Straight Health offers easy to understand and accurate information on health, nutrition, diets and exercise. With this RSS feed you can stay up to date with all the new articles, FAQ and top 5 lists that are updated. http://straighthealth.com/ This is the time of year when everyone rushes out to buy a membership at their local gym. Gyms love January because it's typically the busiest time of the year. This year is unfortunately a bit different from others. http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2009/0104.html The New Year can bring hope to those seeking a positive change in their lives. January acts as a starting point for improvement, however all too often, resolutions end up in failure and the positive benefits that could have been realized are never seen. http://straighthealth.com/pages/articles/sarticles/steps-to-successful-new-years-resolution.html Hope you had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Great New Year. Now that all of the holidays are out of the way, it's back to the business of staying healthy. The New Year is a time of renewal. Many people us it as a starting point for change and a lot of them actually succeed in improving their lives. http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2009/0102.html Getting into shape can be a lot harder than jumping on the treadmill or buying a gym membership. There are some steps you can take to increase your chances for success and make the transition from sedentary to active easier on your body. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/best-new-year-exercise-resolutions.html Starting a healthy diet may seem as easy as eating less but the types of foods you eat can be just as important as the amount. Different foods can have good or bad health effects so simply eating less won't always make you healthier. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/best-new-year-diet-resolutions.html With consumers spending less and profits declining, government tax revenues are starting to decrease at a time when unemployment benefits and Medicare are getting more expensive. A lot of states are now faced with fixing huge budget deficits and are looking to more creative ideas on how to make up the shortfall. New York's Governor Paterson has proposed among other options, an obesity tax. http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2008/1229.html Using the New Year can be an effective tool to make a good change happen. If you're not sure where to start, here are some ways to make a positive impact in your own life that will also affect those around you. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/best-new-year-resolutions.html It seems as if we go through this every year. Come January 1st, people start thinking about what parts of their lives they can improve and hours later they begin an ambitious plan to make themselves better. This is a good thing right? If everyone actually stuck to their resolutions, then yes, this would be a good thing. http://straighthealth.com/pages/articles/sarticles/why-resolutions-fail.html It's all over the news, as if we didn't have anything important going on in our country: Oprah has gained some weight. It seems that they're only trying to rub it in her face, haha you're fat. Does it really matter that Oprah is gaining all this weight? Yes, but not because she's a celebrity and we like to see celebrities fail. http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2008/1215.html Incase you haven't heard, Governor Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested today after the FBI found out he was basically corrupt. Something you may be wondering is how he's going to stay in shape while he's locked up. http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2008/1210.html Creating a calorie deficit is the key to losing weight. A calorie deficit is simply the difference between what your body uses and what you eat. To lose weight, you either need to eat less or burn more. Burning calories can be accomplished using a variety of techniques. http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/burn-calories.html The 2008 health rankings have been released and thereport has good and bad news. As usual, most Southern states are in need of some major improvements but it does look like as a country, we at least aren't getting any worse. http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2008/1205.html Did you eat too much over the Thanksgiving weekend? How could you not? All of that turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing and casseroles were probably begging you to dig in. If you did eat too much, you're in good company, most of us are right there with you. If you feel like Thanksgiving has given you a few extra pounds, don't feel bad. http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2008/1203.html These acai berry pills seem to be the latest rage these days. They're all over web advertisements and a quick search on any search engine for 'acai' will yield hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of results. So are these little fruity pills actually good for anything or are they one big scam? http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2008/1201.html If you think that food safety ends with thawing and cooking, you may be putting yourself and loved ones at risk for foodborne illnesses. Even after you cook a turkey properly, you need to make sure that leftovers are handled safely to prevent any bacterial growth. