Laughter is the best medicine. So here’s a little tickle of the funny bone to release those feel good hormones and de-stress after a long, fulfilling week.
Since Wednesday’s post was about how important sleep is to achieving and maintaining health, here’s a serious hippo singing The Lion Sleeps Tonight accompanied by a manic dog shakin’ his bootie:
Click here: The Lion Sleeps Tonight
“Hectic schedules. Bigger workloads. More hours in front of the computer and TV. There are more reasons why we lack sleep than there are hours in a day.” Dr. Natasha Turner, N.D.
In Monday’s post, Are We All Just Hormonal?, we introduced Doc Turner as our wellness kinght in a shining white and teal book cover. Using hormones as a guide towards achieving health, she says sleep, along with stress management, is the most important aspect for restoring hormonal balance.
The hormonal benefits of superb sleep are enticing:
The importance of sleep to health and wellness is unanimous among health professionals. Here are 3 links to get you started:
Sweet Dreams are Made of These (tips for a better sleep) Read the rest of this entry
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Do you drag yourself out of bed in the morning or crave a `pick-me-up’ in the afternoon? Do you have low self-esteem, trouble concentrating or hair growing where it shouldn’t?
Hormones control everything in our lives. They are powerful chemical messengers, the communication system between the brain and body. They affect everything from sexual reproduction to mood, sleep, appearance and almost every other aspect of daily life.
Many of us show signs and symptoms of hormonal imbalance every day. Not only do whacky hormone levels affect our quality of life now but left unchecked, these imbalances age us and increase our chances of developing conditions like cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis and heart disease.
The answer for hormonal imbalance is clearly… balance! In the quest for optimal health, Natasha Turner, N.D., may be the white knight galloping in to save us all. Her expert solution is in The Hormone Diet, a 3-step wellness program focusing on hormonal balance so we can age gracefully and remain youthful.
This approach to total wellness is intriguing for several reasons:
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Many people in Ontario look forward to June for the coveted union of strawberry and rhubarb in the classic, sweet and tart, strawberry rhubarb pie. But not everyone wants to take that big of a calorie hit. So with a little Live Lighter health spin, here’s a delightful smoothie recipe to satisfy your craving!
The following recipe calls for frozen ingredients. It will help you use up last year’s stock to make room for the new. If you’re using fresh ingredients, make sure to add 3-4 ice cubes to the recipe.
Love to hear how you like it, please leave your comments!
Strawberry Rhubarb Smoothie
Serves: 1 (20 oz glass)
Ingredients
1 cup frozen Rhubarb, diced
1 cup frozen Strawberries, unsweetened
1/2 cup plain Yogurt
1 cup Rice Dream Original rice milk
1 serving Brown Rice Protein powder
1 tsp Honey (or to desired sweetness)
Directions
Nutrition Information
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Can it be that simple? Feel good and be well? Maybe. There are a few people out there that strongly believe that positive emotional and mental well-being is the secret to living a long, healthy life.
Emmanuel Lopez, a.k.a. Motivatorman, a good friend of mine and eternal optimist who uses movies to motivate, wrote an intriguing post last week, “Who Wants to Live Forever? – Highlander“. He suggests that healthy living has more to do with a positive mindset and attitude, and creating positive, emotional energy than diet and exercise.
Motivatorman cites several news stories covering long life and healthy living. He points out that a positive attitude seems to be a common denominator among the healthy, abnormally aged elderly found in the world’s Blue Zones.
And from a Japan Times’ article, Emmanuel references 97-year-old author and physician, Shigeaki Hinohara’s first healthy living tip, “Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot.”
Although Emmanuel focuses on the importance of a positive mindset to living healthy and long, he makes sure to end his post with:
So whether or not you want to live forever why not recognize the benefits of adapting a more conscious lifestyle. Be more aware of your lifestyle choices in the areas of diet, mindset attitudes and relationships. They all lead to a youthful and energized state of mind.
