Though taking multivitamins is a great step forward in the fight for health, if your diet lacks in some key areas, you may still be missing nutrients your heart needs to maintain optimum health. By creating a heart healthy dietary supplements plan, combined with proper diet and exercise, you will effectively lower the threat of high blood pressure, heart disease and heart attack.

 Fish Oil (Omega 3)

Recent studies have shows omega-3 fatty acids to be essential to heart health. In addition to preventing strokes and atherosclerosis, they have also proved an essential ally against heart attacks. Omega-3 fatty acids are most commonly found in fatty fish, such as salmon and tuna. If you’re not much of a fish fan, or don’t get quite as much of it in your diet as you’d like, flax seed or fish oil supplements are a wonderful means to even the playing field. When using fish oil supplements, it’s important to keep an eye on the expiration date… as these products can go bad over time. The bottle should also provide you with dosage directions – Though many people do well with 3,000 milligrams per day. If you have doubts, there’s never any harm in consulting your general physician.

Hawthorn

Supplements taken from hawthorn have been long used as a means of regulating blood pressure and heart beat, while working to address chest pain. Studies show that regular use of hawthorn supplements is effective in relaxing blood vessels and improving blood flow to the heart. These benefits are due to the plant’s natural antioxidants, which can also be found in grapes. Hawthorn is also commonly used for treatment of individual who have experienced congestive heart failure. Supplements can be purchased in capsules, with a recommended dose of 160 – 900mg daily. And once again… it never hurts to consult your physician prior to use.

Grape-Seed Extract

As we mentioned above, the same antioxidants found in hawthorn to improve blood flow and relax blood vessels are also found in grapes. Called procyanidins, these antioxidants are believed by many to be the reason why enjoying a glass or red wine is beneficial in the fight against heart disease.  As such, many people have turned to grape-seed extract in an effort to regulate lower blood pressure. These supplements can also be purchased in capsules, and the recommended dosage lies between 200 – 300mg daily to ensure the best results.

If you’re searching for healthy and affordable dietary supplements, CollagenPro.com is the site for you! With a full inventory of quality products to choose from, you can count on Slimside’s competitive prices, superior selection, and commitment to excellence to have you smiling and feeling great in no time. Stop by our online store today!

There are hundreds of diets out there just waiting for the next person to come along and try them.  Some are free and some of them, such as weight watchers, Jenny Craig, etc. cost continuing fees.  I have tried many of them in my quest to lose weight and found that most of them work if you follow the meal plan explicitly and complete the required exercise portion of the program.  The exercise portion is usually where we fall off the wagon.

I started gaining weight about ten years ago when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and started on a regiment of pills.  Of course, the main side effect of all of these pills was weight gain.  I remember talking to my doctor after gaining eighty pounds and him telling me that if I would lose the weight, I would probably not need the pills.  My obvious response was that if I stopped taking the pills, I would lose the weight.  The problem with that theory is that we lose the wrong kind of weight if we stop taking the pills.

I recently came across a diet that I had not heard of and decided to give it a try, not actually believing the claims that were made. It was presented to me as a high protein diet that consisted of eating some very consistent food choices along with the exercise portion which was only a 30 minute walk every day.  I felt I could handle the walk and decided to give the meal plan week to produce results.  I was told that I would lose 10-15 pounds per week if I followed this exactly as written.

The main downfall of this diet is the lack of variety but what can a week hurt.  The meal plan consist of the following:

Breakfast

3 egg whites cooked to desire (I made an omelet)

1 package of plain Oatmeal or ½ cup dry whole grain cereal (think cheerios)

1 cup green veggies

Mid Morning Snack

1 can tuna

1 cup green veggies

¼ cup raw almonds

Lunch

4oz chicken or fish (unbreaded and not fried)

1 sweet potato (baked in microwave with only spray butter)

2 cups green veggies

Afternoon Snack

Celery

2 oz natural peanut butter (ingredients: roasted peanuts & salt only)

1 cup green veggies

Dinner

Salad of spinach leaves and leafy green lettuce (no Iceberg or Romaine)

4oz chicken or fish (unbreaded and not fried)

Salad dressing made of 1 tablespoon Flax Oil and 1 tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar

1 cup veggies.

The results of this high protein diet after one week?  Well, not as good as promised but then I missed the walking for two days and added one slice of fat free cheese to my omelet.  Even with that I dropped seven pounds in one week.  Perhaps more important, before I started I was taking in 100 units of insulin per day and my blood sugar still ran in the 300-450 range most of the time.  After 4 days, my sugar level was down in the 101-117 range and I had to stop wearing my insulin pump and did not require any insulin shots.  The lack of insulin has led me to have more energy than ever and the seven pounds were a plus.  I would recommend this diet to anyone who can handle the lack of variety in their diet and anyone who has blood sugar problems.

If you are going to eat right, vegetables definitely need to be part of your healthy plan.  An easy and delicious way to get your veggie fix on a daily basis is to make homemade vegetable soup!

