Does This Posture Make Me Look Fat?

Jacoby attempting to demonstrate improper posture. Awkwardly.

Who hasn’t had someone in their life tell them to sit up or stand up strait? If you haven’t then I admire you. I am 6 foot tall and as you can imagine, I have heard this a lot. Until I became a therapist I really didn’t see what the big deal was. The truth is it can lead to so many problems. Poor posture can increase strain on your muscles, cause headaches, throw off your balance, slow your digestion, ect. There is a long list I can go more in depth on in future articles but in this one I will get to the most common. Aside from giving you an instant gut; it over stretches your upper back and shortens your chest muscles. This makes it harder to take deep breaths. It doesn’t stop there, by pushing out your stomach you also put pressure on your low back. When the muscles necessary to maintain posture are in balance, it equals better overall balance for you.
Bringing your shoulders back and chin up is a small change that can help you avoid many problems down the line. Do you get a pinch in your back when you maintain that straight posture? There is a solution. Upright rows can help to strengthen your mid back where you  feel that pain. Doing chest stretches can also help relieve some tightness in your chest you may have not even known you had. Give yourself time to change your posture if you have always slouched. The changes in your posture that have taken place did not happen overnight and can’t be corrected overnight, but maintaining a better posture a little longer everyday can create a good habit and healthy body.

-Jennifer

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Who needs goals anyway?

Who needs goals?

Goal Setting

Goal setting is very important for success. Ever find yourself telling yourself that you will only cheat today or that tomorrow is your day off? It seems like things just keep coming up that take you away from your goal and as soon as you know it’s one month later and you are getting down on yourself that you haven’t made any progress.
There are many things to take into account when making goals. What do you want to accomplish? What are the barriers? How are you going to measure your progress? How long are you going to give yourself? How are you going to make adjustments? In order to really meet your goal you need to come up with these answers and have a timeline in mind where you can honestly analyze the progress you have been making and decide whether or not you are making progress before your deadline to give yourself time to make adjustments.
Sit down with your health app or good old pen and paper and write what you want to do and when a good time to reassess where you are would be. Be careful not to work on too many things at once. Break down your overall goal to only work on two to three things at a time so you don’t become overwhelmed. Keep in mind that change doesn’t happen overnight and as long you are seeing some positive results just keep going. By having a written plan and timeline you will have more focus and more chances of success with reaching your goal.
-Jennifer K

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Wow! That is quite pungent!

We wouldn’t recommend it for your first date but we would recommend it for regular consumption.  Garlic has so many amazing properties it’s hard to find a particular topic to stay on. Since it is winter and I live in Michigan,  lets start with some current issues like our immune system.

Is there anyone you know right now who is not sick? Me neither. All my coworkers and customers I come in contact with daily have some kind of bug. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was something you could eat that was delicious and could help fight against these bugs? Well look no further because garlic has your back!

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms: fever, coughs, headache, stomach ache, sinus congestion, gout, rheumatism, hemorrhoids, asthma, bronchitis, shortness of breath, low blood pressure, low blood sugar, high blood sugar, cold or flu garlic might be your answer. Having a regular dose of fresh garlic in your diet can help prevent these issues. How you ask? Well you can thank alicin! Alicin is an active component in garlic that gives it all its fighting power, as well as its odor. The fresher the better. Mother nature has made it perfect the way it is but if you need a more powerful dose there are reputable companies that make garlic supplements in pill or liquid form. Now high amounts of fresh garlic can cause gastrointestinal discomfort so take it slow. A little bit at a time and you will start feeling better and better. You can even get creative and juice your own virgin bloody mary with fresh garlic and look fancy doing it!

Cheers to good health insidethenout!

Ladies! Take your face off!

