Benjamins Yarn

Like most women, I believed the myth that if I used weight training in my workout routines, I would “bulk up” and not look feminine and attractive. I would do strengthening exercises for my abdominals and back, but avoided weight training on a regular basis. Instead I focused on cardiovascular exercise - running, walking, biking, and rollerblading.

This is common among most women.

However, this year I decided to put myself to the test. After exercising regularly 3-4 times per week I have seen dramatic results. You can see my results at http://www.onlinefitnesscoach.com/shelley-hitz.html. Not only did I lose 16 inches overall and 6% body fat, I also have more energy for my daily tasks!

What made the difference? Weight training. As you age, you tend to lose muscle due to inactivity. You get busy with work and your families and move a little less each day. What happens is you begin to lose muscle mass each year, which is what fuels your metabolism.

Your metabolism is simply the amount of calories your body burns each day. So, when your body loses muscle, your metabolism decreases and you burn less calories each day. Therefore, you can eat the same amount of food and still gain weight with each passing year.

The good news is that you can change your metabolism! That’s what I did. Once I added weight training to my workouts on a regular basis, I saw dramatic results.

How can you also see the same kind of results?

1. Exercise 3-5 times per week with a combination of strength training and aerobic training.

Research has shown that you will burn more fat when you do your strength training before aerobic training.

2. Take your before and after measurements

One of the best ways to stay focused and motivated when exercising is to set up a system of tracking your results. How can you tell if you’re making progress besides stepping on the scale everyday? Here are some ideas to help you get started on how to better track your progress with exercise:

**Using a flexible measuring tape, measure the largest point at your hips and smallest point at your waist. You can also track the size changes in your arms, thighs, calves, etc.

**Using body fat calipers, track your body fat measurements.

**Walk test - Distance & Recovery Heart Rate (walk one mile, record the time it took you to walk one mile and take your pulse for one minute after finishing walking)

**Sit ups (count number of sit ups in one minute - make sure your shoulder blades come off the floor)

**Push ups (count number of push ups in one minute - choose either standard push ups or modified push ups on your knees)

3. Find an accountability partner and check in with them at least once/week.

To reach your fitness goals, sign up for online fitness coaching at .

Written by Shelley Hitz, a Licensed Physical Therapist and NASM Certified Personal Trainer whose goal is to help as many people reach their fitness goals as possible. One way she does this is through online fitness coaching at http://www.onlinefitnesscoach.com. View her sample workout at http://www.onlinefitnesscoach.com/workout-routines.html

Chelation Therapy Calls into Question Chronic Nature of Disease. Heart disease and related conditions are the number one killer of women, yet a recently released poll found that only 31 percent of women felt they were at risk for heart disease - despite the fact that 84 percent reported having one or more risk factors. The poll, conducted by Lifetime Entertainment Services in partnership with the National Institutes of Health and non-profit organizations, also found that only 43 percent of respondents knew that women were more likely than men to die from heart disease.

Dr. Conrad Maulfair, director of the Maulfair Medical Center www.drmaulfair.com) in Topton, PA, is alarmed - but not surprised - by the poll’s findings, saying that most women don’t understand that heart disease develops long before the first symptoms appear. “While the symptoms of atherosclerosis, commonly referred to as hardening of the arteries, may appear suddenly as chest pain or a stroke, the disease may have begun 20, 30, or even 40 years earlier.”

“Even those who understand that atherosclerosis develops slowly over long periods of time may have misconceptions about the factors that contribute to the disease and draw the wrong conclusions about its prognosis,” says Dr. Maulfair, “I doubt there is a woman in the United States over 40 who does not believe, with certainty, that cholesterol is bad and that it causes blocked arteries. Most women regard high levels of cholesterol in the diet and in blood akin to a death sentence from atherosclerotic disease,” he notes.

On the contrary, Dr. Maulfair says that only a certain type of cholesterol makes up a significant part of the plaque that blocks arteries. “Damaged LDL cholesterol is the main ingredient in plaque, not undamaged, normal cholesterol.”

According to Dr. Maulfair, free radicals - reactive molecules that rob cells and tissues of electrons - damage LDL cholesterol, which is then more likely to adhere to the arterial wall. “Damage from free radicals left unchecked day after day, week after week, year after year results in the inability of cells and tissues to function normally, and can lead to the destruction, decreased function, and death of those cells.”

This information has profound implications for the way atherosclerosis is perceived and treated. “When a diagnosis is made,” explains Dr. Maulfair, “it is generally accepted by both the patient and the healthcare professional that the disease will be present for the rest of the patient’s life.” But this is not necessarily so, according to Dr. Maulfair, who adds, “When the underlying causes of the condition - in this case, free radical damage - are treated, the disease process can often be slowed or reversed. “

The most promising candidate for the eradication of free radicals is intravenous chelation therapy. Chelation works by binding to the toxic metals and excessive iron and copper in the body that cause free radical damage, allowing those toxins to be excreted through the urine. Likewise, chelation lowers the body’s level of metastic calcium, which is a form of calcium that deposits itself in the walls of the arteries prior to the formation of arterial plaque.

Dr. Maulfair explains there are three components of a chelation therapy program. “First, intravenous chelation treatment removes the metastic calcium and the iron and copper that accelerate free radical damage. It also removes toxic metals, such as lead and cadmium. Second, specific mineral nutrients and antioxidants essential for healthy cell function are taken orally. Third, a comprehensive diet and exercise program supports the progress toward wellness.”

