2012 Fitness Trends - What's HOT and What's NOT!

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HOT: Metabolic Resistance Training (MRT)

2012 Fitness Trends - What's HOT and What's NOT!

Would you like to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time? Metabolic Resistance Training is the answer. MRT uses functional exercises performed in a circuit like fashion. Varying modalities are used such as dumbbells, body weight and kettlebell exercises. Exercising this way keeps your heart rate elevated and you'll burn more calories in less time. In fact, studies show that you'll continue to burn calories for up to 38 hours after a single 30 minute MRT session - a phenomenon known as the "afterburn."

NOT: Body Part Training

The days of isolating muscle groups and training certain muscles on certain days are long gone. The muscles of the human body form complex relationships with each other and are designed to work in synergy, therefore they should be trained as such.

Training muscles in isolation fails to produce a hormonal environment conducive to fat loss and muscle gain and can predispose you to muscle imbalance and injury. A well designed exercise program should comprise at least 80% compound, multiple joint movements. These are functional exercises such as lunges, squats, rows and presses and provide the most "bang for your buck." For best results think movements not muscles.

HOT: Strength Training for Women

Move over guys. The second hottest trend in 2012 is that women are moving to the gym floor in record numbers as they realise the benefits of lifting weights are far superior than a "cardio only" approach. No longer buying into the myth that weight training adds muscle bulk, many women are achieving that fit, toned look and transforming their bodies in record time with as little as 2 or 3 strength training sessions per week. In the process they're boosting their metabolism, decreasing their risk of osteoporosis, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

HOT: TRX Suspension Training

TRX suspension training is the fitness sensation that's being used by many pro sports teams, coaches, and top trainers around the world.

TRX suspension training uses gravity and your own body weight to build strength, endurance, balance, flexibility, coordination, core and joint stability.

Thanks to the TRX training system, mainstream exercises such as the bench press, squat, lunge and row can all be replicated to provide a full body, time efficient workout.

HOT: Interval Training

Interval training is an extremely time efficient form of cardio whereby periods of high effort are interspersed with periods of active recovery.

The most significant study to document the fat burning effects of interval training was published in the journal "Metabolism" in 1994. This study compared 20 weeks of long duration steady state cardio with 15 weeks of short duration interval training. Amazingly, the interval training group lost nine times more body fat than the endurance group.

Interval training also has pronounced cardiovascular benefits, produces anti aging youth hormones, increases immunity and more.

NOT: Long Steady State Cardio

Have you noticed that many people who slave away on the treadmill, elliptical trainer and stationary bikes for hours on end have great difficulty shedding fat?

Long steady cardio is NOT the most effective or time efficient way to burn body fat. In fact more and more studies reveal that too much steady state cardio can lead to reduced heart and lung capacity, increased inflammation and weight gain.

HOT: 30 Minute Workouts

The research is compelling. With the right mix of exercise, short duration 20-30 minute workouts can produce twice the results in half the time (such as when you combine MRT and interval training).

Unfortunately hour long workouts have become the accepted norm, therefore it's no wonder that many individuals fail to start or sustain an exercise program because of the perceived time investment.
Whether you're a stay at home mum or a busy executive, there's ALWAYS a way to find the time for a 20-30 minute workout 2 or 3 times per week.

NOT: Long, Low Intensity Workouts

The belief that working out for longer leads to better results is simply not true.

Exercising for long periods raises levels of the stress hormone, cortisol which is associated with fat storage and loss of muscle tissue. Do yourself a huge favor and save your valuable time by being more efficient in the gym.
Unless your goal is to compete in a marathon, consider hiring the services of personal trainer to design an exercise program that focuses on quality - NOT quantity.

HOT: Kettlebell Training

For a change of pace try a kettlebell workout. The unbalanced nature of kettlebells forces your body to compensate with correct posture, keeps your body guessing and your muscles challenged. Use kettlebells to add new and exciting exercises to your workouts to help build strength, explosive power, and endurance while actively engaging your core.