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/safely-handle-thanksgiving-leftovers.html Thanksgiving is finally here and with it comes allthat delicious food. While making good tasting food seems like everyone's number one priority, it should be put further down the list. When it comes to food preparation, safety always comes first. http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2008/1127.html The turkey is the centerpiece of most Thanksgiving meals. Here is a step by step recipe to help you make a healthy yet tasty turkey. http://straighthealth.com/pages/recipes/thanksgiving-turkey-recipe.html Preparing your Thanksgiving turkey can be a tough and confusing task. Knowing all the details of how to safely thaw it, prepare it and cook it can seem out of reach. In this article, you'll find a list of the most common questions and answers. http://straighthealth.com/pages/articles/darticles/complete-thanksgiving-turkey-faq.html A meat thermometer should be used abundantly, especially during the holidays when turkey and ham are the centerpiece of every meal. Calibrating is a quick process that takes less than 10 minutes which can save you a lot of pain down the road. http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/calibrate-meat-thermometer.html This calculator will tell you how much time is needed to properly cook a turkey. http://straighthealth.com/pages/tools/turkey-cook-time-calculator.html The turkey is the centerpiece of a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner which is why properly cooking it is so important. Mess it up and not even the best side dishes will save you. Perfect your technique and you'll be everyone's favorite person, at least for this one day every year. This step by step guide will show you how to make a perfect Thanksgiving Turkey. http://straighthealth.com/pages/articles/darticles/how-to-cook-turkey.html Losing weight requires that you take in less calories than you burn over a prolonged period of time. Your body will then begin to use its fat stores for energy causing weight loss. Since there are two sides of this weight loss equation you can manipulate either one to achieve your goal. But which one works best? http://straighthealth.com/pages/articles/sarticles/weight-loss-diet-exercise.html Thanksgiving is a day to eat, hang out with family and watch football. While it isn't the best time to think about burning calories, it's still important that you continue your routine so that you'll stay in shape and not go back to work asking why you let yourself get off track. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/exercise-during-thanksgiving.html Weight loss isn't always an easy thing to come by. Your diet has to be perfect and you need to be involved in the right kind of exercise. Even if you take most of the right steps, a few wrong ones can erase any progress you've made. Here are some of the most common reasons that you're not losing any weight. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/not-losing-weight.html This calculator will tell you how much time is needed to properly thaw a turkey in the refrigerator or in cold water. Simply enter the weight of your turkey in pounds and click calculate. http://straighthealth.com/pages/tools/turkey-thaw-time-calculator.html Making a healthy Thanksgiving Turkey is more involved than just using the right ingredients. During the holiday season, an increase in food poisoning is usually seen in part because most people don't know how to properly thaw a turkey. If done improperly, bacteria can multiply very quickly and cause your closest friends and family to get sick. http://straighthealth.com/pages/articles/darticles/thawing-turkey.html Weight training has long been associated with muscles. It's never been thought of as a mode of exercise to engage in when trying to lose weight. However those who choose to leave strength training out of their routine out of fears it will cause weight gain will miss out on a host of benefits that can't be realized with cardiovascular exercise alone. http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/weight-training-gain-lose-weight.html After reading the newest and "best" diets, you'd think that carbohydrates are suddenly the enemy. The truth is that carbohydrates are not all that bad. There are two main groups of carbs, both of which have different effects on health: simple and complex. http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/difference-simple-complex-carbs.html It seems that the only people who try and eat healthy are those looking to lose weight, and even then, most of the time it's a temporary change. Regardless of your weight goals, having a healthy diet has countless benefits including feeling better, being more energetic and looking great. http://straighthealth.com/pages/articles/darticles/steps-improve-eating-habits.html Lets face it, we all get bored with our workout routine. Going to the gym everyday and lifting the same weight can get tiring when you're doing it four or even five times per week. You see the same machines, the same people and hear the same songs over the speakers every single day. But don't worry, there are ways you can avoid and even stop the boredom from affecting your gains. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/fix-boring-strength-training-routine.html With a recession looming over us, a gym membership might be the last expense you're worrying about. While gyms have some really nice equipment, owners don't want you to know that there are plenty of ways you can stay in shape even if you aren't a member. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/ways-exercise-during-recession.html With tough times ahead of us, everyone is looking for ways to save money and the grocery store is no exception. Sure we could all go on Ramen Noodle diets and probably save a lot of money, but that would be creating big problems tomorrow to solve a few problems today. There are plenty of ways you and your family can stay healthy and still save money during a recession. