Category Archives: This -n- That

Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction, This -n- That

Hope and Blessings

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While some are gladly shredding any reminders of 2020, others are starting their new year with an uplifting time of remembrance.

What?

Who are these nut cases?

Well, I am!

In the first post of 2020 (HERE), I shared an idea that had come through my Facebook feed about starting a Blessings Jar. The habit of jotting down a few words about a blessing was well-established when COVID-19 became a driving force in our lives by mid-March.

Just having this unassuming jar sitting on my counter everyday provided a reminder there are blessings to be found in all circumstances.  I was already having so much fun viewing my little town’s Bear Drop Ceremony at 6:00 pm EST to be concerned with the Blessing Jar reveal on New Year’s Eve.

Masked, solo, and under an umbrella, I joined a small, socially-distanced group to bid an early and rainy goodbye to 2020. Because of COVID restrictions, there’s a 10:00 curfew, but – lucky for us – our sister city of Bern, Switzerland, was celebrating at midnight, when we were doing our Bear Drop earlier in the evening in New Bern, North Carolina. So, in terms of dropping the ball, ‘er Bear, we were all legit.

It was yet another blessing entry for my 2020 jar. The big revealing of a year’s blessings was delayed for me until January 5th.

So, last evening, out poured all the noted blessings of 2020. Reading each one created wave upon wave of gratitude, smiles, and happiness. How truly rich I am! Some papers simply had the name of a friend. My heart lifted them in prayers of gratitude along with the sincere hope that I was a blessing to them as well. Would my name appear in their jar?

The experience of reviewing each entry was far more powerful than I had imagined it would be. Strength giving. Transformative. Humbling. Heart-swelling with love.

And creative. I want to create blessings for others. Oh, how I wanted to be the force of blessing to others.

With each blessing comes a realization that there’s HOPE.

HOPE that we can endure anything if we have blessings. The blessings are there. We need to take our spirits out of the sludge of the daily news to see the blessings that are right before our eyes.

Since 2018, I have suggested to readers to use a Word of the Year to guide and color their intent – their approach – for the new year. (HERE: 2018 1 – 2019 1 – 2020 1)

There had been no great personal revelation for my Word this year until I put a couple things together while reviewing the contents of my blessings jar.

The first, was an ornament our church had given to each of us this year. One word in ceramic to remind each of us that there is hope.

The second, was that earnest desire springing forth to be more of a blessing to others by being that hope.

2021 is going to be my year of reflecting HOPE – doing and saying things that give HOPE – and being that HOPE for someone.

As my blessings jar starts to fill up in 2021, I am reminded of that HOPE and my role in being someone else’s blessing.

Be the HOPE-

Deidre

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Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction, This -n- That

A Clean Slate For The New Year!

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When you think about it, the first of January is merely the day after December the 31st. While what we do is written on a new calendar, there isn’t a big tumultuous change. It’s just the next day.

Yet, we do feel like it’s a new start. Time to wipe the slate clean and start over.

That’s a good thing. So, let’s do it.

If we desire success in projects where there once was frustration and failure, let’s see what we can do to check off more victories.

As you ponder a few goals for the New Year, is there a voice in the background saying, “But it’s sooo hard! It’s going to take sooo much will power every day!”

No matter your goal, there will be daily dedication, discipline, and commitment – but things can be done to assure success.

I’m all about making jobs easier. The less you have to fight doing things the hard way, the better the chance you will succeed.  

The less effort needed to sort through lost or misplaced tools or equipment for your task, the more energy you will have to accomplish it.

Fewer distractions in your immediate environment mean you can more easily focus on the task at hand.

A favorite author of mine, James Clear, recently put it this way:

The more disciplined your environment is,

the less disciplined you need to be.

Don’t swim upstream.

If your goal for the new year is to eat better and maybe lose weight, then why challenge your self-control at every turn when your kitchen and refrigerator are filled with sugary, starchy junk food? Why put yourself through that?

When looking for an evening snack, why make yourself have to pass up on the kettle corn, the double fudge sandwich cookies, or snack-sized pizza bites before you grab an apple? Those items shouldn’t even be in your house if you are serious about improving your diet.

Save using your limited will power energy by removing the tempting distractions.

Be your own best friend by controlling your environment.

You want to write a best seller? Make a dedicated area, free of distractions, and commit to a small chunk of time every day.

