercises, which will let your eyes have a little rest.

Why Eye Exercises Are Important for Healthy Eyes

Many eye problems occur because of the loss of tone in the eye muscles. The symptom of this is, for example, when one experiences slow refocusing when looking from the screen to distance objects. It means, that the eyesight has become weaker. Another problem is the tension itself. While you are looking at the screen, you are straining your eyes a lot, you may feel your eyes irritated and dry, occasional doubling of vision or even changes in color perception. If it is happening often and for long periods of time, finally you may get a general feeling of tension and anxiety, your work may become less efficient. Both eye and general tension can be effectively reduced by eye exercises. Eye exercises also help prevent nearsightedness and other eye diseases. Try them, they are very simple, you can do them even at work. Relax your eyes, give them rest they deserve.

Eye Exercise 1

First of all, sit down in a comfortable position. Cover your eyes with the palms of your hands. Don’t press the eyeballs. Try to relax and watch the darkness for 30 seconds. Breathe quietly and deeply all the time.

Eye Exercise 2

Sitting in the same position, look up and hold so for 5 seconds. Then release. Now look down hold so for 5 seconds. Then, again, release. Make 5 repetitions.

Eye Exercise 3

Now look right, hold for 5 seconds and release. Then look left, hold for 5 seconds and relax your eyes. Make 5 repetitions.

Eye Exercise 4

If you have enough time, you can do the exercises very similar to the previous two: look up left and down right, and then up right and down left with the same periodicity. It will only help more.

Eye Exercise 5

Close your eyes as tightly as you can, hold so for 5 second and release. Then open your eye as widely as you can, hold for 5 seconds and relax. Make 5 repetitions.

Eye Exercise 6

Rotate your eyeballs 5 circles to the left and relax your eyes. Then rotate them 5 circles to the right and also relax.

Eye Exercise 7

Look at the tip of your nose. Don’t be afraid, cross your eyes! Hold for 3 seconds and relax. Then look up at the ceiling without moving your head, hold for 3 seconds and relax your eyes. Repeat 5 times.

Eye Exercise 8

Find any object which is near you, for instance, the “escape” button and focus on it for 2 seconds. Then focus far away through the window for 2 seconds. Repeat 10 times.

Eye Exercise 9

Standing in one corner of the room (or sitting where you are), scan the objects in the room with your eyes. Focus on the table, then on the clocks, lights, doors and so on. Do this for one minute.

Some Useful Tips for Your Eyes’ Health

While you are doing these eye exercises, take a few seconds to blink your eyes before you start doing the next exercise.
Wash your face and eyes with cold water from time to time.
Your eyes will also like a gentle massage of the eyelids and the surrounding areas.
Make sure you consume enough vitamin A, which is good for the eyes health.
Try to sleep enough.

Backache Treatment Methods. Physical Exercises

How often do you stand up, after you have been sitting for a long time, and feel low-back pain? Do you sometimes lay on your bed not because you are tired and cannot work anymore, but because of backache? Have you ever been unable to move, because the pain in the middle of the back or lower down was acute? About 80% of adult Americans suffer from chronic or acute backache at some time in their lives. Among them men experience back pain more often, than women. This article tells, what causes back pain and how to get rid of back pain doing exercises.

What Causes Backache?

The basic causes of back pain are the following:

• sedentary living habits,
• weak abdominal or back muscles,
• poor posture,
• muscular tension,
• straining of the joints
• arthritis,
• prolonged sitting or standing in one position,
• prolonged stooping,
• improper lifting of weights,
• wearing high heels,
• lack of exercise.

It can be surprising, but also incorrect nutrition, Influenza, female disorders, menstrual pain, prostate problems and other acute or chronic illnesses can cause backache. Overweight people feel the tension on the back more often, because the back bears the weight of the entire body and their back has to wear more. Even emotional problems and stress sometimes end in back pain.

Remedies for Back Pain

If we are speaking about acute, but not chronic backache, the causes of it are commonly poor postural habits. If this is the case, the pain can be lessened by some exercises.

