Moving home is one of life’s experiences that’s often stressful, no matter how much we try to prepare and foresee any hiccups along the way. But planning ahead and making contingency plans can make all the difference between smooth sailing and hitting a bumpy road. Here are some suggestions for making moving memorable.

Don’t Leave Moving Until Moving Day

If you’ve got a moving date, you should already be organizing your move. In fact, the moment the exchange of contracts has occurred, which is when you’ve legally committed to buying your new home, is when you should seriously start planning.

If you’re unsure about the mortgage process, speak to your mortgage lender about important dates to be aware of at the start of the process. Alternatively, if you’re using a mortgage broker, like Trussle, they’ll use your application to see which lender has the best mortgage deal for you.

In the process, they’ll be able to tell you how different lenders operate, including how they typically organize dates of completion and exchange. This could be useful if you have to work around commitments you may have.

Start Packing!

The minute you know you’ve got your new home, it’s worth starting to pack. This way, your back isn’t against the wall when it comes closer to the moving date. Decide what you want, what can be chucked and what can be donated. This way, you’re limiting waste, giving items a second chance at being used, and reducing the amount of stuff you’ll be taking with you.

Get boxes and label them. Include the room the items the box belongs in and what’s in the box. Make sure the writing is in the same place for each box, so people know where to look. Use a marker, so people can clearly see the writing without having to get right up in front of the box, and make sure your writing is legible.

Let People/Places Know You’re Moving

A list of people and places, from your existing home to your new one, can be compiled before moving starts. This gives you time to make sure you have all of them, and reduces the chances of you forgetting anyone. Also, if you’re unable to contact them all at once, you can organize them into groups and notify them accordingly.

The sooner you let them know, the earlier you’ll be able to arrange appointments for things like internet installation, and getting a new doctor. It makes the transition easier knowing you have all this in place and organized before you move.

Prepare Some Hand Luggage

Just like when you go abroad, you have hand luggage of all your essentials. For hand luggage when you move home, it’s a similar principle, however the items may be different. For instance, your phone, charger, overnight clothes, a change of clothes, toiletries – basically everything you need for the next few days.

This will make your life a lot easier in the first day or so, when everything’s in boxes, and you may not have got around to unpacking all you need.

Keep Kids Busy

If you have children, and they’re with you on moving day, making sure they have things to occupy them will free you up to carry on with the moving process. Drinks, snacks and activities, including books, tablet and handheld games are all good.

They may want to join in moving boxes, so you could give them a few light items to place in the right rooms in your new home. Perhaps they could start sorting out boxes in their rooms. This will not only keep them busy, but help you out, as well.

Have Refreshments Handy

Whether you’ve got a removal company helping you, or friends and family, there’s a high possibility that you’ll have some help. Moving is a mammoth task that often needs more than one or two people. Taking this in consideration, having regular breaks and providing refreshments will motivate people to keep going. You’d be surprised how well drinks will literally go down!

If you’re calm when moving day arrives, anything unexpected that happens is unlikely to faze you. This would mean less stress and a more positive approach to what naturally can be a stressful situation.

Being prepared, and preparing in time, is an important part of this. Although you have to expect the unexpected, being able to have everything else planned for will ease anything unanticipated.

Source link

The post Making Moving Memorable appeared first on Heal your health yourself.

Wellness isn’t a static concept; it is constantly in flux. As experts release new research, as events change the way people relate to their health, and as western audiences discover new superfoods from around the globe, the wellness community takes note. In other words, the wellness industry does what it should – it evolves with the times.

Admittedly, this continuous state of flux sometimes makes it difficult for the average person to stay current. Wasn’t it just a couple of years ago that a thousand articles touted the benefits of quinoa? And what happened to the great “CBD boom” of 2020?

Luckily, this article makes it easy to stay up to date. Below, you’ll find three of the most dominant wellness trends of the past six months, broken into categories: food, lifestyle and fitness. From new ways of getting fit, to old forms of herbalism recently embraced in the West, these are the buzzed-about topics in wellness today. Expect to see more of these trends in the years to come.

