Food is My Bodyguard

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I’m not famous, I’m not rich, but I do use a bodyguard. Food is my bodyguard.

Without whole foods the human body begins to weaken a little bit at a time. When you choose to eat foods that are processed, chemically enhanced, deep-fried, microwaved, over-cooked, preservative-laden, overly salted, and contain unhealthy oils your body reacts negatively to it. Your body was built to work with whole foods to maintain optimal health. When companies who process and package foods that once were whole began popping up in the late 1940’s early 1950’s, human health began to decline. Among many food related diseases are type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney and liver disease, digestive diseases and even brain function.

What can you do to bring back your best health?

Get back to basics. Begin eating more whole foods, especially foods that are in season and local since they are picked at their ripest and hold their full nutrient load. Cook at home more so you have control over artificial ingredients, oils and salt. Choose better restaurants when you eat out; chains tend to have high fat and high sodium content as well as ‘fake foods’. Shop at your local farm stand and farmers’ markets and buy lots of colorful vegetables and fruit. Eat raw or lightly steamed so nutrients are retained. Find out what foods are best for your body and your lifestyle. Raise your activity level at least 3 days a week for 30 minutes each.

Getting on track

We all form habits, some are good and some are not-so-good. Beginning a healthy lifestyle might sound overwhelming and confusing especially when you start to research different ways through the internet. Getting healthy doesn’t have to be a chore or a complete life-changer. By learning what is best for you personally and learning how to incorporate better choices one step at a time, you will find that good habits are easy to adopt. When you begin making changes for the better your body will react immediately and you’ll be amazed at how great you can feel.

As a personal health coach, I will help you make the transitions wisely, easily and without extra work and overwhelm. Consider your health a top priority. Protect your body with proper nutrition so that you can live a longer, healthy and happy life.

 

Feed Your Cells

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Spring Cleanse SaladMy most common sayings when it comes to food and one’s diet is “feed your cells and fuel your body”.

Have you ever thought that when you eat you’re not only feeding your belly, you’re fueling your body and feeding every cell that works continuously to make you healthy?

What you feed your cells affects your body’s ability to fight disease, allergies, viruses, and to bounce back from an illness. When your body isn’t at ease it’s at dis-ease, and we all have experienced that feeling from one time or another in various degrees depending on whether we suffered an allergy attack or something of a more serious illness.

What’s the best way to feed your cells? Clean up your diet and your environment. There are countless chemicals in food and countless chemicals in products we use and in the air we breathe. While it’s nearly impossible to completely eliminate our exposure to chemical toxins, we can greatly reduce our exposure through better food choices, more environmentally friendly cleaning products and keeping your home clean.

What’s a clean diet? Vegetables, especially leafy greens, are cell cleansing and feeding. They will fuel your brain and body along with strengthening your cells. Beans, nuts, fresh wild-caught fish, seeds fresh fruit and berries are great choices too. Limit dairy and meat. Limit or omit refined flours and greasy junk foods and sweet snacks.

The following are some benefits of feeding your cells.

  • Stronger immune system leading to possible quicker bounce-back from illness.
  • Healthy weight
  • More energy
    Less Fatigue
  • Less body aches & pain
  • Healthy blood sugar levels, blood oxygen levels and blood pressure
    Healthy heart
  • Better ability to handle emotional stress

…and a host of many other benefits.

Give it a try! Feed your cells and compare how you feel before and after. Try it for a t least a full week if not longer so your body will have a chance to clean out the gunk and to feel the benefits of cell cleansing, energizing, fueling foods.

Happy, healthy eating!

 

Wicked Wheat

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Wheat is a type of grass grown for its grain known as wheat berries. Wheat berries are removed from the wheat and ground into flour. The remaining stalk is used for animal feed & bedding, construction and mulch. Today’s wheat is far different from wheat grown by our ancestors not so long ago. Most of today’s wheat has been genetically altered in order to meet consumer demands.

Wheat is found in a multitude of foods today. You can find it in the snacks you eat, prepared foods, in a variety of sauces, dressings, spices, and it’s even found in some meal replacement drinks. We’ve been taught to believe that wheat is good for us when in fact, today’s wheat and amount of wheat each of us eat can cause more harm than good.

