I know youre probably thinking, Ugh, another diet Ill think about starting but never will.

But, Ill tell you right now that the Mediterranean diet probablyisnt like any other diet youve tried before.

With this diet, you dont have to give up pizza or work out for three hours every day to get results.

Itsone of thebest diets out there, and for a few good reasons.

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The Mediterranean diet encourages people to adopt eating patterns rich in fruits and vegetables, healthy fats (such as those found in fish, seafood and nuts) and whole grains.

But, a lot of fad diets do the exact same thing.

So, heres what makes the Mediterranean diet unique, and a few quick suggestions to make this diet work for you:

Many diets we know and hate try to help us lose weight by restricting calories and cutting out important food groups.

Not many of them have a built-in exercise component to go along with their healthy eating suggestions, which is why the Mediterranean diet is a definite must-try.

Its emphasis on staying active is actually what makes this diet special, and its probably why its results have proven so positive in so many people.

The Mediterranean diet pyramidincludes physical activity in its breakdown of recommendations for living a healthy lifestyle.

Experts dont just recommend 150 minutes of moderate physical activity weekly for the fun of it. Just 30 minutes of fitness five days a week can strengthen your heart, help you lose weight and curb your cravings for your go-to unhealthy snack foods.

Studies have also shown that shorter, higher-intensity workouts are much more effective than longer, lower-intensity activities.

So, you dont have to spend hours at the gym every day to be healthy. Thirty minutes is really all it often takes.

There are different kinds of processing when it comes to food.

Every food you eat, even fruits and vegetables, goes through minimal processing before it hits grocery store shelves so its safe for you to eat.

Its the heavily processed foods that are damaging to our health in the long-term (think microwave meals, frozen pizzas and even potato chips).

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Experts estimate that over half the calories Americanseat are heavily processed, but the Mediterranean diet can help you knock down your junk food cravings for good.

It lists specific kinds of foods to avoid, all of them in the heavily processed category.

Foods to avoid on the Mediterranean diet include anything containing refined grains (like breakfast cereals), added sugars and processed meats, which are linked to an increased risk of cancer.

The first question you probably ask when presented with a new diet is: Does it work?

Science has a way of disproving fad diet claims with good old-fashioned facts. The good news is, researchers have had their eyes on the Mediterranean diet for awhile, and the results will restore your faith in meal planning.

There have been a number of studies on the positive effects of the Mediterranean diet.

Results show that those who follow the diet over longer periods of time experience healthy weight loss, increased heart health and reduced risk for certain types of cancer.

1. Start slow.

A healthy diet is pretty much just a series of breaking old habits and replacing them with new ones.

Depriving yourself of all the foods youre used to eating in the beginning is the simplest recipe for failure.

Slowly introduce new foods (and a new fitness routine) into your life over the first few weeks. Give your body and your mind time to adjust.

2. Eat a variety of foods.

The biggest mistake you can make when trying a new diet even one proven to work is cooking the same three meals over and over again. It gets boring fast.

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A combination of different fruits and vegetables, proteins and whole grains at each meal will also help fill you up faster, which is super helpful when it comes to portion control and avoiding extra calories.

3. Choose fitness activities you love.

Exercise wont happen if you dread all 150 minutes of your workouts every week. Switch it up, too.

Stepping onto the treadmill every time you hit the gym has the same effect as eating salad for dinner every night. Yawn!

Do something different to keep yourself entertained while also working out different muscle groups in the process.

We may be looking at this whole diet thing all wrong. Its not about restriction or over-exercising to lose those last 10 pounds.

Its about figuring out how to make good food and enjoyable exercise happen.

Maybe this diet wont work for you, but you never know until you try.

It could be exactly what you need to slowly learn how you personally can eat healthier and work out more effectively on your own time.

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Meg Dowell is the creator of Novelty Revisions, dedicated to helping writers put their ideas into words. Follow her on Twitter @MegDowell to start learning to live a smarter, healthier life.

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Why The Mediterranean Diet Is The Fastest Way To Lose Weight And Build Muscle - Elite Daily

Weve all been taught the same diet myth since we were tweens. Diet, lose weight, get a perfect body, be happy. Go from your before photo to your after. Its a clean, linear journey that we buy into in the form of products, programs, and the zeitgeist of weight loss in our world today.

If I fail at this clean, linear transformation, we think, theres something wrong with me.

