Collective Awareness

The more I read and listen to tapes, the more profound it seems that we are thinking as a collective. More and more people are getting grounded and sensing the desparate condition of the health of our nation. People are seeking answers to the question "What can be done to stop this downward spiral of poor health and the rising costs associated with treating all this illness and when will we get back control of our wellness?" There are answers and have been for some time. Now is the time to revisit the answers proposed by thinkers and progressive scientists who were dismissed years ago for outlandish theories.

Permission to Rant

A lengthly conversation observed at a beauty salon struck me as wasteful. A waste of breath, a waste of time, a waste of energy and money. The time spent on a conversation about fingernail polish involved immediate color coordination and extensive concern that polish would not last long enough for the foreign travel cruise planned for the near future. The number of weeks, the exact color best for the cruise plans, etc, etc, etc. This conversation lasted for 15 minutes. To those of you who might read this and are prone to the same kind of primping, I apologize. That is why this is called a rant. Rants occur when the ranter JUST DOESN'T GET IT.

Girl Talk

Today's breakfast club talk turned to relationships and why some people, especially women feel the need to be in a relationship rather than be "alone". Those who don't feel alone often have a great group of friends to meet their social needs. Even those who were once almost desparate to be in a relationship now are finding that the urgency has disappeared as they grew more comfortable with knowing themselves. The wisdom of this group of women, with varied histories of relationships, is that there is a difference between needing a relationship and wanting to be in a relationship and the difference is how comfortable they are with who they are, how well they recognize the patterns that didn't serve them well in previous relationships and being true to themselves first. We all agreed that being around people who are honest, kind and compassionate really makes our lives rich.

Lifestyle Class

Beginning November 4, 2010 I will be offering a 4 week, Thursday night class titled Lifestyle Choices, Changes and Comittments. We will be discussing current media information that is calling for changes in lifestyle to insure longer and more vital lives. This includes the call to reduce consumption of sugar, processed foods, impure water and animal products that contain unnatural additives, like hormones and colors. Contact me at KrisHulet@hotmail.com for details.

Fired Up

When was the last time you attended a meeting or conference or event that really got you motivated? I hope it has not been too long because these kinds of events are so vital to keeping your passion fueled.
If you don't have a passion yet, ask yourself some questions about what that would look and feel like.

Search your heart for a goal to work on, for and towards that gives your life purpose. Lofty goals are great but for beginners a simple goal like "declutter the kitchen" is big enough. Set manageable goals and give them a manageable time frame of hours or days in which to accomplish them. WRITE them down, look at them the night before and again in the morning and through out the day. I have some lofty goals and one is to change the food belief system of thousands of people. The current belief system is not serving our health. I had to ask myself WHO influenced my beliefs about food and what was their motivation. I chose to ask myself who I want to believe, why I want to believe them and what is the truth behind their information.

In Summary: Find a purpose for your hours.
Write down some steps to reach a goal that fulfills that purpose
Check your belief systems agains truths you already know or can research
Who or what taught you your beliefs about health, food and wellness?

Be open to the ideas you have not yet considered and find truth or lies. Choose what you believe and live it.

Pop the Saboteur

Reducing the effects of acid and the damage it can do to your body is as simple as reducing or eliminating soda pop from your diet. How dare I ask you to do this? How dare I care about your health. I wouldn't ask anyone to do anything that I didn't think would benefit them. If you can't eliminate can you reduce your consumption? If you don't drink soda pop do you drink any carbonated beverages? Would you give those beverages up to improve your bone health? The best question we can ask ourselves is how far will we go to sabotage our health and how far will we go to improve our health with inexpensive food choices and by eliminating items from our diet for a time to prove to ourselves the benefits of such a disciplined choice.

Acidity Coaching

Currently there are many people in the know encouraging people to decrease the acidity in their diet. Many of us would say "What acid?" and others would say "I have already reduced acid in my diet by giving up pop." Both levels of awareness about acidic diets are valid. What is necessary for those wanting to improve their health is an attitude that "there is always more I can do." As a health coach it is very frustrating to always politely play one upmanship with those who say they are seeking information that will help them change some habits for the better. If constructive suggestions are not really desired by you, then please keep your current diet and I hope that works for you. Coaching will work if you are open to some ideas, open to looking at your current habits and open to trying some changes. Coaching is for those willing to be open to new ways of doing things and trying those ways long enough to allow changes to occur. Changes to your diet usually do not show positive results in just a few days. Allow healthier habits to work at a cellular level and be ready for amazing results.

