Anti-Inflammatory diet

Fruit Stand Outside Taj Mahal_4461089531_oWhat you eat can affect your health in many ways. Now we are finding that our diet can fight against inflammation in the body. Inflammation can trigger chronic diseases such as arthritis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain cancers and even Alzheimer’s disease. Being overweight also promotes inflammation, so losing weight can significantly improve health and reduce the risk of chronic illness.

The Mediterranean Diet is probably the best example of a diet that can reduce inflammation. This diet includes plenty of whole fruits and vegetables; good sources of omega-3 fatty acids such as fish or flax seed and nuts. It also includes few refined carbohydrates like white bread, pasta and white rice, and emphasizes whole grains such as brown rice, barley, oats and bulghur wheat as well as limited sugar, sweets and other processed foods.

Soy foods like tofu or edamame are great sources of protein that promote health. Yogurt and other probiotic foods provide additional benefits to an otherwise healthy diet. Foods high in antioxidants and phytochemicals (natural chemicals found in the plant foods) are also believed to help reduce inflammation. Green tea, red wine, dark chocolate (or natural cocoa) have high-quality antioxidants that may have beneficial benefits. Other tasty additions to a healthy diet that reduce inflammation include garlic, ginger, cinnamon and hot spicy seasonings.

Brain Health

BrainNutrition, exercise and general health is important to maintining a healthy brain and good memory. When people think about staying fit, they generally think from the neck down. But the health of your brain plays a critical role in almost everything you do: thinking, feeling, remembering, working, playing — and even sleeping. The good news is that emerging evidence suggests there are steps you can take to help keep your brain healthier as you age. These steps might also reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias. More

Swallowing Problems – Dysphagia

Dysphagia means difficulty with chewing or swallowing food or liquid. To understand how this might happen, it is important to know something about how swallowing occurs.

What are swallowing disorders?file0001977382892

Swallowing disorders, also called dysphagia (dis-FAY-juh), can occur at different stages in the swallowing process:

  • Oral phase – sucking, chewing, and moving food or liquid into the throat
  • Pharyngeal phase – starting the swallowing reflex, squeezing food down the throat, and closing off the airway to prevent food or liquid from entering the airway (aspiration) or to prevent choking
  • Esophageal phase – relaxing and tightening the openings at the top and bottom of the feeding tube in the throat (esophagus) and squeezing food through the esophagus into the stomach

Records & Journals

Records and Journals have been demonstrated to be the number one most beneficial tool to promote behavior change. Completing a personal food record can be valuable in helping understand the difficulties and challenges of obtaining information about a client’s nutrition intake.Journal

While recording your food and beverage intake you learn about your habits, preferences, what yoiu are missing , changes you have been making and much more. Measuring what you consume helps understand portion control and what you might be able to eat more or less of. Calculating calories, carbs and protein also reveals adequacies and excesses.

Bariatric Surgery

Get the Facts About Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery

Metabolic and Bariatric surgery has become an effective and popular solution for treating obesity. Educate yourself on what metabolic and bariatric surgery is, the common misconceptions, and the differences between procedures.

Bariatric surgery is not for everyone. It is a tool for weight loss and needs to be used properly to be effective for long-term weight control. In order for it to work one must be ready to change their view of the world, family and relationships in respect to food.

Nutritional Guidelines Video in Preparation for Bariatric Surgery:

Dietary Guidelines After Bariatric Surgery

Watch video of gastric sleeve

 

What are the Benefits?

Consider this:Two talk

Most people know what to do to eat right and exercise. The main problem is actually doing it. Education and training is provided to be sure you have the right information and tools, but much of the focus will be on figuring out what gets in the way of progress. We will review blocks and barriers to change, consider time-management and establish individualized goals and steps to take to be successful.

Specialties: Diabetes, Heart Disease, Kidney Disease, Liver Disease, Weight Control, Food Allergies, Eating Disorders, GI Problems, Sports Nutrition, Dysphagia (Swallowing Problems), Vegetarian/Vegan, Healthy Meal Planning, Label Reading, Elderly Nutrition, Others.

Food Intake Record

Download Food Intake Record

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Records and journals have been demonstrated to be the number one most beneficial tool to promote behavior change. Completing a personal food record can be valuable in helping understand the difficulties and challenges of obtaining information about a client’s nutrition intake.