You want to craft more or take up artwork? Create an area where needed supplies are always at hand and design your masterpiece.

Make 2021 the year you achieve your goals easier by controlling your environment.

In making health easier-

Deidre

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Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction, This -n- That

And To All A Good Night

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Santa is getting ready to sail across the night sky. People are figuring out how to gather in safe numbers and in masks to celebrate their faith. Champagne is chilling as we anticipate a new year.But many are looking at an empty chair. Many are enduring mind-numbing isolation. Many are wondering how the rent will be paid.

Holidays have always been a challenge to mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health.

This year? Well, you get the point.

My dear grandmother, long departed, used to share a story from her youth from the late 1800s. After enduring and surviving a house fire, her family of nine faced a Christmas with few possessions and no money for gifts. On Christmas morning, however, her father produced several packages to everyone’s wonder.

As her mother carefully unwrapped the first present, it was discovered that he had wrapped up the surviving pieces of silverware taken from the ashes of the fire.

Hard times. Desperate times. Times of survival and gratitude. Times of making do.

We are in such times. Times that require digging into the ashes to discover a blessing and to find gratitude.

May you find special moments with what’s left.

A walk or drive around town to see the holiday lights can bring back feelings of effervescent, child-like joy. Dropping off what you can spare to the local food bank can warm your heart like nothing else. Calling an old friend to check in, grows love and appreciation in everyone’s heart. Decorating a batch of holiday cookies to share can get creative ideas flowing again.

We at foodtalk4you.com encourage each and every one to check in with themselves.

How are you doing? Really? Is what you are facing this holiday season pressing in on you? Do you feel like you are in a deep hole of darkness with no apparent way out?

If you are having such troubles, please know 1) you are not alone, and 2) there IS a way out.

If you are on a precipice, please call 1-800-273-8255 right now. That’s the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. These folks are there for you 24/7 to give you an ear and will assist you in finding resources for getting on a steady path out of the darkness.

If you know that what you are feeling is stronger than your current ability to deal with it, your doctor is a phone call away from helping you, either medically or through a referral to counseling, where you can discover coping techniques.

May you discover the beauty, joy, and hope that is still there for each of us.

We look forward to offering our readers an improved format for recipes next year, and I will be releasing my free class about Caregiver Emotions online.

There’s much to anticipate in the coming year!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and a Happy New Year to all! Be safe in all you do.

Click the subscribe button to make sure you don’t miss a single post in 2021.

Somebody you know needs the help provided in my Toolkit for Caregivers HERE. This is a gift they will read and reread!

In health –

Deidre and Sheree

Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction, This -n- That

Rotate Me Out!

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Until you have been involved in moving or downsizing for yourself or a loved one, the cycle of stuff may not be at the top of your radar.

This is about my ninth time since 2000.

Mom out of – my teenage and college – home. Mom out of assisted living.

In-laws out of house. In-laws out of senior living apartment.

House-wide carpeting fiasco times three.

Basement flood from Hurricane Florence involving my stuff, our former video business’s stuff, mom’s stuff, and my in-laws’ stuff.

Lots of stuff.

And now, joyfully, an evisceration of the guest room and office to provide a more welcoming atmosphere for both adult children and spouse/significant others to visit.

No one sleeps on the floor!

Repaint. New window treatments. Install two queen-sized Murphy beds so I can enjoy the space when there is no company. Blessing my daughter all the way in thanks for getting this started for me!

Build it and they will come!

All good. Can’t wait until we can have our little family reunion – once travel and getting together is once again safe.

In the meantime, there’s STUFF all over my house. Stuff waiting to be put back IF it survives the purging process. Stuff hoping for a new niche so it can easily be found and utilized – especially in my soon-to-be christened craft room/sometimes guest room.

This is not a post about the wonders of Marie Kondo, a Japanese organizing consultant, and letting go of stuff. We all need to do that, for sure.

But what is becoming so abundantly clear to me is that I’ve spent a significant portion of my life chasing or pushing STUFF around. Not being a great or better person. Not doing good deeds to bring joy, laughter, and hope to a troubled soul. Not inspiring others to greatness.

No. I’ve been pushing around a mountain of STUFF. Gives new meaning to the image of Sisyphus and the Rock.

My hourglass of life is not as full as it used to be. How many more grains of my limited and unknown quantity of precious sand do I want to devote to STUFF?