I came across this video from Ted Talks and loved it. I’m not a big fan of the focus increasing productivity, but more the message it has about what we do for ourselves vs. what we do to fit societies expectations. We all know someone that can’t leave their house without doing their hair or putting on lip gloss. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that unless the reason is you feel that people will treat you differently or judge you if you don’t. We tend to be our own worst enemies focusing on all our perceived flaws and trying hard to hide them from the world. I think we should all work on loving ourselves including our flaws and look the way we want to for us and not care what others think. So put on your heels if you like them, wear makeup if you if you enjoy doing it, and put on your tight dress because it makes you feel sexy! As long as you still feel good about yourself at the end of the day without it.

Jenny

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Fat = Good

Our body needs fat! That’s a hard concept for most people, me included. Our whole lives we are told about how bad fat is for us. The truth is that our hormones need fat to be produced. Our brain is mostly made of fat so we need more fat to support optimal brain function and many other parts of our body from our skin to our joints need fat. Now before you get too excited it is also important to mention that not all fats are created equal. In order for our bodies to get the nutrients it needs, it is good to eat an omega 3 fatty acid rich diet. I’m talking about how mother nature provided it, fish, avocado, and flax seeds for example. These fats are easy for the body to recognize and process because we have been eating these things all along. They aren’t crazy molecular changes that scientists have been working on in a lab. These are fatty acid chains that can be broken down by the enzymes our bodies produce and can be utilized and put to work for many purposes. Feel foggy? Feel depressed? Dry skin with no glow? Joints inflamed? A lot of these issues can be helped by a high fat diet.

Bulletproof Upgraded Cacao Butter
Bulletproof Upgraded MCT Oil

We have been told calories in, calories out our whole lives. The problem is that our bodies were not built like that. If you think back to the way our ancestors had to eat, by hunting and gathering…they did not have calorie counters. I’m not saying that you can become a couch potato, eat a poor diet and just swap out a few items for healthy fats and be fine. I am tying to say that if you are eating a healthy diet that is high in good fats and you get exercise you wont have to worry about counting every calorie. Worried about loosing weight? A high fat diet is good for weight loss since you will be getting the nutrients that you need and it is much better for your metabolism then the old calorie in and calorie out method. There is no magic number for everyone to reach. I feel that calorie intake should be used as a guide and not something that you need to break out the calculator for at the end of everyday. (Unless you like that to track then do what works for you.) Being afraid to eat these good fats can deprive your body of essential nutrients it needs to run. Call it a “well oiled machine”. The whole concept we are trying to get across is this. Listen to your body. Cheat smart. Eat for your health.

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What is in your food?

Ever go to read the list of the ingredients on your favorite food only to feel you need a dictionary in order to figure out what was listed? The great thing about processed food is convenience, however, the trade off is your left with food that your body might not know how to process or could even be harmful to your body. Labels can also be misleading. The FDA has different qualifications of what constitutes different claims such as “low fat” or “low sodium” in reality you may be getting a chemical concoction that will make you less satisfied and that does not equal eating healthy. Ever eat a whole bag of chips and feel ashamed that you just couldn’t stop? There is a chemical for that too. Mono sodium Glutamate (MSG) is a chemical that is added to a number of processed foods that turns off your body’s signal that it is full. It also makes things taste great making it that much harder to stop eating at the serving size. After this became more popular knowledge the companies were allowed to list MSG as different names making it harder to identify. Everyday there seems to be new studies showing the negative long term effects of different chemicals put into processed food such as aspartame, GMO’s, and sucralose. If that isn’t bad enough your body was not designed to know how to utilize chemicals so the food you might be eating because it has fiber or because it is enriched with a certain vitamin might not have the correct type of vitamin or fiber that your body knows what to do with. This means that you could eat a lot of food and still not get the nutrition that your body needs leading to malnutrition. The solution? Back to basics. Shop more along the outside of your grocery store to incorporate more fresh fruits and veggies into your diet. Get educated on the things to watch out for. There are always studies that say one things might be harmful while another says it is fine. To best see which one you might put more faith into try to look for independent studies or at least a study that is funded by a party that does not stand to gain anything from the study yielding any specific results. Read the labels of the processed foods you do get to see what is in them. If it looks more like a chemistry book than food that might be your first clue that it might not be something you want to put into your body. Taking the extra step to read and know what you are putting into your body is another step to live a healthier life style. It might seem like a pain at first but as you become more familiar with the ingredients you see the process will become faster. Incorporating this into your life will help you to make sure your body gets the nutrition that it needs and avoid putting harmful chemicals into it. This can also help you to feel more satisfied with the foods you do eat. It is amazing how much better you will feel when your body gets the nutrition that it needs to run better.

