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AI 101: AI Explained
Do you struggle with AI? Have parents, friends, and others who struggle with terminology and understanding what AI is good for?
The guide defines basics terms that are often mentioned in numerous online videos and definitely can be confusing to a new user.
Check out my guide, free to use, no data collected.
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Which supplement should I take? #Supplement Explorer
Are you always on your phone looking at which supplements you should take? Do you look at reviews? How do you decide what to buy?
As someone who has been in the nutraceutical industry for over 10 years, I’ve worked with many suppliers and companies to understand why an ingredient is chosen, what research is behind it, and how to sell it to a consumer, so if you are looking for some answers to questions you may have, drop a comment, or even better check out the Supplement Explorer on the site. It is free to use, 3 questions, and a simple output. No info is stored.I made the Supplement Explorer purely for my use and then thought, well, if it is useful for me, maybe it is useful for others. The tool is not affiliated with any company or brand, but was just a way for me to showcase what I find useful. If you use it, do give me feedback as to what you’d like to see it on too.
Stay well and remember, before taking any supplements, check with your doctor if it is a good fit for you or not!
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Challenge Completed
With October underway now, you are probably wondering how successful I was on my 29 day challenge of not eating out. Lots of good results for me. Some were unexpected and what did I do right after? Am I going to keep sticking with it?
Well, let me start off by saying that the challenge showed me that even that one fast food meal a week was enough to result in weight gain. I actually lost 4 pounds by just not eating out and of course by drinking more water/green tea too so all pluses. Also, I realized eating at home with better planning can be done even if it is so tempting to just order in. Also, the fact that I wasn’t eating out made me realize that I could see better effects from exercising so that was another win too. Finally, what did I do right after? Well, I got me some much craved for Chick-fil-A but the joy of eating it was short-lived as clean eating impacts were seen right after. So am I going to keep sticking with not eating out? Yeah, as much as I can because overall I felt better. I think it will be even more important to follow through on this as the holiday season is just getting started!
Stay well!
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#FF What did you miss this week?
A week of learning about the brain, stomach, and bones-what did you find most fascinating?
Catch up on these posts, if you missed out:
Stomach
Brain
Brain-Stomach Connection
Bones
Stay well!
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Bones
Up to now, I’ve talked about the brain and stomach relationship but let’s concentrate on another overlooked area—our bones. Want strong bones? Exercise and muscle are important but nutrients are too.
You’ll often see Vitamin D combined with other minerals like calcium, phosphorus, or even vitamin K but why? Mostly because one or more nutrients uptake is helped by the other.
What happens if you don’t combine these vitamins and minerals together?
Well, you’ll be deficient in these unless you’re eating super well and hitting your recommended daily values
If you want stronger bones, then you’ll need both vitamin D and calcium. Also, calcium can help protect you from kidney stones if your diet is in check.
Also, remember too much vitamin D, calcium, phosphorus, or even vitamin K can result in toxicity resulting in high or low bone mineral content depending on which is the problem nutrient. So what can you do? Check with your doctor before choosing the dosage and supplement. Supplements are exactly that, supplements to a diet, not a cure to fix anything.
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Brain-Stomach Connection
As we age, our bellies grow—true or false? Keep reading on and is there something you can do to minimize visceral fat from building on your belly.
So far I have talked about what all one can do about their diet and exercise to help lead a healthier life but you know what plays a big role in your weight control—leptin! Leptin is a hormone that signals to your brain whether you are hungry or need more food. For example, when you don’t eat a meal or a snack, your body fat goes down, and therefore leptin signals the brain to eat more and burn less, or if your body fat is going up, leptin signals the brain to tell you to eat less and burn more. Nice, right? You have an in-built detector to tell you to start and stop! So why are people fat or have extra belly weight?
This leptin detector might be off for a few people and that is known as leptin resistance so your body gets confused by the mixed messaging. This is likely due to the poor diet choices that have led to weight gain. If you watch any weight-loss reality TV show, you see the success story of those individuals but did you know most people gain that weight back because the leptin signals to the brain are giving mixed messages. Sad right? That doughnut or processed food or even lack of sleep could have contributed to this weight gain. How can you fix this?
As mentioned in many previous posts, eat right, exercise, and sleep are things that you can control. Avoiding processed foods (foods from a box or can, no matter how cheap it may be) and fast food is two solutions to get your body’s hormones working properly. Eat protein and eat fiber as both will keep you full longer and therefore result in less temptation to eat junk food or midnight snacks. Small changes can make significant health impacts! Always check with your doctor or nutritionist as to what is best for you.
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Brain
Are you a left or right brain dominated person? What does this have to do with today’s post? Find out below.
An ingredient that you probably aren’t using too much but have heard of is —turmeric! Yesterday I talked about indigestion but can turmeric help you with that too? Read on. It also can have some possible effects on the brain but how? For that too, read on.