Food: Functional Adaptogen Mushrooms

Here in the West, mushrooms used to belong on the dinner plate – period. However, elsewhere in the world, cultures have turned to fungi for millennia to treat a wide variety of ailments and boost overall health and wellbeing.

Recently, the influential vegan magazine VegNews declared mushrooms the hottest wellness trend in 2021, citing the ballooning popularity of functional adaptogen mushrooms (sales increased 20-40% between 2019 and 2020). For the unaware, functional adaptogen mushrooms are types of fungi that aid in health and wellbeing.

Some of the most popular functional mushrooms include chaga, lion’s mane and reishi. Each has distinct benefits ranging from mood-boosting to immune-boosting potential. You can find these mushrooms in easy-to-dose packets on the Rritual website. Or order them in bulk so you can dial in on your self-dose for maximum personal wellness.

Lifestyle: Rest As A Radical Concept

Not all trends are specific, nor are they commercial in nature. As Vogue correctly predicted in early 2021, the idea of rest as a potent form of self-care has gained ground this year.

Perhaps it’s a reaction to the “rise and grind” mentality of the wellness community in the past. It might be a response to new research on the benefits of rest in an increasingly busy world. Or maybe it’s a direct reaction to events of the past year-and-a-half – the pandemic, increased social unrest and the tireless fight by some for racial equality. Whatever the reason, it’s an easy trend to follow.

Fitness: Contactless Fitness Classes

Virtual fitness isn’t a new concept, but it certainly skyrocketed in popularity over the last year-and-a-half (for very obvious reasons). Still, as restrictions lift, some people are stating their preference for the contactless model.

For starters, virtual fitness can be more democratic, more accessible, allowing all people – regardless of their ability or social comfort – to exercise. Secondly, it centralizes instructors over gym companies, meaning your money goes directly to the fitness creators themselves. Finally, there’s a practical, universal reason contactless fitness is here to stay: It’s convenient.

How many of these hot wellness trends have you tried? Have you explored the benefits of chaga mushrooms, rested as an act of resistance, or sweated along with a digital fitness class? If not, there’s still plenty of time to try!

Source link

The post Meet the Wellness Trends Making A Huge Splash In 2021 appeared first on Heal your health yourself.

More than two decades of Western diet wisdom have advised us of one rule of thumb: If you want to lose weight, just cut your carbs, and increase protein. However, a revolutionary new study by a team of metabolism and endocrinology researchers has led to the discovery of another aspect of diet that, as the scientists say, “had the most potent effect” on speeding up metabolism… and, as they suggest, this one change in the foods you eat might even help you live longer.

Dr. Dudley Lamming is a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. His latest study’s press release states that in 2014, Lamming was reading about an Australian study that had come upon something remarkable: The mice that had been fed the least amount of protein were the healthiest.

RELATED: 15 Underrated Weight Loss Tips That Actually Work

This went against what our culture has preached about nutrition and wellness, but Lamming was aware there was more science behind the low-protein effect. Since then, he and graduate students in his laboratory “have discovered a little-known but robust pattern across both animal models and humans,” according to their new study’s release—that is: “Diets high in the three branched chain amino acids, BCAAs, are associated with diabetes, obesity and other metabolic illnesses.” The three BCAAs are leucine, isoleucine, and valine, all which humans cannot make on our own and therefore must obtain by consuming them in the foods we eat.

Therefore, Lamming and his team believed, reducing leucine, isoleucine, and valine “can counter these metabolic ailments and even extend the healthy lifespan of rodents.”

Read on to see what happened when the researchers adjusted the proteins the mice in their laboratory ate—and, don’t miss Secret Exercise Tricks for a Better Body After 40, Say Experts.

They went ahead to test their hypothesis, feeding mice with a high-fat, high-sugar, classic Western diet for a few months.

After the mice became obese, Lamming and his team switched up the mice’s diets. They recognized that by restricting the branch chain amino acid isoleucine, “the mice began to eat more food but nonetheless lost weight.” Why? They state: “The weight loss was primarily caused by a faster metabolism, where the body burns more calories as heat while resting.”

