Thursday, January 31, 2013

Just Because the Dr. Says it is Not Adrenal Fatigue...


I know in my last post on hypothyroid and adrenal fatigue testing, I had said doctors in the main stream  do not always recognize adrenal fatigue. Some like to pass it off as some quack thing that alternative doctors do, and what do they know?

Today, I want to encourage you to not full hardly accept this answer. Adrenal fatigue is real. It can cause a huge mess in your life, just like hypothyroidism can. Adrenal fatigue is becoming more prevalent in today's society due to excessive amounts of constant stress, caffeine which is a stressor to the body, too little sleep and poor diets. If you are being treated for hypothyroidism and not finding relief, adrenal fatigue could be contributing.

Our body's are under constant stress these days, always thinking they have to out run some bear or other harmful situation. Our adrenal glands were not meant to be under this much stress day in and day out. It was suppose to be when a bear was chasing us, running after our dinner, being spooked by something, on occasion, not constant. When our adrenals are being asked to pump out cortisol, the hormone produced by the adrenals, constantly, after a time they become stressed and exhausted. When this happens, we go down hill. We cannot keep up with the demands of life any longer. We become tired, exhausted, depressed, cannot think any longer, all we want to do it sleep, stress overwhelms us, not feeling well and needing longer to recover from illness and things such as exercise, we just feel like we cannot hang on any longer. Most might tell you this is depression, take an anti-depressant. This will not fix the problem, only mask it and give you many other undesirable side effects, that can be very dangerous. You might want to fix your adrenals first.

One way to see if you have adrenal fatigue is taking a list of symptoms to a chiropractor  a holistic nutritionist  or a doctor of some type that is more holistically minded. If they are good and understand the symptoms, they can diagnose you through symptoms and/or a questioner. Some might have you do a saliva test, a 24 hour urine test or blood work can be done. The saliva test is done through collecting your saliva four different times through out the day. The 24 hour urine test is just that, collecting your urine. In this test they will be looking for extra coritsol dumped into the urine. The blood test is a challenge test. Blood is drawn, medicine is injected into your blood stream to stimulate the glands called Adrenal Corticotrophic Hormone, ACTH. After about an hour, more blood is drawn and compared to the first blood draw, seeing how the adrenal react to the stimulation. Testing is not always definitive. Therefore, a combination of knowing symptoms, questioner and testing is a better approach.

Treating adrenal fatigue takes time and patience. These sweet little glands need time to heal. This will take commitment on your part and a change in lifestyle.
Get to bed an hour or two early EVERY night, before 10 pm. I know you, you have too many things to do and get done. The excuses go on and on. If you would like to continue feeling like you are and get worse, then stay up late. Your body needs extra sleep to heal.
Limit your intake of caffeine. A pot of coffee, chocolate, energy drinks, these all might be what help you to drag through your day, but you are destroying you adrenal glands. Caffeine should be done in very small amounts or avoided if you can. Bullet coffee can be a good way to intake some caffeine, but has the added benefit of butter and coconut oil, which will help with energy and blood sugar stabilization.
High quality supplements would speed up the healing processes. Vitamins such as a B complex, magnesium, Vits. C, A and D.
Stabilize blood sugars.
Avoid processed foods and sugars.
Avoid to much beta-carotene. You want your Vit. A to be the real deal retinol, this comes from fat.
Avoiding as much stress as possible. Figure out what is causing the stress and take actions to decrease the stress. As long as you are stressed, your adrenals can not heal. This could require significant life changes.
Practice deep breathing.

In the next post, we will look at other nutritional components to treating and helping with both adrenal fatigue and hypothyroidism.

