What vitamins that you need all depend on your current health and what you get from the foods that you eat. By eating a variety of foods, you can get all the nutrition you need, but if your diet is lacking in some areas, sometimes dietary supplements are still needed.
Nutrient needs vary by age, gender and life stage. After the age of 50, it’s generally recommended to take the following: a daily multivitamin, Vitamin B12, Calcium, Vitamin D, and the AREDS formulation for eye health(below).
Taking a daily multivitamin helps fill in the nutrient gaps left from what you are missing in your daily diet, even though you might not be aware of it. Vitamin B12 helps with your metabolism, red blood cell formation, and neurological function, such as memory. This is one vitamin that becomes harder for us to absorb as we age, so it's important to use a dietary supplement to make up for that deficiency. A severe deficiency can cause fatigue, weakness, and anemia.
Calcium and Vitamin D are other vitamins that are important, especially in women as our chances for osteoporosis increases with age. Due to menopause, estrogen, a hormone that protects our bones, decreases sharply, causing our risk for fractures to increase. Vitamin D helps with this by helping our bodies absorb Calcium, whether we get it in the foods that we eat or as dietary supplement. Taking both Vitamin D and Calcium will help promote bone health and keep our bones stronger. Vitamin D also helps reduce the risk for heart attacks, strokes, asthma, and depression.
The Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) formulation for eye health is a combination of Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Lutein, Zeaxanthin, and Zinc. The AREDS, sponsored by the federal government’s National Eye Institute, found that taking this combination slowed the progression of advanced age-related macular degeneration, which is when part of your retina is damaged, and may play a role in cataract prevention.
So as you can see, it’s important to get all your vitamins as our needs increase with age. As always, be sure to contact your family physician prior to starting any dietary supplement, as some vitamins interact and interfere with certain prescription drugs that you may be taking. For instance, Vitamin K interferes with blood thinners like Coumadin and Vitamin E actually thins your blood. Things that would be important for your physician to know.
You’ve hit your 50’s and life is good. Then you start to notice that your midsection is a little more squishy than it had been in your 20’s. Your diet hasn’t changed and you're still active, so why is this happening?
According to Dr. Stacy Weiss at Northwest Community Health, as we age, we lose lean muscle mass, which in turn slows our metabolism. You would need to eat 200 fewer calories a day after the age of 50 in order to lose weight. This is presuming that you are just as active as you were when you were 20. For example, most people follow the 2,000 calorie a day diet, so this would mean that you should decrease to 1,800 calories a day.
Now you ask, “What if I exercise more?” Unfortunately, working out longer or harder doesn’t necessarily burn more calories or make up for an unhealthy diet. So you ask, “What can I do to help me lose weight?”
This is not an easy answer. One way that you can help your body maintain a healthy weight or lose those unwanted pounds would be to make sure that you eat foods that help you stay fuller longer, which in turn deters you from grabbing those unhealthy snacks that we all love. Foods that help you stay fuller longer include: Grains, like oatmeal; proteins, like fish and eggs; dairy products, like yogurt and cottage cheese; legumes, like beans and peas; and fruit, like apples and oranges. These foods help you feel fuller longer, because they are good sources of fiber and protein.
Young Living offers a variety of great products to help you feel fuller longer in their Slique line. The Slique line includes tasty items such as the Slique bars. They come in a tropical berry crunch flavor with or without a chocolate coating. These would be great for women on the go. Throw one in your bag as you head out the door and later enjoy it right before that long meeting. They also have Slique tea, so you could start your day with a comforting and filling cup of tea.
Do you love warehouse club memberships? It's a great way to save money, isn't it? Well, If you 'd like to get a YL membership so you can get wholesale prices, contact me and I can get you set up to start saving money on all of your wellness products!
What comes to mind when you think of a low carb diet? Meat, veggies, and no pasta or bread? That's pretty much it. It doesn't have to be complicated.
6 years ago, my husband and I changed our diet, under orders from his doctor. I wasn't thrilled about giving up bread, but I am living proof that it can be done!
My purpose here is to give you a basic summary of the Atkins Diet that we used, and what the results were, so you can decide whether this is a good option for you. Even if you don't use this diet, you may still want to reduce your carb intake for other reasons - like supporting healthy blood sugar levels.
The premise of low carb diets is that our bodies burn the carbs we eat in order to fuel our daily activities. However, we consume so many carbs that we have extra, so our bodies store it as fat.
If we want to lose weight, we need to drastically reduce the amount of carbs we eat so that our body will run out of fuel. When that happens, it switches to using our fat to fuel our daily activities instead!
The trick here is that in order to get your body to start burning fat, you have to seriously deprive it of daily carbs - like only eating 20 - 25 carbs a day! 10-12 of those carbs need to be from veggies (corn, carrots, and potatoes don't count
). You need to do that for 3-4 weeks, to really get your body working right.
