Natural Health

Archive for the ‘Healthy Life’ Category

Unless you are leading a healthy life in college, you are bound to put on weight. This article is part 2 of the series that provides simple tips on leading a healthy life in college. Healthy Life Tip #4: Join a sports team Even if you have never played any sports till date, it is a good idea to join a sports team. This will not only keep you healthy but will give you an opportunity to meet new people and liven up your social life. Healthy Life Tip #5: Make smart and healthy eating choices . There are many choices we can make when it comes to eating. We can choose the healthier option or the ones that add up calories. Below are simple healthy eating do’s and don’ts: 1.Whenever there is a choice, choose to drink diet soda. Diet soda has considerably less calories than regular soda. 2.Ensure that you eat salad, fruit or vegetables along with your dinner every time. 3.Do not skip your breakfast. Your breakfast can provide you the energy to go around all through the day. 4.Do not eat dessert every time you eat. Skipping it once in a while would ensure that you have less calorie intake while you still get to enjoy eating them on other days. 5.Keep healthy snacks with you at all times. This would mean that whenever you are hungry, you have something healthy to munch instead of picking up junk food that would add up to your calorie intake. 6.Make smart choices especially when eating food late at night. The healthier the option, the better it is. If you ordering pizza, for instance, it is not essential to have all the toppings. Choose the healthy ones.

The Healthy-Life

It’s a fact today that over sixty percent of Americans are overweight.  Millions of these people are on “diets” every week, only to become frustrated because they are not losing the weight.  Losing weight not only helps you look and feel healthier, it also reduces your risk of other weight related illnesses such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease.  However, losing weight is only   a part of the battle, long-term weight management and proper nutritional supplements equals a healthy life.

THIS IS NOT A DIET – IT IS A MORE SATISFYING APPROACH TO A HEALTHY LIFE.

It is estimated that 4 out of 10 people choose to supplement their diet, and for good reason. Industrialised farming, depleted soils, processed foods, environmental toxins, lifestyle factors and the stress of modern living, means that although diet comes first and foremost, health supplements can play a valuable role in helping you to maintain a long term healthy life.Choosing the right products from the supplements on the market can be challenging.Synthetic Supplements simply don’t compare.

Our body is specifically conditioned to protect itself from any danger. This applies no less to nutrition as well. If you drop your calories way below normal levels your body will actually slow your metabolism because it thinks you are starving.

“Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food” .

Low calorie diets can also cause a loss of lean muscle tissue. This happens because your body is trying to protect the fat that you do have on your body. And muscle actually burns calories so naturally it will turn to muscle for fuel.

You don’t need to starve yourself to lose fat successfully.  Remember, a healthy life is more important than losing the weight fast. The weight will come off.

Protein is essential to a healthy life. Protein makes up about 17% of total body weight. Amino acids regulate body functions. Enzymes are needed for digestion and metabolic processes. Protein assists with immunity because it is required for the production of white blood cells.Complete protein sources contain all nine amino acids. These proteins are found in animal foods such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk, and soybeans.

All of this is not enough in today’s fast pace world. We simply cannot get all the nutrition required in our daily routines. Therefore, a supplement is needed to achieve a healthy life.

One of the best nutritional supplements found today to promote a healthy life is;
A perfect marriage between Durian, (the King of fruits), and Mangosteen, (the Queen of Fruits), combined with the Brazilian Acai Berry and Blueberry – four of the worlds most nutrient-rich and potent fruits. Harnessing the nutritional power of xanthones, phytonutrients, minerals and antioxidants, all without preservatives.

“Eat to live… Do not live to eat”.

Concern about one’s body weight and body image is highly widespread nowadays. This is justifiable, because scientific studies have repeatedly pointed out that being overweight or obese is not good for a person’s body and quality of life. The same scientific studies have recommended that a healthy lifestyle, meaning a healthy diet and exercise, can help you burn body fat and keep your weight in the health range.

What does the body do to body fat?

Our body has built-in mechanisms to get rid of excess fat. The simplest one is that it metabolizes body fat for energy. Energy is needed to do our day-to-day activities. When a person is more active, more energy is needed. This is the reason why athletes or people who engage in outdoor sports have less body fat. To burn body fat, the body uses the calories, which is stored in adipose tissue which are most prominently found in the abdomen, hips and thighs.

Why should body fat be minimized?

Extra body fat, in the form of cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL (low-density lipoproteins) is the culprit in many diseases. The most commonly affected system is the cardiovascular one. Atherosclerosis (the narrowing of blood vessels because of fat deposits in the walls of the vessels) and heart attack are diseases which result from the accumulation of extra fat in the body. Having extra body fat also can result in the acquisition of metabolic syndrome and diabetes mellitus Type 2. All of these conditions are very hard to treat. To prevent these diseases, one has to be aware and to take measures in order to maintain a healthy and fit body.

