Thoughtful Thursday
I acknowledge my self-worth and my right to be happy.
Tag Archive for: feel good
Transformation Tuesday
I start the day with positivity.
Transformation Tuesday
I admire the strength that I didn’t know I had.
Thoughtful Thursday
I accept myself fully.
Transformation Tuesday
I choose to see positivity in all areas of my life.
How to be Gluten-free while on a Tight Budget
Going on a gluten-free diet is an extreme lifestyle change. It is by no means easy. You will not be able to consume the foods that you love. Any food that contains gluten or traces of it is out of the question.
Many gluten sensitive people suffer withdrawal symptoms and many quit the gluten-free diet because of the sacrifices that are required. They’d rather put up with the discomforts of gluten intolerance than give up their comfort foods. This should never be the case because in the long run, the toll on their health and well-being will be heavy.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, you realize that most gluten-free products that are sold are much more expensive than the normal products. This is due to the extra processing time required to remove the gluten. Of course, there is also the issue of economies of scale.
The gluten-free food market is much smaller than the market for normal food. So, everything gluten-free is produced at a higher cost which needs to be borne by those who are already suffering from gluten tolerance. Life is not fair indeed. Yet, we must roll with the blows and make the best of a bad situation.
There are several ways you can cut your costs when living a gluten-free lifestyle. This article will offer you a few tips. You can discover more ways as you go along.
First and foremost, a gluten-free diet should only be adopted by those who are gluten sensitive or gluten intolerant. It is not a trend or “healthy” choice. The gluten-free diet is not like the Atkins, paleo or Mediterranean diet. It is not healthier. It’s a solution to a health problem. If your body can handle gluten, you really need not be forking out money for gluten-free foods.
Since there are a wide variety of symptoms associated with gluten sensitivity, it would be best to go to a doctor and get a blood test done to confirm that you’re gluten sensitive. Just because you’re feeling bloated and lethargic for a few days in a row, it doesn’t mean you’re gluten sensitive.
You need to get a positive confirmation before committing to the gluten-free lifestyle. You doctor is the best person to consult.
If you are indeed gluten intolerant and you’re the only one in your family who is, don’t automatically assume that everyone in the family needs to go on a gluten-free diet. Of course, you will need to segregate your food and utensils but that’s about as far as you should go.
Making everyone in your family go on a gluten-free diet will skyrocket the food budget and not to mention, cause unnecessary hassle and irritation to the rest.
There are many foods that are gluten-free. In fact, the best and healthiest foods are gluten-free. Dairy, meat, eggs, poultry, seafood, vegetables, fruits, rice, quinoa, etc. are all foods that have no gluten. If you adopt the Mediterranean diet and keep it gluten-free, you will have tasty food at a decent budget. It doesn’t get better than that.
Another thing you can do is make your own premade gluten-free products. There are many premade gluten-free baking mixes sold in the market. Most are relatively costly. You could buy the ingredients separately and make your own mix at a fraction of the price. It will be cheaper and most probably, healthier.
Buying in bulk will also cut your costs. Contact the supplier and cut out the middleman. Find out if any of your neighbors or friends are on a gluten-free diet. A few people ordering the same items at the same time could definitely get a good price from the suppliers.
These are just some of the ways you can keep your costs low. The fact of the matter is that most gluten-free products are unnecessary if you learnt how to eat and season your food naturally.
Pick up tips on paleo cooking and Mediterranean style cooking. Using natural ingredients to flavor mouth-watering dishes. Once you know what to do, you may be able to spend even less than a normal person would on food. It’s all a matter of being well-informed and making wise decisions.
Muscle vs. Fat and Your Energy Level
Right now, the greatest results in raising our metabolism come from exercise and building our muscle mass, while reducing our body fat. Adding more muscle to the body, in turn causes us to burn more calories, and this helps to elevate our metabolic rate.
What determines our metabolic rate, as far as our genetics? Generally, we tend to inherit the same tendencies for metabolic rates, body frames, and other related body functions from our parents.
All of this metabolic process is related to our calorie intake, our vitamin and nutrition needs, our thyroid and endocrine production, and how well all of these processes come together.
The body’s metabolism is a unique process for each individual person. No two people metabolize food at the same rate therefore no two people have the metabolism. We all use our calories at different rates, with different results. Our metabolism, like our fingerprints is unique to each of us. But the need to understand and accommodate this metabolism is an issue that we all face. I said all of that, to say this, our metabolism affects our energy levels, and our muscle mass and body fat also affect our energy levels. When you bring the two together, you have the opportunity to create lots of energy, raise a person’s self-esteem, and give them a new lease on life. But all of this isn’t easy to attain.
