15 foods with healing power
PIN IT!Call them the witches of the food world, these healthy treats have magical powers!
http://eatthis.womenshealthmag.com/slideshow/15-foods-cure?cm_mmc=ETNTNL-_-2010_01_28-_-HTML-_-hed
Day 22–Eat a donut
I know…gasp! The health nut, nutritionist in training is resolving to eat a donut! Is it a full moon? Is she drunk? An imposter? No. no. None of the above. I’m just a human being, who on crummy days, just wants a freakin’ donut. I’ve gone through phases of my life where a donut was a fortified bad word, something not to be muttered or thought about. They were viewed as bad as drugs and I wasn’t allowed to even look at one. And you know what happened? I ended up bingeing on those forbidden fruits one crummy day, leaving me bloated, depressed, and no more satisfied. [aka, serious food coma, and not nearly as cute as this pup].
Although I’m no where near where I’d like to be physically, I’m going to let myself have one donut. Not a box of them or even two, just one. And you know what friends? It felt fantastic. Self control is a hard, hard characteristic to master, but when you do, your whole life changes because you no longer feel trapped, deprived or crazy. You just feel normal, which coming from a girl whose faced more body issues than most, is the best feeling in the world.
So if your craving a donut, a cookie, an ice cream cone or a piece of cake, let yourself have that one, then walk away. Liberate yourself and your diet, trust me, it’ll change you.
I'm alive, I promise.
Hello Worldpress world, I’m alive. I was on a short hiatus due to overwhelming stress and personal issues, which took an overwhelming toll on my mental and physical being. Although I didn’t post everyday, I still kept strong to my promise and scribbled down my goals in a work notebook, which I plan to share to my fellow bloggers today.
Day 18: Play with numbers…Take on GRE math
Mathematics are not my strong suit, at all. In fact I’d rather give myself a partial lobotomy or open heart surgery than do any sort of math. So this resolution was miserable, trying and boring, but I pushed myself through an hour of algebraic equations and b+y=x. I’m no where near ready yet, but my rusty math brain is dusted off and slowly gearing.
Day 19: Reinstate the food journal
Back in the day [circa] 7th grade, I was a kind-of-chubby swimmer. Well, my coach had decided to make us keep a food journal to be more aware of what we were putting in our bodies. So after just a few short days, I found myself face to face with the reason I was a size 12 at the age of 13; the cupcakes, army size portions of macaroni, and the endless cans of coke that were scribbled in my journal. I was not only ashamed, but embarrassed. What was my coach going to say when he saw this? So I made a conscious effort to improve my eating. And 6 months later, I was a svelte size 2 with an unbeatable freestyle time. Since then, I’ve kept hundreds of journals, which have transformed from notebooks to scattered post-its, none of which were nearly as effective as 7th grade [which makes no sense, I’m 10 years wiser!] So I decided to signal 7th grade me and keep a journal that actually works, one that isn’t filled with white lies or false calorie counts. My new food journal is in a pretty, slim black leather binder and thus far, is accurate [and incredibly embarrassing once again]. If you’re interested in keeping a food journal, here are some great online sites that let you keep a journal on the web!
http://www.my-calorie-counter.com/
Day 20: Learn to laugh it off
I have a problem of taking life a little too seriously and seeing things a bit too negatively sometimes. I mentioned this in a previous post, and lately, it’s gotten bad, to the point Elliot is finding it hard to be around me. I’ve hit a bit of a funk, and I know it. I’m having trouble seeing the light in the darkness, so to speak. The worst days being Thursday and Friday. I woke up on Friday and just felt sad and uncharacteristically angry. I had no idea how to shake it, everything nearly brought me to tears. Well, until lunch, when I went out with a friend from work. This friend has a knack for making anyone laugh, no matter the circumstance. And no matter how much i tried to keep my angry-sad-depressed façade, I couldn’t help but just laugh at his outrageous impersonations and crude jokes, and just like magic, I felt better. Then my friend looked at me and said “sometimes, you just gotta laugh it off.” And you know what? It’s the best piece of advice I’ve heard in a long time. Bad days are going to come and people are going to hurt you, make you cry and make you feel like your nothing, and sure the first thing that comes to mind is to shy away and cry, but you can’t. You have to find something, someone, someplace that will make you laugh. Because no matter what ailment or shortcoming you face, laughter is the best medicine.
