Our love affair with hating exercise.Written by Darryn Aldridge
We all have at one time or another muttered and cursed under our breath about pain of having to exercise, yet deep down we all know that we must.I mean, all of us know deep down (and for some it really is well hidden), that for us to live healthy lifestyles we really do need to be putting some sort of effort into making proper exercise a reality. I’m afraid to say that lifting remote controller off coffee table to change channels, or rushing to toilet during ads after drinking 6 cans of beer while game airs, doesn’t really count for a lot! So what makes one person leap out of bed in early hours of morning to go for a run, while others roll over and snuggle deeper in their blankets telling themselves that tomorrow will be big day? It comes down to focus. What you focus on you will achieve. You see if we focus on all reasons why we shouldn’t, or can’t be bothered to exercise, then we create perfect environment to justify why we won’t, and we then end up not doing a thing. We dream up great reasons for not doing things. We focus on weather, time of day, our current physical condition, in fact we can find anything at all as a great reason not to do something. So what happens now becomes our next major hurdle. You see, we build on these excuses and as time goes by we really do start to believe them, and they start to become our reality. Do you want to know truth? I used to do same thing for years on end. I would tell anyone who could be bothered to listen, that I just couldn’t run to save myself (I was conveniently forgetting that many other forms of exercise was available to me other than just running) and boy did it work for me! I did nothing for years, except put on weight and feel worse about myself.
| | The Importance of Nutrition and LifestyleWritten by Dr. Tara Barker ND
The Importance of Nutrition and LifestyleEating healthy and taking care of yourself is essential to obtain optimal wellness. Most people roll their eyes or moan when confronted with these ideas, but, in reality, taking care of yourself is not as hard, time consuming, expensive, or dull as most would have you believe. In fact, once people decide to choose a healthy life, they notice more energy, increased self-confidence, more time to do things that really matter, and they spend less time in doctor’s office or hospital. It is less expensive to buy organic foods and shop for most items at a health food store than it is to buy candy, soda, chips, pizza, alcohol, and cigarettes. Not only do people consume less food on a healthy diet (you really can’t just eat one Pringle), they help their bodies to become stronger and more able to fight disease, which makes their health costs lower as well. The foods are not dull or tasteless either. It does depend on what you like, but, in general, unprocessed and whole foods right from garden (or produce section) are tastiest and most satisfying. If you don’t like fresh snap peas, maybe you’ve not had them done right! In our current society of hustle and bustle, we often go for cheapest and quickest foods to get rid of that nasty hunger sensation. But what does that do to you? Really? Most people don’t know and they don’t care. They will care more when they discover they have heart disease or diabetes or variety of other conditions caused by this type of lifestyle. But patterns get established and it is so difficult to stay away from burgers or sodas for long. Tastes get perverted (yes, that is word for it) to like too much fat, sugar, and salt in our diets. Foods don’t taste as good without additives. In reality, they don’t taste as good because cheap food is cheap food and you wouldn’t eat it if you weren’t fooled by extras added in to either make it look, taste, or smell better. A McDonald’s thin hamburger is grayish to begin with, never mind that it has comparatively loads of fat in its small size. Try just burger without cheese, ketchup, mustard, onions, or pickles. Pretty bland. That cheese (if you could call it that) is what they call ‘cheese food’. They cannot call it ‘cheese’ because of processing. This ‘cheese food’ makes up most of sliced cheeses in supermarkets. Look at labels. The ketchup has corn syrup (sugar) and sugar added. I could go on, but I won’t. The point is, these additives are added to make an inferior product taste good enough to sell at a cheaper price so public will buy. I guarantee in a taste test of a more expensive, yet organic ketchup made with tomatoes that taste good, and regular ketchup without any added sugar to either sample, you would choose organic one over non-organic based solely on freshness of taste. The same goes for burgers, ice cream, breads, and many processed products. The better ingredient quality, better it tastes and healthier it is for you. It is best to limit use of anything processed (processed meaning things were done to it, it is not directly or closely linked to whole, natural food; usually these foods are in boxes or bags), but whole grain rice with spices and herbs in a box with no unnatural additives is much better for you than usual Rice-a-Roni, mac and cheese, and like. Read those labels as well. If you cannot pronounce or understand what an ingredient is, do not consume it. If a product says ‘enriched’, this does not make it a better product. In fact, things are enriched when they have had those enriching items taken away. Processing foods uses heat, cold, light, drying, or crushing which all serve to deplete vitamins and minerals in food. To replace these essentials means food was already compromised. Look for foods that are as close to their natural state and as fresh as possible. The best foods are fresh straight from earth. The next best is fresh from produce or bulk section. Then comes frozen, dried, and canned, respectively.
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