Pam's Rant: What Shall We Do?

I'm angry. I'm disgusted. I'm depressed. I'm sick to death of the state of things. And I imagine you are feeling those emotions too. The worst side of human nature is being exibited in the financial woes of Wall Street, the banks and real estate industries. I haven't looked at my 401K. I'm scared to see how much I've lost. How about you? It angers me beyond belief when I hear of the millions of dollars bank CEO's carried away with them. Where's my parachute?

My anger doesn't stop with the financial sector. I got an email today from Citizens for Health regarding the rrBGH in Yoplait yogurt http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/750/t/1086/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26047 . It's a crime rBGH isn't labeled on the ingredients of the products it is in. Not only is it cruel to cows given it, it is a human health hazard. http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/rbgh2.cfm . I think all the "Pink" campaigns mostly just make money for the industries promoting "pink" products. We have put billions of dollars into cancer research while cancer has become an industry with hospitals popping up exclusively for treating cancer. We have nearly totally overlooked the fact that the World Health Organization (W.H.O) has stated 70% of all cancers can be prevented thru good nutrition. Where's the nutrition education? Why haven't we seen this on the newspaper front page? I'll tell you why. It doesn't make anyone any money. So here ironically, we have Yoplait pushing their rBGH tainted yogurt and donating to breast cancer when there is a connection between rBGH and breast cancer. Read more: http://www.garynull.com/Documents/erf/breast_cancer_rbgh_and_milk.htm I think we ought tell Yoplait where they can shove their lids ladies! Don't you?

I'm pretty ticked off the health system I work for has decided to make a flu shot mandatory. I have a medical exemption from the flu shot. However, it still ticks me off. Why? Because if a corporation can decide it owns your body and force you to inject toxic poison into your body then we are on the path to lose every freedom this country was founded on. Your body is your most precious asset. No-one should be allowed to tell you what you have to inject into it. Indeed in Seattle a judge in 2006 ruled in favor of a group of nurses who fought a mandatory flu shot rule. They had a union fighting for them. Maybe unions are good things.

And I get ticked when I see pharmaceutical commercials on tv. Drugs do not create health. A healthy immune system creates health and good nutrition creates a healthy immune system. The heart of the problems with the health of the citizens of the United States lies in the reactive nature of our "health system". Diets of primarily processed foods and sedentary lifestyles do not create health. Reaching for the next best drug does not create health. We MUST be proactive and take responsibility for our health. Eating nutritiously and adding regular exercise to our daily routine is a MUST. Illness and old-age infirmities are NOT givens unless you choose a lifestyle of irresponsibility regarding your health.

The pharmaceutical industry with it's commercials and lobbying of our legislators has us like lemmings traipsing to our doctors for the next best script. Wise up folks. Take responsibility for your wellness.

While I'm bitching let's talk about GM (genetically modified) foods. Genetically engineered foods have never been proven safe for human consumption. The media does not report that. In fact, it seems there has been pretty much of a media blackout effort regarding GM foods and the risk that comes with them. It was said they would help feed the world, help the environment. These good things have not happened. In fact, more pesticides/fertilizers are being used. Folks in third world countries are still starving. Food prices haven't decreased and there is scientific evidence there is serious human health risks with it. GM foods are not labeled in the United States but they are either labeled or outright banned in 40 other countries. Certainly we have a right to know what is in our food and/or if it is genetically modified. Why aren't our legislators protecting us?

Educate yourself regarding GM foods:
http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/pusztai.html

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/gm-food/dn9921

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/charles-targets-gm-crop-giants-in-fiercest-attack-yet-951808.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/no-genetically-modified-foods/

I look at all the things I am mad about and I see one common thing. I see greed. I see the financial, pharmaceutical and biotech/food industries putting greed above human life. And I see an awful lot of us falling for their nonsense to the detriment of our health.

What Shall We Do?

First, we must each of us take responsibility for our wellness. How do you do that? Start with what you eat. Eat more whole foods. Gradually change your diet till you are eating ONLY whole foods. Your body was not meant to work with the chemicals in processed foods. Support the organic farmers in your area. It is healthiest to eat locally grown foods. You might even, as I did, decide to grow some of your own food. I only have a patio but growing plants in pots I was able to harvest a substantial amount of tomatoes, green beans, peppers and squash this last summer.

Second, add exercise to your daily routine. Find a form of exercise you enjoy. It could be walking, swimming, working out at a gym, working out at home; there's many forms of exercise. Check with your doctor first if you've primarily been sedentary or have any chronic health issues.

