Welcome to Health Blog’s second blog carnival! Let’s jump right in…

Spicy

We’ll start this month’s Health Blog Carnival with a couple sexy articles!

First up, FitBuff gives a detailed explanation of how to give a woman an orgasm; even a woman who finds orgasm hard to come by (or has never had one). His guarantee that you will “give a woman a mind-blowing orgasm” is bold, but he has some great tips here:

As she builds up, increase your speed and firmness in massaging her G-spot and tongue flicking her clit. Keep going until she experiences what will probably be the most intense orgasm she’s ever had, and YOU will be the guy that she remembers for giving it to her.

Next Health Sundae gives her take on the Naked Yoga trend. She decides it isn’t for her:

I don’t mean to discourage you by talking about my own hang-ups. I say, give it a go if Nakedness sounds appealing. In this crazy world anything you can do to liberate your mind, body and spirit is a good thing! Just don’t be borrowing my mat….

Naked Namaste!

Food

GrrlScientist clues us into scientists who have discovered a cow with a genetic mutation causing it to produce low fat milk. The fat this cow does produce in her milk has a higher percentage of unsaturated fat than normal, and higher levels of omega3 oils. Scientists hope to establish herds of the animals to meet the increased health demands from the public.

Exercise

Urgent Health News brings us 14 Ways to Improve Your Exercise Routine.

Here are parts of a couple of their tips that I particularly like:

Start slow. The biggest mistake that people make when starting an exercise plan is starting too fast or too hard.

Forget about weight loss. Yeah, many of us would like to lose some weight. But if you’re motivated solely by weight loss, exercise will be a tough proposition. The reason is that you might not lose weight right away. Oh, it’ll come, if you can keep it up over time, but in the beginning you might be disappointed (especially if you haven’t changed your eating habits).

Mirza786 has ten tips of his own in Top 10 tips to keeping fit.

Here are a couple good tips from him:

Exercise as soon as you wake up. Yes you may think I’m mad but doing exercise as soon as you awaken from the land of nod heightens your metabolism and keeps it high all day. You also get better and more notable effects if you train in the morning.

Eat regular 4-6 small meals a day, this helps to keep your body burning fat and metabolism high. If you eat say 2 large meals a day it’s too much for your body to use at one time so it sores fat quicker by thinking its not going to be getting food till the next big meal which may be far off.

This blog covers a fairly wide variety of topics under the very general Health & Fitness umbrella. Given this variety and the lack of guidelines given it is not surprising that the submissions for the 1st Monthly Health Blog Carnival varied considerably. I’ve made an attempt to organize the accepted submissions into the following four categories: Diet, Exercise, Mental Health, and For the Children.

Diet

The main thrust of the Diet related submissions are foods to avoid; mainly meat.

Saving Simply’s Practical Reasons to Eat Less Meat says that reducing meat consumption is better for the environment, our bodies, our wallets, and our morals.

Life Crafting doesn’t pull punches with Meat Part I: How It’s Slowly Killing You by Strangling Your Heart and Riddling You With Cancer. Andrew says eating meat is a social relic that causes a host of deadly conditions including Atherosclerosis and Cancer.

zenhabits is a little less dire about meat consumption with Gradual Vegetarianism: The Easy Way to a Slim Waist. He has lots of great tips on how to go vegetarian one day a week.

Wenchypoo thinks you should add milk to your list of foods to avoid in Moooove over, Bossy—A New Nutrition Game is in Town. Wenchypoo thinks that milk is not an essential part of your diet and can actually cause health problems, particularly with your gallbladder.

Sundance contributes her list of foods to avoid, but also provides some healthy alternatives with How To Eat To Avoid Heart Disease. She suggests foods that are low in fat and salt, saying apple juice is great for keeping cholesterol low.

Dietriffic doesn’t mention any specific foods, instead they focus on how to set and maintain dieting goals with Getting SMART with Goal Setting! There are some great tips here on how to make health changes that you can stick with for the rest of your life.

