What is the Best Way to Become a Vegetarian?

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About six months ago I decided to stop eating meat entirely. I did it, not becasue I wanted to lose weight, or I wanted to try something new, I did it for a personal reason, and have been a vegetarian for six months now! It has been very hard at times as I was a huge meat eater. In fact I was the guy that lost 45 lbs on the Atkins diet that consists nothing but meat! I have been reading a lot of different religious books and found a book to be very interesting. It is titled The Science of Self-Realization by his Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupade. It is a book you can read along the Bhagavad Gita as it is.  It helps you understand God and our purpose in this life. One of the many lessons that I took from this book is the value of life….for all creatures. This book opened my eyes to the eating of animals. Now I am not one of those individuals that preach about religion or try to pursue people to follow my religion. I strongly believe that any religion that you choose is a great way to begin a healthy lifestyle. I am not telling you to follow any religion. I am just simply telling you my choice that I have made to eliminate meat from my diet. Again,  becoming a vegetarian has been very hard at times, however, I do feel a lot better about myself and have noticed that I have lost aproximately 15lbs. Some of you may have thought about becoming a vegetarian for religious purposes, or lifestyle changes. Whatever the reason may be, always consult with your doctor if you plan on doing anything as drastic as becoming a vegetarian. I have found a great article that I posted below. This article may help you get started. Good luck to you and I wish you nothing bu happiness!
Sincerely,
W. Troy Goings

 

 

What’s the best way to become a vegetarian?

by Kate Wertheimer

The importance of protein The 10 percent to 15 percent of calories you need each day from protein can easily be met by eating high-quality plant foods, including vegetables (vegetables contribute 2 grams to 3 grams of protein per half cup serving) as well as beans, lentils, nuts and seeds. Typically, more than half of the calories in a vegetarian diet comes from carbohydrates, found in vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes.

Don’t forget fat Fats serve multiple functions, such as maintaining the integrity of our cell membranes and fighting inflammation. Essential fatty acids in plant foods, including flax, hemp, soybeans and walnuts, are provided in the form of ALA, which the body can then convert to those fatty acids found naturally in fish (EPA and DHA). Or, take a vegetarian omega-3 Natural Healing supplement that is made from algae.

Take your vitamins Supplements, in conjunction with diet, can help you get enough of four crucial vitamins and minerals found in animal foods:

Vitamin D: There are receptors in every cell for vitamin D, shown to aid in immunity and cancer protection. You need a minimum of 600 IUs per day.

B12: Essential for energy, metabolism and cognitive function, B12 is found only in animal foods. Get the recommended 2.4 micrograms of B12 from eggs, dairy or in fortified foods such as cereal.

Zinc: Important for optimal immune function, zinc is found in nuts, seeds, whole grains and wild rice. Zinc absorption may be slightly lower for vegetarians, so it’s important to make sure you vary the number of zinc sources you get in order to meet the recommended 8 milligrams to 11 milligrams per day.

Iron: Vital to the health of red blood cells, iron is essential for energy and immunity. Fresh fruit, dark greens, beans, tofu, whole grains, nuts and seeds can provide the recommended 10 milligrams to 18 milligrams per day along with a hefty dose of vitamin C, which helps the body absorb the nonheme iron found in plant foods.

Seek inspiration Vegetarian resources are essential to help create a balanced, whole foods eating plan and avoiding the pitfalls of a convenience-based, nutritionally naked vegetarian diet. Celebrate your choice (and seek out support) by sharing your new eating habits with your family and friends. — Kathie Madonna Swift, M.S., R.D., L.D.N., creator of myfoundationdiet.com, a glutenfree, dairy-free and whole foods guide to vegetarian and flexitarian diets.

