Why Being a Mindful Eater Helps You Lose Weight

How to Eat Mindfully

So often we eat mindlessly. We stuff food into our mouths while working on the computer, watching TV, or when we're on the run. Become aware when you eat by slowing down and fully experiencing all of the elements of food. Take some time to explore each of the following during your next meal and notice the difference.

Sight: Look at your food and appreciate the colors and placement on your plate. Imagine how it grew to get there, and all the care it received to be here, to nourish you.

Smell: Bring the food up to your nose. Tune in to its aroma. Describe it with words.

Physiological response: Before your food enters your mouth, notice that saliva is being generated in your mouth. There is a mind/body phenomenon in how the senses respond to the anticipation of food being eaten.

Touch: Touch a forkful to your lips and feel the sensations. Allow your tongue to receive the food.

Taste: After becoming aware of the food in your mouth, start biting into it very slowly. Then begin to chew. Notice the automatic way the tongue decides which side of the mouth it's going to chew on. Give all your attention to your mouth and take a few bites. Stop to experience what's happening. Verbalize the explosion of taste you are experiencing. Is it sweet or sour or juicy? There are hundreds of words to describe the experience of tasting.

Texture: As you continue to chew, the tastes change, as does the consistency. At a certain point you will become aware of the texture of the food because the taste has mostly passed. If the texture causes aversion, you may want to swallow it, but try to keep it in your mouth.

Swallow: Stay with the impatience and the inborn impulse to swallow. Do not swallow until you detect the impulse to do so. Once you swallow, imagine that bite traveling into the stomach, feel your whole body and acknowledge that your body now has exactly one bite more of nourishment.

Breath: Next, pause for a moment or two, and experience your breath. Bring the same quality of attention to the breath that you gave to seeing, feeling, smelling and tasting the food.

Silence: Be silent. By this point, you have meditated upon that bite. Add more mindfulness to all aspects of your life. Observe, be present, and life will become more vibrant and livelier!

You can use this approach with another person, moving the food close to their mouth, but not all the way into their mouth. You can even massage their lips with the food to see what happens. The main thing is to have fun, learn something and understand yourself better. Mindful eating will do wonders to nourish your body and improve your health.

You know the outcome you want. Obstacles are in the way. Namely, fear. Ready for the work you love, peaceful parenting, vibrant health, happy relationships? 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10263965

Don't let our Bodies and Minds Lockdown too.

Keeping our Body and Mind sharp during lockdown is Key.

Movement, being supple and flexible with good posture is vital, especially 

when many are less active.  Ensuring our core is strong and stable, 

using dynamic stretching, working muscles that we're using less, 

along with keeping our joints moving freely to stop stiffness.

Can You Eat for Covid? | Greek Style White Bean Stew with Professor Ro...

Using nutrition to help our immunity and help reduce the inflammatory status in our bodies.

Phytochemical rich foods, healthy gut biome and less food with inflammatory agents.

6 Ways to Boost Your Immune System

Your immune system is quite complex. The ability of your body to fight off different types of infections and illnesses depends on the strength of your immune system. However, it should not be too strong or it may overreact, which may result in autoimmune disorders and allergies. In this article we have shared 5 simple ways to help you boost Your immune system.

Follow a Healthy Diet

Eating a healthy diet is of paramount importance as far as your immunity is concerned. In other words, you may want to go for healthy fats, lean protein, whole grains, legumes, fruits, and green vegetables on a daily basis.

With a healthy diet, your body can get plenty of micronutrients that are important for maintaining your immunity. Some of these micronutrients include vitamin E, vitamin C, and Vitamin B6. If you eat a healthy diet, you can get enough of these vitamins.

According to many experts, vitamins obtained from dietary sources are easy to absorb for your body.

Exercise Regularly

Physical activities are important as far as helping your muscle-building efforts are concerned. Apart from this, physical activity helps you reduce your stress levels. Exercising on a daily basis improves blood circulation in your body, which gives a boost to your immunity.

According to many research studies, if you spend 30 minutes exercising on a daily basis, it can stimulate your immune system. Therefore, it is important to get regular exercise.

Stay Hydrated

Drinking plenty of water is important for your body. In your body, lymph is a type of fluid that transports infection-fighting immune cells across your body. And this fluid consists of water. Therefore, it is important that you stay hydrated all the time.

Get Plenty of Sleep

Although sleep does not seem to be an active process, your body repairs itself while you are asleep. For example, your body creates specific molecules that help fight infection in your body. And this process begins only after you fall asleep.

If you don't get enough sleep, you may be more prone to different types of viruses and bacteria. Therefore, you may want to do yourself a favor and go to bed at the same time each night.

