Food for Health Not Habit or Pleasure

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Our health is all we have and our diet is one of the few things we can have complete control over most of the time. Once we neglect our body through diet we become dependent on dietary restrictions and it’s no longer up to us.

One important thing we can learn from our parents and grandparents is their health history. We can take their illnesses or disease and apply it to our own lives and fight back. If there is heart disease we should never take it lightly; we should take care of our own heart that much more, if there’s diabetes we should be concerned with our own blood sugar balance and so on. I’m not suggesting that we are doomed and destined to fall prey to our relative’s poor health; but take care of your one and only body right now.

  • Eat fresh fruits and fresh vegetables daily and try to eat what is in season.
  • Eat whole grains on a daily basis as they are heart healthy, digestive track healthy, filling and fat burning. Whole grains consist of more than whole grain bread and cereal. True whole grains are far more nutritious and beneficial to you than those breads and a cereal so adding more is necessary. A few popular whole grains are oatmeal, bulgur wheat, barley, brown rice, and quinoa. A meal that includes a small portion of one whole grain, half a plate of steamed or raw mixed vegetables and a 4-ounce portion of lean meat or beans is a complete meal as the grains offer a significant amount of protein as well as fiber. A meal like this will keep you full and help burn away fat cells which will lead to weight loss, less joint pain, less inflammation and a healthy heart.
  • Drink plenty of water every day. Remember, half your body weight in ounces is a rule of thumb [i.e. 150 lbs. needs 75 ounces of water], or as close to that as possible.

It’s okay to eat for pleasure once in a while like during a celebration or on vacation, just don’t live to eat – eat to live!

 

Protein, Carbohydrate & Healthy Fats Balance [in the simplest foods]

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As I read through social media, newspaper and magazine articles and listen to news reports I hear an overwhelming amount of different diets out there. A big fad right now is low-carb to no-carb diets that boast a high amount of animal protein such as the Paleo diet. While each of us is different and are looking for different results my personal feelings, based on what I learned as a holistic nutritional coach, are that getting back to basics and everything in balance is foolproof and easy to adapt to and follow through as your new and improved lifestyle habits. Of course I would never push someone to doing something they don’t understand or believe in as everyone has a choice and I‘m not against what anyone thinks is best for them, but I will always be here to help those who are ready and want help in making positive changes in their life.

High animal proteins cause your liver to work harder and become congested or clogged due to animal proteins being harder to break down and digest.

Personally, I eat proteins of all types including small amounts of animal proteins, I’m not a vegetarian but my diet is highly vegetable based, which includes true whole grains; I don’t eat meat every day due to personal preference but I don’t demand that everyone eat exactly as I do either. The following is a quick, handy guide to foods and their protein amounts.

Protein

  • 4 oz. chicken-36g
  • 4 oz. turkey-31g
  • Shellfish, 6 oz. shrimp-23g (plus a healthy amount of B-12), scallops-20g.
  • Beans, 1-cup boiled soybeans-29g., white beans-19g., lentils-18g., black beans-15g., (plus fiber, folate, potassium and magnesium)

Get Healthy Fats from:

  • Fish, good quality fish oils (read my article on fish oils here),
  • nuts and nut oils,
  • olive oil,
  • avocados and avocado oil,
  • sunflower oil,
  • all-natural, no sugar added peanut butter.

Finding a good balance between proteins, carbs and healthy fats is the key to living a healthy life. Your balance is different from anyone else’s and that is perfect because that is what makes you fantastically unique.

In a word, how do you feel?

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I once posted a question on my Facebook page asking followers to leave one word describing how they feel and I got an astounding number of responses; somewhere in the 60 -70 plus range! The common flow of answers followed a theme; exhausted, hectic, long day, busy, frustrated and sad were among some.

The answers made me more aware and wanting to help. I compiled a small list of tips and ideas for stress relief and mental and physical rejuvenation.

Busy/Hectic – make weekly to-do lists beginning with most important to least important, check things off as you complete them; this gives you a sense of accomplishment and releases thoughts of overwhelm.

Frustrated/Sad – Take time out for yourself. From time to time we all need space and quiet-time to re-sort our thoughts and settle into our positive well-being. Taking this time will give you the space to breathe and refocus.

Exhausted/Long days – Proper sleep, proper nutrition & hydration, scheduling tasks, making lists, saying ‘no’ once in a while, time for yourself, unwind time.