Clearly, not much.

So, this is going to be a purge that will, hopefully, become a blessing to my kids so they won’t have to push my stuff around too much after I’m gone. There’s that loving preparedness and consideration again.

If you are in the throes of getting or wanting more STUFF – better STUFF – because the old STUFF wasn’t good enough… Think twice. If you get new STUFF, make sure to throw out/give away/sell the old STUFF before the new STUFF even darkens the door.

In terms of clothing, I try to give away two for every new one I bring in. We have all over-bought in the past or have overkept while waiting for the size to come back. Move on. Someone could really use that item of clothing right now. Give it a happy home that fits.

Here’s a cycle of stuff that may sound familiar:

Young children want stuff. When they get older, they want stuff for older kids, but the little kid stuff is still there. Then they get cool stuff when they are teens. Moving out to college, they take only the best recent stuff, leaving the old stuff with Mom and Dad.

Twenty-somethings get jobs and can afford entry-level adult stuff. Thirty-somethings can afford to get better stuff which is layered on top of the old stuff their young children get to use.

As the forty-somethings age, their children get stuff. When the kids move out, the parents get better stuff that will last.

Fifty-somethings tweak the stuff their college kids get and help start them on their path of independence with the better stuff they once had. Parents need the ultimate stuff – now.

In the meantime, the parents are gathering stuff their own parents had that joins the childhood stuff their kids grew up with.

In their sixties and seventies, parents are trying to downsize their stuff, but none of the kids want the china, silver, or furniture. What to do with all those framed pictures of young children? How about the baseball trophies?

In our eighties and nineties, we may lose our stuff or not recognize our stuff at all. Too soon, our kids get our stuff.

And so, it goes. The rotation of stuff.

I’m going to try to sort through my stuff as quickly as possible, recognizing that needing something “someday” does not mean I should keep it.

Create a craft/guest room functional for my needs and quickly converts to a restful space for company. Create an office/second guest room that will inspire my writing and speaking engagements designed to uplift and support others, and will easily convert to a restful and uncluttered space for company.

Life is about the experience, the journey, the LOVE … not the stuff.

In health,

Deidre

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Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction, This -n- That

It’s A Turkey And All the Fixin’s Kind Of Day – Ya’ll Come!

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This week brings about, not only one of the most traveled weeks of the year, but a holiday of which most of us look forward to every year – Thanksgiving. Of course, this year, 2020, has seen such changes in our daily living, working, and caring for others.

It’s been the year of seclusion, and masks – and social distancing, which seems to me to be this year’s new buzz word. I hadn’t been out to eat in I don’t know how long, at a restaurant that actually serves their patrons, until recently. Now, there is serious talk of possibly closing everything down again.

Is anyone listening?

But, there is one thing that no mask, no lockdown, or social distancing can take from us – each other.

Aside from all the brutal lockdowns, negative outcomes, or spreading virus, we have much to be thankful for. Our families, (even if we don’t agree with them), the turkey (although it may not think so), and then there’s the fact you’re still here to read this – and, if nothing else – our memories, which no one can ever take away.

I started wondering, just what did the Pilgrim’s think of their first Thanksgiving Day?

It all began in 1691 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with Pilgrims sharing their appreciation for the land, and the indigenous people who taught them how to grow crops, how to work the land and survive the brutal winters. Their feast had a long list of foods including turkey, corn, and cranberries, which are still the mainstay of most of our Thanksgiving dinners today.

But, what about dessert?  Hmmm… Fast forward several hundred years later, in 1850, American poet and editor, John Greenleaf Whittier, penned a poem entitled, The Pumpkin, which is dedicated to the longstanding Thanksgiving topper, pumpkin pie.

The Pumpkin

Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,

The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,

And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,

With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,

Like that which o’er Nineveh’s prophet once grew,

While he waited to know that his warning was true,

And longed for the storm-cloud, and listened in vain

For the rush of the whirlwind and red fire-rain.

On the banks of the Xenil the dark Spanish maiden

Comes up with the fruit of the tangled vine laden;

And the Creole of Cuba laughs out to behold

Through orange-leaves shining the broad spheres of gold;

Yet with dearer delight from his home in the North,

On the fields of his harvest the Yankee looks forth,

Where crook-necks are coiling and yellow fruit shines,

And the sun of September melts down on his vines.

Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,

From North and from South comes the pilgrim and guest;

When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board

The old broken links of affection restored,

When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,

And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,

What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?

What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?

Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! The old days recalling,

When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!

When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,

Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!

When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,

Our chair a broad pumpkin, our lantern the moon,

Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam

In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!

Then thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better

E’er smoked from an oven or circled a platter!

Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,

Brighter eyes never watched o’er its baking, than thine!

And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,

Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,

That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,

And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,

And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky

Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie!

Deidre and I want to wish each and everyone of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope your table is filled with good food and good people.

May your burdens be light, and your face masks be tight!

Here’s to the turkey – clink!

Sheree

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Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction, This -n- That

Gratitude for the Now

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We keep hearing the only thing most people will be grateful for this year is that 2020 will soon be over.

They want to shake off the bad 2020 Karma. Too much insanity, fear, disease, death, overload. Weariness abounds. A period of Thanksgiving in 2020?

You’ve got to be kidding.

Thanksgiving used to be the pause before going full-throttle toward a joy-filled Christmas or Hanukkah and New Year’s.

This year, many folks have already put up their Christmas trees and it’s mid-November! Seems people are so eager for something hopeful, bright, and merry, they can’t wait. These are the same people who complain about stores stocking holiday decorations in September.

How quickly we change.

There’s hardly anything to be grateful for, we reason. Nothing is the same – or even close to it. Chances are, we are staying only with those in our four wall bubble for Thanksgiving.

spiteful little girl

Another disappointment?

Bring it on…we’re getting hardened to it.

Getting hardened to more bad news is a natural self-preservation response used to keep us from melting into a whimpering puddle.

But, as I point out in my Caregiver Emotions presentations, we are NOT our emotions. Emotions are meant to come and go. If we get so intrinsically wrapped up in our emotions, we run the risk of identifying with them.

Feel resentment too often; don’t process that resentment; don’t release that resentment – then you can become resentful and bitter.

Negative emotions need to be reigned in, examined, discussed, processed, and released.

Have there really been no blessings this year?

If you are reading this, there’s a big blessing right there – you are alive! Your eyes work! Your brain works! Your technology works!

No big vacation this year?

Remember about walking the local beach on a day trip with one friend?

No party for your birthday?

How about the blessing of those working in a local restaurant so you could get takeout?

Feeling disconnected from family? How about the incredible blessing of Facetime?

How about the miracle found in the technology of a Zoom call that keeps groups together and enables weddings to be totally safe by being virtual?

“GRATITUDE IS A HEART TENDERIZER”

That’s a quote from Sarah M. Wells in her 9 Examples of Thanksgiving in the Bible. There’s so much power in that statement.

How’s your gratitude jar looking? In my first post of this year – CLICK HERE. I shared with you how to start a gratitude jar. Did you stop putting in the little blessings you were grateful for after March 17th?

Or were you like me, finding the blessings that surround us each day?

If there ever was a time to tenderize our hearts, 2020 would be it. We need to liberally sprinkle around some gratitude in our lives. Not only will it improve our general outlook, but relationships and situations will improve.

May your favorite spice be gratitude.

Stir it into every situation and interaction. It will turn the hardened days into something more tender, savory, and palatable.

Happy Thanksgiving dear readers – YOU are a blessing to me!

Deidre

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Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Blogging for good health!, This -n- That

Brain Food – Part 3

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Taste the rainbow!

We’re diving into the rainbow today to understand why colorful foods are beneficial to brain health.

There are forces of good and evil. The good guys are the flavonoids and related antioxidants and the bad guys are inflammation and oxidative stress.

What I am sharing today is, again, coming from a course I recently took titled: Brain Food: The Role of Nutrients in Memory and Cognitive Function by Annell St. Charles, PhD, RD, through the Institute for Natural Resources.

Let’s get to know these opposing sides.

Bad Guys – Team OS + I

Oxidative stress (OS) happens on a cellular level when free radicals are formed. These molecules lack some hardware (an electron) and are in search of somewhere to steal one. They create cell damage due to their thieving.

Inflammation – I talk about that all the time. All disease processes have a strong foothold in inflammation, which is preventable by how we eat, think, and live.

