The message for so many decades, promoted by the likes of skinny, incredibly well tended women such as Jane Fonda, was "no pain, no gain". It had to hurt, it had to be very strenuous, you had to breathe hard, sweat profusely and finish exhausted or you weren't getting a good workout. Perhaps that's still okay for teens or 20 somethings who have the stamina, the body and the time to devote to that type of physical punishment. But as boomers live longer and plan retirements of participatory sports and travel instead of the rocking chairs and shuffleboard of their ancestors, exercise had to change. For the older, less limber but healthy and still active 50 plus folk exercise started to become simpler, and the point of it went from focusing on the gorgeous sexy body that resulted to enjoying the exercise itself and preparing for a long healthy retirement. Now exercise is in hand with a good weight loss diet plan for women and men and doesn't mean a strenuous gymnastics event as often as it means getting out and jogging around the neighborhood, biking with friends and downhill or cross country skiing at a great vacation resort. Of course there are those? There are always going to be those? Who prefer to pop pills or purge themselves in varying degrees of danger.
Nearly everyone who has reached the age of reason and reading capability knows that diet pills not only don't work over the long run and sometimes even the short run. Yet there are those who ignore that fact that these diet pills are dangerous to our heart muscles. So intent are they on slimming down without a whole lot of work, or even a whole lot of self control that they ignore the warning signs and ingest diet pills to make themselves svelte, sleek, pretty and sexy. Now there is a lot being written about slimming and the use of diet supplements. Hoodia is one example of the controversy generated by some of these untested dietary supplements. There are those who will tell you they are totally safe. However, since they are not medicines, the Food and Drug Administration cannot test them, regulate, or require that they clarify any ingredients on their labels. There are pluses and minuses to that of course. The FDA is notorious for taking years to come to a decision, while people can become sicker and die waiting for what could have been a cure. On the other hand, dietary supplements can cause harm to those who don't know the contraindications, the ingredients, the warnings, and the interaction with other foods or drugs. There are a number of dietary supplements whose primary ingredient is green tea. The benefits of green tea in weight loss are widely known and scientifically documented. There is no known negative side effect of green tea consumption either.