Happy 6th Birthday to the love of my life - Aninka the miniature schnauzer.
She was the cutest puppy and continues to be a never ending source of love, entertainment and joy!
And she gets me out every day for long walks, so I can definitely credit her with helping me stay on my “healthy lifestyle mission” :-)
Ani had a little lamb!
It’s a love affair :-)
30tolove asked: You look amazing! Great progress! :)
Thank you so much honey!
You look fabulous as well!
myjourneymovingforward asked: Wow you look great! I can't believe I found another person about the same age (34)!
Thank you so much!!!
I know right? We are pretty ‘well seasoned’ for the Tumblr land :-)
Rocking noneless!!!
Progress!!!
Just got my new Victoria Secret bikini in the mail.
I have to say, I am very proud of the progress I have made thus far.
23 pounds down, I am only about 7 lbs away from my goal weight, but I am so super comfortable with my body already!!!
This bathing suit is going to be rocked hard next weekend in Florida (I am heading down for my sister in law’s bachelorette party weekend in Orlando, should be a blast!)
Protect your health and help starve the beast by avoiding products distributed by these companies and their subsidiaries:
Click for the whole article here
UPDATED TO ADD: Heinz has divested itself of Hain-Celestial stock over the past couple of years. Two sources report that the primary investors for Hain-Celestial are companies of extremely dubious consideration for our health: Phillip Morris, Monsanto, Citigroup, Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart and Lockheed Martin. (Farmwars and Home for Health)
It isn’t all bad news. There are a few companies you can still count on – keep in mind that corporate mergers take place every day. When businesses change hands, there is no obligation to notify the public. One such cautionary tale took place with the company Dean’s, which acquired Horizon Foods. They quietly phased out the use of organic products without making any changes to the label and used non-organic milk produced under factory farm conditions. As well, they dropped the quality of their organic soy and began purchasing cheaper harvests from Asia. Meanwhile, unwitting retailers had no idea that the company had ceased producing the items organically, and continued to promote the products as they had previous to the acquisition.
Right now, these are some of the GOOD LABELS to look for:
Another way to avoid unscrupulous food producers is through an App called Buycott. If you happen to have an iPhone, this App can be used to check a product that you see in the stores to see what corporate links exist. You can find it HERE. (Thank you to Miranda for this link!) If I had a cellphone, I would definitely download this tool.
Of course, the best ways to avoid GMOs and toxic additives are to avoid packaged foods altogether.
Wild About Greens:
125 Delectable Vegan Recipes for Kale, Collards, Arugula, Bok Choy, and other Leafy Veggies. (Book) : http://amzn.to/10J0mrP
I hope Stevia is still considered safe….? I don’t consume it either, but others in my household do.
SPLENDA
(NaturalNews) One of the world’s most popular non-caloric sweeteners has recently been exposed as a complete fraud. A new study published in the journal Diabetes Care reveals that Splenda (sucralose), which is commonly marketed to diabetics as a safe, non-nutritive sweetener (NNS), actually elicits a diabetes-promoting effect in people who consume it.
Researchers from the Center for Human Nutrition at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, made this discovery after evaluating the metabolic effects of consuming Splenda on a small group of 17 human participants, all of whom were obese and who did not consume artificial sweeteners at the beginning of the study. Each participant was subjected to either Splenda or control water 10 minutes prior to undergoing a five-hour glucose tolerance test.
At the conclusion of the randomized crossover trial, the team observed that Splenda consumption prompted noticeable changes in terms of insulin production, circulating insulin levels, and bodily sensitivity to insulin. As relayed by GreenMedInfo.com, a single dose of Splenda was found to increase plasma glucose concentrations by 0.6 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L). It also led to a 20 percent spike in insulin levels, a 22 percent increased peak insulin secretion rate, a 7 percent decrease in insulin clearance, and a 23 percent decrease in insulin sensitivity.
“Compared with the control condition, sucralose ingestion caused 1) a greater incremental increase in peak plasma glucose concentrations, 2) a … greater incremental increase in insulin area under the curve (AUC), 3) a … greater peak insulin secretion rate, 4) a … decrease in insulin clearance, and 5) a … decrease in SI (insulin sensitivity),” wrote the authors in their abstract. “These data demonstrate that sucralose affects the glycemic and insulin responses to an oral glucose load in obese people who do not normally consume NNS.”
This is all quite shocking, especially when considering that Splenda’s entire existence is predicated on the notion that it is a safe and acceptable sweetening substitute for refined sugar products, which are widely known to spike blood glucose levels and trigger excess insulin production. Many diabetics use Splenda because they have been told that it has a minimal effect on blood sugar levels, and is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
But it gets worse. Not only has Splenda now been shown to be detrimental for diabetics, but it has also previously been shown to cause a host of other health problems. A 2011 study published in the Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology, for instance, identified a link between sucralose consumption and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). And a 2008 study published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A found that consumption of Splenda well below the FDA’s acceptable daily intake levels disrupted gut flora in test rats.
Beyond this, Splenda has also been linked to causing migraine headaches, and numerous studies have found that the sweetening chemical is persistent in the environment. According to information compiled by GreenMedInfo.com, the discovery of sucralose, Splenda’s primary active ingredient, was an accident — pesticide researchers stumbled upon it after observing that it is closely related to the retired insecticide chemical DDT.
“Industry influence largely accounts for the fact that synthetic chemicals like aspartame, neotame, saccharin and sucralose are being foisted onto the public as ‘safe,’ non-calorie sweeteners, despite obvious research to the contrary,” writes Sayer Ji for GreenMedInfo.com.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.greenmedinfo.com
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21912763
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18800291
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/040325_Splenda_diabetes_artificial_sweeteners.html#ixzz2TIVaAmns
— Lucy Christopher, Stolen: A Letter to My Captor (via felisque; ihatenietzsche)
(Source: quotes-shape-us, via wordslessspoken)
I love great food and wine, but at 5'0" it turns out I should not eat portions like a lumberjack. After 2 decades of yo-yo dieting and trying EVERY single program and diet out there, losing and gaining the same 20 lbs over and over again, I am here to do it the right way:
- moving every day
- sticking to portion control
- eating REAL food (organic, pastured/grass fed meats, full fat organic dairy and eggs, wild fish, nothing processed or prepackaged, lots of fresh produce, mostly homemade meals, juicing etc.)
HW - 150.2
CW - 126.6
GW - 120 or 20% Body Fat
MyFitnessPal: icmuse
Breakfast
blackberry, orange, pineapple, spinach, flax seed smoothie!
Miks Mitrevics
Mixed up my numbers because of Saturday.
Today is...
(via - Spera Bikram Yoga)
