Tag Archive for Julia Ross

Supplements Supplements Supplements!

11225426_837045249726296_7631522987210496314_oHi There!  Here’s yet another homemade photo for my blog:)  Professional photographer, I am not.  This is Mark and I SUPping ( StandUpPaddleboard) on Lake Frederick yesterday.  We’ve supped almost every weekend since July, and we’re getting really good!  Our goal is a SUP vacation next summer, and also to get to know all our Virginia Parks, Rivers, and Lakes.

Today’s Post isn’t on fun activities though, it’s on supplements, because I get asked about them all the time.

Supplements sound promising, but when faced with the options in a store, feel confusing.  That’s because they are!  We need to make sure that the supplement bottle we buy actually contains the supplement we need, and nothing else.  ( Read The Labels!  Artificial colors? Flavors? Sweeteners? Read. The. Label.)

And it matters to me that my supplements are derived from Real Whole Foods in the United States, and not Petroleum Products from China.  It’s a whole big supplement world out there, and it’s a good idea to have at least a little knowledge if you’re using them.

For the most part, I use Biotics supplements, and I recommend them to everyone I work with, and my whole family.  Here’s why:  I know my rep; I know Biotics uses real, quality ingredients; I know they produce everything in the US; I know they SUBMIT EVERYTHING TO THE FDA.

That’s super rare.  It costs a fortune, and most supp companies don’t do that step.  Studies show that 90% of ALL supplements are “made in China”, from petroleum products.  That’s disgusting.

Okay, here’s my routine, and why:

First thing in the morning on an empty stomach, I take 6 Intenzymes and 3 Bromeleins (both are systemic enzymes for inflammation and viscous blood – bc I’m often sore, and I have had 2 blood clots), 2 GTA Forte ( I tested hypothyroid a few years ago, and I like this desiccated pig thyroid product better than Armor, and wow! it works!  My eyebrows have grown back in!), and 2 L-Tyrosines – I started this 2 summers ago for energy after reading The Mood Cure by Julia Ross. I love energy!.

If I’ve injured myself, or I’m extra sore, I take more enzymes both in the morning, and throughout the day, always on an empty stomach. They work wonders, honestly.

Systemic (and Digestive) enzymes are FANTASTIC.  I think they’re the one supplement I wouldn’t give up.  If you’re curious, either meet with me, or ***learn about them.  Actually, even if you’re a client, learn about them.  It’s so important to be informed as to how our body actually works.

After breakfast, I take between 2 and 4 Omega-3 fish oils, (depends on my workouts, and my schedule.  I used to take a lot more but feel I’m more “normal” now), a Vit B with C, a Co Q 10, and from there, it varies.  This summer I flew a few times, so I took a supplement called BioProtect, which is a broad spectrum anti-oxidant.  Airports and planes pump us full of radiation; this isn’t good for anyone, but apparently 1 in 20 of us actually have genes that make us even more susceptible to radiation than others.

Last night, and for the next few days, I’m taking “A.D.P.”, which is a standardized extract of emulsified oregano because I feel a sore throat coming on.  This is a supp I recommend all the time for bacterial, viral, or fungal/candida issues.  I make sure that my kids all have A.D.P. for the winter time/cold/flu/sore throat season.  It’s powerful.  (I also did my go-to Manuka honey w/garlic last night.  I don’t wait around to see if things get worse, I act.)   And right before bed, I rubbed a little Eucalyptus Essential Oil on my tonsils, armpit, and a swipe inside my cheek (it tastes disgusting…).

If I’m tired during the afternoon, and have an appointment or training at night, I’ll take 2 more L-Tyrosine’s on an empty stomach.

If I’m super sore, I’ll add L-Glutamine in the afternoon.  (L-Glutamine’s also great for rebuilding gut lining/repairing leaky gut.)

Oh! I’ve also been taking Bio-Immunozyme (broad spectrum vitamins, minerals, enzymes, glandulars, plus herbs like echinecea) for the past few days, again, because I’ve felt a little something coming on. This is in combination with a busy week that gave me a couple late consults and early, early mornings. Recipe for a weak immune system.

