mind over matter - what do YOU believe?

Healing - placebos - believing what we are told - wow, watch this video chat between two phenomenal people, Dr. Wayne Dyer and Bruce Lipton!

So what do You think? 

I think we need to realize the power of the mind.  We can do so much with our brains that we haven't tried yet.  I think it's great we have the power - if only we could truly believe that, eh?

Multi-vitamins - Are Yours Safe?

Yes, of ALL the things to read labels on, it would be your multi-vitamin!  There are indeed good guys and bad guys out there.  In the name of all that is decent and right in this world one would think we don't need to worry about vitamins.  I sure wish the manufacturers would be honest about the contents.

Alas, not so much.  So here you will get the truth!

Beware of the following on the label. 

Magnesium Sterate  - it is a form of stearic acid, essentially chalk!  It suppresses natural killer cells which will then cause havoc with the immune system.  It also stimulates the gut to form a biofilm (sludge) which is a barrier to the absorption of nutrients.  (The gut is where most nutrients are absorbed.)

Titanium dioxide - a totally unnecessary coloring agent that has been shown to cause autoimmune disorders.

Then, Selenium, which is important, is being played around with so check your source!  According to Green Med  and Dr. Mercola, inorganic selenium may be listed as sodium senenite and/or sodium selenate, both are classified as highly toxic according to the Handbook of Toxicology of Metals and the daily in take of one milligram of selenite can be toxic.  Seriously folks, read labels!

Green Med Info writes:
"The selenium that is found in foods like brazil nuts, mustard seeds, and fresh produce grown in selenium-rich soil is infinitely different from the biologically inert forms being put in some multivitamins. In fact, i.e., sodium selenite/selenate can cause cancer, whereas the selenium found within food, or laboratory chelated forms like selenomethionine have all been shown to prevent and combat cancer.

The basic principle that explains this difference is that when you isolate a nutrient or vitamin out of the food complex within which it is naturally found, and where it is inseparably bound to thousands of known and unknown food factors (e.g., enzymes, protein chaperones, glyconutrients, etc.) it is no longer as beneficial to life. This is especially true in the case of vertebrate mammals who are equipped to get their minerals from the plants they ingest or through the biotransformation of inorganic minerals to organic ones by microflora in their gastrointestinal tracts.

The primary reason that sodium selenite/selenate are preferred by some vitamin manufacturers over safer, more beneficial forms like chelated or yeast-grown selenium is because it is more profitable to use raw materials of lower quality."

I personally take some supplements but not a multi-vitamin.  From the statistics however, it appears the majority of people who DO take anything (other than drugs) take multi-vitamins with the blind faith that they are consuming valuable nutrients that they are not getting (intentionally or not) from their daily diet.  In other words, people eat crap but take their vitamin pill thinking all is well.  It sure isn't the way to go to begin with, but taking a vitamin that has proven harmful ingredients REALLY should be illegal.

So when is a vitamin not a good thing?  Read the label!  If it contains any of the above mentioned imitations, throw it out.  If you are low on selenium (which by the way is a great good mood enhancer) try eating a few Brazil Nuts daily.  It's better than a pill anyway!

Because SO many people are taking multi's in the good (blind) faith that they are doing something good for themselves, please pass this important information on in whatever social media venue you use.  Do it for others - please share! 

Willpower - Got Any?

When TLC Book Tours asked if I'd be interested in reviewing a book called Willpower, by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney I thought how could I ever miss reading THIS?  Right?  There are days my own willpower is absolutely steel, others when its more like a limp wet noodle.  So what gives with this?  Is it possible to have some consistency?  And what in the heck IS it anyway?

The authors have done incredible research into the whole psychology of this somewhat elusive characteristic.  There are so many factors that affect one's willpower and having a bit of clarity now I hope that I have more steel than noodles in the future - or at the very least understand why the steel crumbled and love myself anyway, noodles and all. 

Having intense emotions (either anger, frustration, elation, excitement etc) diminish willpower and cravings are felt stronger when we are experiencing these emotions.  If we know this ahead of time, perhaps it will help - sort of the way you are walking on thin ice so to speak.  Stress also depletes willpower too because under stress we are less likely to be able to control our emotions.

Maybe this is why, in the aftermath of a heated argument we may eat a gallon of ice cream, have a stiff drink, smoke a pack of cigarettes or whatever thing we were intellectually committed to give up.  Whoa, what happened to that willpower?  Or maybe we are celebrating something and just throw that diet or whatever out the window cuz what the heck, this is special right?

We have limited energy resources it turns out.  It takes energy to alter our state of mind or monitor our behavior.  It takes a lot of energy to make decisions too.  So if we have had a day of decision making (at work, in meetings etc) by the time we leave work we may be plum out of the energy required to have willpower at dinner, or later with late night snacks.  So we give in, bash ourselves with guilt and go with the "there's always tomorrow..........I'll do better tomorrow" excuse.

