On the whole, the more we diet, the more weight we gain. There is a simple reason for this. Everything you have learned about dieting and weight loss is about to be turned upside down. There are hundreds of diet plans available to tell you step by step how to shed the extra pounds and get in shape. The problem is none of these programs address the real issues that keep you fat.

Why Diets Fail

Realize one thing without a doubt: it is not your fault that diets do not work for you. Pick up any diet or weight loss book and you will see that it requires you to restrict your diet in one way or the other. It may ask you to cut out carbohydrates, remove fat from your diet, not eat anything white or avoid other whole food groups. The other type of diet allows you to eat anything, but insists you severely restrict your daily calorie totals.

Avoiding food groups and restricting calories are not the answer to losing weight. If it were, we would all be thin by now and we would not be facing an epidemic obesity crisis. We have been told again and again by expert after expert how to lose weight. Yet the advice is not effective for everyone and even if you can lose weight in the beginning, it is nearly impossible to maintain the weight loss.

The Real Reason You Can not Lose Weight

Part of the reason that people have trouble losing weight on fad diet programs is because it does not address the real issues of why your body hangs on to fat. Maybe a stop at fast food restaurants one too many times during the week, maybe emotional eating or maybe you just enjoy the taste of food too much to give it up. The truth is, however, that there is a reason that goes beyond your eating habits that is causing you to hold on to the extra weight and store body fat.

Though it has been published before, the real reason we gain weight and have trouble losing it is not an easily accepted concept. It is not something we like to think about. We would rather live in denial than to think about the truth going on in our own bodies.

The reality is that you can not lose weight because your body is host to a number of parasites. The parasites live off of your body fat and they work with your body to signal it to give you more. On top of this they are excreting toxins into your body that are making your body susceptible to disease and other problems.

Mentally picturing a tapeworm or another type of parasite in your stomach is not a pretty picture. Even after reading how effective getting rid of these harmful parasites is to weight loss goals, many people refuse to believe it. They will remain stuck in a rut of yo-yo dieting and frustration because the weight will never come off and stay off.

Living in denial about the parasites feeding off of your body fat and preventing weight loss does not take away the fact that they still exist. You must address the problem of the parasites living in your body in order to reach a healthy weight.

John Atkinson is an avid health researcher who has stumbled across an amazingly simple and almost secret truth behind weight loss and diet plans. You can find out more about this fat loss diet plan secret at his home page.

Talking to the web designer

• What should your website look like?

  Obviously, the vaguer you are, the less helpful your suggestions will be. A good starting place is to look at other websites with a similar subject matter. From these, you can either decide what you like, or, through a process of comparison, realise what you don\’t want and thus partly recognise what is actually important to you.

  Other interesting avenues of approach come through associative thinking: consider movies, books, music and artwork that you think convey the sort of \’feeling\’ you want from the website. Tell your web designer about them: maybe he can capture some of that je ne sais quoi! Expand your expectations of your website from just a \’look\’ - maybe it can be a \’feeling\’, or also a \’sound\’; can you get your visitors to imagine the smell of the website? If you are selling flowers online, you may want them to!

• Communication is key.

  This is an adjunct to the point above, but do not be afraid to go into detail for your web designer. Even if he disagrees with some of your stylistic or organisational choices, everything you suggest will communicate more of what you want your website to be. Details about how it should behave tell us a lot about its real purpose and about what makes it unique, just as the style of a piece of writing can tell us something about its larger meaning.

  There is, of course, a caveat to this advice: if you go beyond suggesting and into dictating; if you only talk and don\’t listen: then you aren\’t communicating any more, you\’re only yelling. You\’re paying for your web designer\’s time and yes, he is your employee for the moment. But remember that you are paying him because he is a professional: he may not be an expert in your field, but he is an expert at online presence. It\’s precisely the fact that you are an expert in your field, which the website is about, and he is an expert in his field, which is designing the website, which makes it so important to meet in the middle when it comes to discussion of the site itself.

You have homework to do!

• Content rules the internet.

