There are people who think that a meal can only be completed if there is a dessert. It is very true that we love dessert. However the fact is that most desserts out there are not something healthy. There are just too much salt, sugar and fat. As a result, you should only eat desserts which are good for your health. This is even more important if you want to lose weight.

You may want to know what kinds of desserts are considered healthier. What you have to be careful is that desserts which are of low fat content do not necessarily mean they are something healthy. In most cases, you will tend to eat twice as much of the dessert if it is low fat dessert. In this case you will only eat more fat than you should. A lot of overweight people will fall into this trap. They think that it is low fat and they can eat more. However, you should never do that otherwise you will not be able to lose weight.

Let us talk about some healthy dessert. Fresh fruit is certainly a good dessert. For example, you can eat apples and oranges as your dessert. Melons are also very good. They are normally tasty. There are people who will also put slices of bananas into orange juice. This is an excellent kind of dessert. Since the flavor of the orange juice and bananas are different. It creates a wonderful new flavor when they are put together.

You might also consider purchasing a blender in order to create healthy and excellent dessert. You can easily make milk shakes with a blender. You can put some bananas and strawberries with the milk. Of course you will try to use low fat milk. And you can create an excellent low fat and healthy dessert with these fruits. The taste is great too!

As mentioned, most people will love desserts. There is no point for use to totally cut the consumption of them. However, we should try to eat healthy desserts. Only by doing that we will be able to lose weight healthily. With the blender you purchase, it will also be possible for you to create some really healthy desserts. You will probably know that you will need to eat a lot of fresh fruits when you are trying to lose weight. So it will make sense to turn this fruit into dessert so that you can lose weight while you can eat what you love!

The author has a website on Health, Fitness and Wellness. Be sure to check Healthy Weight Loss and the article Weight Loss Pills.

Article Source: You Should Eat Healthy Desserts

Having a healthy dog is important. You want your best friend to be as healthy as possible. It is said they age twice as fast as humans so keeping them in top shape is imperative. It helps immunity and helps the aging process possibly slow down. There are many things to think about when you consider your dog’s health. Many of those things include dog food, vaccinations, exercise, water, love, and more.

Dog food is one of the most important things to think about if you want a healthy animal. Many of the shelf dog foods have chemicals that are not healthy for an animal. These dog foods are cheaper but they can be harmful to your animal. Consider a food with concentrated amounts of meat as protein as opposed to cheap fillers that are so hard to digest, can cause severe allergies and most importantly do nothing to keep your pet healthy.

Exercise is also important for any animal. Your dog should have sufficient amount of room to run around and play. If your dog is kept indoors for most of the day then you should take the time everyday to walk it outside and give it the exercise it needs. Ideally, a dog should have a good sized back yard to be able to run around in. If not consider a dog park. Exercise is important for a dog to keep their circulation healthy and their blood flowing. This allows for a healthy body, strong muscles, and a happier life for your dog. It also may help there mental state just like humans.

Water is important also. A dog can get dehydrated much quicker than a human being. You should always ensure your dog has plenty of water to drink each day and that it is always available to drink. You may even want to consider spring water or filtered water. The chemicals and other things from the faucet may not be so healthy.

Another important aspect to having a healthy pet is love. Dogs need daily interaction. They need plenty of petting, holding, and love. A dog’s primary goal is to please their owner and you need to show your pet that you entirely approve of them and it will be happy. Studies have shown that dog’s with a lack of love or interaction is not as healthy as pets that have a lot of love. You should spend time talking to your dog and playing with your dog. This will ensure you have a very healthy and happy pet that will last a long time.

A great conversation to start with your vet if you haven’t already is: vaccinations. It is becoming increasingly popular that pet parents refuse to vaccinate every year because many feel it is harmful to the pet. As puppies, vaccinations are necessary and can save your canine’s life. As they get older though you may want to ask your vet about titer testing to measure the antibodies in your baby’s system and then you can determine if that vaccination is necessary. Depending on where you live, some vaccinations are necessary and some are not. This is something you can discuss with your veterinarian.

Everyone wants their dog to be healthy to ensure their life and longevity. There are many factors that play a big role in making this happen and as their owner; your dog depends on you to ensure they have a healthy life. You should ensure the food your dog is being fed is healthy, drinking plenty of water, getting plenty of exercise each day, and you are giving it plenty of love and knowing more about vaccinations.

