Food Balance Your Body Type Archives - Page 30 of 32

Morning Routine Healthy Stretch Start

Morning routine changes can get you up when you want to hit the snooze button on the alarm . Letting the window light in can be the baby step move…

Morning routine can include letting the sunlight in. Wake up, Sunshine! In the morning when you get out of bed, you use you mind-body muscles to get up, as part of the daily, morning routine.

You know if you’re an early riser or a night owl. You’re usually wired one way or the other.

Morning people are usually proud of how much they get done early on, while night people stay up and enjoy more leisure time.

I’m not a natural morning person and I honor that, as I do appreciate sleep. Similarly, if you’re a slow riser naturally, I have some suggestions below that can help get you moving…

Women need more sleep than men and children need more sleep than adults. Waking up adult energy changes and depends on many factors.

If you normally pop up, right out of bed, but find it difficult this season in your life, then you may have a Kapha imbalance (could be mind or body).

If it’s recurring every winter, then seasonal affective disorder (SAD) can be an added layer of mood tiredness. You can change your morning routine so it’s enjoyable, and you look forward to getting up.

Embrace Your Vata-ness and Why This Matters Even If You’re Another Dominant Dosha

While usual daily variance on waking up energy is a good indication that you’re a natural Vata, you may find your partner or friends seem to get up at the same time every day. They’re likely Pitta dominant people.

In true-Vata form, if that’s your natural way, one morning you could start off feeling energized, and then the next day, tired and groggy waking up, that doesn’t always have to do with what time you went to sleep.

Your eyes can open at the same time every morning naturally, that’s part of your natural circadian rhythm and internal clock, but you want to rest and snooze for a few more minutes before you drag yourself to get up.

This is especially if you wake up to an artificial alarm clock.

Your level of mood tiredness and body functions are separate aspects and both affect the energy you have for a morning routine.

Since we all possess traces of all the dosha traits, you could be imbalanced in a dosha that you or may not be dominant in, and that’s what I want to help you with today to invigorate a healthy, wake up morning routine.

If you’re not sure which imbalances you currently have and want restoring suggestions on your specific body imbalance symptoms, then I encourage you to take the body balance quiz.

The results are revealing to what your body is trying to tell you at this moment without written or voice communication. Your non-verbal response can be simple, healthy behavior tweaks to prevent irritating symptoms from getting worse and so you can enjoy foods and activities you like.

In the same way, having an inspiring morning routine for your body is going to be better than a forced one. If you’re a learner you like to challenge yourself and that will help you to get going.

Easing Into Your Morning

So, while you’re starting your day drinking room temperature water (or a warm ginger tea is good) and visiting the bathroom, this is a good time to get mentally prepared about yoga stretching.

You may need or enjoy a cup of coffee or cappuccino to wake-up your mind, and that’s great.

As part of your morning routine, find a pause moment to be mindful, and think of something to be grateful for today, or that just happened recently.

You can find this mindful moment when you’re heating water for tea, straightening up along your path, or putting the clean dishes back in the cabinet.

In America, we don’t usually stop reflecting on our busy lives and ambition. Living overwhelmed isn’t healthy.

And if you have a Vata imbalance, you easily move on to something else without finishing your current activity. Staying focused at least at the start of your day, and having a routine to stick to is especially helpful so anxious feelings don’t sink in.

So after getting mindful, and visiting the kitchen, a natural transition is to move onto stretching parts of your body that need just a little awakening and movement, from the wear and tear of yesterday and the day before.

You can call this yoga or just stretching, it doesn’t matter.

This is a good way to ease into the morning even if you only have 10 minutes before someone or something needs you.

My stretch routine is below (and if you’re a yoga beginner or think you’re not-good at yoga because of body issues, I’ll explain how not to be intimidated).

If you did a workout the day before, even if that was carrying groceries up a flight of stairs, you can reset your body for today, the new day and the only one that exists (at least in your mindful 10 minutes or the time you have).