Proper nutrition, hydration, self-care, physical activity and fun are all important factors in finding calm balance in your day-to-day life happenings. Making note of the must-do’s, could-do’s and want-to-do’s are helpful in creating balance and ease for you each day and each week. Choose at least one day a week for yourself to do things you find fun, relaxing, and distressing-after all, you know what you need more than anyone else does. Take care of you so that you can live life fully and happily.

Hypertension/High Blood Pressure

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Hypertension aka High Blood Pressure (HBP) puts strain on the heart – think of it as “hyper = excessive” “tension = Stretch/strain”. When there is excessive strain on the arteries and the heart it can lead to stroke, aneurysm, peripheral artery disease and is a cause of kidney disease.

Some signs and symptoms of hypertension are headaches, dizziness, vertigo, tinnitus (ringing or hissing in the ears), changed vision issues, fainting, fatigue, chest pain, difficulty breathing, blood in urine and pounding or pressure in the ears, neck and/or chest.

Regular check-ups and getting a baseline of your blood screenings are important and necessary in improving your heart-health as well as overall health. Even if your numbers are in the safe zone it’s important to be sure your diet is clean and healthy; if your numbers are closer to or already in the danger zone, it’s necessary to make changes in your diet and lifestyle choices.

Dietary and lifestyle changes can greatly improve blood pressure control and decrease the risk of complications. A few steps you can begin with include:
Eliminating fried foods, fast foods, sugary treats and sweets, lower salt intake and salty foods,
Reducing the consumption of full-fat dairy, fatty and processed meats
Increasing lean vegetable proteins such as beans, seeds, nuts and olive and flax seed oils,
Increasing fruit, berries and vegetable intake
Switching to leaner animal proteins such as chicken, fish and eggs

You don’t have to figure it out alone. Talk to your doctor about the best route for you, a healthy diet and you can seek guidance from a health coach. You can feel great at any age when you take steps to better health! Even if your blood pressure is at a normal range but you want to get a better understanding of how to stay healthy as you age, let’s talk!

The Disorderly Mess of a Chaotic Mind

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Your head feels like it’s spinning just as fast as your thoughts come and go. You have a list of things you have to do, want to do, should do, wish you could do and dream about doing. You have another list, probably written, of things you wish you didn’t have to do, things you have already done, and things you will probably never do. You have sticky note reminders reminding you to make a list for this and a list for that and the list goes on and on and on…

You have errands, chores, work, indoor and outdoor household responsibilities, kids, pets, appointments and extracurricular activities. You want to start checking items off of your list but feel overwhelmed, tired, weary, exhaustion, mental and physical tension, confusion and fatigue. You have no idea where to begin and just the thought of it stresses you to the max.

You might feel alone, but take a deep breath and rest easy because you’re not alone. Today’s fast paced society and gadget gallery world that is supposed to make things easy and more convenient for us somehow brings on more confusion, stress and distraction.

Sometimes it might be helpful to take a step back, take a break, take a personal day to get your ‘lists’ and priorities lined up. Take a day away from technology overload and bounce back refreshed with a new and positive outlook. Put all your lists together and pool them into one big categorical TO-DO sheet.

How? Here are a few tips:
1. Decide on what items are priorities and put them above all
2. Make categories: Urgent, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Must-Do, Want-to-do, Dreams, Optional…etc.
3. Put each item under the appropriate category
4. Use 3×5 index cards for list items and 8.5×11” papers for categories and assign each item appropriately; by using this method, you can change the category or importance of a particular item and file away what items have been finished; a true feeling of accomplishment!

Don’t let chores and must do activities burden your emotions, mind and mental clarity. Take control of the things you can do and let go of those things you have no control over. Take a personal day every month or two to clear the disorderly mess of your chaotic mind and begin to feel the overwhelm lift!

7 Common Diet Mistakes & Misconceptions

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1- Using low-fat or fat-free options – often lower fat products have added sugars and/or sodium to improve the taste due to removed fats; many people also use more than necessary assuming they can due to it having lower calories. In the case of dairy, low-fat is fine as the fat is simply skimmed off, usually.
Fix – use the real stuff, just use less, or what is recommended, and reap the benefits of the less processed foods.

2- Portion sizes; especially when you know something has reduced fat. Start becoming more aware of your portions and refrain from taking seconds.
Fix – if you’re still hungry or if you have a hard time controlling your portions, heap your plate with more vegetables (make sure they are not swimming in sauces- steamed or roasted and lightly seasoned are best.

