5 Good Reasons to Brown Bag Your Lunch!

Sure, everyone is busy. And sometimes it's just easier to run out on your lunch hour and pick something up, rather than bringing your lunch from home.

But are you really doing yourself any favors by cutting corners in the morning and shelling out your hard-earned cash at some to-go place?

Simple answer: not really. Not only are you not doing yourself a favor, you're not doing your waistline, or the planet one either. And then there's the fact that your wallet—or your boss's wallet, if they pick up the tab—takes a hit when you dine out.

So if simple economics can't entice you to brown bag it at the office, here are five more reasons to make the switch:

• It'll Save Your Heart (From All That Salt):

The CDC estimates that 90 percent of Americans eat too much salt. And guess what the top five sodium bombs are? Yeast bread, pizza, pasta dishes, cold cuts and chicken and chicken prepared meals. Sounds a lot like a lunch menu...

By brown bagging it, you decide which foods land on your lunch plate. You choose ingredients that have less sodium. When you eat out, you leave those choices up to the restaurant. Restaurants might not really care if you're sodium loading your way to heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and kidney disease. The CDC says that if everyone followed nutritional guidelines on sodium intake, there'd be 120,000 fewer cases of heart disease and 66,000 fewer strokes each year.

• It'll Keep You From Being Fat AND Broke:

We already acknowledged that eating out puts a dent in your piggy bank (a no-brainer, really). But bringing your lunch from home means that you can control the calorie count, to make sure you're not quietly ballooning up as you munch on that "convenient" lunch delivered to you desk. If current trends continue, 86 percent of adults will be overweight or obese by 2030.Eating out is a huge part of the problem. The fact is, most people underestimate how many calories they're scarfing down when they eat out. Don't think that grabbing an "organic" wrap is a better choice; even "organic" labels make people underestimate their calorie consumption.

• It'll Save Your Sanity

Everyone needs to step away from the desk and take a few minutes to decompress in the middle of the day. By definition, going out for lunch means you step away. But if you work in the middle of a busy office district, you're probably spending most of your lunch break walking or driving to a lunch spot, waiting in a line, and then scarfing down whatever you buy. If you're lunch is already in the office, you can meander out to a park bench, an office lounge, or even just your own car (why not) and actually relax and read a bit. No need to rush back and forth.

• It'll Save The Planet

What happens when you grab food to go? They wrap it up in a to-go container, throw in some disposable napkins, give you plastic utensils and a plastic bag to carry it all in. Not exactly great for Mother Nature, or your carbon footprint. Sure, that sounds green and preachy... but it's the truth. All of that take-out packaging is landfill-bound—or even worse, headed to an ocean garbage patch. Americans produce, on average, 4.6 pounds of trash each day. Even if the item is recyclable, that doesn't mean it's disposed of properly: 80 percent of what Americans throw in the trash is actually recyclable.

• It'll Help Local Farmers and Businesses

According to the National Restaurant Association, locally sourced meats and produce are the top two food trends for 2011. That's great. It means diners will have more and more options for supporting local farmers and businesses when they eat out. But quick service and fast food outposts are the least likely to adopt local sourcing. Many rely on distribution networks dictated by national chains. By packing your lunch and buying local products from farmers markets and the grocery store, you can support your community's agriculture business and not be at the mercy of national supply chains.

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Why Health and Wellness is so Popular

If you haven’t noticed by now, the health and wellness industry is one of the most talked about and sought after industries to be apart of. You can’t turn on your TV, radio, or even drive down the highway without seeing or hearing some sort of advertisement about diet, exercise and natural health.

When did everyone just become so concerned about they’re health? The answer to that question is simple! The health and wellness industry is not prospering because everyone woke up one day and decided to get their lives together but more because of what the pharmaceutical companies have done to scare most of us into a total health kick. We don’t know about you, but we an only stomach so many quiet commercials asking us if we took a medicine that has potentially sent us into an early grave or caused some major side-affect! These money hungry pharmaceutical companies are getting sued left and right because their medicines have harmed people instead of helping them. As a result, people are looking for more preventative care as well as natural ways of healing, organic and natural health procedures.

Another reason the wellness industry is on the rise is because no matter how the economy is doing, people always want to look and feel good. Looking young and feeling good is the way we all want to feel and millions of people are willing to spend top dollar to ensure that they can slow down the aging process and keep as much of their youth as possible. The health and wellness industry is fueled by one group in particular, which is known as the baby boomers. These baby boomers (age 33-55) represent 28% of our population—yet represent 50% of our economy. This is the first generation that refuses to accept the aging process. And that’s what we’re all about; helping people obtain healthier, better quality lives.