Related articles

• A Vegetarian Pregnancy (everydayhealth.com)
• Go Vegetarian Without the Gas (everydayhealth.com)
• What Kind of Vegetarian Are You? (everydayhealth.com)
• Designing a Healthy Vegetarian Diet (everydayhealth.com)
• Being a Vegetarian (onelightmanywindows.wordpress.com)

Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

We had to make this announcement. We here at Goings Natural understands the importance of October and that it is the month that we all come together to help find a cure for Breast Cancer. So we want to do our part. Goings Natural will be donating $5.00 from EVERY treatment that we administer during the entire month of October! Won’t you help and be a part of this? Simply book an appointment and we will take care of the rest! Great way to participate for such an important cause! To schedule your appointment call us at 916-877-4324. If you can not make it in this month, but would still like to donate, you can always stop by with a check or money order made out to Sacramento Valley Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure
Thank you to you all for your support in this. Please spread the word and lets see how much we can raise this month to fight breast cancer!

For other ways that you can help, please visit http://www.komensacramento.org/

I am back!

My apologizes to everyone that read this blog! I have going through some changes and have been focussing on bring back my business of massage therapy. I have not found time to keep up with this blog. However, with some time management, I will be able to post weekly. So I will post an update EVERY Monday. Monday seems to be the day where everyone searches for information. These postings will be either recipes, or a fun health article, or interesting weight loss facts. So tune in every Monday for the latest entry to Goings Natural’s blog.

Stress Can Be Dangerous!

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Stress; A word that you hear everyday! You job can bring you stress, your home life can bring you stress, heck, even your vacation can stress you out. It’s important to take the time to identify your stress and react to it. Learn about what stressed you out, and what impacts does stress cause you individually. Learn what triggers your stress and find coping skills to accommodate your stress. Lets learn a little bit about stress and see if we can come up with some exercises or remedies that may help you through the stress that you may be experiencing right now.

The term “stress” refers to any reaction to a physical, mental, social, or emotional stimulus that requires a response or alteration to the way we perform, think, or feel. Change is stressful- whether the change is good or bad. Worry produces stress. Indeed, stress is an unavoidable part of life. It can result from many things, both physical and psychological. Pressures and deadlines at work, problems with loved ones, the need to pay the bills, and getting ready for the holidays are obvious sources of stress for many people. Less obvious stresses, the ones we really need to pay attention to, include everyday encounters with crowds, noise, traffic, pain, extremes of temperature, and even welcome events such as starting a new job or the birth or adoption of a new child. Overwork, lack of sleep, and physical illness put stress on the body. Some people create their own stress;whether there is anything objectively wrong in their lives or not, they find things to worry about. For such people, stress becomes almost an addiction.

Some people handle stress very well, and it has little impact on their emotional or physical health. Others are very negatively influenced by it. Stress can cause fatigue, chronic headaches, irritability, changes in appetite, memory loss, low self-esteem, withdrawal, teeth grinding, cold hands, high blood pressure, shallow breathing, nervous twitches, lowered sexual drive, insomnia, or other changes in sleep patterns, and/or gastrointestinal disorders. Stress creates an excellent breeding ground for illness. researchers estimate that stress contributes to as many as 80 percent of all major illness, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, endocrine and metabolic disease, skin disorders, and infectious ailments of all kinds. Many psychiatrists believe that majority of back problems are related to stress.

Many people attribute their stress-related symptoms to “nerves” and in fact stress usually does affect the parts of the body that are related to the nervous system first, especially through the digestive organs. Symptoms of stress-related digestive disorders may be flare-up of an ulcer or irritable bowel syndrome. If stress that produces such symptoms is not handled properly, more serious illnesses may result.

So now that we know stress is very dangerous and harmful, we need to learn things that we can do to prevent or reduce stress from impacting our lives. Here are some recommendations to help you cope with or prevent your stress levels.