Popular Cook Books and Magazine Food Suggestions

On a recent trip to the library I glanced quickly at cookbooks in the New Releases section and was amazed to still see that the recipes, although quick to produce, still promote less than ideal ingredients. If you want to disrespect your insides with quick food just buy from established fast food restaurants and support business in your community. These recipes contained so many processed products, few fresh ingredients and completely ignore the basic principle that to be quick and easy and FRESH, simple advance preparation is necessary. The answer is not to create fast and quick meals using processed foods but to learn some simple recipes containing fresh ingredients and to discipline yourself to think ahead a bit and have ONE prep session a week. A prep session includes pre washing fruits and vegetables, chopping some veggies, thawing some meat or cooking some meat to be used in recipes for the week. You don't even have to have specific recipes in mind to be ready for the week. Having fresh things ready to go allows creative meals to occur, like an impromptu stir fry or saute something to nutritionally compliment an omlet or frittata. Don't know how to do any of these...take a class. Respect your one and only body enough to fuel it with quality as often as possible.

The Soul and Food

According to Thomas Moore in "Soul Mates", the souls innate tendency is towards attachments, particularly things of the past and is resistant to change. Do you see parts of your life that are like that? I do. Ever heard of Soul Food? How about Comfort Food? A deep part of us has become attached to food from our youth, from our culture and from our experiences. That is not all bad but it could have some negative impact too. If food choices are so ingrained with our deepest memories and comforts I understand how difficult change from those comfort foods can be. A very deep part of us is unwilling to give up those foods but no one should be asking anyone to forever give up their comfort foods. There may be a time when we need to choose other food options for a period of time but forever is not part of most smart equations. Restraint and portion control might be new to your vocabulary but there is no need to add forever to that vocabulary list. The only thing I know to be forever is death and we are not there yet.

Retirement Food

What does one do when reaching the place of being single, older and living alone? My mother has been widowed nearly 2 years now and is over 80, living alone and not interested in cooking. Should she continue struggling with feeding herself, feeling guilty when she doesn't do it well, spending money on take out food and eating nutrition pool frozen meals? What have others done when their parents or elderly relatives reach this critical point? If your senior doesn't live with you they face the challenge of grocery shopping and cooking. Too many low income seniors are living on canned soup, cheap meat like pork and probably not eating enough fresh fruit or vegetables because of expense. If your senior is not low income, they are still probably not eating organic and hormone free choices. With their choices decided by habits formed over the years, their nutrition and health are already in a compromised state. Should we ignore the poor choices our beloved seniors make, knowing it contributes to the fragile mental state we have already noticed? I don't know that we have any say in what our precious seniors eat or drink. My siblings and I have tried to encourage Mom to take some supplements and to drink more water. We have hoped she would eat a little breakfast each morning to stimulate her metabolism which might encourage her body to burn those excess pounds that contribute to her inactivity. We have hoped that by encouraging her to make a few healthy choices, the quality of her life will be improved and her years ahead greater in number. We want her to stay with us but with quality in her days. She has made a choice to leave her independent living and join the ranks of a retirement facility. Meals are provided and plentiful and it has only taken a few weeks to get programed to the meal schedule. Granted she is eating regularly but probably too much and too often. The up side of retirement living is the social component. There is something to be said for not living too solitary a life in our later years. Be patient with your seniors who continue to say "I'm doing fine" even when we know they are not.

Obsolete Habits

I check myself as getting up from my desk, to avoid stepping on the elderly dog who parks herself at my feet. I worry that I have forgotten to let her in from the backyard when I don't find her in her usual places. I check to see that the inside water bowl is full before retiring since she always gets up in the night for a drink. Alas she is not there because old age and disease took her from us. The habits mentioned above will be there for a long time, they will be an effort to change. So what about our food habits? Are they ingrained too? Do we automatically reach for comfort foods created by habit? We all have those habits that are controlled by our subconscious mind, some good, some old and outdated and always an effort to change should we choose to change them. Frustration with many who mouth the words "I would love to learn some new food habits, some new recipes and eating theories" but don't put in the effort behind the words expressed. Improving eating habits is a choice and one that requires a bit of effort. Small changes make that improvement managable so try one thing this week. Reduce or eliminate your soda pop consumption and choose water or natural juices. Reduce or eliminate your white bread or white rice and choose some full grain options. Incorporate one more vegetable each day, then each meal or if you are like many, incorporate ONE VEGETABLE into your diet this week. [Yes there are many people out there that do not consume even one vegetable each week. They won't be with us for very long because their body chemistry will eventually crash their system but that is their choice] Reach for something besides margarine. So I will unlearn all those habits my old dog taught me and learn some new ones that the cat will probably teach me. Allow yourself to learn one new healthy dietary habit this week. Live long and prosper because of it.

