With so many of us canceling gym memberships and turning to home-based fitness regimes, exercise DVDs seem to be the way forward for a cost effective, high energy workout. But with a whole myriad to choose from in the market, which one do you go for?

The selection seems infinite with a wide variety of DVDs targeting different areas of the body like glutes, abs and legs, or arms, shoulders and abs right through to all over cardio workouts like dance based routines or even pole dancing! There are also mat based body conditioning workouts such as pilates and yoga.

But, why limit yourself? We all have low energy days and a more relaxing stretch workout may be more suitable than a high energy one, so purchase a selection.

It is definitely worth spending time reading user reviews to make sure you choose the right workout DVD for you. However, here are some criteria to get you started.

Start by taking into account your preferences for exercising. Do you want to use equipment like weights or a step (for step aerobics) for example? How do you feel about music? Whether it is high octane or relaxing, have a think about whether music suits you. Read the rest of this entry »

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Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: Google, high energy, high energy aerobics, high energy workout, instructor, low energy days, teacher

I know that I ma not the only one that struggles with this. Trying to make sure that we get our exercise in and of course being pulled by the work that puts a roof over your head means that it is usually fitness that will lose the battle.

I want my wrinkles to melt away. I want my belly as flat as the girl in the Google ads. And I certainly want my arms to look as good as Michelle Obama’s. But when forced to choose between exercise, work and family, sit-ups and push-ups fall to the bottom of my list.

Unfortunately, the downturn in the economy has most of us working more, trying to find a job, or shifting in a new career direction, giving up exercise and fitness the minute it doesn’t fit into our schedule.

Yet, with the tough economy on everyone’s mind, exercise is probably the common denominator that keeps people sane: employers, employees, service providers, clients. Some people are taking extraordinary steps to preserve that outlet. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: editor in chief, Google, Hartford Courant, Michelle Obama, SOBeFiT Magazine, the Hartford Courant

A couple of weeks ago I got my annual Flu Shot. I know that some people do not bother with a flu shot because let’s face it no one wants to get a shot and every year people still get the flu even when they get a shot.

Well let me tell you, the flu shot is worth getting, most of the time out of the multiple strains of the flu out there the scientists get the flu shot just right to stop many of us from getting sick later in the fall and Winter

With flu season on the way, Google unveiled a new tool Tuesday dubbed Google Flu Trends, through the company’s philanthropic wing, Google.org. The new Web tool takes data from search queries and crunches the information to paint a real-time picture of the level of influenza infection in a given area of the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: christmas, Google, influenza, Internet users, real-time picture, researcher, search engine, search engine researcher, search queries, search terms, search trends, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States, Web tool

Dieting is pretty boring, not just because of the kind of food you have to eat but because of the several rules and regulations you are required to follow when cooking your food. Plus you are not even sure what ingredients to include and what not to include in your meals.

As you can see, cooking meals at home involves a lot of guesswork; plus it is a drain on time! However, this should not be an excuse for you to quit your diet program. After all, if you don’t want to cook meals yourself, you can take advantage of diet meal delivery services and have ready-made meals delivered at your doorstep.

Just imagine: you hear the door bell ringing and you are handed over a package. The smell that comes from it seems to be mesmerizing and you are already itching to take a bite. You open the package to see that there are all delicious foods inside, waiting just for you! These are all healthy, natural, low-calorie meals that you can eat without being worried about weight gain! They don’t contain any kind of artificial flavors or preservatives that would increase your body weight.

Home delivered diet meal is a boon for many people because it not only saves them a lot of time but also eliminates all the guesswork that goes in the making of ‘diet meals’! Plus the food is also tasty since they are cooked by professional cooks! You might actually end up getting addicted to these home delivered meals – they are THAT good.

Contrary to what you might believe, home delivered diet meals are actually pretty cheap and affordable even for the ‘ordinary pockets’; don’t think that they are only for the people of upper society! To give you an idea of how much money you can save, take a pen and paper and list all the items that you use to cook your meals. When all is said and done, you will be surprised to see that you are getting the home delivered diet meals at a bargain price.

The toughest part is that of finding the right diet delivery program for yourself. Not all programs are reliable; plus there are specialized diet delivery services than would deliver you only a certain type of meal. So, if you need low-calorie meals, you need to find a reliable service that would offer you that kind of food packages! If in doubt, you can also search in Google but be careful when taking your pick as the sites that appear at the top of the search results are not necessarily the best.

