Just Choose Healthier Weblog

There’s been quite a bit of media reporting about plastics leaching toxins into our bodies and our environment. I’ve read articles about how our bottled water is tainted by the chemicals in the plastic in the bottles being released into the water as it sits in storage and on shelves. Kinda makes me wonder if those of us wanting to drink purified water are really making healthier choices. What to do oh what to do? Answer: The best we can.

My position on the ‘plastics are poison’ is: it depends on how you are using the plastics and for how long the food or beverage in stored. Not all plastics are created equal. For example, my Classic Black Thrival Kit has ‘food grade’ plastics #5 which is safe for freezer, microwave and dishwasher. A woman called one day and asked if I could substitute glass containers and I told her the kit was designed to hold these particular containers and I chose a quality food grade plastic because it is lightweight and unbreakable which glass is not. I told her I do not recommend heating any food in the containers as they are meant only to be used for a day.

I’ve mentioned before I don’t use microwaves. For those that do, I suggest you never, ever put food or a beverage in a plastic container or with plastic wrap in a microwave. It’s common sense to me—plastic melts so don’t heat plastic and then eat or drink from it.

I found this article Smart Plastics Guide for Healthier Food Uses of Plastics which explains which plastics are the healthier choice. The article suggests for plastics like baby bottles you heat the formula first and then pour it in the bottle.

All we can do is the best we can with what we have. Adapting to the world we inhabit in the healthiest way possible means paying attention and learning what is healthiest. If we educate ourselves, we can make the best choices for ourselves and our environment.

Solution: Do your best in creating a healthier lifestyle in all areas.

Healthier Choice: Your safest choice to hold food or drink is glass or stainless steel. Amazon carries a terrific assortment of stainless steel water bottles. They even have one with a straw so we ladies don’t mess us our lipstick! Kleen Kanteen on Amazon with sippy spout $27.99

Tried & True Tip: It’s safest and the best value to purify your own water. Do your due diligence and choose the best filter in your price range. Aquasana makes an excellent filter which is a terrific value. When we purchased our Infared Sauna a few years ago, we purchased and Akai Ultraviolet Ionizing filter. We’ve been happy with it but it does not filter fluoride out. From my understanding, to be sure you get all chemicals (including fluoride) and other invisible little nasties out, reverse osmosis is best. You can check online.

Today, I’d like to share an inspirational video recently sent to me. It’s entitled Lines That Divide Us This video is self explanatory and touched my heart because it exposed some judgments within me.
One thing I learned from watching this video is when I place dividing lines between myself and others, I also place dividing lines within myself. I not only judge others as ‘less than’ or ‘more than’ based on my differences, I judge aspects of myself based on the same perceptions.
How we perceive ourselves is often reflected in how we view others. Once we begin focusing on what we have in common rather than our differences, we not only shift our perspective of others but ourselves as well.

Solution: Awareness is the first step toward making new choices, creating new perceptions and gaining new perspectives.

Healthier Choice: I invite you to notice what person or group of people you are most uncomfortable with. Begin wondering what it is that makes you uneasy, and notice what appears…perhaps they remind you of someone else or maybe you are holding someone else’s belief about that person or group you learned as a child. Simply wondering ‘why’ diffuses emotional attachment to your perception of another, allowing you to see them more objectively.

Tried & True Tip: A quick, easy way to erase the lines that divide is whenever you find yourself judging someone else, make this statement “Just like me..…..” Simply follow with something like “Just like me she wants to feel loved and accepted or just like me he wants approval or just like me they want peace or just like me they feel scared sometimes or just like me she gets stressed or just like me she worries about how she looks etc” I think you get the drift. “Just like me” reminds us we all have some of the same desires, fears, joys, flaws and feelings. We all want to be accepted and valued just like we are right now.

Recently a friend sent me an article that was alarming to say the least. I personally prefer to go the natural route when ill or in pain, using prescription drugs only when absolutely necessary. This article, Praises-for-Costco, shows how Costco is giving the consumer a better value for prescription drugs.

Being a baby boomer, I realize an entire generation is approaching the age for medicare and other programs. What I didn’t know is what this will cost in the long run. I know there have been lots of dire predictions regarding all the boomers (those born between 1946-1964) retiring, going on social security etc. what I never really thought about was the cost of medications for physical problems that often appear as we age. I know my body complains more at 61 than even 10 years ago. And, taking lifestyle and diet into consideration as well as genetics, many of us will begin to notice we need more support in the health arena, perhaps, needing more prescription drugs.

