March's is National Nutrition Month®. This year's theme is Put Your Best Fork Forward. It is a reminder that the fork, which you hold in your hand at most every meal, is a powerful tool. At every meal, we make choices about what to put into our bodies, regardless of our age. In order for our bodies to truly benefit, we need to choose foods that will do more than just satisfy our taste buds and hedonic hunger. Even one small change each day can make a difference in the quality of your tomorrow. This March, challenge yourself to think before you eat and consider the item your are about to indulge in. Is it life-sustaining? #NNM, #EatRight 10 Tips To Put Your Best Fork Forward1. Fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables; the more colorful the better. 2. Snack on fresh fruits and raw vegetables before eating that bowl of ice cream. The enzymes and nutrients in raw foods are highly beneficial to your body. 3. Swap raw almonds or other nuts and seeds for processed chips and snacks. Nuts and seeds, along with other mono-unsaturated fats, lubricate your body without clogging your arteries. 4. Choose whole grains over adulterated white flour products. Try a sprouted, whole grain bagel with peanut butter instead of a plain bagel with cream cheese. 5. Use a smart strategy to plan ahead when eating out. Select meals with grilled or steamed, lean meats and vegetables. Ask for sauces and salad dressing to be served on the side. 6. Dip your fork into the side of sauce or dressing before stabbing your food. You'll get the flavor without all the fat. 7. Enjoy a bigger meal midday and smaller meal in the evening. If your body isn't digesting dinner all night long, it can repair and rejuvenate the areas that need attention while you are sleeping. 8. Read the ingredients. If you can't pronounce it or define it, it's not real food. Keep it simple and eat real food. 9. Eat vegan one day a week. Start with just one meal a day and make it an adventure to discover recipes. Watch the film, Forks over Knives, and check out the website for tools on eating a plant-based diet. 10. Prepare your own food. Eating a home-cooked meal is good for your soul as well as your body. Invite a friend to join you to share in your culinary adventure. Small Changes Today Can Pay Off Big Tomorrow
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It's a Wrap...
The options for making your own wrap are endless. Most any food that you enjoy can be sliced or diced and stuffed inside a wrap of your choice with your favorite seasoning, salad dressing or sauce. Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing...
Special thanks to The Tasty K for sharing this Rainbow Summer Roll how-to video on Facebook
Spending time with people that are perceived as different than us can be difficult. We oftentimes feel as if we have nothing in common with them and so we feel awkward and uncomfortable; we don’t want to waste our time and energies being there. Throughout the holiday season as you spend time with older family and friends, be prepared for the unexpected in regard to behavior and interactions based on how life and age affect us. It’s ALWAYS hard for us to be faced with seeing and interacting with decline in our loved ones. Our responses to the decline in our loved ones greatly impacts the way our children interact with them also. It’s our job to help them have a POSITIVE perception of aging, and of their elders. Our kids will mirror how we respond. This is an excellent opportunity to set the standard for their behavior with the elderly (they too will one day become elderly - as unimaginable as that may seem). This is crucial as these little children will be the ones responding to us when we are elderly (yes, you too will one day grow old)! Older adults need the life/livelihood of kids and teens just as the lives of youngsters are enhanced by interactions with their seniors. Help them enjoy these holiday visits by preempting some of the discomfort that they may feel. Prepare Them
Humanize Them
Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. Mark Twain...the HOLIDAYS. A word that stirs up various emotions about family, food, and fun. Spending time with family can be both joyous and heart-wrenching. It’s often because we position ourselves to be “schooled” in some way, shape or form. It’s called the School of Life and the class is usually titled ‘How You Have Grown (or Not) from the Last Encounter with Family.’ Regardless of the interactions, how are you going to be the best version of you that allows for maintaining good boundaries, but allows for you to show your care and support for each of the family and friends that you are gifted to spend time with. I love the lyrics from the Michael Jackson song “Man In The Mirror”, ‘If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change.’ May you appreciate and release thanksgiving for the friends and family you have around you at this season. Make the choice to move into this holiday season with ‘Eyes Wide Open’. I encourage you to take the time to be the silent observer and check out what’s going on around you with your family and friends. There will be a plethora of little ways you can make your world, and someone else’s, a better place. Time is a gift that you can give to both yourself and to another person, your undivided attention. Take a few moments to engage in conversation to listen, support and encourage someone around you. (Note, I did not say enslave yourself to someone for a 45 minute monologue of their woes. Gracefully extract yourself after (10 minutes) and let them know you appreciated getting a chance to connect with them.) Give yourself the gift of time to sit, breathe deeply, nap, play in a way that brings you refreshment. As the relatives come out, choose awareness and assess how each person has changed from the last time you were with them… Be willing to ask yourself the harder questions: How is Aunt Sally is doing? What about my own parents; How are MY PARENTS doing? Dad’s been slowing down lately, do I really want to address his aging issues? If I don’t am I hiding my head in the sand and choosing to be in denial of the class we all have to take in the School of Life that most of us hate? Aging is inevitable and so is change? This season, don’t approach the holidays with your eyes wide shut. Family get-togethers are the ideal opportunity to open your eyes, your heart, and your mind to the changes in the abilities of your senior relatives. They need you to see what they can’t so that they can walk through life’s changes maintaining a feeling of safety, support and peace of mind. Click here to download our Checklist to Assess Daily Living Changes and move into the holidays with your ‘Eyes Wide Open’.
