A Healthy Post

The first wealth is health.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Smart guy that Ralph. I seem to quote him a lot.

I'm perusing through my latest Natural Health magazine and you know what I like to do when I read interesting stuff. I get on blogspot and talk about it.

I didn't drink enough water yesterday. In fact, I didn't drink ANY water yesterday. Shame shame on me. I drank part of a fountain soda, ate crap and also had a caramel latte with soy... at least I had soy. Oh, and a beer. By 8:00 I had a headache. I'm actually surprised I didn't have one earlier but the coffee probably helped with that. .. When I was in college I did a 'research' project on drinking water. It wasn't the most scientific study ever done by a student but it was interesting. It was about how you feel when you drink water, and if you tried to drink more water throughout the day did you end up wanting more and feeling better about yourself for the accomplishement. I believe that this is true. I can't remember when my findings were though. I know that when I drink water I don't get headaches and I also feel better. That's reason enough for me.

Here's an interesting product, since we're talking about water... Vapur foldable reusable water bottles. How friggin' cool is that!? Only $10 a pop. Fold them up in your purse after drinking all your water. Easy to carry around. However, don't fill it with bottled water. Bottled water is usually just tap water and can still be distributed even if it doesn't even meet the municipal tapwater standards!!! and only 1 in 5 plastic water bottles are recycled.

Moving on...

The Natural Health magazine sometimes prints little facts here and there throughout... I'm not sure sometimes where they get their information for some of their little blurbs but here's an interesting one... physical and social warmth are interchangeable to some degree... so you could take a bath or drink a hot drink or sip soup to dispel feelings of isolation and exclusion. Interesting!

Winter is close at hand and you know that that means... vitamin D deficiency! So pop those D3 pills and eat your shitake mushrooms. And read about the 10 foods highest in Vitamin D!

Ok I'm gonna be annoying and talk about vegetarians and cancer. I know, I know. There is a lot of controversy about cancer; a lot of studies that people say don't prove anything. Regardless, I believe that eating less meat, more veggies and getting more exercise will decrease our risk of developing cancer. Sure, healthy people get cancer too... that's not the point. I don't understand why people put so much effort into disagreeing and disproving studies when you could just try to be more healthy. Where's the harm in that?

And no, drinking a V8 Fusion does NOT count as eating your veggies. Do you know how much sugar is in that? Just eat some darn broccoli for goodness sakes!

"A cheerful heart is good medicine." Proverbs 17:22

Well people, I hope I wasn't too incredibly annoying with my health post. I can do better and so can you. Let's make this world a healthier place. And feed your kids some spinach for dinner.

Healthnut - getting there

So I'm kindof a health nut. I haven't always followed it properly like I know I should. But I know what I should be doing and when I try I do a pretty good job. Lately I've noticed a lot of non-healthy behaviors. Specifically at my job. People are fed hamburger helper and when they are fed something healthy they turn up their nose at it in favor of a PB&J on white bread. ugh. I'm confused. Has it always been like this?

I seem to remember the "hot lunches" at school being pretty grotesque. I always brought a lunch from home. Sure, sometimes I wanted to eat the mac&cheese or the gooey pizza but it was more of a pride thing with me. "Look at me, I don't wear Nikes or eat Hot Lunch"! Now though, I do think it's something to be proud of. I see people downing multiple Mountain Dews in one afternoon on a daily basis and it's rather sad when you really think about it. We're so overworked that we think we need this stuff. When in reality all it takes is a bit of healthy eating and exercise on a regular basis to get your body back to a baseline where you can function properly without all that crap in your system. But it's hard work to start it, it really is. That's why it's good to have people around you who support your choices and make good choices themselves.

If you want to start, start small. Cut out the sodas every day. Maybe have one every other day until you're down to once a week or so. Soda's aren't the devil, but they can be if you drink them every day.

* Drink WATER! Your body needs it and will thank you for it. Start in the morning

* Eat wheat bread instead of white. Check the ingredients. If it says "enriched whole wheat flour" DON'T buy it. Not if it says enriched. Only get "whole wheat flour" or a variation of that. Enriched basically means dyed white flour.

* Eat breakfast. Even if it's just a banana.

* Try replacing the sugar in your coffee with honey. Try it, you might like it.

* Go for a walk, then increase it bit by bit. Start jogging or biking, take a class.... Anything to get your body moving. It will increase endorphins which will make you happier and in turn make you more productive. It gets oxygen to your brain and clears your head; always a good thing, especially these days.

* Eat less meat. I'm not saying cut it out completely, but just try to make a few meals each week that don't include meat. And eat more fish if you're gonna eat a meat.

Those are my basic starters. Just work on those things for a month and see how you feel about yourself.
After that keep going with bigger changes. Try going a whole week without meat, start expandinng your vegetable vocabulary, try some new grains (I love buckwheat and oats cooked together for breakfast & japanese soba noodles). Start exercising more and try doing something different, set a goal. Try black tea for breakfast with honey and cream instead of coffee for 2 days out of the week... Just keep going. Pretty soon you won't miss those things that you thought you needed every day.

Believe me, it is doable. Baby steps. And don't beat yourself up.

If there was one thing I would say to do first is exercise. Just going for a walk clears your head and gets you thinking. So grab a friend and take a stroll. You'll be surprised how much better you feel just after doing that.

Good luck!