TBT: The Benefits of Aloe

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When I was little I remember my Mom going outside, cutting some aloe leaves off our plant, and rubbing the juice on my sun-burnt skin. Fresh aloe was the best things to have over the summer when everyday was a beach day and everyday I came home a bit more red than brown. When we used fresh aloe, the sunburn and pain would be gone before bed that night.

This memory of aloe has always made it one of my favorite plants. Now that I have learned that the benefits of aloe go much further than sun-burnt skin, it is my favorite all over again!

It is no wonder we are still finding uses for aloe vera 5,000 years after Egyptians added it to their daily life. The plant has over 75 nutrients, 12 vitamins, 18 amino acids, 200 enzymes, and 20 minerals- enough to place it in the super food category. Going a little further, aloe is one of the only vegetarian places to find vitamin B12, a natural energizer that also helps with neurological functions.

Since aloe works on the membranes of our skin, it reduces pain from ulcers and aids in healing due to the many nutrients and enzymes. Aloe can also help with heartburn for this same reason. The mucus found in aloe gel can help increase the pH level in our stomachs (making them less acidic), and help repair damaged areas of the esophagus.There has also been new research performed that show aloe to reduce colitis when consumed twice per day and calm psoriasis when applied to the skin.

If you have ever had issues with digestions, aloe could help with that too! The enzymes in aloe kill bad bacteria in places like our gums and our intestinal tract. This makes it easier for our digestion to carry on, unhindered and with a boost. Aloe helps in releasing pepsin, a gastric enzyme used in digestion and also has a high amount of aloin, a naturally occurring laxative.

To get the full effects from aloe, it is best to eat the gel fresh from the plant without cooking. Aloe can be grown indoors in a well lit area with watering once per week. The leaves can also be stored in the fridge for multiple uses.

If having the plant is not possible, there are quite a few aloe products available at health food stores like Whole Foods Market. Be sure to read the label before you buy, not all aloe products are equal. The more whole aloe is used, the better. Drinks like aloe energy drinks or aloe infused water will do far less than an aloe vera gel. My go-to brand is quickly becoming alo Exposed. They use the juice and the pulp plus a few extra flavors to make it yummy!

This article was originally posted on February 6th, 2013.

Weighing In

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Since we are all friends here, I decided to be pretty honest about something... Summers can be a bit fickle for me in the gaining weight department, especially since we are up in Michigan where sweatshirts and booties are my daily uniform. This year was no different and I found myself eating, eating, and eating some more. I am not one to eat on a schedule; at home I eat when I am hungry and don't when not. Up in Michigan things are a bit different since meals are scheduled and I do not always make my way down to them. For this reason I find myself eating 2-3 of each meal and not the most healthy of things either. There is also TONS of midnight snacking and eating right before going to bed. The worst. 

When we got home I put myself on a scale for the first time in two months and was SHOCKED. This body of mine had somehow found a way to pack on ten extra pounds in 2-months time. Yikes. Although I am super happy that two of those pounds are muscle from all my intense Michigan workouts, the other 8-lb's were a bit of a shock. I am a big supporter of weight being but a number and the way you feel being most important, but have personally been feeling a bit bigger and clothing that I usually love is not zipping up so well.

So many of us go through these weight yoyo's and it just made sense to share mine with you. Sometimes we see people we think are super fit and healthy or have it all together, but the fact is, all of us have issues. Right now, my issue is losing those extra pounds that seemed to glue themselves to me over the summer.

The hubs recommended that I try a low-carb lifestyle for a while since he knows my addiction to bread and the whole thing about it not being great for me (I could, and have, eaten an entire loaf of bread in one sitting- it is just so good!). It is actually going very well and he is being super good about not having breads or super carby snacks in the house. Things are much easier not to eat when they are not available :)

So far, I have lost two of those pounds and these are a few of the things that have helped me do it...

• A low-carb diet that has plenty of fruits, veggies, and lots of protein!
• Snacking. My stomach seems bottomless now and I feel like I could eat an entire buffet's worth of food in one sitting. Snacking keeps me satisfied better than big meals that turn my stomach into a black hole of calories.
• Hot Yoga. This is something my body has very obviously been missing. It raises my heart rate, burns fat, and keeps my mind at peace... Everything I love in a workout!
• Drinking coffee black. So long yummy creamers filled with carbs, you weren't that great anyway.
• No more splurge days. This has probably made the biggest difference. I use to have one splurge day a week but could never remember when the last one was or would go out with friends a day after the splurge and end up having way more splurging than healthy eating on a weekly basis. Now, I am eating healthier by just keeping a healthy diet in mind and avoiding not-so-great things. If I want something unhealthy, it is not held off for a week, but instead, eaten in small quantities.

What are some of your tips and tricks to staying healthy or loosing some extra weight? I would love to know any suggestions you have and may even create a post or two about all your fantastic ideas! Any of your favorite calorie burning workouts would also be super appreciated since trying new workouts are, pretty much, the best thing ever!

Happy Friday friends, I hope your weekend is simply wonderful! Be sure to check out my workout sum-up this Sunday as well :)

TBT: The Pros and Cons of Eating Eggs

There has been a long standing debate in our house about whether or not eggs are healthy. Seems like our house if very similar to the rest of the health community. Some say eggs are terrible for you because of the high cholesterol count, others say that the omega fats and protein are pro's that far out-weight the cons. Like so many foods out there, there are pro's and con's to eggs as well.

