Doubts direction determines life’s destination.
What we do and what we believe, affect everything around us.
Happy New Beginnings in your New Year!
Month: December 2014
Keep Your New Year’s Resolution: 4 Science-Backed Tips
StandardThree very important words in this post are, “Plan to fail”. Be realistic, every new endeavor has the possibility for a setback. Stay focused on your goal and track your success, no matter how small it may seem. Forward progress can be making it through a temptation if only for a minute. You are worth the effort you invest in yourself.
Diana Vilibert December 18, 2014
Planning to lose weight, start running, or quit smoking in 2015? Join the club. While a lot of us—almost half percent of Americans—make New Year’s resolutions confidently and optimistically, only eight percent of people actually achieve them. As for the rest of us? Well, there’s still hope—keep reading to find out what makes a New Year’s resolution succeed or fail, and how to make sure you own 2015 goal sticks.
Simple is best
January 1, 2015 is not the time for a total life overhaul. Willpower is a finite resource, so use it wisely. Pick one goal to focus on at a time (even if you plan to work on a few over the course of the year) instead of overloading yourself with plans to run a marathon, double your income, go vegan, and stop smoking.
Get specific
“We say if you can’t measure…
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If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.
Anytime you feel, hear, or think you cannot do something, remember that without trying you never will. The slightest attempt or effort, will put you ahead of those that won’t or can’t. So what is truly stopping you, yourself?
«If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.»
— Vincent Van Gogh
Charisma quotes are sponsored by DonCharisma.com – you dream it we built it … because – “anything is possible with Charisma”
Health Benefits of Honey
StandardNot just a sugar substitute. Honey rocks a peanut butter sandwich! Swirl it into your protein shake for an awesome energy boost. Great for quelling a cough too.
Honey has been used by countless cultures all around the world over the past 2,500 years. While the numerous health benefits of honey have made it an important element of traditional medicines such as Ayurvedic treatments, scientists are also researching the benefits of honey in relation to modern medicine, particularly in the healing of wounds.
It is known as Honig in German, Miele in Italian, Shahad in Hindi, Miel in French and Spanish, Mel in Portuguese, мед in Russian, Honing in Dutch, and μελι in Greek; there is almost no part in the world where honey is not widely used and celebrated as a part of the cultural diet.
But what makes honey so popular? Most likely, it is the ease with which it can be consumed. One can eat honey directly, put it on bread like a jam, mix it with juice or any drink instead of sugar, or…
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Thank You!
StandardA very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or specific holiday that you celebrate, to all of my followers on WordPress across the world and to my Facebook followers here.
Thank you all.
Bob
Cream of Mushroom Soup
StandardWarm, smooth and creamily inviting mushroom soup. This is a simple, and healthy recipe for a stand alone dish, side or sauce for a casserole.
You wouldn’t believe this is vegan and flour free. It’s creamy and thick. I’ve been making vegan cream sauces for years now, and I often use flour to add thickness to them. Not this time! I am so happy to have successfully made this soup.
I kept the spices to a minimum as I was creating this for the first time and wanted to see how the kids would like it before getting too crazy with the flavors. I will be making this again for sure, as my daughter definitely enjoyed it. And I will be playing with the spices more.
Ingredients:
- 1 small potato
- 1/2 large head of cauliflower
- 3 cups sliced button mushrooms
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 TBS olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups milk (I used coconut)
Steps:
- chop and steam the potato and cauliflower
- in the meantime, heat olive oil in a skillet, add…
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Feel the Burn
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Typically, when someone is talking about , ‘Feeling the burn’, they are referring to the euphoric high of an intense workout. The one that makes each breath of oxygen fuel your muscles, so that you can continue to get in one more set, one more rep, or maybe just one more step. The burn is the production and build up of lactic acid.
High intensity exercise can cause an endorphin rush much like the intake of Capsaicin, which is an active component in chilie peppers and is said to promote weight loss. It is also an anti fungal.
I am known as a chili head. I enjoy the burn of hot peppers, sauces, seasonings and all things chili. I have been busy grinding dried Mulato, Ancho, Ghost, New Mex., Chococlate Habanero, and Fatali chilies. I mix this with a few seasonings and use it as a topical addition for eggs, soups, meats, you name it.
These Fatali peppers are one of my favorites for their citrus like flavor. I am wearing gloves due to the oils that are present on these chilies. The vast majority of the heat is not in the seeds, as some people think, but in the membrane or placenta, that holds the seeds.
I recently took a stab at making my own pepper sauce. It turned out rather well. I made my first batch with Jalapenos and Poblanos. These were fermented in a brine solution with yogurt culture to help create the process. After about six weeks, I added vinegar, a few final seasonings, ran half the batch through a berry strainer, and my first bottle of hot sauce was born.
There was a point where we had to vacate the premises and air it out, due to the overwhelming fumes. This gave us ample time for some great Mexican food at my favorite restaurant.
