The Secret to Avoiding the Mid-Day Slump

It’s coming. You can feel it. You’re trying desperately to will it away, but, inevitably the clock strikes 3:00pm. Suddenly, you are exhausted. The thought of striking the letters on the computer keyboard seems like a daunting task, not to mention you can barely keep your eyes open.

‘Argh!’ you think to yourself. When this happened yesterday, you swore it wouldn’t happen again. As you walk to the café to get a cup of coffee, you wonder how to avoid this midday slump tomorrow. Here’s the good news:  there are steps you can take to energize your body throughout the day and avoid this desperate feeling.

The best place to start is with breakfast. Before we even talk about what to eat, let’s recognize that it’s important TO EAT breakfast. Your body has been in a state of rest, relaxation, and recharging for several hours. It needs fuel in the form of carbohydrates and protein to get going in the morning. Instead of processed cereal and milk, why not go for oatmeal with almonds and blueberries? Or prepare a couple of hardboiled eggs that you can grab-n-go in a hurry. Pair them with a brown rice cake with almond butter and jelly and you’re starting your day off on the right foot.

It’s also important to remember to drink water throughout the day. Dehydration is certain to cause sleepiness and fatigue. Imagine that a few glasses of water could be the difference between your 3 pm exhaustion and vitality.

Don’t forget to put some thought into your snacks. You want to be sure to stay away from excess fats and sugars, which are in candy bars and most packaged food. The fatty foods will make you feel lethargic and the sugars will provide an initial spike, but then you’ll feel the afternoon slump as you come down from the sugar high. Take a few minutes at home to prepare trail mix with almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, Goji berries, and Incan berries. For sweetness, you can add some cacao nibs or mini chocolate chips (I prefer Enjoy Life brand because their products are free of common allergens).

The midday madness doesn't have to continue. You can control how your body feels by nourishing it with healthy food (and water) throughout the day.

Healthy Facts about Avocados!

Today, I decided to add a little avocado to my tuna fish salad... and it was AWESOME!

All About Avocados

Besides being a fiesta favorite, there are many more reasons to lovethese avocado recipes. Avocados are packed with vitamins (like B & C), dietary fiber, and monounsaturated fats, which may help lower cholesterol. Work more into your diet with tips for buying and serving plus six new recipes including–yes–guacamole.

Avocado Production

The two main U.S. producers of the fruit are California and Florida. The Golden State far outranks the Sunshine State, however, with more than 6,000 groves accounting for about 90% of avocado crops.

Avocado Nutrition

Avocados are a good source of fiber, potassium, and vitamins C,K, folate, and B6. Half an avocado has 160 calories, 15 grams of heart-healthy unsaturated fat, and only 2 grams saturated fat. One globe contains more than one-third daily value of vitamin C, and more than half the day’s requirements of vitamin K.

Avocado in Salads

Consider adding avocado or avocado oil to your salads. Recent research shows that antioxidants such as lycopene and beta-carotene are better absorbed with the healthy monounsaturated fat avocados have in abundance.

Super Bowl Guacamole

What would guacamole be without avocados? On Super Bowl Sunday, Americans eat about 8 million pounds of guacamole. For Cinco de Mayo, the tally is closer to 14 million.

Avoiding Browning in Avocados

To reduce oxidation (browning) of an already-sliced avocado, sprinkle lemon juice on the exposed flesh and then refrigerate in a plastic bag.

40 Top Uses For 4 Essential OIls!

40 Top Uses For 4 Essential OIls!

5 Surprising Beauty Foods

5 Surprising Beauty Foods

13 Foods You Should Always Buy Organic

13 Foods You Should Always Buy Organic or Grow in Your Yard!!

We are what we eat, and with all the pesticides and other chemicals in the foods that should keep us healthy, they are making us sick! 

1. Potatoes

Potatoes often retain pesticides even after they are washed and peeled. Almost 80 percent of potatoes contain pesticides.

