We often forget what we put on our skin - especially women with make-up and all that jazz - gets absorbed into our body. And we sure cannot depend on protection from the bad stuff - it's out there! - and some of it is pure toxins.
But wait, there is GOOD stuff - some of which we cannot even pronounce - that is GOOD for the skin! I found an article in Body and Soul magazine with a list of scary-sounding beauty boosters that will actually benefit the skin. Here's their list:
Ascorbic Acid
It is Vitamin C. It helps to keep products from spoiling, so if you see it on the label its ok. Vitamin C also stimulates the production of collagen, which slows as you age, and helps to minimize fine lines.
Butyrospermum parkii
This is the "real" name for Shea butter - well, thank heavens. Shea butter provides easily absorbed moisture and can also heal minor blemishes and reduce inflammation. (I found a pure shea soap that is just heaven! I have been using shea oil on my skin for the last few years, it's wonderful!)
Cera alba
Another name for Beeswax. This helps make products more uniform in texture. It also allows skin to seal in moisture naturally and has antibacterial properties.
Hyaluronic Acid
It's a sugar compound that occurs naturally in skin cells. (Again, whew! Sounded like something needed in a car battery!) This boosts firmness, combats aging and wrinkles and plays a role in cell turnover, which promotes radiant healthy skin. (Stocking up on this one!)
Panthenol
This is none other than Vitamin B5. It offers deep-penetrating mositure to heal and fortify skin and hair. Additionally, it ma help repair skin tissue and fight certain types of dermatitis.
Retinol
This is good old Vitamin A. This will boost long-term hydration, penetrates deeper layers of the dermis to improve texture, and also aids in evening out mottled pigmentation. (Ready to dip all of me in this one!)
Tocopherol
Hurray another Vitamin - E this time. The article says it may slow the aging process by fighting free radicals and protecting skin against sun damage. It can also help smooth out skin overall.
So these are good to see on the labels of your products. Always best to start any list with the good stuff, right. So here are just a few of the uh-oh's you want to avoid. I'm skipping the info on the research done to tell you why they are bad (forgive this omission - if you really need to know this bad stuff, google it).
BAD GUYS:
Disodium laureth sulfosuccinate - or DLS
Triethanolamine (TEA)
Parabens
Propylene Glycol
Phenoxyethanol
Imidazolidinyl urea
PEGS
Petroleum - yep, that includes famous old Vaseline. As a general rule look for ethanol or petro in the names of chemicals you don't know - these come from the petroleum industry and sure as heck weren't meant for your skin to drink in any more than you'd want to find them in your juice or coffee.
If you haven't discovered the website Skindeep.com do check it out. You can find a rating of most every personal care product as to the toxins found in it.
Have you found any natural means for skin care or products that you would recommend?
Health, Diets, Foods, Natural Alternatives, Nutrition, Health and Wellness, Anti-Aging, More Energy, Beating Fatigue, Preventing Disease, Preventing Illness, Living Green, Earth Friendly Tips, Health Tips, Food to Avoid, GMOs, Exercising, Recipes, Super Foods, Avoiding Toxins, Holistic Health, Cancer Prevention, Natural Health
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
John Perkins Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
It's been awhile since I've done a book review. Most of my reading is school or research related but I've had a few books around since last year and this is one of them. Wow. And here I am planning this post for Earth Day. Normally I would write about the importance of eliminating plastic - esp. the water bottles, recycling, using cloth shopping bags and on and on. These things are important and you either do them or do not do them. This post IS about the earth in a twisted way - and how we are living on it. I always suspected this thievery and lies was going on. You probably did too. So here goes.
If you ever wondered just WHY the U.S. is so hated around the world, this would be telling you. I'm no fan of government/politics to begin with but John Perkins tells how as an economic hit man for an international consulting firm, he convinced developing countries to accept enormous loans to "improve" their countries, and how that money was then funnel into U.S. corporations. Then the American government requests their pay back which includes (since these countries have no money) total access to the natural resources, military and politicals support. In essence we have these poor manipulated countries in a vice grip and have taken over whatever good resources are available.
The poor people all this money supposedly was to aide, were given roads built by American companies who profited greatly. You cannot eat roads. "We" gave money under the stipulation that American companies would profit, not so that the poor would have food or farm equipment to grow their own. Boy we were told some pretty lofty stories by our politicians.
Hard for me to feel proud to be an American when I read all this governement and corporate manipulation based on greed, power and "ownership". I haven't felt this badly since I read "Alaska" by James Mitchner. Total disregard for the people of the land. It's just wrong.
So I guess it is weird that I'm doing a review of this book, eh? It was a New York Times Bestseller after all, and the first of several "tell all" books Perkins has written. He does admit that he just knew too much - and that knowing gave him a very, very troubling conscience. It ate away at him for years, he started this book several times. At one point he was threatened not to write it so I don't blame him for waiting to expose all of this.