Some people have really high rates of metabolism. In other words, when they consume food, their bodies burn it up almost as fast as then consume it. Then there are those of use who use our food intake so slowly, as to not even notice that we’re burning calories. These people who burn quickly are often slim and trim, the people who burn more slowly are the people with a tendency toward obesity. The people with really high metabolic rates are generally the people who feel better and have the most energy. Their body is using the food intake to its maximum, and the body feels alive and full of vitality. The sluggish metabolism on the other hand, can have almost the opposite situation; low energy levels, with very little motivation to make lifestyle changes.
The only recourse we have in trying to control our body weight, metabolic burn and health is through our thorough understanding of the role food plays in our calorie consumption versus our calorie need, and control how much of the calories we take in.
Our metabolism functions also depend on how well we have taken care of our nutritional needs. The process of burning calories and creating energy is a delicate one, and one which must be carefully tended, or it can become imbalanced. It is often through these natural imbalances that we tend to “inherit’ our metabolic rate, our body weight, and the lower energy levels.
I believe through careful analysis, and attention to each person’s unique needs, we could bring about a more natural balance of the metabolic burn vs. the calorie intake. To a level where optimal health and weight control are in equilibrium.
How Much Food is Enough?
As you study the food pyramid published by the USDA, we can examine some of the better foods, and try to decide what particular formulas make us the healthiest on average. The average person needs an hour of physical exercise, six to eleven servings of grains, two to four servings of fruit, three to five servings of vegetables, two to three servings of meat, two to three servings of milk, and enough water to make it all work.
The foods of the food pyramid are necessary for our optimal health. But in what quantities and which ones are the best? These are questions that must be tailored to our individual needs. And the answers will benefit our unique needs. Healthy for me, is not the same as healthy for you. Everyone’s nutritional needs are different, and everyone’s level of calorie consumption is different.
The guidelines found on the general chart of the pyramid are as listed above, and this could be the formula for an eighty year old man, or a fifteen year old girl. The recommended daily calorie intake is just as vague and generalized as the daily food intake pyramid. Can you see how this might not work for either one? When a guideline published is this general, it is up to the individual to determine what food regimen will keep them at their healthiest, provide the caloric intake necessary, but not excessive.
According to the guides published by the USDA, calorie needs vary from one age group to another, one gender to another. So how do you determine what your individual needs are? You can setup a journal for recording your daily caloric intake for about a month. Make a note of your weight each day. If you don’t gain any weight during the course of that month, you’re eating your recommended calorie level in order to maintain your weight. Now, take that calorie information, use the food pyramid and comprise a combination of foods that will help you achieve this recommended daily intake, and still be enough to be filling and please the palette. You now have an individualized healthy eating plan.
Once the importance of a particular food plan is understood by us, it is a simple as learning our multiplication tables. We simply memorize the food requirements, and incorporate it into our daily intake as needed. As you take the time to incorporate a healthy food plan, don’t’ forget the necessity of exercise in our daily lives. In order to keep our bodies healthy and functioning as expected, we need to keep it fit. This comes through proper amounts of exercise
It is at this point in the process that we seem to lack the direction to finish what the government started. Maybe we need to incorporate these techniques into a class taught at school. Maybe this would give our young people the direction and tools they need in order to begin such a process, make it a lifetime habit, and pass it along to their children. Whatever the formula, your food intake and level of calorie content, will affect your general overall health everyday. Overeating can bring on obesity, under eating can bring about anemia; you need to find that one right guide for you, and plan, plan, plan.
3 Principles For Overcoming Fitness Obstacles
If you’re like me, the quest to be in shape and manage weight feels overwhelming. And, as if the quest to be fit isn’t hard enough, there’s often other obstacles to overcome: health issues, time management, mustering up courage or energy. Even if you’ve been exercising for a long time, there’s always new barriers to be broken. So, how to put all of this into perspective?
According to Tom Turner, executive liaison for the Spina Bifida Association that’s exactly it: Perspective. And also, according to him, there’s no mountain too high to climb. Tom would know. Paralyzed from the waist down since birth he’s now 35 and trains about three times a week. In fact, he tells me, he just couldn’t get along without exercise.
So in my quest for the last word on overcoming barriers in fitness, Tom sat down with me and together we came up with 3 basic principles that will help break-down fears and intimidation when striving to reach fitness goals. (After all, if he can exercise on a regular basis, shouldn’t that be encouragement enough for anyone to give it a shot?)
Principle #1 Move Into The Fear.
