Do You Struggle to Include Calcium in Your Diet?

Calcium is an essential nutrient that gives structure and strength to bones and teeth, helps muscles work properly, and has a number of other critical functions. If you don't consume enough calcium, your bones must tap their reserves to make sure there is an adequate amount of the mineral in your bloodstream. Over time, this constant withdrawal weakens bones and can lead to osteoporosis.

You can always take a calcium supplement to get what you need, but there are a variety of easy ways to increase your daily intake.

• Cook your oatmeal with low-fat milk instead of water.
• Get a nonfat latte instead of a plain cup of coffee.
• Make your hot chocolate with low-fat milk instead of water.
• Sprinkle sesame seeds on cooked rice, salads, or in stir-fries.
• Dollop plain, nonfat yogurt on your baked potato instead of sour cream.
• Dip your vegetables in plain, nonfat yogurt flavored with herbs.
• Have a handful of almonds and an orange as an afternoon snack.
• Have a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese with pineapple chunks.
• Add some chopped kale or other dark green leafy vegetables in your next pot of soup.

5 Ways To Stay Positive When Miserable People Are All Around You

Trying to be positive and happy around miserable people can be a challenge that sometimes deserves an award just for being there. For example, the day you walk into work actually excited about it and feeling good until your coworkers begin talking about how they work too hard for too little, none of you are ever going to get a raise and they are pretty sure you will all be let go soon without warning. Another good example is when you have very exciting and happy news to tell your close family members or friends and once you tell them, expecting joy and happiness from them, they only question your thought process, making you feel bad for ever sharing your news in the first place.

So the next time you encounter an individual or a group of miserable and negative people try these tricks to help you maintain your positive outlook.

1. Hold on to your happy feeling – Remember what you were feeling so good about in the first place or even draw from other things that make you feel good. Really feel the happiness that comes from those thoughts and no one will be able to pop your bubble of positivity that is surrounding you.

2. Appreciate it and turn away– Acknowledge the fact that you have identified their negativity. That act alone means that you can separate between being negative and being positive. Then pivot away from that energy and realize that you are doing something good for yourself, which is not letting in the negative.

3. Turn their negativity into your positivity – Have a sense of humor about it all. Try to cheer them up and be willing to laugh at yourself when you fail. See their negativity for the silliness it is and if you can show them how silly their worries really are then be happy that you were able to show them that.

4. Feel good that you can see more positive in their lives than they can – The very fact that you can recognize their negatives when they can not, puts you into a different energy vibration altogether. This helps you to see how awesome your positive outlook is and how much better you feel about your life than they do. Relish the feeling of happiness you get and remember the empty feeling of negativity that they have which comes with their outlook.

5. Stop it in its tracks – If you have to be in the situation and hang out with someone who is being miserable then do not let the parade of negativity continue. Let them know that you have a different outlook on the subject they are talking about. You can try to tell them your view point and how what they are talking about is not as bad as it seems but if they do not want to see any good in it, believe me they won't, and it will just heat up their point of view. So tell them bluntly that you would rather talk about something else or nothing at all if they continue with their rant. In most cases this should work and may even take them out of their negativity long enough to help them feel good.