Catherine Harvey

It's a well known fact that life insurance companies have guidelines as to the risks they and their customers are going to be taking when embarking on life insurance schemes. It's an obvious statement to make that they want to protect their own assets and are concerned about insuring people who already have long term or chronic illnesses diagnosed.

How many people can get through life without ever being on, or considering a diet? We are bombarded with information from the so-called experts about what foods are good for us and what aren't, just to have it all change the following week. There are daily TV programmes about how to be healthy and how to lose weight and for those of us who have accepted the inevitable 'norm', there is a programme on how to look good naked and accept what we are - now there's a novelty!

According to some diet guru's, we are what we eat.

Heart rate monitors are an absolute god send for those who appreciate life. From those who are serious exercise fanatics to those who just try their best at keeping on top of the on-going battle of healthy lifestyles, heart rate monitors allow you a little more insight into your progress.

It's easy to see muscles toning and fat reducing. It's easy to see the benefits of more stamina and better sleep after a pattern of regular exercise has been kept up.

Travelling through New Zealand, I was quite shocked at the up-front advertising campaigns they employ. A marketing drive relating to a fast food shop had splashed a sign across the back of a bus that said 'Fish and chips - go together like sand and butt cracks'. Wild camping is discouraged through the use of signs that state 'If you camp here, you will die'.

Is it harder for  a woman to lose weight than a man? Does sex matter when it comes to weight loss? Read this article to learn how weight loss differs in men and women.