I take digestive enzymes ( Hydrazyme ) and HCl (stomach acid)(Betaine + HP) if I have a big meal, or am teaching a class/training someone right after I eat.  I used to have to be religious about digestive supplements with each and every meal, for years, but not so much anymore.

I digest really well now.  Oh!  I’ve been adding Apple Cider Vinegar to 99% of all my water for about 4 years.  That’s GREAT for digestion, plus cheap and easy and delicious.  Get it “with the mother”, and make sure you shake it before you pour it.

In the evening I take 2 supplements that aren’t from Biotics, but from Dr. Carolyn Dean, who’s a big authority on Magnesium, which I believe EVERYONE should be supplementing with.  They’re called ReMag (liquid magnesium), and ReLyte (liquid multi-mineral). There’s other great magnesium’s on the market, but I like that this one is liquid.  1) Less water to swallow right before bed, and 2) more easily absorbed.

I have all my girls on Biotics magnesium, called Mg-Zyme.  It’s a great product!  I also make sure they all have the complex B with C.  Women go through a lot of B vitamins and Magnesium with their cycles.

Plus, most people are deficient in Magnesium; our body uses a LOT, and our soils – and therefore our foods – are deficient.  Actually, are soils are woefully deficient in nutrients, and getting more so.  Plants get their minerals from the soil….

Do you have gut issues?  Low stomach acid ALWAYS means low B12 absorption (long explanation, but the same cells that make stomach acid also make Intrinsic Factor, and Intrinsic Factor basically gets B12 into our cells).

Actually, gut issues mean you’re probably not absorbing several nutrients.  This is important because OUR BODY IS MADE OUT OF NUTRIENTS FROM THE FOOD WE EAT.  Gas/bloat/indigestion/UC/colitis/IBS….. 1)change your diet 2) add key supplements to heal and seal the gut.

Also, I also Love my tinctures!  I just finished 2 liver tinctures from Herb Pharm: Dandelion and Milk Thistle.  I like to nurture my liver, frequently.  I also use Herb Pharm Liver Tincture, and Biotics Beta TCP and Beta Plus, on a rotating basis.

Whew!  Seriously, that’s barely scratching the surface.  I rotate and change up my supplements throughout the year, depending on season and circumstance.  I’ve already begun accumulating supps to give my kids at Christmas, and will be making homemade Fire Cider and Elderberry syrup soon – Posts to follow:)

For now, if you want to Supplement, do your homework first.  Supps from the drugstore and Costco are probably crap.  Ask me if you need help, or go to your trusted health food store ( that’s NOT Vitamin Shop- they’ll sell you anything and everything there).   If you’re in my area, go to Natural Market, the owner, Shelley,  and the employees really, really know their stuff, plus, they sell reputable products.

It Matters A Lot!

Last words:  You can’t out-supplement a bad lifestyle.  Supplements are supplemental to Real Whole Food, adequate sleep, moving, and stress management.

They’re not magical pills or liquids that solve your problems.  They’re supplements.   Have a great day!

 

Need Willpower to Lose Weight? Build Habits, It’s Easier!

5 of us snorkelingI received a couple emails this week that I want to share.  The first one is from a woman named Chris who’s struggling with staying on a plan.  Here goes:

Hi Debbie,

I’ve been reading your blog, and other paleo blogs, and trying to follow the paleo eating plan.  I’m starving and I’m miserable, and I can’t go more than two days without eating cereal, crackers, or whatever is on the conference table at my office.  Is this impossible for someone with no willpower like me?

I told Chris I’d answer her in my blog, because this scenario is very, very common.  But first, here’s an email from Missy, who’s been working with me for a few months now. Missy is a single working mom; the definition of busy.  She’s struggled with food addictions and consistency, but her PERSISTENCE is paying off:

I hit the 10 lb mark on Saturday, already…. without even really thinking about it or concentrating on it other than to not eat grains. my mood and energy keeps slowly getting better and better and i’m feeling very motivated. people are starting to ask me what i’m doing and I go off like a crazy person about eating real whole food. hahaha I usually apologize and give them time to let it sink in and I give them the resources that I’ve found as well as your website and just tell them to inform themselves. be a smart consumer. don’t allow yourself to be misled by big food and big pharma. there’s no magic pill. there’s no starvation diet. one of the best lines in this book so far is “your body can’t tell the difference between jenny craig’s packaged meals and concentration-camp fare.”

