To be healthy is to be beautiful. Taking care of yourself on the inside reflects how you look on the outside. Give your body nutritious, healthful food and exercise to keep your muscles strong and lean and you will feel and look fantastic.

So many of us shy away from exercise because we don’t know where to start. Gyms can be intimidating and we lack the initiative to begin our own program. It doesn’t have to be hard! Exercise is essential to well being. It not only strengthens and tones the body, but it relaxes the mind and relieves stress. Taking a half hour to an hour for you each day to work out is incredibly worthwhile. Start a walk-to-run program, either on your own or through a clinic. You’ll be amazed how quickly your body will respond to running! Your legs tone up, your posture changes and your cardio health improves rapidly.

Not a fan of running? Yoga is a wonderful way to invest your workout time. It can be physically challenging or easy and relaxing, depending on the type of class or DVD you choose. Yoga also helps quiet and focus the mind, something we don’t take enough time to do in our busy lives. A little mental time out can do wonders for lowering our stress level. An excellent health and beauty tip: give bikram or “hot” yoga a try. It’s a strenuous workout, and the heat causes you to sweat out toxins and impurities. Great for the body, great for the skin. It’s addictive!

The added benefit of exercise is that it makes you want to eat better. Why negate all that hard work by making poor food choices? Eating well is key to looking and feeling as good as you can. Making fruits and vegetables the mainstay of your diet will give your body fibre, vitamins, and minerals. Because they’re also full of water, they fill you up and keep your calorie intake lower. Keeping your sugar intake low benefits your skin as well. Many experts agree that sugar causes wrinkles! Watch out for sneaky sugar sources too, like pop, juice and refined carbohydrates – white bread, white rice and pasta.

A tip for both improved health and beauty is to include antioxidant rich foods into your diet, every day. These foods lower the risk of cancer and help reduce the visible signs of aging. Some of the best anti-oxidant rich foods include berries like blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, kidney beans and apples, all foods high in vitamin C and E. What do antioxidants do, anyway? Without getting in to too much detail, they work to prevent and neutralize oxygen damage to our cells. They effectively slow the aging process, both internal and external. Start adding antioxidant and vitamin -rich foods into your diet today, and reap the health and beauty benefits for the rest of your life!

It should be common knowledge that men and women store and carry fat in different areas; one need only look around to see this. In general, women tend to put on fat on their hips, legs, and buttocks while men tend to store primarily in their waistline.

Scientists call the shapes in men android or apple and the pear shape that most women have they call the gynoid. The third type of shape is
androgynous, meaning appearing on males and females which is an overall coverage of body fat.

Someone who is prone to being overweight may be subject to factors such as a genetic predisposition to gain weight that comes from their
parents, an under active thyroid, or as seen in recent news reports may even be infected with a virus that predisposes them to weight gain.

Fat distribution seems to be influenced by age, genetics, and race, but even more so it is governed by hormones that are specific to each gender. The estrogen hormones in women call for fat to be stored in the aforementioned pear shape while the testosterone in men leads to fat storage in the abdomen and even right above the hips.

It is not news to anyone that excessive body fat is bad for one’s health but the way that fat is stored and where it is stored affects the function and health of specific organs.

There are two types of fat, subcutaneous, which is under the skin and visceral, which is around the organs. Having excess fat around the
abdomen is from visceral fat which tells us that abdominal fat is the most dangerous risk to our health.

One of the easiest ways to determine excessive fat deposits is the waist to hip ratio measurement. The way you get this is by dividing your waist measurement by your hip measurement. The maximum for men is .95 for men and .80 for women. If your results are above this you need to take steps to reduce your weight.

If you are an apple shape you are prone to a variety of diseases related to obesity such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, sleep apnea, arthritis, and more.

Pear shapes are more prone to hip and knee problems and limitations in movement due to the accumulation of fat in the lower body.

Regardless of whether you are a man or a woman you should take the waist to hip ratio test and if you are over it you should begin a weight loss program immediately.