This week, I found the water bottle I was looking for, to use not only during my weight lifting work outs each morning, but also for the rest of the day, as my goal is to drink a minimum of one whole gallon of water.
I keep seeing this random, no name water bottle featured all over Amazon when I was looking for one to order. I figured for half the price of the more rugged-looking ones I actually wanted, I would be willing to pay the $15 bucks to settle for a product that would still serve the same purpose.
Fortunately, it turns out that I have been able to been this 2.2 liter water bottle to use at the gym, and at home, I am can confirm I am very pleased with the results.
(I fill this bottle up twice and drink the whole thing in a day, and it’s a little over one gallon.)
Feel free to watch the video review I made, above.
If you decide you would like to buy the same water bottle as me, just click this link so you can buy it for the best price on Amazon like I did.
It’s a good idea to try a new smoothie and juice recipes involving your whole family while enjoying tons of health benefits. While there are commercially available fresh juices, you can save more by making homemade juices, plus having the assurance of a freshly prepared and chemically-free fruit juices for you and your family.
Check out the benefits of juicing fresh fruits by reading below:
Save Money While Drinking Healthy
You can make 1.5 liters of healthy orange-carrot-apple juice for less than $10, which is good for the whole family. The average price of a single juice bottle available for sale by local vendors is around $7.99, so making your healthy juice will considerably save you much money and still have something left for the next serving.
Here’s how to make a healthy orange-carrot-apple juice:
Prepare the following ingredients: 5 pounds bag of apples, 3 pounds bag of oranges, and 10 pounds bag or carrots.
Use a high-quality juicer, like one from https://www.goodnature.com/, to help you make a fresh orange-carrot-apple juice.
You can add about a cup of water to the orange-carrot-apple juice to make the consistency a little bit thinner.
Serve the healthy orange-carrot-apple juice chilled or by adding ice.
Easy Way to Let Your Child Consume Fruits and Veggies
Are your children selective when eating fruits and vegetables? Well, with juicing and a little creativity in preparation, you’ll be surprised how kids love drinking juice made from fresh fruits, vegetables, and even spices, including tomatoes, beets, ginger, celery, cucumber, kale, and spinach. Indeed, fresh juices are perfect, most especially during summer.
Because it’s a difficult task for parents to feed children with cuts of fruits and veggies, nutritionists advise parents to be creative. One way is to introduce juicing, which is an excellent alternative to serving whole fruits and vegetables.
Here are some tips when preparing fresh juices to kids:
Give toddlers apple or orange juice and meet their daily requirements of vitamin C. Children who drink healthy fresh juice can get more potassium, magnesium, iron, folate, vitamin C, and vitamin B6 than those who don’t.
Serve juices with their favorite snacks, like baked potatoes or sandwiches.
Always follow up with water after drinking juices to clear the throat from fruit fibers and satisfy thirst and satiety.
Easy Way to Prepare Nutritious Drink for the Family
You’ll be happy to see your little ones guzzle apple, blackberry, beet, and carrot juice. Just make sure that you choose the right juice extractor.
Here are the following best features and benefits of a juice extractor or juicer:
Enough power to easily juice carrots, cucumbers, beets, and bulky vegetables by choosing a juicer with a powerful motor.
Simple to use and clean up juicer with a cleaning tool, sweeping the strainer in a single easy motion.
Eliminate pre-cutting by buying one with a large chute.
Create foam-free juice by shopping a juice extractor with a froth separator.
One great feature is a speed toggle switch for maximum juice yield.
It’s a good idea to choose one with a large pulp bin, which is perfect for continuous juicing.
A good juicer produces a large number of fresh juices in a short time, with a chute and motor that could manage loads of fruits and veggies.
Provide and Meet Your Daily Nutrient Needs
Parents should take the utmost care when feeding children, providing all the necessary nutrients for a healthy body and mind. However, kids are fussy eaters and don’t like to eat fruits and vegetables, which are a rich source of vitamins and minerals.
Here are the health benefits of juicing to the family:
Juices are an excellent source of energy required for the proper development of the body.
Carrot juice provides vitamin A, orange juice contains vitamin c, and the juice of leafy vegetables provides B-vitamins and roughage, making a perfect drink for growing children.
Juicing helps hydrate the body while providing essential nutrients.
Help your family develop healthy eating habits with juicing instead of consuming soda or soft drinks, which are very high in sugar and may lead to diabetes.
Provide expecting mothers or pregnant women the needed amount of folate, iron, and vitamins obtained from fruits and vegetables for a healthy pregnancy.
Conclusion
Juicing is delicious, healthy, and fun. Also, it’s a cost-effective way to let your children consume fresh fruits and veggies without forcing them to do so. You can experiment with different fruits and vegetables or check online tutorials from the best chefs or seasoned juicers out there.
What if you could live to 100 and beyond? It’s not as far-fetched as it may seem. The number of supercentenarians is growing worldwide — in 2015 there were 451,000 worldwide, and by 2050 it is estimated there will be more than 3.7 million. Healthcare is getting better worldwide as is access to clean water and food. We also know more about how to treat our bodies well, with ample rest and exercise. But clearly this isn’t enough. How can we live to 100 and beyond?
Genetics plays an important role in how long you live, but it’s not the deciding factor. Some scientists estimate your genetics only accounts for about 15% of your chances of living to 100 and beyond. Other factors include things like your diet, getting regular exercise, and cultivating a sense of purpose and community.
There are some places around the world known as ‘Blue Zones’ where people routinely live longer and healthier lives. In places like Loma Linda, California, where the average inhabitant lives 10 years longer than the national average, it is thought the diet and emphasis on religion and community play a major role.