  You may have read it before. “Content is king / everything / why they come.” Fortunately, this is true. It\’s what makes the internet useful, and it\’s why search engines like Google that pay the closest attention to well-ordered and original content are the most-used, and most-useful. Unfortunately, it does mean that you are going to have to do more work for your web site than simply writing an \’About Us\’ page and hoping web-surfers google your exact company name!

  The best web designers will write copy (i.e. words) to go on your website, and they will make it grammatical, attractive, punchy, and all that good stuff. But even the best professional designer can\’t learn your years of experience and then translate that to the screen. You have an insurmountable advantage: you really know what you\’re talking about. This means that you should be creating lots of content for your website. Why? ^^^^^ - because “Content is king”! If Googlers search for specialist phrases which are relevant to your business / charity / cottage-industry / photo-album, they should get hits for your website! If they\’re not, that means that all of your experience in this specific field - all that experience that differentiates you from the rest of the site-owners on the internet - is going to waste.

  This point cannot be overemphasised. The more work you put into the website, the more you get out. You aren\’t paying your web designer to be an expert in your field: you\’re paying him to a) tell you what I\’ve just told you; and b) translate those great bits of information, articles (like this one), specialist notes, tips and loads of details, into meaningful (and searchable!) places on the internet that will make your website very special and very popular.

Zen and the art of website design

• Less is More, More is Less - please, let us find it!

  The slightly cryptic sentence above is trying convey one of the most complicated and difficult-to-accomplish aims of web design. A website needs to be attractive, but simple. It needs to be rich, but navigable. It needs to be dense, but comfortable. But, failing all else, the most important thing is:

  KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!)

  I don\’t mean to insult you (or any client), but that\’s how the saying goes, and the fact that an insult is right there in the saying probably tells us a little something about how annoying it is when web designers get this wrong. If you have a choice between \’attractive / rich / dense\’ and \’simple / navigable / comfortable\’, always choose the last three. Your web designer should always seek the perfect balance, of course. So this section is almost a tip directed more at him; but you can help him by remembering the following tenets of good website design when telling him what you want:

  A website is not a book (usually!)

  Lengthy content is good in the right places (like this article, if I say so myself), but make sure your visitors want to see it before you foist it upon them. Why do you need to keep your initial payload of information simple and concise? Because:

  Web-surfing is a series of choices

  When you pick up a book to read, you have chosen to read it. From then on, every page you look at will be in a sense a reward, some kind of payoff for that choice. As a result, you will pay attention - if you aren\’t, why would you bother reading the book at all? (English literature course assignments excluded here.) Websites aren\’t like that. Every website\’s homepage is a choice: Is this where I want to be? Do I want to spend time here? Usually, the answer is “No.” If you can convince a visitor otherwise, you are 80% of the way there. But before you\’ve made them want to pick up the book and buy it - don\’t force them to read it!

Your website is not the psychedelic sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey

• Ye Olde Bad Days of Web Design

  This is linked into the \’Zen\’ section above, because it\’s about being simple, or being stupid. Web design has come a long way since the early days of the internet. 10-color webpages are largely a thing of the past. Please do not try to resurrect them: they died for a reason. Photos are great; well-chosen and fairly subtle colours (for menu backgrounds etc) are usually fine. Mustard-yellow text on a tiling background of blood-red autumn leaves = bad idea. Your web designer should never let you convince him to do this. If he does it on his own initiative, run as fast as possible in the opposite direction. Look at Google; Amazon; eBay. Yes, the latter two have some colours, but all three sites work with white backgrounds and black text. Google is the cleanest of the lot, and we all know the internet has been kind to them as a result. Messy is fun - for about five minutes. Run.

• The black magic of navigation

  Navigational links and tools are usually pretty boring and simple, and as I\’ve stated above, that\’s usually a very good thing. The reason it\’s a bit of a \’black magic\’ is because sometimes, navigation can be improved by making it more interesting, more fun, and even more usable at the same time.

