There is No Secret to Weight Loss

There is no secret to weight loss, there I said it!
We have all heard the rants entitled the secret to weight loss, the miracle diet and all those other generic slogans that are designed to get us to read yet another sales pitch on some miracle diet that will get them pounds gone and gone fast. The key word being fast, we live in a busy time and none of us seem to have the time to follow the fundamental weight loss systems.
Let me begin by saying your weight, whether you are obese, a little heavy, carrying that holiday weight or whatever your current situation is not your fault. We are victimized daily by junk food chains or even relatively healthy eateries that offer that extra huge serving just for you! From the day we are old enough to comprehend to the day we die, and we are victimized. This is nothing new; it has been a prevalent part of our society for many, many years. The mass media is used as a tool by anyone who wishes to make a buck. The media is a sales mule, guised under the cloak of information, but a sales tool all the same. Turn on a TV and there it is, eat this, drink this, take this, buy, buy, buy, or more to the point consume, consume, consume. So again your weight is not your fault, but it is your responsibility.
The first thing to decide if you are keen on losing weight is this, do you want to just lose the weight or do you wish to get in shape and stay in shape without needing to fight with weight gain for the rest of your life. If you wish to only lose weight then this article may be of little help to you, but if your goals are to lose weight, keep it gone and develop a lifestyle that means living free of the threat of weight gain then please read on.
Sustained weight loss can only be found in one place, the mind. You have been trained since birth by the media to desire more than you need, some of this may be good, but there is a lot of it that is bad. The good can be the desire to achieve the best in life, good education, nice house, general comfort in lifestyle. The bad is where you are tricked into believing more is better by industries that thrive on your consumption. Such industries like fast food, tobacco are the most obvious and dubious, but consider the food industry in general, do you really need to super size just because it is better value for your buck, and ask yourself why it is better value? The answer is obvious is it not, because more consumption equals greater profits! These industries are willing to give larger portions of food at a cheaper price because they are in fact training you to believe that more is better, by doing this the food industries are increasing over all consumption, quantity is where these large industries make their profits, just look at all the “All you can eat” franchises, sure they say it’s healthy in some of them all you can eat salad bars etc, but too much even of a good thing is still bad! Take one second and think on this, lets us say that you are looking at two sub sandwich stores, store A offers a good sized sub for $3, in fact the sandwich is exactly the right amount to slake your hunger, now store B has a big sign that says 20% more meat in our sub, but is also $3, which would you buy? Most of us wouldn’t hesitate and Store B would rake in our business, but really do you need that extra 20%? We as consumers are always looking for the best bargain for our dollar, but in the end is over eating really a bargain we wish to be a part of it, look at what it is really costing you, your self esteem, your fitness and mostly your health! With heart disease, diabetes and obesity on the rise in so many places, I will say it again; the push towards over consumption by the food industry has the stench of big tobacco all over it.
Losing weight is a very difficult process for those of us who suffer from over eating, for many of us food has become an addiction, much akin to Tobacco. As with any addiction the first step is realizing that you are in fact addicted, after that the next and most crucial step in de-toxing that addiction from your body and more importantly from your mind, is to reprogram yourself, to solely retrain your body and mind to crave only what it needs, this is the real challenge in maintaining weight loss! I will sum up a few points that may help you get on the path to healthier food consumption:
• Just because you feel hungry there is no need to completely fill the tank, instead consider your expected activities on that day and eat accordingly, just like your car, if you are only driving to the end of the street you don’t need a full tank of gas!
• Do not binge eat, you can starve yourself and effectively shrink your stomach size (a practice I am very much against, but using as an example here), but with only one gorge binge session you will effectively revert your appetite back to an unhealthy level and begin feeling hungry all over again, a binge eating session is much the same as an alcoholic falling off the wagon, instead I recommend many small healthy meals throughout the course of the day!
• Realize that junk food tastes great for one reason only, to get you hooked! It does not constitute food in any way shape or form, remove it from your diet and believe me you will not miss it once the addiction fades
It all comes down to a single phrase which you will have heard before.
Healthy mind equals a healthy body!
For some more information and recipes that will help you on the road to a healthier life, take a look at the following site:
INFORM 4 FREE
No sales, No endorsements, Just great Health, Fitness and Weight Loss information and tips!
Thank you and we wish you all the best!
THE INFORM 4 FREE TEAM

