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June 10th, 2010
6 Behaviors that Increase Self-Esteem
by Denis Waitley
Learn more about Denis at: www.DenisWaitleySpecials.com
Following are six behaviors that increase self-esteem, enhance your self-confidence, and spur your motivation. You may recognize some of them as things you naturally do in your interactions with other people. But if you don’t, I suggest you motivate yourself to take some of these important steps immediately.
First, greet others with a smile and look them directly in the eye. A smile and direct eye contact convey confidence born of self-respect. In the same way, answer the phone pleasantly whether at work or at home, and when placing a call, give your name before asking to speak to the party you want to reach. Leading with your name underscores that a person with self-respect is making the call.
Second, always show real appreciation for a gift or complement. Don’t downplay or sidestep expressions of affection or honor from others. The ability to accept or receive is a universal mark of an individual with solid self-esteem.
Third, don’t brag. It’s almost a paradox that genuine modesty is actually part of the capacity to gracefully receive compliments. People who brag about their own exploits or demand special attention are simply trying to build themselves up in the eyes of others — and that’s because they don’t perceive themselves as already worthy of respect.
Fourth, don’t make your problems the centerpiece of your conversation. Talk positively about your life and the progress you’re trying to make. Be aware of any negative thinking, and take notice of how often you complain. When you hear yourself criticize someone — and this includes self-criticism — find a way to be helpful instead of critical.
Fifth, respond to difficult times or depressing moments by increasing your level of productive activity. When your self-esteem is being challenged, don’t sit around and fall victim to “paralysis by analysis.” The late Malcolm Forbes said, “Vehicles in motion use their generators to charge their own batteries. Unless you happen to be a golf cart, you can’t recharge your battery when you’re parked in the garage!”
Sixth, choose to see mistakes and rejections as opportunities to learn. View a failure as the conclusion of one performance, not the end of your entire career. Own up to your shortcomings, but refuse to see yourself as a failure. A failure may be something you have done — and it may even be something you’ll have to do again on the way to success — but a failure is definitely not something you are.
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May 31st, 2010
Did you know that (besides a television) there is a microwave oven in almost every American home? Well, there is! Because microwave ovens are quick and easy and don’t take up much space, they are used for meal preparation in the home, at the office, and even restaurants. Even your favorite healthy restaurant may depend on these electrical devices to quickly heat up or cook foods. So, the question here is — are microwave ovens safe, and is it ok to eat the food cooked in them?
 Before we look at the science of how microwaved food can affect your blood chemistry and negatively affect your health, let’s look at a bigger picture, common-sense thought process about this – if you think about it from this perspective, the human digestive system evolved over tens of thousands of years to digest food that was either raw or cooked in water or by heat. However, food cooked via microwaves is a totally alien and unknown cooking method to the human digestive system. It’s just common sense that such a radically different cooking method will alter the chemistry of the food to negatively impact our health. Now onto a little more science.
Let’s take a look at how microwaves ovens work. Microwaves are a part of the whole electromagnetic spectrum of energy that includes light waves and radio waves. They travel at the speed of light–which is about 186,282 miles per second. So how does that oven heat up the food so fast? Inside the microwave oven, there is a “magnetron” which is a tube full of electrons. The electrons in the microwave oven react with magnetic and electronic energy and become micro wavelengths. This is the radiation that interacts with the molecules in food.
Food molecules have a positive and negative end, kind of like the way a magnet has a north and a south polarity. The electrons from the magnetron produce wavelengths that react with the positive and negative parts of the food molecules. The food molecules then start vibrating, up to several million times a second. This molecular “vibration” is what creates the heat in the food. This agitiation deforms the molecules in food and creates new unnatural radiolytic compounds previously unknown to nature. These strange foreign compounds in microwaved food have been shown to damage the blood, the digestive system, and our immune systems.
Microwave ovens have been actually been around for about 40 or so years, but so far, only a couple of in-depth scientific studies have been done on them. Research showing negative health impacts of eating microwaved food. Extensive research, though, was conducted in both Switzerland and Russia on microwaved foods and their effects on the human body. Both studies concluded that microwaving foods significantly deteriorated the nutrient value of the food, distorted protein molecules in the food, and created new, radically unnatural compounds. Most alarming, however, was that the subjects’ health deteriorated from eating the microwaved foods.
Their findings included:
*Blood hemoglobin (the extremely important oxygen-carrying component of the blood) decreased significantly after eating microwaved foods.
*White blood cell count rose, (as it does in response to an infection).
*LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) increased, and HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) decreased.
