Month / May 2012

by tessbrennan

Chicken Soup for the Sniffles/Cold…

Grandma, and the Romans were right.  Chicken soup is good for your cold, just ask the Nebraska Medical Center who conducted the studies that proved just such a thing.

Into a Crock pot place

1 whole chicken (the nutrients need to be cooked out of those bones into the broth)
Water to cover the chicken
4-5 Large Cloves of Garlic (a natural antibiotic)
1 Chopped onion (we chop it small so the young one doesn’t realize she’s eating it)
2-3 Carrots Chopped
2-3 Stalks of ORGANIC Celery (the leaves of celery like to hold onto the pesticides – no need for those here)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Let it all cook on Low for 7-8 hours.  Serve with long grain or brown rice, or high fiber/protein pasta noodles if you choose.

A major thing to stay away from when fighting a cold:  is refined sugars because they inhibit your body’s immune system.  According to Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, an internal medicine specialist and author, "The sugar in a can of soda suppresses immune function by 30 percent for three hours."   (THEREFORE: stay away from sodas, candy, and processed flours and foods, please)

Also try:

Spicy foods or perhaps a good, homemade guacamole with local grown, organic ingredients.  Avocados, Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, & Garlic are good for the body and the spicy peppers can help to clear out that congestion!

Happy recoveries to you and yours, and may your husbands not spend more than a day at a time moaning on the couch because they are sick. Smile

by tessbrennan

Fighting off season Colds.

My hubby has come down with an off season cold, and he is miserable.

It didn’t help that he knew he was fighting something and chose to go camping for memorial day anyway with tons of sweet sodas and a lot of beer to help inhibit his immune system.  (At least the bloody Maries contained tomato juice) Smile

This made me begin thinking of what should I do for his (really my predicament as he will lay on the couch an MOAN until he feels better. – I love that man so much!)  For lunch, he asked for, “whatever will make my cold feel better.”  Poor guy.

First things first: Continue reading →

by tessbrennan

Working to change my own stress habits.

Thank you, Madeline Ebelini!

Here’s the back story.

Today, I drove my 5 year old daughter and I the 35 miles to the drag strip to watch daddy race.  We’ve been having some vibration issues in the Yukon, but had been unable to diagnose the cause.

It rained.  They cancelled the race, and may of us were standing around, discussing the cancellation when a friend looked at the rear tire of my vehicle.  BIG bubble on the rear passenger tire.  Here’s where my stress kicked in.  I knew I had to drive my vehicle the 35 miles home with my 5 yr old in the back. Sad smile  Continue reading →

by tessbrennan

What you eat for breakfast shapes your whole day. 2 of 2

So, yesterday we discussed how EVERYONE eats breakfast, just at different times and choose different things to consume.  We looked at the spikes in blood sugar when we eat refined carbohydrates for our first meal of the day and then throughout the day.

Today, I want to look at the difference in blood sugar levels when you choose to begin your day with a low-glycemic protein. Continue reading →

by tessbrennan

What you eat for breakfast shapes your whole day. 1 of 2

Do you eat breakfast? I bet you do.  Whether your first meal of the day is at 5:00 AM or at 1:00 PM, you ARE eating breakfast.  That first meal of the day is breaking the fast.  What you choose to eat for this meal is just as important as when you eat it.

The American diet, and school breakfasts tend to offer many different refined carbohydrates. Muffins, toast, bagels, breakfast cereal, pop tarts…  This source of fuel allows our blood sugar to jump quickly.

Blood Sugar Roller coaster Continue reading →

by tessbrennan

I’m never sick and I eat whatever I want!

I eat what I want

I hear this on occasion.  (from my husband as well, but he is beginning to change his tune.)  I hear this from people who eat tons of “crap” and drink a lot of sodas, “I am rarely sick.”  They feel they can eat whatever they want and its no big deal because they have been healthy to this point.  (Many of them have recently been discovering things changing, rapidly.)