Quality Link partners

HEllo people and especially web masters.
Just a quick shout out, if you are operating a website in the health fitness, weightloss body building, yoga, supplement or general training and sports fields, then contact us here.
Our main site INFORM 4 FREE
is currently seeking link partners from the same area as ourself to help promote our site and get all that quality health and fitness information out there on the world wide web, or as I like to call it that huge cyber-haystack!
So if you get a minute or ten drop by have a look at what we've done and either leave a message here, or link to us and send your sites detils, if your site links to us we will be more than happy to add your url to ours, granted you are in the same genre!
Lets work together and get quality sites with real content up the top of those search results and drown out those self promoting sales sites that are dominating our web space!

Thank you

THE INFORM 4 FREE
TEAM

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My banged up toe is finally 100% again

Hey all, so while in Thailand I disslocated and triple fractured my big toe.
Now I was on an island with bugger all in the way of ice and doctors and all them new fangled things, o just kept it elevated, you know the usual broken big toe stuff, went out rave dancing on it, walked across cliffs in the middle of the night extremely drunk on it, caught 2 planes, a scooter taxi
while carring a back pack on it, and now after only 2 and a half months of surfing and skateboarding on it, it ha finally gotten back to full extention as of this morning!!!!

Now I am sure seeing my bruised up swollen foot was not all that plesant for you, so I have thrown in a few nice pic I took while on that sweet island.
Island called: Koh PhiPhi Dom.

Nihon ha Saikou ( Japan Goes Off)

Nihon wa Saikou
Japan goes off

This is an article I wrote last year about an amazing swell that came to Japan! enjoy

When Hurricane Loke crossed the International Date Line, it got everyone on the eastern shore of Japan buzzing: Typhoon 12 was on its way and man she was a big one.
The news programs seemed obsessed with her, giving off their warnings in their usual foreboding way, the elderly people with whom I talked with, talked of the wind and the rain, many of whom knew I was a surfer and gave me the standard “Kiosukete ne” (be careful). My wife stared at me after the six o’clock evening news and gave me her best, ‘do you really have to go surfing’ look, and I was straight on the phone with all my surfing buddies, my voice strangely several octaves high with excitement, planning, anticipating and dreaming of the waves to come. The typhoon was big; way off shore and all we could think of was those epic clean lines that would soon be marching towards us from the horizon.

On the morning of September 3rd 2006, I paddled into the line up of my local beach break, Sendai Shinko, along with two of my friends James a fellow Aussie, and Alexei a Russian surfer, the day was a clean if not slightly full 3-4ft we paddled down the beach several hundred meters to the third peak along to avoid the epic crowds that had formed on the “Main peak”, all of us agreeing that it was a bit bigger and far better down the line. Japanese surfers in general are very loyal to the “main peak” often surfing it when it’s not working rather than driving an extra 20mins to find a clean ride.
The three of us traded off waves getting a few nice ones, the lip crumbling with the high tide, but providing a fair bit of wall to play with. During the lulls we sat together and talked of the swell to come, the general feeling was that Shinko gets big hollow and perfect, but it’s a straight beach break, without a boat or ski it’s a very daunting place to surf over 8ft, the water rushing out off the beach creates a vortex in the impact zone that neither wants to let you out or in, but being a port break it has great potential as a tow-in spot. A boating lane less than 600meters to the left of the break, which is sizable enough to give way to ocean going ferries, gives easy and direct access to the outer banks which can easily hold epic surf. Unfortunately none of us had the equipment or experience to attempt this. We surfed our peak for three hours or so with around five other surfers tripping out on the mayhem of the main peak, which by 8am was swamped with close to sixty surfers dropping in on each other in packs of five or six per wave. While chilling in the car park after a great session, we decided to head up the coast a few hours The next morning to surf a remote cobble stone reef break known as Gakemiaya.
That night I couldn’t sleep, my mind was full of images of the 4-5ft empty right hand reef break that I had only surfed once prior.

