Re - Solutions

OK. You made it though the holidaze. Congratulations. Now what? Now comes that nagging feeling that you've overindulged and have to repent. This usually centers on creating some sort of austere diet and exercise plan that your "Super Self" will coerce your "Evil Twin" into following for "your own good".  Aahh... and here is where it all goes down the drain before you even get started.

DIET is a Four Letter Word. Back when I was a kid, a "four letter word" was a "bad word". The word "diet" has all the negative connotations that are associated with punishment and deprivation. It is based on willpower and internal motivational strength. It is a period of time that is book-ended and taken out of a person's "normal" life during which they force themselves into a very tight small box of behaviors and usually without any internal or external support. Put simply: IF YOU DIET YOU ARE DESTINED TO FAIL unless you happen to have the will of an automaton, the emotional range of a barbell, and live in a bunker with no temptations to stray from the tight-rope thin path to your goal weight.

The reality is that we humans are complicated, have stressful lives that overlap and interact with other complicated and stressful lives. We are continuously bombarded with advertisements for weight loss miracle pills/shakes/frozen meals/supplements/medications/surgeries at the same time we are assaulted with advertising for the "return of the McRib", "I-dare-you-to-eat-just-one" chips, 2-for-1 large so-there's-no-need-to-share pizzas, and super-sized fries for the same price as regular. Mixed messages? Yup. One set appeals to your inner parent and the other to the inner child. You are being set up. Who benefits? The pharmaceutical industry, the food industry and the diet industry. You read that right. The Diet Industry. There are huge amounts of money to be made on you. This industry is there to help your wallet lose weight, not you.

Don't count calories. Count blessings. Get REAL. Take back your power and live your life with the passion, verve and vitality you were meant to have! How, you ask? Simple really. Focus on these five things with gentleness towards yourself and gratitude:
1 - Eat REAL foods. Give up processed foods, anything that you only have to microwave and serve, excess sugars (not all sugars!), damaged fats and poisoned proteins. Eat a rainbow of veggies, fruits, healthy meats/fish/poultry (if you aren't vegetarian of course), organic whole dairy products, whole grains and healthy fats. YES FATS. Fats are what triggers the sense of satiety and tells your body you can stop eating. Without fat in your meal you will be hungry again very quickly. And yes, the occasional dessert! But eat it right up next to your meal. And by the way, occasional means just that, not after (or instead of) every meal as we've been told by the marketing agencies we can do...
2 - Move. It's what you were built to do. You weren't built to run marathons weekly or to swim the English Channel. You were built to trudge. You were built to move all day every day. You were not built to sit. Move your body through space under your own power for at least 60 minutes per day at a pace that suggests you might have just been hung up on AGAIN by AT&T after being on hold for 45 minutes. Grrr!
3 - Drink water. Just water. Clean water. Cool, not iced, water. Drink one ounce for every half-pound of you. If you weigh 200 pounds, your daily intake should be 100 ounces. If you must, have herbal tea or a squeeze of lemon in your water. If you have caffeine or alcohol, remember it sets you back and you have to drink that much more to get back to square one.
4 - Eliminate as much added sugar as possible. Naturally occurring sweetness in fruits and veggies are fine. Artificial sweeteners offer you nothing but health problems and a continuing addiction to extreme sweetness. Cut it back. Use sugar if you must but do so knowing that's what you're using and be sensible. No agave is not the answer. This is another case of "natural" does not equal "healthy".
5 - Breathe. Yup, you read that right. Breathe. We forget that one of THE most important things we can do is change the air. Clear your head. Oxygenate your brain. Wake up your muscles. Crank up your metabolism. Expel toxins that are released in the breath. Consciously taking a few breaths reduces your stress levels instantly. Try it. It's something you can literally do any time. Important times to implement taking a few conscious breaths are: before beginning a meal, before a potentially stressful meeting, while sitting in traffic, before going to bed at night, and before engaging in your day in the morning.