Pro's of Eating Eggs

Let's start with what most people are concerned about when it comes to health: weight. In a controlled study, those who ate three eggs per day while on a diet lost more weight than those who did not. Eggs have 5-grams of fat (1.6-grams saturated and 2-grams monounsaturated, 6-grams protein, less than 1-gram of carbs, 10% of the daily value of B12, and 11% vitamin D.  

The part where eggs get there bad wrap is at the cholesterol in egg yolks. The American Heart Association recommends eating 300 mg or less of cholesterol per day; eggs have 186-mg cholesterol. In the past cholesterol has been considered the lead contributor to heart disease. Now, new studies are showing that cholesterol is not as bad as we once thought. Turns out, LDL's are a whole lot worse. There are both good and bad forms of cholesterol depending on the carrier. Carriers of the "good" cholesterol are High Density Lipoproteins (HDL), the "bad" ones are the Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL). Cholesterol and saturated fats are two of the main components that make up and LDL. Cholesterol on it's own is not what is bad, cholesterol and saturated and trans fats are the combo that we want to steer clear from. Eggs are low in saturated fats and have no trans fats.

This is great news for those that love eggs but hate heart disease. You can eat them! Eggs have not been shown to increase risk of heart disease in people who have healthy levels of cholesterol.

Con's of Eggs

If you already have high cholesterol, that is the biggest con of the egg. Different people have different levels of cholesterol. Like fat, there is no singular amount of cholesterol in any person. As we already know, cholesterol is not the baddy, LDL's are. People who have high blood cholesterol levels tend to also have high LDL levels. This means that people with higher levels of cholesterol should keep their cholesterol intake down. Therefore, nixing that whole eating tons of egg yolks bit. By loosing the egg yolk you will loose about 2.6-grams protein, 60 calories, all of the vitamins and nutrients, all of the cholesterol, and almost all of the fat.

Then comes the environmental impact of eggs. Eggs are not as bad as the meat industry, but it is not great either. Ethically, caging chickens in cramped and dirty environments for their eggs is just as bad as any other part of the meat industry- it is awful. But, free range chickens have greater access to pollutants, meaining the free rage eggs have higher pollutants as well. This Pandora's box of ethics vs. health is something that most people do not want to get into... Including me. 

In the end, whether you eat eggs or not depends on your person preference and current health. Those who have diabetes and high cholesterol are advised to steer clear of anything more than three eggs a week, including what is in their food already. Those that do not have any health factors to be altered by eating eggs can find them beneficial to a healthy diet. Eggs are a simple way to get quite a large amount of protein and Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids with very few calories, tans fat (none, actually) and saturated fats tagging along.

Here are a few more articles if you are interested in doing some extra egg research.  

Mind Body Green 

Eggs: Healthy or Not? Huffington Post 

Pollutants in Free Range Eggs 

Myth about eggs 

This article was originally posted on October 16, 2013 :)

Easy Food Logging

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I recently heard someone say that you have no idea what you are eating until it is logged for a month. Honestly, I have never really logged what I ate or seen the importance of it; until hearing this. Maybe, this random person who said that random thing is right, I could be thinking that I am eating healthy, or not-so-healthy, and be completely wrong. Logging every. single. thing. we eat can, for sure, show us things that we skimped over, and more importantly, show us those nasty habits in our eating schedule. 

What I have really found from this is 1) I am a snacker and a person who only eats one big meal a day, and 2) the days I drink more water I have more energy. Although I have not been food logging for an entire month yet, it is very easy to see the rewards in it. What is even more important for a girl on the go like me, however, is the ease of use. I have tried a handful+ of free apps and decided that my absolute favorite is MyDietDiary. Although, MyNetDiary's takes a close second. 

The absolute best thing about MyDietDiary is that it has a bar code scanner. This app takes a picture of the bar code and logs all the nutritional information for you. Of course, it is better if we are not eating foods with bar codes, but snack bars, protein shakes, and even fruits and veggies have them. Chances are, however, that if we are eating something with a bar code (healthy or not) we are a bit too stretched for time to also look up the food we are eating, or worse, have to sit and input all it's nutritional information. Really, could there be anything else less likely to happen on a busy day? Probably not. 

This app is also super pretty and, like most others, calculates how many calories you should eat each day to achieve your weight and health goals. There are also tons of pre-logged activities where all you need to do is select which activity you completed and add the number of minutes. The app will calculate the calories burned. So far, the calculated calories seem to be pretty close to what my HRM says as well! If you have a FitBit, Jawbone Up, or use Run Keeper, you can just connect your devices to the app for easier logging. 

A place where MyNetDiary has it beat is with the interface. If you are all about the bells and whistles and do not mind taking a bit more time to log things, MyNetDiary may be more your style. On MND you can add body measurements, before and after photos,  diet plans, and you can log vitamins. Since I do take vitamins, that is something I seriously wish was on MyDietDiary. 

Both these apps do have charts, calendars, and communities to get support from. Really, either one is a great option, it just depends on how much effort you are ready to put into logging what you eat.