“The nature of habits is that we start with them without thinking. What starts as a one-time event unfolds day by day and, without meaning to, we have adopted a habit that does not benefit us,” says Ortel Robin-Chen, coordinator of the field of naturopathy at the General Complementary Medicine. “It can be something sweet after dinner, one too many cups of coffee during the work day or a night snack that doesn’t contribute anything to our body.
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Get rid of bad habits
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“After a period, these habits become a part of us and then the difficulty of breaking out of the fixed patterns increases. In honor of Passover and the cleaning it enables, try to clean – not only the closets, but also our unnecessary habits.”
Get Robin-Chen’s advice, which will help you break unnecessary habits:
Most of us don’t drink enough: in the winter it’s cold and we don’t feel like drinking water. In the summer, in the air conditioners, you don’t feel the need to drink. Even in such situations, every cell in the body needs water. Some? The classic guideline is about 2 liters of water a day. Coffee is not a substitute for drinking water. The caffeine dehydrates, encourages the need to urinate and actually causes more fluid loss than entering the body. P
For every cup of coffee we drink, we should drink another 2 cups of water. A dehydrated person is more tired than usual, the skin is looser and weaker, he becomes confused and cannot function at his best.
tip: Prepare a thermos of herbal infusion without the sweetener and without caffeine. This is considered drinking water. Also: always walk around with a bottle of water, preferably a cooler. You can add mint, lemon and anything that will encourage you to drink more.
It’s time for the coffee ceremony. If it’s in the morning, in the afternoon or there are more glasses in between. Automatically the hand is sent to the cookie jar next to the coffee machine or in the best case to a date and a nut. But wait, are you really craving something sweet right now? Is this really the “hour of crisis”?
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Tip: prepare your food before everyone else
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We are so used to having “a little something next to the coffee, while we actually have no real need or desire for what we ate. Eating next to drinking caffeine is not recommended. Caffeine reduces the absorption of minerals such as calcium and iron. Make it a habit for yourself, the hot drink is a treat and a need in itself. Separate him completely from eating. Skip him!
tip: Prepare in advance for a real need and desire for an energy shot with relatively nutritious alternatives such as dates and walnuts, a natural energy snack, fresh fruit, dark chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa solids, or even the same cookie from the jar. Reducing her eating is already an improvement.
How many times have you found yourself taking care of everyone, and putting yourself last? How many times have you prepared food for your children or your partner, and left the house without food for yourself?
tip: Make it a habit for yourself: you prepare your food before everyone else. Only after yours is ready, do the rest. If necessary, wake up 10 minutes ahead of time to make it happen, or prepare what is available the night before. You are as important as everyone else, maybe more.
Soft drinks, as well as natural or unnatural juices, concentrates and added sugar or artificial sweeteners, all sabotage our health. Regularly adding natural or artificial sweeteners to drinks accustoms the body to the high presence of the sweet taste and encourages addiction to it. At the same time, there is a high need for insulin and insulin resistance. All of these increase the risk of diabetes, obesity and morbidity.
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Gums contain artificial sweeteners that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes
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tip: Make a decision that you do not consume sugars in drinks. Choose drinks without sugar or artificial sweeteners, in addition you can add herbs or lemon to the water to encourage you to drink. If you have a strong need for carbonated drinks, you can drink soda occasionally and gradually wean it off as well. Do you drink coffee? Remember that even if it is not sweetened, if it has milk or a vegetable substitute, it contains lactose or starches and actually already has sugars in it (sometimes, a lot!).
Reduce a few grains of sugar in your coffee/tea every day until you can drink without the sweet. About three weeks after weaning, if they accidentally add the sweetener to your drink, it will no longer taste good to you. Be careful not to replace the sugar with an artificial sweetener. They are also very unhealthy and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.
They freshen the breath, help us “put off” snacking and for some of us they are an integral part of everyday life. The constant chewing movement causes the activation of a chain of hormones that makes the body believe that it will soon receive food that needs to be digested and thus actually increases the feeling of hunger.
In addition, they contain artificial sweeteners that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.
tip: Just throw them away. Stop buying gum. Freshen your breath by chewing fresh green leaves (mint/mint/parsley/basil), make sure to drink enough water to refresh your mouth and if you have no choice, occasionally use plant-based candies.
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Ditch the sugary drinks. drink water
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Most people are able to maintain extreme discipline for a limited time and then have difficulty continuing it. What often happens is that once we get out of the extreme discipline, we do a 180 degree turn back into negative habits. Did you eat too much at the holiday dinner? It doesn’t mean you “ruined everything”.
tip: Realistic goals and achievable goals are the way to succeed in maintaining a healthy lifestyle for years. Try to ask yourself if out of the choices before you, which sometimes none of them are excellent, have you chosen the best one? Listen to the feelings of hunger and satiety and do not ignore them. Have you deviated from the good habits? The faster you get back to them, the easier it will be to balance.
So what will you skip from now on? Start with at least one section and with the good feeling you can arrive clean and free. Happy Independence Day!