*Carcinogenic (cancer-causing) agents in foods increased.
*Higher incidence of digestive system cancers.
*The Russian scientists found the microwave oven significantly scary enough to actually ban its use–up until recently.
When food is cooked in a microwave oven, it has:
*Significantly less B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, essential minerals and fats.
*Broken down and de-natured proteins.
*Loss of vital enzymes and phytochemicals.
And here is a really interesting study—done on grain germination:
The grain watered with microwaved (and cooled) water would not not even germinate or grow! It’s pretty obvious that microwaving changed the water chemically and destroyed its ability to nourish a plant.
Ok, so maybe it’s ok to just heat leftovers in the microwave oven once in a while?
NO! Actually, food heated in a microwave is heated unevenly creating super-heated spots and cool spots. Those cool spots may actually harbor bacterial growth such as salmonella, and you end up with food poisoning.
In addition, when you use plastic containers or plastic wrap in contact with your food, you end up getting all sorts of nasty chemicals like di(ethylhexyl)adepate, or DEHA, (a carcinogen), Bisphenol-A or BPA (a cancer-causing agent in plastics) and xenoestrogens (synthetic estrogens) in your food!
In one recent study, it was found that carcinogenic ingredients in plastic wrap were 10,000 times the FDA limit for safety! Exposure to BPA, used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and other plastics, has been shown to cause reproductive problems and erectile dysfunction, and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans.
Xenoestrogens are really nasty synthetic estrogens that seem to show up everywhere. In men, xenoestrogens can cause low sperm counts and feminization (like the dreaded “man boobs”) and breast cancer and reproductive problems in women. Xenoestrogens promote weight gain around the belly and chest in men, and in women, it shows up as fat in the butt, hips, thighs and the back of arms. So, in addition to being really unhealthy, microwaved foods can make you fat!
Parents should never warm breast milk or formula in the microwave oven—not only can it superheat the milk and burn the baby, but microwaving destroys the very valuable nutrients, enzymes and protein vital to babies’ growth!And here is something really scary: in 1991, a patient received blood that had been warmed in a microwave oven. That patient died of a severe anaphylactic reaction to the blood. The microwaving created something totally unrecognizable by the body!
If you want to be safe, healthy and LEAN, avoid your microwave—totally. Personally, I threw out my microwave about 6 years ago and haven’t even missed it! There are far healthier and better alternatives:
*Eat vegetables and fruit raw preferably, or if cooked, sauté lightly (with a little water and some grass-fed butter) or steam until tender crisp in a pan on the stove.
*Heat water for tea, etc in a pan or tea-kettle instead of the microwave—or, better yet– is to get a steaming hot water tap—I love these things!
*Plan ahead and defrost frozen foods in the refrigerator.
*Heat up ALL leftovers over low heat in a pan or in a toaster oven in aluminum foil (it still only takes 4-5 minutes to heat leftovers)
*If you must use a microwave (and I don’t know why you would!), use only glass containers instead of plastic.
*Or you may want to try this–small countertop convection ovens are great for cooking foods faster and more evenly than a regular oven or on the stove.
My favorite little convection oven is the Flavorwave oven from US Wellness Meats, a GREAT site for grass-fed beef too! You can actually cook a frozen 15-oz. ribeye is in 20 minutes, and it is delicious; browned, tender and juicy. These little convection ovens will broil, bake, fry, roast, grill or steam your favorite foods, including meat, chicken, and vegetable. It takes 20-30% less time than a regular oven, and uses about 75% less energy.
This is a far healthier option than a cancer-causing, nutrient-robbing, microwave oven!
For more information on this topic visit Mike Geary’s web site at: http://www.truthaboutabs.com/microwaves-are-evil.html
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May 16th, 2010
On a recent special edition of CNN’s Larry King Live, Mr. King interviewed a panel of “mind experts” about how the thoughts you think literally turn intothe events you experience, the material things you possess… AND even the health of your body. For years, “positive thinking” and goal-setting were often criticized as “pollyanna” and “the law of attraction” was relegated into the category of “new age” fluff. However, on the recent show, panel experts Bob Proctor, John Assaraf and others who were featured in the movie ‘The Secret’ explained that recent breakthroughs in neuroscience along with understanding mental laws, reveals why goal setting, the “law of attraction” and “positive thinking” all work, regardless of whether you look at them from a metaphysical or a scientific perspective.
 Scientists have even identified specific parts of the brain, such as the reticular activating system (RAS), which works with the visual parts of our brain to call our conscious attention to things that are important to reaching our goals and to filter out those things that are unimportant. The RAS is activated by “programming” goals into our sub-conscious minds. Our sub concscious mind is the “power center” and THIS is the mechanism that explains why goal setting and positive thinking are now being accepted as scientific methods for change.
