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My dinner tonight!
Quinoa, shredded Gouda, black kale, and chanterelles sauteed in olive oil and garlic.

Tip: shredding cheese can help you cut back on its usage. You get just as much flavor too!

Are you a crier when cutting onions? Try this Alton Brown tip! Onions can make any bland dish tasty and have a myriad of health benefits (lowering cholesterol, preventing colon cancer, lowering blood sugar, and detoxifying).

4 Tips for a Naturally Clean Home

Looking for a cost-effective, safe way to keep your home clean, naturally? Try these four common household items:
Olive oil: Use to lubricate and polish wood furniture (three parts olive oil to one part vinegar; or two parts olive oil to one part lemon juice).
Potatoes: Halved potatoes can remove rust from baking pans or tinware - follow with a salt scrub or dip the potato in salt before scrubbing.
White vinegar: Cleans linoleum floors and glass (from windows to shower doors) when mixed with water and a little liquid soap (castile or vegetable). It cuts grease and removes stains, and removes soap scum and cleans toilets (add a bit of baking soda if you like). Pour down drains once a week for antibacterial cleaning. Add to water in a spray bottle to kill mold and mildew.
Tea tree oil: Can be added to vinegar/water solutions for its antibacterial properties. Use it to kill mold and mildew, and on kitchen and bathroom surfaces instead of chemical products. Add 50 drops to a bucket of water to clean countertops and tile floors.

Dr. Weil

I love using all these. Along with them, I love using baking soda for deep scrubbing and deodorizing. Also, old lemon rinds used for juicing or cooking can be used to brighten your sink and countertops as well as make them smell fresh. White vinegar’s great for cleaning, just check out this list- Vinegar Tips. If you can’t stand the smell of vinegar, put a few drops of essential oils into the mix (lavender works great and has disinfecting properties of its own). Check out these cleaning recipes that include essential oils. It’s important to keep the cleaners in your home green. Check out the ingredients on the back of some conventional cleaners sometime. They’re filled with gnarly toxic chemicals that you end up inhaling or absorbing while cleaning. Besides that, it all ends up going down the pipes and or into the ground and into the food and water we drink and eat! There’s no reason to have such harsh chemicals to get our homes clean. All we need is a little elbow grease and some of the things listed above. They work the same without the hazard to your health. To Good Health, Joyce

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So you’ve finally gotten motivated to exercise, and now you’re spending hours at the gym, sweating off the pounds and conditioning your body. But how are you feeling? If you’re constantly sore, stiff, uncomfortable, and tired, you might be overtraining and injuring yourself.

Exercise Overload: Why You Shouldn’t Overtrain
Too much high-intensity exercise can harm your body, so be careful not to overtrain. Here are some warning signs that you might be overdoing your workouts:

• Constant pain or soreness. A little bit of soreness after exercise is normal, and it means you pushed your muscles just enough. But that soreness should pass in a day or two. If your muscles are constantly sore and your joints ache with pain, you’re probably pushing yourself too hard.
• Difficulty during workouts. If you are struggling to do exercises that were once easy, it’s time to ease up on the workouts.
• Increased heart rate. Your heart rate should go up during exercise, but if your heart rate is increased even when you’re not working out, that’s a concern. People who overtrain may also notice that their heart rate takes longer to get back to normal after exercise.
• Can’t sleep, can’t eat. Too much exercise can make you lose your appetite and also make it difficult to sleep, particularly if you exercise within two hours of bedtime.
• Changes in menstruation. Women who overtrain may notice that their periods become irregular or stop completely.
• Getting sick. Excessive exercise can wear down your immune system, so you may be constantly catching colds and other infections. You may also notice frequent headaches.
• Losing too much weight, lack of energy, depression, difficulty concentrating, and feelings of irritability are other warning signs of overtraining.

Exercise Overload: Overtraining or Incorrect Technique?
Be certain that you aren’t confusing overtraining with doing exercises incorrectly, warns Jody Swimmer, an exercise specialist and owner of a gym in Louisville, Ky. “More often, we see that something went wrong in the workout — a muscle pull or something,” Swimmer says.