You can do these things! If you focus on these 5 things rather than trying to make unsustainable and doomed resolutions, you can change the course of your history from this day forward. I dare you to try it. Take pictures, take measurements, then put the scale in the garage, keep a journal and let me know how you feel this time next year. Thumb your nose at the expensive diet plans and gym memberships. Laugh at the ridiculous advertising that makes no rational sense. Take your power and money back from Big Pharma and Big Agra. Get Sensible. Get Healthy. Get REAL.

Overweight, Obesity and Diabetes: the other rising tide

Global warming has been in the news a lot lately and yes, the potential of the rising oceans is a major concern for our generation and beyond. However, the bigger threat to our immediate health and that of our healthcare system is the dramatic increase in health issues related to overweight and obesity in developed and developing countries alike. At current rates, the healthcare costs associated with the sequelae related to dysfunctional metabolism will stress to bursting our current systems of heath insurance and health care.

Pharmaceutical companies are already finding their supplies of insulin in demand at a greater rate than they can supply it and, of course, costs are increasing (to the thrill of shareholders, but not those who are insulin dependent). Drugs used to treat diabetes, including insulin and metformin, have become a $34 billion annual business (up 12% since only last year). Huge companies such as Novo Nordisk are making half of their profits on insulin alone. For Novo Nordisk that amounts to half of their $11.1 billion in sales. There are 366 million diabetes sufferers worldwide of which 1 dies every 7 seconds from issues that develop from the disease. The total health care costs related to diabetes is $465 billing according to the International Diabetes Federation.*

The maddening thing is that nearly all of these cases could have been avoided, and those that got started could have been reversed if people had only been given adequate information on how to take care of themselves. Probably THE most damaging information perpetuated in the last 40 years has been the nearly ubiquitous advice to ditch dietary fats in favor of high-glycemic carbohydrates. By dramatically increasing highly processed grains and sugars and taking out the traditional healthy fats that the body needs to maintain the endocrine system, brain, nervous system, and immunity, we have stomped on the accelerator driving our collective pancreases to the brink of destruction by forcing our bodies to process far more sugars than ever before in the history of the human food supply. Time and time again I have seen people struggle with weight, blood lipids, and blood sugar who are trying valiantly to follow low-fat diets and still seeing no positive change in their health or weight.

Finally, we are beginning to hear the voices of reason from scientists and biochemists and even journalists like Gary Taubes (see his new book "Why We Get Fat") and Nina Planck (check out her book "Real Food") who point out that we have been on the wrong track for decades. We MUST turn this ship around before our healthcare system is flooded. The incidence of type 2 diabetes has been increasing dramatically in younger and younger patients. What used to be considered "adult-onset" diabetes, is now showing up in children as young as 8 and 10 years old. To me this is even more ominous and immediately threatening than the polar ice caps melting...

Wake Up. Take Charge. Get Healthy. Get REAL.



(*as referenced in Bloomburg Business Week Oct 3-9/11 p. 30-31)

Reinventing Box Lunches

In case you hadn’t noticed all the back-to-school sales, getting the kids out the door in time for school is just around the corner. One of questions (and exasperations) I hear about a lot is “I want my kids to eat healthy at school, but I don’t know what to give them and it’s easier to send them off with lunch money for the cafeteria.” Part of the conundrum revolves around a child’s age. When they are younger parents have more influence over their food choices. I always suggest that parents avail themselves of the opportunity to expose their kids to lots of different flavors while they are young and get them used to eating healthy nourishing foods early. This sets the stage for good habits later in life. The tricky part is getting through the tweens and teens when peers have more influence over food choices. 

I highly recommend making time in the morning to make your children box lunches. While you’re at it, make one for yourself if you’re headed out the door too. In the long run you will save money and promote good habits for them (and for yourself). It is very important for kids to see you take care of yourself so they have a good role model. If it takes getting yourself (and your kids) up 15 minutes earlier, it’s worth it. Teens can certainly be making their own lunches after some simple training.