Lori Matthews studies health, nutrition and wellness. She enjoys writing articles on health for both people and pets. Please click here if you would like more information on healthy dog food by Lifes Abundance.

Article Source: Is Dog Food The Only Way To Keep Them Healthy?

The reason there are so many diets out there is that we complicate the process! Stay away from anything labeled as a diet. The word ‘diet’ is just setting you up for failure. A diet is temporary, but eating healthy is forever. If you want to improve your health, you’ve got to make lasting changes in the way you eat. Begin by simply paying attention to what you eat over a period of a few days. Note what you eat, what food group it belongs to, the quantity you eat, the time when you eat it, and the reason you chose to eat it.

It may be helpful to keep a journal to help you remember you may even find that having to write down the information every time will curb your snacking behaviors! Are you overindulging in sweets? Don’t completely forbid yourself to taste sweets as this will only increase your cravings, but eat them in moderation. Making a ‘one treat per day’ rule for yourself or only eating half your dessert and then dumping salt on the rest can help you keep your resolve.

You can also try the ‘15 minute’ technique: if the urge to eat junk food strikes, drink a full glass of water and wait 15 minutes. Usually you’ll find that the craving goes away. Oftentimes our bodies have trouble distinguishing between sensations of hunger and sensations of thirst. If you really love your junk food, cutting back won’t be easy.

But just like with any addiction, your cravings will ease in time. Are you overeating at meals? Dinner plates sold in stores have become larger, and the meals served in restaurants are often enough food for two people to share. So get smaller plates and bowls at home. Keep the food in the kitchen and eat at the dinner table, so that you have to get up for seconds. Practice mindful eating. Most people just don’t know when they’re full because they’re not paying attention.

Think of your hunger on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being starving and 10 being uncomfortably full. At mealtime pay attention to how you feel, and be sure to stop when you start to feel a slight stretching sensation in your abdomen. Don’t worry if there is still food on your plate. Stop eating when you’re full. Are you eating for fun? Most junk food is simply eaten out of boredom so find something else to do.

Take up reading, scrapbooking, playing a musical instrument, or start a home improvement project you’ve always been meaning to do. Realize that eating for fun only feels good in the moment, but leaves no real satisfaction. So eating ten cookies instead of one cookie (or even no cookies!) won’t make you happier ten minutes from now. Sweets do not bring lasting pleasure. The only thing that sticks around is the unhealthy stuff you’ve just put into your body!

And last of all, make sure to exercise. It sounds odd, but the more you exercise the more you actually want to eat healthfully. Water sounds better after a workout than junk food. With regular exercise, you begin to take pride in the way you look and feel. And you don’t want to throw it away on a bag of Doritos or a roll of refrigerated cookie dough. Good luck eating healthfully!

Chris Jensen is a contributing author of Jetfly Blog. For more related articles and views visit Jetfly Healthy Lifestyle Blog now. Also, for the best up-to-date related online products, check out Jetfly Exercise & Fitness Program Shop for todays current online deals.

Article Source: The Secrets of How Eating Healthy Lasts Forever

Whenever we get too stressed out, many of us tend
to make poor food choices that actually increase stress and cause other problems.

Follow these simple tips to get the most out of your food and avoid stress.

1. Always eat breakfast. Even though you may think you aren’t hungry, you need to eat something. Skipping breakfast makes it harder to maintain the proper blood and sugar levels during the day, so you should always
eat something.

2. Carry healthy snacks at all times. Keeping some protein rich snacks in your car, office, or pocket book will help you avoid blood sugar level dips, the accompanying mood swings, and the fatigue. Trail mix, granola bars, and energy bars all have the nutrients you need.

3. Try green tea instead. The caffeine in coffee and sodas can have stress-producing effects on your system. Try to gradually wean yourself off of caffeine drinks (going cold turkey can leave you with a headache, usually on the second day). Replace that coffee urge with a cup of green tea, which is soothing to the senses and contains lots of antioxidants.

4. Replace bad munchies with healthy ones. If you like to munch when you’re stressed out, you can replace chips or other non healthy foods with carrot sticks, celery sticks, or even sunflower seeds.

5. Drink your water. That means at least 8 cups a day. This helps filter stress-induced and stress-producing toxins from your system, and can also keep you energized. Being dehydrated can actually cause fatigue.

