Thank You For Visiting Our Blog, FEEL BETTER AND LIVE LONGER!

The purpose of our blog is to share what we have learned about nutrition, weight loss, fitness, and health, in order to help you find ways to feel better and live longer. It is amazing how much our diet and lifestyle affect our health and well-being.

Did you know that you can reduce your risk and even prevent many diseases and health conditions simply by making some changes to your diet? Check back often for valuable tips and information.


HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF:

For the first time in my life I have found weight loss success. During my adult life I have tried dozens and dozens of so-called "diets" and none of them worked over the long-haul. Oh, I was able to lose weight with some of them, but once I went off of the "diet" I quickly gained back all of my weight (plus some).

I have finally learned that losing weight has to be a lifestyle change, not a temporary fix. Crash diets and all the other crazy diets will not only cause you to fail, they are harmful to your health. To lose weight and keep it off you must NOT go on a "diet." What? Why? Because we all consider a "diet" a temporary thing. For example, how many times have you said, "Oh, I will go on this low-fat diet until I lose 20 pounds." Okay, what happens after you lose the 20 pounds? Or you simply give up? You go back to your old habits and gain that 20 pounds back.

The only way you will ever be successful at losing weight, with the added benefit of improving your health, is to make healthy changes that you can live with for the rest of your life. Period. Not for a week, a month or 3 months, but for life. For me, my initial goal was to lower my cholesterol level. I had to have a blood test for my insurance coverage and my cholesterol level had to be lower than the previous year's levels or I would have to pay a much higher premium. Well, that was a pretty good incentive for me make some positive changes.

I sat down and figured out what I needed to do. I knew I had to change the way I ate and I knew I had to exercise in some form or other every day. So, I made a list and I stuck to it. It was difficult at first. To make matters worse, I am a compulsive eater. However, as the days went by, it became much easier because my body stopped craving sweets and processed foods. For the first time in my life, I was never tempted to binge because I never felt deprived.

Use the list below and make whatever changes you need to make in order for it to work for you. FYI, my cholesterol level dropped 65 points after 7 weeks, and my triglycerides dropped 70 points!
Another benefit that I hadn't planned on was that after being an insomniac since my teen-age years, I now sleep like a baby every night!

MY LIST FOR WEIGHT LOSS SUCESS:

1. Avoid "white" Foods & Processed Foods.
These foods have no nutritional value and are "empty" calories. Sweets, anything made with white flour,and anything that comes in a package with a long list of ingredients.
Always read the food labels. Stay away from those long lists of ingredients. The longer the list, the more chemicals and additives are present. These are extremely toxic to your body.


2. Drink Lots of
Water. Water keeps your body's organs hydrated and flushes out unhealthy toxins. It helps to fill you up and reduces your urge to over-eat.


3. Eat a Healthy Breakfast.
Instead of coffee and donuts, try fruit, yogurt, grains like oatmeal or whole grain toast, and lean protein. NEVER skip breakfast. By eating a large, healthy meal when you get up in the morning, your metabolism will "rev up" and you will not be hungry by mid-morning. If you skip breakfast, your
body will go into starvation mode and store calories in your body as FAT, yes FAT! So do yourself a big favor and eat breakfast.


4. Reduce Your Stress Level.
So many of us live with too much
stress. Stress lowers your immune system, making it easier to get sick. It also makes us lethargic, tired, and depressed. There are a lot of simple things you can do and a lot of ways to feel better about yourself and your life. Take a long, hot bath, read a book, listen to music, get a massage. Do something nice for yourself. Giving yourself something to look forward to is a tremendous mental incentive.


5. Move!
Oh my gosh! There are so many ways to incorporate movement into your day, even at work. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Get up every hour and walk around your floor, your hallway or your desk. Park your car in the farthest space from where you need to be. Walk or bike to work. Skate, dance, golf, jump rope, clean house, play tag. The best exercise you can do is to walk. Try to take a walk every day! The more you move, the more your metabolism will be your friend. (I walk 3 miles every day whether it is raining, snowing or freezing.)


Keep Your Memory in Great Shape

A vital part of the brain’s function is to keep our memory in good shape. Every now and then our actions greatly depend on a lot of information we retrieve from our memory bank. Such information can either be short term (such as specific tasks that we have to do) or long term (such as the ability to drive a car or repeat an instruction we read from a book).

While long-term memory may come spontaneously without too much effort when the need arises, short-term memory requires recalling information from the accumulation of things stored in our memory. This is why you need to keep your memory in great shape to achieve efficiency in your daily endeavors.

STAY FOCUSED ON THE SUBJECT even with distractions around you. Keep your attention focused on the needed information to be stored in your memory bank. The more concentrated you are on the information, the better the chances of retaining it in your memory.

UTILIZE THE MOST IDEAL SENSE OR SENSES when gathering the information. Be aware of the color or details of a picture, or the particular sound or smell involved. All of our senses are attuned to collect information depending on the circumstance at hand.

While our sense of vision may be the most used in gathering information, our senses of hearing, smell, taste, and touch are equally important and helpful in remembering things, situations, and information about something or someone.

WRITE DOWN THE INFORMATION if you’re not sure that it will be retained by your brain. This could be proven effective especially in gathering very long and tedious information like lecture notes. Don’t forget that you have a note and don’t misplace the note.

MAINTAIN A BALANCED DIET.
A healthy diet will result in a better conditioned memory. Oily and sweet foods can cloud the memory. Try to gradually cut down your intake of them. Doing it gradually cushions the effect of withdrawal symptoms. This is not only beneficial to the memory, but takes you on your way to a healthy life.

DRINK WATER.
Drinking enough water brings many advantages to your overall health, and memory is not an exception.

DON’T DEPRIVE YOURSELF OF ENOUGH SLEEP. Having enough sleep does not condone laziness, only oversleeping. Never feel guilty for resting or sleeping as long as it is not overdone. You need it to keep you revitalized from the demands of life.

TAKE TIME TO RELAX. Stay away from stress and anxiety. Keep your thoughts organized before acting on them. It may be impossible to completely eliminate stress, but try to reduce it as much as possible. Stress negatively affects memory.

STAY POSITIVE, CREATIVE, AND ENERGETIC. Your memory needs to be within a circle of various things. Things that come in various shapes, sizes, and colors can motivate your creativity. This is a positive way of discovering your surroundings in all its variations and diversities.

AVOID BEING ENCLOSED within the four walls of your room just like you’re a prisoner. The only time to be enclosed is when you have to rest or sleep. Don’t be a couch potato. There’s a very exciting world out there.

CONTINUALLY CHALLENGE YOURSELF.
As we grow old, memory starts to fail. To offset this, continuously exercise your memory through reading and other cognitive activities like solving crossword puzzles. The more you do these, the better memory retention is developed.

Remember, what is healthy for the body is likewise healthy for the memory.

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