I'm only human after all.

Welcome back friends and followers.
As you can probably tell from all my rants and raves that i try to live a healthy lifestyle. I workout 6 to 7 days a week, i eat according to my nutrition guide to achieve my fitness goals and i try very hard to not eat CRAP.

Do I always succeed? 

I have to admit it, no I don't. Do I enjoy wings, pizza, pasta, burgers, hot dogs, candy, ice cream, steak and loaded baked potatoes.....hell yes, I do. Do I occasionally (key word) indulge, you bet your sweet ass I do. 

Here is my reasoning why I feel that it is okay to indulge, once in a while. 

I could be wrong, but this is my opinion for what it's worth.

I eat very healthy 6 days a week, usually 7 day a week. I eat a balanced diet of healthy, mostly organic foods and gallons of water a week. I workout 6 to 7 days a week and I workout hard. I drink my Shakeology everyday. I follow my nutrition plan for my workouts and when i get a craving, I plan it out, I don't just give in and eat whatever. I know that one 'bad for me meal' isn't going to kill my progress or set me back months, but if i gave in to my cravings every time i had one, it just might. I have an addictive personality and i know how i can get. At one point in my former life, I would have to have, not want to have, but have to have about a 100 M&M's a night, while i sat in bed watching TV. And if I ran out, i would go to the store and get more no matter what time it was. Anyway, I digress. I will give myself a 'treat' day once or twice a month. If I have worked out extra hard during the week, I will give in and go get a Ritas or some ice cream. So what? To me, I earned it. If I deprive myself of something for too long, I feel like I will cave in and over indulge in something that i desire.

Some fitness nuts abide by the no treat day rule, some don't. I feel that it is all personal preference. I feel that the key to the treat day is self control and moderation.There are certain things that I will not eat. No matter how much i used to like them. Fast food is a given. No more of that poison EVER. I cannot remember the last time i had any of that garbage. And take soda for example, I have not had a soda in over 14 years. I haven't touched alcohol for almost 18 years now, but that's another story all together. 

Here is a list of some of the worst foods you can eat. I found this list via Google at this website

#1 Worst Food: Processed Meat

According to Webmd.com, the American Institute for Cancer Research says meats preserved by smoking, curing, or salting, or that contain chemical preservatives, are linked to an increased risk of colon cancer. These products also tend to have lots of salt, fat, and cholesterol, and very few nutrients, like fiber.

#2 Worst Food: Frozen Meals

They may look tiny, but frozen dinners can be loaded with calories. Livestrong.com found one popular national brand of chicken pot pie contains 64 grams of fat and 1,020 calories per serving. And while the diet versions of these frozen foods may be low in fat, they are heavily processed and are often high in sodium.

#3 Worst Food: Doughnuts

Maybe America should run from Dunkin’, and any other outlet selling these nutrition bombs. Store-bought doughnuts contain the unholy trinity of unhealthy ingredients, reports livestrong.com: trans fat, sugar, and refined flour. Many contain a whopping 10 to 20 grams of fat each and between 250 to 300 empty calories.

#4 Worst Food: Potato Chips

You already know that these fat-filled “bad carbs” are no good for your waistline. What you may not know is potato chips (along with French fries) contain acrylamide, a known carcinogen that is formed when foods are baked or fried at high temperatures. "I estimate that acrylamide causes several thousand cancers per year in Americans,” Clark University research professor Dale Hattis is quoted as saying at sixwise.com.

#5 Worst Food: Low-Fat Foods

Don’t be fooled by the “Low-Fat” label. Makers of cookies, salad dressings, yogurt, and other foods labeled low-fat often substitute sugar, salt, and unhealthy fillers to add flavor and texture to otherwise bland processed products. Author and TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz advises you to always choose real foods over processed, low-fat options.

#6 Worst Food: Margarine

Though it’s billed as a cholesterol-free, healthy alternative to butter, margarine is the ultimate source of trans fats, which actually elevate cholesterol and damage blood vessel walls, reports The Natural Health Hub website. So skip the fake stuff and go with olive oil or other monounsaturated fats.

#7 Worst Food: Soda

Chugging soda is one of the easiest ways to pack on the pounds (the average can contains 10 teaspoons of sugar). But drinking as few as two soft drinks a week can nearly double a person’s risk of getting pancreatic cancer, too. That’s the finding of a study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, according to a report on e-how.com. Want more bad news? Consuming more than 2.5 sugary sodas per day significantly increases your risk of death from cardiovascular disease as well as your risk of developing diabetes.