Here’s a daily morning practice that you can try and tweak to how you like.

If you’re a Vata you’ll naturally want to change up your morning routines.

To start off, you could get on all 4’s, and in a pose called TableTop where you put your bended knees on your floor or mat and lay your palms flat on the floor.

Your back is flat and parallel to the floor. Your body looks like a table and you could set the book on your back, and it would balance.

Table Top is a neutral pose, getting you ready, and doesn’t require much energy even if you’re not yet fully awake.

If you’re still super tired from there you could go into a resting pose like Child’s pose (or a Hare pose with a rounded back). Be careful you don’t end up napping so you keep your focus on a general, not specific mindful intention like peace or love today. Take your time and don’t be in a hurry.

But once you’re ready to get up back into Table Top pose, you can flow into Downward Dog (inverted “V”).

Then when you’re ready, you can walk your feet up to your hands on the floor or take a quick jump forward (the fun and energizing way to meet your hands).

Then you can rise up slowly and as controlled as you can like one spinal vertebra at a time, into a standing Mountain pose position.

Then, take your hands and reach in the air to the ceiling forming a “Y” with your arms. If you’re by a window or outside, you can look out and pray or take a meditation moment, or inside, you can look up at the ceiling.

Move your hands down to heart center with the specific intention of your day, or love if you don’t have one in mind.

Then, fold your body downward with hands to your thighs and shins and then shift to palms on the floor (or swan dive your hands straight down to the floor for more energy).

You can repeat these morning sun salutations. They’re good for getting your mind and body into a calm and appreciative flow.

From there I like to test where there are kinks in the body, where there’s tightness and especially cracking sounds that are common in the morning or if it’s cold outside.

You may not experience that type of sensation if your muscles are naturally more limber, as everyone has a unique body.

You may not discover these tight areas if you don’t move around. Testing slight bends and stretches allow you to appreciate your body at the moment for its abilities.

You familiarize yourself with your weaker spots and just by moving your body around, you can feel and discover where those spots are. Whatever that may be for you, you have your one and only body to fully take care of, so it helps to do these check-ins.

I like to smooth out muscles taken for granted. Where you feel tightness you can move the body part in the opposite direction to see how things feel.

I like to go from my morning Table Top waking up poses above to an inverted table (where my stomach is facing the ceiling) and move the arms behind me around, hinging back and forth. That gets tightness out of the upper arms that I wouldn’t otherwise know about.

I made that one up. In the same way, you can use yoga as a creative body expression to become aware of your body. You can make up and create your own poses and you can blend in more traditional yoga poses you like and know.

And you can do a water animal series like starting in happy Dolphin pose.

You can get in Seated Spinal Twist that has a name that sounds like a kids game you play (maybe, Twister or Sit-n-Spin?). …Anyway, it’s a pretty simple yoga pose and a great stretch for either side of your back that often gets ignored.

I was taught this pose, and have been doing these since grade school P.E. class (physical education), way before I knew any yoga poses, and before yoga was popular in the States.

And similarly, you too probably have been doing some yoga poses long before you knew their pose names.

So those are two examples of how you can get innovative and reinvent new yoga poses in your daily routine.

If you’re intimidated by the idea of yoga and doing poses wrong, don’t be.

I’ve been in yoga classes before where I would hear people say they’re “not good at yoga.”

Re-framing your thoughts help.

We all start as yoga beginners and each morning is a re-start so your body feels different than the day before. It’s a good metaphor for being a lifelong learner.

If you look at laying down flat on your back as another name for Corpse pose, you can make the connection that yoga can be a fancy name for “just being.”

Besides, the funny and interesting thing is, no one is looking at anyone else in a yoga class. Everyone is too busy concentrating and looking at their own body parts and poses.

No one talks about other people’s poses, in or after class. The point of yoga is that it’s an individual sport. You get to look inward and see yourself like when you look in a mirror.

