John Aaron Wellness

Are you wondering what you should eat tonight? Five helpful free iPhone apps locate healthy eating ideas for those on very restricted diets, such as gluten-free or vegan, as well as for those just watching fat grams or carbs. Specialized diets, such as vegetarian or low sugar, were difficult to adhere to in the recent past. However, the food and dining industries have become more aware of personal aversions to factory farming and of medical conditions, like diabetes and celiac disease. Let one of these five free iPhone apps help you find tonight’s perfect recipe or restaurant. 1. Edamam is a search engine that matches recipes to your craving. This app searches recipe sites, such as Epicurious.com, Bon Appetit.com and 101 Cookbooks.com, until it finds the perfect recipe. Edamam lets you search by 11 special diets as well as by calories. Have a sudden craving for gluten-free peanut butter cookies? That is no problem for Edamam. 2. Food Community is an app by Nommunity.com that h...

“Man can neither make, nor retain, one moment in time; it all comes to him by pure gift.” - Clive Staples Lewis Each one of us has fond memories; moments so special that we wish we could just freeze them in time. You know, the kind of precious moments that, if we could capture, we would want to relive over and over again. The truth is, most of the time we think these memories make themselves and we wander aimlessly through our day “killing time” until the next good thing befalls us. In reality, times dies all on its own and in death’s permanency it stays; never to be touched again. All the more reason to use each day, each hour, each and every minute to living life's fullest potential. Cliché as it seems, ask yourself, “What would I do if this were my last hour to live?” Would you squander the time “aimlessly?” Probably not. Your Action Challenge: Do something useful. Make good happen; for yourself, your family or a friend. Do it today, this moment. So that by days en...

Houston is hot. You can’t live here without breaking a sweat. And when you add exercise to the humidity, you can be in for a tough time, but the results can be worth it – as long as you stay hydrated. Just so you know, the challenge of transforming your body is not a onetime event.  It doesn't happen magically in 6 weeks or less because you chose to purchase the latest gadget you found on TV in the middle of the night.  You can't buy it in a special box of food or in a program that doesn't include the three pillars you need for success - strength training, cardiovascular exercise, and supportive nutrition. The change comes through your constant pursuit of making yourself into a better, fitter, healthier and more balanced person every day.  Each change you make, and every positive decision you choose, brings you a step closer to your goal and your vision. Here is a great example of this universal truth... Two studies published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrino...

Always listen to your body. Low back pain symptoms aren't the same for everyone. Depending on the cause, your pain may be dull or sharp. It may be chronic or intermittent. Perhaps your pain gets worse with standing, sitting, bending, or walking. Pain can even extend into your buttock or down your leg. Shooting pain accompanied with feelings of numbness, tingling, or weakness down your leg can indicate sciatica, a common result of a herniated disk in the lower back, where the disk bulges out toward the spinal canal. So, if a certain movement or exercise causes pain, STOP - and pay attention. Discuss with your doctor or other health care professional what movements are safe for you to do. And never forget these tips on what you can do to protect your back: Rest, but not indefinitely. Recent research suggests that staying in bed for more than a day or two after an acute injury may NOT be the best way to recuperate. Prolonged bed rest may cause your muscles to lose strength and t...

Have you recently switched to a vegetarian diet? Well good for you! There are many studies that show that the vegetarian and vegan lifestyles are a great way to lower your risk of diabetes, stroke, obesity and early death. A vegetarian diet, though, is only healthy if you know how to go about it. If you follow a vegetarian diet that is traditional in some culture somewhere in the world, you’re probably safe since traditional diets are usually well-planned to include all the essentials. If a regular omnivorous western diet is all you've ever known and you are simply cobbling a plant-based diet together, though, you face a whole range of health risks. That said; make sure you avoid making the following mistakes Simply eliminating the meat from your diet doesn't guarantee that you will be healthier. You need to replace the meat with vegetable-based foods that are rich in all the nutrition types that you need. You also need to be careful about unhealthy vegetarian foods – lik...

“The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream.”   ~ Benjamin Elijah Mays I remember hearing that goals without action were merely dreams that would never come true. After all, when you survey all the leaders and successful people on this planet that have made their dreams come true, you would find that goal setting, in conjunction with action, is what all these people have in common. What you might not realize is that failure in reaching those goals is also an important trait that these people share, too. And, there is nothing wrong with having to struggle a little in order to make your dreams come true. The truth is that just because you have to revise and redirect the path to the kind of life you want to live does not signify failure. Failure is only guaranteed if you should decide never to try. In this case, fa...

Even with all the advances in modern medicine and the sophisticated techniques available to diagnose what's causing low back pain, many times doctors find it incredibly difficult to identify the reason for a patient's pain. Although too much strain may be part of the equation, it isn't always entirely to blame for lower back pain. However, one interesting explanation as to why one person develops low back pain and another doesn't may lie in their genes. A study published by the journal Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, revealed how for the first time researchers have identified a gene linked to a common cause of lower back pain: a condition known as lumbar disc degeneration (LDD).  A prime example would be if you were to examine identical twins -- one who is doing heavy physical work and the other being a "desk jockey" – you would assume the physical labor to cause significant wear compared to the white-collar sibling. Yet, if you could compare their MRI exams...