1. eat a diet composed of 50 to 75% raw foods. Fresh fruits and vegetables not only supply valuable vitamins and minerals, but are rich in compounds called flavonoids, many of which scavenge and neutralize dangerous free radicals.
2. Avoid processed foods and all foods that create stress on the system, such as artificial sweeteners, carbonated soft drinks, chocolate, eggs, fried, foods, pork, red meat, sugar, white flour products,  foods containing preservatives or heavy spices and chips and similar snack foods.
3. Eliminate dairy products from your diet for three weeks. Then reintroduce them slowly- and watch for returning symptoms of your “nervous” condition.
4. Avoid alcohol, tobacco, and mood altering drugs. these may offer a temporary solution, however the truth is the stress will still be there the following day.
5. Limit your intake of caffeine. Caffeine contributes to nervousness and can disrupt sleep patterns.
6. Get regular exercise.
7. Learn to relax. Relaxation is often difficult for people suffering from the effects of stress, but its necessary
8. Get sufficient sleep each night. This may be difficult, because stress can keep you up at night.
9. Try meditation. Many people find that regular meditation helps then to relax and handle stress. Meditation does not have to be spiritual or religious connotations. For example, you can meditate on a word such as “peace,” “calm,” “relax,” or “warm.” Or you may find it helpful to meditate on a pleasant person, place or event. It is good to have a store of pleasant thoughts to draw on during stressful times. While meditation can have some short-term benefits, it is more effective when practiced on a daily basis. Try meditation twice a day for ten to twenty minutes each time.
10. Practice deep breathing
11. Identify the sources of your stress
12. Take a day off – that is what weekends are for. Take a drive, listen to music, go to the beach or lake, read – whatever you find rewarding and relaxing.
13. Pursue a hobby
14. Do not repress or deny your emotions. This only compounds stress. Admit your feelings and accept them. Keeping strong feelings bottled up only causes them to resurface later as illness. Don’t be afraid to cry. Learning to cry  can help you to manage stress. Crying can relieve anxiety and let loose bottled up emotions.

There are many things we can do to help us deal with stress. I have given you some suggestions, however you need to find what works for you as everyone is different! I would love to hear comments back on this one to let me know what you do to release stress!

Related articles

• Stress and What to Do About It (boydswellnesscenter.wordpress.com)
• An approach to Stress ‘N’ Anxiety Management (zindaadil.wordpress.com)
• Meditation could be the key to a stress-free life (radioadelaidebreakfast.wordpress.com)
• 10 Tips for Managing Pre-Wedding Stress (joyofspa.com)
• Meditation and Stress Relief (mysnowdaze.wordpress.com)

What to Do in Case of a Snakebite

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As summer keeps moving on, many of us will take to the forests and the woods to enjoy some of the natures best camping facilities. Camping is a very fun and leisurely activity and a great way to spend quality time with family and friends. However, there are some dangers that we need to be aware of as well, such as snakes. What would you so if you were bitten by a snake? Would you suck the venom out? Would you run to the park ranger? Would you sit there like many of us crying and screaming not knowing what to do? Well hopefully this article will help you make the right decision if you encountered this situation.

If you or someone with you is bitten by a snake, it is vital to seek appropriate medical treatment. It is equally vital to avoid making inappropriate attempts at treatment; such mistakes can cause more problems that they solve. What to do in any particular case depends on the circumstances surrounding the bite.

What to DO

While not all snake bites are life-threatening, it is important to follow these simple step:

• Remain calm (or, if the victim is someone other than yourself calm her/her down)
• If possible, call for emergency assistance.
• Gentle was the area with soap and water.
• Apply a cold, wet cloth over the bite.

