Katie Strand World

Mafia vs Catholic Church

2012-01-28T18:30:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine told me a joke recently...

What's the difference between the Catholic Church and the Mafia?
.
.
.
.

The Mafia believes in God.

Ouch.

Whether or not you think this joke is funny or not or in poor taste, read on...

Upon hearing that joke, the thought occurred to me:

What would the mafia do if one of their leaders, lieutenants, soldiers, or even just one of their new recruits was found to be molesting children?

Think about it.

If they lived even 24 hours after their secret was found out, they'd be in a world of hurt.

But most likely, they'd have a bulls eye on them so big, you could see it from space.

In fact, if a new recruit were found to be molesting children they'd at least get their package removed in a very unsanitary and unfriendly way (as if there's a friendly way to remove a man's rod and tackle).

But most likely, they'd get wacked and further most likely, they'd get wacked quickly and without sympathy or remorse.

Remind me, what has the catholic church done with child molesters?

How about the Mormon church?

They'd reassign them to another parish. Or they'd cover it up as long as the sinner confessed.

Now this is not to say that I'm condoning organized crime, or the catholic church, come to think of it, but at least the mafia has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to child molestation.

But that's my assumption. Does anyone out there really know?

Please weigh-in and let me know what you think.

The first rule of martial arts & how to let go of suffering...

2012-01-27T16:13:00.000-08:00

Read to the end if you want to know the answer to the titular pondering.

I wish I could take credit for living and writing this.

Not because I would wish for this experience myself, but because, like our friend Laura Munson, I've been working on ending my own suffering. Believe me, it's been met with resistance from my reactive mind. I've been doing The Tibetan Five and meditating most mornings, and that helps, but still, the stress/suffering still manages to creep in.... despite my best meditation & tibetan-laced efforts to let it go. The result being - I see how absurd my "suffering" is, but still feel distressed.

Does everyone understand what I mean by absurd? I wish I could describe it adequately, but the best I can do right now is: The absurdity of my suffering is that it's usually over something that is NOT actually life-threatening. Student or credit card loans are common ones, as well as: my car has to go into the shop again?!? The basics are actually handled right now. Food. Shelter. Clothing (too much, in fact). Love.

So why suffer? Well, the best I can tell is it's some malfunction in the computer program. Historically, we've called this ego or reactive mind. While it might be useful for surviving in the wild when a saber-toothed tiger is after you, it doesn't prove especially useful in modern society, where there's a bevy of things to "stress" about, but hardly any that actually threaten our survival.

Funny thing is, the more research I do about health and the state of the world, the more I'm cleaning up my act about how I eat and live. But I don't stress about those things. They're almost too big for my processor, so I stress about the things that appear to be under my jurisdiction.

Silly, huh?

Anyway, all of this rambling is just mental fourplay for the thing I actually meant for you all to read. My friend Lisa sent this to me two years ago and I was going through old email in an effort to clean up my computer and I came across this article and remembered how much I liked it when I read it. Thanks for sharing this with me, Lis. I have a feeling this will strike a particularly loud chord with some of you married folks out there.

I like it for many reasons, especially that it reminded me how we can actually choose whether we experience suffering or not.

Huh. Yeah, right. Tell that to my reactive mind.

August 2, 2009
Modern Love
Those Aren’t Fighting Words, Dear
By LAURA A. MUNSON

LET’S say you have what you believe to be a healthy marriage. You’re still friends and lovers after spending more than half of your lives together. The dreams you set out to achieve in your 20s — gazing into each other’s eyes in candlelit city bistros when you were single and skinny — have for the most part come true.

Two decades later you have the 20 acres of land, the farmhouse, the children, the dogs and horses. You’re the parents you said you would be, full of love and guidance. You’ve done it all: Disneyland, camping, Hawaii, Mexico, city living, stargazing.

Sure, you have your marital issues, but on the whole you feel so self-satisfied about how things have worked out that you would never, in your wildest nightmares, think you would hear these words from your husband one fine summer day: “I don’t love you anymore. I’m not sure I ever did. I’m moving out. The kids will understand. They’ll want me to be happy.”

But wait. This isn’t the divorce story you think it is. Neither is it a begging-him-to-stay story. It’s a story about hearing your husband say “I don’t love you anymore” and deciding not to believe him. And what can happen as a result.

Here’s a visual: Child throws a temper tantrum. Tries to hit his mother. But the mother doesn’t hit back, lecture or punish. Instead, she ducks. Then she tries to go about her business as if the tantrum isn’t happening. She doesn’t “reward” the tantrum. She simply doesn’t take the tantrum personally because, after all, it’s not about her.

Let me be clear: I’m not saying my husband was throwing a child’s tantrum. No. He was in the grip of something else — a profound and far more troubling meltdown that comes not in childhood but in midlife, when we perceive that our personal trajectory is no longer arcing reliably upward as it once did. But I decided to respond the same way I’d responded to my children’s tantrums. And I kept responding to it that way. For four months.

“I don’t love you anymore. I’m not sure I ever did.”

His words came at me like a speeding fist, like a sucker punch, yet somehow in that moment I was able to duck. And once I recovered and composed myself, I managed to say, “I don’t buy it.” Because I didn’t.

He drew back in surprise. Apparently he’d expected me to burst into tears, to rage at him, to threaten him with a custody battle. Or beg him to change his mind.

So he turned mean. “I don’t like what you’ve become.”

Gut-wrenching pause. How could he say such a thing? That’s when I really wanted to fight. To rage. To cry. But I didn’t.

Instead, a shroud of calm enveloped me, and I repeated those words: “I don’t buy it.”

You see, I’d recently committed to a non-negotiable understanding with myself. I’d committed to “The End of Suffering.” I’d finally managed to exile the voices in my head that told me my personal happiness was only as good as my outward success, rooted in things that were often outside my control. I’d seen the insanity of that equation and decided to take responsibility for my own happiness. And I mean all of it.

My husband hadn’t yet come to this understanding with himself. He had enjoyed many years of hard work, and its rewards had supported our family of four all along. But his new endeavor hadn’t been going so well, and his ability to be the breadwinner was in rapid decline. He’d been miserable about this, felt useless, was losing himself emotionally and letting himself go physically. And now he wanted out of our marriage; to be done with our family.

But I wasn’t buying it.

I said: “It’s not age-appropriate to expect children to be concerned with their parents’ happiness. Not unless you want to create co-dependents who’ll spend their lives in bad relationships and therapy. There are times in every relationship when the parties involved need a break. What can we do to give you the distance you need, without hurting the family?”

“Huh?” he said.

“Go trekking in Nepal. Build a yurt in the back meadow. Turn the garage studio into a man-cave. Get that drum set you’ve always wanted. Anything but hurting the children and me with a reckless move like the one you’re talking about.”

Then I repeated my line, “What can we do to give you the distance you need, without hurting the family?”

“Huh?”

“How can we have a responsible distance?”

“I don’t want distance,” he said. “I want to move out.”

My mind raced. Was it another woman? Drugs? Unconscionable secrets? But I stopped myself. I would not suffer.

Instead, I went to my desk, Googled “responsible separation” and came up with a list. It included things like: Who’s allowed to use what credit cards? Who are the children allowed to see you with in town? Who’s allowed keys to what?

I looked through the list and passed it on to him.

His response: “Keys? We don’t even have keys to our house.”

I remained stoic. I could see pain in his eyes. Pain I recognized.

“Oh, I see what you’re doing,” he said. “You’re going to make me go into therapy. You’re not going to let me move out. You’re going to use the kids against me.”

“I never said that. I just asked: What can we do to give you the distance you need ... ”

“Stop saying that!”

Well, he didn’t move out.

Instead, he spent the summer being unreliable. He stopped coming home at his usual six o’clock. He would stay out late and not call. He blew off our entire Fourth of July — the parade, the barbecue, the fireworks — to go to someone else’s party. When he was at home, he was distant. He wouldn’t look me in the eye. He didn’t even wish me “Happy Birthday.”

But I didn’t play into it. I walked my line. I told the kids: “Daddy’s having a hard time as adults often do. But we’re a family, no matter what.” I was not going to suffer. And neither were they.

MY trusted friends were irate on my behalf. “How can you just stand by and accept this behavior? Kick him out! Get a lawyer!”

I walked my line with them, too. This man was hurting, yet his problem wasn’t mine to solve. In fact, I needed to get out of his way so he could solve it.

I know what you’re thinking: I’m a pushover. I’m weak and scared and would put up with anything to keep the family together. I’m probably one of those women who would endure physical abuse. But I can assure you, I’m not. I load 1,500-pound horses into trailers and gallop through the high country of Montana all summer. I went through Pitocin-induced natural childbirth. And a Caesarean section without follow-up drugs. I am handy with a chain saw.

I simply had come to understand that I was not at the root of my husband’s problem. He was. If he could turn his problem into a marital fight, he could make it about us. I needed to get out of the way so that wouldn’t happen.

Privately, I decided to give him time. Six months.

I had good days, and I had bad days. On the good days, I took the high road. I ignored his lashing out, his merciless jabs. On bad days, I would fester in the August sun while the kids ran through sprinklers, raging at him in my mind. But I never wavered. Although it may sound ridiculous to say “Don’t take it personally” when your husband tells you he no longer loves you, sometimes that’s exactly what you have to do.

Instead of issuing ultimatums, yelling, crying or begging, I presented him with options. I created a summer of fun for our family and welcomed him to share in it, or not — it was up to him. If he chose not to come along, we would miss him, but we would be just fine, thank you very much. And we were.

And, yeah, you can bet I wanted to sit him down and persuade him to stay. To love me. To fight for what we’ve created. You can bet I wanted to.

But I didn’t.

I barbecued. Made lemonade. Set the table for four. Loved him from afar.

And one day, there he was, home from work early, mowing the lawn. A man doesn’t mow his lawn if he’s going to leave it. Not this man. Then he fixed a door that had been broken for eight years. He made a comment about our front porch needing paint. Our front porch. He mentioned needing wood for next winter. The future. Little by little, he started talking about the future.

It was Thanksgiving dinner that sealed it. My husband bowed his head humbly and said, “I’m thankful for my family.”

He was back.

And I saw what had been missing: pride. He’d lost pride in himself. Maybe that’s what happens when our egos take a hit in midlife and we realize we’re not as young and golden anymore.

When life’s knocked us around. And our childhood myths reveal themselves to be just that. The truth feels like the biggest sucker-punch of them all: it’s not a spouse or land or a job or money that brings us happiness. Those achievements, those relationships, can enhance our happiness, yes, but happiness has to start from within. Relying on any other equation can be lethal.

My husband had become lost in the myth. But he found his way out. We’ve since had the hard conversations. In fact, he encouraged me to write about our ordeal. To help other couples who arrive at this juncture in life. People who feel scared and stuck. Who believe their temporary feelings are permanent. Who see an easy out, and think they can escape.

My husband tried to strike a deal. Blame me for his pain. Unload his feelings of personal disgrace onto me.

But I ducked. And I waited. And it worked.
Laura A. Munson is a writer who lives in Whitefish, Mont.

This thing makes me cry every time I read it.

Funny enough, the first rule of martial arts is: DUCK!

When someone's trying to punch you in the face, DUCK!

I think this concept is rooted in zen philosophy. Because it's not just about leaving or running away from the fight, but about not participating in the violence. A block or hit to "defend" is still participating in the violence. But when you duck, you're actually staying present, but not contributing to the violence of the situation.

Violence doesn't really work if there's nothing to push against.

I'm going to try this. A metaphoric duck when life's throwing me seemingly justifiable reasons to fret, worry, stress and suffer. Duck.

Duck!

So, everybody....

DUCK!

Up - The Power of Storytelling by Pixar

2012-01-18T17:17:00.000-08:00

I happened across the movie Up on television recently.

I've seen it before, and while I don't remember ALL the details, I remember the general story and especially the 4 minutes in the beginning showing Carl & Ellie's life together.

It gets me every time. Every single time.

I know what's going to happen. I know they aren't able to have children. I know life & life's unexpected expenses intervene and prevent them from going on their big adventure. I know she dies.

But still, tears brim over as I witness this four-minute recap of this fictional couple. I feel silly but kind of enjoy the fact that all it takes is really good storytelling through visual narration and music.

How does it effect you?

7 Foods You Should Never Eat

2011-12-06T21:49:00.000-08:00

First off, a little explanation. This blog has been dark (quiet) for a few months, and now, within 48 hours, two articles on scary stuff that we either cook with or eat on a regular basis. What!?!

The first yesterday on the dangers of non-stick. Today, this article is on seven foods experts avoid and the reasons why.

I'm not setting out to scare anyone, I swear! That is not my intention. But I do care a great deal about many of you out there and would like you to live long, happy and healthy lives. Also, knowledge is power, and just in case some of you out there haven't heard about any of the following, I thought I would share. Shockingly, this is from foxnews.com. They republished it from Prevention Magazine.

Organic is not just for liberals, it seems.

To your health & knowledge!

7 Foods You Should Never Eat

By Prevention Magazine

Published December 02, 2011

Food scientists are shedding light on items loaded with toxins and chemicals--and simple swaps for a cleaner diet and supersized health.