What is your goal when getting rid of body fat?

The goal when getting rid of excess fat should be to achieve a healthy weight. BMI (body mass index) provides a simple way of knowing whether you have healthy weight. Just divide your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared. A healthy weight should give you a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9. If your BMI is beyond this, then get going and start burning those excess fats.

What are the ways to burn body fat?

Body fat is used up when the body needs extra sources of energy. In particular, dieting tries to direct the energy consumption of the body by limiting the intake of food. Because the instant source of energy is minimized, the body resorts to the utilization of long-term energy sources such as body fat. On the other hand, exercising increases the energy requirements of the body. Aside from consuming the instant sources of energy, the body also uses body fat. A combination of diet and exercise can therefore be effective in getting rid of excess body fat.

Growing Herbs in Pots – Your Life, Your New Perspective, Your New Health

Herbs have been an ancient and powerful health partner for humans through the ages, but it is only recently that science has begun to understand the complex health benefits herb garden plants bring to our lives. It is important, perhaps now more than ever, that we return to our roots and regain our knowledge of  nature’s gifts to us. There is no better way than to invite fresh herbs from your home herb garden back indoors. Indoor herb gardens will give you all-year access and be a giant step as you return to a healthy life.

Here’s How to Grow the Healthiest Potted Herb Garden in 4 Easy Steps

There is a vast variety of herbs to choose from when you are deciding to start growing herbs in pots. Each one has many, or sometimes very specific protective health benefits. However, as you start herb garden decisions, I recommend starting with herbs that will immeditely and deliciously improve your diet and the health of the foods you eat. Start with oregano, thyme, basil and cilantro/coriander. All these herbs can receive the same basic care and requirements.

1. Recipe for soil for growing herbs in pots

3 parts garden soil 1 part peat, organic material (compost) or aged manure 1 part sand Blend soil blend well

2. Preparing Pots and Containers for planting herbs

Make sure the bottoms of your pots or containers include holes, as well as a layer of fine gravel or perlite. Good soil drainage is very important for healthy, fast growing herbs.

Use approximately 6 inch pots or containers Fill pots with soil mixture to about ½ inch from the top Water the soil before planting herb seeds

3. Planting – Growing kitchen herbs

The seeds of herbs are very small and fine, so they only require planting very shallow in the soil. Tuck the seeds just under the surface of the soil a few inches apart. (Later, when you have a bunch of seedlings, you can remove and transplant some into other containers to give the plants more space as they grow bigger.)

4. Supply your herb garden with light

Growing herbs in pots indoors, means that deciding where to place your pots becomes an important consideration. Why? Because indoor herb garden plants require lots of light, so be sure to place your pots where they can receive southern or western sun exposure on a countertop or window sill. If this isn’t possible, don’t worry. You can still grow a healthy herb garden indoors. A simple fluorescent light   placed close to the soil is perfect for germinating and getting your herbs started. The new curly style energy efficient bulbs are actually fluorescent lights. Just replace the old bulb from a desk lamp with one of these new bulbs and you have the perfect starter’s grow light.

After your seedlings are larger, the growing herbs may need a slightly more powerful source of light. A small inexpensive grow light will be sufficient to take your indoor herb garden the rest of the way.

My, “something to think about”, thought of the day:

Is your life arranged in strict categories? Aren’t Life’s categories often just barriers to a fuller life?

I’m sure, like me, you don’t want any more barriers between you and a healthy and happy life. Let’s knock down at least one barrier and start a herb garden indoors instead of outside.

Concern about one’s body weight and body image is highly widespread nowadays. This is justifiable, because scientific studies have repeatedly pointed out that being overweight or obese is not good for a person’s body and quality of life. The same scientific studies have recommended that a healthy lifestyle, meaning a healthy diet and exercise, can help you burn body fat and keep your weight in the health range.

What does the body do to body fat?

Our body has built-in mechanisms to get rid of excess fat. The simplest one is that it metabolizes body fat for energy. Energy is needed to do our day-to-day activities. When a person is more active, more energy is needed. This is the reason why athletes or people who engage in outdoor sports have less body fat. To burn body fat, the body uses the calories, which is stored in adipose tissue which are most prominently found in the abdomen, hips and thighs.

Why should body fat be minimized?

Extra body fat, in the form of cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL (low-density lipoproteins) is the culprit in many diseases. The most commonly affected system is the cardiovascular one. Atherosclerosis (the narrowing of blood vessels because of fat deposits in the walls of the vessels) and heart attack are diseases which result from the accumulation of extra fat in the body. Having extra body fat also can result in the acquisition of metabolic syndrome and diabetes mellitus Type 2. All of these conditions are very hard to treat. To prevent these diseases, one has to be aware and to take measures in order to maintain a healthy and fit body.

