Have you included changing your bad habits in your New Year Resolutions? Did you listen to my interview with Lorena Heletea, Life Success Consultant on changing habits? You should.

I also would like to share with you an excerpt from the article Six Ways to Change Your Habits by Madeline Vann, MPH I found in online magazine www.everydayhealth.com

* Make your old habit difficult or unpleasant. One of the factors that keep us locked in a bad habit is that it may be easier and more rewarding than a good habit. You want to reverse that balance. For example, if you want to stop playing video games and get more sleep, try moving your computer or game center out of your bedroom and into the unfurnished, unventilated basement. Likewise, people who want to give up snacking on unhealthy chips or cookies should ban them from the house.

* Make changing habits rewarding. Just as you make your old habit unpleasant, try to make your new habit easier to do and more attractive. For example, if getting enough sleep is the issue, make your bedroom more comfortable and relaxing. If healthy eating is your concern, find ways to make nutritious snacks more available and tasty.

* Get support. It often helps to be with other people who are trying to change similar habits. This can give you emotional support when times get tough as well as tips and ideas for achieving success.

* Believe in yourself. People who believe in their ability to carry out lasting change and feel competent enough to carry out the various steps involved, whether that means switching to a healthier diet or learning to use condoms for safer sex, are more likely be successful in changing habits. One way to strengthen your belief in yourself is to take note of small successes on your way to the big goal.

* Use affirmations. Creating affirmations — positive statements that support your ability to make change — is a powerful way to begin changing habits “as long as [they] are grounded in reality,” says Harry Wallace, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

* Take baby steps. Break the process of change down into steps — and take note of your success at each stage. This will build your belief in your ability to succeed. The steps you take can include: committing to making the change, education about the change you want to make, preparation for change, practice, and repetition. 

Click to listen to our discussion with Frankie Picasso on How to Find Our Mojo and Overcome Mid-Life Crisis.

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition Coach, Counselor and Radio Show Host

NaturalCounselor.com

Sugar is in the air, because sugar is everywhere.

A lot of people (including my husband) think that they eat healthy, because they don’t eat sugar. But don’t they? When I asked them about labels they seem confused.

We (in the U.S.) have sugar consumption more than 170 pounds per person per year! Did you know that average American gets more than 400 calories a day only from sugar?!

What about you? Do you know how to read labels and find hidden sugar; how much sugar you consume every day without even knowing it?

Here are some tips for you to leanr how to read labels to find hidden sugar andto reduce the amount of sugar you consume.

Tip # 1. Read how many grams of sugars per serving the product contains. To help you understand how much is too much, realize that 1 teaspoon has 4 grams (a small container of blueberry yogurt contains 34-40 grams of sugar and it means about 10 teaspoons!!??)

Tip # 2. Always check on how many servings per container there are. People don’t realize that a big container has more than 2-3 servings, but the number of sugar listed in only per serving.

Tip # 3. Compare the number of sugar grams to the number of total carbohydrate grams. Try to buy foods that have at least one-third and less of their total carbohydrates coming from sugars. We need to eat complex carbohydrates from unprocessed foods not simple carbohydrates that come from refined unhealthy foods. Why do you think you have all your cravings, suffer from candida, gain weight, develop diabetes and heart attack?

Tip # 4. Look for hidden sugars in the ingredients list: barley malt, beet sugar, brown sugar, buttered syrup, cane-juice crystals, cane sugar, caramel, carob, syrup, corn syrup, date sugar, dextran, dextrose, diastase, diastatic malt, ethyl maltol, ffructose, fruit juice or fruit juice concentrate, glucose, glucose solid, golden sugar, golden syrup, grape sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, malt syrup, maltodextrin, maltose, mannitol, molasses, raw sugar, refiner’s syrup, sorbitol, sorghum syrup, sucrose, sugar, turbinado sugar, xylitol, yellow sugar.

Tip # 5. Don’t get confused or even fooled with “sugar-free” term. Under the FDA’s new food labeling rules the food contains less than 0.5 grams of sugar per serving (the same with fat – food contains less than 0.5 grams of sugar per serving. If the container has more than one serving – do the math.)

Tip # 6. Don’t get confused with “Reduced Sugar” or “No Added Sugar” on the labels. “Reduced sugar” means that the product can contain 25% less sugar (according to the U.S. Food and Drug  Administration); as for “no added sugar” term, it means that sugar wasn’t added to the foods that naturally contain some sugar, like jams, jellies, other preservatives, milk, tomato sauce.

Let us be sugar smart, shall we?

P.S. Bottom Line: if you cannot pronounce the word and don’t know the meaning of the ingredient-don’t buy the product.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

©Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition Coach and Counselor

NaturalCounselor.com

It’s cold and windy outside.  Are you taking care to pretect against dry skin and face wrinkles?

Whether yes or no, you may want to try some homemade facials and masks. Home-made facials and masks are safer than commercial brands because they contain no chemicals and toxic ingredients.

I would like to share with you these easy to make homemade facial and mask beauty remedies (facial meditations*) to heal, soften, rejuvenate, nourish and moisturize your dry winter skin. Every facial will help you relax, which is very important if you want to stay healthy during cold and flu season.

Six Homemade Beauty Remedies and Recipes for Dry Skin

Cottage Cheese Facial Beauty Remedy

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp. cottage cheese
• 1/tsp. raw organic honey
• 1 tsp. olive oil

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients and apply to your face and neck for 10-15 minutes; relax and enjoy the moment – you deserve it.  Rinse with lukewarm water. Don’t forget to eat the leftovers.

Avocado Facial Beauty Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp avocado, mashed with a fork
• 1 tsp raw organic honey

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients and apply to your face and neck for 10 -15 min.; relax and enjoy the moment – you deserve it. Rinse with lukewarm water. Don’t forget to eat the leftovers.

