Health, Fitness, Nutrition, Disease Prevention Tips, Secrets and More

Feel full of Energy Naturally

Don't skip meals. To keep from being fatigued you need a slow and steady release of energy. Smaller frequent meals do this and are also better to help increase metabolism and stay leaner too!. Eat 5 to 6 small meals evenly spaced throughout the day. This gives your body the nutrition it needs to last.

Keep your blood sugar balanced. To do this eat smaller meals and eat frequently. Also eat protein at every meal: One of the most important ways to keep your blood sugar balanced and energy levels high is to include protein at every meal, breakfast and snacks included. The best protein sources include fish, organic meat, chicken, eggs, yogurt, and whey protein powder. Insufficient protein is a common reason for fatigue. Pack some almonds and nuts for a quick and convenient protein snack.

Limit sugar and caffeine intake. Might sound bizarre but sugar and caffeine give you instant energy, but a few hours later, and in the long term, they will only make you more tired. Sugar, fructose corn syrup, and caffeine weaken your adrenal glands, which in turn are responsible for your energy levels. So, by consuming sugar and caffeine, you are weakening your body's natural energy system. You must wean yourself off of these! Try having one cup of green tea instead, and if you must sweeten your food or beverage, try using natural sweeteners.

Consider taking nutritional supplements. Eating a "perfect" diet does not give us enough key nutrients, such as Carnitine, CoQ10, magnesium, B-complex, and Omega 3s, for optimal energy levels. Taking supplements is necessary to ensure adequate amounts in your system and to cover any deficiencies. On my site you can see in more detail what each nutrient provides.Make sure you do not have any medical conditions that can cause fatigue. These include low thyroid function, low iron, high iron (hemochromatosis), and a range of other ailments which can be determined by blood tests.

Increase your water intake. Many people underestimate the importance of water to the body.There is a huge gap in knowledge regarding the understanding as to why proper hydration is important for health.The human brain is composed of 95% water; blood is 82% water; the lungs are nearly 90% water. As one can imagine water is also the single most critical nutrient for health, growth, and development. It is not only the most important nutrient in the body, but also the most abundant. Water is critical to the balance of all the body's systems, including the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys and muscles.

Water is the medium for various enzymatic & chemical reactions in the body. It moves nutrients, hormones, antibodies, & oxygen through the blood stream & lymphatic system.Many people with ailments might find that they can be improved or even cured with proper water hydration. One of the most common reasons for low energy is not drinking enough water.

Change your afternoon snack. By the time 3, or 4:00 rolls around, your lunch has probably worn off and you're ready for your afternoon snack. Instead of reaching for a Red Bull, a soda, or a candy bar, try replacing these with a complex carbohydrate snack or more protein. A snack low on the glycemic index (for more about the glycemic index, and to see a long list of the glycemic content of various foods, check out the nutrition section, and diet tools area at www.musclemagfitness.com). Sugary snacks produce an instant rush and increase in blood sugar, supplying you with more energy. However, this affect is short lived and as your blood sugar levels come back down, the result is a feeling of extreme tiredness. Try adding a protein shake or bar as your afternoon pick-me-up and stay away from known tiredness inducers.

Improve your artificial light. Because we spend so much time indoors, open up your windows to let in as much sunshine as possible for more positive energy and better health. Change out your artificial lighting to mimic the sun's spectrum by going with the new lighting products from the new Philips' Natural line at Home Depot or with lighting products from Verilux (www.healthylight.com). Your environment will look and feel better, and your spirits will improve.

Maintain emotional stability; limit stress. This is important to avoid sleepless nights, which stresses the body. Our emotional health is important in order to avoid the stress and worry that often leads to reduced sleep quality, and affect our energy each day.Don't work too much. If you work long hours and have a stressful job, make sure to schedule leisure activity on the weekends rather than more work.

Rebalance Your Body with The Alkaline Diet

The Alkaline Diet

Certain foods and drinks that we eat can cause an acid and alkaline imbalance within your body. The act the body goes through to rebalance your body pH can over the long term be the route of several health conditions. Learn how to get your body and health back on track naturally and without medication.

The following are a few important tips to help keep your body pH in a healthy range:

• Eat a balanced diet . The first step however to eating a properly pH balanced diet is to understand which foods create an acidic environment, and which foods help counteract an acidic environment. Determining what foods are right for your diet is not as straight forward as it seems. Food's acid or alkaline-forming tendency in the body has nothing to do with the actual pH of the food itself. For example, grapefruits, lemons and limes are very acidic, however the end-products they produce after digestion and assimilation are very alkaline so they are alkaline-forming in the body. Likewise, meat will test alkaline before digestion but it leaves very acidic residue in the body so, like nearly all animal products, meat is very acid-forming. You should not cut out all acid-forming foods - some are necessary, otherwise you probably wouldn't get enough protein and variety of nutrients,. The key to ph balancing the body is to shift the overall balance of your diet over toward the alkaline, and away from the excessively acid-forming diet of conventional western culture.
  
