Hello World

I've been away from my blog for a long time. My life took a left turn into disability and it's taken me a while to put myself back on track.  I have thought about my blog a lot and have found myself more than once in a bookstore looking at all the health books asking myself "what can I add to all that?" For a long time I couldn't answer that. Maybe i can now.

The last time I stood looking at health books in a store i thought:

Maybe YOU aren't going to read all those books. I read lots of them.

Maybe YOU don't read health magazines. I read a bunch.

Maybe YOU still eat mindlessly. Our culture of convenience promotes mindless eating. Maybe you still think the doctor knows best and don't bother to look farther.

Maybe YOU have become your disease and you can't imagine a healthy future. It's an easy trap to fall in to.

Maybe I can be the voice in the wilderness of healthcare that can lead you to better self-care.

I was in healthcare for 34 yrs and observed the same thing over and over. It is what prompted me to go for a Masters in Holistic Nutrition.

Re-admissions for the same problem.

Over and over. Especially egregious are the readmissions for heart bypass. Not just once but 2 and 3 times.

Why so many readmissions?

People commonly do not change the things in their life which promote their health problems. Diet and exercise. 

Lack of nutrition and a sedentary life. 

Killers.

 Hospitals are full of patients with lifestyle diseases. Diabetes and heart disease do not have to be a life sentence. Don't believe me? Read Dr Joel Furhman and Dr Dean Ornish. Look up Dr Ornish's Ted talk "genes are not your fate" on Youtube.

You can not go to the doctor and expect to be fixed like when you take your car to a mechanic. YOU have to be proactive in your healthcare.

I have been where you are. I'm still getting better. It's a process. I dont know how much better I can get healthwise but I've made sweeping changes in my life. Changes you probably need to make too. If thru this blog I help even just one person then what I have been through will have been worth it and my time will have been spent well.

And this is why I am back with this blog. I hope you will follow along, join me on my journey and let me know how you are doing.

Be A Brat

This is Brandi or as I affectionately call her, Brandi Brat. Don't let the cute picture fool you. She is a love-bug but she's also a Brat with a capital B. 

She just turned a year old. What a year it has been! Never a dull moment with the Brat! She's always into something or aggravating one of the other furkids. There was a point I thought she'd think her name was NO NO.

What I love about her is that she's such a brat. Her mischieviousness is positively inspirational!  What a teacher she is!

She has taught me "no" means I'll just have to find another way to do it. There MUST be another way to do it. 

No means set your eyes on a goal and go for it.  Don't be deterred. She is absolutely fearless in her dedication to doing or getting what she wants. Even to the point of flying off the BACK of the recliner and going splat on the hard tile floor. (Almost gave me a heart attack.)

Fear is not in her vocabulary. Though I doubt she'll ever jump off the back of the recliner again.

We should all be as fearless as Brandi.

How many time in life are we confronted with obstacles to our goals and we let fear stop us?

How many of the fears which we have  worried about ever really came to pass?

We waste a lot of time fearing things.. I wonder how much joy we miss out on while we are fearing things which never come to pass.

Let's stop that.

Be fearless. Be a Brat.  (But please don't jump off high places without a parachute.)

The Magical Rose Garden

An amazing thing happened after I retired. I was sitting in my recliner and  realized I wasn't in a hurry. In fact, I hadn't been in a hurry for months. Nor had I felt stressed in a long time. Not being in a hurry is a delicious peaceful feeling. I thought back to all the times I was in a hurry. What a waste of time that was! What did that get me but a lot of stress? How many happy things did I miss while I was stressing being in a hurry? How many times had I delayed fun things because of current "busyness"? Most of us do that.

"One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon --- instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today." - Dale Carnegie

We take so much for granted in our lives. We miss those roses Dale Carnegie talks about. So many glimpses of sunlight in our lives we entirely miss. We get stuck in the busywork of life. We get stuck in our perceived problems and job stress and a million other things. We forget to live. 

Have you ever said it?

IF I had more time...
IF I had more money...
IF I had a bigger house..
IF I had a nicer car...
IF I had a better job...
IF only I___________.

If only this I'll do that. If never comes. All there is, is now. Are you living in the "now"? or in the past? or in the future if? Time is unforgiving. It marches on.  If there's something you want to do or some place you want to see make a plan right NOW to do so. Don't limit yourself with "ifs".  Work your plan and see and do the things you want to. Live every moment of your life. 

As Ralph Waldo Emerson reminded us, " We are always getting ready but never living."

As 2015 starts, resolve to slow down and enjoy each day to the fullest. Be present. Live now. Schedule fun! Whatever it is you enjoy; a concert, movie, sports game, learn a new language or lunch with a friend. Maybe just time set aside to enjoy a good book and a cup of tea. My mother used to tell me to pay myself first. She was talking about money. I'm suggesting you pay yourself first but I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about scheduling  time to live. When you schedule all the things you think you have to do; first schedule time for living.