Make it Fun:

One really fun way to keep lunches interesting for kids (and adults!) is to use Japanese style bento boxes (check out www.laptoplunches.com or www.lunchinabox.net) or Indian style tiffin boxes (www.lunchboxes.com/indian.html or www.amazon.com/Eco-Lunch-Box-three-in-one-set/dp/B0040MH642/ref=pd_sim_k_6). This concept falls in line with another recommendation I make with regards to grocery shopping: rather than getting home with all the bags and just stuffing everything away, take a little time to “pre-process” some of the veggies and fruits into slices or chunks that can be easily added to salads, stir-fries, or used for dipping. If you have done some of this work beforehand, it makes it easy to simply fill some of the bento boxes with fresh healthy foods quickly on a busy morning.

Contents:

1. Great things for younger children and for adult mid-day snacks are bean dips and spreads with veggies and/or whole grain crackers. Try the curried hummus recipe below for a vibrant golden tasty option. You can make bean dips from any bean.
2. Leftovers are a great option too. When cooking dinner the night before, think about cooking twice as much as you need for that meal so everyone has leftovers for their lunch boxes the next day. You can even put the leftovers away in lunch box containers so all you have to do is grab and go in the morning.
3. Soups, stews and chili are good choices as well. Again, simply make more than you need for a dinner meal and store in lunch sized (spill proof) containers that you can pack in an insulated lunch box. You can even get soup style thermoses with wide mouth tops
4. Salads: keep in mind that salads don’t have to begin with lettuce! There are thousands of ways to put together a combination of ingredients that can be called “salad”. You can create a grain and legume salad such as quinoa and lentils with a bunch of other delicious veggies diced small and marinated overnight in a simple dressing of olive oil and lime juice with a little salt and pepper. There are also delicious tuna salads, egg salads and chicken salads that you can create to you children’s taste. If you make some of these things in advance, it’s easy to scoop some into a lunch container and blast out the door in the morning. 

It takes a little pre-planning, but home made lunches made from real food ingredients are guaranteed to be more nutritious than most of the offerings at the cafeteria (particularly the options your children will likely choose when left to their own devices), and it is far less expensive in the long run for both you and your children to eat a lunch brought from home.

Quick Curried Hummus

all organic ingredients if you can

by Kia Sanford MS CN

1 large can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

3 cloves garlic, peeled

3 scallions with greens, chopped

juice of 1 lemon (you can add a little grated rind as well, I use Meyer lemons when available)

a generous ¼ cup tahini

2 Tbsp tamari

1 Tbsp cider vinegar

1 Tbsp olive oil

¼ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground coriander

¼ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp turmeric

½ tsp Kosher salt

Put all ingredients in food processor and let it run until the consistency is what you want. Adjust spices to your taste (may want to add a little more salt). To make it more creamy, add olive oil to your taste. Serve with veggies or whole grain crackers for dipping, or use as a sandwich spread.

Control-Z

How many times have I momentarily wished for a "control-z" or "undo" button in my life?! I'm sure I'm not alone in applying the time-honored self-inflicted dope-slap to my own forehead. There was the time I used the wrong ATM card at Goodwill for an amazing deal on a coffee grinder that ended up costing me nearly $60 more in overdraft fees. There was that time I got back from a baseball game much much later than I had planned only to find my car had been locked into the parking area and there was nobody at the kiosk. Oh yeah, and there were those 20 years I was married to someone I thought would grow and learn and change along with me. As I wade backwards there are many many more stories, big and small. Still, when I think back, I learned something and grew -- sometimes a lot and sometimes just a tiny bit -- each time.

I've spent the last couple years of my life in transition and with that has come much self-examination. I have talked with myself, my therapist, my spiritual teachers, my family and my friends through my careful unweaving and rebuilding of my life and although I've been asked many times, I have to say there are very few regrets, and not for the things that most people seem to expect me to point to. Really, upon examination, every challenging moment has had a silver lining. Every rough patch has helped me to learn something that there really wasn't any other way for me to learn. In fact, I've learned far more from the pot holes and speed bumps than I ever have from periods of smooth pavement on this highway of life. Yes, there have been some seriously difficult times that were in no way fun or entertaining. But when I really think about it, I wouldn't trade them (although I hope I don't ever need wake up calls that big again!). It even begins to look like I needed the lessons to come in the forms they did in order for me to "get it". As strange as it sounds, even the tragedies fall into this category.