In his words "As I reflected on those incidents and all that I had experienced while working for MAIN, I found myself asking the same questions over and over: How many decisions - including ones of great historical significance that impact millions of people - are made by men and women who are driven by personal motives rather than by a desire to do the right thing? How many of our top government officials are driven by personal greed instead of national loyalty? How many wars are fought because a president does not want his constituents to perceive him as a wimp?"
Let me ask you this - what do you remember about the invasion in Panama? Clearly something that happened so long ago isn't right there for me to grab on to either, so don't feel badly if you don't immediately know all the circumstances. I'm just thinking there is a lot of truth about our history that sure explains why America is not the revered awesome buddy of too many "foreigners".
Did I need to know that? Do YOU need to know that? What would serve us best? To know some truth or be given "stories" that always make us look golden? If this is the time in the world where transparency is of the utmost importance, where clarity of intention matters, where illusions of grandeur need to be re-examined, then perhaps a read thru a book like this will do everyone some good. It's certainly a wake-up call. It might even change your political thoughts in this election year, who knows?
There is significant history packed into this book and it is well worth knowing about. So much of the "good" and "help" we have given other countries is really baloney. You'll quickly understand why we give so much "aid" to other countries because it circles right back into the corporations like Bechtel, Halliburton etc. making them larger, wealthier and more powerful, so no politician will stand up and say no more aid to foreign counties. Well except for Ron Paul. Perhaps he knows the truth? As for the people who need aid.........let them eat road????
If you ever wondered just WHY the U.S. is so hated around the world, this would be telling you. I'm no fan of government/politics to begin with but John Perkins tells how as an economic hit man for an international consulting firm, he convinced developing countries to accept enormous loans to "improve" their countries, and how that money was then funnel into U.S. corporations. Then the American government requests their pay back which includes (since these countries have no money) total access to the natural resources, military and politicals support. In essence we have these poor manipulated countries in a vice grip and have taken over whatever good resources are available.
The poor people all this money supposedly was to aide, were given roads built by American companies who profited greatly. You cannot eat roads. "We" gave money under the stipulation that American companies would profit, not so that the poor would have food or farm equipment to grow their own. Boy we were told some pretty lofty stories by our politicians.
Hard for me to feel proud to be an American when I read all this governement and corporate manipulation based on greed, power and "ownership". I haven't felt this badly since I read "Alaska" by James Mitchner. Total disregard for the people of the land. It's just wrong.
So I guess it is weird that I'm doing a review of this book, eh? It was a New York Times Bestseller after all, and the first of several "tell all" books Perkins has written. He does admit that he just knew too much - and that knowing gave him a very, very troubling conscience. It ate away at him for years, he started this book several times. At one point he was threatened not to write it so I don't blame him for waiting to expose all of this.
In his words "As I reflected on those incidents and all that I had experienced while working for MAIN, I found myself asking the same questions over and over: How many decisions - including ones of great historical significance that impact millions of people - are made by men and women who are driven by personal motives rather than by a desire to do the right thing? How many of our top government officials are driven by personal greed instead of national loyalty? How many wars are fought because a president does not want his constituents to perceive him as a wimp?"
Let me ask you this - what do you remember about the invasion in Panama? Clearly something that happened so long ago isn't right there for me to grab on to either, so don't feel badly if you don't immediately know all the circumstances. I'm just thinking there is a lot of truth about our history that sure explains why America is not the revered awesome buddy of too many "foreigners".
Did I need to know that? Do YOU need to know that? What would serve us best? To know some truth or be given "stories" that always make us look golden? If this is the time in the world where transparency is of the utmost importance, where clarity of intention matters, where illusions of grandeur need to be re-examined, then perhaps a read thru a book like this will do everyone some good. It's certainly a wake-up call. It might even change your political thoughts in this election year, who knows?
There is significant history packed into this book and it is well worth knowing about. So much of the "good" and "help" we have given other countries is really baloney. You'll quickly understand why we give so much "aid" to other countries because it circles right back into the corporations like Bechtel, Halliburton etc. making them larger, wealthier and more powerful, so no politician will stand up and say no more aid to foreign counties. Well except for Ron Paul. Perhaps he knows the truth? As for the people who need aid.........let them eat road????
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Cancer Survival Rates from One Alternative Doctor
A while back I did a blog about the fascinating Cancer Summit that was all alternative doctors doing various treatments, mostly on patients that are stage four. Unfortunately people only seem to go to alternative paths when they see the "regular" treatments aren't working for them. In fact, Dr. Burzynski in Houston who has a fabulous treatment for brain cancers and was shut down several times by our wonderful government, is only ALLOWED to treat people if they have done all that they could FIRST in the chemo/radiation protocol. How frustrating for him. So many more would be cured if they weren't half dead from the chemo/radiation before he gets a shot at them.
