Monthly Archives: July 2023

Achieving good health with good diet and well being should be considered a journey of life.

Anything that influences the body both from within and from out should be addressed. These factors are key pillars of our life. They are – our rest, our diet, our physical fitness, our mental health and our attitude with which we interact with other.

Look for likeminded groups, either online or in person to connect with, seek support from health care professionals if you need help in a specific area. 

Like any other relationship, our relationship with our body and food requires compassion, trust and love. One should work every day to not only nourish our body but to be kind to it, respect it and to be grateful for all that it can do because it the only one.

Weight loss or getting fit is not about diet or program; it is about eating healthy and getting fit. Our attitude to finding health needs to be far more of a cocktail approach, rather than a single shot. There is no magic bullet, or one solution. We need to tick every box within the complex organism that is our body.

The key to making good health a journey is to enjoy the process. Rather forcing yourself to a gym or through the latest exclusion diet make changes to your lifestyle. This can be done by breaking your old habits and making new ones.

Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of color, variety and freshness. This makes it easier to make healthy choices. Also focus on finding food you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually your diet will become healthier and more delicious.

Start slow and make change to your eating habits over time. Every change you make to improve your diet matters.

Healthy eating begins with learning how to eat smart. It is not what you eat but how you eat. It supplies the body with the most important nutrients.

Healthy eating doesn’t mean eating especially chosen foods or avoiding some foods. By this a person deprives his body of important nutrients. Eat food which includes proteins, carbohydrates, fats, dairy, minerals, fiber and vitamins. Limit sugar, fats and salt but not eating it all is not a good idea. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables as they are source of vitamins and minerals. Never skip breakfast as this is the meal which gives us energy for the whole day. We should include healthy fats such as nuts, avocado for keeping fit. 

Always incorporate tips to shave 100 calories from diet:

• Remove skin from chicken,
• Use skim milk instead whole milk,
• Use mustard instead of mayo,
• Include nuts, beans, seeds in that is put protein in perspective
• Limit sugar and salt,
• Eat healthy carbohydrates or whole grains,
• Color your plate with fruits and vegetables,
• Add soups and salads to your diet.

When eating out, choose an appetizer instead of an entrée. Split a dish with your friend or order off the kids menu. A home use smaller plates. Serving meat, fish, or poultry should be size of a deck of cards. Bread should be size of CD and oil should be used one teaspoon only for cooking.

Practice mindful eating to counteract stress hormone cortisol. The body achieves what mind believes. Always focus on change and you will get results. Losing weight is a process and not an event. It is not a temporary fix, it is a lifestyle change. The fact is that fitness is an imperfect long distance event that requires patience and great mental discipline. Trying to make diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on new eating plan. So it is recommended to start with small changes, so that you can continue and it becomes your habit to more healthy choices of your diet.

Along with diet also focus on exercise. Think about the moderate activities you can do when you are working like walking, vacuuming, gardening, or anything that can increase breathing or heart rate.  Also include vigorous activities like running, aerobics, zumba to have a good circulation. 

Some tips to stay fit include:

• Have a mini walk and exercises,
• Do your work yourself, 
• Use stairs and avoid lift,
• Always make room for your favorite activities.

Another important factor includes sleep cycle. Sleep well and respect your natural circadian rhythms. Artificial lights interrupts these rhythms, so avoid screens an hour before your bedtime or use glasses with orange filters and ensure you get lot of light when you wake up in the morning.

Avoid Stress to lead a healthy lifestyle. Manage your overall stress levels and stay connected with others.

Healthy lifestyle habits can also help you reverse your stress response, enabling you to avoid or even reverse the negative effects of chronic stress. There will be failures when you start a healthy journey program but keep yourself motivated and also keep strong willpower. All I can say is good health is not a destination, it is journey for life.

Over the years, people have tried some crazy (and dangerous) things in the name of weight loss. Cotton ball diet are just one of the latest.

In the cotton ball diet, those in search of a smaller waistline eat cotton balls soaked in juice to curb their appetite and dramatically cut their daily calorie intake. But eating cotton balls isn’t just unappetizing. It’s potentially deadly.

Eating cotton balls — or any non-food item — in an effort to lose weight isn’t a diet. It’s disordered eating. And like eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, and bingeing, the cotton ball diet comes with serious potential health risks.

Eating disorders typically stem from body dissatisfaction. Nearly half of people treated for eating disorders are also living with mood disorders such as depression, 

So how are models sustaining an energy level if they’re simply eating cotton balls dipped in orange juice? 

My best guess is that they’re sustaining on caffeine and/or other supplements, but I can’t imagine they can sustain very long. Your blood pressure is so low and out of whack when you’re not eating, so they probably eat a few cotton balls and the orange juice spikes their energy, and then they’ll crash. They can’t be eating more than 500-800 calories a day on a diet like this.

What are some of the possible side effects from a cotton ball diet?

