How do you go from mindless, large portions of food to a more conscious, smaller and frequent meals without starving yourself to death all the while?

Conscious Eating

People play havoc with their dieting because they eat mindlessly or as part of multitasking. If you’re eating, just do that. Savor each bite, eat slowly, eat mindfully. This way you get to feed your senses as well as your body. The result, you tend to eat less and be satisfied more.

Be the Portion Police

Color Your Plates Beautiful

Gradually cut down your serving portions. Using smaller plates is a great trick, in fooling your brain you’re eating as usual. Don’t drastically reduce your calorie intake, it will be counteractive as it will increase your cravings, making it easier for you to give in.

Be choosy

See food as a long term investment for your health and body. When you regard food as a nutritional, nurturing daily need you will think twice before you eat half a strawberry pie. Choose organic, non-processed foods. Avoid sugar and salt-laden snacks. See your body thank you.

Color Me Pretty

Boring, uninspiring meals tend to make us eat more. Fun, colorful ones feast our eyes as much as our stomach. Include bright colored veggies and fruit into your meals. Make them exciting! A multicolored, lively meal satisfies you mentally and then nutritionally.

What’s your foolproof trick in curbing your overeating habits? How are you trying to get ready for the beach? Split the beans!

We all know that staying fit is health-boosting, but we rarely pinpoint the importance of mental activity as another important aspect of preserving our health. A new randomized control study with older adults has been conducted by renowned researchers that looked into how activity, both physical and mental might prevent cognitive aging.

The paper is published at the Jama Internal Medicine and it illustrates that when older people engage in mild physical activity and are provided reasonable amounts of cognitive stimuli they can not only prevent cognitive deterioration, but rather improve their cognitive function as well. This, according to the researchers is especially true when mental and physical activity are combined.

The study involved older adults with average age being 73 and their profile was mainly that they’ve already were experiencing some kind of cognitive deterioration. The subjects were divided in four different groups, where different combinations of physical and mental stimuli were provided. The results were rather promising; all subject with no exception had some kind of cognitive improvement in the time the short trial was carried out.

One key finding the researchers emphasized is that the type of mental or physical activity is not that important, what really matters is that the otherwise inactive adult partakes in any physical and mental activity. This alone is enough in improving their overall cognitive function.

This study has various, positive propositions, for instance mental activity and physical activity can as well be used per-emptively. People can prevent and why not, completely thwart brain aging simply by engaging in mild physical exercise and by never stopping to expand their knowledge and mental activity.

Allergy Fighters

“The old thinking was that if your family had a pet, the children were more likely to become allergic to the pet. And if you came from an allergy-prone family, pets should be avoided,” says researcher James E. Gern, MD, a paediatrician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

However, a growing number of studies have suggested that kids growing up in a home with “furred animals” — whether it’s a pet cat or dog, or on a farm and exposed to large animals — will have less risk of allergies and asthma In addition, they had higher levels of some immune system chemicals — a sign of stronger immune system activation.

Dogs for the Aged

“Studies have shown that Alzheimer’s patients have fewer anxious outbursts if there is an animal in the home,” says Lynette Hart, PhD, associate professor at the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

“Their caregivers also feel less burdened when there is a pet, particularly if it is a cat, which generally requires less care than a dog,” says Hart.

Walking a dog or just caring for a pet — for elderly people who are able — can provide exercise and companionship.

No Side=effects!

Lower Blood Pressure. 

The simple act of petting an animal—or even gazing at an aquarium—results in a drop in blood pressure. And pets can have a longer-term impact on the cardiovascular system, too, as researchers discovered when they tracked 24 hypertensive stockbrokers who adopted a cat or dog. Pet ownership blunted the blood pressure response to mental stress; the traditionally prescribed hypertension drug did not.

Improved Fitness and A Stronger Heart

A 2011 study published in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health revealed that dog owners were 34 percent more likely to complete the recommended minimum 150 minutes of exercise per week. Other research has shown that dog owners walk 19 more minutes a week on average, and that having a family dog increases physical activity among adolescents (a key finding as childhood obesity reaches epidemic proportions).

Precautions

However, there are some hygiene issues and cautions that should be taken into consideration. First, there are some diseases that can be passed from pets to people (these are called zoonotic diseases) through such close proximity. They include ringworm, tapeworms, hookworms, and a host of infections that are transmitted from fleas and ticks. Those who have a vulnerable immune system should be especially cautious. That would include young children, elderly, sick individuals, and those with immunodeficiency (like those living with HIV). These individuals should avoid sleeping with animals.

It is also a good idea to keep your pet clean and well-groomed, for a host of health-related reasons involving you and your pet.

