Manipulating Your Mind for A Healthier You

Wednesday, January 1, 2014 marks two weeks since I became a vegetarian. All I can say is, so far so good. It is so amazing how people believed I would get tempted by certain things; however I have not stopped my current journey to enlightenment, restraint, and a healthier me. What some fail to realize is that I have already been tested by similar circumstances. These certain circumstances assisted me with discontinuing to allow my emotions run the way I thought about certain things. The mind is a very challenging organ to control. Once you learned the techniques of controlling my mind, I was well on your way of becoming healthier through healthy mind manipulation.  

My five steps in Manipulating Your Mind for Health Results

1. Understand the things (Food, behaviors, etc.) that tempt you, such as candy, cookies, and TV. This allows you to know some of the things you want to decrease or stop doing.
2. Make a plan to decrease and eventually eliminate your unhealthy vices. A plan allows you to come up with concrete strategies.
3. Eliminate these things little by little. It makes no sense abruptly giving up on everything at once and relapsing to where you binge out of control.
4. Bring yourself into contact with these unhealthy vices from time. The only way to show that you have self-restraint is by actually coming into contact with these things and having the strength to stand by your decision. 
5. Say no. Tell yourself that you do not need certain things. Saying no to yourself allows you to understand that this may be something that you want; however not necessarily something you need. After a while of saying no to things, you will be able to conquer feelings of wanting something.

These are just a few of the steps I have used to health manipulate my mind to a healthier me. Are you ready for a healthier you?

Christmas Challenges of Becoming a Vegetarian

So for some of you who are unaware, I recently made the decision to become a vegetarian. My decision to become a vegetarian was not a rash decision that I just made one day. It actually came from long debate within myself about being one. See, while obtaining my undergraduate degree in Health Promotion and Fitness in college, I had learned about the different types of vegetarians. My decision also came from me always wanting to be a vegetarian, like I always wanted to be natural. It has practically been five years since I went natural, so why not become a vegetarian? To be honest, I was practically on my way to becoming one anyways; I rarely ate red meat, consumed mostly baked fish and chicken, ate fruits and vegetables on a regular basis, and drank mostly water every chance I had. It was time for a lifestyle change that would affect my eating patterns.

In making my recent decision, I knew that I would have to do research because my undergraduate degree was obtained quite a while ago. So I decided to google: Vegetarian types. My research led me to About.com and its list for the "Top 7 Types of Vegetarians." These types consisted of: Pescatarian, Flexitarian/Semi-vegetarian, Lacto-vegetarian, Ovo-vegetarian, Vegan, Raw vegan/Raw food diet, and Macrobiotic. After a thorough review, I decided to become a Lacto-vegetarian with the possibility of transitioning to a Ovo-vegetarian or Macrobiotic once I was able to identify what my body needed. I say this because a co-worker told me that some blood types were unable to sustain the vegetarian lifestyle, so I should be very careful with my tactics. Well, so far so good. I have been a vegetarian for a week now. The challenge in being a vegetarian is not being tempted by eating meat. The challenge is actually finding food during the holidays or other events that I am able to eat. Today, for Christmas, my family cooked ham, greens, macaroni and cheese, yams, and rolls. Eating ham was definitely off my list. While I imagined that I would be able to eat greens, I was disheartened when I found out that the greens were flavored with bacon. So my holiday dinner consisted of macaroni and cheese, rolls, and a salad. I definitely do not presume this to be a challenge for me next year. I will just have to master the vegetarian lifestyle next Christmas by reading books, reading blogs, and researching information on the internet.

~So you want to become a vegetarian too?