DALE fARM LIFE
Welcome to the VIEW from Dale Farm Life. We are Ben & Shellie. Ben is a pastor by profession (attending Walla Walla College, Columbia Union College & Andrews University), animal farmer by interest, produce farmer by necessity & grandpa by good fortune. Shellie is an educator by profession (attending Columbia Union College, Walla Walla University & Southern Adventist University), an animal farmer by enjoyment, produce farmer by talent & grandma by passion. We have ideas, life experience and opinions which we will share here. So sit back, relax, and stay as long as you’d like.
DECREASE EATING
Even eating TOO MUCH good food can lead to weight gain & POOR HEALTH. So COUNTING CALORIES is often a necessary part of any health gain program. This can be done by keeping a journal or diary. You can also take pictures of what you eat. There are apps available which can make this activity easier and more organized for many of us. Also, keep in mind that even something as simple as USING A SMALLER PLATE can help us eat less, and therefore, live the HEALTHY LIFE we all dream of living.
EAT MORE SLOWLY. When we eat our food too fast, we may have eaten much more food than needed before our brains are even aware that we are already full. This is why studies have shown that faster eaters are much more likely to become unhealthy & obese than people who take their time eating. Also, chewing your food properly is important to your food digestion in addition to your health & weight management. This is because properly chewed food can be quickly and easily digested with your saliva. Otherwise, the stomach can take forever digesting large particles of food which contributes to weight gain and POOR HEALTH.
INCREASE HEALTHY BEVERAGES
DRINK WATER! It’s true that drinking water is actually one important way to COME BE HEALTHY. This is a simple and effective way to lose those extra pounds as you gain strength & overall GOOD HEALTH. And listen to this: drinking 0.5 liters (17 oz) of H2O may burn up to 24-30% of the calories you consume for an hour after drinking the water.
And actually, UNSWEETENED COFFEE is a healthy beverage that is loaded with antioxidants and other beneficial ingredients. It can increase your energy level as well as the amount of calories you burn. It literally boosts your metabolism while at the same time reducing your risk of type 2 diabetes by 23-50%. Black coffee can actually make you feel full even though it contains very few calories. BUT STAY AWAY from all of those sugar-filled coffee drinks if you wish to reach your OPTIMAL HEALTH!
UNSWEETENED GREEN TEA can be very healthy and can also contribute to your good health. It has been shown to increase energy, burn fat and contribute to weight loss. There is some evidence that Matcha Green Tea may be especially beneficial to anyone wanting to lose body fat.
Drink a glass of LEMON WATER AND HONEY every morning. Add a couple teaspoons of honey into a glass of lemon water. Honey is full of medicinal properties and lemon helps to detoxify your digestive system. This can help to reduce that excess body fat so you can reach your IDEAL HEALTH GOALS sooner rather than later.
DECREASE UNHEALTHY BEVERAGES
AVOID Sugary Drinks like the plague! Many of these drinks are FULL of hidden sugar and empty calories which will ADD to your poor health AND it will ADD to your bloated SIZE. One study shows that the risk of child obesity increases by a whopping 60% JUST from a daily serving of sugar-sweetened beverages.
Unfortunately, unhealthy beverages include MANY drinks that are MARKETED AS HEALTHY! This includes FRUIT JUICES & DRINKS, CHOCOLATE MILK, and ENERGY DRINKS.
In fact, our brains often don’t register LIQUID CALORIES the same way they register SOLID CALORIES. The tragic result is that people end up consuming liquid calories IN ADDITION to everything else they eat. And all of those liquid calories give us MORE CALORIES PLUS MORE FAT, resulting in lethargy & POOR HEALTH.