We are discovering that our brain is cybernetic in nature, which means that it is literally like a computer, waiting for a program to be installed. Here’s the kicker – the subconcsious is completely neutral and impartial – it will carry out any instructions you give it. Unfortunately, many of us are still running negative programs we picked up from others as children when our non-conscious minds were totally open and impressionable, or which we developed over the years as a result of repetition of our own negative thinking. As it turns out, our own thoughts, repeated daily, are one of the primary ways that our “mental computer” is programmed on a sub-conscious level, which is the level of beliefs, habits and automatic behavior.
To change your results, you must overwrite old negative programming and install positive new programming into your subconscious. This can be achived through such techniques as written goal setting, positive self-talk (affirmations), and mental imagery (visualization). In the 1970’s, the Soviets and East Germans were the first to formally use structured mental rehearsal, and at that time, they dominated in several olympic sports. Today, virtually all elite athletes use visualization extensively, as we now know that the brain cannot differentiate between real practice and practice that is vividly imagined.
If you are getting more of the same negative results in your life – such as the same health problems, or the same body fat continues to return even after you lose it, then you have probably been un-consciously running old negative programs and re-inforcing them with negative thought patterns. You can begin the positive mental reprogramming process by writing down your goals, changing your internal dialogue and taking a few minutes to relax, quiet your mind and perform a session of visualization or mental rehearsal every day (seeing yourself in your “mind’s eye” not as you currently are, but as you ideally would like to be.) These methods, repeated often enough, will begin to program the non-conscious portion of the mind, which is the same part of the mind that controls your heart beat, digestion and new cell production, all on “automatic pilot.”
In the last decade, neuroscientists discovered that you have the capacity to create an almost infinite number of new neural connections in your brain when you run new thought patterns. The old neural pathways are like grooves in a record, and if you are struggling with your health related behaviors or behaviors in any other area of your life, you have been playing the “old records” over and over again. If you were to carve a new groove into that record, it would never play the same way again. the old pattern would weaken and the new one would take over. Brand new, positive thoughts, feelings and images begin to create new neural patterns. Psychologists estimate that it takes 21 to 30 days to establish a new pattern in your brain. During this time, the focus on sticking with your practice and repeating your new thought patterns is critical.
Is this process easy? For most people, no it’s not. In fact, controlling your thinking and keeping it constructive may be one of the most difficult challenges you have ever faced. Fortunately, writing goals and reading affirmations can help get you started. You can take some of the pressure off yourself by simply accepting that negative thoughts and self criticisms will pop up from time to time. Just observe them, without mulling over them or adding to them, and change the polarity of the thought by quickly repeating one of your positive affirmations or by changing your mental pictures.
So is there something to this whole “positive thinking” thing? The philosophers and theologians have been saying yes for the entire span of recorded history: “As you think, so shall you be.” Variations on this proverb can be found in every spiritual and philosophical tradition. But… if you are the left-brained, “prove-it-to-me” type, you dont have to go on faith anymore. Scientists are beginning to prove more and more convincingly that thoughts arepowerful things. Even Larry King seemed impressed with what his panel of “mind mentors” had to say. In fact, I just found out that larry will be airing part two of this “Power of positive thinking” show next week.
So how soon are you going to begin your mental training right alongside your physical training? When are you going to learn how to harness this powerlocked up inside your mind? Guess what? You’re already using this force every day because you cannot turn it off. Whatever you are thinking and picturing in your mind repeatedly on a daily basis is on it’s way to you already, so it’s simply a matter of HOW you are using it, not IF you are using it. What do you say to yourself every day? Do you say, “I am becoming leaner, healthier and more muscular every day?”… or do you say “I am a fat person – I’ve tried everything, nothing ever works!” The fact is – you can think yourself thin and healthy or you can think yourself obese and ill. Maybe not in the literal sense…but most certainly as the critical part in the chain of causation. You see, there’s a lot of talk these days in the personal improvement world about law of attraction, manifesting, intention, visualization and of course, positive thinking.
Without understanding that there is an orderly, scientific basis underneath all of this, many people will simply remain skeptics, while on the opposite extreme, others may get the idea that you can sit around meditating and visualizing, then expect a mystical “law of attraction” to kick in and then “poof!” a great body materializes out of thin air… along with the perfect relationship, a nice bank account and career success. What really happens is “positive thinking” and related methods quite literally re-program your brain, which in turn creates new behaviors that move you physically toward whatever you have been thinking about and focusing on. So success is achieved through positive thinking + positive doing… attraction + action. There are two sides to the coin. Without paying attention to both, you may continue to struggle… often against nothing but yourself.
