Health & Fitness

Are you tired of spending money on over-the-counter diet aids that control hunger? Some of those pills, liquids, and diet foods exacerbate the problem, or upset your stomach, so eating sounds repulsive. Natural ways to control hunger are readily available in most people’s kitchens. In most cases, these have little or no negative consequences, and some have additional health benefits.

Keep cold water in your refrigerator and you’ll be ready for most hunger pangs.

Sometimes, the body signals get confused, and you think you’re hungry but aren’t. You crave juicy fruits or can’t decide what it is, so you eat everything in sight. Often, you’re simply thirsty, and the mild dehydration tricks you into thinking you’re hungry. Keeping a bottle of water with you constantly can diminish or eliminate cravings. Water also fills you up, so you’ll eat less when you do eat. If you make that water icy-cold, it burns extra calories to warm your body.

Keep healthy snacks ready.

Healthy snacks are low in calories and nutrient dense. They’re a combination of protein and healthy carbs. Apple slices with peanut butter are just one example. The carbs and sugar in the apple provide a quick energy fix, while the protein and fiber in the apple and peanut butter digest slower and keep you feeling full longer. Consuming a protein-carbohydrate snack after working out curbs your appetite and helps boost recovery.

Use good conversation to slow eating.

Conversing during a meal makes you eat slower, so your stomach has time to signal to the brain that it’s full. You can do the same thing by eating mindfully and savoring every bite. You’ll enjoy the flavor and texture while slowing the process of eating. Keeping a food journal that also identifies how you felt right before you ate can aid in slowing emotional eating that can occur if you’re stressed, angry, or sad.

• Boost the protein, fiber, and healthy fat in your diet. Having an avocado can boost healthy fat and fiber, while eggs, nuts, and lean meats increase protein and healthy fats. You’ll stay full longer.
• Have oatmeal on hand to fill that hunger void. Top it with nuts and fruit for breakfast or a snack. It can prevent hunger by boosting fiber and protein.
• If water isn’t enough to stop your hunger, go for infused water. Make infused water by adding fruits, vegetables, or herbs to water and allowing their flavors to enhance the taste, without adding additional calories.
• Keep crunchy vegetables and fresh fruit cleaned, cut, and snack ready in the refrigerator. Snacking on these throughout the day provides nutrients and keeps your hunger at bay without adding tons of calories.

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Every day, there’s a new commercial involving probiotic products. What are probiotics? What are the benefits of probiotics? If you use probiotic products are there side effects? The body has millions of microbes, many of which are in the gut. These microbes can be beneficial or harmful. The beneficial gut microbiome helps with digestion and performs many other tasks to help the human body. When the balance of beneficial microbes is too low, it allows the harmful ones to take over, causing illness and the healthy functions left undone. Probiotics help replenish some of the beneficial microbes in the gut.

Increasing the population of beneficial bacteria can improve your health.

A lot of things can cause an imbalance or depletion of the microbiome in your gut. The food you eat, antibiotics, and lack of exercise are three. Each microbe helps in different ways. Some produce waste which is a chemical necessary to send messages to the brain that aid bodily functions. Some help digest food so the body can receive its nutrients. These microbes live symbiotically with the body, getting nutrition from what we eat and in return providing a benefit to the body. They help control metabolism, mental health, immunity, digestion, and most of the body’s functioning, including blood pressure.

Probiotics replenish the microbes in the gut.

Probiotics are one way to repopulate the gut. Probiotics can come in a pill form, an additive, or be a natural part of the food. Sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, yogurt, tempeh, and other fermented foods are all probiotics since they contain live beneficial bacteria. Antibiotics, pesticides, a diet high in sugar, artificial sweeteners, or alcohol, or a diet that doesn’t contain prebiotic foods, such as fiber, which feeds the beneficial bacteria, can cause an imbalance. Lack of exercise and stress can also lead to an imbalance.

While there are many benefits, some people shouldn’t take probiotics.

Probiotics aren’t beneficial to everyone. People with a compromised immune system shouldn’t take them. That includes people going through immune suppression therapy. Those with Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth—SBO—should also avoid probiotics. People with a histamine intolerance should be careful about the type of probiotics they use. Some strains of bacteria produce histamine, while others block it.

