Dawn’s Healthy Living Journey – Finding Healthy Shortcuts
by Cascade Ice on March 31, 2011
The Flavorful Life is featuring several “healthy living journey” stories from Cascade Ice fans around the country, where guest bloggers tell us their thoughts on how they face challenges and come up with new ideas to pursue better health and fitness lifestyles. The following is the latest update from Dawn Sievers of Knoxville, TN, and blogger for “The Healing Morning”
Since we last chatted, I’ve been continuing this process of healthy living. Part of that process is incorporating those healthful habits into an increasingly hectic business week. I am a freelance writer, editor and blogger, with each of those categories picking up speed and client rosters growing. That’s a wonderful thing, but we all know that analogy of burning the candle at both ends. Stress is possibly one of the biggest, most grim health threats to the human body, after all. When stress hits our system, cortisol is produced by the adrenal glands. While cortisol is an important hormone, it also has many negative effects on our bodies, the most damaging being that its release increases blood sugar levels and depresses the immune system. Given that many of us exist in a constant state of stress, is it any wonder that obesity is a common ailment in our society?
In an effort to streamline my life, I’m on a constant search for simple, effective ways to punch up a bit of health providing benefits. One that I recently discovered is simple beyond belief! Giving your body a quick dose of Vitamin C can quickly lower your levels of cortisol. How easy is that?! It could be as simple as eating an orange, a grapefruit or any other fruit high in Vitamin C, or drinking a quick glass of juice. Granted, processed fruit juices are high in unnecessary processed sugars, so I would choose freshly squeezed juice when possible.
Luckily, Cascade Ice Water makes my favorite Naturally Flavored Sparkling Water with Juice that contains natural fruit juices. I sometimes mix a quarter cup of one of those favorite flavors with freshly squeezed fruit juice, because I love the zip and fizz that Cascade Ice Water gives me. Little did I know that I was also doing something that provided multi-fold health benefits for my body!
Vitamin C supplements are another simple way to achieve a similar result, if you’re not able to grab a piece of fruit or bottle of Cascade Ice Water. I’m a big proponent of supplements in addition to healthy eating, so stay tuned for details on all sorts of fascinating supplement information in future posts!
