Independence Day Sale

If you've read any of the Healthy at The Creek blog posts, you should know by now that I'm an Herbalife independent distributor. I've decided to hold an Independence Day sale. Until the end of the day July 5th, you can get 20% off of any products on my Great Shape Today website. Just put in the code creek20 at checkout and you'll get the 20% off. The code to see the prices on my website is the word healthy.

You can read back through some of my blog posts to get my personal product recommendations. If you're interested in weight management, targeted nutrition, energy and fitness, or personal care, Herbalife has a product for you. If you have any questions just let me know.

My personal favorites are the cookies and cream flavored formula 1 meal replacement shakes, and the citrus lemon flavored protein bars. They're products I use every day. Give Herbalife a try while the Independence Day promotion is on. Get healthy and stay healthy.

Hotter and Healthy

It was a perfect day to take advantage of herbalife's H3O Fitness Drink. It's a great way to re-hydrate. It got up to 104° here today, not to mention my A/C is on the blink, so hydration was important.

To make it even more refreshing, I froze an ice cube tray with H3O and used the frozen cubes to cool down my drinking bottle. I may have even chewed on a frozen cube to cool off. Don't tell my dentist :)

Hydration is essential to good health. Especially on a hot day. Water makes up more than half of our body weight and is used to maintain our body's temperature. FamilyDoctor.org has an informative article on hydration and why it's so important to our health. Check it out.

Hot and Healthy

The weather has been pretty intense lately. The next couple of days are a break before the temperature jumps up again. Yesterday was cooler. It only got up to 90°. Thursday the forecast says it will hit 100°.

The creek is starting to get low. The current is slowing down, and when the light hits it right, the water's surface almost looks dusty. You can walk across the creek in a couple of places now and not even get your feet wet.

Herbalife provides some good ways to beat the heat if you're a little creative. I use frozen bananas in my Formula 1 shakes. In addition to being a healthy meal replacement, it makes them nice and frosty. The Formula 1 Cookies and Cream flavor is my latest favorite.

Another way to cool off with Formula 1 shakes is to freeze them. Make a double batch in the morning. Then pour the rest into a couple of smaller plastic cups and put them in the freezer right away. They freeze into a delicious treat that you can eat with a spoon. It's a great way to stay cool and healthy.

For a snack, or even a fast breakfast, I use the Herbalife Protein Bars. My favorite is still the Citrus Lemon flavor. To stay cool I keep a few in the freezer. Frozen Protein Bars are a great way to snack healthy and stay cool.

Healthy Breakfast

I had a great healthy breakfast this morning. I ate fresh raspberries from my own berry patch, and drank a delicious herbalife formula 1 shake. I made the dutch chocolate flavor this morning, with frozen bananas and yogurt blended in.

Then I wandered down to the creek for some relaxing yoga. Here's the view I had when I stood in mountain pose. It was only in the 50's this morning so I was going through my standing warmup flow faster than normal to get my blood moving. It was a good healthy morning at the creek. Namaste.

Healthy Snacks

Living at the creek I can find natural snacks just taking a walk. I have wild strawberries that have been ripe for weeks now. They're not the tastiest treat, but they're a great source of vitamin C and other nutrients. I grab a handful on the way to the mailbox and back some mornings. The ones in the picture are in me now :)

I'll have wild raspberries and blackberries in a few weeks, and my cultivated berry patch will have some red raspberries soon. I ate my first red raspberry yesterday, but it was an overachiever. You can see there are a few early ones, but most are still green. The netting is to keep the birds from beating me to the berries.

Mulberries, wild cherries, and wild grapes will be coming along later this summer. This fall I'll have pawpaws and some mayapples if I can get to them before the possums. If you know what to look for there plenty of healthy snacks for free at the creek.

Herbalife makes some delicious protein bars if you want something a little different. They're easy to stick in my bag or grab as I go out the door. I like the citrus lemon flavor but the vanilla almond are a close second. Herbalife protein bars provide 10g of healthy protein and other vitamins and mineral in only 140 calories of great taste. They help take the edge off between meals in a healthy nutritious way.

Beat the Heat at the Creek

It was heat wave hot today. It was 97° when I decided to head to the creek and soak for a while. It's handy having a creek in the back yard. You can see the recliner I sink in the current and sit in to cool off. You just have to find the right sized rock to sit on your lap so you don’t float away. The cool water, the massaging current, and the minnows nibbling on your toes are very relaxing. Some people are put off by the minnows though :)

When it's as hot as it was today you want to stay hydrated and get back the electrolytes you’re losing. Herbalife H3O Fitness Drink is perfect for that. It comes in two flavors and tastes great. I use the H3O Fitness Drink sticks. I just dump one in my water bottle, add some water and a couple of ice cubes, and shake it up. Icy, refreshing, and it replaces what your body loses in this kind of heat.

The one hazard of relaxing in the creek is my two dogs get bored and start wandering on their own. Today Lucky decided to get into something, I have no idea what. She's normally a nice clean white little Jack Russel terrier mix. Today she came back home looking like she’d been wallowing with some pigs. That meant we went back to the creek again and she got a good bath. Getting a bath isn't something she looks forward to, but the temptation to wallow overrides her caution sometimes :)

Do your best to stay cool in this heat, and remember to stay healthy.