Get yourself or the victim to the nearest hospital emergency room for further treatment

What NOT to Do

The list of measures that should be avoided in response to snakebite include:

• Do Not  apply a tourniquet. This has been the cause of numerous amputations. It is possible that the application of a tourniquet is more dangerous that the snakebite itself.
• DO NOT pack the entire bitten area in ice. This can block circulation and cause injury to tissue, or even gangrene. An ice pack or some cubes wrapped in cloth, applied periodically to the skin, is the maximum you want to use.
• DO NOT cut the wound with a knife or a razor. Older first-aid kits contain cutters, but excessive bleeding can cause more damage. If you happen to cut an artery, the victim can bleed to death. Unless you happen to be a vascular surgeon, leave the razor blades in your pack.
• DO NOT use your mouth to “suck out” the venom. The average human mouth has so many bacteria in it that infection of the would almost be certain, complicating treatment in the long run.
• DO NOT drink alcohol (or give it to the victim)
• DO NOT use an electric shock, Taser, stun gun, cattle prod, or any such device applied to the snakebite. All you will do is make the victim more miserable, and the venom will not be broken down by the electricity.

OTHER MEASURES

IF you can safely kill the snake, do so and decapitate it. Bury the head and bring the body with you to the emergency room for identification. The correct antivenin can then be selected at the hospital. DO NOT BRING THE HEAD!!!  A decapitated snake head can bite up to an hour after its death!

There is one type of snakebite kit that is worthwhile. It is called Sawyer Extractor, and is available from Sawyer Products. It contains a syringe-like device that does work to suck out venom without requiring you to open up the fang wounds with a tool. This prevents excessive bleeding and contamination of the wound. This kit will probably out about half the venom if it is used quickly (within five minutes of the bite is recommended). These are available from many sporting goods stores and on the Internet for less than twenty dollars. If you are going to be someplace in snake country that is really far from civilization, having one of these kits in your backpack is a necessity. After you use it, transport to the nearest hospital is still required so that proper care can be administered!

Bottom line is, like everything we do, we need to be careful. We need to make sure that all precautions are taken and that we are prepared for any type of emergency. Before you leave on your camping trip, sit and think what could go wrong and plan accordingly. It is better to be over-prepaired than under. Make sure you call Goings Natural Health and Bodywork Center when you get back. We will make sure your to get your body back to its normal state with our body treatments or halth consultations.

www.goingsnatural.wordpress.com

916-877-HEAL (4325)

Related articles

• Snakebite treatment buys time (sciencenews.org)
• Adrenaline given before snakebite anti-venom treatment reduces allergic reactions (medicalxpress.com)
• The Reptile Rescue Squad (thebutterflydiaries.wordpress.com)
• When the Snake Bites … Try Ointment (news.sciencemag.org)

Limit your use of Salt

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Although some sodium is essential for survival, inadequate sodium intake is a rare problem. We need less than 500 milligrams of sodium a day to stay healthy. this is enough to accomplish all the vital functions that sodium performs in the body- helping maintain norma, fluid levels, healthy muscle function, and proper acidity (pH) of the blood. Excessive sodium intake can cause a fluid to be retained in the tissues, which can lead to hypertension (high blood pressure) and can aggravate many medical disorders, including congestive heart failure, certain forms of kidney disease, and premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

One of the best ways to limit the sodium in your diet is to limit your use of salt when cooking and dining. Just as important, stay away from processed foods, which often contain excessively high amounts of sodium.

Related articles

• Get Smart About Sodium and Salt (everydayhealth.com)
• The Facts About Salt and High Blood Pressure (everydayhealth.com)
• Cooking for Someone With High Blood Pressure (everydayhealth.com)
• The Facts on Heart Disease, Sodium, and Sugar (everydayhealth.com)
• It’s Time to End the War on Salt (scientificamerican.com)

So What are the New Changes?

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We are glad you asked! We are revamping our business to accommodate a different type of individual! We have noticed in the past couple of years that many people do not have the time to commit to spending an hour for a massage on a regular basis! We have also noticed that once someone has committed to this hour they are being given massages that are not working for them. Though these massages are relaxing and deserved, they are only masking the problem and are not giving the client the long-term pain relief that the client needs!  We understand the benefits of a GOOD massage and what it can do to your overall health.

