The Centenarian

Needless to say, stress sucks and so does getting hurt. But like a cut stress needs to be taken care or it can metaphorically get infected and become worse. Bottling up stress is like having ticking time bomb inside of you. So consider getting it out of you before you randomly start causing causing harm to innocent people around you (that was a exaggeration, I hope).

Read Some Fiction
If I’m seriously worked up, upset or stressed, one of the best things I can do is to grab a book. Fiction seems to help stress better because it kind of takes you away from real life. I you can forget everything that’s troubling you, for just ten minutes, it will help.

Meditate or Pray
Often, the best thing we can do to instantly stop stress is to focus on something else. I highly recommend meditation, the purpose of mediation in it’s simplest form is to focus on one thing for a allotted amount of time. I like to use a candle with as much silence as I can make happen. There is deeper theories that meditation is a form rem sleep entrance like hypnosis that basically resets your mind so you can have fresh thoughts again. I also recommend to pray – if this suits your religious/spiritual persuasions, it can be a very powerful way to get outside of your own head and call on a higher power for some much-needed help!

Watch A Funny Movie From Your Childhood
I don’t know about everyone, but I can’t stay stressed out when I’m laughing.Nothing makes me laugh more then a movie I cherish from childhood. Time Bandits, Weird Science, or Karate Kid always makes me feel better.

Make A Herbal Tea
If you’re feeling stressed, caffeine probably isn’t going to help. A warm, soothing mug of herbal tea might, though. The act of making yourself a drink can be calming: it gets you away from your desk, and it gives you a chance to concentrate on something physical. You’ll probably also feel a psychological boost from doing something positive and nurturing for yourself.

Punch A Pillow
Depending on where you are when you’re feeling stressed, and on your personality, throwing a few punches at a pillow might help. Think of the stress leaving you through your fist with every punch.

Take Slow, Deep Breaths
When we get stressed, we tend to breath more quickly, taking shallow breaths. Concentrate on your breathing (you can do this in conjunction with meditation or prayer). Imagine breathing from your stomach, not your chest. Take slow, deep, fulfilling breaths.

Listen To Chill Music
I recommend Coldplay, Beetles, Billy Joel, Thievery Corporation. The idea here is to have music that you know relaxes you. I actually have a CD called “chill CD” that I play when  I need to unwind.

Work Out Or Jog
Getting lost in a work out is easy and you will always feel to some extent better after working out.

Hang  Out  With An Animal
There is no question that animals lifts are spirits and they also teach us so much about life. Like getting outside should be one of the best parts of your day. And it’s o.k. to show how excited you are physically.

Aroma Therapy
Scents can go along way for relaxing which in turn helps to stop stress. So no matter how cool or tough you are next time you have tough day heat of some lavender or hazelnut oil.

Do Yoga
Yoga is said to connect your soul and body well I wouldn’t know what that was if it did happen. But without a doubt you will feel better and your body will thank for the stretching and muscle work outs. If you are not sure how to do Yoga check out a Youtube video and follow along in full screen mode. -Namaste

Filed under: Stress on August 11th, 2009 | No Comments »

Mid-afternoon munchies playing havoc with your waistline? Midnight snack sabotaging your diet? Don’t let a snack-attack ruin your summer plans to shape-up with five clever hole-fillers under 100 calories that will banish those hunger pangs and that muffin top.
By Suzanne Elliott

Hummous and Carrot

Hummous has a rather unjustified reputation as a fatty food. Yes, it is can be calorific – if you eat a whole tub. But two tablespoons is just 70 calories. Scoop it up with one carrot, chopped into sticks (30 calories) and you’ve got a filling, nutritional snack. Hummous is packed full of protein courtesy of the chickpeas, along with plenty of fibre and a generous helping of skin-friendly fats by way of the tahini (sesame seed paste). Carrots haven’t escaped the dieters wrath either, with claims they’re full of carbs and sugar. And while carrots do indeed contain carbohydrates and naturally occuring sugars, they don’t actually make you fat. Instead, they’ll provide you with buckets of vitamin A and heart-protecting anti-oxidants. The old wives tale isn’t that far off the mark either, the beta-carotene in them helps protect vision, especially night vision.

Apple with Peanut Butter

As fantastic as fruit is for you, its naturally occuring sugars can still spark those insulin spikes that leave you feeling lack lustre and hungry again within the hour. Combing your mid-afternoon apple (47 calories) with ½ tablespoon of protein rich peanut butter (50 calories) helps slow down this sugar release, so stablising energy levels. Plus it’s rich, creaminess is oh-so–satisfying, so you won’t be gagging for your next snack half an hour later. Apples are an excellent source of fibre, and contain potentially cancer-combating nutrients and flavonoids that can improve the health of your lungs. Peanut butter meanwhile might be calorie dense, but as it also protein-packed and contains good, healthy fats that provide your skin with everything it needs to stay glowing and youthful. And it’s so much cheaper than Crème de la Mer!