Clean eating means choosing fruits, vegetables, and meats that are raised, grown, and sold with minimal processing. Often they're organic, and rarely (if ever) should they contain additives. But in some cases, the methods of today's food producers are neither clean nor sustainable. The result is damage to our health, the environment, or both. So we decided to take a fresh look at food through the eyes of the people who spend their lives uncovering what's safe--or not--to eat. We asked them a simple question: "What foods do you avoid?" Their answers don't necessarily make up a "banned foods" list. But reaching for the suggested alternatives might bring you better health--and peace of mind.

1. The Endocrinologist Won't Eat: Canned TomatoesFredrick Vom Saal, is an endocrinologist at the University of Missouri who studies bisphenol-A.

The problem: The resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol-A, a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Unfortunately, acidity (a prominent characteristic of tomatoes) causes BPA to leach into your food. Studies show that the BPA in most people's body exceeds the amount that suppresses sperm production or causes chromosomal damage to the eggs of animals. "You can get 50 mcg of BPA per liter out of a tomato can, and that's a level that is going to impact people, particularly the young," says vom Saal. "I won't go near canned tomatoes."

The solution: Choose tomatoes in glass bottles (which do not need resin linings), such as the brands Bionaturae and Coluccio. You can also get several types in Tetra Pak boxes, like Trader Joe's and Pomi.

(*Note from KatieStrandWorld: boxes are not better as they're still lined with plastic. Best choose glass bottles if not using organic fresh tomatoes.)

Budget tip: If your recipe allows, substitute bottled pasta sauce for canned tomatoes. Look for pasta sauces with low sodium and few added ingredients, or you may have to adjust the recipe.

2. The Farmer Won't Eat: Corn-Fed BeefJoel Salatin is co-owner of Polyface Farms and author of half a dozen books on sustainable farming.

The problem: Cattle evolved to eat grass, not grains. But farmers today feed their animals corn and soybeans, which fatten up the animals faster for slaughter. But more money for cattle farmers (and lower prices at the grocery store) means a lot less nutrition for us. A recent comprehensive study conducted by the USDA and researchers from Clemson University found that compared with corn-fed beef, grass-fed beef is higher in beta-carotene, vitamin E, omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), calcium, magnesium, and potassium; lower in inflammatory omega-6s; and lower in saturated fats that have been linked to heart disease. "We need to respect the fact that cows are herbivores, and that does not mean feeding them corn and chicken manure," says Salatin.

The solution: Buy grass-fed beef, which can be found at specialty grocers, farmers' markets, and nationally at Whole Foods. It's usually labeled because it demands a premium, but if you don't see it, ask your butcher.

Budget tip: Cuts on the bone are cheaper because processors charge extra for deboning. You can also buy direct from a local farmer, which can be as cheap as $5 per pound. To find a farmer near you, search eatwild.com.

3. The Toxicologist Won't Eat: Microwave PopcornOlga Naidenko, is a senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group.

The problem: Chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), in the lining of the bag, are part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans, according to a recent study from UCLA. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Studies show that microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize--and migrate into your popcorn. "They stay in your body for years and accumulate there," says Naidenko, which is why researchers worry that levels in humans could approach the amounts causing cancers in laboratory animals. DuPont and other manufacturers have promised to phase out PFOA by 2015 under a voluntary EPA plan, but millions of bags of popcorn will be sold between now and then.

The solution: Pop natural kernels the old-fashioned way: in a skillet. For flavorings, you can add real butter or dried seasonings, such as dillweed, vegetable flakes, or soup mix.

Budget tip: Popping your own popcorn is dirt cheap

Top 10 Food Mistakes Your Making

4. The Farm Director Won't Eat: Nonorganic Potatoes
Jeffrey Moyer is the chair of the National Organic Standards Board.

The problem: Root vegetables absorb herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that wind up in soil. In the case of potatoes--the nation's most popular vegetable--they're treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. After they're dug up, the potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting. "Try this experiment: Buy a conventional potato in a store, and try to get it to sprout. It won't," says Moyer, who is also farm director of the Rodale Institute (also owned by Rodale Inc., the publisher of Prevention). "I've talked with potato growers who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals."

The solution: Buy organic potatoes. Washing isn't good enough if you're trying to remove chemicals that have been absorbed into the flesh.

Budget tip: Organic potatoes are only $1 to $2 a pound, slightly more expensive than conventional spuds.

What to Really Look for on a Nutrition Label

5. The Fisheries Expert Won't Eat: Farmed SalmonDr. David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany, published a major study in the journal Science on contamination in fish.

The problem: Nature didn't intend for salmon to be crammed into pens and fed soy, poultry litter, and hydrolyzed chicken feathers. As a result, farmed salmon is lower in vitamin D and higher in contaminants, including carcinogens, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides such as dioxin and DDT. According to Carpenter, the most contaminated fish come from Northern Europe, which can be found on American menus. "You could eat one of these salmon dinners every 5 months without increasing your risk of cancer," says Carpenter, whose 2004 fish contamination study got broad media attention. "It's that bad." Preliminary science has also linked DDT to diabetes and obesity, but some nutritionists believe the benefits of omega-3s outweigh the risks. There is also concern about the high level of antibiotics and pesticides used to treat these fish. When you eat farmed salmon, you get dosed with the same drugs and chemicals.

The solution: Switch to wild-caught Alaska salmon. If the package says fresh Atlantic, it's farmed. There are no commercial fisheries left for wild Atlantic salmon.

Budget tip: Canned salmon, almost exclusively from wild catch, can be found for as little as $3 a can. (*Note from KatieStrandWorld. Please see #1. Canned goods are no good. Maybe salmon doesn't leach as much plastic from the can because salmon is less acidic than tomatoes, but still, it's no bueno.)

6. The Cancer Researcher Won't Drink: Milk Produced With Artificial HormonesRick North is project director of the Campaign for Safe Food at the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility and former CEO of the Oregon division of the American Cancer Society.

The problem: Milk producers treat their dairy cattle with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST, as it is also known) to boost milk production. But rBGH also increases udder infections and even pus in the milk. It also leads to higher levels of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor in milk. In people, high levels of IGF-1 may contribute to breast, prostate, and colon cancers. "When the government approved rBGH, it was thought that IGF-1 from milk would be broken down in the human digestive tract," says North. As it turns out, the casein in milk protects most of it, according to several independent studies. "There's not 100 percent proof that this is increasing cancer in humans," admits North. "However, it's banned in most industrialized countries."

The solution: Check labels for rBGH-free, rBST-free, produced without artificial hormones, or organic milk. These phrases indicate rBGH-free products.

Budget tip: Try Wal-Mart's Great Value label, which does not use rBGH.

7. The Organic-Foods Expert Won't Eat: Conventional ApplesMark Kastel, a former executive for agribusiness, is codirector of the Cornucopia Institute, a farm-policy research group that supports organic foods.

The problem: If fall fruits held a "most doused in pesticides contest," apples would win. Why? They are individually grafted (descended from a single tree) so that each variety maintains its distinctive flavor. As such, apples don't develop resistance to pests and are sprayed frequently. The industry maintains that these residues are not harmful. But Kastel counters that it's just common sense to minimize exposure by avoiding the most doused produce, like apples. "Farm workers have higher rates of many cancers," he says. And increasing numbers of studies are starting to link a higher body burden of pesticides (from all sources) with Parkinson's disease.

The solution: Buy organic apples.

Budget tip: If you can't afford organic, be sure to wash and peel them. But Kastel personally refuses to compromise. "I would rather see the trade-off being that I don't buy that expensive electronic gadget," he says. "Just a few of these decisions will accommodate an organic diet for a family."

To avoid Alzheimer's Disease, throw out your Non-Stick Cookware!

2011-12-04T19:58:00.000-08:00

Please stop using non-stick cookware. There have been too many scientifically-backed findings about the high toxin levels of this stuff that it now seems indisputable.

Below are three articles about the dangers of non-stick cookware and safer alternatives. The first two are from Environmental Working Group http://www.ewg.org and are overviews of non-stick cookware. The third is from Dr. Mercola's website, http://mercola.com/ and is pretty severely pushing their own product. I'm certainly not trying to endorse Dr. Mercola's products, as I've not tried his cookware collection (I use mostly glass or ceramic bake- and cookware), but the numbers on toxins are important to consider, and it seems to me if you're not going to go with the heavily-pushed Mercola product from the following article, it'd be wise to use glass or ceramic for cooking... Especially if you want to avoid Alzheimer's and other toxin-related illnesses.

To your health!

Article #1
from
http://www.ewg.org/alternative-cookware

EWG finds heated Teflon pans can turn toxic faster than DuPont claims

By Jane Houlihan, Vice President for Research; Kris Thayer, PhD, Senior Scientist; Jennifer Klein, EWG Chemist , May 2003

In two to five minutes on a conventional stovetop, cookware coated with Teflon and other non-stick surfaces can exceed temperatures at which the coating breaks apart and emits toxic particles and gases linked to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pet bird deaths and an unknown number of human illnesses each year, according to tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group (EWG).

In new tests conducted by a university food safety professor, a generic non-stick frying pan preheated on a conventional, electric stovetop burner reached 736°F in three minutes and 20 seconds, with temperatures still rising when the tests were terminated. A Teflon pan reached 721°F in just five minutes under the same test conditions (See Figure 1), as measured by a commercially available infrared thermometer. DuPont studies show that the Teflon offgases toxic particulates at 464°F. At 680°F Teflon pans release at least six toxic gases, including two carcinogens, two global pollutants, and MFA, a chemical lethal to humans at low doses. At temperatures that DuPont scientists claim are reached on stovetop drip pans (1000°F), non-stick coatings break down to a chemical warfare agent known as PFIB, and a chemical analog of the WWII nerve gas phosgene.

For the past fifty years DuPont has claimed that their Teflon coatings do not emit hazardous chemicals through normal use. In a recent press release, DuPont wrote that "significant decomposition of the coating will occur only when temperatures exceed about 660 degrees F (340 degrees C). These temperatures alone are well above the normal cooking range."

These new tests show that cookware exceeds these temperatures and turns toxic through the common act of preheating a pan, on a burner set on high.

In cases of "Teflon toxicosis," as the bird poisonings are called, the lungs of exposed birds hemorrhage and fill with fluid, leading to suffocation. DuPont acknowledges that the fumes can also sicken people, a condition called "polymer fume fever." DuPont has never studied the incidence of the fever among users of the billions of non-stick pots and pans sold around the world. Neither has the company studied the long-term effects from the sickness, or the extent to which Teflon exposures lead to human illnesses believed erroneously to be the common flu.

The government has not assessed the safety of non-stick cookware. According to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food safety scientist: "You won't find a regulation anywhere on the books that specifically addresses cookwares," although the FDA approved Teflon for contact with food in 1960 based on a food frying study that found higher levels of Teflon chemicals in hamburger cooked on heat-aged and old pans. At the time, FDA judged these levels to be of little health significance.

Of the 6.9 million bird-owning households in the US that claim an estimated 19 million pet birds, many don't know know that Teflon poses an acute hazard to birds. Most non-stick cookware carries no warning label. DuPont publicly acknowledges that Teflon can kill birds, but the company-produced public service brochure on bird safety discusses the hazards of ceiling fans, mirrors, toilets, and cats before mentioning the dangers of Teflon fumes.

As a result of the new data showing that non-stick surfaces reach toxic temperatures in a matter of minutes, EWG has petitioned the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to require that cookware and heated appliances bearing non-stick coatings must carry a label warning of the acute hazard the coating poses to pet birds. Additionally, we recommend that bird owners completely avoid cookware and heated appliances with non-stick coatings. Alternative cookware includes stainless steel and cast iron, neither of which offgases persistent pollutants that kill birds.

Article #2, also from http://www.ewg.org

Canaries in the Kitchen
Alternatives to Non-Stick/Teflon Cookware

Statistics reported by the Cookware Manufacturers Association indicate that 90 percent of all the aluminum cookware sold in the United States in 2001 was coated with non-stick chemicals like Teflon (Cooks Illustrated, September 2002). Chemicals and tiny, toxic Teflon particles released from heated Teflon kill household pet birds. At least four of these chemicals never break down in the environment, and some are widely found in human blood. Consumers concerned about the effects of Teflon on human health and the environment should consider these alternatives:

Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is a terrific alternative to a non-stick cooking surface. Most chefs agree that stainless steel browns foods better than non-stick surfaces. In their 2001 review of sauté pans, Cooks Illustrated, an independent publication, chose a stainless steel pan over otherwise identical non-stick models. They also recommended stainless steel pan roasters over non-stick.

Cast Iron
Cast iron remains a great alternative to non-stick cooking surfaces. Lodge, America’s oldest family-owned cookware manufacturer, refers to their cookware as “natural non-stick.” Cast iron can be pre-heated to temperatures that will brown meat and will withstand oven temperatures well above what is considered safe for non-stick pans. Cast iron is extremely durable and can now be purchased pre-seasoned, ready-to-use.

Other Cooking Surfaces
Because Teflon coated non-stick surfaces fail to brown foods there has been a push to find other “non-stick” cookware coating that will allow the use of higher temperatures and still clean up easily. Some examples include ceramic titanium and porcelain enameled cast iron. Both of these surfaces are very durable, better at browning foods than PTFE (Teflon) non-stick coatings, and are dishwasher safe. In her New York Times piece, "In Search of a Pan That Lets Cooks Forget About Teflon," Marian Burros recommends Le Creuset enameled cast iron pans with a matte black interior. Anodized aluminum is another alternative, but some people question its safety, citing evidence in some studies linking aluminum exposures to Alzheimers.

