Healthy Eating Out Tips

Today I'd like to share some excellent tips for healthy dining in restaurants. I don't know about you, but eating out can be a real challenge for the serious health seeker. I mean, honestly, there are so many unhealthy food choices in most restaurants.

Well, Victoria -- my friend, colleague, and creator of Tooth Soap -- wrote an article about healthy eating away from home that I know you'll find useful, and here it is...

Dining out is really easy once you get the hang of it.

In fact, you'll eventually be able to look at any menu and find something on it you can eat and enjoy.

Below are some examples of healthy meals you can choose while dining out.

Olive Garden or Italian Restaurants

For a starch meal: Order Minestrone soup and salad with vinaigrette dressing. Skip the breadsticks/bread because they are made with white flour and you don't need that (it will only aggravate your sugar cravings). Say no to any parmesan or other cheese.

For a protein meal: Order a grilled meat of your choice. Have some salad and if your meat comes with potatoes, just ask them to bring you steamed veggies instead and they will gladly do it. You can have a bit of parmesan on your salad.

Chevy's or Mexican Restaurants

For a starch meal: Order a side salad and eat that first. Order portabella mushroom or vegetable (or a combo of both) fajitas. Order corn tortillas instead of flour and eat just two of them. If you can't have just one or two chips and stop yourself after that, don't even start eating them. You can eat a little rice and beans too. Order the whole pinto beans instead of the refried if they have them.

For a protein meal: Order chicken or beef fajitas. Eat a big salad first. Tell the waitress you don't want the tortillas. If you don't want fajitas, order a meat in chile verde sauce and order a side of vegetables. Don't even think about eating the chips! You can have a bit of cheese with this meal.

Restaurants That Serve Everything

Starch: Choose the soup and salad bar. Vegetable soup is a good option. Don't hesitate to ask what's in the soup. I always ask!

Protein: Grilled meat, chicken or fish will always be on these menus. Eat a salad first and it is okay to have some blue cheese dressing as long as you order it on the side and use less rather than more. Check the menu for Cobb or grilled meat salads. You could order a Caesar salad, but make sure to tell them to hold the croutons.

Subway or Sandwich Places

You will have to go with a starch meal unless they have some salads. Be like Jared and order a veggie sandwich if going for a starch meal. If the sandwich place has salads, go for a Cobb or turkey or chicken salad. Be sure to skip the croutons.

McDonalds, Burger King, and So On

Pack your bag and stay out of all the fast food joints! Remember, you are trying to nourish your body with healthier options.

Other Helpful Hints for Healthy Eating Out

Drink a glass of water as soon as you sit down at your table.

Consider ordering an appetizer instead of an entree. The portion will be smaller than the regular entree, which is often too large. Ask the waiter to bring your order out with everyone else's main meal.

Always ask for dressing on the side. Dip a bite of salad in a little dressing and chew each bite thoroughly. Put your fork down between each bite and eat slowly. Enjoy yourself and relax when dining out.

Stop eating the moment you feel satisfied. Ask the waiter to put the rest of your food in a "take-out container" right away so you won't be tempted to eat more food when you are no longer hungry.

Remember, your body never requires that you overeat. It is only your mind and poor habits that want to do that!

Thanks to Victoria for letting me share this article with you.

If you have some healthy dining out tips you'd like to share, click on the comment link below and type away!

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Sprouted Mung Bean Salad

Today I'd like to share a little something from Gene, who writes: "Chet, here's a healthy recipe that we frequently fix when we're in a hurry. We almost always have mung beans sprouting at various stages, and we make a variety of dishes with them. The salad seems to have a cooling effect, especially in the summer heat of Texas!"

Sprouted Mung Bean Salad

1 cup sprouted mung beans
1 cup grated carrot
1 tsp sprouted fenugreek
1 tsp grated fresh ginger root

Mix well with 1/2 to 1 cup of non-fat yogurt. Garnish with 1 cup of finely chopped cilantro and 1 tsp of chopped chives and/or its lavender blooms, just before serving. Salt not necessary.