Saving the world, and adrenal glands, one stick of butter at a time.
God's many blessings be showered upon you,
Jenn









Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Wednesday Doggie Day: Dangerous Foods



I know last week I mentioned how my two dogs love their fruit and veggies. This all started with Mungo and my Russian tortoise, Little Guy. I usually feed Little Guy outside of his cage, made clean up much easier and then he could rome around and enjoy some freedom. We had only had Mungo for a short time and I was feeding the Little Guy and Mungo decided to make a game out of it. He would sneak in and steal Little Guys food, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, apples, banana, it did not matter, Mungo would eat. I had to feed Little Guy else where so he could get food.

Mungo's love of fruit and veggies has grown from there. He likes not only the foods I mentioned above, but also bell peppers, squash, kale, eggplant, any kind of cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, bean sprouts, beets, watermelon and other melons, the pulp on oranges  very small amounts of avocado, celery, really just about any vegetable or fruit. Otto tends to be a little more picky, but seems to like a lot due to Mungo eating them. Otto does not want to miss out on food. This is one of the reason I say my two dogs eat healthier than most people. They really do!

With this in mind, there are foods in the fruit and veggies family your dog should not eat. Some can be done in small amounts, but others should be avoided.

Avoided:
Grapes, damaging to the kidneys
Onions, can destroy red blood cells
Mushrooms    
Peaches, plums, fruits with a larger seeds and pits, these can cause intestinal blockages, really just make sure they do not eat the pit, the fruit itself can be ok
Persimmons, seeds can cause inflammation in the small intestine
Rhubarb, the whole plant can be deadly
Hops for beer making
Tomatoes and the plant, these Mungo puck, Otto will not touch them, the plant is bad for cats too


Can be ok in small amounts;
Garlic, unless your dog already has blood problems.
Avocado, the jourey is out on this one for avoid to small amounts, the pit should avoided, but some dog foods put avocado in for a source of healthy fat, keep it limited.

A few other foods that are best avoided for dogs,
Chocolate as we all know, especially dark
Sugar
Caffeine can be deadly if too much is given
Macadamia nuts and large quantities of other nuts, if too many are give they can lead to bladder stones
Processed dairy, just like for humans, not a natural food, my two enjoy some raw milk
Poinsettias, Jimson weed and lanata
Alcohol


If you are not sure if something could be toxic, look it up. Always better to double check. Some fruit and veggies in a dogs diet, just like ours, adds taste, color, texture, but great health benefits. Try adding some I listed above that Mungo and Otto like to eat. Start small or hide it in their food and see how they like them. Maybe, both you and your dog can try some new fruit and veggies together, moral support. See what you both like.

As with people, dogs can have allergies to foods as well. This can be allergies to proteins also. Watch for signs of allergies if you feed any type of new food or the same protein all the time, rubbing their faces, panting heavily, sneezing, lethargy or vomiting and diarrhea  If any of these happen, the food is best avoided. Change their protein every bag, not necessarily brand, but the protein can help with a protein allergy. If feeding raw, try alternating proteins as often as possible, If the symptoms of allergies are severe, you will need to take you dog to the vet immediately, just like humans.

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God bless,
Jenn












Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Tuesday Recipe: The Big Game

Apparently on Sunday, here in the states, is a big game called the Super Bowel. About the only reason I watch is for the commercial. But I would have to say personally, I think they are getting really bad. Not too many reason to watch said game. The food and family are what draws me.

I look at this day in two different ways, you can use it as your cheat day, OR you can eat healthy snacks and finger foods.

In my family, we have moved more into the healthy foods. I am not talking about veggies sticks here, although they are good. You should know by now, I am about really yummy food. We do foods like: meatzza, cheese chips, sweet potato fries, chicken strips, apples, some sweet peppers cut up. Foods that are easy, but tasty.

If you are going to use this day as your cheat day, no problems, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Make sure this week, you eating healthy, no processed foods, avoid excess sugar and salt intake, only eating real whole food.
Drink plenty of water.
Do an extra hard workout on Saturday.
Enjoy the food you are eating as well as the company.
On Monday, go right back to a healthy eating plan.

