Relax & Detress.

Hello, my name is Shawn and I’m a thrifty thrift store lover. I can think of no better way to spend an afternoon than getting amongst the treasures of a great second hand store! Thankfully, I have a family that loves the same thing!

Whilst thrift store shopping, I found a great book titled, ‘1001 Ways to Relax’ by Susannah Marriott. I am all for relaxing and never used to be able to do it.

So, every now and then I’ll grab a hint from her book and let you know what I’ve discovered. Her first suggestion in the book??

De-stress. Sounds great!

Find a way to quelch the chaos – even if it means telling others that you need to pull back on the hectic schedules and re-establish some structure instead of feeling like the roller coaster is heading off of the rails. We all have to do it – but once we do, when the dust settles, we are better for it – and far less stressed.

 

 

In love with the tub pictured? I am too! I found it here.

Some suggestion to deal with stress include;

1.> Think positive – if our attitude is positive, the day will be too. Things won’t get to us the way they do when we always think they will. Practice this! If you find negative thoughts creeping in – get rid of em!

2.> Rearrange your day – to ensure everything you intend to do in a day gets accomplished, rearranging a few things makes a huge difference. Learning to eliminate the things you feel you must do versus what you have to do and want to do takes a bit of time, practice and awareness.

3.> Take a meditation class. This is a great idea – and if you are like my family, where a mediation class would be a 2 ½ hour drive, you use YouTube. It’s there for a reason.

4.> Morning meditation. Imagine your thoughts as a projection on a screen, then imagine a blank screen. This allows us to reconnect with our positive side, brushing away the useless thoughts and focusing on the true intentions of the day.

 

Taking time for ourselves isn’t something we can shrug off – it is a necessity.

I used to be the type of person who would arrive home with a headache after work, have a nap after eating a heaping helping of some sort of micro-waved garbage and then lay around all night, miserable and in physical pain. I thought taking a day off from life and getting some ‘me time’ wasn’t deserved or warranted. I had a lot of confused thinking about stress and how to deal with it – especially since I didn’t believe I had any in my life.

There are so many wonderful ways to relax in this book – 1001 to be exact!

More to come soon!

A Strong Immune System - Stay Healthy

In our busy lives we tend to neglect our diet the most out of all things. It is the one thing we believe can suffer without doing harm. Fast food quickly replaces nutritionally dense foods and the end result is always the same. Dis-ease.

One of the best ways to avoid illness is to ensure our immune systems are up to the challenge of maintaining wellness. Our bodies produce something called 'glutathione' - and without it we could find ourselves in a heap of trouble.

According to Jimmy Gutman, the man who wrote ' GSH - Your Body's Most Powerful Protector', glutathione works like a kind of flypaper (this is how I understand things....) - it adheres bad toxins to itself to clean them out of our systems.

Free radicals, including mercury actually stick to this glutathione and then it is recycled by the body. If our body becomes overloaded with toxins and we can't produce enough of what we need to clean them out, the system is too bogged down to continue and we lose the best defence we have against free radicals. The next step will be a trip to the doctor and the label of some sort of chronic disease. Let's avoid that!

We can increase our body's defences by increasing the production of glutathione. So how do we accomplish this?

1.> Eat sulphur rich foods - onions, garlic, broccoli, kale.
2.> Move your body - get plenty of exercise and water.
3.> Supplement what you can't get - N-acetyl-cysteine NAC, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Selenium, Vitamin C & E
4. Explore 'Milk Thistle.'

There you have it - the wonderful world of glutathione! If we give our body's the tools they need to run at peak performance, they will. We have a far greater chance of successfully bettering our wellness. Avoid the dis-ease labels and keep the immune system functioning.

An ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure.

Keeping Calm

Keep Calm - Click Here

Probiotics & Me

When I first got my butt in gear and started becoming more aware of my health, the research we were doing always seemed to turn to probiotics. I had heard of them before, but never made any connections regarding my own health.

I was beyond help....or so I thought.


Probiotics are organisms that contribute to the health and balance of the intestinal tract and are commonly referred to as the "friendly," "beneficial" or "good" bacteria. besthealthmag.ca

I found this really interesting. 

I had spent years on antibiotics the doctors gave me, yet never realized one would have counteracted the other....and vice versa. I knew both existed, but never connected the dots.

When I had taken so many antibiotics (and poor diet made it far worse) I was doing everything I could to 'kill life' inside my guts. That's the literal meaning of antibiotic. To destroy life - not just badness - ALL LIFE.

Stay on an antibiotic long enough and see what happens. It isn't good.

So it makes perfect sense that a probiotic helps increase life in my guts with good bacteria rather than the killin' kind.

I'll take a heaping helping of probiotic any day. Everything works better in my system when I take them.

Digestion is definitely better - and I never suffer from gas, bloating or cramps. 

Don't doubt that diet plays a role too - you can't eat greasy fast food, avoid fruits and veggies, take a probiotic and anticipate wellness.

Probiotics were an incredible discovery in my life. They help me thrive! I purchase the ones that require being stored in the fridge so the active cultures are actually active when I finally swallow them.

You can make a probiotic liquid yourself called Rejuvelac. It is a drink you can add to smoothies or shakes, spoon over oatmeal or drink on its own. The recipe is in my book, "The Fat Girl Now 50% Lighter." It is a less costly way to create the same wonderful balance inside your system.

There are varying probiotics out there, so be sure to do your research. One probiotic may accomplish something in certain folks, but others need something slightly different. There are many good and bad bacteria out there so be aware of what you put in your body. Seek the assistance of a naturopath to ensure you get what your body needs.

No one likes to live with digestive issues. I didn't - and now I don't have to! I'm so grateful for the ability to think on my own, research, sort and utilize information. It was venturing out on my own, but thankfully I found resources and support that helped me make the decisions that were best for me.

I am pro probiotic!

Still have questions? 

Email me at fatgirldotnet@yahoo.com

My Radio Spot

Introducing The Fat Girl Now 50% Lighter radio spot!

OK, OK - so it hasn't been on any radio programs YET - but I'm working on it.

I added photos to create a short video file for your viewing enjoyment, but here it is!

I always envision what I want to see happen in my life first before anything else. I make a plan.
Everything starts with a thought, right? So I envisioned this radio spot for awhile now.....but that's all I did. The next step was organizing and having it recorded. Once I finally did that, it wasn't long until I found someone amazing to record it. Another project completed.

Through the power of non-procrastination, The Fat Girl Now 50% Lighter audio clip (and now video clip) has come to fruition! 

The video portion of the clip will be updated one day, but for now this works.

If you would like permission to use this video on your website, blog or radio show, shoot me an email and request permission.

It's not that I'll say no, I just want to see where it ends up.

The radio spot itself is also posted in the media section of the website.