Benefits of Fruits and Veggies, etc. and Cat Health

Hey everyone!!! Sorry I missed out on last week's entry but it was my father's b-day weekend and onour regularly scheduled Wednesday we went for his birthday present, a scenic trip to Orangeville and then on the Credit Valley train tour. It was relaxing and quite a nice trip and good food there too. Sandwiches made of croissants mmmmm. :)  This week we're going to talk about a few things. The first is the fact that no, I haven't done any workouts like I had planned. I've admittedly been too tired and too lazy to do any working out at all. I walk to and from work and am exhausted usually by the time I get home and I've been fighting off what seems to be a cold or allergies, I can't really tell with a touch of laryngitis that comes and goes. All in all though I have been feeling better with this cooler weather in the morning and evening and quite like it unlike everyone else I've seen complaining haha! So working out and getting back into things is on its way. I might even do some tonight especially since my schedule has changed. I still have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off but I have an earlier start time of 9:30-6pm regularly and weekends with 10:30-7pm. But I might not get into the full swing with the 44 hours required until the end of August.

The next thing to talk about is that I've been doing some research and trying to keep up with at least healthy eating by eating a little bit less in some areas and then eating more of healthier items or replacing things. I've been trying to incorporate more fruit into my diet instead of sugary snacks such as cookies or baked goods though blueberry or blueberry-cranberry muffins are yummy! and a bit healthier than your normal chocolate chip muffin which in fact holds more calories and sugar. So in bouts of testing I also came up with a really awesome tasting salad! This is made of Spinach, romaine lettuce, white button mushrooms (though I really also love cooked up portobello), red onions, strawberries tossed with Kraft raspberry vinaigrette and topped with a little bit of shredded or grated marble cheese. It tasted soo yummy! Down below are some benefits of each ingredient minus the cheese. Also I looked into bananas, watermelon and some water testing such as coconut water and cucumber water. Now both those waters really is up to opinion because of flavor. However there are benefits to cucumber and that's the one I like the most thought the coconut water seems to have a good flavor after and definitely quenches one's thirst.

The salad I described above :)

Benefits of the following:

• spinach:  Went looking and here is a link that says the top 10 as well as definitely some things to be aware of : http://www.naturally-healthy-eating.com/benefits-of-spinach.html. Unfortunately that means that certain people I know with calcium issues should not eat a ton of this.
• mushrooms: increases vitamin D intake,  boosts the immune system  by increasing the production of certain proteins in the body that protect and repair body tissue, antioxidants! in portobello mushrooms is about the same as having a red pepper! (there you go Rachel you can eat these instead ;) ), also contains B  vitamins which are very important for immune system function as well as energy boosting, metabolize body fats and protein, and lastly mushrooms also have selenium which is apparently good for lowering the risk of bladder cancer especially in women.
• red onions: Here is another link filled with info on red onions: http://www.healwithfood.org/health-benefits/eating-red-onions.php which I thought interesting. Think I'll be eating more of these in the future :) And back again to you Rachel, your favorite veggie is awesome!
• strawberries: good source of vitamin C, antioxidants, they say they may also prevent cataracts so eye health is important too, cancer fighting, because of the vitamin C  it also boosts skin health and reduces wrinkles, fights cholesterol, reduces inflammation of the joints, regulate blood pressure due to the potassium content so good for those who have high blood pressure, good source of fiber, low in calories and so good for a snack and weight loss, also promotes for ladies trying to get pregnant or who are already healthy benefits due to the folate that is in the berry; it helps in the baby's brain , spinal cord and skull development and can prevent things such as spina bifida.
• watermelon: filled with antioxidants and there is soo much more to watermelon! It's so yummy and you can put it in water or shakes to make it more flavorful. Also it's even better than tomatoes when you think of cancer fighting fruit! :)
• coconut water: has been used as a fluid replacer for those who have diarrhea or even as an intravenous fluid which is the only substance other than human blood to be able to do this.  There are many benefits however the main benefit is that of electrolytes and boosts in energy (in fact quoted to be the new energy drink! which I personally think is healthier than those cans of say, Red Bull etc.), lower in sugar and good for weight loss in combination with working out of course.  What is coconut water, no it's not coconut milk, it's actually the fluid you find when you crack open the coconut instead of grinding up the meat and pressing out the juices. It includes more potassium than a banana apparently.
• cucumber water: aids in getting vitamin C and helps with water retention. Not to mention you're just getting more water! It includes vitamin K which helps with blood clotting, vitamin A which helps with vision and cell growth, iron, calcium , potassium which helps lower cholesterol and reduce blood pressure.
• bananas: So many benefits here including potassium, fiber which is good for the bowels!, rich in vitamin b6 which ladies is a great thing if you have menstrual pains!, reduces stress and depression, reduces risk of heart disease, includes calcium, has iron so helps if you have anemia. Bet you didn't know this: Smokers have a high level of nicotine and the minerals of potassium and magnesium and vitamins b6 and b12 help reduce nicotine. They also increase your brain power due to the potassium as well. Oh and lastly bet you didn't know that you could help whiten teeth and reduce itch of bites via banana peel!
• caffeine in cleansing or beauty products : a friend I saw at shoppers told me that it helps with those blemishes as well as keeping away dark circles. No wonder tea  bags are good for those circles under your eyes!