Kate Spicer takes dieting to an unhealthy extreme in an attempt to achieve a model-thin body in Faking Good Breeding’s The Price of Thin. Kate’s extreme diet alienates her friends and family, increases stress, damages her self-esteem, and causes health problems.

Anna Farmery discusses how podcasting and blogging helped her lose 35 pounds in Podcasting for Weight Loss. She received a lot of positive support from the blogging community on her way to achieving her health goals.

Exercise

Exercise, the main category I had in mind for this Carnival, only received a couple good submissions.

Higher Endeavors has some tips on removing Stubborn Abdominal Fat by perfecting your workouts, improving your nutrition, and supplementing where necessary.

tacithydra has some creative ideas for improving the stair master at your local gym in NordicMech by making them more like your favorite video games.

Mental Health

There are some great tips here on how go stay sharp, deal with mental health issues, and keep your stress levels low.

360 Degree Success has some tips on how to slow things down to deal with stress in Speed Kills.

GNIF Brain Blogger discuses his personal experiences with anxiety in Do You Have Panic Attacks? They also have some good news about medical insurance: The Mental Health Parity Bill of 2007

Addiction Recovery Basics has Ten Tips for Easing Depression including #7: “Get out of your comfort zone. You may find the house to be an all-too welcoming haven, or your routine tasks to be comforting. Your comfort zone, however, is also the place where your depression reigns, and you must try to escape it.”

Personal Growth & Personal Development will help you stay sharp with 7 Brain Foods that Will Increase Your Productivity. They list some tasty berries, veggies, and nuts that will boost your mental capabilities.

For the Children

This was a surprise category with both submissions covering the same topic. If you are approaching your 30s and plan to procreate you should check out these articles.

Leslie B. Raschka M.D. thinks you should have kids early in Disease-Causing Genetic Mutations In Sperm Increase With Men’s Age: “Importantly, disorders linked to advancing paternal age begin to increase rapidly at about the same time as maternal risks increase — age 33 to 35.”

EBDblog is even more specific about the problems with middle aged insemination in Fathers’ Age as Contributor to Risk for Autism.

That wraps up the 1st Monthly Health Blog Carnival. Check back next month for more great Health & Fitness information from across the web!

Trevor Thieme explains why you shouldn’t do the following exercises:

• Posterior (Behind-the-Neck) Pull Downs
• Behind-the-Neck Shoulder Presses
• Straight Bar Curls
• Leg Extensions
• Sit-ups

I’ve used all of these exercises, but his explanation of why they should be avoided makes sense. He also suggests alternatives to each.

Five common exercises you should never do

McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets contain a chemical called TBHQ, which is essentially butane. TBHQ can cause “nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse.” Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.

So What Really Is In A McDonald’s Chicken McNugget?

You can submit an article here.

Get paid to be an author on this blog!

The Examiner has an article about “brain gyms:” High-tech ‘brain gyms’ tone minds, reduce stress.

The article profiles Sharp Brains and Posit Science, two companies that can help you exercise your brain. They say their treatments can lower stress, and prevent memory loss.

SharpBrains and Posit are just two of a growing number of start-up companies leading the way in the area of packaging and developing suites of software they call “brain gyms.”

SharpBrains offers a suite of products that evaluate buyers’ needs and target their weakness, gently pushing for improvement, Fernandez said. One program helps improve memory using a number game; another provides instant biofeedback to users so they can practice breathing and positive thinking to reduce stress, Fernandez said.

Josh Hillis advocates for keeping a food log when trying to get in shape. He says it is important to keep track of calories, fat, and protein in preparation for swim suit season.

Fit Day may be a good online resource for tracking this information.

I have found that you have to stick to a work out regimen for about three months before you start to see significant results. I have also found that I have an annoying habit of making it to gym almost daily for about a month before I start to burn out. Consistency is one of the most important parts of any exercise regimen. No amount of nutritional supplements or personal training will make up for a lack of consistency. If you don’t at least show your face in the gym a couple times a week you will see no significant results. The few times that I have made it past my one month burn out barrier were the times when I had a very specific goal to work towards or an event to prepare for. Having something to work towards is great motivation to get yourself into the gym.