If you want to transform your body or any other aspect of your life, then you have to change on the inside (the mind) first and then everything else will follow.
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April 26th, 2010
The Truth about Low-Carb Diets vs Controlled-Carbohydrate Meals
 One of the problems with certain “diet talk” is that nobody seems to agree what “low carb” really means. One person may think of “low carb” as an Atkins style diet with as much fatty sausages, hotdogs, and nitrate processed meats as you want and virtually no carbohydrate based foods at all. Another person may view “low carb” as 40% of daily calories coming from carbs instead of the traditionally recommended 55% to 60%. If you think about it, in a 40/30/30 type of diet, the majority of the calories are coming from carbs, so that obviously can’t be called “low carb,” yet some people do call it that. Because of these drastic differences in how different people view the term “low carb”, sometimes people are confused as what this really means.
First of all, consider that “low carb” or “high carb” mean different things to different people. In fact, it may not be vitally important to have any sort of exact ratio. It makes sense if everyone explores for themselves how they feel at different ratios of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. After all, the most important aspect to your success is your total caloric intake vs your caloric expenditure over a given time period. But where carbohydrate intake becomes important is in how it can affect your hormones and blood sugar in your body and stimulate cravings. You could tell someone to eat 2500 calories/day of a higher fat and higher protein content combined with reduced carbs and they may actually finish the day at 2500 calories because their appetite is satisfied. However, tell that same person to eat 2500 calories per day in a high carb fashion, and they may end up eating 3000 or more calories per day because the higher carbohydrate diet stimulated their cravings and they ended up overeating.
For example, consider throwing a big steak in front of someone and a big pile of vegetables, and their appe tite will probably be satisfied when they are done eating that meal and for hours afterward. However, you throw a big plate of pasta in front of them, and they are going to devour the entire plate, and then head back for seconds and maybe even thirds. This is what happens for a lot of people… once they start eating large portions of carbs like pasta or rice or cereals, it becomes hard to stop and then you’re craving more carbs an hour later too.
So what appears to be a better format for those who successfully overcome this battle of high and low carbs is to eat in a “controlled carbs” manner… this doesn’t mean atkins style… it means very reduced grains, zero refined sugars (to the best of ability of avoiding), and instead, getting almost all of your healthy carbs from vegetables, fruits, and maybe beans on occasion. This ends up being very similar to the hunter -gatherer type of diet of meats, eggs, nuts, seeds, fruits, and veggies, which is actually a healthier way to eat. Sometimes it just takes thinking a little differently about the way you eat and what’s considered “normal” in order to get rid of some of the useless grains and sugars in your diet. For example, why do we need to eat a burger on a bun? Most people don’t even think of doing it any other way because that’s what’s “normal”. How about a burger between two lettuce leaves? How about a burger between two tomatoes? How about a turkey burger with sliced avacado, tomatoe, onion, cucumber and onion on the side? There are options. Just create your own. What you end up with is a meal that’s pretty well balanced between protein, healthy fats, and healthy carbs instead of overloaded with the refined grains from the typical hamburger bun. Think about breakfast too – do you really “need” the toast with your eggs, or can you do much better with loads of veggies with your eggs instead?
Consider this – whole eggs with cheese and loads of veggies, avocado and some herbal teas with a little raw honey. So consider getting your carbs from the veggies and the little bit of raw honey instead of from the typical toast and orange juice that loads you up with extra carbs. Just some ideas in case it helps you to think differently about where you get your carbs from.
For additional information on this topic, and others, visit Mike Geary @ www.truthaboutabs.com.
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April 18th, 2010
We regularly surf the web for interesting articles on health. Here is one we’d like to share that we found at http://articles.mercola.com/sites/current.aspx. This article inspired us to share. We hope that you enjoy it.
Drew Heaps – Inside Out
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“Modern science has shown that the obesity epidemic isn’t simply about lack of self-control, but rather a phenomenon driven by biochemical changes that have altered the way your body regulates energy. What has caused these biochemical changes to occur on such a mass scale? Well, the list above is a big part of the explanation. It’s hard to imagine, but a vast array of modern processed foods contain more sugar than a glazed doughnut! Sugar in some form is present in nearly every packaged product, from spaghetti sauce, salad dressing, and peanut butter, to mayonnaise and ketchup, just to name a few.