Are you a carb addict? Blame your nucleus accumbens.

Are all calories created equal? A new study suggests that in at least one important way, they may not be.

Sugary foods and drinks, white bread and other processed carbohydrates that are known to cause abrupt spikes and falls in blood sugar appear to stimulate parts of the brain involved in hunger, craving and reward, the new research shows. The findings, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggest that these so-called high-glycemic foods influence the brain in a way that might drive some people to overeat.

For those who are particularly susceptible to these effects, avoiding refined carbohydrates might reduce urges and potentially help control weight, said Dr. David Ludwig, the lead author of the study and the director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital.

“This research suggests that based on their effects on brain metabolism, all calories are not alike,” he said. “Not everybody who eats processed carbohydrates develops uncontrollable food cravings. But for the person who has been struggling with weight in our modern food environment and unable to control their cravings, limiting refined carbohydrate may be a logical first step.”

Regardless of the diet they choose, most people who lose a great deal of weight have a difficult time keeping it off for good. For many people, despite their best efforts, the weight returns within six months to a year. But a few studies of weight loss maintenance, including a large one in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2010, have reported some success with diets that limit high-glycemic foods like bagels, white rice, juice and soda.

In addition to raising blood sugar, foods that are sugary and highly caloric elicit pronounced responses in distinct areas of the brain involved in reward. Earlier imaging studies have shown, for example, that the main reward and pleasure center, the nucleus accumbens, lights up more intensely for a slice of chocolate cake than for blander foods like vegetables, and the activation tends to be greater in the brains of obese people than it is in those who are lean.

But do rich desserts have a select ability to change our longer-term eating habits?

To get a better idea, Dr. Ludwig and his colleagues recruited a dozen obese men and then fed them milkshakes on two different occasions separated by several weeks. In each case, the milkshakes were nearly identical: flavored with milk and vanilla, and containing the same amount of calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat.

But on one occasion, the shakes were made with high-glycemic corn syrup; on the other, a source of low-glycemic carbohydrates was used. “These test meals were identical in appearance and tastiness, and we verified that our subjects had no preference for one or the other,” Dr. Ludwig said.

As expected, blood sugar levels rose more quickly in response to the high-glycemic milkshake. But the researchers were especially interested in what happened several hours later, about the time most people are ready for their next meal.

What they found was that four hours after drinking the high-glycemic shake, blood sugar levels had plummeted into the hypoglycemic range, the subjects reported more hunger, and brain scans showed greater activation in parts of the brain that regulate cravings, reward and addictive behaviors. Although the subject pool was small, every subject showed the same response, and the differences in blood flow to these regions of the brain between the two conditions “was quite substantial,” Dr. Ludwig said.

“Based on the strength and consistency of the response,” he added, “the likelihood that this was due to chance was less than one in a thousand.”

Previous research suggests that when blood sugar levels plummet, people have a tendency to seek out foods that can restore it quickly, and this may set up a cycle of overeating driven by high-glycemic foods, Dr. Ludwig said. “It makes sense that the brain would direct us to foods that would rescue blood sugar,” he said. “That’s a normal protective mechanism.”

Christopher Gardner, a nutrition scientist at Stanford University who was not involved in the new study, said that after decades of research but little success in fighting obesity, “it has been disappointing that the message being communicated to the American public has been boiled down to ‘eat less and exercise more.’”

“An underlying assumption of the ‘eat less’ portion of that message has been ‘a calorie is a calorie,’” he said. But the new research “sheds light on the strong plausibility that it isn’t just the amount of food we are eating, but also the type.”

Dr. Gardner said it was clear that the conventional approach of the past few decades was not working. A more helpful message than “eat less,” he said, may be “eat less refined carbohydrates and more whole foods.”

this article was copied from New York Time Blog. 

Authored by  ANAHAD O'CONNOR

10 Things about Processed Foods You Need to Know

http://www.undergroundhealth.com/10-things-the-processed-food-industry-doesnt-want-you-to-know/

I copied this article from the above website after reading it through a link on Facebook.