Food Record Instructions:

Your food record will help you be aware of portion sizes and types of food you eat as well as certain patterns of eating that might be of interest. It is very important to follow these guidelines:

  1. Don’t change your eating habits while keeping your food record.
  2. Tell the truth. Record what you really eat.
  3. Record at least 2-3 days of  dietary intake (7 or more is better). Include at least 1 weekend day.

Basic rules to remember:

  • Write down EVERYTHING! Keep your form with you all day long and write down  everything you eat and drink. A piece of candy, a handful of pretzels, a  bottle of soda or a small donut may not seem like much, but these calories  can add up!
  • Do it now! Don’t depend on your memory at the end of the day.  Record your eating as you go.
  • Be specific. Make sure you include ‘extras,’ such as gravy on your meat, cheese on your sandwich or vegetables, butter, and salad dressings.  Check information on labels for specifics.
  • Estimate amounts. If you have a bowl of cereal, try measuring out or estimate the actual amount (rather than writing ‘bowl’ of cereal). If you eat out, just estimate as closely as possible (or write down the number of  servings you had).
  • Write legibly. Food records that can’t be deciphered are of little help.

Time:

Write the time of day you ate or drank the item. (i.e. 8:30 a.m.) Also, it is helpful if you note the following: B—breakfast, L—lunch, D—dinner, S—snack.

What Kind:

Record the type of food you ate. Be as specific as possible. Include sauces, gravies, and any ‘extras’ such as soda, salad dressing, mayonnaise, butter, sour cream, sugar and ketchup. Don’t forget to include the milk you add to your cereal. Designate if an item is ‘reduced fat,’ ‘low fat’ or ‘sugar-free.’

How Much:

Indicate the amount of the particular food or beverage you ate or drank. Estimate the size (2” x 1” x 1”), the volume (1/2 cup), the weight (2 oz) and/or the number of items (12) of that type of food. If you can, measure the portion with measuring utensils. You may also use the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s pocket guide to estimating portion sizes.

Where:

Write what room or part of the house you were in when you ate. If you ate in a restaurant, fast-food chain or your car, write that location down.

Calculate Calories, Carbs & Protein:

If possible try to figure out how many calories and how much carbs and protein you may be eating. Use food labels or other references for this purpose. Note that one ounce of meat, fish, poultry and cheese contains about 7 grams of protein.


51 Truths

Walk a Mile – Always try to walk a mile in another man’s shoes. You’ll be a mile ahead of him. And you’ll have his shoes.

Intro:
It amazes me how many individuals influence us throughout our lives. I have had the pleasure of having many mentors in my walk, I have read many books, and I have been blessed with many hours of quiet time to reflect on the incredible wisdom I have been given because l was willing to be still and listen.
The following pages are a reflection on those times in my life where my mouth was silent, and my mind was open. My hope is that my reflections will encourage you and give you a new perspective on some important truths, and that you will be inspired to add your own to the list. Enjoy!

1 Be Joyful

Joy doesn’t come from the absence of challenge, obstacles, stress or hardships! Joy is created internally, while happiness takes external forces to bring about emotion. Joy is brought about by peace. It does not mean to be in a place with no noise, trouble, or hard work; it means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

2 Be committed

Commitment is demonstrated by what you are willing to put it all on the line for, Do you know what you are truly committed to? If you don’t, nobody else does either.

3 Empower Others

Tomorrow’s leaders will be made by those leaders of today who empower others to learn, grow and succeed.

4 Serve Others

There is a greater connection between leadership and service than there is between leadership and “traditional” management. The missing piece of movement into leadership is your ability to serve with humility.

5 Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

You will care less about what people think of you when you realize how little they do.

6 Resist Ranking Life’s Priorities

If you place too much emphasis on ranking the importance of things (family, work, spirituality, friends, etc.), you will always have an excuse as to why all other items but #1 failed. Priorities should be circular like the wheel of a car, each has its proper place to keep the wheel turning.

7 Love Unconditionally

Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there for fear of being hurt. Unconditional love is the most beautiful of all emotions and the greatest gift to be given.

8 Be Courageous

A definition of courage is “action in the presence of fear.” Having courage means to get outside of your comfort zone. Put yourself out there; exercise that muscle to make a stand.

9 Be Creative

Everyone can create incredible things if they chose to put the energy into creation. What the mind of man can conceive and believe, man can achieve.

