To help you have a more healthy holiday so that you can enjoy a longer fun-filled life, here are some tips you can follow:

• Commit to a healthy holiday – It all starts with a decision. If you decide early on that you’ll go all out to enjoy the holidays and binge, then there’s no way you’ll resist all the temptation. Commit to a healthier lifestyle this holiday, so that as the temptations come, you’ll have more resolve to overcome them.
• Eat before going to a party – You cannot control the kind of food served in parties you attend, so make it easier to resist the urge to pig out on unhealthy party food by eating before you leave the house. This way you’ll be full when you get to the party and will feel more like mingling with people than hovering over the table.
• Stay away from the table – Find a comfy spot in the farthest corner from the food and drinks station. The more inconvenient it is for you to get food, the less likely you’ll come back for seconds.
• Wash everything down with water – The free-flowing drinks may be tempting, but decide to wash down your food with water. Before you know it, you’ll feel too full to eat and drink too much.
• Serve healthy alternatives – If you’re hosting your own party, or will be cooking the Christmas dinner, make sure that you serve lots of healthy alternatives. You can do this by substituting healthy ingredients whenever you can, and using cooking healthier cooking techniques (i.e. roasting instead of deep frying).

Image via Burn the Fat Challenge

As a consumer myself, I have to admit that I have fallen multiple times for the great spiels that marketers have spent much effort into making their health products seem more believable. I too have used an “easy-to-use” exercise machine that just weren’t easy to use at all, fallen for vitamin supplements that I later found out was not FDA approved, and felt like buying so many health gadgets that I thankfully were able to resist buying mostly because of steep prices.

On the other hand I have also found supplements that, while not doing wonders, seems to be helping me boost my energy and curb my mood swings, a good pair of sneakers that has seen some better days but did me a lot more good than any exercise machine, and lots of healthy recipes that have become go-to meals in our house.

In my quest to become healthier, what I have learned is that the equation less is more usually works best. If you feel like you need to buy something in order to start your journey to better health, you are doing yourself a great disservice. You can start getting healthy with what you have today. Sure, there are some great products out there that will surely benefit you health-wise, but they will only be truly effective if you put in the required effort to live an overall healthier lifestyle.

Go ahead and buy health products and gadgets if you must, but be discriminating in your choices. Make sure you only get those that will truly be good for your health and that you know you can use regularly. Don’t become overly dependent on them. Focus more on the simple choices you make every day for a healthier you, and maybe a healthier wallet too! And as the image above implies, if you’re not making smart choices then guess what kind of choices you’re making.

Image credit: Eating Yourself Healthy

Recipe Finder Home Page

Cooking has become one of the most popular hobbies around the world today, thanks in part to celebrity chefs and their cooking shows. Whatever your take on this trend is, it is rather hard to deny the allure of cooking and enjoying the results of your labor.

For someone who spends time in the kitchen – even if only sporadically – it is essential to have some tools which you can rely on. There are kitchen tools and gadgets, of course, and then there are sources of inspiration for your next dish. One of the most important things is to find inspiration that can help you prepare meals that are healthy.

This is where Recipe Finder, the newest recipe search engine, comes into the picture. Truth be told, you can find a host of other recipe portals online. That’s another by product of the age of celebrity chefs. However, Recipe Finder offers you one big advantage – the aggregation of recipes that can be found in many other portals. In short, Recipe Finder saves you the time and the hassle of having to check each individual site.

Searching for recipes on Recipe Finder is rather easy. If you know the recipe name, you simply have to enter it in the search bar. If you only have the ingredients in mind, then you can use those as search terms as well. You can even choose to exclude certain ingredients! Also, you can conduct more specialized searches by specifying details such as the number of calories, the number of servings, and so on. This is the essential thing – these details can assist you greatly in determining which dishes are healthy or not.

Viewing the recipes is even easier! Choose between the text mode or the image mode. With the former, you immediately get to see more information about the recipe. With the latter, you get to be enticed by the scrumptious photos of the dishes.

Need some help in organizing your meals? Recipe Finder is the perfect tool! Use the menu and calendar features. With the menu creator, you can plan each dish for an entire meal. With the calendar, you can plan what you will be cooking in advance. Also, if you like the paper experience more, there is the option of printing out recipes with a single click.

Are you ready to embark on a whole new healthy experience in the kitchen? Recipe Finder is waiting for you.

So what is the Slow Food Movement? Their philosophy is:

Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.

Their mission is:

Slow Food works to defend biodiversity in our food supply, spread taste education and connect producers of excellent foods with co-producers through events and initiatives.

As you may surmise, this movement involves organic produce a lot. And I do not need to tell you that eating organic translates to healthy eating. I have to be honest, however, and state outright that being part of this movement is not that appealing to me. Call me callous and insensitive, but I do not think that it is possible for me to consume purely organic food. I believe that I can eat healthily without going to this extreme. I do respect and even admire the people behind this movement.

What about you? What do you think of slow food?

So maybe you’re allergic to shellfish and you can’t eat crab and oysters to help build stronger bones. What else can you eat on a regular basis to avoid bone problems when you advance in years? Here are some more alternatives.

Bok choy
This crunchy green leafy vegetable is very rich in calcium, the main nutrient that helps in bone health. More than that, though, bok choy also contains vitamins and iron, making it a very healthy treat for you. There are many ways to prepare bok choy – your imagination’s the limit!

Bananas
I love this fruit. It is very versatile. You can it eat as it is – just peel and pop into your mouth. You can make desserts. You can make smoothies. The great thing about bananas, aside from the taste, is that it contains potassium, which is responsible for preventing calcium loss in the body.

