Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

COCONUT OIL! I'm sure you've heard about the "coconut oil" craze either on TV or on the radio these days. If, for some reason, you haven't, allow me to share with you why this is my new FAVORITE "must have" item in my household!

     There are HUNDREDS (that's right...HUNDREDS) of uses for this amazing stuff! Aside from the benefits it delivers from being a healthy fat that can boost your energy levels, raise good cholesterol & balance out blood sugar without the weight gain, cholesterol & other health risks that come from other saturated or trans fats, it can be used for a huge list of things that you would have never thought of! It, actually, is an antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-fungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-parasitic, & anti-viral! This amazing stuff also aids in the absorption of vitamins & minerals. These reasons, alone, sold me on purchasing it.

The challenge is over after tonight, but I am so glad I participated in it! Although I'm not staying vegan for the moment, I do plan to try it again. More on that later. First I wanted to discuss my diet during the challenge.

I wanted to focus on quality food, nutrient rich and good sources of protein. I planned the foods I would eat before I started the challenge.

A while back, I wrote about the dangers of aspartame. This time, I wanted to focus on why I feel it's dangerous, on a more personal level.

Recently, I found a stash of Equal, Sweet and Low and Splenda packets. My sister had so many of these packets around and she brought them everywhere. I had already thrown out several hundred packets a while ago, so it surprised me how many she really hard. Just take a look at the picture above… the bag is filled with these packets. The problem is that my sister drank so much Diet Pepsi and Diet 7-Up that I think it may have made her depression even worse.

I went out to eat for lunch today. I should have brought my phone with me but instead, I had to guess what foods were lower in sodium.

When I entered the food in the online food journal after lunch, I found out the food that I ate had a whopping 1440 mg of sodium! That's almost the entire day's worth in one meal. I usually have around 1,750 to 2,400 mg of sodium a day, so this was a lot to me!

I thought because I ate so healthy, I would somehow be immune to the common colds and flus. But as I found out this past Saturday, it doesn't matter how well you eat… you still need to avoid the germs that make people sick.

I appreciate the advice people have given me. I've been having water with finely chopped ginger in it, green tea, drinking lots of water. At least I seem to be feeling a lot better, except for the headache today.