Day 21: Donate clothes to charity
I am a glorified pat rack. I keep everything. Like, everything. Old notes from middle school, stories I wrote when I was 7, shoes from senior prom. And then there’s my closet. Half of my clothes still have tags, some are slightly worn, some more worn, jeans from college, sweaters from high school. It’s getting a little out of control. So on day 21, I gathered all the clothes I know would never see the light of day if they stayed and boxed them up to be sent to charity. I have a feeling they will be loved and will soon be someone’s favorite.
If you are in the mood for some spring cleaning or want to help others in need, visit the sites below. Your too tight jeans or old sweaters have the potential to save someone’s life by giving them warmth, comfort and opportunity.
http://www.charityguide.org/volunteer/fifteen/clothesshoes.htm
http://www.use.salvationarmy.org/use/www_use.nsf
http://www.oprah.com/home/Where-to-Donate-Clothes-Computers-Furniture
Day 17: Drink 8 cups of h2o!
Being a mammal that is composed of 75 percent H2O, you’d think it’d be easier for me to drink it. Truthfully, it’s not, it’s nearly impossible for me to get 64oz of water. Even if I dress it up in fruit flavoring or disguise it with herbal tea, I still can only manage 5 glasses, at most, a day.
Which is bad, bad news. The recommended 8 glasses of water a day isn’t something to be taken lightly, without it, our bodies suffer. So what does water do? Regulates metabolism, forms the fluids that surround all of our major joints, regulates body temperature and helps reduce constipation. And frankly, just a few short days without it can kill us, or leave us severely dehydrated. It’s like trying to drive a car that has no gas, not going to happen and very, very bad for the engine.
Just a 2% drop in our body’s water supply can trigger signs of dehydration. Dehydration is also one of the most common causes of daytime fatigue and exhaustion, also about seventy-five percent of Americans have mild, chronic dehydration. [www.freedrinkingwater.com].
It’s not easy drinking that much water, I swear I gained about 10 pounds of water weight, but I just felt better, cleaner and refreshed. And it worked as an appetite suppressant because I found myself too full of hydrogen and oxygen to snack! So drink up! [All 8 glasses!!]
Claire
Tags:8 glasses a day, constipation relief, dehydration, empty tank, h2o, water
Day 16: Institute "date night"
Ah, Nothing beats the joys of going out on the town with the one you love on your arm. One thing I love about going out on dates is the sheer romance of it–dressing up in an outfit so sexy it makes his head spin (see picture below), eating a meal that costs as much as a week’s worth of groceries, drinking a vintage bottle of wine dated back to my highschool days and gazing at each other through candlelight, falling in love all over again. Such a night is a perfect date for an old-fashioned girl like me and the thought alone makes me salivate!
Sexiest outfit, period.
Date nights are wonderful, but unfortunately, are sometimes only a fantasy for those of us married with children, on a budget, or just too darn busy. Coming from a girl who was on a serious date night dry spell, it really affects the romance level in your relationship and leaves you feeling resentful and sad. It’s important to remember that just because your serious, engaged, or married doesn’t mean you have to stop dating [well, not other people obviously). The act of dating [going out and having fun together] helps keep your friendship alive as well as the spark level in your relationship. And we all know the best romantic relationships are those where you are each other’s friend too. Dating also keeps you in tune with each other’s personalities and gives you the opportunity to learn even more about each other through uninterrupted conversation. [Free of Barking dogs, whiny kids, loud video games and mindless tv!]
So to revive the spark and laughter in my relationship, I proposed to my boyfriend the idea of a monthly date night, where we can go out on the town and experience all that is metro Washington, DC. (or just have fun outside of our little world, aka our apartment). So our new found tradition began yesterday with a dinner-movie date, which was just what the doctor ordered. We recovered deep conversation topics that had temporary disappeared and laughed, very hard.
We clean up nice don’t we? 🙂 So if you feel your relationship is losing that va-va-voom, start a date night with your love and stick to it. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health, so be sure to strive for happiness in your relationship to ensure prime mental health!
If you are on a budget (like most of the world), here are some great websites to visit for cheap date ideas!
http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/relationship-issues/articles/cheap-date-ideas
http://dating.about.com/od/dateideas/a/frugaldateideas.htm
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Froseth1.html
Claire
Tags:chemisrty, date night, dates on a budget, dinner and a movie, dinner out, night out, revive spark, spark