According to a 2005 study published in the journal Evidence Based Integrative Medicine, people with vascular disease who underwent non-invasive intravenous chelation therapy experienced fewer cardiac events in the subsequent three years than those treated with bypass surgery, angioplasty, or other conventional medical therapy.

Dr. Maulfair stresses that knowledge enables women to understand and reduce their risk for heart disease, as well as the treatment options available to them. Summing up, Dr. Maulfair says, “It’s important to note that heart disease is not necessarily a chronic, degenerative disease with no hope for improvement, but that it can be treated and, in fact, reversed.”

Elisabeth Lawrence is the Senior Editor for Press Direct International. She is a veteran writer and TV producer/director. She received three EMMY awards while at CBS. She also wrote for the Wall Street Journal, and later, as a TV & video consultant, handled material for Fortune 500 clients including Exxon, Pepsico, The Ladies Home Journal, RJR Nabisco, J.C. Penney, Hill & Knowlton and United Artists.

1. Submit. Give up. Make room for the miracle.

2. Inform yourself. Listen to your intuition. Examine all the options, but only use what feels right to you.

3. Accept support. Surround yourself with loving friends, healing music, special colors, prayer and affirmation. Create a ceremony of healing/wholing and invite your supporters.

4. Anoint your breast(s) with healing herbal oils such as calendula, dandelion, or poke. Visualize healing energies suffusing your tissues.

5. Maximize the healthy qualities of your diet:

• Use organic olive oil and butter to the exclusion of other fats.


• Increase your use of beans, especially lentils, and fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, miso, tamari, homemade wines and beers.


• Include immune building and anticancer herbs in your diet:

• Daily use of a nourishing infusion, especially red clover flower or burdock root or violet leaf infusions.
• Daily use of fresh herb vinegars, especially yellow dock, burdock, and dandelion root vinegars.
• Frequent use of a long-cooked soup containing seaweed (such as kombu or wakame), astragalus root, and medicinal mushrooms (reishi, shiitake, puffballs, etc).

6. Increase you exercise level. Take a yoga or tai chi class weekly. Walk daily. Get a weekly massage. Pamper yourself with activity.

7. Use drugs (chemotherapy, tamoxifen, anesthesia, pain killers) as required but:

• consider a short trial of a powerful herb such as poke root before resorting to drugs; and


• always combine drug use with complementary herbs. For instance, protect the liver with milk thistle seed tincture.

8. Use radiation and surgery as needed but:

• always combine with complementary herbs; and


• be willing to set limits that you feel comfortable with - they can’t take your lymph glands if you say “No.”

For more information, see Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way by Susun Weed. www.ashtreepublishing.com

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081

Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine. Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging and often profoundly provocative.

Susun is one of America’s best-known authorities on herbal medicine and natural approaches to women’s health. Her four best-selling books are recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at www.susunweed.com

Choosing who should walk down the aisle with you is not as easy
at it has been in the past. In the past, it has always been
assumed that the father of the bride is to be the one. These
days, between family tensions, having divorced parents and just
wanting to be independent has changed this tradition. Some
brides still choose the traditional route with a twist. Here are
8 ideas from brides and brides-to-be who have considered this.

1. Some brides choose to have their father walk them down the
aisle only halfway and then walk the other half by themselves.
This symbolizes the bride’s transfer from dependence to
independence and that she has a new life of her own. This is
pretty safe since it still involves the father of the bride.

2. Some have their mother and father both walk them down the
aisle, so they can both give them away. For some brides, this is
a way to include her mother in the process. While this may be
also seen as an attempt to go against a “male dominated
society”, it still should be accepted by most if you are worried
about it.

3. Another thing that is becoming more popular is the groom
meeting the bride halfway. It’s not only cute, it symbolizes the
strong union between them. Again, it may seem improper to some
strict traditionalists, but who’s paying for the wedding?

4. Some brides choose to have only their mothers walk them down
the aisle. Some brides and their mothers are so close that
tradition is a non-issue. They just want to honor their mothers
for their love and hard work.

5. Walking down the aisle by oneself is relatively new and you
have to be careful. It is not so much the break with tradition
that may cause trouble as it is the bundle of nerves you may
feel when walking down the aisle alone. A test run may help you,
but it is not the same as the real thing! Everybody is “ahhing”
you, your fiancé is looking at you as if he is seeing an angel
from heaven and you are excited on top of all that. If you are
not the shy type and still want to take a go at it, plan your
wedding early so that you are not stressed out. And try not to
think about what could go wrong!

6. Some brides may split it up between two escorts. For example,
you could have your uncle walk you down partly and then have
your father walk you down the rest of the way. This way everyone
gets his turn to shine.

7. Walking together with you fiancé is not something out of the
question. It is the ultimate demonstration of partnership,
commitment and independence. If you are one of the brides who
are aiming to break with tradition this could be a good route.

8. A bride who does not have her father with her anymore may
still want someone who is like a father to her to escort her
down the aisle. She may choose her uncle, brother, godfather or
even a close friend of her father to “represent” him. In this
case it is good idea to get your escort’s approval way in
advance and talk to friends and family about how they feel to
gauge how this may look (if you are afraid of offending anyone).

Above all, it is your day. I know you might be afraid of
offending someone, but it is your day and most of the time your
friends and family are not that “strict”. Even if someone else
is footing the bill, it’s you who will have the most vivid
memories of your day and it’s you who will have to live with it.