Ouch! Hopping around my bedroom in the middle of the night rubbing my calf, hoping the pain will diminish soon. Leg cramps are a painful wake-up call at night or while on a long drive, or in a plane.
According to the Mayo Clinic, night leg cramps usually involve your calf muscles. However, sometimes your thighs and feet can cramp as well. Most of the time these cramps are harmless. But sometimes they are associated with disorders such as Type 2 Diabetes and Hypothyroidism.
Be Healthy
The most common leg cramps are the “Charlie Horse”. They are generally caused at night by an electrolyte imbalance. Lack of potassium, magnesium and calcium often cause the cramps. Most cramping muscles can be averted by proper electrolyte balances, high levels of anti-oxidants and optimizing nutrient levels.
Work outs need to be consistent. Think of working out, walking or whatever your exercise is, as part of your job. Something you do every day. If you are consistent with your workouts, then you can avoid the “weekend warrior” syndrome.
Restless Leg Syndrome is usually vascular in origin caused by not enough blood circulation. It has been suggested that increasing Vitamin E and Magnesium can be helpful in alleviating Restless Leg Syndrome since Vitamin E and Magnesium have been found to increase circulation.
Should you overwork you muscles to the point of a strain, then you need to be aware of how much the muscle is strained. If the muscles are swelling, apply ice for relief. If the muscle is not swelling, use moist heat. Should the muscle be injured to the point of being pulled from the bone, you need to see a physician and be careful not to repeat this overwork of your muscles.
So keep your nutrients high, drink electrolyte rich fluids, and be consistent in your workouts, walks and playing sports. Have fun, but protect your muscles!
Posted in: Healthy Home, Healthy You, Nutrition, Travel.
Tagged: Electrolytes · Muscle Cramps · Muscles · Travel
Valentine’s Day is almost here! Traditionally we give our loved ones presents of candy and flowers. All well and good for some, but for most of us not so good. We are still carrying around several pounds from the long holidays and the last thing we need is more candy! You can still have wonderful gifts, but you will have to Think Outside the Heart Shaped Box! Here are a few tips to get you started on your quest:
Give A Day Get A Disney Day
1. Arrange for both of you to Volunteer with a local charity like Habitat for Humanity and many others in your area. During this year, The Walt Disney Corporation is giving One Day One Park tickets to either Walt Disney World or Disneyland to people who volunteer for a variety of Charities. The program is called Give A Day Get A Disney Day . So be a hero to those in need and enjoy a day in one of the many Disney Parks with the one you love! Check out the Disney site to sign up and have fun!
2. If this is not your year for a Disney Park there are still options for gifts. Look for upcoming concerts and plays. Find one that would delight your special person and arrange a special dinner followed by the performance. Quality time with your sweetheart!
3. Gardens are important for the health of our planet as well as for us. Take a look at your yard and plan a new area for a vegetable garden or plant a new tree to provide shade for your home in the future.
4. Plan a day exploring local Farmers Markets and local Farms so you can find locally grown organic foods for meals each day. LocalHarvest.org can help you locate farms and farmers markets near you. Time well spent. Buy Foods that love you back. After you have purchased those wonderful fruits and vegetables, prepare a special meal for family and friends. Enjoy!
Now you have a few ideas of different ways you can say “I Love You!” without having to resort to the cliched box. Have fun, be creative and enjoy the blessings we have! Stay Well. Elise
Posted in: Children, Healthy You, Nutrition, Volunteer.
Tagged: Disney · Health · Travel · Volunteer
Ok, how is it going? The weight loss/management I mean. Is it working for you? Are you shedding that fat while keeping your muscle mass? You do know that muscle= metabolism, don’t you? So why are you using a weight loss system that lets you loose muscle? Sure, muscle weighs more than fat, but muscles help you burn off calories! So hang onto your muscles!
Now you ask, how do I keep my muscle mass while loosing weight? Fat isn’t good and muscles are great! To keep those muscles healthy, maintaining lean body mass while loosing fat, you need to keep your intake of an essential amino acid called Leucine.
Cinch Tea = Liquid Oomph!
From Shaklee’s Cinch Program information, “What’ s leucine? It’s an essential amino acid and a member of the branched chained amino acid family that also includes isoleucine, and valine. The body uses amino acids to make proteins. However recent scientific research indicates that leucine may play a special role in weight loss. That’s because once absorbed from the protein foods you eat, leucine travels directly to muscle tissue where it acts as a signal for protein synthesis. This increase in protein synthesis serves to offset the increase in protein breakdown that naturally occurs as a result of calorie restriction or dieting.”
