January 2, 2008

Feed Your Family Right - Book Review

For the family with not enough time on their hands, with children who don’t like vegetables and families that like to eat out, this book makes a good, inspiring and extremely helpful read. Authored by nutrition expert Elisa Zied and someone who had these challenges, “Feed Your Family Right”.

Common themes in the book include making fitness a core part of your lifestyle whether you have 5 minutes or one hour, managing your portions and making use of fresh vegetables for simple healthy recipes.

Remember what one reader of our site once said, “our state of health is the sum total of our daily healthy habits” and so as Eliza Zied shows in the book, all her small tips and guidances all add up to a better healthy lifestyle.

In her book, she has also done great work in pulling out common problems and providing solutions for health seekers to get on the path of health and wellness. For example, she very clearly points out the problem of lack of time. Unfortunately, many parents and young adults with not enough time have put health before career and resort to carefree eating and exercise. Zied says 30 minutes of exercise daily is optimum, she suggests breaking it into intervals of 5-10 minutes throughout the day and that can be done easily at work or at home.

Elisa also has advice for parents: lead by example. If you’re overweight, your kids are going to follow. It should be up to the parents to lead by example when it comes to healthy cooking, raw eating, exercising and juicing. It should be up to the parents to also lead by example when it comes to communication and how to interact with one’s health. Parent’s shouldn’t come home and couch in front of the television, nor should they just eat out, come home and sleep.

One thing I like about Elisa’s work overall is her moving-towards-change attitude rather than moving-away-from-pain attitude and those involved in any kind of personal development or self-help will recognize this as an important teaching. She discusses that parents tell their kids that eating more fresh vegetables and fruits and other healthy foods will help them run faster, perform better, increase memory, etc rather than telling them that eating a second bowl of ice cream will make them fat. See the difference? 

For fast readers like me, Elisa helped me read faster and save time by providing the important information in easily digestible charts to analyze and use as required. More than anything, Elisa Zied’s “Feed Your Family Right” is an excellent nutrition guide for parents and young adults that is extremely timely in what I consider to be an unhealthy world that we’re living in. Out of 10, I give this book 7.5 and recommend you buy it or borrow it.

Popularity: 9% [?]

December 27, 2007

5 things you can do each morning to have more energy

Energy is a source within us that we can increase or decrease not only using the mind, but based on how we utilize our food and drink. Here are a few things you could do every morning to give you boundless energy.

1. Drink a pint glass of water first thing in the morning. If you don’t like water on its own, squeeze some fresh lime into it. 

2. Have a good breakfast. A good bowl of muesli won’t do you harm and neither will some porridge. Both are much better than a fry up.

3. Start off with at least 10 minutes of exercise. Stretch all your body’s larger muscles. Consider doing a brisk walk around the block each morning too.

4. Take in the sun light. I wake up when I see sun. Its energy, invigorating and excitement is absolutely amazing. Get up and spend a minute outside looking up in the sky taking in the morning light. Wrap up warm if it’s cold, but make sure you do it.

5. Fresh juice. I make myself a great carrot, apple and ginger juice daily. There is power in eating or drinking fruit before a meal and drinking a large glass of fresh juice is the best way to get started each day.

Popularity: 100% [?]

December 21, 2007

Healthy eating when you’re dining out

In the West, the number of people that eat out because of lack of time or just too much work has increased tremendously over the last 10 years. Some say eating out a lot is bad. I agree only to the extent of what you eat. If you can control what you eat out and only ensure it is healthy, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with eating out.

(Of course, nothing beats mum’s cooking though, right?)

Here are four specific tips to help you make healthy decisions when dining out:

1. Appetizers. If you’re going to indulge in appetizers, keep in mind that although they’re just for nibbling and you may have lots, they do contain a lot of calories. Things like mozzarella sticks, potato skins, nachos, garlic bread, etc are all high in calories. If you must have an appetizer, also get a big bowl of fresh salad with it so that you’re going to allow for comfortable digestion within your body. Every place on earth must be able to cut you up some fresh salad - if it can’t, don’t dine there!