Not everybody can bring home a furry or aquatic friend, of course. But if life circumstances (like long hours or a landlord) keep you from owning a pet, you can still experience the health perks of animals by volunteering with rescues in dire need of affection.

How do you manage to self-develop in this chaotic digital world that all that it seems to be doing is robbing you off of precious time? You fight back with the same coin.

1. Read voraciously, everywhere and despite where you are, the sub, your break, at a boring lecture. Reading (quality) books allows you to discover pieces of wisdom. There’s really not enough time to read all great books ever written but you might as well try.

2. Sleep but don’t overdo it.  Take heed from people who never sleep more than 5 hours, see how their lives are in order, efficient and onto the road to success. Being a sleep slave can only keep you away from whatever you are trying to become.

 3. Take up challenges— irrespective of how insanely bizarre they might be. It’s in these brief moments of unleashed freedom and impromptu actions that we disover who we truly are. Try things you would normally instantly reject, try seeing a new perspective on issues, take an out-of-your-comfort-zone hobby. Experiment, fail, experiment a bit more!

4. Journal.You might laugh thinking dairy-keeping is for little girls, but keeping a journal is one of the most cathartic and self-revelatory activities you can implement in your daily life. Get a journal or create one on your most-used device and whenever you feel like it, write in it. Thoughts, questions, frustrations and complaints, anything goes. Think of it as your free psychoanalyst.

Self growth is a matter of facing your demons

5.Find momentum where it’s less likely to be hidden. Despite what most people say, momentum doesn’t fall from the sky, if you can attract it through meditation and spirituality then good for you, for the rest of us, momentum comes from primitive sources, competition, to-do lists, external pressure, to name a few, these are what usually get us going. Don’t let them frustrate you, they are your motive.

 6.Weekend-investing. Stop thinking of them as two-day breaks you do nothing during. Take some time to rest and recompose, but also invest in your weekends. They can be great time-windows for getting all those self-development goals achieved.

It comes but with warnings! Once in a while you can be excused for going overboard for your love of chocolate and intaking those additional amounts of sugar and fat! Let yourself succumb to the sweet sin of dripping dark chocolate this romantic Pink February! Nothing provides you a better occasion than celebrations- of love, of togetherness and of happiness. Oh and ofcorce your doctor would agree, at least the happiness part!

Despite its sweet reputation, dark chocolate has a low glycemic index similar to that of oatmeal — meaning it does not send your blood sugar spiking. Chocolate hasn’t gained the status of health food quite yet. Still, chocolate’s reputation is on the rise, as a growing number of studies suggest that it can be a heart-healthy choice.

And yes as Valentine’s Day each year does remind us of the dear Hearts’ we care about so much. The reputed aphrodisiac qualities of chocolate are most often associated with the simple sensual pleasure of its consumption. Although there is no proof that chocolate is indeed an aphrodisiac, a Gift of chocolate is a familiar courtship ritual. Don’t forget to pack in the diamonds though! One study indicated that melting chocolate in one’s mouth produced an increase in brain activity and heart rate that was more intense than that associated with kissing, lasting four times as long after the activity had ended.

Buoyed by positive findings, more research is being conducted on chocolate’s health benefits, including potential cancer-fighting abilities and improved cognitive function. It certainly has a role to play in future health squad. But excessive consumption in order to reap a little more of the cardiovascular benefits would be nothing more than ‘cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face’.

If there is one day in the year when you can’t compromise with chocolate is February 14. This Valentine’s Day send a chocolaty cupids’ arrow to pierce and strengthen the heart of your beloved!

The Right Mix!

Be it a Spring Party or a leisurely evening spent with few friends, whether you are feeding your staff or entertaining clients: walnuts, oranges, pomegranate, fresh spinach, almonds, brown rice, carrots and sweet potatoes all blended into one delicious menu would most certainly add on to the whole experience.
Certain mouth-watering recipes ideal for get-together’s which are specialty of Corporate Chef, a company for catering in Dallas:

• Orange Pomegranate Balsamic Grilled Chicken garnished with toasted walnuts, pomegranate seeds and orange slices
• Brown and Wild Rice Vegetable Pilaf
• Oven Roasted Carrots and Caramelized Sweet Potatoes
• Sunshine Salad with Baby Spinach, Romaine, Dried Cranberries, Cucumbers, Almonds, served with their homemade olive oil balsamic dressing on the side

Now you can create your own menus, schedules and estimates with a click of a mouse. Order your food and pay online or you may choose to pay upon delivery. It is easy and convenient. You have the convenience to order any hour of the day, seven days a week. One such service for catering in Dallas, Texas is Corporate Chef!

But sadly, around all this hype about ‘boob squeezing treatment’ study is based on just the juicy side of the story. For if you were to squeeze the cancer cells that would be in petridish as there was no actual squeezing done!