One of our favorite products that we use and can feel comfortable using for a bunch of our recipes is Nikki’s Coconut Butter. It comes with many delicious flavors and is all natural. It provides a dose of health brain boosting fats that also help to keep you lean.

Ingredients: Organic Coconut, Roasted Macadamia Nuts, Dates, Organic Honey, Organic Vanilla (Vanilla Beans, Alcohol, Water), Sea Salt

That is a good example of what you want to see on any of your “processed foods”. We will keep posting some awesome recipes using this as well so make sure you keep checking it out.

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Putting Your Best Face Forward!

I have had trouble skin for as long as I can remember and I can honestly say that it has only been in the last two years that I have finally created a routine that keeps my face clear. (I do still get the occasional zit) Although I know that not everyone has such problematic skin I though I would share with you the things that have helped me and that I wished I knew a long time ago.

Identify correct skin type-First I have to say that since I was 15 years old I was told I have oily skin. What I didn’t know at the time is that I actually had very dry skin that became oily due to the harsh face washes I was using. Your body is great at trying to protect itself and when skin gets irritated it can actually start to produce more oil to help create a barrier against the irritant. I switched to a more gentle face wash and my skin started on the road to recovery. I noticed one of the best ways to determine your skin type is to see how it feels in the morning and after you wash your face. Dry skin might feel tight after you wash it.

The ingredient list- Another thing that I noticed is when I eat clean, my face looks clean. Our skin can reflect what we put into our bodies and a high sugar or high processed food diet can definitely lead to acne or dull skin. If your anything like me you may benefit from eating clean for a while to see if it has any impact on your skin. The best part is that even if it doesn’t make a big impact on your skin you will feel better either way. Another thing to take into consideration is what you put on your skin. What you put on your skin does get absorbed into your body so it is important to make sure that you are not working hard to eat clean only to put harmful things into your body via skin. I think I saw the most difference when I changed all the products I was using to products that were more clean and gentle on the skin. Some of the things I use are found in my kitchen, coconut oil being one of them. I struggled with this concept for a long time however it also makes sense. Your scalp produces oil and if you have ever dyed your hair then you really know the importance that oil plays in protecting your hair and skin. Your face also needs some oil to protect the skin and help it to stay hydrated. I know people who use olive oil. I personal love coconut oil due to its antibacterial properties. I use it as a spot treatment and occasionally use a small amount as my moisturizer. It is true that an access can clog pores so I am just careful on how much I use. If you are curious about the products that I use check out our most loved products section where I will list the products I use.

Protection- I also found that sunscreen is very important. Now I was not much of a believer before but I have noticed that even in the winter my skin looks better when I protect is with some SPF. I have a foundation that has it in already so I just have to remember to put it on ever morning.

Water-As I had mentioned in the earlier article “Water Water” https://twitter.com/insidethenout/status/438131052515561472 how much you drink does have an impact on our skin. It is needed to help hydrate and flush out toxins.

Stress- Also just wanted to touch on stress again. At least for me high stress levels are still the one thing that will cause acne to pop up. It is important to always try to find things that work for you to help calm you down and relax. https://twitter.com/insidethenout/status/436590962949632000

Taking care of your skin will help give you that healthy glow and help you to stay looking young. It is important to remember that everyone has a different skin type and what might work for me might not work for you. Have patients with yourself to find a routine that works for you and of course keep checking back here every week to read about other articles on creating a healthy and more beautiful mind and body. http://mad.ly/signups/102194/join

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Your Brain On Diet!

