Fighting Obesity With a Balloon?

Here's the latest "weapon" conventional medicine has devised to fight the obesity epidemic, and it may be just as health-harming as gastric bypass procedures.

If inserting a balloon into someone's stomach sounds comical to you, believe me, it's not funny at all.

The obesity surgeon who has performed 700 of these balloon procedures over the past six years in Italy claims his technique allows patients to shed as much as 44 pounds over six months. However, the Italian doctor admits the weight loss is only temporary, as it does nothing to treat the real problem -- making better and safer lifestyle decisions.

The fact of the matter is, the great majority of Americans will become overweight, and sooner than later if nothing is done. The good news, however, is that you have plenty of free tools on my Web site to make the transition to optimal health and weight an easy one.

One reason for the increase in obesity is that a sharply growing number of Americans are leading sedentary lives. Therefore, you can avoid becoming part of this epidemic by overcoming ED -- exercise deficiency. In other words, shut off the television and get moving!

Unfortunately though, most people, especially physicians, don't tend to appreciate how powerful exercise really is. You must keep in mind that exercise is in many ways similar to a drug -- if you don't use it in the right dosage, it will not work. Many thousands of people have told me they thought they were exercising enough, but they were actually under-dosed.

How to Exercise Efficiently

The key to exercising is to keep in mind three important variables: length of time, frequency and intensity. By doing so, you will ensure all your hard efforts are not wasted and are having a positive effect on your body.

I encourage my patients to gradually increase the amount of time they are exercising to 60 to 90 minutes a day. Initially the frequency is daily. This is a treatment dose until you normalize your weight or insulin levels. Once normalized, you will only need to exercise three to four times a week.

Also, you should exercise hard enough so that it is difficult to talk to someone next to you. When you are exercising that hard your cardiovascular system is under such a significant amount of stress that the mere act of talking makes you unable to provide your body with enough oxygen.

However, if you cannot carry on a conversation at all, then you have gone too far and need to decrease the intensity.

I urge you to review my exercise guidelines that can help you get started on the right track. I've devoted many pages on my Web site to the wonderful benefits exercise will do for your health. If you need some direction to get started, I urge you to review my beginner's exercise page that includes links to other pages and a free table you can download to keep track of your progress.

Eating Right is Important Too!

Aside from keeping active, another important factor in helping you achieve good health and maintain a healthy weight is to have a diet based on eating the right foods for your specific genetics and biochemistry. One of the ways you can determine this is through nutritional typing.

Discovering your nutritional type is simple: You can take my free online test or you can read my book, the Total Health Program, for a more in-depth understanding.

Remember, the foods that may be healthy for others are not necessarily healthy for you, and vice-versa. Thus, eating according to your specific type is the proven way to ascertain which foods work best for you.

Remember the Emotional Factor

For most individuals the emotional element is a major factor contributing to impairments in the ability to lose weight and to maintain that loss. There are various approaches for dealing with these challenges, but the one I most highly recommend, and have found to be most highly successful, is the psychological energy tool Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

You can view the free EFT report and learn how to overcome your food cravings and get on the path to better health.