Health and Wellness Archives - Page 6 of 8

What Dr. Joel Fuhrman, MD Says We MUST Follow to Be Healthy

November 27, 2011 by admin 6 Comments

Guess what happens when you focus on eating healthy?

The other night I was watching Dr. Joel Fuhrman, MD and you written the Eat to Live on a PBS special. His new program “Three Steps to Healthy Eating” was very easy to follow and right on. In the past I have tried to follow Dr. Fuhrman’s eating approach which is essentially a plant-based eating approach that includes seeds and beans as an everyday staple. The deterrent to me was the absence of animal protein which for creates satiety and keeps me from feeling hungry too soon after I eat.

I loved his simple new approach he calls GOMBS which stands for: greens, onions, mushrooms, bean/berries and seeds. It is that simple. Make the greens the mainstay of your meal, use onions and mushrooms daily because they are super foods, use the beans for protein and a dash of seeds.

What is remarkable was that Dr. Fuhrman’s and my experience is very similar. We are a food addicted nation partly because we have been fed the wrong information. It is not about eating less, exercising more, and having more willpower. I have written extensively about how food is our biggest addiction. It is also not about calories in and out. It is about the quality of the calorie and eating foods that are nutrient rich.

Guess what happens when you do that? You get more energy, you feel less hungry, you enjoy the food more, you lose weight but most importantly your ailments and propensity for disease goes away. I loved the comment he made about how addicted we are to using pills to solve our problem when eating the right food is the best medicine. He said it’s like hitting yourself over the head with a hammer everyday then going to the doctor to get a pill to make is stop hurting.

When are we going to wake up? We have been sold a bill of bad goods not only on the information we receive, but the food we are encouraged to eat that then addicts us and makes us sick. 80% of the illnesses we have are lifestyle induced. That means it’s up to you. If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.

The first step is to get informed then take a look at The Nirvana Diet™. It teaches you how to have the mind control to change your habits. Feels like an abrupt ending. How can I find out more? What’s the first step I should take with the Nirvana Diet™? Maybe a free consult? That’s only a phone call away.

Make Your Exercise Count: What you Eat is only a part of your plan for success

November 22, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

There is something magical that happens when you start tracking or counting your exercise. It gives you motivation to exceed what you have done and more aware of what you are doing. Many of my clients use loseit.com and now they are synched up with a new product that is only $99 that can help you keep track of how much you are exercising. It is called FITBIT.

What I love about FITBIT is that you can count steps, calories burned; miles walked or run and even keep track of calories you are burning when you are not exercising. There are a few ways to get in your daily exercise to be what I call in the weight loss zone. They are: walk 10,000 steps a day or five miles or burn 400 to 500 calories.

You’ll be amazed once you start to keep track, you have a benchmark against which you can improve. You will want to do more and more to make your goal. If you think being healthy and losing weight is just about the food you eat think again. It is also not just about being a maniac about exercise without the food piece. They are two pieces in to puzzle and you don’t get the results without the other.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the Harvard School of Public Affairs, whose research I respect, determined that after the age of 50 you need to exercise for one hour a day to prevent weight gain. This works out to be a little less than what you have to do to lose weight depending on how hard you are working out. It is not about working out hard, as much as doing something every day you enjoy. If you are looking for a motivational hypnosis for exercise I have one that really works. Here is the link to download it. Once you get hypnotized you fill find you start to enjoy exercise. That is now hypnotism works, it is designed to help you have the thoughts about exercise you want, not the ones that keep you stuck.

Personally, I walk every day in nature. I could not live without that. I also enjoy hiking on weekends and a great yoga class (link to past post on yoga if you have one). I have also found that the yogic breathing I teach which is available in my meditation download is great exercise for the lungs. I am never out of breath. Tel l me what you enjoy doing?

Why Angelina Jolie does not look healthy or sexy

October 26, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

Losing weight should be motivated by a desire to live a healthier life style more than a way to find your confidence and “look sexy.” I know women think being thinner is the ticket to more self- confidence and being more attractive to the opposite sex. The problem is that confidence just like happiness comes from within.

I don’t think women realize that research shows men find curvier shapes more attractive. According to the research, looking at curvaceous, the hour-glassed shaped body triggers the pleasure reward circuitry of the brain in a man. Studies across all cultures show that men consistently find curvy women to be more attractive. This is attributed to the subconscious drive of continuing the species: curves and shapely hips, an hour glass shape is subconsciously associated with greater fertility and health in a woman.

Recently I was shocked at an article People magazine had on how Angelina Jolie and other celebrities have an obsession with thinness . Honestly in the most recent pictures of Angelina, she looked like she was sick she was so thin. Obviously there is something else going on here that women just do not get. Read this blog post if you want to get in touch with a bigger more meaningful reason to lose weight.

Our cultural obsession with thinness is reinforced by the models we see on the runways that get thinner, younger and more strange looking every year. This obsession was created by the fashion industry who decided to use super thin models to take away the distraction of the body. If the model was super thing, she became a walking mannequin to show off the clothes not the body.

I think a correction is in order here. A recent research poll published in Ladies Home Journal on women’s satisfaction levels with their lives showed only 27% were satisfied with their health and wellness, and as would be expected, women 19 to 25 feel the most pressure to look beautiful. What we need to realize is that not only happiness, but also beauty comes from within.

We need to find another way to let our beauty blossom. Beauty has more to do with how you glow and what your subtle energy is like than it does now much you weigh. I also think when you cultivate beauty from within it is easier to be the right weight naturally.