Further, they found that “mice fed low-isoleucine diets were leaner and demonstrated healthier blood sugar metabolism.”

RELATED: The Surprising Effect Reducing Sodium May Have on Your Blood Sugar, New Study Says

Since, according to Medical News Today, isoleucine is abundant in foods like meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, lentils, nuts, and seeds—most of these which are encouraged in low-carb diets like keto (like Kourtney Kardashian follows) or paleo—limiting our intake of these might prove to help us lose weight. Further, that’s not only because of the higher fat content in some of these foods, but because of the presence of isoleucine.

Meanwhile, “valine-restricted diets had similar, but weaker, effects” to isoleucine restriction. Valine is found in foods like sweet potatoes, asparagus, spinach, peas, mushrooms, and peanuts.

RELATED: This Food Is Becoming a Bigger Allergy Threat Than Nuts, Data Says

Finally, the researchers stated that reducing levels of leucine “had no benefit and may even be detrimental” to metabolism. High-leucine foods include dairy, soy, beans, and legumes.

Lamming says this discovery presents an opportunity to rethink diets because “evidence from animal models suggests that low-protein diets help shed fat even with normal caloric intake by reprogramming metabolism,” according to the study’s release.

RELATED: One Major Effect of Drinking Milk, New Study Says

Interestingly, this goes deeper to reveal that these amino acids also affect males and females differently, due perhaps to our hormonal reaction to them. One of the department’s graduate students, Nicole Richardson, also “tested a diet in mice that contained just one-third the normal amount of BCAAs. It wasn’t a calorie-restricted diet; the animals could eat as much as they wanted.”

The finding from Richardson’s experiment was that “male mice who ate the diet their entire lives lived about 30% longer on average—roughly eight more months” than female mice. Lamming and his team suggest that because much endocrinological and metabolic research in the past has been conducted on male mice, it may be time to consider how the effects of diet, protein, and amino acids vary based on gender. (One example—check out One Major Side Effect of Being Overweight for Men, New Study Says.)

Sign up for the Eat This, Not That! newsletter for nutrition news you can use, and keep reading:

Source link

The post Making This One Change to Your Diet Could “Reprogram” Your Metabolism, New Study Says appeared first on Heal your health yourself.

Are all fats bad? Are all carbs worse? And is it possible to consume too much protein? With so much conflicting nutrition information out there, it’s easy for people to fall into unhealthy eating habits without even realizing it. Especially when it comes to losing weight, when you might tend to make the same (avoidable) mistakes that are unknowingly sabotaging your efforts.

Fortunately, these diet blunders are easy to overcome if you know better. And that’s where we come in, as we’re here to help you out! Read on to learn from these common diet mistakes everyone else is making, so you can vow to never be one of those people. To help you stay on track with your goals, be sure to stock up on any of The 7 Healthiest Foods to Eat Right Now.

When the first US dietary guidelines were released in 1980, fat was deemed as something you should avoid. It was a sentiment that drove the diet industry for the next 20 years, even as obesity rates continued to climb. It turns out, fat was probably never the problem to begin with (studies point to sugar being a bigger trigger to obesity than dietary fat), and some healthy fats could actually help you lose weight. (Hello, avocadoes!)

Unfortunately, some people still believe this outdated advice. Fat is an important macronutrient that will help you feel full, give you much-needed nutrients, and could even lower bad cholesterol. Stick to healthy monounsaturated fats, like the ones found in olive oil, almonds, peanut butter, and avocados.

Carbs have been demonized as the culprit behind weight gain, with low-carb diets being all the rage. While it’s true that refined carbohydrates such as sugar, white pasta, and white bread can spike blood sugar and lead to weight gain, complex carbohydrates can actually help you lose weight.

Jim White, RD, ACSM, and owner of Jim White Fitness says when people cut their carbs down too low, it can really sabotage their weight-loss efforts.

“[Cutting carbs] really affects their energy levels, and they end up craving more carbs,” he says. “Also, they don’t have a lot of energy for working out, so a lot of times they’ll skip out on their workout.” Plus, complex carbs have fiber which will keep you full and give you lasting energy.