• A healthy balance of bacteria may help weight loss efforts, particularly on the belly. Some microbes block fat absorption in the intestines, eliminating it as waste. Others make you feel fuller faster, or help build muscle mass.
• Probiotics can help prevent UTIs, thrush, and other illnesses. People traveling should start a program of probiotics two weeks before they leave to boost their immunity, and keep them healthier while traveling.
• If you use supplements or pills to increase your beneficial bacteria, use ones that contain at least 10 billion bacteria in a broad spectrum. Eat food with soluble fiber to feed the new bacteria to be most successful.
• Studies show probiotics affect mood. It’s been used to treat anxiety, OCD, depression, brain fog, and autism. Nutritional deficiencies may come from an imbalance, so they may be beneficial for B12, K, B7, D, or magnesium deficiencies.

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The Mediterranean diet is based on a simple concept of consuming the food in the traditional diet of people who live in countries that border the Mediterranean Sea. These countries include Greece, Spain, France, and Italy. Research shows that people consuming the traditional diet had a lower risk of several chronic conditions. The Mediterranean diet has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks, type 2 diabetes, premature death, and strokes. Part of the reason it’s good for health is that it aids in weight loss.

The diet consists of foods to consume.

The Mediterranean diet includes fruit, whole grains, vegetables, heart-healthy fat, and a healthy protein source. Protein sources include poultry, legumes, eggs, dairy, fish and seafood, nuts, seeds, and nut butter. Heart-healthy fats include olives, extra virgin olive oil, avocados, and avocado oil. Even certain herbs and spices, such as basil, garlic, rosemary, sage, nutmeg, cinnamon, and pepper are also essential. The exact type of food will vary from country to country, but overall, the diet is high in plant-based foods and lower in animal products. It also includes seafood and fish at least twice a week.

The Mediterranean diet also includes foods to limit or avoid entirely.

Whole grains are allowed, but refined grains or products made with them, such as pasta, white bread, or tortillas, aren’t. While olive oil and avocado oil are beneficial, refined oils such as canola oil, grapeseed oil, soybean oil, and cottonseed oil aren’t. Animal products are more limited, and processed meat is prohibited; just as other highly processed foods are. Those include food with added sugar, fast food, and food containing trans fats.

You can enjoy restaurant food if you choose carefully.

If you eat at a dine-in restaurant, you’ll often be able to find food that is part of the Mediterranean diet. Vegetables or vegetable dishes, whole grain bread, legumes, and fish or seafood are normally found in most restaurants. Ask your server for extra virgin olive oil instead of butter to top whole grain bread. Some restaurants offer garlic olive oil for dipping.

• Water, coffee or tea without cream or sweeteners, and approximately a glass of red wine a day are recommended drinks for the Mediterranean diet. Fruit juice in moderation can be included, but eating the whole fruit is better.
• Sharing a meal with others and socializing are part of traditional Mediterranean cultures. Laughter and good conversation make meals more enjoyable and reduce stress.
• Research suggests combining the Mediterranean diet with the Mediterranean lifestyle provides more health benefits. Besides socializing and reducing stress, it includes regular physical activity.
• The Mediterranean diet boosts heart health, improves brain functioning, slowing cognitive decline. Newer studies may show it may help improve arthritis, protect against cancer, and lowers blood pressure.

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Starting a fitness program can be intimidating, especially for beginners. If most of your food came from drive-throughs or in cardboard heat-and-serve containers and your only exercise was pressing the buttons on the remote and texting, getting fit is confusing and scary. It doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to begin everything at once. Nobody goes from couch potato to body beautiful overnight. Here are some tips that will help you be more successful.

You don’t have to do everything at once.

Everyone has a different way of doing things. Some people jump in the water with both feet, while others dip their toes and eventually make it into the water. Both reach the final goal. If you’re a toe dipper, start by improving your diet. No matter how much you exercise, you can’t out-exercise an unhealthy diet. If you aren’t sure where to begin, start by eliminating food with added sugar and highly processed food. Eat more whole food, less processed foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, or frozen and canned fruits and vegetables without additives and lean protein sources.