We are starting to see the emergence of a wellness providers (not sick care, but well care) business… a business of people who educate people about products and offer services that will improve and inspire their health to create a better quality of life for a healthier future generation with improved longevity. After all, Deepak Chopra has said that the human body was built to last up to 140 years of age. With a little education and proper maintenance, our boomer generation should have no problem getting there!

Increase your longevity today by starting a wellness program for yourself or your company and improve your bottom line!

www.WellnessStudio.vpweb.com

Food+Brain Function=Connection?

Have you ever thought that, maybe what I'm eating affects my brain and its functioning process? There could also be a link to the spike in violence that we are seeing in our society with all of the chemical processed foods that are eaten in mass quantity daily!

As it turns out, IT DOES have an effect! You can actually think clearer and remember things and feel better if you're eating the right foods and adding in the right supplements. Certain foods are specifically made to improve memory and other vital functions.

Alex Ortner - Executive Producer of the film "Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days" gives a great example of how the food and drinks we put in our body makes a difference in just how much clearer we can think when eating the right foods:

"Have you ever had a little too much to drink one night and woken up a bit foggy the next morning (Yeah, I think most of us have). Well do you notice how by 4 or 5 in the afternoon all of
the sudden you feel like your brain is working properly again? And you think to yourself..."wow, my brain was really foggy this morning!" That same shift in clarity is what happens when you go from eating regular unhealthy foods to eating the right foods…which means that right now you can literally catapult your level of clarity and brain function just by knowing what to put into your body. "

So in short, what items can you add to your diet regularly to help you feel better and remember things like "Where are my glasses?" or "I can't remember where I parked!"?

We need foods rich in antioxidants (Vitamin C, Vitamin E & Beta-Carotene) which help protect brain cells from free-radical damage caused by environmental pollution. This safety shield for our brain cells will be hard at work, well into the golden years.

FOODS TO STOCK UP ON:

1. EGG YOLKS: The egg yolk itself contains choline, a component of two fat-like molecules in the brain that helps in maintaining brain health/function. If we have deficiency in choline, it may cause age-related mental declines and could contribute to Alzheimer's disease as well.

2. SPINACH: This lovely green protects the brain from age-related problems like oxidative stress and also reduces risk of an age-related brain function declines. Researchers found that feeding aging rats spinach-rich diets significantly improved their learning capacity and motor skills. Including spinach in your diet may lessen brain damage from strokes and neurological disorders.

3. YELLOW FIN TUNA: This cold-water fish protects against Alzheimer's and is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids. It may help to know that structurally, the brain is made up of 60% fat. Therefore, we better be consuming foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids to keep our cells' membranes flexible to maximize their ability to allow important nutrients in!

4. CRANBERRIES: If you want improvements in memory, balance and coordination, load up on a handful of these babies frequently! Certain animal studies have shown that cranberries protect brain cells from free-radical damage, which means our brain cells are strong and alive!

5. SWEET POTATOES: What can I say about this delicious and nutritionally rich food? It is one of the most brain-nourishing things you can eat. Rich in vitamin B6 (necessary for manufacturing a certain kind of neurotransmitters), healthy carbohydrates (the only fuel source the brain uses) and antioxidants including Vitamin C and Beta-Carotene. It also has been recognized as one of the highest cancer-fighting foods ever.

6. STRAWBERRIES: This fruit helps to reduce the risk of developing age-related brain function decline. It's also loaded with Vitamin C! Studies have shown that strawberry eaters may have higher learning capacity than those who do not eat them.

7. KIDNEY BEANS: Help improve your cognitive function due to their high content of B-vitamin thiamin. Thiamin is critical for cognitive function because it is needed to synthesize choline. Also, these beans contain inositol, which may improve symptoms of depression and mood disorders.

8. WHEAT GERM: A powerful brain food, being rich in Vitamin E and selenium (which equals tons of antioxidants!) as well as choline and magnesium. You could also try flaxseed or olive oil.

It is always helpful to prepare these foods as soon as you buy them, and then have them on hand for the week so you can easily have a meal ready to eat. Now, take this list and get to shopping!

It's still January - New Year's Resolution Month!

How are you doing with your 2011 new year's resolutions? As we approach the second half of January, have you been able to stick with your exercise, healthy eating, or maybe even life and relationship goals? Whatever situation you had last year, this year should bring you more reason and opportunity to make new goals and achieve them. There is no excuse not to. We all have at least one area in our life where we can improve ourselves and make more positive changes.