  The sliding CSS-based menu-tree approach

  This is the most common upgrade from the simple box of links. Pros: This has the advantage of essentially putting your whole site structure into one obvious architecture visible from every page. It makes it quicker to find things and looks gratifyingly orderly and high-tech. Cons: If your web designer doesn\’t do it right, this could backfire on the occasional non-CSS or non-JavaScript piece of browsing software. If that happens, your whole site could be inaccessible. This is largely preventable, so make sure that your designer tests the menu system (and the site) under all possible access restrictions, e.g. text-only browsers or even mobile devices. You could even test it yourself, if you want to be extra-sure. When the browsing device can\’t handle the navigation interface, a simpler one should load automatially.

  The AJAX-based background-loading interface

  This is the newest navigational innovation. It\’s the way navigation on Google\’s Gmail service works. You can usually tell that an interface is AJAX-based when you click on a link that sends or receives new data from the website, and only the data loads - the page remains the same. AJAX is the younger (and smarter) sibling of DHTML (Dynamic HTML), which could show and hide page elements already loaded at download time, instantly. The difference is that you don\’t need to have already downloaded the AJAX elements. The web code gets the new data \’in the background\’. Pros: This can make interfaces faster (instantaneous sometimes) and prevents having to scroll back down after posting a form, for instance. Cons: Data is unlikely to be indexed by search engines, so anything you put in there better not be some nugget of wisdom a googler might search for in the hopes of finding your website! AJAX takes time to develop, pretty much proportional to the time it saves your users when it\’s operational! It\’s only suitable for some applications. Talk through the possibilities with your web designer to see if the dividends are worth that investment of time, given your unique situation.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Concerns?

• A quick word

  This deserves its own article (and it\’ll get one), but for now, just relax, and read everything written above. If you can talk with your web designer and check off all the boxes above, you\’ll have a website that search engines and surfers alike will really appreciate.

For now, good luck, and please get in touch with any questions or suggestions!

David Midgley is Director and Senior Designer for Ice Cool Code Ltd, offering Professional Web Design.

Changing your diet to deal with Endometriosis is an excellent foundation to assist you in reducing the symptoms, and will help regenerate your health as well as boost your immune system.

Adjusting what you eat can bring about many positive physical and metabolic changes, as well as improving our health. Many of you may be aware that various illnesses and diseases have responded very positively to changes in diet, and Endometriosis is no exception.

Some of the positive physical changes that take place when we change our diet, will at first not seem reliant on our food intake, but they are. For example, eating the right kinds of foods can:

~ sharpen our mental alertness

~ help us to stop feeling so sluggish

~ give us more energy

~ regulate sleep patterns

~ regulate bowel movements

~ balance blood sugar levels

~ regulate metabolism

~ regulate body weight

~ control hyperactivity - especially in children

We are very much a reflection of what we eat. When someone has a diet loaded in fats, the first place it will show up is in their complexion, with greasy, sallow skin. When we are constipated, an Iridologist (alternative health practitioner specializing in diagnosis using the iris of the eye) will immediately see this in the lack-lustre appearance of the eyes. With a lack of vital nutrients in our system, the body will eventually give you tell-tale signs.

The diet in modern day western society has become depleted of vital nutrients for many reasons. Intensive farming has robbed the soil of vital trace elements which used to be taken up by the crops as they grew, and in turn we consumed them. We rely so much on convenience foods now, which are very low in goodness. Much of our \’fresh\’ produce like fruit and vegetables is actually gassed and then stored in warehouses for months.

Many of us eat \’fast food\’, which is not very nutritious - the longer that food is left standing in a heated serving cabinet, the less nutritious value it has. People get lazy; they cannot be bothered to shop for valuable ingredients, yet alone cook good wholesome food anymore.

Scientists, health researchers and others have now found that the lower your food intake, with fewer calories and proteins, the longer you will live. We simply do not need the food intake that we have in the West.

What the body needs is a simple, balanced, preferably organic diet, which is prepared using fresh ingredients, and is viewed as our means of sustenance rather than being viewed as \’something to stop us being hungry\’. We do have many problems and issues surrounding food in the West, with anorexia, comfort eating, and many other eating disorders. Food is also used in many social situations, but this is no excuse for not being able to feed yourself with good food when you are at home.