                       "The key to enjoying the moment is to always carry a list of
                         "Things I Gotta Do That Can Wait". - Robert Brault, rbrault.BlogSpot.com 

Wow, Now What?

Did you ever receive validation about something and then think, Wow, Now What? Weird feeling isn't it? I had my own Wow, Now What moment recently. Give me a few minutes and I will explain. Validation. We all want it. We want a lot of things. Sometimes we wish for things which we don't really understand in our wishfulness. I got validation this last November that I am indeed not well; just like I thought. I got disability due to my lung problem. It was a bittersweet validation. Now as a respiratory therapist I can read a pulmonary function test quite well. I didn't need anyone to tell me how crappy my lungs are; but there's something about folks agreeing with me as to how bad they are that hit me squarely between the eyes.  As I was telling my friend Barb, one minute I was rejoicing and thanking God (knowing I would be financially ok). The next minute I hit bottom when the validation of being as sick as I thought I was hit me. My thought was, "Wow, now what?" At that moment bittersweet was an understatement.

Please do not feel bad for me. Seriously.  Bittersweet validation though it was, crappy lungs do not have to equal a crappy life, quite the contrary; it was both a blessing and an opportunity. A blessing, in that I had been pushing myself to keep going for a long, long time and my body was letting me know it was getting really tired of being pushed. I needed to get off the merry-go-round to save my life. An opportunity, in that I  can write the book which I know is inside me and now give my time to this blog to help you. Well, that sounded presumptious. I really do hope to help you. 

I saw a great deal of suffering in my 34 yrs as a respiratory therapist. A lot of what I saw was unnecessary. A lot of it was quite simply rooted in malnutrition. Lifestyles of primarily processed and fast foods coupled with lack of exercise result in lifestyle disorders.

Fast food places have made it easy to not THINK about what we are eating. People assume if they are getting three meals a day they are covered nutritionally. Well, they aren't. Not if they are primarily eating processed and fast foods. Mindless eating is making us overweight and sick.

Back when I was working on my Masters in Holistic Nutrition I had breakfast with my Sis one morning. I was all excited about what I had been learning. I told my Sis if people just knew how much disease could be prevented and even reversed by just being mindful of what they eat it would change their lives. She said, "Pam, they don't care."

Well, I think you do care.  I think you care about changing the things in your life which don't promote health and wellness. And I care about you.

So I welcome you to go on a journey with me and allow me to help you change those things in your life which aren't making you healthy. It's not just about eating. It's about moving (and not just sitting) and thinking (positively) too. There are a variety of ways to subscribe to this blog. Come join me.

Hot Docs and Common Sense

I've been researching and comparing the various "hot" docs diets. I'm not done researching and comparing but I can make some assertions from what I've read so far. If you read just one of these docs books you'd think you were reading the end all and be all of dieting. If you read them all, I guarantee you will be confused from the contradictions. They certainly give conflicting recommendations.   I will try to make sense of all of it for you. 

1. Each of the docs give journal articles and testimonials backing up their diet recommendations.
2. People do indeed feel healthier, have more energy, lose weight and enjoy life more on each of these diets.
3. Every one of the "hot" docs recommends eating more veggies; a lot more.

What I can tell you is this:

1. Go thru your pantry and throw out anything which lists hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated (i.e. cooking oils)  or  high fructose corn syrup in the ingredient list.
2. Eat whole foods. Not foods out of  a box with an ingredients list of things your great-grandparents wouldn't recognize. Your body doesn't recognize those ingredients either. Frozen veggies are ok.
3. Eat 6-9 cups of veggies a day. Three cups should be dark green leafy veggies.  Skip the store salad dressings and make your own. (yeah I'll give you a recipe eventually, but in the meantime you can google homemade salad dressing and come up with a lot of yummy recipes.)
4. Eat fruit 1-3 pieces a day.
5. Eat meat if it suits you. (In her book "The Wahls Protocol" Dr Terry Wahls tells you why you need to eat meat and in his book "The End of Dieting" Joel Fuhrman, M.D. tells you why he recommends very little meat.) I don't feel my best when I eat a lot of meat. Learn to listen to your body.
6. Move your body. Your body needs exercise. Exercise helps the body work the way it should. Lack of exercise is implicated in many lifestyle disorders. It will kill you. But first it will kill your joy, motivation and enjoyment of life. SO GET OUT THERE and MOVE! 
7. I think it's prudent to cut out wheat. Our wheat today is not the wheat of years ago.  (Read the Wheat Belly book by William Davis, M.D.)

                                                   Really it's just common sense.

The reason people feel better, have more energy, lose weight and enjoy life more on each of the "hot" docs diets is because they have drastically improved their nutrition intake. They cut out processed and fast foods. They cut out crap. They ate real food, whole food! The food they ate was nutrient dense. As Dr. Fuhrman says, when you replace the crap in your diet with good nutrient dense whole foods you feel so good you don't miss the crap. (note: crap is my word not Dr Fuhrmans).

