How much are you into your LABELS?

I know some are into Name Brand labels, some are into food labels...Today I'm going to take a closer look into Food Labels and then my next blog will be looking into Product labels that we use on a daily bases. Do you know what you are actually consuming?

A favorite of many. I know I've enjoyed cheetos myself...but do we really know what's in these crunchy orange flavored snack? 

Ferrous Sulfate: it is a type of iron

Niacin: is a B vitamin

Thiamin Monoitrate: Is a synthetic form of vitamin B1 (synthetic product such as they use in vitamins are hard to break down in our bodies and therefore we never actually get the nutrients we need.)

Riboflavin: is a form of vitamin B2

Hydrogenated Soybean Oil: is a chemical process where the liquid soybean oil is heated to high temperatures after adding a catalyst and hydrogen is forcefully passed through the liquid. _{(if it has any chemical processing in the making of the product our bodies have a very difficult time breaking down the food in our system therefore the food is devoid of any nutrients and we become nutrient deficient)} 

Maltodextrin: is a polysaccharid that is used as a food additive. It is produced from starch.

Monosodium Glutamate: is also known as sodium glutamate or MSG, is the sodium salt of glutamic acid.

Lactic Acid: is also known as milk acid, is a chemical compound that plays a role in various that plays a role in various biochemical processes.

Citric Acid: is a weak organic acid that is a natural preservative/ conservative and is also used to add an acidic, or sour taste to foods and soft drinks.

“Believe it or not, most artificial flavorings are derived from pretroleum. They have been shown to affect the RNA, thyroid, and enzymes. Most have never even been studied for safety or toxicity. They are all synthesized chemicals that don’t even have common names. Most artificial flavors actually contain many chemicals are volatile.

Sadly, the FDA doesn’t require manufacturers to list color or flavor additives on ingredients left, as long as they are recognized as safe. Some of these can cause allergic reactions in intolerant people, and these folks can find it hard to avoid those substances. Many times the ingredients will simply say “artificial flavors” without mentioning which ones. http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1533006

If you want to read more on the dangers of artificial flavors and colors check this above article out at the http: address. The FDA also allows pink slime in some ground beef and in McDonalds chicken nuggets. http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/pinkslime-ammonia-ground-beef.htm

So hopefully this blog will help be a bit of an eye opener to find out what really is in your food and encourage you to read the labels. If you can consume whole foods at least 90% of the time you are on the right track at getting your health back on track.

Is Ignorance really BLISS?! Part 2

I wonder if people really know the cost of the typical american ignorance to what they feed themselves and their little ones.

USATODAY says, "By Robert Preidt HealthDay

The total economic cost of overweight and obesity in the United States is $270 billion per year while the cost in Canada is about $30 billion a year, a new study shows.

The $300 billion total cost in the United States and Canada is the result of: increased need for medical care ($127 billion); loss of worker productivity due to higher rates of death ($49 billion); loss of productivity due to disability of active workers ($43 billion); and loss of productivity due to total disability ($72 billion), said the Society of Actuaries (SOA)."

The George Washington University did a report that found out "The high price of a high BMI: After tabulating various costs associated with being overweight or obese, the researchers found that being an obese individual in the U.S. costs $4,879 for women and $2,646 for men each year. The overall annual costs of being overweight are $524 for women and $432 for men. The researchers defined “obesity” as a body mass index (BMI) higher than 30, and “overweight” as a BMI between 25–29. Adding the value of lost life to these yearly costs makes the price tag even higher: $8,365 and $6,518 for women and men, respectively."

Those are some scary statistics... And that's just financially. What are the risks of being overweight and obese health wise? being overweight go way beyond the ones we usually hear about, like diabetes and heart disease. Being overweight can also affect a person's joints, breathing, sleep, mood, and energy levels. So being overweight can impact a person's entire quality of life. Here is a list of things of how it impacts our lives.

· Blount disease

· Arthritis

· Slipped capital femoral epiphyses (SCFE)

· Asthma

· Sleep apnea

· High blood pressure

· High cholesterol

· Gallstones

· Fatty liver

· Pseudotumor cerebri

· Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

· Insulin resistance and diabetes

• Depression

Who wants to live with those kind of complications day in and day out. You may not have all these symptoms but we all need to take a good look at where our health habits stand because the habits we have formed over the years will impact our future and what our futures hold. I want to live a long, energetic life. But the only way I can do that is if I start today and turn my bad eating and exercise habits into daily good habits.