So you can keep muscle, loose fat and loose inches! Give it a try! Loose those pounds, break the diet cycle, be healthier and find support with Cinch! The plan is working for me!
Posted in: Healthy You, Nutrition, Weight Management.
It’s a New Year, with New Pounds hanging on, again! Been there before, and are back again. So what can we do differently in 2010 and beyond to break this cycle of weight gain? Don’t despair, there are simple changes that can be made to help you loose weight and keep it off. As in anything, you are in control of what you eat and the quantities. So know that you are also in control of your future.
One of the easiest things to do to help with weight management or loss, is to Eat Breakfast! Now that wasn’t so bad, was it? Eating Breakfast gives you the fuel you need for the rest of the day. Overnight, your body is using your dinner fuel to refresh your body. While you are sleeping, your body is using that fuel to renew your body. After a long sleep, you need fuel. However, some folks think that skipping breakfast will help them loose a few pounds. Research shows that the calories that might be skipped at breakfast are more than made up by larger meals and snacks in the rest of the day. Also, studies have shown that brain function, mood and general energy are better when breakfast is eaten. So do yourself a favor and eat a good breakfast with a balance of carbs, protein and fiber. Protein is essential for the repair,
Cafe Late Cinch Shake
growth and maintenance of body tissues as well as keeping your energy up during the day.
Another tip for keeping those pounds off is to eliminate a few calories each day. Research has shown that our meals are increasing in size over the decades so that now we are eating more calories than we did in the 1970’s. That is resulting in about 30% of the population of the US being Obese! So, cut our a few calories each day. Skip a cookie or two, eat a smaller piece of cake, eat desert at one meal, not two. Drink water instead of sweeten beverages such as soda, teas, alcoholic beverages. Now that is not so hard! Cutting 100 calories from your daily intake can help you loose about 10 pounds in a year. Reward!
The Third tip of weight loss and management is to move around. Getting a few more steps in each day is easy if you park a little further from the door of the office or store. Walk around the block with the kids or the dog, or your favorite songs. Take the steps instead of the elevator or escalator. The idea is to add movement!
Stay Well!
More to come soon! Get started now with these small changes. Keep a daily record of your food intake and movement so you can see how these small changes can made a difference! Stay Well.
Posted in: Healthy You, Nutrition, Weight Management.
Fountain and Lights by Elise Hearn 2009
So how is it going this December? Is your calendar full of parties, family gatherings, programs at school, church, community? Is your shopping complete? Perfect presents chosen and wrapped for everyone on your list? You did make a list didn’t you? How is the house looking? Decorations up and looking good? Trees decorated? Cookies made? Cards signed, addressed and mailed? Bedrooms ready for the in-laws? Casseroles waiting in the freezer for all those holiday meals? Turkey, ham, goose, duck waiting for final preparation?
This could go on and on and on! We all know what extra pressure the holidays bring to our lives. Often we forget the real reasons we are doing all these activities! Stress takes over and we end up grumpy, tired, irritated, depressed and miserable. What to do!?!
Stress can be dealt with in several ways. One thing is to make a list of things you need to accomplish each day, keeping 3 to 5 chores on the list, no more. Don’t overload your day. Keep the tasks each day in a reasonable amount of time and effort, spreading the harder chores over time (and maybe people too) will help keep you energized.
Ask for help and expect help with bigger projects. Dinner for the extended family means others can bring different dishes, the kids can set the tables, your spouse can do the last minute dusting and vacuuming! Asking for help is a good thing! People like to feel useful and part of an event. So delegate those chores! You are making others feel needed and wanted. Perfect.
Choose Healthy Snacks
Another way to help with stress is to exercise and eat good food each day. Keep up the membership to the gym and use it during the holidays! You will be able to work off that extra cookie and not gain weight during the holidays! Look at the events on your calendar and plan light meals before these events. Choose a protein shake and drink a warm cup of green tea! Then when you are at the event, all those high calorie finger foods will be easier to limit. Choose your calories and carbohydrates with care and enjoy those seasonal treats with no guilt. Keep your immune system happy and healthy, while lowering stress.