Anyway, I found a transcript from a doctor in Mexico that has pretty good results versus the conventional treatments. This is part of his presentation - I read it through but did not edit, you'll get the gist of it. I wish we could organize funding for people like him rather than this pink ribbon stuff. In 50 yrs. conventional medicine cannot produce the statistical results most of the alternatives do and if you ask me, funding is being sorely misdirected!
DR. CONTRERAS: Well, I’m very proud of this work because this is very, very important work that very few hospitals of our size, we are a small hospital in Mexico that has no governmental support, and so everything that we do, we do on our own. But it is always important to show to yourself first and then to the rest of the world the fruit of your work and the results of your hypothesis. That is we begin with a hypothesis of what cancer is, how we need to treat it and then we design a protocol and then we view the results. And so this is a combination of five years of work in four different types of tumors that are the most common.
Now, that doesn’t mean that our therapy doesn’t work in any other types of tumors just that it’s very difficult to do a study like this in all tumors. We don’t have the funding unfortunately for it. So we did the study in the most common tumors and show our results. As I was mentioning to you, it’s very important to show results because everybody it doesn’t matter what you use, you will have, you will have good results. I mean if you are treating cancer with water there is somebody that is going to be cured with water, okay. The important thing is how you do in groups of patients with the same disease and with a certain protocol. And as I mentioned to you, it is important to note that we do make some very important differentiations between patient to patient, that is we tailor-make. But the basic results are – I mean the results are based on a basic therapy that we give to a number of patients.
So, what we did is first, we designed our protocols for a cancer of the breast. All of our patients are stage four and so for cancer of the breast, for cancer of the lung, for cancer of the ovary and for cancer of the colon. I think that it would take a long time to talk about all of them. But let me concentrate on cancer of the breast because this is. So we have a number of patients with the same diagnosis and the same staging, which is terminal cancer of the breast. And we compare them to two people that have published and there is very, very few. The one that we are using is the steer which is results of a number of it is a meta analysis, that is a large amount of number of studies, a large number of patients from a large or a good number of studies done in different hospitals with the same protocol. And then they provide results.
And so those are from the NCI the National Cancer Institute. And these are results from the typical conventional therapy. Then we compare it to our therapy, which is the IRT meaning, Integrative Regulatory Therapy. So those are all the therapies that we do for our patients where I talked about the preparation, the diet, the emotional and spiritual support everything is included on that. And so we compare them also to the cancer treatment centers of America. Now we did out study for five years, the cancer treatment centers are providing only for one or two years. Again, because it’s very difficult to follow patients and very expensive to do it for five years but we wanted to do the thing as the NCI. So if you see on our breast cancer patients that were treated before they came to us. We have about 98% of our patients are alive after five years. In comparison to 65% from the conventional therapy, that is very significant. If you look at the next one, when the cancer comes to us for virgin to treatment, without any treatment a 100% of our patients are alive after one year. And so, obviously because there is Stage 4 cancer patients very complicated as years go by the numbers start to drop. But at the end of 5 years we have, almost three times as many patients alive that the conventional therapy.
And this is with therapies that the patients virtually suffer no side effects and their quality of life is excellent. In very, you know a lot of alternative centers do not like to give the statistics because obviously then the other 60% did not make it. And a lot of people feel that you know, 45 or 50% is nothing to write home about, it is, especially when you compare it to 20% from conventional therapy alone. And these patients suffer a tremendous amount of loss of quality of life during those five years.
So we rather give information as is and we’re not, this way we’re not claiming that we cure everybody because we don’t. We do not have the answer to cancer. I think that what we are telling here the public is that we have a very, very good option and there is a lot more hope in integrating therapies than in conventional therapy alone.
And so that’s what our statistics show and you will find results as I mentioned to you for cancer of the lung, is where we have our best results. It’s you know, they claim that 1% of the patients are alive after five years with stage 4 cancer of the lungs, I have not found one study yet that shows that. 99% of the patients die within the first year. And we have 20%, 19% of our patients alive after 5 years with stage 4 cancer of the lungs. That’s our best result. So the difference is from 1% to 90% almost 20 times better results with our therapy than with conventional therapy alone. In cancer of the breast it is about three times, in cancer of the ovary also about three times, in cancer of the colon is almost two times.
But here it is, a big difference in cancer of the lung. The sear report is all stage four cancers of the colon and they say that it is 10%. Now, all of our stage 4 cancers of the colon are with metastasis to the liver. The median or the average lifespan with conventional therapy with metastasis to the liver is four months. And we have 17% of our patients alive after 5 years. And on the sear it’s combining all of the cases. So if you have stage 4 cancer of the colon but without metastasis to the liver then your chance of surviving five years is that 10%. But with metastasis of the liver is zero. So all of our patients are with metastasis to the liver and we have you know this 17%. So even though it looks small it is very, very significant. For us what is important is we want to let people know our results as they are and we want them to know that we are an option and that we are going to do everything possible to help them. But we are not curing. We do not have the cure for cancer.