I want to shout all this stuff from the rooftops!

I made a new dish over the weekend with spaghetti squash. it was creamy pesto chicken with peas and carrots over spaghetti squash. YUM! I made my boyfriend try it (he stopped at taco bell on the way to his house – I stopped at the grocery store), and he said that he would eat it if he HAD to, but that it tasted funny. haha as we were sitting there watching tv, me satiated and happy, him complaining that his stomach didn’t feel good and that he was starting to get hungry again (already only about an hour after he ate his taco bell), so I offered him some of my “pasta”. he said that he would eat it….. and then I got him to admit that it was good. 😀 I win. he ate a whole bowl!

The book Missy is referring to is one I recommend all the time, The Mood Cure or the Diet Cure, by Julia Ross.  She and I are meeting this week to discuss the protocols and science behind it.  I’ve said again and again, the amino acid therapy this book uses to re-adjust moods, addictions, anxiety, etc,  is incredible, honest.

Back to Chris,.. is eating Real Whole Food possible if you have no willpower?  YES!!  I used to eat literally a few boxes of ice cream a WEEK, and I could finish off a box of Kashi or Mini Wheats in TWO days.  And there-in lies the problem:  sugar, flour, and chemicals are incredibly addictive. You have to give them up if you want a healthy body and a healthy weight.  Unfortunately,  your addicted mind will rebel badly if your addicted body isn’t getting them.  What to do?  Be patient with yourself.  You’re breaking years ( decades??) of bad habits; neural pathways and brain patterns that have been nurtured and sustained over and over again.  You’ve got to build healthy habits!

Here’s a little strategy:  (1) You’re going to have to change the way you think about food.  Do the donuts on the conference table call to you?  Then you don’t think of them as sugar/flour/chemical bombs that cause cancer, diabetes, and heart attacks.  Want to dive into the bread basket?  Then you’re not thinking that the high insulin and blood sugar will give you wrinkles or make you impotent.  Think you’ll satisfy your needs hypnosis slimwith Weight Watchers frozen desserts?  Those chemical cancer factories will in NO WAY satisfy your brains desire for ACTUAL NUTRIENTS, and before you know it, the Rebound Binge happens.  Educate yourself!!  Read my site, read Grain Brain, read Wheat Belly, read Mood Cure.  Stop thinking of food in terms of calories; look around.  Where has the Calorie Myth gotten us?  70% overweight, and everyone’s sick.  That whole line we tell ourselves, “I’ll eat this now and exercise/starve/purge/just eat broccoli.. later”  DOESN’T work.  Ever. Your body is a Chemistry Set, not a Math Equation.

(2) Set yourself up for success.  If you’re hoping that you can keep your trigger foods in the house and ignore them, you’re wrong.  No One In Your House needs those foods.  Kids DON’T need sugar, flour, or chemicals, it has the same destructive effects on them as it does on you.  The average disease takes 20 years to manifest.  Just because your kids are slim now doesn’t mean poison food isn’t affecting them, because it is.  Toss that excuse out the window.

You MUST start planning your week; ask your self:  when can I shop, when can I cook, when can I pack?  What can I freeze and use later?  Then plan it and write it down on your schedule.  It’s a mind set.  Go into your office on a full belly, have a great lunch packed, know you’ll be eating Real Whole Food for dinner, and junk food at the meetings won’t call so loudly.  Out running around all day?  PACK!  and not stupid diet food, but Real Whole Foods, and those toxic fast food/gas station restaurants won’t be tempting.

If you’re persistent with your self education, and consistent with your planning and scheduling, change happens.  New habits form. The best thing?  Willpower, which uses up a lot of energy, is quite draining, and completely limited, isn’t necessary anymore.  Do you look at a dirty cigarette on the street and ever have even a tiny desire to put it in your mouth?  No, because you think it’s gross.  There’s no effort whatsoever involved with that decision.  Keep learning, stay determined, and pretty soon, there’s very little effort involved with your food choices.  You’ll just choose delicious food that you know your body needs to thrive.  You’ll become a Nutrient Seeker to your very core, and then the issue of willpower isn’t even an issue anymore.