Enjoy the time with family and friends! Time flies and hot summer will be here next week! Stay well.
Posted in: Healthy Home.
Tagged: Health · Immune System · Protein · Stress · Stress Relief
Holidays are here and so is the stress that all those extra activities bring. We have presents to purchase, wrap and deliver, cookies to bake, parties to attend and hold ourselves, charity events to support and more. All that on top of what we normally do! No wonder the holidays add stress to our lives.
Staying healthy during the holidays is more important now than ever before! We can’t afford to be sick and loose time from work and all the fun holiday parties. So what are we to do to stay healthy during the holidays as well as the rest of the year?
Vivix Kosher Cellular Ant-Aging Tonic
Information is a key ingredient to good health. Keeping up with current clinical research and recommendations will help us make good choices throughout the year. When we know about the current research on Resveratrol as an example, we are more likely to take our supplements and appreciate what Vivix is doing for us in the long run. The extra boost to the mitochondria in our cells for more energy from the resveratrol makes the longer days easier to handle!
When we take the responsibility for our own health each day, we are being proactive not reactive. Taking my Alfalfa Complex each day keeps my sinus problems at bay, rather than waiting for a sinus infection and then going to the doctor for a prescription of antibiotics and decongestants. For overstressed and overworked days, try Shaklee’s Stress Relief Complex and Cor-Energy. These give you the ability to think clearly while having the energy to tackle the holidays in stride, naturally!
And as a last tip, keep an eye on your weight! During the holidays we often find many treats tempting us to not eat correctly. A common problem for me anyway! Adding extra pounds slows me down and makes me feel tired and even more stressed! Knowing that I have a luncheon or dinner to attend, I use my Cinch Protein Shakes
Cafe Late Cinch Shake
for the other meals in the day. I keep my protein levels up which help me resist impulse nibbling of empty calories. Before leaving home, I often have a small shake of Shaklee Instant Protein since this puts good protein in my stomach. I am not starving when I reach the event, so I can pick and choose from the best treats of the event.
So it is my wish that you and your family enjoy the holidays this year! Enjoy each moment and don’t fall into the traps of overeating, staying up late only to get up early, spending too much money and spreading yourself too thin. Relax and appreciate each day since you control what you do and when you do it!
Posted in: Healthy You, Nutrition.
Tagged: Health · Healthy Choices · Holidays · Protein · Stress Relief
Eating Healthy is Our Choice
As we enter the holiday season, we will be presented with many opportunities to eat things that are not healthy for us. Yes they taste good, but our body does not always need or process these “foods” really well. We have been talking about Protein in several previous posts and in this post we will get ideas on how much Protein we need each day.
“Although no one-size-fits-all answer exists for that question and research on the topic is still emerging, the current recommended dietary allowance for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day for healthy young adults. That comes to about 62 grams of protein a day for a person who weighs 170 pounds. Although growing children, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and older adults may need a little more (1.0–1.3 grams per kilogram of body weight), getting the minimum daily requirement of protein is fairly easy. Cereal with milk for breakfast, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, and a piece of fish with a side of beans for dinner adds up to about 70 grams of protein.
It’s also important to pay attention to what comes along with the protein in your food choices. An eight-ounce broiled porterhouse steak is a great source of complete protein—54 grams worth. But it also delivers 44 grams of fat, 16 of which are saturated. Saturated fats raise blood cholesterol, and high blood cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease. On the other hand, a cup of cooked lentils has 18 grams of protein, but less than one gram of fat.
Vegetable sources of protein, including soy protein beverage mixes, are also an excellent choice and many also provide healthful amounts of other essential nutrients such as fiber, vitamins, and minerals. The best animal protein choices are fish and poultry. If you are partial to red meat, such as beef, pork, or lamb, stick with the leanest cuts, choose moderate portion sizes, and make it only an occasional part of your diet.”
Have fun during the Holiday Season, celebrate with family and friends and stay healthy at the same time! The choice is yours. You Deserve Health!
Source: Health Sciences Bulletin from Shaklee Corp. 2009
Posted in: Healthy Home, Healthy You, Nutrition.
Tagged: Health · Immune System · Protein · Quality of Life
Atlantis Space Shuttle over Bay Lake
I had the great privilege to observe the launch of the Atlantis Space Shuttle yesterday from Disney’s Contemporary Resort. I was looking over Bay Lake at Walt Disney World and was thrilled to see the launch. On time and looking amazing, Atlantis made a fiery streak across the sky as it headed on its next mission. Scheduled to have 3 space walks while delivering equipment and 2 control gyroscopes to the International Space Station.
