I was joking around with a friend at work the other day, saying that exercise is better than any pill for me when it comes to managing my stress and anxiety well.  Forget Xanax and other anti-anxiety and antidepressant meds, exercise is where it’s at for me -100%.  I believe that this is probably true for a lot of people.

Unfortunately, many people still stick to their couch potato ways instead of getting up and exercising, and wonder why their anxiety is off the charts or they feel constantly depressed or drained of energy.  People who regularly work out notice this change when they have a period of time when they haven’t been working out.

The difference for me is profound.  Because I have been working out for about two decades of my life now (I started in my teens actually), I can truly attest to how working out changes your life. It lowers stress levels, allows you to cope with stress better by lowering cortisol levels and increasing endorphins.

This has a domino effect on your life. Because you have increased energy and a better outlook, you tend to “attract” better things to you and into your life. This can include everything from your career or business, to your financial abundance, to your love and personal life. That’s how powerful I believe exercise is.

It’s a sort of pivoting point for so many other “positive attractors” that it can be a very powerful tool to launching your life into the one you desire and you DESERVE.

I have found that a week without enough exercise usually amounts to a week that isn’t much fun for me or doesn’t add much enrichment to my life.  I’ve often correlated the two, and it makes sense from a pure common sense standpoint that when your body feels better, your mind feels better, and so on and so forth.

I know there are a lot of people on these anti anxiety medications, but I often wonder are they also doing natural things like exercising to lessen their anxiety?  Pent up aggression, feelings of inadequacy and other things that lead to grumpy moods and adverse mental effects are often attributed to lack of physical activity.  It has a way of really “letting the poison” out that I don’t think any pill could ever replicate.

I’ve seen some pretty wild claims about herbal body wraps. I’ve actually gotten several before, with interesting near-term results that never last, although they are quite effective if you want quick inch loss for a big event.  Keep in mind, even for quick inch loss, you may need several body wraps in a row before you see any significant difference in your actual measurements.

Herbal body wraps are basically herbal solutions that are applied either before your body is wrapped up like a mummy on its target spots, usually with ace bandage types of bandages. Either that or it may be a cream or solution that is applied directly to the skin before the dry wrap is applied.

The type I got was where the cloth bandages themselves were soaked in an herbal solution then applied to my skin, so basically I had to sit in a dark room with a giant plastic sauna suit on for an hour, wrapped like a mummy. It’s definitely not for people who are claustrophobic in any way or in the least bit fidgety like I tend to be.

I couldn’t stand laying there for a full hour, with just my thoughts and relaxing music. It’s different if you’re getting a massage or something, but body wraps really are not that relaxing to me because all I do is think about all the other things I could be doing while I’m just laying there, unable to fall asleep.

Then again, I’m kind of a nervous-energy type of person anyway, so that may not be everyone.  I did notice that my inches were being lost after about the sixth body wrap. I went to get them once a week, usually on the weekend since that was most convenient for my schedule.

They would measure me every time after the wrap and tell me how much I lost.  Of course, keep in mind that right after the wrap, your measurements will of course be smaller simply because your fatty tissue is still compressed from being wrapped up for an hour.

I unfortunately didn’t notice much of a long lasting difference from my experience with herbal body wraps. I did notice some improvement in my cellulite, but that’s about it. I wish I could say they are a miracle, but of course, just like everything else, true weight and inch loss that is lasting comes from dietary changes and fitness discipline as well as making sure you are not sedentary.

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 can feel the power of stress busting and exercise even as I sit here and write this. What am I talking about exactly? Well, I just got done with a workout after a stressful first half of the day. I can feel my endorphins going, my blood pressure rate has gone down and even my breathing has slowed from frenzied quickness and hurries rapidity to a nice, slow tempo again.

In short, I’ve experienced the wonderful, healing, calming and stress busting effects of getting up, moving, and sweating. There is something to be said about how exercise makes your brain work. I feel much smarter, more confident and generally more mentally “quick” and capable when I’ve been working out regularly.

Exercise definitely has a calming effect on the brain and other important organs and bodily functions.  It has a definitive physiological effect on the body and mind that is utterly undisputed.

I look to my own experience as proof.  When I think about the periods I go through where I tend to be a vegetable and a couch potato, I also realize that, although parts of that type of lifestyle can be fun at times, I’m also sometimes a mental mess.

Lack of exercise, for me, also correlates to a general apathy toward life.  If I’m not up and moving around, it sort of translates to where I am in life and how I feel about my life – stagnant!

Usually, when we lose weight, we think of how we will look better in our favorite pair of pants.  We don’t often think of our pants as a means to lose weight.  There are pants on the market that help us to reach our weight loss goals.  There are several types and brands of weight loss pants.

On Amazon.com, you can find Neoprene Workout Pants for $52.95 to help you get more out of your workout.  Neoprene is a synthetic rubber that traps your body heat which causes your body to sweat while trying to cool off.  If you wear neoprene pants while working out, you’ll probably find you have lost several pounds right after your workout from water weight loss.

