I'm Perplexed

If you live in the United States and have made your millions in the United States why wouldn't you invest in the future of the United States? Now I'm certain you are asking yourself, what in the world is she talking about...well I just read my third article today on how Madonna is opening fitness chains however none of the new gyms are in the United States nor are there plans for an opening in the United States. I am left to wonder why? Here's the latest article I read.

Stargazing
Madonna to open chain of fitness centers

We’re no fans of hard candy, but we’d be willing to make an exception for Madonna.

The Material Girl announced this week that she’s opening a chain of high-end gyms around the world that will be known as Hard Candy Fitness. The 30,000-square-foot flagship will open Nov. 29 in a tony Mexico City neighborhood.

Oddly, while more locations are planned for Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Europe and Asia, none are immediately planned for the United States.

“Madonna’s touch will be everywhere,” says Mark Mastrov, founder of 24 Hour Fitness and one of Madonna’s partners in the venture. That must mean lots of mirrors for “voguing.

I must agree with the writer, it is odd there aren't any planned for the United States when we have an epidemic occurring here. We are obese and need help. Encouragement from a mega star like Madonna surely would influence some people to try to lose weight. At least I would think so. She has an amazing body and even if you think it's too muscular, you have to admit that to be over 50 and looking that good is a testimony in and of itself. I'm saddened by this. I wish she would reconsider but I wonder why she is trying out other countries...Is she upset with the US? Does she think it wouldn't be profitable because of our economic state? Does she think we won't join because there isn't hope? Well Madonna I hope the only reason is that you haven't found the perfect real estate yet because the United States Rocks. We are going on a healthy lifestyle regime here that will knock your socks off. Millions are joining the revolution and that includes kids, adults and aged. The United States is going to become more durable and ready for anything through fitness. Just watch with the legions of participants out there, we will survive and thrive with our new found dedication to the fitness process. And Madonna, I hope you join us with a grand opening of your vogue fitness center in the United States.

If you are making the decision to join the healthy living revolution, email me and let me know. We can work through this together and get on the right track for healthy living.

Blessings to all!

Fad Diets

As I was thinking about my blog post today and reading the articles that I get everyday in my alerts, I find myself frustrated. You see a lot of the articles refer to Fad Diets. In a matter of minutes I was inundated with the 21 pounds in 21 days diet, the potato diet, the breaking dawn diet, and the list goes on and on. Early this morning I read my daily devotional which had this to say:

When you see a shortcut, it's usually a temptation to cut the corner financially, ethically or morally - just take a little shortcut. But you are also saying, 'God, I think I can reach my goal a whole lot quicker my way than your way.'

So if I put these together, I think fad diets are a short cut that you think will get you to your goal weight faster but there is a higher power that is truly in control and will show you the way to lose weight correctly.

I have tried every fad diet in the universe. I swear if there was a diet out there I was on it for at least a day or two however I have found that every time I took the shortcut, I never won. I may have won for a few moments or even months but in the end the weight always came back. So this time I'm doing it right. I'm exercising, working out, eating my veggies and still binging occasionally just not as often as I did before. I'm human, you are human - be kind to yourself and know that you can do this the right way. If you think you can't just remember that shortcuts are temptations to do things the "easy" way but really if you don't do things the "right" way, it's not going to work.

Fad diets are so horrible. Take baby steps, try to get in 20 ounces of water a day then move to 30 ounces increase 10 ounces a week and eventually you will be at the amount of water you need in a day. But you have to take the baby steps to ensure success. This same technique works for diets. Add a vegetable a week and eventually you are eating main dishes of all veggies and your meat becomes the side dish. Then you are track to battling to heal all that ails you!

Join the movement, Battle2Heal your body and life. Follow me on twitter and DM if you want some accountability.

You can do this!

Open Your Mouth

So I've been thinking about the body lately. Disease is rampant in our country and nutrition is non-existent. This combination seems to be causing a lot of pain and agony. I recently went to the dentist and was told that I needed to have gum surgery because of disease. Well, as you know I'm a naturopathic person so that isn't an option. I researched options for me and found a few things.

1) Change of diet to more alkaline instead of acidic will reduce inflammation in the gums. Veggies here I come.
2) Flushing out your mouth daily will help to move any food particles from the gum line so bacteria can't form. Water Pic from Walmart - three times a day I flush out my mouth, twice with a little hydrogen peroxide in the water and once with just water.
3) Brush and floss daily - I do this sparingly - I brush three times per day but the flossing still seems to be hard for me to do.
4) Bio Dent - a great formula for working bacteria out of your gum lines. It's pill that I take once a day (4 pills).

Now you may be wondering, why in the world is she talking about teeth. Well think about it. Everything that gets ingested into your body must go through your mouth. Food, Water, Coffee, Air - everything that goes in goes through your mouth area first. So if your mouth is infected with bacteria what do you think goes into your system? My guess, bacteria.

Your first line of defense to creating a stable body is to kill the bacteria in your mouth and thereby killing the bacteria in your body. I believe you can do this with 1 - 3 above. Your basic good nutrition and good oral hygiene. My dentist has been amazed at the difference in my gums and no longer is recommending surgery. He said he can't believe it however I knew it. Diet and Hygiene are the most important parts of your life. Take the time to do them and you will feel so much better!

Blessings to you!