So I looked at my own personal struggles with willpower and sure enough - if I've had a day of a lot of mental activity, writing, working with clients, by the time the evening comes I'm tired, but it's a mental tired like I cannot "think" anymore.  If I click that brain off and veg out, well you can talk me into a Dairy Queen sooo easily I am shocked at myself.  I know better.  I know this is crap.  But somewhere in my silly brain it sounds great, and the taste of that hot fudge sundae is immediately available, even before I eat it!  Damn! Can't believe I actually ATE that!  Seriously.  I am bad for my own business.  The authors call this the "What the Hell Effect".  I have been "depleted" so kiss willpower bye-bye. 

The authors said:
"This depletion isn't intuitively obvious, especially when if comes to appreciating the impact of making decisions.  Virtually no one has a gut-level sense of just how tiring it is to decide.  Choosing what to have for dinner, where to go on vacation, whome to hire, how much to spend - these all take willpower.  Even hypothetical decisions deplete energy.  After making some tough decisions, rememeber that your self-control is going to be weakened."

Good to know.  So what to do about it?  Well I never thought that procrastination was something I would want to have, to USE as a help-mate or something but here is the redeeming quality of it.

Delay.

The authors said that occasionally using the "I'll have it later" trick can work for avoiding temptations.  "A vice delayed may turn out to be a vice denied."  If you tell your brain about this delay thing, you find your thoughts change, as if your brain has accepted this delay and then stops bugging you to go for that forbidden item. 

I tried this.  Darn it if it didn't work!  YES!  There really is a time a bit of procrastination can be helpful.  Who knew???? 

Battling with temptations is part of our human experience.  No one is exempt from this.  And no one explained all this better than these two authors!  This book is a rich resource I could never do justice by reviewing  it on this blog.  But I am SO grateful for the read!  The stories on the research that has been done make the read not just enjoyable but exceptionally understandable - easy to relate to all the experiments because we've all been there making decisions all of our lives!

Make a good decision now (don't procrastinate) and get this book!

(My usual disclaimer - I was not paid for this review.  I would be happy to link to Amazon but Amazon has kicked out Illinois due to some tax insanity.)

My Naked Face

Well, ok, not totally naked.  But compared to the decades worth of "doing" make up everyday, even if I was going nowhere, or just schlepping kids around, I would never, never, ever, ever go anywhere without my make-up.  Blame it on my teen-age modeling days.  Whatever.  It was habit.  I had drawers full of the stuff.  Tried every new product on the market. 

And when I think of all the money I must have spent over the years, I totally cringe!

I have little in the way of make up today.  Last year I was sent a link to SkinDeep.com and that about did it.  Turns out there was nary an item in my stash that was not loaded with chemicals, not the good ones (if indeed there actually ARE any!)

I am in love with Argan Oil.  Also Grape Seed Oil and Almond Oil.    I use an organic soap and Argan oil.  Period.  The other oils are wonderful too, and I will add a few drops of Lavender essential oil or Bergamot to make a body "lotion" for the dry days of winter.  My skin has never been this soft and smooth.   I attended the Health Freedom Expo this spring and "discovered" shea soaps and oil.  Another love!

For sloughing off dead skin I tried an oatmeal and sugar mix I read about on line.  (That replaced my exfoliating jar of goop I spent more than a few bucks on.)  I even tried the coarse texture of coffee grounds.  There are some antioxidant properties that may benefit the skin when applied topically.  They have a tightening, lifting and toning effect on the skin - interesting!  And supposedly coffee grounds are also used as a natural cellulite treatment. 

For a facial mask, try egg whites beaten with a teaspoon of lemon juice - leave it on 15-20 minutes.  It tightens and lifts the skin as well and will tighten pores too.

It's been fun trying natural things and I love the idea of recycling the coffee grounds somewhere other than the garden once in a while.  My skin hasn't missed the expensive products and my wallet hasn't either! 
Do yourself a favor and check out the website for skin deep to see what yuck are in YOUR cosmetics.  Our skin is our largest organ and what goes on it is absorbed into our body.  If you get  bummed by a lot of the information I've been putting out there,  I hesitate to apologize for that.  I want you to know the truth about things and like the old saying "The truth hurts" sometimes it does.

The truth about what I've eaten and sprayed in my house, sloshed on my skin, has caused a huge bunch of changes over the last few years.  Change isn't easy, and boy do I ever get that!   Unfortunately we simply cannot believe advertising and marketing for our foods or care products.  It isn't any ONE ingredient from the lab but a combination that is so detrimental to cellular well being.  Make those cells happy and start eliminating chemicals!