Mark & I have done several talks in the last few weeks to the Baby Boomers - 55 years and over - on "Aging Gracefully" I have always been fascinated at how some people age gracefully and others don't, so I am listing the things that appear to contribute to graceful aging naturally. I find the areas of the body that trouble people most as they get older (and many who are younger) are: 1. The Bowels 2. The Bladder 3. The Brain 4. The Bones When you focus on living a life that helps each of these systems work optimally you will find that all the other areas that age noticeably, such as your skin, muscles, weight and energy improve dramatically. 1. The Bowels - Foods that improve bowel function are those containing water soluble fibre (the gentle soothing fibre) and this is found particularly in fresh ripe fruit. I encourage every one to add at least 3 portions of fresh fruit daily to their diet and they may do this by adding fruit to smoothies and or just eating them as they are. Recently I had a woman who is type 1 diabetes, tell me she could not eat fruit or any fruit juices. So I made her a smoothie with frozen - you can use fresh and just add extra ice - mango and strawberries, organic apple juice, a scoop of Propeas. Her blood sugar was 7.6 before she had the smoothie, within 15 minutes it was down to 7.2 and after an hour it was down to 5.4 - she could not believe what she was seeing and became almost tearful because she had been avoiding fruit for years and so badly wanted to eat it. Remember, fresh fruit contains the right fibre, sugar and nutrients to regulate blood sugar - and I have seen this in every diabetic we test. I do insist that they add the Propeas and or eat a handful of nuts or seeds as the plant protein also helps regulate blood sugar. Natural fats found in plant foods are essential for bowel function so make sure you have 1 portion of either one or the other of the following - Avocado, olives, raw nuts or seeds. Over and above that have 1 portion of flax oil (and the best I have ever used is Aimega from The Aim Companies) We take 2-4 a day. Don't over do the fats as too much of even good fat has now been shown to reduce the energy production centers in the cells (mitochondria) and this will slow down the metabolism causing weight gain. Cooking in fat - any fat - even organic coconut oil is too much fat - so try not to add fat to food or cook in it. Legumes like lentils, beans and chickpeas also contain very valuable fibre that helps digestive tract movement, stabilizes blood sugar and lower cholesterol levels. It may take your digestive tract a few weeks to adjust to the fibre in these foods so add small quantities to start with and then add as your comfort improves. 2. The Bladder - Foods that improve bladder function are whole plant foods and ideally your diet should contain at least 75% fresh, raw fruit and vegetables. Green leafy vegetables in particularly are extremely alkaline and contribute to a healthy bladder. Make sure to include the most nutritious of all green plants - barley grass juice (we use BarleyLife and find the nutritional profile still the best of all other green juices) Plants that help bladder function, Slippery elm and Shave grass or horsetail grass and our found in Composure - a combination of natural plants and herbs from the same company that makes BarleyLife and also contains Irish Moss , which strengths and thickens the skin in older people, making fine lines and wrinkles appear a LOT less. Irish Moss also helps regulate body weight and will contribute to getting rid of that spare tire around the waist. Composure also helps improve sleep, keep you calm and your mind clear and focused. Foods that contribute to bladder problems are ; - animal protein - limit this to not more than 3 times a week and never bigger than the size of the palm of your hand. Remember you don't need to eat flesh to make human flesh and that all plant foods contains protein in varying amounts. Nuts and seeds can contain more than animal flesh - up to 30% and if you feel you need extra protein in a supplement - Propeas contains 70% complete protein from peas with a great vanilla flavor. 