Third, get hold of your finances. Stop using credit cards. Get advice from a qualified financial advisor; work out a budget and stick with it. Much of the stress in life today comes from the financial area of our lives. Responsible management of your finances will do much to alleviate stress in your life. Stress is linked to many physical ailments. Need help whittling down your bills? Talk to Leo http://www.leoquinn.com/

In this election year vote wisely. I'm not going to share with you who I'm going to vote for or who you should vote for. But I will tell you you need to vote. Our country is on a precipice. Never in our lifetime has a vote been so important. Here's a comparison of the candidates: http://www.healthcareunited.org/candidates/

I know with recent events you may feel you and I don't have any control. But we do. We have our vote and our voice. We have the ability to take responsibility for our health and our finances. We really are in control if we choose to be.


Give this post a

Change Your Diet, Change Your Life

So you want to be healthier!!!! Changing your diet will literally change your life. You'll have more energy, less aches and pains and a healthier mentality. My clients tell me they know they need to overhaul their eating but they don't know where to start. Is that YOU?

Well, here is a strategy to help you get started on your new healthy lifestyle!

Start with eating approximately every 3 hrs. (i.e. 4 - 6 times a day, three meals and 2 or 3 snacks) ..... spreading the calories out benefits you a couple ways:

You maintain your energy all day.
You balance your sugar and prevent cravings.

And remember never ever skip breakfast. It sets you up for the rest of the day!

But what to eat and how much??

Let's look at your plate: divide it into thirds. One section will be for protein, one for a complex carb and the last for a fruit or vegetable.

So when you sit down to eat you will have one serving of a protein, a complex carb, and a fruit/vegetable. For example, have a 4 ounce piece of salmon with 1/2 cup of brown rice, and a salad.

The next meal substitute the salmon for turkey, the rice for quinoa, and the salad for asparagus.

Or substitute the salmon for chicken, the rice for a slice of whole grain bread, and the salad for broccoli. (Hint: I like to use flaxseed oil on my toast instead of butter! I even sprinkle it on my vegies!)

How do you do this for breakfast? Have a hard boiled egg with a few strawberries or a slice of melon and 1/2 whole grain bagel or english muffin. Or have a smoothie (soy milk, strawberries and banana).

Eating like this you will have approximately 300 - 400 calories per meal.

So what about snacks? Well, here are some ideas for 100 calorie healthy snacks:

1. 2 domino-sized slices low-fat Colby or cheddar cheese
2. 1 cup sliced apples with 1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter (I recommend organic peanut butter not the commercial peanut butter with added sugar).
3. 10 dry roasted cashews or 12-15 natural almonds.
4. One hard boiled egg.
5. 1 cup squash (baked acorn or butternut)
6. 5 oz. Turkey breast (roasted, no skin)
7. 25 pistachios
8. 10 cashew nuts
9. Half a small avocado
10. 3 ounces cooked whole-grain noodles with 1 fresh tomato and 1/2 ounce hard cheese
11. 3 handfuls of unbuttered popcorn, seasoned with herbs
12. 2 ounces of lean roast beef
13. 2 TB hummus and 10 baby carrots
14. as many cucumber and celery sticks as you'd like
15. Scramble 5 egg whites and cook in a non-stick skillet. Top with 1Tbsp of salsa.

And eating well is only one facet of your new healthy lifestyle! Do NOT forget exercise! Exercise is important to a healthy body. However, be sure to check with your physician before starting an exercise program; especially if you have been sedentary for a long time.

Did you know loss of muscle mass is a huge reason for a lagging metabolism? Being sedentary, as many of us are these days, is a great detriment to maintaining a normal weight. Muscle burns a lot more calories than fat. So get off that couch!!!

Find yourself a form of exercise you will enjoy and then DO IT! Hire a personal trainer to work with you to develop an exercise routine you can live with if you must. Do what you must do to get yourself off the couch and moving!

To your health!

Pam

Give this post a

It's Later Than You Think

You would think reaching a long sought-after goal would make one jumping-up-and-down happy. I reached a goal a little over a week ago when I completed my Masters in Holistic Nutrition. Those that truly know me know how much this meant to me. Nutrition gave me back my life from Lupus. So at the age of 50 I went back to school to earn my Masters in Holistic Nutrition. The mission and yes, the passion, of the rest of my life is to help others the way I was helped. Because you see, western medicine isn't. It's shameful not once in the sixteen years I was battling active Lupus not one of my physicians (and I had a regiment of them) ever asked about my diet. You know even a mechanic would check to see if you had gas in the car.

But I digress. To my great surprise though I'm very pleased and proud about earning my Masters in Holistic Nutrition; I'm not jumping up and down happy. Instead my mind has turned to the next step of my journey. How do I help people understand the standard american diet is killing them? How do I help them understand there is an urgency to them understanding this? That nutrition CAN make a difference in chronic illness. That nutrition can even prevent chronic illness. New research is even showing that proper nutrition can STOP bad genes from turning on. Do you get the immensity of that information? This is HUGE. It's so huge it makes me feel, well, it makes me feel, inadequate.