Now I'm not saying for some of these things that of course you shouldn't combine working out and a regular healthy diet, nor am I saying that you shouldn't eat meat or other things you like. But in moderation for all things should be recommended.  I've just found that some of these things seem to be working for me or are things that I'm testing out and we'll see if it helps. It may not work for you. But getting regular intakes of fruits and veggies and water in general is always a good thing to have a balanced diet as much as possible. And I know as I discussed before, it can really be hard to do in a fast paced world we live in now. But does it really take that long to make that healthy salad I mentioned above? For the amount of 1 person it took me 5 minutes to prep and toss. So really it is workable and can be had as a side dish with any meal such as your meat and potatoes or on its own. I always recommend a sit down meal too rather than one on the go because you take the time to eat and savor the flavors and you can actually enjoy and digest your food.

The last thing I'd like to talk about this week is Kitty health! Yes that's right I have two cats and am a cat lover! Though this goes also for dogs, you should regularly de-flea! I have fallen subject to a flea infestation, not something I'm proud of or want to really announce however my two poor kitties despite seeing vets and all that fun stuff can't seem to get rid of them! And I live in an apartment on the second floor so it's not like they're outdoor cats bringing them in. Fleas are a dreadful thing and you don't want them in your  home. Best thing is to spray down your home with a flea spray, bathe your animals in a special shampoo and or spray them and use drops. The best drops I've used is Advantage however that brand can only be gotten by your vet and is very expensive. So preventative measures by using things like a brand called Zodiac, shampoo and their spray for household items is a good idea too especially on a budget. Thus far I've successfully gotten rid of the majority of fleas. Best also to vacuum often and dump and get rid of all that you suck up immediately as they can live inside the vacuum cleaner.  I also might add never spray down your cat (I used a spray on Ozzy since he's allergic to the Zodiac drops but not the shampoo or spray which Cosmo is not allergic to the drops) and let them run away while still wet and not rubbed in and wiping down excess... poor Cosmo, though he's ok and nothing overly bad happened I freaked when I saw he had licked himself before I could get to him and then started foaming at the mouth! I immediately rinsed his mouth with water and his fur and thankfully he's fine. But don't ever give yourself a scare like that!  Ozzy seems a little bit smarter in that he's not to lick himself and he's to let me spray him and do my thing as it makes him feel better rather than worse. Also too kitty food, make sure they're getting the right diet. Eating wet food is not the best for them just like eating junk food is not best for us, depending on brand and type. So just be wary about that too as you would yourself or your family, as they are part of the family too. This goes for dogs too!! Oh and never let any cysts or scratches go unattended for long periods of time, if becoming infected always keep an eye out and get it looked after as soon as possible because our pets , like us, are prone to infections too and if older then they can get very, very sick.