The good news is we are a fairly healthy generation compared to our parents and our children. We are aging more gracefully and healthily, enjoying our lives more, and breaking out of restrictive belief patterns allowing us more freedom to live life more authentically and fully.

Solution: Prevention is always our best defense against illness. Take care of yourself by living as healthy a lifestyle as possible so you may avoid having to depend on prescription drugs. Think of how much fun it will be to spend your money on travel. fun and nurturing yourself rather than medicine and doctor bills. (If given the choice, I’d much rather spend $75 for an hour of full body massage rather than $100 on 15 minutes to get a prescription.)

Healthier Choice: If you do need prescription drugs, check all the side effects and be sure the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. I invite you to consult with a alternative health practitioner for a second opinion who may know of natural remedies to treat your problem (be sure you have a trusted referral). I have personally found my body responds better to natural thyroid and DHEA supplements than prescriptions I have used.

Tried & True Tip: If you do need to take a pharmaceutical drug, do due diligent research. Health practitioners whose opinion I highly value suggest not taking any drugs that have not been on the market for at least 15 years with ample research to support benefits and possible detrimental side effects.

I’ve had a doozy of a cold this week so I missed my Monday and Wednesday postings. I find it fascinating when my sinuses are congested, my brain also feels congested and doing almost anything requiring mental capacity seems like an effort. Our entire household came down with this one (I’ve not caught the last few) so I guess my body was ready to ‘clean house’ and maybe a little run down from excess stress.

Yes, stress compromises our immune system very quickly and when our body is distressed, it’s open season on invading bugs and viruses. Colds and any illness can be about needing to cleanse out impurities and that’s often why we lose our appetite and drinking lots of liquids is recommended to speed up the cleansing process.

I’ve been drinking the Gypsy Cold Care and Breathe Easy teas and snacking on fresh fruit. My taste buds find everything tasting strange so it’s easy not to want to eat much. I also did a day of cleansing using my favorite cleanse—Cleanse for Life by Isagenix. Better than fasting, it is a whole body cellular cleanse with lots of minerals and herbs to flush out impurities.

Since being exposed to colds seems inevitable, staying as healthy as we can is the best prevention. But, when prevention fails, there are some common sense remedies. One of my favorite natural remedies to decongest sinuses is the Neti pot.

Solution: Look at any illness as an opportunity to take care of yourself and maybe enjoy some quality down time napping, reading or watching your favorite DVD’s.

Healthier Choice: When you are in the drippin’ and sneezin’ stage, be considerate, stay home and don’t expose others.

Tried & True Tip: If the cold does head south to your bronchia or lungs, this natural remedy works to move the fluid out.* Trust me, I’ve used it and my naturopath is the one who suggested it to draw fluid out of the lungs. All that is required is ice water and 2 pairs of sox—one 100% cotton and 100% wool—it won’t work if they are not 100%–no added polyester or other materials. The wool sox should be slightly larger—sports stores often sell wool hikers sox.

• Just before you climb into bed for the night, take the cotton sox and soak them in ice water. Wring excess water out. Sit on the side of your bed and pull the cotton sox on your feet. Immediately pull the wool sox over the cotton sox. Your feet will warm up quickly and the sheets do not get wet. Once you are in bed with the sox on, do not get up or the ice water will soak through and you’ll have squishy, wet sox. Go to sleep. When you awaken in the morning, both pairs of sox will be dry and you can repeat each night until lung congestion disappears.

*Be sure to seek treatment from your health professional if you have any symptoms of bronchial or lung congestion. This remedy is not a sole treatment (tee hee) but a complimentary one.

This Mother’s Day weekend, I wanted to share this simple way to choose to Stand For Peace. I found out about Women Standing for Peace last year and participated. This year I plan to participate again at the downtown Bellevue Park near the playground where children are playing at the southwest corner of the park. Even if you can’t make it to a public place, please take just 5 minutes on Mother’s Day to make a difference.

Women Standing for Peace Proclamation

We are standing for the world’s children and grandchildren, and for the seven generations beyond them.

We dream of a world where all of our children have safe drinking water, clean air to breathe, and enough food to eat.

A world where they have access to a basic education to develop their minds and healthcare to nurture their growing bodies.

A world where they have a warm, safe and loving place to call home.

A world where they don’t live in fear of violence—in their home, in their neighborhood, in their school or in their world.

This is the world of which we dream.

This is the cause for which we stand.