Ever notice that as soon as you put your foot down and declare that you are on a diet all you can think about is food? For me and many others diets can be used to lose that 5 or 10 pounds but those 5 to 10 pounds seem to quickly find their way back on. One problem is where most diets put the emphasis. Most diets tell you what not to eat first so naturally you start thinking about all that good stuff you shouldn’t  be eating.  The other problem is that most people try a diet that is very different from what they normally eat. This also makes you constantly think of food and what to cook next. All this focus on food it is easy to see why you always feel hungry. This also leads to creating a count down to when the diet is over so you can go back to not worrying about food anymore. Of course as soon as the diet changes the pounds find their way back and the cycle continues.

Of course healthy eating is important for you health and mental state.(it’s amazing how much better you feel about yourself when you eat right) The answer…life style change. Although this sounds scarier then the diet it has many benefits including getting off the diet cycle. You can implement small changes slowly so you’re not always thinking about food. You can also put more emphasis to add good things into your diet instead of what you are taking away. For example try to add more vegetables to your diet by adding carrot sticks to your lunch or a salad. This puts more focus on the good things you are eating instead of all the things you are cutting out. Slow changes also lead to permanent changes. Slow changes also help you see what kinds of things work for your body. You might find that you feel better when you add a vegetable to you dinner and that it helps you to feel fuller longer. Remember everyone is different so slow changes allow you to see what works and to change things that don’t. If you work to make good changes you won’t always have to cycle between diets. Another benefit is not getting upset over cheat days. Since nothing is banned from your diet you can go out for your birthday or night out without feeling like you need to start all over. Typically if you eat well most of the time even when you are not eating the best things you won’t feel the need to binge. As a rule of thumb you can aim to eat healthy 80% of the time and cheat 20%. This helps as a guide to keep you on the right track without feeling like your constantly on a diet. This also helps to decrease the stress that comes with diets.

Although you might not lose weight as fast as you would on a diet the results you do have will last and you might find over time you lose more than you would on a diet, feel better, and have less stress. I like to think of food as a tool and look into ways I can make my food help me live a better and healthier life. Instead of “living to eat”work on thinking of it as eating to live! Of course that doesn’t mean that you cant enjoy food rather just be more conscientious of what you are putting into your body.I’m very passionate about this topic so keep checking back every week for more information on how to help you make lifestyle changes.

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Coconut Joy!

It’s quite possible I speak for many of us when I say that we all love something that has multiple purposes and benefits all in one product. Is this true for you? Would you like to have something to use as a cooking oil at low or high heat safely? A little something to add to your coffee first thing in the morning to give it a boost of good fats for your brain and body to jump-start the day with? What about something you can use for your skin as a lotion or even an aftershave? I can keep going but I have a feeling you may be getting the point now. If you have answered yes to any of these questions you may be at risk for loving coconut oil! Please be advised that its healthy fats MCT’s (medium chain triglycerides) and other polyphenols and vitamins may help moisturize your skin, maintain healthy cholesterol levels, aid in weight loss, improve dental quality and bone strength, aid in proper digestion, nourish your hair and have antimicrobial, antifungal, and antibacterial properties. If you do not wish to have so many health benefits by incorporating one thing into your daily routine I recommend you STOP reading this article now!

 

For those of you brave enough to keep reading on I would like to welcome to you the wonderful world of coconut oil. Maybe you already use it for cooking or skin care but never really used coconut oil to maximize its benefits in your life. First I want to get into the nitty-gritty and explore what is in coconut oil that makes it so amazing. Then I will go through a few ways I use it and some extras uses that may work for you. Let’s get started!