Article #3

from
http://cookware.mercola.com/cookware-special.aspx?e_cid=20111203_DNL_ban_HL

"Beware of this Home Cooking Mistake"

No matter how healthy your food is, if you're like most Americans you are probably making this mistake that can lead to cancer in the pancreas, liver, testicles or mammary glands – as well as miscarriages, thyroid problems & a weakened immune system…

For years, I've been working tirelessly to get the message out to you about all the dangers lurking about in your common, everyday cookware.

From the toxic chemicals present in non-stick surface pans, to the leaching of dangerous heavy metals into your food from a variety of other types of metal cookware -- I want you to know.

I've talked about it, written about it, done videos about it -- and tried every way I can think of, short of screaming from the rooftops -- to warn you of the terrible hazards to your health from most cookware out on the market today.

For those of you who might still be skeptical of the presence of these dangerous toxins making their way into your food -- and most assuredly into your body -- I finally have the proof.

Just take a look at this chart of a recent 2009 Heavy Metals Leaching Test performed on common types of cookware you probably use everyday.

And if that’s not bad enough, you have to be careful of the temperature you cook at. The dangers of commercial non-stick cookware are already well-known, but aluminum is also a heavy offender. The higher the temperature you use, the more danger you put yourself at. Aluminum and non-stick surfaces are both known to leach metals into the food you’re cooking.

There's no mistaking the clearly, non-toxic, healthier alternative in cookware.

But before I go on about all the amazing benefits and features of Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware, let me ask you one simple question…

Are You Becoming Complacent with Your Food Preparation?

You may not even give a second thought about what you use to prepare your meals. You may even feel satisfied that you're doing everything you can for you health by eating as much raw and unprocessed food as possible.

Unfortunately, it may not be enough if you're not very selective in your food prep.

What about your cookware? What about that skillet you use to lightly cook your favorite wild-caught fish? Can you trust it to be safe for you and your family?

The answer is -- probably not... particularly if you use dangerous non-stick cookware.

The good news is -- I do have a healthy cookware solution for you that you can trust... a solution that uses a patented material made of 100% inorganic natural minerals and nature's own water.

My previous recommendation was an excellent porcelain cast iron cookware which really was an outstanding solution.

However, many found the heavy weight of cast iron to be a challenge. Due to the added weight, some people found the cookware cumbersome to lift and use when “flipping” certain foods while cooking, as well cleaning and storing.

So I did additional research and discovered what may be an even better solution that helps you become the Healthy Chef you've always wanted to be by…

Delivering you very attractive, lightweight, high gloss cookware you can trust -- with an unbelievable 50-year manufacturer's warranty
Saving you time preparing meals and decreasing clean up time afterwards
Cooking your food safely and consistently from the inside and outside simultaneously
Helping keep your cooked food hot for a longer period of time
Using less energy to cook your meals

And there are many more benefits to the Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware I want to share with you.

But first, you should know...

Why You Can't Trust Your Health to Any Old Cookware Lurking in Your Cabinet

Non-stick cookware is the most popular cookware in America. So what's wrong with it?

Well, for starters, non-stick cookware contains perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a synthetic chemical used in production that creates a soap-like slipperiness and non-stick finish.

Once heated, non-stick pans will quickly reach temperatures at which toxic fumes release into the air. And it doesn't take much heat to do this -- the coating begins to break down and release toxins at a temperature of only 446° F.

PFOA has become very controversial because of potential health dangers... and non-stick cookware is right in the middle of the controversy.

So why is PFOA so dangerous?

In animal studies, PFOA posed health hazards like:

Serious changes in organs including the brain, prostate, liver, thymus, and kidneys, showing toxicity.
Death of several rat pups due to PFOA exposure.
Changes in the pituitary in female rats, at all doses. The pituitary controls growth, reproduction, and many metabolic functions. Changes in the size of the pituitary indicate toxicity.
PFOA has been associated with tumors in at least four different organs in animal tests, and has been implicated in an increase in prostate cancer in PFOA plant workers.

Now the various PFOA doses used in these animal experiments weren't necessarily the same exposure levels you might get from non-stick cookware. But they clearly show the potential danger from PFOA.

And recently, I uncovered even more startling evidence as the...

Chemical Used in Non-Stick Cookware Continues to Suggest Toxicity

In a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), PFOA was detected in close to 98% of the population. While PFOA can come from sources other than non-stick cookware, that's startling information.

A study reported in 2007, and conducted by the John HopkinsBloomberg School of Public Health, showed alarming evidence that newborn infants face exposure to PFOA while in the womb.

The research analysis detected PFOA in 100% of the newborns examined.

While PFOA can come from sources other than this, other studies suggest the potential dangers of non-stick cookware.

Though not necessarily related to PFOA, non-stick cookware has already been implicated in increased instances of cancer in the pancreas, liver, testicles, and mammary glands, as well as miscarriages, thyroid problems, weakened immune systems, and low organ weights.

So, I'm sure you understand when I say “enough already” with the potential dangers of using non-stick cookware. If you haven't already done it, don't you think it's time to give your non-stick cookware the boot for good?

But let's get back to the good news in...

How this Innovative Cookware Helps Enhance Your Healthy Cooking

Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware is not made using PFOA.

In fact, this new innovative cookware is made from a lightweight ceramic material that:

Is non-reactive -- no chemicals, toxins, or gases get produced while cooking
Resists carry-over tastes and odors -- even highly acidic foods (like tomatoes) will not stain your cookware surface or be absorbed into other foods -- no carry-over tastes or odors
Produces a far-infrared heating process -- a penetrating heat process that cooks your food from both the inside and outside at the same time
Contains no lead, cadmium, aluminum, copper, nickel, chromium, iron, or any other heavy metals -- you can trust this cookware to be non-toxic
Will not leach into your food -- no trace metals or chemical leaching from the cooking surface, both potentially affecting taste and your health.
Is dishwasher safe.

So, by now you can see why I recommend that you “chuck” your PFOA-coated non-stick cookware and switch to the ceramic Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware.

But what if you don't use non-stick cookware in your kitchen?

Well, you're not necessarily out of the woods. Here's why you should seriously consider taking action and...

Why I Believe You Should Throw Out Your Aluminum and Stainless Steel Cookware as Well!

Even after you purge your kitchen of unsafe cookware, you may still be harboring danger -- this time in the form of aluminum or stainless steel.

I would not recommend aluminum pans for cooking if you want to enjoy your golden years. Aluminum is a causal factor suspect in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

In my experience, people dread Alzheimer's disease more than cancer and heart disease, for good reason.

Aluminum is a "reactive" metal, meaning that it reacts with salty or acidic foods to release itself into your food. Dietary sources of aluminum include cookware, containers, foil, and utensils. You can also face exposure to aluminum when the non-stick surface chips off a coated aluminum pan.

Next to the most common cookware alternative is stainless steel, accounting for one-third of U.S. cookware sales.

And some cooks prefer the "clad" or "three-ply" varieties that have an aluminum or copper base sandwiched between layers of stainless steel.

Contrary to popular belief, stainless steel may not be an inert metal either. All stainless steel has alloys containing nickel, chromium, molybdenum, carbon, and various other metals.

In a study conducted on heart patients receiving stainless steel stents, restenosis occurred in 50% of patients. Allergies to the nickel and molybdenum in the stainless steel were suspected causal factors.

While this study is clearly not cooking-related, it is certainly possible that cooking with stainless steel, clad or not, may increase the likelihood that metals will leach into your food. This is especially true if the cookware becomes pitted due to extended use or storage of acidic foods. For those with nickel allergies, it could be a particularly concerning problem.

Copper is an alternative that provides even heat distribution. However, I recommend that it never has direct contact with your food.

When you use copper as your cooking surface, it can leach out in excessive amounts. If enough leaching occurs, you could potentially experience digestive discomforts.*

Therefore, most copper pans come lined with other metals, creating the same concerns noted above. And copper pans are also extremely costly.

Once you realize the potential risks of that aluminum and stainless steel are reactive, and that copper may be risky as well, isn't it time you switched to the best non-toxic cookware I've found to date -- Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware?

And, with its patented ceramic non-toxic surface, you now can...

Go Green with Your Cookware

That's right. You certainly can't say that for cookware made of stainless steel, aluminum, or copper.

We all want to do our utmost for the environment. And now you can go one step further when you use and trust your environmentally-friendly cookware.

You can "go green" with Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware because it is...

"Take Your Food to the Salt" and Transform Any Dish From Ho-Hum to Spectacular

Don't just salt your food with Himalayan Crystal Salt, take it to the slab!

Featured on several top cooking shows, using a Himalayan Salt Kitchen Slabhas become the newest sensation for extraordinary food preparation and presentation.

Simply preheat your crystal salt slab over a grill or stove and toss on your favorite sliced meats, seafood, vegetables or eggs. The Himalayan Salt sears your food to perfection, with a just a light touch of heavenly salty mineral sweetness.

The Himalayan Salt Kitchen Slab is perfect for cold foods, too. Just chill your slab in the refrigerator and then load with sushi, hors d'oeuvres, cheeses and slices of fruit. You'll love the delicate saltiness imparted to your food and the beautiful translucent pink salt serving platter will become an instant conversation starter.

For a special treat, arrange thin strips of raw grass-fed beef on your chilled slab and watch as the salt cures the edges.

Chill slab in the freezer overnight and serve ice cream on top for a beautiful presentation and delicate salty-sweet goodness.

Find out more about the Himalayan Salt Kitchen Slab here.

Derived from inorganic natural materials from the earth's crust
Made from the earth's natural minerals and water
Manufactured by using clean burning, safe natural gas
Non-reactive and non-toxic -- due to its ceramic cooking surface, no odors or gases release into the air during the cooking processes even if temperatures exceed 2500° F
An energy saver -- you can cook, serve, and store foods in the same Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware containers
A potential time saver -- since ceramic material is efficient in retaining heat, you could save cooking time and energy as well
Extremely versatile -- this lightweight cookware can be used for multiple cooking applications (stovetop, oven, broiler, refrigerator, freezer, and tabletop) potentially saving you time, energy, and money.

When I uncovered this incredible, lightweight cookware, it truly amazed me at how environmentally-friendly it was. I've simply not found anything that comes even close to all the benefits of this cookware.

And I'm not quite finished with all the benefits yet.

As a Healthy Chef, over and above using safe and efficient cookware in your kitchen that you can trust, you also want something that will last -- cookware that is durable. And besides...

What Other Cookware is Resilient Enough to Support a 50-Year Warranty?

One thing you don't want to do is constantly replace your cookware.

Well, once you get rid of the potentially hazardous cookware you currently use and replace it with the Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware, you're fairly well set for a long time -- as long as you don't break the cookware by dropping it..

See, this cookware comes to you with a manufacturer-backed 50-year limited warranty.

You will receive free replacement of any ceramic part of the cookware that breaks from hot and cold temperatures within 50 years from your date of purchase. (Of course, the free cookware replacement does not apply if you drop and break it.)

To me, this goes beyond durability... it creates a level of trust and reliability you're looking for in your everyday cookware.

You must be impressed with the 50-year limited warranty. But what really makes this cookware so durable and makes it stand above the rest?

The manufacturer certainly wouldn't make a 50-year commitment unless the cookware could withstand the test of time.

Here's why Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware is so durable...

Made of lightweight ceramic 100% inorganic materials -- this innovative non-reactive material is the key element in cookware longevity
You can't scratch the cooking surface -- even when cooking with metal utensils and cleaning with industrial steel wool
You don't have to be concerned about damage due to meltdown of the cookware -- helps reduce risk of stove damage and fire
Cookware can withstand very high temperatures (2700° F) -- steel melts at 2200° F
Cookware surface will never flake off into your food
Cleanup is a breeze -- keeping your cookware in top shape is a key factor in having it potentially last a lifetime

So, as a Healthy Chef, you can put your full trust in Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware. It seems highly unlikely a manufacturer would back its product with a 50-year limited warranty if they didn't have solid, tested proof of its durability.

Otherwise, the company would go out of business replacing product.

So, what are you waiting for? You should know by now that...

It's Not Enough to Eat Healthy Food if Your Preparation is Potentially Hazardous

Remember, I applaud you for making a conscious effort in improving your health through a healthy diet of unprocessed foods.

But if you truly want to be a Healthy Chef, you should do everything possible to ensure you prepare meals in a safe and non-hazardous way for you, your family, and friends.

And that's why I recommend Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware.

I decided to go all-out in providing you with a complete 16-piece set of this great cookware. Plus, I included some great cooking and preparation accessories.

Here's what you get when you order the Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware set: (Click each to view)

You can expand on your Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware set by adding these three great pieces: (click each to view)

Brought to you by popular demand…

Here functionality meets beauty… Perfect for multiple-ingredient dishes, and stir fry, veggies, braised meats, steaming… even soup. Endless menu options for delicious dishes. And beautiful enough to go straight from stovetop to tabletop.

Radiant heat provides perfectly even cooking every time, from the deep inside to the outside.