We get in our heads and internalize dieting failures. Im lazy, I lack discipline, I dont want it badly enough, Im (gasp) an emotional eater. Put down the cookie and get it together, honey! We tell ourselves terrible things when we dont achieve the transformation we are seeking from dieting.

Happiness is just six weeks away. If you could just stop being such a fat slob and stick to your diet planright?

The "diet myth" promises us a clean, one-time, linear journey to happiness: Diet, lose weight, get a perfect body, be happy. . But this clean, linear journey doesn't really exist. Many women don't succeed at losing weight through dieting. . Even if you do, @neda has found that 95% of dieters will regain their lost weight within 5 years. . The diet myth is just that--a myth. And you have better things to do with your precious time, money, and energy than spend it all buying into yet another diet plan, program, or "get thin quick" solution. . Dieting isn't the answer, Loves--choosing to love your body, exactly as it is, and taking the best possible care of that body right now, is. | @bryanwhitely hmu @laurenolearybeauty

A post shared by Melinda Parrish (@melparrishplus) on Mar 16, 2017 at 8:15am PDT

The diet myth is just that a myth. And you have better things to do with your precious time, money and energy than spend it all buying into yet another diet plan, program, or get thin quick solution.

The reality is that most people dont lose very much weight from dieting. Those that do lose weight tend to gain it back, plus more. 95% of dieters regain their lost weight within five years, according to NEDA. Not only that, but multiple studies have shown that dieting is actually associated with greater weight gain, rather than weight loss.

The unicorns among us that do manage to lose 10, 20, 50, 100 or more pounds get to their weight loss goal and still find flaws with what they see. Plastic surgeons are now marketing solutions specifically to patients who are successful at losing weight through gastric bypass. The after photo, if you even manage to get there, is not all that its cracked up to be.

Were spending upwards of $60 Billion on diet and weight loss here in America. Based on the statistical truths about dieting, we would be better off throwing that money out the window while we cruise down the freeway.

Or funding Planned Parents annual operating budget 60 times over. Or giving 60 Million pets a forever home. Or building 7.5 Million wells to provide clean drinking water to the developing world. We could do a great deal more with those resources than simply chasing an unattainable standard of body perfection.

Reading this might make you feel deflated or hopeless but it shouldnt! This is an incredibly liberating truth. You are free from feeling obligated to buy into another plan or program. You dont have to go through your days restricting your eating. You dont have to use up your brain power assessing your food choices against the latest diet craze. You dont have to use up your precious time, energy, and resources buying into the diet myth.

Whether you just inhaled a bag of Cheetos or ran a half marathon, you are free to love the body that you have right now. Even if you do want to lose weight, improve your health, or transform parts of your exterior, it starts with loving your body exactly as it is. Reinforce that love for your body every single day. Celebrate what your body is capable of doing.

When you approach your diet and exercise choices from a place of self-love, it all comes together, and youll be able to make the true transformation to a more healthy lifestyle.

So please, I beg of you. Dont go on another bikini-body diet. Just love the body that you have, harder than ever before.

Want a weekly dose of Body Love? Sign up for the #healthyatanysize community with Melinda Parrish.

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Diets Don't Work, Body Love Does | The Huffington Post - Huffington Post

New York Post

Why your schlubby hubby's aging worse than you New York Post I have a significant portion of middle-aged men whose wives are taking care of themselves, but they've gained weight because they don't have time to exercise and diet, and they have a lot of sun damage, he says. They come in and they say they want ...

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Why your schlubby hubby's aging worse than you - New York Post

When I had my double mastectomy in February 2015, following a diagnosis of breast cancer, there was very limited information out there about how diet and nutrition could aid my recovery. The whole focus was on taking drugs to reduce pain and swelling.

There is a still a dearth of facts about how you can easily and safely reduce symptoms of pain and swelling by simply paying attention to what you eat.

You wont see any booklets in clinics telling you to select certain foods that will help dampen down inflammation.

You wont see any booklets in clinics telling you to select certain foods that will help dampen down inflammation and boost your immune system, while avoiding those things that make swelling and inflammation worse.

Thats why I decided to devise a post-mastectomy meal plan which has already been used by hundreds of women who have undergone surgery for breast cancer. The great news is that the plan is inexpensive and has no nasty side effects. Anyone can get some benefit.

