Sleep Issues?

Here are a few simple solutions for having less sleep related problems the following day:

• Insomnia? Try some natural techniques... For example, did you know that cherries were really high in melatonin? Melatonin is the same hormone created by your body to regulate sleep patterns. Also, try taking a hot bath... that alone will relax you, however if you could put a little "lavender scented" bubble bath in the tub, you'll get some bonus points, as lavender is known to relax you. Also, try sleeping with a lavender scented eye mask, or even a pillow with a lavender scent to it (you can even buy lavender scented "linen sprays") I actually make my own sleep masks and put some flax seed and lavender in them, which definitely does the trick!
• Stop the snoring! Try this, stick a tennis ball in a "sewn-in" pocket in the middle of your back. You will then avoid sleeping on your back due to the discomfort, and will wind up on your side, which will stop the noise!
• Stiff neck? Try "contrast hydrotherapy" in the shower. Blast hot water on your neck for 20 seconds, then alternate to cold for 10 seconds. Do this 3 times, and when you get out of the shower, your body will send the blood back to your skin, resulting in a dilation of blood vessels (and a looser neck!)
• Puffy eyes? Try black tea! It has tannins in it which help "deflate & tighten" those bags under your eyes. Heat up the tea bag (like you're making tea) to activate the tannins, then stick it in the fridge to cool . Then, stick the bags on your eyes for 10 mins. and voila! you've gotten rid of your puffy eyes!
• Morning breath? Here's a long lasting solution- Try gargling with acidic lemon juice to kill the bacteria in your mouth, then eat some plain yogurt (a probiotic) which replaces the reeking bacteria and neutralizes your mouth. This lil trick should freshen your breath for about 12-24 hours!

Nutrition Quiz

Here's a little "nutrition quiz" to give yourself... Is that "health food" you're eating really healthy for you? Just because it's advertised as healthy, definitely doesn't mean it is. Here are some examples:

• Energy Bars: Before you eat them, flip over the label and check out the calorie/sugar count in that bar. Odds are they have just as many calories (if not) than a Snickers bar, so you might as well hit up the candy aisle! 
• Salads: Don't get me wrong, I love salads and they CAN be really healthy for you, but you just really have to get it right w/r/t the ingredients and the dressing. In many instances, if you're getting a salad with a lot of cheese, nuts, bacon, avocado, etc... and then dumping over it a high fat/high sugar salad dressing, you'd actually be better off going to Mickey D's for a Cheeseburger! Check out this stat from MSN: Panera's Fuji Apple Chicken Salad (580 cal, 30g of fat) VS. McDonalds Double Cheeseburger (440 cal, 23g of fat) YIKES!
• Granola: Just flip over the label on boxes of granola and see for yourself. Granola is very high in sugar, fat and calories. Even if it's "low fat," odds are they hiked up the sugar count. 
• Fruit Juice: This fools a lot of people, even if you think you're drinking "all natural/organic, etc..." Fruit juice is still just as bad as drinking pop, it's essentially "water and sugar." Check out this article from the CBS website:  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/11/health/main673229.shtml
• Yogurt: Again, look at the label. There are some yogurts that actually are good for you, but even if they say they're "low fat," odds are, there is a ton of sugar in the jams or the flavoring.  The best thing to do would be to get a low fat plain yogurt and mix in fresh fruit (or whatever other "items" you like in your yogurt)

Anything in moderation is ok, but odds are, if you're thinking you're "eating healthy" by consuming certain foods, odds are that you aren't treating them as a "fun little treat that you can eat once in a while," you're making them a daily habit. 

Example? How many of you are thinking you're being really healthy by eating flavored yogurt with granola and a big tall glass of fruit juice for breakfast, and then saving that energy bar as a mid-day snack before you head to Panera for that salad? Yeah... that's what I thought ;)

Hungover?

Here's a couple "natural" hangover cures!

• For the nausea, try a technique stemming from acupuncture. Take 2-3 fingers to the underside of your wrist just below the top crease. Just below where the fingers end, use pressure on both arms, and the nausea should disappear within 10-30 seconds. You can also buy products to do this for you, called nausea bands. This is the one that I use: http://www.sea-band.com/UK/uk_seaband.htm
• Also, for the nausea, try ginger root! You can try it in a variety of forms, including tea, gum, or even frozen ginger ice chips!
• For the headache, try magnesium (200-400 mg). It eases that painful throb. Also helpful to start taking it the night before as tends to work better if you use it to prevent hangovers.
• Also, to prevent a hangover, (before you go to bed) try taking a B-50 Complex. Alcohol depletes the B vitamins that your body needs to break down alcohol. So by taking the vitamins, it will help with the metabolism process. 

Want to Lose Weight? Try Moving to Alaska!

This might sound somewhat backwards, but a recent study just came out about a fat that you actually want in your body, called Brown Fat. 

Brown fat is present in infants (in their shoulder area), to help keep them warm, and was thought to disappear as you get older, until recently. Researchers have found that if you expose adults to a colder temperature, the brown fat kicks in and converts energy into heat. When in effect, it supposedly has a metabolism there that is 15 times faster than regular "white fat tissue." 

They've also noticed that leaner people have more brown fat than heavier individuals. I don't want to go into much more detail as I'm bound to either confuse you, or mess up the facts, so check out this article from the Discovery Channel: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/09/brown-fat-obesity.html

Pretty interesting stuff! 

Calories

Here are a few great online resources to find out more about how many calories you're really consuming and burning each day:

• Calculator for Daily Caloric Needs:

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

• Calories Burned Calculator: 

http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc

• Nutrition Info, Recipes, Calorie Counter:
  

http://www.calorieking.com/

• Fast Food Calories: 
  

http://www.chowbaby.com/fastfood/fast_food_calories.asp

• Calorie Counter: 
  

http://caloriecount.about.com/

Healthy Food Gone Bad?