Good guys – Team Phytochemicals

The good guys are found in plant-based foods and are called phytochemicals. You may have heard of flavonoids, but there are three others (from thousands) that I’ll mention: phenolic acids, stilbenes, and lignans.

Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of these; there will not be a test about their names at the end, but you will know how to pick a team.

With every mouthful of food, we are picking our team!

Where to find the good guys:

Flavonoids:   Onions, kale, green beans, broccoli, endive, celery, citrus, thyme, soy, tomato, bell pepper, berry fruits, apple, purple and red grapes, red wine, apricots, pears, beans, cabbage, green tea, dark chocolate, parsley, hot peppers

Phenolic acids: Mangos, berries, apples, citrus, plums, cherries, kiwis, onion, tea, coffee, red wine, whole grain flour

Stilbenes:  Grape skins, red wine, peanuts, blueberries, cranberries

Lignans:  Flaxseeds, sesame seeds, cereal grains, cruciferous vegetables, apricots, strawberries, soybeans

Source: American Institute for Cancer Research

Numerous studies have shown phenolic acids inhibit the formation of the plaque associated with Alzheimer’s Disease. Resveratrol is a stilbene from red and purple grape skins that can have a positive role in preventing dementia. Lignans from flaxseeds have been shown to enhance cognitive performance of healthy postmenopausal women.

Phytochemicals are antioxidants because they work against the oxidative stress (OS) caused by free radicals. Not all OS is bad, but negative OS seems to increase with age and can manifest in cognitive and physical decline.

OS has been found to be a major player in dementia, including Alzheimer’s Disease. By combatting OS and inflammation through improved food choices, we can go a long way in reversing or delaying the onset of cognitive decline.

Hopefully, you have a better understanding about how to pick your team, how to go for the colors, and how to evaluate what is good for your brain.

As you look at your dinner plate tonight, are you seeing a sea of tans, browns, and whites? Breaded fried meat, gravy, biscuit, potatoes?

Such a color scheme spells disaster for your precious brain and the body it runs.

It’s a matter of choice. Go for the rainbow!

In health-

Deidre

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Blogging for good health!, Exercise, This -n- That

Brain Food Part 2

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Don’t you love serendipity? Right in the middle of writing this series on what we can eat to boost brain power, this lovely gem plopped right into my lap: a mnemonic device to remember the ten foods that protect brain function and over-all health.

How cool is that?

While attending a virtual seminar to learn more about the Teachable platform I’ll be using for my online workshops, Jim Kwik presented a fabulous motivational program about how to learn. To prove his point that everyone can learn if the material is presented and consumed using all our senses, he shared his mnemonic for remembering the ten top brain foods.

A mnemonic (/ne’ monik) device is any learning technique that aids in information retention and retrieval. This device uses our body – head to tail.

Get ready to have some fun as we get physical and use our imaginations to expand our minds! This requires active participation on your part.

  1. Put your hand on top of your head. Don’t think about it…DO it! Imagine rubbing in our first good food for you right into your hair: some mashed up avocado. Maybe in the form of guacamole. Creamy. Maybe like a hair conditioner.

In fact, avocado oil is often used in hair conditioners. Avocados are a food source rich in antioxidants, healthy oils, and fiber. A powerhouse food.

  • Now point to your nose. Imagine blueberries coming out of your nose. Like Hammy might do in the comic strip – he’d love this one.

Last week, I talked about going for the colorful fruits and veggies. Go for the blue and you’ll be helping your heart, bones, skin, blood pressure, cancer prevention, and mental health. These little gems that you’re imaginatively popping out of your nostrils protect against cognitive decline and improve short term memory.

  • Point to your mouth and imagine you are trying to get broccoli out of your teeth. One of those little pieces of broccoli floret has lodged between your front teeth, and you’re trying to get it out.

Broccoli’s antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals help with cancer prevention by helping fight off the formation of free radicals. Along with its cruciferous cousins, broccoli benefits skin, bones, digestion, reduces inflammation. Inflammation is the cornerstone of most diseases and conditions. Yet another reason to go for the green.

Let’s review. Move your hand as we go.

Top of head: avocado/guacamole in your hair

Nose: blueberries are popping out of your nostrils

Mouth: you are getting some broccoli out from between your teeth

  • Point to your ears: Did your mom ever put warm oil into your ears as part of treatment for an earache? Imagine pouring olive oil into your ear and place an olive on top to keep the oil in.