You know though I've been in remission for five years, Lupus stole quite a lot of time from me. There were years (yes, years) when if I wasn't at work I was in bed so I could go to work when it was time again. Literally. But in all that downtime Lupus taught me something too. It gave me an appreciation for the time of my life which I don't think I would have had to such a degree had I not gotten sick. And in a very unmistakable way, it taught me time is elusive.

I have a friend who puts it this way, "it's later than you think."

A few weeks ago while working a nightshift I had the privilege of watching the sunrise with a cancer patient. She was a delightful, perky lady; a truly amazing person. I remember wondering as we watched an absolutely awesome sunrise how many more she would have to enjoy. And to this moment I am in awe of her attitude. It's one sunrise I will never forget. Yeah the sunrise was beautiful but that isn't why I will remember it. I will remember it because that lady had such an awesome spirit. I felt so privileged to be able to share that sunrise with this person. It almost brought me to tears only I didn't want to cry in front of her. She was special. And perhaps, just perhaps, cancer happening to her didn't have to happen. Perhaps the standard american diet is what killed her. Processed foods are greatly lacking in the nutrients your body needs. According to the W.H.O. 70% of cancer can be prevented thru proper nutrition. So you might give some thought to changing your diet for the better to one brimming with whole foods . The human body can repair itself if given the nutrients it needs. And please consider this today, not tomorrow because......

I have a friend who puts it this way, "it's later than you think".

As I sat down to write this blog post I thought of various clients and friends who only sporadically take vitamins or various supplements. Then they complain and blame the vitamin or supplement when really it's their inconsistency which fuels their health problems. Worse yet I thought of clients who sporadically purchase children's vitamins. Because what they are teaching their children is it's ok to put health second. They are unintentionally setting-up their children for an unhealthy life. Meanwhile time flies by.

I have a friend who puts it this way, "it's later than you think".

Do you get what I'm trying to say? Time goes by quickly. It's elusive. And sometimes you run out of it. Life is such a priceless, wondrous gift. Wellness is the foundation of the quality of your life. Without wellness you lose choice. I've been there and done that. It's not fun. Unfortunately, it's really easy to let time fly by and to take wellness for granted. And it's a mistake to do so. Wellness must be taken care of and nurtured. Treasured. How many times have you thought "gee I should eat better" or "I'll quit smoking next week" or "gee I should exercise more" or "I'll do better tomorrow".

Tomorrow you may be sick.
It may be later than you think.

How Will You Feel In 90 Days?

I'm sure you've heard the old adage if you keep doing the same thing you'll keep getting the same results. Unfortunately, most of us aren't listening when it comes to our health.

How many times have you thought to yourself you need to eat better or exercise more? If you don't change anything in your lifestyle 90 days from now you will feel the same as you do right now ...... or maybe worse.

Do you realize five of the leading ten causes of illness and death (coronary heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and atherosclerosis) are associated with diet ? Not to mention high blood pressure, obesity, dental diseases, osteoporosis, and gastrointestinal diseases are also related to dietary causes.

YOU have control over your diet. And what you eat MATTERS!

Everything you eat eventually makes up every cell in your body.

I'll say it again. What you eat matters.

Consider this:

1. Researchers with Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and the Shanghai Cancer Institute in China have discovered a possible link between a diet rich in certain vegetables and a decreased risk for breast cancer. The study appears in the March issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
2. The World Health Organisation feels 70% of ALL cancer could be prevented with nutrition.
3. The Lewin Group http://www.lewin.com/ has done a study showing sickness and chronic disease can be dramatically reduced by supplementing with nutritional supplements.
4. In 2002 the AMA in their Journal of the American Medical Association recommended everyone supplement their diet with a multi-nutrition product.
5. A Harvard study of more than 87,000 female nurses ages 34 to 59 found a 41% reduction in heart disease risk among those who took vitamin E supplements for at least two years.
6. A study of almost 40,000 male health professionals ages 40 to 75 found a 37% lower risk of heart disease among those who took daily vitamin E supplements of at least 100 IU for more than two years.
7. A National Institute of Aging study of 11,000 elderly people found those who used vitamins C and E supplements had a 53% reduction in mortality from heart disease and a 42% reduction in death from all causes, compared with non-users.

And most of all consider this:
An important video lecture by Dr Dean Ornish --- very short but very important! Unfortunately they elected to attach a short trailer about pangea day on this video ..... if it plays first its very short ..... hit play again and you'll get Dr Ornish's video.... it's well worth the few minutes. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/252 This was life-changing research!

Surely what Dr Ornish had to say made you do a double take! Poor lifestyle choices can turn on bad genes. By proactively choosing a healthy lifestyle you may keep bad genes from turning on.

Are you aware the Journal of the American Medical Association and the United States Department of Agriculture have admitted that today's produce no longer has enough nutrients to keep us healthy? They've even recommended everyone supplement their diet with a multi-nutrition product.

So what are you going to do? How are you going to feel 90 days from now?

I'm hoping you're going to choose to live your BEST life!

Don't forget I'm here ready to help you.