Want to know how to how look healthier and sexier? Smile, it turns on the glow factor. Self-confidence is the absence of self-consciousness…focus on seeing the beauty in everyone. It works. Take a look at the downloadable hypnosis MP3 I have on self-confidence to get this on a subconscious level.

I would love your feedback. Do you agree or disagree with this? Connect with me on Facebook and share your comments. Do you think our cultural obsession with thinness is unhealthy?

Eating right by finding the bigger purpose

October 20, 2011 by admin 6 Comments

Recently one of my clients told me about Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet. As you might expect by the title, it is a vegan approach to eating and living. Veganism is a philosophy that avoids consuming animal products as food or in any fashion such as clothes, cosmetics, and products that are tested on animals. Veganism is motivated by a desire to practice a “cruelty free”way of living. In doing so, there can be many benefits to one’s health which might include losing weight, provide natural way to improve you health and alleviate medical conditions that are lifestyle induced.

I have found that finding a bigger meaning or purpose behind what you want to change can be very motivating. For example, many people find it so much easier to give up unhealthy habits such as smoking, drinking, consuming coffee when they are pregnant. If you are struggling with your eating and lifestyle habits, finding your bigger purpose beyond just having to lose weight to look better or because you think you will be more attractive can provide the motivation you are lacking.

One of my clients came to me struggling to overcome a compulsive and unhealthy candy eating habit. Every time she felt the need to shut down emotionally she binged on candy. When I suggested she start to look at the candy negatively she remembered that was what she did when she stopped eating meat. I think it is easier to let go of an unhealthy habit especially one that involves an addictive substance such as sugar, by intentionally focusing on the negatives of what it does to you and how badly it makes you feel. You can also derive energy from knowing that you are no longer supporting companies that practice business in a way that harms others.

I am particularly disturbed by how businesses develop products for the consumer that have the potential to hook them and are unhealthy. Sometimes it takes years for this information to reach the consumer as was the case with smoking. Personally I feel the food industry is very similar to the tobacco industry. Every person that I can help to free from the grips of an addictive substance that is “man-made” the better I feel.

I think we are all disconcerted and disillusioned with the state of affairs in our country. Can you believe that one of our biggest exports is antidepressants and the toxic fast food that is so pervasive in our culture. Perhaps it feels overwhelming and you think there is nothing you can do to help change our state of affairs. I think we all have the power to stop consuming products that are harming us, others, and the environment.

The sooner we wake up to what is going on the more effective we can deploy and use our power of choice. That is why I think you should take a look at Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet. You may find the motivation you were looking for to eat healthier and live healthier by practicing kindness. This “diet” works with the Nirvana Diet™ because the program I developed is a diet for the mind. It helps you make what you want to change your lifestyle.

Join the conversation and let me know what motivates you to live a healthier life.

Get motivated and overcome resistance… the root of stress

October 18, 2011 by admin 2 Comments

When you find the motivation to change the things that are not working in your life, you will find your stress levels go down. Imagine waking up in the morning and feeling you have the power to take the steps necessary to change what you have been resisting or ignoring. That includes having the motivation to pursue some of your dreams as well. In these challenging times, you have to learn how to think out of the box, see the silver lining and deal with the stress. Remember the book Who Moved my Cheese? The message in that book is to stop looking in the same place for the cheese if it is no longer there. In order to do this you have to master and learn how to overcome what prevents you from doing this.

Recently I came across a very inspiring video on Marion Woodman called Dancing in the Flames. Here is the link [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELL_5hStC_k[/youtube] Marion is a well-established Jungian analyst, who overcame an eating disorder and cancer. Marion reveals how she did this in the video. What she was able to do was to overcome resistance.

Resistance leads to stress and eventually to anxiety. Anxiety is different than fear. With anxiety there is no clear cut reason as to why you feel anxious. That means there is no action you take. It is taking action and seeing progress that makes us feel good.

Most of us talk about how we want change, but we do not know what to do and or do not take consistent action to accomplish the goal. Change is the platform by which Obama got elected and yet nothing has changed. Change happens when we learn how to see how what we think is fear is really anxiety and may not be real. If it were real, we would know what to do and do it. It is anxiety that is paralyzing.

Since most people do not want to confront their resistance, they end up with smoke screens in their lives that distract them and keep them from dealing with the real issues. This is the root of stress and anxiety.

You probably have a lot of stress and anxiety in your life, the byproduct of resistance if you are or have:

Drama in your life sucking up your energy
Unhealthy habits that you cannot seem to change
Feel like a victim in your life
Self- critical
Doubt yourself
Fear rejection

It has been my experience that the first step to changing anything is to recognize what is really going on. Once you do that, you can see the actions that need to be taken more clearly and take them. Nothing is “good or bad.” I never look at anything as being bad. It is just feedback. I also trust there is an order to the way things happen that I do not completely control. That is why watching Marion Woodman in Dancing in the Flames is so inspiring. She received valuable feedback from her dreams and intuition. We all have access to this except when we are under the negative and debilitating influence of anxiety.

To overcome stress, resistance, and get motivated you need to learn how to be calm and easy going despite with what is going on around you that is stress inducing. Some people call this going with the flow and are able to do it more naturally. If it does not come naturally to you, the best way to cultivate what I call “presence” is to start meditating. Think meditation is hard, think again, or better yet check my new home study program meditation made easy. This is my personal meditation practice and it works. Getting motivated and overcoming resistance is made easier when you learn how to dance in the flames and have fun. Life is a game…that is why I say “enlighten” up.