Well, there’s got to be malnutrition going on, and it’s likely that if they keep a diet like this up, their bodies will go into starvation mode, meaning their metabolism will slow down and their body will process any fat and protein available, which leads to becoming dangerously skinny.

Plus, because cotton is not meant to be digested, it could be harmful to their oesophagus and intestinal tract. There’s likely to be constipation, which they might be combating with laxatives. I would absolutely not recommend cotton ball diet to anyone.

Research indicates that just one day of Healthy Sleeping and Good Nutrition eating foods low in fiber but high in unhealthy saturated fat and sugar can result in reduced duration of slow-wave sleep, often referred to as “deep sleep,” which is the stage of sleep that restores physical and mental energy plus much more.

Healthy Sleeping and Good Nutrition: leads to healthy sleeping.

A diet low in fiber and high in saturated fats could take a toll on your sleep by decreasing the amount of deep, slow-wave sleep that you get during the night. Meanwhile, eating too much sugar could result in more midnight wake-ups. On the other hand, a healthy balanced diet that’s high in fiber and low in added sugars could help you to drift off faster, and log as many as two extra hours of sleep a week.

Diet-induced heartburn can keep you up at night.

Anyone who has suffered from gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) knows just how miserable it can be to go to bed with heartburn. In fact, people with nighttime heartburn are more likely to have sleep problems and disorders like insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and daytime sleepiness. Luckily, the right diet can make a difference. Steer clear of large fried or high-fat meals, spicy foods, alcohol, and soda—especially close to bedtime. Your sleep—and your waistline—will thank you.

The best diet for sleep is also good for your total health.

Healthy Sleeping and Good Nutrition for your best night’s sleep, strive to eat a balanced diet that emphasizes fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat proteins that are rich in B vitamins, like fish, poultry, meat, eggs, and dairy. B vitamins may help to regulate melatonin, a hormone that regulates your sleep cycles.

Losing weight can lead to better sleep

Eating well is the first step to losing weight. And that can pay dividends when it comes to your sleep. A reduction in body fat, especially around your midsection, makes you less likely to struggle with sleep problems like sleep apnea, restlessness, or insomnia, and less likely to fight sleepiness during the day.

Before reaching for the sleeping pills, try looking around your kitchen. These nutritionist-backed approaches may help you fall — and stay — asleep

1. Walnuts contain their own form of melatonin, a hormone that helps our bodies regulate a healthy sleep-wake cycle. Try snacking on a small handful about 20 minutes before bed to help you relax and reach a deeper state of restful sleep.

2. When we fall asleep, levels of serotonin rise and adrenaline levels fall. Serotonin, the relaxing hormone, is partly made from the amino acid tryptophan, which is activated by vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 is found in a wide variety of foods such fortified breakfast cereals, potatoes, fish, chicken, bananas, beans, peanut butter, and many vegetables

3. Bananas help fight insomnia in three powerful ways. They are packed with magnesium, serotonin, and melatonin, which all help promote sleep in their own way. Melatonin helps to naturally regulate your body’s sleep-wake cycle.

4. Basil plant actually contains sedative properties, which can help you fall asleep and stay asleep. And as a bonus, it not only helps promote sleep, but is great for reducing indigestion, which is itself a major sleep-interrupter.

5. Food high in magnesium. Up your intake of foods like seeds, nuts and leafy greens for a better night’s sleep, since research has shown that even a slight lack of this mineral can prevent your brain from ‘turning off’ at night. A supplementation of 500mg of magnesium appears to improve insomnia in the elderly — in food terms, that’s about ½ cup of pumpkin seeds and 1 cup of cooked leafy greens daily.”

6. Enjoying a small and nutritious snack could help you fall and stay asleep. “Getting in a small snack an hour before bed helps to stabilize blood sugars. When blood sugar is low, or even too high, we become anxious and irritable, which will not promote sleep. Make sure you steer clear of anything greasy, fried, caffeinated or sugar-laden. Have an apple with a tablespoon of nut butter or half a banana with four crushed walnuts.

7. Milk may help control melatonin production since it is a great source of calcium, a mineral that plays a role in the regulation of melatonin in the body. Milk is also rich in the amino acid tryptophan which has a calming effect on the body.

• You can add a pinch of nutmeg into your milk
•  You can also add some crushed almonds(blanched is better), a pinch of nutmeg, and  a pinch of cardamom.

8. A mug of chamomile tea.
9. A bowlful of cherries can also help send you off to good sleep. Cherries are one of the few natural foods that contain melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland in the brain. 

10. Add one teaspoon of Brahmi and Ashwagandha powder in two glasses of water. Boil them and then reduce it to one glass and drink it daily at least once for best results.

Active compounds of licorice can also help you find your way out of the sleep woes, as per Ayurveda. Have one teaspoon of licorice root powder with a glass of cold milk every morning on an empty stomach.