So what to avoid?

Dairy products containing cows milk are more difficult for the body to digest because lactose has to be broken down by a special enzyme, which can be deficient in some people. This extra effort diverts the body away from the process of healing, so go easy on dairy for a few weeks after your surgery.

Gluten is another substance found in wheat-based foods which can cause an inflammatory reaction in some people. Whether you are gluten intolerant or not, it is best to avoid gluten while your body is already under strain.

Refined sugar and other refined carbohydrates can set up inflammatory processes in the bodys cells.

Refined sugar and other carbohydrates can set up inflammatory processes in the bodys cells.

Alcohol is a toxin and the whole body is put under strain as the liver and kidneys work harder to flush the breakdown products of alcohol through the system.

What should you choose to eat in the recovery period?

Goats cheese is an excellent source of calcium and protein. Unlike cows milk, goats milk is made up of shorter-chain molecules which resemble human milk and are easily digested.

Lentils, quinoa and amaranth are all excellent carbohydrate sources which also contain portions of protein essential for tissue repair.

Goji berries contain an abundance of Vitamin C, which is essential for muscle repair. Kiwi fruit also contains a high level of the powerful antioxidant Vitamin C. Studies show that Vitamin C has a role in helping to promote a healthy immune system. Garlic and turmeric are both anti-inflammatories which add flavour aswell as improving recovery.

Avocado, salmon and other oily fish contain anti-inflammatory omega fatty oils so I recommend eating three portions of these at least each week. I often choose ostrich meat when I want a burger or steak because it is very low fat and has a pleasant, rather peppery taste.

If your breast cancer diagnosis shows a hormone sensitive element, you may also wish to consider reducing oestrogenic foods post op. Food products derived from soya for example can be akin to wearing a HRT patch, tempeh and tofu are inclusive of this boosting property. Dried apricots and prunes are high in phytoestrogens which can mimic the existence of oestrogen in the body. Bran cereals, chickpeas, beans, alfalfa sprouts are worth limiting, with a consideration for the use of flaxseeds. Although the flaxseed is a great source of omegas especially if you a vegetarian or vegan they are the number one way of getting oestrogen into the body.

Just focusing on a recovery diet for two weeks after mastectomy can significantly help women who want to use nutrition in tandem with more conventional treatment.

Example meal plan

Breakfast Protein Pain relief porridge 3 x 25g scoops of amaranth flakes, 3 x 25g scoops of millet flakes, 3 x 25g scoops of quinoa, 1 x 25g scoop of blue poppy seeds, 2 tins reduced fat coconut milk

1/2 cup Natvia (taste dependant, I dont like it too sweet!), 700ml to 1 litre of water (or use the empty coconut milk tin and use this measure twice), 3 dessert spoons of Steenbergs Pumpkin spice mix, 1/2 cup raw cacao powder (I use GrapeTree Foods)

Lunch Stuffed Sweet potato, with soft goats cheese, walnuts and spinach.

Tea Salmon and Goji Berry Omega curry 1tbsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp coriander, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 8 garlic cloves, 3 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp turmeric, 150g tomato paste, tinned tomatoes, 2 green chillies, tsp Sukrin gold, salmon, 50g Goji berries, 25g coriander, lemon juice.

Dr Emma Kirke is a clinical nutritionist and doctor of Osteomyology. She launched MedicinalKitchen in 2015 as a consequence of her own journey into health following a breast cancer diagnosis

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Post-mastectomy recovery diet - The Hippocratic Post (blog)

It's no road diet, but the city will add "interim" pedestrian safety measures on Aberdeen Avenue while the future of the contested roadway remains under study.

The east-west arterial road connects the Queen Street hill to Highway 403 via residential neighbourhoods under the escarpment and sees about 19,000 vehicles a day.

Local residents have increasingly called for a "road diet" basically narrowing the street to slow traffic and more safely allow for cyclists and pedestrians. But lower city and Mountain councillors have clashed over the need to maintain vehicle traffic capacity, particularly with LRT looming in parallel King Street corridor.

Council previously decided to put off major decisions on Aberdeen until after the completion of a long-awaited transportation master plan update, now due in June.

But Monday, traffic staff recommended about $200,000 in "interim" safety upgrades like a crosswalk near the Cottage Street bus stop, a pedestrian crossover at the busy Queen-to-Aberdeen ramp and various small-scale traffic-calming measures.