If you’re self-conscious, then yoga can help you break away judgmental feelings about yourself.

If you’re a beginner, doing more yoga gives you self-confidence, and you feel better about your body when poses work.

When I attended my first class I didn’t like it because I didn’t know what was going on, and that’s just par for the course of learning a new skill.

And practicing yoga at home gives you more confidence. So don’t be too quick to rule out yoga as a sustainable activity for you and your morning.

If that’s you at this stage, just have fun with getting to know your body, and center your mind on parts of your body and intention for your practice. The rest will work itself out.

We all have weak spots and our vulnerabilities and bringing them to light is how to go through them. You never know, you may end up loving yoga like I did and do.

And if you’re beyond beginner yoga overthinking or any yoga insecurity, then maybe use your morning yoga practice to work on your patience and resilience.

So that’s my morning routine start (that you can use) before my coffee and catching up with my daily news.

Then I make myself a breakfast smoothie or a breakfast snack and get to productive work.

I hope you’re a bit more happily inspired to get up in the mornings! 🌅

Sugar Cravings, Fasting + Low Sugar Orange Scone Recipe

Sugar cravings don’t have to get the best of you… and the orange scone recipe below may help you get over the worst sugar sweets as it was the healthy start for me, someone who ate way too much daily sugar that many of us do. It’s no one’s fault.

Oranges and citrus fruits are good for blood sugar levels as citrus fruits have a lower glycemic index as a general indicator for how a food will impact your blood sugar level.

And juicy foods like oranges also have a way of quenching your thirst and hunger. Like water and tea, you can feel less hungry when you consume oranges and lower your food cravings.

Using orange and orange zest are also a good way to avoid artificial sweeteners while brightening your food and day.

natural orange zest for sugar cravings.

Maintaining a healthy blood sugar level is at the heart (pun intended!) of a healthy heart.

I became aware of the American Heart Association when I volunteered for the American Cancer Society in my backyard while I was attending college.

The “Eat Smart” campaign was one of the promoted programs and I remember posters (remember those?) were donated that had healthy fruits and vegetables.

These are now known as anti inflammatory food ideas like oranges that were brightly represented on the poster and I proudly displayed on my wall.

Who knew that anti-inflammatory foods would become so important with all its healthy benefits and in many healthy diet movements like the Mediterranean Diet and plant-based diets?

And we couldn’t have predicted that the role of Vitamin C would grow in highlighted health importance, and that oranges would relatively stay the same while we see more orange varieties on the grocery shelves.

We keep evolving in food, health, and nutrition.

Vitamins stay as a focal point in the anti inflammatory diet. Some are antioxidants that are good body protectors for preventing heart disease, Diabetes 2, certain cancers, and cognitive decline that can start off as harmless brain fog or short memory mental health lapses.

In the beginning of 2020, I created a smart pantry for “just in case,” where I collected processed, longer shelf-life foods in cans and boxes. That’s where I failed in my sugar cravings dilemma and developed an itchy eczema skin rash by mid-summer that came from sugar indulgence.

Luckily I caught on before things got worse. I got aware and my love for sugar got replaced for Ayurveda ways, moderation, and anti-inflammatory foods.

Sugar we know is good for our happy selves, but not our healthy one. They latch onto lectin anti-nutrients in our gut and can destroy our microbiome that we know controls so much of our daily body functions.

My hope is you’re onboard for a healthier new year, new health progress goals, and micro habit changes. Fasting is one way I have deployed in my healthy lifestyle and you can too. You can download my FREE fasting guide that makes it a sustainable way.

And when you’re eating, if you’re like me, you’re a bit choosy and conscious about your food choices.

I love foods, food variety, and enjoy good foods. I planned catered parties in nice hotels and foodie restaurants for a decade, so it’s a part of me that has been weaved into my adult DNA. And healthy eating that I learned early on.

But I have a weakness… a sweet tooth.

Many of us enjoy some sweets in moderation.

