Eating in Moderation is the Key

Does your household pig out all the time? I have found that eating in moderation is the key to my own weight and the weight of my children in check.
As far as I am concerned, there are three simple concepts everyone should keep in mind about food: moderation, variety and balance. Moderation means keeping those portion sizes under control. Variety means eating different foods every day. Balance means choosing foods that provide you vitamins from each category.
The ideal of eating healthy is described by the Food Guide Pyramid. Found at https://mypyramid.gov/, The Good Guide Pyramid shows you exactly how to eat in moderation, in balance and also how to choose a variety of foods. This is a great site because it has personalization menu options that can help you create really healthy meals. It has certainly taught me ways to eat healthier both as an individual and as a family.\
In my experience finding balance with a diet is all about taking foods from each of the food groups and then making sure our bodies have adequate nutrients from delicious low crab foods rather than from processed foods.
I always get stuck for ideas on how to eat healthy when my brood and I go out to restaurants. It seems that hidden calories are everywhere -from breads and appetizers to the main course. Try grilled proteins instead of fried, and choose vegetables over starches. Every day, try to incorporate a healthy balance of grains, vegetables, fruits, and a small amount of fats and oils into your diet.
It is really bad news to eat the same thing day after day. Ingesting a variety of foods also ensures that we get all of the required nutrients we need, since there is not a single ‘super food' that has everything we need in it. Eating the same thing over and over also only initiates a desire to stray away from a healthy eating plan. I would never serve my kids salad day after day because they simply would get bored and sneak off to MacDonald's to get a fish filet or something.
Of course if the aim of eating healthy is to lose weight in a short time you might want to cut calories yet at the same time keeps up a variety of foods. Moderation is equally important, since there are no 'bad' foods out there, but 'bad' foods are those that get eaten way too frequently and cause us to gain weight
My family and I have a treat once in a while, but we do so in moderation. We eat meat portions the size of a deck of cards, cheese the size of four dice, grains the size of a tennis ball, vegetables the size of a fist, potatoes the size of a small computer mouse and we make sure we never hiver more than a teaspoon of oil on our salad. That is the quick way to visualize how to stay healthy.

The Benefits of a Power Nap

Mothers get grouchy because kids keep them hopping on their feet all day. If done correctly, taking regular day-time naps will give you an enormous surge of energy and make you feel d so you can wake up earlier.

This is not such a strange concept.  In many siesta countries (such as Spain and Mexico), taking a regular mid-afternoon nap is a normal part of the culture. There is wisdom behind this approach to life.  The key is to not sleep longer than forty-five to fifty minutes as this is how long it takes for most people to accomplish one sleep cycle.

During the first sleep cycle, our body enters deep sleep for the longest period of time, it's at this point that our body temperature begins to drop really low, our respiration, heart rate and blood pressure decreases.

If you've ev er been woken up out of 'deep sleep', you know that it's almost impossible to shake ourselves out of it. Waking up during or after a major deep sleep phase makes you feel lethargic, slow, and disoriented.

It takes about 45 minutes to enter the first deep sleep phase. If you limit your nap to 45 minutes, you will sleep mainly in Stage 2 sleep, which is the stage of sleep that is primarily concerned with restoring our physical energy. If you sleep any longer and are suddenly awakened you may feel too groggy to go on as you are entering stages of sleep that more have to do with the mind.

Yet another danger of entering deep sleep during the day is putting your body temperature rhythm out of whack, it may be difficult for you to go to sleep later on in the night. You may also have difficulty sleeping deeply at night, which will have negative consequences for the day ahead, such as poor energy, headaches and nausea.

The correct way to take naps is to keep them short and to take them at the same time every day.Taking irregular naps is one way that sleeping disorders develop. If you feel tired after a nap that is your cue to shorten, not lengthen the nap by a few minutes.

 

If you have never napped before, you are in for a treat. You will be surprised at how energized you feel for the rest of the day when you do take one! Limit the nap to 45 minutes, if you still feel tired after the nap, then shorten the nap time. The amount of time required to enter deep sleep varies from person to person so once again finding your personal threshold for achieving quality sleep can take time and patience. However most people achieve great success by simply setting a gentle alarm for 50 minutes!