Healthy Eating - Fish

The fishing has been great here lately. I caught a pan full of panfish last night. Half a dozen pumpkin seeds and a couple of popeyes. I've got them all cleaned, soaking in salt water, and ready to grill for supper tonight. I'll just wrap them in tin foil with some olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper, and throw then on the grill for a few minutes on each side. I've got some mustard potato salad to go with them. I'm looking forward to it.

I caught a bunch of little channel cats that weren't quite big enough to bother with and one nice smallmouth that went about 13 inches. I kept the bass until I had enough other fish to make a meal, then I turned it loose so it can make some more bass and maybe I can catch it again. This is not a very big creek when it's not flooding and you can overfish if you're not careful.

Besides eating healthy fresh food I take Herbalife's Formula 2 Multivitamin Mineral Complex every day. It's one of herbalife's core products. Herbalife has lots of other targeted nutrition products to help keep you healthy and active, two things that you need to be when you're living at the creek.

Relax for Health's Sake

Sometimes you just need to relax and restore your energy level. According to the Mayo Clinic, constant stress puts your health at risk. So for your health's sake, take some time every day to relax and enjoy what's happening in the now.

I like to relax with a glass of iced tea. Herbalife herbal tea concentrate makes it simple to mix up a delicious hot or cold drink in minutes. Tonight I had a mug of iced herbal tea while I sat in my back yard and watched the creek go by. As you'll notice, have a cracker jack back yard.

Herbalife herbal tea concentrate comes in a bunch of flavors and gives you that boost you need. At about 5 calories per serving it's much better than a soda or some sugary coffee drink. I like the original flavor. Hot or cold Herbalife herbal tea concentrate does the job.

Remember to relax and restore.

Busy and Healthy

It's been a busy week here at the creek. There are lots of storms rolling through this time of year. Keeping up with the mowing and trimming can be a challenge. Working outside is a great source of healthy exercise, but it can also be tough on the back, especially chores like weeding the berry patch. I'm going to have some dandy berries this year if the blossoms are any indication.

There are two things I do to keep going strong when I'm working outside. The first is yoga. I was a yoga instructor for 11 years and have been practicing for almost 15 years.  There's a simple flow of yoga poses  I use every day to keep my back healthy and flexible. It loosens the tightness and eases the tension you get from lots of bending and lifting, and also from sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time. It's called the standing warmup flow.

This flow doesn't require a mat or even taking off your shoes. It works the spine in every direction and uses all the major muscles and joints. Use this flow to wake up, warm up, relieve stress, relax, or simply to become centered by focusing on your breath. Repeat the flow as many times as you choose. Move into each pose while inhaling or exhaling as indicated. Always move with your breath:

• Mountain Pose — exhale
• Standing Stretch — inhale
• Forward Fold — exhale
• Standing Stretch — inhale

• Right Side Lateral Stretch — exhale
• Standing Stretch — inhale
• Left Side Lateral Stretch — exhale
• Standing Stretch — inhale
• Mountain Pose — exhale
• Front Archer Pose — inhale
• Right Archer Pose — exhale
• Front Archer Pose — inhale
• Left Archer Pose — exhale
• Front Archer Pose — inhale
• Chair Pose — exhale
• Back Bend Pose — inhale
• Mountain Pose — exhale

I recommend the Yoga Journal index of poses for help with the individual poses in this flow. It's a great reference on poses and how to perform them safely.

The second thing I do to keep going strong is fill my water bottle with Liftoff from Herbalife. Whether I'm riding on the tractor, pushing the mower, or pulling weeds, Liftoff hydrates and gives me a boost of energy at the same time.

If you have any questions about the standing warmup flow or Liftoff, let me know.

Namaste

Living at The Creek

Living at the creek, it just seems natural that you'd want to stay healthy.  I've always thought of myself as healthy, but lately I've had to rethink that.  I have a lot of weight to lose and my arthritis and that extra weight on my joints has limited what I can do.

I recently started using Herbalife products to get back to real health again.  I've already dropped some weight.  I had to tighten my belt and, believe it or not, tighten my sandals.  Who knew I had fat feet!  I feel better and I'm doing more.  My knees are already thanking me.

The mainstay of my Herbalife health program is their Formula 1 Nutritional Shake Mix.  It's a meal replacement shake with 20 essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients, plus 9g of protein and healthy fiber for the weight management I need.  Twice a day I've replaced my not-so-healthy meals with Formula 1 shakes.  Formula 1 comes in seven flavors, so there's plenty of variety.  I add yogurt and fruit to mine.  I make a double batch in the morning, and turn the blender back on when I have my second shake of the day.

My favorite double batch recipe is:

    8oz of plain yogurt,
    12oz of water,
    1/3 cup of nonfat powdered milk,
    4 scoops of french vanilla or dutch chocolate Formula 1 shake mix,
    2tbsp of herbalife personalized protein powder,
    2 small bananas.


The night before you make your shakes break the bananas into four pieces each and put them in the freezer.  In the morning throw six pieces of banana and all the other ingredients into the blender and blend on high for 30 seconds.  Pour half of that in a large glass and enjoy it for breakfast.  Put the blender in the fridge.

Later in the day take the blender out of the fridge, add the last two frozen banana pieces, and blend on high for 30 seconds again.  Now you've got your second Formula 1 meal of the day.  It's simple, fast, and you're on your way to being healthier and happier.  Your knees will thank you :)