So what do you think, Readers? Is feeling good the tipping point for total health and wellness?
What do you think will happen if we simply focus on developing a positive attitude until it becomes habit?
One of the most delightful side-effects of being healthy is looking and feeling younger. In fact, healthy individuals are HOT! No botox needed.
Everyone has the potential to be healthier and sexier, naturally. Self-proclaimed health addicts, naturopath Dr. J.J. (Dr. Jean Jacques Duguoa) and Jennifer Lyall from VitaminJunkeys.com, share the secrets of reversing the hands of time through natural health in this 5:30 min video:
Fiddleheads are fun, tasty, healthy, versatile and even a little bit dangerous! They will appeal to people who love wild, earthy and slightly bitter flavours common among green veggies known to have powerful healing effects. Think: asparagus, green beans, artichoke, okra and broccoli. Yum.
Yesterday was my second time trying “Spring’s first fruit”, considered a delicacy in many places like the Maritimes (CBC video clip). While this veggie is crunchy and scrumptious lightly fried in olive oil (the only way I’ve tried it so far) but for the rustic gourmet, there’s no end to the possibilities of fiddlehead cuisine!
Here are just a few other reasons why this vegetable is so impressive:
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You know those really great days when you feel on top of the world? Everything seems to be going smoothly and even when it doesn’t, you laugh it off? These are the days where you love life and appreciate all its ups and lessons because you can see that it’s ALL GOOD. 
That’s the power of cleansing. You can actually create more of these effortlessly productive and pleasurable days just by regular cleansing!
There’s a cost, though. It’s a hassle! Even this Easy, Gentle Cleanse for the First-Timer has many steps, restrictions and time requirements between the exercise and food preparation for the all-natural, veggie-focused diet.
This post attempts to make a week-long cleanse silly-easy for you. And you never know, you might be surprised to find you actually enjoyed the process and be feeling so fine by the end of the week that you’ll continue cleansing for a month (the ideal for most people)!
STEP 1: MENTAL PREP
Read an easy gentle cleanse for the first-timer and become aware of the basics. You don’t have to follow it to the letter, just know that the idea is to reduce exposure to toxins, flush the toxins out, heal and repair the body and replenish the good bacteria. This post will also guide you in creating a grocery list (see sample in Step 3).
STEP 2: MEAL PLAN
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Your Mom is a very special person. If she’s like mine, she’s sacrificed a lot of personal time and energy to give you the best she could offer you. If you’re strapped for cash but still want to show her how much you love and appreciate her, consider making her a healthy meal!
Hey, come on. She fed you for years, she might even still! It’s Mom’s turn for someone to nurture her with a wholesome, home-cooked meal. Here’s a highly nutritious, cleansing, protein-laden salad recipe for Mom that will show her you want her around for a long time.
Bake the chicken the night before or choose to top the salad with warm, sliced chicken strips that night. Vegetarian Moms might enjoy chick peas tossed in or grilled tofu steaks on top.
Feel free to alter the recipe using what you already have in the kitchen or special foods you know your Mom loves.
Mom’s Basil Chicken Spinach Salad
Serves: 4
Time: approximately 1 hr. (depending on how fast you are washing & chopping) Read the rest of this entry
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There’s at least a few good sleeps in the future for 7 Live Lighter readers and their kids. Congrats, to the lovely ladies who won the Kids’ Herbal Remedy Giveaway!
Sinupret has graciously mailed packages to Dominique, Denise, Melanie, Marianne, Tammy, Christine and Tanya. Here’s what the winners can expect to find in their Sinupret canvas zippered bag:
Thank you for participating, Ladies. We hope Sinupret will help your kids breathe a little easier when they need it the most, and they enjoy the toys! And in case you value your reading time, stay tuned for our review on Dr. Sears’ book. But if you read it for interest’s sake, please drop in to tell us how you like it.