With that said, think about the goals you made for this year (or at least thought about to achieve this year). You have got to have a plan if you have a goal. What is your plan? How are you going to get there?

Through my experience, I have found a very effective way to set goals and achieve them. It is known as the "S.M.A.R.T." goal theory. This stands for:
(S)pecific - What exactly do you want to achieve? Just eating healthy? Specifically, how? Explain what healthy is, eating more organic fruits, veggies and less saturated fats and processed foods.
(M)easurable - Establish a criteria for measuring your progress. By measuring, you're able to keep on track, see your progress as you come along, and know if you are doing it right. Ie: How much, how often will you eat these items?
(A)ttainable - When you have a goal that is important to you, you find ways to make it come true. You develop a mindset, abilities and skills to achieve it. Be sure that when you set these goals however, that they are not so far out of reach that you most likely will not be able to achieve. You want to be able to have your goal in reach and visible. It must be one that you can succeed at by sticking to your game plan and knowing it is possible.
(R)ealistic - This means you must be willing and able to achieve this goal. Only you have the power to know if your goal is realistic or not. It may help you to know whether or not it is realistic if you have achieved something similar in the past, but this time your motivation and resources are much better.
(T)imely - Your goal should be grounded within a certain time frame. If you don't set a time frame, how will you know when you need to achieve it or if your success has been fast or slow? It is also much easier to track your progress and see the "end point" to your achievement. Set a date to attain your goal by, and then choose 2 or 3 "check points" to measure how much success you have made on your road to achievement.

It is one of the best feelings to achieve a goal, no matter how small or large. It shows we stuck with our plan and were determined to make a positive change in our life and accomplished that. From this, we are able to increase our self-esteem and motivation to set higher goals and achieve greater things. And who knows, maybe even teach a few others how they can achieve something great too.

Happy Health Year!

You Are What You Eat!

If we are what we eat.... Then what does your diet say about you? Do you know what you are eating and putting in your body everyday? Do you really know where your food comes from?

The answers are very simple, it basically boils down to 3 basic do's and 3 basic don'ts.

Do's -

1) Do eat plenty of "real-whole" foods (avoid all processed fast foods)

2) Do eat a "plant-based" diet (making vegetables your main meal)

3) Do eat foods prepared at home with "simple" ingredients (control your portion and especially your salt, sugar and fat intake!)

Don'ts - 3 Foods to Avoid

1) Meat & Dairy - only 1 serving of protein per day. Use protein as a "side dish" and make your salad or vegetable the main dish! Also eliminate all dairy from your diet! The dairy that we buy from our grocery stores is laden with hormones and chemicals and has virtually "no nutrient value", you can get much more benefit from eating a healthy spinach salad!

2) Wheat - Give your body a break from mass quantities of wheat products and substitute wheat breads for Kamut, Millet and Spelt grain breads for starters.

3) Sugar - We Americans consume more sugar than our bodies can handle per year! As a result we have extended, bloated bellies with dangerous insulin levels and Diabetes reaching epidemic proportions! Cut out processed sugar foods in your diet (yes, even Diet Cokes) and you will see a noticeable difference in your waistline within days!

Cancer Prevention

After years of telling people chemotherapy is the only way to try (key word) to eliminate cancer, Johns Hopkins is finally starting to tell you there are alternative things you can do to reduce your risk. The following is a cancer update from Johns Hopkins:

- Every person's body has the ability to create cancer cells. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their body after treatment, it usually means that the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached a detectable size.

- Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

- When our immune systems are strong, the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors. Conversely, when a person has cancer it indicates that the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetics, environment, food and lifestyle factors.

- To overcome these multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and adding supplements daily will assist in strengthening the immune system.

- Chemo involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract, etc. This can cause organ damage to the liver, kidneys, heart and lungs.

- Radiation, while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissue and organs.

- Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation does not result in more tumor destruction.

- When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation, the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

- An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to grow and multiply.