Serve with rice, baked potato, as a sandwich, or even with plain lettuce.

Now, that's a versatile recipe for mung beans. Give it a try and let me know what you think by commenting below.

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

How to Stop Smoking

Today I'd like to share some useful advice on how to stop smoking.

We can thank a registered nurse named Linda for sharing this one.

Linda quit smoking seven years ago, thanks to the technique you're about to read.

Chet, here's what people need to do to subdue a nicotine fit and thus stop smoking:

Take a long slow deep breath and exhale slowly.

Repeat this a few times.

While doing this breathing exercise, think of something you really like, such as a person, a place, or a favorite memory.

In a couple of minutes the nicotine fit should be gone.

After doing this exercise, you need to do something physical. A simple task, like taking out the garbage or cleaning out a drawer, will do just fine.

If you are persistent with the steps above, gradually your nicotine fits will decline in severity and frequency.

Once in a while I have mild cravings for a cigarette. I continue to use this breathing exercise and I tell myself I will have to start all over again if I have one puff.

Now, that's a "how to stop smoking" technique that anyone can put to use.

And it won't cost you a dime.

Thanks again to Linda for sharing this one.

If you have a stop smoking technique you'd like to share, click on the comment link below and start typing.

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

V8 Juice Recipe

Just about everyone I know likes V8 juice.

But, unfortunately, the stuff that comes in the bottles and cans is full of salt and has had most of the life cooked right out of it.

Well, I get around these problems by making my own healthy V8 juice, and you can too.

Read on for two good recipes, one raw and one cooked.

Let's start with my favorite V8 recipe, a raw concoction that's healthy and tasty...

Raw V8 Juice

6 medium-sized carrots
1 small beet (wash well)
3 large tomatoes
1 bag baby spinach
1/4 head fresh cabbage
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
3 stalks celery
1/4 sweet onion
1/2 clove garlic or less if you don't care for garlic
Kale leaves (a little goes a long way so be careful)
Chili pepper to taste
Salt to taste

Run all the vegetables through your juicer, add salt to taste, and then sit back and enjoy the healthiest V-8 juice around. Tabasco sauce to taste can be substituted for the chili pepper.

For a second recipe, this one cooked, let's turn to...

Tom Solomon's Spicy Hot V8

8 quarts water
4 pounds homegrown tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch celery, chopped
8 green jalapeno peppers, chopped
1 cup vinegar
3 bay leaves
2 Tbs oregano
1 large onion, chopped
1 head garlic, pressed
4 Tbs salt
4 Tbs sugar

In a large pot, combine all ingredients except the sugar, bring to a boil, and cook at a steady boil for 2 hours.

Remove from heat and strain through a relatively fine mesh, making sure to express all the liquid you can.

Discard the pulp, return the liquid to the pot, and boil for another couple of hours, or until the liquid is reduced to roughly three quarts. Add four tablespoons of sugar, remove from heat, stir, and let cool.

Friends, you can't beat either of these two healthy V8 juice recipes for price or for taste!

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Healthy Pancake Recipe

Today I'd like to share a healthy pancake recipe with a tasty maple cream topping.

Oh, good!

Chunky Apple Oatmeal Pancakes

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/8 cup oats
2 Tbs oat bran
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped apple
1 cup apple juice

Combine dry ingredients. Add raisins and apple. Gently stir in juice until dry ingredients are completely moistened. Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a nonstick skillet or griddle. Cook until bottom is brown and spatula slips easily underneath. Turn and brown other side. Makes eight plump pancakes.

Maple Cream

For a tasty and nourishing pancake topping, mix together equal parts of pure maple syrup and plain yogurt.

These pancakes will stick to your ribs without loading you up on sugar and bad fats.

If you have a healthy pancake recipe you'd like to share, click on the comment link below and have at it.

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Clear Head Foods

Today I'd like to share some foods that'll help you keep a clear head.

The list is simple and the foods are easy to find...