This audio is part of the Healing Cancer World Summit
Anyway, I found a transcript from a doctor in Mexico that has pretty good results versus the conventional treatments. This is part of his presentation - I read it through but did not edit, you'll get the gist of it. I wish we could organize funding for people like him rather than this pink ribbon stuff. In 50 yrs. conventional medicine cannot produce the statistical results most of the alternatives do and if you ask me, funding is being sorely misdirected!
DR. CONTRERAS: Well, I’m very proud of this work because this is very, very important work that very few hospitals of our size, we are a small hospital in Mexico that has no governmental support, and so everything that we do, we do on our own. But it is always important to show to yourself first and then to the rest of the world the fruit of your work and the results of your hypothesis. That is we begin with a hypothesis of what cancer is, how we need to treat it and then we design a protocol and then we view the results. And so this is a combination of five years of work in four different types of tumors that are the most common.
Now, that doesn’t mean that our therapy doesn’t work in any other types of tumors just that it’s very difficult to do a study like this in all tumors. We don’t have the funding unfortunately for it. So we did the study in the most common tumors and show our results. As I was mentioning to you, it’s very important to show results because everybody it doesn’t matter what you use, you will have, you will have good results. I mean if you are treating cancer with water there is somebody that is going to be cured with water, okay. The important thing is how you do in groups of patients with the same disease and with a certain protocol. And as I mentioned to you, it is important to note that we do make some very important differentiations between patient to patient, that is we tailor-make. But the basic results are – I mean the results are based on a basic therapy that we give to a number of patients.
So, what we did is first, we designed our protocols for a cancer of the breast. All of our patients are stage four and so for cancer of the breast, for cancer of the lung, for cancer of the ovary and for cancer of the colon. I think that it would take a long time to talk about all of them. But let me concentrate on cancer of the breast because this is. So we have a number of patients with the same diagnosis and the same staging, which is terminal cancer of the breast. And we compare them to two people that have published and there is very, very few. The one that we are using is the steer which is results of a number of it is a meta analysis, that is a large amount of number of studies, a large number of patients from a large or a good number of studies done in different hospitals with the same protocol. And then they provide results.
And so those are from the NCI the National Cancer Institute. And these are results from the typical conventional therapy. Then we compare it to our therapy, which is the IRT meaning, Integrative Regulatory Therapy. So those are all the therapies that we do for our patients where I talked about the preparation, the diet, the emotional and spiritual support everything is included on that. And so we compare them also to the cancer treatment centers of America. Now we did out study for five years, the cancer treatment centers are providing only for one or two years. Again, because it’s very difficult to follow patients and very expensive to do it for five years but we wanted to do the thing as the NCI. So if you see on our breast cancer patients that were treated before they came to us. We have about 98% of our patients are alive after five years. In comparison to 65% from the conventional therapy, that is very significant. If you look at the next one, when the cancer comes to us for virgin to treatment, without any treatment a 100% of our patients are alive after one year. And so, obviously because there is Stage 4 cancer patients very complicated as years go by the numbers start to drop. But at the end of 5 years we have, almost three times as many patients alive that the conventional therapy.
And this is with therapies that the patients virtually suffer no side effects and their quality of life is excellent. In very, you know a lot of alternative centers do not like to give the statistics because obviously then the other 60% did not make it. And a lot of people feel that you know, 45 or 50% is nothing to write home about, it is, especially when you compare it to 20% from conventional therapy alone. And these patients suffer a tremendous amount of loss of quality of life during those five years.
So we rather give information as is and we’re not, this way we’re not claiming that we cure everybody because we don’t. We do not have the answer to cancer. I think that what we are telling here the public is that we have a very, very good option and there is a lot more hope in integrating therapies than in conventional therapy alone.
And so that’s what our statistics show and you will find results as I mentioned to you for cancer of the lung, is where we have our best results. It’s you know, they claim that 1% of the patients are alive after five years with stage 4 cancer of the lungs, I have not found one study yet that shows that. 99% of the patients die within the first year. And we have 20%, 19% of our patients alive after 5 years with stage 4 cancer of the lungs. That’s our best result. So the difference is from 1% to 90% almost 20 times better results with our therapy than with conventional therapy alone. In cancer of the breast it is about three times, in cancer of the ovary also about three times, in cancer of the colon is almost two times.
But here it is, a big difference in cancer of the lung. The sear report is all stage four cancers of the colon and they say that it is 10%. Now, all of our stage 4 cancers of the colon are with metastasis to the liver. The median or the average lifespan with conventional therapy with metastasis to the liver is four months. And we have 17% of our patients alive after 5 years. And on the sear it’s combining all of the cases. So if you have stage 4 cancer of the colon but without metastasis to the liver then your chance of surviving five years is that 10%. But with metastasis of the liver is zero. So all of our patients are with metastasis to the liver and we have you know this 17%. So even though it looks small it is very, very significant. For us what is important is we want to let people know our results as they are and we want them to know that we are an option and that we are going to do everything possible to help them. But we are not curing. We do not have the cure for cancer.