Turmeric is prevalent in many products today and can be used for many and various applications. Turmeric is part of the ginger family and is used for its polyphenol curcumin. Curcumin is what gives turmeric the vibrant yellow hue that you see. You can use turmeric for various reasons but it is used in the formulations for mental-could it help your left and right brain decision making skills?— joint, and prostate health. Some products use turmeric as a way to help with gastrointestinal issues as well as blood sugar maintenance. Turmeric’s properties allow it to be used for its antioxidant properties and as a food colorant. Turmeric can be a good source for not only manganese and iron but also for fiber, vitamin B6, magnesium, and of course vitamin C. Check with your doctor or nutritionist if turmeric is right for you.
Applications can include desserts, margarine, protein bars, beverages, and cosmetic creams and cleansers. It might even show up in your toothpaste someday just like charcoal toothpaste which is slowly catching on in the Western world!
A tip: Definitely look at the curcumin content as that will indicate the strength of the product in the formula.
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Stomach
This week, I’m going to talk about various different body parts and surrounding issues. Let’s start with the stomach—do you get indigestion? Often times we have stomach aches for multiple reasons, some that we can control through exercise and diet and others that we can’t. This post will be about the former but again check with your doctor as to the reason for the stomach ache.
Have you done a lot of squats/bench press/situps before? How do you feel the next day? Sore? That’s called delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS and for me, sometimes the stomach ache is from that so I can minimize some of that by stretching, relaxing, or yoga but the most beneficial is not to work those muscles groups again. The point of working out is to better yourself, not be in more pain than before you started, right?
Other reasons, you might have stomach aches is perhaps due to your diet. I have done the gluten-free diet and I found that avoiding gluten made a huge impact on my health and how I felt. I also tried avoiding dairy and noticed that too helped me. What does this tell you? Sometimes our inflammation issues may directly be related to what we eat so if you can keep a food journal or use the MyFitnessPal app to track what you are eating and slowly remove certain items, maybe you will feel better? Finally, you might just be dehydrated and may just need more water so consider that as well.
Depending on your lifestyle, perhaps you are not getting enough fiber in your diet and that too could be a reason for the stomach ache or perhaps a certain food item you ate is causing food poisoning; there is a multitude of reasons for that stomach ache so try to isolate the cause of it.
No one solution fits everyone but in general, I avoid processed foods and stay active to help feel better. Making smarter food choices and exercise choices should be easy to do otherwise we tend to fall off the wagon so to speak.
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#FF What did you miss this week?
Another busy week with a bunch of new topics that were covered, did you check them out? What did you miss?
Reassess Progress
Can you be a hybrid plant-based eater?
Getting ready for the fall: fitness
Vitamin D news
Stay well!
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Reassess progress
As we get older, we often forget that Rome wasn’t built in a day so always appreciate the progress you have made over the year, 5 years, 10 years as sometimes day to day changes are not visible. This is so important to remember as even I look for changes daily but get disappointed when I don’t see them. Sometimes you need to go back to old photos and see the progress. As we get older, though we may feel on top of the world and might look the best we have ever, your physical body might say so otherwise. Change happens and can’t be avoided but you must accept it as aging and wisdom are two parts of your personality that truly are out of your control. Be the best version that you can be and be proud of where you are at today!
Stay well!
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Can you be a hybrid plant-based eater?
I’ve written before about plant-based eating and how more and more products are going to be delivering plant-based meals for sustainability effects but if you like me are in a dilemma about the healthiness of the product, then what should we do? Well, a growing category is the hybrid plant-based eater. Without giving up meat, you can incorporate plant-based foods in your diet. What do I mean?
Well, as manufacturers realize plant-based foods are hard to make and require some finesse so to speak, a quick solution is to incorporate less animal protein and substitute with plant-based protein so they can call out that it too is plant-based derived. Clever, right? I think that might be a better way for the plant-based movement to gain traction. I mean the average consumer sees pea protein on the package and understands its peas but the next thing they care about is it does it taste good and what does it cost me? So what do you think, is this hybrid way of eating going to take off or not?
Stay well!
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Getting ready for the fall: fitness change
With warm weather about to end in many parts of the country, the one thing you can do now is figure out how best to continue to train in the fall and winter months. We all tend to “bulk” intentionally or not in the fall/winter months but we don’t have to overindulge in these months. Yes, there are lots of distractions from birthdays to thanksgiving to Christmas where apparently food is the criteria for a joyous holiday but that shouldn’t mean you can’t plan to overcome those days. Even for me, I love to eat during the holidays but that just means that I have to be more intentional in my workout plans.
What do I mean by being intentional during my workout? I mean, don’t skip the gym. If you have time, even 30 mins, keep moving. Go for a walk or run or hit the gym. Whatever your goal is, it will only be helped by a solid exercise plan. Plus, with the sun being limited, any excuse to stay moving outdoors if possible is good for your body and overall fitness. Though we may have more opportunities to challenge our mind indoors in the fall/winter months, let’s not forget staying physically active as well. We want full mind fitness!
Stay well!
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