• Fresh baby spinach
  
• High quality green tea
• Fresh almonds
• Alaskan salmon (we purchase our salmon from Vital Choice)
  
• Pure water

Here's an experiment for you to try with fresh baby spinach.

Purchase some organic baby spinach and then eat a cup or two right out of the bag. If you don't feel a healthy burst of energy within a few minutes, I'd be quite surprised.

Or... try blending a cup of baby spinach leaves with two cups of pure water and a handful of almonds.

That concoction will give you a clear head.

And it tastes great, too.

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Healthy Cabbage Salad

Unfortunately, most people don't eat nearly as much cabbage as they should.

This is a shame because cabbage promotes a healthy bowel flora that contributes to a strong and energetic body.

Even if you don't care much for the taste of cabbage, I'm predicting right now that you'll enjoy today's featured recipe.

Healthy Cabbage Salad with Citrus Dressing

4 cups cabbage, thinly sliced
1 cup carrots, shredded
1 cup chunks of pineapple

Juice of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 orange
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup favorite oil (I like coconut oil)

Place cabbage, carrots and pineapple into a large bowl. Mix the dressing separately by whisking all the ingredients together until creamy or by drizzling the oil into the juices while in a blender. Thoroughly mix the dressing and the cabbage, carrots, and pineapple chunks. Refrigerate or serve immediately.

Seriously, try this easy and healthy cabbage salad. I bet you a dime to a donut that you'll like it enough to make it a regular in your diet.

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Natural Health Tips

Here are several more natural health tips that anyone can use without a lot of grunting and groaning. Seriously, put these health tips to work because they don't require any effort at all to speak of.

1. Do not wear clothes that interfere with the circulation. The looser your clothes, the better you'll feel. Your blood was meant to flow freely, so don't impede it by wearing tight clothes for silly reasons motivated by vanity.
   
   
2. Do not be afraid of sunshine. In moderation, direct sunlight on naked skin is a very good thing. Don't fall for the sunscreen industry's nonsense.
   
   
3. Keep plenty of fresh air in your room while sleeping. In other words, sleep with your windows open. The fresh air will do wonders for your time in dreamland.
   
   
4. Try to be asleep by ten o'clock and not later than eleven. One hour of solid sleep before midnight is better than two hours after midnight.
   
   
5. Don't fall for baloney and nonsense put out by companies selling drugs and so-called "health products." You don't have to buy pills and powders and machines and drugs to be healthy. Good food and good health habits really do work.
   

The whole deal is really quite simple where human health is concerned:

• Listen to your body's signals to find out what your body needs.
  
• Then faithfully meet those needs.

Simple enough, huh?

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Energy Sinks

When I use the term "energy sinks," I'm referring to those moments or relationships or incidents that occur all the time in life that consume your energy like an elephant sinking into an Olympic-sized pool of quicksand.

I can write with some authority here because I've had a problem dealing with energy sinks most of my life. I still have the problem, though I'm getting better about energy sinks with time and constant conscious effort to improve.

Energy sinks occur most often in people who try to please everyone all the time. Statistically, if, like me, you are the first child in a family, you have a better chance of being pulled in and drawn down by energy sinks than your siblings do.

Why?

Because the eldest child in a family usually tries to please everyone else in the family more than the younger brothers and sisters.

And this desire to please carries over into adulthood.

If you're trying to please everyone all the time, you've put yourself in a no-win situation. Because no matter how hard you try and how hard you work and how good a person you try to be, you're just plain not going to please everyone all the time.

If you persist in trying to please everyone all the time, you've opened yourself to constant energy sinks.

An energy sink, then, represents a position where you are going to squander some of the energy you have for the day on a situation that doesn't deserve the energy you're giving it.

Example of one of my typical energy sinks:

I get an e-mail from a vegan guru criticizing the Health & Beyond Living to the Max program, telling me people aren't intelligent enough to develop their own health routines and that they have to be led by the hand. This person proclaims my approach as being potentially harmful to other people. He gives no recognition to my experience or to my years of study in the alternative health field or to my desire to help people reclaim their health.

