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Nutrition & Stress
As a biologist/psychologist and former owner of a health food store and restaurant I learned more about this area than I ever cared to just trying to stay ahead of my clientele's interests, as well as their fervor for the latest fad supplement, diet, nutrition/diet guru on Oprah, or scientific finding that had hit the headlines that morning.
Again, you have been beat over the head with enough information about this topic in school and from the media by now, so I am going to keep to my promise to be very to the point about this particular area of nutrition in stress management as well.
- Crash diets work against you. They set you up for certain temporary failure, and worst of all, establish a pattern of long-term failure by undermining your confidence in your ability to do anything about shaping yourself in the future. Avoid them like the plague.
- You only have to lower your intake of calories 30 a day from now on — starting today. This will take off from one to two pounds a year, thus gradually slimming you down plus preventing middle-age spread! So just burn 'em off by adding another 5 minutes of exercise or cutting back on something you are eating. Do you know how little that is? Just eliminate one piece of candy, cut the cream in your coffee in half, eat half your normal dessert, etc., there are a million ways...
- Take a chelated vitamin mineral supplement daily. Cheap unchelated vitamins/minerals probably go through you in about the same form that they went in. Chelation makes sure they get absorbed into your system.
- Add fiber to your diet. Go to your local health food store and buy a bag of wheat bran. Very cheap! Add a tablespoon a day into or onto something you eat — like cereal or fruit or in your spuds. This will keep you regular, prevent that nasty colon cancer, clean you out so you can absorb what you're supposed to absorb down there, and burn up extra calories as well. Say good-bye to constipation!
- Whack the excess fat. You just gotta hang up the fried foods! Avoid them for 30 days (bite the bullet!) and then you will find it easy to stay away from them. Something soaked in oil like greasy fried chicken, or a big cheesy patty-melt may even appear repugnant to you after that! Broil and steam your foods more, and use Pam in your pans instead of butter and margarine. Substitute applesauce for oils in your baked goods — keeps everything nice and moist and is 10 times better for you. There are some great cookbooks out there on no-fat/low-fat cooking. Buy one — read it — try it — you'll like it!
- Read up on allergic foods. My store was in a town of about 35,000 people. I couldn't believe how many people had discovered they were, as an example, allergic to wheat and how their lives had changed after eliminating it from their diet. Many of their GI tract problems had vanished, along with respiratory and skin problems, general listlessness, and thought process problems. I wondered, "Wow, if this many people know they are allergic, how many people are ignorant of their allergies and are just living with their symptoms?" The same thing applied to dairy allergies — there were dozens of people suffering some incredible discomfort because of their inability to handle any part of milk products. And then there were all the specific allergies, such as fish, strawberries, shellfish, nuts, legumes, tomatoes, dust, molds, etc. So, get to know about this area of your life. Some of your stress could be just an allergic reaction to what you are eating, drinking or breathing, which is like shooting yourself in the foot everyday if you don't pay attention! Sometimes you can get a general indication by just deciding to deliberately notice how you feel about 5 — 60 minutes after you eat or inhale something. Journaling this can help as well.
- Alcohol and drugs are stress producers. It is a general mind-screw to tell yourself that you need a drink or drug to "unwind," or that you deserve a drink or drug "after all you put up with." Stop conning yourself. Nothing is so bad that it can't be made worse by a mood-altering pill or another drink. Not only that but relying on chemicals prevents you from looking at more productive strategies that will build you a progressively better and healthier life.
Continue...
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