Top 10 tips for treating insulin resistance

1.Rather than the typical “three meals a day” routine, eat several smalls meals. You will slow down your body’s insulin reaction and make it easier for cells to absorb the glucose it needs.

2.Eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains plus oats, beans and legumes are particularly helpful in providing your body with fiber, which controls your blood insulin and sugar levels.

3. Eat chicken, turkey and fish instead of red meat 

 

4. Minimize or eliminate processed meats and animal fats such as butter . 

5. Prepare dishes with healthy cooking oils like canola, sunflower and olive oil. Remember to use a moderate amount

6. Eat healthy snacks and avoid sugary drinks, baked goods and other sweets.

7. Eat dairy products since the proteins and enzymes can slow the conversion of glucose to blood sugar.

8.  Moderate exercise  for 30 minutes a day can make your muscles use the available glucose that’s floating around your bloodstream.

9. Sleep for 6 to 8 hours a night. Blood sugar levels can be disrupted and raise insulin resistance if you are sleep-deprived.

10. Relax with prayer, meditation or other relaxation methods. One study showed that relaxing can reduce high blood sugar levels. 

Hey, I’ve got high cholesterol but I never would have known if I hadn’t had my labs done (thank you, generous company that my husband works for who pays for free exams every year). AS a result, I found out that I had high cholesterol and steps have been taken to bring it down. But here are the Top 5 reasons why you should get it checked:

1. It’s critical to having a healthy heart.

2. You can boost your good cholesterol if you know that it’s low.

3. You can implement easy lifestyle changes that will override your genetic tnedency towards high cholesterol.

4. You can see how what you eat and how you live do make a difference in your health.

5. If you start with diet and lifestyle changes and add cholesterol-lowering medications on top of that, you may not need to take them forever.

Top 12 Ingredients of Happiness

I was sitting in the doctor’s office waiting room the other day and picked up “redbook” magazine from May 2006. They had the Top 12 Ingredients of Happiness. If I had only known back when I was in my 20’s! Ah, well, it’s never too late…Here they are from the last to the first….

12. Altruism…doing nice things for people.

11. good health…this is number 11?

10. Perspective

9. Security

8. Love

7. Spirituality

6. Purpose

5. Courage

4. Humor

3. Proactivity

2. Optimism

and the #1 ingredient of happiness is………………………

Sense of Choice.

Whaa?? I think they got this backwards.

On my list, Love would be number 1, followed by spirituality, followed by good health. Then purpose,humor, perspective, security, optimism, proactivity, courage, altruism and sense of choice.

What say you? Notice that money doesn’t make the cut? Maybe that’s what they mean by “security”. 

Top 10 Guilty pleasures

Okay, these are food-related guilty pleasures. You can just feel yourself bloat up when you imbibe. See if you can beat these…pretty guilty!

10. Airheads-Blue Raspberry

9. Laffy Taffy – banana flavored

8. Reeses Peanut Butter cups

7. Lasagna

6. Egg rolls

5. KFC fried chicken

4. McDonald’s Big Mac

3. Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake -any flavor!

2. Beer!

1. Brownies…thick, rich with nuts!

The best healthy cereals according to…

Prevention magazine. I must admit, some of them don’t sound to tasty to me. With really long names that sound like a scientific formula for crap, you try and decide! Actually, the last one spunds pretty good. They are in reverse order, just because.

9.. Zoe’s O’s – whole grains, flax and soy

8. Kashi GoLean Crunch! – long grain brown rice, white oats and barley, flaxseed, almondsand honey. Yuck!

7. Peace Cereal – bran strands (!)

6. Fiber One Honey CLusters – whole grain flakes with honey-oat clusters

5. Nature’s Path Organic Pomegrain Plus Granola with Cherries – crispy rice, chewy rolled oats, and pomegranite juice.

4. South Beach Diet Whole Grain Crunch – whole grain flakes, ridged chips (?), puffed wheat andalmonds

3. Arrowhead Mills Organic 4 Grain Plus Flax Hot Cereal – cracked wheat, steel-cut oats, rye, barley grits and flax. 

2. Organic Weetabix Crispy Flakesand Fiber- self-explanatory. Think weetabix biscuits.

1. Envirokidz Organic Peanut Butter Panda Puffs – certified organic corn puffs sweetenedwith cane juice and flavored with all-naturalpeanut butter.

Signs and Symptoms of ovarian cancer

I’m not using the rating system of “Top 10″ for this list because there is no “Top 10″ for ovarian cancer. These are just some signs and symptoms you need to watch for and see your doctor about. if you are experiencing any of these symptoms, you could be at risk for ovarian cancer:

1. Feeling a sensation of “pelvic heaviness”.

2. Vague lower abdominal discomfort

3. vaginal bleeding

4. weight gain or loss

5. abnormal menstrual cycles

6. unexplained bacck pain that worsens over time

7. increased abdominal girth

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.  If caught in time, ovarian cancer has a 90% survival rate. The bad news is that ovarian cancer is hard to detect so become familiar with the signs and protect your health.