Exercise 1

Sit down on the floor. Bend the knee of your left leg, keep your right leg straight. Put the elbow of your right hand on your left knee from the left. Draw your left hand aside as far as you can. Push off with your right elbow from your left knee, but DO NOT push too much. During this you can feel a little crackle in your spine – this is normal. Make 5-10 pushing repetitions. Do the same to the other side with your right knee bent and your left leg straight 5-10 times. Repeat the cycle from both sides by-turn.

Exercise 2

Sit on the floor with straight legs all the time, while you are doing this exercise. Try to touch your toes with your fingers. Make 10 repetitions.

Exercise 3

Stand in front of the wall with your back turned on it. The distance between you and the wall should be about 50-70 cm depending on your height. Arch your abdomen and put your palms on the wall head-high with your fingers down, so that your elbows are the highest part of you. Walk down with your palms on the wall little by little to the floor. The final position is when your palms are on the floor. Walk back upwards on the wall to the initial position. Do this exercise slowly.

Exercise 4

For those, who cannot do the previous exercise here is another one, which is easier. Lie on your back. Bend your knees. Lean on your palms and feet, arch your chest upwards. Hold for 20 seconds and release. Make 5 repetitions.

Exercise 5

Lie on your back, bend your knees. Press your back against the floor. Do this by only contracting the muscles of your abdominal. Stay in this position for 3 seconds and release. Make 10 repetitions.

Exercise 6

Lie on your back, bend your knees. Raise your shoulders and head so far as you can. Stay in this position for 3 seconds and release. Make 10 repetitions.

If you have to stand for long periods of time and you cannot do exercises, just raise one foot on a platform.

In one of the next articles you will find tips, how to get rid of acute backache using only home remedies.

Work at the Computer Causes Premature Aging

Prolonged exposure of women to computer screens is fraught with premature aging and formation of a “computer face”, whose characteristic features are “double chin”, “turkey” neck and deep wrinkles on the forehead and around the eyes.

One of Britain’s leading experts in the field of cosmetic surgery, Dr. Michael Preydzher, came up with such a warning. According to him, he observed the signs of premature aging almost in all clients that spend too much time at computers.

“If you are one of those unfortunate people who during concentration of view on the screen frown or screw up, premature wrinkles are guaranteed for you”, Preydzher said.

To identify these traits in yourself, Preydzher encourages women to put a mirror next to the computer to be able to look at yourself during work. “When my clients follow this advice, they are often horrified by the fact of how angry or overly serious their faces look like during work” – he said.

To combat the formation of a “computer face”, Preydzher encourages regular breaks at work with electronic devices, exercises for the neck muscles and botox injections.

Women Feel Pain More

It turns out that women feel pain more acutely than men. It has been discovered by the researchers from London and Japan under the supervision of Kuazim Aziz, Professor of Wingate Institute for neurogastroenterology.

They were monitoring the brain activity and reaction of 16 men and 16 women who were in the state of expecting pain or were already experiencing it. The volunteers were told that a small ball would be put in their esophagus, and it would gradually increase in size. Before the procedure, the women were not afraid. All their efforts were focused on planning the actions which would help them prevent pain. But the men who were anticipating pain were completely entrapped by terror. The situation, however, changed during the experiment: the men began to think about how to prevent pain, and the women gave way to emotions and started to feel the pain more acutely.

Brain scans have given a chance to find out that women respond to pain more acutely than men. But the reaction of the stronger part of mankind is concentrated in the segments of their brain which are involved in preventing pain, and it enables them to cope with the discomfort easier.

How to Make Your Breasts Beautiful with Exercises

As centuries pass by, the standards of a beautiful bosom have changed for a number of times, today an ideal bust is considered the one with a shape that remains the same no matter what movements your body performs. Hence, a beautiful bosom is considered the one with high, elastic breasts, regardless of their size; the main point of a beautiful bust is its tone. The perfect sport to increase the tone and improve the appearance of your breasts is swimming, the second alternative, in case there is no way to practice this sport, is to see a fitness trainer or do some simple but effective exercises, which will help you strengthen the pectoral muscles by yourself.

