Health, Wealth and Wellness: May 2009

Monday, May 25, 2009

Superfoods

Superfoods are nutrient rich foods that contain phytochemicals. Phytochemicals are special chemicals that are known to have disease fighting properties. Superfoods lower cholesterol, reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer and put you in a better mood. Superfoods are readily abundant in your local grocery store or supermarket. Superfoods usually can be eaten in a single serving without adding anything to it. Many superfoods are derived from fruits and vegetables. Although, superfoods are necessary for you diet, eating only superfoods will not provide you with all your essential nutrients. Adding in 3-4 superfoods each day is a great way to help your body and help fight disease.
Here is a list of Superfoods:

Eggs
Tomato Sauce
Dried Plums
Walnuts
Brussel Sprouts
Acai Juice
Apples
Bok Choy
Steel-cut Oats
Salmon
Avocados
Spinach
Canned pumkin
Cauliflower
Scallops
Collard Greens
Olives
Brown Rice
Oysters
Edamame
Strawberries
Lentils
Bran Flakes
Kiwi
Black Beans
Sunflower Seeds
Sardines
Asparagus
Bananas
Broccoli Sprouts
Fat-Free Milk
Baked Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Flaxseed
Greek Yogurt
Dried Tart Cherries
Wheat Germ
Whole-Wheat English Muffins
Tea
Peanut Butter
Blackberries
Mustard Greens
Grapes
Soy Milk
Brazil Nuts
Canola Oil
Blueberries
Oranges
Watercress
Turkey Breast
Barley
Shiitake Mushrooms

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Motivation for weightloss

As someone who has been mildly overweight all their life, I understand the need for motivation when it comes to weight loss. It is so hard to get motivated. Most time we make excuses for not starting today or we are just lazy about actually doing it. Well if you are tired of making excuses and tired of being overweight here are some ways to pump yourself up and finally make that change to start changing your life. Remember change is easy if you are receptive to it.
People use all sorts of things to motivate themselves. If you are ready to start changing your life for real, start by writing out your goals. How much weight do you want to lose? Set your time frame for losing the weight. It is impossible to think that you will lose all your weight in a week or even a month. Quick weigh loss usually leads to putting the pounds back on. Set a goal for how much weight you want to lose each week. For men a good goal is to lose 3-5 lbs per week and for women a good goal is to lose 2-4 lbs a week.
You have always heard the expression you are what you eat. It is true! Everything you put in your mouth adds to your weight. That is why it is important to start your plan with nutrition. Exercise is important but you won't go anywhere just by exercising. You need to change your eating habits too. Start by setting your calories per day. If you normally take in 3000 calories per day set your calories per day to 1500. You will instantly start to notice a change.
Track yourself, write down everything you eat in a day. This will show you where your downfalls are. Think about what you eat before you eat it. How many calories are in this bagel, ice cream, cheeseburger? That is not to say that you can't have that ice cream or piece of cake but make a sacrifice. If you want to have that after dinner dessert make sure you eat properly through out the day so you don't go over calories. Supplement your normal snack foods with fruits and vegetables. The sugar and carbs in fruits and vegetables are more easily digested by the body due to the fact that they are not processed foods with additives. Our bodies are more receptive to these types of foods plus we need the nutrients from them.
Change your eating patterns. If you normally eat 3 large meals a day, break it up into 5-6 small snacks a day. This will boost your metabolism to continually work through out the day. The rule is to eat something every 2-3 hours. Plus you need to continually replenish your water throughout the day. The human body is made up of 60-70% water. Water is required for most of your body's functioning. So instead of drinking that soda, drink an 8 oz glass of water. You won't waste your calories on a soda, plus you won't get that sugar rush and your body will thank you by making you feel better.
Once you start to notice a difference in your body and you feel better, you will be more motivated to continue. Now you can start to add in your exercise. Exercise is a stress on the body but it is a good stress. It works the muscles, releases endorphins to the brain, and burns fat/calories. If you have a busy lifestyle you will need to make time. Set up a schedule and make sure you stick to it. Even if it is walking for a 1/2 each day or doing 10 situps and 10 push ups in the morning when you wake up.
One thing to remember when you are making changes to your eating habits. Always make sure you are supplementing your vitamins and minerals. A lot of our vitamins can be made in the body and usually the rest comes from our food. However, taking a good multivitamin or super food will ensure that your body is continuing to receive all its nutrients even if you don't take in enough through your food. The other requirement is to make sure that you are getting enough omega fatty acids. This will ensure proper cell reparation and cell growth.
If you have concerns about weight lose or want more information on natural weight loss contact your local nutritionist.
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Friday, May 22, 2009

Boost Your Energy

Do you feel like your energy is drained in the early afternoons? Usually about 3pm everyday I can feel my energy is low. To avoid this lull in your day snack on dried fruit, almonds, and cheddar and monterey jack cheese. These healthy foods boost brain power and will get you through the rest of your day. Just make sure you don't over do it. 1/4 cup of dried mix fruit, 1/4 cup of almonds or 1 1/2 oz of cheese is all you need.