INCREASE HEALTHY FOOD
Eating NATURAL, whole, single-ingredient FOODS is one of the most important ways to COME BE HEALTHY. Not only will this contribute to eliminating added sugar from your diet, but WHOLE FOODS will also contribute to feeling full, causing less food consumption. You will lose weight AND boost your over-all health by eating whole foods. FRUITS and VEGETABLES are extremely healthy and weight-loss friendly foods. Fruits and vegetables are high in WATER, NUTRIENTS & FIBER. These components contribute to low energy density allowing us to eat large servings WITHOUT consuming too many calories.
Eating More PROTEIN (including whey protein) helps your body burn calories. In fact, protein can boost your metabolism by as much as 80-100 calories per day. Protein also makes our bodies feel fuller, thus reducing our appetite. Studies have shown people eating 400 fewer calories every day, just from a high protein diet. Try eating an egg every morning and you’ll see a difference in your appetite.
LOW CARB diets have also been shown to boost energy and help curb appetites and reduce waist lines. Low carb diets can also help to improve our over-all health leading to more energy and less disease.
Obviously, you’re not going to eat what’s NOT in the kitchen! So keeping healthy foods and snacks readily available at home will go a long ways toward your over-all health. So stock up on those fruits and veggies and you will FEEL better and even LOOK better.
REPLACE some of the fats you eat with COCONUT OIL which is made up of medium-chain triglycerides. This type of fat is metabolized differently than other fats which can improve our over-all metabolism. And coconut oil has been shown to be especially helpful in reducing harmful belly fat.
SPICEY FOOD such as Chili Peppers and Jalapenos contain a compound called capsaicin. Capsaicin may help to reduce our appetite and calorie intake. It may also boost our metabolism and increase fat burning.
TAKE PROBIOTICS regularly. One great source for probiotics is Unsweetened and Unflavored YOGURT. Probiotics contain live bacteria which provide health benefits when eaten. They can contribute to DIGESTIVE HEALTH, HEART HEALTH, AND EVEN WEIGHT HEALTH. Probiotics may help regulate healthy gut bacteria while also blocking the absorption of dietary fat.
Get plenty of FIBER. Fiber-rich foods are essential to your GOOD HEALTH, and resisting sickness & disease. Water-soluble fiber may be especially beneficial since it contributes to our sense of feeling full. Fiber delays stomach emptying and actually expands the stomach which contributes to eating less food, and thus losing excess weight. And fiber also feeds the friendly gut bacteria which reduces the risk of overeating, and giving us more energy to do the things we want & need to do. We get plenty of this essential fiber by eating NATURAL WHOLE FOODS such as FRUITS, VEGETABLES AND WHOLE GRAINS.
One food that most people are unaware of it’s weight-loss benefits is GARLIC. Garlic is known to possess antiseptic properties. Many people have been aided in their HEALTH GOALS & weight management efforts by chewing 2 or more cloves of garlic every morning. Of course, due to the strong, pungent odor of garlic, it is advisable to brush your teeth well after eating garlic since the odor can stay with you all day otherwise.
DECREASE UNHEALTHY FOOD
Avoiding processed foods will significantly add to your health AND will help you lose the excess weight. Processed foods actually cause us to over-eat. Of course, processed foods are a lot of the foods many of us LOVE to eat. But staying away from cakes and pastries and unhealthy snacks will greatly contribute to our overall GOOD HEALTH.
Stay away from REFINED CARBS. These are carbs that have had most of their BENEFICIAL NUTRIENTS and FIBER removed. This process produces food which is easily digested and greatly contributes to overeating and many of the DISEASES which plague our society today. Refined Carbs include such foods as WHITE FLOUR, WHITE BREAD, WHITE RICE, SODAS, PASTRIES, SNACKS SWEETS, PASTA, BREAKFAST CEREALS AND SUGAR.
Avoid Added Sugar. You would do well to satisfy your “sweet tooth” with the NATURAL sugars found in fruits & vegetables. This single old tip will NOT ONLY lead you to lose weight, but it will also keep you from diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. The average American eats about 15 teaspoons of added sugar every day. And much of this sugar is HIDDEN in processed foods, and most people are oblivious to the fact that they are eating so much sugar because sugar goes by MANY DIFFERENT NAMES. So beware of MYSTERIOUS INGREDIENTS.