One important item that is on the Shuttle Atlantis is a product from Shaklee Corporation called Astro-Ade, a special re-hydration product that was developed by Shaklee at NASA’s request in the early 1990’s. Shaklee continues to support and research ways for all of us the be healthier each day. For those sports enthusiasts, the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver BC will be a time to see Shaklee Nutrition at work! Having already powered 54 Olympic Gold Medals, we are ready for more Gold!
Posted in: Earth Day, Hall & Hearn Photography, Healthy You, Nutrition, Travel.
Tagged: Nutrition · Sports Nutrition · Travel
In our continuing study of the impact of Protein on our health we have learned that Protein is necessary since high-quality proteins provide enough of all the essential amino acids needed to support the body’s work. Lower quality proteins add these necessary building blocks for health.
“When most of us think about the health benefits of dietary protein, its role in bodybuilding comes to mind. No new body tissue can be built without it. However, research also suggests that the intake of high-quality protein in the context of an overall healthful diet may also have positive effects on our body weight and body composition as we age, as well as play a role in the prevention of chronic diseases such as heart disease, certain types of cancer, and osteoporosis.
Weight Management: Studies have shown that achieving a healthy weight and maintaining that weight can help add years to your life, and scientists believe that dietary protein may play an important role in weight management. High-protein diets may promote significantly more weight loss compared to lower protein diets because of protein’s role in promoting satiety. In a fairly recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers studied the effects of increasing dietary protein while maintaining carbohydrate content on weight loss, appetite, calorie intake, and fat mass in a small group of study participants. Initially, participants were instructed to follow a weight-maintaining diet (50% carbohydrate, 15% protein, 35% fat) for two weeks. Then for the following two weeks, they were asked to follow a diet providing the same amount of calories but with 50% of calories coming from carbohydrate, 30% from protein, and 20% from fat. Two weeks later, they were given an ad libitum diet of 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein, and 20% fat to follow for an additional 12 weeks. Even though subjects could eat as much food as they wanted in those 12 weeks, they actually reduced their calorie intake by an average of 441 calories per day. They also lost an average of 10.8 pounds in body weight and 8.2 pounds of body fat.”
Cafe Late Cinch Shake
This is all good news to those of us who are concerned with our weight and want to have a positive impact on our continuing health. Stay Well!
Posted in: Children, Healthy You, Nutrition.
Tagged: Children · Nutrition · Protein · Quality of Life · Weight Management
Last post we talked about how important Protein is for the human body. This post continues with a look at how different sources of Protein differ and how they help our bodies stay healthy.
Foods provide about 20 different amino acids, of which more than half are considered to be “nonessential.” In other words, the body can make them for itself. However, nine other amino acids are considered “essential,” meaning the body is unable to make them on its own. And unlike the carbohydrates and fats we consume, amino acids are not stored in the body. Therefore, the body must rely on a constant and steady supply from the protein-rich foods we eat every day.
Cinch Snack Bars
So what are the best sources of dietary protein? And is there a difference between animal and vegetable sources? Well, it’s true that not all dietary protein is created equal. It really is the protein quality of one’s diet that, in large part, determines how well a child will grow and develop and how well an adult will maintain his or her health. Put simply, high-quality proteins provide enough of all the essential amino acids needed to support the body’s work, and lower-quality proteins don’t. Two key factors that influence protein quality are the protein’s digestibility and its amino acid composition. Protein digestibility is a measure of the amount of amino acids absorbed from a given protein intake, and amino acid composition refers to the simultaneous availability of all the needed amino acids from a food we choose to eat. In general, animal-sourced proteins (meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy) are considered high-quality proteins, as is soy, a vegetable-sourced protein. However, other vegetable proteins tend to be of much lower quality and are often referred to as “incomplete” proteins because they do not provide all the essential amino acids the body needs. Incomplete proteins can come from fruits, vegetables, grains, and nuts.
In the next post we will continue to explore Protein and how it impacts our body! Stay well!
This information comes from a Health Sciences Bulletin from Shaklee Corporation.
Posted in: Children, Healthy You.
Tagged: Health · Healthy You · Nutrition · Protein