Boost Your Immune System

During the winter months (even if you don't live in the colder regions) everyone's immune system becomes depleted and leaves people more susceptible to catch a cold or the flu. No one likes to be sick. So to boost your immune system get moderate exercise and plenty of restful sleep, at least 8 hours a night. Moderate exercise, ex. walking, for 45 minutes a day, 5 days a week can cut your odds of getting a cold by a third. Not to mention the positive effect it can have on your health. Getting enough sleep works in the same manner by allowing the body to restore and repair damaged cells. Plus it allows the mind to reboot and work more effectively.

Boost Your Mood

Everyone has those days where they are just completely stressed out. Right? Who doesn't have those days? Well to boost your mood grab a cup of low fat yogurt or some peanuts. Peanuts have magnesium which regulates cortisol a stress hormone. Magnesium also works with calcium to regulate muscle contraction and relaxation. Yogurt has calcium which helps symptoms of irritability. Both help increase brain function and change your mood for the better.

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Article: The Budget – The Ultimate Financial Management Tool

The Budget – The Ultimate Financial Management Tool
A carpenter uses a set of house plans to build a house. If he didn’t the bathroom might get overlooked altogether.
Rocket Scientists would never begin construction on a new booster rocket without a detailed set of design specifications. Yet most of us go blindly out into the world without an inkling of an idea about finances and without any plan at all.
Not very smart of us, is it?
A money plan is called a budget and it is crucial to get us to our desired financial goals.
Without a plan we will drift without direction and end up marooned on a distant financial reef.
If you have a spouse or a significant other, you should make this budget together. Sit down and figure out what your joint financial goals are…long term and short term.
Then plan your route to get to those goals. Every journey begins with one step and the first step to attaining your goals is to make a realistic budget that both of you can live with.
A budget should never be a financial starvation diet. That won’t work for the long haul. Make reasonable allocations for food, clothing, shelter, utilities and insurance and set aside a reasonable amount for entertainment and the occasional luxury item. Savings should always come first before any spending.
Even a small amount saved will help you reach your long term and short term financial goals. You can find many budget forms on the internet. Just use any search engine you choose and type in “free budget forms”.
You’ll get lots of hits. Print one out and work on it with your spouse or significant other. Both of you will need to be happy with the final result and feel like it’s something you can stick to.

Saving Your Home's Energy

Do you dread looking at your electric or gas bill every month seeing numbers that are larger and larger each time you see it? Do you wish there was something you could do about this dreaded monthly bill? Well, there is and it is easy to remedy. You just have to check your home to make sure that it is the most energy and cost efficient that it can possibly be.
It might be shocking to you that most people do not even know that because of lack of efficiency they are loosing 25 % or more of the energy used in their home.
Did you know that there are some common every day things that you can do to save energy and money around your home. Doing it yourself can save you both time and money that you might invest in someone else’s promises to save you money. I don’t know about you, but I trust myself more than someone else’s empty promise any day. All it takes is a few calculations, some common sense and you can be on the road to savings and increasing your home’s use of energy.
Some of these steps include:
1. Calculating your energy cost. Do you know how much fuel your home is taking to run and how much that cost you? You need to know this before you can determine if you can lower those costs.2. What will it cost you to save. What things must you put into practice in order to save on your energy monthly? This is where you have to determine the balance. 3. Determine your largest needs. Some practices will save you far greater in the future than others. You must first determine your area of largest need and go from there. 4. Developing new habits. Many of us have habits that cost us energy every day. We must realize those bad habits and begin putting new habits in place in order to save energy, time and money.
These are only a few of the ways that you can begin to save money on your energy bill and have a more cost efficient home. There are many more ways to save and you will love how easy those savings come to you.