So where do you start? First, start with what you can do today. Clean all the crap food out of your pantry. Make a deal with yourself you won't eat anymore fast food. Resolve to have a healthy salad every day. You have to start somewhere. You don't need and should not overwhelm yourself. One improvement at a time. As you develop a repertoire of healthy recipes you'll find yourself feeling better with more energy. I promise.

As you make improvements I recommend two things:

1. Keep a food journal. Don't just write what you ate. Write about how you feel.
2. Take time to make out a weeks menu. You can make preparing food easier by cooking for the week.  Cut up your veggies for easy snacking. You can cook your meat for the week the same time you cook that big pot of soup. Crock pots and/or Instant Pots make cooking so much easier and time efficient! Just the other day I cooked some chicken, potatoes, carrots and onions in my crock pot. How easy is that? Took me maybe 10 minutes to cut up the veggies and throw them in. Less time than driving to a restaurant or fast food place. YOU can do this!

I have to say preparing whole foods is a wonderful experience. You KNOW positively you are giving your body what it needs to work properly and build your immune system. That's a good feeling. 

Here's a terrific book to start building your repertoire of healthy recipes:

 "Fresh From The Vegetarian Slow Cooker" By Robin Robertson. It's a wonderful book! Go get it!

A Deer in Headlights

During my 34 yrs as a respiratory therapist I would see patients when they came in for a heart bypass. I would see them again when they came in for their re-do heart bypass and see them yet again for their re-do, re-do heart bypass.

They went home on a multitude of drugs. Why did they need to come back for more surgeries?

The answer is simple. Drugs, alone, do not create health.

You can't take your body to the doctor and expect him to fix you like your mechanic fixes your car.

They didn't change the things in their life which caused them to have the original (or the subsequent surgeries). They still partook of the same nutrition-less diet. They were still sedentary.

Their repeated need for surgery was a lifestyle disease.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

While they are in the hospital we can tell people to eat differently, but unless we give them the knowledge of how to do so they will continue eating crap (i.e. processed and/or fast foods).  Why? because they don't know they are eating crap. Everywhere you look there is processed foods. Frankenfoods. Foods with chemicals your body doesn't know what to do with. Great-Grandma and Grandpa ate whole foods but the patients I saw grew up eating  primarily processed and or fast foods. To them that is normal.

People are so inundated with processed food commercials when you mention they should eat whole foods they look at you with wide-eyed incredulity. Like a deer in headlights. And that is what they are if they continue with a diet high in processed foods. A deer in headlights. A deer on a very bad path. I will never forget the young mother of three kids who in a panic at the mention of whole foods said, "but how do we do that everywhere is processed foods?"

No-one had told her about shopping the perimeter of the grocery store. It didn't occur to her to do anything other than  fix the boxed processed foods. People like her (and perhaps, you) do not realize how nutrition-poor processed and fast foods can be. Most people think if they eat three meals a day they are getting what they need.

Truth is our overweight population is actually suffering from malnutrition.

We need to help people like her  by giving them the knowledge they need to nourish themselves with whole foods. They need a repertoire of whole food recipes. It's not hard to prepare nourishing, life-giving meals when you have the directions to do so!

Get yourself a little notebook, follow this blog and I will help you develop a repertoire of whole food recipes.

Here's one:

Perfect Hominy White Bean Chili

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. chili powder or more if you desire
1 jalapeno chile, (optional) seeded and chopped
One 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes
Two 15.5oz cans white beans drained and rinsed (or 3 cups slow cooked)
One 16 oz can hominy, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Heat the oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, cover and cook until softened. Stir in the chili powder and cook about 30 seconds longer.

Transfer the mixture to a 4-6 quart slow cooker. Add the jalapeno, tomatoes, beans, hominy, water, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper; cover, cook on low for 6-8 hrs.

Just before serving add the cilantro and taste to adjust the seasonings.

(This yummy recipe is from the book "Fresh From The Vegetarian Slow Cooker" By Robin Robertson. It's a wonderful book! Go get it!)
Enjoy!

What I Won't Do

What I won't do in this blog is use the word "don't."  "Don't" is negative. Thus I won't tell you what not to do.  What I will ask you to do is to commit to wellness. Not by focusing on the negative things in your lifestyle which you need to change; but by focusing on the new positive habits you will add.

Experiencing peace.
Losing weight.
Being happy.
Feeling gratitude.
Giving forgiveness.
Having more friends.
Being healthier.

The list goes on.....

All of these things start with one positive thought. 

We make life so much more complicated and stressful by speaking negatively to ourselves. What would life look like if you banished the "I can'ts" and the "don'ts?"

What would life look like if you stopped saying "I will be happy when.........?"  Why are you postponing being happy?  Be happy in your skin now! Yes life will always have ups and downs. But frequently we focus more on the "downs" than the "ups".   Love yourself enough to be happy now. Focus on what is good in your life. 

So here is your homework.

 When you wake up tomorrow start the day thinking a happy, positive thought. Yes, even if it's Monday and you're out of coffee. I know you can do it.