Change it Up

When you go to the gym, do you find yourself taking the same classes, or using the same cardio machine, or maybe doing the same strength training exercises? If you do, you may not be getting the workout you think. Each time you hit the gym, you need to give your body some variety. By this, I mean you need to work your muscles in a different way each workout.

I always enjoy my yoga class with my favorite teacher. I am use to her voice and her flow from one yoga pose to the next. This past Saturday she was on vacation and I had a different teacher. At first, I thought "Oh no, Where is my regular teacher?". As we got into the class, I realized that I was having to pay attention to the instructor and not just go through the motions. I came out of class feeling like I had had a good workout.

I now plan to switch workout classes from time to time. I feel that this will keep my body and mind on its toes. No more just going through the motions. Next class to try is step for a cardio change. This should be great for burning up the calories.

Why only Earth "Day"

My daughter and I were talking this past week about Earth Day coming up and she made the comment that we should always be thinking of the Earth. Not just one day out of the year. She definitely has a good point. Everyone should put the earth first when making decisions about the simple things in our lives. Do we need all those lights on when we are really only making use of one light in the room? What about that quick trip to the mall for one item? Instead of driving separately, how about calling a friend and riding together? The list can go on and on. What are you doing about saving our Earth for future generations?

Ten Ways to help the Earth

1. Turn off computers overnight
2. Recycle the most possible in your area
3.. Run errands during less traffic times of the day- saves gas while waiting in traffic
4. Don't sit in long drive through lines - park and go in for food
5. Purchase cloth shopping bags
6. Ride your bike or walk to local destinations
7. Purchase local grown food - saves on long distance transportation gas
8. Think twice before washing your car - Does it really need to be washed?
9. Take your lunch to work instead of driving to eat out.
10.Purchase from resale clothing shops -

This is just the tip of the ice berg on helping our earth. Feel free to add to the list. It is amazing how helping the earth can make you feel inside. Try it out and see for yourself.

Spring Is Almost Here In East Tennessee

With the warmer days arriving, it is most definitely time to get out in the fresh air. After being shut for the winter, I am looking forward to spending some time out in the yard doing some gardening. If you do not have a garden, flower or vegetable, this is the perfect time to start making plans. Not only is gardening good exercise, but it is also a great stress reliever. So start surfing the net for ideals on what you would like to do in your yard. Add a new flower bed, a water feature, turn a grass area into gorgeous area of color. Visit your local garden center for new ideals. Remember your landscape is just like a painter palette. You get to add the colors and textures.

Have fun gardening!!

Have You Had Your Vitamins Today?

There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about vitamins. There seems to be those for taking them and those against taking them. I personally feel that we are not able to get all the needed nutrients from our daily food intake. If all the food we eat came directly from our own neighborhoods and not trucked across the country or sometimes from another country, we would be eating the most nutritional food possible. As it stands now, by the time our food reaches our tables, it has been picked before all the vitamins have had a chance to form. Once picked, our fruits and vegetables have sat in a packing warehouse, then loaded on a truck going to the distributors, next reloaded on yet another truck going to the local food store, and finally placed on the shelf to sell to us. Once it reaches our homes, it has spent days, even as much as a week in transit. This is not fresh from the garden. By this time, the nutrients have lost most of their value.

In a perfect world, we would all have a backyard garden to pick at some fresh fruits and vegetables from. But as we all know, this is no longer the American Way of Life. We all have some excuse for not having a small garden plot in our yard. For some, it is as simple as not having a yard to grow one in. For others, it just is not their thing to garden. Whatever the reason is, we simply are not getting the vitamins and nutrients our bodies need. Could this be some of the reason why our bodies are not able to fight off the colds, flu, and allergies that are common in our homes, schools, and workplaces? Are some of our more major illness and disease related to vitamin deficient? Cancer, heart problems, high cholesterol, and obesity are related to how we eat.

Plastic Grocery Bags

Are you still using the standard plastic grocery/shopping bags?
You may be wondering what this has to do with Living Healthy. I am a firm believer in thinking that if the environment is kept healthy, we will live a healthier life.
I just returned from an unscheduled grocery store trip and had to use the plastic shopping bags at the store. Normally, I have my own cloth bags with me. As I was loading my grocery purchases into my car, I realized just long ago it had been that I had to use the plastic bags. I was very surprised at how many bags a $65 grocery order could use. After I unloaded my bags and put the groceries away at home, I counted the number of bags it took. Ten Bags! for 21 items. This just seems like to much plastic for one household. I decided to do some research on plastic bags and found this great site for facts and ordering canvas bags. www.reusablebags.com/facts.php Take a moment and check it out. The fact page is a real eye opener.

Help save the environment: Use Canvas Bags

Is Your Home Healthy?

Take a moment to look around you home. Are there products in your home which could be causing you to become ill? Are you having more sinus infections than you use to? Do you or someone in your family suffer from asthma? This could be due to the cleaning products in your home. They could be making your home an unhealthy place to live.
Take the time to look at the ingredient list on products in your home. If the product ingredients list contains chlorine bleach, ammonia, formaldehyde, or fragrance, you should consider looking for other cleaning products. You have choices of what to use in order to make your home healthy. Consider making some of your basic products, shop at natural food stores, or shop through websites which specialize in natural products. Be sure to look at the product labels.

Caution : two tablespoons to a cup can be harmful or fatal

Warning : as little as a teaspoon can be fatal

Danger/Poison : only a few drops can be fatal

You should make sure to read all labels before purchasing and using any cleaning products. You never know what may be lurking in those bottles. Remember, even though the products are closed, toxic fumes can still escape into your home. As a society, we spend around 90% of our time indoors. According to the EPA, indoor air can be up to 5 times more polluted than outdoor. air. EPA has also found that the average American home contains more than 1,000 different chemicals.

Chlorine - there are over 15,000 products in commercial use which contain chlorine. These are used daily in bathroom and kitchen cleaning products, laundry products, bleaching of paper products, including tea bags and coffee filters. Avoid the term "chlor" in any product. It is corrosive, reactive, and toxic.

Ammonia - labeled as DANGER.

Phosphates - extremely bad for the environment

Fragrance - avoid products which contain high levels. These are expecially bad for anyone with allergies or respiratory problems.

Formaldehyde - used in personal care products as a preservative to increase shelf life. It can be listed as Quaternium 15, formalin, aldehyde, methaldehyde to list a few.

Hope this gets you started on reading those labels and becoming a healthier shopper.