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Trim your Tummy by Improving your Metabolism

by Teresa Brown

If only we could all be blessed with perfect metabolisms, the diet and fitness industries would be small fish in the big sea of commerce. But life is not that way and Moms have to see to it that they burn the baby fat because it is the first important step towards a healthy lifestyle for them and their family. Moms can get their pre-pregnancy bodies back by focusing on increasing their metabolism with a few “natural” tricks to the trade.

In our haste to lose pregnancy weight fast, we often forget that short-term gain doesn’t necessarily lead to long-term gain. And this is especially true with regards to the quick fix diet or diet pill method because the weight lost is always short lived. Your goal should be about achieving wellness and from that being able to manage your weight from month to month, year to year. In order to do this, you need to focus on fine tuning your metabolism.

Eat to Live

We all know that we have to eat right and the “spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. You try to instill healthy eating habits in your family but alas, you are a busy Mom and it’s so easy to cave into the conveniences of frozen dinners, fast food take-outs and deliveries. But this time it’s about you and you need to lose your tummy and recover your pre-pregnancy body.

Foods high in protein such as lean meats, fish, poultry; low-fat dairy products, beans and legumes should be a stable part of your diet. Foods high in fiber constitute generally most fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods such as bran, bulgur, and oats. They are to be purchased and prepared in the most natural way possible so that you will receive the most nutritional and fat burning benefits.

Interval Training at maximum Effort

Wouldn’t it be great to have a workout session that could burn the baby fat at minimum cost to your precious time? Well, you can burn the fat effectively with a 15-minute workout done in intervals. Interval training is basically repetitively doing an exercise at high intensity with short periods of rest or low intensity after each set. Studies show that this method of training is more effective at burning body fat compared to just training at a low to moderated level of intensity for the same time period. Varying the intensity of your workout makes your body burn more calories because it has to work harder.

Strength Training builds lean muscles

Most women tend to shy away from the very thing that can give them that lean, toned look that they want, and that is strength training. We forget that the toned bodies we see passing us by on beach are lean muscles. Thus, losing pregnancy weight requires adding some resistance interval training to your workout, which will strengthen your muscles to become lean.

The strength training that can accommodate your needs is called resistance training. Resistance training is a form of training that strengthens your muscle groups by applying an external force of resistance to work against them such as dumbbells, water in a pool, an elastic exercise band, or your own body weight. You can workout at home and lose the pregnancy weight with a 15 minute interval training workout.

Keep on Moving

An active Mom, who is determined to lose the pregnancy weight for the long-term, will have to keep the momentum going by staying physically active. When the weight has come off, your new goal will be weight management. This can be done if you recruit your family into participating in physical activities such as a hiking, biking, swimming, skiing, rollerblading, etc. Not only will you be living a healthier lifestyle and keeping the weight off but you will have quality time with your loved ones.

A healthy lifestyle will keep the weight off but it will take time to break the unhealthy habits to make the transition to healthy ones. Helping your metabolism in its efficiency to burn calories by eating and exercising right will help you to lose the pregnancy weight and gain the accompanying health benefits for your body. You will evolve into a natural beauty instead of a talk show makeover.

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  • IVF vs. Tubal Reversal - How to Decide

    by Sandra Wilson

    If you had your tubes tied but have decided you want another child, your doctor will probably suggest doing the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process. But there is an. That alternative is a tubal reversal. Should you have one? Let’s check out IVF vs. tubal reversal to see what might be best for you.

    When you have a tubal reversal you are having surgery. It can be an outpatient procedure if you choose the right surgeon. It’s best to check around and be sure to get the right tubal reversal doctor. During the surgery, your surgeon will repair your fallopian tubes where the original obstruction, in whatever form, was made. Some are cut and some are clipped. Some are burned and some are ringed, so to speak. But the preparation is minimal before surgery and mainly consists of a review by your surgeon of your operation’s records and being sure you are of the proper body mass to safely undergo a surgery.

    With an IVF, however, there is a course of drugs given to you. You will receive both intramuscular and subcutaneous shots. Some stimulate and some prevent premature ovulation. Most of them will be taken over the course of a few days which means it’s not just a one time shot and you’re done. Ouch! And that’s just the beginning preparation.