Edamame Beans and Green Beans

Fancy a savoury snack but the only thing at hand is a bag of crisps? Stop that salt craving in its track with a bit of pre-planning. Boil 170g green beans and add 57g shelled edamame beans (98 calories.) Sprinkle with lemon juice and add a teeniest bit of salt for taste; simple and far better for your than a bag of crisps! Edamame beans, Posh’s snack of choice, are baby soybeans that pack a mean nutritional punch. These magic beans are an amazing source of protein, fibre and iron and also contain heart-friendly Omega-3. Green beans aren’t slackers in the nutritional department either, containing an abundance of vitamins C and K (essential for healthy blood) and bone-strenthening manganese. The lemon adds taste and an extra dose of vitamin C plus there’s evidence to suggest that citric fruit could spark up your metabolism and fat burning power.

Cheese Triangle and An Oatcake

Want to feed your cheese addiction but worried about the calories? Go old school with a cheese triangle (50 calories) that not only tastes as smooth and buttery as you remember, but gives you a decent calcium hit. Eat with a fibre packed oatcake for an energy boosting snack. Oatcakes (35 calories) are a super low GI food which means they’ll slowly drip feed your body with energy, so staving off hunger pangs and keeping your blood sugar levels nicely topped up over the afternoon.

Two Squares of Dark Chocolate

You’ll need to rev up your willpower for this snack, but if you think you can stick to just two delicious squares of chocolate (100 calories) then this makes a fab mid-afternoon treat. And you can banish any guilty thoughts: rich, dark chocolate has bucketloads of goodness hidden within. Like the best medicine you’ve ever tasted, chocolate is good for your heart and contains nearly eight times as many antioxdants as strawberries so it’ll mop up those free radicals that can damage the heart and speed up the aging process. Dark chocolate also keeps your heart and circulation ticking overly nicely, contains mood-boosting serotonin and endorphins and could lower cholesterol. Now you have plenty of excuses to indulge!

Filed under: Body, Food on May 29th, 2009 | No Comments »

Foot soak: Soothe aches, remove odors and soften rough skin with a foot soak. Add 1/2 cup of epsom salt to a large pan of warm water. Soak feet for as long as it feels right. Rinse and dry.

All you need to do is soak your tired feet in a solution of 3 tablespoons of baking Soda in a basin of warm water. Not only will your feet feel refreshed , your feet will smell fresher and your skin will feel soft and clean.

Eucalyptus, Lime, Lemongrass, Spearmint,

1/2 cup epsom salts
5 drops peppermint extract
3 drops tea tree oil
3 drops lavender

–

Home Lemon Foot Mask

Ingredients:
1 tbsp vodka
1 egg
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 drop lemon essential oil

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend well.
Pour the mixture into a large bowl. Soak your feet in the mixture for
about 15 minutes.
Massage the Mask into your feet if you’d like.
Rinse with plenty of warm water.

Filed under: Body on May 28th, 2009 | No Comments »

You may already know that vitamin D can help build strong teeth and bones, but wait until you hear what else it can do for the rest of your body. D can keep you trim, boost your mood, ward off sniffles, drastically cut your risk of cancer, and more.

“We could prevent 150,000 cases of cancer annually if we could just increase vitamin D to optimal levels,” says Cedric Garland, a doctor of public health, a leading vitamin D researcher, and a professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California, San Diego.

That’s great news, right? Yes, except for one huge problem: A startling report found that more than a third of all women fail to get enough D for healthy bones—and more than 75% of us lack the higher amounts needed for the vitamin to do its disease-fighting best.

Downing a daily glass of milk is a smart way to get more D. But the most significant source is sunlight, and that’s where the trouble lies. Our bodies produce D with exposure to ultraviolet radiation, but as we’ve gotten smarter about dodging skin cancer—staying out of the sun and slathering ourselves with mega-SPF sunblock—our vitamin D levels have plummeted. Fortunately, there are smart and safe ways to boost your intake while you enjoy all the benefits that vitamin D can deliver.

Lower your risk of cancer
Vitamin D may substantially cut the risk of breast, colon, prostate, and ovarian cancers, according to a growing body of research. In fact, Dr. Garland found that women with D blood levels that were more than double the current national average of 25 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) had a 50% lower risk of breast cancer than those with the lowest blood levels. Scientists believe that D helps regulate genes in a way that protects healthy cells and stops the growth of cancerous ones.