Some documented effects that today’s wheat has had on humans include increased appetite, massive blood sugar surges that in turn triggers a bigger appetite and causes glycation ( a natural process in which the sugar in your bloodstream attaches to proteins) which increases aging, inflammation, cartilage and bone damage, and interferes or weakens the immune system. Other serious diseases caused by eating wheat are celiac disease, neurological disorders, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, headaches, rashes and mental/emotional disorders, ADHD, depression, and weight gain

Some common symptoms of wheat allergy are:

  • General- tiredness & fatigue, often not feeling well and cravings
  • Immune Conditions- mouth sores, common cold and flu often
  • Gastrointestinal Conditions- constipation, gas, diarrhea, bloating, abdominal pain/discomfort
  • Neurological Conditions- poor memory, depression, behavioral & poor attitude, negativity
  • Inflammatory Conditions- allergies, arthritis, stiffness in muscles and joints.

What are some advantages of being wheat free?

  • – Consumption of less processed foods and more whole fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, other whole   grains, lean meat and more vitamins & minerals.
  • – Faster healing, more balanced digestion, less bloating
  • – Diminished and/or elimination of cravings for bread, chips, pasta, sweets
  • – Sinus & allergy health, less asthma attacks
  • – Lower risk or reversal of celiac disease, Type 2 and pre-diabetes
  • – Weight loss

What you can do to decrease and even eliminate wheat from your diet begins with reading labels. Read all labels of anything bottled, packaged or frozen; you’ll be surprised at how many items you eat contain a form of wheat. You’ll find it in dressings, seasonings such as soy sauce and steak sauces; you’ll even find it in flavored chips. More recently labeling from many companies states if their product is *Wheat Free.

Another step you can take is to rid your kitchen of wheat foods-find healthy, wheat free alternatives. If you search you grocery store, you’ll most likely find them. A health coach can help you make your transition to a wheat free diet in an easy-to-follow, inexpensive way. In just a few sessions you can learn what foods are good alternatives, how to make healthier choices and soon you’ll be feeling lighter, happier and more clear-minded.

You can contact me for any areas of your health you would like to improve; just write me at Dawn@InitiateWellness.com

Stave off Your Cravings

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7NEClam Dip

Nearly every one of us has the desire for good health, more energy, physical attractiveness and fulfilled happiness. With the level of stress that current times bring and the ability to find food around every corner, the bakeries and frozen meals in the grocery store, it’s easy to fall into the convenience of fast foods, a quick muffin, ice cream year-round, a fat-laden coffee drink for a quick pick-me-up. Soon this becomes an endless cycle of sorts – self-abuse to your body.

We crave the things we eat most. We crave the things we do most. Think about it for a minute; if we’re used to shopping, we want to shop, if we hike a lot, we crave the outdoors, if we spend time with our friends; we miss them when there’s a longer span of time between visits. In the same way, when we eat sweets, we want more sweets, when we eat vegetables, we want more vegetables, if we eat pasta, we sometimes cannot get enough.

Exercise has a lot to do with what you crave. If you’re sedentary pretty much every day, you’ll probably crave carbohydrates and fats; where can you get both? In chips, pastries, cookies, cheese & crackers, creamy sauced pasta…etc. When you exercise you’re more likely to crave healthy complex carbohydrates such as fruits and vegetables and lean proteins such as lean meat, fish and beans. Why? There can be two reasons; when you exercise you are more aware of your health and have a desire to be healthy, and because exercise releases happy endorphins leaving you feeling satisfied and by choosing complex carbs you get a satisfying boost of energy the body needs.

How much exercise do you need? If you’re pretty sedentary right now, you should at least start walking four times a week for 20-30 minutes each time. If you’re active but don’t necessarily exercise, walking will be enough to begin with. As you become a more active and regular exerciser, you can increase your routine and change it up if you desire. If you choose to only walk, that’s ok; every step matters and increasing distance over time will be useful. On fair weather days, don’t quit, walk indoors or put on some upbeat music and dance for 20 minutes-dance like no one is watching!

 

Eat Foods that Boost Your Mood

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2015-03-20 16.28.32It’s so much easier to stray from your diet than to stay with your diet. While I hesitate and strongly dislike using the word diet, the way we eat no matter how healthy or how poorly is truly our diet.

The individual nutrients in the food you eat have a direct impact on your moods. When you eat fresh whole foods in a balanced way you have a better chance of keeping your mood in balance. Fast foods, frozen processed foods and simple carbohydrate foods lack necessary nutrients which can lead to mood swings. Eating healthy whole foods isn’t only for weight control, healthy eating impacts and improves the entire body.