Here is my recipe for sweet potato fries:
My family loves this recipe, very rarely are there left overs.
What you need:
Sweet potatoes or yams, I do at least one a piece
Butter
Sea Salt and pepper
Any other seasonings you would like, if you want anything other than salt and pepper
Baking sheet
Parchment paper, not necessary, but makes clean up a breeze

Method:
Cut off the ends of the sweet potatoes and peel. Then cut into length wise stripes, a little bigger than normal fries, they shrink when cooking. Melt butter in a pan over medium high heat on stove. Add salt and pepper. Put the sliced sweet potatoes in the pan and mix well. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Stir the potatoes frequently so they do not burn, but also so they keep the butter on them. Cook on the stove for about 15 minutes, you want them to begin softening. Spread them out, single layer and not touching each other, on a cook sheet with parchment paper. Place in the oven. Let cook 10 minutes. Take them out, flip over and put back into the oven. Cook for another 10 minutes. Take them out and allow to cool slightly. You might also want to put a little more salt on them. Serve and enjoy!

For variations, you can put different seasonings on the fires. Spicy and Cajun have been our favorites. They can be eaten plan or with your favorite fry dipping sauce.

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time!
Enjoy the Big Game!
God bless,
Jenn










Thursday, January 24, 2013

Hypothyroid and Adrenal Fatigue Testing

Today in our continuing posts about hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue we are going to talk about symptoms and testing.



If you Google hypothyroidism, you will find a list of symptoms. This list can go on and on it seems like effecting any and all areas of the body. The reason is that every system and organ in the body uses the thyroid hormones. The effects are fare reaching. In some cases you will find symptoms listed as mild, moderate to severe, other times they are all listed out. The longer hypothyroid is left untreated, the worse your symptoms can become. I found this out personally. Symptoms are not limited too but include:

  • Fatigue, moderate to debilitating
  • Feeling off, something is wrong but you cannot put your finger on it
  • Weight gain and in very few cases, weight lose
  • Enlarged thyroid, goiter 
  • Depression
  • Head aches
  • Joint and muscle pain
  • Very dry flaky skin
  • Hair lose
  • Prone to illness or always feeling like you are coming down with something
  • Foggy brain, inability to think, concentrate and focus, like you are losing your memory
  • Feeling cold, inability to deal with the cold and cold basal body temperature
  • Constipation 
  • Sleeping difficulties and wanting to sleep all the time
  • Hoarseness, cough
  • Slow slurred speech   
  • Anxiety, inability to deal with out of the ordinary situations and stress
  • Acne 
  • Heart problems, enlargement of the heart in very rare serve cases. slowed heart rate 
  • Elevated cholesterol levels 
  • Bone lose, calcium problems
  • Yellowing of skin, liver problems, server cases

In women:

  • PMS symptoms
  • Irregular periods, heavy periods, missed periods
  • Hormonal imbalances
  • Infertility

In terms of adrenal fatigue. It is not always seen as a disease or problem by main stream medicine. If you look on Mayo clinics site, they say it is unfounded medicine and blame the symptoms on fibromyalgia and depression. It is not until you begin looking into alternative medicine that you will find anything about adrenal fatigue being real. Another hard thing is a lot of the symptoms are similar and can be lumped in with hypothyroidism. If your symptoms of hypothyroidism persist even after treatment, it cannot hurt to try and support your adrenal glands.

Testing:
Hypothyroidism is tested and diagnosed through blood work. The norm is TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone and sometimes a T4, Thyroxin which is one of the hormones from our thyroid. Even more rarely a T3,triiodothyronine. Only testing the TSH and T4 does not give the entire story of what is or could be going on with your thyroid. A complete panel should be done to see what all is really going on with your thyroid. These tests include:
TSH, T4, free T3, reverse T3, calculated ratios between free T4/free T3, and free T4/reverse T3, along with testing for anti-bodies against the thyroid.