2. Avoid heavily fried items. The excessive oil doesn’t mix well with your water-rich body. If what you want to eat needs to be fried, ask that it is heavily dried so that the oil doesn’t remain in excess.

3.  Chew well. It’s a simple rule whether you’re at home or dining out. I grew up with the idea that no matter what you’re eating, chew 40 times. I would say the average should be between 25-35 and 40 can be a bit high sometimes. The quality of your chewing determines the quality of your stomach because how well you chew determines how much is already digested in the mouth using your salivary enzymes. If you don’t chew and allow the food lump to go to the stomach, you’re stomach may have problems in breaking it down well enough. 

4. If you have a choice between fried food, boiled food and steamed food, choose the latter. Steamed vegetables, for example, allows most of the nutrients you’re going to gain from eating the vegetables to remain fresh. Boiling vegetables however loses most of the good stuff. Even if you’re going to have a fried meal, try to have a lot of fresh salad or steamed vegetables with it.

Make sure you’re eating out because you’re actually hungry and you don’t just want to nibble on something. Avoid snacking altogether if possible. If you’re feeling peckish and not hungry, eat some fresh fruit or drink a glass of water. Both are good at filling you up and are good at providing you the vitamins and nutrients you need quicker. 

The underlying message here is only eat out when you’re really hungry and with whatever you choose to go for, ensure you complement it with a huge bowl of fresh salad so that it can wash down quicker and you’re still getting the water-rich content you require. 

Popularity: 6% [?]

December 16, 2007

How to use rosehip to prevent joint pain

Rosehips are the fruit of the rose plant. Roses come in all shapes and sizes and when the leaves have fallen, if left alone you notice a small like berry grows and when left until the first frost will soften and turn bright red. The most abundant amount of fruit are found on the old-fashioned shrub rose, Rugosa. They are tangy yet sweet and used mainly as tea.

Rosehips have been around and in use as an herbal relief of joint pain for centuries. Today it is used an alternative remedy of conventional drugs, offering relief without the undesirable side effects of the pain killers or anti-inflammatory medications on the market today. In studies, rosehips have shown quick relief and pain reduction which was surprising to researchers.

Using rosehips to prevent joint pain, researchers in their case studies have administered it in various forms, from an extract to a powder and also in pill form. One group were given a placebo while the other study group given rosehips. Those treated with the rosehips had a cessation of pain by 40%, a very high percentage compared to todays conventional medicines.

In some studies, with the use of capsules containing rosehip powder, patients with severe symptoms have shown a marked improvement in six months time. Research has also found that those given rosehip supplements need less traditional painkillers which over time can cause ulcers and stomach bleeding, which no doctor wishes his patient to be taking.

The extract of rosehips have anti-inflammatory and pain relieving properties and work well with conventional medical treatments. This suggests that this form of treatment can postpone or even eliminate the need for more expensive drugs. Folklore promotes drinking rosehip tea daily as both a preventative and pain reliever, providing relief to many throughout the years.

Rosehips as a preventative to all forms of arthritis, can be bought in many health food stores, both online and in local stores. No matter the form you are using, whether an extract or powder great care should be taken in choosing your rosehips, from reliable and organic farming practices to making sure you are receiving top quality herbs free from pesticides.

Popularity: 8% [?]

December 10, 2007

Using water to freshen up your looks

Can we imagine earth without water or survival without water? In summer and winter, we need water as much as we need fresh air. We need water for a thousand good reasons so much. Do you know that our grandmothers used soap and water…which is a deadly combination because we all know that soap isn’t good for our skin as it doesn’t have sufficient oils to give our skin that radiant glow but water does. Just splash rain water and clean your face.

Your face would glow because water has that power to make you look young, beautiful and so radiant like a young bride. In fact, even you don’t realize the importance of using water to freshen up your looks. You don’t need to be a skin care professional to understand the importance of using water to freshen up your looks.

