Walk Towward a Healthy Heart

There are countless physical activities out there, but walking has the lowest dropout rate of them all! It's the simplest positive change you can make to effectively improve your heart health.

Research has shown that the benefits of walking and moderate physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day can help you:

• Reduce the risk of coronary heart disease
• Improve blood pressure and blood sugar levels
• Improve blood lipid profile
• Maintain body weight and lower the risk of obesity
• Enhance mental well being
• Reduce the risk of osteoporosis
• Reduce the risk of breast and colon cancer
• Reduce the risk of non-insulin dependent (type 2) diabetes

There really are so many benefits for such a simple activity!

Sole-Mate: A Friend By Your Side

The thought of being alone can be enough to keep some people from walking. The best way to solve this is by finding a friend to walk with. You can plan walking paths that are convenient for both of you, or map out routes that take you places you've never been before. It's a great way to exercise and spend time with friends! Visit our MyWalking Clubs website and connect with others!

Walking Benefits Source

Walking for Health

Walking keeps your brain sharp, body slim and agile, boosts your immunity,  and improves your mood by boosting seretonin. It’s easy, requires no special equipment, and you can do it at your own pace.

Benefits of walking for your health are:

Boosts your immunity,
Women who did the equivalent of a 45-minute walk 5 times a week were two-thirds less likely to catch a cold, according to a Washington University study.

May assist with preventing dementia.Walking is a natural memory booster, according to an Italian study published in the journalNeurology. Exercisers ages 65 and older who briskly walked just over 5 miles a week were 27 percent less likely to develop dementia than their couch potato peers. In another study presented earlier this year at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, walking actually increased the size of the hippocampus — the part of the brain responsible for memory formation.

Maintains joint health .As little as 10 minutes a day may improve circulation and help to keep joints lubricated, staving off arthritis symptoms.

It helps curb cravings.Meanwhile, 15 minutes of trekking can also help you say no to chocolate, reported University of Exeter researchers. When self-proclaimed chocoholics abstained from chocolate for 3 days, then either took a walk or rested before performing tempting activities such as opening a chocolate bar, they reported lower cravings following the walk.

Weight loss..Adding just one extra mile of walking a day burns enough calories to shed 10 pounds this year — without changing anything else.

Enhances Mood.But more is even better. Just 10 minutes a day was enough to boost walkers’ energy levels by 18 percent according to one study. But in another study by researchers at the University of North Carolina where women walked for either 30 or 60 minutes, three times a week for 6 months, the 60-minute walkers improved their body confidence and can-do-it attitude four-fold.

Reduces Triglycerides.Walking beats running when it comes to lowering triglycerides, a type of blood fat linked with heart disease risk, according to a Duke University study. Walkers who logged 50 minutes four times a week lowered their triglyceride levels by more than 20 percent — twice as much as joggers in the same study.

Heart Health. For your heart, that is. When Washington University researchers had people in their 50s and 60s walk briskly for about 45 to 60 minutes a day for a year, by the end of the program their hearts pumped as efficiently as adults in their 30s and 40s. The older group also dropped an average of more than 20 pounds—without significantly changing their diet!

May assist with Diabetes prevention. 
Daily walking is potent enough to reverse early symptoms of type 2 diabetes in as little as a week, University of Michigan researchers discovered. In just 7 days, sedentary, pre-diabetic adults improved their insulin sensitivity by 59 percent.

Decreases menopause symptoms.Watch out you hormone-triggered headaches and menopause-related weight gain! Twenty-five minutes of walking a day yielded 44 percent fewer headaches and 22 percent fewer reports of weight gain among menopausal women.

Cancer Prevention.Regular exercise — including walking — has long been shown to decrease your risk of many diseases including certain cancers. But according to new research published in the May 2011 issue of the journal Cancer Research, walking also makes a good weapon after you’ve been diagnosed with cancer. Among men with prostate cancer, those who walked for at least 3 hours a week had a 57 percent lower rate of progression.

DIY Comb & Brush Cleaner

DIY Comb & Brush Cleaner:
Fill a container with 1½ cups water, ½ cup distilled white vinegar, and 20 drops Spark naturals melaleuca essential oil. Soak combs and brushes for 20 minutes. Rinse and air-dry.

www.sparknaturals.com

Gluten Free Flax Seed Oil

Omega Fatty Acids

The average American diet has a fat intake of just under 33% of total calories consumed. This value is well within the range that is considered healthy by the dietary recommended intake (DRI) committee. However, at least a quarter of the population consumes 35% or more of their total calories from fat – usually due to processed and fast foods that are high in saturated and trans fatty acids, often referred to as “bad” fat. Over time, foods that are rich in “bad” fat have been found to promote health risks.

