Here Is A Timeline Of What Happens To Your Body When You Quit Smoking

Originally seen on SimpleOrganicLife| If you’re smoking a cigarette right now, I have good news for you: if you don’t ever pick one up again, your body will go through amazing transformations within minutes of finishing your last one.

We all know the negative health effects of smoking cigarettes, but what really hits home is when you look at how your body begins to heal itself right after you stop smoking:

1. 20 minutes after your last cigarette, your blood pressure and pulse will lower and return to normal. The temperature in your hands and feet increase.

2. After 12 hours, the carbon monoxide level in your blood will lower and return to normal. Blood oxygen begins to increase. You’ll feel more alert, sleep better, and be stronger.

3. After 24 hours, your risk of heart attack drops significantly.

4. After 48 hours, nerve endings begin to regrow and your sense of smell and taste will return.

5. After about 3 months, your circulation will improve, walking will be easier, and you’ll cough less. Lung function will be markedly improved.

6. Between 1 and 9 months, you’ll have less sinus congestion, fatigue, and nearly no shortness of breath.

7. After 1 year, your risk of coronary heart disease is half of what it was when you smoked.

8. After 5-15 years, your risk of stroke returns to normal, as if you never smoked at all.

9. At the 10 year mark, your chance of developing smoking-related cancer is about the same as a non-smoker. Diet and smoking contribute to 60% of cancers.

10. After 15 years, your risk of coronary heart disease and heart attack is that of a non-smoker. Your risk of death has dropped to that of a non-smoker.

Money saved

You will also save $1000-$2000 each year when you quit smoking depending on how often you smoke, which over 10 years can add up to as much as an extra $20,000 you will have at your disposal.

Plus all of the money you will save on lighters, matches, medical bills, dental bills, medications, and any other expenses that would come from illness and sickness resulting from a compromised immune system and bodily damage from smoking.

Not to mention, you will add years to your life, and the years you do live will be filled with more energy, life, and vitality.  You will also look better, smell better, feel better about yourself and will have a better influence over people in your life who look up to you.

Best of luck on quitting! You owe it to yourself and to your amazing body that is working hard to keep you alive.

Article Source: http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/here-is-a-timeline-of-what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-quit-smoking/

The Top 5 Health Benefits Of Dark Chocolate

Almost everybody likes chocolate. It is usually thought of as a sinful decadence, something we eat when we are choosing to indulge. Chocolate is also synonymous with happiness; do you ever notice people who are eating chocolate always seem happy to be doing so? There’s a good reason for that! Chocolate has been shown to actually raise serotonin levels (the happiness hormone) within the brain. I should clarify here though, there is a huge difference between regular old, overly processed milk chocolate, and dark chocolate that has little or no milk added and significantly less sugar. The best quality dark chocolate has cocoa percentages ranging from 70 to 99%.

Here are the top five benefits of dark chocolate.

1. High Levels Of Antioxidants And Minerals

Did you know that chocolate has one of the highest levels of antioxidants of any other food in the world? Yes, it is definitely a superfood. Antioxidants help to protect the body from free radicals that can cause cancer. Dark chocolate is also loaded with minerals such as: iron, magnesium, copper, manganese, fibre, phosphorous, zinc, and selenium.

2. Relieves Stress

As mentioned above, dark chocolate helps to increase levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which acts as an antidepressant and can lower levels of stress. A study performed by scientists in Switzerland determined that the chemical compounds found in dark chocolate play a key role in improving the stress levels of people who are prone to high stress levels. According to the study, eating 1.4 ounces of dark chocolate daily for two weeks can actually reduce stress hormones. If using dark chocolate to lower stress in your life, make sure it is 85% cocoa or higher.

3. Lowers Cholesterol

The cocoa in dark chocolate has been shown to reduce the “bad” cholesterol (LDL) levels in the blood – which can clog up the veins and inner walls of arteries – allowing for proper arterial function.

There has also been evidence to suggest that dark chocolate can increase the “good” cholesterol (HDL) levels in your body. Low LDL combined with high HDL levels can significantly reduce the risk of cardiac arrest and heart disease.

4. Improves Brain Power

A study conducted at the University of Nottingham determined that consuming dark chocolate can boost the blood flow to the brain for up to three hours. In turn, this improves short-term memory and alertness for short periods of time. Apparently, the cocoa can also help to improve concentration, response time, and memory recall. You should definitely consider eating some dark chocolate while studying for a test and right before taking one!

5. It’s a Delicious Healthy Treat

Dark chocolate (between 75-99%) is something you don’t have to feel guilty about eating. It is actually good for you, and as mentioned above, has numerous amazing health benefits. Meaning, you can eat it and know you’re doing your body a favour! Just be careful not to overdo it because many brands do contain a lot of sugar. Remember, the higher the cocoa percentage, the less sugar it has.

Have you ever had 99% cocoa chocolate? Now that is intense!  You can eat the dark chocolate in bar form, or use cacoa powder or cacoa nibs in smoothies or baking.

Enjoy, much love!

Article Source: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/07/23/the-top-5-health-benefits-of-dark-chocolate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Collective-evolution+%28Collective+Evolution%29

How To Make Alkaline Water And Normalize Your Body’s pH!

Water is the most valuable resource in the world. After all this years we begin to understand that. About 70 percent of the human body and brain are made up from water.

