Tips to Crush the Craving

 

Here are some tips to crush that craving: 

• Fool Your Brain! That’s where cravings start, so you can use that neurological fact to satisfy the craving in a more healthy way. That’s why, if you are trying to quit smoking, reach for a stick of gum instead of a cigarette. If you have a craving for sweets, try eating a plain baked potato. It will offer a similar serotonin boost along with healthy fiber.
• Take Your Time! If you are going to indulge the craving, do it slowly. It takes a while for your brain to become satisfied. If you eat slowly, you won’t need to eat as much before your brain sends the satiety signal.
• Hold On Just a Little Longer! If you put off indulging for five minutes (you can even set a timer), often the craving feeling will pass.
• Enjoy Yourself! If you do give in to a craving, don’t beat yourself up about it. Pleasure is important in our lives, so appreciate the occasional indulgences.

Exercise-Induced Pain

The saying “No pain, no gain” is absolutely wrong!

Most fitness experts will agree that exercise should be free of serious discomfort. Pain from physical activity usually means you’re doing it incorrectly somehow. If you continue to exercise that way, you might actually cause some physical damage.

We need to learn to distinguish between physical injury and routine mild discomfort from overdoing the activity a little. Sure, you’re going to be a little sore if you run an extra mile or pile on the reps at the weight machine. But how much discomfort is an indicator of a health problem?

Here are some ways to tell:

• Learn to monitor your body and read its messages. Compare what you are feeling now with what you have felt in the past. Is this pain something you’ve felt before? What was the outcome of this feeling?
• Any new pain, even if it is mild, is a warning sign. Stop exercising and figure out what is causing it.
• Take seriously a pain that is sharper than anything you’ve felt before or that appears suddenly in a part of the body where you’ve never had pain before. These types of new pain may indicate either an acute injury or a problem with chronic overuse. One example is Achilles tendinitis. That causes pain around the ankle that comes and goes. If you ignore it, it may progress to a torn tendon.
• Muscle soreness pain that you don’t feel until the next day is pretty common, and is due to overuse. If you touch or squeeze the achy muscle, it is tight and sensitive. To help the muscle heal, keep it moving. Stretch the muscle before exercising and massage it afterwards. This helps remove lactic acid which is produced when muscles are used. It’s the lactic acid that is causing overuse pain.
• You can fix overuse pain yourself, but if the pain lasts more than 48 hours or is so bad it’s incapacitating, seek medical attention.

Here’s to pain-free physical activity.

Tips to Organize Your Bill Paying

Do you worry you may have forgotten to pay an important bill? Do you sometimes get late payment reminders? Here’s a three-step process to stop both the worry and the late fees.

1. Set regular days and times to pay your bills. Start with something simple like the 5th, 15th and 25th of each month. Put that date in your calendar/reminder system for each month of the year!
2. Are you more of a morning dove or a night owl? Whichever you are, it’s best to schedule bill paying for the time of day when your energy is highest. BE sure that your scheduled date for bill paying (per tip #1) includes that time of day.
3. Create a separate e-mail account for e-statements. That way it will be simpler to find all the bills on each of your scheduled bill-paying dates.

These tips can save you time and money and, best of all, lower your anxiety about paying bills.

Sprouted Grains are the April Grain of the Month

The Whole Grains Council has declared sprouted grains to be the “grain of the month’ of April. That’s correct, sprouted grains aren’t a single kind of grain. But they are important food sources. The unsprouted grains we eat are dormant seeds.

All living things go through many changes when they grow. Grains are no exception. The biochemical changes that occur as grain sprouts affect both micro- and macro-nutrients. This makes the nutrition in the grain more available to the growing plant, and to us when we eat sprouted grain. Sprouted grain seeds are now a health food staple.

A grain seed consists of three parts: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. The germ is the baby plant embryo. The endosperm contains starch that the embryo can turn into sugars to feed on as it develops, before the plant can make food on its own. The bran not only protects the unsprouted grain, but also adds nutrients.

Sprouted grains are also known as malted grains. There is no definition in food regulations for “sprouted grain,” so the Cereals and Grains Association made their own definition.

“Malted or sprouted grains containing all of the original bran, germ, and endosperm shall be considered whole grains as long as sprout growth does not exceed kernel length and nutrient values have not diminished. These grains should be labeled as malted or sprouted whole grain.”

Every type of grain contains different nutrients. When sprouted, these nutrients change in ways unique to each grain type. The results also depend on germination conditions such as light, temperature and time. In all cases, the nutrients in the grain become more bio-available.

The starch in the endosperm is broken down by plant enzymes into simple sugars that are more easily digested. Proteins are broken down by plant enzymes into peptides and amino acids. The gluten protein in barley, rye, and wheat is “pre-digested” by plant enzymes in the sprouting seeds. People with non-celiac gluten sensitivity may be less reactive to the gluten in sprouted seeds.

Sprouted seeds also contain less phytate. This is a common chemical in plant foods that binds some minerals, making them less available in the diet. Sprouting decreases the amount of phytate in the seed, making phosphorus and other minerals easier to absorb.

Sprouted grains generally cook faster than unsprouted grains, because of the changes that have occurred within the seed.

Sprouted seeds may be dried and ground into flour. This flour acts a little differently from regular grain flour, in that the gluten bonds are stronger. That means less kneading is necessary. Fermentation is more rapid, reducing rise times. Products made with sprouted grain flour have a longer shelf life.

Ready to try some sprouted grain recipes? Here are some links.

How to Make Sprouted Grains - https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-sprouted-grains-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-204466

Sprouted Whole Grains - https://savoringtoday.com/category/soaked-sprouted-grain/

Homemade Ezekiel Bread - https://littlebitesofjoy.com/home-made-ezekiel-bread/