Meal planning helps you stick with your healthy eating plan.

When you meal plan, you make a meal plan one night, shop another day and spend a day or two cooking all the meals for a week. You’ll have healthy meals ready for the whole week that just need to be heated. They’re often quicker to prepare than waiting in line at the fast food restaurant drive-through. At Wellness on a Dime, we offer customized meal plans to fit your taste, needs and goals. It can save you money since you won’t have leftovers and the meals are less expensive to make than it costs to buy burgers and fries.

Start a workout program.

You can start an exercise program at the same time you start eating healthy or give yourself a chance to make eating healthy a habit, then start. Some people don’t add a program of exercise while they’re changing dietary habits, but simply increase their activity level, adding extra steps to their daily routine and making an effort to walk more. Exercise programs should include ones for strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. If you opt for a Wellness on a Dime custom meal plan, it comes with exercise videos to help you get started.

• Focus on form when you’re first learning an exercise. While pushing yourself is important, take it easy at first. Once you learn the right form and your body is adjusting to exercise, you can push yourself more.
• Getting fit is more of a mindset. When you eat healthier, focus on how it tastes, not what you’re missing. You’ll be surprised by how good healthy food tastes once your body adjusts. Make sure you measure both meals and snacks to individual portions.
• Never compare yourself to someone else. You are only competing against yourself. You will be the only beneficiary of your good health, although it can prevent you from becoming a burden on your family later.
• Track your results, whether it’s taking measurements, weighing in, or taking a photo of yourself once a month to compare changes. Winners keep score. If you’re getting fit to lower blood pressure, monitor your blood pressure.

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Whether you’re planning meals or just focusing on eating healthier, snacks play an important role. It’s too easy in Louisiana to find a sweet treat to fill that gnawing hunger, so having healthy snacks ready is important. Protein snacks can keep you feeling full longer, unlike sugary treats. Making sure you have the ones that are packed with nutrients and lower in calories is the next challenge. What are some of the best protein snacks? You don’t have to spend a lot of money to find them. You can make them in your kitchen.

You need a snack that provides “now-and-later” energy.

“Now-and-later” energy is the combination of carbohydrates and protein. The carbohydrates give you a quick pick-me-up, while the protein provides long-lasting energy. Make the carbohydrate portion a healthy option, like fresh fruit or whole grain crackers. The protein part of the combination can be peanut butter, cheese or other nut butter. Together, you have the perfect snack that’s easy to make, filling, and delicious. Think sliced apples and cheese or spread with nut butter, celery and peanut butter topped with raisins or yogurt and fruit.

Trail mix is a good choice and you can make it.

Homemade trail mix can be tastier, healthier, and often cheaper than the type you buy at a store. You add healthy protein sources, like nuts and seeds, with carb sources that add instant energy and more yummy deliciousness, like dried fruit or bits of high cacao dark chocolate. If you want more bulk without adding a lot of calories, air-popped popcorn is a great addition.

Spread homemade sugar-free jam on Ezekiel bread.

Ezekiel 4:9 bread provides many nutrients and is high in protein, with 5 grams per slice—as much as a small egg. It’s made from a combination of grains and beans to parallel the complete protein found in milk and eggs. The grains are sprouted, which reduces inflammation, and the bread contains no added sugar, adding to the health benefits. Top the bread with homemade jam that uses chia seeds for thickening instead of pectin, cutting the need for added sugar. It’s sweetened with a bit of honey or maple syrup. Together, they add up to a snack that is filled with nutrients and healthy protein.

• Keep your snack simple and easy to transport. Hard-boiled eggs are a good source of protein and come in a natural container. They’re packed with nutrients and only have about 70 calories.
• Another snack you can make at home is roasted chickpeas. They have a high fiber content and are high in protein. A half-cup of roasted chickpeas provides 5 grams of fiber and 10 grams of protein.
• Boost your energy and increase your protein intake. Use either lightly toasted oats or wheat germ. Combine with peanut butter and a small amount of honey. Form balls and roll in the excess wheat germ or oats.
• Some vegetables, like broccoli, are a good source of protein. Make a dip from yogurt and you have a high-protein snack with lots of nutrients.

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