Chris, and everyone else struggling out there, please don’t give up on yourself.  Real change, Brain Change, takes time. You’ve had a lifetime of hypnotizing by BigPhovernment that CaloriesInCaloriesOut works, and now consciously, you know it doesn’t.  It’s your subconscious that needs work.   If it’s important to you, then schedule a few minutes every day to fill your brain with the thoughts you want to think.  It’s not going to happen with luck; our life is what we make of it.  If you need help with your habits and consistency, get in touch with me.  I can help you understand your Biology and give you tips for your Psychology, to turn you into a Real Whole Foodie. ***** REMEMBER, TESTOSTERONE LADDEN GUEST POST BY MARK ON APRIL 13, TUNE IN FOR A MAN’S PERSPECTIVE ON BEING HEALTHY AND LEAN. *****

How to REALLY Lose Weight (it’s not by dieting!) and Looks Healthy But Isn’t

debbie (27)I had the opportunity to look at a diet plan that a very large employer has probably paid a whole lot of money for their employees.  This plan includes a P90X style workout several days a week, and meal plans around 1300 calories.  You know how I say that Diet Plans (pills, programs, menus, foods, drinks etc) are just money makers, not actual “ways to lose weight and keep it off”?  This falls right in that category.

GOOD NEWS:  plans that have you starve yourself and work your butt off AREN’T NECESSARY.  No matter what Main Stream Media/Medical/Business/Government  would have you believe, the science Truly Truly Truly doesn’t support the THEORY that restricting calories through diet and burning more calories through exercise EVER works long term.

What the SCIENCE actually says is that if you Diet, you can be pretty assured of GAINING WEIGHT and causing Nutritional Deficiencies that will cause health problems for you down the road, or possibly immediately.

Here’s some pretty sobering statistics:

* A government review of 55 studies found NO SUSTAINED WEIGHT LOSS AT ALL AFTER 12 MONTHS.

* Between 95 and 98% of everyone who loses weight on a DIET, Gains It All Back

*2/3 of DIETERS REGAIN MORE WEIGHT THAN THEY LOST

* The more weight initially lost, the greater the rebound weight.

What’s going on here?  Why doesn’t restricting calories, limiting fat, and exercising a ton work?  Simple:  You’re a chemistry set, not a math equation.  Traditional, typical dieting SCREWS UP YOUR HORMONES.  Eating Diet Foods and Drinks screws up your liver.  Following a low fat plan depletes your hormones and messes up your brain (which is 60% fat).  Restricting calories shuts or slows down the thyroid almost immediately.  The neurotransmitters take an immediate hit with low cal dieting – there goes your mood/energy/thought patterns.  Cortisol increases BECAUSE LOW CAL DIETING IS SEEN BY THE BRAIN AS STARVATION, which equals STRESS.  Insulin ALWAYS increases when Cortisol increases.

Are you getting the picture?  Probably.  Here’s what’s harder for DIETERS to believe.

If you eat a diet of a couple thousand calories or more FILLED with FAT, PROTEIN, VITAMINS, and MINERALS from TONS of good fats, fish/meat/eggs/seafood, and tons of vegetables, you will lose weight.  Honest.  Your body doesn’t want to starve. Your body doesn’t want to diet. Bad things happen when you force it too.  Your body wants to run correctly:  it wants to have normal cell turnover, it wants to make all your sex hormones in normal amounts, it wants to repair every day damage, it wants to run thousands and thousands of chemical reactions that rely on the FUEL YOU PROVIDE YOUR BODY to complete.

Again, You’re Not A Math Equation, You’re A Chemistry Set.

Let’s look at a couple foods included in this program and other large programs; look at their ingredients and honestly access if you think these ingredients could in anyway make your body permanently slimmer, healthier, and more energetic.

Diet Cherry 7Up Antioxidant:  Filtered carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup or sugar and less than 2% of natural flavors, citric acid, potassium citrate, calcium disodium EDTA (to protect flavor).   ***** The FDA “plans” to study (it’s “high” on the priority list) the calcium disodium EDTA because it’s suspected of mutagenic, teratogenic, subsacute, and reproductive effects. Those middle two words – I don’t even know what they mean and I’m not looking them up.  I don’t need to.  This product contains dangerous chemicals in addition to high fructose corn syrup and sugar.  Antioxidant my ….