HOT: Boot Camps / Small Group Training

Fitness boot camps have experienced a huge surge in popularity in recent times. Boot camps are often held in outdoor settings and novel exercises provide plenty of variety. Working out in small groups is also extremely cost effective making group training a popular choice for many individuals.

HOT: Zumba / Dance Classes

Another group trend that continues to grow in popularity is Zumba. The Zumba program has become nothing short of a revolution, spreading like wildfire and positioning itself as one of the most influential movements in the fitness industry. This Latin-dance-inspired class has moved into this year's list of the top ten fitness trends.

NOT: Ab infomercial machines

The slick marketing hype of these infomercials is something to behold! Top models display their wash board abs and "satisfied customers" reveal how they lost 100 pounds using machine XYZ.

If a rock hard mid section was only a few hundred crunches away, then why do so many people end up disillusioned that they're unable to obtain the look of their favorite fitness model in only a matter of weeks? (as stated by the infomercial)
It all comes back to the myth of "spot reduction." The reality is that the only way for those ab muscles to be revealed is to lose overall body fat through proper nutrition and an effective total body conditioning program..

HOT: Paleo Diet

The Paleo Diet consists of the foods our hunter gatherer ancestors ate thousands of years ago. Therefore you'll find plenty of wholesome natural foods such as fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood, berries and nuts. Since grains and dairy are a product of modern agriculture, these are not part of the Paleo Diet. By eliminating (or at least cutting back on) dairy, grains and processed foods, you'll create a more alkaline environment conducive to weight loss and for your overall health and energy levels to thrive. Best of all, the Paleo Diet is sustainable. (unlike most diets)

NOT: Extreme Detox Diets

Celebrity endorsed detox diets were trendy for a while, however the actual benefits of such diets hold no credibility in the fitness world. Dramatically reducing calories with liquid or single only nutrient diets results in many side effects. These can include low blood sugar, extreme tiredness, headaches and nausea - just to name a few.

Although you will lose weight on a detox diet, you're not losing fat, only fluid and protein as a result of glycogen depletion and muscle tissue breakdown. And since extreme calorie restriction can adversely affect your metabolism, there's a very strong likelihood you'll regain the weight you've lost (and sometimes more) as soon as you resume normal eating.

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Gluten Free?

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What is Gluten? Gluten is a combination of two substances, gliadin and glutenin, and is produced in some grasses. Wheat, Barley and Rye are all types of grass and most of us have been raised to eat the products of these grasses, namely flour and flour-based foods such as bread and cakes.

Gluten Free?

Gluten is also used as a stabilizing agent in many other foods, and you will often see it as one of the ingredients in canned or bottled food, but is sometimes listed as "Amp Isostearoyl Hydolized Wheat Protein". Because you know what to look for on food labels, you'd think that you can easily avoid it, however, many foods contain small amounts of gluten, and according to many countries food laws, if the amount is under a certain percentage, the food manufacturers don't have to list it.

This means that you have to start learning what foods have gluten in naturally. Lots of very healthy foods don't contain gluten such as quinoa, oats, soybeans, sunflower seeds and millet. Other grasses such as buckwheat, corn and rice don't have any in them naturally.

Some people simply cannot eat gluten and have developed celiac disease, whereby their bodies cannot digest gluten. They often suffer a multitude of symptoms including, painful abdominal bloating, chronic diarrhea or the opposite, constipation, and sometimes even migraine headaches. They may also have to endure chronic fatigue, joint pain, numbness in fingers and toes, depression or anxiety and some people seem to develop osteoporosis at a very young age.

A way of eating known as the Paleolithic diet (often referred to as simply "the Paleo Diet") has been suggested as an excellent way to eat. The Paleo Diet works because of the assumption that humans have evolved over many years to eat certain types of food. As Humming birds have evolved to eat nectar from flowers and Eagles have evolved to eat meat from prey, so too have humans evolved to eat food that they have either hunted (meat) or gathered (berries, roots etc.).