Truth and Consequences

I can't believe it has been nearly a month since my last post. Putting fingers to the keyboard isn't hard but deciding what to write and what might interest others seems to stop me many evenings when I take the time to anticipate posting. I suppose others have this same problem when they are new to blogging and others effortlessly type and share often and with seeming ease. Enough of my musings about limitations. I want to encourage everyone to do a simple evaluation of their veggie intake. Knowing how many daily veggies and fruits are beneficial to maximum health doesn't help us consume them. Knowing how good they are for us doesn't always motivate us to consume the proper quantities each day. So what is your answer to why you know what is good daily nutrition and yet don't manage to complete the task? I know my answer: laziness mostly....complacency too. When I can't see all the good stuff happening inside my body, I lack motivation. When nothing bad happens immediately when I miss my veggie quota, I don't think they will be missed. I know this is not true, but still. Talking to people who were on the precipice between life and death and moved toward quality life by nutrition has been a huge reality check for me. Their stories are what motivate me to continue eating quality fruits and veggies even when I can't immediately see all they do for me, even when I don't see immediate decline because I missed a few days. Their stories remind me that the day will come when my nutrition errors show up as health consequences.

Networking Lifestyle

I am blessed to be required to network as part of my business. So many people have a set circle of people they interact with. It might be a few co workers during the day, their immediate family after work and extended family and a few friends on the weekend that comprise their entire network. There is nothing wrong with that list of contacts, just limited in that there is a huge potential of people to meet that are amazing. Interesting people are everywhere and many have great stories to share and amazing lifestyles to observe. I am thankful that my business encourages me to explore new relationships with new people who have new ideas. All this keeps me interesting because I learn so many things in an average day after talking to people. All this keeps me young and vibrant and growing. Engage in a new conversation. Be present in the moment, open to learn something from someone new. They may be your next best friend, a new business associate or customer. Enjoy each day for the gift that it is.

Foods Can Prevent Cancer

A Ted.com video featuring scientific proof that whole food (as opposed to processed) can keep your body safe from most cancer. Cancer develops into disease when blood supplies to common microscopic cancers encourage growth. Most microscopic cancers do not receive enough blood supply to develop. When these areas do receive blood, they are stimulated and something doesn't turn off that supply. When certain foods are part of your diet and their digested compounds are in your bloodstream, overactive blood supply does not promote cancer growth. The term to research is angiogenisis and the person to google is William Li. Check out Ted.com if other searches do not satisfy your curiosity.

Just Alive? Vitality possible.

The foodie meet -up covered alot of topics today but the strongest feeling were directed towards the American diet and how sick, and fat, it is making those who partake of the fast and frozen food market. We have all been there: too busy to cook because we are active and have active children who require our driving skills. Too busy to cook because we can always find something else to do. Too busy to cook because we don't know how to cook and don't want to fail.
Who needs to cook anyway? The store shelves are filled with "safe" and "healthy" food that will fill our bellies so why bother making things from the raw ingredients?

The answer to why fresh and not processed is life. But not just life, vitality while alive. Too many of us know someone dear to us who is not dying today but not really living well either. That someone might even be ourselves. We are not experiencing vital health but are not on our death bed either. We are doing just "fine". Fine by whose standard? Are you over 40 and expect to have all those "middle age" aches and pain?s. Are you over 60 and expect to have some cancer because statistics tell us someone will get it? Have you ever considered that the American foodstyle of soda pop, processed and fast food could be slowly killing you even if it is affordable and downright cheap? These foodstyle choices are all highly acidic in nature. Your body is not in a "happy place" while acid and seeks to neutralize the internal chemistry by any means possible. If you feed it alkaline food and water, your body can do its job, keeping you alive and even vital. Disease will flourish in acid environments.
What is your chemistry doing today? How are you feeding your "engine"? Are you JUST fine?

Some Questions for You

What is in baby formula that may be less than nutritionally useful to that young growing baby?

What is in the teen diet that can significantly impact their future health?

What are we feeding our bodies based on commercialism's truth rather than nature's truth?

The statement: Nutrition is for newborns, school children, teens, young adults, middle agers and seniors. Nutrition is meant to be a life long experience.

The last question for today: Is the above statement your truth?