100 Healthy Living Tips #8 - Natural Remedies for a Healthy Immune System

Winter and flu season are on the way these healthy living tips will help you build a healthy immune system so you can avoid colds and flu this season. Strengthening the immune system is the key to staying healthy while others around you are getting sick with illnesses like the Swine Flu. Here are some natural remedies you can add to your daily regimen:

• Astragalus - this immune boosting herb is safe for daily use. Add a dropperful of astragalus extract to your daily smoothie or to juice to help increase immunity.
• Get plenty of Vitamin C and flax seed oil
• Drink lots of water to keep your system flushed of impurities, germs, bacteria and toxins.
• Add fresh, crushed garlic to your daily diet to increase immunity. Crush and let it set for 5 minutes to release the immune boosting oils.
• Get plenty of sleep!
• Keep elderberry extract and echinacea on hand to take at the first sign of cold and flu.
• Do deep breathing and try to relax - stress tears down the immune system and leaves you vulnerable to illness and disease.
  

As you can see, most of these simple health tips cost little or nothing and your immune system, you first line of defense against illness and disease, will be strong and vital, protecting you from all the flu and cold germs out there. Just because "something is going around" doesn't mean you have to fall victim to it.

Strengthen your kids' immune systems this winter with these immune boosting tips.


Make these delicious recipes to increase your immunity to illness. Tzadziki or fresh garlic dip, warm lemonade and ginger tea all help keep you healthy during flu season.


See the rest of our 100 Healthy Living Tips - More are added daily.

100 Healthy Living Tips #7 Add These Anti-Aging Foods to your Diet

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Today's healthy living tip involves eating your broccoli. Many of us don't eat enough broccoli or other veggies from the cruciferous family - which includes cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, trunips, radishes, kale and brussel sprouts. These, however, are antiaging foods which help keep our joints healthy, help rid our bodies of toxins and protect us from diseases like cancer. That's a lot of health for the money!

It's best to eat these antiaging foods raw or lightly cooked to keep important enzymes in tact. One way to do this is to add them to salads. Cabbage, cauliflower, brocolli and radishes all add color and flavor to your daily salad.

Other healthy recipes include slicing, seasoning lightly with a non-salt seasoning like Mrs Dash, then sauteeing lightly with some olive oil and garlic (another antiaging food that helps increase your immunity to illness). Mix and match a variety in one tasty dish.

Another easy recipe for brocolli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts is to bake. Simply slice, put into a zip loc bag with some seasoning and olive oil, shake to cover completely, then bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Try adding turnips, cauliflower or brocolli to soups too. If you think you don't care for turnips, once they are diced into a soup, you can't really tell them from potatoes.

All of these antiaging vegetables are packed with nutrients, enzymes and fiber and they are low in calories so they go well with any weightloss plan too.

The trick to adding more antiaging foods to your diet is simply to buy them at the supermarket and keep them handy. When you're whipping up dinner, think about adding brocolli or cauliflower to your meal, whether it's soup, salad or as a vegetable side dish. Add a blend of herbs to spice up the taste and discover which of these veggies you like best. Don't be afraid to experiment with new recipes. As you get older, you'll be glad you did!

Great Brussel Sprouts Recipes from Cooks.com

More superfoods to add to your diet.

Great Veggie Recipes - Spicy Buttered Beets

I love beets and finding a great beet recipe is sometimes hard to do. This Spicy Buttered Beets recipe was my grandmother's and one which I often make for my own family.

One way to make sure you're getting well-rounded nutrition is to eat a rainbow of colors. This colorful root vegetables contains powerful nutrients which can protect you from birth defects and certain cancers, especially colon cancer. Beets also help fight inflammation in the body.

Ingredients for Spicy Buttered Beets

1/4 c sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
6 to 8 medium beets, cooked, peeled and diced
1/4 c butter or margarine


Directions

Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon and ginger and mix well.

Sprinkle over diced beets and toss evenly to coat.

Place beets in greased, 1/2 qt baking dish and dot with butter.

Bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes or until beets are heated all the way through.

Makes 6 Servings.

100 Healthy Living Tips #6 - Add Easy Deep Breathing Exercises to Your Day

Deep breathing exercises can calm stress, reduce blood pressure, improve asthma and even help you lose weight! What's more deep breathing is free and you can practice it anytime, anyplace. We all breathe, it's true, but most of us don't really inhale to our full lung capacity - we don't slow down and breathe mindfully.

Think about it, when you're stressed out, your breathing tends to become quicker and shallower. Here is a simple, deep breathing exercise to practice whenever you think of it:

Sit or stand in a comfortable position. Draw in your breath and count to six. Breath slowly through your nose, filling your lungs with energy-giving oxygen. Then hold that breath and count to six again - slowly. Next, exhale slowly to the count of eight, through your mouth. Repeat several times.

Exhaling more air than you inhale helps clean out your lungs of any stale air or accumulated toxins. You feel more relaxed and more energetic.

How can you remember to do deep breathing exercises throughout the day?

• How about using a reminder as your password on some of your computer accounts - like "breathe deep" or "breathejoy" - whatever might help you remember.
• Remember that vision board? Post a little reminder on it, where it catches your eye several times a day.
• When you're standing in line at the grocery store, instead of becoming impatient that the line isn't moving faster, simply do your deep breathing exercises!
• Every time you stop at a red light, do a round of deep breathing.

As deep breathing exercises become more of a habit, whenever you get stressed out, your first thought will be "slow down and take a deep breath!" Over time, you'll see the many benefits of deep breathing in your health, your mental outlook and your energy.

Read more about the benefits of deep breathing.

Recommended reading for deep breathing exercises and weightloss:

Jumpstart Your Metabolism: How To Lose Weight By Changing The Way You Breathe

100 Healthy Living Tips #5 - Add Mindfulness Practice to Your Day

Healthy Living Tip #6 is to practice mindfulness throughout your day. A mindfulness practice can calm stress, increase energy, boost our immunity and enhance our joy in life. This valuable health tip may sound intimidating but actually adding a mindfulness practice to your daily life is easy, once you make it a habit.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is merely the act of being present in the moment, observing, but not trying to change your thoughts or emotions. Taking a deep breath, quieting the mind of all its incessent chatter and observing the moment without judgement can put life in perspective and help us learn to focus and appreciate what is important in our lives.

How to Practice Mindfulness?

Practicing mindfulness isn't as difficult or time consuming as you might think. It can be done at anyplace, anytime. Simply take a deep breath and focus quietly on the things around you, observing without judgement. If you are eating, turn off the television and focus on food you are eating. Chew slowly and savor the different flavors. Those who practice mindful eating tend to eat less than those who don't.

I read a story about a man who went to a fast food restaurant every day for lunch. He ordered a hamburger, fries and a coke. He bolted it down, not tasting much - and he gained weight. He decided to practice mindful eating. He observed his food, chewed slowly and tried to savor each bite. "Once I slowed down and really tasted the food, I hated it. I never ate fast food for lunch again," he said.

You can also practice mindfulness while you're doing any repetitious task such as doing dishes or other housework or when you're stopped at a red light. If you think you don't have time to practice mindfulness, think about how much time during your day that you spend doing these tasks. Next time you're doing the dishes, calm your breathing and focus on what you're doing. Don't let outside thoughts intrude, just observe. Feel the warm water on your hands, look out the window and focus on what's going on outside.

I always want a house that has a window over the kitchen sink. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking or cleaning up and I enjoy looking out the window to watch the birds eating at the bird feeder or the squirrels jumping from branch to branch in the trees.

Mindfulness doesn't have to be a complicated or an involved process. Think of it as a small vacation for your mind where you shut out any negative thoughts or emotions, doubts or fears. The present moment is all any of us really have and in that moment it is our choice whether to feel calm and joy or let the energetic winds blow us where they will, without direction from us.