6. Bring your lunch to work or school. Although a lot of people prefer to eat fast food for lunch, you can save a lot of money and actually eat healthier if you take a few minutes and pack a lunch at home. Even if you only do this a few times a week, you’ll see a much better improvement over eating out.

7. Stock your home with the good stuff. As important as it is to get the bad food out of your house, it’s even more important to get the good food in! The best way to do this is to plan a menu of healthy meals, including healthy snacks, at the beginning of the week, list the ingedients you need, and then go shop for them. This way, you’ll know what you want when you need it and you won’t have to stress over what to eat.

Andrea Arnold writes about nutrition and healthy eating at http://www.articlesunleashed.com.

Article Source: 7 Tips to Fight Stress With Healthy Eating

My pet food was on the list of pet food recalls last year and now I feel I have to question EVERY product I want to buy for my pets!

Do you ever feel as though your entire grocery list for your pets is off limits? A lot of us who had never worried about safe, clean food got a VERY rude awakening the past several months. Even when we were used to reading labels to make sure we were buying healthy food and treats, we soon learned that was no longer an assurance of safety.

So, what can you do about it?

I’ve received many e-mails and phone calls asking for simple lists and recipes to make for your pet. While this was a pretty normal reaction to the storm of recalls, few pet owners realized the sacrifice and time that would be required to return to making your own pet food.

Obviously, the decision to make your own pet food depends on the type of pet you own. For example, it’s much easier to cook up or mix up food for a cat than for a large St. Bernard. If you are determined to go this route, there are some ingredients that you SHOULD NOT include in a diet for your cat or dog. This list comes from the ASPCA and is based on illnesses and deaths in pets, not on hearsay.

Foods to Avoid Feeding Your Pets

- Alcoholic beverages

- Avocado

- Chocolate (all forms)

- Coffee (all forms)

- Fatty foods

- Macadamia nuts

- Moldy or spoiled foods

- Onions, onion powder - all forms

- Raisins and grapes

- Salt

- Yeast dough

- Garlic - all forms

- Products sweetened with xylitol - artificial sweetener

Now, if you’re concerned about the pet food recalls and want to try a homemade cat chow and dog chow recipe to keep your pets healthy, here’s one to get you started.

This simple, healthful chow mixture is easy to make for your dogs or cats. I like this recipe because it includes meat, vegetables and rice. I prefer recipes that do not include large quantities of wheat or white flour as main ingredients because many pets can become sensitized to those ingredients.

Meat, Vegie and Rice Stew

INGREDIENTS

3 pounds minced chicken meat or ground hamburger

2 1/2 cups frozen vegetable blend (no garlic or onions), minced

4 cups rice 6 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup olive oil

DIRECTIONS

Place chicken, vegetables, and rice into a large saucepan or Dutch oven. Stir in water until the mixture is smooth. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Everyday Common Sense Precautions

Now that we’ve dealt with the issue of feeding your pets healthy, safe food, the next most important thing for you to remember is to have a qualified veterinarian examine your pet if anything unusual occurs - whether it’s from food or from other products they’re exposed to during an average day. Unusual symptoms might include vomiting, lethargy, listlessness, incontinence, loose bowel, or general loss of appetite.

I like to remind pet owners that their companion animals can be affected by products they are using in their homes or cars where the animals live and ride. For example, most people don’t realize that air fresheners with synthetic chemicals and fragrances settle to the floor where pets walk in the residue, clean their paws and ingest the toxins.

As a result of the indoor pollution many pets are exposed to, we are seeing an increase in the number of chronic illnesses in our pets just as we see the increase in the general human population.

Learn about toxins that can affect your pet’s health, not just about the food they eat. Your pet is counting on you - be their advocate! Look for natural, organic products that are certified by an organization you trust.

Linda Chaé is President & Chief Formulator for Chaé Organics, Inc. and a pioneer in ‘go natural’ skin care for consumers. She is committed to clean, safe toxic free products for the whole family, including pets. Her organic pet waterless shampoo is an easy to use foaming shampoo that requires no water or rinsing. For more information or to order her products, visit http://www.chaeorganics.biz

Article Source: After the Pet Food Recalls, What Can You Feed Your Pets to Keep Them Healthy?