10 Things the Processed Food Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know

Processed foods seem like the answer to today’s busy lives. New fads and fancy advertisements make promises that keep us coming back for more. 

But before you hit the vending machine or the fast food window, find out what the processed food industry doesn’t want you to know: 

1. Processed foods are addictive and can cause you to overeat. 

Whole foods are made up of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fiber and water. When foods are processed the components of these foods are modified (for example, fiber, water and nutrients are removed) and in other cases, components are concentrated. In each case, processing changes the way they are digested and assimilated in your body. 

Eating highly processed or highly concentrated foods can artificially stimulate dopamine (the pleasure neurotransmitter), which plays a role in addiction. In this way, you are eating foods that lack nutrients and fiber, but create a pleasurable feeling. A food addiction starts because you feel good when you are eating these foods and they make you think they taste better. You crave that pleasurable feeling again and again and viola…this is what starts a food addiction.

2. Processed foods are linked to obesity. 

Additives in processed foods, like high fructose corn syrup, sugar and MSG have been linked to weight gain and obesity. Dr. Mercola recently reported about a new study that showed childhood obesity could be reduced by 18 percent, simply by cutting out fast food advertisements during children’s programming. The Australian government is clearly more concerned about their children’s health as television advertisements to children were banned several years ago. 

3. Processed foods often contain ingredients that do not follow the principle of food combining, which can lead to low energy, poor digestion, illness, acidic blood and weight gain. 

An example would be a frozen meat and cheese pizza. Cheese (a dairy product), meat (an animal protein) and pizza crust (a grain product) make a terrible food combination that can wreak havoc on your digestive health. 

4. Processed foods contribute to an imbalanced inner ecosystem, which can lead to digestive problems, cravings, illness and disease. 

Beneficial microflora cannot survive in your digestive tract when you are poisoning them. Like us they thrive on foods that are made by nature not by man. 

5. A diet high in processed foods can lead to depression, memory issues and mood swings. 

Ingredients in processed foods are often the lowest cost and sub-par, nutritionally. For example, the fats and oils used in processed foods are refined, which means they are stripped of the essential fatty acids necessary for healthy blood sugar levels, moods and memory. Your heart, hormones and brain suffer when you choose to eat these fats and oils. Instead choose the organic, unrefined or “virgin” fats and oils that are recommended on The Body Ecology Diet. 

6. Processed foods often go hand in hand with “eating on the run” or multitasking. 

Most people will choose convenience if they are on the run and in today’s busy lives, who of us isn’t? Unfortunately, multitasking while eating causes people to lose touch with their natural appetite, often leading to weight gain. Additionally, multitasking sends the wrong signals to your digestive system, which needs to be in a restful mode to digest properly. 

7. Nutrition labels on processed foods are often misleading and have harmful health effects. 

Many labels say “sugar free,” but contain other sweeteners like agave, which is like high fructose corn syrup. Additionally, product labeling may hide ingredients like GM (genetically modified) foods and harmful additives like MSG. (These are hidden behind words on the label like “natural flavorings” or “approved spices”). 

8. Diets high in processed meats (like hot dogs and deli meats) have been linked to various forms of cancer, such as pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer and stomach cancer. 

One of the reasons for this link to cancer is thought to be because of the preservatives used in processed meats. Clare Hughes, Australian Cancer Council nutrition program manager, says a number of studies have linked processed meat to cancer and the problem is multi-fold. “Processed meats are high in salt and fat. In addition, chemicals such as nitrites are added to many processed meats to maintain their colour and to prevent contamination. Nitrites can be converted in the stomach to carcinogenic nitrosamines.” 

9. Eating too many processed foods can lead to infertility and malnutrition. 

Processed foods, like cereal, are stripped of important vitamins and nutrients that your body truly needs. You could be eating a large amount of calories and still be malnourished if your diet is high in processed foods. 

Animal studies have shown that over three generations, a deficient diet causes reproduction to cease. Today, infertility is on the rise, affecting 7.3 million people in America. 

10. Processed foods are made for long shelf-life, not long human life! 

Chemicals, additives and preservatives are added to processed foods so that they will last for a long time without going rancid or affecting the taste of the food. Food manufacturers spend time, money and research on beautiful packaging and strategies to lengthen shelf-life, with little attention on how the foods will lengthen your life or create lasting health.

