Tag Archives: health

A NEW HEALTHY LIFE-STYLE – EXERCISE

Our bodies are designed to move…a lot. Everything in the body is in constant movement, inside we are like a beautifully designed machine where everything fits together. But the machine needs to work (move) to function. When we move circulation is enhanced; oxygen in, toxins out. There is no other way to do this. When we don’t move the opposite occurs; bad circulation, accumulation of toxins in our system, weak muscles that can’t keep the posture, the skeletal system goes out of whack because there is no muscle support and we end up with a whole array of aches and pains. The way our society is built today does not leave much space for movement. We sit at work, sit in our transportation, sit at home. We take the elevator or the escalator, even if it means waiting. We are constantly stressed and in some kind of pain because the body is not getting what it needs. And when the body doesn’t get what it needs, nor does the mind. When exercising, the brain secretes all kind of yummy, feel-good hormones that make us high and happy.

The benefits of exercise are huge: Less risk for osteoporosis, better circulation, healthy hunger and healthy demands from the body, clarity of mind, improvement of mood, more energy, better sleep-patterns, reduces stress, the list is long. Look at children; they move all the time and their bodies are strong and fit. They don’t have problems with posture, aches and dislocated vertebrae…

If you are not used to exercising, start slow: Take the stairs, take a walk, park your car further away from the mall. Walk those 2 bus-stops (it’ll probably be faster than waiting for the bus), dance. Little by little you add on; walk further, start doing other exercises, run, skip, jump, climb a tree. When you are at the playground with your child, play! Climb, swing and use the playground equipment to exercise. Check out videos on YouTube “playground exercises”.

  • Aches and pains: If you have problems with your body, chances are that they will heal or get better with movement. Just be careful not to overdo it. If you have problems with your knees walk the stairs up and take the elevator down. Going downstairs or downhill creates a much bigger impact on your joints. Walk, don’t run or jump. Climbing is good. Push-ups is a brilliant exercise for the whole body and can be done by anybody. If you can’t do full push-ups, start on your knees or against a wall or an elevated surface. Menstrual pain always lessens with movement. Head-aches often clear.
  • Time: You can get a really heavy-duty work-out in only 15-20 min. Cardio by running, skipping rope, dancing, step-ups or using the stairs. Strength by using interval-training. This can be fit in any time during the day; lunch break, morning, evening. Instead of sitting through stupid programs on the TV or hanging out with your best buddy – the computer, move! You can even fit in more than one session in a day.
  • Expenses: There are none unless you want to. For weights you can use cans, water-bottles, rocks…whatever. You can use an ordinary rope for skipping, your body-weight is already something to work with. You can do everything in your living-room, garden, play-ground, park, forest…use your imagination. If you want to invest, buy some dumb-bells, they are not too costly. I invested in a timer for interval-training, it’s called Gymboss and you can purchase it either in a sports-shop or here. It costs about 20 US dollars. Interval training is hard to do on your own without a timer.
  • Body-weight & Balance: When you do body-weight exercises, you use all the muscles in your body because while you are moving, the body constantly has to stabilize and balance itself. I prefer this to working on machines because the machine targets only one area. By using your whole body you get balance, coordination and strength. There is no end to the movements and combinations you can create, so you don’t have to get bored. Besides, you can do it anywhere. I LOVE interval-training (or Tabata); it’s fun, fast, easy and efficient. I do it in my living-room in winter, in my garden in the summer and sometimes in the forest where I can use nature’s equipment.
  • Warm-up & Stretching: Always warm up before training and stretch after. This will keep stiffness and soreness to a minimum, keeping you muscles long and supple. Some stiffness is to be expected when you start, or step up, your work-out. The best way to get past this is by exercising. Over time your program will get too easy, then you need to add more movements or weight.

Here is a great video to show how interval training is done:

You will love the look and feel of your new body; toned muscle, good posture, looking radiant and strong. You will find yourself taking every chance to move; walk, take the stairs, turn the house-cleaning into a work-out :-) Health is all about loving and respecting yourself.

