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8 Healthy Habits of Skinny (Healthy) People

Nowadays, being skinny is often associated with eating disorders. But this is not about THAT. This is about people who maintain a healthy weight by following certain habits. I came across this very useful article from Shareitfitness.com which I’m sharing with you. Let’s all be skinny healthy together.

8 Healthy Habits of Skinny (Healthy) People

I’m not talking about skinny people like Lindsay Lohan who looks the way she does for a variety of unhealthy reasons. I’m talking about the people you see everyday who aren’t in a constant battle with their weight. They have unlocked the formula for a healthy life that works for them. While all people are different and no two lifestyles will produce identical results, they all share a few things in common, as detailed below.

1. No fast food. Plain and simple. Avoid the fast food to avoid the extra weight, high blood pressure, elevated blood cholesterol levels, clogged arteries, diabetes, etc. Healthy people simply avoid eating this processed junk. If you can’t get yourself to completely cut it out, no more than once a month, please.

2. Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. Drinking water helps your body function, but equally as important, it will help curb cravings you may develop throughout the day. A lot of people eat snacks between meals, and unfortunately these snacks are typically high-fat options. By drinking water you will have less of a craving between meals to gorge yourself on unhealthy choices.

mla101163_0605_infusedwater_xl — Sexy up your drinking water by infusing it with lemon slices and mint leaves!

3. Have 5-6 small meals a day. Overweight people tend to have fewer meals, but really pile on the calories during the meals they do have. This causes the body to go into overdrive, and revs up your secretion of insulin. Insulin promotes fat retention in the body, which is bad news for those trying to lose weight. Keep your meals smaller and more evenly spaced throughout the day.

4. Have go to meals. Having a staple or two in your diet is a great way to positively impact your eating habits. If you know you are always having turkey on wheat with a side of greek yogurt for lunch, it takes the guessing game out of what to have. Often times when you have to make a last-minute decision about what to have, it is going to be a fast food or less healthy option.

Salad to go? Why not! Click on the pic for the recipe.

Read the rest of the habits here.

Weekend Breakfast: Pancakes and Soft-Boiled Eggs

I love having breakfast on weekends. It’s so nice to wake up unhurried, without any pressure to go somewhere or do anything in particular. It’s just you, your mug of hot coffee and those pancakes and soft-boiled eggs.

pancakes and egg — A pancake, right out of the box and Asian style soft-boiled egg.

HASSLE-FREE SOFT-BOILED EGGS

1. Eggs must be at room temperature before boiling.

2. Put the eggs in a saucepan. Pour in water just enough to cover the eggs.

3. Bring the water to a boil. As soon as you see the water boiling, wait 2 minutes then remove the eggs from the saucepan.

4. You can either put the eggs in an ice bath or a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process.

5. Serve your soft-boiled egg with a pinch of white pepper and a teaspoon of light soy sauce (Lee Kum Kee is just fine). I promise you, you’ll get addicted.

Walking as Meditation

I have been running/walking for the past week. It’s not an easy task given my schedule and sadly, my age. But I love doing it, even at the end of the day when I’m most tired. It allows me to have a certain clarity. You can say it’s even meditative.

Today, as if to give me a pat on the back and tell me I’m doing the right thing, I received the following e-mail from Robert Genn, artist and author of The Painter’s Keys. (It is not actually a personal e-mail but a newsletter of sorts.) I am sharing it with you to inspire you to “walk with me”.

Trust your steps

February 21, 2012

Dear Pauline,

Walking briskly, pushing the blood to your extremities, alone and with minimal distraction along the path, concentrating the mind on the thighs’ movements, you trigger imagination and focus. In other words, brisk walking is a form of creative meditation. You need a notebook to scrawl the thoughts as they come. After the walk, you need to reassess your scrawls. I like to clarify them in my laptop. I put my really stupid thoughts into trash, but I don’t delete them.

The ability to focus is challenged in our society–not just with the nerve-jangled adults but also with the new batch of kids. Richard Davidson, a psychologist known for his behavioral research with Rhesus monkeys and studies in meditation with the Dali Lama, has made some interesting discoveries. Children (some of them with learning disorders) were invited to lie on their backs with a pebble placed on their tummies. While deep breathing, they were to focus on the pebble going up and down. After this exercise and for a period of time, they enthusiastically concentrated on schoolwork and other tasks.

I haven’t tried watching pebbles going up and down on my tummy, but I sometimes look down at the movement of my feet while walking. It induces a lovely trance. I don’t recommend doing it in traffic.

Brisk walking removes dark clouds, refreshes the artistic mind, encourages the interbreeding of thoughts, and plucks new ideas out of the blue. Walking itself is a time-honoured path to spirituality (think Camino de Santiago across northern Spain). There can be no doubt walking stimulates the imagination. Walking is a readily available antidote to a sedentary life. Different artists get different results. Mine are all over the place. Here are a few purged from my laptop: “The same object seen from two sides.” “A work of art dependent on gradation alone.” “Teaching art by not talking, just showing.” “A way of temporarily gassing fanatics so they just lay down their arms and become nice.” “Encouraging autonomy in others by being autonomous yourself.” “A better way to fix that sky.”

With the brisk walk, you make up your mind. It’s as if someone is walking along with you, helping you with your thinking. No matter how long the walk, the best stuff comes during the second half. You may find the last minute is spent running to the studio.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: “She was wrapped up and sold, coming home from an old fashioned walk.” (Irving Berlin)

Esoterica: Dr. Davidson thinks happiness, compassion and a sense of well-being are simply skills learned in the same way a person might learn the violin, tennis or painting. Time and practice are necessary. Apparently, the brain is built to change in response to training and the use of ploys. Whether you are a Rhesus monkey or a student in third year industrial design, focus is key. There are many ways to improve focus. Trusting your steps is just one of them. The system is just outside your door, and it’s free.

The Wisdom of Repurposing

In this day and age of rampant wastage, environmental abuse and global financial crisis, REPURPOSING may just be the best thing one can do. Repurposing, or the act of reusing something for a different purpose, is gaining popularity these days, what with western countries making it look cool and fashionable. But to be honest, Pinoys have been doing this for quite a while now. A classic example is the Jeepney–a relic from World War II but now known as the King of the Road.

In finding furniture for our home, Hubby and I have decided to repurpose or recycle old furniture instead of buying new ones. We have so far succeeded with our dining table (which used to be the conference table for my office) and my home office worktable (itself a relic from the Jesuit house in Sta. Ana circa 1960s) . But it’s always nice to find inspiration from other homes…