Your Guide to Healthy Life

Sweet Potato Pie

A healthy and delicious version of the classic sweet potato pie – a perfect, easy sweet potato dessert recipe for Thanksgiving!

In the spirit of the holidays, I bring you this little slice of heaven. A lightened-up sweet potato pie recipe, perfect for Thanksgiving. While most dessert pack empty calories, this dessert is made with healthy sweet potatoes, which are high in beta-carotene and vitamin C.

This simple pie recipe is great for beginner bakers and for anyone who is super busy with all the holiday festivities. To make this quick and easy, I use a store-bought frozen pie crust.

If you’ve never baked a sweet potato dessert, you’re missing out! I love baking this sweet potato pie recipe during the holidays. I actually prefer it to pumpkin pie. Both pies are very similar, but sweet potato pie has a little more texture from the fresh potatoes. Another sweet potato dessert to try is my recipe for Mini Sweet Potato Meringue Pies.…

Skinnytaste Meal Plan (November 18-November 24)

Healthy Food

posted November 16, 2019 by Gina

A free 7-day flexible weight loss meal plan including breakfast, lunch and dinner and a shopping list. All recipes include calories and WW Points.

Meal Plan

So while it seems that winter has made an early appearance here in the northeast, I was lucky to be away with family and friends in a beautiful (and warm) place for the week. Back to reality though! Check out recipes for your slow cooker for those cold days when you just want to come home to a warm meal.

While I was away, WW changed their plan to now include a Blue, Purple and Green Plan. All the recipes on my blog that say Freestyle are actually the Blue plan so nothing changes with them. Green is the old Smart Points plan, and Purple is the old Simply Filling Plan. Since I didn’t have early access to the new WW updates, it will take me and my team some time to go back to all my recipes (over 2000) and update them.…

16 strategies and treatments to fight depression

Mental Health

Depression is one of the most common mood disorders in the United States. It causes persistent sadness and limits a person’s ability to go about their daily activities.

However, depression is treatable, and people can recover from it. Both lifestyle changes and medical treatments can help individuals feel better. Typically, managing depression is an ongoing process.

In this article, we list 16 strategies and treatments that can help fight depression.

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A person with depression can try educating their friends and family members about what triggers their episodes.

The more a person knows about depression, the more empowered they will be to find a treatment that works for them.

It can be helpful to learn about depression in general, including its causes and symptoms.

It is also important for people to get to know their own symptoms and warning signs so that if they are feeling worse, they can identify this.

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Homeopathic treatments for anxiety: What to know

Mental Health

Homeopathy for anxiety uses mixtures of herbal, mineral, and other natural products to relieve anxiety symptoms. These very dilute homeopathic concoctions would sometimes be toxic in high doses.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America report that anxiety is the most prevalent mental health condition in the United States, affecting 18.1% of the adult population each year.

While many people experience relief from therapy, others find that therapy alone is not enough. Anti-anxiety medications may work for some people but can also trigger unpleasant side effects. While there is little scientific evidence to support it, some people find homeopathy helpful.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) do not regulate homeopathic treatments, so the ingredients in these treatments may be less consistent and, in some cases, dangerous. It is essential to speak to a doctor before trying homeopathic approaches.

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A person should speak to their doctor before trying any homeopathy product.

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Stuffing Muffins

Healthy Food

Stuffing Muffins aka stuff’in are baked in a muffin tin for easy portion control! This classic stuffing recipe is made even more delicious with Pancetta!

Stuffing Muffins

Do you cook your stuffing in the turkey, casserole dish, or stovetop? I prefer to bake mine separately from the turkey in the oven to avoid salmonella. Making stuffing in muffin tins is my favorite because the individual portions are great for portion control. If you make this stuffing alongside a turkey, pour some of the pan juices from the cooked turkey over the stuffing to make it moister – yum! You can also try Mom’s Stuffing and Chicken Sausage and Herb Stuffing for more twists on your traditional stuffing recipe.

Stuffing is a classic Thanksgiving recipe and is essential every year at my family’s meal. However, I do like to lighten it up a bit. This stuffing recipe calls for whole wheat bread and less butter compared to many other recipes.…

What to know about hallucinations

Mental Health

Hallucinations can be a sign of a mental health illness, but they do not always mean a person is unwell. Hallucinations are, in fact, relatively common.

One 2015 study from Europe found that 7.3 percent of people reported a life-long experience of hearing voices. A further study from South Africa on hallucinations in the general population put the rate higher at 12.7%.

Scientists do not fully understand why some people have hallucinations, and others do not. Neither do they know what triggers hallucinations in people with conditions such as schizophrenia.

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Hallucinations are not always a sign of a mental health disorder.

Hallucinations can happen any time there is a change in brain activity. For example, some people are more vulnerable to hallucinations when they are falling asleep or partially waking.

A 2019 study in mice that took a hallucinogenic drug found that the animals had less activity in brain regions that the researchers associated with managing incoming visual information.

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What to know about paranoid personality disorder

Mental Health

People with paranoid personality disorder have a deep and unwarranted mistrust of others, which tends to have a significant effect on their relationships with family, friends, and co-workers.

Paranoid personality disorder (PPD)is among the most common personality disorders. Experts believe that this disorder may affect up to 4.41% of the population.

People with PPD feel threatened by others, so they are usually reluctant to seek medical attention. As a result, many clinicians have little experience in diagnosing and treating the disorder. There are also no clinical studies or treatment guidelines available.

In this article, we outline the current understanding of PPD. We explore the causes and symptoms of the disorder, as well as the treatment options available.

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A person with PPD may experience sensitivity to criticism, emotional rigidity, and increased alertness.

In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association published the definition of PPD in the third Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III).

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Listening to music while driving may help calm the heart

Mental Health

Driving can be very stressful, particularly if you are stuck in heavy traffic or are an inexperienced driver, and this stress will eventually take its toll on the heart. However, researchers now confirm that there is a simple fix for this problem: listening to the right music while driving.

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If we listen to relaxing music while driving, this may help relieve stress and protect the heart, a new study suggests.

Past research has shown that experiencing frequent psychological stress can be a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, a condition that affects almost half of those aged 20 years and older in the United States.

One source of frequent stress is driving, either due to the stressors associated with heavy traffic or the anxiety that often accompanies inexperienced drivers.

Does this mean, though, that people who drive on a daily basis are set to develop heart problems, or is there a simple way of easing the stress of driving?…

The Benefits of Wakame Seaweed Salad on Blood Pressure

Nutrition

I used to think of seaweed as just a beneficial whole-food source of minerals like iodine, for which it is the most concentrated dietary source. Indeed, just a daily half-teaspoon of mild seaweeds, like arame or dulse, or two sheets of nori should net you all the iodine you need for the day. But, the intake of seaweeds is advised not only as a whole-food source of iodine, but also, evidently, “for the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease….” Based on what?

As I discuss in my video Wakame Seaweed Salad May Lower Blood Pressure, the reasoning is that the Japanese live long and eat seaweed, so there is speculation that seaweed might have “influence on life expectancy,” based on suggestive reports. But when we see long lists of the supposed benefits a particular food is purported to have, such as “compounds found in [seaweed] have various biological activities including anticoagulant, anti-viral, antioxidant, anti-allergic, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-obesity, and neuroprotective properties,” we need to know if they are based on clinical data, meaning studies with actual people, or so-called preclinical data, that is, from test tubes and lab animals.…

14 Types of Blog Posts to Attract Your Ideal Clients

Fitness

In this connected age, any business needs an online presence. It is important to share your personal experiences with fitness training and your overall knowledge of health, fitness, and nutrition with your audience and potential clients.…