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/ways-eat-healthy-during-recession.html Losing weight can sometimes be a long process. The more weight you want to lose, the longer it'll take to reach your goal. The problem is no one wants to go through the whole process so they find shortcuts to try and make the ordeal of dieting and exercising as quick as possible. http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/how-long-does-it-take-lose-weight.html The amount of time it takes to lose weight is controlled by both internal and external factors. Internal factors are those that you have direct influence over such as food choices and physical activity while external factors are a lot harder if not impossible to change. http://straighthealth.com/pages/articles/sarticles/faster-weight-loss.html Figuring out your daily calorie needs is the foundation of any weight goal. Gaining, losing or maintaining your weight requires you to eat different amounts and if you don't know how to figure that out, you won't be able to reach your goal. http://straighthealth.com/pages/articles/darticles/how-much-to-eat.html This site is about health, specifically how diet and exercise can affect it. Today I'm going to take a bit of a detour and write about the health of our country. In prior posts, I've talked about how more than a few people in this country are overweight, how no one really cares about their health and how we're moving in the wrong direction. Today I'm going to talk about something much more important. Our country is sick and if we don't cure it now, I can't even imagine what's going to happen in the future. http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2008/0926.html Whether you think we're in a recession or going through a rough patch, you understand now more than ever the need to save money. Gas prices are at an all time high, food is following closely behind and health insurance is too expensive to buy if you don't get it from your employer. When times are tough, some luxuries such as gym memberships and healthy food seem unnecessary. http://straighthealth.com/pages/articles/sarticles/staying-healthy-during-recession.html Staying healthy is hard enough. You have to exercise properly, eat the right foods and avoid all that bad stuff that you have very little control over, like air pollution. Staying healthy is made even tougher by lies spread to increase profits at certain companies. If you want to be healthy, there are a few myths you need to avoid. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/health-myths.html Do you feel confused by all the dieting options out there? Don't worry, most people have a hard time picking a diet that actually works. With all the books, web sites and infomercials, it's hard to separate what works from what doesn't. http://straighthealth.com/pages/articles/darticles/best-diet.html Can you believe September is already coming to an end? Only a few more days before fall gets here and when that happens, the holiday season is right around the corner. With that comes food, food and more food (plus no exercise). Getting into shape now can save you a lot of problems come the holidays. http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2008/0919.html In your quest to gain muscle, you've probably read magazines, visited web sites and asked a question on a message board in hopes of finding accurate information. You were probably bombarded with some good and bad solutions. Here are the top 5 myths you shouldn't be doing to build muscle. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/muscle-building-myths.html The biggest misconception about gaining weight is that you need to eat everything in sight. If you follow this myth, you'll definitely gain weight, but it might not be the kind of weight you had in mind. Gaining any kind of weight is as easy as eating everything, but if you're looking to gain muscle, you need a clean diet. http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/best-foods-gain-weight-muscle.html The word 'ripped' refers to the look you get when you have a low body fat percentage and your muscles are able to bee seen. This word is commonly used on pill bottles, sports drinks and other supplements, but getting ripped requires none of the above. http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/get-ripped.html One of the biggest exercise myths that has been passed down from generation to generation is the saying, 'more reps with less weight will tone you up while less reps and more weight will bulk you up.' It's been said so much that most people think this is actually true. http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2008/0915.html Looking for accurate information on losing weight can be tough. There are companies trying to sell you their magic formulas, authors trying to get you to read the latest fad and people with good intentions who just don't know what they're talking about. Here are some of the most common weight loss myths you should avoid. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/diet-myths.html Every single person is different. Some can tolerate more exercise than others so making one rule for everyone is close to impossible. Most guidelines recommend at least 3 days of exercise per week and not more than 5 or six. http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/too-much-exercise.html Sometimes being healthy seems like a full time job. You have to eat the right foods, stay away from junk, exercise instead of watching TV and find a way to fit this into your already busy schedule. Having a 9-5 job definitely doesn't help the situation, but you have to start somewhere. http://tips.straighthealth.com/tip/2008/0907.html If you listen to anyone talking about exercise, it's almost a given that they'll share some half-truths or even all out falsehoods regarding fitness. Because these ideas have been around for years, a lot of people have accepted them as true. If you repeat a lie over and over again, it remains just that, a lie. http://straighthealth.com/pages/five/exercise-myths.html