This is a sponsored guest post. This post is in association with Holland and Barrett.

Glucosamine is a great health supplement to invest in if you suffer from unhealthy connective tissue and cartilage. Glucosamine is in fact produced by the body naturally, but there are certain times in our lives when we are unable to produce it as effectively as before. Reason being, as we get older our body starts to produce less and less glucosamine.

This is when the use of a health supplements such as glucosamine comes to play. There are a number of situations that may arise and in turn cause our bodies to lack in both glucosamine and the benefits it brings. These include the likes of an injury, age, chronic degeneration, burns and inflammatory diseases. All of the above sadly happen, but thankfully there is a way to restore our glucosamine levels.

Glucosamine is available as a health food supplement in three different forms. These include capsule, liquid and tablet and which form you choose will depend on your preference.

All of the above are available from health food stores. Simply pop into your local health food venue today and purchase any one of the above at ease.

Glucosamine should always be taken with precaution and only as prescribed. Overdosing could result in unwanted side effects. This is why it is always advised to read the label prior to taking any product. The side effects are unknown as of yet but too much of anything is never good thing.

Talk to your doctor or health food assistant prior to taking the product if you are a little unsure whether it is the one for you. This way you will be able to see if it is suited to your needs.

Glucosamine has been proven by many to really aid in both joint pain and various forms of joint discomfort. The supplement also is said to improve joint structure, which in turn helps promote a happy and healthy lifestyle.

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How much are you willing to pay for an effective weight loss program? Would you be willing to pay $25 to lose 1 pound? What about $100? People enrolled in a structured weight loss program such as Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig often end up losing more weight than people try to lose weight on their own. But these weight loss programs are going to cost you big time.

There’s an article in Money magazine this month breaking down the cost per pound of weight loss for the three top weight loss programs: Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Nutrisystem. These top weight loss programs conduct rigorous studies confirming their effectiveness compared to trying to lose weight on your own.

Cost of Weight Watchers

For Weight Watchers, the article stated that you will spend $240 for the weekly weigh-in meetings over a six-month period. This does not include the cost of food. You are paying for the support from other fellow dieters and learning how to create meal plans to lose weight. After you factor in food, you will end up paying $97 for each pound you lose on the Weight Watchers program.

Cost of Jenny Craig

For Jenny Craig, the article stated that you will spend approximately $2,221 to $3,341 for 6 months on the premium plan. The cost includes some food. You end up paying $131 to $174 for each pound you lose on the Jenny Craig program. Like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig includes weekly counseling to help you eventually wean off of their package meals.

Cost of Nutrisystem

For Nutrisystem, the article stated that you will spend approximately $2,380 for women and $2,590 for men for 6 months on the Select plan. The cost includes some meals. You end up paying $130 to $139 for each pound you lose on the Nutrisystem program.

The Nutrisystem program is the only one that relies on prepackaged meals for 60% of your meals and does not offer weekly counseling or meetings to help you create meal plans to lose weight once you’re off the weight loss program. So once you stop eating Nutrisystem food, you’re pretty much on your own in trying to create meal plans for weight loss or maintenance.

It is interesting that it costs about $97 – $174 to lose 1 pound when you join any of these three effective weight loss programs. This cost does not include all the food you will eat while you are in these weight loss programs. Being on the frugal side I am truly amaze how much people are willing to pay to lose weight.

However, I can see the appeal of joining a structured weight loss program because of the handholding and the support you get from weekly meetings. It does require more effort to research how to plan meals for weight loss on your own without guidance.

Though participants lose weight in all three weight loss programs, Weight Watchers is the only one that allows you to do so using food you would purchase from your grocery store. Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem require you to eat mostly from the pre-packaged meals they have available. It will be hard for you to maintain the weight loss in the long run if you do not know how to plan your own meals once you are not enrolled in a structured weight loss program.

Learning how to meal plan is more important than how much weight you lose while on the weight loss program. You are not going to be in a weight loss program for life. At some point you need to know how to incorporate healthy eating habits into your daily routine. If you cannot maintain your weight loss because you have not learned how to eat healthy while in a structured weight loss program, you will be joining one of these programs over and over again every few years with your yo-yoing weight.

How much are you willing to pay to lose 1 pound?

Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.

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Sometimes when you are overexposed to TV commercials advertising food causes you to rummage through your refrigerator or pantry for something to eat. Apparently reading mystery books based on cooking causes me to develop the same habit.

Lately I’ve been reading two mystery series where the main characters are cooks. So throughout the multiple books they talk about whipping up these gourmet meals while pondering whodunit. And the recipes are interposed throughout the book. Every time I put one of these books down, I want eat chocolate.

If you ever try losing weight, then you know the first thing you do is get rid of temptations. It is a real test of my willpower sometimes to not eat when I’m reading these two cooking mystery book series. However, I believe that you cannot go through life avoiding every temptation. And sometimes it actually inspires me to think more about how food also nourishes the soul. These days I wolf down food like there’s no tomorrow in between feedings and diaper changes (and we all know this is the first step of disconnecting food from hunger).

