Herbal and natural choices in our health, our lifestyles and balance for healing mind, body and environment.
Archive for April, 2009
What Makes A Healthy Diet?
Apr 30th
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3 Simple, Healthy Meal Plans You Can Start Right Now
Is it possible to put together a simple and healthy meal plan? One that is not going to be complicated and hard to follow? Yes. It is possible and I will show you how. The healthy meal plans below will help you achieve your health goals while simultaneously shedding fat off your body.
Here are 3 healthy meal plans you can get started on right now.
Breakfast
Protein should be included in every meal throughout the day and breakfast is no exception. Make sure to include organic eggs, cottage cheese, raw nut butter or smoked fish as one component of your healthy breakfast. Carbohydrates should also be included in the form of oatmeal, sprouted grain bread, fruit and/or vegetables.
3 great sample breakfasts are:
Oatmeal with almond butter, topped with fresh berries and a bit of Stevia to sweeten.
2 hard boiled eggs, 1 slice sprouted grain toast and ½ grapefruit
Smoked salmon over sliced tomato and 1 green apple
Lunch
The same rules apply as breakfast. An easy way to ensure that you always have a healthy protein available for lunch is to pack leftovers from dinner the night before. Leftover hamburger, chicken legs or wild fish are all great to include in a salad or over vegetables.
3 great sample lunches are:
Baked Tilapia over sautéed spinach, green salad with chick peas (oil and vinegar as dressing) followed by ½ cup of pineapple.
Leftover chicken legs with ½ sweet potato and broccoli.
Lean hamburger over portabella mushroom and brown rice. Cooked vegetables or a green salad. 1 orange.
Dinner
You can really be creative with dinner. Look for recipes that are quick and easy and modify them with your own healthy ingredients as needed. Again, always remember to include protein and carbohydrates.
3 great sample dinners are:
Mexican salad: Ground beef over shredded lettuce and tomato, guacamole and brown rice.
Grilled Salmon over asparagus, green salad (oil and vinegar as dressing) followed by a fresh fruit salad.
Buffalo meat balls over rice pasta with sautéed broccoli.
Snacks
You never want to let your body get too hungry. Hunger often leads to binge eating of unhealthy food and makes sticking to a healthy eating regimen much more difficult. It’s important to keep snacks handy so you never experience hunger or a blood sugar low without having a healthy option nearby.
3 great snacks are:
2 Tbsp almond butter on ½ apple
Trail mix made up of walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds and dried fruit (no sugar added)
Cottage cheese and pineapple
Incorporate just a few of these meals into your daily eating regimen and you will see an incredible difference in your weight loss results. Following simple and healthy meal plans like these is the first step in achieving your health and fitness goals.
To get started right away on your own fat loss goals , download these Simple and Healthy Meal Plans right now.
Healthy Restaurant Eating
Apr 29th
Healthy restaurant eating is possible and can be much easier than you think. If your schedule has your traveling a lot or opting for take out often, use the ideas below to stick to your healthy meal plans while still enjoying your meal out.
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Here is my plan of attack when ever I am on vacation, traveling for business or just in a situation that has me ordering out more than I am able to cook. I do what I call “damage control”: Do the best I can, with what I’ve got and have an awesome time on my trip! Prepare my “emergency kit”. I will pack and take with me: walnuts, almonds, almond butter, organic turkey and beef jerky, apples and pears. None of these need refrigeration so they will keep well wherever you are. If I’m in a situation where there is no protein handy (like when it’s time for a snack), I’ve got my nuts and jerky to tie me over. |
If you don’t have something handy, you just may find yourself grabbing pretzels and potato chips (or whatever other horrid food people eat while away).
Breakfast
There is always a protein on the menu, no matter what. Omelets, or smoked salmon are my favorite choices but I’ve even gone to places that now carry turkey bacon and turkey sausage on the menu. Stay away from the heavy and deadly pancakes and waffles. This is a blood sugar disaster waiting to happen. Eating a sugar loaded breakfast like this will only set you up for hunger and cravings the rest of the day. And, just may ruin an otherwise great day.
