Monday, October 3, 2011

Cinnamon - who knew....

Time to go off the yarn - kitty path for a little bit. As I mentioned before I'm finally working at having a healthier lifestyle. I've discovered a few things along the way and decided to share them with you.

1. Never say you're on a diet.
A diet is the some total of everything you eat - good or bad. Therefore, everyone is on a diet. Better to say I'm making healthier choices or something similar. Talking this way makes is a "forever" thing. I'm not on a diet till I lose xx lbs and then go back to the way I used to eat and live. That's sets you up for failure.

2. Keep your life close to the same - make small changes and they will become part of your life easier than making big changes.
One typical cheeseburger and fries/catsup and regular cola will clog the arteries; put you in unbalanced sugar levels; and make it harder to breathe without giving you vitamins and minerals your body needs. Change that up for a side salad; small burger (plain) and ice tea or diet cola (if you must) and suddenly you've added the goodness of veggies while decreasing the bulk of fries, cheese and sugary pop. Same fast food restaurant and no one needs to know you're eating different. Besides - isn't a nice big side salad prettier to look and more fun to crunch at then greasy fries? Try a huge bowl of air popped corn. It's cheaper, healthier and eco-friendly compared to microwave bags of popcorn with fake butter stuff.

3. Just like they tell you - journal your food.
Some things I didn't think were so bad are really bad. Sometimes I end up thinking I've had a good day but the results tell me different. I've gone low on protein or even low on carbs. Your body needs a balance function to its best. (Notice I didn't mention calories because they're just a small part of eating healthy.)

4. Cinnamon is a really good thing.
WHAT? I've done a lot of hunting around the Internet and being very careful which sites I believe in. In the process I discovered cinnamon has a lot of health benefits. So, what does it do?
Cinnamon contains a chemical - cinnamaldehyde - which appears to work as an antibacterial and antifungal. It's used for gas, muscle spasms, nausea, helps with the common cold, may lower BP, have antioxidant effects, and several other benefits. Who knew!
Want something good for you and tasty to start your day? Instead of jelly on your toast try making a mixture of 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp honey.  - Good stuff!

3 comments:

NerdGirl said...

I'll have to give the cinnamon and honey mixture a try!

Guinifer said...

Except...cinnamon is an acid and if you have any form of acid reflux, is like a burning fire going down. I can eat no cinnamon, ever. Sad face.

Barb Nelson said...

I started putting cinnamon and brown sugar in my coffee in the morning....yuumy!! And cinnamon in plain vanilla yogurt is great too.