People have various methods of fighting their own battle in terms of dealing with depression. From my own experience of dealing with depression in the past personally I find changing your daily routine has many beneficial aspects. People like routine because it makes them comfortable and easily to manage their busy every day schedule. However, falling into routines has been proven to one of the many leads of depression. Therefore, doing things spontaneously at times encourage excitement and thrill of unexpected outcomes. During my time of depression, I’ve found a love to Pilates. Different from Yoga, Pilates require persistence to practice consistently it helps build strengths, flexibly, and improving balance over time.  I’ve become obsessed with Pilates and wanting to go everyday. The real issue is that coordinating my exercising time with school and a job on the side was ridiculously hard. But then a friend of mine introduced me to Blogilates. Sounds pretty odd at first but Blogilates is actually known to the yoga/Pilates community for quite sometime now.

Blogilates YouTube channel grew by popularity since 2009. Hosted by Cassey Ho, a bubbly gym enthusiast who loves to show her viewers different methods of exercising (especially Pilates) and healthy eating. Cassey’s Youtube channel now has more than 300,000 subscribers worldwide and her website has all the information about healthy eating/living from a-z, includes recipes, videos, tips, etc…

This blog posting sums up that even with a busy schedule, there are ways to get fit right at home in your own comfort. As mentioned many times in this blog before exercising and healthy eating is a great way to boost self esteem, improves mood, and combat health issues. I believe that with willingness and determination anyone can overcome difficult obstacles in life.  

Make sure to check out Blogilates YouTube channel and website (Blogilates)

Also try this out!

- K.P

Though a healthy diet or certain foods may not ease depression, a healthy diet may help a body perform at a level it needs to be at in order to help fight depression. Here are some healthy tips to consider:

1. Eat Protein Rich Foods.
Foods that are rich in protein such as chicken, turkey and tuna are rich in Tyrosine, an amino acid that helps boost chemical levels in the brain. This allows an individual to gain alertness making it easier for the individuals mind to concentrate. You should include protein rich foods in your diet when you feel the desire that you need to concentrate.

2. Nuts and Seeds
Almonds, peanuts, cashews and pumpkin seeds are good examples of nuts and seeds you should include in your diet when your feeling depressed. Now you may ask yourself why nuts or seeds? Well the answer is Magnesium. Magnesium influences serotonin a "feel good" brain chemical while also affects your overall energy production.

3. Salmon
Out of the many fish out there that provide omega-3 fatty acids, Salmon contain high concentration levels of omega-3's. these healthy fats aid your mood and memory, and researchers suggest that these nutrients can help lift mood, alleviate mild depression and improve memory. Oily fish like salmon also contain vitamin B12,  which also help produce serotonin.

These are just a few foods from a vast variety you may come across to help cure depression. Try to avoid binge eating, or snacking on sweets as these don't actually stimulate the body to overcome depression.
- B.D

When you're down often at times you won't leave your house and you often believe people aren't the greatest company to be around at the moment. As much as peers and family may say you have to go out and see the world... Things must be taken at your own pace and such things cannot be forced all the time as the results can be very dangerous to your physical and mental health. So our recommendation to uplift your mood and get yourself out of the ruts is to watch some happy go lucky movies.

Movies can help you momentarily escape reality and live in that "world" for an hour or two. For those who really love movies, you know how easy it is to devour yourself into the story line, characters, graphics, and etc. Attention ladies, as much as you love "The Notebook" and it can be tempting to watch such heart felting flicks, such movies can sometimes bring your mood down even more and it certainly won't help if you bring out the ice cream too. ;)

The movies that will most definitely bring you to a better place are

• Little Miss Sunshine
• Life Is Beautiful
• E.T.
• Wizard of Oz
• (500) Days of Summer
• Bridesmaids
• Mean Girls
• The Pursuit of Happyness
• UP (and all the other Pixar movies)
• Finding Nemo. 

No once can say that watching the below scene can make you feel worse.