A mindfullness practice teaches you how to focus on the joy in life and in the act of learning to focus, you take control of your thoughts, you are choosing in that moment to let things go, to simply be. There is great power in knowing you can choose.

If you need help with practicing mindfulness, try this Guided Mindfulness Meditation

Resolve to add one healthy living tip to your life each week. Practice it until it becomes part of your daily routine. Soon you will be experiencing greater joy in life, better health, more energy and less stress.

For more healthy living tips, visit path2HealthyLiving.com

100 Healthy Living Tips - #4 Create a Vision Board

One of the best good health tips is to create a vision board. No matter what your goal, losing weight, eating more veggies, being physically fit, a vision board helps you to achieve it. The act of creating a vision board makes the goal firm in your mind and if you put it someplace where you see it many times each day, it will keep health goals fresh and help you believe you will achieve it.

Creating a vision board is easy. I purchased a cork bulletin board for a few dollars and it is on the wall directly above my computer where I look at it many times each day. I cut out pictures, wrote sayings on 3/5 cards and pinned visual aids to remind me of my goals.

To remind yourself of you own health and fitness tips, cut out pictures of whatever your goals are. Put up photos of men or women working out, glasses of water if you want to remember to drink more water, a photo of a scale at the weight you want to be, or a big delicious salad. Write down inspirational sayings to keep you motivated during your quest for better health.

John Assaraf, one of the teachers on the movie The Secret, recommends creating vision boards to achieve your goals. He even tells a story in the movie about how a vision board helped him find the home of his dreams. He's come up with a complete vision board kit to help you achieve your goals.

The Complete Vision Board Kit: Using the Power of Intention and Visualization to Achieve Your Dreams

You can use vision boards, not only for health and fitness, but for any goal you may have. My own vision board holds a picture of a log home in the country and an RV as my husband and I hope to purchase one soon and travel. One saying I have posted on my vision board is "You attract what you ARE, not what you want." So, every day I try to be all the things I want to attract for that day - prosperous, calm and positive.

For other great tips for healthy living, visit www.Path2HealthyLiving.com or 100 Healthy Living Tips.

New health and fitness tips added daily!

Healthy Living Tip - #3 Add Cinnamon to Your Daily Diet

Today's healthy living tip is to spice up your life with a little cinnamon. A multitude of health benefits can be obtained by adding the humble spice, Cinnamon, to your daily diet. Cinnamon helps balance the blood sugar, lower cholesterol, speed up metabolism, protect your body from inflammation which causes arthritis, allergies and many other health problems and increase your immunity to colds, flu and other illnesses.

This is also one of the simplest of tips for healthy living. Cinnamon costs mere pennies to use and it's easy to sprinkle a little healthy spiciness on cereal, yogurt, in your daily smoothie, or even on veggies. If you can't remember to use cinnamon powder in your daily health program, you can purchase cinnamon supplements for just a few dollars to add to your vitamin regimen.

Recent studies offer evidence that adding just 1/4 tsp of cinnamon to your daily diet can lower LDL or "bad" cholesterol by seven to 27%. People in the cinnamon study who took up to 1 3/4tsp of cinnamon for 40 days also found a 23 to 30% lowering of their triglyceride levels, which are fats in the blood.

Cinnamon was also found to enhance the effectiveness of insulin in people with Type II diabetes, helping them to lower blood sugar levels.

I have seen cinnamon work to lower cholesterol in people I know personally. Three members of my immediate family tried adding 1/4 tsp of cinnamon to their daily diet and lowered cholesterol from over 250 down to normal ranges below 200. All from sprinkling a little cinnamon on their morning cereal, or in the case of my husband, adding it to his morning smoothie.

Other reasons why Cinnamon is a great healthy living tip:

In Chinese Medicine, Cinnamon is known as a warming herb and just the aroma is believed to enhance cognitive thinking and increase metabolism.

Cinnamon is full of healthy antioxidants to increase the efficiency of the immune system. Cinnamon also contains manganese and Calcium.