Thanks to its antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties, olives and olive oil are another one of our ten miracle foods that help the brain and body. This narrative is looking familiar: skin, digestion, lowering cognitive decline, lots of fiber, and great source of healthy fats.

  • Place your fingertips on your throat and swallow. Feel your Adam’s apple move? Imagine that is an egg.

If your diet allows, eating that egg will provide muscle-building protein, benefit cognitive function, help eyesight, improve heart health and cholesterol levels, and can be a key food for proper growth and development. All that for under 80 calories each!

  • Using both hands, pat your shoulders. Remember the era of padded shoulders? Or perhaps you can imagine the epaulettes of a military uniform. One shoulder is padded with leaves of spinach, and the other with leaves of kale.

We’re going for the green again. In addition to the truckload of vitamins and minerals found in these dark green leafy vegetables, their fiber is gut-friendly. Kiss constipation good-bye and help irritable bowel syndrome. Help vision, diabetes, anemia; reduce the risk of heart disease; strengthen bones; improve that youthful glow in your skin and hair; prevent scurvy; improve cognition … the list goes on! What’s not to love?

Time for another review. Active participation is essential:

Top of head: avocado/guacamole in your hair

Nose: blueberries are popping out of your nostrils

Mouth: you are getting some broccoli out from between your teeth

Ears: olive oil drops and olives

Throat: an egg for an Adam’s apple

Shoulders: padded with leaves of spinach and kale

  • Move your hands over to your collar bones. Imagine a necklace draped about your collar made from salmon filets. Could get a little fishy. Imagine the coolness of your salmon beads. Maybe the salmon is in the form of sushi – think about the look and feel of your necklace.

Salmon is a great source of Omega-3 fatty acids that are crucial for brain health and total body wellness. Add in the minerals like iron, calcium, selenium, and phosphorus plus vitamins A, B, and D – well, say hello to another wonder food that is a lean protein.

  • Hold your hands out in front of you. You know how they would look – like you just ate Chez Doodles? That stubborn orange powder coating your fingers represents turmeric.

The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin. As an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, turmeric is protective of brain function. A shake or two of this powdered spice will not do anything beyond adding flavor. This item needs to be taken as a supplement. Look for a brand that is proven to be bioavailable in pill form – meaning, your body can absorb what you give it.

  • Hand on belly now. There are walnuts coming out of your navel! Walnuts even look like little brains.

Full of brain-friendly Omega-3s fatty acids and minerals, walnuts are a powerhouse snack or addition to recipes. A handful of walnuts will give you satisfying fiber, nutrition, and are anti-inflammatory. Need I say more?

  1. Lastly is your hind end. As you pat your rear, think dark chocolate. I’ll let you use your imagination on this one.

Dark chocolate is a champion in fighting off free radicals with its antioxidant properties. Helpful for the heart, blood pressure, and cholesterol, dark chocolate also reduces insulin resistance and is shown to be an anti-inflammatory.

You can do all ten now: head … nose … mouth … ears … throat … shoulders … Collar bones -what is draped around your neck? Orange-dusted fingers? What’s popping out of your belly button? And the end …

Okay! I am not responsible for your actions at the grocery store while you go through your ten item list.

For more on total body wellness, check out my first book, Toolkit for Wellness.

In health,

Deidre

Blogging for good health!, This -n- That

the Worker Bee

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I’ve done it again. What is this tendency to pack up my day with … busy? I’m looking at a nearly blank calendar and am still feeling behind.

Whaaat?

In psychology, there’s a term called flight of ideas which is a thought disorder. A person darts from one topic to another, one idea to another.

I suffer from flight of projects. Quite possibly born from over-commitment, and an inflated sense of self and poor follow-throughs – who knows?

I prefer to think I’m a Renaissance Woman.

Before COVID, I was starting to get overly busy. Too many groups. Too many meetings. Lots of go-go-go. A blank day in my planner was greeted with glee and a sigh. Crazy.

When COVID hit, I was wielding a giant eraser over the calendar. Nothing. Nope. Not that. Not that, either.

In six months of flying solo at home, I have managed to do it again. My time is filled. Almost to the max.

Is this bad?

Twiddling thumbs or being bored just doesn’t happen. Longing for the physical company of family and friends can be a soul-challenging struggle, however.

That’s my answer.