STRESS & PRIDE

One thing I have noticed time and time again is that many people seem to be very proud of their stress. They are forever listing all the things they have to do, and if you do not praise them they get upset. They are the people who always do more than anybody else. If you say you worked 16 hours in a row, they worked 24. Then there are the people who are forever complaining about their stress; how hard their lives are, how bad they feel and how nobody understands.

What I am hearing in these two groups is the same: Victimization. Stress is nothing to be proud of, it is a sign that all is not well. Most often it is a sign of not listening to yourself and lack of self-respect, no matter if you are boasting or crying about your stress. Both these groups are very difficult to deal with, because they will not accept change. When I make such people list their daily activities, much of what they do is pure rubbish or bad organization and when I point this out, they get upset and I become a “bad guy”. There are forever excuses to why change is not possible, even for such mundane things as changing curtains 3 times a year.

To some people this is part of their “make-up” or personality. It is who they need to be to feel important, to be seen. Victimization functions very well in our society which might be one of the reasons people so easily fall into this trap. (Hand on heart: We have all been there) There are always solutions to any dilemma but we carry the responsibility for our well-being. No matter what kind of person you are, stress will always kick you in the face at one point if you don’t make changes. Some people that I have worked with, become so upset with me that they walk away, only to be back at a later date when they are truly falling apart – usually by disease or unbearable pain. Each time it saddens me that people will allow things to go so far when the problem was quite easily rectified to begin with.

I repeatedly see this phrase in job-ads: “Needs to be stress-resilient”. What is this? Nobody is stress-resilient; some individuals can handle a lot for a long time before they break…but usually they break so much harder. What the job-ads should say is: “Needs to be self-aware”.

I work with health, not disease. My job is to keep my clients healthy and balanced. More often than not people come to me as the “last resort” when nothing else has functioned. From this very low point in their lives it is a long haul to get back to balance. I should be the “first resort”, before things get bad. In China doctors are “judged” by their ability to keep patients healthy and in balance. Maybe a concept that we, in the Western world, should adopt?

 

A GIFT FROM NATURE: VEGETABLE OILS

Some of the absolutely best products nature offers are fats and oils. They are rich in all kinds of minerals, vitamins and pure life-force. We  use vegetable oils and fats in our daily life without even thinking about it as an essential part of health. Just as a pure, unadulterated cold-pressed vegetable oil can bring positive results to our health, so can “treated” oils be outright health-hazards.

There are oils and oils…

  • Mineral oils: Also called vaseline, paraffin. They are a bi-product from the petrochemical industry (together with diesel, plastic, asphalt and much more…). They are widely used by the cosmetics industry as they are cheap and stable. Most baby-oils are mineral-oil with a bit of perfume. Mineral oils clog the pores and halts normal skin-function. They might seem softening at first, but over time mineral-oil deteriorates the skin, leaving it dry and brittle. Mineral oils contain nothing whatsoever that is beneficial to humans and they come from a non-renewable source. This is NOT a vegetable oil!
  • Cold pressed vegetable oils: Seeds and nuts are pressed in mills without any added heat, though the friction of the mill can after some time create heat up to 70 degrees celsius, hence the different “degrees” of cold-pressed oils. For high-quality cold-pressed vegetable oils, smaller amounts are pressed each time, so as not to create friction-heat. The yield is lower than when heat is used and these oils are usually pressed by small growers or millers. The remaining pulp is used as animal-fodder. After filtering the oil is bottled. These oils have their own specific scent and color and they contain essential fatty acids, minerals and vitamins. If stored properly (cool and dark) the shelf-life is 1-3 years, depending on the amount of mono and unsaturated fatty acids in the oil.
  • Heat pressed vegetable oils: Seeds and nuts are ground to a pulp and heated to about 100 degrees celsius. The heated pulp is then pressed to extract the oil. By heating, more oil can be extracted. The remaining pulp is then re-heated and re-pressed to yield as much oil as possible. After extraction the oils are centrifuged to remove particles.
  • Extraction: This method is often used together with heat-pressing to extract the maximum amount of oil possible. A solvent, Hexane , is used to extract the oil. The raw material (pulp) is mixed with hexane, filtered and distilled. Since hexane has a lower boiling-point than the oil, it becomes gaseous and is distilled off, only to be collected and re-used since it turns into  a liquid once it’s cooled.
  • Refining: This is done with all vegetable oils that are used by cosmetics and  food-industry (heat-pressed and solvent-extracted oils).
  1. Lecithin and proteins are removed with the help of phosphor or citric acid.
  2. Fatty acids are removed with the help of lye (caustic soda), which creates a kind of soap that is washed out with water. Then the oil is vaccum-dried.
  3. Bleaching is done by mixing the oil with oxygen-activated mud which is then filtered off.
  4. Deodorising is done to remove scent and taste from the oil. It is done by low-pressure steam-boiling at a temperature of 200 degrees celsius.