So how can you distinguish between problems due to overtraining and soreness from improper exercise techniques? “If you’re always sore and your muscles are never recovering and they’re very tight, your joints ache, and you can’t sleep at night,” overtraining is likely to blame, says Swimmer. She also points out that “when you’re working out hard, you are tearing your muscle fibers down. You have to [make time for] recovery” to prevent the effects of overtraining.

Exercise Overload: Taking a Break
If you’re experiencing these symptoms, try the following:

• Talk to a personal trainer first to see if there’s a problem. “Have a trainer watch your routine and make sure that you’re exercising correctly, in proper form,” Swimmer says.
• Scale back your exercise routine. “Vary your intensity. And make sure you’re stretching, drinking plenty of fluids, and getting proper nutrition,” she says.
• Don’t ignore pain. If you’re injured, “seek medical attention and take a break,” Swimmer advises.
• Take an exercise break. If you haven’t sustained an injury, but notice it’s harder for you to complete workouts, your body probably needs a break. Allow your body to rest by taking several days or maybe even a few weeks off to recover fully. You’re not going to lose your fitness by taking some time off: Your body needs it.

Let your body heal, then gradually get back into your exercise routine. Slowly work into a routine that’s less strenuous; replace aggressive workouts with more moderate ones. If you’re a runner, try light jogging for shorter distances. If you lift weights, cut back on the amount of weight you lift and the frequency of lifting. Work with a trainer to help determine the right amount of exercise, so that you don’t suffer the effects of overtraining again.

Exercise is necessary for good health; just be sure not to risk illness and injury by going overboard.

article from Everyday Health

To Good Health, Joyce

5 Terrible Dieting Tips

I’m tired of people repeating half-baked diet advice to me. Here’s how it usually works:

Someone gets a tidbit of diet information from a friend. Mind you, said friend could be anyone from a high-performance athlete on a very specialized diet to a person who is completely full of crap. They’ll then take that advice to heart. But they’ll absorb other advice too, and add that into the mix. Before you know it they’ve built a Frankenstein diet from popular advice, half-truths, and dieting myths and will wind up more or less the same as when they started.

The worst dieting tips ever repeated to me:

1. “Carbs are bad for you.” A carryover from the massively popular Atkins Diet, this is perhaps the most destructive single piece of dieting advice ever popularized. I’ve actually seen websites on which users support each other in their mutual quests to eat less than 50g of carbs per day. Carbohydrates fuel your body. If you don’t eat them you’ll be too tired to exercise, or even think straight. What’s more, if you quit getting enough of them, your body will start cannibalizing your muscle. That’s right — not eating carbs IS bad for you! And once a low-carb dieter caves to cravings, the sugar binge that ensues often lasts for days.

2. “All calories are the same — it’s just calories in, calories out.” A lot of dieticians and popular fitness gurus talk about calories in/calories out and how, as long as the calories out exceeds the calories in, you’ll lose weight. This is true. But, if people listened a little further, most responsible fitness experts also say something like “But get a lot of fiber, and protein, and avoid processed foods…” Instead, dieters like to turn off their ears after the “calories in, calories out” part and think they have a license to eat whatever they want, as long as they’re jogging a few laps in the morning. But a doughnut breakfast will leave most people feeling bad (and hungry) regardless.

3. Fats, fruits, and milk myths. From “I’ve heard that healthy fats at every meal are good for you!” to “I’ve heard humans aren’t supposed to drink cow’s milk…,” the world is cluttered with misguided ideas about nutrition. Many people think we can eat limitless amounts of fruit (afterall, it’s natural!) despite the amount of sugar it contains. Of course, many people think the same thing about milk too. Other people are dehydrating themselves to avoid water weight, or trying to lose weight by going vegan. In reality, different amounts of different nutrients are useful for different people in different situations, and the only way to know what’s right for you is to stop listening to pieces of second-hand diet advice and to get on a program designed by a nutritionist. Quit listening to your friends. Get a professional on the case.