In no uncertain terms, he flat out informs me that folks must be led by a guru like him -- that they aren't smart enough to understand health or nutrition on their own. He knows this to be a fact, and he knows I am wrong in what I'm teaching.

If I don't publicly retract what I'm saying immediately, he threatens to tell everyone he knows that my writing is dangerous and that they shouldn't read it.

Now, my friends, this little piece of confrontational and aggressive e-mail represents a classic energy sink.

(And one of the keys to dealing with energy sinks is to recognize them when they arrive and not after they've drained you and left you tense and half exhausted!)

A few years ago, I would have dropped everything I was doing and would have spent hours trying to explain my point of view to someone who confronted me as above.

You see, in those days, I not only still wanted to please everyone, but I also still thought it was possible to please everyone if I just wrote hard enough and made myself clear enough.

I hadn't yet learned that some individuals aren't as open-minded as others, and that some people are so entrenched in their points of view that no matter what you say to them you can't move them off the hard rock on which they stand.

Of course, the letter I spent hours writing might or might not be read with any degree of attention, but you can be sure a response would be forthcoming that would require more thought and more writing, and this might continue for days.

A classic energy sink.

Was anything gained by a dialogue like this?

No, not really, since both parties had points of view they considered the correct one.

Was anything lost by a dialogue like this?

Yes, hours and hours of time and energy that would have done more good had both of us involved in the energy sink used that time and energy for something other than to argue our particular point of view.

So these days, when I get an energy sink letter in my e-mail box, if it's nasty and confrontational, I either ignore it altogether or politely thank the person for sharing his or her thoughts.

I then move on about my business.

But do I reject what all energy sink letters say?

Not at all, and this is an important point for learning to deal with energy sinks.

By not engaging in the energy sink, you save valuable time and nerve power; but by ignoring what the person had to say, you may miss a possible opportunity for growth.

So I always read and think carefully about what everyone says to me since one of my goals in life is to improve as much as I can each day. At the same time, I don't let aggressive and critical comments, situations, or relationships take away too much of that day's storehouse of energy that I prefer to put into my work.

In other words, I learn what I can from each situation, but I don't get bogged down in conflict.

You can do that too if you make a conscious choice to recognize and then not get engaged in energy sinks.

Chet Day
Editor, The Health Circus
http://chetday.com

P.S. The above is an excerpt from the 2006 revision to my 21 Days to Health & Beyond program that'll be available for the first time in almost a year on January 18, 2006.

Spiritually Healthy Movie

Let me blog about something a little different today -- a spiritually healthy movie.

Over the weekend, my partner Josh Day took a few hours away from his computer to go see the box office hit, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

Josh really liked this Disney movie.

In fact, he liked it so much he ended up writing a fascinating review that compares The Chronicles of Narnia to Mel Gibson's blockbuster, The Passion of Christ.

While Josh considers Gibson's movie terribly violent and brutal, he recommends The Chronicles of Narnia as a wonderful movie for children and a great all-around film for people of all ages.

Here's an excerpt from Josh's comments:

The kingly lion Aslan, who portrays Christ in Narnia's fantastical world of talking animals and mythological beasts, crushes Jim Caviezel's scourged, beat-up, bleeding-like-Bruce Willis depiction of the New Testament messiah.

Click here to read the review in its entirety and to learn why Josh thinks The Chronicles of Narnia is a spiritually healthy and uplifting movie that everyone should see.

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Just Laugh for Health

A few years ago I received an email from a subscriber who wanted off my Health & Beyond Weekly newsletter list.

A master of politeness, this guy wrote:

Remove me right now from your newsletter. It's filled with too much nonsense and conversation and not enough helpful hints. Much of the info is repeated, and there is no need for your stupid jokes and lame attempts at being funny.

Don't you love it?

"No need for jokes."

How would you like to be married to this guy?

Wouldn't he be fun to carpool with?

You won't find him in the Tonight Show audience, I betcha.

No need for jokes?

I mean, seriously, how can a person get through life without fun and jokes?

During the thirty-three years my wife and I have been together, for example, we've had our share of rough patches.