Unlike other woks that can typically emit toxic fumes or leach chemicals into your food, the Mercola wok handles stir fry temps without bad-tasting or potentially dangerous leached chemicals or toxic fumes. And unlike electric woks, this one delivers the necessary heat for magnificent stir fry.

Woks work better than a frying pan… use less oil, are easy to use for stir fry because the food stays in the wok where it belongs instead of spilling onto your stove.

Quite a versatile cookware set, wouldn't you agree?

Now, I can't imagine why you wouldn't be ready to toss out your current cookware and move up to this unbelievable set that could last you a lifetime.

But just in case here are…

More than Enough Reasons Why I Believe You Should Take Action and Rid Yourself of Your Potentially Hazardous Cookware for Good

I've spoken out about non-stick cookware for some time. And by now, you should also understand the potential dangers associated with aluminum, stainless steel, and copper cookware:

Cookware Material	Potential Hazards
Non-stick	PFOA induced potential health hazards -- from your immune system to birthing activities
Aluminum	Is a reactive metal and suspected casual factor in Alzheimer's disease
Stainless steel	Potential likelihood of metal leaching into your food and allergen issues
Copper	Due to the possibility of copper caused discomfort, recommended to never have direct contact with your food

So, here's my summary of the top 10 reasons Mercola Healthy Chef Ceramic Cookware is such an unbelievable value you can put your trust in by...

Delivering you lightweight cookware -- solves your lifting challenges during cooking and cleanup
Providing you and your family with safe, inorganic, non-toxic cookware -- helps remove your worries about PFOA and the potential hazards of other cookware
Handling high temperature -- can withstand 2700° F and help you cook foods quicker and become more energy efficient
Cleaning up very quickly -- saves you valuable time and keeps the cookware looking new
Looking good in your kitchen -- comes with a very attractive high gloss black finish that will look great with any kitchen décor
Proving its versatility -- can be used to cook (on any surface), serve, and store foods of all types
Being extremely practical -- reduces your cooking time and helps you use less energy -- food stays hot longer
Enhancing the flavor of your food -- ceramic far-infrared cooking helps enhance the flavor of your food and entire cooking experience
Showing you its durability -- 50 year limited warranty speaks for itself -- cooking surface cannot be scratched even by metal utensils
Helping you be that Healthy Chef you always wanted to be

For My Girls

2011-10-16T10:12:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago today, my dear friend got married to a man worthy of her love and partnership. I'm so happy for the both of them.

On a stroke of genius, the bride and another one of our girlfriends had the idea that all of her girlfriends get together and share what marriage is all about. Sadly, I was out of town for the event, but I contributed this letter and thought I'd share it with all of you out in the world.

This is dedicated to you, my friend, and all of my girlfriends, and the men who love, deserve and know how to handle us.

(There was a time I would've scoffed at the idea that I needed to be "handled." As I've grown, I've come to realize that every good woman needs to be handled every now and again...just like our men need to be taught.)

For years I’ve been conducting a very un-scientific and half-assed survey on what it takes to have a successful marriage. Looking back I realize those I’ve interviewed all qualify under the following parameters: Married for over 40 years to a spouse with whom they raised children and still have contact and a respectful relationship with said children. Also, they still seem to like and enjoy each other. You notice I said like not love. Without exception, all my interviewees would say they still love each other, but the fact that they still like each other actually seemed more important than love. None of them seemed as in love (the pretty or not-so-pretty side of this type of love) as anyone depicted in movies or tabloids, but they did seem in like. They like who their spouse is as a person, their personality, sense of humor, demeanor, and way of being.

Like is paramount.

For a happy, healthy and successful marriage, there were the predictable answers: Good communication. Never go to bed angry. Make each other laugh every day (one of my favorites). Forgive each other. Say I’m sorry. But here are some more unconventional and unexpected answers and the people from whom they came:

My dear friend Helen, an octogenarian and mother of four, was married 60 years before becoming a widow. She said having a bad memory and bad hearing were essential to a long-lasting and happy marriage. When I asked her to explain she said, there are some things you just need to forget and some things you just don’t want to hear. Also, the last time I saw her she told me she was happier than she’d ever been at 86! I asked her what she attributed this to and she said, “I’ve forgiven everyone and everything I think wronged me...even myself.” She also said she missed her husband, and might like to have a companion again, but she enjoyed her free time and really enjoyed every day of her life. It seems somehow apropos that she told me this the last time I saw her, and passed-on about six months later, though I miss her dearly.

Kevin’s parents, also in their eighties, said enjoying themselves with and without each other has kept their marriage healthy and happy. They spend time together, sharing at least one meal a day and going often to plays and musicals, but they each take on their own hobbies and activities. A retired physician, Mama Jones started taking singing lessons in her 70s, something she’d always wanted to do. A retired engineer, Papa Jones goes sailing, alone, at least once a week April through September on the Hudson River. Once in a while he’ll take guests, but he’ll go solo as much as he’ll host a sailing tour of the Hudson.

My family’s long-time friends Pete & Jane demonstrated selective hearing in maintaining a long-lasting and humorous marriage. Paul used to joke that Joyce’s hearing was so bad, she couldn’t hear Paul call for her, the phone or doorbell ring, but she’d always hear ice clink in a glass when Paul fixed himself a cocktail.

My parents say that shared values and philosophies about family and how to raise children has kept them together. When my older brother was getting into trouble, breaking-the-law and whatnot, that was one of the most trying times in their lives. But they’d tell him, “We’ll never give up on you...on any of you kids. What you’re doing is not okay, but we love you and will never give up on you.” Supporting each other through that was integral to their relationship lasting all these years . They celebrated 47 years in June – this is the first year I’ve been home for their anniversary in 15 years! They also say laughing and having a sense of humor close at hand has provided much-needed levity and fun throughout their lives and made the trying times somehow easier.

Unbeknownst to me, Marcus has been doing a similar survey for many years. His interviews started out differently, but wound up at the same place. While spending time in the hospital, being the curious bear he is, he wandered around and started talking to the “terminal” patients. He’d ask them: “What’s the most important thing in life?” Virtually everyone answered some form of the following: “family, friends, loved ones, loving people and connecting with people.”

When he asked them to expound, they’d say things like, “I should’ve spent more time with my wife or husband and less time at work.” or “I should’ve spent less time worrying and working and more time with my kids.” or “Family, friends and following your dreams.” No one said, “I wish I worked harder or worked more or made more money.” Not one person.

After that, he’d logically ask them about family and relationships, and to those who’d been married most of their lifetime, he’d ask them what makes a marriage work and last...

One old lady said: “It has nothing to do with love or sex. It has to do more with friendship, like and appreciation, than sex and love. I don’t necessarily want to screw him all the time, but I appreciate the way he looks, and the person he is.

Other common responses were: “Compromise and trust are the most important. You can’t have one without the other...and you can’t have a long-lasting marriage without them both.”

“It’s helpful to get along, but not necessary.”

“Forgiveness & letting things go.”

Seems to me, besides the poor hearing and poor memory, my friends the newlyweds have the foundation for what it takes to make a marriage happy, healthy, fun and long-lasting. You’ve got an in-the-bag kinda love for sure.

I wish you both all the best on the wedding, honeymoon, the pre- and post-parties and festivities surrounding you during this happy transition into married life. I look forward to celebrating many more of life’s events, big and small, with you and your man.

I Can Do Anything Good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

2011-08-09T14:44:00.000-07:00

The practice of affirmations is more prevalent in our vernacular than ever before.

Oprah probably helped with this, but it's also become integral in therapy and life-coaching as a mainstay of making life changes.

I've gone through a variety of daily affirmations. Currently I don't have one that I repeat on a regular basis, though one of my favorites is from Course in Miracles and Marianne Williamson's book, A Return to Love: (Also attributed to Nelson Mandella, he quoted CIM/Marianne Williamson in one of his well-known speeches.)

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I love that quote.

But it's not just about the words that you say, it's the emotional component behind them; the emotional state you feel and conjure in order to put yourself in that energetic space to become the thing you're intending.

Well, this little girl Jessica embodies the excitement and enthusiasm that should, in theory, pack a powerful punch for an intention or affirmation to come to fruition.

One last note. I've had several, major, trackable things manifest in my life from setting intentions. The ones that have come to fruition that are at the forefront of my mind had a lightness and non-attachment to them that other things I've wanted but ultimately not manifested did not have. More on that another time. For now, I'll leave you with Jessica's enthusiastic bathroom affirmation. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

I can do anything good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Movies Revisited... or Why I Started Singing

2011-08-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

Note: This blog appeared on KatieStrandMusic.blogspot.com about a week ago, and I decided to post it on KatieStrandWorld as well. Enjoy! (If you've read it already, enjoy again!)

My childhood was filled with many movies, less than the average child now, for certain, but still, certain movies left a lasting impression on my young mind that has stayed with me over the years.

My first movie memory is of watching either Annie or The Wizard of Oz.

Ever notice in memories, especially childhood memories, how time doesn't necessarily flow in a linear fashion? Anyway, I can't say for certain which movie I saw first, but both movies became my favorites of childhood, and both inspired me to sing their theme-songs, Tomorrow and Somewhere Over the Rainbow, respectively. This started at age three, believe it or not, and I started singing at family gatherings with my mother accompanying me on the piano.

As embarrassing as it is, I used to sing with a turkey baster, because I thought it looked like a microphone. This was a very common sight at family gatherings. This was me at three!

While it's likely I was drenched in music prior to viewing these movies, these movies drove home an innate desire, an unfettered and unconditional draw to sing. I don't recall conscious thought about it, singing just felt right, so I just did it.

Soon thereafter, I started taking piano lessons. A few years after that, I started playing piano and singing simultaneously.

But movies are inextricably combined with my original love of singing and music. In fact, I starred in my first play at age 5. I was the little bird in Are You My Mother? For those unfamiliar, it's a children's book about a little bird who's mother is not in the nest when she hatches, so she goes around looking for her mother - asking a dog, a tractor, and some other humorous, un-bird things if they are her mother. Very cute children's book that I highly recommend.

Even though I was acting at a very early age (I continued to perform in school and community plays), singing was unequivocally my first love, and later at arts school, I found some of the actors in the theatre department to be a bit annoying and self-centered (others became fun and beloved friends), so I disassociated with that aspect of myself, focusing instead on singing. But it's no coincidence that as my other career (besides singing/music), I went into television- and film-making.

Being back in the home where I grew up for the last few months has reacquainted me with some of those early memories. My parent's home is remodeled and we don't have the same television from childhood (thankfully), but I'm here, and I swear, just the energy in this exact location on earth brings back early memories, feelings and experiences.

So, I'm starting to revisit some of those old movies (which I'll explore more in another blog), and it's good to see these movies through adult eyes. I understand subtleties in dialogue, language and cinematography much more than I did when I was a child. I actually get relationship and sexual undertones that I never caught before in movies in Pretty Woman and The Bodyguard - two movies I saw as a pre-teen, and probably way before I could fully appreciate or understand them.

It's worth noting that watching The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner inspired me to write this blog today. Whitney, I know you're out there and I wish you'd read this or listen to someone else besides Bobby Brown and whoever else is coddling you and not telling you how glorious you are and that you need to change your ways. All the drugs and the craziness that have consumed your life (that seem obvious from the change in your voice and persona) for many years now are NOT YOU. Get sober, girl, and please, please, please clean yourself up and start singing again for real. You were so amazing and beautiful and talented. Check out this clip of her doing The National Anthem in her pre-crack days. Never, and I mean NEVER, have I heard someone sing our National Anthem more effortlessly and beautifully. The arrangement was great, and it helped that they (the arranger/music director) changed the song to 4/4, four beats per measure instead of the original three, but her singing was simply sublime. Sublime!

That's all for now, except for this last question:

What during your childhood shaped you? What uncovered for you what you love? What uncovered what is true about you? Share, please.

"Live simply, so others may simply live."

2011-08-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

-Gandhi

Of course Gandhi said that. He's the most well-known ascetic in the world.

noun

a person who dedicates his or her life to a pursuit ofcontemplative ideals and practices extreme self-denial orself-mortification for religious reasons.

a person who leads an austerely simple life, especiallyone who abstains from the normal pleasures of life or denies himself or herself material satisfaction.

(in the early Christian church) a monk; hermit.

Really, I'm blessed. I know it. Not because of success or wealth or wonderful family and friends, though some of those are very blessed things in my life. No, I'm more blessed because whenever I start to get my panties in a bunch; whenever I find myself spiraling down a self-constructed black-hole of fear, doubt and worry, I find my way back to things like the quote above from Gandhi, and remember films like I AM by Tom Shadyac, and recall, somehow, that none of the things I'm worrying about are actually even a problem for me right now. Right now I'm just fine. Right now is actually beautiful.

Easier said than done, of course. But I don't think I'd come to this quite so clearly if I didn't hit the bottom of my spiraling black hole.

The cool thing about my black hole, which is vastly different from actual black holes, is that I can actually get out of it. The force of gravity is metaphoric and figurative, not actual. The other cool thing, which is similar to actual black holes (in theory since no one has been able to test), is that it serves as a time-travel worm-hole.

It brings me out of my negative-future-projection funk and snaps me back to the present, with a quick tour of my past to remind me how things always work out for me.

Always.