 This outrageously excessive sugar consumption has caused people’s appetite regulation system to go awry. Leptin, the hormone responsible for satiety, isn’t working properly anymore in a majority of people. It has now become clear that limiting sugar – and fructose in particular — in your diet is a key to longevity for a number of reasons. For example, according to Dr. Richard Johnson, author of The Sugar Fix, about 25 percent of all Americans consume over ½ a pound of added sugars a day, and this statistic dovetails nicely with the statistics showing that one in four Americans is either pre-diabetic or has type 2 diabetes. Diabetics have, on average, a reduced lifespan of about 15 years.
How Sugar Can Make or Break Your Health Your blood glucose levels rise slightly every time you eat. This is natural. However, excessive sugar consumption will typically cause your blood glucose levels to become excessively elevated and then stay that way. It is a well proven fact that sugar increases your insulin and leptin levels and decreases receptor sensitivity for both of these vital hormones. This can lead to:
•High blood pressure and high cholesterol
•Heart disease
•Diabetes
•Weight gain
•Premature aging
One of the puzzle pieces you need to understand in order to really see the correlation between heart disease and sugar consumption is that dietary sugar raises your small, dense LDL cholesterol levels. This is the type of cholesterol that correlates with heart disease. Dietary fat, on the other hand, raises your large, buoyant LDL, which is harmless. Turns out the “conventional wisdom” to avoid dietary fat to avoid heart disease has led millions astray by focusing on the entirely wrong food. If you want to reduce your risk of heart disease, you simply must curb your sugar consumption. And today, this dietary vigilance needs to begin more or less from birth. Even infant formulas and jarred baby food contains excessive amounts of sugar and high fructose corn syrup!
As your child grows, savvy marketing wizards would have you believe that feeding your child cereal each morning is a recipe for good health. But nothing could be further from the truth… On average, just one serving of a typical children’s breakfast cereal equates to more than 90 percent of the daily sugar intake for sedentary girls aged 9 to 13. Regardless of the “healthy fiber” content of the cereal, consuming that much sugar is not going to promote good long-term health. For adults struggling with weight- and health problems, the anti-fat craze has created an entire new breed of high-risk diet foods.
Reducing fat content in food tends to make it taste bland, and so sugar was added to low-fat foods to improve palatability — in the form of either HFCS or sucrose. This is one of the absolute worst combinations for your health. Please understand, the health dangers of sugar on human physiology are certain, and the evidence that fructose is the WORST of the bunch is growing. Simple sugars have been observed to aggravate asthma, exacerbate mental illness, cause mood swings, provoke personality changes and aggression, nourish nervous disorders, cause diabetes and speed up heart disease, grow gallstones, cause hypertension and arthritis, and that’s just the beginning.
In short, excessive sugar consumption, and fructose in particular, will kill you prematurely, one way or another. Avoiding sugar, on the other hand, will help you control your insulin and leptin levels, which will help you to feel and look younger, longer. What Can You Do About Those Sugar Cravings? Interestingly, and well worth remembering, is that cravings for candy, junk food or fast food, and excessive hunger are likely connected and caused by the near identical mechanisms.
Refined sugar is in and of itself more addictive than cocaine, but that does not fully explain the phenomenon of being hungry or having food cravings even though you’ve just eaten. This is where the hormone leptin – also known as the “obesity hormone” — comes into play again. Leptin appears to reduce cravings for sweet foods by targeting taste receptors on the tongue. Therefore, it is possible that a lack of leptin, or your body’s failure to respond to the hormone due to leptin-resistance or defects in your leptin receptors, may contribute to the so-called ’sweet tooth’ that affects so many people. Leptin, which is produced by your fat cells, is an integral part of your weight regulation. When fat cells are “full,” leptin sends signals to your brain to reduce hunger so you can stop eating.
However, once you become leptin-resistant, your brain can no longer hear these signals, and so the sensation of hunger is not shut down. This typically leads to overeating and gaining excessive amounts of weight. How to Right Your Biochemistry Again You become leptin resistant in the same way you become insulin resistant, meaning most people do not have insufficient amounts of leptin, but rather too much. So, how do you reduce your leptin levels and regain your leptin sensitivity?
As discussed above, limiting your sugar intake is a given. But in addition to that, one of the most effective ways to reduce your leptin levels is through physical exercise. It’s true, diet and exercise really do go hand-in-hand if you want to get your body back into homeostasis and optimize your health. Sugar Guidelines and Acceptable Sugar Alternatives Ideally, I recommend that you avoid sugar as much as possible. This is especially important if you are overweight or have diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure.