My wife survived major cancer surgery back in 1990 before we knew anything about health.

We've lived through a $17,000 house fire that destroyed the back bathroom and covered everything we owned in every room in our home, including the attic, with a layer of soot.

Two years later, we had to handle $20,000 worth of flood damages three weeks before we closed on the sale of our New Orleans' home to move to Florida to take a job that turned out to be a financial disaster.

I could add more to the list, but the above are the biggies.

And compared to a lot of people our lives have been a gentle breeze.

Nonetheless, I don't know if I could have made it through flood, fire, and a loved one's major cancer surgery if I hadn't had a good laugh to fall back on at least three or four times a day during those hard patches.

Well, with memories of those problems and how laughter had helped me get through them, I started a long email to give Mr. Keep-a-Stiff-Upper-Lip Who Wanted to be Removed from the H&B Weekly List a number of helpful hints about how to develop a sense of humor.

Then I came to my senses and remembered some of my own advice about avoiding conflict when possible and decided not to get involved in a potential energy sink.

So I removed this fellow's email address from the subscriber list, politely informed him that I had done so, and that was that.

The point of all this is that I consider laughter and fun to be absolutely essential to human health.

Honestly, if you don't laugh aloud at least a few times each day, you need to make some changes somewhere, I'll tell you that for sure.

Not only is laughter good for oxygenating the bloodstream, but it also floods your system with feel-good hormones.

And it makes others feel happy too, when they hear a hearty laugh.

So stop picking your nose right now and instead let loose with a hearty laugh!

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Computer Exercises

Let's start 2006 with a computer exercise you can use this coming year to ward off carpal tunnel and other repetitive injuries that may come about from pounding the keyboard too long and too often.

At the start of each shift and after each break...

• Extend your arms and hands out in front of you. Bend and stretch hands and fingers upwards at your wrists and fingers, as if in a hand-stand position. Hold for a count of 5.
• Straighten both wrists and relax fingers.
• Make a tight fist with both hands.
• Then bend both wrists down while keeping the fist. Hold for a count of 5.
• Straighten both wrists and relax fingers, for a count of 5.
• Repeat exercise 10 times, then hang arms loosely at side and shake them for a couple of seconds. Total exercise time: 5-10 minutes.

If you're having problems visualizing these movements, click here to see the diagrams that came from the original source, which was Poster Exhibit D-29 at the Feb. 25, 1996, Annual Meeting American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

We're going to have a great time this new year with this blog, so if you haven't already done so, crank up a feed to it so you won't miss any of the fun.

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

P.S. If you have any computer exercises you'd like to share, click on the comments link below and have at it.

Nutty Insomnia Treatment

How long has it been since you had a really good night's sleep?

I know, I know.

With most people working like maniacs just to make ends meet these days, the first thing to go is a restful eight hours in dreamland every night.

Well, if you're suffering some insomnia, perhaps this nutty all-natural remedy will help you get some zzz's.

This natural insomnia treatment is so simple, it's almost embarrassing to describe, but here it is, anway...

Before going to bed, eat a one-ounce serving of fresh walnuts. It's important to chew them slowly and thoroughly and don't swallow until you've reduced them to a liquid.

You're probably wondering, "What's the deal with walnuts and insomnia?"

Well, walnuts just happen to be one of the plant kingdom's richest dietary sources of seratonin, the magical chemical that that promotes feelings of relaxation and well-being. As an interesting side effect, seratonin also tends to suppress appetite.

In addition to helping you overcome insomnia, eating fresh walnuts on a regular basis may even help you lower cholesterol and fight depression.

Cool, eh?

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

P.S. I developed a natural insomnia aid that's even nuttier than walnuts. Click here to learn about NightTrain, my amazing CD that evokes rave reviews from those using it for deeper and more satisfying snooze sessions!

Bean Sprouts Salad

Hey, how about a natural and healthy recipe for a...

