The Benefits of Green Tea

If you’re like me you have a love for green tea this article is for you. If you’re wondering what some benefits of your favorite beverage is look no further. Here are some positives of drinking green tea.

1.) Green tea does contain caffeine, about 24 – 25 per 8-ounce cup. This helps improve mental alertness and could be due to its caffeine content. Although don’t drink too much every day because too much caffeine can have a devastating outcome such as increased heartbeat, heartburn and restlessness.

2.) If you have an inflammatory bowel disease green tea may help by reducing inflammation.

3.) According to healthywomen.org those who drank at least five cups of green tea per day had a much lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than those who consumed less than one cup each day which can reduce the risk of heart disease.

4.) If you’re like me and have bad cholesterol this is a great one because it may lower your cholesterol. Those who consumed green either had reductions in their total LDL or bad cholesterol.

5.) It can also help with weight loss. It may not be a significant amount, green tea can lead to a small loss in overweight and obese adults.

6.) Catechins (a type of phenol and antioxidant) may be effective in killing off bacteria and protecting against viruses, and lowering your risk of infection.

When deciding to drink green tea look out for ones that are hidden with sweetener. Unsweetened green tea has zero calories but some bottled green teas are often sweetened with sugar or an artificial sweetener. Green tea has many benefits and I encourage everyone to at least try it!

Information from healthywomen.org

All About Meditation

Daily life now a days can be very hectic and cause a lot of anxiety. Meditation at first can be weird to do but there are many benefits to meditating.

Practicing meditation helps you to quiet your mind, slow your breath and find peace. It can be beneficial physically, mentally and emotionally.

Some physical benefits of meditating are:

• Clears your mind for better quality sleep.
• Stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system, or the branch of your peripheral nervous system that helps your body return to a calm, relaxed state after the threat of danger, or even daily stress, has passed. When this branch is activated, your body can naturally rejuvenate, repair, and rebuild itself.
• Improves athletic performance by refining your ability to focus on a goal or situation (another term for meditation used in this way is visualization).
• Slows your respiration for longer, deeper breaths.
• Boosts your immune system by slowing the production of the stress hormone cortisol.

Some mental and emotional benefits are:

• Reduces anxiety and depression by enabling your body to balance its own neurochemical system.
• Allows you to make better decisions and improve critical thinking.
• Improves communication with yourself. When you better understand your thought processes, you have more control over what you think.
• Breaks unhealthy habits by helping you detach emotions associated with an action from the action itself.
• Helps you stay in the present moment. When you let go of the past and the future, you live 100 percent in the now, which affects all aspects of your life and relationships.

There are many guided meditation apps or videos online that can help you meditate if you are confused or are not sure how to do it. Also practicing everyday will make you better at it, more relaxed and able to meditate for longer.

Information from humankinetics.com

Healthy Food Replacements For Unhealthy Food

Eating healthy is not the easiest, or the yummiest thing to do. For most people it’s the one resolution that everyone makes but no one ever follow through with. This year can be different for you! I have some hacks that will help you find replacements for the food that you love but is maybe not the healthiest.

1.) Replace rice with quinoa. Quinoa has 150% more fiber and 100% more protein.

 

2.) Replace milk with almond milk. Regular milk has 6x more sugar per serving than almond milk. This is also a great choice if you are looking to try out a vegan lifestyle.

3.) Replace mayo with mustard. Mayo contains sugar and saturated fat, mustard has neither. This also gives a little more flavor to your food.

4.) Replace juice with water. This one might be a given because water is so good for the body. Juice has nearly as much sugar per ounce as soda, especially when not used with 100% real fruit juice.

5.) Another drink related one is replacing soda with tea. Soda can contain over 8 tsp. of sugar. Tea has no sugar and contains antioxidants.

 

6.) I know it can be tempting to drink a sports drink because it tastes so delicious even when you’re not exercising but a good alternative is coconut water. Coconut water has less than 1/2 of the sugar and over 16x the potassium.

7.) Replacing vegetable oil with coconut water. About 66% of coconut oil fat is medium-chair triglycerides, which may support weight loss.

8.) Replacing peanut butter with almond butter. Peanut butter contains hydrogenated vegetable oils and added sugars.

 

9.) Replacing sour cream with greek yogurt. Greek yogurt has 2x fewer calories and 3x more protein.

 

10.) Replace table salt with Himalayan Crystal salt. My family actually uses this salt often. It tastes the same and is much prettier than normal salt. Himalayan crystal salt contains minerals and trace elements in their natural form.

 

11.) Replace bread crumbs with chia seeds. Chia seeds have 19x more fiber, 2x more protein and 35x less sodium.

12.) Replace chocolate chips with cacao nibs. Cacao nibs have no sugar and over 5x the fiber.

 

13.) Replace potato chips with popcorn. Air-popped popcorn has 9x less saturated fat and 1/3 fewer calories per serving.

 

I hope this list helped you out and if you try out some of these, let me know!

Information came from:

nutritiondata.self.com

mercola.com

swansonvitamins.com

jif.com

All About The Flu

This year’s flu shot has been less effective than past year’s. I recently was very sick the past week and was . wondering if the flu shot is actually effective. I went to twitter and found many interesting information about this year’s current flu shot.

@tictoc from twitter said, “It turns out the rumors were true: the flu shot is more than 40 percentage points less effective against H3N2, the flu strain responsible for 2018’s unusually deadly season, according to the CDC.

So how do you know if you have the flu in the first place? The flu can either be mild or it could be a very severe illness. If you have the flu you probably have these symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches, and fatigue.

If you do get sick it is important to seek medical attention. CDC recommends that antiviral drugs be used early to treat people who are very sick with the flu (for example people who are at the hospital).

The best thing you can do for yourself is to protect yourself from the flu. Try to avoid close contact with sick people. If you are the one who is sick, limit contact with others as much as possible. Stay at home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone without using medication to lower it.

Other basic ways to protect yourself are to make sure you cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, wash your hands with soap and water, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth and clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that may be contaminated with germs like the flu.

It is easy to avoid the flu if you take these steps into consideration. Also on the plus side flu season is almost over and it’s almost spring!

Information was gathered from http://www.cdc.gov

 

How To Become A Morning Person

For as long as I could remember I have always been a morning person and I have noticed recently that a lot of people that I know aren’t morning people but would like to be. Here are my tips and tricks into becoming a morning person.

1.) Sleep Schedule

Starting off with having a good sleep schedule is a major key into becoming more of a morning person. Going to bed earlier will make it easier to wake up earlier. You will soon realize that going to bed earlier will take time to get used to but it will definitely help you become more of a morning person.

2.) Take smart naps

Napping can be a great way to get a burst of energy but you need to not over sleep during the day. It’s better to sleep during the night than during the day. You can get so much more accomplished during the day than in the night. It’s important to sleep when it’s time to sleep.

3.) Food and drink

Eating before you go bed can cause you to go to bed too full or if you don’t eat enough during the day you may wake up due to discomfort. Drinking is similar, drinking too much before bed and cause trips to the bathroom during the night.

4.) Wake up thankful

Waking up and writing down or thinking about what you’re thankful for can really help you get motivated for the day ahead. Along with this you can set a motive for the day. When you come up with a meaningful goal you’ll have a reason to be excited about the day.

5.) Put your alarm far away

If you have your alarm in arms reach you will more likely stay in bed. Getting up to turn off your alarm if you have one set is a very easy way to get out of bed.

These are some ways to become more of a morning person. If this article helped you share it so it can help others!