Changing Your Perception and Priorities

For a long time I’ve been trying to expose what I’ve learned about nutrition and fitness. It’s a passion of mine to get the word out to people who have heard it before but don’t understand. We all know fast food is bad for us but some still eat it, why? We all know that [...]

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An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away (So does Apple Cider Vinegar)

Did you know that you are spending 75% more on medical expenses than on nutrition? Source: Kaiser Family Foundation. Employer Health Benefits Survey 2008 You should be spending more on nutrition. Mal-nutrition is what causes most chronic illnesses today. Diseases and bacteria are killing more adults and children each year than natural disasters. (Source Globalissues.org). I don’t [...]

apple cider vinegar apple cider vinegar

4 Basic Principles To A Fit and Healthy Lifestyle

Do you know what the four basic principles to a fit and healthy lifestyle are? Just four basic principles, that if followed correctly can make you look and feel great? FOOD | WATER | EXERCISE | OXYGEN Do you know what to do with these four principles to get a fit body and healthy life? This is what we need [...]

how to be fit and healthy how to be fit and healthy

Is Your Health On Your Priority List?

When is it that you should start taking your health serious? Now! If your health is not first on your priority list, you are heading for some costly medical bills and maybe even a terminal illness. These are two factors you will face when you don’t take care of your health.Your number one concern should [...]

is health priority is health priority

Friend or Enemy?

In order for the body to attempt to maintain homeostasis (stability), it goes through a process of releasing chemicals and hormones that stimulate your reactions to keep you alive. One of these hormones is cortisol. This hormone is our best friend while being our worst enemy. Cortisol is crucial and something we cannot live without. The body [...]

controlling your stress levels - cortisol controlling your stress levels - cortisol
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Why do we not eat what we need to make us healthy? (Part 1)

April 12th, 2012 Joseph

The answer is simple! We have been fooled to believe that if it’s called “food” it is ok to eat. I’ve heard people reason, including myself, “they wouldn’t put it in the stores if it wasn’t good for us.”

Surprise, surprise!! We couldn’t be any more wrong. Marketing & sales tactics have programmed us like robots (more about that in future blog posts). There are foods out there that look and taste good but are made with artificial flavors, colors and other chemicals to give them shelf life making us think it’s good food to eat. The REAL foods we are supposed to eat are labeled “organic” and are more expensive. Why? It takes longer for nature to take its course. Therefore we must have patience to wait for the food to be ready to eat. This is the natural order of things. This causes a problem for companies that have a large demand. It takes longer to make money because “nature” takes too long to take its course. On the other hand fake food is made faster so companies can make a profit.

It’s easier to grab anything within our reach and say “I’ll deal with the consequences later.” This is dangerous thinking. You will pay for your daily choices at one point or another; especially with your health. We must begin with the basics, and that is, to connect back with what gives us health and life, and that is organically grown foods.

We need to eat foods that have grown in their natural balance without any unnecessary “artificial” help. Artificial foods include steroids, antibiotics, and other harmful ingredients. Most chemicals, if not all, damage the human body at a cellular level.

There are 13 vitamins universally recognized and 7 minerals that our body needs to function properly. Our body gets most of the vitamins, minerals and fiber it needs from fruits and vegetables. I say most and not all because in this day in age the soil lacks nutrients. So if you’re not growing, hunting, or fishing your own food, then you should be purchasing as much organically grown food as possible.  Even when buying organic food, adding natural supplements to your diet is a necessity to make up for the nutrients our food and soil is lacking.

So, what SHOULD you be eating to make you healthy?

Adding 3 to 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day should be your #1 goal.  That means they should be added to each of your 3 meals OR enjoyed as snacks! Start by replacing junk food with very colorful fruit and vegetables. Get creative! They don’t have to be eaten plain. Make a fruit salad, juice them, mash them, cut them, shape them, and mix them together. Add yogurt and/or honey to your fruit snack, add seasonings and Extra Virgin Olive Oil to your vegetables.

Make sure they’re organic. Start reading labels! The codes on the labels for fruits and vegetables say a lot!

  • 5 digits and starts with number 4, it means they were conventionally grown.
  • 5 digits and starts with number 8, it means they are genetically modified (GMO).
  • 5 digits and starts with number 9, it means they were organically grown (no pesticides or nasty GMOs).

Fruits and vegetables are naturally colorful. It’s obvious their colors are nature’s way of enticing us to eat them. The problem is we have diverted our attention to other colorful things that “look” like they are healthy and to us tastes amazing. The question is are they really as good as they look and taste? The answer is NO!

How do you add more fruits and vegetables to your diet?