Protein is an essential macronutrient for weight loss. It helps build lean muscle, which burns calories at rest and can help you lose weight. But it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

“People just think that protein is the holy grail when it comes to macronutrients,” White says. “Eating too much protein, people don’t realize, it still has calories and it can still get contributed to body fat if overeaten.”

If you’re a regular exerciser, White says to aim for no more than 1.2-1.7 grams of protein per kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of body weight. People who overdo it with the protein powders and servings of meat can find themselves packing on the pounds, not shedding them.

If you’re looking for more helpful tips, be sure to sign up for our newsletter to get daily recipes and food news in your inbox!

Many popular fad diets require people to cut out entire food groups, such as dairy, grains, or meat. The problem with these plans is they are too restrictive and can cause people to get bored or lose motivation, and even give in to unhealthy cravings. Plus, eliminating major food groups can lead to some nutrient deficiencies, such as not enough fiber, protein, or calcium. Unless you have an actual food allergy, be wary of meal plans that require you to ditch important food groups.

Some people assume if cutting calories leads to weight loss, then a drastic calorie deficit must mean faster results. Not exactly. A study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine found that people who went on a severe low-calorie diet didn’t lose weight in the long-term, thanks to excess production of the stress hormone cortisol. When your body releases too much cortisol, it signals the body to store fat, especially in your abdomen. And that’s not all.

“When you’re not eating enough calories, your metabolism can slow down, you don’t have enough energy for workouts, and you’re more likely to binge eat,” White says, “We recommend nothing under a 1,200 calorie diet, especially for women.” Plus, restrictive diets aren’t plausible in the long run; when you’re always hungry and feeling deprived, you’re more likely to binge on unhealthy comfort food.

A regular exercise regimen is an essential part of any weight-loss program, but it doesn’t give you license to binge on whatever you want after you finish. Sure, working out torches calories, but people often dramatically overestimate just how much they burned (fitness trackers and cardio equipment calorie counters tend to be wildly inaccurate). People who reward themselves after a sweat sesh can overdo it, even with seemingly “healthy” post-workout snacks like protein shakes. If you must refuel, stick to these post-workout snacks from fitness experts.

Be wary of foods labeled “low-fat,” “sugar-free,” or “gluten-free;” just because they are marketed as diet-friendly, they could actually be bad for your waistline. Most of these foods are highly processed and contain questionable ingredients like vegetable oils, aspartame, and corn syrup. It’s best to stick to food that doesn’t come in a package in the first place (natural, whole foods), or if you must, choose something with minimal ingredients.

Counting calories can be an effective way to lose weight, but not all calories are created equal. A study published in JAMA found that people who ate a high-fat diet lost more weight than those who ate the same calories but on a low-fat diet, which points to not all calories being the same. And it doesn’t take a dietitian to know that someone who eats 1,500 calories of chips, cupcakes, and soda isn’t going to lose weight compared to someone who eats those same 1,500 calories in lean meat, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. If you’re calorie counting, definitely leave a little room for some food you enjoy, but don’t think your body is going to process every calorie the same.

Even for people who do pile their plates with healthy calories, they could be unknowingly sabotaging themselves. Foods that have a health halo can especially lead to weight gain. Even though there are a lot of really delicious foods that are good for you such as avocados, hummus, peanut butter, and bananas, these are still calorie-dense and can cause weight gain if you’re not too careful. Enjoy these foods, but be sure to stick to a serving size.

Watching every morsel of food that goes in your mouth is one thing, but what about what you’re sipping on? Even seemingly healthy beverages can be the source of unwanted calories. Cold-press juices can be serious calorie and sugar bombs. Yes, even the green ones; a lot of times, they’re made with high-sugar fruits such as bananas and pineapple, so the calories can creep up fast. Also, each splash of creamer and packet of sugar in your coffee adds up. To stay on track, it’s best to sip on water and unsweetened green tea. And be sure to avoid any of the unhealthiest drinks on the planet while you’re at it!

Source link

The post 10 Common Diet Mistakes You Need to Stop Making appeared first on Heal your health yourself.