Mindful Eating & Vitamins/Minerals Facts.

What is mindful eating?
Part of successful long term weight management is minimizing deprivation and eating foods that you enjoy on a regular basis. Deprivation or avoidance may work in the short-term, but usually leads to feeling out of control, self-criticism, and eating more.
It is helpful to adopt a more healthy and balanced approach to eating.

VITAMINS
Vitamins are a group of organic substances (made by plants or animals), that are essential for normal cell function, growth, and development.
There are 13 essential vitamins, meaning they are needed for the body to function. They are grouped into two categories:
Fat Soluble Vitamins:    A, D, E, & K
•    Small amounts needed to maintain good health
•    Stored in the body’s liver and fatty tissue
•    High doses can be toxic and lead to health problems
Water Soluble Vitamins:
B-complex group & Vitamin C
•    Not stored in the body and must be replaced each day
•    These vitamins are easily destroyed or weakened during food storage and preparation
•    Citrus fruits are a good source of vitamin C
MINERALS
Minerals are substances that come from the earth (soil and water) and are absorbed by plants. Humans absorb minerals from the foods that we eat. These are important for optimum health. There are two kinds of minerals:
Macrominerals
•    Includes calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, and sulfur
•    Body requires large amounts
Trace Minerals
•    Includes iron, manganese, copper, iodine, zinc, cobalt, fluoride, and selenium
•    Body requires limited amounts
WHY ARE VITAMINS AND MINERALS IMPORTANT?
Vitamins and minerals have many functions that help the body carry out different processes. Vitamins and minerals assist the body in the following ways:
✓ Protects arteries
✓ Produces healthy skin
✓ Boosts your immune system
✓ Balances hormones
✓ Energy production
✓ Proper functioning of your brain and nervous system
✓ Slows down the ageing process ✓ Protects against certain cancers and heart
disease

FACTS TO CONSIDER
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Vitamin and mineral supplements are considered dietary supplements, not drugs, so they do not have to be tested in order to prove their safety or effectiveness before they are put on the market. They are considered safe until demonstrated
by the Food and Drug Administration to be dangerous.  Gees, play the guinea pig or russian rulette with your health & wellness.  Key is to do your research.
The American Medical Association has stated that it is acceptable for a healthy adult to use a multi- vitamin/mineral supplement.  I say first try to get V & M from a food source.

Go to www.usda.gov for a list of recommended daily allowances for other vitamins and minerals.

Metabolism and Eating go hand in hand.

Metabolism and EATING with ways to control it throughout the day.

The metabolism goes through peaks and valleys, high points and low points throughout the course of 24 hours.  It is our energy and the foundation for how we feel.  When a person wakes up in the AM after sleeping the recommended 7-10 hrs for adults, their metabolism is at the very low end of the spectrum.  So, how to increase it to have energy in the AM?  Simple, put food in the body, because food is calories and calories are energy. This is why breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it jump starts your metabolism.

No longer will I reference eating a meal, bur refer to eating by saying  the word “feeding.”  Ideally, an adult should have 5-7 feedings a day.  A traditional example of 5 would be, breakfast-snack-lunch-snack-dinner to cumulatively make up 5 feedings for that day.  The thing is if a person is only eating 2 times a day they are INTENTIONALLY LOWERING their METABOLISM through habit.  The idea is to take our daily calories and spread them out then put them into the body during massive feeding times.  A good strategy for a person eating 2 times a day is to not eat more, but spread out all that food over more feeding times.  
Every time food is put into the body, the metabolism increase, so more frequent “feedings” will consistently train your body metabolism to work in a more cyclic pattern.  In order to lose weight a person MUST EAT many small feedings throughout the day and this action in itself will increase a person’s metabolism.

Now, if you are not eating several feedings throughout the day or always skip breakfast the idea is to make a small change.  If not hungry in the AM, then start with eating just a bit of something healthy and slowly increase that desire to be hungry over time.  It takes many months for the body to change habits depending how long we have been doing the opposite.  So by adding one cheerio a day from week to week with adding a couple more each time, soon enough you will be ready to have a bowl of cereal in the AM. 

Do you know to eat your veggies?

Believe in YOU...                        8.25.12

This summer I a developed my first ever veggie garden.  It started with my 4 year young (lil man) & I turning up the grass in a 18’ X 18’ plot in the back yard.  This led to a new habit of just eating raw vegetables for breakfast.   The point of this story is about trying new habits all have a beginning and hopefully it is a good habit that is starting, because at first it isn’t a habit at all, its just an experience. 

Veggies have a ton of water & amazing connective tissues (fiber), plus have a plethora of health properties we label as anti-oxidants.  Veggies should be eaten, NOT drinking, but juicing them from time to time can yield some new special treats or even making some healthy Popsicles!

Food is my medicine, & the concept of 1/2 a person’s plate should be made up of fruit & veggies at each meal has been heavily promoted. Don’t you know you should eat your vegetables?  In order to make them accessible to munch on over the course of a few days it takes planning & organization before they are gobbled up to aid in my health and wellness. 

So a great new habit was formed from a few small practices.  When you have a positive new habit in your life it is truly wonderful.  Adding more raw veggies (easy to do during summer & fall farmers market season) to my diet regularly, started with being outside and connecting with Earth, then followed up by how amazingly delicious they are, which led to a functional gift, which now gets filled often with a super healthy snack that has a tremendous positive impact on my life.

Its the small things that start habits in our day to day and week to week lives, what will be your next new one?......