I'm sick to my stomach

I just watched this absolutely disgusting film. I know that these facts do not and will not apply to everyone, but the facts are the facts. Fast food is poison, it is as addictive as any drug, and it is meant to be.

Some of the facts are outdated and some of the more disgusting ones have been bolded.

Please take a minute or two to read over these facts, and try not to get sick.

Super Size Me: The facts from the film.

(this movie came out in 2004 and the stats have only gotten worse in the past decade)

q  America is the fattest nation in the world. Over 100 million Americans are overweight or obsess. 60% of all US adults are overweight or obsess.

q  Mississippi is the fattest state in the nation.(it is now Alabama: It has an obesity rate of 31.2 percent)

q  Since 1980 to the present, the amount of children who are obese has doubled. Obesity is now second only to smoking as a major cause of preventable death in America with over 400,000 preventable illnesses related to obesity each year.

q  More and more Americans are eating out which leads to bigger waistlines as well. One in four Americans visits a fast-food restaurant.

q  Mc Donald’s alone has 30,000 joints in 100 countries on 6 continents. It serves over 46 million worldwide each day. That is more people than the entire country of Spain.  Mc Donald’s is 43% of the fast food market. Mc Donald’s is everywhere: in malls, airports, and even in hospitals.

q  Morgan Spurlock, the star of the film, wanted to find out what would happen to his body if he ate nothing but Mc Donald’s for 30 days.

q  Sixty-percent of Americans get no exercise at all and lead a completely sedentary lifestyle. Most Americans walk no more than 5,000 steps a day. The average New Yorker, however, walks 4-5 miles a day.

q  There are 83 Mc Donald’s in New York City within 22.4 square miles. That means there are 4 per square mile.

q  The small size soda in the US is the big size in France.

q  The rules for Morgan Spurlock in Super Size Me are:

1.      Only super-size when asked

2.      Only eat things from Mc Donald’s

3.      Have to have everything on the menu at least once over the next 30 days

4.      Must have 3 square meals a day

q  Americans eat out 40% of our meals. That’s a lot.

q  Mc Donald’s works to appeal to kids with a number of tricks:

1. The Mc Donald’s playgrounds. For some communities that don’t have parks, the playgrounds at Mc Donald’s are the only place to take your kid to play.
2. Birthday parties children can have at Mc Donald’s.
3. Happy Meals appeal to kids
4. Ronald Mc Donald, the clown.

q  Obesity is a national epidemic.

q  The federal government says that 3 oz of meat is a serving size. Most restaurants serve 4 to 5 times that amount.

q  One bagel = five pieces of bread and is between 500-600 calories.

q  The original size of fries was 200 calories. A large size fries is 600 calories.

q  At Burger King, a 12 oz drink used to be a small. Now it is considered kiddie-size.

q  Cars have introduced different cup holders for the Double Big Gulps, which are a ½ gallon of soda and are between 600-800 calories depending on how much ice is in them.

q  Toxic food and physical inactivity, as well as constant access to cheap, fatty foods are leading to an environment that almost guarantees we become obese.

q  There are 3 million soda machines – enough for one machine for every 97 people.

q  Obesity will overtake smoking if left unabated as the #1 cause of preventable death in the U.S.

q  Weight gain and being overweight or obese leads to a lot of health problems such as:

1.      Hypertension

2.      Coronary heart disease

3.      Stroke

4.      Gallbladder disease

5.      Osteo-arthritis

6.      Sleep apnea

7.      Respitory problems

8.      Endometrial cancer

9.      Breast Cancer

10.  Prostrate Cancer

11.  Colon Cancer

12.  Insulin resistance

13.  Asthma

14.  Reproductive hormone abnormalities

15.  Dyslipidemia

16.  Hepatitus

17.  Hyperuricemia

18.  Cystic Ovarian Syndrome

19.  Impaired Fertility

20.  Adult onset diabetes

q  One out of every 3 children born in 2000, if trends continue, will develop diabetes in their life

q  At least 17 million Americans, 1 out of 20, have type 2 diabetes. If diabetes starts before the age of 15, you may lose 17-27 years of life.

q  Direct medial costs have doubled in the past five years to 92 billion dollars.

q  20% of obsess kids have elevated liver function. Tests show that half of them have evidence of cirrhosis of the liver, which is scarring of the liver, which may lead to liver failure as adults.