Besides my black hole, documentary films, conversations with loved ones, reading books, quotes, old journals and blogs, and a good night's sleep all aide me in returning home to the equanimity, trust and calm that allow me to breathe and smile again.

My question for all of you out there is, what aides and helps you return to equanimity when you're in your own funk?

What sheds light on your black hole?

What helps you time travel back to the present?

Laughter: The Great Leveler

2011-08-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

These pictures were floating around email for a while. My good friend with a goofy sense of humor sent them to me, and I all but forgot about it until last night when for some reason it popped into my head. Take a look, have a good hump-day laugh (it's Wednesday and a lot of these pictures are accidental humping photos), and let me know what you think.

By the way, the aforementioned friend is someone I've known since childhood (different from the friend mentioned in my recent blog, The Road Less Traveled). We always bonded over our shared sense of humor; enjoying the stupid and silly things in life. He loves the movie Kingpin, which you should check out if you haven't already seen it and you like crude poop and fart jokes and can handle some gnarly inferred sex scenes (you'll understand when you see it). Funny thing is, we have very different views on life now - he's a politically conservative, semi-judgmental Christian, Western Medical-model following, eat-anything-you-want-as-long-as-you-exercise type and I'm, well, not really those things. But I love him, and he compliments my way of life at the strangest times. Once he told me I'd be a great patient because I'm actually willing to change my lifestyle if my health and well being requires change. He's a doctor and told me that most of the patients he's seen a) want a pill to take care of their problems, and b) once they have said pill don't take it as directed anyway.

It's wonderful how laughter is the great leveler. Contrasting viewpoints, backgrounds, lifestyles and beliefs be damned! If something is mutually funny, the playing field is leveled and for as long as the laughter lasts, all of those differences melt away and there's just good old, roll around, side-splitting laughter.

(See my notes on the pictures at the end.)

(Notes on the pictures: In case you missed why the picture of the Queen is funny: Look closely, but cautiously, between the guy's legs, picture left of the Queen.)

Muffin-Tops Close-Ups & Julia Roberts

2011-07-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

Like most women in this country, I saw the movie Eat, Pray, Love.

How much fun must it have been to make this film? Italy, India, Bali, Julia Roberts, Richard Jenkins, and Javier Bardem. The actors seem fun, and though I know better – the crew contributes to the good-times of the filmmaking as much as the actors – the locations alone would’ve been worth it.

But one thing that really gets to me about Eat, Pray, Love is that it blatantly lies.

How? Well, the dialogue doesn’t match the visual in one very important, noticeable scene – especially for my fellow female viewers. And let’s face it, most viewers of Eat, Pray, Love were women (and the men they blackmailed with sex into seeing the movie).

Examples of more subtle lies are when actresses like Angelina Jolie play a role like Salt when their arms are so skinny, they probably couldn’t even manage one pull-up, let alone kicking ass or killing innumerable federal agents and Russian spies. Seriously? By the look of her arms, Angelina likely strains lifting a half-gallon carton of non-fat soy milk.

But in Eat, Pray, Love the lie isn’t subtle or inferred...

There’s a scene with Julia and her blonde gal-pal eating Pizza Margherita in Naples (my all-time favorite type of pizza, by the way – though I’ve never had it in Naples), and they share that they both have “muffin-tops.” According to Urban Dictionary:

Muffin Top: When a woman wears a pair of tight jeans that makes her flab spill out over the waistband. Just like the top of a muffin sits over the edge of the paper case.

After the pizza-scene, Julia and her friend go to a boutique to get new jeans. It shows the two girls helping each other, struggling to button their new jeans.

Firstly, if someone has to help me button my jeans, I’m going one size up. No questions asked. Secondly, check the picture. Do you see any muffin top?

Now it’s worth noting that I am not a skinny-girl-hater. In fact, I’ve been called a “skinny bitch” more than once by women who were speaking with vitriol of my weight more than my disposition. One friend even erroneous called me “petite.” Well, at 5 feet, 8 inches, I can assure you I do not qualify as petite, but English is her second language and for her, petite means skinny.

While I wouldn’t describe myself as skinny, I probably am skinny in the eyes of many people. At one time I bench-pressed 140 pounds, my legs can press a lot (my dad once told me I had muscular “thunder-thighs” – thanks Dad), and I can pull-up my own body weight. With these things in mind, I’d more accurately describe my body as muscular, athletic or fit. It’s also worth noting that skinny girls can have muffin tops. It’s more about the fit of the jeans squeezing our natural womanlyness into an unsightly lump above our jeans than actual girth.

Weightlifting noted, I do have hips and curves. And I do have, with the right (or wrong as the case may be) jeans, muffin top. So, like any woman who has natural lady-curves, I know how to identify muffin top when I see, or don’t see it, as is the case in Eat, Pray, Love.

Look, I understand that Julia’s body is part of her livelihood, and though the likes of Renee Zellweger and Christian Bale have gained and lost weight, sometimes severely, Julia Roberts is not one of those actresses who gains or looses weight for her roles, at least from what I’ve seen. Can’t say I blame her, as I like to maintain a healthy weight as well.

But the movie lied saying she had a muffin top. It would’ve actually been more honest if they’d used a body-double for the close-ups of the supposed muffin top. Believe me, there would be plenty of women who could’ve doubled with their muffin top.

So please, filmmakers, try to be honest. Tough, muscular, ass-kicking women everywhere scoff at the skinny arms and legs of women playing cops, secret agents and action heroines. Lift a dumbbell and eat some whey protein for crissakes. And I’m sure muffin-top-sporting women could use a day or two of work body-doubling for Julia Roberts, at least for the muffin-top close-ups.

The Road Less Travelled (Reflections on an "Extreme" diet)

2011-07-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

Last night someone told me, “Your diet is extreme.”

At first I agreed.

At first.

Let me give a little background.

I've known this guy for over 20 years. He's seen many phases of evolution in me, and it's noteworthy that we have a banter-rich relationship. We've been friends for years, with long stretches of time between when we talk or see each other, but when we reconnect it's almost always easy - we get each other's sense of humor and have a long history of teasing each other about our differences.

In high school I left the "normal" public high school to go to an audition-based Arts High School. Predictably, I was in the music department. He's embarrassed that he used to call it Fag High School, as he fancies himself more open-minded and accepting now.

But when it comes to food, maybe not so much.

Many of you know, but for those who don't or those of you who want a refresher, I eat a diet that is, in fact, unique. Webster says: Unique: different from others in a way that makes something worthy of note.

Truth is, I probably eat a more diverse, but similar diet to our great-grandparents, in that the majority of my foods are home-cooked and based in ingredients that look very close to how they came off the vine, tree or out of the ground.

In other words, about 99% of my diet consists of foods that are unaltered and unadulterated. Food from animals comes from happy animals - those who are free range, eat diets they were meant to eat (grass-fed cows, free-range chickens). When they are altered, they're usually done so in a specialized, non-toxic and low-temperature environment. Or they’re cooked by me or someone I know. A large portion are eaten raw. The cooked ones are usually foods that are hard-to-digest when raw (like potatoes cauliflower, and broccoli). Lately I’ve been grinding wheat and baking my own bread. In lieu of that, I buy organic bread with fewer than 5 ingredients.

Sound confusing? Allow me to expound.

Here's a list of things you will find me enjoying on a regular basis.

Raw Milk

Raw Butter

Raw Cream

Raw Honey

Organic Apples

Raw Cheese
Free-Range, Organic Eggs (kept at room temperature and eaten raw - like Rocky!)

Broccoli (lightly steamed or sautéed)

Cauliflower (lightly steamed or sautéed)

Seared, Hormone/Antibiotic-free, organic, grass-fed steak

Uncooked Hormone/Antibiotic-free Italian Ham (Prosciutto)

Organic Potatoes

Organic Cashew

Organic Pumpkin Seeds

Organic Almonds

Organic Raw Home-made Hummus

Organic Carrots

Organic Celery

Organic Cucumbers

Organic Tomatoes

Organic Lemons

Organic Kale

Organic Brown Rice

Organic Brown Rice Pasta

Organic, Fresh-ground Wheat Bread

Organic, Grass-Fed Whey Protein (One World Whey)

Organic Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries

Salads that include:

Organic Spinach

Organic Super-food

Organic Sprouts

Organic Carrots

Organic Onions

Organic Olive Oil

Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

Organic Cayenne Pepper

Organic Raw Honey

Organic, Pink Himalayan Salt

How does this list seem to you? Extreme?

The conversation last night with my friend took place in front of a group of about seven people. Three were most vocal and were saying things like: how do you know something’s really organic (i.e. why bother eating organic) and what about pollution in the air – isn’t that just as bad as pesticides, and the food you eat is too expensive and I like my fast-food, cigarettes and soda-pop and if I die younger because of it, so what!?!

Of everyone present last night, I was the only one who eats any of the above foods on a regular basis. They’re all nice people, including the protagonist, but it felt like they were singling me out for being different. Ha! (Please refer to definition of unique above.)

This group eats a more standard American diet including regularly consuming fast-food, deep-fried foods, and a large daily dose of soda-pop, refined sugars, processed and hormone-treated meats, packaged foods, processed flours and all kinds of things you can’t pronounce. Two women in their thirties who were present probably eat a more health-conscious diet, but overall, they were a good representation of American people.

I don’t really talk to or question any of them about the foods they eat, but they notice that I don’t usually partake in eating their food save a small taste now and then. Last night I shared many things with them, answering questions and trying to explain why I make the choices I do. I was pretty calm throughout and explained about my research into GMO (Genetically-Modified-Organisms) foods creating infertility and premature death in laboratory tests with hamsters after 3 or 4 generations. I also explained that pesticides are much more damaging to crops than pollution in the air; many pesticide farm workers have come down with diseases that their organic counterparts are free from. I also explained that I’m noticing a lot of women in their late 20s and early 30s who are having a difficult time getting pregnant. That is troubling to me.

I explained that my body feels good when I eat this way.

But I didn’t say the following:

I know what my food is.

I know the ingredients that go into my food.

I can pronounce all of the foods that I eat.

Can you?

I love the taste of my food.

I don’t feel heavy, bloated, stuffed or regret after I eat.

It has been two years since I've had a cold or flu. I've been distinctly eating this way for just over two years. (Prior to that I was into heath food and experimented with health, vegan and vegetarian eating, but feel the best on this food plan.)

I don’t have many of the ailments my peers have, including Obesity, Crohn’s Disease, Diabetes, Cancer and other digestive or autoimmune disorders. Statistically, I’m much less likely to have any of these things, additionally Strokes and Heart-Disease later in life. The age at which people are contracting these things is getting younger and younger.

Am I immune?

Probably not.

I cannot predict the future and don’t know what I may face in my own health. But I make choices based on research, observation, and my own life experience with what helps my body feel good, not my emotional state, but my body.

When I used to eat a more standard American diet, I often felt heavy, bloated, stuffed or regret after eating.

I think Diabetes, Obesity, Crohn’s Disease, Cancer and Heat-Disease are extreme.

And I think it’s no coincidence that the above things have increased exponentially in the last 30 years, and are starting at a younger age, concurrent with the ubiquitous fast-food and packaged food industries.

We’ve never seen the amount of obesity or diabetes in children that we are seeing today.

Diabetes is so pervasive in children, the CDC renamed it Type 2 Diabetes. (Type 2 Diabetes is a metabolic disorder resulting from the body's inability to make sufficient insulin, or properly utilize the insulin it makes; Type 2 is usually caused by poor diet, weight-gain and obesity.) Type 2 Diabetes used to be called Adult Onset Diabetes. They had to change the name because so many children were coming down with it!
(Sources: health-doc.com and the CDC.com)

Think about that.

Never before have we seen children with obesity and diabetes to such an EXTREME amount, we not only had to rename the disease, it’s also likely our children will die at a younger age than their parents.

That, to me, is extreme.

EXTREME.

So I choose another path.

Last night, I really felt how much I’m on the road less traveled.

It was a bit lonely.

But the ground of my path is firm.

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

2011-07-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

Most of you know I've worked on documentary television and films, as well as other random commercial, scripted feature, and reality television projects.

People who work in film and television can often become a bit critical of their audio-visual entertainment. It makes sense: if you know what goes on behind the scenes, you're more likely to be critical when something isn't done well. Like a chef at a shitty restaurant, you want your entertainment to be good and when it's not, it's frustrating.

But to be honest, as much as I can be critical of movies and television, I've also tried to relax a bit and just enjoy my viewing pleasures.

A rare gem in the documentary world is to find a documentary film that is both informative and really entertaining. Supersize Me is a great example of a film that accomplished this. Michael Moore does it sometimes. Religiosity did it mostly.

But the most recently documentary film that has caught my attention (thanks to Marcus who found it for us) is called Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead. And it just so happens to be streaming (recently released) on Netflix!

I highly recommend you see this movie. I won't give too much away other than it's about a dude who was fat, sick and nearly dead, and his journey of healing and transformation.

If you don't have netflix, try these links to view a streaming copy on your computer, or you can go to the movie's website: http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/ and support the filmmaker by buying a DVD.

http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-1926963-Fat-Sick-and-Nearly-Dead

Please let me know what you think.

Here's to your health!

Louie on FX - please watch

2011-07-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

Louie on FX is probably one of the funniest shows on television right now, if not one of the funniest shows ever on television.

That's right, I said EVER ON TELEVISION.