Well that's all for this week's entry folks! I hope you had a good read, learned lots and if you have any suggestions for topics or comments please feel free. Have a good week all!

Toddlers and media, Olympians as role models and RLS.

So today I'm going to start with a bunch of links and tied into last weeks post as well as just a brief comment of seeing horrifying shows such as "Dance Moms" and "Toddlers and Tiaras", all I can say is this makes me sick. And no one remembers JonBenét Patricia Ramsey. Well for all we know it could have very well had everything to do with participating in pageants, they're still not sure. In the end there are so many things gone wrong with these shows in fact just looking at the Toddlers and Tiaras in google, all the images they look like this little girl, not to mention older than they should be!! I was always encouraged to play dress up but not like THAT!  And Dance Mom's is no better, encouraging nine year olds to hurt themselves, insulting them, making them cry, how does this do anything for self esteem and for encouragement of proper and healthy ways of thinking and body image?  Of course a friend on facebook mentioned in one comment that even going towards a famous magazine such as Cosmopolitan is a bad idea for even us older ladies and even 'gents. Why do we have to dress up and be sexualized to "get our man" as if we didn't already know how to get a guy? And why do we have to act like we're stupid? I don't get why society has drilled this into us! This is not the right way of thinking. That being said I also found an article on yahoo about our Olympian ladies of the world speaking out about this as well. It's good to be fit but when is calling a person who is fit, fat, crossing the line... what is fit and what is thin and why are these athletes being scrutinized for their curves rather than being celebrated!? Here is the link .  

Moving forward there are a few other things I've found too.  Such as the link I found about in Alberta about fake corn. Yes I said it, fake corn! But it's not just economically harming, these crops are supposedly of poor quality and in all honesty poor quality can harm the consumer health wise as well. Another link I found, tied into our discussion about fast food is one on McDonald's breakfast sandwich, the famous egg McMuffin among other fast food items in the list. Down below on the link I urge everyone to watch the video about kids meals as well. 

Moving forward this week I also want to touch on something that ails me and/or family members/friends which is Restless Leg Syndrome. There are many links in google about RLS, this being one of the many good ones that describe the syndrome. This is something that I have. And it's only getting worse. There is no cure, no way around it. I've been diagnosed for about 4 years now, even prior to working at the call center I work in today. I have difficulty sleeping because of it and there are times where even when out late etc. or even in the middle of my current training class that I find it increasingly difficult to keep still especially when extremely tired. My dad once asked me, if I could get it to stop. I said to him, no, just like you can't stop Parkinson's. RLS is apparently a precursor or can be to that disease though not always. What I find definitely helps is what's suggested in the above link where you put a heating pad or in my case a hot bean bag on the moving limb, my case my right leg most often and in some cases my lower back as sometimes it's both legs that can't keep still. I've had it a few times where my left arm is a participant. It can get quite annoying and sleep deprivation follows. I also do have the remissions where sometimes it goes away completely for a few weeks, sometimes only a few days. 

As of late, it's been an annoyance and admittedly I haven't gotten around to really doing a work out. I should and I believed I would with getting home earlier but instead I find myself eating yes at a decent time but also I find that end up napping practically right when I get home for up to 2 hours sometimes less over the past 3 days. I'm just soo exhausted and my brain needs rest. And fuel. 

And that is all for now, this week was more of just a look at some links and some topics that we touched on already and I know that some of this can become repetitive but it is something that I firmly believe in is to start with great self image you must have a healthy mindset to have a healthy body or just a healthy way of living to begin. It's hard for me too seeing these links and such as I'm a person who comes from an abused background, admittedly my mother was not that encouraging when it came to self esteem and thought that I should be thinner than I was always. So growing up with not so great self image and thinking myself to be a geek, not just from her but influences of other kids and bullying I find myself as an adult having a difficult time accepting who I am physically. I'm sure I'm not alone in this as pointed out in my very first posts here. But I still feel alone sometimes. In coming weeks I do plan on adding more to our topics including research and more discussion on diseases such as Parkinson's , Cancer, and Fibromialgia as these have greatly affected family and friends. 