Most recently that motivation was playing the part of Rocky, in The Rocky Horror Show. Rocky is the muscle bound title character, not to be confused with the main character Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Here is a picture from the motion picture with male model Peter Hinwood playing the part of Rocky, lets just say that he wasn’t hired for his acting ability:

I had three months to prepare, so I wasn’t going to look as good as Peter but I also had a lack of acting ability to compensate for. The fear of being on stage in only a speedo in front of a couple thousand people was an excellent motivator. Three months, ~20 pounds of protein powder, ~5% less body fat, and a few more pounds of muscle later the show began. Without the show as a very distinct motivator I wouldn’t have made it the gym nearly as often or been as strict with my diet. Here are a couple pictures of my version of Rocky:

Fear certainly isn’t the only effective motivator. There are many, probably less stressful, other ways to motivate yourself to work towards your desired physique. Here are some links to other bodybuilding sites’ lists of motivations, with a few of my favorite tips below:

1. How Can I Stay Motivated & Believe That I Can Achieve My Bodybuilding Goals?
2. 13 Fitness Tips To Stay Motivated And Workout Effectively
3. Motivation. Why is it so important?
4. How to Stay Motivated (Short Term)
5. 10 Factors To Help You Stay Motivated And Succeed
6. Top 10 Ways to Stay Motivated in the Gym

Program Your Mind For Bodybuilding Success - Visualize The End Result

I also advice you to just lay down at night and really think of the way that you want your body to look. Then make sure that you just wake up every morning with the mindset that everything you will do that day will contribute in one way or the other to achieving that look. This will give you the motivation to adhere to your bodybuilding routines and diet each and every day. 1

Work out with a friend. Not only can this help you actually get to your workout appointment, but friends can help encourage each other to work out with more intensity. 2

If you’re tired, or your muscles ache, try something a bit gentler - but don’t avoid fitness entirely ‘until you feel better’. Swimming is good because it helps support the whole body, and it is still a good workout. 2

Take before and after pictures and then compare the two. Seeing results will further motivate you to do better and better. Do not only look at pictures of yourself but also of other bodybuilders. Professional bodybuilders are a key to my motivation. I know when I look at a picture of one of them it makes me just want to go out there and tear up my weights so I can one day get that freakishly huge. 3

Set Small Goals:

Sometimes it much easier to think of getting around the next corner then it is to look at the big picture. When I hiked Yosemite’s Half-Dome, I used many small goals to keep me going. Rather then look at my final objective all the time, I used land markers to keep me going from one point to another. A technique you can use at the gym. Set weekly goals (1 lb a week) rather then looking at what you want to accomplish a year from now. 4

A Reward System

This may seem like a funny point considering what you just read on extrinsic motivation, however having a reward system can be very beneficial. What is important is that the rewards are set by you and have a particular meaning to you. This will keep everything under your control so you won’t begin to feel like you are being regulated by someone else (as is usually the case for extrinsic motivation).

By setting small rewards after each step in your plan, you will give yourself something to look forward to and keep yourself motivated to keep pushing onward. 5

Take it slow and steady.
Many people, in a combination of enthusiasm and impatience, wind up doing too much, too soon, too frequently. That results in soreness, exhaustion, and feeling burnout - in other words, lack of motivation. Take your workouts one day at a time and enjoy the journey. “Inch by inch life is a synch, yard by yard life is hard” 6

Josh Hillis has the details of the extreme conditioning the actors in the movie 300 went through in preparation for the movie. The program is run by Mark Twight from Gym Jones and includes “tire flipping, jumping, sprints with a jumpstretch band, runs with kettlebells, turkish get ups with kettlebells, medicine ball throwing, kipping pullups, bear crawls, tuck sits on gymnastics rings, barbell thrusters.”