Kiwi Fruit
While I do not know many people who like kiwi, I highly suggest this fruit as an alternative to other snacks. Just lie bananas, kiwis contain a lot of potassium. In addition to this, however, this fruit also has a lot of vitamins as well as lutein, which is needed to help reduce the risk of heart problems.

Broccoli
Steamed broccoli – crunchy and sweet….You can’t get any better than that! And while there are people who hate this veggie, it does pack a lot of calcium, together with other nutrients. Broccoli is a perfect side dish to meat, which is just right for me!

Our bones need particular attention; at least, if we want to have them strong and healthy when we grow old. I suppose that people in their 20s and 30s do not really worry much about their bones but seeing as how the older people have problems with their bones, I think that it is never too early to try and build up our own bones. My mother would tell you the same thing – she is now suffering from osteoporosis and man, is it hard for her!

So here are some kinds of food that can help you build up those bones as early as you can.

Alaskan King Crab
You can always go for calcium pills but why settle for something routine and boring when you can eat lotsa crab? The Alaskan King Crab is very high in protein and very low in fat. More so, it has a lot of zinc, which is very good for making your bones healthy. Per 3.5 ounce serving, you can get 7 mg of zinc – and you get to enjoy the succulent meat as well!

Prunes
Yeah, prunes are known for other benefits but did you know that it contains a considerable amount of boron and copper? These two things help prevent osteoporosis. So the next time you get the munchies, grab a handful of prunes!

Oysters
Eew…well, I do not particularly like oysters but for those who do, then good for you! Not only does this shellfish help prevent prostate cancer, it also contains zinc and copper, which can help increase bone health.

(to be continued)

I did some reading on salt and its effects on our health and this is what I found. An entry in the Guardian blog states:

We’re used to the flavour, but our bodies only need about a single gram of salt a day. The UK’s average consumption is nearly ten times that, prompting a government health campaign – though its rather arbitrary 6g limit would bring relatively few benefits to the nation’s blood pressure.

I am assuming that high salt intake increases our blood pressure. I have heard this from lots of people before. Oh, don’t put too much salt in your food. You don’t want to increase your risk of high blood pressure. Then again, I have always liked to use salt liberally and I have not had a single episode of high blood pressure. I would like to think that it is a matter of more than our salt intake. Perhaps we should take a look at the overall picture – having a balanced diet and taking salt in moderation.

Photo courtesy of parl

Yoghurt or nuts
What do they have in common? These two snack items can actually help you de-stress. The article says:

Scientists in Slovakia gave people 3 grams each of two amino acids — lysine and arginine — or a placebo and asked them to deliver a speech. Blood measurements of stress hormones revealed that the amino acid–fortified public speakers were half as anxious during and after the speech as those who took the placebo. Yogurt is one of the best food sources of lysine; nuts pack tons of arginine.

Green Tea
This drink will help you increase your metabolism. In short, it just might help you lose weight. We all know that snacking (the wrong way) can make you put on those pounds easily. So instead of reaching for that can of soda, why not try green tea-based drinks?

Trail Mix
Instead of grabbing a can of energy drink or a cup of coffee, try Trail Mix to boost your energy. The reason for this:

Raisins provide potassium, which your body uses to convert sugar into energy. Nuts stock your body with magnesium, which boosts metabolism and improves nerve and muscle function. (When magnesium levels are low, your body produces more lactic acid — the same fatigue-byproduct that makes your muscles ache at the end of a workout.)

What do you say? Let’s try these suggestions for a change?

You’re probably thinking – now where did this come from? It’s just that the weekend has been a hectic one for me, in social terms. We started partying on Friday night and continued for the next two nights. Naturally, this morning has not been kind to me. It got me thinking about the various effects that alcohol can have on the body.

Anyway, I looked it up and found material wherein someone actually sent in a very similar question: Will wine make me fat?

So what was the columnist’s answer? Yes, it can make you fat. This is due to the simple reason that wine – and many alcoholic drinks – contain calories, lots of them to be exact. So imagine drinking 4 or 5 units of alcohol a night. If you do this several times a week, without really exercising and eating healthily, those calories can easily accumulate and make you gain weight.

As a matter of fact, fitness experts and nutritionists have gone as far as to say that if you consume large amounts of alcohol on a regular basis and then if you cut down to one or two units a week, you would most certainly see an effect on your weight! What this means to us is simple – watching your alcohol intake can make a difference to your weight loss program.

Myth No. 1: High protein intake is harmful to your kidneys
The origin: Back in 1983, researchers first discovered that eating more protein increases your “glomerular filtration rate,” or GFR. Think of GFR as the amount of blood your kidneys are filtering per minute. From this finding, many scientists made the leap that a higher GFR places your kidneys under greater stress.

What science really shows: Nearly two decades ago, Dutch researchers found that while a protein-rich meal did boost GFR, it didn’t have an adverse effect on overall kidney function. In fact, there’s zero published research showing that downing hefty amounts of protein—specifically, up to 1.27 grams per pound of body weight a day—damages healthy kidneys.

The bottom line: As a rule of thumb, shoot to eat your target body weight in grams of protein daily. For example, if you’re a chubby 200 pounds and want to be a lean 180, then have 180 grams of protein a day. Likewise if you’re a skinny 150 pounds but want to be a muscular 180.

I really believed this myth – until now. Then again, the bottom line is that you have moderate your protein intake. Still, you can load up on those steaks every now and then.