Love Your Heart, Valentine's Day, #heart tips

Happy Valentine's Day and National Heart Health Month Everyone. I've been reflecting on Valentine's Day and Heart Health and realize it would be fun to list an assortment of plant-based foods and lifestyle choices that are good for heart health.

1. Remember to eat plenty of non-gmo organic fruits and vegetables in a wide range of colors-greens, red, orange, yellow, and purple in their natural state. Purchase produce from a farmer's market, grow it in your own home garden, or shop at a market that supports Free Trade Products. Serve veggies raw or steamed. Flavor with herbs and spices instead of sauces and gravies.
2. Use legumes like organic lentils, beans, and whole unprocessed grains including barley, quinoa, spelt, oats, flax, millet, corn, brown rice, and organic whole grain wheat in stews, soups, roasts, and sautes.
3. Serve unprocessed protein sources like organic tempeh, organic tofu, leafy green vegetables, kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, peanut butter, broccoli, collard greens, kale, as well as other nuts and seeds.
4. Add little or no sugar. It is likely to be genetically modified and turns to fat, which is a no-no for heart health.
5. Cook without salt, especially if you have high blood pressure. High blood pressure can lead to hypertension, a leading cause of heart attacks.
6. Serve fresh salads at least once or twice a day. Use a light dressing like lemon juice and a tablespoon of organic olive oil herbal blend instead of high caloric bottled dressings. Another option is to puree olives, an avocado, or raw cashews to top salads.

A healthy lifestyle includes exercise and sports, relaxation techniques and stress management, maintaining a network of love and support, and a plan to take special care of yourself.  

The choices you make (like to stop smoking), the food you eat, and love in your life enhances heart health. Love yourself and your heart. Eat well, be well, love well.

Here is a link to important information from WebMDHeart Attack Symptoms

The quotation for today is: "Love Makes the World Go Round."
Listen to the Theme from Carnival sung by Johnny MathisLove Makes the World Go Round

   Join in with the bloggers at Real Food Fridays and learn new ideas, discover recipes, and meet new friends who value real food.

I Love Tea. What's Your Favorite Tea?

Early this morning, I began to imagine drinking a cup of tea, and chatting with with my sister-in-law Naomi. We are long distance communicators, because

Naomi lives on one side of the country and I live on the other. I'm grateful whenever we two are speaking on the phone and drinking a cup of tea together, it feels like we are sitting across from each other at the kitchen table.

My particular favorite teas are Yogi Green Tea Pure Green Decaf, homemade ginger tea (peel a piece of organic ginger, drop it into a cup of boiling water, and let seep for 10-15 minutes), Traditional Medicinals Organic Lemon Echinacea Throat Coat, and Yogi Berry DeTox. And here's a link to a blog I posted about green tea.

What flavor of tea do you enjoy? Please let me know at the email address here-obloggernewbie@gmail.com.

The quotation for today is: Make tea, not war. ~Monty Python

Have a delicious cup of tea and think of me.

Real Food Fridays

Here's a fun way to discover new recipes, find new blogs, and add a link to your blog too. Check out Real Food Fridays. As you might notice if you click on the link, this is the first week I did it. I tried to link up, and instead of a picture of food, I put in a picture of myself. Uh-oh. Now I need to figure out how to change it.
Can anyone from Real Food Fridays help me?
Here's a link to explore it further:
http://foodmyths.org/real-food-fridays/

The quotation for today:“Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.” 

― Michael Pollan

Here's to Your Health in 2014

Please reflect on the points I cover in this blog and let me know which set of health guidelines works for you. Also, do you think you'll be able to follow one of the plans wholeheartedly?

Only 3 % of the 153,000 Americans who were subjects of a report that appeared in the April 25, 2005 issue of the Journal Archives of Internal Medicine were able to maintain a healthy lifestyle consistently. Michigan State University Associate Professor of Epidemiology Mathew Reeves and Ann Rafferty, an epidemiologist with the Michigan Department of Community Health reported that 97 % of those analyzed slipped up on at least one or more of the following:

    1.    Do not smoke

              2.    Hold Down Weight (Body Mass Index of 25% or less)

3.    Eat Right (5-7 servings of fruit and vegetables per day)

4.    Exercise (regular physical activity for 30 minutes at least 5 times per week)

Look at the full article @ 
http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2005/study-finds-very-few-adults-leading-healthy-lifestyles/#sthash.ilYNmCUx.dpuf


Following is information provided by
Medline Plus and the National Institute for Health. They  advise:

"Many factors affect your health. Some you cannot control, such as your genetic makeup or your age. But you can make changes to your lifestyle. By taking steps toward healthy living, you can help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke and other serious diseases:

• Get the screening tests you need
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Eat a variety of healthy foods, and limit calories and saturated fat
• Be physically active
• Control your blood pressure and cholesterol
• Don't smoke
• Protect yourself from too much sun
• Drink alcohol in moderation, or don't drink at all "

Read the plan from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality @ http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthyliving.html

A Third Guideline is featured on the Website of Dr. Dean Ornish and his Spectrum Program: 

35 years of research has scientifically proven that 4 elements are key in reversing heart disease and other chronic ailments. They are

1. Nutrition
2. Fitness
3. Love & Support
4. Stress Reduction

- See more at: http://www.ornishspectrum.com/

What lifestyle plan works well for you and for what reasons? I notice they all offer some options that ring true for me.

I know for sure that the responsibility for my food choices, exercise routine, and lifestyle patterns rests with me. I also know that my actions are influenced by my mental, spiritual, physical, and emotional health. That's why I work to reduce stress and increase motivation to stay on a health-promoting track by meditating and doing yoga. I need and ask for love and support from a higher power and choose to be in relationships with people and groups that cherish me. I've learned to stay away from negativity. I'm grateful I've adopted self-care practices that work and are respectful of my mind, body, and spirit, yet am open to learning new things that may work better in the years to come. 

The quotation for today:

“Embrace each challenge in your life as an opportunity for self-transformation.”

― Bernie S. Siegel

This post was shared at Plant-Based Potluck Link Up # 7

Happy, Healthy New Year

Wishing all my friends, family, and obloggernewbie.blogspot.com visitors a joyous New Year. I am sending love, peace, and positive energy to you today, and intend to continue this plan throughout 2014. Be well, live well, and love well!!!

The quotation for today is “Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” 

― Brad Paisley