My Healthy Pledge

I thought this was appropriate as our 90 Day Journey ends...

Vita-Nutrients for Optimal Health

Vita-nutrients for Optimal Health

Let's evaluate how vita-nutrients can offer you maximum protection and augment your body's ability to function. If you are on 5 & 1, your Medifast meal replacements cover these bases for you, but like we learned in our previous discussions on Habits of Healthy Eating, learning these concepts now is essential for your long term success.

THE MODERN SCOURGE OF NUTRITIONAL DEPLETION

Pesticides, preservatives, depleted soils, and processed foods all contribute to a diet that's nutritionally inadequate. That's why in order to harvest the great health benefits of proper nutrients, we really need to supplement our diet. 

Today, we are going to briefly discuss the vital nutrients that should be a part of your diet. This is a complex topic, and you might find it beneficial to refer to chapter 20 of Dr. A’s Habits of Health to get all of the details.

ANTIOXIDANTS

Antioxidants play a central role in health optimization by shielding us from the attacks of dangerous free radicals that can damage our cells. Antioxidants can come from a variety of sources, like red wine, deep green and brightly colored vegetables, as well as green tea and certain spices.

FISH OILS

The omega-3 oils in fish provide numerous health benefits, like boosting heart health, decreasing sudden death, lowering blood pressure, decreasing cancer risk, and decreasing immune activation and autoimmune disease.

VITAMINS

Vitamins are certain organic compounds that we need in tiny amounts as nutrients but can't synthesize in sufficient quantities by ourselves and therefore must obtain through our diet. Vitamins serve a number of functions, acting as hormones, antioxidants, growth regulators for tissue and cells, and precursors for enzymes involved in metabolism.

MINERALS

Minerals originate in the earth and can't be made by living organisms. Most of the minerals in our diet come directly from plants or indirectly from animal sources. Minerals support health in a variety of ways, from bone health to facilitating weight loss to heart health to healthy cell function.

Hopefully this very brief overview has shown you just how important vita-nutrients can be.

De-Stress and Practice Healthy Breathing

De-Stress and Practice Healthy Breathing

Stress is often a byproduct of a busy, dedicated lifestyle. It's a part of life for all of us in today's world. Left unchecked, stress can contribute to inflammation.

We need to work on decreasing our stress levels. To start, here are nine tips for de-stressing your life:

1. De-stress your job. Most on-the-job stress is a result of poor communication, so work with your colleagues and supervisor to improve your job satisfaction. Ask your supervisor about your performance, how you fit, what you can do better, and what chances there are for promotion. This concrete information will help you to fight feelings of under appreciation and unfulfillment. 
2. Exercise. Inactivity can directly raise your inflammatory state, while sufficient exercise is probably the single most effective way to lower it while also decreasing stress.
3. Get out and about. One of the best ways to decrease stress is to spend time with people we enjoy. If you are in a pinch, call upon your support network and schedule an activity together.
4. Go natural. Get in touch with your 10,000-year-old design. Take a walk on the beach and feel the waves on your ankles, rent a cabin in the country, or hike in the pristine air of a high-alpine region. Leave behind the madness of our high-tech world.
5. Treat your body. Try a light massage, deep structural therapy, or even acupressure to reduce stress and to lower inflammation.
6. Laugh. Laughter has been shown to reduce stress and lower unhealthy hormone levels. Watch a funny movie or tell jokes with your friends and family.
7. Focus on the Positive. It's too easy to slip into a negative self-image. Turn your internal dialogue into a running commentary on all the reasons you have to be grateful.
8. Stop, challenge, and choose. You remember this tactic from the earlier in this program, right?
9. Breathe deeply. You can't live without breathing, and it is one of the most powerful tools for reducing stress. Try the below exercise.

Optimal Breathing Exercise

Stand quietly with one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen. Take some slow, deep breaths, paying attention to the movement of your hands. If the hand on your chest is most active and your chest is moving upward, you are a chest breather. Instead, try to focus on abdominal breathing, which is associated with a relaxed state. Prolong your exhalation, so that your exhale lasts twice as long as your inhale, a 1:2 ratio.

In your journal, write down the sources of stress in your life and plan out how you are going to work to reduce the anxiety that they cause. This is important. Your health depends on it.

Take Action

Bottoms Up!

Bottoms Up!

How are you doing with your water consumption?  Do you know there is a direct correlation between what you eat and what you drink?  It's true!

The more water you drink, the fuller you feel.  But that's not all.  You FEEL better and you THINK more clearly, and those two things lend themselves to making better, healthier choices throughout the day.  

