I've been having a little trouble...

...with sugar cravings lately.

Most of the time I'm eating healthy snacks - fruit, veggies, crackers, organic ice cream - but lately (as in since Thanksgiving or maybe Halloween) I've been craving the hard stuff. Sour Straws, Oreos, Chocolates, PBMnM's, Cookies & Cream chocolate bars, ice cream, cool-aide type drinks, just SUGAR. Which is weird because at Thanksgiving I gave myself the go ahead to eat whatever the heck I wanted - I had pop (I never have pop), candy, desserts, etc. And because of it I felt immensely sick and I'm surprised I didn't get a sugar headache. As I think about it I realize that it really started around Halloween. We had lots of sugar/candy around because of trick or treaters and I started bringing a small amount to school each day. Now I absolutely crave sugar around 2 o'clock pm. And if it doesn't get filled I just have to give in bigger later.

When in reality I just need some natural sugar (grapes, banana, strawberries, orange, apple) to get me through the slough time when I really want to lay down in the hallway and take a nap. Not to mention eating some good, healthy, and whole grain/veggie meals every two hours to keep my mood and energy up.

This article gives some good ideas to curb that sugar craving.

• Chew gum. Sugar free gum.
• Walk away. Literally go for a walk.
• Meditate.
• Try to eliminate other sugars from your life.

A Little Laugh Goes A Long Way

Ever wonder what would happen if someone really did find the fountain of youth? Well, what if I told you it had already been found? What would you do about it? I'm going to tell you and you will probably think its cool and never really take it to heart, just like every other good thing for your body. You have no motivation. what. so. ever.

Laughing.

Laughing is the fountain of youth. It gives you a mental boost, facilitates physiological changes in our bodies, helps keep your heart healthy, keeps you under less stress, makes you feel good, gives you power, lets you cope, gives you better communication and connectedness, relieves tension and aggression, helps you learn better and retain that knowledge, and adds years to your life (Organic Soul Blog - Laughter).

Honestly how this article talks about how stress gives you a heart attack I should be getting one any day now. I am a stress-a-holic. Anything and everything I stress about. I really just need to back off and relax. Look at all these health benefits of LAUGHTER! For heavens sake, laughter is SO easy to procure. So whether its clicking on some youtube videos, staying up late to make everything funny, or just laughing at yourself when you do something stupid take time to laugh everyday and YOU will be feeling better in no time, not to mention adding years to your life, and hey, if you're laughing those years will be good.

Exercise - Your Best Friend

This is a recent article written on a health blog about exercise. He does a great job of writing and attributing. We all know how to be healthy, eat less, eat healthier, and move more. Yet what we miss is the motivation to DO. However, just moving more than usual or doing Tai Chi can be a great form of exercise that will help you maintain a better BMI and lessen health diseases. Exercising doesn't have to be intense and expensive. You can do anything active and it will give you better health. Jump rope, jogging, exercise videos, walking, yoga, walking up/down steps, you can literally make any exercise out of any day to day activity.

Exercise improves asthma. What I really thought was interesting is that the famous 'carbo load' may actually create soreness after exercise. There is no need to carbo load before or after exercising. Whey protein on the other hand, may improve exercise tolerance for people with COPD.

Additives Causing Your Chronic Pain?

If you're like me you'll realize how HARD it is to find the cause of chronic pain. I suffer from migraines and I find it difficult to find relief as well as stop them from happening so frequently. One can hardly ever find the real cause of migraines. There are some major additives that you can avoid that can help you combat chronic pain and provide overall health. Taken from here.

1. Artificial Sweeteners: Aspertame, NutraSweet, Splenda. Found: in diet drinks and packets on restaurant tables. Adds to migraines. Cut them out completely.
2. Sugar: just plain sugar. Found: everywhere. Adds to muscle spasms. Cut down on intake.
3. High-Fructose Corn Syrup: similar to sugar. Found: everywhere. Adds to abdominal pain and digestive disorders. Cut down on intake.
4. Salt: that stuff on the table. Found: every table and every processed food of America. Adds to water retention which leads to bad joint and nerve function. Cut down on intake.
5. MSG: monosodium glutamate, glutamic acid, yeast extract, hydrolyzed protein, sodium caseinate, and autolyzed yeast. Found: chinese food and processed food. Adds to nerve damage and enhances pain. Cut out completely.
6. Preservatives:bonzoates, monglycerides, diglycerides, nitrates, nitrites, and sulfites. Found: commercially baked goods and anything that last a long time (processed food).

Eat the freshest and most natural food you can and you will get the best micronutrients and be the healthiest.

Doctors

Ever find going to the doctor seems completely pointless? Why?

