After a little research it is apparent that nobody really knows where the saying that you need to drink 8 cups of water per day comes from. Some people trace it back to a study in the 1980’s, and other people claim that doctors starting telling people that amount because it was a good goal, but didn’t have any scientific research to back it up with.

Either way, the point is clear, water does wonders for your body, and your brain. Water is well known to cleanse your body of harmful chemicals through your intestines and also throughout your urine tract. Without proper water intake, our bodies break down very quickly, in a matter of days. Without food, however, some people can live for a week or two. That just shows how important water is to our bodies.

Here are 3 quick tips for taking in more water.

1. Always have water available.

I like to buy the 12 ounce bottles of water and keep them in the fridge. Whenever I go to the gym I grab a bottle. On my way out the door to work, I grab a bottle. Before a trip that will be 30 minutes or longer, I grab a bottle. When I watch a movie, I grab a bottle.

Whenever I am sitting watching TV or a movie, I will keep the bottle in my hand with the lid off. I take a lot of little sips until the bottle is gone. A great way of making sure you drink more water is to make sure it is easily accessible.

2. Keep it cold.

I don’t know many people who like to drink room temperature water, I sure don’t. If you keep your water cold, you will drink more. I make sure there is always ice in my freezer, this make it very easy to have a cold glass of water anytime.

3. Chose water in restaurants.

Whenever I go out to eat, I always drink water with some lemon. The lemon adds a little spunk to the taste and the water is always nice, cold and refreshing. After a short time you will stop craving your old drink of choice and will begin to appreciate the taste, or lack of taste, that water provides.

Give water a shot and your body will be thankful!

In modern society people are more concerned with their body weight than ever before. But is it any wonder why we have these concerns?

We have more processed and fast foods available to us than ever before. In this modern era everything needs to be convenient, and that includes our meals. More and more people turn to ready meals, pre prepared foods and fast foods rather than what we used to do many years ago, cook a meal using fresh ingredients. Obviously manufacturers are cashing in on this trend and giving us more choice than ever of convenience meals. These meals are full of fat and useless calories and play a large part in the overall scheme of obesity.

Another factor is beauty magazines and waif like celebrities. Woman (and men) find themselves under extreme pressure to conform to the standard that we see in the glossy pages of magazines. Eating disorders are more prevalent than ever before in the developed countries. Anorexia and Bulimia are the most prevalent eating disorders in teenaged and young adult females.

Also having an impact on our weight is the advancement in technology, cars, public transport and maybe not as obvious ñ the internet. With the age of the internet more and more people are working from home so some lifestyles are even more sedentary nowadays as some workers do not even have to leave their house to conduct their working day, it can all be done in the comfort of their own home.

So all in all the odds are stacked against us, the only way to overcome bodyweight issues is to take matters into your own hands. Take more time to prepare meals with fresh produce, remember that the models in glossy magazines have been airbrushed to within an inch of their lives, and of course take some time out to get some exercise.

Tip 1: Rise above the cravings

Imagine the cigarettes as crutches. Youíve always had these crutches to lean on and soon, it becomes impossible to walk without them. The important thing to learn is that as soon as you walk on your feet again, theyíll quickly regain strength. It may be a little known fact, but about half of what a smoker inhales from his cigarette is pure air. The next time youíre hit with a craving, take some deep breaths and relax. You will soon be able to rise above the craving, feel refreshed, and move on.

Tip 2: All the reasons to quit

Why do you want to quit? Do you have children? Do you want to live to see your grandchildren? Are you sick of the smell? Whatever your reasons are, write them down. Keep a daily journal of how you feel and in the very first entry list in bold letters every reason you have for quitting. List things like health reasons, expense, inconvenience, bad breath, or other reasons and make the list as long as possible. Also be sure to list how you WILL feel when youíve kicked the habit.

Tip 3: The good, the bad and the ugly

After you complete your lists of reasons you want to quit and how youíll feel after youíve quit, make a list of the consequences of not quitting. Have other smokers in your family gotten cancer? Have they died? Do they have to speak through a hole in their neck? Will you be unable to pay off debt because youíre always buying cigarettes? Whatever you consequences, be sure to list all of them. As above, be sure to list the consequences (good consequences, of course) of quitting. Keep them to look forward to.

Tip 4: Break time!

Most smokers agree: a cigarette is a break. When quitting, give yourself breaks, but do something. Go for walk, eat a piece of fruit or drink some juice. This is critical because the body will be going through changes expelling all the accumulated poisons. The fruit will aid this process in many ways.

Good luck!

First, we had the low fat program, then no fat, then high carb, then no carb, then all meat, then no meat. As for weight losing drugs, we had the heart attack inducing Fen-phen. Then, we had drugs and fads that replaced all of these.

And in another year, another fad will start.