First of all coconut oil is an oil, it contains all kinds of good fats your body needs to function properly. These fats include:

• Saturated fatty acids: Most are medium chain triglycerides that are easily assimilated by the body such as lauric acid, capric acid, caprylic acid, myristic and palmitic acids.

• Polyunsaturated fatty acids: Linoleic acid.

• Monounsaturated fatty acids: Oleic acid.

• Polyphenols: Gallic acid.

Along with all these good fats are Vitamin E and K as well as minerals such as Iron.

It is easy to go on and on but I would like to share with you one of my favorite ways to get coconut oil in my diet and that is in my morning coffee! Starting the day off with a fresh cup of coffee, coconut oil, organic grass-fed butter and my favorite protein powder helps me power through my mornings! Here is why it works. The coffee for many known reasons helps boost energy and metabolism as well as stimulate digestion. The grass-fed butter, and I stress grass-fed because the cows that provided that milk for your butter fed on the nutrients they need to be healthy therefore producing the best quality dairy containing all of its vital nutrients such as CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) which has many benefits itself including weight loss. For a good article regarding grass-fed products and benefits of CLA follow this link: CLA Benefits. The coconut oil, its brain boosting, cholesterol maintaining, blood pressure leveling, candida killing, heart healing, blood sugar balancing, digestion benefiting effects are great to break the fast of sleep. Finally I use a whey protein powder free from hormones and artificial ingredients (my favorite is chocolate) to support muscle growth and keep me full and energized. You can see why I like to start my day off this way!

Some other amazing things you can use coconut oil are as follows:

• To replace other cooking oil as coconut oil can be used for high heat cooking, contains fewer calories compared to other oils, and it’s fat is easily converted into energy!

• Spread it on your toast in the morning for an extra boost!

• Use it on your skin as a moisturizer, it has antibacterial properties which those with skin conditions such as acne can benefit from.

• Use it in your hair and on your scalp, coconut oil can help strengthen your hair, add shine, make it softer and help relieve dry scalp to stomp out itching and flaking as well as improve growth.

• Use it when you practice oil pulling methods.

• Use it as a carrier oil for massage.

• Use it in your homemade deodorants, it’s antifungal, antimicrobial properties will help kill odor causing bacteria.

• Apply it to your psoriasis to relieve itching and reduce redness.

• For weight loss simply get 2-3 tablespoons of coconut oil in your diet daily. Your liver converts the medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil into energy and increases your metabolic rate. Add it to your morning coffee, your afternoon smoothie or add it as a topping on your popcorn.

TIP: Add coconut oil into your daily routine a little at a time. You can start with 1 tablespoon daily and increase it by 1 tablespoon at a time.

 

When shopping for coconut oil you may see labels read: refined, virgin, extra virgin, unrefined, natural, organic, or fractionated. Here are a few quick buying tips:

• Internal use- I always go for the organic unrefined extra virgin coconut oil if I plan to use it internally.

• Topical use- Such as hair and skin I prefer organic unrefined extra virgin coconut oil. The least amount of processing the better, I want it to contain all of the natural goodness that mother nature worked so hard to put into the coconut!

So really with all of it’s wonderful benefits the only limitation is your imagination! If you already use coconut oil please share some of the ways you use it. If you just started using it after this article give us some feedback as to how you used it and what you thought of it.

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Why Inside Then Out?

Your skin is one of the first things people see and can be an indicator of your overall health. Your eyes can reflect your emotions as well as being an indication that you have not been sleeping. There are many beauty products on the market that can conceal, brighten, and mask many things but if you don’t stop the problem at its source then you will always need that product. Is your skin always dry? Maybe you need more water. Do you have acne? Maybe you need to look at your diet and hormones. Bags under the eyes?…Well you get the idea. The healthy glow you see from people who take good care of themselves can’t be found in a bottle. The key to beauty is to take care of yourself not only physically but emotionally as well and use product to enhance the natural beauty that you have. Another important part is to love yourself for who you are and have confidence in yourself. After all what more sexy than confidence and a big smile?

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