This audio is part of the Healing Cancer World Summit
Sunday, April 8, 2012
What do your CRAVINGS mean?
Oh boy, there is nothing like having a craving for something - and the lengths some of us will go to to satisfy it. And then it hits. Shame. Guilt. Remorse. More excuses. Oh darn, we caved!
What is happening when you cave in is that thing (the craved thing) now has power over you. Think about this. That oreo cookie has POWER over you???? That Coke, that piece of cake, that donut, that...........whatever is more powerful than YOU are? Seriously? We need to re-group, calm down and talk this through.
Addictions are tough. Been there, done that - with sugar, carbs, and nicotine. All withdrawal was difficult. What works well is one or all of these suggestions:
Change your thoughts immediately - think of something else.
Move - get up, walk, stretch, run up and down some stairs.
Breathe - really deep breathing, to the count of 8, with 8 counts in, and 8 counts out.
Have a drink of water and tell yourself you are fantastic.
That last suggestion has more power than you may realize. Our low self-esteem rears its ugly head when we give our power away. You are tough, you are smart, and you know you do not need that whatever-it-is.
With some craving there could be deficiencies in your body that are making you crave things. So let us look at that first and foremost. This could be important.
SWEET CRAVINGS - If you crave sweets of almost any kind, you may be experiencing blood sugar fluctuations. Giving in to pie, candy or other goodies only makes the problem worse by causing blood sugar roller coasters that lead to more cravings. (This you do not need - we are trying to eliminate them not perpetuate them!) So choose a piece of fruit when you are craving something sweet. It is better than the candy bar in terms of blood sugar spikes. If you can regularly add more high-fiber foods like beans and legumes and complex carbs like whole grains into your daily in-take it will help to keep blood sugar levels stable.
SALTY FOODS - If you are craving potato chips, or other salty foods this often means chronic stress may be taking a toll on your adrenal glands. Getting on top of the stress in your life is essential. Try meditation, breathing exercises, or exercising. Research showed that people who take a break to breathe deeply or meditate BEFORE reaching for salty snacks reduced their stress hormones by 25% AND cut the binging in half!
RED MEAT - Cravings for red meat usually indicate an iron deficiency - this may drive people to crave burgers or steaks. Could be a lot of calories are going to get consumed to put this craving to rest! And since the word is out that eating too much red meat is a health risk, try eating more iron-rich beans and legumes, unsulphured prunes, figs and other dried fruits that are rich in iron.
CHEESE - Cravings for cheese or pizza often indicate a fatty acid deficiency. It's so common in most people because few get enough Omega 3 fatty acids in their diet. Reach for those raw walnuts, wild salmon, flax seed oil and use ground flax seeds sprinkled on foods to fill that need for the Omega 3. It would sure be better calorically than the pizza and much better over-all for nutrition.
CHOCOLATE - Chocolate cravings are sometimes indicating a deficiency in magnesium. It is estimated that more than 80% of the population is lacking magnesium in their diet, which may explain why so many of us reach for the chocolate. (Read my previous blog Loco for Cocoa - since dark chocolate is really healthy for you in small amounts.) Other foods high in magnesium are nuts, seeds, fish and leafy greens.
Now it's said that most cravings are actually misinterpretations from our bodies that we are dehydrated. Yep. Kind of amazing our brains can't just register and send signals to go for the water instead of the pizza or whatever.
Before you cave in to cravings, go have some refreshing cool water. Then wait a bit. See if the craving doesn't go away. Since studies have shown that 80% of people are also chronically dehydrated, it would seem possible that just by giving our bodies the hydration we require, we could eliminate falling prey to cravings that cost us dearly in terms of calories and fat.
Let's answer the question What do your Cravings Mean? Do you actually want to go thru life saying "Well I'm a wimp - or a sugar-holic, or whatever" and leave it at that? How much more powerful would it feel for you to be able to say you quit sugar, or smokes, or soda?
I honestly do not believe that people are as stupid as their eating habits reveal. People know better but do it anyway. Human beings are the most creative when it comes to excuses. (Nobody can tell me they are not creative once I hear all their justifications for the crap they eat. It is more than enough to believe that the inner child is alive and well, and it borders on comical.)
I hear a lot about "social" pressures. "At the party EVERYone was eating (this or that)" or "I didn't want to be the only one at dinner skipping dessert." You may be surprised to know that most people are going along with the sheep mentality in their eating habits even though they know better. I was at a dinner out with several couples and said I'd just have a cup of decaf, no dessert. Everyone else cancelled their dessert order with nearly a sense of relief, like I gave them permission to skip it or something. I don't know, it was weird. They said they admired my will power and felt they needed to exert some of their own. What I am saying here is you can set examples for others - good ones - which benefits ALL. Or you can go along. Ask yourself which action makes you feel more powerful and confident.