The good thing is that we saw results pretty quickly by the second week. Depending on how quickly you want to lose weight, you can start adding an extra 5 carbs a day, one week at a time, starting after about a month. If you keep losing weight that week, then you can add another 5 carbs the next week, until your weight loss evens out. Most people can find their maintaining limit to be between 40 - 80 carbs a day. So, if you can survive the first month, it gets much easier to maintain as you slowly add back some carbs.
I lost 45# in 6 months – that was 6 years ago, and I've been maintaining ever since. I eat about 40 carbs a day, with occasional splurges (once or twice a month). If I want to lose more, I just need to drop my daily carbs back down to 20 – 25 a day.
Drop your questions down below and I'll do my best to answer them. If you'd like to hear more about the types of food we eat, specialty ingredients that really help, and other low carb tips, join my Facebook group and look up low carb in the topics. Yes, I'd like to learn more!
I used to get heartburn almost every night. I was using over the counter medications that helped somewhat, but I was concerned about the possible side effects. About 6 years ago, I lost 45#. I found that even though I felt better in many ways, I still needed some digestive support. My search for help with that ultimately led to help with the heartburn as well. But, I'll talk more about that later.
I have found a few things that helped tremendously. Easy things that anyone can learn to do. First of all, let's look at what heartburn actually is. When the muscle between your esophagus and your stomach relaxes, it can allow stomach acid to escape, causing a burning sensation. There are a few ways to keep this from happening.
What you eat makes a difference
First of all, you might want to avoid foods that can cause this muscle to relax. Some common culprits include:
High-fat foods
Raw onion
Raw garlic
Citrus fruits
Carbonated drinks
Cocoa powder
Chocolate
Caffeine
How you eat also plays a part
Eat small meals, with snacks in between, when needed. Eating a large meal forces your stomach to work overtime to process it, stretching and pushing food and acid upward. It’s also important to eat slowly, which also helps with digestion.
When you eat makes a big difference
A great rule of thumb is to stop eating 3 hrs before bedtime. Why?
Two things are needed for your digestive system to process your food – time and gravity. When you lie down, gravity pulls whatever's in your stomach up toward your esophagus-- the tube that connects your throat and stomach. By giving yourself a few hours to be upright and moving around before you go to bed, you allow your food to digest, thereby reducing the risk of having any content left in your stomach to come back up.
I hope these tips are helpful. I have made most of these changes in my own life, and now enjoy going to bed without the nightly pain from heartburn. I mentioned at the beginning that I was looking for digestive support after losing weight. What I found helped my body to digest my food the way it is designed to do. If you'd like to find out what I use almost every day to help my digestive system to work better, contact me and I'd love to chat with you to see if it could help you too. Or, you could join my facebook group, Easy Everyday Wellness to find other ways to support your wellness.
I don't know if they still make ovens that do NOT clean themselves, but I'm old enough to remember having to use some really nasty stuff to clean mine. Even though I didn't normally have any respiratory issues, when I cleaned the oven, I sure did!
I had to hold my breath while I sprayed the cleaner in the oven. Since I couldn't hold my breath long enough to get the oven completely coated, I had to run out of the room to take some deep breaths, then go back in to finish spraying. My husband, who was several rooms away would start having an asthma attack from the fumes, even from such a distance!
Whether you've had the same experience with oven cleaner or other cleaners, I'm sure that you've experienced the unpleasantness of breathing in those fumes. Back then, I didn't think I had a choice, but now I know better!
I can take a deep breath of my new cleaner, at full strength, without any respiratory distress and know that I am actually making my immune system better! Do you want to know why? It's because the stuff I was using before had toxic ingredients in it, that my body was never designed to inhale.
The stuff I use now has all safe ingredients. Safe for kids and pets – if they drink any of it, you don't have to call poison control! Just have them drink water.
Are you tired of breathing in toxic ingredients every time you clean? Would you like to try something better? I'd love to help you get the good stuff that I use for everything- mirrors, floors, counters, oven, sink.
Most commercial cleaning products are full of super nasty ingredients. If you doubt me, hang on for just a minute or two to learn the whole truth and nothing but the truth about your household cleaning products.
According to the American Lung Association, the ingredients in most commercial solutions, sprays, and scrubs can:
•
Be air pollutants
• Be harmful chemicals
• Be flammable or corrosive
• Irritate eyes or throat
• Cause headaches
• Contribute to health problems like chronic respiratory problems and allergic reactions
Not only are these ingredients problematic, but they’re pretty far from your “let’s go green!” goals, am I right?
The worst part is - brace yourself—manufacturers aren’t even legally required to list all ingredients! It sounds crazy, but toxic ingredients could be lingering in your laundry detergents and floor cleaners without you even knowing about it!