3- No exercise – even if you’re active or have a physically demanding job it’s important to get some exercise into your routine. If you’re trying to lose weight, diet alone won’t help significantly – without added physical activity you merely maintain your weight, that’s great once you reach your goal.
Fix – introduce 10-20 minutes of exercise 2 times a week and work up from there; choose something you know you can do such as walking, dancing, yoga and bicycling, all can be done inside or outside.

4- Water intake – many of us do not drink nearly enough water in a day. Often hunger and food craving is mistaken for dehydration. Drink half your body weight in ounces every day or as close to that as you can get. (175 pound person needs 87.5 ounces)
Fix – keep water handy at all times – if it’s handy you’re more likely to sip; find ways to log your intake by using phone apps. Or wrist bands (put 6-8 bands on in the morning, and remove one for every 10 ounces you drink)

5- Using artificial sweeteners – they are made with chemicals, they hurt your system more than help it, they lead you to craving more of it and they aren’t proven to help you lose weight.
Fix – replace artificial sweeteners with natural options such as honey, pure maple, and cinnamon. Learn to cut back on sugar and you will soon enjoy the taste of the real food more.

6- Not enough veggies or using only salad as your vegetable. Salad is great especially if it is made with a variety of dark leafy greens but it shouldn’t be your only vegetable option. Eat more of the colorful in season veggies along with your lettuce salads.
Fix – stock up on veggies, think of a rainbow of colors in your refrigerator and on your plate. When eating out, ask for an extra vegetable instead of the fries, potato or rice option.

7- Not reading labels and just trusting what the packaging claims. It’s important to become a label reader in the grocery store. Sure it takes more time but when you learn what your better options are, you will be able to fly through your shopping chore quickly again.
Fix– look for sugar, carbohydrate, protein and sodium content. Choose the lower sugar/carb, lower sodium and higher protein options.

Food, Mood and Attitude

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Too often our food consumption is based solely on our mood and/or attitude. We might have good intentions of eating well all the time or this week or just for today – taking it one day at a time but then something happens that alters our mood and changes our attitude and we slip.

I eat healthy 99% of the time and I set good intentions every day but I, like everyone else, don’t always follow through. We slip up because we get frustrated with someone or something at home or work, or even by a complete stranger, a bad commute and many other positive attitude corrupters.

Slipping up on your intentions to eat healthy or exercise has no limits; it will occur in ways that might seem healthy but aren’t such as you choose healthy food options but your portion sizes are over the top like eating the entire pan of stir-fry or the whole bunch of bananas, (okay, that might be a far stretch, who can eat that many bananas?!) but you get the idea.

We let our moods be affected by things not going our way or by letting someone else’s frustrations become ours too. When we do slip up, our mood gets worse and we develop an attitude; it become a vicious cycle that leaves us whirling out of control.

What’s the difference between mood and attitude? Your mood is your state of feeling, your emotional tone or frame of mind. Your attitude is your manner, tendency, orientation or disposition. I like to refer to our attitude as our disposition because it’s a strong descriptive; ‘dis’ = absence of, position – usual or proper place leaving us with absence of our usual position or proper place.

Have you ever found yourself in either a bad mood or a sullen mood and when it comes time to eat or exercise you listen to that negative self-talk telling you that it’s okay to have this food or more food or skip exercise today as though it were positive? Do you find yourself justifying your actions by assigning excuses due to a bad day? If so, it’s time to take control, change your mood and attitude yourself; don’t let others do it for you.

When we’re fully committed to something that we truly want we don’t let anyone sway our decision, we stand tall and follow through, Let that same attitude carry you through your personal wellness journey as well. Don’t let go of your self-control, we all have it; we just don’t use it enough; when you do use it you will find yourself on the good-mood road to success.

Set your intentions, stick with them no matter who or what tries to derail you, remind yourself of why you set them in the first place, always stand tall in your intentions, desires and beliefs.

 

Healthy Blood – Strong Body – Strong Heart

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Your entire body is built and supported by your blood; your tissues, organs, cells and every other tiny piece of you. Healthy blood of course leads to a healthy body.
Your blood needs oxygen, iron and other minerals and vitamins especially including a complex of B vitamins.

You can oxygenate your blood simply by breathing fully and slowly and by taking time each day to fit in a deep breathing exercise and by being physically active. Daily exercise such as a brisk walk of at least 20 minutes per day will help.