Bean Sprouts Salad

2 cups fresh bean sprouts
2 medium cucumbers
2 Tbs organic apple vinegar
1 Tbs favorite oil (to suit your taste )
1 tsp raw honey
1/8 tsp dry mustard
1 Tbs sesame seeds
Salt to taste

Rinse sprouts, wash cucumbers. Run tines of fork down side of unpeeled cucumbers to score. Thinly slice. Arrange sliced cukes and bean sprouts on a serving platter.

In a small bowl or screw top jar, combine salt, vinegar, oil, honey, and dry mustard, and mix or shake until thoroughly combined. If you shake, make sure there's a lid on the container.

Drizzle sauce over vegetables. Sprinkle on the sesame seeds.

Eat.

Now you have one of the easiest and healthiest recipes for bean sprouts salad that I've run into since I joined the natural health circus back in 1993.

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

P.S. Click on the comments link below if you'd like to share a favorite bean sprouts salad recipe.

5 Health Tips

Today I'd like to share five more easy health tips you can put to work in your life, no matter how busy you are.

1. To improve your digestion, try food combining. For example, do not eat starches, sugar, or sweet fruits such as raisins, dates, and figs with meats. Food combining doesn't work well for everyone, but for those for whom it does work, the results are quick and significant. Click here for an excellent article that contains more information about food combining.
   
   
2. Avoid fried foods. Yes, I'm sorry, but just say no to Kentucky Fried Chicken, French fries, and all the other great-tasting stuff that comes out of a vat of boiling fat.
   
   
3. Drink the purest water you can get. If your local water company is dumping chlorine, fluoride, and God only knows what else into the water for "your protection," you must purchase a good water filter. Be sure that it meets California certification standards.
   
   
4. Do not eat late at night. Even better, don't eat anything at all once you've pushed away from the table after your evening meal.
   
   
5. Take a good brisk walk every day. While you're moving those old legs of yours and swinging your arms, take plenty 0f deep breaths. Morning walks are best for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that you'll probably be too busy at the end of the day.

These tips are easy to implement, so give them a try, please.

You'll be happy with the results.

Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Living Borscht

Bobbi A. submitted the following recipe for a healthy raw soup.

Dear Chet,

We recently tried a borscht soup that we really liked, and I want to share the recipe with others. Here it is...

Living Borscht -- a Delicious Raw Soup

1 1/2 cups carrot juice
3/4 cup beet juice
1/2 cup apple juice
Juice of 1/2 lemon

I made the juices with our Champion juicer. Next time I am going to try it in the Vita-Mix for a thicker soup.

Grate

1/3 to 1/2 cup grated beet
1/3 to 1/2 cup grated carrot
1/3 to 1/2 cup grated cabbage

Chop 3 or 4 green onions

Mix all of the ingredients together. I warmed them in a double boiler until everything was not hot but just warm.

Top with an avocado blended with lemon and celery.

Now, does that sound good or what? Thanks to Bobbi for sharing this recipe.

If you have a healthy raw recipe you'd like to share, please do so by clicking on the comments button below.

Chet Day
Editor, The Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Easy Health Tips

Today I'd like to share five easy health tips you can put to work in your life, no matter how busy you are.

1. Eat at least one good serving of uncooked food (fruit and vegetables) before every meal. For example, you'll be pleased by how much weight you'll lose and how much better you'll feel if you eat an apple before breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
   
   
2. It won't kill you to skip a meal on occasion. In fact, if you overeat on fast foods at lunch, as so many people do, you'd be better off not having the evening meal... or, if you do have it, make it a light meal of fruit and salad. Many health nuts skip at least three meals a week. Some even skip all food entirely for one 24-hour period every week.
   
   
3. For Pete's sake, slow down and chew your food. If you're bolting every mouthful, you're not going to digest the food properly and will end up with indigestion and smelly farts that won't help you advance at work!
   
   
4. Your mouth and throat contain delicate tissues that don't care much for being frozen or burned. So avoid the common tendency to drink liquids that are steaming hot or freezing cold.
   