Weight Watchers Brownie Bliss ONLY 2 POINTS! Note the flours, sugars, hydrogenated oils, and chemicals:

Powdered Sugar, Sugar, Semi-Sweet Chocolate (Unsweetened Chocolate, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin, Natural Vanilla Extract), Water, Enriched Wheat Flour Bleached (Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Condensed Skim Milk, Partially Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Corn Syrup Solids, Inulin (Natural Extract of Chicory Roots), Glycerin, Soybean Oil, Pea Fiber, Dry Whey, Chocolate Liquor, Egg Whites, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Propionate (Preservatives), Nonfat Dry Milk, Caramel Color, Whole Milk Solids, Reduced Mineral Whey Powder, Dextrose, Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate), Xanthan Gum, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Red 40.    

Let’s wrap up with a real shocker:  The American Heart Association APPROVED Subway meal:  Black Forrest Ham Sub, Apples, and Skim Milk:

The Ham:  Water, dextrose, 2% or less of modified food starch, salt, potassium lactate, seasoning [potassium chloride, pork stock, sugar, yeast extract, salt, lactic acid, fructose, sunflower oil, cysteine hydrochloride, calcium lactate, modified food starch, flavors, grill flavor (from sunflower oil), polysorbate 80, rendered pork fat, and smoke flavor], sodium phosphate, sodium diacetate, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite, caramel color.

The Bread: ITALIAN HERBS & CHEESE BREAD Subway® Italian Bread, Monterey Jack cheese (cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes, artificial color), cheddar cheese (cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes, artificial color) potato starch and powdered cellulose added to prevent caking, natamycin [a natural mold inhibitor]), garlic powder, corn maltodextrin, long grain rice powder, salt, toasted bread crumbs (wheat flour, dextrose, modified wheat starch, sugar, salt, yeast, caramel coloring, paprika), spice, parmesan cheese solids (milk, cheese, cultures, salt, enzymes, calcium chloride), cellulose, modified palm oil, oregano, natural and artificial flavor (including butter extract), sunflower oil, whey, gum arabic, citric acid, yeast extract, lactic acid, calcium lactate, disodium phosphate and not more than 2% silicon dioxide added (as anticaking agent).

I’m not even going to print the Apples and Skim Milk ingredients; trust me, they’re LOADED with flavors, preservatives, and additives.

Back to my original topic, Traditional Dieting/Calories In /Calories Out is a BUSINESS.  It promises weight loss and rakes in money.  In 2012, about 108 Million Americans were on a Diet, and the Industry brought in $20 BILLION that year, $20 BILLION.  It promises weight loss, but it doesn’t deliver weight loss.

Want to lose weight:  get your head on straight.  You need to eat Real Whole Foods Every Single Day.  You need to plan, cook, shop and pack, and make smart choices when you eat out.  Not because the food is “fattening”, but because it’s loaded with flours, sugars, bad oils and chemicals that make you sick and addicted.  Focus on the word “addicted”, because that’s the biggest struggle I see:  not being able to stop eating or resist foods calling to you.  As long as you’re eating addictive foods containing  Flour, Sugar, and chemicals, you’re going to stay addicted.  It’s just like cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs.  Trying to be “moderate” just ensures the addictive patterns continue.

I do a lot of work with Julia Ross’s Mood Cure and Diet Cure.  It’s an Amino Acid supplement program that restocks/replenishes the neurotransmitters in your brain.  You become ” Normal “, as opposed to Food Driven.  It’s an excellent program that I’ve used on myself, my husband, and several clients.  The results are unbelievable.  If you think you can’t stick to a Real Whole Foods program because the Fake Foods/flours/sugars/chemicals constantly call you, get in touch with me.  You can change.  You can get healthy.  You can be normal weight and full of energy.  Honest. You just need to become a Real Whole Foodie.

Lose Weight Without Dieting, and No Recipe Paleo Meals

I’ve had more emails in the past week than in the past couple of months;  I’ve struck a nerve asserting that you can be slim without dieting.  Some women are asking if it’s actually possible, since we’ve all been brainwashed with Diet Propaganda since birth; and some women are lamenting their Food Addiction. ( They believe it, they just can’t stop eating.)

