Author: Jessica Vachal

Leading a healthy lifestyle can undoubtedly be a daunting task at times. There are those nights when you are so tired from a full day of work that the last thing you want to think about is preparing meal that will be healthy and filling, when all you want to do is what’s easier. Whether that involves eating crackers from the box or stopping by a fast food restaurant on your way home from the office, neither choice is the best option for you if you are trying to maintain a healthy weight and live a healthy lifestyle. Of course, the occasional splurge is not so bad – everyone has to indulge sometimes. Yet, if you are indulging due to stress and anxiety, then you are not going to enjoy that occasional fatty treat, and besides that fact, the “Treat” may become more of a standard procedure if you are not careful!

The point is, the easy way out is often the one most humans will pick – it gets the job done, and we have many other things in our increasingly hectic lives to worry about. However, if we are going to be dedicated to our healthy lifestyle goals, then we have to make sure that we take the proper precautions to consume the healthiest foods and do our best to combat the cravings for the unhealthy foods that we see advertised all over the place.

Packing snacks is a very healthy way to start your healthful eating goals – if you have carrot sticks and apple slices on hand, you are going to be much less likely to indulge in your craving for French fries, or hit up the vending machine to get a candy bar on your way out of the office for the evening. Granted, should your work space offer a YoNaturals vending machine, you will have nothing to worry about! The organic fruit juices and organic snacks offered within these vending machines are the sort of healthy foods we should be eating everyday. However, for others the only vending machine options are potato chips and sodas, and these snacks are going to do nothing but derail a healthy diet.

So do yourself a favor and pack some snacks, make sure your breakfast, lunch and dinner all boast at least some fruits or vegetables if not a combination of both. You don’t have to sit down to a meal of only vegetables and a dessert of only fruits, but you will be surprised at how much you start to enjoy these healthy eating habits, once you get into them!

Author: Laura Rayburn

Despite the bad press that carbohydrates get, they do in fact play a starring role on the dietary stage. The key to incorporating them into a healthful diet is to seek out the “good” carbs while avoiding the “bad” ones. And the choice here is sometimes just as obvious as choosing between a piece of white bread and a piece of whole wheat. That is, with a little information in hand, it’s not a hard feat to accomplish.

Most likely, if you are a health-conscious person, then you are already making good decisions regarding carbohydrates, since they are found abundantly as simple sugars and starches in most people’s pantries. In fact, Atkin’s dieter or not, if you have any fruits, vegetables, grains, rice, or cereals in your home, then you are also housing the carbohydrates found within these products.

That said, there is a reason that many people have had success by eliminating carbohydrates from their diets. All carbs are not the same. Foods that are made up of mostly simple sugars and highly refined grains are easily broken down and cause the eater’s blood sugar to spike rapidly, which can lead to long term health problems. On the other hand, the human body takes a much longer time to break down complex carbohydrates, which means that they will cause your blood sugar level to rise much more slowly.

However, eliminating simple sugars from your diet is not as simple as it sounds. For example, many of the fruits in your grocer’s produce section have them, and fruits provide many health benefits that outweigh the fact that they do contain simple sugars. And besides the fruit, it is just not a good idea to eliminate any nutrient from your diet for an extended period of time. Many people don’t think about this, but banishing carbohydrates from your pantry means saying sayonara to things like brown rice, veggies, and dairy as well, all of which play vital roles in many healthy and balanced diets.

Now, being carb-aware is only half the battle. The other half is being able to apply your knowledge to your every day dietary decisions. Even the most well-intentioned person can be foiled by a simple hunger pang when they are away from their home. And it is very, very easy to make the wrong decision when you are faced with a vending machine that is full of them, especially when the nutrition information is hardly ever visible from outside their glass cases. The best thing to do in a situation like this is to make your selections from YoNaturals vending machines. These health food vending machines are sure to provide you a snack that will work with your diet, and not against it, whether you are on a anti-carb crusade or not.

This article was written for Mark Trotter by Louanne Cox on behalf of YoNaturals franchises in San Diego, California.

It’s practically impossible to keep up with the latest news regarding our health and which steps to take and which steps to avoid, as yesterdays steps to take inevitably turn into today’s steps to avoid. Some nutritional and health concepts become flat out trendy, at least until the next study results are released or the next fad diet comes out. Those of you who haven’t had a carb in months know what I’m talking about. “Antioxidant” has certainly become a buzzword, as has “homocysteine”. But do you really know how to decipher what each means when say, they’re overused or abused for marketing purposes? Here’s a brief breakdown so you don’t fall prey to wallet-damaging scare tactics.

Antioxidants are nutrients that protect the body from oxidative damage, which is a leading factor in diseases associated with aging. Free radicals are the result of oxidative damage and they lead to various disease and deterioration. Antioxidants disarm free radicals, thus minimizing their damage while boosting the immune system. Taking antioxidant supplements can prolong your life; however it’s best to take them together rather than supplementing one at a time. For example, beta-carotene on its own can increase cancer risk in smokers but with other antioxidants actually has an anti-cancer effect.

Homocysteine is a protein produced by the amino acid methionine and found in the body. Our body converts it into either glutathione or SAMe, both of which are beneficial to the body. However, if we don’t get enough B vitamins to facilitate the conversion, the level of homocysteine gets too high and can lead to numerous debilitating diseases including cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s and can cause damage to your brain and DNA.

Antioxidants increase the intracellular glutathione unless the homocysteine is not able to be converted.

Incorporate antioxidants while encouraging low homocysteine levels by eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, minimizing meat and taking an antioxidant and B-complex supplement.

Doesn’t this sound like the advice your mother gave you? Half of nutritional deficiencies could likely be solved by following these simple instructions: eat your fruits and veggies! YoNaturals wishes you a lifetime of healthy eating.

Exercise is very commonly seen as a precursor to sex appeal, and in a very large sense this is a true thought process, as the ideas of beauty that we see on television and in movies all revolve around thin, toned bodies. We all want to go to the gym hoping that we will end up looking like a Baywatch babe or a Herculean man. Most of us won’t end up looking like that, but not just because we are eating full meals on top of our exercise, and we like to splurge every once in a while on ice cream sundaes. Most of us won’t end up looking like that because we will quit working out before we have the chance to sculpt our bodies into those dream-like formations. We at Yo Naturals would like to encourage you to stick to your workout regimen.

The fact is most of those actors and actresses work out for hours every day, in a schedule that no one with a real job, and responsibilities, and a life could possibly keep up with. Those men and women are paid to look as good as they do, and most of us feel that they are well worth the money we pay for a ticket to the movies, but we must also understand that we cannot compare ourselves to those extreme levels of “beauty.” We are all beautiful in doing the things that make us each unique, but one of those things ought to be keeping our bodies in the best shape that we can, so that we can continue to live our healthy and productive lives for as long as possible.

That is the key when it comes to exercise; you have to have some reason to keep doing it - for most people that reason is to try to attain a perfect body. This is not a horrible goal; so long as you keep in mind that you are striving to become the most perfect you that you can be, not some outside definition of perfection. Though if this hope keeps you working out your heart and your muscles every day, then that is a worthwhile goal. Consistency is the key when it comes to exercise, and that is the hardest thing for people to accomplish – setting a goal and sticking with it every day.

So see what you can do about getting yourself to the gym or outside to take a walk in the park, at least five times a week, if not every day. You can rest assured that you will come to enjoy yourself, and you will start to look better too, not only to yourself, but to all those who see you.

Written by Jessica Vachal for Yo Naturals vending machine business.