Believe In Yourself!

Secret Tips To A Flat Belly

Provided by LiveStrong.com

Overview

Having the right plan and tips to get rid of unwanted belly fat can aid in your achievement of a flat stomach. Not only does excess stomach fat make you feel self conscious, it also increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes. There is no fast way to erase belly fat--it takes work and commitment from you. Below are some tips to help you, consulting with your physician and personal trainer before starting any new meal or exercise plan is advised.

Read the rest of the article---> Here!

Enjoy,

LCB

Sahrmann Tranversus Abdominal Exercises

I wrote this article for Livestrong.com and are for those who can't due heavy impact training...I hope you enjoy it, and click on the link to read the rest of the article!

Overview

Your abdomen could be one of the most difficult muscle groups to keep in shape; however, there is an alternative to doing 1,000 situps to get toned abs. Dr. Shirley Sahrmann, a physical therapist and associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis, formulated a series of abdominal movements, which are currently used in physical therapy clinics and fitness programs today. Dr. Sahrmann's stomach exercises help develop strength and tone in the lower abdominals. These exercises target that troubled area without causing stress to the abdomen or your lower back. Women who have just given birth and want to exercise or those who want to restructure and build strength in their abs may benefit from these exercises. Before attempting these movements, consult with your physician and physical therapist.

Sahrmann Exercise 1

Lie on the floor with your knees bent, feet flat and arms at your side. Hold your stomach in and do not flatten your back. Instead, keep your lower back slightly arched and relaxed. Keep one leg bent. Slowly slide your other leg out until it is straight on the floor and slowly slide it back up to the bent knee position. Relax your stomach. Repeat the exercise on the other leg and do 20 repetitions. When this exercise is comfortable, you can then progress to the next movement.

Read the rest of this article HERE!

Bend, Lift, Fly

For those of you who asked, y

I snagged this photo on ilovewildfox.com, however it is a tumblr recycle as well!

For me, this photo generates freedom with restriction. Does everything need to go hand in hand?  The balance? 

The pic has given me the inspiration to write this blog post.

As a past dancer and best friend to the magnificent Miss Michelle Natalino who runs the amazing performing art Studio BE school and is also the best performing arts teacher/choreographer in life ;), my metaphor to bend, lift and fly reminds me of her:

Bend: 

Why is it so hard to bend to your dreams or goals, and yet so easy to let yourself fall in depression or guilt? There are tons of books, doctors and spiritualists that have a number of answers for you, including your friends and family. However, it is YOU that needs to bend to your true hearts calling and bend to what makes you happy. I could be having a legitimate conversation with my best friend and she can be choreographing a dance in her head. Finally shouting out, "Look at this!" Her dream is apart of her very being without question. It is so innate in her, it is almost magical to be around! She could have bended to everyone else's whim but instead she stopped, focused and now (as she always knew) is a teacher. An inspirational guide to her lovely and amazingly talented dancers and artists who are allowed to BE themselves and dance, sing, and perform their heart's out! She has given a gift to the world and the world has given the gift right back to her.

See, when you bend to your dreams and true happiness you give a gift to the world that allows others to bend to their dreams! You can BE who you want to be!

Lift:

Lift your dreams to your mind. You have more control of your life and outcomes than you think. You may or may not need to share it with people, but they need to be very aware to you!

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

~Martin Luther King Jr.

Fly:

Flying is a metaphor for the magic in action!!! We can bend to the wills or not, we can lift so high it seems unreachable but without flying--action--there would be no result.

Let your dream soar to others and the universe, doing this will help make your dreams and goals bigger. Action is listening to the signs, whether it be internal or external. It could be a person popping into your life, or a random word on a sign, or a thought you come up with. Put the work in and you will reach your goal. The universe will conspire to your wants. "What we think about, we bring about," from the Law of Attraction.

And it is true!

So my dears, Live.Connect.Breathe It! Always remember who you want to be and never give up!

Miss Michelle Natalino got what she wanted and now it's your turn ;).