As the agricultural revolution began a few thousand years ago in response to increasingly large populations around the world, people began to develop farming techniques that would make it possible to feed all of these hundreds of thousands of humans. Though many foods can keep us alive, such as sugar and alcohol, it isn't necessarily healthy for us, and consuming too much of the wrong foods can and does cause many harmful, and sometimes fatal, effects.

For example, many North American Indian tribes suffer from diabetes to a degree that is three or four times what is currently considered the norm. Perhaps this is due to their relatively new introduction to the foods considered normal by some western civilizations?

The worldwide increase in allergies and food intolerances could possibly also be attributed to diet. The fact is, we don't know if our Paleolithic ancestors suffered from these things the way that we do today, but we do have a very good idea what they ate, based on where they lived, what they had access to and the tools that they used (spears, bows and arrows etc.)

They ate quite differently from the things that we take for granted as normal. Perhaps it would make sense for all of us to try to eat the way our recent ancestors did, or at least to try it and see what health benefits might be easily available to us?

If you were to try this type of diet, maybe you'll find that your migraines would ease-up or disappear completely. Perhaps you'll lose some of that weight you've been promising yourself you'll shed for years? How about that ongoing fatigue that seems to get the better of you every day? You may simply get much nicer skin, acne free and smooth as the day you were born? Perhaps you'll get ALL of these benefits?

I'm certainly not suggesting that you go out and start hunting for your meat, though many expert nutritionists would suggest that you DO eat more fish. Hey, fishing is a KIND of hunting isn't it?

Okay, for everyday meals, you can't be expected to go out and hunt or gather food such as berries and roots, and even if you could, turning these ingredients into a healthy meal isn't something that would come naturally to you. But then cooking ANYTHING may not come naturally to you either; I certainly have to use a recipe book whenever I cook anything more complicated than a grilled-cheese sandwich!

There are plenty of gluten-free recipes available nowadays, as more and more people are trying this gluten-free diet. Many people are reporting substantially improved health and feelings of well-being; perhaps it's time YOU gave it a try?

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Pros and Cons of the Paleo Diet - Know the Different Effects of This Caveman Program on Your Body

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Archeological studies show that Paleolithic men were agile and strong. They were not heavy-weight based on modern standards, and they were also free from degenerative diseases of our time like osteoporosis, diabetes, and cardiac disorders. It was revealed that their overall health and fitness were not only due to their hectic lifestyles, but basically due to the food they ate. This is known today as the Paleo Diet.

Pros and Cons of the Paleo Diet - Know the Different Effects of This Caveman Program on Your Body

Also called as the caveman's diet, the Stone Age diet, or the hunter-gatherer's diet, this nutritional regimen utilizes the same type of food eaten by the Paleolithic men of 10,000 years ago. Centering on the ordinary modern food that you take every day, the most important components are meat (including seafood) and eggs, raw vegetables, fresh and dried fruits, nuts and seeds, unsweetened almond milk and coconut milk, oils from plants, and water and other beverages.

Here are its positive effects on your body: leads to weight loss/control; lessens the risk of diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, anti-immune diseases, and colorectal cancer; prevents myopia, acne, and depression; and stops diseases relative to vitamin and mineral deficiency.

The pro's of the caveman's diet are: it contains high-nutrient density and gives the minimum need for vitamins and minerals; its food list is simple and easy to follow; and lastly, it encourages continued physical activity since it increases the intake of amino acids, decreases the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, and lowers body acidity.

The con's are: you need to change your eating habits completely; there is an on-going controversy on which kind of Paleo diet to follow; and lastly, the program is too general where no instructions are given for individual application.

When the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, then it must be a good one. Try the Paleo Diet to see for yourself.

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What Is the Paleo Diet and Why Should I Eat Like a Caveman?