Mood boosting foods to increase include:

  1. Get enough of the vitamin B12 through good quality, preferably organic beef, fish, poultry, beans and low-fat dairy
  2. Phytonutrients from fresh fruits and vegetables. Farmers markets and farm stands are in season, take advantage while you can
  3. Selenium – it acts as an antioxidant, keeping your blood clean from oxidative stress which gets into your cells on a daily basis; by keeping your cells as clean and clear as possible you can help protect yourself from many diseases as well as keeping your mood in balance. Lack of selenium can lead to anxiety, irritability, hostility and depression. An increase in selenium will normalize your mood, not elevate it. Some high selenium foods include lean pork, beef, poultry, tuna, oysters, crab, sardine, other fish, beans and legumes, nuts, seeds, & low-fat dairy.
  4. Omega-3 fatty acids; eat fish 2 times weekly and take a fish oil supplement. For information on the right fish oil to take read my article Fish Oil, Liquid Gold?
  5. 1000-2000 I.U. Vitamin D daily from sun, supplements and salmon, tuna, mackerel, low-fat cheese, egg yolks, fortified milk & orange juice
  6. 1 ounce dark chocolate daily – 60% cacao or higher

Foods to decrease:

  1. Fatty foods and saturated fats
  2. Processed foods- have high chemical content which interferes with proper nutrient absorption
  3. Alcohol-this ‘feel good’ drink is actually a depressant
  4. Caffeine-this gives you an energy burst that spirals into fatigue leading to mood swings

Next time you feel yourself in an ‘off’ mood that you cannot quite explain, take a moment to look at what you’ve been eating. If you’ve strayed from healthy whole foods; fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains, your moods can be in a swing.

You can find a few helpful tips on food-mood here: http://capone.mtsu.edu/studskl/food.html

 

Willpower-Self-Control-Self-Discipline

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At least once daily I hear someone say that they don’t have willpower; it is usually referenced to their eating habits and lack of ability to lose weight.

What is will power? Is it an emotional thing? Is it a behavioral thing? Is it somehow related to our self-confidence, self-worth, or self-esteem? Do we say that we don’t have self-control so that others won’t think we failed or so that we personally won’t feel like failures? What is it?

Only you know how you feel about willpower, self-control and self-discipline. Only you will know why it has a strong hold on you. It might take deep self-evaluation but you can begin to understand the hold it has on you personally. Understanding might help you move to the next level, the level above lack of willpower.

In order to begin figuring out your personal relationship with willpower it’s necessary to understand what willpower means, so here goes. Willpower as defined in the dictionary means; (1) the strength of will to carry out one’s decisions, wishes or plans, (2) the ability to control oneself and to determine one’s actions, (3) firmness of will; control of one’s impulses and actions; determination; self-control.

So then, what is self-control? (1) Control of one’s emotions, desires, or actions by one’s own will (2) the ability to exercise restraint or control over one’s feelings, emotions, reactions or actions, etc.

And self-discipline: (1) training and control of oneself and one’s conduct, usually for personal improvement.

How can we put all those definitions to use? There are a few key words in each definition that will be helpful. Strength, ability, firmness, determination, control, own will, exercise, and training. These words are the actions, the reminders of what we will use and build up in order to improve our willpower.

Our minds have incredible strength, so much strength that it allows us to give up with what we think is a logical excuse. We end it there; we forget about our true abilities, firmness, determination, and own will. It is our own will to stop at one plate of food with reasonable portions or to get that second plate because you may have trained yourself to think you are weak. But you’re wrong, you’re not weak, you are worth it, you are deserving of all the good things life offers you

So, what now?

It’s time to get some willpower exercise and training-key words again. The way we can get willpower exercise is by working on it one day at a time; one hour at a time-do whatever it takes. Six points you can work on are

-Preparation – bring a lunch or a snack with you when you’re going to be out for an extended period of time so that you can avoid the drive through or the convenience stores. OJ, carry a small carton of orange juice with you and drink it when you’re feeling that stress time coming on, that’s the time when you are most likely to binge on anything and everything. Our brains run on glucose and when glucose is low our willpower is low; orange juice helps to feed the brain.

-Mood lifting – when we are stressed out from the day our willpower is at its lowest, choose to do something every day preferably after your stressful day, that makes you happy, a walk, the gym, playing with your pet, your kids, meditation, reminding yourself that the work day is over and the rest is yours, watch a local baseball/softball team, whatever it is that lifts your spirits…don’t include alcohol since that alters your mood.

-Set goals/intentions at the beginning of each day, set realistic ones and use post-it notes for reminders but get creative with them with different words-even words that only you know what they’re for

-Eliminate unhealthy foods from your kitchen, out of sight, out of mind, it works! Stock healthy choices.

-Imagine your future self; describe him/her on post-it notes as well

-Cheat. Yes! It’s okay to indulge at least once a week. By indulge I mean in a controlled manner. Have a treat, don’t deprive yourself, use that ‘cheat’ as a reminder of the reward you can have at the end of your week of successful self-discipline.