10 Focus Your Thinking

Thoughts are noisy and distract your attention from hearing God’s gifts to you. Focused thinking is incredibly powerful and can be more exhaustive than physical exercise. Set aside 4-8 hours every quarter in solitude – listening – to purposefully write down what you hear and discern.

11 Have Contentment

Seek to understand what contentment truly is for you: in the West, it perceived as lazy. In the East, it is something to strive for.

12 Connect People

People remember when you help them get connected and will return the favor. It is an opportunity to show people how much they mean to you. It makes you feel good, and people always remember you.

13 Speak into the Future

Conversations speaking to the create energy and excitement. Conversations based in the past are simply a regurgitation of facts that have already transpired. Most conversations are past oriented like “How was your business last year?” It’s far more interesting to speak into the future like “What can you create this year in your business that you would consider to be significant?”

14 Be last

Be the last to get your food. Be the last to enter the event. Get everyone else seated before you. Take care of yourself…last.

15 Be Persistent

Persistence is self-discipline in action. Never give up.

16 Delegate

Look at what you’re doing in your business day right now. If you weren’t doing it, would you choose to start doing it? Can someone else do it for you?

17 Nurture Your Spouse

Make sure your spouse feels they are more important than all else. Speak their love language even when you don’t feel like speaking at all.

18 Understand Your Motives

Do you love to lead and love to teach, or do you love those you lead and love those you teach. Enough said.

19 Be Reliable

A person can be defined by their capacity to promise and their ability to produce because of their word.

20 Don’t Reveal Power

Power revealed is power sacrificed. The truly powerful exert their influence in ways unseen, unfelt. Some would say that a thing visible is a thing vulnerable. Never resort to position power to influence.

21 Overcome the Urge to Quit

Pain is temporary, but quitting is forever. Quitting creates cyclical behavior and will be easy to repeat. Stay the course, and will you create a cycle of accomplishment instead.

22 Use Words Wisely & Sparingly

The more words you use, the less confident you are about your material. Competent people speak in very defined, simple statements. The more you say, the less they remember.

23 Be Versatile

To lower the tension of someone else, you will probably have to do something that raises your own tension level. You need to adapt to their style, not expect them to move towards yours.

24 Have Uncommon Vision

Vision is the art of seeing the invisible. Eyes that look are common while eyes that see are rare. One of my favorite examples of vision revolves around Robert Mondavi from 1966. He built his winery, and 78% of his square footage was allocated to the visitor’s area. What’s unique about that is that there were no visitors to Napa in 1966.

Vision has nothing to do with what’s seen. On the contrary, it has everything to do with creating the unseen. Create!

25 Believe You are Worthy

What is it about your past that gives you the false realization that you are not worthy of referrals?

26 Confront Problems

Use confrontation for the sake of building others up. Learn to speak the most powerful love language. Tackle problems head on. Be willing to put your ego on the line to deal with issues quickly.

27 Use Wisdom

Wisdom is different than knowledge and intelligence. Wisdom is what you do with that knowledge and intelligence you have accumulated. Wisdom is 9/10th a matter of being wise in time. Most of us are too often wise after the fact.

28 Seek out your spiritual gifts

The greatest feeling you can have is to be doing what you should be doing with your life. Significance comes much easier when what you do is aligned with your values.

29 Use Metrics as a tool

Belief is created by hitting short-term targets. They verify you’re on the right path, aligned with your goals. Confirmation promotes belief.

30 Don’t Limit Your Potential

As long as you use the past as a guide, your future will always be minimized. Most people believe the future equals (or at least resembles) the past +/- an increment. Remove the past from your future, and there is no limit to the possibilities.

31 Remove Pessimism

There is no such thing as a pessimistic leader. The two words simply cannot go together to create a positive outcome. The result becomes discouragement instead of encouragement.

32 Don’t Expect Things to Work Unless You Do

Possibly one of my favorite quotes from Benjamin Franklin is, “Laziness travels at such a slow pace that poverty soon overtakes him. Luck always seems to be against the man who depends on it.”

33 Eliminate Anger

He who angers you controls you. “For every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness,” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

34 Practice Makes Perfect

Practice doesn’t make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Our most anxious moments are created from a lack of mastery or lack of preparedness, not from personal inadequacy.