“Train you mind to believe no mountain is too high or any goal is too difficult to attain,” Tom tells me. Basically, it’s all about meeting your fears and facing them head-on. In this principle, aim to recognize your fears, acknowledge them and then move through them. Ask yourself what is it that makes you uncomfortable? Have you let yourself get out of shape and are afraid you’ll never get back? Do you have an injury that’s caused you to be afraid of your body? If you can visualize creatively, then you can put your fears in check. See your self as you’d like to be. Remember: your body loves you and has the potential to heal itself to perfection. Your only job is to trust it and listen.
Q: What is your body saying to you?
Principle #2 Trust Your Intuition.
It is important when overcoming obstacles and learning to break through barriers that you begin to listen to the still small voice of your body. In most cases, we all want the comfort of having someone telling us what we can and cannot do. However, our highest truth lies within us. This is not to say that the good opinion of others is not important, but ultimately the decision making comes from within.
When facing a challenge or an obstacle look to how you feel. What are your instincts telling you? Often it is simply your instinct that will move you into a new mindset and raise your consciousness. “I wasn’t about to let the wheelchair stand in my way,” Tom tells me. In fact, he says he had to merely change his perspective about it. He says he first had to learn about what his restrictions were then, create a boundary for himself. “We all have boundaries,” he tells me. “Regardless if a person can walk or not, obstacles are as unique as people themselves. Therefore, it’s first best to know your boundaries.”
Next, Tom tells me he aims to meet those boundaries. “I first reach as high as I can within the confines of what I am able to do. Whether it be more sets, reps or greater endurance, I allow myself as much time as necessary to accomplish my small goals. It always surprises me, with small steps, how quickly I can reach a Big goal.”
Principle #3 Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.
What then, about fear? I wanted to know. If we move into the fear and meet it eye to eye what if fear meets us there? “So,” I asked Tom: “are you ever afraid? “After 19 operations in my life, I’ve really come to terms with fear,” he says. “It really comes down to our most primal fear; fear of death. Once you realize that death is all part of the divine plan, it’s liberating, you can let it go and, instead, choose how to live. So instead of being afraid of death I decided to choose how to live.”
So what’s the take away message? Talking to Tom, I’m reminded of the poem by Dylan Thomas who said: “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.” It seems appropriate here. The bottom line: Staying afraid often keeps us from truly living. Tom reminds me that a positive attitude is key, “Life is all about attitude.” He also says he could let fear beat him down, yet he doesn’t. “I wouldn’t want to miss being part of tomorrow,” he concludes. That said, what fears are getting in your way? Make today the right time to face them.
In conclusion: Life Beyond The Boundaries.
When you’ve faced your fears and pushed your boundaries to the edges, what then? I wanted to know. Tom smiles. “Find a new mountain to climb,” he says matter-of-factly. “It’s what makes life fun. I know I have considerations. I know that there will be days that I’ll need to stay in bed and rest while my braces are getting tuned up. It’s those times when I am with my thoughts that I decide what I am going to set my sights on.”
Author’s Note: In my personal quest to live beyond the boundaries I’ve chosen Tom as my role model (lucky for me, he’s my brother). We so often look to the media for these sources and so often they are illusory. There are “real” people everywhere doing great things…look around you; angels are everywhere! Learn from them. Choose someone you look up to, admire or of whom you appreciate their values. Set goals, climb mountains! Set intention in motion and enjoy the healthy process.
Easy Health and Fitness Tips
The US has seen an enormous increase in the number of people considered obese by the medical community. In fact many call it an obesity epidemic. To combat this we find all sorts of pharmaceutical companies selling the “quick fix” health pills, powders, and lotions that do nothing to actually help people take the fat off and keep it off.
Of course the same could be said of the diet industry as well. There are so many different diets going around now you could pick one a month and in a years time still have more to choose from.
What is truely needed are some sensible proven weight loss tips that people can implement no matter what their present physical condition is. That said let’s dive right in.
#1 Drink more water. All too often Americans are borderline dehydrated and so their bodies are working on the water starvation reflex and not flushing the toxins and junk out.
#2 Eat more often. I bet you thought I was going to say eat less. While it is true that to lose weight you need to eat less calories than you expend…you need to eat more often to get the metabolic furnace stoked up and burning right. Get it out of starvation mode. So start the day off with breakfast. Even an instant breakfast drink and a piece of fruit as we head out the door in the morning.
#3 Move more. Depending on your physical condition you need to be moving more. Use the stairs rather than the elevator, park farther out from the office or the store, go for a walk around the block, go dancing, play with your kids. Make it fun. Running is not the only way to burn more calories.
#4 Finally, determine your “Why”. Decide why you want to discard fat. Make your reason big enough to motivate you through the slumps that invariably happen.