I will use what I do in my household as an example. I replaced all the candy, cakes and pastries with all types of organic fruits- from exotic to domestic. I wash and clean the fruits so they are ready to eat and put them in plain sight in the kitchen (on the table). I have a variety of them and take advantage of what’s in season. I make it look clean, enticing, and colorful. My kids can’t help but grab them when they feel like having something fast. It’s the perfect snack when they’re waiting for dinner too. When I make salad, I get the greenest and most colorful vegetables and mix them with fruit to make an incredible salad that the kids and I will enjoy. This is how we add fruits and veggies to our diet on a daily basis. If you can’t see it then you are not going to care to eat it, hence “Out of sight, out of mind.”  I have children so I know how difficult it is to divert their attention from artificial to natural.  Try it if you haven’t already!

What concerns do you have about eating what you need to be healthy?

What challenges do you find in eating this way?

Let me know your thoughts!

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Changing Your Perception and Priorities

March 12th, 2012 Joseph

For a long time I’ve been trying to expose what I’ve learned about nutrition and fitness. It’s a passion of mine to get the word out to people who have heard it before but don’t understand. We all know fast food is bad for us but some still eat it, why? We all know that the negative effects of a poor diet can be reversed by just eating more fruits and vegetables with our diet, yet some still do not do it, why? We all know physical activity is good for our overall health and life longevity, so why not exercise? These are questions I asked myself. I went looking for the answers and found them.

Why do some still eat fast food when almost everyone knows that it’s unhealthy? I have been speaking to people about this topic for years; friends, family, acquantainces, clients. I always get the same response:

“I know, I know I just don’t have the time to cook.”

Does that sound familiar? When I get this response I ask:

“ If you had your dream car, the car you always wanted, would you put milk in the gas tank instead of what it needs?”

The answer is always “NO!”

Why not?

“Because it will ruin the car!” is always the answer.

So why would you put things into your body that you know destroy your health? Is your car more important than your life?

Blank stare…

Perception plays a major role on how we view life and to tell you the truth our perception is making us unhealthy and sick. We care more about our status or what material things we have versus living a long, healthy and disease-free life. Everyone wants to be healthy but few will be willing to make the sacrifice it takes. I am not saying “sell your BMW and get healthy”, what I am saying is give as much importance to your life and health as you give your house, car, career, or any material thing that means a lot to you. All you need to do is change your perception and your priorities will change. Start with health as #1 (read my post “Is Your Health on your Priority List?“)

Why do we not eat what we need to make us healthy?

apple cider vinegar

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away (So does Apple Cider Vinegar)

December 6th, 2011 Joseph

Did you know that you are spending 75% more on medical expenses than on nutrition?

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation. Employer Health Benefits Survey 2008

You should be spending more on nutrition.

Mal-nutrition is what causes most chronic illnesses today. Diseases and bacteria are killing more adults and children each year than natural disasters. (Source Globalissues.org). I don’t know about you but this is alarming to me.

What Hippocrates said over 2000 years ago “Let thy food be thy medicine” should be what we still live by today. When did we start thinking we were smarter than nature in feeding our body anything we wanted without any consequence? Medicine should only be there for extreme emergency. We have gotten so comfortable with fixing everything with a pill that we don’t even know how to do the most basic thing: eat.

Example, if you consume alcohol or eat a lot of very heavy, sugary, or spicy food and have heartburn, stop, at least for a period of time. To alleviate the heartburn all you have to do is drink apple cider vinegar. And if you drink it daily, not only will it alleviate it, but the heartburn problem will disappear (if there aren’t any other underlying causes).

I used to have a very bad case of acid reflux and would take a prilosec on a daily basis. But, I would continue eating and drinking foods that would flare up the acid reflux. I wanted a quick fix without having to make any changes in my eating habits.  Does this sound familiar? My body was telling me that I was hurting it and I was trying to “shut it up” with a pill. Not smart at all.

My point is simple learn true natural health and see/feel your body heal and tone itself with a little help from you with the right diet and exercise. This way your medical bills could decrease and even disappear. I have not been sick for over 2 years. I have not had to run to the doctor, except for an annual checkup, for over 2 years. I don’t have any medical bills. I don’t need my health insurance. My health insurance is my eating habits and my exercise routine. My health insurance is also what I refuse to do and eat.

Always find a natural remedy for your ailment. Think of using medicine ONLY if you feel you have exhausted every possible natural alternative, which only tells you your body has undergone some serious damage. I try to use all-natural home remedies first for all non simple ailments, then homeopathic medicine for the more serious stuff. My family and I eat organic foods and we do a lot of physical activity like soccer, weight training, yoga etc. So in my household, thank God, we barely get sick and if we do is a minor fever or head cold, which the kids get, and I treat it with apple cider vinegar, honey and homeopathic medicine.

