8 Things to Keep an Eye on When Taking Over the Counter Drugs

Brisk walking is probably the easiest exercise that you can do, and the best part is that it comes with a lot of benefits. Brisk walking can improve circulation and help keep a healthy heart. It's one of the reasons why it is highly recommended for people with heart disease.

Conscious about your weight? Do enough of it and you could even shed off a few pounds!

Aside from its physical benefits though, brisk walking can also benefit you mentally and emotionally. It helps you relax, gain mental clarity, and be in a better mood.

Try to schedule at least 30 minutes of brisk walking every day. Think you can’t find the time? It's actually be easier than it sounds. Why not squeeze in a walk before your lunch break? Or if you get home early, walk around the block a couple of times before settling into your nightly routine. Do you have a pet? Do your furry friend and yourself a favor by taking a walk several times a week!

Make brisk walking a part of your daily routine and you’ll end up looking and feeling better in no time!

We all feel stressed at some point, and a certain amount of stress can actually be helpful in a person’s mental and emotional growth and development. However, too much stress is another story. Aside from being detrimental to your well-being, too much bad stress can cause illnesses down the line. That’s why it’s important to learn how to manage stress effectively and to take steps to ensure that you’re filing you life with the good types of stress.

Below are a few things that you can do to help alleviate stress:

1. Get enough sleep - Lack of sleep can lead physical and mental incompetence, which can cause mistakes, and in turn cause stress. Avoid such situations by getting a good night’s sleep every night so you’re always alert and awake the next day.

2. Keep a to-do list - A big cause of stress is feeling overwhelmed or feeling that you don’t have enough time to finish your tasks. Often, these feeling arise with poor time management and prioritizing. To avoid this, keep a to-do list to help keep you on track and productive.

3. Talk it out - Keeping all that stress in can do more harm than good. Make it a point to let it all out by confiding with a trusted friend or family member. Talk it out. You’ll feel much better afterwards.

While a lot of people aim to shop for better, and healthier products in order to eat better and healthier foods, doing so isn’t always as easy, thanks to the product marketing messages bombarding consumers left and right.

For instance, nowadays, the words “natural” is thrown around way too often and placed in product packing too much, that it’s getting quite difficult to determine which products are honest to goodness healthy.

Getting enough sleep is crucial to your health and overall well-being. Aside from letting you keep your sanity, getting a good night’s rest enables you to function properly and competently.

A lot of people are aware of the importance of sleep, but unfortunately, most individuals don’t get enough of it either. Even more unfortunate is that some people don’t even know WHY they’re not sleeping well. It’s one thing after all to know that you didn’t get enough sleep, but pinpointing the exact reason why is a whole other story.

One of the main reasons why people get sick of veggies or salads quickly is because they aren’t mixing it up enough. If you want to make salad eating sustainable, you need to learn to combine different types of ingredients and dressings for your palette to enjoy.

For instance, when eating greens, be sure to include different types of leaves in there. Combine your spinach or romaine leaves with some ice berg lettuce in order to give it some crunch. Also, if you aren’t staying away from meat or dairy, consider adding a little chicken breast turkey breast, tuna and / or cheese to your salad.  (The key here is a little. Don’t overpower your dish with too much meat or cheese!)

Why not throw in some fruits in there? Spinach, strawberries, and some raspberry vinaigrette dressing for instance is a scrumptious combo.

Speaking of dressing be sure to mix up your salad dressings as well. You may love your Thousand Island or Ranch, but every once in a while, experiment with other dressings so you’re not exposed to the same things over and over again.

When it comes to getting a quick hunger fix, a lot of people turn to fast food chains mainly because they’re quick, easy, and cheap. However, it’s important to note that all that convenience comes with a huge price: Your health.

Items on fast food chains’ menus, while delicious, have really high calorie counts and not enough nutrients. To give you some perspective, a person’s recommended calorie intake per meal should be about 400-600 calories. A lot of the things that fast food chains serve exceed that calorie count. For example, the Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips from McDonald’s has 1270 calories in it, while it’s Deluxe Big Breakfast meal has 1220. Meanwhile, Burger King’s WHOPPER with Cheese and DOUBLE WHOPPER with Cheese have 760 calories and 900 calories, respectively. Note that those don’t include fries or drinks yet.

And it’s not just about the calories. A lot of the fast food meals contain a lot of saturated fat and bad cholesterol, both of which increases your chances of getting heart disease. These foods are high sodium as well, which when consumed excessively can lead to obesity, high blood pressure, and even cancer.

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be too drastic. You don’t have to suddenly swear off meat forever, or start spending hours in the gym. If you’re only at the beginning point of living a healthy lifestyle, it’s actually much more helpful to take baby steps first.

One of the best ways of doing this is by eating super foods, which are items that have large and concentrated amounts of nutritional goodness. These types of foods are loaded with the nutrients that you need and the best part is that they taste great, too.

If you want to be on your way to living a healthier lifestyle, start by including the following super foods in your diet and go from there:

1. Edemame - These delicious beans can serve for a wonderful appetizer or snack. They’re rich and fiber and protein and really low in fat. Plus they're great for people who are trying to lower their cholesterol.

2. Berries - Sweet, colorful, and delicious, these fruits are loaded with antioxidants as well as folate, fiber, and vitamin C.

3. Quinoa - This super food contains large amounts of protein and fiber in every serving. It’s also low in calories and perfect for vegetarians looking for a source of protein or dieters who need a healthy dish that can really fill them up.