Cinnamon helps prevent blood clotting and anti-inflammatory in the body. Inflammation is thought to be the underlying cause of many health problems, from arthritis to allergies to heart disease.

Cinnamon could be beneficial in fighting candida yeast because it is an anti-microbial and has been studied for its ability to stop the growth of bacteria and fungi.

The only downside of eating cinnamon is that, for some, it can cause heartburn. If this is the case for you, simply purchase cinnamon supplements in any drug store or vitamin store and take as directed.

This daily health tip is simple to implement and costs just a few pennies a day. There are no known adverse effects to enjoying the health benefits of cinnamon. Besides, cinnamon tastes delicious! Try adding cinnamon to mixed fruit, yogurt or cereal or try this delicious smoothie recipe.

For other great tips for healthy living, visit www.Path2HealthyLiving.com or 100 Healthy Living Tips.

New health and fitness tips added daily!

100 Healthy Living Tips - # 2 - Eat Almonds

Day two of our 100 Healthy Living Tips is an easy one - add a handful of almonds to your daily health program. A recent study on almonds published in the British Journal of Nutrition showed that, even though almonds tend to be high in fat, they are filling and packed with the right nutrition, which caused study participants to eat less calories overall throughout the day. Those in the study also ended up eating less carbohydrates for the rest of the day.

The study supports the idea that those who eat almonds tend to weight less than those who don't. Almonds contain "good fat," or monounsaturated fat, that actually helps you lose weight, while helping to lower cholesterol and promote heart health. Monounsaturated fats are also great for getting rid of stubborn belly fat.

Almonds are a great source of plant protein besides containing lots of fiber to keep you feeling full and nutrients Vitamin E and magnesium, which also contributes to a healthy heart. Other nutrients packed into almonds are riboflavin, phosphorous, iron and calcium.

One ounce of almonds contains about 164 calories. How many almonds in an ounce? About 23. If you’re concerned about calories, purchase some one ounce bags of almonds and follow this healthy living tip by resolving to eat one bag of these tasty nuts per day.

Whole Natural Nonpareil Almonds 1-oz Bag (1 Caddy of 24 Bags)

For more healthy Living tips, visit Path2HealthyLiving.com

100 Healthy Living Tips - #1 - Spark People

Learn how to be healthy by following my daily health tips for the next 100 days. Starting today, I will add one new good health tip each day. Read along and make each of these health and fitness tips a new healthy habit. Creating a healthy living program doesn't have to be difficult or complicated. Simply by adding one new good health habit to your lifestyle each day, you'll be healthier by the New Year!

The first of my daily health tips, to get you off to a motivated start, is to join Spark People.

Spark People is a terrific FREE healthy living website that lets you create your own page, enter goals in either weightloss or fitness (or both) and track them, with help from Spark People. You'll find a daily calorie counter, a daily exercise tracker, fitness videos, daily recipes and daily exercises to keep you motivated.

You'll also find a great healthy living community and message board so you can make friends, ask questions or get motivated to live a healthier life. If you'd like a buddy to help you, so you can help each other, you can find one here.

I just signed up for Spark People today and was amazed at all the free information this website has to offer. I've been on a quest to lose that last stubborn 10 pounds and I think using the tools here will help me reach my weightloss goals.

So for the next 100 days, follow along with our health and fitness tips. Learning how to be healthy can be fun as you embrace small changes, make them part of your life and see the rewards in increased energy and vitality, a slimmer, more youthful body - no matter what your age!

Tomorrow's healthy living tip - Eat this snack to help with weightloss, lower cholesterol and add a powerhouse of nutrition to your daily diet.

Easy Baked Sweet Potato Recipe

Nutritious sweet potatoes aren’t just for holidays anymore. Sweet potatoes contain more nutrients than white potatoes and they are lower on the glycemic index, meaning if you're trying to loose or maintain your weight or watch your blood sugar, sweet potatoes are better for your food program.

This easy baked sweet potato recipe can be eaten any time of the year!