I realize you don’t live in a perfect world, and following rigid dietary guidelines is not always practical or even possible. However, cutting out sodas, sweetened beverages of all kinds, and limiting your consumption of processed foods will take you a very long way, and is something most people can do. These are the most common sources of more or less hidden sugar, so by avoiding them, you can significantly reduce your sugar consumption. As a standard guideline, I strongly recommend you limit your fructose consumption to 25 grams per day, and limit your fructose from fruit to 15 grams per day. This is to account for the inevitable hidden sources of sugar or fructose you will consume during an average day. For a convenient list of the fructose content of various fruits, please see this previous article that also discusses fruit consumption in more detail.
Lastly, if you want to use an added sweetener occasionally, this is what I recommend:
1. Use the herb stevia, flavored versions are particularly helpful and tend not to have the bitter aftertaste.
2. Use organic cane sugar in moderation
3. Use organic raw honey in moderation
4. Avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, which can damage your health even more quickly than sugar and HFCS.
I also do not recommend agave syrup since most forms are a highly processed sap that is almost all fructose. Your blood sugar will spike just as it would if you were consuming regular sugar or HFCS. Agave has gained meteoric popularity due to a great marketing campaign, but any health benefits present in the original agave plant are typically processed away. For more information about agave, please see my previous in-depth report on this topic. Likewise, honey is very high in fructose. Although its fructose content varies, it typically contains about the same amount as HFCS, or more. So even though honey contains many other beneficial nutrients, you’ll want to use honey very sparingly.
Aside from the herb Stevia, perhaps your safest sugar alternative is to use pure glucose. You can buy pure glucose (dextrose) as a sweetener for about $1 a pound. It is only 70 percent as sweet as sucrose, so you’ll end up using a bit more of it for the same amount of sweetness, making it slightly more expensive than sucrose—but still well worth it for your health as it has ZERO grams of fructose. Remember, glucose can be used directly by every cell in your body and as such is far safer than the metabolic poison fructose.
It should be apparent by now that if you want to be healthy, you simply must get used to reading labels, which I’ve addressed in many previous articles, and become familiar with the sugar and fructose content of everything you eat.”
We hope this articl has inspired you in some way to make new changes in your life. Have a great day!
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April 5th, 2010
When you’re traveling, sometimes it’s not the easiest task to find healthy food options, especially if your only options are fast food joints. Places like McDonald’s and Burger King tend to get old. Plus, their healthy food options seem very limited and unpredictable. However, there are some great alternatives in the world – just take the time to be creative.
For example, lately you may have seen a lot of the fresh mexican food places popping up all over the place. There are several different chains such as Chipotle, Baja Fresh, Rubios, Bajios, Cafe Rio, etc. But there is a way to modify their options to get the healthiest meal possible. Usually the menus are full of burrito and taco options, but try not to eat the wheat or corn tortillas since those are just useless carbs and calories without much nutrition value. Plus, most wheat wraps are made with hydrogenated oils (trannies), so that’s another reason to avoid them. 
So what can you do? Ask the worker to make a special plate where you can pile up a few of the meat options, tons of veggies, beans, salsa, and LOTS of guacamole. Consider declining the rice too since that’s also a pretty useless carb with no real nutrition value and doesn’t add much on taste either. This pretty much confuses the worker every time since this “mixed plate” option isn’t really on their menu, and they don’t know what to charge, but you just ask them to charge you for whatever they think is fair. Considering this is fast-food, this is about the healthiest option that packs the most nutritional punch without overloading on useless carbs. Plus, it’s pretty darn tasty too. And it also satisfies the appetite for a long time since it has plenty of healthy fats from the avacado and fiber from the beans and veggies.
Consider giving this little trick a try next time you’re out and about and want to find a healthier fast food option.
**If you haven’t seen this yet, and you want to get yourself on the right track nutritionally to get lean for summer, check out nutritionist
Isabel De Los Rios’ program here:
http://the-non-diet.com
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March 29th, 2010
 Which is best: cows milk, soymilk, rice milk, almond milk?
Here is another interesting article from Mike Geary, Certified Nutritionist, on milk:
“I had a conversation about this topic with a good friend of mine recently and it reminded me of how many other people always have this same question. The problem is that we’ve established that regular pasteurized/homogenized milk is horrible for you. We’re talking about the regular milk (no matter whether it’s skim, 2%, or whole) that you get at the grocery store — which is almost ALL from factory farms where the cows are kept in horrendous conditions, poor health, and fed the wrong foods.
