10 Health Benefits of Using Cinnamon in your Food.

10 Health Benefits of Using Cinnamon in your Food.

Who doesn’t love a sprinkling of cinnamon on fresh apple pie or atop a chai latte? It’s just one of those spices that tastes fantastic. But taste is not the only reason to love cinnamon. Here are 10 health reasons (plus an extra reason) to love this super spice:

1. Numerous studies show that cinnamon regulates blood sugar, making it a great choice for diabetics and hypoglycemics alike. That’s also great news for anyone who wants stable energy levels and moods.

2. It reduces LDL cholesterol levels. LDL is also known as the harmful cholesterol. Reducing it may help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

3. It has natural anti-infectious compounds. In studies, cinnamon has been effective against ulcer-causing H. pylori bacteria and other pathogens.

4. It reduces pain linked to arthritis. Cinnamon has been shown in studies at the Department of Internal Medicine, Kangnam Korean Hospital, to reduce cytokines linked to arthritic pain.

5. Research at the University of Texas, published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer, shows that cinnamon may reduce the proliferation of cancer cells, holding promise for cancer prevention and sufferers of the disease.

6. It is a natural food preservative.

7. It contains fiber, calcium, iron, and manganese—albeit small amounts to the typical dose of ground cinnamon.

8. It’s been proven effective relief for menstrual cramps and bloating.

9. infertility. Cinnamon contains a natural chemical called cinnamaldehyde, which studies show increases the hormone progesterone and decreases testosterone production in women, helping to balance hormones.

10. Cinnamon holds promise for various neurodegenerative diseases, including: Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, brain tumor, and meningitis, according to research at the Cytokine Research Laboratory, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas. Their research shows that cinnamon reduces chronic inflammation linked with these neurological disorders.

On a side note:

Not a health benefit, but a great reason to love cinnamon, it’s versatile. It works with sweet and savory dishes alike. Consider that many curries and savory Moroccan dishes include cinnamon.

Eat More Chicken!

Benefits of eating Chicken.

Chicken soup, chicken stew, chicken chili, chicken breast on salad…chicken in almost any form is great for your health—unless you’re the chicken of course!

All kidding aside, the health benefits of eating poultry are plenty. When this fowl comes in a lean breast, it’s low in fat and calories and high in protein, which makes it ideal for weight maintenance. Not to mention that this bird is jam-packed full of essential nutrients and vitamins.

Plus, with so many ways to prepare this plucky protein, you’re family won’t tire of chicken as a frequent weekly menu staple. Here are the top ten healthy benefits of eating chicken:

1. High in Protein

If you’re looking for a great source of lean, low fat protein, this bird is the word. The protein in chicken lends itself to muscle growth and development, and help support a healthy body weight and aid weight loss.

2. Natural Anti-depressant

Chicken, like its brother fowl the turkey, is high in an amino acid called tryptophan, which gives you that comforting feeling after consuming a big bowl of mom’s chicken soup. In fact, if you’re feeling depressed, eating some poultry will increase the serotonin levels in your brain, enhance your mood, blasting stress, and lulling you to sleep.

3. Prevents Bone Loss

If you’re entering your senior years and you’re concerned about Osteoporosis or arthritis, eating chicken will aid in your fight against bone loss thanks to the protein punch it packs!

4. Poultry for Heart Health

Homocysteine is an amino acid that can cause cardiovascular disease if levels are high in the body. Fortunately for us, eating chicken breast suppresses and controls homocysteine levels.

5. Phosphorus

Chicken is also rich in phosphorus, an essential mineral that supports your teeth and bones, as well as kidney, liver, and central nervous system function.

6. Selenium

Chicken also abundant in selenium, an essential mineral involved in metabolic performance—in other words thyroid, hormone, metabolism, and immune function.

7. Metabolism Booster

Vitamin B6 (or B-complex vitamins) encourage enzymes and metabolic cellular reactions (or a process known as Methylation), which means eating this bird will keep blood vessels healthy, energy levels high, and metabolism burning calories so you can manage a healthy weight and activity level.

8. Rich in Niacin

Chicken also happens to be rich in niacin, one particular B-vitamin that guards against cancer and other forms of genetic (DNA) damage.

9. Promotes Eye Health

Chicken is high in retinol, alpha and beta-carotene, and lycopene, all derived from vitamin A, and all vital for healthy eyesight.

10. Essential for Healthy Tissue Growth

Many of us are plagued with chapped lips, cracked mouths, tongue sores, or dry skin in winter. However, a boost in riboflavin (or Vitamin B2), found in chicken livers, will drastically reduce your skin problems and repair dry or damaged skin.