3. The Brain - Foods that help the brain function optimally are fresh fruit, nuts, seeds, vegetables, grains and legumes. All these foods contain the right fibre and nutrients that help the body regulate blood sugar and regulated blood sugar is essential for optimal brain function. The right plant fats are needed to transport cholesterol from the liver, where it is made to the brain for optimum brain health. Cholesterol lowering drugs can cause memory loss and brain issues as the brain requires large quantities of cholesterol, but without natural plant fats, especially omega 3's found in flax oil (Aimega I find best) the cholesterol cannot be transported to the brain where it is needed and to several other places like the skin, where it is converted into Vitamin D , which is needed for healthy strong bones.which gets me to the next issue Then you need to have a sense of purpose - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Now been knighted for his work in the UK) believes that we have been created for the very specific purpose of healing and helping the the people in world, known as "Tikun Olam". I have seen that people that are focused on helping others rather than focusing on their own needs are younger in mind, body and soul and a lot nicer to be with as they seldom complain! Start by healing yourself with a healthy diet and lifestyle and then you will find it easier to help others get well. Our mission is to get the whole world well. 4. Healthy Bones - Bones stay healthy when your diet is 75%-80% alkaline forming (which means that much of your diet should be fresh fruit and vegetables) and the www.100daystohealth.com free online program will help you do just that in 3 months. Bones need natural light on the skin to make the essential Vit D you need, but wont do this efficiently if you take cholesterol lowering meds. Sunlight on the skin lowers cholesterol natural as long as you take flax oil daily. Bones also need at least 20-30 minutes of outdoor exercise daily - as muscles pull on the bones, so they become stronger. Bones need natural minerals including calcium in the right ratio and barley grass juice has the best calcium to phosphorous ratio - another reason we take BarleyLife daily. So to age gracefully we suggest that you 1. Eat 75%-80% fresh fruit and veggies 2. Exercise outdoors daily for 20-30 minutes making sure you get natural light on the skin 3. Get well so you can help get the whole world well.. To Life! Mark & Mary-Ann www.naturalway.co.za (RSA) www.wholelifewell.com (USA) I have taken every October for the past 8 years to rest. I literally pair down my schedule to just the basics; turn off the TV for the month, cancel most social engagements, minimize work events, pare down my workout schedule, pull out the books that I never finish, find my crochet basket of half done creations and allow my body, mind and spirit time to rest, repair and regenerate. The juicer comes out, all processed food goes away and I focus on nourishing me for the next 30 days. This is my favorite time of the year, I like to call it the ‘calm before the storm’. Summer has ended, everyone is adjusting to their new schedules, it’s almost as if things get put back into place for a moment (I say 31 days) before we begin the frenzied pace of heading into the holiday season. My intention for the 31 days of October is to allow my body, mind and spirit opportunity to reset itself. My cleanse plan consists of eating raw foods, juicing, fasting (no food), and then reversing the cycle to taper my way back up to eating cooked foods. I incorporate a kidney, liver, gallbladder, lymphatic system, heavy metal and parasite herbal cleanse. This break from most all of my compulsions (food (processed & cooked variety), TV, internet, eating out, shopping) prepares me mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally to move gracefully into the holiday season rather than at a breakneck pace. I give myself permission to ‘be’ for 31 days. Each years month of rest gets better.
It takes much courage and surrender to choose to remain in peace and allow your mind, body and spirit to rest while in the midst of life’s storms. I was fortunate enough to spend my mother’s final week on earth with her. Since her passing on Oct 12, I have been struggling to find my rest. The revelation that I needed disengage from “caregiver mode” was the first step towards me sleeping through the night. Over the course of this next year I will be walking out my healing and exploring ways to rest in Gods love. REST is the conversation between what we love to do and how we love to be. Rest is not stasis but the essence of giving and receiving. Rest is an act of remembering, imaginatively and intellectually, but also physiologically and physically. To rest is to become present in a different way than through action, and especially to give up on the will as the prime motivator of endeavor, with its endless outward need to reward itself through established goals. To rest is to give up on worrying and fretting and the sense that there is something wrong with the world unless we put it right; to rest is to fall back, literally or figuratively from outer targets, not even to a sense of inner accomplishment or an imagined state of attained stillness, but to a different kind of meeting place, a living, breathing state of natural exchange… Excerpted from ‘REST' From the upcoming book of essays CONSOLATIONS: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words. ©2014 David Whyte To be Published in late November 2014
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