Adopting The Frugal Living Lifestyle

Having trouble making ends meet? Have more month left than money? Many people struggle with this issue. One of the best ways to save money and truly stretch your dollars all the way to the end of the month is to live a more frugal lifestyle.
Yes, frugality is key. Being frugal with one’s life does not mean that you will live a life, doing without and hoarded away. Frugal living is actually very freeing. Frugal living frees up your finances to work harder and smarter for you so that you in turn do not have to work so hard to actually bring in an income.
In a time where 40% of Americans live beyond their means, meaning they spend more monthly than they make, finding ways to save and learning to be more frugal sounds like a winning idea. There are a few key concepts that one must adopt in order to begin living a more frugal lifestyle.
Smarter money management. A person must begin to not only spend less money, but also manage the money they have in a smarter way. This can take some time and discipline but will truly pay off in the end. Spending less. A person must also learn how to spend less than they make. This can be a difficult process for some who have spent more than their paycheck for a long time, however if they adopt some frugal living ideas they can be doing this in no time.Saving. With the money that they save through not spending as much, they can begin to put away money into savings; another key to frugal living that will help a person to get ahead. Continuing the process. Continuing to spend more and save less is key.
Adopting some key concepts to frugal living can truly change the way you live your life, and the way that your money works for you. Become different from the norm and begin a smarter, more frugal lifestyle today.

Article for Time Management: Scheduling for Sanity

Scheduling For Sanity
Having a schedule is a fundamental part of time management. You can imagine your schedule as a road-map. It provides important information about where you are going and how you can get there.
Without it, you may take a wrong turn somewhere and find yourself lost. Once someone is lost, it may take some time before they get back on track, and they usually arrive to their destination a bit later than they would have liked.
When you have a schedule, you can look at it and see what you need to do each day. You’ll know if you are on track, and if you aren’t, what you need to do to get back on course.
How To Make a Schedule One of the first things to do when making a schedule is to write down all the things you have to do on a piece of paper. Some people keep separate work and family schedules, and if you decide that would work best for you, you can divvy those tasks up later. For now, simply write out everything that needs to be done on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis.
Once you have everything written out and in front of you, it’s time to start sorting between the common themes. You can do this by assigning a highlighter color to each theme (such as family, work, daily, monthly, weekly) or by taking out another piece of paper and writing those columns on it, and rewriting all the tasks into the appropriate column.
Now that you have all of your tasks sorted out, try to give a time estimate to each one. You may even want to time yourself for a week or two on these tasks, as you may be very surprised at how long some things take.
For instance, you may think it only takes 45 minutes to go to the grocery store, but in reality it could take an hour and 15 minutes. You may think it only takes 15 minutes to run up to the school and pick up the kids, but may find it actually takes 25 minutes.
In many cases, people underestimate the time it takes to do things, and this is one of the reasons they think they aren’t getting enough done. By timing yourself, you will get a visual picture of your time. When you see how long it really takes to accomplish your regular tasks, you will be able to see how many things you can fit into a normal day. You won’t constantly be trying to push yourself to do more.
Once you have written down your tasks and estimated the time it takes to accomplish them, you can start planning your schedule. Some people like to have a daily schedule that is very organized with certain tasks assigned to certain times and others prefer to keep a weekly schedule that is more flexible.

The Reasons Why Becoming Organized Is So Important

The Reasons Why Becoming Organized Is So Important
As you know, being “organized” is a very popular topic. There are even whole stores, such as The Container Store and Hold Everything, which are devoted to the idea of becoming organized. It seems that everyone is always trying to find a way to become more organized.
Many people mistakenly believe that being organized requires too much effort. Sometimes people think that the only people who can actually become organized are uptight. That is not true! If you have ever wondered what the fuss about being organized is, here are some reasons as to why this is such a popular topic:
Being organized reduces stress. When someone is disorganized, they often feel a lot of stress, anxiety, and generally overwhelmed. They may not be able to locate missing items, they may find their selves constantly running late or forgetting things, and they may be prone to missing work deadlines.
When someone is organized they will be able to find what they are looking for, will be less likely to forget things, and will find that will be more likely to arrive for meetings on time and turn work in before the due date. An organized person will feel more confident because of those things and their stress levels will go down.
As we mentioned before, many people feel that organized people are uptight. Being organized can actually help you to relax. Instead of worrying about things you didn’t have time to do or couldn’t find, an organized person can actually sit back at the end of the day and know that they achieved the things that needed to be done.
Another great reason to get organized is that being organized increases your productivity, and therefore, can increase your bank account. When you are organized, you will be able to get more work done. Depending on the type of job you have, the more work that gets done can generally lead to bigger paychecks and a bigger bank account.
Being organized can help you create a sense of calm and peace in all aspects of your life. Once you have organized one area of your life, you will start to notice that things seem to run more smoothly in all areas of your life.
For Step by Step directions on getting your home organized,