By Elena Voropay

While balance and moderation lead the way of 2005, this year the searching minds of health conscious exercisers and dieters are on the look for excitement and novelty. Interestingly, all the new discoveries happen to be just the forgotten or missed out old consciousness. All the coming trends in health are simplified by bringing us closer to nature and shading the artificial facade of complexities and commercialism. Read on about the hottest trends for 2006.

Dancing the Fat Away

If you see your old treadmill runs or cycle sessions into nowhere as dull as ditch-water, this year the hottest way to get into shape is dancing away those extra kilos. Belly dancing, bellyrobics, Cardio Capoeira, Latin Fiesta, Pole Dancing, Jazz, Funk, Hip Hop and many more new dance classes are now being offered at fitness gyms for a good reason – besides keeping you entertained, these courses may help you train the entire body to move in more functional ways. The rigid grapevine and the step-up jumps are being replaced with graceful smooth feminine moves. These will improve your posture, create plasticity in your motions, bring confidence to your stance, increases body awareness, coordination and stamina while your fat is melting away. Dancing will raise your metabolism, stimulate circulation, loosen up stiff muscles and joints, give definition to your abs, hips and thighs and strengthen your heart health. As a bonus, you are not counting minutes left till the end of the musical dream journey to a faraway land where the sun steals the color of the sand and the wind hums the songs of the desert or the ocean. Music can definitely relax your mind when the body follows the natural rhythm of dance.

Staying Fit and Saving the Planet

This year fitness becomes simpler and more approachable than ever. More and more people are meeting three times the requirements of daily exercise thanks to financial news. If petrol prices are driving you crazy adding more stress and frustration to your life, choose a much better and healthier approach to deal with this situation. You can capitalise on the ever rising prices of petrol and save the planet at the same time. Walking, cycling or roller blading just one kilometer instead of driving will not only improve your fitness, but help to save the planet as well. Air pollutants from car exhaust are a major cause of respiratory disease, heart disease and possibly some cancers killing more than 1000 Australians annually, according to a report called Climate change health impacts in Australia published by the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). Short car trips are extremely inefficient using more petrol per kilometer, adding to the wear and tear of the car. It will also take you as much time trying to find a good parking spot as it will take you to walk the distance. Even getting on a public transport will force you to walk additional distance contributing to the daily physical activity. Joining the fun thriving community of active exercisers is the simplest way to multiply your health and bank account. Walking to and from work, shopping on foot and strolling an additional distance around the block during your lunch break is turning out to be the most fashionable current trend of de-stressing and socializing. Get a pair of joggers and invite a friend or a co-worker for your daily hike and you are likely to stay habitually active.

Mind-Body Connection

It is now hard to find a fitness buff who hasn't tried Yoga, Pilates, Tai-Chi, Body Balance, Yogalates or any of the body-mind classes. The trend for these continues to be strong as a wonderful way to relieve physical and mental stress while toning up your body. Even Personal trainers are adding yoga and Pilates to their sessions, and corporate fitness programs are integrating these into the regular routines. Bikram, Raja, Ashtanga, Qui, Iyengar, Kundalini, Anusara, Anada, Hatha, Svastha, Power and Mudra Yoga are just some of the hottest styles practiced by both men and women regardless of the fitness level. The uniqueness of yoga practice is its individual personal approach to every body and every soul. The styles differ and the benefits of each are many, so the only way to make up your mind is to try each yoga changing teachers and settings. This sounds like a long process, but not to yogis who see it as a lifetime growth. Curiosity and excitement of trying new things is something that drives us all to discover something so old, and yet so new. With a thousand-year-old history, yoga builds fitness from the inside out.

Fitness Clubbing

Demand for more gyms, personal trainers, fitness instructors will be even stronger in 2006. In the past, one of the biggest obstacles to attend the gym was lack of time or inconvenient location. Now more fitness centers spread across Australia invalidating the excuses to not workout when the gym is just next door. And exercisers are looking for choice, they need variety. Indeed, being able to decide on a fitness class, personal trainer or even the setting of a weight room is a luxury, but not taken for granted. And fitness centers offer you more than a way to get fit. Costing less than a few drinks at the pub, gyms are also becoming increasingly popular places of social interaction, venues of meeting new people, occasions to spend some quality time together with a friend or that special someone. This is where you can quadruple positive health outcomes – attending a gym will energise your body, mind, spirit, and soul.

Nourishing Nutrition

Nature's Diet

Decades of dieting have taught us to abstain from temporary quick fixes of restrictive eating. There is now more awareness and general knowledge of proper balanced nutrition. Avoiding certain foods or food groups, mostly for the purpose of losing weight, changes to avoiding chemicals and artificial ingredients frequently added to processed foods. And while the piggy food and diet industry still tries to capitalise on the insecurities of weight-conscious hunger giving carbo-phobics have more product options to choose from, the trend is moving away from processed foods to the natural alternatives. Popular diets such as South Beach and Volumetrics generated a lot of heat around fresh vegetables, fruit and whole grains, and the demand for these is now higher than ever. Fatty steak, white bread and pasta are now substituted with lean meat cuts, wholemeal bread and unbleached buckwheat pasta. This year fish is being served with fresh salad instead of greasy chips. Whole grains containing the entire kernel of the grain are becoming so popular, that the manufacturers and supermarkets are snowballing their ideas on creating the variety of offered cereals, new whole-grain breads, crackers, pasta, baked delicacies and toppings. These are truly your health building essentials as whole grains include antioxidants and fibre that can protect against many diseases and give you a leaner body and a sharp mind. Even the cereal ails at the supermarket is getting longer thanks to the multiplying product range of wholesome cereals. Not only do the natural 'good' carbs nourish your body with irreplaceable vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, enzymes, and fiber, they satisfy you faster and keep hunger at bay for longer. And if you are weary about vegetables, forget your empty cabbage diet and meat cravings. The variety of readily available delicious vegetables and trimmed steamed protein-packed meats is so huge now, that salad bars offer more than 20 different kinds of the nature's best. In 2006 you will also notice more burger shops are moved by salad stalls – and they all are working overtime.