Two different issues, but the resolution is the same:  Real Whole Foods.  Make your meals comprised of Good Fats, Clean Proteins, and TONS of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and dairy if you can tolerate it. These foods contain the nutrients that make up every single cell in our body.  Glucose/Carbs/Starches/Sugars – they make nothing.  Our body uses a tiny MOLECULE of glucose inside the cells for fuel.  Our cells can also use fat and ketones for fuel.  That’s how people who live in areas with little to no vegetation thrive.  God designed our body to only be able to store a tiny bit of Glucose/Sugar/Carbohydrate, and convert any extra to Fat.

Changing gears here, until the mid 1900s, American’s didn’t have a weight problem. Health problems were horrible diseases like Typhoid or Cholera.   Check out this chart which relates changes in our food supply to how Heart Disease and Cancer went from almost unheard of in 1900,  to being the top two causes of death by 1950.  In 2013 we have a better chance of SURVIVING heart disease and cancer, but a GREATER than ever chance of developing it; despite Modern Medicine and all it’s advice.

What’s the link between our exploding weight and our horrible health?  Food.  By 1950 hydrogenated oils like Crisco and Margarine were household staples; in the 70s/80s, high fructose corn syrup became the predominant sweetener used in packaged/processed foods, in the 80s and 90s, chemically enhanced, fake foods and diet foods became a new norm.  Sugar went from 18 pounds per person in 1800, to 90 pounds per person in 1900, to almost 200 pounds per person in 2010.  Americans have drastically decreased their consumption of fatty meats and saturated fats, and vegetables and fruits.

The Results?  70% overweight, more than 30% obese.  Heart Disease, continually increasing, Diabetes – EXPLODING, Cancer – continually increasing, Depression/Anxiety/Migraines/Alzheimer’s – EXPLODING…. I could go on and on.

The take-away:  Dieting hasn’t worked; it’s actually had the opposite effect! Statistically, almost 100% of EVERYONE who loses weight on a “diet” gains it back. Most people gain MORE than they lost.  Reducing calories lowers Thyroid hormone, and increases Cortisol.  Eat a Low Fat/No Fat Diet, which means carby diet foods, and your Insulin increases. Losing weight becomes more and more difficult with each consecutive diet.  The hormonal effect of dieting is disastrous.  

What’s the latest in this line of research?  The effect dieting has on our Neurotransmitters, like dopamine and serotonin.  It completely depletes them or whacks out their levels.  If our Neurotransmitters aren’t level or normal, we can’t be normal.  This is where food addiction comes into play, along with depression and anxiety.  Want to learn more?  Read the Diet Cure by Julia Ross, it’s fantastic.  Want to work on this?  Get in touch with me.

Think you can’t lose weight by eating meals of Real Whole Foods that contain lots of fat and actually leave you feeling full?  You’re wrong.  The real fact is you can’t lose weight PERMANENTLY on a diet.  Just TRY a Real Whole Foods approach, try and see what happens for a month.  Really, what do you have to lose?

I’m going to close with some No Recipe Paleo Meals that I’ve cooked in the past few days.  (Power Cooking to a Walking Dead Binge!!)

This is Roasted Potatoes:  Put about 1/3 cup of butter (I used KerryGold) in a large baking dish (with sides) and let it totally melt in your oven (450) for a few minutes.  Scrub and chop a 5 pound bag of Russet potatoes.  Put the potatoes in your baking dish and mix/stir around so all the potatoes are covered in butter.  Sprinkle a LOT of salt and pepper, and Italian seasoning on top.  Bake for about 45-55 minutes, stirring/flipping at least twice.  Let these cool and then freeze flat in big ziplocs; you can just “break off pieces” and reheat in the oven or a pan with more butter.

roasted potatoes

 

Here’s Roasted Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Sausage:  I made a huge pot of broth (24 hour simmer of chicken bones in water and 1tbsp white vinegar) earlier this week.   I used 10 cups here, some Malt Vinegar, cabbage, cauliflower, onion, garlic, leeks, sausage, italian seasoning, salt and pepper.  This also freezes well.

broth:cabbage

And last, Mark and I went away this weekend;  here’s what I cooked in our cabin:  brussels and onions in butter, water, salt and pepper,  mixed with ground lamb, and a side of fried plantains.  The next picture is the leftovers mixed with a few eggs for breakfast.

