Tag Archive | health and wellness

How Our Attitude Affects Our Health

Feb15

by Amanda Collier

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It is a true honor to introduce our very first guest blogger on Journey to Complete Wellness.  Amanda Collier is a writer and blogger with a public health background.  She has been at the helm of Murray Insurance Agency‘s Blog for the last 10 months.  Amanda is a talented writer with some very good advice, and I think you will like what she has to say.

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We’ve all heard the saying “attitude is everything,” but we rarely think of this in relation to our health. It is generally accepted that illnesses and injuries are something that happen to us, regardless of our attitude. Research and data is beginning to discount this outmoded belief, however. With the backing of studies, it is coming to be more widely accepted that attitude actually has a huge impact on resistance to disease, healing abilities, longevity, and overall wellness.

Attitude and Lifestyle

Your attitude has a direct impact on your lifestyle, but this may not be easy to see when you are living through it. If you feel positive about the day ahead and see yourself as competent enough to handle whatever comes your way, you may be more likely to engage in healthy habits. Walking, working out, drinking water, eating healthy, all of these behaviors seem possible and easy to do when your outlook is positive. A negative outlook may make these activities seem overwhelming and impossible.

Coping with Challenges

The way that we perceive challenges and the way that we choose to cope with those challenges can be improved by facing obstacles with a positive perspective. People tend to improve quicker and see better results when facing health challenges like illnesses and injuries with a positive outlook. While an optimistic approach can have some benefits in itself, people that have a positive outlook also tend to be solution focused and more committed to treatment plans.

Dealing with Emotions

It is impossible to bottle up emotions and stay positive. Freely expressing emotions can be therapeutic and can help individuals to live with a strong positive outlook. In some cases, it may be helpful to see an emotional counselor in order to work through difficult emotions and regain a bright outlook. Emotional counseling may sound like something that is out of reach, but many health insurance plans now help pay for these services because of the indisputable link between emotional and physical health.

Focus on Improving Attitude

A positive attitude is something that can –and should – be cultivated. Shifting to a positive outlook takes thoughtfulness and diligence, but can have lasting benefits on all areas of your life. Over time and with practice you may eventually find that you default to positivity, your first thought in any situation is a positive one.

The following are a few ways that you can work to shift to a more positive attitude:

  • Be conscious of your immediate thoughts and whether they are positive or negative
  • Identify some things that you think negatively about, such as body image or your job, and work on engaging in more positive thinking about those areas
  • Exercise regularly so that your excess energy does not turn into internal stress and negativity
  • Eat healthier so that your body feels better and your mind does not have discomfort to dwell on
  • Banish negative self-talk and work on replacing it with positive self-talk
  • Socialize often and make sure that your circle is filled with positive people

October Unprocessed: Day 1

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I survived the first day of October Unprocessed without too many cravings! 🙂

This is what I ate today:

I began the day with a glass of water.

For breakfast, I had an apple and an omelet. We have 13 chickens, so eggs are a big part of my diet. I generally have eggs every day in some form. To make the omelet, I sautéed ¼ cup onion with a Roma tomato from our garden in a teaspoon of coconut oil. I added ½ slice American cheese to the omelet as well.

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Around midmorning, I had a snack of 2 peanut butter cookies. This is one of my favorite cookies, and one of the reasons I love them so much is because they are unprocessed and contain NO flour and NO white sugar. Check out my Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies recipe here (today I left out the chocolate chips.)

For lunch, I had potato salad that contained all REAL-food ingredients.  Here is the recipe I used, only this time I used Greek Yogurt instead of the mayonnaise.

For an early afternoon snack, I made popcorn.  The popcorn kernels I used were GMO-free from our local farm.October 1, 2014 006

A little later in the afternoon, I had a few grapes to hold me over until dinner.

I roasted a chicken for dinner.  In addition to the chicken, I had corn on the cob from our local farm and roasted zucchini, broccoli, and onions along with some of the leftover potato salad from lunch.

