Healthy eating tip 1: Set yourself up for success

To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big drastic change. If you approach the changes gradually and with commitment, you will have a healthy diet sooner than you think.

• Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of color, variety and freshness—then it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.
• Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart.  Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking.  As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.
• Every change you make to improve your diet matters. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet.  The long term goal is to feel good, have more energy and reduce the risk of cancer and disease. Don’t let your missteps derail you—every healthy food choice you make counts.

Vitamins That Help Improve Your Eyesight

Eyesight degeneration is something that naturally happens to everyone during the process of aging. Prescription or over-the-counter treatments can help slow or remedy this process and laser eye surgery has been increasing in popularity recently but there are less expensive ways to prevent or even reverse sight loss. One way of doing this is by ensuring that you consume specific vitamins through certain foods and by supplementing your diet with vitamins if necessary.

Refocusing your eyes at regular intervals, wearing sunglasses when in the glare, and refraining from unnecessarily straining your eyes are ways to keep them healthy— but proper nutrition is also key. The different parts of the eye and specifically the retina, the macula, and the lens all require a range of different nutrients to function properly and here are a few of the essential ones. 
  
The three main vitamins necessary for maintaining good eyesight are vitamins A, C, and E. Vitamin A improves vision during the nighttime and in low-light. A concentrated amount of vitamin A can be found in carrots, spinach, broccoli, sweet potatoes, squash, eggs, cheese, and butter. Next, vitamin C, an antioxidant that aids the prevention of cataracts, can be found in most fruits.

High quantities of vitamin C can be found in oranges and other citrus fruits. Vitamin C supplements have grown increasingly available because vitamin C increases immune system functionality. Then there is vitamin E, another antioxidant that prevents cell damage and aging in the eyes. Asparagus, avocado, milk, eggs, spinach, nuts, vegetable oils, and whole grain foods are all high in vitamin E.

Another substance, known as lutein, is found in many green vegetables and eggs and is important to preventing macular degeneration. Lutein is one of many types of cartenoids that can be found in vegetables, all of which help preserve eye health. Aside from fighting cataract development, lutein also slows macular degeneration in the eye that happens normally through aging. 10% of the population aged 66-74 experience macular degeneration and 30% of people 75-85 years old experience it. Some foods with high levels of lutein are kale, spinach, peas, broccoli, zucchini, and eggs. Zinc is also known to slow and prevent macular degeneration. The seeds of pumpkin, squash, and watermelon all contain zinc. Liver and roast beef are also foods that contain high quantities of zinc.

For retinal health, omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil play an important role. One particular omega-3 fatty acid known as DHA has been found to improve color and depth perception. These oils can be integrated into any diet either by eating fish or by taking fish oil supplements.

Even if you are at the point where your eyesight may be getting worse due to age, you don’t have to worry too much or opt for expensive laser eye surgery. Glasses or contacts may become necessary, but to slow down the process of eye detriment— in addition to refocusing your eyes often and avoiding straining the eyes— having a diet that supplies you with the proper vitamins and nutrients can make seeing things clearly a little bit less of a hassle.

Must eat food types

You’ve heard that old saying: True beauty comes from within. Well, now nutritional experts have confirmed that you really are what you eat.

Forget French fries and fatty hamburgers. If you want to look beautiful and feel young and healthy, you’ll eat a generous variety of super foods that have been proven to work wonders on the human body.

Whether you’re on a low fat diet, low carb diet, or no diet, adding these super foods to your plate should become as second nature to you as putting your lipstick on in the morning. These are the type of foods you should eat;

• For Healthy Skin
  blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, currants, purple grapes, pumpkin, carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes
  
• Healthy Eyes
  broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, bok choy, kale, spinach, romaine lettuce, mustard greens, turnip greens
  
• Strong Bones
  yogurt, kefir, soy, tofu, Drink: skim milk
  
• Reduce Stress
  beans (navy, pinto, red, black, etc.), green beans, sugar snap peas, green peas, chick peas
  
• Boost Immune System
  turkey, skinless chicken breast, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, spinach, Drink: black or green tea
  
• Sun Protection for Skin
  tomatoes, watermelon, pink grapefruit

Good Health

Good health is not only about not being ill, it is about being happy and feeling whole from a physical, mental and spiritual point of view.
Being healthy is not anymore just about taking medicines when unwell, it means taking care of ourselves to prevent any illnesses and to change our attitude when we need to heal or get better after the illness. Taking care of our health today means doing a lot of things to feel good, from eating the right way to taking vitamins, from exercising to having a job we enjoy.