Recycling

In our efforts to Battle to Heal ourselves, we must also think about the greater good of the world. When we take our focus off of ourselves and put them on others, we become more empowered. Today is garbage/recycling day here and instead of taking out the garbage, I took out my recycling. Why? Well because we have become so conscious of how we buy foods, prepare foods and store foods, that we don't produce trash. Today we had no trash and only recycling to put out. Boy did that feel good! Here's what we did:

About a month ago, I started down a path of wanting to live off the grid within the city. So my first grid thing to tackle was trash. I figured this would be the hardest as I actually have to participate; unlike solar power where I put up the panel and it does the work. So I put out three brown paper grocery bags, one in each office and one in the kitchen. This is where paper goes. Then I put a cardboard box in the garage, this is for cardboard products. I still had two bins from when I tried recycling years ago so they are plastic and, glass and metal.  My plan was to recycle then take it the recycling plant about 40 minutes north to get money for our recycling. Well, lo and behold, its been a month and we have barely filled these bags, box and bins. So today I decided that we can still be conscious of everything in the city and let the recycling guys pick up the recycling. I have created a home where recycling is a way of life and for this I feel good. If we ever get off the grid, I know we will be able to create a space for recycling and composting on our lot. And we will be able to execute it!

Here are the bonuses to a conscious way of living:
1) Less trash because you look at how things are packaged
2) Less plastics because I buy less packaged items
3) Healthier foods going into my body instead of prepackaged, prepared it's whole wonderful foods
4) Shed another 4 pounds this month
5) I feel great because we are helping ourselves and others at the same time

This is just a win/win for anyone who does it! Why not give it a try, it doesn't cost you anything and if you live close to a recycling plant, you could even make money doing it! Let us know how it goes!

Learned something

I have a friend who is in a destructive situation. I know this, I see it, all of our friends see it but she doesn't. In my attempt to "help" her see the light (the way I see it), I've been sending her "inspirational" emails. Well, it all backfired on me yesterday. She took these emails, twisted where I didn't want it to go, and came out with the I'll never be as good or as strong as you. Oy vey! I didn't see that one coming at all. I was blind sided and so mad at myself I couldn't even begin to understand where I got off telling someone something. Then it hit me. In order to Battle to Heal your life - you have to want to go into battle. You have to want to make changes. You have to decide that there is a better life for you out there. I can't make this happen for you. I can't decide for you that change is necessary. I can't battle for you. My job, as your coach, is to help you when you ask for help. Not overwhelm you with the help you don't want but to be there to assist when you are ready for change. This was a tough lesson to learn and definitely a hard way to learn it. However, I'm blessed that I was taught this lesson with one of my best friends who also knows forgiveness. So I have learned, I can tell you what I've done here on a public forum but until you ask for help this is all I will do. When you want to change, call me. We can make changes throughout your life that will increase your success, your confidence and your ability to make this life the best you can.

Blessings to you!
K.

CNBC Report

I was just reading the CNBC report on Obesity and America. After a weekend where I spent some time with my friends who have all let themselves go into obesity. The report indicated that our obesity epidemic is costing America $147 billion every year, not to mention the untold amount of lives to this deadly disease. That made me sad and mad. I was sad that our brothers and sisters here in the United States don't know how to lose weight. Fundamentally I think everyone understands that calories in/calories out phenomenon. However, I don't believe everyone knows the amount of calories they are eating and what this is costing them inside. That makes me sad. Then I got mad. Companies using names like Fruit Smoothie for something that is almost as many calories as a milkshake, that makes me mad. The fact that companies are making $60 billion per year on an industry that just confuses the American population and promises that if you take this pill you will increase your weight loss chances.

I wonder if a show that came on everyday that would in a 30 minutes show people an easy recipe for dinner and a simple exercise using their own body would be the ticket to education. I wonder if people would want to watch this show and implement the idea. I wonder if the American population is ready to change. Change is difficult especially a change to improve yourself. You may lose friends or have friends ready to sabotage your efforts in an lame attempt to justify their own bad habits. You may get angry at people who aren't making this change with you. You may feel alone and depressed because everything you know is upside down. These are some of the reasons our weight loss efforts fail.

I was just home for a weekend. My friends have all gained between 30 - 50 pounds since the last time I saw them. My friends wanted to celebrate with me and bought a cake. How hard is it to say no when they are trying to be nice? You don't want to hurt their feelings but you know if they put a huge piece of cake in front of you, you are going to eat it? What do you do? For me I let them put the cake in front of me, I ate a few bites and then covered it with my napkin and pushed it to the center of the table. That was the only way I could think of to not offend anyone and to keep my diet within control. It's difficult but I didn't want to gain back the 20 pounds I've lost in one weekend and I didn't want to hurt my friends feelings. I wasn't going to go into my change in lifestyle with them and make them feel like something is wrong with them, I just am doing my weight loss program for myself. I believe in slow and steady wins the race. Since this is a marathon of life, I'm okay losing it on a slow and steady pace.

Proud of Massachusetts

Today in my reading, I came across an article regarding a study being conducted in Massachusetts. There are 50,000 households in three cities that are on the Federal Food Stamp program. The study will provide a 30 cent discount on fresh fruits and vegetables for 1/2 of these families. The idea is to find out the choices that will be made if more "healthy" foods are made accessible to the food stamp program. Click here for the entire article.

Now my question would be is anyone teaching these families how to cook fresh fruits and vegetables? As seen on the Food Revolution show this past spring, many families are third generation of packaged and processed foods. They know how to pull something out of the freezer and pop it in the microwave but actual cooking on the stove is foreign to them. I know this first hand as just two years ago I taught my 25 year old girlfriend how to peel an onion as she had no idea what to do with an onion.

I believe the program above is commendable but is only half of the equation. Without proper teaching and guidance, we can't expect miracles. It's like the you can bring someone a fish to eat but until you teach them how to fish it's useless. This is the same. You can bring fresh fruits and vegetables to those on food stamps but if they don't know what to do with these items, it's useless. I hope someone is going to teach as well as provide.