Having a sweet tooth is natural but isn’t helpful on a healthy lifestyle mission.

If you regularly eat sugary foods to curb your sweet tooth and sugar cravings, you set yourself up to have more sugar cravings. It’s a vicious cycle.

For entertainment, I had started watching The Great British Baking Show, that’sa competition show that started with U.K. bakers… initially, it wasn’t the best thing to watch if you want to curb sugar cravings and stop eating so much sugar.

But I worked through it and can now watch the show without eating a sweet dessert. I’m telling you this because I believe everyone can get there!

In my search, I came across a book called The 40 Day Sugar Fast by Wendy Speake.

It reminded me of a sugar fast I set out to do for 3 weeks in 2011 but ended up doing the sugar fast for around 40 days.

How?

When I had my tonsils removed as an adult, the fast was a smooth transition as I mostly had a liquid diet in the beginning.

And if you’re trying to break the sugar habit, finding a time when you’re not dealing with as much stress is your best bet.

Like if you’re a teacher, do your sweet fast after the school year ends and you have the summer off. You usually crave less food in the hot months anyway, so use all those helpful situations to your advantage.

Another helpful situation is when you have support. To keep me encouraged, the church I was attending was doing an annual fast for those who wanted to participate. So, it was perfect timing as I wasn’t doing it alone.

And as I focused on giving up sweets for sweet Jesus, the sugar cravings also miraculously disappeared. The ones I’d had every single day since I was a child.

I didn’t use my own willpower to make changes. That doesn’t usually work.

I focused on my heart and deeper desires. To my surprise, my way of thinking changed. It was supernatural and beyond my small capabilities to overcome sugar on my own.

But that’s just a reminder that you don’t have to do it alone and can encourage the Universe or higher source you turn to, to help you.

I also use maintaining good teeth as motivation. As a child I always had a mouth full of cavities. I wanted to live a better dental life later in life. That same motivation carried me when I quit all sodas years ago. Previously as a young adult, I’d have at least 1-2 sodas by noon.

Do whatever works for you and your healthy motivations.

Another tip is to look at sugar nutrition labels. Most food labels are in grams and 1 gram = about .24 teaspoons or a quarter teaspoon.

We use teaspoons for baking in America so that’s easier to visualize.

It doesn’t take much in a Western diet to go over 20 grams of refined sugar at breakfast alone!

You can try these breakfast plant-based breakfast ideas and tips to stop sugar cravings and craving sweets if you want some suggestions.

And sodas are off the charts starting at 30-40 grams.

I drank diet sodas early on, but those are linked to heart disease and Diabetes 2 so they’re no better and probably worse off

Also, keep in mind no fat is usually linked to higher sugar in foods, so you’re giving up one evil for another.

The better healthy answer is to change your healthy food and beverage habits. And then you will enjoy the healthy foods and especially after you have adjusted. I promise.

If you’ve every shifted from a whole milk to a plant or other milk, you know what I’m talking about.

You no longer go back to the other because 1) your body doesn’t need the same quantity of nutrients it needed before or growing up and 2) you have a decent food or beverage replacement.

Most of are lazy in this area about food fixing. It we have something easy and near us, we’ll grab that instead of go out and forage if we don’t have to.

And for fruit, I still don’t overindulge even though the Food Pyramid I grew up with recommended 2-4 servings of fruit per day. These days, MyPlate says at least 1 piece of medium fruit.

Even natural fruits and dried fruits have a huge dose of natural sugars, the better fructose sugar, but still sugar. I limit myself to an apple, a banana, and an orange if I’m craving fruits and sweet foods.

Foods that you wouldn’t suspect and maybe even classify as healthy food like a Fig Newton or low-fat “healthy” cereal are loaded with sugar. You discover reality when you do package label reading.

I once felt I had to add a puff of white cloud sweetness that finished off almost every dinner dessert, holiday cheesecake, pie, or warm beverage. The nutritional breakdown ingredients of some whipped foods say “hydrogenated oils” or trans fats and high-fructose corn syrup to avoid.