Cravings can be telling us things. Sometimes it's about a deficiency we should be paying attention to. Sometimes it's just that little kid inside us feeling they need some "treat" that wants candy, pop, or other assorted not-good-for-you stuff, you know what it is. Listen to cravings. If it is clearly not a deficiency, try the suggestions to shut it down. Be the powerful, intelligent adult who wants to live long and healthy!
(This blog was inspired from an exchange (of sorts) on Facebook. Saw a young girl I knew from my kids high school - she's obese, married, pregnant and writing about her craving for a Mountain Dew but she was resisting it. I couldn't resist sending her a message saying good for you for not caving in to that because you know your baby needs real food and good nutrients. I was trying to encourage her. A bit later she posted that she DID cave in. That was followed by at least six of her friends telling her that it was ok, she needs to treat herself, that one little Mt.Dew wouldn't hurt and on and on. Enablers all. I never made further comments to her but it haunted me for days. "Treating yourself" once in a while does NOT produce obesity - it's the habit of just going for whatever and justifying it somehow that has become a lifestyle. Having friends cheering you on is the worst thing!77 grams of sugar in that crap. I lit a candle for the baby.)
What is happening when you cave in is that thing (the craved thing) now has power over you. Think about this. That oreo cookie has POWER over you???? That Coke, that piece of cake, that donut, that...........whatever is more powerful than YOU are? Seriously? We need to re-group, calm down and talk this through.
Addictions are tough. Been there, done that - with sugar, carbs, and nicotine. All withdrawal was difficult. What works well is one or all of these suggestions:
Change your thoughts immediately - think of something else.
Move - get up, walk, stretch, run up and down some stairs.
Breathe - really deep breathing, to the count of 8, with 8 counts in, and 8 counts out.
Have a drink of water and tell yourself you are fantastic.
That last suggestion has more power than you may realize. Our low self-esteem rears its ugly head when we give our power away. You are tough, you are smart, and you know you do not need that whatever-it-is.
With some craving there could be deficiencies in your body that are making you crave things. So let us look at that first and foremost. This could be important.
SWEET CRAVINGS - If you crave sweets of almost any kind, you may be experiencing blood sugar fluctuations. Giving in to pie, candy or other goodies only makes the problem worse by causing blood sugar roller coasters that lead to more cravings. (This you do not need - we are trying to eliminate them not perpetuate them!) So choose a piece of fruit when you are craving something sweet. It is better than the candy bar in terms of blood sugar spikes. If you can regularly add more high-fiber foods like beans and legumes and complex carbs like whole grains into your daily in-take it will help to keep blood sugar levels stable.
SALTY FOODS - If you are craving potato chips, or other salty foods this often means chronic stress may be taking a toll on your adrenal glands. Getting on top of the stress in your life is essential. Try meditation, breathing exercises, or exercising. Research showed that people who take a break to breathe deeply or meditate BEFORE reaching for salty snacks reduced their stress hormones by 25% AND cut the binging in half!
RED MEAT - Cravings for red meat usually indicate an iron deficiency - this may drive people to crave burgers or steaks. Could be a lot of calories are going to get consumed to put this craving to rest! And since the word is out that eating too much red meat is a health risk, try eating more iron-rich beans and legumes, unsulphured prunes, figs and other dried fruits that are rich in iron.
CHEESE - Cravings for cheese or pizza often indicate a fatty acid deficiency. It's so common in most people because few get enough Omega 3 fatty acids in their diet. Reach for those raw walnuts, wild salmon, flax seed oil and use ground flax seeds sprinkled on foods to fill that need for the Omega 3. It would sure be better calorically than the pizza and much better over-all for nutrition.
CHOCOLATE - Chocolate cravings are sometimes indicating a deficiency in magnesium. It is estimated that more than 80% of the population is lacking magnesium in their diet, which may explain why so many of us reach for the chocolate. (Read my previous blog Loco for Cocoa - since dark chocolate is really healthy for you in small amounts.) Other foods high in magnesium are nuts, seeds, fish and leafy greens.
Now it's said that most cravings are actually misinterpretations from our bodies that we are dehydrated. Yep. Kind of amazing our brains can't just register and send signals to go for the water instead of the pizza or whatever.
Before you cave in to cravings, go have some refreshing cool water. Then wait a bit. See if the craving doesn't go away. Since studies have shown that 80% of people are also chronically dehydrated, it would seem possible that just by giving our bodies the hydration we require, we could eliminate falling prey to cravings that cost us dearly in terms of calories and fat.
Let's answer the question What do your Cravings Mean? Do you actually want to go thru life saying "Well I'm a wimp - or a sugar-holic, or whatever" and leave it at that? How much more powerful would it feel for you to be able to say you quit sugar, or smokes, or soda?
I honestly do not believe that people are as stupid as their eating habits reveal. People know better but do it anyway. Human beings are the most creative when it comes to excuses. (Nobody can tell me they are not creative once I hear all their justifications for the crap they eat. It is more than enough to believe that the inner child is alive and well, and it borders on comical.)
