Author: Christina DeBusk

If there’s a room that has nine people in it, chances are good that three of these individuals will be overweight according to statistics provided by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDKD). Worse yet, another three are likely to be one step higher on the ladder and labelled “obese”, leaving only three of the original nine at healthy weights. Interestingly, while dieting in an effort to lose these extra pounds is an action typically associated with women, the NIDDKD indicates that, as a nation, it is actually men who are most likely to be overweight,…

According to a 2015 Gallup poll, 17 percent of the population, or one out of every six Americans, eats entirely gluten-free. An additional one out of five people make it a point to include at least some gluten-free foods in their diets, even though they haven’t transformed their way of eating completely. What is gluten and why are so many people trying to limit it, if not avoid it entirely? What is Gluten? The Celiac Disease Foundation (CDF) explains that gluten is a broad-term for proteins found in various grains that most of us are familiar with, namely wheat, barley,…

As a freelance writer specializing in natural health and wellness content, I thought that I’d heard of every weight loss method that exists today. That is, until I was contacted by a client with a product line based on the benefits of intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting? I thought. What’s that? I’d heard of fasting in general, and not very good things about it honestly, but the phrase “intermittent fasting” had never crossed my desk. I became insanely curious, which is when I set out to discover every piece of information I could find on this type of weight loss program.…

Research shows that high-intensity interval training (referred to as simply “HIIT” for short) provides a number of positive health benefits beyond just losing weight and gaining muscle. Among them, according to the American College of Sports Medicine, are a stronger cardiovascular system, healthier blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and improved insulin sensitivity. So why aren’t more people engaging in this type of exercise? Because it’s hard! Of course, one could guess that HIIT isn’t going to be easy solely based on the first two words: high-intensity. And that it is. Even if you’re in relatively decent shape, HIIT has a…

When you set a weight loss goal, do you truly “see” what the goal looks like? We say we want to lose a definitive number of pounds or be a certain pant size but rarely do we take the time to resonate on what that means. Maybe you have been there before so you know exactly what you will look like. But, what if it has been so long that you can’t quite recall? Or, what if you’ve never been there and so you have no idea what your end result will be? The power of visualization is an amazing…

On your list of priorities, how far down have you put yourself? Are you below the children, the job and the house? Does the family pet have priority over your needs? Heck, are you even in the top ten? It is easy to rationalize why everything else in your life should come before your own wants and needs. You have obligations that need to be met. Children need to be cared for and bills need to be paid. Housework and yard work need to be done. Someone has to get the groceries and run the errands. While that is true…

Do you know exactly what you need to do in order to lose weight (eat right and exercise), yet you have a hard time sticking to it long enough to enjoy any long-term results? Are you positive that you could lose weight once and for all if you could just figure out why you sabotage yourself when you’re finally starting to reach your health and fitness goals? Losing weight certainly isn’t easy. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication. But, it also takes something more. And, it’s this “something more” that most people fail to acknowledge which is…

I am always interested in what excuse someone is going to give for not being their best physically. There are some that are so common that they are almost considered “truths”. They include the excuses of, “I don’t have time to workout”, “It’s too expensive to eat healthy”, “I’m just big-boned” and my personal favorite is, “No matter what I do, I can’t lose weight.” Well, as long as you keep making up excuses, I would have to agree that weight loss is not possible. The absolute very first thing you have to do in your quest to lose weight,…

When you think about reaching your weight loss goals, what do you hear your inner voice say? Do you hear, “You’ll never succeed” or “You’ll never see my high school (or pre-baby) weight again”? Or, maybe you’re just slightly more positive and find that you say to yourself, “Sure, you can lose the weight, but we both know that you’ll never be able to keep it off.” In the words of Henry Ford, “If you think you can do it, or you think you can’t do it, you are right.” Put another way, our personal self-talk is a very powerful…

When we set out to lose weight, we generally do so with an end goal in sight. Whether the goal is vanity related or health related, we have an idea of where we want to be. Maybe we desire to fit into a certain size dress or wear this season’s cutest bikini. Or, maybe we want to be able to free ourselves from some medical issues or rid our lives of daily medications. Whatever our initial reason to lose weight, somewhere along our journey we tend to veer off course. We get caught up in the process of losing and…