Lunch and Dinner
I have said this before. Most of us know what is healthy on the menu but we still continue to order the crappy stuff. Yes, I do believe in a treat and a cheat meal once or twice a week, but definitely not every night of your vacation. Some people eat and choose items off the menu like they are being sent to starvation camp when they get home. This is not an “all or nothing” deal. You’ve committed to eating healthy for a lifetime. Don’t worry. The food will always be there whether you eat it all at once or space it out over a lifetime.
Ok, back to my point. First, items on the menu that you know are drenched in heavy sauces are an instant No-No. Fettuccine Alfredo? Come on now. Are you serious? Can you get the steak, veggies and salad instead and be just as happy? Or, the Chicken Cacciatore with a side of broccoli rabe? (Yes, we’re at an Italian restaurant). Often times, our taste buds are really just as happy with a healthier choice. No, this is not deprivation. This is choosing to feel good, be healthy and eat good food at the same time. Comprende?
Desserts
I love desserts too and I will definitely get myself a yummy piece of apple pie or chocolaty treat while I am away. But if the piece of dessert is bigger than the size of my head, I will not eat the whole thing. There is no need. My taste buds are just as happy with a few bites (and my body is happier too). Remember, we’re not going to starvation camp after this. Trust me, there is enough apple pie, chocolate or (insert your favorite dessert here) to have a small amount at a time for the rest of your life.
The Trolls
The who? Yes, you know who the trolls are. Those people who tell you to “just eat what you want”, or “don’t torture yourself”. These people always seem to come out of hiding when dining with you at a restaurant. (They are also present at parties and family functions. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid). Don’t let anybody else tell you that taking care of yourself and feeling great is a bad thing. I don’t mean to talk bad about your family and friends, but chances are they are not too thrilled with their current weight and health and really just upset that you actually started to eat healthy and take control of your life.
Remember, there is no need to avoid restaurants and vacations (but please do avoid fast food joints). You just need to focus on the healthier options and have a great time!
Get started on your own Healthy Meal Plans right away. Download this free, eye-opening Weight Loss Report now.
Live Butterfly Garden: Teaching Children About Nature
Apr 25th
Children love to learn, especially if it is through doing. Science is a very important aspect of our life so teaching children science is important. Taking a walk with your child is a very good way to teach them about science and nature. Stop and look at the animals building their homes or the frogs changing from tadpoles to frogs.
Children love interesting things and they love to see new things so the more interesting you make science and nature the more they are going to remember. The live butterfly garden is my favorite way to teach children about nature.
The live butterfly garden is a new experience for children. It is not often they can observe a caterpillar turn into a butterfly.
One of my friends buys her nieces a live butterfly garden every year. The girls love to watch them change from caterpillars to butterflies and then about three days after the butterflies emerge from their cocoon they all get together and make a big production about setting them free.
Her niece’s are not only learning about the nature of butterflies but they are learning a wonderful lesson about letting go of the things they love. Plus they will have the happy memories for a lifetime.
They have live butterfly gardens at my son’s preschool and every day that was the first thing he would show me. He talked about it for weeks.
So what does a live butterfly garden entail?
A live butterfly garden is a kit that comes with a enclosed mesh net and about 6 caterpillar larvae. The larvae have all of the food they will need to grow and turn into butterflies.
What happens in a live butterfly garden?
The larvae turn into Caterpillars and the children can watch as they build their cocoon and emerge into butterflies. The whole process takes two to three weeks so make sure you don’t buy it in the winter because after about three days you’ll need to set the butterflies free so that they can get food.
The butterfly garden offers children a close up of the entire process but it is not the only way to teach your child. Teaching your child about nature should be fun and exciting but it does not have to cost a thing.