Cancer Cells Feed On:

• Sugar - it is a major cancer feeder. By cutting off sugar, it cuts off one of important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc. are made with Aspartame and it is extremely harmful. Much better alternatives are Manuka honey, Agave Nector or molasses but only in very small amounts.
• Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color.  A better alternative is Bragg's Amino's, sea salt or Trocomare organic seasoning.
• Milk causes the body to produce mucus. By eliminating milk and substituting with unsweetened Soy, Rice or Hemp milk, cancer cells are being starved.
• Cancer cells thrive in an acidic environment, always drink alkalized water when possible or add lemon to purified water.
• A meat based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish and chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
• A diet made of 80% fresh vegetable and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans.Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells, try and drink fresh vegetable juice and eat some raw vegetables 2-3 times per day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F, so it is always good to eat some raw vegetable whenever you can.
• Avoid caffeinated beverages such as coffee, tea and chocolate. Green tea is a much better alternative and has cancer fighting properties or just fresh water is always the best!
• Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. The majority of people do not have sufficient digestive enzymes due to eating too many processed foods, so a lot of undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrefied and leads to more toxic build-up.
• Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from eating meat, it frees the body's natural enzymes to attack these protein walls of the cancer cells and allows the  killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
• Cancer is a disease of the mind, body and spirit. A proactive and positive attitude will help keep the cancer at bay. Anger, unforgiving and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Therefore it is extremely important to learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
• Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily with deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means used to destroy cancer cells.

Please Read On

1. No plastic containers in the microwave.
   
2. Do not put water bottles in the freezer
3. No plastic wrap in the microwave

Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them, as the plastic releases Dioxins, which are know to be carcinogenic. Also it is not a good idea to heat food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. The combination of fat, high heat and plastics releases the Dioxin into the food and then ultimately into the cells of the body. Try using a glass dish such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic microwave safe containers for heating foods. It is also dangerous to place Saran Wrap over foods as they are being microwaved, the high heat causes the poisonous chemicals/plastics to actually leach into the food. Cover with a paper towel instead.

Send this article to anyone who is important in your life!

Hormones - The Balancing Act

We all think of women or PMS when someone mentions hormones, right? Well, surprise, they can also affect men as well! Stay with me, I'll have more on that later....... Did you know that hormones play a major role in our overall well being? Has your doctor prescribed estrogen or progestin (Provera, contraceptives, etc.) pills or patches to treat your GYN problems?

If you are anything like me, I have suffered for years with the typical symptoms of PMS, weight fluctuations, irritability, sleep disturbances, allergies and the list goes on... Well the good news is after several doctors later, tons of reading as well as an all new generational awareness of our "female issues" by baby-boomers like Suzanne Summers, bringing these issues to forefront and giving them some relevance. I like Suzanne have found true relief from Bio-Identical Hormones. Yes, estrogen dominance may be the true culprit with symptoms of weight gain (despite great diet and exercise), irritability, irregular periods, thyroid dysfunction, fibroid tumors, PMS, fatigue, loss of sexual desire, migraine headaches, cold hand & feet and in some cases infertility and or the ability to maintain pregnancy.

Why do these symptoms occur?

Most physicians typically prescribe pharmaceutical synthetic estrogens to treat many of these conditions, which may make the situation worse. It is quite possible that your body already has more estrogen that it needs and what you really need is another hormone called progesterone (not to be confused with pharmaceutical progestins which can  make symptoms such as abnormal bleeding worse). Natural progesterone (is available over the counter in the form of creams or by prescription at compounding pharmacies) can effectively reduce the symptoms of hormonal imbalances and the conditions that it causes by restoring the body's natural hormone balance.

If natural progesterone is so great, then why don't more physicians routinely recommend it to their patients?

Progesterone is a natural substance and natural substances cannot be patented for sale at profit, which makes pharmaceutical companies uninterested in marketing and promoting natural products such as progesterone. And if pharmaceutical reps don't market a product to physicians, many will simply be unaware of it's existence.  Most prescription estrogens such as Premarin, are chemically altered so they can be patented and sold as a drug. While we should not discount the use of estrogen replacement, we stress that caution should be used when using estrogen urging that only estrogens that chemically equal to the estrogen produced naturally by the body be used in the smallest effective dose. Even women who have had hysterectomies, who experience surgical menopause, need to use progesterone to balance the estrogen on their body. Natural estrogens are available as pills, creams and patches.

Now, as for the subject of men and hormones. Men can typically go through a sort of "menopause" we have all come to know as the cliche mid-life-crisis as well as some hormonal side effects like low libido, erection problems and stamina, which could well be the result of very low Testosterone. 

Testosterone is a natural hormone the body makes that contributes to libido, muscle tone, energy stores and an overall feeling of well-being. When this hormone is low in men (or women too), it can have some real effects on how we feel and perform daily. Testosterone can also be obtained by prescription from a reliable hormone specialist (ask the Nutrition Chick for more details on this) and a compounding pharmacist can prepare it in a cream form that is simply rubbed on the forearm or inner thigh.

For more information on finding a hormonal specialist, contact the Nutrition Chick at healthycleanbeauty@gmail.com.