Sleep!!!

I am writing this blog post this week about sleep. Why? Because finals are coming up and I feel that there are a lot of students that don’t realize how important sleep is to their everyday schedule. They can’t be staying up all night studying for finals because when it is time to take the final, that is the time where they’re going to crash. Sleep is so important especially the day before a final in order to function properly.

Sleep isn’t only important to your mental health but also your physical health. Something that not many people look into is the anatomy of sleeping and what it does for your body. Sleep repairs and restore your heart and blood vessels. With no sleep you would be as risk for kidney disease, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and even stroke.

Besides your physical health, mental health is where its at. Your overall emotional well being is very important in being able to go on with your day. With no sleep your brain will not work properly and when your brain does not work properly a whole slew of things can then go wrong. When you sleep it is allowing your brain to recharge itself to help you remember and learn more information.

Overall sleep is a very important thing for you to catch up on. It can effect your safety, physical, mental and even your social health. So catch up on as much sleep as you can. You will need it for when finals come up and things will come a lot easier for you.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why

sleep

The 21 Day Fix

The 21 Day Fix is a diet program done at home for 21 days. It is based on color coated containers that help you portion your food as well as workout discs that help you along your journey.  There is no calorie counting involved but just healthy eating principles.   This program is to keep maintenance within peoples diets, as well as spread out different workouts throughout your time doing them.  As with all the pros of this diet and getting you in shape and your “perfect” summer bod, there are cons.

I personally did the 21 Day Fix and thought I was going to love it. I did for like the first three days.  After that, it was hell.  The program cut my calories down by almost 1,000, and I was eating pretty much nothing.  For the workouts that they have you do, I think that the amount of food you eat should be a lot more than it is.  I was always hungry, tired and never wanted to do much.  It takes a lot of will power and discipline to do something like this.

I do admit that I did not enjoy doing this program but did follow through with it and ended up losing a total of 7lbs by the end of my journey.  But I will tell you one thing, I will probably never, ever do it again, because I love my food and energy for the day way too much.

There are other ways that one could lose weight than pretty much starving yourself. Work out, eat healthy, and love your body.

21-day-fix-color-coded-containers-types-of-foods

Ugly Truth About Tanning Beds

Many of us are blessed to have different skin types than others.  As for me, I am someone who has the fairest skin tone there is.  When I am out in the sun it depends on whether I burn or actually tan. Most of the time I will burn and then it will tun to tan.  When I was very young I use to get sun poisoning all over my arms and I had to wear a long sleeved shirt to the beach.  As I am sure you could imagine that was never fun for me.

So over the winter season there is no sun to make your skin that bronze color, so what do we do? Tanning beds.  We go and spend crazy amounts of money to fry our skin and put us in a situation to get melanoma.  Some think that “no it will never happen to me” and those are the people who it usually happens to.

There are some laws now in many states that have restrictions on tanning beds to 18 and up, no parent signatures, that is the age no matter what.  I think that people should look more into tanning beds before they get into one so that they know what could possibly happen to them.  Is it really worth getting skin cancer and having a sunburn all the time?  Think about things like this before you decide you want to look good by being tanning.  There are other ways to do so other than this.

 

tanning bed

Is Diet Soda, Really Diet?

Many people nowadays are trying to cut their carbs, sugars and fats to get into healthier shape. This is when their worst nightmare diet soda comes in, when in reality it is actually worse for you than regular soda.  Actually, the “diet” might as well not even be on the can because it all might as well be a lie.  When I was younger I used to be a soda drinker,  I mean what kids weren’t right? Seeing people like my grandparents drink diet soda always made me think it was so much more healthier for you.

As I’ve grown up, the soda drinking no longer exists and I started to realize the differences between diet and regular soda.  And it ends up being that regular soda is better for you then diet, yeah that’s right! But in reality both are still very unhealthy for someone who likes to drink soda.  Although diet soda is calorie free and of course that draws in all the people who would like to lose weight, but it is said that the artificial sweeteners in the soda make you have a craving for more sugar. This then leads to more eating and drinking because your body becomes not satisfied.

And now the ugly of diet soda, it is said that 48% of all people who drink diet soda are more likely to have a heart attack or stroke compared to those who drink regular soda. So the next time that you are standing in front of a cooler at a convenient store and think that if you get diet soda you’re going to benefit from it think twice.  In all reality you should chose water over any sugary drink that is available to you. coke

 

Get Your Yoga On!

When putting both yoga and meditation together it improves your fitness and your overall well-being.  Yoga is something that people should incorporate into their everyday lives. Even though it is a lot of slow moving moves, you do in fact, gain much muscle and balance from doing yoga all the time.  I myself just started going to yoga and I love it! It’s so fun and relaxing and you don’t have to worry about whether you’re doing it the right way or not.  Some cannot move or bend the way others can so this specific activity allows you to your own thing.

With yoga, it will reduce your stress level of the everyday obstacles you come to.  It is a good idea to go do some yoga after a long stressful day of either school or work. According to Psychosomatic Medicine, doing yoga will reduce your chances of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Other things that yoga can improve is your flexibility, your emotions, and give you a better diet.  Doing yoga will increase your fitness level and actually will make your body want better and healthier foods.  This will then help your self-esteem when taking better care of your body.