If anyone has any comments to share about these topics or would like to share their stories or knowledge or even any research they've done, please feel free to comment. 

The Impressionable

Here we are another week and starting a brand new month, I still haven't managed to really truly exercise and it's not just lack of motivation. Some may say "you're a hypochondriac" and to the naked eye and without knowing me you would see exactly that. However there are some things that are not seen. I do have arthritis, migraines and pressure headaches, sleep deprivation, restless leg syndrome and anxiety. I also probably have bouts of depression on some days. That being said a lot of people probably wouldn't know even at work that I'm suffering these things because I try to push forward with a smile on my face as if nothing is even wrong. Even when.. and as personal as this is and perhaps gross to some to discuss, bowel issues arise with constipation and believe me a great amount of pain can come from it, enough to feel like I could topple over and cry.  And though I eat fiber and all that good stuff, that just turns the tables sometimes to the opposite, near diarrhea which can also be just as painful with just as many cramps etc. But again people would not suspect this from me.  It's not something I usually openly discuss at work and when you're on the phone and sitting there in pain you have to bite the bullet and sit there until the call is done. I'm not the only one who has health issues like this on a regular basis either. And there are many of us that have other issues, as I said earlier such as anxiety that when worked up or when the wrong thing is said etc. it can trigger emotional things as well that we wouldn't regularly expect.

 So this week there are a few things I'd like to talk about. The first being "invisible illness". There are many of them and I know a great many friends who suffer from things like arthritis, fibromialgia, anxiety, depression etc. There are too many to even name. Even one family friend a long time back suffered from Lupus and admittedly as a child I really didn't understand what that was until I got older, it's a form of cancer and though some people would say "you seem just fine" these illnesses can be and are deadly. Lime disease is another one that the people who have it seem like they're fine at first but they all have days that they can't even get out of bed or can't walk or take half an hour just to get dressed etc. because they're in so much pain. They have their good days and their bad. I feel like there should be more awareness about these type of things especially in the workplace. Not saying you should take advantage of it as some people just might, and that's unfortunate and makes me sometimes lose faith in the human race. But what I'm saying is that there should be some sort of set up for those who do want to work and can do small jobs here and there to make them feel like they're still human and part of life.  It doesn't just affect the old, it affects the young too.

Leading to the idea of work, it's a common thing to be working, a lot. In fact back in the day it was more common for just one parent to be working while the other stayed home and most people such as my grandparents may have come from a generation where their parents perhaps worked on farms and only one stayed home really. One person was the breadwinner. However as time went on, the war happened and then women fought for rights (not saying that's a bad thing here ladies), women then had to work and when the men came back it was became more and more common that both worked or the women worked.  That being said now two people were working in the home but the work schedules admittedly at the time still meant that you still could make home cooked meals, sat around the table when possible and quite frequently had a homemade lunch to take to school. Even as I was growing up, I had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, snacks and homemade cookies at times, or even soup in a thermos which was my favorite during winter months. I had fresh fruit until I couldn't eat them anymore!

This has changed unfortunately. With more and more moms and dads not being at all stay at home and having to work due to a changing economy and expectations that more is better and with a ton of tech at our disposal why not leave the kids with the tv as a babysitter? Why not give them a game console or ipod and leave them alone? Well this raises a ton of questions. 1. Why are we leaving our children with tech rather than a human relation and why are we not spending as much time with them  right from the time of birth? 2. Is tech leading to a distant connection to humanity causing our children to be more insensitive to feelings and others and to be more violent? 3. Is this one of the leading causes of child and even adult obesity, the fact we have no time to make proper sit down meals? and 4. Does this not leave our children open for being taken among other scary things?
To address question 1. We leave them alone because it's convenient and we're time consumed with work. In fact in a study recently done (unfortunately I can't re-find the link on yahoo reporting it), it has been shown that women actually work more and more until the end of their pregnancy and actually take smaller amounts of time off before and after the birth of their child due to high expectations in the workplace. It also showed employers by law have to allow the women to come back to work after a certain period of time of maternity leave which most employers do not like and hence another reason why women who are trying so hard to have more of a standing place in the workforce are trying to shine and work their hardest right before they leave.  This has been shown to be just as bad as smoking!! Babies who's moms worked that hard showed that they had difficulty later in life with further health issues and were of lesser weight than those who's moms actually took the time off. This being said that also too those with unpaid leave went back early spending even less time with their child.  I feel that putting a child in daycare etc. is not right within the first 2 years at least maybe even 3 years of their life. I think every woman or man, who wants to be a stay at home parent should be a requirement that at least one do so in a two parent home for that 2-3 year standard. I also feel single moms or dads for that time with no joint custody should also have some kind of leave for that and some sort of assistance with this or work part time with assistance rather than expectations of a full 8 hour day. However again unfortunately due to economic demands this will most likely never be seen as the old says of spending time with your child seem to have passed.