Exercise 1 for Beautiful Breasts. Pressure

Applying pressure is the simplest exercise for your bust. Stand tall facing the wall, lean against it with your hands. Press against the wall as hard as you can, as if you want to move it, keep on pushing for 10 seconds. Relax, shake your hands. Do a set of 10 repetitions.

Exercise 2 for Beautiful Breasts. Elbows Touch

Stand tall, bend your hands slightly in the elbows, keep your hands on your hips. Try to touch your elbows one to the other behind your back, do not do it in jerks, but rather do it slowly, stretching the muscles for 10-15 seconds. Repeat 8 times.

Exercise 3 for Beautiful Breasts. Palms Pressing

The next exercise for beautiful breasts is as follows: join your palms in front of the chest and press them hard against each other for 3-5 seconds. Repeat 8-10 times.

Exercise 4 for Beautiful Breasts. “Dry” Breast-Stroke

If you can not go to a swimming pool, do this effective exercise to improve the tone of your breast. Stand tall, nestle up to the wall, squeeze the pectoral muscles and make movements, as if you are breast-stroke swimming. Do a hundred slow strokes, keep your pectoral muscles tense all the time.

Finishing Exercises for Beautiful Breasts with Posture Exercise

The best way to finish this set of exercises for your bust is to do an exercise which targets your posture. Take a thick book, put it on your head and walk around the house for a few minutes like that, trying to keep it on your crown. This will help you relax the muscles effectively and give them the needed working tone. If you can not walk like that, at least try standing with the book on your head. You can hold on to a chair or the wall, but do not lean against the wall.

How to Make Breast Bigger Without Silicone

Nowadays, almost no one pumps silicone into the breast. Specialists in plastic surgery have developed a new, non-surgical method of breast correction which is called Breastox. This technique involves injecting Botox into the breast which allows not only to restore the youthfulness of the breast, but also to increase its size.

This procedure takes not more than 30 minutes, and the breast is much more magnificent after it. Very often, the Breastox procedure is used by young mothers who want to rejuvenate their breast and restore its previous form. Specialists in the field of aesthetic medicine believe that Botox injections can be done within three months after giving birth.

The Breastox procedure involves getting 12 injections in the small pectoral muscle. Thanks to Botox, pectoral muscles are strengthened, and the wrinkles that have occurred as a result of aging or under the influence of the sun are smoothed out. For the patient to feel no pain, the doctor treats the place of the injection with an anesthetic cream.

However, not every woman can get a nice breast without surgery. The specialists report that the women who have already used silicone before cannot rely on Botox. In addition, the effect of this procedure is rather short. Rejuvenation and breast lifting will work for only three months. After that, the injection will have to be repeated.

MODERN WEIGHT LOSS EXCERCISES

Will doing yoga help me lose weight?

Doing yoga regularly offers many benefits, including making you feel better about your body as you become stronger and more flexible, toning your muscles, reducing stress, and improving your mental and physical well-being. But will it help you lose weight?

Answer: Practicing any type of yoga will build strength, but some types may not raise your heart rate enough to make them the only form of exercise you need to include in your weight loss regime. It depends on the type of yoga you select and how frequently you practice it. In order to lose weight, you must eat healthily and burn calories by doing exercise that raises your heart rate on a regular basis. Some types of yoga, such as Iyengar, in which yoga poses are held for several minutes with a resting period between each pose, will build muscles and improve your posture, but will not give you the cardiovascular workout you need to lose weight.

If you plan to make yoga your primary form of exercise, you must do a vigorous 90-minute yoga class at least three times a week. Many people also choose to combine yoga with running, walking or other aerobic exercise in order to reach their weight loss goals.

What Kind of Yoga Will Help Me Lose Weight?

The type of yoga you need to do is called vinyasa or flow yoga. This style of yoga is based on the performance of a series of poses called sun salutations. Vinyasa includes many popular, athletic and sweat-drenched yoga styles. For weight loss purposes, try:

  Ashtanga: Ashtanga Yoga is a very vigorous style of practice with a few distinct advantages for those who want to lose weight. Ashtanga practitioners are among the most dedicated of yogis, and beginners are often encouraged to sign up for a series of classes, which will help with motivation. Another advantage is that once you learn the poses, Ashtanga Yoga is ideal for home practitioners.

