Is This As Good As It Gets?

I’ve always believed in God.  I was raised a Catholic and growing up I followed my faith without question or reservation.  It was pretty simple….God is up there and I am down here.  God is Perfect and I am flawed.

My teenage years were typical for the most part.  Happy and well-adjusted on the outside, full of fear and disappointment on the inside.  It was around the time of my 19^th birthday I began to question God’s role in my life.  I know God exists, but I just can’t seem to live up to his expectations.  I know he loves me no matter what, but I feel like I’m always letting him down.  I know I’m going to heaven someday, but right now I just want to have fun.  And so began the life of a woman “hell bent” to make it on her own.

Moving away from home to attend university was an amazing experience for me.  Living on my own only one hour away from my parents gave me the autonomy every young woman craves with the security of knowing Mom and Dad are not too far if I needed them. I spent the school months developing new relationships and supposedly getting an education.  I spent the summers back home with my family and high school friends.  Looking back on those years I was happy for the most part, and each year that past I felt more and more confident I was capable of so much.

It was near the end of my final year that life took very different turn.  My parents and sister had permanently immigrated to the US, but I had to stay in Canada.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my life…and then I met my first love.  He told me everything I wanted to hear.  I followed him across the country, I lived with him for 5 years, I said “yes” when he asked me to marry him and I lost most of myself in the process.

With every lie, every disappointment, every tear I cried for him I put another brick on the wall around my heart.  I am on my own in this life so I better get used to it.  I am the only one who is ever going to take care of me.

After my marriage fell apart I moved to Toronto to start a new life.  I found my own apartment, I found a new job and I found a new relationship. I started making really good money for the first time in my life.  I was a young urban woman living it up in the city.  I fell for someone new and he was the kindest man I’d ever known.  Life was good….on the outside, but on the inside I was screaming for reason.  Is this as good as it gets?!?!?  Even when I wore expensive clothes and looked my best, deep in my heart I was still looking for something else. I cared for my new boyfriend so much, but yet I yearned for something deeper.  Every day I would wake up, lay in bed and think to myself, maybe today I can make myself happy. Everything I bought, every party I went to, every person I tried to impress.  It was all to numb the pain, the hurt from my past, my broken dreams. I had all but given up….and then He found me.

 Fear not for I am with you.  Do not look around you in terror and be dismayed for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10 NIV

He had always been right there. He was there when I was out partying. He was there when I was making the wrong choices.  He was there when I was looking for acceptance from everyone else but Him.
I finally realized that He is the One I had been searching for all along. He is the only One who could satisfy the longing in my heart. My heart is there because He created it and He created me to be loved by Him.

He created your heart too.

God wants to bless your life.  He loves you and has great plans for you.  If you’re asking yourself if this is as good as it gets, let me tell you the answer is “NO”.  If you’ve ever felt the longing for a better relationship, a better job…a better life, I say let Him show you the way.

http://urbanmadonna.com

How Salt Affects a Woman's Body

When I ask other women about sodium in their diet, the most common response I get is “I hardly ever use salt on my food.”  Unfortunately, the amount of salt you shake on your meals is usually NOT the main source of most people’s sodium intake. Sodium exists in practically every kind of processed food there is and currently Americans receive about 80% of their salt intake from the sodium added to processed foods.  

Our bodies only require about 500 mg of sodium a day.  To put it in perspective, that would be equivalent to approximately one handful of salt & vinegar potato chips. Now comes the scary part, Americans typically consume as much as 6,000-8,000 mg of sodium a day!  You may be thinking too much sodium is a hazard you only need to consider if you are concerned about high blood pressure, but the truth is the harmful effects of sodium are even more far reaching, causing health problems ranging from weight gain to vision problems to cardiovascular disease.  It’s worth noting that our bodies are built to protect us from prolonged harm.  When it comes to regulating sodium in our body, all our cell membranes contain sodium-potassium pumps that work to help eliminate excess amounts of sodium.  The trouble begins when these tiny pumps become overloaded with a continual heavy intake of salt which can prevent them from maintaining the proper concentration of intracellular sodium.

Similar to other tissues in our body, our eyes can be affected by the bloating that results from too much sodium. When bloating occurs in the eye (edema), the alignment of the eye's internal components become misaligned, resulting in vision problems. Studies have shown that China, Japan, and other Asian countries have the highest consumption of dietary salt in the world, and these countries also have the highest prevalence of nearsightedness.  

It’s important to understand the distinction between weight loss and fat loss when considering the effects of sodium on your body.  Salt does not actually have any caloric value and therefore does not contribute to adding fat to your body.  The main reason too much salt in a woman's diet will prevent you from reaching your weight loss goal is because it causes your body to retain water in an effort to protect your tissues from the irritating effects of sodium. To get a sense of what that irritating effect is like to your bodily tissues, you only need to consider how it feels when you get a bit of salt in your eye.   When you read about “crash diets” that claim quick weight loss, it’s usually because the eating plan relies on foods with little to no sodium content. That being said, the quick weight loss you experience if you are successful in sticking to these programs will be mostly water and as soon as you go back to consuming foods with salt again, you will regain all the weight.