So, set a goal for yourself today!  Challenge: Can you drink a gallon of water?  Not that you HAVE to, but if you challenge yourself to do it, you'll drink FAR more water and be FAR more successful and mindful of your water consumption than if you didn't challenge yourself at all.

Make drinking water an event!  I recently threw a party and had my pretty drink dispenser out on my counter.  Instead of putting it away, I filled it with water.  Every time I fill my cup, it feels like a party!  I even put some ice and some orange circles in my water.  It makes me feel special.  

Don't forget all of the benefits of drinking your water!  Bottoms up!

DYOH Book Study: Epilogue

*A special thank you to Kathleen Bell for doing this book study and allowing us to benefit from it! 

Discovering Your Optimal Health Virtual Book Club - Epilogue: Taking Back Your Health

 Eliminating stress from your life/Organizing your life around what matters most

  v The things that matter to us can be categorized as

o   Extrinsic – material things

§  Wealth

§  Fame

§  Attractiveness

o   Intrinsic – internal aspirations

§  Autonomy

§  Growth

§  Relevance

What things are most important to you?

Are they intrinsically or extrinsically motivated?

Self-assessment

Occupation

·      Are you satisfied with your current position?

·      If not, are you in control of the ability to change it?

·      Is your position stressful?

Family

·      How would you rate your relationship with your family?

·      Are you spending enough time with your family?

·      Are you setting aside time with your family?

·      Are you attending your children’s events?

·      Are you involved in your children’s interests?

Use this assessment to determine what most matters to you.

Stress Reducers

·         Cultivate your spiritual life

·         Enjoy the arts

·         Meditation

·         Hobbies

·         Outdoor activities

·         Laugh

·         Spend time with friends

Health isn’t something that you create with one technique or skill.  It’s a lifelong process of thinking, momentum, and actions.  Today is the day to start!

5 Signs You'll Reach Your Goal

5 Signs You'll Reach Your Goal

Where to you have room to improve? How can I help you achieve your goals? What are you celebrating today?  I’m here for you!

If you monitor your weight loss progress, you probably look to your bathroom scale for feedback. Or perhaps you gauge pounds lost by how your clothes feel. While these visible indicators show you’re releasing weight, they don’t reveal the whole story. As any yo-yo dieter knows, these progress markers can come and go. Some other signs of success, however, aren’t so obvious, but once you achieve them they’re with you forever. A missing element in many weight loss approaches is developing your inner strength. You’ll reach your weight loss goal more easily when you erase negativity and doubt from your mind. Here are five signs that prove you’ve done so.

1. You Have Patience
Many people feel discouraged when they hit a plateau or the pounds don’t come off fast enough. They then give up too quickly. Permanent weight loss takes time. When you feel defeated re-evaluate your nutrition and exercise plan, and have patience. The longer it takes to release weight, the more time you have to change old ways of thinking that contributed to gaining weight in the first place. Patience helps you do that. You not only lose weight responsibly, you become a more confident person in the process.

2. You Persevere Through Set-backs
As you develop new lifestyle habits, you may falter sometimes. We all do. It doesn’t matter that you slip; what matters is what you do about it. Use set-backs as a valuable opportunity to strengthen your strong side. For example, if you missed exercising for several weeks, tell yourself with no judgment, “Tomorrow is a new day to keep moving forward.” Each time you persevere, you develop confidence. You weaken that taunting inner voice that says, “See, you can’t do this.” Perseverance responds, “Yes, I can”.

3. You Accept Your Body
Accepting your body doesn’t mean you tolerate being overweight. It means you honor your body as it is, while helping it become the best it can be. If it’s a big leap right now to “love” or even “like” your body, that’s OK. What’s important is to respect it. That means speaking to your body with kind words. It means giving it nutritious foods and movement so it thrives. You’ll reach your weight loss goals when you stop rebelling against your body. As you accept your body as the treasured gift it is, taking good care of it becomes your only option.

4. You Focus on Your Goal
Focus on where you’re headed instead of obsessing about where you are. You can’t move forward if your mind dwells on self-critical thoughts about being overweight. What we focus our attention on grows. Shift negative attention away from your current weight and concentrate on the positive lifestyle changes you’re making. This inspires you to succeed. When your desire to look forward overshadows the tendency to complain about where you are, you’ll reach your goal more easily.

5. You Make Yourself a Priority
To achieve weight loss success, your well-being must be of prime importance. This means setting boundaries. For example, if you plan to exercise after work and your friend asks to go shopping, what do you do? Do you skip exercise or do you skip shopping? If breaking promises to yourself becomes a pattern, you’re either not committed to your goals or you make other people’s needs more important than your own. When you make yourself a priority, however, you’ll not only reach your weight loss goal, your success will last forever.

~Diane Petrella, MSW