The best way to “feed” your blood the vitamins and minerals it needs is primarily through food and secondary would be supplements.

–Increase your consumption of iron rich beans and legumes (peas, peanuts, and lentils); these also have lots of blood cleansing fiber that helps filter your blood.
–Eating plenty of fresh greens daily helps build your hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells which carries oxygen.
–Spices, specifically cinnamon and cayenne speeds purification, lowers blood pressure and helps with blood sugar balance.
–Dandelion root cleans your liver which in turn will filter your blood more efficiently. You can drink it as a tea and find dandelion root tea in most health food stores and some grocery stores.

Make your body more alkaline: [the SAD diet (Standard American Diet) is high in acid forming foods] by decreasing your consumption of sugar, soda, meat and processed foods and increasing fruit and vegetables such as lemon, limes & grapefruit, avocado, coconut, seeds, nuts beans and quinoa and other similar whole grains you can bring better acid-alkaline balance to your blood.

Quit smoking. Smoking pollutes your blood which increases your risk of illness and disease, from the common everyday illnesses to more serious illness such as cancer, lung diseases and heart disease by weakening your immune system.

Live life to the fullest and begin by having healthy blood, a strong body and a healthy heart!

Give & Take

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20160529_160425Relationships, whether they are personal, family or on a professional level require give and take. You’ve heard the phrase before but have you truly listened to the words? Give comes first; take follows.

When situations involve two or more people we must work together, compromise and respect others’ thoughts, ideas and feelings.

When we give, we often feel inspired and helpful; when we take, we often feel that we need to give back somehow. Giving back is good especially when we give from the heart and not just because we are expected to.

Sometimes we feel that we need help, we might feel that we give more than we receive and sometimes it might be overwhelming. At times such as those, it’s perfectly fine to decline being available to help as it’s equally fine to ask for help.

By working together and respecting one another(s) space, time and thoughts, we can feel the calmness that give and take inspires. Become open and honest in a gentle way, change your thinking to help change your inward feelings about giving and not receiving. Not everything has to be reciprocated; be satisfied in knowing that and do what you feel you can do.

By becoming an equal partner in give and take, you become calm, collected and satisfied.

Reduce Your Stress

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Every one of us encounters stressful situations from time to time. Stress will always be a part of life but you don’t have to let it take over your well-being and sanity. Stress often is the result of how we interpret a situation. How we handle stress that comes our way is the key to managing and dealing with it.

There are a few different types of stress including internal, external, social, environmental and emotional stress.

Internal stress can be brought on by us individually by not planning well, having a negative attitude, setting unrealistic deadlines and even imagining worst-case scenarios.

External stressors include things that both are and are not in our control such as issues at work, traffic situations, family situations, death/illness/injury and even happy occasions such as weddings and similar events.

The demands of daily living also play a big role in our day to day stress levels.
Types and reasons for stress are not limited to the examples above but the following are trusted ways to manage most types of stress including those not listed.

Managing stress is important for our overall health and well-being. Stress can affect our thinking, our sleep, our diet, our blood-pressure, digestion, muscle and joint pain and more.

Stress-Less Tips

Give yourself permission to relax either for a period every day or a day every week to a weekend every month; there is no wrong way if it works for you personally.

  • Eat a well-balanced and nutritious diet. Food can either fuel our thinking or “fog” our thinking.
  • Exercise regularly. Physical activity releases endorphins; a feel good, feel positive hormone. Something as simple as a 15-30 minute walk can make a difference.
  • Sleep enough – Sleep reboots the brain, aim for 7-8 hours per night.
  • Get organized and plan well. Set realistic goals, accept your limitations and ask for help when needed.
  • Find balance between work and your personal life.
  • Keep a good social circle, stay in touch with friends and family members you support and who support you.
  • Stay positive. See the lesson in each circumstance; view them as opportunities rather than disasters.
  • Practice deep breathing, daily meditation and relaxation; 5-10 minutes each day can help in big ways by slowing your mind and body down allowing you to process your thoughts and let them go.
  • And finally, and importantly, don’t rely on alcohol and drugs to relax you or to reduce tension. Get professional help of a doctor, therapist, or health coach if you feel overwhelmed or hopeless.

Stress is normal – staying stressed is not. Take steps to reduce your stress. Contact me if you’d like to work on releasing yourself from stress learn how to live a less stressed life.