There are receptors for vitamin D in virtually all of the body’s cells, and to “feed” them you need an adequate blood level of the vitamin. That depends not only on how much time you spend outside and what you eat but also on where you live. People living at higher latitudes, for example, soak up fewer UVB rays from November through March, which means they’re more likely to have low blood levels of vitamin D and a higher risk of cancer. In fact, studies have shown twice as many colon cancer deaths and 50% more breast cancer deaths in the far North compared with the sunnier South, Dr. Garland says. So how much sun is enough (link) to lower the risk of cancer without upping your risk of skin damage?

Fight off winter weight gain
Cold weather may seem a long way off right now, but more indoor time and fewer hours of sunlight can lead to a decrease in D production for many women. Researchers think that may explain why some women bulk
up a bit when the temps fall: Low levels of D can cause a dip in leptin, a hormone that regulates appetite. When this happens, your brain may not send the signal that you’re full and should stop eating. Overweight women are especially at risk because excess fat can absorb vitamin D, making it unavailable to the body.

Safeguard your healthy heart
Vitamin D is thought to help lower blood pressure and regulate hormones that affect blood vessels and the muscles of the heart. Studies suggest that people with the highest D levels may have up to a 50% lower risk of heart disease. And researchers from Harvard Medical School reported a 62% increased risk of heart attacks or strokes among adults with the lowest blood levels of vitamin D, compared with those who have the highest levels of D. “We’ve also noticed that deaths from cardiovascular events are highest in the winter months, when vitamin D is generally at its lowest,” Dr. Garland says.

Say good-bye to seasonal blues
Low vitamin D levels may be linked to yet another winter bummer: seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression that is more common in northern states. Researchers believe that vitamin D helps keep the brain flush with the “happy hormone,” serotonin, which plays a critical role in regulating mood.

The nutrient also seems to offer a lifetime of brain-health benefits, from aiding development in infants to keeping adults sharp in their later years. “Vitamin D receptors in the brain seem to turn on several genes that are important for normal neurological function,” says Bruce Hollis, PhD, a vitamin D researcher and professor of molecular biology at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Boost your defenses against colds and flu
Research shows that colds and the flu are worst when vitamin D levels decline, and they tend to hit hardest in countries at higher latitudes, where D levels tend to be lowest. So should we pitch out the C and hail the “sunshine vitamin” as the cure for the common cold? Experts aren’t making that claim just yet, but there’s compelling evidence that keeping your D level high may slash your chances of picking up the bug that’s going around the office. In one study, women who took 800 IU of vitamin D daily were three times less likely to develop colds or the flu—and those who popped 2,000 IU reported even fewer symptoms. Small wonder some scientists have started calling D the “antibiotic vitamin.”

Prevent autoimmune disorders
Vitamin D seems to interact in a protective way with genes that raise the risk for diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), a debilitating nerve illness that strikes mostly young women. In one Harvard University study, researchers found a 40% lower risk of MS in women who took a daily supplement of at least 400 IU of vitamin D. In fact, some studies suggest that vitamin D may help prevent many other autoimmune disorders—including rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, and Crohn’s disease. Even in healthy women, low levels of vitamin D may lead to increased inflammation, a negative response of the immune system.

Build stronger bones
The work that D does with calcium to keep bones healthy may be old news, but it’s no less important, especially for women. Osteoporosis and fractures due to bone weakness strike up to half of all females, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, and loading up on calcium-rich foods may not help much if you’re D-deficient. The nutrient helps your body absorb calcium and phosphorus, minerals that enhance bone strength. A supplement can help: A recent study found that, regardless of their calcium intake, women who added 482 to 770 IU of vitamn D slashed their risk of fractures by up to 20%.

Filed under: Body, Vitamins on May 28th, 2009 | No Comments »

Waking up with a Health drink will not just make your body healtheir like a work out in the morning will, it will make you feel better and more awake! Just make sure and try to shop for local organic veggies when you can.

Here is my list of three simple blender ready drinks to start the day with.

Need energy for the whole day? Check out the Power House (Packed with Iron)

1. 3 carrots
2. 1 bunch wheat grass
3. 1 bunch spinach
4. 1 apple
5. stalk of celery
6. 1/2 green bell pepper
7. 1 small tomato cut into wedges

Get some Potassium Boost

1. 2 carrots
2. 1 bunch of parsley
3. 1 bunch of spinach
4. 1 stalk of celery

HEALTH x6

1. 1 medium tomato
2. 2 carrots
3. 1 celery stalk
4. 2 radishes
5. 1/2 green pepper
6. 1/2 cucumber
7. Add a little sea salt and dash of Tabasco

NOTE ( Leave the skins on, they pack as much health then the veggies themselves. )

Filed under: Body, Food on May 21st, 2009 | No Comments »