   
5. Keep your liquid drinking at meal time to a minimum, if at all. Though it's a controversial topic, many natural health nuts (including the one writing these tips) think it makes sense to not dilute salivary and digestive juices with meal-time liquids. Try having a few meals with nothing to wash them down. If you're like me, your digestion will thank you for making this simple change.

Warning: Don't plan on putting these tips to use later. Instead, write them down immediately as goals for the next seven days and then put them into practice, starting right now.

Most people make the mistake of reading tips like these but never acting on them.

That's stupid.

If you put into action the five tips I just shared with you, one week from today you will feel significantly better than you feel right now.

If you don't believe me, try them for a week and then come back to this blog entry and report your results.

I dare you.

I double-dare you!

Chet Day
Editor, The Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Caffeine Addiction

Do you realize that caffeine addiction may well result from the ongoing love affair between Americans and one of the country's most popular legal drugs?

Coffee, soft drinks, headache pills... you'd be stunned if you realized how much caffeine ends up in your body over the course of a year.

What is this potent legal drug that so many people rely on to wake them up in the morning as well as to keep them awake during the rest of the day?

Well, from Wikipedia, we learn...

Caffeine... is a xanthine alkaloid found naturally in such foods as coffee beans, tea, kola nuts, Yerba mate, guarana berries, and (in small amounts) cacao beans.

For the plant, caffeine acts as a natural pesticide since it paralyzes and kills some of the insects that attempt to feed on the plant.

Caffeine's main pharmacological properties include a stimulant action on the central nervous system with psychotropic effects and stimulation of respiration, a stimulation of the heart rate, and a mild diuretic effect.

Does this sound like a substance you want to put in your body on a regular basis?

It it does, please think again.

According to Stephen Chernisek, author of Caffeine Blues, caffeine in the human body...

1. Raises blood sugar levels and disrupts sugar-regulating effect of insulin
   
   
2. Raises fatty acid levels in the blood
   
   
3. Raises homocysteine levels, which greatly increases the diabetic's risk for cardiovascular disease
   
   
4. Causes vascular resistance (circulation is reduced)
   
   
5. And caffeine raises stress hormone levels which is a primary risk factor for diabetes

And if that's not enough to get you started on breaking your caffeine addiction, Wikipedia's article on caffeinism reveals that...

Caffeinism is poisoning resulting from excessive intake of caffeine, whether via coffee, tea, chocolate, soft drinks, over-the-counter medications, or other caffeine-containing products.

Its symptoms are both physiological and psychological. The amount of caffeine needed to generate caffeinism depends on individual sensitivity.

It is commonly assumed that only a small proportion of people exposed to caffeine develop symptoms of caffeinism. However, because it mimics recognized psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and psychosis, a growing number of medical professionals believe caffeinism victims are routinely misdiagnosed and unnecessarily medicated.

A study in the British Journal of Addiction declared that "although infrequently diagnosed, caffeinism is thought to afflict as many as one person in ten of the population." (JE James and KP Stirling, 1983).

Shannon et al (1998) point out that: "Caffeine-induced psychosis, whether it be delirium, manic depression, schizophrenia, or merely an anxiety syndrome, in most cases will be hard to differentiate from other organic or non-organic psychoses... The treatment for caffeine-induced psychosis is to withhold further caffeine."

The fact that caffeine is known to exacerbate organic mental illnesses (Hughes et al, 1998) can make accurate diagnosis difficult.

Personally, I overcame my caffeine addiction back in 1993 when I got serious about my health. At the time, I lived in New Orleans and on most work days drank up to seven cups of black coffee with chicory, a rabid concoction that wired me up so tight with phony "caffeine energy" that I'd often experience body tremors and shaking hands by the time I knocked off from work.

When I started studying natural health and learned about caffeine addiction, I decided to get that monkey off my back for good.

I won't go into the nasty details because my experience getting off caffeine was awful, but I will say it took me three days of pounding headaches, night and day sweats, upset stomach, and a number of other unpleasant withdrawal symptoms and behaviors (talk about grouchy) before I was free of my caffeine addiction.