Louis C.K. was born Louis Szekely, pronounced Sek-key, which Louis changed to CK for obvious reasons. He likes his first name pronounced Louie.

Louie writes, directs, edits and stars in this show. It's poignant, tragic and hilarious all at once. I've shown clips to friends who laugh out loud as well as my 70-year-old mother who said, "that might be the most hilarious sketch I've ever seen" about his scene from first season (FX has just started airing season 2) with Ricky Gervais as his doctor. Check it out below. Have a good time and let me know what you think.

I might've written about this already in a previous blog, but it's 4th of July and really hot so I'm going to go hang outside by the lake and can't be bothered to check my previous blogs. Deal.

Madonna is Lady Gaga!

2011-06-16T12:44:00.000-07:00

Madonna is famous for reinventing herself.

So much so, in fact, that the word reinventing didn't apply to people at all until Madonna started doing it.

From Blonde Ambition to Evita, from Mom, and woman with the crazy-cut-muscular arms, she paved the way for people like Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, and Rihanna.

But after listening to Lady Gaga's latest tome, Born This Way, I kept hearing Madonna's famous Express Yourself in my head.

Apparently I'm not the only one who has noticed the resemblance, as several online bloggers have mashed up the two songs together to illustrate their similarities. Questions like "Did Lady Gaga rip off Madonna and does anyone care?" accompany a poorly edited photo collage of the two women and their respective songs.

But the following question occurred to me:

Where is Madonna?

She's not been in the limelight or pop-news lately....

So....

I think Madonna is Lady Gaga!

I mean, what better reinvention than to transform yourself into a younger, slightly less fit, less attractive (beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so this is just my opinion), make-up and wig-clad (to hide the plastic-surgery required to pull off this transformation) twenty-something (year right) antics-ridden artist?

Madonna, you have outdone yourself this time. Unpredictable, once again.

It's all really, about magic.

Well, it's all really about catchy songs and magic.

Magic is the art of illusion and part of illusion is distraction. You draw the audiences eye away from the thing you don't want them to see (that Lady Gaga really is Madonna), to the meat-suit-dress or astral-ring-dress or egg/pod-thingy to achieve the desired effect. Also, notice that people don't talk too much about Lady Gaga, I mean Madonna's personal life anymore. She may be guarding it closely to her bosom, but her antics draw our attention away from her personal life and straight to her stage life and crazy outfits/makeup/accouterments.

Case and point:

Madonna's Express Yourself is blatantly similar to Lady Gaga's Born This Way - in both message/theme, melody, beats-per-minute, vocal range, and musical structure.

The only counter to this potentiality is that Gaga's dancing isn't quite as good as Madonna. However, this is probably just part of Madonna's rouse.

Material Girl, you have outdone yourself.

How do people with OCD deal with having a bung-hole?

2011-06-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

WARNING!!

For anyone out there who finds me even remotely attractive, please be warned, this blog may reduce some of that attraction to me.

We'll be talking about bung-holes and pooh (not Winnie, the other kind of pooh), and OCD, so please, if you'd like to retain your attraction to me, you may want to skip this blog I've written here.

Here's the question du jour:

How do people with OCD deal with having a bung-hole?

I mean seriously. I'm challenged a bit by having a bunghole. I almost always want to shower after I pooh. At the very least I use a chlorine-free, hippie-style wet-wipe to get things cleaner than toilet paper alone could. And since I eat a pretty clean diet, I often go two or three times a day, and showering that many times a day just isn't feasible, for my skin that would suffer, and all the water and time it would waste.

The French have the right idea with bidets, at least you get to wash off the pooh-hole after pushing one out.

But imagine you're a person living with Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder (OCD) and you have a bunghole and you pooh, at least three times a week.

I just looked it up and according to the Colon, Cleansing and Constipation Resource Center, doctors say that having bowel movements anywhere from 1-3 times per day or a minimum of 3 times per week is normal.

So at least three times per week your OCD must flare up big time when your colon starts pushing stuff out.

So how do you deal with it as an OCD person? I'm really curious about this.

Maybe it's base or déclassé to ask this question, but it occurred to me recently and I haven't been able to shake the question.

Does anyone out there know? You could leave an anonymous comment if you're a therapist protecting your client's confidentiality or a person living with OCD.

And by the by, the aforementioned, Colon, Cleansing and Constipation Resource Center is an actual business and website. Check it out if you need help with your colon, cleansing or constipation. I wonder if there's an app for that.

*

All we need is a chicken...

2011-06-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, I spent a week in Costa Rica with one of my closest and oldest friends.

Somewhere in our journey to the coast, we ended up on one of those buses. Anyone who's traveled in Central or South America knows exactly what I'm taking about. It wasn't quite as rickety as the quintessential latin-american bus, but it was packed to the gills with locals and their stuff, so we had to stand in the aisle with our largish backpacks until seats became available. Standing there, trying not to annoy the people sitting all around me as we traversed over bumps and turns, I said to my friend, "the only thing this bus is missing is a chicken."

You know the old adage, be careful what you wish for... well, it should be: be careful what you say, because sure as chicken-shit, the next stop boarded a man and his chicken. Said chicken was in an aerated box, but still, there was a real live chicken on my bus to Quepos, Costa Rica.

It made for a good laugh and a good memory, though.

And though this was years ago, it got me to thinking.

What would you do, if you were just a regular José in Costa Rica and you had to take your chicken to...

Where the hell would you be transporting your chicken to?

Maybe you're selling it, or giving it as a gift to your would-be in-laws as a down-payment on their daughter (do they still do dowries in Costa Rica?), or maybe you just love your chicken and won't leave home without it. Nonetheless, how would you travel with your chicken from town-to-town in Costa Rica?

By Bus, of course.

So it's not so ridiculous that this guy would enter my bus with his chicken.

And it was quite considerate of him to give his chicken a portable coup in the form of a box. Thanks for that, José.

Until we meet again, Costa Rica and your busses, I say to you,

BAWK, BAWK!

Darth Vader would suck at Hide N' Seek

2011-05-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

Just watched the original Star Wars movies. Episodes four, five and six, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.

First of all, they still hold up.

Secondly, I'm glad I watched the trilogy on vintage VHS, because I loathe the majority of the plot and physical changes made to the original movies.

Though I appreciate George Lucas removing those very thin lines around the screen, a relic of special effects from the time period, the other changes - like the added Jabba the Hut scene, the added monster mouth in the desert monster-hole (what the frack was that?), and the Hayden Christensen ghost instead of the old dude at the end of Jedi, are all just wrong. Please take them back, Mr. Lucas. Yuck.

But has anyone else noticed how inconveniently loud Darth Vader's breathing is?

(Read the following aloud with Phuuuhhhhh on the inhale and the Khuuuhhhhh on the exhale.)

Phuuuhhhhh Khuuuhhhhh

Very hard to sneak up on somebody. Just listen for Phuuuhhhhh Khuuuhhhhh and you'll know exactly where he's at. Sure, he can choke people with his mind, but forget trying to punk or prank someone. And he'd be shit at hide 'n seek.

I'm just saying.

Darth Vader would suck at Hide N' Seek.

*

Optimistic Birds

2011-05-14T08:04:00.000-07:00

I must be getting old, because I actually caught myself enjoying bird watching the other day.

Firstly, in case you don't know, I'm hanging in Minnesota for a bit. Marcus and I are finishing our book, What Women Never Tell You, without all the distractions that Los Angeles provides. Plus, we wanted to spend some time with my family.

Secondly, my awareness of birds in Los Angeles was limited to seagulls at the beach, crows outside my window (very early on a Sunday morning CAAAaaah! CAAAaaah!), and once in a while a nightingale, I think, in the evenings when I lived in Los Feliz. I've lived pretty much all over Los Angeles, and that's what I remember of the birds around me.

But here, we have bright-red cardinals and royal-blue blue-jays hanging outside the very large front window of my family home. The home where I grew up, actually.

Not only do they hang out for us to watch, munching on the bird-feeder my Dad put out. They sing and seem to be having a good time. The weather here isn't exactly balmy yet. In the last ten days, we've had sunny, 65° days, and we've had crisp, 40° days. More of the latter. Oh, and sometimes with rain. It actually snowed here in mid-April!

Even though I grew up in Minnesota, my blood thinned after all my years in Southern California. In other words, I'd put on a coat at 55° in LA.

But what struck me about these birds, is that they're so optimistic.

I realize I'm anthropomorphizing a bit.

And I'm sure the bird population here has nothing to do with their sunny outlook on life. Literally, sunny. They're trusting the sun will eventually come to northern Minnesota and stay, at least for a few months.

I'm sure it's some long-ingrained bird instinct, passed on and cultivated over many, many generations of aviary genetics.

But to me and my non-bird-brain, they just seem optimistic.

So, I'm taking a queue from the birds. Today, I'm going to just trust that the sun will come out tomorrow. I'm going to be optimistic that things will just work out. Optimistic that mother nature, father time, and sister christian actually know what they're doing and I can just follow my instincts.

Which is what, I guess, I'm doing here.

Know that I miss and love all my cherished friends in California (or wherever else my friends might be). I'm writing, singing, bird watching, and doing all I can to stay optimistic.

Making Decisions is Easy

2011-05-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

Alright, sarcasm is hard to convey in written form. My title today is laced with sarcasm.

Making decisions, for me, is often not easy at all.

Until it is.

Let me explain. There is too much. Let me sum up.

You see, I realized something this morning.

I'm just pretending to be in charge of my own life/mind/choices. Something else is going on. How do I know? My big life decisions have never really been made by me.

You see, I'll spend days, sometimes weeks (or in one unfortunate relationship situation - years) agonizing over a decision. The agony usually correlates to my perception of how big the decision is - the bigger the perception of the thing in my life, the greater the agony.

But here's the kicker. Once I do make the actual decision, it never is about weighing the pros & cons, or about all the permutations I've looked at on paper or in my mind. It's always just a clarity, a feeling, an intuition that just washes over me, usually after a good night's sleep, and often after an experience that is unrelated to the decision!

Now I've studied enough about psychology, the subconscious, and spirituality to know that we don't know jack. But we do know that the subconscious mind uses sleep and dreams to vent and work things out.

So here I am, 98% clear on a decision that has been haunting me for weeks. The type of haunting where I wake up in the morning thinking about this. Oftentimes I didn't even have a breath between sleeping and waking before thinking about what I needed to do next to figure this out. The type of haunting where I've had emotional breakdowns on a weekly basis, like clockwork. (The decision is related to investments and land and things that might bore you if I went into the details.)

And now that I'm on the other side, I can't believe I didn't see this more clearly before. Argh, the agony of hindsight!

Let me back up a bit. Years ago I went to boarding school. Now that may sound all rulers-on-the-wrist and catholic school girly, but this is me folks. It was a very un-catholic school girl experience. It was closer to Fame, without all the singing and dancing in the cafeteria. (We sang and danced in our performance space, thank you very much.) It was a residential arts school in Minneapolis, about 3 hours from my home town. I had to apply and audition to get in and it was a two-year program. Junior & senior years of high school. Once I did get in for my junior year of high school, I knew I would go. But my first year was hard being away from family and friends and in a completely new environment. I knew without a doubt at the time that I wanted to be a professional musician/singer/songwriter, but I didn't know if continuing at this school was a) the best way to do that or b) for me.

During summer vacation between junior and senior years, I did all the figuring out I possibly could. I weighed the pros and cons. I talked to some trusted friends and family. I stewed and stewed and stewed some more.

Then one night, at a party, I found the guy I'd been dating off and on in his car with my good friend Tara. If memory serves, walking by the car, I saw a bare ass lit-up by the moon light.

It was not a pretty sight.

I walked away and knew, right in that moment, that I was going back to Arts High for my senior year.

From the outside, it might've looked like I was merely reacting to my friend fooling around with the guy I liked. But that wasn't it at all. Maybe that was the catalyst, but ultimately, that wasn't what really did it for me.

Something beyond me, something older and wiser and calmer than I was at that time, made me know, as sure as winter in Minnesota, that I didn't really belong here anymore.

I spent my first year at Arts High feeling like I didn't belong there, but it was exceptionally confusing and frustrating because I didn't feel I belonged anywhere - not in this new place, but not in my old place either.

That night with the moon-lit-bare-ass was the catalyst for me to realize that all the discomfort of my first year was me growing into belonging in this new place.

My senior year at Arts High went by in a blur, but it was one of the best times in my life. I bonded with friends there that I still have to this day. I had experiences that inspired songs, and grew into the woman I am now in large part because of that decision.

What's it like for you? How do you come to your most life-altering decisions? At what point is it easy?

I do believe in following your gut. Problem is, I'm notoriously too impatient for my gut to chime in.

Guess I still need to learn more patience.

Golf is better than sex..... & Beware of text messages

2011-04-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

My Dad said this to me the other day...

"I think your Mom might be having an affair."

WTF?!?

Dad, what?

Background: My parents have been married for 45+ years and they still love, like and enjoy each other. For real. Recently my Mom went to their vacation home in Florida solo and they both seriously missed each other! How cute is that? I was highly doubtful that my mother was having an affair.

Dad, what makes you think that?

He continued, "because I found these text messages on the cel phone that said I love you and Meet me later."

He handed me his samsung flip-phone so I could look over the text messages to see who'd been sending secret love messages to my mother.