You can always say “no whip, please.”

And you can choose moderation where it’s okay for a happy celebrations, but not for daily healthy consumption. That’s what I do in the balance.

That’s the modern Ayurveda way that is sustainable. Turning to healthy and anti-inflammatory foods that are also good for weight loss and preventing weight gain, so you don’t have to do one more yo-yo diet that never works long-term.

Modern Ayurveda lifestyle people love following natural, doable, and achievable (practical) advice.

So here are 3 actionable Ayurveda creature habits and tips for reducing sugar in your diet and curbing sugar cravings:

Become aware which foods have high sugar, added sugar – fact vs. fiction. Read labels at least until you are familiar with the foods you eat regularly.
Substitute your sweets not for other foods, but for a higher calling or purpose for yourself. Find a motivation that makes you stick to your plan and look forward to maintaining.
Do one daily baby step food choice action you can make to create a healthier micro habit. Reminder: the more you eat sugar, the more you crave sugar.

Maybe that’s substituting an empty calorie sugary dessert with a fortified cereal that at least has some nutrients?

And if you need a replacement for something super sweet, I have a low sugar, Orange Scone recipe below I mentioned above that you can try that’s super easy and you’ll love (or grow to love!).

What I love about this recipe is the orange peel zest you would normally throw away is used as the main sweet ingredient.

Oranges are also good for calming in our parasympathetic nerves, so in the strong orange smells, we experience calmer nerves instead of anxiety. You hear people who like to eat oranges by their bed and this could be a good reason why. They are calmer, better managing worry and anxious thinking hours before sleep o’clock.

This orange recipe has no needed added refined sugars, but you may like the turbinado sugar small packet crunch finish like I do, that has 5 grams of fat total used for the entire 8 scone slices. So you do your daily sugar math and see if that’ll work for you.

I also love that you won’t use all your eggs in one recipe. And, in the easy, it can take less than 10 minutes time to prepare!

It takes about 40 minutes total time (from prep to baking to mouth 😋). That’s something to celebrate!

Print Recipe

low-sugar orange scone for sugar cravings. — with currants and brown sugar topping

Orange Scones (Bread) – Makes 8 pieces

This can become a regular dessert bread for you that’s healthier than sugary processed breads and pastries. Great for a sweet tooth (or a Vata)!

1 egg

2 cup flour total (can mix gluten and gluten-free flours if you choose)

2 tbsp frozen unsalted butter

1/2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

½ cup plain or vanilla Greek, plus more if needed (this is a good food item to look at sugar labels). Use more solid yogurt parts to bring it together if it gets too crumbly.

Zest of an orange (navel oranges are great)

Cinnamon to liking (and you can purposefully add a little teaspoon of sugar, some tips below)

You omit sugar that normally would be added. Since you’re not using sugar, you don’t need salt either to balance any sugar. NO refined white sugar, yay! 😊

Add flour to a medium bowl. Add butter and cut it into small pieces with a knife. Add the egg and mix with a spoon.

Add yogurt and keep mixing until well mixed. Add baking powder and baking soda. Add orange zest and mix until blended into flour mixture.

Form a ball with the spoon in the bowl. Then place the dough on a baking sheet and flatten it slightly, so it forms into a 6-8” circle.

There will be flour crumbs, just stick them on top of the circle to blend in (like you’re adding clay to pottery before being fired in the kiln).

Sprinkle with cinnamon if you like. Cut 8 slices before placing in the oven.

Optional sweet: if you desire, you can add one brown sugar packet of Sugar in the Raw (turbinado cane sugar) on top of the circle bake before it goes in the oven. These small brown crystals are similar to refined sugar in health terms, but if you add them in moderation, that’s not going to make a big difference. If you’re feeding anyone diabetic, they’re not going to eat it anyway… or if they can eat monk fruit sugar, you can add that.