You must rehydrate if using neoprene pants or suits during a workout as excessive sweating can lead to dehydration.  Since your workout could lead to dehydration, and this kind of weight loss will be temporary, the best method would be diet and exercise for lasting and safer results.

Another type of weight loss pants are called the LipoContour pants.  They were designed by an Italian cosmetic surgeon.  Initially, they were designed to help liposuction patients recover faster and more comfortably after surgery.  Then, it was noted that an extra added effect of wearing the LipoContour pants was a slimming effect and possibly even a cellulite reduction as well.

The LipoContour pants are made of 2 thin, tight layers of mesh with a reinforced panel for the tummy that extends to the knees.  The LipoContour pants need to be worn 8 hours per day for a period of 8 to 12 weeks to see the slimming effect.  The pants, themselves, do a massage action that increases blood flow and helps to break down fatty deposits thus decreasing cellulite.

Another kind of weight loss pants are actual caffeine pants called Lytess leggings.  This type of weight loss pants are manufactured with fibers of caffeine and shea butter microcapsules.  The slimming action is caused by the friction of everyday activities.

According to their website, after 18 days of use, you should look visibly trimmer.  They state that clinical trials showed up to a 1.2 ” reduction on thighs and up to a 2.1″ loss on hips after 21 days of use.

Lytess leggings do not make you sweat and they are designed to use either as an undergarment or they can be used as activewear by themselves.  They are like a second skin and are form-fitting.  The price of Lytess leggings is $70.00.

There is no replacement for smart and sensible eating and an active lifestyle to maintain a healthy weight.  But, if you are looking to accelerate your weight and cellulite reduction, you could try the addition of weight loss pants, read the reviews and decide for yourself which type is safest and best for you.

One huge benefit that I personally notice from working out, is that I seem to keep a lot of the mushy, smushy pesky water weight off my problem areas like my thighs and my belly (althought that used to not be a problem area, as I get older, it’s getting harder to maintain). 

Why would working out regularly help you to lose water weight? Well first off, you lose a lot of that water weight through sweating. When you lead a sedentary lifestyle, you probably don’t sweat a whole lot, which means you aren’t getting rid of excess water weight on a daily basis.

Not sweating can be very bad for your health, as this is the way that your body not only gets rid of water (besides urinating), but it is also the body’s way of getting rid of some of those toxins that can build up in your body as a result of your diet or lifestyle, and environmental toxins that can enter our body.

I notice a huge difference in my body when I’m working out reguarly – the kind of workout where I sweat a lot – aka, where I do lots of tough cardio work.  I notice that my body seems more sleek and streamlined, and I can fit into my clothes better, even if I have not changed my diet at all.

Anyone who has lost five pounds (which is almost all water weight usually, since the first five usually are, especially when lost quickly), can tell you what a huge difference this small weightloss can make in the way your clothes fit. It can make a large difference in your tummy area, your butt and thighs, all of which are the buzzwords for most women.

Guys will notice it a lot in their bellies, which always tends to be one  of the problem areas for men.  Men tend to get jiggly here, and they tend to retain water there and in their love handle region, on the sides of the belly, when they retain lots of water from consuming too much salt or not working out enough and sweating.

Working out and moving, and doing intense cardio, not only helps you keep water weight at bay, but it also keeps your circulation going, which can help with everything from cellulite to water retention.  The cellulite reduction part is obviously very appealing to women. 90% of women (at least) admit to having cellulite.

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.

So I told you that I was thinking about having an herbal body wrap done over the past few weeks, and the perfect opportunity presented itself for me to finally do so in an economical and convenient way.

The funny thing is, I actually have a place that does it and has been doing it for several years, only fifteen minutes away from my home and never knew it until I saw an ad for it in Groupon!  Ahh, gotta love the social networking and coupon age of the internet, right!?

Anyways, the reason I wanted to try these out is because I wanted to see if it would help me get rid of some cellulite on my thighs and buttocks, and also help me downsize my thighs and buttocks, as well as to help reduce my upper arms, which I always feel are too big no matter what types of arm workouts I’m doing, and help chisel my tummy as well.

Tall order, I know, but I heard that these wraps can really help to smooth and tone those trouble areas, as long as you drink tons of water and don’t over do it on your eating.  They help to sculpt the body as well as reduce inches from problem areas, resulting in a possible pants size reduction.

So I did it. I’ve actually had two of them so far at this point, because I ended up signing up for a package when I went for my last one.  So far, there are no really impressive inches lost or anything, but I have noticed that my skin is smoother and the cellulite seems to have smoothed out a bit from the wraps.

For that, I’m thankful.  I do expect to see some good results after about the fifth wrap, which is when I consistently read women start seeing the results. It’s a great economical way to help tone and shape the body as well as contour and reduce cellulite, but it’s not meant to be a substitute for exercise or diet, so keep that in mind.