It is with profound gratefulness that I attended a recent intensive entitled "Fierce Grace". Right as I was contemplating all the benefits I received from my difficulties, I listened to this very wise teacher confirm my dawning awareness that there are no mistakes. It just takes the right perspective to find the blessing and the benefit and the learning in the midst of the chaos and the challenge. It is the challenges that make life interesting and test our strengths and limits. It is the chaos that gives us opportunities to grow and move forward. I better understand my cancer clients who have come to me and said that their cancer was the biggest blessing they have ever received. From a ground floor perspective that sounds to some people like crazy talk, but once you take the express elevator to the roof, the view looks really different. I've decided I don't really want an "undo" button, but I'd like a button that reminds me to look deeper. And, I hope that my lessons come in gentler "packaging" from here on out.

It is my sincere wish that you find and focus on that which brings you growth and change, for change truly is the only constant in a healthy dynamic system. Get grounded. Get grateful. Get REAL.

Storage Units: The Pathologies of Packing and Packing It On

It occurs to me that in this country we have parallel pathologies on the same trajectory to ill health. Have you noticed that nearly every community, no matter how small, has an extra “roll” around the edges of self-storage units? They are sprouting up everywhere. As a culture and a people we can’t seem to let go of “stuff”. We are on a path to collect stuff. We pass on our stuff to our kids and grandkids. We build whole new houses to put more and more stuff in. We forgo investing in businesses to help humanity in favor of the sure bet of building more storage units. We can’t seem to take responsibility for getting rid of the stuff that accumulates. Instead, we make excuses for the amount of stuff we have and stuff that stuff into bigger “clothes”. At the same time, as a people we are stuffing ourselves. We buy more and more low quality foods because we are lead to believe we can afford more of the cheap options. We eat more and more highly processed foods that put our bodies into storage mode. We trick our metabolism into wanting more and more calories so the body can create more storage units and we can buy bigger clothes. We then store the smaller sizes in the storage unit in the event that sometime in the future we will lose weight. The closer I look the more connected I believe these two pathologies are. 

Commonalities in development:

• Abdication of personal responsibility in favor of the “expert opinion” or “just take a pill”.
• The credit culture has eliminated anticipation and saving or working towards a desired goal. Waiting until you can actually afford something is seen as silly now. But because we can have whatever we want “now”, the thrill of the chase is eliminated, we grow weary of our new acquisition quickly, and fixate on the next “must have” item. Whether that is a Big Mac, a 65” TV or a Hummer.
• Dedication to the TV as evidenced by the ever expanding channels and the ever dumbing down of content (we now watch “reality TV” to see what life is like in the outside world).
• Reduction in interest in the physical environment and dissociation of humans from the environment to the point where children can’t recognize a vegetable or understand that chicken doesn’t just materialize in styrofoam and plastic wrap.
• Diminution of actual bodily movement -- the most used appendage seems to have become the thumb and some people manage to move little else. 
• Withdrawal from real human connection in favor of mass media entertainment and virtual worlds.
• Growing inability to communicate effectively which goes hand in hand with the last item.
• Oblivious disregard for personal impact on the environment. With no relationship there is no responsibility for one’s actions.
• Definition of success as accumulation and chronic overabundance, and the denial of the growing problem of excess. Belief that endless expansion is sustainable, but uncontrolled growth is abnormal growth. In cellular terms, this is cancer.
• Inability to find a starting point to make personal changes.
• Lack of tools to create and sustain lasting change.

