A little over a month into 2010 many of the resolutions that you made in January probably has fallen by the wayside. When the ball dropped on New Years Eve you might have resolved to go to the gym more often or to eat less fast food on, now, in February those promises seem as stale as the fruit cake in the back of your refrigerator. You might be feeling that you still want to change a few things this year but your earlier resolutions didn’t work out; below you will find 10 tips to bring a positive change to your life in 2010:
1.) Make room for mini meditations through out your day, close the door at your office, hold your calls, and just relax for five minutes. Hubert Benson, the co-founder of Harvard’s Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine, recommends doing this a few times throughout the day. It allows you to turn everything off and recharge.
2.) With states increasing cigarette taxes and cities banning smoking in bars and restaurants there has never been a better time to quit smoking. Many employers, faith groups, and even some local governments offer resources to help you stop smoking for good.
3.) Make an effort to have a social life. Getting bogged down in the stresses of daily life is easy to do. Make a promise to yourself to hang out with your friends at least once a week.
4.) Be aware of your health. Get a physical this year, even if you had one last year you need to make it an annual event. Being proactive is the best way to maintain a healthy life.
5.) Stay positive. It sounds simple, but if you try and keep a positive outlook on life you will find that you enjoy your work, family, and life in general a lot more.
6.) Cut the calories back. This year instead of trying the next fad diet resolve to simply cut back your calorie intake.
7.) Exercise daily. That doesn’t mean become a gym rat it means incorporate some kind of physical activity into your daily routine. It could be something as simple as going for a walk through the park every day, or going for daily bike rides.
8.) Make “wellness” a verb. Don’t think of health and wellness as something to reach for, or something to achieve. Think of as the way you live your life.
9.) Cut back the caffeine. Instead of drinking a pot of regular coffee every morning switch to a 50/50 coffee or caffeine free soft drinks.
10.) Add a little “green” to your life. Mom really was right growing up, be sure to add fruits and vegetables to your meals every day.
These changes, for the most part, are easy to work into your daily life and maintain all year long.
Many of us believe that eating salad at a restaurant is good for us. Sometimes we may be right but in most cases it is far from the truth. Most coffee shops serve a salad made from iceberg lettuce. This lettuce has no nutritional value, it is very basically fiber held together by water. In the digestive system iceberg lettuce has the nasty habit of turning into a slime that your body then has to break down.
We live in a fast paced world where food is often consumed while driving down the highway over the speed limit and watching for police vehicles. Fast food restaurants have figured this out and are stepping up to the challenge of providing healthier food to all of the patrons that go whizzing by their drive up service windows.
1. Your best friends are Ben and Jerry and Mr. Haagen-Dazs. Face it, we all love ice cream and if we could figure a way to live on it, we probably would.
We’ve all been taught to believe that yogurt is very good for us and in truth; the plain yogurt has a lot to offer us including calcium, protein and even healthy bacteria. It is basically pretty good in the calorie counting department as well, however most of us won’t eat plain yogurt, we want the yogurt that contains fruit and other tasty things. Yogurt that contains fruit is another story, with the addition of fruits and other items, the calcium, natural protein and bacteria remained however it was joined by between 14 and 40 grams of sugar per serving. This tends to deplete the health value of the food.
There are a plethora of creams, oils, notions and potions out there available to help make your skin look healthy, moist and young. All of them have all sorts of ingredients, some that can help your skin and some that can harm. But there are natural ways to help your skin and they tend to cost much less than their chemical laced replacements.
Your skin is the largest organ of your body, the question is, why do we treat it so badly at times. We expose it to harsh conditions without protecting it. We don’t take the time to exfoliate it so new cells can come forward and we don’t nourish it properly, yet we expect it to be healthy, soft, clear and without issues. It’s easy to rub lotions and potions on our skin to make it appear softer and younger but why not nourish it from the inside.
The acai berry is becoming more and more common, especially in anti-aging products. It’s available in such things as frozen pulp, juice, powders and many other capacities. This berry from a species of Amazonian Palm is being considered as a miracle, a wonder in the health field. 
Some of the best skin wrinkle reduction products can be found it the grocery store and offer other health care benefits. Several foods not only help to make your skin look younger and smoother, but also help to preemptively protect our skin from damage.
As millions people consume caffeinated beverages in ever increasing amounts, the effects of caffeine on the system needs to be better understood. Recent studies have shown that the stimulant in our coffee, teas, and ever more popular by the day, energy drinks is a complex chemical that has a myriad of effects both in the immediate and long term.
Protein, along with carbohydrates and fats, make up the major building blocks in a healthy diet that allow for proper body function. Without any one of these compounds, called macronutrients because the high amounts needed as compared to other nutrient, the body would quickly run into problems and show signs of malnutrition. Carbohydrates supply the blood with much needed sugar fuel, fats provide the body with the ability to gain weight as well as save energy for later use, and proteins help with muscle production as well as energy production. Proteins are readily found in meats, cheeses and other dairy products as well as certain vegetables. Protein is also an important source of the Amino Acid Phenylalanine which is important to alertness and other brain function. Without an adequate source of protein in your diet, muscle production would be impossible, and muscle breakdown and atrophy would begin. This is the reason that protein is so important to bodybuilders and those with muscular dystrophy, as atrophy of the muscles is exacerbated by a lack of protein, and additional protein can be utilized for increased muscle mass production.
Carbohydrates are needed for proper body function. They are the main source of fuel used foe energy in a person’s diet. As carbohydrates are introduced into the body, the body breaks them down into sugars that are then used as food for cells in the body such as the muscles and other organs, including the heart. While the emphasis in diet trends over the last few years has focused on a low carbohydrate intake, how the body processes carbohydrates in relation to blood sugar levels and weight gain would be better approached by looking at the type of carbohydrates in the diet as well as their amounts.
Are you drinking enough milk?
A regular can of soda contains the same amount of sugar that you would find in 10 teaspoons of table sugar. While sugar is a carbohydrate, and the body needs carbohydrates to function, other types of carbohydrates are available, such as whole grains and many fruits and vegetables. The amount of sugar, especially in the form of glucose, as is found in soft drinks and candy is an extremely unhealthy and high percentage intake compared to what is actually needed on a daily basis for good health. Glucose enters the bloodstream at a very fast rate, and is especially hard for the body to utilize in any efficient fashion. Processed foods, especially bleached or otherwise ‘enriched” breads and pastas produce high amounts of glucose when digested and present the same problem.
Without water there would be no life on planet Earth. There is probably no substance on the face of the planet that is more valuable, contributes more to health, and sadly, is the most under-utilized natural preventive remedy for many of today’s health problems.
Want to know the solid facts?
The Acai Berry is a bi-annual fruit from South America that has been hailed as the best super food alive on the planet today, and a “miracle fruit”, correctly pronounced as “ah-sa-ee” and is in actuality a simple palm fruit of amazing nutritional benefit.
Many people think that there is no difference between organic and natural food. But this is not true. Organic food refers to food items that are produced, manufactured and handled using certified organic means, such as defined by the USDA under its Organic Food Products Act. Natural food refers to food items that are not altered chemically or synthesized in any form. They are derived from plants and animals. A natural food item is not necessarily organic, and vice versa. 
For some time, many professionals insisted that supplemental vitamins were not warranted if people merely ate healthy diets. However, today we have growing evidence that taking a daily multi-vitamin makes good sense for most adults.