So make sure you include chicken breast as a part of your nutrition program. There are so many different ways to cook chicken too.

Who likes Peanut Butter?

Benefits of Eating Peanut Butter

Peanut butter, once a scourge among healthy eating advocates, is now a darling of the nutrition community. High in protein and "good" fats, this once-humble sandwich spread is now known to help prevent or reduce type 2 diabetes, gallstones, cancer and cholesterol. It can even help your sex life! Adding peanut butter to your diet is a smart, healthy choice.

Cholesterol

Most of the fats contained in peanut butter are monounsaturated fats (MUFA), which lower "bad" cholesterol (low-density lipids) and raise high-density lipids (HDL), the "good" cholesterol, according to the according to the Mayo Clinic. MUFAs found in peanut butter improve anti-inflammatory abilities in HDL.

Diabetes

According to research by the Harvard School of Public Health, published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association," peanut butter helps significantly reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Eating an ounce of peanut butter, five times per week, helps decrease the risk of developing this serious disease by as much as 27 percent.
Heart Disease

According to the Peanut Institute, studies like the Physicians Health Study, Iowa Women's Health Study and Adventists Health Study, found nut consumption, including peanuts, reduced the risk of heart disease by as much as 25 percent.
Fiber

Peanut butter is high in dietary fiber, which reduces instances of colorectal cancer and regulates blood sugar and cholesterol. Fiber also helps prevent atherosclerosis, which leads to hardening of the arteries.
Vitamins & Minerals

Peanut butter is about 24 percent protein by weight, and is a good source of Vitamins E and B6, iron, folate, niacin, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, manganese and calcium. Niacin plays an important function in the secretion of sexual hormones, and the "Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry" reported that niacin provides protection against Alzheimer's.
Resveratrol

Peanut butter contains resveratrol, an antimicrobial agent that helps fight bacteria, viruses and molds. According to the Peanut Institute, research on resveratrol and mice has found benefits including anti-aging, cancer prevention and anti-inflammation.
Gallstones

A Nurse's Health Study found that women who at ate least 1 oz. of nuts or peanut butter each week decreased gallstone development by 25 percent compared to those women who did not eat nuts.

Learn to Motivate

Learn to Motivate

 I hope everyone is having a great week. The sunshine has been awesome this week, it seems as winter has finally thrown in the towel and our infamous Texas summer is just around the corner.

 So now it's time to step up the motivation and get ready for the busy summer months. I'm going to use a quote from Zig Zigler about motivation. "Motivation is awesome if applied daily, it's just the same as taking a bath, you bathe daily so you smell fresh and feel better. Motivation is the same as taking a bath, if you don't apply it daily you lose the power and you start to smell"! 

Using Motivation to your Benefit

When we are motivated, our self-confidence is sky high, and we feel extremely confident in accepting the challenges of daily life. It becomes easier for us to reach our professional goals as we can stretch ourselves beyond our abilities. While trying to motivate others, it is important that you keep yourself motivated because of two main reasons. Firstly, if you are motivated yourself, you can apply motivational techniques to others in a better way, and secondly, you have to make sure that you are motivating others in the right directions. If you just want to achieve your goals without considering the needs of others, you will end up with temporary, motivational solutions. This temporary change in motivation can cause high turnovers, bad work attitudes, and a poor working environment.

The best way to begin each day is simple, just tell yourself your going to have a great day! Put a smile on your face and head out the door. When you see others put a smile on your face and have something positive to say. When you greet customers always smile and listen to what they have to say. Offer them a resolve to their problem and do it with a smile on your face. Give the customer what they expect, "a solution to their needs" once you've done that you will have a customer for the long haul. They will come back to you and they will refer their friends and family to you. That's called success!

REMEMBER The energy you put out is the energy you will  get back. If you expect to stay motivated then put out that positive energy and that positive energy will come back to you. Think about it for just one minute, it's always the happy people that seem to have everything fall into the right place all the time, well that's no accident, those people understand that being positive means positive things will happen.

We offer a total wellness solution to you, it's not just about your weight, it's also about the mind and spirit. You're only as strong as your weakest link.

Have a super day and let's finish out the week in a positive way!

Mental Attitude for Training and Life.

Mental Attitude for Training and Life.

To get the best out of your training every time you prepare to train, make sure you have cleared your mind of all the negative.

Having a clear mind and letting go of daily stress will help you preform better in your training session.

We've all heard that stress is one of the leading causes for heart attack and stroke but many of us never really think about what else it's doing to our bodies. Just because your heart is functioning as it should does not mean you are not effected by the stress.

Stress produces cortisol and cortisol helps fat stay right where it's at and locks up fat loss. Stress also causes hypertension, and elevated blood pressure especially during resistance exercise is very dangerous.