T.o.  t.h.i.s.   p.o.i.n.t! Continue reading →

by tessbrennan

Decrease Weight = Increased Productivity

Obesity

According to the Centers for Disease Control, absenteeism increases with weight.  So whether you rely on your own efforts for an income, or the efforts of your employees, lifestyle and what you/they eat is an important part of your business.  Obese women with a BMI of 40 or greater missed an average or 141% MORE time due to sick leave than women of a normal BMI.

MSNBC reported in 2010 that Loss of productivity due to obesity costs as much as medical expenditures for the condition, according to a new study that pegs the cost of obesity among full-time workers in the United States at $73.1 billion per year.

A report from UCLA’s Insights Health care states:

When people don’t eat right, the No. 1 thing that happens is they become less energetic, less able to think clearly and less able to do their jobs.

Productivity will go down when you’re not eating properly and nutrition is very, very important for mental activity and to maintain productivity.

For people in business who have physical jobs, it’s even worse. Anyone who’s in a physical job requires very good nutrition or they’ll lose their muscles and possibly be injured.

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Many studies have shown that even after a life threatening illness like cancer or heart attack 90% of people refused to change their habits, what can we do to make , easy changes?Healthy Local Vegetables for Healthy Diet

What can be done to change poor habits?

All you have to do is eat a healthier diet, which means a lot of colorful fruits and vegetables.

One of the things I find very helpful for executives, which I wrote about in my book is to take a shake in the morning similar to what weightlifters used to take. (DR. DAVID HEBER)

This would be made with soy protein, nonfat soy milk and frozen fruit in a blender. This is a great way to get 25 to 35 grams of protein. Then exercise about 30 minutes a day — this should include weightlifting and aerobic exercise. The important thing is to start out gradually and get advice from an exercise specialist. 

Even walking a short distance with a gradual increase in distance and duration can make a difference!

So the next time you opt to order in for your employees, instead of a greasy pizza, consider being a good example of promoting productivity and opt for healthy salads or vegetable heavy meals!

Have a GREAT Weekend!!!

by tessbrennan

Our largest organ is the biggest entry of poisons to our body.

In the last week, it seems, we have been bombarded about information regarding the toxins we put into our bodies on a daily basis.  Last week, I presented an informational health minute to my Rotary club on personal care products and the poisons contained in many of the common choices.  Our skin is the biggest organ in our body. (Although I have had a few guys in college try to tell me otherwise.) Smile

toxins we absorb

When we put anything on our skin, it is immediately absorbed and within 90 seconds it begins entering our blood stream. This is why so many different drugs are now being offered in patch form, it is an easy delivery system.

So why the big deal about our personal care products?  The cosmetics/personal care products industry is SELF REGULATED. This means the FDA doesn’t care what they put in the products we use. They don’t ask, they don’t check, it doesn’t matter.  The industry as a whole has set up ITS OWN governing body that sets ITS OWN limits on what can or cannot be used in products.  So they set a level of an ingredient, that has been deemed a toxin and recommend that companies not go over that level.

The average woman uses 9-14 personal care products on a daily basis. The average man uses 7-9. The visual above shows us some examples.  Lets say the products YOU CHOOSE are conservative and only have 85% of that thresh hold for a certain toxin. You use 8 products a day.

8x8.5 personal care graphic

That’s 6.8 TIMES the amount of that toxin that what has been deemed “safe” by the people making it.  Now, add the other chemicals from each of those products as well and you quickly discover the amount of stress being placed on your body on a daily basis, AND YOU HAVEN’T EVEN LEFT HOME!  Smile

I feel blessed to have found alternatives to these products.  Alternatives that don’t include any of these harmful ingredients.  If you, or someone you know is interested in alternatives, please contact me.  I am happy to discuss your needs with you.

Safe Personal Care

If you would like further information on this issue, here is another web article to check out.

 

 

There’s enough stress out there, without my adding to it first thing in the morning. Begin to reduce the taxing toxins from your life and begin seeing your health improve.