Learn more about Blue Zones from the infographic below. Maybe you will live a lot longer than you think!
After I made the announcement, one of my nieces was shocked, reaching out to me, saying, “I’m pretty sure you have been a vegan for most of the time I’ve known you, ha ha. So you eat cheese pizza now?”
My answer: Well, I could… but I don’t… not really.
Certain kosher meats, but only if they are baked or broiled, never fried or processed (like in a “nugget” form).
Wild caught fish: mainly salmon, cod, mahi mahi, and even anchovies; but not tuna, which instantly causes my dyshodrotic eczema to return. And definitely never shellfish: shrimp, scallops, lobster, etc. (They are not kosher.)
Chicken, without the skin.
Turkey, but I don’t really like it.
Beef, but never with dairy, like cheese; which is part of keeping kosher.
I see no reason to drink milk from an animal; not only because it contains more sugar than most people realize, but I attribute milk as the reason my sinuses and allergies used to be so horrible.
Vegetables, but not cooked in heavy oils.
Fruit, with no limitations.
Grains and potatoes, but only on occasion:
I am intentionally strictly avoiding flour (like wheat pasta or wheat pizza dough), hydrogenated oils, and processed sugar.
So would I eat a cheese pizza? I have; several times.
But I realized that it goes against what I am trying to accomplish; which is to have a permanent, healthy and balanced diet which will allow me to comfortably fit back into my size 32 pants again.
I have learned to appreciate grilled chicken pesto pizza on gluten-free, cauliflower crust.
Could I eat a cheeseburger? No, because it’s combining beef with dairy; which isn’t kosher.
Could I eat a hamburger? I could, but I’m not in a hurry to, since that would involve a lot of bread.
I think that ultimately, new identity as an ex-vegan consists of a dietary regiment that is still as disciplined as being a vegan, though it’s a lot less restricting.
In the past 6 months, I have loss and kept off 5 pounds since I stopped being a vegan. And because I have been faithfully working out using Darebee.com, it is my belief that the reason I am not continuing to lose more weight right now is that the muscle I am building weights more than the fat.
I’m thinking that within another 6 months, I’ll have more confirmation and clarity for Operation: Comfortably Fit in My Size 32 Pants Again.
If not, I’ll keep being open-minded until I figure it out.
Don’t get your hopes up- I still wouldn’t be any fun at a BBQ or a hot dog eating contest. But it is true that back in September, I quietly retired my strict vegan lifestyle of 5 and a half years, and my vegetarian lifestyle of 7 years. But why?
Because I realized that for the last few years, I had been gaining weight as a vegan– to the point I basically weighed as much as I did before I stopped eating meat, eggs, and dairy. Here is proof of my vegan dad bod.
For the first year and a half of being a vegan, I slimmed down to 156 pounds, which at 5′ 9″, placed me perfectly in the middle range according to a BMI chart.
Not only I had a lost and kept off nearly 20 pounds, but I also was finally free of my “medically incurable” dyshidrotic eczema and my constant sinus congestion.
But after spending all of 2017 and 2018 trying to still fit into my size 31 pants, and eventually my size 32 pants, I realized that even with my routine of running on the weekends, my vegan diet wasn’t enough to combat the fact that since turning age 35, my metabolism had undeniably changed.
I was open-minded by the time I accidentally (?) met Mark Glesne at a Starbucks one Sunday morning after church in September 2018. With his experience as a personal trainer, he explained to me that my body had ultimately found a way to rewire itself so that despite consuming 0% cholesterol as part of my vegan diet, I had begun storing fat for lack of complete proteins that are found in meat, eggs, and cheese.
So since September, I have bid farewell to my vegan lifestyle and switched back to simply being kosher; which I have been since Thanksgiving 2008.
I have remained committed to abiding my Jewish kosher law for over a decade now; not eating pork or shellfish, or any other bottom feeder animals.
And even though tuna and tilapia are technically kosher, my eczema did briefly return when I ate those types of fish recently; as well as salmon that was farm-raised instead of wild caught. So I have to stick with fish that are cleaner; like cod, mahi mahi, and wild caught salmon.
As far as my sinus issues, they haven’t returned since I started eating cheese again. However, I refuse to drink cow’s milk, as I believe it was causing my severe sinus and allergy issues; not to mention, it contains a lot of unnecessary sugar.
To help counteract my metabolism noticeably slowing down since I turned 35 nearly 3 years ago, my great friend Mohamad Alaw (who took the photo of me above) helped me get started on a daily work-out regimen, which I have been faithfully doing, based on a website called Darebee.com.
I went from a consistent 176 pounds as a vegan, now to a new consistent 171 pounds by remaining kosher and working out daily; as well as mostly eliminating wheat flour, added sugar, and hydrogenated oils.
Granted, I’m still not comfortably fitting in my size 32 pants, but I believe I eventually will.
I definitely do not regret the 5 and a half years I spent as a vegan, and 7 as a vegetarian. Honestly, had I not begun gaining weight to the point I had a dad bod, I would have stayed a strict vegan the rest of my life.
But the fact that being a vegan wasn’t enough to prevent a dad bod, I took it as a warning from my body that I needed to change what I was eating.
I still undeniably have a very strict diet, but there’s much more grace. I feel a little bit more human in social environments now.
It’s all about doing what works for me personally. Let vegans be vegans. Let bacon loversbe bacon lovers. Let them not be in a cultural war by demonizing each other like Democrats and Republicans.
Let emotional intelligence rule and let each person find their own way to happiness and health.
As for me, I’ll be a kosher guy who works out in his living room every day when he gets home from work- as he pursues a goal of fitting comfortably in size 32 pants again, and continuing to remain cured of dyshidrotic ezcema and constant sinus congestion.
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