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What is the Paleo Diet?

What Is the Paleo Diet and Why Should I Eat Like a Caveman?

Like any truly practical diet, the Paleo is more of a way of life and not meant to be a temporary remedy to drop a few pounds. It is based on the idea that people have been around for over 2 million years and, for most of them, existed as hunters and gatherers. Only lately (about 10,000 years ago) did we start adding things like grains, potatoes and dairy products seriously into our diets. In evolutionary terms, that's not enough time to adjust to them as staple foods.

So the main concept is very easy: eat the way a hunter/gatherer would. You should try to eat foods you would come across in nature that are edible without a lot of handling and processing. These items include:

Lean meat
Fish
Eggs
Vegetables
Root vegetables
Fruits & berries
Nuts/seeds

Everything on the checklist is high in vitamins and minerals. So let's take a glimpse at what is not on the list:

Grains
Beans/legumes
Potatoes
Dairy products
Sugar
Salt

It's fairly well reported that sugar and salt are not beneficial to you so I'm not getting into those here, but I want to touch on the other things because they may seem odd at first. Particularly, the notion that you should not eat grain or dairy does not sit well with a lot of individuals. Let me clarify...

Grains, beans and potatoes (GBP) were generally not eaten by hunter/gatherer societies mostly due to the fact that they are harmful in their raw states. Cooking lessens, but doesn't actually wipe out the toxins so it is best to stay away from them completely. Other than being toxic (as if that was not sufficient), GBP are typically high in calories, low in nutritional value and cause your blood sugar to spike (which is not good) because of their high glycemic index.

Okay, so no grains, beans or potatoes because they're harmful and not nutritious. So what about milk? You can consume milk raw - it can't be that terrible, right?

Not necessarily. Dairy goods are a completely different animal. Milk and other dairy products were not introduced into our diet until the agricultural revolution about 10,000 years ago. Consider these things for a minute...

We are:

the only mammal that drinks milk after being weaned
the only mammal that drinks the milk of other animals by choice

Take these ideas one stage further and it's sensible to consider that we are not really developed to consume dairy products. Now, I know what you're thinking - "but women create milk naturally to nurse their infants." Yes, but the real truth of the matter may surprise you: most mammals (which includes us humans) become lactose-intolerant after being weaned from their moms! If you do not have difficulties with milk products as you get older, you are in the minority. It's approximated that 75% of the world's adult population is lactose-intolerant with as much as 98% intolerance for some Asian and Native American peoples.

Cancer. Diabetes. Hypertension. Heart disease. Depression. These "diseases of civilization" have seen remarkable increases over the past 50 years and become more widespread every single day. There are two primary things at play here:

A progressively sedentary lifestyle
A diet high in calories and low in nutritional value

We're certainly living longer than our primitive cousins due to factors like sanitation, available medical treatment and not getting eaten by predators, but our later years are fatter and more sick than ever before. It is no wonder, though. Take a stroll through your local grocery store and see how much good, organic paleo food fills the shelves compared to grains and other junk loaded with refined sugar and additives. Is it starting to click yet?

There are only a few non-westernized hunter/gatherer tribes remaining in the world, but they are some of the healthiest, fittest individuals around. They lead active lives and consume a more traditional diet of meats, vegetables and other paleo foods. Diabetes and cancer are complete rarities. Heart disease? Nope. Hypertension? Nada.

Now I am not saying we should go back to being tribal societies in the wild (since they do have higher rates of one key factor - accidental and traumatic deaths), but perhaps we can learn a thing or two from them. If we're going to stop the trends of lifestyle diseases, we need to return to leading more active, healthy lives.

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Why I Became a Vegetarian, Why I Stopped and Why I'm Going Back

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In the world of nutrition, I see many people trying to end their suffering through diet. Now, there's no doubt that diet can greatly enhance wellness and health. It's certainly helped me, and now, as a Nutritional Therapist, I help others make dietary changes to improve their health.