Unfortunately, blood workout does not always show what is going on. It can come back with a false negative result, even though you might have many symptoms of hypothyroidism. As a patient suffering this become frustrating. You are told you are fine, or depressed, but you know something is wrong, but you are not listened to. Finding a doctor who will work with you and your symptoms is difficult.  

Adrenal fatigue is generally tested through a saliva test. Not a pretty thing, but that is how they do it. This usually comes back negative, even though you could have adrenal exhaustion. These are not very accurate tests.

Well, I think I will end it here.
Saving the world one stick of butter at a time!
God bless,
Jenn








Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Wednesday Doggie Day: When to go to the Vet



People tend to be on both sides of the spectrum. On one hand you have those who take their dog to the vet at the first sign of anything being wrong. Then the polar opposite, they are a dog, an animal and they can take care of themselves, figure it out, they do not ever go to the vet. If you are either of these, no problems, just giving examples. You need to do what you believe is best for your dog.

For me, I am some where in between, leaning more towards the, they are animals and can take better care of themselves they we can. They still have that wild instinct and know what they need to feel better. Just like for my our health, I do a lot of research to find what is the best for them. They eat partial raw diets, high quality dog food, I do not clean the house with toxic chemicals, they play outside for fresh air, drink clean water, once a month I give them their heart worm medicine, year round. A strain of mosquito was brought in with the military base that can hatch below freezing so I do chose to give this year round. They both get a lot of exercise. I never think it is enough, Hublet just laughs at me. When your dog is well taken care of, feed good food and exercised, they do not need to visit the vet as often, just like us as humans. I strive to take care of them as naturally as I do myself which meas not needing doctors as often. However, there are times I do take my Boys to the vet. They go every three years for their rabies vaccination and then here and there when nothing we have tried for them works.
As examples:
Mungo has been fighting a yeast over growth, allergy issue for several years. I have taken him to the vet, but not gotten any where with them. Mungo and I continue to work on healing his body. I have done this through a high quality diet, raw meat, raw bones and some veggies and fruit. Mungo is crazy in the fact he loves to eat his veggies and fruit. I tell people all the time, my two dogs eat better than most people. Those who know them, agree. He some times does really well and other times not so much. We are figuring it out and adjusting where we need to as we go.
Otto is pretty healthy. He did get bit in the leg one day. We were out for a walk and a dog figured out how to open his kennel and came after us. Otto has a nice laceration to his leg. We took him in just to make sure he did not need any stitches. He was fine, look bad, but it healed well. The extreme cases is when I am very willing to go see the vet.

The other part of the equation is finding a great vet. The one I take the Boys to is awesome, they love her and her staff. I know I can ask questions and get a straight answer, not what the main stream industry would tell you you have to do, like with the vaccines. I have had vets freak when I asked questions and was not doing everyone of them. Our current vet, gives the pros, the cons, the good the bad, the ugly and allows you to make the final choice. I feel like I can make a real informed decision about what is best for my dogs, not what you "have" to do or feel like I am a horrible pet parent not giving them vaccines or what ever it is. As a good doc for you, it takes time to find a good vet for your pets. With a good vet, I am more comfortable taking them in or calling because I am not jerked around and the best decision can be made.

The other thing I have recently started giving Mungo and Otto is antioxidant sprouted granules from Nzymes. They seem to be helping Mungo's allergies and Otto in general. 


A note on vaccinations. About the only one my two get is the rabies every three years. I have done a lot of reading and research and decided not to give many others to them. When they are healthy, they are far less likely to get sick, just like us. Just like feeding raw, not doing every vaccine is a personal choice we made after doing our homework. These are decisions you have to make, this is ours.

Really at the end of the day, you have to make the choice when is best for your furry family member to go to the vet. These are just my ramblings of when I go and what I do to help make sure we do not have to go often.

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God bless,
Jenn















Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Tuesday Recipe: Primal Pumpkin Bread



I found this new blog a few weeks back, paleomg.com. Looks like some very tasty food.
I have tried one recipe and love it, very tasty, pumpkin bread. She made the bread into french toast, which I have done as well, tasty. I also take a slice and eat it, plan or with butter. If you add some dark chocolate chips to this, it can be like a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, which I enjoy. I hope you can find some recipes you enjoy to support a healthy lifestyle.