    Next will be the removal of your eggs. Of course, the doctor will need to be sure of the right time to do so and will do this by monitoring to be sure to catch the eggs at the right time. Your system has been stimulated to produce many more eggs than normal. You will get another shot before ovulation is due. Then, when all is ready, the doctor will use a needle to remove the egg. Ouch again!

    Now, comes the part you have been taking all those shots for. You will have the fertilized eggs implanted into your body. This will happen after some time in the lab where the fertilization and the beginning development of the embryo takes place. You will most likely get more than one fertilized egg, which actually has begun developing into an embryo, placed back into your uterus. One possibility with the remaining embryos is to have them frozen for when this cycle does not give you the hoped for result of a pregnancy. You will get more injections at this point as well.

    Will all this be successful? That depends on several things which can include something as “simple” as how careful your doctor is and whether or not he rushed the implant procedure and if he put the embryo in a good place. At any rate, you will need more injections now to help sustain things and make your chances better. With all these shots, you should be aware that there are some dangers not only to you but to your child as well, if you should be lucky enough to carry to term. Look around the web to see what the potential dangers are from IVF.

    So what are your chances of a success on any one cycle of IVF? The figures vary depending upon such things as how many eggs were implanted, but the most common figures seem to be a 10% to 30% chance of pregnancy.

    Let’s look at how the success rates of IVF compare to the success rates for tubal reversal. You can look around the Internet to find out what is generally quoted or you can ask the surgeon you are looking at what his specific success rates are. If he doesn’t know, check out Dr. Berger who publishes his success rates right on his website at www.tubal-reversal.net/. Using those, you can see that the overall success percentage is 69%. If you look at all the charts given, though, you can see it varies from a high of 82%. You will have to see where you fit in. And the good news is that once the surgery is done, if no other problems crop up, then you can keep on trying to have a baby however many times you need all for the cost of the one surgery. No undergoing cycle after cycle of IVF treatments.

    Finally is the cost comparison. A cycle of IVF is averaging $10,000 to $12,000 in the U.S. It can be as high as $20,000 though that goes for tubal reversals as well. However, chances are you will undergo more than one cycle of IVF. Doctors say to expect an average of three cycles. Add it up yourself. Now a tubal reversal will average $8,000 to $9,000 with some doctors charging much more. But you don’t have to undergo an average of three tubal reversals to get the job done. Taking this into account along with all the above and you can truly see the best answer in IVF vs. tubal reversal.

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  • by Sandra Wilson

    Some women may have questions about their cycles after tubal reversal surgery not be sure what will happen and how fast they can get pregnant. They have been told by their tubal ligation reversal surgeon that they may have to stick around one or two days after surgery to be sure there are no immediate post op complications and that the incision looks good. They are also told that they must restrict their activity to only light exercise for several weeks while allowing their bodies to heal internally. But knowing just what to expect from their cycles after tubal reversal and how soon they can get pregnant is something that many forget to find out about.

    While being in a rush to get pregnant right away, women having gone through the tubal ligation reversal surgery really should wait till they have had at least two complete cycles to try. It may seem like everything is back to normal quickly but still it is best to wait. It takes about 4 to six weeks for all the incisions both inside as well as outside to heal completely.

    Some women are lucky, however. They find themselves pregnant almost immediately at the first cycle. Others, better than six cycles after tubal reversal surgery, still find they can’t get pregnant.

    Taking six months or longer to get pregnant after a tubal ligation reversal is a good reason to check in with your doctor. There could just be some other reasons why this is happening and you should have it checked out. One reason, though, could simply be how long it has been since you first had your tubal. A woman who had the operation more than ten years before her tubal reversal, is more likely to have problems getting pregnant than one who has had fewer years between the two operations.

    What a doctor will do, if after 6 months and the woman is still having difficulty actually getting pregnant, is inspect her fallopian tubes again to see if they are fully open and nothing untoward has happened since the procedure took place. If they discover that these are okay, then there may be some other underlying cause which is preventing the woman from getting pregnant. Women who are worried or become anxious because they are not getting pregnant as soon as they would like will often find it much more difficult to conceive than those that don’t.