The trip north was made by myself, James(Aust.), Danny(Aust), Omar(USA) and Jason (CAN), what a motley crew we make, three Aussies, and American and a Canadian who calls the icy breaks of Nova Scotia home. We all piled into Danny’s 8 seater van at 3:30am and made the two hour trek north along tiny back streets of sleepy towns. Reading old surf mags, talking of barrels, the excitement level was maxing. I remember as we pulled up to the rocky car park and got a half a second peak of the waves, Danny turning around, smile ear to ear and saying “Mate, she’s cranking”. We all dove out of the car like it was on fire, scrambled up the hill to the viewing area, smiling like kids in a candy store, fingers already pointing out to sea in anticipation, the feeling only a surfer knows, but it was short lived.
It was cranking, but it was way out of control, our anticipated hollow right barrel was there but it was made of thick white foam, the place was exploding. The outer reef about one kilometer off shore was epic sending huge walls of white water towards shore with so much force it was reforming onto the inside reef. I stood there thinking those most dreaded of words, “should have been here yesterday”. We spent the next twenty minutes pointing and shouting as huge sets closed out on the outer reef, sending spray so high it looked like depth charges going off. Our eyes collectively scouring the length of the bay searching for some little pocket that might be ride able, but we all felt it, we had been skunked! I looked over at Jason and saw a look in his eyes that I was sure I had in mine, pure awe, the force of nature that exploded before us was truly amazing. Now I’m no expert on big waves but if I had to guess I would say the outer reef was some where in the 20ft range, I’m not Hawaiian so probably only 10ft to you guys. (The buoy just off the coast was registering 29ft). After we had all come down from the stoke high the call was made to try a few of the smaller more sheltered bays up and down the coast. We piled back into the car and began the search, but found nothing overly ride able, wrong swell directions etc. It was now about 8am and we headed back to the reef for another look. The tide had come up a ways and we found a wave that looked pretty wild, but ride able, off to the left of the reef, and decided to give it a go, I hit the water first with Jason right behind me and we tried to make it through the closing inside section to little avail, meanwhile Danny, the most experienced of our crew found a nice rip and made his way out, he spent about an hour or so surfing the wild swell solo, with us boys just standing on the shore hooting and hollering for him on every wave; Danny got a few good ones and we called it a day.

That same day, Back at Sendai shinko it was huge, double over and a bit and triple on the sets. Alexei(RUSS), Jerry(NZ) and Dylan(USA) paddled out and joined the few older locals who were game to test themselves against the full fury of typhoon 12 as it was by this time sitting directly off the coast. Also out was ex- WCT pro surfer Danny Melhado. Alexei took a heavy one and snapped his leg rope on the wipeout, calling it a day after a crazy swim to the beach to find his new shape 6”6’ fish. Jerry also made the drop on only one wave before deciding he was outmatched, having recently recovered from a slipped disk from an epic session in Typhoon surf a couple of years earlier which kept him out of the water for many months. Dylan took a couple of waves charging hard before joining his buddies on the beach.
While waiting for Jerry and Dylan to come in Alexei saw Danny Melhado ride one mammoth set all the way to the inside closeout, as Danny walked up the beach Alexei asked him if he was going back out, eager to see a pro tear the arse out of another one, to which Danny replied, “Nah, it’s pure survival out there” That’s how heavy this place can get. If you’ve seen Taylor Steele’s “Drive thru Japan” then you may remember a big hollow beach break that swallowed Machado and co. up, well that was shinko at two thirds of the size we had it during this swell. My hat goes off to my boys for making it out that day.