Why I Became a Vegetarian, Why I Stopped and Why I'm Going Back

But I also see many people who are trying to end ALL of their suffering through diet and exercise. They become obsessed with daily exercise routines and adhering to what they see as the "perfect diet." This could be veganism or it could be a meat-centered diet such as the Paleo diet. They think they're going to live to 100. Some even make it their life's purpose.

And this of course is ridiculous. It's ridiculous because of these three words:

Life is suffering.

I truly feel sorry for anyone who disagrees with that statement. I know they have not yet looked deep inside themselves to see the truth in that statement. But I think most people would agree with it, especially the older we get.

So on that note, I'd like to share my experience with suffering and a way I've found to escape it. In so doing, I'd like to offer a perspective that can ease the heated arguments between plant-based diet advocates and meat-based diet advocates.

First, a little personal background.

In the fall of 2000 I became a vegetarian. I did it for a lot of reasons, but at the top of that list were health reasons. And then, over the course of the next seven years, my health declined dramatically. Fatigue and digestive issues became my everyday companions.

In the fall of 2007, when I learned that meat from the right sources can be incredibly healthful, I returned to eating meat. And my health improved greatly. Fatigue lessened, and over the course of the next six months my digestive issues vanished. But I did not go back to eating meat right away. It took me some time to deal with the conflicting thoughts and emotions about it.

For me, the hardest part was the conflicting messages I had to process as someone who had become involved in the practice of meditation.

In meditation circles, there is a very strong bent towards vegetarianism. Many styles of meditation say you will progress on your path better as a vegetarian. Some say it helps to develop compassion and kindness to all living beings. Some say it helps to develop higher levels of awareness in meditation.

And this is certainly the case with Vipassana meditation. Vipassana stands for "insight" and it's a non-secular form of Buddhist meditation that has become very popular. Vipassana is taught in 10-day residential retreats in over one hundred centers around the world.

In 2001, I did my first 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat in Thailand. There are many similar but different styles of Vipassana. The style I became involved with is known as the "Goenka" style, so named for SN Goenka, the Vipassana teacher who brought the technique from Burma to India, from where it began to spread around the world starting in the early 1970s.

When I tell people that I'm going away for a 10-day meditation retreat, a frequent response I get is, "Sounds wonderful! I wish I could get a 10-day vacation!" And then when I say what I do on the retreat, many say, "Oh my god. I could NEVER do that."

I vehemently disagree and always try to explain why they could and should do it. But it is true, Vipassana retreats as taught by SN Goenka are no joke. They are a serious undertaking. And they are brutal - the most brutal physical thing I've ever done.

I've never been to a boot camp, but many folks wind up at Goenka retreats because of the intense psychological suffering they endured while in the military. And they always say that boot camp was nothing compared to a Goenka retreat.

These 10-day retreats challenge you on every level - physical, mental and emotional. They do this not to test your will or your strength but to bring about a radical new understanding of who you are and what life is about.

So let me explain a little what happens on these retreats and the inner shift they bring about and how that perhaps can relate to diet.

The retreats are silent. That means no talking. One is permitted to speak with the teachers at certain times of the day, but there is no speaking with the other meditators. The men and women are segregated. There is no reading. No writing. No listening to or playing music. No computer use. All cellphones must be turned in before the retreat starts. So there is no contact with the outside world.

During the 10-day retreats, one eats all vegetarian food for breakfast and lunch. The first time students are allowed a light snack at night while "old" students, those that have done at least one retreat, do not eat anything after noon.

The daily schedule is as follows:

4am: morning wake up bell.

4:30-6:30: meditation

6:30-8:00: breakfast and rest

8:00-11:00: meditation

11:00-1:00: lunch and rest

1:00-5:00: meditation

5:00-6:00: tea and/or light snack

6:00-9:00: meditation and nightly discourse

9:00: bedtime

All meditation is done in the sitting position. There is no standing or walking meditation allowed. No one ever sits longer than one hour at a time, though the breaks are short, five to ten minutes at most. During the rest periods, walking is permitted outside. Students are asked to suspend all other forms of exercise for the ten days, including yoga.