    Yet although a woman may be having a period every month, it does not necessarily mean that she is in fact ovulating. So they should be wary and not rush head long into thinking that they are pregnant just because their period has not started on the day it was meant to. Sometimes even the slightest alteration in a person’s life can cause their ovulation cycle to go off the rails.

    What your doctor will also need to pay attention to after your cycles after tubal reversal reappear, is the possibility of an ectopic pregnancy. As this only happens in 3 - 5 percent of women after this type of surgery, it is not something that they should worry about overmuch.

    The best way for a woman to keep track of her cycles after tubal reversal surgery is to use an ovulation prediction kit. This will help her to see exactly when she is actually ovulating and will further help to identify those times when she may well be pregnant. However, if you find that your period is late by at least two days shortly following your operation, it is important that you contact your doctor immediately. They will then be able to carry out a test to see whether you are pregnant or not.

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  • by Sandra Wilson

    If you are one of the thousands of women who decide they wants a tubal ligation reversal, you can’t go wrong with the Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center. Hundreds of thousands of women are told that tying their tubes is the best means of birth control each year and they have this surgery. Later, sometimes just a short time later, they begin to regret what they have done. Don’t fret,though, as with the CHTRC, you will have the best opportunity to reverse that procedure.

    Unlike any other place you can name, tubal reversals are the only thing done at the center. You won’t have to worry about something else, like in vitro fertilization, being pushed on you. As an IVF is a more expensive procedure that usually requires more tries, you will find this is the procedure that will be presented as your best option whether it truly is or not. Not so at CHTRC.

    The head surgeon of the Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center is Dr. Gary Berger. You will not find anyone else that has the background, education and training that he has within the tubal reversal field. As Dr. Berger performs the tubal reversal microsurgery four times a day, five days a week, no one can begin to match the number of reversed tubes he has repaired. He even trained under Dr. Winston. Check out his background on drbergertubal.com yourself and see no one can match it.

    The surgical technologists are the ones who keep the operating room all to rights. They ensure the operating room works correctly, that everything is sterile as it should be and that the room itself is meticulous. You wouldn’t recognize them if you saw them because you will not usually see them. They are in the operating room with masks on so you can’t see their faces. Besides you will be asleep in the operating room. The first assistant has been on Dr. Berger’s staff and worked with him for eighteen years. Does your surgeon have the same staff after eighteen years?

    Next we have Dr. Caryn Hertz who is the Director of Anesthesia at CHTRC. She, too, has been there for a long time. In her case, she has worked with Dr. Berger since 1995. This collaboration began after she left Duke University Medical Center to join Dr. Berger. I would guess the name of Duke alone should tell you the quality of the professional she is. Match that with her long term work with Dr. Berger, meaning she, too, knows this surgery inside and out and you have a winning team.

    Now we turn to the nursing staff. Many of them have been with the center long term as have the Director of Anesthesia and the surgical technicians. You will likely have the most contact with these ladies. Not only are they there to answer your questions, you will find they genuinely care about their patients. This is apparent if you should go to the message board at forums.tubal-reversal.net with any questions. They also write posts now and then for the blog at the center’s website. This allows you a chance to see inside the center.

    I’ve talked a bit about the staff. Another thing that should be considered is the message board mentioned in the last paragraph. How many other doctors or clinics allow you, even provide you with, a means of contacting other patients? You can ask questions there and find the support you need for whatever may concern you regarding having a reversal done.

    Another thing about CHTRC is that they will follow up with you for up to one year. They will make phone contact to talk to you and see how things are going. They do this at six months as well and a few other times more closely to the actual surgery as well. Using what they learn from you, and all the other women, they are able to provide statistics about the success rates to other women who are looking at the surgery as well. But forget about those statistics. How many surgeons do you know that has someone following up with their patients up to a year after surgery just to know what is going on? That’s just another mark of the care and professionalism you will encounter at the Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center.

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  • How To Have A Baby Without Pain

    by Elgin Stewart

    There are plenty of ways for infertility treatment. Some may have used the expensive in-vitro fertilization procedures. Some got their sperm from sperm donation banks, some are using other medications to treat infertility. There is one method you can used to get a baby instantly without pain and needles. Have you consider adopting a baby? I have some tips for you.

