It seems like the two biggest problem areas on women as most women can attest to are the outer thighs and the belly area. These are the most common complaints I hear personally.  The third is probably flabby and fatter upper arms (this has long been a complaint of my own, as well as my outer thighs which always seem to have a mind of their own even when I’m at my thinnest).

So why are outer thighs such a problem for us?  Well, studies have shown that this is one of the key places a woman’s body wants to store fat.  It has something to do with us being child bearing creatures, but I don’t recall exactly why the outer thighs use of fat would come in handy for women with children. Wouldn’t it slow them down if nothing else?

On a positive note, studies have also shown that women who carry extra fat in this area of their body tend to also exhibit more intelligence. Yay! I must be a VERY intelligent woman   All kidding aside though, the reason cited in this study was that this is also where your body tends to store a lot of the omega 3 fatty acids that you get in your diet.

These fatty acids have been linked to the functionality of the brain, which may explain the link between higher intelligence and cognitive function and more thigh fat.

Outer thighs are a struggle for women because this fat is very hard to get rid of without a serious change in diet. You really can’t zap it with exercise alone. You have to have a a diet that is also conducive to reducing the fatty tissue in this area as well.

Ideally the diet needs to be somewhat low in fat, although you should always consume an abundance of omega 3 fats. It should also contain a great deal of naturally fibrous foods such as broccoli, kale, spinach, sweet potatoes and the like. This is because natural, whole fiber in foods helps flush our bodies of the bad fats and sugars that we take in.

These unhealthy fats and sugars as well as excess carbs all get deposited as extra fat in our saddle bag area, giving us that infamous look that every woman loathes of having a travel bag on each side of our thighs. Not fun.

You can perform many exercises for the outer thighs as well that will help tone the underlying muscle and pull in the appearance of the thighs, but the diet is very important if you want to target reduce this area of your body.

It’s so funny because every time I read one of these “top 10″ or “top 5″ lists of ways to either relieve stress, reduce depression or lift mood and reduce anxiety, the one thing that is ALWAYS on the list is EXERCISE.  So, I always beg the question, why isn’t everyone and their brother on the exercise bandwagon?

I mean, why don’t we require that kids go through an appreciation course for exercise and what it does for the human body?  It should be a requirement, instead of all these useless gym classes that don’t really teach kids an appreciation or understanding of how exercise will benefit them throughout life.

Instead, they learn to loathe gym like I did as a child, because you are constantly fearing making an idiot of yourself or being picked last on the team.  It is so ridiculously apparent that the human body and mind is reliant on regular exercise in order to function optimally that it’s almost unthinkable that not a lot of Americans take part in a regular exercise program.

We’ve all become entrenched in such easy, high tech lifestyles, that we don’t get up and out of the house nearly as much as we should, and we don’t naturally get a lot of exercise thanks to cushy office jobs and lifestyle habits.  Since our world is so high tech these days, it has benefitted us in some ways, but in others, it has made us more stagnant, more likely to not move around as much as we should.

This has resulted in skyrocketing reports of anxiety and stress to doctors. We live in high stress times now with the questionable economy and other factors just waiting to eat away at every second we have with worry.  We need exercise now more than ever.

In order to maintain a stress-free (at least relatively) life, you simply have to engage in organized workouts. This is the only way you can really work the stress out. It is amazing how lifted people report feeling after engaging in activities that really help the mind to stay focused and calm.

It may almost seem against intuition that doing something vigorous and “not relaxing” in and of itself could induce such calm, anxiety killing properites. However, it is absolutely true because it lets out bottled up tensions and allows you to wipe your mind clean for those moments you are doing it, allowing for greater clarity and calmness in the aftermath.

I wrote a while ago about how I was going to treat myself to a set of body wraps at a local place that specializes exclusively in herbal body wraps.  I wasn’t a huge believer that it would reduce my butt and thighs, which have forever been my biggest problem area, without diet or exercise, but I figured it might at least help me to reduce my cellulite problem areas.

Sometimes, merely reducing cellulite actually makes you look a lot thinner and fit into your clothes better. Not to mention, a good cellulite reducer will also make you feel like a million bucks when you’re standing in front of the mirror naked after a shower.

Aren’t us women so good at criticizing our bodies!?  Anyways, every woman knows what I mean when I say the eternal battle against cellulite is a war that never really dies.

So, I signed up for ten sessions. I had really great results in inch reduction after I had five in a row, once a week of the herbal body wraps. I was really excited about the possibility that I could reduce my inches and cellulite even more by doing 5 more treatments.