Food is our fuel, it makes us function, grow, replace worn out cells, gives us energy, and feeds the entire body. Food is the secondary requirement to life, with oxygen being the first basic requirement. More important than food is our daily requirement for water. We need lots of it; plain, fresh water. Yet most people only drink a small proportion of what the body really needs.

But going back to food; it provides us with energy. The foods we take in include:

~ Carbohydrates, which provide the chief source of energy for bodily functions and muscular exertions

~ Fats which are the most concentrated form of energy. Three fatty acids are essential in the diet because the body cannot make them itself.

~ Proteins, which are the building blocks in food, the construction materials for growth and repair of cells

~ Fibre, indigestible parts of plants which provide roughage and aids digestion

~ Vitamins and minerals - the organic substances which the body cannot make, but which it requires in small amounts to maintain health

Controlled Diet for Endometriosis

Controlling your diet to help you deal with Endometriosis is an excellent starting point. As I have said earlier, we really are a reflection of what we eat, and the body responds very quickly to what is put inside it. Let me emphasize that point thus:

~ Look how radically altered we become by too much alcohol - which can happen very quickly

~ A Sumo wrestler is not born large - they eat themselves large

~ Body builders do build up their bodies with power/weight lifting, but they also use a high protein diet to back it up

~ Drink too much coffee and you have a caffeine rush

~ Travel to another area and you may get upset by the change in water consumption

~ When we are hungry, many of us suffer that awful drowsy blood sugar drop; eat something and we can pick up again very quickly

So the body is very sensitive to what is put in it, and sometimes that sensitivity is quick to show up. Unfortunately other sensitivities are not noticed and will creep up on us, which is when we suffer from dietary deficiencies and a lack of trace elements. There are times when our body gives us clues that we have a deficiency and we start to have cravings for certain types of foods.

The role of a controlled diet in Endometriosis management has proved exceedingly beneficial for many women. Some women have even been able to be totally symptom free with changes in diet. The plan of the endo diet is to relieve or prevent some of the disabling symptoms that occur with menstruation, as well as the general pain of endo. The goal is to decrease estrogen levels, stabilize hormones, increase energy, alleviate painful cramps and stabilize emotions.

SO WHERE DO WE START!

Let\’s start with pain and hormones in relation to diet…

Endometriosis is an estrogen-sensitive condition, but the painful menstrual cramping that occurs is predominantly due to prostaglandin synthesis in the body. Prostaglandins are naturally occurring fatty acids, which are derived from dietary sources. The body can produce different types of prostaglandins through a complex series of pathways.

There are the \’good guys\’ and the \’bad guys\’ of the prostaglandin group. The goal of a controlled diet is to block the \’bad guys\’ for their negative actions on the body, and increase the \’good guys\’ for their opposite and beneficial actions. The action of the bad guys is to increase uterine contractions, and the good guys have a soothing effect. By changing the types of oils that are taken into the diet, the production of the good guys can be stimulated, which helps with uterine relaxation. These oils are composed of omega-3 fatty acids, which lead to positive prostaglandin production. Excellent sources of the omega-3 fatty acid producing oils are:

~ Evening primrose

~ Safflower oil

~ Walnut oil

~ Flax seeds/oil

It is also important to decrease intake of those fatty acids that will stimulate the bad guys which are found in saturated fats, butter, animal and organ meat, lard.

In addition to decreasing bad fat intake, the diet should also consist of high fiber. Not only does this help with good digestion, but it is also thought that a diet high in fiber can decrease total circulating estrogens. It is recommended to incorporate 25 grams per day of fibre. Good sources are:

~ whole grains excluding wheat and rye

~ beans, peas and pulses

~ brown rice

~ vegetable and fruits

~ oatmeal

The following foods are recommended to modulate estrogen levels by incorporating one or two servings a day:

~ mustard greens

~ broccoli

~ cabbage

~ turnips

FOODS TO AVOID

~ wheat - this includes breads, cakes and pasta products, all based on wheat

~ refined and concentrated carbohydrates

~ sugar, in whatever form, including honey

~ alcohol

~ caffeine which is found in tea, coffee, soft drinks

~ chocolate

~ dairy produce including all milk, eggs and cheese

~ fried food, margarine and hydrogenated fats

~ soy products and soy protein - tamari can be used in small amounts

~ tinned and frozen packaged foods as little as possible

~ additives and preservatives

Note: Meat, dairy and eggs promote the pro-inflammatory prostaglandins.

