 So many of the ups and downs of life are impacted by our health. Yet, we often take our health for granted. It seems we go from being on ‘energizer bunny’ highs to ‘couch potato’ lows, exploring with our bodies every stage possible between the extremes. And all the while, we worry and fret nonstop. The worry and fretting aggravate the body that has become accustomed to meals on the go, tech communication 24/7 and caffeine as the main fuel to counteract the sleep deprivation so many of us suffer from. Why are we so fearful of making some adjustments, even slowing down a bit to catch our breath? What do we think we will miss out on or fail to do? I’ve been thinking about those questions, especially after one of my closest friends had a very frightening health situation recently that landed her in the hospital. She is so weak right now, and I have been so worried about her and her family. She is a young woman in the prime of her life. And so, she tries to ‘do it all’ and be wonder woman. And when she’s not actually doing, she’s worrying about doing. I truly believe that we are here to experience and live life fully. The tough part is to balance the experiences as much as possible, without overdoing it. I know I’m still learning daily to create a healthy balance with my choices. What I’ve noticed, after lots of years of paying no attention whatsoever to how I felt in the moment, is that “being present” is the key and really knowing ourselves and our body’s constitution. I used to define “being present” as “living in the moment” and “living as if there were no tomorrow”. While life may end for some people unexpectedly, the reality for most of us is that THERE IS a TOMORROW. I no longer think that’s the main focus of “being in the present”. Whatever I do today will DEFINITELY impact tomorrow - and even if what I do today eliminates my existence, that would have great impact on others. So, our presence does matter and does have impact. Being present is more about ‘not being on autopilot’ and oblivious to what you are doing, saying, feeling and who you are impacting...........including yourself. Being a certain way and presenting a certain image, just because it is what you think everyone wants to see from you or what society sells as the ‘successful and desired image’ might not be in YOUR best interest. Being present is about choosing and then owning your choices. Being present is also about noticing how we feel, appreciating it when we feel great and having gratitude. I now appreciate that if I am truly joyful and loving, I can share those feelings with others simply by my mere presence in that state of being. Joy begets Joy:) Healthy begets healthy too! The healthier we become, the easier the healthier choices are because our bodies begin seeking the healthier state and rejecting the unhealthy states of being. It becomes less about self control and more about feeling good and liking it! And back to my friend’s condition.........a body in an unhealthy state seeks to remain unhealthy, until it breaks down and yells out for ‘help’, or it just stops altogether. The state of disease had a long path of actions before the disease kicked in. The word “disease” originally means ‘lack of ease’ and ‘a particular quality, habit or disposition that adversely affects a person or group of people’. And most times, there were many signs and ‘lack of ease’ along the way that warned us of the future breakdown coming. I’ve also been learning that our bodies will send us signals and messages to make healthier choices when we are in a healthier state. Whether we choose to listen to the messages or not is a good indicator of just how unbalanced we are. No two of us are the same, so we also each react uniquely and differently. We cannot point to a brother or sister or friend and assume that we will have the same experience, doing the same things. We may think that our goal is success when we push ourselves beyond our physical wellness limits, or that we are choosing happy feelings when we eat the unhealthy foods that ‘call to us’, or that we don’t have another choice other than being miserable daily, doing work we dislike or staying with a partner that is not positive for us. It is the unhealthy state, often hidden from outward appearances, that keeps us pushing ourselves to exhaustion and poor health in the name of success! Yet highly successful people share that they are most productive when they eat in a more moderate, healthier fashion; incorporate physical activities in their daily routines; spend quality time with their families; and meditate to center themselves, bringing greater clarity to their vision and purpose. Think about it - How productive could you be if you got a great night’s sleep, were in your fit and ‘feeling good’ state, felt loved and happy about your family connections and had a clear focus each and every day? Change is difficult, plain and simple. If you’ve sensed for some time that your inner self is trying to tell you that the body that houses you is out of whack somehow…-…be kind to yourself and do something before you have a breakdown:) I encourage you to Leave a comment below or post one on my BestYOU facebook page. Sharing your thoughts is a gift to all of us! Please let me know if there is an issue you'd like me to write about. Your issue may be the one everyone is waiting to hear about. Thanks! If you know someone who may like to sign up for my blog posts, please share this link with them. Thanks!  This year, more people will die from the effects of Obesity than from Malnutrition! I don’t know about you, but that was a shocking statistic to me. Here are a few more interesting stats:
I highly encourage you to watch the new documentary film, FED UP, that is narrated by Katie Couric. The look at our obesity epidemic, especially the problems our children face daily as they navigate the lure of food advertisements is quite eye opening. When I chose to write this blog about obesity and this epidemic, I knew that there would be skeptics among my audience of readers. So many of us think that obesity is ‘someone else’s problem’ - people who have no self control. I acknowledge that food is a touchy subject. With health being an interest of mine, I am highly intrigued by food and health choices. There is no one right answer - not a one size fits all solution. We are individuals, with different body constitutions and imbalances. Please know I am not advocating the film to promote a diet of some kind - a lifestyle change and call to action on behalf of our children is what drives me as I write. As a parent, I promoted and insured good health when my children were young. I’ve also come to realize that we teach and practice what we know. So, my ideas about what contributes to ‘good health’ was different than it is today. My parents urged me and my brothers to ‘clean our plates’ and ‘think of the starving children in Biafra’ when we balked at eating any of the foods put on our plate. My parents also encouraged my children to ‘eat more’ and my dad especially, beamed with joy if my son ate an enormous amount of food. This would of course make him big and strong - good intention and lots of love on my parents' part. My son and daughter have many fond food memories, as do I. Those memories and food smells are a lure to eat as we did in the past, even when we have learned some of the foods we ate were very unhealthy for us. Besides the actual food, there is another problem associated with the obesity epidemic. The onslaught of advertising to children and the increase in the number of products that are marketed to children is disturbing. When it comes to children, mine and yours, we should not exploit the vulnerabilities of young children. Yet, that is exactly what is happening! Parents who try to guide their children down a healthier path will have such a tough time, amid the barrage of commercials, unhealthy offerings and advertising messaging everywhere. And yet, parents cannot be with their children 24/7. I also learned that many of us who walk around appearing to be “thin or normal size” may be internally metabolically obese. The studies show that 50% of all Americans are metabolically obese, with 20% of these people having no idea that they are at any risk, due to their outward ‘thin’ appearance. And we are exporting our fast foods and processed foods to the rest of the world, who are now also increasingly adding to their waistlines and becoming unhealthier. We all need to be concerned about this, as our young people are on a very frightening path. The film points out much more and is easy to watch, with many familiar commercials and sites and jingles. The familiarity makes it all the more eye opening, as we often don’t pay much attention to what is familiar. Our children are counting on us to care for them and guide them to the best of our ability. I cannot pretend that I don’t know better, even if Healthy eating is like swimming upstream. I encourage you to Leave a comment below or post one on my BestYOU facebook page. Sharing your thoughts is a gift to all of us! Please let me know if there is an issue you'd like me to write about. Your issue may be the one everyone is waiting to hear about. Thanks! If you know someone who may like to sign up for my blog posts, please share this link with them. Thanks!  There are many common misconceptions, and lists of them surface in books and articles from time to time. I’ve selected a few fun ones below, from the many that we learned as children. Einstein Failed Math Nope - He failed an entrance exam for a school, but he still excelled in math. Humans & Dinosaurs Despite 41% of adults thinking that dinosaurs and humans coexisted, we actually missed each other by 63 million years. (think Jurassic Park:) Missing Persons Report Police don’t demand a 24-hour period before accepting a missing persons report. 5 Senses Actually we have close to 20, including balance, pain, movement, hunger, thirst Sugar = Hyperactivity Studies have disproved this. ADHD and poor behaviors still occur in children with sugar-free diets. Oil and Stuck Together Pasta No, oil won’t stop pasta from sticking together, but it can stop the water foaming or boiling over. Bulls hate Red Bulls are color blind. They actually react to motions of the bull fighter’s cloth as a perceived threat. Marie Antoinette and “Let Them Eat Cake” The phrase appeared in Rousseau’s “Confessions” when she was only 10 years old. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was not caused by Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern. A newspaper reporter invented the story to make colorful copy I’ve been noticing lately that people, in general, speak with such authority. Whether it is a news commentator or a tv personality or friends and family members. Definitive and absolute seem to be the most common styles of communication. In thinking about writing this blog, and doing the research on common misconceptions, I was reminded just how ingrained some of our past thinking is from our early years. So much of what we base our current views on has a foundation of learning from our youth. It was interesting for me to note about myself, that while I know I have read many of these before, my past learning is so strong, that each one seemed a surprise again. (and my memory is just fine, for any of you wondering:) What’s most important about this is that we often remember ‘inaccurate facts’ about life in general, and about other people. "Facts" change and evolve over time. So I encourage each of us to consider the next time we get in an argument and think very strongly that ‘we are right’, that just maybe, our foundational data could be wrong. Information and studies continue to prove previously held “facts” to be wrong every day. Be open to the possibility of new information and new interpretations. Words we choose to communicate can have great impact. Choose your relationship with the person over ‘being right’. You will be much happier, if you do:) Leave a comment below or post one on my BestYOU facebook page. Sharing your thoughts is a gift to all of us! Please let me know if there is an issue you'd like me to write about. Your issue may be the one everyone is waiting to hear about. Thanks! If you know someone who may like to sign up for my blog posts, please share this link with them. Thanks!
Walking to and from yoga on a sunny, brisk Fall day, I couldn’t help but smile as I realized I had started to unconsciously kick through the mounds of leaves along my path. Thoughts flooded my brain, bringing back the little girl, who loved to compete with my brothers to see who could rake up the biggest pile of leaves, the fastest. What a Game, that was! Sometimes, my mother used pure genius when it came to creating work scenarios that we actually ended up wanting to do. Basically, the game was to rake as hard and fast as we could to see who could rake the biggest pile. After the whole yard was raked into a few piles, with my mom also raking to supervise us…- The Prize was that we got to jump, roll around and play in the leaves after they were raked up. They made great crunching sounds and smelled amazing and were just so much fun to play in! I have always loved Fall leaves. And yes, we had to rake again some afterwards. But usually we were laughing so hard from being crazy and silly, that we didn’t mind. Our dog, Bullet, usually joined in the chaos too. Leaves flew everywhere! So often we forget that loving comes in the form of giving through experience as much as giving materially. Sure, I loved to get presents and nice things from my parents when I was younger, but there aren’t many ‘things’ I received, that I recall as being significant. Yet, I've benefitted my entire life from the gift of learning to work side by side with others, and learning that play comes after the job is done……..and that challenging work and a little competition can make the work more fun! Those gifts, mainly from my mom, have been instrumental in all sorts of success in life. The loving gift she gave us by taking the time to teach us, supervise us and hold us accountable to do our share of the tasks - those are gifts that keep on giving throughout my life. Finding fun in work is a learned skill that my mom taught us well. Even more impactful than the lessons I learned, I cannot walk through leaves without feeling the presence of my two brothers. The older of my brothers is no longer alive. How much more value do those leaves and memories bring me? How much more love? Yes - just priceless, those memories of the three of us playing in the yard every Fall. I smile to think of him, and then I cry a bit. But that’s ok, because the overwhelming feeling I have is love and joy. My mom had no foreshadowing of my brother dying as a father of young children and only in his mid years of life. None of us knew the significance of those many years of raking leaves and doing lots of other chores together as a family - usually fighting and arguing and playing and laughing, all mixed in together. Great Family Times! Loving through experiences, that is the love I cherish the most. Leave a comment below or post one on my BestYOU facebook page. Sharing your thoughts is a gift to all of us! Please let me know if there is an issue you'd like me to write about. Your issue may be the one everyone is waiting to hear about. Thanks! If you know someone who may like to sign up for my blog posts, please share this link with them. Thanks! |
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