All in all, a diet meal delivery program is really a great tool that you need in your quest of weight loss; you should be using it if you aren’t already.

Tags: diet delivery services, diet meal delivery services, finding the right diet, food, food packages, Google, home delivered meals, itching, ready made meals, search results

The long awaited Google Health Beta has been released. Google health is designed as a one stop shop to carry all of your health records so that whenever moving to new pharmacies or health practitioners you can have everything in the same spot.

This idea is not new as Microsoft has the same service with a site called Health Vault. There are a few companies that are trying to get into this market but it is very competitive and of course everyone is nervous about putting their info into this type of site. All of your health info in one place makes a security breach very very dangerous to peoples privacy. As a tech guy I understand the need for privacy and the real issues that a lack of privacy could lead to.

So for a bit of a tour of Google Health I have a few screenshots here. First you need a Google Account which is easy enough to get and then when you go to Google Health you sign in and can start adding your information. As you can see below you have a few things you can add including prescription and health issue info.

And then finally once you have all of your info added to Google Health you can start to add new services. Google has started with the few below but of course as we have all seen we will probably see a lot more over time.

Go to Google Health and check it out.

Tags: Google, health info, health practitioners, health records, Microsoft

My daughter heard at school that it was bad to clean your ears as the earwax ismore of a protective coating than a dirt to get rid of and that led me to a Google search for finding out if Qtips are bad.

The first link I found was interesting and said that I should never use qtips to clean my ears. We now will have to take any health advice from my daughter as gospel.

The trouble is that Google does not make value or health statements they just rank pages so I kept looking and found the following at WebMD

In Praise of Earwax

This is a really funny article that tells us the same thing, earwax is good and cleans itself out and qtip cleaning of our ears is bad.

Read the article. It is funny, and a humorous approach to health is always a great way to learn

Tags: Google

The FDA has been busy with advisories lately and here is one about buying Accutane online. Apparently Accutane is a bad thing to buy online and based on how it can increase blood pressure you should really talk to your doctor before getting a prescription.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is launching a special Web page to warn consumers about the dangers of buying isotretinoin (Accutane) online. Isotretinoin is a drug approved for the treatment of severe recalcitrant nodular acne that does not respond to antibiotics. Improperly used, isotretinoin can cause severe side effects, including birth defects. Serious mental health problems have also been reported with isotretinoin use.

The Web page, http://www.fda.gov/buyonline/accutane, will be positioned as a search result on Google and other search engines when a consumer initiates an online search for the drug under any one of its four names (Isotretinoin is sold under the brand name of Accutane and in generic versions called Amnesteem, Claravis, and Sotret.) The web page warns that the drug “should only be taken under the close supervision” of a physician or a pharmacist, and provides links to helpful information, including ways to check that drugs purchased online come from legitimate pharmacies.

“This Web page is yet another step we’re taking to ensure the safe use of a drug that can provide significant health benefits when used properly, but that can also cause very serious side effects if used without supervision of a health professional,” said Steven Galson, M.D.,M.P.H., Director, FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

FDA and the manufacturers of isotretinoin have put in place special safeguards to reduce the risks of isotretinoin, including a strict distribution program, called iPLEDGE. The aim of the distribution program is to ensure that women using isotretinoin do not become pregnant, and that women who are pregnant do not use isotretinoin. Isotretinoin is available only at a pharmacy that is registered for this distribution program. Additionally, the distribution program is designed to prevent the sale of isotretinoin over the internet. Dispensing must comply with the agency’s risk management requirements.

There are a couple of products that I have recommended in the past to combat and cure acne. The first one is the herbal product Acnezine and the other is the Acne no more program

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Tags: accutane, acne, Acne Treatment, acne_cures, antibiotics, birth defects, director, fda, FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Google, herbal product, isotretinoin, online search, pharmacist, physician, search engines, search result, Steven Galson, topical_treatments, U.S. Food & Drug Administration, zits

There is a long standing rumor that new employees at Google gain 15 pounds on average in their first year working at Google thanks to easy access to free food at the Googleplex.

If you use the Google personalized home page then you can add “stuff” to the page and one of the things you can add is a kind of complex but very cool weight loss calendar / weight loss tracker. All you need to add this to your Google home page is to click this Personalize Your Homepage link and then click the “add to Google” button.

This is great as the results of this weight tracker can be shown in a graph that will give you a rolling average to show you your weight loss as opposed to just seeing the bouncing up and down of your daily weight loss.

Tags: free food, Google