The fact of the matter is, diets simply do not work. Medications do not work. Nothing works to give you a long, lean muscular body until you have tapped into the number one secret for turning your body into a ripped, muscle building and fat burning machine.

And the secret is not simply aerobic exercise or working out. These two will help tremendously, but will not turn the corner for you.

What you will need to turn your body into a fat burning, muscle building, energetic machine, is a sure fire method of turning up your internal metabolic level. Jogging and weight lifting only turn up that consumption function while you are doing them. Drugs and supplements only strain your heart while they temporarily force your body to burn calories.

The surefire method to turning up your internal furnace is simple: you’ll need a daily exercise program that restores your body to full mobility, preferably a program that quietly makes you sweat.

These programs allow your body to suddenly function fully. A fully flexible body becomes longer, leaner, and will naturally burn twice the calories of even an accomplished athlete. Any person who has followed these types of programs faithfully will attest to this: their metabolisms skyrocket. Their immune system power goes into overdrive, and their aches and pains, colds and flus, all seem to go into remission.

So where are these programs? Ashtanga and Hatha Yoga are the fountainheads of these incredible body-shredding programs. Power Pilates and other similar programs are very close followers to these ancient, principled methods.

Turning on your internal furnace has never been easier: look for a powerful home flexibility program and you will see dramatic changes in your physique, your energy, and your life.

Dr. Bryan Brodeur

Acupuncture, Chiropractic Care, and Massage Therapy are available to every member of our society. Each of these therapies have been proven to improve our life and our health. Yet, very few of us have ever undertaken a serious course of Alternative Medicine, let alone a regular course of each. They can be a beneficial, and relatively inexpensive, adjunct in your pursuit of excellent health.

The key to understanding and using these alternative medicines properly is to understand that they are preventative of disease, and contributive to energy. Thinking of these therapies the same way that you think of mainstream medicine will only give you the results that mainstream medicine has.

Whether you have or haven’t explored these areas, you will definitely need a professional opinion in terms of how to properly access these alternative fields of medicine and how to receive the most benefit to your health. Each one of these disciplines carries an important means in addressing the currents which control our health.

Discovering which to use, when to use them, and how to use them, is a step by step process. The empowering effects of these healing arts are criticized and unduly insulted in medical offices to this day. Unfortunately, these critical physicians are often not familiar with the annals of research in the other fields.

It is sad that the ‘real’ doctor of today is educated entirely by the pharmaceutical industry, and would prescribe dangerous drugs before exploring the power of these emerging arts. Even more unfortunately, this leaves the patient without any authoritative guidance as to how to explore the world of Alternative Medicine.

As we consider different health issues, we should also consider which of these alternative care disciplines you should enlist to assist you. Research thoroughly how to select an alternative care doctor and how to receive as much assistance as you can without affecting your pocket book. These disciplines are, in many cases, not any more expensive than mainstream efforts to achieve a health goal . Explore what you feel you’d prefer to avoid in the alternative health field, what you’d be comfortable with accepting, and how to find a medical doctor who is educated well in alternative medicines.

Disease Prevention

Disease Prevention is a popular phrase and a poorly followed principle. The problem we have, as a society, with the concept of disease prevention is that there is nothing exciting about it. If you consider eating healthy and living right only as a means to prevent disease, you’ll never be excited enough to follow it up properly.

The only people who become excited about preventing disease are usually people who already have a disease.

The most effective manner of motivating yourself towards healthy living is to understand how it will bring you closer to a stronger, more energetic person than the one you are today. Using prevention only to prevent disease is both dull and pessimistic. Using the tools you’ve associated with prevention to bring you more strength and vitality can make it exciting and can show you new pleasures in life.

If you can fathom that the same lifestyle you had when you were young is attainable now, this might make the alternative principles of disease prevention a little more interesting to you.

What is important to understand is that alternative principles, such as Vitalism, are a source of rejuvenation, can restore energy, and can even bring energy to a person who has never had strong energy levels. These principles, often associated with helping eliminate or reduce disease prevention, should be followed until an individual has achieved an ideal state of health in their life.

Dr. Bryan Brodeur

The truth is that time does not age us as much as our decisions do. Our decision to create a powerful physique will reverse the effects of time. A decision to live on whole and living foods will refresh our cellular matrix. A decision to open our minds to our longevity and our unlimited potential will be the reason we do not simply age because we believe it to be inevitable.

Our skin does not need to age as rapidly as most do. Nor do our organs, our spine, or our minds. The bulk of visible aging is a consequence of believing in aging, and allowing aging. Believing in youth and participating in a daily refreshment of your mind, body, and soul is the most potent method you have of reversing aging.

Ignored, our muscles lose their form and their function. Ignored muscles make us look older than we are. They create sagging where no sagging should be accepted. Sagging and wrinkling are primarily a result of ignoring our muscular system, and they can therefore be so much less than what we normally see.