According the to United States Environmental Protection Agency, there are over 20,000 pesticides containing 620 active ingredients on the market in the US. More than 1,000,000,000 (One billion) pounds of active ingredients in conventional pesticides are applied each year in the United States. That’s over three pounds for every man, woman, and child who is a citizen of the United States. That in itself is alarming. Even more alarming is the government’s information on the potential health effects of pesticides. I am quoting the EPA’s own FAQ here: ‘The health effects of pesticides depend on the type of pesticide. Some, such as the organophosphates and carbamates, affect the nervous system. Other may irritate the skin of eyes. Some pesticides may be carcinogens. Others may affect the hormone or endocrine system in the body.’ Stay away from the commercially grown food! Save money and eat healthy and - grow your own organic food!!

The EPA is in charge of our safety from pesticides. They get a large helping hand from the manufacturers of the pesticides. The EPA is charged with setting maximum levels of pesticides likely to be found in food. That is not a typo, I took it straight from an EPA page…’maximum levels likely to be found in food’…not actually found in food, but likely to be found. ‘The EPA accomplishes this by requiring pesticide manufacturers to submit data that answer basic questions about what residues are present in foods and in what quantities.’ The manufacturers submit data regarding the residues of pesticides found on crops grown in the field when applied using the highest rate allowed by the product label. So the manufacturer of the pesticide delivers the data to the EPA and the EPA decides on how much pesticide is okay for us to eat. I love the taste of orthophosphates in the morning! Do you trust the pesticide manufacturers with the safety of your food? If not, the only way to make sure that our food supply is safer is to grow you own organic food.

The EPA also requires a battery of toxicity tests in laboratory animals to determine a pesticide’s potential for causing adverse health effects, such as cancer, birth defects, and adverse effects on the nervous system or other organs. Tests are conducted for both short-term (acute) and long-term (chronic) toxicity. For chronic effects other than cancer, laboratory animals are exposed to different doses of a pesticide to determine the level at which no adverse effects occur. This level is divided by an uncertainty or "safety" factor (usually 100) to account for the uncertainty of extrapolating from laboratory animals to humans and for individual human differences in sensitivity. The resulting figure, termed the Reference Dose, is the level of exposure that EPA judges an individual could be exposed to on a daily basis for a lifetime with minimal probability of experiencing any adverse effect. [Quoted from EPA Factsheet].

So let me get this straight, the EPA finds a pesticide that makes us sick and then they decide how much of that we can eat. Who checks on the farms? Who checks at the grocery store? Anybody want some tainted peanuts? I am not saying that the EPA is bad. They do a commendable job. I think that we should be surprised that there are not more serious health problems and outbreaks of food related illness;but how many chronic illnesses and adverse health effects are the cause of pesticide exposure over the course of a lifetime? Could neurological disorders be the result of exposure to organophosphates and carbamates? How would you know? If you grow your own food, you know exactly what was put on it. You know exactly what your children are eating! What if you could save money growing your own organic vegetables at home? You can! Read a book and go outside! Feed your children healthy food and lower your grocery bill. You can do it. You just have to go out in the yard and get started!

John C. Shelton is a recovering attorney, husband, father of two, and newbie blogger. After 15 years in the wilderness (lawyers, on whole are a cranky lot) he is listening to his muse. I love to garden and improve my environment. As an added benefit, I can save money at the same time. We all want to live better for less. I can help you live better and save money. Organic gardening articles, tips, and supplies.

Article Source: Articlespan

It’s all the craze right now, these low carb diets. Everyone who’s anyone is trying it out to lose weight. Sounds fun right? Looks healthy right? Well, you’d be wrong. Yes, low carb diets do make you lose weight initially, but have you actually seen people keep it off after the initial honeymoon phase? Not likely.

But all hope is not lost. There definitely are ways to make a low carb diet work for your weight loss goals, to fine tune and perfect this type of diet. You will need to focus on controlling your body’s cravings for certain foods, particularly sugar cravings. These are bad, no matter what way you look at them; sugar cravings are bad.

Regular low carb diets don’t focus on controlling sugar cravings. You would need to do this by producing and stimulating more of the fat-burning hormones, rather than the fat-storing ones in your body. I can hear everyone now, wondering that there are different types of hormones. Well, absolutely there are! The fat-storing ones are so common in today’s foods, with all the junk food and fast food places throughout; it’s very likely that you, yes you, are eating a food that is promoting the fat-storing homrones.