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God bless,
Jenn

Monday, January 21, 2013

Changing Up Workouts

Working out is my drug, guess that is part of why I have gone into the profession I have gone into, personal training and holistic health/nutrition coaching. One of the things I do for my workouts is change them up frequently. We are going to talk about why this is important, especially for women. I am not leaving guys, they also need variety in their training, maybe not as much as women. God created us differently as men and women to fulfill different roles, which means we need to train differently. However, this post is geared towards the women and why our bodies adapt quickly to our training regimes. Guys can implement the ideas as well, or give them the women in their lives.

 As women, we need to be able to adapt and conserve energy as quickly as possible. We have other things to take care of that are more important and take significant amounts of energy. Things like having a healthy menstrual cycle every month. We need to have healthy cycles to have a healthy baby and keep us healthy. A healthy cycle is the best way to tell just how healthy a woman is.
We need to be able to grow a baby. Just ask any women who have been pregnant how much energy this takes. We will probably be pregnant and tending to other little ones at the same time during our lives. Continuing the specious is important  This takes significant amounts of energy and nutrients.
We need to be able to attend to our choirs of keeping a house clean, putting healthy food on the table, gardening all while doing everything else listed above.
Running around chasing kids, playing with them, keep them entertained, educating them, energy.
The list could go on and on and on. These are just some of the big energy requirements.

As you can see our bodies need to store as much energy as they can. Wasting energy on workouts is not something our bodies believe we need to do. Because of this, we adapt to workouts very quickly. Our bodies will burn more calories the first few weeks of a new workout and then slow down because they have figured out how to conserve energy. Does this sound familiar? You workout and see amazing changes in your body for several weeks and then it just does not change. The reason is your body has adapted, too many other important things to take care of than lose weight and build muscle.  We cannot erase millions of years of evolution, we need to learn to work with these adaptations. Enter in, changing up your workouts.

A note should be made here, I am not talking about becoming very lean and muscular,  getting into female triad syndrome. I am speaking about a healthy weight with good lean muscle mass.

One way to accomplish this is by changing up your workouts frequently, say every two to three weeks or so or when you begin to notice you are not making progress any longer. Keep your body guessing what is coming next.
Do this by:
   Changing what exercises you do at workouts.
   Changing speed of workouts.
   Go between body weight exercises and lifting heavy things.
   Add in sprint training.
   Allow your body proper rest between workouts, even taking a week off here and there when your body needs rest.
    If you have children, go play with them. They seem to naturally change what they are doing.

Give this a try and let me know what you think.
Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God bless,
Jenn
 









Thursday, January 17, 2013

Hypothyroidism and Adrenal Fatigue

I guess it is time to get a little personal on my blog. I would like to begin talking about hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue, very common problems plaguing us today. This not just something interesting to me that I want to tell you all about and how to treat. I have both. I understand being so fatigued that you cannot function, but you are so exhausted that you cannot sleep. Going to doctors saying something wrong, you feel off and being told you are fine. These posts are personal, been there, done it and continue to work on healing my body.