dinner at high view

breakfast leftovers

 

 

Tell Me, Should We Vent Our Feelings, Or Should We Stuff Them?

me:girlsThat might seem like a really odd title to a post 4 days before Christmas, but I live in a Girl Household, and it’s been a subject around here.  We have 4 daughters, ages 16 to 23, and the subject has come up:  if you’re stressed and something’s bothering you, should you talk about it or not.  I tend to be a “not” person.  I find that I actually forget about what bothered me if I ignore it; and most of my problems aren’t biggies, which in my book, at 48, primarily means health.  Besides, talking doesn’t resolve most problems, actions do, (even a lot of health problems).

That title question could be argued to death, but here’s some facts:  our feelings aren’t always an accurate reflection of the situation. Our moods, our feelings, our attitudes, they come from the Neurotransmitters in our brain.  Neurotransmitters are like roadmaps up there, and they send signals for everything:  breathing, moving, opinions, moods, everything.  The four main neurotransmitters are Serotonin, Dopamine, Gaba, and the Catecholamines, adrenalin, and norepinephrine.  These  things are made from Amino Acids, and Fatty Acids.  There are no carbs in our brain structure.  Our brain cells use glucose for fuel, but science has shown that they can also use Ketones ( a by-product of fatty acid metabolism, from a high fat, low carb diet), really well.  As a matter of fact, science is showing that the brain actually runs BETTER on fatty acids than glucose. ( the brain is 60% fat, much of it saturated.)

 

What happens when you don’t eat enough protein and fat?  Or when you do eat enough, but your digestion is bad and you don’t break them down and absorb them?  (remember:  heartburn, bloat, gas, stomach pain = NOT NORMAL, and a big sign of poor digestion).  Your brain suffers.  Those neurotransmitters don’t get made, or they don’t get made correctly.  Add the Standard American Diet on top of that, and you’ve got flours, sugars, hydrogenated oils, and chemicals messing up brain function even more.  Add lack of sleep and movement on top of that, both of which are VITAL to brain function, and the brain goes even further down hill.

Depression, anxiety, ADD, ADHD, and other mood disorders are plaguing this country, but you don’t need a “mood disorder” to signal that your brain could use some TLC, and the right food.  Access yourself:  are you stressed often?  do you constantly take offense?  need naps?  feel wired but tired?  gravitate to stimulants or depressants ?  Listen To Your Bodies Signals, they’re telling you something.

Commercial Advertising by Big Pharma would have you believe that this is all normal and unavoidable and you just need to take a pill.  The efficacy rate of mood drugs is between 30 and 50%; that’s pretty bad, and so are the side effects.  What if it’s not your circumstances, or the people around you driving you crazy, but it’s you?  Oh man, that line got me in trouble the other day, but… what if?

My husband and I (the guy deserves a medal, by the way), read Julia Ross’s The Mood Cure this past summer, did the quiz, and have been on her  program for Amino Acid therapy since July.  Oh My Gosh what a difference, for both of us!  We’ve also made going to bed early a priority for the past 2 years;  again, Oh My Gosh, what a difference!  Did you know that each hour of sleep before midnight is worth at least 2 hours after midnight?  Actually, the more we tie our daily habits and actions to our mood and our health, the better everything keeps getting.

Wow, I hope I’m not making it seem like I don’t think any problems are worthy of stressing about, because I do.  In a house with so much drama  (we had 4 teenagers for a couple of years.), you have to be a little bit tough.   But the older I get, the more I believe that “life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it.”,  Charles Swindall;  and this one, “most people are about as happy as they make up their mind to be.”, Abraham Lincoln.

Remember the other day when I told you about Charis and her advice to look back over this past year and see what we’ve manifested?  I’ve been doing that every day this week.  My life is what I make of it, even when a challenge is thrown at me.  We only have a couple of weeks left of 2013; ask, what did I do, what do I wish I did, and what do I want to do in 2014?  What kind of person do I want to be?  It all happens in your mind, and your mind can’t work for you if you’re not nurturing it with the food and the rest and the oxygen that it needs to thrive.  Be determined to create a life where you thrive!