Keep Sweets In Your Diet!

Don’t think that you can eat any sweets when you’re on a diet? Think again!  Dark chocolate is actually a healthy chocolate that you not only should add but need to add to your daily diet. 

Dark chocolate is shown to lower blood pressure by quite a large margin.  It produces a substance called nitric oxide which balances hormones in your body.  This leads to a lower blood pressure. Dark chocolate can also lower your cholesterol by 5-10%.

Going off of yesterdays post on how to relieve stress, dark chocolate encourages your brain to release endorphins, and it contains serotonin which both act as stress relievers. 

Another benefit of dark chocolate is that it contains nearly 9 times the amount of antioxidants (nutrients that fight of sickness) than some fruits do.  So eating a little dark chocolate every night will kick up your sickness-fighting antibodies. 

Stick to no more than 100 grams a day of 60-75% dark chocolate.  I like the organic kind with no added fillers or chemicals.  This way, you can end your day on a healthy, sweet note. 

Eat that dark chocolate, and spend Everyday Living Fit!

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Work Out To Relieve Stress



Feeling extra stressed or upset lately?  Need something to boost your mood?  Go workout!  Working out not only changes your mood by making you look and feel better about yourself, but it will mentally change the way that you feel.

When you exercise, whether it’s running, lifting weights or whatever form you do, your brain releases certain chemicals that result in your feeling better.  When you get stressed or upset, you brain holds those chemicals in.  When you work out it relaxes your body and mind which releases those chemicals.  Your brain releases endorphins, adrenaline, serotonin and dopamine.  When released they all work together to make you feel happier, more positive and more relaxed. 

If you’ve ever wondered why after a workout your stress seems to go away, this is why.  Another great thing about it is that since your mind is more relaxed you’ll find it’s easier to figure out the solution to whatever it is that is causing your problem. 

Think of this as a rule of thumb: the harder you workout, the more chemicals are released.  The more chemicals released the better you’ll feel. 

It’s easy when you’re stressed to turn to junk food, but that doesn’t solve anything.  It’ll actually make you feel worse because now you’re upset about what you just did to yourself.  No matter how much you don’t feel like working out because you’re stressed or upset you have to make yourself. 

Hopefully next time you’re stressed you’ll turn right towards the gym instead of turning left towards the ice cream.  So keeping that in mind spend Everyday Living Fit!

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