Please stand with us for five minutes of silence at 1 p.m. your local time on May 11, 2008, in your local park, school yard, gathering place, or any place you deem appropriate, to signify your agreement with the statement below. Please stand at a different hour with a different time zone if 1 p.m. is not your preferred time. We ask you to invite the men who you care about to join you. We ask that you bring bells to ring at 1 p.m. to signify the beginning of the five minutes of silence and to ring again to signify the end of the period of silence. During the silence, please think about what you individually and we collectively can do to attain this world. If you need to sit rather than stand, please feel free to do so. Afterwards, hopefully you and your loved ones can talk together about how we can bring about this world. To learn more about the wonderful organization, visit here Women Standing for Peace.

I saw something that brought me to tears today as I was driving down the freeway. There was a dead Canadian goose in the middle lane and I immediately felt sad. Then, I noticed another goose on the side of the road…patiently sitting there. Tears began to flow as I remembered geese mate for life and her mate was dead. My mind created a story about how lonely she would be and how awful a thing to happen. Next, I began to wonder how people feel when their mate dies suddenly and how I would feel if my mate died unexpected in such a violent manner. After a few minutes of my mind wandering through various scenarios, I noticed I was feeling worse and worse. So, I began to shift from my stories about the ‘tragedy’. My tears stopped as I became more curious than sad and began wondering…how long would the goose sit there in the hard cement? Would she sacrifice herself before abandoning her mate? I slipped back into the present.

We humans love to share stories so I shared the sad story with my hairdresser and she immediately recounted a similar experience. Hers was seeing a mother duck lead her living babies to the side of the road and coming back to sit with her two dead babies. She too burst into tears at the sad sight. There’s nothing like an emotional story to create immediate rapport.

What I observed from my reaction was how easy it was to feel and care deeply as well as create a story which may or may not be true. It would have been easy to just say, oh that’s too bad, poor goose and go about my business or to continue to ramp up my emotional involvement and create a huge drama about cars whizzing by and no one (including me) stopping to help the poor sad, lonely goose sitting and grieving over the death of her mate.

Solution: Allowing ourselves to slip into our feelings is important and it’s also equally important to slip out when we feel complete.

Healthier Choice: When we notice ourselves drifting into a mental narration and creating our story about an event, we can observe what is causing us to be hooked into the event and pivot into wondering more than assuming which feels very different

Tried & True Tip: Keeping our attention on what’s happening now is vital to our well being. I could have easily been distracted enough to have an accident myself. Notice how easily you slip into your mind and out of the flow of life. Feel your feelings but be aware they can lead you on a ‘wild goose chase’.

I’m wondering how many of us are so bored with our own lives we find the TV and other venues giving us a sense of excitement in our lives. If we are not enjoying our lives, it’s easy to ‘wish’ our life could be different and find more fulfillment in a fantasy that often has nothing to do with us. The unfortunate part to this is a lot of what we see on TV, in movies and magazines is not true or happening the way it is portrayed.

From the headlines I notice on the tabloids by the check out line in the grocery store, I wouldn’t want the lives of most celebrities. They don’t appear content or happy, not to mention all the drama in their lives. Maybe we do sigh with relief thinking “I’m sure glad that isn’t happening to me” somehow making us feel better about our lives.

I found this article online about how the media affects most of the population: http://johnplaceonline.com/money_management/have-you-fallen-for-these-7-negative-attitudes-pushed-by-the-media/ The word that jumped out at me is ‘emptiness’. Do we feel so empty we’ll attempt to fill the void with anything promising to make us feel fuller? We not only overeat to fill the empty feeling, but we can over-indulge in media mania as well.

At some time or other, we all feel empty and seek something to fill the emptiness. What if we just sat and observed the empty feeling, letting it be O.K. Breathing into the space and allowing it to exist just as it is without rushing to fill it up. We might even ask “What would really fill this emptiness for me right now?” Rather than listening to the myriad of suggestions from our mind, listening to our heart and dare to follow its calling.

Once a friend of mine asked how I tell the difference between the messages from my mind and my heart. My response was “my mind shouts to get my attention and my heart whispers softly so I have to stop and listen closely.”

Solution: Whenever you are tempted to participate in media madness, stop and ask yourself “will this enhance my life?”

Healthier Choice: Just turn it off! In our household after not watching TV for several months, we had cable disconnected. After six years of going without TV, we don’t miss it at all plus we save money. Most shows can be viewed on DVD or online. The grandkids complained for awhile but quickly got over it. We carefully choose DVD’s we want to watch for entertainment. We’ve also discontinued our newspaper subscriptions. I don’t have a news page come on my computer screen but an uplifting screen saver.