2. Baby food 

Babies are the most vulnerable to pesticides, and they eat a lot of this.

3. Peanut butter

Non-organic peanut butters are high in pesticides and fungus and contain aflatoxin, a potential carcinogen.

4. Milk

Dairy cows are routinely fed hormones, antibiotics, and pesticide-covered grains, all of which can end up in your milk. The higher the fat level of the milk, the higher the level of pesticides. And toddlers drink lots of whole milk.

5. Apples 

Apples are near the top of the high-pesticide-level list. They’re also a favorite of kids; apples, apple juice, and applesauce are among the most common foods eaten by children ages 1 to 5, according to a USDA survey. So buy organic if you can.

6. Meat 

Animal feed is often laced with antibiotics and synthetic growth hormones. Residue from these chemicals may still be present in meat. The use of antibiotics in food production could contribute to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

7. Nectarines

About 97 percent of nectarines have been found to contain pesticides, according to the USDA.

8. Spinach 

Spinach and lettuce have lots of surface area for pesticides to cover. More than 83 percent of spinach contains pesticides.

9. Peaches and pears

Nearly 94 percent of peaches and pears contain pesticides. Peaches are number one on the Environmental Working Group’s list of foods with the most and the highest concentration of pesticides.

10. Strawberries 

Thin skins make fruits particularly vulnerable to pesticides. Some 90 percent of strawberries contain pesticides.

11. Bell peppers 

Peppers absorb pesticides like a sponge. About 68 percent of peppers contain pesticides and many are imported from countries with looser standards than the US has.

12. Eggs 

Pesticides may pass from chickens to eggs, and from there to the many foods you make with them. Organic eggs com­e from birds that eat organic feed and are not pumped up with growth hormone or dosed with an­tibiotics.

 Lets work together to buy organic, and even start small gardens of our own!!

3 Good-for-You Drinks

Can't remember your kid's cell phone number? Try a daily dose of apple juice.
Concerned about diabetes? Sip four cups of coffee a day. Sidelined by an achy knee? Start every morning with a big glass of fresh orange juice.
In apple juice, it's the antioxidants that do the trick. They boost the level of an all-important brain chemical, acetylcholine, that helps keep memory and learning skills in tip-top condition. What brings acetylcholine down? Three things appear likely: First, diet gaps (too little folate and vitamin E, too much iron). Second, aging. And third, unlucky genes. But when researchers fed apple juice concentrate to lab mice with one or more of these brain drains, their acetylcholine levels climbed and the critters did better in memory tests.
As for coffee and diabetes, in one study, four 8-ounce cups a day seemed to cut the risk of developing the disease by about one-third -- especially for the men, though why isn't clear. How does coffee do its thing? Probably by improving insulin sensitivity, which is key to keeping diabetes at bay. (If you're sensitive to caffeine, though, you may want to skip this tip.) http://www.living4.organogold.com/
Finally, don't forget that good ol' breakfast staple: orange juice. There's something in OJ that relieves joint inflammation, and it appears to be more than just vitamin C. Although vitamin C is an anti-inflammatory, researchers recently found that middle-aged and older adults whose diets were highest in yet another antioxidant that oranges are rich in -- beta-cryptoxanthin (it's found in bell peppers, too) -- were much less likely to develop joint inflammation than those who got less of the nutrient.

Top Inspirational Quotes

1. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. –Napoleon Hill
2. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. –Steve Jobs
3. Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. –Albert Einstein
4. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. –Robert Frost
5. If you can dream it, you can do it. –Walt Disney
6. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. –Wayne Gretzky
7. I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. –Michael Jordan
8. Every strike brings me closer to the next home run. –Babe Ruth
9. Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. –W. Clement Stone
10. Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. –John Lennon
11. We become what we think about. –Earl Nightingale
12. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover. –Mark Twain
13. Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. –John Maxwell
14. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. –Tony Robbins
15. People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily. –Zig Ziglar