One way to DECREASE food over-all is through FASTING. Periodic and intelligent fasting, when done responsibly, can lead to significant weight loss & can contribute to GOOD HEALTH. In fact, I personally lost 30 pounds in about 3 months JUST by eating 2 meals per day (breakfast and lunch) instead of 3. This requires some self-control, but it definitely works!
INCREASE EXERCISE
Daily exercise, especially CARDIO beneficial exercises such as JOGGING, RUNNING, CYCLING, POWER WALKING, HIKING OR SWIMMING will directly lead to HEALTH GAIN. Cardio exercises will not only burn those calories contributing to excess weight, but it will also contribute to over-all MENTAL & PHYSICAL GOOD HEALTH. Cardio exercises are particularly beneficial in reducing that especially harmful belly fat which builds up around your organs causing METABOLIC DISEASE.
In addition to CARDIO exercising, good health also requires RESISTANCE EXERCISES. Loss of muscle mass is a common side effect of dieting. When we lose our muscle, our bodies burn fewer calories than before. This means that we need to build up our muscle mass in order to burn more calories, thus contributing to better weight management. Besides, stronger muscles make us LOOK and FEEL so much better.
INCREASE REM SLEEP
Sleep deprivation is one of the MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTORS to POOR HEALTH & weight gain! A lack of healthy sleep (typically around 8 hours per night) leads to a fluctuation of appetite hormones, which means that troubles with sleep leads to poor appetite regulation. This, in turn, creates over-all poor health and obesity. This is NOT JUST ANY SLEEP. Overall HEALTH GAIN from proper sleep comes when we improve our REM SLEEP. Sleep regulates the body’s functions and helps with proper digestion and normal metabolism. Therefore, proper sleep is ESSENTIAL to shedding your undesired and unhealthy body flab. So if you are not getting sufficient REM SLEEP, you owe it to yourself to find a way to sleep 8 hours per night. So when we ADD to our depleted sleep, we literally ADD TO OUR GOOD HEALTH!
INCREASE SUNLIGHT
And get a load of this. SUNSHINE HELPS US GAIN HEALTH & LOSE WEIGHT. Who knew? Studies have shown that fat cells are sensitive to sunlight. So if you want to ZAP SOME FAT CELLS, spend some time in the sun. Likewise, reducing the amount of sunlight we enjoy actually contributes to a depleted and UNHEALTHY IMMUNE SYSTEM as well as WEIGHT GAIN. The blue light emitted by the sun literally shrinks the fat cells which lie just beneath our skin’s surface. So why not zap some fat cells & IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH by enjoying some FUN IN THE SUN!
INCREASE HEALTHY MINDSET
Many of our modern diseases are a direct result of STINKING THINKING! In other words, GOOD HEALTH has a LOT more to do with a HEALTHY MINDSET than most people are aware! Unhealthy thinking leads to physical, mental, spiritual, emotional & even social POOR HEALTH. UNHEALTHY THINKING actually often leads to an UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIP with the food we eat, and the lifestyle we choose. This, in turn, can lead to FOOD & SUBSTANCE ADDICTIONS. These strong cravings actually change our brain chemistry, creating an overwhelming urge to make poor choices in life. This type of mental limitation is a real challenge for people to overcome. Religious pursuits, meditation, breathing exercises and regular family vacations are some of the many ways to reduce stress and strengthen our mindset. And of course, in some cases, people need professional help to treat an unhealthy mindset.
Enhance Your Life TODAY
We have some good, practical advice you may find useful. You’ll find things here you may not be aware of which can benefit your life. And we even have some great animals and produce which we can give to you at a great price. Whatever brings you here, we hope you enjoy yourself, learn something, go away with something you didn’t have when you came, and most of all, we pray you’re blessed by hanging out with us for a spell.