Here is a perfectly good reason why low carb diets are only a temporary fix (that is if you don’t focus on fat-burning hormones): there are plenty of long-term health risks closely associated with low carb diets. You might be kind of confused because all of the media has been telling you that low carb works! Well, they’re wrong. Low carb diets don’t provide lasting weight loss results. What they do provide are potential long-term health risks. One in particular for women is osteoporosis.

Think about this one too: your brain has so many amazing capabilities and all we need to do to keep it strong is to make sure it’s taken care of. So pause your weight loss ideas for now. Low carb sounds great but really, your body needs some sort of sugar or glucose to function properly. Odd as it may sound given the above info, your brain in particular definitely needs some glucose, not enough to keep you on your weight loss plan forever but still enough to function on a daily basis.

Other health risks include over-consumption of saturated fat, which can lead to heart attack or stroke. So while minimal sugar intake is a great plan for losing weight, cutting sugar completely out will harm your body; low carb diets promote cutting out sugar completely. Clearly not a wise choice.

So when you are contemplating all the diets and weight loss programs available now, make sure to research each of them thoroughly to see if losing weight with that method isn’t going to result in health issues later on; as much as fads are cool, make sure to avoid jumping into things blindly, and weight loss programs definitely count.

James Wong lost over 40lbs. just by using The Secret 2 Fat Loss. You too could lose weight as easily as he did. Find out how to get six pack abs fast. You can burn fat without counting calories at www.TheSecret2FatLoss.com

Article Source: Articlespan

Fine living is often associated with people of a higher socioeconomic class. This is simply not the case though, and it seems people are finding ways to give their lifestyle lift, perhaps in the form of a healthy lifestyle choices such as planting an herb garden, growing ones own vegetables and participating in family activities that are fun but not necessarily cost much.

There are a variety of magazines, websites, blogs and television shows now dedicated to fine living, and healthy life style options. Life style lift is a term that often refers to enhancing, or improving ones life and others in positive ways. Because feeling good and living well are often associated with one another, such features draw attention among affluent consumers and those looking to pinch pennies alike. To enjoy life money is not the center around which the universe revolves, and so the spreading of luxury ideas at little to no cost has become quite a popular subject.
It used to be that eating organic foods came at a high price. This is still the case, especially if you shop at luxury type food stores.

How is it possible that something straight from mother earth actually costs more than a processed item? Well for starters, mass produced food is just that, less attention is paid to each and every item while there is more direct human contact and control with organic crops that are naturally limited in size and number. Fine living can start in your own backyard with a few simple tips, techniques and know how of planting a full herb garden.

People are often surprised buy the flavorful effect herbs have on food, even with little to no added calories most of the time. What is a luxury to buy at the store is easily attainable in your own backyard, and this can even be a life style lift project your kids and the whole family can take part in.

Planting a vegetable garden is another way to bring fine living associated goods usually high in price at the grocery store, down to a relatively cheap price and healthy life style choice the whole family can get excited about. Healthy life style projects such as planting a garden will inspire children to start good habits early on that hopefully continue into adult life.

It is a luxury to eat fresh, delicious and healthy life style types of foods like broccoli and other greens, but what many people do not know is they have the ability to give their own life style lift right in their own backyards.

For more information on how organic foods can add to your healthy lifestyle

Article Source: Articlespan

So, you know you’re eating out too much, you’ve added a few pounds, and the cost is starting to get out of hand. But with your busy schedule and limited energy, where do you start to find the right meal planning idea that will work for your family? Are you one of the people who check with a search engine online about how to plan a spaghetti dinner?

Here are five suggestions to get you started:

1. Try a weekly meal exchange with another family in your neighborhood, giving it a trial run for a couple of months. In no time you will see the savings of time and energy, as you just have to make a double batch of your favorite lasagna, and feel the relief that you will receive a meal back another night. Before starting, split the expense of a set of disposable containers and lids that can be traded between the homes.

2. If you are tempted to go out to eat, but it’s not in the budget right now, you can cook your favorite Red Lobster’s garlic cheese biscuits or Cracker Barrel Hash Brown Casserole. Just do an online search for words such as "copy cat recipes" or "top secret recipes." Before long your kitchen will start smelling like you work at the Olive Garden. This is a great way to create healthy meal plans for teens that don’t want to join you for dinner any longer.