You can also optionally add ½ tablespoon of dried currants or raisins and blend in the mixture before you form the circle. Or you could do half and half (4 pieces plain and 4 pieces lightly sugar)… then you can please those you’re sharing with who won’t necessarily appreciate your low sugar, healthy scone bread efforts.

Finally, put the baking sheet in the middle of the oven and bake the scones to a golden brown for 25-30 minutes at 350°F/180°C degrees. Let your scones cool, and then you’ll be ready to enjoy.

Easy, Low-Sugar Orange Scones

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 8 pieces

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 egg
2 cup whole wheat flour or all purpose flour with gluten free flour optional (almond flour suggested) total
2 tbsp frozen unsalted butter
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 /4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 zest of an orange adds sweetness
cinnamon and currants or raisins (optional) to taste liking
1 sugar In The Raw (turbinado sugar) packet to cover the top of 8-scone slices.

Instructions

Combine all ingredients except sugar and make a circle mound. This is a crumbly dough especially with gluten-free flours such as almond flour.
Take all the crumbly bits and add back to the circle mound. Then, slightly flatten the top with hands to about 1 inch high.
Use one packet of turbinado sugar (optional) to zhugh the top before baking, so the sugar sticks.
Cut lightly or score 8 triangular "pie wedge" shapes.
Bake at 350°F at 25-30 minutes (or until light golden brown color).

7 Effective Gym Habits For New Year’s

Intended effective gym habits can begin in a new year and die before February 1. Don’t let that be YOU in the upcoming year. Make this year and better and different that it deserves as you’re a better, more resilient person.

The usual drill…

Welcoming in the first week of the year with effective gym habits is the intent, where many of us think of new personal, health, and fitness goals. In my mind, I think of the end goal that comes from 7 habits of highly effective people that can be applied to life. But not always effect in fitness areas…

Because most people don’t like to workout. That’s the first hurdle. Especially if you prefer to work or play instead of work out (I know the feeling!). At times, working out can add more stress if you don’t have a routine down.

But, if you prioritize, practice and adopt doing regular habits (great for Vata balancing)… and they are habits you enjoy, that could be a game changer to effective habits. Let that be the new year mantra or philosophy you breathe in…

OUT with ancient new year’s resolutions, and IN with inspiring habits for your betterment, progress, and self-improvement goals.

Simple steps like attending a Gold’s Gym (my fond memories) or similar, and doing at-home ab exercises regularly can help get you into healthy physical body habits with good results if you choose successful ways that help you, explained below…

Inspired by 7 habits of highly effective people who are proactive in their lives and begin with the end in mind, these are 7 effective habit traits (and what it boils down to), to embrace ideas that can turn into action and help set you up for success.

I think these ways make habits easier to adopt, and you can apply to any area you want to have continued success in.

So, applying these traits will help you with training to stay active and healthy fit for the year and keep effective gym habits for life.

Effective Habit Traits Inspired By 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

1. New – highly effective people consider and embrace new ideas, challenging the status quo or current norm. They keep everything fresh and have a learning and growth mindset. They think “today is a brand, new day” to do something better, remarkable, or impactful.

2. Variety – they spice up life with more than one way or choice. This can be from food to finding new inspiration or a new route. If they did it one way, they try another way to keep things exciting.

3. Fun or exciting – they have fun doing what they do. If you’re enjoying yourself, then you’re more likely to keep doing what you’re doing. Laughter is a good indicator that you’re engaged. Remember when you were a kid, and that’s what got you going?… just good, innocent fun.

4. Usefulness – they know how to be productive with their time, and highly effective people spend time working on activities that are useful and not a waste of time. There’s a next step, where there’s personal growth, observable impact, or serves others.

5. Practical – they turn ideas into action and use resources they have access to, and keep going. They don’t let excuses keep them from moving forward. Relevance guides them to their next steps and pivots.

6. Getting better – they look for progress. They know that if it’s not getting better, that it could be getting worse. They look for signs of growth, impact, and healthiness.