Even if you find milk that is “organic” at your grocery store, it still has the problem that the homogenization process renders the fat molecules unhealthy within your body, and the pastuerization destroys beneficial enzymes that help the proper digestion of milk proteins and lactose. But we’ve also established that raw whole milk from grass-fed cows raised in a healthy manner, fed the correct foods, and treated right, is the ONLY source of healthy milk.
And no, despite the propaganda you’ve been fed, raw milk is NOT dangerous… not when it comes from a clean grass-fed farm operation certified to produce raw milk and with healthy cows. I’m living proof of that fact. I’ve been drinking 100’s and 100’s of gallons of raw whole milk for about 7 years now, and never once have gotten sick from it. Nor have any of the families and friends I know that have also been drinking it for years. Certainly, if raw milk was “dangerous”, we’d all be dead by now or at least have been sick multiple times by now.
But the fact that raw milk is the only healthy milk is a problem for many people because they simply can’t find a farm in their area that supplies raw milk. (By the way, you can search your area on realmilk.com to see if any farms deliver in your area.) So I’ve come up with a possible healthy alternative if you can’t find raw milk and want a good cows milk alternative.
First of all, stay FAR, FAR away from soymilk! It’s a straight-up junk food. There’s an entire article on my website dedicated to this topic of why soy is pure junk. You an check it out at http://www.truthaboutabs.com/soy-foods-make-you-fat.html
What about Rice Milk? No! Way too much sugar and total carbs and almost ZERO protein. If you want to shoot your blood sugar through the roof, rice milk will do the job, and will pack on the blubber just as fast.
Here’s the best option I’ve found. It’s a new “Coconut Milk Beverage” that I’ve seen recently in the grocery stores here in the US. It seems to differ from the “coconut milk” that you see in cans simply that it’s diluted down more than canned coconut milk so that it’s not such a thick coconut cream.
Now as you know from reading my books and newsletters, coconut fat is one of the healthiest fats you can consume. Yes, it’s saturated fat, but research has proven that it is a very healthy form of saturated fat, and is mostly medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) including lauric acid, which supports a strong immune system. The flavored “coconut milk beverages” do have some added sugar, but still only have 9 grams of carbs per 8 oz, which is less than a glass of cow milk. But they also have an unsweetened version, which only has 1 gram of carbs. The only problem is that this “coconut milk beverage” only has 1 gram of protein too.
So here’s my solution – get a good quality vanilla whey protein (sweetened with stevia instead of typical artificial sweeteners) and mix 3-4 scoops of whey protein into the entire half gallon carton of “coconut milk beverage” – possibly in a blender and then transfer to a new pitcher. Now you have a milk alternative that’s high in healthy fats (MCTs in this case) and also quality protein, with only 1 gram of sugar per 8 oz serving!
I still won’t give up my raw whole cows milk for this (since I do have access to a good raw milk farm) – but this coconut milk mixture would be the only option that I would actually drink if I couldn’t get my good raw milk.
What about almond milk?
Actually, I don’t have a problem with this as long as it’s not heavily sweetened with added sugars or artificial sweeteners. I’ve occasionally seen almond milk that is unsweetened and only has 1 gram of sugar per 8oz, just like the coconut milk. I think adding the protein to almond milk would make a great mixture too and make it more balanced as a good healthy milk alternative.
By the way, one of the best whey proteins out there is a cold processed whey protein with ZERO artificial sweeteners from my friends at Prograde (which you can find at the page below.)
http://natural.getprograde.com/specials
What do I use personally?
*Longevity: under “anti-aging” on the left column (a powerful synergistic antioxidant blend that I actually helped them to develop the formula)
*EFA Icon: under “essential fatty acid” on the left column (47x the antioxidant power of regular fish oil)
*Occasionally, I stock up on some Organic Cravers Peanut Butter Chocolate flavor. I like to snack on these while I ski (under “nutrition bars” on the left column)
What don’t I use?
Well, I DON’T use the Prograde Lean, because it has artificial sweeteners.
I also don’t use the whole-foods based multi-vitamin VGF. However, I’m going to do an article about this soon, because although I personally don’t use a multi-vitamin, Prograde’s VGF multi-vitamins are one of the only whole-foods based multis I’ve found… and as you may have heard me talk about before, I believe there are many detriments to artificial versions of vitamins as are found in most multis that you see.
So if your diet isn’t perfect, and therefore, may require a multi-vitamin, the VGF multi is my recommendation solely because it’s whole-food based instead of artificial forms of the vitamins.”
You can see all about Hailey’s 15%-off 3rd birthday sale and all of the products here:
http://natural.getprograde.com/specials
Thank you Mike. Excellent information!
