Photo of Table by By Annie Spratt
Tag: tips
Skin Care Tips from metabolic balance
metabolic balance wants you to have not only a healthy diet but a healthy body so taking care of your skin during the winter season is essential. Here are some tips to help you keep your skin healthy.
- Moisturize your Skin – Your skin care routine should change with the season. As the weather gets colder your moisturizer should change. Find one that has oil to provide a protective layer.
- Exfoliate your skin – Invest in a dry brush. If you don’t know how to use one, here is a video about dry brushing.
- Wear gloves to protect your hands. When you wear gloves, you protect your hands from the cold which will hep to prevent your skin from cracking.
- Purchase a humidifier to add moisture to the air.
- Drink plenty of water. Your metabolic balance plan has designated how much water you need. Follow your plan and have a chat with your metabolic balance coach about integrating water breaks into your daily routine.
- Get a Pedicure – Just because your feet are tucked inside of boots and shoes does not mean you should ignore them. Invest in a foot bath and some pepermint foot lotion. A weekly foot bath and a daily dose of pepermint foot creme will make sure your feet stay soft and ready for your summertime sandals.
- Stay away from alcohol or clay-based beauty treatments that will dry out your skin. Use mild cleansers and look for masks that are hydrating.
- Get a Paraffin wax treatment – Small paraffin wax machines are easy to find and will offer you the perfect treatment for dry skin on your hands, face, elbows and feet. Follow the instructions carefully and use only the proper equipment. If you do not want to DIY, you can find paraffin treatments at your local spa or salon.
- Purchase moisturizer with sunscreen. The sun can burn in winter just like it can in summer.
Vegetables Make Your Breakfast Better
On the metabolic balance plan, you get lots of vegetables so take advantage of this perk and make sure you eat as many vegetables as you can for breakfast.
If you are not a vegetable breakfast person, here are a few ways to add those vegetables without breaking an early morning stress sweat.
Make a Breakfast Salad with your fruit and vegetables.
Experiment with your breakfast Smoothie.
Scramble your Vegetables. (more vegetables than eggs)
Eat a side of vegetables like Kohrabi sticks which you can substitute for bread.
Get creative with your eggs.
Eat avocado toast.
How To Keep a Food Diary
We can tell you to keep a food diary but how exactly do you do that? As metabolic balancers, we start our journeys with a food list that shows us the exact amounts of food that will help balance our bodies and lead us down the path of healthy living. Our food lists grow as we progress through the program. We are taught how to add new foods to our diet without disrupting our metabolic balance journey but our food lists do not magically fill our refrigerators or our stomachs as we go through our day.
It is up to us to keep track of our intake in a food diary.
Here are a few ways to track your food intake and everything else you want to remember about how and when you eat.
Use Your smart phone /ipad (digital devices)
Applications specifically for recording Food Diary Information
My Net Diary
My Plate by Livestrong – Although this app focuses on calories, Livestrong has a huge database of food and shows you the macronutrient content of your meal. The app also allows you to track your water and exercise. Do not use this app if you have an issue with counting calories. metabolic balance doesn’t focus on calorie counting but portion control and eating the proper foods.
Note Apps you can use to record data but are not specifically for Food Diaries.
Daily Book
Speech to text (free part of operating system)
GoodNotes 4
Notability
Evernote
Here are a few things for you to keep track of in your Food Diary:
- Record immediately so you are as accurate as possible.
- Write down what you’re doing while you’re eating―driving, watching TV, etc.
- Describe how you felt while you ate: angry, sad, happy, nervous, starving, bored?
- The diary is for you and your coach so be as honest as possible.
- Note your emotions and environment and how it affects your eating.
Spring is Coming Lets Plan Our Gardens
This week, we are sharing resources for planning a garden. You can use our suggestions for creating a garden in your backyard or on your patio/balcony. If you feel extremely motivated to garden but do not have access to a garden or a balcony/patio, you may be able to find a community garden in your area to begin testing your green thumb.
5 tips for Tackling Emotional Based Hunger
In a perfect world, we would follow the Metabolic Balance ® rules and life would be a bed of roses but, most of us carry not only excess weight but a lifetime of baggage that we need to sort through so we can lead balanced lives as metabolic balancers.