20 Practical Tips for Quieting the Mind

The purpose of this article is to provide 20 practical recommendations to help beginners get past the initial hurdles and integrate meditation over the long term:
1) Make it a formal practice. You will only get to the next level in meditation by setting aside specific time (preferably two times a day) to be still.
2) Start with the breath. Breathing deep slows the heart rate, relaxes the muscles, focuses the mind and is an ideal way to begin practice.
3) Stretch first. Stretching loosens the muscles and tendons allowing you to sit (or lie) more comfortably. Additionally, stretching starts the process of “going inward” and brings added attention to the body.
4) Meditate with Purpose. Beginners must understand that meditation is an ACTIVE process. The art of focusing your attention to a single point is hard work, and you have to be purposefully engaged!
5) Notice frustration creep up on you. This is very common for beginners as we think “hey, what am I doing here” or “why can’t I just quiet my damn mind already”. When this happens, really focus in on your breath and let the frustrated feelings go.
6) Experiment. Although many of us think of effective meditation as a Yogi sitting cross-legged beneath a Bonzi tree, beginners should be more experimental and try different types of meditation. Try sitting, lying, eyes open, eyes closed, etc.
7) Feel your body parts. A great practice for beginning meditators is to take notice of the body when a meditative state starts to take hold. Once the mind quiets, put all your attention to the feet and then slowly move your way up the body (include your internal organs). This is very healthy and an indicator that you are on the right path.
8) Pick a specific room in your home to meditate. Make sure it is not the same room where you do work, exercise, or sleep. Place candles and other spiritual paraphernalia in the room to help you feel at ease.
9) Read a book (or two) on meditation. Preferably an instructional guide AND one that describes the benefits of deep meditative states. This will get you motivated. John Kabat-Zinn’s Wherever You Go, There You Are is terrific for beginners.
10) Commit for the long haul. Meditation is a life-long practice, and you will benefit most by NOT examining the results of your daily practice. Just do the best you can every day, and then let it go!
11) Listen to instructional tapes and CDs.
12) Generate moments of awareness during the day. Finding your breath and “being present” while not in formal practice is a wonderful way to evolve your meditation habits.
13) Make sure you will not be disturbed. One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is not insuring peaceful practice conditions. If you have it in the back of your mind that the phone might ring, your kids might wake, or your coffee pot might whistle than you will not be able to attain a state of deep relaxation.
14) Notice small adjustments. For beginning meditators, the slightest physical movements can transform a meditative practice from one of frustration to one of renewal. These adjustments may be barely noticeable to an observer, but they can mean everything for your practice.
15) Use a candle. Meditating with eyes closed can be challenging for a beginner. Lighting a candle and using it as your point of focus allows you to strengthen your attention with a visual cue. This can be very powerful.
16) Do NOT Stress. This may be the most important tip for beginners, and the hardest to implement. No matter what happens during your meditation practice, do not stress about it. This includes being nervous before meditating and angry afterwards. Meditation is what it is, and just do the best you can at the time.
17) Do it together. Meditating with a partner or loved one can have many wonderful benefits, and can improve your practice. However, it is necessary to make sure that you set agreed-upon ground rules before you begin!
18) Meditate early in the morning. Without a doubt, early morning is an ideal
time to practice: it is quieter, your mind is not filled with the usual clutter, and there is less chance you will be disturbed. Make it a habit to get up half an hour earlier to meditate.
19) Be Grateful at the end. Once your practice is through, spend 2-3 minutes feeling appreciative of the opportunity to practice and your mind’s ability to focus.
20) Notice when your interest in meditation begins to wane. Meditation is
hard work, and you will inevitably come to a point where it seemingly does not fit into the picture anymore. THIS is when you need your practice the most and I recommend you go back to the book(s) or the CD’s you listened to and become re-invigorated with the practice. Chances are that losing the ability to focus on meditation is parallel with your inability to focus in other areas of your life!

Exercise Plans for Beginners

So what is the first step? Lucky for you, it is something you probably do every day: walking. What is that you are saying? Walking is too hard on your joints? You are too heavy to walk? Well, you are in luck because you can walk in a filled swimming pool and get quite a bit of exercise in without destroying your delicate joints or feeling nearly as heavy as you might otherwise feel.
If you do not like walking, you can try other things, like lifting soup cans straight out to your sides and making little circles with them, ten at a time. You can even do exercises that use just the weight of your body, like trying this previous exercise without the cans. You can even work out while lying down. My favorite lying-down exercise for flattening stomachs is to just lie on your back and lift your feet off the ground and hold them a few inches off the ground.
Whatever you try, take it slowly. You cannot get anywhere if you burn yourself out right away. Start with a small amount of time. Maybe do some walking in place during commercial breaks at home. Then you can work your way up to five minute periods of exercise, then ten. All you really have to remember is that every little bit counts and that you do not have to do the exercise all at once for it to count as exercise.

Exercise

Exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Finding time to keep your body in shape can be difficult but the benefits are worth every minute. You'll not only increase your stamina but you'll look better, feel better, and possibly even lose a few pounds. The tips in this section will help you get starting with an exercise program. If you are already working out regularly, you'll find some tips about strength training, marathons, and how to get rid of those extra pounds that just won't go away.

The best way for a beginner to start a strength training program is to focus on the following:

• The newbie to training should practice a basics routine for approximately 12 weeks, which helps prepare the body for more intensive training.
• The goal is to exercise the majority of the muscle groups, so it is beneficial to use a circuit training model, which will consist of: 8-12 types of exercises; each exercise completed in a set amount of time; the total circuit completed two times. This model should be followed 2-3 times per week, and as you progress you can include more demanding exercises in your circuit.
• Learn the purpose of varying equipment you may use in your routine. This may include resistance bands, dumbbells, medicine balls, or barbells. When you know why and how they are used in your program, you are more likely to perform your exercises correctly and safely.
• Be sure your program exercises are set up so that muscle groups are not concentrated on in consecutive exercises, but alternated to prevent being overworked. A popular formula for safe training is to focus on total body, then upper body, followed by lower body, and completed with core exercises.