FOODS BENEFICIAL FOR THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

~ beans, peas, lentils

~ onions

~ garlic (raw or lightly cooked)

~ carrots (contain beta-carotene)

~ live yogurt (good for healthy intestinal flora)

~ rhubarb

~ seeds and sprouted seeds

~ ginger

~ green tea

HORMONE REBALANCING FOODS

Foods containing natural plant sterols can be helpful. They are thought to block the estrogen receptors, so in turn excess estrogen in the body cannot \’lock-in\’ to these receptors. These include:

~ peas, beans and pulses

~ red and purple berries

~ garlic

~ apples

~ parsley

~ fennel

~ brassicas: cabbage, cauliflower etc

~ nuts and seeds

~ celery, carrots

~ rhubarb

~ sage

VITAMIN AND MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS

Although the best source of vitamins and minerals is through a well balanced diet, many foods today are depleted in these vital trace elements. Today, most of us need to supplement our diet with some of the vitamins and minerals that our bodies need to function optimally.

The following is a list of supplements that will help women with Endometriosis:

Magnesium - is a mineral and is believed to ease cramping with menstruation

Zinc - is essential for enzyme activity, helping cells to reproduce which will help with healing. Zinc is also reported to boost the immune system and helping to create an emotional sense of well-being

Calcium - levels of calcium in menstruating women decrease 10 to 14 days before the onset of menstruation. Deficiency may lead to muscle cramps, headache or pelvic pain.

Iron - women with Endometriosis tend to have very heavy periods which can lead to an iron deficiency. This can lead to anemia which is characterized by extreme fatigue and weakness.

B vitamins - these are important for the breakdown of proteins, carbohydrates and fats in the body. B vitamins are reported to improve the emotional symptoms of Endometriosis, and have proved helpful in dealing with PMT

Vitamin C - is well known for helping to boost the immune system and help provide resistance to disease. It is also used in the body to build and maintain collagen within the body

Vitamin A - is another immune system booster

Vitamin E - plays an important role by increasing oxygen carrying capacities and also strengthens the immune system

Selenium - when taken together with vitamin E has been reported to decrease inflammation associated with Endometriosis, as well as immune system booster.

OTHER USEFUL SNIPPETS:

Certain vegetables have substances that activate liver enzymes and help the liver to detoxify chemicals. This allows the liver to eliminate excess estrogen from the body more effectively. These vegetables include: broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts.

Auto immune diseases are thought to be triggered by free-radicals in the body, which could be an added factor in Endometriosis. Free radicals are destructive molecules and are found naturally in the body but can be made worse by pollution, stress, illness and smoking. There are minerals and vitamins that will help to fight off these free-radicals because of their antioxidant properties, including: vitamins A,C,E, CoQ10, selenium, vitamin B complex, as well as specific supplements being sold specifically as Antioxidants.

TO SUM UP

~ increase omega-3 fatty acids

~ avoid meat, dairy products, wheat and sugar

~ increase fiber

~ modulate estrogen intake

~ avoid caffeine and alcohol

~ avoid refined foods, e-numbers, and additives

~ minimize or avoid soy products as they contain high levels of phytoestrogens, and soy contains a particular toxin which seems to be particularly detrimental for women with Endometriosis

~ peel fruit and vegetables to remove toxic chemicals

~ eat organic produce wherever possible

~ drink lots of filtered or mineral water

Carolyn Levett used to suffer from Endometriosis but after 4 years of homeopathy, a healthy diet and lots of positive thinking she was able to heal from the disease. She now runs the supportive Endometriosis website:

www.endo-resolved.com

She has also written 2 books to help other women - \’Reclaim Your Life - Your Guide to Aid Healing of Endometriosis\’ and \’Recipes for the Endometriosis Diet\’, both available from the website.
Endo Resolved also has a very active and supportive Message Board as well as lots of positive advice and information about endometriosis.