However, I did fall off the wagon and haven’t been back in two and a half weeks. I’ve already seen the results go out the window. Which begs the question – is this really just very temporary tissue shrinkage that is caused not only by the constant compression, but also by the herbs that are in the mixture they soak the wraps in, seeping into the skin and causing some sort of chemical reaction?

I’m not really sure. And to boot, when I asked one of the technicians what the herbal mixture was, she had no idea. She said she’d go ask another technician and still never responded to my question.

That made me lose a little confidence in it, but I still felt like I got good results from the five treatments I had, and I did feel like it helped shape and lift my problem areas and diminish the appearance of the cellulite.

I just wonder, are the results of herbal body wraps always really just going to be temporary?  And by temporary, I mean days or weeks, then the results go away? Has anyone else had any long term results using this method of slimming?  Do body wraps work?

One things for sure, I really miss my dear, dear infrared sauna, which has been broken for a few weeks. We are waiting for a guy to fix it, and I really miss it. I felt like that did help me a bit with cellulite and weight loss – plus it deeply relaxed me, like my own private sanctuary.

Cellulite is one of the most pervasive beauty issues that women report having issues with. Actually, over 90% of all women have cellulite on some area of their body. And those other supposed 10%?  Well, I think that’s a myth – I think that 100% of women have cellulite to some degree!

Of course, working out and watching your weight can dramatically reduce your cellulite, but there is always going to be some, even if you are thin and you work out regularly. The reason that working out helps smooht out cellulite is that it sculpts the body and the muscles “pulling in” the tissues, and making them appear more firm.

Also, exercise helps reduce cellulite by increasing circulation. It is widely speculated that cellulite is worse where there is a lack of circulation, so getting the circulation revved up is important. 

One of the many remedies against cellulite, which include cellulite reducer creams, gels, surgery, cosmetic procedures and treatments and more, is a pair of shorts that was developed to help reduce the appearance of cellulite when they are worn regularly.

There’s not just one brand of these cellulite reducing shorts either, there are now several copy cats that came out after the originals debuted to a somewhat positive response.  I actually own a pair by a company called Delfina, and I really like to wear them once in a while, if nothing else because they make me feel thinner.

They are a sort of scuba material, and they really help pull in and restrict your body fat when you wear them. This compression aspect, and the fact that they make you sweat where you wear them, helps to increase circulation, and manually compress the fat cells in those trouble areas, which in turn helps the cellulite to appear smoother.

The only trick is that you actually have to wear them often!  To keep any results you get in cellulite reduction from these shorts, you must make sure you are wearing them a few days a week for several hours at a time.

I’ll be honest, I don’t wear them religiously, but when I feel my cellulite is getting a little worse, I’ll put them on underneath a pair of sweats, along with my favorite cellulite reduction cream, and I feel better about my cellulite, and I think it looks better the next day too.

If you really want to help reduce cellulite, put your cellulite shorts on in an infrared sauna, that’s a one-two punch!

I wanted to keep you posted on the series of body wraps I purchased a few weeks ago. These are herbal therapy body wraps, and I bought a package of ten, priced very reasonably, in a local place that is near where I live here in Northeastern Ohio called Herbal Therapy Body Wraps.

I will admit I was a bit dubious when I first started, but I had high hopes that I might see an improvement (inch reduction) in my thighs – particularly in the saddle bag area that I have always struggled with.  Any other improvements I got, as far as I was concerned, were just icing on the cake.

I also wanted to see a marked improvement in my cellulite problem areas, which are on my buttocks and thighs, like most women experience.  I have now begun to see a bit of inch reduction as well as a nice little reduction in my cellulite’s appearance after wrap number 5.

I’ve been going and getting one body wrap per week to get the results a bit faster, and hopefully to get the best results I can get since I’m not taking too long between wraps. I also follow the directions of drinking tons of fresh water all of the time, which I think has boosted my results.

I notice that my cellulite is not as pronounced. I also have experienced a curious increase in my energy levels for a day or two after I have the body wrap. I wasn’t really expecting that, but I’ll certainly never complain about having extra energy!  It acts as a great energy booster for me personally. Not sure if that is typical of all users, but it sure is for me.

Body wraps help to reduce cellulite and help to reduce inches in targeted problem areas by the principle of compression, as well as using herbs and other ingredients to help your body flush out toxins and reduce fat deposits.

I’m not exactly sure how it works, or if there is even an exact science behind it to be honest, but it’s working. It’s not a miracle by a long shot, but it’s a visible difference and I’ve seen some size reduction without doing much else, and that’s all I’m asking for.