Variations:

• Avocado plus plain yogurt or kefir
• Avocado plus olive oil

Persimmon Facial Beauty Remedy

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp mashed persimmon
• ½ tsp raw organic honey

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients and apply to your face and neck for 10-15 minutes; relax and enjoy the moment – you deserve it; rinse with lukewarm water. Don’t forget to eat the leftovers.

Banana Facial Beauty Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp mashed banana
• 1 tsp sour cream

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients and apply to your face and neck for 10-15 minutes; relax and enjoy the moment – you deserve it; rinse with lukewarm water. Don’t forget to eat the leftovers.

Oatmeal Facial Beauty Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp oatmeal cooked with some water

Directions:

Apply it slightly warm to your face and neck for 10-15 minutes; relax and enjoy the moment – you deserve it; rinse with lukewarm water.

Pumpkin Facial Beauty Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp canned or cooked pumpkin (mashed)
• 1 tsp olive oil

Mix all the ingredients, apply to your face and neck for 10-15 minutes; relax and enjoy the moment – you deserve it; rinse with lukewarm water.

No time to make a facial? Don’t worry! Apply one of these ingredients by itself:

• Avocado
• Cottage cheese
• Olive Oil
• Coconut Oil
• Honey
• Yogurt / Kefir
• Sour Cream

* I call the time we have to enjoy our home-made masks  – facial meditation. There are a lot of variations of basic meditation. One of them suggests sitting or lying down doing nothing, but being aware of our breathing. Just sit or lie still with your mask on inhaling slowly through your nose, then exhaling through your mouth. Enjoy taking care of yourself, enjoy your facial meditation time.

Click to listen to author Julie Gabriel on Holistic Beauty Remedies for Your Face and Hair.

Click to listen to Naturopath Pamela Reilly on How to Take Care of Your Dry Winter Skin.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health Coach and Counselor

The beautiful fall season followed by the winter chill is the right time to balance your body with weight loss detox.  A natural cleanse and a few exercise secrets will allow you to enjoy the season with less stress and to be ready for the cold and flu season.

You can do an easy weight loss detox to reach your body or metabolic balance by changing your food and nutrition preferences based on your bio-individuality.

Winter Detox Cleansing Foods

As we know, processed foods contain chemically derived ingredients our bodies don’t know how to read. This creates a metabolic disaster-imbalance.

Coupled with chronic stress and low level of exercises empty nutrition food contributes to chronic inflammation, which can lead to imbalance in the female hormones in our body.

Toxic chemicals in the water we drink and the air we breathe also affect our metabolic balance and contribute to inflammation in our body, which can lead to all types illnesses.

Fall is the right time to start and easy fall natural cleanse detox with seasonal whole foods. To do so, incorporate as many seasonal, local and freshly harvested vegetables in your diet: greens (kale, dandelion, beet greens, etc.), vegetables (fall squashes, beets, carrots, cauliflower, onions, garlic, zucchini, pumpkin, etc) fruits (avocado, apples, pears, kiwi, watermelon, etc.) beans (mung beans, lentils, etc.) nuts (walnuts, pistachios, pumpkin seeds). They all are full of fiber and help elimination.

Don’t forget to enjoy local the harvest with  juices and smoothies you can drink in the morning or  as a snack.

You can always use some fruits and vegetables for homemade cleansing detox recipes or rejuvenating facials (tomatoes, avocado, grapes, watermelon, apples, pears, etc.).
Fall and Winter Exercise Shortcuts

We are moving towards Winter, and it means that the days are getting shorter and shorter following naturally after the many long days of light.  But there is no excuse for us to exercise less because we don’t have time. Why? Well, we always can find exercise shortcuts to burn some calories:

• park your car as far as possible;
• take stairs whenever you can;
• get up every fifteen minutes to stretch and deep breathe toh help reduce stress and detox;
• dance / move / jump / stretch in the kitchen while you preparing a meal;
• use more bending and stretching any time you clean the house, do gardening or talk on the phone (you can do the whole working out routine while text massaging).

We have to learn how to prioritize our health, our relationships, our jobs, etc., to sort them out and start a wonderful journey to wellness – a journey that will help us to get back our happy mind and healthy body.

Let us be smart, patient and full of a sense of humor if we want to feel and look fabulous this fall and winter season.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

©Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health Coach and Counselor

So, is your cooking and baking healthier these days?

Sooner or later you may start looking for healthier ingredients for you recipes.

Be ingredient and health smart during the cold and flu season as well as holiday time you will be spending in the kitchen; that is why I  want to remind you about some healthier alternatives and healthier substitutes to the ingredients you normally use in your kitchen:

• 1 whole egg can be substituted with 2 egg whites
• white flour can be substituted with whole grain flour (rice, barley,millet, buckwheat – basically you can grind any whole grain)
• sour cream can be substituted with low fat plain yogurt or low  fat sour cream
• milk can be substitute with skim, 1% milk or powdered milk
• ice cream can be substitute with frozen yogurt
• heavy cream (not for whipping) – 1:1 ratio of flour whisked into non fat milk (eg. 1 cup of flour + 1 cup of non fat milk)
• whipped cream can be substituted with chilled evaporated skim milk or other low fat whipped products
• cheese can be substituted with low-fat cheese (please note: non-fat cheese does not melt well if use in cooking or baking)
• margarine can be substituted with butter
• butter can be substituted with light butter, vegetable oil or ghee
• sugar ( brown or white) can be substituted with date sugar, barley  malt, blackstrap molasses, pure raw honey; don’t forget that 1 tsp = 4 grams.
• table salt can be substituted with sea salt

Happy and Healthy Cooking and Baking !!!

Breathe, smile and be happy,

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition Coach and Counselor