So let’s take today as the day that we will slow down our eating. Let’s savor our food and actually take more than 15 minutes to finish a meal. After all food feeds more than just our hunger.

By the way the two cooking mystery books series are by Diane Mott Davison and JoAnne Fulk (in case you’re interested in salivating over what the main characters are eating).

Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.

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Lunchtime is my favorite time of day. I usually head down to the break room with my lunch bag to catch up with some friends. I rarely ever eat in front of my computer. Even when I have no one to have lunch with, I still head down to the break room with my Kindle. And good I do too.

Want to know how to eat healthy at work? Don’t eat at your desk. According to American Journal of Clinical Nutrition you gain 9 pounds if you eat lunch in front of your computer every day for an entire year.

When work is the main course and your lunch is an afterthought, it is easy to consume extra calories without even realizing it when you are working while you are eating lunch. On average, you will eat an extra 122 calories per day from eating at your desk. Even when you bring a healthy lunch at work, you still have a problem with food amnesia and snack more than usual later on.

When you add in the extra 2 pounds your average office worker gains each year when they do not participate in any form of exercise, you are talking about gaining 11 pounds a year! If you are eating at your desk to catch up on work every day, I doubt that you have the time or energy to exercise outside of work to prevent this 2 pound weight gain.

So if you want to prevent weight gain by eating healthy at work, the best thing you can do is actually take the time to enjoy your healthy lunch away from your desk. And if you want to prevent weight gain at work, eat away from your desk and then spend half your lunch break taking a scroll around the block with one of your lunch buddies.

Until next time and thanks for stopping Small Steps to Health.

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If you spend any time trying to lose weight, then you must have heard about the French diet and how French women are skinnier than your average American women. The French diet is higher in fat and encourages wine consumption, and yet French women are less obese than American women.

The French diet consists of real food

The traditional French diet has always been built around fresh whole food with minimal processing. French women shop daily at local markets for fresh vegetables, fish, meats, fruits, and dairy products. These whole foods are usually grown by local farmers in soil that are naturally rich (what we would call organic food).

French women tend not to eat snack food, junk food, or fast food like the way we do. Their fats mostly come from monosaturated oils like olive oil, nuts, omega-3 from fish, and a small amount of saturated oils from cheese. They eat more beans and fresh fruits than we do and do not worry about food labels because whole foods do not have to food labels.

A couple generations ago, our diet consists of whole food as well. Think about all the new food products on the market. They were not available during your grandmother’s childhood. Instead, your grandmother grew up eating organic, pesticides free, hormone free, local whole food. Now we have to pay a premium for this kind of whole food. Even our definition of "fresh food" is not the same as two generations ago.

French women eat less food

Almost everyone in America benefits from you being slightly overweight (there is a huge difference in carrying an extra 10 to 15 pounds versus being morbidly obese). The US agricultural policy of subsidizing corn production has led to an overproduction of an extra 500 calories available to each person per day. This is why it is always a better value to pay an extra $0.20 for a larger version of whatever snack food or junk food that you are buying. Since the French diet consists mostly of whole food, French women do not eat the larger "better value" portions from the snack food or junk food that you are eating.

French women are slow eaters

These days you hear a lot about the slow food movement and how eating quickly causes us to unconsciously eat too much food. A lot of my friends eat meals in front of the TV or quickly in order to shuttle their kids to their next activity. The French diet talks about the pleasure of eating and enjoying the company you are with.

If you watched any of Rick Steves show on European travel, then you’ll know that many Europeans, the French included, take twice as long to eat their meals compared to Americans. Often times their meals are very social and relax with many friends and families.

I observed this firsthand myself when I went to Rome for my honeymoon with my husband. While we would take an average of 45 to 50 minutes to finish a meal at a restaurant, it would take the Italians almost 2 hours to finish same meal. There just seems to be more talking than eating at their table than ours (of course my husband and I have been together a long time so maybe we ran out of things to say but I doubt that is the case). Most of the servers seem surprise when we asked for the bill right after we finished eating because most Europeans would sit and chat over coffee after their meal.

French women walk more than we do

You do not realize how much room there is in America unto you travel to Europe. Here it is almost impossible to buy groceries went out driving, with the exception of some dense urban areas. Almost all of our small towns and suburbs are made for cars. But when you are in Europe, it is more inconvenient to drive than to walk to your local grocery store since the streets are smaller and the parking is horrendous. In addition, their denser population supports small local stores while our urban sprawl favors the big box stores.

The secret to the French diet is no secret

While there are tons of books talking about the French paradox and how the French holds the secret to weight loss with their higher fat diet and consumption of wine, it is really no secret. When you are slowly eating whole food in smaller portions and walking more you are bound to be skinnier than your average American.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.

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