FIRST THING IN THE MORNING
The best time to eat fruit is immediately upon waking. While you sleep, your liver burns up its glycogen to supply needed glucose to the brain during your nightly fast. When liver glycogen levels begin to dip a signal is sent to the brain to start breaking down muscle protein to convert amino acids into glucose for the brain. When you wake in the morning you are a muscle-burning machine. At this time of day you will not have to worry about fructose being converted to fat, so eat up. The fructose will be put to good use for restocking the liver glycogen levels and switching off the signal to burn muscle protein.

Best morning choices (pick 1 or 2):
Pineapple (1 cup diced)
Honeydew melon (1 wedge)
Orange (1 medium)
Banana (1 medium)

PRE-WORKOUT
Another good time to eat fruit is about 30-60 minutes before a workout, particularly if you haven’t eaten a high-carb meal for several hours. The fructose will replace the liver glycogen that’s been used throughout the day, which will be used to steadily deliver glucose to the working muscles while you exercise and help to spare the glycogen in the muscle cells. This helps to prevent muscle fatigue that usually comes on strong as muscle glycogen levels begin to fall.

Best pre-workout choices (pick 1 or 2):
Pear (1 medium)
Watermelon (1 wedge)
Apple (1 medium)
Cantaloupe (1/2 melon)
Grapes (1 cup)
Strawberries (2 cups)
Raspberries (2 cups)

POST-WORKOUT
After a workout there is nothing wrong with eating some fruit to replenish your glycogen levels in both your muscles and your liver. Just remember that two servings of most fruits will only provide about 20-30 grams of carbs. For those who want to optimize muscular gains you’ll need to kick the carb grams up to at least 40-100 grams by also eating some white bread, potatoes, rice or oatmeal, or making sure the whey protein you’ll also need at this time contains at least 20 grams of carbs.

Best post-workout choices (pick 1 or 2):
Cherries (1 cup)
Peach (1 medium)
Apple (1 medium)
Cantaloupe (1/2 melon)
Grapes (1 cup)
Strawberries (2 cups)
Raspberries (2 cups)

FRUITS FOR SUPPS?
The value of fruit goes way beyond glycogen replenishment. Check out these little-known supplement-mimicking benefits of some popular produce:

Grapefruit
Subjects who ate half of a grapefruit with meals or drank 8 ounces of grapefruit juice three times a day lost 4 pounds (with some losing more than 10 pounds) in 12 weeks without dieting.

Orange
The king of the citrus world is a great pre-workout snack because the vitamin C helps protect nitric oxide (NO) from being broken down by free radicals. It also helps to have one post-workout because of these same antioxidant effects.

Apple
Apples contain polyphenols which have been proven to increase strength and fat loss.

Cherries
Grab a handful of cherries post-workout to reduce inflammation and enhance recovery. The wonder ingredient? Anthocyanins.

Watermelon
This citrulline-heavy melon helps you with blood flow and nutrient delivery since citrulline gets converted to arginine and NO.

I have a tradition, every Christmas Eve my kids get new jammies and slippers and a Christmas ornament that they hang on that night.  they love it, and look forward to it.  it is those traditions that make the holidays great.  Having supper with my parents is always a great time also.

I find these days, Christmas seems to be about the gifts and the spending, and not about things that should matter more then that.

What does Christmas mean to you? DO you even celebrate it?  There is so much mixture of thoughts on this subject.

Whatever your beliefs are, however you spend the holidays, I truly hope you enjoy them!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Gargle with salt water when you get home, take salt water on a q-tips and swab your nostrils.  also drinking warm fluids will help as well , keep you hands out of your mouth, and WASH YOUR HANDS!!!! can’t stress that enough…

If you do get a fever, know that going to the clinic is not the best move unless you can’t control it.  Flu’s are not fixed by medications, they are a virus and so the body must fight it off…

Stay Healthy!!!