For example, some products such as carpet cleaners and dishwasher liquid release VOCs—volatile organic compounds. Experts say that some VOCs can irritate eyes, nose, and throat; create difficulty breathing and nausea; and cause harm to the central nervous system and other organs.
Do you really want that stuff in your house?
It’s also important to remember that these issues don’t only apply to the cleaning aisle. When shopping for candles and air fresheners, avoid these factory-crafted temptations. Instead, make your own custom scents for your house. I can show you how!
Ultimately, if you can find companies and products with the mission to use from-the-earth, not-harmful, naturally derived ingredients, you’re all set. Lucky for you, I can help with that!
I only use one cleaner for everything in my house - floors, counters, stove top, mirrors, bathroom, etc. It has a delicious, spicy smell that doesn't give me any trouble breathing. Can you open your bottle of cleaner and take a deep breath without having an asthma attack? I can! In fact, my cleaner actually improves my wellness, rather than attacking it! It is super concentrated, so that one bottle makes a LOT of cleaner!
I understand! In 2014, I made some big changes to improve my health. I started eating low carb, which meant that I had to give up bread (which I love!) and start eating more green veggies (which I do NOT love). It worked, and I lost 45# in 6 months! I have been maintaining that weight ever since. However, even though I had changed my diet so I was eating much healthier, my digestive system still needed some extra support. As soon as I lay down at night, I got heartburn, which meant that I wasn't sleeping well. I was using different over-the-counter remedies, switching out when one stopped being effective. I had to take it every day, and I was concerned about the long term effects of taking such things.
One day, I saw a friend post online about this stuff that her husband was using. I trusted her, but I still wondered if it could really work for me. After all, I had tried many diet pills over the years that never seemed to deliver on their promises. Have you been there?
Despite my reservations, I ordered some and within a few weeks, I found that it actually did help with both the digestion and the heartburn!
I would love to send you my free guide, 5 Easy Steps to Healthier Living, as well as a 5 part email series on how you can take EASY steps that really work to support your wellness! Are you ready to change your life today? If so, let's get started!
Conventional cleaning products contain many endocrine-disrupting chemicals that can wreak havoc on your respiratory system, cellular health, thyroid, adrenal glands, and even mental clarity. Have you ever had trouble breathing while cleaning the bathroom or oven?
~Are there any SAFE cleaners?~
Yes, there are! I switched EVERY cleaner in my house for one product that can clean everything without any harmful ingredients! You won't find a phone number for Poison Control on the bottle, because it's not necessary!
My cleaner actually supports a healthy immune system, instead of attacking it!
It's super concentrated, so it only takes a capful to make a 16 oz spray bottle of cleaner!
I use the same product in my office, that I use at home. I know that it is effective, yet safe for pets (we have an office dog, plus cats at home) as well as being safe for my boss's granddaughter to visit.
I love taking my grandkids for a walk around the block. It gives their parents a few minutes of peace and quiet, and it gives me some special time with the kids. We get to enjoy the little things, like the puppies that are in the fence just a couple houses down the street. The statue of a little girl with a kitten at her feet. The 4 flamingos next to one house (and yes, we count them every time!). The car that is always parked ON the sidewalk, so we have to hold hands and go single file to stay on the grass and out of the street. The house on the corner with some wooden monkeys hanging from the tree.
These are the things that the kids will remember, more so than any fancy toy that I could bring.
A few years ago, I would have missed out on this type of activity, because I was out of shape and would have had a hard time navigating the very uneven sidewalks, and the crouching down to look more closely at the cute statues or to pet the puppy. Not to mention getting down on the floor in the house to put the train track together!
I actually feel healthier at 55 than I did at 45! Would you like to know how that happened? Here are the 2 things that brought me back to a healthier version of myself, so I can enjoy this new phase of my life without pain.
Losing weight
My husband came home from his annual physical with an order to lose weight. He did some research and decided that low carb was the way he wanted to go. At the time, I was just over 200#, so I decided that it would be a good idea for me to join in as well. I made a goal to lose 30#. I wasn't thrilled about avoiding my favorite foods, like bread, pasta, and sugar. I definitely wasn't thrilled about adding in a bunch of green veggies! However, it didn't take long for the pounds to fall off, which made me feel great! I lost 45# in 6 months, and have been maintaining that for the past 6 years.
Anti-oxidants in a bottle
I found a couple of products that provide nutrients that my body needs to thrive. They support my joint health, improve my energy level, and provide anti-oxidants to repair some of the day to day damage that accumulates at a cellular level. The end result is that I can bend and move without discomfort.
Would you like to enjoy better joint health? Would it make it easier to enjoy your grandkids? Every body is different, but we are also very similar! I'd love to chat with you to see if what I use would be a good fit for you, too!
