YoYo’s World

I’ve been following this blog called MyPersonalDevelopment.net for a few months now and it is just great! There are so many good reads it’s amazing. I’d like to point out one great post that I just read. It’s a guest post by Eric Zorn and it’s called “50 Things I’ve Learned in 50 Years.” There are so many fun-filled little life facts and it was so enjoyable to read.

As you can see above, there’s a link to go check it out. Here is a mini excerpt of some of the wonder life tips it offers:

“9. Cough syrup doesn’t work.

10. Empathy is the greatest virtue. From it, all virtues flow. Without it, all virtues are an act.

11. The Golden Rule is the greatest moral truth. If you don’t believe in it, at least try to fake it.

12. Keeping perspective is the greatest key to happiness. From a distance, even a bumpy road looks smooth.

13. You can’t win arguing with police officers or referees, but every so often you can fight City Hall.

14. It’s not “political correctness” that dictates that we try not to insult others’ beliefs and identities. It’s common decency.

15. It may not feel like it, but it’s good luck when you have people at home and at work who aren’t afraid to tell you when you’re wrong.

16. It’s 10 times easier to fall in love than to stay in love. And no matter what the sad songs say about romance, broken hearts do mend.

17. Don’t waste your breath proclaiming what’s really important to you. How you spend your time says it all.

18. Keeping an open mind is as big a challenge as you get older as keeping a consistent waistline.”

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Last week I read an article from Steve Pavlina’s blog talking herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and where we, homo sapiens, fit in to the equation. I found it to be very interesting because of the information he provided. So, being the sleuth that I am, I did a little research on my own about the whole situation. (I know it may seem a little weird that I’m overly enthusiastic and fascinated about this subject. What can I say? You can obviously tell that I’m really into my Health and Exercise Science major. = )  )

Characteristics of Herbivores:

• animals that eat primarily plant matter
• don’t have claws
• have skin pores for perspiration
• intestinal tracts that are around 10-12 times their body’s length
• have weak stomach acid (20 times weaker than carnivores)
• salivary glands to help digest plants
• saliva is also an alkaline with ptyalin

Characteristics of Carnivores:

• need claws to cut meat
• perspire with their tongue and don’t have skin pores
• have sharp front teeth for tearing
• digestive tract that’s only 3 times body weight so food passes through quickly
• stomach acid is a strong hydrochloric acid
• underdeveloped salivary glands
• acidic saliva with no pytalin

Characteristics of Homo Sapiens:

• no claws
• skin pores to perspire
• only have flat rear molars for grinding, only two canine (sharp) teeth
• digestive tract thats 10-12 times our body lengths
• weak stomach acid
• well-developed salivary glands
• alkaline saliva with pytalin

So where does that leave us? The obvious answer is that we were built to eat plants. Where does cholesterol come from? Eating animal products. Yes our bodies can handle cholesterol but we don’t actually need it. The nutrients cholesterol provides we can easily obtain by eating plants. Carnivores need cholesterol because that’s the only place they get those nutrients from. They can twice twice as much cholesterol as we do and never have heart problems.

What about the omnivore situation? Even though we can eat meat doesn’t mean we were necessarily meant to. We don’t need to eat meat but we can choose to if we want to. There is a lot of people out there that believe we are omnivores. I would suggest reading their articles. I would like to make one thing clear though, omnivores cannot digest plants that do not produce fruit. So they can only eat, in terms of plant matter, fruits and vegetables. Now think for a minute what plants you eat that don’t also grow fruit?

I am not saying that you need to go out and become a vegan or vegetarian. I’m just offering a little insight on the situation. I find it to be very interesting and I am considering becoming a vegan because of what I’ve found. You can eat meat if you’d like, but I bet that vegetarians are much healthier than our chosen omnivore homo sapiens. The government has conducted experiments where the subjects were only allowed to grow and eat plants. They found, after comparing them with other non-vegetarians, their cholesterol levels were lower, they had more energy and were overall much healthier. If that interests you, find out more information for yourself.

Believe what you want. If you are still feeling skeptical on the subject, I suggest to go do some research for yourself. Use google, go to the library, buy some books. Whether or not you believe we are carnivores, herbivores or omnivores, researching the subject will give you a better idea of how we are built and will give you a better grasp of nutrition. So if you are trying to eat healthier, this is one step that will lead you closer to making healthier food choices.