I hear a lot about "social" pressures. "At the party EVERYone was eating (this or that)" or "I didn't want to be the only one at dinner skipping dessert." You may be surprised to know that most people are going along with the sheep mentality in their eating habits even though they know better. I was at a dinner out with several couples and said I'd just have a cup of decaf, no dessert. Everyone else cancelled their dessert order with nearly a sense of relief, like I gave them permission to skip it or something. I don't know, it was weird. They said they admired my will power and felt they needed to exert some of their own. What I am saying here is you can set examples for others - good ones - which benefits ALL. Or you can go along. Ask yourself which action makes you feel more powerful and confident.
Cravings can be telling us things. Sometimes it's about a deficiency we should be paying attention to. Sometimes it's just that little kid inside us feeling they need some "treat" that wants candy, pop, or other assorted not-good-for-you stuff, you know what it is. Listen to cravings. If it is clearly not a deficiency, try the suggestions to shut it down. Be the powerful, intelligent adult who wants to live long and healthy!
(This blog was inspired from an exchange (of sorts) on Facebook. Saw a young girl I knew from my kids high school - she's obese, married, pregnant and writing about her craving for a Mountain Dew but she was resisting it. I couldn't resist sending her a message saying good for you for not caving in to that because you know your baby needs real food and good nutrients. I was trying to encourage her. A bit later she posted that she DID cave in. That was followed by at least six of her friends telling her that it was ok, she needs to treat herself, that one little Mt.Dew wouldn't hurt and on and on. Enablers all. I never made further comments to her but it haunted me for days. "Treating yourself" once in a while does NOT produce obesity - it's the habit of just going for whatever and justifying it somehow that has become a lifestyle. Having friends cheering you on is the worst thing!77 grams of sugar in that crap. I lit a candle for the baby.)
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Postive Thinking Adds Years to Your Life!
I know a lot of folks think that postive thinking is a bunch of hooey. I'm used to dealing with skeptics so I will just put out there what is scientifically proven and discuss a bit of the whole positive thing.
Let me preface by saying I know a few people who profess to be positive thinkers. However, what I actually HEAR from them is anything but. Here are a few things that interfere with positivity.
#1 - The biggest one is not loving/accepting yourself just the way you are at this moment. Oh sure you can be trying to improve things, maybe working out to get (or stay) in shape, or changing eating habits to lose weight and improve health. What I am refering to here is the person who is verbally (and mentally) oh so NOT happy with themselves. You can be as positive as can be about OTHER stuff, but if you don't start with you, you have negated everything else.
#2 - Grudges or anger takes a toll on your health. Find ways to turn your thoughts around - perhaps giving up the need to be right, eat a bit of humble pie, or forgiveness is in order - only you know what would be best for the circumstance - but DO change it from the negative.
#3 - Excuses for everything or anything mean you are not in the flow and frustration is lurking. Think about it. Stress is present. The quickest cure is present moment living. Let me say right here and now that it sounds easier than it is, I realize that. It takes practice, this present moment thing, and without constant daily reminders I struggle with it myself. Practice.
Now back to the science of all this. Research shows that how you perceive aging affects how long you will live, according to Mark Stibich, Ph.D. In a study of 660 people, those with the more positive perceptions of their own aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer! Adjusting your perception of aging while you're still young can have a tremendous effect on your life expectancy.
Researchers believe that positive thinking about aging can increase a person's will to live, making him or her more reilient to illness and more proactive about health. The mental stress of aging is lower for people who have a positive attitude.
Here is a brief list (from About.com) of the number of years each of these health factors are believed to add to your life:
Low blood pressure - 4 years
Low cholesterol - 4 years
Healthy weight - 1-3 years
Not smoking - 14 years
Regular exercise - 1-3 years
When my daughter hit puberty and hysterics were a common thing, I started to teach her that her tears meant a lesson in the works. After awhile she would cry for a minute and then say "Ok, what's the lesson?" which let me know she was making some connection to adjusting her thinking. Sometimes I would assist with talking it out, other times she would go journal it out by herself.
The point is, when we are upset, we need to think about this creatively and be open to all possibilities. Harboring anger, resentment, carrying around old emotional injuries all work to destroy our longevity and present health. Every cell in your body knows what you are thinking inside. You cannot hide it from "them". They respond to your thoughts in ways we may never understand, except that it's been shown repeatedly that negative behavior/thoughts DOES affect cellular behavior.
Many times, scientists can tell us for sure something is happening, but cannot tell us how or why. This is one of those things. Have you seen the experiments done with plants - a threat is verbally made to a plant and from electrodes the scientist placed on the plant, the electrodes show clearly that the plant is responding - on a cellular level - to the threat being made.