Poor posture ages us. The greatest indicator of age, greater than wrinkles or grey hair, is our posture. A stooped over young man with colored hair will look older than a similarly appearing man with erect posture, some white hair and some mild wrinkling. We recognize, instinctively, that the stooped person is decaying on the inside, and we know, instinctively, that this is a greater sign of aging.

Ignored inflexibility ages us. The way we move when flexibility would be required is interpreted by those around us as signs that we are aging. The very slight rigidity, the very slight stiffness that you have convinced yourself is no big deal is a sign: it is a sign that your physique is dysfunctional, and it is a sign, to those around you, that you are aging. It is not an “expected” sign of growing old. It is a sign that you do not take proper care of the gift of life you’ve been given.

Change the way you think about your body, and change the way you feel in the body you live in. We were designed to live over a hundred years, in energetic, healthy bodies.

Dr. Bryan Brodeur

The cause of the rigidity, inflexibility, and ultimately the fusion of our skeletal joints are always in the minor misalignments of these joints. The minor misalignments of these joints are referred to in the literature as subluxated joints, or subluxations. Vertebral subluxation, the misalignment of spinal vertebra, is the most damaging of all skeletal misalignments. The misalignments create the fusion, the wear, and the breakdown of our spine, nature’s proudest pillar.

This synchronous tower, left to its own design, is the single greatest source of power for the fragile venous, lymphatic, and arterial systems. This tall, balanced structure is one large, powerful pump, whose force is harnessed by every transportation system in our body. The greatest transport vessels hug the spine and depend on its brute pressures. The gastrointestinal systems depend on its power to create flows within the GI tract, to pump our foods and liquids along the long journey through our digestive system.

But most fantastically, this skeletal structure houses and transports the delicate nervous system, ensuring each strand of our powerful mental pulse travels to its appropriate cell and back again.

All of the stretches in the world cannot restore a micro section of the spine, such as the intervertebral disc, to its exact proper form. For this sort of work you will need a body worker. You will need a body worker who can x-ray the area and, following the alignment issues noted on the x-rays, create a perfect alignment of the misaligned vertebrae. While many chiropractors are able to follow this system, some do not, and some will have no concept of how to follow through on these concepts.

I absolutely recommend that you insist on your next (or possibly first) meeting with your chiropractor, that you and he or she review x-rays of your affected area, that all subluxations and any scoliosis are reviewed, and that a plan for reduction of the misalignments, subluxations, and signs of degeneration be proposed and undertaken. You should be able to have a re-x-ray taken within four to six months, in which your misalignments are corrected, and many of the signs of decay or degenerative arthritis, are reversed by up to ten percent. You do not want to be in the group whose spine is decaying; you want to join the group whose spine is returning to full strength.

Regular monitoring by use of an x-ray, no more than twice within a year, is appropriate and necessary to ensure that your work is moving your body forward. Regular improvement of your spine will place you in the very small minority of people on the planet whose spines are being strengthened with time. The very large majority of us are living with internal dysfunctions that are creating our early demise and the literal destruction of our spine, followed by the decay of our energy and our power.

Dr. Bryan Brodeur

Obesity, scrawniness, whatever physical defect you visualize yourself to have, is easily overcome once you are given insight to the true sources of fitness. No gym membership is required. Very little time is required. More than anything else, fitness is a state of mind and a level of consistent commitment.

Thoroughly explore the issues of fitness, of building a physique that is healthy and attractive, and expand on the simple means to this end every day. Your greatest focus should be on how fitness can be simply incorporated into your daily events, with no significant need for strenuous exercise in your leisure time.

What you need to understand is that no matter what your job duties may be, there is a way and the time to perform your work duties and still strengthen your spine, your abs, your shoulders, arms, legs, and chest. Between this change in mindset and a few simple stretching techniques, a healthy and strong physique is easily accomplished.

Fitness and health are easier to attain than they are made out to be. Proper fitness is the key to excellent health. The fads in fitness, however, have misled, bored, and driven many away from the concept of fitness.

Try to find exercises that are easy to do, that will strengthen your body, balance your spine, invigorate your immune system, increase your lymphatic flow, and help you win the battle for a healthy body. In the process, you will slowly and surely move towards the physique that is right for you, using exercises that are pleasant, that actually feel good to do, and that will immediately increase your energy and strength.

Sculpting a healthy physique is a part of limiting and eliminating your physical problems, and the way you pursue physical fitness must be done right. It is important to not be deceived by fad books, fad diets, and fad exercise programs. These programs are difficult to follow and few follow through for life.

Create a program that is right for you by learning about foods and how to strengthen your physical body properly. Choose exercises that are actually pleasant to perform, and diets that are delicious and full of the ingredients your body needs to ward off stress and disease. What you will find in time is that the knowledge you obtain, and the exercises you do will be enough to make you a healthier person.

Dr. Bryan Brodeur