Though the schedule seems intimidating, it's structured to turn our attention within ourselves, something we're never taught to do and something that can be quite awkward at first.

The first three days are spent doing a simple breathing meditation called Anapana. This serves to calm the mind so that one can go deeper in Vipassana. Though this proves to be quite difficult at first, over time, tensions start to ease. We start to feel good, sometimes even blissful as our minds become quieter. For all you scientifically-minded nutrition nerds out there, one could say that we start to heal our adrenals and reduce our cortisol levels.

But stress-reduction is not the purpose of true meditation. The true purpose is to root out deep psychological complexes that live within us in the form of conditioned mental and emotional reactive habits such as anger, depression, lust, anxiety, negativity, fear, worry, etc. These habits cause us pain. Intense pain. And we all have them in different degrees.

Vipassana intentionally throws us into the fire of our pain and shows us how to start extinguishing it.

So how does Vipassana do this?

Through physical sensations on the body. On day four, students shift their attention from their breath to their body. Meditators are guided each day how to systematically go through each part of the body and become aware of the different sensations without reacting to them. And what one finds is all sorts of sensations. Pain, pressure, lightness, heaviness, heat, cold, tingling, vibration, etc.

Sitting for long periods, physical pain is there for sure. One is asked to be aware of physical pain as just a sensation. Sharp pains in the back, heaviness in the legs, burning in the feet, throbbing in the head, etc. Oh so much pain!! But when one truly starts to observe it without reacting to it, it begins to lose its power. It literally starts to melt away. We start to sit for longer and longer periods without fidgeting. This is fascinating to watch in oneself. And this helps sharpen our awareness of the subtler sensations that are at the true root of our suffering.

Through constant self-observation, hour after hour, day after day, we begin to literally feel our thoughts and emotions as sensations as well, in particular, very subtle but painful ones. Past hurtful experiences bring up various uncomfortable sensations in us. And we begin to clearly see that our conditioned reaction is to run away from the pain. And outside the retreat, there are endless ways to do this - drugs, alcohol, food, even minor things like watching TV or doing crossword puzzles.

But now, without outer distractions, these conditioned patterns become intensified as our attention goes to their associated physical sensations. We feel mental and emotional pain as we've never felt it before. We feel the heaviness of depression. We feel the burning of anger. We feel our negativities as actual sensations. And it hurts like hell!

But then something magical starts to happen. By not reacting to them, they start to unravel. Tensions we've held for years start to crumble. Our body softens. The painful sensations start to turn to pleasurable sensations. And we have moments of great bliss. And what happens is we start to crave them. However, those pleasurable moments, as powerful and transformative as they are, are still temporary.

The next time we sit for meditation, we're looking for pleasure but instead we're faced again with painful sensations - heaviness, pressure, burning, and we see how it intensifies when we try to push it away and react negatively to it again.

So we start to see more clearly that we're always craving pleasure in some form and we're always running away from pain. Both pain and pleasure are two sides of the same coin.

Which is suffering.

The insights that come out of this are nothing short of remarkable.

We see clearly how our pain is self-created through our inner reactions to things that happen outside of us. We see how we're never really satisfied with the present moment. We see clearly that when negativities arise in us, we are the first to suffer.

And we see clearly how to free ourselves from suffering. Anger subsides. Depression lifts. Anxieties fade. Many overcome their addictions in the ten days.

These insights also begin to transform our relationships. No longer can we blame anyone outside ourselves for our suffering no matter how horrible the things they did to us. We learn to forgive others. No longer can we blame ourselves for some of the pain we may have inflicted on others. We were unconscious. We learn to forgive ourselves. And no longer can we see other human beings as separate from ourselves. We see the universal nature of suffering. We learn to be more compassionate.