There are a few more processes that the oil might go through before being sent off to its destination. Would you ever want to eat or use these processed products? Not only do they contain NOTHING of value, they might as well be harmful. Many years ago there was a scandal in Spain concerning vegetable oils, people died. The reason was that the lye used to refine the oil was not properly removed…the lye corroded the intestines of these people.

A cold-pressed vegetable oil will cost a little bit more, it will be less stable – going rancid with time or bad storage. It will have a taste and scent. Knowing this, do you really believe that you should use the oils you find in the supermarket? The ones sitting on the shelves in a warm and light environment? The ones with no taste, smell or color? I distrust everything that doesn’t go bad over time.


My friend and mentor Jan Kusmirek has written a wonderful book on vegetable oils called “Liquid Sunshine“. You can find it here.

FEED YOUR SKIN

(picture from: catwalkfashion.co.uk/…/healthy-skin-month.jpg)

Skin Acid Mantle – sound familiar? It should, it is the largest and first protection we have. SAM is a layer of bacteria that covers our entire body. There are plenty of different bacteria, all specialists in their fields. For example, we have the little guy (the lash-sweeper) who comes out and cleans our lashes during the night, leaving the waste in the inner corner of our eyes…ever wonder how it got there?

These bacteria create a protective barrier against the surroundings. They are really tiny, much tinier than pathological (disease) bacteria, like a small roman army they let nothing pass. Each persons SAM is as individual as a fingerprint. When we are newly born, we have not yet developed our SAM, but it develops quickly:

  • Baby 1 day old:         6 000 bacteria/square centimeter
  • Baby 9 days old:     80 000  b./sq.cm
  • Baby 1 month old: 3 million b./sq.cm  which is a normal SAM.

The SAM needs to be protected and fed to stay healthy. Damaging agents are anything that dries out the skin or in any way has a to low or high pH. (applied on the skin):

  • Soap
  • Too much water
  • Chemicals
  • Alcohol

To stay healthy we need to feed our SAM:

  • Fats, essential fatty acids as in vegetable oils. The oils have to be cold-pressed and fresh, otherwise the essential fatty acids are all destroyed and the product filled with free radicals (BAD for the skin/body).
  • pH-friendly substances; hydrosols, essential oils, macerations, herbs, clays, waxes…

The more chemical stuff there is in your skin-care, the more you are destroying your SAM. When you have the “squeeky” clean feeling it means that your SAM is seriously destroyed and the skin dried-out, resulting in…

  • Pathological bacteria enters and the result can be non-hormonal acne and clogged pores.
  • The skin might overproduce sebum, giving the impression of oily skin.
  • Fine lines and wrinkles, premature aging of skin.

So lets look at the babies: When I read the labels of baby-products, they are full of chemicals, mineral oil, soaps, synthetic perfumes and conserving agents – all the stuff that seriously damages the SAM. And this on little babies that don’t even have fully developed SAM’s. No wonder that skin-disease, eczema and allergies are increasing in children! (and adults too).