Suppose you are a man, then your daily routine would be to wash your face with water and then perhaps a gentle foaming cleanser followed by a refreshing shower. But the fact is that water is what really rejuvenates your skin after a long night’s sleep and at the end of a long, tiring day. If you are a woman, the routine becomes even more precious to your skin because your water consumption affects your skin’s quality.

If you don’t drink enough water to keep your skin hydrated, you are bound to have a lot of problems related with your skin most of the time. You should also be aware that water is the only effective way for you to hydrate your skin to look younger, clearer and beautiful.

So your routine to keep a clear, beautiful skin is drink lots of water, at least 8 glasses of water a day. In fact, most people recommend that a glass of warm water with a little dash of sweet honey does wonders to help you lose weight and get your insides cleaned naturally. So again, water is something that does wonders for your skin and for weight as well!

Though you never thought too seriously about water, it is important to know how deeply it means to a host of bodily tasks or functions that we simply think is rightfully and naturally ours for granted. Other great benefits of using water to freshen up your looks are discussed in this article. Water is a terrific regulator because it regulates your body’s thermal condition and helps to flush out toxins from your blood. Water helps your digestion process too because it pulls out all of the nutrients that can be used out of the foods. Water consumption prevents constipation and ensures that you have a great complexion.

When you want to lose weight badly, just go ahead and fill your stomach with one glass of water before you sit down for each meal. Believe it or not, you wont be able to eat as much as you want to no matter how hard you wish to these tips, go ahead and include water as a vital ingredient for all your skin needs.

Popularity: 21% [?]

October 14, 2007

The X Factor of Peak Performance

Getting to the next level in your life - whether it’s your health, relationships, career or work - isn’t about how you manage your time as much as it is about how you manage your energy.The X factor of peak performance is all about how you store and renew your energy as a human being. And this is something you must start to learn today in order to enjoy and maintain high levels of performance.We are all reservoirs of energy. Everything we do requires energy - talking, sleeping, eating, watching TV, writing this article, playing games, making decisions - everything.However, it’s disturbing to see how so many people are underperforming and underachieving today because of the lack of energy in their life which they lose through poor habits such as lack of exercise, poor nutrition, unfocused goals and bad thinking habits. All these factors contribute to energy loss.I learnt recently (and have begun to practice) what exactly those who are most successful do with their energy. They play a game call disengagement. From time to time, they disengage and allow themselves time for reflection and rejuvenation. Without continuous renewal they understand that their lives will result in depleted energy sources very often.It’s important to consciously think about how you spend your energy. Think for a moment of what you have done within the last two days and how much of what you did, ate, drank, played, watched could have been avoided. All those things depleted your energy if they didn’t add to your wellness.Have you ever found yourself in a place where you can’t be as creative as you want to be? Or perhaps a place where you’re not able to think straight or be yourself? More likely than not, it’s probably because you didn’t have the energy to do it.Ever heard someone say “I just don’t have the energy to do this”? More often than not, it’s because they have so many poor habits - sleeping, eating, exercise, drinking, thinking, etc.Another trick to saving your energy is to cut things that are draining your energy in your life such as relationships, situations, activities, habits and obligations. As these high-maintenance, unwanted elements are eliminated, they free up their most valuable talents and find themselves surrounded by an environment that supports and boosts their energy.So for today, what are you going to cut your ties with? Make a list and begin to act on it. Try this as an experiment and comment on how you found it in a few days.

Popularity: 2% [?]

October 10, 2007

Two things you need to do to get more energy

My good friend, Topher Morrison has a PhD in Clinical Hypnotheraphy and is one of the world’s leading trainers in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Hypnosis.

Although based in Tampa, Florida, Topher travels the world and does seminars in UK, Australia and the USA on personal development, NLP and hypnosis. He’s also the author of a book I recommend called “Stop Chasing Perfection and Settle for Excellence”

In his work, he talks about two things you need to do to get more energy. Here they are:-

1. Eat good healthy foods and drinks.
2. Complete your incompletions.

More

Popularity: 2% [?]