Summertime is an excellent time to change up and improve your eating. It provides more variety of fresh fruits and veggies at great prices. It’s a huge missed opportunity to not take advantage of that.
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Everybody knows the more fresh fruit and vegetables you eat, the better. Yet it’s easy to get stuck in the same old eating patterns and convenience foods.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) lent their support this month to the sleep guidelines of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) for infants to teens.
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The recommended amounts of sleep needed regularly within a 24-hour period weren’t really new. But I was grateful for another boost in parents’ awareness of the importance of sleep for our kids.
The best diet consists of whole foods prepared by you or for you. When purchased at a farmer’s market or the produce section in your grocery store, they generally don’t come with any labels or packaging.
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When you purchase any food that has already been processed, it’s going to be packaged in some way. The packaging material provides preservation as well as convenient handling. But it also provides for something else—marketing.
What gets measured gets monitored. It’s important to have a desire to be healthy but unless you make your health goals specific and trackable, there’s seldom progress.
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Good health is mainly the result of good habits. But I do like to have hard evidence that confirms my efforts are truly making a difference. For me, it starts with five areas that I want to know my numbers. Numbers help me celebrate wins, tighten up my focus as necessary, and help me avoid big problems down the road by making course corrections now.
More of us are becoming more health-conscious every day. The indicators are everywhere and I’m glad for it. I suspect you’ve given more thought toward improving your health lately.
But many also find themselves overwhelmed by all the new information and health tips released everyday. It can become difficult to know where to start or focus.
When a prostate cancer diagnosis rocked my world five years ago, I determined to do a health makeover. I believe God created everything we need in this earth to naturally fortify our bodies and stay healthy. I’m ultra-conservative when it comes to synthetic pharmaceuticals and invasion procedures.
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So my health makeover started with nutrition, a plant-strong eating plan. Of course, plenty of pure water, exercise, good sleep, and sunshine are essential.
A couple of years ago I added another plant-based regimen: essential oils
As you may know, Kirby and I changed our eating plan five years ago because of health issues we were experiencing. Our switch to a plant-based diet has resulted in so many benefits.
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I have totally enjoyed this new plan of eating and am never unsatisfied with any meals, nor do I have any issues eating out at a restaurant.
There is a serious epidemic attacking our families yet there is too little alarm being raised. Our kids are getting fat.
I don’t mean to be offensive and certainly not judgmental. Overweight is defined as excessive body weight for a particular height. Obese is excess body fat. And we have a full on epidemic of obesity taking place in our kids here in America.
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With approximately one third of our kids and teens in America either overweight or obese, the American Heart Association reports that “childhood obesity is now the No. 1 health concern among parents in the United States, topping drug abuse and smoking.”
We’ve all realized at one time or another that we should stop a certain behavior. For some it might be smoking. For others, a change in diet. Perhaps you have a quick temper. We’ve all got stuff that could be better.
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And we know it. But knowing what we should do doesn’t always mean we want to or will do it.
There’s a good chance at this time of year that you’re thinking about making changes for better health. That includes better eating. You’ve heard you should be eating more whole foods and the more plant-strong the better. But the thought of learning new recipes may be intimidating and keeping you from making any progress.
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Healthier eating doesn’t have to be complicated, time-consuming, or expensive. I’ve written how it can be simple—really simple. Gail and I do more food combining than recipes. Yet many continue to ask for recipes to get started. So we’re happy to share our favorites.
