Women Health Online

Taking your first steps from being a sedentary overweight person to becoming a true a runner is no easy task. In fact, if you’re overweight or haven’t done much exercise lately, running may not be the best option for you as the high impact nature of this activity can lead to a myriad of injuries and health problems. Nonetheless, starting running the right way can help you steer clear of such troubles.

As a result, here are the 2 steps you need to make as an overweight person to start running hassle-free:

1st step: Build the Proper Mindset

The first step toward starting running has nothing to do with the activity itself; instead, it’s about your mindset. Your mindset holds the keys to your success. If yo

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In the past 3 years, there has been a stark decline in the amount of meat that people in the U.S. are consuming. According to Your Daily Dose of Vegan Outreach:

Thats a billion animals saved over just a few years. Part of the decline is most likely linked to rising food prices, but you also have to give props to plant-based diets gaining popularity. Whether people are eating less meat to save money, improve their health, or for animal rights reasons, this trend is good news from an environmental perspective, given animal agricultures effect on the environment.

The bad news is that as Americans are eating less meat, demand for meat in other countries is on the rise.

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“Reading” books on my iPod is usually great. I can download them from audible, and while I’m tending to the daily monotony that comprises much of labwork (tissue culture, prepping protein samples, running back and forth between centrifuges), I can just pop in my earbuds and keep my brain engaged with something interesting. But never have I so regretted listening to rather than reading a book as I did with Public Parts by Jeff Jarvis.

Not because he’s a bad narrator – in fact he does better than many authors reading their own work (though he has the first audio typo I think I’ve ever heard…

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Almost two years after a massive earthquake hit the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, reconstruction has barely started, with many aid agencies still focused on basic humanitarian needs and containing a cholera epidemic.

Political uncertainty, poor coordination and land tenure issues have hampered reconstruction efforts. Around half a million Haitians still live in camps in worsening conditions.

Following are AlertNet interviews with experts and aid officials about ongoing challenges and lessons learnt on the ground in Haiti.

Being overweight or obese surely puts you at a high risk for disease.

But even more important than simply reading the number on the scale is where you carry your weight.

Very simply, the size of your belly matters.

On the flipside, if you carry more of your weight in your hips and thighs, you’re at less of a risk.

Here’s the deal:

There are different types of fat in the body:

Visceral fat lies beneath the abdominal muscle, so is not visible.

On the other hand, subcutaneous fat is right underneath the skin, so can be seen.

We now know that those who have more belly fat, or visceral fat, are at a significantly higher heart disease and diabetes risk, among others.

The reason for this is that visceral fat surrounds the vital organs.  It also releases various hormones that have been linked to disease.  In a nutshell, belly fat is VERY dangerous!

In general, most women carry more of their weight in their lower body and men carry more of their weight around their middle…and that lower body fat may be actually somewhat protective.  We’re not suggesting gaining weight to protect you from heart disease, but when solely comparing the two types of fat, visceral fat is much more dangerous.

And, while it’s more common for men to carry their weight in their upper body, as women age, hormonal shifts tend to cause a shift in where body fat is stored.  It’s therefore not uncommon for women who go through menopause to gain more fat around their belly too.

So what can be done about this? 

First, measure your belly and see if you’re at risk.

Run a tape measure around your midsection at about the level of your belly button.  Breathe normally, dont suck in, or pull the tape so tight you lose oxygen.

Goal: < 35” for women, and <40” for men.

How do you fare?

Fortunately visceral fat responds very well to exercise … in particular, high intensity exercise. 

A study published just a few years ago out of the University of Virginia “Effect of Exercise Training Intensity on Abdominal Visceral Fat and Body Composition” showed that those who exercised at the highest intensities (of course that is relative, depending on your current fitness level) had the greatest loss in belly fat! Of course any move

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