What is your goal when getting rid of body fat?

The goal when getting rid of excess fat should be to achieve a healthy weight. BMI (body mass index) provides a simple way of knowing whether you have healthy weight. Just divide your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared. A healthy weight should give you a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9. If your BMI is beyond this, then get going and start burning those excess fats.

What are the ways to burn body fat?

Body fat is used up when the body needs extra sources of energy. In particular, dieting tries to direct the energy consumption of the body by limiting the intake of food. Because the instant source of energy is minimized, the body resorts to the utilization of long-term energy sources such as body fat. On the other hand, exercising increases the energy requirements of the body. Aside from consuming the instant sources of energy, the body also uses body fat. A combination of diet and exercise can therefore be effective in getting rid of excess body fat.

Having a healthy life style and making your life to be more meaningful is the best way to think about in getting a healthy lifestyle for you to take on to. Making a difference rather than eating well and exercise do help but also assures a good sense to where it will lead you to a good life which is lived to the fullest. As we go along we’ll give you tips for living a healthy life for you to know and see the difference.

Having a positive thought or outlook on being a motivated to do good things as you go along with age is one way to aim and start doing a healthy lifestyle. Carrying on the good intentions as well as getting the benefit of the good results such as lessons learned and gaining more thoughts to have will help you in achieving the real essence of life.

Getting your moves done in a proper way is also beneficial into achieving a healthy lifestyle. Along with assurance of safety on exercises, as well as preventing injuries that may take effect in executing not only exercises but also those daily tasks. It would be a challenge for your body to get moving and achieving a good sense of coordination that will conserve energy and movement for your body.

As far as diet goes in healthy lifestyle, the need for energy is the primary concern. The second is nourishment where your diet contributes in metabolism as age goes, get the right amount in building defense against diseases and cell repairs for a younger and fresher look inside and out. Taking in natural food supplements will be a big help if in case you’re allergic as well as proper intake of water does more than just quenching your thirst.

These tips for living a healthy lifestyle helps you to get more out of life and more out of what you currently have. The goal is endless but as you go along there are things that you’ll appreciate in every step of the way in having your life lived to the fullest.

I have lived more years then I care to think about but thankfully they have all been healthy years. Now this didn’t happen because I have ‘good genes’ (I don’t) or because I got lucky and beat the odds (no such luck), no this happened because I wanted to be healthy so I worked toward that end.

Now you might ask; who doesn’t want to be healthy? Well my friend all you need to do is sit at the mall for 30 minutes on any given Saturday and observe the people walking by and you’ll get your answer. Evidently very few! Obesity is rampant with all it’s related diseases, hospital emergency visits are skyrocketing and disease ridden people flock to the pharmacy in record numbers to stock up on drugs that do nothing to improve their health.

We as a willing society have been duped into health complacency. What I mean by that is individually and collectively we have a herd mentality believing the TV adds and nightly news and the hoards of so called experts telling us what is and isn’t good for our health. We have relinquished our good common sense and the God given healing attributes of the human body. Instead we dutifully get our shots, vaccinations, prescription drugs and bad advice simply because we are told to. Few of us take the time and effort to educate ourselves concerning health issues. Read the rest of this entry »

It is very important to be healthy and maintain a Healthy Life but it is just as important to be happy in your life. Dieting, exercise, this doesn’t have to be hard. When it becomes a struggle to diet and/or exercise, it’s not fun anymore and your happiness in life may deteriorate.

If you need to diet, take it slow. Seek out a proper diet that you will lose over a period of time. Exercise is great but if you are just starting, again, take it slow. Too much exercise, when you’re not used to it, can be harmful.

We now have greater awareness of our bodies through the sciences, the media, etc. The benefits of a healthy life are obvious to us all. To achieve the healthy life is not done by simply going to your local pharmacy and picking up some drugs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Reversing the Symptoms of Heart Disease for a Long Healthy Life

There are numerous diseases that affect the heart. Among the most common are coronary heart disease, heart failure, congenital heart disease, hypertension, heart valve problems, heart arrhythmias and heart infections. These all fall under the term “heart disease.”

Heart disease occurs for a variety of reasons, including genetics, sedentary lifestyles, smoking, diabetes, clogged arteries and hypertension. Fortunately, there are a number of lifestyle behaviors you can adopt to help you avoid the pitfalls of heart disease. The two most important elements are eating a heart-healthy diet and getting regular exercise.