  Power Yoga: Power Yoga is extremely popular, because it provides a very vigorous cardiovascular workout.

  Hot Yoga: Vinyasa yoga done in a hot room ups the ante by guaranteeing you’ll sweat buckets.
Keep in mind that if you are just starting to do yoga, are very overweight, or are quite out of shape, always choose a beginner-level class.

Yoga Workouts at Home

Keep yourself exercising by doing yoga at home on the days you can’t make a class. Follow along with a video or audio recording if you are new to yoga. When you are ready to plan your own workouts, use these yoga sequencing ideas to help you come up with yoga sessions of varying lengths that will fit your schedule.

 

11 Diet Tips for 2011: Weight Loss and Healthy Eating

Ok, take a deep breath. Weight loss and dieting is not the enigma the media makes it out to be. With all the fad diets and health crazes out there it seems like we are getting new information all the time about quick and easy weight loss. Unfortunately there is no magic bullet. The basic tenets of eating less and move more still apply. However a complete overhaul right away is a sure step to failure. We humans only have a finite amount of willpower, and if you're anything like me you have less than the average joe. So if this sounds like you than slowly implementing small changes is the best way for success in losing weight. Here are some tips that helped me to lose 40 pounds and will help you if you stick to them.

1. The first step is an awareness of what you eat. I know that when I was at my heaviest I couldn't for the life of me figure out how I got there. I never ate fast food, always ate my vegetables and loved salads. I didn't have a sweet tooth either. It was only when I actually took the time to write down what I ate in a week that I got to see where I was going wrong. This differs for everyone so journaling, even if for only one week, can be extremely useful.

2. Buy a food scale: food scales are fairly inexpensive and will teach you a lot about proper portions. If you are like me, you just don't have it in you to count calories all day long, but you don't need to. What you do need is an understanding about what a normal portion should look like. Think of it this way. If you are eating a healthy, well-balanced meal but it is twice the size of a normal portion you aren't going to lose weight.

3. Fiber fiber fiber! If you plan to eat something with high fat content eat something with high fiber content too. Fiber keeps you full longer and also prevents some of the fat from being absorbed. Examples of high fiber food are whole grains. You can switch from white bread, pasta, and rice to all whole grain versions and scarcely notice a difference. This is one of the best and easiest changes to make.

4. Don't keep a scale in your house. This suggestion may seem counterintuitive for someone who is watching their weight, but so many factors such as water weight, your clothes, and what you've eaten that day can

 affect the reading on the scale and send you into a backslide. I suggest finding a reliable scale at a drug or grocery store and weighing yourself once a week. It is enough to keep you motivated but prevent you from obsessing. And remember to weigh yourself at the same time every day (morning is best).

5. Give yourself a break: don't tell yourself that if you want to lose weight you can never indulge in a cupcake or piece of pizza again. Just pick a day that you can let lose a little each week. Complete deprivation never kept anyone motivated very long.

6. Don't just rely on the number on the scale. I took weekly pictures of myself as well as measurements. Sometimes you lose inches but not weight, sometimes you can't notice it on yourself but can in pictures. Trust me, seeing the progress is the key to maintaining your motivation.

7. Double up on the veg: Try eating a salad before dinner to help stave off the urge to devour everything on your plate and go back for seconds, Or take a double portion of broccoli or whatever vegetable you are having. Once you start to feel satisfied you won't care about having that second piece of chicken.

8. Keep an eye on the snacking - This doesn't mean never have a snack but it does mean don't sit in front of the TV with a bag of chips not even being aware of how much you are eating. If you must have chips, take the correct portion out and put it on a plate. Don't overeat just because you aren't paying attention, it's the quickest way to sabotaging your weight loss.

9. If you gain weight or have an off day don't give up! All of us slip up at times and our weight fluctuates at times. Don't tell yourself that this means you have failed. Use the setback as motivation to do better next week!

10. Use food substitutions: They are an excellent tool to make healthy food taste like the stuff that helped you pack on the pounds

11. Challenge yourself! Tell yourself that you are going to learn how to make healthy food taste good. Be creative. And if it sounds like a dull and bland recipe don't make it just because it's healthy. There are plenty of recipes that are healthy and delicious too. Once you discover how easy eating right can be you will never go back.

Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below. I'm always happy to help!

Here's to a new you this year!!!

12 Simple Weight Loss Tips for 2011

Forget the fad diet! Just follow these simple steps to a healthy new year!

For many people, a new year means the start of a new weight loss regime. The stressful holiday season is over, your pants are feeling a bit too tight and even the laziest couch potato you know has become a frequent member at the gym. Whether your resolution solution is a cleanse, no-carb diet or three-day-a-week workout commitment, many people fail in reaching their goal as the year progresses. So, what's the solution? iMag went to Wellness Expert, Dr. Ramani Durvasula, who gave us 12 no-fail tips for staying slim in the new year.

1. Lock it up. Have junk food in the house? If you can’t just throw it out, then lock it up. Put a sign on the cabinet that says: "Think before you do this". Creating a little extra hesitation can save you several hundred calories.

2. Don’t fall into the “one big meal” mentality. You want to “reward” yourself with a big leisurely dinner after a long day. However, eating regularly gives your body an even level of energy throughout the day and keeps you from binging. Your body needs fuel in the morning to get you through the day; it doesn’t need food to sleep.

3. Stop using food as a reward. When food becomes a “prize” we interact with it in a different way – we treat it as an entitlement and we often overindulge. Make a list of other rewarding things – read a chapter in a great book, walk around the block, call a friend, watch TV, exercise – but don’t make your reward something that makes your weight loss goal harder to achieve.

4. Give yourself a makeover today. The first step to weight loss is to celebrate yourself where you are at today. Embrace your body now. Wear beautiful things. Don’t wait until you reach some future weight loss goal. If you celebrate yourself just as you are, you are more likely to treat your body and mind with respect.

5. Leave the leftovers. Don’t take a lot of leftovers home. We get into a famine mentality with leftovers. Their shelf life is only about one to two days and most of us are socialized to not waste food, so then we feel compelled to eat them. Somehow, most people believe that leftovers don’t have calories, but they do. And since we often eat them standing over the sink – we consume more than we intend.

6. Slow down. Slow down when you eat. Stop and ask yourself after each slow bite, "Am I full?". I can almost guarantee you will eat half as much as usual.

7. Choose your booze wisely. Watch the alcohol – if you are trying to lose weight, it can doom you in more ways than one. Alcohol is sugar – and we often think drinks don’t have the same caloric bang as solid food. Think again, one of those fruity cocktails can easily put you back 300 calories in no time. In addition, the more you drink the less aware you become, and the more likely you are to lose track of eating.

8. Don’t diet. Cutting out food groups only sets you up for later failure, and leaves you unable to regulate them in the future. Create something sustainable for life.

9. Avoid flab by saying FLAB. Anytime you feel called to your “vulnerable” foods (ones you have trouble controlling) say the word FLAB to yourself – am I eating this because I am frustrated? lonely? angry? anxious? bored? If the answer is yes to any of these, eating a cupcake won’t make the feeling go away and it may even make it worse. Put the food down and find another more useful way to deal with the feeling.

10. Out of sight out of mouth. We often eat bad foods at work because they are easily accessible – the fast food place at the corner, bagels in the coffee room and chocolate in your drawer. Don’t keep these foods close at hand. Instead bring a bag of healthy snacks into the office – fruits, vegetables, bottles of water, whatever works for you. If you are hungry and there is an apple in the drawer, you are more likely to make a good choice, and get rid of that hungry feeling, because it is close at hand.

11. Don't wait until you're starving. Just like with thirst – once you are feeling very thirsty you are likely to be dehydrated. Hunger is an unreliable cue, it can be driven by other factors like emotion, and when we are hungry we are less likely to be able to regulate food intake (e.g. we eat faster). Eating regularly keeps those feelings of hunger at bay and keeps us from overeating.

12. I ate what?? Keep a food journal for a few weeks. Write down what you ate, the time you ate it, where you ate it and how you felt when you ate it. First of all – you will notice you eat more than you think, and secondly, you will identify trigger places, times, and emotions for when you overeat so it won't happen again.