When my children  (ages 4, 7, 9) have a cough, sore throat, cold, sinus discomfort, I mix 1 tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar 1/2 teaspoon of honey in a glass. I mix it until honey liquifies then have them gargle for 30 seconds and swallow each mouthful. This will soothe the throat while killing the overgrown bacteria causing the cough/cold/inflammation. I usually give it to them maybe two or three times throughout the day until the discomfort is gone but most of the time, 1 or 1 1/2 days is enough. It works all the time for my kids. If they have a fever and/or flu-like symptoms I get them homeopathic medicine to help their bodies fight off the infection. I never, ever try to get rid of the fever. Unless it’s too high of a temperature, of course. A not-to-high fever is just your body’s way of telling you it’s fighting off  invading bacteria. My children have no serious illnesses nor do they have any disabilities so I’m comfortable treating common ailments at home. If they had more serious problems then a different approach would be taken not short of  finding the root cause of the problem, as opposed to getting rid of the symptoms with a pill.

how to be fit and healthy

4 Basic Principles To A Fit and Healthy Lifestyle

September 27th, 2011 Joseph

Do you know what the four basic principles to a fit and healthy lifestyle are? Just four basic principles, that if followed correctly can make you look and feel great?

FOOD | WATER | EXERCISE | OXYGEN

Do you know what to do with these four principles to get a fit body and healthy life? This is what we need to live, but not knowing how to use them can destroy us.

Food: We think that as long as we eat we should be ok. Wrong. If this was the case then why are there so many children and young people being diagnosed with illnesses? Eating foods in their natural state without any added chemicals, additives, pesticides etc., is best for the body.

Water:  Being that the body is 60% water, it is critical that we replace any that has left our body. Not only is drinking lots of water throughout the day important but drinking alkalized water is ideal. Processed water becomes acidic, which is not good for us to drink because it makes us more prone to sickness and diseases. The best water I like to drink is one with an alkaline level of at least 8.0.

Exercise/Oxygen: Both go hand in hand. You need lots of oxygen for the body to function properly. Cells need it, the organs need it, the brain needs it, even muscles need it to grow. Your lungs need it for detoxifying. This is when exercise can help because it raises blood pressure moving more oxygen faster through the body. This helps with supplying your organs and every cell in your body with oxygen, giving you a sense of strength and rejuvenation.

Rest: After all is said and done in your day, it is time to give your body the time it needs to repair itself. Just like food, water, and exercise, your body needs rest. Your body functions on a circadian rhythm and if you do not rest accordingly, this rhythm gets disrupted causing all kinds of negative reactions to the body. Rest is essential to maintaining a fit and healthy life.

Your Turn

How well do you do in applying these basic principles?

Do you face in challenges in balancing these four principles?

I want to hear from you! Leave your comments in the Leave A Reply section below!

Was This Helpful Information? Click Here To Tweet!

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Is Your Health On Your Priority List?

August 21st, 2011 Joseph

When is it that you should start taking your health serious? Now!

If your health is not first on your priority list, you are heading for some costly medical bills and maybe even a terminal illness. These are two factors you will face when you don’t take care of your health.Your number one concern should be your health, especially if you have no idea what to eat or even what to do so that you can be healthy, look great, and feel great.

Most of the things you thought to be good for you are not. This is a fact most people are learning today. If you haven’t been alarmed about your health (we are currently in a US health crisis with over 90% of hospital visits being related to chronic illnesses), you should research the facts on the foods you consume on a daily basis. Find out if you are getting the nutrients your body needs to function properly. Do not wait until something malfunctions in your body to do something. Prevention is the best medicine!

What are the key answers to a healthier life style?


1) We need to prioritize in the right order.

What is your priority list like? Is food number one on the list, or is it your house and car?  Or maybe you are saving up for a vacation and can’t afford to eat too healthy right now. Get your priorities straight! Without good health life is dull.

2) We need to be concerned for our health more than anything, it is our life.

Without health, you have nothing. You can make all the money in the world, you can own the biggest house, the nicest car, you can have a business running so smoothly it generates money for you while you sleep. But if you don’t have your health, you will never enjoy any of it.  Taking control of my health is what has gotten me to where I am today mentally, physically, socially and spiritually. When you start to care about your health and make it a priority, you add meaning and years to your life.

3) We need to execute what we learn in order to get results.

I have gotten my body to great health with lots of learning, taking action, and a lot of common sense. The answers to a lot of the questions you may have about health are all around you. Without applying them it’s just that, answers.

4) We need to take control.

We can’t control our environment but we can control how we nourish our body and whether we’re active or not. Making it a habit to eat healthy and exercise will put you on a journey to live a very long and enjoyable life.

Too many people lose control of their health and end up with ailments and discomforts. What is sad is that most of the time the illness could have been prevented with good diet and exercise. Our body is an amazing, organic machine. To maintain any type of machine and keep it functioning properly you have to give it the right materials at the right times.

 

Get organically fit NOW!

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