My Sources:

• Steve Pavlina
• A.D. Andrews, Fit Food for Men, (Chicago: American Hygiene Society, 1970)
• CelestialHealing.net
• NorthWestern University 

 Just remember, pass it on

-YoYo

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  I always remember being told when I was younger to eat everything that was on my plate; I couldn’t leave the table if I didn’t. As I grew older, weight and looks slowly became an ‘issue.’ (The middle school years are brutal.) I began to think about how much I weighed, which in time made me think about how much I ate. I would get annoyed at how I would have multiple servings knowing full well I didn’t need to be eating as much as I was. I always wanted second servings of the Blue Box Mac and Cheese and I always loved tons and tons of mashed potatoes topped with corn and gravy.

After really taking my health into consideration, I decided to make the proactive choice of adopting a healthy diet. I changed nearly everything I ate. I made sure I was eating fruits and veggies, cut back of fatty foods and simple carbs. I even cut back on cholesterol by eating less red meat. I also decided to add several snack periods (morning, afternoon and night) where I would eat a piece of fruit or yogurt. After sticking to this new nutritional diet I began to notice something strange. When it came to my main meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner, I began to not crave as much food. Why? Because I eat snacks!! Yes yes I know this may have seemed like the obvious answer prior to reading this article. Our moms have been telling us for years to not “eat that cookie or else you’ll ruin your dinner!” Well she was right.The difference here is, when I would snack before, I would just get the random urge to eat something and then I’d go to the cupboard. Simple as that. Now what I do is I have habitual snack periods and I make sure what I’m consuming is mostly healthy and good. Habitual and healthy snacks have led to me not overeating when it came to the regular meals.

Doing all of this has led to many benefits I’ve noticed:

1) Food is no longer a provider of comfort. I no longer eat because I’m bored, tired, sad or angry. I eat because I’ve made it a habit to only eat during certain times of the day and it doesn’t bug me because I eat enough to keep me going during down times of not eating.

2) No random urges. Since I am not eating when I randomly get hungry, it allows keeps my sweet tooth from waking up. So during the times in which I am eating, I’m eating healthily. This means I’m getting the nutrients I need to stay energized throughout the day; I’m setting myself up for a healthier body down the road and I’m losing weight.

What many don’t realize is the best way to lose weight is to eat healthy and exercise, consistently, for the rest of your life (or as long as your body will allow). There is no secret diet or quick short cut. It’s about a whole lifestyle change. You need to look at food, diet and exercise in a completely new light if you want to lose weight and keep it off; end of story.

Explaining the bodily mechanics of what goes on in your body is very simple. Before you decided to change your life style you weren’t providing your body with the necessary nutrients consistently. Because of this, your body went into a partial “starvation mode” where it was saving certain nutrients because it knew it may not get it the next day. This means you were lugging around extra weight on your bones when you didn’t need to be. Once you can convince your body you will give it what it needs, by consistently eating well, it will gladly get rid of excess weight anything and you will soon find you need new clothes.

To help you out I’m going to give you a tool I made that helped me; daily food log. This is something I came up with when I first began changing my diet and it’s helped me see what things I’m eating throughout the day. This allows me to figure out how many servings of what food groups I’m eating. From there, I was able to determine if I was eating the recommended daily servings and if I wasn’t I just changed my eating.
If you are new to dieting and don’t really know where to start, read my article on healthy eating startup tips. This article gives you step-by-step instructions on changing your diet to a healthier one.

If this sounds hard, trust me, it’s not at all! Just listen to your stomach and don’t eat when you’re NOT hungry. You just have to remember, your need and association with food as a comfort will slowly diminish over time when you do this consistently. Remember the keys here are CONSISTANCY and a little bit of DISCIPLINE. You don’t have to try overly hard honestly. It may be difficult to set up a nutritional plan on your own, but once you get it going and you understand what your body needs and doesn’t need, it gets easier and easier.

So just give it a go. You may even notice changes after the first week! I did, but if you don’t, please don’t get discouraged. Remember to check with your doctor about any new diets you’re trying out to make sure they are safe for you because everyone will react differently.

Just remember, pass it on

-YoYo

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