Whether you choose to explore the use of capsaicin as a topical for pain relief, the ingestion of more spice for health reasons, (circulation), or just grab a bottle of chipotle sauce for flavor, I hope you enjoy your experience as much as I have enjoyed sharing mine with you.
Feel the Burn!
In fitness, Bob
Success in Failure
StandardWinston Churchill is quoted as saying; Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
I failed. I failed to live up to my own expectations. I know that I am not the first, nor will I be the last. We have all hit our wall or a point that we knew we could do better. It is at this point that we must choose to succeed by trying again, becoming who we want to be, or creating what it is that we expect our finished product to be.
Have you ever tried to accomplish a task, only to reach an obstacle? Did you write your attempt off as something you would never try again, or did you take your failure as a challenge to improve?
Most of us are perfectionists to some level. We want to better ourselves in some way. We want to be good at what we do, to feel good about who we are, and be proud of ourselves and our accomplishments.
Back to my failure. It was nothing that affected anyone other than myself. I recently tested for my red belt in my self defense class. At this level, it was a physically demanding test. (Not that others haven’t been.) I had let my cardio training slide after recovering from some minor injuries, and I paid the price. I was out of breath and embarrassed at my performance. The price I paid was a dent in my ego, because I knew better. I had done well in previous tests and even performed well in assisting my Master Instructor in his 5th Degree test. I knew at some level that I would do okay, but okay was not good enough.
I completed my test for my red belt, passed to the next level, but I also relearned a valuable lesson. I must continue to sharpen my skills. In order for me to succeed at the level I hold myself to, I must use my failure as a lesson and move on. Some of you may say that this is not a big deal, or that it is not all that important, but to me it is. It is that desire and drive to better ourselves, that keeps us from falling backwards.
Don’t let your struggles in life set you back. Be a warrior, stand out from the crowd and find that desire that makes you proud of who it is you want to be or what you want to do.
I am also a foodie. What does this have to do with failure? Many times it is in the creation of a recipe that the finished product is the result of, “What can I do to fix this”? Sometimes it is through these failures that we realize our mistakes and make the necessary changes to succeed in the desired outcome.
Whatever your test (failure), in life may be, do not give up.
Do not become a victim of failure.
Succeed by trying again.
Every bit of forward progress makes you better, stronger, and more prepared to obtain your success through failure.
In fitness, Bob
Recipe: Fig-a-licious Vegan Tart (Gluten and Sugar Free)
StandardIn gearing up for the holiday feasts, here is a gluten free dish that is sure to satisfy the sweet tooth craving. Rich in phyto-nutrients, vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants, figs are low in calories and a source of fiber. Vitamins A, E, and K help prevent diabetes, disease, cancer and infection. Containing levels of niacin, pyridoxine, folate and pantothenic acid, this helps to metabolize carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Figs also help stabilize blood sugar levels and control blood glucose in adult onset diabetes. Dried figs are an excellent sources of minerals like calcium, copper, potassium, manganese, iron, selenium and zinc. 100 g of dried figs contain 680 mg of potassium, 162 mg of calcium, and 2.03 mg of iron. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Copper is required in the production of red blood cells. Iron is required for red blood cell formation as well for cellular oxidation. (Source: USDA National Nutrient database)
5th December 2014 By Trinity Bourne Contributing Writer for Wake Up World
I love dispelling the myth that healthy food can’t be absolutely delicious.
There’s something really satiating about eating a dessert that not only tastes scrumptious, but is also full of healthy ingredients.
My ‘Fig-a-licious Vegan Tart’ is free from diary, egg, wheat, gluten, refined sugar and it STILL tastes delectable. We absolutely love this one here, so I felt to share it for anyone else looking for a tasty, gluten-free, vegan treat.
Serves: 4 – 6
Baking: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
– 250g (9 oz) figs, plus water to soak
– 1 heaped teaspoon of orange or lemon rind
– 75g (2½ oz) rice flour (brown or white)
– 75g (2½ oz) tapioca flour (also known as tapioca starch)
– 1 heaped tablespoon ground flax seed
– 3 tablespoons brown rice syrup
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MY HEALTHY CHRISTMAS DINNER !!!
StandardFor those of you out there who may not think you can put together a beautiful and healthy Christmas spread, here you go. Faya has done an exquisite job with this table setting. You could still overeat with a healthy meal of nutritious food, but the point is to provide a nutritious, healthy offering, that doesn’t come across as ‘Health food”.
Christmas is infamous for overeating indulgent sugary, fattening foods. This post is my attempt at a healthier alternative – it’s a tour-de-force of the same foods but with a bit of a lighter twist. Perhaps you can just pick and choose a few ideas from it, and as you can see from the picture above, ‘healthier’ needn’t look any less inviting and ‘Christmassy’ 🙂 ! Click MORE to see lovely pictures of the rest of my meal & get the ‘how to’ 🙂 Faya
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Your Gateway to Health 