Let’s get fit, or at least help someone you love get fit. Seriously the holiday season is almost here and it is a great time to start your fitness program. My sister live in Orange County and asked me to help her find a trainer. I began my search by typing in Orange County personal training and complied a list for my sister to contact and get some personal one-on-one feedback. She has not been feeling well for the last few months and has been off work so I was very concernced about her and wanted to help. Sometimes all someone needs to get fitness-motivated is a friendly helping hand from a loved one. Now she works out weekly with help from Chris McCombs who is a local Orange County fitness trainer and by this time next year she intends to meet her goal of weight loss and fitness. I am glad I could be involved in this important part of her life.

One of the hottest technologies for people using cannabis for medical conditions is a vaporizer. Vaporization is a technique used to avoid the irritating respiratory toxins found in marijuana smoke. This is achieved by heating cannabis to a temperature so that the psychoactive ingredients evaporate without causing combustion.

There are many types of vaporizers on the market and doing some research on what the best one for you budget is a good idea. When I looked I found many types including cheap lightbulb vaporizers and the more expensive volcano type vaporizer. This is a great technology for those needing to take medicinal cannabis.

This past year has been a real rollercoaster for me and my goal of weight loss. I was going to the gym on a regular basis but was not able to lose any weight. The truth is that I know my diet was the culprit because I have two young kids and we tend to have fast food 2 or 3 times a week. There is also a lot of fatty snacks around the house and even though I buy them for the ‘kids’ I always break-down and find myself munching on them late at night.

Here is what I did to drop 10 pounds over the course of two months and have kept it off so far (6 months later):

I was going to the gym two and sometimes three times per week and riding the stationary bike for 35 minutes and working out for half an hour with weights once a week. Since that level of exercise combined with my current diet kept me stabilized but unable to lose weight I added 1 extra workout a week and made sure to stuff the fridge with a lot of tasty fruit and low fat yogurt and low-fat pretzels for snacking. In just two months I lost 10 pounds and probably also added a couple of pounds of muscle. Most importantly I feel great and now have the confidence that I can lose more weight and eventually get down to my targeted weight goal.

I guess the moral of my story is that sometimes small changes can have enormous effects over the long-term and losing weight does not always involve a strict weight loss diet but can be achieved by making common sense decisions combined with healthy eating and exercise choices.

According to a survey published on Nov. 1 in the journal Health Affairs, one-third of U.S. adults believe that the U.S. health-care system has to be rebuilt completely—double the percentage who want a dramatic overhaul in the six other nations whose residents took part in the survey. The U.S. ranked dead last on the question whether more than minor system changes were needed.

The nonpartisan New York City-based Commonwealth Fund, which studies health-care issues, interviewed 12,000 adults in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Britain, Australia, and the U.S. this spring to get a handle on actual patient experiences and perceptions. The results paint a damning picture of user satisfaction with the American health-care system and could provide fodder in a Presidential campaign where health care is expected to play a major role (BusinessWeek.com, 9/17/07). All the countries in the survey except the U.S. have universal health coverage, and the percentage of GDP the U.S. spends on medical care is about twice as high as the other six.

Despite their country’s higher spending, U.S. patients were the only ones to report serious problems paying bills (19%). Plus, 30% of patients paid $1,000 or more out-of-pocket over the past year, while the percentage of patients laying out that much in the other six ranged from 4% (Britain) to 19% (Australia). Nearly two out of five U.S. adults and 42% of those with chronic illnesses skipped medications or did not see a doctor when sick because of cost. Those rates are much higher in the U.S. than in any other country.

“The U.S. often stands out [in the survey] for negative care experiences,” says lead author Cathy Schoen, Commonwealth Fund senior vice-president. In a Commonwealth study released last year, the U.S. received low grades (BusinessWeek.com, 9/21/06) in outcomes, quality of care, access to care, and efficiency, compared with other industrialized nations.

According to Schoen, the more negative or costly the experience, the more negative the overall perception of the health-care system. Dissatisfaction with the U.S. system crosses socioeconomic lines, too. Both high- and low-income respondents had similarly negative views of the U.S. health-care system, Schoen notes.

Though they’re not happy with aspects of the system, U.S. residents are about as confident as those of other nations that they would get high-quality care and the best drugs and medical technology. The Netherlands consistently scored higher in all three categories. Still, U.S. patients can’t count on speedy access to care; 51% said they could not get an appointment (BusinessWeek.com, 6/22/07) the same or the next day when they were sick. Only Canada scored worse, with 64% saying they had to wait.

Once in the health-care system, 32% of U.S. patients suffered medical mistakes, the highest rate of the seven nations. That could be because the U.S. ranked last when it came to their doctors having access to their medical records at the time of an office visit.  I saw the movie Sicko so this survey comes as no suprise to me.  I am glad I am a Canadian.