Bonus tip: Support yourself as you would support others. Listen to how you react to friends who tell you that they didn’t follow through on ‘xyz’, or how they did ABC and give yourself the same love and encouragement you typically lend to others because you deserve the best!

Green Pea Hummus Dip

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2014-07-03 14.49.118-oz. fresh or frozen peas
4 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 clove garlic
1 Tablespoon pine nuts, sesame seeds, cashews or sunflower seeds
1-4 Tbs. water

Add all ingredients to blender and blend until smooth. Add only enough water to thin it enough to whirl in blender.
Chill 1 hour-overnight. Drizzle olive oil on top before serving. Serve with pita chips or cut vegetables for dipping.

Post-note: If you’re not a fan of green peas you can substitute them with black eyed peas or chickpeas and use in the same ways as mentioned above.

Allergies – Are They a Constant Issue for You?

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There are allergy seasons and allergy reasons. Many of us suffer from one or both on a yearly or daily basis. Allergy season is just weeks away for many of us so welcome Spring prepared.

When spring arrives our allergy symptoms seem to arrive as well. Sometimes we can alleviate them through natural remedies and sometimes we need OTC products such as sprays or once a day allergy tablets and some individuals need monthly allergy shots. Whichever brings you the mist comfort is what is right for you.

If you would prefer a natural approach before using medications a few things to consider first are: How serious are your allergies? How strong are your symptoms? What are you allergic to? What does your doctor suggest about alternative remedy in your specific case?

If you are well enough to try natural alternatives you can start today!
Many things cause allergy symptoms including air quality, pollens, dust, pet dander, and foods we eat.

Common seasonal allergies are often helped by building your immune system with local honey, 1 teaspoon/day, honey also has anti-bacterial properties. The best time to begin taking honey for seasonal allergies is before the season begins.

ACV-yes, raw apple cider vinegar helps too! Add 1 tablespoon to 8 oz. water with a pinch of cinnamon and drink it daily. ACV has a host of benefits besides allergy help.

Other natural treatments include finding your food allergies. Many folks don’t realize that they have allergies to certain foods. To help you decide, the most common foods that cause allergy symptoms are milk/other dairy, egg, peanut, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat, soy, corn products (meal, syrup, oils), gelatin, beef, seeds from pumpkin to sunflower and sesame, spices including, MSG, coriander, garlic and mustard.

In order to find out if any of these foods aggravate your allergies try eliminating the ones you eat most often and note how you feel before and after eliminating. You can re-introduce the food into your diet and if your allergy symptoms kick up you know that you should steer clear of these foods.

Another natural alternative is using saline spray/ocean nasal spray 2-3 times/day to clear out your sinus passages. It’s completely natural and healthy.

Drinking plenty of water every day also helps keep your system clean and flowing naturally.

Allergies don’t have to ruin your outdoor fun!

Your “Place” of Peace and Growth

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Are you in an environment that feeds your spirit and calms your soul? When you come home at night, do you feel at ease, comfortable and ready to unwind and relax?

Your environment plays an important part in your overall health and daily habits. If you’re stressed even after you are home in ‘your safe place’ maybe it’s time to improve your surroundings. Making changes is most often a good thing even if your environment served you well in the past. As we grow, so shall our surroundings.

Make a list of the things in your environment, whether at work, play or home, that comforts you and a list of things that disrupt your peace. Decide what things you can change or improve and how you can work in things from your list of comforts.

If what you need is quiet time each day when you get home, let others in your home know, set a time to ‘get away’ to let go of stress each day and take it for yourself. Encourage others in your environment to do the same.

Making positive changes and adjustments in your life on a regular basis helps you enjoy living, enjoy being and it keeps your good habits going. Choose happiness; make necessary adjustments to your surroundings even if that means finding new surroundings elsewhere. In love and light.

Step Away

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2015-08-13 22.13.51Sometimes you need to step away from a situation in order to see it clearly or to find clarity. If you’re feeling lost, in doubt, at a road block or a fork in your road of life and you’re not sure which way to go, the best thing to do is to step back and take time to breathe and view it from another angle.

When you keep doing the same thing over and over and get the same results or worse, get nowhere, it’s a message that you need to let something shift in your life. It’s time to stop, step back and open your heart and mind allowing thoughts to come and go; when one thought comes and never leaves, perhaps it’s the thing you should put your energy into.

Renewal of mind, body and spirit is a natural part of life and when you fight it, you become lost, frustrated and feel defeated. Take time each day to check in with yourself. Sit or lay quietly in your personal space and allow freedom of thoughts to enter; let go of forcing and controlling your thoughts.

Find the answers to your particular situations within. Allow the light to enter your spirit.