Re-Style Your Lifestyle:

It's Spring Cleaning Time! Cleaning up and cleaning out your physical storage units has positive impact on many levels not the least of which is you may discover you don't really need most of what you've been storing. You can make money selling it off, or take a tax break for donating your "stuff" to charity. Hey, you may even discover you don't need to be paying rent on that storage unit at all! Now, with that extra money available, you can actually afford to invest in yourSelf. Now you can more easily get to work on your cellular storage units. Now you can afford to join the gym, sign up for Boot Camp, take a nutrition class, and/or upgrade your grocery choices...

More on this as the metaphor manifests... Get A Grip. Get Organized. Get REAL.

REAL Cool iPhone Apps

So, a wise friend and colleague thought a good follow-up to the last post on helpful web links would be iPhone applications that I find useful since so many of us are iPhone junkies... (yes, myself included). I tend to be most interested in the ones that are free or very inexpensive because they are easy to recommend to people who want to try something new. Here are a few that I use myself that you may want to check out.

Medically Related Applications:
Epocrates = solid information on drugs, interactions and research updates
Medical Calc = a grouping of calculators used in medical settings
MedRef = lists of normal lab values and references
PubSearch = the iPhone app version of PubMed Search referencing hundreds of medical journals

Fitness Related Applications:
TrailGuru = tracks your hike, walk or bike via GPS; you can upload the info including photos taken on your outing to their website; gives you distance traveled, elevation gain and loss, and a map of your journey
StepTrakLite = step counting program which gives you input on levels of exercise not just steps counted
iWalk = gives you step counting, total distance, speed, and calories burned
LoseIt! = very comprehensive food journaling app that also allows you to enter exercise, goals for weight and nutrients, logging with groups of friends, setting up motivating daily emails, and more. This is a favorite although I wish it worked more with serving size and less with calories.
GymGoalLite = a good exercise workout tracker complete with instructional videos of various exercises, set programs to try, and the ability to create your own workout with goals and tracking

Food Related Applications:
Dirty Dozen = the complete list of pesticides in produce from the Environmental Working Group, handy to have when you're doing your shopping
SeafoodWatch = a good fish list from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, also handy while shopping
Epicurious = recipes and menu ideas, searchable by ingredient, meal type, season, and ease of preparation; also creates shopping lists for you from recipes; lets you save favorites in your own file
AllRecipes DinnerSpinner = a fun way to change up your meals and try something new

Strictly Geeky Photo Fun:
Hipstamatic = photography with a retro twist to create really fun effects and photos
CameraBag = like Hipstamatic but you can import photos and tweak them within the program as well
PS Express = Photoshop mini version for the iPhone; import or take photos and then play with them
Autostitch = create panoramic photos from a series of shots

There you have it! Get Connected. Get Hip. Get REAL!

Linked Up

Hi All! It was a hectic month of moving house and torrential rain storms. Finally up for air and back on the board.

A friend and colleague suggested that I post some of the links I find useful in the wide web world of food and nutrition, so here goes:

The USDA Nutrition Database is good basic info on food contents: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

and Nutrition Data is a searchable database of foods that uses the USDA information to create a broad analysis of nutrients, energy availability, and more: http://nutritiondata.self.com/tools/nutrient-search

The Environmental Working Group is an independent research and reporting group that isn't owned by Monsanto so they aren't afraid to report the truth of what they find: http://www.ewg.org/

The Glycemic Index Foundation has valuable info on the glycemic index and glycemic load of most carbohydrates in our food supply: http://www.glycemicindex.com/

The Harvard School of Nutrition is among the first of the more conservative sites to wake up to the problems created by the over emphasis on high-carb diets, and they are a good conservative scientific voice about nutrition in general: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/index.html

Lance Armstrong's site has a good, easy body fat estimator (they call it a calculator, but it's hard to do that with just numbers and a formula, you need a way to actually measure): http://www.livestrong.com/tools/body-fat-calculator/

The Organic Consumers Association has their finger on the pulse of food news: http://www.organicconsumers.org/

There, that's a solid start! Do you have any favorites?

Get Curious. Get Info. Get REAL.