See my new little thingie to the left there?  Isn’t it cool?  OK I know most of you have that on your blog already – the Google Friend Connect – but I just figured out how to put it on my site.   So sign up and help me feel less like a little red-headed stepchild and more like a full blown real life blogger, k???

Today I am just going to ramble a wee bit about some things I’ve learned over the past year or two or 10 about healthy eating, exercise, chemicals, processed foods, blah blah blah.  HEY some people asked so I am going to answer from my great and vast wealth of research and information gleaned over the years.

It will be a short post.

NOT! 

Bwaahahahahahaha!  Hey, I get my kicks where I can. OH seriously, I have researched those topics ad nauseum.  I finally had to figure out for myself that if I don’t DO instead of research I was never going to lose the excess weight. Don’t wanna keep looking like my little friend below there.

But the tidbits – this stuff is just what Alpha Hubby and I have learned or changed over the past few years to great success.  I am not saying you have to do this but I am asking you take a little time and research for yourself.  There may be things in here that will help!   I know that any one of these tidbits can solicit groans and moans of denial and disbelief.  That’s OKAY!  This is what we are doing; not saying you have to.

It is interesting to note that in my research on longevity, these very same things popped up.  Longevity as in living past 80 on into the 100’s healthy, looking good, and active. And the closer you get to 80, the more you’re gonna wish you’d taken better care of yourself. The closer you get to 50, too. 40… Falling apart and losing your mind is NOT inevitable!

I will just toss out in no particular order –

Water – amazing and relatively inexpensive – is your very best diet and life friend.  Your body needs water to function correctly, brain, joints, and skin to mention a few things.  Not iced tea, soda, diet soda, caffeine free soda, coffee, or fruit drinks.  WATER.  At the least, you need 8 cups of plain water every day (well you can add lemon, fruit, etc.).  If you are overweight, drink an extra cup for every 25 pounds you are overweight.  It honestly flushes you out and helps you feel full. One note – sometimes when you think you’re hungry, you’re not – you’re thirsty and/or dehydrated!

One little secret we learned?  Your body can’t recognize artificial sweetener so when you try to diet drinking diet soda, food, drinks, it messes up your metabolism.  Yeah yeah, don’t believe me, look it up for yourself.

Exercise – aerobic, anaerobic, resistance, and more.   I’ll add a link and leave it up to you to check this out.

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2010/06/12/growing-evidence-links-exercise-and-mental-acuity.aspx

Start Exercising first thing in the morning –  As soon as you wake up in the morning do some form of exercise for at least 30 minutes.  Studies show that working out in the morning has been shown to burn up to 3x as more fat as opposed to working out at any other time during the day.   BUT the REAL reason is that if you get up 30 mintues earlier and get it out of the way, you won’t end up forgetting or making excuses or getting to the end of the day and realizing you allowed everything else to take your time away from it.

Eat Breakfast – Another way to keep your metabolism revved up all day long is to eat breakfast.  After you workout in the morning, just have breakfast and you’ll give your body the perfect 1-2 combination to jump start your metabolism.  One excellent breakfast choice is oatmeal: steel cut oats, old fashioned, quick cooking.  NOT instant (often loaded with sugar, salt & artificial flavoring).

Chemicals and Processed Foods – we changed our lifestyle last year and got off these things.  It doesn’t mean we don’t have occasional chemicals (like when eating out), but in our own home, we kicked them to the curb.  I can honestly tell you I feel better, everything tastes better, and my body feels better (knee stopped swelling [inflammation] like it had).  I can’t believe how many aches, pains, runny noses, matted eyes, cold-symptoms, etc., were the direct result of chemicals in my food.  I’ll never go back, ever.

Healthy Omega-3 Oils – We switched to krill oil (http://krilloil.mercola.com/) because we’ve discovered it is better than plain fish oil.  Also learned most of the products on the shelves don’t have enough of the DHA and EPA (the good stuff) so you end up wasting big bucks. An awesome source of information is a website: http://www.consumerlab.com/ which will tell you the truth about health and nutritional products through independent testing. Huh? In other words, no one can buy them off to lie.

Organic Apple Cider Vinegar – organic, unfiltered, unprocessed – There is a wealth of information about ACV – one is – http://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/index.html – some say it’s all hype and some are behind it’s “miracle working power” 100 percent.  I know what it has done for me personally – about 2 tbl a day mixed in water – but it is something to reserach.  I can say I haven’t had any acid reflux since I began and when I eat to the point I get indigestion, a little ACV and it’s gone.  But again, that’s me.

Coconut Oil – Another product we added to our lives for a variety of health reasons.  Alpha Hubby takes is straight; I cook with it.  Along with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, it is a very healthy alternative to bottled oils on the store shelves.

htttp://www.tropicaltraditions.com/virgin_coconut_oil.htm –

Gadgets – I’ve mentioned quite a few in this blog – electronic food weighing scales, pitchers that will help you flavor your water, food tracking devices (portion size, fat and calories), etc.  Anything that helps you to know what you are putting in your mouth – and how much – is good!

Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-That’s all, folks.  For sure, enough for now to give you food for thought! Why not share things you’ve learned on your own journey? I can use all the help I can get!