The high lights of my story:
My symptoms started when I was two weeks old! When my mom took me in for my appointment, I had lost so much weight the doctor told her if I lost a few more ounces I would be put into the NCUI and tube feed. At a year, I was something like, 12-15 pounds and had no hair, everyone thought I was a little boy. Growing up, I was always very lean and we always said it was due to being a competitive gymnast. Once about 13 or 14, I began complaining of fatigue, being cold, not feeling well, like something was off and some nasty dry skin. I always had bad allergies as well. I would go to the doctor and be told everything was fine. I was just depressed and dealing with a lot. I had to quite gymnast due to a serious break of my right leg, had chronic pain, a condition called complex regional pain syndrome these days, going through high school, trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life, it was just depression. My symptoms would get worse and I would have even more, so back I would go and be told the same thing, depression. When I got to college my symptoms really took a turn for the worse. I was having extreme difficulties thinking, concentrating, remembering anything, even after hours of studying. I thought I was stupid. I would look at my friends and classmates and ask why I was even there because I could not cut it. I was getting to the point that it could be 95 degrees outside and I would be in sweats because I was SO cold. I always felt like I was getting sick. My skin was very dry, I had huge deep cracks in my heels, my hands were flaky and very time I moved, it felt like my skin was being rubbed over sand paper. I had acne all the time. I was failing classes no matter how hard I worked and tried, nothing made a difference. I can remember at one point telling someone, I was at the bottom of a down world spiral, hanging on by a finger tip. No matter how hard I tried to crab onto life, I could not. I was afraid I was going to have a complete break down and end up in the hospital. No one would listen to me. I was always told, I was just depressed and needed to take an anti-depressant. I refused to take them because I knew I was not depressed, this was a secondary symptom, something was wrong.

I married my husband and moved out of state.  At this point, some things became a little less stressful. I was not going to school full time, working part time, planning a wedding, moving out of state, failing classes, feeling like I was stupid. My symptoms got a little better.

I found a great doctor there in Wichita Ks. When I told him what was going on, he told me I had hypothyroidism right on the spot. He did blood work to confirm it, which with the blood work he told me I had sever hypothyroidism. My TSH came back at 6.4, I will talk about the blood work later.   He put me on Armour thyroid and from there treated me symptom based, increasing medication on symptoms. I ended up on 240 mg. I felt like a million bucks! I could not believe the difference this made for me. After several months of working with this doctor, we moved back to Utah.

My symptoms started getting worse again, and so I had to find another doctor. They began treating my only based on blood work. I was taken off of the Armour and put on Synthyroid, which I hated. I did not like the way it made me feel, I noticed a difference between the natural hormones from Armour and the synthetic ones. So, I was really bad and put myself back on the Armour and started searching for another doctor who would prescribe Armour. I did find one, but he kept me on an extremely low does. I was taking 240 mg when I came to Utah, he had me on 60ish mg. My symptoms became outrages. My skin was turning yellow, could not think, concentrate, remember anything, I had a hard time breathing, severe, debilitating chronic fatigue, could not sleep, my whole body ached from head to toe. I did not want my husband to even give a hug, I ached so bad. I was freezing cold. I could have four layers of clothes on, several blankets, sit in front of my fire place and still be cold. I was blacking out, getting dizzy, my balance was off. It was getting scary. But, they had the brilliant idea of taking my off my Armour because of my blood work. In this six week period, I almost died and divorced my husband. I had no life left in my eyes, family and friends were very worried about me, for good reason. This time, my blood work came back even worse than when I was originally diagnosed, my TSH was 10. I was told by a new doctor that if I had not already been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, they would not do anything for me, but because I had been diagnosed, they would put my a small does of Synthyroid. I explained I do not do well on this and I would prefer to be on the Armour. They would not prescribe it to me unless I saw the doctor, who I could not get into for over a month. When I told them I would be dead in a month, they did not care. Needless to say, I did not go back to this doctor.

I was able to find a doctor who is a D.O. and would treat more symptom based, not just blood work. He ended up putting my back on the 240 mg of Armour. My symptoms were much better, but I still had them. He checked me for adrenal fatigue, but this came back negative, which is normal even if you have adrenal fatigue. Everything he tested for came back normal, they could not figure out what was wrong.