Minimize Stress

Stress can have a very negative impact on your health, especially the immune system. If you have been suffering from chronic stress, your body initiates a stress response that suppresses your immunity. As a result, you are more prone to illness or infection.

Different people suffer from different levels of stress. Since it can have a negative impact on your health, you may want to identify the source of stress and eliminate it. You can also follow some stress reduction strategies, such as deep breathing, exercise, prayer, and meditation.

Take Supplements

Lastly, you can buy some over-the-counter supplements. They can help you boost your immunity at a fraction of the cost of many expensive alternatives. Therefore, you can try these supplements. Just make sure they are approved by the FDA. Some of these supplements include Vitamin C.

Long story short, these are just some of the tips that can help you boost your immune system. By following these steps, it will be a lot easier for you to lead a healthy life.

Antioxidants help boost immune system. There are supplements like fountain of life drops that give a boost to your immunity.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10380980

How to Fix Your Posture in 4 Moves! (PERMANENTLY)

As we remain in some kind of Lockdown throughout the world, we can relieve pain & side effects of bad Posture.

Let Jeff from Athlean-X guide you to fix:

Rounded shoulders, Hunched back, Crooked neck, Forward head and Tilted pelvis

Your Posture Matters

As a practicing chiropractor of 35 years I have seen how important good posture is to our health. We all know that poor posture can cause neck and lower back pain. But did you know that bad posture is linked to high blood pressure and even, a shorter life span? This article will discuss bad posture and its harmful effects on the body. Normal posture will be defined. How to achieve proper posture will be discussed.

In 2004 Deborah Kado MD and colleagues published a study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society that discussed poor posture. She used the term called hyperkyphosis. Hyperkyphosis can simply be described as postural slouching; where the head and shoulders slump forward. She noted that older people with hyperkyphotic posture had a 44% increased chance of dying. She linked poor posture to an increased rate of mortality due to atherosclerosis, which is simply hardening and blockage of the arteries.

In 2019 the Asian Spine Journal released a scientific research paper detailing an increase of hypertension (high blood pressure) in middle-aged and elderly people. The mean average age of those in the study was close to 80 years old but the authors noted that poor postural changes began when people were in their 30s.

Normal posture can be imagined as if we were looking at military person who is standing at attention. Their head and shoulders are back. They definitely don't have a slouched upper body posture. Their stomach and hips are also back and not thrust forward. If you looked at them from the side you could draw a straight line from their ankle, through their hip, continuing through the middle of the shoulder and through the opening of the ear. They look good! Their clothes fit better. They carry themselves with self-respect.

In my chiropractic practice I work daily to improve the posture of my patients. If their spine and pelvis is misaligned, I use various chiropractic techniques to bring them back into proper alignment. If they entered the office with neck and back pain this almost always brings pain relief. I also show them very simple stretching and strengthening exercises to help them with their posture.

One visualization I like to pass along is to imagine standing as though a helium balloon were attached by a string to the top of your head. Automatically, this brings one's posture into a much better state. If you stand, walk and sit with this image in mind it can't help but to improve posture and ultimately, health.

See this site for information about a pain relief chiropractor near me. Visit here to learn more about a McKnight Road chiropractor near me.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10341877

Arnold Schwarzenegger - 6 Rules of SUCCESS

Have a Vision
Ignore the Naysayers
Work Like Hell...
&
…Advertise
Don’t be afraid of Failure
Help Others

It Is So Easy to Give Up on Our Goals When They Don't Give Us Immediate Results

We have motivation. We "do what we're told," but our body still isn't to our liking and is holding us back from our life.

And so we get frustrated and either get mad at ourselves, react and jump to something different, or just stop altogether.

The world we live in today is fast, which translates to us wanting immediate satisfaction.

Quick Fixes Don't Work
But the dark side behind those "magic buttons," "get rich quick," "crash diet" techniques?

They rarely ever work!

One thing I run into with so many of my clients is that they always ask me, "Ekemba, what is the one thing I can do to get some great reward?"

And I think that is one of the most disjointed ideas we have today about what it takes to take care of your body.

Everyone wants to live a good life and have their body not keep them down, but to help propel it.

But there is a big issue with the information that comes out. It's all disjointed and designed around marketing first, and not about what it really takes.

You see, to really take care of your body, you need to have a plan...

When I began working out, it was for sports. The goal was to get good at the sports I played.

Then afterward, I wanted to lose weight and gain muscle.

Then I HAD to train to correct my injuries and imbalances.

All those programs are different. But we are told that they are all interchangeable and are "tools in our tools box," and thrown under the guise of "changing it up." When, in reality, it is tough to fit them together, and takes time for each program to take effect.