With Love,

LCB

Check Out the Bio-Individuality of Your Body article in Women Of Power Magazine

The Bio-Individuality of Your Body

“The human body is the universe in miniature. That which cannot be found in the body, is not to be found in the universe. Hence the philosopher’s formula, that the universe within, reflects the universe without. It follows therefore, that if our knowledge of our own body could be perfect we would know the universe.” ~ Mahatma Ghandi

We were created to be unique human beings who, while living with some likenesses, seem to be more remarkable in the ways we differ than in the ways we are similar.

There is no one diet that works for every individual and as both Anne Louise Gittleman, author of “Your Body Knows Best” and Joshua Rosenthal, director, owner and teacher for the Institute for Integrative Nutrition say, numerous factors shape our bio-individuality, one example is our ancestry. If your ancestors were Japanese it is very likely you ate such things as sea vegetables and high amounts of rice versus a vegetarian ancestry from India, eating more grains, lentils and spices.

Read the rest of my article out here! 


With much love,


LCB

The Bio-Individuality of Your Body

“The human body is the universe in miniature. That which cannot be found in the body, is not to be found in the universe. Hence the philosopher’s formula, that the universe within, reflects the universe without. It follows therefore, that if our knowledge of our own body could be perfect we would know the universe.” ~ Mahatma Ghandi

We were created to be unique human beings who, while living with some likenesses, seem to be more remarkable in the ways we differ than in the ways we are similar.

There is no one diet that works for every individual and as both Anne Louise Gittleman, author of “Your Body Knows Best” and Joshua Rosenthal, director, owner and teacher for the Institute for Integrative Nutrition says, numerous factors shape our bio-individuality, one example is our ancestry. If your ancestors were Japanese it is very likely you ate such things as sea vegetables and high amounts of rice versus a vegetarian ancestry from India, eating more grains, lentils and spices.

“One person’s food is another person’s poison,” says Rosenthal. It is why fad diets never work in the long haul. At one time we knew what to eat and what was right for our bodies. In the past we grew and gathered local foods and learned from our elders on how to cook and prepare it. We ate together as a group or family, however in these times we are rushed and maybe have one meal together as a unit. Now, what we want and look for are convenient and fast foods. Advertising companies spend billions of dollars each year to make you believe these highly processed, fast foods or cigarettes, alcohol and more unhealthy products, are exactly what you need for your day. Do you think given just a moment of thought you would actually buy that stuff? Of course not, we don’t wake up in the morning and ask ourselves “what should I do today to destroy myself?” We are so influenced by advertisements that we have lost touch with our bodies’ instincts.

Trust your body. You are living in it and you should take care of it. When you learn to listen to your body and develop an understanding of what foods it needs and at what time it needs it, you will discover what is best for you. If you allow yourself time to explore your body and its system, you will be very surprised at how responsive and intelligent it truly is. Your body is a highly sensitive organism that wants to be healthy. It wants to communicate with you about the food you supply it with and how to treat it if it is in trouble.

Pay attention to your body and take care of it, so it can take care of you!

Techniques on How to Boost Your Energy

Here is an article I did for LIVESTRONG.com on few good tips to boost that energy!

Overview

Chronic fatigue is an epidemic that affects millions of people each day. You may think eating a power bar or ingesting an energy drink will solve the problem but it is quite the opposite. These products last for a short period and may cause you more health problems. Simple approaches such as exercise, eating healthy and taking your vitamins can help boost your energy.

Step 1

Eat a clean for at least a week. Cut out sugar, nicotine, alcohol, caffeine and chemicals. Adjust your menu to include healthy foods such as grass-fed beef and wild, steamed or grilled fish. Eat small portions of cooked non-gluten grains such as oatmeal or quinoa. Enjoy vegetables, berries, fruits, nuts and seeds. Drink fresh or raw vegetable juices and organic broth.

Step 2

Take vitamins and supplements. Ingesting supplements may speed along certain metabolic pathways that are nutrient dependent. These get sluggish when those nutrients are in short supply. Take Coenzyme Q10, an effective antioxidant that works to help the functioning of your heart. It works for both men and women and should be taken as directed on label.