No, it’s not bad. It’s called survival.

We expand where we can. Multiple projects – especially if we are learning something new or finding a new way to share what we know – can help fill in the gaps experienced in other areas.

How are you coping with reduced social interaction? How have you filled your time? Are you learning something new?  Are you brightening someone else’s world?

An author friend of mine started playing the ukulele at the start of the Phase One shut down. Her first Facebook post this spring showed her carefully placing her fingers on the strings to create a simple tune. As time progressed, her fingering reflected confidence from practice and her songs were more tuneful. Not only was she learning something new, but she was encouraging others.

Whenever this time of COVID ends, I hope that we will look back not at a wasted passage of time, but as a time of learning, creativity, and service.

Please comment with something new you have learned and how you have shared it. Meanwhile, I’m going to finish several hand-crafted cards to cheer-up some friends going through hard times.

In health,

Deidre

Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction, This -n- That

Do You Have A Problem With ANTs?

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Some of us are overrun with ANTs. The influence of those ANTs affects every cell of our body. It changes the cell’s make-up and how it reacts. In fact, as those ANTs-influenced cells divide and reproduce, the resulting new cells will become more receptive to ANTs.

Is this another horrible 2020 health scare? Are we being taken over by giant zombie ants? Sigh.

No. You can rest easy. Breathe.

These ANTs are not the picnic variety, sending scouts to scope out what useable scraps and crumbs you might leave for them.

These are eons-old Automatic Negative Thoughts: ANTs.

This is all a Segway into my series about sustainability. Is how we are living – eating, moving, thinking – creating a healthy, sustainable life?

From my perspective, being unhealthy is not sustainable because it causes decline and premature death. While people do sustain unhealthy lifestyles, what they are doing is not sustaining life.

We’ve all heard the adage, “You are what you eat.” Garbage in; garbage out. Not hard to understand. Hard to apply to daily food choices unless we wear blinders to the advertising that surrounds us and are armed with knowledge.

But here’s a new twist on the old ideas about positive thinking: “You are what you think.”

I’ve long studied about negative thoughts compounding the spiral of stress. That’s not new. But negative thoughts kick off a domino chain reaction that ends with changes in the structure of cells in our bodies.

A more detailed description can be found HERE.

Let me summarize by example. Thoughts are more than some invisible vapor zinging through our physical brains. Thoughts are things that cause chemical changes in our brains that affect how we feel and function. Watch a happy movie and notice how relaxed, refreshed, and happy you feel. Anticipate an evening of challenging, uncontrollable events and observe the reflux kicking in and the muscles in your neck tightening.

Armed with that, read this paragraph quoted from the link above:

The article, How Your Thoughts Program Your Cells. explains it this way:

There are thousands upon thousands of receptors on each cell in our body. Each receptor is specific to one peptide, or protein. When we have feelings of anger, sadness, guilt, excitement, happiness or nervousness, each separate emotion releases its own flurry of neuropeptides. Those peptides surge through the body and connect with those receptors which change the structure of each cell as a whole. Where this gets interesting is when the cells actually divide. If a cell has been exposed to a certain peptide more than others, the new cell that is produced through its division will have more of the receptor that matches with that specific peptide. Likewise, the cell will also have less receptors for peptides that its mother/sister cell was not exposed to as often.

This should give us pause as we partake in negative chatter. From inner dialogue – “I’ll never be able to do this!” “I’m not good enough!” – to outward conversations or negative Facebook feed.

Negativity does not create just a bad mood, but it causes negative things to happen in our cells. As those cells swim in an environment of negatively inspired neuropeptides and are influenced by them, they create daughter cells that respond more readily to negativity and not positivity.

This colors how our bodies function. That smooth heart rhythm we count on. How food is broken down and absorbed for growth and repair. How our blood sugar is regulated. How we sleep.

Time for some mindful breathing, folks.

Time for some quiet meditation.

Time to count your blessings.

Time for thanksgiving.

Time to smile.

Time to love.

Reprograming our thoughts will reprogram our cells which will reprogram how smoothly and sustainably we function.

And just maybe … the ripples will flow right out into the world.

Next week, I’ll continue the theme of sustainability as we explore the last half of this link with the topic of epigenetics and how our life-styles – and thoughts – can turn our genes on or off. Click on the subscribe button so you won’t miss out!

In health-

Deidre