7. Easy – they keep it simple and uncomplicated. They know if it’s easy, then it’s doable. There won’t be delay and “easy” can be duplicable and scalable to perform in other ways.

So now here’s how can you embrace and select 1-2 of these 7 ideas into your personal fitness or exercise life and routine: Continue reading “7 Effective Gym Habits For New Year’s”

8 Ways to Avoid Stress Eating Anxiety and Holiday Stress

stress eating

Stress eating can be real anxiety for the best of us (that can easily become a bad habit).

Feeling anxious from a negative thought can cause overeating and shoveling food into our mouths. This feeds our natural desire to enjoy pleasure. But then we regret our decision the next day, as it shows up on our body and then can turn into anxious body thoughts (in the mind-body connection).

Below are some ways to break the stress-eating vicious cycle, especially around the winter holidays.

Especially in December, we can’t avoid messages about the new year being around the corner, that brings awareness to what we need to do to finish up the year, and then that reminds us of the hoopla of what happened and disappointments of what hasn’t yet. We just want peace, joy, and love.

By no fault of your own, holiday anxieties can be triggered in your mind-body, and aggravate stress eating as a comforting behavior that disturbs healthy living aspirations.

One way you can start to change this is to find a healthy set of friends (or a virtual community) who will support you and you can share your successful moments with. Choose these optimistic friends over complainers. You want to leave your near-year ending on a sweet (not sour) high note. Stay encouraged, growing, believing, and finding new year inspiration.

On that note, I have some holiday stress management encouragement…

Because we all bear some kind of stress as humans. At a bare minimum, you may have been thrown a few monkey wrenches within the year and an uneventful holiday ending.

You may have thought you’ve had enough, and you would just coast the rest of the year and take time off, and then something suddenly came up. You’re asked to make an off-course decision or two, be more creative than you’ve been (thinking outside the box), and work harder in your uphill climb despite facing ups and downs.

You’re not alone.

Look on the brighter side of things, you’re needed and you have a chance to make an impact in some unique way.

Those you-matter thoughts help your inner peace, that you can get back and are just a few steps away in your meditation practice, prayer life, or relaxed walk.

By a simple choice, you can change your mind and attitude just like that if you want to, despite your feelings or moods.

You always feel better than you did after the fact. You never know what thoughts and ideas are on the other side, but the time you put in is rewarded.

You’re better off if you find some way to be optimistic, even if it’s just borrowing a belief. Sometimes you have to just do it, to adopt a new way.

stress eating

Recently I was tasked to virtually decorate my Zoom screen background for a holiday meetup… those are common this year, right?

I don’t how you feel about yourself in a digital world, but coming up with a digital holiday background isn’t in my go-to wheelhouse bag of tricks, and maybe not in yours either. So I dug deep and basically looked around (…isn’t that how we were resourceful when we were younger?), and that led me to bring out the soft felted stockings and artificial decorations from the Christmas storage bin.

I’m an arts and crafts type. As a scrapbooker, I like handmade, decorating with brads and ribbons, and the whole nine yards for anything you can touch and feel… Continue reading “8 Ways to Avoid Stress Eating Anxiety and Holiday Stress”

Cracker Barrel Menu Calorie Counter + Healthy Losing Weight Tips

Cracker Barrel menu vs. fast food is night and day. Cracker Barrel uses slow cooking methods for some dishes that us foodie enthusiasts appreciate! This homestyle burnt-top Cellantani and cheese (with a healthy option) recipe is below.

If a Cracker Barrel menu is not close to you, you can make your own homestyle slow cooking comfort foods like burnt-top corkscrew pasta macaroni and cheese. — Homestyle burnt top baked macaroni and cheese reminds one of slow cooking, the Cracker Barrel restaurant, and the fond eating childhood memories. 🧡

In this post, you’ll get tips to lose weight from snacking, ordering off a Cracker Barrel menu, and how to make calories count! And how to to get the tasty burnt-top on your baked macaroni without drying out the pasta.