In Ayur Veda babies are cleaned with an oil-infused dough-ball (whole-wheat flower mixed with water and almond oil)  every day for the first 6 days, from the 7th day the babies are massaged with this dough-ball until they are one month old and massage with the hands (and oil) commences.

If you are interested in some more info about SAM, check here.

ALTERNATIVE THERAPY

This is such a huge area to get into. Suffice to say that over the last 15 years alternative / complementary therapy has grown to world-wide acceptance as an aid or means to healing people. Combined with the very impersonal allopathic health-care it can work wonders for many people. It is not about “either or”, it is about “and”. Alongside with aggressive methods to combat disease alternative / complementary therapies can heal a person on many levels. Changing body-parts or aggressively attacking a tumor or virus is not a guarantee for survival or healing. We are so much more than only our bodies; as I have said before – we are intrinsically interconnected body and mind. Healing is needed on all levels.

Please watch what some people have to say in this movie from Urban Zen Foundation

SOFT DRINKS

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/drmao/20270/what-soft-drinks-are-doing-to-your-body/

Source: health.yahoo.com
Soda, pop, cola, soft drink — whatever you call it, it is one of the worst beverages that you could be drinking for your health.

WATER – a response

WaterI had a request to write more on the topic “water as a medium” so I have spent a couple of days in research trying to find something to interest the person who asked.  I might not always agree with everything I find, but I do believe in information and that every-one makes their own decision in what to believe. Everything interests me and with time all my questions are usually answered. Nobody in the entire world has all the answers and I think that keeping an open mind is the way forward. I do not speak of religion ever, nor do I speak from religious belief. I speak of a global community, of humanity – whatever religious beliefs there might be. On a cellular level we are all the same. :-)

“The cell is immortal. It is merely the fluid in which it floats which degenerates. Renew this fluid at intervals, give the cell something on which to feed and, so far as we know, the pulsation of life may go on forever…” When cells’ health is compromised because the fluid surrounding them is not conducive for life because of various causes including high acidity etc., they either mutate or die. Once the cell death rate exceeds the birth rate, any individual’s body experiences accelerated aging. Among the many factors that affect aging, diet is the most important, and the foundation of a good diet is water. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2003 was given to Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon for pioneering discoveries concerning water and ion channels of cells, the mechanism that explains how water flows from and into cells. These discoveries contributed to fundamental chemical knowledge of how cells function.” ( By Jaime Zaragoza, “Water for thought”) For the whole article, check out this link:

http://www.whatthebleep.com/herald10/health.shtml)

This, I believe, is the basic idea of water as a medium. Since water is the single most important life-keeping substance for us as living beings, wouldn’t it make sense that the quality of the water is important? We all know that we get sick, and even die, from polluted water. But what if the water is polluted in a different way? In a way that can’t be measured?….Yet. I have a friend who at one point started praying to her food and drink before she took it; her health improved immensely, she seemed to rejuvenate and grow younger, stronger and fitter. Of course the quality of her nutrition is the best, and she lives her life in accordance to health.

watercrystal after prayerDr. Masaru Emoto

Considering that water is the single largest part of our bodies make-up, responsible for cellular communication and health, wouldn’t it make sense to believe that our thought-patterns integrate with our bodies? If we constantly think negatively about ourselves, are we poisoning ourselves? Returning to the photos of water crystals by Dr. Masaru Emoto:

emoto water-crystal hatewater crystal “hate”

Emoto-Water-Crystal-for-Global-Love-Day-07water crystal “love”

Much discussion surrounds the work of Dr. Masuru Emoto. The scientific world – rightly – state that his work is not scientific, but also that it can not be refuted.

“As published on the website of the Institute of Noetic Sciences on May 25, 2004, Mr. Nash states that the team “did not find sufficient evidence to refute or accept Emoto’s hypothesis that thought influences water crystalformation.”