Then, I shattered my wrist. In 18 months, I had 6 surgeries and 10 producers done. I ended up with the same complex regional pain syndrome, CRPS, I had in my leg. At one point, I decided to stop taking my pain medication cold turkey, decided to do it again. DO NOT ever do this unless under medical supervision. I finally decided to ask my chiropractor if there was anything he could do to help me, I was desperate for help. He told me of course he could. I went in to to see him and he had me fill out a health questioner, from this he informed me, I had adrenal fatigue, they were shot, gone, not functioning. Go figure with everything I had been through. He put me on whole food supplements and things began to take a turn for the better. I was still on the Armour. After several months, I thought I was ok and went off of the supplements. Symptoms got worse, again. I had to find a new doctor again for my thyroid, who is treating me only blood work based so I am all over the map with my dosage of Armour. I am know back on my supplements from my chiropractor for adrenal fatigue.

My added complication to my hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue is the CRPS. Being in significant amounts of pain on a daily bases, puts a lot of stress on the adrenal glands. This adds a layer of difficulty to treatment.

That is my story in a nutshell of dealing with both hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue. If you have any symptoms of these, stick around. I plan on writing much much more on these issues. I wrote out my story so you do understand I am coming from a place of true understanding, not just because it is interesting. Maybe something I have tried will help you on your journey of healing your hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue.

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God bless,
Jenn

















Thursday, January 10, 2013

How Is Your Resolution?

We are a few weeks into January, how are your resolutions going? At this point, you might be thinking it is not worth it and hard to make changes and stick to it. But, do remember, anything worthwhile takes time and work. You did not get to the state of your health and body over night, so it will take time to regain your health and fitness.

Always keep in mind what you are trying to obtain. You will have days that you fall off the wagon, take these as a learning experience. The only way we grow, is when we fall down. We have to figure out how to pick up the pieces and move forward, to become a better person.

Keep trying. When you give up and go back to old habits, you will never become a better person and reach your goals.

Keep changes one at a time. Do not over whelm yourself. Remember the big picture, but take one step at a time.

Find support.

Reward yourself for even small changes and accomplishments.

Keep it all in perspective.

I know you can do whatever you set out to do. Continue to plug along and you will get there.

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God bless,
Jenn

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!!!!!!


It is that time of year again, Christmas is over, and the new year is here. So, tradition has it, you make a New Year's Resolution(s). I am convinced these are traditions more than a real resolve to change. Of course one of the most well intentioned and made resolutions is to lose weight, get healthy, become healthier or something along these lines. But, how many times have you tried this and not succeed?

Lets take several steps to break this down to help make your effects successful this New Year.

1. Losing weight, getting healthy, has to be relevant to you. What does this mean to you and for you? Getting healthy can mean entirely different things to all of us. You need to decide what it means to you so you know what goal you are striving for. Write it out.

2. Just saying you want to lose weight or get healthy is not something that is tangible, something you can wrap your head around, or something definitive. To be able to make a change, which is what needs to happen to lose weight and reclaim your health, it has to be definitive. When writing down what getting healthy is to you, figure out HOW you are going to accomplish your goal.

3. Make one change at a time. Pick one thing that is small and you can do with little effort. Something such as:
        drink a glass of water before any soda
        eat a piece of fruit, vegetable, nut, seed or healthy food before some type of processed junk food
        set a timer and every hour you are awake, do 5 squats, 5 lunges and 5 arm raises, stretch, be active for 5 minutes.
       go for a walk as a family every day.
      try one new home cooked recipe a week, something that is not processed, prepackaged or frozen.
After a month or several, what works best for you, add on another change. This is progressive. You will notice your changes will become easier to make and you will begin making some without even realizing you are making them, the beauty of this.
     
4. Celebrate your small goals. If you do not accomplish your small goals, you will not ever make it to the finish. Celebrate what you have set out to accomplish. no matter how small, you accomplished it and this makes you one step closer to your larger goal.

A lifestyle change takes time. You did not end up with the body you have or the eating you have over night. You have accumulated them over the years. It is going to take time to change them. If you fall, figure out what triggered your slip up, what happened and be prepared for the next time. Get back up, and try again. That is what life is all about, trying.

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.

I hope you all have a very blessed New Year!
Jenn