Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle

Good evening guys! Today is the last week I will be posting on my blog. This week I will talk about the future of mental and physical health; however, I would like to elaborate on the present. As we all know, there is a crisis going on for everybody in the world. This is a once in a life-time pandemic and has created chaos.

Along with the chaos, it has created stress for people including myself. It has changed the lives of many people just in a few days as well as restricting our everyday lives. Our normal ways/techniques used everyday to relieve stress and improve our health are difficult to use anymore.

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Fortunately with the technology we have today, there are some ways around this obstacle. I know you may get caught up in what’s going on including myself, but there is still opportunity to increase both mental and physical health. All of the exercises I shared with you in the previous blogs you are still able to use. I know it’s tough to stay positive during times like this, but it will pay off eventually. STAY POSITIVE, STAY MOTIVATED!

“Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state”. 

Personally, I think meditation is not used as often as it should be. Many do not realize it has so many positive aspects and benefits to provide.  It can assist with the following:

1. Reduce Stress

2. Controls Anxiety

3. Promotes Emotional Health

4. Enhances Self-Awareness

5. Lengthen Attention Span

6. May Reduce Age-Related Memory Loss

7. Can Generate Kindness

8. May Help Fight Addictions

9. Improves Sleep

10. Help Control Pain

11. Can Decrease Blood Pressure

12. You Can Meditate Anywhere

You may be surprised by some of these benefits, but if meditation is incorporated correctly, then you can reap the benefits and fully understand them.  In one of my previous posts, I spoke on yoga and its benefits.  Meditation is such a large part of yoga and vice versa.  When you are performing yoga, it provides an opportunity for you to practice this technique.  At first, it surprised me that it actually takes strength and practice of the mind to be able to meditate especially for long lengths of time.  But this is kind of like a muscle.  You can stretch and strengthen it to become better and better.

You may wonder how you might meditate, so I am going to share a few steps to take when getting into a meditative state.  Make sure you are in a physically comfortable state.  Close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Start to slow your breathing and then mentally take note of your body such as how certain parts of your body feel at that moment. The last part is to focus on one thing, it can be an image or a sound.  You should try to keep your focus solely on that without letting anything else creep in. 

If this is all new to you, please give this a shot by starting with at least 5 minutes a day.  If that is too much for you start where you feel comfortable and see if you can work your way up.

Good luck and good meditating!

I’m going to start this blog post by first saying, I am not a chef in any way nor am I pro around the kitchen, but this recipe is simple and delicious.  How can you beat a recipe that only needs 6 ingredients?!

Banana Chocolate Chip/Blueberry Muffins:

2 Ripe Bananas

2 Eggs

1 Cup Peanut Butter (creamy or crunchy if you like that extra crunch)

2 Tsp Vanilla

2 Tbsp Honey

½ Tsp Baking Powder

Chocolate Chips or Blueberries (your preference of either one)

Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl then pour into a greased muffin pan.  Then bake at 400 F for 8 minutes.  This should make about 24 (mini) muffins and there is approximately 100 calories per muffin.

I have to say, I highly recommend this snack to anyone.  Whether or not you are always busy or on the go, if you never have the urge to make breakfast, or if you are trying to live a healthy lifestyle with children, they do not disappoint.  I mentioned earlier that I like to alter the recipe by either adding blueberries or chocolate or maybe I will do some of each in the batch so I can have a change of pace.  I also like that they can be a source of protein by adding the peanut butter.  This may not be the recipe for you, but I hope it helps you keep your options open to others as well. 

Another plus, dog friendly!

Below is the original post I found this at (Thank you Calorie_addict)

Water covers 71% of the earth’s surface. Can you imagine our planet without water? It would be very bare and uninhabitable, so that’s probably a clear no to my last question. This is comparable to humans as well, our bodies are made of 50%-70% of water. Water is needed for every single body function we have including our skin, muscles, bones, and every organ. The average human is supposed to consume half of a gallon of water every day. This can be difficult, especially for myself. Water is not very appealing so if I have a chance to drink a pop it’s hard to say no… Unfortunately, it’s tough habit to break. In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that you can start bettering yourself by just drinking one glass a day (if you are starting from zero) and slowly work your way up to adding another glass a day at your own pace.