Quartz_CrystalCrystal water is often used to promote health; You place a crystal in a jug of spring- or filtered- water and leave it overnight. This will promote health to all living; yourself, your animals and your plants. I made an experiment many years ago; I divided a plant in two parts, planting them in separate pots and setting them side by side in a window. One of the plants was given crystal water, the other spring water from our private well. There was a clear difference in how quickly they healed and grew, the crystal-water plant being much stronger all along.

Homeopathy (Dr. Samuel Hahnemann 1796) is created on the principal of water as a medium.  The more you potentize (dilute) it, the more powerful it gets. (The idea of the smallest part of the body – the cell) Homeopathy has never been accepted by the scientific world, but stays to this day a much-used and constantly growing form of alternative medicine. In Germany homeopathic remedies are sold in pharmacies.

As I said before; I do not allow science alone to dictate what I should believe. I love science and I love when a belief becomes scientific fact. But belief is the key, the vital point that make things happen. Poor is the world without belief. And maybe, yes maybe, it is all make-believe…who cares? Why should that even be important – if it works?

Now to something funny apropos diet:cartoon ekorre

CRIMINALIZING ORGANIC FARMING IN USA

spraying I said I would write about natural scenting, but this came to my attention today and it is shocking beyond belief, so I will share this with you:

US House and Senate are about (in a week and a half) to vote on bill that will OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING (bill HR 875).  There is an enormous rush to get this into law within the next 2 weeks before people realize what is happening. Main backer and lobbyist is Monsanto – chemical and genetic engineering giant corporation (and Cargill, ADM, and about 35 other related agri-giants). This bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by the newly formed agency to “make sure there is no danger to the public food supply”. This will include backyard gardens that grow food only for a family and not for sales. If this passes then NO more heirloom clean seeds but only Monsanto genetically altered seeds that are now showing up with unexpected diseases in humans.

The name of this outrageous food plan is: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (bill HR 875).


Farming_rest

BUT this is not all. This all derives from something called the Codex Alimentarius that was launched in 1962 and since then has grown to be a multiheaded power of its own – concerning the whole world – not only the countries that are members.

Industrial pig

I have been researching all morning and this is some scary business. Take  a look at this video, it is part 1 of 5, the rest you will find on youtube. This lady, Dr. Rima Laibouw, explains the Codex Alimentarius very well, but please do your own research on the internet.

Also you can check out this site:

http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/

It might look like it’s just the USA, but it isn’t. Big parts of the world are involved in this. Maybe it is time to stop being complacent and start asking some serious questions.

organic cow

NUTRITION AND HEALTH

healthy foodsBy now most of you know how important nutrition is to me. I agree with Hippocrates who said: “Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine your food.” I truly believe this is the straight and wide – if not always so easy – road to health. So today I want to introduce somebody to you:

A friend of mine here in Luxembourg is doing some really cool stuff around nutrition, training and health. His name is Tim Goodwin. For you people who are based in Luxembourg; check out his bootcamps – forest fit – which takes you to the forest to play, because this is what working out should be all about. Check it out here:

http://www.forestfit.com/

Here is a beautiful video to show how much fun it is to move. Remember being a kid?

Tim has also come out with a e-book that can be downloaded (free of charge) from this site; (you will also get a link to Tim’s community page.) I just downloaded it myself.

http://nutritionalresponsibility.com/new-nutritional-responsibility-guide/

There are some really good people out there with lots of knowledge that they share so generously. This makes it really easy to start making changes in life. Sometimes there is also follow up with community pages where you can connect with other people and get their stories. It’s all about sharing the ride. Take a look around, and start creating a healthier, more balanced and happier You.

On my blog-list there are some other great people you can check out. They are doing all the work for  us; research, trials, new recipes…. all we have to do is profit from this and get cracking! And remember – it is not all about loosing weight, which it sometimes seems, it is about health.

fruits