That is why we have scientifically studied these scenarios and came up with a plan! A plan that will save you time and money and leave you feeling brand new! The process is simple! If you have not had a massage for 3 months or longer than we start you off with a full body maintenance massage treatment. During this treatment we will evaluate your situation and pin-point exactly where your pain and tensions are coming from. We then will proceed with the treatment. We will stretch and elongate any curled muscles. We will focus on the areas that are giving you daily pain by utilizing A.R.T. methods, medical massage treatments, deep tissue release treatments,  as well as trigger point therapy. Once you have completed this rigorous yet beneficial treatment, we will schedule you for a weekly maintenance treatment that are only 20 minutes long. Again this will save you time and money and is a great method for preventative care.

Our new methods of treatment is for the busy individual that is health conscious. We feel that there is a huge number of  people that visit the gym everyday,  and DO NOT STRETCH after their work-outs. This can cause discomfort and pain days after your work-out. Then they go back the next day to do it again and will work through the pain, only causing more damage without any stretching again prior to their work out. This is a vicious cycle that will cause an injury. We want to be the preventative treatment that will allow you to continue with your busy lifestyle and stay healthy as well. Throw us into your routine! You deserve it!

WE ARE REVOLUTIONIZING THE MASSAGE INDUSTRY FOR THE GOOD OF A NATURAL, AND HEALTHY LIFESTYLE!!

For more questions or concerns, please call us at 916-877-HEAL (4325)

Vitamin C a Fat Burner?

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Vitamin C helps you burn more fat when you exercise! In a recent study people who took 500 mg of Vitamin C daily burned 39% more fat while excercising than people who took less. Since it is difficult to get enough Vitamin C just from fruits and vegetables, take a Vitamin C supplement to be sure you get at least 500 mg per day!

Related articles

• Fat Burners: How They Can Efficiently Boost Your Weight Reduction Initiatives (e-prescribe.biz)
• Why is it impossible to overdose on vitamin a but not vitamin b (wiki.answers.com)
• Vitamin D supplements found to be safe for healthy pregnant women (medicalxpress.com)

Coffee Good? Or is Coffee Bad? When will the studies stop trying to scare us?

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If you are like many Americans, you wake up in the morning and your first impulse is to start the coffee maker for your very needed cup of Joe. And why is it called joe, anyways, you do not want your coffee, you NEED your coffee. Is drinking coffee which is a natural stimulant a bad thing for you health wise? Not according to this article in webMD. Take a look!

Old Joe

For true coffee connoisseurs, the day doesn’t get started until that first cup of joe. And when the afternoon slump occurs, there’s no better pick-me-up. The real news, however, is that after years of hand-wringing, scientists are admitting that coffee poses very little risk for most people, and may keep us sharp. That’s no surprise to java junkies.

“If it weren’t for the coffee,” David Letterman once quipped, “I’d have no identifiable personality whatsoever.”

That’s a sentiment most coffee lovers can understand.

Treasured as it is, however, coffee has been blamed for a range of ills, from heart disease and cancer to osteoporosis. Are health dangers really lurking in our lattes?

Health experts offered reassuring words at the 1999 annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association: Drinking up to three cups of coffee a day poses no risk. What’s more, coffee appears to have some surprising benefits.

False Alarms

It’s easy to see why researchers take coffee seriously. One cup contains about 100 milligrams of caffeine — enough to give infrequent coffee drinkers a potent kick, says Tony Chou, MD, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, and an authority on how coffee affects our health. Half an hour after a good strong cup, a coffee drinker’s resting metabolic rate — the number of calories burned just sitting quietly — increases by as much as 10%. Blood pressure climbs. Heart rate accelerates. Breathing speeds up.

Researchers used to worry all that commotion was harming our hearts. But regular coffee drinkers quickly develop a tolerance to caffeine, Chou says. After a week or two, they don’t get so much as a wobble in their blood pressure. Habitual coffee drinkers are no more likely to suffer from hypertension than people who never pour a cup.