Tried & True Tip: I avoid watching or reading about the news fully believing if I really need to know something, I will find out about it. I know it’s difficult when screens are blaring news 24/7 in health clubs, airports and other public places. What works best for me is getting as far away as I can and focusing on something else—I always have a good book with me to read or I can chat with another person and make a positive connection that just may leave both of us smiling and feeling better. And, it’s especially O.K. to just do nothing at all and just be.

Sometimes, it isn’t only the junk food we put in our bodies that wreaks havoc with our health, but also the junk we feed our minds. If you’re not aware of the barrage of negative media being force fed to the masses, you might want to begin paying attention. It’s as easy to become addicted to the ‘need to know everything happening’ no matter how negative the effects as any food.

I’ve often wondered why people are so drawn to the violence, pain and suffering others are experiencing. When I posed this question to someone who is hooked on daytime TV judge shows, she replied “it makes me feel better about my own life.” Do we really need to see someone worse off to feel better about our own lives?

I’ve sometimes wondered what another race from space would think if, when wanting to learn about earthlings, they monitored our airwaves and tuned in to the Jerry Springer show first—how embarrassing a first impression! Another person who is a news junkie told me he is worried about “not being informed”. Informed of what? More violence, pain and suffering–since that seems to be the dominate subject in the news anyway.

When our mind is inundated with negative programming, it affects us adversely physically, mentally and emotionally. Since most media is fear based, it is directly affecting our brains and causing more cortisol—the stress hormone to be produced.

Solution: Monitor your media exposure and be selective!

Healthier Choice: If you’re in the habit of watching TV while you exercise, choose to watch something uplifting or educational (like the nature channel) or a video you enjoy. And, if you can find something that makes you laugh it’s an added benefit!

Tried & True Tip: Since by nature, we are curious beings sometimes we have to wean ourselves slowly away from activities that are compelling even if they aren’t in our best interest. Maybe you’ll simply want to cut back on how much TV and/or internet news you are watching. And, most important, notice how you feel when you are watching—does it make you feel more or less stressed? You get to choose what you want to feel.

On April 25^th my posting was about the problem of stress in our lives. My stress level has risen again due to a family situation and while I’ve been using all the techniques I’ve learned to get relief, I can still feel twinges of discomfort. So, I decided to just let it be O.K. to feel this distress and that was helpful. Then I began asking what would make me feel better and this video came to mind: http://www.gratitudecampaign.org/fullmovie.php It reminds me that the stress level in my life is not that significant compared to others in the world.

Solution: There’s always someone under more duress or distress that we are.

Healthier Choice: If you can’t find the relief you seek, let it be O.K. to feel what you are feeling and you’ll most likely notice some relief.

Tried & True Tip: Laughter is the best medicine. If you can’t find anything humorous in your situation, think about something in your past that tickled your funny bone or rent a funny movie.

Spring is my second favorite time of the year…summer definitely gets first place for me in the NW.  Bulbs—daffodils, crocus, hyacinth and tulips are blooming. Cherry trees are covered in pink or white blossoms, looking like snowflakes as they fall to the ground—pink snow. The azaleas are beginning to bloom and rhododendrons will soon be bursting with color.

Did you know that some of the largest tulip fields in the world are north of Seattle in Mt. Vernon? Every spring they have a Tulip Festival with acres of brightly colored tulips as far as the eye can see. Another breath-taking sight is the snow geese migrating through the area in late April and May by the thousands.

But, what I most look forward to is what I lovingly call the orchid of the NW—the trillium (actually, it’s a member of the lily family). It is a fragile plant with a delicate flower blooming for only a couple of weeks in April. Rich green foliage with creamy white, pink or maroon blossom, the trillium grows selectively in shady places. Picking the flowers of Trillium can seriously injure the plant. The three leaves below the flower are the plant’s only food source and a picked trillium may die or take many years to recover. For this reason in many areas—British Columbia, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Washington, it is illegal to pick trilliums. I took the photo above of a trillium growing beside a nature path in our neighborhood.

I am enjoying my daily walks even though the weather has been unusually unpredictable—windy, sleety, snowy, sunny and of course rainy.

Solution: Are you getting outside and enjoying the rebirth of our earth?

Healthier choice: You may want to make time in your day, getting away from your computer and/or work to take a short walk to breathe in fresh air and admire Mother Nature’s handiwork.

Tried & True Tip: If you put cut daffodils and tulips in the same vase, the tulips will die. They are not compatible! Enjoy these seasonal blooms in separate vases.