weight loss

Moringa Powder – The Most Powerful Superfood You Need to Know About

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The health benefits of moringa powder also known as drumstick or malunggay. Moringa powder is made from the dried leaves of the moringa oleifera, a drought resistant tree native to warm climates like India. This has been used as a natural medicine for thousands of years and is known as the miracle tree. You can purchase organic moringa powder from health food stores and take between one to two teaspoons per day to help heal diseases and infections in the body.

Let’s us explore the many benefits of this powerful powder while first keeping in mind to consult your healthcare professional before taking any supplements.

Reduces inflammation

Moringa powder contains 46 different types of antioxidants and a wide range of anti-inflammatory compounds making it one of the most powerful super foods in the world. This helps to lower inflammation and swelling throughout the body especially for those with joint pain, osteoarthritis or even rheumatoid arthritis.

Liver cleansing

The powerful antioxidants in moringa help to cleanse the liver and help to remove fatty deposits and scar tissue. This can improve your liver function keeping your blood free of toxins and boosting your overall health.

Rich in minerals

Moringa powder contains zinc, plant-based iron, copper, beta carotene and B vitamins. These act as cofactors in the body to help grow, long, strong and healthy strands of hair. They also help to protect against hair loss with age.

Thyroid health

Moringa powder also helps your liver to make certain thyroid hormones to prevent hypo or hyperthyroidism, hot flashes, excessive sweating, and an irregular heartbeat. This helps to keep your body temperature under control and your hormones in balance.

Muscle health

Moringa contains all nine essential amino acids needed to build strong, healthy muscles. You can consume moringa powder before exercising as it boosts stamina and energy levels. It contains seven times more potassium than bananas, four times more calcium than milk and 36 times more magnesium than eggs. These electrolyte minerals help your cells to produce stable energy, maintain healthy muscle mass and prevent cramping.

Regulates your blood sugar levels

Moringa powder regulates blood sugar levels thereby reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Anti aging

Some refer to moringa as the elixir of life as it contains high concentrations of zeatin. This is a plant hormone which has been linked to slowing down the aging process of the body. As this plant is rich in antioxidants these two play a role in keeping your skin youthful and healthy by improving your antioxidant network and destroying free radicals in the blood.

Breast feeding

It’s very important to make sure that you’re getting lots of nutrients in your diet to make rich breast milk. Being nutrient rich, moringa makes a good supplement for nursing mothers.

Heals gastric ulcers

This is likely due to the chlorophyll or the green plant pigment which is very healing to the digestive system. Not only will it heal ulcers but also prevent them from occurring.

Hormone Balancing

Women who suffer with facial hair, deeper voice and irregular periods may have a hormonal imbalance and a condition called polycystic ovarian syndrome. Moringa is actually one of the best supplements to reduce androgen hormones, to overcome this condition and balance the hormones.

Blood builder

Chlorophyll, plant-based iron and antioxidants found in moringa could also help your body to build robust, healthy red blood cells. These carry oxygen and nutrients to all of the organs and tissues throughout your body keeping you strong, healthy and prevent anemia.

Regulates blood pressure

By taking stress off the liver, the antioxidants help to relax the blood vessels and the arteries for better blood flow to and from the heart. It also lowers the risk of heart attacks and plaque in the arteries because it contains over 46 types of antioxidants.

Weight loss

By lowering insulin resistance, the nutrients in moringa help your body to tap into its fat stores for energy and reduce hunger levels. This naturally helps you to lose weight especially when you’re following a low carb diet like keto for example.

Healthy brain

If you want to stay sharp as you get older, the amino acids in moringa help to build hormones and neurotransmitters in your brain. These support better memory, concentration, and learning.

Protects against exposure to UV

UVB rays from the sunshine can be very damaging to the skin especially if you stay out in the sun too long. However, the antioxidants within moringa help to protect against skin cancer and premature aging.

Fights Infection

Due to its antibacterial, antifungal and antimicrobial properties, moringa can also help to fight off infections in the body and boost your immune system.

Lung health

Moringa is also very useful for those with asthma as it can help to improve breathing and airflow. It does this by improving oxygenation of the blood allowing nutrients to travel freely through your body.

Eye health

Antioxidants in moringa also help to protect the blood vessels that are connected to your eyes. This lowers the risk of vision loss and macular degeneration that comes with age, and it also helps to protect the nerves within the eye.

How to consume

Simply mix 2 teaspoons of moringa powder in a glass of water and then drink. Some of the nutrients are fat soluble so it is best to drink this after eating a meal that contains a fat like olive oil, cheese, or butter. This will help your body absorb more nutrients from the moringa. Do not add hot water to moringa because this may kill off the enzymes within which are needed to help your body absorb some of the antioxidants.

Other moringa uses

Other parts of the moringa tree are also used in traditional medicine including the bark, the seeds, pods, roots, sap, flowers, and oil. The oil, in particular, can be used topically on the skin and the scalp to prevent dandruff, irritation and to heal various skin problems.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5745501/

Food For Thought

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food for thought

Here is some food for thought, an honest conversation about food and weight loss.