Ingredients

2 ½ large sweet potatoes

3 tbs butter

¼ c maple syrup

2 tbs brown sugar

1/3 c chopped pecans

Directions

Put sweet potatoes in a large saucepan, covering with water. Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Covering pan, cook for about 30 minutes. You will know when sweet potatoes are cooked when a fork slides into it easily and sweet potato is soft.

Allow sweet potatoes to cool. While they are cooling, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and spray an 8x8 baking pan with non stick cooking spray.

Once the sweet potatoes have cooled somewhat, peel them and cut into fairly large pieces. Place them in the greased baking dish.

Melt the butter, syrup and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat. Blend, stirring to keep mixture from sticking. Cook for about 3-5 minutes, then pour slowly over the sweet potatoes.

Sprinkle chopped pecans over the dish and bake for about 7-8 minutes or until top is browned.

Recipe Serves 6

Variations to the Baked Sweet Potato Recipe

One popular variation to make this a festive holiday dish is to add about 1/2 cup marshmallows to the top at the same time as you add the pecans.

Add a 1/4 tsp of cinnamon to the topping when you melt the butter.

Nutritional Value per Serving for Sweet Potato Recipe

Calories 211

Total Fat 11.3g

Sodium 69mg

Total Carbs 27.5g

Dietary Fiber 2.4g

Protein 1.6g

Benefits of Cooking with Cast Iron

My Favorite Cookware is My Cast Iron Skillet

My cast iron skillet is my favorite piece of cookware. In days past, every cook had a cast iron skillet on her stove but after World War II, other types of metal began to be used in the kitchen. The newer metals seemed easier to clean and soon non-stick cookware made an appearance. I own pans made of all kinds of metals and glass, but cast iron is the pans I use the most.

Cast iron skillets provide even, consistent heat and can be used for frying, browning, sauteeing, baking, searing and more. They are so heavy and well-made, they could be passed down as family heirlooms! With proper seasoning of your cast iron skillet, you'll have no trouble with food sticking to it either.

Other Benefits of Cast Iron

• Cooking with cast iron introduces traces of iron into your food. This is one way our ancestors got necessary iron to keep from getting anemic.
• Cast iron cook ware is eco-friendly. Cast iron is well made and can last virtually forever. Even in the production stages, companies like Lodge, use eco-friendly manufacturing techniques with very little waste and impact on the environment.

• Cast iron can be recycled by passing it along to the next person or handing it down to a family member.

• Cast iron is multi-use. Use it for all types of cooking and even take it camping.

• Cast iron is non-toxic, unlike Teflon cookware which can give off very tiny, toxic particles when heated.

I once worked in a farm and garden store. One of our customers raised birds and she said that fumes from Teflon cookware could easily kill a bird. I gave up cooking with Teflon that same day.

With proper seasoning, your cast iron cookware can offer a lifetime of cooking pleasure.

Learn how to season your cast iron cookware.

Wonderful recipe book for cast iron cookware that proves you can cook just about anything in your cast iron skillet:

The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook: Recipes for the Best Pan in Your Kitchen

Where to Buy Calli Tea

Are you looking for a secure, affordable place to buy Calli Tea? Perhaps you'd like more information on the health benefits of Calli tea. If so, send for my free Calli Tea Benefits Report, which includes a Calli testimonial and a discount on your first order.

You can also order directly through pay pal:

60 teabags

Regular Flavor $66.13 USD Mint Flavor $66.13 USD Request flavor in comments $66.13 USD

Recently, someone emailed me about pricing information, saying their naturopathic doctor was charging them $2 per bag for Calli Tea. Many people buy Calli this way but it is much, much more affordable to purchase Calli Tea by the box so you can use it daily.

A box of Calli Tea contains 60 tea bags, each of which can make up to a gallon of Calli, depending on what strength you like to make it. To really benefit your overall health program, it's best to drink Calli Tea daily.

Calli Tea is made by Sunrider® and is not intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, prevention, or treatment of any medical condition.