Organics Are Hot

Organic foods are definitely the hottest trend that will be growing for years to come. Long have gone the days when you could buy outrageously overpriced organic ingredients only at the few health food boutiques. 2006 kicks off with supermarket shelves filled with organic produce, meats, grains, legumes. And you can even find them beyond the 'Health Food' sections – the two largest brands have launched their own line of organic products bringing the prices below those of conventional non-organic foods. Sprouting demand pushes the suppliers to expand organic farming. And why not? Who want to eat tasteless chemicals and pesticides which demonstrated to be a health hazard for many when you can indulge in real natural delicacies richer in flavour and nutrient content. Most of the time you don't even have to read the fine print of the ingredients list since the attractive bright packaging and titles of organic ingredients will easily catch your eye when you browse through the store shelves. So, choosing organic foods is becoming an intuitive commonplace on the tables of all looking for health benefits and intensity of flavour. Miracle Legumes

If you used to think of soy as a strange legume for vegetarian hippies, now is the time to reconsider your opinion. This famous legume is the hottest trendy diet staple with appealing presentations beyond the bland tasteless beans or the soggy deep fried sponge. Both consumers and industry have found a nutritious delicious healthy way add more protein to the sugar and fat laden diets. From burgers and hot dogs, breads and cereals, to cheeses and yogurts, milk and hot chocolate soy is becoming a popular choice even for the most choosy gourmet tastes. A lot of people have found themselves being intolerant to milk and dairy, so for them soy milk is one of the best alternatives that is not only easier to digest, but offers a different variety of nutrients important for women's health. Proteins in soy are friendlier for the digestive tract and take less effort to absorb than animal proteins. Additionally, soy boast to have other substances specific only to plant sources, such as fiber and phytonutrients. Just about every coffee stand now offers a variety of soy milks for that frothy smooth flavourful cappuccino, and you can even make soy milk at the convenience of your own house with the new soy makers. Soy is very versatile and has so many applications and ways to enjoy it offering more flavours and textures to both meat eaters and vegetarians alike.

Health and Well Being

Self Help Therapy

2006 will show the powerful movement to use alternative therapies for various health concerns. Naturopaths, massage therapists, chiropractics, osteopaths, iridologists, homeopaths, kinesiologists, aromatherapiests, applied psychologists are just some of the few most widely used practitioners topping the list of valuable and validated resources who may help you with anything from emotional to digestive problems. Natural therapies focus upon "all natural" means of healing the body as opposed to using chemical drugs often applied in medicine and science. Alternative therapies view the human body as it is naturally designed to heal any disease given the opportunity to do so by keeping it in tune with the natural environment. And while conventional medical doctors still run busy clinics, general awareness of alternative options to treat the problems at their root looking at the body as a whole instead of dissecting the symptoms and trying to mask them by counterbalancing intuitive body functions. Turning to nature for healing solutions is indeed the new fashion du jour even for the most skeptical patients looking for novel cutting edge treatment techniques. With additional contributions from your health insurance and possibly Medicare, now there is even more reason to check out the wisdom of nature proven by science.

Read Yourself To Help Thyself

Personal growth and self-help books are moving from the store book shelves to the houses of those searching for emotional healing. Counselling, psychotherapy and Life Coaching continue to be in high demand for anyone willing to reduce stress, lessen frustration, improve the quality of life and enhance its enjoyment. Professional and emotional help specialists have shown to help discover the hidden potential, empower to take on a challenge, turn the direction of life events, enhance performance and productivity and improve overall spiritual well being. However, finding the right therapist may be easier said than done. Good experts still represent the minority, and if you happen to find what you are looking for, the demand is three times the supply, so the waiting lists run full for a few weeks ahead. And the expense of each session, mostly not covered by Medicare or your health insurance, makes it even more difficult to combat the emotional roadblock of life. Self-help books are readily available, entirely private, inexpensive, and last you more than a session with a therapist. And hundreds of titles provide a marvelous opportunity to choose just the right one for you. Most of them are extremely easy to read written in a very approachable style showing more than a quick drive-through psychological solution of some infamous 'doctor fill-good'. If you question whether or not these books actually work, you may rest in peace. According to researchers at the University of New England in Armidale, NSW, almost 90 per cent of those who used the books learned new ways of controlling emotions, positively perceive life occurrences and enhance their social bonding. Book reviews and advice from a therapist or a friend may help you to choose the title, but before you turn the book into your professional counsel, check the authors qualifications and credibility as some may force you to believe unsupported claims leading to dangerous behavioral outcomes. Most importantly, you have to read the entire book and apply all the suggestions in order to get the most benefit. Taking on the right path in life requires effort and energy, but it may just be the most valuable investment you make.

Deeper Healing

Newer techniques of balancing life challenges and dealing with stress are now on the horizon in 2006. Working side by side with mind-body connection of many spiritual practices, meditation and relaxation accompanied by music are gaining more interest. They change the working rhythm of the body and mind. Listening to calming music changes one's breathing and heart rate, settles the thoughts of the restless mind and improves concentration. Researchers confirm that these transformations accompanied by the changes in the brain wave activity have both short and long term positive effect on your nervous and immune systems, reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke and heighten your working capacity. Even just a few minutes of relaxation will energize you for hours to come.