If you're like me, you have great intentions on eating your fruits and veggies, but you just don't get around to it as fast as you should, and end up losing $ by throwing them out! 

So, here are a couple of nifty tricks to keep fresh veggies and fruits for a longer period of time: 

• Make sure your fridge is at a steady temp of 34 degrees
• Keep ripe apples away from fruit as its lets off a "ripening stimulant" called ethylene
• Stick a dry sponge in the fruit/veggie drawer to soak up excess moisture
• Peel & cut fruit, if you can, and roll in lemon juice OR 1qt. water with 1tbsp salt OR 2 crushed vitamin C pills... whatever is most convenient for you
• All else fails, you can try out those green produce bags (https://www.greenbags.com/) They're pretty affordable and appear to be pretty effective! 

Workout Not Working Out?

Try doing intervals. Burns more fat  & cals than running/walking/doing the same mundane thing, again and again. (If you run, do five minutes at a jog, and 3-5 minutes at a "brisk" run or sprint. Walking? Try a couple minutes of jogging here and there, or even incline your treadmill for a few minutes. Proof? Check out this article out from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/fashion/03Fitness.html?_r=1

Don't Chow... Especially Not Late Night!

This is, honest to God, the best advice I can give anyone who wants to either lose or maintain their weight. I don't care whether it is the healthiest meal in the world... if you polish off 4 plain chicken breasts and 3 heads of broccoli in one sitting, you are probably gonna gain weight. You are expanding your stomach and expanding what your stomach is going to expect everytime you sit down to eat. Seriously, 6 small meals a day. That's the easiest way to do it! This doesn't mean you only eat snack food all day, it just means if you get a salad (or any restaurant meal) or, if you make dinner, take some home with you or save some leftovers, and have the rest for one of your "small meals!" 

I am honestly eating (grazing) ALL DAY (especially when I'm home... bored...) I can't not! But its not like every hour I sit down to a thanksgiving dinner! I'm pretty health-conscious, so I'll have some bites of a salad or some of last night's dinner, or half a whole wheat pita and hummus... One thing I always have with me is nuts! They are really filling, satisfying, and healthy for you! But honestly, even if your gonna go get Taco Bell, have the kiddie size nachos, or one small soft taco. Don't be like my husband and get 5 different items off the menu! (Sorry Matt)

If you really want to chow? Do it for breakfast or lunch if you can manage... At least that way you'll burn off more cals before you go to bed. That leads into my other suggestion... Stop eating & drinking 2 or 3 hours before you go to bed. It's not brain science why that works, but as a side note, think about what you DO crave before you go to bed, odds are its got some sugar in it.This is because the more tired you are, the more you crave carbs. Eating sugary crap and then going to bed is the worst thing you could honestly do. (In my opinion...)  :)

Stevia

In my prior post, I mentioned the importance of regulating your body's Ph level. One change that I've permanently made is to try to avoid eating sugary foods or using artificial sweeteners (which to someone like me, who tries to avoid eating too much bad sugar, is hard to do) So I discovered that there is one "sweetener" that is actually good for your body in an alkaline sense (because it is an actual herb) and its called Stevia. It is like 100 times sweeter than sugar, so you don't need that much, and it actually doesn't leave behind a bad aftertaste like other artificial sweeteners. You can find it at pretty much any mainstream grocery store, and I'd highly recommend... Here's more info in case you were curious: http://www.stevia.com/

Maintaining a healthy Ph Balance

Remember when you were in high school science class, you probably at one time or another learned about the Ph scale? The scale goes from 0-14... Anything under 7 is acidic, and over 7 is alkaline? Well, now I'm learning how important it is to try and balance your body's Ph level. Supposedly the more acidic your body is (acidosis), the more it creates an environment that breeds mold, bacteria, and fungus.  This is a main cause of many diseases/illnesses, digestive problems, etc... My personal experience? For a good few months, I made a very concerted effort to eat a LOT of alkaline foods, because it is supposed to both help with fertility (and even more, research suggests that the more alkaline your body, the better the odds of having a boy) So I bought some Ph testing strips to see how well I was doing, and I was still at like a 6! (Ideal ratio is 7.3-7.4) So, you can imagine where most of us are normally at!

There is a lot of research on this topic all over the web so I'd encourage you to check it out.

Here is a site that I think describes Ph pretty well: http://www.phionbalance.com/Discover.aspx, and here is a site with a fairly extensive list of what foods leave an acidic vs. alkaline "ash" behind in your body: http://www.rense.com/1.mpicons/acidalka.htm. 

Fatten your brain!

Don't underestimate the power of PBS! I've seen some great shows showcasing some of my favorite authors (Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, etc..) that have been very informative. One particular show that stood out was with Daniel Amen and it had to do with his book "Change Your Brain, Change your Life." Amen has found a strong correlation between many neurological diseases (Such as ADD, Dementia, OCD, even violence) and the brain scans of people that had those diseases (more "holey brain" vs. the brain scans of more mentally stable individuals (more filled in/fattened brain). Very interesting!! I would highly recommend you check out the next airing and tivo!! I'd also visit his site (http://www.amenclinics.com/clinics/) and get his book. A ton of great information that I could definitely not fit into this little blog :) 

A couple things you can do today, however, that can instantly "Fatten your brain" or in other words, give it a little "boost" is to make sure you are taking an Omega-3 Fatty Acid supplement. I take fish oil every day! Also, try to do something that challenges you mentally, like a sudoku puzzle or a crossword puzzle. One site that I love for crosswords is: www.bestcrosswords.com. (I always do the casual interactive one.)