Recent studies have also shown that stress reduces the production of ATP within the Mitochondria of the cells and limits your anaerobic endurance. Reduced levels of ATP will make your training session a real struggle. Cortisol also slows down the healing process and can bring on symptoms of over-training and cause disruptive sleep patterns making it even more difficult to train properly.

So when you walk into the gym make sure you take a moment and clear your head of daily stress and focus on the job at hand.

The truth be told, the stress you created is all in your head and only you can allow it to consume you or LET IT GO!

I highly recommend reading a book by Dr. Wayne Dyer entitled,
"There's a Spiritual Solution for Every Problem". This book has nothing to do with religion, it simply tells you how to let go of the stress that is effecting your life.

Remember being fit in the gym is just 1/3 of being totally fit. Remember to exercise the mind and spirit as well. You are only as strong as your weakest link.

Stress, You can live without it!

This week seems to have gotten started off great, the weather is beautiful and Spring is in the air!  Take the time this week to enjoy this beautiful weather and let go of some of the stress that burdens us throughout the day. In fact read this short story on stress. Have a great day!!!

A short story on Stress.

A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they'd be asked the "half empty or half full" question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

She continued, "The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything."

Remember to put the glass down.

I know some of you are wondering what does this have to do with health and wellness?

This simple truth is, "EVERYTHING"!!!!

Relieve yourself from everyday stress and regain your health! The burden we carry is on us because we put it there. Have a happy and healthy day!

Carbohydrate Addiction is Epidemic........Part 3 Conclusion

Carbohydrate Addiction is Epidemic........Part3 Conclusion

Novel Flavor-Enhancers May Also Contribute to Food Addiction

Another guiding principle for the processed food industry is known as “sensory-specific satiety.” Moss describes this as “the tendency for big, distinct flavors to overwhelm your brain, which responds by depressing your desire to have more.” The greatest successes, whether beverages or foods, owe their “craveability” to complex formulas that pique your taste buds just enough, without overwhelming them, thereby overriding your brain’s inclination to say “enough.”

Novel biotech flavor companies like Senomyx also play an important role.

Senomyx specializes in helping companies find new flavors that allow them to use less salt and sugar in their foods. But does that really make the food healthier? This is a questionable assertion at best, seeing how these “flavor enhancers” are created using secret, patented processes. They also do not need to be listed on the food label, which leaves you completely in the dark. As of now, they simply fall under the generic category of artificial and/or natural flavors, and they don’t even need to be tested for safety, as they’re used in minute amounts.

How to Combat Food Addiction and Regain Your Health

To protect your health, I advise spending 90 percent of your food budget on whole foods, and only 10 percent on processed foods. It’s important to realize that refined carbohydrates like breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other processed foods quickly break down to sugar, increase your insulin levels, and cause insulin resistance, which is the number one underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain.

By taking the advice offered in the featured study and cutting out these high-glycemic foods you can retrain your body to burn fat instead of sugar. However, it’s important to replace these foods with healthy fats, not protein—a fact not addressed in this research. I believe most people may need between 50-70 percent of their daily calories in the form of healthful fats, which include:

1. Olives & Olive oil

2. Coconut and Coconut Oils

3. Natural whole fat butter

4. Organic raw nuts, especially macadamia nuts, which are low in omega-6 fat.

5. Organic pastured eggs and pastured meats

6. Avocados


A growing body of evidence also suggests that intermittent fasting is particularly effective if you’re struggling with excess weight as it provokes the natural secretion of human growth hormone (HGH), a fat-burning hormone. It also increases resting energy expenditure while decreasing insulin levels, which allows stored fat to be burned for fuel. Together, these and other factors will turn you into an effective fat-burning machine.

Best of all, once you transition to fat burning mode your cravings for sugar and carbohydrates will virtually disappear, as if by magic... While you’re making the adjustment, you could supplement L-Glutamine (1,000MG) before each meal and 3,000-6,000 MG at bed time. This will help reduce cravings.

Other tricks to help you overcome your sugar cravings include:

Exercise: Anyone who exercises intensely on a regular basis will know that a significant amount of resistance exercise is one of the best "cures" for food cravings. It always amazes me how my appetite, especially for sweets, dramatically decreases after a good workout. I believe the mechanism is related to the dramatic reduction in insulin levels that occurs after exercise.

Organic black coffee: Coffee is a potent opioid receptor antagonist, and contains compounds such as cafestrol -- found plentifully in both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee -- which can bind to your opioid receptors, occupy them and essentially block your addiction to other opioid-releasing foods. This may profoundly reduce the addictive power of other substances, such as sugar.