Step 3

Doing exercise at least 3 to 5 times a week is a stress reducer and an energy booster. Do a 15-minute routine, such as running or brisk walking and squats or push-ups. These exercises send oxygen and nutrients to your brain and improve your circulation. Exercise gives you "feel-good" endorphins throughout your body and makes you feel energized.

To read the rest go 
HERE!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me!

Enjoy your day,

LCB

Bioflavonoids for Weight Loss

America's obesity crisis is correlated to the abundance of junk food, saturated fats and the surplus of calories within its diet. Directing yourself toward a diet rich in vegetables, fruits and additional plant foods can provide your body with the essential minerals, vitamins and nutrients it needs to guard you from diseases and obesity. Foods that contain powerful antioxidants, such as bioflavonoids, will enhance your immune and digestive system and, in return, activate your weight loss. It is important to discuss any dietary measures with your medical or health professional.

Citrus Fruits

Citrus fruits, including oranges, grapefruits, lemons and limes, contain a bioflavonoid called taxifolin. Taxifolin helps absorb vitamin C, and vitamin C boosts your immunity while you are trying to lose weight. Citrus fruits are not just for eating. You may also make fresh juices or add fruit to your water. Leave the fruit in your water for a few hours, and the water's flavor will refresh you.

Berries

Blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, cherries, grapes or goji berries should be added into your meals. They contain a bioflavonoid named ellagic acid, which helps shield your body from cancerous cells. They also have proanthocyanidins, which aid in fat and cholesterol oxidation. They are low in calories and beneficial toward your weight loss.

Vegetables and Fruit

Eating legumes, onions, potatoes, tomatoes and apples at mealtime act as your assistants for your weight loss. They contain a bioflavonoid called quercetin. Quercetin helps protect you from any free radical damage and enhances insulin secretion during weight loss, especially for diabetics. These foods are also a healthy source of fiber. Fiber fills you up, using a great many fewer calories. It keeps you healthy and assists you in your weight loss success.


Read the rest of the article HERE!

Enjoy it everyone!

Warmest,

LCB

How to Lose Weight and Look Fantastic

How to Lose Weight and Look Fantastic

Overview

Losing weight and feeling fantastic may go hand in hand, but it is about your dedication and the gratitude you give to yourself. Modifying your diet and exercise, and sticking to your goals can help you reach your desired outcome. "You're not perfect, but you're perfectly good enough," says Dr. Christopher Ebbe, author of "How to Feel Good About Yourself: The 12 Steps to Positive Self Esteem." Do what is truly best for you and treat yourself well, notes Ebbe.

Exercise

Step 1

Do 20 to 60 minutes of cardiovascular exercises such as running, walking, swimming, jumping rope and jumping jacks. Exercise three to five times a week and increase your pace and time with each workout.

Step 2

Do interval, or Tabata, exercises. You will need to give your full intensity during the workout, followed by a resting period in between. These exercises range from 4 to 25 minutes in length and can be done three to five days a week. These types of workouts speed up your metabolism and keep it working up to 36 hours after your workout due to the intensity.


Step 3

Do 20 to 60 minutes of strength-building exercises that involve using every muscle in your body. Use 10 to 30 lb. weights or higher, due to your physical capability. Do combination workouts such as a hang clean, push press and front squat. Doing these exercises helps burn a ton of fat.

Step 4

Do push-ups, squats and lunges. You do not need to use any weights, and they are still a part of the strength training exercise group. They accelerate your heart rate by using your own body weight to perform them. More muscle helps burn more fat.

Step 5

Build your self-esteem. Set goals for yourself and achieve them. Do affirmations and take time out for yourself. Love and respect yourself. Read positive quotes, watch a great movie or participate in a family or friend event that will make you feel great.

READ THE REST OF MY ARTICLE ON LIVESTRONG.COM HERE!

Enjoy my lovelies!