The important thing about that freedom train, is it's got to climb mountains. We ALL have to climb mountains, you know. Mountains that go way up high, and mountains that go deep and low. Yes, we know what those mountains are here at Glide. We sing about them. 

(Reverend Williams, The Pursuit of Happyness)

- E.N. 

 Depression doesn't just go away without mentally and physically doing something about it. With working yoga within your regular and daily schedule, you can actually reduce stress and anxiety that comes hand-in-hand with depression.

From experience to when I was depressed years ago, I felt like I was a victim to my own depression. I didn't know how to go about my day without feeling sorry for myself and always felt like I'll never come out of it. I felt like everything in my life will forever be horrible -- I was scared because I was not in control.

From some of my techniques during the road to recovery, yoga was one of my favorites.

It may be hard to get yourself started but most places has a first-day-free class where you can just sign in to try it for the first time to see if you'll like it. Not only will this aid you in physical fitness, breathing techniques and flexibility, it calms your mind and makes you aware of the positivity in your life spiritually.

Here are 3 ways to how yoga helps with overcoming depression:

It improves circulation:

With Yoga exercises, it applies pressure on your organs and glands and helps produce the soothing/healing chemical balance that is needed to feel well. It improves your circulation by sending oxygen back to your brain and to all your muscles. Additionally, with the stretching and strengthening movements, it helps flush the toxins from the body as well, giving you a healthy glow to add once you are done your Yoga exercise!

You feel powerful again:

With depression, you feel weak and helpless with no motivation to move on. Yoga exercises helps get your life back with its constant push that help motivates everyone. You are constantly challenged from your own goals in doing better... reaching further... stretching further. It's an endless cycle to do better and soon enough, you feel like you are slowly getting your life back and in control again.

Gives you distance from your negative thoughts and improves your mood:

Being depressed, you feel that you are trapped and constantly thinking negative thoughts. You become more aware of everything negative around you and drown yourself within a downward spiral. With Yoga, it creates a soothing ambiance around you where you leave all your thoughts out the door and succumb to inner peace. From the moves like "downward dog" and "the crow", you are endlessly challenging yourself to hold these poses and strive to stretch more. Your mind is distracted and challenged during the session and once you are done, the feeling of accomplishment is overwhelmingly serene in more ways than one. You leave the place feeling physically and mentally good.

Here's a great Yoga video that helps treat depression. Something easy and serene -- just be sure you have space to do this activity!

Learn to be calm and you will always be happy. -Paramhansa Yogananda

-A.T.

Trying to lose weight while keeping up with your busy everyday schedule can be tough. Especially if you're balancing between school, work, family, and social life. Many results in binging as a way to escape reality, this results weight gain and lost in self-confidence.

Losing a weight is a journey, it is a lifestyle many dive into fad diets such as the “Lemonade diet” or the “No carbs” diet only to be eating twice as much and gain more weight because their body couldn’t adjust to those hard regimes. A lot of people think eating healthy only consists of boring old salad with traditional light dressing. However, in this blog posting I will be showing how you can fancy up a plain salad into a delicious appetizer that you and your family can enjoy. 

Quinoa with Mints, Almonds and Cranberries Salad Recipe

Servings: 4

Prep time: 25 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ready in: 40 minutes

Ingredients

• §  2 cups chicken broth
• §  1 cup quinoa
• §  3 tablespoons olive oil
• §  1/2 cup coarsely chopped mint leaves
• §  1/2 cup dry-roasted almonds, unsalted
• §  1/2 cup dried cranberries
• §  1 cup coarsely chopped kale
• §  1/2 cup sliced carrots
• §  1/2 cup sliced celery
• §  1 scallion, thinly sliced
• §  18 grape tomatoes, halved
• §  1 lemon, juiced
• §  1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• §  salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1.    Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Add quinoa, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender and the liquid has been absorbed, about 13 minutes. Stir in olive oil; fluff quinoa with a fork. Set aside to cool slightly.

2.    Stir mint, almonds, dried cranberries, kale, carrots, celery, scallion, grape tomatoes, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Season to taste with salt and ground black pepper.


Source

- K.P