Public works committee members signed off on the idea, but with an amendment from Mountain Coun. Terry Whitehead to axe the suggested addition of morning street parking west of Dundurn Street.

The change surprised ward Coun. Aidan Johnson, who is not on the committee but later said he would oppose the amendment at council.

"My preference would be to add that lane of parked cars as a buffer," he said, adding the additional parking lane effectively narrows the street and would act to slow traffic in an area where kids walk to school.

The report noted Aberdeen was expected to attract more cars once LRT begins, displacing vehicle traffic on King Street, but traffic staff wouldn't reveal Monday whether the updated transportation master plan will rule out a road diet altogether.

Whitehead expressed concern about whether the "interim" measures mean more narrowing is yet to come "when the other shoe drops."

Johnson, by contrast, called the interim measures a "decent compromise" but made clear his preference remains a road diet on Aberdeen. "There's no doubt its an arterial road, but it's also a residential road," he said after the meeting.

Coun. Chad Collins also asked during the meeting if the city was going to spend money on changes it will have to "undo" later if traffic counts climb on Aberdeen. Traffic head Martin White said he was confident the proposed short-term changes would not affect the capacity of the road in the future and can be easily removed, if necessary.

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Interim pedestrian safety measures expected for Aberdeen - Hamilton Spectator

DEAR JOAN:Here is a mystery I wonder if you could solve.

Any idea what would do this? It is in a space not available to dogs and such.

Dolores, Bay Area

DEAR DELORES: The trap you are using is a humane trap, which means it is designed to capture, not kill, the animal. Ill talk more about that in a minute, but first, lets talk about how the trap works.

Both ends of the trap are open to allow a creature to enter. When it does, the weight of its body on the trip pad causes both ends to snap closed, trapping the animal inside. What happened in your case is that you tried to trap an animal that is much smarter than you might guess.

The animal dug on the outside of the trap, tossing the dirt and debris inside to spring the trap and render it useless.Any way you look at it, thats darn clever. Even if the trap wasnt meant for the animal, it prevented some other creature from getting caught. Im picturing a sort of caped animal avenger.

I wasnt sure what clever critter might be at work here, so I contacted a new friend, Imogene Davis, a wildlife biologist who recently helped me with some track identification. Imogene has extensive field experience with all sorts of wildlife. She now works with Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service studying Pacific martens in Northern California.

Imogene says springing traps in that manner is a common maneuver for a mesocarnivore an animal with a diet of 50 to 70 percent meat, and the rest made up offungi, fruits and plants. It is veryunlike a rodent, so your suspected rat is innocent.

She thinks it was likelya fox or a raccoon, both of which could access a fenced area.

Its important that you know what type of animal youre trying to snag before you set out to trap it. That will make your attempts much more successful as youll know where to place the trap and what to bait it with.

Now, back to that trap. I applaud you for using a humane trap, butI want to make sure youre aware of the trapping laws in California because a lot of people arent. Some people use humane traps to capture whatever animal is making a nuisance of itself in their yards, and then they transport the creature to a nearby park, or to open space, or to the yard of a neighbor theyre having a feud with. All of these options are illegal.

State law requires that if you trap an animal, you must either release it on the property where it was captured, or you must humanely kill it. That sounds a little nutty to some, but there are good reasons for it.

Transporting animals outside their territories can spread disease, set up conflictswith other animals, and orphan young left behind in nests and dens. On the other hand, release-or-kill rules allow for the humane trapping of, for example, a raccoon that has invaded your attic. You dont want to kill it, you just want to get it out of the attic, so you trap it, patch up the entrance hole after checking for more raccoons inside, and then release it in your yard.

Originally posted here:
Wily animal safely springs trap from the outside - The Mercury News

New Atlas

New Gene Silencer Drug Reduces Cholesterol by More Than 50% P&T Community We appear to have found a versatile, easy-to-take, safe treatment that provides sustained lowering of cholesterol levels and is therefore likely to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, and stroke, said lead author Professor ... 'Gene Silencer' Drug Reduces Cholesterol by 50 PercentLaboratory Equipment Gene Silencer Can Reduce Cholesterol Levels by 50 Percent [VIDEO]Counsel & Heal all 10 news articles »

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New Gene Silencer Drug Reduces Cholesterol by More Than 50% - P&T Community