• they don't listen
• they just give you medicine (without telling you exactly what it does to your body)
• its awkward
• $$$$$$$

We need to learn how to interact with our medical professionals. Bring a notebook to your doctors visit that journals your pain and symptoms. Do your research on what you think you might have and what types of medication are given for it and what those medications do. Be specific when you ask questions and take your time to think of them. Make use of telephone calls to the office nurse who can give you feedback on certain things so you do not have to go in when you do think of questions. When it comes to medication see if there is something else you could do or try before you start taking medication. Make sure your doctor describes all the side effects of any medications they prescribe and make sure they help you understand what it does to your body. Keep your own good medical records and only go to the doctor when you need to and you can afford it. Take advantage of readily available information on diseases and symptoms and take care of yourself. 

Article on working with doctors.
Some emotional wellness help.

Do you know if you're hungry?

Besides having at least two spelling errors this article was very helpful identifying types of hunger. Do you know them?

Physical Hunger

Emotional Hunger

Physical hunger is just that, your body needs nutrients and you should give them to your body. The second is a bit more complex. Emotional hunger is when you eat when you are neither full nor satisfied or satisfied already. In this type of hunger you eat because of feelings whether they be boredom, anger, fear, sad, etc. There is a good scale to help you eat better and identify when to eat. BEFORE you eat decide what number you're at on a scale of 1-10.

1 - You are very hungry.
5 - You are neither full nor hungry.
10 - You are full.

Basic rules are eat when you're at a 2-3 (eating at 1 can cause overeating), eat until you reach about a 7 (you will still be able to go on a walk but feel full) and if you find yourself eating at 5-6 start a journal and figure out what causes you to emotionally eat.

A Nutritionist

You think you need to see a doctor? Well, maybe you really need is to see a nutritionist instead. What do nutritionists do exactly? They help you improve your knowledge about your diet and to use that diet to feel and be healthier. The main reasons for going to a nutritionist are because of a) weight loss b) disease treatment c) disease prevention d) athletic training (I'd also say celebrities). Nutritionists help you do all these things without medication. So unless you really need a medication for something (bc, antibiotics) or are in serious trouble (dying, need stitches, surgery) what you really need is a nutritionist.

Here is a site that tells you about what you would pay for a nutritionist. Find out if your insurance will pay for it and if you need to go, GO! Find a better way to live. Eat better. Feel better.

Looking for a different way to heal?

Then you've come to the right place.

In THIS article gives a lot of examples about different ways to heal yourself or to get healed. Check it out!

I clicked on a few from each category just to get myself acquainted with some new ways of keeping myself healthy. First of all is acupressure (includes acupuncture and shiatsu massage). I have actually been thinking about doing acupuncture and honestly - I'm scared to death to try it. People sticking needles in me? Sounds a little like walking on a bed of needles or fire....completely idiotic. However, people have lived through it and it worked. All three of these are based on chi or your body's energy. This energy flows down meridians in your body and acupressure uses those meridians to help balance out your chi, which helps cure you because sickness comes from imbalance of your chi. (I'll have to think about this one for a longer period of time before I try it.....)

Now MEDITATION is something I've wanted to try for sometime, however I usually cannot focus, fall asleep, or just cannot bring myself to do it. But you know what? I need meditation. I'm going to start meditating. Every night before I go to bed I need to meditate and clear everything from my mind and body. I think it will help me get to sleep as well as sleep better. Check the link to learn how to do it.

When I read "humor therapy" I thought - yeah! I would love to do that. But then while I was reading it I realized that I already have humor therapy. My husband. He always seems to make something funny or make me laugh even when I do not want to laugh. He has seriously mad skills in this area. Laughter helps the  immune system, makes you feel more in control, makes life more manageable, and releases stress, fear, and anger. I really need to laugh at myself more and to not take life so seriously. So....laugh on.

Homeopathy. Or in lay terms - your body can heal itself. This post I do not agree with. I believe that the body has the ability to heal itself if you give it the right tools (nutrition, rest, exercise, sunlight, herbs) however I have never tried homeopathy and giving a very small dose of an herb seems like it would do little to nothing if you do not understand the underlying reason for the disease/illness.

The healing touch is used widely by nurses. I suppose it would be helpful, however - actually touching someone seems like it would help a whole lot more. While I believe that people are naturally healthy and just need to remove the things in their life that are causing them to be ill - not touching someone while healing touching them seems.....weird. Kind of like someone watching you. Stalkerish-like.

While I like this article because it gives a lot of examples of different ways of healing. I dislike that they only have short summaries of what the therapy is - not how to do it or where to find it.