That’s because the types of fat that you eat can actually alter the fatty acid composition of cell membranes, which play vital roles in so many cellular functions. This is even true for the cell membranes of the heart; we think of the heart as very stable tissue, but it can be rapidly modified.  Eating an abundance of bad fat weakens cell membrane structure, so the cells can’t function at optimal levels. Conversely, a diet rich in “good” fats can strengthen cell membrane structure, supporting general health and well-being.

As a rule, “good” fats are the unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are the backbone of the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet and have been shown to help maintain heart, joint, brain, skin and menopausal health. Monounsaturated fatty acids include palmitoleic acid and oleic acid, which are abundant in olives, olive oil, nuts and avocados. Polyunsaturated fatty acids include linoleic acid (LA), gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which can be found in fish, sardines and walnuts, as well as soybean, sunflower, fish, borage, evening primrose and flax seed oils.

Omega-3, omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids are all unsaturated fats. And, research has shown that they must be consumed on a daily basis. However, few Western diets offer the proper omega-6:omega-3 ratio for optimal health, which is currently estimated at 4:1 or even 2:1. In fact, for most Americans, the ratio falls between 10:1 and 20:1.

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential fatty acids. That means they are necessary for optimal function of every cell in the body. But they can only be obtained through food and supplementation. Omega-3 fatty acids consist of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) – the only omega-3 form found in plants - and its derivatives EPA and DHA.  EPA and DHA - which are found in fish, sardines, walnuts and flax seed oil - are primarily responsible for the positive brain, heart and joint support properties associated with omega-3 fatty acids. DHA is considered the major building block of human brain tissue and is particularly abundant in the grey matter of the brain and other neural tissues, including the light-sensitive cells in the retina of the eye. DHA enhances the response of rhodopsin – a pigment that allows for night vision – for optimal visual health. DHA also mediates the transport of choline (a methyl donor for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine) and amino acids, glycine and taurine, in the brain for proper cognitive health.

All Bluebonnet’s formulas that provide omega-3 fatty acids are in a natural triglyceride form. The natural triglyceride form is 300 times more bioavailable than most other fish oil forms – and far more stable. In fact, many fish oils use a synthetic ethyl ester form, which is subject to oxidation and rancidity and can make the fish oil less effective. Plus, all omega-3 formulas that are derived from fish or algal oils have undergone intensive purification. These include a four-step purification process, molecular distillation, and/or steam distillation. These processes eliminate virtually all heavy metals (like mercury), PCBs, dioxins and other contaminants, as well as the unpleasant fishy taste and odor often associated with marine fish oils. www.bluebonnetnutrition.com/product/150/Certified_Organic_Flax_Seed_Oil_1000_mg_SoftgelsBlueBonnet Nutrition

Gluten Free Resource Directory Food Solutions Magazine

FSM_Nov_2014

YUMM! Do You Bake?

Introducing Do You Bake?

We LOVE Food. All kinds. Sweet stuff, spicy stuff, fun stuff, amazing stuff, ethnic stuff. Yep, you could say we just love it all. Our passion for food is seen each and every day in our DYB? Kitchens. Always creating and developing new and exciting meals, sweets and flavor inspirations. We don’t stop until it is just perfect.

We are built by and for our Ambassadors and our Customers. Their love for food keeps us motivated on a daily basis to continue to create YUMMY options with real ingredients.

Thanks for sharing a spot in your pantry with us! We hope to inspire your next culinary adventure!

Got a sweet tooth craving? We are at your service! Pick a cake mix, a cookie mix, an Eat-em-Upcake! Don’t forget about our Slow Cooker Sensations Sweet options!

http://goo.gl/5gThRt

Crave It!

January brings our sister brand Crave It! to the DYB lineup. Smoothies, shakes, protein. Active lifestyle brand. 
Keeping with the same principles that we use for our current products. Real food, no fillers, no preservatives, no additives, no junk. I'm so excited for this line!
http://goo.gl/qDQEJA