Be back soon,

LCB

Information on Natural Things to Help the Thyroid

More than 13 million people suffer from thyroid disorders in America and the number is growing. In today's society, you will see your doctor and within minutes, you are prescribed a pill. However, incorporating natural ways to restore the balance of your thyroid may be more beneficial. "It's a matter of balance or imbalance that starts with your thyroid gland and involves every part and function of your body, from your hair to your toes," writes Glenn S. Rothfeld and Deborah S. Romaine, authors of "Thyroid Balance: Traditional and Alternative Methods for Treating Thyroid Disorders."

The Thyroid

Your thyroid gland is located under your Adam's apple and is shaped like a butterfly. The thyroid acts as the master gland of your metabolism, says Dr. Joseph Mercola for Alive.com. It controls your body's temperature and its growth and development. Thyroid irregularity can lead to Hyperthyroidism, Hypothyroidism or Grave's Disease.

Sleep and Exercise

Both sleep and exercise are two lifestyle factors that are interconnected. It can become difficult to sleep without doing enough aerobic and anaeorbic type exercises, says Dr. Mercola. Your body benefits from 7 to 8 hours of solid and uninterrupted sleep. Sleep restores your hormonal balance. A lack of sleep and exercise can lower your immunity and throw your thyroid out of balance. Exercise acts as an immunity and energy enhancer. It produces immunity enhancing chemicals and boosts the oxygen flow within your body, which helps fight against antigens, says Mary Shomon of Thyroid-Info.com

Read the rest of my article on LIVESTRONG.com here.

Steps to Help Find Your Passion!

The Buddhist’s believe that in order to relieve yourself from fear and sorrow you must release passion:

“From passion arises sorrow and from passion arises fear. If a man is free from passion, he is free from fear and sorrow.”

-Buddha

Who wants to live without passion?

Passion is what drove Martin Luther King Jr. to help deliver freedom to the people!
Passion is who fought for women rights!
Passion is why you are able to connect to your dreams and makes you feel alive!

You should walk into your fears and use it as drive and direction towards your greatness.
You should accept sorrow and learn from it.
It is not passion or any other quality that causes fear and sorrow; it is people. And it is your duty to use it as a gift, not a vice.

To help reclaim or find your passions, try some of these steps:

1.) Listen and Observe Your Reactions

For a couple of days or a week, try to analyze your feelings towards certain situations. For example, your read a passage in a book and it pops out at you. Why? It may be a trigger to your inner voice. Notice what stimulates you in a passionate way and make a mental note of it.

2.) Write it Down

Make a list of your passions and goals you want to achieve. Make the list thorough. Write down everything that excites you. The list can have 5 to 150 goals; it is whatever you chose! Planting these passions in eye’s view can ignite excitement, passion and action! Small actions can have a surmountable effect.

3.) The Second List

After you have written your goals and feel the passion brewing, continue on to a question list. Ask questions like, whom do you admire or whom do you know that is doing something that you would love to be doing? Why? What is stopping you from doing it? What qualities do you possess that can be beneficial to this? What blockages do you have to stop you from getting there? What can you do to break those blockages and how would breaking them make you feel? If money, time, and energy were not an issue, what would you do in your life and what would you be? What makes you happy? What makes you feel loved? What do you love to do?

Now, answer them! If you come up with more, by all means write them down and answer them. Read it over. Through this list see what your passions and common goals are. Don’t think so hard; just write. Be fluid and let the answers come naturally.

3.) Give it a Try

You don’t always know if something is right or if you like it, until you try it out. Either you try it and want more or try it and chose to move on. The point is to give it a whirl and see if you want to continue. We are consistently changing and sourcing out where your passion lies can be a door opener into your true potential.

4.) Pray or Meditate

This is the time where you get quite and listen to what’s going on—feel what’s going on. Doing pray or meditation delivers a connection with you and your higher spirit. It may not be easy at first but nothing great is accomplished without practice! For prayer focus on a situation, close your eyes and talk either out loud or to yourself. As for meditation, you can focus on the light of a candle or you can count to yourself. This allows for some solid concentration. It may also bring you into a state you have never thought you could go to.