3. Check out a new trend: preparing a meal somewhere other than your home, such as using a meal preparation service. For example, Dream Dinners is in 37 states and boasts that though the price per meal may be a bit more than if you prepared it in your own kitchen, it’s significantly less than eating out. It provides fast healthy dinner plans. And the meals are much more nutritious. For a set price, you can choose from a wide variety of meals, considering your family’s likes, dislikes, eating restrictions, and budget. Then you just go in and prepare the meals right there, package them up, and bring them home to your freezer. You’ll also pick up some great cooking creativity tips and confidence for future meals at home.

4. Don’t be tempted to buy entire meals of take-out, but rather mix up a large meal from your favorite restaurant with partially prepared meals at home. For example, it’s inexpensive to prepare a huge Greek salad with dressing, olives and feta cheese. Then stop by your local Greek restaurant and order a large side order of Gyro meat. You’ll get more for your money and also feel like you’re treating yourself to something that is hard to prepare at home.

5. Get organized with meal planning by deciding what works best for your schedule. Can you make a double batch of meat loaf and freeze half for another evening? Online you can find various dinner menu planning software systems. Or find a blank print out of a weekly meal plan. Does it help to break down the dinners by style of foods? For example, plan six night’s meals as: two - fish; one - poultry; one - beef; one - salad; one - sandwich.

The last step is to start flipping through magazines, dusting off those old cookbooks, and taking a poll of your family member’s favorite meals. Then start your planning and grocery list. Within just a few days you will likely have at least twenty recipes and that can get you through about six weeks of meals. And forgo taking all the responsibility for meals. Make everyone get involved by making the kids responsible for one meal a week; bribe your spouse to accompany you to a Dream Dinner style meal preparation jaunt. In no time your dinner blues will disappear and leave you with a wonderful feeling of accomplishment . . . and relief!

Instant download of 200 Ways to Encourage a Chronically Ill Friend from “Beyond Casseroles” by Lisa Copen when you subscribe to HopeNotes invisible illness ezine at Rest Ministries. Lisa is the founder of Invisible Illness Awareness

Article Source: Articlespan

This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni’s Fountain of Youth Summit, which can be found at http://fountainofyouthworldsummit.com. In this excerpt, Dr. Maria Grace shares more on maintaining your health through transitions.

The Fountain of Youth World Summit with Dr. Maria Grace, psychologist, psychotherapist and author of Reel Fulfillment.

Kevin: And you mentioned transitions before and let’s go back to that. You start to get on a path that you feel is good for you regardless of what anyone else thinks. You’re eating in a way that you feel makes you feel good and you’re healthy and then bam something happens and you know maybe you lose your job or something happens or you know three things happen at once. Like how, it’s inevitable that happens to everyone at one point…

Dr. Grace: Absolutely.

Kevin: …what can you do to maintain your health and maintain your sanity, too?

Dr. Grace: Absolutely. Well, after you eat your first bag of chips, which you will, let’s assume again, yes, you will eat your first bag of chips and you may buy a 6 pack with it, too, and you will do that. Then you pick up the phone and you call a support group. You call a therapist. You call a counselor. You call a hotline. You call your sponsor. You call your trainer. You call your gym. You call your aunt. You call your friend. You call your family.

There’s so many people you can call and you say, “You know what? I need help. I need help because I lost my job and my girlfriend left me and my cat died and my basement flooded and I need help because I’m sitting on my couch in front of the TV eating chips and drinking beer and I’m doing that after I was able to maintain a healthy eating program for 3 months and get my body in shape and feel really good about myself and I feel really rotten right now. I need help.”

And if the other person on the other end of the line says, “I’m sorry. I can not help you” you hang up and you call the next one and then you call the next one and then you call the next one and you know I’m painting a really grim scenario here because chances are that the first person you’re going to call are going to help you, is going to help you, because people love to help.

Kevin: Yes.

Dr. Grace: Do not be alone and then hold onto what is steady. Hold on to what is constant. In times of transition and loss we need to hold onto what is constant. For me, these days, and I’m talking about me now because I am going through tremendous transition, what is constant is to know that I have a place, a safe place to sleep, I have a few people to talk to on the phone, and I have the food interestingly enough. I have food to eat, but it’s not junk food. I eat well and I then make, I start making lists of things that have to be addressed and I go, when I have a problem I try to think of the solution. Thinking of what will resolve the problem takes away about 80% of the stress of thinking about the problem itself.