Water is so vital to our survival in every sense of the word.

Alkaline water has the biggest level of hydration and is a excellent source of minerals vital to our body.

Because of our today’s ways of nutrition which is mainly consisted of processed food that includes salt, sugar, caffeine and alcohol – the most common form of pH imbalance is excess acidity.

Symptoms that point to the fact that your body is too acidic are tiredness, headache, stomach ache and a weakened immune system.

If the environment in our bodies is too acid or alkaline, our otherwise healthy cells can become toxic, collapse and die. An unbalanced pH damages the tissues.

If the body experiences an acidic environment for a longer period, it will ultimately deposit excess acidic substances into some area of the body in efforts to alkalize itself.

In that way, acidity increases in some areas and some cells die, but others may still live and/or adapt or turn into malignant.

Cancer cells can’t live in alkaline water.

That’s why drinking alkaline water is very, very useful.

Our body surveillance systems are responsible for our pH balance values, so they remove acid residue without damaging living cells.

However, if the load becomes too big, the result can be fatal to your body.

One more reason why you should drink alkaline water is the hydration of our body.

So protect and regenerate your body by making this water and drinking it on a daily basis.

Making it is simple and easy.

This is what you need:

• 2l water, clean filtered water (if only tap water is available, than use that one)
• 1 organic lemon, washed, cut into eights
• 1 teaspoon of Himalayan salt

Preparation:

Fill the jug, than add the lemon slices (do not squeeze them!) and then add 1 teaspoon of Himalayan salt in it and cover it. Let it stay overnight (8 to 12 hours) at room temperature.

Drink 3 glasses of water every morning when you wake up before you eat or drink anything else to achieve the best pH balance in your body.

Start trying it tomorrow and your body will thank you!

Article Source: http://thespiritscience.net/2015/07/14/how-to-make-alkaline-water-and-normalize-your-bodys-ph/

Five Steps to Increase Emotional Maturity

Five Steps to Increase Emotional Maturity
Written by Invictus Intern Faith Clay

There is no substitute for experienced coaching with an accurate and broad knowledge base. I dare say this is a generally accepted concept. Perhaps less well understood and discussed (but no less important) is the concept of emotional maturity.

“What? Emotional Maturity? Maybe I’m reading the wrong blog,” you may be thinking.

Actually, the sports world has been recognizing more and more the importance of knowing oneself, one’s limitations, strengths, weaknesses, and being able to manage your attention and focus. Getting into the zone, pushing yourself to your limits, and knowing when to back off are all part of emotional intelligence or maturity (EI or EM).

There are 18 competencies identified as making up emotional intelligence with some being more essential in sports and fitness than others [1]. An athlete’s most important emotional/mental faculty is that of self-awareness—knowing one’s emotional state, providing accurate self-assessment, possessing self-confidence, and managing one’s own emotions and focus.

For coaches, the list expands to recognizing the emotional state of others and building relationships of trust and influence. This is exceptionally important for coaches of athletes who may be lacking emotional intelligence.

Not convinced? Researchers in India have investigated various types of competitive athletes from handball players to combative sports such as boxing, Judo, and wrestling [2]. They found that the level of emotional maturity was not significantly different based on the type of sport the athlete played; however, “International level players demonstrated significantly higher levels of emotional maturity as compared to the other two performance groups” (national and state level competitors) [2,3].

With all that CrossFit has done and continues to do for the world of fitness, it is essential that we as participants and proponents check ourselves with regard to our own emotional intelligence. Bo Hanson, four-time Olympian and coach, reassures us that emotional intelligence is a skill that can be learned. By developing this maturity, self-awareness, and self-management, we can better understand ourselves – when we need to back off or seek coaching to avoid an injury and when we are ready to push ourselves to the limits for maximum gains. In this regard, perhaps emotional maturity is the prescription to “Forging Elite Fitness.”

Here are five steps that have helped me improve my emotional maturity in my personal life as well at the gym:

1. Check your ego at the door
   When I enter the gym, I leave my competitive pride at the door. I go to the whiteboard in a humble mindset of determination. I remind myself of what my limits are, how I should scale the workout (or ask the coach if I’m not certain), and take note of which movements I need to improve.
2. Be in the moment
   When the coach starts explaining the movements and standards for the workout, I try to actively listen and be present; that means not talking with others while the coach is explaining what needs to be done. The coach’s tips may help me lift more, move faster, or avoid injury.
3. Increase self-discipline
   There are times when I have no desire to leave the comfort of my house to go to the gym. I may try to find some excuse that will not help me improve. Self-discipline is a sign of maturity and can be improved by consistently doing things we know we should but may not want to do at the moment.
4. Develop personal responsibility
   This goes hand in hand with self-discipline. The coaches want me to improve, to be safe, and to enjoy my workouts. However, similar to getting myself into the gym, ultimately these are my responsibilities. I have a personal responsibility to bring a good attitude and take responsibility for my own development. I should be learning from my mistakes rather than placing blame.
5. Be a victor
   We need to work on our weaknesses to be stronger physically and emotionally.  Feeding the mind positive thoughts will help us push through hardships.  Consistently and correctly completing workouts builds confidence and experience that will ultimately enable us to attain our personal fitness goals.

Article Source: http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/blog/five-steps-to-increase-emotional-maturity/

How Bad Do You Want It?

So..how bad do YOU want it?