These insights also begin to transform our understanding of religion. For many, religion is no longer needed. The present moment becomes the true savior, the true path to free oneself and to help others free themselves. But for many others, they embrace a newfound understanding of their religion. Texts from religious scriptures start to make more sense not as literal interpretations but as metaphors to bring about a new consciousness, a new awareness within oneself.

Of course, no one becomes enlightened after 10 days. Stresses will overwhelm you again. Anger will re-emerge. Depression will re-emerge. Our conditioned mental and emotional patterns don't completely evaporate. They will steer us off course time and time again.

And so we go back.

Next week I'll be returning for another 10-day retreat. I go every year to re-center myself, to chip away at the rough edges that live within me.

And this means that every year I go back to being a vegetarian for ten days.

But when I leave the retreat center, I return to eating meat. I learned the hard way that vegetarianism does not work for me outside the retreat settings. For seven years, I thought vegetarianism would strengthen my meditation practice and make me more spiritual, so to speak. None of those things happened. I learned to be gentler with myself and honor my physical needs through my diet

But after the retreats, I don't go back to eating just any meat. I follow the dietary principles of the Weston Price Foundation, which supports animal products from small, pasture-based farms that treat their animals well. And in my nutrition practice, I use them to help others address their health issues.

That being said I am not anti-vegetarian. I know many who do well on a vegetarian diet, and I do think such a diet can promote health. But I don't get bogged down in the plant vs. meat-centered diet debate. Yes, I promote animal-based diets, but in the end, both will fail us!

And of course, so much of the plant-based vs. animal-based diet arguments revolves around which one better promotes longevity. And both sides have studies to prove their point. And that's the problem.

Scientific studies can't change your inner world. No matter how much they prove your diet is best, they won't change your reactive patterns. They are the realm of the intellect. They observe the outer world but they can't teach you how to observe your inner world. They can't free you.

In my opinion, the undercurrents of these diet debates are really about the fears behind aging and death. No one wants to die. So we use our intellect to think ourselves into various life philosophies. And we protect our beliefs by arguing, criticizing and preaching. Because if we're wrong, we have to face the unknown and that can be scary. Our egos don't like the unknown.

Meditation practices that bring about a shift in our inner world also help us to loosen our fear of death.

As the great spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle says, "It is not life and death. It is birth and death. Birth and death are the two poles of life, which is eternal." That realization, that Life is eternal is not something I have experienced. But there's something about Vipassana retreats and the insights they bring that start to orient us towards a greater dimension beyond our thinking minds.

Yes, diet is important for health. But it's not everything.

If there is one gift I could give to anyone, it would not be improving their physical health through diet. The greatest gift I could give anyone would be improving their "spiritual" health, that is, to learn to stop the unconscious inner forces that promote suffering. To me there is no price on that.

And that is why Vipassana retreats are free. For 10 days, you are fed and given comfortable accommodations for absolutely no charge. As Vipassana has spread around the world, so too has the gratitude that people feel for the experience. People donate money based on what they can give so that others can benefit. I've seen people give ten dollars, and I've seen people give thousands of dollars. Regardless, the retreats run on donations, and this never ceases to amaze me.

Finally, I don't want to pretend that I'm any sort of authority on Vipassana meditation. Though I have done many retreats I still feel very new to this path. I know Vipassana is but part of a larger global movement of consciousness that is transforming humanity as I write this.

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Five Classic Diets for Fat Loss

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It is not easy to choose the right diet. The fact that there are so many diets to choose from makes it even harder to center on a particular diet choice. Compounding matters even more would be the fact that there are fad diets that further cloud the weight loss picture. What can a person who wants to find the best possible diet do? For starters, you will want to take a look at the very best of the most popular diets people are taking part in.