Seriously, one of the best things you can do for your health is to decrease or, even better, totally remove, caffeine from your life.

Once you get past the withdrawal problems, you'll be amazed at how much better you feel physically and mentally.

Chet Day
Editor, The Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Building Self Esteem

Today I'd like to share some techniques for building self esteem that I learned from the late Declan Twohig of London, England.

Let's begin with an important question:

Do you regard your lack of success in life as a failure?

If you do, and for as long as you do, that's the length of time you'll be immobilized and unable to succeed.

When you change your attitude toward failure -- when you think of failure as a result YOU produced -- then you can start to change your results.

Did you know you can only think one thought at a time? You can think a lot of things during any given amount of time, but you can only think ONE thought at a time.

That being the case, what are you thinking right now?

If you don't like what you're thinking in any given moment, use this technique to change it.

The second you realize you don't like what you are thinking, put your hand on your heart and smile. Not only will this make you feel better because touching your heart is a symbol of love, but it will get your mind off what you were thinking.

Practice this technique every day and soon your mind will produce positive thoughts instead of life-draining negative ones..

Guess what else you'll be good at?

Smiling.

Want some more tips for building self esteem?

Here are five simple and effective techniques...

1. Greet others with a smile.
2. Always show real appreciation for a gift or compliment.
3. Talk positively.
4. Increase your level of creativity.
5. View a failure as the conclusion of one performance and immediately move on to the next. Realize the failure is NOT the end of your life. Remember that there's always hope ahead.

Self-esteem can be defined as a two-way street to happiness. When you're happy, you make others happy. When you make others happy, you feel better. When your brain knows you're happy, it shoots your self-esteem way up.

Practice these techniques for a week and then note how much better you feel from doing them.

You'll be amazed because your life will be happier and healthier.

Chet Day
Editor, The Health Circus
http://chetday.com

Healthy Salmon Burritos

Since I'm trying to remold my middle-aged body with some muscle by lifting weights, I've recently been eating quality protein mini-meals several times a day.

Well, I was in a hurry after my workout recently, so I popped open a 7.5 oz can of Vital Choice Wild Red salmon and then reached into the refrigerator and, perhaps because of Divine Inspiration, grabbed a bottle of jalapeno peppers, a stalk of celery, and a jar of mayonnaise.

I opened the can of Wild Red and smiled with the usual happiness at the quality of the salmon and Omega rich oils as I dumped the contents into a container.

I tossed in a tablespoon of mayonnaise, several teaspoons of chopped jalapenos, and about twice that of chopped celery.

A quick stir and, honestly, I had the most fabulous salmon salad I've ever tasted.

I pulled a couple of big romaine lettuce leaves off the head in the refrigerator, spooned a liberal line of salmon salad down the middle of each leaf and then folded both up like burritos.

My plan was to bring the mini-meal here to my home office to chomp it down while checking my email, but after one bite, I just stood there in the kitchen and ate both of my salmon salad burritos.

Whoa, they were so good, I didn't even want to wait long enough to walk upstairs with them to my office.

Anyway, here are directions for my Salmon Salad Burritos in a simple format for those who like to have printed copies of all their best recipes:

Healthy Salmon Burritos

1 7.5-oz can Vital Choice Wild Red salmon
1 Tbs mayonnaise
2-3 Tbs chopped jalapeno peppers
4-6 Tbs diced celery
Romaine lettuce leaves

Mix everything together, spoon liberal servings down the middle of big Romaine lettuce leaves, fold like burritos, and then enjoy a healthy taste of heaven.

By the way, if you haven't tried Vital Choice Wild Red salmon, now is the time to do so. I promise that once you try wild Alaskan salmon from Vital Choice Seafood, you'll be as crazy about it as I am.

It really is that good, and traditional Wild Red contains ten times the calcium and four times the omega-3s present in commercially processed, twice-cooked canned tuna.

Click here to check out Vital Choice Wild Red.

Chet Day
Editor, The Health Circus
http://chetday.com

P.S. If you have a healthy pre- or post-workout recipe to share, just comment below.