The next day I couldn’t think of anything but waves, I tried to work but I just couldn’t, so I blew it off and headed down the beach, one of the few perks of working for your self.
When I got to the beach my first thought was that it was dropping, I saw a perfectly groomed face about 6-8ft where the main peak normally broke, and I started to think about waxing up my board, when the sets came through, I have never seen a wave break that far out at shinko, it stopped my heart. The wave looked so perfect breaking left and right so symmetrically that it seemed to shrink, but it was huge. I watched this perfect wave complete with offshore blow off through the viewfinder of my camera, so entranced by it that the camera seemed to disappear in my hands, Huey the god of swell as we Aussies call him had sent me soaring with stoke, I quickly burnt up two rolls of film then decided that was enough, it was time to just sit and watch this force of nature erupt before me. I sat on the tail gate of my Toyota 4runner for two or three hours with the biggest smile I’ve had in years, god it’s good to be a surfer.

Typhoon 12 blessed us with a few days of clean, off shore 3-4ft waves as it moved northward past us, some of the best surfs I’ve had. I don’t know if I’ll ever ride 20ft waves, head to double seems pretty much perfect to me at this point, but before this swell I had no desire to try it. After seeing those waves break over and over in my mind I feel like something has changed, it may take a few years before I attempt big surf, but the seed of temptation is now planted firmly in my mind, who knows huh.
Who knows what it is about surfing that draws us so intensely to it, but it has a hold over me so powerful that I can’t function without it. As I sat there and watched those perfect empty waves break around me, I spent some serious time reflecting on my life. I’m not sure what it is about watching empty waves roll through, that makes me so reflective, having never been a religious man I wonder if it’s akin to a religious experience. I thought about so many things great and terrible that I have seen and experienced since my first wave 4 years ago. The garbage that litters the coasts of Japan wrecking havoc on it’s marine life, the great sea turtle’s I’ve seen in the tens washed up dead on the shores of Sendai, probably dying from mistaking plastic bags for jellyfish, the crowds, the constant drop-ins, a negative man could go on and on, but out of all the things that coursed through my mind that afternoon the one thing that stood out was, how surfing, a mere sport to many people could bring so many people together in friendship, the group of guys I surf with have little in common, but our bond, generated by a mutual love of riding waves is truly a blessing.

The INFORM 4 FREE TEAM

Surf Stretches

Before each surf stretching is so important. When I first started surfing in Japan 6 years ago, my buddy and mentor pointed over at a couple of Japanese surfers who were stretching on the sand and laughed.
“Look at those wallies!” he mused, “It’s 2 ft, what the hell they thinks gonna happen? Probably saw some pro- surfer do it on a dvd or something!”
At the time , I was just as amused, couldn’t understand the reason for doing stretches before a leisurely surf session, then one day I actually saw former WCT pro Danny Melhado stretching before heading out into 2-3ft onshore chop. I approached him and asked why he was stretching so intensely for these conditions, surely he wouldn’t get hurt in this, his reply opened my eyes.
“it’s not the size or the injuries I am stretching out for bro, it so I am limber and can perform better! Not worried about ripping a muscle, I want to rip the wave!”
After that I thought why not give it a try, I have never looked back since, my friend still doesn’t stretch before a surf despite my assurances, but I can’t blame him, he is from a different era. So in this article I will briefly outline a few of the stretches I do to limber up before I paddle out and rip!
1. I start by rolling my head around to limber up my neck, in surfing where you look is where you go and it is so easy to tweak your neck in the moment, just watch a slater dvd that guy rips his head all the way round in each turn.
2. Touch your toes, I tend to bounce down slowly letting my weight take me to full extension, don’t force it or you will cause an injury before you even get wet!
3. Pull my feet to my arse, stretch them quads, they are the mot fundamental part of any maneuver
4. It on the sand with 1 foot crossing over the other knee, then twist from the waist looking over your opposite shoulder, right foot over twist to the right
5. While sitting arch your back and reach for the stars, lock your fingers palms facing up.
6. Lastly I do a bridge, feet flat, reach back and place your hands on the sand and arch your back, with your stomach facing the sky.
7. Lastly stand up shake loose strap on the leg rope and go rip!

The INFORM 4 FREE
TEAM

Set your goals to a healthier life!

Set your goals

This is the first and most important phase in any kind of training. I cannot
stress this enough.
I like to do this in a two phase setup:

Phase one: long term goal.

