Healthy Living Guide Part I

This is my four part healthy living guide!

FOOD: Consume less processed foods, if you have to unwrap it to eat it, think twice! This goes for fast foods as well. They are highly processed and filled with lots of fat and chemicals to make them taste good and preserve them.
When you do consume packaged/processed foods, read the labels! If you can't recognize or pronounce the ingredients, again, THINK TWICE! Especially avoid any foods with "hydrogenated oil or shortening" These are the dreaded trans-fats! The FDA allows food companies to put on their labels "0 grams of trans-fats per serving" if there is up to .5 grams of trans-fat per serving. SO, if you eat two servings you are actually consuming 1 gram of trans-fat. It has been established that there is NO SAFE consumption level of trans-fats! Those tricky food manufacturers!!

Drink Water!!! Our bodies are composed of 80% water. Our Earth is composed of 80% water, drink 80% water. A good rule of thumb to follow is to drink half of your body weight in ounces of water each day. If you weigh 180 lbs, aim for 90oz's of water per day. If you are no where near the recommended amount, try increasing slowly.

Avoid fake sugars/artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, splenda, etc (in all diet drinks and foods) Just like the chemical additives in our processed foods, we don't yet understand the possible risks in consuming these things AND chemically speaking, aspartame is basically formaldehyde. YUCK!

In choosing organic vs. non-organic foods, choose organic as much as possible. Especially with the following foods: dairy products, meat, and veggies/fruits. The pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormone, other chemicals, and genetically modified foods we consume harm us far more than we know!

Part II coming soon!