Let's begin this journey together so that we can be healthy and strong for ourselves and our loved ones.

Is Ignorance really BLISS?!

I know there's many people out there who love their donuts,

sugar filled treats

Salty Fast Foods

Which I can't blame them, these foods....if we can really call them that

taste really good!!!

(until you start eating healthy, whole foods, then all these foods above taste gross....you can actually taste the chemicals and additives they put in them. Then to top it off they make you feel so yucky, & sick)

Is the love of these foods really what we need?

By choosing to be ignorant and not choosing to educate ourselves on what damage these foods do to our bodies, really allowing you to live a "blissful" life?

What is our choices of being ignorant about the foods we are consuming

and allowing our children to consume doing to our children?....

• In 2008, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.

• The percentage of children aged 6-11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 20% in 2008. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12-19 years who were obese increased from 5% to 18% over same period.

Immediate health effects

· Obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In a population based sample of 5 to 17 years olds, 70% of obese youth had at least 1 risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

· Obese adolescents are more likely to have pre-diabetes, a condition in which blood glucose levels indicate a high risk for development of diabetes.

Children and adolescents who are obese are at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem.

Long-term health effects:

· Children and Adolescents who are obese are likely to be obese as adults 11- 14 and are therefore more at risk for adult health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis. One study showed that children who became obese as early as age 2 were more likely to be obese as adults.

Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk for many types of cancer, including cancer of the breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, pancreas, gall bladder, thyroid, ovary, cervix, and prostrate, as well as multiple myeloma and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. http://bit.ly/WUjQI

WHAT A SAD FATE FOR OUR CHILDREN BECAUSE OF OUR CHOICES TO BE IGNORANT!!!

So let me ask you again…

“Is Ignorance really BLISS?”

I do not have a degree in nutrition but I have been reading and studying health and wellness for about 11 years from doctors, chiropractors, and a variety of books written by naturopathic/ holistic doctor (holistic medicine is the art of science of healing that addresses care of the whole person- body, mind and spirit. The practice of holistic medicine integrates conventional and complementary therapies to promote optimal health, and prevent and treat disease by addressing contributing factor.)

And with all the information I have read I feel as though it is my responsibility as a mom and to be a good steward of what God has blessed me with. I need to be educated for my own sake but most importantly for the sake of my children who will be impacting the next generation.

It is my responsibility to be a good steward to train my children, raising them up to live the healthiest lifestyle possible. So that they are able to fully live out their lives and purpose that God has in store for them. God has given us amazing bodies that will reproduce new cells every 90 days when we are putting the proper foods and nutrients in them...which by far the majority of us are not doing.

Where do we start: We start by living a preventive lifestyle. With a healthy lifestyle habits, including healthy eating and physical activity, can lower the risk of becoming obese and developing related disease.

It's amazing, kids really do like to eat fruits and vegetables if that is what we feed them without constantly filling them with junk food and processed foods. Their taste buds can be trained along with ours to enjoy whole natural foods if that's all we eat.

Do I Need To Detox???

Have you ever wondered if you need to detox? Or even wonder what a detox is? A detox is the removal of all the potentially toxic substances from the body. Just like your house needs a good cleaning to get rid of germs, dust, and dirt or your drains need to be unclogged every now and then so does our bodies need to be cleansed from the inside out. If you are exposed to chemicals and toxins in food, in beverages that you consume pollution in the environment then you are a perfect candidate for a detox. Unless you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Most people say they feel fine but what they don't realize they are not living to their full health potential that they could be living. And if they were taking in the proper nutrients through a raw whole food diet, their bodies needed after getting the toxins out of their system their bodies would produce new cells every 90 days.

Just ask yourself these questions to find out if you could use a good detox.

- Do you experience fatigue or low energy?
- Do you experience brain fog, lack of concentration and/ or poor memory?
- Do you experience recurring yeast infections, jock itch, or foot fungus?
- Do you have less than two bowel movements per day?
- Do you drink processed coffees and colas during the day?
- Do you take prescription medications, sedatives or stimulants?
- Do you live with or near polluted air, water, or other environmental pollution? (don't forget most tap water we use has been treated with chemicals that even if you don't drink it you most likely bathe or shower in it and what ever we put on our skin goes into our blood stream)
- Do you eat fast food, fatty foods, pre-prepared foods or fried foods more than 3 times a week?
- Do you crave or eat sugar?
- Do you experience frequent headaches?
- Do you have bad breath or excessive body Oder?
- Are you overweight?
- Do you experience depression or mood swings?
- Do you have food allergies or skin problems?
- Do you feel sleepy after meals, bloated, or gassy?
- Do you have arthritic aches and pains or stiffness?