I Want To Lose Weight, What Should I Eat?

Well, my answer is a question to your question. What do you want to eat? If your answer is pizza, chocolate and McDonald’s, we need to dig a little deeper into why you want to eat those things.

Many people say that they are comfort foods. That they crave them and these foods make them feel good. But do they really make you feel that good?

I’m sure within an hour of eating at McDonald’s, your stomach is cramping and you’re not really sure what’s going on in there. Also depending on how many Reese’s pieces you ate, you may be feeling quite nauseous. Later on, do you think to yourself, “oh man, why did I eat that?” And feel bad about yourself for doing that?

If so, this comfort food isn’t really as comforting as you may think. So, let’s take some time to reframe the way we think about food and the comforts it provides.

comfort foods

Food For Thought

If you are regularly consuming food that you know isn’t good for you, it’s time to consider why you’re eating them. Maybe these foods are being used as a form of self disrespect or self sabotage? Perhaps you have become so addicted to the foods that you thought of as comfort food that you can’t seem to walk away from them now? You desperately want to stop wanting them, but their chemicalized mixture is meant to keep drawing you back in.

Click here to read, Finally Quit Your Sugar Addiction With These Top Tips.

What’s Your Relationship with Food?

Transform The Way You Think About Food

A major issue with food is that many of us have grown up in a society of abundant food sources. Where we can go to the grocery store and choose any item we’d like!! Then we bring it home and use food as a way of celebrating with family and friends. It’s also a way to pass the time if we are bored. Furthermore, it can be used to keep us company if we are lonely and even to distract us from the stressful times in our lives.

Because of all of these roles that food has taken on, it’s almost as though food has become a friend. However, it’s important to note that just like in life, we must choose our friends wisely.

Begin by looking at food in two ways:
  1. As a friend
  2. As fuel for your body
what is your relationship with food

Food – Friend Or Foe?

Food can be looked at as a friend ONLY if you think of it as though you are choosing the best friends possible to have close to you in your life.

Therefore we cut out McDonald’s because she has such a toxic personality! We cut out pizza because he’s a gossip. Furthermore, we cut out chips, chocolate and candy because they have a bad attitude. We also cut out ice cream because she never could keep a secret.

So if you’re keeping only the best possible ‘friends’ (food) in your life, make sure you include abundant amounts of:

If you choose to eat meat products, make sure they are:

  • Free range
  • Grass fed
  • Wild caught
  • Antibiotic free

In addition to making sure to include as many organic options as you can.

Click here to read, Do I Always Need To Buy Organic?

fuel for your body

Fuel Your Body Right

Secondly, you can decide that food only has one purpose: to fuel your body. Food is only fuel. That’s it. We only NEED food for its nutrients, vitamins and minerals. You can begin to stop relating food with comfort, loneliness, boredom and celebration. Rather, appreciate it for what it is ~ the fuel your body needs to survive!

The Brain Adjustment: The Shift You Must Make For Your Health

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The Brain Adjustment

When it comes to health, most everyone understands that it affects every part of life and so the desire is for more and better health.  What most people don’t understand is that every part of life affects health – that health and life are intimately linked.

See, going on a diet generally isn’t good for your health and the reasons are likely many.  For starters, let’s consider the first 3 letters – die… but with jokes aside, the main reason is that they are usually time bound.  One might say for example, “I’m going to eat a certain way until I get to a desired weight,” but once the weight target has been reached they will likely revert back to their previous lifestyle and almost invariably more weight “climbs” back on. 

This is largely because we as a society have become so near sighted and confused cause with effect.  We view symptoms like excess weight, pain, poor flexibility, even cancer as problems that need to be treated rather than symptoms of an underlying approach to living (the cause).  We are far too caught up with how we feel right now, giving little thought to what we’ve done to get there and where this current approach to life is taking us – are you regularly taking some time to consider your trajectory?  Quite frankly, we are becoming less and less responsible – less and less able to respond most effectively to the stressors and strains that all of us face in this life.

Take for example the world’s fastest growing chronic degenerative disease; type II diabetes.  In a nut shell, here’s how it’s caused: a person is consuming excess carbs and sugars so their pancreas produces insulin to convert it to fat and store it. As the excessive consumption of carbs and sugars continues more fat is stored and when their body (that is the amazing innate intelligence flowing through the nerve system) recognizes that they are too fat, it reduces their insulin sensitivity to stop more fat being stored because it doesn’t want the body to be any fatter (this is a protective mechanism just like pain is a warning to protect from further damage).  What most people do, rather than take responsibility and reduce carbs and sugars, is go to their medical doctor who prescribes insulin to help their body store more fat, meaning they take pills or injections to help them get fatter which is the reason the insulin sensitivity is reducing in the first place!

If we want to be healthy we need to be responsible and this requires self discipline – the proverb “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.”  This is so true when it comes to health.  Optimal health requires taking a proactive approach to optimizing each area of our lives because we all come under attack from the 3 Ts (toxins, thoughts and trauma) right throughout life.