I couldn't find anything in the in- or out-going text message mailboxes. (Side-note: My parents never text to me. The one time I sent my Dad a text message to show him how it works, he looked at it and said, "how do I delete this?")

I asked him to show me where he found these so he took the phone back for about 30 seconds, found what he was looking for and handed it back to me.

The very top of the list of text messages that indeed said I love you and meet me later said Message Templates.

Hahahahahaha.

Truth is, my parents are too old to have affairs. No offense intended. But ask anyone who's had an affair - from what I've seen, it may be exciting, but it takes a lot of energy and is a lot of freaking work. My parents would rather golf, from what I can tell.

Don't Work Too Hard

2011-04-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

Growing up in the Midwest, a common adage was: “work hard.” So common is this adage that it was hard for me to imagine anyone not working hard. Additionally, when I moved to California and joined the work force, colleagues and supervisors complimented me on what they called my midwestern work ethic – in other words, I worked hard.

I have to admit, I took pride in this. There was a time when I was clocking 80 or more hours a week. I worked hard, and had a suffering social life to prove it.

That was a few years ago now.

You see, since then, I’ve worked hard on not working hard.

At some point I realized that my life was just passing me by. The problem with hard work solely for the pride and/or earnings of hard work is that you barely have time to enjoy the fruits (positive feedback, pride in your job & pure money) of your labor. I was working as a manager on a television set so late one night, that I didn’t even make it back in time to watch the premier of the very show I was working on! No fruit for me.

These days, my perspective has shifted. Sure, my pocketbook may be lighter than in those days, but I have way more freedom and room to breathe. And I’m taking a page from the book of people like Timothy Ferriss – work (as little and effectively as possible) to live, not live to work. This way of living is giving me the major opportunity to expand my comfort zone. Since I make a hobby of doing things generally out of most people’s comfort zones (from braving heights with aerial acrobatics to public speaking, performing original music, and talking about sex in front of a group of peers – I recently gave a hypnotherapy talk on sex and relationships), it’s really saying something that I’m expanding my comfort zone by living this way...

Currently I have so much freedom and room to breathe, in fact, that I’m able to take time to hang with my family for a few months. My insidious and ingrained work ethic (there’s still a thread of it in me) provides me with some episodes of anxiety and worry. Marcus bears the brunt of these freak-outs.

What do I freak out about?

Usually it’s some combination of: what are we doing next, where are we going to live next, where is our money coming from next, and am I making the wrong decision living this way? I even worry that Marcus isn’t worrying as much as I am (therefore he must not care about it like I do), and often lump in the future of my loved ones, our planet and the human race – I’m already worrying anyhow, I might as well really go for it.

But excepting these freak-outs. My life looks pretty good. And I suppose the freak-outs help me to expand my comfort zone – like growing pains.

This new way of living and freedom of time also allows me to be in the Bahamas right now. It’s a long story that can best be summed up by saying we’re handling some family business here. On our first day here, the 20-something son of the proprietors came by to help trouble-shoot our internet (things in the Bahamas are often a bit unreliable). When we told him we had a busy day of meetings with banks, lawyers and real-estate agents he said, “Don’t work too hard.”

“Don’t work too hard.”

It struck me.

I realized that “Don’t work too hard” is as much an adage in the Bahamas as “Work hard” is in the midwest.

Years ago I read a book called “The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight.” One major thing author Thom Hartmann wrote about that stayed with me was the main lifestyle difference between nomadic and modern people. Nomadic people, living communally and with little to no perception of ownership (over land, goods, people), had approximately 80% leisure time. Modern people, in stark comparison, have 10-20% leisure time. Additionally, leisure time for nomadic people was spent bonding and playing with each other (remember this was before any kind of modern media-based entertainment). Leisure time for modern people is usually spent engaged in media-based entertainment that promotes staying a cog in the very machine that rapes our leisure time.

Maybe the above sounds extreme, and I can’t verify whether it’s true or not, but have you noticed people, especially Americans, tend to work during their most vibrant, youthful years, only to save their coveted leisure time for when they’re older and usually less able to actually enjoy said leisure time?

So I think we should all put on a wider lens to help us gain a little perspective.

Is your life passing you by?

Do you get to savor what you spend time doing?

Instead of asking people what do you do, try what are you into? What do you love?

Because that ultimately may be more telling than what they spend time doing so that they can have more freedom and leisure time in the future...

If time is money, are you working hard for your money or working hard for your time? Can you enjoy your time when it’s yours (not your bosses) or are you like I was – too exhausted from work to really appreciate whatever freedom you have?

Are you operating, like I was, on an adage that came from outside of yourself?

The good news is, it’s not yours. So you might as well let it go.

At least, that's what I'm trying to do.

No. That's what I'm doing.

As Yoda says, do or do not, there is no try.

Shake it... for Whole Body Vibration!

2011-01-19T21:55:00.000-08:00

In the past few months, Whole Body Vibration has come onto my radar several times. Since I've learned that anything crossing my path 3 or more times is something to pay attention to, I recently got a mini-presentation and sample of Whole Body Vibration. The machine I sampled was at a doctor's office, and it was the Body Vibe Pro 5000. I highly recommend you try these out. It not only felt great and made me all smiley, giddy and tingly, but apparently it has many long-term health benefits beyond giddyness. (Although giddyness might be enough motivation since giddyness seems a too-rare commodity.)

Basically, you stand or do exercises on a vibrating platform and according to Dr. DeOrio, "I investigated and learned more about whole body vibration and found it not only stimulated the neuromuscular and endocrine systems, but also improved fat metabolism."

I did wonder after trying it out for myself recently if standing on two $15-vibrators from my local adult store would work as well as the high-end, $2000 machine (some lower-end machines sell for as little as $300), but I'm thinking it's not quite the same thing. Funny visual, though.

Focus. Anyway, according to the woman who gave me the mini-presentation, after using the machine for about 10 minutes a day for a few months, her eyesight improved to the point where she didn't need eyeglasses, her hormones regulated (as evidenced by her cycle regularity and skin), and she grew 1 1/2 inches! Another testimony comes from a woman in her mid to late thirties who was having trouble conceiving and had even tried in-vitro. Under a doctor's care she spent about 10 minutes on the Body Vibe machine and was pregnant within 3 months! These are primary and secondary testimonials, but Dr. DeOrio has even more testimonials below. Check it out!

Here's the article on Whole Body Vibration by Dr. DeOrio (our new family doctor until further notice). Please only do this type of thing under the care of a licensed physician, and check with your doctor before trying or purchasing a machine, but there's no harm in reading...

Article from Vibrant Health Wellness Center.

The Body Vibe
A Revolution in Fitness, Wellness and Healing

Keith DeOrio, M.D.

Last year, a fitness instructor patient of mine introduced me to whole body vibration. At first I thought it was just another typical new exercise invention geared toward the gym/fitness crowd. It was presented to me primarily as an exercise machine but with possible therapeutic and medical applications. Those possibilities drew my attention. As a holistic medical doctor with a wellness medical practice, I am always looking for new and better ways to improve fitness and health for myself as well as my patients. Of course, the search is based from a holistic perspective that must be consistent with the body, mind and spirit medicine that I practice and believe in! I investigated and learned more about whole body vibration and found it not only stimulated the neuromuscular and endocrine systems, but also improved fat metabolism.

The Body Vibe is a sophisticated exercise and therapeutic wellness machine that uses vibrational technology based on decades of Russian research and development. During the first extended periods of time Russian cosmonauts spent in space, it was observed they experienced bone and muscle tissue loss due to a lack of gravity. In an effort to stop or reverse these degenerative conditions, researchers were led to the whole body vibration (WBV) technology. Since that first research decades ago, it has been well documented that vibrational technology does in fact repair the bone and muscle tissue loss experienced by the cosmonauts. Of course, this discovery inevitably led the way for the vibrational concept to be applied to the fields of athletics and fitness. The Body Vibe is the latest “state of the art” vibrational technology machine designed for all around physical performance enhancement. It is used widely through out Europe especially by Olympic and top sport athletes. Within the last year, its notoriety and popularity has spread in America as well. Athletic superstars such as Los Angeles Lakers Shaquille O'Neil, 2002 Canadian Olympic Hockey gold medal winner and goalie Ed Belfour as well as the Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Titans are among the first users in America to recognize the incredible advantage of vibration training.

The Body Vibe machine produces equal, if not better, results than conventional training methods such as weight lifting in far less time, with less effort and with much less stress on the joints, tendons and ligaments. Consequently, the Body Vibe significantly reduces the chance for potential injury normally present with conventional training methods.

The Body Vibe produces a vibration at varying hertz (times per second) through which energy is transferred to the human body. This mechanical stimulus produces a subconscious stretch reflex, which results in the muscles repetitively contracting and relaxing vigorously over a preprogrammed time interval. The body rapidly adjusts to the stimulation, resulting in an increase in physical performance and total body neuromuscular balance. This phenomenon of rapid adaptation is called super compensation. Super compensation is the major healing force behind the machines’ profound effects.

The Body Vibe has a 24" x 20” vibrating base plate that the user can either stand on in various static or dynamic positions or can use for massage and other therapeutic applications. The plate vibrates at various vibratory levels ranging from 20 to 50 Hertz .

At this range, the body transmits the vibrational frequency efficiently through tissues, muscles and organs creating the positive stimulation necessary to mimic and supercede the effects of regular exercise. The plate utilizes a three dimensional vibration pattern moving from front to back, left and right, and up and down. It has handlebars affixed to the top front of the main shaft approximately four feet up from the plate. The handlebars stabilize the user as well as providing vibrational stimulation from the handles into the user's upper body through the hands. The top of the shaft houses a computerized LCD display panel which allows one to select settings ranging from time interval duration to varying hertz levels and low and high speeds. Two straps attached to the sides of the base are held by the hands in various exercise positions. The straps are made from a fabric that was found to best relay the vibrations from the base to the hands and into the body.

More than 150 different exercise and stretching positions have been developed specifically for vibration training. The entire body musculature as well as internal organs and glands are affected by whole body vibration stimulation. Muscle spindles fire secondary to the mechanical stimulation produced by the Body Vibe. Rapid firing of the muscle spindle causes an adaptive neuromuscular response leading to physiological changes to the brain and the entire body. Traumas and injuries, even if healed, can leave old cell memories in the brain or body tissue that still impede normal body movement or function. Body Vibe usage allows the body and brain to rapidly de-imprint these old cell traumas and then re-imprint with positive healthy information. Physical therapists around the world have found vibration training to be better and more efficient at resolving injuries from sports or surgery than traditional methods of therapy.

At my wellness center, I incorporate a spectrum of different healing modalities ranging from Chinese Medicine to Homeopathy. The Body Vibe fits right in with my other healing techniques because it enhances the modalities I am already using. Increased blood flow combined with mechanical cell vibration leads to improved distribution and bio- availability of vitamins, nutrients, herbs, minerals and even homeopathics. Once the correct compound is chosen, the most significant factor in getting it to work is getting that substance to those tissues, organs or glands that need the healing. Getting nutrients into devitalized tissue with poor blood flow is one of most difficult things a health practitioner faces after choosing the right compound to heal the problem. Vibration helps to move the nutrients through the cell membrane and into the cell. The Body Vibe is the perfect tool to accomplish this job. Total body vibration causes the muscles, lymph, and cells in the body to contract and relax in a rhythmical fashion. If the right antioxidants, herbs and other nutrients are present in the blood prior to Body Vibe usage, a powerful super perfusion of the organs, glands and tissues is the result. Increased circulation and better lymph system drainage combines to give more rapid toxin removal resulting in more rapid healing and less detoxification side effects.

I believe this machine is consistent with the full spectrum of fitness and therapeutic applications I employ at my clinic. The positive effects of vibrational training are equal to if not greater than a heavy workout regimen. Studies have shown that ten minutes of training on the Body Vibe are equal to an hour workout with weights. This is accomplished with the least amount of stress to the joints, tendons and ligaments making it not only a perfect exercise machine, but an incredible therapy regimen for people with injuries (sports or other types), the elderly or those with disease conditions such as arthritis, fibro-myalgia or MS who are normally excluded or limited from a good fitness program. Long term Body Vibe usage leads to structural and anatomic changes in the body that persist for extended periods of time even when the Body Vibe is not being actively used.

Body Vibe Benefits:

Increased flexibility and Mobility
Increased hormone secretion: IGF-1, Testosterone, and HGH (human growth hormone)
Enhanced bone and muscle building
Increased lymphatic drainage
Increased muscle strength (especially explosive strength)
Cellulite reduction
Increased circulation
Decreased Cortisol levels
Pain reduction
Increased secretion of Serotonin and Norepinephrine
Increased T cell count
Improved vitality and wellbeing

Continued use of the Body Vibe eventually leads to anatomic changes in the cardiovascular system resulting in increased blood flow to the tissues at therapeutically higher baseline levels. Every tissue in the body benefits from the bones to the hair follicles. A new double blind, placebo controlled study from Germany has demonstrated reversal of osteoporosis in a large sample of menopausal females. The results show that the effects of whole body stimulation are more significant at stopping and reversing bone loss than traditional weight bearing movement at a fraction of the time and effort. Taken to the next level, improved circulation to the brain would enhance mental acuity, improve sleep, and strengthen the entire endocrine system which affects growth hormone secretion and therefore increases longevity and aging as well.