Some metabolic balancers struggle with emotional eating caused by stress or a desire to tap into a memory associated with specific foods. If this is one of your issues, sit down with your coach and devise a plan which incorporates some of the following:
- Keep a diary and learn your hunger eating habits. If you just ate dinner and you are “feeling” hungry than it may be emotional hunger not a physical need for food.
- Create a list of things to do that shifts your mindset and help you avoid eating to fill an emotional need. Create a to do list that you can easily tackle when emotional hunger arrives. The list should be tasks that can be easily accomplished and that can be accomplished in under 15 minutes. It is crucial that the task be short and something you can finish (have a sense of completion) but not too short that you are just thinking about food the whole time. We want your brain to switch away from food and focus on the task you decided to accomplish.
- If you have a flexible schedule, go for a walk each time you are feeling emotionally hungry. Getting Fresh air and moving your body are both wonderful benefits of walking outdoors.
- If you are not to the point where you can stop yourself from eating, take four bites of whatever food you want to eat and toss the rest. (You may feel bad but your body won’t care.) The four bites will satiate the emotional need.
- If you need to have some kind of ritual to replace the emotional eating, try creating your own tea ceremony. It can be very relaxing to go through the process of creating tea. If you don’t know about tea ceremonies, here is an example. Tea or coffee are not allowed between meals but you can add the cermony to your Metabolic Balance ® meal.
Lets Get Ready For Thanksgiving
It’s time to prepare ourselves for the next 6 weeks of celebrations and lifestyle challenges.
You know how it is, the family may not be supportive of your metabolic balance lifestyle and you will be faced listening to their commentary and questions such as “why are you not eating my rolls?” or, “What is wrong with having Turkey and and some bacon?” Use your coach as support to get you through your celebrations and plan your treat meals accordingly. You do not have to face the holidays alone, we are all here for you to help you get through the season of lifestyle challenges.
If you slip up during the holidays, don’t forget to plan a rebalancing for the new year. We will be doing our yearly challenge and would love for you to take the time to focus on your MB life.
Here are some links to articles that will help you during the holiday season:
Practical Tips for a Healthy Thanksgiving
How to be a Great Thanksgiving Guest
metabolic balance Tips for the Holidays
Be Thankful for metabolic balance
Metabolic Balance® Suggests 10 Ways to Age Gracefully
- Excercise for 30 to 60 minutes a day. Go for a walk. If you live in the city, see if you can walk to work or walk home from work. If you must commute, walk during your lunch break by running a few errands or schedule a family walk for the evenings.
- Follow the Metabolic Balance® plan for a lifetime. Just because you are in phase 4 does not mean that phase 4 ends. Phase 4 is the rest of your life which means that once you start metabolic balance, you are doing the metabolic balance plan for a lifetime.
- Avoid Smoking and limit your alcohol intake to one glass of red wine a day.
- Sleep. Research shows we need sleep. If you are having problems sleeping, talk with your metabolic balance® coach. They may have some valuable tips for you.
- Take care of your mind and reduce stress. Living is stressful and as you age, stress does not disappear. Make sure you learn tools to deal with stress and make it have less of an impact on your health.
- Practice a Creative skill such as writing or art. Everyone has at least one creative bone in their bodies. The trick is finding it. Don’t give up if you are not talented in drawing, hammering wood or snapping photos may be your thing. Sign up for a workshop to try out different art techniques. Many community colleges offer beginning courses you can take to try out writing or visual art forms.
- Make “real” friends and socialise in person. Facebook is great for connecting but don’t forget that friendships need to be strengthened offline. invite some of your friends over and cook a metabolic balance® meal for them. Show them how you are keeping your body balanced.
- Take Classes and keep learning. It doesn’t always cost money to learn. You can attend an online course on Coursera for free.
- Drink water. Water from the tap is free. If you are drinking water, you reduce your food budget and you help your body hydrate. Hydration is excellent for the skin and helps your body function in a more efficient manner.
- Be Mindful. We shared a post here and here on being mindful and the benefits of balancing your entire life not just your food.
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Thanks to Chany Crystal for letting us use the photo of people dancing.
Mindful Eating – Infographic -Tips
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