This makes sense yet why aren’t we as a society more proactive?  We’ve lost or allowed our VISION to be taken from us.  Without vision people will go with the flow and when a symptom or sickness arises they may take a healthier approach to life to get rid of it but that is an ‘away from’ motivation.  As soon as they are ‘far enough away’, there is no motivation to keep on with this healthier approach and they go back to their old way and often end up in a worse state.  Another proverb that rings true “without VISION people perish.”

So the key for health is having a VISION for your life!  Here are some examples; enjoying life with your grandkids, playing golf/tennis when you are 80, serving your community in your retirement or travelling the world if you want to.  Having a vision will enable you to do the less desirable thing and forgo the instant gratification (eat more of the spinach and less of the ice cream) and achieve a much greater reward.  Having a VISION, with targets along the way and a plan to carry you through is vital for the best life.  A final warning, the quick fix is far more costly… consistency is the driving force behind positive change and remember, your health will never exceed the VISION you have for your life!

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Blog by Guest Author:

Dr. Thomas EganDr. Thomas Egan – Gonstead Chiropractor.

Established Peninsula Chiropractic that is now located on East Main Street in Welland in April 2013 – a patient centered family practice with a loving caring team consisting of Lisa, Melissa and newest addition Jessica.  Lives in Welland with his wife Sarah, 1 year old son Malachi (who is brother of a yet to be determined boy or girl).  Born and raised in Australia and from there graduated as a chiropractor in 2004 from RMIT.  Practiced in Melbourne until 2013 before migrating to Welland, Canada.  Has been practicing the Gonstead method since July 2000 (half way through 1st year university) – a method geared around getting to the root cause of the problem and making the most specific correction/adjustment toward normal (vastly different from a manipulation) to help the person get as good as possible as quick as possible and doing it in a way that helps them stay that way for as long as possible.  Believes chiropractic, when applied in the most principled way, is gospel re-enactment on a physical level pointing to the ultimate adjustment given by Jesus who restores the relationship between the head (God) and the body (us). 

You Can find Dr. Egan at:
[email protected]
727 East Main Street Welland, ON. L3B 3Y5
www.peninsulachiropractic.ca
https://www.facebook.com/PeninsulaChiropractic

 

The Mindset Game – Set yourself up to Win

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mindset

We’re almost 4 months into the year. How is it going so far? Are you accomplishing some of the tasks you had thought of around the new year that you would love to complete by now?

Do you even remember what your resolutions were? Or if you think resolutions are ridiculous because they only last 2 days, did you make goals instead? Or did you forget about your goals 2 weeks later?

Where is your mindset? What do you want? What are you doing every single day to move toward what it is that you want?

In the blink of an eye, it will be 6 months into the year and unless you start now to really decide what you want and begin implementing a plan to reach your goals, it will soon be December and you won’t have anything to show for it.

So what do you want?

Do you want to quit your corporate job that is sucking the life out of you to start your dream business? If so, have you taken a course in business? Or taken some online marketing classes? Or laid out your business plan? Started saving like it’s your full time job so that you can fund your project and your life while it gets going?

Every single day you need to take the next right step toward what you want to achieve. It is the accumulation of these small steps that will lead you toward brilliant success.

So think about it… what do YOU want?

Do you want to lose weight? Get your health back? Start buying more fruit and vegetables. And actually eat them before they go bad! Simply let fruit and vegetables crowd out everything else. And move that body! You are meant to enjoy movement, so find something you love to do and do it often. You don’t have to go to the gym and spend hours like a hamster on a treadmill. You can do high intensity interval training for just a few minutes per day – which allows your body to kick itself into a high-fat-burning-machine and burn fat for hours after you are finished exercising.

Are you still thinking about it…..what do you WANT???

Do you want a better relationship with your spouse? Carve out specific times during the week that are yours – that have no distractions, no phones, no tv, no computers. And just be together and enjoy each other’s company.

Marianne Williamson has an amazing book that will completely transform the way you stay in love – called Enchanted Love. Basically she says that as we’re falling in love, we see our new partner as perfection, through rose coloured glasses. Everything they do is absolutely perfect, and we are so smitten that it creates joyful expression throughout the other facets of our life. But over time, we begin to take the rose-coloured glasses off and begin to see your significant other as they are – imperfect, messy and usually late for dinner.

But Marianne says that the true state of someone is actually perfection – and it’s during the first moments of a relationship when you are wearing the rose-coloured glasses – that this is actually reality!! That is the truth of each person, and for a moment in time you are able to see their true soul perfection. But then society and our generational conditioning causes our true sight to become blurred – and the glasses fall off.

So let’s start to put those rose coloured glasses on more often and see our significant others for what they are – perfection! And make sure they have theirs on when they’re looking at you!!

Soooo… what do you want?

Make a list of the things you want to accomplish and create an action plan to start making them happen!! Create a vision board and this will also help to keep you on track, with the universe conspiring to help you make it happen!