Follow The Correct Path For You
It wasn't until I was forced to take a step back to correct my injuries did I start to study the rules and philosophies designed to have the body function at its best did I see where the health and fitness industry was leading us astray.

It's easy to feel like you are doing what you are supposed to be doing because you are active, and the workouts that you and everybody are doing make some sense.

But just because some of the information is correct doesn't mean it is totally correct or totally correct for you.

Because now, the health and fitness industry is such a copycat industry... it's easy to fall into a rut.

If you don't really know what you're doing, or if you're only reference is that you are moving and working out...

Odds are you aren't going to really achieve your goals.

Usually, to get that satisfaction that you have achieved what you really want, you have to do what others aren't.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10372598

How to manage your mental health | Leon Taylor | TEDxClapham

Prolonged psychological stress is the enemy of our mental health,

and physical movement is our best weapon to respond.

Reclaim our Mental Health and find the Movement which fills us with Joy

and do it as often as we can :)

 

Exercise, Physical Activity and Mental Health

 

Exercise and physical activity play a crucial role in both maintaining one's mental health condition and in recovering from a mental illness. Breaking research indicates that exercise actually produces a chemical that stimulates the growth of brain cells, thus allowing for recovery from sever substance abuse disorders. Furthermore, physical activity and mental health recovery coincide in fostering a social network and encouraging self-reflection, both of which are crucial on the path to mental health recovery.

The human mind evolved in an environment which required it to travel over twelve miles daily. And no, that drive to work in the morning does not count...but that would make things easier, no? This evolution was due to survival instincts when humans migrated from the jungles into the flatlands. Humans also developed an adrenaline reaction which both encouraged movement and triggered immediate learning reactions; as Doctor Carl Clark from the Mental Health Center of Denver once stated, when early man saw that saber-tooth tiger charging out of the brambles, the neurons must have been firing pretty fast to teach them to stay away from the bushes next time...that is assuming their get away was fast enough to allow for a next time!

This adrenaline rush encouraging learning has become neutralized by the flow of activities in modern western societies, wherein the normal individual is seemingly on a constant, albeit generally unnoticed, adrenaline rush. Consequently, stress levels have continuously been on the rise, consequently decreasing the rate at which an individual learns when in a compromising situation, thus decreasing mental wellness levels.

Physical activity is a huge aid to mental health in the fact that exercise allows for a stress outlet, thus decreasing day-to-day stress, while creating functional adrenaline for the mind. In reality, physical activity is important for mental health due to its role in creating Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF), which is a key factor in the creation of brain cells. The myth of the old days is past; you know the one, where once your brain cells are gone they are gone. Well such is not the case, physical activity and exercise can increase BDNF levels and allow the re-growth of brain cells, consequently making physical activity immensely important for mental illness recovery.

Exercise and mental health further coincide in regards to the alarming statistic that people with mental illnesses, on average, die 20 years sooner than mentally healthy individuals. While there are many factors that go into this involved in substance abuse risk factors, two considerations that one would be remiss to ignore is the fact that those suffering from mental illnesses have a tendency to stagnate and become physically inactive. This has resulted in a large percentage of mental health consumers being considered overweight, which can ultimately result in adult onset diabetes. Diabetes is very dangerous in sedentary individuals who, in a depressant state, care little about taking care of themselves, for such a medical ailment can result in numerous health related issues, some of which can be very serious.

Physical activity and mental illness recovery are highly correlated. In some of the most successful recovery-based treatment facilities one will find strong proponents of mental health consumers engaging in physical activity. These activities also subsidize the development and formation of a support network populated by individuals interested in similar hobbies. Furthermore, exercise can often be a form of active meditation, and as practitioners of Dialectic Behavioral Treatment (DBT) can profess, meditation, including meditation absent any religious connotations (whether it be active or seated), drives self-reflection which is crucial to mental health recovery; for more information on the importance of self-reflection, you can access my article on Spirituality and Hope in Mental Health.

Stay physically active, exercise and mental wellness are highly correlated. Exercise is one of the best ways to prevent the development of serious mental illnesses, and is also one of the most effective treatment plans. Stay active, stay healthy, stay happy.

For more research on mental health, behavioral disorders, substance abuse, psychographics, childhood mental illnesses, childhood resiliency, adolescent mental illnesses, and adult recovery, access MHCD's Research and Evaluation's publication page [http://www.outcomesmhcd.com/pubs/publications.htm].

- Lex Douvasa

Information Systems Researcher and Data Mining Mental Health Researcher

For an open discussion on mental healthcare recovery, what it means for mental healthcare consumers, and what it means for mental healthcare practioners, along with the differences implicitly underlying a recovery based approach, access the Mental Health Recovery Blog.

Stay healthy, stay happy!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2619737