Monthly Archives: November 2011

P is for Pineapples – Perfect for Passion & Pimples!

Posted on November 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

Pineapples for Natural Health and Beauty

What a combination, huh?  Passion and pimples?  I suppose if you’re a teenager you are looking for ways to combine the two.  And pineapple is perfect for both!

For pimples, pineapples have enzymes like bromelain which is helpful in getting rid of dead and dirty old skin cells.  Pineapples are rich in Vitamins B1, B2, B12, C, PP, carotene, iron, zinc, copper, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iodine, manganese, glucose and organic acids and many more.  Pineapples not only remove impurities and dead skin tissue, but they also help to moisturize and soften skin while reducing dark spots and fine lines.  And for all you teenagers out there, or those of you who might be older but still have blemishes, pineapple is great for acne!

Here’s a couple of recipes for homemade facial masks using pineapple:
Pineapple Coconut Facial

Ingredients:
- 3 pieces of pineapple
- 2 tablespoons coconut milk
Mix all ingredients and blend until the texture becomes creamy smooth.  Apply to face using circular motions and allow to sit for 10 – 15 minutes.  Rinse with warm water and apply your favorite natural moisturizer.

Pineapple Honey Mask

Blend 4 pineapple chunks  with 3 tablespoon of olive oil in it. Add 1 tablespoon of honey to the mixture and blend it until it results in a  smooth paste. Apply mixture to your face and leave it on for 15 minutes. Wash off with warm water and pat dry.

Pineapples for Passion

Pineapples for Passion:  Pineapples are also potent passion producers – they are rich in vitamin C and often used in the homeopathic treatment for impotence. Add a spear to a sweet Rum drink for a tasty prelude to an evening of passion. Pineapple is also a very good food source of manganese, which is well-known to improve sexual drive and potency in men.  And in addition, pineapples provide the body with thiamine, which helps provide that extra energy one needs for a night of potent pleasure!

 

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Posted in Diet, homemade beauty products, natural beauty, Romance and Sex

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P is for Portion – A Primer for a Plate of Natural Health

Posted on November 29, 2011 | 1 Comment

Portion Sizes for Natural Health

Take precautions when it comes to portions!  Here’s a guide to how much you should eat of things:

  • A baseball or size of your fist would be one serving of vegetables or fruit
  • A tennis ball measures about as much as ½ cup of food (for example, ½ cup ice cream)
  • Golf ball or large egg is about a ¼ cup of dried fruit or nuts
  • Six dice or one domino would equal one serving of cheese
  • Deck of cards or the palm of your hand is the equivalent of a serving of meat, fish or poultry (3 oz.)

    deck of cards

  • Tip of your thumb equals about one-teaspoon of your favorite nut butter
  • Computer mouse is the same size as one serving of a baked potato
  • CD (compact disc) equals the serving size of a waffle of pancake
  • Check book equals a 3 oz. serving of fish
  • A rounded handful is about one half cup cooked or raw veggies or cut fruit, a piece of fruit, or ½ cup of cooked rice or pasta

Here’s a few more tips to help you cut down on how much your eat and therefore, take care of your natural health.  Look at your plate of food. Roughly half of your plate should be full of vegetables, one-quarter should be your protein, and the last one-quarter should be your starch.

Read the labels on the package before you eat.   Every one of them displays the serving size. A serving size can be different from a healthy portion size.

 

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P is for Portion – Pay Attention to the Plate

Posted on November 29, 2011 | 3 Comments

Portions Predict Natural Health

Super Size!  Whopper!  Over Size!  Big Gulp!  Watch out for all of these words – they will kill ya!  People are getting fatter and fatter and as they get fatter, they get great big diseases – like diabetes or cardiovascular disease.  As if being obese wasn’t enough of a problem!

Most of us don’t have to eat like there’s no tomorrow.  I recently told a group of students the day before Thanksgiving that the day after Thanksgiving will be here soon enough.  There will be another meal.  Unless you are living in abject poverty or in a country overwhelmed by famine and drought and starvation, then take control of your natural health by taking control of your portion sizes!

There are a lot of easy ways to make sure you don’t supersize your plate and as a result, supersize your waistline.   When you go out to eat at a restaurant, Weight Watchers has always suggested that you ask for a takeout container at the start of the meal and put aside half of what you are served.  You save calories that way and you save money, and eating smaller portions can save your life.  Share a dessert with your dining partners – you get a little treat and you don’t jeopardize your natural health.

If you like to have a snack while you’re watching TV, measure out one serving of your snack and then put the bag of chips away.  The farther away the temptation, the less likely you’ll go to get more.  And if you do go to get more, at least you’ll get some exercise!

Eat off a smaller plate and put your food on a plate rather than serving dishes on the table.  Your family will thank you!

Begin each meal with a cup of clear soup or a green salad.  You’ll fill up with less caloric and lower fat food and you don’t be tempted to eat so much!  And you’ll probably be too full to eat dessert!

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P is for Potatoes – Put ‘Em on your Plate Please!

Posted on November 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

Potatoes are a Plus for your Natural Health

Putting off putting potatoes on your plate?  Pooey – they’re good for you!  Potatoes aren’t the devil food they’ve been made out to be.  Of course, if you’re going to go to some big chain restaurant and eat a huge baked potato with sour cream and butter and bacon and who knows what – you’ve got a big, bad plate of high fat poop!  For example, one chain restaurant, Ruby Tuesday’s Loaded Baked Potato contains 591 or 688 calories (too high to really make you question it!), 29 g fat and 545 mg sodium.   This potato delivers nearly half the fat you should eat in an entire day, and much of that comes from the load of animal fats – sour cream, bacon bits, cheddar cheese, and butter are all heaped upon a delicious low-fat potato which contains about 280 calories and next to no fat!

The potato itself is full of nutrition and should be a part of your healthy diet.  One medium potato (150g) with the skin provides  almost 30 grams of Vitamin C, almost half of the recommended daily intake.  They also contain Vitamin B, folate and minerals such as potassium, magnesium and iron.  The Vitamin B6 that you find in potatoes is an excellent source of stress-relieving neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and adrenaline that help you to relax and calm down.  And the skins of the potatoes are fiber-rich foods and we know that to be essential to maintaining healthy weight (see F is for Fiber – The Facts for Fabulous Natural Health).

 

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O is for OOOOOOOMMMMMM Namah Shivaya

Posted on November 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

Meditation can take many forms.  You can focus on your breath or focus on a candle.  You can sit in one place with your eyes open or you can stand in one place with your eyes closed.

You can repeat a mantra or you can be silent.  You can sing, you can dance, you can meditate on a Hershey’s Kiss and eat mindfully (see previous post -M is for Mindful Munching – Making the Most of a Moment of a Meal).

Simply put, meditation is taking time out to focus – on something, on anything – to the exclusion of everything else.  To slow down one’s breath, shut off one’s thinking – paying attention to one thing and one thing only.

Hindu chanting, or Kirtan, is a singing meditation.  Many different faiths use chanting to put the believers into a trance like state from repetition over and over of a sound.  The sound of the mantra “Om Namah Shivaya,” which literally means “I bow to Shiva” or to one of the highest of the Hindu deities.  Shiva also refers to the divinity within, and chanting this mantra is done to waken the highest that we might become.

This particular version of “Om Namah Shivaya” is being sung by Deva Premal.  Others that I really like are sung by Donna De Lory or Krishna Das or sung during a Siddha Yoga event.   All of them are soothing, soulful and life enriching!  OOOMMMMM!

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Posted in Mind-Body-Spirit, Natural Health

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