Five Classic Diets for Fat Loss

The following is not anywhere near close to a comprehensive list of all the major diets you can take part in. It is a list than can give you quite a bit of food for thought.

• The Paleo Diet. Also dubbed the Caveman Diet, this diet entails eating food selections common to people that lived during the Paleolithic Era. The food choices are of the hunter/gatherer variety and many modern "bad" foods are not part of it. This allows the diet to not only help you lose weight, it will help you remain fit and healthy.

• The Zone Diet. This diet has been around some time and it is rooted in some relatively simple concepts. You will eat 40% carbohydrates, 30% fats, and 30% protein. This provides a decent enough balance to your food selections and ensures your portions support metabolic function. The Zone Diet is very simple in its design and that is a good thing. A diet does not have to be complicated to deliver on expected results.

• The Raw Food Diet. File this under the heading of diets that lead to really obtuse images in the mind. No, you will not eat a diet akin to what a lion would. A great many vegetables, fruits, nuts, and grains are included in this diet. The idea here is that cooking changes the composition of food in a less than desirable manner. Through eating appropriate and healthy organic and unprocessed food selections in their raw form, you can lose a surprising amount of weight.

• The Mediterranean Diet. As the name implies, this is a diet which is rooted in food choices indigenous to Crete, Greece, and southern Italy. Cheese, yogurts, good fats, and certain fish and poultry are the core choices with this diet. You won't find a lot of sugars, saturated fats, or high calorie dishes in this diet which makes it an excellent diet.

• The Atkins Diet. No, the Atkin's Diet will never go out of style because cutting carbs will always be an effective pathway to losing weight. Some may dismiss this diet because it is an older one. Be that as it may, it still works and always will.

The key to losing weight is to select the best available diet which supports your goals. There are quite a number of excellent diets to choose from and the five ones listed here are samples of them. Just stay away from the fad diets because they won't work.

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Picking Your Paleo Diet Foods

Paleo List :

It is no secret that obesity is a predisposing factor to various health conditions such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, gout and osteoarthritis, and certain types of cancer to name a few. That's why proper diet and reducing weight is often included in a person's health care plan because progression of obesity can pose a serious risk to your health.

Picking Your Paleo Diet Foods

Apart from the aforementioned reason, excessive weight certainly affects one's self-esteem. It can result in two different decisions: eat too much of unhealthy foods because of a distorted view of self-image and low self-confidence or working out and succeeding in achieving the desired body weight and thus dissipating any and all sense of insecurity.

If a person decides to reach for the latter, then proper diet is the answer. However, deciding to have a diet doesn't mean that all problems are solved. The keyword is 'proper' and this is where we get confused. One of the many concerns in a diet regimen is the food. What foodstuff should you eat and what should you avoid? Whatever diet you choose, if you are not well-informed about the dos and don'ts, everything could go downhill.

One of the many distinguished diets today is the Paleolithic Diet, or better known as Paleo diet. From the term itself, it is clearly understood that this diet plan is created to imitate the way our ancestors ate around thousands of years ago. Despite the many criticisms it has faced, Paleo diet has become well-acclaimed by many.

Some say that it's restrictive, because one cannot be satisfied by the limited food sources that can be eaten. But if you put past the notion about how narrow the list of food our ancestors consumed during the past, you'll realize that healthy foods won't be detrimental to one's fitness.

Moreover, eating meat is one of the reasons why Paleo diet is highly distinctive from others. Its principle is to consume large amounts of protein and less carbohydrate. And admit it, who wouldn't want to eat unlimited amounts of meat? When choosing meat, look for the naturally fed and steroid free meat.

When it comes to fruits and vegetables, make sure to eat at least nine servings or 4 ½ cups per day. They're absolutely healthy, will provide all the vital vitamins and nutrients and also provide excellent amounts of natural fiber. When choosing your fruits and veggies, go for the greens. Orange, red and yellow colored ones are also permissible and will give your body a nice blend of vitamins and anti-oxidants too.

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