q  Mc Donald’s stated in their own defense that it is a “matter of common knowledge that any processing that its foods undergo serve to make them more harmful than unprocessed foods.”

q  Mc Nuggets – are made from chickens pumped with hormones so that have unusually large breasts. The chickens are put into a machine whole, their heads are chopped off, and they the rest of their bodies, including feces, comes out of the machine in chicken Mc Nuggets.

q  Americans see a lot of advertising. The average child sees 10,000 food advertisements each year on TV. 95% of those ads are for sugared cereals, soft drinks, and candy.

q  Companies spend billions on selling and marketing their products. Mc Donald’s spent 1.4 billion on direct advertising. Hershey’s spent 200 million.

q  But the 5 A Day Fruit and Vegetable Campaign only spent 2 million a year. How can they even compete in trying to educate about good, healthy food choices with so much less money?

q  What is fructose? Sugar

q  Half of US homes do not have Internet access. 

q  Half of all Mc Donald’s had posted nutritional information about their products. One in four had no information at all.

q  Losing 10% of your body weight is beneficial for your health.

q  Impact of fast food can be seen in our nation’s schools. A misconception of adults in the school cafeterias is that kids are eating more than the junk food they bug, but they are not often.

q  There are 36 grams of sugar in Country Time Lemonade. It has as much sugar as a Coke.

q  Sodexo services out to 400 school districts each day. They get to do this because they were the lowest bidder, that serves, as a result, cheap, often fatty, foods.

q  A Truancy program turned things around at their school with diet. They used Natural Ovens, to serve food at their school that is: low fat, low sugar, free of dyes and preservatives, non-chemically processed, no beef, not fried or opened from a can or a box. Instead their fruit is fresh, with lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains. The school also got rid of candy and soda machines.  The school saw major changes in the kids – better behavior and more focus. The program costs the same as any other school program. So why isn’t everyone doing this program? Because big companies put a lot of pressure on schools to serve junk foods because the companies make huge profits on the sale of lots of junk food and soda.

q  LA Unified banned soda, which has tons of sugar.

q  Texas has 5 out of the 10 fattest cities in American with Houston as the #1 fattest city in America.

q  In the U.S. the only state that requires mandatory PE in its public schools is Illinois, which is also one of the fattest states ironically enough.

q  The surgeon general says you need a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise a day to maintain weight and well-being.

q  In 2001, No Child Left Behind, was passed, and as a result in many schools, recess is being cut out to prepare for tests.

q  What is a calorie? It is a measure of energy content in food. One calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise a liter of water by 1 degree Celsius.

q  There are only 7 items on the Mc Donald’s menu with no sugar:

1.      French fries

2.      Iced tea

3.      Diet Coke

4.      Chicken Mc Nuggets

5.      Hash browns

6.      Sausage

7.      Coffee

q  Morgan Spurlock in the film, according to his doctors, was wiping out his liver with a high fat diet.

q  There was a drug effect from the food within the brain – not just the taste kept him eating, but the food affects mood and it can become addicting.

q  72% of people who eat at Mc Donald’s at least once a week are heavy users.

q  22% of people who eat at Mc Donald’s are super heavy eaters – they eat there multiple times a week.

q  100 nutritionists were called in the film and 45 of them said never to eat at Mc Donald’s.

q  30 billion dollars is spent each year on diet products and weight loss programs. That is 2.5 times what Americans spend on fitness and health.

q  Why does the fast food industry have lobbyists to do for them?

1.      To make sure that no government agency ever says eat less of a company’s products

2.      To make sure that the government never passes legislation that is unfavorable.

q  What happened to Morgan Spurlock’s body as a result of his 30 day experiment eating nothing but Mc Donald’s?

1.      He gained 24.5 pounds.

2.      His liver turned to fat

3.      His cholesterol shot up 65 points.

4.      He had an 11-15% body fat increase.

5.      He nearly doubled his risk of coronary heart disease.

6.      He became depressed and exhausted

7.      His sex life was non-existent

8.      He had bad mood swings

9.      He had massive cravings and massive headaches.

q  Premium salads at Mc Donald’s have 51 grams of fat and have more calories than a Big Mac. Eating one provides you with 79% of your daily fat intake.

q  Spurlock was asked to Supersize his meals 9 times. Five of those were in Texas.

q  He consumed 30 pounds of sugar that month – a pound a day.

q  He consumed 12 pounds of fat over 30 days.

q  The Cheeseburger Bill was passed by Congress and makes it illegal to sue fast food for making you obsess.

q  Detroit is now the #1 fattest city in America

q  Texas has now added five additional fattest cities to the list.

q  Six weeks after the film Super Size Me premiered, Mc Donald’s announced they were eliminating their Super Size me menu. 