Even patients with irregular heartbeats, or arrhythmia, don’t seem to be troubled by caffeine, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in January 1991. Toronto scientists reviewed five studies of people with arrhythmia. Drinking up to five cups of coffee a day, they found, didn’t make anyone’s heart more likely to skip a beat.

Nor does coffee appear to increase the risk of heart disease, according to a 10-year study of more than 85,000 women. In the February 1996 Journal of the American Medical Association, Harvard researchers reported that women who drank six or more cups of coffee weren’t any more likely to have a heart attack than women who drank only one or two cups.

Plenty of other alarms have turned out to be false. A few years back, headlines warned about a possible link between coffee and breast cancer. But in the February 1998 European Journal of Cancer Prevention, Italian researchers reported finding no link. The other worry, concerning osteoporosis, didn’t hold much water either. Results of a study published in the June 1997 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that bone thinning wasn’t more likely in women who drank coffee.

Jogging the Brain

The bottom line: Coffee seems to be harmless for most people. And studies suggest that a cup may actually offer some impressive benefits. In the August 1999 issue of Physiology and Behavior, for instance, English researchers reported that volunteers who drank caffeinated coffee in the morning performed better than nondrinkers on tests that involved learning new information. That holds true for the elderly as well, according to a study in the January 2002 issue of Psychological Science. And a study published in International Journal of Sports Medicine in August 1999 found that attention, psychomotor skills, and long-term memory all improved during the few hours after volunteers drank caffeinated beverages.

Why? Caffeine keeps us alert not by speeding us up but by keeping us from slowing down, according to Michael Bonnet, PhD, professor of neurology at Wright State University in Ohio. Each time brain cells fire, they produce a squirt of a chemical that serves as an “off” switch that keeps neural activity in check. Caffeine, in effect, blocks the chemical — jamming the switch so that it can’t be turned down.

Caffeine also may boost levels of brain-cell calcium, a mineral we know is important in memory. In experiments reported in the October 1999 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an Israeli researcher observed a calcium increase in brain cells exposed to caffeine.

Is There Any Reason Not to Love Coffee?

However, too much caffeinated coffee can cause problems, experts say. Because caffeine is a stimulant, it can aggravate sleep problems like insomnia.

If you’re having trouble getting pregnant, you might want to think about laying off coffee. A few studies have linked caffeine to infertility (although others have found no association).

Finally, if you’re feeling anxious or depressed, it’s worth easing up on the caffeine, which can exacerbate symptoms.

Related articles

• Still More Reasons to Drink Loads of Coffee (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
• Deaths No Higher in Coffee Lovers with Heart Disease (nlm.nih.gov)
• My head hurts if I have not had any coffee, is it because I am addicted to caffeine? (zocdoc.com)
• Coffee reduces risk of lethal prostate cancer (beinghealthyhomeandaway.blogspot.com)

The Importance of Stretching AFTER Your Work-Out!!

Stretching is something most people forget about… you finish a workout and head straight for the doors but your workout shouldn’t be finished until you spend just  5 minutes stretching after working out.

Stretching after working out is shown to be best… believe it or not there is no evidence that stretching before your workout is beneficial and can even lead to injury. But post workout is completely different!

Alwasy Stretch After your Workout

Stretching After Working Out Benefits:

• Induce muscle building potential (recent research shows that stretching increases the muscle building process your body goes through).
• Reduce Stress
• Reduce Post workout soreness
• Improve range of motion
• Improve circulation/blood flow to muscles
• Increase flexibility

And remember it only takes 5 minutes at the end of your workout… if you’ve already spent the time for a great strength training workout, then what’s just 5 more minutes if it gives you bigger, better results!

 

SCHEDULE ROUTINE BODY MAINTENANCE MASSAGE TREATMENTS WITH GOINGS NATURAL

916-877-HEAL (4325)