  

• Avoid the "strongly acid" foods .Avoid or at least minimize strongly acid foods. It is important to know which foods actually create an acidic environment. Some may be obvious, while others may surprise you. Everyone knows that soda has a very low pH (acidic) so avoid sodas. How about grapefruits and other citrus fruits? Most people believe that "acidic" fruits like lemons, limes and low sugar grapefruits are acidic and will acidify the fluids of the body. This however is incorrect. The citric, lactic, and other acids in such fruits exist primarily in their anionic form, especially as their Na+ and K+ salts (e.g., potassium citrate or calcium ascorbate). Following absorption, these anions are metabolized in the body to bicarbonate (HCO3) and therefore will alkalize -- not acidify -- the blood and tissues. Alkalinization occurs even though the fruits pH in vitro is typically low (4 pH), because the free protons are more than offset by the generate bicarbonate -- electrons.
  
  

• Eat mostly alkaline foods. The general "rule of thumb" is to eat 20% acid foods and 80% alkaline foods. Consume higher alkaline foods such as green leafy vegetables, broccoli, spinach, as well as mild alkaline fruits, and vegetables. You do not have to be a vegetarian to gain the alkalizing benefits of fruits and vegetables. Just a handful of raisins, two dates, or a small banana each provide more than 300 mg of potassium. In fact it takes just about 35 percent of total calories as fruits and veggies to produce a net alkaline load.
  
  

• Drink alkaline water. Drinking alkaline water will help balance the acidic effect of the diet, such as the metabolizing effect of most protein and many carbohydrates. Alkaline water has several advantages over the top selling bottled waters, as well as your tap water. Besides being cleaner, alkaline (aka Kangen) drinking water has exceptional hydrating qualities. These hydrating qualities enable the body to deliver nutrients more efficiently at the cellular level. Claims are also made that this also help detoxifies the cells. The machine we purchased generates ionized water with the highest anti-oxidant qualities of any machine tested. The process creates an abundance of negative ions. It is believed that these negative ions neutralize free radicals which are known to contribute to aging and disease and they also energize the body.
  
  

• Avoid or at least limit "strongly acid" drinks. Coffee and sodas are highly acidic and should be avoided when possible. Consider that, most sodas have a pH of around 2.0 to 2.3. That makes sodas 100,000 times more acidic than water which generally has a pH of 7.0, which is neutral. Is this truly a surprise when phosphoric acid is one of the main ingredients?
  
  

• Limit mild acidic foods and drinks. Limit mild acidic foods (e.g., grains, legumes, nuts) and drinks.

• Lower your glycemic load. Cut back on breads, pastas, and other grain-based foods, as well as "high-glycemic" foods such as potatoes. Besides causing potential acid conditions, higher blood sugar and higher insulin levels they are also nutrient-poor foods, compared with protein and vegetables. Refined carbohydrates also effects Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) risk. Refined carbohydrates are highly processed, resulting in removal of fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs). Consumption of refined carbohydrates compared with whole grains increases the risk of Coronary Artery Disease CAD) resulting, in part, from the increased glycemic load of these types of carbohydrates.
  
  

• Limit artificial sweeteners. Artificial chemical sweeteners like NutraSweet, Equal, or aspartame, are extremely acid-forming. Consider natural sweetener stevia instead.
  
  

• Supplement your diet. The following is just a partial list of potential supplements that may be helpful. (1) Salts of the alkaline minerals cesium, rubidium. (2) Magnesium citrate. Magnesium is crucial to help build necessary buffers. Magnesium is often lost in urine as a consequence of too much acid in the body. If your urine is 5.8-7.2 take magnesium citrate to support healthy bones. (3) Sulfur. Sulfur acts as a buffer to maintain proper pH levels. (4) Calcium citrate. This supplement is better absorbed than calcium carbonate (coral calcium is largely calcium carbonate). (5) Potassium. Potassium is a crucial mineral for maintaining bone, mainly by promoting alkalinity. (5) Buffered vitamin C , which is ascorbic acid formulated with the carbonate forms of calcium, magnesium, and potassium, might also have a slight alkalizing effect. Kelp (Seaweed) is high in alkaline and other healthy nutrients.(7) Colloidal Minerals . Colloidal Minerals can help provide structural integrity for muscles, skin and hair, help eliminate toxins, supports enzyme function, enhance protein synthesis, provides electrolytes for cellular fluid balance, help regulate blood pressure and help supports the immune system. Consider a high quality pH-balanced product that contains a full spectrum of macro and trace minerals, that can be easily assimilated.

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• Feel full of Energy Naturally
• Rebalance Your Body with The Alkaline Diet
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