Following your passion will bring you to a place of joy and transport joy to others as well. It takes work to find your passions and takes work to act on them! Keep on going and be resilient. Think about what others have been through and learn to be grateful, even for the fact that you have the eyes to read this blog post! It is not a snap of a finger that gets things done; it is your passion and follow through!

Take care and Live.Connect.Breathe. It!

LCB

How to Accelerate The Heart Rate Naturally

"Get moving," recommends the American Heart Association, "you'll feel better and your healthy depends on it!" To increase your heart rate at a natural state, it is important to do things that not only speed up your heart but also engage your entire body. Exercising, being outdoors and enjoying yourself and others can provide many benefits. As little as 30 minutes of exercise a day can reduce the risk of heart disease, states the American Heart Association.

Read the rest of my article here!

Hope you enjoy!

Take care,

LCB

The Best Quick Working Exercises at Home

Tabata workouts are designed to be 20 seconds of a full intensity workout followed by 10 seconds of rest. The Tabata workout is four minutes long. The workouts were developed by Izumi Tabata, a Japanese scientist who wanted to increase aerobic activity as well as increase metabolism up to 36 hours after a workout. Tabata is not designed for everyone and workouts can vary. It is important to train and build up your intensity with a certified personal trainer.

Read the rest of my article here!

Enjoy,

LCB

Martin Luther King Jr.: An Eye on the Future

It is the spring of 1961, and in the kitchen of a safe house in Montgomery, Alabama, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. looks tense, perhaps worried. As a volunteer bends his ear, the 32-year-old civil rights leader glances toward one of the 17 students hunkered down with him -- fresh-faced college kids who, moved by King's message of racial equality, have risked their very lives. The past two weeks have been harrowing for these young people -- the "Freedom Riders," they are called -- as they inch across the state on integrated buses, their numbers diminished at every stop in the face of arrests, bloody mob beatings, fire-bombings. There to capture the mood in the room as the group plans its next brave move -- a ride into Jackson, Mississippi -- is LIFE photographer Paul Schutzer, who covered the "Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom" four years earlier and had seen firsthand the kind of courage and determination King could inspire in his followers. Now, nearly 50 years after these Freedom Rides and in celebration of King's birthday, LIFE.com presents never-seen photos taken by Schutzer, tracking King and the nation-changing movement he led, from the monuments of Washington to the streets of the Deep South.

Check it out here.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

"No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they'd die for."

Thank you,

LCB

What To Do To Lose The Last Few Stubborn Pounds!

Those last few stubborn pounds can be a nuisance. Certain exercises, nutrition and outdoors activities can make those hard-to-lose pounds fall off. Diet.com and body transformation expert Stephen Cabral say to form a healthy habit don't give up; there is no need to do marathon workouts. Do 30 minutes a day and pick things that you enjoy doing. Scheduling exercise, your nutritional plan and doing something outside can help you shed those last few pounds.

Read the rest on LIVESTRONG.com here!

Take care of yourself,

LCB

The Value of Push Ups

The push-up is an exercise that has proven itself worthy and has shown results. "You are just using your own body and your body's weight," says Steve G. Estes, a physical education professor and dean of the college of professional studies at Missouri Western State University, in "The New York Times." Push-ups come in different styles and you barely need any equipment to receive their benefits.

Read more on LIVESTRONG.com here.

Thank you and enjoy,

LCB

How To Overcome Weight Loss

Trying to achieve weight loss can be a burden or even a hassle, and to overcome it, you must take action. Remember: You have the control. Hive Health Media writer Sean Dent, a registered nurse and fitness athletic trainer, notes: "Food and eating are not the enemy. More often than not, it's the mind-numbing psychological battle at the root of our evils." As humans, we need to eat to live, not live to eat, Dent says.

Read the rest on LIVESTRONG.com here.

Check it and enjoy!

Be back soon,

LCB