After your turkey feast has come and gone, what are the secrets to keep a healthy, trim body you aspire to? …I share my best tips below. And they don’t require giving up macaroni-n-cheese if that’s one of your favorites.

If you’re on the road, it’s easy to get off-balanced in your diet. I recommend the Cracker Barrel menu that’s loaded with options for a conscious calorie counter, where you can find a healthy meal for under a thousand calories. Real homey comfort food and not a frozen packaged one.

👇 You can get to my Cracker Barrrel menu selections if you scroll way below.

…But, as with most my blog articles, there is jam-packed meaty healthy inspiration and tips in between. So that’s where I’ll start… with my story.

My Food Life Lessons

I think I’m lucky because I have pretty much maintained the same ideal healthy weight since my late 20s (after some hairy years working around decadent catering food).

And yep, I’m a Vata so my genetics play a big, big part. I’m not a vain person, but I am self-conscious (another Vata trait we call sensitive). That could be you too.

We are all unique in that we have a different one-and-only body that’s given to us to maintain for our entire life. And that’s daily changing.

So we want to optimize our body and body image that’s relative to each of us. There are some tips that work for all of us females and humans. Some ideas that work better for some of us than others.

And you know your body better than anybody else.

For the lifestyle part, like everyone, I had to learn in life’s journey.

Early on I went into a testing phase and tried to listen to reliable sources about how to have a healthy body. I wanted to get more tone and slender so I tried the trendy health fad diets with so many others.

Back then, I focused on one diet in particular, where I counted calories. You can probably guess what happened?… I gained more weight during that season. I craved foods and especially pasta that I grew up eating and had given up.

I was also craving sweet foods I normally ate and gave up. If you have a sweet tooth (e.g. for Vatas that’s your middle name), bread just doesn’t cut it as a sweet if ya know what I mean.

That’s when I realized self-discipline and willpower produce backfiring results…

When I told myself “no” to certain foods, that just made me want them more. …sound familiar?

That’s because our minds, don’t actually hear “no.” Instead, your mind hears you’re putting energy towards that food item, so then you just want it more. English isn’t your mind and body’s first language. Your mind-body interprets words by your feelings and actions…hmmm.

…so I ended up essentially on a “yo-yo” diet, where I was below weight, gained it back, and then went over the weight that I started with as I got a taste of the foods I loved like mac-n-cheese.

These were years before Oprah was popular on television and we learned all about the yo-yo diet effects from her sharing journey to the masses.

And, weight and size are relative to each of our bodies. In my body size journey, I went down to a size 2 (from a size 6 at the time) and grew to a size 8.

I have fit into the same size clothing and maintained a size 4 since then (it’s funny how some clothing pieces have come back in style a few times and I can live them up again!). …OK, so before you judge or playfully roll your eyes at me, I KNOW what you’re thinking…

Oh my gosh, I would love to be a size 4 or 6 (if you are, you know what I’m talking about!)… Or maybe you prefer your ideal size whatever that is…

But the truth is, it doesn’t matter what your number, size, or weight is, as much as keeping overall balanced body proportions to your frame, where you like and feel better about yourself. When your feed your mind happiness, that shows up in a healthier body as body love (and NOT body shame).

That’s the ultimate goal (to feel good about ourselves and our self-image). We need to build up our self-esteem especially if it was beaten down in the past. You may have experienced PTSD or had a rocky childhood.

Or maybe you still need to heal from wounds, build self-confidence from insecurities, and develop an abundant mentality to replace the victim mentality. That’s common for most of us.

And like most personal growth goals, it’s up to you to make your choices along the way. That’s where replacing habits helps (plus, not denying yourself any one specific food or category to reach the goal).

Along my journey, these are a few tips I discovered in choices that I’ve found that make the biggest impact.

3 Weight Loss Tips for Daily Menus

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