New Ways to Fight Back

Actual breast cancer cells are much more complicated than cells lying in a lab waiting to be experimented upon. And all everyone grabbed onto the boob part.

On a serious note, this study shows how mechanical force can not only stop rapid growth of cancer cells but also guide them back to a normal, healthy growth pattern. Though this has been only the outcome of experimentation on cultured cells this would definitely have repercussions in actual diagnosis. This promising new angle in direction of curing cancer can lead to less painful therapies with less number of side-effects too.

Nobody is keeping anyone from kindling the fire of their hopes, any kind of hope!

Your Moisturizer is your best friend

If you take extra long and super extra hot showers during the winter you are washing away valuable oils from the skin. So make sure to have milder showers and once you hop out of the shower slather on body lotion and a rich face moisturizer. Think of it as your skin’s food, would you let it starve? We think not!

Wash and Exfoliate

Avoid too many face washes during winter, but don’t skip your once a week exfoliating. This will renew your skin cells and retain its glow even during winter, by keeping away dullness.

Look nothing less than fabulous this winter!

 Reach for that sunscreen!

Yes it might be cloudy and it might be the coldest and rainiest day ever, but sunscreen should never be forgone. Sun is ruthless and a few gray clouds won’t prevent it from reaching your porcelain skin, trust me! So better show Mr Sun how we do protection!

Listen to your skin’s needs

If it is breaking out or it is extremely dehydrated pamper it accordingly. Make some luxurious home face treatment, by preparing a nutrient-rich mask. Mix the three most powerful natural ingredients one tablespoon each: olive oil, yogurt and honey. Apply onto your skin and rinse off with lukewarm water after 5 minutes. Glowing skin ahead!

Knowing your skin type will also help you pick the right products as well as sustaining its moisture in the least invasive way possible.

Take care of yourself

For a healthy skin it is necessary that you take good loving care of yourself first. Quit smoking, exercise more and see how improved your skin will be despite the freezing weather outside!

How do you keep your skin youthful and healthy during winter? Please share!

Have a detox week right after Halloween, the less you eat the less it will last. Let this be your motivation for eating less.

Buying sweets and candy that you don’t really like eating yourself is a great way to discourage yourself from eating them. Common sense right?

Set a time limit for how many days sweets will be lingering in bowls all over your house. Stick to a date and give them all away on the last day. No cheating, ALL of them!

This Halloween have fun not fat!

Opt for light and hearty snacks if you cannot avoid it. No need to bulk up on calories, if you can only have the pleasure of eating salty and sugary treats!

Go dark. Chocolate that is. Another smart healthy choice is to avoid milk or worse, white chocolate treats. The largest the percentage of cacao the healthier the treast!

Bake or make your own sweets this Halloween, this way you know what you’ve put into them. We got faith in you that you will make them healthy but still tasty!

Even if you go for sugar-free or for light candy, still this is no excuse to indulge in it. Practice self-control, your thighs will later thank you!

If candy-season is not the best time to get out of  your couch, I don’t know when is! Go jogging, start taking your bike, it’s never too late to burn those Snickers calories! Plus you’ll feel less guilty eating all those treats that have been left over.

What are your tips for staying healthy this time of year?

Below are 5 steps towards a stress-free life. Even if you don’t entirely eliminate stress, you can at least learn to live despite it

1.Avoid negativity triggers

Focus obsessively on everything positive, get lost in a favorite book, engage with craft-making, socializing. Whatever gets you out of negativity and idleness and into creativity is anti-stress.

Stressed much?

2.Don’t fall into the perfectionism trap.

You’re human, you’re flawed, and that’s what makes you perfectly imperfect! Stop trying to be the best, take a moment instead and be grateful of all your blessings and talents. Don’t linger in the negative.

3.Take up challenges

Often stress is the symptom of being fearful of living, postponing life and dodging the inevitable. Accept challenge and embrace change. Once you stop resisting you will feel more powerful and stress will no longer eat away your spirit.

4.Simplify you daily life

Leave nothing but the bare essentials, which means being courageous enough to refuse, to take rain checks and to reschedule! Stop stressing over commitments you cannot keep up with, instead prioritize your needs and what you would like to commit to, rather than what you should!

5.Destroy that inner pitiless critic

Become your own motivational speaker. If there’s one person that truly (should) cares about you is you, so start acting like one, rather than being a ruthless, self-hating judge. Instead of deprecating your every effort, try to focus on your accomplishment and little life successes, this will allow you to grasp the meaning of life: do what you love, accept what you cannot change.

By letting stress in your life, you allow it to suck on your liveliness. Stop that today and get to enjoy life again!