35 Love Maturely

Understand the difference between Mature Love and Immature Love:

  • Mature – I am loved because I love.
  • Immature – I love because I am loved.
  • Mature – I need you because I love you.
  • Immature – I love you because I need you.

Love is a commitment of the will for the good of the other person.

36 Utilize Comparisons

Nothing looks good or bad until it is compared. Don’t allow yourself to be a big fish in a small pond.

37 Be Loyal

Loyal Agents are won when the Agent consciously, or unconsciously, judge their partners to be capable of solving their problems and meeting their needs.

38 Be On Time

People who are consistently late are always happier than the people waiting on them. Treat others’ time with respect, as it is a precious commodity for those who know how to wield it.

39 Maximize Your Effectiveness

Many successful people work instinctively and most often unconsciously (unconscious competent). When you can take what you do intuitively and start doing it intentionally, you immediately become more effective. That’s how the path of mastery begins.

40 Control Your Attitude

Attitudes are the forerunners of conditions. Thinking will always impact our attitudes. Therefore, thinking will ultimately create our conditions.

41 Go forth and lead

There’s a big difference between meetings and training. Training is designed to instill growth and education in those you’re leading. Educate comes from the Latin word Educere (pronounced Ed U Carry): E – to go forth & Ducere – to lead

42 Grow Continuously

You are either green and growing or brown and dying. You cannot stay where you are. Make sure you constantly sharpen your axe.

43 Choose Your Words

There is no such thing as a casual comment from a leader. Your words mean something and can’t be taken back, so make sure you aren\’t going to want to return them. Make your words helpful for raising up others to be and do their best.

44 Make a Decision

I would rather make the second best choice and get it implemented then be paralyzed into inactivity seeking the perfect direction.

45 Be Unwilling to Quit

The amount of power gained from not quitting can be far more inspiring than the gains from victories. The power of a finisher is like a tidal wave. It can’t be stopped. Winning belongs to those who are unwilling to quit.

46 Punish Negative Thoughts

Negative thoughts destroy what’s possible. Refuse to have a victim mentality where blame or shame is put on someone else. Instead, take charge of your own destiny. Eliminate self-doubt.

47 Embrace Life’s Challenges

The 3 stages that describe God\’s challenges for us in life are:

  • First Stage – Impossible
  • Second Stage – Difficult
  • Third Stage – Done

Everything is possible. Peter (the disciple of Jesus) decided he was better off on the water with his Lord, then back in the safety of the boat without him. Step out of your boat!

48 Find Your Hidden Potential

You have more hidden inside you than you have had a chance to explore thus far. Create an environment removing perceived boundaries to discover the limits of your potential. In this way, you can discover what can be achieved, created, and invented.

49 Leave a Godly legacy

Leaving a Godly Legacy requires character. True character is built when we are down in the dirt having to fall to our knees, not when all is going our way. If we understand this, we get one step closer to understanding an ancient text:

“Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know the testing your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

50 Start Each Day With a Championship Conversation

Imagine the intensity of the 7th game of the NBA finals with 3 seconds left on the clock and Boston is down by 1. In the huddle, Larry Bird starts to call out the play. How intensely focused were those players on every word Larry spoke? The crowd is in a frenzy. The camera crews are all over the huddle. The noise is deafening. Even with all the distractions, those players heard every word. Start by focusing on 1 championship conversation every day. Relationships are built from conversations such as these.

51 Be Passionate About Your Present

A powerful and inspiring future only comes from a passionate present. Don’t get caught up daydreaming about your future or what could be. Focus on giving all you have to the present… and an unbelievable future will create itself.

MyFitnessPal.com

Losing weight isn’t easy – we know. But with a membership to MyFitnessPal.com, you’ll get the tools you need to successfully take weight off – and keep it off. And best of all, everything on our site is 100% FREE. So put away your credit card – you’ll never have to pay a cent.

At MyFitnessPal.com, we focus on making sure you can log your meals as quickly and easily as possible. Because the easier we make it for you, the more likely you are to stay on track, and the more likely you are to succeed in your weight loss goals.

Gastroesphageal Reflux Disease (GERD)

file9971339962220Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a chronic digestive disease that occurs when stomach acid or, occasionally, bile flows back (refluxes) into your food pipe (esophagus). The backwash of acid irritates the lining of your esophagus and causes GERD signs and symptoms.

Lifestyle changes may help reduce the frequency of heartburn. Consider trying to:  See more