Cosmetically, enhanced blood flow and increased cell stimulation improves the integrity of the collagen matrix. This leads to tighter, stronger and more beautiful skin, hair and nails. Many of my patients report improved appearance within weeks after regular usage. Increased oxygenation to the tissues improves the metabolic rate which increases fat and cellulite loss. Just three minute three times per week is enough to cause this fat burning effect.

Infertility specialists from Holland have used whole body vibration to treat infertility. They reported that a group of ten infertile females who failed all traditional drug methods of fertility treatment were instructed to use whole body vibration three times a week for three months. After three months, six out of the ten were pregnant and all carried to term. Increased blood flow to the ovaries, uterus, fallopian tubes, vagina, brain and the entire endocrine system is the most probable explanation for this outcome. The Body Vibe is safe to use through out pregnancy. If the right nutrients, herbs and other modalities such as acupuncture had been added to the Body Vibe treatment regimen, a much higher rate of fertilization probably could have been achieved.

About Dr. DeOrio

Dr. DeOrio is an internationally known expert in Integrative medicine. He is a graduate of the University of California/Irvine's College of Medicine. Upon graduation, he completed an internship at the Kaiser Fontana, Ca. Family Practice Residency Program. He attended the UCLA Medical Acupuncture Program and is a member of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture. Dr. DeOrio received a degree from the British Institute of Homeopathy.

He is a specialist in nutritional and preventative medicine and recently published a book outlining four important nutritional paradigms of the 20th century titled The New Millennium Diet Revolution. Dr. DeOrio created a complete line of nutritional and homeopathic formulations designed to rapidly heal many of our present day, difficult-to-treat conditions. He is proficient in prolo and neural therapy, which is used to treat musculoskeletal and pain conditions that do not respond to traditional therapies.

The DeOrio Wellness Medical Center was featured in ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE MAGAZINES' Ideal Clinic Section. Dr. DeOrio hosted his own national radio show called Natural Health and Healing. He is featured as a guest expert on television and radio as well as print media. His most recent interview was for a segment on the Discovery Channel's "Inquiring Minds" documentary in which he presented a cured case of Lupus documented by laboratory testing and validated by third party medical experts.

Dr. DeOrio treats patients from all over the world and is known for his ability to integrate various treatments in a way that quickly brings vitality back to the patient’s life.

http://www.bcvibranthealth.com/bcvibrant/articles/deorio.htm

Because You Taught Me How

2010-12-09T15:55:00.000-08:00

Months ago, I wrote a blog called Have you forgotten how glorious you are?

When the idea for this blog occurred to me, the one you're looking at right now; I wondered if I already wrote this blog in the aforementioned blog from months ago.

But no, this one is different. This one goes further back.

Marcus and I have been working with and providing support to a dear friend who's been struggling with his physical and emotional health. We've been spending a lot of time with him. Almost all of our time, in fact, as when he's all alone, his symptoms seem to get worse.

We're searching for help for him, for more than we may be able to provide.

He's experienced some improvement, but all of his symptoms are not gone yet.

But he believes he's feeling better mainly because he has two compassionate people with him all the time. (I'm also teaching him how to sing and play guitar.) Marcus has modified his diet and that has helped too.

But he's not better yet. Closer, but not better.

But it occurred to me on one particular night when I woke up to help (as insomnia is one of his issues so we sometimes get up in the night to help him out), that the reason I can show up like this with loved ones is because my parents taught me how.

There's a possibility that this is intrinsic in me. That even if I were raised by wolves I'd still be compassionate, though I'd certainly have terrible table manners.

But somehow, I doubt it.

The reason I can be supportive, compassionate, loving and present with this friend, and with any of my loved ones, is because I learned it from both of my parents.

They are my first memory and example of compassion and love. And while my pool of people with whom I experience this has grown since I was a little girl, they'll always be the originals.

Thanks, Mom and Dad.

You've taught me more than we'll ever know.

Hydrate

2010-11-25T21:05:00.000-08:00

My addendum to yesterday's blog: Forgive, Keep Moving, Stay Present & Eat Healthy.

For anyone interested in what happened after my pseudo-mother-in-law went to the hospital, we have one more thing to add to yesterday's list of lessons learned looking at the winter side of life.

Forgive, Keep Moving, Stay Present, Eat Healthy...

and

Hydrate.

There are actually different theories about water drinking and some think we can get all of our water needs from our food. The problem with buying into that philosophy is that you need to have a very hydrating diet in order for that to actually work. We're talking about daily: over 1/2 gallon of raw milk and half a pound of raw butter (aka farm fresh or unpasteurized), or lots of raw fruits and vegetables. Most people don't eat enough of those things to stay hydrated. Even though many fruits are very watery - like the obvious watermelon, cucumbers and tomatoes, the water from them will hydrate somewhat but only if the fruits are raw and unadulterated. Keep in mind here that it takes water to digest protein, sugar and fiber, so if the fruit has sugar added to it, like fruit cups, or it's extremely fibrous, like a banana, it takes equal amounts of water to digest as is in the fruit itself, or it may even borrow water from your body to aide in digestion.

So drink water, people. And try to avoid water with fluoride and chlorine (most tap water) as these are not only poisonous, but they acidify your water, which won't hydrate you as well as water closer to your own pH (which should be 7.3 - just slightly alkaline).

You see, once we talked to the doctor, it turns out that the primary issue with Marcus' Mom was dehydration. Makes sense because she doesn't really like to drink water regularly. After the hospital pumped fluids into her intravenously, her pain subsided, she got her appetite back and she was much more coherent.

I forgot how much dehydration can fubar a person up. Apparently the early signs of dehydration are
dizziness, lack of coordination and concentration (often coupled with slurring), cramping, loss of appetite and shaky hands. The more extreme signs of dehydration are severe weakness and muscle fatigue where you simple cannot do normal, everyday things, loss of balance, and body aches. The most extreme signs are kidney failure and blood clots.

It's also worth noting that when someone is already weaker and more sedentary, like an older woman might be, they go faster to extreme dehydration than a younger, more robust person. Though Marcus' Mom walked stairs for exercise as recently as one month ago, her exercise routine has slowly diminished over the last few years to where she's only doing light exercise once or twice every two weeks. Not enough to stay healthy. For an older person, even going for a moderate, 30-45 minute walk 5 days a week will help ward-off all kinds of ailments that plague older people.

All in all, the doctors say there's nothing wrong with her that they can find after blood tests, a CT-scan and their battery of neurological questions... other than dehydration and her sodium levels being too low. Overall, it looks like the diet really is working.

So, my thanksgiving day involved calling in about half a dozen paramedics to help my elderly pseudo-mother-in-law get to the hospital so she didn't have to sit in her own pooh/pee. And then relaxing the rest of the day with Marcus, too tired for the first time in my life to prepare Thanksgiving dinner.

But I figure the date is arbitrary, and we're planning a thanksgiving feast another day.

And what better way to be thankful than to deal with a loved one having a difficult time.

So, I'm thankful. For my loved ones. For how agile and mobile I am. For the fact that I can pooh and pee on my own. For the fact that my relationship can thrive even in the face of a temporarily (fingers crossed/pray to Goddess) invalid parent. For my health. For my talent. For my friends and loved ones. And for all of you, subscribing.

Pandering a bit? Maybe. But I really am glad that when I click "publish post" it goes out there...even if the pool of you is currently smaller than I'd like, I take comfort in the knowing that you are out there, reading.

Now go drink some water.

Forgive, Keep Moving, Stay Present & Eat Healthy

2010-11-25T13:32:00.000-08:00

My grandparents all passed before I graduated high school, if memory serves. My maternal grandfather when I was in grade-school, my grandmothers both passed in junior high/early high school, and my paternal grandfather passed when my father was in high school. You see, my parents were in their thirties when they started having children; old for the time and generation. Their parents were slightly older too.

I've missed slightly having grandparents as an adult. It's probably similar to not having an appendix or tonsils. You can't exactly feel that it's not there, but it feels like something is missing...

Probably to appease this, I made friends with an older woman when I lived in San Diego while in college, and when I say older, I mean older. Helen was an octogenarian when we met. She was so delighted that I was her friend. Not her children's or her grandchildren's friend, but her friend. Ten years ago she started as my client when I had my own business as a personal trainer, and we remained friends until she died about a year ago. The last time I had lunch with her she told me, "I'm happier than I've ever been."

I asked what she attributed that to and she said, "I've forgiven all the people in my life that I ever thought did me wrong...and I've forgiven myself for any mistakes I thought I made....I miss my husband [of 60 years who died about 10 years ago] sometimes, and think it might be nice to have a male companion of some sort, but my life is very full and very happy."

Marcus and I have been together for almost two years, and in that time I've gotten to know his mother fairly well. Fiercely independent, the only thing she dislikes more than asking for help is being told what to do. We've been encouraging her to keep moving, be social and mostly, to stay present since she has a tendency to stress herself out with worrying about the future and ruminating about the past. But, she's stubbornly gotten to the point now where she hurt her back and neck, and can't take care of herself. We are hopeful that with some prescription pain medicine, good restorative sleep, and care from doctors she'll be able to recover and be mostly independent again. But today I had to call paramedics to come get her and bring her to the hospital, because the pain in her back and neck due to a recent fall and the subsequent tension she created from not being able to get herself up, has made it virtually impossible to do everyday necessities like getting up to go to the bathroom, lying down, and preparing food.

In case you're wondering why Marcus didn't do this, well, he was still hooked up to his dialysis machine. Also, those of you who know me well know that I'll do what I can to help my loved ones in need. I went to help her this morning as Marcus was unable, and it turned out she thought it was time to call for help.

Imagine not being able to get up out of bed.

After the small circus of paramedics left with my pseudo-mother-in-law, I cried a little and then had a mini-epiphany.

We have to keep moving. Always and forever. Even when there's pain and even when we don't want to.

Also, we have to stay present. Ruminating about the past and worrying about the future don't really do anyone any good. It's not productive and it just creates stress and tension.

Eat healthy, but that's not enough by itself. She eats very healthy. Possibly one of the healthiest diets on the planet as she's almost 100% organic, eats only meat and protein that's unaltered by antibiotics, hormones or strange feed (she only eats free-range, grass-fed meat and poultry), and plenty of organic vegetables and unrefined grains. Her stats are good. The paramedics tested her before they took her to the hospital: her blood pressure was low and she responded to all their standard coherency and body-response tests.

But she a) doesn't move enough, b) stresses herself out with worry and paranoia and c) has become anti-social. The healthy diet will postpone some of these symptoms, but if you don't practice these other things, eventually it will come bite you in your wrinkled-old ass.

Having a partner is a huge asset. Huge. My parents are close to her age, and they're much more mobile even though they have some worry, pain and discomfort. Think about it - it's much easier to get locked into worry and fear when you're left to your own devices. Having a partner who looks out for you and you for them helps to mitigate some of the self-defeating thoughts and behaviors. Also, it can help keep you present. Next time your boy or girlfriend says something funny, just try to worry about the future or ruminate about the past. Friends are good for keeping us present too.

To close, I'm fatigued. Usually I edit my writing before sending it into the blogosphere, but I'm simply too tired to care to do that this time.

Please, for anyone out there reading this and for myself too...

Forgive.

Keep Moving.

Stay Present.

Eat healthy.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Share this and/or call someone you love.

Katie Strand World

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Up - The Power of Storytelling by Pixar

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7 Foods You Should Never Eat

To avoid Alzheimer's Disease, throw out your Non-Stick Cookware!

EWG finds heated Teflon pans can turn toxic faster than DuPont claims

"Beware of this Home Cooking Mistake"

No matter how healthy your food is, if you're like most Americans you are probably making this mistake that can lead to cancer in the pancreas, liver, testicles or mammary glands – as well as miscarriages, thyroid problems & a weakened immune system…

Are You Becoming Complacent with Your Food Preparation?

Why You Can't Trust Your Health to Any Old Cookware Lurking in Your Cabinet

Chemical Used in Non-Stick Cookware Continues to Suggest Toxicity

How this Innovative Cookware Helps Enhance Your Healthy Cooking

Why I Believe You Should Throw Out Your Aluminum and Stainless Steel Cookware as Well!

Go Green with Your Cookware

What Other Cookware is Resilient Enough to Support a 50-Year Warranty?

It's Not Enough to Eat Healthy Food if Your Preparation is Potentially Hazardous

More than Enough Reasons Why I Believe You Should Take Action and Rid Yourself of Your Potentially Hazardous Cookware for Good

For My Girls

I Can Do Anything Good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Movies Revisited... or Why I Started Singing

"Live simply, so others may simply live."

as·cet·ic

Laughter: The Great Leveler

Muffin-Tops Close-Ups & Julia Roberts

The Road Less Travelled (Reflections on an "Extreme" diet)

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

Louie on FX - please watch

Madonna is Lady Gaga!

How do people with OCD deal with having a bung-hole?

All we need is a chicken...

Darth Vader would suck at Hide N' Seek

Optimistic Birds

Making Decisions is Easy

Golf is better than sex..... & Beware of text messages

Don't Work Too Hard

Shake it... for Whole Body Vibration!

Because You Taught Me How

Hydrate

Forgive, Keep Moving, Stay Present & Eat Healthy