Kevin: Okay.

Dr. Grace: So focus on the solution and then take steps to resolve the problem. The other thing that we’re going to have to pay attention to when we go through transitions or experience failures is to pay attention to all these voices in our heads that say, you know, “You’re a loser. You should know better. You should have let this happen to you. Life stinks. You’ll never get ahead” etc. Well, a lot of those voices are interjected from early on in our life. We heard them when we were kids. We believed in them. We interjected them and they’re not ours.

Kevin: Okay.

Dr. Grace: They’re not ours. So instead of believing the voices we should just allow them to be and then turn them around.

Kevin: How can you do that?

Dr. Grace: This is the whole essence in meditation. Mediators learned to observe their thoughts and let them be. They don’t really take them for granted and they do not give power to them. Now this is an art in itself.

Kevin: Yes.

Dr. Grace: This is a spiritual practice and I am working on it day and night and that is in fact as true and powerful a spiritual practice as changing our eating habits is because they’re so interconnected. So not placing judgment on our fault is an amazing way to free ourselves from all this negative self talk that gets exacerbated when we go through painful or challenging life transitions. So let the thought be and continue being regardless of the thought because just a thought when we give it power it takes a life of its own and thoughts inform actions, you see? Thoughts inform actions. We are not aware of it, but if I keep saying to myself, you know, “I’m a bad person. I’m a bad person” and it keeps believing it then whatever I do will be a bad action.

Kevin: Yes.

Dr. Grace: Even if it’s good. Even if it’s good I will say it’s a bad action. So don’t give power to your negative thoughts.

Don’t feed them and don’t judge them either. Don’t have judgment about your thoughts. Turn them around. Now turn them around means what? It means that when we go through transitions not only about ourselves but about the world, too, you know?

Kevin: Yes.

Dr. Grace: You hurt me. She ripped me off. They did that to me. Well, or you know they should be better. They should be better. That is the complete opposite. I mean, we get 2 things when we go through transitions. One is all those interjected thoughts take a life of their own and the interjected thoughts we should not pay attention to, the negative thoughts and the other thoughts are about the world. What the world should be or how it should have behaved. This is projected thoughts. Not the projected thoughts we should turn them around and apply them to our self. Okay?

Kevin: Okay.

Dr. Grace: So instead of saying, “The world should be a better place” or “They should have never done this me” okay? We should turn this around and say, “I will be a better person. I will not let this happen to me.” This should is always about something that they should have or should be is a, belongs to time that doesn’t exist. Right?

Kevin: Explain that.

Dr. Grace: It doesn’t exist. If I say, “Kevin, you should have been smarter.” What is this? What am I saying? That doesn’t exist. Okay? You should have been smarter about buying a better car.

Kevin: It just can’t happen again.

Dr. Grace: I will refer to a time and space that doesn’t exist.

Kevin: It’s an amazing distinction.

Dr. Grace: But if I say or if you say, “I will be smarter about the car I will buy” this is how you assert, actually you assert your intention. I will, we talked about willpower before. I will assert intention. So I will be smarter, assert intention, and it also informs yourself about the action that you are going to take. So when we go through transition, you know, I should have never left that, said this and if I had said that then she should have done this and then it would have been different. That doesn’t exist. None of this exists.

Kevin: It’s just wasting your time almost.

Dr. Grace: Completely. Completely. So we turn those thoughts around into “I will do such and such. I will,” it does not necessarily refer to the future. This is not about the future tense. I will means I assert my intention.

Kevin: Okay.

Dr. Grace: I will be self loving means I assert my intention to be self loving or caring about my wellbeing.

Kevin: If there was just 1 last thing that you could leave everyone with what would that be?

Dr. Grace: Take time to appreciate the moment because now is all we have. So slow down and be fully present in your life in the here and now and tell the people you love that you love them because you’re here to leave memories and that’s our legacy. Good memories is our legacy and therefore memories happen through our presence in the here and now. So don’t postpone a good deed if you can do it now.

To read the rest of this transcript as well as access The Fountain of Youth World Summit experts just like Dr. Maria Grace please click here! Kevin Gianni is an internationally recognized health advocate, author & film consultant. He has helped thousands of people take control of their own health naturally. For more information visit raw food diets and holistic nutrition.

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