Tell me you don't do this

A recent article in the Detroit Free Press contends that Americans may 'talk' eat well, but they don't 'walk' eat well. 47% of Americans 'talk' about restaurants having healthy choices only 23% 'walk the walk'. That is a huge difference, especially considering 2/3 of the US population is overweight or obese. Because of this, high calorie and fat breakfasts sell more than Simple and Fit at IHOP and French Fries sell better than apple slices at McDonald's. Changing menus for restaurants is time consuming and expensive, especially when hardly anyone buys it afterwards. No wonder healthier items tend to be more expensive. I think there are two major flaws with this study. The primary one being, I eat 'Simple and Fit' at home, so when I go out - I want to splurge a little. For example, I eat a cup of oatmeal and fruit every morning for breakfast. Last week we went out to breakfast for my husbands grandma at Cracker Barrel. I'm not ordering oatmeal (even if it was a choice). I want waffles. I want eggs. I want bacon. I want a hefty typical breakfast. It doesn't mean I eat that every day, it means I don't eat it every day and I want it when I go out. The second flaw I see is about people not like me. Maybe those who eat unhealthy at home and then go eat unhealthy eating out. Or maybe those people who always eat out and never choose the healthy choice. And I think this is where Americans are. How can it not be when 2/3 of Americans are overweight+? Do I think having healthy choices is good in restaurants? YES! I think the more healthy tasty choices there are out there the more likely people are to buy them. However, I don't think the lifestyle of American's diet can be changed overnight. It needs to be a conscious effort on the part of every American to eat healthier and slowly wean themselves off of unhealthy fast food. Eat healthy almost all the time, and then you can eat unhealthy a small amount of the time. It will make you feel so much better not only physically, but about yourself as well.

Twitter Studies

In this article, Cornell University used Twitter to track not only American's behavior (such as bacon is more popular than sausage, Oprah airs at 4pm, and it takes seven hours to become drunk) but emotions as well (people are happiest in the morning and near midnight throughout the whole week [just different times on weekends]). I think this is a great idea. Its an easy way to track American's behavior and emotion without bothering them or without them even knowing (their fault - open twitter accounts). I think the only drawback to this is that, my two happiest moods peak at maybe noon and then eight pm. Mornings are NOT happy for me. I guess I'm just not a regular American.

10 Things to Think About

We all know (at least I hope) that you need to take care of yourself to be happy and healthy. However, I think few of us actually stop, think about what that means, and DO something about it. This article is on how to take care of yourself - mentally. Over the years of dealing with my problems, I find my mental health is directly linked to my physical well being. If I don't take care of my physical well being - my mental well being suffers. And vice versa. Here are the steps this article suggests.

1. Talk about your feelings.
Guys - guys don't talk about feelings. Ever. {unless they're married and/or they're forced into it} Girls - I don't really know about girls in general, but I'm a girl and I know about me. I'm an introvert. There are only a select few people I tell anything to. And even then, it has to be the right time/place to spill my guts and it usually ends up being after I hold all my feelings in for a long time and can't handle it anymore. You know, in the communication field the people you talk to the most about what is going on in your life is very close friends/family and strangers. No middle ground.
Do you talk about your feelings? How often? To whom?

2. Eat Well
We all know we should eat well, but do we know what eat well even means? Less junk food, less fast food, less sugar and chocolate. What about adding? More water. More fruits and vegetables. And if we know what it means, not many people follow it. I have a hard time and I do really well.
How are you doing on eating well, honestly? What do you think eat well means?

3. Keep in touch.
This one is hard for me, being the introvert that I am - I know being connected helps me but actually doing it is very hard; however, I think for most people it is pretty easy and they do it all the time.
Are you keeping in touch with family and friends?

4. Take a break.
Even a small break. I have a hard time focusing. I think if I plan to focus and plan to have a break/treat at the end I focus a lot better. Taking a break is a much needed part of life. Whether it is a half hour walk around the block, checking facebook (often turns into way too long and wishes not to return), or a vacation.
Do you take breaks? What kind of breaks?

5. Accept who you are.
I am really good at this one sometimes and not so good other times. However, I think in general I know who/what I am and I'm okay with that. People put on facades so I really have no idea how the general public does with accepting who they really are.
Have you accepted who you are?

6. Keep active.
I know a lot of people who do keep active, however I know a lot (including me) whose health keeps them from keeping active. How does one keep active when that happens? Its tricky and its difficult. Exercise is good for your mood, concentration, looks, self-esteem, sleep, and organs healthy.
Do you keep active? How?

7. Drink sensibly.
Don't drink to deal with problems. I think that's pretty sensible, I don't drink but I think if I did it would be to deal with problems (which actually doesn't help with problems).
Do you drink? Why do you drink? Do you drink too much?

8. Ask for help.
Its hard to ask for help. It takes courage to do it and the ability to step back and realize that we need help.
How often do you ask for help? Should you be asking for more help?

9. Do something you're good at.
This helps de-stress and boost self-esteem. However, when do we have time to do something we like or we're good at? Me? Pretty much never between september 1-december 15 and january 5-april 30. Then how about the time we're not in school? We have work. Who has time or even the motivation to do things we like after a hard day at work?
Do you take time to do things you like? How much time do you get to spend on things you like to do?

10. Care for others.
Service. Helps you feel good about yourself and makes relationships better. I think cleaning up after yourself and picking up trash at school is a good way to start caring for others.
How do you care for others? How do you serve?
Overall, I think the general population knows how to stay healthy but choose not to because other things at this point are more important to them. How do we change that?