The power of yoga and meditation is amazing. There are so many things that people don’t know about how important it could be to their lives helping them live a better lifestyle.  yoga

The Secrets to Nutrition Labels

Do you know how to properly, and thoroughly read a nutrition label? I bet a lot of people cannot seeing the results that many are getting from the foods that they eat.  Many think that because its low calories that it is healthy for you.  But what about all the other facts on the label?

It’s the things like sugar, carbohydrates, and cholesterol that people should be reading on the label.  Did you know that diet soda is actually worse for you than regular soda? Probably not because you were only focusing on certain parts of the label.  Another mistake that many make is the serving sizes. A label can have a serving size that you may think is the right one, but it is actually how many servings are in that type of packaging.

Along with how to read the label and the importance of each one, you should also read the ingredients on the label.  I always went by this, if you can’t pronounce the ingredient then you shouldn’t be eating it.  Most of those words that you can’t read are ingredients that are horrible for your body and do nothing for you.

So from now on when you go to the store, read your label slowly and carefully because you will be able to know which food is best for you overall and you won’t get fooled by the label’s loop holes!nutrition label

Never Run on Empty; Hydrate!!!

Being someone that should be drinking a lot more water than I do sometimes, I am always reading articles and seeing things about how important it is to be hydrated, ALL the time.  Some think that drinking a bottle or two of water will cut it, wrong.  Someone who weights 150 pounds should be drinking 70 ounces of water which equals out to about four, 17oz. bottles of water.  Water doesn’t only make you feel good, it makes you look good.  Your hair and skin benefit from hydration greatly.

If your body is not hydrated it will not be able to perform at its highest level of performance.  You will feel sluggish, tired and sometimes even dizzy.  I know that if I don’t drink enough water I become sick, and no one wants to be sick.  Nutrients from water fuels your body so that it can run properly and provide you with energy.

If you are someone who struggles on not drinking enough water, then set a goal for yourself.  This is something that I have been doing and it works awesome.  Set a small goal and over time go up until you get to where you would like to be.  And there can never be an excuse of “I don’t have time” because there is always time to drink water.  Keep in mind as well, if you are someone who is highly active, you should be drinking either two or even three times the amount of daily recommended water!

water

It All Starts With A Plan

Everyone always has these little ideas in their minds.  Things like “I wish” and “if only”, sometimes these things can actually happen if there was a plan behind the idea.

This would go along with a similar post, a goal is not a goal without a plan.  People say that if you right down your ideas or things that you wish to do, that you will sooner or later accomplish them. I can agree with whoever said this because I have experienced it first hand.  Since then I always write down an idea that I wish to come true.

As of right now I am in a Wellness Choices class. In this class for an assignment we were required to come up with a goal and write it down. Try to succeed in your goal in six weeks. Having things in your face all the time, reminding you of things that must be done are very important.  My overall goal is to attend the gym six days a week, and lose ten pounds by the time the six weeks is up.  I believe that this plan will be a great experience and hopefully a successful one. It will make me an overall healthier and fit person.

Now the real question is, do you have any of your goals written down? Do it.

The Love For The Game

As I grew up, sports have been a huge part of my life.  I was a three sport athlete with high grades. I mean I had to if I wanted to do the things I love.

Playing sports is a passion to me, it’s like my safe place.  Being able to be competitive and work hard for the same goal that everyone else was working towards really just made it ten times better.  Soccer, basketball and softball; there was never really a favorite.  Each of them in every way kept me busy in up to par on my physical and mental condition, some more than others.  Throughout high school all there really was for me to do was play sports because of my town being so small.  Sometimes it was a pain and others it was a blessing.  It made me want to get better and go that extra step.  It also made it so I had to learn and pay attention to things I ate and the type of workouts I did.

Then college rolled around…

Some may say that it is an excuse but I say it’s a challenge.  I love challenges.  I wanted to see how my first semester of college went before committing to anything.  Not playing three sports in college defiantly is a game changer.  There is no everyday practices or games, daily running and team lift.  All of that is things that I would love to get back into.

Now I go to the gym almost everyday trying to work my way back up to the point I was at before I came to school.

“Feel The Rainbow, Taste The Rainbow”

 

 

fruit

I’m sure when you all saw the title you might have thought I was talking about skittles huh?

Not today. Unfortunately for some it is about fruits and vegetables.

When we were all younger I am almost positive that we all had our most disliked vegetable. But now as we grow older we start to realize that all those times when our parents were being “mean” that they were really right all along.

Incorporating fruits and veggies into your diet is one of the most important things someone should do.  They both have so much vitamins and minerals that allow our bodies to perform every day to day duties.  Without them our body would sooner or later shut down and there would be no energy for the body to feed off of.  Adults should have 1 1/2 to 2 cups of fruits and 2 1/2 to 3 cups of vegetables.  Another thing to keep in mind is the amount of colors that should take up your plate when eating a meal.  The more colors the more healthy and amount of nutrients that you are consuming.  It is also said that when trying to get younger children to eat fruits and vegetables, that using a wide variety of colors like red, blue, orange and yellow, turns into eye candy for young children.