The cornerstone to a heart-healthy diet is replacing foods high in saturated fats with healthier alternatives such as fruits, vegetables, low-fat milk and dairy products, poultry and fish. Eating healthier alternatives can help to lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol level and raise your HDL (good) cholesterol level. Both are significant in being heart-healthy.

Regular physical activity also helps to keep your good cholesterol higher and your bad cholesterol lower. Even a small amount of daily exercise can make a big difference to your heart.

Smoking is very damaging to the heart, and maintaining a healthy weight and a reasonable level of alcohol consumption are very important as well.

Heart disease may offer no symptoms during the early stages. Often the first symptom is a pain or discomfort in the chest (called angina pectoris), which can be brought on by physical exertion and relieved by rest. Any sort of chest pain calls for medical attention right away.

If you are diagnosed with heart disease, lowering your cholesterol level and adding adequate levels of exercise to your daily routine, combined with medication your doctor will prescribe, can help you live a long and healthy life. The key to success is understanding that your daily activities control the progress of the disease, and therefore making heart-healthy choices is vital.

So, what steps can you take to make it easier to identify and manage heart disease? Keep a journal of any symptom that you may encounter. For instance, when you measure your cholesterol levels, make a note in a journal. Or when you eat certain foods or participate in certain activities, make a note of the results — how do you feel? Then on a regular basis keep track of any changes in these symptoms.

Once a heart-healthy diet, daily exercise regimen, and course of treatment has been prescribed for you, keep another journal in which you describe the results. Have the symptoms improved? Are they worse?

If you are taking medication for your heart, keep a record of what you take and when. Is it helping the symptoms? Are there any side effects? Keep track of when side effects occur and how severe they are. Having this information handy will help your doctor prescribe the treatment that best addresses your overall health.

Setting up journals like the ones described here is easy to do. You can use a paper worksheet, a computer word processing program, or even a spreadsheet program like Excel.

You owe it to yourself to take an active role in managing your own health. Heart disease can be deadly. However with proper management, it can be controlled and in many cases even reversed. You need to use every tool at your disposal to make sure you get the best health care possible.

Reversing the Symptoms of Heart Disease for a Long Healthy Life

There are numerous diseases that affect the heart. Among the most common are coronary heart disease, heart failure, congenital heart disease, hypertension, heart valve problems, heart arrhythmias and heart infections. These all fall under the term “heart disease.”

Heart disease occurs for a variety of reasons, including genetics, sedentary lifestyles, smoking, diabetes, clogged arteries and hypertension. Fortunately, there are a number of lifestyle behaviors you can adopt to help you avoid the pitfalls of heart disease. The two most important elements are eating a heart-healthy diet and getting regular exercise.

The cornerstone to a heart-healthy diet is replacing foods high in saturated fats with healthier alternatives such as fruits, vegetables, low-fat milk and dairy products, poultry and fish. Eating healthier alternatives can help to lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol level and raise your HDL (good) cholesterol level. Both are significant in being heart-healthy.

Regular physical activity also helps to keep your good cholesterol higher and your bad cholesterol lower. Even a small amount of daily exercise can make a big difference to your heart.

Smoking is very damaging to the heart, and maintaining a healthy weight and a reasonable level of alcohol consumption are very important as well.

Heart disease may offer no symptoms during the early stages. Often the first symptom is a pain or discomfort in the chest (called angina pectoris), which can be brought on by physical exertion and relieved by rest. Any sort of chest pain calls for medical attention right away.

If you are diagnosed with heart disease, lowering your cholesterol level and adding adequate levels of exercise to your daily routine, combined with medication your doctor will prescribe, can help you live a long and healthy life. The key to success is understanding that your daily activities control the progress of the disease, and therefore making heart-healthy choices is vital.

So, what steps can you take to make it easier to identify and manage heart disease? Keep a journal of any symptom that you may encounter. For instance, when you measure your cholesterol levels, make a note in a journal. Or when you eat certain foods or participate in certain activities, make a note of the results — how do you feel? Then on a regular basis keep track of any changes in these symptoms.

Once a heart-healthy diet, daily exercise regimen, and course of treatment has been prescribed for you, keep another journal in which you describe the results. Have the symptoms improved? Are they worse?

If you are taking medication for your heart, keep a record of what you take and when. Is it helping the symptoms? Are there any side effects? Keep track of when side effects occur and how severe they are. Having this information handy will help your doctor prescribe the treatment that best addresses your overall health.

Setting up journals like the ones described here is easy to do. You can use a paper worksheet, a computer word processing program, or even a spreadsheet program like Excel.

You owe it to yourself to take an active role in managing your own health. Heart disease can be deadly. However with proper management, it can be controlled and in many cases even reversed. You need to use every tool at your disposal to make sure you get the best health care possible.