The Flourished Files Blog

Good Health Takes Discipline

Happy New Year Everyone !

What exactly does the word discipline mean? Let me tell you. Discipline is training (someone) to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience. Now when we hear that definition we may think whoa that is too much but at least part of it is true when it comes to our health. 

When it comes to our health we have to be somewhat disciplined (trained) to be healthy. If we do not train ourselves or have the mindset to be healthy more than likely we will not choose to be healthy but instead make unhealthy choices. So the long story short is that being healthy takes a lot of thought it takes a lot of being organized and planning your meals and even if you don’t plan your meals your groceries or what you have should somewhat reflect how you want to eat like having many fruits and vegetables around.

I am proud to say today I am currently 184 pounds. That may not sound crazy but for me that is PROGRESS. I was pushing 190 pounds as 2022 came to an end. I couldn’t believe that I let myself get to this weight and the most I have ever weighed prior to having my son is 150 pounds. I never experienced weight gain in the way before but as you get older our bodies do change an retain more weight, especially for women.

This is the moment I knew that I needed to be more grounded if I really wanted to lose weight. As tedious as this can be for many people I began counting my calories and I also counted my calories as I cooked my meals and weighed my food. There are many apps that can actually do this for you so it doesn’t have to be scary depending on how you approach this. This is important because many of us take on extra calories of food just because we are going way over the recommended portion size. Did you know that 1 serving of rice which is about 1/4 cup is 160 calories. Now when most people eat rice they are not measuring their servings. That means if you end of eating one cup of rice that means you just consumed 640 calories of rice by not portion size. We have to pay attention to those nutritional facts and serving sizes which is why they provide us with the information. 

If you have been reading any of my recent blog post you will see that I mentioned a major cause of weight gain is due to an over consumption of food or calories. So this is something we all have to work on. Another thing that started the weight loss was controlling my intake of sweet. No matter how much any of us love sweets its just no good for us and its that simple. It has absolutely no nutritional value. Now I’m not saying you have to give up sweets totally but just watch how much you eat. 

Before I complete this blog post the last thing that has truly helped me lose weight is having an early cut off time so if you are going to set a cut off time for your time try to stick to it. No going to sleep on a full stomach or eating at least two hours prior to your bedtime. 

I truly hope this blog post helped you and will give you some encouragement on your weight loss journey. It doesn’t have to be perfect but we are in this together!

If you would like to possibly work with me or need nutrition coaching please visit the at your service tab on my website and complete the form.

Hoping 2023 is nothing but great to you! God Bless!

Written By: Vanessa J

Question to you all what personal goals have you started so far for the New Year? Comment down below

How does the body detox naturally?

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How Does The Body Detox Naturally?

Now we always hear people say that they are going to do a cleanse or detox. I myself cleanse or make my detox juices by juicing. But the real question is can the body do all of this already? Of course it can!

The human body is so amazing and beautifully crafted that it already knows everything that it is supposed to do for us. The two handy dandy organs that help us to accomplish the goal of detoxing our bodies are liver and our kidneys and just to add a little pizzazz our colons are big helpers as well.  

So what exactly does the liver do and what is it responsible for? I’m glad you asked. To start, the liver is one of the heaviest organs in our body weighing in at 3 pounds, amazing! Now the liver is responsible for many things. Let’s just think of the liver as being a factory that runs 24/7. The liver has a lot of tasks to check off its checklist. First, the liver is responsible for filtering our blood so blood transports in and out of the liver coming from the heart and the intestines. When the liver filters our blood it is receiving nutrients that will be stored in the liver. Those nutrients can consist of carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals. The liver turns carbohydrates into sugar and then stores it as glycogen. So even though the liver receives those nutrients that come from our foods and what we eat, it also removes toxins from the blood which will eventually travel to the kidneys and colon to be removed from the body. When you overload your body with junk the liver has to work to remove it from our bodies. One of the things that can be most harmful to our bodies is alcohol.

Now let’s talk about the kidneys. Yea you know this one the ones that look like beans. This organ too is responsible for helping our bodies to detox. One, it regulates the fluid in our body. Two, it can detect waste in your blood just like the liver to be excreted as urine. Third, just like the liver it releases vitamins and nutrients into our bloodstream. The kidneys filters and checks our blood to get rid of waste and toxins.

So there you go the body is in fact a natural detoxifier.

Leave any comments down below if you would like to discuss more.

Be Happy. Be Healthy.Be Safe.

Written By: Vanessa Jo

Soures(s) : TedEd on Youtube

I’m An Author Y’all!

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This blog post is a very short one but exciting one. If you have only visited my website and seen only my blog post your missing out on a whole lot!

I wanted to write this blog post to let you know that I am officially an AUTHOR! This year I have been on a journey of exploring new talents and creativity and creating eBooks has become my new favorite thing.

Now, I am going to be writing a wide range of eBooks from children’s books to weight loss guides. My inspiration for starting my children’s eBook series is my son. He is now three years old and he likes to learn but he loves his ABCs. He can’t get enough of it but I wanted to teach by doing letter of the week but I realized that I was not finding the type of books I wanted when it came to that so I created it! So if you have little ones at home you will love the ABC series from A to Z and two more letters will be released this month. As some of you may know I have my Acid Reflux autobiography about my journey with Acid Reflux which was my very first eBook. I am excited to add many new titles but for now check out below all the books that are available:

What is your relationship with food?

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Now if you have been following my blog for quite some time you know that I have LPR (Laryngopharyngeal) re flux. I have been dealing with this re flux for many many years before I was officially diagnosed at the age of 23 and 10 years later it is still here. It hasn’t been the easiest journey for me but it has certainly changed my relationship with food. Then fast forward to now I have gained almost 40 pounds within the past three years whew! Sometimes I feel like I am in an up heel battle with my relationship with food. With acid re flux there are so many foods that you can’t eat and that have to be avoided that you feel like you can’t eat anything at all, and then with all this weight gain, I feel like everything I eat is going to hurt me because I am going to keep gaining more weight.

It’s exhausting but I want to get it right. I don’t want to be stuck in the battle of being afraid of the foods I eat. What would you say your relationship with food is? When we talk about our relationship with food this takes us back to intuitive eating. Intuitive eating is all about fixing your relationship with food. Intuitive eating has 10 principles and some of those principles are honor your hunger, make peace with food, and challenge the food police. I love that intuitive eating makes us take a deeper dive to the traumas that may be causing us to eat the way that we do in order to have a better relationship with food. When you are in tune with yourself and the way you eat it makes eating easier. You don’t have to beat yourself up if you had a piece of chocolate today or french fries tomorrow. The goal is to still make those right choices but even when  you make the wrong food choices to not beat yourself up about it the goal is to enjoy food , be healthy, and be happy with YOU.

What’s your story?

– Vanessa Jo A short blog post read time: 3 to 5 minutes

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Follow My YouTube Page

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Hello Everyone!

I just want to say first and foremost thank you to everyone that has followed my blog for the past four years! I can’t believe I have been writing blog posts for the past four years, it’s something that I never thought I would do but I am glad I made the decision too. It has become one of my most favorite things to and to be able to talk about a topic that is near and dear to my heart, nutrition. As I am getting back in the swing of content creation and writing blog post I invite all of you to join me on YouTube as well!

I am getting back into the grove of filming again and I hope that I can bring you some great topics and discussions! If there is any particular topic you would like me to talk about when it comes to nutrition please comment down below! Be well, Be healthy, Be safe