Often people believe they are getting enough water from drinking teas, sodas, and even COFFEE. However this is a common misconception. Some of these liquids contain caffeine which causes you to lose more water when you urinate. I know I would struggle to survive without caffeine, but just by limiting your intake will help you become more hydrated. Being hydrated comes along with so many benefits internally and externally. Internally you feel better, you may have less headaches and it helps your organs function better. Externally your hair and skin can improve as well. It can even help you lose weight if you stay consistent. With this information, I challenge you to start by increasing your daily water intake by 1 glass a day for a week to see if you can see an improvement. For those of you that like a challenge, you can work your way up to that half gallon and see how your body changes.

Good Luck!

Welcome back, all! The topic I want to focus on this week is sleep. Often we take sleep for granted; however, it is one of the most important parts to becoming a healthy person. An adequate amount of sleep is vital for people of all ages especially for students like myself.

This is such big problem for students around the world today. While students are overworked and drained, they lack sleep. According to “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” estimated that at least 35% of adults (ages 18 to 64) are not getting enough sleep through the night. Let’s put this more in perspective, that’s about 84 million people.

Do me a favor and calculate how many hours of sleep you typically get a night. Those of you that have fitness watches are probably fully aware of this information. Now keep your number in your head for what I am about to tell you. Adults should be averaging 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night. I know that I’ve had weeks (hello finals week), where that just wasn’t the case. Some people can handle it when they are not fully rested, but some end up exhausted mentally, physically, or even emotional. Quick personal story regarding this that I hope you take from this. I had a brilliant idea to go Black Friday Shopping with no sleeping during high school basketball season. This ended with me being sick with pneumonia for weeks. I definitely earned the hard way how important sleep is for someone’s health and wellness.

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Good afternoon, I hope everyone is doing well. Today, I am going to share some information and techniques on Spiritual Yoga. For those who do not know what “Spiritual Yoga” is, it’s a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India. Spiritual Yoga started becoming familiar with different religions recently especially Christianity which is what I will focus on.

Here are some of the poses I often use when participating in a yoga session. If you have a Bible grab it before you start because that will help include the spiritual part of the routine To begin the session stretch your body and get your muscles warm. Then sit down and relax. Take deep breaths in and out until your heart rate is at a comfortable rate. First, begin by reading a verse of the Bible then start on your first pose. Before each pose you will read a verse and then you will hold your pose for a minute for the three times each. While your holding your pose reflect on the verse you previously read. Think about it and how it impacts you. Then when that minute is up, read the next verse, and go to the next pose and so on. I hope this exercise helps you out not only physically but mentally by giving your mind a time of peace and time to worship in the word.

Do you ever think about ways to improve your mental health? It could from working out to eating the right diet. Ever since we were young, we were always taught that what you put into your body will resemble your physical appearance. However, eating healthy does not only impact us physically but it helps our mental health as well. Studies have shown that sugars and processed foods increase your chances of anxiety and depression. You are probably thinking “Doesn’t everything have sugar in it?” That’s not true, fruits and other vegetables have sugar but it’s not an immense amount like most fast-foods and drinks. One way to boost your mental health is by eliminating some foods out of your diet like fast-food and adding nutrient ones. I like to focus on eating fruits and vegetables regularly because they are saturated with omega-3 fatty acids which are very nutrient to our body and brain. More amazing foods you can add to your diet are nuts, green leafy vegetables, and seeds. These foods are considered “brain protective” foods which are very nutrient to your brain by keeping it healthy and effective. Most people’s ways of improving mental health include prescriptions or even some kinds of drugs; this is not very good for your body or mental state. According to Dr. Barish-Wreden “Studies have shown a reduction in depression of 40 to 60 percent when people are eating the right foods, which is a better outcome than most drugs.” The better your treat your body the better you will feel. According to the Bible, we shall treat our body like a temple. Unfortunately, most of us treat our bodies like amusement parks. I like to think of our bodies as expensive cars, it functions the best whenever it has the best fuel. But if you fill it with the cheapest and poorest quality of fuel it’s not going to work to its full potential. This is similar to our brains. In order to feel the best mentally include some of these foods in your diet and you will see results.

Later this week I will share some recipes and charts on a variety of foods that will improve your mental health! Stay tuned next week for different exercise techniques to improve your mental state!

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