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I didn’t find today too difficult because I had planned my meals ahead of time. I expect it to get more difficult as the month progresses as I try to discover some new recipes and foods. I did crave some chocolate chips at several different times today, but I held off on eating them. I will be allowing myself chocolate chips as one of my “deliberate exceptions,” but I just wanted to get through today without them. 🙂

If anyone would like to join me in this challenge, it’s not too late!  You can take the challenge on your own terms.  Any step toward wellness is a step in the right direction!  Click here to take the pledge and join me and over 18,000 others in October Unprocessed 2014!

October Unprocessed: The Inspiration Behind Journey to Complete Wellness

Sep30

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One year ago, I took the October Unprocessed Challenge and spent the entire month of October 2013 eating only REAL, unprocessed foods.  It was a huge learning experience for me!  During the challenge, I felt terrific and full of energy all day long.  I discovered some wonderful new foods and recipes, and I connected with a whole world of like-minded people committed to improving their health and supporting each other.  It became a lifestyle change for me and my family.  I found healthy replacements for a lot of the foods we ate.  Overall, I felt great about all the positive changes I made to improve the health and wellness of my family.  Although it certainly was not easy at times, the rewards definitely outweighed the challenges.  To learn about ALL the benefits and challenges I encountered during this experience, check out my blog post here.

Upon completing the challenge on October 31, I was inspired to start this blog, Journey to Complete Wellness.  What a blessing that has been!  I invite you to join me and over 16,000 others in this year’s October Unprocessed Challenge by taking the October Unprocessed 2014 pledge here.  Who knows what it will inspire YOU to do?

If an entire month seems too overwhelming, you can take the pledge for a week, or even a day.  It is not as difficult as it may seem.  You are allowed some “deliberate exceptions” (foods you can’t live without), and you take the challenge on your own terms.  The main goal is to become aware of the foods you are putting into your body.  It was truly an eye-opening experience for me!

Any step toward wellness is a step in the right direction.  You can do it!

I plan to track this year’s progress in this blog, so stay tuned for some new and exciting REAL-food recipes!

Please leave a comment below if you decide to sign up!  Good luck! 🙂

May Wellness Challenge: Get Outside and Exercise Each Day

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Happy May!  I feel like this year is flying by!  The warmer weather is finally here in New England, and I’m anxious to get outside and get the kids off their devices and spending more time outside as well.  Unfortunately, they spent a little more screen time than I would have liked this winter.

So far this year, I have been taking on a new wellness challenge each month.  For the month of May, I have decided to challenge myself to get outside a minimum of 15 minutes each day and do some form of exercise, whether it be walking, gardening, mowing the lawn, playing with the kids, etc.  I’m going to challenge my kids to do the same.

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My goal is to do this 6 days a week, from Sunday through Friday.  I will give myself Saturdays off because I’m a big believer in taking one day a week off from everything (and for me that day is Saturday.)  I think we all need a day each week to recharge.  I will probably end up going outside and exercising anyway, but without the pressure of having to do it and having to document it.  (I always think it’s more fun doing something when I don’t have to do it.)  I do take these challenges seriously and make them a priority in my life for the month, so Monday – Friday I do feel like I have to do it.

If you are interested in joining this challenge with me, I would welcome the company.  I created this excel spreadsheet to track my progress:  May Wellness Challenge Log Print

Or, you can right click on this image below, click “Save Image As…” to save it to your computer.  You will then be able to print it out to track your progress.

May Wellness Challenge Log

In the event of a day with nasty weather ALL day long, I plan to follow an exercise video of some sort (Yoga, Tae Bo, Tae Chi, etc.) from my video collection or get one from the library, or even play Just Dance with the kids on the Wii.  But hopefully each day will have at least a 15-minute stretch of time without rain so we can get the benefits of sunshine and fresh air!  I know I certainly feel much better after I have been outside.

Today started off rainy, but by the time the kids got off the bus, it was sunny and 70 degrees, so we took the dog for a walk and played basketball together for almost an hour!   The kids are on-board with this challenge and excited to participate.  We plan to reward ourselves at the end of the month if we are all able to successfully achieve our goal.

Happy May!!  May your days be filled with fresh air, sunshine, and all the good things nature has to offer! Enjoy! 🙂