    It may not be the usual treating infertility problems, but at least it give a couple some hope to have kids and raise them to become outstanding adults. To many couples using this method, it may be viewed as the last choice after going through numerous infertility treatments after treatments. It does help kids that other do not want to be well take care and adopted by childless couples. This is destiny in the making.

    These are some of the factors to consider when contemplating adoption:

    You Will Not Experience Any Pain

    You will not experience any pain as there is not need for needles and medication, not to mention side-effects as it is painless. However, you will face some temporary emotional imbalance as you make one of the most decision when adopting this action.

    It Is Quite Expensive

    Adopting a child does have its high costs to look after. You have to do lots of paperwork, travel expenses incurred, and buy loads of babies supplies. That’s not all, you have to expect huge medical bills if your insurance policy doesn’t cover an infertility treatment.

    It is Not Simple

    You have to come to grips to accept the different traditions and cultures of the adopted child has, if they are different from yours. You have many things to considers such as holidays, names, food and clothings if you are going to preserve the baby’s heritage.

    This Method Is Not Guaranteed

    Why there is not guaranteed adoption? You current financial status might not qualify you for an adoption, or you may change your mind due to the fact the child may have disabilities, and probably some other factors.

    Try convincing yourself, kids and other fellow family members would be daunting. However, they might sympathize you with the fact you are trying very hard to conceive after numerous attempts in infertility treatment. Your loved ones may warned you that the adopted child may have difficulty in getting along with other kids and also “their” grandparents.

    You Are Being Rewarded

    It is very fulfilling and satisfying for the couple that adopted the child despite the pros and cons of adoption. Seeing the child well taken care and provided for is the most enriching experience that is difficult to measure. And there have been so many medical findings of how infertile couples have conceived soon after adoption because their minds and bodies were more at peace.

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  • by Eddy Kong

    There are so much people in the United States that are affected by infertility problems. The figure is somewhat in the millions. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, both men and women each are 40% respectively having infertility problems. The remainder 20% are some unknown causes.

    Besides having the general cause of women infertility, there are other specific causes such as ovarian and ovulation problems, tube or peritoneal causes, hypothalamic-pituitary causes, cervical, vaginal and uterine problems. Once these causes are made known, the chances of fertility will rise.

    What are those internal causes?

    Disease such as diabetes, thyroid or other defects to the kidneys and liver are some of the general physiology factors affecting women infertility. Besides physical, modern women should take note on psychological or mental problems can also be a cause of infertility to them. Women that are suffering from ovarian and ovulation disorder are said not to ovulate at all, or simple ovulate irregularly, compared to the normal ovulation during the 28-day cycle.

    Povary syndrome (PCOS), ovarian neoplasm, diminished ovarian reserve, luteal dysfunction, premature menopauses and Turner syndrome are some ovarian causes that affects a woman infertility. These factors actually prevent the release of a mature egg from the ovaries, or having homonal imbalances, or reproduction of eggs that may lead to chromosomal defects. Above all, peritoneal factors also can be a cause of infertility among women. This includes the uterine lining (the endometrial tissue) growing outside the uterus, and/or the blockages of egg from travelling to the uterus.

    Hypothalamic-pituitary factors, that include the common hypopituitarism, hyperprolactinemia, kallmann syndrome and other hypothalamic dysfunctions are the common causes of women infertility.

    Problems from the cervical, vaginal and uterine could be one of the cause of infertility.

    The problem from the vaginal would include the obstruction preventing sperms from traveling to the tubes and vaginismus. Whereas, the cervical problems would include the side effects of anti-sperm antibodies, insufficient cervical mucus which is needed for the sperm to travel and survive. Another reason for infertility which may be genetic, would be androgen insensitivity syndrome, fibroids, and various other conditions.

    What external causes are affecting the fertility of women?

    Since we are now more aware of the internal causes of infertility, it is now to discuss what are the external causes of infertility. Using too much cosmetic products which contain chemicals, taking in alcohol, food preservatives and additives such as monosodium glutamate (MSG), spraying pesticides, using other anti-conceiving human hormones, coffee, cigarette or tobacco smoke, and many more.

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