About the Author:
Will your child benefit from having a live butterfly garden? Kids are continually learning and a live butterfly garden kit is an excellent way to ensure that they will love and respect the world around them. Click http://www.best-online-deals.netto get the best deal on a live butterfly garden kit.
Heart Healthy Foods
Apr 24th
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Eating Healthy for your Heart Your heart is one of the most important organs in the body, and the foods you put into your mouth effect how your heart operates. If you want your heart to be strong and able to pump blood as well as possible all over your body, it is important for you to eat a healthy diet. Heart-healthy foods are readily available in the supermarket, so choose some that work for your personal likes and you should be able to help prevent heart disease in your own body. |
Cholesterol is the most important thing when it comes to eating heart-healthy foods. There are both good cholesterols and bad cholesterols. Good cholesterols are called HDL, and their job in the body is to take excess bad cholesterol (LDL) to the liver, where it can be broken down and then will leave the body. LDL is actually not needed by your body at all from foods. Our bodies make enough of this kind of cholesterol on its own. It is the LDL cholesterol that hurts our hearts, not the HDL cholesterol, which actually helps our hearts be reducing the amount of LDL cholesterol in the body.
LDL stands for low-density lipoproteins. Because this substance has a low density, it does not flow through the blood stream as readily as it should. The red blood cells easily release the LDL cholesterol and it sticks to the walls of your blood vessels, especially in the arteries leading to your heart. This is bad for a number of reasons.
First, when the LDL cholesterol builds up on your arteries, it reduces the amount of blood that can fit through at a time, since the artery becomes smaller. That means your heart has to pump harder and faster in order to allow the same amount of blood to flow through your body. Over time, this makes your heart tired and not as strong. In the worst-case scenario, the blood vessel becomes so built up with LDL cholesterol that your artery could close completely. When this happens, your heart essentially panics because it is not getting the blood it needs and it starts beating rapidly to try to pump the blood. This causes a heart attack.
You can also have a heart attack from LDL cholesterol build up if a piece of the build-up, called plaque, breaks off and floats down the blood stream. When it reaches a smaller part of the blood vessel, it will get stuck and block the blood, which again causes a heart attack. If the piece of plaque travels to the brain instead of the heart, it will cause a blockage in this area of the body, which in turn causes a stroke. Therefore, it is simply important to cut out of your diet the foods high in cholesterol so that you can prevent heart disease and other problems in the body.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Terry Hopkins is an expert and has been helping people loose weight the healthy and natural way. He is an author for http://Natural Life Choices.com blog. To learn how you can loose weight and get off these fad diets once and for all check out the internet’s #1 source for Diet Solution Programs.
J. Walker’s Healthy Recommendations:
Eat fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, and whole grains daily. Fiber reduces dietary cholesterol amounts the body absorbs. Fiber can help lower the risk of heart attack.
Pay attention to the color of your fruit and veggies. Eat yellow or orange fruits or vegetables and green leafy veggies every day. They are rich in betacarotene.
Love them blackberries, blueberries, cherries, raspberries or strawberries on a regular basis. They contain substances that slow the process of atherosclerosis and really give your cardiovascular system some time to compensate for any blockages in your blood vessels!
Consume omega-3 fatty acids. Flaxseed, fish, and evening primrose oils are really great sources.
Avoid saturated fats, those that are found in butter, lard and other types of solid fats. A quote worth mentioning:
Men who eat 30 grams of saturated fat daily have twice the risk of heart attack as men who eat only 10 grams daily, in women, the risk increases by 50 percent.
Vitamin E does not reduce the risk of having a heart attack, but there are some laboratory studies with animals that suggest Vitamin E helps increase the likelihood of surviving a heart attack. I have also read that Vitamin E also reduces the risk of heart attack in type 2 diabetics.
So for more information on heart healthy food and healthy diets I strongly suggest you visit Diet Solution Programs and I have a surprise free Gift for everyone who visits today! Hurry before they are all gone!