Sex and Exercise-now that I have your attention.

Whether you're a fitness junkie or exercising for the first time, learn the answer to the question, "Can exercise make a huge impact on having a better sex life?" Hopefully i can give you some insight and help you find the answer to the relationship between exercise and better sex.

There are several real life reasons why a physically fit person is more likely to fully enjoy sex compared to a non-fit person. For starters, when you are physically fit you tend to have more self esteem. I don't speak for everyone of course, just in general. Secondly, your improved muscle tone can increase sexual gratification, since orgasms depend on multiple muscle activity. In the case of the more mature man, improved cardiovascular fitness can be critical for maximum sexual function. Know what I mean?

Physically fit men seem to benefit in the bedroom, as it relates to increased libido and stable testosterone levels that often decline as men age. On the other hand, sex can be as much mental as it is physical, and a person's physical appearance can be beneficial on an emotional level, as well. Beer bellies are unattractive, on men and women. And the can get in the way. Just saying. Looking and feeling healthy can increase your self-esteem while making you feel more attractive.

The relationship between physical fitness and sexual function is not the only factor that may increase a person's sexual pleasure. Some researchers attribute a good exercise program, along with other healthy activities such as good eating habits, smoking cessation and getting plenty of rest, with having a positive effect on sexual performance for people of all ages.

A study conducted at the University of California-San Diego tracked 78 middle-aged men (that would be me ) on an aerobic exercise program. The subjects exercised at moderate intensity for 60 minutes a day, three or four days a week. After nine months of continuous exercise, these subjects reported that their sex life was more satisfying as far as stamina and orgasms. In comparison, 17 male subjects that performed light workout routines such as walking at a comparatively slower pace stated that they had no substantial improvement in their sex lives.

In conclusion, exercise alone should not be considered the panacea for all sexual dysfunctions or dissatisfaction. However, if you hope to improve your sex life through exercise, you should carefully consider adopting a more comprehensive healthy lifestyle in order to increase the possibility of fully experiencing your sexual peak. Here are some suggestions for anyone interested.

• Cardio Endurance - For enthusiastic sex, you'll need to build cardio endurance. It makes your heart strong and keeps your body going. Try for 3 or 4 days of cardio exercise like running, walking, swimming or any activity you enjoy.
• Muscular Endurance - Sex also requires you to hold...er...occasionally uncomfortable positions for short periods of time, so conditioning your body can be a plus for longer lasting sex. If you're new to strength training, start with a basic strength workout 2-3 times a week or learn more about weight training to see how you can set up your own program.
• Strength - As long as we're talking about holding yourself in position, strength is something else you'll need. Your basic strength workout will help you build more strength, just make sure you challenge your muscles with enough weight. You should use enough weight that your last rep is difficult, but not impossible and, if you're a woman, don't worry that you'll bulk up. Women don't produce enough testosterone to build big muscles, but you will build amazing strength. 
• Flexibility - Being limber can enhance anyone's sex life by making it a bit easier to get into your favorite position with less discomfort. Try stretching after your workouts or incorporate a little yoga into your routine. Yoga is also relaxing, which can help you reduce fatigue and get you in the mood.

Keep in mind that both sex and exercise have been proven to help reduce stress, so doing both on a regular basis should help you stay relaxed and happy. Exercise also helps increase your sexual desire. Elizabeth Scott, About.com's Stress Guide discusses this in her article, Stress and Sex, pointing out that, "...at times stress can actually prevent us from being ‘in the mood’. With the libido-dampening effects of excessive stress, sex sometimes goes by the wayside." Exercise, along with a healthy diet and adequate sleep can boost your libido so you're up for anything.

Don't forget that sex burns calories. Sure, it has to be fairly vigorous to get your heart rate going, but a 130-lb person can burn about seven calories per five minutes of vigorous sex. Keep it up for an hour, and you'll burn off 88 calories...not a bad trade off.