At the end of day you should be trying to keep your salt intake as low as possible.  500mg of sodium per day may not be reasonably sustainable for most people, but you should aim to keep your salt consumption between 1500-2000 mg per day.  You can make big gains in reducing your salt intake by simply eliminating processed foods from your eating habits. Also, increasing the amount of clean, filtered water you consume will help to flush excess sodium from your system.

To find out more about achieving a healthy and vibrant life come visit us at Urban Madonna.

UrbanMadonna Says Do It Anyway!

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centeredLove them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. 
Do good anyway. 
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. 
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. 
Do good anyway. 
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. 
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be 
shot down by the smallest person with the smallest mind. 
Think big anyway. 
What you spend years building may 
be destroyed overnight. 
Build anyway. 
People really need help but may attack if you help them. 
Help people anyway. 
Give the world the best you have 
and you might get kicked in the teeth. 
Give the world the best you've got anyway. ~ Anonymous


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Artificial Sweeteners & Weight Loss

Trying to lose weight?  You may be damaging your efforts with sugar-free products and diet soda.  Evidence shows that the use of no-calorie sweeteners may actually make it harder for people to control their food intake and inevitably sabotage your weight loss goals.

Research done by Davidson and Swithers, members of the Ingestive Behavior Research department at Purdue University, shows that the use of saccharin actually changes the body's ability to regulate food intake. Very early in life, we learn that sweet flavors signal high calories. "The body's natural ability to regulate food intake and body weight may be weakened when this natural relationship is impaired by artificial sweeteners," said Davidson, who is an expert in behavioral neuroscience.

When we prepare to eat under normal circumstances, our metabolic rate begins to speed up. According to the experiments conducted by Davidson and Swithers, rats that had been consuming saccharin (a no-calorie sweetener) showed a smaller rise in their core body temperature after eating a sweet-tasting, high calorie meal relative to rats consuming glucose (the simplest form of regular sugar). The researchers attribute that the slower metabolic response led to overeating and made it harder for the saccharin rats to burn off excess calories. The conclusion of their research indicated that consuming food sweetened with a no-calorie sugar substitute can lead to greater body-weight gain and the increased production of fat tissue than simply consuming food sweetened with regular sugar. (Journal article: "A Role for Sweet Taste: Calorie Predictive Relations in Energy Regulation by Rats," Susan E. Swithers, Ph.D. and Terry L. Davidson, Ph.D.; Purdue University; Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 122, No. 1.)

Yikes! Although this research was done on rats and not on humans it’s hard to deny that their evidence matches emerging reports that show people who consume diet drinks are at a higher risk for obesity and a collection of other medical problems such as increased abdominal fat, high blood pressure and insulin resistance which contributes to the onset of diabetes.

The bottom line is this. If you are trying to lose weight, you should be trying to trade your bad eating habits for good ones. If you want to live a healthy lifestyle, water should be your #1 source for liquid. This is can seem a bit unrealistic if you are used to consuming everything "but" when you grab a drink, so instead of swapping your regular soda for diet, just start by cutting back. Instead of having a soda every day, try knocking it back to 3 cans per week and keep a large bottle of water with you at all times to keep you quenched.

I always advocate starting with easy wins when trying to make changes, no matter what your goal may be. You are less likely to give up when you can achieve results quickly. Just remember to give yourself time, and for goodness sake…stay away from the diet soda!

Exercise: Myth vs. Fact

When it comes to talking about healthy living, the topic of exercise always comes up.  If you’re doing it, it’s all you want to talk about.  If you’re not, it never comes up in conversation.  The bottom line is this, as human beings we need to keep moving.  Our bodies were designed to work and without some kind of regular physical exertion we don’t function properly, much like a car that just sits in a garage.  The trouble with exercise is that there are a lot of myths about how often you need to break a sweat and how strenuous your workouts need to be.  Today I’d like to clear up some of the common misconceptions and let you know that incorporating regular exercise into your lifestyle is not as daunting as it may seem.

Myth #1: It’s hard to exercise when you are trying to lose weight because exercising increases your appetite.

The opposite is actually true.  Studies have shown that regular exercise actually works to reduce your appetite and can help to keep you more focused on a healthy eating plan.  It is easier to stick with a healthy eating plan when you combine it with even moderate exercise.  And although you can still be successful losing fat without a rigorous fitness routine, regular exercise will excelerate your progress.  

Myth #2: To effectively lose weight you need to engage in a vigorous exercise routine.   

The fact is that any form of exercise, whether vigorous or not, will support your weight loss goals.  Walking is the single most effective form of exercise you can participate in.  The reason the health club won’t tell you this is because it could put them out of business.  Why do you think Europeans and New Yorkers are so slim?  They walk everywhere.  Instead of succumbing to the couch every night after dinner, download a new playlist to your ipod and take a walk around the neighborhood. Do this 5 days a week and you’ll notice an improvement in how you feel, both physically and mentally.

Myth #3: You can eat as much as you want as long as you exercise on a regular basis.

WRONG!  If you are eating healthy and exercising regularly you will require more nutrition than someone who sits on their butt all day.  But, no amount of exercise is going to protect you from a pot belly if you’re drinking beer and eating a bag of Cheetos every night before bed.  If the energy you consume outweighs the energy you expend you can’t realistically expect to lose weight…that’s just basic math. 

The benefits of regular exercise go beyond helping you to lose extra pounds and look better.  The trick is to find something that you enjoy doing and just stick with it!