Keep Your Weight Resolutions

Living With Obesity

Alanis Morissette, loses 20 plus pounds following Dr,. Fuhrmans Eat to live plan

 

Alanis Morissette, on the other had, credits a diet of fruit, vegetables, beans and nuts inspired by the book "Eat To Live" for losing 20 pounds.

"I feel like a 12-year-old!" the "Jagged Little Pill" singer tells OK! Magazine. "I used to get out of bed in the morning and things were aching, and I just thought, this is what happens when you get into your 30s. But now I jump out of bed and have so much energy; I feel very alive."

Like Winslet, Morissette says she complements her diet with regular workouts.

"When I’m not on tour, I do between a half hour to an hour of light weights, running, biking, swimming, probably five times a week," she explains. "I also love to kickbox and dance."

Morissette does retain a soft spot in her heart for her former, fatter self. "There was a sexiness to my curvier self that I loved," she says.About Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
Joel Fuhrman M.D. is a board-certified family physician who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods.
He is the author of Eat To Live: The Revolutionary Plan for Fast and Sustained weight loss, which was published by Little, Brown & Company in 2003 and has already gone through nine printings, including a soft cover version in the United Kingdom. Dr. Fuhrman’s first book, Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor’s Program for Conquering Disease, was published in 1995 by St. Martin’s Press. Dr. Fuhrman’s next book, Disease-Proof Your Children, will be published by St. Martin’s Press and available in April 2005.

In addition, Dr. Fuhrman is widely published, from medical journals such as the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Orthopaedics and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, to consumer publications such as Mothering Magazine and Health Science.

He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and has received the St. Joseph’s Family Practice Resident’s Teaching Award for his contribution to the education of residents. In addition, Dr. Fuhrman provides nutritional education to other physicians, and is a guest lecturer at Cornell University Graduate Program in Human Nutrition.

Joel Fuhrman is a former world class figure skater and was a member of the United States International and World Figure Skating Team. In 1973, he won Second Place in the United States National Pairs Championships. In the World Professional Pairs Skating Championships in Jaca, Spain in 1976, he placed third. His dedication to sports medicine, health and fitness, and preventive care and medicine speak to these lifelong interests.

Dr. Fuhrman has spoken at hundreds of locations throughout the United States and Canada, such as conferences, college campuses, television shows, and radio talk shows. His appearances include Good Morning America, The Today Show, America’s Talking, TV Food Network, CNN and the Discovery Channel.

Dr. Fuhrman is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Health Association; Advisory Panel, The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine; Diplomat, American Academy of Family Physicians; Sports Medicine Committee, Professional Skaters Guild of America; and PwC Health and Performance Advisory Panel, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Dr. Fuhrman lives in Flemington, New Jersey with his wife, Lisa, daughters, Talia, Jenna and Cara and son, Sean.

Source: http://belmardays.blogspot.com/2009/01/alanis-morissette-loses-20-plus-pounds.html

Orgasmic Birth

 

Orgasmic Birth certainly is a grabber of a title. Those aren’t two words normally found close together in a sentence. In our culture, other adjectives are more common. Painful Childbirth. Traumatic Childbirth.

So it’s no surprise that Debra Pascalli-Bonaro’s film Orgasmic Birth has become the center of some controversy. It was featured on a segment of ABC’s January 2nd episode of 20/20 about "Extreme Birth" and a few weeks ago The New York Times picked a up story on the movie, which caused a flurry of comments and sent a small shockwave through the blogosphere.

Pascalli-Bonaro says she wishes some critics who just seem to see the title would actually see the film. "It’s really about the range of choices women have for experiencing birth, some of which most women aren’t even aware of. There are eleven couples featured in the movie. Some use words like ‘pain’ and ‘fear’ to describe their experience but others use ‘transformative’, ‘blissful’, and ’spiritual’. Two of them use the word ‘orgasmic’. This sounds strange in our culture because we’re used to seeing birth dealt with on an illness model, rather than a wellness model. Birth is part of a woman’s sexual life."

Laura Shanley, author of the book Unassisted Childbirth was also featured on 20/20 and agrees with the premise of the film. "There are benefits to the mother beyond helping them rid themselves of shame, fear and guilt. An orgasm is 22 times more powerful than a tranquilizer and during sexual arousal a woman’s vagina can widen as much as two inches. When women find their power during the birth experience and learn to ride the contractions, it can be an incredible, even healing experience."

The ‘normal’ way that women in the United States give birth - laying prone in a room full of strangers - is not the natural way. It might even be the cause of some birth problems. Shanley cites a study that showed that when a stranger enters a room where a pregnant monkey is housed, :both the heart rate and the blood pressure of her fetus goes down. Of course, in the delivery room a drop in the heart rate of the baby often triggers a Cesarean section."

Shanley says that stress and ‘fight or flight’ reactions cause huge changes in a woman’s body. "There’s a reason that animals seek seclusion in birth. Everyone understands that being in a brightly lit room with a group of people watching you wouldn’t make a comfortable environment for someone going to the bathroom or having sex. But for an equally intimate, personal activity like birth, people don’t make the connection. Woman don’t need to choose between drugs, epidurals, and Cesarean sections on one hand and fear of a natural but painful childbirth on the other. There really is a third way and it’s more natural."

Pascali-Bonaro says that many changes to make birth a more pleasurable, healthy experience for women are simple and inexpensive. "Americans spend more money than any other country on medical care but that doesn’t mean we’re getting the best care. Simple things like dimming lights, allowing the mother creative space to move around and having music, natural sounds or even just silence can make a huge difference."

Ultimately, Pascali-Bonaro says that she’s an advocate of mothers making informed birth choices. Since making the film, she’s learned orgasmic birth is more common than she thought. "We’ve screened the movie in 28 countries and women always come up to me and ‘You know, I never thought about it before…but I think I had one, too!’"

Lee Stranahan is writer, filmmaker and teacher who blogs at LeeStranahan.com. His wife Lauren gave birth to their two children as unassisted, at-home births.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-stranahan/orgasmic-birth-the-natura_b_154934.html