I'm not a doctor, or scientist. I do study research a lot, like on a geek level. I've seen two people I've known, both very negative people, worriers too, develop cancer. Neither had a change of thought pattern during treatments and both are dead. When I read so much about thoughts truly impacting the health of our cells, I often wonder if maybe, just maybe, they turned their thoughts around if they'd have made it? We will never know. I do know of several people who have had remarklable success curing their cancers and their attitudes were very, almost radically, different from the negative people.
Studying cellular biology was the biggest game changer for me, personally, to make the connection and really SEE and know that this is indeed so true it's almost freaky. If you want happy cells, you best have happy thoughts then, eh? It is rather a giggle when you think about Big Brother always watching us, when it's really our teensy little cells inside of us that is in tune totally with whatever goes on in our minds. We are as much what we think as what we eat!
So if you want good health, go back up to the top of this post and check how you are doing with points 1-3 with an honest assessment. You can eat all the health food in the world but if your mind isn't on the positive page, well, some changes on the inside are necessary. Think of how glowingly happy newly-in-love people look. Don't they glow? What is it that is causing that glow? How do you glow? What does that? It's what you are thinking!
Spring clean thoughts and attitudes. Get going - get glowing! It will add years to your life!
Let me preface by saying I know a few people who profess to be positive thinkers. However, what I actually HEAR from them is anything but. Here are a few things that interfere with positivity.
#1 - The biggest one is not loving/accepting yourself just the way you are at this moment. Oh sure you can be trying to improve things, maybe working out to get (or stay) in shape, or changing eating habits to lose weight and improve health. What I am refering to here is the person who is verbally (and mentally) oh so NOT happy with themselves. You can be as positive as can be about OTHER stuff, but if you don't start with you, you have negated everything else.
#2 - Grudges or anger takes a toll on your health. Find ways to turn your thoughts around - perhaps giving up the need to be right, eat a bit of humble pie, or forgiveness is in order - only you know what would be best for the circumstance - but DO change it from the negative.
#3 - Excuses for everything or anything mean you are not in the flow and frustration is lurking. Think about it. Stress is present. The quickest cure is present moment living. Let me say right here and now that it sounds easier than it is, I realize that. It takes practice, this present moment thing, and without constant daily reminders I struggle with it myself. Practice.
Now back to the science of all this. Research shows that how you perceive aging affects how long you will live, according to Mark Stibich, Ph.D. In a study of 660 people, those with the more positive perceptions of their own aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer! Adjusting your perception of aging while you're still young can have a tremendous effect on your life expectancy.
Researchers believe that positive thinking about aging can increase a person's will to live, making him or her more reilient to illness and more proactive about health. The mental stress of aging is lower for people who have a positive attitude.
Here is a brief list (from About.com) of the number of years each of these health factors are believed to add to your life:
Low blood pressure - 4 years
Low cholesterol - 4 years
Healthy weight - 1-3 years
Not smoking - 14 years
Regular exercise - 1-3 years
When my daughter hit puberty and hysterics were a common thing, I started to teach her that her tears meant a lesson in the works. After awhile she would cry for a minute and then say "Ok, what's the lesson?" which let me know she was making some connection to adjusting her thinking. Sometimes I would assist with talking it out, other times she would go journal it out by herself.
The point is, when we are upset, we need to think about this creatively and be open to all possibilities. Harboring anger, resentment, carrying around old emotional injuries all work to destroy our longevity and present health. Every cell in your body knows what you are thinking inside. You cannot hide it from "them". They respond to your thoughts in ways we may never understand, except that it's been shown repeatedly that negative behavior/thoughts DOES affect cellular behavior.
Many times, scientists can tell us for sure something is happening, but cannot tell us how or why. This is one of those things. Have you seen the experiments done with plants - a threat is verbally made to a plant and from electrodes the scientist placed on the plant, the electrodes show clearly that the plant is responding - on a cellular level - to the threat being made.
I'm not a doctor, or scientist. I do study research a lot, like on a geek level. I've seen two people I've known, both very negative people, worriers too, develop cancer. Neither had a change of thought pattern during treatments and both are dead. When I read so much about thoughts truly impacting the health of our cells, I often wonder if maybe, just maybe, they turned their thoughts around if they'd have made it? We will never know. I do know of several people who have had remarklable success curing their cancers and their attitudes were very, almost radically, different from the negative people.
Studying cellular biology was the biggest game changer for me, personally, to make the connection and really SEE and know that this is indeed so true it's almost freaky. If you want happy cells, you best have happy thoughts then, eh? It is rather a giggle when you think about Big Brother always watching us, when it's really our teensy little cells inside of us that is in tune totally with whatever goes on in our minds. We are as much what we think as what we eat!
So if you want good health, go back up to the top of this post and check how you are doing with points 1-3 with an honest assessment. You can eat all the health food in the world but if your mind isn't on the positive page, well, some changes on the inside are necessary. Think of how glowingly happy newly-in-love people look. Don't they glow? What is it that is causing that glow? How do you glow? What does that? It's what you are thinking!
Spring clean thoughts and attitudes. Get going - get glowing! It will add years to your life!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)