Firstly set a long term goal, if you are thinking of looking better, loosing
weight, toning up, dropping that winter fat, then set a mental image of how
you want your body to look.
If your training goals are fitness or sports related, think of the ultimate level
in your chosen pursuit you would like to achieve. Visualize yourself at that
level, it is very important to make your visualisation based on you, not an
image from media, for example I don't look anything like Brad Pitt, so
when I visualise I see my own face, my own height, possessions etc, but
just imagine how I want my physique to look relative to how it is now,
larger bicepts, greater flexibility when stretching, etc.

Once you have a solid image set in your mind, put it aside and move onto
phase two.

Phase two: short term goals

OK now be real here, I would love to go out in the surf and bust an air
like Kelly slater tomorrow, or look at my stomach and have to use both
hands to count the muscles, but that is a long term goal.
Instead in this phase which is constantly changing as I obtain each short
term goal I set goals that are relatively easy to obtain, I say relatively as
this depends on your individual character, some people thrive on intensity,
while other would rather just have it all be simple, both are possible, if you
are more on the lazy side of the scale, you will probably find that achieving
goals is just too much effort, truth is you couldn't be more wrong, it's all in
the mental approach. Set yourself short term goals that are much easier to
obtain, for example this week I will loose 2lb, granted reaching your long
term goal will take longer, but it will not seem like such a mountain if you
are focused on each small step, rather than the whole journey.

Ask any successful person and they will tell you mindset and focus based
on your own abilities is the key to success!

Remember you are training your body, be patient with it and the results
will last longer. There is no over night miracle diet, no instant muscle
powder. With the right exercise techniques and the right mental attitude
you can and will obtain your personal fitness goals.
supplements will certainly help you along the way, but they will not do it
for you.
The INFORM TEAM

Information on the web should be free shouldn't it?

What the web is for!

Hi there, I am into information, so when I was first introduced to the idea of the internet all those years ago, I was thinking, damn what a great idea!
Although more and more these days I search for something I really want to know only to be bombarded with false sites offering me nothing more than my search query spat back at me and then a whole bunch of sales and endorsements.
So finally, with the help of my friend and fellow sports and fitness enthusiast we decided to get pro active and quit our whining. We are both huge fans of personal fitness, but from quite different sides of the arena, the only thing we share is a love of water sports i.e. surfing and diving.

My friend is a Bodybuilder with over 15 years in the sport, runs his own supplement company and has a wealth of knowledge in the supplement, dieting and muscle development fields, his knowledge comes from years of experimentation on the latest supplements, diets and training techniques, like me he never just settles for what he knows, he is always out looking for the next thing, the perpetual thirst for knowledge.
Me on the other hand have always been more endurance and adventure based in my training pursuits, with a long history of nearly 14 years of surfing, white water kayaking, mountain biking (downhill). Never really looked to bulk up much, just enough to look good and have the strength I need to enjoy the sports I love. Training is not even slightly enjoyable, I am only into doing, for my friend the training is great fun, hard work but good fun.

We were sitting there one day talking about this internet problem after the gym when it hit us, there are so many different people training for so many different reasons, why not make a web site with a broad range of good information that people can access without being bombarded with ales pitches , after all that’s what we want when we search the web, so we did it, our site is called INFORM 4 FREE and the name is pretty self explanatory, information about getting inform and its all free. No endorsements, No sales, just great content and tips on Training, Supplements, yoga, beauty, muscle development, diet and general health.
INFORM 4 FREE was first launched on September 29th 2007, starting at a mere 40 pages, but we are scouring all useful information that is related to the above categories to update it daily, it is more than our work it is our passion.
We plan on adding a mail service to INFORM 4 FREE in October of 2007 where people can write articles or tips or advice on either Training, Supplements, yoga, beauty, muscle development, diet and general health. And if we like what we read we will publish it on our site and share it with the world.
Our goal at INFORM 4 FREE is simple, we wish to create the largest internet database on all aspects of sports, fitness and health so that anyone who wants to get in form can get informed and achieve their personal Training, Supplements, yoga, beauty, muscle development, diet and general health goals sooner and more effectively

Thank you for taking the time to read this article
The INFORM TEAM