4. “Eat multiple meals per day to lose weight!” This is a great idea when properly applied, and I do it to control my weight and avoid getting hungry. The thing is, this does not mean that a person should eat a full breakfast and, three hours later, a bucket of chicken. The portion sizes have to be somewhat limited compared to what we in America typically consider a meal. A serving of meat, for example, should be about the size of a deck of playing cards.

5. “You can get into shape without exercising if you just watch your diet!” You can lose some weight if you watch your diet. Of course, you can lose weight by getting trapped at the bottom of a well for a week also. Losing weight doesn’t mean you’re in shape. In fact, it might just mean you look a little better but feel infinitely worse than when you started, depending on how many screwed up dieting myths you’re subscribing to. If you want to be “in shape” you need to combine diet and exercise. To keep track of your eating and exercise, try Everyday Health’s free calorie counter.

Everyday Health Blogs

Avoid Mindless Eating

The reason it can be difficult to eat healthily is that “hidden persuaders” can lead you into bad eating habits, says new research. Try these tips to avoid mindless eating:

- Be aware of the size and shape of containers. It’s the amount of food that counts, not what it looks like.

- Use smaller plates and bowls. Empty plates and bowls, even those of a smaller size, cue some people to stop eating.

- Read nutrition labels, paying attention to the serving size listed. Consider the facts; don’t guess at how many calories you’re eating.

- Look past the packaging. The wording on a food’s package or the language on a menu can influence you to actually like a food better, increasing your risk of overeating.

- Keep visual reminders of how much you’re eating. Keep wrappers, empty containers, bones, and other reminders of how much you’ve eaten nearby.

- Think about eating a meal that’s healthier overall. Don’t just focus on separate parts of the meal.
Control your impulse purchases. Don’t let signs encourage you to buy more than you need.

from Everyday Health

To Good Health,
Joyce

Yoga Tips

Contrary to popular belief, it’s actually really easy to injure yourself doing yoga, which I think is ironic because most people do yoga to heal themselves in one way or another. To avoid injury, try remembering the following 3 tips in your practice:

1- It’s hip to be square - Try to keep your hips always squared and leveled. This applies to all your joints. Try keeping everything in alignment. I often like to think of my skeletal joints stacked when in poses like plank (shoulders above elbows, elbows above wrists) and even forearm balance (feet - knees - hips - shoulders - elbows). Almost always your spine should be aligned with your skull, and your shoulders and hips leveled. There are exceptions to this rule, but it’s not often. In the most common poses like the Warrior series (Virabhadrasana 1-3), Mountain (Tadasana), Triangle (Trikonasana), Forward bend (Uttanasana), Downward Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana), and twists, your shoulders and hips should always be level and balanced with your spine. Think of yourself as the Vitruvian man if it helps- it helps me!

2 - Activate your muscles - Try to keep your muscles active while in poses. This reduces the likelihood of injured joints and back. When in poses like Uttanasana, Adho Mukha Svanasana, and any seated forward folds (splits or otherwise), make sure your legs are active. Active means your kneecaps are pulling up and your thigh muscles are working. You don’t need to jam your knee back, just make sure your muscles are working in the pose. Keeping your core active during inversions like headstand, handstand, forearm balance, and even slight inversions like Adho Mukha Svanasana will help ground your pose as well as keep your spine safe. Even activating the arms in Virabhadrasanas can stabilize your pose and work your arms.

3 - Breathe - Don’t forget to breathe. It’s easy to forget to breathe if you’re working hard and in a pose that might not be the most comfortable, but it’s necessary to oxygenate those muscles to prevent cramping and kinks. The oxygen also helps make them more pliable, and gives them more stamina, making them much easier to work with. I like Ujjayi breathing with my yoga practice. I find it helps me get through poses easier, calms my mind, and, in a room full of Ujjayi breathers, it sounds like a beautiful ocean.

To Good Health,
Joyce