The particular vegetable soup I am most fond of is one that is called (by some) The Fat-Burning Vegetable Soup.  I will let you know right now if you are not a fan of onions or cabbage, this iteration of the fat-burning soup is not for you.  I would still suggest trying your own version of this mouth-watering recipe, but for me the best parts are the cabbage and onions!

Now, being a guy that loves meat and protein it was a little strange at first how much I loved this soup and just how much I ate of it.  The great thing about this recipe is that it yields a TON of soup!  I would say at least 15-20 normal size bowls of chunky goodness.  It is also extremely low in calories, fat and sodium.  The sodium part is huge for me because it is the number one thing I look at when I’m trying a new food/recipe.  This is also probably the easiest thing I have ever made.  It is as simple as: chop the veggies, open a few cans, fill up the pot and simmer on the stove until the vegetables are tender.

While supplements like Leptigen help with weight-loss and inch-loss, getting into the habit of healthy eating will cause your results to skyrocket.  Having a steady flow of new and easy recipes to choose from helps cut down on the monotony that comes with healthy eating.  I can only eat boiled chicken and broccoli so many times in a week before I want to go insane.  So, try out the Fat-Burning Vegetable Soup and let me know what you think on our Facebook page!  (Don’t forget that one of the many great applications for Citrocillin is washing fruits and vegetables!)

What you will need:

• 3 onions, chopped
• 1 large head cabbage, chopped
• 5 carrots, chopped
• 10 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 green bell peppers, diced
• 2 (16 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
• 2 quarts tomato juice
• 1 (14 ounce) can beef broth (or vegetable)
• 1 (15 ounce) can cut green beans, drained

Directions:

1. Place onions, cabbage, carrots, celery, bell peppers, green beans and tomatoes in a large pot.  Add onion soup mix, tomato juice, beef broth and enough water to cover vegetables.
2. Simmer until vegetables are tender.

May be stored in the refrigerator for several days.

As a Health Coach, I always want my clients to stay away from processed foods because of the horrible side effects that have been causing the American population much harm. Did you know there is over 3,000 food additives that are put in our foods?!?! Have you ever seen an ingredients list on asparagus or Wild Alaskan Salmon? I understand that with our busy lives, sometimes we have no choice but to succumb to frozen meals, boxed foods and On-the-Go packaged foods. With two little kids, I have to every once in a while. The real key is to know which ones are the most harmful. Rather than going in to each one, I have compiled a list of what I believe to be the 5 worst ingredients you should avoid.

1. Artificial Sweeteners  

It’s odd that a Diet Soda or low fat foods can cause weight, but they do. Aspartame is my arch nemesis. This seems to be the hardest for me to get people off of. Really, any artificial sweetener can be addictive but Aspartame is by far the worst! Its sweet taste can enhance your appetite as it is a neurotoxin fooling your brain and body. Because of its unnatural structure, our bodies process it differently than natural foods. Sweeteners such as Splenda have been shown to inactivate digestive enzymes causing irritable bowel disease. Sucralose destroys up to 50% of the good gut flora in your intestinal track.

2. High-Fructose Corn Syrup

 Fructose is metabolized by your liver primarily because it is the only organ that can metabolize it. If you consume high amounts of HFCS it ends up damaging your liver just like alcohol would. Both alcohol and fructose are metabolized directly in to fat, meaning it just is stored inside those fat cells, leading to unwanted weight gain.

3. Artificial Flavors 

This is a scary one too. Did you know that strawberry flavoring can have up to 50 different chemicals? Seeing “artificial flavor” can mean just one ingredient or a blend of hundreds to make it taste the way it does. Genetically Engineered Flavor enhancers are also labeled under artificial flavor or even “natural flavor”, which is incredibly misleading. These have been all linked to brain dysfunctions.

4. Synthetic Trans Fats

 The ingredient to look for here is Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil. It is in most chips, crackers, fried foods and even some store bought baked goods. It is known that that this can cause inflammation. Inflammation is the bedrock for many autoimmune diseases and chronic fatigue and chronic pain. Those are just a few of how inflammation can hurt your body. Synthetic trans fats also interfere with insulin receptors that can lead to Diabetes.

5. Preservatives

 Obviously these lengthen the shelf life of the products sold but it truly is, in my opinion, at the cost of the consumer. Sodium Benzonate is found in a lot of sodas, salad dressings and even fruit juices that we think are good for our children. The list can go on and on about the damage this but hyperactivity, allergies, neurological disorders and cancer…. Ugh! Sodium Nitrate is one to look out for too. There are so many preservatives in American food while many countries in Europe have banned many of them including most mentioned above.

If you have lived a life of consuming many of these bad ingredients, it’s still not too late to take charge of your health and stop eating this junk. You can even reduce the damage that has been done. Look at your labels, or better yet, buy foods that don’t NEED labels. Plexus Slim, ProBio 5 and BioCleanse can all help also. By balancing hormones and getting your intestinal tract back in shape, you can overcome what these chemicals have done to your body. It’s not your fault, the FDA is supposed to protect us. Right???