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March 25th, 2010
Here is an interesting article by CPT fitness pro Holly Rigsby. Holly is a busy mom who also manages to keep herself in spectacular shape… so she actually does practice what she preaches.
**FITNESS MYTHS: WHAT NOT TO DO**
By Holly Rigsby, CPT
Author – http://FitYummyMom.com
Listen up Ladies– Just like the popular fashion show on TLC ” What NOT to Wear’” you are about to get a large dose of “What NOT to Do” if your goal is to boost your metabolism, shed fat and achieve results in the shortest time possible.
Is this you? Get ready, because I am about to call you out on the Top 3 Mistakes you are making that can destroy your metabolism, zap your energy and keep your body soft and flabby.
Hours of Cardio?
Cardio is not the end-all be-all solution to fat loss. Working longerand harder will not help you lose fat – in fact it can make you store more fat! We have gotten hung up on the notion of “calories burned”. This causes us to obsessively look for ways to increase calorie burn in the hopes that we are also burning more fat. Unfortunately you are only risking the loss of muscle and receive little to no increase in your metabolism once you stop.
Besides, why would you want to torture yourself with the unnerving thoughts of minutes needed to burn fat. What if you miss a day or eat oo much? My buddy Craig Ballantyne refers to this punishment as the “Cardio Confessional”. We’ve all done it, but what results has this habit rendered?
It’s not how many calories you can burn per exercise, but how many calories you burn 24-7. You already possess the most powerful fat burner – your muscle! So why punish yourself and risk the loss of your fat burning potential? Toss the notion of long bouts of cardio out the window. INTENSITY is the KEY to getting the most out of your cardio in the least amount of time. So revamp your cardio program with new, energizing short burst intervals!
Target the Trouble Spots?
Jennifer Garner’s toned arms and Fergie’s fab abs are not created by some “magic:” exercise that mysteriously melts fat off a particular area of the body. It is time to banish the “Spot Reduction Myth” once and for all.
There simply is no “one” exercise that acts like a “magic eraser” to rid your body parts of unsightly fat. That’s not how the body works. If you want to loose fat, you instead need to challenge all of the muscles in your body to boost your metabolism, so you lose fat all over.
When it comes to fat loss, isolated, shaping exercises are a waste of your time. Just because you “feel the burn” does not mean you ARE burning the fat. One of the most effective ways in which to maximize your fat-burning potential is through full body, short burst resistance training. By working several muscle groups at once, short burst resistance training saves time, skyrockets your energy levels and incinerates fat and calories.
Resistant to Resistance Training?
“I don’t want to bulk up, I just want to get toned”
Let’s think about what you are saying here. Toned, simply means you have shed the fat that once covered your muscles – so we can see your muscle definition. Muscle gives your body a lean, tight shape. No you will not bulk up like a man. Women simply do not have enough testosterone to get “bulky” nor, typically do they spend enough time
with weights to look anything other than lean, toned and firm. The only reason some women feel like they look bulky is because they have excess body fat while building muscle, but are not eating in a way that supports fat loss.
Plus, muscle takes up less space than fat. The quickest way to drop a jean size is to incorporate short burst resistance training into your fitness routine. If muscle makes you cringe, then you need to get used to a thin, soft, flabby body. For lean, toned, fit bodies have low body fat and a lot of lean muscle.
Instead of working hours on end month after month for little if any results, try eliminating these fitness faux pas from your program and start letting your body work for you to achieve your fat loss goals.
For additional information on Holly Rigsby, you can visit her website
at http://FitYummyMom.com.
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Exercise, Healthy Eating |
1 Comment »
March 10th, 2010
Shelley:
Thank you so much for being there to answer my questions. I really appreciate it more than you know. I got on the scale Saturday morning, 1 week from starting the drops, and I have lost 11 pounds! I took my measurements again and I have lost inches all over. I can’t thank you enough for sharing this with me. I have not been hungry starting this second week, is that normal? Last week my stomach was growling like crazy and now yesterday and today I have not
felt hungry at all. Just wondering can we eat scallops and does the kind of tea matter? I sure don’t want to mess this up.
Thank you Inside Out!
Natalie – Boise, ID
www.hcgeatingforlife.com
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February 25th, 2010
I lost 50 lbs. in weight, 7 inches off my waist, and 5 inches off my chest!! Thanks Shelly Armstrong and the Inside Out team. You made me a believer! I’m starting the maintenance part of the diet this week. We will see if I can keep it off now. – Scott Holman, Utah -
 
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