Leading to question 2. Technology is such a big factor here and we have no time to waste spending it outside... heaven's no!!! Forget playing ball outside or going for family bike rides or walks, just sit your kid in front of the tv or expect them to play unsupervised games and videos. I believe that this is leading to child insensitivity and cruelty. The more I see reports of violence I wonder too if media influence has something to do with it upon an impressionable mind. The most impressionable ages are from time of a baby right until your 20's and really you should be aware by the time you're in your 20's what's right and wrong , assuming no wires are crossed. But who is there to teach you? A mentor? A parent? Or is it the media? When I was a kid I watched cartoons just as any other kid but I was encouraged to read, go outside and play ball and treat nature and my siblings and other people with respect. If I didn't there was discipline to be had by either teacher or ... parent. I may not be a parent and there is no hand guide for it and each child is different. So disciplining rules range.  But there still must be some kind of order or a knowledge of what is good and what is wrong. This also leaves children at home sitting down doing ... nothing. They aren't stimulating their brains with puzzles and being active. Now heading to question 3,  children and teens are sitting doing nothing and sitting and eating junk food  or fast food which has more sodium, fats and cholesterol than a home cooked meal! Why is this? Because we have no time to make it. Even I admit I've succumbed as an adult to fast food more and more. But when I was a kid, it was once a month or every two or 3 months if not even a year! We lived in a small town where though it's grown now, fast food was not at every corner, it was in the nearest city a half hour away or more.  We made our fun and we made our own food and there was one summer where all I wanted to eat was salad for lunch and drink water and more water and have on occasion a bbq'd burger or hot dog made by the bbq specialist in our family, Dad.  And even when I moved out on my own I tried to cook, cook, cook! I still get fresh veggies and make pasta with veggies rather than canned sauce and try to make other home made things such as oatmeal cookies etc. Like grandma used to make! Just so much better because you know what's in it and you put the effort into it. It also allows time spent with family and an appreciation. Even my awesome step mom and my niece spend time making cookies and such because it's good quality family time and it's better for you.

Breifly touching on question 4 here but after all the recent abductions and murders of children in my area etc. I feel like this should be mentioned. Now I'm not saying that any of you reading this or your friends are super bad parents or anything. Don't get me wrong my journal is not to offend! But I speak out against these things because it is a growing concern and we want our children to have a healthy understanding of the world. It's not just food this blog is about and being adult healthy, but our children our our next generation and we want them to have a positive and bright future. Why not start now in instilling that information and positivity into them now, to have hope? Why aren't we using local farmers, creating a better economy, creating and making healthier choices? They are impressionable and now is the time to make that impression as great moms and dads.

So now I leave you with these thoughts. I know I've talked about some of this before but new info always arises. As for myself these days, I try to get games for the kids that use their minds and keeps them active and try to make myself so too! I can't say I haven't tried. But as of late, due to a bunch of things, not just made up excuses, I find myself hard to motivate and sometimes due to pain I just can't do it. Some days I'll admit that I hurt even walking to work despite stretching etc. So for those who read this who sometimes feel like I do or who want to be fit and have pain etc. you're not alone! All I can say is try to stay positive, put a smile on your face and don't let the world get you down and keep on trying on a day that you're feeling up to it and feeling better. :)