If you have answered yes to three or more of the questions above, it is time for a detox!
I am waiting on my 30 day fit kit from Arbonne to come in and will be starting my journey to cleansing my body and getting it onto a lifestyle change of whole foods. As I am on my journey I will keep blogging foods I am consuming and how my body is feeling. Stay tuned in to hear the amazing results. After the 30 days I'll post a before and after picture.

Promoting Healthy Living

So it was a year ago in January 2010 I started cutting High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) out of my diet along with pork.

The first 6 months of 2011 I did really well and could tell I was dropping inches. (I lost 12 lbs in those 12 months). The last half of the year I didn't do so well and gained about 2 lbs back. So, I decided once again to cut out HFCS out of my diet and start working out 10 minutes a day to see the weight and inches start coming off again. Once I have the exercise habit back into my life I will up the time at the beginning of February to 20 minutes a day. My ultimate goal is to work out 30 minutes a day 6 days a week. This year I'm promoting to getting healthier and have started a challenge on Facebook "A New You in the New Year". Your more then welcome to join me on this challenge to bettering yourself and your health, just check out my events and sign up to join us for the challenge.

Here is a picture that was taken of me September 2010, 3 months after Marcus was born.

And then here is a picture taken just a year later October 2011.

A Year to Better Health

This journey really started about 10 years ago but I have strayed off the path of good health. I have decided 2012 is the year to get back onto the path of good health. Not only for me but also for my family. I desire to train up my children to live healthy lives. I just read a quote and absolutely loved it. Deanna Duncan wrote on the Prize 31 blog

Deanna Duncan wrote on the Prize 31 blog "for the first half of our life we sacrifice our time and health to make wealth. The second half of our life we sacrifice our wealth and time to regain our health." http://bit.ly/nY5Ng3

How true this is. So when I started this journey

in January 2011 I was 142lbs (just having my son 6 1/2 months prior)

dropping down to 128lbs by June of last year. Now I'm back up a few pounds to 130lbs. The way I dropped so quickly was just by trying to eat mostly natural foods, cutting out processed foods (especially with High Fructose Corn Syrup). It's amazing how much more energy I had and how better I felt...during last summer I lapsed due to it being so hot....we were in the 3 digits almost all summer long so ice cream was just to tempting to help cool me off...(it did the job until it melted...because it was so stinking hot outside) =}

The last 6 months of 2011 I didn't do so well of staying away from processed food. So now I'm back on this journey to staying strong and I just ordered my 30 day fit kit from Arbonne and I can't wait to see the results of detoxifying my body and putting pure, safe, and beneficial products into my body....(did you know when you eat whole, healthy, non toxic food our body reproduces new cells every 90 days)...that's amazing!!!

Good luck to all who are on this journey to bettering your health.

A Leap Of Faith

Having children is an amazing adventure and a complete trusting in God that He will take care of them protecting them in sickness and in health. This past week we had a scare with Marcus being in the hospital.

He has been having breathing problems while he sleeps at night since he was 4 months old. They've tested him for allergies yet all the tests came back negative. They didn't know what was wrong with him. Then last Sunday the problem peaked about 11:30pm with him struggling to breath and his chest contracting a lot...we woke him up to see if he was okay and he seemed fine while he was awake then we went to bed and was woken up close to 1:30am with him struggling to breath so Tommy and I decided it was time to head to the ER to make sure our baby was okay. The doctors for a few days monitored him through out the night and the pediatric surgeon was called in to do a bronchoscopy (an exploratory to see inside the airways) to make sure there is nothing blocking his airway while he slept since he was always fine while he was awake.

On Wednesday morning the procedure was done, come to find out that he just has a weak airway that causes him to snore while sleeping but is not life threatening and he will grow out of it.

The amazing part of the whole thing is that God gave us the peace through the whole process and had Marcus in His hands the whole time. He is so good and faithful.

We clung to this passage in the Bible this past week and I like how it is written in the

amplified Bible

James 1:2-4

Amplified Bible (AMP)

²Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations.

³Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience.

⁴But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.

Our faith can only grow stronger and we can only become more mature in our walk with the Lord when we put our trust in Him and our children in His hands.

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT. GOD IS SO FAITHFUL AND WE ARE SO GRATEFUL!!!